A28937	----	Advertisements about the experiments and notes relating to chymical qualities Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1675 Approx. 6 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 4 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A28937 Wing B3924 ESTC R43066 26734233 ocm 26734233 109769 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A28937) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 109769) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1712:8) Advertisements about the experiments and notes relating to chymical qualities Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 7 p. s.n., [London? : 1675?] Caption title. Attributed to Boyle by Wing. Place and date of publication suggested by Wing. Reproduction of original in Christ Church Library, Oxford University. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Chemistry -- Early works to 1800. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-05 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-06 Derek Lee Sampled and proofread 2006-06 Derek Lee Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion ADVERTISEMENTS About the EXPERIMENTS AND NOTES Relating to CHYMICAL Qualities . WHen , after I had gone through the common Operations of Chymistry , I began to make some serious Reflections on them , I thought 't was pity , that Instruments that might prove so serviceable to the advancement of Natural Philosophy , should not be more studiously and skilfully made use of to so good a purpose . I saw indeed , that divers of the Chymists had by a diligent and laudable employment of their pains and industry , obtain'd divers Productions , and lighted on several Phaenomena considerable in thier kind , and indeed more numerous , than , the narrowness and sterility of their Principles consider'd , could well be expected . But I observed too , that the generality of those that busie themselves about Chymical Operations ; some because they practise Physick ; and others because they either much wanted , or greedily coveted money , aimed in their Trials but at the Preparation of good Medicines for the humane body , or to discover the ways of curing the Diseases or Imperfections of Metals , without referring their Trials to the advancement of Natural Philosophy in general ; of which most of the Alchymists seem to have been so incurious , that not onely they did not institute Experiments for that purpose , but overlookt and despis'd those undesign'd ones that occurr'd to them whilst they were prosecuting a preparation of a Medicine , or a Transmutation of Metals . The sense I had of this too general omission of the Chymists , tempted me sometimes to try , whether I could do any thing towards the repairing of it by handling Chymistry , not as a Physician or an Alchymist , but as a meer Naturalist , and so by applying Chymical Operations to Philosophical purposes . And in pursuance of these thoughts , I remember I drew up a Scheme of what I ventur'd to call a Chymia Philosophica , not out of any affectation of a splendid Title , but to intimate , that the Chymical Operations , there treated of , were not directed to the usual scopes of Physicians , or Transmuters of Metals , but partly to illustrate or confirm some Philosophical Theories by such Operations ; and partly to explicate those Operations by the help of such Theories . But before I had made any great progress in the pursuit of this design , the fatal Pestilence that raged in London , and in many other parts of England , in the years 1664 and 65 , obliging me among the rest to make several removes ; which put me upon taking new measures , and engaging me in other employments of my time , made me so long neglect the Papers I had drawn up , that at last I knew not where to finde them , ( though I hope they are not yet mislaid beyond recovery , ) which I was the less troubled at , because the great difficulties , to be met with in such an undertaking , did not a little discourage me , such a Task requiring as well as deserving a Person better furnished , than I had reason to think my self , with Abilities , Leisure , Chymical Experiments , and Conveniences , to try as many more as should appear needful . But yet to break the Ice for any that may hereafter think fit to set upon such a Work , or to shorten my own Labour , if I should see cause to resume it my self , I was content to throw in among my Notes about other Particular Qualities , some Experiments and Observations about some of those , that I have elsewhere call'd Chymical Qualities , because 't is chiefly by the Operations of Chymists , that men have been induced to take special notice of them . Of these Notes I have assigned to some Qualities more , and to some fewer , as either the nature or importance of the Subject seemed to require , or my Leisure and other Circumstances would permit . And though I have not here handled the Subjects they belonged to , as if I intended such a Chymia Philosophica as I lately mentioned , because my design did not make it necessary , but did perhaps make it impertinent for me to do so , yet in some of the larger Notes about Volatility and Fixtness , and especially about Precipitation , I have given some little Specimens of the Theorical part of a Philosophical Account of those Qualities or Operations , that I hope will not be wholly useless . I know , it may be objected , that I should have employed for Instances some more considerable Experiments , if not Arcana ; but though possibly I am not altogether unfurnished with such , yet aiming rather to promote Philosophy , than appear a Possessor of elaborate Processes , I declined several Experiments that required either more skill , or more time , or more expence than could be well expected from most Readers , and chose rather to employ such Experiments as may be more easily or cheaply tried , and , which is mainly to be consider'd , being more simple , are more clearly intelligible , and more fit to have Notions and Theories built upon them ; especially considering , that the Doctrine of Qualities being it self conversant about some of the Rudimental parts , if I may so call them , of Natural Philosophy , it seemed unfit to employ intricate Experiments , and whose Causes were liable to many disputes , to settle a Theory of them . In short , my design being to hold a Taper not so much to Chymists as to the Naturalists , 't was fit I should be less solicitous to gratifie the former than to inform the later . FINIS . 
A28938	----	The aerial noctiluca, or, Some new phœnomena, and a process of a factitious self-shining substance imparted in a letter to a friend living in the country / by the honourable Robert Boyle ... Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1680 Approx. 115 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 58 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-10 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A28938 Wing B3925 ESTC R22714 12233960 ocm 12233960 56680 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A28938) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 56680) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 909:10) The aerial noctiluca, or, Some new phœnomena, and a process of a factitious self-shining substance imparted in a letter to a friend living in the country / by the honourable Robert Boyle ... Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. [6], 109 p. Printed by Tho. Snowden, and are to be sold by Nath. Ranew ..., London : 1680. Attributed to Robert Boyle. cf. BM. Advertisement: p. [3]-[5] Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Phosphorus -- Early works to 1800. Chemistry -- Early works to 1800. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-10 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-11 Jason Colman Sampled and proofread 2006-11 Jason Colman Text and markup reviewed and edited 2007-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE AERIAL NOCTILUCA : OR Some New Phoenomena , AND A PROCES OF A Factitious Self-shining Substance . Imparted in a Letter to a Friend , living in the Country . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE , Fellow of the ROYAL SOCIETY . LONDON . Printed by Tho. Snowden , and are to be sold by Nath. Ranew . Bookseller in St. Paul's Church-Yard . 1680. AN ADVERTISEMENT OF THE Publisher to the Reader . THE Honourable Author of the following Papers , thinking it probable that the Processes deliver'd in them , having hitherto been Publish'd by no man , will , as well for that Reason , as for the Nobleness of the Subject , prove not unwelcome to the Curious , in divers Countries , where English is not understood : He was very willing , for their sakes , that this Tract should be turn'd into Latin. And now , to prevent the needless Pains of any , that may have a mind to make such a Version , without having the Opportunity to consult the Author , upon any doubt os his meaning , I think fit to give notice , that the Translation is , by the Author's consent , made already , and , God permitting , will quickly appear in Publick . Perhaps 't will not be improper to add , that the Reason , why the following English Tract is Printed in Octavo , ( as they speak ) is , that it may be conveniently Bound up , either with the Notes , already Publish'd in the same form about divers Particular Qualities , or with those other Notes that yet remain to be Publish'd about other Qualities ; to whose Number Light and Inflammability may be referr'd . The ensuing Discourse having been written to a Virtuoso , living in the Countrey , who has been for many years absent from London , it was thought fit in the beginning of these Papers to give him some Informations about Phosphorus's , and their several kinds in general , but it was not thought fit to Publish at the beginning of the Letter any thing of Complement ; since in that , neither the main Subject , nor the Reader , was concern'd . To my very Learned Friend Dr. J. B. SIR , TO gratifie your Curiosity about Phosphorus's , as much as I can without indiscretion at present do , I must , in the first place , take notice to you , That though Phosphorus's may well be distinguish'd into two sorts ; Those that may be stil'd Natural , as Glow-worms , some sorts of rotten Wood and Fishes , and a few others , and Those that are properly Artificial : yet waving , at present , further mention of the former sort of Bodies , that without manifest heat shine in the dark , ( which absence of sensible heat distinguishes Phosphorus's from common Fire and Flame ; ) I shall now confine my Discourse to the latter sort , and tell you , That as far as I have hitherto observ'd , those factitious shining Bodies that do or may pass under the name of Phosphorus's , may be reduc'd to two principal kinds , one of which may be subdivided into two or three , so that in all they will amount to three or four . The first of these consists of such Bodies as shine only by the help of External Illustration , or ( if you please ) such Bodies , as being expos'd to the beams of the Sun , or those of a vigorous Flame , will retain a Lucidness , and continue to shine some time in the dark . Of this kind is the Bolonian Stone , skilfully prepar'd ; and of this sort also is the Phosphorus Hermeticus of Balduinus , of whose Phoenomena , but not the way of making it , the Author has given the Learned World an account . This Phosphorus was therefore very welcome to divers of the Curious , because the Bolonian Stone was for some years before grown very rare , even in its own Countrey , Italy , which scarceness , an ingenious Traveller , then lately come out of those Parts , told me he imputed to the death of the Person that us'd to prepare the Stone at Bologna , without having left a sufficient account of his way of making it lucid . And the Phosphorus of Balduinus , which , or the like , may be made ( as I have tryed ) both of Chaulk , and another substance , seem'd to me , when the Preparation succeeded best , to catch the External Light ( if I may so speak ) far more readily than the Bolonian Stone : For I remember I have had one , that being freshly made , would within about half a minute of an hour be manifestly excited , and as it were kindled ; so that being presently remov'd into a dark place , it would retain a very sensible Light , for so many times as long as it had been expos'd to the beams of the external Light ; and this ( if I much misremember not ) was even when that external Light was but the flame of a Candle . But , on the other side , whereas I have more than once or twice observ'd , with trouble , that these Phosphorus's could very hardly be preserv'd for any long time , ( which I was apt to impute to the action of the insinuating Air ) so that some of them in not many months , and others even in a few weeks ( or perhaps days ) would appear crack'd , and lose their vertue of being excited by the beams of Light ; the Bolonian Stone , skilfully prepar'd , would retain its vertue of being excited for a much longer time : For I remember ( whatever Learned Men have deliver'd to the contrary ▪ ) I had a small piece of it , which , though I kept it negligently enough in an ordinary little wooden Box , retain'd its vertue for several years after I had it , which was not till a great while after it was first prepar'd . What I have further observ'd concerning the Phosphorus Hermeticus , I have not now the leisure to acquaint you with . But besides this first kind of Phosphorus's , that , to be able to shine , must have their Faculty excited by the beams of the Sun , or those of some other actually shining Body : There is another sort , which needs not be previously illustrated by any external Lucid , and yet continues to shine far longer than the Bolonian Stone , or the Phosphorus of Balduinus . This , by some Learned Men has been call'd , to discriminate it from the former , a Noctiluca , which , though in strictness I cannot think it as proper a name as could be wish'd , since the other Phosphorus will shine in the Night as well as the Day , if it be excited with the flame of a culinary Fire , or of a large Candle ; yet since the name has been received by several , and since 't is not easie in our Language , to express the thing clearly in one word , I shall ( though for Brevity , as much as Distinction-sake ) admit the use of this name ▪ yet without forbearing sometimes to substitute for it that of a Self-shining substance , which is more expressive of its nature : Of this substance , Mr. Daniel Krafft , a German Chymist ▪ shew'd His Majesty two sorts or degrees . To the first of which , I took the liberty to give the name of Consistent ( or Gummous ) Noctiluca , not in that sense , wherein the word is oppos'd to Soft , for this substance was at least as yielding as Bees-Wax in Summer ; but as the word Consistent is employ'd as equivalent to Firm , and oppos'd to Liquid and Fluid . By reason also of its somewhat viscous Texture , not very unlike that of Gum of Cherries , and some others newly taken from the Tree , it may be call'd , The Gummous Noctiluca : And , I am inform'd , that on the score of its uninterrupted action , 't is call'd by some in Germany , The Constant Noctiluca ; which title it does not ill deserve , since this Phosphorus is much the noblest we have yet seen . For though there were not much of it , and though it were kept by it self in a little Vial , well stop'd , it would , without being externally excited , incessantly shine , as he affirmed , both day and night . Yet the Light it afforded seem'd but little , if at all , more vivid , than I have sometimes observed in the Liquor of Glow-worms , and some other Phosphorus's of Nature's producing : Nor had the Possessor enough of this substance to invite his consent to any Trial to improve it , the quantity he had at London , scarce exceeding in Bulk the Kernel of an Almond . Besides this Gummous Noctiluca , Mr. Krafft had a Liquid one , that , perhaps , was made only by dissolution of the former in Water , or some convenient Liquor ; but the Lucidness of this , was not permanent like that of the other , as I have noted in another Paper : but within no very long time , especially when 't was divided into smaller portions , and left expos'd to the Air , would expire or vanish . But besides the Gummous and the Liquid Noctiluca hitherto mentioned ▪ I know not whether we may not add a third kind , that we our selves lately prepared , which seems to be of a somewhat differing nature , both from the Consistent , and the Liquid Noctiluca newly describ'd , at least as far as I observ'd their Phoenomena . For this of ours would not shine of it self , like the constant Noctiluca , nor yet in that manner that the liquid Noctiluca did ; but the bare Contact of the Air , without any external Illustration or Heat , would immediately produce a Light , ( which might easily be made to last a good while in a well stop'd Vessel : ) And , which is considerable , the Substance that shin'd , was not the Body of the Liquor included in the Vial , but an Exhalation or Effluvium mingled with the admitted Air : for both which Reasons , I gave it the name of Aerial Noctiluca . These are the several Phosphorus's , that I have yet had opportunity to see , but , for ought I know , their variety may extend somewhat further , because I have heard of a Paper printed in Germany by an ingenious man , whose name ( if I mistake not ) is Elsholez , wherein particular mention is made , in an Historical way , of the German Noctiluca : But this Paper I cannot yet procure , and therefore you would do well to consult it , if you can get it ; and I am not averse from thinking , that future Industry may discover some new kinds or variations of self-shining Substances , that will deserve new names , and among them , perhaps , that of Solid Noctiluca's . Having said thus much of the several sorts of Artificial Phosphorus's , I shall be very brief in speaking of their Inventers , whereof I have but an imperfect information . For though I find it generally agreed , that the Phosphorus Hermeticus was first found and published to the World , by the learned and ingenious Balduinus , a German Lawyer ; yet as to the Gummous and Liquid Noctiluca's , I find the first invention is by some ascrib'd to the abovemention'd Mr. Krafft , ( though I remember not , that when he was here , he plainly asserted it to himself ; ) by others , attributed to an ancient Chymist , dwelling at Hamburgh , whose name ( if I mistake not ) is Mr. Branc , and by others again , with great confidence , asserted to a famous German Chymist in the Court of Saxony , call'd Kunckelius . But to which of these so Noble an Invention , as that of the two German Noctiluca's , is justly due , I neither am qualified nor desirous to judge ; and therefore , without prejudicing any Man's Right , I will proceed to that , which , I presume , is the chief thing you would know of me , namely , An Account of the Occasion and Steps of my own Attempt to make a Noctiluca . Concerning this I shall give you the following Narrative , wherein , though my urgent Avocations will not ( I fear ) permit me to be other than immethodical , yet I shall not decline to mention some circumstances that I know may be omitted , because they will not , perhaps , be found so barely Historical , but that they may prove of some use to a less Sagacity then yours , in an enquiry into a Subject , wherein I cannot yet plainly tell you all you could wish to know , and which is both New and Abstruse , as well as Noble . After the experienced Chymist Mr. Daniel Krafft had , in a Visit that he purposely made me , shewn me and some of my Friends , both his Liquid and Consistent Phosphorus , being by the Phoenomena I then observ'd , ( and whereof the Curious have since had publick notice * ) made certain , that there is really such a factitious Body to be made , as would shine in the dark , without having been before illustrated by any lucid substance , and without being hot as to sense : After this , I say , I took into consideration by what ways it might be most probable , to produce , by Art , such a shining substance . To seek for which I was both inclin'd , and hopeful to be somewhat assisted , because I had lying by me , among my yet unpublish'd Notes of the Mechanical Origine of divers qualities , a Collection of some Observations & Thoughts concerning light . Light. And I was ( also ) the more encourag'd to attempt somewhat this way , because having , at Mr. Kraffts's desire , imparted to him somewhat that I discover'd about uncommon Mercuries , ( which I had then communicated but to one Person in the World ) he , in requital , confest to me at parting , that at least the principal matter of his Phosphorus's , was somewhat that belong'd to the Body of Man. This intimation , though but very general , was therefore very welcome to me , because , though I have often thought it probable , that a shining substance may , by Spagyrical Art , be obtain'd from more kinds of Bodies than one : yet designing , in the first place , to try if I could hit upon such a Phosphorus as I saw was preparable , the Advertisement sav'd me ( for some time ) the labor of ranging among various Bodies , and directed me to exercise my industry in a narrower compass . But there being divers parts of the Humane Body , that have been taken to task by Chymists ; and , perhaps , by me as carefully , as by some others , my choice might have been distracted between the Blood , the solid Excrements , the Bones , the Urine , and the Hair , of the Humane Body ; if various former Tryals and Speculations upon more than one of those Subjects , had not directed me to pitch upon that , which was fittest to be chosen , and of which , as I had formerly set down divers Experiments and Observations , so I had made provision of a quantity of it , and so far prepar'd it , that it wanted but little of being fit for my present purpose . But before I had made any great progress in my design , I was by divers Removes , Indispositions of Body , Law-Suits , and other Avocations , so distracted , or at least diverted , that I laid aside the prosecution of the Phosphorus for a long time . And when afterwards I resum'd it , though I wrought upon the right matter , yet I was diverted from the right way , by a Process that I received from Beyond Sea , as a great Arcanum , that would certainly produce the Noctiluca aspired to , for partly upon this account , but more , because I saw that the chief Ingredient in this Process , was that which I , with reason , took to be the best matter , I was induc'd to pursue the prescrib'd method for some months , but without success ; the true matter being , as I concluded , too much either alter'd or clog'd by the additional Ingredients that were design'd to improve it ; besides , that the degree of Fire , though a circumstance of the greatest moment , was overlook'd , or not rightly prescrib'd . However , adhering to the first choice I had made of a fit matter , I did not desist to work upon it by the ways I judg'd the most hopeful ▪ when a learned and ingenious Stranger , ( A. G. M. D. Countreyman , if I mistake not , to Mr. Krafft ) who had newly made an Excursion into England , to see the Countrey , having , in a Visit he was pleas'd to make me , occasionally discoursed , among other things , about the German Noctiluca , whereof he soon perceiv'd I knew the true matter , and had wrought much upon it . He said something about the degree of Fire , that made me afterwards think , when I reflected on it , that that was the only thing I wanted to succeed in my endeavors . And there was the more reason to think so , because for want of a due management of the Fire , we had divers times fail'd , of making the Phosphorus of Balduinus , not only after we had more than once wrought upon the right matter , but after we had actually made the Phosphorus . Wherefore when he left London , having yet some quantity of the matter in such readiness , that it needed but the Fire to let me see what I ought to think of the hint the ingenious Traveller had given me , I caus'd the tryal to be renew'd , which , proving unsuccessful , diminish'd much of my stock of prepar'd matter , but it did not so discourage me , as to hinder me from reiterating the Attempt ( without much varying it ) with a good part of what remain'd . And though at this time also , all the care and diligence that could be employ'd , did not hinder an unlucky miscarriage , that kept the tryal from being fully satisfactory ; yet being confident upon the nature of the thing , I would not believe the skilful Laborant , when he told me with trouble , that what I expected , was not at all produc'd : But going my self to the Laboratory , I quickly found , that by the help of the Air , or some Agitation of what had pass'd into the Receiver , I could , in a dark place ( though it was then day ) perceive some glimmerings of light , which , you will easily believe , I was not ill pleas'd to see . And now you have the History of my pursuit of the Liquid Phosphorus , that has made some noise among the Curious : But I freely confess , that the success , though welcome , was not so full as I aim'd at , for I obtain'd no such consistent Phosphorus as that whereof Mr. Krafft shew'd me , as I formerly told you , a small parcel . But as I was willing to think that this defect may be imputed to the cracking of the Retort , before the Operatien was quite finish'd , so I hope another Distillation in a more luckily chosen Vessel , may make me amends for the newly mentioned Miscarriage , and thereby enable me to discover other , and perhaps nobler Phoenomena of our shining substance , than hitherto I have been able to observe . Especially considering , that the same misfortune , that I hope was the principal cause of my missing the Noblest thing I aim'd at , the Constant Noctiluca , 〈◊〉 me so little even of liquid matter , ●●r my purpose , that I have not dared ▪ for fear of wasting it , to try several things with it , that I presume may be of good use in an enquiry into the nature of this light , and perhaps also of light in general . And because I fear by what I have observ'd , that , though the Vessel had not crackt , yet the matter distill'd would have afforded but a small proportion of lucid substance , I am the more unwilling to fall upon this troublesom work again , till , besides other requisites , I be provided of a competent quantity of a matter which I fear contains but very little of the desired substance . However , I have endeavoured to make that use of our Experiment , such as it was , that though the Noctiluca it produc'd , be not perhaps so lucid as that of Mr. Kraffts , yet it may prove as luciferous as his hath hitherto been , since ( as you will see hereafter ) I have found a substance that needs the Air , and nothing but the Air to kindle it , and that in a moment . In this Narrative I have been the more particular , that it may shew you , ( what I hope may make you amends for the length of it ) that an inquisitive Man should not always be deter'd by the difficulties , or even disappointments he may meet with , in prosecuting a Noble Experiment , as long as he judges himself to proceed upon good and rational grounds . The Vses that may be made of Noctiluca's , especially of the Consistent , are not , in probability , all of them to be easily foreseen and declar'd ; especially by me , who have not yet had time and ability to make those improvements of self-shining substances , that , by the assistance of the Father of Lights , I hope will , in process of time , be attained . If the lucid vertue of the Constant Noctiluca could be ( as I see not , why it may not be ) considerably invigorated , it may prevent a great deal of danger , to which Men of War , and other Ships are expos'd , by the necessity Men often have to come into the Gun-Room with common flames or fire , to take out Powder , which has occasion'd the blowing up of many a brave Ship. Our Light may , perhaps , be of use to those that dive in deep waters ; and also may very safely and conveniently be let down into the Sea , to what depth one pleases , and kept there a long time , to draw together the Fishes that are wont to resort to the light of a Fire or Candle ; as in divers parts of Scotland and Ireland is well known to the Fishermen , who get much profit by this resort . The same self-shining substance which in our Aerial Noctiluca affords a light , that , as faint as it yet is , was able , when I wak'd in the night , to shew me distinctly enough the bigness and shape of some joints of my fingers , and to discover itself in the shape of a Capital Letter ( of the Alphabet ) that was cut out of a piece of black'd Paper pasted upon the Vial ; this light , I say , may probably , ( at least when somewhat invigorated ) suffice to shew the hour of the night when one wakes , ( with eyes unaccustomed to light ) if it be plac'd , instead of a Lamp or Candle , behind an Index , where the Figures employ'd to mark the Hours are cut out . It may also serve to make a guide knowable at a good distance off , in spite of tempestuous Winds and great Showers , and this in the darkest night . Divers ludicrous Experiments , very pleasant and surprizing , may be made with the Noctiluca , by him that has enough of it . But these Trifles , though very pretty in their kind , I purposely pass over : as also an use that may be of great , but I fear of mischievous , consequence ; reserving what I have further to say of the usefulness of these self-shining substances , till time shall give me more information , and leisure . In the mean while I shall only intimate , that probably the utilities that so Subtle and Noble a Substance may be brought to afford in Medicine , may be more considerable than any of its other particular uses ; and that though our Noctiluca had none of these , yet it may be highly valuable , if it shall ( as in all likelihood it will ) be found conducive to discover the nature of so Noble a Subject , as Light , whose Encomiums would require more time than I can allow this writing . And perhaps they will seem needless , when I shall have observ'd , that Light was the first Corporeal thing the great Creator of the Universe was pleased to make ; and that ( as our excellent Bacon has well noted , to another purpose ) he was pleas'd to alot the whole first day to the Creation of Light alone , without associating with it in that Honour , any other Corporeal thing . These things being premis'd , I shall proceed to what I chiefly intended in this Paper , viz. the mention of the Observations themselves ; as soon as , to facilitate the understanding of them , I shall have advertised you , that though I fear 't will always be difficult to get out without loss , the self-shining substance rais'd by Distillation , yet in our Experiment , because the Vessels would not hold out intire to the last , we had more difficulty , than even we expected , to get out the luciferous matter , and were fain to save , as much as we could of it , by small parcels , in distinct Vials . Whereof that which was first employ'd , though it was judg'd to have receiv'd the vigorousest portion of the shining liquor ; yet for a Reason I elsewhere intimated , ( and because it was not at hand , when I had first the opportunity to use it ) I thought fit to make my Tryals with the Noctiluca , I had sav'd in the second Vial ; setting aside some more faint and aqueous liquor , that was afterwards sav'd in a third Vial ; and a thicker stuff that remain'd upon the Paper , when some of the liquor had been put into it to be filtrated . Which Paper was kept in a fourth Glass , which , though ( that it might admit the Paper and adhering luciferous stuff ) it was wide-mouth'd , yet was it kept carefully stopt . Of the Phoenomena I observ'd in the second of these four Glasses , I shall , God permitting , at this time , give you a short account ; designing , if my haste will give me leave , to add some Particulars , that I may afterwards observe in those Portions of our Noctiluca , that were received in the three other Glasses . OBSERVATIONS MADE BY Mr. Boyle , ABOUT THE AERIAL NOCTILUCA CONTAINED In His Second Vial. [ Note , That this Vial was capable of holding , by our guess , about two Ounces of Water , but there was not in it above one small spoonful of our Liquor . Observation I. THE Liquor that afforded the Aerial Noctiluca , ( for which Reason , and for Brevity , I often call it the shining Liquor ) by Day-light was not near Diaphanous , and appear'd muddy , and of a greyish colour ; somewhat like common water , rendered opacous , by having a quantity of wood-ashes well mingled with it . Observ . II. WHen no Light appear'd in the Glass , we observ'd all the Cavity of the Vial , that reach'd from the Liquor to the Neck , to be transparent , as if there were nothing in the Glass , save a spoonful of dirty water at the bottom . Observ . III. BUT when the Liquor was made to shine vividly , then all the Cavity of the Glass , untaken up by the Liquor , appear'd in an external Light to be full of Fumes . And this seeming smoke , being , in the Vial that contain'd it , remov'd into a dark place , appear'd lucid , and sometimes look'd like a flame that seem'd to be reverberated , and to be made , as it were to Circulate by the close stop'd Neck and the Sides of the Vial. And the appearance of whitish fumes , when the Glass was look'd upon in an external light , was so usual a Concomitant of its fitness to shine in the dark , that by looking upon the Vial by Day-light , I could readily tell , by the presence or absence of the whitish mist abovementioned , whether the Matter would , in a dark place , appear Luminous or not . Observ . IV. WHen this Liquor had been kept for a competent time ( as an hour or two , and sometimes much less ) in some dark and quiet place , or even in my Pocket ; if in a darkned Room my eyes were cast toward the place where the Vial was held , I could not perceive it to afford any light at all . And though I shak'd the Liquor strongly enough , to give it at least a moderate agitation , yet I could not discern , that this Motion alone , was able to bring the included Liquor , or the Vapors it may be suppos'd to have sent up , to be manifestly lucid . Observ . V. BUT as soon as I unstopt the Vial in the dark , there began to appear , as I expected , a Light or Flame in the Cavity of it . I call it Light or Flame , because I dare not yet speak Dogmatically of it ; though it agrees with Flame in divers particulars , and though ( also ) I am not sure that all Flames must agree in all points with common Flames , Experience having taught me the contrary ; and particularly , that some Flames will burn , and be propagated in close-stopt Vessels . I shall therefore on this account , and for brevity's sake , allow the aggregate of our shining Fumes the name of Flame , ( which Aristotle himself somewhere stiles Fumus accensus ) but without positively asserting that it deserves it , unless further Phoenomena shall be found to intitle it thereunto . But whatever be the nature and subject of this light , the light itself appear'd to have , in great part , a dependance on the fresh Air , as I judg'd probable by the following Phoenomena . Observ . VI. FIrst , I never observ'd the light to disclose itself first , either in the liquor , or upon the surface of it ; but still the shining began at the upper part , which was first touch'd by the outward Air , and made a progress , quick indeed , but not so instantaneous , as that the eye could not follow it , from the top to the bottom of the Vial. Observ . VII . SEcondly , The Contact of the Air seem'd necessary to the propagation as well as production of this flame or light : For if , having shaken the Vial , that the liquor might either wet the stopple , or communicate something to it , I warily bended the Cork this way and that way , so that only a few particles of the outward Air could insinuate themselves between the stopple and the neck of the Glass ; there would appear on the sides , and ( perhaps ) beneath the Cork , little flames as it were ; which yet , though very vivid , were not able to propagate themselves downwards : whereas when the Cork was quite remov'd , and access was thereby allow'd to a greater quantity of Air , the flame or light ( as was lately noted ) presently diffus'd itself through the whole Cavity of the Vial , and reach'd as low as the surface of the liquor . Observ . VIII . THirdly , Though oftentimes the light seem'd more vivid near the surface of the liquor , then elsewhere ; ( whether because the lucid matter was there more dense , I now examine not ) yet when by stopping the Vial again , presently after I had opened it , I endeavoured to destroy the flame or light ; I generally observ'd , that when it was ready to vanish , ( which in that case it usually did in no long time ) it began to disappear first in the bottom of the Vial , and seem'd to shrink as it were more and more upwards , till it expired at the neck of the Vial , ( where it was nearest to the Air. ) Observ . IX . FOurthly , But on the other side , when I kept it unstopt for some time , as for two or three minutes of an hour , though I afterwards stopt the Vial very close , the Air , that had more leisure than ordinary to insinuate itself , would so cherish the flame , that the light would continue sometimes an hour or two , and lasted once or twice no less than three hours . Observ . X. FIfthly and lastly , It seem'd that some Elastical Particles of the included Air , or some Substance that concur'd to the maintenance of the Flame , was wasted , or depraved and weakned , by being pen't up in the Vial with the Emanations of the Liquor ; since , when the Vial had been kept stopt a competent time , and its Cavity appear'd transparent in the outward light ; if I cautiously took out the stopple , the external Air seem'd manifestly to rush in , as if the springyness of the internal had been notably debilitated by the operation of the Flame , upon the Matter with which it was kept imprisoned . Some of these Phoenomena easily brought into my mind some of those of an odd Experiment , that I formerly imparted to the Curious . In which Experiment I observ'd ( among other things ) that the Spirit of Vrine , impregnated with Copper , after the manner there prescrib'd , would continue limpid and colourless , as long as the Vial , that contained it , was kept close stopt . But when once the Air came to touch the surface of it , it would ( sometimes in less than a minute of an hour ) be so affected thereby , that in a very short time ( for 't was often within some minutes ) the Liquor would become of a transparent Sky-colour ; and afterwards , the Vial being well stopt , and kept in a quiet place , would by degrees grow diaphanous , and the Air included with it was wont to have its spring weakned . And as the change of colour was first produced at the surface , where the Liquor and Air touched one another , and was afterwards thence propagated downwards ; so when this Coeruleous Colour began to disappear , the Liquor manifestly became limpid first at and near the bottom , that is , the part which is remotest from the superior Air. But to return to our Noctiluca , the Five Phoenomena last recited , and some others , seem to favor the conjecture or suspicion I lately propos'd , about the interest of the Air in our unburning flame . And to examine that suspicion , I thought it less proper to make the foregoing Tryals with a more vigorous Noctiluca , then in a substance , wherein , as in that we have hitherto employ'd , the disposition to be kindled , or excited to shine , was but faint ; so that being , as long as it remain'd , unexcited , opacous and dark , the absolute , or almost absolute , necessity of the concurrence of Air to the actual shining ( that constantly ensu'd upon its Contact ) of the dispos'd matter , seem'd manifest enough . An Occasional DIGRESSION . BUT to what , this concurrence or efficacy of the Air ought to be ascrib'd , is a Problem that seem'd to me so difficult , that my thoughts were put upon several conjectures for so much as a tolerable solution of it ; for a taste of which , I shall venture to offer to you one or two of those that least displease me . I thought it not improbable that the admitted Air , either by some subtle Salt that it contain'd , or upon some such account , excited in the fumes , it mingled with , a kind of Fermentation , or ( if you please ) a Commotion , by which means the matter acquired so brisk an agitation , as to propagate the motion to the eye , and there make an impression , the sense whereof we call Light : though it seem'd also not unlikely , that some of the particles of the superveneing Air may so associate themselves with those congruous ones , they met with in the cavity of the Vial , that , by that Coalition , Corpuscles were produc'd , fitted to be , by the subtle Aetherial matter , that abounds in the pores of the Air , so pervaded and briskly agitated , as to produce light . And it was not new to me , that the Air should associate itself with invisible Exhalations , and concur with them to make new Concretions : since I have several times prepar'd a volatile sulphureous liquor , red as a Ruby , which , when the Vial has been kept close for some time , suffers the empty cavity of the vessel to be transparent ; but upon the unstopping it , and giving access to the outward Air , it appears presently full of white fumes , more opacous than a mist ▪ And something like this , though in an inferior degree , may be observ'd when we unstop Glasses that are but partly full of Spirit of Salt , or Aqua Fortis , provided those liquors be rectified as much , and no more , then is fit . For the contact of the Air will presently make the former manifestly afford white fumes , and the latter sometimes red ones , and sometimes otherways coloured . But if I durst mention , what my love to Mankind has oblig'd me to conceal , even from my nearest Friends , I could give an instance of a strange power of the Air to excite a vehement Motion in fitly dispos'd Matter , though it be of a consistence far more unlikely to be thus agitated , than the fluid substances of our Phosphorus : since I experimentally know a Body , dry , and solid enough to be pulverable , that barely by the contact of the common Air , will , even when it is actually cold , in very few minutes have its parts brought to such a degree of agitation , that its heat is little less intense than that of some actually ignited Bodies , and may , if I please , by the further action of the Air , be brought to afford some light also . But against this conjecture about the cause of the Air 's concurrence to the shining of our Noctiluca , there came into my mind , among other things , a strong Objection , that may be drawn from the Constant Noctiluca formerly mention'd to have been shewn by Mr. Krafft , in which the lucidness was constant , though the Vial that contain'd it , was kept stopt . In answer to this , I thought it might be said , that the Particles of the lucid substance , being in great numbers crowded together into a little room , these concentrated Particles may be supposd to have been brought to such a state , that they needed not the renewed assistance of the outward Air , to continue shining ; either because their intestine motions were brisk enough to discuss the minute parts of the matter , wherewith they were associated , and so from time to time to generate or extricate , & supply themselves with as many small Aerial Particles , as were necessary to keep the mass they belong'd to , luminous . Which conjecture may be illustrated by observing , that though our common culinary flames are presently extinguish'd , unless they be cherish'd with fresh Air , yet I elsewhere recite an Experiment , of a Composition , which is so fitted to generate as much Air , as it needs , that I have several times found , that it may be kindled , and made to flame away , even in vacuo Boyleano , ( as they call that made by our Air-pump . ) Other things may be alledg'd both for and against the propos'd conjecture , about the account on which the Air concurs to the light of our liquid Noctiluca ; but , I hope , it will not be impertinent to add , that perhaps the concurrence of the Air may be considerable to both the Phosphorus's , the fluid and the consistent , but the external Air be necessary only to the former : because in the latter , the luciferous Particles may have acquired such a texture , as that of rotten wood , or rather of whitings , or the liquor of glow-worms , taken out after they are dead . For in that state ( whatever others have written ) I have kept that Juice luminous for very many hours , ( not to say some dayes ; ) and 't is conceivable enough , that in the Consistent Noctiluca , by reason of the great numerousness and extreme minuteness of the parts , and the unctuousness or viscosity , or in a word , tenacity of them , the mass they make up , is much less dissipable than that , wherein the shining vertue of rotten wood , or the juice of dead glow-worms resides . This conjecture may be confirm'd , by observing as a thing very analogous to our Phoenomena , that I have found some lights in putrid Bodies to be so faint , that they would , like that of our fluid Noctiluca , ( but far more quickly ) disappear , when they were totally depriv'd of Air , as I several times found in parcels of rotten wood . And on the contrary , others had so vigorous or tenacious a light or flame , that , like the splendor of the constant Noctiluca , it would continue ( though perhaps not in its full lustre ) when the outward Air was in our Pneumatick Engine , diligently drawn off from it . And on this occasion I call to mind another Experiment , which seems yet more analogous , than any hitherto alledg'd , to our present production of flame or light . For having purposely kept certain Fish in a Glass , freed from Air , till I concluded it had lay'n longer than was necessary to bring it to that degree of Putrefaction , which was wont to make such Fish , at that time of the year , to shine , I could not perceive in the Cavity of the Glass the least glimpse of light : and presently after I had let in the outward Air , it did ( according to my expectation ) as it were , kindle a flame , in the proximately dispos'd matter , or at least produce in it a manifest light . And it may much conduce to shew , that the lately mentioned difference of shining Bodies may be but gradual , if I here observe , that I found by tryal , that in Bodies of the self same kind , as for instance Glow worms , or the same species of Rotten-fishes ; if the light were but faint , the withdrawing of the Air would after a while make it quite disappear ; and the readmission of the Air would presently make it reappear , as it happens in our Aerial Noctiluca . But in those individuals , wherein the luciferous matter was more copious and vigorous , and probably more tenacious , the absence of the external Air did somewhat lessen or impair , but not quite destroy the light , and so possibly it might happen in Mr. Krafft's Consistent Noctiluca : For though it shone without the renew'd accession of external Air , yet , that it would have been more brisk and active , if it had been assisted by such Air , I was induc'd to think , because ( if I much misremember not ) when once , to gratifie my curiosity , he took it out of the Vial , he usually kept it in , it did manifestly smoke and waste by the action of the Air , and produc'd considerable effects of actual heat ; for this being done in the day-time , in a Room we could not darken , it could not indeed be expected , that we should discern any augmentation of light , but yet that there was one , may probably be argued from the newly mentioned things , that us'd to be its concomitants . Such Observations and Reflections incline me to think , that , to speak in a general way , the light of our Noctiluca's depends upon a peculiar and very brisk agitation of some minute Particles of the shining matter , in point of Bulk , Shape , and Contexture , peculiarly fitted to impel the contiguous Aether to the bottom of our eyes , and made me think it not improbable , that the contact of fresh external Air , might contribute to this peculiar kind of agitation in the Gummous Noctiluca , as an helpful thing , and in the Aerial Noctiluca as an almost necessary concurrent . But whether the Air concur to this effect , as it does itself excite a brisk commotion in the fumid matter , it invades , or whether it makes a peculiar kind of dissipation of it , or whether the Air , or some fine substance contain'd in it , operates on this occasion as a kind of vital spirit , such as is found necessary , not only to common flame , but to that which is suppos'd to keep Animals alive ; or whether the Corpuscles of the admitted Air so combine with those , that exhale from the grosser liquor , as to become fit to be vehemently agitated by some aetherial pervading substance ? whether or no , I say , the agency of the Air in our Phoenomena , be to be refer'd to one or more of the newly mentioned things , or to some other cause of a peculiar and very brisk agitation , which , to speak in general , seems to have the main stroak in the production of light , is left to further inquiry . But I forget , that my intention was to set down Observations , not Hypothesis's . And indeed the Historical Part , of what I had to say of Phosphorus's , is far more useful and certain , than the Conjectures I can yet make upon it . Because , though I am content to let them pass , in regard they may afford you some hints of further speculations ; yet the true solution of the Problem , that has occasioned this Excursion , may depend so much upon further Experiments and Observations , that though , it is not impossible , that future Phoenomena may favor the propos'd conjectures , yet , it is not very unlikely , that I shall hereafter see cause to change them for some Hypothesis's , exceedingly different from them . To return therefore now to our Historical Observations . Observ . XI . ALthough , in the moderately shaken Vial , when the light was quite vanisht , I could not make the liquor begin to shine , yet when by unstopping it a little , the flame was kindled in the Cavity of the Glass , then , by shaking it again , though it were done more faintly than before , the light seem'd to be manifestly increas'd by this agitation . Observ . XII . IF I took a little of our Liquor , when 't was in its dark state , and laid it upon my hand , or on the stopple of the Vial , it would oftentimes lie there without disclosing any glimpse of light ; but if I rub'd it with my finger , or some other fit Body , it would then not only shine , but shine more vividly , than at best it us'd to do in the Vial , when the Neck of it was stopt ; and this vivid light , whil'st I continued to rub the matter , it resided in , seem'd from time to time to flame and flash , and did not only invade the Nostrils with a strong and offensive smell , but visibly sent up store of smoke , as if it had been some common culinary flame ; and when , upon my ceasing to rub the extravasated Liquor , it ceas'd to shine for a pretty while , yet when I return'd to rub it again , it would again appear luminous : But by little & little the lucid vertue decay'd , till 't was to no purpose to rub any more . Observ . XIII . THE light of our Liquor , when excited , seem'd for degree much like that , that I observ'd in some species of rotten wood , that were not of the most vivid sort , and when surrounded with Bodies of black colour , the reflection of its light from them was little or none . But very white Bodies , that were held contiguous to it , were manifestly illustrated by it , especially , if the eye , having been long kept in the dark ( whereby the Pupil uses to be much opened , and consequently capable of admitting more numerous beams ) was made more susceptible of the fainter impressions of light . ) Insomuch , that , when having plac'd the Vial by me , when I went to Bed , and was awake some time before Break of Day , I enclos'd both the Glass and my Head between the Sheets , the light seem'd to me to be very considerable , and to enlighten the compass of a foot or more in Diameter , and probably would have diffus'd itself further , if it had not been bounded by the sheets , whose whiteness made the reflection of the light from them appear very prettily . And by the help of this light , I could easily perceive my Fingers , and a Ring I wore upon one of them , though I could not distinguish the colours of a reddish Diamond , and a couple of Emeralds , that were set in it . Observ . XIV . IN reference to the light within , the included flame in our Vial was opacous ; for both at some other times , and even when I made the last recited Observation , I could not at all perceive my finger , when the shining substance was interpos'd betwixt it and my eye . But in reference to the external light , the flame or shining matter was Diaphanous , for even in a very faint light , by which , I think , I could scarce have read an ordinary Print , if I held our luminous Vial between the window and my eye , I could very plainly see my finger on the further side of the Glass , though , if my eye were plac'd between that and the light , the transparency would appear somewhat lessened , because the Cavity seem'd , as was formerly noted , fill'd with a kind of whitish mist . And the like transparency and whitish fumes , observable in the same luminous steams or flame , when the Vial was look'd on , against , and from , the light , I found , if instead of the day-light , I employ'd the light of the Candle . Observ . XV. HAving the opportunity of a convenient place , and a fair Day , I set the Vial about Noon in a window , opened towards the South , and left it there expos'd to the Sun-beams for a considerable time , to try , whether they would , upon the account of their agitation , or some imaginable affinity of nature , kindle or excite the luciferous liquor , or its effluvia . But I could not perceive that the Sun-beams had such an operation , which I chiefly concluded from my not being able to perceive any whitish or mist-like fumes in the Cavity of the Glass , for I durst not rely upon my not perceiving any light , in the darkest corner of the Room , because I suspected , that might proceed from my eyes having been accustomed to the great light of the then fair day , which made it less susceptible of impressions from a faint light . Observ . XVI . ACid and Alcalisate Spirits being reckoned by Chymists amongst the most subtle and operative substances , obtainable from mixt Bodies by distillation , I thought it very well worth while to try , by taste , whether our shining Liquor did notably abound with Particles of either of those kinds ? I did not find , that the Liquor I put upon my Tongue was in the least Acid ; nor that it was sensibly Alcalisate , as divers Modern Chymists call such volatile Salts and Spirits , as are afforded by Harts-horn , Blood , and such like Subjects of the Animal Kingdom : But it seem'd to me to have an odd Empyreumatical taste , almost like that of the Spirit of Crude Tartar ; its smell being also like that , of some Empyreumatical Oil , compounded with a stink , somewhat like that of stale Urine . I likewise , for further tryal , let fall upon a piece of white Paper some drops of blue Syrup of Violets , to which I put a little of our Liquor , stirring them together with the tip of my finger ; but the mixture was not thereby turn'd green , which it would have been by a quarter so much of Spirit of Harts-horn , of Blood , or of some other Spirit , abounding with salt of an urinous nature , or ( as some love to speak ) with a volatile Alcaly . Some other Tryals I made , though but with very small quantities of our Liquor , ( because I had but very little of it to spare ) and these Tryals did , no more than the former , evince the Liquor to belong manifestly , to the Tribe of Acids , or that of Alcalies ; though perhaps , this may not be the case of All the portions of Liquor , whether more dense , or more aqueous and dilute , that may be obtain'd by several degrees of fire , and some other varying circumstances , from the matter , that affords Noctiluca's . Observ . XVII . Sometimes , when for curiosity's sake , I shook the Vial , so that the whole Body , even to the bottom , of the Liquor , was spread all over the inside of the Glass , I could observe , with pleasure , that in many places divers little grains or corpuscles , belonging to the opacous matter , that concur'd to compose the Liquor , stuck here and there to the inside of the Vial , and that these , being of a consistent , not fluid nature , and therefore probably more dense than the thinner parts of the Phosphorus , did shine very prettily and distinctly , and look'd almost like extreamly little stars , or rather radiant sparks of fire , whose light was brisk enough to be distinctly notable , notwithstanding that of the flame , that was contiguoas to them , and fill'd the Cavity of the Vial. And these shining Corpuscles usually continued their peculiar vividness , as long as I thought fit to look on them . Which great vigor of theirs , together with their duration , gave me hopes , that the further prosecution of what had been brought thus far , may afford us some , not altogether despicable , quantity of the Consistent Noctituca , which , by reason of its density , tenacity , or other peculiar disposition of parts , may shine like the Constant Noctiluca of Mr. Krafft formerly mentioned . Observ . XVIII . BEing desirous to try , not so much what the Air and Agitation would do , towards the kindling or exciting ( not the imprisoned Exhalation , but ) the Liquor itself of our Noctiluca , ( that having been partly done already ) as what Water would do to quench it ; I thought fit to make the Experiment , when Time and many Trials had much impair'd its vigor . And accordingly having , in a dark place , unstopt the Vial , and wetted the tip of my finger with the included Liquor , I could not perceive that then ( as when it was freshly made ) it gave any sensible light . Wherefore , having rub'd the moistned finger against my other hand somewhat briskly , for a few moments , both the rub'd part of my hand and my finger appear'd adorn'd , each of them , with a flame , and though upon my dipping my finger in water ( that stood by , ready for the purpose ) the flame was , as it were , extinguisht , since the light presently vanish'd ; yet , having taken out my wet finger again , and rub'd , without having previously dry'd it upon the other hand , as I had done before , the light , as I expected it would , did quickly re-appear . Besides the foregoing Phoenomena of our luciferous Matter , that occur'd more regularly , there was one that hapned unexpected , and may perchance , ( for till I have further observ'd , I dare not speak it confidently ) prove referrable to the Paper , elsewhere publish'd , About some latent qualities of the Air. Observ . XIX . THE Phoenomenon was this : having one night opened the Vial so often mentioned , to shew the Production of light to a Virtuoso , I quickly stopt it again , and put it in my Pocket , till I went to sleep , and then laying it by me in the Bed ( as I often did ) when the Candles were carried out of the Room , I perceived the light , whose lasting , I did not expect , should exceed one hour , to continue still vivid enough ; and then shaking it a little , before I compos'd my self to sleep , I laid it by , till I wak'd in the morning , and then looking upon it again , it appear'd to my eyes ( that then for several hours had been unaccustomed to the light ) to shine more vigorously , than it had done at first . And from the time I open'd it over night , till the last time I had occasion to look upon it the next morning , it had continued shining for twelve hours ; to which , whether the extraordinary warmth , that was observ'd that particular night had contributed any thing , I dare not determine , but shall rather add , that though this Phoenomenon happen'd very rarely , yet this was not the onely time that I observ'd it : For once more it occur'd to me , and that time the light continued about 15 hours , that I took notice of , and how much longer it might have lasted , I was hindered from observing . But this Circumstance seem'd considerable , that the long duration of our unburning flame , hapned , after the rest of the Tryals and Observations had been made ; when by them , the vigor of the luciferous matter might reasonably be expected to have been very much impair'd . Observ . XX. WHen I had set down the last mentioned Phoenomenon , I thought I had concluded the Observations , peculiarly belonging to the Aerial Noctiluca , contain'd in our second Vial , and hitherto treated of . But now I find my self , by Philosophical Sincerity , obliged to add another Phoenomenon , which did somewhat trouble , as well as surprize me , and it was this . After the foregoing Observations had been made with our second Vial , one night that I came to open it , to shew one of my best Friends the production of light , I found ( little to my contept ) that none at all appear'd , though I shook the contained liquor , and kept the Vial a pretty while unstopt ; so that , if he had not known me well , he might have entertain'd sinister thoughts of me , till , having taken out some drops of the liquor , and rub'd it upon my hand , it afforded so vivid a light or flame , as satisfied him of the possibility of a true Noctiluca . And since that time , I have not found the Vial to afford any light , barely upon its being unstopt , so that either ( in spight of my care ) some Bodies unskilful curiosity has , unknown to me , spoil'd the liquor ; or , ( which is more likely ) so little a quantity , as I had at first , by the many and various Tryals I made with it , is dispirited and become , as it were , effoet ; which , 't was lucky it did not do , till the forecited Observations had been made with it . But , as in one of those , it has been conjectured , that one of the chief accounts , on which the Air itself may concur to the shining of our Noctiluca , is , as it excited a certain kind of brisk motion in the parts of it , I thought fit to try , whether , though I had found the bare shaking of the Vial to be ineffectual , yet an actual heat , whereby the parts must be more vehemently and variously agitated , might not inable the Air to do , what otherways it could not perform ; I therefore held our Vial near the fire , till it grew considerably warm , and then by shaking it a little , and unstopping it in a dark place , I perceived the exhalations , that possess'd the Cavity of the Vial , to shine , as formerly ; but their light was so momentany , that it scarce sooner appear'd , than vanish'd ; and though afterwards it sometimes appear'd , it was not vivid , nor lasted a minute of an hour , nor perhaps half so long ; though it seem'd , that when fresh Air was then allow'd access to it , its duration was thereby somewhat lengthned . But how long our matter will retain a disposition to be excited , even by these means , to shine , experience alone can determine . Additional OBSERVATIONS About the AERIAL NOCTILUCA . YOU may remember ( Sir ) that , to clear the way to the twenty foregoing Observations , I formerly told you , that we received the luciferous matter , obtain'd by our distillation , in several small Glasses , as we were able to save it . The parcel , that was received in the second Vial , afforded us the Phoenomena hitherto recited ; and now it will be fit to add to those , such as more lately occur'd , upon our considering the portions of luciferous matter , preserv'd in the other Glasses , and some also of the like lucid substance , prepared another way . And though these Observations be not so numerous , as the former , and be , a few of them , near of kin to some of the others ; yet I shall not scruple here to subjoin them , both because most of them are new , and those that are not , will serve to confirm and elucidate some of the foregoing Observations . Besides that , 't is not easie to know , what Phoenomena may ▪ and what cannot , be useful , to frame or verifie an Hypothesis of a subject new and singular , about which we have not as yet ( that I know of ) any Good Hypothesis setled . A small portion of liquor , ( not much exceeding a spoonful ) that was the first , and was judg'd the best , I sav'd , being put into a long , and somewhat slender Cylindrical Vial , made of white or chrystalline Glass , afforded us the ensuing Phoenomena . Observ . I. SOon after the muddy liquor ( for such it appear'd to the eye ) was poured into the Vial , it was so vigorously luminous , ( probably , in great part , from the contact and insinuation of so much Air , as it met with in its transfusion , ) that not only it shone vividly , but continued to shine ten hours , that I took notice of , before my occasions made me desist from observing it . This Experiment minds me of an Objection , which I should have proposed and answered at the beginning of the foregoing Paper ▪ if I had then remembred to do it . For , whereas it may by some be thought improper for me , to call our luciferous matter a self-shining substance , in regard that it is not lucid , without the concurrence or help of the Air : I answer , That I do , ( and justly may ) employ the word self-shining , to signifie , that the light our matter affords , is not a light borrowed from any external lucid , as is done by the Bolonian Stone , and the Phosphorus Balduini , but proceeds , as it were , from an inward principle of light . And Men scruple not , upon such an account , to reckon the flame of a Candle , and a glowing Coal , to be self-shining Bodies , though neither of these will be kindled , or continue to shine , without the assistance of renewed Air , no not for a few minutes : whereas , the newly recited Phoenomenon of our Noctiluca , shews , that , our prepar'd matter , being for a very short time , ( perhaps but few minutes ) impregnated by the Air , 't will continue to shine many hours in a well stop'd Glass , that hinders it from being reliev'd by any supply of fresh Air. Observ . II. WHen I set down the Fifth , and some other of the foregoing Observations , I was not at leisure to discourse the Reasons that induced me to try for an Aerial Noctiluca ; and now also to save time , I shall forbear launching into speculations upon that Subject , and only tell you Historically , that , presuming the Matter , that would shine in our Cylindrical Glass , would not be so much the Liquor itself , as an aggregate of such Effluviums of it , as , affected and excited by the Air , would become lucid ; I thought fit to take particular notice , how the Air would work upon the Exhalations of this more vigorous Liquor . And accordingly , having heedfully open'd the Vial , though I very soon after stop'd it again , I observ'd a great Commotion to be made in the Cavity of the Glass , unpossess'd by the Liquor : For the now lucid Exhalations seem'd to have a nimble and almost circular motion , along the sides of the Glass , and to make , as it were , a little whirlwind , that impetuously carried it round ; and this renew'd Rotation was not only manifest , but lasted much longer than one would have expected : so great a Commotion did the Air seem to have produced in the Effluviums of the Liquor , and perhaps in the neighbouring parts of the Liquor itself . Upon the ceasing of this unusual motion , the light did not cease , but persevered , though I had not occasion to observe ▪ how long 't would have lasted . Observ . III. I Will not determine , whether the vertiginous motion , mentioned in the newly recited Observation , was in part produced by what happen'd in the ensuing Phoenomenon , which was , That having heedfully taken out the stopple of our Vial in a dark place , after it had for a long time ceased from shining , I observ'd the external Air to rush into the Cavity of the Glass with noise , and so swiftly , as did , I confess , surprize me : as if the preceding flame , though not sensibly hot , had , after the manner of culinary flames , considerably weakned the spring of the included Air , and so disabled it to resist the whole pressure of the external Air , when , by the removal of the stopple , it was expos'd thereunto . But I will not , as I was saying , determine , whether this irruption of the Air , may not have contributed to the circular motion of the lucid steams mention'd in the foregoing observation ? because , though the affirmative seem a probable cause , yet I was kept from concluding it a necessary or onely cause of the turbinous motion , by my having some times , when no such irruption of the Air had in a long time preceded , observed Rotations of lucid matter in the Cavity of the Vial : which motion therefore seem'd to proceed from some other cause , though ( to add that by the by ) this cause , whatever it was , produc'd but such a rotation , as was less general , less nimble , and less lasting . Observ . IV. I Forgot to tell you in its due place , ( which was before the precedent Observations ) that , whil'st our Liquor was yet fresh and vigorous , I dipt my finger in it , and moistned with it several places of my hands , and those of some Ladies , that were desirous to be present at the spectacle . Which done , we observ'd , that the places that were touched , especially if they were a little rub'd , shone very vividly , as if actual flames , but not of a blue colour , like that of Common Sulphur , or of Spirit of Wine , were burning on them . And these flames were not at all uniform in their manner of burning , for they often seem'd to tremble much , and sometimes , as it were , to blaze out with sudden flashes , that were not lasting ( which put me in mind of some of the faculae solares . ) And though it might seem strange , that so small a quantity of matter , that stuck to this or that part of the hand , should afford so durable a flame ; yet if that part itself were rub'd against the same persons other hand , or the skin or linnen of a by-stander , the part new touched would shine , as the other continued to do : And though these flames were remarkable for their vividness , yet they continued for a good while to afford the company a very pleasing spectacle ; and , ( which was remarkable ) notwithstanding the darkness of the Room , it was manifest , that they emitted great store of whitish smoke , which , or some other Effluviums from the same matter , imbued the neighbouring Air with a ranck and offensive smell . The colour of these seeming flames , was not like the Phosphorus of Balduinus , when 't is very well prepar'd , and has been expos'd to a vigorous light , red , almost like a well-kindled Charcoal ; but yellow , like that of the middle part of the flame of a Candle . And notwithstanding the Blazes and Smoke , that accompanied these flames , we could not perceive in them any sensible Heat , ( that is , any confused agitation of parts , exceeding that of the parts of our Organs of touch ) nor did they at all singe the fine Linnen of the Ladies , whereon some of them seem'd to burn ; so that if we admit , with many learned Moderns , a flamma vitalis in the heart , this unburning and innoxious flame may supply us with a far better specimen or illustration thereof , than the flame of Spirit of Wine that is still commonly employ'd , for an Example ; though I have many years ago endeavor'd to rectifie the Error , by proving experimentally , that the flame of Spirit of Wine is very hot and devouring , insomuch that I have melted Glass and Gold itself with it . Observ . V. WHen , with my finger dipt in the forementioned Liquor , I drew short lines upon Linnen , there was left a shining track upon that part , over which my finger had newly passed , so that 't is not to be denied , that one may write lucid Characters upon white Paper ; and yet , when , having found our Liquor too thick , or too faintly lucid , to be employ'd , like Ink in an ordinary Pen ; I thought fit to try , whether I could draw lucid Letters with a ( middle-siz'd ) Pencil , instead of a Pen , and had , for that purpose , dipt it in our Liquor ; I was somewhat surpriz'd to find , that the Characters I had newly drawn , did not at all shine in the dark : But suspecting , that the Pencil might have retained , among the hairs it consisted of , the more tenacious and vigorous parts of the matter it had imbib'd , and had left only the more aqueous and strengthless parts upon the Paper ; I took the Pencil in one hand , and with the other , comprest and wreath'd a little the brushy part of it , to excite the matter , that probably was lodged there . By which means , that part of the Pencil was brought to look as if it were all of a light fire , and seem'd to burn like a small Wax Taper ; but with a more blazing and pleasant flame , which some times shooting downwards , and playing about the hairs , that compos'd that part of the Pencil , brought into my mind those Verses of Virgil. Ecce levis summo de vertice visus Juli Fundere lumen apex , tactuque innoxia molli Lambere flamma comas , &c. Aeneid . But this delightful flame lasted not very long in its first vigor , but decay'd by degrees , till no more light at all was seen ; after which , nevertheless , the flame would of itself break out , as if it came from the internal parts of the Pencil , and would shine a pretty while , and then seem quite to expire ; after which , our light would on a sudden disclose itself again , and , when it had continued awhile in a tremulous motion , dye again in all appearance . And 't is to be noted , that though this artificial Ignis Lambens , if I may so call it , did not , that I perceived , burn , or singe the slender hairs , among which it seem'd to flame , yet , as often as it appear'd , it did manifestly emit , perhaps as much , if not more smoke , than another burning Taper of that bigness would have done . And this vicissitude of extinction and reappearance of light , lasted , till I was weary of observing it , and then , having again with my fingers compress'd , and somewhat strongly twisted the hairs of the Pencil , I made them , as formerly , afford a considerable light , which I thought was , whil'st I was in the very act of wreathing the hairs , accompanied with a very sensible , but momentany Heat . Observ . VI. BUt notwithstanding the newly recited Heat , 't was in vain that I tryed , by compressing the Pencil first , and then rubbing it upon Gunpowder , well dryed , and somewhat heated , to fire the Powder . This I fail'd to do likewise , when I made the Tryal with circumstances somewhat more likely to make it succeed . Which I the less wondered at , because I remember Mr. Krafft , when he kindled Gunpowder in my Lodging , was fain to make use of his Consistent and Constant Noctiluca ; and besides , to have the Gunpowder prepar'd , by being made so hot , that 't was almost ready to take fire of itself . Which circumstance , I confess , I was glad of , as I also was of my own disappointments , and some also of his , because it gave me occasion to think , that this , otherwise innocent , fire would not easily be perverted to the prejudice of Mankind , which , I have supprest more dangerous inventions than this , to avoid contributing to . But upon this occasion I must not pretermit what happen'd to my Laborant , when the distillation of our luciferous matter had been freshly made ; namely , that , having taken up some of the thicker substance with a Knife to put it into a Vial , and having found that some of it afterwards stuck to the Blade , he , being in some haste to wipe off the adhering matter , did with his Apron take strong hold of the Blade on both sides , and then with his right hand drawing out the Blade nimbly , so that 't was strongly compressed in its passage between the thumb and fingers of his left hand , he was much surprized to feel a smart Heat , and presently looking upon that part of the Apron , where it had been produced , perceiv'd that it had in it two holes of some bigness , which he concluded must have been produced there by burning , both because of the intense heat he had felt before , and because 't was a ●ew Apron ; which , when I had called for , and heedfully inspected , I did , with him , impute those holes to the action of the fire . Whence I judged it very probable , that the thicker and almost unguentous part ( if I may so call it ) of our luciferous matter had a great disposition or propensity to admit a very brisk agitation , since by an almost momentany , and not very vehement , motion , it was put into an agitation , that made it capable of burning New Callico ( for of that the Apron was made . ) Observ . VII . SInce I usually set down the Nocturnal Observations about our Noctiluca from time to time , as I make them , whil'st they are fresh in my memory , and also have sent away to a Friend many of the precedent , before I wrote , ( or mad● ) the subsequent , you will not , I hope , think it strange , either , that , not having most of my materials at once together before me , I have not methodiz'd them , or , that having been able to make but gradual discoveries of the Subject , I inquire into , the things , I write of it , should now and then chance to be coincident , and my expressions about it should sometimes not be altogether uniform , but the latter parts should agree more or less with the former , as new or varying Phoenomena happen'd to require . Upon this account , I shall not scruple to subjoin , what has since occur'd to me , about the Phoenomenon , formerly mentioned in the Sixteenth Observation ; where I told you , that I could not then clearly find , either an Acid or an Alcalisate Salt , to be predominant in the luciferous matter , I then made use of . But , having since employed some of the water , that was taken out of a Receiver , after it had there been somewhat impregnated with that matter , I thought fit to try , whether this water , wherein probably the saline Particles of our Subject might be more copiously dissolved , or more active , would not discover itself to contain somewhat of volatile Alcaly . And to satisfie my self of this , I dropt a little of the Liquor upon some Syrup of Violets , that I had put upon a piece of clean Paper , and found , I was not mistaken , in thinking it would change the colour of the Syrup from Blue to Green ; which yet it did more faintly , than the volatile Alcalies , ( as they call them ) even when they are Phlegmatick , are wont to do . This Liquor likewise , as I remember , made some conflict with Spirit of Salt , when I first put them together , as I inferred from the commotion of the mixture , and the Bubbles thereby produced . Nor were these the only ways , by which I was induced to think , that a volatile Alcaly , not an Acid Salt or Spirit , was the predominant , if not the only Salt , contained in the faintly impregnated Liquor . Observ . VIII . BEfore I had set down many of the Observations contained in the first Paper , I was desirous to try , what would happen to our luciferous matter in such a vacuum , or , if you please , in such highly rarified Air , as is wont to be produced by our Air-Pump . But , in regard a Glass was to be opened in the exhausted Receiver , which is a difficult work to do , I was fain , for want of conveniences , to desist from my endeavors , and prosecute some other Experiments , ( most of them already recited ) till at length being furnished , though not with accurate , yet with tolerable means of making a Tryal , and thinking an imperfect one , better than none at all , I took a Vial , that had some luciferous matter in it , though but such , as was not apt to shine long at a time ; and , this Vial being well stopt , I kept till the flame or light within it expir'd ; then , having plac'd the Vial in a Receiver on our Pneumatick Engine , we pumpt out the Air , and then ( not without some difficulty ) pull'd out the Cork in a dark place , whereupon there presently appeared some light in the Cavity of the Vial , which I the less wondered at , because we found by certain Signs , that by reason of some disadvantageous Circumstances , we could not so well pump out the Air , and hinder the ingress of new , as not to leave , ( though but very little , yet ) enough to excite a flame , that by former experience we found to need but an inconsiderable quantity of fresh Air : But we observ'd , that by the commotion of the Air , occasioned by the pumping , the flame would be as it were ventilated , and blown up , or made to shine more vividly . Observ . IX . BUT , not being satisfied by the foregoing Experiment , I thought fit to vary it , after the following manner . There was taken a pretty large piece of Paper , which , being well moistned , and partly besmear'd with our luciferous matter , was thrust into a somewhat wide-mouth'd Glass , which , being put unstopt into a Receiver fastned to our Pneumatick Pump , and with it kept in a dark place , did there shine , as I expected it would , by reason of the contact of the Air , yet contain'd in the Receiver . Presently after this , the Pump was set a work , and we observ'd , as formerly , that the commotion made of the Air about the Vial , did manifestly enough increase the light for a while ; and that the light seem'd to be lessened , during the pauses intercepted between these Commotions , both by reason of the Rest , as of the Absence of the Air. And I likewise took notice , That the flame that seemed to pass from one part of the wrinkled Paper to the other , did sometimes appear to have , as it were , a palpitation , and to afford a very unequal light ; and though , when the external Air was let in through the Pump into the exhausted Receiver , the flame seem'd to be quenched , yet I judge that to be only a temporary effect of the waterish vapors , that the Air had taken along with it in its way through the Pump ; and therefore I caus'd the Receiver to be taken off the Engine , and then , the Spectators were quickly of my opinion , observing , that upon the free contact of the fresh outward Air , which was not like that last mentioned , depraved by moist vapors , the matter adhering to the Paper was quickly seen to shine again , and that more vividly , than it had done in the Receiver . But because I suspected , that this Vessel could not at that time , for want of some conveniences , be so well exhausted , as on other occasions it has often been , though , by the Phoenomena , hitherto recited , it seemed to the Spectators that the flame was manifestly befriended , and the light increas'd by the Air , yet , I think , the Experiment deserves to be repeated , when I shall be able to do it with more exactness . Observ . X. BEsides the Liquors , that afforded us the foregoing Experiments , we saved a little , ( though but very little ) of a substance , that was not liquid , but yet almost as soft , as mud . This we obtained , by pouring some of our liquor , taken out of the vessels , when the distillation was ended , into a Glass Funnel , lin'd with Cap Paper , to try , whether 't would filter . But finding , that , that , which pass'd thorow , was too thin and aqueous , the filter was hastily , and ( for that reason ) not very orderly wrapt up , and put into a Glass , not capacious , but yet of a moderate wideness at the mouth ; that , both the filter might be easily thrust in , and the Glass might be exactly enough stopt with a strong Cork . After other Experiments ( formerly recited ) had been made , I took this Glass , and carried it into a dark place ; And though I could not perceive the least glimpse of light , yet presuming , that it contain'd some of the true matter of the Aerial Phosphorus , or Noctiluca , and consequently Exhalations , that , having been hindered by the stopple to flie away , might be kindled or excited by the appulse of the Air , I opened the Glass , and saw , ( as I expected ) an immediate Apparition of light . Which light did disclose itself , sometimes upon a lesser , and sometimes upon a much greater part of the very uneven surface of the included Paper , and seem'd to pass for a great while ( as long as I thought fit to stay to observe it ) from one part of the Filter , and one side of the Glass , to another : I say , seem'd , because perhaps the Phoenomenon was produc'd by a train of eruptions of flames newly excited in several places , rather than a bare propagation of the same . But whatever it was , the motion , ( which was pleasant enough to behold ) was so odd and irregular , that it did not ill resemble the motion of fire kindled by sparks , strook into a good quantity of Tinder . And this vertue of shining upon the ingress of the Air , lasted many days in the abovementioned Paper . Observ . XI . BUT there was another Filter , that afforded us a pleasing variation of this Phoenomenon ; the matter wrapt up in the inside of this Paper , being somewhat more copious , or better conditioned , than that which adhered to the other lately spoken of . We took then this Paper , and having unfolded it , and kept it display'd in a dark place , we had the pleasure to see a considerable number of flames of differing sizes and figures , disclose themselves at the same time ; and though most of them were vivid , yet few of them continued ▪ long in the self-same place , but they seemed frequently to change their scituations among themselves , as well as their figures , and extent ; or else new flames , did incessantly break forth in new places , according as the exhalations , that did copiously and irregularly mingle with the contiguous Air , did in several places happen to be in part , as it were kindled by it ; I say , in part , because , from the flames themselves , as well as the unshining parts of the Filter , there did manifestly ascend good store of smoke , visible by the light afforded by the shining matter : And these flames did not keep a constant tenour in their way of blazing , but had their tremblings , and emications , and these being usually accompanied with changes of figure , and eruptions of light in several places at the same time , 't was a very pleasant sight to see the whole Area or Surface of the display'd Filter , look as the Sky sometimes does , especially in hot Countries , when the eye may perceive flashes of lightning break forth in several places at once : But our Coruscations , being as well more numerous , as innocent , made the Filter appear almost as variegated as Marble Paper : But with this advantage , that , besides that the appearance was almost perpetually changing , the yellow parts were not only coloured , but lucid , and afforded those , that look'd on them with me , a delightful spectacle , that lasted as long , as we thought fit to gaze at it . Observ . XII . HAving strongly suspected , that the agitation , duely modified , of a disposed matter , was at least one of the chief Agents in the Production of Light ; I was not discouraged , by finding that shaking of the Vial , or making the contain'd Liquor more than lukewarm , would not produce any Apparition of Light : I was not , I say , thereby discouraged from trying , whether a more intense heat , which would communicate a brisk and various motion to a multitude of the Corpuscles of the luciferous matter , dispersed through the liquor , would not do , what a fainter Agitation was not able to perform . I thought also , it deserved to be tried , whether a considerable variation of Phoenomena , would not be consequent to our changing the figure and capacity of the Glass ? especially , if all immediate Commerce between the Cavity of the Vessel , and the outward Air , were carefully prevented . In order to both these Tryals , I took some spoonfuls of Aqueous Liquor , impregnated with some , of the more soluble Portion of the luciferous matter ; which Liquor , when it was setled , was transparent , as having but an inconsiderable quantity ( which could not easily be separated from it , ) of that muddy substance , formerly more than once mentioned . And this clear Liquor , which , ( perhaps because of the absence of that thicker substance ) was , as it ought to be , for my purpose , so faintly impregnated , that it would not , with shaking , or a mild heat , afford any light , was put into a round Bolt-Glass , whose Globous part was capable of holding three or four times as much , and whose Stem ( or Pipe ) was proportionable in wideness to it , and above a foot in length . Having carefully stopt this Vessel with a Cork and sealing Wax , 't was in the night-time set in such a posture , that , by the intervention of sand , it might be heated without breaking , ( as otherwise it would have been in danger of doing , ) and when the Ball was made so hot , that I could not well endure it in my naked hand , I speedily removed the Vessel into a dark place , and having shaken the Liquor , I perceived a light to break forth in the Ball , which presently diffused itself thorow the whole Cavity of it , but as quickly disappeored And some time after , especially upon shaking the Glass , the light would break forth again , and soon after vanish ; and these fulguratious or flashings of light , continued for a while to appear now and then ; but were unequal , both as to their extent , vividness , and duration , and when the Liquor grew cold , they ceased quite . Observ . XIII . BUT whil'st it was yet considerably hot , I thought fit to try , whether by breaking the Liquor by a strong concussion , some lucid substance would not be made to pass out of the Globous into the Cylindrical part , & so vary the Phoenomena . And to this purpose , having violently shaken the Liquor at several times , with Pauses interposed , I perceived some considerable Portions of the lucid matter to ascend into the Pipe ; and particularly once I had the pleasure to see a Portion of shining substance , about the bigness of a Filbert , or a small Almond , mount directly upwards like a flame , but not very swiftly , from the Globous part of the Glass , all along the Pipe , till it reached the upper part of it . And at other times , such flames ascended into the Pipe , but not so high ; whence many would have confidently infer'd a positive levity in flame ; which yet I forbear to conclude , because I once ( at least ) observ'd , one of these Portions of shining matter , to descend from the higher to the lower part of the Stem , still retaining its lucidness all the way . I cannot now stay to debate , whether , the Phoenomena , appearing in this Glass , may illustrate , or facilitate the Explication of what happens in the Production and Motions of some of those Meteors , that are called fiery ; such as the Ignis Lambens , Falling Stars , Frequent Lightnings without Thunder , in hot Summer nights , and that wandering flame , called Ignis Fatuus ? And whether or no , it may be said , that when such Bodies are generated , there happens to be a convention of Particles so associated , that they mutually agitate each other , or are fitted to be agitated by a pervading Aethereal substance , and put into a motion , like that , which in the lately mentioned Portions of our shining matter , was able to produce light ? Observ . XIV . BUT , instead of pursuing this Enquiry , I shall relate to you a Phoenomenon , that to me , as well as those I shew'd it to , was not a little delightful . For having , by a Concussion , fit for that purpose , as it were spread the Liquor at once all over the inside of the Globe , and of part of the Stem , 't was pleasant to behold , how the luciferous matter , dividing itself variously in its passage downwards , adorned the whole Cavity of the Glass with a company of small lucid Bodies , that both shin'd and twinkled , like so many little stars , adorning the Celestial Globe ; and the pleasantness of the spectacle was increased , by their having manifest motions , as well as true light . The slowness of their descent , in Lines , many of them very oblique , made this pleasant sight last the longer ; and having more than once reiterated the Experiment , ( though not still with equal success , ) it afforded me some varied Phoenomena ; which I shall now forbear to mention , both because I want time to write , and am weary of writing , as I fear you may be of reading . And therefore I shall here conclude your trouble and my own , as soon as I shall have added the two following Particulars ▪ Observ . XV. THE first whereof is this , That having in such a Bolt-Glass , as has been lately described , given purposely and heedfully a certain kind of strong shake to the included Liquor , when 't was at a due degree of heat , ( which was not intense ) I observed , That on one side of the Globous part of the Glass , and above the Body of the Liquor , there was generated , as it were , a great spark of lucid matter , about the bigness of a Pins head ; and yet hence , ( as I expected ) there quickly was a flame or light diffused through the capacity of the Globe , where it soon after vanished . From which Phoenomenon , and some others of affinity to it , whether , it may be argued , That this was a true flame , which from a very small beginning , was increased by Propagation , and kindled the disposed Exhalations , that it found dispersed throughout the Cavity of the Glass ; or , That the motion of all light is not necessarily instantaneous , since the progress of it , even in so small a space as , our Glass comprized , was discernable , I have not now the leisure to debate , but must hasten to the last of the two promised Particulars , which is , Observ . XVI . THat , ( not here to mention how I have preserv'd a distill'd luciferous matter both with and without additaments in a consistent form ) to try , how long I could preserve our Liquor , in a capacity to exhibit such pleasing Phoenomena , without giving it new Air from time to time , but only by keeping in the spirituous parts : I caus'd the Stem to be Hermetically seal'd ; presuming , that , notwithstanding this , I could , by a certain cautious way of holding the Vessel , safely bring the included Liquor to an heat , sufficiently intense , to afford us the Phoenomena of light . In which Supposition I was not mistaken , since the last recited Phoenomenon , besides some others , were made in this Hermetically seal'd Vessel , in which the contain'd Liquor does , as I this night try'd , continue fit for that purpose . OF THE Way of preparing THE AERIAL NOCTILUCA . THE several Phoenomena of our Aerial Phosphorus or Noctiluca , wherewith , you have hitherto been entertain'd , have , I doubt not , raised in you a pressing curiosity to know , of what matter this self-shining substance was made , and how that matter was prepar'd , to be capable of affording it . Though two or three years are now past , since I caus'd to be made , more than once , in my Furnaces , a Phosphorus , not unlike that of the learned Balduinus , ( I speak thus cautiously , because I am not sure , what particular matter He employs , and I have brought more than one sort of Mineral Bodies , to shine ; ) yet I forbore to divulge , what I knew , because ( as I declar'd to some curious Men , that press'd me to do it , ) I was willing to leave him the liberty of publishing his invention . But finding he has not yet thought fit to impart it to the World , there appear'd the less cause to expect that the secret of the Noctiluca , which is a much more valuable thing , would be suddenly made publick : And therefore , without long waiting any man's leisure , I resolv'd to impart to the Curious , ( and particularly , Sir , to your self , ) the knowledge of the matter , I wrought upon , and some directions how to manage it . And in pursuit of that resolution , I am willing to gratifie the Virtuosi with that very process ( for substance ) which I set down , for my own remembrance , after I had the first time actually made the Aerial Noctiluca ; and which I afterwards deposited , seal'd up , in the hands of the very ingenious Secretary of the Royal Society , in the presence of divers Members of that illustrious Company . And though since that time , some other Tryals have enabled me to observe some Circumstances , pertinent to that purpose ; yet I thought fit to leave it it as it was , that others finding themselves , in some sort , oblig'd to employ their own industry , their trials may , as mine have done , produce an instructive diversification of effects , in an attempt , where experience invites me to think , that various degrees of fire and other circumstances , ( and perhaps Casualties too ) may diversifie the Phoenomena , and thereby both inrich the yet wanted , and designed History of Light , and assist the Speculative , to accommodate a good Hypothesis to them . Reserving then for another time my latter Remarks upon the Observations and Process , delivered in this Paper , I shall now only give you a few short Advertisements about it . First , I will not positively affirm , that the matter , I employ'd , is the very same , that was made use of ▪ by the Ingenious German Chymists in their Noctiluca ; for some inquisitive men have very lately told me , that the Germans mingle two or more distillable materials ; whereas I employ'd but one matter , capable of Distillation . Secondly , Though all the Twenty foregoing Observations , and most of the Ten additional ones adnexed to them , were made with that substance , which I guess to be at least the chief , that is employ'd by the Germans , ( which was done for a particular reason , not needful to be here express'd , ) yet I first thought , and upon my very first tryal , found , that 't is possible to make a Noctiluca of a dry and pulverable substance , that ▪ for ought I can guess , was never employ'd by Mr. Krafft , or those he had his secret from . And besides this second sort of Phosphorus's , we made a third , that was obtain'd from a Body , that never had been either a part , or an excrement , of a Humane Body , nor was mingled with any thing , that had been so . But though I found these self-shining substances somewhat differing from those made of the Liquor , hereafter to be nam'd ; yet , I cannot stay at present to say any thing more of them , being content to have intimated , That self-shining Phosphorus's have been actually obtain'd from more single Subjects , than one . Thirdly , To name the matter , though never so explicitely , would not , in my opinion , have sufficed to inform those that would work upon it . For Chymists themselves would , in all probability , work , ( as hitherto , on other occasions , they have wrought ) upon the volatile and saline , which they presume to be the only spirituous and noble parts of the Concrete , throwing away the rest , as useless and abominable . And on this occasion , let me add , that I was the rather induc'd to set down this process , that we may both observe , and thankfully acknowledge the wisdom and bounty of the great Author of Nature , who , for our encouragement to study even his meanest works , has been pleased , in a Body , that is commonly thought one of the despicablest of the Universe , to lodge so glorious and excellent a thing , as a self-shining substance . Fourthly , And I scarce doubt , but this , though it will be admired now , will be much more priz'd hereafter , when it shall be brought to greater perfection ; and when men shall have discover'd more of its uses , which probably will be great in Physick , and , perhaps I might add , to some purposes , that few Chymists themselves do yet dream of . Fifthly , One thing remains , that , to save ingenious men some labour and charge , I think fit to give early notice of ; namely , that having , for tryal sake , employ'd the Liquor , hereafter to be named , without previous fermentation or putrefaction ; though , 't was proceeded with after the same manner , with that whereby we obtain'd our Noctiluca ; and though , it afforded a substance for colour and consistence , not unlike our luciferous matter ; yet I could not find , that , that substance would at all shine . And indeed , there are so many Circumstances , whose mistake may make the Experiment miscarry , ( as I have found to my trouble , even since the Phosphorus , whose Phoenomena are first set down , was made ) that , though , I were not now in haste , I should be content to take time to learn better from experience , how to instruct others , before I venture to do it circumstantially ; and he that shall , at the first attempt , succeed in preparing this Liquor , shall be thought by me , either a very skilful , or a lucky Operator . Sixthly and lastly , That it may appear , as well by the very different preparations , as by the differing Phoenomena of the Phosphorus Hermeticus , and of the Aerial Noctiluca , that there is a great disparity between those lucid Bodies , I shall here briefly add the way we employ'd to make either the Phosphorus Balduini , or some other like it , ( for I am not certain , what is the very way of that Learned Man ) as it was practised in my Furnaces ; which , in short , is this . A Dissolution being made of fine white Chaulk in good Spirit of Nitre , or clean Aqua Fortis , it is to be filtrated thorow Cap-Paper , and the clear Solution is to be evaporated , till there remain a dry Substance : With this white Calx , you are to overlay the inside of some Vessel , made of good Earth , that will endure the Fire , and that of a round figure , which is more convenient , than that of ordinary Crucibles ; and to the matter , contain'd in this Vessel , you are to give , for about half an hour or an hour , ( according to the largeness of it , and other circumstances ) a due degree of Fire , which ▪ 't is not easie to hit , and which ordinarily requires a conveniently shap'd Vessel , whereby the flame or heat may be reverberated , till you perceive the matter to have acquired a disposition , to retain the light ; and then the earthen Vessel , which usually ought to be somewhat shallow , and not to exceed many inches in Diameter , is to have a Cover of fine Glass or Chrystal carefully cemented on to it , to preserve it from , its great Enemy , the Air. What we have observ'd , in prosecuting this preparation , is not so proper to be delivered at this time , when my haste , as well as some other things , make it more fit , that we should forthwith return to our Aerial Noctiluca , of which , after the foregoing things have been premis'd , 't is time that now there should follow THE PROCESS . THE Process . THere was taken a considerable quantity of Humane Vrine , [ because the Liquor yields but a small proportion of luciferous matter , ] that had been , ( a good part of it at least ) for a competent while , digested or putrified , before it was us'd . This Liquor was distill'd , with a moderate heat , till the spirituous parts were drawn off ; after which , the superfluous moisture also was abstracted , ( or evaporated away ) till the remaining substance was brought to the consistence of a somewhat thick syrup , or a thin extract . This was well incorporated with about thrice its weight of fine white sand , and the mixture was put into a strong Retort ; to which was join'd a large Receiver , in good part fill'd with water . Then , the two Vessels being carefully luted together , a naked Fire was gradually administred , for five or six hours , that all , that was either Phlegmatick , or otherwise Volatile , might come over first . When this was done , the Fire was increas'd , and at length , for five or six hours made ( NB ) which it should be in this Operation ) as strong and intense , as the Furnace ( which was not bad ) was capable of giving . By this means , there came over good store of white fumes , almost like those , that appear in the Distillation of Oil of Vitriol ; and when those fumes were past , and the Receiver grew clear , they were after a while succeeded by another sort , that seem'd in the Receiver to give a faint blewish light , almost like that of little burning Matches , dipt in Sulphur . And last of all , the Fire being very vehement , there pass'd over another substance , that was judg'd more ponderous than the former , because ( NB ) much of it fell through the water to the bottom of the Receiver : whence being taken out , ( and partly even whil'st it staid there ) it appear'd by several effects , and other Phoenomena , to be ( as we expected ) of a luciferous nature . The ways I employ'd to make a self-shining substance , out of other matters then that express'd in this Process , I must , for certain Reasons , forbear to acquaint you with , at this time . I might from the foregoing Process , take occasion to inquire , whether the matter , wherein the shining faculty chiefly resides , do not consist , not ( as one would expect ) of the volatile and spirituous parts of our Animal Liquor , but of its ( not absolutely , but ) more fixt Salt , and ponderous foetid Oil , associated in a peculiar manner and proportion . And from thence I might take a rise , to propose my conjectures of the cause of the lucidness of our luciferous matter ; and also , both to add somewhat to what , ( two or three years ago ) I wrote about the despised Sapa of Urine , in reference to some uncommon Menstruums , and to make inquiry into other things relating to the nature of light and flame , especially as found in our Noctiluca : These things , I say , I might hence take occasion to propose my thoughts of ; but want of time , together with hopes of further discoveries , make me willing to defer the doing it , till I shall have more leisure to frame conjectures , and perhaps more Phoenomena to ground them upon . In the mean while , that , I may no further lengthen a Letter too prolix already , by Apologies for my self , or Complements to you ; I shall at present only beg the favor of your candid Animadversions upon what I have written , and of those singular Observations I hear you have made , About the light of stinking Fishes ; both which , you need not doubt , will be as welcom , as I doubt not , they will prove instructive to , SIR , Your most Affectionate , And most Humble Servant , R. B. Pag. 12. line 2. dele Light. FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A28938-e460 * This Clause refers to one of the Philosophical Collections publish'd by the ingenious ▪ Mr. Hook , who hath therein inserted verbatim the Paper he received ! from Mr. Boyle . Notes for div A28938-e2610 See above , Observ . 12. 
A28939	----	Animadversions upon Mr. Hobbes's Problemata de vacuo by the Honourable Robert Boyle ... Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1674 Approx. 114 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 53 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2008-09 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A28939 Wing B3926 ESTC R11777 11687982 ocm 11687982 48183 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Hobbes, Thomas, 1588-1679. -- Problemata physica. Vacuum -- Early works to 1800. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-07 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2007-02 Robyn Anspach Sampled and proofread 2007-02 Robyn Anspach Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion ANIMADVERSIONS UPON M R. HOBBES's PROBLEMATA DE VACUO . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE , Fellow of the Royal Society . LONDON , Printed by William Godbid , and are to be Sold by Moses Pitt , at the Angel over against the little North Door of St. Paul's Church . 1674. PREFACE . UPON the coming abroad of Mr. Hobbes's Problemata Physica , finding them in the hands of an Ingenious Person , that intended to write a Censure of them , which several Employments private and publick have , it seems , hinder'd him to do ; I began , as is usual on such occasions , to turn over the leaves of the Book , to see what particular things it treated of . This I had not long done before I found , by obvious passages in the third Chapter , or Dialogue , as well as by the Title , which was Problemata de Vacuo , that I was particularly concern'd in it ; upon which I desired the Possessor of the Book , who readily consented , to leave me to examin that Dialogue , on which condition I would leave him to deal with all the rest of the Book . Nor did I look upon the Reflections I meant to make as repugnant to the Resolutions I had taken against writing Books of Controversie , since the Explications , Mr. Hobbes gave of his Problems , seem'd to contain but some Variations of , or an Appendix to , his Tract De Natura Aeris , which , being one of the two first pieces that were published against what I had written , was one of those that I had expresly reserv'd my self the liberty to answer . But the Animadversions I first made upon Mr. Hobbes's Problems De Vacuo , having been casually mislaid e're they were finished ; before I had occasion to resume my task , there past time enough to let me perceive , that his Doctrine , which 't will easily be thought that the Vacuists disapproved , was not much relished by most of the Plenists themselves , the modernest Peripateticks and the Cartesians ; each of them maintaining the Fullness of the World , upon their own grounds , which are differing enough from those of our Author , the natural Indisposition I have to Polemical Discourses , easily perswaded me to let alone a Controversie , that did not appear needful : And I had still persisted in my silence , if Mr. Hobbes had not as 't were summon'd me to break it by publishing again his Explications , which in my Examen of his Dialogue De Natura Aeris I had shewn to be erroneous . And I did not grow at all more satisfied , to find him so constant as well as stiff an Adversary to interspers'd Vacuities , by comparing what he maintains in his Dialogue De Vacuo , with some things that he teaches , especially concerning God , the Cause of Motion , and the Imperviousness of Glass , in some other of his writings that are published in the same Volume with it . For since he asserts that there is a God , and owns Him to be the Creator of the World ; and since on the other side the Penetration of Dimensions is confessed to be impossible , and he denies that there is any Vacuum in the Universe ; it seems difficult to conceive , how in a World that is already perfectly full of Bodie , a Corporeal Deity , such as he maintains in his Append. ad Leviath . cap. 3 , can have that access even to the minute parts of the Mundane Matter , that seems requi● site to the Attributes and Operations that belong to the Deity , in reference to the World. But I leave Divines to consider what Influence the conjunction of Mr. Hobbes's two Opinions , the Corporeity of the Deity , and the perfect Plenitude of the World , may have on Theology . And perhaps I should not in a Physical Discourse have taken any notice of the proposed Difficulty , but that , to prevent an Imputation on the Study of Natures Works , ( as if it taught us rather to degrade than admire their Author , ) it seem'd not amiss to hint ( in transitu ) that Mr. Hobbes's gross Conteption of a Corporeal God , is not only unwarranted by found Philosophy , but ill befriended even by his own . My Adversary having propos'd his Problems by way of Dialogue between A. and B ; 't will not , I presume , be wonder'd at , that I have given the same form to my Animadversions ; which come forth no earlier , because I had divers other Treatises , that I was more concern'd for , to publish before them . But because it will probably be demanded , why on a Tract that is but short , my Animadversions should take up so much room ? It will be requisite , that I here give an account of the bulk of this Treatise . And first , having found that there was not any one Problem , in whose Explication , as propos'd by Mr. Hobbes , I saw cause to acquiesce , I was induc'd for the Readers ease , and that I might be sure to do my Adversary no wrong , to transcribe his whole Dialogue , bating some few Transitions , and other Clauses not needful to be transferr'd hither . Next , I was not willing to imitate Mr. Hobbes , who recites in the Dialogue we are considering the same Experiments that he had already mentioned in his Tract De Natura Aeris , without adding as his own ( that I remember ) any new one to them . But my unwillingness to tire the Reader with bare Repetitions of the Arguments I employ'd in my Examen of that Tract , invited me to endeavour to make him some amends for the exercise of his patience by inserting , as occasion was offer'd , five or six new Experiments , that will not perhaps be so easily made by every Reader that will be able ( now that I have perspicuously propos'd them ) to understand them . And lastly , since Mr. Hobbes has not been content to magnifie himself and his way of treating of Physical matters , but has been pleas'd to speak very slightingly of Experimentarian Philosophers ( as he stiles them ) in general , and , which is worse , to disparage the making of elaborate Experiments ; I judg'd the thing , he seem'd to aim at , so prejudicial to true and useful Philosophy , that I thought , it might do some service to the less knowing , and less wary , sort of Readers , if I tryed to make his own Explications enervate his Authority , and by a somewhat particular Examen of the Solutions he has given of the Problems I am concern'd in , shew , that 't is much more easie to undervalue a frequent recourse to Experiments , than truly to explicate the Phaenomena of Nature without them . And since our Author , speaking of his Problemata Physica , ( which is but a small Book ) scruples not to tell His Majesty , to whom he dedicates them , that he has therein comprised ( to speak in his own terms ) the greatest and most probable part of his Physical Meditations ; and since by the alterations , he has made in what he formerly writ about the Phaenomena of my Engine , he seems to have design'd to give it a more advantageous form : I conceive , that by these selected Solutions of his , one may , without doing him the least injustice , make an estimate of his way of discoursing about Natural things . And though I would not interess the credit of Experimentarian Philosophers in no considerabler a Paper than this ; yet if Mr. Hobbes's Explications and mine be attentively compared , it will not , I hope , by them be found , that the way of Philosophising he employs , is much to be preferr'd before that which he undervalues . ANIMADVERSIONS VPON M R. HOBBES's Problemata de VACUO . A. MAy one , without too bold an inquisitiveness , ask , what Book you are reading so attentively ? B. You will easily believe you may , when I shall have answer'd you , that 't was Mr. Hobbes's lately publish'd Tract of Physical Problems , which I was perusing . A. What progress have you made in it ? B. I was finishing the third Dialogue or Chapter when you came in , and finding my self , though not named , yet particularly concern'd , I was perusing it with that attention which it seems you took notice of . A. Divers of your Experiments are so expresly mention'd there , that one need not be skill'd in decyphering to perceive that you are interessed in that Chapter , and therefore seeing you have heedfully read it over , pray give me leave to ask your Judgment , both of Mr. Hobbes's Opinion , and his Reasonings about Vacuum . B. Concerning his Opinion , I am sorry I cannot now satisfie your Curiosity , having long since taken , and ever since kept , a Resolution to decline , at least until a time that is not yet come , the declaring my self either for or against the Plenists . But as to the other part of your Question , which is about Mr. Hobbes's Arguments for the absolute Plenitude of the World , I shall not scruple readily to answer , that his Ratiocinations seem to me far short of that cogency , which the noise he would make in the world , and the way wherein he treats both ancient and modern Philosophers that dissent from him , may warrant us to expect . A. You will allow me the freedom to tell you , That , to convince me , that your resentment of his explicating divers of the Phaenomena of your Pneumatic Engine otherwise than you have been wont to do , ( and perhaps in terms that might well have been more civil , ) has had no share in dictating this Judgment of yours ; the best way will be , that entering for a while into the party of the Vacuists you answer the Arguments he alledges in this Chapter to confute them . B. Having always , as you know , forborn to declare my self either way in this Controversie , I shall not tye my self strictly to the Principles and Notions of the Vacuists , nor , though but for a while , oppose my self to those of the Plenists : But so far I shall comply with your Commands , as either upon the Doctrine of the Vacuists , or upon other grounds , to consider , whether this Dialogue of Mr. Hobbes have cogently proved his , and the Schools , Assertion , Non dari Vacuum ; and whether he has rightly explain'd some Phaenomena of Nature which he undertakes to give an account of , and especially some produced in our Engin , whereof he takes upon him to render the genuine Causes . And this last inquiry is that which I chiefly design . A. By this I perceive , that if you can make out your own Explications of your Adversaries Problems de Vacuo , and shew them to be preferable to his , you will think you have done your work , and that 't is but your secondary scope to shew , that in Mr. Hobbes his way of solving them , he gives the Vacuists an advantage against Him , though not against the plenists in general . B. You do not mistake my meaning , and therefore without any further Preamble , let us now proceed to the particular Phaenomena consider'd by Mr. Hobbes ; the first of which is an Experiment proposed by me in the one and thirtieth of the Physico-Mechanical Experiments concerning the Adhesion of two flat and polish'd Marbles , which I endeavour'd to solve by the pressure of the Air. And this Experiment Mr. Hobbes thinks so convincing an one to prove the Plenitude of the World , that , though he tells us he has many cogent Arguments to make it out , yet he mentions but this one , because that , he says , suffices . A. The Confidence he thereby expresses of the great force of this Argument does the less move me , because , I remember , that formerly in his Elements of Philosophy he thought it sufficient to employ one Argument to evince the Plenitude of the World , and for that one he pitch'd upon the Vulgar Experiment of a Gardeners Watering-Pot : But , whether he were wrought upon by the Objections made to his Inference from that Phaenomenon in your Examen of his Dialogue De Natura Aeris , or by some other Considerations , I will not pretend to divine . But I plainly perceive , he now prefers the Experiment of the cohering Marbles . B. Of which it will not be amiss , though the passage be somewhat long , to read you his whole Discourse out of the Book I have in my hand . A. 'T is fit that you , who for my sake are content to take the pains of answering what he says , should be eased of the trouble of reading it , which I will therefore , with your leave , take upon me . His Discourse then about the Marbles is this : A. Ad probandam Universi Plenitudinem , nullum nostin ' Argumentum cogens ? B. Imò multa : Unum autem sufficit ex eo sumptum , Quod duo corpor a plana , si se mutuò secundùm amborum planitiem communem tangant , non facile in instante divelli possunt ; successivè verò facillimè . Non dico , impossibile esse duo durissima Marmora it a coharentia divellere , sed difficile ; & vim postulare tantam , quanta sufficit ad duritiem lapidis superandam . Siquidem verò majore vi ad separationem opus sit quàm illa , quâ moventur separata , id signum est non dari Vacuum . A. Assertiones illae demonstratione indigent . Primò autem ostende , quomodo ex duorum durissimorum corporum , conjunctorum ad superficies exquisite laeves , diremptione difficili , sequatur Plenitudo Mundi ? B. Si duo plana , dura , polita Corpora ( ut Marmora ) collocentur unum supra alterum , ita ut eorum superficies se mutuò per amnia puncta exactè , quantum fieri potest , contingant , illa sine magna difficultate ita divelli non possunt , ut eodem instante per omnia puncta dirimantur . Veruntamen Marmora eadem , si communis eorum superficies ad Horizontem erigatur , aut non valde inclinetur , alterum ab altero facillimè ( ut scis ) etiam solo pondere dilabentur . Nonne causa hujus rei haec est , Quod labenti Marmori succedit Aer , & relictum locum semper implet ? A. Certissimé . Quid ergo ? B. Quando verò eadem uno instante divellere conaris , nonne multo major vis adhibenda est ; Quam ob causam ? A. Ego , & mecum ( puto ) omnes cansam statuunt , Quod spatium totum inter duo illa Marmora divulsa , simul uno instante implere Aer non potest , quantacunque celeritate fiat divulsio . B. An qui spatia in Aere dari vacua contendunt , in illo Aere solo dari negant qui Marmora illa conjuncta circumdat ? A. Minimè , sed ubique interspersa . B. Dum ergo illi , qui Marmor unum ab altero revellentes Aerem comprimunt , & per consequens Vacuum exprimunt , Vacuum faciunt locum per revulsionem relictum ; nulla ergo separationis erit difficultas , saltem non major quàm est difficultas corpora eadem movendi in Aere postquam separata fuerint . Itaque quoniam , concesso Vacuo , difficult as Marmora illa dirimendi nulla est , sequitur per difficultatis experientiam , nullum esse Vacuum . A. Recte quidem illud infers . Mundi autem Plenitudine supposita , quomodo demonstrabis possibile omnino esse ut divellantur ? B. Cogita primo Corpus aliquod ductile , nec nimis durum , ut ceram , in duas partes distrahi , quae tamen partes non minus exacte in communi plano se mutuo tangunt quàm laevissima Marmora . Jam quo pacto distrahatur ●era , consideremus . Nonne perpetuo attenuatur donec in filum evadat tenuissimum , & omni dato crasso tenuius , & sie tandem divellitur ? Eodem modo etiam durissima columna in duas partes distrahetur , si vim tantam adhibeas , quanta sufficit ad resistentiam duritiei superandam . Sicut enim in card partes primò extimae distrahuntur , in quarum locum succedit Aer ; ita etiam in Corpore quantumlibet duro Aer locum subit partium extimarum , quae primae Vulsionis viribus dirumpuntur . Vis autem quae superat resistentiam partium extimarum Duri , facilè superabit resistentiam reliquarum . Nam resistentia prima est à Toto Duro , reliquarum verò semper à Residuo . A. It a quidem videtur consideranti , quàm Corpora quaedam , praesertim verò durissima , fragilia sint . Does this Ratiocination seem to you as cogent , as it did to the Proposer of it ? B. You will quickly think it does not , and perhaps you will think it should not , if you please to consider with me some of the Reflections that the Reading of it suggested to me . And first , without declaring for the Vacuists Opinion , I must profess my self unsatisfied with Mr. Hobbes's way of arguing against them : For , where he says , Dum ergo illi qui Marmor unum ab altero revellentes Aerem comprimunt & per consequens Vacuum exprimunt , Vacuum faciunt locum per revulsionem relictum ; nulla ergo separationis erit difficultas , saltem non major quàm est difficultas corpora eadem movendi in Aere postquam separata fuerint . Itaque quoniam , concesso Vacuo , difficultas Marmora illa dirimendi nulla est , sequitur per difficultatis experientiam , nullum esse Vacuum . Methinks he expresses himself but obscurely , and leaves his Readers to ghess , what the word Dum refers to . But that which seems to be his drift in this passage , is , that , since the Vacuists allow interspersed Vacuities , not only in the Air that surrounds the conjoyned Marbles , but in the rest of the ambient Air , there is no reason , why there should be any difficulty in separating the Marbles , or at least any greater difficulty than in moving the Marbles in that Air after their separation . But , not to consider , whether his Adversaries will not accuse his phrase of squeezing out a Vacuum as if it were a Body , they will easily answer , that notwithstanding the Vacuities they admit in the ambient Air , a manifest reason may be given in their Hypothesis of our finding a difficulty in the Divulsion of the Marbles . For , the Vacuities they admit being but interspers'd , and very small , and the Corpuscles of the Atmosphere being according to them endow'd with Gravity , there leans so many upon the upper surface of the uppermost Marble , that that stone cannot be at once perpendicularly drawn up from the lower Marble contiguous to it , without a force capable to surmount the weight of the Aerial Corpuscles that lean upon it . And this weight has already so constipated the neighbouring parts of the ambient Air , that he , that would perpendicularly raise the upper Marble from the lower , shall need a considerable force to make the Revulsion , and compel the already contiguous parts of the incumbent Air to a subingression into the pores or intervals intercepted between them . For the Conatus of him , that endeavours to remove the upper Marble , whilst the lower surface of it is fenc'd from the pressure of the Atmosphere by the Contact of the lower Marble which suffers no Air to come in between them , is not assisted by the weight or pressure of the Atmosphere , which , when the Marbles are once separated , pressing as strongly against the undermost surface of the upper Marble , as the incumbent Atmospherical Pillar does against the upper surface of the same Marble , the hand that endeavours to raise it in the free Air has no other resistance , than that small one of the Marbles own weight to surmount . A. But what say you to the Reason that Mr. Hobbes , and , as he thinks , all others give of the difficulty of the often mention'd Divulsion , namely , Quòd spatium totum inter duo illa Marmora divulsa simul uno instante implere Aer non potest , quant acunque celeritate fiat divulsio . B. I say , that , for ought I know , the Plenists may give a more plausible account of this Experiment , than Mr. Hobbes has here done ; and therefore abstracting from the two opposite Hypotheses , I shall further say , That the genuine Cause of the Phaenomenon seems to be that which I have already assign'd ; and that difficulty of raising the upper stone that accompanies the Airs not being able to come in all at once , to possess the space left between the surfaces of the two Marbles upon their separation , proceeds from hence , that , 'till that space be fill'd with the Atmospherical Air , the hand of him that would lift up the superiour Marble cannot be fully assisted by the pressure of the Air against the lower surface of that Marble . A. This is a Paradox , and therefore I shall desire to know on what you ground it ? B. Though I mention it but as a Conjecture propos'd ex abundanti ▪ yet I shall on this occasion countenance it with two things ; the first ▪ that , since I declare not for the Hypothesis of the Plenists as 't is maintain'd by Mr. Hobbes , I am not bound to allow , what the common Explication , adopted by my Adversary , supposes ; namely , that either Nature abhors a Vacuum ( as the Schools would have it , ) or that there could be no Divulsion of the Marbles , unless at the same time the Air were admitted into the room that Divulsion makes for it . And a Vacuist may tell you , that , provided the strength employ'd to draw up the superiour Marble be great enough to surmount the weight of the Aerial Corpuscles accumulated upon it , the divulsion would ensue , though by Divine Omnipotence no Air or other Body should be permitted to fill the room made for it by the divulsion ; and that the Air 's rushing into that space does not necessarily accompany , but in order of Nature and time follow upon , a separation of the Marbles , the Air that surrounded their contiguous surfaces being by the weight of the collaterally superiour Air impell'd into the room newly made by the divulsion . But I shall rather countenance what you call my Paradox by an Experiment I purposely made in our Pneumatical Receiver , where having accommodated two flat and polish'd Marbles , so that the lower being fixt , the upper might be laid upon it and drawn up again as there should be occasion , I found , that if , when the Receiver was well exhausted , the upper Marble was by a certain contrivance laid flat upon the lower , they would not then cohere as formerly , but be with great ease separated , though it did not by any Phaenomenon appear , that any Air could come to rush in , to possess the place given it by the recess of the upper Marble , whose very easie avulsion is as easily explicable by our Hypothesis ; since the pressure of that little Air , that remain'd in the Receiver , being too faint to make any at all considerable resistance to the avulsion of the upper Marble , the hand that drew it up had very little more than the single weight of the stone to surmount . A. An Anti-plenist had expected , that you would have observed , that the difficult separation of the Marbles in the open Air does rather prove , that there may be a Vacuum , than that there can be none . For in case the Air can succeed as fast at the sides as the divulsion is made , a Vacuist may demand , whence comes the difficulty of the separation ? And if the Air cannot fill the whole room made for it by the separated Marbles at the same instant they are forc'd asunder , how is a Vacuum avoided for that time , how small soever , that is necessary for the Air to pass from the edges to the middle of the room newly made ? B. What the Plenists will say to your Argument I leave them to consider ; but I presume , they will be able to give a more plausible account of the Phaenomenon we are treating of , than is given by Mr. Hobbes . A. What induces you to dislike his Explication of it ? B. Two things ; the one , that I think the Cause he assigns improbable ; and the other , that I think another , that is better , has been assign'd already . And first , whereas Mr. Hobbes requires to the Divulsion of the Marbles a force great enough to surmount the hardness of the stone , this is asserted gratis , which it should not be ; since it seems very unlikely , that the weight of so few pounds as will suffice to separate two coherent Marbles of about an Inch , for instance , in Diameter , should be able to surmount the hardness of such solid stones as we usually employ in this Experiment . And though it be generally judg'd more easie to bend , if it may be , or break a broader piece of Marble caeteris paribus , than a much narrower ; yet , whereas neither I , nor any else that I know , nor I believe Mr. Hobbes , ever observ'd any difference in the resistance of Marbles to separation from the greater or lesser thickness of the stones ; I find by constant experience , that , caeteris paribus , the broadness of the coherent Marbles does exceedingly increase the difficulty of disjoyning them : Insomuch that , whereas not many pounds , as I was saying , would separate Marbles of an Inch , or a lesser , Diameter ; when I increased their Diameter to about four Inches , if I misremember not , there were several Men that successively try'd to pull them asunder without being able by their utmost force to effect it . A. But what say you to the Illustration , that Mr. Hobbes , upon the supposition of the Worlds Plenitude , gives of our Phaenomenon by drawing asunder the opposite parts of a piece of Wax ? B. To me it seems an Instance improper enough . For first , the parts that are to be divided in the Wax are of a soft and yielding consistence , and according to him of a ductile , or , if you please , of a tractile nature , and not , as the parts of the coherent Marbles , very solid and hard . Next , the parts of the Wax do not stick together barely by a superficial contact of two smooth Planes , as do the Marbles we are speaking of ; but have their parts implicated , and as it were intangled with one another . And therefore they are far from a disposition to slide off , like the Marbles , from one another , in how commodious a posture soever you place them . Besides 't is manifest , that the Air has opportunity to succeed in the places successively deserted by the receding parts of the attenuated Wax ; but 't is neither manifest , nor as yet well proved by Mr. Hobbes , that the Air does after the same manner succeed between the two Marbles , which , as I lately noted , are not forced asunder after such a way , but are , as himself speaks , sever'd in all their points at the same instant . A. I know , you forget not what he says of the dividing of a hard Column into two parts by a force sufficient to overcome the resistance of its hardness . B. He does not here either affirm , that he , or any he can trust , has seen the thing done ; nor does he give us any such account of the way wherein the Pillar is to be broken , whether in an erected , inclined , or horizontal posture ; nor describe the particular circumstances that were fit to be mention'd in order to the solution of the Phaenomenon . Wherefore , 'till I be better inform'd of the matter of fact , I can scarce look upon what Mr. Hobbes says of the Pillar , as other than his Conjecture , which now I shall the rather pass by , not only because the case is differing from that of our polish'd Marbles , which are actually distinct Bodies , and only contiguous in one Commissure ; but also , because I would hasten to the second reason of my dislike of Mr. Hobbes's Explication of our Phaenomenon , which is , that a better has been given already , from the pressure of the Atmosphere upon all the superficial parts of the upper Marble save those that touch the Plane of the lower . A. You would have put fair for convincing Mr. Hobbes himself , at least would have put him to unusual shifts , if you had succeeded in the attempt you made , among other of your Physico-Mechanical Experiments , to disjoyn two coherent Marbles , by suspending them horizontally in your Pneumatical Receiver , and pumping out the Air that inviron'd them ; for , from your failing in that attempt , though you rendred a not improbable Reason of it , Mr. Hobbes took occasion , in his Dialogue De Natura Aeris , to speak in so high a strain as this : Nihil isthic erat quod ageret pondus ; Experimento hoc excogitari contra opinionem eorum qui Vacuum asserunt aliud argumentum fortius aut evidentius non potuit . Nam si duorum cohaerentium alterutrum secundùm eam viam , in qua jacent ipsae contiguae superficies , propulsum esset , facile separarentur , Aere praximo in locum relictum successivè semper influente ; sed illa ita divellere , ut simul totum amitterent contactum , impossibile est , mundo pleno . Oporteret enim aut motum fieri ab uno termino ad alium in instante , aut duo corpora eodem tempore in eodem esse loco : Quorum utrumvis dicere , est absurdum . B. You may remember , that where I relate that Experiment , I express'd a hope , that , when I should be better accommodated than I then was , I might attempt the Tryal with prosperous success , and accordingly afterwards , having got a lesser Engine than that I used before , wherewith the Air might be better pumpt out and longer kept out , I cheerfully repeated the Tryal . To shew then , that when two coherent Marbles are sustained horizontally in the Air , the Cause , why they are not to be forc'd asunder , if they have two or three Inches in Diameter , without the help of a considerable weight , is the pressure I was lately mentioning of the ambient Air ; I caused two such coherent Marbles to be suspended in a large Receiver , with a weight at the lowermost , that might help to keep them steddy , but was very inconsiderable to that which their Cohesion might have surmounted ; then causing the Air to be pumpt by degrees out of the Receiver , for a good while the Marbles stuck close together , because during that time the Air could not be so far pumpt out , but that there remained enough to sustain the small weight that endeavoured their divulsion : But when the Air was further pumpt out , at length the Spring of the little , but not a little expanded , Air , that remained , being grown too weak to sustain the lower Marble and its small clog , they did , as I expected , drop off ▪ A. This will not agree over-well with the confident and triumphant expressions just now necited . B. I never envied Mr. Hobbes's forwardness to triumph , and am content , his Conjectures be recommended by the confidence that accompanies them , if mine be by the success that follows them . But to confirm the Explication given by me of our Phaenomenon , I shall add , that as the last mention'd Tryal , which I had several times occasion to repeat , shews , that the cohesion of our two contiguous Marbles would cease upon the withdrawing of the pressure of the Atmosphere ; so by another Experiment I made , it appears , that the supervening of that pressure sufficed to cause that Cohesion . For , in prosecution of one of the lately mentioned Tryals , having found , that when the Receiver was well exhausted , two Marbles , though considerably broad , being laid upon one another after the requisite manner , their adhesion was , if any at all , so weak , that the uppermost would be easily drawn up from off the other ; we laid them again one upon the other , and then letting the external Air flow into the Receiver , we found , according to expectation , that the Marbles now cohered well , and we could not raise the uppermost but accompanied with the lowermost . But I am sensible , I have detained you too long upon the single Experiment of the Marbles : And though I hope the stress Mr. Hobbes lays on it will plead my excuse , yet to make your Patience some amends , I shall be the more brief in the other particulars that remain to be consider'd in his Dialogue De Vacuo . And 't will not be difficult for me to keep my promise without injuring my Cause , since almost all these particulars being but the same which he has already alledged in his Dialogue De Natura Aeris , and I soon after answered in my Examen of that Dialogue , I shall need but to refer you to the passages where you may find these Allegations examin'd , only subjoyning here some Reflections upon those few and slight things , that he has added in his Problems De Vacuo . A. I may then , I suppose , read to you the next passage to that long one , you have hitherto been considering , and it is this : Ad Vacuum nunc revertor : Quas causas sine suppositione Vacui redditurus es illorum effectuum , qui ostenduntur per Machinam illam quae est in Collegio Greshamensi ? B. Machina illa — B. Stop here , I beseech you , a little , that , before we go any further , I may take notice to you of a couple of things that will concern our subsequent Discourse . Whereof the first is , that it appears by Mr. Hobbes's Dialogue about the Air , that the Explications he there gave of some of the Phaenomena of the Machina Boyliana , were directed partly against the Virtuosi , that have since been honour'd with the Title of the Royal Society , and partly against the Author of that Engine , as if the main thing therein design'd were to prove a Vacuum . And since he now repeats the same explications , I think it necessary to say again , that if he either takes the Society or me for profess'd Vacuists , he mistakes , and shoots beside the mark ; for , neither they nor I have ever yet declar'd either for or against a Vacuum . And the other thing I would observe to you , is , that Mr. Hobbes seems not to have rightly understood , or at least not to have sufficiently heeded in what chiefly consists the advantage , which the Vacuists may make of our Engine against him : For , whereas in divers places he is very solicitous to prove , that the cavity of our Pneumatical Receiver is not altogether empty , the Vacuists may tell him , that since he asserts the absolute plenitude of the World , he must , as indeed he does , reject not only great Vacuities , but also those very small and interspers'd ones , that they suppose to be intercepted between the solid corpuscles of other bodies , particularly of the Air : So that it would not confute them to prove , that in our Receiver , when most diligently exhausted , there is not one great and absolute Vacuity , or , as they speak , a Vacuum coacervatum , since smaller and disseminated Vacuities would serve their turn . And therefore they may think their Pretensions highly favour'd , as by several particular effects , so by this general Phaenomenon of our Engine , that it appears by several Circumstances , that the Common or Atmospherical Air , which , before the pump is set a work , possess'd the whole cavity of our Receiver , far the greatest part is by the intervention of the pump made to pass out of the cavity into the open Air , without being able , at least for a little while , to get in again ; and yet it does not appear by any thing alledg'd by Mr. Hobbes , that any other body succeeds to fill adequately the places deserted by such a multitude of Aerial corpuscles . A. If I ghess aright , by those words , ( viz. it appears not by any thing alledg'd by Mr. Hobbes , ) you design to intimate , that you would not in general prejudice the Plenists . B. Your conjecture was well founded : For I think divers of them , and particularly the Cartesians , who suppose a subtile Matter or Aether fine enough to permeate glass , though our common Air cannot do it , have not near so difficult a task to avoid the Arguments the Vacuists may draw from our Engine , as Mr. Hobbes , who , without having recourse to the porosity of glass , which indeed is impervious to common Air , strives to solve the Phaenomena , and prove our Receiver to be always perfectly full , and therefore as full at any one time as at any other of common or Atmospherical Air , as far as we can judge of his opinion by the tendency or import of his Explications . A. Yet , if I were rightly inform'd of an Experiment of yours , Mr. Hobbes may be thereby reduc'd either to pass over to the Vacuists , or to acknowledge some Aetherial or other matter more subtil than Air , and capable of passing through the pores of glass ; and therefore , to shew your self impartial between the Vacuists and their Adversaries in this Controversie , I hope you will not refuse to gratifie the Plenists by giving your friends a more particular account of the Experiment . B. I know which you mean , and remember it very well . For , though I long since devis'd it , yet having but the other day had occasion to peruse the Relation I writ down of one of the best Tryals , I think I can repeat it , almost in the very words , which , if I mistake not , were these : There was taken a Bubble of thin white glass , about the bigness of a Nutmeg , with a very slender stem , of about four or five Inches long , and of the bigness of a Crows-quill . The end of the Quill being held in the flame of a Lamp blown with a pair of Bellows , was readily and well seal'd up , and presently the globous part of the glass , being held by the stem , was kept turning in the flame , 'till it was red hot and ready to melt ; then being a little removed from the flame , as the included Air began to lose of its agitation and spring , the external Air manifestly and considerably press'd in one of the sides of the Bubble . But the glass being again , before the cold could crack it , held as before in the flame , the rarified Air distended and plump'd up the Bubble ; which being the second time remov'd from the flame , was the second time compress'd ; and , being the third time brought back to the flame , swell'd as before , and remov'd , was again compress'd , ( either this time or the last by two distinct cavities ; ) 'till at length , having satisfied our selves , that the included Air was capable of being condens'd or dilated without the ingress or egress of Air ( properly so called ) we held the Bubble so long in the flame , strengthen'd by nimble blasts , that not only it had its sides plump'd up , but a hole violently broken in it by the over-rarified Air , which , together with the former watchfulness , we imploy'd from time to time to discern if it were any where crackt or perforated , satisfied us that it was till then intire . A. I confess , I did not readily conceive before , how you could , ( as I was told you had , ) make a solid Vessel , wherein there was no danger of the Aires getting in or out , whose cavity should be still possest with the same Air , and yet the Vessel be made by turns bigger and lesser . And , though I presently thought upon a well stopt bladder , yet I well foresaw , that a distrustful Adversary might make some Objections , which are by your way of proceeding obviated , and the Experiment agrees with your Doctrine in shewing , how impervious we may well think your thick Pneumatick Receivers are to common Air , since a thin glass Bubble , when its pores were open'd or relax'd by flame , would not give passage to the Springy particles of the Air , though violently agitated ; for if those particles could have got out of the pores , they never would have broke the Bubble , as at length a more violent degree of Heat made them do ; nor probably would the Compression , that afterwards insued of the Bubble by the ambient Air , be checkt near so soon , if those Springy Corpuscles had not remained within to make the resistance . Methinks , one may hence draw a new proof of what I remember you elsewhere teach , that the Spring of the Air may be much strengthen'd by Heat . For , in our case , the Spring of the Air was thereby inabled to expand the comprest glass , it was imprison'd in , in spite of the resisting pressure of the external Air ; and yet , that this pressure was considerable , appears by this , that the weight of so small a Column of Atmospherical Air , as could bear upon the Bubble , was able to press in the heated glass , in spite of the resistance of its tenacity and arched figure . B. Yet that which I mainly design'd in this Experiment was , ( if I were able ) to shew and prove at once , by an Instance not lyable to the ordinary exceptions , the true Nature of Rarefaction and Condensation , at least of the Air. For , to say nothing of the Peripatetick Rarefaction and Condensation , strictly so call'd , which I scruple not to declare , I think to be physically inconceptible or impossible ; 't is plain by our Experiment , that , when the Bubble , after the Glass had been first thrust in towards the Center , was expanded again by heat , the included Air possess'd more room than before , and yet it could perfectly fill no more room than formerly , each Aerial Particle taking up , both before and after the heating of the Bubble , a portion of space adequate to its own bulk ; so that in the Cavity of the expanded Bubble we must admit either Vacuities interspers'd between the Corpuscles of the Air , or that some fine Particles of the Flame , or other subtil matter , came in to fill up those Intervals , which matter must have enter'd the Cavity of the Glass at its pores : And afterwards , when the red-hot Bubble was removed from the flame , it is evident , that , since the grosser particles of the Air could not get through the Glass , which they were not able to do , even when vehemently agitated by an ambient Flame , the Compression of the Bubble , and the Condensation of the Air , which was necessarily consequent upon it , could not , supposing the Plenitude of the World , be performed without squeezing out some of the subtil matter contained in the cavity of the Bubble , whence it could not issue but at the pores of the Glass . But I will no longer detain you from Mr. Hobbes his Explications of the Machina Boyliana ; to the first of which you may now , if you please , advance . A. The passage I was going to read , when you interrupted me , was this : B. Machina illa eosdem effectus producit , quos produceret in loco non magno magnus inclusus ventus . A. Quomodo ingreditur istuo ventus ? Machinam nosti Cylindrum esse cavum , sneum , in quem protruditur Cylindrus alius solidus ligneus , coriotectus , ( quem suctorem dicunt ) it a exquisitè congruens , ut ne minimus quidem Aer inter corium & aes intrare ( ut putant ) possit . B. Scio , & quò Suctor facilius intrudi possit , foramen quoddam est in superiori parte Cylindri , per quod Aer ( qui suctoris ingressum alioqui impedire possit ) emittatur . Quod foramen aperire possunt & clandere quoties usus postulat . Est etiam in Cylindri cavi recessu summo datus aditus Aeri in globum concavum Vitreum , quem etiam aditum claviculâ obturare & aperire possunt quoties volunt . Denique in globo vitreo summo relinquitur foramen satis amplum , ( claviculâ item claudendum & recludendum ) ut in illum quae volunt immittere possint , experiendi causâ B. The imaginary wind to which Mr. Hobbes here ascribes the effects of our Engine , he formerly had recourse to in the 13th page of his Dialogue , and I have sufficiently answer'd that passage of it in the 45th and 46th pages of my Examen , to which I therefore refer you . A. I presume , you did not overlook the comparison Mr. Hobbes annexes to what I last read out of his Problems , since he liked the conceit so well , that we meet with it in this place again , though he had formerly printed it in his Dialogue De Natura Aeris . The words ( as you see ) are these : Tota denique Machina non multum differt , si naturam ejus spectes , à Sclopeto ex Sambuco , quo pueri se delectant , imitantes Sclopetos militum , nisi quòd major sit , & majori arte fabricatus , & pluris constet . B. I could scarce , for the reason you give , avoid taking notice of it . And if Mr. Hobbes intended it for a piece of Ralliery , I willingly let it pass , and could easily forgive him a more considerable attempt than this , to be reveng'd on an Engine that has destroyed several of his opinions : But , if he seriously meant to make a Physical Comparison , I think he made a very improper one . For , not to urge , that one may well doubt how he knows , that in the inclosed cavity of his Pot-gun , there is a very vehement wind , ( since that does not necessarily follow from the compreffion of the included Air : ) In Mr. Hobbes's Instrument , the Air , being forcibly comprest , has an endeavour to expand it self , and when it is able to surmount the resistance of its prison , that part that is first disjoyn'd is forcibly thrown outwards ; whereas in our Engine it appears by the passage lately cited of our Examen , that the Air is not comprest but expanded in our Receiver , and if an intercourse be open'd , or the Vessel be not strong enough , the outward Air violently rushes in : And if the Receiver chance to break , the fragments of the glass are not thrown outwards , but forced inwards . A. So that , whether or no Mr. Hobbes could have pitch'd upon a Comparison more suitable to his Intentions , he might easily have imployed one more suitable to the Phaenomena . B. I presume , you will judge it the less agreeable to the Phaenomena , if I here subjoyn an Experiment , that possibly you will not dislike ; which I devis'd to shew , not only that in our exhausted Receivers there is no such strong endeavour outwards , as most of Mr. Hobbes's Explications of the things that happen in them are built upon , but that the weight of the Atmospherical Air , when 't is not resisted by the counterpressure of any internal Air , is able to perform what a weight of many pounds would not suffice to do . A. I shall the more willingly learn an Experiment to this purpose , because in your Receivers , the rigidity of the glass keeps us from seeing , by any manifest change of its figure , whether , if it could yield without breaking , it would be press'd in , as your Hypothesis requires . B. The desires to obviate that very difficulty , for their satisfaction , that had not yet penetrated the grounds of our Hypothesis , made me think of employing , instead of a Receiver of Glass , one of a stiff and tough , but yet somewhat flexible , Metal . And accordingly having provided a new Pewter Porrenger , and whelm'd it upside down upon an Iron plate fasten'd to ( the upper end of ) our Pneumatical Pump , we carefully fasten'd by Cement the orifice to the plate , and though the inverted Vessel , by reason of its stiffness and thickness and the convexity of its superficies , were strong enough to have supported a great weight without changing its figure ; yet , as soon as by an exsuction or two the remaining part of the included Air was brought to such a degree of expansion , that its weaken'd Spring was able to afford but little assistance to the tenacity and firmness of the Metal , the weight of the pillar of the incumbent Atmosphere ( which by reason of the breadth of the Vessel was considerably wide also ) did presently and notably depress the upper part of the Porringer , both lessening its capacity and changing its figure ; so that instead of the Convex surface , the Receiver had before , it came to a Concave one , which new figure was somewhat , though not much , increased by the further withdrawing of the included and already rarified Air. The Experiment succeeded also with an other common Porringer of the same Metal . But in such kind of Vessels , made purposely of Iron plates , it will sometimes succeed and sometimes not , according to the Diameter of the vessel and the thickness of the plate , which was sometimes strong enough and sometimes too weak to resist the pressure of the incumbent Air. And sometimes I found also , that the vessel would be thrust in , not at the top but side-ways , in case that side were the only part that were made too thin to resist the pressure of the Ambient ; which Phaenomenon I therefore take notice of , that you may see , 〈◊〉 that powerful pressure may be exercised laterally as well as perpendicularly . Perhaps this Experiment , and that I lately recited of an Hermetically sealed Bubble , by their fitness to disprove Mr. Hobbes 's Doctrine , may do somewhat towards the letting him see , that he might have spar'd that not over-modest and wary expression , where speaking of the Gentlemen that meet at Gresham-College , ( of whom I pretend not to be one of the chief ) he is pleased to say , Experimenta faciant quantum volunt , nisi Principiis utantur meis nihil proficient . But let us , if you please , pass on to what he further alledges to prove , that the space in the exhausted Receiver , which the Vacuists suppose to be partly empty , is full of Air. ( Video ( says A. ) si suctor trudatur usque ad fundum Cylindri Aenei , obturenturque for amina , Secuturum esse , dum suctor retrahitur , locum in Cylindro cavo relictum fore vacuum . Nam ut in locum ejus succedat Aer , est impossibile . To which B. answers , Credo equidem , suctorem cum Cylindri cavi superficie satis arctè cohaerere ad excludendum stramen & plumam , non autem Aerem neque Aquam . Cogita enim , quod non ita accuratè congruerent , quin undiquaque interstitium relinqueretur , quantum tenuissimi capilli capax esset . Retracto ergo suctore , tantum impelleretur Aeris , quantum viribus illis conveniret quibus Aer propter suctoris Retractionem reprimitur , idque sine omni difficult ate sensibili . Quanto autem interstitium illud minus esset , tantum ingrederetur Aer velocius : Vel si contactus sit , sed non per omnia puncta , etiam tunc intrabit Aer , modò suctor majore vi retrahatur . Postremò , etsi contactus ubique exactissimus sit , vi tamen satis auctâ per cochleam ferream , tum corium cedet , tum ipsum es ; atque ita quoque ingredietur Aer . Credin ' tu , possibile esse duas superficies ita exactè componere , ut has compositas esse supponunt illi ; aut corium ita durum esse , ut Aeri , qui Cochleae ope incutitur , nihil omnino cedat ? Corium quanquam optimum admittit aquam , ut ipse scis , si fortè fecisti unquam iter vento & pluvia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It aque dubitare non potes , quin retractus Suctor tantum Aeris in Cylindrum adeoque in ipsum Recipiens incutiat , quantum sufficit ad locum semper relictum perfectè implendum . Effectus ergo , qui oritur à Retractione suctoris , alius non est quàm ventus , ventus ( inquam ) vchementissimus , qui ingreditur undiquaque inter Suctoris superficiem convexam , & Cylindri aenei concavam , proceditque ( versâ claviculâ ) in cavitatem globi Vitrei , sive ( ut vocatur ) Recipientis . The Substance of this Ratiocination having been already propos'd by Mr. Hobbes in his Dialogue of the Air , the 11th page , I long since answer'd it in the 30th and some of the following pages of my Examen ; and therefore I shall only now take notice in transitu of some slight whether additions or variations , that occur in what you have been reading . And , first , I see no probability in what he gratìs asserts , that so thick a Cylinder of Brass , as made the chief part of the pump of our Engine , should yield to the Sucker , that was mov'd up and down in it , though by the help of an Iron rack ; and whereas he adds , that the leather , that surrounds the more solid part of the Sucker , would yield to such a force ; it seems , that that compression of the leather should by thrusting the solid parts into the pores make the leather rather less than more fit to give passage to the Air ; nor would it however follow , notwithstanding Mr. Hobbes's Example , that , because a Body admits Water , it must be pervious to Air : For I have several times , by ways elsewhere taught , made Water penetrate the pores of Bladders , and yet Bladders resist the passage of the Air so well , that even when Air included in them was sufficiently rarified by Heat , or by our Engine , it was necessary for the Air to break them before it could get out ; which would not have been , if it could have escap'd through their pores . What Mr. Hobbes inculcates here again concerning his ventus vehementissimus , you will find answer'd in the place of my Examen I lately directed you to . A. We may then proceed to Mr. Hobbes's next Explication , which he proposes in these terms : A. Causam video nunc unius ex Machinae mirabilibus , nimirum cur Suctor , postquam est aliquatenus retractus & deinde amissus , subitò recurrit ad Cylindri summitatem . Nam Aer , qui vi magna fuit impulsus , rursus per repercussionem ad externa vi eadem revertitur . B. Atque hoc quidem Argumenti satis est etiam solum , quòd locus à suctore relictus non est Vacuus . Quid enim aut attrahere aut impellere suctorem potuit ad locum illum unde retractus erat , si Cylindrus fuisset vacuus ? Namut Aeris pondus aliquod id efficere potuisset , falsum esse satis supra demonstravi ab eo quod Aer in Aere gravitare non potest . Nosti etiam , quod cum è recipiente Aerem omnem ( ut illi loquuntur ) exegerint , possunt tamen trans vitrum id quod intus fit videre , & sonum , si quis fiat , inde audire . Id quod solum , etsi nullum aliud Argumentum esset ( sunt autem multa , ) ad probandum , nullum esse in Recipiente Vacuum , abundè sufficit . B. Here are several things joyn'd together , which the Author had before separately alledg'd in his often-mention'd Dialogue . The first is , the Cause he assigns of the ascension of the Sucker forcibly deprest to the bottom of the exhausted Cylinder , and then let alone by him that pumpt ; to which might be added , that this ascension succeeded , when the Sucker was clogg'd with an hundred pound weight . This Explication of Mr. Hobbes you will find examin'd in the 33th and 39th , and some ensuing pages of my Discourse . And as to his denying , that the weight or pressure of the Air could drive up the Sucker in that Phaenomenon , because the Air does not weigh in Air , we may see the contrary largely proved in divers places of my Examen , and more particularly and expresly in the four first pages of the third Chapter . And whereas he says in the last place , that the visibility of Bodies included in our Receivers , and the propagation of Sound , ( which , by the way , is not to be understood of all Sound that may be heard , though made in the exhausted Receiver , ) are alone sufficient Arguments to prove no Vacuum : I have consider'd that passage in the answer I made to the like allegation in the 45th page of the Examen ; and shall only observe here , that , since the Vacuists can prove , that much of the Air is pumpt out of the exhausted Receiver , and will pretend , that , notwithstanding many interspers'd Vacuities , there may be in the Receiver corporeal substance enough to transmit Light and stronger Sounds , Mr. Hobbes has not perform'd what he pretended , if he have but barely proved , that there may be Substances capable of conveying Light and Sound in the cavity of our Receiver , since he triumphantly asserts , Nullum esse in Recipienti Vacuum . But we may leave Mr. Hobbes and his Adversaries to dispute out this point , and go on to the next passage . A. Which follows in these words : Ad illud autem , quod si Vesica aliquatenus inflata in Recipiente includatur , paulo post per exuctionem aeris inflatur vehementius & dirumpitur , quid respondes ? B. Motus partium Aeris undiquaque concurrentium velocissimus & per concursum in spatiis brevissimis numeroque infinitis gyrationis velocissimae vesicam in locis innumerabilibus simul & vi magna , instar totidem terebrarum , penetrat , praesertim si vesica , antequam immittatur , quò magis resistat aliquatenus inflat a sit . Postquam autem Aer penetrans semel ingressus est , facile cogitare potes , quo pacto deinceps vesicam tendet , & tandem rumpet . Verùm si antequam rumpatur , versâ claviculâ , Aer externus admittatur , videbis vesicam propter vehementiam motus temperatam diminutâ tensione rugosiorem . Nam id quoque observatum est . Jam si haec , quam dixi , causa minùs tihi videatur verisimilis , vide an tu aut alius quicunque imaginari potest , quo pacto vesica distendi & rumpi possit à viribus Vacui , id est , Nihili . B. This Explication Mr. Hobbes gave us in the 19th page of his Dialogue De Natura Aeris , and you may find it at large confuted in the latter part of the third Chapter of my Examen . Nor does , what he here says in the close about the Vires Vacui or Nihili , deserve to detain us , since there is no reason at all , that the Vacuists should ascribe to nothing a power of breaking a Bladder , of whose rupture the Spring of the included Air supplies them so easily with a sufficient Cause . After what Mr. Hobbes has said of the breaking of a Bladder , he proceeds to an Experiment which he judges of affinity with it , and his Academian having propos'd this Question : Unde fit ut animalia tam cito , nimirum spatio quatuor minutorum horae , in recipiente interficiantur ? For answer to it our Author says : B. Nonne animalia sic inclusa insugunt in Pulmones Aerem vehementissimè motum ? Quo motu necesse est ut transitus sanguinis ab uno ad alterum cordis ventriculum interceptus , non multò pòst sistatur . Cessatio autem sanguinis , Mors est . Possunt tamen animalia cessante sanguine reviviscere , si Aer externus satis maturè intromittatur , vel ipsa in Aerem temperatum , antequam refrixerit sanguis , extrahantur . This Explication is not probable enough , to oblige me to add any thing about it to what I have said in the 49th and the two following pages of my Examen ; especially the most vehement motion , ascrib'd to the Air in the Receiver , having been before proved to be an Imaginary thing . You may therefore , if you please , take notice of the next Explication . [ Idem Aer ( says he ) in Recipiente Carbones ardentes extinguit , sed & illi , si , dum satis calidi sunt , eximantur , relucebunt . Notissimum est , quòd in fodinis Carbonum terreorum ( cujus rei experimentum ipse vidi ) saepissime è lateribus foveae ventus quidam undiquaque exit , qui fossores interficit ignemque extinguit , qui tamen reviviscunt si satis cito ad Aerem liberum extrahantur . ] This Comparison which Mr. Hobbes here summarily makes , he more fully display'd in his Dialogue De Natura Aeris , and I consider'd , what he there alledg'd , in the 52th page and the two next of my Examen . And , though I will not contradict Mr. Hobbes in what he historically asserts in this passage ; yet I cannot but somewhat doubt , whether he mingles not his conjecture with the bare matter of fact . For , though I have with some curiosity visited Mines in more places than one , and propos'd Questions to Men that have been conversant in other Mines , both elsewhere and in England ( and particularly in Derbyshire where Mr. Hobbes lived long ; ) yet I could never find , that any such odd and vehement wind , as Mr. Hobbes ascribes the Phaenomenon to , had been by them observed to kill the Diggers , and extinguish well-lighted Coals themselves : And indeed , it seems more likely , that the damp , by its tenacity or some peculiarly malign quality , did the mischief , than a wind , of which I found not any notice taken ; especially since we see , what vehement winds Men will be able to endure for a long time , without being near-kill'd by them ; and that it seems very odd , that a wind , that Mr. Hobbes does not observe to have blown away the Coals , that were let down , should be able ( instead of kindling them more fiercely ) to blow them out . A. The last Experiment of your Engine , that your Adversary mentions in these Problems , is deliver'd in this passage : A. Si phialam aquae in Recipiens dimiseris , exucto Aere bullire videbis aquam . Quid ad hoc Respondebis ? B. Credo sanè in tanta Aeris motitatione saltaturam esse aquam , sed ut calefiat nondum audivi . Sed imaginabile non est , Saltationem illam à Vacuo nasci posse . B. This Phaenomenon he likewise took notice of , and attempted to explicate in his above-mention'd Dialogue , which gave me occasion in the 46th and 47th pages of my Examen , to shew how unlikely 't is , that the vehement motion of the Air should be the cause of it ; but he here tells us , that 't is not imaginable , that this dancing of the water ( as he is pleas'd to call it ) proceeds from a vacuum , nor do I know any Man that ever pretended , that a vacuum was the efficient cause of it . But the Vacuists perhaps will tell him , that , though the bubbling of the water be not an effect of a vacuum , it may be a proof of it against him ; for they will tell him , that it has been formerly proved , that a great part of the Atmospherical Air is by pumping remov'd out of our exhausted Receiver , and consequently can no more , as formerly , press upon the surface of the water . Nor does Mr. Hobbes shew what succeeds in the room of it ; and therefore it will be allowable , for them to conclude against him ( though not perhaps against the Cartesians ) that there are a great many interspers'd Vacuities left in the Receiver , which are the occasion , though not the proper efficient cause , of the Phaenomenon . For they will say , that the Springy Particles of the yet included Air , having room to unbend themselves in the spaces deserted by the Air that was pumpt out , the Aerial and Springy Corpuscles , that lay conceal'd in the pores of the water , being now freed from the wonted pressure that kept them coil'd up in the liquor , expanded themselves into numerous bubbles , which , because of their comparative lightness , are extruded by the water , and many of them appear to have risen from the bottom of it . And Mr. Hobbes's vehement wind , to produce the several Circumstances of this Experiment , must be a lasting one . For , after the agitation of the Pump has been quite left off , provided the external Air be kept from getting in , the bubbles will sometimes continue to rise for an hour after . And that which agrees very well with our Explication and very ill with that of Mr Hobbes's , is , that , when by having continued to pump a competent time , the water has been freed from the Aerial particles that lurk'd in it before , though one continue to pump as lustily as he did , yet the water will not at all be cover'd with bubbles as it was , the Air that produc'd them being spent ; though , according to Mr. Hobbes's Explication , the wind in the Receiver continuing , the dance of the water should continue too . A. I easily ghess , by what you have said already , what you may say of that Epiphonema wherewith Mr. Hobbes ( in his 18th page ) concludes the Explications of the Phaenomena of your Engine . [ Spero jam te certum esse , says he , nullum esse Machinae illius Phaenomenon , quo demonstrari potest ullum in Universo locum dari corpore omni vacuum . ] B. If you ghess'd aright , you ghess'd that I would say , that as to the Phaenomena of my Engine , my business was to prove , that he had not substituted good Explications of them in the place of mine , which he was pleased to reject . And as for the proving a Vacuum by the Phaenomena of my Engine , though I declar'd that was not the thing intended , yet I shall not wonder , that the Vacuists should think those Phaenomena give them an advantage against Mr. Hobbes . For , though in the passage recited by you he speak more cautiously than he is won to do , yet , by what you may have already observ'd in his Argumentations , the way he takes to solve the Phaenomena of our Engine , is by contending , that our Receiver , when we say it is almost exhausted , is as full as ever ( for he will have it perfectly full , ) of common Air ; which is a conceit so contrary to I know not how many Phaenomena , that I do not remember I have met with or heard of any Naturalist , whether Vacuist or Plenist , that having read my Physico-Mechanical Experiments and his Dialogue , has embrac'd his opinion . A. After what you have said , I will not trouble you with what he subjoyns about Vacuum in general , where having made his Academian say , [ Mundum scis finitum esse , & per Consequens vacuum esse oportere totum illud Spatium quod est extra mundum infinitum . Quid impedit quo minus vacuum illud cum Aere mundano permisceatur ? ] He answers : De rebus transmundanis nihil scio . For I know , that it concerns not you to take notice of it . But possibly the Vacuists will think , he fathers upon them an Impropriety they would not be guilty of , making them speak , as if they thought , the ultra-mundan Vacuum were a real Substance that might be brought into this World and mingled with our Air. And since , for ought I know , Mr. Hobbes might have spar'd this passage , if he had not design'd it should introduce the slighting answer he makes to it ; I shall add , that by the account Mr. Hobbes has given of several Phaenomena within the World , 't is possible , that the Vacuists may believe his Profession of knowing nothing of things beyond it . After the Experimenta Boyliana ( as your other Adversary calls them ; ) Mr : Hobbes proceeds to the Torricellian Experiment , of which he thus discourses : A. Quid de experimento censes Torricelliano , probante Vacuum per Argentum vivum hoc modo : est in seq . figurae ad A , pelvis sive aliud vas , & in eo Argentum vivum usque ad B ; est autem C D tubus vitreus concavus repletus quoque Argento vivo . Hunc tubum si digito obturaveris erexerisque in vase A , manumque abstuleris , descendet Argentum vivum à C ; verùm non effundetur totum in pelvim , sed sistetur in distantia quadam , puta in D. Nonne ergo necessarium est , ut pars tubi inter C & D sit vacua ? Non enim puto negabis quin superficies tubi concava & Argenti vivi convexa se mutuo exquisitissimè contingant . B. Ego neque nego contactum , neque vim Consequentiae intelligo . By which passage it seems that he still persists in the solution of this Experiment , which he gave in his Dialogue De Natura Aeris , and formerly did , for the main , either propose , or adopt , in his Elements of Philosophy . B. This opinion or explication of Mr. Hobbes I have , as far as concerns me , consider'd in the 36th , and some insuing pages , of my Examen , to which it may well suffice me to refer you . But yet let me take notice of what he now alledges : B. Si quis ( says he ) in Argentum vivum , quod in vase est , vesicam immerserit inflatam , nonne illa amotâ manu emerget ? A. It a certè , etsi esset vesica ferrea vel ex materia quacunque praeter Aurum . B. Vides igitur ab Aere penetrari posse Argentum vivum . A. Etiam , & quidem illâ ipsâ vi quam à pondere accipit Argenti vivi . I confess this Allegation did a little surprize me : It concern'd Mr. Hobbes to prove , that as much Air , as was displac'd by the descending Mercury , did at the orifice of the Tube , immers'd in stagnant Mercury , invisibly ascend to the upper part of the pipe . To prove this he tells us , that a bladder full of Air being depress'd in Quicksilver , will , when the hand that depress'd it is remov'd , be squeez'd up by the very weight of the Mercury , whence it follows , that Air may penetrate Quicksilver . But I know not , who ever deny'd , that Air inviron'd with Quicksilver may thereby be squeez'd upwards ; but , since even very small bubbles of Air may be seen to move in their passage through Mercury , I see not , how this Example will at all help the Proposer of it . For 't is by meer accident , that the Air included in the bladder comes to be buoy'd up , because the bladder it self is so ; and if it were fill'd with Water instead of Air , or with Stone instead of Water , it would nevertheless emerge , as himself confesses it would do , if it were made of Iron , or of any Matter besides Gold , because all other Bodies are lighter in specie than Quicksilver . But since the emersion of the bladder is manifest enough to the sight , I see not how it will serve Mr. Hobbes's turn , who is to prove that the Air gets into the Torricellian Tube invisibly ; since 't is plain , that even heedful observation can make our Eyes discover no such trajection of the Air ; which ( to add that inforcement of our Argument ) must not only pass unseen through the sustained Quicksilver , but must likewise unperceivedly dive , in spite of its comparative lightness , beneath the surface of the ponderous stagnant Mercury , to get in at the orifice of the erected Tube . But let us , if you please , hear the rest of his Discourse about this Experiment . A. Though it be somewhat prolix , yet , according to my custom hitherto , I will give it you verbatim . B. Simul atque Argentum vivum descenderit ad D , altius erit in vase A quàm antè , nimirum plus erit Argenti vivi in vase quàm erat ante descensum , tanto quantum capit pars tubi C , D. Tanto quoque minus erit Aeris extra tubum quàm ante erat . Ille autem Aer qui ab Argento vivo loco suo extrusus est , ( suppositâ universi plenitudine ) quò abire potest nisi ad eum locum , qui in tubo inter C & D à descensu Argenti vivi relinquebatur ? sed quâ , inquies , viâ in illum locum successurus est ? Quà , nisi per ipsum corpus Argenti vivi Aerem urgentis ? Sicut enim omne grave liquidum , sui ipsius pondere , Aerem , quem descendendo prennt , ascendere cogit ( si via alia non detur ) per suum ipsius corpus ; ita quoque Aerem quem premit ascendendo , ( si via alia non detur ) per suum ipsius corpus transire cogit . Manifestum igitur est , supposità mundi plenitudine posse Aerem externum ab ipsa gravitate Argenti vivi cogi in locum illum inter C & D. Itaque phaenomenon illud necessitatem vacus nondemonstrat . Quoniam autem corpus Argenti vivi penetrationi , quae fit ab Aere , non nihil resistit , & ascensioni Argenti vivi in vase A resistit Aer ; quando illae duae resistentiae aequales erunt , tunc in tubo sistetur alicubi Argentum vivum ; atque ibi est D. B. In answer to this Explication I have in my Examen propos'd divers things , which you may there meet with : And indeed his Explication has appear'd so improbable to those that have written of this Experiment , that I have not found it embrac'd by any of them , though , when divers of them oppos'd it , the Phaenomena of our Engine were not yet divulg'd . Not then needlesly to repeat what has been said already , I shall on this occasion only add one Experiment , that I afterwards made , and it was this : Having made the Torricellian Experiment ( in a straight Tube ) after the ordinary way , we took a little piece of a fine Bladder , and raising the Pipe a little in the stagnant Mercury , but not so high as the surface of it , the piece of Bladder was dexterously conveyed in the Quicksilver , so as to be applied by ones finger to the immersed orifice of the Pipe , without letting the Air get into the Cavity of it ; then the Bladder was tyed very straight and carefully to the lower end of the Pipe , whose orifice ( as we said ) it cover'd before , and then the Pipe being slowly lifted out of the stagnant Mercury , the impendent Quicksilver appear'd to lean but very lightly upon the Bladder , being so near an exact Aequilibrium with the Atmosperical Air , that , if the Tube were but a very little inclin'd , whereby the gravitation of the Quicksilver , being not so perpendicular , came to be somewhat lessen'd , the Bladder would immediately be driven into the orifice of the Tube , and to the Eye , plac'd without , appear to have acquir'd a concave superficies instead of the convex it had before . And when the Tube was re-erected , the Bladder would no longer appear suck'd in , but be again somewhat protuberant . And if , when the Mercury in the Pipe was made to descend a little below its station into the stagnant Mercury , if , I say , at that nick of time the piece of Bladder were nimbly and dexterously apply'd , as before , to the immers'd orifice , and fasten'd to the sides of the Pipe , upon the lifting the Instrument out of the stagnant Mercury , the Cylinder of that Liquor being now somewhat short of its due height , was no longer able fully to counterpoise the weight of the Atmospherical Air , which consequently , though the Glass were held in an erected posture , would press up the Bladder into the orifice of the Pipe , and both make and maintain there a Cavity sensible both to the Touch and the Eye . A. What did you mainly drive at in this Experiment ? B. To satisfie some Ingenious Men , that were more diffident of , than skilful in , Hydrostaticks , that the pressure of the external Air is capable of sustaining a Cylinder of 29 or 30 Inches of Mercury , and upon a small lessening of the gravitation of that ponderous liquor , to press it up higher into the Tube . But a farther use may be made of it against Mr. Hobbes's pretension . For , when the Tube is again erected , the Mercury will subside as low as at first , and leave as great a space as formerly was left deserted at the top ; into which how the Air should get to fill it , will not appear easie to them , that , like you and me , know by many tryals , that a Bladder will rather be burst by Air than grant it passage . And if it should be pretended , either that some Air from without had yet got through the Bladder , or that the Air , that they may presume to have been just before included between the Bladder and the Mercury , made its way from the lower part of the Instrument to the upper ; 't is obvious to answer , That 't is no way likely , that it should pass all along the Cylinder unseen by us ; since , when there are really any Aerial Bubbles , though smaller than Pins heads , they are easily discernible . And in our case , there is no such resistance of the Air to the ascension of the stagnant Mercury , as Mr. Hobbes pretends in the Torricellian Experiment made the usual way . A. But , whatever becomes of Mr. Hobbes's Explication of the Phaenomenon ; yet may not one still say , that it affords no advantage to the Vacuists against him ? B. Whether or no it do against other Plenists , I shall not now consider ; but I doubt , the Vacuists will tell Mr. Hobbes , that he is fain in two places of the Explication , we have read , to suppose the Plenitude of the World , that is , to beg the thing in question , which 't is not to be presum'd they will allow . A. But may not Mr. Hobbes say , that 't is as lawful for him to suppose a Plenum , as for them to suppose a Vacuum . B. I think he may justly say so ; but 't is like they will reply , that , in their way of explicating the Torricellian Experiment , they do not suppose a Vacuum at to Air , but prove it . For they shew a great space , that having been just before fill'd with Quicksilver , is now deserted by it , though it appeared not , that any Air succeeded in its room ; but rather , that the upper end of the Tube is either totally or near totally so devoid of Air , that the Quicksilver may without resistance , by barely inclining the Tube , be made to fill it to the very top : Whereas Mr. Hobbes is fain to have recourse to that which he knows they deny , the Plenitude of the World , not proving by any sensible Phaenomena , that there did get in through the Quicksilver Air enough to fill the deserted part of the Tube , but only concluding , that so much Air must have got in there , because , the World being full , it could find no room any where else ; which the Vacuists will take for no proof at all , and the Cartesians , though Plenists , who admit an Etherial matter capable of passing through the pores of Glass , will , I doubt , look upon but as an improper Explication . A. I remember on this occasion another Experiment of yours , that seems unfavourable enough to Mr. Hobbes's Explication , and you will perhaps call it to mind when I tell you , that 't was made in a bended Pipe almost fill'd with Quicksilver . B. To see whether we understand one another , I will briefly describe the Instrument I think you mean. We took a Cylindrical Pipe of Glass , clos'd at the upper end , and of that length , that being dexterously bent at some Inches from the bottom , the shorter legg was made as parallel as we could to the longer : In this Glass we found an expedient , ( for 't is not easie to do , ) to make the Torricellian Experiment , the Quicksilver in the shorter legg serving instead of the stagnant Quicksilver in the usual Baroscope , and the Quicksilver in the longer legg reaching above that in the shorter about eight or nine and twenty Inches . Then , by another artifice , the shorter legg , into which the Mercury did not rise within an Inch of the top , was so order'd , that it could in a trice be Hermetically seal'd , without disordering the Quicksilver . And this is the Instrument that I ghess you mean. A. It is so , and I remember , that it is the same with that , which in the Paradox about Suction you call , whilst the shorter legg remains unseal'd , a Travelling Baroscope . But when I saw you make the Experiment , that legg was Hermetically seal'd , an Inch of Air in its natural or usual consistence being left in the upper part of it , to which Air you outwardly applied a pair of heated Tongs . B. Yet that , which I chiefly aim'd at in the Trial , was not the Phaenomenon I perceive you mean ; for , my design was , by breaking the Ice for them , to encourage some , that may have more skill and accommodation than I then had , to make an attempt that I did not find to have been made by any ; namely , to reduce the Expensive force of Heat in every way included Air , if not in some other Bodies also , to some kind of measure , and , if 't were possible , to determin it by weight . And I presumed , that at least the event of my Tryal would much confirm several Explications of mine , by shewing , that Heat is able , as long as it lasts , very considerably to increase the Spring or pressing power of the Air. And in this conjecture I was not mistaken ; for , having shut up , after the manner newly recited , a determinate quantity of uncomprest Air , which , ( in the Experiment you saw , ) was about one Inch ; we warily held a pair of heated Tongs near the outside of the Glass , ( without making it touch the Instrument , for fear of breaking it , ) whereby the Air being agitated was enabled to expand it self to double its former Dimensions , and consequently had its Spring so strengthen'd by Heat , that it was able to raise all the Quicksilver in the longer legg , and keep up or sustain a Mercurial Cylinder of about nine and twenty Inches high , when by its expansion it would , if it had not been for the Heat , have lost half the force of its elasticity . But whatever I design in this Experiment , pray tell me , what use you would make of it against Mr. Hobbes . A. I believe , he will find it very difficult to shew , what keeps the Mercury suspended in the longer legg of the Travelling Baroscope , when the shorter legg is unstopt , at which it may run out ; since this Instrument may , as I have try'd , be carried to distant places , where it cannot with probability be pretended , that any Air has been displac'd by the fall of the Quicksilver in the longer legg , which perhaps fell long before above a mile off . And when the shorter legg is feal'd , it will be very hard for Mr. Hobbes to shew there the odd motions of the Air , to which he ascribes the Torricellian Experiment . For , if you warily incline the Instrument , the Quicksilver will rise to the top of the longer legg , and immediately subside , when the Instrument is again erected , and yet no Air appears to pass through the Quicksilver interpos'd between the ends of the longer and the shorter legg . But that which I would chiefly take notice of in the Experiment , is , that upon the external application of a hot Body to the shorter legg of the Baroscope , when 't was seal'd up , the included Air was expanded from one Inch to two , and so rais'd the whole Cylinder of Mercury in the longer legg , and , whilst the heat continued undiminished , kept it from subsiding again . For , if the Air were able to get unseen through the body of the Quicksilver , why had it not been much more able , when rarified by Heat , to pass through the Quicksilver , than for want of doing so to raise and sustain so weighty a Cylinder of Mercury ? I shall not stay to inquire on this occasion , how Mr. Hobbes will , according to his Hypothesis , explicate the rarefaction of the Air to double its former dimensions , and the condensation of it again ; especially since , asserting that part of the upper legg , that is unfill'd with the Quicksilver , to be perfectly full of Air , he affirms that , which I doubt he cannot prove , and which may very probably be disproved by the Experiment you mention in the Discourse about Suction , where you shew , to another purpose , that in a Travelling Baroscope , whose shorter legg is seal'd , if the end of the longer legg be open'd , whereby it comes indeed to be fill'd with Air , the pressure of that Air will enable the subjacent Mercury notably to compress the Air included in the shorter legg . B. I leave Mr. Hobbes to consider what you have objected against his Explication of the Torricellian Experiment ; to which I shall add nothing , though perhaps I could add much , because I think it may be well spared , and our Conference has lasted long already . A. I will then proceed to the last Experiment recited by Mr. Hobbes in his Problemata de Vacuo . A. Si Phialam , collum habentem longiusculum , candèmque omni Corpore praeter Aerem vacuam ore sugas , continuoque Phialae os aquae immergas , videbis aquam aliquousque ascendere in Phialam . Quî fieri hoc potest nisi factum sit Vacuum ab exuctione Aeris , in cujus locum possit Aqua illa ascendere ? B. Concesso Vacuo , oportet quaedam loca vacua fuisse in illo Aere , etiam qui erat intra Phialam ante suctionem . Cur ergo non ascendebat Aqua ad ea implenda absque suctione ? Is qui sugit Phialam , neque in ventrem quicquam , neque in pulmones , neque in os è Phiala exugit . Quid ergo agit ? Aerem commovet , & in partibus ejus conatum sugendo efficit per os exeundi , & non admittendo , conatum redeundi . Ab his conatibus contrariis componitur circumitio intra Phialam , & conatus exeundi quaquaversum . Itaque Phialae ore aquae immerso , Aer in subject am aquam penetrat è Phiala egrediens , & tantundem aquae in Phialam cogit . Praeterea vis illa magna suctionis facit , ut sugentis labra cum collo Phialae aliquando arctissimè cohaereant propter contactum exqusitissimum . B. As to the first Clause of Mr. Hobbes's account of our Phaenomenon , the Vacuists will easily answer his Question by acknowledging , that there were indeed interspers'd Vacuities in the Air contain'd in the Vial before the suction ; but they will add , there was no reason , why the Water should ascend to fill them , because , being a heavy body , it cannot rise of it self , but must be raised by some prevalent weight or pressure , which then was wanting . Besides , that there being interspers'd Vacuities as well in the rest of the Air that was very near the Water , as in that contained in the Vial , there was no reason , why the Water should ascend to fill the Vacuities of one portion of Air rather than those of another . But when once by suction a great many of the Aerial Corpuscles were made to pass out of the Vial , the Spring of the remaining Air being weaken'd , whilst the pressure of the ambient Air , which depends upon its constant Gravity , is undiminished , the Spring of the internal becomes unable to resist the weight of the external Air , which is therefore able to impel the interpos'd Water with some violence into the Cavity of the Glass , 'till the Air , remaining in that Cavity , being reduced almost to its usual Density , is able by its Spring , and the weight of the Water got up into the Vial , to hinder any more Water from being impell'd up . For , as to what Mr. Hobbes affirms , that , Is qui su git Phialam neque in ventrem quicquam , neque in pulmones , neque in os quicquam exugit : How it will agree with what he elsewhere delivers about Suction . I leave him to consider . But I confess , I cannot but wonder at his confidence , that can positively assert a thing so repugnant to the common sentiments of Men of all opinions , without offering any proof for it . But I suppose , they that are by tryal acquainted with Sucking , and have felt the Air come in at their mouths , will prefer their own experience to his authority . And as to what he adds , that the Person that sucks agitates the Air , and turns it within the Vial into a kind of circulating wind , that endeavours every where to get out ; I wish , he had shewn us by what means a Man that sucks makes this odd Commotion of the Air ; especially in such Vials as I use to employ about the Experiment , the orifice of whose neck is sometimes less than a Pins head . A. That there may be really Air extracted by Suction out of a Glass , me thinks you might argue from an Experiment I saw you make with a Receiver which was exhausted by your Pump , and consequently by Suction . For I remember , when you had counterpois'd it with very good Scales , and afterwards by turning a stop-cock , let in the outward Air , there rush'd in as much Air to fill the space that had been deserted by the Air pumpt out , as weighed some scruples ( consisting of twenty grains a piece ) though the Receiver were not of the largest size . B. You did well to add that Clause ; for , the Magdobargic Experiment , mentioned by the industrious Schottus , having been made with a vast Receiver , the readmitted Air amounted to a whole ounce and some drachms . But to return to Mr. Hobbes , I fear not that he will perswade you , that have seen the Experiment he recites , that as soon as the neck of the Vial is unstopt under water , the Air , that whitl'd about before , makes a sally out , and forces in as much water . For , if the orifice be any thing large , you will , instead of feeling an endeavour to thrust away your finger that stopt it , find the pulp of your finger so thrust inward , that a Peripatetick would affirm that he felt it suckt in . And that Intrusion may be the Reason , why the lip of him that sucks is oftentimes strongly fasten'd to the orifice of the Vials neck , which Mr. Hobbes ascribes to a most exquisit contact , but without clearly telling us , how that extraordinary contact is effected . And when your finger is removed , instead of perceiving any Air go out of the Vial through the water , ( which , if any such thing happen , you will easily discover by the bubbles , ) you shall see the water briskly spring up in a slender stream to the top of the Vial , which it could not do , if the Cavity were already full of Air. And to let you see , that , when the Air does really pass in or out of the Vial immers'd under water , 't is very easie to perceive its motions , if you dip the neck of the Vial in water , and then apply to the globulous part of it either your warm hands or any other competent Heat , the internal Air being rarified ; you shall see a portion of it , answerable to the degree of Heat you applied , manifestly pass through the water in successive bubbles , whilst yet you shall not see any water get into the Vial to supply the place deserted by that Air. And if , when you have ( as you may do by the help of sucking ) fill'd the neck and part of the belly of the Vial with water , you immerse the orifice into stagnant water , and apply warm hands to the globulous part as before , you will find the water in the Vial to be driven out , before any bubbles pass out of the Vial into the surrounding water ; which shews , that the Air is not so forward to dive under the water , ( and much less under so ponderous a liquor as Quicksilver , ) as Mr. Hobbes has supposed . A. That 't is the Pressure of the external Air , that ( surmounting the Spring of the internal ) drives up the water into the Vial we have been speaking of , does , I confess , follow upon your Hypothesis : But an Experimentarian Philosopher , as Mr. Hobbes calls you among others , may possibly be furnished with an Experiment to confirm this to the Eye . B. You bring into my mind what I once devised to confirm my Hypothesis about Suction , but found a while since that I had omitted it in my Discourse about that Subject . And therefore I shall now repeat to you the substance at least of the Memorial that was written of that Experiment , by which the great interest of the weight of the Atmospherical Air in Suction will appear , and in which also some things will occur , that will not well agree with Mr. Hobbes's Explication , and prevent some of his Allegations against mine . A. Having not yet met with an Experiment of this nature , such an one as you speak of will be welcome to me . B. We took a Glass Bubble , whose long stem was both very slender and very Cylindrical ; then by applying to the outside of the Ball or globulous part a convenient heat , we expell'd so much of the Air , as that , when the end of the pipe was dipt in water , and the inward Air had time to recover its former coolness , the water ascended either to the top of the pipe or very near it . This done , we gently and warily rarified the Air in the Cavity of the Bubble , 'till by its expansion it had driven out almost all the water that had got up into the stem , that so it might attain as near as could be to that degree of heat and measure of expansion , that it had when the water began to rise in it . And we were careful to leave two or three drops of water unexpell'd at the bottom of the pipe , that we might be sure , that none of the included Air was by this second rarefaction driven out at the orifice of it ; as the depression of the water so low assured us , on the other side , that the included Air wanted nothing considerable of the expansion it had when the water began to ascend into the pipe . Whilst the Air was in this rarified state , we presently removed the little Instrument out of the stagnant water into stagnant Quicksilver , which in a short time began to rise in the pipe . Now , if the ascension of the liquor were the effect of Natures Abhorrence of a Vacuum ; or of some internal principle of Motion ; or of the Compression and propagated Pulsion of the outward Air by that which had been expell'd ; why should not the Mercury have ascended to the top of the pipe , as the water did before ? But de facto it did not ascend half , or perhaps a quarter so far ; and if the pipe had been long enough , as well as 't was slender enough , I question , whether the Mercury would have ascended ( in proportion to the length of the stem ) half so high as it did . Now of this Experiment , which we tryed more than once , I see not , for the reason lately express'd , how any good account will be given without our Hypothesis , but according to That 't is clear . A. I think I perceive why you say so ; for the Ascension of Liquors being an effect of the prevalency of the external Airs pressure against the resistance it meets with in the Cavity of the Instrument , and the Quicksilver being bulk for bulk many times heavier than water , the same surplusage of pressure that was able to impel up water to the top of the pipe , ought not to be able to impel up the Quicksilver to any thing near that height . And if it be here objected , as it very plausibly may be , that the raised Cylinder of Mercury was much longer than it ought to have been in reference to a Cylinder of Water , the proportion in gravity between those two Liquors ( which is almost that of fourteen to one ) being considered ; I answer , that when the Cylinder of Water reach'd to the pipe , the Air possess'd no more than the Cavity of the globulous part of the Instrument , being very little assisted to dilate it self by so light a Cylinder as that of Water : But when the Quicksilver came to be impell'd into the Instrument by the weight of the external Air , that ponderous Body did not stop its ascent as soon as it came to be equiponderant to the formerly expell'd Cylinder of Water ; because , to attain that height , it reached but a little way into the pipe , and left all the rest of the Cavity of the pipe to be fill'd with part of that Air , which formerly was all shut up in the Cavity of the Bubble ; by which means the Air , included in the whole Instrument , must needs be in a state of expansion , and thereby have its Spring weakened , and consequently disabled to resist the pressure of the external Air , as much as the same included Air did before , when it was less rarified ; on which account , the undiminished weight or pressure of the external Air was able to raise the Quicksilver higher and higher , 'till it had obtained that height , at which the pressure , compounded of the weight of the Mercurial Cylinder and the Spring of the internal Air ( now less rarified than before , ) was equivalent to the pressure of the Atmosphere or external Air. B. You have given the very Explication I was about to propose ▪ wherefore I shall only add , that , to confirm this Experiment by a kind of Inversion of it , we drove by heat a little Air out of the Bubble , and dipt the open end of the pipe into Quicksilver , which by this means we made to ascend 'till it had fill'd about a fourth part or less of the pipe , when that was held erected . Then carefully removing it without letting fall any Quicksilver , or letting in any Air , we held the orifice of the pipe a little under the surface of a Glass full of Water , and applying a moderate heat to the outside of the Ball , we warily expell'd the Quicksilver , yet leaving a little of it to make it sure that no Air was driven out with it ; then suffering the included Air to cool , the external Air was found able to make the Water not only ascend to the very top of the pipe , and thence spread it self a little into the Cavity of the Ball , but to carry up before it the Quicksilver that had remained unexpell'd at the bottom of the stem . And if in making the Experiment we had first raised , as we sometimes did , a greater quantity of Quicksilver , and afterwards drove it out , the quantity of Water , that would be impell'd into the Cavity of the pipe and ball , would be accordingly increased . A. In this Experiment 't is manifest , that something is driven out of the Cavity of the Glass before the Water or Quicksilver begins to ascend in it : And here also we see not , that the Air can pass through the pores of Quicksilver or Water , but that it drives them on before it , without sensibly mixing with them . In this Experiment there appears not at all any Circular Wind , as Mr. Hobbes fancies in the suckt Vial we are disputing of , nor any tendency outwards of the included Air upon the account of such a Wind ; but , instead of these things , that the ascension of the Liquors into the Cavity of the pipe depends upon the external Air , pressing up the Liquors into that Cavity , may be argu'd by this , that the same weight of the Atmosphere impell'd up into the pipe so much more of the lighter Liquor , Water , than of the heavier Liquor , Mercury . B. You have said enough on this Experiment ; but 't is not the only I have to oppose to Mr. Hobbes his Explication : For , that there is no need of the sallying of Air out of a Vial , to make the Atmospherical Air press against a Body that closes the orifice of it , when the pressure of the internal Air is much weakened ; I have had occasion to shew some Virtuosi , by sucking out , with the help of an Instrument , a considerable portion of the Air contained in a Glass ; for having then , instead of unstopping the orifice under water , nimbly applied a flat Body to it , the external Air press'd that Body so forcibly against it , as to keep it fastened and suspended , though 't were clogg'd with a weight of many ounces . A. Another Experiment of yours Mr. Hobbes's Explication brings into my mind , by which it appears , that , if there be such a Circular Wind , as he pretends , produced by Suction in the Cavity of the Vial , it must needs be strangely lasting . For I have seen more than once , that , when you have by an Instrument suckt much of the Air out of a Vial , and afterwards carefully closed it , though you kept the slender neck of it stopt a long time , perhaps for some weeks or months , yet when 't was open'd under water , a considerable quantity of the Liquor would be briskly impell'd up into the neck and belly of the Vial. So that , though I will not be so pleasant with Mr. Hobbes , as to mind you on this occasion of those Writers of Natural Magick , that teach us to shut up Articulate , Sounds in a Vessel , which being transported to a distant place and open'd there , will render the Words that are committed to it ; yet I must needs say , that so lasting a Circular Wind , as , according to Mr. Hobbes , your Experiments exhibited , may well deserve our wonder . B. Your admiration would perchance increase , if I should assure you , that having with the Sun-beams produced smoak in one of those well-stopt Vials , this Circular Wind did not at all appear to blow it about , but suffered it to rise , as it would have done if the included Air had been very calm . And now I shall add but one Experiment more , which will not be liable to some of the things as invalid as they are , which Mr. Hobbes has alledged in his account of the Vial , and which will let you see , that the weight of the Atmospherical Air is a very considerable thing ; and which may also incline you to think , that , whilst Mr. Hobbes does not admit a subtiler Matter than common Air to pass through the Pores of close and solid Bodies , the Air he has recourse to will sometimes come too late to prevent a Vacuum . The Experiment , which was partly accidental , I lately found registred to this sense , if not in these words : [ Having , to make some Discovery of the weight of the Air , and for other purposes , caus'd an Aeolipile , very light considering its bulk , to be made by a famous Artist , I had occasion to put it so often into the fire for several Tryals , that at length the Copper scal'd off by degrees , and left the Vessel much thinner than when it first came out of the Artificers hands ; and a good while after , this change in the Instrument being not in my thoughts , I had occasion to imploy it , as formerly , to weigh how many grains it would contain of the Air at such a determinate constitution of the Atmosphere , as was to be met with , where I then chanced to be . For the making this Experiment the more exactly , the Air was by a strong , but warily applied , fire so carefully driven away , that , when clapping a piece of Sealing-wax to the Pin-hole , at which it had been forced out , we hindred any communication betwixt the Cavity of the Instrument and the external Air , we suppos'd the Aeolipile to be very well exhausted , and therefore laid it by , that , when it should be grown cold , we might , by opening the orifice with a Pin , again let in the outward Air , and observe the encrease of weight that would thereupon ensue : But the Instrument , that , as I was saying , was grown thin , had been so diligently freed from Air , that the very little that remain'd , and was kept by the Wax from receiving any assistance from without , being unable by its Spring to assist the Aeolipile to support the weight of the ambient Air ; this external fluid did by its weight press against it so strongly , that it compress'd it , and thrust it so considerably inwards , and in more than one place so chang'd its figure , that , when I shew'd it to the Virtuosi that were assembled at Gresham-Colledge , they were pleased to command it of me to be kept in their Repository , where I presume it is still to be seen . FINIS . NEW EXPERIMENTS About the PRESERVATION OF BODIES IN VACUO BOYLIANO . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE , Fellow of the Royal Society . LONDON , Printed by William Godbid , and are to be Sold by Moses Pitt , at the Angel over against the little North Door of St. Paul's Church . 1674. Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A28939-e150 Credo , ( says Mr. Hobbes in his Dialogus Physicus : ) Nam motus hic Restitutionis , Hobbii est , & ab illo primo & solo explicatus in Lib. de Corpore , cap. 21. Art. 1. Sine qua Hypothesi , quantuscunque labor , ars , sumptus , ad rerum Naturaliū invisibiles causas inveniendas adbibeatur , frustra erit . And speaking of the Gentleman ( to whom it were not here proper for me so give E●ithe●es ) that us'd to meet at Gresham-College , and are known by the Name of the Royal Secrety , he thus treats them and their way of Inquiring into Nature : Conveniant , studia conferant , Experimenta faciant quantum volunt , nisi & Principiis utantur mess , nihil proficient . A. Pateris ergo nihil bactenus à Collegis tuis promotam esse scientium Causarum Naturalium , nisi quod Unus eorum Machinam invenerit , quâ motus excitari Aeris possit talis , ut partes Sphaerae simul undiquaque tendant ad Centrum , & ut Hypotheses Hobbianae , antè quidem satis probabiles , hinc reddantur probabiliores . B. Nec fateri pudet ; nam est aliqu●d prodire tenus , si non datur ultra . A. Quid tinus ? quorsum autem tantus apparatus & sumptus Machinarum factu difficilium , ut eatenus tantum productis quantum ante prodi●rat Hobbius ? Cut non inde potius incepistis ubi ille desiit ? Cur Principiis ab illo positis non estis usi ? Cumque Aristoteles recte dixit , ignorato motu ignorari Naturam , &c. — Ad Causas autem , propter quas proficere ne pau●usum quidem potuistis , nec poter●tis , accedunt etiam ●liae , ut odium Hobbii , &c. De Nat. Aeris , p. 13. 
A28988	----	Of a degradation of gold made by an anti-elixir, a strange chymical narative. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1678 Approx. 38 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 12 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A28988 Wing B3984 ESTC R25940 09296472 ocm 09296472 42645 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A28988) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 42645) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1303:9) Of a degradation of gold made by an anti-elixir, a strange chymical narative. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. [4], 17 p. Printed by T.N. for Henry Herringman, London : [1678] Caption title: An historical account of the degradation of gold by an anti-elixir. Attributed to Robert Boyle--NUC pre-1956 imprints. Reproduction of original in the British Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Gold -- Early works to 1800. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-06 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-07 Andrew Kuster Sampled and proofread 2006-07 Andrew Kuster Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion DEGRADATION OF GOLD Made by an ANTI-ELIXIR A STRANGE Chymical Narative LONDON , Printed by T. N. for Henry Herringman , at 〈…〉 in the Lower Walk of the New Exch 〈…〉 THE PUBLISHER To the Reader . HAving been allowed the Liberty of Perusing the following Paper at my own Lodging ; I found my self strongly tempted , by the Strangeness of the things mention'd in it , to venture to Release it : The knowledge I had of the Author's Inclination to Gratifie the Virtuosi , forbidding me to despair of his pardon , if the same disposition prevail'd with me , to make the Curious Partakers with me of so Surprising a Piece of Philosophical News . And , though it sufficiently appear'd , that the insuing Conference was but a Continuation of a larger Discourse ; yet , considering , that this Part consists chiefly , not to say only , of a Narrative ; which ( if I may so speak ) stands upon its own legs , without any need of depending upon any thing that was deliver'd before ; I thought it was no great Venture , nor Incongruity , to let it come abroad by it self . And , I the less scrupled to make this Publication , because I found , that the Honorable Mr. Boyle confesses himfelf to be Fully Satisfied of the Truth , of as much of the Matter of Fact , as delivers the Phoenomena of the Tryal ; the Truth whereof was further Confirm'd to me , by the Testimony , and Particular Account , which that most Learned and Experienc'd Physitian , who was Assistant to Pyrophilus in making the Experiment , and with whom I have the honor to be Acquainted ( being now in London ) gave me with his own Mouth , of all the Circumstances of the Tryal . And , where the Truth of that shall be once Granted , there is little cause to doubt , that the Novelty of the thing will sufficiently Indear the Relation : especially to those that are studious of the Higher Arcana of the Hermetick Philosophy . For , most of the Phoenomena here mention'd , will probably seem wholly new , not only to vulgar Chymists , but also to the greatest part of the more knowing Spagyrists , and Natural Philosophers themselves : none of the Orthodox Authors , as far as I can remember , having taken notice of such an Anti-Elixir . And , though Pyrophilus's Scrupulousness ( which makes him very unwilling to speak the utmost of a thing ) allowes it to be a Deterioration into an Imperfect Mettal onely ; yet , to tell the truth , I think it was more Imbas'd than so ; for the part left of it ( and kept for some farther Discoveries ) which I once got a sight of , looks more like a Mineral , or Marchasite , then like any Imperfect Mettal : and therefore this Degradation is not the same , but much greater , than that which Lullius doth intimate in some places . These Considerations make me presume it will easily be granted , That the Effects of this Anti-Philosophers Stone , as I think it may not unfitly be call'd . , will not only seem very strange to Hermetick , as well as other Philosophers , but may prove very Instructive to Speculative Wits ; especially if Pyrophilus shall please to acquaint them with that more odd Phoenomenon , which he Mentions darkly in the Close of his Discourse . AN Historical Account OF THE DEGRADATION OF GOLD BY AN Anti-Elixir . AFter the whole Company had , as it were by Common Consent , continued silent for some time , which others spent in Reflections upon the Preceding Conference , and Pyrophylus , in the Consideration of what he was about to Deliver ; this Virtuoso at length stood up , and Addressing himself to the rest , I hope , Gentlemen , sayes he , that what has been already Discoursed , has Inclin'd , if not Perswaded you to Think , That the Exaltation , or Change of other Metals into Gold , is not a thing Absolutely Impossible ; and , though I confess , I cannot remove all your Doubts , and Objections , or my own , by being able to Affirm to you , That I have with my own hands made Projection ( as Chymists are wont to call the Sudden Transmutation made by a small quantity of their Admirable Elixir ) yet I can Confirm much of what hath been Argued for the Possibility of such a sudden Change of a Metalline Body , by a Way , which , I presume , will surprize you . For , to make it more credible , that other Metals are capable of being Graduated , or Exalted into Gold by way of Projection ; I will Relate to you , that by the like way , Gold has been Degraded , or Imbased . The Novelty of this Preamble having much surprised the Auditory , at length , Simplicius , with a disdainful Smile , told Pyrophilus , That the Company would have much thanked him , if he could have assured them , That he had seen another Mettal Exalted into Gold ; but , that to find a way of spoiling Gold , was not onely an Useless Discovery , but a Prejudicial Practice . Pyrophilus was going to make some Return to this Animadversion , when he was prevented by Aristander ; who , turning himself to Simplicius , told him , with a Countenance and Tone that argued some displeasure ; If Pyrophilus had been Discoursing to a Company of Goldsmiths , or of Merchants , your severe Reflection upon what he said would have been proper : but , you might well have forborn it , if you had considered , as I suppose he did , that he was speaking to an Assembly of Philosophers and Virtuosi , who are wont to estimate Experiments , not as they inrich Mens Purses , but their Brains , and think Knowledge especially of uncommon things very desirable , even when 't is not accompanyed with any other thing , than the Light that still attends it , and indears it . It hath been thought an Useful Secret , by a kind of Retrogradation to turn Tin and Lead into brittle Bodies , like the Ores of those Metals . And if I thought it proper , I could shew , that such a change might be of use in the Investigation of the Nature of those Metals , besides the practical use that I know may be made of it . To find the Nature of Wine , we are assisted , not only by the methods of obtaining from it a Spirit ; but by the ways of readily turning it into Vinegar : the knowledge of which ways hath not been despised by Chymists or Physitians , and hath at Paris , and divers other places , set up a profitable Trade . 'T is well known that divers eminent Spagyrists have reckon'd amongst their highest Arcana the ways by which they pretended , ( and I fear did but pretend ) to Extract the Mercury of Gold , and consequently destroy that Metal ; and 't were not hard to shew by particular instances , that all the Experiments wherein Bodies are in some respects deteriorated , are not without distinction to be rejected or despis'd ; since in some of them , the Light they may afford may more than countervail the Degradation of a small quantity of matter , though it be Gold it self . And indeed , ( continues he ) if we will consider things as Philosophers , and look upon them as Nature hath made them , not as Opinion hath disguised them ; the Prerogatives and usefulness of Gold , in comparison of other Metals , is nothing near so great as Alchymists and Usurers imagine . For , as it is true , that Gold is more ponderous , and more fix'd , and perhaps more difficult to be spoiled , than Iron ; yet these qualities ( whereof the first makes it burthensom , and the two others serve chiefly but to distinguish the true from counterfeit ) are so balanced by the hardness , stiffness , springiness , and other useful qualities of Iron ; that if those two Metals I speak of , ( Gold and Iron ) were equally plentiful in the World , it is scarce to be doubted , but that Men would prefer the more useful before the more splendid , considering how much worse it were for Mankind to want Hatchets , and Knives and Swords , than Coin and Plate ? Wherefore , ( concludes he ) I think Pyrophilus ought to be both desired and incouraged to go on with his intended Discourse , since whether Gold be or not be the Best of Metals ; an assurance that it may be degraded , may prove a Novelty very Instructive , and perhaps more so than the Transmutation of a baser Metal into a Nobler . For I remember it hath long pass'd for a Maxim among Chymical Philosophers , That Facilius est aurum construere quam destruere : And whatever becomes of that , 't is certain that Gold being the closest , the constantest , and the least destructible of Metals , to be able to work a notable and almost Essential change in such a Body , ( though , by detereorating it ) is more than to work a like change , ( though in popular estimation for the better ) in any Metal less indisposed to admit alterations , especially in such an one as Pyrophilus intimates , by telling us , that 't was made by Way of Projection , and consequently by a very small proportion of active matter ; whereas the destructions that vulgar Chymists pretend to make of Gold , are wont to be attempted to be made by considerable proportions of Corrosive Menstruums , or other fretting Bodies ; and even these , Experience shews to be usually too weak to ruine , though sometimes they may much disguise the most Stable Texture of Gold. Cuncta adeo miris illic complexibus haerent . Pyrophilus perceiving by several signs that he needed not add any thing of Apologetical to what Arristander had already said for him , resumed his Discourse , by saying , I was going , Gentlemen , when Simplicius diverted me , to tell you That looking upon the Vulgar Objections that have been wont to be fram'd against the possibility of Metalline Transmutations , from the Authority and Prejudices of Aristotle , and the School-Philosophers , as Arguments that in such an Assembly as this need not now be solemnly discuss'd ; I consider that the difficulties that really deserve to be call'd so , and are of weight even with Mechanical Philosophers , and Judicious Naturalists , are principally these . First , That the great change that must be wrought by the Elixir , ( if there be such an Agent ) is effected upon Bodies of so stable and almost immutable a Nature as Metals . Next , That this great change is said to be brought to pass in a very short time . And thirdly , ( which is yet more strange ) That this great and suddain alteration is said to be effected by a very small , and perhaps inconsiderable , proportion of the transmuting Powder . To which three grand difficulties , I shall add another that to me appears , and perhaps will seem to divers of the new Philosophers , worthy to be lookt upon as a fourth , namely , The notable change that must by a real transmutation be made in the Specifick Gravity of the matter wrought upon : which difficulty I therefore think not unworthy to be added to the rest , because upon several tryals of my own and other men , I have found no known quality of Gold , ( as its colour , malleableness , fixity , or the like ) so difficult , if not so impossible , to be introduc'd into any other Metalline Matter , as the great Specifick Gravity that is peculiar to Gold. So that , Gentlemen , ( concludes Pyrophilus ) if it can be made appear that Art has produc'd an Anti-Elixir , ( if I may so call it ) or Agent that is able in a very short time , to work a very notable , though deteriorating , change upon a Metal ; in proportion to which , its quantity is very inconsiderable ; I see not why it should be thought impossible that Art may also make a true Elixir , or Powder capable of speedily Transmuting a great proportion of a baser Metal into Silver or Gold : especially if it be considered , that those that treat of these Arcana , confess that 't is not every matter which may be justly called the Philosophers Stone , that is able to transmute other Metals in vast quantities ; since several of these Writers , ( and even Lully himself ) make differing orders or degrees of the Elixir , and acknowledge , that a Medicine or Tincture of the first or lowest order will not transmute above ten times its weight of an Inferior Metal . Pyrophilus having at this part of his Discourse made a short pawse to take breath , Crattippus took occasion from his silence to say to him , I presume , Pyrophilus , I shall be disavowed by very few of these Gentlemen , if I tell you that the company is impatient to hear the Narrative of your Experiment , and that if it do so much as probably make out the particulars you have been mentioning , you will in likelyhood perswade most of them , and will certainly oblige them all . I shall therefore on their behalf as well as my own , sollicite you to hasten to the Historical part of a Discourse that is so like to gratifie our Curiosity . The Company having by their unanimous silence , testified their approbation of what Crattippus had said ; and appearing more than ordinarily attentive , As I was one day abroad ; saith Pyrophilus , to return visits to my Friends , I was by a happy Providence ( for it was beside my first Intention ) directed to make one to an Ingenious Foreigner , with whom a few that I had received from him , had given me some little acquaintance . Whilst this Gentleman and I were discoursing together of several matters , there came in to visit him a stranger , whom I had but once seen before ; and though that were in a promiscuous company , yet he addressed himself to me in a way that quickly satisfied me of the greatness of his Civility ; which he soon after also did of that of his Curiosity . For the Virtuoso , in whose Lodgings we met , having ( to gratifie me ) put him upon the discourse of his Voyages ; the curious stranger entertained us an hour or two with pertinent and judicious Answers to the Questions I askt him-about places so remote , or so much within Land , that I had not met with any of our English Navigators or Travellers that had penetrated so far as to visit them . And because I found by his discourse that I was like to enjoy such good company but a very little while , ( since he told me that he came the other day into England but to dispatch a business which he had already done as far as he could do it , after which he was with speed to return , as ( to my trouble ) he did to his Patron that sent him ) I made the more haste to propose such Questions to him , as I most desired to be satisfied about ; and among other things , enquiring whether in the Eastern parts he had travers'd , he had met with any Chymists ; he answered me that he had ; and that though they were fewer , and more reserved than ours , yet he did not find them all less skilful . And on this occasion , before he left the Town to go aboard the Ship he was to overtake ; he in a very obliging way put into my hands at parting a little piece of Paper , folded up ; which he said contained all that he had left of a rarity he had received from an Eastern Virtuoso , and which he intimated would give me occasion both to Remember him , and to exercise my thoughts in uncommon Speculations . The great delight I took in conversing with a Person that had travelled so far , and could give me so good an account of what he had seen , made me so much resent the being so soon deprived of it , that though I judg'd such a Vertuoso would not , as a great token of his kindness , have presented me a trifle , yet the Present did but very imperfectly consoal me for the loss of so pleasing and instructive a Conversation . Nevertheless , that I might comply with the curiosity he himself had excited in me , and know how much I was his Debtor , I resolved to see what it was he had given me , and try whether I could make it do what I thought he Intimated , by the help of those few hints rather than directions how to use it , which the parting haste he was in ( or perhaps some other reason best known to himself ) confin'd him to give me . But in regard that I could not but think the Experiment would one way or other prove Extraordinary , I thought fit to take a Witness or two and an Assistant in the trying of it ; and for that purpose made choice of an experienced Doctor of Physick , very well vers'd in the separating and copelling of Metals . Though the Company ( says Heliodorus ) be so confident of your sincerity and wariness , that they would give credit even to unlikely Experiments , upon your single testimony ; yet we cannot but approve your discretion in taking an Assistant and a Witness , because in nice and uncommon Experiments we can scarce use too much circumspection , especially when we have not the means of reiterating the tryal : for in such new , as well as difficult cases , 't is easie even for a clear-sighted Experimenter to over-look some important circumstance , that a far less skilful by-stander may take notice of . As I have ever judged , ( saith Pyrophilus ) that cautiousness is a very requisite qualification for him that would satisfactorily make curious Experiments ; so I thought fit to imploy a more than ordinary measure of it , in making a tryal , whose event I imagined might prove odd enough . And therefore having several times observed that some men are prepossessed , by having a particular Expectation rais'd in them , and are inclined to think that they do see that happen which they think they should see happen ; I resolved to obviate this prejudication as much as innocently I could , and ( without telling him any thing but the truth , to which Philosophy as well as Religion obliges us to be strictly loyal ) I told him but thus much of the truth , that I expected that a small proportion of a Powder presented me by a Foreign Virtuoso , would give a Brittleness to the most flexible and malleable of Metals , Gold it self . Which change I perceiv'd he judged so considerable and unlikely to be effected , that he was greedy of seeing it severely try'd . Having thus prepared him not to look for all that I my self expected , I cautiously opened the Paper I lately mentioned , but was both surprized and troubled , ( as he also was ) to find in it so very little Powder , that in stead of two differing tryals that I designed to make with it , there seem'd very small hope left that it would serve for one , ( and that but an imperfect one neither . ) For there was so very little Powder , that we could scarce see the colour of it , ( save that as far as I could judge it was of a darkish Red ) and we thought it not only dangerous , but useless to attempt to weigh it , in regard we might easily lose it by putting it into , and out of the Balance ; and the Weights we had were not small enough for so despicable a quantity of matter , which in words I estimated at an eighth part of a Grain : but my Assistant , ( whose conjecture I confess my thoughts inclin'd to prefer ) would allow it to be at most but a tenth part of a Grain . Wherefore seeing the utmost we could reasonably hope to do with so very little Powder , was to make one tryal with it , we weighed out in differing Balances two Drams of Gold that had been formerly English Coyn , and that I caused by one that I usually imploy to be cupell'd with a sufficient quantity of Lead , and quarted , as they speak , with refin'd Silver , and purg'd Aqua fortis , to be sure of the goodness of the Gold : these two Drams I put into a new Crucible , first carefully neal'd , and having brought them to fusion by the meer action of the fire , without the help of Borax , or any other Additament , ( which course , though somewhat more laborious , than the most usual we took to obviate scruples ) I put into the well-melted Metal with my own hand the little parcel of Powder lately mentioned , and continuing the Vessel in the fire for about a quarter of an hour , that the Powder might have time to defuse it self every way into the Metal , we poured out the well-melted Gold into another Crucible that I had brought with me , and that had been gradually heated before , to prevent cracking . But though from the first fusion of the Metal , to the pouring out , it had turn'd in the Crucible like ordinary Gold , save that once my Assistant told me he saw that for two or three moments it lookt almost like an Opale ; yet I was somewhat surpriz'd to find when the matter was grown cold , that though it appear'd upon the Balance that we had not lost any thing of the weight we put in , yet in stead of fine Gold , we had a lump of Metal of a dirty colour , and as it were overcast with a thin coat , almost like half vitrified Litharge ; and somewhat to increase the wonder , we perceived that there stuck to one side of the Crucible a little Globule of Metal that lookt not at all yellowish , but like course Silver , and the bottom of the Crucible was overlaid with a vitrified substance , whereof one part was of a transparent yellow , and the other of a deep brown , inclining to red ; and in this vitrified substance I could plainly perceive sticking at least five or six little Globules that lookt more like impure Silver than pure Gold. In short , this stuff look so little like refin'd , or so much as ordinary , Gold , that though my Friend did much more than I marvel at this change , yet I confess I was surpriz'd at it my self . For though in some particulars it answered what I lookt for , yet in others , it was very differing from that which the Donor of the Powder had , as I thought , given me ground to expect . Whether the cause of my disappointment were that ( as I formerly intimated ) this Virtuoso's haste or design made him leave me in the dark ; or whether it were that finding my self in want of sufficient directions , I happily pitcht upon such a proportion of Materials , and way of operating , as were proper to make a new Discovery , which the excellent Giver of the Powder had not Design'd , or perhaps thought of . I shall not at all wonder , saith Cratippus , either at your Friends amazement , or at your surprize , if your further tryals did in any measure confirm what the superficial change that appeared in your Metal could not but incline you to conjecture . You will best judge of that ( replies Pyrophilus ) by the account I was going to give you of what we did with our odd Metal . And First , having rubb'd it upon a good Touchstone , whereon we had likewise rubb'd a piece of Coyn'd Silver , and a piece of Coyn'd Gold , we manifestly found that the mark left upon the Stone by our Mass between the marks of the two other Metals , was notoriously more like the Touch of the Silver than to that of the Gold. Next , having knockt our little lump with a Hammer , it was , ( according to my prediction ) found brittle , and flew into several pieces . Thirdly , ( which is more ) even the insides of those pieces lookt of a base dirty colour , like that of Brass or worse , for the fragments had a far greater resemblance to Bell-Metal , than either to Gold or to Silver . To which we added this fourth , and more considerable , Examen ; that having carefully weigh'd out one dram of our stuff , ( reserving the rest for trials to be suggested by second thoughts ) and put it upon an excellent now and well-neal'd Cupel , with about half a dozen times its weight of Lead , we found , somewhat to our wonder , that though it turn'd very well like good Gold , yet it continued in the fire above an hour and an half , ( which was twice as long as we expected ) and yet almost to the very last the fumes copiously ascended , which sufficiently argu'd the operation to have been well carried on ; and when at last it was quite ended , we found the Cupel very smooth and intire , but ting'd with a fine Purplish Red , ( which did somewhat surprize us ) and besides , the refined Gold , there lay upon the cavity of the Cupel some dark-coloured recrements , which we concluded to have proceeded from the deteriorated Metal , not from the Lead . But when we came to put our Gold again into the Balance , we found it to weigh only about fifty three Grains , and consequently to have lost seven ; which yet we found to be fully made up by that little quantity of recrements that I have lately mention'd , whose Weight and Fixity , compared with their unpromising Colour , did not a little puzzle us , especially because we had not enough either of Them , or of leisure , to examine their nature . To all which circumstances , I shall subjoin this , that to prevent any scruples that might arise touching the Gold we imploy'd , I caused a dram and a half that had been purposely reserv'd out of the same portion with that that had been debased ; I caused this ( I say ) to be in my Assistants presence melted by it self , and found it ( as I doubted not but I should do ) fine and well-coloured Gold. I hope you will pardon my curiosity , saith Arristander to the Gentleman that spoke last , if I ask why you take no notice of the effect of Aqua fortis upon your imbased Metal ? Your Question , replies Pyrophilus , I confess to be very reasonable , and I am somewhat troubled that I can answer it but by telling you that we had not at hand any Aqua fortis we durst relie on ; which yet I was the less troubled at , because heretofore some tryals purposely made had inform'd me , that in some Metalline Mixtures the Gold if it were much predominant in quantity , may protect another Metal ; ( for instance Silver ) from being dissolved by that Menstruum , though not from being at all invaded by it . There yet remain'd , saith Heliodorus , one examen more of your odd Metal , which would have satisfied me , at least as much as any of the rest , of its having been notably imbas'd : for if it were altered in its specifick gravity , that quality I have always observ'd ( as I lately perceiv'd you also have done ) to stick so close to Gold , that it could not by an additament so inconsiderable in point of bulk , be considerably altered without a notable and almost Essential change in the texture of the Metal . To this pertinent discourse , Pyrophilus , with the respect due to a person that so worthily sustain'd the dignity he had of presiding in that choice company , made this return : I owe you , Sir , my humble thanks for calling upon me to give you an account I might have forgotten , and which is yet of so important a thing , that none of the other Phaenomena of our Experiment seem'd to me to deserve so much notice . Wherefore I shall now inform you , that having provided my self of all the requisites to make Hydrostatical Tryals , ( to which perhaps I am not altogether a stranger ) I carefully weighed in water the ill-lookt Mass , ( before it was divided for the coupelling of the above-mentioned dram ) and found , to the great confirmation of my former wonder and conjectures , that in stead of weighing about nineteen times as much as a bulk of water , equal to it , its proportion to that liquor was but that of fifteen , and about two thirds to one : so that its specifick gravity was less by about 31 / ●…3 than if it had been pure Gold it would have been . At the recital of this notable circumstance , superadded to the rest , the generality of the Company , and the President too , by looking and smiling upon one another , express'd themselves to be as well delighted as surpriz'd ; and after the murmuring occasion'd by the various whispers that pass'd amongst them , was a little over , Heliodorus address'd himself to Pyrophilus , and told him , I need not , and therefore shall not , stay for an express order from the Company to give you their hearty thanks : for as the Obliging Stranger did very much gratifie you by the Present of his Wonderful Powder , so you have not a little gratified us by so candid and particular a Narrative of the effects of it ; and I hope ( continues he ) that if you have not yet otherwise dispos'd of that part of your deteriorated Gold that you did not cupel , you will sometime or other favour us with a sight of it . I join in this request , said Crattippus , as soon as he perceived the President had done speaking , and to facilitate the grant of it , I shall not scruple to tell Pyrophilus he may be confident that the Degradation of his Gold will not depreciate it amongst Us : since if it be allowable for Opinion to stamp such a value upon Old Coyns and Medals , that in the Judgment of good Antiquaries , a rusty piece of Brass or Copper , with a half defaced Image or Inscription on it , is to be highlier valued than as big a piece of well-stampt Gold ; I see not why it should not be lawful for Philosophers to prize such a lump of depraved Gold as yours , before the finest Gold the Chymists or Mintmasters are wont to afford us . And though I freely grant that some old Copper Medals are of good use in History , to keep alive by their Inscriptions the memory of the taking of a Town , or the winning of a Battel ; though these be but things that almost every day are some where or other done , yet I think Pyrophilus's imbas'd Metal is much to be preferr'd , as not only preserving the memory , but being an effect of such a Victory of Art over Nature , and the conquering of such generally believ'd insuperable difficulties , as no Story that I know of gives us an example of . As soon as ever Crattippus had made a pawse , Pyrophilus to prevent complimental discourse , did in few words tell the President , That his part had been but that of a Relator of matter of Fact , and that therefore he could deserve but little thanks and no praise at all ; though a good measure of both of them were due to the Obliging Virtuoso that had given him the Powder ; and in that , the opportunity of complying with his duty , and his inclination , to serve that learned Company . These Gentlemen ( saith Arristander ) are not persons among whom modesty is either restrained from expressing it self , or construed according to the Letter ; and therefore whatever you have been pleas'd to say , the Company cannot but think its self much obliged to you ; and I know the obligation would be much increas'd , if you would favor us with your reflections upon the extraordinary Experiment you have been pleased to relate to us . If , replies Pyrophilus , I had had wherewithal to repeat the Experiment , and vary it according to the hints afforded me by the first tryal , I should be less unfit to comply with Arristander's motion : but the Phaenomena are too new and too difficult for me to attempt to unriddle them by the help of so slender an information as a person so little sagacious as I could get by a single tryal ; and though I will not deny that I have had some ●aving thoughts about this puzzling subject , yet I hope I shall easily be pardon'd , if I decline to present crude and immature thoughts to a Company that so well deserves the most ripe ones , and can so skilfully discover those that are not so . I confess , saith Heliodorus , that I think Pyrophilus's wariness deserves not only to be allow'd , but imitated ; and therefore by my consent the further discourse of so abstruse a subject , shall be deferr'd till we shall have had time to consider seriously of Phaenomena that will be sure to imploy our most speculative thoughts , and I fear to pose them too : only we must not forget that Pyrophilus himself ought to be not barely allow'd , but invited to draw before we rise , what Corrollaries he thinks fit to propose from what he hath already delivered . The inference , saith Pyrophilus , I meant to make , will not detain you long ; having for the main been already intimated in what you may remember I told you I design'd in the mention I was about to make of the now-recited Experiment . For without launching into difficult Speculations , or making use of disputable Hypotheses , it seems evident enough from the matter of Fact faithfully laid before you , that an Operation very near , if not altogether as strange as that which is call'd Projection , and in the difficultest points much of the same nature with it , may safely be admitted . For our Experiment plainly shews that Gold , though confessedly the most homogeneous , and the least mutable of Metals , may be in a very short time ( perhaps not amounting to many minutes ) exceedingly chang'd , both as to malleableness , colour , homogeniety , and ( which is more ) specifick gravity ; and all this by so very inconsiderable a proportion of injected Powder , that since the Gold that was wrought on weighed two of our English drams , and consequently an hundred and twenty grains , an easie computation will assure us that the Medicine did thus powerfully act , according to my estimate , ( which was the modestest ) upon near a thousand times , ( for 't was above nine hundred and fifty times ) its weight of Gold , and according to my Assistants estimate , did ( as they speak ) go on upon twelve hundred ; so that if it were fit to apply to this Anti-Elixir , ( as I formerly ventur'd to call it ) what is said of the true Elixir by divers of the Chymical Philosophers , who will have the virtue of their Stone increas'd in such a proportion , as that at first 't will transmute but ten times its weight ; after the next rotation an hundred times , and after the next to that a thousand times , our Powder may in their language be stil'd a Medicine of the third order . The Computation , saith Arristander , is very obvious , but the change of so great a proportion of Metal is so wonderful and unexampled , that I hope we shall among other things learn from it this lesson , That we ought not to be so forward as many men otherwise of great parts are wont to be , in prescribing narrow limits to the power of Nature and Art , and in condemning and deriding all those that pretend to , or believe , uncommon things in Chymistry , as either ( heats or Credulous . And therefore I hope , that though ( at least in my opinion ) it be very allowable to call Fables , Fables , and to detect and expose the Impostures or Deceits of ignorant or vain-glorious Pretenders to Chymical Mysteries , yet we shall not by too hasty and general censures of the sober and diligent Indigators of the Arcana of Chymistry , blemish ( as much as in us lies ) that excellent Art it self , and thereby disoblige the genuine Sons of it , and divert those that are indeed Possessors of Noble Secrets , from vouchsafing to gratifie our Curiosity , as we see that one of them did Pyrophilus's , with the sight at least , of some of their highly Instructive Rarities . I wholly approve , saith Heliodorus rising from his seat , the discreet and seasonable motion made by Arristander . And I presume , subjoins Pyrophilus , that it will not be the less lik'd , if I add , That I will allow the Company to believe that as extraordinary , as I perceive most of you think the Phaenomena of the lately recited Experiment ; yet I have not ( because I must not do it ) as yet acquainted you with the Strangest effect of our Admirable Powder . 
A28958	----	A discourse of things above reason· Inquiring whether a philosopher should admit there are any such. By a Fellow of the Royal Society· To which are annexed by the publisher (for the affinity of the subjects) some advices about judging of things said to transcend reason. Written by a Fellow of the same Society. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1681 Approx. 203 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 101 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A28958 Wing B3945 ESTC R214128 99826341 99826341 30742 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A28958) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 30742) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1826:5) A discourse of things above reason· Inquiring whether a philosopher should admit there are any such. By a Fellow of the Royal Society· To which are annexed by the publisher (for the affinity of the subjects) some advices about judging of things said to transcend reason. Written by a Fellow of the same Society. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. Fellow of the same Society. aut [4], 94, [2], 100 p. printed by E.T. and R.H. for Jonathan Robinson at the Golden Lion in S. Paul's Church-Yard, London : 1681. Part 1 is by Robert Boyle; the authorship of part 2 is not established. "Advices in judging of things said to transcend reason" (caption title) begins new pagination on 2A1. In this issue, p.100 has 22 lines of text; last line reads "ciples of cosmography.". 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Philosophy -- Early works to 1800. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-05 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-06 Andrew Kuster Sampled and proofread 2006-06 Andrew Kuster Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A DISCOURSE OF Things ABOVE REASON . INQUIRING Whether a Philosopher should admit there are any such . By a Fellow of the Royal Society ▪ To which are annexed by the Publisher ( for the Affinity of the Subjects ) Some ADVICES About judging of Things said to Transcend REASON . WRITTEN By a Fellow of the same Society . LONDON , Printed by E. T. and R. H. for Jonathan Robinson at the Golden Lion in S. Paul's Church-Yard . 1681. An Advertisement . THe Later of the two following Dialogues is but a part of a Discourse , consisting of some Conferences , whereof , that was neither the First , nor the Last . This 't was thought fit the Reader should have notice of , that he may the more easily guess upon what account it is , that some Clauses in the first Page , ( and perhaps a few other Passages elsewhere ) contain somewhat that appears not altogether the same it would have done , if there had been no need to make any alteration at all in that Page . But because , tho there was a connection between that Dialogue and the rest of the Papers from which 't is dismembered , yet it 's dependency upon the others , is not so very great , but that the Publisher thought the divulging of it might be useful and seasonable : and therefore finding that want of Leisure , and much Diffidence , made the Author unwilling to revise , and part with the other Papers that accompanied this which now comes forth ; he prevail'd with him to suffer that Dialogue to take its Fortune , which the Publisher hopes may be such , as may incourage the Author to communicate what he has further meditated upon such Subjects . ERRATA . Pag. 3. lin . 3. read Arnobius . p. 9. l. 5. r. how . p. 25. l. 20. r. continui . p. ib. l. 21. r. hucusque superata . p. 38. l 20. for near read above . p. 56. l. 18. r. deny . p. 60. l. 5. r. sight . p 84 l. 7. r. men of . p. 86. l. ult . r. us ; for . p. 92. l. 22. r. Time will. p 93. l. 12. r. do . P. 4 l. 12. r. bare repetition . p. 34. l. 6. r. Body . p. 41. l. 3. r. instance ▪ p. 43. l. 10. r. ●gy . p. 48. l. 26. r. ●soners . p. 50. l. 3. r. thing . p. 62. l. 1. r. evidence of . A DISCOURSE OF Things ABOVE REASON . ENQUIRING , Whether a Philosopher should admit there are any such . The Speakers are , Sophronius , Eugenius , Pyrocles , and Timotheus . Euge. THE Seriousness you yet retain in your looks , and the posture we found you in at our entrance , makes me fear these two Gentlemen and I are unseasonable intruders , that are so unhappy as to disturb your Meditations . Sophron. Instead of doing that , you will much promote them , if you please to accompany me in them : For the subject that busied my thoughts is both so abstruse and so important , that it needs more than one to consider it , and deserves that He should be a far better considerer than I , who therefore must think my self far less fit for that task than you . Eug. I will punish the flattery of these last words , by declining to make any Return to it . Pyrocl. And I , Gentlemen , to prevent the loss of time and words between you , shall without farther Ceremony ask Sophronius , what his thoughts were employed about when we came in . Sophr. I was then musing upon a Subject , that was newly proposed to me by our common Friend Arnobiut , who would needs have my opinion , Whether , and if at all , how far , we may employ our reasonings about things that are above our Reason , as Christians grant some mysteries of their Religion to be . Euge. If , by things above Reason , be meant only those , that are undiscoverable by Reason without Revelation ; I should not hesitate to say , that there may be divers things of that kind : For the free Decrees of God , and his determinations concerning the Government of the World , and the future state of mankind ( to name now no others ) are things which no humane Reason can pry into , but must owe the fundamental discovery it makes of them , to the Revelation of him , whose purposes they are . But if , by things above Reason , be meant such , as though delivered in words , free from darkness and Ambiguity , are not to be conceived , and comprehended by our Rational Faculty , I shall freely confess , that I scarce know what to say upon so unusual and sublime a subject . Pyrocl. For my part , Gentlemen , I think it were very requisite to be sure in the first place , that the subject of our Discourses is not Chimerical , but that we can really know , that there are things we cannot comprehend , though they be proposed to us in expressions no less clear than such , as would suffice to make other things intelligible to us . Sophr. Your cautiousness , Pyrocles , must not be rejected by me , who when , before you came in , I was putting my thoughts into some order , judg'd it unfit to consider , either how one might know what things were to be look'd on as above Reason , how far we may discourse of them , or whether or no any supernaturally revealed Propositions , such as Divines call Articles of Faith , ought to be reckoned among them , till I should have first seriously enquir'd , whether in general we ought to admit any such Objects of our Contemplation , as these , and the like Questions suppose . Euge. I hope then that this being the first thing you purposed to enquire into , we may , without too much boldness , desire to know what came into your mind about it . Sophr. If I had brought my considerations to an issue upon that subject , I should with less reluctancy acquaint you with them ; but I since I have yet made but an imperfect progress in my enquiry , instead of delivering any positive opinion upon so abstruse a subject , I shall only tell you , that as far as I could yet discern , it seemed to me that among the Objects , our reason may contemplate there are some whose Nature we cannot comprehend , others whose Attributes or Actions are such , as that we cannot understand how they should belong to the Subject , or else that we cannot conceive how they should consist with some acknowledged Truth . Euge. So that if I apprehend you right , you do not only admit some things to be above Reason , but make no less than three sorts of them . Sophr. If you will needs have two of them to be coincident , I shall not much contend , but I think the number you have named may , without any great inconvenience , be admitted : For by things above Reason , I here understand ( not false or absurd ones , but ) such , as though the Intellect sees sufficient cause ( whether on the score of Experience , Authentick Testimony , or Mathematical Demonstration ) to assent to ; yet it finds it self reduc'd when 't is conversant about them , to be so with a notable and peculiar disadvantage : And this disadvantage does usually proceed either from the nature of the thing proposed , which is such , that we cannot sufficiently comprehend it , or from our not being able to conceive the manner of its existing and operating ; or from this , that it involves some notion or proposition , that we see not how to reconcile with some other thing , that we are perswaded to be a truth . The first of these three sorts of things , may , for brevity and distinction sake be called Incomprehensible , the second Inexplicable , and the third Unsociable . But for fear lest the shortness I have used in my expressions , may have kept them from being so clear , I shall somewhat more explicitly reckon up the three sorts of things that seem to me above Reason . The first consists of those whose Nature is not distinctly and adequately comprehensible by us : To which sort perhaps we may refer all those intellectual Beings ( if it be granted that there are such ) as are by nature of a higher order than humane Souls . To which sort some 〈◊〉 the Angels ( at least of the good ones ) may probably belong ; but more than probably we may refer to this Head , the Divine Author of Nature , and of our Souls , Almighty God , whose perfections are so boundless , and his Nature so very singular , that 't is no less weakness than presumption to imagine , that such finite Beings as our Souls , can frame full and adequate Idea's of them : We may indeed know by the consideration of his works , and particularly those parts of them that we our selves are , both That he is , and in a great measure What he is not ; but to understand throughly What he is , is a task too great for any but his own infinite Intellect : And therefore I think we may truly call this immense Object , in the newly declared sence , supra-Intellectual . Euge. I suppose I may now ask what is the second sort of Things above Reason ? Sophr. It consists of such , as though we cannot deny that they are , yet we cannot clearly and satisfactorily conceive , how they can be such as we acknowledge they are . As how Matter can be infinitely , ( or which is all one , in our present discourse , indefinitely ) divisible : And how there should be such an incommensurableness betwixt the Side and Diagonal of a Square , that no measure , how small soever , can adequatly measure both the one and the other . That Matter is endlesly divisible , is not only the assertion of Aristotle and the Schools , but generally embraced by those rigid Reasoners , Geometricians themselves ; and may be farther confirm'd by the other instance of the Side and Diagonal of a Square , whose incommensurableness is believed upon no less firm a proof , than a demonstration of Euclid , and was so known a truth among the Ancients , that Plato is said to have pronounced him rather a Beast than a Man , that was a stranger to it . And yet if continued quantity be not divisible without stop , how can we conceive but that there may be found some determinate part of the side of a Square , which being often enough repeated , would exactly measure the Diagonal too . But though Mathematical Demonstrations assure us , that these things are so , yet those that have strained their Brains , have not been able clearly to conceive how it should be possible , that a Line ( for instance ) of not a quarter of an inch long , should be still divisible into lesser and lesser portions , without ever coming to an end of those subdivisions ; or how among the innumerable differing partitions into aliquot parts , that may be made of the side of a Square , not one of those parts can be found exactly to measure so short a Line as the Diagonal may be . Euge. There is yet behind , Sophronius , the third sort of those things , which , according to you , surpass our Reason . Sophr. I shall name that too , Eugenius , as soon as I have premised that some of the Reasons that moved me to refer some instances to this head , do not so peculiarly belong to those instances , but that they may be applicable to others , which 't was thought convenient to refer to the second or first of the foregoing Heads : And this being once intimated , I shall proceed to tell you , that the third sort of things that seem to surpass our Reason , consists of those , to which the Rules and Axioms and Notions , whereby we judge of the truth and falshood of ordinary , or other things , seem not to agree . This third sort being such as are incumbred with Difficulties or Objections , that cannot directly and satisfactorily be removed by them that acquiesce in the received Rules of subordinate Sciences , and do reason but at the common rate , such Objects of Contemplation as this third sort consists of , having something belonging to them , that seems not reconcilable with some very manifest , or at least acknowledged Truths . This it may here suffice to make out by a couple of Instances , the one of a Moral , the other of a Mathematical Nature : And first , that Man has a free will , in reference at least to civil matters , is the general confession of Mankind : All the Laws that forbid and punish Murder , Adultery , Theft , and other Crimes , being founded on a Supposition , that men have a power to forbear committing them , and the sense men have of their being possest of this power over their own actions , is great enough to make Malefactors acknowledg their punishments to be just , being no less condemned by their own Consciences , than by their Judges . And yet ( some Socinians , and some few others excepted ) the generality of Mankind , whether Christians , Jews , Mahometans , or Heathens , ascribe to God an infallible Prescience of humane Actions , which is supposed by the belief of Prophecies , and the recourse to Oracles , by one or other of which two ways the Embracers of the several Religions newly mentioned , have endeavoured and expected to receive the informations of future things , and such as depend upon the Actings of men . But how a certain fore-knowledg can be had of contingent things , and such as depend upon the free will of man , is that which many great wits that have solicitously tryed , have found themselves unable clearly to comprehend , nor is it much to be admired that they should be puzled to conceive how an infinitely perfect Being should want Prescience , or that their will should want that liberty , whereof they feel in themselves the almost perpetual exercise . The other instance I promised you , Euge. is afforded me by Geometricians : For these ( you know ) teach the divisibility of Quantity in infinitum or without stop , to be Mathematically demonstrable . Give me leave then to propose to you a strait line of three foot long divided into two parts , the one double to the other . I suppose then , that according to their doctrine a line of two foot is divisible into infinite parts , or it is not : If you say it is not , you contradict the demonstrations of the Geometricians ; if you say that it is , then you must confess either that the line of one foot is divisible into as many parts as the line of two foot , though the one be but half the other , or else that the infinite parts , into which the line of one foot is granted to be divisible , is exceeded in number by the parts , into which the line of two foot is divisible , and consequently that the line of two foot has a multitude of parts greater than infinite . Which Reasonings may let us see that we may be reduced either to reject Inferences legitimately drawn from manifest or granted Truths , or to admit conclusions that appear absurd ; if we will have all the common Rules whereby we judge of other things to be applicable to Infinites . And now , Gentlemen , having acquainted you with what sorts of things seem to be above Reason , I must , to prevent mistakes , desire you to take along with you this Advertisement : That though the nobleness and difficulty of so uncultivated a Subject , inclined me to offer something towards the elucidating of it , by sorting those things into three kinds ; yet I shall not , and need not in this Conference , insist on them severally , or lay any stress on this partition . For though I have above intimated , that a Proposition may speak of somewhat that is supra-intellectual , or else contain somewhat which we cannot conceive how it may be true , or lastly teach us somewhat for a truth , that we cannot reconcile with some other thing , that we are convinced is true ; yet if but any one of these have true Instances belonging to it , That may suffice for my main purpose in this place , where I need only shew in general , that there may be things that surpassour Reason , at least so far , that they are not to be judged of by the same measures and rules , by which men are wont to judge of ordinary things , for which reason I shall often give them one common name , calling them Priviledg'd Things . Euge. Methinks that to manifest the Imperfections of our Reason , in reference to what you call Priviledg'd Things , you need not have recourse to the unfathomable Abysses of the Divine Nature , since for ought I know , Pyrocles , as well as I , may be non-plus'd by an instance that came into my mind de Compositione continui . Timoth. Since Sophronius has not thought fit to give us any of the Arguments of the contending party's , I shall be glad to know what difficulty occurr'd to you . Euge. Suppose a great Circle divided into its three hundred and sixty degrees , and suppose that as great a number as you please or can conceive , of strait lines , be drawn from the several designable parts of some one of these degrees , to the Centre , 't is manifest that the degrees being equal , as many lines may be drawn from any , and so from every one of the others , as from that degree which was pitched upon . Then suppose a Circular Arch , equal to the assumed degree , to be further bent into the circumference of a little circle , having the same Centre with a great one , it follows from the nature of a Circle , and has been geometrically demonstrated , that the semi-diameters of a Circle how many soever they be , can no where touch one another but in the Centre . Whence 't is evident , that all the lines that are drawn from the circumference to the Centre of the greater Circle ▪ must pass by differing points of the circumference of the smaller , ( for else they would touch one another before they arrive at the Centre ) and consequently that as many lines soever as can even mentally be drawn from the several points of the circumference of the great Circle to the common Centre of both Circles , must all pass through different points of the little Circle , and thereby divide it into as many parts ( proportionably smaller ) as the greater Circle is divided into : So that here the circumference of the lesser Circle presents us with a curve line , which was not possibly divisible into more parts than an Arch of one degree , or the three hundred and sixtieth part of the Circumference of the greater Circle , and yet without being lengthned , becomes divisible into as many parts as the whole circumference of the same greater Circle . And though we should suppose the circumference of the internal Circle not to exceed one inch , and that of the exterior Circle to exceed the circumference of the Terrestrial Globe , or even of the Firmament it self , yet still the demonstration would hold , and all the lines drawn from this vast Circle , would find distinct points in the lesser , to pass through to their common Centre . Timoth. Though I will not pretend to confirm what Sophronius has been proving , by adding Arguments a priori ; yet I shall venture to say , that I think it very agreeable both to the nature of God and to that of man , that what he has endeavoured to prove true should be so ; for we men mistake and flatter Humane Nature too much , when we think our faculties of Understanding so unlimited , both in point of capacity and of extent , and so free and unprepossest , as many Philosophers seem to suppose : For , whatever our self-love may incline us to imagine , we are really but created and finite Beings ( and that probably of none of the highest or●ders of intellectual Creatures ) and we come into the world , but such , as it pleased the Almighty and most free Author of our Nature to make us . And from this dependency and limitedness of our Natures , it follows not only that we may be ( for I now dispute not whether we are ) born with certain congenit Notions and Impressions and Appetites or Tendencies of Mind ; but also that the means or measures which are furnished us to employ in the searching or judging of Truth , are but such as are proportionable to Gods designs in creating us , and therefore may probably be supposed not to be capable of reaching to all kinds , or if you please of Truths , many of which may be unnecessary for us to know here , and some may be reserved , partly to make us sensible of the imperfections of our Natures , and partly to make us aspire to that condition , wherein our faculties shall be much enlarged and heightned . It seems not therefore unreasonable to think , both that God has made our faculties so limited , that in our present mortal condition there should be some Objects beyond the comprehension of our Intellects ( that is ) that some of his creatures should not be able perfectly to understand some others , & yet that he has given us light enough to perceive that we cannot attain to a clear and full knowledge of them . Pyrocl. I think , Sophronius , that I now understand what you mean by Things above reason , or as you ( not unfitly ) stiled them , priviledged things : But I presume you need not be told , that to explain the sence of a Proposition , and to make out the truth of it , ( unless in common Notions , or things evident by their own light ) are always two things , and oftentimes two very distant ones . Sophr. I need not scruple , Pyrocles , to grant the truth of what you say , but I must not so easily admit your application of it ; for among the examples , I have been proposing , there are some at least , that do not only declare what I mean by things above reason , but are instances , and consequently may be proofs that such things there are . And to those I could have added others , if I had thought it unlikely , that in the progress of our Conference , there may be occasions offered of mentioning them more opportunely . Pyrocl. I have long thought that the wit of man , was able to lay a fine varnish upon any thing that it would recommend ; but I have not till now found Reason set a work to degrade it self , as if it were a noble exercise of its power to establish its own impotency : And indeed 't is strange to me , how you would have our Reason comprehend and reach things , that you your sel● confess to be above Reason , which is methinks , as if we were told that we may see things with our eye● that are invisible . Sophr. I do not think , that ' ti● to degrade the understanding , to refuse to idolize it , and 't is not a●● injury to Reason , to think it a li●mited faculty , but an injury to th● Author of it , to think man's understanding infinite , like his . And if what I proposed be well grounded , I assign Reason its most noble and genuine Exercise , which is to close with discovered Truths , in whose embraces the perfection of the Intellect too much consists , to suffer that perfective action to be justly disparaging to it : And a sincere understanding is to give , or refuse its assent to propositions according as they are or are not true , not according as we could or could not wish they were so ; and methinks it were somewhat strange , that Impartiality should be made a disparagement in a Judge . But , Pyrocles , leaving the reflection with which you usher'd in your Objection , I shall now consider the Argument it self , which being the weightiest that can be framed against the opinion you oppose , I shall beg leave to offer some considerations , wherein I shall endeavour to answer it both by proving my Opinion by experience , and by shewing that experience not to be disagreeable to Reason . Pyrocl. I shall very willingly listen to what you have to say on such a subject . Sophr. I shall then in the first place alledge the experience of many persons , and divers of them great Wits , who have perplexed themselves to reconcile , I say , not the Grace of God , but even his Prescience to the liberty of mans will , even in bare moral actions : And I have found partly by their Writings , and by discourse with some of them , that the most towring and subtle sort of Speculators , Metaphysicians , and Mathematicians , perchance after much racking of their brains , confess themselves quite baffled by the unconquerable difficulties they met with , not only in such abstruse subjects , as the nature of God , or of the humane Soul , but in the nature of what belongs in common to the most obvious Bodies in the world , and even to the least portions of them : You will easily guess that I have my eye on that famous controversie , Whether or no a continued quantity ( which every body , as having length , bredth , depth , must be allowed to have ) be made up of Indivisibles . Of the perplexing difficulties of this Controversie , I might give you divers confessions , or complaints made by a sort of men too much accustomed to bold assertions and subtle Arguments , to be much disposed to make acknowledgments of that kind : But I shall content my self with the testimony which one of the more famous modern Schoolmen gives both of himself and other learned men , and which if I well remember , he thus expresses . Aggredimur comtinus compositionem , cujus hujusque non separata difficultas omnium Doctorum male ingenia vexavit , neque ullus fuit qui illam non pene insuperabilem agnoscat . Hanc plerique terminorum obscuritate , illorumque replicatis & implicatis distinctionibus , & subdistinctionibus obtenebrant , ne aperté capiantur desperantes rem posse alio modo tractari neque rationis lucem sustinere , sed necessario confusionis tenebris obtegendum , ne argumentorum evidentiâ detegatur . And though he had not been thus candid in his confession , yet what he says might be easily concluded by him , that shall duly weigh with how great , though not equal force of Arguments , each of the contending parties imputes to the opinion it opposes , great and intolerable absurdities as contained in it , or legitimately deducible from it . Eug. I have not the vanity to think that the weakness of my Reason ought to make another diffident of the strength of his : But as to my self , what Sophronius has been saying cannot but be confirm'd by several tryals , wherein having exerted the small abilities I had to clear up to my self some of the difficulties about Infinites : I perceived to my trouble , that my speculations satisfied me of nothing so much , as the disproportionateness of those abstruse subjects to my reason . But , Sophronius , may it not be well objected , that though the Instances you have given , have not been hitherto cleared by the light of Reason ; yet 't is probable they may be so hereafter , considering how great progress is , from time to time , made in the discoveries of Nature , in this learned Age of ours . Sophr. In answer to this question , Eugenius , give me leave to tell you first , that you allow my past discourse to hold good for ought yet appears to the contrary : Whence it will follow , that your Objection is grounded upon a hope , or at most a Conjecture about which I need not therefore trouble my self , till some new discoveries about the things in question , engage me to a new consideration of them . But in the mean while , give me leave to represent to you in the second place , that though I am very willing to believe , as well as I both desire and hope it , that this inquisitive Age we live in , will produce discoveries that will explicate divers of the more hidden mysteries of Nature , yet I expect that these discoveries will chiefly concern those things , which either we are ignorant of for want of a competent History of Nature , or we mistake by reason of erroneous Prepossessions , or for want of freedom and attention in our speculations . But I have not the like expectations as to all Metaphysical difficulties , ( if I may so call them ) wherein neither matters of Fact , nor the Hypothesis of subordinate parts of Learning , are wont much to avail . But however it be , as to other abstruse Objects , I am very apt to think , that there are some things relating to that infinite and most Monadical Being ( if I may so speak ) that we call God , which will still remain incomprehensible even to Philosophical understandings . And I can scarce allow my self to hope to see those Obstacles surmounted , that proceed not from any Personal infirmity , or evitable faults , but from the limited nature of the Intellect : And to these two considerations , Eugenius , I shall in answer to your question , add this also : That as mens inquisitiveness may hereafter extricate some of those grand difficulties , that have hitherto perplexed Philosophers ; so it may possibly lead them to discover new difficulties more capable than the first , of baffling humane understandings . For even among the things wherewith we are already conversant , there are divers which we think we know , only because we never with due attention , tryed whether we can frame such Ideas of them , as are clear and worthy for a rational seeker and lover of truth to acquiesce in . This the great intricacy that considering men find , in the notions commonly receiv'd of space , time , motion , &c. and the difficulties of framing perspicuous and satisfactory apprehensions even of such obvious things , may render highly probable . We see also that the Angle of Contact , the Doctrine of Asymptotes , and that of surd numbers and incommensurable Lines , all which trouble not common Accomptants and Surveyors , ( who though they deal so much in numbers and lines , seldom take notice of any of them ) perplex the greatest Mathematicians , and some of them so much , that they can rather demonstrate , that such affections belong to them , than they can conceive how they can do so : All which may render it probable , that mens growing curiosity is not more likely to find the solutions of some difficulties , than to take notice of other things , that may prove more insuperable than they . Tim. This conjecture of yours , Sophronius , is not a little favoured by the Rota Aristotelica ; for though the motion of a Cart-wheel is so obvious and seems so plain a thing , that the Carman himself never looks upon it with wonder ; yet after Aristotle had taken notice of the difficulty that occurr'd about it , this trivial Phaenomenon has perplex'd divers great Wits , not only Schoolmen , but Mathematicians , and continues yet to do so , there being some circumstances in the progressive motion and rotation of the circumference of a Wheel , and its Nave , or of two points assigned , the one in the former , and the other in the latter , that have appeared too subtle ( and even to modern ) Writers , so hard to be conceived and reconciled to some plain and granted Truths , that some of them have given over the solution of the attending difficulties as desperate , which perchance , Pyrocles , would not think strange , if I had time to insist on the intricacies that are to be met with in a speculation , that seems so easie as to be despicable . Sophr. Your Instance , Timotheus , must be acknowledged a very pregnant one , if you are certain that a better account cannot be given of the Rota Aristotelica , than is wont to be in the Schools , by those Peripateticks that either frankly confess the difficulties to be insoluble , or less ingenuously pretend to give solutions of them , that suppose things not to be proved , or perhaps so much as understood ( as Rarefaction and Condensation strictly so called ) or lose the question and perhaps themselves , by running up the dispute into that most obscure and perplexing Controversie de compositione continui . Eugen. I am content to forbear pressing any further at present an Objection ; much of whose force depends on future contingents , and I shall the rather dismiss the proof drawn from experience , that I may the sooner put you in mind of your having promised us another Argument to the same purpose , by manifesting the opinion to be agreeable to Reason . Sophr. I understand your pleasure , Eugenius , and shall endeavour to comply with it , but the difficulty and intricateness of the Subject of our discourse , obliges me to do it by steps ; and for fear we should want time for more necessary things , I will not now stay to examine whether all the things that hitherto have appeared above Reason , be impenetrable to us , because of an essential disability of our understandings , proceeding from the imperfection and limitedness of their nature , or only because of some other impediment , such as may be especially the condition of the soul in this life , or the infirmities resulting from its state of union with a gross and mortal body . Forbearing then to discourse how this came into my mind , and what thoughts I had upon it , I shall proceed in my considerations ; and to clear the way for those that are to follow , I shall in the first place observe to you , that whatever be thought of the faculty in abstracto , yet Reason operates according to certain Notions or Ideas , and certain Axiomes and Propositions , by which as by Prototypes or Models , and Rules and Measures , it conceives things , and makes estimates and judgments of them . And indeed when we say that such a thing is consonant to Reason , or repugnant to it , we usually mean that it is either immediately or mediately deducible from , or at least consistent with , or contradictory to one or other of those standard Notions or Rules . And this being premis'd , I consider in the next place , that if these Rules and Notions be such , as are abstracted only from finite things , or are congruous but to them ; they may prove useless or deceitful to us , when we go about to stretch them beyond their measure , and apply them to the infinite God , or to things that involve an Infiniteness either in multitude , magnitude , or littleness . To illustrate and confirm this notion , give me leave to represent in the third place , that in my opinion all the things that we naturally do know or can know , may be divided into these two sorts : The one such as we may know without a Medium ▪ and the other such as we cannot attain to , but by the intervention of a Medium , or by a discursive act . To the first belong such Notions as are supposed to be connate , or if you please innate , such as that Two contradictories cannot be both together true . The whole is greater than any part of it ; Every ( entire ) number is either even or odd , &c. And also those other Truths , that are assented to upon their own account without needing any medium to prove them ; because that as soon as , by perspicuous terms , or fit examples , they are clearly proposed to the understanding , they discover themselves to be true so manifestly by their own light , that they need not be assisted by any intervening Proposition , to make the Intellect acquiesce in them ; of which kind are some of Euclids Axioms , as that , If to equal things equal things be added , the totals will be equal ; and that two right lines cannot include a space . To the second sort of things knowable by us , belong all that we acquire the knowledge of by Ratiocinations , wherein by the help of intervening Propositions or Mediums , we deduce one thing from another , or conclude affirmatively or negatively one thing of another . This being supposed , and we being conscious to our selves , if it were but upon the score of our own infirmities and imperfections , that we are not Authors of our own nature ; for ought we know it may be true , and all the experience we have hitherto had , leads us to think it is true , that the measures suggested to us either by sensations , the results of sensible observation , or the other instruments of knowledge , are such as fully reach but to finite things or Beings , and therefore are not safely applicable to others . And divers of those very Principles that we think very general , may be ( if I may so speak ) but gradual notions of truth , and but limited and respective , not absolute and universal . And here give me leave , as a farther consideration , to take notice to you , that though perfect Syllogism be counted the best and most regular forms that our Ratiocinations can assume , yet even the laws of these are grounded on the doctrine of Proportions : For even between things equal there may be a proportion ( namely that of equality ) upon which ground I suppose it is , that Mathematical Demonstrations have been publickly proposed of the grand Syllogistical Rules . And in consequence of this , I shall add that Geometricians will tell you , that there is no proportion betwixt a finite line and an infinite , because the former can never be so often taken , as to exceed the latter , which ac●cording to Euclid's definition of Proportion , it should be capable to do . Of which Premises the use I would make is to perswade you , that since the understanding operates but by the Notions and Truths 't is furnished with , and these are its instruments by proportion to which it takes measures , and makes judgments of other things ; these Instruments may be too disproportionate to some Objects to be securely employed to determine divers particulars about them : So the eye being an instrument which the understanding employs to estimate distances , we cannot by that safely take the bredth of the Ocean , because our sight cannot reach far enough to discover how far so vast an object extends it self . And not only the common instruments of Surveyors that would serve to measure the height of an house or a steeple , or even a Mountain , cannot enable them to take the distance of the Moon ; but , when Astronomers do , by supposition , take a chain that reaches to the Centre of the Earth , ( and therefore is by the Moderns judged to be near four thousand miles long ) even then I say , though by the help of this and the Parallaxes , they may tolerably well measure the distance of some of the neerer Planets , especially the Moon● yet with all their great industry● they cannot by the same way ( o● perhaps any other yet known ) wit● any thing tolerable acurateness , measure the distance of the fixed Stars ; the Semidiameter of the Earth , bearing no sensible proportion to that of so vast a Sphere as the Firmament , whose distance makes the Parallaxes vanish , it being as to sence all one , whether at so great a remove , a Star be observ'd from the Centre , or from the surface of the Earth . Eug. In a matter so abstruse , a little Illustration by examples , may be very proper and welcome . Sophr. 'T is scarce possible to find very apposite examples , to illustrate things of a kind so abstruse and heteroclite as those may well be suppos'd , that do surpass our Reason . But yet some assistance may be borrowed from what we may observe in that other faculty of the mind , which is most of kin to the Intellect , I mean the Imagination : For when , for instance , I think of a Triangle or a Square , I find in my fancy an intuitive Idea ( if I may so call it ) of those figures that is a Picture clear and distinct , as if a figure of three sides or four equal sides , and Angles were placed before my eyes . But if I would fancy a myriagon , or a figure consisting of ten thousand equal sides , my Imagination is overpowered with so great a multitude of them , and frames but a confused Idea of a Polygon with a very great many sides : For if ( to speak suitably to what the excellent Des Cartes has well observed in the like case ) a man should endeavour to frame Ideas of a Myriagon or a Chiliagon , they would be both so confused , that his Imagination would not be able clearly to discriminate them , though the one has ten times as many sides as the other . So if you would imagine an Atome , of which perhaps ten thousand would scarce make up the bulk of one of the light particles of dust , that seem to play in the Sunbeams when they are shot into a darkned place , so extraordinary a littleness not having fallen under any of our Senses , cannot truly be represented in our imagination . So when we speak of Gods Primity ( if I may so call it ) Omnipotence , and some other of his infinite Attributes and Perfections , we have some conceptions of the things we speak of , but may very well discern them to be but inadequate ones : And though divers Propositions relating to things above Reason , seem clear enough to ordinary Wits , yet he that shall with a competent measure of attention , curiosity , and skill , consider and examine them ; shall find that either their parts are inconsistent with one another , or they involve contradictions to some acknowledged or manifest Truths , or they are veil'd over with darkness and incumbered with difficulties , from whence we are not able to rescue them . Thus when the side and Diagonal of a Square are proposed , we have clear and distinct Ideas of each of them apart , and when they are compared , we may have a conception of their incommensurableness . But yet this negative notion , if it be throughly considered , and far enough pursued , clearly contains that of a strait lines being divisible in infinitum ; and that divisibility is incumbred with so many difficulties , and is so hard to be reconciled to some confessed dictates of Reason , that ( as we have seen already ) Philosophers and Geometricians that are convinc'd of the truth , are to this day labouring to extricate themselves out of those perplexing intricacies . I will not trouble you with the puzling , if not insuperable difficulties , that incumber the doctrine of Eternity , as 't is wont to be proposed in the Schools of Divines and Philosophers , lest you should alledge that these difficulties spring rather from the bold assumptions and groundless subtleties of the Schoolmen , than from the nature of the thing it self : But I will propose somewhat that cannot be denyed , which is , that some substance or other , whether , as I believe , God , or as the Peripateticks say , the World , or as the Epicureans contend , Matter , never had a beginning , that is , has been for ever . But when we speak of an eternity à parte ante ( as they call it ) we do not speak of a thing whereof we have no conception at all , as will appear to a considering person , and yet this general notion we have is such , that when we come attentively to examine it , by the same ways by which we judge of almost all other things , the Intellect is non-plus'd : For we must conceive , that the time efflux'd since Adam ( or any other man as remote from us as he is said to have been ) began to live , bears no more proportion to the duration of God , or of Matter , than to those few minutes I have imployed about mentioning this instance . Nay if we would be Aristotelians , the same thing may be said as to those men , that lived many thousand millions of years before the time we reckon that Adam began to live in : For each of these times being finite and measurable by a determinate number of years , can bear no proportion to that infinite number of years ( or somewhat that is equivalent ) which must be allowed to a duration that never had a beginning . And as there are some things whose nature and consequences pose our Faculties , so there are others , whereof though we have a notion , yet the modus operandi is beyond our comprehension ; I do not mean only the true and certain modus operandi , but even an intelligible one . As , though divers learned men , especially Cartesians , and that upon a Philosophical account , assert , that God created the world ; yet how a substance could be made out of nothing ( as they , and the generality of Christians confessedly hold ) I fear we cannot conceive . And though all Philosophers , very few excepted , believe God to be the Maker of the World ( out of pre-existent matter ) yet how he could make it but by locally moving the parts of the Matter it was to consist of , and how an incorporeal substance can move a body , which it may pass through without resistance , is that which I fear will be found hardly explicable : For if it be said , that the Soul , being an immaterial substance , can never the less move the Limbs of the humane Body rightly dispos'd , I shall answer that it does not appear that the rational Soul doth give any motion to the parts of the Body , but only guide or regulate that which she finds in them already . Timoth. May it not then be rationally said , that by making observations of such things that are the proper Objects of our faculties , and by making legitimate deductions from such observations , and from our other knowledges whether innate or acquired , we may come to be certain , that some things are , and so have general and dark Ideas of them , when at the same time we are at a loss to conceive how they can be such , or how they can operate and perform what they do , supposing the Truth and sufficiency of some other things we are convinced of . To be short , negative apprehensions we may have of some priviledged things , and positive , but indistinct apprehensions we may have of others , and that is enough to make us in some sort understand our selves , and one another , when we speak of them , though yet when we sufficiently consider what we say , we may find that our words are not accompanied with clear , distinct , and symmetrical conceptions , of those abstruse and perplexing things we speak of . And since , as hath been already shewn , we find by experience , that we are unable sufficiently to comprehend things , that by clear and legitimate consequences may be evinc'd to be , why should not this cogently argue , that some of our conceptions may be of things , to which somewhat belongs that transcends our Reason , and surpasses our comprehension ? And if I would play the Logician with Pyrocles , I would tell him that his Objection destroys his Opinion : For since he talks to us of what is incomprehensible , that term must or must not be attended with some suitable Idea : If it be not , let him consider , whether in his own Phrase he speaks sence and not like a Parrot ; but if it be , let him then confess , that one may have some kind of Idea of a thing incomprehensible . But , Pyrocles , whether or no you think I prevaricate in this , you will not , I hope , suspect me of doing it , in adding that when natural Theology had taught men , ( as well Philosophers as others ) to believe God to be an infinitely perfect Being , we ought not to say that they had no Idea of such a Being , because they had not a clear and adequate one . And since Aristotle discourses ex professo and prolixly enough , de infinito , and cites the ancienter Philosophers for having done so before him , and since ( besides his Commentators and Followers ) Democritus , Epicurus , followed by Gassendus and other late Philosophers , maintain either that the world is boundless , or that space ( real or imaginary ) is not finite in extent , or that the world consists of Atoms infinite in number ; I hope you will not put such an affront upon all these great persons , as to think they said they knew not what , when they discoursed de infinito , as they must have done , if they spake without Ideas of the things they spake of , though it may be justly supposed , that the Subject being infinite , the Ideas they framed of it , could not be comprehensive and accurate . Eug. So that according to you , Sophronius , it may be said , that by reason we do not properly perceive Things above Reason , but only perceive that they are above Reason , there being a dark and peculiar kind of Impression made upon the understanding , while it sets it self to contemplate such confounding Objects , by which peculiarity of impression , as by a distinct and unwonted kind of internal sensation , the understanding is brought to distinguish this sort of things ( namely ) transcendent or priviledg'd ones from others , and discern them to be disproportionate to the powers with which it uses throughly to penetrate Subjects , that are not impervious to it . As when the Eye looks into a deep Sea , though it may pierce a little way into it , yet when it would look deeper , it discovers nothing but somewhat which is dark and indistinct , which affects the sensory so differingly from what other more genuine objects are wont to do , that by it we easily discern , that our sight fails us in the way before it arrives at the bottom , and consequently that there may be many things conceal'd there , that our sight is unable to reach . Timoth. I guess , Gentlemen , by the silence you seem to conspire in , after so long a debate , that you have now said as much as at present you think fit to say for and against this Proposition , that there are Things above our Reason . Sophr. I shall not , for my part , cross your Observation , Timotheus , but instead of adding any new proofs , shall only desire you to look back upon those I have presented you already , and to let me remind you , that of the two Arguments by which I attempted to shew that there are some things above Reason , the first and chiefest was suggested by Experience , and the other which was drawn from the nature of things and of man , was brought as 't were , ex abundanti , to illustrate and confirm the former , and give occasion to some hints about priviledg'd Subjects . And therefore though I hope what has been discours'd by these Gentlemen and me , may be able to perswade Pyrocles , that the acknowledgment that some things are above Reason may fairly comply with the dictates of it , yet whatever he thinks of the cogency of our discourse , the truth of the main conclusion may be sufficiently evinc'd by our first Argument drawn from experience : For if we really find , that there are things which our Reason cannot comprehend , then whether the account these Gentlemen and I have given , why our faculties are insufficient , for these things be good or not ; yet still some true account or other there must be of that insufficiency . And as we should very thankfully receive from Pyrocles , any better account than what we have propounded , so if he cannot assign any better , I hope he will joyn with us in looking upon this , as very agreeable to our Hypothesis ; since hereby some things must appear to us so sublime and abstruse , that not only we find we are not able to comprehend them , but that we are unable to discern so much as upon what account it is that they cannot be comprehended by us . Eug. I am not averse , Sophronius , from your Paradox about gradual notions , and I am the more in clin'd to think , that some of the Axioms and Rules that are reputed to be very general , are not to be in differently extended to all Subject and cases whatsoever ; when I consider the differing apprehension that the mind may frame of the same object , as well according to the vigour or ( if I may so call it rank of the understanding , as according to the differing information 't is furnished with : For if on● should propose to a child , for in●stance , of four or five years old the demonstration of the one hu●●dred and seventeenth Propositio● of Euclid's tenth Book , wherein 〈◊〉 proves the side and Diagonal 〈◊〉 a Square to be incommensur●●ble , thongh possibly he may be ●●ble to read the words that expre●● the Theorem , and though he ha● eyes to see the Scheme imploy●● for the demonstration , yet if 〈◊〉 should spend a whole year about 〈◊〉 you would never be able to make him understand it , because 't is quite above the reach of a Childs capacity : And if one should stay till he be grown a man , yet supposing him to have never learned Geometry , though he may easily know what you mean by two incommensurable lines , yet all the reason he has attained to in his virile age , would but indispose him to attain to that demonstration ; for all the experience he may have had of lines , will but have suggested to him as a manifest and general truth , that of any two strait lines we may by measuring find how many Feet , Inches , or other determinate measure , the one exceeds the other . And though one that has been orderly instructed in all that long train of Propositions , that in Euclid's Elements precede the one hundred and seventeenth of the tenth Book , will be also able to arrive at an evidence of this truth , that those two Lines are incommensurable ; yet ( as Sophronius formerly noted ) how it should be possible that two short Lines being proposed , whereof each by it self is easily measurable among those innumerable multitudes of parts into which each of them may be mentally divided , there should not be any one capable of exactly measuring both , is that which even a Geometrician that knows it is true is not well able to conceive . But Gentlemen , that you may not accuse my digression , I shall urge these comparisons no further , my scope in mentioning them being to observe to you , that for ought w● know to the contrary , such a diffe●rence of intellectual Abilities as i● but gradual in Children and Men● may be essential in differing rank● of Intellectual Beings . And so 〈◊〉 may be , that some of those Axiom that we think general , may , whe●● we apply them to things whereo● they are not the true and prope● measures , lead us into error , thoug● perhaps Intellects of an higher o●●der may unriddle those difficulti● that confound us men , which conjecture I should confirm by some things that would be readily granted me by Christians , if I thought it proper to play the Divine in a discourse purely Philosophical . Pyrocl. You , Gentlemen , have taken the liberty to make long discourses , and I shall not much blame you for it , because 't is a thing as more easily , so more speedily done , to propose difficulties than to solve them ; yet methinks amongst you all , you have left one part of my Objection unanswer'd , not to say untouch'd . Sophr. I suppose , Pyrocles , you mean what you said about discerning invisible things with the Eye , but I purposely forbore to take notice of that , because I foresaw it might be more seasonably done , after some other points had been clear'd : Wherefore give me leave now to represent to you , as a Corollary from the foregoing discourses , that nothing hinders but that we may reasonably suppose , that the great and free Author of humane nature , God , so framed the nature of Man , as to have furnish'd his Intellective Faculty with a light , whereby it cannot only make estimates of the power of a multitude of other things , but also judge of its own nature and power , and discern some at least of the limits beyond which it cannot safely exercise its act of particularly and peremptorily judging and defining . And now that God , who ( as I said ) is a most free Agent , may have given the mind of Man such a limited nature , accompanied with such a measure of light , you will not I presume deny but the question is , you will tell me , whether he hath done so ? But I hope what has been formerly discoursed by these Gentlemen and me , has put that almost quite out of question . However , I shall now invite you to observe with me , that the Rational Soul does not only pass judgments about things without her , but about her self , and what passes within her : She searches out and contemplates her own spirituality and union with the Body . The Intellect judges wherein it s own nature consists , and whether or no it self be a distinct faculty from the Will ; and to come yet closer to the point , be pleased to consider , that Logick and Metaphysicks are the works of the Humane Intellect , which by framing those disciplines , manifests , that it does not only judge of Ratiocinations , but of the very Principles and Laws of Reasoning , and teaches what things are necessary to the obtaining of an Evidence and Certainty , and what kind of Mediums they are from whence you must not expect any demonstrative Arguments , concerning such or such a subject . To these things it is agreeable , that if we will compare the bodily Eye with the Understanding , which is the Eye of the Mind , we must allow this difference , that the Intellect is as well a Looking-glass as a Sensory , since it does not only see other things but it self too , and can discern its own blemishes or bad conformation , or whatever other infirmitiesit labours under . Upon which consideration , we may justifie the boldness of our excellent Verulam , who when he sets forth the four sorts of Idols ( as he calls them ) that mislead the studiers of Philosophy , makes one of them to be Idola Tribûs , by which he means those Notions , that tho' radicated in the very nature of mankind , are yet apt to mislead us , which may confirm what I was saying before , that the Soul , when duly excited , is furnished with a light , that may enable her to judge even of divers of those original Notions , by which she is wont to judge of other things . To be short , the Soul upon tryal may find by an inward sence , that some things surpass her forces , as a blind man that were set to lift up a rock would quickly find it too unweildy to be manag'd by him , and the utmost exercise of his strength would but convince him of the insufficiency of it , to surmount so great a weight or resistance ; so that we do not pretend that the Eye of the Mind should see Invisibles , but only that it shall discern the limits of that Sphere of Activity , within which Nature hath bounded it , and consequently that some Objects are disproportionate to it . And I remember that Aristotle himself says , that the eye sees both light and darkness , which expression , though somewhat odd , may be defended by saying , that though since darkness is a Privation , not a Being , it cannot properly be the object of sight , yet it may be perceived by means of the Eye , by the very differing affection which that Organ resents , when it is imprest on by luminous or enlightned Objects , and when it is made useless to us by darkness . Timoth. What you have said , Sophronius , has in great part prevented one thing that might be said to strengthen Pyrocles his objection , namely , that whereas when we see with our bodily eyes , there is besides the outward Organ an internal and rational faculty , that perceives by the help of the eye , that which is not directly the object of sight in the Eye of the Mind , the Intellect , there is but one faculty to perceive and judge : For according to your notion , it may be well answered , that the Intellect being capable by its proper light , to judge of it self and its own acts as well as of other things , there is no need of two Principles , the one to perceive and the other to judge , since one is sufficient for both those purposes . Pyrocl. When I have time to reflect on all that I have heard alledg'd amongst you , Gentlemen , I shall consider how far your Arguments ought to obtain my assent : But in the mean while I must tell you , that they will scarce have all the success I presume you desire , unless you add somewhat to free me from what yet sticks with me of a scruple , that is much of the nature of that which I formerly proposed , being this ; How we can justifie our presuming to discourse at all of things transcending Reason ? For I cannot understand how a man that admits your opinions , can intelligibly speak ( and to speak otherwise mis-becomes a rational creature ) of what is infinite or any thing that surpasses our reason ; since when we discourse of such things , either our words are , or are not accompanied with clear and distinct Ideas or conceptions of the things we speak of : If they be not , what do we other than speak nonsence , or ( as hath been already said ) like Parrots entertain our Hearers with words , that we our selves do not understand ; and if they be , then we do in effect comprehend those things , which yet you would have me think to be on some account or other , Incomprehensible . Sophr. I acknowledge this difficulty , Pyrocles , to be a great one ; but yet I think it not so great as that it ought to interdict us all discoursing of things above Reason : And this would perhaps appear probable enough , if , as your objection borrows much of what you have formerly alledg'd , so I may be allowed , as well to repeat some things as propose others , in making answer to it . Timoth. I for my part shall not only give you my consent to do so , but make it my request that you would do it , for when I look back upon our conference , methinks I plainly perceive that partly the objections of Pyrocles , and partly some ( I fear impertinent ) interpositions of mine , have kept your discourse from being so methodical as otherwise you would have made it , and therefore to be reminded of some of the chief points of your doctrine , as well as to connect them with those you shall judge fit to strengthen or illustrate them , may much conduce to make us both understand it more clearly , and remember it better . Eug. I am much of your mind , Timotheus , but though my interpositions have been far more frequent and much less pertinent than yours , yet I am not troubled that the method of our conference has been so much disturb'd ; because I think such a free way of discoursing , wherein emergent thoughts if they be considerable , are permitted to appear as they arise in the mind , is more useful than a nice method in a debate about an uncultivated and highly important subject , in which I think we should aim at first rather to inquire than to resolve , and to procure as many hints and considerations as we can , in order to our fuller information against our next meeting , without suppressing any that is true or useful , only because it agrees not so well with a regular method , as it does with the design of our conference . Sophr. Without reflecting upon either of those Gentlemen that have been pleased to accuse themselves , I shall readily comply with the motion made by Timotheus , and after having proposed some distinctions make application of them . And the better to clear this matter in reference to Pyrocles's objection , I shall first take the liberty to make some distinctions of the Notions or conceptions of the Mind , and for brevity sake give names to those I have now occasion to employ . I consider then , that whether the conceptions or Ideas we have of things be simple or compounded , they may be distinguished into such as are particular or distinct , and such as are only general , dark , and confus'd , or indistinct : So when a Navigator to unknown Countries first gets a sight of Land , though he may be satisfied that it is Land , yet he has but a very dark and confus'd picture of it made in his eye , and cannot descry whether or no the shore be rocky , or what Creeks or Harbours ( if any ) it have in it ▪ much less whether the Coast be well inhabited , and if it be , what kind of buildings it has ; all which he may plainly and distinctly see upon his going ashore . And this mention of the Sea puts me in mind to point at another distinction , which is that of some things we have an adequate , of others , but an inadequate conception ; as if we suppose the Navigator I was speaking of , should look towards the main Sea , though he might see a good way distinctly , yet at length it would appear so darkly and confusedly to him , that at the verge of the sensible Horizon , his sight would make him judge that the Sea and Sky come together , and yet he would conclude that the utmost part of the Sea he could descry , was but a part of the Ocean , which may , for ought he knows , reach to a vast extent beyond the visible Horizon . To our confused , and often also to our inadequate conceptions , belong many of those that may be called Negative , which we are wont to imploy when we speak of Privations or Negations , as Blindness , Ignorance , Death , &c. We have a positive Idea of things that are square and round , and black and white , and in short of other things , whose shapes and colours make them the objects of our sight : Bu● when we say , for instance , that 〈◊〉 Spirit or an Atome is invisible 〈◊〉 those words are attended with a ne●gative conception , which is com●monly but dark and confused be●cause 't is indefinite , and remove● or lays aside those marks , by whic● we are wont clearly to perceive an● distinguish visible substances : An● when we say that such a thing 〈◊〉 impossible , we have some kind o● conception of what we speak of , b●● 't is a very obscure and indistinc● one at best , exhibiting only a gene●ral and very confused representat●●on of some ways , whereby on● might think the thing likely to b● effected if it were at all perform●●ble , accompanied with a percept●●on of the insufficiency of tho●● ways . There is yet another diff●●rence in the notions we have 〈◊〉 things , which though not wont●● be observed , is too important to 〈◊〉 here pretermitted , and it is thi● That of some things we have ●●knowledg , that for want of a fit●● term may be called primary or direct , and of some other things the knowledge we have is acquired but by inferring it from some more known or clearer truth ; and so may be called inferr'd or illative knowledge . As when a Geometrician defines to me an Hyperbole , I quickly gain a clear and distinct Idea of it , but when he proves to me that this Hyperbole may have such a relation to a strait line which he calls Asymptote , that this line being continued still comes nearer and nearer to the prolonged side of the Hyperbole , and yet how far soever both be drawn , 't will never come to touch it , his subtil demonstrations present me with an infer'd or illative truth , at which we arriv'd not but by the help of a train of ratiocinations , and on which if we exercise our imagination , we shall find this factitious truth , if we may so call it , accompanied but with a very dim and confused Idea . To the foregoing distinctions , give me leave to add but this one more , which belongs chiefly to the not●●ons we have of true or false propos●●tions , namely , that of our concept●●ons of things , some are Symmetrici●● ( if I may so call them ) or every wa● consistent , by which I mean th●● that have these two qualification● the one that all the parts are consi●●●ent among themselves , and the ●●●ther that the entire Idea is consi●●●ent with all other truths ; and so●● are Chymerical or Asymmetrical , 〈◊〉 which I understand those that a● either self-destroying by the contr●●riety of the parts themselves th●● are made up of , as if one sho●● talk of a triangular square , or a 〈◊〉 shiny night ; or being extravaga●● lead to some manifest absurdit●● that may be legitimately inferr●● from them , or into inextrica●● difficulties , or involve a real rep●●●nancy to some acknowledg'd tru● or rule of Reason . To what I have hitherto said 〈◊〉 must add these two observation ▪ The First , that the mind of Ma●● so framed , that when she is 〈◊〉 instructed and is not wanting to her self , she can perceive a want of light in her self for some purposes , or of clearness and completeness in the best Idaeas she is able to frame of some things , and on this account can so far take notice of the extent and imperfection of her own faculties , as to discern that some objects are disproportionate to her ; As when we attentively consider the dimensions of space , or ( if the Cartesians judge aright , that body is nothing but extended substance ) those of the Universe , we may by tryal perceive that we cannot conceive them so great , but that they may be yet greater , or if you please may exceed the bounds , how remote soever , which our former conception presum'd to assign them ; which may be illustrated by what happens to the eye , when it looks upon the main Sea ; since we easily grow sensible that how far soever we can discover it , yet our sight falls far short of the extent of that vast object . And 't is by the sense which the mind has of her own l●●mitedness and imperfection on cer●tain occasions , that I think we ma●● estimate what things ought no● and what ought to be looked upo● as Things above Reason ; for by th●● Term , I would not have you thin●● I mean such things as our ration●● faculty cannot at all reach to , 〈◊〉 has not any kind of perception 〈◊〉 for of such things we cannot in pa●●ticular either speak or think li●● men : But my meaning is this , th●● whereas the rational Soul is consc●●ous to her own acts , and feels , th●● she knows divers sorts of thin●● truly and clearly ; and thereby ju●●●ly concludes them to be within 〈◊〉 compass of her faculties ; when 〈◊〉 contemplates some few things th●● seem to be of another order , she● convinc'd that however she stra●● her power , she has no such Ide● or perception of them , as she 〈◊〉 or may have of those objects th●● are not disproportionate to her ●●●culties : And this is my first Obse●●vation . The other thing that I was to observe about the nature of the Mind is , that 't is so constituted , that its faculty of drawing consequences from known truths , is of greater extent than its power of framing clear and distinct Idaeas of things ; so that by subtle or successive inferences , it may attain to a clear conviction that some things are , of whose nature and properties ( or at least of some of them ) it can frame no clear and satisfactory conceptions . And that men should be better able to infer propositions about divers things , than to penetrate their nature , needs the less be wondred at , both because 't is oftentimes sufficient for our uses to know that such things are , though that knowledge be not accompanied with a clear and distinct Idaea ; and because oftentimes the Rules ( such as , whatever is produced must have a cause ; and , from Truth , nothing rightly follows but Truth ) are clear and easie that enable the Mind to infer conclusions about things , whose nature is very dark , and abstruse . Eug. I know , Sophronius , that you have not laid down these preliminary distinctions and remarks without designing to make use of them , which the little time that now remains to manage our conference in , calls upon you to proceed to do . Sophr. I was just going to say , Eugenius , that after what I have premised , I hope it may now be seasonable to apply the newly delivered Notions to the three sorts of things that I formerly represented as being in some sence above reason . For I consider , that there are some objects of so immense and peculiar a nature , that ( if I may so speak ) by an easie view of the mind , that is without any subtle and laborious disquisition , the Soul discerns , and as it were feels the Object to be disproportionate to her powers : And accordingly if she thinks sit to try , she quickly finds her self unable to frame conceptions of them fit to be acquiesc'd in , and this sort of Objects I do upon that account call inconceivable , or ( on some occasions ) supra-intellectual . But when by attentively considering the attributes and operations of things , we sometimes find that a thing hath some property belonging to it , or doth perform somewhat , which by reflecting on the beings and ways of working that we know already , we cannot discern to be reducible to them or derivable from them , we then conclude this property or this operation to be inexplicable ; that is , such as that it cannot so much as in a general way be intelligibly accounted for , and this makes the second sort of our things above Reason . But this is not all , for the Rational Soul that is already furnished with innate , or at least primitive Idaeas and Rules of true and false , when she comes to examine certain things and make successive inferences about them , she finds ( sometimes to her wonder as well as trouble ) that she cannot avoid admitting some consequences as true & good which she is not able to reconcile to some other manifest Truth or acknowledged Proposition : And whereas other Truths are so harmonious , that there is no disagreement between any two of them , the Heteroclite Truths I speak of appear not symmetrical with the rest of the body of Truths , and we see not how we can at once embrace these and the rest , without admitting that grand absurdity which subverts the very foundation of our reasonings , That Contradictories may both be true . As in the controversie about the endless divisibility of a strait line , since 't is manifest that a line of three foot for instance is thrice as long as a line of one foot , so that the shorter line is but the third part of the longer , it would follow that a part of a line may contain as many parts as a whole , since each of them is divisible into infinite parts , which seems repugnant to common sence , and to contradict one of those common Notions in Euclid , whereon Geometry it self is built . Upon which account I have ventured to call this third sort of things above Reason Asymmetrical or Unsociable , of which eminent instances are afforded us by those controversies ( such as that of the compositio continui ) wherein which side soever of the question you take , you will be unable directly and truly to answer the objections that may be urged to show that you contradict some primitive or some other acknowledged truth . These , Eugenius , are some of the considerations by which I have been induced to distinguish the things that to me seem to over-match our Reason , into three kinds . For of those things I have stil'd Unconceivable , our Idaeas are but such as a moderate attention suffices to make the mind sensible that she wants either light or extent enough to have a clear and full comprehension of them : And those things that I have called Inexplicable , are those which we cannot perceive to de - upon the Idaeas we are furnished with , and to resemble in their manner of working any of the Agents whose nature we are acquainted with : And lastly , those things which I have named Unsociable , are such as have Notions belonging to them , or have conclusions deducible from them , that are ( for ought we can discern ) either incongruous to our primitive Idaeas , or when they are driven home , inconsistent with the manifest Rules we are furnished with , to judge of True and False . Eug. I presume , Sophronius , that by sorting things above Reason into three kinds , you do not intend to deny but that 't is possible one object may in differing regards be referred to more than one of these sorts . Sophr. You apprehend me very right , Eugenius , and the truth of what you say may sufficiently appear in that noblest of Objects , God. Timoth. We owe so much to God , the most perfect of Beings , not only for other blessings , but for those very Intellects that enable us to contemplate him , that I shall be very glad to learn any thing that may increase my wonder and veneration for an Object , to whom I can never pay enough of either . Sophr. You speak like your self , Timotheus , and I wish I were as able as I ought to be willing , to satisfie your desire : But since we are now discoursing like Philosophers , not Divines , I shall proceed to speak of that gloriousest of Objects , But as his Nature or some of his Attributes afford me instances to the purpose , for which I presum'd to mention him . When God therefore made the World out of nothing , or ( if Pyrocles will not admit the Creation ) when he discerns the secretest thoughts and intentions of the Mind , when he unites an immaterial Spirit to a humane Body , and maintains , perhaps for very many years , that unparallel'd union with all the wonderful conditions he has annex'd to it ; when , I say , he doth these and many other things , that I must not now stay to mention , he supplies us with instances of things that are Inexplicable : For such operations are not reducible to any of the ways of working known to us ; since our own Minds can but modify themselves by divers manners of thinking ; and as for things without us , all that one body can do to another by acting on it , is to communicate local motion to it , and thereby produce in it the natural consequences of such motion ; in all which there is no action like any of those I just now ascrib'd to God. And if we consider that the praescience of those future events that we call contingent , being a perfection , is not to be denyed to God ; who is by all acknowledged the perfectest of Beings and that yet the greatest Wits that have laboured to reconcile this infallible praecognition with the liberty of mans will , have been reduced to maintain some thing or other , that thwarts some acknowledged truth or dictate of Reason : If we duly consider this ( I say ) it will afford us an instance of truths , whose consistency and whose symmetry with the body of other truths , our Reason cannot discern , and which therefore ought to be referred to that sort of things above Reason , that I call Unsociable . And now I come to the third sort of these things which is that I formerly mention'd , first under the name of Incomprehensible or supra-intellectual : which Title , whether or no it belongs to any other Object , ( which I will not now enquire ) doth certainly belong to God , whose Nature comprehending all perfections in their utmost possible degrees , is not like to be comprehensible by our minds , who altogether want divers of those perfections , and have but moderate measures , ( not to call them shadows ) of the rest . We are indeed born with , or at least have a power and divers occasions to frame an Idaea of a Being infinitely perfect , and by this Idaea we may sufficiently discriminate the Original of it , God , from all other Objects whatsoever . But then , when we come to consider attentively & minutely what is contained in the notion of Omnipotence , Omniscience , Eternity , and those other divine Attributes that are all united in that great confluence and abys● of perfections , God ; we may be● sure to find , that our faculties are exceedingly surmounted by the vastness and gloriousness of that unlimited and unparallel'd object 〈◊〉 about which , as we can discove● that it exists , and that it possesse● all the perfection we can conceive● so we may at the same time discern● that it must have degrees of perfection , which because of the inferiority of our Nature , we are not able to conceive . And yet this discovery of God● Incomprehensibleness may be mad● without subtle disquisitions , an● without trains of consequences● though not without due attention● by a direct view of the Mind ( if 〈◊〉 may so term it ; ) who finds her self upon tryal as unable fully to measure the divine perfections as the dimensions of space , which we can conceive to be greater and greater , without ever being able to determine any extent beyond whose limits they cannot reach . Pyrocles . I suspected Sophron. by the tenour of your Discourse that the last Questions these Gentlemen asked you , diverted you from saying somewhat more than you did by way of application of your preceding Discourse . Sophron. I was then indeed about to make , as I now shall , this use of what I had been saying ; that I readily acknowledge that 't is an arrogance to talk of infinite or of priviledg'd things , with the same confidence , or to pretend to do it with the same clearness , wherewith knowing men may speak of things unquestionably within the compass of our Intellect : But that this need not hinder us from speaking , nor doth disable us from speaking rationally of priviledg'd things themselves . For all the notions that are allowable are not of the same sort or order ; and if none were to be admitted but those that enable us to comprehend the Object , that is , which give us a clear and distinct knowledge of all that it contains or that belongs to it , I must confess that we have no good Notions of priviledg'd things in particular ▪ but then I must add , that I fear we have few or none even of many things that we think our selves very knowing in . And when we speak of things as being above Reason , though we have no clear , distinct and adequate Notion o● them , yet we may have a general confus'd and inadequate Notion of them , which may suffice to make us discriminate their respective Objects from all else , and from one another ; as may be observ'd in several , Idaeas that are negatively fram'd , such as those we have o● invisible , incomprehensible , and in others which I formerly call'd Inferr'd ; because they accompany the remote Inferences whereby one truth is concluded from another : as when Geometricians infer from some propositions in Euclid that any strait line may be divided farther and farther without stop . For of this and some other propositions about priviledg'd things , we are not quite destitute of allowable Notions ; as may appear by some of the admirably ingenious Speculations of Mathematicians about the Affections of surd Numbers , and about incommensurable Magnitudes ; about some of which we have no such clear and symmetrical Conceptions as we have of many other things , that are of a nearer and more intelligible order . And on this occasion I shall not scruple to acknowledge , that partly by my own Experience , and partly by the Confessions of others , and by their unsuccesful Attempts , I am induc'd to think that God , who is a most free Agent , having been pleas'd to make Intelligent Beings , may perhaps have made them of differing Ranks , or Orders , whereof Men may not be of the Principal ; and that whether there be such Orders or no , he hath at least made us Men , of a limited nature ( in general ) and of a bounded Capacity . Congruously to this I think also , that he hath furnished man either with certain innate Ideas or Models and Principles , or with a Faculty or Power and Disposition easily to frame them , as it meets with occasions ( which readily occur ) to excite them : But because that ( as I lately noted ) God intended the mind of Man but of a limited Capacity , his Understanding is so constituted that the inbred or easily acquir'd Idaeas and primitive Axioms wherewith it is furnished , and by Relation or Analogy whereunto it judges of all other Notions , and Propositions , do not extend to all knowable Objects whatsoever ; but reach only to such as have a sufficient Affinity , or bear some proportion to those Primary Idaeas and Rules of Truth , which are sufficient if duly improv'd , to help us to the attainment , though not of the perfect knowledge of truth 's of the highest Orders , yet to the Competent Knowledge of as much truth as God thought fit to allow our minds in their present ( and perchance laps'd ) Condition , or state of Union with their mortal Bodies . Eugen. Your Opinion , Sophron. if I apprehend it aright , contains two very differing Assertions ; one that it is allowable to contemplate and even to discourse of things above Reason , since we may have some Conceptions of them , though they be but very dim and imperfect : and the other , that we ought not to look upon , or speak of such Objects as things that we comprehend , or have even such a measure of knowledge of , as we have of things that are not priviledg'd . For of these we are not to speak but with a peculiar Wariness , and modest Diffidence . Sophron. You have express'd my thoughts Eugen. since I Intend not to injoyn silence , or disswade Curiosity , but yet forbid presumption , in reference to priviledg'd things . Timoth. And truly Sophron. I see no Reason to repine at the limits which your late Discourse hath in imitation of the Author of nature himself , assign'd to human Knowledg . For the number of priviledg'd things is altogether inconsiderable in comparison of the multitude of other things , to which our knowledge may be improv'd to reach ; and which it far more concerns us to know well , than it doth to resolve puzling Questions about things incomprehensible ; there being within the compass of those truths , enough to employ , and reward our Curiosity without straining and tiring our Reason about Objects that transcend it . And yet even about these , some disquisitions may be allow'd us , for an object that on the account of some of its properties may be a priviledg'd one ; may have divers other things belonging to it , that do not surpass our Reason , and whose knowledge may therefore be attain'd , by the due employment of it . Thus we usefully study the nature of Bodies , which make up the Object of the Excellent Science of Natural Philosophy ; though the true Notion of Body in general be a thing so difficult to frame , that the best of our Modern Philosophers can by no means agree about it . Which I do not wonder at ; because if we pursue the notion of a Body to the uttermost ; 't will lead us to the perplexing controversie , De compositione continui , and there you will not deny , but that the understanding will be left in the dark . Thus Surveyors , Carpenters , Architects , and many others know divers Affections of the square Figure that are of great use to them in their respective Employments , though that property of the square , that its side and diagonal are incommensurable , be unknown to most of them ; and if they were told of it , and would prosecute the Speculation , would involve them in exceeding great and probably insuperable difficulties . Sophron. To confirm what you have been telling us , Timoth. I shall venture to add , that even about priviledg'd things , our inquiries , if modestly and discreetly manag'd , may not only be allowable but sometimes profitable . For even of such Subjects a studious search may bring us to know more than we did , though not so much as we would , nor enough to be acquiesc'd in . So that such enquiries may probably teach us , to know the Objects better , and our selves better too ; by giving us such a sensible discovery of the insufficiency of our Understandings to comprehend all sorts of things , as may be very useful , though not pleasing , and may richly recompence us , for the pains that ended in so instructive a disappointment . And let me add to the pertinent instances that have been mention'd , the noblest that can be given ; I mean the Contemplation of God himself . For he hath so ordered all things , that 't is scarce possible for us , to be destitute of an Idaea of him , which will at least represent him as an existent Being , and more perfect than any other Being ; and yet when we come with sufficient Application of mind to pry into the wonderful Attributes of this most singular and adorable Being , we are , as was lately observ'd , sure to find our selves unable to comprehend so unbounded an Object . Which yet ought not to discourage us from so noble a Study , since we are allow'd the great contentment and honour to make further and further discoveries of the excellentest of Objects , by that very immensity of his perfections , that makes it impossible for us to reach to the bounds of his Excellency , or rather to discover that it has any bounds at all . But , Gentlemen , I perceive I have been so transported by the mention of this vast and divine Subject , in whose Contemplation 't is so easie , and so pleasant to lose ones self , that I have forgot the notice Eugen. gave me , a pretty while since , that the time allotted for our present conference was then near expiring . And therefore I shall leave you to pick out of the Excursions to which your interpositions tempted ( not to say oblig'd ) me , the Applications , that I intended to make more methodically of the distinctions I laid down . And I am the less troubled to be hindred from proposing to you my thoughts about the way of distinguishing priviledg'd things from others , because we have a domestick Monitor , or a kind of an internal Criterium always at hand to help us . For I think it may well be said , that the wise Author of Nature has endued the Understanding with such a quick , though internal , Sensation ( if I may so call it ) that when due attention is not wanting , it can feelingly discern between other Objects , and those that are disproportionate to its ability . As even in Beasts , the eye is so fram'd ( according to the institution of Nature ) that if it be obverted to the bright noon-day-Sun , there needs no Monitor , but the operation of the same Sun , to make it wink ; ( and perhaps water ) and thereby discover it self to be dazled and overpowr'd by the disproportionate Object . Pyroc . I confess your Discourses , Gentlemen , have made an unexpected Impression upon me ; but whether that will amount to a Conviction will scarce appear till our next Conference . Only thus much I shall tell you now , that it would much facilitate our agreement in Opinion , if you did not contend for altogether so much ; but would be pleas'd to leave it undertermin'd , whether Man's intellectual Faculty it self is uncapable by the help of any degree of light , to discover and know those things , which you call above Reason ? and would content your selves to say , That there are some things belonging to these Subjects , which we must confess we have less clear and distinct Notions of , than we have even of the difficultest of those things , that are acknowledg'd not to surpass our Reason : And that if we will take upon us , to determine positively and particularly about these transcendent things , we must employ ways of Reasoning , congruous to their peculiar natures . Sophron. I shall readily consent not to expect your final Resolution , before our next meeting , having no cause to fear that time , will be unfriendly to her Daughter Truth . Timoth. And in the mean while , Pyrocles , I am glad to find by the last part of what you just now said , that you seem to be no longer indispos'd to admit some things , that ( at least in our present state ) do some way or other surpass our Reason . For I think that instead of exalting that faculty , we injure and defraud it , if we do not freely allow it , as much enjoyment of Truth as we are able to procure it : And consequently if Geometry , or Revelation , or Experience , assure us of divers things of which we can know but That they are , and what they do , not , what they are , and how they act , we must neither refuse , nor neglect the study of such Truths , any more than we would refuse to look into any other Objects , than those that we can look through ; And therefore to enrich the Intellect as much as we are able , we must entertain , not only those Truths , that we can comprehend , but those also , how sublime soever , that we can have any certain , though but a very imperfect Knowledge of , Especially since those remote and abstruse Subjects may be as much more noble as more dark than others , and thereby render an imperfect Discovery of them , more desirable , than a far clearer one of Inferior things . FINIS . ADVICES IN JUDGING OF Things SAID TO TRANSCEND REASON . The Speakers Arnobius , Eugenius , Pyrocles and Timotheus . Arnob. I Was very glad , Gentlemen , to learn this morning of Sophronius some things , whence 't was easie to conclude , that by the Discourse you had with him last night , he has made it allowable for me to demand , and rational for you to grant , nay to proffer me , a Dispensation of the Task you imposed on me at our last meeting . For tho' he spake with the modesty that became him of your Conference , and gave me , but a hasty and imperfect Account of what pass'd between you ; yet I think I may presume , that by his Discourse Pyrocles himself was at least inclin'd , and you two , Gentlemen , fully perswaded to admit , that there are Things above Reason ; which was the main point about which you expected at our last Congress that I should entertain you , at our then next , or now present meeting . Eugen. I deny not , that Sophronius's Considerations were prevalent on Timotheus and me ; and have , I hope , made a good impression on Pyrocles himself ; but that ought not to hinder us from coming , as we now do , to claim your promise of entertaining us about things above Reason . And if you will needs be dispens'd with from repeating those Considerations that Sophronius has employed already , ( tho' I doubt not but by repeating them , you would both strengthen and advance them ; ) we will not be rigid Exactors of our Right : but yet we must not remit your Task , tho' we are content to change it . For I question not but these Gentlemen will consent with me , to discharge you of your promise of discoursing of the Arguments that may infer some things to be above Reason , if you will please to afford us your Thoughts , about the ways of avoiding to be imposed on by our selves or others , when such sublime Subjects are treated or discours'd of . Arnob. Tho' in the recital of your Conference , Sophronius did but touch on several Subjects whereon it would be proper for me to insist , in the Discourse you seem to expect from me ; yet I am apt to fear , that he has so prevented me in what I should say , that he has left little or nothing for me to do , but to make Repetitions of what you have heard already much better express'd : which will be an Employment far enough from being grateful , either to you or me . Eugen. Your Modesty , Sir , is not like to defeat our Curiosity ; and that you may not think your self hardly used , or condemned to bear Repetitions ; be pleased to take notice , both that , what we desire as a Favor , we might claim as a Compensation , and that the things we expect from you now , are not Arguments to make out that there are things above Reason , but that you would afford us some Rules and Directions how to regulate the Ratiocinations we make ; and estimate those we meet with , about such Transcendent Subjects . Arnob. I hope Eugenius , you do not in earnest think me so vain as to pretend to frame a Logick about things above Logick ; or magisterially to deliver Rules about things that are as Anomalous , as they are either Remote or Abstruse . Besides that all you have said , do's not exempt me from a fear , that by reason of Sophronius's omitting divers points of his Discourse , and my imperfect Remembrance of those he transiently and summarily mention'd , he has anticipated much of what were otherwise proper for me to say . But yet because 't is possible that his thoughts and mine , may have lead us , to have made some Reflections that are not at all the same ; and that even when others happen to be coincident , it may be not altogether useless , that I should endeavour to inlarge some things that he has but hinted , and illustrate or vindicate some others that will not be prejudic'd by being cleared , or confirm'd ; and above all this , because I would shew you , that I am willing to comply with you somewhat to the hazard of my Discretion , I shall not refuse to offer you some , not Rules , but Advices ; provided you freely interrupt me , when I begin to trouble you with the Repetition of any thing that you have , tho' I have not heard before ; and provided too , that you look not on these Advices so much as directions to find the truth in such abstruse matters , as Cautions that may chance to assist you to avoid some Errors and Mistakes . Eugen. We are not so scrupulous but that we shall upon your own terms gladly receive your thoughts , whatever names you please to give them . Arnob. I shall then without further preamble comply with your Commands , and propose as my First Advice . That about Priviledg'd Subjects themselves , we do not admit any ( affirmative ) assertion without such proofs , to evince it , as are sufficient in their kind . I hope Gentlemen that Sophronius has so far declar'd to you , what is to be meant by Priviledg'd things , that though it be a new term , yet I need not solicitously explain it ; and may think it sufficient to intimate in few words that they are things of a very Heteroclyte and Abstruse Nature , and have belonging to them such peculiar Affections and Attributes , as require that in judging and reasoning of them we should employ Notions and Rules congruous to their particular Condition ; some of them superadded to , & others perhaps differing from , those that men generally & safely enough make use of about common & familiar things , that are of a nature less impervious to our Understandings . And if the shortness of this Summary Description , should leave it less clear than I hope you find it ; I foresee there will divers occasions of illustrating it , by instances and other ways , occur in the Sequel of our Discourse : In order to which I shall , after this short and necessary Digression , return to the lately given First Advice ; and tell you that 't is grounded upon this Consideration , that 't is not reasonable to give assent to any thing as a Truth , but upon a sufficient Reason of that Assent . And tho' we may well grant in the general , that a thing which ●urpasses our Reason may have belonging to it some affection that is also above Reason ; yet we are not in particular to believe that this or that Affection doth belong to it , without particular and competent proof . For since about a Priviledg'd thing , as well as about any other , Propositions may be fram'd , and often are so , that are contrary to one another ; to assent to both , were to be sure to believe one falsity , if not two . And if we will assent but to one , we must either judge at Adventures , or allow our selves to examine the Mediums of Probation , employed on both sides , and thereupon judge , why one of the Propositions is to be assented to , and the other rejected . Pyrocles . I am glad Arnobius , that you allow your self and us this manly freedom without which our Understandings were lyable to be impos'd on in matters of the highest Concernment : For there scarce ever did , or I fear ever will , want some men who either out of Ignorance and passive Delusion , or out of self-Confidence , or out of Design , take upon them , with great boldness , to affirm what they please about priviledg'd Subjects , and when they are opposed in their Extravagancies by Ratiocinations they cannot answer , they urge , that these things being above Reason , are not to be judged of by it : But of such men as these I usually demand whether their own Assent to the things they would have us believe , be grounded upon some Rational Argument , or not : If they say , 't is not , they are fools to believe it themselves ; and I should add to the number of fools , if after this acknowledgment , I should believe them : But if they say they do , I desire them to produce their Argument ; for since 't is fram'd by a Human Understanding , the force of it may be also comprehended & judg'd of by a Human Understanding : And 't is to no purpose to say , that the Subject surpasses Human Reason ; for if it do so indeed , it will surpass theirs as well as mine , and so leave us upon even terms . And let the thing assented to , be what it will , the assent it self ought to be founded upon a sufficient Reason , and consequently upon one that is intelligible , to the Human Intellect that is wrought on by it . Eûgen . I willingly allow , that there is a great difference between the being able and oblig'd to know the nature or cause of a thing , and the being able to give an intelligible account of the motives that induce our assent to it ; and without such motives the assent may by chance be given to what is a truth , but that will not hinder it from being an irrational Assent . Timoth. I was not ill pleas'd Arnobius , with the Caution you employ'd in the close of your Advice , where , by saying that the positive Proofs you require to evince an Assertion about a priviledg'd thing , must be sufficient in their Kind , you plainly intimate that you do not exact rigid Demonstrations of such Assertions : And indeed it were not reasonable you should ; for since 't is manifest , that there are many Truths , such as Historical and Political ones , that by the nature of the things are not capable of Mathematical or Metaphysical Demonstrations , and yet being really Truths , have a just Title to our Assent , it must be acknowledg'd , that a rational Assent may be founded upon Proofs that reach not to rigid Demonstrations , it being sufficient that they are strong enough to deserve a wise mans Acquiescence in them . And therefore if any things can be made out to be reveal'd by God concerning his own Nature , or Actions , or Decrees , we ought firmly to believe them , because that , of some of those things , as his Praescience , Mercy , &c. We can have no better Proofes ; and of others , as what he did before our World was made ; and what he will do with us after we are dead , we can have no other considerable Proofes at all . And the Objection made by Pyrocles against the assenting to audacious Propositions fram'd by imposing Men , will not reach our Case : for there is no reason to think , that because an Object surpasses an humane Understanding , it must therefore surpass the Divine Intellect it self . And even in things that are transacted in the Mind of Man himself ; I may learn from another that is not my Superior , what I can by no means attain to know , unless he be pleased to discover it to me . As that he was at such a time , thinking of the Creation of the World , or resolving how to dispose of his Son , and what Recompence he designs to give a Servant that he has not yet entertained . Pyrocles . About things of such a kind as you now mention , Timotheus , I shall not dissent from you ; because these are things , that tho' not discoverable by our Reason till we be informed of them , are yet clearly knowable by our Reason , when we are informed of them . But that there should be things , which tho' perspicuously proposed , should not be comprehensible by our understanding , is such an affront to that noble Faculty , that I confess it has much indisposed me to grant ( what I am yet unwilling peremptorily to deny , ) that there are , as Sophronius would have us think , not only some priviledged things , but more than one kind of them ; which if we do admit , it will place such narrow Limits to our Understandings , that we must despair of the desireablest knowledge of all , namely that which is conversant about the noblest and sublimest Objects . Eugenius . Leaving to Sophronius the management of a Point he has studied , and which I have not now time solemnly to Argue ; I shall only tell you in general that I see no necessity , That Intelligibility to a humane Understanding , should be necessary to the Truth or Existence of a thing ; any more then that Visibility to a Humane Eye , should be necessary to the Existence of an Atome , or of a Corpuscle of Air , or of the Effluvium's of a Loadstone , or the Fragrant Exhalations of Ambergris , and Musk from a perfumed Glove ; I might here observe , that even by the same Sence some Creatures may discern things that may not be perceptible to others : as no attention or application of the Organ ( or the Nose ) will inable a man to perceive the Effluvia expiring from the stale Footsteps of a hunted and unseen Hare or Dear , tho' Hounds , and especially Blood-hounds , will have a vivid Preception of such Odours , and by their help , trace and persue the flying and unseen Beast . This , I say , may be observed in Favour of my present Argument ; but 't will perhaps be a more proper illustration to represent , that the natural Incapacity of a Childs Intellect , to understand the abstruse Affections of Parabola's , Hyperbola's and the incommensurable Lines of a Square , hinders not those Figures , from being contained in rerum naturâ , or their Affections from being true and demonstrable . And tho' we do admit some priviledged things in the Sence above declared , yet , ( to say somewhat to obviate Pyrocles's Fear ) there is no necessity that we should be interdicted all Knowledge of those sublime Objects , in which there are many things , whereof , or of their Consequences , we must confess our selves ignorant . Thus elder Geometricians knew very well what a Rectangular Triangle was , when they conceived it to be a Figure consisting of three strait Lines , two of which comprize a right Angle ; though probably for a great while they did not know so much as all its chief Properties or Affections : since for ought appears , before Pythagoras , ( who offered a Heccatombe to the Muses in gratitude for the Discovery ) it was not known that the Square of the Hypothenusa is equal to the Squares of both the other Sides ; and much more likely it is , that they were not able to solve those Difficulties ( that continue to perplex even our Age ) which attend that endless divisibility of Lines , that is inferrible from that Equality of the two Squares to the single Square . And besides the inscrutable Perfections of God , some of his Works are such , that , notwithstanding the compleat Knowledge of them surpasses our Forces ; yet there remains so many things , as well worthy to be known , as possible to be attained by us , that they will allow Exercise enough to the Wits of all the Philosophers in the World. And besides that , as I have been saying , even about these priviledged Subjects themselves , divers considerable things may be discovered , if they were altogether impenetrable by our Understandings , yet their Number is so small , that they would leave a large Scope for human Knowledge to diffuse and improve it self . For 't is not every thing that is hard to be understood or contrary to the common Rules of Probability , that has a right to pass for a priviledged thing , for so the Paradoxes about Srud Quantities , of Isoperimetal Figures ; duplicate and triplicate Proportion , and divers other surprising Doctrines that are capable of Mathematical Demonstrations , would be priviledged things . Nor are all those worthy of this Title that are by many proposed and embraced as Philosophical Mysteries , for , such are the Peripateticks Substantial Forms , which really are not priviledged things , but Scholastic Chimeras . But tho' I shall not presume positively to set down the discriminating Bounds and Signes of priviledged things , yet most if not all of them being such , as are either primary in their kind , as God himself , and the things whose Nature flows immediately from him , or else things that if thorowly inspected , do necessarily involve the consideration of some kind of Infinitum , or else are such that tho' in some main Questions about them one side must be taken , both sides are encombred with absurdities , or scarce superable Difficulties : Those I say being all ( or some of them ) the usual marks that belong to priviledged things , you will easily grant , that their Number is not near so great as their abstruseness ; and that therefore Pyrocles and his Philosophical Friends need not fear to want employment for their Curiosity . And for farther Answer to his Objection I shall add that we must regulate our Belief by our Perceptions , not our Wishes , and must not conclude , that because 't were desirable for us , that all things were penetrable to our humane Understandings , there is really nothing that is not so : and we can no more conclude that we are as knowing as Angels , because we wish we were so , than that we are as immortal as they , because we would never die . But as for those few things that have belonging to them , Properties so extraordinary , as to make it probable , even at the first sight , that their Nature must be very abstruse and difficult be fully discover'd by us , I hope Pyrocles will allow , that things of so Heteroclite a Nature may challenge an exemption from some of the rules imployed about common things ; And that really such Rules as I mean , and some also of the vulgar Notions cannot always be safely extended to such Subjects , I forbear to shew in this place ; only because I would not too long at once interrupt Arnobius ; and I expect to have a good opportunity to speak again of this Subject , before our Conference be ended . Tim. You may then , I presume , Arnobius , as soon as you please , favour us with your second Advice . Arnob. I shall readily obey you , Timotheus , by proposing it thus : The Second Advice , or Rule . That we be not hasty to frame Negatives about Privileg'd Things , or to reject Propositions or Explications concerning them ; at least , as if they were absurd or impossible . 'T is easie to observe in the Speculation of natural things themselves , how unsafe 't is not only to affirm , but in divers Cases also reject opinions , before men have any thing near a competent Historical Information of what belongs to the Subject they take upon them peremptorily to judge of . And therefore it must in reason be thought much more unwary to be forward to resolve upon Negative Propositions about things which we our selves acknowledge to be above the reach of Human Reason , which since they are , 't will become us at least to forbear a rude and insulting way of rejecting the opinions of Learned Men that dissent from us about such things ; since the sublimity of the Subject should make mistakes about them the more easie to be pardon'd , because they are difficult to be avoided ; and our own sharing in the disability of penetrating such abstruse things , should keep us from being over-confident , that we also may not be mistaken , and incline us to tolerate other mens opinions about matters wherein we our selves have but opinion , not science . Pyr. But have not you formerly advised us not to suffer our selves to be impos'd upon by proofless Assertions , even about privileg'd things ? Arnob. I did so , and do so still : but there is a great deal of difference between believing a proofless affirmation about things which the affirmer does not know to be true , and framing Negative Conclusions against Opinions , which , for ought we yet clearly know , may be true : and therefore my present advice is very consistent with my former : for here I counsel only , either a suspension of Judgment , when there appears no proof on either side sufficient to sway the Intellect ; or such a wary and unprejudic'd assent to opinions that are but faintly probable , that the mind may be ready to receive , without either obstinacy , or surprise , any better argument that shall conclude the contrary of the opinion we favour'd before . Eugen. But methinks 't is hard to avoid the framing of Conjectures , even about those sublime Subjects , concerning which we can frame but conjectures , and those often very slight ones . Arnob. I confess an absolute suspension of judgment is a very uneasie thing , nor do I strictly require you should entertain no conjectures ; but only that we should consider that we may be easily mistaken in them , and by further information see cause to lay them down , and perhaps exchange them for contrary ones : my thoughts of this matter may be perchance somewhat illustrated by supposing that we four were walking in a High-way , and discover'd as far off as our eyes could reach , some erected and moving body of human stature ; tho we should by its shape and walking safely enough conclude that 't were no other animal than a man , yet what manner of man he were , as old , or young , handsome , or ugly ; we should not be able to discern , and consequently , could have no sufficient ground to determine . And as if I should affirm him to be a young man or handsome , you may justly censure me of rashness ; so if because I cannot prove my conjecture , you should resolutely deny that he is a young man or handsome , I should think you guilty , tho not of an equal , yet of a censurable unwariness , because , for ought you know to the contrary , he may be what I guess'd him to be . And tho we are naturally so uneasie under fluctuation of mind , that for my part I confess ( and it may be you may be subject to the same Infirmity ) I should scarce forbear resembling in my thoughts the man we speak of to some body or other that I knew , yet I should justly think that Conjecture to be very fallible , and both expect that when I should come to have a nearer and clearer view of him , I might see cause to dismiss my first Idea for that which this new and better prospect would afford me , tho it were quite differing from that I ●ad formerly entertain'd , and should represent him , that my forward thought perhaps resemble , to a young man of my acquaintance with black curl'd hair , and a ruddy complexion , to be pale and wrinckled , with grey hair curl'd like a pound of Candles . The Application , I suppose , I may spare . But Gentlemen , I would not be understood in the preceding Discourse , as if I were against all framing of Negative Propositions about privileg'd Things ; my design being but to dissuade from hasty ones : For sometimes 't is much more easie and safe to deny things , than to affirm them to belong to a Subject that surpasses our Reason . And the observation may be of use , especially in two cases ; one , when the Negative we assert is grounded not upon Axioms taken from the usual course of Nature , or upon Propositions dubious , or remote from the first Principles of knowledge , but upon either Catholick and Metaphysical Axioms , or else upon Truths manifestly flowing from some clear , tho inadequate notion we have of the nature of the things we treat of . The other Case is , when we have a clear and sufficient proof by Revelation , or otherwise , of the positive Attributes of the things we contemplate ; for then we may safely deny of that Subject any other thing that is really inconsistent with that positive Attribute . Upon which account it is , that tho we do not fully comprehend what God is , yet knowing by the clear Light of Nature ( and if we be Christians ) believing it upon the account of Revelation , that he is a Being Intelligent and infinitely perfect , we may safely deny against Epicurus , Vorstius , and Mr. Hobbs , that he is a Corporeal Substance , as also that he is Mortal , or Corruptible . Pyrocl. I shall not trouble you , Arnobius , to inlarge upon your last Advice , but willingly receive the ●avour of your next . Arnob. Which shall be this : The Third Advice , or Rule . That a matter of Fact or other Truth about Privileg'd Things being prov'd by Arguments competent in their kind , we ought not to deny it meerly because we cannot explain , or perhaps so much as conceive the Modus of it . 'T is no very difficult Task to justifie this Advice ; but I may do it the better , if you give me leave to frame and premise a Distinction , for want of which I have observed a want of Clearness in several Discourses , where the term Modus has been employed : for sometimes we would deny so much as a possibillity , that one thing can belong to , or be truly said of another ; as when we say we understand not how one Creature can create another ; or how there can be a Line that is neither straight , nor crooked ; or a finite ( whole ) number that is neither even nor odd . But most commonly we mean by our not understanding the Modus of a thing , that we do not clearly and distinctly conceive after what manner the Property or other Attribute of a Subject belongs to it , or performs its operations . The first kind of Modus may , for distinctions sake , be called a possible Modus ; and the other , an actual modus . Now in both the foregoing Acceptions of the term Modus , we may find Instances fit for our present purpose . For we cannot imagine , How a short Line or other finite Quantity can be endlesly divisible , or ( on the contrary ) how Infinite Parts should make but a Finite Total : and yet Geometry constrains us to admit , That it is so . But tho there be but few Instances of this kind , yet of the other sort of our Nescience of the Modus of things , there may be found more Instances than we could wish there were ; for even in natural and corporeal things the eager disputes of the acutest Philophers , and the ingenuous Confessions of the most judicious and moderate , sufficiently manifest , that as yet we know not the manner of operating whereby several Bodies perform what we well know they bring to pass . And not to enter into those nice and tedious Disputes of the cause of the Cohesion of the parts of matter in the smallest , most principal , and most primary Bodies , perhaps without going out of our selves , the way whereby the Rational Soul can exercise any power over the humane body , and the way whereby the Understanding and the Will act upon one another , have not yet been intelligibly explain'd by any . And the like I may say of the Phaenomena of the Memory , especially in those in whom that faculty is eminent . For 't is a thing much more fit to be admired , than easie to be conceived , how in so narrow a compass as part of a Human Brain , there should be so many thousand distinct Cells or Impressions as are requisite to harbour the Characters or Signatures of many Languages , each of them consisting of many thousand differing Words , besides the Images or Models of so many thousand Faces , Schemes , Buildings , and other sensible Objects , and the Ideas of so many thousand Notions and Thoughts , and the distinct Footsteps of almost innumerable multitudes of other things : and how all these shall in so narrow a compass have such deep and lasting Impressions made for them , and be oftentimes lodged so exactly in the order wherein they were at first committed to the memory ( and that perhaps many years before ) that upon a sudden command of the Will , or a slight casual Hint , a whole set of Words , Things and Circumstances will in a trice , as it were , start up and present themselves even in the very Series , order and manner that so long before belong'd to them . And I doubt not , but that besides those abstruse things , about the Modus , of which the more candid Philosophers have confessed their Ignorance , there would many others have been taken notice of , if we did but as seriously and impartially inquire into the Nature of all the things we are pleased to think we know . And when I reflect on the yet depending Disputes between Philosophers and Mathematicians about the nature of Place and Local Motion , which are things so obvious and familiar to us , I should , tho I had no other Inducements , be inclin'd to think , that we should find difficulties enough in many other Subjects wherein we do not now take notice of any , if we particularly studyed their nature ; and that our acquiescence in what we have learned about many things proceeds not from our greater knowledge of their nature , but from our having exercised less curiosity and attention in considering it . And if in things Corporeal , that are the familiar objects of our Senses , we are often reduc'd to confess our Ignorance of the Modes of their inexisting or operating , I hope it will not be denyed , that to a Being wholly unapproachable by our Senses , natural Theology may be allowed to ascribe some things whose Modus is not attainable by our understanding : As the Divine Prescience of future Contingents ; which as 't were impious , to deny as to the truth of the thing ; so I fear 't is impossible to explicate as to the Modus of it . Eugen. If it were at this time proper for me to meddle with things of that kind , I should not much scruple to say in favour of the Christian Religion , that divers Tenents granted both by Christians , Jews , and Heathens , as parts of natural Theology , to me seem as difficult to be con●ived , as divers of those Mysteries that for their unintelligibless are fiercely opposed in Reveal'd Theology . I will not take upon me to judge of others ; but for my part I confess , I do not much better understand , how an Intellect and a Will and Affections are distinctly inexistent in God , in such sort as they are wont to be attributed to him , than how in him there can be a Trinity ; stated , not as some Schoolmen explicate , or rather darken it , but as the Gospel delivers it : I can as little explain by any thing in Nature , how God , who is an immaterial Substance , can move Matter , as how he can create it : nor would it at all satisfie me to tell me , that a Rational Soul moves a Human Body ; for I do not allow , that it gives any motion to the Body , but only guides that which other Agents have put the parts of it into . And tho it did produce motion in the Body , my scruple would yet remain ; for the Cartesians themselves confess , that the power the Soul has of so much as determining the motion of the Body belongs to it , not upon any Physical Account , but by the particular Appointment and immediate Power of God , who would have that Power one of the Conditions or Properties of the Union of the Soul and Body . So that to me , who desire to have it explained how an immaterial Substance can move Matter , and consequently , how God can do it , it will be no satisfaction to say , that the Rational Soul can move the Body 't is joyned to , since that Power is referred merely to God's Appointment : And the question is , how God himself can be conceived to move matter . Arnob. I know not whether upon the same Grounds which I do not disallow , I may not add , that whereas by many 't is looked upon as an inconceivable thing that God should see mens Thoughts , to me it appears as little intelligible how he can know their outward Actions : For since we have no way of discerning the particular motions of Mens Bodies , but by some of our Senses , especially our sight ; and since those Sensations themselves necessarily require Organs duly constituted , that is , made up of divers parts , fram'd and joyn'd after such a determinate manner , I see not how we can explain the Perception of visible Objects without an Eye , or so much as any Corporeal Organ , or Substance ; especially since 't is , and that very justly , asserted , that the Deity is not united to any portion of matter , as the Human Soul is to the Human Body . And to these Instances , others to the same purpose might be added , but that I think it fitter to mind you , that of those it already mention'd amongst us , there are some that I presume you will judg referable to that which I lately called a possible Modus ; since it seems , toto genere , as they speak , inexplicable , how the Attribute inexists in the Subject , and after what manner the Cause can produce the Effect ascribed to it . Tim. I know you too well , Gentlemen , to suspect , you mean , by this , to deny to God either the power of moving matter , or that of perceiving all its motions . Arnob. You may well take that for granted , and you may remember , that to prevent mistakes , I was careful in proposing my Advice to except those things for which there is some positive proof competent in its kind . Pyrocl. One may then , without surprising you , ask what kind of proofs those may be ? Arnob. A full Answer to that Question would take up too much of that little time that is allowed us before it grow dark , to go thorow the Advices that yet remain unspoken of . But yet to comply with you as far as my haste will permit , I shall name two or three kinds of positive proofs , that may be employed on such occasions as we speak of . And first , if there be an effect that we discern must proceed from such a Cause , or Agent , we may conclude that such a Cause there is , tho we do not particularly conceive how , or by what operation 't is able to produce the acknowledg'd effect : Thus , tho a man otherwise of a good Judgment , being wholly a stranger to the Mathematicks , cannot conceive how a skillful Astronomer can many years before hand fore-tell Eclipses to a day and hour , and perhaps to a few minutes ; yet when the success does , as it often happens , verifie such Predictions , he will be satisfied , that the maker of them had the skill to foreknow the things foretold in them . And so the generality of Learned Men among us , who are not so much acquainted with that part of Navigation , which some Moderns have by a Greek Name called Limen-Euretica , or the Art of steering to Harbours , cannot well conceive how a Ship , that is , for instance , in the vast Atlantick Ocean above a thousand miles from any shoar , should be so directed as to arrive just at a little Harbor not Cannon-shot over , which perhaps neither the Pilot , nor any other in the Ship ever saw . And yet as little as we can distinctly conceive how such an Art of finding Ports can be framed , we scruple not to allow there is such an one , because Navigators to the East and West Indies , could not without the Guidance of such an Art find the remotest Ports they are bound for . A second sort there is of positive proofs consisting of those Consequences that are clearly and legitimately inferr'd from any manifest acknowledg'd , or already demonstrated Truth . To this sort belong divers Mathematical Propositions and Corollaries , which tho being nakedly proposed they seem incredible to the generality of Learned Men , and sometimes to Mathematicians themselves , are yet fully assented to , because they clearly follow from either manifested or demonstrated Truths . Thus many cannot conceive how 't is possible there may be a million , for instance , of Circles , ( or as many more as you please ) whose Circumferences shall each of them come nearer and nearer to one another , and to a straight Line assign'd , and yet none of them either touch , much less cut , either any other Circle , or that Line but in one and the same point . And yet this is one of the odd Propositions that Geometers have rightly deduc'd as Corollaries from the sixteenth of Euclid's third Element . And tho we cannot clearly conceive how two Lines , that at their remotest ends are but little distant from each other , should perpetually incline towards each other without ever concurring ; yet Geometricians , that is , the rigidest Reasoners that we know of , have been compell'd admit this in the Linea Conchoides of Nicomedes , to name no more . But tho , ( not to touch the same strings too often ) I thought fit to mention these Instances ; yet whether you judge them sufficient or no , you will allow that which may be taken from the endless divisibility of a Line : For tho , if I misremember not , Sophronius told me , he took notice to you how unable we are to have a satisfactory apprehension , how a short line as well as a long , can be divided into more and more parts without any stop ; yet Geometricians generally admit this , because it may be clearly deduc'd from some Geometrical Truths , and particularly from the incommensurableness of the Side and Diagonal of a Square : And if you will allow me to have once more recourse to Divine Prescience , I may add another acknowledg'd instance by representing , that Philosophers have admitted that , because they judged it clearly to follow from the infinite Perfections of God ; tho , how he can foresee Contingency the most judicious and modest of them did not pretend their Reason was able to conceive . Timoth. To these two kinds of positive proofs mention'd by Arnobius , I doubt not but he will give me leave to add Divine Revelations , if competently attested ones can be produc'd ; and therefore I will not by going about to evince this , spend any of the time he reserves for the remaining Rules , to which he may , for me , advance assoon as he thinks fit . Arnob. I accept the Liberty you offer me , Timotheus , to proceed to my next Advice ; which is this . The Fourth Advice , or Rule . That when we treat of Privileg'd Subjects , we are not bound always to think every thing false , that seems to thwart some received Dictate of Reason . As great a Paradox as this may at first blush appear , yet it will need little more to make it out than the application of some things already delivered on occasion of the two foregoing Advices , of which this is indeed little more than a Corollary . For it being evident , that as a great part of the Dictates of Reason are Negative , so Negative Propositions do usually spring from the repugnancy we judge that some things have to some positive Dictate of Reason ; if those positive Dictates contain but gradual and limited Truths ( to borrow Sophronius his Terms ; ) and come to be unduly extended to privileg'd Subjectss it may very possibly happen , that a thing may be really true , that yet must appear false , if it be judg'd of by its congruity to one of those limited , and but respective Dictates of Reason . 'T is also clear , that not only in Philosophy , but natural ( as well as reveal'd ) Theology the usual ground on which we reject many things is , that we judge them unintelligible . And I censure not the practice in general , but I think it may easily mislead us , when it is extended to things that we may discern to transcend our Reason , as for ought yet appears , some of the Modus's even of things Corporeal are found to do . And we think we have made complete Enumerations of the several ways of inexistence of an Attribute in a Subject , or of the operation of one thing upon another , when indeed we have overlook'd one or other , and perhaps that which we have thus pretermitted may be the true one ; tho it may be also that no attention and diligence of ours could in some Cases have served our turn , the Modus inquired after being not conceivable to us , tho it may be too a higher than a human Intellect . Pyrocles . The School-Philosophers for many Ages in the Catalogues they made of the ways of a Bodies working upon another at a distance ; did not think of the true ways by which Odors and Sounds are communicated to us , and therefore had recourse to certain unintelligible things , which they were pleas'd to call Species Intentionales . Whereas those modern Naturalists that philosophize freely , acknowledge , that Odors are communicated by Effl●viums , exhaling from the odorous Body , and fitted to affect our Nostrils , and Sounds are transmitted to the Ear by the undulating motion which the Air is put into by the impulse of the vibrating , or otherwise agitated parts of the sonorous Body . Timoth. Methinks we need not go out of our selves to find Instances of both the parts of what Arnobius was last saying , if we admit , as I question not but we rationally may , this Tenet of the generality of Philosophers , both ancient and modern , That the Reasonable Soul is an immaterial Substance : For then ; whereas men think they have sufficiently enumerated the ways of determining the motion of a Body , by saying , that the determination must be made either in the Line wherein the Impellent that put it into motion made it move , or in the Line wherein it was determined to move by the situation of the resisting Body that it met with in its way ; the motions of the animal Spirits , if not also some other internal parts of the Body , may , the Body being duly disposed , be determined by the human Will ; which is a way quite differing from the other . And how this Attribute , I mean the power of determining the motion of a Body , without any power to impart motion to that Body , should belong to an immaterial Creature , which has no Corporeal Parts to resist the free passage of a Body , and thereby change the Line of its Motion , is not yet , nor perhaps ever will be in this life , clearly conceived by us men , tho there is no doubt , but that he , who indowed the Soul with this Attribute or Power , perfectly understands , both how it exists in the Soul , and how the Soul by exerting it , operates on the Body . Pyrocles . But can any thing seem more unreasonable than to embrace opinions that contradict the Rules of Reason ; which practice , if it be once allowed , why should we trouble our selves to investigate what is congruous or incongruous to Reason , since the making a discovery , that an opinion is repugnant to it , will not assure us of that opinions being false . Arnob. A person less knowing and equitable than Pyrocles would have spared this double Objection , if he had remembred , what hath been formerly said , applicable to our present purpose , and what kind of things they are that we are discoursing of : But to remind him a little of them , I shall desire him to consider with me , that I no way disallow the rejecting of Opinions that are found contrary to those Rules of Reason , at the framing of which the things opin'd about were duly taken into consideration : But in Cases not thought on when such Rules were devised , we are not always bound to submit to be judged by them ; and to maintain an opinion unconformable to such a Rule , may be not to oppose a genuine and absolute dictate of Reason , but to rectifie one that is erroneously thought so , by shewing , that the Rule is expressed in more Catholick and Indefinite Terms than it ought to have been . And of two opinions you will not deny that that is the most rational that is most agreeable to those Rules of Reason , that are framed upon the fullest Information . Eugen. 'T is not difficult to gather from what you have said , Arnobius , that in the Rule you proposed to us ; very few of the Cases that occur in ordinary discourse , or even in that of Philosophers , will be at all concern'd . And in these few Cases wherein you intend the Rule should take place , you are careful to obviate inconveniences by a double caution . The first that you suppose , that the opinion that claims an exemption from the common Rules , is not an arbitrary or precarious Tenet , but sufficisufficiently made out by proper Arguments . And the second , by declaring , that 't is not to contradict right Reason , but bad Reasoners to give limitation to Rules that have been too hastily fram'd and conceiv'd in too general Terms , by men , who either were not competently inform'd of the variety of Particulars , when they took upon them to make Analyses and Enumerations ; or else presum'd to infer , that a thing was not , because they did not understand the Modus of its existence or operation . Arnobius . You take my sense right , Eugenius , and I have often thought , that the causes of the great clamor that is made against some men for not obsequiously submitting to , what some others call the Rules of Reason , are , that men do not sufficiently understand the nature of things and themselves , but entertain too narrow conceptions of the former , and too high an opinion of the later . Pyrocles . The Dictates of Reason being the surest , if not the only safe Rules , that Nature has given us to frame our Discourses and Ratiocinations by ; I confess I am , tho not fully resolv'd , yet very unwilling , to allow any Conclusion that is not conformable to them : or to admit that any thing should be so highly privileg'd , as to be exempted from the Jurisdiction of Reason , whose genuine Declarations they are . Eugenius . This Objection , Pyrocles , seems to me to be grounded rather upon an ambiguity of Terms , than the true nature of Things . For Reason is oftentimes taken for a Set of Notions and Propositions employ'd and acquiesc'd in by this or that sort of Reasoners , that are wont to have names given them from this or that particular Discipline , as Astronomy , Chymistry , Opticks , &c. of whose receiv'd Doctrines they are supposed to be entirely maintainers . But it is also with at least as much propriety , used to signifie the rational faculty it self ; furnished with the light that accompanies it when it is rightly disposed and informed . In the first of these two Senses it seems but reasonable to allow , that some things ought to have the privilege to be exempted from being judg'd by some of the same Rules that are employ'd to judge of other things by ; for some of these Rules were fram'd upon a slight consideration of common and familiar things , either by the vulgar , or by men that for want of skill or application of mind did not critically consider the distinct natures of things , and yet presum'd to settle Rules that other mens inadvertence or laziness has made them receive for certain Dictates of Reason : whereas other natures should have been then considered as well as those : and by reason of their not having been so , the Rules I speak of are not always proper and safe , when they are applyed to these over-looked natures . Thus Successive Beings , as Time and Local Motion , do in some Cases require to be estimated by other measures than Substances , whether material , or incorporeal ▪ And so also the more nice Metaphysicians , especially among the Moderns , have thought themselves obliged to discourse of Moduses , Relations , Privations , Extrinsecal Denominations , &c. in a very differing way from that which belongs to Bodies and Spirits ; tho the unskilful ( even among otherwise learned men ) have been wont , and still are apt , to confound all these Subjects ; by applying to them indiscriminately the same Rules , or , as they think them , Dictates of Reason . But besides what may be said of these long unregarded or undistinguished natures , there are other entities that are more generally and familiarly taken notice of , wherein I may think one may find instances more applyable to my present purpose . For I observe , that tho all other actual Beings are compounded ( to speak in the language of the Schools ) of Essence and Existence ; yet according to the notion of Metaphysicians as well as Divines , it must be acknowledg'd , that the simplicity of the Divine Nature is such as to exclude from God even this kind of composition . And indeed the notion we have of a Being infinitely perfect , imports , that , tho in no other Being , yet in this , those two are inseparable ; for actual existence being a perfection , must needs belong to the Nature of a Being infinitely perfect . The generality of Philosophers , after Aristotle , conceive Place to be the immoveable and immediately contiguous concave Surface of the ambient Body , so that 't is a kind of Vessel that every way contains the Body lodg'd in it ; but with this difference that a Vessel is a kind of moveable place , as when a Bottle of Wine is carried from the Cellar to the Table ; but place is an immoveable Vessel , or a Vessel considered as immoveable : now supposing with : Aristotle , and the generality of Philosophers , the plenitude of the world , it may be truly said , that all Plants , Animals , Minerals , Stars and other Bodies are each of them in such an Aristotelian place as has been describ'd ; whence it has been usually said by Philosophers , that what is in no place ( I hope they meant it only of Bodies ) is not at all ; yet it appears not how the outermost Heaven , whether that be the Firmament , or no , I need not here inquire , can be properly said to be in a place , since these Philosophers asserting the World to be finite , must grant there is no ambient body without it to contain it . And I shall add on this occasion , that if the outermost Heaven should be impell'd by the irresistible power of God in a straight line this way , or that way , there should ensue a motion without change of place , for the outermost Heaven was in none before , and does not by its progression come to be contain'd by a new ambient Body . And in this case even according to those modern Favourers of Aristotle that approve Des ' Cartes his definition of local motion ( which indeed is far more intelligible than Aristotle's ) the world may be said to move without changing of place ; for it does not pass from the Neighbourhood of some Bodies to that of others ; since comprising all Bodies , and yet being bounded , there is no body for it to leave behind , nor any beyond it for it to approach to ; and tho the Cartesians in their Hypothesis of the indefinitess of the World do partly avoid the force of what I have been saying ; yet besides what may be rationally urg'd to shew , that if the world be not more than indefinite , it must be really finite ; I consider that the Cartesians , tho upon grounds of their own , must allow what I was observing , namely , that tho every particular body in the Universe is naturally capable of Local Motion . Yet the Universe it self is not ; and tho every particular body in the world have some determinate Figure ; yet the world it self , being indefinite , has not so . Whereas Aristotle and the Philosophers that have lived since his time , have generally admitted the division establish'd by him , of all Entities , into Substance , and Accident , and accommodated their Rules to one of them , or both : The Learned Gassendus and his Followers , have introduc'd a third sort of things , as not being either Substances , or Accidents : and these if you will admit , you will I presume , admit too , that they may be privileg'd from their Rules calculated for other Natures . Of this kind of things , the Gassendists make Place or Space to be . For they will not allow it to be a Substance , because it is neither body , nor spirit , but only somewhat that has a capacity to receive or contain bodies , and would subsist , tho God should annihilate all the Substances he has created . And for the same reason it is not to be called an Accident , since that necessarily requires a Substance to reside in ( according to that received Axiom ) Accidentis esse , est inesse , whereas in case of the annihilation of the world it self , and consequently all Substances that compose it , their place or space would still remain , and be capable of admitting a new world of the same extent , if God should be pleased to create it ; whence Gassendus wittily infers , that Bodies are rather accidental in respect of place , than space in respect of Bodies . But without staying to examine this Paradox , I shall venture to say in general , that he who shall with an heedful , and unprejudiced eye , survey the several Hypotheses , or Systems , maintain'd by the differing Sects of Philosophers , may find , that tho the Instances will not be all of them the same ; yet there is none of these Systems in which one may not observe some thing or other , to which every one of the Rules that reach to the other Snbjects treated of in that Philosophy , cannot safely be apply'd . And indeed the mind of man being naturally far more desirous to know much , than to take the pains requisite to examine , whether he does so or not , is very prone to think that any small number of things that it has not distinctly considered , must be of the same nature and condition with the rest that he judges to be of the same kind . For by thus attaining to the knowledge of things , by way of Inference , the mind gratifies at once both its vanity , and its laziness ; looking upon these Conclusions , as marks of the excellency of its rational faculty , whilst they rather proceed from a want of the due exercise of it . Pyrocles . But if the receiv'd Dictates of Reason be not always safe grounds to proceed upon in our Discourse , I would gladly know by what Rules we shall judge of those Rules , and discover them to be erroneous , in case they be so , and by what measures we shall estimate truth and falsehood , in those things wherein the use of those Rules must be laid aside . Arnobius . Your double objection , Pyrocles , I confess to be weighty enough to deserve a considerate answer , and to give you the sum of mine in few words , I shall tell you , that in my opinion , since there is no progress in infinitum in the Criteria of truth , and that our faculties are the best instruments that God has given us to discover , and to examine it by , I think a clear light or evidence of perception shining in the understanding , affords us the greatest assurance we can have , ( I mean in a natural way ) of the truth of the judgments we pass upon things , whether they be other things , or the vulgar rules of reasoning , or subjects that claim a privilege from those rules . And here give me leave to consider , that it is not by induction , but by evidence , that we know , that ex vero nil nisi verum sequitur . By which it appears , that the innate light of the rational faculty is more primary , than the very Rules of Reasoning , since by that light we judge even of the lately mention'd Axiom which is it self the grand principle of Ratiocinations made by Inference . Eugenius . This matter may be perchance somewhat illustrated by observing that , as the understanding is wont to be look'd upon as the eye of the mind ; so there is this Analogy between them , that there are some things that the eye may discern ( and does judge of ) organically , if I may so speak , that is , by the help of instruments : as when it judges of a Line to be streight by the applicasion of a Ruler to it , or to be perpendicular by the help of a Plumb-line , or a Circle to be perfect by the help of a pair of Compasses : But there are other things which the eye does perceive ( and judge of ) immediately and by intuition , and without the help of Organs or Instruments ; as when by the bare evidence of the perception it knows that this colour is red , and that other blue , and that Snow is white , not black , and a Char-coal black , not white ; and such a Picture is very like , or another unlike to the face it was drawn to represent . For thus there are some things that the Intellect usually judges of in a kind of Organical way , that is , by the help of certain Rules , or Hypotheses , such as are a great part of the Theorems and Conclusions in Philosophy and Divinity . But there are others which it knows without the help of these Rules more immediately , and as it were intuitively by evidence or perception ; by which way we know many prime notions and Effata , or Axioms Metaphysical , &c. as that Contradictory Propositions cannot both be true ; that from truth nothing but truth can legitimately be deduc'd ; that two things that are each of them equal to a third thing , are equal to one another ; that a whole number is either even or odd . And 't is also upon this evidence of perception ; that we receive with an undoubted assent many primitive Ideas and notions , such as those of extended Substance or Body , Divisibility , or Local Motion , a streight Line , a Circle , a right Angle , and many other things that it would be here superfluous to mention . Arnobius . I think the internal Light that the Author of Nature has set up in mans Intellect qualifies him , if he makes a right use of it , not only to apply the Instruments of Knowledge , but also to frame , and to examine them . For by the help of this Light , the Understanding is enabled to look about , and both to consider apart , and compare together , the natures of all kinds of things ; without being necessitated to employ in its Speculations , the Rules or Dictates of any particular Science or Discipline ; being sufficiently assisted by its own Light , and those general Axioms and Notions that are of a Catholick Nature , and perpetual truth ; and so of a higher order , than the Dictates , or Rules of any particular or subordinate Science or Art. And by these means the Understanding may perceive the imperfection and falsity of such Rules or Theorems , as those men that look no higher , nor no further than their own particular Science or Art , embrace for certain and unquestionable . Thus when Philosophers observ'd that they could frame a clear notion of a thing without considering whether it were actually in being or not ; or even when they suppose that 't is not actually in being ; as we can frame a clear conception of a Rose in Winter , when there are none to be found growing ; and have a clear notion of a Myriagon , tho 't is very like there is no such Figure really existent in the world . They have generally concluded , that the essence of things is differing and separable from their existence . And yet when we consider that God is a Being infinitely perfect , and that actual existence being a perfection , must belong to Him ; we may by the same light of Reason that dictated Essence & Existence to be two separable things in all other Beings , discern that they must be inseparable in God ; and consequently that the forementioned Rule , tho more general than almost any other , is not absolutely universal : but must be limited by the light of Reason . And thus also Philosophers , considering that not only all sorts of Bodies , but the immaterial Souls of Men , ( and Angels themselves , supposing such Beings ) are all endowed with Qualities which are Accidents , have included it in the very notion of a substance , to be the subject of Accidents , or as the Schoolmen speak , substare Accidentibus ; and accordingly substantia is wont to be derived à substando : But the infranchised Intellect , finding in it self a notion of an absolutely perfect , and therefore existent Being ; and considering that to be the subject of Accidents , is not a thing agreeable to the highest perfection possible ; it concludes , that in God there are no Accidents . And this Conclusion has been embraced as a part , not only of Christian , but of Natural Theology ; and maintain'd by divers Philosophers themselves , upon Metaphysical and other meerly rational grounds . In short , the native light of the mind may enable a man , that will make a free and industrious use of it , both to pass a right judgment of the extent of those very Dictates that are commonly taken for Rules of Reason , and to frame others on purpose for priviledg'd things , so far forth as they are so . But I fear , Gentlemen , the fourth Advice I have ventured to offer you , has by its tediousness , made you justly impatient of being detain'd by it so long : and therefore I shall advanced to the Fifth ; which imports , The Fifth Advice , or Rule . That where Privileg'd Things are concern'd , we are not always bound to reject every thing , as false , that we know not how to reconcile with some thing that is true . Pyrocl. You may call this an Advice , but I doubt others will style it a Paradox , and possibly , think it one of the greatest that ever was broach'd . Arnob. Yet perhaps you will find by and by , that it may be in great part made good by what has been already discoursed , and by you admitted . I think it will not be doubted , but that there are , or may be conceived streight Lines , whereof one is a hundred or a thousand times longer than another : 'T is also generally granted , that a longer Line consists of , or may afford more parts than a shorter ; for a Line equal to the shorter , being taken out of the longer , and consequently just as divisible as it , there will remain of the longer Line another Line , perhaps many times exceeding the shorter Line : And lastly , 't is generally acknowledged , that no Number can be greater than infinite ; since if the lesser number were capable of accession ( as it must be , if it fall short of another number ) it would need that accession ( or a greater ) to make it infinite , which yet 't is supposed to be already . Pyrocl. I see not yet to what all this may tend . Arnob. You will quickly perceive it , when I shall have desired you to reconcile these Propositions with the demonstrations of Geometers of the endless Divisibility of all streight Lines ; whence they deduce , that tho they be very unequal among themselves , yet the shortest of them contains , or may afford infinite parts . Pyrocl. But is there any thing more clear to humane understanding , or more supposed in almost all our Ratiocinations , than that two Truths cannot be contradictory to each other . Arnob. Tho I am far from affirming , that one Truth can really contradict another truth ; yet I think that which is but a gradual or limited truth , may in some few cases not be reconcileable by Us , to an absolute and universal Truth . For , I think we may ( with Sophronius ) distinguish those Propositions we call true , into Axioms Metaphysical , or Universal , that hold in all Cases without reservation ; and Axioms collected or emergent ; by which I mean such as result from comparing together many particulars that agree in something that is common to them all . And some of these , tho they be so general , that in the usual Subjects of our Ratiocinations they admit of no exceptions ; yet may not be absolutely and unlimitedly true ; of which I know not whether I formerly gave you an instance , even in that Axiom which ( almost ) all meerly Natural Philosophers have supposed and built on , that , ex nihilo nihil fit , which , tho at least one of the highest of gradual or collected Truths , may yet be not universally true , since , for ought we know , God that is acknowledged to be a Being that is infinitely perfect , may have , and may have exercised , the power of Creating . And in such Cases as this , not to be able to reconcile a truth concerning a privileged thing with a Proposition that generally passes for true ( and in other Cases is so indeed ) will not presently oblige us to reject either Proposition as false , but sometimes , without destroying either , only to give one of them a due limitation , and restrain it to those sorts of things , on which 't was at first grounded , and to which 't was , because of mans ignorance , or inconsiderateness , that 't was not at first confin'd . And if the Miracles vouch'd either for the Christian , or for any other Religion , be any of them granted to be true ; ( as almost all mankind agrees in believing in general , that there have been true Miracles ; ) it cannot well be deny'd but that Physical Propositions are but limited , and such as I called Collected Truths , being gathered from the settled Phaenomena of Nature , and are lyable to this limitation or exception , that They are true , where the irresistible power of God , or some other supernatural Agent is not interpos'd to alter the course of Nature . Pyrocl. But do you think , there are no inconsistent Propositions that you would call Truths , wherein you cannot shew that one of them is but a gradual or emergent Truth ? Arnob. 'T is one thing to inquire whether men have yet discerned , or I am able to make out , that one of the Propositions you speak of is but a limited truth ; and another , to inquire , whether speaking absolutely and universally , it may to any Intellect appear to be no more than such . For first I consider , that the Reason why we judge things to be repugnant , Being , that the Notions or Ideas we have of them seem to us inconsistent , if either of these notions be wrong framed , or be judged of by an unfit Rule , we may think those Propositions , to be contradictory that really are not so ; as , if you heedfully mark it , you shall find , that those that are wont to employ their imaginations about things that are the proper Objects of the Intellect , are apt to pronounce things to be unconceivable , only because they find them unimaginable ; as if the Fancy and the Intellect were Faculties of the same extent : Upon which account some have so grosly err'd , as to deny all immaterial Substances , and chose rather so far to degrade the Deity it self , as to impute to it a Corporeal Nature , than to allow any thing to have a Being that is not comprehensible by their Imagination , which themselves acknowledge to be but a Corporeal Faculty . But besides this mistake of things repugnant , which arises from the mis application or mis-management of our discerning Faculties , I consider in the next place , that there may be another that proceeds from the Imperfection and Limitedness of our Understanding , which being unable to judge of privileged things at the same rate that it does of other Objects , may sometimes be unable to discover that reconcileableness that a more illuminated and penetrating Faculty may discern . This may be illustrated by what usually happens at Sea , ( for there mens Prospect is the most free ) when looking towards the Main , the Sky and the Waters seem to meet at the edge of the ( sensible ) Horizon , tho indeed they are as far distant as Heaven is from Earth ; and on the other side if you skillfully mix together the dry and fine powder ef Orpiment , and that of Indico , you will produce a green colour , as is known to Painters , and the eye takes notice but of an uniform mixture , in which it sees neither blew nor yellow : But if , ( as experience shews ) you look on this mixture with a very good Microscope , the emergent colour will disappear ; and you will plainly see instead of it , blew and yellow grains of the powders distinct from one another . Which Instances may serve to shew the imbecillity of our visive Faculty ; and the later of them may teach us , that a thing may appear one and differing , as 't is looked upon by a more or less discerning sight . But an instance more home to our present purpose may be afforded by yellow Diamonds , which because of their Colour , not only other Men , but the generality of Goldsmiths ( in whose error I have sometimes shared ) take to be counterfeit Gems , or at best but right Topazes , whereas very skillful Lapidaries , will by sure signs discover and acknowledge them to be true Diamonds , notwithstanding their seeming difference from unquestion'd ones , and account them to be of the same nature with that noblest kind of Jewels . Whence we may learn that a more skillful Judge may discern an agreement in things that almost all other men think they see manifestly to be of distant natures . Eugenius . Give me leave , Gentlemen , to say on this occasion , that I have several times observed , that men judge some things to be irreconcileable , not only when they are both of them represented to the understanding in the form of Propositions ; but when one of them is but a notion , or a current difinition . For divers of these notions do contain in them a Proposition , or are equivalent to it ; As when a Circle is defin'd to be a Figure contain'd in a Line , all whose parts are equally distant from the middle-most Point or Center , this definition contains an affirmation of the essential property of a Circle ; and by the generality of Geometricians is therefore discriminated from that Conick Section which they call an Ellipsis , tho that be also a Figure terminated by one curve Line . And because you are versed in Mathematicks , I shall on this occasion shew you by a Geometrical Instance , that if a man have not genuine and adequate notions of the things he judges of , he may confidently , and even upon very probable grounds , judge things to be inconsistent , that in reality , are not so . For if an ordinary Cultivater of Mathematical Disciplines should hear one man say , that such a Figure is an Ellipsis , and another affirm it to be a Circle , he would think their assertions to be inconsistent , having his mind prepossessed with an Ellipsis's , being a Conical Section , whose properties must therefore ( he supposes ) be very differing from those of a Circle ; whereas such wary Geometricians as the Learned Doctor Wallis * will tell him , that the vulgar notions of Conick Sections are not adequate to the Figures producible by them : For when a right Cone is cut quite through by an inclining Plane , the figure produced by the Section agrees well with the received notion of an Ellipsis , in which the Diameters are of unequal length ; yet if the Plane cut the Cone parallel to the Basis , that Conick Section will be a true Circle , having all its Diameters equal . 'T is indeed an uncommon and unheeded account , but such an one upon which I have observed not only Logicians , but Philosophers themselves to err about judging things reconcileable or inconsistent ; that if a man be not sufficiently acquainted with the nature of any of the two things under consideration ( and much more if he be ignorant of , or mistaken about both ) he may think there is a contradiction between things , wherein a Superior or more piercing Intellect may discern a consistency ; for taking it for granted , that he knows one thing to be a truth , if some other thing be affirm'd to be so , which he has not understanding or skill enough to see how to reconcile to it , 't is no wonder , that how well soever this may be evinced , he should as little know how to admit , as how to reject it . This may be partly illustrated , and partly prov'd by instances drawn from the Mathematicks themselves : For a Novice in Arithmetick , for example , finding That , according to his Rules , there is not one mean proportional number between 4 and 32 , will scarce be able to reconcile that Proposition to this other , That there are two mean proportionals between the mentioned numbers ; For he may with great appearance of Reason ask , how , if there be not so much as one mean proportional , there can be two ? Whereas those that are acquainted with the nature of Ranks or Series of numbers proceeding in Geometrical Proportion , will easily discern that between those two recited , both the number 8 , and the number 16 ; are mean proportionals . Timotheus . Tho I disallow not your Instance , Eugenius , yet I shall be willing to hear one or two others of a less abstracted Nature . Eug. To obey you , Timotheus , I shall add , that if an old School-Philosopher , or a Mathematician not acquainted with the later Discoveries made by Telescopes , should hear one man say , that the Moon is the most enlightned , when she appears full to us , and another affirm that she is more inlightned at the New Moon than at the Full , he would readily conclude , upon the supposition ( which he makes no doubt of ) that the Moon receives all her light immediately from the Sun , that the affirmation of the later ( Astronomer ) cannot be true ; which yet he would not conclude , if he knew ( what is discovered by Telescopes ) that the Moon is as well inlightned by the Earth , as the Earth by the Moon ; upon which score , whereas at the Full she receives but those Beams that come to her directly , from the Sun , at the Change she receives both them in that part of her Body that is obverted to him , and those other Beams of his that are reflected from the Terrestrial Globe to that part of the Moon that is nearest to us . And to the foregoing Instance , I shall add one more , that seems apposite enough to Arnobius's Purpose , and 't is , that before Pythagoras , not only the vulgar of the Greeks , but their Philosophers and Mathematicians too , observing oftentimes that a bright Star preceded the Rising Sun , and that frequently also ( on other days ) after Sun-set , another Star appear'd , that was none of the fix'd ones ; they confidently concluded from the so distant times of Apparition , that the Sun was attended by two differing Stars , to which accordingly they gave two differing names : But Pythagoras , who was a far better Astronomer ( as may be guessed , among other things , by his maintaining in those early times the motion of the earth about the Sun ) undertook to disabuse them , and effected it . Now if one that had observed Venus only in the mornings , should have affirm'd , that besides the six known Planets , there was but a seventh ( namely the Phosphorus ) which preceded the Rising Sun ; and another , ( that had taken notice notice of her only in the Evenings ) should assert , that besides the same six known ones , the only seventh was that called Hesperus , which sometimes appear'd after his Setting ; a By-stander would presently have concluded , that their Assertions were not reconcileable , either to one another , or to the truth ; which ( in his judgment ) was , that there must be no less than eight visible Planets ; and yet Pythagoras , who had more skill , and more piercing wit , did , ( as was lately noted ) discern and teach , that these two Phaenomena were produc'd by one and the same Planet Venus , determined by its peculiar motion ( about the Sun ) to shew it self near our Horizon , sometimes before he ascends it , and sometimes after he had left it . Such instances as these , tho offered but as illustrations , may perswade us from being too forward to reject every proposition , that we see not how to reconcile to what we take for a truth ; provided the distrusted proposition be such as we would acquiesce in , if we could reconcile it to that supposed Truth . Timotheus . From this Discourse , Eugenius , and that of Arnobius , which preceded it , I think one may gather , that according to you two , when two Propositions are laid down , whereof one is made evident to us by Experience , or by Reason , acting within its own Jurisdiction or Compass ; and the other is sufficiently proved by being mathematically demonstrated , or duly attested by Divine Revelation , we ought not to reject either of these propositions , as no truth , meerly because we do not yet know how to reconcile them : but we should rather think , that the collected Proposition , is but a gradual , or limited truth ; or else we should consider , that we knowing but so imperfectly as we do the particular natures of privileg'd Subjects , for ought we know a superior Intellect may be able to discern a friendly agreement between what is deliver'd about that Subject , and the affirmation that seems repugnant to it , tho we are not quick-sighted enough to perceive this Agreement . And this , how strange soever you may think it , Pyrocles , may not only be countenanc'd by such things as Eug. lately said , but both you your self , and almost all mankind do de facto seem to practise it , in the case of the Divine Prescience of mans free Actions . Eugenius . What you contend for , Gentlemen , may perhaps be thought the more receivable , if one should argue thus : First either the Propositions said to be repugnant , are both really true , or they are not ; If it be answered , that they are not , the difficulty is at an end : for there is none at all to conceive a true Proposition , should contradict a false one . But , secondly , if both the Propositions be supposed to be true , it must be affirm'd , either that they are reconcileable , or that they are not ; if it be said , they are not , then Pyrocles his objection is out of doors ; for it cannot then be reasonable to say , that the two Propositions , tho inconsistent with one another , must necessarily be one or other of them inconsistent with the truth . But this I presume he will by no means assert , and consequently , must say , that the Propositions are reconcileable . Upon which answer I shall demand , how that can be , unless a superior Intellect , such as unquestionably the Divine is , can discover an agreement between Propositions wherein we cannot discern it . For our not being able to discern it , is you know professedly supposed in the case we discourse of . Pyrocles . But , Arnobius , will not this Doctrine make us very liable to have falsities imposed on us at the pleasure of bold and dictating men ? Arnob. Not , if it be limited to the subjects wherein alone I would have it admitted ; for if neither of the things treated of be a privileg'd one , but both in the jurisdiction of ordinary reason , I do not only consent , but ( in my first Advice ) require , that the Propositions fram'd about them be estimated according to the common Dictates of Reason . And even in cases where one of the Propositions is about a privileg'd thing , I do not at all think fit , that it should be received in spite of its being repugnant to the gradual truth delivered in the other , unless it can by some other Argument sufficient in its kind be proved to be true ; and in that case , that , what I plead for , ought to be admitted , is implyed by the suffrage of almost all mankind , in that case , which was just now pertinently mentioned by Timotheus : for tho men know not how to reconcile the Liberty of mans will , with the infallible knowledge that God has of those Actions that flow from it , yet they have unanimously judged it reasonable to believe both Free-will and Prescience ; the former , because they felt it in themselves ; and the later , partly because the foreknowledge of things being manifestly a perfection , ought not to be denyed to God , whom they looked upon as a Being supremely perfect ; and partly because some actions and events that they all judg'd to flow from mens free-will , were , as the generality of men believ'd , foretold by Prophetick Oracles . But except in such cases as I have been naming , I am altogether of Pyrocles's mind , that since we have scarce any way of discovering a Falsity , but by its being repugnant to somewhat that is true ; to deny , that in cases within the juridiction of ordinary Reason , the repugnancy of a Proposition to any manifest truth , ought to sway our Judgments , were to deprive us of the usefullest Criterion to discriminate between Falshood and Truth . Timoth. For my part , who believe with many Philosophers , as well Heathen as Christian , that humane Souls owe their origine to God , and with almost all Philosophers , ( for I know what the Stoicks held ) that as he is the supreme Being , so he is a most free Agent , I see not why , as he has given to Corporeal Beings divers Qualities , very differing in their degrees of Nobleness ; so he might not give to the Intelligent Productions of his Power and Will , various degrees of Intellectual Capacities as well as a limitedness of Nature . And as it will not follow , that because we can see with our eyes very small Objects , and imagine such as are yet much smaller , either the eye , or the imagination can ever reach to so small an Object as an Atome ; so it will not follow that because we are able to frame Conceptions of immaterial Beings , we must therefore be able to understand the nature of God , and the Harmony of all his Monadical Attributes . A little Boy may have a clear notion of three , four , five , or other smaller numbers , and yet may be unable to frame good conceptions of Triangular and other Polygon Numbers ( as some call them ) and much more of the abstruse affections of surd Numbers , and the Roots of the higher Algebraical Powers . To discern particular Truths is one thing , and to be able to discover the Intercourse and Harmony between all Truths , is another thing , and a far more difficult one ; as a Traveller may upon the English Shoar know that he sees the Ocean , and upon the Coast of Affrick be made to do the like , and at the East Indies also he may know that he sees the Ocean ; and yet not know how those so distant Seas communicate with each other , tho that may be manifest enough to a Cosmographer . Arnob. What you say brings into my mind , that I have sometimes thought God and men enjoy Truth , as differingly as they do Time. For we men , as we enjoy time but by parcels , and always leave far the greatest part of it unreach'd to by us ; so we know but some particular Truths , and are always ignorant of far more than we attain to . Whereas God , as his eternity reaches to all the portions of time ( or measured Durations ) so his Omniscience gives him at one view a prospect of the whole extent of Truth : ( As if a man could see the whole River of Nilus with all its turnings and windings from its hidden Springs to its entrance into the Sea. ) Upon which account he sees all particular Truths , not only distinct , but in their Systeme , and so sees a Connexion between those that to us seem'd the most distant ones . Arnob. There remains now , Gentlemen , but one part more of your penance to be undergone ; for 't is high time , I should hasten to the relief of a Patience I have so long distress'd , and therefore I shall give it but one exercise more , and conclude your Trouble with some reflections on this last Advice . The Sixth Advice , or Rule . That in Privileg'd Things we ought not always to condemn that opinion which is liable to ill Consequences , and incumbred with great inconveniencies , provided the positive proofs of it be sufficient in their kind . That this Advice may be the more easily admitted , I shall separately suggest three things , which I desire may be afterwards considered all together . First , that clear positive proofs , proportionate to the nature of things , are genuine and proper motives to induce the understanding to assent to a proposition as true ; so that 't is not always necessary to the evidence and firmness of an Assent , that the Intellect takes notice of the Consequences that may be drawn from it , or the difficulties wherewith it may be incumbered . This is plain in those Assents which of all others , at least that are meerly natural , are by knowing men thougt to be the most undoubted and the best grounded ; I mean the Assents that are given to the Truth of Geometrical Demonstrations : And yet , Euclid , for instance , in all his Elements of Geometry , in some of which surprising Paradoxes are delivered , ( as in the sixteenth proposition of the third Book , and the 117th of the tenth Book , to name no more ) contents himself to demonstrate his Assertions in a Mathematical Way , and does not , that I remember , answer or take notice of any one Objection : and the Geometricians of our days think they may safely receive his Propositions upon the Demonstrations annexed to them , without knowing or troubling themselves about the subtleties employed by the Sceptick Sextus Empiricus , or others of that Sect in their writings against the Mathematicians , and all Assertors of assured knowledge . The second thing I would offer to your consideration , is , that the former part of our Discourse has manifested , that there are some things which our humane and imperfect understandings either cannot , or at least do not , perfectly comprehend : and that nevertheless men have not refrain'd from presuming to dogmatize and frame Notions and Rules about such things , as if they understood them very well . Whence it must needs come to pass , that if they were mistaken ( as in things so abstruse , 't is very like they often were ) those that judge by the Rules they laid down , must conceive the Propositions opposite to their mistakes , to be liable to very great , if not insuperable Difficulties and Objections . And this second Consideration , in conjunction with the first , will make way for the third , as a natural production of them , which is , That , as we need not wonder that privileged things , which are wont to be so sublime as to have been out of the view of those that fram'd the Rules whereby we judge of other things , should be thought liable to great Objections by them who judge of all things only by those Rules ; so we should not require or expect more evidence of a Truth relating to such things , than that there are for it such sufficient positive Reasons , as notwithstanding Objections and Inconveniences , make it , upon the whole matter , worthy to be embraced . Pyrocles . But can that be worthy to be assented to , which is liable to Objections and Inconveniences , which the maintainers confess they know not how to avoid ? Does not your Euclid himself in some of his Demonstrations imploy that way of reasoning which some of his Latine Interpreters call Deductio ad Absurdum ? Arnob. Euclid indeed ( as well as other Mathematicians ) besides that more satisfactory way of direct probation , which perhaps he might have oftner imployed than he did , has sometimes where he thought it needful , made use of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you speak of . But in these cases he never goes out of the Discipline he treats of , and confining himself to Arguments drawn from quantity , he urges nothing as absurd , but what is undeniably repugnant to some Truth he had already demonstrated , or to those clear and undisputed Definitions , Axioms , or Postalata , which he supposes to have been already granted by those he would convince . But tho he thus argues to prove that his Readers cannot contradict him without contradicting themselves ; yet we find not that he was at all solicitous to clear those Difficulties that so quick-sighted a man could not but know some of his Theorems to be attended with : but contents himself to demonstrate the incommensurableness of the Side and Diagonal of a Square , without troubling himself to take notice of the Difficulties that attend the endless Divisibility of a Line , which would follow from what he demonstrated . But , Pyrocles , to look back to the first part of your Objection , tho what you say will hold in ordinary Cases , yet such peculiar ones , as we are speaking of , deserve a particular Consideration . About some privileged things there are , and about some others there may be contradictory Opinions ( taking that term in a strict sense ) maintain'd . Now as both of these cannot be true , so one of them must be so : as , tho it be hotly disputed whether Quantity be endlesly divisible , yet certainly it either must , or must not be divisible without end : And as was formerly observed which side soever you take , the Inconveniencies will be exceeding great , and perhaps there will lye Objections scarce to be directly answered . And since one of the two opposite Opinions must be true , it will not always be necessary , that an opinion must be false , which is incumbred with great difficulties , or liable to puzzling Objections . And therefore if the positive proofs on one side be clear and cogent , tho there be perplexing Difficulties objected by the other ; the truth ought not for their sake to be rejected ; because such difficulties proceeding usually either from notions that men presume to frame about things above their reaches , or from Rules that were not made for such points as are in dispute , the Objections are not to be judged so well founded , as is that acknowledged Principle in Reasoning , that from Truth , nothing but truth can be legitimately inferr'd . Eugen. I confess I have always thought it reasonable in such Cases to compare , as well the positive proofs of one opinion with those of the other , as those Objections that are urg'd on either side ; and there make my estimate upon the whole matter ; tho with a peculiar regard to that opinion that has a great advantage in point of positive Arguments ; Because , as Arnobius observ'd , those are the proper Inducements to the Assent of the Intellect : And then the Objections may well enough be suspected to proceed from the abstruse nature of privileg'd things , and the over-great narrowness of the Rules that men are wont to judge of all things by . For we may have a sufficiently clear proof that a thing is , whilst we have no satisfactory conception of its manner of existing or operating ; our illative knowledge , if you will allow me so to speak , being clearer , and extending further than our intuitive or apprehensive knowledge . Arnob. But even about things that we cannot sufficiently understand , we may in some cases exercise our Reason , in answering objections that are thought not to be at all answerable , because they are not directly so . For we may sometimes shew , by framing in another case a like Argument , which , the Adversary must confess , does not conclude well , that neither does the Argument that contains his Objection conclude aright . This I could exemplifie ( tho that may seem no easie Task ) but that I fear I should want time to propose Examples , whose being very paradoxical would make them need much proof ; which you who I fear are quite tired already , would want patience to hear . Wherefore I shall rather recommend to you one Observation , which I take to be of no small moment and use , when we contemplate things of the nature of those we have been discoursing of : and it is this , that we must not expect to be able , as to privileg'd things , and the Propositions that may be fram'd about them , to resolve all Difficulties , and answer all Objections ; since we can never directly answer those , which require for their solution a perfect comprehension of what is infinite : as a man cannot well answer the Objections that may be made against the Antipodes , the Doctrine of Eclipses , that of the different Phases of the Moon , and of the long days and nights of some months apiece , near the Poles , ( not now to name that more abstruse part of Astronomy , the Theory of the Planets ) unless he understand the nature of the Sphere , and some other Principles of Cosmography . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A28958-e270 Ovied contr . 17. Phys . Rationem habere inter se quantitates dicuntur quae possunt multiplicatae , sese mutuo superare . Definit . 5. Elem. V. Euclidis . Notes for div A28958-e5520 * See his Treatise de Sectionibus Conicis . 
A28974	----	Experiments and considerations about the porosity of bodies in two essays / by the honourable Robert Boyle ... Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1684 Approx. 150 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 76 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2008-09 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A28974 Wing B3966 ESTC R17645 12547275 ocm 12547275 63097 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A28974) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 63097) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 955:6) Experiments and considerations about the porosity of bodies in two essays / by the honourable Robert Boyle ... Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. [4], 145 p. Printed for Sam. Smith ..., London : 1684. Reproduction of original in Cambridge University Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Chemistry -- Early works to 1800. Porosity -- Early works to 1800. Anatomy -- Early works to 1800. Physiology -- Early works to 1800. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-12 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2007-02 Jason Colman Sampled and proofread 2007-02 Jason Colman Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion EXPERIMENTS AND Considerations ABOUT THE Porosity of Bodies , IN TWO ESSAYS . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE , Fellow of the Royal Society . LONDON , Printed for Sam. Smith at the Prince's Arms in S. Pauls Church-Yard . 1684. TO THE READER . THe Reader is to be advertis'd , not to expect in the following Essay a Regular , or so much as a Coherent , Discourse . For it was intended only as a collection of loose Experiments and Observations about the Porosity of the parts of Bodies belonging as Chymists speak ) to the Animal Kingdom , and laid ( not to say thrown ( together , in order to what I had thoughts of offering , towards an Intelligible account of Occult Qualities . I am not ignorant , that even one of the most ancient and famous of Physicians hath said , that a mans body is ( almost ) every where perspirable . But I judg'd that a Doctrine of such moment , and which diverse things in the Theory and Practice of after Physicians may make one think they either disbelieved or disregarded , did not deserve to be slightly deliver'd , and in general terms , but to be more narrowly considered , and likewise made out by Particular Instances , whose applyableness and usefulness to explain divers obscure Phaenomena , may hereafter appear much greater , then perchance at the first sight they will be thought . And the foregoing advertisement , with a light change , which 't is presum'd the Reader may easily make of ●imself , is to be extended to the Essay tacked to this about the Pores of Solid Bodies , and so may excuse the absence of a distinct Preface to it . An Essay of the POROUSNESS OF ANIMAL BODIES . AS the most numerous part of the Pores of Bodies is too minute to be seen , so the Contemplation of them has been thought too inconsiderable to be regarded . But when I consider , how much most of the Qualities of Bodies , and consequently their operations depend upon the structure of their minute , and singly invisible , particles , and that to this latent contexture , thē bigness the figure and the collocation of the Intervals and Pores do necessarily concur with the Size , Shape and Disposition or contrivance of the substantial parts I cannot but think the Doctrine of the small Pores of Bodies , of no small importance to Natural Philosophy . And I scarce doubt , but if such little things had not escaped the sight of our Illustrious Verulam , he would have afforded a good Porology ( if I may so call it ) a place , ( and perhaps not the lowest neither , ) among his Desiderata . And , though other imployments and avocations hinder me from attempting to treat of this subject as amply and particularly as it deserveth , or even as I had design'd in a Scheme drawn diverse years since , and seen by some Virtuosi ; Yet , not to leave apart of Physicks , that seems to me so curious and important , altogether as uncultivated as I found it ; I shall present you as many of the Notes I had drawn together about this subject , as I can conveniently ( for I do not pretend to do it methodically ) reduced to three heads : Whereof the first , which will challenge to it self this present essay , is the porosity of Animal Bodies , about which I shall not be solicitous to marshal my observations , since they all conspire to shew but this one thing ; That the parts of Animals , especially whilest these are alive , are furnished with numerous Pores . Those parts of the Bodies of Animals , wherein their porosity may be best shewn seem to be their Membranes or Skins , the Bones , the Flesh , and Coagmentations of Membranes , Flesh and Juices . And therefore it would be proper enough to treat of these Heads distinctly , and give Instances of each of them in particular . But yet I think it will be more convenient , to set down in order the principal Fountains , whence the Porousness of the substances belonging to the Animal Kingdom ( as the Chymists speak ) may be derived , and to annex to each of these the Experiments and observations , upon which I argue from it , and which it will be easy to refer , if that be thought fit , to this or that of the parts above mentioned ( namely the Membranes , Bones , &c. ) whereto they shall ( respectively ) appear the most properly to belong . CHAP. I. THe first thing from which I will deduce the Porosity we have been speaking of , is , the Frame or Constitution of the stable Parts of the Bodies of Animals . For the Body of an Animal being not a rude and indigested lump of matter , but a curious engine , admirably framed and contrived for the exercise of several Functions as Nutrition , Generation , Sensation , and many differing local Motions , it was necessary that it should be furnished with variety of Dissimilar and Organical parts not only very Skilfully , but very differingly , contrived congruous to the several uses for which they were designed , or if you please , to the several Functions they were to perform . And , because 't will be easily granted , that the Corpuscles , that are skilfully brought together for such purposes , must be so contexed as not to touch one another exactly every where , it will readily follow that they must leave little Intervals or Pores between them , and that , considering the multitude of particles that must go to the making up the Body of the Animal , and the great difference and variety in point of bigness and figure of the Corpuscles that are requisite to contex such differing parts , as Membranes , Fibres Bones , Grizles , Ligaments , Veins , Arterys , Nerves , &c. Both the number and the variety of the Pores cannot but be very great . This argument will be much confirmed , by what there will be occasion to say further to the same purpose , in the Essay touching the Porosity of even Solid Bodies . Wherefore I shall now proceed to the Second thing , whence we may derive that of Animal Substances . CHAP. II. THis is afforded us by considering the Nutrition of Animals . For there being continually a great waste made of their substance , partly by the exclusion of visible excrements , and partly by the avolation of invisibles steam , this great loss must necessarily from time to time be repairpaired by the supplies afforded by Nutrition of which the best , if not the only Intelligible , way of giving an account , is , to conceive that the alimental Juice , prepared chiefly in the Stomach is impelled or attracted ( for to our present purpose it matters not which ) to the parts of the Body that are to be nourished by it , and the Corpuscles of the juice insinuate themselves at those Pores they find commensurate to their Bigness , and Shape ; and those that are must congruous , being assimilated , add to the substance of the part wherein they settle , and so make amends for the Consumption of those that were lost by that part before . This may be illustrated by what happens in Plants , and especially Trees , in which , of the various Corpuscles that are to be found in the liquors , that moisten the Earth , and are agitated by the heat of the Sun and the Air , those that happen to be commensurate to the Pores of the Root , are by their Intervention impelled into it , or imbibed by it , and thence conveyed to the other parts of the Tree in the form of Sap which passing through new strainers , ( whereby its Corpuscles are separated , and prepared or fitted to be detained in several parts ) receives the alterations requisite to the being turned into Wood , Bark , Leaves , Blossoms , Fruit , &c. But to return to Animals , our argument from their Nutrition will be much confirmed , by considering , that in Children and in other young Animals , that have not yet attained their due Stature and Bulk , the Nutrition is so copious as to amount to a continu'd Augmentation . For , as 't is evident that Animals grow in all their parts , and each part according to all its Dimensions , in so much that even the cavities of Bones increase ; so we cannot well conceive how this can be done , unless the Nutritive liquor be distributed through the whole Body of the part that is to be nourished and augmented . And to this distribution 't is requisite that the Body abound with Pores into which the congruous particles of the Juice may be intimatly admitted , & penetrating even into the innermost recesses , may place or lodge themselves in the manner that is most convenient for the Natural Increase of the part . But the more particular Declaration of this Process I leave to Anatomists and Physicians . CHAP. III. HAving premis'd once for all , that in this Essay , I often use the word Skin in the lax and popular sense of it , without nicely distinguishing the Epidermis or Cuticula , called in English the Scarf-skin , from the Cutis it invests and sticks closely to ; I shall proceed to another Topic , whence the Porousness of Animals may be argued , namely , the great plenty of matter that is daily carried off by Sweat , and insensible Transpiration . For , 't is confest that Sweat is discharged at the Pores of the skin ; and since there is no penetration of Dimensions , we may safely conclude , that the matter that is not wasted by Sweat , or by any other sensible way of evacuation , must have small Pores or out-lets in the Skin , at which it may issue in the form of steams ; though nothing hinders but that invisible Effluvia also may evaporate at the same Pores with the Sweat , though for want of plenty or grossness , or a fit disposition in the ambient , those Effluvia be not at the Orifices of those Pores brought into little Drops , such as those of sweat . That therefore the Skins of a multitude of Animals , though they seem close to the eye , may be porous , may ( as we have been saying ) be argued in many of them from their sweating . But because all of them have not been observed to sweat , as is wont to be particularly affirmed of Dogs , we shall add some other Instances to make it probable . We may sometimes , in the smooth skin of a living man , discern Pores with good Microscopes , and , with one that is none of the best , we may easily on the inside of gloves , which are made but of skins drest , discern good store of these little out-lets : Sometimes orderly enough ranged to make the sight not unpleasant . And though some of them may , I think , be suspected to have been made by the Hairs that grew on the skin before 't was drest , yet that greater numbers of them , than can be supposed to come from thence , are perforations that pass quite through the Leather , may , not improbably , be shewn by the usual Practice of Chymists , to purify Quick-silver by tying it up strictly in a piece of kids or sheeps Leather , and then wringing it hard to force it out ; by which means the lower surface of the Leather will be covered with a Mercurial Dew or Sweat which will fall down and fly out , as the Pores happen to open this or that way , in a thick shower of globules , leaving the dross behind in the Leather . And tho when a mans skin is tanned it is of a greater thickness then one would expect , and that which I employed seem'd almost as thick as a Buck-skin Glove yet having had the curiosity to try the same Experiment with the skin of a mans Arm , I found the Quick-Silver would be squeez'd out at the Pores of that also . 'T is not necessary that I should here inquire , whether the little holes , unperceiv'd by the naked Eye , at which the Sweat is discharged , and perhaps the matter that the Body looses by insensible transpiration gets out , be not , at least most of them , the Orifices of small excretory vessels , belonging to those very numerous glandules which the excellent Anatomists Steno and Malpighi are said to have discovered beneath the Cuticula , and which for their smalness and shape have been called Glandulae miliares . I need not , I say , engage in this inquiry , since according to this ingenious opinion also , the Skin must be allow'd a multitude of small Perforations or Pores , and that is sufficient for my purpose , from whencesoever this Porosity proceeds in a mans Skin . For the next observation will shew that some membranes of Animals may give passage to transpir'd matter without being perforated by the excretou● Vessels of Glandules . The Membranes or Skins under the shells of Hens Eggs , though they be very thin , are of a Contexture very fine and close as may be confirmed by their resisting the sharp Corpuscles of Vinegar ; and yet , that not only these Skins , but the shells that cover them , are porous , may be inferred from the Experiments I made , of keeping them suspended for a good while , and carefully counterpoised in good scales ; for by these it appeared , that the Eggs did from time to time manifestly lose in weight ; which could not reasonably be imputed but to an invisible Transpiration , the rather , because usually in eggs that have been kept long , there will be at one end a cavity which is wont to increase with their age , and is made by the shrinking of the Membrane from the Shell , to accommodate it self to the diminished quantity of matter , that remains to be involved by it . When I consider the plenty of matter , that is wont to be discharged daily by insensible Perspiration , especially in Healthful men that exercise themselves moderately , I cannot but think it probable , that the minute Pores , that suffice for the carrying off so much matter , are very numerous , and are much more so than even by the multitude of drops of sweat , that serve to wet the skin , men are wont to imagine . For Sanctorius in his excellent little Tract de Medicina statica affirms , that what is barely carryed off by insensible transpiration does ordinarily amount to more , that is , diminishes more the weight of a mans Body , than all the visible excrements ( whether gross or liquid ) put together . Aph. vi . He adds , If the meat and Drink , taken in one day , amount to the weight of eight pound , the insensible Transpiration ordinarily amounts to five pounds or thereabouts . And elsewhere says , that sometimes in the space of 24 hours , in the Winter time , a healthy Body may exhale fifty ounces or more . And some Tryals , that I have carefully made upon my self , added to some others of a very curious as well as great Prince , that made use of a like instrument , & did me the honour to acquaint me with the events , gave me no cause to reject Sanctorius observations , considering the difference in point of heat , between the climate of Italy , where he writ , and that of England , where ours were made ; only I fear , there has been committed an oversight by those many that ascribe all the decrement of weight , that is not referrable to the grosser Excrements , to what transpires at the Pores of the visible parts of the skin , without taking notice of that great plenty of steams that is in expirations discharged through the Wind-pipe by the Lungs , and appear manifest to the Eye it self in frosty weather ; though they may be presumed to be then less copious than those Invisible ones that are emitted in Summer , when the ambient Air is much warmer . But though I look upon the Wind-pipe as the great Chimney of the Body in comparison of those little Chimneys ( if I may so call them ) in the Skin , at which the matter that is wasted by perspiration is emitted , yet the number of these little vents is so very great , that the fuliginous Exhalations that steal out at them , cannot but be very considerable . Besides that , those that are discharged at the Aspera Arteria , do probably , at least for the most part , issue out at the latent Pores of the Membranes that invest the Lungs ; which membranes may be lookt upon as external parts of the Body , in reference to the air , tho not in reference to our sight . But , to return to our Eggs , we may safely allow a very great evacuation to be made at the Pores of the skin in man , who is a sanguineous and hot Animal , since we see that even Eggs , that are still actually cold , transpire . And I elsewhere mention the copious transpiration even of Frogs , that are always cold to the touch ; and the Decrement in weight of some Animals , soon after they are strangled or suffocated , when , their vital Heat being extinct , no more fumes are emitted by expirations at the wind-Pipe : To which signs may be added the trivial experiment of holding in warm weather the palp of ones Finger , as near as one can without contact , to some cold & solid smooth body , as to a piece of polished Steel or Silver ; for you will often times see this Body presently sullyed or overcast , with the invisible steams that issue out of the Pores of the Finger , and are by the cold and smooth surface of the Body condensed into visible steams , that do as 't were cloud that surface , but upon the Removal of the Finger , quickly fly off , and leave it bright again . The Perviousness of the skin outwards may not improbably be argued from the quickness wherewith some Medicines take away some black and blew Discolorations of the skin , that happen upon some lighter stroke , or other contusions . For , since these preternatural and unsightly colours are wont by Physicians to be imputed to some small portions of blood , that upon the contusion is forced out of the capillary vessels that lye beneath the surface of it , & being extravasated are obliged to stagnate there ; it seems very likely , that if a powerful Medicine do quickly remove the discoloration , that work is performed by attenuating , and dissolving , and agitating the matter , and disposing it to transpire through the cutaneous Pores , though perhaps , when 't is thus changed , some part of it may be imbibed again by the Capillary Vessels , and so by the circulation carryed into the mass of Blood. Now , that there are Medicines that will speedily work upon such black and blew marks , the Books and Practice of Physicians and Chirurgeons will oblige us to admit . Helmont talks much of the great vertue of white Briony root in such cases . And a notable Experiment made a while ago by a Learned acquaintance of mine in an odd case , did not give Helmont the Lye. And I know an eminent Person , who having some while since received a stroke , by a kick of an Horse , on his Leg , a very threatning contusion , which made the part look black and frightful , he was in a few hours cured of the pain of the hurt , and freed from the black part of the Discoloration by the bare application of the chopt leaves of Hissop mixt with fresh Butter into the form of a Pultess . Nor is it only the Skin that covers the visible parts of the Body that we judg to be thus porous , but in the Membranes that invest the internal parts , we may reasonably suppose both numerous and very various Pores , according to the exigency of their peculiar and different Functions or Offices . For , the two first causes of Porosity mention'd in this Essay , are as well applicable to the Membranes that cover the internal parts , as the Liver , the Spleen , &c. as to the external Skin , or Membrane that covers the Limbs ; and in some respects the transpiration through such Pores seems more advantaged , than that through the Pores of the surface of the Body ; since the parts that environ the Spleen , Liver , Kidneys , &c. in man , are hot in comparison of the ambient Air , and being also wet , which the Air is not , the laxity of the Pores of the internal parts is doubly befriended . And perhaps it may be allowable to conceive , both the Skin that covers the Limbs , and the Membranes that invest the internal parts of the Body , to be like worsted stockings , Wast-Coats , &c. Which in their ordinary state have a kind of continuity , but upon occasion can have their Pores every way enlarged and stretched , in this or that manner , as the Agents that work on them determine them to be . This may be confirmed , by what we manifestly see in the finer sort of leather , as that of Kid or Lamb , and by the latent Pores that may be opened in Sheeps-Leather , and mans Leather , by the pressure of included Quick-Silver . This Porosity of a living mans Skin and other Membranes , though internal ones , will the more easily be assented to if it appear that such thick and gross Membranes , as the urinary bladders of dead Animals , are Porous and Penetrable even by Water . This we tryed , by putting some salt of Tartar in a clean well dryed bladder ( which ought to be afterwards tyed up close in the neck , lest the effect should be ascribed to the moist Air ) and leaving the lower part of the bladder , as far as the Salt , reached immersed in common Water , whose particles by degrees insinuated themselves into the Pores of the bladder , in plenty enough to resolve the Salt of Tartar into a liquor . And , that it may not be said that the Acrimony of the Salt , by fretting the bladder , made way for the Corpuscles of the Water , I shall add that the Experiment succeeded , but much more slowly , when we tryed it with Sugar instead of Salt of Tartar. And there are some , who pretend that certain Syrups made this slovenly way , which they would have pass for a secret , are very much preferable to those made of common Water . That the films that line the shells of Eggs are of a very close Contexture seems probable , as by other things , so by their resisting some liquors , sharp enough to corrode the shell , and yet that such Membranes are pervious to Liquors that are none of the most subtile of all , we found by the ensuing Experiment . This was made by taking an ordinary Hens Egg , and keeping it for two or three days in distill'd Vinegar , or in strong crude Vinegar . For then taking it out of the Liquor and wiping it well , it was visibly , and not inconsiderably , swell'd , which I concluded to be from the ingress of some particles of the liquors , at the Pores of the Skins that invest the White of the Egg. For we found nothing broken , though we made the Tryal more than once . And to be satisfied that the manifest expansion proceeded from some other cause , than the meer dilatation of the White , or Yolk , or both , we compared the weight of the Egg , after it was taken out and well wiped , with that which had been taken before 't was put into the Menstruum , and found the Egg , notwithstanding the loss of the Shell , to be considerably heavier than 't was before its immersion . I shall add on this occasion that by a more unlikely way than that newly recited , both the Egg , Shell and Lining of an Egg , may be penetrated . For , notwithstanding the fine and close contexture of the Membranes that invest the Eggs , the Chineses have a way of Salting them in the shell , as I have been assured both by English and Dutch Merchants trading to the East Indies . And in one of the Dutch Journals sent by the Council of Batavia to their Principals in Holland , and intercepted by an English man of War , I met with divers accounts of great numbers of salted Eggs , that were such or such a day of such a Month brought in by Sea to Batavia or other Ports . Long after which time , meeting with an ingenious Physician , that liv'd in Batavia , I learned by enquiry from him , that 't is very true that such Eggs are frequently met with in those parts ; he having divers times eaten of them there : some that he judged to have been either boyled or roasted , before they were salted ; and others that were raw , when they came to be dressed for him , but yet retained a Briny tast . And , though the Merchants I enquired of could not tell me what way the Chineses employed to Salt their Eggs , without making them unfit for common use , yet by a tryal made with clay and Brine , in which I kept the Eggs for a competent time , I was perswaded that 't was possible the Chineses should have the Art ascribed to them . For upon the breaking of an Egg coated with clay , after it had lain for a competent time in Brine , I found its Tast considerably Salt , but was , by I know not what accident , hindered from prosecuting the Experiment , and endeavouring to make it more practicable and useful . I knew a Physitian of more learning than vertue , who , being tormented with a violent and obstinate Colic of a peculiar kind , was wont to relieve himself by Clisters of Sack ; thô he usually found that not long after he had taken any of them , they would make him giddy , and fuddle him , as he himself confessed to me . But upon this Instance I lay not much weight , and less upon what was answered me by a great Chirurgeon , who having practised his Art in the West-Indies , and being asked by me whether he had not dressed Wounds and Ulcers with the recent juice of Tobacco ( a plant I use to keep growing in my Garden for its excellent vertues in cuts , burns , and tumors ; ) and whether , if he employed it , he did not find it emetick , he told me among other things , that having Divers times dressed with this Juice a small Ulcer in a Womans leg , the patient soon after the application would grow sick , and have her stomack turned , or actually vomit . But , as I was saying , on this instance I lay no stress , because the Corpuscles of the Tobacco might probably enough get in at the small Orifices of some corroded Vessels , and so be conveyed inwards , rather by the help of the Circulation of the blood , than on the account of the Porousness of the Parts . And therefore I shall rather mention what has been related to me , by an eminent Physician of the famous Colledge of London , namely , that he had divers times given himself a vomit , by a certain application of decocted Tobacco to his wrists , and some other external parts ; which brings into my mind , what is affirmed to have been observed in some Children that have scabb'd Heads , who have been made Drunk , by the application of Clothes or spunges wetted in Infusion of Tobacco , or of strong Liquors , and applied to the part affected . Though in this case the inebriating Particles may be suspected to have got in , not at the meer Pores , but rather at the Orifices of the Capillary Vessels , that were made accessible by such little solutions of Continuity , as are seldom wanting in scabbed Heads . That Children may be purged by outward applications is asserted by some Physicians ; and an experienced Person of that number has affirmed to me , that he can almost constantly do it by a Plaister . But 't is more considerable what was related to me by an eminent Virtuoso , who being indisposed to believe such things a while before he told me the story , was desired by a curious Person to shew him his Hand which the Relator having done the other took it in his hand , which was moistened ( as was afterwards confessed ) with a kind of subtile Chymical Oil , but so slightly , that the Relator scarce minded it , till some time after when he found himself prest with a motion , like that which a purge would have given him ; for the other thereupon smiling , my acquaintance began to suspect what the matter might be , and was in a short time purged four times , without griping , or other pain or discomposure . But to return to the Porousness of Membranes , it may serve to make way for your admitting it , to observe , that though Lute-strings be but Ropes of Fibres ( which are at least the chief parts that Membranes consist of ) dead , cold and stiff , yet when the lute is in tune they will sometimes in wet weather swell so forcibly as with noise and violence to break , which proceeds from the copious ingress of moist vapors into their Pores , whereby they are not only shortened , but as I have tryed in nice scales , made manifestly heavier . The Porosity of the internal parts of Animals by both the foremention'd ways ( viz. of emission and reception of Corpuscles , ) may be confirmed by the things that happen in some of the Metastases or Translations ( as the Physitians call them ) of the morbifick matter in diseased Bodies . 'T is known to them that are any thing conversant with Hospitals , or the observations of Physicians , that there do not seldom occur in Diseases sudden Removes of the matter that caused them , from one part to another according to the nature and functions of which , there may emerge a new Disease , more or less dangerous than the former , as the invaded part is more or less noble . Thus oftentimes the matter , which in the sanguiferous Vessels produced a Feaver , being discharged upon some internal parts of the Head , produces a Delirium or Phrenitis ; in the latter of which I have somewhat wondered , to see the Patients Water so like that of a Person without a Feaver ; the same Febrile matter either by a deviation of Nature , or medicines improper or unskillfully given , is discharged sometimes upon the Pleura , or Membrane that lines the sides of the Chest ; sometimes upon the throat ; sometimes upon the Guts ; and causes in the first case a Pleurisie , in the 2d a Squinancy , and in the third a Flux , for the most part dysenterical . But , because I suppose , that many , if not most , of these translations of peccant humors , are made by the help of the circulation of the Blood , I forbore at the beginning of this Section to speak in general terms , when I mentioned them in reference to the Porousness of the internal parts of the Body , and contented my self to intimate , that some of them may serve to confirm that Porosity . This will not perhaps seem improbable , if we consider that 't is in effect already proved , by the same arguments by which we have shewn , that both the Skin and the internal Membranes are furnished with Pores , Permeable by Particles whose Shape and Size are correspondent to them . For we may thence probably deduce , that when a morbifick matter , whether in the form of Liquor , or of exhalations , chances to have Corpuscles suited to the Pores of this or that part of the Body , it may , by a concourse of Circumstances , be determined to invade it , and so dislodge from its former receptacle , and excite Disorders in the part it removes to . CHAP. IV. ANother thing whence the Porosity of Animals may be argued ▪ is , their taking in of Effluvia from without . For these cannot get into the internal parts of the Body , to perform their operations there , without penetrating the Skin , and consequently entring the Pores of it . Now , That things , outwardly applyed to the Body , may without wounding the Skin , be convey'd to the internal parts , there are many things that argue . And first , it has been observed in some Persons , ( for all are not equally disposed to admit the action of particular Poysons ) that Cantharides , being externally apply'd by Chyrurgions or Physicians , may soon , and before they break the Skin , produce great disorders in the Urinary Passages , and sometimes cause bloody Water . And I remember , that having once had a blistering Plaister , applyed by a skilful Chyrurgion between my shoulders , though I knew not that there were any Cantharides at all mixt with the other Ingredients , yet it gave me about the neck of my Bladder one of the sensiblest pains I had ever felt , and forced me to send for help at a very unseasonable time of night . The Porousness of the Skin may be also argued from divers of the effects even of Milder Plaisters . For , though some Plaisters may operate as they closely stick to the Skin , and hinder Perspiration from within , and fence the part from the external cold ; yet , t will scarce be denied , that many of them have notable effects upon other accounts , whereof none is so likely and considerable as the copious ingress of the Corpuscles of the Plaister , that enter at the Pores of the Skin , and being once got in , act according to their respective Natures & Vertues . The like may be said of Ointments , whose operations , especially on Children ( whose Skin is ordinarily more soft and lax ) are sometimes very notable . And I have known considerable things performed by them , in an internal Disease of grown men , where I should scarce have expected a Vegetable Ointment should perform so much : I say , a Vegetable Ointment , for 't is vulgarly known that by Mercurial Ointments Salivation may be excited ; and sometimes , against the Physitians will , the Corpuscles of the Quick Silver get so far into the Body , that he is not able to get them out again . What we lately said of Plaisters , may be applyed to those that Physitians call Pericarpia , or Wrist-bands : The better sort of which , though sometimes ineffectual , are oftentimes successful in stopping Fits of Agues , as I have frequently found in a mixture , elsewhere mention'd , of Currans , Hops , Baysalt well beaten together , by which , by Gods blessing , many , and I among others , have been freed from simple Tertians , and either double Tertians or Quotidians . The Argument of the Porosity of Animals , drawn from those things that get in through their skins , without breaking or wounding them , may be much strengthned , if it can be made appear , that those Physitians do not deceive us , who ascribe sensible Operations and Vertues , to things externally applyed , in so loose a way , that they do not so much as stick to the Skin , or perhaps immediately touch it ; such as some call Periapta and Appensa ; divers of which are best known among us , by the name of Amulets ; such as are the Quills containing Quick-silver or Arsenick , that some hang about their necks , and wear under their Shirts , against the Plague and other Contagious Diseases ; and the Bloodstones that others wear against Haemorrhages ; and the stone which the Women use in the East-Indies , for a quite contrary effect , in Obstructione Mensium . That many of these external Medicines , answer not the promises of those that extol them , having some of them no sensible operation at all , and others no considerable one , experience has assured judicious observers ; but that some of them , especially on some Patients , may have considerable , not to say admirable , operations , I confess my self by other motives , as well as Authority , to be perswaded . Having been one summer frequently subject to bleed at the Nose , and reduced to imploy several remedies to check that distemper ; that which I found the most effectual to stanch the blood , was some moss of a dead mans Scull ( sent for a present out of Ireland where 't is far less rare than in most other Countrys ) though it did but touch my skin till the herb was a little warm'd by it . And though I remember not that I have known any great matter done to stop Haemorrhagies by the bare outward application of other Blood-stones ; yet of one that look'd almost like an Agate , I admired the effects , especially upon a young and extraordinarily Sanguin person . To which I shall add a memorable thing , communicated to the experienced Zwelfer by the chief Physitian of the States of Moravia . For this learned man whom he extols for a great Physician and Philosopher ; assures him , that having prepared some Trochischs of Toads according to Helmonts way , ( which I remember I also was solicitous to prepare , but had not occasion to make tryal of their vertue , ) he not only found , that being worn as Amulets they preserved him and all his Domesticks , and Friends , from the Plague ( though he daily visited the infected ) but that having caused these Trochischs to be put upon the Plague sores of several persons , none of them died , but the venom of the pestilential Carbuncles was thereby so weakened that the ulcers were afterward easily cured by vulgar remedies . And now , as to the difficulty , which I acknowledge not to be small , to conceive how Bodies actually cold can emit Effluvia , capable of penetrating ( without moistening it ) a Membrane of so close a Contexture as a mans Skin ; I suppose it will be much lessened in the objectors opinion , by what he will meet with hereafter about the Pores of Bodies , and the Figures of Corpuscles . For supposing these to be congruous , it will not seem incredible , that the Effluvia of Amulets should in tract of time get passage through the Pores of the Skin of a Living Body . And to make this the more probable , I will give an Instance in the Skin of a dead Animal . And , because this requires a Liquor I much employ in these trials about Porology , though I have many years since in another Tract taught how to make it for another purpose ; yet I shall here repeat , that 't is made by exactly mingling Flower of Brimstone , powdered Sal Armoniac and good Quicklime in equal quantities , save that , if the Quicklime be not very dry and good , a fourth or fifth part must be superadded , for these being nimbly mixed , and distilled by degrees of Fire in a Retort , till the Sand be at length brought to be almost red hot , there will come over a smoaking Spirit , which must be kept very carefully stopt , and which for distinctions sake , I also use to call , The Permeating Menstruum or Liquor , and its expirations the Penetrant , or Permeating Fumes . And now you will easily understand the experiment I was about to mention , which was this ; We took a very clean piece of polish'd Copper , in want of which one of silver will serve the turn , and having lapt it up in a piece of either Lambs or sheeps Leather , so that it was every way inclosed , we then held it over the Orifice of the Vial that contained the Spirit , at a pretty distance from the Liquor , whose fumes nevertheless did quickly , ( perhaps in a minute of an hour or less ) pervade the Pores of the Leather , and operate upon the included metal as appeared by the deep and lasting tincture it had given to the lower surface of it , though the interposed Leather it self was not deprived of its whiteness , nor at all sensibly discoloured ; however it smelt of the Sulplureous steams that had invaded it . And , if I misremember not , the same Experiment succeeded , though somewhat more slowly , when a double Leather was interposed between the fumes and a new piece of Copper coin . This will be thought the less strange , when I shall come to some other Instances of the Penetrancy of these Spirits . In the mean while I leave it to be considered , whether this may not suggest some conjecture at that strange Phoenomenon , which is recorded by Authors of good repute , That sometimes in great Thunders the Lightening , among other operations , has been found to have manifestly discoloured mens money , without burning the Purses or Pockets wherein it lay . For in our experiment , the steams that in a trice pervaded the Leather , the most usual matter whereof Purses are made , were sulphureous , as the smell argues , that those which accompany the Fulmen are wont to be ; and whereas these , when they invade Bodies , are usually very hot , ours operated when the Liquor that emitted them was actually cold . And if it be said , that sometimes their money has been found discolored in their Pockets , who were not struck , by the Fulmen , but had it only pass near them , it may be objected , that tho the intire Body , whether fluid or solid , if there be any of this latter kind that is in Latine called Fulmen ( for our English word , Thunderbolt seems not so applicable to a fluid ) did not touch them , yet it might scatter steams enough round about it , to cause the Phoenomenon . For confirmation of which I shall take notice , that a considerable Person of my acquaintance , having had the Curiosity to ascend a burning mountain in America , till the sulphureous steams grew too offensive to him , he told me that , among other operations he observed them to have upon him , one was , that he found the money he had about him turned of a black and dirty colour , such as I have observed our sulphureous steams often give both to Copper , and to Silver Coins . But whether or no our Spirits will justify the conjecture , they invited me to mention , at least their so easily pervading the Skin of a dead Animal may make it probable , that the Skin of a Living man may be easily penetrated by external steams whose approach the Eye does not perceive , and whose operations , though not inconsiderable , may therefore be unsuspected . I leave to Physitians to consider , what use may be made of this observation , in reference to the propagation of contagious Diseases , by the contact of infected Air , distinct from the Respiration of it , and by the penetration of the steams , that issuing from divers Bodies invade the Skin , and may perhaps be capable of operations , either hurtful or friendly , that are not usually suspected to proceed from such causes , and are therefore misascribed to others . And on this occasion it will not be impertinent to add , that by hanging up sheeps Leather or Lambs Leather in the free Air , the vapors of it would so insinuate themselves into the Pores in wet weather , that a moderate degree of moisture in the Air would add to it a not inconsiderable weight , of which dry weather , whether hot or cold , would deprive it . CHAP. V. I Must not in this place omit some Instances , very proper to manifest the Penetrableness of Membranes to Fumes themselves , if they be subtile enough for their Pores , or correspondent enough to them . Among the observations published by Physicians I have met with some by which it appears that Cantharides may have great Effects upon the internal Parts of the Body , though they do not so much as touch the Skin , but are placed at some distance from it , so that their Effluvia must be transmitted through other Bodies before they can penetrate that . The learned Michael Paschalius mentions a Chyrurgion , who was twice brought to void much Blood with his Urine , by some Spanish Flies that he carryed about in a Purse or Bag. And another Doctor of note relates of another person that came to complain to him , that he pissed Blood , having carryed about with him Cantharides , though in his Pocket , and adds , that a like Case was recounted to him by Helidaeus , whom he calls an eminent Bolognian Physician . We see , that in Linnen Cloth , the finer and more slender the threads are the closer and less Porous , coeteris paribus , the Linnen is : By analogy to which one may esteem the thin film that lines the shell of an Egg , to be of an exceeding close Contexture ; and yet that even this film is not impervious to some Fumes , I have found by the following Tryal . To make this , we slowly and warily pick'd off a sufficient part of the Shell of a Hens Egg , from the Skin that lay just beneath it , and is wont to stick so close to it , that their separation , without injuring the Membrane , is not easy . In this Skin , being wip'd , we wrapt up a flat piece of Copper , whose surface was made bright , that the change of Colour might be the better seen ; and having kept this covered bit of Plate , over the Fumes of our smoaking Liquor lately mentioned for a minute or two by our ghess we unfolded the Skin , and found , as we expected , that the lower surface of the Copper which was it that had been held over the Fumes , was turned of a very dark colour , which manifested that even so fine and closely contexed a Membrane was not only , as we have formerly shewn , penetrable by Liquors , but readily pervious to our sulphureous exhalations , tho these were probably but faintly emitted , since the Liquor they came from was then actually cold . But in making the Tryal it is fit to hold ( as we did in that newly recited ) the Membrane against the light , to see if it be intire , and have escaped all those little lacerations that are hardly avoidable in severing it from the Shell it sticks so close to . If this caution be neglected , 't is easy to be imposed on , by overlooking some little holes , that are not easily discerned when one looks down upon the Skin , and yet may be sufficient to make the Experiment deceitful . But , thô when 't is well made , it is a notable confirmation of the Doctrine endeavoured to be established in this Paper , yet I shall now subjoyn a more considerable Instance to the same purpose . The Porousness of the Internal Membranes of the Body , will be more easily granted , if it be considered that either the Liquors , or the moist Exhalations , whose Action is promoted by the Natural Heat of the Parts , keeps them constantly wet or moist , and thereby renders them more lax , and more penetrable by subtle Spirits or other Corpuscles . In favour of this Reflection I made the following Experiment . We took a piece of a dryed Urinary Bladder , which was judged to have been a Calfs ; and having lapt it about a new piece of Silver Coin , so that the Bladder was single where it covered the lower side of the Piece , we kept it for divers Minutes , by guess , over the Spirituous Fumes of our often mentioned Permeating Liquor , but could not perceive that the Coin was thereby at all affected or ternished . Whence we concluded that the Pores of the dry Bladder were too close and narrow ▪ to give passage to the Expirations of the Menstruum . But presuming that moisture would some what relax them with another piece of the same Bladder , made limber by being a little wetted in common Water , we lapt up another like peace of new Coin , as we had done the former , and kept it at the same distance as before , from the Liquor , but not for so long a time . For after about two Minutes , by guess , we remov'd and took out the Piece , and , as we expected , found much of its lower surface ( that regarded the Liquor ) deeply discoloured . Which Experiment will not only justify what I lately said , of the greater Laxity of moist than of dry Membranes , but will be thought no mean confirmation of what is in this Essay delivered about the Porosity of Membranes , since the Urinary Bladder does , as Anatomists well know , consist of more than one Membrane , though they stick so close together , as to appear but one to the Eye . And this Bladder was speedily penetrated by the Fumes that our Liquor emitted in exceeding Cold and Frosty weather , though the Bladder it self was not in the warm Body of the live Animal , but had been so long kept dryed and cold , that probably the Moisture it introduced in scarce one minute of an Hour , could not restore it to the Laxity it had , whilst it was a part of the living Calf . One of the notablest Instances I ever met with , of the Porosity of the Internal Membranes of the Humane Body , was afforded me by that British Nobleman , of whom our famous Harvey tells a memorable , not to say matchless , story . This Gentleman , having in his youth , by an accident which that Doctor relates , had a great and lasting Perforation made in his Thorax , at which the motion of his Heart could be directly perceiv'd did not only out live the accident , but grew a strong , and somewhat corpulent man ; and so robust , as well as Gallant , that he afterwards was a Souldier , and had the honour to command a Body of an Army for the King. This Earl of Mount-Alexander ( for that was his last Title having marryed one of my nearest kinswomen , and having been told that I was very desirous to see , what I had heard such strange things of , very obligingly came , at a fit time , to give me that satisfaction . In order to which he removed that which covered the wide Orifice of his Hurt , and gave me the opportunity of looking into his Thorax , and of discerning there the motions of the Cone , as they call it , or Mucro of the Heart . But these things I mention but upon the by , and because of the strangeness of the fact ; the thing I principally intended relates to my present argument . Having then made several inquiries fit for my purpose , his Lordship told me , that when he did , as he was wont to do from time to time , ( though not every day ) inject with a Syringe some actually warm medicated Liquor into his Thorax , to cleanse and cherish the Parts , he should quickly and plainly find in his Mouth the tast and smell of the Drugs , wherewith the Liquor had been impregnated . And I further learned , that , whereas he constantly wore upon the unclosed part of his Chest , a Silken Quilt , stuffed with Aromatick and odoriferous Powders , to defend the neighbouring Parts and keep them warm ; when he came , as he used to do after some weeks , to imploy a new Quilt , the fragrant Effluvia of it would mingle with his breath in exspiration , and very sensibly perfume it , not , as I declared I suspected , upon the score of the pleasing Exhalations that might get up between his Clothes and his Body , but that got into the Organs of Respiration , and came out with his Breath at his Mouth , as was confirmed to me by a grave & judicious Statesman , that happened to be then present , and knew this General very well . Other circumstances I might add , but that I dare not trust my memory for them , and unhappily lost the Paper , wherein the oddness of the things invited me to set them down , for fear of forgetting them . That part of this Narrative which relates to Injections may be much confirm'd by what is delivered by Galen himself , who says that Mulsum or Honeyed Water , being injected at the Orifice of Wounds penetrating into the cavity of the Thorax , has been observed to be in part received into the Lungs , and discharged out of the Aspera Arteria by coughing . And this he mentions as a known thing , imploying it as a Medium whereby to prove another . The mention that has been made of the Porosity of Membranes , brings into my mind what I once observed at the Dissection , made by some Physicians , and Anatomists , of a lusty Souldier , that was hanged for I know not what crime . This man , though otherwise young and sound , was observed to have been long molested with what they call a short , dry Cough , which made us expect to find something much amiss in his Lungs . But meeting with nothing there , we were at a loss for the cause of this Cough , till coming to consider the internal part of the Chest , we perceived something on one of the sides , by tracing of which we discovered , that between the Pleura and the substance of the intercostal muscles , there was lodged a certain matter , of the breadth of a Silver Crown piece , or thereabouts , of a roundish figure , and of the consistence and almost colour of new , soft Cheese , which odd stuff was concluded to have been the remains of some ill cured Pleurisy , and to have transmitted through the Pores of the Pleura , though that be a very close Membrane , some noxious Effluvia , which ever and anon irritated the Lungs into an irregular and troublesom motion , and so produced the Cough the Malefactor had been molested with . CHAP. VI. I Am well aware that 't is far less difficult , to prove the permeableness of single Membranes , than that of such a Part of the Body , as seems to be an aggregate of several parts , which in regard of their close adhesion , are looked upon but as one part , to which , on that account , men commonly give a distinct name . But yet there are some Phaenomena that seem to argue , that even such compounded or resulting parts if I may so call them , are not destitute of Pores , which whether they be not some of them the Orifices of exceeding slender and therefore unobserved Capillary Vessels , I must not now stay to enquire . When the cavity of the Abdomen in those Hydropical Persons that are troubled with an Ascites , is filled with Water , or rather with a Liquor that I have found to be much more viscous , it justly appears strange , that by an Hydragogue , or some appropriated purging medicine , great quantities of this gross Liquor should in a short time be carryed off by Siege , and perhaps also by Urine , though to get into the cavity of the Guts , or that of either of the Kidneys , it seems necessary that it Permeate the Tunicles , and other component parts , of the Viscera it gets into . I know not whether I may on this occasion take notice of what Physicians observe to occur now and then in Empyema's that follow ill conditioned Pleurisies . For it has several times been observed , that upon the bursting of such imposthumes into the cavity of the Chest , the Purulent matter hath been voided by Siege and Urine . I hesitate , as I was saying , whether I should alledge this Phaenomenon , as a proof of what I now contend for , till it be determined whether this Metastasis be made by transudation properly so called , or by the ingress of the Pus into the imperfectly closed Orifices of the Vessels of the Lungs ; where being once admitted and mingled with the Blood they may with this circulating Liquor arrive at the Kidneys , or any other Parts fitted to make a secretion of this Heterogeneous matter . But whatever be the Reason or manner of it , we find that the Lungs do sometimes odly convey things to distant parts of the Body . And if I may here mention a thing , cui honos praefationis est , I shall add that I have several times observ'd in my self , that when I had been an actor or an assistant in the Dissection of a living Dog , especially if his Blood or Body were rankly Scented , I should divers hours after plainly find that odour in the excrements I voided by Siege . A famous Chirurgeon and Anatomist relates , that one who was very ill of a dropsy , judged to arise from a Scirrhus of the Spleen , coming to ask his counsel and assistance , though he judged the patients case desperate , yet to content him , he ordered him to dip a very large Sponge in good Quick-lime-Water , and having squeezed out the superfluous Liquor , to bind it upon the region of the Spleen , only shifting it from time to time . He adds , that after some months he was much surprized to receive a visit from this Patient , with solemn thanks for his recovery ; the outward Medicine having , it seems , resolved the Scirrhus and concurred with nature to evacuate the hydropical humour . For the resolution of which hard tumour it seems necessary , that the sanative Corpuscles of the external remedy should at length penetrate , not only the Epidermis , and the true Cutis , but the Muscles themselves of the Abdomen , and some other interposed parts . These instances may be strengthen'd by an eminent observation of Galen , who takes notice that Bones being sometimes broken , without piercing the Skin that covers the part they belong to , when the Callus is making , and the broken parts of the Bone begin to be conglutinated together , a Portion of that Blood which had flowed to the part affected is carryed to the Skin and permeats that , so as to wet and foul the Dressings or Bandages that are kept upon the limb affected by the Fracture . CHAP. VII . BOnes , Horns , and parts of the like Substance , being those that are granted to be the most solid of the Bodies of Animals , I come in the last place to shew by particular Experiments that these also have their Pores . I say , by particular Experiments , because in a general way , their Porosity has been already proved , by the same Arguments , from their original Texture , Nutrition , Augmentation , &c. That have been employed to manifest the Porousness of Animal substances in general . That the Nails of men , as well as their Skins , are Porous , may be gathered from their being easily and permanently tinged with divers metalline solutions , and particularly with those of silver in Aquafortis , and Gold in Aqua Regia ; the former of which solutions though cold , will but too easily tinge the Skin and Nails it chances to touch , and makes some little stay upon , with a dark and blackish colour ; which I found not that I could wash out with water , or , even with a far more penetrating and abstersive liquor . The like durableness I found in the Purple spots , that I sometimes purposely made on my Nails , by letting some little drops of the solution of Gold in Aqua Regia dry upon them , which I now and then did , to observe the way of the Nails growth . For if the stain were made near the root of the nail , it would be still , though very slowly , thrust on by the new matter , till after some weeks it arrived to the further end of the Nail , and was fit to be pared off with it . But this only upon the by . 'T is more to our purpose to take notice , that , though the Menstruums imployed in the recited Experiments be of themselves very acid and corrosive , yet they are so changed by the metals they have dissolved , that they are Acid no more , the solution of Silver being rather extreamly bitter , and that of Gold of a kind of Stiptic tast , almost like that which sloes , growing in the hedges , are wont to be of . Ivory is a thing too well known to need to be described . And , since 't is generally lookt upon ( for I have had no opportunity to compare it with the Bones ) as the solidest part of the vastest of Terestrial Animals , Experiments proving its porosity , will be strong presumptions for that of the hardest parts of other Animals . And the Porousness of Ivory may be argued from the several ways of dying it with permanent colours . For in these colorations the Tinctures that make them , must penetrate into , and be lodged in the Substance of the Ivory , especially when the Substance remains smooth and glassy , as I have divers times made it do , when I employed fit Menstruums and Metalline Pigments . The solution I formerly mentioned of Silver in Aqua fortis , being laid upon Ivory , will soon give it a dark and blackish stain , which is not , that I have found , to be washed off . I remember also that I many years since taught some ingenious artificers , to adorn Ivory with a fine purple colour , by moistening it with , and suffering leisurely to dry on it , a solution of Gold made in Aqua Regia . And if occasion required , allayed with water , nor needs either of these solutions be applyed hot , any more than the Ivory needs to be heated . Both which circumstances favour the Porousness of the solid Body . Copper dissolved in Aqua fortis stains Ivory with a blewish colour , as I have sometimes seen in the hafts of knifes , about whose coloration nevertheless another way is also employed . But I remember that without making use of any Acid or Corrosive Menstruum , I have even in the cold stained Ivory , with a fine and permanent blew , like a Turquois , by suffering to dry upon it as deep a solution as I could make of Crude Copper , in an urinous Spirit , as that of Sal Armoniack . But now to return to Bones , their growth in all their dimensions , does , as I lately noted , argue their Porosity and the marrow that is found in the great hollow Bones , whether it nourish them or no , must it self be supplyed by some alimental juice , that soaks or otherways penetrates , into the cavities that contain it . Nor does it seem at all improbable , that Blood it self may through small Vessels be conveyed into the very substance of the Bone , so as that the Vessels reach at least a little way in it , though perhaps the Liquor they carry may afterwards by Imbibition be brought to the more internal parts of the Bone. For not to urge that we manifestly see , that on each side of the lower Jaw , Nature has been careful to perforate the Bones and make a Channel in the substance of it ; which Channel receives not only a larger Nerve but a Vein , & Artery to bring in & carry back Blood for the nourishment of the Teeth , by distinct Sprigs sent from the great branch to the particular Teeth . Not to urge this , I say , ( which I mention but to shew that the opinion lately proposed is agreeable to a known practice of Nature ) I have been assured by eminent Anatomists , whom I purposely consulted , that they have observed Blood-vessels to enter a great way into the substance of the larger Bones . And one of them affirmed , that he had traced a Vessel even to the great Cavity of the Bone. Which I the less scrupled to admit , because it has been observed , that in younger Animals the Cavity is in great part furnished with Blood ▪ as well as Marrow , and in those larger Pores , whereof many are found in the more Spongy Substance of divers Bones , Blood has been observed to have been lodged , as also in the spongy part of the Skull , that lies between the two Tables , as I have been assured by Skilful Eye-witnesses . The blackness also , that Bones acquire when put into a competent heat , and a peculiar kind of fatness which they may by heat be made to afford , shew that they harbour , even in their internal parts , store of Unctuous Particles , separable from the solid substance , ( which still retains its shape and continues solid ) in whose Pores they may thereby be argued to have been lodged . The Lightness of Bones , even when their Cavity is accessible to ( Air and ) Water , is also a great sign of their Porosity . And so is their being corroded by tinging liquors , if they be penetrative and well applyed . I know not whether I should add on this occasion , that having taken calcined and pulverized Bones , such as we use to make our Cupels of , and , after having given them a good heat , kept them for some time in the Air , but in a well covered place ; I found the imbibed moisture of the Air to have manifestly increased their weight ; and that I also observed in a curious Skeleton , where the Bones were kept together by wires , instead of other Ligaments , that though I kept it in a well covered place , not far from a Kitchin Fire , yet in very moist weather the Bones seemed to swell , since those joynts that were easy to be bent , in dry weather , and that after several manners , would grow stiff and refractory , and indisposed to be put into such motions , when the weather was considerably wet . These particulars ( as I was saying ) I am somewhat doubtful whether I should here insert , because one may suspect the Phaenomena may proceed rather from somewhat else , than the imbibed moisture of the Air ; and yet I would not omitt to mention these observations , because I do not yet see any cause to which they may more probably ( or indeed so probably ) be assigned . And on this occasion I shall subjoyn some observations made on large and solid Ox Bones , which in one of my Note Books I find thus registred . Nov. 15. We weighed two [ entire or unbroken ] Marrow Bones , and found the one to weigh ℥ xxix + ʒss , and the other ℥ xxiv + ʒiv + 30 gr . Nov. 24. The former weighed ℥ xxix + ʒvi , and the latter ℥ xxv + ʒi + 30 gr . Decemb. 28. the former weighed ℥ xxix + ʒiij . 55 gr . and the latter ℥ xxiv + ʒvii . + 39 gr . June 7th of the following year , the former weigh'd ℥ xxix + ʒii . And the latter ℥ xxiv + ʒvii . By which observations purposely made at differing times of the year , and in very good scales , it seems that Bones do plentifully enough imbibe the Exhalations of the Air , and emit them again , together with some of their own , according as the ambient happens to be disposed . And these alterations argue the Bones to abound with Pores , since the external steams must have Pores to receive them , and the Effluvia must upon their recess leave Pores behind them . I confess that to think ( as with some Anatomists I lately seemed to do ) that Bones themselves admit into their substance , Vessels capable of conveying a nutritive Liquor , we must suppose those Vessels extreamly slender . But that 't is not only possible but somewhat credible , there may be such , I am induced to think , by what is known to happen in that disease , which from the Country it most infests is called the Plica Polonica . For , tho one would think that the hairs of men are much too slender , to have cavities in them capable of visible Liquors ; and though I have found it very difficult , even with a good Microscope , to perceive any cavities in the hair of a man transversly cut ; yet not only some other writers of good note , but the Judicious Sennertus himself deliver , that in this disease ( of which he particularly treats ) it has been observed , that if the Patients cause their intangled hair to be cut , as they sometimes do , by reason of its nastiness or unsightliness , they are not only thereby endangered , but sometimes the single hairs will actually bleed , where the ends have been cut off ; so that so thick a Liquor as Blood may be conveyed through Vessels , that can at most be but in a proper sense Capillary and must be far less than hairs , if their Perforations be like those by which many Plants have their nourishment conveyed to them , or such as are obvious in divers Canes , which being cut quite through transversly , discover a multitude of distinct Pores , that by some Experiments one may be induced to guess , reach all along , and make the Cane like a Cylindrical Bundle of Minute Pipes ; or rather a multitude of small cavities , that perforate from end to end the Parenchyma , or Substance analogous to it , that gives them stability . And for the present this sort of Vessels seem to me , the more likely to be those that convey the Blood to the extream Parts of the Hair , because even in Horse hairs , which yet are nourished and grow , I am not yet sure , that I have discovered with my Microscopes any cavity , and therefore suspect there may be divers imperceptible ones , for the Hair is nourished and grows , which it is not like it should do if the Body were solid ; and if there were but a single cavity in it , as in the lower part of a Quill , 't is like the Microscope I used would have discovered it , since with one much inferiour I could easily see , that several little short Hairs , that grow upon the Animal that yields Musk , had each of them a cavity in it like that of the lower part of a Quill . To the things that have already been said about the Porosity of Bones , I shall now add an observation of a very learned Physician , that is very remarkable to our present purpose , because it argues , that even Bodies not saline , nor actually moist , may from without get into the Pores and Cavities of Humane Bones . Divers Physicians have complain'd of the mischiefs done to the Bones by Mercury , employ'd to salivate in Venereal Diseases . Whereof I remember I have read a very notable Instance , in a learned Book ( which I have not now by me ) of an eminent Roman Professor of Physick , who had the opportunity of making several curious observations in the famous Hospital of the Incurabili at Rome ; and is therefore the more to be credited ; where he relates , that in the Cavity of at least one Pocky-mans Bones , there was found real Quick-Silver that had penetrated thither . And this brings into my mind a memorable observation of an ancient and experienced Physician , who being famous for the cure of Venereal Diseases , was asked by me , what Instances he had found of the Penetration of Quick-Silver , either outwardly or inwardly administred , into the Bones of men ? To this he answered , that he could not say he had himself taken notice of any Quick-Silver , in the Cavities of greater Bones , but that some other Practitioners had told him , that they had met with such Instances , as I enquired after . But for himself , he only remembred that a Patient , who had been terribly fluxed with mercurial Inunctions , coming afterwards to have one of the Grinders of his lower Jaw pulled out , because of the raging pain it had long put him to ; my Relater had the curiosity to view narrowly this great Tooth , and found , to his wonder , a little drop of true Mercury in that slender Cavity of the Root , that admits the small Vessels which convey nourishment and sense to the Tooth , in more than one of whose three Roots he affirmed to me that he found true , though but exceeding little , Quick-Silver . But a full Testimony to my present purpose is afforded me by the experienced Physician Eustachius Rudius , who relates , that he saw himself , and that others also observed , some Bodies dissected , of those that had been anointed for the Venereal Pox , in the Cavities of whose Bones no small quantity of Quick Silver was got together , ( which yet ( to add that upon the by ) he says , did not hinder some of them from living many years , surviving those Inunctions . ) CHAP. VIII . I Am not ignorant that , among the Particulars laid together in the foregoing Essay , there are some that are not absolutely necessary , to prove the Porousness of the Bodies of Animals . But I thought it not impertinent to mention them , because I hoped that they , in conjunction with the rest , may be of some use to Naturalists , in giving an account of several things that pass in a Humane Body , whether sound or sick , especially if it be of a Topical disease , and may remove , or much lessen that great Prejudice , that makes many ( and some of them otherwise learned ) Physicians despise the use of all Amulets , Pericarpia , and other external Medicines in Distempers of the Inward parts , upon a confident , but not well grounded supposition , that these Remedies immediately touching but the outside of the Skin , cannot exercise any considerable operations upon the internal parts of the Body . But though I have thus acknowledged some Passages of the foregoing Essay to be supernumerary , yet I must not dismiss it without intimating that I might from one Topick more have fetched a probable , though not a demonstrative argument , in favour of the Porousness of Animals . For this may be very probably argued from hence , that even Inanimate , Solid and Ponderous Bodies , that in all likelyhood must be of a far closer Texture than the living Bodies of Animals ( whose various Functions require a greater number and diversity of Pores in their differing Organs ) are not devoid of Pores , and have some of them very numerous ones , as will be sufficiently made out in the following Essay , to which I shall therefore hasten . N. B. The following Paper is that which is refer'd to in the 35th Page of this Essay . Hujus rei veritatem comprobat Doctissimus ac celeberrimus Medicus & Philosophus D. Johannes Chrysostomus Irmbler , Statuum Moraviae Marchionatûs Protomedicus , his verbis ad me scribens : Et revera paravi ego , Anno M. DCLV , quo tempore inter Infectos versabar quotidie , Trochiscos Bufonios , eósque ut caetera Helmontii , indefessi veritatis indagandae , & ex puteo Opinionum veterum nostram credulitatem excaecantium eruendae , nati Philosophi , experimenta suas laudes sustinere comperi : Inter , viginti autem Bufones vix unum quidem , jucundo sane spectaculo , vidi vermiculos , per nares & oculos egressuros , manu repellere quamdiu poterat , doxec elanguerit Bufo : sed Trochiscos ex vermiculis unà cum pulvere emo●tui bufonis , & materiâ per anum ( nondum vidi per vomitum ; ) scilicet alis , pedibus , capitibus , ventribus Scarabaeorum viridibus , auratisve & nigris , quos bufo cum terra in escam venatur , ejectâ , cerea patinâ exceptis , cum Tragacantho rosato formatos , pluribus personis super anthraces opponi feci , atque nullum eorum mortuum esse dicere possum , sed & meorum domesticorum , ut & aliorum , quibus dedi , amicorum nullus , quod scio , infectus est . Sic comperi non tantùm hisce Trochiscis enervari virus pestilens in Carbunculo jam admissum , ut dein vulgaribus chirurgicis remediis ulcus facili negotio fuerit curatum , sed etiam ad sinistram mammam ligatos , mihi meísque accursui & occursui infectorum expositis , animositatem quandam indicibilem conferre , atque ita miasmata & effluvia pestilentialia abarcere . Hucusque Excel . Medicus Moraviae . An Essay of the POROUSNESS OF SOLID BODIES . CHAP. I AS 't will with far less difficulty be allowed , that Animals and Vegetables , and such Bodies , as have belonged to either , abound with Pores , than that Inanimate , Solid , and even Ponderous Bodies are not destitute of them : So 't is far less difficult to make out the former than the latter of these Propositions . And therefore , Pyrophilus , I hope you will not expect that I should give you as many proofs of the one , as I have of the other ; however I despair not , that those I shall present you , will appear sufficient for my purpose , though they be not numerous enough to make me careful to marshal them in any exact order . Of the reasons that induce me to think that even Solid Bodies are not destitute of Pores , there are some that have a greater Affinity with those arguments that the Schools are wont to call à priori , because they require more unobvious Ratiocinations upon Physical Principles , and others which resemble , and indeed are , such proofs as are usually named à posteriori , being suggested by the Phaenomena afforded us by experience , without the help of any difficult Ratiocinations . Of the First sort of Reasons I shall propose to you three ; and begin with that , which may be drawn from the Origine and Formation of divers hard Bodies . For I have elsewhere endeavour●● and I hope not unsu●cessfully , to shew , both that divers stones , and even Gems themselves , and that several Metalline and other Mineral Bodies , were once either visible Liquors or at least very soft substances . And I have elsewhere proved , that both these kinds of Bodies do consist of , ( which is the case of Liquors ) or abound in ( which is the case of soft and moist Bodies ) minute particles of determinate Sizes and Shapes ; from whence I think one may very probably conclude , that such Gems and other Mineral Bodies , notwithstanding any hardness they afterwards come to acquire , are not destitute of Pores , since 't is no way likely , that Corpuscles of various and very irregular Figures , such as those of most Liquors of the terrestrial Globe are wont to be , can be so brought together , especially by chance , cold , or any other such agents , as not to intercept little Intervals or Pores between them . CHAP. II. ANother thing which makes me think the Porosity of the most part even of Solid Bodies to be great , is the consideration of the great disparity , that may be found in the specifick Gravities of such Bodies , as the Eye does not perceive to be Porous . For , though Water be a Body of that kind , and though its parts be so close packt together , that the attempts of Ingenious men , to make a manifest compression of that Liquor by outward violence , have not hitherto proved successful , yet we find , that stones , Clays , metals , and even some Woods and a multitude of other kinds of Solids , will readily sink in Water , and by consequence are specifically heavyer than it ; which greater gravity seems not any way explicable , without supposing , or at least so well as by supposing , that the Corpuscles whereof such sinking Bodies consist , do either lye closer together , or are separately more solid , than those of Water ; which Liquor must consequently be Porous , though neither the Eye , nor the great force that has been several ways employed to compress it , can discover any Pores in it . Upon the same ground I further conclude , that solid Stones themselves , as Marble , Flints , &c. Are not free from Porosity . For whereas , as far as several Tryals purposely made can inform me , I have found , that such of these as have nothing metalline in them do seldom or never reach to treble the weight of an equal bulk of Water , they will , upon the former grounds , appear to be considerably Porous ; since the lightest metals , which are Tin and Iron , are above twice heavier in specie , that is , the bulks being equal , than Marble , Flints , Chrystal , &c. And by the same reason I also infer the great Porosity , even of the Solid Body of Iron , which is as well heavier , as very much harder , than Tinn . For though Copper be a good deal more ponderous than Iron , or Steel , yet I have divers times found fine Gold , to be more than twice as heavy in specie as Copper , since , whereas this Metal , whether it be European , or brought from Japan ( for of that also I made Tryal ) is about nine times as heavy as so much Water ; I found refined Gold to be about nineteen times as heavy as Water equal to it in bulk . By which it seems highly probable , that so solid and heavy a Body , as Iron or Steel it self , may be so porous , that Metalline matter equal to it in weight may naturally be contained in much less than half the Dimensions that Metal possesses . And that Gold it self , which is the most comPact and solid Body we know of , is not destitute of Pores , may appear by the Dissolution of it in Quick-Silver , of which I shall speak a little below . And if any should pretend , that hardness may be a greater argument of the Compactness of a Body , and its immunity from Pores , than its specifick weight can be ; I shall add , that though I have found that Emery , which is the Body employed to cut steel and Load-stones and Crystal , and the most of Gems , being indeed much harder than Marble or Flints , be far heavier than thrice its bulk of Water ; yet that ponderousness proceeds , as I else where intimate , from the mixture of a metalline Substance , which I have separatted from it . And Diamonds , though much harder Bodies than Emery , and indeed the hardest we know of in nature , are so far from being , as some of late have written , the most ponderous of Bodies , that having examined them hydrostatically , by a way elsewhere mentioned , I found them not much heavier than either Crystal , or fine Glass , and not half so heavy as the lightest Metals . CHAP. III. THe next thing , from which the Porousness of Solid Bodies , and even those that belong to the Mineral Kingdom ( as the Chymists speak ) may be deduced , is the same with the first of those from which we formerly argued the Porosity of Substances belonging to the Animal Kingdom , namely , the very frame & constitution of such Bodies . For the solidest Bodies themselves , resulting from the Convention or Coalition of a great number of Particles of several bignesses and shapes , we cannot reasonably suppose , ( especially in those concretes wherein they are not ranged by a seminal Principle ) that they should be contexed so , as to touch one another exactly every where and therefore they must of necessity leave some little Intervals and Pores between them . This reason will , I hope , appear clear enough of it self , to him that shall attentively consider it , especially if he know , that it has been Geometrically demonstrated , that there are but very few figures that will , ( as they speak ) implere spatium , that is , which being adjusted to one another will so exactly touch , that there is not the least unfilled space within the circumference or circuit , if the figures be plain , or within the ambient Superficies , if they be solid ; so that , considering the vast variety of other Figures , which made Epicurus and other Atomists pronounce it incomprehensible , 't is very obvious to conceive , that Corpuscles of such differing shapes being put together , will leave multitudes of little Pores intercepted , between those parts that do not every where touch one another . And even the Mathematical Figures lately spoken of , may be said to fill space rather in a Geometrical than a Physical sense . For , if such Portions of matter as are required to constitute , for instance , a Cube , were actually put together , they would not exactly fill the space comprehended within the ambient surface of the Body they compose , because the component Bodies , being Physical , consist of Corpuscles of their own particular shapes , which we never find Mathematically exquisite . As if , for example , the Cube were of Marble , no Art could polish the sides of a component Body so , as that they should be perfectly smoothed since ( as , if I mistake not , the learned Gassendus well observes ) Emery , Pumice-stone , and even Puttee , or other Powders that are employed to polish them , do themselves consist of little hard angular Corpuscles , that leave small scratches , like so many little furrows , on their surfaces , which must needs hinder the perfect contact of the whole surfaces of two contiguous Bodies , and consequently leave here and there Intervals or Pores , between those surfaces ; to which I shall add that Marble it self as 't is Marble , abounds with internal Pores , as will ere long appear by Experience , and as may be rationally conjectured from the Specifick Levity of it , in comparison of Gold and Lead . CHAP. IV. HAving dispatched the Arguments à priori , that may be imployed to shew the Porousness of Solid Bodies , 't will be now seasonable to propose some Experiments and observations , that may ( as 't were ) à posteriori either evince or confirm the same Doctrine . Of these Instances some relate to Solid Bodies that are of less specifick gravity some to Fossiles presumed to be devoid of Metalline parts , some to Minerals that are thought to participate of a Metalline nature , some to Metals themselves , and some to Glass . To begin with the first sort of these Instances ; That Wood is Porous , there are many things that argue ; some of which are elsewhere mentioned . But few would suspect , that Quick-Silver which is so unapt to enter the Pores of Bodies much less compact , should permeate peices of Wood of a considerable thickness ; and yet , that we have made it do by the following Experiment . We took a wooden Trunk , such as is employed to shoot pellets at Birds , with strength enough to kill them , and having closely stopt one end of it , we poured in Quick Silver at the other , till it reached to a good height in the cylindrical Cavity of the Instrument , and then the lower parts of the Metalline Liquor , being assisted by the weight of the Incumbent ones , ( not to mention that of the Air ) to press into the Pores of the Wood , they issued out at them on all sides , in great numbers of minute drops , much after the manner of Quick-Silver strained through Leather , out of amalgams ; which was a Phaenomenon not unpleasant to behold . But till I have opportunity to repeat this Experiment with differing circumstances , I shall not think it fit to lay much stress upon it , for want of knowing , what interest the great weight of the Quick Silver may have had in the event . And this caution may perchance be applicable to the following Experiment , namely , that having , by the help of my Pneumatical Engine , withdrawn the Air from one side of a round peice of board , the Air on the opposite side , not having its pressure any longer resisted by that which it used to meet with from the withdrawn Air , pressed so strongly against the surface of the Wood exposed to it , as to make it self way through the Pores of it , and get copiously enough into the Cavity whence the other Air had been pumpt out ; ( the weight of the incumbent Atmosphere doing on this occasion , what the weight of the Quick-Silver did on that last recited : ) Which was a surprizing spectacle to the by-standers because the board that was thus permeated , was of strong Wood , and of considerable thickness . I should here subjoin several other Arguments of the Porousness of Wood , if I could display them without more words , than I am willing to allow them ; and I presume it may here suffice , if I let you see by some surprizing Effects that when Wood is reduced to that thinness , that its closeness or Porosity may conveniently be examined , it will easily enough give passage , even unto visible , odorable , and tinging Corpuscles though they invade it not in the form of a Liquor , but of dry Exhalations , so they be not incommensurate to its Pores . This I suppose , you will not scruple to infer from the following Tryals , as they were long since set down in one of my Note-Books . 1. The Fumes of our smoaking Liquor [ described in the foregoing Essay ] tinged a Copper half penny , through a broad thin shaving of Dale , that did not , when held against the window , discover any perforation ; tinged it , I say , very deeply in about a quarter of a minute and somewhat less . 2. The same Fumes tinged manifestly , but not so notably , the same half penny first cleansed through two such shavings of Dale , laid one upon another in somwhat less than one minute . 3. And in about one minute the same Fumes tinged the cleansed half penny , through three such shavings of Dale very visibly , but not so conspicuously , as through the two forementioned . These Tryals were made without the help of heat to promote the operation of the Fumes . CHAP. V. FRom the consideration of Woods let us now proceed to give some Instances of the Porousness of Bodies made of close and compacted , and perhaps well baked Clays or other Earths . That Earthen Vessels , thô strong and well bak'd , are many of them porous enough may be argued not only from what has been lately recited , but from hence , that some of them will suffer themselves to be soakt through by Oyl . Others by solutions of Nitre , and some other Salts . And there are very few of them , without excepting Hassian Crucibles themselves , that will long keep Salt of Tartar , and such like fixt Alcalies , in fusion without being penetrated by them . I have heard Distillers complain , that when they have distilled corrosive materials , as Vitriol and Salt-Petre , with strong fires , in those Earthen Vessels that are commonly made use of in London ( especially by refiners ) instead of Retorts though their necks be strait and long ( upon which account they are called long-necks ) a considerable quantity of the finest Spirits make their escape quite thorow the Vessel ; so that in the Retort and Receiver many ounces are found wanting , of the first weight of the matter to be distilled . And this sometimes , when the Vitriol has been previously calcin'd , and a reasonable allowance has been made , for what may have escaped thorow the Lute , that joined together the long Neck and Receiver . And though I have observed of our Bottles , made of the same Earth with Juggs , that they are hard enough to strike Fire with a good Steel , yet a good Experimenter upon such Vessels of whom I made enquiry , has assured me that these , as compact as they are , may , even without external heat , have their Pores pervaded by the finer parts of Spirituous Liquors . To this purpose I remember that meeting once with a Virtuoso , that was curious about the ways of making Sider as brisk and spirituous a Liquor as he could ; I enquired of him , whether he was able to keep in the subtil Spirit of this Skilfully fermented Liquor , in those earthen Bottles , that , by reason of the solidity they acquire by the vehement coction of the Fire , are commonly called stone Bottles ; to which he replyed . that he often found to his trouble , that the Liquor would permeate the compact Substance of the Bottles : And when I objected that the Spirits might either escape out at the Cork , which I have made several Spirits of divers kinds that would readily permeate ; he replyed , that what he had said appeared by the outside of the Bottles : To which when I further objected , that the sight of dew on the surface of the Bottles , would not convince me , without tasting whether it were vinous , because I had divers times observed , that brisk Liquors would produce a dew , on the outside of the Vessels that contained them , not by any transudation ( for I have made Tryal of it in Glasses ) but by condensing the aqueous vapors , dispersed through the neighbouring part of the Ambient Air : He replyed that , besides what his tast had informed him of the quality of this dew , he found that the included Liquor , though exactly stopt , wasted in not very many Months so considerably , as sometimes to lose a sixth , or even a fifth part ; & this escape or percolation of the Liquor through the Substance of the Vessels , he affirmed himself to have observed , not only in one or two Bottles , but in very many and the like observation for the main was confirmed to me , upon his own experience , by an eminent Physician , who , being a great Lover of brisk Sider , used to bottle it up early and carefully . Though good Hassian Crucibles be very closely compacted , as well as throughly baked Bodies , and upon that account are able to keep Silver and divers other Metals long in fusion , without letting them at all run out ; yet having dissolved Silver in Aqua fortis , I observed that , though the Salts were by this operation so chang'd that this horn-like Silver did dissolve neither in the Aqua fortis , nor in the Aqua Regia that I put it into ; yet when I kept it a while in fusion , ( which 't is easily brought to be ) among quick Coals , it would without cracking or perforating the Crucible , soak into it , and permeate the Pores of it , in I know not how many places , as I convinced some curious persons , by shewing them on the outside of the Vessel , a multitude of minute globules of pure Silver , like so many little drops , that were got thither , as it were , by transudation . CHAP. VI. FRom baked Earths , that are designed in point of hardness to emulate stones , we will proceed to give some instances of the Porousness of Natural Stones themselves . There goes a tradition , that in some part of the West-Indies they have a Stone , of which they make large Vessels , wherein they put Water to percolate , as it were , through a strainer . Of these Vessels I had one sent me for a present , whereof being hereafter to give some account in a more opportune place , I shall now only take notice that I found that Water would ( thô slowly ) soak through the Vessel , thô it were considerably thick . If , as many of the Ancients , and most of the modern Corpuscular Philosophers have conceived , the Transparency and Opacity of Bodies proceeds from a Rectitude or Crookedness of Pores , which makes them fit or unfit to transmit the Light , that tends to pervade them in Physically straight Lines : If this Hypothesis , I say , be allowed , we may draw a very probable argument , that Stones may be Porous , from the Phaenomena of that odd Gem , that is best known by the name of Oculus Mundi . For this small stone ( at least that which I made my Observations of ) when 't is dry , and is kept in the Air , is opacous , almost like a polished piece of white Amber , and so it continues , as long as 't is kept dry . But if you put it into fair water , it will in no long time , become by degrees quite Transparent , and that which I made Tryal of looked then not unlike a piece of clear yellow Amber which by degrees does in the free Air lose its Transparency and turn to be opacous as before . Now according to the above mentioned Corpuscular Hypothesis , the Pellucidness which the Stone acquires in Water , may be accounted for , by saying , that the Liquor getting in at the crooked Pores of the Stone , does for the time rectify them , and make them pervious to the straight Beams of Light ; as we see that White Paper , being wetted with Water , or , which does far better , being made so imbide Oyl , has its Pores so changed and rectified , that the Water much lessens its Opacity , and makes it almost Semidiaphanous and the Oyl , if it be fine and well soaked up , makes it Transparent . But upon the recess or evaporation of the imbibed Particles of Water , the Pores of the little Stone becoming crooked again reflect the Rays of light they should transmit . Which explication will be the better allowed of , if my memory do not misinform me , when it tells me , that a learned Member of the Royal Society found the Oculus Mundi to weigh more in a nice ballance , when it was taken out of the Water and well wiped , than before it was put in . This Stone , which very few of the writers about Gems take notice of , is so rare and difficult to be got , that I had not opportunity to make upon it all the Tryals I desired ; and therefore , though the Subject be curious , I may , I hope , be excused , if I hasten from it to another . There is so much difference in many Qualities betwixt Stones and Metals , that 't is very probable , that when the Corpuscles of both come to be brought together into one Mass , they will not touch one another so close , as not to leave store of little Intervals or Pores between them . And upon this ground I have been apt to think that divers very hard Stones , Diaphanous and Opacous , are not devoid of Porosity . For I have elsewhere delivered a way by which I have obtained good store of Metalline parts , both from American Granats , and from Emery ; though this last be so exceeding hard a Stone , that 't is usually imployed by artificers to work upon Iron and Steel , and to cut not only Rock Crystal , but divers Gems that are harder than either that or Steel . Upon the same ground one may probably infer the Porosity of many Artificial Gems made by Fusion ; for to give these the colour of Sapphirs , Topazes , Amethysts , &c. we are wont to add to the vitrifiable matter , either some prepared metal , as calcined Copper , calx of Gold , &c. or else some Mineral as Zaffora and Manganeze ( as the Glass-men call Magnesia ) that abounds in Metalline parts . Nay I remember , I have sometimes given the colour to the vitrified substance , by imploying natural Gems , as Granats ; though to shew that the coloration which the mass received from these , proceeded from the Metalline Corpuscles , that lay hid in the tinging matter , the Colour produced was not that which was conspicuous in the Gem it self , but one very different from it , and such as the metal , which upon other accounts I supposed the Gem to partake of , ought , according to the Grounds I proceeded upon , to produce in the vitrifiable matter . And this very Experiment makes it also highly probable , that even natural transparent Gems , ( divers of which are much harder than Marble , Iron & even Steel ) are themselves Porous ; since , notwithstanding their Transparency and seeming Homogeneity . They are made up of Ingredients of such differing natures as are Stony and Metalline Corpuscles . From the same Ground we may likewise deduce the Porosity of Marcasites ; many of which I have observed to be , not only hard enough , plentifully to strike fire by collision with Steel , but more ponderous than even divers Oars , that were rich enough in Metal , to be wrought with good profit . And yet these hard and heavy ( Mineral ) Stones are very far from being homogeneous ; since I have met with few Inanimate Bodies , produced by Nature her self , so compounded as several Marcasites that I have seen . For these are wont to contain more or less Copper , and Iron too : and they abound in Combustible Sulphur , a Corrosive Salt , and a certain Fixt Substance , which I found to differ from true Earth , but of whose Nature the Tryals I have hitherto made on it , have but little satisfied me . I might here deduce the Porosity of the Load-stone , as hard and solid a Body as it is , partly from the Effluvia it emits and admits , and partly from the Heterogeneity I have by Chymical Tryals found to be in it . But these things belong more properly to a Paper about Magnetical Bodies , for which I the more willingly reserve them , because other Experiments will keep them from being needful to be here insisted on . The Porosity of Marble , and divers other Stones of like Contexture , may with probability be deduc'd from this , that they are liable to be dissolved by divers of the corrosive Menstruums of the Chymists , such as Aqua fortis sp . of Salt , &c. And some of them even by Vegetable Liquors , of Natures own preparing , as the juice of Limons , and that of Barberries . But a more noble and satisfactory instance may be afforded , by the invention of staining or colouring white Marble , without imploying any fretting Liquor , or spoiling the Texture of it . This way being casually lighted on by an ingenious Stone-cutter in Oxford , who gained by it both credit and money , he long since thought fit to acquaint me with it , upon condition of secresy ( which I have to this day inviolably kept ) and of my assisting him to improve his Invention by making it practicable with other Colours than Red. These circumstances I mention , to signify that I write not by guess , of this matter , having both seen the Experiment tried , and made it my self . But though I found it far less improvable to other uses , then one would expect , yet , as to our present purpose , it is very apposite . For by this way an excellent red Colour , may be made to soak into a piece of White Marble , almost as Oyl will do into Leather , without impairing , that I observed , the solidity of the stone , which , after being dyed , will be capable of a fine gloss as before . Some other Colours ( yet but few fair ones ) would by this way be brought to soak into Marble , on which one may with them so define , and limit the Colorations , that I remember the Artificer , when I brought him to kiss the Kings hand , presented His Majesty with an Andromeda , whose Colours were so vivid , that this skilful Judge of curious things , was pleased to honour it with a place among his Rarities . And , to satisfy his Majesty that the fine Red was not , as some suspected , a mere varnish , I purposely broke a plate of Marble , in whose fragments he saw , that the Pigment had sunk to a considerable depth , into the very Substance of the Stone . And I doubt not but it might have been made easily enough to sink much deeper , if it had been thought necessary . A fine Plate of such White Marble , with the penetrating Pictures of Coloured Flowers drawn upon it I yet keep by me to satisfy the curious . And some Utensils , as Hafts of Knives , Salt-Sellers , &c. I have known to have lasted several years . There is an Experiment that seems much stronger for the Porousness of Solid Bodies , than that it self ( which was lately recited ) of staining Marble . For in Italy some Goldsmiths have a way of imbuing Fragments of Rock-Crystal , which is a Body much harder than Marble , with divers Colours ; which do sometimes so imbellish them , that having ground off those parts that would not receive the same Tincture , they set some of them in Gold Rings , and sell them with profit . When I was inform'd of this , I thought of a Composition , that I hop'd might perform the same thing , and perhaps better than that which was employ'd by them , who either knew not , or for ought I could perceive , us'd not , some Minerals that I thought fit for the purpose . Upon this Presumption we carefully cemented some clear Fragments of Native Crystal with a Composition of some Volatile Minerals , together with a Salt or two , and having suffered the Crucibles to cool leisurely , we had divers of the Fragments stain'd here and there , some with one Colour and some with another , as differing Fumes happen'd to invade them . And of these Colours some were dark or dull , and some vivid enough . But having consider'd the stain'd pieces , and the progress of the Operation , more attentively , I began to doubt , whether these Adventitious Colours were really produced by the bare penetrating of the Mineral Fumes into the Pores of the Crystal it self . For I thought it possible , and not very unprobable , that the great Heat of the Fire , and the Ambient Mixture , might cleave or flaw in many places some of the Crystalline Fragments ; and that the finer parts of the Minerals being vehemently agitated , might insinuate themselves into these thin Flaws , which upon the slow refrigeration of the Stones , shutting themselves close again , might lock up the tinging Particles , without appearing discontinued , especially to the Eyes of Persons that were not made use of with a more than ordinary attention , excited by distrust . This suspicion was not removed by the apparent entireness of each little piece of Crystal . For having taken more than once a Lump of that stone , and slowly brought it to be red hot in the Fire , I found that if I warily quenched it in Water , though it would thereby acquire a multitude of little cracks or Flaws , which destroyed its former transparency , and made it look whitish , yet it continued still an entire Body , notwithstanding the disadvantageous haste , wherewith the operation had been performed . And having after this suspicion , inquired of an ingenious Lapidary , that belonged to a great Prince whether in polishing of Gems upon the Wheel , he had taken notice that the Heat would flaw them , he answered me , that now and then he had observed that some Stones , especially ▪ if I misremember not , Rubies , when they were very much heated by the swift motion of the Engine he employed to polish them , did cleave as it seemed to him , and gape , so as at first to make him fear the Stones were spoiled ; and yet afterwards they closed so perfectly , that no Flaw at all could be perceived in them . I have mentioned the foregoing Experiment of tinging Crystal , to comply with the dictates of Philosophical candor , which forbids me to lay much stress upon a Proof , whose validity I my self distrust . But perhaps my suspicion may by further Tryal , which I have not now conveniency to make , appear not to have been well grounded , and in that case the tinging of Crystal , as well inwardly as outwardly , by Fumes will be a noble Argument for the Porosity of Solid Bodies , Rock-Crystal being harder , and probably closer , not only than Marble , but even than Glass . CHAP. VII . THat Metals , though the heaviest of Bodies , are not destitute of Pores , may be with probability proved in a general way by this ; That they are all dissoluble in their appropriate Menstruums , as Gold in Aqua Regia , and all the rest in Aqua Fortis , except Tin , which yet it self will be corroded by that Menstruum , though not well kept up in a fluid form , as it may be by another Menstruum , which I elsewhere teach ; and sometimes the same Metal may be dissolved by very differing Menstruums , as Lead by Aqua fortis , and Spirit of Vinegar ; and Copper by Aqua fortis , Aqua Regia , Spirit of Vinegar , Spirit of Salt , and some other Solvents , that upon Trial I have found sufficient for that purpose . But 't will , I presume , be thought more considerable to my present argument , if it be shewn , that Bodies that appear Gross , and which in their Natural state are not fluid , and are confessed to be of a compounded nature , will penetrate Metals quite through , even without melting them . This we have divers times effected by a Cementation of Copper Plates , With common 🜍 ( much a kin to a way prescribed by some Alchymists to make Vitriolum Veneris ) which we warily performed much after this manner . We took good Copper laminated to the thickness of a Shilling or thereabouts , and having cut it into small pieces , that they might the more easily be put into a Crucible or Cementing Pot , we strewed at the bottom of the Vessel some beaten 🜍 , and then covered it pretty well with some of these Plates , which were laid on flat-wise . Upon these we strewed another Bed of powdered Brimstone , and cover'd that also with Plates , upon which we put more Sulphur , & so continu'd making one lair of Brimstone , & another of Metal , till we had employed all our Plates , or filled the Crucible , being careful that the uppermost Bed , as well as the lowest , should be of Sulphur . This done , we luted on an earthen Cover to the Vessel , to keep the 🜍 from taking Fire , and afterwards having placed the Pot amongst Coals kindled at a good distance from it , that it might be heated by degrees , we kept it for some few hours ( perhaps Two or Three ) in such a degree of Fire as was sufficient to keep the Sulphur melted ( which is easily enough done ) without bringing the Metal to fusion ; the Pot being cold , we took off the cover , and found the Plates quite altered in Colour and Texture , some of them having a dark and dirty Colour , whilst others looked of a fine Violet or Blew ; they were generally so brittle , that 't was very easy to break them with ones finger , and reduce them to Powder . And ( now to add such Circumstances as a Chymist would not take notice of ) many of the Plates , when they were broken , appeared to have been ( by the contiguous Beds of Sulphur above and below ) horizontally divided each of them into two Plates , divers of which in some places had a manifest distance or Cavity between them . And 't was observable , that when I considered one or other of these Plates attentively in the parts that had been contiguous before I broke it , I could plainly discern a multitude as 't were of Fibres , reaching from one of the flat sides of the Plate to the other , & running many of them , as to sense , parallel to one another . These Circumstances may sufficiently argue , that the Plates were pierced quite through by the Brimstone ; but for confirmation of this , and to shew too that the Sulphur does as it were soak into the Body of the Metal , and in a Gross manner lodge it self there ; I shall add , that not only to the Eye the Plates appeared much swelled , or thicker then when they were put in , but having weighed them before the operation was begun , and after it was quite ended , the Copper , though it needed not to be freed from externally adhering Sulphur , was found to have a considerable increase of weight by the accession of the Sulphur , which ( to add that circumstance ) though it appeared not to the Eye , yet if a Plate were laid upon quick Coles , and blown , would oftentimes discover it self by a Blew flame . By making the like Experiment for the main , we found that refined Silver , though a more heavy and compact Body , than Copper , and not dissoluble by most of the Menstruums , that work on this Metal , is penetrable by the Body of Sulphur , which will also calcine Tin and Lead and ( especially ) Iron . Nor is Sulphur the only consistent Body that has this ingress into Metals ; for we have found them penetrable by prepared Arsenick . But because these operations are not so easy , and the Subject is not easily handled without danger , I forbear the mention of them in this place , where , after what has been recited , it is not necessary . Another Experiment there is , which does more advantageously than that made with Brimstone , discover the Porosity of Copper . For there is a way by which , without the help of Salts , Sulphur or Arsenick , one may make a solid and heavy Body soak into the Pores of that Metal , and give it a durable Colour . I shall not mention the way , because of the bad use that may be made of it . But having had the curiosity more than once to try it upon a new Copper Farthing , the event was , that one part of it , which I purposely forbore to tinge , remained common Copper still , but the other part acquired a yellow , that differed very little , if at all , from a Golden Colour , the former stamp that was impressed upon the coin continuing visible . And to convince the scrupulous , that the Pigment did really sink , and as it were soak into the Body of the Metal , and did not meerly colour the Superficies , I made them take notice , that the Farthing was not melted , and yet by filing off a wide gap from the Edge of the Coin , inwards , it plainly appeared , that the Yellow or Golden Colour had penetrated a pretty way beneath the surface of the Farthing ; so that it looked there as if two thin Plates , the one Yellow , and the other Reddish , did , without any Interval between them , lye upon one another . If Bodies be not to be pervaded , or deeply pierced into , by Corpuscles , but only to have their more superficial Pores , if I may so call them , penetrated thereby , 't is possible that Bodies , which are either much harder , or much closer , than Marble , Alabaster or the like Bodies , may have their Pores possessed even by odorous Corpuscles ; I say , even by such , because they are most of them gross enough to be kept from exhaling , by Bodies much less compact then Earthen Bottles ; and are far from being of the finest particles that Nature affords . But that such odorous Corpuscles may lodge themselves in the exterior Pores of very close Bodies , I have been inclined to think , not only , by the obstinately adhering Odour , which I found by Tryal , that some suttle and Spirituous parts , such as the Chymists would perhaps call in their Aggregates , the Essence of Musk , Amber , Amber-greece , &c. notwithstanding the washing of the Glasses , that had long contained such Liquors ; but by what has been assured me by a Physician of great Experience , who travelled and lived much in the East . For having told him , that I had been informed , that in some places less famous then Damascus , for curiosity in making fine Sword blades , there was a way found and practised of making them richly scented , without injury to their Gloss ; I desired to know of him , if at Damascus , or elsewhere , he had seen any of them ; to which he replied , that he did not remember he had , but yet made no doubt the Information might be true . For he himself had in Europe , and kept for divers years , a Watch , whose Metalline Case , was richly perfumed ; and when I askt him , whether there were not some thin varnish , or some outward Case of perfumed Leather , or Chagran , or somewhat else , from whence the odour proceeded , he assured me , that his observations had prevented and removed that and divers other Scruples , and that the case being clean and Glossy , he could not perceive that the Odour proceeded from any thing else , than some odoriferous thing , or other that was invisibly lodged in the Pores , or Porous Substance of the metal it self . And indeed , since both Arsenick , and even common Sulphur , may by Art be as it were incorporated with some Metalls , and even with Silver , I see not why it should be impossible , that some pleasingly scented Substances should be admitted into the Pores of Metalline Bodies , and be volatile enough to have their subtiler parts fly off in odorous Exhalations , especially if they be a little excited , as the Watch Case lately mentioned was , by a gentle heat , such as was that of the wearers pocket . And on this occasion I remember to have made a certain Metalline composition , which looked like Gold , and of which I caused a Ring to be cast , and yet this Metal retained so many unperceived Mercurial Corpuscles in it , that an Ingenious Person to whom I discovered the composition of it , found after Tryal , as he assured me , that being worn as a Ring , it had in some distempers , particularly of the Eyes , manifest operations , that evidently enough seemed to flow , at least in great part , from its participation of the Mercury we employed in preparing the Factitious Metal . Since the writing of the former part of this Essay , having met with an inquisitive Nobleman , who had lived in several parts of Africk , and was Governour of the best Town the Europeans have on that Continent , I discoursed with him , among other things , about the Skill that some ascribe to the African Moors , of making excellent weapons , whereof I knew his excellency was very curious . Upon which occasion he told me , that some of the Off-Spring of the Granadine Moors were indeed the best at making Arms that ever he met with ; and that he had seen some weapons of their forging and tempering , that he preferred even to those of Damasco . And when I asked him whether any of them had the art of perfuming their Weapons , he answered me , that some of them did it admirably well , and instanced in a Blade which he kept for some years , & found it still to retain the perfumed scent , which he supposed to be as it were incorporated with the Steel whereof the Blade was made . When I told him , I suspected that the scabbard might have been well perfumed , and communicate its odour to the contained Blade , he allowed the objection to be plausible , but replyed ▪ that it was not concluding , since misliking the Scabbard , as not handsom & fashionable enough , he caused a new one to be made , wherein he afterwards kept it . And the same Lord further told me , that he had also a Fowling Piece , whose Barrel was perfumed . And when I objected that perhaps the odoriferous scent proceeded from the stock , and not from the Metal , he answered that the Gun not being , when it came into his possession , skilfully and handsomely mounted , he caused the Barrel to be fitted with a new stock , notwithstanding which , it continued to smell fragrantly . And when I further asked , whether he ever caused the Gun to be washed or scoured after it was grown foul by having been often shot in , he answered me , that he had , and , as far as I can remember , subjoyned , that after it was made clean it did ( notwithstanding the ill scent that the soot of the Powder had given it ) retain a pleasing smell , but fainter than before . CHAP. VIII . SInce the Subject of this Essay is the Porousness of Solid Bodies , and since there is no Body that is generally reputed so close and compact as Glass , it will be pertinent to this discourse , and probably will be expected , that I should here say something about the Question , whether Glass be , or be not , devoid of Pores . But before I acquaint you with my Tryals , or my thoughts , about this Problem , I think it requisite to clear the sense , in which I mean to handle it , that I may not , as some others have done , for want of distinctly stating the Question , speak confusedly and erroneously of it . I shall then here observe , to prevent mistakes , that the Porosity of Glass may admit of two Acceptions . For it may be said to be quite pervious to Fluids , as a Boot is to Water , or only to be capable of having its superficial parts further and further dissolved or corroded thereby , as a Silver Cup is Porous in reference to Aqua fortis , which cannot sweat through it , as Water does through a Boot , but eat its way through it , by dissolving the Texture of the Vessel . Another thing requisite to be premised , to prevent Ambiguity , is , that Glass it self is not all of one sort , as men unacquainted with Chymistry are wont to presume , for Glass of Antimony , for instance , and that of Lead , both of them made per se , do manifestly differ , usually in colour , and constantly in weight , and also in their operations upon Humane Bodies ; and both these sorts of Glass do in several points differ from common Glass , under which name , for brevities sake , I comprehend both White or Crystalline Glass , as 't is called in the Shops , and that courser sort , which they usually call Green Glass ; both which sorts I here consider under one Notion , because both are made of fixt Alcalies , and other fit Ingredients , as Sand , Earth , Ashes , Pebbles , or Flints , Colliquated by a strong & lasting operation of the Fire : and 't is of this common Glass , in the sense now declared , that I shall consider the Porosity in the remaining part of this Essay . In which to proceed with some Method , I shall digest what I have to say into the ensuing Propositions , and the observations annext to them . Prop 1. 'T is very probable , that Glass may be pierced into to some distance , even by visible and tangible Bodies . I know that this will seem a Paradox to many , and repugnant to common Experience , which shews that Glass Vessels will contain very subtile and even highly corrosive Liquors , as the Spirit of Hartshorn , of Urine , and that of Nitre ; as also those potent Menstruums , as Aqua fortis , Aqua Regis , and Oil of Vitriol , which not only are not observed to pierce into it , but are unable to make any sensible alteration , so much as on the superficial parts , even in those Vials wherein they have been long kept . But , notwithstanding all this , I presume you will not condemn the lately proposed Paradox , when you have considered what may be said to justifie it . For , besides that it may be made probable à Priori , by the Arguments whence we have formerly proved the Porousness of Solid Bodies in general ; there are two sorts of Experiments , from whence one may argue , that Glass in particular is not devoid of Pores in the sense wherein we are now speaking of them . And first , I remember , that , having kept for a good while in a vial , a quantity of a certain Spirit of Salt , that I had reserved in a cool place ; I found , when I came to use it , that the Glass was crackt , and most of the Liquor was run out ; but , before this happened , it had so far corroded the inside of the Glass , that in some places it was eaten almost as thin as a piece of Paper ; and this part which yet continued Glass , was lin'd with a much thicker white substance , that stuck to the sides of it , and looked and tasted like a kind of odd Salt ; so that it invited me to conjecture , that it proceeded from the substance of the Glass , which you know consists of an Alcali as well as of Sand corroded by the Saline Spirits of the Menstruum , and coagulated with them into this odd kind of Concrete ; and 't was remarkable in our vessel , that the upper part of the vial , to which the Menstruum did not reach , was not corroded , nor alter'd , tho the operation of the Liquor reached as high as the Liquor it self . And I remember , that when I related all this to some experienced Chymists , one of them that was a more heedful observer , assured me , the like had once or twice , happened to him , as since that time it hath likewise done to me . I had also , if I misremember not , another Vial , corroded by a distilled Liquor of Vitriol , that had in it more of the Phlegm than of the Oil ; which you will somewhat the less wonder at , if you consider , that some Corrosive Menstruums will scarce work on some Bodys , if they be too well dephlegmed , or at least will not corrode them so readily and powerfully , if they are very strong , as when they are diluted with a convenient quantity of Water . And , as to Oil of Vitriol it self , which is the Menstruum I am speaking of , when we employ it to make Vitriolum Martis , we are wont to weaken it with Water , that it may the better dissolve that Metal . And perhaps you will suspect , that Vitriol has some peculiar faculty of penetrating and fretting Glass , when to the Experiment newly recited I shall add that which follows , as I find it registred among my Notes . [ A pound of Dantzick Vitriol and a pound of Sea Salt , after the former had been very lightly calcined , and the latter decrepitated , that they might not boil in , or crack the Vessel ; we caused to be distilled in a well coated Retort by degrees of Fire , giving at length a very strong one , then taking off the Vessel , we were not much surprized to find , that the heat had here and there melted it , and that the fluxed Caput Mortuum had corroded the Glass , fetching off as 't were films from it , and those parts which did not appear to the Eye thus manifestly wasted , seemed yet by their great brittleness , to have been penetrated , so that their Texture was spoiled by the saline and vitriolate Corpuscles . ] Prop II. Common Glass is not ordinarily permeable by Chymical Liquors , though strong and subtile , nor by the directly visible or odorable Expirations of Bodies tho absolutely speaking it be pervious to some Corporeal Substances . This Proposition consisting of two parts , we shall allow each of them its distinct Proofs . And as for the first part , 't is manifestly agreeable to the Common Experience of Chymists ; who daily find , that in well stopt Vials , or at least in Hermetically seal'd Glasses , they can preserve their subtilest and most piercing Menstruums , as Spirit of Nitre , Aqua Fortis , Spirit of Salt , Spirit of Vinegar , and Oil of Vitriol . And this they find to be true , not only as to Acid and Corrosive Liquors , like those I have newly named , but also in those Spirits that abound with Fugitive Salts , as the Spirit of Urine , of Blood , and of Sal-Armoniack ; and in the most subtile & highly rectified Spirit of Wine ; as also in the Ethereal Oil , or , as many call it , Spirit , of Turpentine : as likewise in the Liquors of Salt of Tartar , and other fixt Alcalies resolved by Deliquium . The Result of these Observations may be much confirmed by considering , how often it happens in the Destillation of more Wild and Fugitive Spirits , as of Nitre , Tartar , and Sugar ; that , though they are much agitated , and perhaps subtilized , by Heat , yet , if the Lute , that joins the Receiver to the Retort be very firm & close , the Receivers , though large , are often broken in pieces ; which probably would not happen , if the Spirits could insinuate & croud themselves , through the pores of Glass . But , whereas it may be pretended , that such Vessels are strong and thick , I shall add , that I have had the Curiosity to cause very fine bubbles to be blown at the flame of a Lamp , purposly that they may be made extreamly thin , and of but a small part of the thickness we meet with in the Vessels made at the Glass house ; and some of these I caus'd to be exactly stopt , and others to be Hermetically seal'd ; but could not find , that either dry Salt of Tartar would relent in one , that was kept a good while under water , or that strong Spirit of Sal Armoniack , which is one of the subtilest Spirits that we know , would penetrate one of these thin films of Glass , which we kept a great while immersed in it , though to discover whether it would at all penetrate the thinnest Glasses , we employed some which were of that fine sort that is called Essence Vials . These and some other Tryals have , I confess , made me very diffident of the Experiments , that have been delivered by some men of Note , and built upon by others , of the Permeableness of ordinary Glass Vessels to Chymical Liquors , as , that Mercury and Aqua fortis being digested together in a Bolt-head may , by rubbing the outside of the Glass , be made visibly and palpably to transudate . Which Experiment ( if my Memory do not much deceive me , ) I purposely tryed with care , but without success . But after all this I must desire , that it may be remembred , that in wording the Proposition of the Imperviousness of Glass , I intimated that I would have it understood of what Ordinarily happens . For in some Extraordinary cases , which I take to be exceeding rare , I do not absolutely deny , but that the General rule may admit of Exceptions . And , if it be lawful to conjecture , these exceptions are likeliest to take place , when the peculiar Texture of this or that Glass , is more slight or lax than ordinary ; or when the Bodies that are to pervade it , are vehemently agitated by heat ; or when , besides a great subtlety , and perhaps degree of heat too , their particles chance to have a special congruity , to the relaxed Pores of that particular Glass they are to pass through . I remember I have seen , not without some wonder , a sort of Glass of so soft and resoluble a Texture , that Vessels of it of a competent thickness , would be manifestly prejudiced and wrought upon by Liquors , that were not considerably Sharp or Corrosive , if they were put in very hot . I have also heard of another sort of Glasses , made in a certain Forrest , complained of by a Destiller , as subject to be sometimes injured by Corrosive Liquors . I once knew a Doctor of Physick , that by divers credulous Alchymists was suspected to have , what they call the Philosophers Stone , because of a certain Book , Ingenious enough , that he was supposed to have written on that subject . But when after some acquaintance I happened to debate his Principles freely with him , he confessed to me , that he had been mistaken , and to invite me to give him my thoughts upon such like works , he frankly made me an ingenuous relation of his Proceedings , wherein the main thing that dazled him , and kept him from seeing his Error , was , that he had reduced the matter he wrought on , which was real Gold , to that degree of Fusibleness and subtlety , that when he gave too strong a Fire , as mistake or curiosity made him several times do , the finer part of the Metal would sweat through his Glasses , and stick sometimes to the outside of them , and sometimes to the Neighbouring Bodies . And , when I objected , that he might be mistaken in this , and that what he thought had come forth by transudation , rather issued out at some small unheeded crack , he replyed that he had made the observation so often , and with such care , that he was fully satisfied it was a real penetration of the Glass , by the attenuated Metal , which he was to have convinced me of by Tryal . But , before he could come to make it , by an Errour of his own he unhappily died . But , whatever be judged of this penetrating Gold , I elsewhere relate , that I having upon a time destilled Spirit of Harts-horn with a very strong Fire , into a Receiver that was large and thick enough , but of a course kind of Glass , it did appear , upon my best examination , that the Glass itself was penetrated by some vehemently agitated Fumes , or some subtile Liquor , that setled in strongly scented drops on the outside of the Receiver . But such Instances being very rare , and happening but in some cases or conjunctures of circumstances , that are not like to be at all frequent , they cannot hinder the first part of our Proposition to be true , in the sense wherein 't is laid down . And , as to the second part of the Proposition , which asserts Glass to be pervious to some Corporeal substances , it may be proved ad hominem against any Epicurean that should deny it , and the Cartesians must not ) by the free ingress and egress , which our seal'd Thermoscopes shew , that the Atoms or Corpuscles of Cold and Heat are allowed , through the Pores of the Glass , that contains the rising or fallng Tincture , or other Liquor . And without proceeding upon the peculiar Principles of the Epicureans , we may give more certain proofs of the Permeableness of Glass by certain Bodies . For I have elsewhere manifestly evinced that the Effluvia of a Loadstone will attract and invigorate Steel , though inclosed in Hermetically seal'd Glasses ; nay , I have also shewn by Experiment , that the Effluvia of so gross and dull a Body as the Earth , are readily transmitted through Glass , and will operate on Iron , in Vessels hermetically sealed . If Light be , as probably 't is , either a subtile and rapidly moving Body , or at least require such an one for its Vehicle , it must not be denied , that 't is possible for a Body without difficulty to pass through the Pores of Glass ; since 't is by its help that we can clearly see the Dimensions , Shapes , and Colours of Bodies included in Glasses . To this I shall add , that far less subtile Bodies than those that constitute or convey Light , may be made to permeate Glass , if their Figures being congruous enough to the Pores of it , their penetration be assisted by an impetuous motion , or a brisk impulse ; as I have found by the increase of weight in some Metals , exposed for divers hours in Hermetically seal'd Glasses , to the action of a Flame . On which occasion I remember that having some years ago tryed the same Experiment with some Filings of Copper , they had indeed their colour much alter'd , being beautified with exceeding vivid Dyes , which they yet retain , but did not evidently appear to be increased in weight , as if , because they were not of a Texture loose enough to be melted , the Igneous particles could not pierce them enough to stick fast in them , at least in numbers great enough , to amount to a sensible weight . But without the help of Fire , or any sensible Heat , I think it not impossible that Glass should be freely penetrated by some kind of Corpuscles , ( though I do not yet know of what sort they are ) that sometimes happen to roave about in the Air. This you will probably be surprized to read ; but perhaps not more than I was at the Phaenomena that induce me to write it . But because these are very unusual , and can scarce be discoursed of without some odd reflections hinted by them , I thought fit to set down a Circumstantial account of them in another Paper , to which it more directly belongs than to this Essay ; and therefore shall now only tell you , what may be sufficient for my present purpose , namely , that having in two or three Vials closely stopt , kept a certain limpid and colourless Liquor , it would by fits acquire and lose a high Colour , though I could not reasonably impute the Changes to any manifest ones in the Air , nor to any other cause so probable , as the Ingress and Recess of some very subtle and uncommon particles , which at that time happened to swim to and fro in the Air , and now and then to invade , and sometimes to desert , the Liquor . There is another sort of Experiments relating to the Porosity of Glass , to shew that it may be pierced into by Bodies that are not corrosive in tast , and are not Liquors , but only have a forced and temporary Fluidity , if they have so much as that . These Experiments may be drawn from some of the ways of colouring Panes of Glass , for the Windows of Churches and other buildings ; I say , some of the ways , because , to deal candidly with you , I think , and so I presume will you ere long , that in divers of those Glasses , the Colour doth not pierce at all deep into the Glass , but is produced by the close adhesion of a deep Red , but thin and transparent , Pigment , to the surface of a Glassy Plate , through both which the Beams of Light passing to the Eye , receive in their Passage the colour of the Pigment . But , as by some operations the Glass is rather Painted , or externally enamelled , than tinged , so in some others the Pigment or dying stuff appears to pierce a little beneath the very superficies of the Glass , and the Yellow Colour will not only go further or deeper , but sometimes seems ( for I do not yet positively affirm it ) to penetrate the whole Glass from side to side . The Methods of Painting and staining Glass , having been hitherto the Practices of a particular Trade that is gainful enough , and known but to few , the Artificers are wont to be shy of communicating their secrets , thô we know in general that Glass is stained , by having the Plates covered with Mineral Pigments , laid on Beds of beaten Lime , or some other convenient Powder , and kept for divers Hours in a strong fire , but yet not strong enough to make the Plates melt down , by which means the Pores of the Glass being much opened by the Heat , and the Pigments being likewise agitated , and some of them as it were vitrified with it , they are made either to pierce into the Plate , or at least to stick very closely and firmly to it . But because the Practices of Glass Painters require , besides skill and experience , a particular Furnace , and divers Implements , I shall add , that to try , whether Glass may not , without so much ado , be so stained , as to shew it to be Porous , we took prepared Silver , ( that Metal having , of all the Minerals I have tryed , the best Ingress into Glass ) and having laid it upon a piece of Glass , not thick , nor yet so thin as to Melt very easily , we laid this Glass ( with the Pigment uppermost ) warily upon a few Quick-coals , and having suffered it to neal a while we gave it about such a degree of heat , as might make and keep it red hot , without bringing it to compleat fusion , and then , suffering it to cool by degrees , we found , as we expected , that the Glass had acquired a Yellow , and almost Golden , Colour , which was not to be washed off , or to be taken away , without such scraping as would injure or spoil the Glass it self . The way of preparing Silver for this operation , is not always the same , the Glass Painters commonly add to the calcined Silver some Mineral Bodies , as Antimony , Yellow Oker , or the like . But I , who take the penetration of the colour to proceed from the Silver it self , do sometimes imploy only some thin piece of Silver , such as an old Groat , upon which a little Sulphur being put , and kindled in the open Air , the Metal is presently calcined , and the Powder made use of . And this it self I do not so much out of necessity , as because the Calcination reduces the Metal into small parts , and gives it a form , that makes it more easy be laid on , as one thinks fit . For otherwise , going upon this my supposition , that the Silver was the true Pigment of the Glass , I have more than once made Glass Yellow by Leaf-Silver laid flat on the surface of it , and a little moistened , to keep so light a Body from being blown off . And ( to note that upon the by ) 't is pretty , that if the Fire be made too strong , which 't is hard to avoid doing , when we will make it strong enough , without the help of a Furnace , it has several times happened to me that the dyed Glass , though when held against the Light it appeared of a Golden or Yellow Colour , yet when held from the Light it appeared Blew , so that here we have in a Mineral , somewhat that is very like that we admire in the tincture of Lignum Nephriticum , which shews almost the like difference of Colour , as 't is held against or from the Light , which may serve for a confirmation of what I have elsewhere said to shew that colours may be derived from Mechanical Principles : But that only upon the by . Whether the Gold colour produced by Silver , do favour the hopes of those Alchymists that work on that Metal , upon presumption that 't is but unripe Gold , 't is improper here to examine . But since Yellow is not the Colour of Silver , it seems the Yellowness , acquired by our Glass Plates , argues , that there has been some ingress of the substance of the particles of the Silver into the Glass , there appearing no way so ready , to give an account of the change of Colours , as by supposing the Particles of the Silver to be wrought on by the fixt Salts , and other fine parts , of the Glass ; since we know , that Metals may afford differing colours , according to the Saline and other Bodies that work upon them , as Copper with Spirit of Urine , which abounds in Volatile Salt , gives a deep Blew ; with Spirit of Salt , a fair Green ; and with Aqua fortis , a Colour that participates of both . And in the making of Glass of Lead with Minium and White-Sand , or Crystal , the Glass , it self if well made , is usually of an Amethystine Colour . But if you put a due Proportion , ( which is a very small one , ) of calcined Copper to it , this Metal will not communicate to the Glass it s own reddishness , but be so changed by it , as to give it a good green , and sometimes so good an one , that pieces of this Glass , such as we have caused to be cut and set in Rings , might , among those that Judge of Stones but by the Eye , pass for no bad Emeraulds . On this occasion , 't is likely 't will be asked , whether there be any way of tinging Glasses quite through , with a true and beautiful red , and whether the Art of dying Plates of Glass , which the windows of many old Churches shew to have formerly been practised , be now ( as 't is commonly supposed ) altogether lost ? This Question , consisting of 2 Parts , I shall quickly dispatch ; the former , by answering it without hesitancy in the affirmative . Yet adding withal , that the red tincture being communicated to Glass , not properly by mere penetration of the Pigment , but by the incorporation of it with Glass or its Materials , by the help of fusion , I think the Experiment of no such great use in our present Inquiry , as to hinder me from reserving what I have observed about it to a more opportune place . And as to the second Part of the inquiry , it being rather a Historical than a Philosophical question , I shall not here meddle with it ; only I shall wish the question may be cautiously stated . For , upon the burning the famous Cathedral of St. Pauls Church in London , many pieces of the red Glass that adorned the windows , were found broken and scattered about , some of which I procur'd from a Chymist , that had carefully preserved them , designing to retrieve the lost Invention of making the like . But when I came to examine them narrowly , I was confirmed in the suspicion I had , that the redness did not penetrate the whole Glass , but proceeded from a diaphanous Pigment very artificially laid on , for though in other Postures no such thing could be discerned , yet when I so held it , according to my Custom in examining painted Glasses , that the surfaces of the Plate lay in the same level with my Eye , between it and the window , so that a broken edge was next my Eye , I could plainly see , and made the Chymist himself see , the lower part of the Plate to be of ordinary uncoloured Glass , upon which there lay a very thin Plate or Bed of a Diaphanous red Pigment , which , though it were not easily , was not impossible to be here and there scraped off . But , to return to those colorations that seem to pierce into the Pores of Glass , I remember that I had once occasion to destil in a small Retort some Gold , amalgamed with such a fine and subtile Mercury , that being ( without the addition of any Salt ) put to the Gold in the cold , they presently grew hot together . And in the destillation of this uncommon mixture , I found the matter had , before it flew a way , permanently died or stained , about an Inch in Diameter of the bottom of the Glass , with a colour that , looked on from the Light , was like that of the better sort of Turquoises ; but beheld when 't was interposed between the Window and the Eye , appeared of a somewhat Golden colour . And this Glass , with some others oddly colored , I have yet by me to satisfy the Curious , though I cannot but give Advertisement , that the colorations of Glass may be much better performed with such Plates , and in such Furnaces , as the Glass Painters use , than without them . Since the Writing of the foregoing Paragraph , I was visited by an industrious person , much addicted to some Chymical Operations , who had formerly advised with me about a Process , of which I had had some Experience , that he conceived might be useful to him . I then acquainted him with some of my thoughts about it , and he having afterwards united Gold with Quick-Silver , ( which by its Effects will be easily concluded not to have been common , ) he kept them in Digestion for some Months , & afterwards coming to me with a Melancholy look , told me that the Fire having been once immoderately increased in his absence , the sealed-Glass burst with an affrighting noise , and the included Amalgam was so strangely dissipated , that scarce the lest fragment of it could be retrieved . But the Decoction having continued so long a time , it seems the matter was subtiliated enough to have a notable operation upon the Glass . For , though the upper part of the Bolt-glass were blown of , and shattered into many pieces , yet the lower part scaped well enough , and when he brought it me , to observe what change had been made in it , I took notice with much delight , that the Glass seemed to be tinged throughout , with so fine and glorious a Red colour , that I have seen several Rubies themselves , in that point , inferiour to it . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A28974-e150 If one would see this passage at large he may find it at the end of the Essay . Schenkii Observationum Lib. 7. Obs . 37. Eustach . Rudius ( apud Sennertum ) lib. 5. de morbis acutis cap. 15. Pharmacopoeiae Regiae classis xiii . pa. 614.615 . Notes for div A28974-e2570 See the Tract of the Origine and Vertues of Gems , and the Notes about the Mechanical production of Hardness . 
A28996	----	Medicinal experiments, or, A collection of choice and safe remedies, for the most part simple and easily prepared very useful in families and fitted for the service of country people : the third and last volume, published from the author's original manuscripts : whereunto is added several other useful notes explicatory of the same / by ... R. Boyle ... Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1694 Approx. 74 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 60 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2008-09 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A28996 Wing B3992 ESTC R1739 12774108 ocm 12774108 93729 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A28996) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 93729) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 707:9) Medicinal experiments, or, A collection of choice and safe remedies, for the most part simple and easily prepared very useful in families and fitted for the service of country people : the third and last volume, published from the author's original manuscripts : whereunto is added several other useful notes explicatory of the same / by ... R. Boyle ... Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. [24], 95 p. Printed for Samuel Smith and B. Walford ..., London : 1694. "The preface" signed: J.W. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. 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Medicine -- Formulae, receipts, prescriptions. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-12 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2007-02 Robyn Anspach Sampled and proofread 2007-02 Robyn Anspach Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Medicinal Experiments : OR , A COLLECTION OF Choice Remedies , Chiefly Simple , and easily Prepared : Useful in Families , and fitted for the Service of Country People . By the Honourable R. BOYLE Esq late Fellow of the Royal Society . The Third and Last Volume . Published from the Author 's Original Manuscripts . Whereunto is added , Several other Useful Notes explicatory of the same . LONDON , Printed for J. Taylor , at the Ship in St. Paul's Church-Yard , 1694. Licensed , Novemb. 24th 1693. Edward Cooke . THE PREFACE . THE Honourable Robert Boyle Esq Deceased , bath gratified the whole Race of Mankind , by his Public Labours . The World may be divided into the Learned and the Unlearned Part thereof . The former he much obliged by his Elaborate Discourses on several Subjects : The latter , which are far more numerous , he hath condescended also to oblige , by consulting their Health in the ensuing Receipts . For , whereas the Ordinary and Inferiour Sort of Men , either have not Ability ( by reason of the Tenuity of their Estates ) to reward Physicians ; or by reason of the Remoteness of their Habitations , have not Opportunity to Consult them : Here they have Remedies provided to their Hands , and almost at their own Doors ; some of which the Learned Collector had Experience of Himself ; and others were recommended to him by Credible Persons , who had Experienced their Benefit in themselves , or their Friends . And though those ways of Probation might be sufficient to justify their Publication ; yet such was the scrupulous Care and Zeal of this Author , that he would not suffer them to see the Light , till they had been first perused by some Eminent Physicians of his Acquaintance ; to whom he was pleased to commit the Supervisal of his Medicinal Receipts , both Galenical and Chymical . This Century bears the Name of Parable Receipts ; because they may be easily procured and prepared by Country People , as their respective Diseases do require . What comes forth in the Name of Mr. Boyle , and is genuinly His , needs no farther Recommendation . His Ipse Dixit is sufficient , and such are these Praescripts , as being found among his many other Papers of like Import , which in time may be Published also . I shall therefore only recommend them , and their Success to the Blessing of God , the alone Giver , Preserver and Restorer of Health . J. W. THE INDEX· A AFter-birth to bring away Page 10 Ague to prevent or Cure Page 13.14.81 Agues Tertian Page 14 Ague Page 30.44 Aching of a hollow Tooth Page 36 Apoplectic Fits Page 40 Astmatic Distempers Page 43.86 Aqua Opthalmica Page 62 B BOdy bound , to loosen Page 35.83 Biting of a Viper Page 29 Blood-shot Eyes Page 6.80 Blood to stench Page 11.55.57.88 Burns Page 16.55.88 Burns recent Page 20 Breath shortness Page 31 Blood to sweeten Page 33 Bloody Flux Page 4.36.56.56.79 Belly Fluxes Page 53 Blood Cleansing by Troches of Vipers Page 67 Burn or Scald in the Eye Page 7 Bruise of the Eye Page 46.93 C CAtaract beginning Page 74 Cold newly taken , a good Medicine Page 1 Corns , a try'd Medicine Page 11.54.87 Cholic Page 15 Cholic , a simple Remedy Page 18 Costiveness Page 35.83 Convulsive Fits Page 51 Cholic , a Medicine Page 66 Cinamon drink for Gripes Page 37 Courses to provoke Page 39 Contusion of the Eye Page 46.69.70 D DRopsy Page 5.80 Dentrifice Innocent Page 7.81 Distempers of the Genus Nervosum Page 9 Dead Child to bring away Page 10 Defluxions of Rheum Page 12 Deafness Page 15 Drink for the Scurvy Page 20 Drink for the Kings Evil Page 24.82 Dysentery Page 4.36.56.56 Dysenteric Fluxes Page 56 Defluxion in the Eyes Page 72 Dry Inflammation Page 76 E EYes that are foul , a good Water Page 2.62 Eyes Inflamed Page 6.23.38.42.58.80.85 Eyes Burnt or Scald Page 7 Electuary , Purging Page 22 Erysipelas Page 47.86 Eye-Water , by a Famous French Man Page 60 Eye-Water , a Caution about the Vitriolate Page 69 Eye-Water famous Page 90 Eyes red Page 38.58.77.85.89 Eyes to Strengthen , subject to Rheums Page 72.91 Eye-Lids sore Page 74 Eye bruised Page 46.69.70 Eyes dry Page 63 Eyes with hot and sharp humours Page 73 Eyes pained Page 75 F FIlms of the Eyes Page 71.93 Fluxes of the Belly Page 4.37.53.79.84 Fits of a Furor Vterinus Page 19 Fits of the Head ach Page 32 Fluor-Albus in Women Page 48 Fumigation for pains in the Eyes , and over-great Driness , and when one fears the beginning of a Cataract Page 74 Fits of the Mother Page 9.65 Furor Vterinus to cure Page 19 G GRavel to Expel Page 25.83 Gleetings , a good Liquor Page 28 Gripes and Fluxes Page 37.84 Gonorrheaa Page 45 Gums to fasten and help Page 8 Gums Scorbutick Page 68.92 H HEad to clear Page 3 Head-ach Page 17.31 Hiccup in Fevers ibid. Hordeum on the Eye-Lids Page 42 Hysterick Affections Page 9 Humours hot and sharp in the Eyes Page 73 I INflamation of the Eyes Page 23.42.80 Itch , a good Medicine Page 33 Inflammation dry Page 75 K KIngs-Evil , a useful Drink Page 24.82.94 Kings-Evil , an approved Remedy Page 26 L LEprosy , a Specifick . Page 16 M MEdicine for the Dropsie Page 5 Medicine for Hysterical Affections Page 9 Medicine for Genus Nervosum ibid. Medicine to cleanse the Womb Page 18 Medicine for the Tooth-ach Page 21 Menses suppressed Page 39 Medicine to kill Tetters Page 44 Medicine to prevent Driness , and some other Disaffections of the Eyes Page 64 Medicine for the Stone , by a Famous Emperie Page 64 Medicine for Fits of the Mother Page 9.65 Medicine for the Cholic Page 66 Medicine for Scorbutic Gums , and to fasten the Teeth Page 68.92 Medicine for a Stroke or Contusion of the Eyes Page 69 Another excellent Medicine for a Bruise in the Eye Page 70 O OCulorum Propter gravedinem & dolorem Page 75 P PAin of the Teeth , from Rheum Page 3.36 Pain in the Eyes Page 75 Plaister preferr'd to the Soap Plaister Page 28 Pericarpium for Agues Page 14 Pleurisie Page 36.56 Piles Page 52 Plaister to strengthen the Eyes and stop Defluxions Page 72 Pouder Styptick Page 11 Purging Electuary for Children Page 22 R RElaxation of the Vvula Page 59 Redness of the Eyes Page 38.58.77.85.89 Remedy for an Ague Page 13.30.44 Rheums a powerful Medicine Page 12.60 Remedy to take off Films , and such like things from the Eyes Page 71.93 Remedy for sharp and hot Humours in the Eyes Page 73 Rheumatick pain of the Teeth Page 3 Running of the Reins to cure Page 45 Rheums to stop Page 60 Running of the Eyes Page 72.73.91 S SOap Plaister for the Gout Page 28 Sight to strengthen Page 19 Scurvey beginning Page 20 Stone in the Bladder Page 21 Strains Recent Page 41.85 Sternutatory to clear the Head Page 3 Shortness of Breath Page 31 Scrophulous Vlcers Page 40 Sores and Vlcers Page 49 Scorbutick Gums Page 68.92 Stroke of the Eyes Page 46.93 Sleep wanting Page 50 Stenching of Blood Page 11.55.57.88 Stone a famous Medicine Page 64.91.95 Stoppage of Vrine Page 25.30 T TErms to provoke Page 39 Teeth to fasten Page 8.92 Tumours , a Fomentation ibid. Tooth-ach Page 12.21.27.36 Tooth Hollow Page 27.36 Teeth to fasten Page 68 Tumors from sharp Humours Page 8 Tettars to kill Page 44 U URine to provoke Page 25.83 Viper Biting Page 29 Vrine supprest Page 25.30 Vapours of the Spleen Page 31 Vlcers , an excellent Medicine Page 34 Vlcers Scrophulous Page 40 Vvula relax'd Page 59.89 Vlcers and Sores Page 49 Vitriolate Eye-water Page 69 W WEakness to help Page 67 Womb-Madness to cure Page 19 Womb to cleanse Page 18 Womb of a Puerpera , to cleanse Page 10 Wounds Green to heal Page 39 Whites in Women Page 48.87 These following BOOKS , Published by the Honourable Author , and Printed for J. Taylor at the Ship in St. Paul's Church-Yard . 1. A Free Inquiry into the vulgarly receiv'd Notion of Nature . 2. A Disquisition about the final Causes of natural things , with Observations about vitiated Sight . 3. The Martyrdom of Theodora and Dydimus . 4. The Christian Virtuoso . 5. Experimenta & Observationes Physicae , with a Collection of strange Reports . 6. A Natural History of a Country , great and small , for the Use of Travellers and Navigators . 7. His Seraphick Love. Books printed for J. Taylor . DR . Salmon's Practical Physick . Dr. Yworth's new Art of Brewing . — His whole Art of Distillation . Logick , or the Art of Thinking . Lord Viscount Shandon's Moral Essays . — His Characters and Discourses . — His Letter to an Atheist Acquaintance . Dr. Salmon's , with Dr. Sydenham's and Monsieur Blanchard's new Method of caring the French Disease . Loue 's whole Art of Surveying . Strodes's easy Method for the Art of Dyalling . Plutarch's Morals , 5 Vol. english'd by several Hands . Culpepper's Directory for Midwives . Kirkwood's new Family-Book , with an Epistle by Dr. Horneck . Abbady's Truth of the Christian Religion english'd . Gouge's Words to Saints and Sinners . — His Christian Directions . Counsellor Manner's Legacy to his Son. Ryder's new Practice of Surgery . Evelyn's French Gardiner , with Cuts . Gilbert's Florists Vade mecum . Baxter's Call to the Unconverted . Osborn's Works , Divine , Moral , Historical and Political . Virgilius Notis Minelii . Quintilian's Declamations , english . Legrand's Historia sacra . Newton's compleat Arithmetician . The Modern Courtier . Miracles perform'd by Money , a Poem . The Humours of a Coffee-house , a Poem . Foxes and Firebrands . A Defence of their Majesties King William and Queen Mary . Strode of Combinations , &c. The Swordsman's Vade mecum , by Sir William Hope . Dyer's Works . Vanity of the Creature . Publick Devotion , by Mr. Camfield . A Collection of Choice and Safe REMEDIES . VOL. III. 1. A good Medicine for a newly taken , though violent , Cold. TAke about four Ounces of Spring-water , and in a convenient Vessel , put to it three Leaves of good Tussilago ( Coltsfoot ) and a pugil of Maiden-hair , and a Stick of Liquorish , for bigness and length , like the furthest Joynt of the Little-finger ; make the Water warm , and when 't is ready to boil , put in the forementioned Ingredients , ( the Liquorish being first slic'd and minc'd ) cover the Pot well , let it boil for a few walmes , then take it off the Fire , and having presently strain'd it , let the Patient drink it hot like Tea , he being already in Bed ; do this three or four Nights consecutively , or till there be no more need of the Medicine . 2. A good Water for Eyes that are foul , and pain'd by sharp Humours . TAke prepared Pearl and Coral , Ana one scruple , Aloes Cabalina finely pouder'd three grains , red Rose-water and Succory-water , Ana one ounce , mix them well ; and if you would have the mixture stronger , put in a very few grains of Trochisci alli Rhasis in very fine Pouder . 3. A good Medicine for Pain of the Teeth that comes from Rheum . OF the Pouder of white Helebore , put into a clean Linen Rag like a Nodule , of about the bigness of the largest sort of Peas , or somewhat greater and let the Patient hold it between his Teeth , with his Head and Face somewhat inclined , that the Rheum may run freely out of his Mouth . 4. An Experienced Sternutatory to clear the Head. LEt the Patient snuff up in the Morning fasting , a small Spoonful , or less , of the clarify'd Juice of Haedera terrestris , i.e. Ground-Ivy , or of Beets , spitting out from time to time as much Liquor as comes into his Mouth . 5. An often try'd Remedy for the Dysentery and sharp Fluxes of the Belly . GIve from fifteen to twenty grains of carefully made Mercurius Dulcis incorporated , with about two ounces of Catholicon , or else with about one scruple of toasted or somewhat less of untoasted Rhubarb . See Numb . ( 1. ) 6. A good , though uncommon , Medicine for the Dropsie . TAke Virginian Snake-weed a sufficient quantity , and having cut and slic'd it very small , infuse it into a competent quantity of good Sack till the Liquor be very strongly impregnated with the Plant. Of this Infusion let the Patient take three , four or five Spoonfuls at a time ( or more if the case be urgent ) when the Stomach is empty . See Numb . ( 2. ) 7. An often Experienced Medicine for Blood-shot , or Inflamed Eyes . CUt a new-laid Egg boiled hard , into two halfs , ( without taking out the Yelks ) and apply one of these considerably warm , but not too hot , to the part affected , and keep it on for some hours ( six or eight if it need so long . ) Note well , To the same purpose , you may apply with good effect , a Poultis made of a rotten Apple , the cold being first quite taken off . See Numb . ( 3. ) 8. An Excellent Remedy for a Burn or Scald in the Eye . TAke Mucilages of Quince-seed , Fleawort , Linseed and Fenugreek-seed , of each one scruple ; boil it but very lightly in four ounces of Betony-water , filter it , and apply it to the Part. 9. A good and innocent Dentrifice . TAke Mastich and Dragon's-blood , of each a sufficient quantity ; pouder them , and mix them together , and let the Patient use them as a Dentrifice . See Numb . ( 4. ) 10. To Correct the Laxity of the Gums , and fasten the Teeth . TO a Pint of Red or Claret Wine , take about two drams of Japan Earth , and having dissolv'd so much as you can , pour off the clear , and let the Patient wash his Mouth therewith from time to time . 11. An uncommon , but effectual , Fomentation for Tumours accompany'd with sharp Humours . TO a Gallon of Spring-water , put as much dry'd Sage , as you judg will afford a Decoction strong enough of the Herb. Into this , when it first grows hot , cast about two ounces or some drams of Castle-Soap , and let it dissolve there till your Decoction be compleated . With this and Stuphes , foment the part for a good while together . 12. A rare Medicine for Hysterical Affections , and several Distempers of the Genus Nervosum . TAke one ounce , or a sufficient quantity of Volatile Salt of Harts-horn , ( which need not be exactly pure ) and drop on it as much Spirit of Tartar as will serve to satiate it , when the conflict is quite ceas'd . Digest the mixture for a while , that it may acquire a red Colour , and keep it carefully stopt for Use , and give four or five drops twice a day in any convenient Vehicle . 13. An often prov'd Remedy to bring away what is or should not be left in the Womb of a Puerpera , though it were part of a Dead Child . WIth the Juice of Sheeps Sorrel , and some of the strong infusion of the same Herb ( unpress'd ) in Water , and a sufficient quantity of Sugar , make a Syrup : Of which let the Patient take about a Spoonful ( a little more or less as need may require ) twice or thrice a day . 14. A try'd Medicine to take away Corns . THe parts being made soft with Bathing , and scrap'd , apply to the Corn a Plaister of Shoe-maker's-wax ; but if the part be very tender , your Plaister may consist of equal parts of Shoe-maker's-wax and Diapalma melted together and spread somewhat thin . 15. To make an Excellent Styptic Pouder to stench Blood. TAke of White Sugar-Candy , Roach-Allom burnt ( but not too much calcin'd ) and white Vitriol , and pulverize them exceeding well , and mix them diligently ; and having dip'd Plagets of Flax or Lint , moistened with the White of an Egg into this Pouder , apply them to the Orifices of the Bleeding parts . Note well , 't will do very well after the dry Ingredients are mix'd , to grind them with as much Whites of Eggs beaten to water , as will make a Paste , which is afterwards to be throughly dry'd in the Air , and then again reduc'd to Pouder . 16. For a Tooth-ach , proceeding from Defluxion or Rheum from the Gums . DIssolve one ounce of choice Japan Earth in a Pint at least of good Red or Claret Wine , and let the Patient hold in his Mouth often , and a good while together . 17. To prevent the Fit of an Ague , or cure that Disease . TAke of the scraping or gratings of the Root of Angelica half a dram , and of the Flowers of Antimony , mix them well , and let the Patient take them at the usual times . Note here , That the Flowers of Antimony are not to be given inwardly in Substance , but only in Infusion ; for in Substance they will hazard life , bringing first strong Convulsions , and then Death : But you may make the Medicine thus . See Numb . ( 5. ) 18. To make an often try'd Pericarpium for Agues , especially Tertians . TAke a handful and a half of fresh Rue , half a handful of fresh Sage , a small spoonful of Bay-salt , and a spoonful of good Vinegar . Beat all these very well together into an uniform Mass ; which divide into two parts , and make thereof two Wrist Plaisters to be apply'd at the usual times before the Fit ; and to be renewed , if there be Occasion , to keep them on till they grow dry and troublesom . 19. For the Cholic . ℞ ORange Peels dry'd till one may grate them to Pouder ; and when they are pulveriz'd , take about a spoonful of the Pouder at a time , mix'd with a little white Sugar to sweeten it , in or before some spoonfuls of any convenient Vehicle . 20. An approved Remedy for Present Deafness . TAke of the Breast Milk of a Woman that has had her first Male Child some time before , and drop three or four drops of it warm as it comes from the Nipple , into the part affected . 21. A choice Medicine for Burns . TAke Goose-grease , ( which the Country People call the Leaf of a Goose ) and having softly melted , and a little skim'd it , squeeze into it as much freshly exprest Juice of Ground-Ivy-Leaves , as by continual stirring , will bring it to the consistence of a Green Oyntment . With this anoint the part it self affected ; and afterwards lay on it fine old Rags , well dipt in the same Ointment . 22. An External Remedy , almost Specific for the Leprosie . TAke Pomatum one ounce , Flower of Sulphur one dram , Sal Prunellae half an ounce , and having mixt them very well together , from time to time anoint the part affected therewith , as long as there is need . 23. For the Head-ach . TAke green Hemlock , that is tender , and put it in your Socks , so that it may lie thinly between them and the Soles of your Feet ; shift the Herb once a day . 24. For the Hiccup ( even in Fevers . ) GIve two or three preserved Dampsons at a time . 25. A Simple Remedy for the Cholic . IN a Draught of any convenient Liquor , dissolve about one dram of good Salt of Tartar , and let the Patient take it for one Dose . 26. An Experienced Medicine to cleanse the VVomb . TAke a large white Onion , cut it into small pieces , and boil it in about a pint of Water , or less , as if it were to be dressed for eating . And of this Decoction give seven or eight ounces for a dose , mix'd with about half an ounce of fresh Oil of Walnuts . 27. To appease the Fits of a Furor Uterinus . TAke the Feathers of Partridges ( it matters not much from what part of the Fowl ) and burn them for a competent time under the Patient's Nose . 28. A very good Syrup to strengthen the Sight . TAke about a small Spoonful of a Syrup made of Betony-water and Honey , twice , thrice or four times a day . 29. An easily prepared , but useful Drink for a beginning Scurvy . TO a quart of Small-Beer ( of six Shillings per Barrel ) or Small-Ale , put over Night about a handful of Scurvy-grass-Leaves , and let the Patient drink this Liquor at Dinner for his ordinary drink for six or eight Weeks together . 30. A Parable Remedy for recent Burns . APply as speedily as you can to the part affected an Onion , or more , ( if the burnt place be large ) beaten to a Mash . 31. For the Tooth-ach . APply a Plaister of Caranna to that part that burns , between the bottom of the Ear and the Temples , on the same side where the Pulsation of the Artery is the most manifestly or strongly felt . 32. An Excellent Medicine , tho not Curative , for those that are tormented with the Stone in the Bladder . TAke Pouder of Comfrey-Roots an ounce and half , Marsh-mallow-Roots three ounces , Liquorice Pouder two drams , Seeds of Daucus of Creet two drams ; Seeds of Purslane , of Winter Cherries , of each half a dram ; Nutmegs two drams , Saffron one dram ; the Species Diamargariton frigid , six drams ; Syrup of Marsh-mallows four ounces ; mix and make a soft Electuary : of which let the Sick daily take the quantity of a Walnut . It is profitable against the Stone in the Reins and Bladder , but chiefly against the latter ; as also against the Strangury , Dysuria , &c. 33. To make a Purging Electuary , especially for Children . TAke an Ounce of choice Rhubarb reduc'd to fine Pouder , and eight ounces of very good Currans , pick'd , wash'd and rub'd dry ; beat these together in a Glass or Marble Mortar for near two hours . Of this Electuary , let the Patient take about the bigness of a small or a large Chesnut in the Morning fasting , and if need be at Bed-time . If the case be very urgent , the Medicine may be taken thrice in twenty four hours . 34. An excellent Remedy for an Inflammation of the Eyes . TAke a Pippin ( or other Apple ) cut it into two halfs , take out all the Core of each of them , fill up the Cavities with the tender tops of common Wormwood , tie the halfs together , and roast the Apple well . Then beat it and the Herb together to a kind of Poultis , and apply it warm ( but not hot ) to the part affected , and bind it thereon , letting it lie all Night , or if you use it in the Day time , for six or eight hours . 35. An useful Drink for the Kings-Evil , and some Affections that have the like Causes to it . TAke a large handful ( or two little Physical handfuls ) of the Leaves of Ground-Ivy , green , or ( if the Season denies you them ) well dry'd , wash off the Dust with Beer , ( not Water ) and put the Herb into a Gallon of Ale-wort ; when 't is ripe for drinking , draw it out into Bottles , and let the Patient take a draught of it twice or thrice a day , or if it be thought fit , he may use it at Meals . See Numb . ( 6. ) 36. An often experienc'd Remedy to expel Gravel , and provoke supprest Urin. KIll a black Cock or Hen , ( rather than one of any other colour ) take out the thick Membrane or Skin that lines the Gizzard or Stomach , and having wip'd it clean , dry it cautiously , so as it may be beaten to pouder : With this mix an equal part , or half so much of choice red Coral calcin'd . Of this mixture , give from twenty or thirty Grains to forty or fifty Grains . See Numb . ( 7. ) 37. An approved Remedy for the Kings-Evil . SEt a quart of new Milk on the Fire till it just boils up , then take it off , and put into it two spoonfuls of the best Honey , and stir it till it be dissolved : And then set it on the Fire again , and let it boil two or three walms : Then divide it into four parts , and drink one part warm early in the Morning , another about ten of the Clock , another about four in the Afternoon , and the last a little before Bed-time . Do this daily for two or three Months , except you purge , which must be once a Week , taking ( if a grown Man ) three quarters of an ounce of Caryo-costinum dissolved in Posset-drink : Dress the Sores if they run , with any drawing Sear-cloth , or a Plaister of Burgundy-Pitch . The Medicine , though not very promising , is very famous , by the many Cures done with it , by a charitable Lady , of whose Ingenious Chaplain I procur'd it . 38. A good Composition to stop a hollow Tooth , and appease the Pain . TAke two parts of fine Sugar , ( that of Lisbon does best ) and one part of black round Pepper , both finely pouder'd and mixt ; put them into a Silver spoon over two or three well-kindled Coals ; and when the Sugar begins to melt , take off the Spoon , and whilst the mixture is yet soft , form it into little grains for size and shape , suted to the part affected . 39. A Plaister prefer'd by an old Physician , that often try'd it , to the common Soap Plaister . MIx about one dram of Castle-Soap , with one ounce of Diachylum , and make thereof a thin Plaister , to be worn upon the part affected . 40. An Excellent Liquor to be used Topically in Gleetings . TAke four ounces of Spring-Water [ or Plantane-Water ] and dissolve in it about one scruple of the Sympathetic-Pouder , or so much as will give it a sensible , yet but faint , Vitriol-like taste : And of this mixture , inject as much as is usual of a small Syringe , every Morning and Evening , as long as need require , directing the Patient to retain the injected Liquor as long as conveniently he can . 41. An approved Medicine in the biting of a Viper . TAke of white Horehound , and apply the Plant , well beaten into the form of a Poultis , to the part affected , and give the Patient a spoonful or two of the Juice of the same Herb to drink : 'T is also very good for the Jaundice . 42. An almost specific Medicine for the suppression of Urin. TAke of Stoechas Citrina ( in English , French Lavender ) and infuse in a good heat , two handful of the Flowers in a pint of good Brandy , ( not rectify'd Spirit of Wine ) and of this infusion , give about a small Wine-glass-full at a time [ diluted , if there be great need , with a sufficient quantity of some appropriated Liquor . ] 43. For an Ague often try'd . BOil Yarrow [ Mille-folium ] in new Milk , till it be tender enough to have a Cataplasm made of it . Apply this to the Patient's Wrists , just when the cold Fit is coming on , and let it lie on the parts till the Fit be gone ; and if another Fit comes , use fresh Cataplasms as before . 44. An useful Plaister for those that are troubled with Vapours of the Spleen , and shortness of Breath , when 't is a Nervous Affection . TAke two parts of strain'd Galbanum , and one part of Asafoetida , and make thereof , according to Art , a Plaister of about the bigness of the Palm of one's Hand , taking care to leave a broad Edg quire round , to prevent its sticking to one's Linen and putting a pretty large piece of Cotton in the middle , that the Gums may not touch the Navel ; to which the Plaister is to be apply'd . 45. A slight , but excellent , Medicine to take off Fits of the Head-ach . TAke about a handful of fresh Rosemary , and boil it for a pretty while in a quart of common Water , then almost fill with it a pint Pot [ or rather a Mug ] let the Patient cover his Head and Face with a Napkin , so that he may receive the Steam as hot as he can well bear , and keep the Vessel there as long as he finds the Steam strong enough . 46. An easie and try'd Medicine for the Itch , Praenissis Universalibus . BOil four Ounces of clean Quick-silver in about a Gallon and a half of Spring-water , and let the Patient take of this between a quarter and half a pint at a time , aromatizing it if he pleases with a little Lemon-peel . 47. An easie Medicine to purify and sweeten the Blood. TAke the Minera of Hungarian , or other choice Antimony , and having ground it to very fine Pouder , without suffering it to touch any Metal , give of this dry Alcohole from ten Grains to a Dram , giving it once a day , and ( unless some particular reason disswade that time ) let it be at Dinner , that it may mingle with the Patient's Meat in his Stomach . 48. A cheap , but excellent , Medicine for Ulcers . TAke one dram at least of Corrosive Sublimate finely pouder'd , dissolve it in a quart of fair Water , and let it lie there , if you have leisure , four or five days ( in a light Digestion ) that it may be throughly dissolved . Then drop in it as much Spirit of Sal-Armoniac , or as much Oyl of Tartar , per deliquium , as will precipitate it all : Then filter it carefully , and keep it stop'd for use , which is to imbibe Dorsels or Plagets with it , and apply them to the Ulcer twice or thrice a day . 49. An easie and innocent Medicine for Costiveness . BOil in as much Broth as will serve to fill a large Poringer , about half a handful of the Leaves of common Mallows chop'd , and of this Broth ( being strained ) let the Patient make the first part of his Meal . See Numb . ( 8. ) 50. For the Aching of a hollow Tooth . TAke Oil of Wax , and with it moisten well a little Cotton , and thrust it up into the hollow Tooth , letting it lie there till the pain be sufficiently asswag'd . 51. An often try'd Medicine for the Bloody-Flux , being good also for Pleurisies . GIve the weight of an Escu D'or ( or near one dram ) of the Seed of Sophia Chirurgorum , in English Flax-seed , in two or three spoonfuls of any convenient vehicle once or twice a day . 52. The Cinamon Drink , good in Gripes and Fluxes , &c. TAke two ounces of calcin'd Hart's-horn , pouder it , and boil it in three pints of Spring-water , till a pint be wasted ; then take it off the Fire , and infuse in it , an ounce and half of good Cinamon , setting it upon Embers in a cover'd Vessel for about an hour . Then sweeten it with Sugar to your Palat , and drink about a quarter of a pint at a time . If taken for prevention only , a fourth part of the Cinamon will serve the turn . See Numb . ( 9. ) 53. An easie , but useful Medicine for redness of the Eyes . TAke a Blanch'd Almond , and about three Grains of Camphire , and in a Glass or a Marble Mortar , incorporate them by wary grinding ; and then add to them little by little two or three ounces of red Rose-water , still grinding them till the whole be brought to a kind of Emulsion . Drop a little of this into the part affected . See Numb . ( 10. ) 54. A most excellent Balsam for any green Wound , of what Nature soever . OYl of St. John's-wort , and Venice-Turpentine , of each a like quantity , set them over the Fire in a gentle heat , half an hour or less , that they may incorporate . Then put them up , and keep it for use as one of the best of Balsams . 55. A good Medicine for suppression of the Menses . GIve for three Mornings together , about the expected time of the Monthly Evacuation , a dram or dram and half or thereabouts of the Gauls and Livers of Eels dry'd and made into Pouder . 56. An experienced Remedy to prevent Apoplectic Fits. MAke at the crossing of the Sutures and Issue with Diapalma , and Oil of Vitriol , and keep it open the ordinary way . 57. To dry up , or correct the Humour that makes Scrophulous Ulcers . TAke of the Bone of the Cuttle-fish , and having reduc'd it to an impalpable Pouder , give about one dram of it at a time in any convenient vehicle . 58. An effectual Medicine for a recent Strain . TAke a handful of Wormwood-Leaves , and boil them in strong Ale , till the Consumption of about a third , that you may reduce them to the Form of a Cataplasm , which when you take from the Fire , you must strengthen by putting into it two or at most three of Brandy , and apply it very warm , renewing it , if need be , in twenty four hours at least . See Numb . ( 11. ) 59. For a slight Inflammation of the Eyes , as also a Hordeum growing on the Eye-lid . TAke fresh Housleek , and having pouder'd it very well to a kind of Cataplasm , cover as much as is needful of it ( for example sake , to the thickness of a half-Crown , or a Crown-piece ) in the fold of a Rag or Linen-cloth , that may be so apply'd that the Cataplasm may reach the Eye , and the rest of the Cloth be fastned about the Patient's Head. Let the Medicine lie on all Night , and be taken off the next Morning . Repeat this Application two or three times , in case there be need . 60. For most Astmatic Distempers . TAke of the Roots of Elecampain , thinly slic'd , one ounce , of the Leaves of Ground-Ivy , a good handful . Boil these in three pints of Spring-water to a quart , then strain the Decoction , sweeten it with a little live Honey , and let the Patient take it five , six or seven spoonfuls at a time . ( Note well , Remember the efficacy of Saffron in the same Disease , as 't is commended by Mr. Ray , in his Catalogue of Plants . ) See Numb . ( 12. ) 61. For an Ague . TAke of the Bone , call'd Patella , of the Knee of a dead Man , and having reduc'd it to fine Pouder , give of it as much as will lie upon a Groat or a Six-pence for one Dose , in any proper Conserve or fit Vehicle , at a convenient time ( before the cold Fit. ) 62. An experienced Medicine to kill Tetters . TAke of Flowers of Brimstone , Ginger and Burnt-allum , of each alike , mingle them well , and of this mixture , incorporate as much with new unsalted Butter , as is requisite to bring it to the consistence of an Unguent . With this anoint the part affected , as hot as the Patient can well endure it , and let it stay on all Night ; and the next Morning wash it off with Celandine-water . But when the Patient goes to Bed , he is to take a Dose of some Alexipharmacal Medicine , as Gascon's Pouder , Treacle , &c. to keep the Humour from being driven into the Mass of Blood : He is also to bathe the part oftentimes in a day with the Celandine-water . 63. To make a good Pouder for a Gonorrhaea . TAke of choice red Coral , and of Mastich , equal parts , reduce them separately to fine Powder . Mingle them very well , and of this mixture , give about thirty or forty Grains for one Dose . 64. A choice Medicine for a slight Stroke or Bruise of the Eye . TAke two spoonfuls of Fennel-water , or of Betony-water , and drop into it three or four drops ( or five at most ) of good clarify'd Honey : shake them well together , and use them twice or thrice a day . But you must have a care to make this mixture fresh once in four , or at most in five days , especially in Summer ; for if it be longer kept , 't will be apt to grow sowr . 65. An often try'd external Medicine for an Erysipelas . TAke the Blood of a Hare , ( 't is best if kill'd by Hunting in March ) and if you can have it fresh , anoint the part affected with it , otherwise apply on it a Linen Rag that has ( though a good while ago ) throughly imbib'd the fresh Blood of that Animal , and dry'd in the Air. But if the imbued Linen be too hard or stiff , it must be softned with a little fair water , and then the cold taken off , apply'd to , and bound upon the part . See Numb . ( 13. ) 66. An Emperics , much boasted Remedy for the Fluor Albus , or Whites in Women . MAke a strong Decoction of the Herb Alchymilla ( in English , Ladies-Mantle , ) and let the Patient drink of it about half a pint every Morning fasting ; and if the case be urgent , make an Injection of the same Plant , boil'd till it be very tender , and let the Patient make use of it from time to time . See Numb . ( 14. ) 67. An excellent Water for Ulcers and Sores [ try'd with great Success . ] TO a quart of Spring-water , take one dram of Mercury sublimate finely pouder'd ; and when 't is quite dissolved , drop into the Solution , either Spirit of Sal Armoniac ( which is best ) or Oil of Tartar per Deliquium , till you see that no more will manifestly precipitate . This done , filter the mixture through Cap-paper , and reserve the Precipitate for other uses . The Liquor that passes , you must keep close stopt in a Glass-Viol ; and when you will use it , you must dip Linen Rags in it , and being throughly wetted , apply them to the part affected ; single , or doubled , more or less , as need requires . This Application may be renewed twice , or ( if the case be urgent ) thrice a day . 68. An experienced Medicine for want of Sleep , proceeding from great Heats of the Head. TAke the palest Carrots you can get , and scrape a sufficient quantity of them to afford scrapings enough to make a Cataplasm of about two Fingers or two Inches broad , and of the thickness of a Half-crown piece of Silver , or thereabouts . Let the Patient apply this in a piece of doubled [ Linen ] to his Throat , so that it may reach to the Jugular Vessels on each side , when he goes to Bed , and let it lie on all Night ( for it will not easily grow dry , ) if the first Application do not prevail , 't is to be apply'd the following Night ; and so a third and fourth time , if need require . 69. A Parable Medicine that has cured very many , especially Children , and young Boys and Girls , of Convulsive Fits. TAke of the Pouder ( whether made by Filing , Rasping , or , otherwise ) of the sound Skull of a Dead Man , and give of it about as much as will lie upon a Groat , made up into a Bolus with Conserve of Rosemary-Flowers ( or any other that is proper ) to a young Boy or Girl : But in Persons more Aged and Strong , the Dose of the Pouder must be augmented to double the quantity . The Medicine must be given often , if necessity requires it : If the Patient be a Child , 't will be useful to apply to his Throat , a kind of Necklace , made of the Roots of Vervain cut into Beads . 70. An easie , and experienc'd Remedy for the Piles . IN four ounces of Spring-water , dissolve about one dram of Salt of Tartar , or as much as will give the Liquor a manifest , but not strong Alcalisate taste , and apply soft Rags dip'd in luke-warm or somewhat more to the part affected , shifting it from time to time . 71. A succcssful Medicine for Fluxes of the Belly . TAke Rice-Meal , and mix with it about a fifth part of finely pouder'd and sifted Chalk , boil these in Water , or which is better , if it agrees with the Patient , in Milk , and make thereof a hasty Pudding , to be moderately season'd with Sugar and pouder'd Cinamon ; and let the Patient eat it at Meals , and if need be at some other times . 72. An often try'd Remedy for Corns . TAke the Juice of Housleek , and mix it up with about equal parts of the thick Balm or Yest , that sticks to the Barrel or to the Clay that stops it . Of these make a kind of Plaister , which being kept upon the Toe for a while , and then if need be , renew'd , will make the Corn very soft and easie to be drawn out and extirpated . See Numb . ( 15. ) 73. A good Medicine for Burns and Stenching of Blood. DIssolve in Spring-water , or which is better Rain-water , as much Sugar as will make it a strong Solution , and then with a sufficient quantity of Linseed-Oil , or Oil of Olives , beat up this Liquor till the Oil on it be brought to the consistence of an Unguent , with which anoint the part affected , as timely as you can , renewing the Application as often as need shall require . See Numb . ( 16. ) 74. An approved Medicine for the Bloody-Flux , being good also for Pleurisies . GIve two or three scruples of Hare's Blood beaten to Pouder for one Dose , to be taken in a spoonful or two or three of Mint-water , or any other fit Vehicle . 75. A very often ( though homely ) experienc'd Remedy for Dysenteric and other Fluxes . TAke the fresh Dung of a Hog , ( and if you can , whil'st 't is yet warm ) and boil in a Poringer full of new Milk , as much of it as may amount to the bigness of a Wal-nut ; and also an equal quantity of fine Mutton Suet slic'd very thin : When these are well incorporated with the Milk , strain them well through a clean Linen cloth ; and if there be need , sweeten them a little with Loaf-Sugar : Let the Patient take this warm , once or twice a day . 76. A powerful Styptic to stench Blood , where it can be apply'd . TAke the fine Pouder of Lapis Haematites , made by grinding it exactly well with an equal or double weight of Sal Armoniac : And of this high-colour'd Sublimate , put a little upon the Orifice of the Vessel . 77. For a slight Redness of the Eyes . TAke of French Barley half an ounce , and Damask Roses half an handful . Boil them but very little in a pint of Spring-water , and with this moisten the part affected . See Numb . ( 17. ) 78. For the Relaxation of the Uvula . TAke blewish Pease ( or in want of them , white ones ) and chew them very well , so as to reduce them to the consistence of a Poultis . Lay this warm upon the Crown of the Head , to the breadth and thickness of a Five-shilling-piece of Silver , or somewhat larger , shifting it in the Morning , and at Bed-time . See Numb . ( 18. ) 79. A powerful Medicine to stop sharp Rheums . TAke a Dram of Catechu , or Japan Earth , and make thereof a Decoction in five or six ounces of good White-wine , or else of some Distill'd Water , or other Liquor appropriated to the Disease . Of this , give two or three spoonfuls at Night , and in the Morning as much also if need require . 80. The French-Man's Famous Eye-Water . TAke two or three ounces of the Water of Simple Pimpernel , distill'd in Balneo , and put this into a little Pot or Poringer of Rose-Copper ; then put into it , about the bigness of a Hazel-nut , or a Filbert , of strong Quick-lime : Cover the Pot , and let the Ingredients lie in it till the Liquor hath acquired a blewish colour . Then very warily pour off tke clear , and add to it as much live Honey , as will give a little , or but little , Taste : Use it after the wonted manner of such Waters ; and if you find it too strong , dilate it a little with water of the same Plant , or good Spring-water , which for a need , may be used from first to last , instead of the Water of Pimpernel . See Numb . ( 19. ) 81. Eye-Water . TAke Red Rose-water , Plantane-water , of each an ounce ; Tutia prepared , half a scruple ; Lapis Lazuli prepared , six grains ; red Coral prepared , five grains ; mix and make a Collyrium or Eye-water . This drop'd into the Eyes , being first well shak'd , cures Inflammations of the Eyes , provided there be no great foulness , nor Scrophulous disposition in the Patient . It takes off the redness of the Eye-lids , if with a Spunge dip'd in it , the Eye-lids be often wetted , it takes off Films very well . 82. A safe and useful Medicine to prevent Driness and some other Disaffections of the Eyes . TAke of choice Virgin-Honey , two spoonfuls , of Succory-water , or the distilled Water , of each four spoonfuls ; mix them , and in a very clean Vessel over a very gentle Fire , let them evaporate ( taking off from time to time any Scum that may arise ) till the mixture be brought to the consistence of a Syrup [ or of Honey ] keep this in a Glass well stop'd , and make use of it , by letting fall a drop or two , or at most three of it , at a time , into the Eye . See Numb . ( 20. ) 83. The Medicine of a Famous Empyric for the Stone . TAke Amber ( clear and yellow ) Sea-horse Pizzle and Niter , of each a like quantity , ( Note well , in case of Ulcerated Kidnies , put half the quantity of the Amber ) and an eighth part of the Nitre ( of Natural Balsam . ) Pulverize each apart , and make them up into Pills with Chios ( or at least clean Strasburgh Turpentine ) take five , six or seven Pills ( of above ten to one ounce ) Morning and Evening . See Numb . ( 21. ) 84. An excellent Medicine for Fits of the Mother . TAke Sagapenum dissolved in Vinegar of Squills , and strained through a Sieve , and again inspisiated or thickned : Ammoniacum in like manner prepared : Steel prepared , Myrrh , Fecula of Bryony , of each half a Dram : English Saffron , Castoreum , of each a scruple : Borax two scruples : Syrup of Staechas a sufficient quantity ; mix and make Pills of a convenient bigness to be swallowed ; of which take three Morning and Night , with care . 85. A choice Medicine for the Cholic . TAke clean white Chalk , and having dry'd it with a gentle heat , reduce it to fine Pouder ; wet this Pouder with the express'd Juice of Cammomil , and then let it dry in the Air , without the heat , either of the Fire , or of the Sun. This done , wet it again with new Juice of Cammomil , and dry it the second time as before . Wet and dry it again the third time , and , if you please , the fourth time ; and then reduce the dry Mass to fine Pouder again . Of this Pouder , let the Patient take at a time , as much as will lie upon a Groat or a Six-pence , in some spoonfuls of Wine , or other proper Vehicle . 86. Troches of Vipers , successfully used to cleanse the Blood , and to strengthen weak Patients . TAke of Vipers reduc'd to fine Pouder one ounce , Diaphoretic Antimony half an ounce , clear yellow Amber two drams , of Starch as much as of all the rest , and of Sugar as much as of Starch ; make them to a fine Paste , with Spirit of Wine , and then make them into small Cakes , whereof one may serve for a Dose . 87. An approved Medicine for Scorbutic Gums , and to fasten the Teeth . TAke of White-wine , a pint , of Alum half an ounce , of Juniper-berries and of red Sage ana one ounce : Boil these together till a quarter of the Liquor be wasted , then put into the remaining part four ounces of Honey , and let it boil till the Scum be all risen ; then filter it , and put into it one dram of Balsamum Vitae . See Numb . ( 22. ) 88. A Caution about the Vitriolate Eye-water . TAke four grains of Roman Vitriol , not more , to four ounces of Distilled Water , either of Roses , Succory , Fennel , &c. 89. A good Medicine for a light Stroke , or Contusion of the Eye . TAke half an ounce of Celendine-water , and shake well into it , three or four drops of clarify'd Honey , and let fall of this into the Eye , a drop or two , twice or thrice a day . 90. An excellent Medicine for a Stroke or Bruise in the Eye . TAke of Betony-water and Hysop-water , of each one ounce , and in their mixture , stir some Blades of Saffron , till the Liquor be pretty well colour'd , and no more . And lastly , add to it four or five drops of clarify'd Honey . See Numb . ( 23. ) 91. An excellent Remedy to take off Films , and such like things from the Eyes . TAke choice Bole-Armonic , and reduce it to very fine Pouder , blow this gently into the Eye , once , or at most twice a day . But if the Patient be subject to , or fearful of , any swelling , heat , or disaffection in the Eye-lids , incorporate the Pouder with a little clarify'd Honey . See Numb . ( 24. ) 92. To strengthen weak Eyes subject to Rheums . TAke Lapis Calaminaris four ounces , Rose-water a pint , shake them well together two days . Then let it settle , pour off this Water into a little Viol , and drop of it in weak Eyes , two or three times a day , &c. 93. A Plaister to strengthen the Eyes , and stop Defluctions on them . TAke of Frankincense two drams , Olibanum and Mastic ana half a dram ; Mix these well , and reduce them into fine Pouder : Of which , a convenient quantity is to be melted and spread upon black Ribbon , or some such thing , with a hot Knife or Spatula , and so presently apply'd to the Temples . 94. An experienced Remedy for sharp and hot Humours in the Eyes . INto a quart of new Milk already boiling , put about two handfuls or less of green Housleek , freshly gather'd , and chopt small , and let the Milk boil on till 't will yield no more Curd . Then strain the green Posset-drink , and let the Patient take every day , once or twice a pint ( or as near that quantity as he can well reach to ) sweeten'd a little if need be with fine Sugar . The drink may be best taken cold . 95. An excellent Fumigation for Pains in the Eyes , and over-great driness of them , and when one fears the beginning of a Cataract . TAke of Fennel , Hysop , Betony , Celandine , Carduus , of each half a handful , or a handful ; of the Seeds of Linseed , Quinces , Fenugreek , Fleawort , of each half a dram , of French Barley one ounce ; Boil these in two quarts of fair water , and half a pint of White-wine : Let the Patient hold his Head over the Fumes for about a quarter of an hour every Morning . 96. For Sore Eye-lids . TAke Crums of White-bread half an ounce ; Coral , and Pearl prepared , Tutia , White-Sugar-candy , of each half a dram ; Pouder of Red Roses a dram and half ; Flowers of St. John's-wort one dram : and with a sufficient quantity of Milk make a Cataplasm or Pultice , which spread upon linen Cloth , and bind it over the Eye . 97. For Heaviness and Pain in the Eyes . TAke Flowers of Melilot , of Elder , and of Marigolds , of each a small handful ; Linseed , Seeds of Fenugreek , Fleawort , Cumin , and Quinces of each half a scruple ; French-Barley half an ounce ; Damask Roses half an ounce ; Spring-water a pint and half : mix and make a Decoction with which foment the Forehead , Temples and Eye-brows , being sufficiently warm . 98. For a Dry Inflamation . TAke of Betony , Hysop , Rue , Worm-wood , Vervain , as also of Sage-flowers and Rosemary-flowers , of each of all these , half a handful . ( To which may be usefully added Cummin-seeds , Fennel-seeds and Carduus-seeds , of each a quarter of an ounce . ) Boil these a little in two or three quarts of fair Water , and then let the Patient hold his Head for about a quarter of an hour over the Steam of this Decoction , making use of a Napkin , to keep the Smoke from dissipating , and direct it to his Eyes . A while after , he may put into them , if it be thought fit , a little clarify'd Honey . FINIS . Several necessary Notes , Explicating , Illustrating , or Enlarging some of the Heads in the Preceding Volume . Numb . ( 1. ) For the Bloody Flux , or other Fluxes . See Pag. 4. TAke Japan Earth , Pouder of Rhubarb , of each equal parts : of which give half a dram at a time every Morning fasting . Numb . ( 2. ) A good Medicine for the Dropsie . See p. 5. NOte , An Infusion of Mechoacan in White-wine , ( an Ounce and half thin-sliced to a pint ) being infused 24 hours , and drank off every Morning for some days , is a most admirable thing : and if a little Mustard-seed be infused in it , it will be so much the better . Numb . ( 3. ) A Medicine for Blood-shot , or inflamed Eyes . See p. 6. THere is no better a Remedy for inflamed Eyes , than to wash them every day several times with this . Take Frog-spawn-water , a pint ; Salt of Tartar , a dram : mix and dissolve , and wash therewith . Numb . ( 4. ) A good and innocent Dentrifice . See p. 7. BUt that which exceeds all , is a fine Pouder of Red Coral , with which you may rub them two or three times a day , and then wash them with Water in which Sal Prunellae is dissolved . Numb . ( 5. ) To prevent or cure an Ague . See p. 13. TAke gratings of Angelica Root , Flowers of Antimony , of each half a dram ; choice Canary three ounces : Infuse in a cold place for one or two days , and pour off the clear for two Doses : It is a singular good Vomit for the cure of Agues of all sorts , being given in the Morning fasting 4 or 6 hours before the coming of the Fit ; and if it be not a Quotidian Ague , then on the intermitting day . Numb . ( 6. ) An useful Drink for the Kings-Evil . See p. 24. THere is no better thing in the World for the Kings-Evil than to give daily some spoonfuls of this following Liquor . Take White-wine a quart , Juice of Pellitory of the Wall a pint , Spirit of Wine half a pint , Sal Prunellae an ounce : mix and dissolve ; then pour off the clear , and sweeten with white Sugar : Dose 6 spoonfuls Morning and Night . Numb . ( 7. ) An Experienc'd Remedy to expel Gravel , and provoke Vrin . See p. 25. TAke the Juice of Onions two spoonfuls ; White-wine half a pint or more : mix them , for a draught it gives present ease ; and if repeated for some time , in a short season cures . Numb . ( 8. ) An easie Medicine for Costiveness . See p. 35. A Turpentine Clyster thus made is admirable , to cause Stools in a very great Costiveness . Take Strasburgh Turpentine an ounce , Yolk of one or two Eggs , grind them well together ; then put thereto a pint of fat Mutton Broth , and exhibit it Blood-warm . Numb . ( 9. ) A Remedy for Gripes and Fluxes . See p. 37. A Most excellent Remedy for Gripings , is a Tincture of Corn Poppy-flowers made with common Spirit of Wine : of this you may give from a spoonful to two spoonfuls , in Spirit of Opium half an ounce , mixt with Black-cherry water four ounces : This gives ease upon the spot . Numb . ( 10. ) A Medicine for Redness of the Eyes . See p. 38. IF the redness be with a fierce hot Rheum , it is from weakness of the Eyes ; and then the only Remedy is to wash them twice or thrice a day with Brandy : there is no danger in it , nor will it smart much . Numb . ( 11. ) An effectual Medicine for a Strain . See p. 41. TAke Comfrey-Roots beaten to a pulp , half a pound , Pouder of Japan Earth four ounces , Spirit of Wine a sufficient quantity ; mix , and apply it to the part . Numb . ( 12. ) For most Astmatic Distempers . See p. 43. TAke Juice of Hyssop , choice Honey , of each two pound : mix , boil , scum , and make a Syrup ; of which , let the Sick take four spoonfuls or more , Morning , Noon , and Night . Numb . ( 13. ) An external Medicine for an Erysipelas . See p. 47. THe Blood of almost any living Creature is found by many Experiments to be a Specifick against an Erysipelas , being often anointed on the affect , or Cloths dip'd in the some , being laid moist thereon . Numb . ( 14. ) A Remedy for the Whites in Women . See p. 48. THe best of Remedies in this case ( after due purging ) is to give two , three or four grains of Laudanum , and to inject three , four , or six times a day this water . Take Spring-water two quarts , white Vitriol , Roch Allum , of each two ounces : being in Pouder , mix and dissolve , let it settle , and use only the clear . Numb . ( 15. ) A try'd Remedy for Corns . See p. 54. TAke Ammoniacum strained , Emplastrum Diapalma , of each an ounce ; Arcanum Coralinum half an ounce ; white Precipitate two drams : mix them them well together , and apply it only over the Corn , being first cut as close as it conveniently can be . Numb . ( 16. ) A Medicine for Burns and stenching of Blood. See p. 55. BUt for stenching of Blood , there are but few Medicines which exceed the Colcothar of Vitriol , whether wash'd and free'd from its Salt , or not wash'd : 't is but a common thing , but will do more than a thousand much more enobled . Numb . ( 17. ) For a slight Redness of the Eyes . See p. 58. ONe of the best of Remedies against Redness and Inflammation of the Eyes , is often to wash them with this Water : Take Frog-spawn-Water a pint , Common Spirit of Wine four ounces ; mix them : wash herewith five or six times a day ; and at Bed-time apply over the sore Eyes a Cataplasm of a rotten Apple . Numb . ( 18. ) For the Relaxation of the Vvula . See p. 59. THis common Medicine is found very successful : The Throat being first gargled with Claret-wine , in which a little Roch Allum has been dissolved , as hot as it can well be endured ; then anoint it with this . Take Honey one ounce , Pouder of Elecampane two drams , Pepper in Pouder half a dram : mix them , and apply it thrice a day with your Finger . Numb . ( 19. ) A famous Eye-Water . See p. 61. TAke Red Rose-water a quart ; Aloes in fine Pouder , half an ounce ; white Vitriol , Vitrum Antimonii , Crocus Metalorum , of each six drams ; mix and digest warm a Month : then use the clear water three or four times a day , it has scarcely any equal . Numb . ( 20. ) A Medicine to prevent Running of the Eyes . See p. 63. TAke White-wine half a pint , dissolve in it white Vitriol two drams ; filter or strain , and therein dissolve choice Honey two ounces : with this fill the Eyes two or three times a-day ; it is good against most Distempers of the Eyes . Numb . ( 21. ) A Medicine for the Stone . See p. 64. TAke Strasburgh Turpentine two ounces , grind it well with Yolks of Eggs , and then mix therewith this following Syrup . Take water a pint and half , Sal Prunellae an ounce and half : mix and dissolve , and with Honey a pound , boil it into a Syrup , which add to the former mixture . Dose two or three spoonfuls Morning and Night . Numb . ( 22. ) A Medicine for Scorbutick Gums , and to fasten the Teeth . See p. 68. THere is nothing fastens the Teeth better than to wash them with this mixture . Take Claret-wine a pint , Roch Allum half an ounce ; mix and dissolve , and then add thereto six ounces of a strong Tincture of Japan Earth , made with common Brandy . Numb . ( 23. ) For a Stroke or Bruise in the Eye . See p. 70. TAke Celandine-water three ounces , Spirit of Saffron one ounce , mix them , with which wash the Eyes several times aday ; and if the Eyes be very sore , red , or blood-shot , after washing anoint them every time with a little pure Virgin Honey . Numb . ( 24. ) An excellent Remedy to take off Films from the Eyes . TAke Pouder of Coral levigated one ounce , Pouder of Pearls levigated three drams , Crabs-Eyes levigated one dram , Virgin Honey two ounces ; mix them , and anoint four or five times a day , but chiefly Morning and Night . Numb . ( 25. ) A Remedy for the Kings-Evil . TAke Roots of Pilewort a sufficient quantity , bruise them , and boil them in Hog's Lard till they are Crisp , after which press them hard out ; and boil in like manner as many more fresh Roots , and press out again , doing it the third time : then keep the Ointment for use to anoint with , Morning and Night . Numb . ( 26. ) A Remedy for the Stone . GIve every Morning fasting , and every Night going to Bed , half a dram of the Pouder of Winter Cherries in a draught Parsly or Arsmart-water , or in Glass of White-wine . FINIS . 
A28945	----	The Christian virtuoso shewing that by being addicted to experimental philosophy, a man is rather assisted than indisposed to be a good Christian / by T.H.R.B., Fellow of the Royal Society ; to which are subjoyn'd, I. a discourse about the distinction that represents some things as above reason, but not contrary to reason, II. the first chapters of a discourse entituled, Greatness of mind promoted by Christianity, by the same author. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1690 Approx. 239 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 120 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2008-09 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A28945 Wing B3931 ESTC R19536 12258621 ocm 12258621 57680 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A28945) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 57680) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 172:8) The Christian virtuoso shewing that by being addicted to experimental philosophy, a man is rather assisted than indisposed to be a good Christian / by T.H.R.B., Fellow of the Royal Society ; to which are subjoyn'd, I. a discourse about the distinction that represents some things as above reason, but not contrary to reason, II. the first chapters of a discourse entituled, Greatness of mind promoted by Christianity, by the same author. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. Reflections upon a theological distinction. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. Greatness of mind promoted by Christianity. [20], 120, [4], 35, [2], 57 p. Printed by Edw. Jones for John Taylor ... and John Wyat ..., In the Savoy : 1690. "Reflections upon a theological distinction" and "Greatness of mind promoted by Christianity" each has special t.p. First ed., 2nd issue. Cf. NUC pre-1956. The second part of The Christian virtuoso never published. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Philosophy and religion -- Early works to 1800. Faith and reason -- Early works to 1800. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-05 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2007-03 Robyn Anspach Sampled and proofread 2007-03 Robyn Anspach Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE Christian Virtuoso : IN TWO PARTS . TOME I. THE Christian Virtuoso : SHEWING , That by being addicted to Experimental Philosophy , a Man is rather Assisted , than Indisposed , to be a Good Christian . The First Part. By T. H. R. B. Fellow of the ROYAL SOCIETY . To which are Subjoyn'd , I. A Discourse about the Distinction , that represents some Things as Above Reason , but not Contrary to Reason . II. The first Chapters of a Discourse , Entituled , Greatness of Mind promoted by Christianity . By the same AVTHOR . In the SAVOY : Printed by Edw. Jones , for John Taylor at the Ship , and John Wyat at the Golden-Lion , in St. Paul's Church-yard , 1690. THE PREFACE . WHEN , many Years ago , I was induced to write something about the Subject of the following Treatise ; I did it , partly to give some Satisfaction to a Friend , and partly to impose upon myself an Obligation , to consider the more attentively upon what Grounds it may be asserted , That there is no Inconsistence between a Man's being an Industrious Virtuoso , and a Good Christian . How little fond I was of troubling the Publick with a Discourse of this Nature , may be guessed by my having thrown it aside , among other neglected Papers , for several Years . And it had still continued in that Obscurity , if the , formerly unprevalent , Desires of those that would have it appear in Publick , had not been enforced by an Observation or two , that I could not but make . For I could scarce avoid taking notice of the great and deplorable Growth of Irreligion , especially among those that aspired to pass for Wits , and several of them too for Philosophers . And on the other side , it was Obvious , that divers Learned Men , as well as Others , partly upon the Score of their Abhorrence of these Infidels and Libertines , and partly upon that of a well-meaning , but ill-informed , Zeal , had brought many Good Men to think , that Religion and Philosophy were incompatible ; both Parties contributing to the Vulgar Error , but with this difference , That the Libertines thought a Virtuoso ought not to be a Christian ; and the Others , That he could not be a true One. 'T is like , it may seem to some Readers , that I have too much enlarged the Notion of Experience , and too much insisted on the Proofs deducible from that Topick : But 't is not improbable , that others may approve the Reasons , with which that ample Notion of Experience is , where it is proposed , accompanied . And the Ingenious Person , I was chiefly to please , being a great Lover and Valuer of Experience , and of Arguments grounded on it , the Desire of gratifying Him enticed me to say so much , that when I took up the Thoughts of making this Treatise publick , I found the Effects of my Complaisance so interwoven with the other Parts of the Discourse , that I could not make any Great Alteration , ( for some I did make ) without almost spoiling the Contexture of it . I hope the Equitable Reader will not expect to find every Subject , of which I have occasion to discourse , fully Treated of : For I neither designed nor pretended to write a Body of Natural Theology , nor a Demonstration of the Christian Religion ; but thought it sufficient for me , to consider the Points I wrote of , as far forth as was Necessary , or very Conducive , to my Purpose . And therefore I thought myself , not only Warranted , but Obliged , ( in point of Discretion ) to decline the mention of several Arguments and Reflections , that would indeed have been very Proper , if my Design had been , to shew , why One should be a Christian ; but Impertinent , to shew , that a Virtuoso , while such , may be a true Christian . But , as for this Reason , I omitted many Things , that would have Enrich'd or Adorn'd my Discourse ; so I have endeavoured to make some Amends , both by suggesting some new Subjects , and by adding on those that have been already Treated of by others , divers Thoughts , into which I was led by the Attentive Consideration of the Subject itself ; on which score , they may probably not have yet occurr'd to the Reader , and may appear to him , either to be new , as to the Substance ; or , if any of them be coincident with the more known Ones , to have something of peculiar , as to the way of Propounding , or of Applying , them . And , I confess , I was somewhat Encouraged to communicate my Thoughts on these Subjects , by considering , that ( thô is ought not to be so , yet ) 't is Notorious , that in the Age we live in , there are too many Persons that are like to be found more indisposed to be Impress'd on by Arguments , in favour of Religion , from profess'd Divines , how worthy soever , than from such as I , who am a Lay-man , and have been look'd upon as no undiligent Cultivator of Experimental Philosophy . And that the Style might not be unsuitable to the Writer , and the Design ; I thought fit , in my Arguments and Illustrations , both to employ Comparisons drawn from Telescopes , Microscopes , &c. and to make frequent use of Notions , Hypotheses , and Observations , in request among those , that are called The New philosophers . Which I the rather did ; because some Experience has taught me , that such a Way of proposing and elucidating Things , is , either as most clear , or , upon the account of its Novelty , wont to be more acceptable , than any Other , to our Modern Virtuosi ; whom thus to Gratify , is a good Step towards the Persuading of them . For 't is easie to observe , that some Men are more accessible to Truth , and will be more prevailed upon by it , when it is presented to them in One Dress , than when it appears in Another : As we daily see , that some Persons will be more easily prevailed with to take a Medicine , and that it will have a more kindly Operation upon them , if it be exhibited in that Form and Consistence , that is best lik'd by the Patients ; whereof some love to have the Ingredients , the Medicine is to consist of , offer'd them in a Liquid , others in a Soft , and others in a Dry , Form. Though I am wont , as well as inclinable to spare the present Age ; and though my Censures of some reputed Virtuosi that live in it , are written with as harmless and friendly Designs , as was the seeming Rudeness of the Angel to St. Peter , when he struck him on the Side , and hastily rouzed him , but to awake him , to take off his Chains , and to free him from the Dangers that threatned him ; yet I shall be more troubled than surprized , if I shall find the following Treatise disliked by divers Persons , that would pass for Virtuosi , and by some that really are so . For some Men , that have but superficial , thô conspicuous , Wits , are not fitted to penetrate such Truths , as require a lasting and attentive Speculation ; and divers , that want not Abilities , are so taken up by their Secular Affairs , and their Sensual Pleasures , that they neither have Disposition , nor will have Leisure , to discover those Truths , that require both an Attentive and Penetrating Mind . And more than of either of these sorts of Men there are , whom their Prejudices do so forestal , or their Interest byas , or their Appetites blind , or their Passions discompose , too much , to allow them a clear Discernment , and right Judgment , of Divine Things . Upon which , and other accounts , I shall not think it strange , if what I write shall make no great Impression on Readers thus Qualified , whom to Convert , 't is not enough to Convince them : Nor shall I be greatly discouraged , or think much the worse of my Arguments , if they do not make Proselytes of those , whom Sinister Considerations make such Resolved Adversaries to the Truth , that He alone , that can Preach from Heaven , is able to prevail upon them ; and they must be Converted , almost as Saul the Persecutor was , by an extraordinary Light from Heaven , and a Power able to strike them to the Ground . But though I am not so little acquainted with the present Age , as to expect to plead for Religion with the Approbation of Atheists , or of Libertines , yet I shall not think my Pains altogether mispent , if what I have written , either Startle any Irreligious Reader so far , as to Engage him to consult abler Assertors of Christianity and Virtue , than I pretend to be ; or else prove so happy , as to Confirm and Strengthen , by new Arguments and Motives , those that have heartily embraced the Christian Faith and Morals , though perhaps not upon the firmest Grounds . For it will be no small Satisfaction to me , if , though I cannot Convert the resclvedly Irreligious , I shall at least furnish those that are not so , with Preservatives against them , and hinder their Impiety from being Contagious . But I fear , that those that are Enemies , both to the Doctrines I propose , and to the Aims I persue , will not be the only Persons that will find fault with the following Tract ; since , perhaps , there will not be wanting some Ingenious Men , that expected , as well as desired , that I should never write but as a Naturalist , because they themselves esteem nothing , save the Laws and Phoenomena of Nature , to be Subjects worthy of a Philosophical Pen : As if , because Rational Spirits are Invisible and Immaterial . Beings , all Disquisitions about them must be airy and uncertain Speculations , and , like their Objects , devoid of Solidity and Usefulness . But though among these Ingenious Men there are several , whose Expectations from me I am much more disposed to Gratify , than Disappoint ; yet , on such an occasion as this , I must take the liberty to own , That I do not think the Corporeal World , nor the Present State of Things , the Only or the Principal Subjects , that an Inquisitive Man's Pen may be worthily employed about ; and , That there are some Things that are grounded , neither upon Mechanical , nor upon Chymical , Notices or Experiments , that are yet far from deserving to be Neglected , and much less to be Despised , or so much as to be left Uncultivated , especially by such Writers , as being more concerned to act as Christians , than as Virtuosi , must also think , that sometimes they may usefully busy themselves about the Study of Divine Things , as well as at other times employ their Thoughts about the Inspection of Natural Ones . There are some Objects , whose Nobleness is such , that , though we derive no Advantage from them , but the Contentment of knowing them , and that but very imperfectly too ; yet our Virtuosi themselves justly think much Pains and Time , and , perhaps , Cost too , well spent in endeavouring to acquire some Conjectural Knowledge of them : As may be instanced in the Assiduous and Industrious Researches they have made about the remote Coelestial part of the World , especially the Stars and Comets that our Age has exposed to their Curiosity . For most of these , though they require chargeable Telescopes , and tedious , as well as unhealthy , Nocturnal Observations , are Objects , of which we can know very little with any Certainty ; and which , for ought appears , we can make no useful Experiments with . Since therefore we so much prize a little Knowledge , of Things that are not only Corporeal , but Inanimate ; methinks we should not undervalue the Studies of those Men , that aspire to the Knowledge of Incorporeal and Rational Beings , which are incomparably more Noble , than all the Stars in the World , which are , as far as we know , but Masses of Senseless and Stupid Matter . Since also the Virtuosi deservedly Applaud and Cherish the laborious Industry of Anatomists , in their Enquiries into the Structure of dead , ghastly , and oftentimes unhealthfully as well as offensively Foetid , Bodies : Can it be an Employment improper for a Christian Virtuoso , or unworthy of him , to endeavour the Discovery of the Nature and Faculties of the Rational Mind ; which is That , that Enobles its Mansion , and gives Man the Advantage he has of the Beasts that Perish ? I am content , that merely Natural Philosophy should often Employ my Thoughts , and my Pen ; but I cannot consent it should Engross them , and hinder me from being Conversant with Theological Subjects . And since , among my Friends , I have some , ( and those not Inconsiderable for their Number , and much less for their Merit , ) that press me to Treat of Religious Matters , as well as Others , that would have me addict myself to Cultivate Physical Ones ; I , who think myself a Debtor to Both these sorts , am willing to endeavour to Gratify Both ; and having already , on many Occasions , presented the later sort with large , as well as publick , Effects of my Complaisance for them , I hope , they will not think it strange , that I should now and then have Regard to the former sort , too ; especially , since I had higher Motives , than Complaisance ought to be , to induce me to Treat sometimes of Things that might be grateful to those Friends , that are much so to Religious Composures . I presume , it will be taken notice of , that , in the following Treatise , as well as in divers of my other Writings , especially about Subjects that are purely , or partly , Philosophical ; I make frequent use of Similitudes , or Comparisons : And therefore I think myself here obliged to acknowledge , once for all , that I did it purposely . And my Reasons for this Practise , were , not only because fit Comparisons are wont to delight most Readers , and to make the Notions , they convey , better kept in Memory ; whence the best Orators and Preachers have made great and successful use of Metaphors , Allegories , and other Resemblances ; but I was induced to employ them chiefly for two other Reasons : 1. That though I freely confess , that Arbitrary Similitudes , and likewise Those that are Foreign to the Subject treated of , such as are most of the Vulgar Ones , that are usually borrowed from the Fictions of the Poets , and from the uncertain , and often ill-applied , Relations of Pliny , Aelian , and other too frequently Fabulous Writers , are scarce fit to be made use of but to Vulgar Readers , or Popular Auditories ; yet Comparisons fitly chosen , and well applied , may , on many occasions , usefully serve to illustrate the Notions for whose sake they are brought , and , by placing them in a true Light , help Men to conceive them far better , than otherwise they would do . And , 2. Apposite Comparisons do not only give Light , but Strength , to the Passages they belong to , since they are not always bare Pictures and Resemblances , but a kind of Arguments ; being oftentimes , if I may so call them , Analogous Instances , which do declare the Nature , or Way of Operating , of the Thing they relate to , and by that means do in a sort prove , that , as 't is possible , so it is not improbable , that the Thing may be such as 't is represented : And therefore , not only the Illustrious Verulam , though not more a Florid , than a Iudicious , Writer , has , much to the satisfaction of his Readers , frequently made use of Comparisons , in whose Choice , and Application , he was very happy ; but that severe Philosopher Monsieur Des Cartes himself somewhere says , that he scarce thought , that he understood any thing in Physiques , but what he could declare by some apt Similitude ; of which , in effect , he has many in his Writings ; [ As , where he compares the Particles of fresh Water , to little Eels ; and the Corpuscles of Salt in the Sea-water , to little rigid Staves ; and where , after the Stoicks , he compares the Sense of Objects by the intervention of Light , to the Sense that a blind Man hath of Stones , Mud , &c. by the intervention of his Staff. ] To which I shall add , That proper Comparisons do the Imagination almost as much Service , as Microscopes do the Eye ; for , as this Instrument gives us a distinct view of divers minute Things , which our naked Eyes cannot well discern ; because these Glasses represent them far more large , than by the bare Eye we judge them ; so a skilfully chosen , and well-applied , Comparison much helps the Imagination , by illustrating Things scarce discernible , so as to represent them by Things much more familiar and easy to be apprehended . I confess , I might , on some Occasions , have spoken , not only more Positively , and Boldly ; but , as to many Learned Readers , more Acceptably , if I would have discoursed altogether like a Cartesian , or as a Partizan of some other Modern Sect of Philosophizers . But , besides that , I am not minded to give myself up to any Sect , I thought it convenient , that a Discourse , designed to work on Persons of differing Persuasions about Philosophical Matters , should not declare itself dogmatically , or unreservedly , of a Party , but employ rather the Dictates of Reason , or Principles either granted , or little contested , than proceed upon the peculiar Principles of a distinct Party of Philosophizers . If now and then I have insisted upon some particular Subjects , more than appears absolutely necessary , I did it , because that , though I wrote this Treatise chiefly for my Friends , yet I did not write it for them only ; but was willing to lay hold on some of the Occasions that the Series of my Discourse offered me , to excite in myself those Dispositions that I endeavoured to produce in others : And , by insisting upon some Reflections , impress them more deeply upon my own Mind ; especially when I was Treating of some Points , either so Important , or so Opposed , or Both , that they can scarce be too much inculcated . The Name of the Person , to whom the following Papers were address'd , not being necessary to be made Publick ; some Reasons made it thought convenient , that it should remain unmentioned . Postscript . TO give an Account of the Prolixity , that some might otherwise censure , of the foregoing PREFACE , I must Advertise the Reader , That 't is of an ancient Date , and that the First Part of the Treatise , that it belongs to , was already written , and 't was then designed , that the Second Part should accompany it to the Press : On which score 't was presumed , that , as the Particulars that make up the Preamble would not appear Superfluous , in regard of the Variety of Subjects to be Treated of ; So , its Length would scarce be found Disproportionate to the Bulk of the Whole designed Book . THE Christian Virtuoso : SHEWING , That by being addicted to Experimental Philosophy , a Man is rather assisted , than in disposed , to be a Good Christian . The First Part. SIR , I Perceive by what you intimate , that your Friends , Dr. W. and Mr. N. think it very strange , that I , whom they are pleas'd to look upon as a diligent Cultivater of Experimental Philosophy , should be a concern'd Embracer of the Christian Religion ; tho' divers of its Articles are so far from being Objects of Sense , that they are thought to be above the Sphere of Reason . But , tho' I presume they may find many Objects of the like wonder , among those with whom I am compriz'd by them , under the name of the New Virtuosi ; and among These , they may meet with divers persons more able than I , to ease them of their wonder ; yet , since they are pleas'd by singling me out , as it were to challenge me to do it , I shall endeavour to make them think it at least less strange , That a great Esteem of Experience , and a high Veneration for Religion , should be compatible in the same person . Wherefore I shall not deny , that I am now and then busied in devising , and putting in practice , Tryals of several sorts , and making Reflections upon them : And I own too , that ( about natural things ) I have a great Reverence for Experience , in comparison of Authority . But withal , I declare , that to embrace Christianity , I do not think I need to recede from the value and kindness I have for Experimental Philosophy , any thing near so far as your Friends seem to imagin . And I hope it will appear , that , If the Experimental way of Philosophising I am addicted to , have any things in it that indispose a man to assent to the Truth , and live according to the Laws , of the Christian Religion ; those few things are more than countervail'd by the peculiar Advantages , that it affords a Man of a well-dispos'd mind , towards the being a good Christian . I said , a man of a well-dispos'd mind ; that is , one , that is both docile , and inclin'd to make pious applications of the Truths he discovers ; because such a Qualification of Mind , I hope , God , through his Goodness , has vouchsaf'd me ; and the occasion given by your friends to the following Discourse , relating peculiarly to me , a personal account of my Opinions , and reasons of them , ought to suffice . And 't will be ex abundanti , ( as they speak , ) if my Discourse be found , as it often will be , to extend much farther . Which Reflection , I desire you would frequently have in your thoughts , to prevent mistaking the Design of the following Epistle . I doubt not , but the Popular Prejudices , that I perceive your two Friends , among many other more devout than well-inform'd Persons , have entertain'd , will make them think , that what I have now deliver'd needs good proof , and perhaps better than it is capable of . And therefore I hope you will easily allow me the liberty , I am going to take , of briefly premising some things , to clear the way for the principal Points , design'd to be discours'd of in this Letter . I know you need not be told , that the Philosophy ▪ which is most in request among the modern Virtuosi , and which by some is call'd the New , by others the Corpuscularian , by others the Real , by others ( tho' not so properly ) the Atomical , and by others again the Cartesian , or the Mechanical , Philosophy ; is built upon two foundations , Reason and Experience . But it may not be impertinent to observe to you , that although the Peripatetick , and some other Philosophies , do also pretend to be grounded upon Reason and Experience ; yet there is a great difference betwixt the use that is made of these two Principles , by the School-Philosophers , and by the Virtuosi . For those , in the framing of their System , make but little use of Experience ; contenting themselves for the most part to employ but few and obvious Experiments , and vulgar Traditions , usually Uncertain , and oftentimes False ; and superstructing almost their whole Physicks upon Abstracted Reason ; by which , I mean , The rational Faculty endowed but with its own Congenit or Common Notions and Idea's , and with Popular Notices ; that is , such as are common among men , especially those that are any thing Learned . But now , the Virtuosi I speak of , and by whom , in this whole Discourse , I mean those , that Understand and Cultivate Experimental Philosophy , make a much greater and better use of Experience in their Philosophical Researches . For they consult Experience both frequently and heedfully ; and , not content with the Phaenomena that Nature spontaneously affords them , they are solicitous , when they find it needful , to enlarge their Experience by Tryals purposely devis'd ; and ever and anon Reflecting upon it , they are careful to Conform their Opinions to it ; or , if there be just cause , Reform their Opinions by it . So that our Virtuosi have a peculiar Right to the distinguishing Title that is often given them , of Experimental Philosophers . I can scarce doubt , but your Friends have more than once oblig'd you to take notice , of the Prophane Discourses and Licentious Lives of some Virt●…osi , that boast much of the Principles of the New Philosophy . And I deny not , but that , if the knowledge of Nature falls into the hands of a Resolved Atheist , or a Sensual Libertine , he may misemploy it to Oppugn the Grounds , or Discredit the Practice , of Religion . But it will fare much otherwise , if a deep insight into Nature be acquir'd by a man of Probity and Ingenuity , or at least free from Prejudices and Vices , that may indispose him to entertain and improve those Truths of Philosophy , that would naturally lead him to Sentiments of Religion . For , if a Person thus qualify'd in his Morals , and thereby dispos'd to make use of the knowledge of the Creatures to confirm his Belief , and encrease his Veneration , of the Creator , ( and such a Person I here again advertise you , and desire you would not forget it , I suppose the Virtuoso this Paper is concern'd in , to be ) shall make a great progress in Real Philosophy ; I am perswaded , that Nature will be found very Loyal to her Author , and in stead of Alienating his Mind from making religious Acknowledgments , will furnish him with weighty and uncommon Motives , to conclude such Sentiments to be highly rational and just . On which occasion , I must not pretermit that judicious Observation of one of the first and greatest Experimental Philosophers of our Age , ( Sir Francis Bacon ) That God never wrought a Miracle to convince Atheists ; because in his Visible Works he had plac'd enough to do it , if they were not wanting to themselves . The Reason he gives for which Remark , I shall confirm , by observing , that 't is intimated in a passage of St. Paul , asserting both that the invisible things of God are clearly seen from the Creation of the World , as Tokens and Effects , ( as I remember the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek doth elsewhere signify , ) and that his Divinity and Eternal Power may be so well understood by the things that are made , that the Gentiles , who had but the Light of Nature to lead them to the acknowledgment of the true God , were Excuseless , for not being brought by that Guide to that Acknowledgment . And indeed , the Experimental Philosophy giving us a more clear discovery , than Strangers to it have , of the divine Excellencies display'd in the Fabrick and Conduct of the Universe , and of the Creatures it consists of , very much indisposeth the mind , to ascribe such admirable Effects to so incompetent and pitiful a Cause as Blind Chance , or the tumultuous Justlings of Atomical Portions of senseless Matter ; and leads it directly to the acknowledgment and adoration of a most Intelligent , Powerful and Benign Author of things , to whom alone such excellent Productions may , with the greatest Congruity , be ascrib'd . And therefore , if any of the Cultivaters of Real Philosophy pervert it to countenance Atheism , 't is certainly the fault of the Persons , not the Doctrine ; which is to be judg'd of by it's own natural Tendency , not by the ill Use that some bad Men may make of it ; especially if the prevaricating Persons are but pretenders to the Philosophy they misemploy ; which Character will perhaps be found to belong to most , if not all , the Atheistical and Prophane Men , the Objection means . For most of these do as little understand the Mysteries of Nature , as believe those of Christianity ; and of divers of them it may be truly said , that their Sensuality , and Lusts , and Passions , darken'd and seduc'd their Intellects : Their Immorality was the Original Cause of their Infidelity ; nor were they led by Philosophy to Irreligion , but got and perverted some smattering of Philosophy , to countenance the Irreligious Principles , they brought with them to the Study of it . But all this notwithstanding , I fear , if not foresee , that you will surmise , that the study of Natural Philosophy , how innocent soever it may be in it self , will , in this Libertine City , engage me to converse with many , who , tho' they pass for Virtuosi , are indeed Atheists ; whose contagious Company must Endanger , if not Infect , me . This obliges me to tell you , that tho' I have no reason to take it at all unkindly , that you are jealous of me on the score of being Solicitous for my Safety ; yet I hope my Danger is not so great as you may apprehend it . For First , I must own to you , that I do not think there are so many Speculative Atheists , as Men are wont to imagin . And tho' my Conversation has been pretty free and general among Naturalists , yet I have met with so few true Atheists , that I am very apt to think , that Men's want of due Information , or their uncharitable Zeal , has made them mistake or misrepresent many for Denyers of God , that are thought such , chiefly because they take uncommon Methods in studying his Works , and have other Sentiments of them , than those of vulgar Philosophers . And in the next place I must tell you , that having , through the goodness of God , chosen my Religion , not Inconsiderately , but upon mature Deliberation ; I do not find those Virtuosi , you call Atheists , such formidable Adversaries , as those that are afraid to hear them , do , by that Apprehension , appear to think them . And indeed , I have observ'd the Physical Arguments of the Atheists to be but very few , and those far enough from being Unanswerable . And as for the very chief of them , tho' they are wont to puzzle such as are not vers'd in nice Speculations , because they represent the assertion of a Deity , as a Doctrine encumber'd with inextricable Difficulties ; yet I do not think the Objections solidly grounded , since the same Difficulties , or others not inferior , may be urg'd against those Hypotheses and Principles , that the Deniers of God do or must admit . And indeed , most of the perplexing Difficulties the Atheists lay so much stress on , do not proceed from any Absurdity contained in the Tenent of the Theists , but from the Nature of things ; that is , partly from the Dimness and other Imperfections of our Human Understandings , and partly from the Abstruse Nature , that , to such Bounded Intellects , all Objects must appear to have , in whose Conception Infinity is involv'd ; whether that Object be God , or Atoms , or Duration , or some other thing that is uncausable . For , however we may flatter our selves , I fear we shall find , upon strict and impartial Tryal , that finite Understandings are not able clearly to resolve such Difficulties , as exact a clear comprehension of what is really Infinite . But to persue this Discourse , would lead us too far . And 't is more fit , after so much has been said concerning not only the Design of this Tract , but the New Philosophy , the Virtuosi , and my self ; to proceed to those more Particular things , that directly tend to the main Scope of our Epistle . The first advantage , that our Experimental Philosopher , as such , hath towards being a Christian , is ▪ that his course of Studies conduceth much , to settle in his Mind a firm Belief of the Existence , and divers of the chief ▪ Attributes , of God : Which Belief , is , in the order of things , the first Principle of that Natural Religion , which it self is pre-required to Reveal'd Religion in general , and consequently to That in particular , which is embrac'd by Christians . That the consideration of the Vastness , Beauty , and Regular Motions , of the heavenly Bodies ; the excellent Structure of Animals and Plants ; besides a multitude of other Phaenomena of Nature , and the Subserviency of most of these to Man ; may justly induce him , as a Rational Creature , to Conclude , That this vast , beautiful , orderly , and ( in a word ) many ways admirable System of things , that we call the World , was fram'd by an Author supremely Powerful , Wise , and Good , can scarce be deny'd by an intelligent and unprejudic'd Considerer . And this is strongly confirm'd by Experience , which witnesseth , that in almost all Ages and Countries , the generality of Philosophers , and contemplative Men , were persuaded of the Existence of a Deity , by the consideration of the Phaenomena of the Universe ; whose Fabrick and Conduct they rationally concluded could not be deservedly ascrib'd , either to blind Chance , or to any other Cause than a Divine Being . But , tho' it be true , that God hath not left himself without witness , even to perfunctory Considerers ; by stamping upon divers of the more Obvious Parts of his Workmanship , such conspicuous Impressions of his Attributes , that a moderate degree of Understanding , and Attention , may suffice to make Men acknowledg his Being ; Yet , I scruple not to think , That Assent very much inferior to the Belief , that the same Objects are fitted to produce in an Heedful and Intelligent Contemplator of them : For the Works of God are so worthy of their Author , that , besides the Impresses of his Wisdom , and Goodness , that are left as it were upon their Surfaces ; there are a great many more curious and excellent Tokens , and Effects , of Divine Artifice , in the hidden and innermost Recesses of them ; and these are not to be discovered by the perfunctory looks of Oscitant or Unskilful Beholders ; but Require , as well , as Deserve , the most attentive and prying Inspection of inquisitive and well-instructed Considerers . And sometimes in one Creature , there may be I know not how many admirable things , that escape a vulgar Eye , and yet may be clearly discern'd by That of a true Naturalist ; who brings with him , besides a more than common Curiosity and Attention , a competent knowledge of Anatomy , Opticks , Cosmography , Mechanicks , and Chymistry . But treating elsewhere purposely of this Subject , it may here suffice to say , that God has couch'd so many things in his Visible Works , that the clearer Light a Man has , the more he may discover of their Unobvious Exquisiteness , and the more clearly and distinctly he may discern those Qualities that lye more Obvious . And the more wonderful things he discovers in the Works of Nature , the more auxiliary Proofs he meets with to establish and enforce the Argument , drawn from the Universe and its Parts , to evince That there is a God : Which is a Proposition of that vast weight and importance , that it ought to endear every thing to us , that is able to Confirm it , and Afford us new Motives to acknowledge and adore the Divine Author of things . In reference to this matter , we may confidently say , that the Experimental Philosophy has a great advantage of the Scholastick . For in the Peripatetick Schools , where things are wont to be ascrib'd to certain Substantial Forms , and Real Qualities ; ( the former of which are acknowledg'd to be very abstruse and mysterious things , and the later are many of them confessedly occult ; ) the accounts of Natures Works may be easily given in a few words , that are general enough to be applicable to almost all Occasions . But these uninstructive Terms do neither oblige , nor conduct , a man to deeper searches into the Structure of Things , nor the manner of being Produc'd , and of Operating upon one another . And consequently , are very insufficient to disclose the exquisite Wisdom , which the Omniscient Maker has express'd in the peculiar Fabricks of Bodies , and the skilfully regulated Motions of them , or of their constituent Parts : From the discernment of which things , nevertheless , it is , that there is , by way of result , produc'd in the mind of an Intelligent Contemplator , a strong Conviction of the Being of a Divine Opificer , and a just acknowledgment of his admirable Wisdom . To be told , that an Eye is the Organ of Sight , and that this is perform'd by that Faculty of the Mind , which from its Function is call'd Visive ; will give a Man but a sorry account of the Instruments and Manner of Vision it self , or of the Knowledge of that Opificer , who , as the Scripture speaks , form'd the Eye . And he that can take up with this easy Theory of Vision , will not think it necessary to take the pains to dissect the Eyes of Animals , nor study the Books of Mathematicians , to understand Vision ; and accordingly , will have but mean thoughts of the Contrivance of the Organ , and the Skill of the Artificer , in comparison of the Idea's that will be suggested of both of them , to him that , being profoundly skill'd in Anatomy and Opticks , by Their help takes asunder the several Coats , Humours , and Muscles , of which , that exquisite Dioptrical Instrument consists : And having separately consider'd the Figure , Size , Consistence , Texture , Diaphaneity , or Opacity , Situation , and Connexions , of each of them , and their Coaptation in the whole Eye , shall discover , by the help of the Laws of Opticks , how admirably this little Organ is fitted , to Receive the incident Beams of Light , and Dispose them in the best manner possible , for compleating the lively Representation of the almost infinitely various Objects of Sight . 'T is easie for Men to say in general Terms , that the World is wisely fram'd ; but I doubt it often happens , that Men confess , that the Creatures are wisely made , rather because upon other grounds they believe God to be a wise Agent , than because so slight an account as the School Philosophy gives of particular Creatures , convinces them of any Divine Wisdom in the Creator . And tho' I am willing to grant , that some Impressions of God's Wisdom are so conspicuous , that ( as I lately intimated ) even a Superficial Philosopher may thence infer , that the Author of such Works must be a wise Agent ; yet , how wise an Agent he has in those Works express'd himself to be , none but an Experimental Philosopher can well discern . And 't is not by a slight Survey , but by a diligent and skilful Scrutiny , of the Works of God , that a Man must be , by a Rational and Affective Conviction , engag'd to acknowledge with the Prophet , that the Author of Nature is Wonderful in Counsel , and Excellent in Working , Isa . xxviii . 29. II. After the Existence of the Deity , the next grand Principle of Natural Religion , is , the Immortality of the Rational Soul ; whose genuine consequence is , the Belief and Expectation of a Future and Everlasting State. For this important Truth , divers Arguments may be alledg'd , that may persuade a sober and well-disposed Man to embrace it : But to convince a learned Adversary , the strongest Argument , that the Light of Nature supplies us with , seems to be that which is afforded by the Real Philosophy . For this teacheth us to form true and distinct Notions of the Body , and the Mind ; and thereby manifests so great a difference in their Essential Attributes , that the same thing cannot be both . This it makes out more distinctly , by enumerating several Faculties and Functions of the Rational Soul ; such as , To Understand , and that so , as to form Conceptions of Abstracted things , of Universals , of Immaterial Spirits , and even of that infinitely Perfect One , God himself : And also , to Conceive , and Demonstrate , that there are Incommensurable Lines , and Surd Numbers ; to make Ratiocinations , and both cogent and concatenated Inferences , about these things ; to express their intellectual Notions , pro re natâ , by words or Instituted Signs , to other Men ; to exercise Free-will about many things ; and to make Reflections on its own Acts , both of Intellect and Will. For these and the like Prerogatives , that are peculiar to the Human Mind , and superior to any thing that belongs to the Outward Senses , or to the Imagination it self , manifest , that the Rational Soul is a Being of an higher Order , than Corporeal ; and consequently , that the Seat of these Spiritual Faculties , and the Source of these Operations , is a Substance , that being in its own nature distinct from the Body , is not naturally subject to Dye or Perish with it . And in reference to this Truth , our Virtuoso hath an advantage of a mere School-Philosopher . For being acquainted with the true and real Causes of Putrefaction , and other Physical kinds of Corruption ; and thereby discerning , that the things that destroy Bodies , are the Avolation , or other Recess , of some necessary Parts , and such a depraving Transposition of the component Portions of Matter , as is altogether incongruous to the Structure and Mechanical Modification , that is essential to a Body of that Species , or kind , it belongs to : Our Naturalist , I say , knowing this , plainly perceives , that these causes of destruction can have no place in the Rational Soul ; which being an Immaterial Spirit , and consequently a Substance not really divisible , can have no Parts expell'd or transpos'd , and so being exempted from the Physical Causes of Corruption that destroy Bodies , she ought to last always . And being a Rational Creature , endow'd with internal Principles of Acting , as appears in Free-will , she ought to live for ever , unless it please God to annihilate her ; which we have no reason to suppose he will do . But on the other side , the Modern Peripateticks ( for I question whether Aristotle himself were of the same opinion ) maintain Substantial Forms , by some of them , styl'd Semi-substantiae , to which in Apes , Elephants , and others , that pass for ingenious Animals , they ascribe some such Faculties and Functions , as seem to differ but gradually from those of the Rational Soul ; and ( how innocent soever I grant their Intentions to be ) their Doctrine tends much to Enervate , if not quite to Disable , the chief Physical way of Probation , whence the Immortality of Man's Mind is justly inferr'd . For since according to the Peripateticks , substantial Forms , are , as they speak , educ'd out of the Power or Potentiality of the Matter ; and do so depend upon it , not only as to Action , but as to Being , that they cannot at all subsist without it : But when the particular Body ( as an Herb , a Stone , or a Bird , ) is destroy'd , they perish with it ; or , ( as some of them scarce intelligibly express the same thing ) fall back into the basom of the matter : I think they give great advantage to Atheists , and Cavillers , to impugn the Minds Immortality . For if to an Ape , or other Brute Animal , there belongs a Being more noble than Matter , that can actuate and inform it , and make it self the Architect of its own Mansion , tho' so admirable as that of an Ape , or an Elephant ; if this Being can in the Body it hath fram'd , perform all the Functions of a vegetable Soul ; and besides those , See , Hear , Tast , Smell , Imagin , Infer , Remember , Love , Hate , Fear , Hope , Expect , &c. and yet be a mortal thing , and perish with the Body : 'T will not be difficult for those Enemies of Religion , who are willing to think the Soul Mortal , because their brutish Lives make them wish she were , to fancy , that human Minds are but a somewhat more Noble , but not for that less Mortal , kind of Substantial Forms ; as amongst Sensitive Souls themselves , which they acknowledge to be equally Mortal , there is a great disparity in Degrees , that of a Monky , for instance , being very far superior to that of an Oyster . III. The third main Principle of Unreveal'd Religion , and consequently of Reveal'd , ( which presupposes Natural Religion , as it 's foundation ) is a Belief of the Divine Providence . And in this grand Article , as well as in the two foregoing , a Man may be much Confirm'd by Experimental Philosophy ; both as it affords him positive Inducements to acknowledge the Article , and as it shews the great Improbability of the two main Grounds , on one or other of which , ( for they are not well consistent ) is founded the denyal of God's Providence . A Virtuoso , that by manifold and curious Experiments searches deep into the Nature of things , has great and peculiar Advantages , to discover and observe the excellent Fabrick of the World , as 't is an immense Aggregate of the several Creatures that compose it ; and to take notice in its particular Parts , especially those that are Animated , of such exquisite Contrivances , and such admirable Coordinations , and Subordinations , in reference to each other , as lie hid from those Beholders that are not both Attentive and Skilful . When our Virtuoso contemplates the Vastness , scarce conceivable Swiftness , and yet constant Regularity , of the various Motions , of the Sun , Moon , and other Celestial Lights : When he considers how the Magnetism of the Earth makes its Poles constantly look the same way , notwithstanding the Motions of its fluid Vortex ; how by daily turning about its own Center in four and twenty hours , it receives as much Light , and benefit from the Sun , and all the glorious Constellations of the Firmament , as if they , with all the vast heavenly Region they belong to , mov'd about it in the same time ; how by its Situation among them , it enjoys the regular Vicissitudes of Day and Night , Summer and Winter , &c. how the several Parts of the Sublunary World are mutually subservient to one another , and most of them ( one way or other ) Serviceable to Man ; how excellently the Bodies of Animals are Contriv'd ; what various and congruous provision is made for differing Animals , that they may subsist as long as they should , according to the Institution of Nature , by furnishing them , according to their respective Natures , some with Strength to take their Food by force , others with Industry to procure it by Subtilty ; some with Arms , as Horns , Hoofs , Scales , Tusks , Poysons , Stings , &c. to Defend themselves , and Offend their Enemies ; some with Wings or swiftness to fly from Dangers ; some with Foresight to prevent them ; some with Craft , and perhaps strange Fetches of it , to Elude them ; how being distinguish'd into two Sexes , each of these is furnish'd with apposite Organs , for the propagation of the Species , and with skill and kindness to nourish and train up their young ones , till they can shift for themselves ; how admirable , and indeed astonishing , a process is gone through in the formation of the Foetus ▪ , especially of a Human one ; how divers Animals are endowed with strange Instincts , whose Effects sometimes seem much to surpass those of Reason it self ; tho' they are superadded to the Mechanical Structure of the Animal , and argue a respect to things very remote from it , either in time , place , or both , and perhaps also to the Grand Fabrick or System of the World , and the general Oeconomy of Nature . When , as I was saying , a Philosopher duly reflects on these things , and many others of the like import , he will think it highly rational to infer from them these three Conclusions . First , That a Machine so Immense , so Beautiful , so well contriv'd , and , in a word , so Admirable , as the World , cannot have been the effect of mere Chance , or the Tumultuous Justlings and Fortuitous Concourse of Atoms , but must have been produc'd by a Cause , exceedingly Powerful , Wise , and Beneficent . Secondly , That this most Potent Author , and ( if I may so speak ) Opificer of the World , hath not Abandon'd a Masterpiece so worthy of him , but does still Maintain and Preserve it ; so regulating the stupendiously swift Motions of the great Globes , and other vast Masses of the Mundane Matter , that they do not , by any notable Irregularity , disorder the grand System of the Universe , and reduce it to a kind of Chaos , or confus'd State of shuffl'd and deprav'd things . Thirdly , That as it is not above the Ability of the Divine Author of things , though a single Being , to Preserve and Govern all his Visible Works , how great and numerous soever ; so he thinks it not Below his Dignity and Majesty , to extend his Care and Beneficence to particular Bodies , and even to the meanest Creatures ; providing not only for the Nourishment , but for the Propagation , of Spiders and Ants themselves . And indeed , since the Truth of this Assertion , That God governs the World he has made , would appear ( if it did not by other Proofs ) by the Constancy , and Regularity , and astonishingly rapid Motions of the vast Coelestial Bodies , and by the long Trains of as Admirable , as Necessary , Artifices , that are employ'd to the Propagation of various sorts of Animals , ( whether Viviparous , or Oviparous ; ) I see not why it should be deny'd , that God's Providence may reach to his particular Works here below , especially to the noblest of them , Man ; since most of those Learned Men that deny this , as derogatory to God's Majesty and Happiness , acknowledge , that at the first Creation , or ( if they dislike that term ) Formation of things ; the great Author of them must not only have extended his Care , to the grand System of the Universe in general , but allow'd it to descend so low , as to contrive all the Minute , and various Parts , ( and even the most homely ones ) not only of Greater and ( reputedly ) more perfect Animals , as Elephants , Whales , and Men ; but such Small and Abject Ones , as Flies , Ants , Fleas , &c. Which being manifestly propagated by Eggs laid by the Female , cannot reasonably be thought the off-spring of Putrefaction . Whence I gather , as from matter of fact , that to be concern'd for the welfare , even of particular Animals ; as it is agreeable to God's All-pervading Wisdom , and exuberant Beneficence ; so ( whatever Men's Vanity may make them surmise ) it is not truly derogatory to his adorable Greatness and Majesty . And on this occasion , I shall add , that since Man is the noblest of God's visible Works ; since very many of them seem made for his Use ; since , even as an Animal , he is ( as the Psalmist truly speaks ) wonderfully made , and curiously , or artificially wrought ; and since God has both given him a Rational Mind , and endow'd it with an Intellect , whereby he can Contemplate the Works of Nature , and by them acquire a Conviction of the Existence , and divers Attributes , of their supremely perfect Author ; since God hath planted Notions and Principles in the Mind of Man , fit to make him sensible , that he ought to Adore God , as the most Perfect of Beings , the Supreme Lord and Governor of the World , the Author of his own Nature , and all his Enjoyments : Since all this , I say , is so , Natural Reason dictates to him , that he ought to express the Sentiments he has for this Divine Being , by Veneration of his Excellencies ; by Gratitude for his Benefits ; by Humiliation , in view of his Greatness , and Majesty ; by an Awe of his Justice ; by Reliance on his Power , and Goodness , when he duly endeavours to serve and please him ; and , in short , by those several Acts of Natural Religion , that Reason shews to be Suitable , and therefore Due to those several Divine Attributes of his , which it has led us to the knowledge of . And here I shall take leave to add , that , from the Cartesian Principles , ( which you know are embrac'd , by a great part of the Modern Virtuosi ) I think , I may draw a double Argument for Divine Providence . For first , according to the Cartesians , all Local Motion ( which is , under God , the grand Principle of all Actions among things Corporeal ) is Adventitious to Matter ; and was at first produc'd in it , and is still every moment Continu'd and Preserv'd immediately by God : Whence may be inferr'd , that he Concurs to the Actions of each particular Agent , ( as they are Physical ; ) and consequently , that his Providence reaches to all and every one of them . And secondly , the same Cartesians believe the Rational Soul to be an Immaterial Substance , really distinct and separable from the Body . Whence I infer , that the Divine Providence extends to every particular Man ; since when ever an Embryo , or little Human Body form'd in the Womb , is , by being duly Organiz'd , fitted to receive a Rational Mind , God is pleas'd to Create one , and Unite it with that Body . In which Transaction , there seems to me a necessity of a direct and particular intervention of the Divine Power ; since I understand not , by what Physical Charm or Spell an Immaterial ▪ Substance can be allur'd into this or that Particular Embryo , of many that are at the same time fitted to receive a Human Soul ; nor by what merely Mechanical Ty , or Band , an Immaterial Substance can be so durably ( perhaps for 80 or 100 Years ) joyn'd and united with a Corporeal , in which it finds no Parts , that it has Organs to take hold of , and to which it can furnish no Parts to be fasten'd upon by them . Nor do I better conceive , how a mere Body can produce Pain , Pleasure , &c. by its own mere Action , or rather Endeavour to act , on an Immaterial Spirit . Nor will the force of all that has been said for God's Special Providence , be eluded , by saying , with some Deists , that after the first formation of the Universe , all things are brought to pass by the Setled Laws of Nature . For tho' this be confidently , and not without colour , pretended ; yet , I confess , it does not satisfie me . For , beside the insuperable difficulty there is , to give an Account of the first formation of things , which many ( especially Aristotelian ) Deists will not ascribe to God ; and besides that the Laws of Motion ▪ without which the present State and Course of things could not be maintain'd , did not necessarily spring from the Nature of Matter , but depended upon the Will of the Divine Author of things : Besides this , I say , I look upon a Law , as a Moral , not a Physical , Cause , as being indeed but a Notional thing , according to which ▪ an intelligent and free Agent is bound to regulate its Actions . But inanimate Bodies are utterly incapable of Understanding what a Law is , or what it injoyns , or when they act conformably or unconformably to it ; and therefore the Actions of Inanimate Bodies , which cannot incite or moderate their own Actions , are produc'd by real Power , not by Laws ; tho' the Agents , if Intelligent , may Regulate the Exertions of their Power by settled Rules . IV. I have taken notice of two other Accounts , upon which the Experimental Knowledge of God's Works , may , in a well-dispos'd Mind , conduce to establish the Belief of his Providence ; and therefore , tho' I shall not dwell long upon them , I must not altogether pretermit them . First then , when our Virtuoso sees how many , and how various , and oftentimes how strange , and how admirable Structures , Instincts , and other Artifices , the wise Opificer hath furnish'd , even Brutes and Plants withal , to purchase and assimilate their Food , to defend or otherwise secure themselves from hostile things , and ( to be short ) to maintain their Lives , and propagate their Species ; it will very much conduce to persuade him , that so Wise an Agent , who has at Command so many differing and excellent Methods and Tools , to accomplish what he designs ; and does oftentimes actually employ them , for the preservation and welfare of Beasts , and even of Plants , can never want Means to compass his most wise and just Ends , in relation to Mankind ; being able , by ways that we should never dream of , to execute his Menaces , and fulfil his Promises . But of these rare Structures , Instincts , and other Methods , and , if I may so style some of them with Reverence , Stratagems and Fetches of Divine Skill , that God is pleas'd to employ in the conduct of the visible World , especially Animals , I have already elsewhere purposely discours'd , and therefore shall now proceed , and observe , in the second place , That , when we duly consider the very differing ends , to which many of God's particular Works , especially those that are Animated , seem design'd , in reference both to their own Welfare , and the Utility of Man ; and with how much Wisdom , and , I had almost said , Care , the glorious Creator has been pleas'd to supply them with means admirably fit for the attainment of these respective ends ; we cannot but think it highly probable , That so Wise , and so Benign a Being , has not left his noblest visible Creature , Man , unfurnish'd with means to procure his own Welfare , and obtain his true End , if he be not culpably wanting to himself . And since Man is endowed with Reason , which may convince him , ( of what neither a Plant , nor Brute Animal is capable of knowing , namely ) that God is both his Maker , and his continual Benefactor ; since his Reason likewise teacheth him , That upon both those accounts , besides others , God may justly expect and require Worship and Obedience from him ; since also the same Rational Faculty may persuade him , That it may well become the Majesty and Wisdom of God , as the Sovereign Rector of the World , t●… give a Law to Man , who is a Rational Creature , capable of Understanding and Obeying it , and thereby Glorifying the Author of it ; since , ( farthermore ) finding in his own Mind ( if it be not deprav'd by Vice , or Lusts ) a Principle that dict●●●●… to him , That he owes a Veneration , and other suitable Sentiments , to the Divinely Excellent Author of his Being , and his continual and munificent Benefactor ; since , on these scores , his Conscience will convince him of his Obligation to all the Essential Duties of natural Religion ; and since , lastly , his Reason may convince him , That his Soul is Immortal , and is therefore Capable , as well as Desirous , to be everlastingly Happy , after it has left the Body ; he must in reason be strongly inclin'd to wish for a Supernatural Discovery of what God would have him Believe and Do. And therefore if , being thus prepared , he shall be very credibly informed , That God hath actually been pleas'd to Discover , by Supernatural Revelation , ( what , by Reason , without it , he can either not at all , or but rovingly , guess at ) what kind of Worship and Obedience will be most acceptable to him ; and to encourage ▪ Man to both these , by explicite Promises of that Felicity , that Man , without them , can but faintly hope for , he would be ready then thankfully to acknowledge , That this way of proceeding beseems the transcendent Goodness of God , without derogating from his Majesty and Wisdom . And by these and the like Reflections , whereof some were formerly intimated , a Philosopher , that takes notice of the wonderful Providence , that God descends to exercise for the welfare of Inferiour and Irrational Creatures , will have an advantage above Men not vers'd in the works and course of Nature , to believe , upon the Historical and other Proofs that Christianity offers , That God has actually vouchsafed to Man , his noblest , and only rational visible Creature , an explicite and positive Law , enforc'd by Threatning severe Penalties to the Stubborn Transgressors ; and Promising , to the sincere Obeyers , Rewards suitable to his own Greatness and Goodness . And thus the Consideration of God's Providence , in the conduct of things corporeal , may prove , to a well dispos'd Contemplator , a Bridge , whereon he may pass from Natural to Reveal'd Religion . I have been the more particular and express , in what I have said about Divine Providence , because I did not find other Writers had made it needless for me to do so : And I dwelt the longer upon the Existence of the Deity , and the Immortality of the Soul , that I might let you see , That I did not speak Groundlesly or Rashly , but that I had consider'd what I said , when I asserted , That the Experimental Philosophy might afford a well dispos'd Mind considerable Helps to Natural Religion . I find my self therefore now at Liberty to proceed to farther Considerations , and represent to you , That V. Another thing , that disposes an Experimentarian Philosopher to embrace Religion , is , That his Genius and Course of Studies accustoms him to value and delight in abstracted Truths ; by which Term , I here mean such Truths , as do not at all , or do but very little , gratifie Mens Ambition , Sensuality , or other Inferiour Passions and Appetites . For , whereas the Generality of those that are averse from Religion are enclin'd to be so , upon This account , ( among Others ) That they have a Contempt or Undervaluation of all Truths , that do not gratifie their Passions or Interests ; He that is addicted to Knowledge Experimental , is accustom'd both to Persue , Esteem , and Relish many Truths , that do not delight his Senses , or gratifie his Passions , or his Interests , but only entertain his Understanding with that Manly and Spiritual Satisfaction , that is naturally afforded it by the attainment of Clear and Noble Truths , which are its genuine Objects and Delights . And tho' I grant , that the Discoveries made by the help of Physical or Mechanical Experiments , are not , for the most part , of Kin to Religion ; yet , besides that some of them do manifestly conduce to Establish or Illustrate Natural Theology , which is that , ( as , tho' noted already , deserves to be Inculcated ) which Reveal'd Religion , and consequently that of Christians , must be Founded on , or must Suppose : Besides this , I say , we may argue à fortiori , That he , that is accustomed to prize Truths of an Inferior kind , because they are Truths , will be much more dispos'd to value Divine Truths , which are of a much higher and nobler Order , and of an Inestimable and Eternal Advantage . VI. There is another thing , that is too pertinent to the main Scope of this Discourse to be here pretermitted : and it is , That both the Temper of Mind , that makes a Man most proper to be a Virtuoso , and the Way of Philosophising , he chiefly employ's , conduce much to give him a sufficient , and yet well grounded and duly limited , Docility ; which is a great Disposition to the Entertainment of Reveal'd Religion . In the Vulgar and Superficial Philosophy , wherein a Man is allowed to think , that he has done his part well enough , when he has ascrib'd things to a Substantial Form , or to Nature , or to some Real Quality , whether Manifest or Occult , without proving that there are such Causes , or intelligibly declaring , How they produce the Phaenomena , or Effects referr'd to them ; in this Philosophy , I say , 't is easie for a Man to have a great Opinion of his own Knowledge , and be puft up by it . But a Virtuoso , that cannot satisfie Himself , nor dares pretend to satisfie Others , till he can , by Hypotheses that may be understood and prov'd , declare intelligibly the manner of the Operation of the Causes he assigns , will often find it so Difficult a Task to do so , that he will easily discern , that he needs further Information , and therefore ought to seek for it where 't is the most likely to be had ; and not only to Admit , but Welcome it , if he finds it . Besides , the Litigious Philosophy of the Schools seldom furnishes its Disciples with better than Dialectical or Probable Arguments , which are not proper , either fully to satisfie the Person that employs them , or leave his Adversary without any Answer , Plausible at least , if not full as Probable as the Objection ; upon which account , men that have more Wit than sincere Love of Truth , will be able to dispute speciously enough , as long as they have a mind to do so . And as such slippery Arguments are not able to Convince even Him that employs them , if he be a Man of Judgment ; so , if he deals with a witty Adversary , they will leave him able to Elude any Arguments of the like nature , with which he shall be press'd . And in effect we see , That in the Aristotelian Philosophy there are divers Questions , such as , whether the Elements retain their distinct Nature in a mixt Body ? whether the Caelestial Orbs are mov'd by Intelligences ? to omit many others , which are as it were stated Questions ; and as they have been disputed from age to age , are like to continue Questions for many more , if that Philosophy shall last so long . But a Virtuoso , that is wont in his Reasonings to attend to the Principles of Mathematicks , and sound Philosophy , and to the clear Testimonies of Sense , or well verifi'd Experiments , acquires a Habit of discerning the Cogency of an Argument , or way of Probation ; and easily discerns , That Dialectical Subtilties , and School Tricks , cannot shift off its force , but finds more Satisfaction in Embracing a Demonstrated Truth , than in the vain Glory of Disputing subtilly against it . VII . Another thing that may dispose a studious Searcher of Truth , ( not by Speculations only , but ) by Experiments , for Theology , is , that his Inquisitiveness , and Course of Studies , makes him both Willing and Fit to search out and discover Deep and Vnobvious Truths . I have with trouble observ'd , That the greater part of the Libertines we have among us , being Men of Pilate's humor , ( who , when he had scornfully ask'd what is truth ? would not stay for an Answer ) do , with great Fastidiousness , decline the Study of all Truths that require a Serious and Setled application of Mind . These Men are , for the most part , a sort of Superficial and Desultory Wits , that go no further than the Out side of things , without penetrating into the Recesses of them ; and being easily tir'd with contemplating one , pass quickly to another ; the Consideration whereof they , with the same Lightness , forsake . And upon this account , among others , it is , that this sort of Men , tho' often much applauded by others , because the Most are but Superficial , as well as They , do almost as seldom make good Philosophers , as good Christians . For tho' all the good Arguments , that may be brought to evince the Truth of Natural ( and Reveal'd ) Religion , be not Abstruse ; yet some of the chief ones , especially those that prove the Existence and Special Providence of God , and the Souls Immortality , are , if not of a Metaphysical , yet at least of a Philosophical , nature ; and will scarce be clearly understood , and duely relish'd , but by a Person capable of , and somwhat accustom'd to , Attentive and Lasting Speculations , ( as in another Paper has been more fully declar'd . ) But now , a Man addicted to prosecute Discoveries of Truths , not only by Serious Meditation , but by intricate and laborious Experiments , will not easily be deterr'd from effectually prosecuting his End , by the Troublesomness or Difficulties that attend the clearing of those Notions , and Matters of Fact , whereon Solid Arguments for Natural , or Reveal'd , Religion , are founded ; how remote soever those Truths may be from vulgar Apprehensions . In short , whereas a Superficial Wit , such as is frequently found in Libertins , and often helps to make them such , may be compar'd to an ordinary Swimmer , who can reach but such things as float upon the Water ; an Experimental Philosopher may be compar'd to a skilful Diver , that cannot only fetch those things that lye upon the Surface of the Sea , but make his way to the very Bottom of it ; and thence fetch up Pearls , Corals , and other precious things , that in those Depths lye conceal'd from other men's Sight and Reach . We have already seen , that Experimental Philosophy is , in its own nature , friendly to Religion in general . Wherefore I shall now add , That the Reverence I pay Experience , especially as it gives both Grounds and Hints to rational Notions and Conclusions , does not a little conduce to the Assent I give to the Truth of the Christian Religion in particular . This excellent Religion is recommended to well disposed Minds , by a greater Number of Prerogatives , and other Arguments , than it were proper for me to insist on in this Discourse : And yet my Design engages me to consider a few of them somwhat particularly . 1. And first , I shall observe , That , whereas the three grand Arguments , that conjointly evince the Truth of the Christian Religion in general , are ( at least in my opinion ) the Excellency of the Doctrine , which makes it worthy to have proceeded from God ; the Testimony of the Divine Miracles , that were wrought to recommend it ; the great Effects , produc'd in the World by it . Two of these three Arguments ( for the first is of a more Speculative nature ) are bottom'd upon matters of fact , and consequently are likely to be the most prevalent upon those that have a great Veneration for Experience , and are duly dispos'd to frame such pious Reflections , as it warrants and leads them ▪ to make . This last Clause I add , because , though I have formerly more than Intimated somthing of the like Import , yet 't is so necessary to my Design that you should take special notice of it , that I must not here omit to advertise you , That , when , in this Discourse , I speak of an Experimental Philosopher , or Virtuoso ; I do not mean , either , on this hand , a Libertine , tho' Ingenious ; or a Sensualist , though Curious ; or , on that hand , a mere Empirick , or some vulgar Chymist , that looks upon nothing as Experimental , wherein Chymistry , Mechanicks , &c. are not employ'd ; and who too often makes Experiments , without making Reflection on them , as having it more in his aim to Produce Effects , than to Discover Truths . But the Person I here mean , is such a one , as by attentively looking about him , gathers Experience , not from his own Tryals alone , but from divers other matters of fact , which he heedfully observes , though he had no share in the effecting them ; and on which he is dispos'd to make such Reflections , as may ( unforcedly ) be apply'd to confirm and encrease in him the Sentiments of Natural Religion , and facilitate his Submission and Adherence to the Christian Religion . An Experimental Philosopher , thus dispos'd , will , with the Divine Assistance , ( which he will be careful to Implore ) find pregnant Motives to the Belief of Christianity , in the two last of the three Arguments of its Truth , that I lately propos'd . That which is drawn from the Effects of this Religion in the World , as it is last nam'd , so I shall defer the Consideration of it , till I have treated of the other ; namely the Testimony of Divine Miracles , whose Difficulty makes it requisite for us to consider it the more Attentively , and distinctly declare the Grounds , upon which Experience may be esteemed a good Topick on the present occasion . For the clearing of this matter , I shall represent to you , That the word Experience may admit of divers Senses , whereof one is far more comprehensive than another ; and likewise of several Divisions and Distributions . For , besides its more restrained acceptation , it is somtimes set in contra-distinction to Reason , so as to comprehend , not only those Phaenomena that Nature or Art exhibits to our Outward Senses , but those things that we perceive to pass Within our selves ; and all those ways of Information , whereby we attain any Knowledge that we do not owe to abstracted Reason . So that , without stretching the Word to the utmost Extent of which 't is capable , and to which it has been enlarg'd ; it may be look'd upon as so comprehensive a Term , that I think it may be of some importance to my present design , and perhaps to Theology it self , to propose to you a Distribution of Experience , that will not , I hope , be found useless to clear the Extent of that Term. I shall then take the freedom to enlarge the Signification of the Word beyond its commonest Limits , and divide it , for distinctions sake , into Immediate and Vicarious Experience ; or rather somwhat less Compendiously , but perhaps more Commodiously , into Personal , Historical , and Supernatural , ( which may be also styl'd Theological : ) referring the First of the three Members of this distribution to Immediate Experience , and the two others , to Vicarious . I call that Personal Experience , which a Man acquires immediately by himself , and accrews to him by his own Sensations , or the exercise of his Faculties , without the Intervention of any external Testimony . 'T is by this Experience that we know , that the Sun is bright ; Fire , hot ; Snow , cold , and white ; that upon the want of Aliments we feel Hunger ; that we hope for future Goods ; that we love what we judge good , and hate what we think evil ; and discern that there is a great Difference between a Triangle and a Circle , and can distinguish them by it . By Historical Experience , I mean that , which tho' it were personal in some Other man , is but by his Relation or Testimony , whether immediately or mediately , conveyed to us . 'T is by this that we know , that there were such Men as Julius Caesar , and William the Conqueror , and that Joseph knew that Pharaoh had a Dream , which the Aegyptian wise Men could not expound . By Theological Experience , I mean that , by which we know what , supposing there is some Divine Revelation , God is pleas'd to relate or declare concerning Himself , his Attributes , his Actions , his Will , or his Purposes ; whether immediately , ( or without the Intervention of Man ) as he somtimes did to Job and Moses , and Constantly to Christ our Saviour : Or by the Intervention of Angels , Prophets , Apostles , or Inspir'd Persons ; as he did to the Israelites , and the Primitive Christian Church ; and does still to us , by those written Testimonies we call the Scriptures . By Personal Experience , we know that there are Stars in Heaven ; by Historical Experience , we know that there was a new Star seen by Tycho and other Astronomers , in Cassiopaea , in the Year 1572. and by Theological Experience we know , that the Stars were made on the Fourth Day of the Creation . By this you may see , That I do not in this Discourse take Experience in the strictest sense of all , but in a greater latitude , for the knowledge we have of any matter of Fact , which , without owing it to Ratiocination , either we acquire by the Immediate Testimony of our Own Senses and other Faculties , or accrews to us by the Communicated Testimony of Others . And I make the less scruple to take this Liberty , because I observe , that , even in common Acceptation , the word Experience is not always meant of that which is Immediate , but is often taken in a latitude . As when we say , that Experience teaches us , who perhaps were never out of England , that the Torrid Zone is Habitable , and Inhabited ; and persuades learned men , that never had opportunity to make nice Coelestial Observations , that Stars may be Generated and Perish , or at least begin to Appear , and then Disappear , in the Coelestial Region of the World. And on this kind of Historical Experience , consisting of the Personal Observations of Hippocrates , Galen , and other Physicians , transmitted to us , a great part of the Practice of Physick is founded . And the most Rational Physicians reckon upon , as matters of fact , not only what other Physicians have left upon Record , but divers Present things , which themselves can know but by the Relation of their Patients ; as , that a Man has a particular Antipathy to such a thing , which the Doctor perhaps judges fit for him to use ; or that a Woman with Child longs for this or that determinate thing . And Physicians reduce these and the like matters of fact to Experience , as to one of the two Columns of Physick , distinguished from Reason . Since then Learned Men , as well as common Use , confine not the application of the word Experience to that which is Personal , but employ it in a far greater latitude ; I see not , why that , which I call Theological Experience , may not be admitted ; since the Revelations that God makes concerning what he has Done , or purposes to Do , are but Testimonies of things , most of them matters of Fact , and all of them such , as , so far forth as they are merely Revelations , cannot be known by Reasoning , but by Testimony : Whose being Divine , and relating to Theological Subjects , does not alter its Nature , tho it give it a peculiar and supereminent Authority . Having premis'd and clear'd the propos'd Distribution of Experience , it will now be seasonable to consider , how it may be apply'd to the Matters of Fact , that recommend the Credibility of the Christian Religion ; and on this occasion , I shall distinctly offer you my Thoughts , in the two following Propositions . Prop. I. We ought to believe divers things upon the information of Experience , ( whether Immediate , or Vicarious ) which , without that information , we should judge unfit to be believ'd ; or antecedently to it , did actually judge contrary to Reason . This Proposition may be understood , either of Persons , or of Things , and will hold true , as to both . And first , as to Persons ; if your own Observation of what occurs among Mankind do not satisfy you , that we are oblig'd , after sufficient Tryal , frequently to alter the Opinions , which upon probable Reasons we had before entertain'd , of the Fidelity , or Prudence , or Justice , or Chastity , &c. of this or that Person ; I shall refer you to the Records of History , or appeal to the Tribunals of Judges . For both in the one , and at the other , you will find but too many Instances and Proofs from matters of Fact , that Persons look'd on , even by Intelligent Men , as Honest , Virtuous , and perhaps Holy too , have prov'd guilty of Falseness to their Friends , Perfidiousness to their Princes , Disloyalty to their Husbands or Wives , Injustice to their Neighbours , Sacrilege , Perjury , or other Impieties to their God : And in the Courts of Justice , you will find a great part of the Time employ'd to Detect and Punish , not only Civil Transgressions , as Thefts , Cheats , Forgery , False-witness , Adultery , and the like hainous Crimes , perpetrated by those , that , before they were throughly sifted , pass'd for Honest ; but you will find Sins against Nature , such as Sodomy , and other unnatural Lusts , the Murders of Parents by their Children , and Innocent Children by their Parents , nay , Self-murder too ; tho' this be a Crime , which cannot be acted without a violation of what seems the most Universal and Radicated Law of Nature , ( and is acknowledg'd so by wicked Men ) Self-preservation . But it will not be necessary more solicitously to prove , that we ought , upon the Testimony of Experience , to change the Opinions we thought we had rationally taken up of Persons ; and therefore I shall now proceed to make good the Proposition , in the Sense I chiefly intended , which is , as it relates to Things . If Experience did not both Inform and Certify us , Who would believe , that a light black Powder should be able , being duly manag'd , to throw down Stone-Walls , and blow up whole Castles and Rocks themselves , and do those other Stupendous things , that we see actually perform'd by Gun ▪ powder , made use of in Ordnance , and in Mines ? Who would think , that two or three grains of Opium , should so stupify a large Human Body , as to force a Sleep , and oftentimes even without That , suspend the sharpest Torments , in the Cholick , Gout , and other the most painful Diseases , and that in Patients of quite different Ages , Sexes , and Constitutions ; in whom also the Diseases are produc'd by Differing , or even by Contrary , Causes ? Who would believe , that the Poyson adhering to the Tooth of a Mad Dog , tho' perhaps so little as to be scarce discernable by Sense , should be able , after the slight Hurt is quite heal'd , to continue in the warm , and still perspirable , Body of the bitten person , not only for some Days or Months , but sometimes for very many Years ? And after , having lurk'd all that while , without giving any trouble to the Patient , should on a sudden pervert the whole Oeconomy of his Body , and put him into a Madness like that of the Dog that bit him , discovering it self by that ▪ as Admirable as Fatal , Symptom of Hydrophobia ? But , besides a multitude of Instances that may be given of Truths , that , were it not for Experience , we should refuse to believe ; because the small Strength of such Agents , seems altogether disproportionate to the Effects ascrib'd to them : Many other Instances might be alleg'd , wherein we assent to Experience , even when its Informations seem contrary to Reason , and that which , perhaps , we did actually and without scruple take to be True. Since Gravity is the Principle , that determins Falling Bodies to move towards the Center of the Earth ; it seems very rational to believe , with the Generality of Philosophers , that therein follow Aristotle ; That , in proportion as one Body is more heavy than another , so it shall fall to the ground faster than the other . Whence it has been , especially by some of the Peripatetick School , inferr'd , that of two Homogeneous Bodies , whereof one does , for Example , weigh ten pounds , and the other but one pound ; The former being let fall from the same height , and at the same time , with the latter , will reach the ground ten times sooner . But notwithstanding this plausible Ratiocination , Experience shews us , ( and I have purposely try'd it ) that ( at least in moderate heights , such as those of our Towers , and other Elevated Buildings ) Bodies of very unequal weight , let fall together , will reach the Ground at the same time ; or so near it , that 't is not easy to perceive any difference in the Velocity of their Descent . 'T is generally taken for granted by Naturalists , as well as others , that Strong and Loud Noises , as they are heard much farther off than Fainter Sounds , so , if the Sonorous Bodies be equally distant from the Ear , the very Strong Sound will arrive much sooner at it , than the other ; and yet by the Experiments of the Moderns about the Velocity of Sounds , ( in making divers of which , I have endeavour'd to be accurate ) it appears , that Weaker Sounds are ( at least as to Sense ) transmitted through the Air as swiftly as Stronger ones . And indeed , 't is often observ'd , that when Cannons and Muskets are discharg'd together , the Noises of both arrive also together at the Ear ; which would not be , if the Sound of a Cannon were any thing near as much Swifter , as 't is Louder , than that of a Musket . It seems irrational to conceive , that a Smaller and Weaker Loadstone , may draw away a piece of Steel from a Larger and Stronger ; and yet Experience ( which both others and I have made ) evinces , that in some cases , this Paradox is a Truth . It has generally , by Philosophers as well as other Men , been look'd upon as manifest , and consonant to Reason , that Cold condenses Water more or less , according as the degree of the Cold is ; and ( consequently ) that Ice is Water reduc'd into a lesser Volume . But 't is plain , by Experiments carefully made , ( some of which I have elsewhere publish'd ) that by Glaciation , Water is rather Expanded ; or at least , that Ice takes up more room , than the Water did before it was Congeal'd . And of this sort of Instances , where we believe , upon the Authority of Experience , things that are contrary to what we should otherwise judge to be a Dictate or Conclusion of Reason ; I could add many , if I thought it as needful in this place , as in some other Papers , where I have given them already . And now it will be seasonable to put you in mind , that in one part of the Proposition , hitherto discours'd of , it appears , That I design'd to extend the force of the Arguments , grounded upon Experience , to that which is not Immediate , but Vicarious ; that is , not personally our own , but communicated by others ; provided it be competently Attested , and duly Convey'd to Us. There will need but a little Reflection on what is judg'd reasonable , and freely practis'd , by Philosophers themselves , to Justify this Proposition . For how many Conclusions have the Modern Naturalists admitted , tho' not only Abstracted Reason never led Men to make them , but plausible Arguments , and the Notions and Axioms of the most generally receiv'd Philosophy , were repugnant to them . Thus , That in Heaven it self there should be Generations and Corruptions , was not only Unobserv'd before the time of Aristotle , ( who thence argues the Incorruptibility of Coelestial Bodies ) but is Contradicted by his Arguments ; and yet both many others , and I , have seen great Spots ( perhaps bigger than England , or than Europe it self ) Generated and Dissipated on or near the Surface of the Sun ; and several of the Modern Philosophers and Astronomers , having never had the good fortune to see any of these , ( which indeed of late years have but rarely appear'd ) must take these Phaenomena upon the Credit of those that have observ'd them . And much more must they do so , who , in spight of the Vulgar Philosophy , which made all Comets Sublunary , believe , there were Coelestial , and perhaps Firmamentary , Comets . For , that they were above the Concave of the Moon 's Orb , we must believe upon the affirmation of those that observ'd them , which very few have done themselves . And the height of the famous Comet , or Disappearing Star , in Cassiopaea , in the Year 1572. whereon so much stress is laid by our Philosophers and Mathematicians , is admitted and urg'd , chiefly upon the belief they have , not only of Tycho's Veracity , but his Skill in observing the Motions and Phaenomena of that Coelestial Light , and particularly its having no Parallax . In short , the great Architect of Experimental History , Sir Francis Bacon , when he divides it but into three parts , assigns the second of them to what he calls Praeter-Generations ; such as Monsters , Prodigies , and other things ; which being ( as to Us ) but Casualties , all those that happen'd in other Times and Places than we have liv'd in , ( and those will be confess'd to be incomparably more than any of us has personally observ'd ) we must take upon the Credit of others . And yet These , ( vicarious Experiments ) by Suggesting new Instances of Nature's Power , and uncommon ways of Working ; and by Overthrowing , or Limiting , received Rules and Traditions , afford us a considerable and instructive part of Natural History , without which , it would not be either so Sound , or so Compleat . Prop. II. After what has been hitherto discours'd , it may be , I hope , both seasonable and warrantable to advance to , and assert , our Second Proposition ; viz. That we ought to have a great and particular regard to those things that are recommended to our Belief , by what we have reduc'd to Real , tho' Supernatural , Experience . For , 1. 'T is manifest , that the most rational Men scruple not to believe , upon competent Testimony , many things , whose Truth did no way appear to them by the consideration of the nature of the Things themselves ; nay , tho' what is thus believ'd upon Testimony be so Strange , and , setting aside that Testimony , would seem so Irrational , that antecedently to that Testimony , the things at last admitted as Truths , were actually rejected as Errors , or judg'd altogether unfit to be Believ'd . And I must here desire you to consider , that the Points wherein Experience over-rules that , which , before it superven'd , was judg'd to be most agreeable to Reason , concern things merely Natural or Civil , whereof Human Reason is held to be a proper Judge : Whereas many of the Points recommended by Supernatural Experience , concern things of a Superior Order ; many of which are not to be Adaequately estimated by the same Rules with things merely Corporeal or Civil ; and some of which , as the Essence and manner of Existence , and some peculiar Attributes , of the Infinite God , involve or require such a knowledge of what is Infinite , as much passes the reach of our limited Intellects . But this is not all . For , 2. You may consider in the next place , that , whereas 't is as Justly as Generally granted , that the better qualify'd a Witness is , in the capacity of a Witness , the Stronger Assent his Testimony deserves ; we ought of all the things that can be recommended to us by Testimony , to receive those with the highest degree of Assent , that are taught us by God , by the intervention of those Persons , that appear to have been Commission'd by Him to declare his Mind to Men. For the two grand Requisites of a Witness , being the knowledge he has of the things he delivers , and his faithfulness in truly delivering what he knows ; all Human Testimony must on these accounts be inferior to Divine Testimony : Since this ( later ) is warranted both by the Veracity of God , ( which is generally acknowledg'd by those that believe his Existence ) and by his boundless Knowledge ; which makes it as impossible he should be Deceiv'd himself , as the other does , that he should Deceive us . And , because that , for the delivery of the Divine Testimony we are speaking of , it has oftentimes pleas'd God , who is a most Free , as well as a most Wise , Agent , to make use of Unpromising Persons as his Instruments ; I shall not on this occasion altogether overlook this Circumstance , That an Experimental Philosopher so often encreases his Knowledge of Natural things , by what He learns from the Observations and Practises , even of Mean , and perhaps of Illiterate , Persons , ( such as Shepherds , Plowmen , Smiths , Fowlers , &c. ) because they are conversant with the Works of Nature ; that He is not only Willing to admit , but often Curious to seek for Informations from them , and therefore is not like to find much repugnancy in receiving the Doctrines of Reveal'd Religion , such as Christianity , if the Teachers of it were honest Men , and had opportunity to know the Truth of the Things they deliver , tho' they were Fishermen , Tentmakers , or some other Mean Profession . And indeed , ( to enlarge a little upon a Subject that , I fear , has scarce been consider'd ) such a person as our Virtuoso , will , with both great Willingness , and no less Advantage , Exercise himself in perusing , with great Attention , and much Regard , the Writings of the Apostles , Evangelists , and Ancient Prophets ; notwithstanding any Meanness of their First Condition , or of their Secular Employments . And in these Sacred Writings , He will not only readily suffer himself to be instructed in these Grand and Catholick Articles of Religion , which , because of their Necessity or very great Usefulness , are to be met with in many places , and in variety of Expressions , by honest and duly dispos'd Readers : But He will , in stead of Disdaining such Tutors , both Expect , and carefully Strive , to Improve his Knowledge of Divine Things in general , even by those Hints , and Incidental Passages , that a careless or ordinary Reader would Overlook , or not expect any thing from . For , as the Faecundity of the Scriptures is not wont to be enough discern'd , when the Sacred Writers transiently touch upon , or glance at , a great many Subjects , that they do not expresly handle , and that therefore are not vulgarly taken notice of ; so the Docility we have ascrib'd to our Virtuoso , will make him repose a great deal of Trust in the Testimony of Inspir'd Persons , such as Christ and his Apostles , about Things of all sorts , either usually taken notice of or not , that relate to Objects of a Supernatural Order ; especially if among these , God himself , and his Purposes , be compriz'd , since divers of those things are not knowable without Revelation , and others are best known by it . And to be allow'd to ground a Belief about such things , on the Relations and other Testimonies of those that were in the Scripture-Phrase , Eye Witnesses and Ministers of the things they speak of , will by our Virtuoso be justly reputed such an advantage , in order to the Knowledge of things Divine , as the consulting with Navigators and Travellers to America , is , to him that is curious to learn the State of that New-world . For an ordinary Sea-man or Traveller , that had the opportunity with Columbus to sail along the several Coasts of it , and pass up and down thorow the Country , was able at his return to Inform Men of an hundred things , that they should never have learn'd by Aristotle's Philosophy , or Ptolomy's Geography ; and might not only Acquaint them with divers particulars , consonant to the Opinions which their formerly receiv'd Physicks and Cosmography did suggest , but also Rectify divers Erroneous Presumptions and Mistakes , which till then they thought very agreeable to the Dictates of those Sciences , and so to Reason . And , as one , that had a candid and knowing Friend intimate with Columbus , might better rely on His Informations about many particulars of the Natural History of those Parts , than on those of an hundred School-Philosophers , that knew but what they learned from Aristotle , Pliny , Aelian , and the like ancient Naturalists ; so , and much more , may we rely on the Accounts given us of Theological Things , by the Apostles , and constant Attendants of him that lay in the Bosom of God his Father , and Commission'd them to declare to the World the Whole Counsel of God , as far as 't was necessary for Man to know . We know , that Fuller Try al 's are allow'd , among Ingenious Men , to rectify the Informations of the more Imperfect Ones ; and therefore I shall add , that , tho' the Innate Notions and Sentiments , that Nature gives us of the Attributes and Mind of God , be highly to be priz'd ; yet the Informations that Theological Experience affords of those Abstruse things , is far more Excellent and Compleat . For methinks , those great Depths of God may be compar'd to the Depths of the Ocean . And we know , that in the Sea , there are some Abysses so deep , that the Seaman's Sounding-Lines have never been able to reach to the bottom of them ; and where they are not Unfathomable , all we are wont to do by our Soundings , is , to fetch from the bottom some little Gravel , or Mud , or Shells , or some such thing , that sticks to the tallow'd end of the Plummet , and gives us but a very imperfect account of the Bottom , even of the Shallower Parts of the Sea : But if a Skilful Diver be employ'd , he will not only tell us , whether the Bottom be Muddy , Gravelly , or Sandy ; but will be able to give us a kind of Topography of that Submarine Land , and acquaint us with many Surprizing Particulars , that we should never otherwise have Discover'd , or perchance so much as Dream'd of . And peradventure it may be no Hyperbole to say , that the Informations of a Plummet , which reaches not to Some Depths , and brings but a very slender account of Soils that lye in Any , are not more short of those of a Diver , than the Informations Philosophy gives us of some Divine things , are of those compleater Ones that may be had from the Holy Scriptures . And when I remember , how many Opinions about the Submarine Parts , that I , among many other Men , thought Probable , I found cause to Change , upon the Conversation I had with a famous Diver , that sometimes , by the help of an Engine , stay'd several hours at the bottom of the Sea ; I find the less Reluctancy , to suffer Opinions about Divine Matters , that before seem'd probable to me , to be Rectifi'd by the fuller Discoveries made of those things by the Preachers of the Gospel . You may find some things applyable to the Confirmation of what has been newly deliver'd , in an Essay , ( which you may see when you please ) that considers the Bounds and Use of Experience in Natural Philosophy . Wherefore remembring , that , before this late Excursion , I was speaking of Miracles , I shall now resume the Subject , and proceed to tell you , that I have the more insisted upon the Miracles that may be pleaded to recommend the Christian Religion , because I thought , that an Argument grounded on Them is little less than Absolutely Necessary , to Evince , that any Religion that Men believe to be Supernaturally Reveal'd , and consequently that the Christian , does really proceed from God. For , tho' the Excellency of the Christian Doctrine , and other concurrent Motives , may justly persuade me , that 't is worthy and likely to be given by God ; yet that de facto this Doctrine comes from Him by way of Supernatural Revelation , I can scarce be sufficiently Ascertained , but by the Miracles wrought by Christ and his Disciples , to Evince , that the Doctrine they Preach'd , as Commission'd by God to do so , was indeed His , being , as such , own'd by Him. But these Miracles having been wrought ( when 't was most fit and needful they should be wrought ) in the first Ages of the Church ; We , that live at so great a distance from them , can have no knowledge of them by our Own Senses , or Immediate Observation ; but must Believe them upon the account of the formerly mention'd Historical or Vicarious Experience , which is afforded us by the duly transmitted Testimony of those , that were themselves ( to speak once more in an Evangelist's phrase ) Eye-Witnesses and Ministers of the things they relate . And since we scruple not to believe such strange Prodigies , as Celestial Comets , Vanishing and Reappearing Stars , Islands founded by Subterraneal Fires in the Sea , Darkenings of the Sun for many months together , Earthquakes reaching above a thousand miles in length , and the like amazing Anomalies of Nature , upon the credit of Human Histories ; I see not , why that Vicarious Experience should not more be trusted , which has divers peculiar and concurrent Circumstances to confirm it , and particularly the Death that most of the first Promulgators chearfully Suffer'd to Attest the Truth of it , and the Success and Spreading of the Doctrine authoriz'd by those Miracles , and receiv'd chiefly upon their account . To which things , some perhaps would add , that 't is less incredible , that the Author of Nature should , for most weighty purposes , make stupendous Alterations of the course of Nature ; than that Nature her self , for no such end , should by such Prodigies , as are newly mention'd , as it were , throw her self out of her own Course . Miracles being so necessary to the establishment of Reveal'd Religion in general , it may be look'd upon as a farther Disposition in our Virtuoso to receive the Christian Religion , that the Philosophy , he cultivates , does much conduce to enable him to judge aright of those strange things , that are by many Propos'd as Miracles , and Believ'd to be so . For first , the knowledge he has of the Various , and sometimes very Wonderful , Operations of some Natural things , especially when they are skilfully improv'd , and dexterously apply'd by Art , particularly Mathematicks , Mechanicks , and Chymistry , will qualify him to distinguish , between things that are only strange and surprizing , and those that are truly miraculous : So that he will not mistake the Effects of Natural Magick , for those of a Divine Power . And by this well-instructed Wariness , he will be able to discover the Subtil Cheats and Collusions of Impostors ; by which , not only Multitudes of all Religions , especially Heathen , but even Learned Men of most Religions , for want of an insight into real Philosophy , have formerly been , or are at this day , deluded , and drawn into Idolatrous , Superstitious , or otherwise Erroneous , Tenents or Practices . And on the other side , the knowledge our Virtuoso may have of what cannot be justly expected or pretended from the Mechanical Powers of Matter , will enable him to discern , that divers things are not produceable by Them , without the intervention of an Intelligent Superior Power ; on which score he will frankly acknowledge , and heartily believe , divers Effects to be truly Miraculous , that may be plausibly enough ascrib'd to other Causes in the Vulgar Philosophy ; where Men are taught and wont to attribute Stupendous unaccountable Effects to Sympathy , Antipathy , Fuga vacui , Substantial Forms , and especially to a certain Being presum'd to be almost Infinitely Potent and Wise , which they call Nature : For This is represented as a king of Goddess , whose Power may be little less than boundless ; as I remember Galen himself compares it to that of God , and saith , that He could not do such a thing , because Nature cannot ; and Censures Moses for speaking as if he were of another Mind . The whole Passage is so weighty , that I thought fit to direct you to it in the Margent , tho' , to comply with my hast , I forbear to transcribe and descant upon so prolix a One , and add to it divers other Passages that I have met with in famous Authors ; who , for want of knowing the true Extent of the Powers of Matter and Motion , left to themselves in the Ordinary Course of things , Ascribe to Natural Causes , as they call them , such Effects as are beyond their reach , unless they be Elevated by Agents of a Superior Order . I know it may be objected , that the hitherto-mention'd Dispositions , that Experimental Knowledge may give a Man , to Admit the Histories of the Miracles recorded in the Gospel ; and likewise to Expect , that God will be able to perform the Promises and Menaces that are in his name deliver'd there , may be countervail'd by this , That those , who are so much acquainted with the Mysteries of Nature , and her various and strange ways of Working , as a Virtuoso may well be , may by that Knowledge be strongly tempted to think , that those surprizing things that other Men call Miracles , are but Effects of Her Power ; the Extent of which , is not easily discern'd by ordinary Men , nor safely defin'd by Philosophers themselves . But this Objection being plausible enough , to make me think it deserv'd to be seriously consider'd , I took an occasion that was once offer'd me , to examine the validity of it in a Paper by it self : And this being at your command , I shall refer you to it . And I hope , that in the mean time it may suffice to say , That to make it reasonable to judge this or that particular Performance , a Supernatural One , it is not at all necessary , that it surpass the whole Power of Nature , that is , of Physical Agents ; provided , it surpass the power of that Cause , or that complex of Causes , from which , the Effect must in reason , if it be purely Natural or Physical , be suppos'd to have proceeded . As for instance , That a Fisherman or two should speak other Languages than their own , does not at all exceed the power of Nature , if they employ'd a competent time in learning them . But that a great number of Fishermen , and other Illiterate Persons , should all on a sudden become Linguists , and in an hour's time be able to speak intelligibly to a great number and variety of Nations in their respective Languages , as the New Testament relates , that the Apostles and their Companions did on the day of Pentecost : That gift of Tongues , I say , was an Ability , which in those circumstances of Place , Time , and Persons , wherein 't was exercis'd , may justly be concluded to have been Supernatural or Miraculous . I fear you will think , I have dwelt too long upon the Argument for Christianity , drawn from that sort of matters of Fact we call Miracles ; tho' the uncommon way that my Design led me to represent them in , would not permit me to make it out in few words . Wherefore I shall now pass on to another Argument , in favour of the same Religion , that is afforded by Experience , being drawn from the strangely successful Propagation , and the happy Effects of Christianity , in the World. But having formerly had occasion to display this Argument in a separate Paper , which you may command a Sight of , if I shall not have time to annex a Transcript of it to the later Sheets of this First Part of the present Essay , I will refer you for more ample Proof to That Writing , and content my self in this place briefly to touch some of the Heads , and subjoyn a Reflection or two that you will not meet with in that Paper . 'T is a notorious Matter of Fact , that in less than half an Age , the Christian Religion was spread over a great part of the then known World ; insomuch , that in a few Years after it began to be preach'd , the Apostle of the Gentiles could tell the Romans with Joy , that their Faith ( i. e. profession of the Gospel ) was spoken of throughout the whole World. And in the Second Century , Tertullian , and other famous Writers , shew , that the Gospel had already numerous Proselytes , in a great number of different Kingdoms and Provinces . But I forbear to mention , what he and others have magnificently said of the Success of the Gospel , because I had rather refer you to the plain Narratives made of it by Eusebius , Socrates Scholasticus , and other grave Authors ; being of opinion , that mere Historians may give to a Philosophical Reader , a more Advantageous Idea of the Efficacy of that excellent Doctrine , than eloquent Orators , as such , can do . This wonderful quick progress of this Religion being ascertain'd to our Virtuoso , by a Thing he is so much sway'd by , as Experience ; it does not a little dispose him to Believe the Truth of so prevalent a Religion . For , If he considers the Persons that first promulgated it , They were but half a score of Illiterate Fishermen , and a few Tent-makers , & other Tradesmen . If he considers the Means that were employ'd to Propagate this Doctrine , he finds , that they had neither Arms , nor External Power , to Compel Men to receive it ; nor Riches , Honours , or Preferments , to Bribe or Allure them to it ; nor were they Men of Philosophical Subtilty , to intrap or entangle the Minds of their Auditors . Nor did they make use of the pompous Ornaments of Rhetorick , and fetches of Oratory , to inveagle or entice Men ; but treated of the most Sublime and abstruse Matters , in a most Plain and unaffected Style , as became Lovers and Teachers of Truth . If he considers the nature of the Doctrine , that in little time obtain'd so many Proselytes , he will find , that , instead of being suited to the Natural Apprehensions , or the Receiv'd Opinions , of Men ; and instead of gratifying their corrupt Affections , or complying with so much as their Innocentest Interests ; it prescrib'd such Mortifications , and such great strictness of Life , and high degrees of Virtue , as no Legislator had ever dar'd to impose upon his Subjects , nay , nor any Philosopher on his Disciples . And this Doctrine was propos'd in such a way , and was accompany'd with Predictions of such Hardships and Persecutions , that should in those times be the portion of its sincere Professors , as if the Law-giver had design'd rather to Fright Men from his Doctrine , than Allure them to it ; since they could not believe what he said , and foretold , to be true , without believing , that they should be made great Sufferers by that Belief . If our Virtuoso considers the Opposition made to the Progress of the Gospel , he will find cause to wonder , that it could ever be surmounted . For the Heathens , which made by far the greatest part of the World , were deeply engag'd in Polytheism , Idolatry , Magical Rites and Superstitions , and almost all kind of Crimes , and some of these were shameless Debaucheries , which oftentimes made a part of their Worship . And the Jews were by the corrupt Leaven of the Pharisees , and the impious Errors of the Sadduces , and the General Mistakes of the Nation about the Person , Office , and Kingdom , of the Messias ; and by their dotage upon their vain Traditions , and numerous Superstitions , grounded upon them : The Gentiles , I say , and the Jews , who were those that were to be Converted , were , on these and other accounts , highly Indispos'd to be made Proselytes . Especially when they could not own themselves to be such , without exposing their Persons to be hated and despised , their Possessions to be confiscated , their Bodies to be imprison'd and tormented , and oftentimes their Lives to be , in as Ignominious as Cruel ways , destroy'd . And whilst the Secular Magistrates made them suffer all these Mischiefs , the Venerated Priests , the Subtil Philosophers , and the Eloquent Orators , persuaded the World ; that they Deserv'd yet more than they Endur'd ; and employ'd all their Learning and Wit to make the Religion Odious and Ridiculous , as well as the Embracers of it Miserable : Accusing the Martyrs , and other Christians , of no less than Atheism , Incest , and the inhuman shedding and drinking the innocent Blood of Infants . These and the like Matters of Fact when our Virtuoso reflects on , and considers by what unpromising Means , ( as far as they were but Secular ) such seemingly insurmountable Difficulties were conquer'd ; He cannot but by this Historical Experience be inclin'd to think , that Effects , so disproportionate to the Visible Means , could not be brought to pass without the peculiar Assistance and extraordinary Blessing of God : By whom those successful Preachers averr'd themselves to be Commissionated . For , that the Supernatural help , the Christian Doctrine appears to have had , was Divine , not Diabolical , will seem evident to our Virtuoso , from the Nature , Tendency , and Effects , of the Doctrine it self ; which expresly teacheth , that there is but one God ; that He alone is to be Worshipp'd , and not Idols , nor any of the Heathen Daemons or Deities ; that the Devils are Wicked , Apostate , Malicious , and Miserable Creatures , that are Hated of God , and do extremely Hate Mankind ; and that those Vices , as well as Rites of Worship that they have establish'd in the World , were Abominable to God , and would be by degrees Destroy'd by him : As in effect they soon began to be in many places of the World , where the Worshippers of Christ cast the Devil out of His Temples , out of Mens Veneration , & oftentimes out of their Bodies too . One Circumstance there is of the Propagation of the Gospel , which , tho' it may seem more Extrinsecal than those hitherto mention'd , is yet too considerable to be here pretermitted ; since it is this , That the Quick Spreading and Success of the Christian Doctrine in the World , was Foretold both by the Prophets of the Old Testament , and the Author and promulgators of the New. For it being notorious , that there have been divers Errors and Superstitions , that have with too much Celerity been spread far and wide in the World ; either by mere Accidents , ( as they were reputed ) that were very friendly to them , or by the Industry and Artifices of Men : This , I say , being so , it ought to be no small Satisfaction to Equitable Judges , that the Quick Progress , and Notable Effects , of the Christian Religion , were Foretold , partly by the Ancient Prophets , and partly by the Messias and his Apostles . For by these accomplish'd Predictions it may appear , that the wonderful Success of the Gospel was not an Effect of Chance , but was long before determin'd by Divine Providence , as a Work sit to be Dear to God , and to be accomplish'd in a wonderful way by his Peculiar Assistance , ( as will by and by be somewhat more fully declar'd . ) That the Triumphs of the Gospel were Foretold by several of the Old Prophets , may appear by their yet Extant Writings ; some of which are alleg'd to that purpose , by those Writers of the New Testament , that were endow'd with the same Prophetick Spirit . And if you please to consider the Passages cited in the Margent , you will easily grant , that those Ancient Inspir'd Writers foresaw , that in the days of the Messias , there should be a great and notable Conversion of of the Gentiles of several Nations , to the Worship of the only true God of Israel : And tho' God did not think fit , that those Predictions , extant in the Gospel , should be so conspicuous and pompously set forth , that speak of the Conversion that should be made , not only of the Heathen World , but ( of a more ▪ Refractory portion of Mankind ) a great part of the Jewish Nation , to the Christian Doctrine ; yet there are divers Passages in the New Testament , that are Real , tho' some of them Unheeded , Prophecies of the wonderful Progress of the Gospel , and the large Extent of the Kingdom of the Messias . Thus Christ foretold , that his twelve Apostles should be his Witnesses , not only in Judaea and Samaria , but to the uttermost parts of the Earth . And , according to the most probable Explication of that Text , in the 24th of St. Matthew's Gospel , which is usually referr'd to the end of the World , but seems rather to respect the Destruction of Jerusalem ; there is a Prediction , that before the End , ( of the Jewish Polity , as well as the Mosaical Oeconomy ) the Gospel of the Kingdom ( of the Messias ) should be preach'd or proclaim'd in the whole World , ( in that Sense of the term World that was then much in use , and was employ'd by the Evangelist Luke to signify the Roman World or Empire . ) To which may be added , that ten or twelve Fishermen ( called the Apostles ) were sent to Convert all Nations to the Worship of a Crucify'd Person ; which would have been a strange Commission to be given such Men at that time , if their Master , who sent them , had not Foreseen the Success , as well as Known the Truth , of the Doctrine he sent them to Preach . The quick Diffusion of the Christian Faith , and the swift Growth of the Christian Church from despicable Beginnings , to a Greatness very Disproportionate to them , are more than intimated , by what Christ says of the Leaven hid in a great quantity of Meal ; and of the Mustard Seed that quickly grows ( in the hot and fertile Country of Judaea ) to a wonderful Bigness and Height ; since these Passages , that perfunctory Readers look on but as mere Parables , were really Prophecies , that quickly began to be manifestly Fulfill'd . And it may bring no small Authority to the Predictions of the New Testament , that when divers of them were made , there appear'd no Likelihood that they should ever be made good . When a Poor Virgin , that was betroth'd to a Carpenter , confidently pronounces , that all Ages should call her Blessed ; what probability was there , that what she said , should ever come to pass ? And when another Private Woman , then living in a Village , had it foretold her , that a censur'd Action of hers should be reported through the whole World , to her great Praise ; what sober Man , that were not a Prophet , would venture to lose his Credit , by making such a Promise ? And therefore , since we see such unlikely Predictions actually Accomplish'd , it may well convince an unbyass'd Man , that the Authors of them , as well as the ancient Seers , were really endow'd with a truly Prophetick Spirit ; and that the Events by That Foretold , were not Effects of Chance or Policy , but of Divine Providence . I thought it not improper , to make the mention of these Predictions follow so close the Discourse of the Miracles , because true Prophecies of Unlikely Events , fulfill'd by Unlikely Means , are supernatural Things ; and , as such , ( especially their Author and Design consider'd ) may properly enough be reckon'd among Miracles . And I may add , that these have a peculiar advantage above most other Miracles , on the score of their Duration : Since the manifest Proofs of the Predictions continue still , and are as visible as the Extent of the Christian Religion ; and some of them are still more and more accomplish'd , by the Conversions made of multitudes of Infidels , in several vast Regions of America , ( to name no other Countries . ) So that if we may call some Miracles transient ones , such as the Turning Water into Wine at a Wedding-feast in Galilee ; and the Darkening of the Sun , when the Moon was Full , at the Crucifixion of Christ : Accomplish'd Predictions may be styl'd permanent ones ; and their difference may be set forth by the differing States of the Mosaick Manna : For , tho' both that which fell daily ( except on the Sabbath ) in the Wilderness , and that which was laid up in a pot before the Testimony , were Supernatural Productions ; yet , whereas a portion of the Former outlasted not two or three days , That kept in the pot was preserv'd many Ages , and continu'd to be ( as it was foretold it should ) a Visible Miracle . There is another Reason , why the wonderful Propagation of the Gospel should be annex'd to the Argument drawn from Miracles , in favour of the Christian Religion . For the Preachers of it , both Pretended and Appeal'd to Miracles , as Proofs of the Truth of their Doctrine : And if we consider the great Disadvantages they lay under , and the powerful Opposition of all sorts that they met with and surmounted ; it cannot reasonably be thought , that such Unlikely Men should so Succesfully preach so Uninviting a Doctrine , unless it were confirm'd by Conspicuous Miracles . Or at least , if so uneasy and persecuted a Religion was propagated without Miracles , that Propagation it self ( as one of the Fathers well observes ) may justly pass for a Miracle ; and be no less fit than another , to Confirm the Religion so admirably Propagated . The past Discourse has , I hope , manifested , that a Virtuoso has some Helps , that other Men , generally speaking , have not , to make him judiciously approve the Arguments for the Truth of the Christian Religion , that are grounded on the Miracles wrought in its favour , and the wonderful Success of it in the World. But , because a Reveal'd Religion , how true soever it be , can scarce be prov'd but by Moral Demonstrations ; and because for this reason , it is not always sufficient , that the Arguments be good in their kind , but there are some Qualifications requir'd in the Minds of them that are to be Convinc'd by them ; I shall now add , that Experimental Philosophy does also Dispose the Minds of its Cultivaters to receive due Impressions from such Proofs , as Miracles do , as well as other Topicks , afford the Christian Religion . Another thing then that qualifies an Experimentarian for the reception of a Reveal'd Religion , and so of Christianity , is , that an Accustomance of endeavouring to give Clear Explications of the Phaenomena of Nature , and discover the weakness of those Solutions that Superficial Wits are wont to make and acquiesce in , does insensibly work in him a great and ingenuous Modesty of Mind . And on the score of this Intellectual , as well as Moral , Virtue , not only he will be very inclinable , both to Desire and Admit further Information , about things which he perceives to be Dark or Abstruse ; but he will be very unapt to take , for the adaequate Standard of Truth , a thing so Imperfectly inform'd , and Narrowly limited , as his mere or abstracted Reason ; ( as I think I have elsewhere intimated , that One may call That , which is furnish'd only with its own , either Congenite , or very easily and very early Acquir'd , Notions and Idaea's , and with Popular Notices . ) And tho' a vulgar Philosopher , that allows himself to refer the Obscurest things in Nature to Substantial Forms , Real Qualities , Sympathy , Antipathy , and some few other Terms , which , to be employ'd by him , Need not , and perhaps for their darkness Cannot , be clearly Understood ; and by which he pretends to explain all things in Nature ; and may indeed explicate one thing as well as another : Tho' ( I say ) such a Titular Philosopher may presume , that he understands every thing ; and may be easily tempted to think , that he must not hope , nor desire to learn from less able Men than his first Teachers ; and that , That cannot be true , or be done , which agrees not with his Philosophy ; yet a Sober and Experienc'd Naturalist , that knows what Difficulties remain , yet unsurmounted , in the presumedly clear Conception and Explications even of things Corporeal , will not , by a lazy or arrogant presumption , that his knowledge about things Supernatural is already sufficient , be induc'd to Reject , or to Neglect , any Information that may encrease it . And this frame of Mind is a very happy one , for a Student in Reveal'd Theology , where Cautiousness is not more Necessary for the avoiding of Errors , than Docility is Advantageous for the Learning of Truth : Since the knowledge and goodness of the Divine Teacher is such , that a Scholar , to improve his Intellect , needs but bring a Mind fitted to receive the genuine Informations , that are most liberally offer'd , ( in the Scripture ) and will never deceive Him , that employs , together with servent Prayers , a due Care not to mistake the Meaning of them . An assiduous Conversation with the exquisitely Fram'd , and admirably Manag'd , Works of God , brings a Skilful Considerer of them to discover from time to time , so many things to be Feazable , or to be True , which , whilst he argu'd but upon grounds of incompetently Inform'd Reason , he judg'd False or Unpracticable ; that little by little he acquires a Habit of receiving some sorts of Opinions , and especially those that seem unfriendly to Religion , but as Probationers , with a disposition to Reform or Discard them upon further Information . And This , as he is resolv'd to Submit to , in case he meets with it , so he is dispos'd to Receive , if not to Expect it , by having often found himself oblig'd , upon subsequent Information , to mend or lay aside his former Opinions , tho' very agreeable to the best Light he had to judge by , when he entertain'd them . As , tho' it seems a visible Truth , that the Discus of Venus is , in all respects to the Sun , totally Luminous ; yet when the Telescope discovers her to have her Full and her Wane , like the Moon , he will believe this further Observation , against the first made with his Naked Eyes . And indeed , I have sometimes doubted , whether to be vers'd in Mathematicks , and other Demonstrative parts of Philosophy , bring a greater advantage to the Mind , by Accustoming and Assisting it to Examine Strictly Things propos'd for Truths , and to Evince Strongly the Truths a Man knows , to Others ; than by Fitting him to Discern the force of a good Argument , and Submit willingly to Truths clearly evinc'd , how little soever he may have expected to find such Conclusions true . 'T will not be difficult to apply these Reflections to our present purpose ; since there are several passages in the Scripture that sufficiently declare , both that Multitudes persist in a Criminal Infidelity , out of an over-weaning Conceit of their own Knowledge , and a readiness to be sway'd rather by strong Prejudices , than by the strongest Arguments that would remove them ; and , that Docility is a very happy disposition to the Entertainment of Reveal'd Religion : In reference to which , this Qualification will be the more easily found in our Virtuoso ; because , whereas the things , about which he has been accustom'd to be sensible of his Ignorance , or desire further Instruction , are within the Sphere of Nature , and the Jurisdiction of Philosophy ; many of the things that Reveal'd Religion declares , ( such as are the Decrees , the Purposes , the Promises , &c. of God , and his most peculiar manner of Existing and Operating ) are things so Sublime and Abstruse , that they may well be look'd upon as of an higher Order than merely Physical Ones , and cannot be Satisfactorily reach'd by the mere Light of Nature . 'T is true , that our Philosopher , because he is so , will examine more strictly , than Ordinary Men are Wont or Able to do , the Proofs brought for this or that propos'd Revelation . But that is no disadvantage to a Supernatural Religion , such as the Christian ; if it be , as we now suppose it to be , True ; and the real Truth about Religion it self , does not require Credulity , but only Docility . And perhaps this matter may be illustrated , by comparing what happens to a Philosopher in the Examen of Opinions , and to a Chymist in that of Metals . For if a Piece of Coin , that Men would have pass for true Gold , be offer'd to an Ordinary Man , and to a Skilful Refiner ; tho' the later will examine it more strictly , and not acquiesce in the Stamp , the Colour , the Sound , and other Obvious Marks , that may satisfy a Shopkeeper , or a Merchant ; yet when he has try'd it by the Severer ways of Examining , such as the Touchstone , the Cupel , Aqua-fortis , &c. and finds it to hold good in those Proofs , he will readily and frankly acknowledge , that 't is true Gold , and will be more thorowly Convinc'd of it , than the other Person ; whose want of Skill will make him still apt to retain a Distrust , and render him indeed more easy to be Persuaded , but more difficult to be fully Satisfy'd . On the like account ; tho' our Virtuoso will examine with more Strictness and Skill , than Ordinary Men are able , Miracles , Prophecies , or other Proofs , said to be Supernatural , that are alledg'd to Evince a Reveal'd Religion ; yet if the certain and genuine Characters of Truth appear in it , He will be more thorowly Convinc'd of it than a less Skilful Man , whose want of good Criteria , ( or Touchstones ) and Sound Judgment , will incline him to be Diffident , and to be still afraid of having been Impos'd on . I expect , in the mean time , that you should here Object against what has been said in the later Leaves of the past Discourse , that it hath degraded the Human Intellect , by ascribing so much to Experience , Natural or Supernatural , that it has left nothing for Reason to do , unless servilely to Obey . But , tho' this Objection be plausible , yet the Answer to it will not be very difficult , if the Matter it self be duly consider'd , and Reason be brought to act , even on this occasion , not as an Interessed Party , but an Unbyass'd Judge . For we have already shewn , that Rational Philosophers scruple not to Alter or Renounce the Opinions , that Specious Reasons had Suggested to them , when once they either find those Opinions Contradicted by Experience , or meet with other Opinions more Conformable to Experience . And Aristotle himself , tho' he be accus'd to have , perhaps the first of all the Ancient Naturalists , perverted Physicks , by wresting them to a compliance with Logical and Metaphysical Fancies ; yet even He confesses , not only that in the Science of Nature , Reason ought to comport with the Phaenomena , and the Phaenomena with Reason ; but that to adhere to plausible Ratiocinations , with the neglect of Sensible Observations , is a Weakness , or Disease , ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) of Mind . I will not here mention what I say in another Paper , by way of attempt to settle the Bounds of Reason and Experience , in reference to Natural Philosophy ; but it may concern our present Argument , to imploy a few Lines in this place , towards the further clearing the lately propos'd Objection . We may observe then , that , whether or no it be True , which is taught by Aristotle , and commonly receiv'd in the Schools , that the Understanding is like Blank Paper ; and that it receives no Knowledge , but what has been convey'd to it through the Senses : Whether , I say , this be or be not admitted , 't is plain , that the Notions which are either Congenite with the Understanding , or so easily and early Acquir'd by it , that divers Philosophers think them Innate , are but very few , in comparison of those that are requisite to Judge aright , about any one of a multitude of things , that occur , either in Natural Philosophy , or Theology . For in the Divine Nature , Power , Wisdom , and other Attributes , there is a Faecundity that has produc'd a World of Contrivances , Laws , and other things , that exceedingly surpass both the Number and Variety , that the dim and limited Intellect of Man could reach to , by framing and compounding Idaea's , without the assistance of the Patterns , afforded by the Works and Declarations of God. On the account of the same Prerogative of the Divine Knowledge , it must frequently happen , that the Notions and Opinions , Men take up , of the Works and Mind of God , upon the mere Suggestions of the Abstracted Reason , ( if I may so call it ) newly spoken of , must not only be almost always very deficient , but will be oftentimes very erroneous . Of which , we see evident proofs in many of the Opinions of the Old Philosophers , who , tho' Men of strong Natural parts , were misled by what they mistook for Reason , to maintain such things about the Works and the Author of Nature , as We , who , by the favour of Experience and Revelation , stand in a much clearer Light , know to be False , and often justly think utterly Extravagant . The Importance of the Subject lately spoken of , and its being too little Consider'd , may make it deserve to be Inculcated ; and therefore I shall subjoyn on this occasion , that That which I have lately call'd Abstracted Reason , is but a narrow Thing , and reaches but to a very small share of the Multitude of Things knowable , whether Human or Divine , that may be obtain'd by the help of further Experience , and Supernatural Revelation . This Reason , furnish'd with no other Notices than it can supply it self with , is so narrow and deceitful a Thing , that He that seeks for Knowledge only within Himself , shall be sure to be quite Ignorant of far the greatest part of Things , and will scarce escape being Mistaken about a good part of Those he thinks he knows . But , notwithstanding what has been hitherto said , I am far from intending to deny Reason any of its just Prerogatives . For I shew in another Paper , that Experience is but an Assistant to Reason , since it doth indeed supply Informations to the Understanding ; but the Understanding remains still the Judge , and has the Power or Right , to Examine and make use of the Testimonies that are presented to it . The Outward Senses are but the Instruments of the Soul , which Hears by the intervention of the Ear , and in respect of which , the Eye it self is but a more Immediate Optical Tube ; and the Sense does but Perceive Objects , not Judge of them . Nor do the more wary among the Philosophers , trust their Eye , to Teach them the Nature of the visible Object ; but only employ it to Perceive the Phaenomena it exhibits , and the Changes that happen to its self by the action of it . And whereas 't is confess'd , that the Sensories may deceive us , if the Requisites of Sensation be wanting ; as when a Square Tower appears Round at a great distance , and a Straight Stick half in the Water , appears Crooked , because of the double Medium ; 't is the part of Reason , not Sense , to Judge , whether none of the Requisites of Sensation be wanting ; which ( give me leave to add ) oftentimes requires , not only Reason , but Philosophy ; and then also 't is the part of Reason to Judge , what Conclusions may , and what cannot , be safely grounded on the Informations of the Senses , and the Testimony of Experience . So that when 't is said , that Experience Corrects Reason , 't is somewhat an improper way of Speaking ; since 't is Reason it self , that , upon the Information of Experience , Corrects the Judgments she had made before . And this ( borrow'd from the foremention'd Paper , because 't was never Publish'd ) prompts me to illustrate the Use of Reason , by comparing her to an able Judge , who comes to Hear and Decide Causes in a strange Country . For the General Notions he brings with him , and the Dictates of Justice and Equity , can give him but a very short and imperfect Knowledge of many things , that are requisite to frame a right Judgment , about the Cases that are first brought before him ; and before he has heard the Witnesses , he may be very apt to fall into Prejudicate Opinions of things , ( whether Persons or Causes . ) But when an Authentick and sufficient Testimony has clear'd Things to him , he then pronounces , according to the Light of Reason , he is Master of ; to which , the Witnesses did but give Information , tho' That subsequent Information may have oblig'd him , to lay aside some Prejudicate Opinions he had entertain'd before he receiv'd it . And what is said of Natural Experience , in reference to the Understanding , may , with due alteration , be apply'd to Supernatural Revelation : For here also the Understanding is to Examine , whether the Testimony be indeed Divine ; and , whether a Divine Testimony ought to be ( as It will easily perceive it should ) Believ'd , in what it clearly Teaches ; to omit other Uses of Reason , ( about Theological Matters ) which belong not to this place ; where it may suffice to have shewn , that Reason is not Degraded from the Dignity that belongs to her , of Perceiving and Judging ; tho' she be Obliged by her own Dictates , to take in all the Assistance she can , from Experience , whether Natural , or Supernatural ; and by the fuller Accounts of things she receives from those Informations , to Rectify , if need be , her former and less mature Judgments . In short , Those that cry up Abstracted Reason , as if it were Self-sufficient , exalt it in Words ; but we that Address Reason to Physical and Theological Experience , and direct it how to Consult them , and take its Informations from them , exalt it in Effect ; and Reason is much less usefully serv'd , by the former sort of Men , than by the later ; since whilst those do but flatter it , these take the right way to improve it . I hope you will not imagine , that I have , in the foregoing part of this Letter , said all that I could say pertinently . For , being mindful of the Brevity becoming an Epistolary Discourse , I omitted several Arguments , that would have challeng'd their places in a just Treatise ; and have but Touch'd upon most of those I have mention'd ; tho' Reasonings of this kind are usually like Tapestry , which loses much by being look'd on whilst the Hangings are Folded up , which should be display'd to their full Dimensions . But having offer'd you some things , which perhaps you have not met with elsewhere ; and having , tho' but transiently , touch'd upon the Grounds of divers other considerable Arguments ; I hope that your Learning and Sagacity , will both Supply what you will discern to have been Omitted , and Enforce what has been but Intimated ; and then I shall not despair , that what I have said may suffice to persuade you , that Experimental Philosophy may greatly Assist a well-dispos'd Mind , to yield an Hearty and Operative Assent to the Principles of Religion . I am , SIR , Your most &c. The End of the First Part. REFLECTIONS UPON A Theological Distinction . According to which , 't is said , That some ARTICLES of FAITH are Above Reason , but not Against Reason . In a Letter to a Friend . In the SAVOY : Printed by Edw. Jones , for John Taylor at the Ship in St. Paul's Church-yard . MDCXC . Advertisement . AFter the Author had begun the Second Part of his Christian Virtuoso , and made some Progress in it , which he designed to continue till he had Compleated it ; he was obliged to leave the Country , where he enjoyed some Leisure , and to remove to London ; where Sickness , and Business , and a Multitude of Visits he could not avoid receiving , did so distract him , that these Remora's , added to the Fertility of the Subjects that remained to be Treated of , which he found much greater than he was at first aware of , made him lay aside the Materials he had prepared for the Second Part , to a fitter Opportunity , and comply with the Occasions he had , to publish some Tracts that required more haste . And 't is for the like Reasons , that having at present some other Essays of a quite differing Nature in the Press , he is obliged to postpone his resuming and finishing the Second Part of the Christian Virtuoso ( which will require more Sheets than the former ) for some longer time ; thô yet to Comply with the Solicitations of the Printer , he consents both to let the First Part come abroad , and ( to make the Book of a more decent size ) add to it , by way of Substitution , a Discourse that is of Affinity enough to the other , upon the account of some of the Points it handles , and more upon that of its Scope ; and that will not be Ill received , if it have the good fortune to find the Publick as kind to it , as Private Perusers have been . For my Learned Friend Mr. H. O. SIR , 1. I Can neither admire nor blame the Curiosity you express , to receive some Satisfaction about the important Distinction that is made use of , in defence of some Mysteries of the Christian Religion ; namely , that they are indeed above Reason , but not against Reason . For though divers Learned Men have , especially of late , employed it ; yet I perceive you and your Friends N. N. think , that they have not done it so clearly , as both to prevent the Exceptions of Infidels , or render them more groundless ; and at least , to obviate the Surmises of those others , who have been persuaded to look upon this Distinction , but as a fine Evasion , whereby to elude some Objections that cannot otherwise be answered . And indeed , as far as I can discern by the Authors wherein I have met with it , ( for I pretend not to judge of any others , ) there are divers that employ this Distinction , few that have attempted to explain it , ( and that I fear , not sufficiently ) and none that has taken care to justifie it . II. In order to the removal of the Difficulties that you take notice of , I shall endeavour to do these Two things : 1. To declare in what sense I think our Distinction is to be understood . And , 2. To prove that it is not an Arbitrary or Illusory Distinction , but grounded upon the Nature of Things . Though I do not desire to impose my Sentiments on any Man , much less on You ; yet because I , as well as others , have had some occasions to make use of the Distinction we are considering ; I think myself obliged , before I go any further , to acquaint you in what sense I understand it . III. By such things then in Theology , as may be said to be above Reason , I conceive such Notions and Propositions , as mere Reason , that is , Reason unassisted by supernatural Revelation , would never have discover'd to us : Whether those things be to our finite Capacities , clearly comprehensible or not . And by things contrary to Reason , I understand such Conceptions and Propositions , as are not only undiscoverable by mere Reason , but also , when we understand them , do evidently and truly appear to be repugnant to some Principle , or to some Conclusion , of Right Reason . IV. To illustrate this Matter a little , I shall propound to you a Comparison drawn from that Sense , which is allow'd to have the greatest Cognation with the Understanding , which I presume you will readily guess to be the Sight . Suppose then , that on a deep Sea , a Diver should bid you tell him , What you can see there ; That which you would answer , would be , that you can see into a Sea-green Liquor , to the depth of some Yards , and no further : So that if he should farther ask you , Whether you see what lies at the Bottom of the Sea , you would return him a Negative Answer . If afterwards the Diver letting himself down to the Bottom , should thence bring up and shew you Oysters or Muscles with Pearls in them ; you would easily acknowledge , both that they lay beyond the reach of your Sight , and consequently argued an Imperfection in it ; thô but such an Imperfection , as is not Personal but Common to you with other Men , and that the Pearls have the genuin Colour and Lustre , that naturally belongs to such Gems . But if this Diver should pretend , that each of these Pearls he shews you , is as large as a Tennis-Ball , or some of them bigger than the Shells they were inclos'd in , and that they are not round but cubical , and their colour not White or Orient , but Black or Scarlet ; you would doubtless judge what he asserts , to be not only ( or not so properly , ) undiscernable by your Eyes , but contrary to the Informations of them , and therefore would deny what he affirms . Because , that to admit it , would not only argue your Sight to be Imperfect , but False and Delusory ; thô the Organ be rightly qualified , and duly applied to its proper Objects . V. This Illustration may give you some superficial Notion of the Difference betwixt a thing 's being above Reason , and its being contrary to it . But this may better appear , if we consider the Matter more distinctly . And to offer something in order to this , I shall beg leave to say , that , in my Opinion , the things that may be said to be above Reason , are not all of One sort , but may be distinguish'd into Two kinds , differing enough from each other . VI. For it seems to me , that there are some Things , that Reason by its own Light cannot Discover ; and others , that , when propos'd , it cannot Comprehend . VII . And First , there are divers Truths in the Christian Religion , that Reason left to itself , would never have been able to find out , nor perhaps to have so much as dream'd of : Such as are most of Those that depend upon the Free Will and Ordination of God , as , That the World was made in six Days , That Christ should be Born of a Virgin , and That in his Person there should be united Two such infinitely distant Natures as the Divine and Human ; and That the Bodies of Good Men shall be rais'd from Death , and so advantageously chang'd , that the Glorified Persons shall be like , or equal to , the Angels . VIII . Of this kind of Theological Truths , you will easily believe , that 't were not difficult for me to offer divers other Instances ; and indeed there are many Truths , and more I think than we are wont to imagine , that we want Mediums , or Instruments to discover , thô , if they were duly propos'd , they would be intelligible to us : As , for my part , when by looking on the Starry Heaven , first with my naked Eyes , and then with Telescopes of differing Lengths , I did not only discry more and more Stars , according to the Goodness of the Instruments I imployed , but discover'd great Inducements to think , that there are in those inestimably remote Regions , many Celestial Lights , that only the Want of more reaching Telescopes conceal from our Sight . IX . And thus much I presume you will close with the more easily , because it disagrees not with the Sentiments of some few ( for I dare say not , many ) Orthodox Divines . But I must take leave to add , that besides these mysterious Truths , that are too remote , and hidden , to be Detected by Human Reason ; there is another sort of Things , that may be said to be above Reason . X. For there are divers Truths delivered by Revelation , ( contained in the Holy Scriptures , ) that not only would never have been found out by mere natural Reason ; but are so abstruse , that when they are proposed as clearly , as proper and unambiguous Expressions can propose them in ; they do nevertheless surpass our dim and bounded Reason , on one or other of those Three accounts that are mentioned in a Dialogue about things transcending Reason ; namely either , as not clearly conceivable by our Understanding , such as the Infiniteness and Perfections of the Divine Nature ; or inexplicable by us , such as the Manner , how God can create a rational Soul ; or how , this being an immaterial Substance , it can act upon a Human Body , and be acted on by it ; ( which Instance I rather chose , than the Creation of Matter , because it may be more easily proved ) or else asymmetrical , or unsociable ; that is , such , as we see not how to reconcile with other Things , which also manifestly are , or are by us acknowledged to be , true ; such as are the Divine Prescience of future Contingents , and the Liberty that belongs to Man's Will , at least in divers Cases . XI . It will not perhaps be improper to observe , on this occasion , that , as of Things that are said to be above Reason , there are more kinds than one ; so there may be a Difference in the Degrees , or , at least , the Discernableness , of their Abstruseness . XII . For some things appear to surpass , or distress , our Understandings , almost as soon as they are propos'd , at least , before they are attentively look'd into . As , what is said to be Infinite , either in Extent or Number . But there are other things , the Notions whereof , as they first arise from the things considered in gross , and as it were indefinitely , are such , as do not choque or perplex our Understandings ; and are so far intelligible , that they may be usefully employ'd in ordinary Discourse . But when we come to make a deep Inspection into these , and prosecute to the uttermost the successive Inferences that may be drawn from them ; we reason our selves into Inextricable Difficulties , if not flat Repugnancies too . And to shew you , that I do not say this gratis ; be pleas'd to consider with me , that , we usually discourse of Place , of Time , and of Motion ; and have certain general indeterminate Conceptions , of each of these ; by the help of which , we understand one another , when we speak of them ; Thô , if we will look thorowly into them , and attentively consider all the Difficulties , that may be discover'd by such an Inspection ; we shall find our Reason oppress'd by the Number and Greatness of the Difficulties , into which we shall argue ourselves ; or , at least , may be argued by others ; thô these Men , who do make such shrewd Objections against the Hypothesis , we embrace , will hardly be able themselves to pitch on any , that will not allow us to repay them in the same coin . XIII . What has been newly said , may , I hope , assist us to clear a Difficulty , or Scruple , ( about the Distinction we treat of , ) which since it sprung up in my own Mind , may very probably occur also to your Thoughts ; namely , That if any Theological Proposition be granted to surpass our Reason ; we cannot pretend to believe it , without discovering , that we do not sufficiently consider what we say : Since we pretend to exercise an act of the Understanding , in embracing somewhat that we do not understand , nor have a Notion of . XIV . But on this occasion we may justly have recourse to a Distinction , like That I have lately intimated . For , in divers cases , the Notions , Men have of some Things , may be different enough , since the one is more obvious and superficial , and the other more Philosophical or accurat . And of these Two differing kinds of Conceptions , I have already offer'd some Instances in the very differing Notions , Men have of Place and Time : Which , thô familiar Objects , I elsewhere shew to be each of them of so abstruse a Nature , that I do not wonder to find Aristotle himself complaining of the Difficulty that there is to give a clear , and unexceptionable , Notion of Place ; nor to find so acute a Wit as St. Austin , ingenuously confessing his Disability to explicate the Nature of Time. XV. And what is said of the great Intricacies , that incumber a deep Scrutiny into these familiar Objects of Discourse , will hold , as to the Divisibility of Quantity ; as to Local Motion ; and as to some other Primary things ; whose Abstruseness is not inferior in Degree , thô differing as to the Kinds of things , wherein it consists . XVI . By such Instances as these , it may appear , that without talking as Parrots , ( as your Friends would intimate , that those that use our Distinctions must do ; ) or as irrational Men ; we may speak of some Things that we acknowledge to be on some account or other above our Reason ; since the Notions we may have of those Things , however dim and imperfect , may yet be of use , and may be in some measure intelligible , thô the Things they relate to , may , in another respect , be said to transcend our Understanding ; because an attentive Considerer may perceive , that something belongs to them , that is not clearly comprehensible , or does otherwise surpass our Reason ( at least in our present State. ) XVII . Having dispatch'd the Objection , that requir'd this Digression : I shall now step again into the Way , and proceed in it by telling you , that any one apposite Instance may suffice to clear the former part of the Expression that is imploy'd , when 't is said that a Mystery , or other Article of Faith , is above Reason , but not contrary to it : For if there be so much as one Truth , which is acknowledg'd to be such , and yet not to be clearly and distinctly comprehensible , it cannot justly be pretended , that to make use of the Distinction we are treating of , is to say something , that is not intelligible , or is absurd . And it will further justify the Expression quarrelled at , if we can make it appear , that it is neither Impertinent or Arbitrary , but grounded on the Nature of Things . And this I shall endeavour to do , by shewing , that though I admit Two sorts of Things , which may be said to be above Reason , yet there is no necessity , that either of them must ( always ) be contrary to Reason . XVIII . As for the first sort of Things said to surpass Reason , I see not , but that Men may be unable , without the Assistance of a more knowing Instructer , to discover some Truths ; and yet be able , when These are revealed or discovered to them by that Instructer , both to understand the disclosed Propositions by their own Rational Faculty , and approve them for True , and fit to be embraced . The Intellect of Man being such a bounded Faculty as it is , and naturally furnished with no greater a stock or share of Knowledge , than it is able by its own Endeavours to give itself , or acquire ; 't would be a great Unhappiness to Mankind , if we were obliged to reject , as repugnant to Reason , whatever we cannot discover by our own natural Light ; and consequently , to deny our selves the great Benefits we may receive from the Communications of any higher and more discerning Intellect . An Instance to my present purpose may be found among Rational Souls themselves , though universally granted to be all of the same Nature . For , thô a Person but superficially acquainted ( for Example ) with Geometry , would never have discovered by his own Light , that the Diameter of a Square is incommensurable to the Side ; yet when a skilful Mathematician dextrously declares , and by a Series of Demonstrations proves , that noble Theorem ; the Disciple by his now instructed Reason will be able , both to understand it , and to assent to it : Insomuch , that Plato said , that he was rather a Beast than a Man that would deny it . XIX . Other Instances may be alledged to exemplify the Truth newly mentioned . And indeed , there is not so much as a strong Presumption , that a Proposition or Notion is therefore repugnant to Reason , because it is not discoverable by It ; since it is altogether extrinsecal and accidental to the Truth or Falsity of a Proposition , that we never heard of It before ; or that we could never have found It out by our own Endeavours ; but must have had the Knowledge of It imparted to us by another . But then this Disability to find out a thing by our own Search , doth not hinder us from being able by our own Reason , both to understand it when duly proposed , and to discern it to be agreeable to the Dictates of right Reason . To induce you to assent to the later part of this Observation , I shall add , that these Intellectual Assistances may oftentimes not only enlighten , but gratify , the Mind , by giving it such Informations , as both agree with its former maimed or imperfect Notices , and compleat them . When , for example , an antique Medal , half consumed with Rust , is shewed to an unskilful Person , though a Scholar ; he will not by his own Endeavours be able to read the whole Inscription , whereof we suppose some parts to be obliterated by Time or Rust ; or to discover the Meaning of it . But when a knowing Medalist becomes his Instructer , he may then know some ( much defaced ) Letters , that were illegible to him before , and both understand the Sense of the Inscription , and approve it as genuine and suitable to the Things , whereto it ought to be congruous . And because divers Philosophical Wits are apt , as well as you , to be startled at the name of Mystery , and suspect , that because it implies something abstruse , there lyes hid some Illusion under that obscure Term : I shall venture to add , that agreeably to our Doctrine we may observe , that divers things that relate to the Old Testament , are in the New called Mysteries , because they were so under the Mosaick Dispensation ; thô they cease to be so , now that the Apostles have explained them to the World. As the calling of the Gentiles into the Church of God , is by their Apostle called a Mystery ; because , to use his Phrase , it had been hid from Ages and Generations : Though he adds , But now 't is made manifest to his Saints . And the same Writer tells the Corinthians , that he shows them a Mystery , which he immediately explains , by foretelling , that all pious Believers shall not dye , because that those that shall be found alive at the coming of Christ , shall not sleep , but be changed ; as the other Dead shall be raised incorruptible . Which surprising Doctrine , though because it could not be discovered by the Light of Nature , nor of the Writings of the Old Testament , he calls a Mystery ; yet it is no more so to us , now that he hath so expresly foretold it , and therefore declared it . XX. Other Instances I content myself to point at in the Margin , that I may pass on to confirm the Observation I formerly intimated ; that divers things which the Scripture teaches beyond what was known , or ( in probability ) are discoverable by natural Light , are so far from being against Reason , by being ( in the sense declared ) above it ; that these Discoveries ought much to recommend the Scripture to a rational Mind ; because they do not only Agree with the doubtful or imperfect Notions we already had of things , but Improve them , if not Compleat them . Nay , I shall venture to add , that these Intellectual Aids may not seldom help us to discern , That some Things , which not only are above Reason , but at first sight seem to be against it ; are really reconcileable to Reason , improved by the new Helps , afforded it by Revelation . To illustrate this by a Philosophical Instance , when Gallileo first made his Discoveries with the Telescope , and said , That there were Planets that moved about Jupiter ; He said something , that other Astronomers could not discern to be True , but nothing that they could prove to be False . And even when some Revelations are thought not only to transcend Reason , but to clash with it ; it is to be considered , Whether such Doctrins are really repugnant to any absolute Catholick Rule of Reason , or only to something , which so far depends upon the Measure of acquired Information we then enjoy , that , though we judge it to be Irrational , yet we are not sure , that the Thing , this Judgment is grounded on , is clearly and fully enough known to us . As , to resume the former Example , when Gallileo , or some of his Disciples , affirmed Venus to be sometimes Horned like the Moon ; thô this Assertion were repugnant to the unanimous Doctrine of Astronomers , who thought their Opinion very well grounded , on no less a Testimony than That of their own Eyes ; yet in effect the Proof was incompetent , because their unassisted Eyes could not afford them sufficient Information about this case . And so , when Gallileo spoke of Hills and Valleys , and Shadows , in the Moon , they were not straight to reject what he taught , but to have , if not a kind of implicit Faith , yet a great Disposition to believe what he delivered , as upon his own Knowledge , about the Figure and Number of the Planets . For they knew , that he had , and had already successfully made use of , a Way of discovering Coelestial Objects , that they were not Masters of ; nor therefore competent Judges of all the Things , though they might well be of many , that he affirmed to be discoverable by it . And though they could not see in the Moon what he observed , ( Valleys , Mountains , and the Shadows of these ) yet they might justly suspect , that the Difference of the Idea that they framed of that Planet , and that which he proposed , might well proceed from the Imperfection of their unaided Sight ; especially considering , that what he said , of the differing Constitution of what is there analogous to Sea and Land , did rather Correct and Improve , than absolutely Overthrow , their former Notices . For he allowed the Spots they saw , to be darker Parts of the Moon , and gave Causes of that Darkness ; which their bare Eyes could not have led them to any such Knowledge of . And the Non-appearance of the Mountainous Parts of the Moon in that form to the naked Eye , might well be imputed to the great Distance betwixt them and us , since at a far less Distance square Towers appear round , &c. XXI . It now remains , that I say something , that may both make some Application of the Form of Speech hitherto discoursed of , and afford a Confirmation of the Grounds whereon , I think , it may be justified . This I am the rather induced to do , because I expect it will be objected , that he that acknowledges , that the Thing he would have us believe , transcends our Reason , has a Mind to deceive us , and procures for himself a fair opportunity to delude us , by employing an Arbitrary Distinction , which he may apply as he pleases . XXII . But to speak first a word or two to this last Clause ; I acknowledge , that such a Distinction is capable enough of being misapplied : And I am apt to think , that , by some School-Divines , and others , it has been so . But , since there are other Distinctions that are generally and justly received by Learned Men , and even by Philosophers themselves , without having any Immunity from being capable to be perverted ; I know not , why the Distinction , we are considering , should not be treated as favourably as they . And however , the Question at present is not , whether our Distinction may possibly be misapplied by rash or imposing Men ; but whether it be grounded on the Nature of Things . To come then to the Thing it self , I consider , that for an Opinion to be above Reason , in the sense formerly assigned , is somewhat , that ( as was noted in reference to the first sort of Things , that surpass it ) is Extrinsecal and Accidental to its being True or False . For to be above our Reason , is not an Absolute thing , but a Respective one , importing a Relation to the Measure of Knowledge , that belongs to the Human Understanding , such as 't is said to transcend : And therefore it may not be above Reason , in reference to a more enlightned Intellect ; such as in probability may be found in Rational Beings of an higher Order , such as are the Angels ; and , without peradventure , is to be found in God ▪ Whom , when we conceive to be a Being Infinitely perfect , we must ascribe to him a perfect Understanding , and boundless Knowledge . This being supposed , it ought not to be denied , that a Superior Intellect may both comprehend several Things that we cannot ; and discern such of them to be congruous to the fixt and eternal Idea's of Truth , and consequently agreeable to one another , as dim-sighted Mortals are apt to suspect , or to think , to be separately False ; or , when collated , Inconsistent with one another . But to lanch into this Speculation , would lead me farther than I have time to go . And therefore I shall content my self to offer you one Argument , to prove , That of Things that may be said to be above Reason , in the Sense formerly explained , it is no way impossible , that even such an one should be true , as is obnoxious to Objections not directly answerable . For I consider , that of Things above Reason , there may be some which are really contradictory to one another , and yet each of them is maintainable by such Arguments , as very Learned and Subtle Men do both Acquiesce in , and Enforce , by loading the Embracers of the opposite Opinion , with Objections they cannot directly answer . XXIII . This I take to be manifest , in the case of the Controversy about the endless Divisibility of Quantity ; as , suppose , of a straight Line . For many eminent Mathematicians , and a greater number of Naturalists , and in particular almost all the Epicureans , and other Atomists , stifly maintain the Negative . The Affirmative is nevertheless asserted , and thought to be Mathematically demonstrated , by Aristotle in a peculiar Tract ; and both by His School , and by several excellent Geometricians besides . And yet in reality , the Assertions of these Two contending Parties are truly Contradictory ; since , of necessity a straight Line proposed must be , at least mentally , divisible , into Parts that are themselves still further divisible ; or , it must not be so , and the Subdivisions must at length come to a stop . And therefore one of the opposite Opinions must be true . And 't is plain to those , that have , with competent Skill and Attention , impartially examined this Controversy , that the side that is pitched upon , whichsoever it be , is liable to be exposed to such Difficulties , and other Objections , as are not clearly answerable ; but confound and oppress the Reason of those that strive to defend it . XXIV . I have , Sir , the more largely discoursed of the foregoing Distinction ; not only , because I did not find my self to have been prevented by others ; but , because I look upon the explaining and justifying of it to be of Importance , not alone to the Defence of some Mysteries of the Christian Religion , but ( what perhaps may have escaped your Observation ) of some important Articles of Natural Theology it self . For though Natural Religion taught divers Heathen Philosophers , such Truths as these , viz. The Production of the Rational Soul or Mind , which is an Immaterial Substance ; the Formation of the World out of the Universal Matter , though this Action required , that an Incorporeal Substance gave Motion to a Body ; that God knows Men's Thoughts and Intentions , how carefully soever they strive to hide them ; and that God foreknows the Events of the free Actions of such Men , as are not to be born these many Ages ; though , I say , these , and some other Sublime , Truths , were by divers Men embraced before the Gospel began to be Preached ; yet when I attentively consider , how hard it is to conceive the Modus of these Things , and explain how some of them can be performed ; and also , how some of the Divine Attributes , as Eternity , Immensity , Omnipresence , and some others , belong to God ; and how some Actions , as the Moving of Bodies , and the Creation of Human Minds , with all their Noble Faculties , are Exercis'd by Him : When I consider such Things , I say , I acknowledge , that , to my apprehension , there are some Doctrine allowed to have been discovered by the mere Light of Nature , that are liable to such Objections from Physical Principles , and the setled order of Things corporeal ; as , if they be urged home , will bring those that are Ingenuous to acknowledge , that their Intellects are but dim and imperfect , and indeed disproportionate to the sublimest and most mysterious Truths ; and that they cannot perfectly comprehend them ▪ and answer all the Difficulties that incumber them ; though they find themselves obliged to admit them , because of the weighty Positive Reasons , that recommend those Heteroclite Truths to their Assent . XXV . If you should now tell me , that , after all I have said , 't is plain , that the question'd Distinction ▪ if it were granted , might be of very bad consequence ; as affording shelter to any Unintelligible Stuff , that some bold Enthusiast , or conceited Philosophizer , may obtrude under the Venerable Title of a Mystery , above the Jurisdiction of Reason ; and , that though the Distinction were admitted , it would not be a good Proof of any disputed Article of the Christian Religion : If , I say , this shall be objected , I shall answer , ( what in part is intimated already ) That I do not deny , but that our Distinction is liable to be ill employed , but that this is no other Blemish than what is common with it to divers other Distinctions , that are without scruple Admitted , because they are useful ; and not Rejected , because they have not the Privilege , that they can never be misapplied : And therefore , both in reference to those Distinctions , and to That we have been Treating of , it becomes Men to stand upon their Guard , and strictly examine , how far the Notion , or Doctrine , proposed as a Mystery , does require , and is entituled to , the benefit of this Distinction . I shall also readily grant the greatest part of the second Member of your Objection . For I think it were great Weakness in a Christian , to urge our Distinction as a positive Proof : Since , thô it be Extrinsecal to an abstruse Notion , to be , or not to be , above Reason ; ( as was just now noted to another purpose , ) yet , generally speaking , that Abstruseness is less fit to bring credit to a Conception , or a Doctrine , than 't is to make it to be distrusted . Nor are Christians such fond Discoursers , as to pretend , That such an Article of Religion ought to be believed , Because 't is above Reason , as if that were a proof of its Truth ; but only , that if it be otherwise well proved , it ought to be believed , Notwithstanding its being above Reason . XXVI . And this I shall represent in favour of those that believe these abstruse Articles , that are clearly revealed in the Scripture , upon the Authority of the Divine Revealer ; ( who never deceives Others , nor can be Himself deceived , ) that since , as we have lately shewn by the contradictory Opinions about the Divisibility of Quantity , some Doctrines must be true , whose Difficulties do not appear to be surmountable by our dim Reason ; and since the Perfectness of God's Knowledge permits us not to doubt , but that He certainly knows which of the two Contending Opinions is the True ; and can declare so much to Men : It would not be a sure ground of rejecting a Revealed Article , to alledge , that 't is encumber'd with confounding Difficulties , and lyable to many and weighty Objections . XXVII . And , ( to add somewhat that may help to defend some Truths of Natural , and others of Revealed , Religion ) That a thing may be rationally assented to , upon clear positive Evidence , though we cannot directly answer the Objections , that a Speculative and Subtle Wit may devise against it ; is a Truth , which , as important as it is to Religion in general , and the Christian Religion in particular , I think one may sufficiently manifest by this one Instance , That , because we can walk up and down , and so remove our Bodies from Place to Place , by this one Argument , I say , we are justly satisfied , that there is Local Motion in the World , notwithstanding all the Specious and Subtle Arguments , that Zeno and his Followers have employed to impugne that Truth : Against which , they have alleged such Difficulties , as have not only puzzled and perplexed , but ( for ought yet appears ) nonplus'd the Antient Philosophers , and , I doubt , those Moderns too , that have attempted to give clear Solutions of them . XXVIII . If now , Sir , we look back upon what hath hitherto been discoursed , I hope you will allow me to gather thence the Conclusion I aim at , which is , that There is no necessity , that every Notion or Proposition that may be found deliver'd in the Holy Scriptures , that surpasses our Reason , must therefore be contradictory to it : And that , in case the Christian Religion be True , and it's Mysteries or other Articles divinely Revealed ; 't is not enough , for the Confutation of any of them , to reject the Expression , that 't is above Reason , but not contrary to it ; as if it involved an unintelligible or groundless Distinction : For thô This will not evince the Truth of a Mystery , since That must be Establish'd upon its proper Grounds and Arguments ; yet it will keep it from being Therefore Absurd or False , because it transcends our Reason : Since to do so , may belong almost indifferently to a Chymerical Notion , and a Mysterious Truth . And if the Expression be employed to justify any thing , that , thô styl'd a Mystery , is but a pretended One ; the Error will lye , not in the Groundlesness of the Distinction , but the Erroneousness of the Application . I am , SIR , Your most &c. FINIS . Greatness of Mind , PROMOTED BY CHRISTIANITY . In a LETTER to a Friend . The First Part. LONDON , Printed by Edward Jones , for John Taylor at the Ship in St. Paul's Church-yard . MDCXCI . To my honoured Friend Sir R. M. SIR , I Do not wonder , that a great Soul , like yours , should enquire , What aspect Religion , and particularly that of Christians , has upon Greatness of Mind : But , I confess , I somewhat marvel , that you should be put upon the Enquiry , by the Suggestions of such a Libertine as Mr. N. N.'s confidently pretending , that his Atheistical and Sensual Principles are much more friendly , than the Doctrines of Christianity , to a noble Frame of Mind . Wherefore I dare not permit the Sense I have of my own Weakness , how great and just soever , to keep me from presenting you with my Thoughts ; and the rather , because I presume you are not indisposed to receive a Satisfaction in this Point , since you seem to expect it from a Pen that is no better than mine ; which , you well know , must not be , on this occasion , assisted by the Arguments and Ornaments , that the fine Sentences of the Fathers , and other Divines and Humanists , might afford to a Person that were at leisure , and furnished with a Library . Yet I shall not much , either excuse , or deplore , my being so ill accommodated for the Task you impose upon me ; because as you seem to desire but my own Thoughts , so I know not , whether common Place-books would afford me any great Assistance on so uncommon a Theme ; and , I confess , that , when the Matter will bear it , I , as well as you , do less care for Authorities , especially taken from Discourses , designed rather to Persuade than Prove , in comparison of those Arguments , that are suggested by a due Consideration of the Nature of the Thing . But yet , I presume , you will readily give me leave to do that frequently enough , which your Friend , perhaps , will call Preaching . For besides that , your Desires , and my Haste , confine me to the Bible and my own Thoughts ; the frequent Citation of Texts of Holy Scripture is exacted by the Nature of the Question I am to handle : it being necessary , for the evincing of the Doctrines of Christianity , not to be inconsistent with Greatness of Mind , that we as well consider , What those Doctrines are , which sure will be best declared by the Scriptural Texts that contain them , as What are the Attributes of Greatness of Mind . CHAP. I. TO proceed then with some Method , as well as much Brevity , I conceive , it will be no unfit Way to come to a Resolution in our Inquiry , if I First set down and enumerate the chiefest Things , that , in the estimation of Intelligent Men , do , as if they were so many Ingredients , make up what we call Magnanimity or Greatness of Mind , That not being a single Starr , but a Constellation of elevated and radiant Qualities ; and then shew , that Religion , especially That of the Christians , is , at least , consistent with each of these , if it do not also promote it . But in this Enumeration , thô I shall , ex abundanti , take in some Qualities , that are not Essential to Greatness of Mind , but rather Accessions to it ; yet I shall not scrupulously distinguish those Things that are necessary to compleat it , and Those that are partly some of them Signs , and some of them Effects of it ; hoping from your Equity , that these additional Things will be thought to make full amends , if , through Haste or Mistake , I should chance to have omitted any Property , that you may judge to belong to the true Notion of Generosity . I shall , in the following Discourse , take it for granted , ( and I hope I need not tell you , that I do so ) that as we think not Masons , but Jewellers , fit to judge of the Genuineness and Value of precious Stones ; so you will allow me to take the Notion and Measures of Greatness of Mind , not from the Opinions of the Injudicious Vulgar , but the Judicious Estimates of Reason , improv'd by Philosophy , and enlightn'd by Natural Theology . I know , the undiscerning Multitude , whose Judgment seems rather lodg'd in the Eye than in the Brain , when they hear Men name Greatness of Mind , are apt to fancy Something , that , like the Coronation of a King , is attended with Pomp and Splendor , and a numerous Train of Gazers , and the loud Acclamations of the People . And , at least , when mention is made of an Heroick Soul , they imagine , that it cannot be but in a great Commander , like a Roman Emperor , or a Tartarian General , that leads and defeats Armies , and desolates whole Countries , and leaves them Peopled only with Carkasses . But Reason and Religion , that look on Human things with Eyes untroubled by those pompous Outsides that dazle the Vulgar , can easily see a vast Difference betwixt Greatness of Fortune and Greatness of Mind . And not only Christianity teaches , that God , who is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Respecter of Persons , Acts 10. and 34. 2 Sam. 14. and 14. Sees not Persons as Man sees them ; and that a thing that is sublime amongst Men , may be an Abomination to Him : But Philosophers themselves can easily distinguish betwixt that real Greatness , that truly belongs to the Man , and that Theatrical one , that Fortune may have annext to his Condition . And , thô they pay a peculiar Honor and Respect to great Virtue in Sovereigns , rather than in Subjects , because in the former , 't is more diffusively beneficial , and cannot last without resisting stronger Temptations ; yet , they do not think , that a great Empire always either finds , or makes , a great Soul. And if Dignities , how high soever , be attain'd by mean Submissions , or weak Actions , they think this extrinsecal Greatness can no more make a mean Soul Great , than high Stilts can make a Dwarf a proper Man. Perhaps , they look upon Many , who , for making a great Bustle and Noise in the World , are , by themselves , and the shallow Vulgar , thought great Spirits , but as Gnats , that are in themselves small and worthless Creatures , and are really considerable for Nothing , save the Noise and the Stings wherewith they are able to disturb Mens Rest . That lucky Monarch , that overcame so great a Part of the then known World , and conquer'd Countrys , faster than one would have thought he could have travell'd over them , has this Character given of his stupendious Exploits , by the Roman Historian , that all he had done , was , That he durst well despise despicable things . And in a Poet of the same Nation , this is his Elogy , Faelix Terrarum Praedo non utile mundo , Editus Exemplum . And if such Persons as They , had so little Respect for so great a Monarch , that was a lawful Sovereign ; what Liberty , think you , do Philosophers allow themselves , who so little value the Favourites of Fortune , for their being so that even such as those prosperous Usurpers , Phocas , &c. that her Fondness , and the Applause of a Multitude , ( as blind , perhaps , as She is painted ) have seated in the Throne ; Philosophers , in their Thoughts , do as well doom to a Scaffold , as Religion does to Hell. And certainly , True Greatness of Mind must be something that both Resides in the Soul , and is Perfective of it ; neither of which Properties belong to any thing that Fortune can bestow : and all that outward Greatness can do , is not to make a Soul Great , but to afford one that is , the opportunity of shewing itself to be so . And all these Submissions and Respects that Custom , or Fear , or Interest make Men pay to those , whom , only their Titles , or their Places , or their Power makes Great ones , do as little argue or increase the real worth of those envied Persons , as the standing for more than formerly in an account , turns a Brass Counter into Silver or Gold. And as no less skill in Arithmetick is requir'd , to Multiply , &c. a thousand Farthings than a thousand Guinea's , thô one of the latter , be worth almost a thousand of the former ; so the ordering or disposing of all things according to the best Rules , and after the best manner they are capable of , may argue no less Greatness of Mind in a private Man , than is exercis'd by a Great Monarch , in those Actions that attract the Eyes , and busie the Tongues , of Nations . And as it usually speaks a Man a better Artist to make a Pocket-Watch , than a great Town-Clock , all the Advantage the later has of the former , consisting in the Greatness of the Matter that is wrought , and not that of the Skill , that is display'd : So it sometimes happens , that those Productions of Virtue argue a greater Soul , that make , by far , a lesser Shew and Noise . And you may remember , not only , that Socrates , notwithstanding his private , and even necessitous , Condition , was by the Oracle preferr'd to all the Grecians , when Greece was the Theatre of generous Minds : But , that a far truer Oracle than That of Delphos , pronounc'd the poor Widows Mind , and Circumstances , to have made her Mite a greater Liberality , than all that the Rich Man had bestow'd upon the Corban . And it is the Sentence of no worse a Judge than Salomon . Let us not then from the mean Notions of the Vulgar , and the fond Opinions of common Souls , take our Estimates of so sublime and extraordinary a Quality , as Greatness of Mind . For many Things , to which they give not only their Approbation , but their Applause , are , and ought to be , as little esteem'd , if they be condemn'd by the Wise , as a piece of Brass Money , that has long past currant among the People , ought to be thought good Gold , when Refiners and Say-masters have declar'd it counterfeit . And if you ask me , What Notion then of Greatness of Mind , I am willing to allow , I shall freely tell you , that , in my apprehension , the Man that has a Great Mind , is he that uses his utmost moral Diligence to find out what are the best Things he can do , and then , without being deterr'd by Dangers , or discourag'd by Difficulties , does resolutely and steadily persue them as far as his Ability and Opportunities will serve ; and This out of an Internal Principle of Love to God and Man , and with a sincere Aim , to Glorify the one , and Benefit the other . CHAP. II. BUT , before I descend to Particulars , it will not be amiss to take notice of one Consideration , that may , in general , make it probable , That the Christian Religion is rather favourable , than opposite , to true Magnanimity . That this Argument may make somewhat the more Impression , I shall , thô very briefly , observe that the Aspects , both of the Author , the Rules , the Aims , or Scopes , and the Rewards of Virtue , as 't is recommended by Christianity , have a great and direct tendency to Elevate it , and make it Heroick . And first , the prime Author of the Doctrine of the Gospel being GOD himself , who both knows Man perfectly , and is mentioned in Scripture as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or Lover of Mankind ; 't is but reasonable to suppose , that the Doctrines and Laws he caused to be solemnly delivered to Mankind , and confirmed by Miracles , and whose System is , in the Apocalypse , honoured with the Title of The Everlasting Gospel , ( i. e. ) not to be succeeded by a more perfect Institution , as the Mosaick Law was by That ; should be fitted to beget and advance solid and sublime Virtue , and be more , than any other Institution , Perfective of Human Nature . Next , the Rules , and ( if there be any such ) the Counsels of the Christian Religion require , and tend to , extraordinary degrees of Virtue : The Divine Legislator , being able to look into the Hearts of Men , makes his Laws reach Those , and Those principally , too . The loving GOD with all our Hearts , with all our Minds , &c. and our Neighbour as our selves , as comprehensive as those two grand Principles of Virtue are , is by our Saviour made the Summary of the Moral Law , and adopted into the Gospel ; the cleansing ourselves from all Filthiness , both of Flesh and Spirit ; and the abstaining from all kind , or appearance , of Evil , are the Negative Parts of the Christians Duty ; and for the Positive Parts , we are plainly told , That unless our Righteousness exceed that boasted one of the Scribes and Pharisees , we shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven . We are urged to grow in Grace , to add to our Faith , Virtue , and to That , a whole Train of excellent Qualities . And , for fear any such thing should be thought to be purposely omitted , because left unmentioned , this general Exhortation is given us ; Finally , my Brethren , whatsoever things are true , &c. But there is yet a more aspiring Path of Virtue trac'd us out in the Gospel , where it proposes to us the Example of Christ , as One , whose Steps we are to tread in : For not only that Divine Person never committed any Sin , neither was Guile found in his Mouth ; but the Supreme and Omniscient Judge , God Himselfe , Declared , by a Voice from Heaven , his full Approbation both of his Person and his Doctrine , when he said , This is my beloved Son , in whom I am well pleased , hear he him . And his Sinless Life , which was a Living Law , did not only surpass the Examples , but even the Precepts and the Idea's too , of the Heathen Moralists and Philosophers , as may be elsewhere shewn . And the becoming a serious Disciple of so Perfect and Divine a Teacher , does itself so engage a Man to renounce his former Vices , that when St. Paul had dissuaded his Romans from divers other Vices , instead of exhorting them to the contrary Virtues in particular , he only desires them , in general , to put on the Lord Jesus Christ , as a comprehensive Durty , which contain'd in it all the Virtues , he declin'd to enumerate . Thirdly , but thô he calls us to high Degrees of Virtue , yet he does not to Unattainable ones ; For , thô Philosophy wisely forbore , thô not always to commend , yet to injoyn , things disproportionate to Human Infirmities ; yet , he may well be allow'd to engage us to more than Human Virtues , that by his Divine Assistances , if they be duly sought , is always ready to inable us to acquire and practise Them. Of his Fulness , says St. John , We have all received , and Grace for Grace ; ( i. e. ) either Graces answerable to His , as the Faculties of a Child's Mind , are to Those of a Perfect Man ; or , Grace upon Grace , ( i. e. ) an Accumulation of Graces heaped upon one another ; which may keep you from wondring , that St. Paul should dare to say , That he could do all things thorow Christ that strengthned him . And where his Invitations meet with an honest and a willing Mind , his Commands do not only Chaulk out the Way , but Give Strength to walk in it ; and he usually , does by his Spirit , such a kind of Work , as he sometimes did miraculously by his Power , when he at once bid , and enabled , a Paralytick Person that wanted Strength to stir from his Bed , to rise and walk . And when , having commanded St. Peter to walk to him upon the Sea , he enabled him securely to tread upon the Waves ; thereby Approving and Rewarding the excellent Notion that Disciple had , That the Command of Christ was a sufficient Cause to put him upon Action , thô a Miracle were requisite to carry him thorow with it . Fourthly , The Rewards propos'd to Virtue and Piety , by the Christian Religion , do exceedingly tend to animate and heighten Them ; whether we consider the Recompences the Gospel propounds in this Life , or those that it promises in the Next . The great present Rewards of Virtue , are , you know , the Approbation of Good Men , and the Applause of a Man 's own Conscience . The First of these is as well attainable by Christian Hero's , as by any other ; for Virtue loses neither its Worth , nor Amiableness , by being Baptiz'd ; and thô in some Times and Places lesser Degrees of it may be disregarded , or traduc'd , yet , generally speaking , the greater Degrees of it will either invite , or extort , Mens Esteem . Among the Roman Persecutors , the exemplary Lives and Constancy of the Primitive Christians , brought it to be Proverbially said , That such a Man was a good Man , saving that he was a Christian ; and , Soli Christiani mortis contemptores , was usually in Heathen's Mouths . There are divers Qualities , and those more press'd by the Christian , than any other , Institution , that have in them so much of Native Loveliness , that St. Paul might justly say of them , That he that exercises himself in them , is , generally speaking , both ceptable to God , and approv'd by Men. Nor did those Virtues that recommended the Great Constantine , whilst he was a Gentile , lose their Lustre , or the Veneration they procured him , when he turn'd Christian , and practis'd them with higher Aims , than that of satisfying Himself , and pleasing his People . And as for the Reward of a good Conscience , which was able to make Hercules undergo all his Labors ; and made all the other Hero's of the Gentile World ; I think , it will not be doubted , but that this inward Recompence is received , not only without any Defalcations , but with great Improvements , by him , whose Virtues flow from Religion . For , to him the Applauses of Conscience may well be more acceptable than all the various sorts of Musick , that Solemniz'd the Dedication of Nebuchadnezar's Golden Image , since in him Conscience does not , as in mere Natural Men , act only the Part of a Domestick Judge , but That of a Delegate from God himself ; and its Absolutions are less welcome , as they are Approbations of Reason , than as they are the Pledges of Gods Acceptance , and of that higher Reward that will be consequent to it in the Life to come . For these Joys , that are plac'd on the other side of the Grave , are much the Noblest part of the Recompence of Virtue , and proportionable Incitements to the Practice of it ; and yet , on the account of future Rewards , the Christian has much greater Motives to Heroick Virtue , than the Heathen Moralist , or Philosopher . For , the posthume State of Man is so dim and uncertain , that we find even the greatest Men , among the Heathens , speak very doubtfully , and not without Ifs and And 's , of a future State , and much more of a future Happiness , as may be instanc'd in Socrates , Cyrus , Seneca , and many others ; so that they rather seem'd to have Wish'd , or Hop'd , than Believ'd , their future Felicity : And , I fear , that many of them , finding that happy State describ'd chiefly by the Poets , reckon'd it among Poetick Fictions . And those that did , though but waveringly , expect Recompences in the Life to Come , had but poor and mean Idea's suggested to them of it ; the Hopes they were entertain'd with , being of Fortunate Islands and the Elysian Fields , which are not so Transcendent as to make a diffident Man very forward to quit the Gardens of Epicurus , that he has here in Possession , upon the doubtful hopes of other Gardens in Elysium . Whereas , to excite the Christian to an Heroick Degree of Virtue , he is not allow'd to Hope , but Commanded to be intirely Confident of passing out of this World into a Place , to which the Poets Elysium is much more Inferior , than the Possession of a Garden is to That of an Empire . To attempt the Description of that Coelestial Happiness , would be , contrary to my Inclination , to launch out into a Common Place ; and were a Work , that if my Haste did not , my Disability would , dissuade me from : And therefore , though it be a State made up of the Confluence of all sort of Things rationally Desireable ; yet , having only said in general of all the other Goods that it comprizes , that the Scripture tells us , That Eye has not Seen , nor Ear Heard , nor the Heart of Man Conceiv'd , what God has laid up for them that Fear him : I shall particularly take notice only of those Parts of this Inestimable Reward , that may peculiarly concern my present purpose , by being the chief Things that Heroick Souls are wont to Aspire too ; a Good Name , Honour , and Dignity . To have a Good Name for Good Actions , cannot but be a very desireable Thing , the Applause of Wise and Good Men , being a loud Eccho from without , that , by repeating it , confirms the Approbation given by the Conscience within . But though to do Virtuous and Worthy Actions be the best and likeliest way of acquiring a Good Name , yet 't is not a certain one : For , such is the Ignorance , the Malice , or the Enmity of a great many , that no Man is sure to escape being Mis-represented , or Traduc'd ; as , we see , that the Sublimity , the Brightness , and the regular Courses of the Stars themselves , could not hinder wanton Poets , or fanciful Astronomers , from giving those Luminous Constellations the Names not only of the Nobler Beasts , as the Lyon , the Eagle , and the Whale ; but even of Animals that lie under an ill Name , as the Dog , the Goat , and the Scorpion . And though it be true , that oftentimes Innocency long Clouded , does , like Lightning , break out at last ; yet oftentimes too , that happens not till Malice and Envy are Dead , because the maligned Person is so ; by which means he does not Live to know he is justified ; and many , if not all , of those mis-inform'd Men are Dead and gone for whose good Opinion he was chiefly concern'd . But though the Christian may , as well as any other , be Traduc'd by Calumny , which often serves good Men , ( as the Heathen Persecuters did the Martyrs , when they exposed them to the Peoples view , cloath'd in the Skins of Beasts , to make them hideous and hateful ; ) yet he is justly cheared by the Assurance he has , that there will come a Time when opprest and disfigur'd Innocency shall shine forth and triumph , and his good Name , as well as his Body , shall have a Glorious Resurrection , even in the Sight of his Accusers and Enemies , and of all those whom their Slanders did either prevail with , or startle . For at that great and general Assize , to which there shall be a far greater Confluence , than the Assyrian Monarch drew to the Plains of Babylon , the Heroick Disciples of the Apostles will be able to say , upon happier terms than the Apostles themselves did here below , that they are made a Spectacle to God , to Angels and to Men. And in that Illustrious Assembly , of the First Born , whose Names are written in Heaven , being present , the Men , not only of all Nations , but of all Ages too , the Vizards shall be as well taken off , as the Masques ; and the formerly traduc'd Saints , being welcom'd with the Title of Good and Faithful Servants , shall solemnly be acquitted by the Sentence , not of a Fallible , or partial , Judge , but of an Infinite and Supreme One , That searches the Hearts and Reins , and cannot be Deceiv'd or Brib'd ; and , to be sure , that the injur'd Saint shall come off with Honour enough , he shall then be Absolv'd by being Crown'd . This Celestial Crown comprehending , in the Scripture Dialect , both the remaining Parts of the Christians Reward , Honour and Dignity , or Glory , and Preferment ; it will be pertinent to mention some Advantages that giveit an high Preference about the Crowns of Monarchs here below . And First , Earthly Crowns may somtimes be the Fruits and Recompences of Worth and Virtue , but are not at all the proofs of them . They are usually the Gifts of Nature , and , not unfrequently , of Fortune ; and History gives us cause to wish , they were more seldom the Acquists of Crimes . But the Celestial Crowns proclaim , thô not the Merit , the Worth of them that receive them , being never adjudg'd but to Such , whom previous Graces and Virtues have fitted and qualified for the Inheritance of the Saints in Light. Besides , as an Earthly Crown may be acquir'd without Merit , so it may be possess'd without Happiness . And if Crimes be made Steps to a Throne , they prove so many Thorns to him that sits on it , who is there a more Illustrious , not a less tormented , Malefactor . The Sublimity of a Throne , as little as the Height of a Scaffold , keeping a Criminal Person from feeling the punishments inflicted on him there . As may appear by the instance of Herod Agrippa , whose Throne , and glistering Habit , which Josephus takes notice of , thô they procur'd him not only the Acclamations , but Adorations , of the dazled Multitude , could not protect him from the incens'd Justice of an higher King than he ; so that whilst others treated him as a God , he found himself one of the most miserable of Men , and was fain to hasten from a Seat , which occasion'd , but could not protect , his Impiety . But a Coelestial Crown , as it is graciously bestowed for the Supream Recompence of Virtue , and on that account may be called a Crown of Righteousness ; so it always proves a Blessing as inseparable from Happiness , as a Thing is from it self . The Crowns of this World , by the very advantage of being Hereditary , shew , that they cannot preserve the Possessors from Death . But the Crown , I speak of , is by the Divine Bestower of it , called , A Crown of Life ; and of it , in respect of other Crowns , may be truly said , what Solomon said of Wisdom , in reference to other Goods , That the Excellency of it is , that it gives Life to the owner thereof . And though Earthly Crowns be such Transitory Things , that we may observe , that even the Four great Monarchies of the World were by God represented to Nebuchadnezar , but as parts of a Dream , whereas the Kingdom promis'd to Christians , is called in the Scripture , A Kingdom that cannot be moved , as the Believers Crown is , in opposition to those fading Crowns of Lawrel , that adorn'd the Heads of the Roman Conquerors , called an unwithering Crown of Glory : As if the Lawrel plac'd on the Christians Head , could grow and flourish in the Wreath , better than it did on the Tree . But all that I have yet said is Inferior to this last Prerogative of the Coelestial Crown , that it does not only confer a relative Dignity or Preeminence , but an essential Worth and Excellency ; as if the Diamonds , which adorn'd that Crown , should impart their own Sparklingness , Transparency , and Incorruptibility , to the Person that wears it . The highest Preferments here below do raise a Man above others , without raising him above himself . By being at the top of a Ladder , a Man comes to an higher Station , but is not really taller than he was ; and a Vane , by being plac'd on the top of the highest Steeple , is not from Iron turn'd into Gold or Silver , but remains still of the same base Metal it was , and is but a Weather-Cock , and so the Sport of the Winds . But a Coelestial Crown is always attended with a Personal Improvement , befitting so high a Dignity . The Heavenly Coronation has a Virtue like That of the Unction of Saul , who , upon his being made King , was inabled to Prophecy , and was turn'd into an other Man. And the Resemblance holds in this too , that Christ is said , to have made his Redeemed ones , not only Kings , but Priests to God and his Father , as if the Kingly Dignity were not enough , unless the Sacred Character of a Priestly Office were added . Congruously to which , St. Peter calls Christians , in general , a Royal Priesthood ; the Understanding , the Will , the Affections , are all refin'd and elevated ; and the very Body itself is transformed into a Spiritual Body . As if the Glorify'd Soul did shine , with an undiminish'd Splendor , through its happily chang'd Mansion . And we may well suppose , that this will be a Bright and Noble Structure , if we remember , that the Angels , who , in their Apparitions to good Men , were wont to be very careful not to frighten them , did yet appear with a Majestick Splendor ; and that Angel that the Apostles saw in our Saviours Sepulchre is represented as a young Man cloathed in a long white and shining Garment . And we are told by St. Paul , that , in the future State , our vile Bodies shall be transform'd into the likeness of his Glorious Body ; and how Glorious it is in Heaven , we may guess , by what it was at his Transfiguration here on Earth , during which , the Scripture relates , That his Face did shine as the Sun , and his Raiment was white as the Light. And of Moses and Elias , thô they came to speak to him of his Death , 't is added by St. Luke , That they also appear'd in Glory . And since our Saviour has assured us , That those shall be accounted worthy of that State , shall be like , or equal to the Angels ; And that then the Righteous shall shine like the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father , who knows , but that the Transfigur'd Soul and Body of some happy Saint may be as Glorious a Sight , as that which appear'd to St. John in the Apocalyps , when he saw an Angel standing in the Sun ? If it be said , that these are very bold Hyperbolies , I hope the Texts , I have mention'd , will keep them from seeming altogether groundless Conceits . And , when among other excellent Prerogatives , that our Saviour promises the persevering Beleivers , One is , That he will give them Power over the Nations , and to Rule them with a Rod of Iron ; and the Other , which may well be the last , is exprest in these words . To him that overcometh , will I grant to sit with me in my Throne , even as I evercame , and am set down with my Father in his Throne . And thô I readily yield , that these Expressions are not to be and literally , taken ; yet , when I consider the infinite Power , and Goodness , of God ; and that , for ought we know , he may have numberless Dominions , and Setts of Governable Creatures , that we are yet strangers too ; I think , God's Attributes , and Christ's Expressions , may warrant us to expect amazing things from him that is Able , and has Declar'd himself Willing , to do for us above what we can ask , or , in our present State , so much as think . And , at least , that will be allow'd me , which I drive at in this Celebration of our future Happiness , that the Christian Religion , by proposing such inestimable Rewards , presents Beleivers with far higher Motives to Heroick Virtue , than Morality , or Philosophy , can afford other Men. Advertisement . THe Author being desir'd to add yet something to the foregoing Discourses , to give the Book they make Parts of , a Thickness more proportionate to its Largeness ; he did among other Papers of his , that he turn'd over in Compliance with that request , light upon an Epistolary Discourse , which by its very being unfinish'd , seem'd ( by reason of its shortness ) the more fit to serve the present turn . For this Tract having been drawn up in a Countrey , whence the Author was oblig'd to remove , before he had made any considerable Progress in his Work ; he was easily induc'd to put it up in a Bundle of other Writings , which , like this , were laid aside till he should be at much leisure to compleat them . But upon the newly mention'd occasion , finding that among divers loose and lesser Memoirs , that had been thrown together in order to the design'd Treatise , there were 15 or 20 Pages at the beginning that were Coherent enough ; he was content they should attend the Christian Virtuoso , because of the affinity of the things design'd in both the Papers ; which being to recommend the Christian Religion to worthy Souls , 't was congruous enough that a Discourse which shews , That the Christian Religion may very well consist with a Philosophick Genius ; should be accompany'd by another that tends to manifest , That Greatness of Mind , which comprizes uncommon degrees of Virtue , is not only Consistent with Christianity , but may be highly Promoted by it . Those that reflect on this Aim , will not ( 't is hop'd ) think it strange , that the Style is a little Rais'd ; since tho' the Subject be Theological , yet the Writer , ( who was then many Years Younger than he now is ) being a Person of Honour , and writing for a Noble Gentleman , who , like himself , was a Layman ; 't was thought not only Allowable but Fit , that the Style should not be altogether unsuitable to the Subject and to the Aim : which was to make Impressions on an Illustrious Person , not by dry Precepts , or Languid Discourses , but by exciting him to Heroick Virtue , by the Noblest Patterns and Ideas , and the most moving Incentives , he could propose . And tho' the Discouragements lately mention'd , and since increas'd by the Authors not being able to find some of the principle Materials he had , in loose Sheets , provided for the following Discourse ; oblige him to lay aside the thoughts of Compleating it ; yet because 't is very possible that some Elevated Soul may have a Mind to prosecute the design , or Cultivate so noble a Subject ; he thought it not amiss ( as little Samples of his Method or Way of Treating it ) to Subjoyn to the greater Fragment , besides the Index of the Heads of Discourse , intended for the First Part , 5 or 6 Lesser Fragments that he lighted on , whilst he was seeking for some Papers belonging to the same Tract , that should have been , but were not , found in their Company . CHAP. III. TO have high Aims and Noble Designs , is so Genuin a Mark , and Effect of Greatness of Mind , that there is not any more generally acknowledged ; insomuch that Ambition , tho' it be but a Depravation or a Counterfeit of this Heroick frame of Mind , does yet so dazzle the Eyes of the greater part of Men , as to pass for Magnanimity ; and Noble Attempts do oftentimes , even when they fail of Success , not miss of Esteem . — Magnis tamen excidit ausis , was meant for an Encomium by him that said it . And I remember that one of the Ancients reckons it among the Glories of that Great Captain , Hannibal , who long successfully disputed , with the Romans , the Empire of the World , that he resolved to Besiege Rome , tho' he never prov'd able to lead his Army within the Sight of her Walls . Now , as to have Elevated Aims is one of the chief Signs , and indeed Parts , of an Heroick temper of Mind ; so , there are no men that seem to me to have Nobler and Sublimer Aims , than Those to which a true Christian is Encouraged ; since he aspires to no less things than to please and glorify God ; to promote the Good of Mankind ; to improve , as far as is possible , his Personal Excellencies in this Life ; and to secure to himself for ever a glorious and happy Condition in the next . CHAP. IV. ONE of the grand Difficulties , that he , who would be highly Virtuous , must expect to surmount and Conquer , especially in such a Degenerous age , as ours , is the Temptation that is afforded by the Universality of vitious Customs and Examples . I wish 't were needless , solicitously to prove , either how great an Influence Examples , especially bad ones , have on the generality of Men ; or how general bad Examples have been in most Ages , and in particular in That we live in . The Scandal given by bad Examples , tho' it be one of the most obvious Temptations , is none of the least dangerous . For Interest , Bashfulness , and that very Complaisance and Civility , that is so usually found in well-bred , or good-Natur'd , Persons , makes them very unwilling to offend or disoblige the Company they live with ; and whom they have several Inducements rather to please and gratify by imitation and compliance , than tacitly to reproach by Nonconformity to their Sentiments , and Practices . And , in effect , we find , that many that could not be perverted by the Frowns and Threats of the Vitious , have been Debauch'd by their Company and Example . Against this powerful Temptation , Religion strongly arms it's Hero , both by Precepts and Precedents . Thou shalt not follow a Multitude to do Evil , was the Express Command of the Mosaic Law. Say not thou a Confederacy to all , to whom this People shall say a Confederacy , was the Command of God to his Prophet . Our Saviour makes it an Argument to dissuade his Disciples from an anxious Solicitude about Meat and Drink and Cloathing , that after all these things the Gentiles ( which are by far the most numerous part of Mankind ) do seek . And , upon the same ground , he endeavours in the same Divine Sermon upon the Mount to keep them from Vain Repetitions in Prayer . And , whereas it may seem an Immodesty to dare to dissent from others , that vastly surpass us in number ; the Heroick Conqueror of Canaan speaks thus to the whole Body of the Victorious Jewish Nation , that they may choose to serve whom they thought fit , and worship either the Gods whom their Fathers served , or those Worshipp'd by the Neighbouring Nations , but as for me and my House , we Will serve the Lord , Be you not conformed to this World , says St. Paul. And another Apostle , speaking of himself and the true Christians of his time , scruples not to affirm it passionately and roundly , We know that we are of God , and the whole World lies in Wickedness . Nor does Religion furnish us with Precepts only , to disobey Custom , and Example , but with Precedents too , of which there are Three so illustrious , that I know not how to pass them by . The First is afforded by Lot , who lived in a place , that was grown so Proverbial for the Height of Wickedness , that to aggravate their Sins by the most Hyperbolical Comparison , we must liken them to themselves ; and they were grown so wicked , that in a place where an admirable Plenty , and an unbounded Libertinisme could not but make them very populous , there could not be found half a Score of good Men , the generality of that cursed People being fallen so much not only from Virtue , but from common Honesty , that they did not restrain themselves so much , as to Human Vices . And yet , even the Sins of Sodom , which cryed so loud as to reach Heaven , and bring down Fire and Brimstone from thence , disturbed Lot's Quiet , without destroying his Innocence , and an Apostle assures us , that , that just Man was but vex'd with the filthy Conversation of the wicked , not prevail'd with in the least to imitate it . The Next Instance of a Religious Courage , inflexible to bad Examples , is afforded us by the three Friends of Daniel , who , at the great Solemnity of the Dedication of Nebuchadnezars Golden Image ; when they had , besides that great and stern Monarchs Command , the Example not only of many Men but many Nations , and a more numerous Assembly of Persons , considerable for Quality and Dignity , than the World ever saw before or since , singly opposed their Naked Constancy to the haughty Tyrants Menaces , and the prostrate World's Example . And yet these Men were Courtiers , bred among that supple sort of fine Creatures ; that were as accustom'd to bow their Consciences , as their Knees , to their proud Master . They had not only Lives to lose , but the chief Dignities of the Province of Babylon , then the Queen of Nations . And they could not upon their refusal quit the stateliest Palace in the World , without immediately changing it for a burning Fiery Furnace . The Last Instance I shall name , and the most illustrious that can be named , is , that I am supplied with by Noah , he lived in an Age , in which there were as many Hainous Sinners almost as there were Men , thô Vice has generally had a Benjamins Portion , in the Distribution of Mankind betwixt It and Virtue , yet , Methusala excepted , the Inequallity was grown such , as gave Vice rather a Monopoly than a Share of Men ; or if a Distribution were to be admitted , 't was such a one , as That made of Saul and his Army , when all the people were on one side , and only he and Jonathan on the other : 'T is strange , that when the World was so recent , that many , that were then alive might remember and converse with one , that for two hundred Years liv'd contemporary with Adam , ( for so we may gather Methusala to have done ) Men should so soon forget all Sentiments of Piety . But yet in Noah's time , the World could not be compared to its present State , where thô it be Night in one place , 't is Day in another ; but to the state of Tohu va Bohu , or the first Chaos , where Darkness was over the face of the Universal Deep . For the Scripture tells us , That all Flesh had corrupted his way upon the Earth , that every Imagination of the thoughts of Mans Heart was only evil continually . And tho' Noah's Family were saved with him in the Ark , yet it may be doubted , whether that were a certain token of their being untoucht by the general Contagion . For that wonderful Vessel contain'd Beasts clean and unclean , harmless and rapacious , and in it were saved Wolves as well as Lambs , and Vultures as well as Doves . And where God gives the Reason , why he vouchsafed to receive Noah and his House into the Ark , he Expresses it thus ; For thee have I seen Righteous before me in this Generation , without making mention of any of his Family . Nor , was the Wickedness of the Antediluvian World more Universal than it was Great ; that Mungrel breed were guilty of Sins as Gigantic as Themselves . The Text says , that the Earth was filled with Violence through them ; and those Impious Rebels against their Maker broke the Laws of Nature with an Insolence , that provoked him to break off the course of Nature to punish them , since nothing less than an Universal Deluge of Water could place Limits to such an impetuous and over-flowing Impiety . But all these sinful Examples , how general soever , could not prevail on Noah so much as to keep him from giving One of a quite contrary Nature ; the Scripture calls him an Herald or Preacher of Righteousness ; and tho' it appears not , that he made any Converts , he persever'd in his rejected Admonitions for Sixscore years , a time long enough to have tired his Patience , especially since he did not any of his Hearers Obstinacy . And his Constancy rais'd him as much above the reach of their Temptations , as the Waters that punished their Sin rais'd his Ark above their drowned Mansions . And now go and compare with any Constancy of the following times , where Virtue has always had some Party , tho' not a numerous one , this unequall'd Singularity of Noah , which God himself seems to have taken special notice of , not only by that Patriarchs wonderful Preservation , but by saying Emphatically , Thee have I seen Righteous before me in this Generation , which was so brutish and depraved , that I know not whether he were not obliged to live among worse Brutes before he finish'd the Ark than afterwards , when in it he was shut up with Lyons , Foxes , and Tygres . Another Virtue , that belongs to a great Mind , is Constancy , or persevering Patience in Afflictions . This Quality hath so Noble an appearance , that when 't is exercis'd even by Malefactors , it obtains our Esteem ; and whilest we cannot so much as excuse their Actions , we cannot but commend the Manner of their suffering for them : Calmness of Mind , in the midst of outward Storms , being something that looks so handsomely , that Crimes and Gibbets cannot keep it from doing so ; nor hinder those in whom 't is found , from being both pitied and applauded . That this part of Greatness of Mind is befriended by the Christian Religion , more than by any other Institution , will appear ; if we consider , what it contributes to Constancy and Patience , under outward Pressures and Calamities , by Precept , by Examples , and by Arguments . CHAP. V. HUmility is a Virtue , that , at the first blush , seems so distant from Greatness of Mind , that some would think it improper to refer the Former to the Later , under any other Notion , than that of an Opposite . But , whatever may be thought of Humility , solitarily consider'd , yet , when we find it in Conjunction with those other Qualities , that contribute to make up Greatness of Mind , it adds to their Number ; and ▪ tho ▪ it does not perhaps shine as bright as some of them , is as amiable as any ; and imparts somewhat of its own Loveliness to all the rest . And you will not much wonder , that I place this Virtue among those that Constellate , if I may so speak , an Heroick Mind , if you consider , whence Humility may in such a Soul proceed , and what difficulties it may surmount . For if Wealth , Honour , and other outward Blessings exalt our Hero's Condition ; to be Humble , in the midst of such Advantages , argues a Mind elevated above the Presents of Fortune , and speaks a Soul Great enough to undervalue those things that ordinary Souls admire ; and which even men that pass for Great , make the Objects of their Ambition , and , when attain'd , of their Pride . And if our Hero be ennobled with great Virtues , or famous for great Actions ; his Humility argues , that he has so rais'd an Idea of Virtue , and dares aspire to such a pitch of it , that he cannot rest satisfy'd with greater attainments , than Persons , but ordinarily Virtuous , aim at ; and looks upon himselfas oblig'd and born to an unwearied pursuit of Heroick and still increasing Degrees of Excellency . And if a laudable Practice , by being extremely difficult , is a mark of a Great Soul , Humility must not be deny'd that Character ; for This is a Virtue more difficult to Excellent , than to Ordinary , Souls . In other Cases , a Hero is to contend but with his Vices , or his Passions , or his open Enemies ; but to be Humble , he must overcome his Virtues too ; and that , when they act unitedly as one Body : Since , tho' other Virtues naturally assist one another , they all conspire to ruin Humility ; which , having Pride to contend with , is to deal with so subtle an Adversary , that sometimes even by being foil'd he overcomes . And as the Torpedo poisons his Arm that wounds it ; so sometimes in the best Arguments we employ against Pride , the very strength and seeming success of them , tempts the Maker of them to be Proud ; and I will not swear , that , at this very time , I exalt our Hero's Humility , without any Diminution of my Own. To the attainment of an Eminent degree of this lovely both Vertue , and Grace , the Gospel conduces , by furnishing its Embracers with Express Injunctions ; clear Directions ; high Rewards , and other weighty Motives ; and the Noblest Paterns and Perfectest Examples , that ever were , or can be , given ▪ The Heads of the Discourse , Entitul'd Greatness of Mind , befriended by Christianity . The Introduction . 1. OF the true Notion of Greatness of Mind . 2. Of the Tendency , that the Christian Religion has to promote Greatness of Mind in general . 3. That Christianity gives Men noble Aims , such as the glory of God , the pleasing of Him , the general Good of Men , Personal Excellencies in this World , and Eternal Happiness in the next . The Virtues or Qualifications , which , as so many constituent Parts , make up Greatness of Mind , and are peculiarly befriended by Christianity ; are chiefly These , 4. Courage or Valour . 5. Constancy and Patience in Afflictions . 6. Bounty or Liberality . 7. Forwardness to oblige . 8. Readiness to forgive . 9. A just and impartial Estimate of Riches , and other Things that Ordinary Men covet and admire . 10. Humility . 11. A Contempt of all that 's base . The End of the First Part. Greatness of Mind , PROMOTED BY CHRISTIANITY . The Second Part. THE former Discourse has , I hope , sufficiently manifested , That , of the several Virtues and Noble Qualities that make up true Greatness of Mind , there is not any that is not at least consistent with Christianity , and that most of them are eminently promoted by it . But I expect your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will pretend , that there are some Qualities required by our Religion , that directly and powerfully tend to debase the Mind they possess ; and hinder it from attaining , or even aspiring , to such great Things as it would reach to , if it were not detain'd or depress'd by Religion . Let us now therefore examin , Whether , notwithstanding , the Wings which we have shewn that Religion adds to the Mind , the Cloggs that it fastens to her , be heavy enough to disable her to raise her self above the pitch of Vulgar Souls ; and force her , instead of soaring aloft , to flutter about the Earth . The chief Things , that , as far as I can learn , are alleged , either by Philédonus , or more considering Adversaries than he ; to shew Religion to be either quite Inconsistent with , or very Unfriendly to , Greatness of Mind , are these . — But , in regard that I find not the Answers that were drawn up to the Objections ; and 't is not so convenient to let the Later appear unaccompany'd by the Former , 't is thought the safest Way to leave them both at present unmentioned ; and only take notice , that to the Last of the Six Objections , which , to deal candidly , were named and considered , these words were found subjoyned . And now , if it appear , that neither any nor all of these , have such an unfriendly Aspect on Greatness of Mind , as is pretended ; and that at least the Impediments , they can bring , are much more than countervail'd by the Assistances that Religion affords Heroick Virtue ; I hope it will appear , that Greatness of Mind is not incompatible with Christianity , but rather promoted by it . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A28945-e1010 Rom. 1. 20. Psal . 94. 9. Psalm 138. 14 , 15. About some Causes of Atheism . An Essay of Improbable Truths . Luke 1. 2. John I. 18. Act. XX. 27. 1 Cor. II. 10. Luke I. 2. Gal. de Vsu part . Lib. XI . Cap. XIV . See Acts II. Rom. 1. 8. Gen. 49. 11. Isa . 2. 2. Psalm 2. 8. Mal. 1. 11. Mat. XXIV . 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke II. 1. Mat. 26. 13. Exod. XVI . 14 , 21 , 26 , 33. Notes for div A28945-e6800 Coloss . I. 26. Eph. III. 3 , 5 , 6. 1 Corinth . XV. v. 51 , 52. See Mat. XIII . 11. Ephes . V. 31. Notes for div A28945-e8550 Mark XII . 43. Prov. XVI . 32. Tit. III. 4. Revel . XIV . 6. 2 Cor. VII . 1. 1 Thess . V. 22. Matth. V. 20. 2 Pet. III. 18. I. 5. Phil. IV. 8. 1 Pet. II. 22. Mat. XVII . 5. Rom. XIII . 14. John I. 16. Phil. IV. 13. Matt. 9. 6. Mat. XIV . 29. Rom. XIV . 18. Dan. III. 7. 1 Cor. II. 9. Dan. III. 1 Cor. IV. 9. Heb. XII . 2 , 3. Matt. XXV . 21. Jer. XVII . 10. Col. I. 12. Acts XII . 21. Rev. II. 10. Eccl. VII . 12. Dan. II. Heb. XII . 28. 1 Pet. V. 4. 1 Sam. X. 6. Rev. 1. 6. 1 Pet. II. 9. Mark XVI . 5. Luke XXIV . 4. Phil. III. 21. Matt. XVII . 2. Luke IX . 31. Matt. XXII . 30. Mat. 13. 43. Rev. XIX . 17. Rev. II. 26 , 27 Rev. 3. 21. Eph. 3. 20. First Fragment . Second Fragment . 1 John , 5. 9. Gen. 6. 12. 2. Peter , 2. 5 ▪ Gen. 7. 1. Third Fragment . Fourth Fragment . Fifth Fragment . Notes for div A28945-e11730 Sixth Fragment . 
A28992	----	Medicinal experiments, or, A collection of choice remedies for the most part simple, and easily prepared by ... R. Boyle ... Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1692 Approx. 91 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 65 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2008-09 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A28992 Wing B3989 ESTC R954 12770244 ocm 12770244 93647 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A28992) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 93647) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 707:7) Medicinal experiments, or, A collection of choice remedies for the most part simple, and easily prepared by ... R. Boyle ... Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. [11], 11, 88, [2], 17 p. Printed for Sam. Smith ..., London : 1692. "A table of diseases" [i.e. index]: p. [1]-[11] in second grouping. Added t.p. and separate paging ([2], 17 p. at end): A catalogue of the philosophical books and tracts, written by the Honourable Robert Boyle ... together with the order or time wherein each of them hath been publish'd respectively : to which is added, a catalogue of the theological books, written by the same author. Imperfect: Fulton calls for an engraved port. lacking in filmed copy. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. 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Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691 -- Bibliography. Medicine -- Early works to 1800. Medicine -- Formulae, receipts, prescriptions. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-12 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2007-02 Robyn Anspach Sampled and proofread 2007-02 Robyn Anspach Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Imprimatur , Novemb. 18. 1691. Robert Southwell . P. R. S. Medicinal Experiments ; OR , A COLLECTION OF Choice Remedies , FOR The most part Simple , and Easily Prepared . By the Honorable R. BOYLE , Esq Fellow of the Royal Society . LONDON : Printed for Sam. Smith , at the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard , 1692. THE PREFACE OF The Publisher . THese Receipts , taken out of a large Collection , as consisting of a few safe Ingredients , commonly to be found at easie Rates in most places , were sent to a learned Physician beyond Sea : To whom they were a welcome Present , and answer'd , without doubt , the Ends he had in desiring them . That Excellent Person , to whom these choice Prescriptions are owing , did permit a few Copies of them to be Printed , and was pleased to put them in the Hands of some of his Friends , provided , as there was occasion , they would make Tryal of them , and faithfully report the Success . Divers of those , who on these Conditions had received so great a Favour , held themselves obliged to enquire for Persons affected with any of the Maladies against which the said Medicines were prescribed ; and , upon many Experiments carefully made , having found , that frequently they have relieved those who used them , and sometimes strangely outdone Expectation ; they addressed themselves with much Importunity to the Noble Author , to suffer Things which were of such general Benefit , and so easily to be procured by the Poor , to be made more publick . And at length he hath been prevailed with not only to allow the former Receipts , which but few had seen , to be Reprinted , but hath , out of his rich Treasury , stored us with a fresh Collection , which , as in Number it exceeds what we had before , so in Quality and Virtue it falls not short of it . And if what here , with such an honest and kind Design is offered to the Publick , be but candidly and favourably receiv'd , we may still hope for more Blessings of this sort from him , who has not only a constant Will and great Ability to do good , but hath , perhaps , obliged the Age as much as any private Person in it . The Author's PREFACE . THE following Prescriptions are a part of a Collection of Receipts and Processes , that from Time to Time have been recommended to me by the Experience of others , or approved by my own : Receipts that being Parable or Cheap , may easily be made serviceable to poor Countrey People . For Medicines so Simple , and for the most part so Cheap , I have found all of them to be good in their kind : And though I think most of them safer than many other Medicines that are in great Request , yet I do not pretend that these should play the Part of Medicines and Physicians too ; but that they may be usefully employed by one who knows how to administer them discreetly . I distinguish them into three Classes or Orders , annexing to the Title of each particular Medicine one of the three first Letters of the Alphabet ; wherefore A is the Mark of a Remedy of the highst Classis of these , Recommended as very considerable and efficatious in its kind . B , Denotes a second or inferior sort , but yet to be valuable for their good Operations . C , belongs to those Remedies that are of the lowest Order , tho' good enough not to be despised . Those Receipts , which were my own , are expressed in my own Terms ; so also those which I received from others by word of Mouth : But them which were imparted to me in Writing , though I my self would not have worded them , as they did that I had them from , yet I oftentimes made a Scruple to Correct or Alter their Expressions , tho' not suitable to the Current Style of the Formularies of Receipts , being more concern'd that the Meaning should be close kept to , than the Style rectified . THE TABLE OF DISEASES . Note , The Number answers to the Page . A AGues . Pag. 4 , 13 , 25 , 74 Amulet against Agues . Pag. 13 Amulet against Cramps . Pag. 15 Acidities to Cure. Pag. 19 After-Birth to bring away . Pag. 21 Appetite to restore . Pag. 21 Antimonial Remedy for Leprosies and Fevers . Pag. 54 Antimonial Infusion . Pag. 56 Apoplexy to prevent . Pag. 6● Arthritick Pains . Pag. 7● Apoplectick Fits. Pag. 78 B Bloody-Flux . Pag. ● Bowels to Strengthen . Pag. 14 Blood to stanch . Pag. 16 Blood to Sweeten . Pag. 19 Brest Vlcerated . Pag. 23 Broken Belly . Pag. 33 , 40 Black Jaundice . Pag. 44 Burns . Pag. 8● C Coughs . Pag. 1 , 32 Convulsions . Pag. 9 , 20 Consumptions . Pag. 12 Child to bring away . Pag. 14 Cramp . Pag. 15 Contusions . Pag. 28 , 29 Cutis Excoriated . Pag. 30 Continual Fevers . Pag. 51 , 52 , 54 , 79 Chilblains . Pag. 53 Colick . Pag. 55 , 62 , 78 , 85 Childbearing to be cleansed after . Pag. 57 Cancer not broken . Pag. 67 Colds . Pag. 69 Childrens Jaundice . Pag. 70 Chin Cough . Pag. 74 D Dysentery . Pag. 7 , 18 , 59 , 68 Diseases from Obstruction . Pag. 38 Difficulty of Hearing . Pag. 39 Drink for continual Fevers . Pag. 51 , 52 Drink for the Scurvy . Pag. 64 Diuretick Medicine . Pag. 64 Decoction of Quick-Silver . Pag. 80 E Evil. Pag. 7 Eyes to Cure. Pag. 20 Excoriations . Pag. 30 External Piles . Pag. 63 Experiment for a Weak Sight . Pag. 73 External Remedy for Fevers . Pag. 79 F Fits of the Stone . Pag. 8 Fluxes sharp . Pag. 18 , 26 , 37 , 59 Films to clear . Pag. 20 Fits of Agues . Pag. 4 , 13 , 25 Fits of the Gout . Pag. 40 Fits of the Mother . Pag. 50 Fevers continual . Pag. 51 , 52 , 54 , 79 Falling Sickness . Pag. 75 Fits Apoplectick . Pag. 78 Fresh strain . Pag. 83 G Gripings . Pag. 26 Gout . 40 , 50 , 71 Gums to Strengthen . 69 H Hemorrhoids . Pag. 10 , 17 , 27 , 63 , 84 Heart Burning . Pag. 34 Hearing difficult . Pag. 39 Hoarsness on a Could . Pag. 69 Heat in the Eyes . Pag. 72 Heat of the Stomach . Pag. 87 I Jaundice Yellow . Pag. 5 , 6 , 70 Inflammations of Vlcers Pag. 31 Jaundice Black. Pag. 44 Itch to cure . Pag. 58 Internal Piles . Pag. 63 Issue raw to make . Pag. 86 K Kings Evil. Pag. 7 Kings Evil cured with Lime Water , &c. Pag. 82 L Lime Water to make . Pag. 11 Lime Water for Obstructions . Pag. 12 Legs Inflamed and Vlcerated . Pag. 31 Loosness . Pag. 37 Leprosie . Pag. 54 Lungs Stuffed . Pag. 74 Lime Water for the Kings Evil. Pag. 82 M Medicine for the Stone . Pag. 49 , 76 Mother Fits. Pag. 50 Medicine for a fresh Strain . Pag. 52 Medicine to cleanse the Womb. Pag. 57 Medicine for a sore Throat . Pag. 60 , 66 , 77 Medicine for the Colick . Pag. 62 Medicine for a Cancer . Pag. 67 N Nitre , a Medicine of it for the Colick . Pag. 85 O Obstructions . Pag. 12 , 38 Outward Contusions . Pag. 28 , 29 Oil of Turpentine mixt with Ointment of Tobacco , and Balls of Sulphur for the Piles . Pag. 84 P Pains of the Stone . Pag. 2 Pain of the Teeth . Pag. 4 Piles . Pag. 10 , 17 , 27 , 63 , 84 Pains . Pag. 31 , 50 , 71 Plaister to discuss Tumours . Pag. 43 Plaister to strengthen the Joynts . Pag. 50 Pleurisie . Pag. 68 Prolapsus Vteri . Pag. 71 Q Quick-Silver prepared against Worms . Pag. 80 R Rheumes . Pag. 1 , 32 , 68 Ruptures . Pag. 33 , 40 Resent Strain . Pag. 35 Remedy for Chilblains . Pag. 53 Remedies for Fluxes . Pag. 7 , 18 , 26 , 59 S Stone . Pag. 2 , 8 , 49 , 76 Sharpness of Vrine . Pag. 3 Strengthen the Bowels . Pag. 14 Stanching Blood. Pag. 16 Stomach to Strengthen . Pag. 21 Strain . Pag. 34 , 35 , 37 , 52 , 83 , 85 Strengthning Plaister . Pag. 31 Sores . Pag. 41 Sore Throat . Pag. 60 , 66 , 86 Sharp Humours . Pag. 62 Scurvy . Pag. 64 Strengthen the Gums . Pag. 69 Syrup for Rheums . Pag. 68 Sharp Humours in the Eyes . Pag. 72 Sight Weak . Pag. 73 Stomach Heat . Pag. 87 Stomachical Tincture . Pag. 88 T Tooth Ach. Pag. 4 , 32 Tertian Ague . Pag. 13 , 74 Tumours . Pag. 17 Tickling Rheum . Pag. 32 Teeth to keep Sound . Pag. 32 Tumours to discuss and ripen . Pag. 43 Throat Sore . Pag. 60 , 66 , 77 , 86 Teeth to make firm . Pag. 69 U Vrine Sharp . Pag. 3 Vlcers of the Brest . Pag. 23 Vlcers . Pag. 41 Uteri Prolapsus . Pag. 71 Vrine stopt . Pag. 76 W. Women in Labour . Pag. 14 Wounds bleeding . Pag. 16 Weakness of the Joints . Pag. 37 Water for Vlcers . Pag. 41 Womb to cleanse . Pag. 57 Wash for the Iteh . Pag. 58 Weak Sight . Pag. 73 Worms in Children . Pag. 80 Whitloe to Cure. Pag. 81 Y. Yellow Jaundice . Pag. 5 A Catalogue of the Philosophical and Theological Books and Tracts , Written by the Honorable Robert Boyle Esq Together with the Order of Time , wherein each of them hath been Published respectively . DECAD I. I. For Coughs , especially such as proceed from thin Rheums . B TAke of choice Olibanum , finely powder'd , from one Scruple to half a Dram , and mix carefully with it an equal weight of Sugar-candy , ( white or brown , ) or , in want of that , of fine Sugar ; and let the Patient take it at Bed-time in the Pap of an Apple , or some other proper Additament , for several nights together : If it be found needful , it may be taken at any other time , when the Stomach is empty . II. To give Ease in the Pains of the Stone , even that of the Bladder . A TAke the transparent Sparr that grows upon the Veins of Lead-ore , and having reduc'd it to fine Powder , give from half a Dram to a whole Dram of it at a time , in a moderate Draught of some convenient Vehicle . N. B. Though there be ( at least in most of our English Mines ) two Teguments , as it were , of the Veins of Lead , that grow close together ; yet that which the Diggers name Cawk , which is white and opacous , is not the Medicine I mean , but the Transparent , or at least Semi-Diaphanous ; which easily breaks into smooth Fragments , and in the Fire cleaves into several pieces , that are wont to be smooth and prettily shap'd . III. For Sharpness of Vrine . B TAke of the dry Stuff that divides the Lobes of the Kernels of Walnuts , beat them to Powder , and of this give about half a Dram at a time , in a draught of White-wine , or Posset-drink made with it , or in any other convenient Liquor . IV. To Appease the Violent Pains of the Tooth-ach . B MAke up a Scruple of Pil. lulae Mastichinae , and half a Grain of Laudanum , into two or three Pills for the Patient to take at Bed-time . V. For Agues . A TAke Salt of Card. Benedict . and Salt of Wormwood and 15 Grains , Tartar Vitriolate half a Scruple ; mix them , and give them in a few Spoonfuls of Rhenish-wine , or of some other convenient Vehicle , either before the Fit , or at some other time when the Stomach is empty . VI. For the Yellow-Jaundice . B TAke an Ounce of Castle-Soap ( the Elder the better , ) slice it thin , put it into a Pint of Small-beer cold , set it on the Fire , let it boil gently half away , after boiling some time , scum it once ; then strain it through a small Sive , warm it , and drink it all in a morning fasting ; take a small Lump of Sugar after it , and fast two or three hours : The Party may walk about his Business , and eat his acstomed Meals : If at any time he drinks Wine , let it be White wine . N. B. If he be far gone in the Distemper ; two or three day after , he may take it once or twice more , and no oftner . Refrain all other Medicines : It will keep a Week or longer . VII . For the Jaundice . B TAke two or three Ounces of Semen Cannabis ( Hempseed ) and boil them till the Seeds ( some of them ) begin to burst , and a little longer , in a sufficient quantity of New Milk , to make one good Draught ; which the Patient is to take warm , renewing it if need be , for some days together . VIII . For the Dysentery . B TAke Pigs-Dung , dry it , and burn it to grey ( not white ) Ashes ; of these give about half a Dram for a Dose , drinking after them about three Spoonfuls of Wine-Vinegar . IX . For the Kings Evil. B TAke Cuttle-bone uncalcin'd , and having scrap'd off the out-side or colour'd part , dry the white part ; and of this , finely powder'd , give half a Dram for a Dose in Aqua Malvae . X. A Safe and Easie Medicine in Fits of the Stone . B TAke Sack , or , in want of that , Claret-wine , and by shaking or otherwise , mix with it , as well as you can , an equal quantity of Oyl of Wallnuts ; and of this Mixture give from 4 or 6 to 8 or 10 Ounces at a time as a Glyster . DECAD II. I. For Convulsions , especially in Children . B TAke Earth-worms , wash them well in White-wine to cleanse them , but so as that they may not die in the Wine : Then , upon hollow Tiles or between them , dry the Worms with a moderate Heat , and no further than that they may be conveniently reduc'd to Powder ; to one Ounce of which add a pretty number of Grains of Ambergrise , both to perfume the Powder , ( whose scent of it self is rank ) and to make the Medicine more Efficatious . The Dose is from one Dram to a Dram and half in any convenient Vehicle . II. For the Pyles . B TAke the Powder of Earth-worms prepared as in the former Receipt , ( but leaving out the Ambergrise , ) and incorporate it exactly with as much Hens-grease , as will serve to make it up into an Oyntment . Apply this to the Part affected , whose Pains it usually much and safely mitigates . III. To make Lime-water Vseful in divers Distempers . C TAke one Pound of good Quick-lime , and slake it in a Gallon of warm Water , and let it stand 'till all that will subside be settled at the bottom , and ( Separation being made , ) the Water swim clear at the top : ( At which time it will often happen , that a kind of thin and brittle Substance , almost like Ice , will cover the Surface of the Liquor : ) As soon as the Water is thus sufficiently impregnated , delay not to pour it off warily , and keep it very well stopp'd for Use . IV. A Lime-water for Obstructions an Consumptions . B TAke a Gallon of Lime-water made as above , and infuse in it cold Sassaffras , Liquorice , and Anyseeds , of each four Ounces , adding thereto half a Pound of choice Currans , or the like Quantity of slic'd Raisins of the Sun : The Dose of this compound Lime-water is four or five Ounces , to be taken twice a day . V. An Amulet against Agues , especially Tertian . B TAke a handfull of Groundsel , shred and cut it small , put it into a square Paper Bag of about four Inches every way , pricking that side that is to be next the Skin , full of large holes ; and cover it with some Sarcenet or fine Linnen , that nothing may fall out . Let the Patient wear this upon the Pit of his Stomach , renewing it two hours before every Fit. VI. For Women in Labour to bring away the Child . B TAke about one Dram of choice Myrrh , and having reduc'd it to fine Pouder , let the Patient take it in a Draught of Rhenish-wine or Sack ; or , if you would have the Liquor less active White-wine , Posset-drink , or some other temperate Vehicle . VI. For Strengthning the Bowels . B TAke Cloves or Chives ( not Bulbs ) of Garlick , and let the Patient from time to time swallow one or two , without chewing . VIII . An Amulet against the Cramp . A TAke the Root of Mechoacan , and having reduc'd it to Powder , fill with this Pouder a little square Bag or Sacket of Sarcenet , or some such slight Stuff ; which Bag is to be about three Inches Square , and to be hung by a String about the Patient's Neck , so as that it may reach to the Pit of the Stomach , and immediately touch the Skin . IX . For Stanching of Blood especially in Wounds . A TAke those round Mushrooms that Bonatists call Crepitus Lupi , ( in English Puff-balls , ) when they are full ripe ( which is in Autumn ) ; and breaking them warily , save carefully the Pouder that will fly up , and the rest that remains in their Cavities : And strew this Pouder all over the Part affected , binding it on , or proceeding further , if need be , according to Art. X. For the Tumours and Pains of the Hemorrhoides , not too much inflamed . B LET the Patient dip his Finger in Balsam of Sulphur , made with Oyl of Turpentine , and with his Finger so besmeared anoint the Tumours , whether external or internal , once or twice a day . DECAD III. I. For the Dysentery and other sharp Fluxes . A TAke the Stalks and Leaves of the Herb call'd , in Latin , Coniza Media ( in English , Flea-bane , ) dry it gently , till it be reducible to Pouder ; of this Pouder give about one Dram at a time , twice or thrice a day , in any convenient Vehicle or else incorporate it in Conserve of Red Roses . II. To sweeten the Blood , and Cure divers Distempers caused by its Acidity . B TAke Coral , the clearest and reddest you can get ; reduce it ( by exactly grinding it on a Porphory , or Marble Stone , ) to an impalpable Pouder . Of this Magistery made without Acids , give the Patient once or twice a day ( as need shall require , ) a large dose , viz. ordinarily about one dram at a time , or from two Scruples to five . N. B. Let him long continue the Use of it . III. To clear the Eyes , even from Filmes . A TAke Paracelsus's Zibethum Occidentale ( viz. human dung ) of a good Colour and Consistence , dry it slowly till it be pulverable : Then reduce it into an inpalpable Pouder ; which is to be blown once , twice , or thrice a day , as occasion shall require , into the Patients Eyes . IV. For Convulsions in Children . A GIve the Patient from 2 , 3 , or 4 , to 5 , 6 , or 7 Grains , according to the Child's Age , of the true Volatile Salt of Amber , in any proper Vehicle . N. B. 'T is not near so Efficatious in full grown Persons . V. To bring away the After-birth . B GIve about 30 Drops , or any Number between 25 and 35 , of good Essential ( as Chimists call it , ) Oyl of Juniper , in a good Draught of any convenient Vehicle . VI. To Strengthen the Stomach , and help the want of Appetite . B MAke the Roots of Gentian ( sound and not superannuated , ) pulverable , with no more waste of their moisture than is necessary . Reduce these to Pouder ; of which let the Patient take from 12 or 15 Grains to double that quantity ( or more if need be , ) twice or thrice a day . N. B. It may be taken on an empty Stomach , or , if that cannot conveniently be done , at Meal-times . To correct the Bitterness , one may add to it pouder'd Sugar , or make it up with some fit Conserve , or mix it with a Syrup . It is very good , not only for want of Appetite , but for Obstructions . And I ( R B. ) have usefully given it in Vertiginous Affections of the Brain , and to lessen , if not quite take away , the Fits of Agues , and even Quartans . But in this last Case the Dose must be considerably augmented . One may also , if one pleases , instead of the Pouder , give the Extract drawn with fair Water , and for those that like that form , made up into Pills with a sufficient quantity of Pouder'd Tumerick , or the like proper Additament ; to which I have sometimes added some Grains of Salt of Wormwood with good Success in Fluxes that proceeded from Crudities and Indigestion . Where the Winter-Season or the Patients cold Constitution invite , or the Medicine is to be long kept , I chuse rather to make the Extract with Wine moderately strong , than with Water . VII . For Vlcers in the Brest , and elsewhere . A TAke Millepedes , ( in English by some called Woodlice , by others Sows , ) and having wash'd them clean with a little White-wine , and dry'd them with a Linnen Cloth , beat them very well in a Glass or Marble Mortar ( for they ought not to be touch'd with any thing of Metal ) and give the first time as much Juice , as you can by strong Expression obtain from five or six of them . This Juice may be given in small Ale or White-wine , in which the next time you may give as much as can be squeez'd out of eight or nine Millepedes ; and so you may continue , increasing the number that you employ of them by two or three at a time , till it amount to twenty five or thirty ; and if need be , to forty or more , for one taking . And note , that if upon the Pounding of these Insects , you find the Mass they afford too dry , as it now and then happens ; you may dilute it with a little White-wine or Ale , to be well agitated with it , that being penetrated , and so softned , with the Liquor , the Mass may the better part with its Juice . VIII . For taking off the Fits of Agues . B TAke good common Brimstone ( not Flores Sulphuris , ) and having reduced them , by passing them through a very fine Sieve , to the subtillest Pouder you can ; give of this Pouder one Dram and half or two Drams , either made up into a Bolus with a little good Honey , or else in any appropriated Vehicle ; let it be given at the usual times , and reiterated once or twice if need be , especially if the Fits should return . IX . For Fluxes , especially accompanied with Gripings . A TAke of Crude Lapis Caliminaris finely pouder'd two Scruples , of white Chalk on● Scruple , mix them exactly , and give them in a Spoonful or two of New Milk twice , or , if the case be urgent , thrice a day . X. For the Pains of the Piles . B TAke of Myrrh , Olibanum , and common Frankincense , of each a like quantity ; having pouder'd them , mix them very well , and let the Patient receive the Fume of this Mixture , cast upon a Chaffen-dish with Embers , in a Close-stool , for about a quarter of an hour , ( less or more , as he needs it , and is able to bear it . ) DECAD IV. I. For an outward Contusion . C APply to the Part affected , skim'd or purify'd Honey , spread upon Cap-Paper , to be kept on with some convenient Plaister , or the like Bandage , and shifted once or twice a day . II. Another for the same . B BEat Aloes Succotrina ( or else Hepatica , ) to fine Pouder ; then pour on it as much Rose-water as you guess may dissolve a great part of it . This done , stir them well for a while , and when the Mixture is setled , pour off the Liquor , and in it dip Linnen Rags , which being applyed to the Part affected , will soon stick to it , and seldom need be remov'd till the Patient be reliev'd ; and then to get them off , the Rags must be well wetted with warm Water , which will soften and loosen the adhering Aloes . III. For a slighter Excoriation . B MElt Mutton-Suet taken from about the Kidneys , and freed from its superfluous Fibres or Strings , and to about two Ounces of this add little by little about 16 or 18 Drops ( sometimes 8 or 10 may serve ) of Oyl ( not Aethereal Spirit ) of Turpentine ; spread this Mixture on a Linnen Cloth , and by binding or otherwise , keep it upon the Part affected . IV. For an Excoriation , when the true Cutis is affected . B TAke Prunella ( in English Self-heal , ) and having pounded it very well in a Marble or Glass Mortar , ( not one of Metal , ) apply it to the Part affected , renewing it but seldom , and not without need . V. To take off the Pain and Inflammation of Vlcers in the Legs and elsewhere . B IN a Quart of Water boil about so much White-bread , as in ordinary years may be found in a Half-penny-loaf ; then add to it two Ounces of good Sheeps Suet cut very small ; and when that is boil'd a little , add to it one Ounce of finely pouder'd Rosin , and a little well searc'd Brimstone : Of these make a Cataplasm , which is to be kept constantly on the Part affected , and shifted once or twice a day , as need shall require . VI. For a Cough , especially accompany'd with a Tickling Rheum . B TAke equal Parts of finely pouder'd Olibanum and Venice Treacle , incorporate them exactly , and of this Mass form Pills of what bigness you please . Of these let the Patient take about half a Dram at Bed-time , or , if need be , one Scruple , ( or more , ) twice a day . VII . To prevent the Tooth-ach , and keep the Teeth sound . B LET the Patient frequently rub his Teeth moderately with the Ashes that remain in Tobacco Pipes , after the rest of the Body hath been consum'd in Smoak ; sometimes after washing ( if need be , ) his Mouth with fair Water not too cold . VIII . For a Rupture , especially in a Child or young Person . A TAke of that Geranium or Cranes-bill that is commonly called Columbinum , reduce the Root and Leaves to fine Pouder , and of this let the Patient take about half a Spoonful Night and Morning for three or four Weeks together , washing it down each time with some Spoonfuls of Red Wine . IX . For the Heart-burning , as they call it . B TAke from 15 or 20 , to 30 or 40 , Grains of Crabs-eyes ( known commonly in the Shops by the Name of Lapides Cancrorum , ) reduc'd to very fine Pouder , and either take it alone , or in any convenient Conserve or Syrup . 'T is for the most part best to take this Medicine when the Stomach is empty . X. For a Strain . B TAke the strongest Vinegar you can get , and boil in it a convenient quantity of Wheat-Bran , till you have brought it to the Consistence of a Poultess . Apply this as early as may be to the Part affected , and renew it when it begins to grow dry . DECAD V. I. For a Recent Strain . B TAKE Worm-wood and pound it very well in a Mortar of Stone or Glass ; then put to it as much of the Whites of Eggs , beaten to Water , as may serve to make it up into such a Consistence , as may be applied like a Poultess to the Part affected . II. A Strengthning Plaister after a Strain , or when there is any Weakness in the Joynt . B MEEL down together , and incorporate very well , two parts of Diapalma , and one part of Emplastrum ad Herniam ; spread this Mixture , ( but not very thick , ) upon Leather , and lay it to the Joynt to be strengthened . III. For Loosnesses . C BOil a convenient quantity of Cork in Spring-water , till the Liquor taste strong thereof : Of this Decoction let the Patient drink a moderate Draught from time to time , till he finds himself sufficiently reliev'd by it . IV. For Obstructions , and divers Diseases proceeding thence . B LET the Patient drink , every Morning fasting , a moderate Draught of his own Vrine newly made , ( and if it can conveniently be , ) whil'st 't is yet warm forbearing Food for an hour or two after it . V. For Difficulty of Hearing , from a cold Cause . B OUT of a Bulb or Root of Garlick , chuse a Chive of a convenient Bigness ; then having pass'd a fine piece of Thread or Silk through one end of it , that thereby it may be pull'd out at pleasure , crush it a little between your Fingers , and having anointed it all over with Oyl of Bitter ( or in want of that , Sweet ) Almonds , put it into the Cavity of the Patients Ear at Bed-time , and draw it out the next Morning , stopping the Ear afterwards with Black Wool ; but if need require , this Operation is to be reiterated with fresh Garlick for some days successively . VI. For Ruptures in the Belly , especially in Children . A HAving well cleans'd the Roots of Sigillum Salam●nis , scrape one Ounce of them into a Quart of Broth , and let the Patient take a Mess , or a Porringer full of it for his Break-fast ; or else give half a Dram or two Scruples of the Pouder of it at a time , in any convenient Vehicle . VII . To give checks to Fits of the Gout , and in some measure to prevent them . B TAke three Ounces of Sarsaparilla slic'd and cut thin ; to these add an equal weight of Raisins of the Sun , rubb'd very clean , but not broken : Put both these Ingredients into three Quarts of Spring-water , and let the Vessel stand in a moderate heat , that the Liquor may simper for many hours , yet without bursting most part of the Raisins ; keep this Decoction well stopp'd , and let the Patient use it for his only Drink , till he need it no longer . VIII . A Water for Vlcers and Sores . B TAke a Solution of Venetian Sublimate , and having made with very good Quick-lime as strong a Lime-water as you can , ( so that , if it be possible , it may bear an Egg , ) drop this upon the dissolv'd Sublimate , till it will precipitate no more reddish stuff at all ; ( which will not so soon be done as one that hath not try'd will imagine ) : As soon as you perceive that the Liquors act no longer visibly upon one another , pour the Mixture into a Filter of Cap-Paper , which retaining the Orange-colour'd Precipitate , will transmit an indifferently clear Liquor : Which is to be in a Glass Viol kept stop'd for its proper Use ; namely , that the Part affected may be therewith wash'd from time to time , and , if need be , kept covered with double Linnen Cloths wetted in the same Liquor . IX . A Plaister to Discuss Tumours , or Ripen them if it cannot Discuss them . B TAke of Yellow Wax , Franincense , and Rosin , of each four Ounces , or a sufficient quantity , melt them together gently , and being strain'd , make up the Mass into a Roll for Use . X. For the Black Jaundice it self . A TAke a Spoonfull of Honey boil it gently , and scum it , till it come to a good Consistence ; then add of Wheat-flower and Saffron ( reduced to a Pouder , ) as much of each as you may take up upon the Point of a Knife ; and having mix'd all well , put it over the Coals again , until it lose its smell : Afterwards you may put it into a little Stone or Earthen Pot , and keep it for Use ; which is , that the Patient take the quantity of a Pea , and anoint the Navil , and fill the Cavity thereof with it ; repeating the Application for some days together , when the Stomach is empty , and abstaining from Meat and Drink about two hours after the Medicine is us'd . The End of the First Part. Medicinal Experiments ; OR , A COLLECTION OF Choice Remedies , FOR The most part Simple , and Easily Prepared . The latter Five DECADS being A SECOND PART . By the Honorable R. BOYLE , Fellow of the Royal Society . LONDON : Printed for Sam. Smith , at the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard , 1692. DECAD VI. I. A parable Medicine for the Stone . B TAke of the Seed of Flixweed , and give of it about as much as will lie upon a Shilling , either whole or grosly bruis'd , in any convenient Vehicle . II. For Fits of the Mother . B DIssolve store of Sea-Salt in the best Wine Vinegar , and in this dip a soft Linnen Cloth , which being folded so as to make 3 or 4 Doubles , is to be applied somewhat warm to the Soles of the Patient's Feet , and kept on till the Fit be over . III. A choice Plaister to Strengthen the Joints after the Gout , and hasten the going off of the Pain . A TAke of Paracelsus and Diapalma ana , melt them and incorporate them exactly together , and spread the mixture very thin upon fine Leather , to be us'd as a Plaister to the Part affected . IV. A very good Drink in continual Fevers . A MAke a Decoction of the Leaves of Rue in fair Water , till the Liquor taste pretty strong of the Plant : This , being strain'd , is to be made somewhat Palatable with Liquorice or a little Sugar , or Aromatic Body : To half a Pint of this add about 10 Drops of Spirit ( not Oyl ) of Vitriol : Let the Patient use this for his ordinary Drink . V. A good Drink to be frequently used in Fevers , especially continual Ones . A GIve , in half a Pint of some small convenient Drink , half an Ounce of Harts-horn , burnt to great whiteness ; which is to be a little boyled in the Liquor ; and this , thus alter'd , is to be given from time to time . VI. An easie Medicine for a fresh Strain . B MAke up the Clay with which the Bungs of Barrels are wont to be stopp'd , with as much Vinegar as will bring it to the Consistence of an indifferently stiff Cataplasm : Then warm it a little , and apply it to the Part affected . VII . A Remedy much used for Chilblains . C TAke a Turnep , roast it well under the Embers , and beat it to a Poultice ; then apply it very hot to the Part affected ; and keep it on ( if need be , ) for 3 or 4 days , in that time shifting it twice or thrice , if occasion require . VIII . A Simple Antimonial Remedy , that has often done much Good even in the Leprosie , and all continual Fevers . A TAke Crude Antimony , well chosen and pouder'd ; of this give about one , two , or three Scruples Morning and Evening , according to the Age of the Patient , in a little Syrup of Clove Gilly-Flowers , or any such Vehicle , or else mix'd with fine Sugar , enough to make it somewhat Palatable . This may be continued for 4 or 5 Months , if need require ; and if the first Dose prove Beneficial to the Patient , in Cases not urgent , a Scruple or half a Dram may serve the Turn , nor need the Exhibition be continued for so long a time . IX . For the Cholick and divers other Distempers . B TAke four or five Balls of fresh Stone-horse Dung , and let them steep for about a quarter of an Hour ( or less , ) in a Pint of White-wine , in a Vessel well stopp'd , that the Liquor may be richly impregnated with the more volatile and subtil Parts of the Dung ; strain this , and give of it from a quarter to half a Pint , or some Ounces more , at a time ; the Patient having a Care not to take Cold after it . X. An often Experimented Antimonial Infusion . B TAke one Ounce of pouder'd Antimony , tied up in a little Bag of clean Linnen , and hang it in a Gallon of Beer or Ale that is brought from the Brew-house , and is yet scarce fit to be drawn out , much less to be drank . Of this Liquor when 't is ripe , let the Patient make use for his ordinary Drink ; only having a Care , that if by Age or Accident it be perceived to grow sour , that Vessel then be left off , for fear , least the Acidity of the Liquor , corroding the Antimony , might make it vomitive . DECAD VII . I. An easie Medicine to cleanse the Womb , especially after Child-bearing . B TAke a large white Onion , of about four Ounces in weight , if you can get so big a one , and boyl it in about a Pint of Water , with any thing fit to make a very thin Broth , till a third part or more of the Liquor be consumed : of this Broth , which may be made a little palatable with Nutmeg , &c. the Patient is to take six or eight Ounces twice or thrice a day . II. An Experienced Wash that quickly cures the Itch. A TAke strong Quicklime one Pound , and put to a Gallon of Spring-Water , let them lie together for some hours , and then warily pour off the clear , filter the rest , and take two Ounces of Quick-Silver , ty'd up in a Linnen Bag , and hang it in the Liquor , and boil it for half an hour or more ; then pour off the clear Liquor once more , and wash the Hands only with it twice , or at most thrice , a day . III. A Remedy often us'd , with Success , in Fluxes , and even Dysenteries . B TAke fresh Roots of Bistort , cut them into thin Slices , and moisten them well with fair Water and Wine , to make them more soft and Succulent ; then press out the Juice as strongly as you can . And of this give about three or four Spoonfuls , mingled with half a Dozen Spoonfuls , or somewhat more , of Red Wine , or some other convenient Liquor . IV. A good Medicine for a sore Throat . B TAke the White of a New-laid Egg , and by beating it , reduce it into Water ; and with this Water mix diligently so much Conserve of Red Roses as will reduce it to a soft Mass : Whereof the Patient is to let a little bit at a time melt leisurely in his Mouth . V. A choice Medicine for a sore Throat . A TAke a piece of greasie Linnen Cloth , of such a bigness , as that , being doubled , it may make a Bag in form of a Stay , to reach from one side of the Throat to the other , and contain as much matter , as may make it of the thickness of an Inch or more : This Bag being fill'd with common Salt is to be heated throughly , and apply'd to the Part affected as warm as the Patient can conveniently indure ; and within 2 hours after , or when it begins to grow too could ; another like it and well heated , is to be substituted in its room ; and whil'st this is cooling , the other may be heated and made ready for use : So that the Part affected may be always kept in a considerable degree of warmth , for about 48 hours , if the Remedy be so long needed . VI. An often experienc'd Medicine for the Cholick , especially produced by sharp Humors . A TAke a Quart of Claret , and put into the Vessel about two Ounces of Nettle-seeds , stop the Bottle , and keep it in Boiling Water , till the Water has made three or four walms , to assist the Wines Impregnation with the finer part of the Seeds : of this Liquor let the Patient take a small Draught once or twice a day . VII . To appease the Pain of the Haemorrhoids , whether Internal or External . B TAke two Parts of Flowers of Sulphur , and one part of Sugar very finely pouder'd , mix them exactly together , and make them up with a sufficient Quantity of a Mucilage of Gum Tragacarth into Lozenges , of about a Dram apiece : Of which you may give one at a time , thrice in a Day , or if need be , 4 or 5 times . VIII . To make an Excellent Drink for the Scurvy . A TAke two handsfuls of Water Trefoil , and let it work in about 8 Gallons of Wort , in stead of Hops , or of Small Ale or Wort , made for it : And let the Patient use it for all , or for a great part of , his ordinary Drink . IX . To make an easie Diuretick . C PEel off the Inner Skin of an Egg shell , then beat the Shell to a very fine Pouder : Give about a Scruple of it at a time in any convenient Vehicle . X. A Powerful Application to prevent and check the Apoplexy . A MAke an Issue at the Meeting of the Sutures , and keep it open for a good while ; but if the Case will not admit delay , clap on a good Cupping-Glass , without Scarification , or with it , as need shall require , upon the same Concourse of the Sutures . DECAD VIII . I. A choice Remedy for a sore Throat . A TAke Housleek , and having lightly beaten it in a Glass or Stone Mortar , press out the Juice hard between two Plates ; to this Juice put almost an equal Quantity of Virgin Honey , mix them well , and add to the mixture a little Burnt Allom , as much as is requisite to give it a discernable Aluminous Taste : Let the Patient take this from time to time , with a Liquorish Stick , or some such Thing . II. An Approv'd Medicine for a Cancer not broken . B TAke Dulcify'd Colcothar , and with Cream , or Whites of Eggs beaten to a Water , bring it to the Consistence of a Cataplasm ; which ought to be made large , and spread about the thickness of half a Crown , and applyed warm to the part affected , shifting it at least once a day . III. To make a very good Syrup for thin Rheums . A TAke Syrup of Jubibes , Syrup of Dryed Roses , and Syrup of Corn Poppy Flowers , of each a like quantity , mix and use them as the necessity of the Sick requires . IV. For the Dysentery and Pleurisie . B GRrate to fine Pouder the dry'd Pizzel of a Stagg , and give of it as much as will lie upon a Shilling , or thereabouts , once or twice a day , in any convenient Vehicle . V. To Strengthen the Gums , and make the Teeth grow firm . B TAke Catechu , Terra Japonica , or Japonian Earth , and dissolve as much as you can of it in a Pint of Claret , or Red Wine ; then Decant the Liquor warily from the subsiding Faeces , and let the Patient now and then wash his Mouth with it , especially at Bed time . VI. For a Hoarsness upon a Cold. B TAke three Ounces of Hyssop Water , sweeten it with Sugar-candy ; then beat well into it the Yolk of one Egg , and Drink it at a Draught . VII . A choice Medicine for the Jaundies in Children . B TAke half an Ounce of choice Rhubarb made into Pouder ; incorporate with it exactly by long beating , two Handfulls of well chosen , and cleans'd Currans . Of this Electuary let the Patient take every Morning about the quantity of a Nutmeg , for several days together . VIII . A rare Medicine to take away Gouty , and other Arthritick Pains . A TAke highly rectify'd Spirit of Mans Vrine , and anoint the Part with it , the Cold being just taken off , once or twice the first day ; and no longer , unless the Pain continue . IX . For a Prolapsus Uteri . B APply to the Patients Navel a pretty large Cupping-Glass ; but let it not stay on too long , not above a quarter of an hour , for fear of injuring the part it covers , especially the Navel-String . X. To allay Heat in the Eyes , proceeding from sharp Humours . B BEat the White of an Egg , into a Water , in which dissolve a pretty quantity of Refined Loaf Sugar , and then drop some of it into the Patients Eye . DECAD IX . I. An Experienc'd Medicine for Strengthning a Weak Sight . B TAke of Eye-bright , sweet Fennel Seeds , and fine Sugar , all reduc'd to Pouder , of each an Ounce , Nutmeg also pulveriz'd , one Dram ( at most ; ) mix these very well together , and take of the Composition from a Dram to two or more , from time to time . II. An often try'd Medicine for Tertian Agues . B TAke Crude Allum and Nutmeg finely scrap'd , of each about half a Dram , mix the Pouders well together , and with about six Grains of Saffron ; Give this in two or three Spoonfuls of White-Wine Vinegar at the usual time . III. For Stuffings of the Lungs , and the Chin Cough . B MAke Syrup of Penny Royal , or of Ground Ivy , moderately Tart with Oil of Vitriol ; and of this let the Patient take very leisurely about a quarter of a Spoonful from time to time . IV. For the Falling Sickness in Children . B TAke half a Dram of choice Amber , finely pouder'd , and give it for six or seven Weeks together , once a day , when the Stomach is empty , in about four Ounces of good White-Wine . V. An Approved Medicine to drive the Stone , and cure Suppression of Vrine , proceeding from it . A TAke the Roots of Wild Garlick , ( by some Country People called Crow Garlick ) wipe them very clean , stamp them very well in a Mortar of Stone or Glass , and strain out the Juice ; with which make a moderate Draught of good White-Wine considerably strong , and let the Patient take it once or twice a day . VI. An Experienc'd Medicine for Sore Throats . A TAke of Scabious Water six Ounces , of Wine Vinegar a small Spoonful , of Mustard Seed beaten , and of Honey , of each a Spoonful ; stir and shake them very well together ; and then filter the mixture and keep it for Use . VII . An often Experienced External Remedy in Apoplectick Fits. A FIx a Cupping-Glass ( without Scarification ) to the Nape of the Neck , and another to each of the Shoulders , and let them stick on a competent time . VIII . An easie but approv'd Medicine for the Cholick . B TAke about half a Dram of Mastick , and mix it with the Yolk of a new laid Egg , and give it the Patient once or twice a day . IX . To appease the heat of Feavers by an External Remedy . C APply to the Soles of the Feet a mixture , or thin Cataplasm made of the Leaves of Tobacco , fit to be cut to fill a Pipe with , beaten up with as much of the freshest Currans you can get , as will bring the Tobacco to the Consistence of a Poultis . X. The Medicine that is in such Request in Italy against the Worms in Children . B INfuse one Dram of clean Quicksilver all Night in about two Ounces of the Water of Goats Rue , destil'd the common way in a cold Still : And afterwards strain and filter it , to sever it from all Dregs that may happen in the making it . This quantity is given for one Dose . DECAD X. I. A choice Medicine for a Whitloe . A TAke Shell Snails , and beat the pulpy part of them very well , with a convenient quantity of fine chopt Parsly , which is to be applyed warm to the affected part , and shifted two or three times a day . II. A Simple but useful Lime-Water , good for the Kings Evil , and divers other Cases . B TAke half a Pound of good Quick-Lime , and put it into one Gallon of Spring Water , and infuse it for Twenty four Hours ; then decant the Liquor , and let the Patient Drink a good Draught of it two or three times a day , or he may use it for his ordinary Drink ; this Infusion may be coloured-with Saffron , or Red Sanders ; and if need be to make it stronger , add more Lime , and warm the Water and keep it well stopt . III. An Excellent Medicine for a fresh strain . A TAke four Ounces of Bean Flower , two Ounces of Wine Vinegar ; of these make a Cataplasm to be applied a little warm to the part affected ; but if this should prove something too sharp , ( as in some Cases it may ) then take two Drams of Litharg , and boil it a little in the Vinegar ; before you put it to the Bean Flower . IV. For the Piles . A TAke Balsam of Sulphur made with Oil of Turpentine , Ointment of Tobacco , equal Parts , incorporate them well , and Anoint the grieved place therewith . V. For a Burn. B MIngle Lime-Water with Linseed Oyl , by beating them together with a Spoon , and with a Feather dress the Burn several times a day . VI. For a fresh Strain . A BOil Bran in Wine Vinegar to the consistency of a Poultis , apply it warm , and renew the Poultis once in twelve hours , for two or three times . VII . An Experienced Medicine for the Cholick . A TAke good Nitre one Ounce , and rub it well in a clean Mortar of Glass or Stone , then grind with it half a Scruple or more of fine Saffron , and of this mixture give about half a Dram for a Dose in three or four Ounces of Cold Spring Water . VIII . To make an Issue raw , that begins to heal up . B TAke of Lapis Infernalis one Ounce , of Crown Soap an Ounce and half , Chalk finely pouder'd six Drams , mix them all together carefully , and keep them close stopt , except when you mean to use them . IX . For a Sore Throat . A MAke a Plaister of Paracelsus , three or four Fingers broad , and length enough to reach almost from one Ear to the other , and apply it to the part affected , so that it may touch the Throat as much as may be . X. For heat about the Orifice of the Stomach . B MAke a Syrup with the Juice of House Leek and Sugar , and give about one Spoonful of it from time to time . A Stomachical Tincture . A TAke Agrimony two Drams , small Centory Tops one Dram , Coriander Seeds bruised one Scruple , Sassatras Shavings and Bark , one Dram , Gentian Root half a Dram , Zedoary Root ten Grains ; pour upon these three quarters of a Pint of boiling Spring Water , cover it , and let it steep twelve hours , then Strain it , and put it in a Bottle ; then drop a drop of Oil of Cinnamon , upon a lump of Sugar , and put it into the Liquor . The Dose is three Spoonfuls twice a day , an hour or two before Meals . The END . A CATALOGUE OF THE Philosophical Books and Tracts , Written by the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esq Together with the ORDER or TIME Wherein each of them hath been Publish'd respectively . To which is added A CATALOGUE Of the THEOLOGICAL BOOKS , Written by the same Author . LONDON : Printed for Sam. Smith , at the Sign of the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Church-yard . 1692. Advetisements of the Publisher . I. Many Ingenious Persons , especially Strangers , having pressingly endeavour'd to procure a Catalogue of the Honourable Mr. Boyle's Writings ; and the Author himself being not at leisure to draw one up ; 't was thought it might be some Satisfaction to those Inquirers , if I publish'd the following List , as it was drawn out , for his own use , of the Philosophical Transactions , as well as the Printed Volumes , by an Ingenious French Physician , studious of the Authors Writings , some of which he Translated and Printed in his own Language . II. The Letter L affixt in the Margin , denotes the Book related to , to have been Translated , and Publish'd in the Latin Tongue also . Several of the rest having likewise been translated into Latin but not yet Publish'd . III. Those that have an Asterisk prefix'd to them , came forth without the Authors Name , tho' 't is not doubted but they are His. IV. Such as have this Mark ☞ prefix'd to them , are Sold by Samuel Smith at the Prince's Arms in St. Pauls Church-yard . V. Divers of those mentioned , as drawn out of the Transactions , did probably come abroad in Latin ; some of the Transactions themselves having been publish'd in that Language . A Catalogue of the Philosophical Books and Tracts . NEw Experiments Physico-Mechanical , touching the Spring and the Weight of the Air , and its Effects , ( made for the most part in a new Pneumatical Engine ) written by way of Letter to the Right Honourable Charles Lord Viscount of Dungavan , Eldest Son to the Earl of Cork , by the Honourable Robert Boyle Esq A Defence of the Doctrine , touching the Spring and Weight of the Air , propos'd by the Author in his New Physico-Mechanical Experiments ; against the Objections of Franciscus Linus , wherewith the Objectors Punicular Hypothesis is also examin'd . An Examen of Mr. Hobbes's Dialogus Physicus de Naturâ Aeris , as far as it concerns the Authors Book of New Experiments , touching the Spring of the Air ; with an Appendix touching Mr. Hobbes's Doctine of Fluidity and Firmness . These three together in a Volume in 4● , being a Second Edition ; The First at Oxford 1662 , had been publish'd , Anno 1660. The two others at London , 1662 , had been publish'd , Anno 1661. The Sceptical Chymist , &c. 1661. Physiological Essays , or Tentamina , Written and collected upon divers times and Occasions , with an History of Fluidity and Firmness , in 40. 1662. An Experimental History of Colours begun , 80. 1663. Some Considerations touching the Usefulness of Experimental Natural Philosophy , propos'd in a familiar Discourse to a Friend , by way of Invitation to the Study of it : A Second Edition 40. Oxford , 1664. The first had been publish'd 1663. Of the Usefulness of Natural Philosophy , the Second Part ; The first Section , of its Usefulness to Physick , with an Appendix to this First Section of the Second Part , 4 0 1669. Of the Usefulness of Experimental Natural Philosophy , &c. the second Tome , containing the latter Section of the Second Part , 40 , Oxford , 1671. The First Volume of these three Books contains Five Essays . The First , Of the Usefulness , &c. Principally as it relates to the Mind of Man. The Second , A Continuation of the former . The Third , A further Continuation . The Fourth , A requisite Digression concerning those , who would exclude the Deity from intermed●ing with Matter . In the Fifth , The Discourse , interrupted by the late Digression , is resum'd and concluded . The Second Volume contains likewise five Essays . The first , Of the Usefulness , &c. As to the Physiological part of Physick . The second , As to the Pathological part of Pphysick . The third , as to the Semeiotical part of Physick . The fourth , As to the Hygicinal part of Physick . The fifth , as to the Therapeutical part of Physick , in 20 Chapters . The Third Volume contains six Essays . The first , General Considerations about the Means , whereby Experimental Phylosophy may become useful to Human Life . The second , Of the usefulness of Mathematicks to Natural Philosophy . The third , Of the usefulness of Mechanical Disciplines to Natural Philosophy . The fourth , That the Goods of Mankind may be much increased by the Naturalists insight into Trades , with an Appendix . The fifth , Of doing by Physical Knowledge , what is wont to require Manual Skill . The sixth , Of Mens great Ignorance of the Uses of Natural Things . An Experimental History of Cold , and some Discourses concerning New Thermometrical Experiments , and Thoughts about the Doctrine of Antiperistasis ; with An Examen of Mr. Hobbes's Doctrine touching Cold , a second Edition , Quarto . 1665. Attempts of a way to convey Liquors immediately into the Mass of Blood communicated in the Philosophical Transactions of December the 4th 1665. Observations and Experiments upon the Barometer or Ballance of Air , invented , directed , and begun , Anno 1659 , communicated to Dr Beal that continued them , and mentioned in the Transactions of February the 12th and March the 12th , 1666. Hydrostatical Paradoxes made out by new Experiments , for the most part Physical and easie , occasioned by Monsieur Paschal's Tract of the Equilibrium of Liquors , and of the Weight of the Air , 1666. An Account of an Earthquake near Oxford , and the Cocomitants thereof , communicated in the Philosophical Transactions of April 2d , 1666. New Observations and Directions about the Barometer , in the same . General Heads for a Natural History of a Country , great or small , communicated in the same . The Origine of Forms and Qualities illustrated by Considerations and Experiments , in two Parts , Octavo , 1666. A way of preserving Birds , taken out of the Egg , and other small Faetus's , communicated in the Philosophical Transactions of May the 7th , 1666. An Account of a new kind of Baroscope , which may be called Statical , and of some advantages and conveniences it hath above the Mercurial , communicated in the Philosophical Transactions of July the 2d , 1666. A new Frigorific Experiment , shewing how a considerable degree of Cold may be suddenly produced , without the help of Snow , Ice , Hail , Wind or Nitre , and that at any time of the year , communicated in the Philosophical Transactions of July the 18th , 1666. Tryals proposed to Dr. Lower for the improvement of transfusing Blood out of one live Animal into another , communicated in the Philosophical Transactions of February the 11th , 1666. Free Considerations about subordinate Forms , being an Appendix to the Origine of Forms and Qualities published last year , and reprinted with this , 1667. In Octavo . A Letter to the Author of the Philosophical Transactions , giving an Information of some Experiments which he had made himself several years ago , by injecting acid Liquors into Blood , upon the occasion of those communicated by Signior Fracassati , in a Letter written from Oxford , October the 19th , 1667. New Experiments concerning the Relation between Light and Air , ( in shining Wood and Fish ) in a Letter from Oxford to the Publisher of the Philosophical Transactions of January the 6th , 1668. A Continuation of the same Letter in the Philosophical Transactions of February the 10th , 1668. A Continuation of new Experiments , Physico-Mechanical , touching the Spring and Weight of the Air , and their Effects ; The first part . With a Discouse of the Atmospheres of Consistent Bodies , Oxford , 1669. An Invention for estimating the Weight of Water with ordinary Ballances and Weights , in the Philosophical Transactions of August the 16th , 1669. Certain Philosophical Essays and other Tracts , second Edition ; with a Discourse about the Absolute rest of Bodies , Quarto . London , 1669. The first Edition had been published , Anno 1662. New Pneumatical Experiments about Respiration , upon Ducks , Vipers , Frogs , &c. communicated in the Philosophical Transactions of August 8. 1670. A Continuation of the same Experiments in the Philosophical Transactions of September the 12th , 1670. Tracts : About the Cosmical Qualities of Things : The Temperature of the Subterraneal and Submarine Regions , and the bottom of the Sea ; together with an Introduction to the History of particular Qualities , Octavo , Oxford , 1670. Tracts : A Discovery of the admirable Rarefaction of the Air ( even without Heat : ) New Observations about the duration of the Spring of the Air New Experiments touching the condensation of the Air by mere Cold , and its compression without Mechanical Engines , and the admirably differing extensions of the same quantity of Air , rarified and compressed , Quarto , London , 1670. An Essay about the Origine and Virtues of Gems , Quarto , London , 1672. Some Observations about shining Flesh , both of Veal , and Pullet , and that without any sensible Putrefaction in those Bodies , communicated by way of Letter to the publisher of the Philosophical Transactions , in the Transactions of December the 16th , 1672. A new Experiment concerning an effect of the varying weight of the Atmosphere upon some Bodies in the Water , the Description whereof was presented to the Lord Broncker , Anno 1671. Suggesting a conjecture , that the alterations of the very Weight of the Air , may have considerable Operations , even upon Mens Sickness or Health , communicated in the Philosophical Transactions of February the 24th , 1673. Tracts : Containing new Experiments , touching the Relation between Flame and Air , and about Explosions . An Hydrostatical Discourse , occasioned by some Objections of Dr. Henry Moor , &c. to which is annexed an Hydrostatical Letter about a way of weighing Water in Water : New Experiments of the positive , or relative , levity of Bodies under Water : Of the Airs-Spring on Bodies under Water , and about the differing Pressure of heavy Solids and Fluids , Octavo , London , 1672 , 1691. Essays of the strange Subtilty , great efficacy , and determinate nature of Effluvin●s ; to which are annexed new Experiments to make the parts of Fire and Flame , Stable and Ponderable , with Experiments about arresting and weighing of Igneous Corpuscles ; and a Discovery of the perviousness of Glass to ponderable parts of Flame , Octavo , London , 1673. A Letter of September the 13th , 1673. concerning Ambergreece , and its being a Vegetable Production , mentioned in the Philosophical Transactions of October the 8th , 1673. Tracts : Observations about the saltness of the Sea : An account of the Statical Hyroscope , and its Uses , together with an Appendix about the force of the Airs Moisture , and a Fragment about the Natural and Preternatural state of Bodies . To all which is premised a Sceptical Dialogue about the positive or privative Nature of Cold , Octave , London , 1674 , 1691. A Discourse about the Excellency and Grounds of the Mechanical Hypothesis , occasionally proposed to a Friend , annexed to another , Entituled , The Excellency of Theology , compared with Natural Philosophy , Octavo , London , 1674. An account of the two sorts of Helmontian Laudanum , together with the way of the Noble Baron F. M. Van Helmont ( Son to the famous John Baptista ) of preparing his Laudanum , communicated in the Philosophical Transactions of October the 26th , 1674. Tracts : Containing , 1. Suspicions about some hidden Qualities of the Air , with an Appendix touching Coelestial Magnets , and some other particulars . 2. Animadversions upon Mr. Hobbes's Problemata de vac●o . 3. A Discourse of the Cause of Attraction by Suction , Octavo , London , 1674 , 1691. Some Physico-Theological considerations about the possibility of the Resurrection , annexed to a Discourse , Entituled , The Reconcileableness of Reason and Religion , Octavo . London , 1674 / 5. A Conjecture concerning the Bladders of Air , that are found in Fishes , communicated by A. J. and illustrated by an Experiment , suggested by the Author in the Philosophical Transactions of April the 26th , 1675. A New Essay-Instrument , invented and described by the Author , together with the Uses thereof , in 3 Parts . The first shews the occasion of making it , and the Hydrostatical Principles 't is founded on . The second describes the Construction of the Instrument . The third represents the Uses ; which , as relating to Metals , are 1. To discover whether a proposed Guinea be true , or counterfeit . 2. To examine divers other Gold Coins , and particularly half Guinea's . 3. To examine the new English Crown pieces of Silver . 4. To estimate the goodness of Tin and Pewter . 5. To estimate Alloys of Gold and Silver , and some other Metalline Mixtures . All this maketh up the Philosophical Transactions of June 21. 1675. Ten new Experiments about the weaken'd Spring , and some unobserved Effects , of the Air , where occur not only several Tryals to discover ; whether the Spring of the Air , as it may divers ways be increased , so may not by other ways than Cold , or Dillation be weakened , but also some odd Experiments to shew the change of Colours producible in some Solutions and Precipitations by the Operation of the Air , communicated in the Philosophical Transactions of December 27. 1675. An Experimental Discourse of Quicksilver , growing hot with Gold , English and Latin , communicated in the Philosophical Transactions of February 21. 1676. Experiments , Notes , &c. about the Mechanical Origine or Production of divers particular Qualities , amongst which , is inserted a Discourse of the Imperfections of the Chymists Doctrine of Qualities , together with some Reflections upon the Hypothesis of Alcali and Acidum , Octavo , London , 1676 , 1690. This Discourse comprehends Notes , &c. about the Mechanical Origine and Production of Cold. Of Heat . Of Tasts . Of Odours . Of Volatility . Of Fixtness . Of Corrosiveness . Of Corrosibility . Of Chymical Precipitation . Of Magnetical Qualities . Of Electricity . New Experiments about the superficial Figures of Fluids , especially of Liquors contiguous to other Liquors : Likely to conduce much to the Physical Theory of the grand System of the World , communicated in the Philosophical Transactions of January the 29th , 1676 / 7. A Continuation of the same Experiments in the Philosophical Transactions in February the 1676 / 7. The Sceptical Chymist , or Chymico-Physical Paradoxes , touching the Experiments whereby vulgar Spagyrists are wont to endeavour to evince their Salt , Sulphur and Mercury to be the true Principles of Things ; to which in this second Edition are subjoined divers Experiments and Notes , about the Producibleness of Chymical Principles , Octavo . Oxford , 1680 , 1690. A second Continuation of new Experiments Physico-Mechanical , in which , various Experiments , touching the Spring of the Air , either compress'd or Artificial , are contain'd , with a Description of new Engines to perform them , 1680. The Aerial Noctiluca , or some new Phaenomena , and a Process of a factitious Self-shining Substance , Octavo , London . The Glaical or Icy Noctiluca , with a Chymical Paradox founded on new Experiments , whence it may be made probable , that Chymical Principles may be converted one into another , Octavo , London , 1680. Memoirs for the Natural History of Human Blood , especially the Spirit of that Liquor , London , 1684. Experiments and Considerations about the Porosity of Bodies , in Two Essays : The former of the Porousness of Animal Bodies ; The other of the Porousness of solid Bodies , Octavo , London , 1684. Short Memoirs for the Natural Experimental History of Mineral Waters , Octavo , 1685. An Historical Account of a strangely Self-moving Liquor , communicated in the Philosophical Transactions of November the 26th , 1685. Of the Reconcileableness of Specifick Medicines , to the Corpuscular Philosophy , to which is annex'd a Discourse about the advantages of the use of Simple Medicines , propos'd by way of Invitation to it , Octavo , London , 1685. An Essay of the great Effects of Languid and unheeded Motion . To which is annex'd an Experimental Discourse of some unheeded Causes of the Salubrity and Insalubrity of the Air and its Effects , Octavo , London , 1685 , 1690. A free Inquiry into the vulgarly receiv'd Notion of Nature , in an Essay address'd to a Friend , Octavo , London , 1685 / 6. A Disquisition about the Final Causes of Natural Things . With an Appendix of some Uncommon Observations about vitiated Sight , Octavo , London , 1688. Medicina Hydrostatica : Or , Hydrostaticks , applied to the Materia Medica , shewing , How by the Weight that divers Bodies us'd in Physick , have in Water ; one may discover , whether they be Genuine or Adulterate . To which is subjoin'd , a previous Hydrostatical way of estimating Ores , Octavo , London , 1690. Experimenta & Observationes Physicae ; wherein are briefly treated of several Subjects relating to Natural Philosophy in an Experimental way ; to which is added , a small Collection of strange Reports , in two Parts , Octavo , London , 1691. Medicinal Experiments : Or , a Collection of Choice Remedies , for the most part simple and easily prepared , Twelves , London , 1692. Price 1 s. Advertisements . Because among those that willingly read the Author's Writings , there are some that relish those most , ( as most suitable to their Genius , addicted to Religious Studies ) that Treat of Matters relating to Divinity : The Publisher thinks fit to gratifie them with a Catalogue of those Theological Books that pass for Mr. Boyle's , because they were ascribed to him , and never positively disown'd by him ; tho' such of them as are mark'd with an Asterisk , come abroad without having his Name prefixt to them . SEraphic Love , five or six times Printed but first Published in the year , 1660 Octavo . Considerations about the Stile of the Scripture , whereof the first Edition was Publish'd in the year , 1662. in English , and afterward turn'd into , and several times Printed in Latin , Octavo . Occasional Reflections on several Subjects , with a Preliminary Discourse of the way of meditating there Exemplified ; First Publish'd in the year , 1665. and afterwards turn'd into Latin , but not yet Printed in that Language , Octavo . Of the Excellency of the Study of Theology , compared with that of Natural Philosophy . Printed in the year , 1674. Octavo . Considerations about the Reconcileableness of Reason and Religion . To which is annex'd a Discourse about the Possibility of the Resurrection . Printed in the year , 1675. Octavo . A Treatise of Things above Reason . To which are annex'd some Advices about Things that are said to transcend Reason . Printed in the year , 1681. in English , and afterwards Translated into Latin , but not yet Printed in that Language , Octavo . Of the Veneration that Man's Intellect owes to God. Printed in the year , 1685. The Martyrdom of Theodora , and of Didymus . London , 1687. The Christian Vertuoso : Shewing , That by being addicted to Experimental Philosophy , a Man is rather assisted , than Indisposed , to be a good Christian . The First Part ; To which are subjoin'd , 1. A Discourse about the Distinction , that represents some Things as above Reason , but not contrary to Reason . 2. The first Chapters of a Discourse , Entituled , Greatness of Mind promoted by Christianity , Octavo , London , 1690. A Catalogue of new Physick Books Printed for Sam. Smith at the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Church Yard . PAarmacopeia Bateana . Quâ nonginta Circiter Pharmaca , plerâque omnia è Praxi Georgii Batei Regi Carolo secundo Medici Primarii excerpta , ordine alphabetico conci●è exhibentur . Quorum Nonnulla in Laboritorio Publico Pharmacopoeano Lond. fideliter parantur Venalia : Atque in usu sunt hodierno apud Medicos Londinenses . Editio Altera Priori multò Locupletior : Cum viribus ac dosious annexis . Huic accesserunt Arcana Goddardiana ex Autographo Authoris desumpta . Item ad Calcem Orthotonia Medicorum Observata : Insuper & tabula Posologica Dosibus Pharmacorum accommodata . Cum Indice Morborum , Curationum , &c. Curâ J. S. Pharmacopoei Lond. In Twelves . 1691. Praxeos Mayernianae in Morbis internis Praecipue Gravioribus & Chronicis Syntagma , ex Adversariis , Consiliis ac Epistolis ejus , summâ Curâ ac Diligentiâ concinnatum . Londini . In Oct. 1690. Phthisiologia seu Exercitationes de Phthisi Tribus Libris comprehensae . Totumque Opus variis Historiis illustratum . Autore Richardo Morton , Med. D. & Regii Collegii Medicor . Lond. Socio . Londini . In Octavo . 1689. Osteologia Nova , or some New Observations of the Bones , and the Parts belonging to them , with the manner of their Accretion , and Nutrition , communicated to the Royal Society in several Discourses . I. Of the Membrane , Nature , Constituent parts , and Internal Structure of the Bones . II. Of Accretion , and Nutrition , as also of the Affections of the Bones in the Rickets , and of Venereal Nodes . III. Of the Medulla , or Marrow . IV. Of the Mucilaginous Glands , with the Etiology or Explication of the Causes of a Rheumatism , and the Gout , and the manner how they are produced . To which is added , A Fifth Discourse of the Cartilages . By Clopton Havers . M. D. Fellow of the Royal Society . London . In Octavo . 1691. Synopsis Methodica Stirpium Brittannicarum , in quatum Notae generum Characteristicae traduntur , tum Species singulae breviter describuntur : Ducentae quinquaginta plus minus novae Species p●●tim suis locis inseruntur , partim in Appendice seorsim exhibentur . Cum Indice & Virium Epitome . Auctore Joanne Raio è Societate Regia . Londini . In Octavo . 1690. Pharmacopaelae Collegii Regalis Londini Remedia Omnia succinctè descripta , atque serie alphabeticâ ita digesta , ut singula promptius primo intuitu investigare possint , Editio Altera Priori Castigatior & Auctior : Huic Annexus est Catalogus Simplicium tum locupletior tum compendiosor quàm antehàc editus ; Accedit in Calce Manuale ad forum nec non Pinax posographicus , Curâ Ja. Shipton Phamacop . Lond. In T'welves . 1689. THE END . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A28992-e12710 L ☜ L ☞ L L ☞ ☞ ☜ L L L L L L ☜ ☜ L L ☞ L L ☜ L ☞ ☜ L ☜ L ☞ L ☞ L ☞ L ☞ ☞ L ☞ ☞ * L ☜ * ☜ ☜ ☜ ☜ Notes for div A28992-e15340 ☞ L * ☞ * ☞ * ☜ * L ☜ * ☜ ☜ 
A23752	----	The lively oracles given to us, or, The Christians birth-right and duty, in the custody and use of the Holy Scripture by the author of The whole duty of man, &c. Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681. 1678 Approx. 320 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 120 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2004-08 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A23752 Wing A1149 ESTC R170102 11634392 ocm 11634392 47945 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A23752) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 47945) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 5:3) The lively oracles given to us, or, The Christians birth-right and duty, in the custody and use of the Holy Scripture by the author of The whole duty of man, &c. Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681. Sterne, Richard, 1596?-1683. Pakington, Dorothy Coventry, Lady, d. 1679. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. [14], 226, [2] p. [s.n.], At the Theater in Oxford : 1678. Authorship of The whole duty of man is attributed to Richard Allestree. Cf. Halkett & Laing (2nd ed.). Attributed also to Robert Boyle, Lady Pakington, Bishop Fell, etc. Reproduction of original in Yale University Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. 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Christian life -- Early works to 1800. 2004-04 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-04 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-05 Emma (Leeson) Huber Sampled and proofread 2004-05 Emma (Leeson) Huber Text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-07 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Imprimatur . JO. NICHOLAS . Vice Cancell . Oxon. Junii 10. 1678. THE Lively Oracles given to us OR The Christians Birth-right and Duty , in the custody and use of the HOLY SCRIPTURE . By the Author of the WHOLE DUTY OF MAN , &c. Search the Scriptures , Jo. 5. 39. At the THEATER in OXFORD , 1678. The lively Oracles given to us or The Christians birthright & duty in the custody & use of the holy Scripture . THE PREFACE . IN the Treatise of the Government of the Tongue publisht by me heretofore , I had occasion to take notice among the exorbitances of that unruly part , which sets on fire the whole course of nature , and its self is set on fire from hell , Jam. 3. 6. of the impious vanity prevailing in this Age , whereby men play with sacred things , and exercise their wit upon those Scriptures by which they shall be judg'd at the last day , Joh. 12. 48. But that holy Book not only suffering by the petulancy of the Tongue , but the malice of the heart , out of the abundance whereof the mouth speaks , Mat. 12. 34. and also from that irreligion , prepossession , and supiness , which the pursuit of sensual plesures certainly produces ; the mischief is too much diffus'd , and deeply rooted , to be controul'd by a few casual reflections . I have therefore thought it necessary , both in regard of the dignity and importance of the subject , as also the prevalence of the opposition , to attemt a profest and particular vindication of the holy Scriptures , by displaying their native excellence and beauty ; and enforcing the veneration and obedience that is to be paid unto them . This I design'd to do in my usual method , by an address to the affections of the Reader ; soliciting the several passions of love , hope , fear , shame and sorrow , which either the majesty of God in his sublime being , his goodness deriv'd to us , or our ingratitude return'd to him , could actuate in persons not utterly obdurate . But where as men , when they have learnt to do amiss , quickly dispute and dictate ; I found my self concern'd to pass somtimes within the verge of controversy , and to discourse upon the principles of reason , and deductions from Testimony , which in the most important transactions of human life are justly taken for evidence . In which whole performance I have studied to avoid the entanglements of Sophistry , and the ambition of unintelligible quotations ; and kept my self within the reach of te unlearned Christian Reader ; to whose uses , my labors have bin ever dedicated . All that I require , is that men would bring as much readiness to entertain the holy Scriptures , as they do to the reading profane Authors ; I am asham'd to say , as they do to the incentives of vice and folly , nay , to the libels and invectives that are levell'd against the Scriptures . If I obtain this , I will make no doubt that I shall gain a farther point ; that from the perusal of my imperfect conceptions , the Reader will proceed to the study of the Scriptures themselves : there tast and see how gracious the Lord is , Ps. 34. 8. and as the Angel commanded Saint John , Rev. 10. 9. eat the Book ; where he will experimentally find the words of David verified , Ps. 19. 7. The Law of the Lord is an undefiled Law , converting the soul : the testimony of the Lord is sure , and giveth wisdom to the simple . The Statutes of the Lord are right , and rejoice the heart ; the commandment of the Lord is pure , and giveth light to the eies . The fear of the Lord is clean and endureth for ever , the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether . More to be desir'd are they then gold , yea , then much fine gold ; sweeter also then hony and the hony-comb . Moreover by them is thy servant taught , and in keeping of them there is great reward . It is said of Moses , Ex. 34. 29. that having receiv'd the Law from God , and converst with him in Mount Sina forty daies together , his face shone , and had a brightness fixt upon it that dazled the beholders ; a pledg and short essay not only of the appearance at Mount Tabor , Mat. 17. 1. where at the Transfiguration he again was seen in glory : but of that greater , and yet future change when he shall see indeed his God face to face , and share his glory unto all eternity . The same divine Goodness gives still his Law to every one of us . Let us receive it with due regard and veneration ; converse with him therein , instead of forty daies , during our whole lives ; and so anticipate and certainly assure our interest in that great Transfiguration , when all the faithful shall put of their mortal flesh , be translated from glory to glory , eternally behold their God , see him as he is , and so enjoy him . Conversation has every where an assimilating power , we are generally such as are the men and Books , and business that we deal with : but surely no familiarity has so great an influence on Life and Manners , as when men hear God speaking to them in his Word . That Word which the Apostle , Heb. 4. 12. declares to be quick and powerful , sharper then any two-edg'd sword , piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit , and of the joints and marrow , and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart . The time will come when all our Books however recommended , for subtilty of discourse , exactness of method , variety of matter , or eloquence of Language ; when all our curious Acts , like those mention'd Act. 19. 19. shall be brought forth , and burnt before all men : When the great Book of nature , and heaven it self shall depart as a scroul roll'd together , Rev. 6. 14. At which important season 't will be more to purpose , to have studied well , that is , transcrib'd in practice this one Book , then to have run thro all besides , for then the dead small and great shall stand before God , and the Books shall be open'd , and another Book shall be open'd which is the Book of Life , and the dead shall be judg'd out of those things which were written in the Books , according to their works , Rev. 20. 12. In vain shall men allege the want of due conviction , that they did not know how penal it would be , to disregard the Sanctions of Gods Law , which they would have had enforc'd by immediat miracle ; the apparition of one sent from the other world , who might testify of the place of torment . This expectation the Scripture charges every where with the guilt of temting God , and indeed it really involves this insolent proposal , that the Almighty should be oblig'd to break his own Laws , that men might be prevail'd with to keep his . But should he think fit to comply herein , the condescention would be as successless in the event , as 't is unreasonable in the offer . Our Savior assures , that they who hear not Moses and the Prophets , the instructions and commands laid down in holy Scripture , would not be wrought upon by any other method , would not be perswaded , by that which they allow for irresistible conviction , tho one rose again from the dead , Luke 16. 31. THE LIVELY ORACLES GIVEN TO US , Or the Christians Birth-right and Duty in the custody and use of the HOLY SCRIPTURE . SECT . I. The several Methods of Gods communicating the knowledg of himself . GOD , as he is invisible to human eies , so is he unfathomable by human understandings ; the perfection of his nature , and the impotency of ours , setting us at too great a distance to have any clear perception of him . Nay , so far are we from a full comprehension , that we can discern nothing at all of him , but by his own light ; those discoveries he hath bin pleas'd to make of himself . 2. THOSE have bin of several sorts ; The first was by infusion in mans creation , when God interwove into mans very constitution and being the notions and apprehensions of a Deity : and at the same instant when he breath'd into him a living soul , imprest on it that native religion , which taught him to know and reverence his Creator , which we may call the instinct of humanity . Nor were those principles dark and confus'd , but clear and evident , proportionable to the ends they were design'd to , which were not only to contemplate the nature , but to do the will of God ; practice being even in the state of innocence preferrable before an unactive speculation . 3. BUT this Light being soon eclips'd by Adams disobedience , there remain'd to his benighted posterity , only som faint glimmerings , which were utterly insufficient to guide them tho their end , without fresh aids , and renew'd manifestations of God to them . It pleas'd God therefore to repair this ruine , and by frequent revelations to communicate himself to the Patriarchs in the first Ages of the World ; afterwards to Prophets , and other holy men ; till at last he reveled himself yet more illustriously in the face of Jesus Christ , 2 Cor. 4. 6. 4. THIS is the one great comprehensive Revelation wherein all the former were involv'd , and to which they pointed ; the whole mystery of Godliness being compris'd in this of Gods being manifested in the flesh , and the consequents thereof . 1 Tim. 3. 16. whereby our Savior as he effected our reconciliation with God by the sacrifice of his death ; so he declar'd both that , and all things else that it concern'd man to know in order to bliss , in his doctrin and holy life . And this Teacher being not only sent from God , Jo. 3. but being himself God blessed for ever ; it cannot be that his instructions can want any supplement . Yet that they might not want attestation neither to the incredulous world ; he confirm'd them by the repeted miracles of his life , and by the testimony of those who saw the more irrefragable conviction of his Resurrection and Ascension . And that they also might not want credit and enforcement , the holy Spirit set to his seal , and by his miraculous descent upon the Apostles , both asserted their commission , and enabled them for the discharge of it , by all gifts necessary for the propagating the Faith of Christ over the whole World. 5. THESE were the waies by which God was pleased to revele himself to to the Forefathers of our Faith , and that not only for their sakes , but ours also , to whom they were to derive those divine dictats they had receiv'd . Saint Stephen tells us , those under the Law receiv'd the lively Oracles to deliver down to their posterity , Act. 7. 38. And those under the Gospel , who receiv'd yet more lively Oracles , from him who was both the Word and the Life , did it for the like purpose ; to transmit it to us upon whom the ends of the world are come . By this all need of repeted Revelations is superseded , the faithful deriving of the former , being sufficient to us for all things that pertain to life and godliness , 2 Pet. 1. 3. 6. AND for this , God ( whose care is equal for all successions of men ) hath graciously provided , by causing Holy Scriptures to be writ ; by which he hath deriv'd on every succeeding Age the illuminations of the former . And for that purpose endowed the Writers not only with that moral fidelity requisite to the truth of History , but with a divine Spirit , proportionable to the great design of fixing an immutable rule for Faith and Manners . And to give us the fuller security herein , he has chosen no other pen-men of the New Testament , then those who were the first oral Promulgers of our Christian Religion ; so that they have left to us the very same doctrin they taught the Primitive Christians ; and he that acknowledges them divinely inspir'd in what they preach'd , cannot doubt them to be so in what they writ . So that we all may injoy virtually and effectively that wish of the devout Father , who desir'd to be Saint Pauls Auditor : for he that hears any of his Epistles read , is as really spoke to by Saint Paul , as those who were within the sound of his voice . Thus God who in times past spake at sundry times , and in diverse manners to our Fathers by the Prophets , and in the later daies by his son , Heb. 1. 1 , 2. continues still to speak to us by these inspir'd Writers ; and what Christ once said to his Disciples in relation to their preaching , is no less true of their writings : He that despiseth you , despiseth me , Luk. 10. 16. All the contemt that is at any time flung on these sacred Writings , rebounds higher , and finally devolves on the first Author of those doctrins , whereof these are the Registres and Transcripts . 7. BUT this is a guilt which one would think peculiar to Infidels and Pagans , and not incident to any who had in their Baptism listed themselves under Christs banner : yet I fear I may say , of the two parties , the Scripture has met with the worst treatment from the later . For if we mesure by the frequency and variety of injuries . I fear Christians will appear to have out-vied Heathens : These bluntly disbelieve them , neglect , nay perhaps scornfully deride them . Alas , Christians do this and more ; they not only put contemts , but tricks upon the Scripture , wrest and distort it to justify all their wild phancies , or secular designs ; and suborn its Patronage to those things it forbids , and tells us that God abhors . 8. INDEED so many are the abuses we offer it , that he that considers them would scarce think we own'd it for the words of a sensible man , much less of the great omniscient God. And I believe 't were hard to assign any one so comprehensive and efficacious cause of the universal depravation of manners , as the disvaluing of this divine Book , which was design'd to regulate them . It were therefore a work worthy another inspired writing , to attemt the rescue of this , and recover it to its just estimate . Yet alas , could we hope for that , we have scoffers who would as well despise the New as the Old ; and like the Husbandmen in the Gospel , Mat. 21. 36. would answer such a succession of messages by repeting the same injuries . 9. To such as these 't is I confess vain for man to address ; nay 't were insolence to expect that human Oratory should succeed where the divine fails ; yet the spreading infection of these renders it necessary to administer antidotes to others . And besides , tho ( God be blest ) all are not of this form , yet there are many who , tho not arriv'd to this contempt , yet want som degrees of that just reverence they owe the sacred Scriptures , who give a confus'd general assent to them as the word of God , but afford them not a consideration and respect answerable to such an acknowledgment . To such as these , I shall hope it may not be utterly vain to attemt the exciting of those drowsy notions that lie unactive in them , by presenting to them som considerations concerning the excellence and use of the Scripture : which being all but necessary consequences of that principle they are supposed to own , viz. that they are Gods word , I cannot much question their assent to the speculative part : I wish I could as probably assure my self of the practic . 10. INDEED were there nothing else to be said in behalf of holy Writ , but that it is Gods word , that were enough to command the most awful regard to it . And therefore it is but just we make that the first and principal consideration in our present discourse . But then 't is impossible that that can want others to attend it ; since whatsoever God saies , is in all respects completely good . I shall therefore to that of its divine original add secondly the consideration of its subject Matter ; thirdly , of its excellent and no less diffusive end and design ; and fourthly , of its exact propriety and fitness to that design , which are all such qualifications , that where they concur , nothing more can be requir'd to commend a writing to the esteem of rational men . And upon all these tests , notwithstanding the cavil of the Romanists and others , whose force we shall examin with the unhappy issue of contrary counsels , this law of God will be found to answer the Psalmists character of it , Ps. 19. 7. The Law of God is perfect : and 't will appear that the custody and use thereof , is the Birth-right and Duty of every Christian. All which severals being faithfully deduced ; it will only remain that I add such cautions as will be necessary to the due performance of the aforesaid duty ; and our being in som degree render'd perfect , as this Law of God , and the Author thereof himself is perfect , Mat. 5. 48. SECT . II. The divine Original , Endearments , and Authority of the Holy Scripture . MENS judgments are so apt to be biast by their affection , that we often find them readier to consider who speaks , then what is spoken : a temper very unsafe , and the principle of great injustice in our inferior transactions with men ; yet here there are very few of us that can wholly divest our selves of it , whereas , when we deal with God ( in whom alone an implicit faith may securely be reposed ) we are nice and wary , bring our scales and mesures , will take nothing upon his word which holds not weight in our own balance . 'T is true , he needs not our partiality to be justified in his sayings , Psal. 51. 4. His words are pure , even as the silver tried seven times in the fire , Psal. 12. 6. able to pass the strictest test that right reason ( truly so called ) can put them to . Yet it shews a great perverseness in our nature , that we who so easily resign our understandings to fallible men , stand thus upon our guard against God ; make him dispute for every inch he gains on us ; nor will afford him what we daily grant to any credible man , to receive an affirmation upon trust of his veracity . 2. I am far from contradicting our Saviors Precept , of Search the Scriptures , Jo. 7. or Saint Pauls , of proving all things , 1 Thes. 5. 21. we cannot be too industrious in our inquest after truth , provided we still reserve to God the decisive vote , and humbly acquiesce in his sense , how distant soever from our own ; so that when we consult Scripture ( I may add reason either ) 't is not to resolve us whether God be to be believed or no in what he has said , but whether he hath said such and such things : for if we are convinc'd he have ; reason as well as Religion commands our assert . 3. WHATEVER therefore God has said , we are to pay it a reverence merely upon the account of its Author ; over and above what the excellence of the matter exacts : and to this we have all inducements as well as obligation : there being no motives to render the words of men estimable to us , which are not eminently and transcendently appliable to those of God. 4. THOSE motives we may reduce to four : first , the Autority of the Speaker ; secondly , his Kindness ; thirdly , his Wisdom ; and fourthly , his Truth . First , for that of Autority ; that may be either native , or acquired ; the native is that of a parent , which is such a charm of observance , that we see Sa●omon , when he would impress his counsels , assumes the person of a Father ; Hear O my children the instructions of a Father , Prov. 4. 1. And generally thro that whole Book he uses the compellation of my Son , as the greatest endearment to engage attention and reverence . Nay so indispensible was the obligation of children in this respect , that we see the contumacious child that would not hearken to the advice of his Parents , was by God himself adjudged to death , Deut. 21. 20. 5. NOR have only Gods , but mens Laws exacted that filial reverence to the dictats of Parents . But certainly no Parent can pretend such a title to it as God , who is not only the immediat Father of our persons , but the original Father of our very nature ; not only of our flesh , but of our spirits also , Heb. 12. 9. So that the Apostles Antithesis in that place is as properly applied to counsels as corrections , and we may as rightly infer , that if we give reverence to the advices of our earthly Parents , much more ought we subject our selves to this Father of our spirits . And we have the very same reason wherewith to enforce it : for the Fathers of our flesh do as often dictate , as correct according to their own plesures , prescribe to their children not according to the exact mesures of right and wrong , but after that humor which most predominates in themselves . But God alwaies directs his admonitions to our profit , that we may be partakers of his holiness , Heb. 12. 11. So that we are as unkind to our selves , as irreverent towards him , whenever we let any of his words fall to the ground ; whose claim to this part of our reverence is much more irrefragable then that of our natural Parents . 6. BUT besides this native Autority there is also an acquired ; and that we may distinguish into two sorts ; the one of dominion , the other of reputation . To the first kind belongs that of Princes , Magistrates , Masters , or any that have coercive power over us . And our own interest teaches us not to slight the words of any of these , who can so much to our cost second them with deeds . Now God has all these titles of jurisdiction ; He is the great King , Ps. 48. 2. Nor was it only a complement of the Psalmists ; for himself owns the stile , I am a great King , Mal. 1. He is the Judg of all the World ; Gen. 18. yea , that Ancient of daies , before whom the Books were open'd , Dan. 7. 10. He is our Lord and Master by right , both of Creation and Redemtion ; and this Christ owns even in his state of inanition ; yea , when he was about the most servile imploiment ; the washing his Disciples feet ; when he was most literally in the form of a servant ; yet he scruples not to assert his right to that opposite title ; You call me Master , and Lord ; and ye say well , for so I am ; Jo. 13. Nor are these emty names , but effectively attended with all the power they denote . Yet so stupid are we , that whilst we awfully receive the dictates of our earthly Superiors , we slight and neglect the Oracles of that God who is King of Kings , and Lord of Lords . When a Prince speaks , we are apt to cry out with Herods Flatterers , the voice of a God , and not of a man , Act. 12. Yet when it is indeed the voice of God , we chuse tot listen to any thing else rather then it . But let us sadly remember , that notwithstanding our contemts , this word shall ( as our Savior tells us ) judg us at the last day , Jo. 12. 38. 7. A second sort of acquir'd Autority is that of reputation . When a man is famed for som extraordinary excellencies , whether moral or intellectual , men come with appetite to his discourses , greedily suck them in , nor need such a one bespeak attention ; his very name has don it for him , and prepossest him of his Auditors regard . Thus the Rabbies among the Jews , the Philosophers among the Greeks , were listened to as Oracles , and to cite them was ( by their admiring Disciples ) thought a concluding Argument . Nay , under Christianity , this admiration of mens persons has bin so inordinate , that it has crumbled Religion away in little insignificant parties ; whilst not only Paul , Apollo , or Cephas , but names infinitly inferior , have become the distinctive characters of Sects and separate Communions . So easily alas are we charm'd by our prepossessions , and with itching ears run in quest of those doctrins which the fame of their Authors , rather then the evidence of truth , commend to us . 8. AND hath God don nothing to get him a repute among us ? has he no excellencies to deserve our esteem ? is he not worthy to prescribe to his own creatures ? If we think yes , why is he the only person to be disregarded ? or why do we so unseasonably depart from our own humor , as not to give his Word a reverence proportionable to that we pretend for him ; nay , which we actually pay to men of like passions with our selves ? A contemt so absurd as well as impious , that we have not the example of any the most barbarous people to countenance us . For tho som of them have made very wild mistakes in the choice of their Deities , yet they have all agreed in this common principle , that whatever those Deities said , was to be receiv'd with all possible veneration ; yea , such a deference gave they to all significations of the divine will , that as they would undertake no great enterprize without consulting their Auguries ; so upon any inauspicious signs they relinquisht their attemts . And certainly if we had the same reverence for the true God which they had for the false , we should as frequently consult him . We may do it with much more ease and certainty : we need not trust to the entrails of Beasts , or motion of Birds ; we need not go to Delphos , or the Lybian Hammon for the resolving our doubts ; but what Moses said to Israel is very applicable to us , the Word is nigh thee , Deut. 30. 14. That Word which David made his Counsellor ▪ Psal. 119. 24. his Comforter , ver . 50. his Tresure , ver . 72. his Study ver . 99. And had we those awful apprehensions of God which he had , we should pay the like reverence to his Word . Did we well ponder how many titles of Autority he has over us , we should surely be asham'd to deny that respect to him in whom they all conspire ; which we dare not deny to them separately in human Superiors . 9. A second motive to esteem mens words , is the kindness of the speaker . This has such a fascinating power , as nothing but extreme ill nature can resist . When a man is assur'd of the kindness of him that speaks , whatever is spoken is taken in good part . This is it that distinguishes the admonitions of a friend from the reproches of an enemy ; and we daily in common conversation receive those things with contentment and applause from an intimate and familiar , which if spoken by a stranger or enemy would be despis'd or stomach'd . So insinuating a thing is kindness , that where it has once got it self believ'd , nothing it saies after is disputed ; it supples the mind , and makes it ductile and pliant to any impressions . 10. BUT what human kindness is there that can come in any competition with the Divine ? it surpasses that of the nearest and dearest relations ; Mothers may forget , yet will I not forget thee , Isa. 49. 15. And the Psalmist found it experimentally true , When my Father and my Mother forsake me , the Lord taketh me up , Ps. 27. 10. The tenderest bowels compared to his , are adamant and flint : so that 't is a most proper epithet the Wise man gives him ; O Lord thou lover of souls , Wis. 11. 26. Nor is this affection merely mental , but it attests it self by innumerable effects . The effects of love are all reducible to two heads , doing and suffering ; and by both these God has most eminently attested his love to us . 11. FOR the first , we cannot look either on our bodies or our souls , on the whole Universe about us , or that better World above us ; but we shall in each see the Lord hath don great things for us , Psal. 114. Nay , not only our enjoiments , but even the capacity to enjoy , is his bounty . Had not he drawn mankind out of his original clay , what had we bin concern'd in all the other works of his Creation ? So that if we put any value either upon what we have or what we are , we cannot but account our selves so much indebted to this his active love . And tho the passive was not practicable by the divine Nature simply and apart , yet that we might not want all imaginable evidences of his love , he who was God blessed for ever , linkt his impassible to ●ur passible nature ; assum'd our humanity , that he might espouse our sorrows , and was ●orn on purpose that he might die for us . So that sure we may say in his own words , greater love then this hath no man , Jo. 15 , 13. 12. AND now 't is very hard , if such an unparallel'd love in God , may not as much affect us as the slight benefactions of every ordinary friend ; if it cannot so much recommend him to our regard , as to rescue his word from contemt , and dispose us to receive impressions from it ; especially when his very speaking is a new act of his kindness , and design'd to our greatest advantage . 13. BUT if all he has don and suffer'd for us cannot obtain him so much from us , we must surely confess , our disingenuity is as superlative as his love . For in this instance we have ●o plea for our selves . The discourses of men , ●tis true , may somtime be so weak and irrational , that tho kindness may suggest pity , it cannot reverence : But this can never happen in God , whose wisdom is as infinite as his love . He talks not at our vain rate who often talk only for talkings sake ; but his words are directed to the most important ends , and addrest in such a manner as befits him in whom are all the tresures of wisdom and knowledg , Col. 2. And this is our third consideration , the wisdom of the Speaker . 14. How attractive a thing Wisdom is , we may observe in the instance of the Queen of Sheba , who came from the utmost parts of the earth , as Christ saies , Mat. 12. 42. to hear the Wisdom of Solomon . And the like is noted of the Greek Sages , that they were addrest to from all parts , by persons of all ranks and qualities , to hear their Lectures . And indeed the rational nature of man do's by a kind of sympathetic motion close with whatever hath the stamp of reason upon it . But alas what is the profoundest wisdom of men compar'd with that of God ? He is the essential reason ; and all that man can pretend to , is but an emanation from him ; a ray of his Sun , a drop of his Ocean : which as he gives , so he can also take away . He can infatuate the most subtil designers ; And ( as he saies of him self ) makes the diviners mad turns the wise men back , and makes their wisdom foolishness , Esay 44. 25. 15. How impious a folly is it then in us , to Idolize human Wisdom with all its imperfections , and despise the divine ? yet this every man is guilty of , who is not attracted to the study of sacred Writ by the supereminent wisdom of its Author . For such men must either affirm that God has not such a super●minency ; or that , tho he have in himself , he ●ath noth exerted it in this writing : The former is down-right blasphemy ; and truly the ●●ter is the same , a little varied . For that any ●hing but what is exactly wise , can proceed ●●om infinite wisdom , is too absurd for any ●an to imagin . And therefore he that ●harges Gods Word with defect of wisdom , ●ust interpretatively charge God so too . For ●●o 't is true , a wise man may somtimes speak ●olishly ; yet that happens thro that mixture of ignorance or passion , which is in the most knowing of mortals : but in God , who is a pure Act , and essential Wisdom , that is an impossible supposition . 16. NAY , indeed it were to tax him of folly beyond what is incident to any sensible man , who will still proportion his instruments to the work he designs . Should we not conclude him mad , that should attemt to fell a mighty Oak with a Pen-knife , or stop a Torrent with a wisp of Straw ? And sure their conceptions are not much more reverend of God , who can suppose that a writing design'd by him for such important ends , as the making men wise unto salvation , 2 Tim. 3. 15. the casting down all that exalts it self against the obedience of Christ , 2 Cor. 10. 5. should it self be foolish and weak : or that he should give it those great Attributes of being sharper then a two edged sword , piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit , of the joints and marrow Heb. 4. 14. if its discourses were so flat and insipid , as som in this profane Age would represent them . 17. 'T IS true indeed , 't is not as the Apostle speaks , the wisdom of this world , 1 Cor. 2. 6. The Scripture teaches us not the arts of undermining Governments , defrauding and circumventing our brethren ; but it teaches us that which would tend much more even to our temporal felicity ; and as reason promts us to aspire to happiness , so it must acknowledg , that is the highest wisdom which teaches us to attain it . 18. AND as the Holy Scripture is thus recommended to us by the wisdom of its Author ; so in the last place is it by his truth , without which the other might rather raise our jealousy then our reverence . For wisdom without sincerity degenerates into serpentine guile ; and we rather fear to be ensnar'd then hope to be advantag'd by it . The most subtil addresses , and most cogent arguments prevail not upon us , where we suspect som insidious design . But where wisdom and fidelity meet in the same person , we do not only attend , but confide in his counsels , And this qualification is most eminently in God. The children of men are deceitful upon the weights . Psal. 62. 9. Much guile often lurks indiscernibly under the fairest appearances : but Gods veracity is as essentially himself , as his wisdom , and he can no more deceive us , then he can be deceiv'd himself . He is not man that he should die , Num. 23. 19. He designs not ( as men often do ) to sport himself with our credulity ; and raise hopes which he never means to satisfy : he saies not to the seed of Jacob , seek ye me in vain , Ex. 45. 19. but all his promises are yea and Amen , 2 Cor. 1. 20. He is perfectly sincere in all the proposals he makes in his Word : which is a most rational motive for us to advert to it , not only with reverence but love . 19. AND now when all these motives are thus combined ; the autority , the kindness , the wisdom , the veracity of the speaker , what can be requir'd more to render his words of weight with us ? If this four-fold cord will not draw us , we have sure the strength , not of men , but of that Legion we read of in the Gospel , Mar. 5. 9. For these are so much the cords of a man , so adapted to our natures , nay to our constant usage in other things , that we must put off much of our humanity , disclaim the common mesures of mankind , if we be not attracted by them . For I dare appeal to the breast of any sober , industrious man , whether in case a person , who he were sure had all the fore-mention'd qualifications , should recommend to him som rules as infallible for the certain doubling , or trebling his estate , he would not think them worth the pursuing ; nay , whether he would not plot and study on them , till he comprehended the whole Art. And shall we then when God in whom all those qualifications are united , and that in their utmost transcendencies , shall we , I say , think him below our regard , when he proposes the improving our interests , not by the scanty proportions of two or three ; but in such as he intimated to Abraham , when he shewed him the Stars , as the representative of his numerous off-spring , Gen. 15. 5. when he teaches us that highest , and yet most certain Alchimy , of refining and multiplying our enjoiments , and then perpetuating them ? 20. ALL this God do's in Scripture ; and we must be stupidly improvident , if we will take no advantage by it . It was once the complaint of Christ to the Jews , I am come in my Fathers name and ye receive me not , if another shall come in his own name , him ye will receive , Jo. 5. 43. And what was said by him the eternal essential Word , is no less applicable to the written ; which coming in the name , and upon the message of God , is despis'd and slighted , and every the lightest composure of men preferr'd before it . As if that signature of Divinity it carries , served rather as a Brand to stigmatize and defame , then adorn and recommend it . A contemt which strikes immediatly at God himself , whose resentments of it , tho for the present supprest by his long-suffering , will at last break out upon all who persevere so to affront him , in a judgment worthy of God , Wis. 12. 26. 21. BUT after all that has bin said , I fore-see som may say , that I have all this while but beaten the air , have built upon a principle which som flatly deny , others doubt of , and have run away with a supposition that the Bible is of divine Original , without any attemt of proof . To such as these I might justly enough object the extreme hard mesure they offer to Divinity above all other Sciences . For in those , they still allow som fundamental maxims , which are presupposed without proof ; but in this they admit of no Postulata , no granted principle on which to superstruct . If the same rigor should be extended to secular cases , what a damp would it strike upon commerce ? For example , a man expects fair dealing from his neighbor , upon the strength of those common notions of Justice he presumes writ in all mens hearts : but according to this mesure , he must first prove to every man he deals with , that such notions there are , and that they are obligatory : that the wares expos'd to sale are his own ; that dominion is not founded in grace , or that he is in that state , and so has a property to confer upon another ; that the person dealt with , paies a just price ; do's it in good mony ; and that it is his own ; or that he is in the state of grace ; or needs not be so , to justify his purchase : and at this rate the Market will be as full of nice questions as the Scholes . But because complaints and retortions are the common refuge of causes that want better Arguments , I shall not insist here ; but to proceed to a defence of the question'd Assertion , that the Bible is the Word of God. 22. IN which I shall proceed by these degrees . First , I shall lay down the plain grounds upon which Christians believe it . Secondly , I shall compare those with those of less credibility which have generally satisfied mankind in other things of the like nature . And thirdly , I shall consider whether those who are dissatisfied with those grounds , would not be equally so with any other way of attestation . 23. BEFORE I enter upon the first of these , I desire it may be consider'd , that matters of fact are not capable of such rigorous demonstrative evidences , as mathematical propositions are . To render a thing fit for rational belief , there is no more requir'd but that the motives for it do over-poise those against it , and in that degree they do so , so is the belief stronger or weaker . 24. Now the motives of our belief in the present case , are such as are extrinsic , or ●ntrinsic to the Scriptures ; of which the extrinsic are first , and preparative to the other ; and indeed all that can reasonably be insisted on to a gain-saier , who must be suppos'd no competent judg of the later . But as to the former , I shall adventure to say , that the di●ine Original of the Scripture hath as great grounds of credibility as can be expected in any thing of this kind . For whether God ●nspir'd the Pen-men of Holy Writ , is matter of fact , and being so , is capable of no other external evidence but that of testimony : and that matter of fact being also in point of time so remote from us , can be judg'd of only by a series of Testimonies deriv'd from that Age wherein the Scriptures were written , to this : and the more credible the testifiers , and the more universal the Testimony ; so much the more convincing are they to all considering men . 25. AND this attestation the Scripture hath in the highest circumstances , it having bin witness'd to in all Ages , and in those Ages by all persons that could be presum'd to know any thing of it . Thus the Old Testament was own'd by the whole Nation of the Jews , as the writings of men inspir'd by God ; and that with such evidence of their mission , as abundantly satisfied those of that Age , of their being so inspir'd ; and they deriv'd those Writings with that attestation to their posterity . Now that those of the first Ages were not deceiv'd , is as morally certain as any thing can be suppos'd . For in the first part of the Bible is contain'd the history of those miracles wherewith God rescued that people out of Egypt , and instated them in Canaan . Now if they who liv'd at that time knew that such miracles were never don , 't is impossible they could receive an evident Fable as an inspir'd truth . No single person , much less a whole Nation can be suppos'd so stupid . But if indeed they were eie-witnesses of those miracles , they might with very good reason conclude , that the same Moses who was by God impower'd to work them , was so also for the relating them ; as also all those precedent events from the Creation down to that time , which are recorded by him . 26. So also for the preceptive parts of those Books , those that saw those formidable solemnities , with which they were first publish'd , had sure little temtation to doubt that they were the dictats of God , when written . Now if they could not be deceiv'd themselves , 't is yet less imaginable that they should conspire to impose a cheat upon their posterities ; nor indeed were the Jews of so easy a credulity , that 't is at all probable the succeeding Generations would have bin so impos'd on : their humor was stubborn enough , and the precepts of their Law severe and burdensom enough to have temted them to have cast off the yoak , had it not bin bound upon them by irresistible convictions of its coming from God. But besides this Tradition of their Elders , they had the advantage of living under a Theocracy , the immediat guidance of God ; Prophets daily rais'd up among them , to fore-tell events , to admonish them of their duty , and reprove their back-slidings : yet even these gave the deference to the written Word , nay , made it the test by which to try true inspirations from false : To the Law and to the Testimony ; if they speak not according to it , there is no light in them , Esay 8. 20. So that the veneration which they had before acquir'd , was still anew excited by fresh inspirations , which both attested the old , and became new parts of their Canon . 27. NOR could it be esteem'd a small confirmation to the Scriptures , to find in succeeding Ages the signal accomplishments of those prophecies which were long before registred in those Books ; for nothing less then divine Power and Wisdom could foretell , and also verify them . Upon these grounds the Jews universally thro all successions receiv'd the Books of the Old Testament as divine Oracles , and lookt upon them as the greatest trust that could be committed to them : and accordingly were so scrupulously vigilant in conserving them , that their Masorits numbred not only the sections , but the very words , nay letters , that no fraud or inadvertency might corrupt or defalk the least iota of what they esteem'd so sacred . A farther testimony and sepiment to which , were the Samaritan , Chaldee , and Greek versions : which being made use of in the Synagogs o● Jews , in their dispersions , and the Samaritan● at Sichem , could not at those distances receive a uniform alteration , and any other would be of no effect . Add to this , that the Original exemplar of the Law , was laid up in the Sanctuary , that the Prince was to have a Copy of it alwaies by him , and transcribe it with his own hand ; that every Jew was to make it his constant discourse and meditation teach it his children , and wear part of it upon his hands and forehead . And now sure 't is impossible to imagin any matter of fact to be more carefully deduced , or irrefragably testified , nor any thing believ'd upon stronger evidence . 28. THAT all this is true in reference to the Jews , that they did thus own these Writings as divine , appears not only by the Records of past Ages , but by the Jews of the present , who still own them , and cannot be suspected of combination with the Christians . And if these were reasonable grounds of conviction to the Jews , ( as he must be most ab●urdly sceptical that shall deny ) they must be so to Christians also ; who derive them ●●om them : and that with this farther ad●antage to our Faith , that we see the clear ●ompletion of those Evangelical prophecies ●hich remain'd dark to them , and conse●uently have a farther Argument to confirm ●s , that the Scriptures of the Old Testament ●re certainly divine . 29. THE New has also the like means of ●robation : which as it is a collection of the ●octrin taught by Christ and his Apostles , must if truly related be acknowledged no less divine then what they orally deliver'd . So that they who doubt its being divine , must either deny what Christ and his Apostles preacht to be so ; or else distrust the fidelity of the relation : The former strikes at the whole Christian Faith ; which if only of men , must not only be fallible , but is actually a deceit , whilst it pretends to be of God , and is not . To such Objectors we have to oppose those stupendious miracles with which the Gospel was attested ; such as demonstrated a more then human efficacy . And that God should lend his omnipotence to abet the false pretensions of men , is a conceit too unworthy even for the worst of men to entertain . 30. 'T IS true , there have bin by God permitted lying miracles ; as well as true ones have bin don by him ; Such as were those of the Magicians in Egypt , in opposition to the other of Moses ; but then the difference between both was so conspicuous , that he must be more partial and disingenuous , then even those Magicians were , who would not acknowledg the disparity , and confess in those which were truly supernatural , the finger of God , Exod. 8. 19. Therefore both in the Old and New Testament it is predicted , that false Prophets should arise , and do signs and wonders , Deut. 13. 1. Mat. 24. 11. 24. as a trial of their fidelity who made profession of Religion ; whether they would prefer the few and trivial sleights which recommended a deceiver , before those great and numberless miracles which attested the sacred Oracles deliver'd to the sons of men by the God of truth . Whether the trick of a Barchochebas , to hold fire in his mouth ; that of Marcus the heretic , to make the Wine of the Holy Sacrament appear bloud ; or that of Mahomet , to bring a Pidgeon to his ear , ought to be put in balance against all the miracles wrought by Moses , our Savior , or his Apostles . And in a word , whether the silly stories which Iamblichus solemnly relates of Pythagoras , or those Philostratus tells of Apollonius Tyaneus , deserve to rival those of the Evangelists . It is a most just judgment , and accordingly threatned by Almighty God , that they who would not obey the truth should believe a lie , 2 Thes. 2. 11. But still the Almighty , where any man or devil do's proudly , is evidently above him , Exod. 18. 11. will be justified in his sayings , and be clear when he is judged , Rom. 3. 4. 31. BUT if men will be Sceptics , and doubt every thing , they are to know that the matter call'd into question , is of a nature that admits but two waies of solution ; probability , and testimony . First for probability , let it be consider'd who were the first promulgers of Christs miracles . In his life time they were either the patients on whom his miracles were wrought , or the common people , that were spectators : the former , as they could not be deceiv'd themselves , but must needs know whether they were cur'd or no ; so what imaginable design could they have to deceive others ? Many indeed have pretended impotency as a motive of compassion ; but what could they gain by owning a cure they had not ? As for the Spectators , as their multitude adds to their credibility ; ( it being morally impossible that so many should at once be deluded in a matter so obvious to their senses ) so do's it also acquit them from fraud and combination . Cheats and forgeries are alwaies hatcht in the dark , in close Cabals , and privat Juncto's . That five thousand men at one time , and four thousand at another , should conspire to say , that they were miraculously fed , when they were not ; and all prove true to the fiction , and not betray it : is a thing as irrational to be suppos'd , as impossible to be parallel'd . 32. BESIDES , admit it possible that so many could have join'd in the deceit , yet what imaginable end could they have in it ? Had their lie bin subservient to the designs of som potent Prince that might have rewarded it , there had bin som temtation : but what could they expect from the reputed son of a Carpenter , who had not himself where to lay his head ? Nay , who disclaim'd all secular power ; convei'd himself away from their importunities ; when they would have forc'd him to be a King : And consequently , could not be lookt on as one that would head a Sedition , or attemt to raise himself to a capacity of rewarding his Abettors . Upon all these considerations , there appears not the least shadow of probability ; that either those particular persons who publish'd the cures they had receiv'd , or those multitudes who were witnesses and divulgers of those , or his other miracles ; could do it upon any sinister design , or indeed upon any other motive but gratitude and admiration . 33. IN the next place , if we come to those miracles which succeeded Christs death , those most important , and convincing , of his Resurrection and Ascension , and observe who were the divulgers of those , we shall find them very unlikely to be men of design ; a set of illiterate men , taken from the Fisher-boats , and other mean occupation : and such as needed a miracle as great as any of those they were to assert ( the descent of the Holy Ghost ) to fit them for their office . What alas could they drive at , or how could they hope that their testimony could be received , so much against the humor and interest of the present rulers ; unless they were assur'd not only of the truth of the things , but also of som supernatural aids to back and fortify them ? Accordingly we find , that till they had receiv'd those ; till by the descent of the holy Ghost they were endued with power from on high , Luk. 24. 49. they never attemted the discovery of what they had seen : but rather hid them selves , kept all their assemblies in privacy and concealment for the fear of the Jews , Jo. 20. 19. and so were far enough from projecting any thing beside their own safety . Afterwards , when they began to preach , they had early essays , what their secular advantages would be by it ; threatnings and revilings , scourgings and imprisonments , Act. 4. 20. 5. 18. 40. And can it be imagined , that men who a little before had shewed themselves so little in ●ove with suffering , that none of them durst stick to their Master at his apprehension , but one forswore , and all forfook him ; can it , I say , be imagin'd that these men should be so much in love with their own Fable , as to venture all sorts of persecution for the propagating it ? Or if they could , let us in the next place consider what probability there could be of success . 34. THEIR preaching amounted to no less then the Deifying of one , whom both their Roman and Jewish Rulers , nay , the generality of the people had executed as a malefactor : so that they were all engag'd , in defence of their own Act , to sift their testimony with all the rigor that conscious jealousy could suggest . And where were so many concern'd inquisitors , there was very little hope for a forgery to pass . Besides the avow'd displesure of their Governors made it a hazardous thing to own a belief of what they asserted . Those that adher'd to them could not but know , that at the same time they must espouse their dangers and sufferings . And men use not to incur certain mischiefs , upon doubtful and suspicious grounds . 35 YET farther , their doctrin was design'd to an end to which their Auditors could not but have the greatest reluctancy : they were to struggle with that rooted prepossession which the Jews had for the Mosaical Law , which their Gospel out-dated ; and the Gentiles for the Rites and Religion of their Ancestors ; and , which was harder then either , with the corruptions and vices of both : to plant humility and internal sanctity , so contrary to that ceremonial holiness , upon which the Jews so valued themselves , and despis'd others : and Temperance , Justice , and Purity , so contrary to the practice , nay , even the religion of the Heathen : and to attemt all this with no other allurement , no other promise of recompence but what they must attend in another world , and pass too thro reproches and afflictions , torments and death . These were all such invincible prejudices , as they could never hope to break thro with a lie , nay , which they could not have encounter'd even with every common truth , but only with that , which being divine , brought its aids with it ; without which 't was utterly impossible for all the skill or oratory of men to overcome such disadvantages . 36. AND yet with all these did these rude inartificial men contest , and that with signal success : no less then three thousand Proselytes made by Saint Peters first Sermon ; and that in Jerusalem , the Scene where all was acted , and consequently where 't was the most impossible to impose a forgery . And at the like miraculous rate they went on , till as the Pharisees themselves complain , they had filled Jerusalem with their doctrin . Acts 5. 28. nor did Judea set bounds to them ; their sound went out into all nations , Rom. 10. 18. and their doctrin spred it self thro all the Gentile world . 37. AND sure so wonderful an event , so contrary to all human mesures , do's sufficiently evince there was more then man in it . Nothing but the same creative Power that produc'd light out of darkness , could bring forth effects so much above the proportion of the cause . Had these weak instruments acted only by their natural powers , nothing of this had bin atchiev'd . Alas , could these poor rude men learn all Languages within the space of fifty daies , which would take up almost as many years of the most industrious Student ? And yet had they not bin able to speak them , they could never have divulg'd the Gospel to the several Nations , nor so effectually have convinc'd the by-standers , Act. 2. that they acted by a higher impulse . Yet to convince the world they did so , they repeted their Masters miracles as well as his doctrin ; heal'd the sick , cast out devils , rais'd the dead ; And where God communicated so much of his power , we may reasonably conclude he did it to promote his own work , not the work of the Devil , as it must have bin if this whole Scene were a lie . 38. WHEN all this is weigh'd , I presume there will remain little ground to suspect , that the first planters of Christian Faith had any other design then what they avowed , viz. the bringing men to holiness here , and salvation hereafter . The suspicion therefore , if any , must rest upon later times ; and accordingly som are willing to persuade themselves and others that the whole Scheme of our Religion , is but a lately devis'd Fable to keep the world in awe ; whereof Princes have made som use , but Clergy-men more ; and that Christ and his Apostles are only actors whom themselves have conjured up upon the stage to pursue their plot . 39. IN answer to this bold , this blasphemous suggestion , I should first desire these surmisers to point out the time when , and the persons who began this design ; to tell us exactly whence they date this politic Religion , as they are pleas'd to suppose it . If they cannot , they are manifestly unjust to reject our account of it when they can give none themselves ; and fail very much of that rigid demonstration they require from others . That there is such a profession as Christianity in the world , is yet ( God be blest ) undeniable ; ( tho at the rate it has of late declin'd , God knows how long it will be so : ) we say it came by Christ and his Apostles , and that it is attested by an uninterrupted testimony of all the intervening Ages , the suffrage of all Christian Churches from that day to this . And sure they who embraced the doctrin , are the most competent witnesses from whence they received it . 40. YET lest they should be all thought parties to the design , and their witness excepted against , it has pleased God to give us collateral assurances , and made both Jewish and Gentile Writers give testimony to the Antiquity of Christianity . Josephus do's this , lib. 20. chap. 8. and lib. 18. chap. 4. where , after he has given an account of the crucifixion of Christ exactly agreeing with the Evangelists ; he concludes , And to this day the Christian people , who of him borrow their name , cease not to increase . I add not the personal elogium which he gives of our Savior ; because som are so hardy to controul it : also I pass what Philo mentions of the religious in Egypt , because several Learned men refer it to the Essens , a Sect among the Jews , or som other . There is no doubt of what Tacitus and other Roman Historians speak of Christ as the Author of the Christian doctrin ; which it had bin impossible for him to have don ; if there had then bin no such doctrin , or if Christ had not bin known as the Founder of it . So afterward Plinie gives the Emperor Trajan an account both of the manners , and multitude of the Christians ; and makes the innocence of the one , & the greatness of the other , an Argument to slacken the persecution against them . Nay , the very bloody Edicts of the persecuting Emperors , & the scoffs and reproches of Celsus , Porphyrie , Lucian , and other profane opposers of this Doctrin , do undeniably assert its being . By all which it appears , that Christianity had in those Ages not only a being , but had also obtain'd mightily in the world , and drawn in vast numbers to its profession ; and vast indeed they must needs be , to furnish out that whole Army of Martyrs , of which profane , as well as Ecclesiastic writers speak . And if all this be not sufficient to evince that Christianity stole not clancu●arly into the world , but took its rise from ●hose times and persons it pretends , we must ●enounce all faith of testimony , and not believe an inch farther then we see . 41. I suppose I need say no more to shew that the Gospel , and all those portentous miracles which attested it , were no forgeries , or stratagems of men . I come now to that doubt which more immediatly concerns the Holy Scripture , viz. whether all these transactions be so faithfully related there , that we may believe them to have bin dictated by the spirit of God. Now for this , the process need be ●ut short , if we consider who were the pen●en of the New Testament ; even for the most part the Apostles themselves : Matthew , and John who wrote two of the Gospels , were certainly so : and Mark , as all the Ancients aver , was but the Amanuensis to Saint Peter , who dictated that Gospel . Saint Luke indeed comes not under this first rank of Apostles ; yet is by som affirm'd to be one of the seventy Disciples : however an Apostolical person 't is certain he was , and it was no wonder for such to be inspired . For in those first Ages of the Church men acted more by immediat inflation of the Spirit then since . And accordingly we find Stephen , tho but a Deacon , had the power of miracles ; and preacht as divinely as the prime Apostles , Act. 7. And the gift of the Holy Ghost was then a usual concomitant of conversion , as appears in the Story of Cornelius , Acts 10. 45 , 46. Besides , Saint Luke was a constant attendant on Saint Paul ( who derived the Faith not from man , but by the immediat revelation of Jesus Christ , as himself professes , Gal. 1. 12. ) and is by som said to have wrote by dictat from him , as Mark did from Saint Peter . Then as to the Epistles they all bear the names of Apostles , except that to the Hebrews , which yet is upon very good grounds presum'd to be Saint Pauls . Now these were the persons commissionated by Christ to preach the Christian doctrin , and were signally assisted in the discharge of that office ; so that as he tells them , it was not they who spake , but the spirit of the Father that spake in them , Mat. 13. 11. And if they spake by divine inspiration , there can be no question that they wrote so also . Nay , indeed of the two , it seems more necessary they should do the later . For had they err'd in any thing they orally deliver'd , they might have retracted and cured the mischief : but these Books being design'd as a standing immutable rule of Faith and Manners to all successions , any error in them would have bin irreparable , and have entail'd it self upon posterity : which agreed neither with the truth , nor goodness of God to permit . 42. Now that these Books were indeed writ by them whose names they bear , we have as much assurance as 't is possible to have of any thing of that nature , and that distance of time from us . For however som of them may have bin controverted ; yet the greatest part have admitted no dispute , whose doctrins agreeing exactly with the others , give testimony to them . And to the bulk of those writings , it is notorious that the first Christians receiv'd them from the Apostles , and so transmitted them to the ensuing Ages , which receiv'd them with the like esteem and veneration . They cannot be corrupted , saies Saint Austin in the thirty second Book against Faustus the Manich. c. 16. because they are and have bin in the hands of all Christians . And whosoever should first attemt an alteration , he would be confuted by the inspection of other ancienter Copies . Besides , the Scriptures are not in som one Language , but translated into many : so that the faults of one Book would be corrected by others more ancient , or in a different Tongue . 43. AND how much the body of Christians were in earnest concern'd to take care in this matter , appears by very costly evidences ; multitudes of them chusing rather to part with their lives then their Bibles . And indeed 't is a sufficient proof , that their reverence of that Book was very avowed and manifest ; when their heathen Persecuters made that one part of their persecution . So that as wherever the Christian Faith was receiv'd , this Book was also , under the notion we now plead for , viz. as the writings of men inspir'd by God : so it was also contended for even unto death ; and to part with the Bible was to renounce the Faith. And now , after such a cloud of testimonies , we may sure take up that ( ill-applied ) saying of the high Priest , Mat. 26. 65. what farther need have we of witnesses . 44. YET besides these , another sort of witnesses there are , I mean those intrinsic evidences which arise out of the Scripture it self ; but of these I think not proper here to insist , partly because the subject will be in a great degree coincident with that of the second general consideration ; and partly because these can be argumentative to none who are not qualified to discern them . Let those who doubt the divine Original of Scripture , well digest the former grounds which are within the verge of reason ; and when by those they are brought to read it with due reverence , they will not want Arguments from the Scripture it self to confirm their veneration of it . 45. IN the mean time , to evince how proper the former discourse is to found a rational belief that the Scripture is the word of God ; I shall compare it with those mesures of credibility upon which all human transactions move , and upon which men trust their greatest concerns without diffidence or dispute . 46. THAT we must in many things trust the report of others , is so necessary , that without it human society cannot subsist . What a multitude of subjects are there in the world , who never saw their Prince , nor were at the making of any Law ? if all these should deny their obedience , because they have it only by hear-say , there is such a man , and such Laws , what would become of government ? So also for property , if nothing of testimony may be admitted , how shall any man prove his right to any thing ? All pleas must be decided by the sword , and we shall fall into that state ( which som have phancied the primitive ) of universal hostility . In like manner for traffic and commerce ; how should any Merchant first attemt a trade to any foreign part of the world , if he did not believe that such a place there was ? and how could he believe that , but upon the credit of those who have bin there ? Nay indeed how could any man first attemt to go but to the next Market Town , if he did not from the report of others , conclude that such a one there was , so that if this universal diffidence should prevail , every man should be a kind of Plantagnus , fixt to the soil he first sprung up in . The absurdities are indeed so infinite , and so obvious , that I need not dilate upon them . 47. BuT it will perhaps be said , that in things that are told us by our contemporaries , and that relate to our own time , men will be less apt to deceive us , because they know 't is in our power to examin and discover the truth . To this I might say , that in many instances it would scarce quit cost to do so ; and the inconveniences of trial would exceed those of belief . But I shall willingly admit this probable Argument , and only desire it may be applied to our main question , by considering whether the primitive Christians who receiv'd the Scripture as divine , had not the same security of not being deceiv'd , who had as great opportunities of examining , and the greatest concern of doing it throly , since they were to engage not only their future hopes in another world , but ( that which to nature is much more sensible ) all their present enjoiments , and even life it self upon the truth of it . 48. BuT because it must be confest that we who are so many Ages remov'd from them , have not their means of assurance , let us in the next place consider , whether an assent to those testimonies they have left behind them , be not warranted by the common practice of mankind in other cases . Who is there that questions there was such a man as William the Conqueror in this Island ? or , to lay the Scene farther , who doubts there was an Alexander , a Julius Caesar , an Augustus ? Now what have we to found this confidence on besides the faith of History ? And I presume even those who exact the severest demonstrations for Ecclesiastic Story , would think him a very impertinent Sceptic that should do the like in these . So also , as to the Authors of Books ; who disputes whether Homer writ the Iliads , or Virgil the Aeneids , or Caesar the Commentaries , that pass under their names ? yet none of these have bin attested in any degree like the Scripture . 'T is said indeed , that Caesar ventured his own life to save his Commentaries , imploying one hand to hold that above the water , when it should have assisted him in swimming . But who ever laid down their lives in attestation of that , or any human composure , as multitudes of men have don for the Bible ? 49. BUT perhaps 't will be said , that the small concern men have , who wrote these , or other the like Books , inclines them to acquiesce in the common opinion . To this I must say , that many things inconsiderable to mankind have oft bin very laboriously discust , as appears by many unedifying Volumes , both of Philosophers and Schole-men . But whatever may be said in this instance , 't is manifest there are others , wherein mens real and greatest interests are intrusted to the testimonies of former Ages . For example , a man possesses an estate which was bought by his great Grand-father , or perhaps elder Progenitor : he charily preserves that deed of purchase , and never looks for farther security of his title : yet alas , at the rate that men object against the Bible , what numberless Cavils might be rais'd against such a deed ? How shall it be known that there was such a man as either Seller or Purchaser ? if by the witnesses , they are as liable to doubt as the other ; it being as easy to forge the Attestation as the main writing : and yet notwithstanding all these possible deceits , nothing but a positive proof of forgery can invalidate this deed . Let but the Scripture have the same mesure , be allowed to stand in force , to be what it pretends to be , till the contrary be ( not by surmises and possible conjectures ) but by evident proof evinc'd ; and its greatest Advocats will ask no more . 50. A like instance may be given in public concerns : the immunities and rights of any Nation , particularly here , of our Magna Charta , granted many Ages since , and deposited among the public Records : to make this signify any thing , it must be taken for granted , that this was without falsification preserved to our times ; yet how easy were it to suggest that in so long a succession of its keepers , som may have bin prevail'd on by the influence of Princes to abridg and curtail its concessions ; others by a prevailing faction of the people to amplify and extend it ? Nay , if men were as great Sceptics in Law , as they are in Divinity , they might exact demonstrations that the whole thing were not a forgery . Yet , for all these possible surmises , we still build upon it , and should think he argued very fallaciously , that should go to evacuate it , upon the force of such remote suppositions . 51. Now I desire it may be consider'd whether our security concerning the holy Scripture be not as great , nay , greater then it can be of this . For first , this is a concern only of a particular Nation , and so can expect no foreign attestation ; and secondly , it has all along rested on the fidelity of its keepers ; which has bin either a single person , or at best som small number at a time ; whereas the Scriptures have bin witness'd to by persons of all Nations , and those not single , but collective Bodies and Societies , even as many as there have bin Christian Churches thro out the world . And the same that are its Attestors have bin its Guardians also , and by their multitudes made it a very difficult , if not an impossible thing to falsify it in any considerable degree ; it being not imaginable , as ● shew'd before from St. Austin , all Churches shall combine to do it : and if they did not ▪ the fraud could not pass undetected : and i● no eminent change could happen , much less could any new , any counterfeit Gospel be obtruded , after innumerable Copies of the first had bin translated into almost all Languages , and disperst throout the world . 52. THE Imperial Law compil'd by Justinian , was soon after his death , by reason of the inroads of the Goths , and other barbarous Nations , utterly lost in the Western world and scarce once heard of for the space of five hundred years , and then came casually to be retriv'd upon the taking of Amalfis by the Pisans , one single Copy being found there a● the plundering of the City . And the whole credit of those Pandects , which have ever since govern'd the Western world , depends in a manner on that single Book , formerly call'd the Pisan ; and now , after that Pisa was taken by the Florentines , the Florentine Copy . But notwithstanding this ; the body of the Civil Law obtains ; and no man thinks it reasonable to question its being really what it pretends to be , notwithstanding its single , and so long interrupted derivation . I might draw this parallel thro many other instances , but these may suffice to shew , that if the Scripture might find but so much equity , as to be tried by the common mesures of other things , it would very well pass the test . 53. BUT men seem in this case ( like our ●ate Legislators ) to set up new extraregular Courts of Justice , to try those whom no ordinary rules will cast , yet their designs require should be condemn'd : And we may conclude , 't is not the force of reason , but of prejudice , that makes them so unequal to themselves as to reject the Scripture , when they receive every thing else upon far weaker grounds . The bottom of it is , they are resolv'd not to obey its Precepts ; and therefore think it the shortest cut to disavow its autority : for should they once own that , they would find themselves intangled in the most ●nextricable dilemma ; that of the Pharisees about John Baptist : If we say from heaven , he will say , why then did you not believe him ? Mat. 21. 25. If they confess the Scriptures divine , they must be self-condemn'd in not obeying them . And truly men that have such preingagements to their lust , that they must admit nothing that will disturb them ; do but prevaricate when they call for greater evidences and demonstrations : for those bosom Sophisters will elude the most manifest convictions and like Juglers , make men disbelieve even their own senses . So that any other waies o● evidence will be as disputable with them , as those already offer'd : which is the thir● thing I proposed to consider . 54. IT has bin somtimes seen in popular mutinies , that when blanks have bin se● them , they could not agree what to ask : and were it imaginable that God should so far court the infidelity of men , as to allow them to make their own demands , to set down what waies of proof would perswade them I doubt not there are many have obstinac● enough , to defeat their own methods , as we● as they now do Gods. 'T is sure there is 〈◊〉 ordinary way of conviction left for them t● ask , God having already ( as hath also b● shew'd ) afforded that . They must therefore resort to immediat revelation , expect in stant assurances from heaven , that this Boo● we call the Bible is the word of God. 55. MY first question then is , in wha● manner this revelation must be made to appear credible to them . The best account w● have of the several waies of revelation 〈◊〉 from the Jews , to whom God was pleas● upon new emergencies signally to revel himself . These were first dreams ; secondly visions ; by both which the Prophets received their inspiration . Thirdly , Vrim and ●hummim . Fourthly , the Bath-col ( as they ●erm it ) Thunder and voice from Heaven . Let us consider them distinctly , and see whether our Sceptical men may not probably find ●omwhat to dispute in every one of these . And first for dreams ; it is among us so hard to distinguish between those that arise from constitution , prepossession of phancy , diabolical , or divine infusion , that those that have the most critically consider'd them , do rather difference them by their matter , then any certain discriminating circumstances : and unless we had som infallible way of discerning , ●ur dependence on them , may more probably ●etray then direct us . 'T is unquestionable that usually phancy has the greatest stroke in them . And if he that should commit himself ●o the guidance of his waking phancy , is not like to be over-wisely govern'd , what can we expect from his sleeping ? All this and more may doubtless be soberly enough objected against the validity of our common dreams . 56. BUT admit there were now such divine dreams as brought their evidence along with them ; yet sure 't is possible for prejudic'd men , to resist even the clearest convictions . For do we not see som that have made a shift ●o extinguish that natural light , those notions which are interwoven into the very frame and constitution of their minds , that so they may sin more at ease , and without reluctancy ? and sure 't is as possible for them to close their eies against all raies from without too , to resist revelation as well as instinct ; and more likely , by how much a transient cause is naturally less operative then a permanent . An instance of this we have in Balaam , who being in these nightly visitations prohibited by God to go to Balack ; and tho● he knew then , what he afterwards saies , Num 23. 19. that God was not a man that he should lie , nor the son of man that he should repent ; ye● he would not take God at his first word , but upon a fresh bait to his covetousness , tries again for an answer more indulgent to his interest . Besides , if God should thus revele himself to som particular persons , yet 't is beyond all president or imagination , that he should do it to every man ; and then how shall those who have these dreams , be able to convince others that they are divine ? 57. 'T IS easy to guess what reception ● man that produces no other autority , would have in this ludicrous Age : he would certainly be thought rather to want sleep , then to have had revelations in it . And if Jacob and the Patriarchs , who were themselves acquainted with divine dreams , yet did not believe Josephs ; any man that should now pretend i● that kind , would be sure to fall under the same irony that he did , to be entertain'd with a behold this dreamer cometh , Genes . 37. 19. 58. THE second way of revelation by vision was , where the man was wrapt into an extasy , his spirit for a while suspended from all sensible communication with the body , and entertain'd with supernatural light . In these the Prophets saw emblematical representation of future events , receiv'd knowledg of divine Mysteries , and commission and ability to discharge the whole prophetic office . Now suppose God should now raise us Prophets , and inspire them after this manner ; what would the merry men of this time say to it ? Can we think that they who rally upon all that the former Prophets have writ , would look with much reverence on what the new ones should say ? Som perhaps would construe their raptures to be but like Mahomets Epilepsy ; others a fit of frenzy , others perhaps a being drunk with new wine , Act. 2. 13. but those that did the most soberly consider it , would still need a new revelation to attest the truth of this : there being far more convincing arguments to prove the Scriptures divine , then any man can allege to prove his inspiration to be so . And 't is sure a very irrational method , to attemt the clearing of a doubt , by somwhat which is it self more doubtful . 59. A third way , was by Vrim and Thummim , which Writers tell us was an Oracle resulting from the Letters which were graven in the High Priests Pectoral , to which in all important doubts the Jews of those Ages resorted , and receiv'd responses ; but whether it were by the suddain prominency , or resplendency of the letters , or by any other way , is not material in this place to enquire : one thing is certain , that the Ephod , and consequently the Pectoral was in the Priests custody , and that he had the administration of the whole affair . Now I refer it to consideration , whether this one circumstance would not ( to those prejudic'd men I speak of ) utterly evacuate the credit of the Oracle . They have taught themselves to look on Priest-hood , whether Legal or Evangelical , only as a better name for imposture and cosenage : and they that can accuse the Priests for having kept up a cheat for so many Ages , must needs think them such omnipotent Juglers , that nothing can be fence against their Legerdemain : and by consequence , this way of revelation would rather foment their displesure at the Ecclesiastics , then satisfy their doubts of the Scripture . 69. LASTLY , for the fourth way , that of thunder and voice from Heaven , tho that would be a signal way of conviction to unprejudiced men , yet it would probably have as little effect as the rest upon the others : men that pretend to such deep reasoning , would think it childish to be frighted out of their opinion by a clap of Thunder ; som philosophical reason shall be found out , to satisfy them that 't is the effect only of som natural cause , and any the most improbable shall serve turn to supplant the fear of its being a divine testimony to that which they are so unwilling should be true . As for the voice from Heaven , it must either be heard by others , and related to them ; or else immediatly by themselves : if the former , 't will lie under the same prejudice which the Bible already do's : that they have it but by hear-say , and reporters would fall under the reproach either of design or frenzy ; that they meant to deceive , or were themselves deceiv'd by their own distemper'd phancy . But if themselves should be Auditors of it ; 't is odds but their bottomless jealousies in divine Matters would suggest a possibility of fraud , tho they knew not how to trace it : nay 't is more then possible that they will rather disbelieve their own senses , then in this instance take their testimony with all its consequences . 61. NOR is this a wild supposition : for we see it possible not only for single men , but multitudes to disbelieve their senses , thro an excess of credulity ; witness the doctrin of Transubstantiation . Why may it not then be as possible for others to do the like thro a greater excess of incredulity ? Besides , mens prepossessions and affections have a strange influence on their Faith : men many times will not suffer themselves to believe the most credible things , if they cross their inclination . How often do we see irregular patients that will not believe any thing that their appetite craves , will do them hurt , tho their Physicians , nay , their own even sensitive experience attest it to them ? And can we think that a diseas'd mind , gasping with an Hydropic thirst after the plesures of sin , will ever assent to those premises , whose conclusion will engage to the renouncing them ? Will not a luxurious voluptuous person be willing rather to give his cars the lie , to disbelieve what he hears , then permit them more deeply to disoblige his other senses , by bringing in those restraints and mortifications which the Scripture would impose upon them ? 62. THUS we see how little probability there is , that any of these waies of revelation would convince these incredulous men . And indeed , those that will not believe upon such inducements as may satisfy men of sober reason , will hardly submit to any other method according to that Assertion of Father Abraham ; If they hear not Moses and the Prophets , neither will they be perswaded , tho one rose from the dead , Luk. 16. 31. Now at this rate of infidelity , what way will they leave God to manifest any thing convincingly to the world ? which is to put him under an impotency greater then adheres to humanity : for we men have power to communicate our minds to others , tell whether to we own such or such a thing , to which we are intitled ; and we can satisfy our Auditors that it is indeed we that speak to them : but if every method God uses , do's rather increase then satisfy mens doubts , all intercourse between God and man is intercepted ; and he must do that of necessity , which Epicurus phancied he did of choice ; viz. keep himself unconcern'd in the affairs of mortals , as having no way of communicating with them . Nay what is yet , if possible , more absurd ) he must be suppos'd to have put the works of his Creation out of his own reach , to have given men discoursive faculties , and left himself no way of address to them . 63. THESE inferences how horridly soever they sound , yet I see not how they can be disclaim'd by those , who are unsatisfied with all those waies by which God hath hitherto revel'd himself to the world . For can it be imagin'd , that God who created man a reasonable creature , that himself might be glorified in his free and rational obedience ; ( when all other creatures obey upon impulse and instinct ) can it , I say , be imagin'd , that he should so remisly pursue his own design , as to let so many Ages pass since the Creation , and never to acquaint manking with the particulars wherein that obedience was to be exercis'd . This sure were so disagreeable to his wisdom and goodness , that it cannot be charg'd upon his will : and consequently they who own not that he has made any such revelation , must tacitly tax him of impotence , that he could not do it . But if any man will say he has , and yet reject all this which both Jews and Christians receive as such , let him produce his testimonies for the others , or rather ( to retort his own mesure ) his demonstrations . And then let it appear whether his Scheme of doctrin , or ours , will need the greater aid of that easy credulity he reproches us with . 64. I have now gon thro the method I proposed for evincing the Divine Original of the Scriptures , and shall not descend to examin those more minute and particular Cavils which profane men make against them ; the proof of this , virtually superseding all those . For if it be reasonable to believe it the Word of God , it must be reasonable also to believe it of perfection proportionable to the Author , and then certainly it must be advanc'd beyond all our objections . For to those who except to the stile , the incoherence . the contradictions or whatever else in Scripture ; I shall only ask this one question , whether it be not much more possible that they ( who can pretend to be nothing above fallible men ) may misjudg , then that the infallible God should dictate any thing justly liable to those charges : I am sure they must depart as much from Reason as Religion , to affirm the contrary . But alas , instead of this implicit submission to Gods Word , men take up explicit prejudices against it ; condemn it without ever examining the truth of the Allegation . 'T is certain , that in a writing of such Antiquity , whose original Language has Idioms and Phrases so peculiar , whose Country had customs so differing from the rest of the world ; 't is impossible to judg of it without reference to all those circumstances . Add to this , that the Hebrew has bin a dead Language for well nigh two thousand years , nowhere in common use : nor is there any other ancient Book now extant in it , besides those ; yet not all neither , of the Old Testament . 65. Now of those many who defame Holy Writ , how few are there that have the industry to inquire into those particulars ? And when for want of knowledg , som passages seem improper , or perhaps contradictory ; the Scripture must bear the blame of their ignorance , and be accus'd as absurd and unintelligible , because themselves are stupid and negligent . It were therefore methinks but a reasonable proposal , that no man should arraign it , till they have used all honest diligence , taken in all probable helps for the understanding it : and if this might be obtain'd . I believe most of its Accusers would like those of the woman in the Gospel , Jo. 8. 9. drop away , as conscious of their own incompetency : the loudest out-cries that are made against it , being commonly of those who fall upon it only as a fashionable theme of discourse , and hope to acquire themselves the reputation of wits by thus charging God foolishly . But he that would candidly and uprightly endeavor to comprehend before he judges , and to that end industriously use those means which the providence of God by the labors of pious men hath afforded him , will certainly find cause to acquit the Scripture of those imputations which our bold Critics have cast upon it . I do not say that he shall have all the obscurities of it perfectly clear 〈◊〉 to him ; but he shall have so many of them as is for his real advantage , and shall discern such reasons why the rest remain unfathomable , as may make him not only justify , but celebrate the wisdom of the Author . 66. YET this is to be expected only upon the fore-mention'd condition , viz. that he come with sincere and honest intentions ; fo● as for him that comes to the Scripture with design , and wishes to find matter of cavil and accusations ; there is little doubt but tha● spirit of impiety and profaness which sen● him thither , will meet him there as a spirit of delusion and occecation . That Prince of the Air will cast such mists , raise such black vapors ; that as the Apostle speaks , the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ shall not shine unto him , 2 Cor. 4. 5. Indeed were such a man left only to the natural efficacy of prejudice , that is of it self so blinding , so infatuating a thing , as commonly fortifies against all conviction . We see it in all the common instances of life ; mens very senses are often enslav'd by it : the prepossession of a strong phancy will make the objects of sight or hearing appear quite different from what they are . But in the present case , when this shall be added to Satanical illusions , and both left to their operations by Gods with-drawing his illuminating grace , the case of such a man answers that description of the Scripture : They have eies and see not , ears have they and hear not , Rom. 11. 8. And that God will so withdraw his grace , we have all reason to believe ; he having promis'd it only to the meek ; to those who come with malleable ductile spirits ; to learn , not to deride or cavil . Saint Peter tells us , that the unlearned and unstable wrest the Scripture to their own destruction , 2 Pet. 3. 15. And if God permit such to do so , much more will he the proud malicious . 67. I say not this , to deter any from the study of Holy Scripture , but only to caution them to bring a due preparation of mind along with them ; Gods Word being like a generous soveraign medicament ; which if simply and regularly taken , is of the greatest benefit ; but if mixt with poison , serves only to make that more fatally operative . To conclude , he that would have his doubts solv'd concerning Scripture , let him follow the method our blessed Lord has describ'd : Let him do the will of God , and then he shall know of the doctrin , whether it be of God , Jo. 7. 17. Let him bring with him a probity of mind , a willingness to assent to all convictions he shall there meet with : and then he will find grounds sufficient to assure him that it is Gods Word and consequently to be receiv'd with all the submission and reverence , that its being so exacts . SECT . III. The subject matter treated of in the Holy Scripture is excellent , as is also its end and design . WE have hitherto consider'd the holy Scripture only under one notion , as it is the Word of God ; we come now to view it in the subject matter of it : the several parts whereof it consists ; which are so various and comprehensive , as shews the whole is deriv'd from him who is all in all , 1 Cor. 19 , 28. But that we may not speak only loosely , and at ●overs , we will take this excellent frame in pieces , and consider its most eminent parts distinctly . Now the parts of Holy Writ seem to branch themselves into these severals . First , the Historical ; secondly , the Prophetic ; thirdly , the Doctrinal ; fourthly , the Preceptive ; fifthly , the Minatory ; sixthly , the Promissory . These are the several veins in this ●ich Mine , in which he who industriously labors , will find the Psalmist was not out in his estimate , when he pronounces them more to be desir'd then gold , yea , then much fine gold , Psal. 19. 10. 2. To speak first of the Historical part ; the things which chiefly recommend a History are the dignity of the subject , the truth of the relation , and those plesant or profitable observations which are interwoven with it . And first , for the dignity of the subject the History of the Bible must be acknowledged to excel all others : those shew the rise and progress of som one people or Empire this shews us the original of the whole Universe ; and particularly of man , for whose use and benefit the whole Creation was design'd By this mankind is brought into acquaintance with it self ; made to know the elements of its constitution , and taught to pu● a differing value upon that Spirit which was breath'd into it by God , Gen. 2. 7. and the fle●● whose foundation is in the dust , Job 4. 19. And when this Historical part of Scripture contracts and draws into a narrow channel , when it records the concerns but of one Nation yet it was that which God had dignified above all the rest of the world , markt it out for his own peculiar ; made it the repository of his truth , aud the visible stock from whence the Messias should come , in whom all the Nations of the earth were to be blessed , Gen. 18. 18. so that in this one people of the Jews , was virtually infolded the highest and most important interests of the whole world ; and it must be acknowled'gd , no Story could have a nobler subject to treat of . 3. SECONDLY , as to the truth of the relation , tho to those who own it Gods Word there needs no other proof ; yet it wants not human Arguments to confirm it . The most undoubted symptom of sincerity in an Historian is impartiality . Now this is very ●minent in Scripture writers : they do not record others faults , and baulk their own ; but indifferently accuse themselves as well as others . Moses mentions his own diffidence and unwillingness to go on Gods message , Ex. 4. 13. his provocation of God at the wa●ers of Meribah , Num. 20. Jonah records his own sullen behavior towards God , with as great aggravations as any of his enemies ●ould have don . Peter in his dictating Saint Marks Gospel , neither omits nor extenuates his sin ; all he seems to speak short in , is his ●epentance . Saint Paul registers himself as the greatest of sinners . 4. AND as they were not indulgent to their own personal faults , so neither did any ●earness of relation , any respect of quality ●ribe them to a concelement : Moses relates the ossence of his sister Miriam in muti●ing . Num. 12. 1. of his brother Aaron in the matter of the Calf , Ex. 32. 4. with as little disguise as that of Korah and his company . David , tho a King , hath his adultery and murder displaied in the blackest characters : and King Hezekiahs little vanity of shewing his tresures , do's not escape a remark . Nay , even the reputation of their Nation could not biass the sacred Writers ; but they freely tax their crimes : the Israclites murmurings in the wilderness , their Idolatries in Canaan , are set down without any palliation or excuse . And they are as frequently branded for their stubborness and ingratitude , as the Canaanites are for their abominations . So that certainly no History in the world do's better attest its truth by this evidence of impartiality . 5. IN the last place it commends it sell both by the plesure and profit it yields . The rarity of those events it records , surprizes the mind with a delightful admiration ; and that mixture of sage discourses , and well-coucht Parables wherewith it abounds , do's at once please and instruct . How ingenuously apt was Nathans Apologue to David , whereby with holy artifice he ensnar'd him into repentance ? And it remains still matter of instruction to us , to shew us with what unequal scales we are apt to weigh the same crime in others and our selves . So also that long train of smart calamities which succeeded his sin , is set out with such particularity , that it seems to be exactly the crime reverst . His own lust with Bathsheba , was answer'd with Amnons towards Thamar ; his murder of Vriah with that of Amnon ; his trecherous contrivance of that murder , with Absoloms traiterous conspiracy against him . So that every circumstance of his punishment , was the very echo and reverberation of his guilt . A multitude of the like instances might be produc'd out of holy Writ ; all concurring to admonish us , that God exactly marks , and will repay our crimes ; and that commonly with such propriety , that we need no other clue to guide us to the cause of our sufferings , then the very sufferings themselves . Indeed innumerable are the profitable observations arising from the historical part of Scripture , that flow so easily and unconstrain'd , that nothing but a stupid inadvertence in the reader can make him baulk them : therefore 't would be impertinent here to multiply instances . 6. LET us next consider the prophetic part of Scripture , and we shall find it no less excellent in its kind . The prophetic Books are for the most part made up ( as the prophetic Office was ) of two parts ; prediction and instruction . When God rais'd up Prophets , 't was not only to acquaint men with future events , but to reform their present manners : and therefore as they are called Seers in one respect , so they are Watch-men and Shepherds in another . Nay , indeed the former was often subservient to the other as to the nobler end ; their gift of fore-telling was to gain them autority , to be as it were the seal of their commission ; to convince men that they were sent from God : and so to render them the more pliant to their reproofs and admonitions . And the very matter of their prophecies was usually adapted to this end : the denouncing of judgements being the most frequent theme , and that design'd to bring men to repentance ; as appears experimentally in the case of Nineveh . And in this latter part of their office , the Prophets acted with the greatest incitation and vehemence . 7. WITH what liberty and zeal do's Elijah arraign Ahab of Naboths murder , and foretel the fatal event of it , without any fear of his power , or reverence of his greatness ? And Samuel , when he delivers Saul the fatal message of his rejection , do's passionately and convincingly expostulate with him concerning his sin , 1 Sam. 15. 17. Now the very same Spirit still breaths in all the propheties Writings : the same truth of prediction , and the same zeal against vice . 8. FIRST for the predictions , what signal completions do we find ? How exactly are all the denunciations of judgments fulfill'd , where repentance has not interven'd ? He that reads the 28. chap. of Deut. and compares it with the Jews calamities , both under the Assyrians and Babylonians , and especially under the Romans , would think their opressors had consulted it , and transcrib'd heir severities thence . And even these Nations , who were the instruments of accomplishing those dismal presages , had their own ●uins foretold , and as punctually executed . And as in Kingdoms and Nations , so to private persons none of the prophetic threatings ever return'd emty . The sentence pronounc'd against Ahab , Jezebel , and their ●osterity , was fulfill'd even to the most minute circumstances of place and manner ; as is evident by comparing the denunciation of ●lijah , 1 Kings 21. 19. 23. with their tragical ands recorded in the following chapters . And as for Jehu , whose service God was pleased ● use in that execution , tho he rewarded it with entailing the crown of Israel on him or four descents ; yet he fore-told those ●●ould be the limits , and accordingly we find ●achariah , the fourth descendent of his line , was the last of it that sate on that throne , Kings 15. 10. So also the destruction of ●chitophel and Judas , the one immediat , he other many hundred years remote , are pre-told by David , Psal. 109. and we find exactly answer'd in the event . 9. NOR was this exactness confin'd only to the severe predictions , but as eminent in the more gracious . All the blessings which God by himself , or the Ministry of his Prophets promis'd , were still infallibly made good . At the time of life God return'd and visited Sarah with conception , notwithstanding those natural improbabilities which made her not only distrust , but even deride and laugh at the promise , Gen. 18. The posterity of that Son of Promise , the whole race of Abraham was deliver'd from the Egyptian bondage , and possest of Canaan , at the precise time which God had long before signified to Abraham , Gen. 15. So likewise the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity , was fore-told many years before their deportation , and Cyrus named for their restorer before he had either name or being save only in Gods prescience , If. 44. 28. But I need not multiply instances of national or personal promises . The earliest , and most comprehensive promise of all was that of the Messiah , in whom all persons and Nations of the world were to be blest , Gen. 22. 11. that see● of the woman that should bruise the Serpents head , Gen. 3. 15. To him give all the Prophets witness , as Saint Peter observes , Acts 10. And he who was the subject , made himself also the expounder of those prophecies in his walk to Emmaus with the two Disciples , Lu. 24. 1● beginning at Moses , and all the Prophets , he expounded to them in all the Scriptures , the things concerning himself . 10. THIS as it was infinitly the greatest blessing afforded mankind , so was it the most frequently and eminently predicted ; and that with the most exact particularity as to all the circumstances . His immaculate conception , the union of his two natures implied in his name Immanuel ; Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son , and shall call his name Immanuel ; is most plainly fore-told by Is. chap. 7. 14. Nay , the very place of his birth so punctually fore-told , that the Priests and Scribes could ●eadily resolve Herods question upon the strength of the Prophecy , and assure him Christ must be born in Bethlehem , Mat. 2. 5. As for the whole business and design of his life , we find it so describ'd by Isaiah , chap. 61. as Christ himself owns it , Luk. 4. 18. The spirit of the Lord is upon me , because he hath appointed me to preach good tidings to the meek ; he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted , to proclaim liberty to the captives , and recovering of sight to the blind , to set at liberty them that are bruised , to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 11. IF we look farther to his death , the greatest part of the Old Testament has a direct aspect on it . All the Levitical oeconomy of Sacrifices and Ablutions were but prophetic Rites , and ocular Predictions of that one expiatory Oblation . Nay , most of Gods providential dispensations to the Jews , carried in them types and prefigurations of this . Their rescue from Egypt , the sprinkling of blood to secure them from the destroying Angel ; the Manna with which they were fed , the Rock which supplied them water : these and many more referr'd to Christ , as their final and highest signification . 12. BUT besides these darker adumbration , we have ( as the Apostle speaks ) a more sure word of prophecy . Saint Peter in his calculation begins with Moses , takes Samuel , and the whole succession of Prophets after him , as bearing witness to this great event of Christs passion , Acts 4. 22. 24. And indeed he that reads the Prophets consideringly , shall find it so punctually describ'd , that the Evangelists do not much more fully instruct him in the circumstances of it . Daniel tells us his death , as to the kind of it , was to be violent : The Messiah shall be cut off ; and as to the design of it , 't was not for himself , Dan. 9. 26. But the Prophet Isaiah gives us more then a bare negative account of it ; and expresly saies he was wounded for our transgressions , he was bruised for our iniquities ; the chastisement of our peace was on him , and by his stripes we were healed , chap. 53. 5. And again , ver . 10. Thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin ; and ver 11. my righteous Servant shall justify many , for he shall bear their iniquities . Nor is , Job an Idumean , much short of even this Evangelical Prophet , in that short Creed of his , wherein he owns him as his Redeemer , I know that my Redeemer liveth , &c. Job . 19. 25 , 13. AND as the end , so the circumstances of his sufferings are most of them under prediction : His extension upon the Cross is mention'd by the Psalmist : They pierced my hands , and my feet ; I may tell all my bones , Psal. 22. 16. 17. As for his inward dolors , they are in that Psalm so pathetically described , that Christ chose that very form to breath them out in : My God , my God , why hast thou for saken one ? ver . 1. So his revilers did also transcribe part of their reproches form ver . 8. He trusted in God ; let him deliver him now if he will have him , Mat. 27. 43. That vinegar which was offer'd him on the Cross , was a completion of a prophecy ; In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink , Ps. 69. 21. the piercing of his side was expresly fore-told by Zachary ; they shall look on him whom they have pierced , Zach. 10. 12. The company in which he suffer'd and the interment he had , are also intimated by Isaiah : he made his grave with the wicked , and with the rich in his death , Isai. 53. 9. Nay , even the disposal of his garments was not without a prophecy : they parted my garments among them , and upon my vesture did they cast lots , Ps. 22. 18. Here are a cloud of witnesses , which as they serve eminently to attest the truth of Christian Religion ; so do they to evince the excellency of sacred Scripture , as to the verity of the prophetic part . 14. As to the admonitory part of the prophetic Writings , they are in their kind no way inferior to the other . The reproofs are autoritative and convincing . What piercing exprobrations do we find of Israels ingratitude ? How often are they upbraided with the better examples of the brute creatures ? with the Ox and the Ass by Isaiah , chap. 1. 3. with the Stork and the Crane , and the Swallow , by Jeremiah , chap. 8. 7. Nay , the constancy of the Heathen to their false gods is instanc'd to reproch their revol● from the true . Hath a Nation changed their gods which yet are no gods ! but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit . Jer. 2. 11. What awful , what majestic representations do we find of Gods power , to awake their dread ! Fear ye not me saith the Lord ? will ye not tremble at my presence ; who have placed the sand for the bounds of the sea by a perpetual decree , that it cannot pass over and tho the waves thereof toss themselves , yet can they not prevail ; tho they roar , yet can they not pass over it ? Jer. 22. And again , Thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity whose name is holy : I dwell in the high and holy place , If. 57. 15. So we find him describ'd as a God glorious in holiness , fearful in praises , doing wonders , Ex. 15. 11. These and many other the like heights of divine eloquence we meet with in the prophetic Writings : which cannot but strike us with an awful reverence of the divine Power . 15. NOR are they less pathetic in the gentler strains . What instance is there of the greatest tenderness and love , which God has not adopted to express his by ? He personates all the nearest and most endearing relations : that of a Husband ; I will marry thee to my self , Hos. 2. 19. of a Father ; I am a Father to Israel , and Ephraim is my first born : nay , he ●ies bowels with the tender sex , and makes it more possible for a mother to renounce her ●ompassions towards the son of her womb , then for him to with-draw his , Isa. 49. 15. By all these endearments , these cords of a man , these bands of love , as himself stiles them , Hos. 11. 4. endeavoring to draw his people to their duty , and their happiness . And when their per●erseness frustrates all this his holy Artifice ; how passionately do's he expostulate with them ? how solemnly protest his aversness to their ruin ? Why will ye die O house of Israel ? for I have no plesure in the death of him that dieth , saith the Lord God , Ezek. 18. 31 , 32. with what regrets and relentings do's he think of abandoning them ? How shall I give thee up Ephraim ? how shall I deliver thee Israel ? how shall I make thee as Admah ? how shall I set thee as Zeboim ? my heart is turn'd within me , my repentings are kindled together ; Hos. 11. 8. In short , 't were endless to cite the places in these prophetic Books , wherein God do's thus condescend to solicit even the sensitive part of man ; and that with such moving Rhetoric , that I cannot but wonder at the exception som of our late Critics make against the Bible , for its defect in that particular : for Oratory is nothing but a dextrous application to the assections and passions of men . And certainly we find not that don with greater advantage any where then in sacred Writ . 16. YET it was not the design of the Prophets ( no more then of the Apostle ) to take men with guile , 2 Cor. 12. 16. to inveigle their affections unawares to their understandings ; but they address as well to their reasons , make solemn appeals to their judicative faculties . And now judg I pray between me and my vineyard , saics Isa. 5. 3. Nay , God by the Prophet Ezekiel solemnly pleads his own cause before them ▪ vindicates the equity of his proceedings from the aspersions they had cast on them ; and by most irrefragable Arguments refutes that injurious proverb which went currant among them ; and in the close appeals to themselves , O house of Israel are not my waies equal , are not your waies unequals Ezek. 18. the evidences were so clear that he remits the matter to their own determination . And generally we shall find that among all the Topics of disswasion from sin , there is none more closely prest , then that of the folly of it . Idolatry was a sin to which Israel had a great propension , and against which most of the Prophets admonitions were directed . And certainly it can never be more expos'd and the sottish unreasonableness of it better displaied , then we find it in the 44. chap. of Isaiah . In like manner we may read the Prophet Jeremy disswading from the same sin by Arguments of the most irrefragable conviction , Jer. 10. 17. AND as the Prophets omitted nothing as to the manner of their address , to render their exhortations effectual , the matter of them was likewise so considerable as to command attention ; It was commonly either the recalling them from their revolts and Apostacies from God by Idolatry , or else to convince them of the insignificancy of all those legal ceremonial performances they so much confided in , when taken up as a supersedeas to moral duties . Upon this account it is , that they often depreciate , and in a manner prohibit the solemnest of their worships . To what purpose are the multitude of your sacrifices unto me ? bring no more vain oblations : incense is an abomination to me ; the new moons and sabbaths , the calling of assemblies I cannot away with : it is iniquity even your solemn meetings , &c. Is. 1. 11. 13. Not that these things were in themselves reprovable ; for they were all commanded by God ; but because the Jews depended so much on these external observances , that they thought by them to commute for the weightier matters of the Law ( as our Savior after stiles them ) Judgment , Mercy and Faith , Mat. 23. 23. lookt on these Rites which discriminated them from other Nations , as dispensations from the universal obligations of nature and common justice . 18. THIS deceit of theirs is sharply upbraided to them by the Prophet Jeremy ; where he calls their boasts of the temple of the Lord , the Temple of the Lord , lying words : and on the contrary , laies the whole stress of their obedience , and expectation of their happiness on the justice and innocence of their conversation , ch . 7. 4. And after do's smartly reproch their insolence in boldly resorting to the house , which by bringing their sins along with them , they made but an Asylum , and Sanctuary for those crimes . Will ye steal , murder and commit adultery , and swear falsely and burn incense to Baal , and walk after other gods whomye know not , and come and stand before me in this house ? Is this house which is called by my name , become a den of robbers in your eies ? chap. 7. 9 , 10 , 11. Indeed all the Prophets seem to conspire in this one design , of making them look thro shadows and ceremonies , to that inward purity , Justice and Honesty , which they were design'd to inculcate , not to supplant . And this design as it is in it self most excellent , most worthy the command of God , and the nature of man ; so we have seen that it has bin pursued by all the most apt , and most powerful mediums , that the thing or persons addrest to were capable of ; and so that the Prophets are no less eminent for the discharge of this exhortatory part of their office , then they were in the former , of the predicting . 19. THE next part of Scripture we are to consider , is the Doctrinal ; by which I shall not in this place understand the whole complex of Faith and Manners together ; but restrain it only to those Revelations which are the object of our Belief : and these are so sublime , as shews flesh and bloud never revel'd them . Those great mysteries of our Faith , the Trinity , the Incarnation , the Hypostatical union , the Redemtion of the world by making the offended party the sacrifice for the offence , are things of so high and abstruse speculation , as no finite understanding can fully fathom . I know their being so , is by som made an Argument for disbelief ; but doubtless , very unjustly : for ( not to insist upon the different natures of Faith and Science , by which that becomes a proper object of the one which is not of the other ) our non-comprehension is rather an indication that they have a higher rise ; and renders it infinitly improbable that they could spring from mans invention . For 't were to suppose too great a disproportion between human faculties , to think men could invent what themselves could not understand . Indeed these things lie so much out of the road of human imagination , that I dare appeal to the brests of the most perverse gain-saiers , whether ever they could have fallen into their thoughts without suggestion from without . And therefore 't is a malicious contradiction to reject these truths because of their dissonancy from human reason , and yet at the same time to ascribe their original to man. But certainly there can be nothing more inconsistent with mere natural reason , then to think God can be or do no more then man can comprehend . Never any Nation or person that own'd a Deity , did ever attemt so to circumscribe him : and it is proportionable only to the licentious profaness of these later daies , thus to mesure immensity and omnipotence by our narrow scantling . 20. THE more genuine and proper effect of these supernatural truths , is , to raise our admiration of that divine Wisdom , whose waier are so past finding out ; and to give us a just sense of that infinit distance which is between it , and the highest of that reason wherein we so pride our selves . And the great propriety these doctrins have to that end , may well be ●eckon'd as one part of their excellency . 21. INDEED there is no part of our holy Faith , but is naturally productive of som peculiar vertue ; as the whole Scheme together engages us to be universally holy in all manner of conversation , 1 Pet. 1. 15. And it is the supereminent advantage true Religion hath over all false ones , that it tends to so laudable an end . 22. THE Theology of the Heathens was ●n many instances an extract and quintessence of vice . Their most solemn Rites , and sacredest Mysteries were of such a nature , that instead of refining and elevating , they corrupted and debased their Votaries ; immerst them in all those abominable pollutions which sober nature abhorr'd . Whereas the principles of our Faith serve to spiritualize and rectify us , to raise us as much above mere manhood as theirs cast them below it . 23. AND as they are of this vast advantage ●o us , so also are they just to God , in giving us ●ight notions of him . What vile unworthy ●pprehensions had the Heathen of their Dei●ies ; intitling them not only to the passions but even to the crimes of men : making Jupiter an adulterer , Mercury a thief , Bacchus a ●runkard , &c. proportionably of the rest ? Whereas our God is represented to us as an essence , so spiritual , and incorporeal , that we must be unbodied our selves before we can perfectly conceive what he is : so far from the impotent affections and inclinations of men that he has neither parts , nor passions ; and is fain to veil himself under that disguise , to speak somtimes as if he had , merely in condescension to our grosser faculties . And again , so far from being an example , a patron of vice , this his eies are too pure to behould iniquity , Hab. 1. 13. Holiness is an essential part of his nature , and he must deny himself to put it off . 24. THE greatest descent that ever he made to humanity , was in the incarnation of the second person : yet even in that , tho he was linked with a sinful nature , yet he preserved the person immaculate ; and while he had all the sins of the world upon him by imputation , suffer'd not any one to be inherent in him . 25. To conclude , the Scripture describes our God to us by all those glorious Attributes of infinity , Power and Justice , which may render him the proper object of our Adorations and Reverence : and it describes him also in those gentler Attributes of Goodness , Mercy and Truth , which may excite our love of and dependence on him . These are representations somthing worthy of God , and such as impress upon our mind great thoughts of him . 26. BUT never did the divine Attributes so concur to exert themselves , as in the mystery of our Redemtion : where his Justice was satisfied without diminution to his Mercy ; and his Mercy without entrenching on his Justice : his Holiness most eminent in his indignation against sin , and yet his Love no less so in sparing sinners : these contradictions being reconcil'd , this discord compos'd into harmony by his infinit Wisdom . This is that stupendous Mystery into which the Angels desir'd to look , 1 Pet 1. 12. And this is it which by the Gospel is preach'd unto us ; as it follows , ver . 25. 27. AND as the Scripture gives us this knowledg of God , so it do's also of our selves ; in which two , all profitable knowledg is comprised . It teaches us how vile we were in our original dust ; and how much viler yet in our fall , which would have sunk us below our first principles , sent us not only to earth , but hell . It shews the impotence of our lapsed estate : that we are not able of our selves so much as to think a good thought : and it shews us also the dignity of our renovated estate , that we are heirs of God , and fellow-heirs with Christ , Ro. 8. 17. yet lest this might puff us up with mistaken hopes ; it plainly acquaints us with the condition on which this depends ; that it must be our obedience both active and passive , which is to intitle us to it : that we must be faithful to death , if we mean to inherit a crown of life , Rev. 2. 10. and that we must suffer with Christ , if we will be glorified with him . Ro. 8. 17. And upon supposition that we perform our parts of the condition , it gives us the most certain assurance , engages Gods veracity that he will not fail on his . By this it gives us support against all the adversities of life ; assuring us the sufferings of it are not worthy to be compared with the glory we expect . Rom. 8. 18. yea , and against the terrors of death too ; by assuring us that what we look on as a dissolution , is but a temporary parting ; and we only put off our bodies , that they may put of corruption , and be clothed with immortality . 28. THESE and the like are the doctrins the holy Scripture offers to us : and we may certainly say , they are faithful sayings , and worthy of all acceptation , 1 Tim. 4. 15. The notions it gives us of God are so sublime and great , that they cannot but affect us with reverence , and admiration : and yet withall , so amiable and endearing that they cannot but raise love and gratitude , affiance and delight . 29. AND , which is yet more , these milder Attributes are apt to inspirit us with a generous ambition of assimilation ; excite us to transcribe all his imitable excellencies : in which the very Heathens could discern consisted the accomplishment of human felicity . 30. AND then the knowledg it gives us of our selves , do's us the kindest office imaginable : keeps us from those swelling thoughts we are too apt to entertain , and shews us the necessity of bottoming our hopes upon a firmer foundation : and then again keeps us from being lazy or secure , by shewing us the necessity of our own endevors . In a word , it teaches us to be humble and industrious , and whoever is so ballasted can hardly be shipwrackt . 31. THESE are the excellencies of the doctrinal part of Scripture , which also renders them most aptly preparative for the preceptive . And indeed , so they were design'd : the Credenda and the Agenda being such inseparable relations , that whoever parts them , forfeits the advantage of both . The most solemn profession of Christ , the most importunate invocations , Lord , Lord , will signify nothing to them which do not the things which he saies , Mat. 7. And how excellent , how rational those precepts are which the Scripture proposes to us from him , is our next point of consideration . 32. THE first Law which God gave to mankind was that of nature . And tho the impressions of it upon the mind be by Adams fall exceedingly dimm'd and defac'd ; yet that derogates nothing from the dignity and worth of that Law , which God has bin so far from cancelling , that he seems to have made it the rule and square of his subsequent Laws : so that nothing is injoin'd in those , but what is consonant and agreable to that . The Moral Law given in the Decalogue to the Jews , the Evangelical Law given in the Gospel tho Christians , have this natural Law for their basis and foundation . They licence nothing which that prohibits , and very rarely prohibit any thing which it licences . 33. 'T IS true , Christ in his Sermon on the Mount , raises Christians to a greater strictness then the Jews thought themselves oblig'd to ; but that was not by contradicting either the natural , or moral Law , but by rescuing the later from those corruptions which the false glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees had mixt with it ; and reducing it to its primitive integrity , and extent . In a word , as the Decalogue was given to repair the defacings , and renew the impressions of the natural Law ; so the precepts of the Gospel were design'd to revive and illustrate both . And accordingly we find Christ , in the matter of divorce , calls them back to this natural Law ; In the beginning it was not so , Mat. 19. 8. I say not but that even these natural notions are in som instances refin'd and elevated by Christ ; the second Adam being to repair the fall of the first with advantage : but yet he still builds upon that ground-work , introduces nothing that is inconsistent with it . 34. AND this accordance between these several Laws is a circumstance that highly recommends Scripture precepts to us . We cannot imagin but that God who made man for no other end but to be an instrument of his glory , and a recipient of all communicable parts of his happiness , would assign him such rules and mesures as were most conducive to those ends . And therefore since the Scripture injunctions are of the same mould , we must conclude them to be such as tend to the perfection of our being ; the making us what God originally intend us ; and he that would not be that , will certainly chuse much worse for himself . 35. I know there have bin prejudices taken up against the precepts of Christ , as if they impos'd unreasonable , unsupportable strictnesses upon men : and som have assum'd liberty to argue mutinously against them ; nay , against God too for putting such natural appetites into men , and then forbidding them to satisfy them . 36. BUT the ground of this cavil is the not rightly distinguishing of natural appetites , which are to be differenc'd according to the two states of rectitude and depravation : those of the first rank are the appetites God put into man ; and those were all regular and innocent , such as tended to the preservation of his being : nature in its first integrity mesuring its desires by its needs . Now Christs prohibitions are not directed against these , he forbids no one kind of these desires . And tho the precept of self-denial may somtimes restrain us in som particular acts ; yet that is but proportionable to that restraint Adam was under in relation to the forbidden tree , a particular instance of his obedience , and fence of his safety . So that if men would consider nature under this its first and best notion , they cannot accuse Christ of being severe to it . 37. BUT 't is manifest they take it in another acception , and mean that corruption of nature which inordinatly inclines to sensitive things ; and on this account they call their riots , their luxuries , appetites put into them by God : whereas 't is manifest this was superinduced from another coast : The wise man gives us its true pedigree in what he saies of death , which is its twin-sister : By the envy of the devil came death into the world , Wis. 2. 24. And can they expect that Christ who came to destroy the works of the devil , 1 Joh. 3. 8. should frame Laws in their favor , make Acts of toleration and indulgence for them ? This were to annul the whole design of his coming into the world ▪ which was to restore us from our lapst estate , and elevate us to those higher degrees of purity which he came not only to ●rescribe , but to exemplify to us . 38. BUT in this affair men often take nature ●n a yet wider and worse notion ; and under natural desires comprehend whatever upon any sort of motive they have a mind to do . The awe of a superior , the importunity of a companion , custom , and example , make men do many ill things , to which their nature would never promt them ; nay , many times such as their nature relucts to , and abhors , ●is certainly thus in all debauchery and excess . 'T is evident , it gratifies no mans nature to be drunk , or to lie under undigested loads of meats : these are out-rages and violences upon nature , take it only in the most sensi●ive notion , such as the struggles to avert : and yet men make her bear , not only the oppression , but the blame too . 39. BUT besides 't is to be consider'd , that the nature of a man includes reason as well as sense , and to this all sorts of luxury are yet more repugnant , as that which clouds the mind , and degrades the man ( who in his constitution is a rational being ) and sets him ●n the rank of mere animals : and certainly these can be no appetites of nature , which thus subvert it . 40. THE like may be said concerning revenge , particularly that absurdest sort of it , duels ; which certainly are as great contradictions to nature as can be imagin'd , the unravelling and cancelling its very first principle of self-preservation , ( which in other instances men bring in bar against duty . ) And yet men will say the generosity of their natures compels them to it ; so making their natures a kind of felo de se to prompt the destroying it self : when alas 't is only the false notion they have got of honor that so engages them . And if men would but soberly consider , they must be convinc'd that there is nothing more agreeable to reason then that precept of Christ of not retaliating injuries ; which is in effect but to bid us to chuse a single inconvenience before a long train of mischiefs . And certainly if nature even in its deprav'd estate were left to determine , it would resolve it a better bargain to go off with a reprochful word , then to lose a limb , perhaps a life in the revenge of it . There being no maxim more indisputable , then that of evils the least is to be chosen . And the innate principle of self-love do's more strongly biass nature to preserve it self , then any external thing can to destroy ir . 41. know 't will be said to this , that revenge is a natural appetite : but I say still , self-preservation is more so ; and would prevail against as much of revenge as is natural , were it not heightned and fortified by phancy , and that Chimera of point of honor , which , as it is now stated , is certainly one of the most emty nothings that ever was brought in balance with solid interests . And indeed 't is to belie nature , and suppose it to have forfeited all degrees of reason , as well as vertue , to fasten ●o absurd a choice upon her . But admit re●enge to be never so much the dictate of corrupt nature ; 't is certain 't is not of primitive regular nature . Revenge is but a relative to ●njury : and he that will say God put the ap●etite of revenge into man , must say he put the appetite of injury into him also : which ●s such an account of the sixth daies creation , ●s is hardly consistent with Gods own testimony of its being very good , Gen. 1. 42. BESIDES , 't is certain all the desires God infus'd into human nature , were such as ●ended to its preservation ; but this of revenge , is of all other the most destructive , as ●s too sadly attested by the daily tragical effects of it . In short , the wise man gives a good summary of the whole matter : God made man ●pright , but he sought out many inventions , Eccl. 7. 29. 43. NOW if man have by his own voluntary act deprav'd himself , it would be neither just nor kind in God to warp his Laws to mans now distorted frame ; but it is both , to keep up the perfect rectitude of those , and call upon man to reduce himself to a conformity with them : and when to this is added s●ch a supply of grace as may silence the plea of disability , there can nothing be imagin'd more worthy of God , or more indulgent to man. 44. AND all this Christ do's in the Gospel in those precepts which the blind world makes the subject of their cavil or scorn . It were an easy task to evince this in every particular precept of the Gospel ; but I shall content my self with the instances already given , and not swell this Tract by insisting upon what has already bin the subject of so many pious and excellent discourses , as must already have convinc'd all but the obstinate . 45. WE proceed therefore to a view of the promissory parts of Scripture ; in which we are first in general to observe the great goodness of God , in making any promises at all to us ; and next to examin of what nature and excellence these promises are . And first if we consider how many titles God has to our obedience , we must acknowledg he may challenge it as his undoubted right : We are the work of his hands ; and if the Potter have power over the clay ( the materials whereof are not of his making ) much more has God over his creatures , whose matter as well as form is wholly owing to him . We are the price of his blood . And if men account purchase an indefeisible title , God must have absolute dominion over what he has bought , and at so dear a price too as his own blood . Lastly we depend upon him for the support of that being he has given us : we live merely upon his bounty , spend upon his stock . And what Patron will not expect observance from one who thus subsists by him ? 46. YET as if God had none of these claims , these preingagements upon us , he descends to treat with us as free-men , by way of Article and compact ; buies his own of us , and engages to reward that obedience , which he might upon the utmost penalties exact : which is such an astonishing indulgence as our highest gratitude cannot reach : and of this the sacred Scriptures are the evidences and records ; and therefore upon that account deserve at once our reverence , and our joy . 47. BUT this will yet farther appear , if we look in the second place into the promises themselves ; which are so extensive as to take in both our present and future state : according to that of the Apostle ; Godliness hath the promise of this life , and of that which is to come , 1 Tim. 4. 8. For the present , they are proportion'd to the several parts of our composition ; the body , and the mind , the outward and the inward man ; so stretching themselves to all we can really be concern'd for in this world . 48. AND first for the body , the Old Testament abounds in promises of this sort . The first part of the 28. of Deut. contains a full catalogue of all temporal blessings ; and those irreversibly entail'd upon the Israelites obedience , ver . 1. The Psalmist tells us , they that fear the Lord shall lack nothing , Ps. 34. 9. that they shall not be confounded in the perillous time , and in the daies of dearth they shall have enough , Ps. 37. 19. And Solomon , that the Lord will not suffer the righteous to famish , Pro. 10. 3. And tho under the Gospel , the promises of temporal affluence seem not so large ; ( its design being to spiritualize us , and raise our minds to higher injoiments ; ) yet it gives us ample security of so much as is really good for us . It supersedes our care for our selves by assuring us all these things shall be added to us , Mat. 6. 33. that is , all those things which our heavenly Father knows we have need of , ver . 32. which is all the limitations the context gives . And certainly we have little temtation to fear want , who have him for our provider ; whose are all the beasts of the Forrest , and the cattel upon a thousand hills , Ps. 50. 10. 49. AND when we are thus secur'd of all things necessary , it may perhaps be an equal mercy to secure us from great abundance ; which at the best , is but a lading ones self with thick clay , in the Prophets phrase , Hab. 2. 6. but is often a snare as well as a burden . 50 BESIDES , the Gospel by its precepts of temperance and self-denial , do's so contract our appetites , that a competence is a more adequate promise to them , then that of superfluity would have bin : and 't is also the mesure wherein all the true satisfaction of the senses consist ; which are gratifi'd with moderate plesures , but suffocated and overwhelm'd with excessive . The temperat man tasts and relishes his portion , whilst the voluptuous may rather be said to wallow in his plenty then injoy it . 51. AND as the necessaries of life , so life it self , and the continuance of that , is a Scripture promise . The fifth Commandment affixes it to one particular duty : but it is in a multitude of places in the Old Testament annex'd to general obedience . Thus it is , Deut. 11. 9. and again , ver . 21. And Solomon proposes this practical wisdom as the multiplier of daies : By me they daies shall be multipli'd , and the years of thy life shall be increas'd , Pro. 9. 11. and chap. 3. Length of daies is in her right hand , ver . 16. And tho we find not this promise repeted in the New Testament , yet neither is it retracted : 't is true , the Gospel bids us be ready to lay down our lives for Christs sake , but it tells us withal , that he that will lose his life , shall save it : which tho it be universally true only in the spiritual sense , yet it often proves so in a literal . It did so eminently in the destruction of Jerusalem , where the most resolute Christians escap'd , while the base compliers perish'd together with those they sought to endear . This is certain , that if the New Testament do not expresly promise long life , yet it do's by its rules of temperance and sobriety , contentedness and chearfulness , very much promote it : and so do's virtually and efficaciously ratify those the Old Testament made . 52. THE next outward blessing is reputation : and this also is a Scripture promise . The wise shall inherit glory , Prov. 3. 38. And the vertuous woman Solomon describes , is not only blessed by her children and husband , but she is praised in the gate , Pro. 31. ult . Nay , this blessing is extended even beyond life . The memory of the just shall be blessed , Pro. 10. 7. Nor do's the Gospel evacuate this promise ; but rather promts us to the waies of having it made good to us , by advising us to abstain from all appearance of evil , 1 Thes. 5. 22. to provide for honest things , not only in the sight of God , but also in the sight of men , 2 Cor. 8. 21. 53. 'T IS true indeed , Christ fore-warns his Disciples that they shall be revil'd , and have all manner of evil spoken against them falsly , for his names sake : but then the cause transform'd the sufferings , and made it so honorable , that they were to count it matter of oy , Mat. 5. 11 , 12. Neither was this any paradox even in relation to their reputation ; which tho sullied by a few ill men of that age , yet has bin most illustrious among all Ages since . Their sufferings and indignities gave them a new title of honor , and added the Martyr to the Apostle . And the event has bin proportionable in all successions since : Those holy men that fill'd up the Pagan prisons , fill'd up the Churches Diptycs also , and have bin had as the Psalmist speaks , in everlasting remembrance , Ps. 112. 6. 54. AND as Scripture-promises thus take in all the concerns of the outward man , so do they also of the inward . The fundamental promise of this kind , is that of sending Christ into the world , and in him establishing the ●ew Covenant , which we find , Jer. 31. 31. and is referr'd to by the Author to the Hebrews , I will put my Laws in their hearts , and write them in their minds ; and their sins and ●niquities will I remember no more , Heb. 10. 16. 55. AND this is so comprehensive a promise as includes all the concerns of the inward man. The evils incident to the mind of man may be reduc'd to two ; impurity , and inquietude : and here is a cure to both . The divine Law written in the heart , drives hence all those swarms of noysom lust , which ●●ke the Egyptian Frogs over-run and putrify ●he soul. Where that is seated and enshrin'd , ●hose can no more stand before it , the Dagon before the Ark. This repairs the divine Image in us ( in which consists the perfection of our nature ) renews us in the spirits of our minds , Eph. 4. 22. and purges our consciences from dead works , Heb. 6. 4. which all the Cathartics and Lustrations among the Heathen , all the sacrifices and ceremonies of the Law were not able to do . 56. SECONDLY , this promise secures the mind from that restlesness and unquietness , which attends both the dominion and guilt of sin . To be subject to a mans lusts and corrupt appetites is of all others the vilest vassallage : they are the cruellest task-masters , and allow their slaves no rest , no intermission of their drudgery , And then again , the guilt that tortures and racks the mind with dreadful expectations , keeps it in perpetual agitation and tumult ; which is excellently describ'd by the Prophet Isaiah , The wicked is like the troubled sea , when it cannot rest ; whose waters cast out mire and dirt : there is no peace saith my God to the wicked , Is. 48. 22. How prosperous soever vice may seem to be in the world , yet there are such secret pangs and horrors that dog it , that as Solomon saies , eve● in laughter the heart is sorrowful , Prov. 14. 13. 57. BUT this Evangelical promise of being merciful to our iniquities , and remembring our sins no more , calms this tempest , introduces peace and serenity into the mind , and reconciles us at once to God and our selves . And sure we may well say with the Apostle , these are great and precious promises , ● . Pet. 1. 4. 58. THERE are besides many other which spring from these principal , as suckers from the root : such are the promises of fresh supplies of grace upon a good imploiment of the former . To him that hath shall be given , Mat. 25. 29. Nay , even of the source and fountain of all grace . He shall give the holy spirit to them that ask him , Mat. 7. 11. Such is that of supporting us in all difficulties and as●aults : the not suffering us to be temted above that we are able , 1 Cor. 10. 13. which like Gods bow set in the clouds , Gen. 9. is our security , that we shall not be over-whelm'd by any ●eluge of temtation : and ( to instance no more ) such is that comprehensive promise of hearing our praiers , Ask and it shall be given you , Mat. 7. 7. This puts all good things within our reach , gives us the key of Gods Store-house , from whence we may furnish our selves with all that is really good for ●s . And if a few full Barns could temt the ●ich man in the Gospel , to pronounce a Re●uiem to his soul ; what notes of acquiescence may they sing , who have the command of an ●●exhaustible store ; that are suppli'd by him whose is the earth , and the fulness thereof ? 59. AND certainly , all these promises together must be ( to use the Apostles phrase ) strong consolation ; such as may quiet and calm all the fears and griefs , all the tumults and perturbations of the mind , in relation to its present state . But then there are others relating to the future of a much higher elevation : those glories and felicities of another world , which are so far beyond our narrow conception , that the comprehension and injoiment must begin together . The Scripture shadows it out to us by all the notions we have of happiness : by glory , Rom. 8. 18. by a kingdom , Mat. 25. 14. by joy , Mat. 25. 21. and which comprehends all , by being with the Lord , 1 Thes. 4. 17. seeing him face to face , 1 Cor. 13. 12. being like to him , 1 Jo. 3. 2. In a word 't is bliss in the utmost extent : immense for quantity , and eternal for duration . 60. AND surely this promise is so excellent for kind , so liberal in its degree , so transcendently great in all respects , that did it stand single , stript of all those that relate to this life , it alone would justify the name of Gospel , and be the best tidings that ever came to mankind . For alas , if we compare the hopes that other Religions propose to their Votaries with these , how base , how ignoble are they ! The Heathens Elysium , the Mahumetan Paradise , were but higher gratifications of the sensual part , and consequently were depressions and debasements of the rational . So that in effect they provided a heaven for the beast , and a hell for the man. We may therfore confidently resume our conclusion , and pronounce the Scripture promises to be so divine and excellent , that they could as little have bin made , as they can be perform'd by any but an holy and almighty Author . 61. NOR is their being conditional any impeachment to their worth , but an enhansement . Should God have made them ( as som phancy he has his decrees ) absolute and irrespective ; he had set his promises at war with his precepts , and these should have superseded what those injoin . We are all very niggardly towards God , and should have bin apt to have ask'd Judas's question ; to what purpose is this wast ? Mat. 26. 8. What needs the labor of the course if the prize be certain ? And it must have bin infinitly below the wisdom and majesty of the supreme Legislator , to make Laws , and then evacuate them by dispencing rewards without any aspect on their observance . 'T is the Sanction which inspirits the Law , without which the divine , as well as the human , would to most men be a dead letter . 62. BUT against this God has abuntdantly provided , not only by the conditionality of the promises , but the terror of his threats too ; which is the last part of Scripture which falls under consideration . And these are of the most direful kinds ; and cannot better be illustrated then by the opposition they stand in to the promises : for as those included all things that might make men happy either as to this life or the next ; so these do all that may make them miserable . If we make our reflection on all the particulars of the promises , we shall find the threats answering them as their reverse or dark shadow . 63. AND first as concerning the outward state , if we look but into the 28 of Deut. we shall find , that after all the gracious promises which begun the chapter , it finally ends in thunder , in the most dreadful denunciations imaginable , and those adapted by a most peculiar opposition to the former promises : as the Reader may see at large in that Chapter . And the whole tenor of the Scripture go's in the like stile . Thus , Psal. 140. 11. A wicked person shall not prosper in the earth , evill shall hunt the wicked man to overthrow him . The Lord will not suffer the righteous to famish , but he casteth out the substance of the wicked ; Pro. 10. 3. And again , the righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul , but the belly of the wicked shall want , Pro. 13. 25. Multitudes of like general threatnings of temporal improsperity there are every where scatter'd thro out the Scripture ; and many more appli'd to particular vices , as sloth , unmercifulness , luxury , and the like ; which would be here too long to enumerate . 64. AND altho these threatnings may seem somtimes to be literally confuted by the wealth and opulency of wicked men , yet they never miss of being really and vertually verified . For either their prosperities are very short , and only preparative to a more eminent ruin , which was the Psalmists resolution of this doubt , Psal. 72. or else if God leave them the matter of temporal happiness , yet he substracts the vertue and spirit of them , renders them emty and unsatisfying . This is well exprest by the Psalmist in the case of the Israelites : He gave them their desire , and sent leaness withall into their soul , Psa. 106. 15. and by Zophar , Job . 20. 22. where speaking of the wicked , he saith ; In the fulness of his sufficiency shall he be in straits . And to this Solomon seems to refer , when he saith , the blessing of the Lord maketh rich , and he addeth no sorrow with it , Pro. 10. 22. 65. NEITHER is it only the comforts of life , but life it self that is threatned to be taken from wicked men : untimely death is throout the Old Testament frequently mention'd as the guerdon of impiety : 't is often assign'd judicially in particular cases : He shall be cut off from his people , being the usual sentence upon most offenders under the Levitical Law. But 't is also menaced more generally as an immediat judgment from God : The blood-thirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their daies , Psal , 55. 23. Farther yet , their names shall putrify as soon as their Carkasses : the name of the wicked shall rot ; Pro. 10. 7. Nay both their infamy and their ruin are intail'd upon their posterity . The seed of evil doers shall never be renown'd . Prepare slaughter for his children , for the iniquity of their fathers ; Isa. 14. 20. 21. 66. IF now we look on Scripture threatnings in relation to the mind of man , we shall find them yet more severe : wilful impenitent sinners being cut off from the benefits of the new covenant , nor barely so , but look'd upon as despisers of it , and that blood of Christ in which it was seal'd ; Heb. 10. 29. nay as those murtherous Wretches that shed it : They crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh ; Heb. 6. 6. And this is the fataliest sentence that can fall on any man in this life ; to be thus disfranchised of all the privileges of the Gospel , and ranckt as well in punishment as guilt , with the most criminous of mankind . 67. FROM hence 't is consequent , that the mind remains not only in its native impurity , but in a greater and more incurable one ; whilst that bloud which alone could cleanse it , serves but to embrue and pollute it ; and as it were flush , and excite it to all immanities and vilenesses : and he that is thus filthy , 't is the doom pronounc'd against him , that he shall be filthy still , Rev. 22. 11. 68. AND then in the second place , what calm can there be to such a mind ? what remains to such a person , but that fearful expectation of wrath and fiery indignation , which the Apostle mentions , Heb. 10. 27. Indeed , were there none but temporal mischiefs to fear , yet it were very unplesant to think ones self , like Cain , out-law'd from the presence and protection of God ; to be afraid that every man that meets us should slay us , Gen. 4. 14. Nay , those confus'd indistinct fears of indefinite evils which attend guilt , are very unquiet uneasy inmates in the mind . This is excellently describ'd by Moses ; The Lord shall give thee a trembling heart , and failing of eies , and sorrow of mind , and thy life , shall ●ang in doubt before thee , and thou shalt fear day and night ; in the morning thou shalt say , would God it were evening , and in the evening , would God it were morning , Deut , 28. 65 , 66 , 67. 69. AND what can be more wretched then to have a mind thus agitated and tost , rackt and tortur'd ; especially when thro all these clouds it sees a glimpse of the eternal To●het ; and knows , that from the billows of this uneasy state , it must be tost into that Lake of fire . And this is indeed the dregs of the cup of Gods wrath , the dreadfullest and most astonishing of all Scripture denunciations . This comprehends all that the nature of man is capable of suffering . Divines distinguish it into the pain of sense , and of loss : that of sense is represented to us in Scripture by fire ; and that accended , and render'd noisom as well as painful by brimstone , that afflicts the smell as well as the touch : somtimes by outer darkness , wailing and gnashing of teeth , to grate the ears , and consume the eies ; by intolerable thirst , to torment the palate . Not that we are to think the sensitive pains of Hell do not infinitly exceed all these ; but because these are the highest mesures our present capacities can make , and are adequate to those senses for whose carnal satisfactions we incur them . 70. THE pain of loss is yet more dismal ; as being seated in the soul , whose spiritual nature will then serve it only to render its torments more refin'd , and acute . With what anguish will it then see it self banish'd from the presence of God , and consequently from all that may give satisfaction and bliss to the creature ? But yet with how much deeper anguish will it reflect on it self as the Author of that deprivation ? How will it recollect the many despis'd tenders of grace , the easy terms on which salvation might have bin had ? And how sadly will conscience then revenge all it s stifled admonitions by an unsilenceable clamor , that worm which never dies , Mar. 9. 48. How wounding will it then be to see Abraham , Isaac and Jacob , and all the Saints in the kingdom of God , Luk. 13. 28. ( nay , that poor Lazarus , whom here men turn'd over to the charity of their dogs ) and it self in the company of the devil and his angels , who will then upbraid what they once inticed to ? 71. NATURE abhors nothing more then to have our misery insulted over by those who drew us into it : yet that no circumstance may be lacking to their torment , this must be the perpetual entertainment of damn'd souls . And to all this Eternity is the dismal adjunct ; which is of all other circumstances the most disconsolate , as leaving not so much as a glimpse of hopes ; which here uses still to be the reserve , and last resort of the miserable . 72. THIS Eternity is that which gives an edg , infuses a new acrimony into the torments : and is the highest strain , the vertical point of misery . These are those terrors of the Lord , with which the Scripture acquaints us : and sure we cannot say that these are flat contemtible menaces ; but such as suit the dreadful Majesty of that God who is a consuming fire , Heb. 12. 29. So that these are as aptly accommodated for the exciting our dread , as the promises were of our love : both jointly concur to awake our industry . 73. FOR God has bin so good to mankind , as to make the threats conditional as well as the promises : so that we as well know the way to avoid the one , as we do to attain the other . Nor has he any other intendment or end in proposing them , but that we may do so . See to this purpose , with what solemnity he protests it by Moses ; I call heaven and earth to record against you this day that I have set before you life and death , blessing and cursing ; therefore chuse life , that both thou and thy seed may live , Deut. 30. 19. 74. I have now run thro the several parts of Scripture I proposed to speak of . And tho I have in each given rather short instances and essaies then an exact description , yet even in these contracted lineaments the exquisit proportions may be discern'd . And if the Reader shall hence be incourag'd to extend his contemplations , and as he reads holy Scripture , observe it in all its graces , and full dimensions ; I doubt not he will pronounce from his experience , that the matter of the divine Book is very correspondent to the Author : which is the highest Eulogy imaginable . 75. IN the next place we are to consider the holy Scripture in relation to its end and design ; in proportion to which every thing is more or less valuable . The most exquisit frame , and curious contrivance , that has no determinat end or use , is but a piece of industrious folly , a Spiders web , as the Prophet speaks , Isa. 59. 5. Now those designs have alwaies been esteem'd the most excellent that have had te most worthy subjects , and bin of the greatest extent . Accordingly , those who have projected the obliging and benefiting of other men ( tho but within a privat Sphere ) have alwaies bin lookt on as men of generous and noble designs . Those who have taken their level higher , and directed their aim to a more public good , tho but of a City or Nation , have proportionably acquir'd a greater esteem . But those who have aspir'd to be universal benefactors , to do somthing for the common benefit of the world , their fame has commonly teach'd as far as their influence ; men have reverenc'd , nay somtimes ( according to the common excesses of mans nature ) ador'd them . Many of the heathen deities ( especially their demi-gods ) having bin only those persons , who by introducing som useful Art , or other part of knowledg , had oblig'd mankind . So we see what a natural gratitude men are apt to pay to worthy and generous designs . And if we will be content but to stand to this common award of our nature , the Scripture will have the fairest claim imaginable to our reverence and thankfulness , upon this very account of the excellency of its designs . 76. NOR need we borrow the balance of the Sanctuary to weigh them in ; we may do it in our own scales ; for they exactly answer the two properties above mention'd , of profit and diffusiveness which in secular concerns are the standard rules of good designs . For first , it is the sole scope and aim of Scripture , the very end for which 't was writ , to benefit and advantage men ; and that secondly , not only som small select number , som little angle or corner of the world , but the whole race of mankind , the entire Universe ; and he that can imagin a more diffusive design , must imagin more worlds also . 77. NOW for the first of these , that it is the design of the Scripture to benefit men , we need appeal but to Scripture it self ; which surely can give the best account to what ends 't is directed ; and that tells us , it is to make us wise unto salvation , 2 Tim. 3. 15. In which is comprehended the greatest benefit that mans nature is capable of : the making us wise while we live here , and the saving us eternally . And this sure is the most generous , the most obliging design , that 't is possible even for the Creator to have upon the creature : and this is it which the holy Scripture negotiates with us . 78. AND first , the making us wise , is so inviting a proposal to humanity , that we see when that was much wiser then now it is , it caught at a fallacious tender of it ; the very sound of it , tho out of the devils mouth , fascinated our first Parents , and hurried them to the highest disobedience , and certainest ruin . And therefore now God by the holy Scriptures makes us an offer as much more safe , as it is more sincere ; when he sends his Word thus to be a lamp to our feet , and a light to our paths , Ps. 119. 105. to teach us all that is good for us to know , our affectation of ignorance will be more culpable then theirs of knowledg , if we do not admire the kindness , & embrace the bounty of such a tender . 79. NOW the making us wise must be understood according to the Scripture notion of wisdom , which is not the wisdom of this world , nor of the Princes of this world , which come to ●ought , as the Apostle speaks , 1 Cor. 2. 5. but that wisdom which descends from above , Ja. 3. 17. which he there describes to be first pure , then peaceable , gentle and easy to be intreated , full of mercy and good fruits , without partiality , and without hypocrisy . Indeed the Scripture usually comprehends these and all other graces under Wisdom ; for it makes it synonymous to that which includes them all , viz. the fear of the Lord. Thus we find throout the whole Book of Proverbs these us'd as terms convertible . In short , Wisdom is that practical knowledg of God and our selves which engages us to obedience and duty ; and this is agreeable to that definition the Wise man gives of it ; The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way , Pro. 14. 8. Without this , all the most refin'd and aerial speculations , are but like Thales's star-gazing ; which secur'd him not from falling in the water ; nay , betrai'd him to it . In this is all solid wisdom compris'd . 80. THE utmost all the wise men in the world have pretended to , is but to know what true happiness is , and what is the means of attaining it ; and what they sought with so much study , and so little success , the Scripture presents us with in the greatest certainty , and plainest characters , such as he that runs may read , Hab. 2. 2. It acquaints us with that supreme felicity , that chief good whereof Philosophy could only give us a name ; and it shews us the means , marks us out a path which will infallibly lead us to it . Accordingly we find that Solomon after all the accurate search he had made to find what was that good for the sons of men ; he shuts up his inquest in this plain conclusion : Fear God and keep his commandments ; for God shall bring every work unto judgment , Eccles. 12. 13 , 14 The regulating our lives so by the rules of Piety , as may acquit us at our final account , is the most eligible thing that falls within human cognizance ; and that not only in relation to the superlative happiness of the next world , but even to the quiet and tranquillity of this . For alas , we are impotent giddy crea●ures , swai'd sometimes by one passion , som●imes by another ; nay often the interfearing of our appetites makes us irresolute which we are to gratify , whilst in the interim their ●trugling agitates and turmoils the mind . And what can be more desirable in such a ●ase , then to put our selves under a wiser conduct then our own ; and as opprest States ●se to defeat all lesser pretenders by becoming homagers to som more potent : so for us to deliver our selves from the tyranny of our ●usts , by giving up our obedience to him whose service is perfect freedom . 81. WERE there no other advantage of the exchange , but the bringing us under fixt and determinat Laws , 't were very consideraable . Every man would gladly know the terms of his subjection , and have som standing ●ule to guide himself by ; and Gods Laws are ●o ; we may certainly know what he requires of us : but the mandats of our passions are ●rbitrary and extemporary : what pleases them to day disgusts them to morrow ; and we must alwaies be in readiness to do we know not what , and of all the Arbitrary governments that men either feel or fear , ●his is doubtless the most miserable . I wish our apprehensions of it were but as sensible : and then we should think the holy Scripture did us the office of a Patriot , in offering us a rescue from so vile a slavery . 82. AND that it do's make us this offer , is manifest by the whole tenor of the Bible . For first it rowzes and awakes us to a sense of our condition , shews us that what we call liberty , is indeed the saddest servitude ; that he that committeth sin is the servant of sin , Jo. 8. 34. that those vices which pretend to serve and gratify us , do really subdue and enslave us , and fetter when they seem to embrace : and whereas the will in all other oppressions retains its liberty , this tyranny brings that also into vassallage : renders our spirits so mean and servile , that we chuse bondage ; are apt to say with the Israelites , Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians , Ex. 14. 12. 83. AND what greater kindness can be don for people in this forlorn abject condition , then to animate them to cast off this yoke , and recover their freedom . And to this are most of the Scripture exhortations addrest ; as may be seen in a multitude of places , particularly in the sixth chapter to the Romans , the whole scope whereof is directly to this purpose . 84. NOR do's it only sound the alarm , put us upon the contest with our enemies , but it assists us in it , furnishes us with that whole armor of God which we find describ'd , Eph. 6. 13. Nay further it excites our courage , by assuring us that if we will not basely surrender our selves , we can never be overpower'd if we do but stand our ground ; resist our enemy , he will fly from us ; Ja. 4. 7. And to that purpose it directs us under what banner we are to list our selves ; even his who hath spoil'd principalities and powers , Col. 2. 15. to whose conduct and discipline if we constantly adhere , we cannot miss of victory . 85. AND then lastly it sets before us the prize of this conquest ; that we shall not only recover our liberty , manumit our selves from the vilest bondage to the vilest and cruellest oppressors ; but we shall be crown'd for it too , be rewarded for being kind to our selves , and be made happy eternally hereafter for being willing to be happy here . 89. AND sure these are terms so apparently advantageous , that he must be infinitly stupid ( foolish to destruction ) that will not be thus made wise unto salvation , that despifes or cavils at this divine Book , which means him so much good , which designs to make him live here generously and according to the dignity of his nature , and in the next world to have that nature sublimated , and exalted , made more capacious of those refin'd and immense felicities , which there await all who will qualify themselves for them ; who ( as the Apostle speaks ) by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory , and honor , and immortality , eternal life , Rom. 2. 7. 87. BUT besides the greatest and principal advantages which concern our spiritual interest , it takes in also the care of our secular , directs us to such a managery of our selves , as is naturally apt to promote a quiet and happy life . It s injunction to live peaceable with all men , keeps us out of the way of many misadventures , which turbulent unruly spirits meet with , and so secures our peace . So also as to wealth , it puts us into the fairest road to riches by prescribing diligence in our callings : what is thus got being like sound flesh , which will stick by us ; whereas the hasty growth of ill-gotten wealth is but a tumor and impostume , which the bigger it swells , the sooner it bursts and leaves us lanker then before . In like manner it shews us also how to guard our reputation , by providing honest things not only in the sight of God , but also in the sight of men , Cor. 8. 28. by abstaining even from all appearance of evil , 1 Thes. 5. 22. and making our light shine before men , Mat. 5. 16. It provides too for our ease and tranquillity , supersedes our anxious cares and sollicitud's , by directing us to cast our burden upon the Lord , Psal. 55. 22. and by a reliance on his providence how to secure to our selves all we really want . Finally it fixes us in all the changes , supports us under all the pressures , comforts us amidst all the calamities of this life , by assuring us they shall all work together for good to those that love God ; Ro. 8. 28. 88. NOR do's the Scripture design to promote our interests consider'd only singly and personally , but also in relation to Societies and Communities ; it gives us the best rules of distributive and commutative Justice ; teaches us to render to all their dues , Ro. 13. 7. to keep our words , to observe inviolably all our pacts and contracts ; nay tho they prove to our damage . Psa. 15. 4. and to preserve exact fidelity and truth ; which are the sinews of human commerce . It infuses into us noble and generous principles , to prefer a common good before our private : and that highest flight of Ethnic vertue , that of dying for ones Country , is no more then the Scripture prescribes even for our common brethren , 1 To. 3. 16. 89. BUT besides these generals , it descends to more minute directions accommodated to our several circumstances ; it gives us appropriate rules in reference to our distinct relations , whether natural , civil , ecclesiastical , or oeconomical . And if men would but universally conform to them , to what a blessed harmony would it tune the world ? what order and peace would it introduce ? There would then be no oppressive Governors , nor mutinous Subjects ; no unnatural Parents , nor contumacious Children : no idle Shepherds , or straying Flocks : none of those domestic jars which oft disquiet , and somtimes subvert families : all would be calm and serene ; and give us in reality that golden Age , whereof the Poets did but dream . 90. THIS tendency of the Scripture is remarkably acknowledg'd in all our public Judicatories , where before any testimony is admitted , we cause the person that is to give his testimony , first to lay hold of with his hands , then with his mouth to kiss the holy Scriptures : as if it were impossible for those hands , which held the mysteries of Truth , to be immediatly emploi'd in working falsehood ; or that those lips which had ador'd those holy Oracles , should be polluted with perjuries and lies . And I fear , the civil Government is exceedingly shaken at this day in its firmest foundation , by the little regard is generally had of the holy Scriptures , and what is consequent thereto , the oaths that are taken upon them . 91. 'T IS true , we are far remov'd from that state which Esaiah prophecied of under the Gospel , tho we have the Bible among us ; that when the Law should go forth of Sion , and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem , they should heat their swords into plow-shares , and their spears into pruning hooks , Es. 2. 4. but that is not from any defect in it , but from our own perversness : we have it , but ( as the Apostle speaks in another sense ) as if we had it not , 1 Cor. 7. 29. We have it ( that is , use it ) to purposes widely different from what it means . Som have it as a Supersedeas to all the duty it injoins ; and so they can but cap texts , talk glibly of Scripture , are not at all concern'd to practice it : som have it as their Arsenal , to furnish them with weapons , not against their spiritual enemies , but their secular : applying all the damnatory sentences they there find , to all those to whose persons or opinions they have prejudice . And som have it as a Scene of their mirth , a topic of raillery , dress their profane and scurrilous jests in its language ; and study it for no other end but to abuse it . And whilst we treat it at this vile rate , no wonder we are never the better for it . For alas , what will it avail us to have the most soveraign Balsom in our possession , if instead of applying it to our wounds , we trample it under our feet ? 92 BUT tho we may frustrate the use , we cannot alter the nature of things . Gods design in giving us the Scripture was to make us as happy as our nature is capable of being ; and the Scripture is excellently adapted to this end : for as to our eternal felicity , all that believe there is any such state , must acknowledg the Scripture chalks us out the ready way to it : not only because 't is dictated by God who infallibly knows it , but also by its prescribing those things which are in themselves best ; and which a sober Heathen would adjudg fittest to be rewarded . And as to our temporal happiness , I dare appeal to any unprejudic'd man , whether any thing can contribute more to the peace and real happiness of mankind , then the universal practice of the Scripture rules would do . Would God we would all conspire to make the experiment ; and then doubtless , not only our reason , but our sense too would be convinc'd of it . 93. AND as the design is thus beneficial , so in the second place is it as extensive also . Time was when the Jews had the inclosure of divine Revelation ; when the Oracles of God were their peculiar depositum , and the Heathen had not the knowledg of his Laws , Ps. 147. ult . but since that by the goodness of God the Gentiles are become fellow-heirs , Eph. 3. 6. he hath also deliver'd into their hands the deeds and evidences of their future state , given them the holy Scriptures as the exact and authentic registres of the covenant between God and man , and these not to be like the heathen Oracles appropriated to som one or two particular places , so that they cannot be consulted but at the expence of a pilgrimage ; but laid open to the view of all that will believe themselves concern'd . 94. IT was a large commission our Savior gave his Disciples ; go preach the Gospel to every creature , Mar. 16. 15. ( which in the narrowest acception must be the Gentile world ) and yet their oral Gospel did not reach farther then the writen : for wherever the Christian Faith was planted , the holy Scriptures were left as the records of it ; nay , as the conservers of it too ; the standing rule by which all corruptions were to be detected . 'T is true , the entire Canon of the New Testament , as we now have it , was not all at once deliver'd to the Church ; the Gospels and Epistles being successively writ , as the needs of Christians , and the encroachments of Heretics gave occasion : but at last they became all together the common magazine of the Church , to furnish arms both defensive and offensive . For as the Gospel puts in our hands the shield of Faith , so the Epistles help us to hold it , that it may not be wrested out of our hands again , either by the force of persecution , or the sly insinuations of vice or heresy . 95. THUS the Apostles like prudent leaders , have beat up the Ambushes , discover'd the snares that were laid for us ; and by discomfiting Satans forlorn hope , that earliest Set of false teachers and corrupt practices which then invaded the Church , have laid a foundation of victory to the succeeding Ages , if they will but keep close to their conduct , adhere to those sacred Writings they have left behind them in every Church for that purpose . 96. Now what was there deposited , was design'd for the benefit of every particular member of that Church . The Bible was not committed ( like the Regalia , or rarities of a Nation ) to be kept under lock and key ( and consequently to constitute a profitable office for the keepers ) but expos'd like the Brazen Serpent for universal view and benefit : that sacred Book ( like the common air ) being every mans propriety , yet no mans inclosure : yet there are a generation of men whose eies have bin evil , because Gods have bin good : who have seal'd up this spring , monopoliz'd the word of Life , and will allow none to partake of it but such persons , and in such proportions as they please to retail it : an attemt very insolent in respect of God , whose purpose they contradict ; and very injurious in respect of man , whose advantage they obstruct . The iniquity of it will be very apparent , if we consider what is offer'd in the following Section . SECT . IV. The Custody of the holy Scripture is a privilege and right of the Christian Church , and every member of it ; which cannot without impiety to God , and injustice unto it and them , be taken away or empeacht . BESIDES the keeping of the divine Law , which is obsequious , and imports a due regard to all its Precepts , commonly exprest in Scripture by keeping the commandments , hearkning to , and obeying the voice of the Lord , walking in his waies , and observing and doing his statutes and his judgments : there is a possessory keeping it , in reference to our selves and others ; in respect whereof , Almighty God , Deut. 6. and elsewhere frequently , having enjoin'd the people of Israel , to love the Lord their God with all their heart , and with all their soul , and with all their might , and that the words which he commanded them should be in their heart , he adds , that they shall teach them diligently to their children , and shall talk of them when they sit down in their houses , and when they walk by the way , and when they lie down , and when they rise up : and that they bind them for a sign upon their hand , and that they shall be as froutlets between their eies , and that they shall write them upon the posts of their house , and on their gates . So justly was the Law call'd the Scripture , being writen by them , and worn upon the several parts of the body , inscrib'd upon the walls of their houses , the entrance of their dores and gates of their Cities ; and in a word , placed before their eies wherever they convers'd . 2. AND this was granted to the Jews , as matter of privilege and favor . To them , saies Saint Paul , Rom. 9. 4. pertaineth the adoption , and the glory , aud the covenants , and the giving of the Law. And the same Saint Paul , at the 3. chap. 2. v. of that Epistle , unto the question , what advantage hath the Jew , or what prosit is there of circumcision , answers , that it is much every way , chiefly because unto them were committed the Oracles of God. This depositum or trust was granted to the Fathers , that it should be continued down unto their children . He made a covenant , saies David , Ps. 78. v. 5. with Jacob , and gave Israel a Law , which he commanded our Fore-fathers to teach their children , that their posterity might know it , and the children which were yet unborn : to the intent that when they came up , they might shew their children the same . Which Scripture by a perpetual succession was to be handed down unto the Christian Church , the Apostles on all occasions appealing unto them , as being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day , Act. 13. 27. and also privatly , in their hands ; so that they might at plesure search into them , Jo. 5. 39. Act. 17. 11. Hereupon the Jews are by Saint Austin call'd the Capsarii , or servants that carried the Christians Books . And Athanasius in this Tract of the Incarnation , saies , The Law was not for the Jews only , nor were the Prophets sent for them alone ; but that Nation was the Divinity-Schole of the whole world ; from whence they were to fetch the knowledg of God , and the way of spiritual living : which amounts to what the Apostle saies , Galat. 3. 24. That the Law was a Schole-master to bring us unto Christ. 3. AND 't is observable that the very same word , Rom. 3. 2. in the Text even now recited , which expresses the committing of the Oracles of God to the Jews , is made use of constantly by Saint Paul , when he declares the trust and duty incumbent on him in the preaching of the Gospel : of which , see 1 Cor. 9. 17. Gal. 2. 7. 1 Thes. 2. 4. 1 Tim. 1. 11. Tit. 1. 3. And therefore , as he saies , 1 Cor. 9. Tho I preach the Gospel I have nothing to glory of ; for necessity is laid upon me , yea , wo is unto me if I preach not the Gospel , for if I do this thing willingly , I have a reward ; but if against my will , a dispensation of the Gospel is committed unto me : So may all Christians say ; if we our selves keep and transmit to our posterities the holy Scriptures , we have nothing to glory of , for a necessity is laid upon us , and wo be unto us if we do not our selves keep , and transmit to our posterity the holy Scriptures . If we do this thing willingly , we have a reward , but if against our will , the custody of the Gospel , and at least that dispensation of it , is committed to us . But if we are Traditors , and give up our Bibles , or take them away from others ; let us consider how black an apostacy and sacrilege we shall incur . 4. THE Mosaic Law was a temporary constitution , and only a shadow of good things to come , Heb. 10. 1. but the Gospel being in its duration as well as its intendment , everlasting , Rev. 14. 6. and to remain when time shall be no more , Rev. 10. 6. it is an infinitly more precious depositum , and so with greater care and solemner attestation to be preserv'd . Not only the Clergy , or the people of one particular Church , nor the Clergy of the universal are intrusted with this care ; but 't is the charge , the privilege and duty of every Christian man , that either is , or was , or shall be in the world ; even that collective Church which above all competition , is the pillar and ground of truth , 1 Tim. 3. 15. against which the assaults of men and devils , and even the gates of hell shall not prevail , Mat. 16. 18. 5. THE Gospels were not written by their holy Pen-men to instruct the Apostles , but to the Christian Church , that they might believe Jesus was the Christ , the son of God , and that believing they might have life thro his name , Jo. 20. 31. The Epistles were not addrest peculiarly to the Bishops and Deacons , but all the holy brethren , to the Churches of God that are sanctified in Jesus Christ , and to all those that call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ , Rom. 1 , 7. 1 Cor. 1. 2. 2 Cor. 1. 1. Galat. 1. 2. Eph. 1. 1. Col. 4. 16. 1 Thes. 5. 27. Phil. 1. 1. Jam. 1. 1. 1 Pet. 1. 1. 2 Pet. 1. 1. Revel . 1. 4. Or if by chance som one or two of the Epistles were addrest to an Ecclesiastic person , as those to Timothy and Titus , their purport plainly refers to the community of Christians , and the depositum committed to their trust ; Tim. 6. 20. And Saint John on the other side directs his Epistles to those who were plainly secular ; to fathers , young men and little children ; and a Lady and her children , Epist. 1. chap. 2. 12. 13 , 14. and Epist. 2. 1. 1. 6. BUT besides the interest which every Christian has in the custody of the Scripture upon the account of its being a depositum intrusted to him , he has also another no less forcible ; that 't is the Testament of his Savior , by which he becomes a Son of God , no more a Servant but a Son ; and if he be a Son , it is the Apostles inference , that he is then an heir , an heir of God thro Christ , Gal. 4. 7. Now as he who is heir to an estate , is also to the deeds and conveiances thereof ; which without injury cannot be detain'd , or if they be , there is a remedy at Law for the recovery of them : So it fares in our Christian inheritance ; every believer by the privilege of faith , is made a son of Abraham , and an heir of the promises made unto the fathers , whereby he has an hereditary interest in the Old Testament ; and also by the privilege of the same Faith he has a firm right to the purchast possession , Eph. 1. 14. and the charter thereof , the New. Therefore the detention of the Scriptures , which are made up of these two parts , is a manifest injustice , and sacrilegious invasion of right , which the person wrong'd is impower'd , nay , is strictly oblig'd by all lawful means to vindicate . 7. WHICH invasion of right , will appear more flagrant when the nature and importance of it is consider'd ; which relating to mens spiritual interest , renders the violation infinitly more injurious then it could be in any secular . I might mention several detriments consequent to this detention of Scripture , even as many as there are benefits appendant to the free use of it ; but there is one of so fundamental and comprehensive a nature , that I need name no more ; and that is , that it delivers men up to any delusion their teachers shall impose upon them , by depriving them of means of detecting them . Where there is no standard or mesures , 't is easy for men to falsify both ; and no less easy is it to adulterate doctrins , where no recourse can be had to the primary rule . Now that there is a possibility that false teachers may arise , we have all assurance ; nay we have the word of Christ , and his Apostles that it should be so : and all Ecclesiastic Story to attest it has bin so . And if in the first and purest times ( those Ages of more immediat illumination ) the God of this world found instruments whereby to blind mens minds , 2 Cor. 4. 4. it cannot be suppos'd impossible or improbable he should do so now . 8. BUT to leave generals , and to speak to the case of that Church which magisterially prohibits Scripture to the vulgar : she manifestly stands liable to that charge of our Savior , Luk. 11. 52. Ye have taken away the key of knowledg : and by allowing the common people no more Scripture then what she affords them in their Sermons and privat Manuals , keeps it in her power to impose on them what she pleases . For 't is sure those portions she selects for them , shall be none of those which clash with the doctrins she recommends : and when ever she will use this power to the corrupting their faith , or worship ( yea , or their manners either ) they must brutishly submit to it , because they cannot bring her dictats to the test . 9. BUT 't will be said , this danger she wards by her doctrin of infallibility : that is , she enervates a probable supposition attested by event , by an impossible one confuted by event . For 't is certain , that all particular Churches may err ; and tho the consciousness of that , forces the Roman Church upon the absurd pretence of universality , to assert her infallibility ; yet alas , Tyber may as well call it self the Ocean , or Italy the world , as the Roman Church may name it self the universal ; whilest 't is so apparent that far the less part of Christians are under her communion . And if she be but a particular Church , she has no immunity from errors , nor those under her from having those errors ( how pernicious soever ) impos'd upon them . As to her having actually err'd , and in diverse particulars , the proof of that has bin the work of so many Volumes , that 't would be impertinent here to undertake it : I shall only instance in that of Image-Worship ; a practice perfectly irreconcileable with the second Commandment ; and doubtless , clearly discern'd by her to be so : upon which account it is , that tho by Translations and Paraphrases she wrests and moulds other Texts to comply with her doctrins , yet she dares not trust to those arts for this : but takes a more compendious course , and expunges the Commandment ; as is evident in her Catechisms and other Manuals . Now a Church that can thus sacrilegiously purloin one Commandment ( and such a one as God has own'd himself the most jealously concern'd in ) and to delude her children split another to make up the number , may as her needs require , substract and divide what others she please : and then whilst all resort to Scripture is obstructed ; how fatal a hazard must those poor souls run , who are oblig'd to follow these blind , or rather these winking guides into the ditch ? 10. BUT all these criminations she retorts by objecting the dangers of allowing the Scriptures to the vulgar , which she accuses as the spring of all Sects , Schisms , and Heresies . To which I answer first , that supposing this were true , 't was certainly foreseen by God , who notwithstanding laid no restraint ; probably as fore-seeing , that the dangers of implicit faith ( to which such a restraint must subiect men ) would be far greater : and if God saw fit to indulge the liberty , those that shall oppose it , must certainly think they do not only partake , but have transplanted infallibility from God to themselves . 11. BUT secondly , 't is not generally true , that Sects , Schisms , and Heresies are owing to this liberty ; All Ecclesiastical Story shews us that they were not the illiterat Lay-men , but the learned Clarks who were usually the broachers of Heresies . And indeed many of them were so subtil and aerial , as could never have bin forg'd in grosser brains ; but were founded not on Scripture merely mistaken . but rackt and distorted with nice criticisms , and quirks of Logic , as several of the Ancients complain : som again sprang from that ambition of attaining , or impatience of missing Ecclesiastical dignities : which appropriates them to the Clergy . So that if the abuse infer a forfeiture of the use , the Learned have of all others the least title to the Scriptures ; and perhaps those who now ingross them , the least title of all the Learned . 12. ON the other side , Church-story indeed mentions som lay-propugners of Heresies ; but those for the most part were either so gross and bestial ; as disparag'd and confuted themselves and Authors , and rose rather from the brutish inclination of the men , then from their mistakes of Scripture : or else they were by the immediat infusion of the devil , who backt his heretical suggestions with sorceries and lying wonders , as in Simon Magus , Menander , &c. And for later times , tho somtimes there happens among the vulgar a few pragmatic spirits , that love to tamper with the obscurest Texts , and will undertake to expound before they understand ; yet that is not their common temper : the generality are rather in the other extreme , stupid and unobservant even of the plainest doctrins . And if to this be objected the multitude of Quakers and Fanatics , who generally are of the ignorant sort ; I answer , that 't is manifest the first propugners of those tenets in Germany were not seduc'd into them by mistakes of Scripture , but industriously form'd them , at once to disguise and promote their villainous designs of sedition and rapine : and as for those amongst us , it is not at all certain that their first errrors were their own productions : there are vehement presumtions that the seeds were sown by greater Artificers ; whose first business was to unhinge them from the Church , and then to fill their heads with strange Chimera's of their privileges and perfections ; and by that intoxication of spiritual pride , dispose them for all delusions : and thereby render them , like Samsons Foxes , fit instruments to set all in combustion . 13. BUT admit this were but a conjecture , and that they were the sole Authors of their own frenzy ; how appears it that the liberty of reading the Scripture was the cause of it ? Had these men bin of the Romish communion , and so bin interdicted privat reading , yet som broken parts of Scripture would have bin in Sermons and Books of devotion communicated to them ; had it not bin as possible for them to have wrested what they heard as what they read ? In one respect it seems rather more likely : for in those loose and incidental quotations the connexion is somtimes not so discernable : and many Texts there are whose sense is so interwoven with the context , that without consulting that , there may be very pernicious mistakes : on which account it is probably more safe that the Auditor should have Bibles to consult . So that this restraint of Scripture is a very fallible expedient of the infallible Church . And indeed themselves have in event found it so : for if it were so soveraign a prophylactic against error , how comes it to pass that so many of their members who were under that discipline have revolted from them into that which they call heresy ? If they say , the defection was made by som of the Learned to whom the Scripture was allow'd , why do they not ( according to their way of arguing ) take it from them also upon that experiment of its mischief , and confine it only to the infallible chair ? but if they own them to have bin unlearn'd ( as probably the Albigenses and Waldenses , &c. were ) they may see how insignificant a guard this restraint is against error : and learn how little is got by that policy which controles the divine Wisdom . 14 NOR can they take shelter in the example of the primitive Christians : for they in the constant use of the holy Scriptures yielded not unto the Jews . Whereas the Jews had the Scriptures read publicly to them every Sabbath day ; which Josephus against Appion thus expresses : Moses propounded to the Jews the most excellent and necessary learning of the Law ; not by hearing it once or twice , but every seventh day laying aside their works , he commanded them to assemble for the hearing of the Law , and throughly and exactly to learn it . Parallel to this was the practice of the primitive Church , perform'd by the Lector , or Reader , of which Justin Martyr in his 2. Apol. gives this account . On the day call'd Sunday , all that abide in towns or the countries about , meet in one place , and the writings of the Apostles and Prophets are read , so far as there is place . So Tertullian in his Apol . describing the offices in the public Assemblies : We feed our faith with the sacred Words , we raise our hopes , and establish our reliance . 15. AND as the Jews thought it indecent for persons professing piety , to let three daies pass without the offices thereof in the congregation ; and therefore met in their Synagogues upon every Tuesday and Thursday in the week , and there perform'd the duties of fasting , praier , and hearing the holy Scriptures ; concerning which is the boast of the Pharisee , Luk. 18. 12. in conformity hereto the Christians also , their Sabbath being brought forward from the Saturday to the day following ; that the like number of daies might not pass them without performing the aforesaid duties in the congregation ; met together on the Wednesdaies and Fridaies , which were the daies of Station , so frequently mention'd in Tertullian , and others , the first writers of the Church . Tertullian expresly saies ▪ that the Christians dedicated to the offices of Piety , the fourth and sixth day of the week : and Clemens Alex. saies of the Christians , that they understood the secret reasons of their weekly fasts , to wit , those of the fourth day of the week and that of preparation before the Sabbath ; commonly call'd Wednesday and Friday . Where , by the way , we may take notice what ground there is for the observation of the Wednesday and Friday in our Church , and the Litanies then appointed , so much neglected in this profligate Age. 16. BUT secondly , as the Jews were diligent in the privat reading of the Scripture ; being taught it from their infancy which custom Saint Paul refers to 1 Tim. 3. 15. whereof Josephus against Appion saies , That if a man ask any Jew concerning the Laws , he will tell every thing readier then his name : for learning them from the first time they have sense of any thing , they retain them imprinted in their minds . So were the first Christians equally industrious in improving their knowledg of divine Truth . The whole life of a Christian , saies Clem. Alex. Strom. l. 7. is a holy solemnity , there his sacrifices are praiers and praises , before every meal he has the readings of the holy Scriptures ; and Psalms , and Hymns at the time of his meals . Which Tertullian also describes in his Apol. and Saint Cyprian in the end of the Epist. to Donatus . 17. AND this is farther evidenc'd by the early and numerous versions of the Scriptures into all vulgar Languages ; concerning which Theodoret speaks in his Book of the Cure of the Affections of the Greeks , Serm. 5. We Christians ( sais he ) are enabled to shew the power of Apostolic and prophetic doctrins , which h●ve fill'd all Countries under Heaven . For that which was formerly utter'd in Hebrew , is not only translated into the Language of the Grecians , but also the Romans , Egyptians , Persians , Indians , Armenians , Scythians , Samaritans ; and in a word to all the Languages that are us'd by any Nation . The same is said by Saint Chrysostom in his first Homily upon Saint Iohn . 18. NOR was this don by the blind zeal of inconsiderable men , but the most eminent Doctors of the Church were concern'd herein : such as Origen , who with infinit labor contriv'd the Hexapla . Saint Chrysostom , who translated the New Testament , Psalms , and som part of the Old Testament into the Armenian Tongue as witnesses Geor. Alex. in the life of Chrysost. So Vlphilas the first Bishop of the Goths translated the holy Scripture into the Gothic ; as Socrat. Eccl. Hist l. 4. cap. 33. and others testify . Saint Jerom , who translated them not only into Latin from the Hebrew , the Old Italic version having bin from the Greek ; but also into his native vulgar Dalmatic : which he saies himself in his Epistle to Sophronius . 19. BUT the peoples having them for their privat and constant use , appears farther by the Heathens making the extorting of them a part of their persecution : and when diverse did faint in that trial , and basely surrender'd them , we find the Church level'd her severity only against the offending persons , did not ( according to the Romish equity ) punish the innocent , by depriving them of that sacred Book , because the others had so unworthily prostituted it ( tho the prevention of such a profanation for the future had bin as fair a plea for it as the Romanists do now make : ) but on the contrary the primitive Fathers are frequent , nay indeed importunat in their exhortations to the privat study of holy Scripture , which they recommend to Christians of all Ranks , Ages , and Sexes . 20. AS an instance hereof let us hear Clemens of Alex. in his Exhort . The Word , saies he , is not hid from any , it is a common light that shineth to all men ; there is no obscurity in it ; hear it you that be far off , and hear it you that are nigh . 21. To this purpose St. Jerom speaks in his Epistle to Leta , whom he directs in the education of her young daughter , and advises , th●t instead of gems and silk , she be enamour'd with the holy Scripture ; wherein not gold , or skins , or Babylonian embroideries , but a correct and beautiful variety producing faith , will recommend its self . Let her first learn the Psalter , and be entertain'd with those songs ; then be instructed unto life by the Proverbs of Solomon : let her learn from Ecclesiastes to despise worldly things ; transcribe from Job the practice of patience and vertue : let her pass then to the Gospels , and never let them be out of her bands : and then imbibe with all the faculties of the mind , the Acts of the Apostles , and Epistles . When she has enrich'd the store-house of her breast with these tresures , let her learn the Prophets , the Heptateuch , or books of Moses , Joshua and Judges , the books of Kings and Chronicles , the volumes of Ezra and Esther , and lastly the Canticles . And indeed , this Father is so concern'd to have the unletter'd semale sex skilful in the Scriptures , that tho he sharply rebukes their pride and over-wening ; he not only frequently resolves their doubts concerning difficult places in the said Scriptures , but dedicates several of his Commentaries to them . 22. THE same is to be said of Saint Austin , who in his Epistles to unletter'd Laics , encourages their enquiries concerning the Scripture , assuring Volusianus Ep. 3. that it speaks those things that are plain to the heart of the learned and unlearned , as a familiar friend ; in the mysterious , mounts not up into high phrases which might deter a slow and unlearned mind , ( as the poor are in their addresses to the rich ; ) but invites all with lowly speech , feeding with manifest truth , and exercising with secret . And Ep. 1. 21. tells the devout Proba , that in this world , where we are absent from the Lord , and walk by faith and not by sight , the soul is to think it self desolate , and never cease from praier , and the words of divine and holy Scripture , &c. 23. SAINT Chrysostom in his third Homily of Lazarus thus addresses himself to married persons , house-holders , and people enga'd in trades and secular professions ; telling them , that the reading of the Scripture is a great defensative against siu ; and on the other side , the ignorance thereof is a deep and head-long precipice ; that not to know the Law of God , is the utter loss of salvation ; that this has caus'd heresies , and corruption of life , and has confounded the order of things : for it cannot be by any means , that his labor should be fruitless , who emploies himself in a daily and attentive reading of the Scripture . 24. I am not , saies the same St. Chry. Hom. 9. on Colos. 3. a Monk , I have wise and children , and the cares of a family . But 't is a destructive opinion , that the reading of the Scripture pertains only to those who have addicted themselves to a monastic life ; when the reading of Scripture is much more necessary for secular persons ; for they who converse abroad , and receive frequent wounds , are in greatest need of remedies and preservatives . So Hom. 2. on Mat. Hearken all you that are secular , how you ought to order your wives and children ; and how you are particularly enjoin'd to read the Scriptures , and that not perfunctorily , or by chance , but very diligently . 25. LIKEWISE Hom. 3. on Laz. What saiest thou , O man ? it is not thy business to turn over the Scripture , being distracted by innumerable cares ; no , thou hast therefore the greater obligation : others do not so much stand in need of the aids of the Scripture , as they who are conversant in much business . Farther , Hom. 8. on Heb. 5. I beseech you neglect not the reading of the Scriptures ; but whether we comprehend the meaning of what is spoken or not , let us alwaies be conversant in them : for daily meditation strengtheus the memory ; and it frequently happens , that what you now cannot find out , if you attemt it again ▪ you will the next day discover : for God of his goodness will enlighten the mind . It were endless to transcribe all the Exhortations of the ancient Doctors and Fathers of the Church ; they not only permitted , but earnestly prest upon all Christians , whatever their estate or condition were , the constant reading of the holy Scripture . Nor indeed was their restraint ever heard of till the Church of Rome had espous'd such doctrins as would not bear the test of Scripture ; and then as those who deal in false wares are us'd to do , they found it necessary to proportion their lights accordingly . 26. THIS Peter Sutor in his second Book cap. 22. of the Translation of the Scripture honestly confesses , saying , that whereas many things are enjoin'd which are not expresly in Scripture , the unlearned observing this , will be apt to murmur and complain that so heavy burthens are laid upon them , and their Christian liberty infring'd . They will easily be with-drawn from observing the Constitutions of the Church , when they find that they are not contain'd in the Law of Christ. And that this was not a frivolous suggestion , the desperat attemt of the Romanists above mention'd , in leaving out the second Commandment in their Primers and Catechisms which they communicate to the people , may pass for an irrefragable evidence ; For what Lay-man would not be shockt , to find Almighty God command , not to make any graven image , nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above , or in the earth beneath , or in the water under the earth ; that no one should bow down to them , nor worship them : when he sees the contrary is practic'd and commanded by the Church . 27. BUT would God none but the Romanist were impeachable of this detention of Scripture : there are too many among us that are thus false and envious to themselves : and what the former do upon policy and pretence of reverence , those do upon mere oscitancy and avow'd profaness ; which are much worse inducements . And for such as these to declaim against detention of the Scripture , is like the Law-suits of those who contend only about such little punctilio's as themselves design no advantage from , but only the worsting their adversaries : and it would be much safer for them to lie under the interdict of others , then thus to restrain themselves : even as much as the errors of obedience are more excusable , then those of contemt and profaness . 28. AND here I would have it seriously consider'd that the Edict of Diocletian for the demolishing the Christian Churches , and the burning their Bibles ; became the character and particular aggravation of his most bloudy persecution . Now should Almighty God call us to the like trial , should Antichristian violence , whether heathen or other , take from us our Churches and our Bibles , what comfort could we have in that calamity , if our contemt of those blessing drove them from us ; nay , prevented perfecution , and bereft us of them even whilst we had them in our power ? He who neglects to make his constant resort unto the Church , which by Gods mercy now stands open ; or to read diligently the holy Scriptures , which by the same divine Goodness are free for him to use , in his own Diocletian ; and without the terrors of death , or torments , has renounc'd , i● not the Faith , the great instruments of its conveiance , and pledg of God Almighties presence among the sons of men . 29. BUT what if men either upon the one motive or the other , will not read ; yet the Scriptures continue still most worthy to be read : they retain still their propriety for all those excellent ends to which God design'd them : and as the Prophet tells the Jews , Ez. 2. 5. whether they will hear , or whether they will forbear , they shall know there has bin a Prophet among them ; so whether we will take the benefit or no , we shall one day find that the holy Scriptures would have made us wise unto salvation . If thro our fault alone they fail to do so , they will one day assume a less grateful office ; and from guides and assistants , become accusers and witnesses against us . SECT . V. The Scripture has great propriety and fitness toward the attainment of its excellent end . WE are now in the next place to consider how exactly the holy Scriptures are adapted to those great ends to which they are directed : how sufficient they are for that important negotiation on which they are sent : and that we shall certainly find them , . if we look on them either intrinsecally , or circumstantially . For the first of these notions we need only to reflect on the third Part of this discourse , where the Scripture in respect of the subject Matter is evinc'd to be a system of the most excellent Laws , backt with the most transcendent rewards and punishments ; and the certainty of those confirm'd by such pregnant instances of Gods mercies and vengeance in this world , as are the surest gages and earnests of what we are bid to expect in another . 2 NOW what method imaginable can there be used to rational creatures of more sorce and energy ? Nay it seems to descend even to our passions and accommodates it self to our several inclinations . And seeing how few Proselytes there are to bare and naked vertue , and how many to interest and advantage ; God closes with them upon their own terms , and do's not so much injoin as buy those little services he asks from us . 3. BUT because som mens natures are so disingenuous as to hate to be oblig'd no less then to be reform'd , the Scripture has goads and scourges to drive such beasts as will not be led ; terrors and threatnings , and those of most formidable sorts , to affright those who will not be allur'd . Nay lest incredulous men should question the reality of future rewards or punishments , the Scripture gives as sensible evidence of them as we are capable of receiving in this world ; by registring such signal protections and judgments proportion'd to vertue and vice , as sufficiently attests the Psalmists Axiom : Doubtless there is a God that judgeth the earth , Psal. 58. 11. and leaves nothing to the impenitent sinner , but a fearful expectation of that fiery indignation threatned hereafter ; Heb. 10. 27. 4. AND now methinks the Scripture seems to be that net our Savior speaks of , that caught of every sort , Mat. 13. 47. it is of so vast a compass , that it must , one would think , fetch in all kind of tempers : and sure had we not mixt natures with fiends , contracted som of their malice and obstinacy , mere human pravity could not hold out . 5. AND as the holy Scripture is thus fitly proportion'd to its end in respect of the subject matter , so is it also in reference to its circumstances , which all conspire to render it , the power of God unto salvation , Ro. 1. 16. In the first rank of those we must place its divine original , which stamps it with an uncontroulable autority ; and is an infallible security that the matter of it is perfectly true : since it proceeds from that essential verity which cannot abuse us with fraudulent promises or threatnings : and from that infinite power that cannot be impeded in the execution of what he purposes . 6. YET to render this circumstance efficacious there needs another ; to wit , that its being the word of God be sufficiently testifi'd to us : and we have in the fore-going discourse evinced it to be so ; and that in the utmost degree that a matter of that kind is capable of , beyond which no sober man will require evidence in any thing . And certainly these two circumstances thus united , have a mighty force to impress the dictats of Scripture on us . And we must rebel against God and our own convictions too , to hold out against it . 7. A third circumstance relates to the frame and composure of this divine Book , both as to method , and stile : concerning which I have already made som reflexions . But now that I may speak more distinctly , I observe it takes its rise from the first point of time wherein 't was possible for mankind to be concern'd ; and so gradually proceeds to its fall and renovation : shews us first our need of a Redeemer , and then points us out who it is by types and promises in the Old Testament , and by way of history and completion in the New. In the former it acquaints us with that pedagogy of the Law which God design'd as our Schole-master to bring us to Christ , Gal. 3. 25. and in the Gospel shews us yet a more excellent way ; presents us with those more sublime elevated doctrins , which Christ came down from heaven to revele . 8. As for the stile , that is full of grateful variety , somtimes high and majestic , as becomes that high and holy one that inhabiteth eternity , Esai . 57. 15 and somtimes so humble and after the manner of men , as agrees to the other part of his Characters ▪ his dwelling is with him that is of an humble spirit ▪ Esay 57. 15. I know profane wits are apt to brand this as an unevenness of stile : but they may as well accuse the various notes of Music as destructive to harmony , or blame an Orator for being able to tune his tongue to the most different strains . 9. ANOTHER excellency of the stile , is its propriety to the several subjects it treats of . When it speaks of such things as God would not have men pry into , it wraps them up in clouds and thick darkness ; by that means to deter inquisitive man ( as he did at Sinai ) from breaking into the mount , Ex. 20. And that he gives any intimation at all of such , seems design'd only to give us a just estimate how shallow our comprehensions are ; and excite us to adore and admire that Abyss of divine Wisdom which we can never sathom . 10. THINGS of a middle nature , which may be useful to som , but are not indispensibly necessary to all , the Scripture leaves more accessible ; yet not so obvious as to be within every mans reach : but makes them only the prize of industry , praier , and humble endevors . And it is no small benefit , that those who covet the knowledg of divine Truth , are by it engag'd to take these vertues in the way . Besides there is so much time requir'd to that study , as renders it inconsistent with those secular businesses wherein the generality of men are immerst : and consequently t is necessary that those who addict themselves to the one , have competent vacancy from the other : And in this it hath a visible use by being very contributive to the maintaining that spiritual subordination of the people to the Pastors ; which God has establish'd . Miriam and Corahs Partisans are a pregnant instance how much the opinion of equal knowledg unfits for subjection : and we see by sad experience how much the bare pretence of it has disturb'd the Church , and made those turn preachers who never were understanding hearers . 11. BUT besides these more abstruse , there are easier truths in which every man is concern'd ; the explicit knowledg whereof is necessary to all ; I mean the divine Rules for saving Faith and Manners . And in those the Scripture stile is as plain as is possible : condescends to the apprehensions of the rudest capacities : so that none that can read the Scripture but will there find the way to bliss evidently chalk'd out to him . That I may use the words of Saint Gregory , the Lamb may wade in those waters of life , as well as the Elephant may swim . The Holy Ghost , as St. Austin tells us , lib. 2. of Christian doctrin , chap. 6. has made in the plainer places of Scripture magnificent and healthful provision for our hunger ; and in the obscure , against satiety . For there are scarce any things drawn from obscure places , which in others are not spoken most plainly And he farther adds , that if any thing happen to be no where explain'd , every man may there abound in his sense . 12. So again , in the same Book , cap. 9. he saies , that all those things which concern Faith and Manners , are plainly to be met with in the Scripture : and Saint Jerom in his Comment on Es. 19. tells us , that 't is the custom of the Scripture to close obscure sayings with those that are easy ; and what was first exprest darkly , to propose in evident words : which very thing is said likewise by Saint Chrysostom , Hom. 9. 2 Cor. 4. 11. who in his first homily on Saint Mat. farther declares , that the Scriptures are easy to be understood , and expos'd to vulgar capacities . 13. He saies again , Hom. upon Esay , that the Scriptures are not mettals that require the help of Miners , but afford a tresure easily to be had to them that seek the riches contain'd in them . It is enough only to stoop down , and look upon them , and depart replenish'd with wealth ; it is enough only to open them , and behold the splendor of those Gems . Again , Hom. 3. on the second Ep. to the Thess. 2. All things are evident and strait , which are in the holy Scripture ; whatever is necessary is manifest . So also Hom. 3. on Gen. 14. It cannot be that he who is studious in the holy Scripture should be rejected : for tho the instruction of men be wanting , the Lord from above will inlighten our minds , shine in upon our reason , revele what is secret , and teach what we do not know . So Hom. 1. on Jo. 11. Almighty God involves his doctrin with no mists , and darkness , as did the Philosophers : his doctrin is brighter then the Sun-beams , and more illustrious ; and therefore every where diffus'd : and Hom. 6. on Jo. 11. His doctrin is so facile , that not only the wise , but even women , and youths must comprehend it . Hom. 13. on Gen. 2. Let us go to the Scripture as our Mark , which is its own interpreter . And soon after saies , that the Scripture interprets it self , and suffers not its Auditor to err . To the same purpose saies Cyril in his third Book against Julian . In the Scripture nothing is difficult to them , who are conversant in them as they ought to be . 14. IT is therefore a groundless cavil which men make at the obscurity of the Scripture ; since it is not obscure in those things wherein 't is our common interest it should be plain : which sufficiently justifies its propriety to that great end of making us wise unto salvation . And for those things which seem less intelligible to us , many of them become so , not by the innate obscurity of the Text , but by extrinsic circumstances ( of which perhaps the over-busy tampering of Paraphrasts , pleased with new notions of their own , may be reckon'd for one . ) But this subject the Reader may find so well pursued in Mr. Boyls Tract concerning the stile of Scripture , that I shall be kindest both to him and it to refer him thither ; as also for answer to those other querulous objections which men galled with the sense of the Scripture , have made to its stile . 15. A third circumstance in which the Scripture is fitted to attain its end , is its being committed to writing , as that is distinguish'd from oral delivery . It is most true , the word of God is of equal autority and efficacy which way soever it be deliver'd : The Sermons of the Apostles were every jot as divine and powerful out of their mouths , as they are now in their story . All the advantage therefore that the written Word can pretend to , is in order to its perpetuity , as it is a securer way of derivation to posterity , then that of oral Tradition . To evince that it is so , I shall first weigh the rational probabilities on either side . Secondly , I shall consider to which God himself appears in Scripture to give the deference . 16. FOR the first of these , I shall propose this consideration , which I had occasion to intimate before , that the Bible being writ for the universal use of the faithful , 't was as universally disperst amongst them : The Jews had the Law not only in their Synagogues , but in their privat houses , and as soon as the Evangelical Books were writ , they were scatter'd into all places where the Christian Faith had obtain'd . Now when there was such a vast multitude of copies , and those so revered by the possessors , that they thought it the highest pitch of sacrilege to expose them , it must surely be next to impossible , entirely to suppress that Book . Besides , it could never be attemted but by som eminent violence as it was by the heathen Persecutors ; which ( according to the common effect of opposition ) serv'd to enhance the Christians value of the Bible ; and consequently when the storm was past , to excite their diligence for recruiting the number . So that , unless in after Ages , all the Christians in the world should at once make a voluntary defection , and conspire to eradicate their Religion , the Scripture could not be utterly extinguish'd . 17. AND that which secures it from total suppression , do's in a great degree do so from corruption and falsification . For whilst so many genuine copies are extant in all parts of the world , to be appeal'd to , it would be a very difficult matter to impose a spurious one ; especially if the change were so material as to awaken mens jealousies . And it must be only in a place and age of gross ignorance , that any can be daring enough to attemt it . And if it should happen to succeed in such a particular Church , yet what is that to the universal ? And to think to have the forgery admitted there , is ( as a learned man saies ) like attemting to poison the sea . 18. ON the other side , oral Tradition seems much more liable to hazards , error may there insinuate it self much more insensibly . And tho there be no universal conspiracy to admit it at first ; yet like a small eruption of waters , it widens its own passage , till it cause an inundation . There is no impression so deep , but time and intervening accidents may wear out of mens minds ; especially where the notions are many and are founded not in nature , but positive institution , as a great part of Christian Religion is . And when we consider the various tempers of men , 't will not be strange that succeeding Ages will not alwaies be determin'd by the Traditions of the former . Som are pragmatic , and think themselves fitter to prescribe to the belief of their posterity , then to follow that of their Ancestors : som have interest and designs which will be better serv'd by new Tenets : and som are ignorant and mistaking , and may unawares corrupt the doctrin they should barely deliver : and of this last sort we may guess there may be many , since it falls commonly to the mothers lot to imbue children with the first rudiments . 19. NOW in all these cases how possible is it that primitive Tradition may be either lost or adulterated ? and consequently , and in proportion to that possibility , our confidence of it must be stagger'd . I am sure according to the common estimate in seculars it must be so . For I appeal to any man whether he be not apter to credit a relation which comes from an eie-witness then at the third or fourth , much more at the hundredth rebound : ( as in this case . ) And daily experience tells us ; that a true and probable story by passing thro many hands , often grows to an improbable lie . This man thinks he could add one becoming circumstance ; that man another : and whilst most men take the liberty to do so , the relation grows as monstrous as such a heap of incoherent phancies can make it . 20. IF to this it be said that this happens only in trivial secular matters , but that in the weighty concern of Religion mankind is certainly more serious and sincere : I answer that 't is very improbable that they are ; since 't is obvious in the common practice of the world , that the interests of Religion are postpon'd to every little worldly concern . And therefore when a temporal advantage requires the bending and warping of Religion , there will never be wanting som that will attemt it . 21. BESIDES , there is still left in human nature so much of the venom of the Serpents first temtation , that tho men cannot be as God , yet they love to be prescribing to him , and to be their own Assessors as to that worship and homage they are to pay him . 22. BUT above all 't is considerable that in this case Sathan has a more peculiar concern , and can serve himself more by a falsification here then in temporal affairs . For if he can but corrupt Religion , it ceases to be his enemy , and becomes one of his most useful engins , as sufficiently appear'd in the rites of the heathen worship . We have therefore no cause to think this an exemt case ; but to presume it may be influenc'd by the same pravity of human nature , which prevailes in others ; and consequently are oblig'd to bless God that he has not left our spiritual concerns to such hazards , but has lodg'd them in a more secure repository , the written Word . 23. BUT I fore-see 't will be objected , that whilst I thus disparage Tradition , I do vertually invalidate the Scripture it self , which comes to us upon its credit . To this I answer first that since God has with-drawn immediate revelation from the world ▪ Tradition is the only means to convey to us the first notice that this Book is the word of God : and it being the only means he affords , we have all reason to depend on his goodness , that he will not suffer that to be evacuated to us : and that how liable soever Tradition may be to err , yet that it shall not actually err in this particular . 24. BUT in the second place ; This Tradition seems not so liable to falsification as others : It is so very short and simple a proposition ; such and such writings are the word of God , that there is no great room for Sophistry or mistake to pervert the sense ; the only possible deception must be to change the subject , and obtrude suppositious writings in room of the true , under the title of the word of God. But this has already appear'd to be unpracticable , because of the multitude of copies which were disperst in the world ; by which such an attemt would soon have bin detected . There appears therefore more reason as well as more necessity , to rely upon Tradition in this , then in most other particulars . 25. NEITHER yet do I so farr decry oral Tradition in any , as to conclude it impossible it should derive any truth to posterity : I only look on it as more casual ; and consequently a less fit conveiance of the most important and necessary verities then the writen Word : In which I conceive my self justifi'd by the common sense of mankind ; who use to commit those things to writing , which they are most solicitous to derive to posterity . Do's any Nation trust their fundamental Laws only to the memory of the present Age , and take no other course to transmit them to the future ? do's any man purchase an estate , and leave no way for his children to lay claim to it , but the Tradition the present witnesses shall leave of it ? Nay do's any considering man ordinarily make any important pact or bargain ( tho without relation to posterity ) without putting the Articles in writing ? And whence is all this caution but from a universal consent that writing is the surest way of transmitting ? 26. BUT we have yet a higher appeal in this matter then to the suffrage of men : God himself seems to have determin'd it ; And what his decision is , 't is our next business to inquire . 27. AND first he has given the most real and comprehensive attestation to this way of writing , by having himself chose it . For he is too wise to be mistaken in his estimate of better and worse , and too kind to chuse the worst for us : and yet he has chosen to communicate himself to the latter Ages of the world by writing ; and has summ'd up all the Eternal concerns of mankind in the sacred Scriptures , and left those sacred Records by which we are to be both inform'd and govern'd ; which if oral Tradition would infallibly have don , had bin utterly needless : and God sure is not so prodigal of his spirit , as to inspire the Authors of Scripture to write that , whose use was superseded by a former more certain expedient . 28. NAY , under the Mosaic oeconomy , when he made use of other waies of reveling himself , yet to perpetuate the memory even of those Revelations , he chose to have them written . At the delivery of the Law , God spake then viva voce , and with that pomp of dreadful solemnity , as certainly was apt to make the deepest impressions ; yet God fore-saw that thro every succeeding Age that stamp would grow more dim , and in a long revolution might at last be extinct . And therefore how warm soever the Israelites apprehensions then were , he would not trust to them for the perpetuating his Law , but committed it to writing ; Ex. 13. 18. nay wrote it twice himself . 29. YET farther even the ceremonial Law , tho not intended to be of perpetual obligation , was not yet referr'd to the traditionary way , but was wrote by Moses , and deposited with the Priests , Deut. 31. 9. And after-event shew'd this was no needless caution . For when under Manasses , Idolatry had prevail'd in Jerusalem , it was not by any dormant Tradition , but by the Book of the Law found in the Temple , that Josiah was both excited to reform Religion , and instructed how to do it ; 2 Kings 22. 10. And had not that or som other copy bin produc'd , they had bin much in the dark as to the particulars of their reformation ; which that they had not bin convei'd by Tradition , appears by the sudden startling of the King upon the reading of the Law ; which could not have bin . had he bin before possest with the contents of it . In like manner we find in Nehemiah , that the observation of the Feast of Tabernacles was recover'd by consulting the Law ; the Tradition whereof was wholly worn out ; or else it had sure bin impossible that id could for so long a time have bin intermitted , Neh. 8. 18. And yet mens memories are commonly more retentive of an external visible rite , then they are of speculative Propositions , or moral Precepts . 30. THESE instances shew how fallible an expedient mere oral Tradition is for transmission to posterity . But admit no such instance could be given , 't is argument enough that God has by his own choice of writing , given the preference to it . Nor has he barely chosen it , but has made it the standard by which to mesure all succeeding pretences . 'T is the means he prescribes for distinguishing divine from diabolical Inspirations : To the Law and to the Testimony : if they speak not according to this Word , there is no light in them , Isai. 8. 20. And when the Lawier interrogated our Savior what he should do to inherit eternal life , he sends him not to ransac Tradition , or the cabalistical divinity of the Rabbins , but refers him to the Law : What is written in the Law ? how readest thou ? Luk. 10. 26. And indeed , throout the Gospel , we still find him in his discourse appealing to Scripture , and asserting its autority : as on the other side inveighing against those Traditions of the Elders which had evacuated the written Word : Ye make the Word of God of none effect by your Tradition , Mat. 15. 6. Which as it abundantly shews Christs adherence to the written Word , so 't is a pregnant instance how possible it is for Tradition to be corrupted , and made the instrument of imposing mens phancies even in contradiction to Gods commands . 31. AND since our blessed Lord has made Scripture the test whereby to try Traditions , we may surely acquiesce in his decision , and either embrace or reject Traditions , according as they correspond to the supreme rule , the written Word . It must therefore be a very unwarrantable attemt to set up Tradition in competition with ( much more in contradiction to ) that to which Christ himself hath subjected it . 32. Saint Paul reckons it as the principal privilege of the Jewish Church , that it had the Oracles of God committed to it ; i. e. that the holy Scriptures were deposited , and put in its custody : and in this the Christian Church succeeds it , and is the guardian and conservator of holy Writ . I ask then , had the Jewish Church by vertue of its being keeper , a power to supersede any part of those Oracles intrusted to them ? if so , Saint Paul was much out in his estimate , and ought to have reckon'd that as their highest privilege . But indeed , the very nature of the trust implies the contrary ; and besides , 't is evident , that is the very crime Christ charges upon the Jews in the place above cited . And if the Jewish Church had no such right , upon what account can the Christian claim any ? Has Christ enlarg'd its Charter ? has he left the sacred Scriptures with her , not to preserve and practice , but to regulate and reform ? to fill up its vacancies , and supply its defects by her own Traditions ? if so , let the commission be produc'd ; but if her office be only that of guardianship and trust , she must neither substract from , nor by any superadditions of her own evacuate its meaning and efficacy : and to do so , would be the same guilt that it would be in a person intrusted with the fundamental Records of a Nation , to foist in fuch clauses as himself pleases . 33 IN short , God has in the Scriptures laid down exact rules for our belief and practice , and has entrusted the Church to convey them to us : if she vary , or any way enervate them , she is false to that trust , but cannot by it oblige us to recede from that rule she should deliver , to comply with that she obtrudes upon us . The case may be illustrated by an easy resemblance . Suppose a King have a forreign principality for which he composes a body of Laws ; annexes to them rewards and penalties , and requires an exact and indispensable conformity to them . These being put in writing , he sends by a select messenger : now suppose this messenger deliver them , yet saies withall , that himself has autority from the King to supersede these Laws at his plesure ; so that their last resort must be to his dictats , yet produces no other testimony but his own bare affirmation . Is it possible that any men in their wits should be so stupidly credulous , as to incur the penalty of those Laws upon so improbable an indemnity ? And sure it would be no whit less madness in Christians , to violate any precept of God , on an ungrounded supposal of the Churches power to dispense with them . 34. AND if the Church universal have not this power , nor indeed ever claim'd it , it must be a strange insolence for any particular Church to pretend to it , as the Church of Rome do's ; as if we should owe to her Tradition all our Scripture , and all our Faith ; insomuch that without the supplies which she affords from the Oracle of her Chair , our Religion were imperfect , and our salvation insecure . Upon which wild dictates I shall take liberty in a distinct Section , farther to animadvert . SECT . VI. The suffrage of the primitive Christian Church , concerning the propriety and fitness which the Scripture has towards the attainment of its excellent end . AGAINST what has bin hitherto said to the advantage of the holy Scripture , there opposes it self ( as we have already intimated ) the autority of the Church of Rome ; which allows it to be only an imperfect rule of Faith , saying in the fourth Session of the Council of Trent , that Christian faith and discipline , are contain'd in the Books written , and unwritten Tradition . And in the fourth rule of the Index put forth by command of the said Council , the Scripture is declar'd to be so far from useful , that its reading is pernicious if permitted promiscuously in the vulgar Tongue , and therefore to be withheld : insomuch that the study of the holy Bible is commonly by persons of the Roman Communion , imputed to Protestants as part of their heresy ; they being call'd by them in contemt the Evangelical men , and Scripturarians . And the Bible in the vulgar Tongue of any Nation , is commonly reckon'd among prohibited Books , and as such , publicly burnt when met with by the Inquisitors : and the person who is found with it , or to read therein , is subjected to severe penalties . 2. FOR the vindication of the truth of God , and to put to shame those unhappy Innovators , who amidst great pretences to antiquity , and veneration to the Scriptures , prevaricat from both : I think it may not be amiss , to shew plainly the mind of the primitive Church herein ; and that in as few words as the matter will admit . 3. FIRST I premise that Ireneus and Tertullian having to do with Heretics , who boasted themselves to be emendators of the Apostles , and wiser then they ; despising their autority , rejecting several parts of the Scripture , and obtruding other writings in their steed , have had recourse unto Tradition , with a seeming preference of it unto Scripture . Their adversaries having no common principle besides the owning the name of Christians ; it was impossible to convince them , but by a recourse to such a medium which they would allow . But these Fathers being to set down and establish their Faith , are most express in resolving it into Scripture : and when they recommend Tradition , ever mean such as is also Apostolical . 4. IRENEUS in the second Book , 47. c. tells us , that the Scriptures are perfect , as dictated by the word of God and his spirit . And the same Father begins his third Book in this manner , The disposition of our salvation is no otherwise known by us , then by those by whom the Gospel was brought to us ; which indeed they first preach'd , but afterward deliver'd it to us in the Scripture , to be the foundation and pillar of our Faith. Nor may we imagin , that they began to preach to others , before they themselves had perfect knowledg , as som are bold to say ; boasting themselves to be emendators of the Apostles . For after our Lords Resurrection , they were indued with the power of the holy Spirit from on high ; and having perfect knowledg , went forth to the ends of the earth , preaching the glad tidings of salvation , and celestial praise unto men . Each and all of whom had the Gospel of God. So Saint Matthew wrote the Gospel to the Hebrews , in their tongue . Saint Peter and Saint Paul preach'd at Rome , and there founded a Church : Mark the Disciple and interpreter of Peter , deliver'd in writing what he had preach'd , and Luke the follower of Paul set down in his Book the Gospel he had deliver'd . Afterward Saint John at Ephesus in Asia publish'd his Gospel , &c. In his fourth Book , c. 66. he directs all the Heretics with whom he deals , to read diligently the Gospel deliver'd by the Apostles , and also read diligently the Prophets , assuring they shall there find every action , every doctrin , and every suffering of our Lord declared by them . 5. THUS Tertullian in his Book of Prescriptions , c. 6. It is not lawful for us to introduce any thing of our own will , nor make any choice upon our arbitrement . We have the Apostles of our Lord for our Authors , who themselves took up nothing on their own will or choice ; but faithfully imparted to the Nations the discipline which they had receiv'd from Christ. So that if an Angel from heaven should teach another doctrin , he were to be accurst . And. c. 25. 'T is madness , saies he of the Heretics , when they confess that the Apostles were ignorant of nothing , nor taught things different ; to think that they did not revele all things to all : which he enforces in the following chapter . In his Book against Hermogenes , c. 23. he discourses thus ; I adore the plenitude of the Scripture , which discovers to me the Creator , and what was created . Also in the Gospel I find the Word was the Arbiter and Agent in the Creation . That all things were made of preexistent matter I never read . Let Hermogenes , and his journy-men shew that it is written . If it be not written , let him fear the woe , which belongs to them thad add or detract . And in the 39. ch . of his Prescript . We feed our faith , raise our hope , and establish our reliance with the sacred Words . 6. IN like manner Hippolytus in the Homily against Noetus declares , that we acknowledg only from Scripture that there is one God. And whereas secular Philosophy is not to be had , but from the reading of the doctrin of the Philosophers ; so whosoever of us will preserve piety towards God , he cannot otherwise learn it then from the holy Scripture . Accordingly Origen in the fifth Homily on Leviticus , saies , in the Scripture every word appertaining to God , is to be sought and discust ; and the knowledg of all things is to be receiv'd . 7. WHAT Saint Cyprian's opinion was in this point , we learn at large from his Epistle to Pompey . For when Tradition was objected to him , he answers ; Whence is this Tradition ? is it from the autority of our Lord and his Gospel ; or comes it from the commands of the Apostles in their Epistles ? Almighty God declares that what is written should be obei'd and practic'd . The Book of the Law , saies he in Joshua , shall not depart from thy mouth , but thou shalt meditate in it day and night , that you may observe and keep all that is written therein . So our Lord sending his Apostles , commands them to baptize all Nations , and teach them to observe all things that he had commanded . Again , what obstinacy and presumtion is it to prefer human Tradition to divine Command : not considering that Gods wrath is kindled as often as his Precepts are dissolv'd and neglected by reason of human Traditions . Thus God warns and speaks by Isaiah : This people honors me with their lips , but their heart is far from me ; but in vain do they worship me , teaching for doctrins the commandments of men . Also the Lord in the Gospel checks and reproves , saying ; you reject the Law of God , that you may establish your Tradition . Of which Precept the Apostle Saint Paul being mindful , admonishes and instructs , saying ; If any man teaches otherwise , and hearkens not to sound doctrin , and the words of our Lord Jesus Christ , he is proud , knowing nothing : From such we must depart . And again he adds , There is a compendious way for religious and sincere minds , both to deposit their errors , and find out the truth . For if we return to the source and original of divine Tradition , human error will cease , and the ground of heavenly Mysteries being seen , what soever was hid with clouds and darkness , will be manifest by the light of truth . If a pipe that brought plentiful supplies of water , fail on the suddain , do not men look to the fountain , and thence learn the cause of the defect , whether the spring it self be dry ; or if running freely , the water is stopt in its passage ; that if by interrupted or broken conveiances , it was hindred to pass , they being repair'd , it may again be brought to the City , with the same plenty as it flows from the spring ? And this Gods Priests ought to do at this time , obeying the commands of God , that if truth have swerv'd or fail'd in any particular , we go backward to the source of the Evangelical and Apostolical Tradition , and there found our actings ; from whence their order and origation began . 8. IT is true Bellarmine reproches this discourse as erroneous ; but whatever it might be in the inference which Saint Cyprian drew from it , in it self it was not so . For Saint Austin , tho sufficiently engag'd against Saint Cyprian's conclusion , allows the position as most Orthodox ; saying , in the fourth Book of Baptism , c. 35. Whereas he admonishes to go back to the fountain , that is , the Tradition of the Apostles , and thence bring the stream down to our times ; 't is most excellent , and without doubt to be don . 9. THUS Eusebius expresses himself in his second Book against Sabellius . As it is a point of sloth , not to seek into those things , whereof one may enquire ; so 't is insolence to be inquisitive in others . But what are those things which we ought to enquire into ? Even those which are to be found in the Scriptures : those things which are not there to be found , let us not seek after . For if they ought to be known , the holy Ghost had not omitted them in the Scripture . 10. ATHANASIUS in his Tract of the Incarnation , saies , It is fit for us to adhere to the word of God , and not relinquish it , thinking by syllogisms to evade , what is there clearly deliver'd . Again in his Tract to Serap . of the holy Ghost ; Ask not , saies he , concerning the Trinity , but learn only from the Scriptures . For the instructions which you will find there , are sufficient . And in his Oration against the Gentiles , declares , That the Scriptures are sufficient to the manifestation of the truth . 11. AGREEABLE to these is Optatus in his 5. Book against Parmen . who reasons thus , You say 't is lawful to rebaptize , we say 't is not lawful : betwixt your saying and our gain-saying the peoples minds are amus'd . Let no man believe either you or us . All men are apt to be contentious . Therefore Judges are to be call'd in . Christians they cannot be ; for they will be parties ; and thereby partial . Therefore a Judg is to be lookt out from abroad . If a Pagan , he knows not the mysteries of our Religion . If a Jew , he is an enemy to our baptism . There is therefore no earthly Judg ; but one is to be sought from heaven . Yet there is no need of a resort to heaven , when we have in the Gospel a Testament : and in this case , celestial things may be compar'd to earthly . So it is as with a Father who has many children ; while he is present he orders them all , and there is no need of a written Will : Accordingly Christ when he was present upon earth , from time to time commanded the Apostles whatsoever was necessary . But as the earthly father finding himself to be at the point of death , and fearing that after his departure his children should quarrel among themselves , he calls witnesses , and puts his mind in writing ; and if any difference arise among the brethren , they go not to their Fathers Sepulcher , but repair to his Will and Testament ; and he who rests in his grave , speaks still in his writing , as if he were alive . Our Lord who left his Will among us , is now in heaven , therefore let us seek his commands in the Gospel , as in his Will. 12. THUS Cyril of Ierus . Cat. 4. Nothing , no not the least concernment of the divine and holy Sacraments of our Faith , is to be deliver'd without the holy Scripture : believe not me unless I give you a demonstration of what I say from the Scripture . 13. SAINT Basil in his Book of the true Faith saies , If God be faithful in all his sayings , his words , and works , they remaining for ever , and being don in truth and equity ; it must be an evident sign of infidelity and pride , if any one shall reject what is written , and introduce what is not written . In which Books he generally declares that he will write nothing but what he receives from the holy Scripture : and that he abhors from taking it elsewhere . In his 29. Homily against the Antitrinit . Believe , saies he , those which are written ; seek not those which are not written . And in his Eth. reg . 26. Every word and action ought to be confirm'd by the testimony of the divine●y inspir'd Scriptures to the establishment of the Faith of the good , and reproof of the wicked . 14. SAINT Ambrose in the first Book of his Offic. saies : How can we make use of any thing which is not to be found in Scripture ? And in his Instit. of Virgins . I read he is the first , but read not he is the second ; let them who say he is second , shew it from the reading . 15. GREG. Nyssen in his Dial. of the soul and resurrect . saies . 'T is undeniable , that truth is there only to be plac'd , where there is the seal of Scripture Testimony . 16. SAINT Jerom against Helvidius declares . As we deny not that which is written , so we refuse those which are not written . And in his Comment on the 98. Ps. Every thing that we assert , we must shew from the holy Scripture . The word of him that speaks has not that autority as Gods precept . And on the 87. Ps. Whatever is said after the Apostles , let it be cut off , nor have afterwards autority . The one be holy after the Apostles , the one be eloquent ; yet has he not autority . 17. SAINT Austin in his Tract of the unity of the Church , c. 12. acknowledges that he could not be convinc'd but by the Scriptures of what he was to believe ; and adds they are read with such manifestation , that he who believes them , must confess the doctrin to be most true . In the second Book of Christian doctrin , c. 9. he saies , that in the plain places of Scripture are found all those things that concern Faith and Manners . And in Epist. 42. All things which have bin exhibited heretofore as don to mankind , and what we now see and deliver to our posterity , the Scripture has not past them in silence , so far forth as they concern the search or defence of our Religion . In his ●ract of the good of Widowhood , he saies to ●ulian , the person to whom he addresses : What shall I teach you more then that we read in the Apostle : for the holy Scripture settlos the rule of our doctrin ; that we think not any thing more then we ought to think ; but to think so●erly , as God has dealt to every man the mesure of Faith. Therefore my teaching is only to ex●ound the words of this Doctor , Ep. 157. Where ●ny subject is obscure , and passes our compre●ension , and the Scripture do's not plainly afford its help , there human conjecture is presum●●ous in defining , 18. THEOPHILUS of Alex. in his second Paschal homily , tells us , that 't is the suggestion of a diabolical spirit to think that any thing besides the Scripture has divine autority . And in his third he adds , that the Doctors of the Church having the Testimony of the Scripture , lay firm foundation of their doctrin . 19. CHRYSOSTOM in his third Homily on the first of the Thessal . asserts , that from the alone reading or hearing of the Scripture one may learn all things necessary . So Hom. 34. on Act. 15. he declares . A heathen comes and saies : I would willingly be a Christian , but I know not who to join my self to ; for there are many contentions among you , many seditions and tumults ; so that I am in doubt what opinion I should chuse . Each man saies , what y say is true , and I know not whom to believe ; each pretends to Scripture which I am ignorant of 'T is very well the issue is put here : for if the appeal were to reason , in this case there would be just occasion of being troubled : but when we appeal to Scripture , and they are simple and certain , you may easily your self judg . He that agrees with the Scripture is a Christian , he that resists them , is far out of the way . And on Ps. 95. If any thing be said without the Scripture , the mind halts between different opinions ; somtimes inclining as to what is probable , anon rejecting as what is frivolous : but when the testimony of holy Scripture is produc'd , the mind both of speaker and hearer is confirm'd . And Hom. 4. on Lazar . Tho one should rise from the dead , or an Angel come down from heaven , we must believe the Scripture ; they being fram'd by the Lord of Angels , and the quick and dead . And Hom. 13. 2 Cor. 7. It is not an absurd thing that when we deal with men about mony , we wil trust no body , but cast up the sum , and make use of our counters ; but in religious affairs , suffer our selves to be led aside by other mens opinions , even then when we have by an exact scale and touchstone , the dictat of the divine Law. Therefore I pray and exhort you , that giving no heed to what this or that man saies , you would consult the holy Scripture , and thence learn the divine riches , and pursue what you have learnt . And Hom. 58. on Jo. 10. 1. 'T is the mark of a thief that he comes not in by the dore , but another way : now by the dore the testimony of the Scripture is signified . And Hom. on Gal. 1. 8. The Apostle saies not , if any man teach a contrary doctrin let him be accurs'd , or if he subvert the whole Gospel ; but if he teach any thing beside the Gospel which you have receiv'd , or vary any little thing , let him be accurs'd . 20. CYRIL of Alex. against Jul. l. 7. saies , The holy Scripture is sufficient to make them who are instructed in it , wise unto salvation , and endued with most ample knowledg . 21. TH●ODORET Dial. 1. I am perswaded only by the holy Scripture . And Dial. 2. I am not so bold to affirm any thing , not spoken of in the Scripture . And again , qu. 45. upon Genes . We ought not to enquire after what is past over in silence , but acquiesce in what is written . 22. IT were easy to enlarge this discourse into a Volume ; but having taken , as they offer'd themselves , the suffrages of the writers of the four first Centuries , I shall not proceed to those that follow . If the holy Scripture were a perfect rule of Faith and Manners to all Christians heretofore , we may reasonably assure our selves it is so still ; and will now guide us into all necessary truth , and consequently make us wise unto salvation , without the aid of oral Tradition , or the new mintage of a living infallible Judg of controversy . And the impartial Reader will be enabled to judg whether our appeal to the holy Scripture , in all occasions of controversy , and recommendation of it to the study of every Christian , be that heresy and innovation which it is said to be . 23. IT is , we know , severely imputed to the Scribes and Pharisees by our Savior , that they took from the people the key of knowledg , Luk. 11. 52. and had made the word of God of none effect by their Traditions , Matt. 15. 6. but they never attemted what has bin since practiced by their Successors in the Western Church , to take away the Ark of the Testament it self , and cut of not only the efficacy , but very possession of the word of God by their Traditions . Surely this had bin exceeding criminal from any hand : but that the Bishops and Governors of the Church , and the universal and infallible Pastor of it , who claim the office to interpret the Scriptures , exhort unto , and assist in the knowledg of them , should be the men who thus rob the people of them ; carries with it the highest aggravations both of cruelty and breach of trust . If any man shall take away from the words of the Book of this prophecy , saies Saint John , Revel . 22. 19. God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life , and out of the holy City , and from the things which are written in this Book . What vengeance therefore awaits those , who have taken away not only from one Book , but at once the Books themselves , even all the Scriptures , the whole word of God ? SECT . VII . Historical reflections upon the events which have happen'd in the Church since the with-drawing of the holy Scripture . 'T WILL in this place be no useless contemplation to observe , after the Scriptures had bin ravisht from the people in the Church of Rome , what pitiful pretenders were admitted to succeed . And first because Lay-men were presum'd to be illiterate , and easily seducible by those writings which were in themselves difficult , and would be wrested by the unlearned to their own destruction ; pictures were recommended in their steed , and complemented as the Books of the Laity , which soon emprov'd into a necessity of their worship , and that gross superstition which renders Christianity abominated by Turks , and Jews , and Heathens unto this day . 2. I would not be hasty in charging Idolatry upon the Church of Rome , or all in her communion ; but that their Image-worship is a most fatal snare , in which vast numbers of unhappy souls are taken , no man can doubt who hath with any regard travail'd in Popish Countries . I my self , and thousands of others , whom the late troubles , or other occasions sent abroad , are and have bin witnesses thereof . Charity , 't is true , believes all things , but it do's not oblige men to disbelieve their eies . 'T was the out-cry of Micah against the Danites , Jud. 18. 24. ye have taken away my Gods which I have made , and the Priest , and are gon away , and what have I more ? but the Laity of the Roman communion may enlarge the complaint , and say ; you have taken away the oracles of our God , and set up every where among us graven and molten Images , and Teraphims , and what have we more ? and 't was lately the loud , and I doubt me is still , the unanswerable complaint of the poor Americans , that they were deni'd to worship their Pagod once in the year , when they who forbad them , worship'd theirs every day . 3. THE Jews before the captivity , notwithstanding the recent memory of the Miracles in Egypt and the Wilderness , and the first conquest of the Land of Canaan with those that succeeded under the Judges and kings of Israel and Juda ; as also the express command of God , and the menaces of Prophets , ever and anon fell to downright Idolatry : but after their return unto this day , have kept themselves from falling into that sin , tho they had no Prophets to instruct them , no miracles or government to encourage or constrain them . The reason of which a very learned man in his discourse of religious Assemblies takes to be , the reading and teaching of the Law in their Synagogues ; which was perform'd with great exactness after the return from the captivity , but was not so perform'd before . And may we not invert the observation , and impute the Image-worship now set up in the Christian Church , to the forbidding the reading of the Scriptures in the Churches , and interdicting the privat use , and institution in them ? 4. FOR a farther supplement in place of the Scriptures , whose History was thought not edifying enough , the Legends of the Saints were introduc'd ; stories so stupid , that one would imagin them design'd as an experiment how far credulity could be impos'd upon ; or else fram'd to a worse intent , that Christianity by them might be made ridiculous . Yet these are recommended to use and veneration , while in the mean time the word of God is utterly forbidden , whereby the parties to this unhappy practice ( that I may speak in the words of the Prophet Jerem. 2. 13. ) have committed two evils , they have for saken the fountain of living waters , aud hewed them out cisterns , broken cisterns that can hold no water . 5. FARTHER yet , the same unreasonable tyranny which permitted not the Laity to understand Almighty God speaking to them in the Scripture ; hinder'd them from being suffer'd to understand the Church or themselves speaking to him in their praiers ; whilst the whole Roman office is so dispos'd , that in defiance of the Apostles discourse , 1 Cor. 14. he that occupies the room of the unlearned must say amen , to those praiers and praises which he has no comprehension of : and by his endless repetitions of Paters , Ave's and Credo's , falls into that battology reprov'd by our Savior , Mat. 6. 7. and as 't was said to the woman of Samaria , Jo. 4. 22. knows not what he worships . Yet this unaccountable practice is so much the darling of that Church , that when in France about eighteen years since , the Roman Missal was translated into the vulgar Tongue , and publish'd by the direction of several of their Bishops ; the Clergy of France rose up in great fury against the attemt , anathematizing in their circular Epistles , all that sold , read , or us'd the said Book : and upon complaint unto Pope Alex. the 7. he resented the matter so deeply , as to issue out his Bull against it in the following words . 6. WHEREAS sons of perdition , endevoring the destruction of souls , have translated the Roman Missal into the French Tongue , and so attemted to throw down and trample upon the majesty of the holy Rites comprehended in Latin words : As we abominate and detest the novelty , which will deform the beauty of the Church , and produce disobedience , temerity , boldness , sedition and schism ; so we condemn , reprobate and forbid , the said and all other such Translations , and interdict the reading , and keeping , to all and singular the faithful , of whatever sex , degree , order ; condition , dignity , honor , or preeminence , &c. under pain of excommunication . And we command the copies to be immediatly burnt , &c. So mortal a sin it seems 't was tought for the Laity to understand the praiers in which they must communicate . 7. NOR is this all ; agreeable to the other attemts upon the holy Scripture , was the bold insolence of making a new authentic Text , in that unknown Tongue in which the offices of praier had bin , and were to be kept disguis'd ; which was don by the decree of the Council of Trent in the fourth Session . But when the Council had given this Prerogative to the Version which it call'd vulgar , the succeeding Popes began to consider what that Version was ; and this work Pius the fourth and fifth set upon , but prevented by death fail'd to complete it , so that the honor of the performance fell to Sixtus the fifth , who in the plenitude of his Apostolic power ( the Translation being reform'd to his mind ) commanded it to be that genuine ancient Edition , which the Trent Fathers had before made authentic , and under the pain of excommunication requir'd it to be so received : which he do's in this form . Of our certain knowledg , and the plenitude of Apostolic power , we order and declare that vulgar Edition which has hin receiv'd for authentic by the Council of Trent , is without doubt or controversy to be esteem'd this very one , which being amended as well as it is possible , and printed at the Vatican Press , we publish to be read in the whole Christian Republic , and in all Churches of the Christian world . Decreeing that it having bin approv'd by the consent of the holy universal Church , and the holy Fathers , and then by the Decree of the general Council of Trent , and now by the Apostolic authority deliver'd to us by the Lord ; is the true , legitimate , authentic , and undoubted , which is to be received and held in all public and privat Disputations , Lectures , Preachings , and Expositions , &c. But notwithstanding this certain knowledg , and plenitude of Apostolic power , soon after came Clement the eighth , and again resumes the work of his Predecessor Sixtus , discovers great and many errors in it , and puts out one more reform'd , yet confest by himself to be imperfect ; which now stands for the authentic Text , and carries the title of the Bible put forth by Sixtus , notwithstanding all its alterations . So well do's the Roman Church deserve the honor which she pretends to , of being the mistress of all Churches ; and so infallible is the holy Chair in its determinations : and lastly , so authentic a Transcript of the word of God ( concerning which 't is said , Mat. 5. 18. one jot or one title shall not fail ) is that which she establisht , and that has receiv'd so many , and yet according to the confession of the infallible Corrector , wants still more alterations . 8. DEPENDENT upon this , and as great a mischief as any of the former , consequent to the with-drawing of the Scripture , I take to be the step it made to the overthrow of the ancient and most useful disciplin of the Church in point of Penance , whose rigors alwaies heretofore preceded the possibility of having absolution . Now of this we know a solemn part was the state of Audience , when the lapst person was receiv'd after long attendance without dores , prostrations , and lamentations there , within the entrance of the Church ; and was permitted with the Catechumens or Candidats of Baptism , to hear the readings of the Scripture , and stay till Praier began , but then depart . He was oblig'd to hear the terrors of the Lord , the threats of the divine Law against sin and sinners , to stand among the unbaptiz'd and heathen multitude , and learn again the elements of that holy Faith from which he had prevaricated ; and so in time be render'd capable of the devotions of the faithful , and afterward the reception of the Eucharist . But when the Scriptures were thought useless or dangerous to be understood and heard , it was consequent that the state of Audience should be cut off from Penance , and that the next to it , upon the self-same principle should be dismist : and so the long probation formerly requir'd should be supplanted ; and the compendious way of pardoning first , and repenting afterwards , the endless circle of sinning and being absolv'd , and then sinning and being absolv'd again , should prevail upon the Church . Which still obtains , notwithstanding the complaints , and irrefragable demonstrations of learned men even of the Romish Communion , who plainly shew this now receiv'd method , to be an innovation groundless and unreasonable , and most pernicious in its consequents . 9. AND , by the way , we may take notice that there cannot be a plainer evidence of the judgment of the Church , concerning the necessity of the Scriptures being known , not only by the learned but mean Christian , and the interest they have therein ; then is the ancient course of Penance , establisht by the practice of all the first Ages , and almost as many Councils , whether general or local , as have decreed any thing concerning disciplin ; with the penitentiary Books and Canons , which were written for the first eleven hundred years in the whole Christian world . For if even the unbaptiz'd Catechumen , and the lapst sinner , notwithstanding their slender knowledg in the mysteries of Faith , or frail pretence to the privilege thereof : had a right to the state of Audience , and was oblig'd to hear the Scripture read ; surely the meanest unobnoxious Laic , was in as advantagious circumstances , and might not only be trusted with the reading of those sacred Books , but might claim them as his birth-right . 10. I may justly , over and above what has bin hitherto alleg'd , impute to the Governors of the same Church , and their withholding from the Laity the holy Scripture ; the many dangerous errors , gross ignorances , and scandalous immoralities which have prevail'd among them both . It is no new method of divine vengeance , that there should be like people , like Priest , Hos. 4. 9. and that the Idol shepherd who led his flock into the ditch , should fall therein himself , Mat. 15. 14. And as the Prophet Zachary describes it , c. 11. 17. The sword shall be upon his arm , and upon his right eie : his arm shall be clean dried up , and his right eie shall be utterly darkned . 11. BUT no consequence can be more obviously deducible from that practice , then that men should justify the with-holding of the Scripture , by lessening its credit , and depreciating its worth : which has occasion'd those reproches which by the writers of the Church of Rome , of best note , have bin cast upon it . As that it was a Nose of wax , a leaden rule , a deaf and useless deputy to God in the office of a Judg ; of less autority then the Roman Church , and of no more credit then Esops Fables , but for the testimony of the said Church ; that they contain things apt to raise laughter or indignation , that the Latin Translation in the Complutensian Bible is placed between the Hebrew Text , and the Septuagint Version , as our Savior was at his Crucifixion between two thieves ; and that the vulgar Edition is of such autority that the Originals ought to be mended by it , rather then it should be mended from them : which are the complements of Cardinal Bellarmin , Hosius , Eckius , Perron , Ximenes , Coqueus , and others of that Communion : words to be answer'd by a Thunderbolt , and fitter for the mouth of a Celsus or a Porphyrie , then of the pious sons , and zealous Champions of the Church of Christ. 12. 'T IS to be expected that the Romanists should now wipe their mouths , and plead not guilty ; telling us that they permit the Scripture to the Laity in their mother Tongue : And to that purpose the Fathers of Rhemes and Doway have publisht an English Bible for those of their communion . I shall therefore give a short and plain account of the whole affair , as really it stands , and then on Gods name let the Romanist make the best of their Apology . 13. THE fourth rule of the Index of prohibited Books compos'd upon the command and auspice of the Council of Trent , and publish'd by the autority of Pius the fourth , Sixtus the fifth , and Clement the eighth , runs thus ; Since 't is manifest by experience , that if the holy Bible be suffer'd promiscuously in the vulgar Tongue , such is the temerity of men , that greater detriment then advantage will thence arise ; in this matter let the judgment of the Bishop or Inquisitor be stood to : that with the advice of the Curat or Confessor , they may give leave for the reading of the Bible in the vulgar Tongue , translated by Catholics , to such as they know will not receive damage , but increase of Faith and Piety thereby . Which faculty they shall have in writing ; and whosoever without such faculty shall presume to have or to read the Bible , he shall not till he have deliver'd it up , receive absolution of his sins . Now ( to pass over the iniquity of obliging men to ask leave to do that which God Almighty commands ) when 't is consider'd how few of the Laity can make means to the Bishop or Inquisitor , or convince them , or the Curat or Confessor , that they are such who will not receive damage , but encrease of Faith and Piety by the reading of the Scripture ; and also have interest to prevail with them for their favor herein : and after all can and will be at the charge of taking out the faculty , which is so penally requir'd : 't is easy to guess what thin numbers of the Laity are likely , or indeed capable of reaping benefit by this Indulgence pretended to be allowed them . 14. BUT , besides all this , what shall we say , if the power it self of giving Licences be a mere shew , and really signifies just nothing ? In the observation subjoin'd to this fourth rule it is declar'd , that the Impression and Edition thereof gives no new faculty to Bishops , or Inquisitors , or Superiors of regulars to grant Licences of buying , reading , or retaining Bibles publisht in a vulgar Tongue ; since hitherto by the command and practice of the holy Roman and universal Inquisition , the power of giving such faculties , to read or retain vulgar Bibles , or any parts of Scripture of the Old or New Testament , in any vulgar Tongue ; or also summaries , or historical compendiums of the said Bibles or Books of Scripture , in whatsoever Tongue they are written , has bin taken away . And sure if a Lay-man cannot read the Bible without a faculty , and it is not in any ones power to grant it ; 't will evidently follow that he cannot read it : And so the pretence of giving liberty , owns the shame of openly refusing it , but has no other effect or consequence . And if any Romanist among us , or in any other Protestant Country enjoies any liberty herein , 't is merely by connivance , and owed to a fear least the Votary would be lost , and take the Bible where it was without difficulty to be had , if strictness should be us'd . And should Popery , which God forbid , become paramount ; the Translations of the Scripture into our Mother Tongues , would be no more endur'd here , then they are in Spain : and they who have formerly bin wary in communicating the Scriptures ; remembring how thereby their errors have bin detected , would upon a revolution effectually provide for the future , and be sure to keep their people in an Egyptian darkness , that might it self be felt , but that allow'd the notices of no other object . They would not be content with that composition of the Ammonite , to thrust out all the right eies of those that submitted to them , 1 Sam. 11. 2. but would put out both ; as the Philistins did to Samson , that they might make their miserable captives for ever grind in their Mill , Jud. 16. 21. 15. BUT this heaviest of judgments will never fall upon the reform'd Churches , till by their vicious practice and contemt of the divine Law , they have deserted their profession ; and made themselves utterly unworthy of the blessings they enjoy , and the light of that Gospel which with noon-day brightness has shin'd among them . Upon which account , I suppose it may not be impertinent in the next place to subjoin som plain directions , and cautionary advices , concerning the use of these sacred Books . SECT . VIII . Necessary cautions to be us'd in the reading of the holy Scriptures . IT is a common observation : that the most generous and sprightly Medicins are the most unsafe ; if not appli'd with due care and regimen : And the remark holds as well in spiritual as corporal remedies . The Apostle asserts it upon his own experience , that the doctrin of the Gospel , which was to som the savor of life unto life , was to others the savor of death , 2 Cor. 2. 15. And the same effect that the oral Word had then , the written Word may have now ; not that either the one or the other have any thing in them that is of it self mortiferous , but becomes so by the ill disposition of the persons who so pervert it . It is therefore well worth our inquiry , what qualifications on our part are necessary to make the Word be to us what it is in it self , the power of God unto salvation , Rom. 1. 16. Of these som are previous before our reading , som are concomitant with it , and som are subsequent and follow after it . 2. OF those that go before , sincerity is a most essential requisit : by sincerity , I mean an upright intention , by which we direct our reading to that proper end for which the holy Scriptures were design'd ; viz. the knowing Gods will in order to the practicing it . This honest simplicity of heart is that which Christ represents by the good ground , where alone it was that the seed could fructify , Mat. 13. 8. And he that brings not this with him , brings only the shadow of a Disciple . The word of God , is indeed , sharper then a two-edged sword , Heb. 4. 12. but what impression can a sword make on a body of air ; which still slips from , and eludes its thrusts ? And as little can all the practical discourses of holy Writ make on him , who brings only his speculative faculties with him , and leaves his will and affections behind him ; which are the only proper subjects for it to work on . 3. To this we may probably impute that strange inefficaciousness we see of the Word . Alas , men rarely apply it to the right place : our most inveterat diseases lie in our morals ; and we suffer the Medicin to reach no farther then our intellects . As if he that had an ulcer in his bowels should apply all his balsoms and sanatives only to his head . 'T is true , the holy Scriptures are the tresuries of divine Wisdom ; the Oracles to which we should resort for saving knowledg : but they are also the rule and guide of holy Life : and he that covets to know Gods will for any purpose but to practice it , is only studious to entitle himself to the greater number of stripes , Luk. 12. 47. 4. NAY farther , he that affects only the bare knowledg , is oft disappointed even of that . The Scripture , like the Pillar of fire and cloud , enlightens the Israelites , those who sincerely resign themselves to its guidance ; but it darkens and confounds the Egyptians , Ex. 14. 20. And 't is frequently seen , that those who read only to become knowing , are toll'd on by their curiosity into the more abstruse and mysterious parts of Scripture , where they entangle themselves in inextricable mazes and confusions ; and instead of acquiring a more superlative knowledg , loose those easy and common notions which lie obvious to every plain well meaning Reader . I fear this Age affords too many , and too frequent instances of this ; in men who have lost God in the midst of his Word , and studied Scripture till they have renounc'd its Author . 5. AND sure this infatuation is very just , and no more then God himself has warn'd us of , who takes the wise in their own craftiness , Job . 5. 12. but appropriates his secrets only to them that fear him , and has promis'd to teach the meek his way , Psal. 25. 9. 14. And this was the method Christ observ'd in his preaching ; unveiling those truths to his Disciples , which to the Scribes and Pharisees , his inquisitive , yet refractory hearers , he wrapt up in parables : not that he dislik'd their desire of knowledg , but their want of sincerity : which is so fatal a defect as blasts our pursuits , tho of things in themselves never so excellent . This we find exemplifi'd in Simon Magus , Acts 8. who tho he coveted a thing in itself very desirable , the power of conferring the holy Ghost , yet desiring it not only upon undue conditions , but for sinister ends , he not only mist of that , but was ( after all his convincement by the Apostles miracles , and the engagement of his Baptism ) immerst in the gall of bitterness ; and at last advanc'd to that height of blasphemy , as to set up himself for a God ; so becoming a lasting memento , how unsafe it is to prevaricate in holy things . 6. BUT as there is a sincerity of the Will in order to practice , so there is also a sincerity of the understanding in order to belief ; and this is also no less requisit to the profitable reading of Scripture . I mean by this , that we come with a preparation of mind , to embrace indifferently , whatever God there reveles as the object of our Faith : that we bring our own opinions , not as the clue by which to unfold Scripture , but to be tried and regulated by it . The want of this has bin of very pernicious consequence in matters both of Faith and speculation . Men are commonly prepossest strongly with their own notions , and their errand to Scripture is not to lend them light to judg of them , but aids to back and defend them . 7. OF this there is no Book of controversy that do's not give notorious proof . The Socinian can easily over-look the beginning of Saint John , that saies , The Word was God , Jo. 1. 1. and all those other places which plainly assert the Deity of our Savior ; if he can but divert to that other more agreeable Text , that the Father is greater then I. Among the Romanists , Peters being said to be first among the Apostles , Mat. 10. 2 , and that on that Rock Christ would build his Church , Mat. 16. 18. carries away all attention from those other places where Saint Paul saies he was not behind the very chiefest of the Apostles , 2 Cor. 11. 5. that upon him lay the care of all the Churches , 2 Cor. 11. 28. and that the Church was not built upon the foundation of som one , but all the twelve Apostles , Revel . 21. 14. So it fares in the business of the Eucharist : This is my body , Mat. 26. 26. carries it away clear for Transubstantiation , when our Saviors calling that which he drunk the fruit of the vine , Mat. 26. 29. and then Saint Pauls naming the Elements in the Lords Supper several times over Bread and Wine ; The Bread that we break , is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ : the Cup that we bless , is it not the Communion , & 1 Cor. 10. 16. And again , He that eats this Bread , and drinks this Cup unworthily , &c. 1 Cor. 11. 29. can make no appearance of an Argument . 8. THUS men once engag'd ransac for Texts that carry som correspondency to the opinions they have imbibed ; and those how do they rack and scrue to bring to a perfect conformity ; and improve every little probability into a demonstration ? On the other side , the contrary Texts they look on as enemies , and consider them no farther then to provide fences and guards against them : So they bring Texts not into the scales to weigh , but into the field to skirmish , as Partizans and Auxiliaries of such or such opinions . 9. BY this force of prepossession it is , that that sacred Rule , which is the mesure and standard of all rectitude , is it self bow'd and distorted to countenance and abet the most contrary tenets : and like a variable picture , represents differing shapes according to the light in which you view it . And sure we cannot do it a worse office then to represent it thus dissonant to it self . Yet thus it must still be till men come unbiast to the reading of it . And certainly there is all the reason in the world they should do so : the ultimate end of our faith is but the salvation of our souls , 1 Pet. 1. 9. and we may be sure the Scripture can best direct us what Faith it is which will lead us to that end . 10. WHY should we not then have the same indifference which a traveller hath , whether his way lie on this hand or that ; so as it be the direct road to his journies end ? For altho it be infinitly material that I embrace right principles , yet 't is not so that this should be right rather then the other : and our wishes that it should be so , proceed only from our prepossessions and fondness of our own conceptions , then which nothing is more apt to intercept the clear view of truth . It therefore nearly concerns us to deposit them , and to give up our selves without reserve to the guidance of Gods Word , and give it equal credit when it thwarts , as when it complies with our own notions . 11. WITHOUT this , tho we may call Scripture the rule of Faith , and judg of controversies ; yet 't is manifest we make it not so , but reserve still the last appeal to our own prejudicat phancies : and then no wonder , tho we fall under the same occaecation which our Savior upbraids to the Jews , that seeing , we see not , neither do we understand , Mat. 13. 14. For he that will not be sav'd Gods way , will hardly be so by his own . He that resolves not impartially to embrace all the Scriptures dictats , comes to them as unsincerely , as the remnant of the Jews did to Jeremiah to inquire of the Lord for them , which he no sooner had don , but they protest against his message , Jer. 42. 20. and may expect as fatal an event . 12. BUT there are a set of men who deal yet more insincerely with the Word ; that read it insidiously : on purpose to collect matter of objection and cavil : that with a malicious diligence compare Texts in hope to find contradictions ; and read attentively , but to no other end then to remark incoherences and defects in the stile : which when they think they have started , they have their design ; and never will use a quarter of the same diligence in considering how they may be solv'd , or consulting with those who may assist them in it . For I think I may appeal to the generality of those who have rais'd the loudest clamors against the Scripture , whether they have endeavor'd to render themselves competent judges of it by inquiring into the Originals , or informing themselves of those local Customs , peculiar Idioms , and many other circumstances , by which obscure Texts are to be clear'd . And tho I do not affirm it necessary to salvation that every man should do this ; yet I may affirm it necessary to him that will pretend to judg of the Bible : and he that without this condems it , do's it as manifest injury , as a Judg that should pass sentence only upon the Indictment , without hearing the defence . 13. AND certainly there cannot be any thing more unmanly and disingenuous , then for men to inveigh and condemn before they inquire and examin . Yet this is the thing upon which so many value themselves , assuming to be men of reason , for that for which the Scripture pronounces them brute beasts , viz. the speaking evil of those things they understand not , 2 Pet. 2. 12. Would men use due diligence , no doubt many of those seeming contradictions would be reconcil'd , and the obscurities clear'd : and if any should after all remain , he might find twenty things fitter to charge it on , then want of verity or discourse in the inspir'd writers . 14. ALAS what human writing is there of near that Antiquity , wherein there are not many passages unintelligible ? And indeed , unless modern times knew all those national customs , obsolete Laws , particular Rites and Ceremonies , Phrases and proverbial Sayings , to which such ancient Books refer , 't is impossible but som passages must remain obscure . Yet in these we ordinarily have so much candor , as to impute their unintelligibleness to our own ignorance of those things which should clear them , the improprieties of stile , to the variation that times make in dialects , or to the errors of Scribes , and do not presently exclame against the Authors as false or impertinent , or discard the whole Book for som such passages . 15. AND sure what allowances we make to other Books , may with more reason be made to the Bible ; which having bin writ so many Ages since , past thro infinit variety of hands , and ( which is above all ) having bin the object of the Devils , and wicked mens malice , lies under greater disadvantages then any human composure : And doubtless men would be as equitable to that as they are to others , were it not that they more wish to have that false or irrational then any other Book . The plain parts of it , the precepts and threatnings speak clearer then they desire , gall and fret them ; and therefore they will revenge themselves upon the obscurer : and seem angry that there are som things they understand not , when indeed their real displesure is at those they do . 16. A second qualification preparatory to reading the Scripture is reverence . When we take the Bible in our hands , we should do it with other sentiments and apprehensions then when we take a common Book ; considering that it is the word of God , the instrument of our salvation ; or upon our abuse of it a promoter of our ruin . 17. AND sure this if duly apprehended . cannot but strike us with a reverential awe . make us to say with Jacob , Gen. 28. 17. surely God is in this place ; controle all trifling phancies , and make us read , not for custom or divertisement , but with those solemn and holy intentions which become the dignity of its Author . Accordingly we find holy men have in all Ages bin affected with it , and som to the inward reverence of the mind , have join'd the outward of the body also , and never read it but upon their knees : an example that may both instruct and reproach our profaness ; who commonly read by chance , and at aventure : If a Bible happen in our way , we take it up as we would do a Romance , or Play-book ; only herein we differ , that we dismiss it much sooner , and retain less of its impressions . 18 IT was a Law of Numa , that no man should meddle with divine things , or worship the Gods , in passing , or by accident , but make it a set and solemn business . And every one knows with how great ceremony and solemnity the heathen Oracles were consulted . How great a shame is it then for Christians to defalk that reverence from the true God , which heathens allow'd their false ones ? 19. NOW this proceeds somtimes from the want of that habitual reverence we should alwaies have to it as Gods word , and somtimes from want of actual exciting it , when we go to read : for if the habit lie only dormant in us , and be not awak'd by actual consideration , it avails us as little in our reading , as the habitual strength of a man do's towards labor , when he will not exert it for that end . 20. WE ought therefore , as to make it our deliberat choice to read Gods word ; so when we do it , to stir up our selves to those solemn apprehensions of its dignity and autority , as may render us malleable , and apt to receive its impressions : for where there is no reverence , 't is not to be expected there should be any genuine or lasting obedience . 21. SAINT Austin in his Tract to Honoratus , of the advantage of believing , makes the first requisit to the knowledg of the Scriptures to be the love of them . Believe me , saies he , every thing in the Scripture is sublime and divine , its truth and doctrin are most accommodate to the refreshment , and building up of our minds : and in all respects so order'd , that every one may draw thence what is sufficient for him ; provided he approach it with devotion , piety , and religion . The proof of this may require much reasoning and discourse . But this I am first to perswade , that you do not hate the Authors , and then that you love them . Had we an ill opinion of Virgil , nay , if upon the account of the reputation he has gain'd with our Predecessors , we did not greatly love , before we understood him ; we should never patiently go thro all the difficult questions Grammarians raise about him . Many employ themselves in commenting upon him ; we esteem him most , whose exposition most commends the Book , and shews that the Author , not only was free from error , but did excellently well where he is not understood . And if such an account happen not to be given , we impute it rather to the Interpreter then the Poet. 22. THUS the good Father ; whose words I have transcrib'd at large , as being remarkable to the present purpose ; he also shews that the mind of no Author is to be learnt from one averse to his doctrin : as that 't is vain to enquire of Aristotles Books from one of a different Sect : Or of Archimedes from Epicurus : the discourse will be as displeasing as the speaker ; and that shall be esteem'd absurd , which comes from one that is envi'd or despis'd . 23. A third preparative to our reading should be praier . The Scripture as it was dictated at first by the holy Spirit , so must still owe its effects and influence to its cooperation . The things of God , the Apostle tells us , are spiritually discern'd , 1 Cor. 2. 14. And tho the natural man may well enough apprehend the letter , and grammatical sense of the Word ; yet its power and energy , that insinuative perswasive force whereby it works on hearts , is peculiar to the spirit ; and therefore without his aids , the Scripture whilst it lies open before our eies , may still be as a Book that is seal'd , Esai . 29. 11. be as ineffective as if the characters were illegible . 24. BESIDES our Savior tells us the devil is still busy to steal away the seed as soon as it is sown , Mat. 13. 17. And unless we have som better guard then our own vigilance , he is sure enough to prosper in his attemt . Let it therefore be our care to invoke the divine Aid ; and when ever we take the Bible into our hands , to dart up at least a hearty ejaculation , that we may find its effects in our hearts . Let us say with holy David , open thou mine eies O Lord , that I may see the wondrous things of thy Law. Blessed art thou O Lord , O teach me thy statutes , Ps. 119. Nay indeed 't wil be fit matter of a daily solemn devotion , as our Church has made it an annual in the Collect on the second Sunday in Advent : a praier so apt and fully expressive of what we should desire in this particular , that if we transcribe not only the example , but the very words , I know not how we can form that part of our devotion more advantageously . 25. IN the second place we are to consider what is requir'd of us at the time of reading the Scripture ; which consists principally in two things . The first of these is attention , which is so indispensably requisit , that without it all Books are alike , and all equally insignificant : for he that adverts not to the sense of what he reads , the wisest discourses signify no more to him , then the most exquisit music do's to a man perfectly deaf . The letters and syllables of the Bible are no more sacred then those of another Book ; 't is the sense and meaning only that is divinely inspir'd : and he that considers only the former , may as well entertain himself with a spelling-book . 26. WE must therefore keep our minds fixt and attent to what we read : 't is a folly and lightness not to do so in human Authors ; but 't is a sin and danger not to do so in this divine Book . We know there can scarce be a greater instance of contemt and disvalue , then to hear a man speak , and not at all mind what he saies : yet this vilest affront do all those put upon God , who hear or read his Word , and give it no attention . Yet I fear the practice is not more impious then it is frequent : for there are many that read the Bible , who if at the end of each Chapter they should be call●d to account , I doubt they could produce very slender collections : and truly 't is a sad consideration , that that sacred Book is read most attentively by those , who read it as som preach the Gospel , Phil. 1. 15. out of ●●vy and strife . How curiously do men inspect , nay ransac and embowel a Text to find a pretence for cavil and objection , whilst men who profess to look there for life and salvation . read with such a retchless heedlesness , as if it could tell them nothing they were concern'd in : and to such 't is no wonder if their reading bring no advantage . God is not in this sense found of those that seek him not , Esai . 65. 1. 't is Satans part to serve himself of the bare words and characters of holy Writ , for charms and amulets : the vertue God has put there consists in the sense and meaning , and can never be drawn out by drousy inadverting Readers . 27. THIS unattentiveness fore-stalls all possibility of good . How shall that convince the understanding , or perswade the affections , which do's not so much as enter the imagination . So that in this case the seed seems more cast away then in any of those instances the parable gives , Mat. 13. In those it still fell upon the soil , but in this it never reaches that ; but is scatter'd and dissipated , as with a mighty wind , by those thoughts which have prepossess'd the mind . Let no man therefore take this sacred Book into his hand , till he have turn'd out all distracting phancies , and have his faculties free and vacant for those better objects which will there present themselves . And when he has so dispos'd himself for attention , then let him contrive to improve that attention to the best advantage . 28. To which purpose it may be very conducive to put it into som order and method . As for instance , when he reads the doctrinal part of Scripture , let him first and principally advert to those plain Texts which contain the necessary points of Faith : that he may not owe his Creed only to his education , the institution of his Parents or Tutors ; but may know the true foundation on which it is bottom'd , viz. the word of God , and may thence be able to justify his Faith : and as Saint Peter exhorts , be ready to give an answer to every man that asks him a reason of the hope that is in him , 1 Pet. 3. 15. For want of this it is , that Religion sits so loose upon men , that every wind of doctrin blows them into distinct and various forms ; till at last their Christianity it self vapors away and disappears . 29. BUT let men be careful thus to secure the foundation , and then 't will be commendable in them ( who are capable of it ) to aspire to higher degrees of speculation ; yet even in these it will be their safest course chiefly to pursue such as have the most immediat influence on practice , and be more industrious to make observations of that sort , then curious and critical remarks , or bold conjectures upon those mysteries on which God has spread a veil . 30. BUT besides a mans own particular collections , it will be prudence in him to advantage himself of those of others , and to consult the learned'st and best expositors ; and that not only upon a present emergency , when he is to dispute a point , ( as most do ) but in the constant course of this reading , wherein he will most sedatly , and dispassionatly judg of the notions they offer . 31. AS to the choice of the portions of Scripture to be read in course , tho I shall not condemn that of reading the whole Bible in order , yet 't is apparent that som parts of it ( as that of the Levitical Law ) are not so aptly accommodated to our present state , as others are ; and consequently not so edificatory to us : and therefore I cannot see why any man should oblige himself to an equal frequency in reading them . And to this our Church seems to give her suffrage ; by excluding such out of her public Lessons . And if we govern our privat reading by her mesures , it will well express our deference to her judgment ; who has selected som parts of Scripture , not that she would keep her children in ignorance of any , but because they tend most immediatly to practice . 32. NEITHER will the daily reading the Scripture in the rubricks order , hinder any man from acquainting himself with the rest . For he may take in the other parts as supernumeraries to his constant task , and read them as his leisure and inclination shall promt . So that all the hurt that can accrue to him by this method , is the being invited to read somtimes extraordinary proportions . 33. IF it be objected , that to those who daily hear the Church Service , 't will be a kind of tautology , first to read those Lessons in privat , which soon after they shall hear read publicly , I answer that whatever men may please to call it , 't will really be an advantage : For he that shall read a chapter by himself with due consideration , and consulting of good Paraphrasts , will have div'd so far into the sense of it , that he will much better comprehend it when he hears it read : as on the other side , the hearing it read so immediatly after will serve to confirm and rivet the sense in his mind . The one is as the conning , the other the repeating the Lesson ; which every Schole-boy can tell us is best don at the nearest distance to each other . But I shall not contend for this , or any particular method ; let the Scripture be read in proportion to every mans leisure and capacity , and read with attention ; and we need not be scrupulous about circumstances , when the main duty is secur'd . 34. BUT as in the doctrinal , so in the preceptive part , there is a caution to be us'd in our attention . For we are to distinguish between those temporary precepts that were adapted to particular times and occasions , and such as are of perpetual obligation . He that do's not this may bring himself under the Jewish Law , or believe a necessity of selling all and giving it to the poor because 't was Christs command to the rich man , Mat. 19. or incur other considerable mischiefs . 35. THUS frequently commands are put in comprehensive indefinite words , but concern only the Generality to whom the Law is written ; and not those who are entrusted with the vindication of their contemt . Accordingly 'tis said , thou shalt not kill , Mark. 10. 19. which concerns the private person ; but extends not to the Magistrate in the execution of his office , who is a revenger appointed by God , and hears not the sword in vain . Rom. 13. 4. So the injunction not to swear at all , Mat. 5. 34 refers to the common transactions of life ; but not those solemn occasions where an oath is to give glory to God , and is the end of all strife , Heb. 9. 16. Yet these mistakes at this day prevail with Anabaptists and Quakers , and bottom their denial of the Magistrates power to protect his Subjects by war ; and to determin differences in Peace , by the oath of witnesses in judicial proceedings . 36. THERE is another distinction we are to attend to ; and that is between absolute and primary commands , and secundary ones : the former we are to set a special remark upon , as those upon whose observance or violation our eternal life or death inseparably depends . And therefore our first and most solicitous care must be concerning them . I mention this , not to divert any from aspiring to the highest degrees of perfection : but to reprove that preposterous course many take , who lay the greatest weight upon those things on which God laies the least ; and have more zeal for oblique intimations , then for express downright commands ; nay think by the one to commute for the contemt of the other . For example , fasting is recommended to us in Scripture , but in a far lower key then moral duties : rather as an expedient and help to vertue , then as properly a vertue it self . And yet we may see men scrupulous in that , who startle not at injustice , and oppression ( that clamorous sin that cries to heaven ) who pretend to mortify their appetites by denying it its proper food , or being luxurious in one sort of it ; and yet glut their avarice , eat up the poor , and devour widows houses , Mat. 23. 37. To such as these 't would be good advice to fix their attention on the absolute commands , to study moral honesty , and the essentials of Christianity ; to make a good progress there , and do what God indispensably requires : and then it may be seasonable to think of voluntary oblations : but till then they are so far from homage , that they are the most reprochful flattery ; an attemt to bribe God against himself ; and a sacrilege , like that of Dionysius ; who took away Apollo's golden robe , and gave him a stuff one . 38. THE second thing requisit in our reading is application : this is the proper end of our attention : and without this we may be very busy to very little purpose . The most laborious attention without it , puts us but in the condition of those poor slaves that labor in the mines : who with infinit toil dig that ore of which they shall never partake . If therefore we will appropriate that rich tresure , we must apply , and so make it our own . 39. LET us then at every period of holy Writ , reflect and look on our selves as the persons spoke to . When we find Philip giving baptism to the Eunuch upon this condition that he believe with all his heart , Act. 8. let us consider that unless we do so ; our baptism ( like a thing surreptitiously obtain'd ) conveis no title to us ; will avail us nothing . 40. WHEN we read our Saviours denunciation to the Jews , except ye repent , ye shall all likewise perish ; Lu. 13. 5. we are to look on it as if addrest immediatly to our selves ; and conclude as great a necessity of our repentance . In those black catalogues of crimes which the Apostle mentions , 1 Cor. 6. 10. and Gal. 5. 19 , 20 , 21. as excluding from the Kingdom of heaven , we are to behold our own guilts arraign'd , and to resolve that the same crimes will as certainly shut heaven gates against us , as those to whom those Epistles were immediatly directed . In all the precepts of good life , and Christian vertue , we are to think our selves as nearly and particularly concern'd , as if we had bin Christs Auditors on the Mount. So proportionably in all the threats and promises we are either to tremble or hope , according as we find our selves adhere to those sins or vertues to which they are affixt . 41. THIS close application would render what we read operative and effective , which without it will be useless and insignificant . We may see an instance of it in David ; who was not at all convinc'd of his own guilt by Nathans parable ( tho the most apposite that was imaginable ) till he roundly appli'd it , saying , thou art the man : 2 Sam. 12. And unless we treat our selves at the same rate , the Scripture may fill our heads with high notions , nay with many speculative truths , which yet amounts to no more then the Devils theology , Ja. 2. 19. and will as little advantage us . 42. IT now remains that we speak of what we are to do after our reading ; which may be summ'd up in two words : Recollect and practice . Our memories are very frail as to things of this nature . And therefore we ought to impress them as deep as we can , by reflecting on what we have read . It is an observation out of the Levitical Law , that those beasts only were clean , and fit for sacrifice , that chew'd the cud , Lev. 11. 4. And tho the ceremony were Jewish , the moral is Christian , and admonishes us how we should revolve and ruminate on spiritual instructions . Without this what we hear or read slips insensibly from us , and like letters writ in chalk , is wip●t out by the next succeeding thought : but recollection engraves and indents the characters in the mind . And he that would duly use it , would find other manner of impressions ; more affective and more lasting , then bare reading will leave . 43. WE find it thus in all Sciences : he that only reads over the rules , and laies aside the thoughts of them together with his Book , will make but a slow advance ; whilest he that plods and studies upon them , repetes and reinforces them upon his mind , soon arrives to an eminency . By this it was that David attain'd to that perfection in Gods Law as to out-strip his teachers , and understand more then the Ancients , Ps. 119. 99 , 100. because it was his meditation as himself tells us , ver . 97 , 99. 44. LET us therefore pursue the same method ; and when we have read a portion of Scripture , let us recollect what observable things we have there met with : what exhortations to vertue , or determents from vice ; what promises to obedience , or menaces for the contrary : what examples of Gods vengeance against such or such sins , or what instances of his blessing upon duties . If we do this daily , we cannot but amass together a great stock of Scripture documents , which will be ready for us to produce upon every occasion . Satan can assault us no where , but we shall be provided of a guard , a Scriptum est ; which we see was the sole armor the captain of our salvation us'd in his encounter with him . Mat. 4. ver . 4 , 7 , and 10. and will be as successful to us , if we will duly manage it . 45. THE last thing requir'd as consequent to our reading , is practice . This is the ultimate end , to which all the fore-going qualifications are directed . And if we fail here , the most assiduous diligence in all the former will be but lost labor . Let us mean never so well , attend never so close , recollect never so exactly ; if after all we do not practise , all the rest will serve but to enhance our guilt . Christianity is an active Science , and the Bible was given us not merely for a theme of speculation , but for a rule of life . 46. And alas , what will it avail us that our opinions are right , if our manners be crooked ? When the Scripture has shew'd us what God requires of us , nay , has evinc'd to us the reasonableness of the injunctions , the great agreeableness which they have to the excellency of our nature : and has backt this with the assurance that in keeping of them there shall be a great reward , Ps. 19. 11. if in the midst of such importunate invitations to life we will chuse death ; we are indeed worthy , as the wise man speaks , to take part with it , Wis. 1. 16. our crimes are hereby increas'd to a monstrous bulk , and also depriv'd of that veil and shelter which darkness and ignorance would have given them . And a vicious Christian may have cause at the last day to wish that he had studied the Alcoran rather then the Bible . His sensualities might then have pleaded , that they were but the anticipating his Paradice , taking up that before hand , which his Religion propos'd to him as his summum bonum , his final and highest aim . But with what confusion must a Christian then appear , whose institution obliges him to mortify the slesh : and yet has made it the business of his life , not only to satisfy , but even to enrage , and enflame its appetites ? that has set up a counter-discipline to that of the Gospel he professes ; and when that requires austerities and self-denials , to reduce corrupt nature to a tameness and subjection ; has not only pull'd off the bridle , but us'd the spur ; contriv'd Arts to debauch even corruption it self ; and has forc'd his relucting nature upon studied and artificial leudness ? Such men may be thought to have read the Scripture with no other design but to be sure to run counter to it ; that by informing themselves of Gods will , they may know the more exactly how to affront and contradict it . 47. NAY , so it is , too many unto malice add contemt ; are not content only sullenly to resist its Precepts , but despise and revile them also ; arraign the wisdom of God , and pronounce the divine Laws to be weak and impertinent ; lay their Scenes of ridiculous mirth in the Bible ; rally in the sacred Dialect , and play the Buffoons with the most serious thing in the world . An impious licentiousness which is now grown to that height , that it is one of the wonders of Gods long-suffering , that there are not as many eminent instances of the vengeance , as there are of the guilt . I have formerly complain'd of it , and must still crave leave to do so . It is indeed so spreading an infection , that we can never be sufficiently arm'd against it . Som degrees of it have tainted many who have not utterly renounc'd their reverence for the Bible : there being those who in their solemn moods own it as Gods word and profess they must finally stand or fall by its verdict ; who yet in their jocular humors make light and irreverent applications of its phrases and sentences , furnish out their little jests in its attire , and use it as if they thought it good for nothing else . 48. AND certainly this abuse in men that own the Bible , is infinitly more monstrous then in those who defy it : the later look on it as a common thing , and use it as such : but for those who confess it sacred , thus to prostitute it , is a flat contradiction as much against the rules of Discourse as Religion : 't is to offer the same abuse to Christ in his Word , which the rude soldiers did to his person ; to bow the knee before it , and yet expose it as an object of scorn and laughter . But sure there cannot be two things more inconsistent , then the avowing it to be dictated by God in order to the most important concern of man , and yet debase it to the vilest purposes ; make it the drudg and hackney to our sportful humors , and bring it out as the Philistims did Samson , only to make us merry , Jud. 16. 25. 49. INDEED one would wonder how that should become a proper instrument for that purpose , that those doctrins of righteousness , temperance and judgment to come ( every where scatter'd thro that Book ) which set heathen Felix a trembling , should set Christians a laughing : and yet should men cite the same things and phrases out of another Author , there would be no jest in it . It seems therefore that the spirit and essence of this sort of wit lies in the profaneness . How absurd is it then for men that do not utterly abjure Religion , to affect this impious sort of raillery , which has nothing but daring wickedness to recommend it ? For certainly , of all the waies of discourse that ever pretended to wit , this has the least claim to it . 50. WHAT strength of reason , or height of phancy is there , in repeting of phrases and fragments of Books , when what they would say , they might much more properly express in their own words ? In any other instance but this of the Bible , it would pass rather for a defect then an excess of wit. But that which I suppose renders it so taking , is , that it is the cheapest expedient for men to arrive to that reputation . Men that cannot go to the cost of any thing that is truly ingenious , can by this means immediatly commence wits ; if they can but charge their memories with half a dozen Texts , they need no other furniture for the trade : these mangled and transposed , will be ready at all turns , and render them applauded by those who have no other mesure of wit , but its opposition to Piety . But would God , men would look a little before them , and consider what the final reckoning will be for such divertisements ; and if the whole world be an unequal exchange for a soul , what a miserable Merchant is he that barters his for a bald insipid jest ? such as a sober man would avoid were there no sin in it . 51. I know men are apt to flatter themselves , that these lighter frolics will pass for nothing , so long as they do not seriously and maliciously oppose Gods word : but I fear they will find God in earnest , tho they be in jest . He that has magnified his Word above all things , Psal. 138. 2. cannot brook that we should make it vile and cheap , play and dally with it . And if it were a capital crime to convert any of the perfume of the Sanctuary to common use , Ex. 30. 32. can we think God can be pleas'd to see his more sacred Word , the theme of our giddy mirth , and have his own words echoed to him in profane drollery ? 52. BUT besides 't is to be consider'd that this wanton liberty is a step to the more solemn and deliberate contemt of Gods word : custom do's strangely prescribe to us ; and he that a while has us'd any thing irreverently , will at last bring his practice into argument , and conclude that there is no reverence due to it . God knows we are naturally too apt to slight and easy apprehensions of sacred things ; and had need to use all Arts and Instruments to impress an awe upon our minds . 53. IT will sure then be very unsafe for us to trifle with them , and by so undue a familiarity draw on that contemt which we should make it our care to avoid . The wise man saies , he that contemns small things , shall fall by little and little , Eccl. 19. 1. And tho no degree of irreverence towards God or his Word , can be call'd a small thing absolutely consider'd , yet comparatively with the more exorbitant degrees it may : and yet that smaller is the seed and parent of the greatest . It is so in all sins ; the kingdom of Satan , like that of God , may be compard ' to a grain of mustard seed , Mat. 13. 31. which tho little in it self , is mighty in its increase . 54. No man ever yet began at the top of villany , but the advance is still gradual from one degree to another ; each commission smoothing and glibbing the way to the next . He that accustoms in his ordinary discourse , to use the sacred Name of God with as little sentiment and reverence , as he do's that of his neighbor or servant ; that makes it his common by-word , and cries Lord and God upon every the lightest occasion of exclamation or wonder , this man has a very short step to the using it in oaths , and upon all frivolous occasions ; and he that swears vainly , is at no great distance from swearing falsely . It is the same in this instance of the Scriptures : He that indulges his wit to rally with them , will soon come to think them such tame things that he may down-right scorn them : And when he is arriv'd to that , then he must pick quarrels to justify it , till at last he arrive even to the height of enmity . 55. LET every man therefore take heed of setting so much as one step in this fatal circle ; guard himself against the first insinuation of this guilt : and when a jest offers it self as a temtation , let him balance that with a sober thought , and consider whether the jest can quit the cost of the profanation . Let him possess his mind with an habitual awe , take up the Bible with solemner thoughts , and other kind of apprehensions then any human Author : and if he habituate himself to this reverence , every clause and phrase of it that occurs to his mind , will be apter to excite him to devout ejaculations then vain laughter . 56. IT is reported of our excellent Prince , King Edward the sixth ; that when in his Council Chamber , a Paper that was call'd for happen'd to lie out of reach , and the Person concern'd to produce it , took a Bible that lay by , and standing upon it reacht down the Paper : the King observing what was don , ran himself to the place , and taking the Bible in his hands , kissed it , and laid it up again . Of this it were a very desirable moral , that Princes , and all persons in autority , would take care not to permit any to raise themselves by either a hypocritical or profane trampling upon holy things . But besides that , a more general application offers its self ; that all men of what condition soever , should both themselves abstain from every action that has the appearance of a contemt of the holy Scripture ; and also when they observe it in others , discountenance the insolence : and by their words and actions give Testimony of the veneration which they have for that holy Book , they see others so wretchedly despise . 57. BUT above all let him who reads the Scripture seriously , set himself to the practice of it , and daily examin how he proceeds in it : he that diligently do's this , will not be much at leisure to sport with it : he will scarce meet with a Text which will not give him cause of reflection , and provide him work within his own brest : every duty injoin'd will promt him to examin how he has perform'd ; every sin forbid , will call him to recollect how guilty he has bin , every pathetic strain of devotion will kindle his zeal , or at least upbraid his coldness : every heroic example will excite his emulation . In a word , every part of Scripture will , if duly appli'd , contribute to som good and excellent end . And when a thing is proper for such noble purposes , can it be the part of a wise man to apply it only to mean and trivial ? Would any but an Idiot wast that Soveraign Liquor in the washing of his feet , which was given him to expel poison from his heart ? And are not we guilty of the like folly when we apply Gods word to serve only a ludicrous humor : and make our selves merry with that which was design'd for the most serious and most important purpose ; the salvation of our souls . And indeed who ever takes any lower aim then that , and the vertues preparatory to it in his study of Scripture , extremely debases it . 58. LET us therefore keep a steady eie upon that mark , and press towards it as the Apostle did ; Phil. 3. 14. walk by that rule the holy Scripture proposes ; faithfully and diligently observe its precepts , that we may finally partake its promises . To this end continually pray we in the words of our holy mother the Church unto Almighty God , who has caus'd all holy Scripture to be written for our learning ; that we may in such wise hear them , read , mark , learn , and inwardly digest them , that by patience and comfort of his holy Word , we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting Life , which he has given in our Savior Jesus Christ. THE CONTENTS . SECTION . Sect. 1. The several methods of Gods communicating the knowledg of himself . Pag. 1. Sect. 2. The divine Original , Endearments , and Autority of the Holy Scripture . p. 9. Sect. 3. The Subject Matter treated of in the holy Scripture is excellent , as is also its end and design . p. 63. Sect. 4. The Custody of the holy Scripture is a privilege and right of the Christian Church , and every member of it , which cannot without impiety to God , and injustice unto it and them , be taken away or empeacht . p. 123. Sect. 5. The Scripture has great propriety and fitness toward the attainment of its excellent end . p. 145. Sect. 6. The suffrage of the primitive Christian Church , concerning the propriety and fitness which the Scripture has , toward the attainment of its excellent end . p. 165. Sect. 7. Historical reflexions upon the events which have happen'd in the Church , since the with-drawing of the holy Scripture . p. 180. Sect. 8. Necessary Cautions to be us'd in the reading of the holy Scripture . p. 193. FINIS . 
A28981	----	A free discourse against customary swearing ; and, A dissuasive from cursing by Robert Boyle ; published by John Williams. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1695 Approx. 143 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 94 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A28981 Wing B3978 ESTC R27221 09722010 ocm 09722010 44037 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A28981) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 44037) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1350:14) A free discourse against customary swearing ; and, A dissuasive from cursing by Robert Boyle ; published by John Williams. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. Williams, John, 1636?-1709. 178 p. in various pagings. Printed by R.R. for Thomas Cockerill Senr and Junr, London : 1695. "A dissuasive from cursing" (30 p. at end) probably not by Boyle. cf. Brit. mus. Cat. and Fulton, J.F. A bibliography of the Honourable Robert Boyle, p. 135. Reproduction of original in the Cambridge University Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Swearing. Blessing and cursing. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-05 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-07 Jonathan Blaney Sampled and proofread 2006-07 Jonathan Blaney Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A FREE DISCOURSE AGAINST Customary Swearing . AND A DISSUASIVE FROM CURSING . By the late Honourable ROBERT BOYLE . Published by John Williams , D. D. LONDON : Printed by R. R. for Thomas Cockerill , Sen r and Jun r , at the Three Legs in the Poultrey , over-against Stocks-Market . MDCXCV . portrait of Robert Boyle IMPRIMATUR . April 13. 1695. Guil. Lancaster . To the Right Honourable RICHARD Earl of Burlington and Cork , Lord High Treasurer of Ireland . AND The HONOURABLE Sir Henry Ashhurst , Baronet ; Executors to the Honourable Robert Boyle , Esquire . IT has been an Injury too often done to the Memory of Persons eminent for Knowledge , Learning , and Virtue , to have after their Death such Works obtruded upon the World for theirs , as have been deservedly suspected ; or if theirs , yet were never intended by them in that squalid , broken , and imperfect condition , to have been published . But as for this Tract you were pleased to put into my hands to peruse , it is not only certain that it was Wrote by the Honourable Person whose Name it bears ; but also that it was designed by him for the Press ; as some Passages in it do apparently shew . And if this Noble and Learned Author thought it seasonable for those Times of Uncontroul'd Liberty and Confusion in which it was wrote , it is as seasonable , if not more , at the present ; when that Vice against which it is directed , has of late Years so far prevail'd , to the great Dishonour of our Nation , as well as our Religion , that the Patriots of our Countrey assembled in Parliament , have been thereby justly provok'd to prepare that late Bill ( which since has pass'd the Royal Assent ) for the better and more effectual Punishment and Suppression of it . A Design becoming so August an Assembly ; and in the Prosecution of which your Honours must be esteemed to have done considerable Service , especially by the Publication of this Treatise , which has been so happily recovered , and by a singular Providence reserved , as it were , for such a special Season and Service . I am , Most Honoured , Your most Humble and Faithful Servant , JOHN WILLIAMS . THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER . THESE Two Tracts against Customary Swearing and Cursing , lately met with amongst the Papers of a Person of Quality , and an intimate Acquaintance of the Honourable Mr. Robert Boyle , Transcribed by his own Hand ; were found upon Perusal , Perfect and Fitted for the Press ; except the Close of a Dedicatory Epistle to his Noble Sister , the Countess of Kildare , which ( as far as appears by the Copy ) he had but just begun . The Year inserted on the Title Page , as well as a passage or two in the former of these , shews that it was Penned toward the latter end of the late Vnhappy Times , when he was about Twenty Years Old ; by which time ( if I am not mistaken ) this was the Third Treatise he had prepared for the Publick ; the other Two being that of Seraphick Love , afterwards Printed , and An Essay of Mistaken Modesty , referred to in this . I cannot say ( though there is a sensible Conformity between the Style of these and others of his Books ) but that this Honourable Author , if he had been to write ▪ upon this Argument in his Riper Years , might have given it a finer Turn ; and added , out of his vast store of Learning and Thought , much to the weight and force of it . But there is in the management of it , such a strain of Modesty and unaffected Piety , such an affectionate Zeal for the Honour of Almighty God , and such a passionate concernment for the Well-doing and Happiness of those of his Acquaintance , for whose use this seems more especially designed ; and in fine , so much Truth , Reason , and Observation ( as the Pleas and Excuses here undertaken and answered shew ) that must above all recommend it to such as have his Name in Remembrance and Veneration . A Name , methinks , better than that of Sons and of Daughters , than that of Blood and Descent ; and that should provoke those of Eminent Extraction and Station , to an Imitation of so Worthy and Glorious an Example . What happy Instruments might they then be of Good to Mankind , by their wise Conduct and their exemplary Vertues ! What a restraint would this lay , above that of Laws , on their Dependants and Inferiors ! For how would such dare to offend , that are sure to find no Countenance or Protection ? And what Protection or Countenance could they expect from their Superiors , whose Lives would be a continual Reproof , and where they could find no more a President , than they do a Law to encourage them in their wicked Oaths and Blasphemies . To bring these Vices into disparagement , and to represent the Folly , as well as the Sin of them to the better-bred part of Mankind , was the Generous and Pious Design of this Learned Author ; and of those Honourable Persons , that from their Relation to him by Blood or Friendship , have been concerned in the Publication . Toward the utter Extermination of which amongst us , there seems to be , as human means , nothing more necessary than the Vigilance of our Magistrates , who are now as well and fully Empowered , as obliged by the Law to see to the Punishment of it ; and for the due Execution of which , they will most certainly have the good Wishes , Assistance , and Prayers of all Good men ; and which is more than all , the Blessing and Rewards of Heaven . I have only this to add , That the Second Tract , or Letter , seems to proceed from the same Hand with the First , being agreeable to it in the Stile as well as the Design of it ; and so the Naming Mr. Boyle in it , is but a decent Cover for the Concealment of himself . A DISCOURSE Against Customary SWEARING . THOUGH I doubt not but that it is much more easy to make most Swearers Proselytes than Converts , and a Task of less Difficulty to convince their Judgments , than to reform their Practice ; yet that they may not have any colour to father upon Ignorance what is usually the Child of some much guiltier Parent , it will be ( possibly ) no less useful than necessary , briefly to direct them to those Texts of Scripture , where all those that acknowledge God's Word , may find the Condemnation of that Vice. First then , the Third Commandment flatly forbids unnecessary Oaths , in terms that are ratified by these words of our Redeemer , in St. Matthew's Gospel ; Ye have heard what hath been said by them of old time , Thou shalt not forswear thy self , but shalt perform unto the Lord thy oaths : But I say unto you , Swear not at all ; neither by heaven , for it is God's throne , nor by the earth , &c. And a little under , But let your communication be yea , yea ; nay , nay ; for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil . The Sum of which Prohibition is thus repeated by St. James , towards the close of his Catholick Epistle ; But above all things , my brethren , swear not , neither by heaven , neither by the earth , neither by any other oath , but let your yea be yea , and your nay nay , lest you fall into condemnation . And suitable to these clear Passages of both Testaments , the Wiseman characters a Sinner by him that sweareth ; and paraphraseth a Righteous man by him that feareth an oath . So in Hosea , Swearing has the Van of the most crying and provoking Sins , in that same dismal passage ; By swearing , and lying , and killing , and stealing , and committing adultery , they break out , and blood toucheth blood : Therefore shall the land mourn , and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish , with the beasts of the field , and with the fowls of heaven ; yea , the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away . And in another Prophet we find this Threat recorded ; And every one that sweareth shall be cut off . Which Passages might easily be reinforced with others of the same nature , if I did not think these that are already alledged , abundantly sufficient ; where we pay not our Faith to the Number of the Texts , but to the Authority of the Inditer . But alas ! how much more easy is it to make men condemn their Sins , than to persuade them to forsake them ? Certainly our Understandings are ( usually ) much honester than our Wills ; it being far easier to reconcile mens Judgments to the Truth , than their Practice to their Judgment . Customary and unnecessary Swearing ( for that 's the sole Enemy I undertake ) is so confessedly unlawful , that they are ashamed to defend it , that blush not to practice it ; and even they renounce it in their Opinions , that most cherish it in their Discourse . But methinks this knowledge of the ill they act , should make them apprehend that Menace of our Saviour , which he threatens , He that knoweth his master's will , and doth it not , shall be beaten with many stripes : For stumbles are more pardonable by Night than by day ; and the knowledge of what we do , whilst it lends us direction , robs us of excuse ; and if it do not impede , it aggravates our faults ; since he that does what he condemns , condemns what he does . Upon which score our Blessed Saviour said , That Tyre and Sidon should feel a milder Torment at the day of judgment , than those ungrateful Towns Chorazin and Bethsaida , where the light of his Doctrine had shone so clearly , and the Miracles of his Life had been so familiar . And accordingly , we may observe , That the Devils that had no Tempter to their Fall , have found no Pardon for it ; but having sinn'd against so clear a light , are hopelesly reserv'd in chains of utter darkness , to endure hideous Torments unto all Eternity . SECT . I. BUT that we may leave our Swearer as little Pretence as Reason for his Obstinacy , let us singly and orderly examine his Allegations , and tear off those Fig-leaves of Evasions and Excuses the Devil teaches him to sow together , to hide his own Deformity from himself . PLEA I. Amongst these , the first Allegation we are to remove , is this , That Swearing is indeed a Sin , but that ( as Lot said of Zoar ) it is but a little one , for were it of the blacker Dye , in what a sad condition were mankind , since the number of Swearers is not inferior to that of Men. Answer . But certainly he that seriously considers whom the least sin offends , and what it merits ; how Infinite a Justice , Majesty , and Goodness , it provokes , and how intolerable and immortal a Punishment is due unto it , will easily concede , That to believe any Sin otherwise than comparatively little , is in it self an Error absolutely great ; for the most dwarfish are to be called small , but in the sense that the Astronomers call the Earth a Point ; for so indeed it is , compar'd to the Firmament ; but in it self considered , 't is so vast , that the Spots and Shreds of it are both the Stage and the Subjects of the Ambition of Conquerors , and the Jars of Monarchs . And truly , since the least ( unpardon'd ) Sin is sufficient to damn us , methinks we should as little slight petty Faults , because there are fouler Crimes , as we do Pistols now there are Cannons used . But granting this Assertion to be true in the general , it will forfeit that Attribute in this Application ; for this Sin is one of those that are expresly and by name forbidden in the Ten Commandments ; where it is not only listed among , but has the Precedency of Murther , Theft , and of Adultery ; being the sole Commandment ( save one ) that has a Threat annexed to the Law ; which in this passage is , For the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain . In which last words , the great Lawgiver foreseeing men would be very remiss in the prosecution of a Fault , in which their want of Zealous Piety makes them not to be concern'd , declares that he himself will take the Vindication of his Honour into his own hands , and inflict himself the Punishment of a Crime , that fears it but from Him. And then if those Trespasses be not severely dealt with , that are alone punishable by the Supreme Magistrate , let all consider what a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Which brings into my mind a pretty Extravagancy that is reported of the Turkish Laws ; which punish Blasphemy ( as they call it ) against Mahomet with inevitable Death , but enact no Penalty upon the like dishonour offer'd to God. Because Mahomet ( say they ) is not in a condition to vindicate himself ; but God is ever able to revenge his own Affronts , and therefore they resign that care to Him. Who indeed many times has ( in such cases ) done it so soundly , and so much to the purpose , that those sawcy Wretches have had cause to think it as poor a Privilege to have their Oaths out of the cognizance of the Laws of men , as thieving Beggars do to be exempted from the danger of the Beadle and the Stocks , because their Crimes are reserved for the Gallows . But to resume our Proofs of the Sinfulness of Swearing : Admit the Guilt of Single Oaths were no less venial than is pretended ; yet certainly , when in most Swearers the frequency of swearing is so great , that one day may be guilty of more than a Thousand Oaths ; ( these Sins not growing single , as Apples or Cherries , but like Grapes by clusters ; the Swearer's Devil having a title to the name of the Gadarene Spirit , that , answering our Saviour , called himself Legion ) their Multitude cannot but render them considerable : And he that remembers that a Thousand Holes may as well sink a Ship , as some great Leaks , will conclude Oaths to be extremely dangerous , at least for their Number , tho they were not so for their Heinousness . Nor are they only ruinous to the Persons that use them , but have a destructive Influence upon that State that suffers them . For whether or no what the Prophet related once of Judah , Because of swearing , the land mourneth , be not a fulfilled Prophecy of England , I wish it were rather Charity than Partiality to doubt . For tho the multitude and variety of our Sins be so great , that 't is a puzzling Task to determine to what particular Crimes our Calamities are due , yet certainly our Oaths are too considerable an accession to our sins , not to infuse a suitable proportion of Gall and Wormwood into that bitter Cup ( of Affliction ) these gasping Kingdoms drink so deeply of ; and whatsoever feather'd , I am confident our Oaths have strangely pointed those fatal Arrows that destroy these Nations . As for the supposal this Mistake is built on ( the Involvedness of all men in the Guilt of Swearing ) it is as weak as 't is uncharitable ; for ( besides that to allow no body an Innocence from swearing , is as much a Slander to mankind in its present condition , as it would be its Crime if the accusation were true ) our Saviour gives us the World's Example rather for a Caution , than for Imitation : Where he tells us , That the Way to Hell is a Road , and throng'd with Numerous Travellers ; but Heaven's Path is narrow , and the Gate that inlets to those Mansions of Bliss , as unfrequented as 't is strait . Even Mahomet himself ( in his discourse with the Jew Adia ) having at the Last Day divided Mankind into Threescore Troops , makes but Three of them Believers , and all the rest Reprobates . But certainly he whose Command this is , Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil , will hardly take the Practice of that Multitude for a just dispensation of the Law of that God , who having commanded us to live by Good Precepts , will scarce accept it for an Excuse , that we have err'd by Bad Examples . 'T would be a strange absurdity in Physick , because a Pestilence is more dispers'd and epidemical , to think it therefore the less dangerous ; or to believe that the Multitude of stinking Carkasses can lessen the Noisomness of the Stench . But as in Pious Duties the general Concurrence contributes to the acceptation ; so in Sins , the like Consent but hastens on Revenge : It being with the guilty Kingdoms as with leaking Boats , where the Number of the Passengers but makes them sink more nimbly . And accordingly we read , that the Universality of the Sodomites Beastliness was so far from justifying each single sinner , that they were all consum'd with Fire from Heaven , for the sole want of Ten Righteous Persons . 'T is for them only that think it no misery to burn in Hell with others , to fancy it no sin to swear with Company : But for the rest of men , let them take this from me , that Sins whose seeming Pettiness makes them less formidable , do oftentimes prove the most dangerous ; and he that dares esteem any Sin small , may soon be brought to think none great . PLEA II. Well , but objects the Swearer , I do not swear so often , and my Conscience by seldom accusing me of that Sin , assures me that I do but unfrequently commit it . Answ . But sure in Vice , whose Essence consists in a repugnance to Mediocrity , every little is too much ; and he that swears fewest Oaths , swears yet too many by the whole number that he swears . One Oath is too many by one , when one is enough to damn . And who would swallow Poyson , because obliged seldom to repeat his draught ? To pass over this , that the same Considerations that contract the Number of your Oaths , do aggravate their Guilt , by arguing both a clearer knowledge of the ill you act , and a more bridling power to restrain it . But alas ! how seldom does the silence of his Conscience make for the Swearer ? We know that Insensibility of Pain may as well proceed from the deadness and stupifi'dness of the part , as from a perfect and unmolested Health . In fighting , that is held a heavier blow , that ( stunning ) takes away the sense of Pain , than that which pains the Sense . Beware your Tranquility resemble you not to the Toad , that feels not Poyson , because he is all Poyson ; and resents no alteration from it , because 't is natural to him . There are Legions of Swearers , in whose mouths Custom swears undiscernedly ; and who being tax'd with it , ( and believe what they speak too ) swear that they are no Swearers , and thus commit the fault they would wipe off the imputation of . But wise Physicians hold it a fatal Symptom when Excrements are voided without the Patient's knowledge ; and 't is a sign that the Thief has haunted long , when the Mastiff forbears to bark at him . In such cases , Conscience , like oppress'd Subjects under an arm'd Tyrant , forbears Expostulations , not out of want of the causes of complaint , but out of use of sufferings . But certainly this Lethargy of Security is much more dangerous than the Feaver of a restless Conscience ; since in the one , the smart soon drives us to the search of Physick , but the other is so far from addressing us to Remedies , that it never lets us know we need them . In such still Consciences , as in the Sea , the smoothest Seas , the smoothest Calms fore-run the rudest . Tempests : For Conscience , when long forc'd to play the Mute , turns to a Scold at last ; being like o'erladen Muskets , which whilst no Fire comes near them , can scarce be known from them that are not charg'd ; but at the least Spark ( of serious terror ) that falls into the Touch-hole , they will be sure to fly about our ears . PLEA III. True ; but ( may you answer ) there are others that swear as much as I , and oftner ; why then are not they more reprehended for more frequent Faults ? Answ . To this I may reply in the terms of the Apostle , Am I therefore your enemy because I tell you the truth ? And add out of Solomon , That reproofs of instruction are the way of life . That poverty and shame shall be to the man that refuseth instruction , but he that regardeth reproof shall be honoured . And lastly , That he that being often reproved , hardneth his neck , shall suddenly be destroyed , and that without remedy , I know there are many Sauls , whose Choler flames against those Davids that endeavour their dispossession , tho they attempt the Cure even with Musick , I mean , the mildest and the gentlest way . But I must beg my Swearer to consider , That 't is an Inspired Writer that assures me , There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes , and yet is not washed from their filthiness . Your Excuse is just as if in an Hospital a desperate Patient should say to his Physician , Why I can need no Physick , for there are others here as sick , and many more diseased than I. To complain of being reprehended for Vice , is to complain that one is car'd for ; like the favourite Child , that cries for having the Knife taken away from him , when it is not from others , for whom we care not whether they cut themselves or no : Which is as if our Eyes had right to quarrel with us , for not enduring that dust there , we suffer in our Shoes . Certainly as we deserve not Praise for other mens Vertues , so can we not decline Censure by the allegation of their faults . Take heed there be not places hot enough in Hell , tho others fry in more tormenting Flames ; and remember , that as it is not Health to be not altogether as sick as gasping people , so it is but a very sorry goodness not to be as bad as the worst . How strangely are our Affections misplac'd ! In transitory Goods , which he rates justliest that prizes least , we think we never have enough , if any body else has more ; but in the Goods of the Mind , which cannot be overvalued , we think our selves sufficiently stor'd , if others enjoy less . We are discontented at another's Wealth , and proud of his Vices ; and whereas his greater Poverty should exalt our Gratitude , and his greater Piety create our Emulation , his Riches make us envious , and his Sinfulness secure . PLEA IV. Well , ( may you reply ) but I scorn to swear falsly ; and what know to be true , why may I not safely swear ? Answ . This weak Objection satisfies many Swearers , ( so easily men believe what they desire ) but with as little Reason as they swear with need : For that not False alone , but Rash and Unnecessary Oaths are forbidden , appears evidently by the expression made use of in the Third Commandment ; where Perjury is not alone condemn'd , but it is flatly written , Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain . Which if needless and customary Swearing do not , 't will be a strange Riddle to me what the Commandment means to prohibit . But that this is the genuine Sense and Design of those words , is clear'd by these express ones of our Saviour , ( cited before in St. Matthew's Gospel ) Ye have heard that it hath been said of old time , thou shalt not forswear thy self , but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths . But I say unto you , Swear not at all , neither by heaven , for it is God's throne , nor by the earth , &c. And to this sense the annex'd affirmative Precept expounds the negative Law ; the word Communication in the former shewing the Interdict to be chiefly meant of Oaths employ'd in common Discourse and Conversation . Nay , God himself seems manifestly to determine all the Controversy , by that clear distinction express'd in a passage of Leviticus , whose words run thus , And ye shall not swear by my name falsly ; neither shalt thou prophane the name of thy God : I am the Lord. And certainly if we must answer at the Last Day , for every Idle Word , how much more will that Account be exacted of us for every Idle Oath ? The Jews at this day , ( as I learn'd whilst I lately convers'd with them at Amsterdam ) have so profound a Reverence for that great Name of Jehovah ( commonly called Nomen Tetragrammaton , and Ineffable , so frequently recorded in the Scriptures ) that they hold it unlawful for Mortal Lips so much as to pronounce it : But tho I esteem this fancy suitable enough to the rest of the Extravagancies of their Modern Tenents , yet certainly their Superstition will condemn our Irreverence . I remember an Expositor observes upon the 6th . of Deuteronomy , and the 13th . verse , That the word there which signifies Swear , is put in the Hebrew in the Passive Sense , to imply that our swearing ought to be a kind of necessitated act . And a Father tells us of one Clinias a Pythagorean , who being fin'd in a great Sum of Money which he might have escaped with an Oath , chose rather to pay the Penalty impos'd , than not to pay unto God the Reverence that he thought due unto his Name . Besides , he that makes no Conscience of swearing vainly , will soon make but little of swearing falsly : For he that in a lower degree so voluntarily breaks God's Commandment for nothing , may soon be drawn to break it in a little higher degree for his Profit . And tho many of our Gallants ( doubtless in a pure Complement to the Devil ) are pleased to condemn the breach of this Commandment , only when the sinner wants the excuse of an advantage by it ; yet certainly he that uses to toss God's Sacred Name in his mouth without any Reverence , and employs it about every trifle , will easily be tempted not to care much what he does with it , nor to what use he puts it . And therefore holy David makes it a symptom of Hatred against God , when in a Psalm he says , Thine enemies take thy name in vain . These Considerations may clearly teach us what to think of those usual forms of speech , such as are , God forgive me , God help you ; and the like of those customary Exclamations , such as are , O God! O Jesus ! and those others that are usually employ'd to proclaim our wonders , or supply the want of a Complement , with an excess of Irreverence : For tho these unregarded Trespasses be in most persons faults venial enough , as the effects rather of Ignorance and Heedlesness , than of Design ; yet are they fashions of speaking , which besides that they are always needless , and often scandalous , do but inure our mouths to a very sawcy slighting of that Awful Name , which eternally to praise , shall be in Heaven both our Employment and our Happiness . PLEA V. Nor will it avail the Oathmonger to reply , But I do not take God's Name in vain ; for I swear not by God , or by Christ , or other Oaths of the like nature , but only by the Creatures , as by this Light , by this Bread , by Heaven , and the like ; and the Creatures name I hope it is no sin to take in vain . Answ . For sure if we will allow our Saviour to be the best Interpreter of his Father's Commandments , he will teach us a very differing Lesson , in those ( already twice alledged ) words of St. Matthew ; for doubtless he that forbids to swear by Heaven , the noblest , or by Earth , the meanest Ingredients of this vast Fabrick of the World , intended that Prohibition should reach all other Creatures ; which is as clear as light , in the ensuing words of the 37th . verse of the same Chapter ; where Christ's express Injunction is , But let your communication be yea , yea ; nay , nay ; for whatsoever is more than these , cometh of evil . Besides , either by the thing you swear by , you mean God , or no ; if the former , your Guilt is evident in the Breach of God's Commandment ; and if the latter , remember what the Spirit says in Jeremy , How shall I pardon thee for this ? Thy children have forsaken me , and sworn by them that are no gods . And in effect , 't is questionable in Divinity , whether be the greater Sin , to swear falsly by the Creator , or with truth by the Creatures ; for as the former is an act of high Impiety , so is the latter of Idolatry : Because swearing by any thing being a part of Divine Worship , ( as the Passages the Margin leads to , will evidence ) implies in us an acknowledgment of some Divinity in the thing we swear by ; which without Omniscience , is uncapable to discern the inward Truth or Falshood of our Oaths ; and without Omnipotence , unable to reward the one , or punish the other . A consideration so prevalent with many of the Primitive Martyrs , that they chose rather to expire in Torments , than swear by the Genius of the Emperor . Nor is an Oath only an Act or Species of Divine Worship , Isa . 48. 1. and 45. 23. but by a Synechdoche is taken for the whole Worship that men pay their Maker , in the 63d . Psalm , and the last , and in Jer. 4. 2. PLEA VI. Ally'd to this Plea , is theirs that will not flatly swear by God , but by certain fictitious terms and abbreviatures , as by Dod , &c. and by the like disguizing of them believe to justify their Oaths ; as if they cared not , so ( like Saul to the Witch of Endor ) they may go mask'd to Satan . Ans . To these I shall only answer with the Apostle , Be not deceived , God is not mocked ; since ( as the same Apostle elsewhere says ) He taketh the wise in their own craftiness . Well may this childish Evasion cheat our own Souls , but never him , who judgeth as well as he discerns Intents ; and regards not so much the precise signification of your words , as what they are meant and understood for ; which ( in such cases ) is usually an Oath , since the same credit is both given and expected upon these mongrel Oaths , that is paid to those they mean , but would not seem . These people bring into my mind the Bloody Persecutors of our first Christians , who cloathed them in the skins of savage beasts , that it might seem no crime to worry them ; for so these Hypocrites disguise God's Name , to give themselves the license to dishonour it . 'T is a very pretty slight of these Gentlemen , to cozen the Devil to their own advantage , and to find out By-ways to Damnation , and descend to Hell by a pair of back-stairs ; and methinks argues a Cunning much about the size of his , that pleaded he was innocent of falsifying the King's Coin , because he had displac'd some Letters in the Motto . But to Hell , as to Towns , these singular By-paths ( tho less frequented ) may lead directlier than the broad High-ways : And to these Gentlemen , and those that rely upon the last answer'd Objection , I shall at present only recommend the serious pondering of that passage of the Wise-man in the Proverbs : All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes , but the Lord weigheth the spirits . PLEA VII . It is a usual Excuse of some sort of Swearers , That they swear only some peculiar Oath , and that one kind of Oath cannot amount to such a Crime as the more scrupulous pretend . Answ . An Apology equally excusing with the Thief 's that should alledg , that he commits all his Robberies upon the same Horse ; and the Drunkard , that should offer to justify his beastliness , by affirming , that he never foxes himself , but with one sort of Wine , or in such a peculiar unalter'd Bowl . Remember what an Apostle somewhere says of sinning , Whosoever shall keep the whole law , and yet offend in one point , he is guilty of all . Just as a man that wounds a Buck in the Vitals , is truly and properly said to have kill'd the Deer , altho the Shaft reach'd but the Head or Heart , leaving the Legs and other parts untouch'd . Thus in a Globe , tho there be numerous parts , yet he is guilty of breaking the whole Globe , that breaks it but within the Arctick Circle , tho near the Equator it have escap'd that violence ; for wheresoe'er you break it , you break the Globe ; its Essence consisting in the entireness that is ruined by the fraction of any part . Sin , because natural to us , is so readily learnt by us , that as in shooting , by practising to hit Wrens and silly Sparrows , we learn the art of killing Feldifares , Thrushes , and the other sort of Birds we never aimed at ; so by committing some small sin , we learn , tho insensibly ( and perhaps undesignedly ) to commit other and grosser kinds of sins . One act may make us do dispositively , what Moses is recorded to have done literally ( at the foot of Mount Sinai ) break all the Ten Commandments at once ; for single disobediences , if presumptuous , may have the power to exile that Fear of God , whose expulsion comprises in it the whole trade of sin , which ( Conscience once despised ) is known without being learnt . If a reverence to the Commandment were that which did place limits to the variety of your Oaths , it would not permit you the use of any one , but lay an equal restraint in relation to them all ; since the sinfulness of swearing does consist , not in the diversity of our Oaths , but in their forbiddenness . But this Excuse it self is often wanting to many of our Gallants , who not content with the received forms of dishonouring their Maker's name , do as much affect Novelty in their Oaths , as in the Fashion ; and if they have a gift of singularity in swearing , are as proud of it , as of their Mistress's favour : Such people are as Nice as Impious in their Oaths , they will never use any till it be stale and threadbare , but ( ever like their Cloaths ) leave them off before they have been worn long enough to grow old . But whilst they are thus industrious in the discovery of new ways of provoking their Creator , 't is much to be feared , that they do but ( if I may so speak ) find out for themselves a Northwest Passage to Damnation . PLEA VIII . But , continues the Swearer , if I swear not , I shall not be believed . Answ . But ( 't is replied again ) Belief is better wanted , than purchased at so dear a rate as sin ; since he that parts with Heaven , makes over a bad bargain , tho the whole world were the accepted Price . But alas ! unless men will construe their disobediences for arguments of your obsequiousness , how unlikely is it , that ( by believing you speak truth , because you use to swear you do not lye ) they should take your readiness to transgress one of God's Commands , for a proof that you dare not break another . How ridiculous would men esteem that Merchant , that should be confident to gain Credit amongst Lenders , by giving Bond for every trivial Sum , for which others are trusted upon their bare word ? For in Oaths ( as in most other things ) too constant a frequency depreciates that authority which their rareness as well as nature gives them : That not being held a sufficient Security for the belief of a doubted or important truth , that is lavish'd to authorise every trivial and impertinent assertion ; nor thought a convincing attestation of a questioned truth , that flows rather from a custom of sinning , than design of confirming . No , no ; he needs not many Oaths , that uses few ; for to be known to make a Conscience of an Oath , will gain your words more credit than the swearing of a thousand ; it being a visible and remarkable Judgment of the offended . Deity upon Oaths , that their Number discredits that Truth it self would persuade . Since then 't is your habitude of swearing needlesly , that alone engages you to a necessity ( as you call it ) of swearing to be believed , let your discontinuance remove that obligation Custom only has contracted ; and believe me , that the most persuading asseveration of all , is so to live as not to need to swear . That sociableness which you alledge to extenuate your fault , but aggravates the heinousness of the crime ; by confessing Customary Oaths to be like jealous Tyrants , whom we cannot entertain , without giving admittance to their Retinue and their Guard , since in this Vice you acknowledge the act an engagement to a repetition ; and that Oaths which are the ultimate and highest Confirmations of Truth in their nature , must yet ( by this fine Policy ) themselves derive an Authority from their Multitude ; which is very unnecessary where the Assertor is believed , and usually does but create distrusts where the Veracity is not credited . PLEA IX . Of kin to this is their Apology who plead , That if they do not swear , their words shall neither be fear'd nor obey'd by their very Servants ; mens ears being of late so accustomed unto Oaths , that they are necessary to make them think we are in earnest . This is the usual Objection of the French , amongst whom this Vice is grown so Epidemical ( as of Blackness amongst the Ethiopians ) its commonness has removed all the deformities they would otherwise find in it . Answ . But sure there are ways enough to make your servants obey your Commands , without your breaking God's . Gravity and Severity , not using them to hear you swear , are courses likelier far than Oaths to reach that end : Which if they yet should fail of , they would turn this fancied inconvenience into an advantage of necessitating you to the election of Religious Servants . Certainly , since the sole universality of Vice has drawn upon us this suppos'd necessity , a general and unanimous desertion of it must needs be the properest expedient for its removal . And , believe me , 't is but an extravagant way of teaching our Inferiors to pay us their duties , to teach them to disobey the Commands of their Superiors by our own example , and to lead them the way to despise the Injunctions of the most Ador'd Powers , to whom we confess to owe an exquisite Obedience , upon the highest Considerations . But admitting ( as the dispersedness of this Vice too often forces us ) the supposal of this Plea to be true , yet will the Inference prove consequent ? For by the same reason the Thief might justify the unreclaimedness in his Robberies , by alledging if he forsake that Trade , his Purse must soon grow empty : Or the Buona Roba excuse her Prostitutions , by saying , That unless she continue her former Profession of Wantonness , she shall no more be presented with New Gowns , and Linnen richly lac'd , nor be able any longer to maintain her wonted Riots ; her Conversion ( by forbidding her to be the Cherisher of her Gallants loose Excesses ) depriving her of the only fewel of her Bravery . Upon how few could we with justice press Religious Duties , if such petty Inconveniences attending their performance , were a warrantable dispensation or disengagement from it ? Surely he that requires that we should pull out our right eyes , and cut off our right hands , if they oppose our entrance in at the streight Gate , will scarce give them admittance , that will not purchase it by the parting with such trivial Conveniences . It is much less unreasonable that you should be neither believed nor obeyed with readiness , than that God should either not be believed when he speaks , or not obeyed when he commands . For take this for a Truth , to which Oracles are Fables , That never any man commits a sin to shun an inconvenience , but one way or other , soon or late , he plunges himself by that act into a far worse inconveniency , than that he would decline . PLEA X. Others there are that use to represent , That they swear not but when they are angry ; and then ( for all our Clamours and Exaggerations ) they mean no harm at all . A. But would you take it for a justification of your Wife's Adulteries , if she should tell you , That she never prostitutes her self , but when her Fits of Lust tempt her to give that satisfaction to her appetite ? Besides , this is but to excuse one fault with another ; and with no greater justice , than his that should defend a Bastard's Crimes , by alledging that his Mother was a Whore ; since the Nature as well as the Duty of Virtue being the Moderation of our Passions , it is evident that their excesses degenerate into sins ; and therefore how that can be a good excuse that needs one , and how that anger which in it self is sinful , can impart an innocence to productions in their own nature culpable , let those that are concerned determine . For my part , when I consider the Apostle's Command , Be ye angry , and sin not ; I cannot but apprehend , that when our Passions swell into excess , they are indeed contaminated by the Guiltiness of their Productions , but confer not upon them a meritoriousness which themselves want . But why , I pray , in every passionate mood , must you be transported to commit Sins that are as unprofitable as impious ; and to deserve your Crosses , by a sawcy Provocation of your God , whom you then endeavour to make your Enemy , when you most need his favour to protect you from disquiets ? Why must your Tongue fly in your Maker's face , and vilify his Sacred Name , because your Dice turn up Size-ace rather than Quatre-trey ? For either he is the Guider of those seeming Chances , or meddles not with their disposal : In , this last case you are palpably injurious , to make God the Object of your Choler , when he is not the Cause of it ; and in the former case your folly is not inferior , instead of propitiating , to incense that Deity , who is the sole Disposer of those Fortunes we either wish or fear . But take heed he give you not too much pretence to be so , by displeasing you , ( as discreet Mothers whip their froward Children that cry without cause ) and punish in his anger these rash and culpable expressions of yours . As for the other branch of the excuse , I mean the harmlessness of your intent ; to that I must reply , That our Actions may as well offend as our Intents , if they be subsequent to our knowledge of God's aversion to what we do . And usually men take it for a sufficient offence , to do what we are sure will disoblige them , tho with a differing design . Nor do we think our selves less injured by Robbers when they strip us , because they offer us that violence , not with intent to anger us , but only to make a Booty of our Purses . 'T is a received Maxim in Divinity which Moralists prop with their full concurrence , That no Goodness ( much less bare Innocence ) of the Intent can justify a formal sinful evil . If then the committing of this sin against the knowledge of the ill you act , be not crime enough to condemn you , you must not be deny'd my Absolution . But withal , I must acquit most sinners in the world upon the self-same score ; and believe the threatned Flames of Hell as uninhabited as insupportable ; since certainly such sinners ( if any such there be ) must be prodigious no less for their unequal'd rarity , than devilish perverseness , that are such Monsters as to offend their Maker , merely to offend him . For in Philosophy our Masters teach us , That Ill under that notion cannot be the object of our choice ; ( that being ever a real , or at least a seeming good ) ; and tho in our misguided elections we oftentimes embrace it , yet that is ever under a contrary notion , and rather by mistake than by design . But oh ! how industrious are sinners to deceive themselves ; and how strangely does the Devil fascinate and blind deluded Mortals , when ( by such silly and impertinent Excuses ) he persuades them rather to expose their judgments to a certain discredit , than let their Souls be ransom'd from an Ignoble Slavery , into a Glorious Freedom ; and rather suffer their Abilities to be believed weak , than permit their Lives to be made virtuous . Certainly , such people would make me as much astonish'd as themselves are faulty , if I did not consider this gallant property , of rather making bad Apologies to defend their Sins , than good Resolutions to forsake them , as intail'd upon them by a kind of traduction from our first Parents , who hoped with Fig-leave Aprons , and the faint Shade of Trees , to hide both their Nakedness and their Disobedience from the Omniscient Eye of God himself . I will not waste Ink upon their successless and impudent defence , that make their Drunkenness an Apology for their Swearing , and make that an excuse for their sin , which is it self a sin above excuse ; but with as little justice , as the Keeper of the Lions in the Tower could excuse any particular Tragedy they had acted , by alledging that he had voluntarily let them loose . But since the Tempers that most dispose men to a flux of Oaths , are Drunkenness and Choler , give me leave by the by , to take notice of the chief Midwives that are usually assistant to the birth of Oaths ; and to observe , That as the Thunder falls not , but when Heaven is over-cast , so we are pronest to swear , when the Beastliness of our Passions hath either blinded or deposed our Reason . PLEA XI . 'T is confest , you may alledge , that Swearing is a most heinous Sin , but I do never swear my self , but only to repeat those Oaths of another ( which are therefore his Sins not mine ) whose omission would spoil the Jest . Answ . This brings into my mind the known Story of that merry Gentleman , who to shew the sullen Justice how the Mastiff he had kill'd , had first assaulted him and overthrown him , runs full butt at the formal Sir's breast , and sends both him and his Chair to salute the ground : For when a Sin cannot be imitated , without being committed , then that you but repeat it only , is as sorry an excuse , as his must be , who to illustrate the relation of a Murder , should Pistol the first man he meets withal . Besides , when did Transgression by President turn Innocence ? and what was unlawful in the Act , become legitimate in the Repetition ? It is acknowledged , that the relating of another's Oaths may sometimes be not only lawful but necessary ; but then it must be either to discover or convert the Swearer ; or else when the Oath is some material Circumstance of a serious Narrative . But here the very End adds guiltiness to the Action , it being only to make another's Vice applauded , and render his Sin both infectious and immortal . But how will you justify this introducing of God's Name only ( like a Fool in a Play ) to make the Company laugh , and to bring it into contempt , from the disobedience to the Prohibition of taking God's Name in vain ? Unless ( perhaps ) the consequents of your sin teach you a construction that may resolve this difficulty ; and the Judgments your swearing will provoke , shew you in what sense you have taken your Maker's Name in vain . Remember how sad a Reckoning was presented to Belshazzar by the Hand-writing upon the Wall , for having turn'd the Vessels of the Temple into Implements and Furtherers of Mirth , at his sumptuous Entertainment ; and consider betimes , that God may possibly less resent the making merry in his Holy Cups , than the making merry with his most Holy Name . To this may well be added , That in this sinning at the second hand , the Copied Sin is held more criminal in the Transcript than in the Original ; for besides that this Swearer by Imitation acknowledges himself so delighted with the other's sin , that he becomes the Devil's Mountebank ( or his Zany ) to have it admired by all that hear him ( and we know that Approbation is but an after-Consent ) ; besides this , I say , the Leading Swearer has the excuse of an immediate Applause ; whereas the Apish Repeater wrongs and discredits his own Piety , only to celebrate and proclaim another's Wit ; if that be not too partially term'd Wit , that appears such only to our Corruptions : Since when the Oath must make the Jest , 't is only the Devil in us that is pleas'd with it . Handsome Replies are good without Oaths , and dull ones will not be made good by them : To the one they are needless , to the other they are useless ; that being justly enough appliable to Oaths in Apothegms , which is usually believ'd in painting of Faces , That Beauties need it not , and deformed Women look but ridiculously for it . Fools ( says the Wise-man ) make a mock of sin ; they can take pleasure to hear him affronted , in whose Communion consists happiness ; and make that the fewel of their jollity , that should be the object of their detestation . For my part I do not like this doing in jest , what a man may be damn'd for in earnest ; and I much wonder that we frail Mortals , whose faults are more numerous than the very minutes we have liv'd , should think our own sins too few to condemn us , without adopting those of others too ! and to our crimes ( too numerous already ) adding these sins of Supererogation ! But to resume our Theme . PLEA XII . There remains yet a prejudice to remove , which though very rarely the pretence of Swearers , is very often a prevalent motive to swearing , and is an evil by so much the more obstructive to these sinners reclaiming , by how much the more silently it opposes it . This is a foolish fancy that many Swearers cherish , that their Oaths make them look'd upon with a kind of admiration , as Gentleman-like sins ; and witness in them so bold and daring a courage , that it extends to a fearlessness of God himself . Answ . But though their blushing to own so childish a pretence , be a sufficient disproval of it ; yet since , as in War , so in disputes , we consider not so much the personal strength of the adversary we attempt , as the rank he holds among those that employ him ; 't will not be amiss to remove an obstacle , made considerable by being so great a Vice's motive , and so great a motive to that Vice : Though of this sort of Swearers ( as of some Savages that lurk in Rocks and Woods ) it be much more difficult to obtain a Battel , than to get a Victory ; and to draw them to the Field , than to give them a Defeat . Doubtless these needy Gentlemen will never tempt the admiration of Wise men upon any other score , than that of the greatness of their folly . They must be thought strangely necessitous of meriting qualities that do so meanly by their bad ones implore and court men's good opinion : And I know not whether be the greater , their impudence to expect it for the recompence of vice , or their profuseness that should squander it away on those who have no juster title to our esteem , than that by which the miserablest of Beggars pretend to our Charity , the multitude of their imperfections and wants . Wise men will make these poor and empty projects , the objects solely of their scorn and laughter ; and only those that want esteem for themselves , will reward you with it ; and for such peoples praises , they will but discommend you : So that that empty applause you are ambitious of , will either be impossible to be purchas'd , or not deserve to be pursued . But what , your Oaths will make men take you for a Gentleman ! you are deceived , there is too little Epicurism and Chargeableness in your vice , to be affected to that Quality . 'T was still so cheap , and now grown so common , that I wonder our Grandees , though they desist not for the sins sake , renounce it not , at least , for the Company 's . Must then Vices be arguments of the possession of that dignity , that Vertue is the sole true means to purchase ? I 'm sure it should not be so ; but grant it were , Will you pretend to Nobility , by that alone which is not the property , but the vice of Gentlemen ? and entitle your self to that illustrious Quality , by that which , in God's Eye , makes them unworthy ( if not divests them ) of it ? At that rate your pretensions would parallel his mirth , who boasted a descent from the first Caesars , barely upon his being ( like most of them ) almost deformedly Hawk Nos'd ; deriving his interest in their blood , only from his sympathy with their defects . For my part , I must confess , I am not ambitious of those badges of Gentility , that Christianity delivers for the symptoms of Reprobation : Nor do I find men desirous of the Gout , though the Proverb have appropriated that disease to Rich men . But then ( you think ) your courage will be unquestionable : And indeed it may seem that you want not probability to prop up your hopes , since you desperately hazard the incurring of Immortal Torments , for that , for which no Wise man would venture the stretching of his little Finger . But since the kindred betwixt vertues is not so remote , that the want of any one should conclude the possession of any other , and your impiety convince us of your courage ; Experience teaches us , That no men more fear what they should contemn , than those that contemn most what they should fear . And Martyrs have embrac'd those Flames with joy , that impious persons durst not so much as think of without horror . That boldness that men personate against their Maker ( were it real ) would not be the effect of their resolution , but either of their inconsiderateness , or their unbelief . The wicked flee ( says Solomon ) when no man pursueth ; but the righteous are bold as a Lyon. And indeed it is no great encouragement to despise this life , to want either hope , or at least confidence of a better . Nor will all men so easily conclude , that he that fears not to venture his Soul , dares freely venture his Body . For since it is not the essential worth of things , but the proprietary's value of them , that their dearness to us is to be measured by : That standard , and most mens actions , will present us the soul and body in a very inverted order of precedency ; the greater part of men living for the Body as if they were all Body , and slighting their Souls as if they had no Souls , or had them but to lose . It being but too true of the very greatest of those people , that in themselves as in their stables , the Employment of the Man is but to serve the Beast . And truly he that considers that the neglect of the Soul proceeds from the former dotage on the Body , will think that a very unlikely consequence , that infers a readiness to hazard the latter , from the carelessness of what becomes of the former . He that shakes off the emboldening Fear of God , betrays himself to as numerous apprehensions , as did the weak-ey'd Frantick , who to be secur'd from the offensiveness of the Sun 's brighter Beams , by pulling out his eyes , expos'd himself to all those dangers and those horrors that attend on blindness . PLEA XIII . But , say some Swearers , if I renounce this Vice , my Repentance will procure me a derision I shall be asham'd of . Ans . Must then that Bashfulness which is both the Livery and Guard of Virtue , oppose our addresses to it ? Like Ditches when the Draw-bridge is cut down ; which tho their use be to secure the Fortress from Enemies , forbid access to them that once have salley'd , when they are meditating a Retreat . But yours is an excuse as receivable as the Whores , who pretended Bashfulness for their turning honest . I was much taken with an Italian Gentleman , who spying a Friend of his peep out his head from behind the door of a Bordello , to see if he might retire undiscover'd ; Come forth , come forth , cries he , you need not be ashamed to leave that sluttish place ; but you should have been asham'd to have entred it . Have Innocence and Vice then so chang'd natures , that he that did not blush to commit sin , should blush to forsake it ? And he that hath once fram'd mishapen Characters , be ashamed afterwards to write a Neater Hand ? The blushes that do wait on our Repentance , proceed from an implicite confession it imports of some former faultiness ; and so if it have been shameful to have committed a fault , how much more should we be ashamed to continue ; and how little can it discredit us to forsake it ? And truly , he that thinks a fault a just engagement to a relapse , lest his Conversion should make him laugh'd at , deserves the Censure men would pass upon that fool , who having slipt one foot into a Quagmire , should rather proceed to be entirely bogg'd , than by timely stepping back , to confess a mischance that may provoke mens laughter . I had much rather men should laugh at my retracting , than God frown upon my relapses ; and care not so much who smiles at any action that makes my Conscience do so , ( not by way of derision , but of applause . ) How contradicting are the desires of mortals ! We are angry if we are not thought virtuous , and yet we are ashamed to appear so , and think it a just ground of quarrel , to be reported the contrary of what we blush to seem ! Like Ladies , who tho they long to live till they grow old , fret to appear what they desire to be . The sinner that is overmuch concerned in bad mens opinions of good mens actions , does as it were swear Allegiance to the Devil , and let him bore his Ear through with an Awl against the Door-Post , sealing an engagement to perpetual bondage ; for ( as the same men that crucified our Saviour , derided him ) as long as the greatest part of men are wicked enough to injure Piety , there will be found men impudent enough to mock it . For Sinners knowing that in the world's esteem , the extent of a Deformity makes it vanish , and that the Generality of a Crime does so divest it of that name , that every body's sins are thought no body's , are by the cheapness of the expedient easily sway'd to intrust the protection of their Reputation rather to common Guilt than to a private Virtue ; and to seek an innocence rather by adding to the number of the wicked , by their Calumnies and Derision , than by increasing the number of the godly by their Conversion . Thus being brib'd by their own interests to discredit such actions as they are tied to , and yet will not practice ; 't is no wonder if by scoffingly condemning what closely condemns them ( tho therein their Consciences give their Tongues the lye ) they cunningly endeavour to father their faults , not upon their want of Piety , but store of Wit , and to make their slavery to their Passions pass for the superiority of their Judgments . But sure he is very unfit to be Christ's Soldier , that blushes to wear his Heavenly Leader's Colours , and wants the Courage to disobey Example . He that will take the Canaan above by violence , must imitate the Conqueror of the Canaan below , who profest to the world , If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord , chuse you this day whom you will serve , whether the gods , &c. But as for me and my house , we will serve the Lord. Our Saviour ( who for us endured the cross , despising the shame ) apportions Felicity to the being reviled for his sake : And congruously his Apostles being causlesly misused by the Chief-Priests , departed from the presence of the council , rejoicing that they were counted worthy to endure shame for his name . Derision for Virtue is a grievance as old as Job ; who in his time complained , that the just and upright man is laughed to scorn : And 't was even Christ's own case ; of whom one of the Evangelists in some place records , That they laughed him to scorn . But we may say of the Resolute Christian what the Wise-man says of his Maker , That he scorneth the scorners : And surely , since God is said to laugh divers Transgressors of his Law to scorn , 't is not improbable that he will not fail to laugh them to scorn , that for his Glory scorn not to be laugh'd at : Especially , since such persons are deeply accessary to their own and Piety's Disgrace , by a sneakingness which so implies a Guilt , that where it proceeds not from a fault , it is one : And themselves highly countenance the discountenancers of the Profession of Religion , by being asham'd to own it . Whereas the loss of the blind world's applause should prove as little dissuasive in the point of Conversion , as its acquisition should be a motive . The man that dares be good without a President , looks like the noblest President of good : Tho to say truth , as Horses are not much priz'd , only for not refusing to set forth unless others lead the way , and for not leaving the track they once are in , because none but resty Horses are guilty of the contrary faults ; so is not the Gallantry of contemning the opinions and smiles of sinners so meritorious as it is thought ; since none but Children ( and they too laugh'd at for it ) will let themselves be frighted from what they love , by others making mouths and faces at it . Could singularity in goodness consist with the innocence of others , a Gallant Spirit would look upon that Solitude rather as a delight than a determent ; since 't is not a greater Affliction to his Charity , than 't is a Complement to his Generosity , by assuring his Devotion of the highest extraction , and restraining the acts of it to the noblest ends . He is the welcomest to Paradise who ventures tho alone , and comes unattended thither : I mean , who by so resolute a Bravery , as setting forward to Heaven , without staying for Company , gives so good Example , that he arrives there with much difficulty . To all this I must add , That when once 't is noted that the apprehension of being derided for retracting , is the sole obstacle that stands between your Reason and so important a change as your Conversion , they will justly esteem your parvanimity so great , that you deserve derision for so poorly fearing it ; and so you will fall into that Contempt you would decline , by your very shunning of it . If then Laughter in this case cannot absolutely on both sides be avoided , sure it 's much better to endure that of Fools at your Repentance , than that of Wise Men at your Timerousness . Did not Martyrs , thorough Frowns , Infamy , and Torments , force themselves a Passage to the same Heaven you aim at , and will you with Smiles be frighted from your Happiness ? I am asham'd on 't ; and if you be not so of your self , Christ will be so of you : For , Whosoever ( says our Saviour , who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession ) shall be ashamed of me and of my words , in this adulterous and sinful generation , of him also shall the son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his father , with the holy Angels . And truly , for my part , I had rather be laugh'd at by men on earth , than howl with the Devils in Hell. DIGRESSION . [ Nor need we be ( as even the best New Converts often are ) so scrupulous to own Repentance for fear of injuring Humility ; since certainly if the latter be a Virtue , she cannot enjoin a Vice so heinous as Ingratitude , by forbidding us even such a Retribution as Acknowledgment ; for sure 't is the least return we owe to God for his Gifts , to confess that we have received them . Who would not tax him of Unthankfulness , that being loaded with a Prince's Presents , should disclaim them , for fear of confessing himself to be rich . Altho a Woman prais'd for her Complexion , be bound in Modesty to gainsay those Praises , yet if the Fire have given her a good Colour , 't is not thought Pride to refrain contradicting , because the Effect being natural to the Fire , and requiring no excellent Predispositions in the Object , to refer those ascriptions to their Cause , is held to justify the not rejecting them : So tho there be an eye of Vanity in the Publication of those Graces , whose near resemblance ( or affinity ) to Virtues merely Moral , leaves their Extraction dubious ; yet true Repentance is a Grace so purely foreign , that being acted in us by a Principle not native or acquired , but infus'd , to own the having received it , is not to boast our Merits , but acknowledge our Debts ; the vanity being rather on the other side , who by pretending to disclaim so supernatural a Grace , imply that they esteem it to be their own Inheritance or Purchase . God's Goodness being so free , that 't is the only Title to its self ; and the motives of his Favours being taken from himself and not from us , his Blessings argue indeed the Bounty of the Benefactor , but infer not the Merit of the obliged ; since the Spirit 's Irradiations into our Souls ( like the Sun 's shining upon Shrubs and Hemlock ) is due to the diffusiveness of his Goodness , not the attractiveness of ours . Moral Virtues may perhaps be resembled to Great Mens Cloaths , which supply those that see them , with some conjectures of the Quality of those that wear them : But inspired Graces ( such as Repentance is ) are like their Liveries , whose Gawdiness evinces not the Footman's Deserts , but his Lord's Splendidness ; and in mens esteem entitles the Lacquey to nothing but a good Master . Those better Qualities Blood may convey , or Industry acquire , like Honours conferr'd by Princes , suppose the Party deserving ; but Heavenly Donatives are like Alms , which ever presume need ; and where they are more liberally bestow'd , stronglier conclude the greatness of the Party's Wants than Merits . Upon such Considerations , possibly , as these , the great Apostle ( after a recital of his first unworthiness ) scruples not to write of himself in such bold erms as these ; By the grace of God I am what I am , and his grace which was bestowed on me was not in vain ; but I laboured more abundantly than they all , ( meaning the College of the Holy Apostles ) yet not I , but the grace of God which was with me . ( I might produce many resembling Passages of Scripture , had I not handled this Subject elsewhere . ) But truly , since you are commanded in the Gospel to let your light so shine before men , that they may see your good works , and glorify your father which is in heaven ; you ought to consider whether or no your expressing a serious dislike of others present , and your own former practice ( in point of Swearing ) do not either proclaim your Repentance , or infer you a Hypocrite . And if your Reason ( as questionless it will ) lead you to embrace the affirmative , believe you are then further to be put in mind , that not only the Confession of our Virtues is justifiable when it is necessary to your Justification , but ( tho in all other cases our actions should commend us , not we our selves , Praise being a Debt which he that pays himself , acquits all others of ) even the mention of our own Praises is allowable , when they are produc'd , not to extol , but barely to vindicate us , and finds a sufficient defence in its being necessary unto ours . The owning of Repentance has so much of Penance in it , that there is not any Grace more indispos'd to a perversion into Vanity ; for still Repentance ( like the Pardon it endeavours to procure ) does presuppose a Fault , having this particular unhappiness above other Virtues , that men cannot arrive at it but through Vice. And therefore in the return to the disinterestedness of action , Virtue ( who can scarce more reward our love to her , than by imparting unto us a higher degree of it ) commonly recompenceth so unselfish a Duty , by making it a powerful engagement to perseverance against Relapses ; and any affront or loss sustain'd upon that score , turns to a Blessing , by producing in us towards Religion , the usual property of Sufferers for a Cause , more Zeal and Passion for the Party men have been Sufferers for . But admit you could not own Repentance , without being fancied vain , must the fear of others sins continue ( those that are immediately ) yours ? Will you rather let others sin by imitation of your bad actions , than in their misconstruction of your good ones ? And will you quench the Spirit , and refrain from being virtuous , lest men should think you know your self to be so ? Especially since our Ignorance in good Performances , tho it criminate the act , degrades the Agent from the Title of Virtuous : Virtue being a habitude elective , and election pre-requiring knowledge . Which reason I might fortify , by asking to what end Preachers should light us so many Candles , and give us so many Touchstones to discover and examine Graces with , if our being conscious to our own Repentance were a fault that deserved it ? Undoubtedly , that were ( and that were strange ) to make it our Duty to seek , what it were our Sin to find . This last Reflection I must recruit , by adding , That since our improvement of , and thankfulness for Grace , will be expected proportionable to our stock of it , ( as the Parable of the Talents , and our Saviour's declaring , that where much is given , there also much will be required , evinces ) we cannot without the knowledge of our Receits , know what our Returns must be ( of Gratitude and Duty ) to be answerable to them . The utmost that Modesty does exact of you , is the declining of those Praises your actions do deserve , not the refraining actions that deserve Praise , for fear of being suspected to affect it . But truly , Bashfulness , tho in Maids thought a Virtue , in Virtue is a fault ; for sure it is one of the worst Complements you can put upon the Spirit , to lock him up in a dungeon , for shame to own his Visits . The union betwixt Virtues is too strict , and their assistances so reciprocal , that That may be concluded to be no Virtue , that forbids the exercise of any , and does not rather facilitate than obstruct it . Certainly 't is better be accused of Vanity , than guilty of Relapses ; and if some Reputation must be lost , 't is fitter that you should be dishonoured by other mens faults , than God by yours ; for he is good enough to recompence his servants , not only for being good , but for their not being thought so for his sake ; and to make one day their Dishonour ( not only the Foil , but ) the Purchase of their Glory . I have spent the more Ink to carry away this Obstruction , because I have observed it to be a Block , at which the best natur'd Novices in Piety are the most prone to stumble ; the Devil , our subtle Antagonist , ( more Serpent far than that he tempted our First Parents in , when he insinuated himself into our credulous Mother's easy Faith ; in which sly winding Creature , he elected not a fitter Instrument than Emblem ) in the Scruple we have laboured to remove , leaving his own to assume the borrowed habit of an Angel of Light ; in that Disguise to make Virtue clash with Grace , and pervert Modesty into an Obstacle of Reformation . Thus when Man was once fallen from Paradise , even Cherubims intercepted his return unto the Tree of Life . ] The Last Excuse . Lastly , ( replies the Swearer ) All this I confess to be very true ; but what would you have me to do ? Long time and custom have so habituated me to this Vice , that I find the Impossibility of my subduing it , as great as my willingness to leave it . Answ . Well , I am very glad we have brought you to this pass : 'T is then confessedly a sin , and a great one : The question therefore is , Whether it be fitter for God to make it no sin , or you not to make it yours ; and for him to be reconcil'd to the evil of its nature , or for you to desist from its practice ? Your Apology is just as excusing as the Murderer's would be , who should alledge before his Judge , that since he had been a Murderer from his Youth , he begs to be excused ; but truly for his part he could not help it , and he must needs continue the Trade of cutting of Throats , that he had so long practic'd . Is not yours a holy consequence , I have been wicked long , therefore I will continue so still ? Sure 't is the Devil's Logick , from those sins that evidence the Justice of our suddener Repentance , to infer the legitimateness of our Relapses into Crimes . The Argument would have as much Reason , and more Honesty , that concludes out of , I have been wicked but too long already ; that , Therefore I must be so no more ; and from our former want of Piety , infers there needs a greater measure now to make amends for past Omissions . You would judge him uncharitable , that should tell you that you are scarce so much as desirous to be forgiven : But ( to shew you how little you have for your opinion , besides your wishes ) consider who would think that Delinquent very ambitious of Pardon , who refuses to accept it , unless he may have license to thieve again ; and declines to purchase it by an engagement against former Misdemeanors . Certainly , Weak is th' Excuse that is on Custom built ; For th' Vse of sinning lessens not the Guilt . And Custom in Evil rather increases than contracts the fault ; for that Custom that now is the Parent , was first the Child of Sin , since the Evil of Custom proceeds from the Custom of Evil ; ( like Ice , which tho it easily thaw into Water , was first produced out of that Element's Congelation . ) And therefore our equitable and impartial Laws , that in Theft chastise the first faults only with a Brand upon the Hand or Shoulder , punish Relapses with deserved Death . Nor are the Obstacles that oppose your cure , so stubborn as you are pleas'd to fancy them . We flatter our selves in augmenting the Difficulty of our Repentance , that we may lessen the Guilt of our Neglects . The truth on 't is , our baseness adds dimensions to these difficulties , because we are really loath to forsake our sins , and yet would fain cheat our Consciences into a belief , that our refractoriness and impenitency do proceed , not from our unwillingness to mend , but from our impotence . We do not , in this case , like many flourishing Orators , who out of ostentation use to create Monsters , afterwards to quell them ; but like Children in the dark , who fancy first horrid mishapen Bug-bears , and then are frighted by them . And yet when the slight Penalty of a Shilling is laid upon each Oath , and strictly exacted , we may easily discern a visible abatement in the tale of your sins , as long as you are true to your engagement ; which were not most men too soon weary of , would ( probably ) soon make them weary of Offences of that nature . 'T is the opinion both of Pious and of Judicious Persons , that Swearing is therefore , tho not the most unpardonable , at least the most inexcusable of Vices ; because that in it men have most power to refrain : And in effect , this sin is so destitute both of Temptations , Advantages , and Apologies , that in subduing the Custom of Swearing , we have scarce any thing but the Custom to subdue . Try ; 't is less easy to surmount the belief of the difficulty , than the difficulty it self , which nothing makes so much invincible , as our thinking that it is so . Here , a willingness to hoise Sail ( to quit this ruinous Vice ) serves for a prosperous Gale. If therefore Christ by giving you a desire to shake off the clogging Yoke of Sin , do call you to himself , give me leave to say to you , as the people did to the blind man of Jericho , Be of good comfort , rise , he calleth thee . And to compleat that comfort , I must tell you , that the Operation of Saving Grace upon the Sicknesses of the Soul , is like that of the Pool of Bethesda upon the Infirmities of the Body , since without all regard either to the age or greatness of the disease , so the remedy be but duly applied , the Cure is infallible . I shall never despair of the recovery of any , that is but heartily desirous to be reclaim'd ; since that which God was pleas'd to make me lately instrumental to work upon a Gentleman , whose Nation being French , his Vice little younger than himself , Humor extremely Cholerick , and his apprehensions of the Successlessness of his Endeavours very great , obliged him to vanquish Indispositions numerous and great enough to make that concurrence very frequent in one single person ; and yet before one Fortnight was effluxt , he obtain'd so visible a Conquest over this stubborn Vice , that he had afterwards only as many relicks of it to suppress , as might keep him from growing proud of so sudden a Recovery . So easy is it after having vanquish'd the Imagination of the Difficulty , to overcome the Difficulty it self ; for in matter of uneasy Christian Duties , we must not only consider the disproportion of our Weaknesses to the Obstacles we must surmount , but allow the disproportion of those Obstacles , to the Supernatural Assistances we ought to hope for . For God requires nothing at our hands , which his own Favour ( zealously implor'd by our addresses ) will not enable us to execute . And in this , the Commands of God , differ from those of men , that the latter but lay on us an Obligation , the former invest us with a Power to obey them . As when our Saviour commanded the sick man ( in the Gospel ) to take up his bed , and walk , at the same instant he strengthens his Sinews to perform what he enjoin'd : And in the first Creation , that powerful Command , Let there be light , gave that bright Creature an Existence , to make it capable of paying him an Obedience . Let not then Tasks above the forces of our Nature , disanimate those that may expect assistances from his Almightiness , who in the same Leaves where he commands us to perform more than we are able , promises to do in us what he commands ; since difficulties are not essential properties of obstacles , but only disproportions to the powers they are to resist . But admit that your habitude of swearing have rendred your Conversion as difficult as you pretend ; sure then , that which Custom of sinning has confessedly made so uneasy , the continuance of that Custom is very unlikely to facilitate : As probably may he , whom a Surfeit of Melons has cast into a Fever , hope for a Cure by eating more again . No , no ; remember that bad Customs , like Consumptions , admit of Remedies in the beginning , but grow still more incurable by delay ; and Vices , like young Trees , the longer they are let grow , the greater difficulty there is in felling of them ; each single sin being not bad only for the evil of the act , but the propensity it gives to repetition . SECT . II. BUT because to shew a sinner the danger of his Disease , without prescribing him the Remedies that may contribute to his Recovery , would be but to give him a perfecter knowledge of his wretchedness , and prove a Truth as uncomfortable to him as an Ignis fatuus to the benighted Traveller that has lost his way , whose horrid light serves not to guide , but to affright the Wanderer : I think it not amiss in the ensuing Directions to cast the Swearer a few Cords , by which ( if they be carefully laid hold on ) he may happily be drawn out of that deep and dangerous Pit of Sin , into which his Negligence or his Corruptions may have betray'd him . Nor let the courseness of these home spun Lines divert you from making them Instruments of your Rescue ; for Silk and Satten Ribbons , you know , are not so proper to draw men out of Pits , as homely Hempen Cords : Nor did the imprison'd Prophet refuse to be drawn up out of the Dungeon , tho by the help of old cast clouts and rags : Since in cases of this nature , 't is not the Value nor the Fineness of the Instrument , but their Fitness for our Purposes , that we ought chiefly to regard . But to begin without more Circumstance . DIRECT . I. My first Advice shall be , Seriously to consider , that Swearing is a Sin , and such a Sin too , as not its Nature , but its Commoness only , makes men count little : For if we may judge of the greatness of the Crime , by that of the Vengeance Heaven inflicteth on it , certainly God has divers times so severely punish'd obdurate and incorrigible Swearers , that were his Judgments on them as divulg'd as they have been terrible , that crying Sin would ( possibly ) be almost as unfrequent as it ought to be . Nor will the seeming harmlessness of that act do more than make a parallel betwixt your fate , and that fond Wretches ( mention'd in the Book of Numbers ) that provok'd stoning , for gathering a few sticks on the Sabbath-day . For tho Almighty God ( whose Will is the exactest Rule of Good and Ill ) should forbid actions otherwise Innocent , yet his Prohibition divests them from that property : And ( as the preceding Verses of that Passage alledg'd of Numbers intimate ) makes you liable to a just Punishment , tho not for the act , yet for the disobedience . And consonantly we find , that tho the killing of so horrid and Parricidicial a Murderer as Cain , might seem an Act of Justice , yet God by his prohibition having render'd it a sin , annexes a Sevenfold Vengeance to the Breach of that Command . Nay , tho the rebuilding of a ruin'd City be in it self not only innocent , but highly conducing to the publick good ; yet God ( to shew the Independency of his Justice ) having forbidden the re-edification of Jericho's raz'd Walls , punish'd the Transgression of that Prophetick Order , in the very Children of the Transgressor . An Example of Severity very observable , being not , that I know of , to be parallel'd . Consider not therefore so much ( in your Swearing ) the little harm you do , as the great God you offend . False Coinage is as well Felony in Farthings , as in Half Crowns , or Twenty-Shilling-Pieces . And as careful Mothers soundlier whip their Children for eating sowre Crabs , and such Green Trash , than ripe and goodly Fruit ; so often are those sins most severely dealt with , which bring us least advantage ; nor is it a Prodigy , to see men get most stripes for those offences they get least by . It is an easy matter in trivial things to transgress heinously . What Trifle could appear slighter than the eating of an Apple ? Yet this petty seeming Peccadillo lost Adam Paradise , and us a Title to it : God's Interdict enabling the Core of that Forbidden Fruit to choak his Immortality , and his Posterity's hopes of it upon earth . But I purposely decline all Instances of this nature , not only in pursuance of my intended Brevity , but because 't is much nobler and more handsom for you to owe your Repentance to your Reason , than to your Apprehension . DIRECT . II. In the next place I shall prescribe , A Zealous and Incessant Sollicitation at the Throne of Grace , for Power to subdue this stubborn Vice. This Second Advice St. James seems to suggest to us in these words , Resist the devil , and he will flee from you ; and he immediately adds these , Draw nigh unto God , and he will draw nigh unto you . And truly men presume too much , when they imagine those treacherous natural Forces of their own , are able to redeem that Spiritual Liberty they were unable to defend ; and then they lose their best advantages , when their omissions of applying themselves to their Maker , makes them neglect Supplies infallibly victorious , which wait but the imploring , to advance to their rescue . Cease not then with Moses to lift up your hands to Heaven , till you have thereby discomfited and destroy'd these spiritual Amalekites , your Vices : And believe it , Prayer ( to use a Term of Physick ) is a Specifick Remedy against this Disease , and deserves that among all the Weapons proper for this Warfare , you should say that of it , that David said of huge Goliah's Sword , There is none like that , give it me . For Prayer perform'd with those due Rites its Object requires in it , gives us such awful sentiments of God's Holy Name , that our Conscience will not in a short while after permit us to dispense with the usurping it in vain . And thus this sacred Duty does not only procure , but in a manner give us what we pray for : As when some squeamish and disrelish'd person takes a long walk to the Physician 's Lodging to beg some remedy for his Inappetence , his very walking thither does in some measure give him that good Stomach he hopes to regain by the Medicines he shall get there . But if in your first attempts this Sin meet with a success more answerable to your fears than your desires , be not discourag'd at it , but make of this delay the use it is intended for , a Rise of greater eagerness and importunity in the pursuit of your addresses . Nor think it strange , that God should make you wait a while for the grant of your requests , that have been so tediously refractory to the Motions of his Spirit , that summon'd your obedience to his commands . But lose not Patience , for the wish'd supply will infallibly arrive at last , and all your expectation will but serve to endear it when receiv'd ; for God will not be wanting with his Power to assist what is undertaken only for his Glory . Nor is it less our duty to trust in his Promises , than to obey his Commands ; and we may confidently expect from his Faithfulness to the one , what he will enable our endeavours to perform the other . The great Apostle tells us , that the same God will give us to will , that worketh in us to do : And therefore you may be confident , that ( as he elsewhere speaks ) he which hath begun a good work in you , will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ . And on this score our Saviour , who entails happiness only to the godly , does yet pronounce them blessed , that hunger and thirst after righteousness , promising that they shall be satisfied . Thus he that graciously accepts the will for the deed , counts good desires but Infant Holiness , as things that differ from more perfect Graces , not in their Nature , but their ( Age and ) Growth . In the mean time , let this Consideration comfort you , That those sins displease God least , that displease the Doer most : And that in this our Combats against sins are differenc'd from our Battels amongst men ; that in the former the Victory depends not so much on our Success as our Resistance ; since none are there held vanquish'd , but submitters . And for your further comfort , you may take each Victory Grace wins of your Corruptions , not only for a Preparative to new ones , but an Earnest of more . For the Conquests of Saving Grace in the Soul are not like those the Sea makes upon the Strand , when it makes Acquisitions by the Flow , but to lose them again within few hours by the Ebb : But the Expeditions of the Spirit against Vices , are like those of the Crown'd Rider of the White Horse in the Revelation , of whom it is said , That he went forth conquering , and to conquer . DIRECT . III. In the next place , as far as conveniency will permit , 't were fit to fly the Conversation , or at least the Familiarity of profest Swearers . This Advice of declining Infectious Company , tho in a general Caution ever found prevalent against all Vices , has a peculiar property against this : For there being very small ( if any ) Temptation to it in our natures , it is principally imitated from others , ( as when one yawns , most of the Company , though otherwise uninclin'd to that act , do usually yawn out of sympathy ) and so subsists but as 't is cherish'd by Example and Custom , ( its Motive and its Nurse ) . And therefore , a very effectual Remedy against Swearing , is by conversing where it is discountenanc'd ; to starve it by discontinuance , forcing that shame of singularity that first begot it , to make amends for the mischief it has occasion'd , by employing it to the ruin of its own Productions . As Physicians make Scorpions their own Antidote by preparing out of them an Oyl that is Sovereign against their Stings . Lovers of the same Sin , may ( methinks ) be resembled unto Firebrands , which being laid together , kindle each other by their mutual heat ; but being sever'd and kept so asunder , each single Brand , after a little smoaking , does of it self go out . DIRECT . IV. For the Fourth Remedy , I should advise the Swearer to oblige himself to pay or suffer somewhat for every Oath he swears ; those little Forfeitures serving both as Monitors and as Penalties . But if the Bargain tye you to Pecuniary Disbursements , be sure distressed Christians be ( at least ) Sharers in them . For if ( as Divines tell us ) the Poor be God's Receivers , they seem to have a Title as well by Justice as by Charity , to the Amerciaments that are estreated upon Trespasses against their Lord. But have a care you turn not this Physick into Poyson , by imagining that when you have fin'd for your engagements , you have done Penance for your sins ; and by your Justice to your Compacts , cancell'd your Disobedience to your Maker . No , no , God requires not that you should part with your Sixpences , but with your Sins ; and the Repentance he accepts , consists not in a paying for , but in forsaking your Transgressions . Esteem then these inconsiderable Mulcts but as Remembrancers of your Faults , not Satisfaction for them . Ally'd to this Expedient is that useful one of procuring some discreet Friend , by putting you in mind of every Oath , to force you to take notice of your Faults ; which this course will very much contribute to make you both weary and asham'd of . Provided always , that these Reprehensions be as well seasonable as just ; for to correct men in the first violent transports of their Choler , is by administring Physick in the extremity of the Fit , but to exasperate instead of curing . Reason being to our Passions , as the Wind to the Fires ; the same Puff that will blow out the Flames of a Candle , will but kindle those that prey upon a Faggot . Reprehensions may suppress Passions when they are weak , but do but incense them whilst they are raging . 'T is listed amongst the Miracles of Christ , that he once chid a Storm into a Calm . DIRECT . V. The Fifth thing that I must prescribe our Swearer , is to resolve at once to renounce that Vice , by a Desertion not only sincere , but unsuspended and intire . Were it but one of these mere Moral Failings , whose Unfitness or Misbecomingness makes all the Guilt , I should possibly counsel you to wean yourself of it by degrees , whose progress were scarce discernible before its end ; just as Physicians use to reclaim those that have been long accustomed to unwholsome Diet. But as the same Physicians , when once a dangerous Surfeit is contracted , restrain not by degrees , but totally and abruptly , those Excesses that occasion'd it , and whose continuance would prove fatal to the Patient ; so here , where that which is to be forsaken , is not so properly a Fault as a Sin , we must refrain without the least Exception or Connivance ; since else ( the thing prohibited being in it self a Sin ) we allow our selves to offend God as much as ever , tho not so often ; by committing the same Sins in Quality , however not in Multitude . Indeed what is lessen'd by the Number of our Oaths in this partial Reformation , is recompenc'd by the aggravated Heinousness of their nature ; those that seem'd formerly but the slips of Infirmity , being now authoriz'd by Dispensation . This bare abatement of the Tale of our Sins is a good Refuge , but a bad Design : Many times this diminution is the utmost our Endeavours can arrive at ; but then it ought to be practis'd , and not to be intended ; for true Repentance , and a purpose of relapsing , are hugely inconsistent ; the one not being real , without a property destructive to the other ; since he but very lamely repents his Crimes , that resolves not against Relapses into the Crimes that he repents . No , no , this faint desisting from some acts of Vice , does but endear the rest that is unexil'd , and that importunately urge for the recalling of their banish'd Companions . This mild remissness , if it do not prune a Vice , at least it does but lop it ; and that prohibits not its future growth ; which the only way infalliby to prevent , is to dig it up by the Roots , with the Spade of an absolute and irrevocable Resolve , never to accord to our selves so much as by connivance , the least License that may endanger a Relapse . In this case , Extirpation is that alone which can secure our quiet ; and the only way that leads to an establish'd safety , is a severity that its object secures from all possibility of excesses . A Sinner's condition may be resembled to a Mouse in a Pail of Water ; if she can get out at one leap , well and good , otherwise her toyl will prove but fruitless , in attempting to get out by degrees . DIRECT . VI. Lastly , My concluding Precept is , To make frequent and serious Reflections upon the Vanity and Foolishness of Swearers , who live as if they meant to remove all our wonder from the Folly of our First Parents , that lost Paradise for an Apple . Sure that these people are not quarter'd in Bedlam , ( where far less Frenzies have imprison'd many ) proceeds rather from the Multitude of the infatuated , than any want of Madness in their actions : But howsoever , wise men build Cages for them in their opinions , and in their soberer Thoughts condemn them to inhabit those Frantick Lodgings . That usual expression of Scripture which sometimes puts the word Folly instead of the word Sin , seems chiefly calculated for the Swearer's Vice , to which it does so eminently belong , and which is so uncapable of being wrong'd by the appellation . But to what has been already delivered , to shew how little shelter our Swearers find from all their weak Apologies , ( as certainly the Fruitlesness and Inexcusableness of their Vice considered , almost no Sinners have more to answer for , and less to answer ) we must now add , That they want not only the Temptation of an Excuse , but the very Excuse of a Temptation , ( unless its being forbidden , pass for one ) . For ( First ) this Mungrel Issue cannot ( as other Vices use to be ) be said at Nature's door ; we cannot father it upon Traduction , since we inherit it not from our Parents ; nor is it born with us , but learn'd by us ; so that here , before we can be Sinners , we must have been Disciples . But ( then ) all other Vices have either Honour , ( as Ambition ) , or Profit , ( as Avarice ) , or Delight , ( as Uncleanness ) , to plead for their excuse ; Swearing alone can plead nothing but Guilty : So that if ever that expression of the Apostle , which mentions Superfluity of Naughtiness , belong'd to any sin , 't is certainly here to be appropriated . The silly Indians , that part with Gold and Jewels , for Glasses , Whistles , and such trifling Gugaws , are Solomons to Swearers : Betwixt whose Madness , and the fam'd folly of Lysimachus , who ( parch'd with extreme Thirst ) to get a little drink , became a voluntary Prisoner to his ( soon after vanquish'd ) Enemies , I find no disparity advantageous to Swearers ; it being a less ill bargain , to sell away ones Liberty for ones Belly-full of Water , than to sell away ones Soul for a Mouth-full of Air. This Swearing is a Hook without a Bait : And when Hell employ'd its spurious brood of Vices into the world to seduce mankind , it furnish'd every one of them with a Dowry , either of Fame , of Pleasure , or Advantage , to entice Lovers with ; only poor Swearing was left Portionless ; a Mistress ( only ) for those generous and disinterested Sinners , that need no Temptation ; but loving Wickedness ( as they ought to do Virtue ) for its own sake alone , aim'd at nothing in the act of sin , beyond the satisfaction of having committed it . To whom the Lord may justly say , as he did to the Israelites in the Prophet , You have sold your selves for nought . For whereas usually those Vices that rifle the Soul , do bribe the Senses ; in swearing the poor Soul is stript of her Graces , and robb'd of her Joys , without the least Emolument ( of Pleasure or Advantage ) accruing to the Senses . This swearing ( in my opinion ) is e'en as foolish as loving a cruel Mistress ; a man parts with his heart , and gets nothing in exchange for it . An Oath is like the Powder that charges a Granado , its properties are to make a momentary , displeasing noise , to offend those that are within the reach of it , and to spoil that from which it parts . Nor is that criminal blast unlike the Prophet's description of the Cankerworm ; of which he gives this Character , That it spoileth , and fleeth away . But the less advantages this Vice affords , the more culpable it is ; the Disobedience as well as Folly of a forbidden act being increased by the want of its being beneficial ; he that trespasses for least , transgresses most ; for sure 't is rather an aggravation than an excuse of having injured any body , that you get nothing by it . The Ambitious and the Incontinent , are like great Ladies , that surfeit upon Apricocks , Nectarines , and Melons : Whereas the Swearer is but too justly resembled to those Beggars , that kill themselves with Blackberries and Slows , and such like Trash , the Excrements of Hedges ; having Appetites as ridiculously noxious , as those of some of our Green-sickness Girls , whose Stomachs rise at Dainties , and long for Loam and Charcoal . For my part , would I renounce my interest in Virtue , it should be for the attaining of a Scepter , a Fame transcending Caesars ; and ( in a word ) where the Happiness I forfeited should seem so recompenc'd by that I gain'd by losing it , that wise men themselves should have occasion rather to compassionate my frailty , than admire my weakness . For I confess it would extremely trouble me to hang for my Thirteen-pence-half-penny ; and I am confident , that many of those this senseless Vice has damn'd , do find a vast accession to the Pains of Hell it self , in the consideration of the Cause of their enduring them . Since then , Swearing is a Vice so ill qualified , that you want a Temptation to it , you find no Pleasure in it , nor do derive any Advantage from it ; O let not your obstinacy to doat upon an empty fleeting sound , that has nothing in it of a Sin , except the Guilt , hinder you from shunning Torments that will equal your Wretchedness to your Folly , and from keeping up a Title unto Joys , whose very Hope transcends all Earthly Happiness , by opposing all your past Unnecessary Oaths , by one Inviolable Promisary One , Never to Swear Needlesly again . Advertisement . TO prevent all Mistakes that may arise from some apprehensions of mine , which ( seeming to censure Oaths without distinction ) may possibly be stretch'd beyond my meaning , I thought my self oblig'd to declare , That in no part of this Discourse my intention was to justify that plausible Error of our Modern Anabaptists , that indiscriminately condemn all Oaths as absolutely and indispensibly prohibited and abolished by the Gospel : My Design being only to restrain the Needless Abuse , not interdict the Necessary Use of Swearing . Whose Criminousness if not in this Discourse I have represented in its most enlarged dimensions , I may find an Excuse in the President and Practice of those Painters , who being to draw upon the Concaves of the Roofs of Churches , make their Pictures more Gigantick than the Originals they are to resemble ; to recompence by that advantage in the dimensions , what the eye loses by the distance from the object . For every Sinner naturally beholding Vice upon which he dotes , through the contracting Optick of Self-love , must have the Idea of his Crime enlarged beyond its true proportions , to make him see it in its just quantity . I might add , That 't is scarce possible to paint this ugly Negro in blacker Colours than his own ; especially since now this Sin is grown so much in fashion , that it expects not ( as most other Vices ) slow time or years to ripen it ; since in our very streets we hourly hear Children ( who sure offer up Oaths as the First-Fruits to the Devil ) swear , that can scarcely speak ; and see them perfect in their Father's Language , before they are old enough to speak their Mother-Tongue . But tho in the heinous Properties of this Vice I might find cause enough to justify more fierceness than I have exprest against it ; yet should I be extremely loth , with many ( much better stor'd with Zeal than Charity ) to doom all those to Hell , that through frailty or temptation sometimes let slip an Oath . For so severe a Sentence may perhaps concern too many , whose addictedness to other , not to greater sins than ours , makes often all the difference of our Guilts : And who in spite of all their slips and stumbles by the way , may by Repentance arrive safely at the Heavenly Canaan : And therefore I shall conclude what has been said of Swearing , with this sense of it , That 't is a Sin too Heinous to excuse Neglect , and too Venial ( if I may so speak ) justly to beget Despair . A DISSUASIVE FROM CURSING . For Mr. W. D. to Sir G. L. A DISSUASIVE FROM CURSING . For Mr. W. D. to Sir G. L. SIR , I Have too much Passion for your Person , to have any Complaisance for your Faults ; and still have lov'd you at so high a rate , that I had rather hazard the Loss of your Affection , than decline any Proofs of the Reality of mine . 'T is not that I am not as unwilling to employ Censure , as I am confident you will be troubled to have necessitated it from me ; but ( all consider'd ) I have too much Friendship , to have Courtship enough to let slip so fair an opportunity as your forc'd Conversation with Cleander , to shew you in him the Deformity of a Vice , from which I wish you were as free as from all other Crimes . Certainly , if Curses were as much the Badges of a Gentleman as he thinks them , men would not guess him to be of a lower Order than that of Emperors : And if the Devil were to fetch all those he bids him Take , his Water-Dog would not have half so busy an Employment ; Hell would have cause to praise his Liberality ; and were not Satan still the Father of Lies , he could not but acknowledge , That none of the Seven Deadly Sins , ( nor perhaps all together ) sent thither half so many . If I thought Cleander would take it for a Dissuasion , that I proved Cursing to be a Sin , I could be as ready to bring Prohibitions of it out of Scripture , as he is to transgress them . The Prophet David ( imitated by the Apostle Paul ) makes it the Character of the wicked , That his mouth is full of cursing . And in another place , That they curse inwardly . And suitably to his own Doctrine , when Shimei ( equalling his Curses to the Number of his steps ) rail'd at him with as many Imprecations as he deserved Blessings , he did not ( to speak St. Peter's Language ) render evil for evil , or railing for railing ; but only answers , Let him curse , it may be the Lord will look upon mine affliction , and that the Lord will requite me good for his cursing this day . Our Saviour commands us to bless even those that curse us ; nay , bless them that persecute you . Bless ( says St. Paul ) and curse not . And to shew you that it was not only his Precept but his Practice , being reviled ( says he ) we bless ; being persecuted we suffer it ; being defam'd we intreat . Imagine then you hear the Apostle saying , as in one place he does , Be ye followers of me , as I also am of Christ ; who ( says another Apostle ) when he was reviled , reviled not again ; when he suffered , he threatned not , but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously . And in effect , when upon the Samaritan Clowns refusal to receive Christ , the two Fiery-spirited Disciples desired leave to call down Fire from Heaven ( to consume those by the Fury of that active Element , who refus'd Entertainment to him that created it ) our Saviour answers , but with a Rebuke , and telling them , That they knew not what manner of spirit they were of . If then , in spite of Provocations we are enjoin'd to return Prayers for Maledictions , sure we that are forbidden to retribute Curses , are much more prohibited to lavish them . And if we will take the pains to shrive , and to look back into their Pedigree , we may discern in them a Hereditary Guiltiness , and shall find them sinful ( if I may so speak ) by Traduction , they being but the Emanations and Sallies of a Temper extremely unconsonant to Christianity ; of which our Saviour makes Love the distinguishing Signature : And St. Paul tells us , That the end of the commandment is charity . Of which in another place he gives this Character , That Charity suffereth long , and is kind ; doth not behave it self unseemly , beareth all things , is not easily provok'd ; with many other properties of the same nature . Insomuch , that St. John scruples not to affirm , that if a man say , I love God , and hateth his brother , he is a lyar ; ( as concorporating things inconsistent , and uniting things distanter than the two Poles of Heaven ) : And therefore when St. James , speaking of the Tongue with a certain kind of wonder , in these terms , Therewith bless we God , even the father ; and therewith curse we men that are made after the similitude of God : Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing ; he adds , My brethren these things ought not so to be . And surely too , the Gospel teaches us , that these Assassinates and Murders of the Heart , for being Bloodless are not therefore Guiltless . But granting the sin to be as venial as indeed 't is heinous ; ( and that by using Curses men did not merit them ) yet certainly the Multitude of Cleander's Faults would give them that Danger that is pretended to be wanting to their Nature ; and he that considers that those little drops of Rain , which single seem but so many Liquid Atoms , do often ( united by their Confluence ) swell into Torrents , nay , ( sometimes ) into Deluges , will easily believe that Curses cannot but be extremely criminal in that Cleander , that curses as if he were an Inhabitant of Mount Ebal ; and who is so resolved not to keep the Devil's Counsel by concealing any impious suggestions , that were but his Prayers as frequent as his Curses , he would seem to obey literally that qualified Injunction of the Apostle , of praying without ceasing . I might add , that in most of these Imprecations , God's Sacred Name being clearly taken in vain , renders these Ebalites guilty of the breach as well of the Second Commandment of the First , as of the great Commandment of the Second Table ; unless they will justify themselves from that Crime , by the owning of a worse ; I mean , demonstrate , That they d●d not employ God's Name to no purpose , by confessing they employ'd it to a bad one . And now this last Consideration leads me to that of the Unreasonableness of Cursing ; For it is not a fit thing , that upon every little Accident that Cleander's vex'd at , the Creatures of God must instantly change Masters , and devolve to the Devil . Were it not very just , that God should be the Executioner of all the rash Decrees his pettish Passion makes ; and his Creator's Power should have no other Employment , but to run on Errands ( at the Moody Gentleman's beck ) often repugnant to his Justice , and ever to his Mercy ? Nay , how often has Cleander in his Passion wish'd things , whose Accomplishment himself confesses would have made him miserable ? And is it then either the part of a Good Man to make Wishes that are unlawful , or for a Wise Man to frame Desires of which he need repent the Grant ? One Imprecation amongst the rest Cleander's very ready in , which ( with as little Caution as he commonly observes ) I would not have pronounc'd for as many Kingdoms as he has us'd it times , and that 's , The Devil take me . For should God ( as we are sure he may , and know not but that he will ) give the Devil leave to take him at his word , in what a case were he ? And what Curb shall we henceforward think strong enough to bridle his Corruption , when what to the wickedest is the greatest Terror , he makes his wish ? There was some years since in Geneva , an Italian , ( both by Extraction and Humour ) who riding a handsome Mare in a solitary Angle , was by the Devil seduc'd to stallion her himself . The Fact once done , the Horror of a Crime that made him more a Beast than that on which he acted it , transported him so far , as to make him give himself to the Devil , if ever after he relaps'd : But some while after , forgetting both his Conscience , and the condition of his Vow , he was fatally tempted to repeat his former Beastliness in the self-same place ; which he had scarce compleated , before the Devil appearing to him visibly , remembers him of his forgotten Promise , and claims the Forfeiture : The trembling Wretch , to avoid the being hurried away instantly from the Hell he felt , to that he fear'd , compounds with the Devil to resign him his Soul at the expiration of a limited Reprieve : But before that time came to be effluxt , it pleased God to visit both himself and the place of his Residence with the Plague ; which rowzing his sear'd and lethargick Conscience , forc'd him to expressions of his Anguish unusual enough to make his Companions inquisitive into the Cause ; which having fully and circumstantially confest , he was after his Recovery , upon that Evidence , accus'd of having carnally abus'd a Beast , and having made a Compact with the Devil ; which latter , though upon a Repentance suitable to his Sin , God's Mercy did disannul , yet the Justice of the Magistrate did for the former Crime condemn him to a Death he richly had deserved , and penitently endured . This Story I thought not impertinent to instance in , to teach us how dangerous and unsafe it is to present that to the Devil , for which Christ shed his Blood ; and ( with more wariness than Cleander can pretend to ) to offer that to one that is greedy to snatch ( and therefore surely willing to accept ) that which the whole business of Religion is to defend and rescue from his Attempts . The Story it self may teach us , that though we are never to despair of God's Mercy , we are as seldom to provoke his Justice . I have given it you in the very Words of our Friend Mr. Boyle , who had it upon the place from an excellent Divine of that Republick ; to whom the Delinquent himself confest it , as to him that was assign'd to comfort and assist him at his Death . And the Instances are not unfrequent in the most credited Authors , of those whose Imprecations God has punish'd by granting them . But I had almost forgot to mention one opportunity to which the Devil is indebted for a vast number of Cleander's Curses , and that 's his Gaming ; for the least Frown of Chance upon him then , gives Fire to whole Volleys of Curses against Fortune ; if at least they deserve not a more heinous Title than barely that of Curses , who in severer mens Opinions are guilty of an ( at least ) Implicite Blaspheming ; since Solomon does discreetly affirm , That all these cross and happy Lucks at Play are not rashly or designlesly shuffled by a blind Hazard , but are dispensed by an All-ruling Providence . I determine not here , Whether these Words of the Wise Man ( according to the receiv'd Opinion of Divines ) may be extended to an absolute Sentence of Condemnation against all Games of Hazard ; but this I know , that ( not to insist on that Injunction of God to the Jews , Be circumspect , and make no mention of the names of other gods , neither let it be heard out of thy mouth ; ) it is very unfit that under the Sunshine of Christianity , we should build or repair the ruin'd Altars of depos'd Chance , and acknowledge a blind Deity ; that under the abused name of Fortune , Fools anciently were pleas'd to create a Goddess , and sinners now dissemble to mistake for some such thing , that they may unreproved controul and censure those Heavenly Dispensations their proud and peevish natures are displeased with . I know that many unforeseen Accidents , which the Ignorant Vulgar do impute to Fortune , are by God in the Scriptures ascribed to Providence : And therefore you must give me leave , both to take notice of , and disapprove that ungrateful expression of our Language , wherein ( to justify our Unthankfulness for the Benefits we have received ) we use to call God's Blessing to a man in his outward Possessions , his Fortune ; as if our Estates were Gifts blindly cast on us by the rash Profuseness of that fond Deity , and not the Emanations of God's Bounty , and Presents of his Providence . Old Jacob's Gratitude speaketh another strain , and will not mention his Wealth ( though never so justly the Wages of his prosper'd Industry ) without acknowledging it for the Gift of God. But since this much-abused Name of Fortune has presented it self in my way , I dare not take leave of it , till I have express'd a desire that men would be more wary how they defame her , lest through the sides of Fortune they affront Providence . If Fortune under the common Notion , had fee'd me to be her Advocate , I should alledge , That Gamesters of all others , have the least Justice to complain of her Disfavours , since the Success of the one absolutely depending upon the Losses of the other , they themselves reduce Fortune to a Necessity of disobliging some of them , by rendring it impossible for her to content them all . And I would add , That what we fondly call her Inconstancy , when she sometimes forsakes those she once smil'd on , is much more properly to be ascribed to the Justice of her Goodness , and the Extensiveness of her Affection to men ; since seeing she is not able to make them all compleatly happy at once , at least she endeavours to make them fortunate by turns , and for some Intervals of time . Nor is it her Fickleness , that in pursuance of this impartial Love she seems to desert her former Favourites , when she confers her Favours on new Persons , since she bereaves not the first possessors of them with intention , but only by consequent ; as being not able to lend her benefits to new Necessities , without redemanding them of her former Debtors ; whom , otherwise , she has as little design to offend by this transplacing of her bounties , as the Sun has to benight the Antipodes , when to bring Light into our Hemisphere he is necessitated to leave them in darkness . 'T is not the malice or instability of Fortune , but our mistakes of the nature of her Presents , that occasion our Complaints ; for we mistaking those Benefits for absolutely given to us , which are indeed but deposited in our hands , repine and murmur at their restitution , instead of being thankful for their Loan , and having had their use . And surely they that pretend to be so perfect in her inconstancy , must be guilty of more madness in trusting her , than she can be of treachery in deceiving them . But were I to frame an Apology to vindicate Fortune under the notion of Providence , I might represent , that what we attribute of her envious partiality , when she does shower most Favours on those that least deserve them , is but the effect of God's immenser Bounty , that gives even them a larger portion of Pleasures in this life , to whom he reserves none at all in the next ; and withal casts a disesteem upon these glittering Goods , Fools over-value , by heaping them upon his very Enemies . I might farther alledge , That what our discontents , call Fortune's Spitefulness , and her Injustice , when she seems to persecute those most , that are most Virtuous , is in effect but God's Care of his Children , which by these Afflictions both Exercises and improves their Piety , secures them from the Allurements of Prosperity , endears his Assistances and his Recompences by these difficulties ; which both add Lustre to their Victories , and make their Vertues more Exemplary and more Meritorious . And ( Lastly ) I might say , That what we miscall Inconstancy in Fortune , when her Changes invalidate the title of Prescription to her Favours , and make their residence ( when possess'd ) as incertain as their wish'd stay is welcome ; is indeed but a merciful stratagem of Providence , to wean us from a dangerous fondness of these transitory Goods ; lest if the continuance of their fruition were as certain as the contentments of it are great , we should by neglecting forfeit all nobler joys , and lose far greater Pleasures reserved for us in Heaven . But we have too long wandered from our Theme ; let us return to Cleander and his Cursing ; which over and above those other good qualities we have already observ'd in it , has that of being a Sin as useless as it is Unchristian . All other Vices have something to extenuate their Guilt ; all other Sinners serve Satan for his Pay ; but the Curser , ( as the Swearer ) is the Devil's Volunteer , valuing his Soul so cheaply , that some suspect , that the reason of its stay in the Body , is , that the Devil scarce thinks it worth the fetching : And certainly , Esau's Bargain , who sold his Birth-right for a Mess of Pottage , becomes no more absurd when parallell'd to this ; which makes those it Damns as much admir'd for their folly , as tormented for their sins , and so casts upon them the imputation of Madness , that it deprives them of the privilege of Mad-men ; for whereas Frantick Persons ( who innocently act all Crimes ) may Kill men without Murther , the Curser ( on the other side ) does Murther without Killing . Cleander may indeed give himself to the Devil by his Curses , but never his Enemy ; for if Solomon's Authority be credited in this point , we shall believe that , as the bird by wandering , as the swallow by flying , so the curse causless shall not come . But the best on 't is , that these Intentional Sins , for being ineffectual against others , divest not the being criminal in themselves : For the Curser is as uncharitable to himself as to his Enemies ; he commits Murders without acting them ; and contracts the Guilt of his Neighbours Blood , without shedding it ; and incurs the Penalty , without once tasting the Sweetness of Revenge . For 't is not only in Good that God accepts the Will for the Deed ; he makes the same reception to our Endeavours and Designs of Ill. And justly may God punish the Ill by us intended , tho by him prevented , since that disappointment in which we think to find our justification , is not the effect of our want of Malice , but our want of Power , and so does not excuse our Ill , but magnifies God's Goodness . Let us therefore cease to wonder , that whilst we curse one another , our Maker curses us ; and that the Plague is so raging in our Houses , so long as it is so rife in our Mouths : But rather let us tremble at that dismal Fate , that David praying against his Enemies , Prophecies against God's . As he loved Cursing ( says he ) so let it come unto him : as he delighted not in Blessing , so let it be far from him : As he Cloathed himself with Cursing , like as with his Garment , So let it come into his Bowels like Water , and like Oil into his Bones . I might yet further alledge , That Curses are of so culpable a Nature , that their very Apology concludes them Guilty , by Pleading them to be Idle Words : And I might add to all the past Dissuasives , The Ill Repute that Curses gain a man , amongst the most Scrupulous and Preciser sort of People , who judging of the greatness of the Vice , by the smallness of the Advantage that is derivable from it , will hardly believe him to be the owner of much Piety , that will Slight it upon so little a Temptation . And those of our Divines that hold Curses to be the Dialect of the Reprobates in Hell , will think it but an ominous Piece of Providence in Cleander to imitate Travellers , who use to accustom themselves before-hand to the Language of those Climes they design to Visit . But the last Consideration that I shall employ to persuade you to divest , with the Practice of using Curses , the means of Provoking them , and the Fears of suffering them ; is that of the scandal this vicious Custom gives to weaker Christians . And as the former Considerations relate properly to Cleander , so this I must more peculiarly address to You , whose Vertues have acquir'd you so high a Reverence , that they have put it in your Power , not only to excuse , but almost to Canonize the worst Actions by your Example ; and therefore ought to make you so much the more Wary and Strict in your Behaviour : Since men believing it impossible to fail in imitating you , your Exemplary Faults will contract a deeper Guilt by being Presidents , than by being Sins . But , Sir , lest I should give you too Just an occasion to encrease the number of your Curses , by bestowing some fresh ones upon my tediousness , I will now put a Period to your trouble , by saying to you as once our Saviour did to the young man in the Gospel , ( that so resembled you in the Possession of so many Vertues ) One thing thon lackest ( yet ) ; and that one thing in you is but , by Sacrificing your Habitude of Cursing , to make your self capable of as transcendent Blessings as constantly are implor'd for you , by SIR , Your most Affectionate , most Faithful , and most Humble Servant , W. D. ERRATA . PAge 3. l. 8. read Wise Man. P. 127. l. ult . r. Promissory . THE CONTENTS . VAIN Swearing , as well as Perjury , forbidden in Scripture . Page 2 SECT . I. The usual Pleas and Excuses for Vain and Rash Swearing , considered . As , 1. It 's a Venial Sin. 7 2. They swear but seldom . 16 3. Not so often as others . 19 4. They swear what is true . 22 5. They swear by the Creatures , and not by God. 28 6. They swear by fictitious terms . 31 7. They swear some peculiar Oath . 34 8. If they swear not , they shall not be believed . 38 9. If they swear not , they shall not be fear'd , nor obeyed . 43 10. They swear not , but in Passion , or in Drink . 46 , 52. 11. They repeat but the Oaths of others . 53 12. By using Oaths they are looked upon as Gentlemen . 59 13. If they renounce it , they shall be derided for it . 66 A Digression about Repentance . 77 14. It 's impossible to subdue it . 88 SECT . II. Directions for the Cure of it . 99 1. Consider , it 's not the Nature , but the Commonness , makes Swearing thought a little Sin. 101 2. Be zealous and incessant in Prayer . 3. Fly the Conversation and Familiarity of Profess'd Swearers . 110 4. Let the Customary Swearer oblige himself to pay , or suffer somewhat for every Oath . 112 Or procure some Friend to take notice of it . 113 5. To resolve at once to renounce it . 115 6. To reflect frequently upon the folly of it . 119 A Discourse against Cursing . Pag. 1. BOOKS Printed for , and Sold by Thomas Cockerill . HIstorical Collections , the Third Part , in Two Volumes , Never before Printed ; containing the Principal Matters which happened from the meeting of the Parliament , November the 3d. 1640. to the end of the year 1644. wherein is a particular account of the Rise and Progress of the Civil War to that Period ; Impartially related . Setting forth only Matter of Fact in Order of Time , without Observation or Reflection . By John Rushworth . Fol. Life , Reign , and Trial of Mary Q. of Scots . Stitch'd . Speculum Theologiae in Christo ; or a View of some Divine Truths . By Edward Polhill of Burwash in Sussex , Esq 4to . Christus in Corde : Or the Mystical Union between Christ and Believers , considered in its resemblances , bonds , seals , privileges , and marks . By Edward Polhill , Esq 8vo . Precious Faith considered in its Nature , Working and Growth . By Edward Polhill , Esq 8vo . A Discourse of Schism . By Edward Polhill , Esq 8vo . The Evidence of Things not seen ; or divers Spiritual and Philosophical Discourses concerning the state of Holy Men after Death . By that eminently Learned Divine , Moses Amyraldus . Translated out of the French Tongue by a Minister of the Church of England , 8vo . Geography Rectified ; or a Description of the World in all its Kingdoms , Provinces , Countries , Islands , Cities , Towns , Seas , Rivers , Bays , Capes , Names , Inhabitants , Scituations , Histories , Customs , Commodities , Government . Illustrated with about 80 Maps . Third Edition . By Robert Morden . 4to . Geography Anatomiz'd ; Or a compleat Geographical Grammar ; being a short and exact Analysis of the whole Body of Modern Geography ; after a new , plain , and easy method ; whereby any person may in a short time attain to the knowledge of that most noble and useful Science , &c. To which is subjoined the present state of the European Plantations in the East and West-Indies ; with a reasonable Proposal for the Propagation of the blessed Gospel in all Pagan Countries . Illustrated with divers Maps . By Patrick Gordon , M. A. Essays on Trade and Navigation . By Sir Francis Brewster , Knight , 8vo . The Almost Christian discovered , in some Sermons on Acts 26. 28. With a Blow at Prophaneness . By the Right Reverend Ezekiel Hopkins , late Lord Bishop of Londonderry . The Possibility , Expediency , and Necessity of Divine Revelation . A Sermon preach'd at St. Martins in the Fields ▪ Jan. 7. 1695. at the beginning of the Lecture for the ensuing Year , founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle . By John Williams , D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty . The Certainty of Divine Revelation . A Second Sermon by Dr. Williams , at the same Lecture . Advertisement . WHereas Proposals have been formerly made for the Reprinting Mr. Pool's , &c. Annotations on the Holy Bible , ( to be Review'd by Mr. Samuel Clark , and Mr. Edward Veal ) with the Addition of a Concordance and Large Contents before each Chapter ; This is to give Notice , That it is now in the Press ; and the Subscribers are desired to send in their Subscription by the 25th . of June next ; after which Time the Undertakers will not be obliged to make the Allowance of the Seventh Book . The Undertakers are , Thomas Parkhurst , Brabazon Aylmer , Thomas Cockerill , Jonathan Robinson , John Lawrence , and John Taylor . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A28981-e260 Anno 1647. Notes for div A28981-e600 Mat. 5. 33 , 34. V. 37. James 5. 12. Eccl. 9. 2. Hos . 4. 2 , 3. Zech. 5. 3. Luke 12. 47. Matt. 11. 21 , 22. Gen. 19. 20. Exod. 20. 7. Heb. 10. 31. Mark 5. 9. Jer. 23. 10 ▪ Mat. 7. 13. Exod. 23. 2. Gen. 18. 32. Gal. 4. 16. Prov. 6. 23. Prov. 13. 18. Prov. 30. 12. Mat. 5. 33 , 34 , &c. Lev. 19. 12. Psal . 139. 20. Mat. 5. 34. Jer. 5. 7. Deut. 6. 13. & 10. 20. Isa . 65. 16. Josh . 23. 7. Jer. 12. 16. Exod. 23. 13. 1 Sam. 28. 8. Gal. 6. 7. 1 Cor. 3. 19. Prov. 16. 2. James 2. 10. Exod. 32. 19. Matth. 16. 26. Heb. 6. 16. Mat. 5. 29 , 3● . Eph. 4. 26. Dan. 5. 5. Prov. 14. 9. Prov. 28. 1. Exod. 21. 6. Josh . 24. 15. Mat. 5. 11. Acts 5 41. Job 12. 4. Mat 9. 23. Prov. 3. 34. Mark 8. 33. The Lines included within this Parenthesis [ ] may perhaps pass for one , and appear somewhat foreign both to the Theme and Style of this Discourse : I have yet ventur'd to insert ▪ them here , to please a Person that I much affect ; leaving to the Reader a liberty to skip them if he please ; but if he chance to vouchsafe them ▪ a perusal , I must beg for them his attention , not that they deserve it , but because they need it . It ends p. 87. 1 Cor. 15. 10. In an Essay of mistaken Modesty . Mat. 5. 16. Gen. 3. 24. Mark 10. 49. John 5. 2 , 3 , 4. Mark 2. 9 , 12. Gen. 1. 3. Jer. 28. 11 , 12 , 13. Numb . 15. 32. Gen. 4. 15. Josh . 6. 26. 1 Kings 16. 34. James 4. 7 , 8. Exod. 13. 11 , &c. 1 Sam. 21. 9. Phil. 2. 13. Phil. 1. 6. Mat. 5. 6. Rev. 6. 2. Mat. 8. 26. Gen. 34. 7. Josh . 7. 15. Judges 20. 6. Jam. 1. 21. Isa . 52. 3. Nahum 3. 16. Notes for div A28981-e5100 Psal . 10. 7. Rom. 3. 14. Psal . 62. 4. 2 Sam. 16. 5. & 13. 1 Pet. 3. 9. 2 Sam. 16. 11 , 12. Mat. 5. 44. Rom. 12. 14. 1 Cor. 4. 12 , 13. 1 Cor. 11 ▪ 1. 1 Pet. 2. 23. Luke 9. 54 , 55. John 13. 35. 1 Tim. 1. 5. 1 Cor. 13. 4 , &c. 1 John 4. 20. James 3. 9 , 10. Deut. 11. 29. 1 Thes . 5. 17. Prov. 16. 33. Exod. 23 : 13. Gen. 33. 11 , & 5. Gen. 25. 33. Prov. 26. 2. Psal . 109. 17 , 18. Matt. 12. 36. Mat. 10. 21. 
A28956	----	A defence of the doctrine touching the spring and weight of the air propos'd by Mr. R. Boyle in his new physico-mechanical experiments, against the objections of Franciscus Linus ; wherewith the objector's funicular hypothesis is also examin'd, by the author of those experiments. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1662 Approx. 303 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 69 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A28956 Wing B3941 ESTC R26549 12258632 ocm 12258632 57681 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A28956) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 57681) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 172:9) A defence of the doctrine touching the spring and weight of the air propos'd by Mr. R. Boyle in his new physico-mechanical experiments, against the objections of Franciscus Linus ; wherewith the objector's funicular hypothesis is also examin'd, by the author of those experiments. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. Sharrock, Robert, 1630-1684. [12], 122 p., [1] leaf of plates : ill. Printed by F.G. for Thomas Robinson ..., London : 1662. This work contains the first formulation of Boyle's law. Edited by Robert Sharrock. Errata: p. 122. Reproduction of original in British Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. 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Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Line, Francis, 1595-1675. Air -- Early works to 1800. Air-pump -- Early works to 1800. Physics -- Experiments -- Early works to 1800. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-06 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-07 Derek Lee Sampled and proofread 2006-07 Derek Lee Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A DEFENCE Of the Doctrine touching the Spring and Weight Of the AIR , Propos'd by Mr. R. BOYLE in his New Physico-Mechanical Experiments ; Against the Objections of FRANCISCVS LINVS . Wherewith the Objector's FUNICULAR HYPOTHESIS is also examin'd . By the Author of those Experiments . LONDON : Printed by J. G. for Thomas Robinson Bookseller in Oxon , 1662. The Publisher to the Reader . Friendly Reader , YOu may possibly in this Volume have expected the Appendix which the Author heretofore promised , and has intended shall contain some additional Experiments to those which were formerly publish'd , and are here now reprinted in this Second Edition . These following Answers to Franciscus Linus and Mr. Hobbes are presented in compensation of the delay , and for your forbearance of that Appendix , which ere long you may expect in kind . For the Author having hinted the Promise seems thereby to acknowledge the Debt , and to be content to continue the Obligation to see it performed . And these ought the rather to be his excuse , because the writing these Answers , and publishing the Sceptical Chymist , and some other Discourses , have been the principal hindrances to that Piece ; which is really so near a readiness , that part of it has lyen at the Press these six Moneths : But yet it being not all perfected , the Stationer was loth to delay any longer the Publication of these , for which he has been so frequently call'd upon . And they ( though a Latine Edition is intended ) appear now the rather in English , that they may accompany the Second Edition of the Original Experiments , which were printed first in that Language in Octavo ; and that instead of the promised Appendix they may complete the bulk of the Quarto Volume . As for that part of this Piece that concerns Mr. Hobbes , it might have been larger : but the information that the Author had that the learned Dr. Wallis was writing against some passages in Mr. Hobbes his Dialogues ( as well that concerning the Air as the rest ) was the occasion why his H. would make no animadversion on some passages therein , and thought it not fit to enlarge upon others . And for the Errata of the Press I hope they will not be many : however the Author as to these is to be excused , who never ( in regard to his Eyes and Impediments on other occasions ) gives himself the trouble of Corrections and Revises ; neither could the Publisher much attend the Press , it being printed in a distant place from his usual abode . If , as I wish , you shall find this jealousie of mine to have been causless , you will have reason to give the Piece that is so kindly offered , and leads you such rare and untrodden paths in the best way of Natural Philosophy , the fairer entertainment and acceptance . Farewell . Ro. Sh. THE AVTHOR's PREFACE AND DECLARATION . THey that know how indispos'd I naturally am to Contentiousness , will , I presume , wonder to see me publickly engaged in two Controversies at once . But that I am still as averse as ever from entering into Disputes that may handsomly be declin'd , the way wherein I have managed the following Controversies will , I hope , evince . And the Inducements I now have to appear in publick are such , that it would be hard for me to resist the being prevail'd on by them . For , in the first place , I was ( by Name , as it were ) challenged by a person , who undertook to disprove not one or two of my Conjectures , but as much of the whole Body of my Treatise as concern'd the Spring of the Air , which most of my Explications suppose . And this being done by a Learned Man , who writes very confidently of the goodness of his Hypothesis and Arguments , and his Book being soon after follow'd by another written by Mr. Hobbs , a man of Name in the World ; there seem'd to be some danger that so early an Opposition might oppress the Doctrine I had propos'd , before it was well understood and duly ponder'd . Wherefore I fear'd I might be wanting to the Truth and my self , if I should at such a time be altogether silent ; especially since I might probably divert many who would otherwise be forward to appear against us , by letting them see how defensible our Doctrine is even against such Adversaries as hose I have reply'd to . And this course I the rather chose , that in case I should henceforward comply with those who would have me forbear to write any further of these Controversies , it might not be presently inferr'd from my silence , that a good Cause cannot enable a Pen no better then mine to defend it . But I scarce doubt but that intelligent Readers , especially those that are imbued with the Principles of the Corpuscularian Philosophy , will be much more apt to think that I had reason to write the following Discourses , then to think that I had any to make them so prolix : And especially ingenious men , that are accustomed to admit nothing that either is not intelligible , or is precarious , will think divers of the Objections I reply to needed no Answers , or at least no solemn ones . But to these I have four things to represent . And First , That which not a little swells the bulk of the following Treatises , is the inserting those passages of my Adversaries that I examine in their own words : which being a Practice that I expect from any that shall think fit to animadvert upon any Opinion or Argument of mine ; I thought it but equitable to do what I desir'd to have done to me , though oftentimes I could not do it in a little room . Next , I was the more willing to prosecute some of Franciscus Linus his Objections , because the fear of being reduc'd to grant a Vacuum has so prevail'd with many eminent persons bred up in the received Philosophy of the Schools , that though they disagree both with him and among themselves about the particular manner of solving the Phaenomena of the Torricellian Experiment ; yet they agree in ascribing them to some extremely-rarefi'd substance that fills up the space deserted by the Quicksilver . So that this Opinion , as to the main , being approved by many eminent Schoalrs , especially of that most learned Order of the Jesuites , ( to whom perhaps its Congruity to some Articles of their Religion chiefly recommends it ) I was willing to pay them that respect , as not to dissent from persons , divers of whom for their eminence in Mathematicks and other Learning I much esteem , without shewing that I do it not but upon Considerations that I think weighty . Thirdly , though the Examiners Hypothesis have but few , and not very considerable , Arguments to countenance it ; yet his Objections against our Doctrine ( the Reply to which takes up the first Part of the following Treatise ) are such , as though they may be solidly answered by any that throughly understands our Hypothesis , yet they may chance puzzle such Readers as do not , and these possiblywill prove more then a few . And , Lastly , because that sometimes when the Argument objected did not perhaps deserve to be much insisted on , the Argument treated of deserv'd to be considered ; I thought it not amiss to make use now and then of some such opportunities to illustrate the matter it self under consideration : Which I the rather did for these two Reasons ; First , because I find that , except by some able Mathematicians and very few other contemplative men , the Doctrine of the Spring of the Air , at least as I have proposed it , is not yet sufficiently apprehended , ( and therefore needs to be inclucated . ) Insomuch that through a great part of some late Discourses of men otherwise eminently learned , ( written against other Elaterists , not me ) there seems to run so great and clear a mistake , perhaps for want of skill in the Hydrostaticks , that I can scarce impute it to any thing , but to their not throughly understanding the Hypothesis they would confute . And , next , because I was willing to lay down in my Answer to the Objections I examin'd , the grounds of answering such other Arguments as may be built upon the same or the like Principles . And perhaps I may truly enough say , that in the following Treatise I have already in effect answered several Discourses , written some before and some since mine , by learned men , about the Torricellian and other new Experiments relating to a Vacuum , though I forbore to mention the names or words of the Authors , because I found not that my Writings or Experiments were as yet known to them . To these things I may adde , that I thought the Discourses of Linus the fitter to be insisted on , because he seems to have more diligently then some others , ( who yet venture to dispute against it ) enquired into our Doctrine . And I shall not scruple to say thus much of an Adversary , ( and one to whom I gave no provocation to be so ) that though I dare not speak in general of those that have written either about the Weight of the Air , or else For or Against a Vacuum , because ( as I acknowledge in the first Chapter following ) I cannot yet procure the Books of divers learned men , especially of those great Personages , Robervall , Balianus and Casatus ; yet among the Writers I have hitherto met with , who have recourse to the Aristotelean Rarefaction and Condensation in the Controversies under debate , scarce any seems to have contrived his Hypothesis better then our Linus . Not that I think his Principle is either true , or ( at least to such as I ) intelligible ; but that the Funiculus he assumes being allow'd him , he may , for a Reason to be touch'd a little below , make out , though not all the Phaenomena of my Experiments , yet many more of them then most other Plenists , that deny the Spring of the Air , can deduce from their Hypotheses if granted . And in regard that , whereas we ascribe to the Air a Motion of Restitution outwards , he attributes to it the like Motion inwards , it cannot but happen that , though the Principles cannot both be true , yet many of the Phaenomena may be explicable by which of them soever is granted : because of this , I say , it is not so easie as many ingenious Readers may be apt to think , to draw pertinent Objections from Experience against the Adversary I have to deal with . Which Irepresent , lest , as some may think I have employ'd more Arguments then I needed , so others should think I have omitted many ; as indeed I have omitted some , that I might pertinently have employ'd . But there is another sort of Persons besides those I mention'd at the beginning of this Preface , to whom I must addresse the remaining part of it ; namely , to those who seem troubled , that I suffer my self to be diverted either by Linus or Mr. Hobbs from perfecting those Experimental Treatises that are lying by me , almost promis'd by the learned Publisher of the Latine Edition of my Essays ; and from prosecuting those wayes of enquiry into the Nature of things , wherein they are pleas'd to think I may be more serviceable to reall Learning and the Lovers of it . And I confess that these Mens Reasons and Perswasions have so far prevailed with me , that after what I have done in the two following Treatises , to Vindicate my Writings from the Objections made against them by two Learned men of very differing Hypotheses , and thereby to shew in some measure that I am not altogether unacquainted with the way of defending oppos'd Truths , I have laid aside the thoughts of writing any more distinct or entire Polemicall Treatises about the Subjects already disputed of . And to this I am invited by several other Reasons ( besides what I have newly intimated . ) For first , as I elsewhere declare , it was not my chief Design to establish Theories and Principles , but to devise Experiments , and to enrich the History of Nature with Observations faithfully made and deliver'd ; that by these , and the like Contributions made by others , men may in time be furnish'd with a sufficient stock of Experiments to ground Hypotheses and Theorys on . And though in my Physico-Mechanicall Epistle and my Specimens I have ventur'd some Conjectures also at the Causes of the Phaenomena I relate , lest the Discourse should appear to inquisitive Readers too jejune ; yet ( as I formerly said ) I propos'd my Thoughts but as Conjectures design'd ( though not only , yet chiefly ) to excite the Curiosity of the Ingenious , and afford some hints and assistance to the Disquisitions of the Speculative . And accordingly I have not forborn to mention divers things , which judicious Readers may easily perceive I foresaw that many , would think unfavourable to the Opinions I inclin'd to . So that for me to leave Experimental for Controversial Studies , were a course unsuitable to the principal scope of my Writings . Next , though I have adventur'd to improve the Doctrine of the Spring and Weight of the Air by some Supplements where I found it deficient , and to recommend it by some new Illustrations and Arguments deduc'd from my Experiments : yet the Hypotheses themselves ( for the main ) being the Opinions also of far learneder Men then I , it might be thought injurious both to them and to our common Cause , if I should needlesly go about to hinder them from the Honour of Vindicating the Truths we agree in ; especially , some of them being Excellent Mathematicians , and others Eminent Naturalists , whose Concern to maintain the Hypotheses against Objections , if any shall arise , is equal to mine , and whose leisure and abilities far exceed those of a Person who both is sickly , and hath other employments enough , and who ( if he were far better skil'd in Geometry then he pretends to be ) hath such a weakness in his Eyes , as makes him both unwilling and unfit to engage in any Study where the conversing with Mathematical Schemes is necessary . Thirdly , nor do I see much cause to doubt that the things I have deliver'd will notwithstanding my silence be left undefended : The forwardness I have already observ'd in divers Virtuosi to Vindicate those Writings , which they are pleas'd to say have convinc'd them , and to save me the labour of penning the following Treatises , scarce permitting me such an Apprehension . Especially since there are some things that will much facilitate their Task , if not keep men from putting them upon it . For though Mr. Hobbs and Linus have examin'd my Writings upon Principles wherein they differ as much from each other as from me ; yet neither have they seen cause to deny any thing that I deliver as Experiment , nor have their Objections been considerable , whether as to Number or to Weight , against the Applications I have made of my Principles to solve the Phaenomena . So that usually without objecting any Incongruity to my particular Explications , they are fain to fall upon the Hypotheses themselves : in whose Defence I think I may with the more Reason expect to be seconded , because not only I have endeavour'd , as I formerly noted , to lay the grounds of answering such Objections as I foresaw might arise ; but I have also , to prevent or ease their labour , written the two first Parts of my Defence against Linus , without being oblig'd to do so for the Vindicating of my Explications , which are particularly maintain'd in the third Part. I know not whether I may venture to adde on this Occasion , That those who have taken notice of the usefulness of Experiments to true Philosophy , and have observ'd that neverthelesse the Difficulty , Trouble , and Charge of making them is such , that even in this Learned Age of ours there are very few Bacon's or Mersennus's to be met with , and those who have either made themselves , or at least seen others make Experiments , even such as those I have publish'd , with the care I am wont to think my self oblig'd to employ on such Occasions ; will perhaps not only believe that they cost me far more time and pains then they that have not made or seen such tryals are apt to imagine , but will possibly think it enough for a Person that is not by Profession a Scholar , to make them carefully , and set them down faithfully , and will allow him to let others Vindicate the Truths he may have the good fortune to discover , especially , when there are so many fitter for it then he , who have ( as well as his Adversaries ) more leisure to write Disputations then opportunity to prosecute Experiments ; the latter of which to be perform'd as it ought to be , doth in many cases , besides some Dexterity scarce to be gain'd but by Practice , require sometimes more Diligence , and oftentimes too more Cost , then most are willing , or then many are able , to bestow upon them . To be short , though if any thing very worthy to be taken notice of by me be suggested against any of my chief Opinions or Explications , I may either take an occasion to say somewhat to it elsewhere , or at least have an opportunity to consider it in a Review , wherein I may alter , mend , supply , vindicate or retract divers Passages of my other Writings : yet I would not have it expected that I should exchange a Book with every one that is at leisure to write one against a Vacuum , or about the Air. Which Declaration I make , not that I think it will or ought to hinder any man from making use of his liberty to expresse a dissent , if he sees cause ; but for these two Reasons . The one , That my silence might not injure either the Truth or my self , by tempting men to think , that whatever I do not answer , I cannot ; but might give unbiass'd and judicious Readers a Caution to allow as little of Advantage to the Writings of my adversaries upon the account of their being unanswer'd by me , as if I were no longer in the World. And the other , That I may not hinder those who would reply to such Adversaries , by leaveing them an apprehension that either I may prevent them , or they me . To conclude , I see no cause to despair , that whether or no my Writings be protected , the Truths they hold forth will in time in spite of opposition establish themselves in the Minds of men , as the Circulation of the Bloud , and other formerly much contested Truths have already done . My Humour has naturally made me too careful not to offend those I dissent from , to make it necessary for any man to be my Adversary upon the account of Personal Injuries or Provocations . And as for any whom either Judgment or Envy may invite to contend , that the things I have communicated to the World deserved not so much Applause as they have had the luck to be entertain'd with ; that shall make no Quarrel betwixt us : For perhaps I am my self as much of that mind as he ; and however I shall not scruple to prosess my self one of those who is more desirous to spend his time usefully , then to have the Glory of leaving nothing that was ever written against him unanswer'd ; and who is more sollicitous to pursue the wayes of discovering Truth , then to have it thought that he never was so much subject to Humane Frailties as to miss it . A DEFENCE Of Mr. R. BOYLE's EXPLICATIONS of his Physico-mechanical EXPERIMENTS , against FRANCISCUS LINUS . The I. Part. Wherein the Adversaries Objections against the Elaterists are examined . CHAP. I. A Newly published Treatise , De Corporum inseparabilitate , being brought to my Hands , I find several Chapters of it employ'd to oppose the Explications I ventur'd to give of some of my new Experiments touching the Spring of the Air. Wherefore though I am very little delighted to be engag'd in Controversies , and though I be not at present without Employments enough ( of a private , and of a publick Nature ) to make it unseasonable for me , to be by a Work of this sort diverted from them ; yet for the Reasons specified in the Preface , I hold it not amiss to examine briefly what is objected against the thing I have delivered : and the rather , partly , because the Learned Author , whoever he be ( for 't is the Title-Page of his Book that first acquainted me with the name of Franciscus Linus ) having forborne provoking Language in his Objections , allowes me in answering them to comply with my Inclinations & Custom of exercising Civility , even where I most dissent in point of Judgement . Besides , the Author himselfe has somewhat facilitated my Reply to him , by directing me in the ninth Page to some Books and Passages that I had not , when I publisht my Epistle , either seen or taken notice of . As indeed there are besides some of these several other Discourses that treat of the Torrecellian Experiments , which though by the names of their Authors I guess to be learnedly written , I have not to this day had opportunity to peruse , my stay in the remoter parts of Ireland ( whither Philosophical Books were not , in that time of publick Confusion , brought ) having kept me from hearing of divers of them , till they were all bought up . Which I here mention , to excuse my self if I have not taken notice of some things or passages to be met with in these Writings , which their Learned Authors or Inquisitive Readers might justly perhaps expect I should take some notice of , in case those Writings had fallen into my hands . But to digress no further . 'T is true indeed , and it somewhat troubles me that it is so , that I can scarce promise my self to make my Adversary a Proselyte , since he without scruple assumes those very things as Principles , that to me seem almost as great Inconveniences as I would desire to shew any Opinion I dislike , to be liable unto . But since whatever Operation the following Discourse may have upon the Person that occasion'd it , I hope it may bring some satisfaction to those Philosophers who can as little as I understand the Aristotelean Rarefaction , and who will as well as I be backward to admit what they cannot understand ; it shall suffice me to defend the Truths I have deliver'd , if I cannot be so happy as to convince my acute Adversary of them ; and I shall not believe my labour lost , if this Discourse can contribute to the Establishment of some Notions in Philosophy that I think not inconsiderable , in the minds of those whose clear Principles make me the most respect their Judgements , and for whose sakes I principally write . Now though I be not in strictness oblig'd to defend any more then such of my own Explications as the Examiner has thought fit to question , and those Particulars which I have added by way of Improvement to the two Hypotheses of the Spring and Weight of the Air : yet that I may the more effectually prosecute what I lately intimated I aim at in this Writing , and may as well illustrate my Doctrine as defend it , I shall divide the ensuing Treatise into three Parts ; whereof the first is design'd to answer my Adversaries Objections against our Principles ; the second shall examine the Funicular Hypothesis he would substitute in their stead ; and the third shall contain particular Replyes to what he alledges against some of my particular Explications . CHAP. II. ALthough our Author confesses in his second Chapter , that the Air has a Spring as well as a Weight , yet he resolutely denies that Spring to be near great enough to perform those things which his Adversaries ( whom for brevities sake we will venture to call Elaterists ) ascribe to it . And his whole fourth Chapter , as the Title declares , is imploy'd to prove that the Spring of the Air is unable in a close place to keep the Mercury suspended in the Torrecellian Experiment . The proof of this Assertion he sayes is easie : But alledges two or three Arguments for it , which I think will be more easily answer'd then his Assertion evinc'd . In the First he sayes that those Experiments concerning the Adhesion of ones finger , &c. which he had mentioned in the foregoing Chapter , eodem modo se habent in loco clauso ac in aperto . But the answering of this we shall suspend till anon ; partly , because it may then be more conveniently examin'd , and partly , because our Author seems not to build much upon it , his chief Argument being that which he proposes in these words , Cum tota vis hujus Elaterii pendeat à refutato jam aëris aequipondio cum digitis 29½ argenti vivi , ita ut nec plus , nec minus faciat hoc elaterium in loco occluso , quam fit per illud aequipondium in loco aperto ; manifestum est , cum jam ostensum sit fictitium planè esse hujusmodi aequipondium , fictitium quoque esse tale elaterium . Wherefore since all the validity of his Objection against the Spring of the Air depends upon his former Chapter , wherein he thinks he has disprov'd the Weight of the Air ; it will behove us to look back into the former Chapter , and examine the four Arguments which he there proposes . But I must crave leave to vary from his method , and consider the third in the first place , because the removal of that Objection will facilitate and shorten the answer to the rest . His Third Argument therefore is thus set down . Nam si Tubus viginti tantum digitorum ( quo usi sumus in primo Argumento ) non totus impleatur argento , ut prius , sed spatium aliquod inter digitum superiorem & argentum relinquatur in quo fit solus aër ; videbimus substracto inferiore digito superiorem non solum deorsum trahi ; ut prius , sed etiam argentum jam descendere , idque notabiliter , quantum nimirum extendi potest exigua illa aëris particula à tali pondere descendente . Unde si loco illius aëris ponatur aqua , aliusve liquor qui non tam facilè extenditur , descensus nullus erit . Hinc , inquam , contra hanc sententiam formatur argumentum : nam si externus ille aër neque at velhos viginti digitos argenti à lapsu sustentare , uti jam vidimus , quomodo quaeso sustentabit 29½ ? Certè haec nullatenus reconciliari possunt . But to this Argument , which he thinks so irreconcilable with his Adversaries Hypothesis , he has himself furnisht them with an Answer in these words , Dices forte ideo argentum in hoc casu descendere , quia deorsum truditur ab aëre illo sese per suum Elaterium dilatante . Which Answer I think sufficient for the Objection , notwithstanding the two exceptions he takes at it . For first , whereas he sayes , that sic deberet digitus potius à tubo repelli , quam eidem affigi , cum non minus sursum quam deorsum fiat hujusmodi dilatatio : He considers not , that though the endeavour of the included Air to expand it selfe be at first every way alike , yet the expansion it selfe in our case must necessarily be made downward , and not upward ; because the Finger that stops the Tube being expos'd on the upper parts and the sides to the external Air , has the whole Weight and pressure of the Atmosphere upon it ; and consequently cannot be thrust away but by a force capable to surmount that pressure : whereas on the lower side of the Included Air there is the Weight of the whole Mercurial Cylinder to assist the Spring of the Air , to surmount the Weight of the Atmosphere that gravitates upon the restagnant Mercury . So that the Air included and endeavouring to expand it selfe , finding no assistance to expand it self upward , and a considerable one to expand it selfe downward , it is very natural that it should expand it selfe that way whence it finds less resistance . As accordingly it will happen , till the Spring of the Air be so far debilitated by its Expansion , that its pressure , together with the weight of the Mercury that remains suspended , will but counter-balance , not overcome , the pressure of the outward Air upon the restagnant Mercury . And this Explication may be confirm'd by this trial that I have purposely made , namely , that if in stead of Quicksilver you employ Water , and leave as before in the Tube an Inch of Air , and then inverting it , open it under Water , you will perceive the included Inch of Air not to dilate it selfe any thing near ( for I need not here define the Proportion ) halfe so far as it did when the Tube was almost fill'd with Mercury ; because the Weight of so short a Cylinder of Water does but equal that of between an Inch and an Inch and an halfe only of Quicksilver , and consequently the inward Air is far less assisted to dilate it self and surmount the pressure of the outward Air by the Cylinder of Water then by that of Mercury . And as for what our Author sayes , that if instead of Air , Water or some other Liquor be left at the top of the Tube , the Quick-silver will not descend : the Elaterists can readily solve that Phaenomenon , by saying that Water has either no Spring at all , or but an exceeding weak one ; and so scarce presses but by its Weight , which in so short a Cylinder is inconsiderable . Now the same solution we have given of our Examiners Objection , gives us also an account why the Finger is so strongly fastned to the upper part of the Orifice of the Tube it stops ; for the included Air being so far dilated that an Inch , for example , left at first in the upper Part of the Tube , reaches twice or thrice as far as it did before the descent of the Quick-silver , its spring must be proportionably weakned . And consequently that part of the Finger that is within the Tube will have much less pressure against it from the dilated Air within , then the upper part of the same Finger will have from the unrarefi'd Air without . By which means the Pulp of the Finger will be thrust in ( which our Author is pleas'd to call suckt in ) as we shall ere long have occasion to declare in our Answer to his second Argument . And having said thus much to our Authors first exception against the solution he foresaw we would give of his third Argument ; we have not much to say at present to his second . For whereas he sayes , Concipi non posse quomodo aër ille sic se dilatet , argentumque deorsum trudat , nisi occupando majorem locum : Quod tamen hi Autores quam maxime refugiunt , asserentes rarefactionem non aliter fieri , quam per corpuscula aut vacuitates : I wish he had more clearly express'd himself , since as his words are couch'd I cannot easily guess what he means , and much less easily discern how they make an Argument against his Adversaries . For , sure he thinks them not so absurd , as to imagine that the Air can dilate it self , and thrust down the Mercury , without in some sense taking up more room then it did before : For the very word Dilatation , and the effect they ascribe to the included Air , clearly imply as much ; so that I see not why he should say that they are so averse from granting the Air to take up more Place then before , especially since he takes notice in the former Chapter , that we compare the Expansion of the Air to that of compress'd Wooll ; and since he here also annexes that we explicate Rarefaction either by Corpuscles or Vacuities . But this later Clause makes me suspect his meaning to be , that the Elaterists do not admit that the same Air may adequately fil more of Place at one time then at another ; which I believe to be as true as that the self-same lock of compress'd Wooll has no more Hairs in it , nor does adequately fill more Place with them , when it is permitted to expand it self , then whilest it remain'd compress'd . But against this way of Rarefaction our Author here has not any Objection , unless it be intimated in these words , Concipi non potest : Which if it be , I shall need only to mind him in this place , that whereas many of the chiefest Philosophers , both of Ancient and our own times , have profest they thought not the Aristotelean way of Rarefaction conceivable ; and he acknowledges ( as we shall see anon ) that it is not clear ; what the ablest of his Party ( the modern Plenists ) are wont to object against the way of Rarefaction he dislikes , is , that it is not true , not that it is not intelligible . CHAP. III. OUr Authors Second Objection ( for so I reckon it ) is thus propos'd by him . Si sumatur tubus utrinque apertus , sed longior , put a digitorum 40. Argentoque impleatur , eique digitus supernè applicetur ut prius , videbimus subtracto inferiore digito , argentum quidem descendere usque ad consuetam suam stationem ; Digitum autem superiorem fortiter intra tubum trahi , eique firmissime , ut prius , adhaerere . Ex quo rursum evidenter concluditur , argentum , in sua statione constitutum , non ibidem sustentari ab externo aëre , sed à funiculo quodam interno suspendi , cujus superior éxtremitas , digito affixa , eum sic intra tubum trahit , eique affigit . But this Argument being much of the same nature with that drawn from his third Experiment , the Answer made to that and to his first may be easily apply'd , and will be sufficient for this also ; especially because in our present case there is less Pressure against the Pulp of the Finger in the inside of the Tube then in the third Experiment ( where some air is included , though much expanded and weakned ; ) the Pressure of the Atmosphere being in the present case kept off from it by the subjacent Mercury , whereas there is nothing of that Pressure abated against the other parts of the Finger that keep it off from the deserted Cavity of the Tube , save only that from the Pulp that is contiguous to the Tube , there may be somewhat of that Pressure taken off by the Weight of the Glass it self . But as for that Part of the Finger which immediately covers the hole , whether or no there be any Spring in its own fibres , or other constituent substances , which finding no resistance in the place deserted by the Quick silver , may contribute to its swelling ( for that we will not now examine ) he that has duly consider'd the account already given of this Intrusion of the Pulp into the Glass , will find no need of our Authors internal Funiculus , which to some seems more difficult to conceive , then any of the Phaenomena in Controversie is to be explain'd without it . CHAP. IV. BY what we have already said against our Examiners Third Argument , we may be assisted to answer his First , though he propose it as a very clear Demonstration ; and though it be indeed the principal thing in his Book . Sumatur ( sayes he ) tubus brevior digit is 29½ puta digitorum 20. non tamen clausus altero extremo , ( ut hactenus ) sed utrinque apertus : Eic Tubus , immerso ejus orificio Argento restagnanti , suppes●oque digito , n●effluat Argentum Tubo infundendum , impleatur argento vivo : aliusque deinde digitus orificio quoque applicetur , illudque bene claudat . Quo facto , si subtrahatur inferior digitus , sentietur superior vehementer trahi , ac sugi intra tubum , tamque pertinaciter ei ( vel argento potius , ut postea ) adhaerere , ut ipsum tubum cum toto argento incluso facilè elevet teneatque in vase pendulum . Ex quo sane experimento clarissimè refellitur haec sententia : Cum enim , juxta eam , Argentum in tubo hujusmodi 20. tantum digitorum , sursum trudatur à praeponderante ante aëre externo : nunquam profecto per eam explicabitur , quomodo digitus ille sic trahatur deorsum , tuboque tam vehementer adhareat ; non enim à trudente sursum potest sic deorsum trahi . Thus far our Authors objection , in answer whereunto I have divers things to represent , to shew , that a good account may be given of this Experiment in the Hypothesis of the Elaterists , which is sufficient to manifest how far the argument is from being so unanswerable as the proposer of it would perswade his Reader . I deny then that the Finger is drawn downward , or made by suction to adhere to the Tube ; but I explicate that which he calls the suction of the Finger , as I lately did in answer to his third Argument , as we shall more particularly see anon . He sayes indeed , that the Air which thrust up the Quicksilver cannot so strongly draw down the Finger . As if the Air were not a fluid body , but a single and entire pillar of some solid matter . But to shorten our reply to his objections , the best way perhaps will be briefly to explicate the Phaenomenon thus : When the Tube is fill'd with Quicksilver , the Finger that stops the upper Orifice is almost equally press'd above and at the sides by the contiguous Air ; but when the lower Finger is remov'd , then the Cylinder of Mercury , which before gravitated upon the Finger , comes to gravitate upon the restagnant Mercury , and by its intervention to press against the outward Air : so that against those parts of the Finger that are contiguous to the Air there is all the wonted pressure of the outward Air ; whereas against that pulp that is contiguous to the Mercury there is not so much pressure as against the other parts of the Finger by two thirds . I say by two thirds , or thereabout , because the Mercurial Cylinder in this Experiment is suppos'd to be twenty Inches high ; and if it were but a little more then thirty Inches high , ( which is a third more ) then the weight of the Quicksilver would take off not two thirds onely , but the whole pressure of the outward Air , from the above-mentioned pulp of the Finger . For in that case the Quicksilver would quite desert it , and settle beneath it . Wherefore since it has appeared by our Answer to the Examiners third Argument , That the pressure of the outward Air is taken off from the body that remains in the upper part of the Tube , according to the weight of the liquor suspended in the Tube ; and since in our Hypothesis the pressure of the outward Air is able to keep thirty Inches of Quicksilver , or two or three and thirty foot of Water , suspended in a Tube ; it need be no great wonder , if a pressure of the ambient Air , equal to the weight of a Cylinder of Water of near twenty two foot long , should be able to thrust in the pulp of the Finger at the upper Orifice of the Tube , and make it stick closely enough to the lip of it . I know the Examiner affirms , That no thrusting or pressure from without can ever effect such an adhesion of the Finger to the Tube . But this should be as well prov'd as said . But , first , though I am willing to think the Examiner would not knowingly relate any thing he is not perswaded of ; yet as far as I and another person very well vers'd in these Experiments have purposely tryed , I could not find the Adhesion of the Finger to the Tube to be near so strong as our Author hath related . Secondly , if you carefully endeavour by pressure and otherwise to thrust the pulp of your Finger into the Orifice of the Tube , you may through the Glass perceive it to be manifestly tumid in the cavity of the Pipe. And if by pressing your Finger against the Orifice of the Tube , you should not make the pulp adhere quite so strongly to the Tube , nor swell quite so much within it , as may happen in some Mercurial Experiments ; it is to be consider'd , that the Air being a fluid as well as a heavy body , it does not ( as grosser Weights would ) press only against the upper part of the Finger , but pressing as much of the finger as is expos'd to it almost every where , and almost uniformly , as well as strongly , it does by its lateral pressure on every side thrust in the Pulp of the Finger into the hole where there is not any resistance at all , or at least near so much pressure against the Pulp as that of the ambient Air against the parts of the Finger contiguous to it . By this it may appear that we need not borrow the Objection our Author offers to lend us ; namely , that in the Experiment under consideration the Quicksilver is press'd downward by the Spring of some Air lurking betwixt it and the Finger . ( Though I am prone to think that unless the Experiment be made with a great deal of care , such a thing may easily happen , and contribute to the stronger Adhesion of the Finger to the Tube . ) This I say may appear notwithstanding what our Author Objects , that the Air expanding it self wil thrust away the Finger upwards , since the contrary of that pretence we have lately manifested in the Answer to his Third Argument . And as for what he adds to confirm his Argumentation in these Words , Quod vel inde confirmatur , Quia cum praponderans ille aër succedat ( uti asseritur ) loco sublati inferioris digiti , id est , eodem modo nunc sustentet Argentum quo ante ab applicato digito inferiore sustentabatur ; manifestum est , non debere , juxta hanc sententiam , magis deorsum trahi digitum superiorem post sublatā inferiorem quam ante . Cum it aque contrarium planè doceat experientia , satis liquet sententiam illam esse falsam . We must consider that the Tube being suppos'd perfectly full of Mercury , the Finger that stops the lower Orifice is wont to be kept strongly press'd against it , lest any of that ponderous Liquor should get out between the Tube and the Finger . So that although both the lower Finger do indeed keep up the Mercury in the Tube , and the pressure of the outward Air would do so too ; yet there is this difference , that the pressure of the Atmosphere depending upon its Weight , cannot be intended and weakned as we please , as can that of the undermost Finger . And therefore whereas the Atmospherical Cylinder will not keep up a Cylinder of Quicksilver of above thirty Inches high , those that make the Torricellian Experiment do often , upon one occasion or other , keep up with the , Finger a Mercurial Cylinder of perhaps forty or fifty Inches or far more : so that whereas in our Case , before the removal of the undermost Finger , the Pulp of the uppermost must have about the same Pressure against it where it is contiguous to the Mercury , as there is against the other part of the same Finger ; after the removal of the undermost Finger , there is as much of the Atmospherical Pressure , if I may so speak , taken off from the newly-mention'd Pulp as counter-balances a Cylinder of Quicksilver of twenty Inches long . CHAP. V. THe Examiners Fourth and last Experiment is thus propos'd . Quarto denique ( sayes he ) impugnatur : Quia ex eo sequeretur , Argentum vivum per similem Tubum è vasculo exsugi posse eâdem prorsus facilitate quâ ex eodem exsugeretur aqua : quod tamen experientiae repugnat , quâ docemur aquam in ●s sugentis facillime attrahi ; quo tamen Argentum vivum ne toto quidem adhibito conatu perduci queat , imo vix ad Tubi medietatem . Sequelam autem sic ostendo : Quia cum in hac sententia nihil aliud agendum sit quam hoc , ut per Tubum sic ascendat subjectus Liquor , sive Aqua fuerit , sive Argentum , nisi ut sugendo sursum trahatur aër Tubo inclus s , quo sic attracto ascendit illico subjectus Liquor , protrusus nimirum ab externo aëre jam praeponderante ( uti docet Pecquetius in Dissertatione Anatomica pag. 63. ) manifestum est , eadem planè facilitate exsugendum sic Argentum vivum qua exsugitur Aqua : Quod quum Experientiae tam aperte repugnat , necesse est sententiam ex qua sequitur falsam esse . This Experiment I remember I made some years ago , accordingly 't is alledg'd in the Fourth Essay of the Treatise ( I was then writing ) to prove against the Vulgar Opinion , that Liquors do not to prevent a Vacuum spontaneously ascend , which I presume will be so far allow'd of by our Author , who would have Liquors suppos'd to be rais'd by Suction violently drawn up by the contraction of his Funiculus . But to examine this Experiment , as it concerns the present Controversie , we may recal to mind that we formerly shew'd in the Answer to our Authors Third Argument , That when the Mercurial Cylinder that leans upon the restagnant Mercury has at the other end of it Air , kept from any entercourse with the Atmosphere , that included Air has so much of the Pressure of the external Air taken off from it as counterpoises the Mercurial Cylinder . And the Finger that is expos'd to the whole Pressure of the ambient Air in some of its Parts , and in others but to the much fainter Pressure of the included Air , endures an unusual Pressure from the preponderating Power of the Atmosphere . We may consider also that there is against the Thorax and those Muscles of the Abdomen that are subservient to Respiration the Pressure of the whole ambient Air. Which Pressure , notwithstanding the Muscles design'd for the use of Respiration , are able without any considerable resistance to dilate the Thorax at pleasure ; because , as fast as they open the Chest , and by dilating it weaken the Spring of that Air which is then within the Body , the external Air by flowing in , for want of finding the usual resistance there , keeps that within the Thorax in an Aequilibrium of force with that without . These things premised , 't is not difficult in our Hypothesis to give an Answer to the Examiners Experiment . For we say when a Cylinder of Mercury is rais'd in the Tube to any considerable height , the Pressure of the Air in the Thorax is lessen'd by the whole weight of that Mercurial Cylinder , and consequently the Respiratory Muscles are thereby disabled to dilate the Chest as freely as they were wont , by reason of the Prevalency of the undiminish'd Pressure of the external Air against the weakned Pressure of the internal : But if in stead of Mercury , you substitute Water , so short a Cylinder of that comparatively light Liquor takes off so little of the Pressure of the included Air , that it comes into the Lungs with almost its usual Strength , and consequently with almost as much Force as the outward Air presses with against the Thorax . And on this occasion there occurrs to my thoughts a noble Experiment of the most Ingenious Monsieur Paschal , which clearly shews , that if we could free the upper Part of such a Tube as we are now considering from the Pressure of all internal Air , it would follow , as the Examiner sayes it should , that the Quicksilver would by the Pressure of the outward Air be impell'd up into the Tube as well as Water , till it had attain'd a height great enough to make its Weight not inferiour but equal to that of the Atmosphere . The Experiment it self being so pertinent and considerable , we shall annex it in the same words wherein it is related by his Country-man and Acquaintance , the Learned and Candid Gassendus . Neque hoc verò solum , sed insuper vitreo Diabete Clysteréve ea qua par fuerit longitudine confecto , & post embolum ad orificium usque compulsum , immisso ad normam in subjectum Hydrargyrum deprehendit , ubi embolum sensim deinde educitur , consequi Hydrargyrum ascendereque ad eandem usque duorum pedum & digitorum trium cum semisse altitudinem . To which he immediately subjoynes a Circumstance very considerable to the present Controversie in the following Clause . Ac ubi deinceps , adhibita licet non majore vi , Embolum altius educitur , consistere Hydrargyrum , neque amplius consequi , ac fieri interim Inane quod spatium intercipitur ab ipso ad Embolum usque . Thus far he . So that as to the Examiners Experiment , we may well explicate it in our Hypothesis , by saying , that agreeably to it it happens , that in a more forcible Respiration the Mercurial Cylinder is raised higher then in a more languid ; because , in the former Case , the Chest being more dilated , the included Air is also more expanded ; whereby its debilitated Spring cannot as before enable the Mercurial Cylinder to counterpoise altogether the Pressure of the ambient Air. And that the Reason why the Quicksilver is not by Respiration rais'd as high as it is kept suspended in the Torricellian Experiment , is not , that the Pressure of the outward Air is unable to raise it so high , but because , as we have already declar'd , the free Dilatation of the Thorax is opposed by the Pressure of the ambient Air ; which Pressure being against so great a Superficies , and being but imperfectly resisted by the debilitated Pressure of the Air within the Thorax , will be easily imagined to be very considerable by him who considers that in our Engine , the Pressure of the external Air against the Sucker of less then three Inches Diameter was , as we relate in the 33. Experiment , able to thrust up a Weight of above a hundred pound . And here we may observe upon the By in Confirmation of our former Doctrine , that when we strongly suck up Quicksilver in a Glass Tube , though the Elevation of the Quicksilver be according to our Author performed likewise by his Funiculus contracting it selfe every way , and though there be a Communication betwixt the internal Surface of the Lungs , and the Cavity of the Tube ; yet we feel not in our Lungs any endeavour of the shrinking Funiculus to tear off that Membrane they are lin'd with . And thus we have examin'd our Authors four Arguments , to prove that in the Torricellian Experiment the Quicksilver cannot be kept suspended by the counterpoise of the external Air : Against which Opinion he tells us indeed , that other Arguments might be alledg'd , but as it is not probable that if he had thought them better then those he has elected to insist on , he would have omitted them ; so 't is not unlikely that Answers might be as well found for them as for the others ; especially since that which he singles out for a Specimen is , that from his Adversaries Hypothesis it would follow , that the Quicksilver would descend much more ( I suppose 't is a mistake of the Press , for much less ) in cold Weather then in hot , because the Air is then thicker and heavier , and therefore ought to impel up the Quicksilver higher . For besides that we shall in its due place question the validity of our Authors Consequence ; it will be here sufficient to Reply , that the Observation on which he grounds it does not constantly hold , as his Objection supposes : which may appear by that part of our 18. Experiment whence the matter of Fact is desum'd , as we shall have occasion-to take further notice of when we shall come to the Defence of that Experiment . So that what has been hitherto Discours'd on both sides being duly consider'd , the Reader is left to judge what ground the Examiner had for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherewith he is pleas'd to conclude his Third Chapter , Maneat igitur tot Argumentis comprobatum , quorum quodlibet se solo suf ficit , Argentum ( facto Experimento in loco aperto ) per externi aëris gravitatem à lapsu minimè sustentari . CHAP. VI. HIs fourth Chapter , wherein the Title promises that he will prove , Argentum in loco occluso non sustentari à lapsu per ipsum aëris Elaterium , is very short , and does not require that we should dwell long upon it . For the proof he brings of his Assertion being this , Cum tota vis hujus Elaterii pendeat à refutato jam aëris aequipondio cum digitis 29½ Argenti vivi , ita ut nec plus net minus faciat hoe elaterium in loco occluso quam fit-per illud aequipondium in loco aperto ; manifestum est , cum jam oftensum sit fictitium planè esse hujusmodi aequipondium , fictitium quoque esse tale elaterium : This being no new Argument , but an Inference from those he had set down in the former Chapter , by our Answers to them it is become needless for us to make any distinct Reply to this . We shal rather desire the Reader to take notice , that whereas our Author sayes that according to his Adversaries , Ncc plus nec minus faciat hoc Elaterium in loco occluso quam fit per illud Aequipondium in loco aperto ; whatever others may have written , we for our part allow of this Opinion but in some Cases ; for in others we have perform'd much more by the Spring of the Air , which we can within certain limits increase at pleasure , then can be perform'd by the bare weight , which for ought we know remains alwayes somewhat near the same . And of this advantage that the Spring of the Air may have in point of force above the weight of it , we have formerly given an Instance in our 17. Experiment , ( where , by compressing the Air in the Receiver , we impell'd the Mercurial Cylinder higher then the station at which the Counterpoise of the Air is wont to sustain it ) and shall hereafter have occasion to give yet more considerable proofs . To the lately recited words our Examiner subjoyns these ; Adde , cum allata jam capite praecedente experimenta de adhaesione digiti , &c. eodem modo se habent in loco clauso ac in aperto , necessarium esse facta ex eis argumenta contra aquipondium , eadem quoque contra elaterium vim habere . But though he propose this as a new Argument , yet since 't is built but upon the adhesion of the Finger ( of which we have already given an account in our Hypothesis ) I see not how it requires any new and particular Answer . And whereas he sayes , that the Experiments he had mentioned concerning the adhesion of ones Finger , &c. eodem modo se habent in loco clauso ac in aperto ; I could wish he had added what way he took to make the Tryals . For he gives no intimation that he did them any other wayes then in ordinary rooms . And in such there scarce ever wants a communication betwixt the inward and outward Air , either at the Chimney , or Window , or Door not exactly shut , or at some hole or crevice or other , by means of which the weight of the Atmosphere has its operation within the room . To his second Argument our Author adds not a third , unless we take that for an Argument which he immediately annexes to his last recited words : Et profectò ( sayes he ) si secum expenderent hi Authores , quanta sit difficultas explicandi hujusmodi aëris elaterium , nisi idem aër se solo occupet majorem locum ( ut paulo ante ) credo eos sententiam facilè mutaturos . But this being said gratis , does not exact an Answer ; and he must make it more intelligible then any man that I know of has yet done , how the same Air can adequately fill more space at one time then at another , before he perswade me to change my opinion about the Spring of the Air : Especially since he himself allowes that the Air has a Spring , whereby it is able , when it has been violently compress'd , to recover its due extension ; the manner whereof if he will intelligibly explicate , his Adversaries will have no great difficulty to make out the Spring of the Air. But whether his Hypothesis , or ours , be the more intelligible , will be more properly considered in the second part of our Discourse , to which we will therefore now proceed . The II. Part. Wherein the Adversaries Funicular Hypothesis is examin'd . CHAP. I. What is alledged to prove the Funiculus is consider'd ; and some Difficulties are propos'd against the Hypothesis . THe Hypothesis that the Examiner would , as a better , substitute in the place of ours , is , if I mistake it not , briefly this ; That the things we ascribe to the weight or spring of the Air are really perform'd by neither , but by a certain Funiculus , or extremely thin substance , provided in such cases by Nature , ne detur vacuum , which being exceedingly rarefied by a forcible distension , does perpetually and strongly endeavour to contract it self into dimensions more agreeable to the nature of the distended body ; and consequently does violently attract all the bodies whereunto it is contiguous , if they be not too heavy to be remov'd by it . But this Hypothesis of our Authors does to me , I confess , appear liable to such Exceptions , that though I dislik'd that of his Adversaries , yet I should not imbrace his , but rather wait till time and further Speculations or tryals should suggest some other Theory , fitter to be acquiesc'd in then this ; which seems to be partly precarious , partly unintelligible , and partly insufficient , and besides needless : though it will not be so convenient to prove each of these apart , because divers of my Objections tend to prove the Doctrine , against which they are alledged , obnoxious to more then one of the imputed Imperfections . First , then , the Arguments by which our Author endeavours to evince his Funiculus , are incompetent for that end . The Arguments which he proposes in his sixth Chapter ( where he undertakes to make good his Assertion ) I there find to be three . The first he sets down in these words , Constat hoc primò ex jam dictis Capite praecedente : nequit enim argentum descendens sic digitum deorsum trahere , tuboque affigere , nisi à tali Funiculo suspendatur , eumque suo pondere vehementer extendat , ut per se patet . But to this proof answer has been made already in the former Part of this Discourse : onely whereas the Author seems to refer us to the foregoing Chapter , we will look back to it , and take notice of what I find there against the Vacuists . For though I neither am bound , nor intend , in this Discourse to declare my selfe for , or against , a Vacuum ; yet since I am now writing against the Funicular Hypothesis . it will much conduce to shew that it is not firmly grounded , if I examine what he here alledges against the Assertors of a Vacuum . In the next place therefore I consider that , according to the Examiner , there can be no Vacuum ; and that he makes to be the main reason why Nature in the Torricellian and our Experiments does act after so extraordinary a manner , as is requisite to the production of his Funiculus . For in the 47. Page , having in his Adversaries name demanded what need there is at the descent of the Quicksilver , that before it falls a superficies should be separated from it , and extended ; Respondeo ( sayes he ) ideo hoc fieri , ne detur vacuum ; cum nihil aliud ibi adsit quod loco argenti descendentis possit succedere . To which he immediately subjoyns , ( with what cogency I will not now examine : ) Atque hinc plane confirmatur commune . illud per tot jam elapsa secula usurpalum in Scholis axi●●●a viz. Naturam à vacuo , abhorrere . And though he seem to make his Funiculus the immediate cause of the Phaenomena occurring in the Torricellian and our Experiments : yet that , if you pursue the inquiry a little higher ; he resolves them into Natures abhorrency of a Vacuum , himself plainly informs us in the next page ; Namlicet ( sayes he ) immediata ratiocur aqua v. g. ex hydria hortulana superne clausa ( quo exemplo . utuntun ) non descendat , non sit metus vacui , sed ea quam modo diximus , nempe quod non detur sufficiens pondus ad solvendum illum nexum quo adhaer eat aqua clausae hydriae summitati ; ad eam tamen rationem tandem necessario veniendumest . But , though as well our Author 's Fumiculus , as the other scarce conceivable Hypotheses that learned men have devised , to account for the suspension of the Quicksilver otherwise then by the resistance of the external Air , seem to have been excogitated onely to shun the necessity of admitting a Vacuum : yet I see not how our Examiner cogently proves , either that there can be none in rerum naturâ , or that Defacto there is none produc'd in these Experiments . For in his fifth Chapter ( where he professedly undertakes that task ) he has but these two incompetent Arguments . The first is drawn from the attraction , as he supposes , of the Finger into the deserted cavity of the Tube in the Torricellian Experiment : Quaequidem ( sayes he ) tam vehemens tractio & adhaesio , cum non nisi à reali aliquo corpore inter digitum & argentum constitutum queat provenire , manifestum est spatium illud vacuum non esse , sed verâ aliquâ substantiâ repletum . But to this Argument having already given an Answer , let us ( without staying to urge , that the Vacuists will perhaps object , that they see not a Necessity , though they should admit of Traction in the case , that the internal substance must therefore perfectly replenish the deserted Cavity ; without pressing this , I say , let us ) consider his other , which he draws from the Diaphaneity of the deserted part of the Tube , which space ( he sayes ) were it empty , would appear like a little black Pillar , Eo quod nullaespecies visuales neque ab eo neque per illud possunt ad oculum perventre . But ( not to engage our selves in Optical Speculations and Controversies ) if we grant him some what more then perhaps he can prove ; yet as the Experiment will not demonstrate that there is nothing of body in any part of the space deserted by the Mercury , so neither will the Argument conclude ( as the Proposer of it does twice in this Chapter ) That space verâ aliquâ substantiâ repleri . For according to the Hypothesis of the Epicureans and other Atomists , who make Light to be a corporeal Effluvium from lucid bodies , and to consist of Atoms so minute , as freely to get in at the narrow Pores of Glass , there will be no cause to deny interspers'd Vacuities in the upper part of the Tube . For the Corpuscles of Light that permeate that space may be so numerous , as to leave no sensible part of it un-inlightned ; and yet may have so many little empty Intervals betwixt them , that , if all that is corporeal in the space we speak of were united into one lump , it would not perhaps adequately fill the one half ( not to say the tenth , or even the hundredth part ) of the whole space : According to what we have noted in the 17. Experiment , that a Room may appear full of the smoke of a Perfume , though if all the Corpuscles that compose that smoke were re-united , they would again make up but a small Pastil . To which purpose I remember I have taken Camphire , of which a little will fill a Room with its odour , and having in well-clos'd distillatory Glasses caught the sumes driven over by hear , I thereby reduc'd them to re conjoyn into true Camphire , whose bulk is very inconsiderable in comparison of the space it fills as to sense , when the odorous Corpuscles are scattered through the free Air. To which I might adde , that the Torricellian Experiment being made in a dark night , or in a Room perfectly darken'd , if it succeed ( as there is little cause to suspect it will not ) it may well be doubted whether our Authors Argument will there take place . For if he endeavour to prove that the place in question was full in the dark , because upon the letting in of the Day , or the bringing in of a Candle , the light appears within it ; the Vacuists may reply according to their Hypothesis , That that light is a new one , flowing from the lucid body that darts its corporeal beams quite through the Glass and Space we dispute about , which for want of such Corpuscles were not just before visible . And supposing light not to be made by a trajection of Atoms through Diaphanous bodies , but a propagation of the impulse of lucid bodies through them ; yet it will not thence necessarily follow , that the deserted part of the Tube must be full : As in our 27. Experiment ( though many of those gross Aerial Particles that appear'd necessary to convey a languid sound were drawn out of our Receiver at the first and second Exsuction ; yet there remain'd so many of the like Corpuscles , that those that were wanting were not miss'd by the sense , though afterwards , when a far greater number was drawn out , they were ) so there may be matter enough remaining to transmit the impulse of light ; though betwixt the Particles of that matter there should be store of vacuities intercepted . Whereas our Author pretends to prove , not onely that there is no coacervate Vacuity in the space so often mentioned , but absolutely that there is none . For 't is in this last sense , as well as the other , that the Schools and our Author , who defends their Opinion , deny a Vacuum . But notwithstanding what we have now discours'd , as in our 17. Experiment we declin'd determining whether there be a Vacuum or no ; so now what we have said to the Examiners Argument , has not been to declare our whole sense of the Controversie , but onely to shew , that though his Hypothesis supposes there is no Vacuum , yet his Arguments do not sufficiently prove it : which may help to shew his Doctrine to be precarious ; for otherwise the Cartesians , though Plenists , may plausibly enough ( whether truly or no I now dispute not ) decline the necessity of admitting a Vacuum in the deserted space of the Tube , by supposing it fill'd with their second and first Element , whose Particles they imagine to be minute enough freely to pass in and out through the Pores of Glass . But then they must allow the pressure of the outward Air to be the cause of the suspension of the Quicksilver : for though the materia coelestis may readily fill the spaces the Mercury deserts ; yet that within the Tube cannot binder so ponderous a liquor from subsiding as low as the restagnant Mercury ; since all the parts of the Tube , as well the lowermost as the uppermost , being pervious to that subtile matter , it may with like facility succeed in whatever part of the Tube shall be for saken by the Quicksilver . The Examiners second Argument in the same place is , That since the Mercurial Cylinder is not sustain'd by the outward Air , it must necessarily be , that it be kept suspended by his internal string . But since for the proof of this he is content to refer us to the third Chapter ; our having already examin'd that , allows us to proceed to his third Argument , which is , That the Mercurial Cylinder , resting in its wonted station , does not gravitate : as may appear by applying the Finger to the immers'd or lower Orifice of the Tube . Whence he infers , that it must of necessity be suspended from within the Tube . And indeed if you dexterously apply your Finger to the open end of the Tube , when you have almost , but not quite , lifted it out of the restagnant Mercury , ( which circumstance must not be neglected , though our Author have omitted it ) that so you may shut up no more Quicksilver then the Mercurial Cylinder is wont to consist of , you will find the Experiment to succeed well enough : ( Which makes me somewhat wonder to find it affirm'd , that the learned Maignan denies it ) not but that you will feel upon your Finger a gravitation or pressure of the Glass-Tube , and the contained Mercury , as of one body ; but that you will not feel any sensible pressure of the Mercury apart , as if it endeavoured to thrust away your Finger from the Tube . But the reason of this is not hard to give in our Hypothesis ; for according to that , the Mercurial Cylinder and the Air counterpoising one another , the Finger sustains not any sensibly-differing pressure from the ambient Air that presses against the Nail and sides of it , and from the included Quicksilver that presses against the Pulp . But if the Mercurial Cylinder should exceed the usual length , then the Finger would feel some pressure from that surplusage of Quicksilver , which the Air does not assist the Finger to sustain . So that this pleasant Phaenomenon may be as well solv'd in our Hypothesis , as in the Examiners : in which if we had time to clear an Objection , which we fore-see might be made , but might be answer'd too ; we would demand why , when the Mercury included in the Tube is but of a due altitude , it should run out upon the removal of the Finger that stops it beneath , in case it be sustain'd onely by the internal Funiculus , and do , according to his Doctrine , when the Funiculus sustains it , emulate a solid body , if the pressure of the external Air has not ( as our Author teaches it not to have ) any thing to do in this matter . And if some inquisitive person shall here object , That certainly the Finger must feel much pain by being squeez'd betwixt two such pressures , as that of a Pillar of thirty Inches of Quick-silver on the one side , and an equivalent pressure from the Atmospherical Pillar on the other , it may readily be represented , that in fluid bodies ( such as are those concern'd in our Difficulty ) a solid body has no such sense of pressure from the ambient bodies as ( unless Experience had otherwise instructed us ) we should perhaps imagine . For , not to mention that having inquired of a famous Diver , whether he found himself sensibly compressed by the water at the bottom of the Sea ; he agreed with the generality of Divers in the Negative : I am inform'd that the learned Maignan did purposely try , that his hand being thrust three or four Palmes deep into Quicksilver , his fingers were not sensible , either of any weight from the incumbent , or of any pressure from the ambient , Quicksilver . The reason of which ( whether that inquisitive man have given it or no ) is not necessary in our present Controversie to be lookt after . To these three Arguments the Examiner addes not a fourth , unless he design to present it us in this concluding passage : Huc etiam faciunt insignes librationes quibus argentum subito descendens agitatur : Idem enim hic fit quod in aliis Pendulis & ab alto demissis fieri solet . But of this Phaenomenon also 't is easie to give an account in our Hypothesis by two several wayes ; whereof the First ( which is proper chiefly when the Experiment is made in a close place , as our Receiver ) is , That the Quicksilver by its sudden descent acquires an impetus superadded to the pressure it has upon the score of its wonted gravity ; whereby it for a while falls below its station , and thereby compresses the Air that leans upon the restagnant Mercury . Which Air by its own Spring again forcibly dilating it self to recover its former extension , and ( as is usual in Springs ) hastily flying open , expands it self beyond it , and thereby impells up the Quicksilver somewhat above its wonted station , in its fall from whence it again acquires somewhat ( though not so much as before ) of impetus or power , to force the Corpuscles of the Air to a Sub-ingression ; and this reciprocation of pressure betwixt the Quicksilver and the outward Air decreasing by degrees , does at length wholly cease , when the Mercury has lost that superadded pressure , which it acquired by its falling from parts of the Tube higher then its due station . But this first way of explicating these Vibrations is not necessary in the free Air : for if we consider the ambient Air onely as a weight , and remember what we have newly said of the impetus acquir'd by descent ; this Phaenomenon may be easily enough explain'd , by taking notice of what happens in a Balance , when one of the equiponderant Scales chancing to be depress'd , they do not till after many Vibrations settle in aequilibrio . And on this occasion I shall adde this Experiment : I took a Glass Pipe , whose two legs ( very unequal in length ) were parallel enough , and both perpendicular to that part of the Pipe that connected them , ( such a Syphon is describ'd in our 36. Experiment , to find the proportion of the gravity of Mercury and Water ) into this Quicksilver was pour'd till 't was some Inches high , and equally high in both legs : then the Pipe being inclin'd till the most part of the Quicksilver was fallen into one of the legs , I stopt the Orifice of the other leg with my Finger , and erecting again the Pipe , though the Quicksilver were forc'd to ascend a little in that stopt leg ; yet by reason my Finger kept the Air from getting away , the Quicksilver was kept lower by a good deal in that stopt leg then in the other ; but if by suddenly removing my Finger I gave passage to the included and somewhat comprest Air , the preponderant Quicksilver in the other leg would with the Mercury in this unstopt leg , make divers undulations before that liquor did in both legs come to rest in an aequilibrium . Of which the Reason may be easily deduc'd from what has been newly deliver'd ; and yet in this case there is no pretence to be made of a Funiculus of violently distended Air to effect the Vibrations of the Mercury . CHAP. II. Divers other Difficulties are objected against the Funicular Hypothesis . THirdly , But though our Examiner have not sufficiently proved his Hypothesis , yet perhaps it may be in its own nature so like to be true , as to deserve to be imbrac'd as such . Wherefore we will now take notice of some of those many things that to our apprehension render it very improbable . And first , whereas our Author acknowledges that Quicksilver , Water , Wine , and other liquors , will , as well one as another , descend in Tubes exactly sealed at the top , in case the Cylinder of liquor exceed the weight of a Mercurial Cylinder of 29½ . Inches ; and will subside no longer then till it is come to equiponderate a Cylinder of Quicksilver of that height ; whereas , I say , the Examiner is by the ingenious Monsieur Paschall's , and other Experiments , induc'd to admit this ; it cannot but seem strange that , whatever the liquor be , there should be just the same weight or strength to extend them into a Funiculus : though Water , for instance , and Quicksilver be near fourteen times as heavy one as the other , and be otherwise of very distant natures ; and though divers other liquors , as Oyle and Water , be likewise of Textures very differing . And this may somewhat the more be wondred at , because our Author ( in his Animadversions upon our 31. Experiment ) is pleased to make so great a difference betwixt the disposition of bodies of various consistences , as fluid and firm , to be extenuated into a Funiculus , that he will not allow any humane force to be able to produce one , by the divulsion of two flat Marbles , in case the contact of their Surfaces were so exquisite as quite to exclude all Air ; though in the same place his Ratiocination plainly enough teaches ( which Experience however does ) that adhering Marbles , though with extraordinary difficulty , may be forcibly sever'd , and according to him the superficial parts may be distended into a Funiculus , that prevents a Vacuum . But now the Hypothesis of his Adversaries is not at all incumbred with this difficulty . For the weight of the outward Air being that which keeps liquors suspended in Tubes sealed at the top ; it matters not of what nature or texture the suspended liquor is , provided its weight be the same with that of a Mercurial Cylinder equiponderant to the Aerial one : As if there be a pound of Lead in one Scale , it will not destroy the aequilibrium , whether what be put in the other be Gold , or Quicksilver , or Wooll , or Feathers , provided its weight be just a pound . In the next place we may take notice , That the account our Examiner gives us of his Funiculus in the tenth Chapter , ( where he takes upon him to explicate it ) is much more strange then satisfactory , and not made out by any such parallel operations of Nature , as his Adversaries will not ( and may not well do it ) dispute the truth of . Whereas the Weight and Spring of the Air may be inferr'd from such unquestion'd Experiments as are not concern'd in our present Controversie . For the gravity of the Air may be manifested by a pair of Scales , & the Spring of it discloses it self so clearly in wind-guns and other Instruments , that our Adversary ( as we have already had occasion to inculcate ) does not deny it . But to consider his Explication of his Funiculus , he would have us note two things : First , Argentum dum replet totum tubum , non mere tangere ejus summitatem ( ut primo aspectu videtur ) sed eidem quoque firmiter adhaerere . Patet hoc ( subjoyns he ) experimento illo in primo argumento capit is tertii de tubo utrinque aperto . But what is to be answer'd to this proof may be easily gathered from what we have replyed to that Argument . And to what our Author addes to prove , That the adhesion of the Finger is to the subjacent Mercury , not to the Tube ; namely , That Licet illud tubi orificium oleo , aliâve materiâ adhaesionem impediente , inungatur , non minus tamen firmiter adhaerebit digitus quàm priùs ; an Answer may be drawn from the same place ; nor perhaps will his reasoning much satisfie those who consider that bodies by trusion may easily enough be made stick together , as much as in our case the Tube and Finger do , notwithstanding one of them is anoynted with Oyle , and that this Adhesion of the Finger to the Tube is to be met with in cases where the Surface of the included Quicksilver is not contiguous to the Finger , but many Inches below . As for what he addes concerning the reason why Water , and Quicksilver ascend by suction , we have already taught what is to be answered to it , by ascribing that ascension to the pressure of the external Air : without any need of having recourse to a Funiculus ; or imagining with him in this place , That because nothing besides the Water or Quicksilver can in such cases succeed , the Air , ( which yet is not easie to be prov'd in reference to a thin Aethereal substance ) therefore , Partes ipsius aëris ( to use his expression ) sic tubo inclusae ( quae aliàs tam facile separantur ) nunc tam fortiter sibi invicem agglutinentur , ut validissimum ( uti videmus ) conficiunt catenam , qua non solum aqua , sed ponderosum illud argentum sic in altum trahatur . Which way of wreathing a little rarefied Air into so strong a rope , how probable it is , I will for a while leave the Reader to judge , and advance to our Author's second Notandum , which he thus proposes : Rarefactionem sive extensionem corporis ad occupandum majorem locum fieri non solo calore , sed etiam distensione seu vi divulsivâ : sicut è contra condensatio non solo frigore perficitur , sed etiam compressione , uti innumera passim docent exempla . And 't is true and obvious , that the Condensation of bodies , taking that word in a large sense , may be made as well by compression as cold . But I wish he had more clearly exprest what he means in this place by that Rarefaction , which he sayes is to be made by distension , or a vis divulsiva , whereof he tells us there are innumerable instances . For , as far as may be gathered from the three Examples he subjoyns , 't is onely the Air that is capable of being so extended as his Hypothesis requires Quicksilver and even Stones must be . And I know not how it will be proved , that even Air may be thus extended so far , as in the Magdeburg Experiment , to fill a place more then two thousand times as big as that it fill'd before . For that the same Air in this and his two foregoing Instances does adequately fill more space at one time then another , he proves but by the rushing in of water into the evacuated Glass , and filling it within a little quite full , which , he sayes , is done by the distended Air that contracting it self draws up the water with it . Which Explication how much less likely it is , then that the water is in such cases impell'd up by the pressure of the Atmosphere , we shall anon ( when we come to discuss his way of Rarefaction and Condensation ) have occasion to examine . In the mean time let us consider with him the Explication which , after having premis'd the two above recited Observations , he gives us of his Funiculus ; Cum per primum Notandum argentum ita adhaereat tubi vertici , & per secundum , rarefactio fiat per meram corporis distensionem , ita rem se habere , ut argentum descendens à vertice tubi affixam ei relinquat superficiem suam extimam sive supremam , eamque eousque suo pondere extendat extenuetque , donec facilius sit aliam superficiem similiter relinquere quam priorem illam ulterius extendere : Secundam igitur relinquit , eamque eodem modo descendendo extendit , donec facilius sit tertiam adhuc separari quam illam secundam extendere ulterius : & sic deinceps , donec tandem vires amplius non habeat superficies sic separandi & extendendi ; nempe donec perveniat ad altitudinem digitorum duntaxat 29½ , ubi quiescit , ut capite primo dictum est . Thus far our Examiners Explication : By which 't is easie to discern , that he is fain to assigne his Funiculus a way of being produc'd strange and unparallell'd enough . For , not to repeat our Animadversions upon the first of the two Notandum's , on which the Explication is grounded , I must demand by what force , upon the bare separation of the Quicksilver and the top of the Tube , the new body he mentions comes to be produc'd ; or at least how it appears that the Mercury leaves any such thing as he speaks of behind it . For the sense perceives no such matter at the top of the Tube , nor is it necessary to explicate the Phaenomena as we have formerly seen . It may also be marvell'd at , that the bare weight of the descending Mercury should be able to extend a Surface into a Body . And besides , it seems precariously affirm'd , that there is such a successive leaving behind of one Surface after another as is here imagin'd : Nor does it at all appear how , though some of the Quicksilver were turn'd into a thin subtile substance , yet that substance comes to be contriv'd into a Funiculus of so strange a nature , that scarce any weight ( for ought appears by his Doctrine ) can be able to break it ; that contrary to all other strings it may be str●●●●ed without being made more slender ; and that it has other very odde properties , some of which we shall anon have occasion to mention . As for what our Author subjoynes in these words , Eodem itaque fere modo separari videntur hae superficies ab argento descendente , & in tenuissimum quendam per descendens pondus extendi , quo per calorem in accensa candela separantur hujusmodi superficies à subjecta cera aut sevo , & in subtilissimam flammam extenuantur . Ubi not atu dignum , quemadmodum flamma illa plusquam millies sine dubio majus spatium occupat , quàm antea occupaverat pars illa cerae ex qua conficitur ; ita prorsus & his existimandum Funiculum illum plusquam millies majus spatium occupare quàm prius occupaverat illa argenti particula ex qua sit exortus : Uti etiam sine dubio contingit , quando talis particula à subjecto igne in vaporem convertitur . Though it be the onely Example whereby he endeavours to illustrate the generation of his Funiculus , yet ( I presume ) he scarce expects we should think it an apposite one . For , besides that there here intervenes a conspicuous and powerful Agent , namely , an actual Fire to sever and agitate the parts of the Candle ; and besides that there is a manifest wasting of the Wax or Tallow turn'd into flame ; besides these things , I say , we must not admit , that the Fuel when turn'd into a flame does really fill ( I say not , with our Author ) more then a thousand times , but so much as twice more of genuine space then the Wax 't was made of . For it may be said that the flame is little or nothing else then an aggregate of those Corpuscles which before lay upon the upper superficies of the Candle , and by the violent heat were divided into minuter particles , vehemently agitated and brought from lying as it were upon a flat to beat off one another , and make up about the Wiek such a figure as is usual in the flame of Candles burning in the free Air. Nor will it necessarily follow , that the space which the flame seems to take up should contain neither Air nor Aether , nor any thing else , save the parts of that flame , because the eye cannot discern any other body there : For even the smoke ascending from the snuff of a newly-extinguish'd Candle appears a dark pillar , which to the eye at some distance seems to consist of smoke ; whenas yet there are so many Aerial and other invisible Corpuscles mingled with it , as if all those parts of smoke that make a great show in the Air were collected and contiguous , they would not perhaps amount to the bigness of a Pins head : as may appear by the great quantity of steams that in Chymical Vessels are wont to go to the making up of one drop of Spirit . And therefore it does not ill fall out for our turn , that the Examiner , to inforce his former Example , alledges the turning of a particle of Quicksilver into vapour , by putting fire under it : for if such be the Rarefaction of Mercury , 't is not at all like to make such a Funiculus as he talks of , since those Mercurial Fumes appear by divers Experiments , to be Mercury divided and thrown abroad into minute parts , whereby though the body obtain more of Surface then it had before , yet it really fills no more of true and genuine space , since if all the particular little spaces fill'd by these scatter'd Corpuscles were reduc'd into one , ( as the Corpuscles themselves often are in Chymical Operations ) they would amount but to one total space , equal to that of the whole Mercury before rarefaction . But these Objections against this Explication are not all that I have to say against our Adversaries Funiculus it self . For I farther demand how the Funiculus comes by such hooks or graple-irons , or parts of the like shape , to take fast hold of all contiguous bodies , and even the smoothest , such as Glass , and the calm surfaces of Quicksilver , Water , Oyle , and other fluids : And how these slender and invisible hooks cannot onely in the tersest bodies find an innumerable company of ears or loops to take hold on , but hold so strongly that they are able not alone to lift up a tall Cylinder of that very ponderous metall of Quicksilver , but to draw inwards the sides of strong Glasses so forcibly , as to break them all to pieces . And 't is also somewhat strange , that Water and other fluid bodies ( whose parts are wont to be so easily separable ) should , when the Funiculus once layes hold on the superficial Corpuscles , presently emulate the nature of consistent bodies , and be drawn up like Masses each of them of an intire piece ; though even in the exhausted Receiver they appear by their undulation ( when they are stir'd by Bubbles that pass freely through them ) and many other signs to continue fluid bodies . It seems also very difficult to conceive how this extenuated substance should acquire so strong a spring inward as the Examiner all along his book ascribes to it . Nor will it serve his turn to require of us in exchange an Explication of the Airs spring outward , since he acknowledges , as well as we , that it has such a spring . I know , that by calling this extenuated substance a Funiculus , he seems plainly to intimate that it has its spring inward , upon the same account that Lute-strings and Ropes forcibly stretch'd have theirs . But there is no small disparity betwixt them : for whereas in strings there is requir'd either wreathing , or some peculiar and artificial texture of the component parts ; a rarefaction of Air ( were it granted ) does not include or infer any such contrivance of parts as is requisite to make bodies Elastical . And if the Cartesian Notion of the cause of Springiness be admitted , then our extenuated substance having no Pores to be pervaded by the materia subtilis ( to which besides our Author also makes Glass impervious ) will be destitute of Springiness . And however , since Lute-strings , Ropes , &c. must , when they shrink inwards , either fill up or lessen their Pores , and increase in thickness as they diminish in length ; our Examiners Funiculus must differ very much from them , since it has no Pores to receive the shrinking parts , and contracts it self as to length , without increasing its thickness . Nor can it well be pretended that this self-contraction is done ob fugam vacui , since though it should not be made , a Vacuum would not ensue . And if it be said that it is made that the preternaturally stretch'd body might restore it self to its natural dimensions : I answer , That I am not very forward to allow acting for ends to bodies inanimate , and consequently devoid of knowledge ; and therefore should gladly see some unquestionable Examples produc'd of Operations of that nature . And however to me , who in Physical enquiries of this nature look for efficient rather then final causes , 't is not easie to conceive how Air by being expanded ( in which case its force ( like that of other rarify'd bodies ) seems principally to tend outwards , as we see in fired Gun-powder , in Aeolipiles , in warm'd Weather-glasses , &c. ) should acquire so prodigious a force of moving contiguous bodies inwards . Nor does it to me seem very probable , that , when for instance part of a polish'd Marble is extended into a Funiculus , that Funiculus does so strongly aspire to turn into Marble again . I might likewise wish our Author had more clearly explicated , how it comes to pass ( which he all along takes for granted ) that the access of the outward Air does so much and so suddenly relax the tension of his Funiculus ; since that being ( according to him ) a real and Poreless body , 't is not so obvious how the presence of another can so easily and to so strange a degree make it shrink . But I will rather observe , that 't is very unlikely that the space which our Adversary would have replenish'd with his Funicular substance , should be full of little highly-stretcht strings , that lay fast hold of the Surfaces of all contiguous bodies , and alwayes violently endeavour to pull them inwards . For we have related in our 26. Experiment , that a Pendulum being set a moving in our exhausted Receiver , did swing to and fro as freely , and with the string stretch'd as streight , as for ought we could perceive it would have done in the common Air. Nay , the Balance of a Watch did there move freely and nimbly to and fro ; which 't is hard to conceive those bodies could do , if they were to break through a medium consisting of innumerable exceedingly-stretch'd strings . On which occasion we might adde , that 't is somewhat strange that these strings , thus cut or broken by the passage of these bodies through them , could so readily have their parts re-united , and without any more ado be made intire again . And we might also take notice of this as another strange peculiarity in our Authors Funiculus , That in this case the two divided parts of each small string that is broken do not , like those of other broken strings , shrink and fly back from one another ; but ( as we just now said ) immediately redintegrate themselves : Whereas , when in the Torricellian Experiment the Tube and contain'd Mercury is suddenly lifted up out of the restagnant Quicksilver into the Air , the Funiculus does so strangely contract it self , that it quite vanishes ; insomuch that the ascending Mercury may rise to the very top of the Tube . These , I say , and divers other difficulties might on this occasion be insisted on ; but that , supposing our selves to have mentioned enough of them for once , we think it now more seasonable to proceed to the remaining Part of our Discourse . CHAP. III. The Aristotelean Rarefaction ( proposed by the Adversary ) examin'd . BUt this is not all that renders the Examiners Hypothesis improbable : For , besides those already mentioned particulars , upon whose score it is very difficult to be understood ; it necessarily supposes such a Rarefaction and Condensation , as is , I confess , to me , as well as to many other considering persons , unintelligible . For the better discernment of the force of this Objection we must briefly premise , That a body is commonly said to be rarefi'd or dilated , ( for I take the word in a larger sense then , I know , many others do , for a reason that will quickly appear ) when it acquires greater dimensions then the same body had before ; and to be condens'd , when it is reduc'd into less dimensions , that is , into a lesser space then it contain'd before : ( as when a dry Spunge being first dipp'd in water swells to a far greater bulk , and then being strongly squeez'd and held compressed , is not onely reduced into less room then it had before it was squeezed , but into less then it had even before it was wetted . ) And I must further premise , That Rarefaction ( as also Condensation ) being amongst the most obvious Phaenomena of Nature , there are three ( and for ought we know but three ) wayes of explicating it : For , either we must say with the Atomists and Vacuists , that the Corpuscles whereof the rarefied body consists do so depart from each other , that no other substance comes in between them to fill up the deserted spaces that come to be left betwixt the incontiguous Corpuscles ; or else we must say with divers of the ancient Philosophers , and many of the moderns , especially the Cartesians , that these new Intervals produced betwixt the Particles of the rarefied body are but dilated Pores , replenished , in like manner as those of the tumid Spunge are by the imbibed water , by some subtile Aethereal substance , that insinuates it self betwixt the disjoyned Particles : or , lastly , we must imagine with Aristotle and most of his followers , that the self-same body does not onely obtain a greater space in Rarefaction , and a lesser in Condensation , but adequately and exactly fill it , and so when rarefied acquires larger dimensions without either leaving any vacuities betwixt its component Corpuscles , or admitting between them any new or extraneous substance whatsoever . Now 't is to this last ( and , as some call it , rigorous ) way of Rarefaction that our Adversary has recourse in his Hypothesis : Though this , I confess , appear to me so difficult to be conceived , that I make a doubt whether any Phaenomenon can be explained by it ; since to explain a thing is to deduce it from something or other in Nature more known then it self . He that would meet with full Discussions of this Aristotelean Rarefaction , may resort to the learned writings of Gassendus , Cartesius and Maignan , who have accused it of divers great absurdities : But for my part , I shall at present content my self to make use to my purpose of two or three passages that I meet with ( though not together ) in our Author himself . Let us then suppose , that in the Magdeburg Experiment he so often ( though I think causlesly enough ) urges to prove his Hypothesis ; let us ( I say ) for easier considerations sake suppose , that the undilated Air , which ( as he tells us ) possessed about half an Inch of space , consisted of a hundred Corpuscles , or ( if that name be in this case disliked ) a hundred parts ; ( for it matters not what number we pitch upon ) and 't will not be denyed , but that as the whole parcel of Air , or the Aggregate of this hundred Corpuscles , is adequate to the whole space it fills , so each of the hundred parts , that make it up , is likewise adequately commensurate to its peculiar space , which we here suppose to be a hundredth part of the whole space . This premised , our Author having elsewhere this passage , Corpore occupante locum verbi gratia duplo majorem , necesse est ut quaelibet ejus pars locum quoque duplo majorem occupet ; prompts us to subjoyn , that in the whole capacity of the Globe ( which according to him was two thousand times as great as the room possessed by the unexpanded Air ) there must likewise be two hundred thousand parts of space commensurate each of them to one of the fore-mentioned hundredth parts of Air ; and consequently , when he affirms that that half Inch of Air possessed the whole cavity of the Globe , if we will not admit ( as he does not ) either Vacuities or some intervening subtile substance in the Interval of the Aeriall parts , he must give us leave to conclude , that each part of Air does adequately fill two thousand parts of space . Now that this should be resolutely taught to be not onely naturally possible , ( for we dispute not here of what the Divine Omnipotence can do ) but to be really and regularly done in this Magdeburg Experiment , will questionless appear very absurd to the Cartesians and those other Philosophers , who take Extension to be but notionally different from Body , and consequently impossible to be acquir'd or lost without the addition or detraction of Matter ; and will , I doubt not , appear strange to those other Readers , who consider how generally Naturalists have looked upon Extension as inseparable , and as immediately flowing from matter ; & upon Bodies , as having necessary relation to a commensurate space . Nor do I see , if one portion of Air may so easily be brought exactly to fill up a space two thousand times as big as that which it did but fill before without the addition of any new substance ; I see not ( I say ) why the matter contained in every of these two thousand parts of space may not be further brought to fill two thousand more , and so onwards , since each of these newly-replen shed spaces is presumed to be exactly filled with Body , and no space , nor consequently that which the unrarefied Air replenished , can be more then adequately full . And since , according to our Adversary , not onely fluid bodies , as Air and Quicksilver , but even solid and hard ones , as Marble , are capable of such a Distension as we speak of , why may not the World be made I know not how many thousand times bigger then it is , without either admitting any thing of Vacuity betwixt its parts , or being increased with the addition of one Atome of new matter ? Which to me is so difficult to conceive , that I have sometimes doubted , whether in case it could be proved , that in the exhausted Globe we speak of there were no Vacuities within , nor any subtile matter permitted to enter from without , it were not more intelligible to suppose that God had created a new matter to joyn with the Air in filling up the Cavity , then that the self-same Air should adequately fill two thousand spaces , whereof one was exactly commensurate to it even when it was uncompressed . For divers eminent Naturalists , both ancient and modern , believing upon a Physical account the Souls of men to be created and infused , will admit it as intelligible that God does frequently create substances on certain emergent occasions . But I know that many of them will not likewise think it conceivable , that without his immediate interposition an accession of new , real Dimensions should be had without either vacuities or accession of matter . And indeed when I considered these difficulties and others , that attend the Rarefaction our Examiner throughout his whole book supposes , and when I found that ever and anon he remits us to what he teaches concerning Rarefaction ; I could not but with some greediness resort to the Chapters he addressed me to . But when I had perused them , I found the Difficulties remained such still , and that 't was very hard even for a witty man to make more of a subject then the nature of it does bear . Which I say , that by professing my self unsatisfied with what he writes , I may not be thought to find fault with a man for not doing what perhaps is not to be done , and for not making such abstruse Notions plain , as are scarcely ( if at all ) so much as intelligible . And indeed as he has handled this subject modestly enough , so in some places his Expressions are to me somewhat dark ; which I mention , not to impute it as a Crime in him , that he wrote in a diffident and doubtful strain of so difficult a matter , but to excuse my self if I have not alwayes guessed aright at his meaning . The things he alledges in favour of the Rarefaction he would perswade are two : The one , That the Phaenomena of Rarefaction cannot be explicated either by Vacuities or the subingression of an Aethereal substance ; and the other , That there are two wayes of explicating the rigorous Rarefaction he contends for . His Objections against the Epicurean and Cartesian wayes of making out Rarefaction are some of them more plausible then most of those that are wont to be urged against them ; yet not such as are not capable enough of Answers . But whilest some of the passages appeared easie to be replyed to by the Favourers of the Hypothesis they oppose , before I had fully examined the rest , chancing to mention these Chapters to an ingenious Man , hereafter to be further mentioned in this Treatise ; he told me he had so far considered them more then the rest of the book , that he had thought upon some Hypotheses , whereby the Phaenomena of Rarefaction might be made out either according to the Vacuists , or according to the Cartesians , adding , that he had also examined the Instance our Adversary pretends to be afforded him of his Rarefaction by what happens in the Rota Aristotelica . Wherefore being sufficiently distressed by Avocations of several sorts , and being willing to reserve the Declaration of my own thoughts concerning the manner of Rarefaction and Condensation for another Treatise , I shall refer the Reader to the ingenious Conjectures about this subject , which the writer of them intends to annex to the present Discourse ; and onely adde in general , That whereas the Examiners Argument on this occasion is , That his way of Rarefaction must be admitted , because neither of the other two can be well made out , his Adversaries may with the same reason argue that one of theirs is to be allowed , since his is incumbred with such manifest difficulties . And they may enforce what they say by representing , that the inconveniences that attend his Hypothesis about Rarefaction are insuperable , arising from the unintelligible nature of the thing itself ; whereas those to which the other wayes are obnoxious , may seem to spring but from mens not having yet discovered what kind of Figures and Motions of the small Particles may best qualifie them to make the body that consists of them capable of a competent expansion . After our Authors Objections against the two wayes of Rarefaction proposed , the one by the Vacuists , and the other by the Cartesians and others , that admit the solidest bodies , and even Glass itself , to be pervious to an Aethereal or subtile matter ; he attempts to explicate the manner by which that rigorous Rarefaction he teaches is perform'd : and having premised , that the Explication of the way how each part of the rarefy'd body becomes extended , depends upon the quality of the parts into which the body is ultimately resolv'd ; and having truly observ'd , that they must necessarily be either really indivisible , or still endlesly divisible ; he endeavours to explicate the Aristotelean Rarefaction according to those two Hypotheses . But , though he thus propose two wayes of making out his Rarefaction ; yet besides that they are irreconcilable , he speaks of them so darkly and doubtfully , that it seems less easie to discern which of the two he would be content to stick to , then that he himself scarce acquiesces in either of them . And , first , having told us how Rarefaction may be explain'd , in case we admit bodies to be divisible in infinitum , he does himself make such an Objection against the infinity of parts in a continuum , as he is fain to give so obscure an Answer to , that I confess I do not understand it ; and presume , that not onely the most part of unprejudiced Readers will as little acquiesce in the Answer as I do ; but even the Author himself will not marvel at my confession , since in the same place he acknowledges the Answer to be somewhat obscure , and endeavours to excuse its being so , because in that Hypothesis it can scarce be otherwise . Wherefore I shall onely adde on this occasion , that 't is not clear to me , that even such a divisibility of a continuum as is here supposed would make out the Rarefaction he contends for . For , let the integrant parts of a continuum be more or less finite or infinite in number , yet still each part , being a corporeal substance , must have some Particle of space commensurate to it ; and if the whole body be rarefied , for instance , to twice its former bigness , then will each part be likewise extended to double its former dimensions , and fill both the place it took up before , and another equal to it , and so two places . The second Argument alledged to recommend the hithertomentioned way of explicating Rarefaction is , That many learned men , amongst whom he names two , Aquinas and Suarez , have taught that the same corporeal thing may naturally be , and de facto often is , in the souls of Brutes really indivisible and virtually extended . But , though I pay those two Authors a just respect for their great skill in Scholastical and Metaphysical learning ; yet the Examiner cannot ignore , that I could make a long Catalogue of Writers , both ancient and modern , at least as well vers'd in natural Philosophy as St. Thomas and Suarez , who have some of them in express words denyed this to be naturally possible ; and others have declared themselves of the same judgment by establishing principles , with which this Conceit of the virtual extension of the indivisible Corpuscles is absolutely inconsistent . And though no Author had hitherto opposed it , yet I , that dispute not what this or that man thought , but what 't is rational to think , should nevertheless not scruple to reject it now ; and should not doubt to find store of the best Naturalists of the same opinion with me , and perhaps among them the Examiner himself , who ( however this acknowledgment may agree with the three following Chapters of his book ) tells us , ( pag. 160. ) that Juxia probabiliorem sententiam hujusmodi virtualis extensio rei corporea concedenda non est , ut pote soli rei spirituali propria . But to conclude at length this tedious Enquiry into the Aristotelean way of Rarefaction , ( which is of so obscure a nature that it can scarce be either proposed or examined in few words ) I will not take upon me resolutely to affirm which of the two wayes of explicating it ( by Atomes or by Parts infinitely divisible ) our Author declares himself for . But which of them soever it be , I think I have shown that he has not intelligibly made it out : And I make the less scruple to do so , because he himself is so ingenuous as ( at the close of his discourse of the two wayes ) to speak thus of the Opinion he prefers ; Praestat communi & receptae hactenus in Scholis sententiae insistere , quae licet difficultates quidem non clarè solvat , its tamen aperte non succumbit . So that in this discourse of Rarefaction , to which our Author has so often in the fore-going part of the Book referred us , as that which should make good what there seemed the most improbable ; he has but instead of a probable Hypothesis needlesly rejected , substituted a Doctrine which himself dares not pretend capable of being well freed from the difficulties with which it may be charged ; though I doubt not but other Readers , especially Naturalists , will think he has been very civil to this obscure Doctrine , in saying that Difficultatibus non aperte succumbit . As for the other way of explicating Rarefaction , namely , by supposing that a body is made up of parts indivisible ; he will not , I presume , deny , but that the Objections we formerly made against it are weighty . For according to this Hypothesis ( which one would think he prefers , since he makes use of it in the three or four last Chapters of his Book ) Necessariò fatendum est ( sayes he ) unam eandemque partem poni in duplici loco adaequate : Cum enim indivisibilis sit , locumque occupet majorem quam prius , necesse est ut tota sit in quolibet puncto totius loci , sive ut per totum illud spatium virtualiter extendatur . So that when he in the very next page affirms , that by this virtual extension of the parts , the Difficulties that have for so many Ages troubled Philosophers may be easily solved , he must give me leave ( who love to speak intelligibly , and not to admit what I cannot understand ) to desire he would explain to me what this extensio virtualis is , and how it will remove the Difficulties that I formerly charged upon the Aristotelean Rarefaction . For the easier consideration of this matter , let us resume what we lately supposed , namely , that in the Magdeburgick Experiment the half Inch of undilated Air consisted of a hundred Corpuscles ; I demand how the indivisibility of these Corpuscles will qualifie them to make out such a Rarefaction as the Author imagines . For what does their being indivisible do in this case , but make it the less intelligible how they can fill above a hundred parts of space ? 'T is easie to fore-see he will answer , That they are virtually extended . But not here to question how their indivisibility makes them capable of being so ; I demand , whether by an Atoms being virtually extended , its corporeal substance do really ( I mean adequately ) fill more space then it did before , or whether it do not : ( for one of the two is necessary . ) If it do , then 't is a true and real , and not barely a virtual extension . And that such an extension will not serve the turn , what we have formerly argued against the Peripatetick Rarefaction will evince ; and our Adversary seems to confess as much , by devising this virtual extension to avoid the inconveniences to which he saw his Doctrine of Rarefaction would otherwise plainly appear expos'd . But if it be said , That when an Atome is virtually extended , its corporeal substance fills no more space then before : This is but a Verbal shift , that may perhaps amuse an unwary Reader , but it will scarce satisfie a considering one . For I demand how that which is not a substance can fill place ; and how this improper and but Metaphorical Extension will salve the Phaenomena of Rarefaction : as how the half Inch of Air at the top of the fore-mentioned Globe shall without a corporeal extension fill the whole Globe of two thousand times its bigness when the water is suck'd out of it , and act at the lower part of the Globe . Which last Clause I therefore adde , because not onely our Author teaches ( pag. 91. & 92. ) that the whole Globe was filled with a certain thin substance , which by its contraction violently snatch'd up the water into which the neck of the Glass was immers'd ; but in a parallel case he makes it his grand Argument to prove , that there is no Vacuum in the deserted part of the Tube in the Torricellian Experiment , That the attraction of the Finger cannot be performed but by some real body . Wherefore till the Examiner do intelligibly explain how a virtual Extension , as it is opposed to a corporeal , can make an Atome fill twice , nay , two thousand times more space then it did before ; I suppose this device of virtual Extension will appear to unbiass'd Naturalists but a very unsatisfactory evasion . Two Arguments indeed there are which our Adversary offers as proofs of what he teaches . The first is , That they commonly teach in the Schools , that at least divinitus ( as he speakes ) such a thing as is pleaded for may be done , and that consequently it is not repugnant to the nature of a body . But , though they that either know me , or have read what I have written about matters Theological , will , I hope , readily believe , that none is more willing to acknowledge and venerate Divine Omnipotence ; yet in some famous Schools they teach , that it is contrary to the nature of the thing . And that men who think so , and consequently look not upon it as an object of Divine Omnipotence , may ( whatever he here say ) without impiety be of a differing mind from him about the possibility of such a Rarefaction as he would here have , our Author may perchance think fit to grant , if he remember that he himself sayes a few Pages after , Cum tempus sit Ens essentialiter successivum , it a ut ne divinitus quidem possint duae ejus partes simul existere , &c. But , not now to dispute of a power that I am more willing to adore then question , I say , that our Controversie is not what God can do , but about what can be done by Natural Agents , not elevated above the sphere of Nature . For though God can both create and annihilate , yet Nature can do neither : and in the judgment of true Philosophers I suppose our Hypothesis would need no other advantage to make it be preferred before our Adversaries , then that in ours things are explicated by the ordinary course of Nature , whereas in the other recourse must be had to miracles . But though our Authors way of explicating Rarefaction be thus improbable , yet I must not here omit to take notice , that his Funiculus supposes a Condensation that to me appears incumbred with no less manifest difficulties . For , since he teaches that a body may be condens'd without either having any vacuities for the comprest parts to retire into , or having Pores filled with any subtile and yielding matter that may be squeez'd out of them ; it will follow , that the parts of the body to be condens'd do immediately touch each other : which supposed , I demand how bodies that are already contiguous can be brought to farther Approximations without penetrating each other , at least in some of their parts . So that I see not how the Examiners Condensation can be perform'd without penetration of dimensions . A thing that Philosophers of all Ages have looked upon as by no means to be admitted in Nature . And our Author himself speaks somewhere at the same rate , where to the Question , Why the walls that inclose fired Gun-powder must be blown asunder ? Respondeo ( sayes he ) haec omnia inde accidere , quod pulvis ille sic accensus & in flammam conversus , longe majus spatium nunc occupet quàm prius . Unde fit , ut cum totum cubiculum antea fuerit plenissimum , disrumpantur sic parietes , ne detur corporum penetratio . In the Magdeburgick Experiment he tells us ( as we have heard already ) that the whole capacity of the Globe is filled with an extremely thin body . But not now to examine how properly he calls that a rare body , which according to him intercepts neither Pores nor any heterogeneous substance , the greater or lesser absence of which makes men call a body more or less dense ; not to insist on this , I say , let us consider , that before the admission of water into the exhausted Globe there was , according to him , two thousand half Inches of a substance , which , however it was produc'd or got thither , was a true and real body ; and that after the admission of the water there remained in the same Globe , besides the water that came in , no more then one half Inch of body . Since then our Author does not pretend ( which if he did , might be easily disproved ) that the one thousand nine hundred ninety nine half Inches of Matter , that now appear no more , traversed the body of Water ; since he will not allow that it gets away through the Pores of the Glass , I demand , what becomes of so great a quantity of Matter ? For that 't is annihilated I suppose he is too rational a man to pretend , ( nor , if he should , would it be at all believ'd ) and to say , that a thousand and so many hundred parts of Matter should be retir'd into that one part of space that contains the one half Inch of Air , is little less incredible : For that space was suppos'd perfectly full of body before , and how a thing can be more then perfectly full , who can conceive ? To dispatch : According to our Authors way of Condensation , two , or perhaps two thousand , bodles may be crouded into a space that is adequately fill'd by one of them apart . And if this be not Penetration of Dimensions , I desire to be informed what is so ; and till then I shall leave it to any unprepossess'd Naturalist to judge , whether an Hypothesis that needs suppose a thing so generally concluded to be impossible to Nature , be probable or not ; and whether to tell us that the very same parcel of Air , that is now without violence contain'd in half an Inch of space , shall by and by fill two thousand times as much room , and presently after shrink again into the two thousandth part of the space it hewly possess'd , be not to turn a Body into a Spirit , and , confounding their Notions , attribute to the former the discriminating and least easily conceivable properties of the later . And this Argument is , I confess , with me of that weight , that this alone would keep me from admitting the Examiners Hypothesis : yet if any happier Contemplator shall prove so sharp-sighted , as to devise and clearly propose a way of making the Rarefaction and Condensation hither to argued against , intelligible to me , he is not like to find me obstinate . Nor indeed is there sufficient cause why his succeeding in that attempt should make our Adversaries Hypothesis preferrable to ours , since that would not prove it either necessary , or so much as sufficient , but onely answer some of the Arguments that tend to prove 't is not intelligible . And that we have other Arguments on our side then those that relate to Rarefaction and Condensation , may appear partly by what has been discours'd already , and partly by what we have now to subjoyn . CHAP. IV. A Consideration ( pertinent to the present Controversie ) of what happens in trying the Torricellian and other Experiments , at the tops and feet of Hills . THere remain then yet a couple of Considerations to be oppos'd against the Examiners Hypothesis , which , though the past Discourse may make them be look'd upon as needless , we must not pretermit , because they contain such Arguments as may not onely be imployed against our Adversaries Doctrine , but will very much tend to the confirmation of ours . I consider then further , that the Hypothesis I am opposing , being but a kind of Inversion of ours , and supposing the spring or motion of Restitution in the Air to tend inwards , as according to us it tends outwards ; it cannot be , that if the supposition it self were ( what I think I have prov'd it is not ) true , many of the Phaenomena would be plausibly enough explicable by it : the same motions in an intermediate body being in many cases producible alike , whether we suppose it to be thrust or drawn ; provided both the endeavours tend the same way . But then we may be satisfied whether the effect be to be ascribed to Pulsion or to Traction , ( as they commonly speak , though indeed the later seems reducible to the former ) if we can find out an Experiment wherein there is reason such an effect should follow , in case Pulsion be the cause inquired after , and not in case it be Traction . And such an Experimentum Crucis ( to speak with our Illustrious Verulam ) is afforded us by that noble Observation of Monsieur Paschall , mentioned by the famous Pecquet , and out of him by our Author : namely , that the Torricellian Experiment being made at the foot and in divers places of a very high Mountain , ( of the altitude of five hundred fathom or three thousand foot ) he found , that after he had ascended a hundred and fifty Fathom , the Quicksilver was fallen two Inches and a quarter below its station at the Mountains foot ; and that at the very top of the Hill it had descended above three Inches below the same wonted station . Whence it appears that the Quicksilver being carried up towards the top of the Atmosphere , falls down the lower , the higher the place is wherin the observation is made : of which the reason is plain in our Hypothesis , namely , that the nearer we come to the top of the Atmosphere , the shorter and lighter is the Cylinder of Air incumbent upon the restagnant Mercury ; and consequently the less weight of Cylindrical Mercury will that Air be able to counter-poise and keep suspended . And since this notable Phaenomenon does thus clearly follow upon ours , and not upon our Adversaries Hypothesis ; this Experiment seems to determine the Controversie betwixt them : because in this case the Examiner cannot pretend , as he does in the seventeenth and divers other of our Experiments , that the Descent of the Quicksilver in the Tube is caus'd , not by the Diminution of the external Airs pressure , but from the preternatural Rarefaction or Distension of that external Air ( in the Receiver ) when by seeking to restore it self , it endeavours to draw up the restagnant Mercury : For in our present case there appears no such forcible Dilatation of that Air , as in many of the Phaenomena of our Engine he is pleas'd to imagine . It need therefore be no great wonder , if his Adversaries do , as he observes , make a great account of this Experiment , to prove that the Mercury is kept up in the Tube by the resistance of the external Aire . Nor do I think his Answers to the Argument drawn from hence will keep them from thinking it cogent . For to an Objection upon which he takes notice that they lay so much stress , he replyes but two things ; which neither singly nor together will near amount to a satisfactory Answer . But because that though Experiments made in very elevated places are noble ones , and of great importance in the Controversies about the Air , yet there are but very few of those that are qualified to make Experiments of that Nature , who have the opportunity of making them upon high Mountains ; we did with the assistance of an ingenious man attempt a Tryal , wherein we hoped to find a sensibly-differing Weight of the Atmospere , in a far less height then that of an ordinary Hill. But in stead of a common Tube we made use of a kind of Weather-glass , that the included Air might help to make the event notable , for a reason to be mentioned ere long ; and in stead of Quicksilver we employ'd common Water in the Pipe belonging to the Weather-glass , that small changes in the Weight or resistance of the Atmosphere in opposit on of the included Air might be the more discernable . The Instrument we made use of consisted only of a Glass with a broad Foot and a narrow Neck ( A B ) and a slender Glass-Pipe ( C D ) open at both ends : which Pipe was so placed , that the bottom of it did almost , but not quite , reach to the bottom of the bigger Glass ( A B ) within whose Neck ( A ) it was fastned with a close cement , that both kept the Pipe in its place , and hindred all communication betwixt the inward ( I I ) and outward ( K K ) Air , save by the cavity of the Pipe ( C D ) . Now we chose this Glass ( A B ) more then ordinarily capacious , that the effect of the dilatation of the included Air ( I I ) might be the more conspicuous . Then conveying a convenient quantity of Water ( H H ) into this Glass , we carried it to the Leads of the lofty Abby-Church at Westminster , and there blew in a little Air to raise the Water to the upper part of the Pipe , that being above the Vessel ( A B ) we might more precisely mark the several stations of the Water then otherwise we could . Afterward having suffered the Glass to rest a pretty while upon the Lead , that the Air ( I I ) within might be reduc'd to the same state , both as to coldness and as to pressure , with ( K K ) that without , having marked the station of the Water ( F ) , we gently let down the Vessel by a long string to the foot of the Wall , where one attended to receive it ; who having suffer'd it to rest upon the ground , cry'd to us that it was subsided about an Inch below the mark ( F ) we had put : whereupon having order'd him to put a mark at this second station of it ( E ) , we drew up the Vessel again ; and suffering it to rest a while , we observ'd the Water to be re-ascended to or near the first mark ( F ) , which was indeed about an Inch above ( E ) the other . And this we did that Evening a second time with almost a like success : though two or three dayes after , the wind blowing strongly upon the Leads , we found not the Experiment to succeed quite so regularly as before ; yet the Water alwayes manifestly fell lower at the foot of the Wall then it was at the top : which I see no cause to ascribe barely to the differing temperature of the Air above and below , as to Heat and Cold , since according to the general estimate , the more elevated Region of the Air is , caeteris paribus , colder then that below , which would rather check the greater expansion of the included Air at the top of the Leads then promote it . But the better to avoid mistakes and prevent Objections , we thought fit to try the Experiment within the Church , and got into a Gallery of the same height with the Leads : but the upper part of the Pipe being casually broken off , we thought fit to order the matter so , that the surface ( G ) of the remaining Water in the Pipe should be about an Inch higher then the surface of the Water in the Vessel . And then my above-mentioned Correspondent letting down the Glass , almost as soon as it was setled upon the pavement , kneeling down to see how far it was subsided , I found that not only it was fallen as low as the other Water , but that the outward Air deprest it so far , as whilest I was looking on , to break in beneath the bottom of the Pipe , and ascend through the Water in bubbles : after which the Glass being drawn up again , my Correspondent affirm'd , that the Water was very manifestly re-ascended . But because by the unlucky breaking of a Glass , we were hindred to observe , as we designed , what would happen as well in a Weather-glass , so contriv'd that the weight or pressure of the Atmosphere should make no change in it , as in another whose included Air was at the top , ( whereas in that we imploy'd the included Air was in the lower part , ) and because there happened in our Tryals a Circumstance or two that seem'd not so devoid of difficulties , but that we think it may require further examination , we design to set down a more particular account of this Experiment , ( as how it succeeds with Quicksilver instead of Water , together with the capacity of the Vessel ( A B ) and the bore of the Pipe ( C D ) with some other variety of Circumstances ) together with the event of the curiosity we had ( which seemed very successful ) to try the Torricellian Experiment upon the above-mentioned Leads , and then let down the Tube together with the restagnant Mercury to the ground , to observe the increasing altitude of the Quicksilver , in the formerly-mentioned Appendix to the Epistle we have been defending . And it shall suffice us in the mean time that the Tryals already mentioned seem to make it evident enough that the Atmosphere gravitates more , caeteris paribus , neer the surface of the Earth , then in the more elevated parts of the Air. For the Leads on which we made our Tryals were found by measure to be in perpendicular height but threescore and fifteen Foot from the ground . To which we shall only add this at present , that once being desirous to observe what we could touching the proportions of the subsidence of the Water to the height of its several stations from the ground , purposely carrying down the Vessel so as not considerably to heat it , from the Leads down the staires to a little window that we guest to be almost half way to the bottom , we there perceived the water to have already subsided about a Barley-Corns length , notwithstanding that probably in spight of our care , the vessel were a little warmed by the heat of his body that carried it , since by that time we were come to the foot of the Wall , the Water stood almost at the highest mark ; but after the Vessel was suffered to rest a while , it relapsed by degrees to the lowest . And thus much for the first of the things I had to represent in favour of our Doctrine . The other Particular I shall mention for confirmation of our Hypothesis , is that Experiment ( which , though it be needless , seems yet more cogent and proper to prevent Evasions ) made by the same Monsieur Paschal , of carrying a weakly-blown Foot-ball from the bottom to the top of an high Mountain . For that Foot-ball swell'd more and more , the higher it was carried , so that it appeared as if it were full blown at the top of the Mountain , and gradually growing lank again , as it was carried ; downwards ; so that at the foot of the Hill it was flaccid as before . This , I say , having thus happened , we have here an Experiment to prove our Hypothesis , wherein recourse cannot be had to any forcibly and preternaturally distended Body , such as that is pretended to be which remaines in the deserted space of the Tube in the Torricellian Experiment . The other thing which the Examiner alledges against our Argument from Monsieur Paschals Tryals , is , that supposing it to be true , yet it cannot thence be inferr'd , that the subsidence of the Mercury at the top of the Hill proceeded from the Atmospherical Cylinder's being there lighter and less able to sustain the Quicksilver . Sed dici potest ( sayes he ) ideo sic in vertice Montis magis descendisse , quod ibidem esset Aura frigidior , aut ex alio Temperamento hujusmodi descensum causante . But this solution will not serve the turn : For the coldness of the ambient Air ( which yet the Experimenters take not notice of ) would rather contract the rarefied substance within the Tube , and so draw up the Mercury higher , as our Author himself teaches us , that 't is from the shrinking of the Funiculus occasion'd by the cold that the Water in Thermometers ascends in cold weather . And whereas the only proof he adds of so improbable an Explication is taken from our eighteenth Experiment , wherein we relate , that sometimes the Quicksilver did sensibly fall lower in colder then in far less cold weather : I answer , that this eighteenth Experiment will scarce make more for him then against him : For , as I there take notice that the Quicksilver descended in cold weather , so it sometimes descended likewise in hot weather , and rose in cold . And 't is very strange , that in all the Observations made , in differing Countries and at differing times , it should still so happen that the Mercurial Cylinder should be shorter near the top of the Atmosphere then further from it ; if the resistance of the outward Air have nothing to do with the keeping it suspended . And 't is yet more strange , that the Foot-ball should in like manner grow turgid and flaccid , according as it is carried into places where it has a shorter or longer Pillar of Air incumbent on it . I was going to proceed to what remains of this Second Part of our Treatise , but that since I begun this Chapter casually meeting with an Experiment lately sent in a Letter to a very Ingenious † Acquaintance of his and mine by a very Industrious Physician * ( who is said to have had the curiosity to try over again many of the Experiments of our Engine ) and finding it very proper to confirm our newly related Experiment made at Westminster , and to be of such a nature as we have not in this part of England the opportunity to try the like , for want of Hills high enough , I shall ( according to the permission given me ) insert it in this place . And the rather , that as the Mountains have by the Trials made on them of the Torricellian Experiment , afforded us a noble proof of the weight of the Air ; so they may afford us one of its Spring : wherein I hope the Phaenomenon of the Waters descent will not be ascribed to any attraction made of the Water by the violently-distended outward Air. And because the Experiment was not made by us , but by another , we will set it down in his words , which are these : This fifteenth of October 1661. we took a Weather-glass A B , of about two foot in length , and carrying it to the bottom of Hallifax Hill , the Water stood in the shank at thirteen Inches above the Water in the Vessel : Thence carrying it thus fill'd , with the whole frame , immediately to the top of the said Hill , the Water fell down to the point D , viz. an Inch and a quarter lower then it was at the bottom of the said Hill ; which ( as he rightly inferrs ) proves the Elasticity of the Air : for the internal Air A C , which was of the same power and extension with the external at the bottom of the Hill , did manifest a greater Elasticity then the Mountain-Air there * , and so extended it self further by C D. The like Experiment , I hear , the same Ingenious Doctor has very lately repeated , and found the descent of the Water to be greater then before . And though some Virtuosi have thought it strange , that in an Hill far inferiour to the Alps and Appennines , so short a Cylinder of so light al quor as Water should fall so much ; yet I see not any reason to distrust upon this ground either His Experiment or Ours ( lately mention'd to have been made at Westminster ; ) but rather to wonder the Water fell not more ( if the Hill be considerably high : ) for their suspicion seems grounded upon a mistake , as if because the Quick-silver in the Torricellian Experiment made without purposely leaving any Air in the Tube , would not , at the top of the mention'd Hill , have subsided above an Inch , if so much , the Water , that is near fourteen times lighter , should not fall above a fourteenth part of that space ; whereas in the Torricellian Experiment , the upper and deserted space of the Tube has little or no Air left in it , but the Correspondent part of the Weather-glass was furnish'd with Air , whose pressure was little less then that of the Atmosphere at the bottom of the Hill ; and consequently must be much greater then the pressure of the same Atmosphere at the top of the Hill , where the Atmospherical Cylinder's gravity ( upon whose account it presses ) must be much diminish'd by its being made much shorter , and by its consisting of an Air less comprest . And thus much for the first of the two Considerations wherewith I promised to conclude this second part of the present Tract . Onely before I proceed I must in a word desire the Reader to take notice , that though I have here singled out but one of the nine Experiments which the Examiner in the 11. and 12. Chapters reckons up as urg'd by his Adversaries ; yet I do not thereby declare my acquiescing in his Explications of those Phaenomena , but onely leave both them and some other things he delivers about Siphons and the Magdeburg Experiments , to be discours'd by those that are more concerned to examine them , contenting my self to have sufficiently disproved the Funiculus which his Expositions suppose , and cleared the grounds of explicating such Experiments aright . CHAP. V. Two new Experiments touching the measure of the Force of the Spring of Air compress'd and dilated . THe other thing that I would have considered touching our Adversaries Hypothesis is , That it is needless . For whereas he denies not that the Air has some Weight and Spring , but affirms that it is very insufficient to perform such great matters as the counterpoising of a Mercurial Cylinder of 29. Inches , as we teach that it may : We shall now endeavour to manifest by Experiments purposely made , that the Spring of the Air is capable of doing far more then 't is necessary for us to ascribe to it , to salve the Phaenomena of the Torricellian Experiment . We took then a long Glass-Tube , which by a dexterous hand and the help of Lamp was in such a manner crooked at the bottom , that the part turned up was almost parallel to the rest of the Tube , and the Orifice of this shorter leg of the Siphon ( if I may so call the whole Instrument ) being Hermetically seal'd , the length of it was divided into Inches , ( each of which was subdivided into eight parts ) by a straight list of paper , which containing those Divisions was carefully pasted all along it : then putting in as much Quicksilver as served to fill the Arch or bended part of the Siphon , that the Mercury standing in a level might reach in the one leg to the bottom of the divided paper , and just to the same height or Horizontal line in the other ; we took care , by frequently inclining the Tube , so that the Air might freely passfrom one leg into the other by the sides of the Mercury , ( we took ( I say ) care ) that the Air at last included in the shorter Cylinder should be of the same laxity with the rest of the Air about it . This done , we began to pour Quicksilver into the longer leg of the Siphon , which by its weight pressing up that in the shorter leg , did by degrees streighten the included Air : and continuing this pouring in of Quicksilver till the Air in the shorter leg was by condensation reduced to take up but half the space it possess'd ( I say , possess'd , not fill'd ) before ; we cast our eyes upon the longer leg of the Glass , on which was likewise pasted a list of Paper carefully divided into Inches and parts , and we observed , not without delight and satisfaction , that the Quicksilver in that longer part of the Tube was 29. Inches higher then the other . Now that this Observation does both very well agree with and confirm our Hypothesis , will be easily discerned by him that takes notice that we teach , and Monsieur Paschall and our English friends Experiments prove , that the greater the weight is that leans upon the Air , the more forcible is its endeavour of Dilatation , and consequently its power of resistance , ( as other Springs are stronger when bent by greater weights . ) For this being considered , it wil appear to agree rarely-well with the Hypothesis , that as according to it the Air in that degree of density and correspondent measure of resistance to which the weight of the incumbent Atmosphere had brought it , was able to counter-balance and resist the pressure of a Mercurial Cylinder of about 29. Inches , as we are taught by the Torricellian Experiment ; so here the same Air being brought to a degree of density about twice as great as that it had before , obtains a Spring twice as strong as formerly . As may appear by its being able to sustain or resist a Cylinder of 29. Inches in the longer Tube , together with the weight of the Atmospherical Cylinder , that lean'd upon those 29. Inches of Mercury ; and , as we just now inferr'd from the Torricellian Experiment , was equivalent to them . We were hindered from prosecuting the tryal at that time by the casual breaking of the Tube . But because an accurate Experiment of this nature would be of great importance to the Doctrine of the Spring of the Air , and has not yet been made ( that I know ) by any man ; and because also it is more uneasie to be made then one would think , in regard of the difficulty as well of procuring crooked Tubes fit for the purpose , as of making a just estimate of the true place of the Protuberant Mercury's surface ; I suppose it will not be unwelcome to the Reader , to be informed that after some other tryals , one of which we made in a Tube whose longer leg was perpendicular , and the other , that contained the Air , parallel to the Horizon , we at last procured a Tube of the Figure exprest in the Scheme ; which Tube , though of a pretty bigness , was so long , that the Cylinder whereof the shorter leg of it consisted admitted a list of Paper , which had before been divided into 12. Inches and their quarters , and the longer leg admitted another list of Paper of divers foot in length , and divided after the same manner : then Quicksilver being poured in to fill up the bended part of the Glass , that the surface of it in either leg might rest in the same Horizontal line , as we lately taught , there was more and more Quicksilver poured into the longer Tube ; and notice being watchfully taken how far the Mercury was risen in that longer Tube , when it appeared to have ascended to any of the divisions in the shorter Tube , the several Observations that were thus successively made , and as they were made set down , afforded us the ensuing Table . A Table of the Condensation of the Air. A A B C D E 48 12 00 Added to 29⅛ makes 29 2 / 16 29 2 / 16 46 11½ 01 7 / 16 30 9 / 16 30 6 / 16 44 11 02 13 / 16 31 15 / 16 31 12 / 16 42 10½ 04 6 / 16 33 8 / 16 33 1 / 7 40 10 06 3 / 16 35 5 / 16 35 — 38 9½ 07 14 / 16 37 — 36 15 / 19 36 9 10 2 / 16 39 4 / 16 38⅞ 34 8½ 12 8 / 16 41 10 / 16 41 2 / 17 32 8 15 1 / 16 44 3 / 16 43 11 / 16 30 7½ 17 15 / 16 47 1 / 16 46⅗ 28 7 21 2 / 16 50 5 / 16 50 — 26 6½ 25 3 / 16 54 5 / 16 53 10 / 13 24 6 29 11 / 16 58 13 / 16 58 2 / 8 23 5¾ 32 3 / 16 61 5 / 16 60 18 / 23 22 5½ 34 15 / 16 64 1 / 16 63 6 / 11 21 5¼ 37 15 / 16 67 1 / 16 66 4 / 7 20 5 41 9 / 16 70 11 / 16 70 — 19 4 3 / 4 45 — 74 2 / 16 73 11 / 19 18 4½ 48 12 / 16 77 14 / 16 77⅔ 17 4¼ 53 11 / 16 82 12 / 16 82 4 / 17 16 4 58 2 / 16 87 14 / 16 87⅜ 15 3¾ 63 15 / 16 93 2 / 16 93⅕ 14 3½ 71 5 / 16 100 7 / 16 99 6 / 7 13 3¼ 78 11 / 16 107 12 / 16 107 7 / 13 12 3 88 7 / 16 117 9 / 16 116 4 / 8 A A. The number of equal spaces in the shorter leg , that contained the same parcel of Air diversly extended . B. The height of the Mercurial Cylinder in the longer leg , that compress'd the Air into those dimensions . C. The height of a Mercurial Cylinder that counterbalanc'd the pressure of the Atmosphere . D. The Aggregate of the two last Columns B and C , exhibiting the pressure sustained by the included Air. E. What that pressure should be according to the Hypothesis , that supposes the pressures and expansions to be in reciprocal proportion . For the better understanding of this Experiment it may not be amiss to take notice of the following particulars : 1. That the Tube being so tall that we could not conveniently make use of it in a Chamber , we were fain to use it on a pair of Stairs , which yet were very lightsom , the Tube being for preservations sake by strings so suspended , that it did scarce touch the Box presently to be mentioned . 2. The lower and crooked part of the Pipe was placed in a square wooden Box , of a good largness and depth , to prevent the loss of the Quicksilver that might fall aside in the transfusion from the Vessel into the Pipe , and to receive the whole Quicksilver in case the Tube should break . 3. That we were two to make the observation together , the one to take notice at the bottom how the Quicksilver rose in the shorter Cylinder , and the other to pour in at the top of the longer , it being very hard and troublesome for one man alone to do both accurately . 4. That the Quicksilver was poured in but by little and little , according to the direction of him that observed below , it being far easier to pour in more , then to take out any in case too much at once had been poured in . 5. That at the beginning of the Operation , that we might the more truly discern where the Quicksilver rested from time to time , we made use of a small Looking-glass , held in a convenient posture to reflect to the eye what we desired to discern . 6. That when the Air was so compress'd , as to be crouded into less then a quarter of the space it possess'd before , we tryed whether the cold of a Linen Cloth dipp'd in water would then condense it . And it sometimes seemed a little to shrink , but not so manifestly as that we dare build any thing upon it . We then tryed likewise whether heat would notwithstanding so forcible a compressure dilate it , and approching the flame of a Candle to that part where the Air was pent up , the heat had a more sensible operation then the cold had before ; so that we scarce doubted but that the expansion of the Air would notwithstanding the weight that opprest it have been made conspicuous , if the fear of unseasonably breaking the Glass had not kept us from increasing the heat . Now although we deny not but that in our Table some particulars do not so exactly answer to what our formerly intimated Hypothesis might perchance invite the Reader to expect ; yet the Variations are not so considerable , but that they may probably enough be ascribed to some such want of exactness as in such nice Experiments is scarce avoidable . But for all that , till further tryal hath more clearly informed me , I shall not venture to determine whether or no the intimated Theory will hold universally and precisely , either in Condensation of Air , or Rarefaction : all that I shall now urge being , That however , the tryal already made sufficiently proves the main thing for which I here alledge it ; since by it 't is evident , that as common Air when reduc'd to half its wonted extent , obtained near about twice as forcible a Spring as it had before ; so this thus-comprest Air being further thrust into half this narrow room , obtained thereby a Spring about as strong again as that it last had , and consequently four times as strong as that of the common Air. And there is no cause to doubt , that if we had been here furnisht with a greater quantity of Quicksilver and a very strong Tube , we might by a further compression of the included Air have made it counter-balance the pressure of a far taller and heavier Cylinder of Mercury . For no man perhaps yet knows how near to an infinite compression the Air may be capable of , if the compressing force be competently increast . So that here our Adversary may plainly see that the Spring of the Air , which he makes so light of , may not onely be able to resist the weight of 29. Inches , but in some cases of above an hundred Inches of Quicksilver , and that without the assistance of his Funiculus , which in our present case has nothing to do . And to let you see that we did not ( a little above ) inconsiderately mention the weight of the incumbent Atmospherical Cylinder as a part of the weight resisted by the imprisoned Air , we will here annex , that we took care , when the Mercurial Cylinder in the longer leg of the Pipe was about an hundred Inches high , to cause one to suck at the open Orifice ; whereupon ( as we expected ) the Mercury in the Tube did notably ascend . Which considerable Phaenomenon cannot be ascribed to our Examiners Funiculus , since by his own confession that cannot pull up the Mercury , if the Mercurial Cylinder be above 29. or 30. Inches of Mercury . And therefore we shall render this reason of it , That the pressure of the incumbent Air being in part taken off by its expanding it self into the Suckers dilated chest ; the imprison'd Air was thereby enabled to dilate it self manifestly , and repel the Mercury that comprest it , till there was an equality of force betwixt the strong Spring of that comprest Air on the one part , and the tall Mercurial Cylinder , together with the contiguous dilated Air , on the other part . Now , if to what we have thus delivered concerning the compression of Air we adde some Observations concerning its spontaneous Expansion , it will the better appear how much the Phaenomena of these Mercurial Experiments depend upon the differing measures of strength to be met with in the Airs Spring , according to its various degrees of Compression and Laxity . But , before I enter upon this subject , I shall readily acknowledge that I had not reduc'd the tryals I had made about measuring the Expansion of the Air to any certain Hypothesis , when that ingenious Gentleman Mr. Richard Townely was pleased to inform me , that having by the perusal of my Physico-Mechanical Experiments been satisfied that the Spring of the Air was the cause of it , he had endeavoured ( and I wish in such attempts other ingenious men would follow his example ) to supply what I had omitted concerning the reducing to a precise estimate how much Air dilated of it self loses of its Elastical force , according to the measures of its Dilatation . He added , that he had begun to set down what occurred to him to this purpose in a short Discourse , whereof he afterwards did me the favour to shew me the beginning , which gives me a just Curiosity to see it perfected . But , because I neither know , nor ( by reason of the great distance betwixt our places of residence ) have at present the opportunity to enquire , whether he will think fit to annex his Discourse to our Appendix , or to publish it by it self , or at all ; and because he hath not yet , for ought I know , met with fit Glasses to make an any-thing-accurate Table of the Decrement of the force of dilated Air ; our present design invites us to present the Reader with that which follows , wherein I had the assistance of the same person that I took notice of in the former Chapter , as having written something about Rarefaction : whom I the rather make mention of on this occasion , because when he first heard me speak of Mr. Townley's suppositions about the proportion wherein Air loses of its Spring by Dilatation , he told me he had the year before ( and not long after the publication of my Pneumatical Treatise ) made Observations to the same purpose , which he acknowledged to agree well enough with Mr. Townley's Theory : And so did ( as their Author was pleased to tell me ) some Tryals made about the same time by that Noble Virtuoso and eminent Mathematician the Lord Brouncker , from whose further Enquiries into this matter , if his occasions will allow him to make them , the Curious may well hope for something very accurate . A Table of the Rarefaction of the Air. A B C D E 1 00 0 / 0 Subttracted from 29¾ leaves 29¾ 29¾ 1 1 / 2 10⅝ 19⅛ 19⅚ 2 15⅜ 14⅜ 14⅞ 3 20 2 / 8 9 4 / 8 9 15 / 12 4 22⅝ 7⅛ 7 7 / 16 5 24⅛ 5⅝ 5 19 / 20 6 24⅞ 4⅞ 4 23 / 24 7 25 4 / 8 4 2 / 8 4¼ 8 26 0 / 0 3 6 / 8 3 23 / 32 9 26⅜ 3 1 / 8 3 11 / 36 10 26 6 / 8 3 0 / 0 2 39 / 40 12 27⅛ 2⅝ 2 23 / 48 14 27 4 / 8 2 2 / 8 2⅛ 16 27 6 / 8 2 0 / 0 1 5● / 64 18 27⅞ 1⅞ 1 47 / 72 20 28 ● / ● 1 6 / 8 18 9 / 0 24 28 2 / 8 1 4 / 8 1 23 / 96 28 28⅜ 1⅜ 1 1 / 16 32 28 4 / 8 1 2 / 8 0 119 / 128 A. The number of equal spaces at the top of the Tube , that contained the same parcel of Air. B. The height of the Mercurial Cylinder , that together with the Spring of the included Air counterbalanced the pressure of the Atmosphere . C. The pressure of the Atmosphere . D. The Complement of B to C , exhibiting the pressure sustained by the included Air. E. What that pressure should be according to the Hypothesis . To make the Experiment of the debilitated force of expanded Air the plainer , 't will not be amiss to note some particulars , especially touching the manner of making the Tryal ; which ( for the reasons lately mention'd ) we made on a lightsome pair of stairs , and with a Box also lin'd with Paper to receive the Mercury that might be spilt . And in regard it would require a vast and in few places procurable quantity of Quicksilver , to employ vessels of such kind as are ordinary in the Torriccllian Experiment , we made use of a Glass-Tube of about six foot long , for that being Hermetically sealed at one end , serv'd our turn as well as if we could have made the Experiment in a Tub or Pond of seventy Inches deep . Secondly , We also provided a slender Glass-Pipe of about the bigness of a Swans Quill , and open at both ends : all along which was pasted a narrow list of Paper divided into Inches and half quarters . Thirdly , This slender Pipe being thrust down into the greater Tube almost fill'd with Quicksilver , the Glass helpt to make it swell to the top of the Tube , and the Quicksilver getting in at the lower orifice of the Pipe , fill'd it up till the Mercury included in that was near about a level with the surface of the surrounding Mercury in the Tube . Fourthly , There being , as near as we could guess , little more then an Inch of the slender Pipe left above the surface of the restagnant Mercury , and consequently unfill'd therewith , the prominent orifice was carefully clos'd with sealing Wax melted ; after which the Pipe was let alone for a while , that the Air dilated a little by the heat of the Wax , might upon refrigeration be reduc'd to its wonted density . And then we observ'd by the help of the above-mentioned list of Paper , whether we had not included somewhat more or somewhat less then an Inch of Air , and in either case we were fain to rectifie the error by a small hole made ( with an heated Pin ) in the Wax , and afterwards clos'd up again . Fifthly , Having thus included a just Inch of Air , we listed up the slender Pipe by degrees , till the Air was dilated to an Inch , an Inch and an half , two Inches , &c. and observed in Inches and Eighths , the length of the Mercurial Cylinder , which at each degree of the Airs expansion was impell'd above the surface of the restagnant Mercury in the Tube . Sixthly , The Observations being ended , we presently made the Torricellian Experiment with the above-mention'd great Tube of six foot long , that we might know the height of the Mercurial Cylinder , for that particular day and hour ; which height we found to be 29 ¾ Inches . Seventhly , Our Observations made after this manner furnish'd us with the preceding Table , in which there would not probably have been found the difference here set down betwixt the force of the Air when expanded to double its former dimensions , and what that force should have been precisely according to the Theory , but that the included Inch of Air receiv'd some little accession during the Tryal ; which this newly-mention'd difference making us suspect , we found by replunging the Pipe into the Quicksilver , that the included Air had gain'd about half an eighth , which we guest to have come from some little aerial bubbles in the Quicksilver , contain'd in the Pipe ( so easie is it in such nice Experiments to miss of exactness . ) We try'd also with 12. Inches of Air shut up to be dilated ; but being then hindred by some unwelcome avocations to prosecure those Experiments , we shall elsewhere , out of other Notes and Tryals ( God permitting ) set down some other accurate Tables concerning this matter . By which possibly we may be assisted to resolve whether the Atmosphere should be look'd upon ( as it usually is ) as a limited and bounded Portion of the Air ; or whether we should in a stricter sense then we did before , use the Atmosphere and Aereal part of the World for almost equivalent terms ; or else whether we should allow the word Atmosphere some other notion in relation to its Extent and Limits ; ( for as to its Spring and Weight , these Experiments do not question , but evince them . ) But we are willing , as we said , to referre these matters to our Appendix , and till then to retain our wonted manner of speaking of the Air and Atmosphere . In the mean time ( to return to our last-mention'd Experiments ) besides that so little a variation may be in great part imputed to the difficulty of making Experiments of this nature exactly , and perhaps a good part of it to something of inequality in the Cavity of the Pipe , or even in the thickness of the Glass ; besides this , I say , the proportion betwixt the several pressures of the included Air undilated and expanded , especially when the Dilatation was great ( for when the Air swell'd but to four times its first extent , the Mercurial Cylinder , though of near 23. Inches , differ'd not a quarter of an Inch from what it should have been according to Mathematical exactness ) the proportion , I say , was sutable enough to what might be expected , to allow us to make this reflection upon the whole , That whether or no the intimated Theory will hold exactly , ( for about that , as I said above , I dare determine nothing resolutely till I have further considered the matter ) yet since the Inch of Air when it was first included was shut up with no other pressure then that which it had from the weight of the incumbent Air , and was no more comprest then the rest of the Air we breathed and moved in ; and since also this Inch of Air , when expanded to twice its former dimensions , was able with the help of a Mercurial Cylinder of about 15. Inches to counterpoise the weight of the Atmosphere , which the weight of the external Air gravitating upon the restagnant Mercury was able to impell up into the Pipe , and sustain above twenty eight Inches of Mercury when the internal Air by its great expansion had its Spring too far debilitated to make any considerable ( I say considerable , for it was not yet so dilated as not to make some ) resistance : since , I say , these things are so , the free Air here below appears to be almost as strongly comprest by the weight of the incumbent Air as it would be by the Weight of a Mercurial Cylinder of twenty eight or thirty Inches ; and consequently is not in such a state of laxity and freedom as men are wont to imagine ; and acts like some mechanical Agent , the decreement of whose force holds a stricter proportion to its increase of dimension , then has been hitherto taken notice of . I must not now stand to propose the several reflections that may be made upon the foregoing Observations touching the Compression and Expansion of Air ; partly because we could scarce avoid making the Historical part somewhat prolix ; and partly because I suppose we have already said enough to shew what was intended , namely , that to solve the Phaenomena there is not of our Adversaries Hypothesis any need : the evincing of which will appear to be of no small moment in our present Controversie , to him that considers , that the two maine things that induced the Learned Examiner to reject our Hypothesis are , that Nature abhors a Vacuum , and that though the Air have some Weight & Spring , yet these are insufficient to make out the known Phaenomena ; for which we must therefore have recourse to his Funiculus . Now as we have formerly seen , that he has not so satisfactorily disproved as resolutely rejected a Vacuum , so we have now manifested that the Spring of the Air may suffice to perform greater things then what our Explication of the Torricellian Experiments and those of our Engine obliges us to ascribe to it . Wherefore since besides the several difficulties that incumber the Hypothesis we oppose , and especially its being scarce , if at all , intelligible , we can adde that it is unnecessary ; we dare expect that such Readers as are not byass'd by their reverence for Aristotle or the Peripatetick Schools , will hardly reject an Hypothesis which , besides that it is very intelligible , is now prov'd to be sufficient , only to imbrace a Doctrine that supposes such a rarefaction and condensation , as many famous Naturalists rejected for its not being comprehensible , even when they knew of no other way ( that was probable ) of solving the Phaenomena wont to be explicated by it . The III. Part. Wherein what is objected against Mr. Boyle's Explications of particular Experiments , is answered . AND now we are come to the third and last Part of our Defence ; wherein we are to consider what our Examiner is pleas'd to object against some passages of our Physicho-Mechanical Treatise . But though this may seem the only part wherein I am particularly concern'd ; yet perhaps we shall find it , if not the shortest , at least the easiest , part of our Task . Partly , because our Author takes no exceptions at the Experiments themselves , as we have recorded them ( which from an Adversary , who in some places speaks of them as an eye-witness , is no contemptible testimony that the matters of fact have been rightly delivered : ) and partly , because there are divers Experiments which , together with their Explications , the Examiner has thought fit to leave untoucht , and thereby allows us to do so too : and partly also , because that ( as to divers of those Experiments upon which he animadverts ) he does not pretend to shew that our Explications are ill deduc'd or incongruous to our principles ; but only that the Phaenomena may be explain'd either better or as well by his Hypothesis , whereof he supposes himself to have demonstrated the truth , together with the erroneousness of ours , in the other parts of his book , especially the third , fourth and fifth Chapters . So that after what we have said to vindicate the Hypothesis we maintain , and take away our Authors imaginary Funiculus ; it will not be requisite for us on such occasions to examine his particular Assertions and Explications . Which Advertisement we hope the Reader will be pleased to bear in mind , and thereby save himself and us the trouble of a great deal of unnecessary repetition . Wherefore presuming he will do so , we shall not stay to examine the first and second Corollaries , which in his 17. Chapter he annexes to the manner of emptying our Receiver by our Pump . Neither should we say any thing as to his third and last Corollary , but that we think fit to desire the Reader to take notice , that according to what he teaches in that place , the more the Air is rarefied , the more forcibly it is able to contract it self . A defence of our 1. and 2. Experiments . And to proceed now to his 18 Chapter , which he intitles De Experiment is Boyleanis , we shall find according to what we lately noted , that against the First Experiment he objects nothing save that , if one of the Fingers be applied to the Orifice of the Valve when the Pump is freed from Air , the Experimenter shall feel to his pain that the Sucker is not thrust inward by the external Air , but , as the Finger , drawn inward by the internal . But this Phaenomenon of the intrusion of the Finger into a Cavity , where it finds no resistance , having been formerly accounted for according to our Hypothesis , we shall not need to repeat our Explication of it ; though this mistaken Phaenomenon supplies our Adversary with divers of his following Animadversions , and indeed with a great part of his book . And accordingly his Objection against our Second Experiment being of the same nature with that against the first , requires but the same Answer : For it will not alter the case that he adds upon this Experiment , Hoc esse discrimen manifestum inter pressionem & suctionem , quod suctio efficiat hujusmodi adhaesionem , pressio autem minimè ; since to say so is but to affirme , not to prove . The 3. Experiment . What our Author would except against the 3. Experiment he ought to have more intelligibly exprest : For whereas of a Discourse wherein I deliver several particulars , he onely sayes that Nullatenus satisfacit , ut legenti constabit ; I would not do the Reader the injury to suspect him of taking this proofless Assertion for a rational Confutation ; especially since upon the review of that third Experiment I find nothing that agrees not with my Hypothesis , however it may disagree with the Examiners . But , to consider the Explication he substitutes in the room of our Doctrine , which he rejects , he gives it us in these words ; Hoc quoque Experimentum principiis nostris optimè convenit : Cum enim per illam Emboli depressionem aër in cavitate brachii inclusus separetur ab eodem brachio , descendatque simul cum Embolo ( uti de aqua simul cum argento vivo descendente capite decimo tertio vidimus ) fit ut in tota illa depressione , novae semper ab aëre illo desoendente supersicies diripiantur simul & extendantur , ut ibidem de aqua est explicatum : cum itaque aeque facile diripiantur & extendantur hujusmodi superficies in fine depressionis ac initio , mirum non est quod eadem utrobique sentiatur deprimendi difficultas . By which though he seems to intend an Opposition to that part of the third Experiment which I oppos'd not against his Opinion , but that of some learned Vacuists : yet ( not to mention that he seems to have somewhat mistaken my sense ) he offers nothing at all to invalidate my inference against them ; but instead of that proposes a defence of his own Opinion , which supposes the truth of his disproved Hypothesis , and is either unsatisfactory even according to that , or else disagrees with what himself hath taught us but a little before . For 't is evident that the more the Sucker is depress'd , the more the Cylinder is exhausted of Air. And in his third Corollary ( which we lately desired the Reader to observe ) speaking of the Air in the Receiver ( and the case is the same with the Air in the Cylinder ) he affirms more then once , Eo magis extendi ac rarefieri aërem relictum , quo plus inde exhauritur , majoremque proinde acquirere vim sese contrahendi . Whereas here he would have us believe , that the little internal Air that was in the Cavity of the shank of the Stop cock , does as strongly retract the Sucker , or , which in our case is all one , refist its depression , when the Sucker is yet near the top of the Cylinder , ( and consequently when the included Air is but a little dilated ) as when the same Sucker being forced down to the lower part of the Cylinder , the same portion of remaining Air must be exceedingly more distended . The 4. Experiment . In the Fourth Experiment , touching the swelling of a Bladder upon the removal of the ambient Air ; and proportionably to that removal our Author objects nothing against the Explication we give of it by the Spring of the Air included in the Bladder , and distending it according as the pressure of the ambient Air is weakned . But he endeavours also to explicate it his way , to which he sayes this circumstance does excellently agree , that upon the regress of the external Air into the Receiver , the tumid Bladder immediately shrinks , because ( saith he ) by such ingress of the external Air , the Air in the Receiver , which drew the sides of the Bladder outward from the middle of it , is relax'd . Which Explication whether it be more natural then ours ( that ascribes the shrinking of the Bladder to the pressure of the Air that is let into the Receiver ) let the Reader judge , who has considered what we have formerly objected against the Examiners Funiculus , and the Relaxation of it upon the admission of Air. As for the reason likewise he adds , why a perforated Bladder does not also swell , namely , that by the hole , how little soever , the included Air is suck'd out by the rarefi'd ambient , we leave it to the impartial Reader to consider whether is the more genuine Explication , either ours ( against which he has nothing to object ) or his , which to make clearly out he ought ( according to what we formerly noted disputing against his Funiculus ) to shew us what kind of strings they are ; which though , according to him , strongly fastned to the inside of the Receiver and the superficies of the Bladder , must draw just as forcibly one as another , how long soever they be without the Bladder in comparison of those that within the Bladder draw so as to hinder the diduction of its sides . For Experience shews , that in a perforated Bladder the wrinkles continue as if there were no drawing at all . And though he could describe how such a string may be context , yet our Explication will have this advantage in point of probability above his , That whereas he denies not that the Air has Spring and Weight , as we deny his Funiculus to have any other then an imaginary existence ; and whereas he acknowledges that by the Instrument the Air about the Bladder is exhausted ; to shew that there needs no more then that , and consequently no Funiculus , to draw asunder the sides of the Bladder , we can confirm our Explication by the formerly mentioned Experiment of the ingenious Paschall , who carrying a flaccid Foot-ball from the bottom to the top of a high Mountain , found it to swell proportionably as he ascended , and as the weight and pressure of the ambient Air decreased , and likewise to shrink again as he descended . And yet in this case there is no recourse to be had to a Funiculus of violently-rarefi'd Air to draw asunder every way the sides of the Foot-ball . But however the Examiner will be able to defend his Explication , it may suffice us that he has objected nothing against ours . The 5. Experiment . Against the cause we assign of the fifth Experiment he likewise objects nothing , but onely ascribes the breaking of the Bladder to the self-contraction of the rarefi'd Air in the Receiver . And therefore referring the Reader to what we have newly said about the last Experiment , we will with our Author pass over the sixth and seventh , to which he has no quarrel , and proceed to the eighth . The 8. Experiment . This is that wherein we mention our having broke a Glass-Receiver , which was not globular , by the exhaustion of most of the inward Air , whereby its debilitated pressure became unable to resist the unweakned pressure of the outward Air. But this Explication the Examiner confidently rejects in these words , At profecto non videtur credibile , mollissimum hunc aërem tam vehementer vitrum ( tantae praesertim crassitudin is quantae ibidem dicitur ) undique sic comprimere ut illud perfring at : as if it were more credible that the little Air within ( which , according to him , is so much thinner then common Air ) should be able to act more powerfully upon the Glass then the Air without , which himself confesses to be a heavy body , and which not onely reaches from the surface of the Earth to the top of the highest Mountains , but which ( as may not improbably be argued from what we have elsewhere delivered ) may , for ought we know to the contrary , be heaped upon the Receiver to the height of some hundreds of Miles , nay , to I know not how many thousands , in case the Atmosphere be not a bounded port on of the Air , but reach as high as It. As for the Explication he substitutes in these words , Verius itaque respondetur , ideo sic fractum esse illud vitrum , quia per exhaustionem illam latera ejus vehementius introrsum sint attracta , quam ut ob figuram illam resistendo minus idoneam resistere potuerunt . Cum enim inclusus aër lateribus vitri firmissimè adhaereat , nihil aliud erit aërem illum sic exhaurire , quam satagere latera vitri introrsum flectere : By what we have already discoursed about the Funiculus , the Reader may easily discern what is to be answered . Nor does our Author here shew us any way by which his imaginary strings should take such fast hold of the sides of the Glass , as to be able to draw them together notwithstanding the resistance they find from the close texture of the Body to be broken . The 9. Experiment . Our Explication of the ninth Experiment he handles very severely : for having briefly recited it , he proposes his Objection against it thus , Sed profecto nimis longè videtur hoc à veritate recedere : potestque vel inde solum satis refutari ; quia si tanta sit pressura aeris sic per tubum illum in phialam descendent is , ut ipsam phialam perfringat , deberet profecto inclusam aquam , cui immergitur ille tubus , valde quoque ante fractionem phialae commovere , bullulasque in eadem excitaro , &c. ut constat , siquis , insufflando per illum tubulum , aquam vel mediocriter sic premat . At certum est aquam , antequam frangatur sit phiala , nec tantillum moveri : ut experienti constabit . But , I do confess , I do for all this think our Explication more true , then well considered by our Author . For the putting of water into the Vial that was broken , was done ( as is clearly intimated in the beginning of our Narrative ) upon a particular design ( as indeed we tryed divers other things with our Engine , not so much with immediate reference to the Spring of the Air , as to make use of such Tryals in some other of our Writings . ) And accordingly in the second Tryal mentioned in the same Experiment the water was omitted . But , notwithstanding this water , the sides of the Glass being exposed to the pressure of the Atmosphere , had that whole pressure against them before the exhaustion of the Receiver ; so that there needed no such blowing in of the Air afresh as our Author imagines , to effect the breaking of the Vial , it being sufficient for that purpose , that the pressure against the convex superficies of it was taken off by the exhaustion of the Receiver , the pressure against the concave superficies remaining as great as ever . And therefore we need not altogether deny what the Examiner sayes , that Licet clausus superne fuisset tubulus ille , codem tamen modo fracta sine dubio , fuisset phiala . For , since in such cases the Air ( as we have often taught ) is shut up with the whole pressure of the Atmosphere upon it , it may almost as easily break the Glass as if it were unstopt . And accordingly we mention in the 36. Experiment the breaking of a thin Glass Hermetically seal'd upon the recess of the ambient Air. But , how confidently soever our Author speaks , I thought fit to adde the word almost , because we observed in the 39. Experiment , that such thin Vials ( and thick ones will not break ) are subject upon the withdrawing of the ambient Air to retch a little , whereby the Spring of the Air within the Vial might in some cases ( I say , in some ) be so far weakned as not to be able to break it , unless assisted by the pressure of the Atmosphere wherewith it communicates , and which leans upon it . And when the Vial does actually begin to break , then the pursuing pressure of the outward Air upon the yielding Air within the Vial may help to throw the parts of the Glass more forcibly asunder . All the Experiments from the 9. to the 17. exclusively our Examiner leaving uncensured , we may with him , advance to the consideration of the 17. The 17. Experiment defended . In this we relate how , when we made the Torricellian Experiment , we shut up the restagnant Mercury together with the Tube and the suspended Mercurial Cylinder ( of about 29. Inches ) in our Receiver , that by drawing off and letting in the Air at pleasure upon the restagnant Mercury , and consequently weakning and increasing its pressure , we might make it more clearly appear then hither to had been done by Experiment , that the suspension of the Mercurial Cylinder , and the height of it , depended upon the greater or lesser pressure of the Air. But against our Explication of this Experiment ( which has had the good fortune to convince and satisfie many ingenious men ) the Examiner objects nothing in particular , contenting himself to have recourse here also to his Funiculus . Yet two observations of ours he is pleased to take notice of . The first is , that though the Quicksilver were exactly shut up into our Receiver after the manner newly declared , yet the suspended Quicksilver did not descend : whence having said that I argue , that it is now sustained not by the Counterpoise of the Atmosphere , but by the Spring of the Air shut up in the Receiver , he subjoyns onely this , Sed rectius sane infertur , Cylindrum illum nihil ibidem antea praestitisse . But whether this be not gratis dictum we leave the Reader to collect from what we have formerly discourst in the second Part of this Defence of the Spring of the Air ; especially from that Experiment ; by which it appears , That Spring may sustain a far higher Cylinder of Quick-silver . In the second Observation he mentions of ours , he summarily recites our Explication of the descent and ascent of the Mercury in the Tube , by the debilitated and strengthned Spring of the Air. But without finding fault with our application of that principle to the Phaenomena , he sayes that he has sufficiently refuted the principle it self in the fourth Chapter , ( which how well he has done we have already seen ) and therefore explicates the matter thus ; Dico igitur ( sayes he ) argentum per illam exhaustionem sic in tubo descendere , quod deorsum traha●ur ab aëre qui incumbit argento restagnanti : siquidem incumbens ille aër jam per exhaustionem valde rarefactus & extensus , sese vehementer contrahit , & contrahendo conatur etiam subjectum sibi argentum restagnans è suo vasculo elevare , unde fit ut ( argento illo restagnante minus jam gravitante in fundum sui vasculi ) argentum quod est in tubo descendat ; ut per se patet . Adeoque mirum non est , quod , ingrediente postea aëre externo , rursum argentum ascendat , cum per illum ingressum vis illa sic elevans argentum restagnans debilitetur . But this Explication supposing such a Funiculus as we have already shewn to be but fictitious , the Reader will easily gather what is to be judged of it from what has been already delivered . Wherefore I shall onely subioyn , that by this Explication , were it admitted , there is onely an account given of that part of our seventeenth Experiment which relates to the descent of the Mercury below its wonted height , and its re-ascent to it . But as for our having , by the forcing in some more Air into the Receiver , impell'd the Quicksilver to a considerably-greater height then 't is wont to be sustain'd at in the Torricellian Experiment , I confess I understand not how the Examiner gives an account of it in the following words , ( which are immediately annex'd to those we last recited of his , and which are all that he employes to explicate this notable Phaenomenon ) Atque hinc etiam redditur ratio alterius quod ibidem quoque notaîur , nempe quod per violentam intrusionem aëris externt in Recipientem , ascenderit argentum notabiliter supra digitos 29½ . Nam sicut per extractionem aëris argentum infra stationem detrahitur , sic etiam per intrusionem novi supra eandem elevabitur . For in this passage I see not how he himself does not rather repeat the matter of fact , then give any account how it is perform'd . And if it be alledged on his behalf , That according to his principles it may be said that , upon the pressure of the adventitious Air upon the restagnant Mercury , the Funiculus in the Tube , that was not able before to draw it up above 29½ . Inches , is now enabled to draw it up higher ; I demand upon what account this new Air does thus press against the restagnant Mercury , and impell up and sustain that in the Tube . It will not be said that 't is by its weight ; for as much Mercury as may be thus impell'd up above the usual station will weigh a great many times more then the Air forc'd into the Receiver . And therefore it remains that the additional Air counterpoises the additional Mercury by its Spring . And if we consider withall , that there 's no reason to doubt , ( especially considering what we have formerly delivered upon tryal touching the power of comprest Air to impell up Quicksilver ) but that , had we not been afraid of breaking our Vessel , we might by forcing more Air into the Receiver have impell'd it up to the top of the Tube , and kept it there ; we shall scarce deny but that , supposing there could be no such Funiculus as our Examiner's in rerum natura , the pressure of the incumbent Air alone might suffice to keep a correspondent Cylinder of Mercury suspended : and that without any attraction of the restagnant Mercury by a Funiculus of violently distended Air in the Receiver , the Quicksilver in the Tube may be made to rest at any height greater or lesser , provided it exceed 30. Inches , onely because its weight is just able to counterbalance the pressure of the contiguous Air. I know not whether I may not adde ( to express an unwillingness to omit what some may think proper to do my Adversary right ) that it may be said for the Examiner , that he in the 11. page acknowledging with us a power in the Air to recover its due extension if it be crouded into less room then its disposition requires ; a man may from that principle solve the Phaenomena in question by saying , that the Air in the Receiver being forcibly comprest by the intrusion of fresh Air into the same vessel , does by its endeavour to recover its due expansion press upon the restagnant Mercury , and force up some of it into the Tube . But this Explication , though it agree with what the Author teaches in a place very distant from his Notes upon our 17. Experiment , now under debate ; yet still 't is not clear to me how , by what he sayes in these Notes , the Phaenomenon is accounted for as the word Hinc imports it to be . But otherwise I need not quarrel with the Explication , since without recurring to the Funiculus for the sustaining of the additional Mercury , the solution of the Phaenomenon is given upon the same principle that I employ . The 18. Experiment . Our Examiner in his Animadversion upon the 18. Experiment , having recited my Conjecture at the cause why a Cylinder of Mercury did in Winter rise and fall in the Tube , sometimes as Water is wont to do in a Weather-glass , according to the laws of heat and cold , and sometimes quite contrary thereunto ; adds , that this Experiment does strongly enough overthrow our Hypothesis of the Atmospherical Cylinder , and clearly shew that the Quicksilver is not sustained by it : Nam ( sayes he ) si hic ab eo sustentatum fuisset , debuisset potius frigidiore tempore ascendere quam descendere , eo quod aër tunc multo densior esset & gravior . Itaque non sustentatur argentū ab aër is aequipondio , ut asseritur . And by the same Argument he concludes against the Mercury's being sustained by the Spring of the Air. But in his Animadversions upon this Experiment he seems to have been too forward to reprehend ; for he neither well confutes my Conjecture , nor substitutes so much as a plausible one in the stead of it . And as to his Objection I answer , First , That it doth not conclude : because that as sometimes the Quicksilver in the Tube did rise in warmer , and fall in colder , weather ; so at other times it did rather emulate the ascent and descent of water in a Weather-glass . Secondly , Though it be true , that Cold is wont to condense this or that parcel of Air , and that a parcel of Air may be made heavier by Condensation ; yet that is in regard of the ambient Air that retains its wonted laxity , in which the condensed Air is weighed . But our Author has not yet proved , that in case the cold of the Winter should condense the whole incumbent Atmosphere , it would then gravitate sensibly more upon the restagnant Quicksilver then before . As a Pound of Wooll will not sensibly vary its weight , though the hairs whereof it is composed be made to lye sometimes in a looser , sometimes in a closer , order . And , thirdly , this Objection does as little agree with his Doctrine as with my Conjecture : For in the 50. page , where he gives us an account according to his principles of the rising and falling of water in a Weather-glass , and compares it with the suspension of Quicksilver , he tells us , Hinc fit quod , contracto hoc funiculo per frigus , aqua illa tempore frigido ascendat , descendat autem tempore calido , eo quod per calorem funiculus ille dilatetur . So that , according to the Examiner himself , the Quicksilver ought to have ascended in colder , and descended in warmer , weather . Now , although I proposed my thoughts of the difficult Phaenomenon under consideration but as a Conjecture , and therefore shall be ready to alter them , either upon further discovery , or better information ; yet I see not why it should be post-posed to the Examiner's , who , though he rejects our Explication , substitutes no other then what may be gathered from these words , Ego certe non dubito quin dentur hujusmodi occultae causae , quibus funiculus ille subtilis , quo in tubo suspenditur argentum ( ut dictum est capite decimo ) modo producatur , modo abbrevietur , &c. sicque argentum nunc demittat , nunc elevet . For , since we have made it probable that the copious Fumes , sometimes suddenly ascending into the Air , and rolling up and down in it , sometimes sensibly altering ( if good Authors may be credited ) the refraction of it , and since some other causes , mentioned in our eighteenth Experiment , may alter the density and gravity of the Air that leans upon the restagnant Mercury ; I suppose the Reader will think it more intelligible and probable , that alterations , other then those produced by heat and cold , may happen to the incumbent Atmosphere , which freely communicates with the neighbouring Air , and may thereby become sometimes more stufft , and sometimes more destitute of adventitious Exhalations ; then that such changes should happen to a Funiculus included in Glass , which according to our Author is impervious to the subtilest steams that are , and concerning which he offers not so much as a Conjecture upon what other account it can happen to be sometimes contracted , and sometimes stretch'd . The 19. Experiment . Upon this the Examiner has onely this short Animadversion , In decimo nono ostendit aquam eodem modo per exhaustionem Recipient is descendere , quo in praecedente descendere ostender at argentum vivum ; cujus cum eadem sit ratio , non est cur amplius ei insistamus . In which words since he offers nothing new or peculiar to shew any incongruity in our Explication to our principles , which agree very well with the new Phaenomena of the Experiment ; we are content to leave the Reader to judge of the Hypotheses themselves , which of the two is the more probable , either ours , that onely requires that the Air in the Receiver should equally resist a Cylinder of Water and of Quicksilver , when their weight is but the same , though their altitudes be not ; or the Examiner's , which exacts that ( according to what we formerly elsewhere noted ) Bodies of such differing nature and texture as Quicksilver and Water should need but just the same weight or strength to rarefie them into a Funiculus . The 20. Experiment . In his Examen of this Experiment our Author makes me infer from the Phaenomena he repeats , that not onely the Air , but the Water also has a Spring . But though I suspect not that he does wilfully mistake my sense , yet by what I write in this and the following Experiments the Reader may well enough perceive , that I spoke but very doubtfully of a Spring in the water ; nay , and that I did in the 154. page expresly teach , That the intumescence of it might ( at least in great part ) proceed from that of the small parcels of Air , which I thought to be usually harboured in the body of that liquor . But whereas I ascribe the appearance of the Bubbles in the water to this , that upon the exhaustion of some of the Air incumbent on the water , the pressure of what remains is much debilitated , whereby the little Particles of Air lurking in the Water are allowed to expand themselves into bubbles ; he rejects this Explication as manifestly false : Nam ( sayes he ) si it a sieret , deberent profecto hujusmodi bullulae non è fundo vasis sic ascendere , ( uti tam in hoc quam in sequentibus experiment is in quibus de istis bullis agitur semper asseritur ) sed è superiore parte aquae , ubi minus premuntur , ut per se est manifestum . But why he should be here so peremptory I confess I do not , for all this Objection , yet see : For in the bottom of the next page he sayes , he will not deny but that Aerial Particles latitant in the other parts of the water ( he had before spoken of the bottom of it ) may be extended into bubbles by his way of Rarefaction . And that we particularly mentioned the rising of bubbles , even from the bottom of the water , was because that circumstance seem'd to deserve a peculiar note ; and not ( as he seems to imagine ) as if the bubbles did not also rise from the superior parts of the liquor , since we did take notice of it about the middle of the 149 page . And we often in this and the following Experiments observ'd , that the ascending bubbles grew bigger the nearer they came to the top . Which agrees more clearly with our Hypothesis , wherein their conspicuous swelling as they ascend is attributed more to the lessening of the pressure of the incumbent Air then to the decrement of the weight of the incumbent water , ( since when the surface of this liquor is lean'd upon by the Atmosphere , the ascending bubbles scarce sensibly increase in Vessels no deeper then ours ) then with the Explication which the Examiner gives in these words , Respondeo , aquam per illam aëris exhaustionem non sponte sic ascendere , sed sursum violenter trahi , ac elevari à rarefacto illo aëre sese contrahente . Quemadmodum enim aqua aliqualem patitur compressionem ( ut experientiâ constat ) ita & aliqualem quoque hic patitur , distensionem . Atque hinc clarè patet , cur potius à fundo vasis quam à parte aquae superiore oriantur hujusmodi bullae . Cum enim vehemens illa suctio conetur aquam à fundo phialae elevare , nascitur ibidem subtilis quaedam materia quae in bullas conversa sic ascendit , uti capite decimo quinto in quarto Experimento dictum est . For , whatever he may think , it does not hence so clearly appear how the endeavour onely of the Funiculus to draw up the water from the bottom of the Vial , to which , that endeavour notwithstanding , it remains contiguous , should generate in some parts of the bottom of the Glass , and not in others , such a subtil matter as he tells us of . And I suppose the Reader will , as well as I , wish he had more intelligibly declared how this strange generation of subtil matter comes to be effected . And I presume it will likewise be exected that he also declare , why both in our case and in the Torricellian Experiment the bubbles grow so much larger by being nearer the top of the liquor ; if , as he rejects our Explication of this Circumstance , the effect of the fuction he speaks of be greater upon the lower part of the liquor then the upper , to which alone nevertheless his Funiculus , that is said so to draw the liquor , is contiguous . Our Author making no particular Objection against the 10. following Experiments , we also shall pass them by , and fall with him upon the consideration of the 31. Experiment . The 31. Experiment . Upon this our Author having recited our Conjecture at the cause why two very flat and smooth Marbles stick so closely together , that by lifting up the uppermost you may take up also the lowermost , approves my way of examining that Conjecture . But whereas I say that the reason why , though the Marbles were kept together by the pressure of the ambient Air , yet they did not fall asunder in our exhausted Receiver , no not though a weight of 4. Ounces were hung at the lower stone , might be , that by reason of some small leak in the Receiver the Air could not be sufficiently drawn out : yet he tells us with his wonted confidence , Certum esse , sententiam illam vel hoc solo Experimento satis refelli . But possibly he would have spoken less resolutely , if he had made all the tryals about the adhesion of Marbles that we relate our selves to have made in the short History we have publish'd of Fluidity and Firmness . For our Examiner speaks as if all that we ascribe to the Air in such Experiments were to sustain the lower Marble with the weight perhaps of a few Ounces : Whereas in case the Air be kept from getting in at all between the stones , it may ( according to our Hypothesis ) sustain a Weight either altogether or well-nigh equal to that of a pillar of Air as broad as the Basis of the lower Marble , and as long as the Atmosphere is high , or to the weight of a pillar of Quicksilver of the same thickness , and about 30. Inches long ; these two pillars appearing by the Torricellian Experiment to counterpoise each other . And therefore since in the seventeenth Experiment , when we had exhausted our Receiver as far as we could , there remain'd Air enough to keep up in the Tube a Cylinder of about an Inch long of Quicksilver ; and since the broader the contiguous Marbles are , the greater weight fastned to the lowermost may be sustain'd by the resistance of the Air , ( as is obvious to him that considers the Hypothesis , and as we have proved by Experiment in the forementioned Tract ) it need be no wonder that the Air remaining in the Receiver should be able to support the lowermost Marble , whose Diameter was near two Inches , and a weight of four Ounces , those two Weights being inferior to that of a Mercurial Cylinder of that Diameter and an Inch in length . And though it were not , yet we are not sure that the Receiver was as well emptied when we made the 31. Experiment , as when we made the 17. And ( if my Memory does not much mis-informe me ) 't was with the same pair of Marbles that in the presence of an illustrious Assembly of Virtuosi ( who were Spectators of the Experiment ) the uppermost Marble drew up the lowermost , though that were clog'd with a weight of above 430. Ounces . As for the account the Examiner substitutes of our Phaenomenon , I know not whether many Readers will acquiesce in it : For , not to insist upon the Objection which himself takes notice of , that according to him the distended Air in the Receiver should draw asunder the adhering Marbles ; his Explication supposes that there cannot naturally be a Vacuum , whence he infers that , Necesse er at ut lapis ille non aliter descenderet , quàm relinquendo post se tenuem hujusmodi substantiam , qualis ab argento vivo aut aquâ sic descendentibus relinqui solet . But whereas he adds , that the cause of the obstinate adhesion we meet with in our case is , that such a substance is far more difficult to be separated from Marble then from Quicksilver or any other kind of body ; that Assertion is precarious . And though I have tryed Experiments of this nature with stones of several sizes , perhaps an hundred times , yet I never could find that by their cohesion they would sustain a weight greater then that of a Pillar of the Atmosphere that prest against the lowermost : Which is a considerable Circumstance , that much better agrees with our Explication then our Adversaries . And whereas he further sayes , Unde existimo planè , si perfectè complanata fuerint duo marmora sic conjuncta , it a ut nullus omnino aër inter utrumque mediaret , non posse ea ullis humanis viribus ab invicem divelli : I hope I need not tell the Reader , that whether or no this agree with what he had immediately before taught of the separableness of a subtil substance even from Marble , so bold and improbable an Assertion requires the being countenanc'd with a much better proof then the onely one he subjoyns in these words , Uti etiam confirmat exemplum quod ibidem adducit Author de lamina aenea , tabulae cuidam marmoreae ita adhaerente , ut à lacertoso juvene , de suis viribus gloriante , non potuerit per annulum centro ejus affixum inde elevari . For sure there is great odds betwixt the strength of a man unassisted by any Engine , and the ut most extent of Humane Power . And indeed according to our Hypothesis , and without having recourse to Natures dreading of a Vacuum , the case is clear enough : For , supposing the Plate to be of any considerable breadth , the Pillar of the Atmosphere that lean'd upon it , and must at the instant of its deserting the superficies of the Table all at once be lifted up with it , may well exceed the force of a single man , especially in an inconvenient posture ; since by the cohesion of a pair of Marbles of about three Inches Diameter , I did with my own hands take up above a thousand and three hundred Ounces . The 32 , and 33. Experiments . Against our Explication of these two , which our Author examines together , he objects nothing peculiar , but contents himself to explicate them by his Funiculus : Wherefore neither shall we need to frame any peculiar defence for it , especially if the Reader will be pleased to refer hither as much of what we oppos'd to his Animadversion on the third Experiment as is justly applicable to our present Controversie . Our Author indeed endeavours to prove his Explication by saying , that the distended Air in the exhausted Cylinder draws up the Sucker with the annexed weight , Eodem fere modo quo videmus in cucurbitulis dorso aegrotantis applicatis , in quibus , extincta jam flamma , rarefactus aër se contrahens carnem tam vehementer , uti videmus , elevat attrahitque intra cucurbitulam . But that Phaenomenon is easily enough explicable in our Hypothesis , by saying , that upon the vanishing of that heat which strengthned the pressure of the included Air , the Spring of it grows too weak to resist any longer the pressure of the ambient Air ; which thereupon thrusts the flesh and neighbouring bloud of the Patient into the Cupping-glass , almost after the same manner as we formerly taught the Pulp of the Finger to be thrust into the deserted Cavity of the Glass-Tube in the Torricellian Experiment . The 34 , 35 , and 36. Experiments . To these our Author saying nothing but this , In his tribus nihil peculiariter occurrit hic explicandum , cujus ratio ex jam dictis non facile pateat ; we also may be allow'd to pretermit them , and pass on to The 37. Experiment . Of the appearance of Light or Whiteness , mentioned in this Experiment , the Examiner confesses that we have assigned a cause probable enough , by referring it to the vehement and sudden commotion of the included Air. And indeed though I do still look upon some of the things that I hesitantly propos'd about this difficult Phaenomenon but as meer Conjectures , and though he annexes his Explication of it ; yet I see not but that it is coincident with ours , or not better then it . For , to what I had said of the Commotion of the parts of the Air , he adds onely in two or three several places their being violently distended ; which how it improves the Explication of the Phaenomenon I do not readily see . And whereas he subjoyns , Existimo autem dicendum potius candorem illum esse lumen quoddam reflexum , quam innatum , eo quod ( ut testatur Author ) in tenebris non appareat , sed solum de die aut accensa candela : I presume the attentive Reader will easily discern that his Opinion is much-what the same that I propos'd and grounded on the same reason . But the chief difficulty in this abstruse Phaenomenon , namely why we meet with it but sometimes , our Examiner's Explication leaves untouch'd . The 38. and 39. Experiments . Against these our Author makes no peculiar Objections . The 40. and 41. Experiments . But in his Animadversions upon these , having told the Reader that I seem to ascribe the sudden extinction of the included Animals to the excessive thinness of the Air remaining in the Receiver , made by the recess of what was drawn out , unfit for Respiration ; he adds resolutely enough , Verum impossibile videtur , ut hujusmodi animalcula ob solum defectum crassioris aëris tam cito moriantur : but gives no other reason then that they dye so soon , which is no more then what he said in the newly-cited words , and besides is grounded upon something of mistake . For the Creatures he mentions were a Bee , a Flye , and a Caterpillar , and those included too in a small Receiver , which could be suddenly exhausted : and these indeed became moveless within a Minute of an Hour ; but that Minute was not ( as the word is often us'd to signifie in English ) a Moment , but the Sixtieth part of an Hour . And though these Insects did in so short a time grow moveless , yet they were not so soon kill'd ; as appears by the Narrative . The sanguineous Animals that did indeed dye , were kill'd more slowly . And I remember that having purposely enquir'd of a man ( us'd to go under water by the help of an Engine wherein he could carry Air with him to the bottom of the Sea ) how long he could endure , before he was accustomed to dive , without breathing or the use of a Spunge ; he told me , that at first he could hold out about two or three Minutes at a time : Which made me think that Divers become able to continue under water so long , either by a peculiarly-convenient Constitution of body , or by a gradual exercise . And I am apt to think that he did , as men are wont to do , when he said two or three Minutes , mean what is indeed a much shorter time then that when exactly measured amounts to . For , having purposely made tryal upon a couple of Moles that were brought me together alive , one of them included in a small , though not very small , Receiver was between two and three Minutes in killing ; whereas the other being immediately after detain'd under water did not there continue full a Minute and a quarter , before it finally ceas'd from giving any sign at all of life . By which tryal it may appear , that 't is not impossible that the want of Respiration should dispatch an Animal in as little time as is mentioned in the Experiment I am now defending . And indeed our Author either should have proved that 't is not possible for the want of Air to destroy Animals so soon , or should have given us some better account of the Phaenomenon . For whereas he teaches us , that according to his Doctrine the little Animals above-mentioned were so soon kill'd , qui a per rarefactum illum aërem sese contrahentem extractus sit eorum halitus : I see not that hereby , if he explicate the Phaenomenon otherwise then we , he explains it better ; for he seems to speak as if he thought this halitus to be some peculiar part of the Animal in which his life resides . And besides he seems not to consider , that whereas , according to me as well as according to him , the Air contained in the Lungs ( supposing these Animalcula have any ) must in great part pass thence into the Receiver , ( for whether that be done by the Spring of the Air it self , that was harboured in the Lungs , or the traction on of the more rarefi'd Air in the Receiver , is not material in our present case ) the Examiner must , as well as I , render a reason why the extenuation or recess of the halitus should cause the hasty death of the included Animals ; and condemning my Conjecture he ought to have substituted another reason : and though he subjoyns these words , and concludes with them , Atque hinc quoque ortae sunt vehementes illae convulsiones , quas ante mortem passas esse aviculas quasdam memorat ibidem Author ; yet I doubt not but the Reader will think it had not been amiss that the Author had more intelligibly deduc'd these Tragick Symptoms from his Assumption , for the sake of those that are not Anatomists and Physicians enough to discern how his Funiculus could produce these effects . For my part , as in the 41. Experiment I tender'd my thoughts concerning Respiration but doubtingly , so I am yet unwilling to determine resolvedly in a matter of that difficulty . The 42 , and 43. Experiments . In his Examen of these two last of our Physico-Mechanical Experiments , the Author contents himself to endeavour to explicate the Phaenomena recited in them by the contraction of the rarefi'd Air ; which , according to him , endeavours to draw up the subjacent water out of the Vial , whereby it vehemently distends the parts of that water , as he taught in the like case upon the 20. Experiment . But since we have already consider'd his Animadversion upon that , although this presumed distension of the water is not visible that we have observ'd , when cold water , that has been first freed from his interspers'd Air , is put into the Receiver , notwithstanding that the Funiculus should in that case also distend it ; we are so afraid of tiring out the Readers patience by the frequent repetition of the same things , that we will leave it to him to judge which of the two Explications , the Examiner's or ours , is to be preferred , without troubling him and our selves with defence of Accounts against which our Adversary does not here make any peculiar Objections . And thus have we by Gods assistance considered what the Exam ner hath been pleased to oppose either against our particular Explications , or against the Hypotheses that divers of them suppose : Wherein I have been the more particular and prolix , because I would willingly excuse my self and others from the trouble of any more Disputes of this kind . I hope there is not in my Answers any thing of Asperity to be met with ; for I have no quarrel to the Person of the Author , or his just reputation ; nor did I intend to use any more freedom of Speech in the answering his Objections , then his resolute way of proposing divers of them made it on those occasions needful for the Caution of those Readers who are not acquainted with our differing wayes of writing , and perhaps have not observed that some men are wont to consider as much what they propose but with a Perhaps , or some such expression of diffidence , as others do what they deliver far more resolutely . And though being very far from being wedded to my Opinions , I am still ready to exchange them for better , if they shall be duly made out to me , ( which I think it possible enough they may hereafter be ; ) yet peradventure the Reader will think with me , that the Examiner has not given me cause to renounce any of them , since the Objections he has propos'd against me have been sufficiently answered , and since the Hypothesis he would substitute in the room of ours ( besides that it is partly precarious ) supposes things which divers of the eminentest Wits of our Age ( otherwise of differing Opinions ) profess they cannot admit or so much as understand : whereas the Weight and Spring of the Air are not denyed by our Author himself , and are demonstrable by Experiments that are not controverted betwixt us . Which things I represent for the defence of what I think the Truth , and not to offend my learned Adversary , who shall have my free consent to be thought to have fail'd rather in the Choice then in the Management of the Controversie . Though since This passes for his first Book , and since consequently he is not like to have been provoked , or engaged in point of Reputation , to challenge me or any of those far more eminent Persons he has nam'd among his Adversaries , I am induc'd by the severity wherewith I have known eminent Virtuosi speak of his Attempts , and particularly of his Funiculus , to fear that some of those he has needlesly oppos'd , will be apt to apply to him that of St. Austin against some of his Adversaries , that had disputed against him with much more Subtilty then Reason , In mala causa non possunt aliter , at malam causam quis eos coegit habere ? But this notwithstanding I am , as I was going to say , content my Adversary should be thought to have said for his Principles as much as the Subject will bear ; nor would I have it made his Disparagement , that I have declared that his whole Book has not made me depart from any of my Opinions or Explications , since his Hypothesis and mine being inconsistent , it may be looked upon as a sign rather that each of us have , then that either of us have not , reason'd closely to his own Principles , that the things we infer from our contrary Suppositions do so generally disagree . FINIS . AN EXPLICATION OF RAREFACTION . THe chief Arguments of the Author of a certain Treatise De corporum inseparabilitate , whereby he endeavours to invalidate the Hypothesis of the Weight and Spring of the Air , and to set up and establish instead thereof an unintelligible Hypothesis of Attraction , performed by I know not what strange imaginary Funiculus , are onely Five , two against the former , and three for the later . The first of which is , That the Weight and Spring of the Air are not sufficient to perform the Effects ascribed to them : The second , that could they be performed by that Hypothesis granted , yet the way of this strange Spring it self is not intelligibly explained or explicable by the Defenders of it . Now the former of these being little else but a bare Affirmation , and the later bearing some shew of Demonstration , I shall endeavour to examine it as I find it set down in his 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , and 24. Chapters , to which ( especially the 23. ) he very often in his Book refers the Reader for satisfaction , pretending there to evince that Rarefaction cannot be made out any otherwise then by supposing a body to be in 2 , 3 , 4 , 10 , 100 , 1000 , 1000000 of places at the same instant , and adequately to fill all and every one of those places . First therefore , we will examine his Negative , and next his Affirmative , Arguments for this strange Hypothesis . His Negative I find in the 20. Chapter , where he endeavours to confute the two wayes of explicating the Rarefaction and Spring of the Air , namely , that of the Vacuists and that of the Plenists . Concerning the first of these we find him conclude it impossible , first , because he had before proved that there can be no Vacuum , which being done by a Circle ( viz. There is no Vacuum in the Tube because Nature abhors a Vacuum , and we see Nature abhors a Vacuum because she will not suffer a Vacuum in the Tube above the Mercury , but to prevent it will continually spin the Quicksilver into supe ficies , and never diminish the body of it ) will suffer me to pass to his next , which is , That this way is false , because in the Experiment of the Carps Bladder the Air is rarefi'd a 1000. times bigger ; nay , in respect of the body of Gold it has 1000000. times less matter in equal spaces . And this , sayes he , is a Phaenomenon that is impossible ever to be made out by interspers'd Vacuities . Now that the Vacuists cannot presently , by so bold an assertion as this , be made to forsake their Principles , he may perceive by these following Solutions which I shall give of all the Phaenomena he recites , flowing naturally from an Hypothesis that I shall for the present assume . Let us suppose then the Particles of Bodies , at least those of the Air , to be of the form of a piece of Riband , that is , to be very long , slender , thin and flexible laminae , coyled or wound up together as a Cable , piece of Riband , Spring of a Watch , Hoop , or the like , are : we will suppose these to have all of them the same length , but some to have a stronger , others a weaker Spring : we will further suppose each of these so coyled up to have such an innate circular motion , as that thereby they may describe a Sphere equal in Diameter to their own , much after the manner that a Meridian turn'd about the Poles of a Globe will describe by its revolution a Sphere of the same Diameter with its own in the Air. By this Circular motion the parts of the laminae endeavouring to recede from the Centre or Axis of their motion , acquire a Springiness outward like that of a Watch-Spring , and would naturally flye abroad untill they were stretch'd out at length , but that being incompast with the like on every side , they cannot do it without the removal of them , as not having room sufficient for such a motion . And the faster this circular motion is , the more do the parts endeavour to recede from the Axis , and consequently the stronger is their Spring or endeavour outward . These springy bodies thus shap'd and thus moved are sufficient to produce all the Phaenomena he names as impossible to be explicated . And , first , for the business of Expansion , it will very naturally be explained by it : As let us suppose for instance the Diameter of these small coyled Particles of the Air ( which being next the Earth are press'd upon by all those numerous incumbent Particles that make up the Atmosphere , and are thereby so crouded that they can but very little untwist themselves ; let us suppose , I say , the Diameter of these Particles ) to be 1 / 1000000000000 of an Inch ; and then to be much of the form of those represented in the 4. Figure by A B C D : and that these Particles , when a considerable quantity of the pressure of the ambient parts is taken away , will flye abroad into a Coyle or Zone ten times as big in Diameter as before ; that is , they will now be 10 / 1000000000000 of an Inch in Diameter , and appear in the form of those in the Figure exprest by E F G H : these Zones whirl'd round as the former will describe a Sphere a 1000. times as big in bulk , and thereby fence that space from being entred by any of the like Zones : this it would do , supposing those Spheres did immediately alwayes touch each other ; but because of their circular motion , whenever they meet they must necessarily be beaten , and flye off from one another , and so require a yet greater space to perform their motion in . This suppos'd , there are no Phaenomena of Rarefaction ( which is enough at present to answer what he objects ) but may be naturally and intelligibly made out . As first , for that of the swelling of a Carps Bladder , if we suppose some small parcels of the former comprest laminae to lye latitant within the folds of it , and being much coyled up together scarce to take any sensible room , this Bladder in the Air will appear to contain very little or nothing within it ; whereas when the pressure of the Air is taken off in good part from the outsides of it , then those formerly latitant Particles disclose themselves by flying open into much bigger Zones , so as perhaps to be able to defend a thousand times bigger space from being entred into by their like or any other gross Particles , such as those of the Bladder . Now because the Pores of a Bladder are such as are not easily permeable by the Particles of Air , therefore these lurking Particles so expanding themselves must necessarily plump out the sides of the Bladder , and so keep them turgid untill the pressure of the Air that at first coyled them be re-admitted to do the same thing for them again . Next , as for Rarefaction by heat , that will as naturally follow as the former from this Hypothesis . For the Atoms of fire flowing in in great numbers , and passing through with a very rapid motion , must needs accelerate the motion of these Particles , from which acceleration their Spring or endeavour outward will be augmented , that is , those Zones will have a strong nitency to flye wider open , ( for we know that the swifter any body is moved circularly , the more do the parts of it endeavour to recede from the Centre of that motion ) from whence if it has room will follow a Rarefaction . As for the conveyance of Light , that being according to Epicurus performed by the local motion of peculiar Atoms , their motions to and fro through this medium will be less impeded by the rarefi'd Air then by the condens'd ; as indeed upon Experiment we shall really find them . As for his third Objection drawn from his supposed attractive virtue of the thus rarefi'd Air , that is quickly answered , by denying it to have any power at all of attraction ; and by shewing ( which is already done ) that what effects he would have to be performed by the attraction of the included , is really done by the pressure of the ambient , Air. And , lastly , the Phaenomena of my Lord Bacons Experiment are sufficiently obvious and easie to be deduc'd . So then , by granting Epicurus his Principles , that the Atoms or Particles of bodies have an innate motion ; and granting our Supposition of the determinate motion and figure of the Aerial Particles , all the Phaenomena of Rarefaction and Condensation , of Light , Sound , Heat , &c. will naturally and necessarily follow : and the Authors Objections against this first way of Rarefaction will signifie very little . As to the second way of Rarefaction , by the intrusion or intervention of some subtil matter of Aether into the spaces deserted by the raresying Particles , which is that propos'd by the Assertors of a Plenum , this also is by the Author condemned , and branded with Impossibility . And why ? First , because 't is ( he sayes ) impossible that the above-mentioned Phaenomena of the Carps Bladder can be explained by it . Secondly , because 't is impossible to give a reason from it of the impetuous ascent of Water admitted into an exhausted Receiver . And , Thirdly , because 't is impossible to explicate the Phaenomena of Gun-powder . His Reasons to confirm which three Impossibilities , because drawn from a meer mistake , or ignorance of those Hypotheses which have been invented by the Assertors of that Opinion , I shall pass over , and content my self to explain a way how these Impossibilities may become Possibilities , if not Probabilities . And the way that I shall take , shall be that of the most acute Modern Philosopher Monsieur Des Cartes , published in his Philosophical Works : Which is this , That the Air is a Body consisting of long , slender , flexible particles , agitated or whirl'd round by the rapid motion of the Globuli Coelestes , and the subtile Matter of his first Element , whereby they are each of them enabled to drive or force out of their Vortice all such other agitated particles . Now the swifter these Bodies are whirl'd round , the more do their flexible parts fly asunder and stretch themselves out ; and the more forcibly do they resist the ingresse of any other so agitated particles into their Vortice , and consequently the slower their motion is , the less will be their resistance . And because there is a vast number of these whirled particles lying one above another , and each particle having its peculiar gravity ; it will necessarily follow that the undermost ( which to maintain their Vortice must resist so great a pressure ) must very much be hindred from expanding themselves so far as otherwise they would , were there none of those incompassing agitated Particles that lay in their way : and that those being by any means removed , or they themselves by a more rapid motion of the Particles of their Vehicles , the first and second Element , ( which is according to that Hypothesis an effect of Heat ) more swiftly and strongly whirled round , they presently begin to expand themselves , and maintain a bigger Vortice then before . Now to perform what I just now promised , I shall endeavour to give a possible , if not a probable , cause of the objected Phaenomena . And , First , for that of the Carps Bladder , where the Air is rarefi'd ( sayes the Author ) 1000. times , it will easily be explained by supposing the few Particles of the Air , which ( whilest they sustain the pressure of all the incumbent Atmosphere ) inconspicuously luck within the Bladder , ( each of them being able to maintain but a very small Vortice ) to be by the subsiding Mercury in the Torricellian Experiment freed from the pressure of the Air , and their motion continuing the same ( by reason that the Transcursion of their Vehicles is not at all or very little hindered either by the Glass or Bladder ) their parts having room to expand themselves , will flye abroad to such Extensions as may perhaps make a Vortice 1000. times as big in bulk as what they were not able just before to exceed . Hence the Particles of the Air ( being so gross as not easily to pervade the Pores of the Bladder ) must necessarily drive out the fides of the Bladder to its utmost extent , and serve to fill the Receiver in the Magdeburgick Experiment . Now , whereas these Particles will by the same pressure of the Air be reduc'd to the same state they were in at first , that is , to be thronged into a very little room , and thereby be able to maintain a very small Vortice ; the Air let in in the Torrecellian Experiment reduces the Air in the Bladder to its former inconspicuousness ; as the admission of the Water in the Magdeburg Experiment does that Receiver full of rarefi'd Air into the bigness of a Hazel Nut. Now the Water in this last-mention'd Experiment enters with a great impetuosity , because driven on with the whole pressure of the Atmosphere , and resisted onely by the small force of the so-far-rarefi'd Air. As for the Authors Objection against this way of Rarefaction drawn from the Phaenomena of Gun powder , I shall endeavour to answer it by shewing them possibly explicable by a Cartesian Hypothesis . For supposing those Terrestrial parts of the Gun powder to be first at rest , and afterwards agitated by the rapid motion of his first Element , there will be sufficient difference of the former and later condition in respect of Extension ; and supposing the particular constitution of Gun-powder ( arising partly from the Specifick forms of the Particles of its ingredients ; Nitre , Sulphure and Char-coal , and partly from their proportionate commistion ) to be such as will readily yield to the motion of his Materia subtilis , so soon as an ingress is admitted to it by the fireing of any particular parcel of it , the Expansion will be speedy enough . So then let us suppose a Barrel of Gun-powder placed in some close room , to some grains of which we will suppose some actual fire to be applied , by which actual fire ( the Texture of the Powder being such ) those grains are suddenly fired , that is , many Millions of parts , which before lay still and at rest , are by the action of the burning Coals shatter'd , as it were , and put into a posture ready to be agitated by the rapid motion of the Materia subtilis : into which posture they are no sooner put , then agitated and whirled sufficiently by it ; whence follows a vast Expansion of that part of Gun-powder so fired . For each of its parts being thus whirl'd and hurried round , expell and beat off with great violence all the contiguous Particles , so as that each Particle takes up now 1000. times as much Elbow-room ( if I may so speak ) as just before serv'd its turn , and consequently those that are outermost take every one their way directly from the parcel or Corn they had lain quiet in , being hurried away by the sudden Expansion of the Particles that lay next within them ; so that whatever grain or parcel of Gun-powder they chance to meet with , before they have lost their motion , they presently shiver and put into such a motion as makes them fit to receive the action of the Materia subtilis . Which subtil Matter being every where present , and nothing slow in performing its office , immediately agitates those also like the former ; so that in a trice the Particles of the whole Barrel of Gun-powder are thus disordered , and by the motion the Materia subtilis must needs be hurried away with so great an impetuosity on all sides , as not onely to break in pieces its slight wooden prison , and remove the lighter Particles of the ambient Air , but huge Beams , nay , vast accumulated Masses of the most compacted Structures of Stone , and even shake the very Earth it self , or whatever else stands in its way , whose Texture is so close as not to give its Particles free passage through its Pores . This understood , I see not , first , what the Authors three Arguments brought to prove his Objection signifie , for there are no more Corpuscles in the room before the Gun-powder is fired then after , nor is there any more matter or substance before the sides of the room by yielding give place for the external fluid bodies to succeed , and the onely change is this , that the Globuli secundi Elementi ( as he calls them ) are expell'd out of the room , and the Materia primi Elementi succeeds in the place of it . Nor do I see , secondly , what great reason he had for his grand Conclusion , Haec abundè demonstrant , rarefactionem per hujusmodi corpuscula nullatenus posse explicari . Having thus examined the Authors first Arguments , that Rarefaction cannot be made out by any other way then his ; we shall find his other , which he brings to establish his own Hypothesis , much of the same kind . As , First , that his way of Rarefaction implies no Contradiction : For if the affirming a body to be really and totally in this place , and at the same time to be really and wholly in another , that is , to be in this place , and not to be in this place , be not a Contradiction , I know not what is . Next , that some learned School-men have thought so ; to which I answer , more learned men have thought otherwise . And , lastly , that there are very plain Examples of the like nature to be found in other things ; of which he onely brings one , viz. that of the Rota Aristotelica , which upon examination we shall find to make as little to the purpose as any of the other . An Explication of the Rota Aristotelica . THe great Problem of the Rota Aristotelica , by his explication of which he pretends not onely to solve all the difficulties concerning Local motion , quae Philosophorū ingenia hactenus valde exercuerant , but to give an instance for the confirmation of his unintelligible Hypothesis of Rarefaction , wherein there is extensio seu correspondentia ejusdem rei ad locum nunc majorem , nunc minorem ; we may upon examination find to be either a Paralogisme , or else nothing but what those Philosophers said whom he accounts gravel'd with it . Of this Subject he begins in his 25. Chapter , where after he has set down a description of it , he makes an instance in a Cart-wheel ; Rem ante oculos ponit rota alicujus currus , ejusque umbo seu lignum illud crassum & rotundum cui infiguntur radii ; siquidem dum progrediente curru ipsa rota circumducta describit in subjecta terra orbitam sibi aequalem , umbo ille describit in subjecto aëre orbitam . ( I suppose both here and before he means Lineam ) se multo longiorem , utpote aequalem orbitae totius rotae , licet ipse non nisi semel quoque fuerit circumvolutus . ( As for what he sayes , that the Nave must be suppos'd to pass through the Air , and not to touch a solid Plain , I do not yet understand the force of his Reason , nor why he sets it down , making nothing to his present purpose , unless it were because he did not well understand the thing ) In which , sayes he , the great difficulty is to explain how the Nave should be so turned about its Axis , ut partes suas successivè applicet lineae duplo plures partes habenti , idque motu perpetuo ac uniformi nè vel ad oculum instar interrupto . Which how true , and what great occasion he had to wonder at the solution of that Problem by the Example of a man standing still and another walking , we shall find by and by , when we come to explain the Problem : but first I shall examine his Hypoth sis and Explication . And First , he supposes Time to consist of a determinate number of Indivisibles , ( that is , such as have neither prius nor posterius included in them ) which he calls Instants . And next he supposes the praesentiam localem seu ubicationem cujuslibet part is indivisibilis & virtualiter extensae esse quoque indivisibilem & virtualiter extensam : Which supposition so strangely exprest is no more then this , that the extension or space of his Indivisibles is also indivisible . But as for his Virtual Extension , I consess I understand as little what it is as I verily believe he did ; and therefore I will proceed to his following supposition . His Third therefore is , That by how much more rare a body is , by so much the more are its Indivisibles virtually extended . Hence his Fourth is , That though these Indivisibles be really indivisible , yet they are virtually in quotvis partes divisibiles . Whence he deduces his Fifth Principle , That since these Indivisibles are really indivisible and virtually extended , they must necessarily be moved after the same manner that other indivisible and virtually-extended things are . His Instances are in the motions of an Angel and an indivisible piece of wood , which , he sayes , are both of the same kind . As for that of Angels , having no immediate Revelation , and a Spirit and its actions not falling under sense , and not having any third way by which to be inform'd , I shall leave him there to enjoy his fancies . But as for that of his piece of wood , we shall find it sufficiently full of absurdities and contradictions . And first , he calls it indivisible , but why I know not , for 't is neither really nor yet mentally so : not mentally so by his fourth Principle , where he sayes that 't is virtualiter in quotvis partes divisibiles , by which word virtualiter he means the same thing with mentaliter , or nothing . Nor , secondly , is it really so : for then ( according to the main business of his Book , as may be gathered from the first words of his Title-Page , Tractatus de Corporum Inseparabilitate ) it would be impossible that any thing in the world should be divisible ; for he making an inseparable continuity , and that bodies will rather be ( I can't tell how ) stretcht beyond their own dimension in infinitum , then part from one another ; a body may as soon pass through the dimensions of any one Indivisible , as pass between two . Next , he grants in the strange stretching or rarefaction of these Indivisibles a temporary motion of the condens'd Dimension ; whence there will follow that there must be distinct places or Ubi's , it must be terminus à quo , terminus ad quem , & medium . And next , it were impossible to divide a line into two parts , supposing it consisted of an unequal number of Indivisibles ; as if 101. Indivisibles of exceedingly-rarefi'd Air should be extended in length an Inch , it were impossible to divide that Inch into two equal parts . I might run over many more , but it would be too tedious to be here recited . As for his indivisible parts of Time , those also must necessarily be in quotvis partes divisibiles ; for else the same body or Indivisible must necessarily be in divers places at the same instant . But because he can swallow , nay confidently affirm , this and many other such like contradictions and absurdities , I am not willing to mention them ; and I think it would have made more for the Authors reputation if he had done so too . As for his last Chapter , where he applies these Principles to the Explication of the Rota Aristotelica , I have not here time to set down all the absurdities that any one that has but a smattering in the Mathematicks may observe : as , sometimes half an indivisible part of a Circumference may touch an indivisible of a Line ; sometimes one may touch half , a quarter , a hundredth part , a whole one , two , ten , a hundred , &c. at the same instant ; nay , an indivisible of a Circle may be all of it in a thousand places together , and the like . And this he brings as a great Argument to establish his Hypothesis of Rarefaction , pretending it to comprise many Aenigma's and very great difficulties ; whereas the thing is very plain and easie , and contains no such obscurities . For if , for example , we suppose a Wheel ABCD to be moved in a direct motion from AIC to KLM , every point of it retaining the same position to that line that they had at the beginning of their motion , each of the points AEIGC will on a Plain , or in the Medium it pervades , pass through or describe a line equal to the line IL , and not onely all the points lying in the line AIC , but all and every point of the whole Area of the Circle ; this must necessarily happen if the Diameter AIC be moved parallel to it self : But if whilest it be thus moved with an equal progression , it be likewise moved with an equal circulation , the case will be altered . For then , first , each point will by this compound motion describe on the Plain or Medium either a perfect Cyclorid , as when the Wheel makes one perfect revolution , whilest the whole is progressively moved from I to L ; or some Piece , as when the Wheel has not perfected its revolution ; or more then a whole one , as when the Circle has made more then one whole revolution whilest it is moved in its determinate length . I shall here onely consider the first , as pertaining more especially to my present purpose , and in regard the two later on occasion may be easily explicated by it . Next , each point of this Circle acquires from its compounded motion various degrees of Celerity as to its progression , according to its various position to a point which is alwayes found in some part of the line drawn through the Centre of the circular motion perpendicular to the progressive . And it is found thus , as the Circumference to the Radius , so is the line of the progressive motion to the distance of the point from the Centre . And this happens because the line of Progression is equal to the Circle described on that distance as Radius ; each point therefore of this smaller Circle , when it comes to touch the Perpendicular , must , as to its progressive motion , stand still : This point therefore will be the Centre of this compounded motion . Now because for the explication of the Rota Aristotelica we need not consider any other then those Points which are transient through or cross the Perpendicular line , we shall onely examine them . Let then in our Example A be the Centre or immoveable point , the Circumference therefore ABCD will be equal to IL or AK by our Hypothesis . Now because the point I , which is the Centre of the Rotation , has onely one motion , viz. that of Lation , its celerity will be equal to the single celerity of the Lation ; we will therefore put it to have one degree . C , because it is moved with two motions , both tending the same way , and each equal to the velocity of I , must needs have two degrees of velocity . The point F , because moved with two motions , both tending the same way , the one ( viz. its Lation ) being equal to that of I , and the other ( because it is but half as far distant from the Centre of Rotation as C , and therefore is moved but with half the celerity of C , which was equal to that of I ) but half as quick , we will put to have one degree and an half . By the like method we might find the velocity of all the points in the Perpendicular , viz. such as we have there marked some of them ; but it would be too tedious , we needing not to consider more then the two points A and E. The point at E being moved forward by its progression with the same velocity that I , but by its rotation ( which is but half as swift as that of the Circle ABCD , that is double the Circle EFGH ) being moved the contrary way or backwards with half the velocity , loseth half of its progression forwards . The point in A being by its progression moved forwards equally swift with I , and by its rotation ( the Circle ABCD being equal to the line IL ) being carried backwards with equal velocity , must necessarily stand still as to its progression . Now having shewn that the point A ( being by reason of its two equal opposite motions at rest ) does onely touch a point of the line AK , and is not at all moved on it ; and that the point E ( being carried forward twice as fast by its progression as it is carried backward by its rotation , and thereby moved half as fast as the point I ) does not onely touch the line EK , but whilest it touches it is moved on it with a progressive motion half as swift as that of I : It will necessarily follow , that each point situate in E must necessarily describe a small line , which is a part of the whole EC . Now both the contact of the former , and the contact and progression of the later , being performed by an infinite succession of points in the space of an infinite succession of Instants ; I see not any one difficulty of this Problem but may satisfactorily be given an account of by it , without having recourse to the Hypothesis of the determinate number of indivisibles of space and time ; which at best will onely come to this , that In such a determinate moment or minute space of time , ( which consists of an infinite consecution of Instants , and has prius and posterius in it ; though yet he will call it an Instant , and have it to have the same proprieties with an Instant used in the common Philosophical sense ) such a determinate minute Corpuscle ( which , though it have extension in length , breadth and thickness , yet will he not admit it to be divisible or have parts , no not though , according to his Hypothesis , the indivisible of one body may be rarefied to be as big in bulk as a million of the indivisibles of another , but will have it to be called and to be a real indivisible ) will successively pass over such a determinate space or length ( which yet he will not admit to be divisible , though according to his Principles it may equalize the length of millions of his other Indivisibles , nor admit a successive motion , but instantaneous , though that does necessarily put a body into two , three , ten , a hundred , &c. places at once ; but will have these also to be indivisible . ) Haste makes me pass over the absurdities about the contact of a Circle and a Line , and to comprise in short all that great Explication he has given of this and other intricate ( as he calls them ) Problems , which is this , That the reason of the celerity of the motion of some one of these indivisibles above another is , that it passes through a greater part of an indivisible in the same instant then the slower ; that is in plain sense no more then this , One body is swifter then another because it is moved faster , From whence he draws several Corollaries , as that Hence may be given a reason why an Eagle is swifter then a Tortoise , viz. because it moves faster . I should have solved several Objections which may be brought against the divisibility of Quantity in infinitum ; but that as all the Scholastick Writers are full of them , so it is a Subject which we are least able to dispute of , having very little information of the nature of Infinity from the Senses . FINIS . The Citations English'd . CHap. 2. Pag. 4. Cum tota vis , &c. Being the whole power of the Spring of the Air depends upon the Aequilibrium of its weight with twenty nine Inches and an half of Quicksilver , so that this Spring doth neither more nor less in a shut place , then is done by that Aequilibrium in an open place : it is manifest , seeing we have shewed the Aequilibrium to be plainly fictitious and imaginary , that the Spring ascribed to the Air is so likewise . Ibid. Nam si Tubus , &c. For if a Tube but twenty Inches long ( such as we used in our first Argument ) be not quite filled with Quicksilver , as before , but a little space be left betwixt the Mercury and the Finger on the top of the Tube , in which Air onely may abide : We shall find that the Finger below being removed , the Finger on the top will not onely be drawn downwards , as before , but the Quicksilver shall descend also , and that notably , viz. as much as so small a parcel of Air can be extended by such a descending weight . So that if instead of Air , Water or any other Liquor which is not so easily extended be put in its place , there will be no descent at all . Hence , I say , against this Opinion an Argument is framed : For if the external Air cannot keep up those twenty Inches of Quicksilver from descending , as we have proved ; how shall it keep up twenty nine Inches and an half ? Assuredly these can no way be reconciled . p. 5. Dices fortè , &c. You will perchance say , that the Quicksilver therefore doth in the alledged case descend , because it is thrust down by that parcel of Air which dilates it self by its own Spring . Ibid. Sic deberet , &c. So should the Finger be rather thrust from the top of the Tube , then thereby fastned to it ; because this Dilatation must be made as well upwards as downwards . p. 6. Concipi , &c. It cannot be conceived how that Air should dilate it self , or thrust down the Mercury , unless by taking up a greater place ; which thing these Authors are much against , asserting that Rarefaction can be made no other wayes then by Corpuscles or Vacuities . Chap. 3. p. 7. Si , &c. If you take a Tube open at both ends of a good length , suppose forty Inches long , and fill it with Mercury , and place your Finger on the top as before , taking away your lower Finger you will find the Mercury to descend even to its wonted station , and your Finger on the top to be strongly drawn within the Tube , and to stick close unto it . Whence again it is evidently concluded that the Mercury placed in its own station is not there upheld by the external Air , but suspended by a certain internal Cord , whose upper end being fastned to the Finger draws and fastens it after this manner into the Tube . Chap. 4. p. 8 , 9. Sumatur , &c. Take a Tube shorter then twenty nine Inches and an half , for instance of twenty Digits , not shut , as hitherto , at one end , but with both ends open : let this Tube , its Orifice being immers'd in restagnant Mercury , and one Finger being plac'd underneath , that the Mercury to be poured in run not through , be filled with Mercury ; and then another Finger be applied to its Orifice , to close it well : Which being done , if you draw away your lower Finger , the upper will be found to be strongly drawn and suck'd into the Tube , and so stifly to adhere to it , ( or rather to the Quicksilver , as I shall hereafter shew ) that it will elevate the Tube it self with all the Quicksilver , and make it continue to hang pendulous in the Vessel . From which Experiment this Opinion is most clearly refuted : For , seeing according to it the Quicksilver in such a Tube but twenty Inches long must be thrust upwards by the preponderating Air ; it will never by it be explained how this Finger is so drawn downwards , and made so strongly to stick to the Tube . For it cannot by the Air thrusting upwards be thus drawn downwards . p. 11. Quod vel , &c. Which is thence confirmed , Because if that preponderating Air succeeds , as is asserted , in the place of the lower Finger which was withdrawn , that is , if it uphold the Quicksilver after the same manner which it was upheld by the lower Finger applied under it ; it is manifest , according to this Opinion , that the Finger on the top ought not to be more drawn downwards after the lower Finger is removed then before . Seeing then that Experience teacheth the contrary , it is manifest that Opinion must be false . Chap. 5. p. 12. Quarto , &c. In the fourth place it is impugn'd , Because thence it would follow that Quicksilver through a like Tube might be suck'd with the same easiness out of a Vessel that Water is suck'd out of the same . Which not withstanding is contrary to Experience , by which we are taught that Water is easily drawn into the mouth of him that sucks , whereas Quicksilver cannot be drawn thither by his utmost endeavour , nay , scarce unto the middle of the Tube . The sequel I thus manifest : Because seeing , according to this Opinion , that the Liquor underneath , whether it be Water or Mercury , may so ascend , no more is requir'd but that the Air shut in the Tube may be drawn upwards by sucking ; which being drawn up , the Liquor underneath will immediately ascend , being thrust thither by the external Air now preponderating , ( as Pecquet declares in his Anatomical Discourse , p. 63. ) It is manifest that the Mercury may be suck'd out with the same easiness that Water is suck'd out with . Which being so evidently against Experience , the Opinion from whence it is deduced must needs be false . p. 14. Neque hoc , &c. And not onely this , but over and above , if a Glass Diabetes or Syringe be made of a sufficient length , and after that the Sucker is thrust into the utmost Orifice , it be placed according to use in the Mercury underneath ; he finds that as soon as the Sucker is drawn out , the Mercury follows , and ascends to the same height of two Feet and three Inches and an half . And when afterwards , although no greater force be added , the Sucker is drawn higher , he finds that the Mercury stands , and follows no further , and so that space is made empty which remains between the Mercury and the Sucker . p. 16. Maneat igitur , &c. Be it therefore confirm'd by so many Arguments , of which every one is sufficient in it self , that Quicksilver ( the Experiment being made in an open place ) is not upheld from falling by the weight of the external Air. Cap. 6. p. 16. Argentum , &c. That Quicksilver in a close place is not upheld from falling by the Elater or Spring of the Air. Ibid. Cum tota , &c. Seeing the whole power of this Spring depends upon the already-confured Aequilibrium of the Air with 29. Inches and an half of Quicksilver , so that this Spring does neither more nor less in a close place then is done by that Aequilibrium in an open place ; it is manifest , seeing this Aequilibrium is already shewn to be plainly fictitious and imaginary , that the Spring of the Air is so likewise . Ibid. Nec plus , &c. And that this Spring doth neither more nor less in a close place , then is done by that Aequilibrium in an open place . p. 17. Adde , &c. Adde , that seeing the Experiments brought in the Chapter above of the adhesion of the Finger , &c. are alike in a close and an open place ; it is necessary and certain that the same Arguments made against the Aequilibrium have force against the Spring of the Air. Ibid. Et profecto , &c. And really if these Authors would consider how great a difficulty there is in explaining this Spring of the Air , unles ; the same Air by it self alone may take up a greater place , I believe they would readily alter their Opinion . Part 2. Chap. 1. p. 20. Constat hoc , &c. This appears from what has been already spoken in the preceding Chapter : For the Quicksilver descending cannot so draw the Finger downwards , and fasten it unto the Tube , unless it be hung upon the Finger by such a Cord , which by its weight it vehemently stretches , as is manifest by it self . Ibid. Respondeo , &c. I answer , That this comes to pass that there may be no Vacuity , seeing there is nothing else there that can succeed into the place of the descending Quicksilver . p. 21. And hence is confirm'd that common Axiom used in the Schools for so many Ages past , that Nature doth abhor a Vacuum . Ibid. Nam licet , &c. For though the immediate cause why water ( for instance ) doth not descend from a Gardeners Watering-pot ( for that Example they use ) stopt on the top , is not the fear of a Vacuum , but the reason now mentioned , namely , That there is not weight sufficient to loose that conjuncture by which the water doth adhere to the top of the closed Water-pot : Nevertheless in the end we must of necessity come to that Cause . Ibid. Quae quidem , &c. Which traction and adhesion when it cannot proceed but from some real body placed between the Finger and the Mercury , it is manifest that that space is not empty , but filled with some true substance . Ibid. Eo quod , &c. Because no visual species's could proceed either from it , or through it , unto the eye . p. 22. Vera , &c. To be filled with any true substance . p. 25. Huc etiam , &c. And to this purpose make those considerable Vibrations with which Quicksilver is stirred in its descent : For the same thing happens here that befalls other Pendula in their fall from on high . p. 29. Argentum dum , &c. Quicksilver while it fills the whole Tube doth not onely touch its top , ( as you would think at the first sight ) but doth firmly stick unto it also ; as it is manifest from the Experiment mentioned in the first Argument of the third Chapter , concerning the Tube open at both ends . Ibid. Licet illud , &c. Though that Orifice of the Tube be anointed with Oyle , or any other matter that will hinder adhesion , nevertheless the Finger will no less firmly stick then before . Ibid. Partes , &c. That the parts of Air it self so shut up in the Tube ( which otherwise are so easily severed ) are now so firmly glued to one another , that they make ( as we see ) a strong Chain , by which not onely Water but even weighty Quicksilver is drawn on high . Ibid. Rarefactionem , &c. That the Rarefaction or Extension of a body so as to make it take up more space is not onely made by Heat , but by distension or a certain disjoyning power ; as on the contrary Condensation is not onely made by Cold , but also by Compression , as infinite Examples hear us witness . p. 30. Cum per , &c. Seeing by the first Note 't is manifest that the Quicksilver doth so stick to the top of the Tube , and by the second Note the Rarefaction is made onely by the meer distension of the body ; it so comes to pass that the descending Quicksilver leaves its external or upper superficies fixed unto the top of the Tube , and by its weight doth so stretch and extenuate it , untill it becomes easier to leave another superficies in like manner , then to extend that any further . It leaves therefore a second , and doth by its descent extend that a little further , untill it becomes easier to separate a third then to extend that any further : And so forwards , untill at length it hath no power to separate or extend any more superficies , namely , untill it comes unto the heighth of 29. Inches and an half ; where it acquiesces , as we have declared in the first Chapter . p. 31. These Surfaces seem to be separated from the Quicksilver , and to be extended into a most slender string by the weight that falls down , after the same manner that in a lighted Candle surfaces of like sort are separated from the Wax or Tallow underneath by the heat above , and are extenuated into a most subtil flame . In which it is worth observation , that as that flame doth doubtless take up more then a thousand times a greater space then the part of the Wax of which the flame was made took up : So is it here to be thought , that that string doth take up a space more then a thousand times as big as that which the small particle of Mercury , from whence it arose , did before take up . As also it doubtless happens when such a particle by a fire underneath is turned into a vapour . p. 37. Corpore , &c. A body taking up a place , for instance , twice as big as it self ; it is of necessity that every part of it must likewise take up a place twice as big as it self . p. 42. Juxta , &c. According to the more probable Opinion such a virtual extension of a corporeal Being is not to be granted , as being onely proper to such as are Spiritual . p. 43. Praestat , &c. It is better to continue in the common Opinion , which hath been hitherto received in the Schools : which although it doth not clearly resolve all difficulties , yet it doth not openly lye under them . Ibid. Necessario , &c. We must needs confess that one and the same part must be in two places adequately . For seeing it is indivisible , and takes up a greater place then before , it must of necessity be all in every point of that place , or that be virtually extended through all that space . p. 45. Cum tempus , &c. Seeing Time is a Being essentially successive , so that neither by divine power can two of its parts exist together . p. 46. Respondeo , &c. I answer , that all these things happen because the Gun-powder so kindled and turned into flame takes up a much greater space then before . Whence it comes to pass that seeing the Chamber was before quite full , by this means the walls are broken that there may be no penetration of bodies . p. 50. Partim , &c. Sometimes within the Chappel , sometimes in the open Air ; the wind sometimes blowing , and sometimes being still . p. 54. Sed d'ci , &c. But it may be said , that on the top of the Mountain it therefore descended after that manner , because the Air was more cold there , or of some other temperature , such as might cause this descent . p. 71. Hoc esse , &c. That this is the difference between Pression and Suction , that Suction makes such an adhesion , and Pression doth not . Ibid. Hoc quoque , &c. And even this Experiment doth very well agree with our Principles : For seeing by this depression of the Sucker , the Air shut up in the cavity of the Cylinder is separated from the Cylinder , and doth descend together with the Sucker , ( as we have , Chap. 13. observed of water descending together with Quicksilver ) it comes to pass that in that whole depression new surfaces are taken from that descending Air , and stretched out , as we have there explained it in the case of descending water . Since therefore such Sufaces are as easily slipt off and extended in the end of the depression as in the beginning ; it is no wonder that there is found the same difficulty of depressing it at both times . p. 72. Eo magis , &c. That the Air is so much the more extended and rarefied , by how much the more is thence exhausted , and so doth acquire a greater force of contracting it self . p. 74. At profecto , &c. But truly it seems not credible that this most soft Air should so vehemently compress a Glass on all sides ( especially one of that thickness there mention'd ) as to break it . Ibid. Verius , &c. It is therefore more truly answered , that the Glass is therefore so broken , because by that exsuction its sides are more vehemently drawn inwards then ( by reason of the figure unfit for resistency ) they were able to resist . For seeing the included Air doth most firmly stick to the sides of the Glass , to draw out the Air will be nothing else but to endeavour to bend the sides of the Glass inwards . p. 75. Sed profecto , &c. But truly this seems too far remov'd from Truth , and may be by this alone sufficiently refuted . Because if the pressure of the Air which descends by that Tube into the Vial be so great as to break the Vial it self , it ought certainly , before the breaking of the Vial , very much to move the water in which the Tube is immers'd , and to excite bubbles in it , &c. as appears , if any one blowing through that Tube doth make but an ordinary pressure upon the water . But it is sure that the water before the Vial is broken doth not move at all : as the Experimenter will find . Ibid. Licet , &c. Though the Tube had been shut at the top , the Vial had doubtless been broken after the same manner . p. 77. Sed rectius , &c. But it is more rightly thence inferr'd , that that Cylinder did nothing there before . Ibid. Dico , &c. I say then that the Quicksilver doth by that exhaustion so descend in the Tube , because it is drawn downwards by the Air incumbent upon the restagnant Quicksilver . For that incumbent Air , being by its exhaustion greatly rarefied and extended , vehemently contracts it self , and by this contraction doth endeavour to lift the restagnant Mercury out of its Vessel ; whence it comes to pass that ( the restagnant Mercury now less gravitating upon the bottom of its Vessel ) the Quicksilver in the Tube must descend , as is manifest in it self : So that it is no wonder that , the external Air afterwards entring , the Quicksilver again ascends , seeing by that ingress the force which elevates the restagnant Quicksilver is weakned . p. 78. Atque hinc , &c. And hence is a reason also given of another thing which is there noted , namely , that by the violent intrusion of the external Air into the Receiver the Quicksilver ascended considerably above 29. Inches and an half . For as by the extraction of the Air the Quicksilver is deprest below its station , so by the intrusion of new Air it is elevated above it . p. 80. Nam si , &c. For if it were kept up by that , it ought rather to ascend then descend in colder weather , because the Air then would be more dense and heavy . Therefore the Quicksilver is not upheld by the Aequilibrium of Air , as is asserted . Ibid. Hinc fit , &c. Hence it comes to pass , that this Funicle being contracted by the cold , the water doth ascend in cold weather ; but doth descend in hot , because by heat the Funicle is dilated . p. 81. Ego certè , &c. I truly do not doubt but there are some such occult causes , by which the slender Eunicle that suspends ( as we mentioned in the 10. Chapter ) the Quicksilver in the Tube is sometimes lengthned , sometimes shortned , and so doth sometimes let down , and sometimes lift up the Quicksilver . Ibid. In decimo nono , &c. In the 19. he shews that water doth in the same manner descend upon the exhausting the Receiver , as he had shewn Quicksilver in the foregoing Chapter to descend . Of both which seeing there is the same cause , there is no reason we should any longer insist on this . p. 82. Nam si , &c. For if it were done so , these bubbles ought not so to have ascended from the bottom of the Vessel , ( as it is asserted they did , both in this and the following Experiments that treat of bubbles ) but from the upper part of the water , where they are less comprest ; as it is apparently manifest . p. 83. Respondeo , &c. I answer that the water , upon that exhaustion of the Air , doth not so ascend of its own accord , but is violently drawn or lifted upwards by that rarefied Air contracting it self . For as water doth suffer some compression ( as appears by experience ) so here also it suffers some distension . And hence it is clearly manifest why these bubbles should arise rather from the bottom of the Vessel , then from the upper part of the water . For when that vehement suction doth endeavour to elevate the water from the bottom of the Vial , there arises there a certain subtil matter , which being turned into bubbles doth so ascend as is mentioned in the 15. Chapter and the 4. Experiment . p. 84. Certum esse , &c. It is certain that that Opinion is sufficiently refuted by this single Experiment . p. 85. Necesse , &c. It must needs be that that stone could not otherwise descend , then by leaving behind it such a thin substance as is left by Quicksilver or Water descending in like manner . p. 86. Unde , &c. Whence I plainly conceive that if two perfectlypolish'd Marbles were so joyned that no Air at all were left between them , they could not be drawn asunder by all the power of Man. Ibid. Uti etiam , &c. Which also is confirmed by the Example the Author there brings of a Brass Plate sticking so close to a Marble Table , that by a lusty Youth , who boasted of his own strength , it could not be lifted off by a Ring fixed to its Centre . p. 87. Eodem , &c. Almost the same manner as we see in Cupping-glasses applied to a Patients back , in which the flame being extinct , the rarefied Air contracting it self doth so vehemently ( as we see ) lift up , and draw the flesh within the Glass . Ibid. In his , &c. In these three there is nothing occurs to be peculiarly here explicated , the account of which is not easie from what is already delivered . p. 88. Existimo , &c. But I think that Whiteness should be rather called a reflex then an innate light , because , as the Author bears witness , it appears not in the dark , but onely in the day , or by Candle-light . Ibid. Verum , &c. But it seems impossible that such Animals should dye so soon onely for want of a thicker Air. p. 89. Quia per , &c. Because by the self-contraction of the rarefied Air their breath is drawn out of their bodies . p. 90. Atque hinc , &c. And thence also arose those vehement Convulsions , which the Author there mentions certain small Birds to have endured before their death . p. 92. In mala , &c. In a bad Cause they can do no other ; but who compell'd them to undertake a bad Cause ? A Summary of the Contents of the several Chapters . PART I. WHerein the Adversaries Objections against the Elaterists are examined . Chap. 1. The occasion of this Writing , pag. 1. Franciscus Linus his civility in writing obliges the Author to the like , p. 2. Books concerning the Torrecellian Experiment wherewith the Author was formerly unacquainted , ibid. The Inconvenience of Linus's Principles , ibid. The division of the ensuing Treatise into three Parts . Chap. 2. A repetition of the Adversary's Opinion and Arguments . His Arguments against the Weight of the Air examined , p. 4. An Experiment of his to prove that the external Air cannot keep up twenty Inches of Quicksilver from descending in a Tube twenty Inches long , ibid. The Authors answer and reconciliation of the Experiment to his own Hypothesis , p. 5. and the relation of an Experiment of the Authors , wherein onely water being employed instead of Quicksilver , without other alteration of the Adversaries Experiment , it agrees well with and confirms the Authors Hypothesis , and his Explication of the mentioned Experiments , ibid. That Water hath no Spring at all , or a very weak one , p. 6. The second Argument examined , ibid. Whether the same quantity of Air can adequately fill a greater space , p. 7. The conceivableness of both Hypotheses compared , ibid. Chap. 3. Another Argument of the Adversaries , from an Experiment wherein the Mercury sinking draws the Finger into the Tube , examined . Q. Whether the Mercury placed in its own station is upheld by the external Air , or suspended there by an internal Cord ? p. 7 , 8. Chap. 4. A repetition of Franciscus Linus his principal Experiment , wherein in a Tube of twenty Inches long the Finger on the top is supposed to be strongly drawn and suck'd into the Tube , p. 9. The Experiment explicated without the assistance of Suction , by the pressure of the external Air upon the outside of the Finger , thrust , not suck'd in , p. 10. Franciscus Linus his argumentation considered , p. 11. Chap. 5. The Examiners last Experiment considered , in which he argues against the Authors Hypothesis , because Mercury is not suck'd out of a Vessel through a Tube so easily as Water is , p. 12 , 13. An Experiment of Monsieur Paschall shewing , that if the upper part of a Tube could be freed from the pressure of all internal Air , the Mercury would by the pressure of the outward Air be carried up into the Tube as well as Water , till it had attained a height great enough to make its weight equal to that of the Atmosphere , p. 14. Why in a more forcible respiration the Mercurial Cylinder is raised higher then in a more languid , p. 14 , 15. A Remark by the bie , That the contraction of the Adversaries supposed Funiculus is not felt upon the Lungs , p. 15. Chap. 6. The examination of the Adversaries 4. Chapter , p. 16. That the Spring of the Air may have some advantage in point of force above the Weight of it , p. 17. That it is unintelligible how the same Air can adequately fill more space at one time then at another , p. 18. PART II. Wherein the Adversaries Funicular Hypothesis is examined . Chap. 1. Wherein what is alledged to prove the Funiculus is considered ; and some Difficulties are proposed against the Hypothesis . The nature of this supposed Funiculus described , p. 19. That according to the Adversaries Opinion this Funiculus is produced by Nature onely to hinder a Vacuum , p. 20 , 21. The Adversaries proofs that there is no Vacuum examined , p. 21 , 22. That where no sensible part is un-enlightned , the place may not be full of light , p. 22. The same true in Odours , ibid. That there may be matter enough to transmit the impulse of Light , though betwixt the Particles of that matter there should be store of Vacuities intercepted , p. 23. That a solid Body hath no considerable sense of pressure from fluid bodies , p. 25. Of the causes of the Vibrations of Quicksilver in its descent , p. 26 , 27. Chap. 2. Wherein divers other Difficulties are objected against the Funicular Hypothesis . As that in Liquors of divers weights and natures , as Water , Wine and Quicksilver , there should be just the same weight or strength to extend them into a Funiculus , p. 27. That whereas the Weight and Spring of the Air is inferr'd from unquestioned Experiments , the account of that Hypothesis is strange and unsatisfactory . As that the Quicksilver doth not onely touch the top of the Glass , but stick to it ; That Nature wreaths a little rarefied Air into a strong rope even able to draw up Quicksilver , p. 28 , 29. That Rarefaction is performed by a certain unknown force , or vis divulsiva , p. 30. That thin Surfaces are left successively one after another , that these Surfaces are contrived into strings , that may be stretch'd without being made more slender , &c. p. 31. The illustration of the manner how his Funiculus is made , from the rarefaction of Wax or Tallow in a lighted Candle , is considered , p. 32. and shewed not to be apposite , ibid. Divers other difficulties and improbabilities manifested in the Funicular Hypothesis , p. 33. Of the inward Spring necessary to the contraction of his Funiculus , p. 33 , 34. An Argument from a Pendulum's moving freely in an exhausted Receiver , that the medium it moves in doth not consist of an innumerable exceedingly-stretch'd strings , p. 35. Chap. 3. The Aristotelean Rarefaction proposed by the Adversary examined . What Rarefaction and Condensation is , p. 36. Three wayes of explicating how Rarefaction is made , p. 36 , 37. Absurdities in resolving the Magdeburg Experiment by the Aristotelean way of Rarefaction , p. 38. The inconveniences of the several Hypotheses compared , p. 39. The difficulties in the Adversaries explaining Rarefaction by Bodies infinitely divisible , p. 41. The difficulties of explaining it by supposing Bodies made up of parts indivisible , p. 43 , 44. The difficulties wherewith his Condensation is incumbred , as that it infers Penetration of Dimensions , &c. p. 46. Chap. 4. A Consideration pertinent to the present Controversie , of what happens in trying the Torrecellian and other Experiments at the top and feet of Hills . That the Funicular Hypothesis is but an Inversion of the Elastical , one supposing a Spring inwards , the other outwards ; one performing its effects by Pulsion , the other by Traction , p. 48. That these tryals on the tops and feet of Hills determine the case for the Authors Hypothesis , p. 49. The truth of the Observation of Monsieur Paschall confirmed , p. 50. and the several tryals that have been made of it related , ibid. A tryal of the Authors from the Leads of the Abbey-Church at Westminster , p. 51 , 52 , 53. That the subsidence of the Mercury at the top of a Hill proceeds from the lightness of the Atmospherical Cylinder there , p. 54. The relation of an Experiment lately made at Hallifax Hill in confirmation of the former , p. 56. Chap. 5. Two new Experiments touching the measure of the force of the Spring of the Air compress'd and dilated . That it is capable of doing far more then the necessity of the Authors Hypothesis requires , p. 57. The first Experiment , of compressing Air by pouring Mercury into a crooked Tube , related , p. 58. Wherein the same Air being brought to a degree of density twice as great , obtains a Spring twice as strong as before , p. 59. A Table of the Condensation of the Air according to this Experiment , p. 60. Particular Circumstances observed in the making the Experiment , p. 61. How far the Spring of the Air may be increased , p. 62. Of the decrement of the force of dilated Air , p. 63. A Table of the Rarefaction of the Air , p. 64. Particular Circumstances in making the Experiment whence this Table was drawn , p. 65 , 66. That the free Air here below appears to be near as strongly comprest by the weight of the incumbent Air as it would be by the weight of a Mercurial Cylinder of 28. or 30. Inches , p. 67. PART III. Wherein what is objected against Mr. Boyle's Explications of particular Experiments is answered . The entrance into this Part of the Discourse , with an advertisement how far onely it will be requisite to examine the Adversaries assertions and explications , the Hypotheses on both sides being before considered , p. 69 , 70. A defence of the first and second Experiments , concerning the intrusion of the Finger into the Orifice of the Valve of the evacuated Receiver , p. 70. A defence of the third Experiment , why the Sucker being drawn down there is no greater difficulty in the end then in the beginnin of the gdepression , p. 71 , 72. Of the fourth Experiment , touching the swelling of a Bladder upon the exhaustion of the ambient Air , and proportionably to that exhaustion , p. 72 , 73. The Authors and the Funicular Hypothesis in the explication of this Phaenomenon compared , ibid. Of the fifth Experiment , p. 73. Of the eighth Experiment , about the breaking of a Glass-Receiver which was not globular upon the exhaustion of the inward Air , p. 74. Whether it were more likely to be broken by the pressure of the Atmosphere without , or a contraction of a string of Air within , ibid. Of the ninth Experiment , p. 75. Whether the breaking of the Vial outwards in the exhausted Receiver , was caused by the pressure of the Atmosphere through the Tube which was open to the ambient Air , ibid. Of the 17. Experiment , p. 76 , 77 , 78 , 79. The Torrecellian Experiment being made within the Receiver , whether the descent and ascent of the Mercury in the Tube , under and above its wonted station , be caused by the debilitated and strengthned Spring of the Air , ibid. Of the 18. Experiment , p. 79 , 80. Whether the Authors or the Funicular Hypothesis assign the more probable cause why a Cylinder of Mercury did in Winter rise and fall in the Tube , sometimes as water in a weather-glass according to the laws of Heat and Cold , and sometimes contrary thereunto , ibid. Of the 19. Experiment , p. 81. Of the 20. Experiment , p. 82 , 83. Some mistakes in the Adversary of the Authors meaning about the Spring of the Water , and the places whence the bubbles arose , ibid. The Hypotheses compared , ibid. Of the 31. Experiment , p. 84 , 85 , 86. Of the cause why the Marbles fell not asunder in the exhausted Receiver , though a weight of four Ounces were hung at the lower stone , ibid. Whether the account of the Author or Adversary be more satisfactory , ibid. Of the 32. and 33. Experiments , of the re-ascent of the Sucker and its carrying up a great weight with it upon the exhaustion of the Receiver , p. 86 , 87. How the flesh and neighbouring bloud of a Patient is thrust up into a Cupping-glass , ibid. Of the 37. Experiment , and the cause of the appearance of light or whiteness therein , p. 87. Of the 40. and 41. Experiments , concerning the cause of the sudden death of Animals in the exhausted Receiver , p. 88 , 89. Of the 42. and 43. Experiments , p. 90. The Conclusion , p. 91 , 92. FINIS . ERRATA . PAge 13. line 19. lege which pressure notwithstanding , The. p. 14. l. 21. Hydrargyrum , deprehendit . p. 29. l. 29. ut validissimam conficiant cat . p. 31. l. 27. quendam funiculum per. p 58. l. 2. alamp . p. 69. l. 9. Physico-Mechanical . p. 70. l. 19. Boylianis . p. 72. l. 17. removal : Our . p. 74. l. 29. quam ut ( ob figuram illam resistendo minus idoneam ) resistere potuerint . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A28956-e400 About the History of Flame , of Heat , of Colours , of the Origine of Qualities and Forms , &c. Notes for div A28956-e1140 Pag. 20. Pag. 16. Pag. 17. Pag. 15. Pag. 12. Pag. 14. Pag. 8. Gass . Phys . Sect. 1. Lib. 2. Pag. 204. De nupero Inanis Experimento . Pag. 19. Pag. 19. 20. Pag. 20. Pag. 21. Pag. 21. Pag. 11. Pag. 24. Pag. 48. Pag. 22. Pag. 25. Pag. 38. Pag. 38. Pag. 40. Pag. 40 , 41. Pag. 41. Pag. 43 , 44. Pag. 42. Pag. 160. Pag. 169. Pag. 163. Chap. 5. Pag. 175● . Pag. 159. Pag. 66. Pag 68. Pag. 50. † Mr. Croon one of the learned Professors of Gresham Colledge . * Dr. Hen. Power . See the second Figure . * Probably these or the like words , did manifest Pressure , are here omitted , for the Mountaine-Aire there seems to have acted rather by its Weight then Elasticity . Page 11. See the 5. Figure . See Part 2. C 5. Sed contra manifestè . See also in the 43. Experim . these passages , — And this Effervescence was so great in the upper part of the water , &c. As also , — The Effervescence was confin'd to the upper part of the water , unless , &c. See more concerning this Objection in the Answer to it as 't is propos'd by Mr. Hobbes . 
A28968	----	Experimenta & observationes physicæ wherein are briefly treated of several subjects relating to natural philosophy in an experimental way : to which is added, a small collection of strange reports / by the Honourable Robert Boyle ... Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1691 Approx. 185 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 109 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A28968 Wing B3959 ESTC R19615 12221492 ocm 12221492 56407 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A28968) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 56407) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 128:6) Experimenta & observationes physicæ wherein are briefly treated of several subjects relating to natural philosophy in an experimental way : to which is added, a small collection of strange reports / by the Honourable Robert Boyle ... Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. [29], 158, [2], 28 p. Printed for John Taylor ... and John Wyat ..., London : 1691. Errata: p. [2] at beginning. Advertisements on p. [3]. Reproduction of original in Yale University Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Physics -- Early works to 1800. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-06 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-07 Derek Lee Sampled and proofread 2006-07 Derek Lee Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion ERRATA . PAge 6. for omitted , r. emitted , p. 14. l. 9. of left out . ADVERTISEMENT . Books Published by the Honourable Robert Boyle , and Printed for John Taylor at the Ship in St. Paul's Church-Yard . 1. A Free Inquiry into the Vulgarly receiv'd Notion of Nature , made in an Essay adress'd to a Friend : In English and Latin. 2. The Martyrdom of Theodora and Dydimus . 3. A Disquisition about the final Causes of Natural things ; wherein it is inquir'd , Whether , and ( if at all ) with what Cautions a Naturalist should admit them ? To which are subjoyn'd , by way of Appendix , some uncommon Observations about Vitiated Sight . 4. The Christian Virtuoso : Shewing that by being addicted to Experimental Philosophy , a Man is rather assisted , than Indispos'd to be a good Christian ; to which are subjoyn'd : 1st . A Discourse about the Distinction that represents some things as above Reason , but not contrary to Reason . 2. The first Chapters of a Discourse , Intituled Greatness of Mind Promoted by Christianity . Printed for J. Taylor at the Ship ; and J. Wyat at the Rose in St. Paul's Church-yard . Experimenta & Observationes PHYSICAE : Wherein are briefly Treated of SEVERAL SUBJECTS Relating to Natural Philosophy IN AN EXPERIMENTAL WAY . To which is added , A small Collection of STRANGE REPORTS . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE , Fellow of the Royal Society . LONDON , Printed for Iohn Taylor at the Ship , and Iohn Wyat at the Rose in S. Paul's Church-Yard . MDCXCI . A Letter that may serve for a Preamble . To my Learned Friend Mr. H. Oldenburg ( Secretary to the Royal Society . ) SIR , BEing at length come to a Resolution , I have already done something more than barely entred upon that way of Writing , that you and I have more than once Discoursed of together ; and wherein you particularly ( tho not you only ) among my Learned Friends , have wish'd to see me Engaged . 'T is not , that I am insensible of the Prejudice which the things I deliver are like to sustain , by the disadvantageous Dress wherein they must appear , in the way of Writing I have pitch'd upon ; which being for the most part plainly Historical , and set down in the order wherein , they chanc'd to come to hand , denies most of them , not only the usual Ornaments of other Books , but the allowable Advantages , that Method , elaborate Discourses , neat Hypotheses , and subtil Disputes , are permitted to bring even to Philosophical Writings . But these Considerations were over-sway'd by a sad one , founded upon the ( yet continuing ) condition I was in , when I was Debating this matter in my Thoughts . For it having pleased God ( to whose always most just Dispensations Men ought entirely to submit ) to Afflict me with the Stone and the Palsy ; as on one side , these , added to a sufficient number of Avocations , scarce permit me any great expectation , of finishing in a short time the Tracts I had made a lesser or greater Progress in , according to my first design ; so on the other side , my Friends judging it unfit , that the Materials provided for these more than begun Treatises , should be quite lost , or kept too long useless , it seemed expedient , that as Opportunity should from time to time serve , I should look over my Memorials , and other scatter'd Papers , to take notice what Experiments and Observations were to be found in them . Upon these , and the like inducements , having pick'd up several of my dispersed Papers , some of them Written many Years ago , and some of a less ancient date ; I began to refer the most part of what I found Historical in them , together with some few things that did seem necessary not to be sever'd from them , to certain Heads or Titles which I called Chapters ; and made them the more numerous , that they might singly be the less Prolix : And about these I must desire your leave to represent some things , by way of Preface . And first , several of the ensuing Particulars that I met with among my Papers , being parts of Essays of other Discourses , and being for hast Transcribed for the most part Verbatim , as they were couched there ; I dare hope for your excuse , if among such Transcripts you now and then meet with things , which , how pertinent soever to the Tracts they first belong'd to , might have been spared as needless , if not sometimes Forein ; also , in the new Form the Discourses are now put into ; since I could not leave out such unnecessary Clauses ( whereof yet I hope you will not find many ) without too much mutilating the coherence , or obscuring the sense of what is delivered ; and I could not alter them , and adapt others to supply their places without spending more time , and taking more Pains , than in the condition I am now in , I suppose you would be willing to condemn me to . Next , I despair not but you will allow me the Liberty I have taken , to vary the Bulk and Method of particular Chapters , as my occasions would permit , or the plenty or paucity of Materials suggested ; or the Nature of the thing I treated of , and the Scope I proposed to my self in Writing of it , seem'd to require . But sometimes my want of Health and Leisure , and my desire to hasten to other subjects , that either pleased me better , or seem'd more considerable , made some of the following Chapters , compared with others , but short ; especially , if I were supplyed but with a number of things pertinent to that Subject , by the Papers I had then in hand , how much soever I may have Written of it in other Papers , which I hope hereafter to be Master of . And this Advertisement may render you a Reason why to the Title of some of the Chapters I have subjoyned the first Section , tho it be not at present followed with a second . And , as for my having imployed very differing Methods in some of the ensuing . Tracts , I did it with design , as judging such a variety of Method more conducive to my purpose , than Uniformity in it would have been . For , besides that some of the Treatises , vhence these Chapters were taken , did , by the ways wherein they were already Written , oblige me , to accommodate my self to their Method ; I thought , that if you should shew these Papers to any , that are very unacquainted ( which I have heard you complain , that too many are ) with the way of accommodating in some tolerable manner , his Enquiries and his Writings to the several Subjects he applies himself to , he may be somewhat helped , by the differing Examples he may here meet with , to make variations somewhat suitable to the differing Natures of the Subjects he deals with . But here I must beg you to take notice , That , tho in compliance with this design , as well as for some other reasons , I have in several of the following Chapters given intimations and hints of things , which I do not there prosecute ; and now and then propose some Conjectures and Opinions , whose proof I do not insist on ; yet I am not willing you should think , that , however some of those passages may be but occasional things , mentioned principally to excite , and give hints to the inquisitive and sagacious ; yet all , or most of them , are of the same kind ; and that I thought not on them , but as slightly and transiently as I mentioned them ; and have no better and other Reasons to alledg for my suspicions or intimations , or even for my conjectures or my opinions , than those you will meet with in Papers hastily drawn up ; especially since , I think , I can shew you divers of the things deliver'd in those passages , enlarg'd and render'd at least probable or practicable in other Discourses , that for certain Reasons do not accompany these I now send you . I expect , that you should think it somewhat strange , to find many of the following Experiments set down much less circumstantially than those that are mentioned in the Physico-Mechanical Experiments touching the Air ; in the Continuation of them ; in the History of Cold , and in some other Books of Mine that you have been pleas'd to peruse . But on this occasion give me leave to represent to you , that the nature of divers of the former Experiments , especially Chymical ones , and my aims in mentioning them , being considered , it seem'd not requisite they should be more fully Treated of : And as for others , tho the brevity and dispatch ; which divers reasons made me propose to my self , had not forbidden me to amplify ; yet I daily feel my leisure , not to say my Life too ; so torn piece●●●● from me , by Sickness , Visits , Business , and inevitable Avocations , that I am frequently admonished to hasten the securing of as much as conveniently I can , by dispatching particular Subjects , and am quite hundred from dwelling so long upon them , as , if I had more Health and Leisure , I should willingly do . To these things perhaps , so favourable a Person as Mr. Oldenburg will add , that the Characters which Learned Writers , English and Forein , tho divers of them personally unknown to me , have been pleased to give of the diligence and sincerity employed in setting down the Physico-Mechanical Experiments , and those of some other Writings of Mine , may permit me to hope , that it will be thought , that , after having been divers years vers'd in making Tryals and Experiments , I have made them with some care and wariness , and mentioned them faithfully , where I have not done it amply ; upon hopes it may be taken in good part from a Person in my present condition , that was never a Professor of Philosophy , nor so much as a Gown-man ; to have made shift to make the Experiments and Observations he communicates , and set them down truly and candidly , without fraudulently concealing any part of them , for fear they should make against him . And tho perhaps you will easily believe , that in divers of the Experiments which I have but briefly mention'd , I have been as diligent an Observer of Circumstances , as I was wont to be when I made those , which have had the luck to be taken notice of for being fully related ; and tho it may be also , that some Scruples or Objections , which my brevity may in part occasion , were not unforeseen by me , and might have been avoided by a more copious and diffus'd way of Writing ; yet I purposely decline such a way of delivering things , not only for the reasons above mention'd ; and because I suppose them that may peruse these Papers , to be acquainted with my formerly Published Writings , and to have either from them , or otherwise , understood the way of making such Experiments as mine ; but also , because , tho I wanted Time and Health , much less than I do , I should not think it fit too much to prevent the Industry of others about the Tryals I mention ; and reap the Field so clean , as not to leave them , not only store of Ears to Glean , but some corners of standing Corn. I have therefore here and there purposely omitted , both , some not absolutely necessary Practical Directions about making of Tryals , that might prevent such Scruples or Objections , as have the Grounds of answering them clearly deliver'd in my Printed Books ; and several , not only lesser Circumstances , but considerable Phaenomena , and obvious Applications , that may probably occur to others , as they did to me in making the Tryals and Reflecting on them . Advertisements about the Disposition of the following Treatise . YOV will quickly discern that the following Chapters could not be intended for compleat Tracts , about the Subjects handl'd in them . And indeed they were intended but for such Memoirs about the Various particular Subjects they Treat of , as may be serviceable to the Solid Natural History that has been nobly design'd and is still prosecuted , by the Royal Society . Wherefore since ( at least in our Age ) no Writer that I know of , has so early and so well , both urg'd the necessity of Natural History , and promoted divers Parts of it by Precepts and Specimens , as the illustrious Lord Verulam ; I shall not scruple in the way or manner of Writing these short Collections of mine , to make use somewhat frequently of his Authority and Examples ; but without Confining my self to either . I. Agreeably to this Advertisement you will find , that some of the Particulars that the following Treatise consists of , are single and as it were , Independent ones ; upon which account they resemble those which in the Verulamian Sylva , or Natural History , are call'd Experiments Solitary : And have for that reason induc'd me to give that Title to each of the several Chapters that are made up of them . II. Another sort of Chapters there is , wherein divers Experiments and Observations , all of them relating to the same Subject or Purpose , are set down together . These if they were rang'd and sorted in order to distinct Theories , I should call , in imitation of the mention'd Author , Experiments in Consort . But my backwardness to frame Theories has made me chuse to forbear as yet to methodize them , and therefore has made me think fit to call them only various Experiments and Observations about this or that Subject ( which they belong to . ) III. My hast , tho not that only , induc'd me to make one sort of Chapters more , that partly agrees with , and partly differs from each of the two that I come from mentioning : For in every one of these Chapters , there are two or three , if not more , single or Solitary Experiments ; and there are also others that have some kind of Connexion among themselves , as being referable to the same Subject or Purpose . On that score the Title that is given to each of the Chapters of this Third sort , is that of Miscellaneous Experiments ; and sometimes ( but seldomer ) of Promiscuous Ones . And all the Particulars that I refer to the three foremention'd Heads , are cast into Chapters , wherein the several kinds are distinguish'd only by their Titles , or not . IV. There is one Advertisement that regards all the sorts of Particulars that are refer'd to the foremention'd Chapters , which is , that I have usually comprehended Observations , as well as Tryals , nuder the Title of Experiments ; which I have done , not only upon the Authority , and in following the Example of our Judicious Chancellor ( as is every where obvious in his Sylva Sylvarum ) but for other reasons too . For both the sorts of Particulars may pass for matters of Fact , and so are Historical , taking the word in a lax sense , and the imploying it in that sense , makes the Articles or Passages , whereof the Chapters and other parts of our Collection consists , much more commodious for References and Citations . V. Besides the three foremention'd kinds of Chapters , you will meet in the ensuing Treatise with another sort of Writings , whereof some are almost entire , and others Fragments of larger Discourses . In neither of these , I did confine my self so much to matters of Fact , as in those Chapters that consist of Experiments and Observations ; but took the liberty , as occasion requir'd , to inlarge in Discourses , and sometimes to Cite such passages out of other Mens Writings , as I judg'd I could make some pertinent Application or use of , perhaps unthought of by the Author . And these Papers being most , if not all of them Written in a more free and discursive way , I thought fit to separate them from the Sets of Collections that are almost merely Historical ; and accordingly I have not styl'd them Chapters , but Titles ; and have forborn to assign them , as I did the others , Ordinal Numbers ; which I desire likewise you would not prefix to any of them , because I am not yet resolv'd how I shall dispose of them , either by supplying what is wanting to finish any one , or more of them , or by taking to pieces , and imploying those pieces as Materials for other Tracts . VI. Perhaps I shall not be thought to need Pardon , if to comply with their Curiosity , who affect most those Experiments , that are either uncommon , or teach them to do or perform something useful or pretty ; I sometimes prefix a Title declaring what it treats of , to a particular Experiment ( or Observation , ) which for its Importance , Novelty , or Vsefulness ( Theorical or Practical ) may deserve to bedistinguish't ; since by this means such Particulars may be the better imprest on the memory , to gratifie those , whose nicety or want of leisure , may make them well pleas'd by a transient view of the Titles we speak of , to find such Passages as they chiefly look'd for , with less trouble than that of perusing an Index . VII . Among the Experiments our Collection consists of , there is here and there one , to which it was thought fit to add something , either by way of Explication , or of Illustration , or of Confirmation , or of Answer to Objections , or of Theorical Reflection , or of Practical Application , &c. And these Supplements or Additions it was thought fit to call sometimes Annotations , but oftner Scholiums , because that Term is freely us'd in a very comprehensive Sense by Mathematical Writers . But tho I readily acknowledg that this Term has been chiefly imploy'd by Mathematicians , yet the use of it has not been so confin'd to them , but that good Authors in other parts of Learning have not scrupl'd to imploy it , as may appear by the Scholiums that some Learned Physicians have Written upon Hollerius , an eminent Person of their Profession ; as also by the Example of the famous and Experienc'd Forestus , who has not seldom subjoin'd Scholiums , even to his own Medicinal Observations . VIII . The mention of these Scholia prompts me to tell you , I had almost forgotten , but yet must not leave unmention'd , that I thought fit now and then to premise to Sets of Experiments , and sometimes ( tho more seldom ) to a single Observation a short Preamble by way of Introduction , which may often excuse the need of subjoyning a Scholium ; and may be warranted by the Example of the Lord Verulam in his Centuries , wherein he often inserts such short Preambles , as things fitted to give light to the Experiments they belong to , and to give some Advertisement both of the Nature and Importance of the Subject , and of the Scope of the Writer , or of other useful circumstances . IX . If among my own Experiments , namely , those that I have made or seen , I have sometimes inserted Experiments or Observations that are not so : I have not done it without reason , and am authoris'd in that Practice , by frequent Examples afforded me by the first , if not only Author that I know of , that gave us a Set of Precepts of well writing Natural History , our often cited Verulam , whose Centuries do in great part consist of borrow'd Experiments and Observations ; without which , he was sensible that his Sylva must be of too narrow a compass , or too thinly stock't with Plants , especially with Trees . And indeed 't is not to be expected , that , as the Silk-worm draws her whole Mansion altogether out of her own Bowels , so a single man should be able to write a Natural History out of his own Experiments and Thoughts . And he that will strictly confine himself to those , will be often reduc'd to omit things very pertinent , if not necessary , to his Subject , which is of practice studiously declin'd by me , who prefer the Readers Vtility , to the ambition'd Glory of being thought to borrow nothing from any Body . And I can add in my Defence , at least my Excuse , that I have made use but of a small part of the Liberty allow'd me by the Example of so great a Guide in the way of Writing Natural History . For I have very much seldomer than he , employ'd the Tryals of others ; and have yet seldomer mention'd unverifi'd Reports or vulgar Traditions , being careful that the Bulk of the Matters of Fact I deliver , should consist of things , whereof I was my self an Actor , or an Eye witness ; and that the comparatively few borrow'd Experiments that I added , ( that I might not deprive my Reader of some things very pertinent and useful to my Subject ) were receiv'd from Persons of very good credit ; besides that I do not only frequently give sufficient Intimation in the Experiment or Observation its self , but oftentimes by placing the Letter C in the Margent , do give notice ; nay , and sometimes to a whole Set , prefix the Title of Communicated Experiments or Observations . X. I have nothing more to give you notice of here , save that , whereas you will find that I Write but on one side of the Leaves , whereof this Book * consists : I did so for two Reasons . The First , That in case I should have occasion to imploy any of these Experiments in other Treatises , for which I am more concern'd than for this Rhapsody , I might have room to Substitute , if it should be thought fit , one or more of my later Experiments in its place . And Secondly , That I might have room , if I can get leisure , to Write Annotations , or make Reflections , or Illustrations , or Corrections , or in a word , such Addititions and Alterations of particular Experiments and Passages , as they shall be thought to deserve or need . I am sensible that this Preamble , increas'd by the Advertisements that 't was thought necessary to annex to it , is of a length that may seem disproportionate to the Book or Tract 't is prefixt to . But I may in excuse of this represent to you , that the Bundle of Writings you now receive , is but a part of the Book ; to which , if God vouchsafe me Health and Leisure , this Preface inlarg'd by its Appendix , is design'd for an Introduction . And in that case 't is hop'd that these Preliminaries , as many as they are , will not be thought Impertinent , or needlesly prolix . Experimenta & Observationes PHYSICAE . TOME I. CHAP. I. CONTAINING Chymico-Magnetical Experiments and Observations . THE Loadstone , Pyrophilus , is so admirable a Body , and its Usefulness to Mankind is already so great , without denying us hopes of farther Improvments ; that I think we must want Curiosity or Gratitude , if we neglect either to take notice of any Experienc'd Phoenomena that directly relate to so abstruse a Subject , or , by consigning them to Paper , to preserve them from Oblivion . 'T is chiefly by this Consideration , Pyrophilus , that I am induc'd to mention to you the following Experiments and Observations , made most of them by the help of the Fire . For , tho some of them may seem but slight ; yet they may not prove unuseful , towards discovering the Nature of a Body so strange and singular , that , for ought is yet manifest , any true Magnetical Phoenomena may somewhat conduce to the knowledg of it , And I was the rather induc'd to make Tryals and Observations of this Kind , because most of them are such as I have not met with in Authors . And the few that remain , I have not found sufficiently taken notice of there ; Philosophers and Mathematicians ayming chiefly , in their Magnetical Writings , to prosecute and apply the Attractive and Directive , and perhaps the Inclinatory , faculty of the Loadstone . Whereas , throwing into another Paper , what I Observ'd , of that kind , I did in the present Inquiry mainly intend to make the Loadstone rather the Object than the Instrument of my Tryals : and handling chiefly the very Substance of the Stone , endeavour not so much to Advance or Apply its Faculties , as to Weaken and Destroy them , tho in order to the better knowing of them . Having therefore procured a considerable number of , for the most part naked ( or uncapt ) Loadstones , most of them Course , but of differing Sizes , Shapes , Colours , and Countries ; I made upon them several Tryals , some of which I should immediately proceed to give you a brief Account of , but that 't will be proper to premise this short Advertisement : That , I would not have the Title of these Experiments make you expect , that the Fire should be a main Agent in every one of them , since to preserve some few of them , I refer them hither , tho an actual Fire was not Imploy'd to make them : Since the common Rule that a potiori parte fit denominatio , will suffice to Warrant , or at least excuse , my giving to this small Collection the Title of Chymico-Magnetical Experiments ; because the greatest part were perform'd by the help of the Fire , or Bodies Chymically prepar'd by the Application of it . And because 't is usual with the best Writers about Magnetism , to reckon Steel and Iron among Magnetical Bodies ; I shall not scruple to deliver in this Paper some Experiments , made by the help of the Fire upon those Subjects ; with reference neverthe less to Magnetism . EXPERIMENT I. Having Ignited several Loadstones , and removed them from the Fire till they grew Cold again , I found a great disparity in the visible substance whereof they consisted , and the manifest structure of the gross parts that made them up . For some Stones upon Refrigeration , either fell asunder of themselves , or grew very Brittle ; when as others still continued in their entireness : Some of them being broken look'd not unlike Iron-Ore , or Stones which I have gather'd near Iron-Mynes in Kent ; others being broken , after Refrigeration appear'd to consist of Plates or Flakes of several Colours , and lying Parallel to one another : And others again , which as I remember were English ones , did neither appear to be compos'd of any such Flakes , nor had their dark Colours much , if at all chang'd by the operation of the Fire , nor did cease to be Solid Bodies . EXPERIMENT II. We could not upon the Burning of several small Loadstones one after another , discern any such blew sulphureous Flame as Porta in his Natural Magick relates himself to have seen , and judges to have been as it were the Soul of the Loadstone , upon whose recess he says , it lost its Magnetick Faculty , which is most commonly true as to any considerable degree of the Coitive or Attractive Power , but not of the Directive Faculty or Vertue . But it may be that Porta mistook the small Flame , which is often omitted even by well-kindled and glowing Charcoales , ( on which sort his Loadstone was placed ) especially when a little blowen upon , for the exhaling Soul of the Loadstone ; or else , to be civil to him , we may suppose , that , His Stone was more rich in Unctuous Moisture than Others are wont to be ; and if we had had by us a very exact pair of Scales , we should have endeavoured to have by them discovered , whether the Fire do deprive Loadstones of any ponderable parts . EXPERIMENT III. The Solidity of some English Loadstones , made me think it fit , tho I look'd upon them as a kind of Iron-Ore , to try whether they could not be brought to strike Fire . And accordingly , having made divers Collisions betwixt a rough peice , and the steel of a Tinder Box ; I found that with much ado it was possible to obtain some Sparks , ( tho they seem'd but small ones : ) But having taken a large peice of smooth Loadstone , I found that , by striking it somewhat briskly , with the edge of a steel'd Hammer , we were able to produce good store of Sparks , and some of them of a surprizing bigness ; for they were judged to exceed the size of those that are usually afforded by common Flints . EXPERIMENT IV. For certain Reasons I thought fit to make a further Tryal , being desirous to satisfie my self , whether it were not possible , to make Loadstones afford Fire without the help of Iron or Steel . And being willing to comply with this Curiosity , I made choice of two solid peices of Loadstone , that were cut almost into the form of Cubes ; and found that many Collisions being made between them , especially at the edges ; there were produced from Time to Time , ( tho not frequently , ) some Sparks of Fire , tho neither so numerous , nor so great or vivid , as those of the foregoing Experiment wherein the Steel was employ'd . EXPERIMENT V. I have ( elsewhere ) formerly related , that if an Oblong Loadstone made glowing hot , be refrigerated Perpendicularly , the lower extream will thereby become its Northern Pole. And I shall now add , that yet if such a Loadstone be refrigerated Perpendicularly , not upon an ordinary Terrestrial Body , but upon the Northern extream of a much stronger Loadstone ; in such case , this debilitated Stone will receive its Impressions , as if it were an Iron , and its lower extream will not be , as before , by the Magnetick Effluvia of the Earth , made its Northern Pole ; but it will be contrariwise animated by the Pole of the Loadstone , on which 't is cool'd ; and according to the Laws Magnetical , the lower extream of it , will not be its Northern , but its Southern Pole , nimbly attracting the North end of an excited and Aequilibrated Needle . EXPERIMENT VI. By the forementioned way of Refrigeration I also found , that a Disanimated Loadstone ( if I may so speak ) may be restored , to some degree of its Attractive Vertue ; for I try'd that a small Loadstone , which after its being made red hot in the Fire , and cool'd Perpendicularly upon the Ground , was not able to take up a fragment of a Needle ; being again heated , and not only cool'd upon the Pole of a strong Loadstone , but suffered to rest on it a while after , was soon grown vigorous enough , to take up what formerly it could not move . EXPERIMENT VII . I further observ'd , that tho a Loadstone that had pass'd the Fire , had not , by being immediately before made red hot , had its Body open'd and fitted to take in plentifully the Magnetical Streams ; yet it would , like a wire of Iron , acquire a new Verticity from the vigorous Loadstone ; but not be in many Hours so vigorously impregnated with Magnetick vertue , if it were applied cold to the Pole of the Animating Loadstone ; as it would in a very short time , if being glowing hot it were refrigerated thereupon . N. B. It has been observ'd , that if a Loadstone be made red hot in the Fire , it will scarce retain any sensible Attractive vertue , save that it will be able , by being endowed with a Magnetism from the Earth , to drive away that Pole of a Needle well poys'd , which agrees in Denomination with that Pole of the Loadstone , which is applied to it . But I desire that it may be remembred , that I intimated that this is not strictly and universally true ; for in some of our English Loadstones , it has been observ'd , that Ignition does not only leave them capable of a Directive Vertue , but leaves them also a considerable Attractive power , so that they will sustain a good weight of Steel ( as will appear hereafter . ) EXPERIMENT VIII . We took three English Loadstones that appeared to be of a very compact Substance ; two of them very small , as not being of near half an Inch in length ; the other much greater , being about an Inch long , and of a considerable breadth , but yet of small thickness : These we made red hot in a Fire of well kindled Charcoal , and being thorowly Ignited , removed them one after another , and hastily set each of them upon a Plate of Silver ( for neither Wood nor Iron would have been convenient ) and applying the Loadstone ( Capp'd ) to each of them , whilst it was yet red hot ; it seem'd manifest enough , not only , that whilst it was in that state , the Stone had not so strong an Operation on it , as if it were not red hot : But , which is remarkable , when it ceas'd to appear Ignited , but yet was intensly hot , ( so that it was readily able to burn his Fingers that should offer to take it up between them ) the armed Loadstone had a more powerful Operation on it , by way of what they call Attraction and Sustentation ( not only , as I said , than it had , whilst the Ignited Stone conspicuously retain'd the colour Fire , but ) than it had , after the same Stone was grown cold . EXPERIMENT IX . This Experiment was reiterated with the two smaller Magnets and the greater , with the like success : And when the Magnets were grown cold , they did notwithstanding their having been twice ignited , discover some little Magnetism , if apply'd to the end of a well-excited Magnetick Needle , nicely poys'd upon the point of an ordinary Needle [ or brass Pin ] ( on which its Center of Gravity lean'd . ) And I found that the bigger of the three forementioned Loadstones , after the first , if not also after the second Ignition ; did not only move the Magnetick Needle more briskly than one would have expected , but , ( which may seem strange ) being thrust into filings of Mars , and then taken out , it carried up with it and sustained a considerable Number of them . Whence we may conclude , that in some Loadstones of a very solid Constitution , such as this was ; the Magnetical vertue is more Radicated ( if I may so speak ) or Permanent , than in the generality of other Magneticks : This Stone being the first wherein I observ'd , after I had thorowly Ignited it , any Attractive vertue able to take up Filings of Iron . EXPERIMENT X. On occasion of these Tryals I made another , which tho to some it may seem but slight , I thought the more worthy to be made , because I remember not to have read or heard of it before ; we took then , the same Loadstone that we employ'd about the last Experiment , and having again made it red hot , in the Fire , suffered it not to cool leisurely in the Air , as before , but quenched it , in a Bason of cold Water ; intending thereby to make a double variation of the Experiment , first , by cooling it Hastily , and as it were Abruptly ; and next by cooling it not in the Air , but in a Fluid some hundreds of times more Dense or Ponderous than the Air. The Event of the Tryal was , that , upon the Immersion of the red hot Stone , there fell off some flaky matter , as if it had been Scales of Mars ; and the Stone , when cold , would not take up any filings of Iron , as before it did many ; so that it appear'd to have lost much of the Vertue it so lately had , tho it retain'd the Power to move a well-poys'd Needle , if it were held near to either side of the point of it . EXPERIMENT XI . A black Oblong Loadstone , of a Homogeneous Substance , and weighing near three Drams , having been in a Fire of well-kindled Charcoals , Ignited , and continued so for some Minutes , of an Hour ; being weighed again as soon as it was cool'd , was found to have lost about ⅝ of a Grain of its first Weight , and much of the blackness of its Colour . Tho the Affinity between the Loadstone and Iron , might make one expect that the Fire might have a like Operation upon this Stone , and that out of which Iron is commonly melted , both being indeed Iron-Oars ; yet for some Reasons that I cannot now stay to mention , I was induc'd to think , that the Effect of Ignition upon those two Bodies might be very differing , as I conceive their Internal and unseen Texture to be . And therefore I made the following Experiment . A Lump of Iron Oar , which look'd almost like a white Stone , rather than a common Oar , and was about the bigness of two Eggs ; being apply'd , in several of its parts , to an excited Needle , did not appear to move it manifestly . But being afterwards made glowing Hot , and kept so for a while , and then Refrigerated ; it did in those parts , which seem'd by their newly acquir'd Colour to abound with Metalline Corpuscles ; it did , I say , manifestly Attract the North end of the Needle . And this was tryed , both with a Needle of our own touching , and by the Mariners Needle of a Sun-Dyal ; whos 's Flower-de-Luce , the burnt Oar did manifestly draw . EXPERIMENT XII . To confirm the former Observation , and also what I elsewhere gave notice of , That divers Bodies are of a Magnetical Nature or have in them some parts that are so , which yet are not vulgarly believ'd to be referable to that sort of Bodies ; I shall subjoyn the following Experiment . A Brick that had not been us'd , was saw'd long ways into two equal pieces , and each of these ( one at one time , and another at another ) was heated red hot in the Fire for a pretty while , and afterwards suffer'd to cool North and South : And , as I expected , it thereby acquired a Magnetical Verticity ; and with that end that in cooling respected the South , did a little , tho but faintly , draw the Flower de Luce ( which pointed out the North ) of the Mariner's Needle ; and with the other end , did somewhat more vigorously drive the Flower de Luce away , and a little attract the other Extream of the Needle . EXPERIMENT XIII . We took a [ black ] Loadstone , and having by degrees beaten it small , without suffering it to touch any Iron or Steel Vesiel or Instrument , [ which because of the hardness of the Stone , was very troublesome to do ; ] we set aside the grosser Grains for other uses , and upon some of the finer Powder we pour'd the Spirit of common Salt , which had at first a sensible Operation upon it , by producing foetid Fumes , and making a kind of Ebullition , as that Menstruun is wont to do upon filings of Iron or Steel . But nevertheless , being kept a Night or two in Digestion , it drew a high Tincture ; and tho this was not at all , like the Solutions of Mars in Spirit of Salt , Green , but of a Yellowish Brown , not very remote from Redness : Yet a little of it being dropt into a fresh and sufficiently coloured Infusion of Galls , turned it presently into an Inky Substance , which in some Positions appear'd blewish , as a Tincture or light Solution of Mars would have done .. I shall only add , about the Solution of Loadstone , that having carefully made it with a good Aqua regia , obtain'd a Solution , some of which you may yet command a sight of , that by some Virtuosi to whom I shew'd it , was thought either a fine Solution of Gold , or little , if at all , inferior to it in kind or Richness of Colour . I chose to employ the Spirit of Salt , rather than that of Nitre or Aqua Fortis , in this Experiment ; because I found the first named Liquor to dissolve Iron very well , if not better , tho less furiously , than Aqua Fortis it self ; and also , because I could by this means better judge of the Tincture of its Colour ; having formerly found by Tryal , that Spirit of Salt makes a Green Solution of Mars ; but Aqua Fortis or Spirit of Nitre , a Reddish one . And it was to judge of the Tincture of the Loadstone , as well as for another purpose , that I was so careful to keep the Stone from touching Iron , when it was pulverising ; least by the Hardness of it , and the Sharpness of its Angles , it should grate off some parts of the Metal , and so alter the Solution ; for want of which Caution , I have known some Experiments about Artificial Gems to miscarry ; the Brass Morter wherein the hard Ingredients were beaten , having communicated some Particles to them , that alter'd the Colour which the Masse after Vitrification would otherwise have been of . EXPERIMENT XIV . Some Parts of the foregoing Experiment may be confirm'd by that which follows . I caus'd a weak Loadstone to be heated red hot , to make it the more easie to be powder'd , and having caus'd it to be beaten very fine , I digested good Spirit of Salt upon it . ( I afterwards found that ordinary Spirit would serve the turn ) This in a few Hours acquir'd a Tincture not greenish , but almost like that of a troubled Solution of Gold. It strongly relish'd of Iron , and a little of it being dropp'd into Infusion of Galls , it turn'd it immediately into an Inky Liquor ; part of this Solution being gently Evaporate ● , grew thick like an Extract , but did not seem dispos'd to shoot into Chrystals ; yet another part of it did precipitate with Salt of Tartar , much like a Solution of Vitriol ; and another with Spirit of fermented Urine gave a plentiful , but yellowish red , Praecipitate . EXPERIMENT XV. Meeting among my loose Notes , with one that may serve both for a Variation and Confirmation of what has been above delivered in the Experiments ; it seem'd not improper to annex a Transcript of it . A red Mineral , whose Consistence was between Stony and Earthy , was by me judg'd to be a kind of Iron Oar , tho having powder'd some of it , I could not find that a good Loadstone would attract any part of it : Therefore , to satisfie my self , and to confirm D. B's Observation ; about the Vertue of Linseed Oyl , I caus'd this red Powder , wetted with that Liquor , to be kept about two Hours Ignited in a Crucible ; by which means it was turn'd blackish . This dark colour'd Powder was taken out , and suffer'd to cool , and then would readily adhere to the same Loadstone , almost as if they had been a heap of filings of Iron . But the Operation of the Fire perhaps contributed , as much ( or more ) as the Linseed Oyl , to this Change. For a parcel of the red Powder being kept Ignited in a Crucible , tho without the Liquor , did afterwards appear Magnetical . After having said thus much of the most useful of uncommon Stones , the Magnet : It will not , I presume , be thought incongruous to subjoin some Remarks about the most precious of them that are known among us , viz. Diamonds ; which will be done in the next Chapter . CHAP. II. CONTAINING Various Observations about DIAMONDS . DIamonds being generally esteem'd the most Noble and Precious of Gems , and even of Inanimate Bodies here below , ( for of Carbuncles , the very Existence is disputed ; ) the Opportunity I had of being one of the Committee or Directors of the English East-India Company , ( whereto the desire of Knowledge , not Profit , drew me ) allow'd me in some measure to gratifie my Curiosity about them , by adding to some Observations of my own , the Answers I had to the questions , I propounded to some East-India Merchants and Jewellers , that had Opportunity to deal much with those Gems . Part of what I had learn'd about them , I committed from time to time to some Papers , which were the main things that supply'd me with the following Particulars . These Gems , ( to add that upon the by , ) may the rather deserve our Curiosity , because the Commerce they help to maintain between the Western and Eastern parts of the World , is very considerable . For as small as their Bulk is , their Properties and Mens Opinion , do so much recommend them , that I remember one of the most famous and intelligent Merchants of this Nation , ( who has been Governor of more than one Trading Company in it , ) being enquir'd of by me about the value of the Diamond Trade ; he answer'd me , That according to his well-grounded Estimate , there came from the East-Indies into Europe , one year with another , to the value of about 350000 Sterl . of which about 100000 l. came into England ; which at present , because of the prudent Indulgence of the Government , and of the East-India Company , is become the Mart of Diamonds . I. To prove the great hardness of Diamonds , even in comparison of other Bodies , that are thought wonderfully hard , a famous Artist for cutting of Diamonds , in return to some questions I put him , affirm'd to me , that he could not either Cut or Polish Diamonds with any thing but with Diamonds . And he further answered me , that if he should employ so rough a way , and such forcible Engines to cut Rubies or any other Stones , as he does to cut Diamonds , it would presently break them in pieces ; which the Inspection of his Engine made very probable to me . II. A very skilful Cutter and Polisher of Diamonds ( Mr. L. ) being demanded by me , whether he found that all sorts of Diamonds were of equal Hardness , told me , that having dealt in Diamonds near twenty years in Amsterdam , and divers years in England , he perceiv'd that there are of later years , brought over worse and worse sorts of Diamonds ; so that he judges those of the old Rock ( as he calls them ) either to be quite spent in the Indies themselves , or at least to be seldom or never brought over to us . And he finds several of recent Diamonds , so soft and brittle in comparison of those of the old Rock , that he is oftentimes afraid , or unwilling to meddle with them , least he should spoil them in the Cutting or Polishing . III. Notwithstanding the ( lately mention'd ) wonderful Hardness of Diamonds , there is no Truth in the Tradition , as generally as 't is receiv'd , that represents Diamonds as uncapable of being broken by any External force , unless they be soften'd by being steep'd in the Blood of a Goat . For this odd Assertion , I find to be contradicted by frequent practice of Diamond Cutters : And particularly having enquir'd of one of them , to whom abundance of those Gems are brought to be fitted for the Jeweller and Goldsmith , he assur'd me , That he makes much of his Powder to Polish Diamonds with , only , by beating board Diamonds ( as they call them ) in a Steel or Iron Morter , and that he has that way made with ease , some hundreds of Carrats of Diamond Dust . IV. 'T is an Opinion receiv'd among many that deal in Gems , that as Diamonds are the hardest of Bodies , so the same Compactness , and their great Solidity , gives them also a proportionable Gravity , and makes them extreamly weighty , in reference to their Bulk : And I saw in the Hands of a Virtuoso , a Book ( that I could not procure ) not long since put out by a French Jeweller , who as he affirms , has dealt very much in Diamonds ; wherein the Author asserts , the great Ponderosity of these Stones , in comparison of other Bodies . But this Opinion agrees very little with the following Experiment , that I find among others , that I try'd about Gems , Register'd to this purpose . A rough Diamond somewhat dark within , did in a pair of Scales that would turn either way with the 32th part of a Grain , weigh 8 Grains , and eight Sixteenths . This Stone being with care weigh'd in Water , according to the Rules of the Hydrostaticks ; its weight appear'd to be to that of an equal Bulk of that Liquor , as 2 11 / 23 to 1. So that , as far as can be judg'd by this Tryal , even a Diamond weighs not full thrice as much as Water . V. A famous and experienc'd Cutter of Diamonds , being ask'd by me , whether he did not find some rough Diamonds heavier than others of the same bigness , told me , that he did , especially if some of them were Cloudy or foul : Insomuch that shewing me a Diamond that seem'd to be about the bigness of two ordinary Pease or less , he affirm'd , That he sometimes found in Diamonds of that bigness , compar'd together about a Carrat ( or four Grains ) difference in point of weight . VI. The shape or figure of Diamonds is not so easie to be securely determin'd . For those that are seen in Rings and other Jewels , having been by way of Preparation cut and polish'd , have chang'd their natural Figures for that which the Artificer thought fit to give them . And rough Diamonds themselves ( which are not obviously met with ) do oftentimes come to our Hands broken , tho unwillingly , by the Diggers . And thereby unfit to acquaint us with their genuine Shape , which we may also miss of being able to discover , on account of the Accidents that the matter they consisted of was subject to , at their formation in the Mine . For to omit other Proofs , having had a Parcel of between 100 and 150 ( if I misremember not the Number , ) put into my Hands at one time in the East-India House to gratifie my Curiosity , I found very few of them compleatly shap'd ; but most of them broken , and of very irregular Figures , like those of so much Gravel taken up at adventures upon the Sea-shore . But some few I saw that were pretty regularly figur'd , which probably were not much hinder'd from shooting freely in the Wombs or Cavities , wherein they were Coagulated or Concreted . And these seem'd to consist , in my opinion , of several Triangular Surfaces that were terminated in , or compos'd , diverse solid Angles . And one rough Diamond I had of my own , wherein this Shape was more conspicuous than I remember to have seen in any other . Besides having enquir'd of a very experienc'd Artificer , who dealt much in fitting these Gems for the Goldsmiths use , whether he found rough Diamonds to be of any constant Figure , and if he did , what that Figure was ? He answer'd me , That he always found those that had any constant , ( or as he meant , regular ) Figure , to be in his own Expression six corner'd . VII . Diamonds have in them a Grain ( or a determinate tendency of their Fibres , or rather of the thin Plates they are made up . of , ) as well as Wood , and may with case enough be split along the Grain , tho not against it ; as I have seen a very large Diamond that was cut according to the Grain into three pieces , whereof the middlemost , tho large and about the thickness of a Shilling , was of an even thickness , and exactly flat on both sides . I have my self a Diamond-Ring , whose Stone I would not have polish'd , but caus'd it to be set rough as Nature produc'd it , because in that state the Grain is manifest to the naked Eye , and much more to a Glass moderately magnifying the several Plates it consists of , having their Edges distinguishable like those of a Book a little open'd . A Cutter of these Gems that has had store of them to practise his skill on , answer'd me , That one good blow may split even great Diamonds , if it be given , as they speak , with the Grain ; but against the Grain , he affirm'd to me , as dexterous and expert an Artificer as he is , that he is not able so much as to Cut or Polish them . VIII . The common Colour of Diamond being generally enough known by sight , 't is not needful , as it would not be to describe it by Words ; but the most usual Colour of these Gems is not the only , of which they may sometimes be found . A great Traveller into the Eastern parts of the World assur'd me , That he had seen some of them that were of a pale blewish Colour : That famous French Jeweller as well as Traveller , Monsieur Tavernier , gives an account of a fair Diamond that he had of a very red colour ; and that great . Ornament of our English Court the D. of R. told me , that she was Mistress of a fair one , which tho not of a Ruby , was of a red Colour , but not having it at Hand , she could not then shew it me : A Relation of mine , in the same Court , used to wear a Diamond Ring ; which tho the Stone was not great , he valu'd at a hundred Pound , because its Colour was of so fine a Golden yellow , that I I should have taken it for an excellent Topaz , but that he had satisfi'd me 't was a Diamond to which agreed its great hardness , which gave an uncommon Luster . And I remember , that Surveying attentively a parcel of rough Diamonds newly brought from the East-Indies , I perceiv'd among them , besides several lighter variations of Colour . One Stone that was all Green , and that to such a degree , that I doubted not that if it were polish'd land set , it might pass for an excellent Emerald ; and I should have suspected this Gem to have been really of that kind , but that I found it among Diamonds that belong'd to Merchants too Skilful in those Gems to be impos'd upon ; and which was more , the Stone being yet rough and uncut , I found it plainly to have the proper shape of a Diamond . IX . At the late return of the Ships from India , being present at the delivery of the Diamonds to the Owners , I observ'd one belonging to a Dutch Merchant whose Father was a Cutter of Diamonds , and bred him to the same Trade . The Diamond came from the King of Cholconda , it was shaped ( like mine ) with fix Triangular sides , which yet were neither regularly figured nor truly flat , some of them being a little Convex , and one of them having a manifest and odly-figured Cavity in it . But the Diamond being fair and flawless , and so thick , that the Merchant told me it would be too deep for one Ring , and that therefore he meant to split it into two . I had it weigh'd , and found it to amount to ten Charats ( or 40 Grains ) . I could easily perceive the Grain of this Diamond , which the Merchant also acknowledged ; who answer'd me , that he had never seen in Diamonds any Heterogeneous mixture inclosed . He further inform'd me , that there was brought him a large Diamond from Borneo , that was much darker than one I shewed him ; insomuch that he compared it to Soot ; but when he had cut and polished it , he and others were much surprized to find it a fair and clear Stone , of very great value . X. The conjecture I have elsewhere propos'd , that divers of the real Virtues of Gems may be probably deriv'd from the metalline , or mineral tinctures , or other Corpuseles that were imbody'd with the matter of the Gem , whilst it was yet fluid , or soft , and afterwards concoagulated therewith : This conjecture , I say , may be much countenanc'd by the following Relation , which deserves a place in this Chapter , by reason of its pertinency to the Subject of it . I have long suspected that the matter whereof Diamonds mainly consist was , whilst it was yet in Solutis Principiis , impregnated with metalline , and more particularly with martial ones : But by reason of the dearness of those Gems , and some other impediments , tho I have ben Master of several Diamonds of differing sizes , cut , and uncut , yet I could never make a Tryal capable of satisfying my curiosity , till having lately met with among other little curiosities that lay long neglected by me , some number of small Diamonds , that I had bought for Experiments ; I consider'd that their being yet rough , and so in their Natural State might make them more fit for my purpose , and so it might that they were not so clear as those that we value in Rings , which probably argued their having more of Martial Tincture in them than I should expect in the more Diaphanous : Upon this account , I say , I took a moderately vigorous Loadstone ( for 't was none of the strongest I have had ) and apply'd it successively to five or six of these small Stones , without perceiving it had any Operation on them : But when I came to apply it to one more , which look't somewhat duller than almost any of the rest , I found that it had in it Particles enough of an Iron nature to make it a Magnetical Body ; and observ'd without surprise , that not only it would suffer it self to be taken up by the strongest Pole of the Loadstone , but when that Pole was offer'd within a convenient distance , it would readily leap through the Air to fasten it self to it . I have elsewhere mention'd some other Qualities of Diamonds , as besides their Electrical Vertue , this , That 't is possible that some of them may without Fire or Intense Heat be brought to shine ; tho among all that I have Try'd , I found but two that I could so make Luminous . One of these belongs to the King , and is Describ'd at the latter end of our History of Colours ; and the other is a very small one of my own ; which either was quickly lost among other Stones of the same size , or quickly lost its Faculty of Shining . But , to avoid Repetitions , I shall here only add , that some few other Observations of a more peculiar sort than those deliver'd in the two foregoing Pentades , may be found in other Writings of ours , to which they seem more properly to belong . CHAP. III. Many Changes of Colour produc'd by one simple Ingredient . I Know not any way more likely to Convince the generality of Men ( who are wont to be much more impress'd on by sensible Phenomena than Theories , tho solidly Founded ) how great an Interest the variable Texture of Bodies may have in making them appear of differing Colours , than by shewing how the addition of a single Ingredient that either is Colour ess , or at least is not of any of the Colours to be produced , is capable ( and that for the most part in a trice ) by introducing a secret change of the Texture to make the Body , 't is put to , appear sometimes of one Colour , sometimes of another , according as the parts of the Body wrought upon are dispos'd to receive such a change as Modify's the incident Beams of Light after the manner requisite to make them exhibit a Blew , a Green , a Red , or some other particular Colour . Upon this Consideration I thought of several Liquors , such as Aqua fortis , Oyl ( as they call it ) of Vitriol , or instead of it of Sulphur . Aqua Rezia , besides other Saline Liquors that I shall not now stay to name , because it may here suffice to tell you , that amongst them all I made choice of the Spirit ( not that which Chymists call the Oyl ) of Salt , as that which is very simple , and which if it be not too much dephlegm'd , may be had clear and Colourless enough . With this Spirit , I proceeded to make the following Experiments upon several Bodies , whose differing Textures made me suppose they would be fit for my purpose . And tho I could not , without much disadvantaging my Design , forbear to mention some Tryals that may be found elsewhere scatterd among my Writings on other occasions ; yet the greatest part by odds of those laid together in this Chapter , will , I presume , be found New. I. Some drops of well Coloured Syrup of Violets being let fall together upon a piece of white Paper , if a third or fourth part so much Spirit of Salt be with the tip of one's Finger mix'd with them , the Syrup will presently become of a Red Colour , usually somewhat inclining to Purple . II. But if the Liquor to be Acted on , be otherwise disposed , 't is possible with Spirit of Salt to turn it from a Blew Colour , not to a Red , but to a Green , as I have sometimes done by letting fall into a deep Solution of Filings of Copper made with an Urinous Spirit , as that of Sal armonia● , just as many drops of Spirit of Salt as were requisite and sufficient to produce the change intended . I say just so many Drops , because a very small error either in excess or defect , may leave the mixture still Blew , or bring it to be all Colourless . III. Upon a quantity , not exceeding many Drops of good Syrup of Violets , let fall two or three drops of good Spirit of Urine , Harts-horn , or the like , or of Oyl of Tartar per deliquium ; and when by mixing them well , the Syrup has acquired a fine Green Colour , then by putting to it a little of the Spirit of Salt , and stirring it with the tip of your Finger , you may turn the Green Syrup ( as in the first Experiment you did the Blew ) into a Red. IV. If you put a quantity of Red Rose Leaves well dryed into a Glass Vial almost full of fair Water , and soon after put to them as much Spirit of Salt as will make the Water pretty Sharp , you will quickly see both that Liquor and the contain'd Leaves brought to a fine and lovely Red , which Scarlet Colour it will retain for a great while ; the like effect Spirit of Salt will have on some other Vegetables of a Stiptick or of an Astringent Nature . V. But if by infusing Brazil in fair Water , you make a Tincture of it , which you may much deepen by droping into it a little Spirit of Harts-horn , or of Urine ; if you then put to it a little Spirit of Salt , it will presently change it from a deeply reddish Colour , oftentimes like that of Muskadine , to a Colour far more pale , or rather yellow , like that of the more dilute Sack ; so that the same Spirit acting upon two Vegetable Tinctures differingly dispos'd , draws out and heightens redness in one , and destroys it in the other . VI. If you make an Infusion of true Lignum Nephriticum in Spring Water , it will appear of a deep Colour , like that of Oranges , when you place the Vial between the Window and your Eye , and of a fine deep Blew when you look on it with your Eye placed between it and the Window . But if you shake into this Liquor a few drops of Spirit of Salt , the Caeruleous Colour will presently vanish and appear no more , in what light soever you look upon the Vial , tho the Liquor will still retain the Orange Colour . VII . We took common Writing Ink , and having let fall several Drops of it upon a piece of white Paper , so that when it grew dry in the Air , some parts of the Ink lay thick and some thinner upon the Paper whereon it did spread it self , we put a few Drops of strong Spirit of Salt , some on one part of the black'd Paper , and some ( or perhaps a small Drop ) on another , and observ'd , as we expected , that in these places , where the Spirit had been put , or to which it reach'd , the blackness was quite destroyed , and succeeded by an unpleasant kind of Colour that seem'd for the most part to participate of Yellow and Blew , neither of them good in its kind . VIII . If in Spirit of Salt , you dissolve Filings of Steel , and slowly evaporate the filtrated Solution , it will shoot into a kind of Vitriolum Martis that will be Green as well as that which Chymists vulgarly make with Oyl of Vitriol . And to add , That on this occasion , if you take these Chrystals made with Spirit of Salt , and when they are dry , keep them in a Crucible , you will find that even a moderate Fire if duly apply'd , will make them in a short time exchange their Green Colour for a Red , like that of the finer sort of Crocus Martis , as indeed this Operation makes them referable to that sort of Medicines . IX . We took some Mercury precipitated , per se ( that is , by the sole Action of the Fire , without any saline additaments ) and tho crude Mercury is not as far as I have tryed , soluble in our English Spirit of Salt ; yet this Red Precipitate ( which is suppos'd to be meer Mercury ) with its own Sulphur extraverted , did readily enough dissolve in that Liquor , and if I very much misremember not , did not at all impart its own Colour to it : And I also found that Red-Lead or Minium being boyl'd a while in good Spirit of Salt , the Redness did totally disappear . So that the same Agent that produces Redness in divers Bodies , did in those two , I have been mentioning , more than change it , since it quite abolished it . Of which also , I can give you an easier instance , by observing that the Reddest Coral being dissolv'd in our Menstruum , the Redness vanishes , and the Solutition appears Colourless . X. Take Filings of Copper , ( the smallest are the fittest for this Experiment ) , and having poured on them good Spirit of Salt till it swim , about two fingers breadth over them ; keep the Vial in a pretty strong Heat ( in a Sand Furnace ) till you perceive the Menstruum has dissolv'd a competent part of the Metal : Then warily take out the Vial , and holding it between your Eye and the Light , you will perceive the Solution of Copper to be not like that of Steel formerly mentioned , of a Green Colour , but of a dark and troubled one , oftentimes inclining to a deep , but muddy Red. XI . But if you pour this Solution into a wide-mouth Glass , and let it stand for a competent time , ( which sometimes amounts but to a few hours , and sometimes to very many ) the expos'd Liquor will appear of a Green , much finer than that of the Chrystals of Mars . XII . Take filtrated and limpid Solution of Silver , or of Mercury made in Aqua fortis , and drop upon it some Spirit of Salt , by which you shall find the clear Liquor turn'd white as Milk , which after a while will let fall a precipitate of the same Colour . XIII . And if instead of a Solution of Silver or Quick-silver , you take a Red Solution or Tincture of Benjamin , or of the Resinous part of Jallap Root , or you 'le also have upon the Affusion of Spirit of Salt , a white Liquor and a Precipitate of the same Colour . XIV . Being desirous to produce two differingColours at once by the same Affusion of Spirit of Salt , I infused some dryed red Rose leaves in fair Water , till it had acquired a deep Colour from them . To this Infusion , pour'd off warily , that it might be clear , I added a considerable proportion of the sweet Liquor , made by digesting Spirit of Vinegar upon red Lead , by which I knew 't would be turn'd of a Blewish Green. Upon this almost opacous Liquor , I pour'd Spirit of Salt , which as I expected , precipitated the Lead that had been dissolv'd in the sweet Liquor , into a very white Powder , and gave the remaining Liquor , well impregnated with particles of the Rose Leaves , a very fine and durable Scarlet Colour . To which Experiment I shall add on this occasion , that if it had been well made , you may barely by shaking very well together and confounding the White Powder with the Red Liquor , make a Carnation Colour , which ( when 't is made as it should be ) appear'd very fine and lovely whilst it lasted , for in no long time the two Substances that compos'd it , would by degrees separate , and re-appear each of them in its former place and Colour . XV. We took some Spirit of Salt , that having lain long upon Fylings of Copper , had lost the muddy Tincture it had first acquired by being almost boil'd upon them . This Liquor , I say , that look'd like common Water , we pour'd into a small , but wide-mouth'd Christal-Glass , about half an hour after 8 in the Morning , and leaving it in a Window , it appear'd after 40 Minutes to have there acquir'd a Colour , much like that of a German Amethist , and seem'd to have no tendency to Greenness . But being detain'd by the visit of a Virtuoso till eleven a Clock , I could not see what happen'd in the mean time : But then as he was going away , I invited him to see the Liquor , which he ( not knowing what it was ) told me it look'd of a Grass-green Colour , wherein tho I were not altogether of his mind , yet in a short time after , it did to me also appear of a lovely Green ; in its passage to which it had in all been expos'd about 3 hours and a half XVI . Precipitate a strong Solution of Sublimate , ( made in fair Water ) with a s . q. ( and no more ) of Oyl of Tartar per deliquium . Put the Liquor and Powder into a Filter of Cap-paper , and when the Water is run thorow , there will remain in the Filter the Precipitate , which is to be slowly and well dry'd . Then take it out of the Filter , in the form of a gross Powder , and having put it into a clear Glass , let fall on it warily some Drops of pretty strong Spirit of Salt , and ( if the Experiment succeeds with you as it did with me ) during the Conflict that will be made , the little Lumps of the Precipitate will lose all their former Brick-dust Colour , and turn White , tho afterwards they will appear dissolv'd into a transparent Liquor , wherein the Orange Colour is quite abolish'd . XVII . Having calcin'd Copper without any Additament , save Fire and Water ( by the way we elsewhere mention ) we took an Arbitrary quantity of it , and having pour'd on it about 3 or 4 times the quantity of good Spirit of Salt , we obtain'd ( what we look'd for ) both a Muddy , but manifestly Reddish Liquor , and ( somewhat to the surprize of the Persons I had a mind to satisfy ) a white Powder , whose quantity bore a considerable proportion to the Part that was dissolv'd , ( but whose Qualities belong not to this place ) In which part its self , ( to add that upon the by ) by the affusion of common Water , and the action of the Air , we afterwards produc'd more than one change of Colour . XVIII . We sometimes for Curiosity sake took a quantity , not exceeding a spoonful , of the dark brown or somewhat reddish Solution of ♀ , mention'd in the foregoing Experiment , and having put it into a cylindrical Vial , that the change of Colour may appear the better , we pour'd on it 2 or 3 Spoonfuls of totally ardent vinous Spirit , and giving the Glass a shake to mingle them , we presently had ( as soon as the mixture became clear ) a lovely green Liquor , which when 't was well setled , was very fair , and lookt almost as if it were a liquid Emerald . XIX . We took some green Taffatee Ribband , and having moisten'd one part of it , that was not great , twice or thrice with good Spirit of Salt , we suffer'd it to dry of its self ; which it did in a short time , and then we found as we expected , that the wetted part was no longer of a Green , but chang'd to a Blew Colour . But the same Spirit , ( to add that upon the by ) presently turn'd that part of a piece of black Ribband , upon which we put 2 or 3 Drops of it to a Colour not unlike that which they call Fueille Morte , or , a fading Leaf . XX. 'T is usual in Paper-shops , and in divers other places , to meet with Pamphlets and other thin Books that are covered with Papers that look sometimes of a Greenish Blew Colour , bordering upon Purple , and sometimes upon that of Violets . Some of the deeper colour'd Papers of this sort , I have several times to gratify some curious Persons , especially of the Sex , held in my left hand , and with the other lightly and nimbly toucht them here and there with the end of a feather ( cut off from the rest of the Quill ) dipt in Spirit of Salt , which almost in the twinkling of an Eye , dy'd the toucht parts of the Paper with a Lovely Red , that would sometimes continue very Vivid for a good while , and be manifest at the end of divers Weeks , if not Months . And if instead of the forementioned Quil , I took into my right hand ( a Brush , or ) somewhat that was fit to sprinkle with , and having dipt it in the Saline Spirit , made many drops at once fall upon the Paper , 't was pleasant enough to behold how suddenly and prettily it would be Speckled . XXI . VVe took Antimony well powder'd , and pour'd on it 3 or 4 times its weight of good Spirit of Salt ; we caus'd it to be boil'd in this Liquor , ( and that in a Glass Vessel ) wherein a part of it was dissolv'd , and taken up into the Menstruum ; where the Antimony quite lost its blackness . And this thus impregnated Spirit of Salt , being dropt into fair VVater , the black Mineral subsided immediately , in the form of a very white Powder or Precipitate . To these I might add other changes of Colours , that I have made , by the help of Spirit of Salt. But these being not of so quick and easy Tryal , ( especially because some of them require skill in Chymistry ) I thought it not fit to annex them ; supposing that those already deliver'd , amounting to above four Pentades , may suffice for the purpose declar'd at the begining of this Paper . And also to afford us this Reflection , That it may not be amiss , if Physicians , Chymists , and others that are wont to compound Drugs , or other Ingredients ; would be less forward than they usually are , to mingle , not to say to jumble , several of them together , either unnecessary , or without due regard to the friendly and incongruous Qualities ( in reference to one another ) that the separate Ingredients may have . For most of us are but too lyable to be mistaken , when we presume before-hand , what changes the Coalition , or other Associations of differing Bodies may produce ; especially if they be either Saline , or plentifully partakers of a Saline Nature ; Since Experience frequently shews , that by the Action and Reaction that are consequent upon untry'd ways of Composition , there Emerge in the mixture new Consistences and other Qualities or Accidents , that were not look'd for , when the Ingredients 't is compounded of , were put together . And tho it may sometimes happen luckily enough , that these Emergent Qualities , whether of Drugs , or other Comparatively simple Bodies , may prove advantagious ; yet this may well be look'd upon but as a lucky chance ; and hinders not , but that one may justly fear that ordinarily the newly produc'd quality of a Medicine , may prove to be either worse than was expected , or at least other than was design'd , and consequently less fit for the Physicians or the Artists determinate purpose . CHAP. IV. An Advertisement touching those Passages that in this Book relate to the Art of Medicine . THE favourable Reception the Publick was pleas'd to give two Editions set forth in one Year of The Usefulness of Experimental Philosophy , having Encourag'd the Stationer to Solicite me for a new Impression , I was on the same ground invited to think of making additions to divers parts of that Treatise ; but afterwards observing that notwithstanding the Thanks and Acknowledgments I had the good fortune to receive from several Physicians ( some of them of great Reputation , and perhaps by that only known to me ) yet others were not well pleas'd that a Person not of their Profession should offer to meddle with it , tho with a design of advancing it : I , whose condition exempted me from taking upon me their Calling , and who consequently must want many opportunities that others injoy'd of making Observations about the Phaenomena of Diseases and of Medicines , suffer'd my self without much violence to be diverted to other Studies more suitable to my Inclinations , as well as to my Condition , and accordingly I laid aside the Papers I had Written in reference to the Physicians Art , nor were it easy , or perhaps possible for me to retrieve them , after they have lain so many Years dispers'd and neglected , by which means perchance divers of them have been lost . But all this could not hinder me from being press'd to retrieve and communicate these scatter'd and dusty Papers by the Secretary of the Royal Society Mr. H. Oldenburgh : For as this Gentleman has been almost every where wonderfully solicitous to preserve every thing from being lost , that may any way contribute to increase the stock of useful knowledg . So having got notice of these Papers , and a sight of some of them , his partiality for me made him much over-value them , and perswaded him that a Collection of them as incoherent and unfinisht as they were , might be of some use to the Physicians Art. And this seem'd the more hopeful , because Natural Philosophy being a Science of far greater Extent than Physick , and supplying it , with many of its Principles and Theories ; 't is very Possible that Naturalists , tho not Profest Physicians , may propose some such comprehensive Notions and Methods , as may awaken and inlarge the minds of them that are so , and at least afford some useful hints to considering and ingenious Men. And in effect divers Physicians , as well as many Patients , have been pleas'd to declare ( some in Print , and some other ways ) that sometimes they found not useless assistances from some of those Papers , wherein I occasionally touch'd on Medicinal things . Such Motives as these made Mr. Oldenburg so earnest to procure the scatter'd Fragments , that I might have yet remaining , about Medicinal Affairs , that tho for the Reasons mention'd above , I could not think it fit to make a Collection of Papers so unlike in their Subjects , so disproportionate in their Bulk , and so unfinish'd and imperfect on divers scores ; Yet thus far I was content to comply with his desires , that when these Trifles came to hand , I would now and then insert them among my Experimenta & Observationes Physicoe . ( Medicine being a Part , or an Application of Natural Philosophy ) especially if there were any great affinity between the Paper I lighted on , and the Subject I was then treating of : Knowing well that Mr. Oldenburg , and perhaps some others too , had rather I should impart them at all adventures , than suppress what they judg'd might be useful ; and that 't was better to run the hazard of having them slighted , than lost . This Advertisement I thought fit to give in this place , once for all , that when hereafter there shall occur any thing among these Experimenta & Observationes Physicae , that directly relates to the Physician 's Art , you may not think it strange , remembring upon what account I ventur'd to meddle with things of that Nature , and also that you may readily understand what I mean , when you meet with any Particulars delivered , as Thoughts or Desiderata or Wishes , tending to , or aiming at the Improvement of Medicine ; which how slight or superfluous soever they may be to Experienc'd Masters , to whom I did not presume to recommend them , I thought might probably be serviceable to a very Ingenious , but yet Young Cultivator of that noble Art , ( whose Name , I conceal'd after the way of the Curious of Germany under that of Trallianus , ) for whose use they were intended . The I. PENTADE . EXPERIMENT I. A very Tall and well Set Gentleman , Aged about 24 years , by a Fall from his Horse , had his Skull broken in several places , and being a Person of good Estate , had several Chirurgeons to attend him in the course of his Sickness ; during which he was divers times Trepan'd , and had several pieces of his Skull taken off , which left great Chasms ( that I have seen and felt ) between the remaining Parts . Within about three days after his Fall , this Knight ( for so he now is ) was taken with a Dead Palsey on his Right Side , which did not equally affect his Arm and his Leg : The use of the latter being somtimes suddenly Restor'd to him in some measure , and ( tho seldom ) after a while almost as suddenly Lost : But his Arm and Head were constantly Paralytical , being wholly depriv'd of Motion ; and having so little Sense , that it would sometimes lye under his Body without his Feeling it . But if his Hand were prick't with a Pin , he could take notice of it . This Palsey continu'd during almost the whole time of the Cure , which lasted 23 or 24 Weeks . And when the Chirurgeons were going to close up his Head , as having no more to do ; one of them who was an Ingenious Man , and Tenant to this Gentleman , oppos'd all the rest , alledging , that , if they did no more , the Gentleman would lead an Useless and very Melancholy Life ; and that he was confident , the Palsey was some way or other occasion'd by the Fall , which had left somthing in the Head that they had not yet discover'd . And the Knight himself agreeing to this Man's motion , his Head was further laid open ; and at length , under a piece of proud Flesh , they found , with much ado , a Splinter , or rather Flake , of a Bone , that bore hard upon the dura mater , and was not pull'd out without a great Hemorrhage , and such a stretch of the Parts , as made the Patient think his Brain it self was tearing out . But this Mischief was soon Remedy'd , and his Hurts securely Heal'd up ; and he is now a Strong Healthy Man , and finds no Inconvenience by having so broad and various a Callus instead of the Skull ; save that he is a little obnoxious to take Cold in his Head. But the memorable Circumstances , for whose sake I mention this Narrative , were these : When I ask'd him how big the Bone was , that was last taken out ? He told me , that it was less than half the Nail of one of his Fingers ( not his Thumb ) and that it was almost as thin , being in size and shape like the Scale of a Fish : But that it did not in his Head lye flat , but bore hard upon the dura mater . When I ask'd him how long after it was taken out , he began to feel some Relief , as to his Paralytic Distemper ? He reply'd , That in less than five hours he found himself , to his great joy , able to move his little Finger ; and ( tho this happen'd in the Evening ) he was the next morning able to move all his Fingers , and within 2 or 3 days after to lift up his Arm : By which it seem'd manifest , that so little a Body as the Splinter lately mention'd , produc'd in so robust a Person , a Palsey of the whole side it lay on . For when I particularly ask't him , Whether , after the taking away of the proud Flesh that encompass'd the little Bone , he did not find , if he found none before , some Relief as to his Palsey ? He answer'd , that he found none at all , till the Bone had been pull'd out , which was not till a good while after the Chirurgeon had been by degrees eating off the proud Flesh that , grew about it . But there was in this case another Phoenomenon that I thought little less considerable than the former . For , remembring the important controversie , that is agitated among modern Physicians and Anatomists , about Nutrition by the Nerves , and having thereupon ask'd this Knight , whether he did not find an Atrophy in the Limbs of his Body that were affected ? He told me , that when he began to be Paralytic on that side , it by degrees much wasted , and the Paralytic Leg was very much Extenuated : But the Arm and Hand much more , seeming nothing but a System of Bones , with the Skin pasted on them . And when I further ask'd , if upon the removal of the Bony Splinter above-mentioned , the Atrophy of the Parts did not also begin to lessen ; he answered affirmatively , and told me , that in no very long time his Leg and Arm recover'd their wonted Dimensions ; and in effect I ( some days since ) saw the restor'd Arm well plump'd up with musculous Flesh , tho the Weather were exceeding Cold. And he further told me , that he found no difference between the Limbs that had been Paralytic , and the others , except that they would grow sooner and more sensibly cold in Sharp or Frosty Weather . This Gentleman answer'd me , to add that upon the by , that , during the course of his Cure , he was very frequently ( almost every second day ) let Blood ; that he wanted not Appetite to his Meat ; that for the most part he slept indifferent well ; and , which was more remarkable , upon so great a Hurt of the Head he did not Vomit , not had afterwards any Convulsions . II. Among other Instances I have met with , that shew the great Power which sudden Passions of the mind may have upon the Body , I remember that a Woman of middle Age , complain'd sadly to me of the mischief , a Fright had done her ; for she related to me , that having taken along with her to a Meadow by a River-side , a little Boy that she was dotingly fond of , whilst she was busie about the work she came thither for , the Child stole away from her , and went along the Bank , to delight himself with the View of the Stream ; but being heedless , it seems by Circumstances , that he set his Foot upon some piece of Ground that the Water had made hollow ; upon which account , the Earth failing under the weight of the Boy 's body pressing it , that , and he fell together into the River : In the mean time the poor Mother casually missing her Child , hastily cast her Eyes towards the brink of the River , and not being able to see him there , she presently concluded him to be Drown'd , and was struck with so much horrour upon the sudden accident that tore from her a favorite Son , that among other mischiefs , she fell into a Dead Palsy of her right Arm and Hand , which continu'd with her in spight of what she had done to remove it , till the time she complain'd of it to me , who had not opportunity to know what became of her afterwards . III. On the other side , to show that Violent Passions , and even Frights may sometimes , tho very seldom , do good , as well as harm ; I shall here add a Relation that was circumstantially made me by the learned Person himself , to whom the Accident happen'd . I familiarly knew a Gentleman that liv'd to be an Eminent Virtuoso , and to oblige many by his useful Writings , who when he was a Youth , fell into a violent and obstinate Sciatica , which continu'd with him so long , that it left him little hope of Recovery ; but the Devotion of this Young man's Friends invited them to make him be carry'd , since he could not go , to Church upon Sundays ; and there it happen'd , that the Town being a Frontier Garrison , the Guards were so negligent , that there was occasion given to a very hot Alarum , that the Enemy was got into the Town , and was advancing towards the Church to Massacre all that were in it . This so amaz'd and terrifi'd the People , that in very great and disorderly hast , they all ran out of the Church , and left my Relator in his Pew upon a Seat that they plac'd him , and whence he could not remove without help : But he being no less frighted than the rest , as they forgot him , he forgot his Disease , and made a shift to hamper off the Pew , and follow those that fled ; but it quickly appearing , that the Alarum had been a false one , his Friends began to think in what a condition they had left him , and hasten'd back to help him out of the Pew , which whilst they were going to do , they , to their great surprise found him in the way upon his feet , and walking as freely as other Men. And when he told me this Story , he was above forty years Elder than when he was thus strangely rescu'd , and in all that time , never had one Fit of the Sciatica . ADVERTISEMENT . 'T is easy to be observ'd , that of the two kinds into which Chymists may be conveniently enough sorted ; the Number is greater of those that are not Profest Physicians , than of those that are : And yet several of the former sort are led by their more free Curiosity , or their particular Designes , to allow a large scope to their Tryals ; and so in their Experiments upon various Bodies , to operate upon some of those that may be reduc'd ( either directly , or by sit applications ) to the Materia Medica , and afford uncommon Preparations : Which tho design'd for other purposes , may by a skilful Physician , with a light Variation , and perhaps without any , be made to afford good Medicines : And therefore I think it may be no inconsiderable service to the Publick , if by the leave and assistance of the Authors , divers Chymical Experiments that are not directly useful to their immediate purpose , were not , ( as is usual ) thrown away , but put into the hands of some Sagacious Physician . Upon these grounds , I thought my self little less than oblig'd , to set apart now and then an Experiment that contain'd some uncommon Preparation , which seem'd applicable to Medicine ; and to try whether , tho , being in the Country or in some other inconvenient Circumstances , I had not opportunity to prove it my self , the notice given of it , might not happen to be of use to a skilful Physician . I shall therefore partly in this Chapter , and partly ( if God permit ) in some following Chapters and other Writings , tender to such a one , some few of the Experiments of this sort , that I lately lighted on among my Adversaria , and that seem'd not uncapable to be made of some service to the Physician 's Art. Of the good and bad effects of these , I shall be glad to be inform'd , that they may be either us'd more freely and improv'd , or corrected and quite laid aside ; and I desire that this short Preamble may serve for a general one to all the other design'd Chymical Medicins that I shall venture to propose hereafter . A Design'd Chymical Medicine . IV. I know how much Men are prejudic'd in some whole Countries , against Vomitive Medicines : and I remember we have had here in London a Physician of great Fame and Practice , that would turn over a Patient to another Doctor , if the Case were such that the Patient would needs make use of Emeticks . And I readily acknowledg that they are edg'd Tools , that require a Skilful Hand , to imploy them without danger of doing more harm than good : But since Experience shews that where the Patient can bear them , and the Disease requires them , they act more speedily and effectually than other evacuating Medicines : And since the generality of our Physicians , not excepting some that are justly reputed very Cautious , do not scruple frequently to make use of the Infusion of Crocus Metallorum , tho it do not seldom prove a Remedy harsh enough ; I shall venture in compliance with some ingenious Physicians , and others that have often made use of a Medicine , that goes under the name of my Emetick Drops , to communicate the Preparation of them ; without pressing the use any otherwise than by confessing that divers Practitioners of Physick of differing Sentiments , agree in assuring me , that they have not yet found any Emetick to work so effectually , nor with more ease and safety , than this Liquor ; which some of them prefer by much to other Antimonial Vomits ; and especially to the Infusion of Crocus Metallorum . In preparing my Vomitive Liquor , I have not always imploy'd the same proportion of the Ingredients 't is made of , nor did I find it necessary to be nice in that matter . But the proportion I somewhat prefer , is to take two Parts of well chosen and finely powder'd Antimony , and on these to pour three Parts of the Menstruum , viz. Sp. ; which ought to be rather moderately strong , than too much rectified . These are to be distill'd together in a Glass Retort fitted with a Receiver not very small , till there come over a great part of the Menstruum , which will usually towards the close be accompany'd with Red Flores , ( some times copious enough ) which being separated by filtration through Cap-paper , the clear transmitted Liquor is to be put into a Glass , not newly wash'd , but dry on the inside , and to be kept close stopt from all Intercourse with the Air. The Dose is usually to a Man or Woman , especially at the first time , from 4 or 5 , to 7 or 8 Drops : But I know an Ingenious Physician that gives to 10 or 12 , or a few more Drops , if the Case be urgent ; and by that means he told me , that with a small Button-Bottle , that I chanc'd to give him a little before , he did in 2 or 3 hours rescue three Gentlemen , that by a bad Surfet with very bad Circumstances , were suddenly brought into great danger of speedy Death , and carry'd to a neighbouring Tavern , as being too ill to be carry'd home . The Vehicle may be a Spoonful or two of Wine , or Black-Cherry Water , or ( which divers Persons chuse rather ) of Spring-Water , Drinking up the Liquor immediately after , because there will some Precipitation be made ; and then taking 2 or 3 Spoonfuls of the same Vehicle to wash it down . It usually begins to work early , and does it without causing near so much straining as vulgar Emeticks , and yet makes Copious Evacuations ; and sometimes so Eradicative of the Morbifick matter , that the Physician lately mention'd , who Cur'd the three Gentlemen , having a poor Patient who had Conflicted for above three Years with an Ague in several Types , but most commonly Quartanary , perfectly Cur'd him with two Doses of these Drops , and a Julap made chiefly of the Distill'd Water of a common Vitriolick Mineral . And this Cure seem'd therefore to me , when the Physician gave me an account of the Drops he had from me , the more considerable , because the Patient had made use of great Variety of Remedies ; and particularly he devour'd great store of the Jesuits Bark , or Cortex Peruvianus , ( perhaps because it was not well Condition'd , or skilfulfully Administer'd ) which sometimes alter'd the Type of his Ague , turning it to a single or a double Tertian , and sometimes kept off the Fits for a while , when 't was a Quartane , but never Cur'd him quite ; and left him in a deplorable estate , wherein the Emetick Drops found him . Tho I sent this Medicine to several Patients , in whom , thanks be to God , it succeeded more than ordinarily well , yet I durst not venture to give it to Children , or to very young Persons ; but having gratifi'd an Ingenious Surgeon of good Practice , with a stock of it , the Tryals he made upon divers Persons , with great Success on other Patients , imbolden'd him to give it to Boys and Girls , and afterwards even to several Children , whereof he gave me a good Account , only he discreetly took care to proportion his Doses to the Age and Strength of his Patients , and not to give the whole Dose at once , but divide it into 2 or 3 parts , that if the first should work within half an hour or less , the second should not be given , or lessen'd in quantity . And if neither the second did work within about an hour , he added the third . And by this Cautious Method , he assur'd me that he had suddenly reliev'd several Children in bad Cases , and found not any mischief or danger ensue upon the administration of it . But Children being tender Creatures , this is to be further and cautiously try'd . POSTSCRIPT . Having had occasion to keep by me some Vials furnish'd with the Emetick Drops , longer than I thought I should need to do so : I observ'd that in tract of time , there , began to subside a white Powder , wherein a good part of the Emetick faculty of the Medicine may be suppos'd to reside ; therefore 't will be best either to imploy the Liquor in no long time after 't is made , or if one has not leisure or conveniency to do so , to shake the Vial well ( that the Powder may be rais'd and we 'l dispers'd through it ) just before it be administer'd . A Design'd Chymical Medicine . There are many that having a high Esteem for Chalybeate Waters , such as those of the Spaw and Tunbridg , which yet in many places are not to be had at all , and in few to be had well condition'd , are very Solicitous to find Succedaneums to them . To gratify some Ingenious Persons of this sort ( and improve a casual hint taken from a Book of a somewhat like Preparation propo●●ded for another purpose ) I remember , I Employ'd a way of Aemulating such Waters that answer'd the outward Phaenomena of Colour and Taste , and seem by the paucity and harmlesness of their Ingredients like to be innocent Medicines ; I had no opportunity to make tryal of them in Physick , but finding that some Inquisitive Cultivaters of that Art , valu'd them more than I did , I committed the Experiment to Paper , and now suffer it to come abroad , that it may be try'd by Physicians , and either rejected or made use of , as success shall direct . The Experiment as I made it , was this . We took one part of very good Fylings of ♂ ; and ten parts of good Distill'd Vinegar . These we put into a Bolt-head , and shop'd it well , and then in a mild heat of Sand we digested them for about two days , and afterwards augmented the Heat till the Liquor appear'd of a deep Orange Colour , but yet transparent . Part of this Tincture we pour'd off , and kept well stop'd by its self , because tho by a longer digestion and a greater heat , we obtain'd a very red Tincture , yet we did not so much value it , because when the Menstruum is over Impregnated , the Metal usually precipitates , and the fine Colour is destroy'd . Of the first reserv'd Tincture , we let fall 4 Drops into ℥ VIIIss , ( 8 ℥ ss ) of clear common Water , whose Colour was not thereby sensibly alter'd ; and the Vial containing this Mixture being well shaken , that the Tincture might diffuse it self the more thorowly , we kept it carefully stop'd for use , as being our Factitious or Counterfeit Spaw . A Spoonful or somewhat more of this , with about a quarter of a Grain , or less , of good fresh Powder of Gauls , would presently afford a Purplish Tincture , like that of Natural Springs impregnated with Mars , such as the Water of the German Spaw , or of Tunbridg in Kent ; if ones Mouth were Wash'd with it , 't was found to have like those Natural Chalybeat Waters , a manifestly faeruginous tast . N. B. These Artificial Acidulae are to be Administer'd in no long time after they are made ; for Experience has inform'd me , that ( at least sometimes ) when I kept them too long , within not many days after they were made , they would lose much , if not most of their Briskness and Force . And I sometimes perceive that there would subside to the bottom a certain red or reddish Substance , as it were Oker , which was a token of the Degeneracy of the Liquor ; and some such thing I have observ'd in some Natural Chalybeat Waters too long or negligently kept . But our Acidulae may be so soon and so cheaply made freshly , that the above mention'd Inconveniency will scarce to the Skilful seem considerable . The II. PENTADE . EXPERIMENT II. Because it may be on some occasions of use to a Physician , to have ways of Discovering the Adulterateness of Bezoar Stone , which for its dearness is often Counterfeited , and not easily discern'd to be so by the common ways of Exploring , which use to be uncertain enough ; it may not be amiss to Communicate a new way of Tryal , which 't is unlike that Impostors have dream'd of , or if they should know it , can easily elude . And this I am the rather willing to do , because the propos'd way may afford an useful hint to the Sagacious Inquirers into the Nature , and some of the Preparations that may be made , of the Bezoar Stone ; which tho it be a Drug too much Magnify'd by some Physicians , especially those that depend on it , against the true Plague ; yet a Physician of great Experience , and rather a severe , than any ways a partial Judg of it , allows it to be an excellent Remedy even in Malignant and ill-condition'd Fevers , at least if they be not truly Pestilential . One of the ways I imploy'd , in treating the Bezoar Stone , may be easily gather'd from the ensuing Transcript of one of my register'd Experiments . We took 40 or 50 Grains of choice Oriental Bezoar Stone reduc'd to Powder , and in a Bolt-glass pour'd on it . ʒVI of good Spirit of Niter , as well to try whether this Liquor would prove a fit Menstruum for : this Stone , as we found it to be for the Calculus Humanus , as for other purposes . And tho this Affusion being purposely made in the Cold , the Liquor did not seem at first to work on the Stone ; yet soon after it fell violently upon it , and dissolv'd the greater part of it , not without noise and a Notable Effervescence . The Solution was almost Red , and the Glass being put in a digestive Furnace , the whole Powder was not only dissolv'd , but being left a night or two in a North Window , it afforded divers Saline Concretions , much larger than could well have been expected from so small a quantity of matter ; and these Crystals , whilst they were yet in the Glass , might easily be taken for Crystals of Salt-peter , so great was their resemblance . To manifest how much the faculties of loosening and binding , are relative things , and depend upon the Disposition of the Body to be wrought upon , and so upon the Congruity betwixt the Agent , and the Patient , I know an Ingenious Gentlewoman , on whom Cinnamon , which generally is a considerable Astringent and Stomachick Medicine , has a quite contrary Operation , and that in a strange degree , insomuch that having found by 2 or 3 accidental Tryals , that a very little Cinnamon seem'd to disorder her Stomach and prove Laxative , she resolv'd once to satisfy her self , whether those Discomposures came by Chance , or no ; and having strew'd some powder'd Cinnamon upon a Tost , she was going to put into her Ale , upon eating the Tost she was copiously Purg'd for two days together , and that with such violence , that it put her into Convulsion Fits , and a kind of Spasmus Cynicus , which she could never be perfectly freed from , being troubled with from time to time for . 3 Years , as was the other day averr'd to me , and divers others that know her , by her Husband who is himself a Learned Man and a profest Physician . A prosperous Physician , to whom I had recommended some things relating to his Profession whilst he practis'd it with Success in the Capital City of Ireland , where at that time there rag'd a new and violent Fever , whereof Multitudes Dy'd , very few Patients Recovering of it , happily lighted on a Method that prov'd , through God's Blessing , very Prosperous . This Doctor returning into Ireland sometimes before , having been desir'd by me to send me an account of some things relating to Natural Philosophy and Physick that I nam'd to him , wrought to me in answer to some of my Enquiries a Letter , out of which I thought fit to make this Extract , because I know not but that it may give good hints towards the Cure of some other ill-condition'd Fevers . Dublin , Feb. 27. 1682. I Have imployed Ens Veneris for the removal of a Subsultus Tendinum , in a Person dangerously Sick of a Febris Petechialis ( a Discase fatal to very many here for these 12 or 14 Months ) and found that it answer'd my hopes in 3 or 4 Hours after I gave it in Conserve of Borrage Flowers . I have , since I came from England , thought of a Method of Curing the aforesaid Fever , which has not once fail'd me , tho I made of it for 16 or 18 several Persons , many of which would certainly Dye , if treated after the usual manner in this case . If I should tell you from what Observations and Reasonings I came to alter the Method of Cure , I should be very tedious . I shall therefore at present wave that , and proceed to tell you , That when first I come to any Sick of this Disease , if I find Costive ( as generally they are ) I prescribe a Glister , and after that an Episplastick Plaister 6 or 7 Inches broad , and 8 or 9 Inches Long , to be apply'd between the Shoulders ; the Blister being well rais'd , I order to be Dress'd carefully , stripping off the Cuticula . This continues running till the Fever is gone off ; which is most commonly in 10 or 12 days , if they have not kept up too long with it , and then we cannot certainly foretel the time of the Fever's declination ; for the whole time till the going off of the Fever , I Prescribe Emulsions of Aq. Aronis , Card. Bened. Citrij totius & Syr. Granatorum cum Aceto ; I allow of Orange and Butter-milk Possets , of roasted Apples , Flummery , or any other light and cooling thing they call for . By this Method I keep the Genus Nervosum and Brain from being Affected , and consequently secure my Patients ; for as many as I have ever known of them Dye , that were troubled with this Disease , Dy'd of a disorder of those Parts . I do not defer the Blistering Plaisters , as others do , till I find my Patients Delirous , Lethargick , Convulsive , or otherwise affected in their Heads and Nerves , finding by the Experience of others that then they most commonly prove ineffectual , because of some Morbifick Matters being too deeply lodg'd in these parts . I do not prescribe , except upon some extraordinary occasions , any Volatile Salts or Spirits , or any thing too apt to quicken the already over-brisk Circulation of the Blood , having Experimentally Learn'd that by these often us'd , the Brain and Nerves become sooner than ordinary affected , for as much as they deeply insinuate themselves , and drive with them some Morbifick Matter into the Brain and Nerves . I find Bleeding bad , being generally Fatal . If I doubt of the Recovery of any of my Patients Sick of this Disease , 't is only when I find that they have been let Blood , or lain for 8 or 9 days before I come to them ; tho I have brought through it , even Persons in those Circumstances . A Design'd Chymical Medicine . I shall not , because I need not , Discourse of the Medicinal Vertues of Steel in a City where many Learned Physicians do so much esteem and imploy Chalybeate Medicines as they do in London , and therefore I shall content my self at this time to offer you a couple of Preparations of Steel that possibly you have not met with or thought of . 1. Considering that most of the ways made use of by Chymists to prepare Steel , tend by dividing it into very Minute parts , to make it more lyable to be wrought on by the Liquors of the Stomach , and some other parts of the Body , and that the generality of these Chalybeate Preparations are wont to be made only with Acids , whether manifest , as Oyl of Vitriol , Spirit of Vinegar , &c. or Occult , as Brimstone , which tho insipid in its Natural State , when it comes to be Melted , discloses its hidden Salt , and works on ♂ by a sharp Acidity ; considering this , I say , and that Men have confin'd themselves to Acids in working on Steel , because they suppos'd Instruments of that kind were necessary to dissolve that Metal , I thought it might do you , and some Ingenious Men of your Profession , some little Service , if I propos'd to you a way of Opening the Body of Steel , that tho I gave a hint of it divers Years ago , is , for ought I know , yet unpractis'd . We took then several Ounces of highly rectify'd Spirit of fermented ( or putrify'd ) Urine made per se , and consequently without Quick-lime , and pour'd it upon as much Filings of Steel freshly made , to be sure , not to have any Rusty ones , as we guest , would at least suffice to satiate it fully . These we put in a moderately warm place , where the Menstruum wrought on the Metal for divers hour together , and Dissolv'd a considerable part of it . This Solution we set to filter , and found it of a Taste considerably strong , but very different from any of the Chalybeat Preparations , we remembered , that were seen made with Acids . The Liquor being kept in a stopt Viol for some days near a Window , did in the Cold let fall by degrees a considerable quantity of Powder of a deep Green Colour , which surpriz'd some Virtuosi , to whom I shew'd it , especially because the Liquor it self was not of that Colour ; tho at least the superficial part of what remain'd ( in plenty ) in the Filter , did also in the Air acquire a Green Colour . But tho our Solution pour'd off from the subsided Powder , was warily and slowly evaporated , yet we did not find it would well Crystallize What use may be made in Physick , of Preparations of this kind , I leave to you , whose Profession as well as Curiosity will ingage you to consider . I do not presume to tell you , but in general it seems that Steel Prepar'd with Volatile Spirits of the Animal Kingdom that are wont to be friendly to Nature , and are very contrary to Acids , may have new qualities very differing from those of Steel Prepar'd with Acids , and may be more safe in some Cases and to some Patients . With what other Volatile Menstruums I have dissolv'd Mars , and what Phaenomena some Tryals I made with that Metal open'd by such Salts , you may command an Account of , if you think it worth desiring . A Design'd Chymical Medicine . Another Experiment that I made on Steel , was design'd to make as much of it Volatile , as I could with a Menstruum , not so Corrosive or Dangerous to the Body as Oyl of Vitriol , or Spirit of Niter , which , especially the former , are imploy'd by divers Chymists to make Chalybeat Preparations that yet are not Volatile . The Medicinal Scope I had in my Eye , for I had also a Chymical one ( that belongs not to this place ) was to try if I could by it obtain any Sulphur of Mars , which the Commendations that some , even of those Chymists , whether Adepti or not , whose Authority I most regard , represent as an excellent Medicine , especially in Cases that require Anodynes , and which the others , or the same speak of as a graduatory Substance ( as to some Metals ) or both : If you should ask me , why I did not make use of the common Vitriolum Martis , which is easy to be had in the Shops of Chymists ? I answer , That my design being to try whether or no I could obtain a Sulphur , that might properly enough ( tho not in the utmost rigor ) we call Sulphur of Mars , that which is made the common way , would not answer my end , since tho I should be able from this Vitriol to obtain a real Sulphur ; yet I should not think it safe thence to conclude , that it came from the Metal , and not from the Menstruum ; because I have several times from Oyl of Vitriol it self , obtain'd no contemptible proportion of Yellow and Combustible Sulphur . To which I add , that the acquisition of a Metalline Sulphur , tho it was not the only thing that I aim'd at in this Preparation , for I presum'd , that at least I should make a very great Comminution of the parts of Steel , which is one of the main things aim'd at by the more Rational Physicians in the Preparations of that Metal . Upon these and the like grounds , I pitcht upon good Spirit of Sea-Salt as a Menstruum , much fitter for my purpose than either Oyl of Vitriol or the Acid part of Sulphur ; and accordingly in a good many Ounces of this Menstruum , we dissolv'd as much as we easily could of choice Filings of fine Steel , and having filter'd the Green Solution , we very slowly Evaporated it in a Glass Vessel , and took such care not to spoil the matter , that we had store of fine Green Crystals that were not very small , and lookt prettily ; most of these we put into a strong , but small Retort , and by degrees of Fire , and a strong one , for the last hours ; we obtain'd divers Ounces of a Liquor that came over in white Fumes , like Mists driven by the Wind , and afforded a Sulphureous Smell : This Liquor we rectify'd , and had a Yellow Ponderous Spirit , that seem'd to be much more of Kin to the Spirit of Sea-Salt , than to the common Oyl of Vitriol ; especially since being mixt with Aqua-fortis , it would , like Spirit of Salt , make it a Menstruum , that would even in the Cold Dissolve Gold in thin Leaves . Which last words I add , because having put into a little of it already made Yellow , by having dissolv'd Leaf-Gold a very thin Plate , but a pretty deal thicker than a Leaf of Hammer'd Gold , the Menstruum made it look all over white , almost like Silver , which seem'd to argue , that this Vitriolate Menstruum differ'd from common Spirit of Salt. And however , it may be worth taking notice of by the By , that not only Vitriols Blue , as is well known to Chymists , but that Vitriols of one of those Colours , and whereof the same Metall is the basest , may differ much from one another on the score of the various , and to us perhaps , unknown Menstruum that dissolves the Metal , since our Green Vitriol yeilds Liquors very different from common English Vitriol of Mars made with Oyl of Vitriol , tho all the three be green . Which may give us some Reason of the uncertainty , whereof Vitriol is mainly imploy'd ; and 't is perhaps worth remarking , that tho we did not find the Vitriol of Mars made the common way , nor even Roman Vitriol to dissolve in a Vinous Spirit totally Inflammable , yet it would easily enough Dissolve our Saline Vitriol , ( if I may so call it ) which Solution to hint that in Transitu , you may perhaps see cause to imploy as a Medicine in several Cases , and particularly as a Styptic in Wounds , since its Tast is very Astringent , its Parts very Subti , and made fit by the Vinous Spirit , to prevent Corruption ; especially in those Clymates where Chirurgeons complain . That they can scarce prevent the Breeding of Worms in Wounds , unless they do betimes Dress them with Spir. of Wine or Brandy . But that which we chiefly aim'd at in this Operation , was the dry part , of what was Elevated by the force of the Fire . This we found to be distinguishable , partly by its Situation , and partly by more durable Accidents , into three kinds of Substance , whereof one was almost like a Powder , which after the Contact of Air , did in a while come over to be of a Yellow Colour , almost like Sulphur , but it was not indeed truly Combustible Sulphur . The other Substance consisted of larger parts , and was of a deep Colour , between Read and Brown. But the third , which seem'd the most Copious of all , was made up of fine parts , larger than the former , of a deep Reddish Colour , and adorn'd with a fine Gloss , like that of Scales of Fishes , that look'd very prettily . The Caput Mortuum was found to be of a Texture that would have surpriz'd most Men ; for a great part of it appeared to be turn'd into a Talky Substance , consisting of pretty broad and very thin Plates , smooth and glossy , that lay upon , and against one another , like those that make up Muscovia-Glass , when the pieces are more thick than large . CHAP. V. CONTAINING Experiments and Observations Solitary ; in two Pentades . The I. PENTADE . EXPERIMENT I. A notable Comminution of Gold into Powder that will sink in Water . TO manifest into how great a multitude of Corpuscles , gross and heavy enough to sink to the bottom even of a Saline Liquor in the form of Precipitate or Powder ; I thought of this Expedient . We took a Grain of Refin'd Gold , and having dissolv'd it without heat in a competent quantity of good Aqua Regia , we put to it by guess about two Spoonfuls of Water , and then by a Thread we hung in the mixture a little bit of clean metaline Body , and kept it suspended in the Liquor for many hours ( or some few days . ) By this means we obtain'd , as we expected , a Precipitate of a fine and deep Colour , so copious and so light , that it was a long time before it would all settle at the bottom . Then looking upon the remaining part of the Suspended Metaline Body , we found it so very little less than when the whole was first put in , that the diminution of it was not judg'd to amount to near a Grain . By which Experiment it appear'd , that one Grain of Gold , not swiming in parts separately invisible , as 't is in Solutions , but reduc'd to a Manifest Powder , seem'd to make a considerable quantity of Precipitate at the bottom of the Cylindrical Vial , whose Diameter was about an Inch , that we kept it in . And this Glass being a little shaken , the Precipitate would rise like a Mud , and be so thorowly disperst in the form of a Powder , through the whole Body of the Liquor , and a greater quantity of Water added to it , that at first it would seem Opacous , and after some time , it would appear like a high and lovely Purple Solution . So that one Grain of Gold ( for the Colour argu'd that there was some of that Metal , in every Corpuscle of the Precipitate ) was reduc'd into as many Grains of Powder , as suffic'd to lodg themselves in all the Particles of space great enough to be visible , that were contain'd in a Mass of sixteen Drachms ( is Two Ounces ) of Water . EXPERIMENT II. A Proof of the Metalline Nature of Granates . I have else where endeavour'd to shew that divers , if not most , of the real Vertues of some Gems , ( for there are too many Fabulous ones ascrib'd to them ) may in probability proceed from the Particles of Mineral Juices , that were admitted whilst the matter was yet in Solutis Principiis , or at least soft , and afterwards Coagulated with the Lapidescent part of the Stone . In confirmation of this Conjecture , I shall now observe , that having , upon some grounds not necessary to be here mention'd , suspected that Granates contain ( some of them ) besides some other Metalline Substances , divers Corpuscles of a Martial Nature ; I made choice of some small ones , which by their deep and almost dark Colour , ( to name no other Signs ) I guess'd to contain somewhat of Iron or Steel ; and apply'd to them a pretty vigorous Loadstone , which as I expected , readily took them up and to which they constantly stuck afterward , till I forcibly separated them from it . But tho I try'd this upon more parcels of Garnets than one or two , yet I found that there was not many in one heap , that would easily adhere to the Magnet . EXPERIMENT III. A Gentleman Eminent for his Travels into Eastern Parts , and for his Skill in Jewels , told me , in Confirmation of my Opinion about the Origine of Gems from Fluid Materials ; that he had seen a white Saphir that was a Table-Stone , as they speak , i. e. flat and not cut in Facets , about the middle of which there was a Cavity about the bigness of a large Pins head , or small Fitch , that contain'd in it a drop of Liquor that it seems could not be Coagulated into Stone with the rest of the Matter : Which Liquor , he said , was very easily discernible by its shifting places in the Cavity , when the Stone was put into differing Postures . And when I ask't , whether there was no Flaw or Commissure in the Stone , at which the Liquor may be suspected to have got in ; he assur'd me that there was none , but that the Cavity was every way encompast by the solid Stone , and was about the thickness of three Barly Corns beneath the upper Superficies of it . SCHOLIUM . It may be here fit to give notice once for all , about the Experiments that are in the following Collections , styl'd Solitary , that tho most of them are deliver'd nakedly as matters of Fact , without any such Introduction or subsequent Reflection , as may be met with sometimes expressly , and oftner by Intimation in divers others ; yet that it should not be thence infer'd , either those that are simply recited , were lighted on by chance , or made at all adventures , or that they are of no use , because for the most part there is not any expressly ascribed to them : For as they were not written without a particular occasion and scope too , so that many of them may be apply'd to good purposes , will , perchance , be found here and there in our other Writings . And to make it probable in general , that most of them may not be useless , it may perhaps suffice that we refer to what we have elsewhere purposely Discoursed , about the uses of Experiments ( even ) to Speculative Philosophy . This may pass for a general Scholium applicable to most of those Experiments that are not attended with any particular Scholium , nor any thing in the Experiment or Observation its self , that may easily by an attentive Reader , be made to supply the place of a Scholium . Which last clause I add , to intimate , that besides my hast , another reason why so many Scholium's , as may be expected in the following Collection , will not be found in it , was , because the proemial part did , on several occasions , make it needless to subjoyn Annotations . EXPERIMENT IV. An Ingenious and Credible Person ( Mr. W. ) assur'd me , that in one of the fine Gardens near Genoa , that he delighted to Visit , there was Pond , which being made on the side of a Hill , the Wall next the bottom of the Hill was so high , that Men could not look over it into the Pond , nor be at all seen over it by the Fishes in the Pond ; and yet he has several times observ'd these Fishes to be call'd together by the Gardiner , as he pleas'd , with a certain noise that the Gardiner made to assemble them , tho neither he nor any man else could be discover'd by the Fishes that readily obey'd their Summons . This Relation may be of use in the Controversy , Whether Fishes hear under Water . EXPERIMENT V. Upon occasion of what is elsewhere said of the Production of vivid apparent Colours by the breaking of the beams of Light , on Corpuscles extraordinary Minute , tho solid ; I took a Globe of rock Chrystal , which being for a certain use saw'n in two by a Cutter of Gems , and having lookt upon the flat Surfaces , observed to the Sun Beams , the little Particles that ( notwithstanding their seeming smoothness in the Shade ) asperated their Surfaces , did so retract and reflect the Light , as to make them exceed the vivid Colours of the Rain-bow , ( but in a somewhat interrupted manner ) sometimes on one part of the Surface , sometimes on another , as the Surface happen'd to be Scituated in reference to the Sun. And having caused a choice and fine Grain'd Touch-stone to be likewise saw'n asunder by the same Artificer , to make two of it ; I observed upon the new Surfaces made by this Action , that to the Touch smooth and polish'd , such vivid Colours as I lately mention'd to be these Surface , were put in to various Position in reference to the Sun and the Eye ; so that notwithstanding the great transparency of the Chrystal and great Opacity of the Touch-stone , their superficial Corpuscles were found fit to exhibit ( in due positions ) the vivid Colours we admire in the Rain-bow . The II PENTADE . EXPERIMENT I. Having for less than two hours borrow'd an Oculus Munai , whose Colour was White , whose Figure was Round and plain Convex , and whose Diameter , I judg'd , to be about a third part of an Inch ( rather less than more ) I put it into a very shallow Glass Vessel almost fill'd with fair Water , and observ'd within one Minute , or thereabout , with the Minute-Watch , that one part of the Edg began to appear somewhat Diaphanous , and the whole Stone did by degrees lose its Whiteness , appearing of a dark Brownish Colour : When this Change had reach'd the whole Surface , I look'd upon my Watch , and found that the Stone had lain nine Minutes in the Water ; out of which having taken it , I perceiv'd the Body was grown Semi-Diaphanous , and the parts near the Edg being less thick , appear'd to have lost much more of their former Opacity than the innermost part had . Then putting the Stone presently into the Water again , I let it lye there so long till the Time efflux'd , since the begining of the Experiment amounted just to half an Hour . Then taking it out , and wiping it , I found it was grown much more clear , since being held against the light , it look'd almost like Yellow Amber , but not quito so Diaphanous . Then I expos'd it to the Contact of the Air , in the Scales of a very good Ballance ( where it weigh'd four Grains and about a quarter ) and left it for a quarter , or near half an Hour , in that Ballance to try if by the recess of any imbib'd aqueous Moisture it would become lighter ; but want of Time hindred me from compleating the Experiment , but did not deter me from making another Observation , which was , that within about a single Minute of an Hour , a portion of the Stone near one part of the Edg , was manifestly grown Opacous and Whitish , and within not many Minutes after , the whole Stone began to appear in a changing condition , but did not change in every part at once , nor did the alteration make an uniform Progression ; but here one might successively discover divers white Arches , or as 't were Zones , that were parallel enough to one another , and being quite Opacous , intercepted between them other little Zones , which being yet Semi-opacous , appear'd of a Brown Colour , and concurr'd to make the Stone look like a very pretty Agate , wherein the Whiteness made a continued Progress as long as the Time permitted me to observe it : And the Possessor assur'd me , that within an Hour or or two it would be all of a Cream White ( as he express'd himself ) which I thought the more Credible , because I saw one part of it , that was pretty broad , to have obtain'd already a Whiteness , little , if at all inferiour to that of Ivory . EXPERIMENT II. Remarkable Observations about Hurricanes . The late Governour of the Bermudas Islands , ( very much subject to Hurricanes ) in Answer to my Questions , about the Presages of those hideous Tempests , inform'd me , that these were of the principal Forerunners . First , That the Sea would manifestly swell at some distance from the Shores , insomuch , that the Fishermen would divers times make to Land , and warn the Inhabitants , upon the confidence of that Presage , to provide against that dismal Storm , tho the Sea were then smooth enough . Secondly , That the Sea would beat with great Noise against the Shore , especially the Rocks , tho there appear'd no manifest Cause , as upon the account of the Wind or Tide , why it should do so . And this Sign would sometimes not appear till many Hours , or perhaps a full Day after that foremention'd . And sometimes 't was observ'd , that the Sea would now and then suddenly Invade the Shore , and gain further upon it than could be accounted for by the Wind or Tide , and then quickly Ebb away beyond the usual Low water-Mark , and after return again with more fury , and fall back further than before . Thirdly , That sometimes there would be perceiv'd an ungrateful Smell in the Air , before the Hurricane began to Blow . And Fourthly and Lastly , My Relator affirm'd to me , both he and others had seen many Bundles , as it were of long Streaks of differing Colours , some Whitish , some Reddish , and some Blewish , or Greenish , which by reason of their Figure are usually call'd in those parts Horse-Tails : And these were seen in parts of the Sky , where the Air was Troubled indeed , but yet no form'd Clouds did appear to the Eye . EXPERIMENT . III. A Monstrous Pearl . Yesterday a curious Person came to shew me a Monstrous Pearl , if I may so call it , because it was very irregularly shap'd , and of an Enormous bigness . For tho it were so artificially set in Gold , that by the help of a little of that Metal fitly plac'd here and there , the whole Jewel represented a Lion ; yet I made shift to Measure it exactly enough with a Pair of Calapar Compasses , ( as they call those whose Legs are made Arch-wise ) and found the Length to be just an Inch and an Half , and the greatest Breadth ( where yet it was of a proportionate Thickness ) to be 2 / 10 or 4 / 5 of an Inch. The Colour was Orient enough , all but one dark Spot , which by its size , figure , and situation , I guess'd to be the remains of that Part ( whether like an Umbilical Cord or no ) whereby it was fasten'd to the Naker or Shell of the Fish that produc'd it . EXPERIMENT IV. An odd Observation about the Influence of the Moon . I know an Intelligent Person , that having by a very dangerous Fall , so broken his Head , that divers large Pieces of his Skull were taken out , as I could easily perceive by the wide Scars that still remain ; Answer'd me , that for divers Months that he lay under the Chirurgeons Hands , he constantly observ'd , that about Full Moon , there would be extraordinary Prickings and Shootings in the wounded Parts of his Head , as if the Meninges were stretched or press'd against the rugged Parts of the broken Skull , and this with so much pain , as would for 2 or 3 Nights hinder his Sleep , of which at all other times of the Moon he us'd to injoy a competency . And this Gentleman added , that the Chirurgeons , ( for he had 3 or 4 at once ) observ'd from Month to Month , as well as he , the Operation of the Full Moon upon his Head , informing him , that they then manifestly perceived an Expansion or Intumescence of his Brain ; which appear'd not at all at the New Moon ; ( for that I particularly ask'd ) nor was he then obnoxious to the foremention'd Pricking pains . EXPERIMENT . V. An uncommon Experiment about Heat and Cold. To confirm what we have elsewhere deliver'd about the Mechanical Origine of Heat and Cold , we devis'd the following Experiment : We took a small and hermetically seal'd Thermoscope , whose Stem was divided into parts , equal enough as to Sense , by little Specks of Amel , that sharp Liquors might not eat off or spoil the Marks . The Ball of this Instrument we put into a slender Cylindrical Vessel , ( call'd in the Shops a Mustard Glass ) and more than cover'd it with strong Oyl of 🜖 , and left it there awhile to be reduc'd to the temper of the surrounding ▪ Liquor . Then we cast upon it by degrees , grosly Powder'd , * which presently was wrought on furiously by the Menstruum ; and by this Conflict , was produc'd a seeming Effervescence , with great noise and store of Froth , which more than once was ready to run out of the Vessel . But for all this seeming Ebullition , the mixture instead of growing Hot , did really grow Colder and Colder , as appear'd not only when the Vessel was touch'd by the Fingers on the outside , but by a surer mark , which was the descent of the colour'd Spirit of Wine . How much farther it would have descended , ( for the Liquor was not near satiated with the 🜔 ) we were hinder'd from Discovering by an unlucky Accident , that broke the Thermometer , and put an end to that First part of our Experiment . But this was no hindrance to the Second part , which for its Novelty we mainly design'd . For when we pour'd this actually and considerably Cold Mixture into three or four times its weight ( by guess ) of as much common Water , that was likewise actually Cold ; this Second Mixture did , as I expected , immediately grow so Hot , that I did not like to keep my Finger for a Minute or two upon the outside of the Glass . An Advertisement about the Nature and Scope of the Chymical Experiments contain'd in the following Pentades . CHAP. V. Containing two Pentades of Chymical Experiments . BEfore you enter upon the perusal of the following Pentades , I think my self oblig'd to give you notice , that you will be deceiv'd if you expect to find them consist , either Solely or Mainly , of Spagirical Secrets , or difficult and elaborate Processes . I do not indeed deny , that I am not altogether unfurnish'd with such as in probability , most Readers would refer to Experiments of that Nature , and you may find divers of them scatter'd upon fit occasions , in several of my Writings : But in the present Tract , tho I have not forborn to mention here and there as many Particulars of that sort , as I thought necessary to excite and maintain the Curiosity , and sustain the Attention of a Reader that Relishes nothing that is not Season'd with somewhat that is not common ; yet in this Treatise , wherein I aim'd not to appear a Chymist , so much as to make my Reader a Naturalist ; it was more suitable to my design , tho not more conducive to my Credit , that the following Pentades ( which God permitting , may in tract of time , much increase in Number ) should mainly consist of Experiments , rather useful than Specious ; my design being to contribute some sound Materials towards the Erection of a solid and useful Natural Philosophy . In making choice of which Materials , I usually prefer those Experiments that afford the more Light to those that appear with the most Luster , and those that are proper to increase the Readers skill , to those that make an Ostentation of the Writers . On which ground it is , that , whatever I may do , where I purposely Recommend Chymistry , I make this small Collection , consist mainly of simple and not Intricate or elaborate Experiments . Those that are Simple being not only more easy to be Try'd , and if need be , Reiterated without much trouble , or danger of erring ; but ( which I more regard ) more easy to be judg'd of , as to their Causes , Phenomena and effects , and consequently more fit to ground Notions and Reasonings upon : Divers of which may probably in the applications that sagacious Persons may make of them , prove to be of Practical as well as Theorical use . Thus tho a Wedg of Gold and a Diamond be , one more Rich and finely Colour'd , and the other more precious and sparkling than a piece of Steel and a Hint ; yet on many occasions the two latter are far more serviceable to Mankind than the former : Since not those that are more priz'd for themselves , but those that in comparison seem despicable , afford Sparks , which do not only give Light , but are fit to kindle Fires , which both afford incomparably more Light , and in the application are of excellent and necessary use in the Kitchins of Families , the Forges of Smiths of all sorts , the Furnaces of Myne-men , and the Laboratories of Chymists . The I. PENTADE . EXPERIMENT I. To Dissolve Crude Gold with dry Bodies . Because the generality of Chymists make so great a matter of Aurum Potabile , tho they cannot deny , but that by their Preparations it is not made irreducible ; and because also I am willing to grant , that even some Preparations , that leave the Metal reducible , may yet be of considerable use in Physick ( the grounds of which Opinion I elsewhere declare , and shall not here repeat ) I will in this place set down a Process , which tho I do not overmuch value , serv'd me well enough on some occasions , to Vye with those that much vaunted their particular ways ( as they thought them ) of making Aurum Potabile , I told them , I could make one in an hour or two's time without a Furnace ; and that without any other Distill'd Liquor whatsoever than common Spirit of of Wine well Dephlegm'd . This I did several times , after the following manner . I prepar'd a Saline Mixture consisting of one part of Sal Almonia● , two parts of Roch Allum , and four parts of pure Nitre . This being well pulveriz'd and mingl'd , I rub'd diligently in a Glass or Marble Mortar , with 15 or 16 parts in weight of the whole Mixture of Leaves of Gold , such as Apothecaries and Book-binders use . Then I put this into a small new Crucible , and putting a few , and but a few , kindled Coals round about it , and at a little distance from it , to neal the Vessel ; I soon after approacht them , till the heat made the Matter melt , and so with that gentle Fire , I kept it in fusion , till it visibly emitted no more Fumes but grew dry again . This sign appearing , I presently took it off from the Fire , and whiles it was yet warm , dug it out , as clean as I could , and having seasonably pulveriz'd it , that it might not attract the Moisture of the Air ; I put upon it some highly rectify'd Spirit of Wine , which within an hour or less time , was enobled with a rich Golden Colour . And accordingly I found it to be a real Solution of Gold , by divers Tryals that I purposely made , to evince it to be so . Of this and some other less common Preparations of ☉ more may be met with hereafter . EXPERIMENT . II. Luna Cornea by Distillation . There was taken ℥ III of well refin'd Silver , thinly Laminated , and six of common Sublimate . This was put first into a Retort , and the Silver cut into small pieces , was put in after , that the matter lying uppermost might be Penetrated by the ascending Fumes : But the Fire having not been made strong enough , the Sublimate was Elevated to the uppermost part of the Retort , and left the Silver scarce at all chang'd in the bottom of the Glass . Wherefore we put the same Sublimate and Metal into another Retort , and administring a stronger Fire , that the Sublimate might be thorowly melted before it could flee away , we obtain'd no running Mercury at all , but the greatest part of the Sublimate was Elevated in its usual form , leaving behind it the Silver in a Lump , which stuck hard to the bottom of the Glass , and appear'd much alter'd . For besides that there was acquir'd ℥ I. in weight , many of the pieces of Metal stuck together , and seem'd at least half Melted , and were of a kind of Horny and Semi-Diaphanous Substance , which would readily enough Melt almost like Sealing-Wax , when I held it to the Flame of a Candle , at which yet I could not perceive it manifestly to take Fire . SCHOLIUM . 'T is here to be noted once for all , that in this and divers other Chymical Experiments , there is sometimes much more deliver'd than is necessary to make good the Title , or the thing mainly intended . But 't was thought fit , not to Dismember or Mutilate the entire Memoir as 't was register'd , because that of the other Particulars some may be , tho indirectly , refer'd to the principal part , and others may be look't on as Phaenomena , which may be of use at least to me , by keeping me from forgetting them , and probably tend to the main design of all these Experiments , viz. to contribute to a Natural History , which may respect Practice , as well as Theory . EXPERIMENT . III. Mercury growing warm with Silver . We took ʒII of animated ( or antimonial ) Quicksilver , and put it into the palm of ones Hand ; we put to it by degrees a Dram and an Half of Powder of fine Silver , made by Precipitation with Copper the ordinary way ( but with more than ordinary care ) . Whilst this Mixture was making with ones Finger , he that held it in his hand , confess'd he found it grow sensibly Warm ; and I , whose Finger was considerably Warm , could not with it perceive any coldness in the Amalgame . This in a very short time became of a soft , and ( as to sense ) uniform consistence , and so soft that it was like almost melted Butter , insomuch that we added half a Dram more of the Calx of Silver , without rendring the Amalgame at all too stif ; and perhaps we might have added the other half Dram , without overcharging that penetrant Mercury : in which case it had swallowed up full its own weight of Silver ; so different it was from common Mercury ; and when we left off , it had reduc'd into a very yeilding form , three quarters of its own weight of solid Metal . This aaa we put into a small Vyal , and stopt the Glass with a Cork , to observe whether the Amalgame would harden without intercourse with the free Air. Next morning it appear'd to be concreted in the Glass ; and the next morning after that , we broke the Glass to take out the Matter , which we found considerably hard , but brittle enough . EXPERIMENT . IV. The Durableness of the Faculty of a certain prepar'd Mercury to grow Hot with Gold. To convince those that Treat the Incalescense of Prepar'd Mercury and of Gold , as a Chymical Chymera ; I sent in a Conceal'd way to the Royal Society , some Mercury laboriously Prepar'd in my Furnaces , whereof ℥ I. being put upon a due proportion of a Calx of Gold made by the common way , ( Quartation ) they grew presently and very sensibly hot in the Palm of ones Hand . I shall now add , that to try whether this surprizing Faculty of growing hot immediately upon Gold , will continue any long time in the Mercury ; I lately took some that I had ( for a certain purpose ) kept Hermetically seal'd in a Glass Egg for divers Years , ( if I mistake not , Ten or Twelve at least ) and having Reiterated the foremention'd Tryal with it ; first alone , and then in the presence of a Cultivator of Chymistry ; it presently grew hot with the ☉ in the palm of the Hand . And having Distill'd off the Mercury , and try'd it again as well as some that was Undistill'd , if I much misremember not , it did again heat with the Gold. EXPERIMENT . V. An uncommon way of operating upon ♁ . When Chymists expose Antimony , for instance , and divers other Consistent , but not fixt Bodies , to the action of the Fire , they are wont to do it in Vessels , either open , as when they make Calx , or Glass of Antimony , or at least in Vessels that are not so close : But that there is Air included with the matter , as when they Sublime it in Glasses , or in Earthen subliming Pots ; and tho they regard not this included Air , because usually there is not much of it in the Vessel , yet it may have a not inconsiderable influence on the effects of the Fires Operation , not only as it contributes to the ascention and sustentation of dissipated parts of the Mineral , but as it affords these Corpuscles room to fly to and fro in it , and thereby make Associations or Coalitions and Concretions that otherwise would not be produc'd . Upon this account I guest that it may be , on divers occasions , a thing of use for Discoveries , and perhaps too , for Practice , to imploy a Method , that the Body expos'd to the action of the Fire , may be kept from the Contact of the Air , at least as to any sensible portions of it , and being as it were included in Bodies almost equivalent to Solids ; and one may suppress the free emission and ascent of Exhalations , and so to make an Operation , not only in Clauso , but as it were in Solido , and reduce the parts of the Body Expos'd , and perhaps the Igneous Corpuscles to act reciprocally upon one another , without any notable Dissipation , or Avolation of Parts . To apply now what hath been said , to Antimony ; I shall briefly set down an uncommon way that came into my mind of Operating upon it . We took well powder'd ♁ , and well dry'd ( white ) Chalk reduc'd likewise to Powder ; with these in a large Earthen Pot or Crucible , we made SSS . having a care to make the lowermost and uppermost bed of Chalk , and the last thicker than any of the rest , as also that none of the Antimo-nial Layers , were but of a moderate thickness , that the Heat might penetrate them the better ; then the Vessel , being cover'd , was put among the kindled Coals of a good digestive Furnace , ( not because such a one was necessary , but because 't was at hand ) where 't was kept for a competent time , which according to the bigness of the Pot , and the strength of the Fire , may be sometimes 20 or 24 Hours , sometimes a Day and a Half , and sometimes two Days or better . The II. PENTADE . EXPERIMENT I. A very uncommon way of making a Cale of Gold. 'T is known that most Chymists , and many Physicians , have a Superlative Esteem for the Medicinal Vertues of Gold , and the Preparations of it . And upon this ground , divers of them have long been , and still are Solicitous to make Calces of Gold by differing ways ; most of them laborious , and some of them scarce to be safely wrought and us'd in Physick : Wherefore I shall , I presume , be easily Pardon'd , if I here set down a way that came into my mind , and that I have sometimes us'd to make a preparation wherein Gold is reduc'd to very minute Parts , without the help of Mercury , or of any Precipitation made by sharp Salts , whether Acid or Lixivial . We took then refin'd Gold , and dissolv'd it in clean and Spirituous Aqua Regia , and instead of Precipitating the clear Solution with Oyl of Tartar per deliquium , as is usually done , or with Spirit of Sal Armoniac , or other Volatile Urinous Spirits , we first with a very modest Heat drew off the Superfluous Liquor ; whereby the Gold with the remaining part of the Menstruum , was left in the appearance of a thick and Oleous Liquor . This done , we pour'd upon it a treble weight of Vinous Spirit totally inflammable and in a short time , we had , as we expected , a very subtil Powder , or high colour'd Calx of Gold , that subsided at the bottom ; the Menstruum being strangely dulcifi'd as to Tast , and become fragrant in point of Smell When a very few days were past , we decanted the Liquor , and put on it fresh ardent Spirit , and leaving them a while together , there subsided the like well colour'd Calx more plentifully than the first time . I know not , to add that upon the by , whether it may , or may not be worth while to try to Discover whether this Dulcifi'd A. R. Spirituosa being drawn off from the subsiding Gold , may have acquir'd any Virtue from the open'd Metal . Some Tryals seeming to argue that the openness of this Calx made it fit to be easily wrought upon by a Menstruum that would not touch Water-Gold , as they call the common Calx made by quartation , nor yet Leaf-Gold , such as the Apothecaries Imploy ; but however the Menstruum has acquir'd such qualities as make it seem likely to prove an useful Medicine , which yet I refer to Tryal . By the way we pitch'd upon to make this Powder of Gold , it seem'd probable , that it would not ( at least ) be less subtil , and yet would be more mild , than common Preparations ; and nevertheless we thought it might , perhaps , make it yet more secure , if we should , as we did , put upon it a totally Ardent Vinous Spirit , and burn it off once , twice , or thrice , to carry off with it any little Corosive or Saline Particles ▪ that may have still adher'd to the Metalline ones . N. B. The Spirituous Aqua Regia , mention'd in the Process , is so call'd by me , partly to distinguish it from the common Aqua Regia , and partly because 't is indeed of a more Spirituous Nature than the common , being compos'd without any gross Salt ; Such as * but only of Spirits . This Menstruum I made for some particular uses : And tho it works more slowly than the common Chrysulca , yet I often prefer it to this , as that which I can imploy to some uncommon purposes , and as it may probably be a more innocent Menstruum in making Preparations of Sol , design'd for Medicinal uses . I make it very easily , by mixing one part of good Spirit of Salt , with two parts of strong Spirit of Niter , or ( when 't is not to be us'd for Medicines ) of common , but clean Aqua Fortis . SCHOLIUM . The above recited Tryal was made as 't is deliver'd ; but some Circumstances that I took notice of , and particularly some Grains of Powder that , tho mingl'd with the rest , were shining , as if they had been extreamly Minute , and bright Filings of Gold. These Circumstances , I say , made me Suspect that the Success might much depend upon particular and nice Circumstances that may need more exact Tryal , than I had then occasion to make ; and therefore it may be fit that the Experiment be heedfully repeated . It may also be try'd whether the imploying common A. R. instead of the Spirituous , will much vary the Experiment . EXPERIMENT II. To try how much Volatile Salt an assign'd quantity of Water would Dissolve , we took ℥ III of Distill'd Water , and put into it by degrees , some dry Salt of Salt Armoniac ( that was very White , and compact enough ) keeping the Liquor in digestion for a pretty while , that it might have time to Dissolve as much as it could . When we found it would Dissolve no more in a moderate Heat , we took it off , and found that after standing some Hours in the Cold there fell to the lower part of the Glass , and setled there , a pretty quantity of Salt , which we guess'd to be about ʒII , which being deducted from ℥ II , that had been in all put in , there remained ℥ I and ʒVI in the Liquor , which by this account had Dissolv'd at least half its weight of Salt. SCHOLIUM . I desire it may not be thought strange , if among our Chymical Experiments , some few shall be here and there met with , that are much less Elaborate or Promising than others that I could easily have inserted in their Rooms ; for I did it on set purpose , partly because oftentimes ( as was intimated at the beginning of the Chapter ) some more simple or seemingly less valuable Experiments may be fitter materials , than more curious ones , for the Natural History we would promote ; and partly to give an Example , if mine can signifie any thing , of not disdaining to Register some things that seem mean ; if by the light they afford , or the uses they may be apply'd to , they compensate the want of Lustre , and of immediate Utility . And the substance of this Scholium I desire may be mentally transferr'd , as occasion shall require , to those following Chapters that Treat of Chymical Experiments . EXPERIMENT . III. Perhaps some Chymists will think that the following Memoir may give hints that may be of use on several occasions , both for other purposes , and for theirs , that would draw Tinctures from several Bodies , that will not afford them in simple Spirit of Wine , tho well rectifi'd . The simple Spirit of good French Verdigreas , being once or twice abstracted from as much Salt of Tartar as it would dissolve in the Cold ; left the Salt easily susible , and dissoluble in highly rectifi'd Spirit of Wine . EXPERIMENT IV. I have not been unacquainted with some Curious and Elaborate Preparations of that noble Flower the Rose ; and experience hath convinc'd me that t is possible , whatever most Chymists think of it , to obtain from Roses a true essential Oyl , that mixes not with Water , and is exceeding fragrant : But there are several that are so far from believing that an Essential Oyl may be obtain'd from Roses , without being in the form of a Butter , but in a liquid one like Oyl of Cloves , or Wormwood , that they doubt whether a true Spiritus Ardens can be obtain'd from them , without addition of Wine , or some such inflamable Liquor . I shall here transcribe the following Note , as containing a more simple and easie Preparation ( than any of those before mention'd ) of the Ardent Spirit of those Flowers , and therefore more suitable to the design of the whole Chapter . To make an inflammable Spirit of Roses . Two Bushels of Damask Roses ( together with a good number of red Rose-buds ) being beaten , and put into a Vessel with Water amounting to about 4 Gallons , were mingled with about a quart of Ale-Yest , and kept in Fermentation for about 5 or 6 days ( the weather being cold for the Season ) and then being Distill'd per vesicam , afforded us a Spiritus Ardens . EXPERIMENT . V. An Experiment about the Chymical Analysis of Pearls . We took ℥ II of Seed Pearl , that were carefully bought for Oriental , and without breaking them , put them into a Retort , and Distil'd them in a Sand-Furnace by degrees of Fire , giving a strong one at the last . By this means we had a little Black Oyl Swimming upon the Spirit , which was also dark and muddy , as if incorporated with some more Oyl . The weight of both these Liquors was 23 Grains , besides which there stuck to almost all the upper part of the Retort , a thin film of Oyl , which together with a streak of the like reaching to the bottom of the Receiver , we estimated at 3 Grains more , and so reckon'd 26 Grains for the weight of the whole ascended matter . The Caput Mortuum amounted to full the remainng weight of two Ounces . The Empyreumatical Liquors that came over , smell'd much like those of Harts-horn , and the Spirit was found to belong , as we expected , to the Tribe of Urinous ones , or , as many now call them Volatile Alcaly's For it readily hiss'd and produc'd Bubbles , with good Spirit of Salt turn'd Syrup of Violets Green , and being drop'd into Solution of Sublimate , turn'd that White ; to omit another way or two , by which I examin'd it . The Oyl that stuck to the Retort , and which was faetid , like that of Harts-horn , did easily dissolve in dephlegm'd Spirit of Wine , and afforded a reddish Brown Solution . The Caput Mortuum was very black , and some Grains of it were found readily enough dissoluble in Spirit of Vinegar . Being calcin'd in a well cover'd Crucible , with a strong Fire ( for a moderate one will not do it , unless it be long ) we reduc'd them to be purely White , and to a weight less by some Grains than an Ounce , and ʒIII and we found , as we expected , that being Pulveriz'd , this Calx tasted hot and bitterish upon the Tongue , like good Calx Vive , and was not only of an Alcalisate , but a Lixival Nature : For besides that it presently turn'd Syrup of Violets Green , it quickly afforded an Orange Colour'd Precipitate , with Solution of Sublimate . Strange Reports , In II. PARTS . Address'd to a Vertuoso , Friend to the Author . Advertisement . I Presume , Sir , you may yet remember , what I Wrote about the Nature and Scope of my Collection of Strange Reports , in an Essay which take's its Title from them ; and which I was encouraged to make by the Example and Authority of Aristotle . And therefore I shall desire , that to save your Trouble and my own , That Paper may serve for a Preface to that which follows . About which , supposing this Request to be Granted , I shall need to give you at present but this short Advertisement ; That for distinction's sake , I thought fit to divide the ensuing Particulars into two Parts , because they are indeed of two sorts : One relating to things purely Natural , and the other consisting of Phaenomena , that are , of seem to be , of a Supernatural Kind or Order . The first Set of Particulars belonging to each of the two foremention'd Parts , has prefixt to it the Title of the First Section , tho it be not at this time attended by a Second ; because 't is design'd , that God permitting , it shall be so hereafter , when I shall get time to pick up out of my Adversaria , and other Memoirs , Particulars fit to have plac'd in the List of Strange Reports . I must likewise give you notice , That you are not to expect the II. Part at this time : Discretion forbidding me to let that appear , till I see what Entertainment will be given to the I. Part , that consists but of Relations far less strange than those that make up the other Part. Strange Reports . PART . I. SECTION . I. RElating to a judicious Virtuoso , that a Physician of Bruxels a while since affirm'd to me , That he himself had prepar'd 3 or 4 resuscitable Plants , one of which he had presented to the Marquess of Castel Rodrigo , now Governor of the Spanish Netherlands , where this Virtuoso had not long since been . Relating this , I say , to this Gentleman , and Enquiring of him , whether he had seen this resuscitable Plant ; he answered me , That he had never seen nor heard of it ; but told me on this occasion , That coming to Deal with an Apothecary of Namier , if I misremember not the Name , much esteem'd for his extraordinary Skill in Chymistry about some choice Preparations , wherewith this Man's Shop was furnish'd the Apothecary told the Virtuoso , that he had really prepar'd resufcitable Plants , a different way from that which others pretended to , and that he could prepare a great variety of them . And when having enquir'd of the Virtuoso , whether he himself had seen any of these prepar'd Plants , he assur'd me , that he had seen not only some , but many ; I then upon farther enquiry how they appear'd , learned that the Chymist had divers of them in distinct Glass-Bottles ; that the Apparitions that were exhibited , shew'd not the peculiar Colours , but only the shape of the Plant ; but this so genuinely that he could perfectly distinguish and easily know it to be such or such a Plant instancing particularly in Carduus Benedictus , and Camomile . And the difference betwixt this way of Exhibiting Plants , and that which is mention'd by Quercetan , and pretended to by others ; I found by this Gentleman's Answers , to consist chiefly in these two things : The first , that the Apothecary's Plants did not as the others seem to grow up into the Air included in a Seal'd Vial , but were seen as growing in a clear Liquor , wherewith the Bottle that contain'd it was almost fill'd ; and the next , That whereas to make the Apparition , mention'd by Quercetan , and others , the Application of an actual Heat ( as that of a Lamp , or the Sun-beams , or the like ) is affirm'd to be requisite , upon the absence of which the Phantastical Plant relapses into its Ashes . In the formation of the Apothecaries Vegetables , he doth not employ any actual Heat , but ( which may seem more strange ) only the shaking , of the Bottle , for upon that Agitation the prepar'd Ashes or Powder being this'd from the bottom , and dispers'd quite through the Liquor , when the Glass is set by in a quiet place , the scatter'd Particles by degrees so convene , as to compose a Model of the Plant they once belong'd to . And Heat not being requisite to their formation , these Plants do not quickly , as the Pelonian Physician 's Phantastick Vegetable , Recorded by Quercetan , fall back into a Powder ; but if let alone , continu'd a great while , until the Preparer think fit by a gentle Agitation of the Bottle , to dissolve the loose Contexture of it . RELATION II. I met the other day with a very intelligent Person , well vers'd in Chymistry , not credulous , and in a word very well worthy of Credit , who assur'd me , that he had himself seen a few years ago at Mentz , in the Hands of one Monsieur P — r , a Gentleman of Switzer-land , and a Virtuoso , a piece of Glass about the bigness of a Shilling , or somewhat bigger ; which was Red and pretty transparent like Glass of Antimony made per se , and which this Monsieur P. affirm'd to the Relator , that he Hammer'd before the present Elector of Heidelberg ( to whom I told him , I had the Honour to be known , and ) by whom the Relator was about that time imploy'd . And this Monsieur P. being his intimate Acquaintance , and perceiving that he was , ( as he well might be ) indispos'd to believe so strange a thing , after he had confest the Glass to have been given him by an excellent Chymist in his Country ( Switzerland ) ; this Gentleman , I say , at the Relators earnest Request , gave him leave for his satisfaction , to lay the piece of Glass upon an Anvil , and to strike seven or eight strokes with a Hammer upon it ; by which means he found , that tho it was nor malleable ( at least in the state it then was ) like neal'd Silver , since it began to crack at the edges like Silver that is over-hammer'd ; yet it did really stretch under the Hammer , growing more thin on the beaten part , and having visible Marks or Impressions made on it by the edg of the Hammer . RELATION III. A Pious and Learned School-Master , that ventur'd to stay in London in the great Plague 1665 , and was much Employ'd , as some Friends of mine that knew him , and commended him , assur'd me , to Visit the Sick , and distribute Alms and Relief to them , went indiscriminately to all sorts of Infected , and even Dying Persons , to the number , as he told me , of nine Hundred , or a Thousand ; and being ask'd by me about the Infection of other things than Walls , he told me , That being once call'd to Administer some Ghostly comfort to a poor Woman that had Buried some Children of the Plague , he found the Room so little , that it scarce held any more than the Bed whereon she lay Sick , and an open Coffin wherein he saw her Husband lye Dead of the same Disease , whom the Wife soon after follow'd . In this little close Room they affirm'd to him , that the Contagious Steams had produc'd Spots on the very Wall ; and when I ask'd , whether he himself had seen them , he answer'd , That he had not ; but yet was inclin'd to believe the thing to be true , not only upon the score of the Relators , but because he had observ'd the like in his own Study , which being divided only by a Wall from some Rooms of a House , which the Owner had turn'd into a kind of a Pest-house , and in which , Numbers had Dyed in a short time ; he took notice that the white Wall of his Study was ( since the Sickness rag'd , without any other cause that he could imagine ) Blemish'd in divers places with Spots , like those of Infected Persons ; when ( to add that upon the by ) I inquir'd what Antidote he us'd ; he replied , That next the Protection of God , which so many sad Objects made him the more fervently Implore , and a constant fearlesness , the only Preservative he us'd , besides good Diet , were half a Spoonful , or a Spoonful of Brandy five or Six times a day , especially when he went into Infected places , and the bigness of a small Nut or less , of a Root of Spanish Angelica , of which he held in his Mouth the quantity of a Pepper-corn , or somewhat less , as often as he thought there was need . RELATION IV. An ingenious Person , and very worthy of Credit , inform'd me the other day , in answer to some questions that I propos'd to him , That he was Imploy'd some years ago by a German Physician ( whose Name he told me ) to Distil a certain Mineral not unknown to me , which he perform'd in a naked Fire , with so good success , that he had from about half a Pound of the Mineral , near ʒIII of the Liquor ; this he included in a Glass with a Bubble , and a slender neck like one of my Weather-Glasses ; but tho the Liquor at first reach'd not above the Bubble , but only fill'd it to the bottom of the Pipe ; yet as the Moon increas'd , this Liquor , as the Doctor expected , by degrees expanded it self in the Glass , so that about the Full - Moon , it reach'd about an Inch into the Pipe , and upon the Decrease of the Moon , it subsided by degrees to the bottom of the Pipe. And when I ask'd , whether the Vessel were carefully stopt , he answer'd , That it was not only so , but Hermetically Seal'd like one of my Thermometers with Spirit of Wine , which he had seen . This the Relator averr'd to me upon his own Observation , and being desir'd , he readily gave me a description of the Mineral , and a direction where to procure it , ( which I am now endeavouring to do ) adding that the same Doctor made the like Tryal with another Mineral , akin to this , with which my having heard that such an Experiment had been done , gave me occasion to propose him the question . RELATION V. An inquisitive Traveller that not long since waited on a German Prince addicted to Chymistry , and was imploy'd by him in his private Laboratory ; being ask'd by me some questions about Ore of Bismute or Tin-glass , whereof there is said to be a Mine in that Prince's Territories , and in particular , whether he had observ'd any thing of the varying bulk of a strange Liquor obtainable from it : He answer'd me to this effect , That he had had occasion to make many Tryals upon this Mineral , and that particularly by his Prince's command , he had Distill'd a considerable quantity of a certain sort of it ( because it yields but very little Spirit ) and that he thereby obtain'd a Liquor , which being by Rectification freed from its superfluous Phlegm , amounted to about half a Pint. This Liquor was put into a Vial , which it almost half fill'd . This Vial being exactly stop'd , was set aside in a quiet place , where , ( as the Prince expected ) as the Light of the Moon increas'd , from the New - Moon towards the Full ; so this Liquor gradually swell'd , and that not in a hardly perceptible degree , but very manifestly and confiderably ; so that when the Moon was Full , the Liquor reached almost to the top of the Glass , and during her Wane , as the Light decreas'd , so did the bulk of the Liquor , which was always least at the New - Moon . I ask'd him if any Tryal had been made , whether the Weight of this Spirit varied with the Bulk , and he frankly confess'd to me , That it had not come into his Mind ; but for what is above Related of the Increment and Decrement as to quantity affirm'd to me , that he himself , as well as his Prince had several times Observ'd it ; and he also readily told me the way he used in making the Distillation , which he said , exacted an intense degree of Fire . RELATION VI. An inquisitive Person , that having gone through his Studies in the University , Travell'd throgh divers Countries to make himself the more fit for the Profession of Physick , answer'd me , That having Resided for some time in Prussia , he had more than once or twice ( and that in differing places ) observ'd , as others in his Company also did , That the Fisher-men in breaking the Ice of long Frozen places , and taking out thence confiderable Masses of Ice , did several times find in them Swallows , sometimes numerous enough , that were so inclos'd in the Ice , that unless by breaking or thawing it , they could not be gotten out of it . And he further answer'd me , That when these Lumps or Masses of Ice came to be thaw'd in their German Stoves , the Swallows , that lay as Dead before , would Revive , and perhaps fly about the Room ; but did not long survive their Recovery out of their Insensible state ; some Dying again in few hours , others the next day , or perhaps the third ; but sew or none , that he observ'd , Living beyond the fourth or the fifth ; which immature Death , my Relator judg'd to be caus'd by their having no Appetite to Eat , which Inappetency made them Dye Starv'd . But as the conjecture may be true as to those that Liv'd for some days , so it seems not like that those that Perish'd in few Hours , Dyed meerly of Hunger ; and as for them that were Starv'd to Death , I should suspect that they were Starv'd , not so much for want of Appetite , as for want of such Animals as they us'd to Feed on , especially Flies , which they could not get in Winter . RELATION VII . An Inquisitive Gentleman lately Return'd from Jamaica , where he was Imploy'd by the Governour to make Discoveries of Natural Things , answer'd me ( this Morning ) that he had seen in that Island great number of Trees that bear the Silken Cotten , that he found many of them to surpass in bigness and height the larger sort of our English Oaks ; and that on a Mountain that many went to Visit out of Curiosity , to view a stupendious Silk-Cotton Tree , he saw its Bulk , and many affirm'd to him , and it was the general Tradition of the Country , which he saw no cause to disbelieve , that this prodigious Tree was in the Body no less than 21 yards about , that is , more than 60 Foot in Compass . The same curious Traveller told me he saw a Cannow made of the hollow'd Trunk of one of these Silk-Cotton Trees , which after all that had been taken off to give it the shape of a Vessel fit for Service , was 30 Foot about , and of at least a proportionable length . RELATION VIII . A Merchant Rich and Judicious , and more addicted to Letters than is usual to Men of his Calling , being return'd into England , from some of the remoter Parts of the East-Indies , to satisfy my Curiosity about a strange Tradition of several Navigators about a more than one way extraordinary In-draught of the Sea on the Coast of a great Island of the Southern Ocean , sent me the ensuing Relation , which tho it contains something manifestly Fabulous , but easily distinguishable from the rest , I give you in the Relators own Words , being unwilling to alter any thing till I can see him again , and propose my Scruples to him . At Campar and Rakan , on the East Coast of Sumatra , is in the Rivers Mouth ( to a certain distance ) at each New and Full-Moon , a Violent In-draught of the Sea , ( call'd Bunna ) which approacheth with an hideous noise , and Mountain-high , so that whatsoever opposeth it , Perisheth . It s approach is in three Parts , the first high , but not so terrible ; the second is high , black and horrid ; the third is low , and of gentle motion ; before its approach , it giveth so fair warning , that the People may Eat , and bath themselves , before they weigh Anchor ; but when they weigh , they must Row hard against it , and when its fury is past , follow with it , till they return to their Anchor place . The true reason whereof the Inhabitants cannot discover : But ( as if Greece only were not the Mother of Fabulous Traditions ) these poor Natives Fabulize , That at Campar ( where is the greatest Bunna ) in former Ages , there was a Princess , who , to shun the Rape of an insolent Casfree Slave , ran into the Seas mouth ; but the Slave still pursuing her , and after him the Princess's little-Dog ; all perish'd and thus ( by a new Metamorphosis ) these three Waves perpetuate their Commemoration . That afterwards a bold Fellow hoping to divert this Bunna from Campar ( by advice of some Wizards ) Row'd up against that first part of the Torrent , and filling a Bottle of its Water , which he immediately stopt up close , he betook himself to Rakan ( not far distant ) and pour'd it out into that Rivers Mouth , which brought the Bunna thither also , tho it left not Campar ; but that Fellow suddenly after Dying , none durst since attempt the like , else the Natives fancy it may still be done . My humble Opinion is , ( adds my Relator ) that the Mouths of those Rivers being choakt up with their Sand-Banks , and so render'd very Shallow ; when the great Spring-Tydes come roaring over those Shoals ( at the New and Full-Moons ) out of the Malacca Streights , the first Influx is Irresistible , by such small Vessels as use that Port , ( especially if attended with dark Weather or Stormy Gusts ) so that they are forc'd to Weigh and Bear up against it for fear of being Strandded and Split . In which Sentiment I rest , till I can attain a more prevalent Reason . RELATION IX . A Gentleman that had Travell'd far and Observ'd much , related to me , That being off the Coast of Mosambique , between the 20th and last Days of September , the Captain of the great Portugal Ship they were in , walking to and fro upon the Deck , Spy'd a great way off , a very little dark Cloud or blackish Spot in the Sky : Whereupon , tho the Weather were fair , he made all the hast he possibly could to provide for a great Storm , by taking in the Sails , &c. And thó for a while the Sky continu'd clear , and they had no signs of an imminent Change ; but that when the Cloud approacht , the Wind that had till then fill'd , their Sails ceas'd , and the Sea became Calmer than before : But presently after they had a furious Hurricane , which turn'd their Ship quite round many times one after another , as if it were an Aerial Whirl-pool , which lasted for above two Hours , and then left them , seeming to have a progressive Motion , as Whirl-pools in Rivers often have . RELATION X. An Ingenious Practitioner of Physick , accompany'd by one of the same Profession , assur'd me with great Asseveration , That some while since , being at a place in the Country near Amsterdam , where there Liv'd a kind of a Farmer , who ( tho Illiterate enough ) was reputed very Curious ; this Person shew'd him , among other things , a considerable quantity of Quicksilver that was altogether of the Colour of Gold. And , to answer my scruple , this Relator added , that the Colour did not belong only to the Surface of the whole Mass ; but having purposely ( with Water ) divided it into many Globules , each of them retain'd the same rich Colour . And he further told me , That the possessor of this yellow Mercury , having put some of it over a Fire in a convenient Vessel , it quickly lost its fludity , and was precipitated into a red Powder ; about which he hop'd to learn some notable things at his next Visit to the Author : But that having been too long delay'd ; when he came to the place again , he found to his great Grief that the Master was Dead , and his Relations were , or pretended to be , ignorant of his Secrets . A very Learned and Experienc'd Physician , made me a Visit to give me notice , that a few Days before he had receiv'd one in the Night from a couple of Strangers , one of whom by some things that he saw him do , he judg'd to be ( what they call ) an Adeptus , who besides a thing far more rare and valuable , shew'd him as a Curiosity , a runing Mercury of a lovely Green. And when I ask'd my judicious Relator , whether he had broken the fluid Mass into Drops , to observe whether the Colour were that only of the Surface , or of the whole Mass ? He answer'd , that he purposely laid it upon a rough Body , as a Carpet , and found the Globules , whereinto 't was by this Means divided , to be of the same fine Green that had beautify'd the whole Mass . These Relations , tho they had come to me from less Credible Persons than those I receiv'd them from , I should not hastily have rejected , because of some odd and fine Colorations of runing Mercury , that I have my self Observ'd , but here forbear to mention , because they belong to another Paper . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A28968-e900 * This refers to the Manuscript that was sent to Mr. O. and is left to shew the Intention of the Author . Notes for div A28968-e1760 Lib. 7. Cap. 7. See Exper. 10. 10 Cent. 12. Decemb. 23. Nov. 9. 89. Notes for div A28968-e6960 This Famous Philosopher in his little Tract , whose Title some render de Mirandis Auditionibus , scrupled not to comprise without Method , divers Reports , uncertain or fabulous , nor to insert several that were not so cautiously admitted as those recited in the following . Collection . Notes for div A28968-e7170 January , 25. 
A29012	----	Of the cause of attraction by suction a paradox / by the Honourable Robert Boyle ... Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1674 Approx. 74 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 38 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A29012 Wing B4008 ESTC R36504 15713749 ocm 15713749 104481 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A29012) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 104481) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1179:9) Of the cause of attraction by suction a paradox / by the Honourable Robert Boyle ... Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. [6], 67 p. Printed by William Godbid, and are to be sold by Moses Pitt ..., London : 1674. Reproduction of original in the Cambridge University Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Vacuum -- Early works to 1800. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-05 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-08 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2006-08 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion OF THE CAUSE OF ATTRACTION BY Suction , A PARADOX . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE , Fellow of the Royal Society . LONDON , Printed by William Godbid , and are to be Sold by Moses Pitt , at the Angel over against the little North Door of St. Paul's Church . 1674. PREFACE . HAving about twelve years ago summarily exprest and publish'd my Opinion of the Cause of Suction , and a while before or after brought to the Royal Society the Glass Instrument I employ'd to make it out ; I desisted for some time to add any thing about a Problem , that I had but occasionally handled : Only , because the Instrument I mention'd in my Examen of Mr. Hobbes's Opinion , and afterwards us'd at Gresham-College , was difficult enough to be well made , and not to be procur'd ready made , I did for the sake of some Virtuosi , that were curious of such things , devise a slight and easily made Instrument , describ'd in the following Tract , Chap. 4th , in which the chief Phaenomena , I shew'd before the Society , were easily producible . But afterwards the mistakes and erroneous Opinions , that , in Print as well as in Discourse , I met with , even among Learned Men , about Suction , and the Curiosity of an Ingenious Person , engaged me to resume that Subject and treat of it , as if I had never before meddled with it , for the reason intimated in the beginning of the insuing Paper . And finding upon the review of my later Animadversions on Mr. Hobbes's Problemata de Vacuo , that some passages of this Tract are referr'd to there ; I saw my self thereby little less than engaged to annex that Discourse to those Animadversions . And this I the rather consented to , because it contains some Experiments , that I have not elsewhere met with , which , together with some other parts of that Essay , may , I hope , prove of some use to illustrate and confirm our Doctrine about the Weight and Spring of the Air , and supply the less experienced than ingenious Friends to our Hypothesis with more grounds of answering the later Objections of some Learned Men , against whose endeavours I perceive it will be useful to employ variety of Experiments and other Proofs to evince the same Truth ; that some or other of these may meet with those Arguments or evasions with which they strive to elude the force of the rest . The Title of the following Essay may sufficiently keep the Reader from expecting to find any other kind of Attraction discours'd of , than that which is made by Suction . But yet thus much I shall here intimate in general , that I have found by Trials purposely made , that the Examples of Suction are not the only noted ones of Attraction , that may be reduced to Pulsion . OF THE CAUSE OF Attraction by SUCTION , A PARADOX . CHAP. I. I Might , Sir , save my self some trouble in giving you that account you desire of me about Suction , by referring you to a passage in the Examen , I long since writ , of Mr. Hobbes's Dialogus Physicus de Natura Aeris , if I knew , you had those two Books lying by you . But because I suspect , that my Examen may not be in your hands , since 't is almost out of Print , and has not for some years been in my own ; and because I do not so well remember , after so long a time , the particulars that I writ there , about Suction , as I do in general , that the Hypothesis I proposed , was very incidentally and briefly discours'd of , upon an occasion ministred by a wrong Explication given of Suction by Mr. Hobbes , I shall here decline referring you to what I there writ ; and proposing to you those thoughts about Suction , that I remember I there pointed at , I shall annex some things to illustrate and confirm them , that would not have been so proper for me to have insisted on in a short and but occasional Excursion . And I should immediately proceed to what you expect from me , but that Suction being generally look'd upon as a kind of Attraction , it will be requisite for me to premise something about Attraction it self . For , besides that the Cause of it , which I here dispute not of , is obscure , the very Nature and Notion of it is wont by Naturalists to be either left untouch'd , or but very darkly deliver'd , and therefore will not be unfit to be here somewhat explain'd . How general and ancient soever the common Opinion may be , that Attraction is a kind of Motion quite differing from Pulsion , if not also opposite to it ; yet I confess , I concur in opinion , though not altogether upon the same grounds , with some modern Naturalists , that think Attraction a Species of Pulsion . And at least among inanimate Bodies I have not yet observed any thing , that convinces me , that Attraction cannot be reduced to Pulsion ; for , these two seem to me to be but extrinsical denominations of the same Local Motion , in which , if a moved Body precede the Movent , or tend to acquire a greater distance from it , we call it Pulsion ; and if , upon the score of the Motion , the same Body follow the Movent or approach to it , we call it Attraction . But this difference may consist but in an accidental respect , which does not Physically alter the nature of the Motion , but is founded upon the respect , which the Line , wherein the Motion is made , happens to have to the situation of the Movent . And that which seems to me to have been the chief cause of mens mistaking Attraction for a motion opposite to Pulsion , is , that they have look'd upon both the moving and moved Bodies , in too popular and superficial a manner ; and consider'd in the Movent rather the situation of the conspicuous and more bulky part of the Animal or other Agent , than the situation of that part of the Animal , or Instrument , that does immediately impress that motion upon the Mobile . For those that attentively heed this , may easily take notice , that some part of that Body , or of the Instrument , which by reason of their conjunction in this operation is to be look'd on but as making one with it , is really placed behind some part of the Body to be drawn , and therefore cannot move outwards it self without thrusting that Body forward . This will be easily understood , if we consider , what happens when a Man draws a Chain after him ; for , though his Body do precede the Chain , yet his finger or some other part of the hand , wherewith he draws it , has some part or other that reaches behind the fore part of the first Link , and the hinder part of this Link comes behind the anteriour part of the second Link ; and so each Link has one of its parts placed behind some part of the Link next after it , 'till you come to the last Link of all . And so , as the finger , that is in the first Link , cannot move forwards but it must thrust on that Link , by this Series of Trusions the whole Chain is moved forwards ; and if any other Body be drawn by that Chain , you may perceive , that some part of the last Link comes behind some part of that Body , or of some intervening Body , which , by its cohesion with it , ought in our present case to be consider'd as part of it . And thus Attraction seems to be but a Species of Pulsion , and usually belongs to that kind of it , which , for distinctions sake , is called Trusion , by which we understand that kind of Pulsion , wherein the Movent goes along with the moved Body without quitting it whilst the progress lasts ; as it happens , when a Gardiner drives his Wheel-barrow before him without letting go his hold of it . But I must not here dissemble a difficulty , that I foresee may be speciously urged against this account of Attraction . For it may be said , that there are Attractions , where it cannot be pretended , that any part of the Attrahent comes behind the Attracted Body ; as in Magnetical and Electrical Attractions , and in that which is made of Water , when 't is drawn up into Springs and Pumps . I need not tell you , that you know so well , as that partly the Cartesians , and partly other Modern Philosophers , have recourse on this occasion either to screwed Particles and other Magnetical Emissions , to explicate Phaenomena of this kind . And , according to such Hypotheses , one may say , that many of these Magnetical and Electrical Effluvia come behind some parts of the attracted Bodies , or at least of the little solid Particles , that are as it were the Walls of their Pores , or procure some discussion of the Air , that may make it thrust the Moveable towards the Loadstone or Amber , &c. But if there were none of these , nor any other subtil Agents that cause this Motion by a real , though unperceived , Pulsion ; I should make a distinction betwixt other Attractions and these , which I should then stile Attraction by Invisibles . But , whether there be really any such in Nature , and why I scruple to admit things so hard to be conceived , may be elsewhere consider'd . And you will , I presume , the freelier allow me this liberty , if , ( since in this place 't is proper to do it , ) I shew you , that in the last of the instances I formerly objected ( that of the drawing up of Water into the Barrel of a Syringe , ) there is no true Attraction of the Liquor made by the external Air. I say then , that by the ascending Rammer , as a part of which I here consider the obtuse end , Plug , or Sucker , there is no Attraction made of the contiguous and subjacent Water , but only there is room made for it , to rise into , without being expos'd to the pressure of the supeiour Air. For , if we suppose the whole Rammer to be by Divine Omnipotence annihilated , and consequently uncapable of exercising any Attraction ; yet , provided the superiour Air were kept off from the Water by any other way as well as 't was by the Rammer , the Liquor would as well ascend into the Cavity of the Barrel ; since , ( as I have elsewhere abundantly proved , ) the surface of the Terraqueous Globe being continually press'd on by the incumbent Air or Atmosphere , the Water must be by that pressure impell'd into any cavity here below , where there is no Air to resist it ; as by our Supposition there is not in the Barrel of our Syringe , when the Rammer , or whatever else was in it , had been annihilated . Which Reasoning may be sufficiently confirm'd by an Experiment , whereby I have more than once shewn some curious persons , that , if the external Air , and consequently its pressure , be withdrawn from about the Syringe , one may pull up the Sucker as much as he pleases , without drawing up after it the subjacent Water . In short , let us suppose , that a Man standing in an inner room does by his utmost resistance keep shut a Door , that is neither lock'd nor latch'd , against another , who with equal force endeavours to thrust it open : In this case , as if one should forcibly pull away the first Man , it could not be said , that this Man , by his recess from the Door he endeavoured to press outwards , did truely and properly draw in his Antagonist , though upon that recess the coming in of his Antagonist would presently ensue ; so it cannot properly be said , that by the ascent of the Rammer , which displaces the superiour Air , either the Rammer it self , or the expelled Air , does properly attract the subjacent Water , though the ingress of that Liquor into the Barrel does thereupon necessarily ensue . And that , as the Comparison supposes , there is a pressure of the superiour Air against the upper part of the Sucker , you may easily perceive , if having well stopt the lower orifice of the Syringe with your finger , you forcibly draw up the Sucker to the top of the Barrel . For if then you let go the Rammer , you will find it impell'd downwards by the incumbent Air with a notable force . CHAP. II. HAving thus premis'd something in general about the Nature of Attraction , as far as 't is necessary for my present design ; it will be now seasonable to proceed to the consideration of that kind of Attraction , that is employed to raise Liquors , and is by a distinct Name called Suction . About the Cause of this there is great contention between the New Philosophers ; as they are stiled , and the Peripateticks . For the Followers of Aristotle , and many Learned Men that in other things dissent from him , ascribe the ascension of Liquors upon Suction to Natures abhorrence of a Vacuum . For , say they , when a Man dips one end of a Straw or Reed into stagnant Water , and sucks at the other end , the Air contain'd in the cavity of the Reed passes into that of his Lungs , and consequently the Reed would be left empty , if no other Body succeeded in the place it deserts ; but there are only ( that they take notice of , ) two Bodies that can succeed , the Air and the ( grosser Liquor ) the Water ; and the Air cannot do it , because of the interposition of the Water , that denies it access to the immers'd orifice of the Reed , and therefore it must be the Water it self , which accordingly does ascend to prevent a Vacuum detested by Nature . But many of the Modern Philosophers , and generally all the Corpuscularians , look upon this Fuga Vacui as but an imaginary Cause of Suction , though they do it upon very differing grounds . For , the Atomists , that willingly admit of Vacuities , properly so called , both within and without our World , cannot think that Nature hates or fears a Vacuum , and declines her usual course to prevent it : And the Cartesians , though they do , as well as the Peripateticks , deny that there is a Vacuum , yet since they affirm not only , that there is none in rerum Natura , but that there can be none , because what Others call an empty Space having three Dimensions , hath all that they think belonging to the Essence of a Body , they will not grant Nature to be so indiscreet , as to strain her self to prevent the making of a thing that is impossible to be made . The Peripatetic Opinion about the Cause of Suction , though commonly defended by the Schools , as well Modern as Ancient , supposes in Nature such an abhorrence of a Vacuum , as neither has been well proved , nor does well agree with the lately discover'd Phaenomenon of Suction . For , according to their Hypothesis , Water and other Liquors should ascend upon Suction to any hight to prevent a Vacuum , which yet is not agreeable to experience . For I have carefully tryed , that by pumping with a Pump far more stanch than those that are usually made , and indeed as well clos'd as we could possibly bring it to be , we could not by all our endeavours raise Water by Suction to above * 36½ foot . The Torricellian Exp t shews , that the weight of the Air is able to sustain , and some of our Experim ts shew , 't is able to raise a Mercurial Cylinder equal in weight to as high a Cylinder of Water as we were able to raise by pumping . For Mercury being near 14 times as heavy as Water of the same bulk , if the weight of the Air be equivalent to that of a Mercurial Cylinder of 29 or 30 Inches , it must be able to counterpoise a Cylinder of Water near fourteen times as long , that is , from thirty four to near thirty six foot . And very disagreeable to the common Hypothesis , but consonant to ours , is the Experiment that I have more than once tryed , and I think elsewhere deliver'd , namely , That , if you take a Glass Pipe of about three foot long , and , dipping one end of it in Water , suck at the other , the Water will be suddenly made to flow briskly into your mouth : But , if instead of Water you dip the lower end into Quicksilver , though you suck as strongly as ever you can , provided that in this case , as in the former , you hold the Pipe upright , you will never be able to suck up the Quicksilver near so high as your mouth ; so that if the Water ascended upon Suction to the top of the same Pipe , because else there would have been a Vacuum left in the cavity of it , why should not we conclude , that , when we have suckt up the Quicksilver as strongly as we can , as much of the upper part of the Tube as is deserted by the Air , and yet not fill'd by the Mercury , admits , in part at least , a Vacuum , ( as to Air ) of which consequently Nature cannot reasonably be suppos'd to have so great and unlimited an abhorrency , as the Peripateticks and their Adherents presume . Yet I will not determine , whether there be any more than many little Vacuities , or Spaces devoid of Air , in the Cavity , so called , of the Pipe unfill'd by the Mercury ; ( so that the whole Cavity is not one entire empty Space ; ) it being sufficient for my purpose , that my Experiment affords a good Argument ad hominem against the Peripateticks , and warrants us to seek for some other Cause than the fuga Vacui , why a much stronger Suction than that , which made Water ascend with ease into the Suckers mouth , will not also raise Quicksilver to the same height or near it . Those Modern Philosophers that admit not the fuga Vocui to be the Cause of the raising of Liquors in Suction , do generally enough agree in referring it to the action of the Suckers thorax . For , when a Man endeavours to suck up a Liquor , he does by means of the Muscles enlarge the cavity of his Chest , which he cannot do but at the same time he must thrust away those parts of the ambient Air that were contiguous to his Chest , and the displac'd Air does , according to some Learned Men , ( therein , if I mistake not , Followers of Gassendus , ) compress the contiguous Air , and that the next to it , and so outwards , 'till the pressure , successively passing from one part of the Air to the other , arrive at the surface of the Liquor ; and all other places being as to sense full , the impell'd Air cannot find place but by thrusting the Water into the room made for it in the Pipe by the recess of the Air that pass'd into the Suckers lungs . And they differ'd not much from this Explication , that , without taking in the compression of the ambient Air made by the thorax , refer the Phaenomenon to the propagated motion or impulse , that is imprest on the Air displac'd by the thorax in its dilatation , and yet unable to move in a World perfectly fill'd , as they suppose ours to be , unless the Liquor be impell'd into as much of the cavity of the Pipe , as fast as 't is deserted by the Air that is said to be suck'd up . But though I readily confess this Explication to be ingenious , and such as I wonder not they should acquiess in , who are acquainted but with the long known and obvious Phaenomena of Suction ; and though I am not sure , but that in the most familiar cases the Causes assign'd by them may contribute to the Effect ; yet , preserving for Cartesius and Gassendus the respect I willingly pay such great Philosophers , I must take the liberty to tell you , that I cannot acquiess in their Theory . For I think , that the Cause of Suction , they assign , is in many cases not necessary , in others , not sufficient . And first , as to the Condensation of the Air by the dilatation of the Suckers Chest ; when I consider the extent of the ambient Air , and how small a compression no greater an expansion than that of the Thorax is like to make , I can scarce think , so slight a condensation of the free Air can have so considerable an operation on the surface of the Liquor to be rais'd , as the Hypothesis I examin requires : And that this impulse of the Air by a Suckers dilated Thorax , though it be wont to accompany the ascension of the water procured by Suction , yet is not of absolute necessity to it , will , I presume , be easily granted , if it can be made out , that even a propagated Pulsion , abstracted from any Condensation of Air , is not so necessarily the Cause of it , but that the Effect may be produc'd without it . For suppose , that by Divine Omnipotence so much Air as is displac'd by the Thorax were annihilated ; yet I see not , why the Ascension of the Liquor should not ensue . For , when a Man begins to suck , there is an Aequilibrium , or rather Aequipollency between the pressure , which the Air , contained in the Pipe , ( which is shut up with the pressure of the Atmosphere upon it , ) has , by virtue of its Spring , upon that part of the surface of the water that is environ'd by the sides of the Pipe , and the pressure which the Atmospherical Air has , by virtue of its weight , upon all the rest of the surface of the stagnant water ; so that , when by the dilatation of the Suckers Thorax , the Air within the cavity of the Pipe comes to be rarified , and consequently loose of its Spring , the weight of the external Air continuing in the mean time the same , it must necessarily happen , that the Spring of the internal Air will be too weak to compress any longer the gravitation of the external , and consequently , that part of the surface of the stagnant water , that is included in the Pipe , being less press'd upon , than all the other parts of the same surfaces must necessarily give way , where it can least resist , and consequently be impell'd up into the Pipe , where the Air , having had its Spring weakened by expansion , is no longer able to resist , as it did before . This may be illustrated by somewhat varying an Instance already given , and conceiving , that within a Chamber three Men thrust all together with their utmost force against a Door , ( which we suppose to have neither Bolt nor Latch ) to keep it shut , at the same time the three other Men have just equal strength , and imploy their force to thrust it open . For though , whilst their opposite endeavours are equal , the Door will continue to be kept shut , yet if one of the three Men within the Room should go away , there will need no new force , nor other accession of strength to the three Men , to make them prevail and thrust open the Door against the resistance of those that endeavour'd to keep it shut , who are now but two . And here ( upon the by ) you may take notice , that , to raise water in Suction , there is no necessity of any rarified and forcibly stretch'd Rope , as 't were , of the Air , to draw up the subjacent water into the Pipe , since the bare debilitation of the Spring of the included Air may very well serve the turn . And though , if we should suppose the Air within the Pipe to be quite annihilated , it could not be pretended ( since it would not have so much as Existence ) that it exercises an attractive Power ; yet in this case the water would ascend into the Pipe , without the assistance of Natures imaginary Abhorrence of a Vacuum , but by a Mechanical Necessity , plainly arising from this , that there would be a pressure of the incumbent Atmosphere upon the rest of the surface of the stagnant water , and no pressure at all upon that part of the surface that is within the Pipe , where consequently there could be no resistance made to the ascension of the water , every where else strongly urg'd by the weight of the incumbent Air. I shall add on this occasion , that , to shew some inquisitive Men , that the weak resistance within a Vessel , that had but one orifice expos'd to the water , may much more contribute to the ascension of that Liquor into the Vessel , than either the compression or the continued or reflected impulse of the external Air ; I thought fit to produce a Phaenomenon , which by the Beholders was without scruple judg'd an Effect of Suction , and yet could not be ascrib'd to the Cause of Suction , assign'd by either of the Sects of Philosophers I dissent from . The Experiment was this : By a way , elsewhere deliver'd , the long neck of a Glass-bubble was seal'd up , and almost all the Air had been by Heat driven out of the whole cavity of the Bubble or Vial , and then the Glass was laid aside for some hours , or as long as we pleas'd ; afterwards the seal'd apex of the neck was broken off under water : I demand now of a Peripatetic , whether the Liquor ought to be suck'd or drawn into the cavity of the Glass , and why ? if he says , as questionless he will , that the water would be attracted to hinder a Vacuum , he would thereby acknowledge , that , 'till the Glass was unstopt under water , there was some empty space in it ; for , 'till the sealed end was broken off , the water could not get in , and therefore , if the fuga vacui had any thing to do in the ascension , the Liquor must rise , not to prevent an empty space , but to fill one that was made before . Nor does our Experiment much more favour the other Philosophers , I dissent from : For in it there is no dilatation made of the sides of the Glass , as in ordinary Suction there is made of the Thorax , but only there is so much Air driven out of the cavity of the Bubble , into whose room since neither common Air nor Water is permitted to succeed , it appears not , how the propagated and returning impulse , or the Circle of Motion , as to common Air and Water , does here take place . And then I demand , what becomes of the Air , that has been by heat driven out , and is by the Hermetical Seal kept out of the cavity of the Bubble ? If it be said , that it diffuses it self into the ambient Air , and mingles with it , that will be granted which I contended for , that so little Air as is usually displac'd in Suction cannot make any considerable compression of the free ambient Air ; for , what can one Cubic Inch of Air , which is sometimes more than one of our Glasses contains , do , to the condensation so much as of all the Air in the Chamber , when the expell'd Corpuscles are evenly distributed among those of the ambient . And how comes this inconsiderable condensation to have so great an effect in every part of the room , as to be able there to impel into the Glass as much water in extent as the whole Air that was driven out of the cavity of it ? But if it be said , that the expell'd Air condens'd only the contiguous or very neighbouring Air , 't is easie to answer , that 't is no way probable , that the expell'd Particles of the Air should not by the differing motions of the ambient Air be quickly made to mingle with it , but should rather wait ( which if it did we sometimes made it do for many hours ) 'till the Vessels whence 't was driven out were unstopp'd again . But , though this could probably be pretended , it cannot truly be asserted . For if you carry the seal'd Glass quite out of the room or house , and unstop it at some other place , though two or three miles distant ; the ascension of the water will , ( as I found by tryal ) nevertheless insue ; in which case I presume , it will not be said , that the Air , that was expell'd out of the Glass , and condens'd the contiguous or near contiguous Air , attended the Bubble in all its motions , and was ready at hand to impel-in the water , as soon as the seal'd apex of the Vial was broken off . But I doubt not , but most of the Embracers of the Opinion I oppose , being Learned and Ingenuous Persons , if they had been acquainted with these and the like Phaenomena , would rather have changed their Opinion about Suction , than have gone about to defend it by such Evasions , which I should not have thought worth proposing , if I had not met with Objections of this nature publickly maintain'd by a Learned Writer , on occasion of the Air 's rushing into the exhausted Magdenburgic Engine . But as in our Experiment these Objections have no place , so in our Hypothesis the Explication is very easie , as will anon be intimated . CHAP. III. HAving thus shewn , that the Ascension of Water upon Suction may be caus'd otherwise than by the Condensation or the propagated Pulsion of Air contiguous to the Suckers Thorax , and thrust out of place by it ; it remains that I shew , ( which was one of the two things I chiefly intended , ) that there may be Cases wherein the Cause , assign'd in the Hypothesis I am examining , will not have place . But this will be better understood , if , before I proceed to the proof of it , I propose to you the thoughts , I had many years since , and do still retain , about the Cause of the Ascension of Liquors in Suction . To clear the way to the right understanding of the ensuing Discourse , it will not be amiss here to premise a summary intimation of some things that are suppos'd in our Hypothesis . We suppose then first , without disputing either the Existence or the nature of Elementary Air , that the Common Air we breath in , and which I often call Atmospherical Air , abounds with Corpuscles not devoid of Weight , and indowed with Elasticity or Springiness , whereby the lower parts , comprest by the weight of the upper , incessantly endeavour to expand themselves , by which expansion , and in proportion to it , the Spring of the Air is weaken'd , ( as other Springs are wont to be ) the more they are permitted to stretch themselves . Next , we suppose , that the Terraqueous Globe , being inviron'd with this gravitating and springy Air , has its surface and the Bodies plac'd on it prest by as much of the Atmosphere as either perpendicularly leans on them , or can otherwise come to bear upon them . And this pressure is by the Turricellian and other Experiments found to be equivalent to a perpendicularly erected Cylinder of about twenty nine or thirty Inches of Quicksilver , ( for the height is differing , as the gravity of the Atmosphere happens to be various . ) Lastly , we suppose , that , Air being contain'd in a Pipe or other hollow Body that has but one orifice open to the free Air , if this orifice be Hermetically seal'd , or otherwise ( as with the mouth of one that sucks ) clos'd , the now included Air , whilst it continues without any farther expansion , will have an elasticity equivalent to the weight of as much of the outward Air as did before press against it . For , if the weight of the Atmosphere , to which it was then expos'd , had been able to compress it further , it would have done so , and then the closing of the orifice , at which the internal and external Air communicated , as it fenc'd the included Air from the pressure of the incumbent , so it hindred the same included Air from expanding it self ; so that , as it was shut up with the pressure of the Atmosphere upon it , that is in a state of as great compression as the weight of the Atmosphere could bring it to , so , being shut up and thereby kept from weakening that pressure by expansion , it must retain a Springiness equipollent to the pressure 't was expos'd to before , which ( as I just now noted ) was as great as the weight of the incumbent Pillar of the Atmosphere could make it . But if , as was said in the first Supposition , the included Air should come to be dilated or expanded , the Spring being then unbent , its Spring , like that of other elastical Bodies , would be debilitated answerably to that expansion . To me then it seems , that , speaking in general , Liquors are upon Suction raised into the cavities of Pipes and other hollow Bodies , when , and so far as , there is a less pressure on the surface of the Liquor in the cavity , than on the surface of the external Liquor that surrounds the Pipe , whether that pressure on those parts of the external Liquor , that are from time to time impell'd up into the orifice of the Pipe , proceed from the weight of the Atmosphere , or the propagated compression or impulse of some parts of the Air , or the Spring of the Air , or some other Cause , as the pressure of some other Body quite distinct from Air. Upon the general view of this Hypothesis , it seems very consonant to the Mechanical Principles . For , if there be on the differing parts of the surface of a fluid Body unequal pressures , 't is plain , as well by the nature of the thing , as by what has been demonstrated by Archimedes , and his Commentators , that the greater force will prevail against the lesser , and that that part of the waters surface must give way , where it is least prest . So that that , wherein the Hypothesis I venture to propose to you , differs from that which I dissent from , is not , that mine is less Mechanical ; but partly in this , that , whereas the Hypothesis , I question , supposes a necessity of the protrusion or impulse of the Air , mine does not require that supposition , but , being more general , reaches to other ways of procuring the Ascension of Liquors , without raising them by the impulse of the Air ; and partly , and indeed chiefly , in that the Hypothesis , I decline , makes the Cause of the Ascension of Liquors to be only the increased pressure of the Air external to the pipe ; and I chiefly make it to depend upon the diminished pressure of the Air within the pipe , on the score of the expansion 't is brought to by Suction . To proceed now to some Experiments that I made in favour of this Hypothesis , I shall begin with that which follows : We took a Glass-pipe bended like a Syphon , but so that the shorter legg was as parallel to the longer as we could get it made , and was Hermetically seal'd at the end : Into this Syphon we made a shift ( for 't is not very easie ) to convey water , so that the crooked part being held downwards , the liquor reach'd to the same height in both the leggs , and yet there was about an Inch and half of uncomprest Air shut up in the shorter legg . This little Instrument ( for 't was but about fifteen Inches long ) being thus prepar'd , 't is plain , that according to the Hypothesis I dissent from , there is no reason , why the water should ascend upon Suction . For , though we should admit , that the external Air were considerably comprest , or received a notable impulse , when the Suckers chest is enlarged ; yet in our case that compression or protrusion will not reach the surface of the water in the shorter legg , because it is there fenc'd from the action of the external Air by the sides of the Glass , and the Hermetical Seal at the top . And yet , if one suck'd strongly at the open orifice in the longer legg , the water in the shorter would be deprest ; and that in the longer ascended at one suck about an Inch and half : Of which the reason is clear in our Hypothesis . For , the Spring of the included Air , together with the weight of the water in the shorter legg , and the pressure of the Atmospherical Air , assisted by the weight of the liquor in the longer legg , counter-ballanced one another before the Suction began : But , when afterwards upon Suction the Air in the longer legg came to be dilated and thereby weaken'd , 't was render'd unable to resist the undiminish'd pressure of the Air included in the shorter legg , which consequently expanding it self by vertue of its Elasticity , deprest the contiguous water , and made it proportionably rise in the opposite legg , 'till by the expansion its Spring being more and more weaken'd , it arrived at an equipollency with the gravitation or pressure of the Atmosphere . Which last clause contains the Reason , why , when the person that suckt had rais'd the water in the longer legg less than three Inches higher by repeated endeavours to suck , and that without once suffering the water to fall back again , he was not able to elevate the water in the longer , so much as three Inches above its first station . And if in the shorter legg there was but an Inch and a quarter of space left for the Air unfill'd by the water , by divers skilfully reiterated acts of Suction he could not raise the liquor in the longer legg above two Inches ; because by that time the Air included in the shorter legg had , by expanding it self further and further , proportionably weaken'd its Spring , 'till at length it became as rarified ; as was the Air in the cavity of the longer legg , and consequently was able to thrust away the water with no more force than the Air in the long legg was able to resist . And by the recited tryal it appear'd , that the rarefaction usually made of Air by Suction is not near so great , as one would expect , problably because by the dilatation of the Lungs the Air , being still shut up , is but moderately rarified , and the Air in the longer legg can by them be brought to no greater degree of rarity , than that of the Air within the Chest . For , whereas the included Air in our Instrument was not expanded , by my estimate , at one suck to above the double of its former dimensions , and by divers successive sucks was expanded but from one Inch and an half to less than four Inches and an half , if the Suction could have been conveniently made with a great and stanch Syringe , the rarefaction of the Air would probably have been far greater ; since in our Pneumatick Engin Air may , without heat , and by a kind of Suction , be brought to possess many hundreds of times the space it took up before . From this rarefaction of the Air in both the leggs of our Instrument proceeds another Phaenomenon , readily explicable by our Hypothesis . For if , when the water was impell'd up as high as the Suction could raise it , the Instrument were taken from the Suckers mouth , the elevated water would with violence return to its wonted station . For , the Air , in both the leggs of the Instrument , having by the Suction lost much of the Spring , and so of its power of pressing ; when once the orifice of the longer legg was left open , the Atmospherical Air came again to gravitate upon the water in that legg , and the Air , included in the other legg , having its Spring debilitated by the precedent expansion , was not able to hinder the external Air from violently repelling the elevated water , 'till the included Air was thrust into the space it possess'd before the Suction ; in which space it had Density and Elasticity enough to resist the pressure , that the external Air exercis'd against it through the interpos'd water . But our Hypothesis about the Cause of Suction would not need to be solicitously prov'd to you by other ways , if you had seen what I have sometimes been able to do in our Pneumatick Engin. For , there we found by tryals purposely devis'd , and carefully made , that a good Syringe being so conveyed into our Receiver , that the open orifice of the Pipe or lower part was kept under water , if the Engin were exhausted , though the handle of the Syringe were drawn up , the water would not follow it , which yet it would do if the external Air were let in again . The Reason of which is plain in our Hypothesis . For , the Air , that should have prest upon the surface of the stagnant water , having been pumpt out , there was nothing to impell up the water into the deserted cavity of the Syringe , as there was when the Receiver was fill'd with Air. CHAP. IV. BUt because such a conveniency as our Engin , and the apparatus necessary for such Tryals are not easily procurable , I shall endeavour to confirm our Hypothesis about Suction by subjoining some Experiments , that may be tryed without the help of that Engin , for the making out these three things : I. That a Liquor may be rais'd by Suction , when the pressure of the Air , neither as it has Weight nor Elasticity , is the Cause of the Elevation . II. That the weight of the Atmospherical Air is sufficient to raise up Liquors in Suction . III. That in some cases Suction will not be made , as , according to the Hypothesis I dissent from , it should , although there be a dilatation of the Suckers Thorax , and no danger of a Vacuum though the Liquor should ascend . And first , to shew , how much the rising of Liquors in Suction depends upon the weight or pressure of the impellent Body , and how little necessity there is , where that pressure is not wanting , that , in the place deferted by the Liquor that is suck'd , there should succeed Air or some other visible Body , as the Peripatetic Schools would have it ; to shew this , I say , I thought on the following Experiments . We took a Glass-pipe fit to have the Torricellian Experiment made with it , but a good deal longer than was necessary for that use : This Pipe being Hermetically seal'd at one end , the other end was so bent as to be reflected upwards , and make as it were the shorter legg of the Syphon as parallel as we could to the longer , so that the Tube now was shap'd like an inverted Syphon with leggs of a very unequal length . This Tube , notwithstanding its inconvenient figure , we made a shift , ( for 't is not easily done ) to fill with Mercury , when 't was in an inclin'd posture , and then erecting it , the Mercury subsided in the longer legg , as in the Torricellian Experiment , and attain'd to between two foot and a quarter and two foot and an half above the surface of the Mercury in the shorter legg , which in this Instrument answers to the stagnant Mercury in an ordinary Barometer , from which to distinguish it I have elswhere call'd this Syphon , furnish'd with Mercury , a Travelling Baroscope , because it may be safely carried from place to place . Out of the shorter legg of this Tube we warily took as much Mercury as was thought convenient for what we had further to do , and this we did by such a way as to hinder any Air from getting into the deserted cavity of the longer legg , by which means the Mercurial Cylinder , ( estimated as I lately mention'd ) retain'd the same height above the stagnant Mercury in the shorter : The upper and clos'd part of this Travelling Baroscope you will easily grant to have been free from Common Air , not only for other Reasons that have been given elsewhere , but particularly for this , that , if you gently incline the Instrument , the Quicksilver will ascend to the top of the Tube ; which you know it could not do , if the place , formerly deserted by it , were possest by the Air , which by its Spring would hinder the ascension of the Mercury , ( as is easie to be tryed . ) The Instrument having been thus fitted , I caus'd one of the by-standers to suck at the shorter legg , whereupon ( as I expected ) there presently ensued an Ascension of four or five Inches of Mercury in that legg , and a proportionable Subsidence of the Mercury in the longer , and yet in this case the raising of the Mercury cannot be pretended to proceed from the pressure of the Air. For , the weight of the Atmosphere is fenc'd off by that , which closes the upper end of the longer Tube , and the Spring of the Air has here nothing to do , since , as we have lately shewn , the space deserted by the Mercury is not possest by the included Air , and the pulsion or condensation of the Air , suppos'd by divers modern Philosophers to be made by the dilatation of the Suckers Chest , and to press upon the surface of the Liquors that are to be suck'd up , this , I say , cannot here be pretended in regard the surface of the Liquor in the longer legg is every way fenc'd from the pressure of the ambient Air. So that it remains , that the Cause , which rais'd the Quicksilver in the shorter legg upon the newly recited Suction , was the weight of the collaterally superiour Quicksilver in the longer legg , which , being ( at the beginning of the Suction ) equivalent to the weight of the Atmosphere , there is a plain reason , why the stagnant Mercury in the shorter legg should be rais'd some Inches by Suction ; as Mercury stagnant in an open Vessel will be rais'd by the weight of the Atmosphere , when the Suction is made in the open Air. For , in both cases there is a Pipe , that reaches to the stagnant Mercury , and a competent weight to impel it into that Pipe ; when the Air in the cavity of the Pipe has its Spring weaken'd by the dilatation that accompanied Suction . The Second point formerly propos'd , which is , That the weight of the Air is sufficient to raise Liquors in Suction ; may not be ill prov'd by Arguments legitimately drawn from the Torricellian Experiment it self , and much more clearly by the first and fifteenth of our Continued Physico-Mechanical Experiments . And therefore I shall only here take notice of a Phaenomenon , that may be exhibited by the Travelling Baroscope , which , though it be much inferiour to the Experiments newly referr'd to , may be of some use on the present occasion . Having then provided an Instrument like the Travelling Baroscope , mention'd under the former Head , but whose leggs were not so unequally long , and having in it made the Torricellian Experiment after the manner lately describ'd ; we order'd the matter so , that there remain'd in the shorter legg the length of divers Inches unfill'd with stagnant Mercury . Then I caus'd one , vers'd in what he was to do , so to raise the Quicksilver by Suction to the open orifice of the shorter legg , that , the orifice being seasonably and dexterously closed , the Mercury continued to fill that legg , as long as we thought fit ; and then having put a mark to the surface of the Mercury in the longer legg , we unstopp'd the orifice of the shorter ; whereupon the Mercury , that before fill'd it , was depress'd , 'till the same Liquor in the longer legg was rais'd five Inches or more above the mark , and continu'd at that height . I said , that the Mercury that had been raised by Suction , was depress'd , rather than that it subsided , because its own weight could not here make it fall , since a Mercurial Cylinder of five Inches was far from being able to raise so tall a Cylinder of Mercury as made a counterpoise in the longer legg ; and therefore the depression we speak of , is to be referr'd to the gravitation of the Atmospherical Air upon the surface of the Mercury in the shorter legg : And I see no cause to doubt but that , if we could have procured an Instrument , into whose shorter legg a Mercurial Cylinder of many Inches higher could have been suck'd up , it would by this contrivance have appear'd , that the pressure of the Atmosphere would easily impel up a far taller Cylinder of Mercury than it did in our recited Experiment . That this is no groundless conjecture may appear probable by the Experiment you will presently meet with . For if the gravity of an incumbent Pillar of the Atmosphere be able to compress a parcel of included Air as much as a Mercurial Cylinder , equivalent in weight to between thirty and five and thirty foot of water , is able to condense it , it cannot well be denied that the same Atmospherical Cylinder may be able by its weight to raise and counterballance eight or nine and twenty Inches of Quicksilver , or an equivalent pillar of water in Tubes , where the resistance of these two Liquors to be rais'd and sustain'd by the Air , depends only upon their own unassisted gravity . To confirm our Doctrine of the Gravitation of the Atmosphere upon the surface of the Liquors expos'd to it , I will subjoin an Experiment , that I devis'd to shew , that the incumbent Air , in its natural or usual state , would compress other Air not rarified , but in the like natural state , as much as a Cylinder of eight or nine and twenty Inches of Mercury would condense or compress it . In order to the making of this , I must put you in mind of what I have shewn elsewhere at large , and shall further confirm by one of the Experiments that follows the next ; namely , that about twenty nine or thirty Inches of Quicksilver will compress Air , that being in its natural or usual state ( as to rarity and density ) has been shut up in the shorter legg of our Travelling or Syphon-like Baroscope , into half the room that included Air possess'd before . This premis'd , I pass on to my Experiment , which was this : We provided a Travelling Baroscope , wherein the Mercury in the longer legg was kept suspended by the counterpoise of the Air that gravitated on the surface of the Mercury in the shorter legg , which we had so order'd , that it reached not by about two Inches to the top of the shorter legg . Then making a mark at the place where the stagnant Mercury rested , 't was manifest according to our Hypothesis , that the Air in the upper part of the shorter legg was in its natural state , or of the same degree of density with the outward Air , with which it freely communicated at the open orifice of the shorter legg ; so that this stagnant Air was equally prest upon by the weight of the collaterally superiour Cylinder of Mercury in the longer legg , and the equivalent weight of a directly incumbent pillar of the Atmosphere . Things being in this posture , the upper part of the shorter legg , which had been before purposely drawn out to an almost capillary smallness , was Hermetically seal'd , which , though the Instrument was kept erected , was so nimbly done by reason of the slenderness of the Pipe , that the included Air did not appear to be sensibly heated , though for greater caution we staid a while from proceeding , that , if any rarefaction had been produc'd in the Air , it might have time to lose it again . This done , we open'd the lower end of the longer legg , ( which had been so order'd before , that we could easily do it , and without concussion of the Vessel , ) by which means the Atmospherical Air , gaining access to the Mercury included in the longer legg , did , as I expected , by its gravitation upon it so compress the Air included in the shorter legg , that , according to the estimate we made with the help of a Ruler , ( for by reason of the conical figure of the upper part of the glass we could not take precise measures , ) it was thrust into near half the room it took up before , and consequently , according to what I put you lately in mind of , endur'd a compression like that , which a Mercurial Cylinder of about twenty nine Inches would have given it . This Experiment , as to the main of it , was for greater caution made the second time with much the like success ; and though it had been more easie to measure the Condensation of the Air , if , instead of drawing out and sealing up the shorter legg of the Instrument , we had contented our selves to close it some other way ; yet we rather chose to imploy Hermes's Seal , lest , if any other course had been taken , it might be pretended , that some of the included Air , when it began to be comprest , might escape out at the not perfectly and strongly clos'd orifice of the legg wherein 't was imprison'd . To make it yet further appear , how much the Ascension of Liquors by Suction depends upon Pressure , rather than upon Natures imaginary Abhorrence of a Vacuum , or the propagated Pulsion of the Air ; I will subjoin an Instance , wherein that presum'd Abhorrence cannot be pretended . The Experiment was thus made : A Glass-Syphon , like those lately describ'd , with one legg far longer than the other , was Hermetically seal'd at the shorter legg , and then by degrees there was put in , at the orifice of the longer legg , as much Quicksilver as by its weight suffic'd to compress the Air in the shorter legg into about half the room it possess'd before ; so that , according to the Peripatetick Doctrine , the Air must be in a state of preternatural Condensation , and that to a far greater degree , than ( as I have tryed ) 't is usually brought to by Cold , intense enough to freeze water . Then measuring the heighth of the Quicksilver in the longer Tube above the superficies of that in the shorter , we found it not exceed thirty Inches . Now , if Liquors did rise in Suction ob fugam vacui , there is no reason , why this Quicksilver in the longer part of the Syphon should not easily ascend upon Suction , at least 'till the Air in the shorter legg had regain'd its former Dimensions , since it cannot in this place be pretended , that , if the Mercury should ascend , there would be any danger of a Vacuum in the shorter legg of the Tube , in regard that the contiguous included Air is ready at hand to succeed as fast as the Mercury subsides in the shorter legg of the Syphon . Nor can it be pretended , that , to fill the place deserted by the Quicksilver , the included Air must suffer a preternatural rarefaction or discension ; since 't is plain in our case , that on the contrary , as long as the Air continues in the state whereto the weight of the Quicksilver has reduc'd it , it is kept in a violent state of compression ; since in the shorter legg it was in its natural state , when the Mercury , poured into the longer legg , did by its weight thrust it into about half the room it took up before . And yet , having caus'd several persons , one of them vers'd in sucking , to suck divers times as strongly as they could , they were neither of them able , not so much as for a minute of an hour , to raise the Mercury in the longer legg , and make it subside in the shorter for more than about an Inch at most . And yet to shew you , that the Experiment was not favourably tryed for me , the height of the Mercurial Cylinder in the longer legg above the surface of that in the shorter legg was , when the Suction was tryed , an Inch or two shorter than thirty Inches , and the comprest Air in the shorter legg was so far from having been by the exsuction expanded beyond its natural and first dimensions , that it did not , when the contiguous Mercury stood as low as we could make it subside , regain so much as one half of the space it had lost by the precedent Compression , and consequently was in a preternatural state of condensation , when it had been freed from that state as far as Suction would do it . Whence it seems evident , that 't was not ob fugam vacui , that the Quicksilver did upon Suction ascend one Inch ; for , upon the same score it ought to have ascended two , or perhaps more Inches , since there was no danger , that by such an ascension any Vacuum should be produc'd or left in the shorter legg of the Syphon ; whereas , according to our Hypothesis , a clear cause of the Phaenomenon is assignable . For , before the Suction was begun , there was an Aequilibrium or equipollency between the weight of the superiour Quicksilver in the longer legg , and a Spring of the comprest Air included in the shorter legg : But when the Experimentor began to suck , his Chest being widen'd , part of the Air included in the upper part of the longer legg pass'd into it , and that which remain'd had by that expansion its pressure so weaken'd , that the Air in the shorter legg , finding no longer the former resistance , was able by its own Spring to expand it self , and consequently to depress the contiguous Mercury in the same shorter legg , and raise it as much in the longer . But here a Hydrostatician , that heedfully marks this Experiment , may discern a difficulty , that may perhaps somewhat perplex him , and seems to overthrow our Explication of the Phaenomenon . For he may object , that if the comprest Air in the shorter legg had a Spring equipollent to the weight of the Mercury in the longer legg , it appears not , why the Mercury should not be suckt up in this Instrument , as well as in the free Air ; since , according to me , the pressure of the included Air upon the subjacent Mercury must be equivalent to the weight of the Atmosphere , and yet experience shews , that the weight of the Atmosphere will , upon Suction , raise Quicksilver to the height of several Inches . To clear this difficulty , and shew , that , though it be considerable , 't is not at all insuperable , be pleased to consider with me , that I make indeed the Spring of the comprest Air to be equipollent to the Weight of the compressing Mercury , and I have a manifest reason to do it ; because , if the Spring of the Air were not equipollent to that Weight , the Mercury must necessarily compress the Air farther , which 't is granted de facto not to do . But then I consider , that in our case there ought to be a great deal of difference between the operation of the Spring of the included Air and the Weight of the Atmosphere , after Suction has been once begun . For , the Weight of the Atmosphere , that impels up Mercury and other Liquors , when the Suction is made in the open Air , continues still the same , but the force or pressure of the included Air is equal to the counterpressure of the Mercury no longer than the first moment of the Suction ; after which , the force of the imprison'd Air still decreases more and more , since this comprest Air , being further and further expanded , must needs have its Spring proportionably weaken'd ; so that it need be no wonder , that the Mercury was not suckt up any more than we have related ; for there was nothing to make it ascend to a greater height , than that , at which the debilitated Spring of the ( included but ) expanded Air was brought to an equipollency with the undiminish'd and indeed somewhat increas'd weight of the Mercurial Cylinder in the longer legg , and the pressure of the Aerial Cylinder in the same legg , lessen'd by the action of him that suck'd . For whereas , when the orifice of this legg stood open , the Mercury was prest on by a Cylinder of the Atmospherical Air , equivalent to about thirty Inches of Quicksilver ; by the mouth and action of him that suck'd the Tube was freed from the external Air , and by the dilatation of his Thorax , the neighbouring Air , that had a free passage through his wind-pipe to it , was proportionably expanded , and had its Spring and pressure weaken'd : By which means , the comprest Air in the shorter legg of the Syphon was inabled to impel up the Mercury , 'till the lately mention'd Equilibrium or equipollency was attain'd . And I must here take notice , that , as the Quicksilver was rais'd by Suction but a little way , so the Cylinder that was rais'd was a very long one ; whereas , when Mercury is suck'd up in the free Air , it is seldom rais'd to half that length ; though , as I noted before , the impellent cause , which is the weight of the Atmosphere , continued still the same , whereas in our Syphon , when the Mercury was suck'd up but an Inch , the comprest Air , possessing double the space it did before , had by this expansion already lost a very considerable part of its former Spring and Pressure . I should here conclude this Discourse , but that I remember a Phaenomenon of our Pneumatic Engin , which to divers Learned Men , especially Aristotelians , seem'd so much to argue , that Suction is made either by a Fuga Vacui , or some internal Principle , that divers years ago I thought fit to set down another account of it , and lately meeting with that account among other papers , I shall subjoin it just as I found it , by way of Appendix to the foregoing Tract . Among the more familiar Phaenomena of the Machina Boyliana , ( as they now call it , ) none leaves so much scruple in the Minds of some sorts of Men , as this , That , when ones finger is laid close upon the orifice of the little Pipe , by which the Air is wont to pass from the Receiver into the exhausted Cylinder , the pulp of the finger is made to enter a good way into the cavity of the Pipe , which doth not happen without a considerable sense of pain in the lower part of the finger . For most of those that are strangers to Hydrostaticks , especially if they be prepossess'd with the Opinions generally receiv'd both in the Peripatetick and other Schools , perswade themselves , that they feel the newly mention'd and painful protuberance of the pulp of the finger , to be effected not by pressure , as we would have it , but distinctly by Attraction . To this we are wont to answer , That common Air being a Body not devoid of weight , the Phenomenon is clearly explicable by the pressure of it : For , when the finger is first laid upon the orifice of the Pipe , no pain nor swelling is produc'd , because the Air which is in the Pipe presses as well against that part of the finger which covereth the orifice , as the ambient Air doth against the other parts of the same finger . But when by pumping , the Air in the Pipe , or the most part of it , is made to pass out of the Pipe into the exhausted Cylinder , then there is nothing left in the Pipe , whose pressure can any thing near countervail the undiminish'd pressure of the external Air on the other parts of the finger ; and consequently , that Air thrusts the most yielding and fleshy part of the finger , which is the pulp , into that place where its pressure is unresisted , that is , into the cavity of the Pipe , where this forcible intrusion causeth a pain in those tender parts of the finger . To give some visible Illustration of what we have been saying , as well as for other purposes , I thought on the following Experiment . We took a Glass-pipe of a convenient length , and open at both ends , whose cavity was near about an Inch in Diameter , ( such a determinate breadth being convenient , though not necessary : ) To one of the ends of this Pipe we caused to be firmly tyed on a piece of very fine Bladder , that had been ruffled and oyl'd , to make it both very limber and unapt to admit water ; and care was taken , that the piece of Bladder tyed on should be large enough , not only to cover the orifice , but to hang loose somewhat beneath it . This done , we put the cover'd end of the Pipe into a Glass-body ( or Cucurbit ) purposely made more than ordinarily tall , and the Pipe being held in such manner , as that the end of it reach'd almost , but not quite , to the bottom of the Glass-body , we caused water to be poured both into this Vessel and into the Pipe ( at its upper orifice , which was left open ) that the water might ascend equally enough , both without and within the Pipe. And when the Glass-body was full of water , and the same liquor was level to it . , or a little higher within the Pipe , the Bladder at the lower orifice was kept plump , because the water within the Pipe did by its weight press as forcibly downwards , as the external water in the large Glass endeavour'd to press it inwards and upwards . All this being done , we caus'd part of the water in the Pipe to be taken out of it , ( which may be done either by putting in and drawing out a piece of Spunge or of Linnen , or more expeditiously by sucking up part of the water with a smaller Pipe to be immediately after laid aside ; ) upon which removal of part of the internal water , that which remained in the Pipe being no longer able , by reason of its want of weight , to press against the inside of the Bladder near as forcibly as it did before , the external water , whose weight was not lessen'd , press'd the sides and bottom of the Bladder , whereto it was contiguous , into the cavity of the Pipe , and thrusted it up therein so strongly , that the distended Bladder made a kind of either Thimble or Hemisphere within the Pipe. So that here we have a protuberance , like that above-mentioned of the finger , effected by Pulsion , not Attraction ; and in a case where there can be no just pretence of having recourse to Natures Abhorrence of a Vacuum , since , the upper orifice of the Pipe being left wide open , the Air may pass in and out without resistance . The like swelling of the Bladder in the Pipe we could procure without taking out any of the internal liquor , by thrusting the Pipe deeper into the water ; for then the external liquor , having by reason of its increase of depth a greater pressure on the outside of the Bladder , than the internal liquor had on the inside of it , the Bladder must yield to the stronger pressure , and consequently be impell'd up . If the Bladder lying loose at the lower end of the Pipe , the upper end were carefully clos'd with ones thumb , that the upper Air might not get out until the Experimentor thought fit , and if the thus clos'd Pipe were thrust almost to the bottom of the water , the Bladder would not be protuberant inwards , as formerly ; because the included Air by virtue of its Spring , resisted from within the pressure of the external water against the outside of the Bladder : But if the thumb , that stopp'd the Pipes upper orifice , were remov'd , the formerly compress'd Air having liberty to expand it self , and its elasticity being weaken'd thereby , the external water would with suddenness and noise enough , not to be unpleasant to the Spectators , drive up the Bladder into the cavity of the Pipe , and keep it there very protuberant . To obviate an Objection , that I foresaw might be brought in by persons not well vers'd in Hydrostaticks , I caus'd the Pipe fore-mention'd , or such another , to be so bent near the lower end , as that the orifice of it stood quite on one side , and the parts of the Pipe made an angle as near to a right one as he that blew it could bring it to . This lower orifice being fitted with a Bladder , and the Pipe with its contained liquor being thrust under water after the former manner , the lateral pressure of the water forc'd the Bladder into the short and horizontal legg , and made it protuberate there , as it had done when the Pipe was straight . Lastly , that the Experiment might appear not to be confin'd to one liquor ; instead of Water we put into the unbent Pipe as much red Wine ( whose colour would make it conspicuous ) as was requisit to keep the Bladder somewhat swelling outwards , when it was somewhat near the bottom of the water ; and then 't was manifest , that , according as we had foreseen , the superficies of the red liquor in the Pipe was a good deal higher than that of the external water , and if the depth of both liquors were proportionably lessen'd , the difference of height betwixt the two surfaces would indeed , as it ought to happen , decrease , but still the surface of the wine would be the higher of the two , because being lighter in specie than the common water , the Aequilibrium between the pressures of the two liquors upon the Bladder would not be maintain'd , unless a greater height of wine compensated its defect of specifick gravity . And if the Pipe was thrust deeper into the water , then the Bladder would be made protuberant inwards , as when the Pipe had water in it . By which it appears , that these Phaenomena , without recourse to attraction , may be explicated barely by the Laws of the Aequilibrium of Liquors . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A29012-e920 * See Cont. of Phys . Mech . Exp. the 15th Exp. Notes for div A29012-e2100 See the Authors Defence of the Doctrine touching the Spring and Weight of the Air , against Fr. Linus , chap 5. 
A29013	----	Of the high veneration man's intellect owes to God, peculiarly for his wisedom and power by a Fellow of the Royal Society. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1685 Approx. 127 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 60 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A29013 Wing B4009 ESTC R10996 11683391 ocm 11683391 48133 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A29013) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 48133) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 15:12) Of the high veneration man's intellect owes to God, peculiarly for his wisedom and power by a Fellow of the Royal Society. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. [4], 115 p. Printed by M.F. for Richard Davis ..., London : 1685. Attributed to Robert Boyle. Cf. BM. Reproduction of original in Cambridge University Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng God -- Attributes -- Early works to 1800. God -- Worship and love -- Early works to 1800. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-05 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-07 Jonathan Blaney Sampled and proofread 2006-07 Jonathan Blaney Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion OF THE High Veneration MAN'S INTELLECT OWES TO GOD ; Peculiarly for His Wisedom and Power . By a Fellow of the Royal Society . LONDON , Printed by M. F. for Richard Davis , Bookseller in Oxford . 1685. Advertisements . THe abrupt beginning of the following Paper will not ( 't is hop'd ) be wonder'd at , when 't is declar'd , that the whole Excursion is to be look'd upon as a Fragment of a Discourse , from which , for certain Reasons , it has been separated in its present Form. In which it ought to pass but for a rough Draught , the Nobleness , Sublimity and Sacredness of the Subject , not allowing the Authour to presume , that the first thoughts he committed to Paper about it , might be for good and all parted with by him , till he shall have heedfully revis'd and corrected them ; and left in them as few faults , as the disproportion of so vast and sublime a Subject to his slender abilities , will permit . The loose sheets this Paper consists of , having been written at somewhat distant times and places , and hastily tack'd together ; so that when the latter sheets were penning the former were often not at hand : 't is hop'd that if some few things should chance to be either misplaced or repeated , the fault will be thought venial , and be more easily excused than it could in the Authour's Circumstances be avoided . And lastly ; notice is to be given , that those other long Passages that are included in * Paratheses , may with the Authour's consent ( or rather by his desire ) be skip'd over ; being but Conjectural thoughts , written and inserted for the sake of a Virtuoso , that is a great Friend to such kind of adventurous speculations . OF THE High Veneration Man's Intellect owes to GOD. 1. UPON this Occasion I shall take leave to declare , that 't is not without some Indignation , as well as Wonder , that I see many men , and some of them Divines too , who little considering what God is , and what themselves are , presume to talk of Him and his Attributes as freely and as unpremeditately , as if they were talking of a Geometrical Figure , or a Mechanical Engine . So that even the less Presumptuous discourse , as if the Nature and Perfections of that unparalleled Being , were Objects that their Intellects can grasp ; and scruple not to dogmatize about those Abstruse Subjects , as freely as about other things , that are confessedly within the reach of humane Reason , or perhaps are to be found among the more familiar Objects of Sense . 2. The presumption and inconsiderateness of these men might be manifested by divers Considerations , if I had Leasure to insist on them ; but at present I shall employ but these two ; 1. That 't is probable God may have divers Attributes , and consequently Perfections , that are as yet unknown to us ; and 2ly , That of those Attributes that we have already some Knowledge of , there are Effects and Properties whose Sublimity or Abstruseness surpassing our Comprehension , makes the Divine Cause or Atuhour of them deserve our Highest Wonder and Veneration . 3. To begin with the first of these ; whereas there are two chief ways to arrive at the Knowledge of God's Attributes ; The Contemplation of his Works , and the study of his Word ; I think it may be doubted whether either or both of these , will suffice to acquaint us with all his Perfections . 4. For , first , though Philosophers have rationally deduc'd , the Power , Wisdom and Goodness of God from those Impresses of them that he hath stampt upon divers of his Visible Works ; yet since the Divine Attributes which the Creatures point at , are those whereof themselves have some , though but imperfect , participation , or resemblance : And since the Foecundity ( if I may so speak ) of the Divine Nature is such , that its Excellencies may be participated or represented in I know not how many ways ; how can we be sure that so perfect and exuberant a Being may not have Excellencies , that it hath not expressed or adumbrated in the Visible World , or any parts of it that are known to us ? 5. This will be the more easily granted if we consider , that there are some of those Divine Attributes we do know ; which being Relative to the Creatures , could scarce , if at all , be discovered by such imperfect Intellects as ours , save by the consideration of some things actually done by God. As , supposing that just before the Foundations of the visible World were laid , the Angels were not more knowing than men now are , they could scarce think that there was in God a Power of Creating Matter ( which few , if any at all of the Peripateticks , Epicureans , to omit others of the Ancient Philosophers , seem ever to have dreamt of ) and of producing in it Local Motion , especially considering the puzzleing difficulties that attend the Conception of the very Nature and Being of the one , and of the other . And much less ( as far as we can conjecture ) could the Angels spoken of , have known how the rational Soul and Humane Body act upon one another . Whence it seems probable , that if God have made other Worlds , or rather Vortices , than that which we live in , and are surrounded by , ( as who can assure us that he hath not ? ) he may have displayed in some of the Creatures that compose them , divers Attributes that we have not discover'd by the help of those Works of his that we are acquainted with . But of this more hereafter . 6. I readily grant , ( that I may proceed now to the second Help to acquire the Knowledge of the Divine Attributes ) that the Revelations God hath vouchsafed us in the Holy Scripture ( which we owe to that Spirit which searcheth all things even 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Depths of God ) have clearly taught us divers things concerning their adorable Authour , which the mere Light of Nature either would not have shewn us at all , or would have but very dimly discovered to us . But the Scripture tells us indeed , that the Promulgators of the Gospel declared to men the whole Counsel of God ( as far as was necessary for their Salvation ) but never says , that they disclosed to them , the whole Nature of God ; who is said to inhabite an unapproachable Light , which humane Speculations cannot penetrate . Upon which score perhaps it was , that the Jews would have the proper Name of God to be Ineffable , to signify , that his Nature is Incomprehensible . And , though I will not adopt their Opinion , yet I cannot but take notice , that 't is at least no mere Talmudical Tradition , since we find not , that either our Saviour himself , or his Apostles ( who are introduced so frequently making mention of God in the New Testament ) expressed in speaking either to him , or of him , the Nomen Tetragrammaton ( or four-letter'd name ! ) But not to insist on Conjectures ; the Scripture it self that brings so much Light to things Divine , that the Gospel is called Light in the Abstract , the Scripture , I say , informs us , that in this Life we know but in part , and see things but darkly as in a Glass ; and that we are so far from being able to find out God to perfection , as to his Nature and Attributes , that even the ways of his Providence are to us untraceable . 7. These are some of the Considerations that inclined me to think that God may have Attributes that are not known to us . And this Opinion perhaps will appear the more allowable , because of what I am going to add in answer to a weighty Objection . For I know it may be alledged , that besides the two ways I have mentioned of attaining to the knowledge of God's Attributes , there may be a third way preferable to both the others , and that is , by considering the Idea of a Being supremely or Infintiely perfect ; in which Idea it may be alledg'd , that all possible Perfections are contained ; so that no new one can be added to it . But though I readily grant , that this Idea is the most genuine that I am able to frame of the Deity ; yet there may be divers Attributes which though they are indeed in a general way contained in this Idea , are not in particular discovered to us by it . 'T is true that when , by any means whatsoever , any Divine Perfection comes to our Knowledge , we may well conclude , that 't is in a sense comprized in the comprehensive Notion we have of a Being absolutely perfect ; but 't is possible that That Perfection would never have come to our knowledge , by the bare contemplation of that general Idea , but was suggested by Particularities ; so that such Discoveries are not so much deriv'd from , as refer'd to , the Notion we are speaking of . The past Considerations have , I presume , persuaded you , that God may have , as divers Attributes , so divers Excellencies and Perfections , that are not known to us . It will therefore now be seasonable to Indeavour to shew you , that of divers of the Attributes we do know that he hath , we men have but an imperfect knowledge ; especially in comparison of that He has of them . Which is not to be wondred at : since he possesses them in a manner or a degree peculiar to himself , and far transcending that wherein we men possess them , or rather some saint resemblances of them . It would be very unsutable to my intended Brevity , and more disproportionate to my small abilities , to attempt the making this Good by insisting particularly on all the divine Excellencies that we are in some measure acquainted with . I therefore hope it may suffise to instance in a couple of the most known ones ; God's Power , and his Wisedom . Which two I pitch upon , as being those that men are wont to look on as the Principal , and for which they have the greatest admiration and respect , because we are not able to confer them on our selves ; as we think we can divers other Vertues and Perfections . For every man easily believes that he may be as Chaste , as Temperate , as Just , and in a word , as Good , as he pleases ; those Vertues depending on his own will ; but he is sensible that he cannot be as Knowing , as Wise , and as Powerfull , as he would . And thence he not Irrationally concludes , that Power and Wisedom slow from , and Argue , an Excellency and Superiority of Nature or Condition . The Power and Wisedom of God display themselves by what he does in reference both to his Corporeal , and his Incorporeal Creatures . Among the manifold effects of the Divine Power , my intended Brevity will allow me to mention onely two or three , which , though to discerning eyes they be very manifest , are not wont to be very attentively reflected on . The Immense Quantity of Corporeal Substance that the Divine Power provided for the framing of the Universe ; and the great force of the Local Motion that was imparted to it , and is regulated in it . And first ; the vastness of that huge Mass of matter that the Corporeal World consists of , cannot but appear stupendious to those that skilfully contemplate it . That part of the Universe which has been already discovered by Humane eyes , assisted with dioptrical Glasses , is almost unconceiveably Vast : as will be easily granted , if we assent to what the best Astronomers , as well Modern as Ancient , scruple not to deliver . The sixt Stars of the first Magnitude , that to vulgar eyes look but like shining Spangles , are by Artists affirmed to exceed , each of them , above a hundred times in bigness the whole Globe of the Earth : and as little as these twinkling Stars appear to our naked eyes , they do ( which probably you will think strange ) appear much lesser through our Telescopes ; which taking off those false lights that make them look to our maimed Sight as they are wont to be painted , shew them little otherwise than as speeks or Physical points of light . And the Sun , which is granted to be some millions of miles nearer to us than the other sixt Stars are , though it seem at this lesser distance not to be half a foot broad ; is by the generality of Mathematicians believ'd to be above a hundred and threescore times bigger than the Earth . Nay , according to the more recent calculations of some more accurate Modern Artists , 't is estimated to be eight or ten thousand times as big as the Terraqueous Globe , and by farther Observation may perhaps be found yet much vaster . And it plainly appears by the Parallaxes and other proofs , that this Globe of Earth and Water that we Inhabit , and often call the World ; though it be divided into so many great Empires , and Kingdoms , and Seas , and though according to the received Opinion it be 5400 German leagues in Circuit , and consequently contain 10 , 882 , 080 , 000. Cubick miles in solid measure , and according to the more modern observations have a greater Circumference ( amounting to above 26000 miles : ) yet this Globe , I say , is so far from being for its bulk , a considerable part of the Universe , that without much Hyperbole we may say that 't is in comparison thereof but a Physical point . Nay those far greater Globes , of the Sun and other fixt Stars , and all the solid masses of the World to boot , if they were reduced into one , would perhaps bear a less proportion to the fluid part of the Universe , than a Nut to the Ocean . Which brings into my mind the sentence of an Excellent modern Astronomer , that the Stars of the Skie , if they were crouded into one Body and placed where the Earth is , would , if that Globe were placed at a fit distance , appear to us no bigger than a Star of the first Magnitude now does . And after all this I must remind you , that I have been hitherto speaking but of that part of the Corporeal Universe that has been already seen by us . And therefore I must add that as vast as this is , yet all that the eye , even when powerfully promoted by prospective Tubes , hath discovered to us , is far from representing the World of so great an Extent , as I doubt not but more perfect Telescopes hereafter will do . And even then the visible part of the World will be far enough from reaching to the bounds of the Vniverse : to which the Cartesians and some other modern Philosophers will not allow men to set any ; holding the Corporeal World to be ( as they love to speak ) Indefinite , and beyond any bounds assignable by us men . 8. From the vast extent of the Universe , I now proceed to consider the stupendious quantity of local Motion , that the Divine power has given the parts of it , and continually maintains in it . Of this we may make some estimate by considering with what velocity some of the greater bodies themselves are mov'd , and how great a part of the remaining bodies of the Universe , is also , though in a somewhat differing way , indow'd with motion . As for the first of these ; the least velocity that I shall mention , is that which is afforded by the Copernican Hypothesis : since according to that 't is the Earth that moves from West to East about its own Axis ; ( for it s other motions concern not this discourse ) in four and twenty hours . And yet this Terraqueous Globe which we think so great that we commonly call it the World , and which , as was lately noted , by the recenter computations of Mathematicians is concluded to contain six or seven and twenty thousand miles in Circuit ; some part of this Globe , I say , moves at such a rate , that the learned Gassendus confesses , that a point or place , situated in the Aequator of the Earth , does in a second minute move about two hundred Toises or Fathoms ; that is , twelve hundred feet : so that a Bullet when shot out of a Cannon , scarce slies with so great a Celerity . 9. But , as I was saying , the motion of the Earth is the least swift that I had to mention ; being indeed scarce comparable to the velocity of the fixt Stars ; if , with the generality of Astronomers , we suppose them to move in four and twenty hours about the Earth . For supposing the distance assign'd by the famous Tycho ( a more accurate Observer than his Predecessours ) between us and the Firmament to be fourteen thousand semediameters of the Earth , a fixt Star in the Aequator , does , as Mullerius calculates it , move 3153333 miles in an hour , and consequently in a minute of an hour , fifty two thousand five hundred fifty five miles , and a second ( which is reckon'd to be near about a single pulsation or stroke of the artery of a healthy man ) 875 miles : which is about , if not above , three thousand times faster than a Cannon bullet moves in the Air. 'T is true that according to the Ptolomean Hypothesis , a fixt Star in the Aequinoctial doth in a second move at most but three semediamiters of the Earth ; but according to the learned and diligent Ricciolus , this velocity ( of our fixt Stars ) is fifty times greater than in the Ptolomean Hypothesis ; and threescore and ten times greater than in the Tichonian Hypothesis . For according to Ricciolus , such a fixt Star as we speak of , moves in a second minute ( or one beating of the pulse ) 157282 German leagues which amount to six hundred twenty nine thousand one hundred twenty eight English miles . And now I shall add ( what possibly you have not observ'd ) that That portion of the Universe which commonly passes for quiescent , and yet has motion put into it ; is so great , that for ought I know , the quantity of motion distributed among these seemingly quiescent bodies , may equall if not exceed the quantity of motion the first Mover has communicated to the fixt Stars themselves , though we suppose them whirl'd about the Earth with that stupendious swiftness that the Ptolemeans and Tychonians attribute to them . For I reckon that the fixt Stars and Planets , or if you please , all the mundane Globes , whether lucid or opacous , of which last sort is the Earth , do all of them together bear but a small proportion to the Interstellar part of the Vniverse . And though I should allow all these Globes to be solid , notwithstanding that it can scarce be prov'd of any of them ; and the Cartesians think the Sun ( which they take to be a fixt Star , and therefore probably of the same Nature with the rest ) to be extremely fluid : though I should , I say , grant this ; yet it must be confess'd , that each of these solid Globes swims in an ambient fluid of very much greater extent than it self is . So that the fluid portion of the Universe will in bulk almost incomparably exceed the solid . And if we consider what is the Nature of a fluid body , as such we shall find that it consists in having it's minute parts perpetually and variously mov'd , some this way and some that way ; so that though the whole body of a liquor seems to be at rest , yet the minute parts that compose that liquor , are in a restless motion ; continually shifting places amongst themselves , as has been amply shewn in a late Tract intituled , the History of Fluidity and Firmness . 10. And because the quantity of motion shar'd by the Corpuscles that compose fluid bodies is not usually reflected on even by Philosophers ; 't will not be here amiss to add that how great and vehement a motion the parts of fluid bodies ( perhaps when the Aggregates of those particles appear quiescent ) may be endowed with , we may be assisted to guess , by observing them when their ordinary Motions happen to be disturb'd , or to be extraordinarily excited by fit conjunctures of circumstances . This may be observed in the strange force and effects of boisterous Winds and Whirlewinds , which yet are but Streams and Whirlepools of the invisible Air , whose singly insensible parts are by accidental causes determined to have their Motion made either in a streight or almost streight-line , or as it were about a common Centre . But an instance much more conspicuous may be afforded by a Mine charged with Gunpowder ; where the flame or some subtile Aethereal substance that is always at hand in the Air , though both one and the other of them be a fluid body , and the powder perhaps be kindled but by one spark of fire , exerts a Motion so rapid and furious , as in a trice is able to toss up into the Air , whole houses and thick Walls ; together with the firm soil , or perchance solid Rocks , they were built upon . 11. But since the velocity of these discharged flames may be guess'd at , by that which the flame of Gunpowder impresses on a Bullet shot out of a well charg'd Gun , which the diligent Mersennus , who made several trials to measure it , defines to be about 75 toises , or fathoms ( that is , 450 foot ) in a Second , being the 60th part of a Minute : if we admit the probable Opinion of the Cartesians , that the Earth and divers other Mundane Globes , as the Planets , are turn'd about their own Axes by the Motion of the respective Aethereal Vortices or Whirlepools , in which they swim , we shall easily grant that the Motion of the Celestial Matter that moves , for instance , upon the remote Confines of the Earths Vortex , is by a vast excess more rapid than that of the surface of the Earth . And yet we formerly observ'd , that a place situated under the Aequator does ( if the Earth turns about its own Axis ) move as swiftly as a Bullet shot out of a Cannon . But if we chuse rather the Tychonian Hypothesis , which makes the Firmament with all the vast Globes of Light that adorn it to move about their common Centre in 24 hours , the Motions of the Celestial Matter must be allowed a far greater , and indeed a scarce imaginable rapidity . These things are mention'd , that we may have the more enlarg'd Conceptions of the Power as well as Wisedom of the Great Creator , who has both put so Wonderfull a quantity of Motion into the Universal Matter and maintains it therein , and is able , not onely to set bounds to the raging Sea , and effectually say to it , Hitherto shalt thou come , and no farther , and here shall thy proud Waves be stay'd , but , ( what is far more ) so to curb and moderate those stupendiously rapid Motions of the Mundane Globes and intercurrent Fluids , that neither the unwealdiness of their Bulk , nor Celerity of their Motions , have made them exorbitate or fly out , and this for many Ages ; during which no Watch for a few hours , has gone so regularly . The Sun , for instance , moving without swerving , under the same Circular Line that is call'd the Ecliptick . And if the Firmament it self , whose Motion in the vulgar Hypothesis is by much the most rapid in the World , do fail of exactly completing its revolution in 24 hours , that retardation is so regulated that since Hipparchus's time , who liv'd 2000 years ago , the first Star in Aries , which was then near the beginning of it , is not yet come to the last degree of that Sign . 12. After what hath been discoursed of the Power of God , it remains , that I say something about his Wisedom , that being the Attribute to which those that have elevated understandings , are wont to pay the Highest Veneration , when they meet it even in Men , where yet 't is still but very Imperfect . The Wisedom of God which Saint Paul somewhere justly styles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , manifold or multifarious , is express'd in two differing manners or degrees . For sometimes it is so manifestly display'd in familiar Objects , that even superficial and almost careless Spectators may take notice of it . But there are many other things wherein the Treasures of Wisedom and Knowledge may be said to be hid ; lying so deep that they require an Intelligent and attentive Considerer to discover them . But though I think I may be allowed , to make this distinction , yet I shall not solicitously confine my self to it ; because in several things both these Expressions of the Divine Wisedom , may be clearly observ'd . Those Objects of this Wisedom that we shall at this time consider are of two sorts , the material and visible , and the invisible and immaterial Creatures of God. In the First of these , whose aggregate , or collection makes up the Corporeal World , commonly , call'd Vniverse , I shall briefly take notice , of the excellent Contrivance of particular bodies ; of the great variety , and consequently number , of them ; of their Symmetry , as they are parts of the World ; and of the connexion and dependance they have in relation to one another . And though under the two first of these heads , I might as well as under the other two , take notice of many inanimate bodies , as well as of those that are endowed with vegetative and sensitive Souls ( as Naturalists commonly call them ; ) yet for Brevities sake I shall here take notice onely , of that more perfect sort of living Creatures that we call Animals . 13. I. The contrivance of every Animal , and especially of a Humane Body , is so curious and exquisite , that 't is almost impossible for any Body , that has not seen a dissection well made and Anatomically considered , to imagine or conceive how much excellent Workmanship is display'd in that admirable Engine . But of this having discours'd elsewhere more fully , I shall here onely tell you in a word ( and 't is no Hyperbole ) that as St. Paul said on another occasion . That the foolish things of God are wiser than Men , and the weak things of God stronger than Men. So we may say , that the meanest living Creatures of God's making , are far more wisely contrived , than the most excellent pieces of workmanship that Humane heads and hands can boast of . And no Watch nor Clock in the World , is any way comparable for exquisiteness of Mechanism , to the body of even an Ass or a Frog . 14. II. But God's Wisedom is recommended as well by the Variety , and consequently the Number of the kinds of living Creatures , as by the Fabrick of each of them in particular . For the skill of Humane Architects and other Artists is very narrow , and for the most part limited to one or to a few sorts of contrivements . Thus many an Architect can build a House well , that cannot build a Ship : and ( as we daily see ) a man may be an excellent Clock-maker , that could not make a good Watch , and much less contrive well a Fouling-piece , or a Wind-mill . 15. But now the Great Author of Nature has not onely created four Principal sorts of living Engins , namely Beasts , Birds , Fishes and Reptiles ; which differ exceedingly from one another , as the several Regions or Stages where they were to act their parts , required they should do ; but under each of these comprehensive Genders are compriz'd I know not how many subordinate Species of Animals , that differ exceedingly from others of the same kind , according to the Exigency of their Particular Natures . For not onely the Fabrick of a Beast ( as a Lion ) is very differing from that of a Bird , or a Fish , ( as an Eagle or a Whale ; ) but in the same Species the Structure or Mechanism of particular Animals is very unlike . Witness the difference between the Parts of those Beasts that chew the Cud , and those that do not ; and between the Hog and the Hare , especially in their Entrals ; and so between a Parrot and a Batt , and likewise between a Whale , a Star-fish , a Lobster , and an Oyster , ( to mention now no other Instances . ) And if with divers Philosophers both Ancient and Modern , we admit Vegetables , into the rank of living Creatures ; the Number of these being so great , that above six thousand kinds of Vegetables were many years ago reckon'd up ; the manifold displays of the Divine Mechanism , and so of its Wisedom , will by that great Variety of living Engins , be so much the more conspicuous . 16. III. That which much enhances the excellent Contrivances to be met with in these Automata , is the Symmetry of all the various parts that each of them consists of . For an Animal , though consider'd in his state of Intireness , he is justly look'd upon as one Engine ; yet really this total Machine ( if I may so call it ) is a complex thing made up of several Parts , which consider'd separately may pass each of them for a subordinate Engine excellently sitted for this or that Particular Use . As an Eye is an admirable Optical Instrument to enable a Man to see ; and the Hand is so well fram'd for a multitude of Mechanical uses , that Aristotle thought sit to call it the Organ of Organs , ( or Instrument of Instruments . ) It ought therefore highly to recommend the Wisedom of the Great yotser hakkol Former of all things ( as the Scripture styles him , ) that he has so fram'd each Particular part of a Man ( or other Animal , ) as not to let the skill bestowed on that , hinder him from making that part or member it self , and every other , neither bigger nor less , nor ( in a word ) otherwise constituted , than was most expedient for the completeness and welfare of the whole Animal . Which manifests that this Great Artist had the whole Fabrick under his Eye at once ; and did at one View behold all that was best to be done , in order to the completeness of the whole Animal , as well as to that of each member and other part , and admirably provided for them both at once . Whereas many an excellent Artificer , that is able to make a single Engine very complete , may not be able to make it a Commodious part of a Complex or Aggregate of Engins . As 't is not every one that can make a good Pump , that can make a good Ship pump ; nor every Chymist that can build an Oven for a Bake house , that can make one fit to be set up in a Ship : and we see that our Pendulum Clocks , that are moved with weights , and go very regularly a-shore , cannot yet be brought to perform their Office ( of constantly measuring of time ) when set up in a sayling Ship. 17. IV. The fourth way by which God manifests his Wisedom in his Corporeal Creatures , is , their mutual usefulness to one another , in a relation either of dependency or of coordination . This serviceableness may be considered , either as the parts of the Animal have a relation to one another , and to the whole body they make up ; or as intire and distinct bodies have reference to or dependency on each other . To the first sort of utility belong the uses of the parts of the Humane body , for instance ; which are so fram'd , that besides these publick Offices or Functions that some of them exercise for the good of the whole , as the Stomach for concocting aliments , the Brain for supplying Animal spirits to move the limbs , and other parts , the Kidneys to separate the superfluous Serum of the Bloud ; there are many other particular parts that have that subserviency to one another , that no despicable portion of the Books of Anatomy is employ'd in the mention of them . And divers Consents of parts , and utilities that accrue from one to the other , are farther discovered by Diseases , which primarily affecting one part or member of the Body , discover that this or that other part has a dependance on it , or a particular relation to it , though perhaps not formerly taken notice of . To the second part of utility belong those parts that discriminate the Sexes of Animals , which ( parts ) have such a relation one to another in the Male and the Female , that 't is obvious they were made for the conjunction of both in order to the propagation of the Species . I cannot here spend time to consider the fitness of the Distance and Situation of the Sun , the obliquity of its Motion under the Ecliptick , and ( especially ) the compensations that Nature makes by one thing for another , the excess of whose qualities would else be noxious to men , as the great heats and dryness that reign in many parts of the Torrid Zone and some neighbouring Climates , would render those Countries barren and uninhabitable , as the Ancients thought them , if they were not kept from being so , by the Etesians and the Trade-winds , which blow regularly ( though not always the same way ) for a great part of the hottest seasons of the Year , and are assisted by the length of the Nights , by the Copious and lasting Rains that fall at set times , by the greatness of the Rivers , ( some of them periodically overflowing their banks to great distances ) and by the winds that in many places blow in the Night from the Land Seaward , and in the Morning from the Sea towards the Land ; for these , and some other such things , do so moisten and refresh the Ground , and contemperate the Air , that in many of those Climates which the Ancients thought parch'd up and uninhabitable , there are large Kingdoms and Provinces that are both fruitfull and Populous , and divers of them very pleasant too . But as I was saying , I cannot stay to prosecute what might be represented to shew the usefulness of many of God's other sensible works to the Noblest kind of them Men. But I shall rather content my self by adding a few lines , to point farther at the reference that God has been pleas'd to make many other things have to the welfare of Men and other Animals ; as we see that according to the usual course of Nature , Lambs , Kids , and many other living Creatures , are brought into the World at the Spring of the Year ; when tender Grass and other Nutritive plants are provided for their food . And the like may be observ'd in the production of Silk-worms , whose Eggs according to Natures institution , are hatch'd when Mulbury Trees begin to Bud , and put forth those leaves whereon these pretious insects are to feed ; the aliments being tender whilst the Worms themselves are so , and growing more strong and substantial , as the Insects increase in Vigour and Bulk . 18. There is one thing , which though it might perhaps have been more properly brought in before , must not here be pretermitted . For besides what was lately said of the excellent Fabrick of the bodies of Men and other Animals , we may deservedly take notice how much more wonderfull than the structure of the grown body must be the contrivance of a Semen Animatum : since all the future parts , ( solid as well as soft , ) and the functions , and many of the Actions ( and those to be variable pro re nata ) of the Animal to be produc'd , must be durably delineated , and as it were couch'd in a little portion of matter , that seems Homogeneous , and is unquastionably sluid . And that which much increases the Wonder , is , that one of these latent impressions or powers , namely the Plastick , or Prolifick , is to lye dormant perhaps above thirty or forty Years , and then to be able to produce many more such Engins as is the Animal it self . [ I have hitherto , among the Corporeal Works of God , taken notice onely of those Productions of his Power and Wisedom that may be observ'd in the visible World. So that I may be allowed to consider farther , that not onely the Peripateticks , but the generality of other Philosophers , believe the World to be finite : and , though the Cartesians will not say it is so , but chuse rather to call it indefinite , yet as it is elsewhere shewn , their Opinion is rather a well meant piece of modesty , than a strict truth . For in reality , the World must every way have bounds , and consequently be finite , or it must not have bounds , and so be truely boundless , or , ( which is the same thing in other terms ) infinite . And if the World be bounded , then those that believe a Deity , to whose Nature it belongs to be of infinite Power , must not deny that God is , and still was , able to make other Worlds than this of ours . And the Epicureans , who admitted no Omnipotent Maker of the World , but substituted Chance and Atomes in his Stead , taught that by reason the causes sufficient to make a World , that is Atomes and Space , were not wanting ; Chance has actually made many Worlds , of which ours is but one ; and the Cartesians must , according to their Doctrine of the Indefiniteness of Corporeal Substance , admit that our visible World , or if they please , Vortex , by which I mean the greatest extent our eyes can reach to , is but a part , and comparatively but a very small one too , of the whole Vniverse : which may extend beyond the utmost Stars we can see , incomparably farther than those remotest visible bounds are distant from our Earth . Now if we grant with some modern Philosophers , that God has made other Worlds besides this of ours , it will be highly probable that he has there display'd His manifold Wisedom , in productions very differing from those wherein we here admire it . And even without supposing any more than one Universe : as all that portion of it that is visible to us , makes but a part of that vastly extended aggregate of bodies : So if we but suppose , that some of the Celestial Globes , whether visible to us , or plac'd beyond the reach of our sight , are peculiar Systemes , the consideration will not be very different . For since the fix'd Stars are many of them incomparably more remote than the Planets , 't is not absurd to suppose that as the Sun , who is the fix'd Star nearest to us , has a whole Systeme of Planets that move about him , so some of the other fix'd Stars may be each of them the Centre , as it were , of another Systeme of Celestial Globes : since we see that some Planets themselves , that are determined by Astronomers to be much inferiour in bigness to those fix'd Stars I was speaking of , have other Globes that do as it were depend on them , and move about them ; as , not to mention the Earth that has the Moon for its Attendant , nor Saturn that is not altogether unaccompanied , 't is plain that Jupiter has no less than four Satellites that run their Courses about Him. And 't is not to be pretermitted , that none of these lesser and secondary Planets , ( if I may so call them ) that moves about Saturn and Jupiter is visible to the naked eye , and therefore they were all unknown to the Ancient Astronomers , who liv'd before the invention of Telescopes . Now , in case there be other Mundane Systemes ( if I may so speak ) besides this visible one of ours , I think it may be probably suppos'd that God may have given peculiar and admirable instances of His inexhausted Wisedom in the Contrivance and Government of Systemes , that for ought we know may be fram'd and manag'd in a manner quite differing , from what is observ'd in that part of the Universe that is known to us . For besides that here on Earth the Loadstone is a Mineral so differing in divers affections , not onely from all other Stones , but from all other bodies , that are not Magnetical , that this Heteroclite Mineral scarce seems to be Originary of this World of ours , but to have come into it , by a remove from some other World or Systeme ; I remember that some of the Navigators that discovered America , took notice that at their first coming into some parts of it , though they found great store of Animals and Plants , yet they met with few of the latter , and scarce any of the former , of the same Species with the living Creatures of Europe . 19. Now in these other Worlds ; besides that we may suppose that the Original Fabrick , or that Frame into which the Omniscient Architect at first contriv'd the parts of their matter , was very differing from the structure of our Systeme ; besides this , I say , we may conceive that there may be a vast difference betwixt the subsequent Phoenomena , and productions observable in one of those Systemes , from what regularly happens in ours , though we should suppose no more , than that two or three Laws of Local Motion may be differing in those unknown Worlds , from the Laws that obtain in ours . For if we suppose , for instance , that every entire Body , whether simple or compounded , great or small , retains always a motive Power , ( as Philosophers commonly think that the Soul does , when it has mov'd the Humane Body ; and as the Epicureans and many other Philosophers think all Atomes do , after they have impell'd one aonther ) this power of exciting Motion in another Body , without the Movents loosing its own , will appear of such moment to those that duely consider , that Local Motion is the first and chiefest of the second causes that produce the Phoenomena of Nature : that they will easily grant that these Phoenomena must be strangely diversifyed , by springing from principal causes so very differingly qualifyed . Nor ( to add another way of varying Motion ) is it absurd to conceive , that God may have created some parts of matter to be of themselves quiescent , ( as the Cartesians and divers other Philosophers suppose all matter to be in its own Nature , ) and determin'd to continue at rest till some outward Agent force it into Motion : and yet that He may have endow'd other parts of the matter , with a Power like that which the Atomists , ascribe to their Principles , of restlesly moving themselves , without loosing that power by the motion they excite in quiescent bodies . And the Laws of this propagation of Motion among bodies , may be not the same with those that are established in our World : so that but one half , or some lesser part , ( as a third , ) of the Motion that is here communicated from a body of such a bulk and velocity , to another it finds at rest , or slowlier mov'd than it self , shall there pass from a Movent to the body it impells ; though all circumstances , except the Laws of Motion , be suppos'd to be the same . Nor is it so extravagant a thing , as at first it may seem , to entertain such suspicions as these . For in the common Philosophy , besides that the Notion and Theory of Local Motion are but very imperfectly propos'd , there are Laws or Rules of it well , not to say at all , establish'd . 20. And as for the Cartesian Laws of Motion , though I know they are received by many learned Men , yet I suspect that it is rather upon the Authority of so famous a Mathematician as Des-Cartes , than any convictive evidence , that accompanies the Rules themselves : since to me ( for Reasons that belong not to this Discourse , ) some of them appear not to be befriended either by clear experience , or any Cogent Reason . And for the Rule that is the most usefull , namely that which asserts , That there is always the same quantity of Motion in the World ; every Body that moves another , loosing just as much of its own as it produces in the other : the proof he offers , being drawn from the Immutability of God , seems very Metaphysical , and not very cogent to me ; who fear that the Properties and Extent of the Divine Immutability , are not so well known to us Mortals , as to allow Cartesius to make it in our present case , an argument à priori . And à posteriori I see not how the Rule will be demonstrated : since , besides that it may be questioned whether 't is agreeable to experience in divers instances that might be given of communicated Motions here below ; I know not what experience we have of the Rules by which Motion is propagated in the Heavenly Regions of the World , among all the Bodies , that make up the Aetherial , ( which is incomparably the greatest ) part of the Universe . So that the truth of the Cartesian Rules being evinc'd neither à priori , nor à posteriori ; it appears not why it should be thought unreasonable to imagine , that other Systemes may have some peculiar Laws of Motion ; onely because they differ from those Cartesian Rules , whereof the greatest part are , at least undemonstrated . ] 21. But though , if we allow of Suppositions and Conjectures , such as those lately mention'd , that are at least not absurd ; they may conduce to amplify some of our Idea's of Divine things ; yet we need not fly to Imaginary ultra mundane Spaces , to be convinc'd that the Effects of the Power and Wisedom of God , are worthy of their Causes , and not near adequately understood by us ; if with sufficient attention we consider that innumerable multitude , and unspeakable variety of bodies , that make up this vast Universe . For , there being among these a stupendious number , that may justly be look'd upon as so many distinct Engins , and many of them very complicated ones too , as containing sundry subordinate ones : to know that all these , as well as the rest of the Mundane matter , are every moment sustain'd , guided and govern'd , according to their respective Natures , and with an exact regard to the Catholick Laws of the Universe ; to know , I say , that there is a Being that doeth this every where and every moment , and that manages all things without either aberration or intermission ; is a thing , that if we attentively reflect on , ought to produce in us , for that Supreme Being that can doe this , the highest Wonder , and the lowliest Adoration . The Epicureans of old did with some colour of reason , as well as with much confidence , urge against the Belief of a Divine Providence , that 't is unconceivable , and therefore incredible ; That the Gods should be sufficient for such differing and distracting employments , as , according to the exigencies of Natures works , to make the Sun shine in one place , the Rain shower down in another , the Winds to blow in a third , the Lightening to flash in a fourth , the Thunderbolts to fall in a fifth ; and in short , other bodies to act and suffer according to their respective Natures . Wherefore we , that upon good grounds believe that God really does , what these Philosophers thought impossible to be done , by any Agents whatsoever , are much wanting in our duty if we do not admire an Al-pervading Wisedom , that reaches to the utmost extent of the Universe , and actually performing what Philosophers profess'd they could not so much as conceive , highly merits that those difficulties which they thought insuperable , and so , a sufficient excuse for their unbelief , should be a powerfull motive to our veneration , of that transcendent Wisedom , that without any trouble surmounts them . 22. We have seen some displays of God's Wisedom as well as Power , by what we have observ'd in his Corporeal Works . But 't will be easily granted , that some of the Divine Perfections , could not be so well express'd or Copied upon Corporeal creatures , as upon the Rational and immaterial soul of Man , and other Intellectual Beings : as the picture of an Apple or a Cherry , or the character of a Number , is not capable of receiving or containing so much of an excellent Painter's skill , as he may exhibite in a Piece wherein the passions of the mind , and the Laws of Opticks , and of decency , may be fully express'd . And it may well be presum'd , that if we were as familiarly acquainted with God's Incorporeal creatures as we are with his visible ones , we should perceive , that as Spirits are incomparably more Noble than bodies ; so the Divine Wisedom employ'd in the Government and Conduct of them , is more glorious than that which we justly admire in the frame and management of his Corporeal Works . And indeed let a Portion of Matter be never so fine , and never so well contriv'd , it will not be any more than an Engine devoid of Intellect and Will , truely so call'd , and whose excellency , as well as its distinction from other bodies even the grossest and imperfectest , can consist but in Mechanical affections , such as the size , shape , motion and connexion of its parts : which can neither excite themselves into motion , nor regulate and stop the motion they once are in . Whereas true Spirits , ( by which I here mean immaterial Substances , ) have by God's Appointment belonging to their Nature , Understanding , Will , and an Internal Principle , both of acting so and so , and of Arbitrarily ceasing from action . And though God , as the Sole Creator of all Substances , has , and if He please may exercise , an absolute Dominion over all his Creatures , as well Immaterial as Corporeal ; yet since He has thought fit to govern Spirits according to the Nature He has given them , ( which Comprehends both Understanding and Will ; ) to create such Intelligent Free , and Powerfull Beings , as good and bad Angels , ( to say nothing now of men ) and to govern them on those Terms so as effectually to make them ( however they behave themselves , ) Instruments of His Glory , which multitudes of them do as subtily , as obstinately oppose ; to doe these things , I say , requires a Wisedom and Providence , transcending any that can be display'd in the formation and management of merely Corporeal Beings . For inanimate Engins may be so contriv'd , as to Act but as we please , whereas Angels and Humane Souls are endow'd with a freedom of acting , in most cases , as themselves please . And 't is far easier for a skilfull Watch-maker , to regulate the Motions of his Watch than the affections and actions of his Son. 23. And here give me leave to consider , that Angels whether good or bad , are very Intelligent and active Beings ; and that each of them is endowed with an Intellect capable of almost Innumerable Notions , and degrees , or variations of knowledge , and also with a Will , capable of no less numerous Exertions or Acts ; and of having various Influences upon the Understanding , as ( on the other side ) it is variously affected by the Dictates of it . So that , ( to apply this consideration to my present purpose ) each particular Angel being successively capable of so many differing Moral States ; may be look'd upon , as , in a manner , a distinct Species of the Intellectual kind . And the government of one Daemon , may be as difficult a work , and consequently may as much declare the Wisedom and Power of God , as the government of a whole Species of inanimate bodies , such as Stones or Metals : whose Nature determines them to a strict conformity to those primordial Laws of Motion , which were once settled by the great Creatour , and from which , they have no Wills of their own to make them swerve . The Scripture tells us , that in the Oeconomy of Man's Salvation , there is so much of the manifold Wisedom of God express'd , that the Angels themselves desire to pry into those mysteries . When our Saviour , having told his Apostles that the day and hour of his future coming to Judgment ( whether of the Jewish Nation or the World , I now enquire not ) was not then known to any ; subjoyns , no , not to the Angels of Heaven , but to his Father onely : he sufficiently intimates them to be endowed with excellent Knowledge , Superiour to that of Men : and that perhaps may be one of the Reasons why the Scripture styles them Angels of Light. It also teaches us that the good Angels are vastly numerous , and that as they are of differing Orders ▪ some of them being Arch-Angels , and some Princes of particular Empires or Nations : so that God assigns them very differing and important Employments both in Heaven and in Earth ; and sometimes such as oblige them , in discharge of their respective Trusts , to endeavour the carrying on of Interfering designs . The same Scripture by speaking of the Devil and his Angels , and of the Great Dragon that drew down with his Tail the third part of the Stars from Heaven to Earth , and by mentioning a whole Legion of Devils that possessed a single Man ; and by divers other passages that I shall not now insist on , giving us ground to conclude , that there is a Political government in the kingdom of darkness ; that the Monarch of it is exceeding powerfull , whence he is styl'd the Prince of this World , and some of his officers have the titles of principalities , powers , rulers of the darkness of this World , &c. that the subjects of it are exceeding numerous ; that they are desperate enemies to God and Men , whence the Devil is styl'd the Adversary , the Tempter , and a Murtherer from the beginning ; that they are very false and crafty , whence the Devil is call'd the Father of Lies , the Old Serpent ; and his strategems are styl'd the Wiles , and Depths of Satan ; that their malice is as active and restless , as 't is great , whence , we are told that our Adversary the Devil walks about like a roaring Lion , seeking whom he may devour . These things being taught us in the Scripture it self , though I shall not now add any of the Inferences that may be drawn from them to my present purpose , we may rationally suppose , that if we were quick-sighted enough to discern the Methods of the Divine Wisedom in the Government of the Angelical and of the Diabolical Worlds , or great Communities , if I may so call them ; we should be ravish'd into admiration how such Intelligent , Free , Powerfull , and Immortal Agents ▪ should be without violence offer'd to their Nature , made in various manners to conspire to fulfill the Laws , or at least accomplish the Ends , of that great Theocracy , that does not alone reach to all kinds of bodies , to Men , and to this or that rank of Spirits , but comprises the whole Creation , or the great Aggregate of all the Creatures of God. And indeed to make the voluntary , and perhaps the most crafty actions of evil Men , and of evil Spirits themselves , subservient to his Wise and Just Ends ; does no less recommend the Wisedom of God , than it would the skill of a Shipwright and Pilot , if he was able to contrive and steer his Ship , so , as to sail to his designed Port , not onely with a side-wind , or very near a wind , as many doe ; but with a quite contrary wind , and that a tempestuous one too . 24. Perhaps you will think it allowable , that on this Occasion I antedate what in due time will infallibly come to pass ; and now briefly take some notice , as if it were present , of the diffused and illustrious manifestation of the Divine Wisedom , ( as well as Justice and Mercy , ) that will gloriously appear at the day of the general Judgment , when every good Christians eyes shall be vouchsafed a much larger prospect than that which his Saviour himself had , when he survey'd in a trice , and as it were at one view , all the Kingdoms of the World ; and shall behold a much more numerous ( not to say numberless ) Assembly , than that which is said to have consisted of all People , Nations and Languages , that flock'd in to the Dedication of Nebuchadnezar's Golden Image . At that great decretory Day , when the whole Off-spring of Adam , shall by the loud voice and trumpet of the Arch-Angel be call'd together , from the remotest Ages and the distantest Climates in the World : when , I say , besides the faln Angels , all the Humane Actours that ever liv'd , shall appear upon the Stage at once : when the dead shall be rais'd , and the Books shall be open'd : ( that is , the Records of Heaven and of Conscience ) Then the Wisedom of God will shine forth in its Meridian lustre , and its full splendour . Not onely the Occurrences that relate to the lives and actions of particular Persons , or of private Families , and other lesser Societies of Men ; will be there found not to have been overlook'd by the Divine Providence ; but the Fates of Kingdoms and Commonwealths , and the Revolutions of Nations and of Empires , will appear to have been order'd and over-rul'd by an incomparable Wisedom . And those great Politicians , that thought to out-wit Providence , by their refin'd subtilties , shall find themselves taken in their own craftiness ; shall have their deepest Counsels turn'd into foolishness ; and shall not be able to keep the amaz'd World from discovering , that whilst they thought they most craftily pursu'd their own Ends , they really accomplish'd God's . And those subtile Hypocrites that thought to make pretended Religion the Instrument of their Secular Designs , shall find those Designs both defeated , and made truly subservient to that advancement of Religion , which they really never aim'd at . 25. To employ and keep in Order a very complicated Engine , such as the famous Strasburg's Clock , or a Man of War , though all the parts of it be inanimate and devoid of purposes and ends of their own , is justly counted a piece of skill . And this Task is more difficult , and consequently does recommend the conduct of the Performer , in proportion to the intricate structure , and the number of pieces whereof the Engine consists . At which rate how astonishing and ravishing will appear that Wisedom and Providence that is able to Guide and Over-rule many thousand Milions of Engins endow'd with Wills , so as to make them all be found in the final Issues of things , subservient to purposes worthy of Divine Providence , Holiness , Justice and Goodness . In short , when all the Actours that had their parts in this World , shall appear at once upon the Stage ; when all Disguises shall be stript off , all Intrigues discover'd , all hearts and Designs laid open , then to find that this whole amazing Opera , that has been acting upon the face of the Earth , from the beginning to the end of Time , has been so contrived and carried on by the Great Authour of the World and of Men , that their innumerably various actions , and cross designs are brought , ( commonly without , and often against their wills , ) to conspire to the accomplishment of a Plot worthy of God ; will appear an Effect of so vast and so allpervading a Wisedom , as Humane Intellects will admiringly confess , that nothing but a Divine and Omniscient One could compass . 26. 'T is like you may have taken notice , that among the several Instances I have given of the Wisedom of God , I have not , ( unless perhaps incidentally and transiently , ) mention'd the Oeconomy of Man's Salvation by Jesus Christ . And therefore I think my self oblig'd to advertise you , that though , for Reasons to be given you ▪ if you desire it , by word of mouth , I have thought fit , That Subject , which has been already handled by so many profess'd Divines , should be left untreated of by me , who am a Layman ; yet I did not pretermit it , upon the score of thinking it at all Inferiour to those other Manifestations of God's Wisedom , that I expresly discourse of . For I think that in the Redemption of Mankind , more of the Divine Attributes than are commonly taken notice of , have their distinct Agencies ; and that their Co-operation is so admirably directed by the Divine Wisedom , that an Apostle may very justly call it the great mystery of Godliness ; and that it no less deserves our Wonder , than our Gratitude . 27. I am not ignorant that many learned Divines , have largely , and some of them laudably , treated of this Subject . But I confess I doubt whether most of them have not been more happy in their Care to avoid errours about it , than skilfull in their attempts , to unveil the mysteries couch'd in it . There are in the great work of Man's Redemption , some characters and footsteps of the Divine Wisedom , so conspicuous , not to say so refulgent , that a Believer endow'd but with a mediocrity of parts , may easily enough discern them . But there are also in this sublime and comprehensive work , some depths of God , ( to use a Scripture phrase ) and so much of the Wisedom of God in a Mystery , ( that is , of the Mysterious Wisedom of God ) that I cannot think it an easie matter to have a mental Eye , so inlightned and so piercing , as to treat largely and worthily of so vast and abstruse a Subject . And indeed when I consider , that a Man must know much of the Nature of Spirits in general , and even of the Father of them , God himself , of the Intellect , Will , &c. of the Soul of Man , of the State of Adam in Paradise , and after his fall , of the influence of his fall upon his Posterity , of the Natural or Arbitrary vindictive Justice of God , of the Grounds and Ends of God's inflicting Punishments as a Creditour , a Ruler , or both ; of the admirable and unparallel'd Person of Christ the Mediatour ; of those Qualifications and Offices that are required to fit him , for being lapsed Man's Redeemer , of the Nature of Covenants , and the Conditions of those God vouchsaf'd to make with Man , whether of Works , or Grace ; of the Divine Decrees , in reference to Man's final State ; of the secret and powerfull Operations of Grace upon the mind , and the manner by which the Spirit of God works upon the Souls of Men , that He converts , and brings by Sanctification to Glory . To be short , there are so many Points ( for I have left divers unnam'd ) most of them of difficult speculation , that are fit to be discuss'd by him that would solidly and fully treat of the Worlds Redemption by Jesus Christ , that when I reflect on them , I am ready to exclaim with St. Paul , who is sufficient for these things ; and I am so far from wondering , that the generality of Divines and other Writers on this Subject , have not fully display'd the Wisedom that God has express'd in this great work , that to have been able to accomplish it in so admirable a way , as God has actually contriv'd and made choice of , is one of the chief Reasons of my Admiration of the Wisedom it self . And I am persuaded , that for God to reconcile his inflexible Justice , his exuberant Mercy , and all those other things that seem'd to clash inevitably about the design'd Salvation of Men , and make them co-operate to it ; is a stupendious manifestation of Wisedom : there being no Probleme in Diophantus , Alexandrinus , or Apollonius Pergaeus , in Algebra , or in Geometry , near so difficult to be solv'd , or that requires , that a greater number of proportions and congruities should be attended to at once , and made subservient to the same Ends ; as that Great Probleme propounded by God's Infinite Goodness to his Divine Wisedom ; the Redemption of lost and perverse Mankind , upon the Terms declar'd in the Gospel , which are admirably fitted to promote at once , God's Glory , and Man's felicity . 28. Though what has been said of the Greatness of God's Power and Wisedom , may justly persuade us that those Attributes are Divine and Adorable ; yet I must not deny that the Representation that I have made of them , is upon several accounts , very disadvantageous . For first , there has not been said of them in this paper all that even I could have mention'd , to set forth their excellency ; because I had elsewhere treated of that Subject , and was more willing to present you with some things I had not said before , than trouble you with many repetitions . But if instead of so unfit a Person as I , the manifestation of the Divine Wisedom had been undertaken by the knowingest Man in the World , or perhaps even by an Angel , he would find himself unable fully to make out the matchless Excellency of it . For how much Wisedom has been exercis'd by an Omniscient Being , cannot be fully comprehended or , consequently , describ'd , but by an infinite understanding . Besides , I have considered the Wisedom display'd by God in the Works of His Creation and Providence , with respect to them not to us . For they are excellent , absolutely , and in their own Nature , and would simply upon that account deserve the wonder and the praises of Rational Beings , as they are rational : as Zeuxis justly celebrated the skill of Appelles , and modern Geometers and Mechanitians admire Archimedes . But in this irrelative contemplation of God's Works , a Man's mind being intent onely upon the excellencies he discovers in them , He is not near so much affected with a just sense of the inferiority of His to the Divine Intellect , as He would be if He heedfully consider how much of the vast Subjects He contemplates , are undiscovered by Him , and how dimm and imperfect the Knowledge is , which He has of that little He does discover . And now , ( lastly ) to the other disadvantages with which I have been reduc'd to represent ( and so to blemish . ) the Divine Attributes ; I must add , that I have insisted but upon two of them , God's Power and His Wisedom , whereas we know that He has divers other perfections , as ( besides those Incommunicable ones , His , Self-experience , Self-sufficiency , and Independency ) His Goodness to all His Creatures , His Mercy to sinfull Men , His Justice , His Veracity , &c. And as I long since noted , we may rationally conceive , that He may have divers Attributes and consequently divers Perfections , whereof we have at present no Knowledge , or perhaps so much as particular conjecture , the inexhaustible Fecundity of the Divine Nature being such , that for ought we know , we are acquainted with but a small part of the productions of an Almighty Power , accompanied with an infinite Wisedom , and excited to communicate it self by an exuberant Goodness . And indeed I see not why we may not say that by the Notion or Idea we have of Him , and by the help of some Attributes we already know He has , we may in general conceive , that He has other Perfections , that we yet know not in particular : since of those Attributes that we do already know , though the irrelative ones ( if I may so call them ) such as His Self-existence , Eternity , Simplicity and Independency ; may be known by mere speculation , and as it were all at once , by appearing to us as comprehended in the Notion of a Being absolutely perfect ; yet there are divers relative Attributes or Perfections , that come to be known but successively , and as it were by experience of what He has actually done in relation to some of His Creatures . As , the Mercy of God was not known by Adam himself before his fall ; and God's Fidelity or Faithfulness to His promises , as particularly that of sending the Messias in the fulness of time was not , ( not to say could not be ) known but in process of time , when some of them came to be fulfill'd . And therefore , since some of God's Perfections require or suppose the respective Natures and Conditions of His Creatures , and the actings of some of them towards Him , as well as some of His towards them ; we , that cannot be at all sure that He may not have made many sorts of Creatures , and have had divers relations to them according to their several States and Conditions , that we are altogether unacquainted with ; cannot know but that some of the Attributes of God exercis'd towards these Creatures , may remain unknown to us . 29. But whether the Attributes , known and unknown , be thought to be more or fewer ; it will not be denyed , but that the Natural and genuine result of all these Divine Perfections , ( which we conceive under distinct Notions , because we are not able to see them at one view , united in God's most simple Essence ) must be a most glorious Majesty ; that requires the most lowly and prostrate Venerations of all the Great Creatour's Intelligent Works . And accordingly we may observe ( from some of the formerly cited Texts ) that the Angels , who of all his mere Creatures are the most excellent and knowing , are represented in the Scripture as assiduously employing themselves , not onely in obeying and serving , but in Praising , and Adoring the Divine Majesty . The very Name of Angel in the Original Languages of the Old and New Testament , is a Name of Ministery : the Hebrew Malach and the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying properly a Messenger . And our Saviour intimates in his most Excellent Pattern of Prayer , that the will of God is done most obsequiously and chearfully in Heaven ; since Christians are directed to wish , that their Obedience there pay'd him might be imitated upon Earth . And as they style themselves the Apostles Fellow-Servants ; so these Celestial Envoyes ( if I may so call them ) make no scruple of going upon the meanest Errands , as we would think them ; considering rather by whom , than to whom , or about what , they are sent . So the first Angel that we reade of , to have been sent to a particular Person , was employed to Hagar , a wandering and fugitive Female slave , ready to perish for thirst in a Wilderness ; to direct her to a Well of Water , and tell her somewhat that concerned her Child . And another Angel is represented as taking the part of an Ass against a false Prophet . Nay of this glorious Order of Creatures in general , the Scripture tells us , that they are All ministring Spirits , sent forth to Minister for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation . Though the Angels are Creatures so glorious in their Apparitions here below , that they use to strike amazement and veneration , if not Terrour , even into the Excellent Persons they appear to , ( as we may learn from divers passages of the Scripture , where we are told that their presence was accompanied with a surprizing Splendour , and one of them is represented in the Apocalypse , as Inlightening the Earth with His Glory : And though their multitude be so great that sometimes the Myriades of them , and sometimes the Legions , are mention'd ; and elsewhere we are told of Thousand Thousands , and ten Thousand times ten Thousand of them : Yet these Celestial Courtiers , that in comparison of us Men , are so Glorious , as well as Intelligent and spotless , when they appear in multitudes about the Throne of God , ( according to that Vision of the Prophet , who told the two Kings of Judah and Israel , that he saw the Lord sitting on his Throne ; and all the Host of Heaven standing by Him on His right Hand and on His left , ) they stand not to Gaze , but as the Prophet Daniel expresly says , to minister . And in Isaiah's Vision , the Seraphims themselves are represented as covering their faces before their Great Maker , Seated on his Elevated Throne . And we may easily guess that their Employment is most humbly to adore and celebrate such dazelling Majesty ; by what we are told of their crying one to another Holy , Holy , Holy , is the Lord of Hosts , the whole Earth is full of his Glory . This profound respect of the Angels is not to be marvel'd at : since , where esteem springs not from ignorance but knowledge , the greater the ability and opportunities are of having the knowledge clear and heighten'd , the greater Veneration must be produc'd in an Intelligent Being , for the admired Object : whose Perfections are such , that even an Angelical Intellect cannot fully reach them ; since as a line by ●eing never so much extended in leng●● cannot grow a Surface ; so neither ca● created perfections , be by any Idea's so stretch'd as to be amplifyed into Divine ones ; ( or Idea's equal to them . ) And indeed speaking in general , the Creatures are but Umbratile ( if I may so speak ) and arbitrary Pictures of the great Creatour : of divers of whose Perfections though they have some signatures ; yet they are but such , as rather give the Intellect rises and occasions to take notice of and contemplate the Divine Originals , than they afford it true Images of them : as a Picture of a Watch or Man , or the name of either of them written with Pen and Ink , does not exhibite a true and perfect Idea of a thing ( whose internal constitution a surface cannot fully represent ) but onely gives occasion to the mind to think of it , and to frame one . And what I have said of the Creatures in general , holds true of the Angels themselves : who by several prerogatives do indeed much surpass the rest of their fellow Creatures , but yet are but Creatures , and therefore of a Nature infinitely inferiour to God's ; as , though a Thousand is a far greater Number than ten , and a Million than a Thousand , yet the latter as well as the two former is beyond computation distant from a Number suppos'd to be infinite ; since otherwise a finite Number ( that by which the lesser differs from the greater ) would be able by its accession to make a finite Number become infinite . But to return to what I was saying of the Angels . I thought fit to mention both the Nobleness of their Nature , the splendidness of their Apparitions , and the profound Veneration and ardent ▪ Devotion which they pay'd to their Creatour ; because we are wont to estimate remote things by comparison , as modern Philosophers tell us , that we judge the rising or setting Sun and Moon , to be greater and more distant from us than when they are nearer the Meridian , because when they are in the Horizon we consider them as placed beyond Mountains , or long Tracts of Land or Sea , that we know to be great Objects , and look upon as remote ones ; and yet see them interpos'd and consequently nearer than the Celestial Globes . For thus since the Scripture proposes the Angels to our Imitation , the awefull reverence pay'd to the Supreme Being by those Excellent Spirits , who , as St. Peter tells us , are greater in Power and Might than we , ought to admonish us of the ecstatick respect we Mortals owe Him ; and teach us that whensoever we speak either to God or of Him , we ought to be inwardly affected ( and in our outward expressions appear to be so ) with the unmeasurable distance there is between a most perfect and Omnipotent Creatour , and a mere impotent Creature ; as well as between a most Holy God , and a most sinfull Man. [ 30. If the Conjectures formerly propos'd about Worlds differing from ours may pass for probable , then it will be so too , that God in these other Systemes may have fram'd a Multitude of Creatures , whose Fabrick and Motions , and consequently whose Properties and Operations , must be very differing from what is usually met with in our World. And the various Contrivances wherein those differences consist will be so many peculiar Instances , as well as Productions , of the manifold Wisedom of the Great Former of all things ; or ( as the Original expression yotser hackol will bear , ) Maker of the whole ( Universe . ) But to add something now of nearer affinity to what was last said about God's Government of Spirits ; how much will this Architecktonick Wisedom ( if I may so call it ) exerted in framing and regulating an innumerable company of differing Creatures , be recommended ; if the other Worlds or Vortexes we not long since spake of , and the invisible part of ours , ( as we may call the Air and Aether ) be peopled with intelligent , though no tvisible , inhabitants ? For , though the Scripture seems not to speak expresly of any more sorts of Spirits , than those good ones that retain the name of ( the whole Genus ) Angels , and the Apostates that are commonly call'd Devils , because these are the two sorts of Spirits that it most concerns us Men , to be inform'd of : yet the Scripture , that in the History of the Creation does not clearly so much as mention the production of Angels , and elsewhere represents them , as well the bad as the good , of very differing Orders , ( as far as we can guess by the several Names it gives them ; ) the Scripture , I say , does not deny that there are any other sorts of Spirits than those it expresly takes notice of . So that without any affront to it , we may admit there are such , if any probable arguments of it , be suggested to us , either by Reason or Experience . And it seems not very likely , that while our Terraqueous Globe , and our Air , are frequented by multitudes of Spirits , all the Celestial Globes , ( very many of which do vastly exceed ours in bulk ) and all the Aetherial or Fluid part of the World , ( in comparison of which , all the Globes , the Celestial and Terrestrial , put together , are inconsiderable for bulk ) should be quite destitute of inhabitants . I have not time to set down the Opinions of the Ancient as well Eastern as Grecian Writers , especially the Pythagoreans and Platonists , to whose Master this sentence is ascribed concerning the multitudes of Daemons , ( a name by them not confin'd to evil Spirits ) that liv'd in the Superiour part of the World , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will not presume to be positive in declaring the sense of those two expressions which the Scripture employs , where speaking of the head of the satanical kingdom , it calls him the Prince of the power of the Air , ( and the word Air , is among the Hebrews taken in a great latitude , and several times us'd for the word Heaven ) and where speaking of the grand Adversaries of the Gospel , it styles the spiritual wickednesses , or rather ( as the Syriac reades it , spirits of wickedness , that is , ) wicked spirits not in high places , as our Translatours have it , but in Heavenly . But though , as I was saying , I will not be positive in giving these two Texts such a sense , as may make them direct arguments for my Conjecture , yet it seems that if they do not require , at least they may well bear , an interpretation suitable to my present purpose . And whatever become of the assertions of Heathen Philosophers and Poets , 't is very considerable what is noted by the Excellent Grotius , ( who quotes several Hebrew Authorus for it ) that 't was the Opinion of the Jews , that all places from Earth to Heaven , even the Starry Heaven , are full of Spirits . If this be so , the Wisedom and Power of God must reach much farther than we are commonly aware of ; since He has Created , and does Govern , such an inestimable multitude of Spiritual Beings , of various kinds , each of them endowed with an Intellect and Will of its own ; especially since , for ought we know , many or most of them , and perhaps some whole orders of them , are yet in a probational state , wherein they have free-will allow'd them ; as Adam and Eve were in Eden , and all the Angels were , before some of them ( as the Scripture speaks ) left their first estate and their own mansion . And if to these Angelical communities we add those others of Children , Idiots and Madmen ; of whom , though all be in a sense rational Creatures , yet the first community have not attain'd the full use of Reason , for want of age ; and the two others cannot exercise that faculty for want of rightly dispos'd Organs ; the Wisedom and Power of God in the Divine Government of such various and numerous communities of Intellectual Creatures , will to a considering Man appear the more illustrious and wonderfull . ] 31. The distance betwixt the Infinite Creatour and the Creatures , which are but the limitted and arbitrary productions of His Power and Will , is so vast , that all the Divine Attributes or Perfections do by unmeasurable intervals transcend those faint resemblances of them , that He has been pleas'd to impress , either upon other Creatures , or upon us Men. God's Nature is so Peculiar and Excellent , that there are qualities , which though high vertues in Men , cannot belong to God , or be ascrib'd to Him without derogation : such as are Temperance , Valour , Humility , and divers others ; which is the less to be wonder'd at , because there are some vertues ( as Chastity , Faith , Patience , Liberality ) that belong to Man himself , onely in his mortal and infirm condition . But whatever Excellencies there be that are simply and absolutely such , and so may without disparagement to His Matchless Nature , be ascrib'd to God , such as are Eternity , Independency , Life , Understanding , Will , &c. we may be sure that He possesses them ; since He is the Original Authour of all the Degrees or Resemblances we men have of any of them . And the Psalmist's Ratiocination is good . He that planted the Ear , shall He not hear ? He that formed the Eye , shall not He see ? He that teacheth Man Knowledge , shall not He know ? Since all the Perfections communicated to , or to be found in the Creatures , ( whether Men , Angels , or any other ) being Emanations of the Divine Excellencies , do as much belong to God , as in a bright day , all the luminous Beams , that are to be found in the Air , belong to the Sun ; ( in whom they are united , and from whom they all proceeded . ) The vast difference then between the Perfections of the Great Creatour , and those that are Analogous to them in the Creatures ; reaches to All the Perfections that are though in very differing manners , to be found in both ; but yet the Humane Vnderstanding , as it values it self upon nothing more than Wisedom , and Knowledge ; so there is nothing that it esteems and reverences more in other Beings , and is less willing to acknowledge it self surpass'd in . For which Reason as I have in the soregoing part of this Paper inculcated by more than one way ; the Great Superiority of God's Intellect to Man's ; so I think it not improper to prosecute the same design ; by mentioning to you some few particulars , whereby that Superiority may manifestly appear . We may then consider , that besides that God knows an Innumerable company of things that we are altogether unacquainted with , since He cannot but know all the Creatures He has made , whether visible or invisible , corporeal or immaterial ; and what He has enabled them to doe ; according to that of St. James , Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the World. Nay , since He cannot but know the extent of His own infinite Power , He cannot but know numberless things as possible , that he has not yet made nor perhaps ever will please to make . But to confine my self to things actually existent ; besides His corporeal and immaterial Creatures and their faculties or powers whereof we have some kind of notice , and besides perhaps multitudes of other things whereof we have no particular Idea or Conjecture ; He knows those things whereof we men have also some knowledge , in a manner or degree peculiar to himself . As what we know but in part , He knows fully , what we know but dimly , He knows clearly , and what we know but by fallible Mediums , he knows most certainly . 32. But the Great Prerogative of God's Knowledge , is , that He perfectly knows Himself : That Knowledge being not onely too wonderfull for a man ( as even an inspir'd Person confesses touching himself ) but beyond the reach of an Angelical Intellect : since fully to comprehend the Infinite Nature of God , no less than an Infinite Understanding is requisite . And for the Works of God , even those that are purely Corporeal , ( which are therefore the meanest ) our knowledge of these is incomparably inferiour to His. For though some modern Philosophers have made ingenious attempts to explain the Nature of things Corporeal , yet their Explications generally suppose the present Fabrick of the World , and the laws of motion that are settled in it . But God knows particularly both why and how the Universal matter was first contriv'd into this admirable Universe , rather than a World of any other of the numberless Constructions He could have given it ; and both why those laws of Motion rather than others were establish'd : and how senseless Matter , to whose Nature Motion does not at all belong , comes to be both put into Motion , and qualifyed to transfer it according to determinate rules , which it self cannot understand . But when we come to consider the particular and more elaborate Works of Nature ; such as the Seeds or Eggs of living Creatures , or the Texture of Quicksilver , Poysons , Antidotes , &c. the Ingenious Confess their Ignorance , ( about the manner of their Production and Operations ) and the Confident betray theirs . But 't is like we Men know our selves better than what is without us ; but how ignorant we are at home ; if the endless disputes of Aristotle and his Commentatours and other Philosophers about the Humane Soul , and of Physicians and Anatomists about the Mechanism and Theory of the Humane Body , were not sufficient to manifest it ; 't were easie to be shewn ( as it is in another Paper ) by the very conditions of the Vnion of the Soul and Body ; which being setled at first by God's arbitrary institution , and having nothing in all Nature parallel to them , the manner and Terms of that strange Union , is a Riddle to Philosophers , but must needs be clearly known to Him , that alone did Institute it , and , ( all the while it lasts ) does preserve it . And there are several advantages of the Divine Knowledge , above that of Man , that are not here to be pretermitted . For first , we Men can perceive and sufficiently attend , but to few things at once ; according to the known saying , Pluribus intentus , Minor est , ad singula sensus . And 't is Recorded as a Wonder of some great men among the Ancients , that they could dictate to two or three Secretaries at once . But God's Knowledge reaches at once to all that He can know ; His penetrating Eyes pierce quite thorough the whole Creation , at one look ; and as an inspir'd Pen-man declares , There is no Creature that is not manifest in his sight , but all things are naked , and ( if I may so render the Greek word ) extraverted , to His Eyes . He always sees Incomparably more Objects at one View , than the Sun himself endued with sight could do . For God beholds at once all that every one of His Creatures , ( whether visible or invisible to us ) in the vast Universe , either does or thinks . Next , the Knowledge of God is not a Progressive or Discursive Thing , like that acquir'd by our Ratiocinations ; but an intuitive Knowledge : since , though we Men by reason of the limitedness and imperfections of our understandings , are fain to make the notice we have of one thing , a step and help to acquire that of another , which to us is less known ; as may easily be observ'd even in the Forms of Syllogisms : yet God , whose Knowledge as well as His other Attributes are infinitely Perfect , needs not know any one thing by the help of another : but knows every thing in it self ( as being the Authour of it : ) and all things being equally known to Him , He can by looking , if I may so speak , into himself ; see there , as in a Divine and Universal Looking-glass , every thing that is knowable most distinctly and yet all at once . Thirdly , God knows mens most secret thoughts and intentions . Whence he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and the Searcher of all hearts , that understandeth all the Imaginations of the Thoughts . Nay , he knows mens Thoughts , afar off , and even never vented thoughts , which the Man himself may not know . For not onely St. John says , that if our heart Condemns us , God is greater than our heart and knows all things ; but God enabled Daniel to declare to Nebuchadnezzar , the whole Series of the Prophetick Dream , whereof that Monarch's own memory could not retrieve any part . And here give me leave to observe , ( what perchance you have not minded ) that even of a thing that happens to a Man's self , and is of a Nature capable to make the most vivid impressions on him ; God's Knowledge may surpass His : Since St. Paul speaking of his being caught up into Paradise , after having twice said , Whether in the Body I cannot tell , or whether out of the Body , I cannot tell , he both times subjoyns , that God knows . Our knowledge of our selves , as well as that of those other Creatures that are without us , being so defective , the confidence of some that dare pretend to know God fully , by the Light of their Natural Reason , will not hinder me from taking hence a Rise to ask this short question ; How imperfect must mere Philosophers knowledge of God's Nature be since they know Him but by His Works ; and know His Works themselves but very imperfectly ! The other and fourth Conspicuous Prerogative of the Divine Knowledge , is the Prescience of future Contingents , that depend upon the Determinations and Actions of free Agents . For we Men are so far from being able to stretch our knowledge to the Discovery of that sort of Events , that the greatest Clerks have try'd their Wits in vain to discover how God himself can foreknow them ; and therefore too many , even among Christians , deny that He can ; though by divers accomplish'd predictions recorded in Scripture , it manifestly appears , that He does . 33. When I consider the transcendent Excellency , and the numerous Prerogatives of the Deity , I cannot without Wonder , as well as Trouble , observe , that Rational Men professing Christanity , and many of them Studious too , should wilfully and perhaps contemptuously , neglect to acquire or reflect on , those Notices that are apt to increase their knowledge of God , and consequently their Veneration for Him. To aspire to a farther knowledge of God , that we may the better adore Him , is a great part both of Man's Duty and His happiness . God who has put into Men an innate desire of knowledge , and a faculty to distinguish the degrees of Excellency in differing Notices , and to relish those most , that best deserve it , and has made it His Duty to search and enquire after God , and to love Him above all things , would not have done this , if He had not known that those that make a right Use of their faculties , must find Him to be the Noblest Object of the Understanding , and that which most merits their Wonder and Veneration . And indeed what can be more sutable to a Rational Creature , than to employ Reason to contemplate that Divine Being , which is both the Authour of its Reason , and the Noblest Object , about which it can possibly be employ'd ? The knowledge of some dead Language , or some old rusty Medal , or the Opinions and Customs of some Nations or Sects , that did not perhaps Reason nor Live any better than we doe now , are thought worthy of curiosity , and even of the laborious industry of learned Men ; and the study of things merely corporeal , gains Men the Honourable title of Philosophers . But whatever these Objects of inquiry be in themselves , 't is certain the greatest Discoveries we can make of them are but trifles , in comparison of the Excellency of the Knowledge of God , which does as much surpass that of His Works , as He Himself does Them. And 't is the Prerogative of His Nature , to be infinitely above all that He has made ; whether we contemplate the works of Nature , or those of Art , whereof the former are under another Name , His more immediate Works ; and the others the Effects of one of His Works ; and by consequence are originally His , though produc'd by the intervention of Man. And though it be most true , that on the Corporeal World , God has been pleas'd to stamp such impresses of His Power , Wisedom and Goodness , as have justly exacted the Admiration even of Philosophers , yet the Great Authour of the World is Himself Incomparably Superiour to all His Workmanship , insomuch that , though He could have made , and always will be able to make , Creatures more Perfect than those He has made , by Incomputable degrees of perfection ; yet the Prerogative of His Nature will keep Him necessarily Superiour to the excellentest Creatures He can make , since the very condition of a Creature hinders it from being ( to name now no other of the Divine Attributes ) Self existent and Independent . 'T is therefore methinks a sad thing , that we Men should grudge to spend now and then a few hours in the contemplation and internal Worship of that most . Glorious and Perfect Being , that continually employs the Devotion of Angels themselves . This I judge probable from hence , that those blessed Spirits are represented in the Scripture as Celebrating with joyfull Songs and Acclamations , the Nativity of the World , and I think they may well be supposed , to have an ardent desire to obtain a farther knowledge of God Himself . Since , as an Apostle assures us , they earnestly desire to look into the truths contain'd in the Gospel , and the Dispensations of God towards frail and mortal Men. 34. I know I may be told that Scrutator Majestatis , &c. and that 't is a dangerous thing to be inquisitive about the Nature of God. But , not to urge that the Latin sentence is taken but out of an Apocryphal Book ; I answer that the Secret things of God that are to be left to Himself , seem to be His unrevealed purposes and decrees and His most abstruse Essence or Substance , the scrutiny whereof I readily acknowledge not to belong to us . But I think there is a great difference between contemplating God out of a saucy curiosity , merely to know somewhat that is not common of Him , and doing it out of an humble desire by a farther knowledge of Him to heighten our Reverence and Devotion towards Him. 'T is an effect of Arrogance to endeavour , or so much as hope , to comprehend the Divine Perfections so as to leave nothing in them unknown to the enquirer , but to aspire to know them farther and farther , that they may proportionably appear more and more admirable and lovely in our eyes , is not onely an excusable but a laudable curiosity . The Scripture in one place exhorts us to grow not onely in Grace , but in the Knowledge of Christ ; and in another to add to our Vertue Knowledge ; and when Moses beg'd to be bless'd with a nearer and more particular view of God , though part of His request was refus'd , because the grant of it was unsutable to his mortal State , and perhaps must have prov'd fatal to him whilst he was in it ; yet God vouchsafed so Gratious a return to his petition , as shews He was not displeas'd with the supplicant . No action or suffering of His having procured for him so glorious a view , as was then vouchsafed to his holy curiosity . And that we may aspire to great degrees of knowledge , even at those supernatural Objects that we cannot adequately know , we may learn from St. Paul , who prays that his Ephesians , as all true Christians , may be able to comprehend what is the breadth and length and depth and height , and to know the love of Christ , which , says he in the very next words , passeth knowledge . Supposing it then lawfull to contemplate God , not with design to pry into His Decrees and Purposes , nor to Dogmatize in points controverted among the learned about His Nature and Attributes , but to excite in our selves the sentiments which His indisputable Perfections , are by a more attentive view qualified to produce : I consider that the Devout Contemplation of God , besides other great advantages that it brings the mind , insomuch that the Humane understanding , like Moses in the Mount , does by an assiduous converse with God acquire a lasting luminousness . Besides this , I say , and the improving influence that this happy Conversation may have upon the graces and vertues of the mind , I take it to be one of the most delightfull exercises , that the Soul is capable of , on this side Heaven . 'T is generally acknowledg'd that admiration is one of the most pleasing affections of the mind , which sometimes when the Object deserves it , is so possest thereby , as to forget all other things , or leave them unregarded as it often happens in Masks and other pompous and surprizing shews or spectacles ; and as upon a better ground it happen'd to St. Peter , when being ravish'd with the glorious transfiguration of his and our Master upon Mount Tabor , he exclaim'd that 't was good for them to be there , and talk'd of building Tabernacles for those that had Heavenly Mansions ; being so transported with the ravishing sight , that the Evangelist expresly Notes that he knew not what he said . Now ; the pleasure that admiration gives , being usually proportionate to the uncommon Nature and indearing Circumstances of the thing admired , how can any admiration afford such a contentment , as that which has God Himself for its Object , and in Him the most singular and the most Excellent of all Beings . The wonder produc'd in us by an humble and attentive Contemplation of God , has two main advantages , above the admiration we have for any of His Works , or of our own . For first when we admire Corporeal things , how noble and pretious soever they be , as Stars and Gemms , the contentment that accompanies our wonder is allay'd by a kind of secret reproach grounded on that very wonder ; since it argues a great imperfection in our understandings , to be pos'd by things that are but Creatures , as well as we , and which is worse , of a nature very much inferiour to ours . Whereas 't is no disparagement at all for a humane , and consequently a finite Intellect to be possessed with wonder , though it were heightened to amazement , or astonishment , by the Contemplation of that most Glorious and Infinitely Perfect Being , which must necessarily exceed the adequate comprehension of any Created Intellect . But I consider that there is a farther and much greater ( which is the second ) advantage of the admiration of God , above that of other things , for other Objects having but a bounded Nature and commonly but some one thing fit to be wondred at , our admiration of them is seldom lasting , but after a little familiarity with them , first languishes and then seases . But God is an Object , whose Nature is so very Singular , and whose Perfections are so immense , that no Assiduity of considering Him , can make Him cease to be admirable , but the more knowledge we obtain of Him , the more Reason we find to admire Him. So that there may be a perpetual vicissitude of our happy acquests of farther degrees of knowledge , and our eager desires of new ones . Because we give Him but one Name , we are apt to look upon Him as but one Object of speculation ; but , though God be indeed but one in Essence or Nature , yet such is His immensity , and if I may so speak , Fecundity , that He is unspeakably Various in the capacity of an Object . Thus Heaven goes under one Name , but contains so many sixt Stars and Planets , and they by their diversity of Motions exhibit so many Phaenomena , that though they have employed the curiosity of Astronomers for many Ages , yet our times have in the Celestial part of the World , made discoveries as considerable , if not as numerous , as all those of the Ancients ; and as our Optick Glasses have detected many sixt Stars , and divers Planets that were unknown to former times , so our Navigatours , by their Voyages beyond the Line , have discovered divers whole constellations in the Southern Hemisphere . So that though Heaven be an Object , that has been perpetually and conspicuously exposed to Mens view and curiosity , for some thousands of years , yet it still affords new Subjects for their wonder : and I scarce doubt but by the farther improvement of Telescopes , Posterity will have its curiosity gratified by the discovery both of new Constellations , and of new Stars , in those that are known to us already . We need not therefore fear our admiration of God should expire , for want of Objects fit to keep it up . That boundless Ocean contains a variety of excellent Objects , that is as little to be exhausted as the Creatures that live in our sublunary Ocean or lie on the shores that limit it , can be numbred . To the Wonderfull Excellency of God , may be justly apply'd that Notion , which Aristotle lays down as a kind of definition of Infinite , namely that 't is that of which how much soever one takes , there still remains more to be taken . If the Intellect should for ever make a farther and farther Progress in the knowledge of the Wonders of the Divine Nature , Attributes and Dispensations ; yet it may still make discoveries of fresh things worthy to be admired ; as in an infinite Series or row of ascending numbers , though you may still advance to greater and greater numbers ; yet all that you can doe by that Progress , is to go farther and farther from the first and least term of the progression , ( which in our case answers to the smallest degree of our knowledge of God ) without ever reaching , or which may seem strange , but is true , so much as approaching to an Infinite number , ( in case there were any such ) or even to the greatest of all numbers : as will be acknowledged by those that have look'd into the properties of progressions in Infinitum . 35. The two advantages I come from mentioning which the admiration of God has in point of delightfulness joyn'd to the other advantages of our contemplation of Him , have I hope persuaded you that they are very much wanting to themselves , as well as to the Duty they owe their Maker , that refuse or neglect to give their thoughts so pleasing , as well as Noble , an employment . And I am apt to think upon this account in particular , that Reason is a greater blessing to other Men , than to Atheists , who whilst they are such cannot employ it about God , but with disbelief or terrour ; and that on this very score , Epicurus was far less happy than Plato , since whereas the latter was oftentimes as it were swallowed up in the Contemplation of the Deity ; The former had no such glorious Object , to possess Him with an equally rational and delightfull admiration . 36. But now , ( to apply this to the scope of this whole discourse ) though so pure and spiritual a pleasure is a very allowable attractive ; to elevate our thoughts , to the most glorious and amiable of Objects , yet it ought to be both the design and the effect of our admiration of God , to produce in us less unworthy Idea's , and more honourable and reverent thoughts , of that Wonderfull and unparallel'd Being . Of whom the more we discover , the more we discern Him to be Superiour to all His Works , and particularly to our selves , who are not of the highest Order of them , and who , as mere men , are scarce in any thing more Noble , than in the capacity and permission of knowing , admiring and adoring God. Which he that thinks a mean and melancholy employment , might be to seek for happiness in Heaven it self , if so unqualified a Soul could be admitted there . The genuine effect of a nearer or more attentive view of Infinite excellency , is a deep sense of our own great inferiority , to it , and of the great inferiority , to it , and of the great Veneration and fear we owe ( to speak in a Scripture phrase ) to this glorious and fearfull Name , ( that is , Object ) The Lord our God. And accordingly when God had spoken to Job out of the Whirlewind , and declared somewhat to him of the Divine greatness ; This holy Philosopher much alters his style , and confesses that in his former discourses of God , he had uttered what he understood not , things two wonderfull for him , which he knew not . And having thereupon implored instruction from God , he declares how fit a nearer knowledge of Him is to make a man have low thoughts of himself ; I have heard of thee , ( says he to his Maker ) by the hearing of the Ear ; but now mine Eye seeth thee : wherefore ( infers he ) I abhor my self , and repent in dust and ashes . I know you may look upon a good part of this excursion as a digression ; but if it be , 't will quickly be forgiven , if you will pardon me for it , as easily as I can pardon my self , for finding my self in David's case , when he said , my heart was hot within me , while I was musing the fire burn'd , as he said , Then spake I with my tongue . So I was content to let my Pen run on in so pleasant and Noble a Theme , and endeavour to excite , at least in my self , such a well grounded admiration of God , as may perhaps be a part of my Reasonable service to Him , or rational Worship of Him. God is pleas'd to declare that he that offers ( or as 't is in the original Sacrifices ) praise , glorifies him , and the Scripture expresly styles our devotion Sacrifices of praise . And we may well suppose that if the Calves of our lips , as our Celebrations of God are somewhere call'd , are incouraged by God , those mental offerings that consist in High and Honourable thoughts of Him , and in lowly humble sentiments of our selves in the view of His Excellency , will not be less acceptable to Him : such reverence and devout fear ( to speak with the inspired writer to the Hebrews ) being indeed a kind of adoring God in Spirit and in Truth . And he that is so employed , may with contentment compare his condition to that of Zacharias , when it was said of him that his lot was to burn Incense , to offer up to God the noblest and purest sort of the Legal Sacrifices . But that I may not too far digress , I shall onely add , That I think my self very worthily , as well as delightfully employed , when I am seeking after and bringing together what helps I can , to greaten as much as I am able , those sentiments of Wonder and Veneration for God , that I am sure can never be great enough . Especially since the more we know and adore that Infinite Excellency and Exuberant Fountain of Goodness , the more influence and advantages we derive from it : agreeably to which God , is introduced in the Scripture , saying of one of His adorers , to whom in the same Psalm many other blessings are also promised , because he has set his love upon me , therefore will I deliver him : I will set him on high because he has known my Name . We have generally , through Incogitancy , or Vice , or Prejudices , or the Majesty and abstruseness of the Subject , so great an Indisposition to excite and cherish in our selves an awfull Veneration for God , and a studious Contemplation of His adorable Attributes ; that it seemed no more than needfull to employ variety of Arguments , drawn from different Topicks , to engage our own and other Mens minds , and repeated Inculcations to press them , to an Exercise , which they neither are , nor are willing to be , acquainted with . This Consideration will , I hope , be my Apology , if in the present Tract I lay hold on several occasions , and make use of diversities of Discourse , to recommend a Duty , that does very much both merit and need to be not onely proposed but inculcated . And yet I will not any farther lengthen this foregoing Excursion , ( as I hope you will think it , rather than a mere Digression , ) nor any longer forget , that when I begun it , I was discoursing of the great caution and profound respect , with which we ought to speak of God. 37. 'T were tedious to insist on all the Arguments that may be brought of the Immense Inferiority of Man's Intellect to God's . And therefore I shall here content my self to illustrate some part of it , by a Simile borrow'd from the superiour and inferiour Luminaries of Heaven : Humane reason , in comparison of the Divine Intellect , being but like the Moon in reference to the Sun. For as the Moon at best is but a small Star in comparison of the Sun , and has but a dim light , and that too , but borrow'd ; and has her wane , as well as her full , and is often subject to Eclipses , and always blemished with dark spots : So the light of Humane reason is but very small and dim , in comparison of His Knowledge , that is truely called in Scripture the Fountain , as well as the Father , of Light ; and this Light it self which shines in the Humane Intellect , is derived from the irradiation it receives from God , in whose Light 't is that we see light . And this , as 't is but a communicated light , is subject to be encreas'd , impair'd , and oftentimes to be almost totally eclipsed ; either by the darkning fumes of lusts or passions , or the suspension of the provok'd Donor's beams ; and in its best estate , is always blemished with imperfections , that make it uncapable of an entire and uniform Illumination . Upon these and divers other Considerations , I , for my part , think it becomes us Men , to use an awfull Circumspection ; not onely when we make Philosophical Inquiries or Scholastick Disputes about God , that is , when we presume to discourse of Him ; but when we solemnly design to praise Him , for 't is one thing to say true things of God , and another to say things worthy of God : Our Idea's of Him may be the best we are able to frame , and yet may far better express the greatness of our veneration for Him , than the immensity of His Perfection : and even those Notions of them that may be worthy of the most Intelligent of Men , will fall extremely short of being worthy of the incomprehensible God. The brightest and least unlike Idea we can frame of God , is infinitely more inferiour in reference to Him , than a Parhelion is in reference to the Sun. For , though that Meteor appear a splendid and sublime thing , and have so much resemblance to the Sun ( without whose own beams it is not produced ) as to be readily perceived to be his image , exclusively to that of any other : yet residing in a Cloud , whose Station is near the Earth , 't is by an immense distance beneath the Sun ; and is no less inferiour to him in bigness and in splendour ; as well as in many other Attributes . He has in my Opinion the truest Veneration for God , not who can set forth His Excellencies and Prerogatives in the most high and pompous expressions : but he who willingly has a deep and real sense of the unmeasurable inferiority of himself and his best Idea's , to the unbounded and unparallel'd Perfections of his Maker . And here Indignation prompts me to this reflexion , that if [ Since ] even our Hymns and Praises of God the Supreme Being deserve our blushes and need His pardon , what confusion will one day cover the faces of those , that do not onely speak slightly and carlesly , but oftentimes contemptuously , and perhaps drollingly , of that Supreme and Infinitely Perfect Being , to whom they owe those very Faculties and that witt which they so ungratefully , as well as impiously misemploy ? And indeed , such transcendent Excellencies as the Divine ones must be , might justly discourage us from offering so much as to Celebrate them , if Infinite Goodness were not one of them . I shall not therefore allow my self the presumption of pretending to make as it were a Panegyrick of God , of whom 't is very easie to speak too much , though it be not possible to say enough : contenting my self with an humble Adoration of Perfections whereof my utmost praises would rather express my own weakness than their excellency : since of this Ineffable Object the highest things that can be expressed in words , must therefore fall short because words cannot express them . Which assertion , though it be a Paradox , yet I think it is not truely an Hyperbole . For we are not able to determine and reach , so much as in our thoughts , the greatest of all possible numbers : since we may conceive that any one ( whatsoever it be ) that can be pitched upon or assigned , may be doubl'd , trebl'd , or multiply'd by some other Number ; or may be but the Root of a Square or Cubical Number . By which instance ( that perhaps you have not met with ) you may perceive that any determinate conception that we can have ( for example ) of God's Immensity ( to specifie now no other of His Attributes ) must therefore be short of it , because it is a determined or bounded conception . 'T is fit therefore that I should at length put limits to my discourse , since none can be put to the Extent or Perfections of my Subject . The Conclusion . THE result of what hath been said in the past Excursion , will , I hope , amount to a sufficient justification of what hath been said at the beginning of this Discourse , about The High Veneration our Intellects owe to God. For Since we may well think in general , that he hath divers Attributes and Perfections of which we have no knowledge or suspicion in particular ; and Since of those Attributes of His that are the most manifest to us , as His Power and Wisedom , we have but a very dim and narrow knowledge ; and may clearly perceive that there is in these an unbounded Extent of Perfection , beyond all that we can evidently and distinctly discern of them : how unfit must such imperfect Creatures , as we are , be to talk hastily and confidently of God , as of an Object that our contracted understandings grasp , as they are able ( or pretend to be so ) to do other Objects ! And how deep a sense ought we to have of our Inestimable inferiority , to a Being , in reference to whom , both our ignorance and our knowledge ought to be the Parents of Devotion ! Since our necessary ignorance proceeds from the numerousness , and Incomprehensibleness of His ( many of them undiscovered ) Excellencies , and our knowledge qualifies us but to be the more Intelligent Admirers of His conspicuous Perfections . If we duly and Impartially consider these and the like things , we may clearly perceive , how great an effect and mark of ignorance , as well as presumption , it is , for us Mortals to talk of God's Nature and the Extent of His Knowledge , as of things that we are able to look through , and to Measure . Whereas we ought whenever we speak of God , and of His Attributes , to stand in great awe , lest we be guilty of any misapprehension or misrepresentation of him , that we might by any wariness and humility of ours have avoided ; and lest by an over-weening Opinion of our selves , we presume that we have a perfect , or at least a sufficient , knowledge of every thing in God , whereof we have some knowledge ; since this at the least consists in such Notions , as are rather suited to our limited faculties , than any way equal to His Boundless Perfections . That Higher Order of Intellectual Beings the Angels ; though their minds be so Illuminated , and their Knowledge so extensive , the Angels themselves , I say , are in the Scripture affirmed to be desirous to pry into the Mysteries of the Gospel : whence we may guess , how far they are from penetrating to the bottom of what the Scripture calls the Depths of God ; and how much farther they are from comprehending the Infinite Nature of God. And accordingly when in the ( formerly mentioned ) Majestick Vision , that appeared to the Prophet Isaich , they are set forth as Attendants about the Throne of God , they are represented covering their faces with their wings , as not able to support , or not presuming to Gaze on , the Dazling Brightness of the Divine Majesty . And shall we poor sinfull Mortals , who are infinitely beneath Him , not onely by the degeneracy and sinfulness of our lives , but even by the imperfection and inferiority of our nature ; presume to talk forwardly or irreverently of the Divine Essence and Perfections , without considering the immense distance betwixt God and us ; and how unable , as well as unworthy , we are to penetrate the recesses of that Inscrutable as well as Adorable Nature , and how much better it would become us , when we speak of Objects so much above us , to imitate the just humility of that Inspired Poet , that said * Such Knowledge is too Wonderfull for me ; it is High I cannot attain unto it : And joyn in that seemingly , and yet but seemingly , Lofty Celebration of God , † That His Glorious Name is Exalted above all Blessing and Praise . THE END . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A29013-e120 * Such figures as these . [ ] . Notes for div A29013-e220 1 Cor. II. 10. Act. XX. 27. 1 Tim. VI. 16. 1 Cor. XIII . 12. Job XI . 7. Rom. XI . 33. See Ricciol . Almag . nov . lib. IX . Sect. IV. Cap. VI. Eph. III. 10. Col. II. 3. 1 Cor. 1. 25. Jer. X. 16. What is included in this Parathesis may be skip'd . Matt. 24. 36. Eph. VI. 12. 1 Pet. V. 8. Luk. IV. 5. Dan. III. Rev. XX. 12. 1 Tim. III. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. II. 10. II. 7. Rev. XIX . 10. Gen. XXI . 17 , &c. Nu. XXII . 33. Heb. I. 14. Dan. X. 9 , 11 , 17. Luk. I. 29. Revel . XVIII . ● ▪ 1 King. XXII . 19. Dan. VII . 10. Isa . VI. 2. Jud. IX . 2 Pet. XI . 11. Jer. 11. 19. Eph. VI. and XII . compar'd with Col. I. & XVI . Eph. II. 2. Grot. on Eph. II. 2. On Eph. VI. 12. Ep. Jud. 6. Psal . 94. 9. 10. Act. XV. 18. The Title of this Paper is , The Imperfection of Humane knowledge manifested by its own light . Heb. IV. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Chr. 28. 9. Psal . 139. 2. 1 Joh. 3. 20. Dan. II. 5 , 31. 2 Cor. 12. 2 , 3 , 4. 2 Pet. III. 18. 2 Pet. I. 5. Exod. 33. 18. Exod. 34 , 5 , 6 , &c. Eph. 3. 18. Exod. 34. 29 , 30 , &c. Lu. 9. 23. Deut. 28. 58. Job . 42. 3 , 4 , 5 , 6. Psal . 39. 3. Rom. 12. 2. Psal . 50. 25. Heb. 13. 15. Heb 12. 28. Joh. 41. 23. Luk. 1. 9. Psal . 91. 14 , 15 , 16. Psal . 36. 9. Jam. 1. 17. Psal . 36. 9. 1 Cor. 13. 10. Isa . 6. Isa . 6. 2. * Psal . 136. 6. † Nehe. 9. 5. 
A39594	----	Farther additions to a small treatise called Salt-water sweetned shewing the great advantages both by sea and land of sea-water made fresh : together with the Honourable Mr. Boyle's letter and the approbation of the Colledge of Physicians of the wholesomeness of this water. Fitzgerald, R. (Robert) 1684 Approx. 33 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 14 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2008-09 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A39594 Wing F1082 ESTC R14952 13591817 ocm 13591817 100675 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A39594) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 100675) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 788:15) Farther additions to a small treatise called Salt-water sweetned shewing the great advantages both by sea and land of sea-water made fresh : together with the Honourable Mr. Boyle's letter and the approbation of the Colledge of Physicians of the wholesomeness of this water. Fitzgerald, R. (Robert) Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. Fitzgerald, R. (Robert). Salt-water sweetned. The ninth edition, Octob. 13. [6], 21 p. Printed by John Harefinch ..., London : 1684. Written by Robert Fitzgerald. Cf. BM. Reproduction of original in Bodleian Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. 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In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Fitzgerald, R. -- (Robert). -- Salt-water sweetned. Seawater -- Distillation -- Early works to 1800. Saline water conversion -- Early works to 1800. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-05 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2007-05 Taryn Hakala Sampled and proofread 2007-05 Taryn Hakala Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Farther Additions To a Small TREATISE Called Salt-Water SWEETNED : SHEWING The Great Advantages BOTH BY SEA and by LAND , OF SEA-WATER made FRESH . TOGETHER In the Honourable Mr. BOYLE'S Letter , and the Approbation of the COLLEDGE of PHYSICIANS , of the Wholsomness of this WATER . The Ninth Edition , Octob. 13. LONDON , Printed by John Harefinch in Mountague-Court in Little Brittain . 1684. TO THE KING'S Most Excellent Majesty . SIR , WHEN Mr. Boyle , with my Partners , and my self attended Your Majesty with the Experiment of Reducing Salt Water into Fresh ; Your Majesty seem'd so well pleased with an Invention of that Vniversal Benefit , that we cannot but with our Humblest Duty acknowledge Your Gracious Reception of it ; However , as Your Great Wisdom and Judgment is not easie to be surpriz'd , and Your Royal Approbation never known to be Your hasty Act of Grace ; Your Favour and Patronage was not fully obtain'd , till with the strictest Scrutiny you had first examin'd those Hopes and Probabilities , you vouchsaf'd to incourage in Vs . But , when upon jurther consideration , We had obviated all Difficulties , and solv'd all Objections against this Vndertaking , ( which We hope will appear in this Printed Paper , ) Your Majesty was Graciously pleas'd to give us your Approbation , and to order us your Letters Patents ; which Grace and Favour ought to be , and is receiv'd by Vs with the deepest sense of our humble Acknowledgments and Gratitude . And if the Fruits of your Royal Grant has not hitherto been deriv'd to Vs , 't is partly by some Obstacles we met from the suggestions of a private Person , but more especially by the late Horrid Conspiracy , when , not only our Loyal Apprehensions for your Majesties Danger , diverted our Thoughts from all other Concerns , but likewise we judged it a part of our Duty not to be pressing on your Majesties Goodness , or on your Ministers of State , in so Important a juncture of Affairs : But having now regained Leisure and Fredom , after the dissipation of the greatest part of our Fears , We presume a second time to lay these Endeavours at your Feet , as best Entituled to the Patronage of so great an Vndertaking by your own Subjects , and best able to Recommend it to the World by your Royal Approbation . This Experiment is in a great degree owing to the Eminent Mr. Boyle , and indeed well worthy so Ingenious a Promoter being so much the more the Favorite of his happy Genius , as it is Vniversally useful to Mankind ; But whatever Advantages this Country , or indeed the World , may receive by it , his whole Ambition is bounded in the publick . Profit , contenting himself with no other Benefit from it , than the satisfaction and pleasure of seeing it accomplish'd by his Friends . The Advantages in regard to Navigation , especially in long Voyages , which are subject ( through often Calms , and on several other accounts , ) to distress for want of Water , and the Benefits to Sea-Towns ; which are incommodated by Brackish Waters , Together with the Easiness , Cheapness , and Wholsomness of this prepared Water , are the principal scope of these ensuing Papers , which are Humbly Dedicated to Your Majestys Perusal , Favour , and further Approbation , by Your Majesties most Dutisul and Obedient Subject , R. FITZGERALD . The fore-going Dedication , Humbly offered to His Majesty , having discovered the Intention of this undertaking ; it remains now to satisfie all Reasonable Scruples which have been raised concerning the Wholesomness and Cheapness of Water thus prepared . The Queries and Answers follow . Quest . 1 IF this Water can be made in sufficient quantities to serve the Vses of any Ship at Sea ? Ans . About Ninety Gallons may be Prepared in every Twenty four Hours by an Instrument of 33 Inches Diameter , which will stand under the Deck of any Ship ; and it 's computed that less than three Quarts is a good Allowance for any man in that time : And if a large Ship , wherein there are many men aboard , should require more Water , then two or more of the Instruments may be had upon reasonable Terms , and one man may attend several of them . Quest . 2. In case the Operation be by Fire , it may require a Skilful Chymist , or one knowing in such Operations , to be on Board every Shi , who will require great Wages . Ans . There will be no occasion for any such Person , for any Sea-man may be Instructed in an Hour or two to prepare this Water . Quest . 3. It 's probable that the Engine may be frequently out of Order , and being so at Sea , where Artificers and Tools are wanting to repair it , there must necessarily follow want of Water , which will be of Ill Consequence . Ans . This Engine is of such Contrivance , that it 's never likely to be out of Order . Q. 4. Can this Engine be of use in Stormy-weather ? Ans . Since a sufficient quantity of Fresh-water may be so easily had by this Engine , the Mariners will be careful to make a good Provision of it before-hand ; however , 't is not to be doubted , but it will answer the worst Accidents of the greatest Storms , and have its Effect sufficiently in the worst Weather , especially considering that in such desperate Extremities men must be content with smaller Allowances . Quest . 5. The Operation being by Fire , it may endanger the Ship , and the Smoak be very offensive ? Ans . The Engine may easily be placed in any Ship without danger of Fire , offence of Smoak . Quest . 6. Will not the Charge of this Instrument and Materials belonging to it be very great ? Ans . It is difficult to make exact Answer to this , but an Instrument of the largest Size , with all the Materials belonging to it , will not amount to above 18 pound , and may last many years , and according to the Rates of Ships , they may be proportion'd both in Bulk and Price . And where it may be thought necessary to make use of this Experiment on Shore , for Brewing , or other uses of a Family , Instruments and Materials may be very large , and very much cheaper on Shore than at Sea. Quest . 7. Will not the Fewel be very Chargeable , and take up much room in the Ship ? Ans . The quantity of about ninety Gallons of Water may be prepared with less than three pecks of Coals , and proportionally with any other Fire ; and the whole Room that will be taken up in the Fire , and in the few Casks to be imployed in the making and receiving this Water , will be less than the tenth part of Stowage now employed for Water only , and upon a strict Computation made by the Persons concern'd in this Grant , the whole charge of Water will come to about a farthing per Gallon . Quest 8. Will not the Ingredients take up much Room , and be very Chargeable ? Ans . A Vessel less then a Barrel may contain enough of the Ingredients to catty a Ship to the East Indies and back again ; and the Ingredients for near one hundred Gallons of this Sea-water will not amount to above 12 Pence , and will be cheaper when great quantities are used at Land. Quest . 9. Admitting this Preparation of Water may be made , and insufficient Quantities , it may be doubted whether it be wholsome ? Ans . The Famous Lord Bacon , having written learnedly of this Subject , had not the least thought that the Sea-water , after it had been Dis-salted , without any Noxious addition , was Unwholesom : and it neither now is , nor ever was really doubted whether it were wholesom ; However , because invidious Persons , who are no well-wishers to Ingenious Designs , may possibly raise Scruples , the Gentlemen who are concerned in this Grant , have purposely , to give Publick Satisfaction , sent a large quantity of this Water to Doctor King , a very Ingenious Physician , who is a Member of the Colledge , and of the Royal Society ; who finds , 1. That it is Lighter than most of the Waters about the Town . 2. That it is without Sediment , and Transparent as any other Waters . 3. That it Lathers ( as they call it ) with Wash-Ball or Soap , better than other Water , and with less Soap . 4. That Sugar dissolveth sooner in it , than in other Water . 5. That it Evaporates sooner than common Water . 6. That whereas common Water Putrifies and yields a Stinking Smell within a few Weeks , this has continued Sweet and unaltered several Months , and may yet do so much longer , being still in as good condition as it was above Eight Months ago , November the Fifteenth , 1683. 7. That it makes Gellies as firm and good as any Water . 8. That it Boils Pease to Tenderness , Beef , Mutton , Fish , and all other Meat , without giving it an ill Taste or Colour . 9. That it has no kind of ill Taste in it self , and Boils in Milk , without Curdling . 10. That Flowers , Plants , and all Vegetables grow in it at least as well as any other Water . 11. And that small Animals live and grow in it . Several men of great Quality , viz. The Earls of Shrowsbury , Westmorland , Mulgrave and Burlington , the Lord Dunbar , Lord Lumley , Lord Falconbridge , and Lord Chumley , besides very many Gentlemen of Quality , who frequently drink Water , Officers of Sea , and Physicians , have Drunk of this Water , without being in the least indispos'd after it ; but , lest any doubts may remain after this , of the Salubrity of the said Water , the following Testimonial of these Learned and Eminent Physicians , is here inserted . Since the former Editions of this Treatise , most of the Foreign Ministers , several Persons of Quality , eminent Merchants , Seamen , and others , have eat of Pease , Fish , and Flesh boyled in this prepar'd Water ; and some hundreds have drunk of it often , and in great quantities , without the least ill effect by it ; and several of the East and West India Ships now ready to sail , have already agreed with the Patentees , and have taken Engines from them : and some since they have had them on board their Ship , have made Tryal in the Downs of the Operation of the said Engine at Sea , to the great satisfaction of several Persons residing in and about Deal , and other Maritime Places near the Downs . The Approbation of the Colledge of Physicians , and other Doctors of Physick , Practising in and about London . WHereas we have received an account in a Gazet published some Months since , that the Honourable Robert Fitz Gerald , Esq ; hath found out the way and means of reducing Salt-water into Fresh , in quantities sufficient to serve Ships at Sea. And for as much as some Persons may possibly make a doubt , if the said Water be wholsome after the Salt is taken out of it . We therefore , considering of what general Advantage this useful Experiment may be , having fully inform'd our selves from Mr. Boyle , that the said Experiment is made by Fire . And having also seen an account of some Experiments made by some Members of our own Body , do declare our Opinion , that We believe the said Water is very wholesome , and may be safely used . And being further acquainted by the said Mr. Boyle , that the very few ingredients made use of in the said Operation , are fixed in the Fire , and give no noxious quality to the Water ; We are therefore of Opinion , that the same may be safely used , and is at least as healthy as any other Water us'd at Sea. All which we certifie ( at the Request of the Honourable Robert Fitz-Gerald . ) Dr. Cox , President , Sir C. Scarborough , Knt. Dr. Daniel Whistler , Dr. Weatherly . Dr. Will. Deuton . Sir. T. Millington , Knt. Dr. Walter Needham , Dr. Thomas Short , Dr. Thomas Allen , Dr. Edmund Dickingson , Dr. William Croone , Dr. Richard Lower , Dr. John Windebank , Dr. Daniel Cox , Dr. James Rufine , Dr. Charles Conquest , Dr. Edmund King , Dr. Willoughby , Dr. Tho. Sydenham , Dr. Edward Tyson , Dr. Nehemiah Grew , Dr. David Abercromby , Dr. Andrew Creagh . Though Physick has always flourished in this Kingdom , yet in this Age it is in greater Perfection than ever ; being improv'd , both as to the Practical and Speculative part , by the present Fellows of the Famous Colledge of Physicians , who , being Men of great Practise and Eminent Learning , cannot but give full satisfaction to all such as inquire concerning the healthfulness of this Water ; Their Opinion being , in this particular , the more valuable , because it is to their own Disadvantage , since the Brackish Waters of the Sea-Coast , and the pu●●ifying Waters made use of at Sea , might probably have afforded them a great number of Patients , which may hereafter be lessened by the use of this wholesome Water . Since the first Edition of these Papers , his Majesty has been pleas'd to see some Experiments , which has so convinc'd his Majesty of the healthfulness of this Water , that he has resolved to have it generally made use of in his Sea-Port Garrisons ; of which an account has been given in several Guzetts , by His Majesties special Order . The Benefits and Advantages of Sea-Water made Fresh . MUch Stowage will be saved , so that a Ship of 50 or 60 Tun , and proportionably of greater Bulk , may take in several Tuns of Goods more than formerly they used to carry ; which will considerably advance the Trade of all Merchants , and be of vast profit to the Masters or Owners of Ships . The Charge of Casks is very considerable , especially when bound with Iron , as all Sea-Casks must be ; And by means of this Engine , three fourths of that charge will be saved . The tear and wear of Boats often going from Ship board , and frequent loss of the Boats and men in Stormy Weather , and the Opportunity of the Sea-mens being Drunk on shoar ; by which many fatal accidents do happen , ( by means of having this Water-Engine ) will be prevented . Ships in long Voyages have been forc'd to run many Leagues from their intended course , which much retards their Voyage , and makes them lose fair Winds , and maintain more Sea-men at charges of Diet and Wages than they have occasion for ; which inconveniencies may be prevented by having Water within themselves . Ships are often forc'd to leave their Anchors and Cables behind them , by being forc'd into dangerous Shoars upon account of taking in Fresh Water . In the African , East and West India Voyages , great quantities of Fresh Water are necessary , which the Sea-men are forc'd to put above Deck for want of room , which is great hindrance to a Ships Sailing , and much endangers and weakens a Ship. In case of Calms , which often happen in the narrow Seas , but especially near the Line , this Instrument will be of vast advantage , by affording fresh and wholsome Water , instead of that which is unwholsome and offensive . Essex , Kent , all other the Sea-Coasts , in any part of the World , that want wholesome Water , may be easily and and cheaply supplied by this means ; as also Venice , Amsterdam , Roterdam , and all other Towns or Places that lye near the Sea , and either want good , or have Brackish Water . In time of War , whole Navies may be relieved by this Engine , and Opportunity given of making the greatest Discoveries imaginable . It is further to be considered , that hitherto the richest and ablest bodied Sea-men have been averse horn undertaking long Voyages , by reason of endangering their Healths , and Lives , by making use of putrified Water , which inconvenience is not now to be feared , there being such hopes of useful Fresh Water by the use of this Engine ; and possibly a smaller number of men may serve the use of Ships than do at present , by which much Charges will be saved to the Masters and Owners of Ships ; and Merchants may Trade upon easier Terms In Portsmouth ; Rochester , the Fenns of Lincolnshire , and any other places near the Sea , where Waters are Brackish , and consequently unwholsome , this Engine , &c. may be very useful , and where there is room enough to place it , very great quantities of Water may be had for the use of whole Families , and the Ingredients when used in great quantities may be afforded at a cheaper Rate . A LETTER of Mr. BOYLE's to the Learned Dr. JOHN BEALE , Fellow of the Royal Society , concerning Fresh-water made out of Sea-water : Printed at the desire of the Patentees . SIR , TO give you a short Account ( suitable to the little time I have to do it in , ) of the Transaction , which I suppose must have given he rise to the Mention made of my Name in the publick Gazette : I must inform you , that one of my nearest Relations , ( Captain Fitz-Gerald ) and some other Worthy Gentlemen , having acquainted his Majesty , that They had an Invention for making Sea-water sweet and wholsom in great quantity , and with small charge , and that I had examin'd , and did approve the Water so prepar'd ; His Majesty was pleas'd with very Gracious Expressions , to command Me to attend him with a further and more particular Information . Having readily obey'd this Order , and been made acquainted with the Objections the King thought fit to make against the Practicableness of the Invention ; which ( tho a private Man had urg'd them ) I should think the moll Judicious that have been fram'd against it ; I humbly presented to him , that I look't upon this Invention as comprizing two differing things ; a Mechanical part , which related to the Engine it self , and the use of it a Ship-board , and a Physical part , which concerns the Potableness and Wholsomness of the Liquour . About the former of these I did not pretend to clear the Difficulties , especially such strong ones , as His Majesty had propos'd ; but left it to the Patentees to give him Satisfaction , which they were in a readiness to offer . But as to the Wholsomness of the prepar'd Water , I had made some Tryals upon the Liquour , which gave me not just Crounds of suspecting it to be unwholsom , but several Motives to believe it well condition'd and of great use to Navigators , and not to them only . And having hereupon briefly acquainted His Majesty with the chief Tryals I had made to examin this Sweetned Water , He was pleas'd to look upon them as Satisfactory , and vouchsafed on that occasion to Discourse , as a virtuoso , of the Sea and Brackish-maters , and gave me some new , as well instructive Observations about them : and in conclusion , dismiss'd the Patentees with a Gracious Promise of his Royal Protection , and peculiar Favour . To this short Narrative it now remains , that I briefly Subjoyn the chief things that perswaded me of the Salubrity of this Water , ( whence may be justly and easily inferr'd , the Utility the Publick may receive by a cheap and easie way of preparing it . ) First , then I consider'd that almost all the Rain-water that falls from the Clouds on the Main Ocean , and which ( except perhaps in very few Places in Torrid Climates ) is unquestionably receiv'd as wholsom , must be afforded by the Sea , and consequently be but Sea-water freed from its Salt , ( according to the famous Motto , Redit Agmine dulci. ) Next I found , ( as his Majesty himself had done , ) that the Liquour was well tasted , and without any sensible Brackishness ; and some of it continued for between 4 or 5 Months in a large Christal Bottle , that I purposely kept unstopt , and for the most part in a South Window , where it neither did , not probably in a long time , will putrifie , or so much as appear troubled or less transparent ; during which time , it was with Approbation tasted and smell'd by several Learned Physicians of the famous Colledge of London . Thirdly , I found it laver very well , which most Pump-waters , and many others that have some little ( tho unperceiv'd ) common Salt in them , will not do . Fourthly , this Water will boyle Pease tender , which amongst Seamen is one of the principal signs of good Water . Fifthly , In very good Ballances , with an Instrument that I purposely caus'd to be made for the nice weighing of Liquours , I found this Water far less heavy than one would expect ; for if it differ'd at all in weight from the like quantity of undistill'd Water , ( I speak with an If , because it is far more difficult to be exact in such nice Tryals , than the unpractic'd will imagine ) the difference was not considerable , being but one part in 400 , and that difference is very small in comparison of that which Navigators and learned Authors relate to be observable in natural Waters , all of them good and potable : I might tell you on this Occasion , that the last Great Duke of Tuscany , who was an Eminent Virtuoso , and the Patron of the celebrated Academy of the Lyncean Philosophers , is affirm'd , among other prudent Courses that he took for his Health , whereof he was very Sollicitous , to have constantly made use of distill'd Water , when he us'd any Water , for his own Drinking . And I could add other things favourable enough to the Patentees Water , if Haste , and perhaps Discretion too , did not oblige me to leave them yet unmention'd , that I might now have time to say somewhat of the main thing of all that convinced me of the Saltlessness of the Water I speak of . I consider'd then , Sixthly , that the thing that was aim'd at by those ingenious men , that at differing times , and in several Countries have attempted to make Sea-water sweet , and the thing that was requir'd by proposing Recompences , or otherwise to encourage the Makers of such Attempts , was to free the Sea-water from the Brackishness without any noxious Additament : so that on all sides it was taken for granted , that the only thing that kept the Sea-water from being safely Potable , was its Brackishness . From which reflection it was natural for Me to infer a Condition very favourable to our prepar'd Water . For having long since written a short Discourse of the Saltness of the Sea ; I had been industrious to devise ways of comparing Waters in point of Brackishness . And by these I found the Patentees water to be more free from Common-salt than Waters that are usually drunk herein London , of which I remember I shewed those Gentlemen an experiment that surpriz'd , as well as convinc'd them . And that which more satisfi'd me myself , was a Tryal that I carefully made , by a way , which having mention'd , but not yet ( for want of opportunity ) disclos'd to His Majesty , the Respect I owe Him forbids me to impart without His leave : On which account I hope you 'll be content to be at present assur'd of these two Things ; One , that by this way of Tryal , I found , ( what possibly you will think strange ; ) that if there were in Water , so much as one Grain of Salt , in above two Ounces of Water I could readily discover it : The other , that even by this critical Examen , I could not detect so much as a thousandth part of Salt in Our Prepar'd Water ; whereas I found by Tryals purposely and carefully made , that our English Sea-water contain'd a 44 , or 45th part of good dry Salt ; or , which is all one , that 44 Pints , or near so many Pounds of Marine Water , would yield about one Pound of dry Common-Salt . Thus Sir , you have a short and Art-less Account , such as my haste will permit , and the nature of the Subject requires , of my Part in promoting this prositabl Invention ; to which I own my self a great well-wisher , not out of any private Interest ( tho that was obligingly proffer'd me by the Patentees , ) but as I think the bringing it into general use , may prove a real Service to Mankind , upon the Score of divers Utilities and Advantages , which yet , ( tho I had leisure , ) I should think very needless to enumerate to so discerning a Person as Dr. B. to whom I shall therefore hasten to subscribe my self , SIR , A very Affectionate Friend , and Humble Servant , R. BOYLE . AFter so many forcible and convincing Testimonies in favour of this great Design , I shall make an Addition of the Approbation of His Majesty of Great Brittain ; who , after the publication of the first Impression , having seen the convincing Proofs of the healthful Quality of this Water , hath resolv'd to have the same to be made use of in all his Sea-Port Garrisons ; The which he caused to be published by express Order , in several Gazetts , and particularly in that of Munday , Novemb. 5. 1683. An ABSTRACT out of the Gazette , Numb . 1676. HIS Majesty was pleas'd to Command the Honourable Mr. Boyle to attend Him , to give His Majesty an Ocular Proof of the Nicety of his way of examining the freshness and saltness of Water , and to apply it to the Sea-Water , prepar'd according to the Patentees Invention ; which being done before His Majesty , his Royal Highness , and the Duke of Grafton , several Persons or Quality being also present , it was made apparent , by a certain prepar'd Liquid which Mr. Boyle had brought with him , that a Discovery could be made if there were so much as a thousandth pare of Salt in a propos'd Water : By which Trval His Majesty , finding that the Prepar'd Sea-Water , for which he has granted his Royal Patent , was at least as free from Salt as the best Waters used in this Town : received such Satisfaction as to the wholsomness of the said Water , that He was pleased to declare his Royal Intentions both to encourage the said Invention , and to have the said Water made use of in his several Maritime Garrisons , which Nature has not furnished with wholsom Water . A Copy of a Letter from Captain Macdonnel , from aboard his Majesties Ship the Greybound , near the Coast of Spain , to one of the Patentees of Sea-Water . SIR , FOR these Four Months past , I kept your Sea-water ( for its better Tryal ) Buried in my Ships Hold , where , had it not been extraordinary good , it must infallibly have been of no use , and offensive , but I 'll assure you it prov'd quite contrary ; for yesterday , having several both of Sea and Land Officers on board for me , I made them insensibly taste of your Water , which I pretended to be from a Spring I watered my Ship at , Ten Leagues to the Southward of Sallie ; they all affirm'd it to be as good as Tangier Water , the very best counted in the Streights , but when I discovered the Water to be yours , they hardly would give it Credit , and approv'd of it ( as really it is , as good as can be drank ) which they desired me to let you know . Novemb. 3. 1683. I am Your Humble Servant Rand. Macdonnel . The Extremity of the last Winter having occasioned the loss of the President , a Rich East-India Ship , and many other of His Majesties Ship and Subjects to perish for want of Provision and Fresh-Water at Sea , His Majesty , for prevention of the like Misfortune , was pleased to Order the following Advice to be inserted in the Gazette of March 6. 1683. White-Hall , Feb. 28. HIS Majesty having heard several Relations of die great Distress some of his Subjects have lately been in at Sea for want of fresh Water , hath been pleased for their Relief in such Cases , to command the Patentees for the new Invention of making Sea-water Fresh , to give the most publick notice they can of the Usefulness of the said Invention , of which his Majesty has received so great satisfaction , that his Majesty is pleased that those Instruments shall be provided for his Ships and Garrisons , where they ate not naturally provided with good Water . And in obedience to His Majesties Order , the Patentees do hereby give notice , That two Treatises have been written on this subject , which may be had at the Ship against the Royal Exchange , and at the Marine Coffee house , whereunto all Persons are referred for more particular Information ; in which the great benefit and many Conveniences of this Invention , the casiness , both as to the Trouble and Expence , of making the Salt Water fresh , and the Wholsomness thereof , is clearly demonstrated by the Testimony of many Eminent Physicians . To which is added , a Letter written by the Honourable Mr. Boyle , by which he assures the Wholsomness , Durableness , and Sweetness of this Water . And a Letter from Captain Rand. Macdonnel , of the third of November 1683. from on Board the Grey-hound Frigat , near the Coast of Spain ; wherein he affirms , that he kept of the Patentees Water , some that was given him , in his Ships Hold , from his leaving England , being four Months , and then having several Officers on Board him , gave them a taste of it , pretending it to be of the Spring near Sally , where he had watered , and which is as good as the best in the Streights , and they drank of it as such , till he discovered what it was ; and then they approved of it to be as good as could be drank . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A39594-e350 White-Hall Novemb. 2. 1683. 
A56763	----	Some observations made upon the herb cassiny imported from Carolina shewing its admirable virtues in curing the small pox / written by a physitian in the countrey to Esq. Boyle at London. Peachi, John, fl. 1683. 1695 Approx. 6 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 5 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-10 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A56763 Wing P933 ESTC R27602 09981186 ocm 09981186 44433 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A56763) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 44433) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1337:15) Some observations made upon the herb cassiny imported from Carolina shewing its admirable virtues in curing the small pox / written by a physitian in the countrey to Esq. Boyle at London. Peachi, John, fl. 1683. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. Pechey, John, 1655-1716. 8 p. [s.n.], London : 1695. Attributed also to John Pechey--NUC pre-1956 imprints. Reproduction of original in the British Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Ilex vomitoria. Botany, Medical -- North Carolina. 2006-03 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-05 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-09 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2006-09 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2007-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion SOME OBSERVATIONS Made upon the HERB Cassiny ; Imported from CAROLINA : SHEWING Its Admirable VIRTUES in Curing the SMALL POX . Written by a Physitian in the Countrey to Esq Boyle at London . LONDON , Printed in the Year 1695. SOME OBSERVATIONS Made upon the HERB Cassiny : SHEWING Its Admirable Virtues in Curing the SMALL POX . In a LETTER , &c. SIR , I Am sorry to hear that the Small Pox is so rise at London , it 's the less Wonder to find you so Inquisitive after a good Specifick Remedy in that Distemper : I must tell you , I know no better Medicine in that Case than the Famous Carolina Herb called Cassiny . There are abundance of Persons now Dye of the Small Pox in our Town and Countrey , but I attribute it very much to ill Management of Nurses and Ignorant People , who give many hot Medicines , under the pretence of driving out , as Sack , and Saffron , and Mithridate , and Venice Treacle ; by this means they fire the Blood into a Feavor , and that kills them . I only give a few Drops of the Tincture of this temperate Herb in Water-gruel , or in Panado , or Posset-drink , and do nothing else all the while , but leave it to Nature , and I find better Success . I have had many in one Family down at one time of this loathsome Distemper , and all recover'd with this Method ; but if any desire to dye with more pompous Prescriptions , much good may it do them . The Medicines made of this Herb do not in the least heat the Blood , but rather moderate and gently allay the violent Fermentation of it , if it be too high , and yet safely help the Expulsive Faculty if it be too weak . This Specifick keeps them out of the Head and Throat , and secures the Lungs , by helping Expectoration . I have often observed , that the slower they are in coming forth , the more dangerous ; and if the Salivation or Spitting ceaseth before the eleventh Day , especially in a Flux Pox , there is then much more reason to fear the Patients being poysoned by the return of the purulent Matter inwards : And yet in this extream hazard the Tincture of this Herb in Small Beer , and some times in Tare Broath , hath saved the Lives of many . I being once sent for to a Boarding-School , where several young Gentlewomen , who highly valued their Beauty , were surprized with the Small Pox , I only gave them the Drops drawn out of this Herb in all their liquid Aliment , as Water-gruel , and Posset-drink , and Small Beer , and caused them to keep their Faces cover'd with their Masks all the time , and they recover'd , and preserv'd their Complections . I remember that an Eminent Physitian of London told me an extraordinary Case of a Court Lady of great Beauty , a Patient of his , who was much afflicted at the Death of many who dyed of the Small Pox , and he was resolved to try a contrary Method to what had been taken with those , he kept her moderately warm cover'd with Scarlet Blankets , omitted Bleeding , and caused her to take no more Nourishment than would keep her from starving ; her Drink was Posset-drink , with Figgs in it ; her Food only Bread and Water boyl'd together , with seven Drops of this Specifick which came out of Carlina ; he caused a live Sheep to be kept in the Chamber all the time of her Illness , to draw away the malignity ; the Sheep dyed , but the Lady recover'd , although it was a very unkindly sort , which much threaten'd her Life ; the Dr. told me he durst never give her any Opiate Medicine , lest it should stop her Spitting , which is the most proper way of Evacuation in all sorts of Poxes , both great and small . The Virtues of this excellent Plant are at large mentioned in an Account of Carolina , and also in the History of the West Indies , a Latine Book written by John Delait of Antwerp , many Years since , who tells us that it 's an Admirable Dioretick , it also greatly corroborates Nature , and helps her to cast off whatever is offensive to the Animal and Vital Spirits , and also it promotes genuine easie Sweats , and mild friendly transpirations , preserving the Mind serene , and the Body active and lively a long while after , without any other Nourishment , and none but Persons of great Quality are permitted to use this Noble Beverage , which they drink as we do Tea and Coffee . Purchas in his Pilgrimage tells us , that at Florida , now called Carolina , they live to a very great Age , and speaks of one of their Kings who was three Hundred years old ; and whenever the Inhabitants of that Countrey meet with Mournful Accidents , or Subjects of Lamentation , they drink Cassiny to chear their Hearts . A famous Sea-Chyrurgeon who came from those Parts , had most of his Ships Passengers taken sick of the Small Pox , and recover'd them with Medicines made with this Herb. I have so great an Opinion of this Plant , that if I had an Only Child who had the Small Pox , I would give him the Tincture of it in all his Drink , and depend upon it under God , as much as I would upon the Peruvian Bark in a Quartan Ague . FINIS . 
A56771	----	Some observations made upon the Russia seed shewing its admirable virtues in curing the rickets in children / written by a doctor of physick in the countrey to Esq. Boyle at London, 1674. Skinner, Dr. 1694 Approx. 6 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 5 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-11 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A56771 Wing P938A ESTC R27608 09981300 ocm 09981300 44439 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A56771) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 44439) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1337:21) Some observations made upon the Russia seed shewing its admirable virtues in curing the rickets in children / written by a doctor of physick in the countrey to Esq. Boyle at London, 1674. Skinner, Dr. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. Peachi, John, fl. 1683. Pechey, John, 1655-1716. 8 p. [s.n.], London : 1694. Wrongly attributed to John Pechey by Surgeon General's catalogue (ser. 1) and British Museum catalgue, and to John Peachi by Wing. Attributed to Dr. Skinner by Halkelt and Laing--NUC pre-1956 imprint. Reproduction of original in the British Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Manna plants. Rickets -- Early works to 1800. Medicinal plants -- Early works to 1800. 2003-07 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2003-07 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2003-08 Mona Logarbo Sampled and proofread 2003-08 Mona Logarbo Text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion SOME OBSERVATIONS Made upon the Russia Seed , SHEWING Its Admirable Virtues in Curing the Rickets in Children . Written by a Doctor of Physick in the Countrey to Esq Boyle at London , 1674. LONDON , Printed in the Year 1694. SOME OBSERVATIONS Made upon the Russia Seed ; SHEWING Its Admirable Virtues in Curing the Rickets in Children . In a LETTER , &c. SIR , YOU may remember that when I was last at London , we had a close Discourse concerning that deplorable Distemper called The Rickets , which Cripples so many poor Children , and you told me of a Doctor of Physick , and one of the Famousest in Europe , had not been able to Cure it in several of his own Children ; indeed it may be called a new Disease , for it 's wonderfully encreased amongst us of late , as we find by the Bills of Mortality . I am very much of your Mind , that the Knowledge of Physitians would be much encreased , and their Success would be much greater , were they more Curious in making Experiments and Observations of the Success of simple Medicines , for they cannot so easily do it upon Compositions . I 'le now tell you what great Cures I have done in my Countrey Practice , amongst Children who have been over-grown with the Rickets : The Specifick that I make use of , is a small white Seed that comes from Russia , by some called Seed Manna , I draw a Tincture , a Spirit and an Extract out of it , and give twenty Drops at a time in all the Childrens Meat and Drink , they take it with Pleasure , because it 's not ungrateful to the Pallat ; Morning , Noon and Night , is often enough . It opens Obstructions of the Liver and Spleen , strengthens the Brain and Spinal Marrow , and causeth a free Distribution of the Nourishments into all the Nervous Parts of the Body , whereby Nature becomes strong and vigorous , and the Spirits chearful and lively . You are pleased to tell the World , in your Excellent Discourse of the use of simple Medicines , that you hope to enlarge the Minds of Physitians , and invite them to make use of several Remedies which they never thought on , or against which they were prejudiced . You also tell us , that Specificks , where they may be had , are wont to be free from any immoderate manifest Quality , and for the most part work more benignly as well as more effectually than other Medicines ; and therefore you endeavour to bring them into Request , that so thereby Cures may be performed more speedily , safely and pleasantly . Your Tenderness and Caution is highly to be commended , in desiring your Reader not to be too credulous , or rely too much upon any Medicines that you commend , until they have been frequently tried upon Persons of different Sexes , Complections and Ages . I am sure that this Seed , and other Specificks which I have written on , have been tried sufficiently , in a multitude of Examples , and with great Success , which gives great Encouragement to depend upon it in difficult Cases , with God Almighty's Blessing . I am much of your Mind , that one Reason why so many Distempers prove incurable , is , because Physitians do all they can to discourage the use of Specifick Medicines ; so that if they do not always work Wonders , they presently tell People that they do nothing at all . In Compliance with your Request , I have found out a Specifick Remedy in almost every Distemper , which in time may prove as efficacious as the Cortex in an Ague , for ought I know . I must say , if at any time I have found Specifick Remedies prove ineffectual , it was when they were compounded with some insignificant Remedies , or given too late , or administred in too small a Dose , or left off too soon . This small Seed may be given boiled in all the Childrens Broth or Spoon-meat , or in a Liquid Form , as the other Specificks use to be . I have cured several Children in one Gentlemans Family , after gentle Evacuations , when the Ribbs have been knotted , the Head very large , the Leggs crooked , the Joynts much extended , only with this Remedy . This Distemper hath spoiled as many Children as ever Herod did , its high time if we would prevent the destruction of our Innocents , to find out some more effectual Remedies . The Method that Dr. Glisson and &c. found out , was very good , but this simple Specifick added to it may make it more effectual . You are pleased in your Discourse of specifick Medicines , to mention the Prickly Indian Pear that I told you of , that communicates its Tincture so speedily to the Bladder , that it makes the Eaters think they piss Blood , which gives a clear Example of the Penetrating Qualities of some simple Specificks , which have no sensible Operation by Vomiting , Purging or Sweating . One of our Judges in his Reports , tells us of a Learned Doctor who travelled a hundred Miles , to learn a Specifick of an old Woman to Cure an Ague . I am sure I have travelled many thousand Miles to learn all these Remedies , and my design is Publick Good : For although I am particularly known to you , I desire to be known to the World by no other Name , but MEDICUS INDICUS . FINIS . 
A66386	----	The certainty of divine revelation A sermon preached at St. Martins in the Fields, Feb. 4. 1694/5. Being the second of the lecture for the ensuing year, founded by the honourable Robert Boyle, Esquire. By John Williams, D.D. chaplain in ordinary to His Majesty. Williams, John, 1636?-1709. 1696 Approx. 53 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 22 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A66386 Wing W2695A ESTC R220000 99831440 99831440 35903 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A66386) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 35903) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 2121:10) The certainty of divine revelation A sermon preached at St. Martins in the Fields, Feb. 4. 1694/5. Being the second of the lecture for the ensuing year, founded by the honourable Robert Boyle, Esquire. By John Williams, D.D. chaplain in ordinary to His Majesty. Williams, John, 1636?-1709. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. The second edition corrected. [4], 39, [1] p. printed for Ri. Chiswell, and Tho. Cockerill: at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard; and at the Three Legs in the Poultrey, London : M DC XC VI. [1696] With an initial imprimatur leaf dated Feb. 4. 1654/5. and signed Guil. Lancaster. With a final advertisment page. Reproduction of the original in the Trinity College Library, Cambridge. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Bible. -- N.T -- Hebrews I, 1-2 -- Sermons -- Early works to 1800. Sermons, English -- 17th century. Salvation -- Early works to 1800. 2005-01 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-01 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-04 Emma (Leeson) Huber Sampled and proofread 2005-04 Emma (Leeson) Huber Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion IMPRIMATUR , Feb. 4. 1694 / 5. Guil. Lancaster . The Certainty of Divine Revelation . A SERMON Preached at St. Martins in the Fields , Feb. 4. 1694 / 5. BEING THE Second of the LECTURE For the Ensuing YEAR , Founded by the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE , Esquire . By JOHN WILLIAMS , D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty . The Second Edition Corrected . LONDON : Printed for Ri. Chiswell , and Tho. Cockerill : At the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard ; and at the Three Legs in the Poultrey . MDCXCVI . HEB. I. 1 , 2. God who at sundry times , and in divers manners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets , hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. IN which Words I have observed there is , I. A Description given of Revelation , 't is God's speaking , and declaring his Will to Persons chosen for that purpose . II. The Certainty of it ; 't is by way of Declaration , and taken for granted , God who at sundry times , and in divers manners spake , &c. III. The Order observed in delivering this Revelation ; it was at sundry times , and in divers manners : In time past by the Prophets , and in the last days by his Son. It was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in parts , and in several Periods and Manifestations ; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by Illapses , Visions , &c. IV. The Perfection and Conclusion of all , 't is in the last days by his Son ; the Heir of all things , &c. Under the first I have shewed , 1. What we mean by Revelation , in contradistinction to Natural Light. 2. The Possibility of it . 3. The Expedience , Usefulness , and Necessity of it . It is the Second I am to proceed to , viz. The Certainty . Under which I shall shew , I. That God has reveal'd himself ; or that there has been such Revelation . II. The Difference between Pretended and Real Revelation . III. That the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament contain such a Revelation , and have upon them all the Characters necessary and belonging to such Revelation . I. That there has been a Divine Revelation . What I have principally in my eye , is the Proof of the Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures ; but for the present I shall lay that aside , and take my rise towards it from such general Principles and Observations as are founded upon Reason ; or such particular Instances and Matters of Fact as manifestly proceeded from Revelation . And accordingly I shall dispose of what I have to say in Proof of it , under these Four Heads ; as we have for it , 1. A Rational or Moral Evidence . 2. A Natural . 3. A Traditionary , or Testimony . 4. A Supernatural . First , Moral : Where in the first place I take for granted what I have before proved , viz. That a Divine Revelation is Expedient , Useful , and Necessary ; and upon that Supposition shall attempt to prove the Certainty of it . I acknowledge , where the Necessity is created by our own fault , there lies no obligation upon the Creator to provide a Remedy ; and since the Necessity Mankind is now in , proceeded from their Apostacy , that Necessity can in reason be no just Plea for it , nor a sufficient Excuse in the want of it . When Man was created in such a state as made Revelation a necessary Help to his Reason , God immediately afforded him such an extraordinary Manifestation of himself : But when he forfeited that Divine Gift , he could have no allowable Right or Claim to it ; For to him that hath , and improves what he hath , shall be given ; but to him that hath not , and takes no care to preserve and improve it , may justly be denied what was otherwise fit and necessary for him to have . This indeed is the Case , if rigorously stated ; but considering the miserable Circumstances Mankind were in after the Fall , more especially through want of a Revelation , we may reasonably conclude , That the Goodness of God would no less incline him to give it , than if he had been obliged to it by a special Grant , Promise , or Covenant . Decrees are Secrets lock'd up in the Breast of Almighty God ; and whatever Good is therein intended , how beneficial soever they may be in the Event , yet afford no Satisfaction to us , till they are opened and revealed : And though the Redemption of Mankind were decreed , and were according to Circumstances to operate , and in due season to be fully executed , yet what would They have been the better , if for 4000 Years together that Decree had lay hid in the Bosom of the Father , and the Decree had never been a Promise , and that Promise had never before that time been reveal'd unto them ? So that had we no such Promise upon record , as , The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head ; yet however , we might be as sure that there was some such kind of Revelation made to Adam , some Promise of Forgiveness , when God did intend to Redeem him and all Mankind , as there was a Design to Redeem them : It being as necessary toward their present Comfort to have a Revelation of that Mercy in their Redemption , as Redemption it self was necessary toward their Happiness . And this will farther be confirmed , if we consider what has been before proved in the former Discourse , That all men have had a Sense of the Want of a Revelation ; and have been possess'd with an earnest and impatient desire of obtaining it ; which being a desire becoming Human Nature , useful and fit to be cherish'd , it is not to be conceiv'd , that where there is provision made to answer all sensible and natural Appetites throughout the Creation , that this no less importunate , though supervenient Desire , should have no regard paid to it , but be suffered , like Aetna , to be always burning within , tormenting , as it were , the Bowels of Mankind with an unquenchable Fire , or an unsatiable Desire of knowing what was not to be known , and of obtaining what was not to be obtained . This is a State that the Consideration of God's Goodness will not admit us to suppose ; and we must therefore necessarily conclude , That the same Divine Power and Wisdom that made Man a Reasonable and Inquisitive Being , and has allowed him a World of Wonders to employ that Faculty in the Contemplation of , hath also provided for that Noble Desire of knowing what the Will of his Maker is , and what relates to his own Eternal Welfare ; and that is , by a Revelation . Indeed without this , 't is with him as with one that is born Blind , that whatever other Evidence he may have of the Being of a God , wants one of the most convincing of all , which is , The Wonders of an Almighty Power and Incomprehensible Wisdom , conspicuous in the Frame of Nature , and the visible parts of the Creation : So whatever sense men , that have only Reason for their Guide , may have of the Mercy and Goodness of God ; whatever they may observe in the Course of his Providence to confirm them in the Belief of it ; whatever Hopes they may have of it , from the general Notion of the Divine Nature ; whatever Desire they may have of it , from a sense of their own Misery , yet they want that Evidence of it , which , as we find by constant experience , alone can satisfy and compose their doubtful and distracted Minds , and that is Certainty , or , which is the same , Revelation ; by which and nothing less , That Certainty is to be attained . And therefore we have just reason to believe that was not wanting to the First Ages of the World : For the same reason we have to believe God to be good , the like reason we have to believe that he did after that manner make himself known in those early times from the first to Mankind . But it may be said , What is all this Reasoning to Matter of Fact ? For if after all , there has been no such Revelation , or no Proof can be made of it , That is more than a Thousand Speculative Arguments for it . And besides , supposing there was once a Revelation , what was that to those Ages and Nations that afterwards wanted it , and were condemned , as it were , to sit in darkness , and the shadow of death ? The last of these is not to be denied , and so I shall first of all consider it . And in answer to it it shall suffice to say for the present , That if there has been such a Revelation made known to the World , and all due care taken by the Almighty and Beneficent Creator for the Preservation of it , and it afterwards be damnified , or corrupted , or in fine , utterly lost , through the Negligence or Perverseness of men themselves , the Fault of the Miscarriage wholly rests upon them . The making known the Revelation , was an extraordinary Case , and is a voluntary Act of Grace and Favour in Almighty God ; the Preservation of it is the ordinary Case , and belongs to Men : and when once the Extraordinary Case becomes Ordinary , God leaves it to its proper and natural Course , to Second Causes , to Human Prudence , Care , and Inspection . Thus it is with Reason , the Noblest Principle of Human Nature , which if not attended and nurtur'd , may degenerate into Stupidity , and a kind of Brutality . As it happen'd to some Nations in the Southern Parts of Africa , West-Tartary , and West-Indies , that notwithstanding the Characters of an Almighty Being legibly stamped upon the Face of the whole and every part of the Creation , have so far degenerated , that it has been questioned , Whether they have had any Notion or Sense of a God , or any sort of Worship for him . And so it is in the case before us : For as God had made a special Revelation of himself to Adam after as well as before the Fall , so he took a very effectual way for the Conveyance and Preservation of it , by the Longaevity of those Patriarchs with whom it was deposited , and who were to take care that it might be preserv'd inviolable : Three of which alone fill'd up the first Period of 1656 Years , from the Creation to the Flood ; viz. Adam , Methuselah , and Noah : So that Methuselah lived 243 Years with Adam , ( for so old was he when Adam died ; ) and Noah lived 600 Years with Methuselah ( for so old was Noah when Methuselah died , and the Flood came . ) And four again of the Fathers after the Flood ( tho the Extent of their Lives was shortned ) fell in with the 856 Years from the Flood to the giving of the Law by Moses at Sinai : So that Abraham is well supposed to have lived 150 Years with Shem , Jacob about 20 with Abraham , Levi 60 Years with Jacob , and Amram the Father of Moses lived in the Time of his Grandfather Levi. Now what course , in the Circumstances and the State the World was at that time in , could be more fit , if duly observed , for conveying the matter of a Revelation through the several Periods and Ages of the World , so far as Personal Teaching was sufficient ? And especially , when the Things revealed , and after this manner to be delivered from Age to Age , were of Importance sufficient to oblige both Teacher and Scholar ; and withal so Few , as might without any Difficulty be retained . And therefore , if notwithstanding the Method taken by Almighty God for the registring what he had revealed , in the memories of men , and for delivering it down to future Ages , there was afterwards no care taken on their part , and no reasonable provision made for conserving such a Revelation , but that in process of time , it was either totally obliterated , or vilely corrupted , the Miscarriage was ( as I have said ) wholly chargeable upon such as by their Negligence or Wickedness made Mankind to sin , in not delivering , or not faithfully delivering down to Posterity what they themselves had received in its Original Purity from their Ancestors . The Case is indeed very lamentable , but what is not to be helped , without Almighty God alters the Nature of things , turns them out of their proper and ordinary Course , and acts solely by his own Power and Prerogative , either without or above the Agency of Second Causes . Which is no more with reason to be expected , than that when God has made the Earth in its own nature fertile , and capable of yielding all things necessary for man's subsistence , with Cultivation ; that He should also be obliged to continue it in the same state it was created in ; and when by the Sloth and Stupidity of men it brought forth nothing but Thorns and Thistles , should miraculously make every Tree that is pleasant to the sight , and good for food , and whatever was beneficial and necessary , to grow out of the Ground , as at first , and before there was a Man to till the ground . Now if this be unreasonable for Man to expect , it is so then in the case of Revelation , which God had committed to the Custody of Men themselves , and made them whose Interest it was , to be the Conservators of it . Having thus far considered the Case of those that had not , or have no Revelation , I shall return to the Main Point , which is , To shew that there has been such a Revelation . And that brings me to the IId . Sort of Proof , which I call Natural , as it belongs to things Natural , and is opposed to what is of mere Institution , ( which I conceive to be equivalent to Revelation ) : And they are Speech , and common Notions . 1. Speech : For which there is in Man a Natural Capacity , and Organs admirably contrived and disposed ( as we see by experience . ) But now there is a vast difference in that case betwixt Us and other Creatures ; for other Creatures have not only Organs as we have , fitted for their proper Notes , but at once have all those Organs in Tune and in Operation ; so that whatever they would signify in their way , and according to their kind , they immediately thereby express : But though the Organs of Speech in us are as exquisitely framed , yet we gradually grow up to the use of them ; and again , can never apply them , or know how to use them , without some precedent Instruction . And therefore it has been the Opinion of many , That without hearing others speak , we should be eternally dumb * ; as the Experiment of Psammeticus King of Egypt shews † , ( if true ) of shutting up Two Children in separate Caves , where they never heard one Articulate Word , and so could use none . So that now Man must be taught , and as he is taught , so he speaks . But we will put the case in which there was no Human Instructor , and yet the Person spoke as articulately , and had the free use of Words , and knew as well how to express his mind by them from the very first , as if he had had the best Helps for it in the world , and had been never so long a time versed and practised in it ; and that Person was Adam , who was created in a full Age , and had none before him ; and yet must as soon have Words for use , and Skill how to use them , as he had to give Names to the Creatures , according to their several kinds . For without this , what Conversation could he have with Eve , or what Comfort could he take in her presence , ( for it was not to be call'd Society ) ; and what a Dejection must there be in each of them , when all other Creatures had their Notes for understanding each other , according to the Species they were of , but they themselves alone were mute . So that though 't is not expresly said , That Adam and Eve had any Discourse ; yet 't is as certain from the reason of the thing , as it is that God spake to them , or the Serpent and Eve spake together . But 't is certain Adam must then be self-instructed , or be instructed by God : He must then invent a Language of himself , or he must be taught by him that made him . If he was to teach himself , how could he know that he was able to speak ; or how can we think he would begin his Conversation by an attempt that way ? For 't is highly probable , that they would first have began with dumb signs , or some external motions ( as we see those ordinarily do , that have no Words which others can understand ) ; or if they should at length have found out such an Expedient , and formed some Articulate Sounds , yet what a tedious course would this have been , and how long before it could be wrought into a Language , that they could first Think of Words , and then Remember them , and then Use them , and then fall into Discourse ? Don't we find how difficult it is to learn to speak a Foreign Language , when we have all Advantages for it , by Instruction and Discourse with those that speak it ? But suppose Two Persons wholly strangers to one another , and of a Language as different as Chinese and English , should meet together , and be constrained by Circumstances , being without other Society , to converse with each other ; though each had a Language of their own , and knew how to speak and form Words for Pronunciation , yet how long would it be before they could fix the Words for it , and to have a Term for every thing they were to discourse about ; to invent and agree upon it , and then to remember them , and then to use them ? And then much more will the difficulties increase , were these Two in the case of Adam and Eve , and to beat out the Track which never any walked in before ; to invent Speech it self , and Words to be spoken , and sufficient to express the Thoughts of each other , so as to make Company , and that Company agreeable , acceptable , and useful . This must have been the work of Time , if it had been practicable ; and the Difficulty of it would have made each others Company a Burden rather than a Pleasure , till such time as they could come to a mutual understanding of one anothers minds and inclinations . And therefore to make them meet helps for each other , it was of Necessity that they should have an extraordinary Power communicated from Heaven , and be enabled by that Instinct as soon to speak , as the other Creatures are in a course of Nature to utter such Voices as are suitable to their kind , or as Mankind are to express their Passions of Joy or Sorrow , by Laughter or Tears . So that 't is not without reason , I rank the Gift of Speech among those things that are of a Divine Infusion , and so equivalent to Revelation . 2. Another Instance of this kind , is what is usually called Common Notions , or Natural Impressions : Common Notions , because they are common to all Mankind ; and Natural Impressions , because they are conceiv'd not to be acquired by any Human Means , such as Education and Instruction , Observation and Experience ; but are imprinted on our Nature by an Immediate and Supernatural Power . That there are such Notions as all Mankind do agree in , is undeniable ; such as the Belief of a God , an Adoration to be given to him ; and that there is an essential difference between Good and Evil , so that Good cannot by any art or endeavour be made or esteemed to be Evil , nor Evil Good : For as the Natures of the things themselves cannot be altered , so neither can our Conceptions of them . It is as undeniable , That these Notions or Impressions are so early to be discovered , and do so grow up with our Reason , that they seem not to be the Effects of our Reason , but rather to be antecedent to it ; and that it is rather what we Find , than what we Chuse ; what belongs to our Nature , than what we add to it . And accordingly as we have a Notion , so a Sense of those things , antecedent to all Reasoning and Instruction , which we call Conscience , excusing or else accusing , according to the nature of the things , whether good or evil . Now as the Nature of the things must be before our Conception of them , so both must be before we pass this practical Judgment upon them : And if we do exercise this Faculty antecedent to all Instruction , then so must the Sense of the things be , about which it is exercised . So the Apostle , Rom. 2. 14. When the Gentiles which have not the law , do by nature the things contained in the law , these having not the law , are a law unto themselves : Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts , their conscience also bearing witness , &c. Which is exactly agreeable to the Phrase of the Wisest among them ; So Aristotle calls it , the Natural , Common , and Unwritten Law. But above all , Cicero ( who best knew the sense of the Philosophers , and how to express it ) doth speak fully to this point , both as to the Universality of these First Notions , and the agreement in them by all Mankind ; both as to the nature and rise of them . There is , saith he , a certain Law , not written , but native to us , which we have not learned , received , nor read : But we have taken and derived it from Nature it self ; to which we were not Taught to be conformed , but Made ; it was not by Institution , but Infusion . This , in another place , he saith all men have by a certain Anticipation , and calls them innate Cogitations ; and will allow it to come from no less a Power than what is Divine . We have , saith he , received a Conscience from the Immortal Gods , which cannot be plucked away from us . So that whatever Improvement these Notions and Impressions may receive from an after Instruction , yet they seem to be implanted in us by the same Power that made us reasonable Creatures , who no more could leave himself without Witness in our Minds , than in the Works of Nature . And being thus antecedent to our own Reasoning , or other information , can proceed from no other a Principle than Revelation doth , and is therefore equivalent to it . III. There is a Traditionary Proof of Revelation , which is by Testimony , or by such Instances as are a part of the Revelation ; and of which , as I conceive , no tolerable account can be given , if they are not allowed to be of Divine Institution . In order to which , 1. I observe , That the Want of a Revelation in any particular Nation or Age , is not an Argument sufficient to prove that there never was any Revelation . For Revelation being more especially of things not knowable by the mere Light of Nature , may be lost , while the Light of Nature remains . It being in this case much as it is in Matters of History , which may be derived from one Generation to another , and especially by Registers and Memorials : But if a former Generation be careless and slothful , or the Records not faithfully wrote or kept , the Matters of Fact in one Age are irrecoverably lost in the next , or turned into Fables . Of which the Earliest Times are too manifest an Instance ; and for which reason Varro did not divide them amiss , into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , obscure or unknown , and fabulous . Which lasted till the First Olympiad , and that was , at soonest , Anno Mundi 3173 ; when the Historical Age , according to him , begins . Now as the want of such Histories will not prove that there never were any such , and much less that there were no Matters of Fact for the furnishing such Histories : So though there be no Revelation , or no Memorials of such a Revelation , in some particular Nations or Ages , it will not necessarily follow that there never was any such Revelation made to the World. 2. When I propose the Proof of a Revelation , I would not be understood so much as to suppose , That there was from the beginning , or before the Time of Moses , a Pandect or Collection of Divine Revelations ; but only that there were Inspired Persons to whom God did ( as occasion served ) reveal himself in sundry times and divers manners , such as Adam , Enoch , Noah , &c. 3. Where there has been or is no Revelation , or pretence to it ( if any such Age or People ever were ) yet there are or have been in those Ages or Nations , certain Footsteps of such a Revelation ; and which whereever they are found , are as evident Marks of such a Revelation , as Pillars or Crosses found in a Countrey at present uninhabited , are , that there have been some persons that have been there before , and have erected those Monuments . 4. I account such Usages , Rites , and Principles , to proceed from Revelation , that have no foundation in Reason , and the nature of the thing , but are correspondent to what we call Revelation ; and which can well have no reason at all assign'd for them , if not the Reason given in that Revelation : Such are Expiatory Sacrifices , and other things relating to Divine Worship . 5. This is the more confirmed , if such Usages , Rites and Principles have been observed , practised , and believed , in Nations that have had no relation one to another , no Commerce or Communication , nor sometimes knowledge of one another ; for then they must arise from some common Head , from whence they were ab-originally dispersed among the several Branches of the same Stock . When one People has been mixed with another , as the Jews and Egyptians ; or derived from another , as the Colchi from the Egyptians ; or there have been Commerces and Confederacies , Wars and Conquests , 't is no wonder they intermingle in several Rites and Observances . Of this we have a notorious Instance in Circumcision , which by the abovesaid means came to be received by several Nations , as the Ethiopians , Egyptians , and Colchi , the Phoenicians , and some of the Syrians , as Herodotus shews * . But when the Usages , Rites , and Principles have been as well found where there has been no Communication , as where there has ; 't is no less a sign they descend from one and the same Original , than when the Waters of the Seven Branches of the River Nilus have one and the same Taste and Colour , without any Communication , that they do all descend from the Main Stream . In like manner , if we find , suppose , among the Seventy Nations ( into which 't is said Mankind was divided , upon the Confusion at Babel ) several of the same Rites and Usages , generally speaking , concurring with those of what we call Revelation , we must conclude , That they were observed before that Dispersion , and were wholly owing to as early an Institution . Among the Instances that I shall make use of for the Proof of a Revelation , I shall begin with those that relate to Divine Worship , such as Time , Sacrifices , &c. 1. Time. That there is some particular Portion of Time to be set apart for the Publick Worship of God , either by Divine Appointment , or Humane Consent , is absolutely necessary , when it is to be the Act of a Society ; for Worship , without some time for such Society to convene and assemble in , must inevitably end in Confusion and Dissolution . And therefore as God created the World as a Temple to exhibit and manifest himself in , and created such Beings as should in their several Stations celebrate his Praise ; so when he had finished all his Work , he established that Day which he rested upon , to be from thenceforward devoted to that Service ; as we may see the Institution , Gen. 2. 2. I call this an Institution ; for when could that be more seasonably instituted by Divine Authority , than at the Close of the Creation , when the Sanctification and the Reason of it were so immediately connected ; God blessed and sanctified it , because in it he had rested from all his work ? It being not probable that there should be at that time no Institution , when the Reason for it is expresly given ; or that there should be no present Obligation to observe it , when there was an Institution . If God had no sooner finished his Work , but he sanctified the Day following , 't is evident that the Obligation to observe it must begin with the Institution : And if he sanctified it , because on that Day he rested , 't is as evident the Institution did begin with the Reason of it . And then how improbable is it that God should bless and sanctify a Particular Day , and yet for the space of Two thousand Years together should leave that Day in common with the other Days of the Week , without any distinction ? How improbable again , that it should be first instituted and made a Duty to the Jews only for a Reason that equally concerned all Mankind as well as them , because he rested ; and for a reason existent from the first , as well as in the time when it was instituted at Sinai ? 'T is highly unreasonable to add one Prolepsis to another , and to heap Figure upon Figure , when there is no necessity for it , contrary to all the Rules of a Just Interpretation . Now if this be an Original and Primaeval Institution , we have one Instance of a Divine Revelation , so far as the Scripture is of Authority ; and surely we may demand in its behalf , to have as much regard paid to it as we give to Prophane Histories . But however , we are not without a concurrent Testimony from them also in this particular . For it is manifest that there hath been of great Antiquity such a Distribution of Time as we call a Week of Seven Days ; and which is more to our purpose , That the Seventh Day was a Festival and Religious Day . This Lucian doth more than intimate ; and long before him , Solon , who calls it Most Holy Day , in his Elegies , quoted by Eusebius * ; and one earlier than he , Homer , who calls it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The Holy Day . But Calimachus , Homer , and Linus , are still more particular , for they say it was because all the Works of Creation were then finished . So Homer , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; and 't is therefore called by Linus , The Birth-day of the World. Now there is nothing in Nature to point to this ; for there is no more to be observed from the Motion of the Heavens for such a Septenary distribution of Time , or Division into Weeks , than there is for the dividing of a Day into Hours : And consequently it must proceed from some Institution , and from a very early Institution , because of what I have observed from the fore-cited Authors , who are of great Antiquity , especially Homer and Linus : For Homer is supposed to have lived in or about the time of Saul , in the Year of the World 2940 , and Linus in the time of the Judges , about the Year 2570. The consideration of which doth make it probable , that these Ancient Poets owed their Information to the general Tradition of the World , rather than to the Jews . Indeed Aristobulus the Jew , from whom Eusebius drew the abovesaid Testimonies , saith , these Poets had borrowed them from the Jewish Books . But if it be consider'd how little the Jewish Books , the Scriptures , were known to the World before the Translation of them by the Seventy into Greek , which was about 300 Years before the Birth of our Saviour ; or how little the Opinions of the Jews themselves before the Captivity were known abroad , it will hardly be conceived , that these things should be known so early , and spoke of so positively by the Greek Poets , Homer and Linus , within so short a time after the Institution of the Sabbath at Sinai , as these two lived ; for Linus must have lived within less than half an hundred Years after the time of Moses ; and Homer in less than 400. Where if we take the lowest term , that of Homer , the Jews were hardly in a setled State , and no more in a Condition , than they were disposed in their Temper , or permitted by their Religion , to inform other Nations in the Articles or Mysteries of their Religion . So that it seems very evident , that the Observation of the Seventh day for the Service of God , was an ancient and general Opinion , and especially of those who may be best presumed to understand what had been the sense of Mankind in the Ages before , or those in which they lived . And if this was the Opinion of those early Times , conformable to the History of Scripture , we have sufficient reason to offer this as an Instance of a Revelation . 2. Another instance of Revelation is Sacrifices , and especially those of Expiation . Amongst all the Rites and Usages relating to Divine Worship , there are none that exceed these in their Antiquity ( except the Sabbath ) or Extent . For we no sooner read of God's Reconciliation to Mankind , but that they offer'd Sacrifice ; no sooner of Noah's Deliverance and Escape out of the Deluge , but he offer'd Sacrifice : And without doubt , as it begun , so it continued , and was as much dispersed and observed among Mankind before the Flood , as after it . But how probable soever it is , that this Rite was thus universally observed before , yet That we are not so certain of , as we are of the Observation of it after the Flood , when there was no Age nor Nation where it was not to be found , how dispersed soever they were ; of which no tolerable Account is to be given , unless it be allowed to have been in use before the Dispersion at Babel , and that it was of Divine Institution . It must have been , I say , in use before that Dispersion ; for how could all Nations fall into one and the same Practice , and have the same Opinion of Sacrifices , when there is nothing in the Nature of the thing to lead them to it , if it had not been , that they had all descended from one Blood , from one Family , from one Body ; by which means it was conveyed into all the several Branches issuing from it , and went along with them where ever they went. Now the question is , Whence this should arise , and what gave it this universal Acceptance and Authority ? whether the Invention of some Eminent Persons , suppose , in those early Times ? or whether it was by Revelation from God , and of his special Institution ? There seems no great reason to think this Service should proceed merely from the Invention of Men , even of those pious and well-disposed Persons , since ( as I have said ) there is nothing in the nature of the thing to lead to it . For how could it be supposed that this should be acceptable to Almighty God , which in it self holds no Conformity , nor is at all suitable to his Nature ? Will I eat the flesh of bulls , and drink the blood of goats ? is a true representation of it . It might become a sanguinary sort of Daemons , or false Gods , and wicked Spirits , to be pleased with the Fumes and Reakings of the Bleeding Sacrifice , as the Heathens generally thought : But men of any understanding would rather chuse a reasonable Service for the God that made them reasonable Creatures , and might presume another sort of Sacrifice would be more acceptable to him than this , and acceptable without it , viz. a Sacrifice of Praise and Prayer , of a pure Mind , and a good Life , which the wiser Heathens did in their Opinion exceedingly prefer . But as for the Sacrifices and Blood of Beasts , such Philosophers as Pythagoras and Plato spoke of them often with regret and displeasure ; and others wonder'd how they first came into the World , as Porphyry , that wrote expresly against them . What Expression could thereby be given , suppose , of mens gratitude to God for their Being , and their Preservation ? Who of all Mankind is fo stupidly credulous , so foolish , that can think the Gods delighted with such a present of Bows , Gall , and Blood , which a hungry Dog would scarcely touch ; and that they should repay the favour to those that offer it ? said an ancient Heathen Poet , cited by Porphyry . But if we descend to Expiatory Sacrifices , who could think that the Blood of Bulls and of Goats could take away sin , and that God would accept of that as a fit Compensation for their Crimes ; the Blood of a Brute for that of a Man , the Life of one that is not in its own power , instead of him that was ? And if men were so weak as of their own accord to offer it ; can we think the Almighty Creator would accept of what was for it self only unbecoming his Majesty , and be so highly delighted with it , as to testify his Acceptance of Abel's by the descent of a Miraculous Fire to consume it ; and to smell a sweet savour upon Noah's Oblation ; to appoint it as a sign of his Covenant with Abraham ; and lastly , to embody it into the Mosaical Institution ? It was enough , one would think , that the Majesty of Heaven and Earth hath accepted of the good will of the first Inventors , how poor and low soever the Invention was ; but it was too great a Condescension to do by these as the Heathens by their Heroes , to translate them into the number of their Deities ; too much to have such a Mark of the Favour of Heaven , as none of the Divine Institutions could have more . But why should we think so meanly of those Antediluvian Patriarchs , of Adam and Abel , Enoch and Noah , &c. the first Inventors or Encouragers of this way of Worship ? At this rate happier far were the Inventions of Adah , Jubal , and Tubal-Cain , that taught others how to order Cattel , to handle the Harp and the Organ , to work in Brass and Iron ; for these did serve either the Necessities or Pleasures of Mankind , and were suitable to their nature and condition : But to offer Bestial Sacrifices to an Infinite Spirit , was as if we should present Mankind with the Entertainments and Pleasures of the Brutes ; and so it cannot be thought that Men ( how low soever their Understandings were ) would think the Blood of Beasts a decent Present to their Creator , which indeed would not be so to their Superiors here . But we have another sort of Character of those Holy Men , who were Persons of great Knowledge and vast Experience ; who both received their Religion from the Almighty , were the great Props and Stays of it in their Generation , and to whom the care of transmitting it to Posterity was committed ; and for which reason , as well as others , God seemed to have protracted their Lives to so vast an Extent . They were such as were eminent for their Piety ; as Abel's Faith is one of the renowned Instances , Heb. 11. and Enoch is said to walk with God , and was in an extraordinary way rewarded for it . Such again were they as were endued with the Spirit of Prophecy , as Adam , Abel , Enoch , Noah . And therefore it cannot in reason be supposed that ever they should think the offering the Blood , and burning the Flesh of a Beast , to be a fit expression of their Gratitude to Almighty God , or a means to obtain his Favour by way of Expiation for their Sins , without his Institution . It is then ( as far as I conceive ) evident , that Sacrifices , of what kind soever , were not invented by men . But if they were not invented by men , How came they to be admitted , and at last so much to obtain in the world ? I answer , They were of God's own Institution ; and therefore were received by the Patriarchs , and accepted by himself . But then it may reasonably be demanded , Why they should be thus honoured by a Divine Legislation and Authority , when it is allowed that they are in themselves not suitable to his Nature ? I answer , They were instituted as those Sacrifices were Typical , and had respect to a greater Sacrifice , that of Christ. And therefore 't is observable , That as Almighty God for the Comfort of Adam , and preventing his Despair , ( as has been before shewed ) did immediately after his Expostulation with him , and Sentence pass'd upon him , reveal his intention to pardon him , and the Means by which it was to be procured and ratified , The Seed of the Woman : so in consequence of this , and to shew their Faith in that Promise , we read in the next Chapter , of their Sacrifices and Offerings which they brought unto the Lord , as a Representation of what they for their Apostacy had deserved , and should have suffered , had not the Divine Mercy interposed . Now if we have represented this aright , we have a fair account of an Expiatory Sacrifice , and how it came to take such place among men , and to be so universally received . We have a reason again how and why it came to be framed into the Law of Moses ; and why those Sacrifices and the Rites belonging to them , were made a principal part of it , and have thereby a Key to unlock many Mysteries in that Law , and to answer many Difficulties about it , when it is a shadow of good things to come . By this means again we come to understand the special Providence of God , that this was so much preserved and so universally dispersed and received among mankind . By this means again we have a fair account how the Doctrine of the Cross , and the Notion of our Saviour's Death as an Expiatory Sacrifice , came to be soon entertained among the Gentiles ; for being of God's Institution , as he preserved it , so being thus preserved , it became an excellent introduction , and prepared Mankind for the belief and reception of our Redemption by Christ. To the same Original may the First Fruits , Priesthood , and Tenths be referr'd ; the first of which was observed from the time of Abel , Gen. 4. and the two last long before the time of the Mosaical Law ; and therefore are to be derived from an ancient Institution . But because it may be thought these Instances may be liable to exception , forasmuch as they are sometimes disputed among those themselves that do contend for a Revelation , I shall proceed to IV. Sort of evidence , which is Supernatural , and that is either it self a Revelation , or the Proof of it ; of the former is Prophecy ; of the latter , Miracles . 1. Prophecy , or the foretelling of things to come ; whatever time they are to exist in , near or remote . I add this latter Clause to it , to prevent all Exception , and to distinguish Prophecy truly so called , from Sagacity , or Human Providence ; which from Precedent Observations and proximate Causes , may be often fortunate in its Conjectures or Predictions . But now as to Infinite Power all things are alike possible and easy , and there is nothing great or little , more or less , with respect to it ; so to Infinite Knowledge , to which one day is as a thousand years , and a thousand years as one day , all things , the remotest as well as nearest , are alike present ; and there is nothing distant or near with respect to it . And therefore whereever the true Spirit of Prophecy is , the same Power that can foretell what shall happen to morrow , could , if he so pleased , as easily foretell what shall happen a Thousand Years hence ; since all things are alike naked and opened unto him with whom we have to do . Now this sort of Knowledge can proceed from nothing less than him , who as he knows all things , so has all Causes in his own Power , and can foresee how they will operate , and what shall be the Event of such Operations , or can dispose them to it as he pleaseth , whatever the Causes be , whether ( as we usually say ) they are Voluntary , Necessary , or Contingent ; and being thus peculiar to him , and his sole Prerogative , 't is no less than a Species of Divine Revelation . And therefore as none can know the Certainty of such Futurities and Events but God ; so none can foretell them but such as he is pleased to reveal them to ▪ From whence it was that Plato somewhere calls Prophecy , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a Communication or Fellowship with God. For suppose now we should set before us any Epocha or Character of Time , which the Prophecy respects ; the 160. Years from Isaiah's naming of Cyrus , to his Decree for building Jerusalem , Isa. 44. 28. Or the 350. Years from the Prophet's naming Josiah , to the time he defiled those Idolatrous Places , 1 Kings 13. 2. 2 Kings 23. 16. Or the 490. Years in Daniel's Weeks , from his time to the Death of Messiah Dan. 9. 2. 4. What an infinite number of intercurrent Passages must there be before it be brought in its proper season to its accomplishment ? And how amazing a sight would it be , if we could lay our hand upon the Clue of the Prophecy at its first setting out , and follow it , making its way through all Oppositions and Interferings , to the last Period and Completion ! But then if we turn our Thoughts to the chief Subject of Revelation , the Prophecy of the Incarnation of our Saviour , as it began immediately upon the Fall , and passed along through the 61 Generations , for 4000 Years together , it would be like the dispersed Parts of a Human Body , to the Time and State of the Resurrection , that are carried safe and entire through all Transformations ; and at last when the Sea and the Grave are called upon to give up their dead , all the Atoms and Particles are recalled from their several Vehicles or Tribes they were joined to , and fall into the same Composition as before in this present state . Much such a Subject have we before us , which after various Windings and Turnings , and an Infinite Succession of Causes and Events ; we read , That it might be fulfilled — and as it was spoken by the mouth of the holy Prophets , which have been since the world began , Luk. 1. 70. So that as many Prophecies as we have , or the world ever had , so many Evidences have we of a Supernatural and Divine Revelation . And this all Mankind have had a belief of , as is manifest from the Oracles they consulted upon all emergent occasions ; many of which were very ancient , as Herodotus tells us that of Jupiter Hammon in Lybia was . I acknowledge that these were full of Imposture , and were despised for it by the Wiser part of the Heathens , such as Tully , ( Lib. 1 , 2. de Divinat . ) and detected , as Eusebius shews , ( Praepar . Evang. l. 4. Init. & l. 9. c. 5. ) And I mention these , not that I esteem them of any Authority ; rather the contrary ; but to shew what the World thought of Prophecy , and that even those Philosophers who diverted themselves with the Mistakes and Impostures of their own Oracles , never questioned whether ever there were any true Prophecy ; but always allowed it , and took it for granted . So that the Impostures of their own Pretenders never engaged them so far , as to call in question the Veracity of all Prophecy , or to deny it where it was able to justify it self . 2. Sort of Supernatural Evidence , is Miracles . But of that , God willing , I shall Discourse afterwards . Thus far I have endeavoured to shew , That there has been a Revelation , antecedent to , or where there was no Written Revelation : And the Arguments and Instances have been such as were proper to those Circumstances ; such as we are led to by the Light of Nature , and Human Observation : And therefore though they receive Light and Confirmation from a Written Revelation , are not supposed to depend upon it for their Evidence . And if this Point has been hereby made out and proved , we then find that God has at sundry times and in divers maners , revealed himself to mankind by the Prophets and inspired Persons , from the beginning through the Ante-diluvian and Post-diluvian Times , till the Promulgation of a Written Law by Moses . If it be said , That these are far from amounting to a Certainty , and from giving us an Infallible Assurance of a Revelation , since some of them are disputed even among those that own a Revelation ; as the Original of the Sabbath , and Sacrifices ; and at the most are but Probable Arguments . 1. I answer , Probability is a fair Step to Certainty ; and I may after all affirm , That the Account here offered is the best that can be given o those Instances : 2. There are such Arguments as are taken from the Consideration of God's Nature ; and there cannot be a stronger , than what is fetch'd from the nature of things . 3. There are other Instances that are equivalent to a Revelation , and can proceed from no lower a Principle ; such are Speech and Common Notions ; the former of which in the Circumstances before recited , must be from Divine Inspiration , and the latter from a Divine Impression . 4. There are those things which when they accompany what we call a Revelation , prove the Truth and Certainty of it ; and being recorded in a Written Revelation , become of the Body of it , and they are Miracles . 5. There are others that are the Matter of Revelation , and they are Prophecies , especially such as are carried along in a continued Train , and mutually confirm each other . 6. There are others that are not only consonant to what we own to be a Revelation , but to Human Testimonies ; and being confirmed by both , are of great Authority . All which laid together , give us , I may say , unquestionable Evidence , That there has been a Revelation , or that God has made himself and his Will known to the World by Persons chosen out , and inspired , and commissioned by him . And this is a good Preparative and Introduction for what is to follow , viz. That there is a special Revelation , and that Revelation recorded and transmitted by Writing to the World ; which is a Point in Reserve , and that will in order be discoursed of . FINIS . BOOKS Printed for Richard Chiswell , and Thomas Cockerill . RVshworth's Historical Collections : The Third Part , in Two Volumes ; containing the Principal Matters which happen'd from the Meeting of the Parliament , November 3. 1640. to the End of the Year 1644. Wherein is a particular Account of the Rise and Progress of the Civil War , to that Period . Fol. 1692. Dr. John Conant's Sermons , Octavo . Published by Dr. Williams . The Possibility , Expediency , and Necessity of Divine Revelation . A Sermon preached at St. Martins in the Fields , Jan. 7. 169 4 / 5. at the Beginning of the Lecture for the Ensuing Year . Founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle , Esquire . By John Williams , D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty . 4to . D r WILLIAMS's THIRD SERMON AT Mr. BOYLE'S Lecture , 1695. Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A66386-e230 * V. Postellus , lib. de Orig. c. 4. † Herodotus , Enterpe . c. 2. Ad Nicom . l. 4. c. 5. l. 5. c. 9. l. 8. c. 1. Rhet. l. 1. c. 10 , 13 , 15. Pro Milone . L. 1. de Nat. Deor. & L 2. de Legib. Pro Cluentio . * Clio. cap. 36 , 37. Enterp . cap. 104. V Bochart Geogr. Saci . Phaleg . l. 4. c. 31. * Praepar . l. 13. c. 12 , p. 667 Psalm 50 ▪ 13. Euseb. Praepar . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lib. 2. Sect. 58. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So Theodotion . Gen. 4. 20. Gen. 4. 25. Gen. 9. 26. Jude 14. 2 Pet. 2. 5. Gen. 3. & 4. Gen. 14. 18. 20. 
A28961	----	An essay of the great effects of even languid and unheeded motion whereunto is annexed An experimental discourse of some little observed causes of the insalubrity and salubrity of the air and its effects / by the Honourable Robert Boyle ... Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1685 Approx. 297 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 158 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A28961 Wing B3949 ESTC R36503 15713696 ocm 15713696 104480 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A28961) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 104480) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1179:4) An essay of the great effects of even languid and unheeded motion whereunto is annexed An experimental discourse of some little observed causes of the insalubrity and salubrity of the air and its effects / by the Honourable Robert Boyle ... Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 288 p. in various pagings. Printed by M. Flesher for Richard Davis ..., London : 1685. "An experimental discourse of some unheeded causes of the insalubrity and salubrity of the air" has special t.p. and separate paging. Reproduction of original in the British Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. 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Air. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-05 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-06 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2006-06 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion AN ESSAY Of the Great EFFECTS OF Even Languid and Unheeded MOTION . Whereunto is Annexed An Experimental Discourse of some little observed Causes of the Insalubrity and Salubrity of the Air and its Effects . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE , Fellow of the Royal Society . LONDON , Printed by M. Flesher , for Richard Davis , Bookseller in Oxford . 1685. ADVERTISEMENT OF THE Publisher . T IS thought fit the Reader should be inform'd , That the insuing Tract ( about the Effects of Languid Motions ) was design'd to be a Part of the Authour's Notes about the Origine of Occult Qualities , and should have come abroad together with the Papers about the Effluvia of Bodies ( most of which are already publish'd . ) And accordingly it was printed seven or eight years ago : which Circumstance is here mention'd , to give a Reason why several Particulars were omitted in the Body of the Discourse , that will be found annex'd to the End of it . For these occurring to the Authour whilst he cursorily read over the Tract it self , when it was upon the point to be made publick , 't was thought fit rather to subjoin them by way of a short Appendix , than to let any thing be lost that seem'd pertinent to so difficult and uncultivated a Subject , as That they belong to . The Reader is farther to be advertis'd , That of the Three Preliminary Discourses , which the Authour intended for Introductory Ones to What he design'd to say more particularly about the Mechanical Origine or Production of Occult Qualities , One was concerning the Relations betwixt the Pores of Bodies and the Figures of Corpuscles : but that the great Intrieacy and Difficulty He found in this copious Subject , made Him consent , That the Discourse of Local Motion , which should have accompany'd it to the Press , should be printed long before it . And those Papers about Pores and Figures having been for a great while out of the Authour's Power , He now to gratify the Stationer with something that may in Their stead make up the formerly printed Essay a Book of a convenient Bulk , has put into his Hands what now comes forth , about some Unheeded Causes of the Healthfulness and Insalubrity of the Air : which being chiefly attributed to Subterraneal Steams , Subtile and for the most part Invisible , are as near of kin to the other Effluviums treated of in the Introductory Discourse , as is requisite to keep the mention that is made of them in this Book , from appearing very incongruous . AN ESSAY Of the Great EFFECTS Of Even Languid and Vnheeded LOCAL MOTION . CHAP. I. HOW superficially soever the Local Motion of Bodies is wont to be treated of by the Schools , who admit of divers other Motions , and ascribe almost all strange things in Physicks to Substantial Forms and Real Qualities ; yet it will become Us , who endeavour to resolve the Phaenomena of Nature into Matter and Local motion , ( guided , at the beginning of things , immediately , and since regulated , according to settled Laws , by the Great and Wise Author of the Universe , ) to take a heedfull notice of its kinds and operations , as the true Causes of many abstruse Effects . And though the industry of divers late Mathematicians and Philosophers have been very laudably and happily exercised on the nature and general Laws of this Motion ; yet I look upon the Subject in its full extent to be of such importance , and so comprehensive , that it can never be too much cultivated , and that it comprises some parts that are yet scarce cultivated at all . And therefore I am not sorry to find my self obliged , by the design of these Notes , ( written , as you know , to facilitate the explicating of Occult Qualities ) to endeavour to improve some neglected Corners of this vast field , and to consider , Whether , besides those effects of Local motion which are more conspicuous , as being produced by the manifest striking of one body against another , where the bulk , &c. of the Agent , together with its Celerity , have the chief Interest ; there may not be divers effects , wont to be attributed to Occult Qualities , that yet are really produced by faint or unheeded Local motions of bodies against one another , and that oftentimes at a distance . But , before I enter upon particulars , this I must premise in general , ( which I have elsewhere had occasion to note to other purposes , ) that we are not to look upon the bodies we are conversant with , as so many Lumps of Matter , that differ onely in bulk and shape , or that act upon one another merely by their own distinct and particular powers ; but rather as bodies of peculiar and differing internal Textures , as well as external Figures : on the account of which structures , many of them must be considered as a kind of Engines , that are both so framed and so placed among other bodies , that sometimes Agents , otherwise invalid , may have notable operations upon them , because those operations being furthered by the Mechanism of the body wrought on , and the relation which other bodies and Physisical Causes have to it , a great part of the effect is due , not precisely to the external Agent , that 't is wont to be ascribed to , but in great measure to the action of one part of the body it self ( that is wrought on ) upon another , and assisted by the concurring action of the neighbouring bodies , and perhaps of some of the more Catholick Agents of Nature . This Notion or Consideration being in other Papers particularly confirmed , I shall not now insist upon it , trusting that you will not forget it , when there shall be occasion to apply it in the following Notes . There may be more Accounts than we have yet thought of , upon which Local motions may perform considerable things , either without being much heeded , or without seeming other then faint , at least in relation to the considerableness of the Effects produced by them . And therefore I would not be understood in an exclusive sense , when in the following Discourse I take notice but of a few of the above-mentioned Accounts ; these seeming sufficient , whereto , as to Heads , may be conveniently enough referred the Instances I allot to this Tract . And concerning each of these Accounts , I hold it requisite to intimate in this place , that I mention it onely , as that whereon such effects of Local motion , as I refer to it , do principally depend : for , otherwise , I am so far from denying , that I assert , that in divers cases there are more Causes than one , or perhaps than two of those here treated of apart , that may notably concur to Phaenomena directly referred to but one or other of them . To come then closer to our subject ; I shall take notice , That among the severall things , upon whose account men are wont to overlook or undervalue the efficacy of Local motions , that are either Unheeded or thought Languid , the chief , or at least those that seem to me fittest to be treated of in this Paper , are those that are referable to the following Observations . CHAP. II. Observat . I. Men are not usually aware of the great efficacy of Celerity , even in small Bodies , and especially if they move but through a small space . WHat a rapid Motion may enable a Body to doe , may be judged by the powerfull and destructive Effects of Bullets shot out of Cannons , in comparison of the Battering Engines of the Ancients , which , though I know not how many times bigger then the Bullets of whole Cannon , were not able to batter down Walls and Towers like Bullets , whose bulk compared with theirs is inconsiderable . Other examples of a like nature might be without impertinency alledged on this occasion ; but , because the latter part of our Proposition contains that which I chiefly aim at , I shall proceed to Instances fit to prove That . I have sometimes caused a skilfull Turner to turn for me an oblong piece of Iron or Steel , and placing my naked hand at a convenient distance to receive the little fragments , perhaps for the most part lesser then small pins heads , as they flew off from the rod , they were , as I expected , so intensely heated by the quick action of the Tool upon them , that they seemed almost like so many sparks of fire ; so that I could not endure to continue my hand there . And I remember , that once asking an expert workman , whether he ( as I had sometimes done ) did not find a troublesome heat in the little fragments of Brass that were thrown off when that metall was turning ? He told me , that heat was sometimes very offensive to his eyes and eye-lids . And when I asked , whether it was not rather as Dust cast into them , than from their Heat ; he replied , that besides the stroke , he could sensibly feel a troublesome heat , which would make even his Eye-lids sore : And that sometimes , when he employed a rough Tool , that took off somewhat greater Chips , he had found the heat so vehement , that not onely 't would scorch his tender Eye-lids , but the thick and hard skin of his hands : for proof whereof he shewed me in one of his hands a little blister , that had been so raised , and was not yet quite gone off . And inquiring about these matters of a famous Artist , imployed about the finishing up of cast Ordnance , he confess'd to me , That , when with a strong as well as peculiar Engine he and his associates turned great Guns very swiftly , to bring the surface to a competent smoothness , the tools would sometimes throw off bits of metal of a considerable bigness , which , by reason of their bulk and their rapid motion , would be so heated as to burn the fingers of the Country-people that came to gaze on his work , when he , for merriment sake , desired them to take up some of those pieces of metall from the ground . Which I thought the more remarkable , because by the Contact and Coldness of the ground I could not but suppose their Heat to have been much allayed . Not to mention , that I learnt from an experienced Artificer , that in turning of Brass the little fragments of that metall acquire an intenser Heat than those of Iron . I remember also , that , to vary the Experiment mentioned just before this last , by making it with a bodie far less solid and heavy than Brass or Iron , I caused an Artificer to turn very nimbly a piece of ordinary wood , and holding my hand not far off , the powder , that flew about upon the operation , struck my hand in many places with that briskness , that I could but uneasily endure the Heat which they produced where they hit . Which Heat whether it were communicated from the little , but much heated , fragments to my hands , or produced there by the brisk percussion on my hand , or were the joint effect of both those Causes ; it will however be a good Instance of the power of Celerity even in very small bodies , and that move but a very little way . 'T is considerable to our present purpose , that by an almost momentany percussion , and that made with no great force , the parts , even of a vegetable , may be not onely intensely heated , but brought to an actuall Ignition ; as we have severall times tried , by striking a good Cane ( of that sort which is fit for such Experiments ) with a steel , or even with the back of a knife . For , upon this Collision , it would send forth sparks of fire like a flint . To the same purpose may be alledged , that , by but dextrously scraping good loaf-sugar with a knife , there will be made so brisk an agitation of the parts , that store of sparks will be produced . But that is more considerable , which happens upon the collision of a flint and a steel : For , though Vitrification be by Chymists esteemed the ultimate action of the fire , and though , to turn sand or stones , though very finely poudered , into glass , 't is usually required that it be kept for divers hours in the intense fire of a glass-house ; and though , lastly , the glass-men complain , that they cannot bring flints or sand to fusion without the help of a good proportion of Borillia or some other fixed salt : yet both actuall Ignition and Vitrification are brought to pass almost in a moment by the bare vehemence of that motion that is excited in the parts of a flint when it is struck with a steel : For those sparks that then fly out , ( as an Ingenious person has observed , and as I have often seen with a good Microscope , ) are usually real and permanent parcels ( for the most part globulous ) ofstone vitrified and ignited by the vehemence of the motion . And that this vitrification may be of the stone itself , though steel be a metal of a far more fusible nature then a flint , I am induced to think , because I have tried , that not only flints with steel , but flints with flints , and more easily pieces of Rock Crystal between themselves , will by collision strike fire . And the like effect of collision I have found my self in some precious stones , harder than Crystall . And afterwards inquiring of an ingenious Artificer that cuts Diamonds , Whether he had not observed the like , when Diamonds were grated on by the rapid motion of his mill ? He replied , that he observed Diamonds to strike fire almost like Flints ; which afterwards was confirmed to me by another experienced cutter of Gems ; and yet having made divers trials on Diamonds with fire , he would not allow that fire itself can bring them to fusion . Nor are fluid Bodies , though but of small Dimensions , to be altogether excluded from the power of making considerable impressions on solid bodies , if their celerity be great . Whether the Sun-beams consist , according to the Atomical Doctrine , of very minute Corpuscles , that , continually issuing out of the body of the Sun , swiftly thrust on one another in Physically-straight Lines ; or whether , as the Cartesians would have it , those beams be made by the brisk action of the Luminary upon the contiguous fluid , and propagated every way in straight lines through some Ethereal matter harboured in the pores of the Air ; it will be agreeable to either Hypothesis , that the Sun-beams , refracted or reflected by a burning-glass to a focus , do there , by their concourse , compose a small portion of fluid matter ; and yet the Celerity , wherewith the soft and yielding substance is agitated , enables so few of them as can be circumscribed by a Circle , not a quarter of an inch in Diameter , to set afire green wood in lesse than a minute , and ( perhaps in as little time as that ) to melt not onely Tinn and Lead thinly beaten , but , as I have tried , foliated Silver and Gold. The operation of small portions of fluid matter on solid bodies will be farther exemplified in the IV. Chapter , by the effects of the blown flame of a Lamp on glass and metalls ; so that I shall here need but to point in general at the wonderfull effects that Lightning has produced , as well by the Celerity of its motion , as by the matter whereof it consists . Of which Effects , Histories and the writings of Meteorologists afford good store ; and I have been an admiring observer of some of them , one of the last of which was the melting of metal by the flame in its passage , which probably lasted but the twinckling of an Eye . And even a small parcel of Air , if put into a sufficiently-brisk motion , may communicate a considerable motion to a solid body ; whereof a notable Instance ( which depends chiefly upon the Celerity of the springy corpuscles of the Air ) is afforded by the violent motion communicated to a bullet shot out of a good wind-gun . For , when this Instrument is well charged , the strongly-comprest Air being set at liberty , and forcibly endeavouring to expand it self to its wonted laxity , its corpuscles give a multitude of impulses to the bullet , all the while that it continues moving along the barrel , and by this means put it into so rapid a motion , that I found by trial , the bullet would in a moment be flatted , almost into the figure of a Hemisphere , by being shot off against a metalline plate . And farther to shew , How swift that motion must have been , and with what Celerity a vehement agitation may be communicated to the parts of a Solid body , I shall add here ( though the Phaenomenon might be referred to the V. Chapter , ) that , though the contact of the Bullet and the metalline plate lasted probably but a physical moment ; yet the minute parts of the bullet were put into so various and brisk an agitation , that making hast to take it up before it should cool , I found it too hot to be with overmuch ease held between my fingers . CHAP. III. Observat . II. We are too apt to think , that Fluid bodies , because of their softness , cannot have by their bare motion , especially if insensible , any sensible effect upon Solid ones ; though the fluid moves and acts as an intire body . 'T IS not my purpose here to insist on the efficacy of the motion of such fluid bodies as may have their motions discovered by the eye , like streaming water ; or manifestly perceived by the touch , as are the winds that beat upon us : since 't were needless to give Instances of such obvious things , as the great effects of overflowing waters and violent winds ; the later of which , notwithstanding the great tenuity and softness of the air and the Effluvia that swim in it , have been sometimes able to blow down not onely timber-trees , but houses and steeples , and other the firmest Structures . But the motions I intend to speak of in this Chapter are such , as we do not immediately either see or feel ; and though these be exceeding rare , yet the operation of Sounds , even upon solid bodies , and that at a distance from the sonorous ones , afford me some Instances to my present purpose , which I shall now proceed to mention . It has been frequently observed , that , upon the discharge of Ordnance and other great Guns , not onely the sound may be distinctly heard a great way off ; but that , to a good distance , the tremulous motion of the Air that produces sound , without producing any sensible wind , has been able sensibly to shake , and sometimes violently to break , the glass-windows of houses and other buildings , especially when the windows stand in the way wherein the propagation of the sound is directly made . 'T is true , that these observations are most frequent , when the place , where the Artillery is placed , stands upon the same piece of ground with the Houses whose windows are shaken ; and so it may be suspected , that the Shake is first communicated by the Cannon to the earth or floor on which they play , and is afterwards by that propagated through the intermediate parts of the ground to the foundations of the houses , and so to the windows . And I readily grant , and may elsewhere shew , that a violent impulse upon the ground may reach to a greater distance than men usually imagine : But in our present Case I see no necessity of having recourse to any thing but the wave-like motion of the Air for the production of our Phaenomenon , since the like may be produced by Local Motion transmitted by Fluids , as may appear by the following Instances . I was once invited by an Engineer , to see triall made of a strange Instrument he had to sink ships , though great ones , in a few minutes ; and though an unlucky Accident kept me from arriving there 'till near a quarter of an hour after the triall had been made on an old fregat , with better successe than my Philanthropy allowed me to wish ; yet causing my self to be rowed to the place , where the great vessell was newly sunk , the odness of the effect , which was performed upon the water by a small Instrument outwardly applied , made me inquisitive , what noise and commotion had been made : And I was informed partly by the Engineer himself , and partly by some acquaintances of mine , who among a great number of Spectators stood aloof off in ships and other vessels lying at anchor , to see the event ; that , upon the Engine 's operating , the explosion was so great , that it made a kind of storm in the water round about , and did so rudely shake vessels that lay at no inconsiderable distance , as to make those that stood on them to stagger . In the late great Sea-fight between the English Fleet commanded by his Royal Highness the Duke of York , and the Dutch Admiral Opdam , ( who therein lost the Victory and his Life , ) though the Engagement were made very many Leagues from the Hague , yet the noise of the Guns not onely reached to that Place , but had a notable effect there ; of which when I enquired of the English Embassadour that as yet resided there , he was pleased to assure me , that it shook the windows of his House so violently , that not knowing what the Cause was , he was surprized and much allarmed , apprehending , that some rude Fellows were about to break his windows to affront him . And if there be a greater disposition in some other bodies than there is in Glass-windows to receive strong impulses from the Air agitated by Sounds , these may be sensibly , though not visibly , wrought upon , and that at a good distance , by the noise of a single piece of Ordnance ; as may appear by that memorable Circumstance of an odd Case about a Gangrene mentioned by the experienced Simon Pauli in his ingenious Tract de Febribus malignis , pag. 71. Atqui aeger ille Gallus brachio truncatus , octiduum quidem superfuit , sed horrendis totius corporis convulsionibus correptus ; qui quoque , ( ut & illa addam observatione dignissima , ) dum in Domini sui aedibus ad plateam Kiodmoggerianam , Romanè Laniorum appellares , decumberet , ac , me ac aliis aliquandiu ad Lectum illius considentibus quidem , sed nobis non attendentibus , exploderentur tormenta bellica ex Regiis ac Praetoriis navibus , sinistrâ truncum dextri brachii fovens ac complectens , toties quoties exploderentur singula exclamabat , Au , au , me miserum ! Jesu , Maria , contundor penitús : adeò permolesta & intolerabilis illi erat Tormentorum explosio , & quidem ex loco satis longinquo , terrâ non firmâ aut contiguâ , verùm super salo aut mari Balthico , instituta . By this it appears , that the Guns , whose discharge produced these painfull motions in the Patient , rested upon a floating body . And I remember , that an illustrious Commander of a very great Man of war , being asked by me , whether of the many wounded men , he had in his ship in a very long Sea-fight , none of them were affected by that noise of the Enemy's Cannon discharged in ships at a distance ? He answered me , that some , whose bones were broken , would sadly complain of the Torment they were put into by the shake they felt at the going off of the Enemy's Cannon , though they were too much accustomed to the report of great Guns , to be , as 't was a bare noise , offended by it . If after all this ti be surmized , that these motions were not conveyed by the air , but propagated by the water , ( and , in some cases , some part of the shoar ) from the ships , where the Guns were fired , to the Houses where the windows were shaken , or the places where the wounded men lay : I answer that , if this could be made probable , it would accommodate me with very eminent Instances for the Chapter of the Propagable nature of Motion : And though it be very difficult to find such examples of shakes excited by sounds as are not liable to the mentioned objection ; because the sonorous bodies here below do all either strike , or lean , upon such gross and visible bodies as the Earth and Water ; yet there is one kind of Sound , that must be confessed to be propagated by the Air , as being made in it ; and that is Thunder , whose noise does sometimes so vehemently affect the Air , though without producing any sensible wind , that both others and I have observed it very sensibly to shake great and strong Houses , notwithstanding the distance of the clouds where the noises were first produced . And I remember , that , having inquired of some Sea-Captains , that in stout vessels sailed to the Indies , whether they had nor in those hot Regions observed their ships , though very much less tall then houses , to be shaken by vehement Thunders ? I perceived , that some of them had not much heeded any such thing ; but a couple of others told me , they had observed it in their ships ; and one of them told me , that once , when the claps of thunder were extraordinary great , some of them shook his ship so rudely as to make the unwonted motions disorder his great Guns . All which I the less wonder at , when calling to mind , what I have mention'd in the foregoing Chapter and elsewhere of the power of the Celerity of motion , I consider , that there is no Celerity that we know of here below , that is near so great , as that wherewith a Sound is propagated through the air . For , whereas the diligent Mersennus observes , that a bullet shot out of a Cannon or a Musket does not overpass two hundred and forty yards in a Second , or sixtieth part of a minute ; I have more than once diligently observed , that the motion of Sound passes above four hundred yards in the same time of a Second here in England ; which I therefore add , because Mersennus relates , that in France he observed a Sound to move in that time many yards more ; which may possibly proceed from the differing consistence of the English air and the French. The great Loudness of these sounds , and the vehement percussion that the Air receives in their formation , will probably make it be easily granted , that 't was onely the Impetuosity of the motion of the Medium , that gave the shake to the windows and other solid bodies that I have been mentioning to have been made to tremble by the report of Cannon or Thunder : But yet I will not on this occasion conceal , that perhaps it may without absurdity be suspected , that Some of those tremulous motions of solid bodies might either depend upon , or at least be promoted by , some peculiar disposition , that Glasse ( which is endued with springiness , ) and some other bodies that perhaps are not quite devoid of that Quality , may have to be moved by certain congruous Sounds ( if I may so call them ) more than they would by others , though perchance more loud . But though this surmize should be admitted ; yet it would not render the lately-recited Instances improper for the design of this Discourse , but onely would make some of them fit to be referred to another Chapter ; to which I shall advance , as soon as I shall have annexed an odd Observation of the experienced Platerus , which argues , that , where there is a peculiar Disposition , even in a firm body , it may receive considerable impressions from so languid a motion ( though in likelihood not peculiarly modified ) of the air as is not sensible to other bodies of the same kind . Foemina quaedam ( says he ) in subitaneum incidit morbum , viribus subitò prostratis , se suffocari indesinenter clamitans , etsi neo stertoris nec tussis aliqua essent indicia ; maximè verò de aura quadam adveniente , si vel leviter aliquis adstantium se moveret , quae illam opprimeret , conquerebatur , séque suffocari , si quis propiùs accederet , clamitabat : vixdum biduum in ea anxietate perseverans , expiravit . To which he adds : Vidi & alios aegros , de simili aura , quae eos , si quis illis appropinquaret , in suffocationis periculum induceret , conquerentes ; quod semper pessimum esse signum deprehendi . CHAP. IV. Observat . III. Men undervalue the motions of bodies too small to be visible or sensible , notwithstanding their Numerousness , which inables them to act in Swarms . MOst men , when they think at all of the effluvia of bodies and their motions , are wont to think of them as if they were but much finer sorts of Dust , ( whose grains , by reason of their smalness , are invisible , ) which , by the various agitation of the Air , are as 't were by some faint wind blown against the surfaces of the bodies they chance to meet in their way , and that they are stopped in their progress without penetrating into the interior parts of the bodies they invade . And according to this Notion , 't is no wonder , that men should not fancy , that such minute bodies passing , as they suppose , no further than the surfaces of those on which they operate , should have but faint operations upon them . But we may have other thoughts , if we well consider , that the Corpuscles we speak of , are , by their minuteness , assisted , and oftentimes by their figure inabled , to pierce into the innermost recesses of the body they invade , and distribute themselves to all , or at least to multitudes of the minute parts , whereof that body consists . For this being granted , though we suppose each single effluvium or particle to be very minute ; yet , since we may suppose , even solid bodies to be made up of particles that are so too , and the number of invading particles to be not much inferior to that of the invaded ones , or at least to be exceedingly great , it need not seem incredible , that a multitude of little Corpuscles in motion ( whose motion , may , for ought we know , be very swift ) should be able to have a considerable operation upon particles either quiescent , or that have a motion too slow to be perceptible by sense . Which may perhaps be the better conceived by the help of this gross example : If you turn an Ant-hill well stocked with Ants-eggs , upside down , you may sometimes see such a heap of eggs mingled with the loose earth , as a few of those Insects , if they were yoaked together , would not be able at once to draw after them ; but if good numbers of them disperse themselves and range up and down , and each lay hold of her own egge , and hurry it away , 't is somewhat surprizing to see ( as I have with pleasure done ) how quickly the heap of eggs will be displaced , when almost every little egge has one of those little Insects to deal with it . And in those cases , wherein the invading Fluid does not quite disjoin and carry off any great number of the parts of the body it invades , its operation may be illustrated by that of the wind upon a tree in Autumn : for , it finds or makes it self multitudes of passages , for the most part crooked , not onely between the branches and twigs , but the leaves and fruits , and in its passing from the one side to the other of the tree , it does not onely variously bend the more flexible boughs and twigs , and perhaps make them grate upon one another , but it breaks off some of the stalks of the fruit , and makes them fall to the ground , and withall carries off divers of the leaves , that grew the least firmly on , and in its passage does by its differing parts act upon a multitude of leaves all at once , and variously alters their situation . But to come to closer Instances : suppose we cast two lumps , the one of Sugar , the other of Amber , into a glass of beer or water , they will both fall presently to the bottom . And though perhaps the Amber may be lighter than the Sugar , ( for , I have found a notable difference in the specific gravity of pieces of Amber , ) yet the aqueous particles are far from being able to displace the Amber or any sensible part of it , or exercise any visible operation upon it : But the same minute particles of the liquor being of a figure that fits them to insinuate themselves every way into the pores of the Sugar , though the lump consisted of very numerous Saccharine Corpuscles , yet the multitude of the aqueous particles , to which they are accessible , is able in no long time to disperse them all , and carrying them along with themselves , make the whole lump of Sugar in a short time quite disappear . The point above discoursed of , may be more nimbly exemplified in some Chymical operations , and particularly in this . If , by a due degree of fire , you abstract from running Mercury four or five times its weight of good Oil of Vitriol , there will remain at the bottom a dry and brittle substance exceeding white ; and , if upon this Heap of Mercurial and Saline bodies , which sometimes may be coherent enough , you pour a good quantity of limpid water , and shake them together , you may see in a trice the multitude of little white grains , that make up the masse , pervaded , and manifestly altered , by the dispersed Corpuscles of the water ; as will plainly appear by the change of the Calx or Precipitate from a white masse into one of a fine Limon-colour . But to give instances in Fluid bodies , ( which I suppose you will think far the more difficult part of my task , ) though you will easily grant , that the flame of Spirit of wine , that will burn all away is but a visible aggregate of such E●●luvia swiftly agitated , as without ●●y sensible Heat would of themselves invisibly exhale away ; yet , if you be pleased to hold the blade of a knife , or a thin plate of Copper , but for a very few minutes , in the flame of pure Spirit of wine , you will quickly be able to discern by the great Heat , that is , the various and vehement agitation of the minute Corpuscles of the metal , what a number of them must have been fiercely agitated by the pervasion of the igneous particles , if we suppose , ( what is highly probable , ) that they did materially penetrate into the innermost parts of the metall ; and whether we suppose this or no , it will , by our experiment , appear , that so fluid and yielding a body , as the flame of Spirit of wine , is able , almost in a trice , to act very powerfully upon the hardest metalls . The power of extreamly-minute parts of a fluid body , even when but in a moderate number they are determined to conspire to the same operation , may be estimated by the motions of Animals , especially of the larger and more bulky sorts , as Horses , Bulls , Rhinocerots and Elephants . For , though the animal spirits be minute enough to be invisible , and to flow through such tender passages , that prying Anatomists have not been able in dissected Nerves to discern so much as the channels through which they pass ; yet those Invisible Spirits , conveyed ( or impelled ) from the Brain to the Nerves , serve to move in various manners the Lims , and even the unwieldy bodies themselves of the greatest Animals , and to carry them on in a progressive motion for many hours together , and perhaps enable them to spring into the Air , and move through it by leaping ; though divers of these Animals weigh many hundred , and others several thousand of pounds . I will not here consider , whether the following Experiment may at all illustrate Motions that are produced by the fluid parts of Animals in some of the consistent ones : But I presume , it may confirm the Observation maintained in this Chapter , if I add , what I have tried of the considerable force of a number of aqueous particles , as flexible and as languid as they are thought to be , insinuating themselves into the pores or Intervals of a rope that was not thick . For in moist weather I sometimes observed , that the aqueous and other humid particles , swimming in the air , entering the pores of the hemp in great numbers , were able to make it shrink , though a weight of fifty , sixty , or even more pounds of lead were tied at the end to hinder its contraction , as appeared by the weights visibly being raised in wet weather above the place it rested at in dry . But to return to what I was formerly speaking of the Determination of the motion of Fluids ; I shall , on this occasion , observe , that , though the wind or breath , that is blown out at a small crooked pipe of metal or glass , such as Tradesmen for its use call a Blow-pipe , seems not to have any great celerity , especially in comparison of that of the parts of flame ; and is it self of little force ; yet , when by this wind the flame of a Lamp or Candle is directed so as to beat with its point upon a body held at a convenient distance from the side of the flame , the burning fluid , determined , and perhaps excited by this wind , acquires so great a force , that , as we have often tried , it may be made , in a few minutes , to melt not onely the more fusible Metals , but silver , or even copper it self ; which yet may be kept for many hours unmelted in a Crucible kept red-hot , or even in the flame of the Lamp or Candle , unassisted by the blast . And if we can so contrive it , that a flame does not come to invade onely the surface that invests a body , but comes to be intermingled with the smaller ( though not the smallest ) parts it consists of , as with its filings or its powder ; the flame will then have a far more quick and powerfull operation than the body exposed to it . This I exemplify ( in other Papers ) and in this place it may suffice to observe , that , whereas a pound or two of Tartar may cost you some hours to calcine it to whiteness , if the flame have immediate access onely to the outward parts ; you may calcine it in a very small part of that time , if , mixing with its gross powder an equal weight of good Salt-peter , you fire the mixture , and keep it stirring , that the parts of the kindled Nitre may have access at once to very many parts of the Tartar , and have opportunity to calcine them . And by somewhat a like artifice , I elsewhere teach , how Nitre it self may without Tartar be speedily reduced to a Calcinatum , not unlike that newly mentioned . But it may be said , that some of the foregoing Instances ( for it cannot be truly said of all ) may indeed illustrate what we are discoursing of , but will not reach home to our purpose . I shall therefore consider the Load-stone , which you acknowledge to act by the emission of Insensible particles . For , though Iron and Steel be solid and ponderous bodies , and Magnetical effluvia be corpuscles so very minute , that they readily get in at the pores of all kind of bodies , and even of Glass it self ; yet these Magnetical effluvia , entring the steel in swarms , do in a trice pervade it , and a multitude even of Them , acting upon the Corpuscles of the metal , do operate so violently on them , that , if the Load-stone be vigorous enough , and well capped , it will attract a notable proportion of steel , and surmount the gravity of that solid metal , which I have found to exceed , when the stone has been very good and little , above fifty times the weight of the Magnet by whose effluvia it was supported : For , to these I rather ascribe Magnetical attraction and sustentation , than to the impulse or pressure of the ambient air , to which many Corpuscularians have recourse ; because I have found by trial ( which I elsewhere relate ) that the pressure of the ambient air is not absolutely necessary to Magnetical operations . I remember , that , to help some friends to conceive , how such extreamly-minute particles as Magnetical effluvia , may , by pervading a hard and solid body , such as Iron , put its insensible Corpuscles into motion , and thereby range them in a new manner , I took filings of Steel or Iron freshly made , that the Magnetical virtue might not be diminished by any rust , and having laid them in a little heap upon a piece of paper held level , I applied to the lower side of the paper , just beneath the Heap , the pole of a vigorous Load-stone , whose Emissions traversing the paper , and diffusing themselves through the incumbent metall , did in a trice manifestly alter the appearance of the Heap ; and , though each of the filings might probably contain a multitude of such small Martiall Corpuscles as Steel may be divided into by Oil of Vitriol or Spirit of Salt ; yet the Magnetical effluvia , immediately pervading our metalline heap , did so remove a good part of the filings that composed it , as to produce many erected aggregates , each of which consisted of several filings placed one above another , and appearing like little needles , or rather like the ends of needles broken off at some distance from the point . And as these little temporary needles stood all of them erected ( though more or less , according to their distance from the Pole of the Magnet ) upon the flat paper ; so they would , without losing their figure or connexion , be made as it were to run to and fro upon the paper , according as the Load-stone , that was held underneath it , was moved this way and that way ; and as soon as that was taken quite away , all this little stand of pikes ( if I may so call it ) would ( almost in the twinkling of an eye ) relapse into a confused heap of filings . There are two ways of explicating the turning of Water into Ice ; one or other of which is approved almost by all the Corpuscularian Philosophers . The first is that of the Cartesians , who give an account of Glaciation by the recesse of the less subtile particles of the Etherial matter , without which the finer parts were too small and feeble to keep the Eel-like particles of water flexible , and in the form of a liquour . The Atomists on the other side ascribe the freezing of water to the ingress of multitudes of frigorifick Corpuscles , as they call them , which , entering the water in swarms , and dispersing themselves through it , crowd into the pores , and hinder the wonted motion of its parts , wedging themselves ( if I may so speak ) together with them into a compact body . But which soever of these two Hypotheses be pitched upon , the Phaenomenon it self will afford me a notable Instance to my present purpose . For , the Particles of water , and much more the Corpuscles of cold , are confessed to be singly too small to be visible , and their motions are not said to be swift , but may rather be judged to be slow enough ; and yet those minute aqueous , or more minute frigorifick particles , because of their number , produce in the glaciation of the liquour so forcible a motion outwards , as to make it break bottles , not onely of glass and earth strongly baked , but , as I have several times tried , of metal it self , that being full of the liquour were firmly stopped before the supervening of the Cold. And the expansive endeavour of freezing water is not onely capable of doing this , but of performing so much greater things , which I elsewhere relate , that my trials have made me sometimes doubt , whether we know any thing in nature , except kindled Gunpowder , that bulk for bulk moves more forcibly , though the motion seems to be very slow . CHAP. V. ( Of the Propagable Nature of Motion . ) Observat . IV. Men are not sufficiently aware , how propagable Local Motion is , even through differing Mediums , and Solid bodies . THere are four principal Occasions on which I have observed , that men are wont to think the Communicating of Motion much more difficult than indeed it is . And first , there are many , that observing how usually those bodies that hit against hard ones rebound from them , easily perswade themselves , that Motion can scarce be transmitted or diffused through Solid bodies . But though it be true , that oftentimes in such cases the progressive motion of the body or the Solid , that is struck or impelled , be either inconsiderable , or , perhaps , not so much as sensible ; yet the impulse may make a considerable impression , and may be communicated to a great share of the particles of that matter , whereof the solid mass consists ; as we see in the striking of a timber-beam at one end , the motion , though perhaps it were not strong at the first , may become sensible at the other . Though Bell-metal be so hard a body , that it is reckoned harder than iron it-self , insomuch that oftentimes it resists even files of Steel , which readily work on Iron ; yet this solidity hinders not but that , as I have found , conveniently shaped vessels of Bell-metal , though thick , will be sensibly affected by a motion that neither is strong , nor touches them in more than a short line , or perhaps than a Physical point . The truth of this I have found by trial on more than one such vessels and particularly on one that was hemisphaerical , which being placed or held in a convenient posture , if I did but gently pass the point of a pin for a little way along the brim of it , it would sensibly resound , and that ( to a very attentive ear ) so long , and in such a ringing manner , as made it highly probable , that the parts , immediately touched ( and not so much as scratched ) by the point of a pin , were not onely put into a vibrating motion themselves , but were enabled to communicate it to those that were next them , and they to those that were contiguous to them ; and so the tremulous motion was propagated quite round the bell , and made divers successive Circulations before it quite ceased to be audible . And if , in stead of drawing a Line on the brim of the vessel , I struck it , though but faintly , with the point of a pin , though the part immediately touched would be but a physical point , yet the motion would be , like the former , propagated several times quite round ; as was argued by the ringing and duration of the produced sound , though this metalline vessel were seven inches in Diameter , and of a considerable thickness . Nor was a solidity like that of Brass requisite to produce these effects . For I found them to insue much after the same manner , when I employed onely a short and slender thread of Glass , which though little , if at all , thicker than a pin , was yet hollow quite through . Now if it be true , as 't is highly probable , that Sound , as it belongs to the air , consists in an undulating motion of the Air , and so in our case requires a vibrating motion in the sonorous body to impart that motion to the Air ; we must grant in our Instances a wonderfull propagableness of motion , even when 't is not violent , in Solid bodies themselves ; since the point of a pin , gently striking a part , no bigger than it self , of a mass of very solid metal , could thereby communicate a sensible motion , and that several times circulated , to millions of parts equall to it in bulk , and much exceeding it in hardness . And since the effect was more considerable , when the trial was made in a much greater , than in a smaller vessel ; 't is probable , that , if I had had the opportunity of experimenting on a large and well-hung Bell , the Phaenomenon would have been more notable ; as it also seemed to be on our vessel , if , in stead of striking it with the point of a pin , we cast , though but faintly , against the lower part of it a grain of shot , less than a small pins-head , or let a little grain fall , from about one foot high , upon the inside of the inverted Hemisphere . And to shew , that even soft and yielding bodies , and but faintly moved , are not to be excluded from a power of putting such hard ones into motion ; I shall add , that I found almost the like effects to those above mentioned , by passing the pulp of my finger a little way along the lower part of the vessel . Nay , that fluid bodies themselves may communicate such an intestine and propagable motion , to harden solid ones , I may have hereafter an occasion to shew by the effects of a small Flame , and the Sun-beams on glass and steel . And I shall here on this occasion add this word about the Propagation of Motion produced in solid bodies by heat , that it much depends upon the particular Textures of the bodies . For I found , that when I heated a piece of glass or of a fire-stone , I could without inconvenience hold my naked hand upon parts that were very near ( suppose within an inch off ) the ignited portions of them . But , if we take a rod of Iron , for instance , and heat one end red-hot , the heat of that end will be so propagated towards the other , that it will offend one's hand at several times the distance , at which one might conveniently hold the rod , if it were of glass . In many buildings it may be observed , ( and is thought a sign of the firm Cohesion of their parts , ) that a stamp of one's foot , nay or bare treading , or some such other lesse brisk impulse , made in one room , will have a sensible effect in all or most of the others . And it often happens , that , by the hasty shutting of a door , the whole house is made to tremble ; whence we may argue , that , even among solid bodies , motion made in one place may be readily propagated to many others : And if , as to the latter of the Instances , the sudden impulse and compression of the Air , made by the door supposed to be hastily shut , have any considerable share in the effect , the Phaenomenon will serve to shew the efficacy even of such a motion of a fluid body , as we cannot directly feel upon divers large and firmly connected solid bodies . In Earthquakes the tremulous motion sometimes extends so very far , that , though it seems highly probable , that the shake that is given to one part of the Earth by the firing and explosion of subterraneal exhalations , ( if that be the true and onely cause of Earthquakes ) is not capable of reaching near so far as divers Earthquakes have done , but that the fire passes through some little subterraneal clefts , or channels , or hidden conveyances , from one great Cavity or Mine to another ; yet 't is not improbable but that the vehemently tremulous motion does oftentimes reach a very great way beyond the places where the explosions were made . Since , though Seneca would confine the extent of Earthquakes to two hundred miles , yet observations made in this and the last Century warrant us to allow them a far greater spread . The Learned Josephus Acosta affirms , that in the Kingdom of Peru in the year 1586 an Earthquake reached along the shoar of the Pacifick sea 160 Leagues ; and adds , that sometimes it has in those parts run on from South to North 300 Leagues . And in the beginning of this our age ( Anno Dom. 1601 ) good writers relate a much larger Earthquake to have happened , since it reached from Asia to that Sea that washes the French Shoars , and , besides some Asiatick Regions , shook Hungary , Germany , Italy and France , and consequently a great part of Europe . And if that part of the Narrative be certain , which relates , that this lasted not much above a quarter of an hour , it will be the more likely , that this Earthquake shook great Tracts of Land beyond those places , to which the fired matter , passing from one cavity to another , could reach in so short a time : As you will the more easily guesse , if you try , as I have done , that in trains of Gunpowder it self the fire does not run on near so swiftly as one would imagine . But though I have been in more Earthquakes then one ; yet , since they were too sudden and too short to afford me any considerable observation , I shall say no more of them ; but proceed to take notice , that oftentimes the motion of a Coach or Cart , that passed at a good distance from the place that I was in , has made the buildings so sensibly shake , that I could not but wonder , that so great a portion of so firm and sluggish a body , as the Earth , could , by a cause that seemed very disproportionate to such an effect , be made to tremble it self , and manifestly to shake firm buildings that were founded on it . And this observation made me the more inclinable to give credit to their Relations , who tell us , that in a calm night , the march of a troup of horse may be felt , by attentive Scouts watching at a great distance off , by the shake that the ground receives from the trampling of the horses ; though I formerly suspected much , and do yet a little , that the impulse of the air conveyed along the resisting surface of the ground , might mainly contribute to the effect that is ascribed onely to the motion of the soil . Before I advance to the Second Member of this Chapter , it may not be impertinent to note , that in peculiarly disposed bodies , and especially in Organical ones , a very languid motion may have a far greater effect , than it could produce by a bare propagation of it self . For it may so determine the motion of the Spirits or other active parts of the body it works on , as to make multitudes of them act as if they conspired to perform the same motions . As when a ticklish man , by having the pulp of one's finger passed gently along the sole of his foot or the palm of his hand , has divers muscles and other parts of his body and face put into preternatural or unusual motions . And most men by being lightly tickled with the end of a feather or straw , within their Nostrils , have their heads and many parts of their bodies put into that violent Commotion , wherein Sneezing consists . And I remember , that having for some time been , by a distemper , ( from which God was graciously pleased a while after to free me , ) quite deprived of the use of my hands ; it more than once hapned to me , that sitting alone in a Coach , if the wind chanced to blow a single hair upon my face in the Summer-time , the tickling or itching , that it produced , was so uneasy to me , 'till by calling out to a footman I could get it removed , that , though I could well bear it as long as I was wont to do , when , having the use of my hands , I could relieve my self at pleasure ; yet if I were forced to endure the itching too long , before any came to succour me , the uneasiness was so great , as to make me apprehend falling presently either into Convulsions or a Swoon . But 't is time to proceed to the second Member of this Chapter . 2. Others there are , that cannot believe , that Local motion , especially if it be languid , can be propagated through differing Mediums , each of which , save that wherein the Motion is begun , must , they think , either repell , or check and dead it . To these I shall recommend the Consideration of an Experiment , I remember I made before some Learned men in our Pneumatick Engine . For , having caused a large and thick glass Receiver to be so blown , that it had a glass button in the inside of that part which upon the Engine was to be placed upwards ; I caused a Watch to be suspended by a little Silverchain fastned to that button by as slender and soft a body , as I thought would be strong enough to support my watch ; and then , the Glass being cemented on close to the Receiver , to prevent a Commerce between the Cavity of it and the Air , the watch , that hung freely near the middle of the Cavity of the Receiver , made it self to be heard by those attentive Listners , that would hold their ears directly over the suspended watch , whose motions were thereby argued to have been propagated , either through the included air , or along the string to the concave part of the Glass , and through the whole thickness of the Glass to the convex part , and thence , through the interposed air to the Ear. And this mention of watches minds me of what I often observed in a small striking watch , that I have worn in my pocket . For , when it struck the Hours , and in some postures when the balance did but move , I could plainly feel the brisker motions of the Bell , and sensibly the languid ones of the balance , through the several linings of my Breeches , and some other interposed soft and yielding bodies ; and this , though the watch ( as I said ) was small , and the balance included in a double case , and though the outwardmost were of ( what they call ) Chagrine , and the innermost of Gold ; which I therefore mention , because that closest of metals is observed more to dead sounds and motions than harder metals , as Silver , Copper , and Iron . That Motion may be propagated through differing Mediums , may seem the more probable by the shakings that are often felt by men lying on beds that stand in rooms close shut , when loud claps of thunder are produced ( perhaps at a great distance off ) in the clouds . And whether it will be fit to add to this Instance that which you have lately met with in the III. Chapter of a wounded Frenchman at Copenhagen , I leave you to consider . I know not whether it will be very proper to take notice on this occasion of an odd Phaenomenon recited by the experienced Agricola in these words . Si animal dejicitur in antrum Viburgense , quod est in Carelia , Regione Scandiae , erumpit , ut perhibent , sonus intolerabilis magno cum flatu : Si leve pondus in specum Dalmatiae , quamvis , inquit Plinius , tranquillo die , turbini similis emicat procella . 3. As those of whom I took notice at the beginning of this Chapter , are backward to allow , that Motion may be considerably propagated through solid bodies ; so on the contrary , there are others that are indisposed to think , that 't is near so propagable as indeed it is through fluid bodies ; because they presume , that the easy cession of the parts of fluids will dead the impulse received by those of them that are first acted on by the impelling body . And 4. There is yet another sort of Naturalists , who , though they may be brought to grant , that Motion may by propagated even through a soft and yielding Medium , cannot believe , that it should through such a Medium be propagated to any considerable distance ; being perhaps induced to this opinion by observing , that , though a body somewhat broad as well as solid , as the Palm of one's hand or a battledore , be moved through the Air swiftly enough to make a wind ; yet that wind will not be strong enough to be felt any more than a very little way off . Wherefore , because the Instances , to which I assign the remaining part of this Chapter , may be for the most part applicable to the removal of both these prejudices ; It may for brevity sake be expedient to consider them both together . If Luminous bodies act on our Eyes , not by a substantial diffusion of extreamly minute particles , as the Atomists would have it , but by a propagated Pulsion of some Subtile matter contiguous to the shining body , ( as the Cartesians and many other Philosophers maintain ; ) 't will be manifest , that a body less than a small pin's head may give a brisk motion to a portion of fluid matter many millions of times greater than it self ; since in a dark night a single spark of fire may be seen in differing places , whose distance from it exceeds many thousand times the spark's Diameter . Not to mention the great remove , at which the flame of a small taper may not onely be seen , but appear greater than near at hand . And if we compare the Diameter of that bright Planet Venus , which yet shines but with a borrowed and reflected Light , with its distance from the Earth , we may easily conclude , that the fixed Stars , which probably are so many Suns that shine by their own native Light , must impell a stupendious proportion of Etherial matter , to be able at that immense distance to make such vivid Impressions , as they do , upon our Eyes . But to descend to Instances less remote and disputable , I shall , in order to the removal of the two lately mentioned prejudices , proceed to consider ; that , though it be true , that Fluid bodies do easily yield to Solid ones that impell them , and thereby oftentimes quickly dead the motion of those Solids ; yet the motion , being lost onely in regard of the solid body , is not lost , but transmitted and diffused in reference to the fluid . As when a log of wood , or any such body specifically lighter than water , is let fall in the middle of a pond , though its progress downwards be checkt , and it be brought to rest quietly on the surface of the water ; yet its motion is not lost , but communicated to the parts of the water it first strikes against , and by those to others , 'till at length the curls or waves produced on the surface of the water spread themselves , till they arrive at the brinks , and would perhaps be farther expanded , if these did not hinder their progress . From which instance we may learn , that , though the nature of fluid bodies , as such , requires , that their parts be actually distinct and separately moved ; yet the particular Corpuscles that compose them , being ( at least here below ) touched by divers others , the new motion that is produced in some of them by an impellent Solid , must needs make them impell the contiguous Corpuscles , and these those that chance to lie next to them , and so the impulse may be propagated to a distance ; which you will the more easily believe may be great , if you consider with me , both that in a fluid body the Corpuscles , being already in the various motion requisite to fluidity , yield more easily to the impellent , and also that being fully , or very near it , counterpoised by others of the same fluid , a scarce imaginably little force may suffice to impell them ; insomuch that , though the brass Scale of a balance , of divers inches in Diameter , may well be supposed to outweigh many myriads of such particles as compose water , wine , &c. yet , ( as I elsewhere more fully relate ) when such a scale was duly counterpoised with another like it , I could easily put it into various motions onely with the invisible Effluvia of no great piece of Amber . And if we consider that obvious Instance of the swelling Circles made by casting a stone into a Pond or other stagnant water , we shall be the more easily perswaded , that , even in a heavy fluid , a motion may reach a far greater way , than men are usually aware of , beyond the parts on which it was first imprest . On this occasion I must not omit a strange Observation given me by a very experienced Navigator , that much frequents the Coast of Groenland , and other Arctick Regions , to fish for whales . For this person being discoursed with by me about the effects of the breaking of those vast piles of Ice , that are to be met with in those parts , assured me , that not onely he had often heard the Ice make in breaking terribler noise than the loudest claps of thunder with us , but that sometimes , when the Sea-water had , as it were , undermined the foundation of the mountainous piece of Ice , he has known it at length suddenly fall into the subjacent Sea with so much violence as to make a storm at a great distance off ; insomuch that once , when he lay two Leagues off of the place where this stupendious mass of Ice fell , it made the waves goe so high as to wash clear over the stern of the ship , with danger enough to some of his men , and to sink several of his shallops that were riding by , though scarce any small vessels in the world use to be so fitted for rough Seas as those about Groenland . And whereas , though the Air be a much thinner fluid , we are apt to think it indisposed to propagate motion far , give me leave to tell you , that we may take wrong measures , if we think , that , ( for instance ) the undulating motion , into which the Air is put by the action of sonorous bodies , reaches but a little way , as we are apt to presume it does , because we judge of it by the effect it has on our ears when the sound is made in disadvantageous places . For one , that , for instance , hears a Lute or a Viol plaid on in a room furnished with hangings , will be apt to think the sound faint and languid in comparison of what it would appear to him , if the same Instrument were plaid on after the same manner in an arched room without hangings ; these soft and yielding bodies being apt to dead the sound , which the figure and hardness of the Vaulted room would reflect . And so , when a man speaks aloud in the free Air , we are not wont to take any notice of a progress made by the motion of the Air beyond the place we are in , when our ears receive the sound ; but if the place happen to be furnished with an Echo , though at many times that distance from the speaker , we may then easily take notice , that the motion of the Air was carried on , and that with good vigour , to a far greater distance than else we should have observed . And I have often thought , that , even by the better sort of our Echoing places , we are not informed , to near how great a sphere the motion , which the Air is put into by Sounds , may extend it self , where its diffusion and vigour are not hindred nor weakned by bodies either placed too near , or indisposed to promote its operation . What has been lately said of the great diffusion of Sounds , if themselves be loud and great , will appear highly probable , by what is related by the Learned Fromundus , who being Professour of Philosophy at Lovain , in the Year 1627 , had opportunity enough to know the Truth of what he relates ; namely that , at the famous Siege of Ostend in Flanders , the thunder of the great Ordnance was heard at above thirty Dutch Leagues , which , according to the vulgar reckoning , amounts to a hundred and twenty of our English miles . And that is yet , as he truly observes , more strange , and makes more for our present purpose , which he adds concerning the diffusion of the sound of a Drum , which , he says , was , upon a time , heard at Sea twelve Leagues off . But to return to what I was saying of Echo's , to confirm my conjecture about them , I shall think it needlesse to offer you any other Argument , than that which you will draw your self from the Notable Relation I met with in the Learned Varenius of an Observation made by David Fraelichius , who , in the Company of a couple of Students , had the curiosity ( in the month of June ) to visit the mountain Carpathus , esteemed the highest of all the Hungarian Hills , and said to be much more steep and difficulty accessible than any of the Alps themselves . Fraelichius then ( in my Authour ) having related with what difficulty he and his Companions ascended above that Region of the Air , where they met with clouds and vehement winds , adds this memorable Observation , for whose sake I mention the story : Explosi ( saies he ) in ea summitate sclopetum , quod non majorem sonitum primò prae se tulit , quàm si tigillum vel bacillum confregissem ; post intervallum autem temporis murmur prolixum invaluit , inferiorésque montis partes , convalles , & sylvas opplevit . Descendendo per nives annosas intra convalles , cùm iterum sclopetum exonerarem , major & horribilior fragor quàm ex tormento capacissimo inde exoriebatur : hinc verebar , nè totus mons concussus mecum corrueret ; duravitque hic sonus per semiquadrantem horae , usque dum abstrusissimas cavernas penetrasset , ad quas Aer undique multiplicatus resiliit . Et talia quidem objecta concava in summitate se non illico offerebant , idcirco ferè insensibiliter primùm sonus repercutiebatur , donec descendendo antris & convallibus vicinior factus , ad eas fortiùs impegit . CHAP. VI. Observat . V. Men usually think not what the modification of the invisible motion of Fluids may perform on the disposed bodies of Animals . IN this Observation I expresly mention the disposed bodies of Animals , to intimate , that there is a peculiar aptitude required in those Animals , or some particular parts of them that are to be sensibly affected by such motions as we are treating of , which would otherwise be too languid to have any sensible operation on them . It seems the less strange to me , that continuing Sounds , and other somewhat durable Impulses of the Air or other Fluids , should have a manifest operation upon Solid bodies , when I consider the multitude of strokes that may in a very short and perhaps scarce observable time , be supposed to be given by the parts of the fluid to the Consistent body . For , though each of these single would perhaps be too languid to have any sensible effect at all ; it being opportunely and frequently repeated by the successive parts of the fluid , as by so many little swimming hammers or flying bullets , they may well have a notable effect upon the parts of a body exposed to their action : As may be argued from the great swing that may be given to Pendulums by a very languid force , if it successively strike the swinging body , when having finished its excursion , 't is ready to return towards the Perpendicular ; as also from the tremulous motion that is imparted even to the metalline string of a Musical Instrument , by the congruous motion the Air is put into by another trembling string , ( as there may be hereafter occasion to declare . ) I remember , Scaliger tells a pleasant story of a Knight of Gascony , whom the sound of a Bagpipe would force presently to make water ; adding , that a Person disobliged by this man , and resolving to be merrily revenged on him , watched a time when he sate at a Feast so as he could not well get out , and brought a Bagpiper to play unawares behind him ; which he did so unluckily , that the Musick had presently its wonted effect upon the poor Knight , to his great Confusion and the laughter of the Company . On which occasion I shall add , that I know a very Ingenious Gentleman , who has confessed to me , that the noise of a running Tap is wont to have almost the like operation upon Him. 'T is a common Observation , that the noise that an ungreased cart-wheel makes in grating against the axel-tree , and the scraping of a knife upon a plate of silver or pewter , and some other such brisk and acute Sounds , do so affect divers parts of the Head , as to produce that effect that is commonly called setting the Teeth on edge ; which whether it proceed from any commerce between the Auditory Nerves , and those that are inservient to the motion we have mentioned , I leave Anatomists to consider . But these effects of acute sounds are much less considerable than that which I elsewhere relate of an Ingenious Domestick of mine , who several times complained , that the tearing of brown paper made his Gums bleed : which argued that the sound had an operation not onely upon the nervous and membranous parts , but the bloud and Humours themselves . Sir Henry Blunt , in his voiage to the Levant , giving an account of what he observed in Egypt , has , among other remarkable things , this passage : Many rarities of Living creatures I saw in Gran Cairo , but the most ingenious was a nest of four-legged Serpents of two foot long , black and ugly , kept by a Frenchman , who when he came to handle them , they would not endure him , but ran and hid in their hole ; then would he take his Cittern and play upon it : They , hearing his Musick , came all crawling to his feet , and began to climbe up him , till he gave over playing , then away they ran . This recalls to my mind , what some men of repute , and particularly the Learned Kircherus , relate concerning a great Fish , in or about the Streights that sever Sicily from Italy , which is said to be much affected with a peculiar kind of Tune , ( harsh enough to Humane ears ) by which the Mariners are wont to allure it to follow their vessels . And it may much strengthen the Conclusion maintained in this Chapter , if there be any certainty in the famous tradition , that the Lion is terrified and made to run away by the crowing of a Cock : I say , if , because though I doubt not but some peculiar kinds of Sounds , as well as of other sensible objects , may be particularly and exceedingly ungratefull to the Sensories of this or that peculiar kind of Animals , and consequently to the ears of Lions ; yet a late French Traveller into the Levant gives me cause much to question the matter of fact , affirming , that rowing along the brink of Tigris or Euphrates , ( for I do not punctually remember which , ) they were , for many hours in the night , terrified by Lions that attended them along the brink of the River , and would not at all be frighted by the frequent crowing of the Cocks that chanced to be in the passengers Boat. Of which unconcernedness of the Lions , our observing traveller took much more notice than the Lions appeared to do of the crowing of the Cocks . I might on this occasion say something of the received Tradition , that many sleeping persons will be more easily waked by being called upon by their own usual names , than by other names , though uttered with a louder voice . But this it may suffice to have mentioned ; nor will I here insist on that more certain example of the operation of a Sound , which is afforded by the starting of men or greater Animals , upon a surprizing , though not vehement , noise ; though this oftentimes puts so many of the Spirits and Muscles into motion , that the whole bulk of the Animal is suddenly raised from the ground , which perhaps it could not be by the bare counterpoise of some hundreds of pounds : This , I say , I will not in this place insist on , because the Phaenomenon seems to depend rather upon the loudness or acuteness of the sound , than upon any determinate modification of it , particularly relating to the Animal it self . But the eminentest Instance of the efficacy of peculiarly modified Sounds upon disposed bodies , is afforded by what happens to those which are bit by a Tarantula . For though the bitten person will calmly hear divers other tunes , yet when a peculiarly congruous one comes to be plaid , it will set him a dancing with so much vigour as the spectators cannot but wonder at , and the dancing will sometimes continue many hours , if the Musick do so , and not otherwise . I know there are some that question the truth of the things related of these Tarantati , ( as the Italians call them , ) and I easily grant , that some Fictions may have been suffered to pass under the countenance of so strange a Truth . But besides the affirmations of some Learned men , ( as well Physicians as others ) my Doubts have been much removed by the Accounts I have received from an Ingenious Acquaintance of mine own , who at Tarentum it self , whence the Insect takes its name , and elsewhere , saw many bitten persons in their dances , some in publick and some in private places , and amongst the rest a Physician , on whom the tune that fitted his distemper had the same operation as on the other Patients . And the Learned Epiphanius Ferdinandus , who practised Physick in Apulia and Calabria for many years , not onely delivers upon his own personal observation , several Narratives of the effects of Musick upon the Tarantati , but invites any that may doubt of the truth of such Narratives to repair to him at a fit season , undertaking to convince them by ocular Demonstration . I know a very honest and sober Musician , who has divers times affirmed to me , that he could at pleasure , by playing a certain Tune , ( which he acquainted me with , and which did not much move others ) make a person ( whom he named to me ) weep , whether she would or no. And I might add , that when I have been taking Physick , or am any thing feverish , the repetition of two verses of Lucan seldom fails ( as I have often tried ) of producing in me a chilness , almost like that , but fainter , that begins the fit of an ague . But on this Instance I look not as a strong proof of the Physical efficacy of Sounds ; because those two verses having been emphatically read , when divers years agoe I lay sick of a slow fever , and could not rest , they made so strong an impression on me , that whenever I am under a Discomposure any thing near like that , that then troubled me , those verses revive , as 't were , in my brain and some other parts that disposition , or rather indisposition , with which my first hearing of those verses was accompanied . It may be the less admired , that the vibrating motion of the Air , that produces sounds , should have such effects upon disposed Organical bodies , since Light it self , which either consists of briskly moving effluvia far more subtile than aerial corpuscles , or is propagated by the pulse of a far more subtile body than Air , may have a notable operation upon disposed bodies . For we commonly observe , that the Sun-beams , by beating upon the face or eyes of some that come suddenly out of a shaded place into the Light , presently make them sneeze ; which you know is not done without a vehement motion of divers parts of the body . And though Colour be but a modification of Light ; yet , besides that 't was anciently a practice , as the History of the Macchabees informs us , to shew red objects to Elephants , to make them more fierce , 't is a familiar observation , that red cloaths do offend and irritate Turky-cocks . And that is more remarkable , which is related by the very Learned Physician Valesius , of a person that he knew , who , if he looked upon red objects , would not onely have his Eyes offended , but was subject to an effusion of Humours in the neighboring parts . CHAP. VII . Observat . VI. Men suspect not what efficacy the Invisible motions of Fluids may have , even upon inorganical bodies , upon the score of some determinate Congruity or relation betwixt a peculiar Texture of the one , and the peculiar modification of the others motion . THough the Experiments delivered in the foregoing Chapter have , I presume , sufficiently manifested , that the modification given to the motions of the Air by sonorous bodies may have considerable effects upon Animals , in whose organized bodies the curiously contrived parts have an admirable connexion with , and relation to , one another , and to the whole Symmetrical fabrick they make up ; yet , I fear , it will scarce seem credible , that sonorous motions of the Air , not very loud , should find , even in bodies Inanimate and Inorganicall , such congruous Textures and other Dispositions to admit their action , that even more languid Sounds , peculiarly modified , may sensibly operate upon them , and much more than sounds that are louder and more vehement , but not so happily modified . To make this good by particular Experiments , I shall begin with that , which , though the effect may seem inferiour to that of most of the others , I judge fittest to manifest , that the produced motion depends upon the determinate modification of that of the impellent Fluid . That a certain impulse of Air , made by one of the Unison-strings of a Musical Instrument , may suffice to produce a visible motion in another , is now become a known experiment ; of the Cause and some unobserved Phaenomena of which I elsewhere more fully discourse . But , that it may not be suspected in this case , that the shake of the untouched string is communicated to it by the propagated motion of the Instrument it self , to which the string , that is struck , is also fastned ; I shall add , that , according to what I elsewhere relate , I found by trial purposely made , that a string of Wire , ( which you will grant to be a more solid body than an ordinary Gut-string , ) may be without another string brought to tremble by a determinate Sound made at a distance , which produced but such an impulse of the Air , as could neither be seen nor felt by the By-standers , nor would communicate any sensible motion to the neighbouring strings . 'T is true , that in this case the string , in which the trembling was produced , was a single , long , slender and springy body , fastned at both ends to a stable one ; and therefore it may seem altogether groundless to expect , that any thing like this effect should be by the same cause produced in bodies that do not appear so qualified . But , as we elsewhere shew , that a certain degree or measure of tension is in order to this Phaenomenon the principal Qualification , without which all the other would be unavailable ; perhaps 't will not be absurd to enquire , whether , in bodies of a very differing appearance from strings , the various Textures , Connexions , and Complications , that Nature or Art , or both , may make of the parts , may not bring them to a state equivalent to the Tensions of the strings of Musical Instruments , whereby divers of the mentioned parts may be stretched in the manner requisite to dispose them to receive a vibrating motion from some peculiar Sounds : And whether these trembling parts may not be numerous enough to affect their neighbours , and make , in the body they belong to , a tremulous motion discernible , though not by the Eye , yet by some other sense . This conjecture or inquiry you will , I hope , have the less unfavourable thoughts of , when you shall have considered the following Experiments . I remember , that many years agoe I found by trial , that , if a somewhat large and almost hemispherical Glasse , though not very thin , were conveniently placed , a determinate sound , made at a convenient distance from the concave surface of the Glasse , would make it sensibly ring , as a Bell does a while after it has been struck . But this noise was the effect of a determinate sound ; for , though the voice were raised to a higher tone , or if the sound were made louder , the same effect would not insue . I remember also , th●● , some years after , I observed , that large empty drinking-glasses of fine white metal had each of them its determinate Tension , or some disposition that was equivalent as to our purpose . For , causing the strings of a Musical Instrument to be variously screwed up , and let down , and briskly struck , we found , as I expected , that the motion of one string , when 't was stretched to a certain note or tone , would make one of the Glasses ring , and not the other ; nor would the sound of the same string , tuned to another note , sensibly affect the first Glasse , though perhaps it might have its operation upon another . And this Circumstance is not , on this occasion , to be omitted , that , after we had found the tone proper to one of the Glasses , and so tuned the string , that , ( I say ) when that was struck , the Glasse would resound . Having afterwards broken off a part of the foot of the glass , yet not so much but that it continued to stand upright , the same sound of the string would no longer be answered by the Vessel , but we were obliged to alter the tension of the string , to produce the former effect . The Learned Kircherus , as I have been informed , somewhere mentions a correspondence between some liquours and some determinate sounds ; which I suppose may be true , though the triall did not succeed with me , perhaps for want of such accommodations for so nice an Experiment as I could have wished , but could not procure : But if you can , you will oblige me to make the trials so as to satisfie your self and me , whether the agitation of the liquour be caused immediately by the motion of the Air , or be communicated by the intervention of the tremblings of the Vessel . An Artist famous for his skill in making Organs , answered me , that , at some stops of the Organs , some seats in the Church would tremble . But , because I suspected by his Relation , that the greatness of the sound chiefly effected it , because , when that Pipe , which they call the open Diapason , sounds , the chair or seat , on which the Organist sits , and perhaps the neighbouring part of the Organ trembles ; I shall add , that I have divers times observed certain sounds of an excellent Organ to make not onely the seat , I sate on in the Church , tremble under me , but produce an odd tremulous motion in the upper part of my Hat , that I could plainly feel with my hands . And that , which makes me apt to believe that this effect depends upon the determinate tone , rather than upon the loudness of the sound , is , that I have oftentimes felt , and diligently observed such a kind of motion in the upper part of my Hat , upon the pronouncing of some words in ordinary discourse ; in which case the effect could not with probability be referred to the greatness of the Sound , but its peculiar fitness to communicate such a motion to a body so disposed . Nor is it onely in such small and yielding bodies , as Hats and Strings , that Sounds that are not boisterous may produce sensible effects , for , if they be congruous to the Texture of the body they are to work on , they may excite motions in it , though it be either solid or very bulky : of which I shall here subjoyn a couple of instances . An ancient Musician affirmed to me , that , playing on a Base-viol in the chamber of one of his Scholars , when he came to strike a certain Note on a particular string , he heard an odd kind of jarring Noise , which he thought at first had either been casual , or proceeded from some fault in the string ; but , having afterwards frequent occasion to play in that same room , he plainly found , that the Noise , he marvelled at , was made by the tremulous motion of a Casement of a window , which would be made to tremble by a determinate sound of a particular string , and not by other Notes , whether higher or lower . To this first Instance I shall add the second , which , I confesse , I was not forward to believe , till trial had convinced me of the Truth ; and I scrupled it the rather , because , if the reflexion of determinate Sounds should appear to proceed from the peculiar kind of tremulous motion into which the parts of the resonant body are put , it may incline men to so great a Paradox , as to think , that such a motion of the Air as our Bodies do not feel , may produce a trembling in so solid a body as a Stone-wall of a great thickness . The Experiment or Observation it self I shall give you in the same words I set it down some hours after I made it , which were these . Yesterday I went to satisfy my self of the truth of what had been told me by an ancient Musician , to whom I had been relating what I had observed of the effects of some determinate Sounds even upon Solid bodies , and of whom I enquired , if he had met with any thing of the like nature : taking him along with me , I found , that though the place be but an Arch , yet it would not answer to all notes indifferently , when we stood in a certain place , but to a determinate Note , ( which he afterwards told me was Ce fa ut a little flatted , ) to which note it answered very resonantly , and not sensibly to others , which we made trial of , whether higher or lower than it ; and , ( which added to the strangeness , ) when I made him raise his voice to an Eighth , as consonant as those two Sounds are wont to be in all other cases , the vaulted Arch did not appear to us affected with the Note . The Musician added , that he had tried in most Arches all about the City , and could not find such a peculiarity in them , as being to be made resonant by all Notes or Sounds indifferently that were strong enough ; and also , that as this Arch for this hundred years has been observed to have this property , so an ancient and experienced Builder informed him , that any Vault that were exquisitely built , would peculiarly answer to some determinate Note or other . CHAP. VIII . Observat . VII . Men look upon divers Bodies as having their parts in a state of absolute Rest , when indeed they are in a Forced state , as of Tension , Compression , &c. THis Observation will probably seem paradoxicall . For , when an intire Body , especially if it be of a solid Consistence , and seem to be of an homogeneous or uniform matter , appears to be movelesse , we are wont to take it for granted , that the parts , which that body is made up of , are perfectly at Rest also . But yet this will scarce be thought a reasonable supposition , if we do but rightly consider some obvious Phaenomena , which may teach us , that , whilst a whole Body , or the superficies that includes it , retains its figure , dimensions and distance from other stable Bodies that are near it , the Corpuscles that compose it may have various and brisk motions and endeavours among themselves . As , when a bar of iron or silver , having been well hammered , is newly taken off of the Anvill ; though the Eye can discern no motion in it , yet the touch will readily perceive it to be very hot , and , if you spit upon it , the brisk agitation of the insensible parts will become visible in that which they will produce in the liquour . Besides , when the Lath of a Cross-bow stands bent , though a man do neither by the Eye nor the Touch perceive any motion in the springy parts , yet if the string be cut or broken , the sudden and vehement motion of the Lath , tending to restore it to the figure it had before it was bent , discovers a springiness ; whence we conclude it was before in a state of violent Compression . And , though the string of a bent Bow do likewise appear to be in a state of Rest ; yet , if you cut it asunder , the newly made extreams will fly from one another suddenly and forcibly enough to manifest , that they were before in a violent state of Tension . And on this occasion I could add divers Instances taken not onely from the works of Art , but those of Nature too , if they did not belong to another paper : But , one sort of Observations 't will be proper to set down in this place ; because in those already mentioned , the bow and string were brought into a violent state by the meer and immediate force of man. I shall therefore add , that there are divers bodies , in which , though no such kind of force appears to have antecedently acted on them , we may yet take notice of a state of violent Compression or Extension , and a strong endeavour or tendency of the parts , that to the Eye or the Touch seem at rest , to shrink or to fly out ; and this endeavour may in some Cases be more lasting and more forcible than one would easily suspect or believe . But examples of this kind you must not expect that I should give you out of Classick Authours , since in them 't is like you have not met with either an Instance or a Conjecture to this purpose ; but some few things that I tried my self , and some others that I learnt by Inquiry from some Tradesmen , whom I judged likeliest to inform me , I shall briefly acquaint you with . I have sometimes observed my self , and have had the Observation confirmed to me by the ingeniouser Traders in Glass ; That a Glass , that seemed to have been well baked , or nealed , ( as they call it ) would sometimes , many days or weeks , or perhaps months , after it is taken from the fire , crack of its own accord ; which seems for the most part to happen upon the score of the strong , but unequall , shrinking of the parts of the Glasse . And the Glass-men will tell you , that , if they take their Glasses too hastily from the fire , not allowing them leisure to cool by degrees , they will be very apt to crack . But I remember , that , to satisfy some Ingenious men , I devised a way of exhibiting a much more quick and remarkable Phaenomenon of that kind . Having made then , by a way I elsewhere teach , a flat Lump of metalline Glass , two or three or four times as thick as an ordinary Drinking-glass , I observed , as I expected , that , though it had been melted in a very gentle fire , it s very fusible nature needing no other , and though it were removed but very little from the fire , it was so disposed to shrink upon a small degree of Refrigeration , or rather abatement of Heat , that , before it was sensibly cold , it would crack with a noise in so vehement a manner , that , notwithstanding the ponderousness of the matter ; which had been purposely laid upon a Levell , parts of a considerable bulk , weighing perhaps some Drams , would fly , to a not inconsiderable distance from one another . And this Experiment I took pleasure to make more than once . And if you will be content with an Instance which , though otherwise much inferiour , may not be unwelcome , for its being easily and readily made ; I shall offer you one that I have often repeated . Take a piece of Copper , ( if the Plate be thick , 't is so much the better , ) and , having throughly brought it to a red or white Heat among kindled Coals , take it from the fire , and when it begins to cool a little , hold it over a sheet or two of white Paper , and you will perceive good store of flakes to fly off , not without some little noise , one after the other , and sometimes perhaps as far as the farthermost edges of the paper ; which flakes or scales seem by their brittleness and colour , to be but parts of the surface of the metal vitrified by the vehement action of the fire , and afterwards by a too hasty refrigeration shrinking so violently , as to crack and leap from one another , like the contiguous parts of the string of a Viol or other Musical Instrument , that breaks by the moisture of the Air. And on this occasion I shall add , that , having afterwards inquired of an expert Artificer , that made metalline Concaves , about the shrinking of his mixtures of metalls , he confessed to me , that he usually observed them to shrink upon Refrigeration . And the like I my self have observed in Iron of a great thickness , and purposely fitted to a hollow body of metall , which it would not enter when it was ignited , though it would when 't was cold . But to shew you by a notable Instance or two , both that Metals may shrink , and that they may doe so with a very considerable force , I shall add , that I found by inquiry , that the lately mentioned Artificer , after he had made some large Concaves of an unfit mixture of metals , and having removed them from the fire , had been very carefull to keep the cold Air from them , lest they should cool too hastily , observed yet to his great loss , that , when they came to be further refrigerated , they would ( perhaps after three hours ) crack with a great noise , though this metalline mixture were perchance harder than Iron , and three or four times as thick as common Looking-glasses . But the misfortune of another Tradesman afforded me a yet more considerable Phaenomenon . For this excellent Artificer , whom I often employ , and with whom I was a while since discoursing of these matters , complain'd to me , that , having lately cast a kind of Bell-metall upon a very strong solid Instrument of Iron of a considerable superficial Area , though the metal were suffer'd in a warm room to cool , from about eight a clock on Saturday night till about ten or twelve on Monday morning , and were then ( which is to be noted ) considerably hot to the touch ; yet it cool'd so far , that , shrinking from the Iron that would not shrink with it , the Bell-metall cracked in divers places with noises loud as the Report of a Pistoll , though the metall , he affirm'd to me , was an inch and half , or two inches thick . And the same person shewed me a large Cylinder of Iron , about which , for a certain purpose , a Coat of Bell-metall had been cast some days before , on which ( Bell-metall ) there was a crack near one end made by the coldness of the Iron , though the thickness of the Bell-metall , as near as I could measure it , exceeded an inch , and ( as the Workman affirmed ) an inch and a quarter . Nor is it onely in such mixtures as Bell-metall , which , though very hard , may be very brittle , but even in a metal that is malleable when cold , that the like Phaenomenon may be met with , as I have been assured by another ingenious Artificer , of whom I inquired , whether he had taken notice of the shrinking of metalls ; who affirm'd to me , that , having had occasion to cast about a Cylinder of Iron a ring or hoop of Brass , he found to his trouble , that , when the metall began to cool , the parts shrunk from one another so as to leave a gaping crack , which he was fain to fill up with soulder quite crosse the breadth of the ring , though this were above an inch thick . I should not , Pyrophilus , have in this Chapter entertained you with more Experiments of others than of my own , if I had the conveniency of living near Founders of metalls , as the Tradesmen had whose Observations I have rectied , and whose sincerity in them I had no cause to question . And both their Experiments and mine seem to teach , that a body may be brought into a state of Tension , as well by being expanded and stretch'd by the action of the fire upon the minute parts , as by the action of an external Agent upon the intire body . And , to speak more generally , the state of violent Contraction and Compression may not unfitly be illustrated by a Bow that is bent . For , as the Bow it self is brought to a state of Compression by the force of the Archer , that bent it ; so by the Elastical force of the bent Bow , the string is brought into a violent state of Tension , as may be made evident by the cutting off the string in the middle ; for then both the Bow will fly suddenly outwards , and the parts of the string will swiftly and violently shrink from one another . And according to this Doctrine , the effect of other bodies upon such as are thus brought into , what men call , a Preternatural state , is not to be judg'd barely according to usual measures , but with respect to this latent Disposition of the Patient : as , for instance , though the string of a Viol not screwed up , will not be hardned by the vapours that imbue the Air in moist weather ; yet a neighbouring string of the same Instrument , though perhaps much stronger , being screw'd up , and thereby stretched , will be so affected with those vapours , as to break with noise and violence . And so when one part of a piece of Glass is made as hot as can be , without appearing discolour'd to the Eye , though a drop or two of cold water have no effect upon the other part of the same Glasse , yet if it touch the heated part , whose wonted extension ( as I have elsewhere proved ) is alter'd by the fire that vehemently agitates the component particles , the cracking of the Glass will almost always presently ensue . If against these Instances it be alledged , that it is possible to assign another cause of the seemingly spontaneous breaking of the bodies mention'd in this Chapter , than that which I have propos'd , it will not much concern this Discourse to examine the Allegation ; for , whatever the latent Cause of the Phaenomena may be , the manifest Circumstances of them suffice to shew , that bodies , which , as to sense , are in a natural state of Rest , may be in a violent one , as of Tension , and may have , either upon the score of the contexture of the parts among themselves , or upon that of some interfluent subtile matter , or some other Physical Agent , a strong endeavour to fly off or recede from one another ; and that , in divers bodies , the cause of this endeavour may act more vigorously than one would easily believe : and this suffices to serve the turn of this Discourse . For I presume that a person of your Principles will allow , that Local Motion must be produc'd by Local Motion , and consequently , that , without a very strong , though invisible and unheeded one , such hard and solid bodies as thick pieces of metall could not be made to crack . I know not whether I may on this occasion acquaint you with an odd Relation I had from a very honest and credible , as well as experienced , Artist , whom I , for those reasons , have several times made choice to deal with about precious Stones , and other things belonging to the Jewellers and Goldsmiths trades . For , considering with him one day a large lump of matter , which contained several Stones that he took for course Agats , and which were joyned together by a Cement , that in most places was harder than most ordinary Stones , I perceived that there remained divers pretty large cavities in this Cement , which seemed to have contained such Stones as those that yet made parts of the lump . Upon which occasion he affirmed to me , that several of the Stones grew whilst they were lodg'd in those cavities . And when I told him , that , though I had been long of an opinion , that Stones may receive an increment after their first formation , yet I did not see how any such thing appeared by those we were looking upon : He gave me in many words an account of his Assertion , which I reduced to this , that the Stones he spoke of , did , after they were first formed , really tend to expand themselves by virtue of some Principle of growth , which he could not intelligibly describe ; but that these Stones being lodg'd in a Cement extreamly hard , and therefore not capable of being forced to give way , their expansive endeavour was rendered ineffectual , but not destroyed : so that when afterwards these Stones came to be taken out of the Cement wherein they were bedded , and to whose sides 't is like they were not exquisitely congruous , the comprest Stones , having their sides now no longer wedged in by the harder Cement , quickly expanded themselves , as if 't were by an internal and violently comprest spring , and would presently burst asunder , some into two , and some into more pieces : of which he presented many to his friends , but yet had reserved some , whereof he presented me one , that I have yet by me , together with some of the mass , whose Cement I find to bear a better polish than marble , and to be very much harder than it . And , in answer to some questions of mine , he told me , that he had taken up these Stones himself , naming the place to me , which was not very far off , and that he observed all that he told me himself , and more than once or twice , and that I needed not suspect , as I seemed to doe , that 't was the strokes employed to force the Stones out of their Beds , that made them break . For , besides that many of them , which ( it seems ) were not comprest enough , did not break , several of those , that did , were taken out , without offering them any such violence , as that their bursting could with any probability be imputed to it . CHAP. IX . Observat . VIII . One main cause why such Motions as we speak of are overlook'd , is , That we are scarce wont to take notice but of those motions of Solid bodies , wherein one whole Body drives away another , or at least knocks visibly against it , whereas many effects proceed from the intestine motions produced by the external Agent , in , and among , the parts of the same body . THis Observation is like to be much more readily understood than granted , and therefore I shall offer by way of proof the following Experiments . We caused in a large brass Stop-cock the movable part to be nimbly turned to and fro in the contiguous cavity of that part that was made to receive it , in that part of the Instrument that is wont to be kept fixt . And though this motion of the Key were made onely by the bare hand , yet in a short time the mutual attrition of the contiguous parts of the Instrument made so brisk an agitation in the other parts , that the incalescence made the metal it self to swell , insomuch that the Key could no more be turned , but remained fixt , as if it had been wedged in , so that , to make it work as before , it was necessary by cooling it to make it shrink a little , and so take off the mutual pressure of the Key , and the other part of the Stop-cock . Nor is this to be looked on as a casual Experiment ; for , besides that it was made more than once , and is very analogous to some other trials of mine ; I found , that a maker of such Instruments complained to me , that he was several times forced to intermit his work , and plunge his Instrument in cold water , before he could , by grinding , adjust the Key to the cavity it ought to fit . I presume I need not take notice to you , that this Experiment confirms what I elsewhere mention of the dilatation of metals themselves by Heat , and therefore I proceed to the next Instance . This is afforded by the known Experiment of passing one 's wetted finger upon the orifice of a Drinking-glass almost fill'd with water . For , though the Eye does not immediately discern any motion , that , by reason of the pressure of the finger , is made by one part of the glass upon another ; yet , That a vibrating motion is thereby produced , may be argued by the dancing of the water , especially that which is contiguous to the prest sides of the glass , by which 't is oftentimes so agitated , that numerous drops are made to leap quite over , and others are tossed up to a good height into the Air. And that there may be considerable motions in the sides of the glass , whilst it does not break in pieces , we may probably guess by this , that , in Drinking-glasses artificially cut by a spiral line , both I , and others , have often found by trial , that , a glass being dextrously inverted and shaken , the parts will vibrate up and down so manifestly , as sometimes to lengthen the glass , by my estimate , a quarter of an inch or more , and yet , the glass being set again upon its foot , it appeared that it had not been hereby at all injured . That two pieces of Iron or Steel , by being strongly rubbed against one another , will at length acquire a temporary Heat , is not hard to be believed : but that an edg'd Tool of hardened Steel should , by having its edge rubbed against , have a manifest and permanent change made in its Texture , you did not perhaps suspect ; and yet , having had the Curiosity to cause some metals , and particularly Iron and Steel , to be turned by an excellent Artificer , I learned partly by his experience , and partly by my own , that the edge of the Steel-tool , with which he by degrees shaved off the protuberant parts of the metal , would be so heated and agitated , that , in no long time , if care were not taken to prevent it , the tool would be brought to look of blewish and yellowish colours , and , permanently losing its former temper , would become so soft , as to be uselesse for its former work , unlesse it were again artificially hardened : and therefore , to prevent the trouble of tempering his tools again , this Artist , from time to time , dipt it , when it began to grow too hot , into a certain liquour , which he affirms , upon much experience to have a peculiar fitness for that purpose . Nor is it always necessary that the body , that makes the parts of an inanimate body work considerably on one another , should be either very hard , or impetuously moved . For , I remember , that , having once by me some short bars of fine Tin , I resolved to try whether , meerly with my naked hands , ( which you know are none of the strongest or hardest , ) ▪ I could not procure a considerable internal Commotion among the parts ; and accordingly , laying hold on the two ends of the bar with my two hands , I slowly bent the bar towards me and from me two or three times , and having by this means broke or cracked it in the midst , I perceived , as I expected , that the middle parts had considerably heated each other . What use may be made of this Experiment in the search of the hidden cause of Elasticity , would be less properly considered in this place than in another . But since I have named that Quality , I shall take this rise to intimate , that if the restitution of a springy body , sorcibly bent , proceed onely ( as some Learned Moderns would have it ) from the endeavour of the comprest parts themselves to recover their former state , one may not impertinently take notice of the Elasticity that Iron , Silver and Brass acquire by hammering , among the Instances that shew what in some cases may be done by a motion wherein the parts of the same body are , by an almost unheeded force , put to act upon one another . But if Springiness depend chiefly upon the pervasion of a subtile matter , as the Cartesians would have it , then the Instances will properly belong to another Subject . § The foregoing Examples may also suffice to make out ( what I am unwilling to refer to another Head ) this subordinate Observation , That men are more usually than justly prepossessed with an opinion , that nothing considerable is to be expected from the motion of a body against another , unless the former do make a manifest percussion or trusion of the latter . But , because this prepossession especially prevails in cases where the body that is by friction or attrition to affect the other , is it self soft or yielding , I shall on this occasion add a few Instances to remove this Prejudice . An Artist , eminent for grinding of Optical glasses , confessed to me , that sometimes when he went about to polish his broader glasses , though but upon a piece of Leather sprinkled with Puttee , that friction did so heat or otherwise agitate the parts of the glass , as , to his great loss , 〈◊〉 make it crack from the edge to the middle ; which seemed the more strange , because we fee , what intense degrees of Heat glasses will endure without cracking , if the fire be but gradually applied , as this Artist's glasses mus● have been gradually heated . But I think it worth inquiry , whether in this case the whole work be performed by meer Heat , and whether there intervene not a peculiar kind of motion , into which some bodies are disposed to be put by a peculiar kind of friction , which seems fitted to produce in manifestly springy bodies , and perhaps in some others , ( of which divers may be springy that are not commonly taken to be so , ) such a vibrating or reciprocal motion , as may have some notable effects , that are not wont to be produced by moderate Heats , nor always by intense ones themselves . The trembling of the parts of a Drinking-glass , and the visible vibration of the long and great strings of a Base-viol , upon peculiar sounds , may give some countenance to this conjecture . And that in some bodies there may be such a tremulous motion produced , by rubbing them upon so soft a thing as Wool , or upon a piece of Cloath , I tried by this Experiment : We cast into a hollow Vessel , very smooth within , and of an almost Hemispherical figure , severall ounces of good melted Brimstone , and having suffered it to cool , and taken it out , the Convex surface , as had been desired , came off well polished ; then this conveniently shaped lump , which had ( if I well remember ) four or five inches in Diameter , being briskly rubbed in the same line forwards and backwards , upon a Cushion or some such woollen thing , in a place free from other noises , I could , by holding my ear to it , and attentively listening , plainly hear a crackling noise made by the agitated parts , which continued a brisk , and , as I supposed , a vibrating motion for some time after the friction was ended . That there may be a considerable Commotion produced among the internal parts of bodies , by rubbing them even against soft bodies , I have divers times observed , by the sulphureous steams that I could smell , if , after having a little rubbed a lump of good Sulphur upon my Cloaths , I presently held it to my nose . Which brings into my mind , that I have had the like effect from much harder and closer bodies than Sulphur , when they were rubbed upon bodies that were so too . For having purposely taken hard Stones cut out of mens Bladders , and rubbed a couple of them a little against one another , they quickly afforded , as I expected , a rank smell of stale Urin. That Diamonds themselves will , by rubbing upon woollen cloaths , be made Electrical , seems to argue , that even Their parts are set a moving : And that the Commotion reaches to the internal parts , I am the more apt to think , because I have a Diamond , that , if I rub it well and luckily against my Cloaths , will , for a little while , shine or glimmer in the dark ; which is the same Phaenomenon that I elsewhere relate my self to have produced in the King 's larger Diamond , by giving it one brisk stroke with the point of a bodkin , where the Light that presently appeared in the Gem , seemed not referrable to any thing so likely as the sudden Commotion made in the internal parts of that peculiarly constituted Stone . What a peculiar modification of motion , distinct from its degrees of Impetus , may doe in Fluid bodies , we have formerly in this Essay taken notice of . But perhaps it may be worth while to enquire , what kinds there are of it , and what effects they may have in the parts of Solid bodies themselves . For I have observed , that though those Stones that the Italian Glass-men use are very hard , and , if I misremember not , have several times afforded me sparks of fire by Collision ; yet , by rubbing them a little one against another , I found , that such an agitation was made in their parts , as to make them throw out store of foetid exhalations : And 't is possibly to the stony Ingredient that Glass owes the Quality I have observed in it , and elsewhere mentioned , of emitting offensive steams . And 't is remarkable to our present purpose , that , though so vehement an agitation of the parts , as is given to Glass by Heat , when 't is made almost red-hot in the fire , does not make it sensibly emit odours ; yet barely by dextrously rubbing two solid pieces of Glass against one another , one may , in a minute of an hour , make those fixed bodies emit such copious steams as I found , not onely sensibly , but rankly , foetid ; though one would think those stinking exhalations very indisposed to be forced off , since they were not expelled by the vehement fire , that the Glass long endured in the furnace where 't was kept melted . There are few things that shew better , both how the parts of Inorganical bodies communicate their vibrating motions to one another , and how brisk those motions are , than that which happens upon the striking of a large Bell with a Clapper or a Hammer . For though the stroak be immediately made but upon one part ; yet the motion , thereby produced , is propagated to the opposite , and the successive vibrations of the small parts do , even in so solid and close a body as Bell-metal , run many times round ; as may appear by the durableness of the ringing noise , which seems plainly to proceed from the circularly successive vibrations of the parts , which , unless they briskly tremble themselves , can scarcely be conceived to be fitted to give the Air that tremulous motion , whose effect on the Ear , when the first and loud noise , made by the percussion , is past , we call Ringing . And this motion of the parts of the sounding Bell may be further argued by this , that , if the finger , or some other soft body , be laid upon it , the sound will be checked or deaded , and much more , if a broad string , though of a soft substance , be tied about it . And not onely an attentive Ear may often make us guess , that the ringing sound is produced by a motion propagated circularly in the Bell , but this vibrating motion may sometimes be also felt by the tremulous motion communicated by the trembling parts of the Bell to the finger , that is warily applied to it . That this motion passes in a round , from one side of the Bell to the other , seems manifest by the great difference of sound , especially in regard of ringing , that may be observed in a sound Bell , and in a crack'd one ; where yet all the matter and the former figure are preserved , onely the intireness or continuity , which is necessary to the circulation ( if I may so call it ) of the tremulous motion , is at the Crack stopt or hindred . And that the motion of the parts is very brisk , may be guessed partly by what has been said already ; but much more if that be true , which , not onely is traditionally reported by many , but has been affirmed to me by several Artificers that deal in Bells , who averred , as an experienced thing , That if a conveniently sized Bell were bound about , any thing hard , with a broad string , and then struck with the usual force , that it would otherwise bear very well ; that percussion would break it , giving a disorderly check to the brisk motion of the parts of the Bell , whereof some happening to be much more ( and otherwise ) agitated than others , the force of their motion surmounts that of their Cohesion , and so produces a Crack . But , in regard great Bells are not easie to be procured , nor to be managed when one has accesse to them , I shall add , that I took the Bell of a large Watch , or very small Clock made of fine Bell-metall , which had no handle or other thing put to it , save a little Bodkin or skiver of wood , whose point we thrust into the hole that is usually left in the middle of the Basis ; and this sharp piece of wood serving for a handle to keep the Bell steady enough , we placed in the cavity of it , near the edges , ( for that Circumstance must not be omitted , ) some black mineral Sand , or , in want of that , some small filings of Steel or Copper , or some other such minute and solid Powder , which yet must not be too small , and then striking moderately with the Key against the side of the Bell , we observed , ( as we expected ) that , whilst it continued briskly ringing , it made many of the filings to dance up and down , and sometimes to leap up , almost like the drops of Water , formerly mentioned to skip , when the brim of the Glass was circularly prest by the wetted finger . Which prompts me to add , that , having put a middle-sized drop of water ( for in this case the quantity is a considerable Circumstance ) near the lower edge of the Bell , 't was easie to make it visibly tremble , and be as it were covered over with little waves , by a somewhat brisk stroke of the Key on the opposite side . And this effect was more conspicuous , when a very large drop of water was placed near the edge , on the convex side of a hand-Bell , whose Clapper was kept from any where touching the inside of it . And to obviate their jealousie , that , not having seen the manner of the above-mentioned motion of the Sand , might suspect that 't was produced by the impulse which the Bell , as an intire body , received from the percussion made by the Key , we several times forbare putting-in the filings , till after the stroke had been given ; which satisfied the Spectatours , that the dancing and leaping of the minute bodies proceeded from the same drisk vibrations of the small parts of the Bell , which , at the same time striking also the Air , produced a ringing sound , which might very well , as it did , out-last the skipping of the filings ; the exceedingly minute particles of the Air being much more easily agitable , than the comparatively gross and heavy Corpuscles of the Powder . And this success our Experiment had in a Bell , that little exceeded an inch and half in Diameter . And here , Pyroph . I shall put an end to this Rhapsody of Observations , hoping , that , among so many of them , some or other will be able to engage you , if not to conclude , yet at least to suspect , that such Local motions , as are wont either to be past-by unobserved , or be thought not worth the observing , may have a notable operation , though not upon the generality of bodies , yet upon such as are peculiarly disposed to admit it , and so may have a considerable share in the production of divers difficult Phaenomena of nature , that are wont to be referred to less genuine , as well as less intelligible , Causes . FINIS . AN Experimental Discourse Of some UNHEEDED CAUSES OF THE Insalubrity and Salubrity OF THE AIR , Being a Part of an intended Natural History of AIR . LONDON , Printed by M. Flesher , for Richard Davis , Bookseller in Oxford . 1685. THE Preface . HAving heretofore had occasion to draw together under certain Heads , divers unpublish'd Observations and Experiments of my own , and some of other men , by way of Memorials for a Natural History of the Air ; I thought fit by more largely treating of two or three of the Subjects distinctly mention'd in my Scheme of Titles , to give a Semplar or Specimen of what may be done upon the other Heads of the designed History . Vpon this account I treated somewhat largely of the Salubrity and Insalubrity of the Air , as a Subject , which for the importance of it to Mens healths and lives , I thought deserv'd to be attentively consider'd , and have its Causes diligently inquir'd into . And having observ'd that among the six principal Causes of the healthfulness or insalubrity of the Air , namely the Climate , the Soil , the Situation of the Place , the Seasons of the Year , the raigning winds and Contingencies ( whether more or less frequent ) and especially Subterraneal Steams , having I say observ'd that among these Causes there was one , viz. the last nam'd , about which , I thought I could offer something , that I had not met with in the Books of Physicians that treat of it ; I was thereby invited to set down my Thoughts and Observations by way of Conjectures , which I was made to believe would appear uncommon , and would not prove useless . These Observations and Reflexions I referr'd for clearness and distinctions sake to four Propositions . But when I had gone thorough the three first , and made some progress in the fourth , being hinder'd by divers Avocations to make an end of it , I laid by the whole Discourse in a place which I thought a safe one , but when afterwards I had some opportunity to dispatch what remain'd , I found all the diligence I us'd to retrieve the entire Manuscript unsuccessfull . At this surprizing Accident I confess I was somewhat troubled ; because whatever may be thought of the discursive part of those Papers , the Historical part contain'd divers matters of Fact , that I did not meet with in Books , nor can now distinctly remember , and will not perhaps be lighted on by even Physicians , or such Naturalists as derive their knowledge onely from them . 'T is upon this consideration , that having afterwards met with many Papers that belong'd to most parts of the unhappy discourse , I thought fit to put them together in the best order I could , that I might not loose what might give some light to so important a Subject as the Theory of Diseases . And this course I the rather pitch'd upon , because before the Papers about the Salubrity of the Air , I miss'd two other of my Manuscripts , whereof the former contain'd a Cellection of Medicinal things , and the second a defence of the Mechanical way of Philosophizing about Natural Things , as it respects Religion . And I remember'd that having formerly lost a Manuscript I was much concern'd for , I purposely made a noise of it , whence I suppos'd the Plagiary would conclude himself unable to make it pass for his . And in effect the Book was in a while after privately brought back , so that I found it laid in a By-place , where I had before as fruitlesly as carefully sought it . AN Experimental Discourse Of some Unheeded CAUSES OF THE Insalubrity and Salubrity OF THE AIR , &c. THE sixth and last thing upon which the Salubrity and Insalubrity of the Air depends , is the impregnation it receives from Subterraneal Effluvia . And , though this be a cause not wont to be much heeded by Physicians themselves ; yet I take it to be oftentimes one of the most considerable in its effects . The Effluvia that pass into the Air , may be distinguish'd into several sorts , according to their respective Natures , as has been elsewhere shewn ; wherefore I shall now only take notice of the differences that may be taken from place and time ; upon which account we may consider , that some of them arise from the Crust ( if I may so call it ) or more superficial parts of the Earth ; and others have a deeper Original , ascending out of the lower parts , and as it were Bowels , of the Terraqueous Globe . And to this difference taken from place , I must add another , perhaps no less considerable , afforded by Time ; which difference relates chiefly to the second sort of Steams newly mentioned . Of the Subterraneal Effluvia , some are almost constantly or daily sent up into the Air , and those I therefore call Ordinary Emissions ; and others ascend into the Air but at times , which are not seldom distant enough from one another , and those I call Extraordinary Emissions ; whether they come at stated times , and so deserve the title of Periodical , or else uncertainly , sometimes with far greater , sometimes with far smaller intervals , and so may be called fortuitous or irregular . But , though I thought it might render what I am about to say more clear , if I made and premised the two foregoing distinctions , yet because in many cases , Nature does not appear solicitous to observe them , but at the same time imbues the Air with Steams referable to divers Members of these distinctions , I shall several times , though not always , take the liberty to imitate her , and consider the Effluvia of the Terraqueous Globe , in the more general Notion , that they are so . I know 't is frequently observed , and usually granted , that Marrish Grounds , and wet Soils are wont to be unhealthfull , because of the moist and crude vapours , that the stagnating waters send up too copiously into the Air. And on the other side , dry Soils are , because of their being such , generally lookt upon as healthy . Nor do I deny , that these Observations do most commonly hold true ; but yet I think , that besides what can be justly ascribed to the moist vapours , or dry Exhalations , we have been speaking of ; in many places the healthfulness and insalubrity of the Air may be ascribed to other sorts of Effluvia from the Soil , than those that act merely , or perhaps principally , as these are either moist or dry . PROPOSITION I. TO deliver my Thoughts about this matter somewhat more distinctly , I shall lay them down in the four ensuing Observations or Propositions , whereof the first shall be this : It seems probable that in divers places , the Salubrity or Insalubrity of the Air considered in the general , may be in good part due to subterraneal Expirations , especially to those that I lately call'd Ordinary Emissions . For in some places the Air is observ'd to be much more healthy , than the manifest qualities of it would make one expect : and in divers of these Cases I see no Cause to which such a happy Constitution , may more probably be ascrib'd , than to friendly Effluvia sent up from the Soil into the Air ; which Particles either by promoting transpiration ( that great instrument of health and recovery ; ) or by hindering the production , or checking the Activity , of Morbifick ferments ; or by mortifying and disabling some noxious Particles , that would otherwise infest the Air , or by other ways , that I shall not now stay to enumerate ; may not a little contribute to keep the Bodies of those that live in that Air , in that regular and desirable state , we call Health . I know indeed that 't is generally thought , and often true , that Mineral Bodies do send up Exhalations , hurtfull not only to Plants , but to Men ; but when we mean Subterraneal things indefinitely , though ( Men are wont to look upon them but slightly under a general confused Notion ) we employ a word more comprehensive than most men are aware of , there being a great variety , as well as multitude of Bodies , that Nature has lodg'd in her dark Store-houses under the surface of the Earth . And of these differing sorts of Bodies , though 't is probable that the greatest part are such whose Effluvia are unhealthfull to Men , yet there may be others whose Emanations may be friendly to him ; I have known it observ'd that over some Tin Mines in the Western parts of England , not only Trees , but far more tender Plants , as Grass , are wont to prosper and flourish , and ( if I much misremember not ) I have seen verdent Trees growing just over a vein of another sort of Mineral , that lay near the surface of the Earth : And 't is likewise observable about those that constantly dig in those Tin-Mines , that they do not lead a short and sickly life as in many others , but arrive at a great and vigorous Age. And an Ancient Possessor of some of these Mines being askt by me , whether amongst the otherwise differing Exhalations that ascended into the Air , he did not find a difference as to smell bad or good ; he answer'd , that though most of those visible fumes had a smell that participated enough of Sulphur or Bitumen to be offensive , yet some others were so far from being ungratefull , that they were well scented . And on this occasion I remember , that not long since , a Friend of mine , and another Virtuoso , being Partners in a chargeable Attempt to discover a Mine , in digging deep for it , they accidentally broke into a vast Subterraneal Cavern , into which , because the Diggers would not venture to descend , one of these curious Gentlemen caused himself to be let down , and there found the Air very temperate and refreshing , and that he long breath'd it with delight , and on the floor , or Soil ( which reach'd farther than he could discover ) he found many and various Minerals most of them embryonated , or imperfectly form'd , and store of a kind of Mineral Earth , whose smell was fragrant and very pleasant both in his Judgment , and that of some Ladies . And though , when some of those Minerals were brought to me , a small lump of this Earth that was among them , had been kept so long in the Air , as to spend most of its Odoriferous Particles , yet the smell it still retain'd , was , though but faint , yet pleasing . That from Fossiles that lye hid under the surface of the Earth , and have a considerably large Spread , there may ascend store of wholsome Effluvia into the Air , seem'd to me the more probable by what I noted at my last being in Ireland , where , being invited by a Brother of mine to pass some time in a Countrey house of his , to which there belong'd a very large Sheep-walk that produc'd short , but excellent Grass ; I learn'd ( and was easily perswaded by some things I took notice of ) that this place was justly reputed very healthfull , and this Salubrity of the Air , together with the sweetness of the Grass , some circumstances invited me to ascribe to this ; That the Soil was sustain'd by a large tract of Limestone , which I suppos'd to emit continual exhalations into the Air ; which conjecture will perhaps with the less scruple be assented to , if I add that it has been long and generally observ'd , that as far as the Limestone extends , that tract of ground makes the Snow that falls on it thaw , or melt much sooner , than it does on the Neighbouring Lands . After I had made this Observation , I mention'd it in discourse to an inquisitive Person , that had seen and been employed about several Mines ; and I asked him whether he had met with any thing of this kind ; to which he answer'd me , that in Derbyshire , at a place which he nam'd to me , he and others had observ'd , that a large tract of Limestone land was so warm ( as they speak ) as to dissolve the Snow that fell on it , very much sooner than another great scope of Land , which was divided from it but by a glin , where the Soil did not cover Limestone , but Free-stone . Afterwards , discoursing of this Subject with an ingenious Person , that had visited the Hungarian , and Bohemian Mines ; he told me , that during his stay among the former , he often walked abroad with the Overseer of them , a famous and experienc'd Mineralist , who delighted to breathe the fresh morning Air upon some Hills abounding with Minerals ; that his Guide made him observe , that when they were over a tract of Land that afforded much of that noble Oar ( which by a German Name he called Rot-gulden ertz ) he found the smell to be pleasing , and the Air refreshing . And whereas , in passing over some other Mines , he found himself molested by offensive fumes ; he felt no such effect , when he was upon that scope of ground under which there lay veins of Cinnabar , or , if you please , a Mine of Quick-silver Our : And his ancient Guide told him , that next the Rot-gulden ertz before mentioned , the Soil containing these Cinnabarine veins , was that whose incumbent Air was the most eligible for pleasantness and Salubrity . And I the less wonder , that in some places the subjacent Fossiles should impregnate the Air with wholsome Effluvia , because I remember I had the Curiosity to ride many Miles , ( though in the depth of Winter , ) to see a scope of ground that was famous for a good Pottery ; where , besides many other Mineral Earths that I took notice of , there was a Pit or Groove , that reach'd , if I mistake not , fifteen or twenty foot beneath the surface of the ground ; whence they dug up a kind of white Clay , so richly impregnated with subtile and noble parts , that it afforded a Chymist or two of my Acquaintance ( for I had my self no opportunity to distill it ) good store of a Subtile Spirit , of a Volatile and Saline Nature , which upon trial they highly extoll'd for it's Cordial , and other Virtues in Physick ; and which , by some peculiar Mechanical trials I made with it , I concluded to abound with a Volatile Salt , not unlike that of Urine or Hartshorn . And since by this instance we see , that some unsuspected Fossiles may be enrich'd with Medicinal and Fugitive Salts and Spirits ; it may reasonably be suppos'd , that these ascending into the incumbent Air , may highly conduce to the Salubrity of it . And the Curiosity I have had to examine Chymically some Boles , and other Bodies , which are wont to be unregardedly compriz'd under the confus'd notion of Earths , makes me suspect , that there may be far more Species of Salubrious Fossiles than many have yet taken notice of . But peradventure you will much the more easily admit in general , that Subterraneal Tracts of great extent may for a very long time send up into the Air copious Expirations , not discernable by any of oursenses , nor commonly suspected to be found in that Body , if you please to consider with me ( what I do not remember to have been taken notice of to this purpose ) that the common Air we live in , and breathe , does always abound , and for many Ages has been impregnated , with the Copious Magnetical Effluvia of the Earth ; which our industrious Gilbert , and after him some learned Jesuits and others , have proved to be a great , though faint Magnet ; and whose emanations , as they constantly stream through the Air , I have elsewhere by particular Experiments shewn to be capable of passing through the Pores of Glass it self , and acting almost instantaneously , and yet manifestly , upon Bodies hermetically seal'd up in it . But , though from what has been said it may be inferr'd , that 't is not improbable the Salubrity of the Air in some places may be chiefly , or at least in part , due to the wholsome Expirations of Subterraneal Bodies ; yet , generally speaking , the Air is deprav'd , in far more places than it is improv'd , by being impregnated with Mineral Expirations . And indeed , besides that , among the Minerals known unto us , there are many more that are noxious , than that are wholsome ; the power of the former to doe mischief is wont to be far more efficacious , than that of the latter to doe good ; as we may guess by the small benefit men receive in point of health by the Effluvia of any Mineral , or other Fossile , known unto us , in comparison of the great and sudden mischief that is often done by the Expirations of Orpiment , Sandarach , and white Arsenick ; for , though that sold in Shops is factitious , being made of Orpiment sublim'd with Salt , yet it is found Natural in some Hungarian , and other Mines . On which occasion , I remember that the ingenious Person lately mention'd to have with his Guide taken the Air upon the Hills of that Mineral Countrey , answer'd me , that , when his Guide and he walk'd over some veins of these noxious Minerals , he met with several Odorous Steams , which , though differing from one another , agreed in this , that they were all offensive to him ; and particularly , some of them by their unwelcome sharpness , and others by giving him a troublesome difficulty of respiration . I will not here urge those sulphureous steams , that so suddenly deprive Dogs of sense and motion , in the Neapolitan Grotta de Cani ; because there the Exhalations are too much included , and as it were pent up : But it is very proper to allege for my present purpose the Aorni or Averni , which are mention'd by good Authours to be found , some in Hungary , and some in other Countries ; for in these places there ascend out of the Earth such noxious and plentifull exhalations , as kill those Animals that draw in the Air they infect ; and some of them are able to precipitate , even the Birds that fly over the Caverns that emit them . But there are a multitude of Places , where 't is not so manifest that hurtfull exhalations ascend into the Air , and yet they really do so : There being in many places whole tracts of Land , that near the surface of the Earth abound with Marchasitical Minerals , as these do with a sharp vitriolate Salt , which , together with the ill condition'd Sulphur that they also plentifully contain , ascend into the Air , and render it corrosive . On which occasion I remember , that for Curiosities sake I took some English shining Marchasite ; and caus'd a pound of it to be distill'd in an Earthen Vessel with a good fire , by which means , notwithstanding it's dryness , I obtain'd two or three spoonfuls of a Limpid Liquor , that smell'd very strongly , like that which the Helmontians call Gas Sulphuris ; and which appear'd manifestly to be of an acid Nature , both by the taste , and by it 's readily corroding , and dissolving unbeaten Coral , even in the cold , to mention here no other Tryals that I made with it . And the Mineral afforded me , together with this Liquor , about an ounce and three quarters of inflammable Sulphur , part whereof ascending ( as may be guess'd ) in the form of very agile Corpuscles , these fasten themselves all about to the inside of the Receiver , and there compos'd divers thin Coats , or Films , as 't were , of Sulphureous matter sticking to one another ; which at their first taking off , and for some time after , might be bent or folded like leaves of paper , but afterwards harden in the Air. Mineralists , and some other good Authours , mention divers Places as abounding with Marchasitical Fossiles , but I am apt to think , they are far more common than is vulgarly taken notice of ; for I have met with them where one would little expect them . And , though in England all our Vitriol ( which is now plentifully vended into Foreign parts ) be made of Vitriolate Stones , or Bodies that pass for stones ; yet that is not true which our Mineralists are wont thence to conclude , that there is no other Vitriolate or Marchasitical matter in England : for a famous dealer in Fossiles , having found a Mine , which he knew not what to make of , and therefore carefully conceal'd , address'd himself to me , because , he said , he knew I would not betray or supplant him : and having at his desire taken a private view of what he had discover'd , I presently found it to be a vein , that lay at some depth under ground , and ran along ( how far I know not ) like a vein of Metalline Oar , ( and for such upon that account he mistook it ) consisting of a black and heavy stuff , which upon a few easie trials I quickly found to be of a Vitriolate Nature ; insomuch that , somewhat to my wonder , I was able to make it yield in few hours store of pure Vitriol , without any troublesome or artificial preparation . PROPOSITION II. It is probable that in divers places some Endemical Diseases do mainly , or at least in part depend upon Subterraneal Steams . UNder the name of Endemical Diseases , I do not comprise those onely that are very peculiar to this or that Countrey ; as the Plica is said to be to Poland , ( whence it receives its name of Polonica ; ) or an odd kind of Colique in one part of France , ( from which 't is called la Colique de Poictou ; ) but also those that are more rise in some Countries than in most others ; such as Agues in Kent , and in that part of Essex they call the Hundreds ; the Consumption ( though that be an ambiguous name ) in England , whence Foreign Physicians call it the Tabes Anglica ; and Fluxes of the Belly in Ireland , where they are so rise as commonly to pass under the name of the Countrey Disease . That these Endemical , or ( if we may so call them ) Topical Distempers , do in many places proceed from some excessive Heat , Moisture , or other manifest quality of the Air ; from bad Diet , vulgar Intemperance , and other Causes that have little or no connexion with Subterraneal Reeks , I readily grant . But , that in some places the Endemical Disease may either be principally caus'd , or much fomented , by noxious Effluvia , I am enclin'd to suspect upon the following grounds . 1. There are some places , in which the Endemical Disease cannot be probably imputed to any manifest Cause ; as he may perceive that shall consider how often it happens , that the Causes which are assign'd of such Diseases , if they were the true ones , must produce the like Distempers in many other places , where yet it is notorious that they are not Endemical . 2. That Subterraneal Bodies may send up copious Steams , of different kinds , into the Air , has been already made out . 3. It has been also shewn , that the Matters that send up these Effluvia , may be of a large extent . And I remember on this occasion that I have sometimes observ'd , and that in more Countries than one , a whole tract of Land that abounded with Minerals of one kind ; and within no great distance , as perhaps a Mile or a League , another large tract of Land , whose Subterraneal part abounded with Minerals of a very differing sort . 4. We have also above declar'd , and 't is highly probable from the nature of the thing it self , that those copious steams ( Saline , Sulphureous , Arsenical , Antimonial , &c. ) that impregnate the Air , may very much conduce to make it hurtfull to a humane body , in the way requisite to produce this or that determinate Disease : as I not long since related from the Chymist that visited the Hungarian Mines , that in some places he found the Reeks ascending from them into the Air ( though in an elevated place , and expos'd to the Winds ) make him as it were Asthmatical , and give him a troublesome difficulty of Respiration . And here let me add an Observation , which perhaps will not be thought fit to be slighted by Physicians : namely , that some parts of the substance of the Air ( for I speak not of its Heat , Coldness , or other such Qualities ) do not onely affect humane bodies , or at least many Individuals among them , as they are taken in by Respiration , but as they outwardly touch the Skin : and the Skin being ( as I have elsewhere shewn ) full of Pores , and those perhaps of different sizes and figures , those Corpuscles that get in at them may have their operation , even upon the most inward parts of the body . To make this more clear and probable , because 't is a thing of importance , I desire these things may be observ'd . 1. That when I speak of the Air , I do not in this place understand that Air , which I elsewhere teach to be more strictly and properly so call'd , and to consist of springy Particles ; but the Air in its more vulgar and laxe signification , as it signifies the Atmosphere , which abounds with vapours , and exhalations , and in a word with Corpuscles of all sorts , except the larger sort of springy ones ; and many of them may be so small , and so solid , or so conveniently shap'd , as to get entrance at some of the numerous Orifices of the minute or miliary Glandules of the Skin , or at other Pores of it . Thus , though paper be not pervious to the uncompress'd elastical parts of the Air , yet it may be easily penetrated by other Corpuscles of the Atmosphere : for I remember , I have for Curiosities sake prepar'd a dry body , out of a substance belonging to the Animal Kingdom , which being lapt up in paper , would , without wetting or discolouring , or any way sensibly altering it , pass in a trice through the Pores of it in such plenty , as to have not onely a visible , but a manifest operation on bodies plac'd at some distance from it . And though a bladder almost full of Air , having its neck well tyed , be held near the fire in various postures , the elastical Air , though rarefied , or attenuated by the heat , will rather burst the bladder , ( as I have more than once found ) than get out at the Pores , yet we have often made a certain substance , belonging to the Mineral Kingdom , that , if a bladder were wet or moist , ( as the Skins of living Men are wont to be ) would readily pervade it , and have a sensible operation , even upon solid bodies plac'd within it . This Experiment ( that I can repeat when I will ) is therefore the more considerable to our present purpose , because in the bladder of a dead Animal , the Porosity may be well suppos'd to be much less than it was in the Animal when alive ; in which state the parts of the humane body are much more perspirable than one would easily believe , partly because of the heat that is continually diffus'd from the heart , and partly because of the copious steams that are in perpetual motion , and keep the parts warm , moist and supple : And it is not to be pretermitted in our present instance , that the bladder of Urine consists not of a single Membrane , and is probably of a stronger texture , by reason of the subtile salt liquor it is instituted to contain , than many another Membranes of the body , or the Epidermis . And this is the first thing I would have noted . The next is , that , whereas in the Instances newly recited , and some others that are by and by to be mention'd , the effects were produc'd when the ambient Air , impregnated with Mineral Corpuscles , had but a very short time ( perhaps not many minutes ) to work upon the bodies expos'd to it : In those Countries that are very subject to Endemical Diseases , the Inhabitants are wont to live all the year long , and perhaps during their whole life , expos'd to the action of the vitiated Air : and how much a far shorter time will serve , to make the Corpuscles that rove in the Air , penetrate into bodies of no very close contexture , may be guess'd by the breaking even of the bigger strings of Lutes and Vials , by the numerous ( though invisible ) vapours , that get into them in rainy weather ; and much more by the effects of such vapours , when insinuating themselves in swarms into the Pores of a Rope , they shorten it so forcibly , as to enable it , by shrinking it self to lift up and keep suspended considerable weights , as I have elsewhere shewn by tryals purposely made . These things may render it probable , that , though in a small compass of time the noxious Effluvia that rove in the Air , may be too thinly dispers'd in it , to insinuate themselves in any considerable number at the Pores of the Skin ; yet , by reason of the continual contact of the Air , ( especially as to the Face , Hands , and some other parts ) which may last day and night for many months , or perhaps years , there may be opportunity for a considerable number of morbifick Particles , to insinuate themselves into the cutaneous Pores . 3. And thus having once got entrance , they may by the capillary Vessels that reach to , or terminate at the Skin , pass on to somewhat larger Vessels ; and so may get into the mass of bloud , and by its Circulation be carried to all the parts of the body ; and so be enabl'd both to deprave the bloud , and other juices themselves , and to gain access to any determinate part of the body , which their peculiar shapes , figures , &c. qualifies them to produce some particular Distemper in . This whole Doctrine may be made more probable , by what experience shews of the virtues of certain Plasters , especially Mercurial ones , in Distempers that are not at all , or at least are not chiefly Cutaneous ; and ( which comes more home to our Argument ) of the efficacy of Periaptae , and Appensa , such as Piony-root , Bloud-stone , Lapis Nephriticus , Quick-silver in a Quill , a dry'd Toad in a Cesnet Bag , &c , whereof , though many answer not the Characters that are wont to be given of them , yet some of them , experience has convinc'd me to be of greater efficacy than I expected : And much more activity may be presum'd to be , in divers noxious Effluvia from Subterraneal Bodies ; as may be gather'd from the effects of the Mercurial Girdles , that some unwary persons wear to cure the Itch ; and from what I elsewhere relate of the fits of the Colicque , often produc'd in a Friend of mine by the Effluvia of masses of Loadstone . And this last example may serve for a proof of another part of our Hypothesis , by shewing that Mineral Effluvia , may not onely be noxious in a general way , but may produce this or that determinate Disease . That Arsenical Appensa , though much extoll'd by divers Physicians themselves , and sold dear by Empyricks , as ( if worn near the Heart ) wonderfull Amulets against the Plague , have ( especially in some persons and circumstances ) produc'd some of the noxious effects of Arsenical Poysons , and particularly caus'd in some great faintness and dispiritedness , I find by the Testimony of divers eminent Physicians . To which I shall add a remarkable one , which may probably be referr'd partly to this third Observation , as well as to what I lately deliver'd about the bad effects of Mineral Exhalations , breath'd in with the Air they vitiated : and I the rather mention this Case , because 't is not onely an odd one , but is a considerable Argument to shew , that noxious Mineral Expirations may manifestly produce a determinate Distemper in unlikely parts of the body . The Observation is this ; I knew , and on some occasions employ'd , a Chymical Laborant that fansi'd that he could make a rare Medicine out of red Arsenick , ( as some call what others style Sandarach , ) which is thought to differ little from common Orpiment , saving its being much higher colour'd : this Laborant then working long and assiduously upon this Mineral , and rubbing it frequently in a Mortar , came divers times to me ; and complain'd of a disaffection he thence contracted in the Organs of Respiration ; for which I gave him something that happen'd to relieve him ; which encourag'd him to complain to me of another Distemper , that , though not so dangerous , did often very much molest him : which was , that when he was very assiduous in the preparation of his Sandarach , it would give him great Pains , and ( if I misremember not ) some Tumours too , in his Testicles : And this , for ought I know , happen'd to him as long as he was earnest about that Process ; for the Medicines that had reliev'd him in his other Distemper , did not remove this : and I having occasion to go for a while into the Countrey , found him gone at my return . It may strengthen the Conjecture lately propos'd , of the possible insinuation of Effluvia that rove in the Air , at the Pores of the Skin , if I add that I have had the Curiosity to enquire of more than one Traveller , that had visited the famous Pico of Tenarif ( at whose upper part there are found scatter'd parcels of Sulphur , and divers manifest tokens of a Vulcan ) whether the Sulphureous Steams ( that I suppos'd to be copious near the top of the Mountain ) did not work upon the silver Money they had in their Pockets , and discolour it : to which he answer'd that 't was no uncommon Observation , to find at mens return from visiting the top of the Hill , that the Money they carried about them was blackn'd , and that he himself had particularly observ'd it to be so : which might easily gain credit with me , who have divers times made a preparation of Sulphur , which , even in the cold , sends out exhalations so penetrant , that , having for tryals sake put some pieces of Coyn ( which ought not to be Golden ) into a Leather Purse ; they were able , and that in not very many minutes , to discolour manifestly the Money , in spite of the interposition of the Purse that contain'd it . But I had a more considerable instance of the efficacy of the Sulphureous Expirations of the Pico of Tenarif , by a sober Person that is one of the chief Directours of the famous East-India-Company of London ; who , being question'd by me about some circumstances of his Journey to visit the top of that stupendious Mountain , answer'd me , that among other effects the Sulphureous Air had upon him , ( who is of a very fine complexion ) he found at his return to the bottom , that his light-colour'd Hair had manifestly changed colour , and was in many places grown forked at the ends . These Observations may make it probable , that Mineral Exhalations may not only affect humane Bodies , as they are drawn into the Lungs with the Air they swim in , but as they insinuate themselves into the Pores of the Skin . One considerable Objection I foresee may be made , against the Proposition I have been all this while endeavouring to render probable ; namely , that 't is scarce conceivable , that in so many Ages as Endemical Diseases have afflicted some Countries , the Subterraneal Matter , to which I do in great part impute some of them , should not be wasted and spent . I might perhaps on this occasion move a doubt , whether we have had such continued accounts of the temperature of the Air , of all the Countries where Diseases are now Endemical , as to know that they have been always so ; and that some of those Diseases have not been worn out here or there , and some others have not of later Ages begun to appear in this or that place . But contenting my self at present to have hinted this Question , I shall not stay to discuss it ; but proceed to offer three things , by way of direct answer to the Objection . 1. And first , I think it very possible , that divers Subterraneal Bodies that emit Effluvia , may have in them a kind of propagative or self multiplying power : I will not here examine , whether this proceed from some seminal Principle , which many Chymists and others ascribe to Metals , and even to stones , or ( which is perhaps more likely ) to something analagous to a Firment , such as in Vegetables enables a little sour dough to extend it self through the whole Mass ; or such , as when an Apple or Pear is bruis'd in one part , makes the putrify'd part by degrees to transmute the sound into it's own likeness ; or else some maturative power , whereby an inanimate Body may gradually admit of such a change , or acquire such Qualities , as may be in Mens estimate perfective of it , and perhaps give it a new denomination ; as Anana's in the Indies , and Medlars , and some other fruits here in Europe , do after they are gathered , acquire ( as it were , spontaneously ) in process of time , a consistence and sweetness , and sometimes Colour and Odour , and in short such a state as by one word we call maturity or ripeness : and so some Metalline Ores , and some Mineral Earths themselves , have been observ'd by Mineralogists , to acquire in tract of time such a change , as to afford some Metal or other Body , which either it did not afford before , or at least did not afford so copiously , or so well qualify'd . This I have purposely made out in another Paper : and the Observation particularly holds as to Niter , which is thought to be the most Catholick Fossile we have ; and to be at least one of those Fossiles , that do the most plentifully emit Effluvia into the Air. 2. When I consider , that even in those Mines that are accounted deep ones , the Spades of Men are not wont to reach to the ten thousandth part of the thickness of the Earth , between its Surface , and its Centre , which yet is but its Semi-diametre ; I cannot but confess , that we know very little of the Nature or Constitution of the lower part of the Terrestrial Globe ; since we know little or nothing experimentally , of what lyes beneath that Comparatively very thin Crust or Scurf , ( if I may so call it ) that Humane Industry has been hitherto confin'd to . And upon this account I do not think it absurd to suspect , that from the lower Subterraneal Regions there may be , either continually , or periodically , emitted into the Region of Mines ( if I may so call it ) great store , and variety of Mineral Exhalations , which may continually repair the loss of those , that from time to time ascend out of the Fossile Region ( as I may also call that of Mines ) into the Atmosphere . But the things I could alledge to Countenance this Conjecture , must not be insisted on in this place . Therefore I proceed to consider . 3. That Bodies so heavy , and consequently so abundant in parts of solid matter crouded together , as Minerals , and other Fossiles are wont to be , may well be suppos'd capable , without destructively wasting themselves to emit store of such minute Particles as Effluvia , for an exceeding long time . This will be easily granted by him that shall consider the particulars laid together in a small Tract , that I purposely writ , about the admirable Subtilty of Effluvia . And 't will be the more easily believ'd , if it be consider'd how long some Load-stones , sever'd from their Mine , have been kept in the Air without any notable , or perhaps so much as sensible diminution of their Virtue . And this brings into my mind what an eminent Physician , who was skill'd in Perfumes , affirm'd to me about the durableness of an Effluviating power , that was not natural to a Metal , but adventitious , and introduc'd by Art : for he assur'd me that he had a Silver Watch-case , that had been so well perfum'd , that though he usually wore the Watch in his Pocket , it continued to be well scented sixteen years . The same Person had a way of perfuming factitious Marble quite thorough , whose grateful Scent he affirm'd would last exceedingly ; and of this perfum'd Marble he presented me a Ball , which having been some months after gotten from me by a great Lady , I was disabled from observing the durableness of the fragrancy . I might perhaps be thought wanting to my Cause , if , before I dismiss the Proposition I have been all this while discoursing of , I should not observe , that Subterraneal Effluvia may contribute to Endemical Diseases , not only as they vitiate the Air , that Men breathe in , or are immediately touch'd by ; but as they may impregnate or deprave the Aliments that men feed upon . For first , they do mingle themselves with the water , which either men drink it self alone , ( as is the Custome with many Nations , and of some men in most Nations ; or make of it their Bear , Ale , or other factitious drinks , prepar'd of Water and Barley , Oats , Rice , &c. That divers Springs , and other Waters are imbued with Mineral Corpuscles , may be judg'd by some of the Medicinal Springs : for , though divers Acidulae and Thermae afford good store of palpable Sulphur or Salt , yet all do not ; and having purposely examin'd a famous one , I could with a pair of nice Scales scarce discover any sensible difference at all between the Medicinal Water , and the common Water that was to be met with thereabouts . And that which impregnated this , and which I found by tryal on my self , and some other Bodies , enabl'd it to work very manifestly like a Mineral Water , was a sort of Corpuscles so minute and subtile , that if the Bottles were not kept well stopt , they would in a short time vanish , and leave the Liquor dispirited . Experience has assur'd me , that there are ways of making common water violently and hurtfully operative upon Humane Bodies , though its sensible qualities would not make one suspect any change in it : but the ill use that bad men may make of such Liquors , makes me forbear to express my self more clearly : nor is it necessary that I should add anything to confirm the propos'd conjecture , save what may be inferr'd from these two Particulars ; the first whereof is the scarce at all sensible change that may be made in water , and some other Liquors , that are made strongly Emetick by Crocus Metallorum , and by Antimony vitrify'd without addition : and the second may be taken from those Averni , whence there continually ascend such pernicious Exhalations , as in some places intoxicate or kill even the Birds that fly over those poysonous vents ; for if such Exhalations , or even far less deadly ones , should ( as they may be reasonably suppos'd , sometimes to do ) meet with either running or stagnant Waters in their ascent , there is little doubt to be made , but they will impregnate them , and make them noxious . And on this occasion we may pertinently recall to mind , what I have formerly deliver'd about a place upon the Borders of Lancashire , where the Water and Mud of a Ditch is so copiously impregnated with Subterraneal Exhalations , ( whether they be bituminous , sulphureous , or of some unknown kind ) that they may easily be fir'd at the surface of the Water , or Earth , and made to burn like a Candle , as an ingenious man did at my Request successfully try . But there is another account , upon which the Effluvia of the lower parts of the Earth may have a greater stroke in producing of Endemical Diseases ; namely , as they mingle with the Water , and other Liquors that are necessary to the nutrition and growth of Plants ; and , by depraving those juices , make the vegetables that are nourish'd by them unhealthy for the men that eat them , or make drinks of them : and these noxious Exhalations may be suppos'd in many places to impregnate the juices of the Earth , much more copiously than they do the running or stagnant Waters lately spoken of : because the difficulty of pervading the Earth in their ascent , may so long check them , as to make them very numerous in a small space , and perhaps make them convene into Bodies , so far of a Saline Nature as to be dissoluble either in common Water , or some other Subterraneal Liquor ; by whose help , as by vehicles , they may insinuate themselves into the roots of Plants , and be thence conveyed to other parts . Divers things might be alledg'd to keep this conjecture from being improbable , if I had leisure to insist on them : but I I shall now only mention two things that on this occasion come into my mind : the first whereof is , that enquiring of a famous Chymist , who liv'd in a Countrey abounding with Mines of Vitriol , whether he did not observe , that the Oaks growing over them were more solid , or heavy , than those Trees are elsewhere wont to be ; he answer'd me , that he did , and that the difference was remarkable : The other is , that the parts of some Minerals , ( probably by reason of the smallness and solidity of the Corpuscles they consist of ) are capable of insinuating themselves very plentifully into the pores of growing Vegetables , without being really subdu'd by what Philosophers are pleas'd to call the Concocting Faculty of the Plant ; and , instead of being assimilated by the Vegetable , they retain their own Mineral Nature , and upon the recess or evaporation of the juice that serv'd them for a vehicle , may sometimes discover their being Mineral , even to an unassisted Eye . For I remember I have seen a piece of a Vine , that grew not far from Paris , which being broken , I perceiv'd a multitude of the internal Pores of the root , and , if I mistake not , part of the Trunk also , to be stuff't with Corpuscles of a Marchasitical Nature ; as manifestly appear'd by their Colour , and their shining lustre , and also by their weight . There goes a Tradition among learned Men , that the leaves of Vines that grow in some places of Hungary , whose Mines afford Gold , are as it were gilt on the lower side , by ascending Exhalations of a Golden Nature : whether this be true or no , I shall not take upon me to determine : but I remember , that having made enquiry about the truth of it , of a very ingenious Traveller , whose Curiosity led him to visit heedfully those famous Mines : he told me , that he did not remember he had observ'd what is reported about the Leaves of the Vine : but he knew very well that at Tockay ( a place that affords the famousest Wine of Hungary , and indeed the best I have drunk ) very many of the kernels of the Grapes would appear guilt over , as it were , with leaf gold . To what has been already discours'd , may be added , that since men are not wont to feed upon either Beasts , or Birds of prey , as carnivorous Animals usually are , but upon such as live upon Grass , or Seeds , or other vegetable substances , and drink nothing but fair water ; the noxious exhalations that make vegetables , and water unwholsome , may by their means have a very bad influence upon Sheep , Cows , Deer , Pigeons and other Animals that seed upon such deprav'd vegetables , and drink such noxious waters ; and consequently may be very hurtfull to those men that feed upon such Animals , and may by the deprav'd aliment they afford , determine them to an Endemical Disease , such as that vitiated nutriment is fitted to produce . Perhaps it will not seem improper to add on this occasion , that 't is possible that in certain places the latent Minerals may be of such a Nature , as that their Effluvia may , instead of promoting , hinder the Production of some particular Disease , whether Epidemical or Endemical in the Bodies of them that inhabit those Places . For as Physicians observe that the more manifest morbifick causes of some sicknesses , are quite contrary to those of others , so I think it not improbable , that there may also be a mutual contrariety , between those latent morbifick causes , that are sent up by subterraneal Agents . And therefore it need to be no wonder , if some of these should either disable those to which they are Hostile , or should at least work in Humane Bodies a great Indisposition to admit their hurtfull Operations , which methinks those Physicians and Chymists should easily grant , who with a boldness that I do not applaud , prescribe Amulets , wherein Arsenick , or some other poysonous Drug is employ'd , as preservatives from the Plague , against which , I doubt the chief Succours they afford , proceeds from the Confidence or Fearlesness they give those that wear them . But to return to our subterraneal Effluvia , since there are divers whole Countries , or lesser places , that are either altogether , or in great part , free from this or that particular Disease ; as in several parts of Scotland from Agues , especially if I mistake not Quartans , are very unfrequent , insomuch that a learned Physician answer'd me , that in divers years practice he met not with above three or four , and in several large Regions of the East-Indies , notwithstanding the excessive heat of the Climate , the Plague is very rare : since ( I say ) these things are so , it seems not altogether improbable that the subterraneal steaws may contribute to this advantage , by impregnating both the Air , the Earth , and the Water , with Corpuscles endow'd with Qualities unfriendly to these Diseases , which seems to be somewhat the more credible , because it has been observ'd that some vast Tracts of Land will neither breed nor maintain venemous Creatures , as is undoubtedly believ'd of the whole Kingdom of Ireland , where I confess I neither did see any alive , nor met with any other that did ; for as to Spiders , though they breed in that Countrey , where I have seen many of them , and sometimes even upon Irish Wood , yet they are unanimously believ'd not to be poysonous there : And some Writers tell us , how truly I know not , of some other Countries , to which they affirm the like Privilege to belong . But there is one instance afforded us by Begninus , who travel'd much to visit Mines , which if it be strictly true , is very notable for my present purpose . Dignum admiratione est , says he , quod quamvis in vicinia Hydriae Comitatus Gloriciensis , ubi reperitur copiosè ☿ singulis ferè annis Lues pestifera grassatur , illa tamen semper immunis ab hac manere soleat , idque viri provectae aetatis se observasse & à majoribus suis accepisse , mihi sanctè confirmârunt . To which I should add the Testimony of the Learned Michael Mayerus , who pronounces Mercury to be an Alexipharmacum against divers Diseases , and particularly the Plague , if I did not suspect by his way of mentioning this last Disease , that he but borrowed his Encomium of Mercury from Begninus . But however ; what has been related , has invited me to consider , whether there may not be some virtue , as well as some danger , in Amulets of Quicksilver that are by many extoll'd against the Plague . But this onley upon the bye . PROPOSITION III. It is Likely , that divers Epidemical Diseases are in great part produc'd by Subterraneal Effluvia . I Am very well aware , that divers Diseases that extraordinarily invade great numbers of people at the same time ; ( and were therefore , by the Greeks called Epidemical ) may be rationally refer'd to manifest Intemperatenesses of the Air , in point of Heat , Cold , Moisture , or some other Obvious Quality . And therefore the Proposition speaks but of some Epidemical Diseases , and imputes those it speaks of to Subterraneal Effluvia , not as total , but as partial , and sometimes as principal , Agents in the production of them . In favour of the propos'd Conjecture thus explain'd , I shall offer two things to Consideration . I. And first , it seems not very improbable , that divers of those Morbifick Excesses ( especially if they be sudden ) that are observ'd in the Air , may proceed from the unusually copious ascent of hurtfull Exhalations that mingle with the Air , and diffuse themselves through it . We are greater Strangers than we commonly take notice of , to the Subterraneat part of the Globe we inhabit : and if I had leasure , and thought it necessary , I could shew , that there are a great many odd and surprizing things to be met with in the Structure and disposition even of those parts of the Earth , that lie but a little way beneath the surface of it , and partly have been , and partly may easily enough be , actually penetrated by the industrious Labours of men . And as for the deeper Subterraneal Regions , we are so much more unacquainted with them , that we are scarce fit so much as to conjecture , how far they extend , or what kind of Materials they contain , and what is the gross , and ( if I may so speak ) the Mechanical Fabrick of the greater Masses , whether solid or fluid , they consist of : And least of all can we determine what Motions , whether periodical , or others , these Masses , or other Portions of deeply lodg'd Matter , may have . On such grounds as these , I conceive ▪ it possible , that , among the many and various Effluviating Bodies , that the terrestrial Globe may conceal in its Bowels , there may be some , whose reeks ascending plentifully into the Air , may occasion in it an excess of Heat , Cold , Moisture , thickness , or some other manifest Quality . So that sometimes ( not to say many times ) even those manifest Intemperatenesses of the Air , to which an Epidemical Disease is wont to be wholly imputed , ( though perhaps not very justly ) may in part proceed from Subterraneal Bodies ; for I elsewhere shew , that these by their Conflicts , or Mutual Actions on one another , may excite great and sudden Heats , and on that account send up such copious Steams into the Atmosphere , as may produce there sudden and excessive Heats , Lightnings , Thunders , &c. And I shall now add ( what perhaps will appear somewhat strange ) that I think sudden and unseasonable Refrigerations of the Air , may proceed from the action of Subterraneal Bodies upon one another : for Tryal purposely made has inform'd me , that there are certain Minerals , whereof some may be employed in their crude Simplicity , and the other requires but a slight Preparation , such as it may have in the Bowels of the Earth ; which Minerals being put together , will produce by their Reaction an intense degree of Cold , not onely as to sense , but when examined by a seal'd Weather-glass . The Changes of the Air that produce Epidemical Diseases are sometimes so great and sudden , that they cannot , in my Opinion , with probability be imputed to the action of the Sun , or the Moon , ( which are causes that act in too general , and too uniform a way , to have those particular and anomalous Effects attributed to Them ; ) as probably as they may be to Subterraneal Bodies , that often act with more suddenness and impetuosity , and without any regularity , at least that is known to us . The difference we find in Seasons , that bear the same name , and should be alike in temperature● , is oftentimes very great , and sometimes also very lasting . It is proverbially said in England , that a Peck of March Dust is worth a King's Ransom : So unfrequent is dry Weather during that Month , in our Climate . And yet in some years , and particularly the last , 't was a rare thing to have a shower either in March , April , or May , sometimes in the Month last named , there are Heats greater than in the Dog-days of that same Year ; though usually here in England , divers Mornings of that Month are cold , and some of them frosty . And now and then I have observ'd in the same Months and Days , at no great distance from one another , that the Weather has been sultry hot , and has also produc'd a great Snow . We have seen Summers like that which is remember'd for the Siege of Colchester , that for almost the whole Season , where more dark and rainy , than several Winters have been observ'd to be . To which purpose I remember , that when I was about to write the History of Cold , I was fain to watch almost a whole Winter to find two or three frosty days , to make an Experiment or two I had need of , that requir'd not a Cold that was either lasting or very intense . But Instances of this kind are so obvious , to those that are at all heedfull Observers , that I may safely pass them by , and inculcate that the Sun being in the same Signs , at the same Times of the Year , it does not appear , how He should produce so great a disparity of the temperature of the Air in Seasons of the same denomination ; ( as the Winters or the Summers of differing , and yet perhaps immediately consecutive , Years . ) And therefore I do not so much wonder , that many Learned Writers fly to Astrology for an account of these irregular Phaenomena , and ascribe them to the influences of certain Stars ; notwithstanding what divers eminent Philosophers , and some great Astronomers too , have said to prove the vanity of Judiciary Astrology . I shall not now stay to discuss the Question , whether the Stars have any influence distinct from their Light and Heat : because , my Opinion about it being somewhat peculiar , I have discoursed of it in a Paper by it self . But this I shall now say , that the fixt Stars being but general , and ( if I may so speak ) indefinite Agents , almost unimaginably remote from us , 't is nothing near so likely that such Effects as ( besides that they happen very suddenly and irregularly ) are oftentimes confin'd to a Town , or some other narrow Compass , should be produc'd by certain Stars : as that they should be so by Subterraneal Bodies , which are near at hand , of very various natures , and subject to many irregular and differing Motions , commixtures , reactions , and other alterations . I have known a great Cold in a day or two invade Multitudes in the same City , with violent , and as to many Persons fatal Symptomes ; when I could not judge , ( as others also did not ) that the bare coldness of the Air could so suddenly produce a Disease so Epidemical and hurtfull : and it appear'd the more probable , that the cause came from under ground , by reason that it began with a very troublesome Fog . That there may be many Subterraneal Bodies , which by their commixtures may produce a sudden Heat , will be easily granted by those that know , ( what I elsewhere purposely make out ) that there are Subterraneal Menstruums ; and are acquainted with Chymical Operations , such as the great effervescence made , when Oil of Vitriol is put upon filings of Iron , or Spirit of Niter upon Butter of Antimony ; to which I might add many other of the like kind that I have tryed , as when Spirit of Niter is put upon filings , either of Iron , Copper , or Tin , or upon crude Quicksilver ; which I shall content my self to have nam'd , because I have another Instance that comes closer to our present purpose . For whereas I have shewn above , that there is in many places great store of Marcasitical matter beneath the surface of the Earth , and sometimes very near it ; I shall now add that I have purposely tryed , that putting a little Spirit drawn from Niter , ( with which Salt the Earth in many places abounds ) or a litle Oil of Vitriol , upon powder'd Marcasites ( which being hard Stones are more difficultly wrought upon , than many other Subterxaneous marcasitical Bodies of a looser texture ) there presently ensued a strong reaction between the Liquid and the Solid Bodies , whereby was produc'd much heat , not without visible fumes , and Strongly Scented , though not visible , Exhalations . And such kind of Odorous Effluvia were emitted , upon the putting a little Spirit of Salt upon our Powder'd Marcasites . And because Sulphur is a mineral that ( either pure , or copiously mix'd with others ) is to be plentifully met with in the Bowels of the Earth , and in many places burns there , I shall add , that I have found acid Spirit of Sulphur ( made the common way ) to work sensibly upon marcasitical matter , hard enough coagulated . An experienc'd German Chymist relates , that in some parts of his Country he met with Vitriol Stones , or Marcasites , that , by the action of mere common Water resting a competent time upon them , will grow so hot as to enable the Liquor to retain a sensible Heat , when it had pass'd a pretty way from them . And , as I elsewhere shew , that many Accidents may occasion the breaking out of Waters , or the change of their course in Subterraneal Places ; So , that common Water may produce in a very short time considerable degrees of Heat in Mineral Bodies , may appear by mixing with two or three pounds of fine Powder of common Brimstone a convenient quantity , ( for now I remember not well how much I took ) of filings of Iron , for this mixture being thoroughly drench'd with common Water , did in a short time grow intensely hot , and send up such a thick Smoke as good quicklime is wont to doe , whilst men Slake it with Water . It is observable to our present purpose , what account was given me by a Domestick of mine , that liv'd in the North part of England , of a certain Mineral Groove which he had often occasion to resort to : for , when I ask'd whether the Damp that place was molested with , did frequently recurr ; he answer'd me , that at the time he was there it would annoy the workmen , ( if they did not take good care of themselves ) more than once in one day . And by Enquiries that I made of others that were conversant in Mines , I learn'd , that in divers places they were molested with Damps , that came not at stated Periods , but irregularly ; sometimes with much greater , and sometimes with far lesser , Intervals between them : the times of their duration being also not seldom unequal . So that , supposing such noxious Effluvia to be plentifully emitted from the lower parts of the Soil , it need be no wonder , that an Epidemical Disease should be rise in this or that particular Town or part of a Country , without spreading much farther ; and that it should begin suddenly in places where it was not expected : for , besides that these swarms of Effluvia , being produc'd by casual concourses of Circumstances , may oftentimes be excited , and invade this or that place , without giving the Inhabitants any warning , besides this , I say , 't is not always necessary that these noxious Effluvia should be generated just under the places they molest , since the motion of the Air , especially when the Wind sits favourably , may suffice to carry them to the Town or other place that feels their ill effects : and yet they may seem to be almost confin'd to those places ; sometimes because the neighbouring places are not inhabited enough to make their ill qualities taken notice of ; but more frequently because , by being diffus'd thorough a greater tract of Air , they are more and more disperst in their passage , and thereby so diluted ( if I may so speak ) and weakn'd , as not to be able to doe any notorious mischief . And here I Consider too , that 't is not always necessary that the harm that is done by these morbid Constitutions of the Air , should proceed onely or precisely from these Subterraneal Exhalations we are speaking of , by virtue onely of their own qualities , which they bring with them from under ground . For 't is very possible , that these Effluvia may be in their own nature either innocent enough , or at least not considerably hurtfull , and yet may become very noxious , if they chance to find the Air already imbu'd with certain Corpuscles fit to associate with them : for , though these sorts of Particles were perhaps neither of them a-part considerably hurtfull , yet there may from their Combinations result Corpuscles , of a new and very morbifick nature . This may be somewhat illustrated by considering , that the spirituous steams of Salt-peter are not wont sensibly to work on Gold , nor yet the spirituous Parts that the Fire raises from Sal-armoniac ; and yet when these two sorts of Particles convene , there results from their Coalitions certain Corpuscles of a new nature , that compose the Liquor Chymists call Aqua Regis ; which by its fretting quality corrodes and dissolves Gold. By Analogy to this we may conceive , that sometimes the Subterraneal Effluvia may find the Air already impregnated with such Corpuscles , that by associating themselves therewith they may compose Corpuscles far more capable , than themselves were whilst apart , of having ill Effects upon the Mass of Bloud , or some determinate Parts of Humane Bodies , and consequently of produceing Diseases there . And this Instance may appear the more apposite ; because it may be said , that as , though Silver and Gold , and Diamonds and Rubies , &c. be put together , and Aqua Regis be pour'd upon them , it will leave all the rest uncorroded , and fall onely upon the Gold ; so the newly produc'd Corpuscles that I have been speaking of , whether breathed in with the Air in Respiration , or carried up and down by the Bloud , or other Liquors of the Body , may pass by other parts of it without doing them any sensible harm , and attacking this or that determinate part , produce there some Disease such as the fabrick and situation of that part peculiarly dispose it to be affected with . And I shall add on this occasion , that in our Hypothesis we may render a probable reason , why in some Epidemical Diseases , some persons may escape much better than other , that seem likely to be , at best , as obnoxious to them , without a recourse to the peculiar Constitutions of the Bodies of differing Persons ; for it may be conjectur'd , that the noxious Corpuscles that infest the Air , may ( especially in windy weather ) be very unequally disperc'd through the Air , and many fly in far greater or lesser numbers within equal spaces of Air ; and consequently the Persons , that have the ill luck to be in the way of the more numerous swarms of morbifick Corpuscles , may be much more prejudiced by them than others , though of weaker constitutions , who happen to be attaqu'd but by few of them . On which occasion , I remember , that a great many Trees in some Land that belongs to me , having been suddenly much endamag'd by a wind , that was not able to doe it by it's bare strength ; I had the curiosity to view somewhat heedfully a Tree that stood in the Garden , and perceiv'd that all the considerable mischief was done to that side of the Tree , which respected the corner whence the hurtfull Wind blew , the Leaves of the other side continuing fresh and verdant , as being by the other part of the same Tree fenc'd from the Wind : and it was farther observ'd , that even the expos'd side of the Tree was not every-where endamag'd ; for there were divers parts , where the Leaves continued sound and green , though neighbouring Leaves were some more , some less ( for all that were prejudic'd were not totally ) blasted : the sound Leaves and the discolour'd being so odly mingled , that I conjectur'd the cause of the mischief to have been this ; that some Arsenical or other corrosive or poisonous Exhalations , being suddenly emitted from the Subterraneal parts into the Air , were by the Wind they chance to meet with there , hurry'd along with it , and blown against the Bodies that stood in it's way , moving in the Air , like Hail-shot discharg'd out of a Gun , here in a closer , and there in a more scattering order , so that as more or fewer of them happend to fall upon the same Branch or Leafe , they left more , or less marks of their passage , by destroying the texture and colour in the Leaves or parts of them they chanc'd to beat upon . And this may possibly be the cause of some of those sudden and sometimes fatal Effects , that I have known in some places the people talk much of , complaining , that such a one had his Eyes , or his Face , or onely one side of it blasted , by a malignant Wind , of which I thought I saw an Example in a Domestick of my own , whilst in such a Wind he was riding after me , who ( thanks be to God ) had no such mischief done me . But the Vulgar have entertain'd such strange Conceits and Stories about these Blastings , on which account some of them say that Men are Planet-struck that the fabulous things mingled with those that are possible , have made intelligent Persons reject them all . One thing more I shall take notice of in favour of our Hypothesis , which is , that it well agrees with what has been observed , not without some wonder , of the very short duration of some Epidemical Diseases , in certain Times and Places . For this may proceed from hence , either that all the Morbifick Expirations ascended into the Air almost at once , or at least within a short time , and so were easily spent , that is by diffusion or dispersion so weakned , as to be disabled from doing much mischief : or else the Subterraneal Commotion that produc'd them may pass on from one place to another , and so cease to afford the Air incumbent on the first place , the supplies necessary to keep it impregnated with noxious Exhalations . And it agrees well with this Conjecture , that sometimes we may observe certain Epidemical Diseases to have as it were a progressive Motion , and leaving one Town free pass on to another . Of which some Observations that I have made , encline me to think , that if Physicians would heedfully mind it , they might take notice of several Instances . One thing more may be added , as consonant to our Hypothesis ; namely , that sometimes an Epidemical Disease ceases in this or that place , almost as sudden as it invaded , or at least in a much shorter time than Physicians expected . For according to our Hypothesis it may well happen , that after one sort of Exhalations , whose peculiar Qualities make them Morbifick , have deprav'd the Air incumbent on a particular place ; there may by a new or farther Commotion of Subterraneal Bodies , be sent up into the Air store of Expirations of another kind , which meeting with those that formerly impregnated it , may either precipitate them , and so free the Air from them ; or by other operations on them , and sometimes even by Coalitions with them , so alter their nature as to disable them from doing any farther mischief . This I shall illustrate , if not confirm , by that very remarkable Phaenomenon that is yearly observ'd at Grand Cairo in Aegypt ; for , ( though I know not whether or no the Corpuscles that produce it arise from under Ground , the affirmative part of the Question being not improbable ) it appears , that by the intermixture of adventitious Corpuscles , with the formerly Pestilential Air , 't is so alter'd and corrected , that within one day or two , if not within a lesser compass of time , there is a stop put to the progress of the Plagues ; that in that favourable time of year , namely about the middle of Summer , scarce ever misses of raging in that populous City : and , which is more admirable , these sanative Corpuscles ( if I may so call them ) operate so powerfully , that of those that are already seiz'd by that fatallest of Diseases , the Plague , few or none die of it , after once these Antidotal Particles have sufficiently impregnated the Air. I confess so great and sudden a change is very wonderfull , and I should scarce think it credible , if I had not had the means and curiosity to enquire about it of divers persons , some of them very intelligent , that either curiously visited , or also made some considerable stay in , that great City ; and found them agree in the main about the truth of the matter of fact ; which is much confirm'd to me by so eminent a Testimony as that of the learned Prosper Alpinus , who for several years practis'd Physick in Grand Cairo , and as an Eye-witness delivers what he relates more authentically , as well as more particularly , than any I have met with . And , though he endeavours to give several reasons of this strange and sudden cessation of the malignity of the Plague , yet I doubt they are not sufficient for so wonderfull an effect ; unless we take in some new Exhalations , that then impregnate and correct the Air. And we shall scarce doubt of the great interest these have in the effect produc'd , if we give credit to what the recentest Writer I have met with of Voyages into Egypt , has lately publish'd about the annual Pestilence at Grand Cairo , a City he much frequented . This Authour , in the account he gives of the present state of Egypt , relates that a little after the middle of our June ( and usually upon the very seventeenth day ) there begin to fall towards the last quarter of the night , near the morning , certain drops of a kind of Dew , which causes the River to be fruitfull , and purifies the Air from all the Infection of Camsims , by which I presume he means the Pestilence : for after some lines interpos'd he subjoins , The Drops or Dew purifies the Air , for as soon as it falls the Plague ceases to be mortal , none dies of it ; the Air is wholesome , all Distempers cease , and if any person grows sick , he never dies . And then , he adds , This Dew gives life to every thing ; and when it falls upon the Wheat , it causeth it to continue many years without corruption or Worms , and is far more nourishing than that Corn on which it never falls . For this cause they never house the Corn of the Grand Seignior in the Barns , till this Dew is fallen upon it , that it might keep the longer without Worms . As well this Conjecture , as some other things deliver'd here and there in this Paper ( about the Salubrity of the Air , ) may probably gain the more credit , if I here subjoin what I learn'd by inquiry from a very ingenious Gentleman , who was owner of one or more of the Mines , that afford the Phaenomenon I am to mention . Which is this , That in the Tin-mine Countreys in Devonshire , it sometimes happens , ( as perhaps I may have elsewhere noted to another purpose , ) that upon a sudden , a Spot of ground , and that not always narrow , will be as 't were blasted by the ascending hurtfull Fumes ; insomuch that not onely the Grass , Fern and other more tender Vegetables , will be turned black , and as it were burnt or scorched up ; but now and then Trees also , without excepting Oaks themselves will be blasted and spoil'd by the powerfull Operation of these subtil and poisonous Effluvia . It will probably be here expected , that among the Epidemical Diseases that our Hypothesis derives from Subterraneal Effluvia , I should particularly treat of the cause of Pestilential Fevers , and the Plague it self . But , though some such Fevers may not improbably be in great part imputed to the noxious Expirations of the Globe we inhabit ; yet , as to the true Plague it self , I freely confess I am at a loss about it's Origine . The sacred Writings expresly teach , that some Plagues , and particularly that which in David's time swept away in three days 70000 Persons , have been in an extraordinary manner inflicted by God. And to me it appears either scarce possible , or far more difficult than those that have not attentively enough considered the matter , are wont to think it ; To deduce the abstruce Origine , strange Symtomes , and other odd Phaenomena of some Plagues that are recorded in History , from merely Corporeal Causes . On the other side , it seems unphilosophical , and perhaps rather seems than is very pious , to recur without an absolute necessity to Supernatural Causes , for such Effects as do not manifestly exceed the power of Natural ones : though the particular manner of their being produc'd , is perchance more than we are yet able clearly to explicate . And I think it the more questionable , whether all Plagues are Supernatural Exertions of God's Power and Wrath against the Wicked , because I observe that Brutes ( which are as well uncapable of moral Vice , as moral Vertue ) are yet oftentimes subject to Murrains , such as may without incongruity be lookt upon as the Pestilences of Beasts . And 't is the less likely , that these sweeping and contagious Maladies should be always sent for the punishment of impious men , because I remember to have read in good Authours , that , as some Plagues destroy'd both Men and Beasts , so some other did peculiarly destroy Brute Animals , of very little consideration or use to Men , as Cats , &c. Upon these and the like Reasons I have sometimes suspected , that in the Controversie about the Origine of the Plague , namely , Whether , it be Natural , or Supernatural ; neither of the contending Parties is altogether in the right : since 't is very possible , that some Pestilences may not break forth , without an extraordinary , though perhaps not Immediate , interposition of Almighty God , provok'd by the Sins of Men : and yet other Plagues may be produc'd by a Tragical concourse of merely Natural Causes . But though the difficulties that incumber each of the opposite Opinions , keep me both from Dogmatically asserting , that All Plagues have a Supernatural Origine ; and from denying that Any have it : yet , to say something on such an occasion , though I can speak but very hesitantly , I shall venture to add , that , whether or no the true Plague be said to descend to the Earth from a higher Sphere than that of Nature ; yet its Propagation and Effects are ( at least for the most part ) carry'd on mainly by a malignant disposition in the Air ; without which some Plagues could never have been so catching as they were , nor so suddenly mortal ; and that in divers Pestilences this malignant Disposition in the Air , may probably be in great part imputed to some kinds of Subterraneal Expirations , I am prone to think ; and that chiefly upon two Accounts . The first thing that induces me to this Conjecture , is , that not any of the several Causes to which the Plague is wont to be imputed seems to me to be sufficient . Those that fetch it from the malevolent aspects and influence of the Celestial lights , besides that they suppose some things very difficult to be prov'd , have recourse to Agents too remote , too general , and too indeterminate , to be acquiesc'd in as the Causes of such particular Symtomes and Phaenomena , as oftentimes accompany Pestilences . And as for those other Sects of Physicians that confidently derive the Plague , some from Internal Putrefaction , and others from excessive Heats , noisome Stinks , Corrupt aliments , and such other Celebrated Causes ; though each party alledges plausible Reasons for its own opinion , yet their objections against their adversaries are much stronger than their arguments are for themselves . And the Learned Diemer-broeck , though his own Hypothesis seem to be more Theological than Philosophical , has much enervated the Arguments brought for the several opinions lately nam'd , and by him dissented from . The Reasons he employs to refute all the receiv'd opinions about the Origine of the Plague , except his own , are divers of them worthy of so learned a man ; to whom , though I had leisure to transcribe them , I should refer the Curious : my present design being onely to deliver some few things that seem more favourable to my Conjectures , than to his Opinion , and were suggested to me , partly by my own Thoughts , and partly by the informations , that , to examine those Thoughts , I procur'd by consulting some uncommon Authours , and asking Questions of great Travellers and Navigatours . By this means I came to learn , that divers great Countries are usually free from the Plague , that according to the vulgar Hypotheses , ought to be as much subject to it , if not more , than England , France , Italy , and those other parts of Europe and Asia , where that fatal Disease rages from time to time in the parched Regions of Africk , to which the Excessive Heats would make one expect , that the Plagues should make far more frequent visits than to our temperate European Countries ; Leo Africanus informs us , that some parts are so seldom afflicted with that dreadfull Disease , that it usually spares the Inhabitants 29 , or 30 years together . And he expresly records , that in Numidia it self , ( if I much misremember not the Countrey 's name , notwithstanding the raging heat of the Climate , the Plague is wont to be produc'd but once in a hundred years . Our * Purchas informs us that in the Land of Negro's it is not known at all . And to omit what some Travellers and Navigatours relate of Japan , as if it were seldom or never invaded by the Pestilence ; I do not remember that in New England , which contains a great extent of Land , though I have had both Curiosity and opportunity to inquire after the Diseases of that Countrey , I ever heard the English take any notice of the Plague , since their setling there above threescore and ten years ago . And as for the East Indies , Sir Philibert Vernatti , a Virtuoso of great fame and authority at Batavia where he resides , in his ingenious Returns to the Queries sent him by the Royal Society ( of Naturalists ) answers thus to the fifteenth . [ Pestis morbus est Indiarum Incolis incognitus ] The Plague is a Disease unknown amongst the Indians . And of the Countries that lie yet more remote , as the great Empire of China , and the Kingdoms of Tunquin , and of Cochinchina , that great Traveller Alexander de Rhodes , who spent 30 years in those parts , affirms , that the Plague is not so much as spoken of there . And yet the same Jesuit does , upon grounds probable enough , estimate the number of the people of China alone to be two hundred and fifty millions ; [ a number I take to exceed by far that of all the Nations of Europe . ] Now when I consider , how vast Tracts of Land are compriz'd in those Countries , some of which the Plague does not at all , and others but exceeding unfrequently , invade ; this Immunity seems to me very unfavourable to most , if not all , the opinions receiv'd among Physicians , as also that of Diemerbroeck himself who derives the Plague from a Supernatural Cause , the wrath of God against the sins of men . For in Regions of such extent , and divers of them very populous , which are seated under very differing Climats , and which are some of them inhabited by Nations , that make war with numerous Armies , fight bloudy battels , leave heaps of unbury'd Bodies expos'd to the putrefying heat of the Sun ; are sometimes forc'd , as well as others to live upon very unwonted and unwholsome foods ; that worship stocks and stones , and beasts , and some of them Devils , whom they know to be such ; that are at least as guilty as Europeans , of Assassinats , Poisonings , Rapes , Oppression , Sodomy , and other crying Sins : in these Regions , I say , 't is not imaginable but that great Intemperatures of the Air , especially , in point of Heat , Stench of dead Bodies kill'd in fights , unwholsomness of Aliments , malevolent aspects of Celestial Bodies , high provocations of the divine Justice , and in short , all the Causes , to one or other of which the several parties of Physicians are wont to refer the Plague , should be wanting any more than in our Europe ; and yet the Plague which is presum'd to be the Effect of one or other of those Causes , is not here observed to be produc'd . I know that it may be said , that the Historical things I have been reciting , do not onely oppugn the several receiv'd Opinions of Physicians about the cause of the Plague , but disfavour my Conjectures too . But if this be said , I desire it may also be consider'd , that my Judgment about the Plague consists of two Parts ; One , that 't is exceeding difficult to assign the true and adequate Cause of the Origine of the Pestilence ; and the Other , that whatever be the Cause of its First Eruption , its Propagation and divers of its Symptomes , may be probably enough refer'd to the depravation of the Air by Subterraneal Steams , and their Effects . If this be duly consider'd the Historical Observations will appear not to overthrow the First member of our Hypothesis , but rather to confirm it : and 't is upon this account that I have mention'd them in this place . And as to the Second member it may be said , that since in the East Indies and the other Countries , I have nam'd , as privileg'd from this raging Disease , it is not observ'd to break out : as it cannot be said that Subterraneal Effluvia do in those Countries promote the Propagation of it ; so it cannot be prov'd that they could not doe it , incase the Plague were begun by other Causes . But in regard I think it not improbable that sometimes the Plague is not onely fomented but begun by noxious Expirations of the Terrestrial Globe , I shall add that this supposition , though I confess it be somewhat disfavour'd by some of the lately mention'd Observations , yet is not absolutely inconsistent with them . For First , it may be said that some of the Countries I speak of , may be destitute of those noxious minerals to which we impute some Plagues , it holding true in Minerals as well as in Plants . Non omnis fert omnia tellus , and to omit what I have not without some wonders observ'd , of the Limits of differing sorts of Mines and Mineral Veins in very bordering parts of the same tract of Land , I cannot but here take notice , that though Sulphur be in many Countries usually found , and that in plenty where there are other Metalline Veins , insomuch that Chymists make it one of the three Principles of all Metals , yet in the Mines of England more strictly so call'd , I do not remember I ever met with so much as an Ounce of Native Sulphur , and I could not find by divers Mineralists , of whom I purposely ask'd the question that they had met with any among the various Mines they had frequented . It may also happen that there may be hurtfull Minerals in a Countrey , and yet not capable of often producing or promoting Pestilences there , even upon moderate Earthquakes . For 't is possible that these Orpimental or other Noxious Minerals may have their Beds or Veins lying so deep in the Earth , that they are not ordinarily able to send up Effluvia , strong and copious enough to make a Pestilential depravation of the Air , and even in lesser Earthquakes the commotion or agitation of the ground , especially if the Earth-quakes proceed ( as one may suspect that divers of them do ) from the sudden fall of ponderous Masses in the hollow parts of the Earth and the shakings of the ground thereby produc'd , and sometimes spreading far , may not reach so far downwards as much to affect these very deep Mines , and yet some other more violent Earthquakes , may affect even these ; upon which ground one may give some tolerable account why the Plague in some parts of Africk has been observ'd to rage but once in thirty or once in an hundred years ; for there may be periodical Paroxysms , if I may so call them , or grand and vehement Commotions in Subterraneal Parts , though men have not yet , for want of sufficient Longevity or Curiosity observ'd them . On which occasion , I remember that a late judicious French Historian recounts that in part of the last age , and part of this , a very pernicious Disease of the nature of a Colick raign'd in France every tenth year for a long tract of time . And the Experienc'd * Platerus relates , that at Basil , where with great success he practis'd Physick fifty six years , the City was afflicted with furious Plagues once about every tenth year for seventy years together , of each of which Pestilences he gives a particular account in his usefull observation . It may also farther be said , that those Exhalations in the East Indies , &c. that would otherwise be pestiferous , may be corrected by other Expirations that may be either of benign nature , or of such a nature , as though noxious in themselves , may fit them by combining with those that would be pestiferous to disable them to be so , as I elsewhere observ'd out of Beguinus , that a Countrey abounding in veins and masses of Cinnabar , which is the Ore of Quicksilver , was preserv'd from the Plague , when the neighbouring Regions were wasted by it ; and I shall illustrate this matter somewhat farther by taking notice , that though Corrosive Sublimate be so mischievous a Mineral Composition , that a few grains may kill a man , yet the fumes of this combin'd with those of Crude , common Quicksilver , which are themselves unwholesome enough , make Mercurius dulcis , which is a mixture so innocent , that being well prepar'd , and well administred , it is both safely and usefully given even to Children . If what has been said will not suffice , I shall propose another possible way of accounting for the immunity of some Countries from the Plague . For one may conceive that in such Regions the Soil , and other assisting Causes may constantly produce in the Air such a Constitution as is found in the Air of Egypt , during the time of the increase , and overflowing of Nile , which usually lasts every year for several weeks , for during this time the Air is so antipestilential , that not only the Plague does not make a new Eruption ; but is either wonderfully check'd or quite suppress'd in those houses that it has already invaded , so that its mortal infection reaches no farther , and that it may not be thought incredible that some Countries may have , if I may so speak , an antidotal Nature , in reference to some pernicious Evils , I shall represent that there are some whole Countries which are privileg'd from producing Vipers , Toads , and other venemous Creatures , as is vulgarly known concerning Ireland , where I could never see any such , nor find by Enquiry of either the Natives , or English Inhabitants , that they had met with any in that Kingdom , where 't is an uncontroll'd tradition , that if Poysonous Creatures have been carefully brought there from other Parts , they have died almost as soon as they came thither . There are some other Islands to which a like hostility to venemous Animals is ascrib'd : and as it seems not inpossible that some Countries should have a Soil that so impregnats the Air as to make it suppress or quite enervate many differing sorts of Poysons , so others may by their Constitution be qualify'd to master or resist poisonous Expirations or wandering Corpuscles that elsewhere are wont to produce the Plague . And this may suffice for the first thing whereon we ground our Hypothesis . The Second thing that invited me to the above propos'd Suspicion or Conjecture , is , That it affords a not improbable account of some considerable things , relating to the Production and Phaenomena of the Plague . ( 1. ) As First , 't is observ'd that sometimes the Plague breaks out , when there has not preceded any such immoderate distemper of the Air , or any casual Enormity capable of producing so great and anomalous an Effect . Nay , which is more , it has been observ'd , that very great and unusual intemperatenesses of the Air have several times happen'd , and divers notable and threatning Aspects of the Stars have been noted by good Writers without being follow'd by the Plague . The celebrated * Fernelius relates , that near the time he writ this Observation , that Year , which of all those that had pass'd in the memory of Man , was all the World over the most immoderately hot , and was yet most healthfull . And the same Authour reports the Plague to have begun in the midst of Winter , and to have gone off in Summer , and that several times ardent Summers have been altogether free from the Plague : which I also have noted to be true . Johannes Morellus observes , that in his Countrey after a dry Winter , and wherein the North Wind reign'd , though it were succeeded by a most temperate and healthfull Spring , yet this brought in the Plague , and that , when the North Wind was predominant and the Air pure and sincere . Which I the less scruple to believe , because I observ'd something very like it in the Constitutions of the Air , that preceded and accompany'd the dreadfull London Plague that broke out in the year 1665. Which Phaenomena much disfavour their Opinion that impute the Plague to the excesses of the manifest Qualities of the Air ; but are agreeable to our Hypothesis , since by what has been formerly deliver'd , we may gather that Noxious Subterraneal Fumes may be suddenly , and without any warning belch'd up into the Air , and , by depraving it , produce fatal Diseases in many of those that are constantly surrounded by it , and draw it in , almost every moment , with their breath . Of the deadly Hurtfulness of divers Subterraneal Expirations , at their first Eruption , there are many Histories extant in approv'd Authours : And we have observ'd Instances of that sort , in the Times and Countries we live in . But , because all Poisonous , and even mortal , Exhalations are not therefore truly Pestiferous , but may , like many other Poisons , kill the Persons they immediately invade , without qualifying them to infect others ; I shall add a Passage out of that Excellent Historian Monsieur de Mezeray who relates in the life of Philip de Valois , that the Plague that happened in France in the Year 1346. was so contageous and destructive , that scarce a Village , or even a House , escap'd uninfected by it . He adds , that this Pestilence , than which none had been observ'd more furious and spreading , began two years before in the Kingdom of Cathay , by a vapour that was most horribly stinking , which brake out of the Earth like a kind of Subterraneal fire , consum'd and devour'd above 200 Leagues of that Countrey , even to the very Trees and Stones , and infected the Air in a wonderfull manner . From Cathay , say's he , it pass'd into Asia and Greece , thence into Africk , afterwards into Europe , which it ransack'd throughout . Other Instances , of Pestilences begun by noxious Subterraneal Fumes , I have met with in good Authours ; but cannot now recall the Particulars to mind , and therefore shall pass on to the second Observation . ( 2. ) In the next place then ; whereas 't is noted by diligent Observers , that there is a wonderfull diversity in several Countries , and even in the same Countrey at several distant times , of those raging Diseases , that Physicians agree in calling the Plague , ( whence it happens that such Medicins or Methods of curing as are in one Plague succesfull , as Phlebotomy , Purging , &c. do oftentimes in another prove dangerous , if not mortal ) whereas ( I say ) this great variety has been observ'd in Plagues ; it may be fairly accounted for , by the great number and diversity that has been actually found , or may be reasonably suppos'd , in the numerous Minerals , and other Bodies that nature has lay'd up in the Subterraneal Regions : especially if we consider , that the number of such Bodies may be much increas'd and diversified , by the various combinations which may be made of them , not onely by casualties , but by the action of Subterraneal Fires , and aestuaries , and menstruums , such as I have elsewhere shewn to be lodg'd beneath the turf or superficies of the Earth . And the ascending Corpuscles of those Mineral Bodies , being most of them solid and subtile , may produce in the Bloud ; and so in the Body , far more odd , and violent Symtomes , than the peccant Humours that use to beget ordinary Diseases . Which may be one reason , and perhaps the chief , why the ancient Heathens , and Hippocrates himself , acknowledg'd in Pestilential Diseases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , somewhat of Divine , surpassing ordinary Nature . What these Mineral Substances are , whose steams produce such odd and dismal Symtomes , I think exceeding hard to determine . Yet , if I were to name one sort , I should perhaps think the least unlikely to be Orpiment . For , of the Poysonous Minerals we are acquainted with , I know not any of which there is greater quantity in the Bowels of the Earth ; especially taking that name , in the latitude allowed it , by those skilfull men , that make three sorts of it , viz. Yellow , Red and White Orpiment , divers of whose mischievous Effects seem to agree well enough with the Symtomes of some Plagues , and may be guessed to have at least a considerable interest in the production of them . But yet , to speak candidly , I do not think that these Minerals are the causes , even of all those Pestilences whose efficients may come from under the Ground : For several reasons , and some drawn from Experience , make me think that the Subterraneal Regions have many kinds of very mischievous fossiles , of which Physicians , and even Chymists , have no knowledge , and for which they have not any distinct names ; and that the various associations of these , which Nature may by Fire and menstruums make under Ground , and perhaps in the Air it self ; may very much increase the number , and variety of hurtfull Matters , and also heighten their hostility to Humane Bodies : as I think may be argued from the factitious White Arsenick that is commonly sold in Shops , which though usually made of Orpiment , by the addition of so innocent a Body as common Salt , ( which is found in great plenty under Ground , ) is observ'd to be far more poysonous than Orpiment it self . And I remember that a skilfull Chymist , having in my presence tasted some prepar'd , and , as was thought , somewhat corrected Arcenick ; was quickly invaded by such Symtomes , as he thought would presently kill him . But , through God's blessing , I quickly put him out of danger , though not out of pain , by early prescribing him store of Oil of sweet Almonds , and something made of Lemmons , that I chanc'd to have by me : But to return to what I was saying ; Sandarach seems to be , but Orpiment whose yellow Colour is deepn'd to Redness : and native Arsenick , ( for I have seen such a thing , though it rarely comes into England , ) seems to be little other than pale or white Orpiment . And indeed in Hungary , all three may be found not far from one another in the same Mine ; As I learn'd by Inquiry from an observing Eye-witness , by whose means , and of another Chymist , divers Native Orpimental Minerals ( to say nothing of Realgar ) because it is a Factitious combination of Orpiment and Sulphur , came to my hands . And as this sort of Fossiles comprizes more numerous and various ones , than is vulgarly noted , so the very noxious effects of the Effluvia of Orpiment , are not unknown to divers Physicians : and the Learned Sennertus gives a particular instance of it in a Painter , who upon opening a Box where Orpiment , which men of his Profession use as a Pigment , had been long kept , had his face all swell'd , and was cast into fainting Fits. And as White Arsenick is of a more piercing and corrosive nature , so it were not difficult to shew out of the Writings of eminent Physicians that its effects have divers times proved very hurtfull , and sometimes mortal . When but externally worn in Amulets , especially if the Pores of the Skin were open by exercise and sweat ; and the nature of the Symptomes produced seems to confirm our Hypothesis , since the Persons that wore these Arsenical Amulets were affected , some with great anxieties about the Heart , some with inflammation , some with burning Fevers , some with exulceration of the Breasts , so some with Pussles like those of the Plague , and these were sometimes black , as if made with a Caustick : most Patients were affected with great weakness and faintness , &c. as if they had swallowed Poison ; and of one young Man 't is recorded , that having heated himself in a Tennis-court with an Amulet upon his Breast , the virulence of its Corpuscles made him fall down stark dead upon the Spot . And 't is a considerable Circumstance in these Observations , that several Patients were cur'd of the Symptomes that seem'd to be Pestilential ones by the same Remedies that are Alexipharmacal against the Plague , whence it may also be made probable , that the Plague it self many times is a natural , though a dreadfull and anomalous Disease , since its Effects and Symptomes so much resemble those of acknowledg'd Poisons , and have been cur'd by Antidotes effectual against other Poisons . I have not time to mention what I have my self try'd and observ'd about the bad effects of Orpiment , and its kinds . But I remember , that enquiring of an ingenious Man , who sometimes visited a Mine which was known to abound with Orpimental Fossils ; he answer'd me , that when he walked over the neighbouring Grounds , he found himself much disorder'd , especially in his Thorax by the Effluvia , and that the Mine-men and Diggers were subject to a malignant anomalous and dangerous sort of Fevers , though he said he was apt to impute , I know not how truly , some part of their obnoxiousness to it , to their drinking too much strong Wine . But though 't is probable the Effluvia of Orpimental Bodies may have a great interest in several Plagues , yet , I strongly suspect that many others may proceed from the steams of such Subterraneal Bodies as are not yet distinctly known to us ; and possibly have their Effluvia variously combin'd , either beneath or above the surface of the Earth . I say above ; because I have several times , and that without heat , combin'd separately invisible fumes of differing kinds , into manifestly visible ones in the free and open Air. And that the Subterraneal Effluvia may produce effects , and therefore probably be of natures , very uncommon , irregular , and if I may so speak , extravagant , may appear in those prodigious Crosses that were seen in our time , viz. in the Year 1660. in the Kingdom of Naples , after an eruption of the fiery Mountain Vesuvius : of which Prodigies the Learned Kircherus has given an account in a particular Diatribe . For these Crosses were seen on Linen Garments , as Shirt-sleeves , Womens Aprons , that had lain open to the Air , and upon the expos'd parts of Sheets ; which is the less to be admired , because as Kircher fairly guesses , the mineral vapours were by the texture that belongs to Linen [ which consists of threads crossing one another for the most part at or near right Angles ] easily determin'd to run along in almost streight lines , crossing each other , and consequently to frame Spots resembling some one , and some another kind of Crosses . These were extremely numerous in several Parts of the Kingdom of Naples : insomuch that the Jesuit that sent the Relation to Kircher says that he himself found thirty in one Altar-cloth , that fifteen were found upon the Smock sleeve of a Woman , and that he reckoned eight in a Boy 's Band : also their colour and magnitude were very unequal , and their figures discrepant , as may appear in many Pictures of them drawn by the Relatour : they would not wash out with simple water , but requir'd Soap ; their duration was also unequal , some lasting ten or fifteen days , and others longer before they disappear'd . And these Crosses were found not onely upon Linen Garments expos'd to the Air , but upon some of those ( belonging to Altars ) that were kept lock'd up in Chests ( to which possibly they might have access by the Key-holes , or some unheeded chinck . ) To which strange Phaenomena if I had the leisure to add some others that I have met with in Agricola , and other approved Authours , whose Relations my memory doth not now serve me particularly to cite ; I presume it would appear yet more probable that Subterraneal Effluvia may now and then be of a very Anomalous nature , and produce strange effects , and among them variety of Pestiferous ones in the Air. But , to add this upon the bye : though I fear Physicians will not be able to discover all the subterraneal Bodies whose Effluvia produce or contribute to the Plague : yet I do not think it impossible that by diligent observations and trials , sagacious Men may discover divers of them ; and perhaps Antidotes against them . And though the business of this Paper be to treat of the Causes , not the Remedies of the Plague ; yet I love Mankind too well , to suppress on this occasion an Observation , that , by God's blessing , may in some cases , save the lives of many . In the late great Plague that swept away so many thousands at London , there staid in the City an Ingenious Physician , that was bred by the Learned Diemerbroeck , ( whose Book De Peste , I prefer to any I have yet read of that Disease . ) This Doctour ( whose name I am sorry I have forgotten ) hearing that I was desirous to receive an account of the Plague from some intelligent Eye-witness , and having soon after some occasion to pass near the Place in the Countrey where I then resided , was pleas'd to give me a visit , and a rational account of the main things I desired to know ; and when I inquired about his method of Cure , after he had told me that he had twice had the Plague himself , whereof he shewed me some effects ; he added , that after many and various trials , he perceiv'd that abundance of his Patients died , after the Bubos , ( Carbuncles ) or Pestilential Tumours appear'd ; because upon a little refrigeration of the Body by the Air , and oftentimes by the very fear that disheartened the Patient , the Tumours would suddenly subside , and the Pestilential Matter recoiling upon the Vital Parts , would quickly dispatch the fatal work . Wherefore he bethought himself of a method , by means of which he assur'd me , he had not lost one Patient of very many he treated ; if he could but , as he usually did , by good Alexipharmical , and Cordial Remedies , enable and excite Nature to expell the peccant Matter into a Tumour ; for then he presently clapp'd on an appropriated drawing Plaster , which would never suffer the Tumour to subside ; but break it , or make it fit for opening , and thereby give Nature a convenient vent , at which to discharge the matter that oppress'd her . This Plaster 't will easily be thought I was desirous to know ; and he told me 't was a Chymical one , and that 't was no other than the Magnes Arsenicalis of Angelus sala , whose description , because the Book wherein 't is found , is in few hands , I have here annext . If this prove as successfull in other Plagues , as it did to those that us'd it in that of London ; there will be just cause to admire and praise the benignity of Divine Providence , which in a poisonous Mineral , that probably does oftentimes concur to produce the Plague , has laid up a remedy for it . Emplastrum attractivum Pestilentiale nostrum . ℞ Gummi Sagapeni , Ammoniaci , Galbani an . ℥ iii. Terebinthinae coctae , cerae virginis ana ℥ ivss . Magnetis Arsenicalis subtiliter pulverisati ℥ ii . radic ' Aronis pulverisat ' ℥ i. Gummi depurentur cum aceto scyllitico , & ad consistentiam Emplastri coquantur , & postea ponderentur , deinde cum rebus aliis fiat Emplastrum lege artis , hoc Emplastro Carbunculus obducatur , quod paucis horis venenum extrahit . Praeparatio Magnetis Arsenicalis antea dicti . ℞ Arsenici Chrystallini , sulphuris vitri , antimonii crudi ana , haec tria in mortario ferreo pulverisentur , in vase fortissimo vitreo , ponantur ad ignem arenae donec vitrum optimè incalcscat , & praedicta solvantur & liquentur instar picis , quod observabitur quando filum quoddam immittitur in fundum quod extractum postea instar Terebinthinae trahetur ubi satis coctum erit , postea remove vitrum ab igne , & ubi refrigeratum est rumpe , & subtiliter pulverisa , & ad usum serva . By the same motive ( Philanthropy ) I am induc'd to add on this occasion , that having had some opportunity to oblige an ancient and very experienc'd Physician , to whose care was committed a great Pesthouse , where the Contagion was so strong , that he lost three Physicians that were to be Assistants to him , and three Chirurgeons of four that were to be subservient to him ; I disir'd to learn of him , if he counted it not too great a secret , what Antidote he us'd to preserve himself from so violent and fatal an Infection . This request he readily granted , but withall told me , that his method would not seem to me worth mentioning , if I were one that valu'd Medicines by their Pompousness , not their Utility . For , besides ardent Prayers to God , and a very regular Diet , his constant Antidote was onely , to take every Morning fasting a little Sea-salt dissolv'd in a few spoonfulls of fair Water ; which he made choice of , both because it kept his Body soluble without purging or weakning it , and for other Reasons which I must not now stay to set down . I know this Medicine may appear a despicable one ; but yet in my Opinion it ought not to be despis'd , after such Experience as I have related has recommended it . For I think it desirable , that notice be taken of all Remedies , that have been found by good Trials , not bare Conjectures or uncertain Reports , available against the Plague . For , since Pestilences , as we have lately noted , are exceeding various in their kinds , 't is very possible , and not unlikely , that their Appropriated Remedies may be so too . And therefore I would not easily lay aside every Medicine , that this or that Learned Physician may speak slightly of , or even may declare that he has found it unsuccessfull against the Plague ; since the same Medicine may be available in a Pestilence of another kind , in which perhaps the Remedies commended by the Physician we speak of , will be found inefficacious . This Consideration forbids me to pass by what happen'd to me in the great London Plague above-mention'd ; namely , that a very Learned Physician having once recommended to me an Herb little noted in England , as a most effectual and experienced Antidote against the Plague , I caus'd it to be cultivated in a Garden ( as I still do every year ; ) and when the Pestilence raged most , having some of it by me , made up with a little Sugar in the form of a fine green Conserve , I sent it to two infected Persons , who , by the Divine Benediction on it , both of them recover'd . But having made but those two Trials , I dare not ground much upon them onely ; though I usually keep the Plant growing in a Garden , partly because both the Taste and Colour ; one or other of which in most Antidotes is offensive , are in this pleasant ; and partly because some little Experience has invited me to believe the Commendations that I have found given of it , against the Bitings of venomous Creatures : whereof I remember a notable Instance is recorded by Petrus Spehrerius of a Roman , who having with his Staff pierc'd or crush'd a Viper , that he took to be dead , had so strong a Venom transmitted along the Staff , that the insuing Night he had a very great Inflammation in both his Lips , to which superven'd an exceeding Ardent Fever and strange Tortures ; from all which Serianus Pacyonius , a noted Physician that was call'd to him , free'd him as it were by Miracle , by the Juice of Goats-rue , or as others call it Galega , that grew copiously in that Place . It may without disgust be taken somewhat plentifully , ( and so it ought to be ) in its entire substance as a Salad ; or else one may give its Conserve , its Syrup , or , which is better , its Juice newly express'd . ( 3. ) It likewise agrees with our Hypothesis ; that sometimes the Plague ceases , or at least very notably abates of its Infectiousness and Malignity , in far less time than according to the wonted course of that ravenous Disease , Physicians did , or rationally could expect . For sometimes it may happen , that , though the Temperature or Intemperateness of the Air continues the same , the matter that afforded the Pestiferous Exhalations may be either spent under ground , or so alter'd by combination with other subterraneal Bodies , or by some of those many Accidents that may happen , altogether unknown to us , in those deep and dark Recesses . And if once the Fountain of these noxious Effluvia be stopt , so that those that are in the Air cease to be recruited , the Wind and other causes may in a short time dissipate them , or at least dilute them with innocent Air , so far , as to keep the Disease they produc'd from being any thing near so mischievous as before . And here I consider , that it may several times happen , that , though the Minerals that emit the hurtfull Expirations , remain where they were under ground , and be not considerably wasted , yet their fatal Effects may not be lasting , because the Effluvia were generated by the conflict of two or more of them , which vehemently agitated one another , and sent up fumes , which ceas'd to ascend , at least in great plenty , when the Conflict and Agitation ceas'd . As , I have try'd that by putting good Spirit of Salt upon Filings of Steel or Iron in a conveniently shap'd Glass , there will be made a great conflict between them , and without the help of external Heat , there will be sent up into the Air store of visible Fumes of a very Sulphureous Odour , and easily inflammable , which copious elevation of Fumes will lessen or cease , as does the tumultuous agitation that produc'd them . And so likewise , if you pour Aqua fortis upon a convenient proportion of Salt of Tartar , there will be at first a great ebullition produc'd , and , whilst that continues , store of red and noisome Fumes will be elevated , but will not long outlast the commotion of the mixture , whose active parts will in no long time combine into a kind of nitrous Salt , wherein the noxious parts of the Menstruum are as it were pinion'd , and hinder'd from evaporating or ascending , though really they retain much of their pristine nature , as I elsewhere shew . It may also happen , that soon after that commotion of subterraneal Matter , which sent forth pestiferous Exhalations , a more intense degree of subterraneal Heat , or perhaps the same latent Fire , extending it self farther and farther , may force up Fumes of another sort , that being of a contrary nature , may be , if I may so speak , antidotal against the former ; and by precipitating them , or combining with them , may disable them from acting so mischievously as otherwise they would . To countenance which I shall tell you , that I have sometimes purposely made Distillations , in which one part of the Matter being , after the operation ended , put to the other , there will ensue a sudden and manifest conflict between them , and sometimes an intense degree of Heat . And that mineral Exhalations , though otherwise not wholesome , may disable pestiferous Effluvia , may be gather'd from what I lately noted about a Countrey , which abounding with veins of Cinnabar , was , probably by their expirations , preserved from the Pestilence . And our Hypothesis will perhaps appear somewhat the more probable , if we reflect on what I lately mention'd of the sudden check , that is almost every Summer given to the Plague , which at that time is wont to reign at Grand Cairo . For since 't is generally observ'd and complain'd of , that Morbifick Causes doe their work much more effectually than Sanative ones . It seems very probable that Exhalations ascending from under-ground into the Atmosphere , may be capable of producing pestilential Fevers , and the Plague it self , since those Corpuscles that impregnate the Egyptian Air upon the swelling of the Nile , are able to put a speedy stop , not onely to the contagiousness , but to the malignity of the Plague , even when 't is assisted by the Summer Heat , which at Grand Cairo is wont to be excessive . But having insisted perhaps too long on this Egyptian Pestilence , I shall onely add , by way of Illustration of the Conjecture that invited me to mention it , that the accession even of Expirations that are not themselves wholsome , may sometimes serve to correct the Air , and put a sudden check to an Epidemical Disease . For Corpuscles of differing kinds may by their Coalitions acquire new Qualities , and each sort of them lose some of those they had before : as , suppose there wander'd in the Air a great many Effluvia , which by their determinate shape and bulk were apt to corrode or irritate the Lungs , or the Membranes of the Brain , &c. as those of Nitre are to corrode Silver ; it may happen that another sort of Reeks , though in their own nature unwholsome , may , by associating themselves with the first sort , and composing with them Curpuscles of new qualities , abolish or much weaken the noxious ones they had before , in reference to this or that part of the Humane Body . Though the Spirits of Salt-peter will readily corrode Silver , yet if you add to them ( as for some purposes I am wont to do ) about half as much or less of the spirituous Particles of common Salt , ( which yet are corrosive enough , and will fret asunder the parts of Iron , Copper , Antimony , &c. ) there will emerge a Body that will not at all corrode pure Silver . PROPOSITION IV. T is very probable , that most of the Diseases that even Physicians call New ones , are caus'd either chiefly or concurrently by Subterraneal Steams . THE Product of my first Endeavours to bring credit to the foregoing Proposition , appearing to have miscarry'd , when I came to send to the Press the things I had written about it ; that at least what can be preserv'd of it may not be lost , I shall substitute in stead of it the following Account . At the entrance of my Discourse I observ'd that the Term new Disease was much abused by the Vulgar , who are wont to give that Title to almost every Fever , that , in Autumn especially , varies a little in its Symptoms , or other Circumstances , from the Fevers of the foregoing Year or Season . And therefore I declared , that by new Diseases I meant onely such , whose Symptoms were so uncommon , that Physicians themselves judged them to deserve that appellation ; Such , for instance , as the Sudor Anglicus or Sweating Sickness ; that Disease which the learned Wierus and others call in Dutch Die Varen ; an unheard-of Disease describ'd by Ronseius , that in the Year 1581 invaded and destroy'd many in the Dukedom of Lunenburg ; to which many Physicians add the Rickets , and others generally the Lues Venerea . Having clear'd the Terms , I next consider'd whether there were really any new Diseases properly so call'd , and gave some reasons to suspect that some Diseases , which among Physicians themselves have pass'd for New , were extant before in rerum natura , though not in the Countrey wherein even the learned judg'd them to be new . And I intimated , that to examine this Suspicion throughly , 't is not safe to acquiesce in the Books of Physicians onely ; but 't is fit to consult the Writings of Geographers , whether ancient ( among whom I particularly recommended Strabo ) or Modern , together with the Relations of Historians , Navigators and other Travellers . And here I inquired , without determining any thing , whether the Lues Venerea be , as most Physicians are wont to suppose a Disease wholly new , or onely new to our European World , and brought hither from some African or other remote Region , where it may be probably suspected to have long been Endemical . But taking it for granted , with the generality of Physicians , that some new Diseases are to be admitted ; I advanced to consider some of the Causes , to which they may be imputed ; And to give some reasons , why I do'nt acquiesce in their Opinion , though very general , that derive them onely or chiefly from the varying influences of the Heavenly Bodies . For the most powerfull of those , namely the Sun and Moon , act in too general and indeterminate a way , to afford a sufficient account of this affair . And as for the other Lights , the fixt Stars , besides their being universal and indefinite agents , their scarce measurable remoteness makes it justly questionable , whether they have any sensible Operation upon any part of our Bodies , save our Eyes . And , though I deny not that great intemperateness of the Air , as to the four first Qualities , as Heat , Cold , Driness and Moisture , are wont ( not over justly ) to be call'd , may dispose mens Bodies to several great Distempers , and may also be concurrent causes of those we are speaking of : yet neither can I acquiesce in these , when I consider how much more frequently they happen , than new Diseases do ; and that their action , though various , is too general and indeterminate to perswade me , that they can be the adequate causes of effects so rare and anomalous ▪ as Diseases odd enough to deserve the Title of new . But now ; the Subterranean Region of our Globe , besides that it is always near us , abounds with variety of noxious Minerals , and probably conceals great quantities of differing sorts of them , that are yet unknown to us . And since we have elsewhere proved , that there want not causes in the Bowels of the Earth , to make great and irregular , and Sometimes sudden Confluxes , Conflicts , Dissipations , and other considerable Changes , amongst the Materials , that nature has plentifully treasured up in those her secret Magazins . And since , in making out the three former Propositions , we have manifested , that the Subterraneal parts of the Globe we inhabit , may plentifully send up Noxious Effluvia of several kinds into the Air ; it ought not to seem improbable that among this Emergent variety of Exotick and hurtfull Steams , some may be found capable to disaffect Humane Bodies , after a very uncommon way , and thereby to produce new Diseases ; whose duration may be greater or smaller , according to the lastingness of those Subterraneal causes , that produce them . On which account it need be no wonder , that some new Diseases have but a short duration , and vanish not long after , there appearing the Source or Fomes of the Morbifick Effluvia , being soon destroy'd , or spent : whereas some others may continue longer upon the Stage , as having under ground more settled and durable causes to maintain them . Which last part of the Observation may be illustrated by what happen'd in Calabria ; which Province , though it have been observed to have acquired , within these two or three ages , the faculty of producing Manna upon certain Trees * ; yet this great change , though sudden enough , had it seems such stable causes , as well as of great extent , that it hath lasted several scores of years , and continues in that Countrey to this day . I am not ignorant that the whole Doctrine propounded in the four Propositions about the Insalubrity of the Air , is not at all comfortable either to Patients or Physicians : But important Theories deserv'd to be inquir'd into , and , if true , to be deliver'd though we could wish they were untrue . And judicious men rather thank than blame those that have given us account of latent or unsuspected , though perhaps irremediable causes of Diseases and of death ; or have recorded the Histories of some Poysons , whereof the true Antidotes are yet unknown . Uncommon Notions about Diseases may serve to inlarge the Physicians mind and excite his attention and curiosity : and , besides that they may keep him from too obstinately persisting in the use of receiv'd Medicins , though unsuccessfull , upon a Supposition that the Disease can have no other causes , than those wont to be assign'd it by Classick Authours : besides this , I say ; I do not despair , but that either the sagacity or fortune of this inquisitive age , or at least of Posterity , may by the blessing of God be happy enough to find proper Remedies , even for those Diseases that proceed from Subterranean Effluvia , when once by proper Signs they shall be distinctly discover'd ; ( Of which power of appropriated Remedies ) I have known some Instances , as to the very bad Symptoms produc'd by Antimonial and some other Mineral Fumes . Some of the Points discours'd of under the fourth Proposition , were of affinity enough to Paradoxes to have need of being illustrated or confirmed by Observations and Experiments . And therefore having accidentally retriev'd some of this last nam'd sort , I shall venture to subjoin them as a Specimen , though without Transitions or Applications , but just as I found them thrown together , in one loose sheet , wherein I lighted on them . But it is time to conclude with the recital of the promised Experiments . Which I would immediately do , but that I hold it fit to premise , by way of Introduction to them , that I hope the Things hitherto discours'd will appear much the more probable , if we shall prove by Experiments , that which seems much less likely than any thing we have above deliver'd ; namely , that Metals completely formed and malleable may be elevated into the Air , and that perhaps without any great violence of Fire , in the form of Exhalations and Vapours ; the singly invisible Corpuscles still retaining their Metalline nature . This at least , as to some Metals , I have endeavour'd to prove in another Tract , [ entitl'd a Paradox about the Fuel of Flames . ] But because that Discourse was never publish'd I will here set down two or three Experiments , ( not mention'd , that I remember in it . ) Which I do , the more willingly , because it may be a Thing of no small moment in Physick , if it be shewn that Fixt and solid Bodies , such as Metals are , may by art be reduc'd into such minute Corpuscles , that without loosing their nature and all their Properties , they may become parts of Fumes , or perhaps of invisible Vapours , or even of Flame it self . Particulars belonging to the IVth Proposition . EXPER. I. WE took three Parts or Pounds of Dantsic Vitriol ( which is blew and somewhat partakes of Copper ) and two Parts or Pounds of good Sea-salt ; these being very well powder'd and mix'd were distill'd with a strong naked Fire , to force out all that could be driven over : and by this means we not onely obtain'd a Spirit of Salt of a manifestly blewish Colour , but there ascended also a considerable quantity of Powder , which being shaken with the Liquor , settled at the bottom of it in the form of a Powder , which was judg'd to consist of Corpuscles of a Cupreous nature , and perhaps also of some of a Martial nature . But I unhappily neglected the opportunity of examining this Powder , which came up in quantity enough to have serv'd for various Trials . EXPER. II. By substituting English Vitriol ( which is green , and is much more abundant in Iron than that of Dantsic , ) and proceeding in other respects as in the former Process , we obtain'd a very yellow Spirit , with a considerable quantity of a yellowish Powder , that was guess'd to be a kind of Crocus Martis . EXPER. III. We took very thin Plates of Copper , and cast them into a Retort , upon an equal or a double weight ( for we did not always use the same ) of good Mercury Sublimate ; and luting on the Receiver , gave a Fire by degrees for several hours : by which means we usually obtain'd some running Mercury , ( which seemed to be very well purifi'd and was perhaps also impregnated ) together with some Sublimate that had not fasten'd upon the Copper . And at the bottom of the Retort we had good store of a ponderous and brittle substance , that did not look at all like a Metal , but rather like something of a Gummous or Resinous nature , being also fusible and inflammable almost like sealing Wax . This , having not opportunity to prosecute the Experiment at home , I put into the hands of an industrious Physician , that was earnest with me to impart to him the Process , and let Him pursue it for me . He according to my direction expos'd this Metalline Rosin ( if I may so call it ) grossly beaten to the free Air , where it did , according to Expectation , in a short time change Colour , and turn to a kind of Verdegreece : which being dissolv'd in good Spirit of Salt gave a Solution of a very lovely green Colour . This being slowly distill'd ad Siccitatem , yielded but a very weak and phlegmatick Liquour ; and the Caput Mortuum was again dissolv'd in fresh Spirit , and the Menstruum abstracted as before . This was done several times , till the matter was so impregnated , that the Menstruum being drawn off from it , came over as strong almost as when it was put on . This done , the thus impregnated Verdegreece was diligently mingl'd with Tripoly , or some such insipid and fixt additament , and distill'd with a strong Fire ; by which means it afforded good store of a Liquour Colourless like common Water : which made the Physician suppose the Experiment had miscarry'd , till I having dropt into it a Colourless Liquor , namely Spirit of Hartshorn or of Sal-armoniac ; He was much and delightfully surpriz'd , to find it presently disclose a deep and lovely blew Colour . What afterwards became of this odd Spirit , I need not here declare ; what has been said being sufficient , to shew that Corpuscles of Copper may be elevated in the form of Exhalations both transparent and Colourless . The next following Experiment though in part mention'd by some Chymist is here subjoin'd , because it 's necessary and applied to a particular purpose . EXPER. IV. If from good ▪ Cornish Tin you warily distill an equal or double weight of Venetian Sublimate , into a very large Receiver very well luted on to the Retort , you will obtain a spirituous Liquor , which as soon as the free Air comes to touch it , will send up abundance of white Exhalations in the form of a thick Smoak , which will continue to be emitted much longer than one would imagine . But that which I desire to have particularly observ'd in this Experiment is , that though this Liquor be thus apt to emit Smoak , not onely plentifully , but as one would think with Violence , yet I found by Trial , that even when I put it into a Vessel not strait mouth'd , if I did but lay a piece of a single leaf of Paper flat-wise upon the Orifice of the Glass , so as to cover it all , the visible production of the Fumes would presently cease ; and the Liquor would lie like common Water , as long as the Paper lay , though but lightly upon the Glass ; though upon the Removal of that , the Liquor would send up plentifull Fumes as before , which seems to argue , that some Metalline Substances may , by the contact of the Air , have their Copious ascension into the Atmosphere very much help'd and promoted , as if the Air had Saline or other sort of Particles in it , that are in reference to some Mineral Bodies of a very volatilizing nature . The way by which I have divers times elevated the Fixedst of ▪ Metals , Gold it self , I have deliver'd in another Paper , and shall not here repeat it . But I shall now set down an Experiment that when it is carefully made , is easie to be perform'd , and yet affords a notable and sensible Proof , that the Corpuscles of a Metal may be made to ascend , and that plentifully , even with a very moderate Heat , under the form of ordinary Fumes or Smoak . To effect this I devis'd the following Experiment . We took Copper and dissolv'd it in good Aqua fortis , till the Menstruum was Satiated with it , in the strong Solution we steep'd a while some brown or other porous Paper , that being fitter than the finer , to soak up the Menstruum ; then slowly evaporating the superfluous moisture , we put a quantity of this imperfectly dry'd Paper upon the Hearth , at such a distance from a Fire of actually flaming Wood that the Paper was not kindled , but yet was so scorch'd , as to afford very plentifull Fumes : these look'd like ordinary Smoak , whilst they mov'd through the Air , and would questionless have mingl'd with it , and been dispers'd through it , if the Body that emitted them had not been purposely plac'd for a future design . But when the motion of the Air towards the Flame had carry'd these Fumes to it , the Metalline Smoak did , as I expected , disclose its nature ; for being actually kindled , it ting'd the Flame of a lovely Colour , for the most part Blew , and sometimes Green , as it happen'd to be variously mix'd with the Flame and Smoak of the Wood. THE END . A Short Supplement TO THE ESSAY OF THE GREAT EFFECTS OF Even Languid and Vnheeded LOCAL MOTION . THAT I may not be altogether wanting to the Expectation that may have been rais'd , by a Passage in the Advertisement prefix'd to the foregoing Essay ; I shall here subjoin some Particulars , which perhaps will not be unwelcome to the Readers , that occurr'd to my remembrance , whilst I was , with a transient Eye , reviewing the Heads of the past Discourse . But these Paralipomena or Supplements will be but few , not onely because of my want of leasure to review the Tract they belong to deliberately , but also because some Instances , that might be here subjoin'd , may be more opportunely brought in in other Papers . To the IIId . Chapter . THAT the Motion of the Air that accompanies Sounds may be propagated to great Distances , and yet make considerable Impressions on the Bodies it finds there , dispos'd to admit its Action , may be notably confirm'd , by a Phaenomenon I have met with , in the learned Mathematician Borellus , who relates it upon his own knowledge , and not undeservedly magnifies it : which I shall therefore recite in his own Words . Aderam ( says he ) Tauromenii Siciliae , quando Aetna mons eruptionem quandam effecerat propè Ennam , urbem fere 30. Milliaria à Tauromenio distantem , tunc vicibus interpolatis eruptiones ingentes ignis vorago efficiebat , grandi sono & strepitu , & tunc omnia Tauromenii aedificia , tremore concutiebantur , in quo Circumstantiam notatu dignissimam observavi : scilicet , quòd domus & aedificia quae directè exposita erant prospectui ejusdem voraginis , vehementissimè concutiebantur ; reliquae verò domus , quae conspectu voraginis privabantur , satis lentè & leniter tremorem efficiebant . Upon which matter of fact he thus argues : Profectò , si hujusmodi tremor factus fuisset à concussione & resilitione soli Tauromenitani , omnes domus aequè concussae fuissent , & aequali tremore agitatae , ita ut non possit conspectus voraginis tam insignem & evidentem inaequalitatem tremoris procreare ; igitur necessariò à tremore ejusdem aëris incusso in parietibus domorum liberè percussiones excipientum , agitatio illa efficiebatur . Videas hinc , ( infers he ) quanta soni ad 30 milliarium distantiam efficacia sit . To the Vth. Chapter . THAT Motion may be propagated far , through Bodies of differing Natures , may be inferr'd from what is mention'd in this Chapter , especially about Earthquakes . But because it may reasonably be suspected , that the Active Matter which produces those stupendious Motions , is dispers'd into divers Places , and may be of considerable Extent , I shall here subjoin , out of the Eloquent Famianus Strada , an Instance , which is much the most memorable to my purpose that I remember to have met with in History ; to manifest to how great an extent a Motion excited in a very narrow compass , perhaps but a very few fathom square , may be propagated through differing Mediums , and one of them as solid as Earth . This famous Historian then , having describ'd a stupendious Work , that had been with great skill and care made by the Prince of Parma , to keep the City of Antwerp , which he closely besieged , from being reliev'd by the River Scheldt ( which , though not broad , is deep ) proceeds to relate , that an Engineer , who was a great Master in his Art , having undertaken to destroy this great Work with a Vessel ( which I think we may call a Floating Mine ) fraught with Gunpowder , Fireworks , &c. perform'd it with so tragical a success , that some Spanish Officers that were present , reckon'd 800. to have been kill'd outright , besides a great number that were wounded and maim'd . But that Part of the Narrative which comes home to our present purpose , is deliver'd in these Words . On a sudden the fatal Ship burst , with such a horrid crash , as if the very Sky had rent asunder , Heaven and Earth had charg'd one another , and the whole Machine of the Earth it self had quaked . For the Storm of Stones , Chains and Bullets being cast out with Thunder and Lightning , there followed such a Slaughter , as no man , but that actually it happen'd , could have imagin'd . The Castle on which the Internal Ship fell , the Pile-work of the Bridge to St. Mary's Fort , that part of the Naval Bridge next the Castle , Souldiers , Mariners , Commanders , a great number of Cannons , Armour and Arms ; all these this furious Whirlwind swept away together , tossed in the Air , and disperst as Wind doth Leaves of Trees . The Scheldt prodigiously gaping was first seen to discover its bottom , then swelling above the Banks , was even with the Rampiers , and overflowed St. Mary's Fort above a foot . The motion of the panting Earth N. B. extended its force and fear above nine Miles . [ If he means the Miles of that Countrey , or Dutch Leagues , they amount to 36 English Miles . ] There were found Stones , and that very great ones , as Grave-stones , and the like , a Mile off the River , struck into the Ground , in some places four Palms . To the VIth . Chapter . Observation I. WHAT is delivered in this Chapter about the Operation of Sounds and Animals , particularly that which is mention'd ( Pag. 72. ) about the Effect of Musick upon Serpents at Grand Cairo , may be not onely confirm'd but exceeded , by a strange Relation that I had from a Person of unsuspected Credit ▪ Which Narrative having appear'd to me so considerable , as well to deserve a place among my Adversaria , I shall subjoin that part of it which concerns our present Subject , in the words wherein I find it set down . Sir J. C. a very candid and judicious Traveller , favouring me yesterday with a visit , told me among other remarkable things relating to the East Indies , ( which Countries He had curiously visited ) that He with divers European Merchants had seen , ( and that if I mistake not , several times ) an Indian , who by many was thought to be a Magician , that kept tame Serpents of a great bulk . And that when the Owner of them plaid upon a Musical Instrument , these Serpents would raise themselves upright into the Air , leaving upon the Ground but 3 or 4 Inches of their Tail , upon which they lean'd for their support . He added , that at the same time that they erected their Bodies , they also stretcht and lengthen'd them in a strange and frightfull manner ; and whilst they were thus slender , they were taller than He or any man of ordinary stature . But that which appear'd to Him the most wonderfull and surprising , was , that they manifestly seem'd to be very much affected with the Musick they heard ; insomuch that some Parts of the Tune would make them move to and fro with a surprising agility , and some other Parts of it would cast them into a Posture , wherein they seem'd to be half asleep , and as it were to melt away with pleasure . To the VIth . Chapter . Pag. 75. Observation II. BEcause the Truth even of the principal effects of the Biting of the Tarantula , has of late been publickly call'd in question , I was glad to meet with an ingenious Traveller , that in Calabria or Apulia was Himself bitten by one of those venomous Insects ; and though it were but slightly , yet the Effects He felt in His own Body , and those greater ones He saw produc'd in other Persons , that were more unhappily bitten , brought Credit to the main of what sober Writers affirm of the Symptoms and Cure of that Poyson . And the learned , &c. To the VIIth . Chapter . Pag. 83. MUCH of what is delivered in this Chapter and elsewhere , about the Operation of Air or invisible Fluids ( whose Motions affect not the Touch ) upon Congruous Solids , may be confirm'd by that notable Experiment , which has been published in an Elegant Discourse by the learned Morhofius ; about a Dutch Wine Seller in Amsterdam , by name Nicolaus Petterus , who , having found the Tone or Note peculiarly belonging to a large belly'd drinking Glass , Such as the Dutch call Römer , and many here call Rhenish Wine Glasses , would , by accommodating his voice exactly to that Tone , and yet making it loud and lasting , make the Vessel , though not visibly touched , first tremble and then burst ; which it would not do , if the Voice were , though but a little , too low or too high . This notable Experiment has been seen by many Vertuosi , both before and since he publish'd it . And the very ingenious Writer , as he passed through London , not onely related it to me , but very civily offer'd me farther satisfaction , if I could furnish Him with a Römer , which I was very sorry that where we then were was not to be procur'd . To the VIIIth . Chapter . Observation I. IT may add probability to some things deliver'd in this Chapter and in divers other Passages of this Treatise , if I here recount a strange Phoenomenon , that came into my memory whilst I was running over those Parts of this Discourse . The Phoenomenon , in short , was this . Having met with divers pieces of transparent Glass , which I had reason to think to be of a Texture or Temper very differing from ordinary Glass , I thought fit to try , whether some of them were not far more springy and brittle than their thickness would make one expect . And accordingly , though I found several wherein the Experiment would not succeed , especially if their figure were not convenient , yet with some others , I had very good success , and particularly with some that were shap'd almost like the sharper End of the neck of a Retort . For though these pieces of Glass were much thicker than such necks are wont to be , being perhaps 6 or 7 times as thick as common drinking Glasses , yet I more than once made the Tryal succeed so well , that , by obliquely scratching them , or tickling them if I may so speak , on the inside with the head or point of a Pin , they would forceably burst into many pieces in my hand . In which surprizing Phoenomenon , the matter of the Glass seem'd to contribute something to this odd Effect , of so languid a motion , but much less than the Texture , or Tension , it obtain'd by the peculiar way of ordering it in the Fire and the Air. To the VIIIth . Chapter . Observation II. TO shew that the Suspicion I mention my self , a little before the end of this Chapter , to have had , that the breaking of the Stones there spoken of might possibly be produc'd or promoted by some impressions , remaining after the strokes employ'd to force the Stones out of their Beds , was not altogether without ground . I shall here observe , that it need not seem incredible , that faint strokes and attritions may leave more lasting and operative Motions among the Insensible Parts , even of compact and solid Bodies , than one would readily imagine . For I have several times found , sometimes by Observations designedly made , and sometimes by undesigned Accidents , that , having caus'd somewhat thin Vessels of Glass , especially Urinals , to be diligently made clean with Sand mixt with Water , to loosen or grate off the foulness that adher'd to the sides of the Vessel ; though the Vessels , after having been thus made clean , did not appear to have receiv'd the least injury , and would continue very intire perhaps for several hours , yet after that time they would of themselves break with noise , and thereby become unserviceable for the future . But though this happen'd to many Urinals , yet , because to more others it did not , it seem'd probable that the dissilition depended chiefly upon the peculiar texture of the Glass in this or that Vessel , whether acquir'd by a mixture of the Ingredients , that was not uniform enough or made in a due proportion ; or else by the too hasty refrigeration of the Vessel , especially if it chanc'd , as is not very unusual , to be cool'd more hastily in one part than another . To the IXth . Chapter . Pag. 110. Observation I. BEcause there are divers Gems ; particularly those Transparent ones that are Red or Blew , that are much harder than Iron or steel , it may much strengthen the Proof of our 8th Observation , if I here relate that a Jeweller to a great Princess answer'd me , that when he polish'd Saphyrs , Rubies , and some sorts of other hard Gems , upon his Mill , they would seem when attrition had made them very hot , to be all on Fire , like so many little Coals : And that each of them had the light it afforded ting'd with a Colour proper to the Stone ; so that the Ruby gave a Red Light , the Saphyr a Blew , &c. And I remember that inquiring of a skilfull Cutter of Diamonds and Polisher of Gems , whose Customer I had been , about some Conjectures I had concerning things belonging to his Profession , he answer'd me that sometimes , when he polish'd certain Stones , especially Rubies , that were pretty large and perhaps not thick , he could plainly perceive that the Stone gap'd at and near the Edge , as if it were begun to be crack'd ; which sign admonished him to make haste to slacken the Motion of the Mill , lest the Stone should absolutely burst ; which if it did not he could not perceive any Flaw in it when it was throughly cold , but , which was strange , it appear'd as entire as ever . He added , in confirmation of what he had said of the intense Heat that Gems would sometimes acquire by Attrition , whilst they were in polishing , that having lately given by this means too great a degree of Heat , to an Oriental Topaz ( which sort of that Gem is very hard , ) it crack'd upon the Mill , in so much that one part of it quite separated from the rest , and spoil'd the Stone in the capacity of a Gem ; as a Proof whereof he had laid it aside for me , and would needs make me accept it , as a curious , though not an usefull , thing . To the IXth Chapter . Observation II. TO confirm what has been said in the 8th Observation , to shew that slow and insensible Intestine Motions of the Parts of a Body that seem quiescent , may be very operative , chance afforded me a notable Instance , which was this . I had , to preserve a Liquor from which I expected a curious Experiment , inclos'd it in a strong Vial , to whose neck a thick Glass Stople was but too exquisitely adapted . This Vessel I set upon the Edge of a Window , in a high and secure place , that it might not be mov'd . There it continu'd many Months , or , if I misremember not , above a Year . And the Liquor was of such a nature , that if any Body had , though but for a few Moments , taken out the Stople , I could easily discover it . But after all this while , one day that I was sitting in my Closet , at a good distance from the place in which the Vial stood , I heard a loud and brisk noise , almost like the report of a Pistol , and then perceiv'd that something came rolling to my Feet : I hastily took it up , and , found it to be the thicker and larger part of the Stople of my Vial , which of it self had flown off , leaving the remaining part so closely and strongly adjusted to the Neck , which serv'd it for a kind of Socket , that I could by no means pull it out thence . At this Accident I was not a little surpriz'd , considering the thickness of the Solid Glass , and that it had stood so long unmov'd , and that the bigger and heavier part of the Stople broke off from the other with such violence , and was carry'd from it by invisible motors to so great a distance . Which seem'd the more strange , because there was no shaking nor treading in the Room , that could put the parts of the Glass into Motion , there being no Body present but my self , who was sitting quietly and studying . To the IXth Chapter . Observation III. TO confirm what I have in the eighth Observation and elsewhere deliver'd about the latent Motion of Parts that may be in a Body not onely quiescent but solid , I shall here add a strange Instance , which was afforded me by a Diamond , belonging to an ingenious Merchant of that sort of Gems , who brought many fine ones out of the East Indies . For having at the Diamond-Mine it self , purchas'd amongst other Stones that grew there , a rough Diamond that he valued at about a hundred pound , and had well considered when he bought it ; coming to look over his purchase again once more , about Ten Days or a Fortnight after , he was much surpriz'd to find , to his great loss , that this Diamond had of it self crack'd in several places , and so became of little or no value , but as 't was a Rarity : and indeed I could not without wonder , see so fair and hard a Stone so oddly spoil'd with Clefts , that seem'd to penetrate so very deep , that 't was guess'd 't would not be very difficult to pull the parts of the Stone asunder . And on this occasion he told me , that he had admir'd this Accident at first , much more than he did afterwards . For complaining of it to divers Merchants and Jewellers , that he met with in those Parts ; he was told , that , though it seldom happen , yet 't was no such wonderfull Accident ; The like misfortune having befallen others as well as him . A Postscript . THAT every common Reader may understand whatever is contain'd in the foregoing Treatises , the Publisher thought fit to english the Latin Passages that are not translated by the Authour . I. Tract I. Page 21. Simon Pauli , in his ingenious Treatise of Pestilential Fevers , p. 71. tells us of a sick Frenchman , who liv'd several days after his Arm was cut off , though he was all the while most cruelly tortur'd by not ordinary Convulsion Fits : But what is most observable is this that I and others sitting one day by his Bed-side , but not taking notice that the great Guns were going off from the King's Ships , he laying hold , and cherishing the Stump of his Right Arm , broke out at every shot into these pitifull words : Jesus Maria , What do I not suffer ! I am quite bruis'd ; so troublesome , and insufferable to him was the shooting of the great Guns , though at a great distance , they being , fired not in a joining Continent , but on the Balthick-sea . II. Platerus in the First Book of his Observations , p. 185. gives us this following Account , p. 26. A Woman being fallen sick on a sudden complain'd continually of her being strangled , though there was no great appearance thereof ; this she ascribed chiefly to a certain Air , or Wind , which she was so sensible of , that if any Body happen'd to come near her , she would immediately complain of her being choak'd , and died the second day of this odd Distemper : To which he adds , I have known several others complain of a not unlike Wind , and that they were in danger of being choak'd , if any body came near 'em : which I conceiv'd always to be a very ill sign . III. Page 57. If you throw down an Animal into the hole of Viburg , which is in Carelia , a Countrey in Scandia , 't is reported that there breaketh immediately forth a great and insufferable sound , together with a strong wind : if a small weight be thrown into the Gap of Dalmatia , though , says Plinius , in a calm day , there is a storm immediately rais'd not unlike that which is occasion'd by a Whirlwind . Agricola de Natura eorum quae effl . è terra , l. 4. c. 7. IV. Page 67. I discharg'd a Pistol , being upon the top of the Hill , which at first made no greater noise than that which usually happens at the breaking of a small Rod : but after a little while the noise became stronger , and filled the lower parts of the Hill , the Valleys , and neighbouring Woods . Now coming down lower through Snow that had lain there several years , and having discharg'd again the Pistol , the noise became on a sudden louder than that of the greatest Guns . Which gave me some grounds to fear that the whole Hill , being thus shaken , should at length subside : this sound lasted half a quarter of an hour , till it had penetrated into the remotest Grotto's , whence the parts of the Air thrusting one another had been strongly rever berated : and because no such concavities were in the top of the Hill , the sound was first insensibly reverberated , till coming lower and nearer the Grotto's and Valleys it was strongly dash'd against ' em . V. Tract II. Page 48. 'T is worthy our admiration , says Beguinus , that though in the Neighbourhood of Hydria , in the Countrey of Gloricia , where a great quantity of Mercury is found , the Pest almost every year rageth , yet it is always free from the Plague : and this was confirm'd to me by Persons of a very great Age , who said they had receiv'd it from their Ancestours . VI. An Attractive Pestilential Plaster . Page 84. Take of the Gums Sagapen , Ammoniac , Galbanum three ounces , of boil'd Turpentine , and Virgin-wax four ounces , and a half , of the Arsenical Loadstone well pulveris'd two ounces , of Arons Root pulveris'd anounce ; let the Gums be depurated with the Vinegar of Squills , and boil'd to the consistency of a Plaster , and lastly weigh'd ; then according to the usual method with other things make up a Plaster : cover the Carbuncle with this Plaster , and in a few hours it will draw out all the venom . The true Preparation of the foremention'd Arsenical Loadstone . Take equal parts of Crystal-arsenick , of Sulphur of Glass , of Crude Antimony : bray them to powder in an Iron Mortar , set them in a strong Glass on a fire of Sand , till the Glass be very hot , and the foremention's Druggs melted like Pitch : which you shall know when having thrust a Thred into the bottom , the matter sticking to it does rope like Turpentine ; which is a sign of its being well enough boil'd : remove then the Glass from the fire , and when it is cold break it ; reduce the matter into small powder , and keep it for your use . A Passage belonging to the Supplement . Borel . de vi percussionis prop. CXI . has these observable words . I was at Tauromenium in Sicily when the Mountain of Aetna broke out near Enna , a Town distant about thirty miles from Tauromenium ; whilst the Gap did send out now and then with a great noise fire and flame all the Houses of Tauromenium were sensibly shaken : and it was observable that such Houses as look'd directly towards the Gap , were most of all agitated . Those that look'd otherwise shaking more slowly , upon which matter of fact he argues thus : had this trembling been occasion'd by the shaking of the Ground of Tauromenium , all the Houses had been equally shak'd , since this inequality of motion could not be ascrib'd to their different situation . Hence then we must needs conclude that this agitation was produc'd by the impression of the Air upon the Walls of the Houses , which demonstrates to us the great efficacy of a sound , though at thirty miles distance . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A28961-e520 Mr. Hooke Notes for div A28961-e800 Plater . Observ . Lib. 1. p. 185. Notes for div A28961-e1540 Natur. Quaest . Lib. VI. Cap. 25. Lib. III. Cap. 26. De nat . eorum quae effi . è Terra Lib. IV. Cap. 7. From. Meteor , Lib. II. Art. 9. Geograph . general . Lib. I. Cap. XIX . Notes for div A28961-e3680 * * Purchas ' s Philgrimage , lib. 6. cap. 13. * * Lib. 2. P. M. 323. * * De abditis rerum caus . lib. 2. c. 13. See Diemerbroeck de Peste , lib. 1. cap. 8. Senn. M. P. E. vi . p. 65. In Observat . nobil . apud Schenkium , l. 7. Observ . Med. Tit. de venenis ex animalibus . A Discourse of Subterraneal Steams as they affect the Air. * * C. Magnenus de Manna , cap. 9. Dic amabo , Altomari , cur ante trecentos annos nullum Manna fuit in Oenotria ; jam certé aderant Pagi ibidem urbésque vicinae neque fefellisset curiosam Incolarum solertiam . &c. 15. ante 240. annos nullum Mannae Calabreasis in Autoribus vestigium est . Notes for div A28961-e9930 Borel . de vi Percussionis . Prop. CXI . Famian . Strad . de Bello Belg. Dec. 2. lib. 6 , vel 7. 
A29026	----	Short memoirs for the natural experimental history of mineral waters addressed by way of letter to a friend / by Robert Boyle. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1605 Approx. 144 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 72 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A29026 Wing B4023 ESTC R15100 11719822 ocm 11719822 48332 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A29026) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 48332) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 525:11) Short memoirs for the natural experimental history of mineral waters addressed by way of letter to a friend / by Robert Boyle. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. [18], 112, [2] p. Printed for Samual Smith..., London : 1684/5 [ie. 1685]. Reproduction of original in Bristol Public Library, Bristol, England. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Mineral waters -- Early works to 1800. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-06 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-07 Derek Lee Sampled and proofread 2006-07 Derek Lee Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion SHORT MEMOIRS FOR THE Natural Experimental HISTORY OF Mineral Waters . Addressed By way of Letter to a Friend . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE , Fellow of the Royal Society . LONDON , Printed for . Samuel Smith at the Prince's Arms in St. Pauls Church-Yard . 1684 / 5. Advertisement OF THE PUBLISHER . I Find by some discourse I lately had with the Author , that his design in drawing up his Memoirs , being to set down what had occurr'd to him of his own Observation and Experiments , he purposely forbore to consult the Authors that have professedly written upon Medical Waters , he would by no means have it thought , that he undervalued those Learned Writers that he forb●●e to cite , because he had them not at hand , as well as because his design did not require he should transcribe from them . And therefore he desires , that his Readers should not be kept , by any thing he has written , from consulting other Writers that have treated of Mineral Waters , especially the late Ingenious Exercitations , of the Learned Doctor Lister De Fontibus Medicatis Angliae ( after mentioned by our Author , ) and the curious little Tract of the French Mineral Waters , that was brought our Author in English , after his Memoirs were come to him from the Press , publish'd by the Virtuosi of the famous Royal Academy , of Sciences at Paris , especially where they curiosly examine the Saline and earthly . Residences of Waters , which our Author has not done to the remains of our English Acidulae , of which Liquors he had for the most part such incompetent quantities as concurr'd with another reason to discourag'd him from publishing his Tryals on them . Yet I may safely say what he offers here to the Reader is far beyond any thing that has been publish'd in this kind ; for the Virtuosi as well as the Water-drinkers may reap no small benefit by the perusal of this learned Treatise , as containing a great number both of useful Observations , and unusual Experiments . Advertisement . THe Author of the following Papers had thoughts of reviewing and inlarging them before he parted with them ; and at least , of an annexing Notes to several of those Titles of the historical Platform , that are yet left untouch'd . But , besides his want of health and leisure , he was , by the supervening of some urgent occasions , oblig'd abruptly enough to lay aside this work he was about , and apply himself to others , that concern'd him more than the Scrutiny of Mineral Waters could . Wherefore considering , that he had already made Annotations , though but short ones , upon most of the considerablest Titles or Topicks of inquiry , enumerated in the Second and Principal Part of his Schemes above them , he was content to give the ensuing writing unfinished as it was , to the Solicitations of some Vertuosi , who rather than tarry till he should have an opportunity , which he knows not how long he shall want , were desirous to take what they sound ready , with all its imperfections . Which pressingness of theirs he could not deny to be the more excusable , on this occasion , because the communicated writing is not pretended to be a full and methodical History of Mineral Waters , but only a bundle of Short Memoirs , contributed towards the compiling of such a Work. These , that they may be the more conveniently cited or referr'd to , I thought sit to divide into six Sections ; where of the First is introductory , and and contains some General Considerations about the Occasion , the Subject , and some other things relating to those Memoirs . The Second contains only a set of Titles for the First Part of the proposed Work , because urgent occasions kept me from making , as I intended , some Marginal Notes , upon several of the particular Articles . The third exhibits a Scheme of Titles for the Second Part of the propos'd work , viz. The way of experimentally exploring portions of a Mineral Water sever'd from the Spring or Receptacle . And because the Second Part is that which I mainly design'd , I have referr'd to it two other Sections , one , which is the Fourth , containing a Collection of Experiments and Observations relating to the usual way of examining Mineral Waters by Galls , as a Specimen given on the 13th Title of larger Annotations on the Titles of the Second Part ; and the other consisting of less copious Annotations , and sometimes much shorter Notes on divers other Articles of the same Second Part. To which Lastly is subjoyn'd the sixth Section , consisting only of a Set of Articles , referrable to the Medicinal use of Mineral Waters ; together with a Conclusion address'd to the ingenious Dr. that set me upon this Task . In prosecuting of which I desire it may not be thought strange , that I have not cited Authors that have written of Thermae or of Acidulae . For in the disadvantageous Circumstances wherein I wrote , I should have been kept from consulting them , if I had had them at hand . And I thought it enough for for me at that time , to impart to my Friends , what my own Experiments and Thoughts had furnish'd me with , how little or mean soever that was . Which Advertisement is therefore the more fit to be here given , that I may not divert any from studying those more elaborate Pieces , that have within no long time been publish'd by skilful Men , and especially by the very learned , Dr. Lister . The most Material Heads contained in the foregoing Treatise . 1. THE Advertisement to the Reader , containing the Division , Method and Scope of this present Treatise . 2. The occasion of this Treatise , and its importance . page 1 , 2 3. That the best way of discovering the Qualities of Mineral Waters , is a long and sufficient Experience . 3 4. What may encourage us to undertake the Natural History of Mineral Waters ? 4 5. What things are fit to be taken notice of by him that would give an historical account of Mineral Waters . 5 , 6 6. That the Author hath both qualified Practical and Speculative Physicians by this Treatise . 7 7. What hindred the Author from illustrating all the sets of Titles with a kind of Rationale . 8 8. Wherefore the Author hath proposed so many different inquiries about Mineral Waters . 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 9. Vpon what account the Examin of the properties of Mineral Waters is of so great importance . 13 , 14 10. That men should make search both after Subterraneal Springs and Wells , and their operations upon Humane Bodies . 15 , 16 11. Titles for the Natural History of a Mineral Water proposed considered as being gilt in its Channel or Receptacles , being the first or Mineralogical part of the designed Work. 17 12. Titles for the Natural History of a Mineral Water proposed consider'd as drawn out of the Spring or Receptacle , being the Second or Physico Chymical part of the designed work . 24 13. An Appendix containing Paralipomena , and a Chaos of observations and Experiments . 32 14. The powder of Galls fitter to produce a new colour in Mineral Wa●●●● than their infusion . 33 15. The parts of the infusion of Galls that produce the new colour with ferruginous Waters are apt to fly away ; neither the tincture nor the powder must be stale . 34 , 35 16. The best way for producing of new colours with Mineral Waters is to make the infusion of Galls with a certain weight of the Powder in a determinate weight of Water . 35 , 36 17. Oaken leaves , dryed red Rose leaves , the Juice , the Peel of Pomegranates , the Blossoms called commonly Callaustia , and some other astringent vegetables may be substituted to Galls . 38 18. The Eye must be Judge of the Impregnation of the Water by the infusion or Powder of Galls . 37 19. The way of trying Mineral Waters by the change of colours that Galls produce in them , is neither of that extent , nor of that certainty 't is vulgarly presumed to be of 39 20. There are divers Metalline Oars , and other Mineral Bodies , which not particpating of Iron , will not be discoverable by the infusion of Galls . ib. 21. A Body of a Metalline Nature and not participating of Iron , may , with infusion of Galls , afford a very dark colour . 40 22. 'T is not certain if all the Liquors impregnated with Iron will be discovered to be so by the colour they afford with Galls . ib. 23. That it is a mistake generally taken for granted , viz. That the infusion of Galls will certainly discover by becoming black , or Purple of a Mineral Water that is mix'd with it be to vitriolate . 41 24. An odd kind of whitish Earth to be found in the Northern Countreys of England where there come divers Mineral Waters . 42 25. Galls being cast into the solutions of several Metals produc'd no blackish colour , except with the solution of Gold. 44 26. A Sulphureous Liquor proclaiming notable changes of colours with several solutions of Metals . ib. 27. 'T is fit , if not necessary , that the experimenter look upon the change of colours made by Galls both while'tis a producing , and where'tis produced in a good light , and with a heedful eye . 46 28. That there may be a kind of Physiognogmy of natural Bodies , as well as of Humane faces . ib. 29. A way to vary the Shades and other Phoenomena of Colours produc'd with Mineral Liquors . 47 30. Another way somewhat differing from the former . 48 31. 'T is convenient to use besides Galls or Oaken-leaves , for the producing of new Colours with Mineral Waters , Red-Roses , Balerustium , Leolewood , Brasil , and other astringent Pigments . 50 32. A way of making a Liquor which will turn black with a solution either of Martial or Capreous Vitriol . 51. 33. Many Waters may partake of Sulphur , without being taken notice of to do so . 54 34. That Copper that hath been melted into a body , may be so subtilised and disguised , as to have a multitude of its metalline parts made ascend with others in the form of a transparent Liquor like common Water , and yet by putting to it another substance , as volatile and colourless as it self , it will presently discover the Copper it contain'd by turning as blew as Saphire . 55 35. Experiments discovering the inexistence of Arsenick in Water , and somewhat of the nature of that dangerous Mineral . 56 36. The deleterious nature of Arsenick consists not only , or mainly in a transcendently Acid , nor in a lixiviate causticle quality , but in a corrosiveness sui generis . ib. 37. An useful way for Water-drinkers , of examining a Mineral Water suspected to contain Arsenick . 60 38. Why the Author hath insisted so much upon the Thirteenth Article of the set of Titles . 61 39. To what the knowledge of the degree of coldness in the Water , especially if it be extraordinary may be useful . 63 40. Divers ways of estimating the degrees of coldness , and heat in the Water . 64 41. The usefulness of the knowledge of the specifick gravity of a Mineral Water . ib. 42. The difficulty of weighing exactly Liquors . 67 43. The most exact way of measuring the weight of Waters . 68 44. The determinate weights of most Mineral Waters , and others about London , as likewise of the German Spaw-water . 69 45. How to discover the kind of Soil through which the Water hath passed . 71 46. No difference observed between Mineral Waters , and common Water look'd upon through good Microscopes . 72 47. That the little Creatures we discover through magnifying Glasses in Water , wherein Pepper has been infused , are not inanimate concretions , but really living creatures . 73 48. Where the Scent of several Mineral Waters are best judged of . 74 49. That there are some Springs of ●●l Viny odour . ib. 50. That men are apt to take all stinking Waters for sulphureous , whereas sometimes they are bituminous , tho the Spring may sometimes partake both of Sulphur and Bitumen . 75 51. That there is a manifest difference in reference to transportation in such Ferruginous Waters as are lighter than common Water . 76 52. how we may ghess at the Saltness of Waters . 79 53. That it is not easy to discover the accidity of Liquors . 81 54. By what waies we may know the predominancy of Acidity in the Salt proposed ? 85 55. How we may know the predominancy of an Alcaly in the Salt of a Mineral Water . 86 56. Salt afforded by the famous Waters of Bourben in France found to be Alcalisate . 88 57. Several ways of discovering Vitriol to be predominant in the Saline part of a Mineral Water . ib. 56. What Salts our English waters are impregnated with , and from what Salt the purgative vertue that is found in many of them , as in Epsom , Barnet , and Acton Waters , &c. does proceed . 90 57. That two Bodies , which are neither of them Cathartick , may by change of texture wrought in one another , compose a third Body , that is briskly purgative . 92 58. How great an inequality may be sometimes met with in the proportion that the same quantity of two differing Mineral Waters bear to the Caput Mortuum , they respectively afford . 94 59. That a small quantity of matter of which perhaps not one half is Saline , or Metalline ( the rest being terresstrial ) may impart a manifest vertue to a great proportion of Water . 95 60. A Spirit richly , impregnated with volatiliz'd Sulphur , produceth with Vitriol , in a trice whether in the form of a powder , or solution , a very dark , or blackish colour . 99 61. Titles for the natural History of a Mineral Water propos'd consider'd as a Medicine being the third part of the design'd work . 102 62. A short discourse of the Author relating to this present Treatise . 110 63. If the fall of Rains weakneth the Vertue of the Mineral Waters . 6 , 113. Short Memoirs FOR THE Natural and Experimental HISTORY OF Particular Mineral Waters , Address'd to his Learned Friend , Dr. S. L ▪ SECT . I. SO many years , Sir , have past , since I had occasion to consider Mineral Waters , and opportunity to make Tryals on them with any Application of Mind ; that , tho' since that time some Virtuosi have been pleas'd publickly to declare , that they found some directions they received from me not unuseful to the Examen of such Waters ; yet having sorgotten many of my past thoughts , and lost on mislaid most of my Memorials about matters of fact relating to those Liquors , I fear I shall not be able to satisfy either you , or my self , by what I now write about them . But how ever , since you will needs have me say something upon this Subject since it is a noble one , as that where in the health of thousands is concern'd ; since 't is of late grown to be more priz'd and discours'd of , than ever ; and since I have observed mens curiosity about it to have been confin'd to very narrow Limits , most men contenting themselves with the discoveries they can make by the Infusion of Galls ( or their Body , ) and perhaps a slightly improv'd evaporation : Since , I say , I have these invitations to obey you , I am content to offer you my Advices , such as they are , for the drawing up of such a natural History of a Mineral Water propos'd as , being comprehensive of many Inquiries and Wayes of Indagation that even Physicians have either not known or overlook'd , may probably afford a more reaching notice , and inlarg'd knowledge of the Subject treated of . Upon which account I have , I confess , a desire and an aim , tho' no great hope , that this rude Essay may , by your Improvements and those of your Learned Friends , be made of some service to the Publick . 2. But here I must ingenuously own to you , that notwithstanding the many wayes I propose , of discovering the natures or Qualities of Mineral Waters , yet I think the surest way of knowing them , is a long and sufficient Experience of their good and bad effects . For I strongly suspect , and it may be partly know , that there are , beneath the surface of the Earth , divers Mineral Substances , some fix'd , and some volatile , some in the form of hard Bodies , some of soft ones , some of Liquors , and some of Fumes , divers of which the generality , even of Learned men , are altogether strangers to ; besides those that , tho' some men may chance to have seen , have their natures so little known , that they have not so much as names assign'd to them . So that when I consider , that of the Ingredients we are unacquainted with ( to pass by all the rest that the Earth may conceal ) the proportions wherein they are mingled may be numberless , and the Qualities resulting from these Commixtures may be very differing from those of the separate Ingredients , I am apt too look upon the difficulty , of Securely determining the Effects of Mineral Waters à priori , as little , if at all , less than insuperable to Humane Understandings . 3. But this difficulty is not such , as ought to make us think it useless , to have a good Project of the natural History of a Mineral Water . For 't is no small advantage , to know what particulars are fit for our Inquiry , to be furnish'd with a Sett of heads , to which one may conveniently refer whatever he tries , or observes , about the Subject propos'd . And ( which is yet more considerable ) to be furnish'd with variety of Methods or ways , to make Tryals fit for investigating the Nature , or examining the Qualities , of the propos'd Water ; since by the number and variety of purposely and fitly devis'd Experiments , he that makes them may , as it were , view his subject on all sides , and be much assisted to conjecture , what Saline , or other Minerals known to us , and what quantities of them , do impregnate the Water he examines , and consequently what effects they are like to produce in Humane Bodies . 4. Though there be three sorts of things , fit to be taken notice of by him that would give an Historical account of a Mineral Water , whether cold or hot , yet contenting my self to treat but very cursorily of those that belong to the first , and to the third of the three sorts , I have made a more full and particular Enumeration of the Titles that peculiarly belong to the second sort of observables , namely those that mention the various Tryals , Chymical and Mechanical , that are to be made with the Water after 't is taken out of the Spring . This I purposely did , chiefly because 't was only of this sort of particulars that you desir'd my thoughts , and partly also because they are most wanted and desir'd by Naturalists and Physicians , and are like to prove the most instructive to them ; having also this to recommend them , that , to make the greatest part of them by far , it is not necessary that a man repair to the place where the Spring rises , but he may at leisure examine the Water at home , where he may be accommodated with Furnaces , vessels , and other conveniences , to make his Tryals upon it . 5. A much less discerning Reader , than you , may perceive that in sorming the insuing Project of a Natural History , I aim'd much more to assist practical Physicians to find the vertues and effects of Mineral Waters , than to insorm Speculative Naturalists of their causes and manner of being generated . But yet a heedful peruser may find , that I have so endeavour'd to gratify Physicians that I have not been altogether ●anting [ especially in the First Part , which is almost wholly Mineralogical , ] to the curiosity of Philosophers , as it relates to all sorts of Mineral Waters : Tho' you may easily enough discern , and readily confess it , that the following Paper does much more regard those cold ones , that from the Acid Tast that is found in most of them are call'd Acidulae , than those other Waters , that from their heat are commonly styl'd Thermae , because the former sort of Mineral Waters is that , which I have had the opportunity to be the more conversant in , as well as that , about which alone you have desir'd my Observations . 6. I had once thoughts of illustrating the following Setts of Titles with a kind of Rationale , briefly declaring the reason of their order and their number ( sor both these were considerately pitch'd upon , not lighted on by chance . ) But I was obliged to omit it , when I sound ( as I quickly did ) that I had too little leisure and health , to imploy much of either upon a troublesom work of no greater importance . And therefore , knowing your Perspicacity to be more than sufficient to make you discern some reason for the order wherein I have marshall'd the Articles of the last Sett of Titles which fall under the Cognizance of your own Profession , I have not been solicitous to assign that Reason . And I presume 't will be no great harm , if my hast have made me also omit to perform at present the Intention I had to make here and there some Brief Marginal Notes upon some of the Articles of the first Part. And I thought it sufficient ( if not also capable of making some amends for the newly mentioned Omissions ) to make them somewhat numerous , and some of them large Annotations upon the Titles or Articles of the II Part : This being indeed the chief that I design'd to insist on , and present you . 7. I expect it will be wonder'd at , that so many Inquiries should be propos'd , and so many things directed to be taken notice of , about a Subject that hath been thought so barren , that men are wont to think their curiosity great enough , if they inquire what colours the Mineral Water will strike with Galls , or Oaken leaves ; and do observe what kind and quantity of Salt will remain after the evaporation of the Liquor : And I much fear , that some , even of your profession , will think I cut them out a great deal too much work , by so many troublesome Queries and Tryals . But I confess that nature or long experience having made me , tho'not a Sceptical , yet a suspicious and diffident Philosophiser , I think my self obliged , on difficult occasions , to ask more than ten Questions before I presume to answer one . Nor do I think that the slightness of anothers curiosity dispenses me from industriously exercising mine . I might on this occasion represent , that tho' the greatest Naturalists , and Physicians among the Ancients , did not only mention , but admire and discourse of the Loadstone ; yet our Gilbert thought fit to examine it further , and was thereby able to discover far more numerous Phaenomena , than all them put together had taken notice of . And I might add other instances to the same purpose ; but to answer more closely , and directly , I say , that , to discover the nature of Mineral Waters , being a thing far more difficult than those , that have not try'd , do imagine , I think we ought to view the Subject in as many differing lights as we can expose it to , and take in as many helps to discovery as we can ; since a great many particulars , that singly , or at the first view , seem not very pertinent , if they be survey'd in conjunction , and be skilfully apply'd , may much conduce to the desir'd end . And perhaps hereafter it will be found useful , if not necessary , to make large additions to the Topicks , whose number is now thought redundant : For the more qualities and other particulars , we are acquainted with in any Subject , the better grounded , and the more enlarged knowledge we have of it . As for the trouble it may cost , to make the proposed Enquiries and Tryals , it may be said , 1. That they are not all necessary ( though useful ) nor yet of equal moment , and therefore the omission of some , that are less important , may not disappoint the main Searches . 2. I have purposely made most of the Tryals as easy and short , as the matter and Scope will permit ; and those , that will not undergo some trouble in seeking an useful truth , do not deserve to find it , especially since , in the chase of noble discoveries , as in hunting the nobler game , the toyl oftentimes makes a part of the pleasure . And I have made the less scruple , to be somewhat ample in the enquiries I propound , because divers observations have perswaded me , that Physicians ought to consider very well both the nature of the Waters they ordain , and to what persons , for what Diseases , and in what manner , they prescribe the use of them : For tho' many look upon them as such innocent Medicines , as , if they do no good , can at least do no harm , yet the effects , that have too often insu'd the unskilful use of them , especially when it was long continued , allow me not to look upon the drinking of Mineral Waters as a slight thing , that may safely be plaid with , but as that whereby we have seen , as very much good , so a great deal of mischief , done , especially some time after the operation is thought to be quite over , and perhaps almost forgotten . 8. I look upon the examen of the Properties , and other Qualities , of Mineral Waters , as a thing that is therefore of the greater importance , because I am apt to think , upon probable grounds that , by a diligent inquiry , there may be discover'd in England ( and in divers other Countries too ) a far greater number than is yet imagin'd of Mineral Waters , especially Ferruginous ones ; which I therefore guess will be found very numerous , because , by some uncommon wayes of Tryal that I have imploy'd , I have found that divers Minerals that either men knew not what to make of , or by reason of their passing under other names did not suspect to be Martial , did yet partake of , and perhaps abound with , parts of a Martial Nature . And I shew in another Paper [ about the Magnetism of the Earth ] that kindly provident Nature , or rather its Divine Author has , under various disguises , furnish'd our Globe with a far greater plenty and variety of Iron Ores and Minerals , that partake of that Metal , the most useful by far to mankind , than of any other Metal . And as Martial Minerals do thus abound in the Earth , so they are more dispos'd , than one would suspect such hard Bodies could be , to impregnate even such Liquors as are not manifestly acid , and seem unlikely to be able to work upon Minerals far less hard than they . To make this probable , we took not Iron Ore , or Embryonated Mars , but pure Steel it self , the same as Needles were made of ; and upon the minute Filings of it , we put some Tincture of Galls made with common Water , and filtred through Cap-paper , that the present colour of the Liquor , and the change we expected to be made in it , might the better appear : And by this Tryal we found that , in less than an hour , the transparent infusion of Galls was so alter'd , as to be grown not only opacous , but of a dark and almost inky colour , which it retain'd even after Filtration ; and this tho' the Vial , that contain'd it , was very slender . A not unlike effect was produc'd by small Filings of steel , but somewhat slow : lier in the red Tincture of Brazil , and in that of Logwood , made with common Water . 9. I know not whether it may not be fit to be represented , on this occasion , that , in Countries manifestly abounding with Metalline and other Minerals , it may perhaps be worth while , that mens Curiosity descend much lower than the superficies or Turf of the ground , and make search both after Subterraneal Springs , and Wells , and their operations upon Humane Bodies . For I have upon Inquiry been assur'd , by those that in several places have visited Mines , that they have met with in them , and sometimes at very great Depths , running , as well as Stagnant , Waters , of differing Tasts , and sometimes other Qualitie ; and that the Diggers , venturing to make use of them to quench their Thirst , as they found some of them mischievous ( as Corrosive , Petrific , ) &c. so they met with others that were not only innocently . Potable , but Medicinal . Of both these sorts we have Instances in our Tin-Mines of Cornwal in Devonshire . And of the latter sort I receiv'd from an ingenious Gentleman , that has the oversight of some Cornish Water-works , this memorable Answer to an Inquiry I sent him . The strangest Account , saies he , of Mineral Waters that I have yet had , was of that in the bottom of a Tin-work call'd Karnkey , wrought above 60 fathom [ that is 360 foot deep ; ] the Mineral being a mixture of Tin and Iron , and the Water Red and Puddle , yet drunk was cool and not nauseous , and would pass by Urine , near as Red as it was drunk , as I have been inform'd by those that drunk of it whilst it [ the Mine ] was working , being now struck out , [ that is , the vein of Ore being degenerated , or lost . ] However I believe Experiments might yet be made with Water much of the same nature . Thus far he , from whom notwithstanding the remoteness of the place he lives in , I hope to get some of this Liquor , to make Tryal of ; which if I do , I design you an account of the Effects . I could enlarge upon the Subjects of these two last ( the 8th and the 9th ) Numbers . But after so long an Introduction to short Memoirs , 't is high time that I come at length to set down the Topicks themselves that I design to propose . SECT . II. TITLES For the Natural History of a Mineral Water propos'd , consider'd as being yet in its Channel or Receptacles : ( Being the first or mineralogical part of the designed work . ) HE that would draw up the History of a Mineral Water . [ to have its qualities some examin'd and some investigated , ] should , in my opinion , make three sorts of observations about it . For first he ought to take notice of those particulars that relate to it whilst 't is yet under ground , or in its native receptacles ▪ Next he is to examine the properties and other qualities of it , when 't is drawn up by men at the Springhead or other receptacle : Lastly he is to consider the operations and effects of it upon Humane Bodies , whether sick or sound , according to the several ways and circumstances made use of in administring it . To the first of these three sorts of observations may be referr'd such heads or titles as these . 1. In what climate and parallel , or in what degree of Latitude , the Mineral Water do's spring up , or stagnate ? 2. Whether the Spring-head , or other receptacle , do chiefly regard the East , the West , the North , or the South ? 3. Whether the Water be found in a Plain or Valley ? And if not whether it arise in a Hillock , a Hill , or a Mountain ? 4. And whether it be found at or near the top , the middle , or the bottom , of the rising ground . 5. Whether the waters leave any secrement , or other unusual substance , upon the Stones , or other Bodies that lie in the Channels they pass through as they glide along , or the Receptacles that contain them ? 6. Whether there be beneath or near the Medicinal Water , any subterraneal fire , that hath manifest chimney's or vents and visibly ( by night only , or also by day , ) burns or smoaks , either constantly , or at certain periods of time ? 7. Whether at or near the mouth , or orifice , of the abovementioned chimneys or vents , there be found either flowers of Brimstone , or a Salt like Sal-Armoniac , or some other Mineral Exhalations in a dry Form ? 8. Whether there be under or near the course or channel of the Water , any subterraneal Aestuary , or latent mass , of hot , but not actually , or at least visibly , burning matters ? And whether such Aestuary afford an uniform heat as to sense , or have periodical hot fits , as it were ; and if so , whether these come at certain and stated times , or uncertainly or irregularly ? 9. Whether it be observed that over the Aestuary , or in some other neighbouring part of the place , where the Mineral Water springs , there arise any visible Mineral fumes on smoak , ( which when they do appear are wont to do it early in the Morning , or late in the evening , ) and if such fumes ascend , how plentiful they are , of what colour and of what smell ▪ 10. What is the more obvious nature of the not manifestly Metalline , nor Marcasitical part of the Soil , which the Medicinal Water passes through or touches ? And what are the Qualities of the neighbouring Soil , and the adjacent Country ? As whether it be rocky , stony , clayish , sandy , chalky , &c. 11. Whether there be any Ores , marcasites , or Earths , ( especially highly colour'd ones ) impregnated with Mineral Juices , to be met with in the course of the medicinal Spring , or in the receptacle of the same water stagnant ? And what these Minerals are , whether copperish , ferrugineous , Marcasitical , &c. And whether the Ores do , or do not , abound in the Metalline portion ? As also with what other Ingredient as spar , cauke , Sulphur , Orpiment , Arsenick , &c ( Whether Innocent or hurtful ) they are mingled , or else compacted together ? 12. Whether it can be discover'd , that the Spring of the Medicinal Water was common Water before it came to such a place , or part of the soil it runs through , & there begins to be manifestly impregnated with Mineral Bodies ? 13. And whether in this case , it makes any effervescence , or other conflict , with the Mineral it imbibes , or with any other Water or Liquor that it meets with in its way ; and whether the conflict produce any manifest heat or no ? 14. Whether , if the Mineral Water propos'd be manifestly hot , or extraordinarily cold ; the Springs it flows out at , or the Receptacle it stagnates in , have near it ( and if it have how near ) a Spring , or well of Water , of a contrary quality , as 't is observ'd in very neighbouring Springs in some few places of France , and elsewhere ? 15. Whether , when the Water appears in the Spring or Receptacle there appear also , either floting at the Top , or lying at the bottom , or swimming between both , any drops or greater quantity of Oyl , ( like Naphta or Petroleum , ) or some other bituminous & inflammable substance . 16. Whether the Water be considerably altered in quantity or quality , bythe different seasons of the year , as Summer , Winter , &c. By the much varying Temperatures of the Air , as to heat , coldness , drought , &c. By the plenty , or paucity , frequency , or unfrequency , of falling Rains , or Snows : And what may be the bounds , and measures of these alterations of the Mineral Water ? 17. Whether any thing considerable can be certainly discover'd , or any very probable conjecture made of the nature and qualities of the substances , that impregnate the Water , by Chymically and Mechanically examining the Mineral Earths , through which it flows , or in which it Stagnates ? And particularly , by observing their colour , whether native , or acquir'd by being kept in the fire ; their specifick gravity ; their affording , or not affording , any Salt , or other soluble substance , by decoction ; their being soluble , or indissoluble , in particular Chymical Menstruums of several sorts , as Aqua fortis , Spirit of Salt , &c. And their being committed to destillation in Vessels of differing sorts , and various degrees of fire , with care to receive separately the differing substances they afford , whether in the form of Liquors , or of Flowers ; and by examining these substances by fit and proper wayes as also the Cap. Mort. by calcination , elixiviation , and ( if it will bear such a fire ) vitrification ? SECT . III. TITLES For the Natural History of a Mineral Water propos'd , consider'd as being drawn out of its Spring or Receptacle : ( Being the II. or Physico Chymical part of the designed work . ) THat this Scheme of Titles may be the better understood , and the more instructive and useful tho' I have not time to write an ample com ment upon it all , yet I thought fit to illustrate most of its Particular Articles by such Notes as may either explicate the meaning of what is but briefly couch'd , or deliver some of the practical ways of Tryal , that I make use of , on occasion of the Subject mention'd in the Title or Article , whereto the Notes belong . These being divers of them too large to be conveniently plac'd the Margin , are all of them set down together after this Sett of Titles . TITLE . 1. Of the actual coldness or heat of the Mineral Water propos'd . 2. Of the specific Gravity of the Mineral Water propos'd . 3. Of the Transparency , the Muddiness , or the Opacity of the Mineral Water . 4. Whether the Mineral Water will , by slading for a competent time , let fall of it self any Oker , or other earthy substance , especially tho' the Liquor be kept from the Air. 5. Whether any thing , and if any thing , what can be discover'd in the Mineral Water by the help of the best Microscopes adapted to view Liquors ? 6. Of the colour or colournes of the Mineral Water . 7. Of the odour of the Mineral Water , as Acetous , Winy , Sulphureous . Bituminous , &c. 8. Of the tast of the Mineral Water , as Acid , Ferruginous , Vitriolate , Lixivial , Sulphureous , &c. 9. Whether any change will be produc'd in the transparency , colour , odour , or tast of the Mineral Water , by its being taken up at the Spring-head or other Receptacle , or remov'd to some distance , by its being kept stop'd or unstop'd for a greater or lesser space of time ; and by its being much warm'd or refrigerated , and also , by naturally or artificially , produc'd cold , turn'd into Ice , and thaw'd again ? 10. Of the thinness or viscosity of the Mineral Water . 11. Whether the Mineral Water be more easy to be heated and cool'd , and to be dilated and condens'd than common Water ? 12. Whether the Mineral Water will of it self putrify , and if it will , whether sooner or later than common Water , and with what kind or degree of stink and other Phaenomena ? 13. Of the change of colours producible in the Mineral Water by astringent Drugs , as Galls , Pomgranate-peels , Balaustium , red Roses , Myrobolans , OakenLeaves , &c. as also by some Liquors or Juices of the Body . 14. Whether any thing will be precipitated out of the Mineral Waters by Salts or Saline Liquors , whether they be Acid , as Spirit of Salt , of Niter , Aqua Fortis , &c. Or volatile Alcali's , as strong Spirit of Urine , Sal-armoniac , &c. Or Lixiviate Salts , as Oyl of Tartar per deliquium , fixt Niter , &c. 15. How to examine with evaporation , whether the Mineral Water contain common Salt , and if it do , whether it contains but little or much ? 16. How to examine , without evaporation , whether the Mineral Water have any acidity , tho' it be but very little . 17. Of the Liquor or Liquors afforded by the Mineral Water by Destillation in Balneo , and other wayes . 18. Of the residence , Cap. Mort. of the Mineral Water , when the Liquor is totally evaporated or distill'd off ; and whether the Cap. Mort. be the same in quantity and quality , if produc'd by either of those wayes ? 19. Whether the propos'd Water , being in Glass-Vessels exactly luted together slowly and warily abstracted to a thickish substance ; This being reconjoin'd to the distill'd Liquor , the Mineral Water will be redintegrated , and have again the same Texture and Qualities it had at first ? 20. Whether a Glass-full of the Mineral Water , being Hermetically seal'd and boil'd in common Water , deep enough to keep it always cover'd , will have its Texture so alter'd as to suffer an observable change in any of its manifest Qualities ? And if it do , in what Qualities , and to what degree of alteration ? 21. Of the proportion of the dry Cap. Mort. to the Mineral Water that affords it . 22. Of the division of the Cap. Mort. into saline and terrestrial and other parts not dissoluble in Water , in case it contain both or more sorts . 23. Of the proportion of the Saline part of the Cap. Mort. to the Terrestrial . 24. Of the fixity or volatility of the Saline part in strong fires . 25. Whether the Saline part will shoot into Crystals or no ? and if it will , what figure the grains will be of ? and if it will not whether , being combin'd with a Salt that will ( as purify'd Sea-Salt Peter &c. ) it will then chrystallize ; and if it do , into what figures it will shoot , especially if any of them be reducible to those of any species of Salt known to us ? 26. To examine whether the Saline part be , ex praedominio , acid , alcalizate , or adiaphorous ? 27. Of the observables in the Terestrial portion of the Cap. Mort. as besides its quantity in reference to the Saline , its colour , odour , volatility or fixity in a strong fire ; it s being soluble , or not dissoluble by divers Menstruum's , as Spirit of Vinegar , Spirit of Urine , Oyl of Tartar , &c. 28. Whether , and ( if any thing ) how much the mineral waters Earth looses by strong and lasting Ignition ? What changes of colour , &c. it thereby receives ? whether it be capable of Vitrification perse ? and what colour , ( if any , ) it will impart to fine and well powder'd Venice glass if they be exactly mix'd , and flux'd into a Transparent Glass ? 29. Of the Oeconomical , and Mechanical uses of the Mineral Water , as in Brewing , Baking , VVashing of Linnen , Tanning of Leather , or Dying of Cloth , Callico's , Silks , &c , as these may assist in discovering the Ingredients and Qualities of the Liquor propos'd . 30. Of the imitation of Natural Medicinal Waters , by Chymical and other artificial wayes , as that may help the Physician to guess at the quality and quantity of the Ingredients that impregnate the Natural Water propos'd . An Appendix Containing 1. PAralipomena , or things directly belonging to the History and pretermitted in it . 2. A Chaos of Observations and Experiments , remotely or indirectly referable either to one or more of the foregoing Titles , or to the common Subject of them all . SECT . IV. Experimental Remarks upon the ( usual ) way of examining Mineral Waters , by the help of Galls : Deliver'd by way of Larger Annotations upon the XIII . Article of the II. Part. SInce the change of colour that Mineral Waters produce in the Infusion or Tincture of Galls , is the most usual way that many Physicians , and the almost only that some of them , endeavour to discover or examine Mineral Waters by ; it may be worth while , in this place , to set down some remarks , that I have made about this way of probation ; & the rather because it may , mutatis mutandis , be not unusefully apply'd to the exploring the Quality's of Mineral Waters by Colorations , tho' made with other Materials than Galls . First then it may be observ'd , that one need not make an Infusion or Tncture of Galls in common Water , to try if by their means a new colour will be produc'd . For I am wont to beat them to Powder , and keep them in a Glass ( not too big ) exactly stop'd , by which means I have them alwaies in readiness to mingle with the Mineral Water , and alter the colour of it , if Galls be able to do it , almost in atrice : whereas to draw the Tincture of Galls with Simple Water , often takes up several hours , and the tinging parts are much weakn'd by being diluted by the Menstruum . If you would have a Tincture , the Powder of Galls , ty'd up close in a Ragg , and with it hung in the Liquor , makes the Infusion less muddy . If you be in hast , and have none of the Powder at hand , you may scrape as much of a Gall-Apple , as you need into the Mineral Water . 2. I have observ'd those Parts of the Infusion of Galls ( especially it made by heat ) that produce the new Colour with Ferruginous Waters , to be more apt to fly away than one would think , the Infusion becoming often unfit to alter the Colour of the Martial Waters , whilst yet it self appears sufficiently high colour'd . Upon which account , I choose to make a Tincture of Galls not long before I mind to use it ; And if I imploy dry Galls , to take Powder that is not stale . 3. 'T is no safe way , and may be very erroneous , that is usually taken in mixing Galls or their Infusion with the Water to be explor'd so carelesly , as is wont to be done . For those that are curious to make good Ink , will easily believe , that much of the deepness of the Colour depends upon the Proportion of Galls to the other Ingredient ; and accordingly that by putting a much greater , or a much lesser , quantity of Galls , into such a quantity of the Mineral Water , the resulting Colour may be more or less intense . To obviate which inconvenience , I take this course when the occasion deserves it ; I make my Infusion of Galls with a certain weight of the Powder in a determinate weight of Water . As for instance I put about five gr . of powder'd Galls , to sleep for so many hours in an Ounce of Water . But if I make use of the dry Powder , then I am wont to put three or four grains into an Ounce of the Liquor to be examin'd ; which is a way far more certain than the Common , wherein the Ingredients are aestimated but by Guess . I have have mention'd various proportions of powder'd Galls to the same quantity of Liquor , because I have observ'd that there is really a great inequality among the Mineral VVaters in which it may be put ; and I have found by Tryal , that in an Ounce of the German Spaw , a single grain of Powder would immediately produce a sufficiently deep purple colour . 'T is an inconvenience , that not only Galls , but the other Drugs hereafter to be mention'd , impart a high Tincture of their own to the common VVater they are infus'd in ; and therefore it were to be wish'd , and is fit to be endeavour'd , that we had some Drugg , that without imparting a colour to the common VVater it impregnates , would afford an Infusion fit to strike a blackish or a purple colour with Martial VVaters . Though it be useful , yet 't is not necessary , to imploy Galls to produce a colour in the Mineral VVater propos'd . For besides that 't is known that usually , ( tho' not alwayes , as I have try'd , ) the same thing may be done , but somewhat more faintly , with Oaken Leaves , we may successfully enough substitute , for the same purpose , some other astringent vegetables , as dry'd Red-Rose Leaves , the Peel , and , ( as we have try'd ) the Juice of Pomegranates ; and ( what I find to be a notable stiptick ) the blossoms of the same plant , ( which are vulgarly call'd in the Shops Ballaustium . ) To which may be added Myrobolans , Logwood , and some others that need not now be mention'd , whose strong Infusions have yielded me a Tincture very dark and blackish with some Martial Liquors . 6. In regard that the Galls , or other Drugs , to be infus'd in common VVater , are not alwayes of the same goodness or strength , 't is adviseable not so to trust to any determinate proportion of the Pigment to the VVater , as not to take in the help of the Eye , to judge by the Colour of the Tincture , whether the Liquor be duely ( and not too much or too little ) impregnated . 8. Whereas there is an intimation in the Close of this thirteenth Article of the present Sett of Titles , that Animal Liquors may be imploy'd to produce new colours with Mineral VVaters , I gave that hint , not only because 't is usually observ'd in Martial VVaters , such as those of Tunbridge the Spaw , &c. that the gross excrements of the lower belly are blacken'd by a commixture of their Metalline Parts ; but in Tunbridge VVaters particularly I have observ'd , that after the drinking of larger doses of them , the root of the tongue , and perhaps some neighbouring parts , would also acquire a dark colour , by the operation of the transient Liquor . Though the way of trying Mineral VVaters , by the change of colours that Galls produce in them , be useful and recommended by being easy , cheap , and expeditious , yet I do not take it to be either of that extent , or of that certainty , that 't is vulgarly presum'd to be of : For its main , if not only considerable , use is , to discover by striking , or not affording , a black or blackish , or at least a purple or a purplish , colour with a Mineral Water , to manifest the Liquor to be , or not to be , either of a vitriolate , or a ferruginous nature . But there are divers Metalline Ores , and other Mineral Bodies , which not participating of Iron , will not by this way be discoverable and yet may strongly impregnate the VVater propos'd : As for example , to try whether if Arsenic were mingl'd with VVater , Galls would discover it by producing with it a dark colour , I put some of the Powder of them into a Decoction of arsenic , but did not perceive that it gave the Liquor any deeper colour , than it would have done to common VVater . And as the extent of this explorer of VVaters is not very great , so neither do I find the informations it gives us to be so certain , as they are presum'd . For , if I much misremember not , I long since found upon tryal purposely made that another Body of a Metalline nature , and that did not partake of Iron , would with infusion of Galls afford a very dark colour , that might easily , among ordinary Beholders , pass for the colour produc'd by a Martial VVater ; and I do somewhat doubt , whether so much as all Liquors impregnated with Iron , will de discover'd to be so , by the colour they afford with Galls ; for I have sometimes made such a Liquor with no Mineral Substance in it , save steel or Iron but I did not find it would turn the Infusion of Galls either blackish or purple , which made me suspect , that these colours are afforded only by such Martial VVaters , as have been wrought upon more or less by some Acid Salts or Fumes . 9. Unto these things I shall add , that I found that to be a mistake , which is generally taken for granted , viz. That the infusion of Galls will certainly discover , by becoming black , ( or purple , ) if a Mineral Water , that is mix'd with it , be vitriolate ; for , tho' it be true that if , in the vitriolated VVater , Iron be the only or predominant Mineral , or be at least considerably participated by the Liquor , yet if the dissolv'd vit riol be altogether copperish , I found by several Tryals purposely made with a strong solution of Roman vitriol , ( wherein Copper is affirm'd to be the only , or to be very much the predominant , Metal , ) that it would not with insusion or Tincture of Galls , afford either a black or a blackish colour , but only a thick and muddy one , that was not so much purplish . It comes into my mind upon this occasion that from one of the Northern Countreys of England , where there are divers Mineral VVaters , there was brought me by a Virtuoso , a good quantity of very whitish Earth , which he suspected to be of a peculiar nature , but could not tell of what . This odd earth being examin'd , I concluded it to contain a considerable proportion of Lead Ore , corroded by some Mineral Salts , and imbody'd with the Soyl ; so that if it had been in a place where people had sought for Mineral VVaters , 't is probable that , finding some peculiarity in the tast of those that pass'd through this Earth , they would have taken it for a Mineral Water , but had been at a great loss to determine what Mineralit did partake of ; and perhaps , in endeavouring to resolve the doubt by drinking it , they would have found very bad effects of it . But probably the Sulphureous Spirit to be ere long describ'd in this Paper would have inform'd them , that the Water was impregnated with a Body of the nature of vitriol , but not of common vitriol . For tho' Galls do not give a black , or very blackish , colour with a solution of Saecharum Saturni , ( which is indeed the vitriol of Lead ) resolv'd in distill'd or rain Water . Yet I found by Tryal , that this volatile Sulphur did manifestly and presently do it ; which Tryal I was fain to take up with , because when I had occasion to consider this matter I had not at hand the ores of Lead , Copper , &c. And therefore was fain to content my self with the solutions of the Metals themselves in their proper Menstruums ; it being probable , that the Metalline parts of the Ores would have afforded either the same solutions , or some very like them , in the same Menstruums ; which consisting of Niter , Sea-Salt , & Vitriol , Bodies that abound in diverse places of the Earth through which Springs flow , the impregnated Water would afford Phaenomena of the same kind . I made tryals also upon a somewhat fine solution of refin'd Gold made in an Aqua Regalis , and upon a solution of common running Mercury , made with Aqua fortis , and in a clear solution of Tin , made , not with either of the foregoing Menstruums ( for I have not found them to dissolve it genuinely ) but in a peculiar Solvent , ( which I have communicated in another Paper , ) that does not only dissolve it readily , but keep it permanently dissolv'd , as Aqua fortis do's Silver , but not Tin. To these solutions I put Galls , without obtaining any blackish colour except from that which contain'd Gold. But with our Sulphureous Liquor we produc'd notable changes of colour , and those in all the solutions but one a dark one or tending to blackness , and tho' for that reason a careless eye might judge them indiscriminately to be blackish ; yet since I well remember that the degrees , or some other modification , of the same dark colour seem'd plainly enough not to be the same in all of them , I do not think it impossible but that a very heedful Beholder ( which when I made those Tryals I had no great motive to be ) may discern between those obscure colours some little differences , that may much assist him to guess , what metalline substance is contain'd in the Liquor , or at least is predominant in it , if it be a compounded one . And I particularly remember , that the colour that sprang from our Sulphureous Liquor and solution of Tin , was manifestly distinguishable from those produc'd in that of any of the other solutions , being not black or blackish , nor so much as purple , but of a kind of brownish yellow . Though I am content that the things , I come from mentioning , should make men cautious and diffident , yet not only I do not despise or slight the use of Galls , &c. even as it it is vulgarly practis'd , but I am apt to think that the way of exploring Mineral Waters by the changes of colour , that may be produc'd in them or by them , when they are mingled with convenient Drugs or Additaments , may be made of greater extent and use than he , that has read what I have written in the foregoing number , will perhaps be forward to expect . But to make the way of exploring Mineral Waters by colorations , of somewhat more general use and less uncertainty , I would recommend these things to the experimenter , ( 1. ) It seems very fit , if not necessary , that he look upon the change of colours , both while 't is producing , and when 't is produce in a good light and with a heedful Eye . For by this means he may discover several shades or varietys of the more principal colours , and some other circumstances that he could not else take notice of ; and which yet may afford good hints ( in reference to other Minerals , as well as Martial ones , ) to a sagacious observer . And I have sometimes fancy'd , that there may be a kind of Physio gnomy of many , if not most , other natural Bodies as well as of humane faces , whereby an attentive and experienc'd considerer may himself discern in them many instructive things , that he cannot so declare to another man , as to make him discern them too . ( 2. ) The Attention here encourag'd may perhaps be made more instructive , by a way that I have sometimes practis'd to vary the Shades , and other Phaenomena of Colours produc'd with Mineral Liquors . This way consists chieflly in preparing Sheets of White Paper by drenching them in a strong Infusion of Brasil , Log-wood , or some other convenient dying stuff , and then letting them dry leasurely in the Air , which may give some of them , as I have observ'd , a colour differing enough from that of the Liquor look'd upon in a Vial or drinking Glass . Upon this dry'd Paper ye may let fall , but not all on the same place , some drops of the Mineral Liquor to be examin'd , especially if it be of a Saline nature , and by the Changes of Colour , effected by these Drops on the Parts of the Paper , they fell and spread themselves upon , a heedful observer may be assisted to guess , what kind of Mineral impregnates the Liquor , and how much it does so ; especially if on the same Sheet of Paper some other fit Mineral Water or idoneous Liquor be likewise dropt , that the changes of colour produc'd by the two Fluids , may be survey'd and compar'd together . I also practis'd another way somewhat differing from this ; as the main part of which we prepar'd white Paper , by rubbing well upon it , with a hares foot or some such thing , some idoneous Powders , especially that of vitriol ( whereof for this purpose English seem'd the best ) lightly calcin'd in a gentle heat till it became of a grayish colour and friable between the Fingers . By this means 't was easy to make the Paper fit for our turn . For the finer parts having lodg'd themselves in its Pores , without much discolouring it when the supersluous dust was struck off , it became capable of affording a variety of Colours , or rather shades , some deeper and some fainter , when I let fall on it some drops of differing Martial Liquors . But of the Examen of the Materia medica , by the changes of colour produc'd in it or by it , more is said in another Paper ; and therefore , instead of transferring that hither , I shall here briefly intimate , that divers variations of colour may be made , either by infusing or otherwise mixing , as I have sometimes done something in the Mineral Water before the tinging stuff be put to it : or by putting somewhat in the Infusion or Powder of Galls , before it be mix'd with the Mineral Water , or else by dropping fit Liquors ( such as Spirit of Salt sirst ; and then Spirit of Urine , or Oyl of Tartar ) into the Blackish or Purple Mixture of Galls and the Medicinal Water to be examin'd . For by these means diverse variations of colours may be observ'd ; which , together with some other wayes that I have made use of to multiply them , I have not now leisure to set down . ( 3. ) It is not convenient to confine ones self to the use either of Galls or Oaken Leaves , but to make use also of Red Roses , Balaustium , Log-wood , Brasil , and other astringent vegetable Pigments . For , though some of these give a deeper Tincture than Galls yet , by the diversity of colours produc'd by them in Mineral Waters , an attentive Beholder may , as was lately intimated where I mention'd diversity of Lights and Shades , discover some things that he would not be informed of , or receive any hints of , by the help of Galls of Oaken Leaves alone . Nay I would not have our experimenter imploy none but vegetable substances about his colorations , but sometimes make use of Animal ones , and ( more often ) of Minerals : Since by this means he may much diversify his Tryals , and increase the number of Phaenomena , some of which he may probably find instructive . Besides astringent Plants I have found , and sometimes devis'd , other substances that will turn black as well as Galls , with vitriolated Water ; and that not only with those that are richly impregnated with Iron , but also with those wherein Copper alone abounds , as in Roman vitriol . And tho' , for certain reasons , I must not now set down a way I have , to discover in a trice both these vitriols , without any Liquor or Tangible Body , yet I shall subjoin , as a kind of Succedaneum that may suffice for the present occasion , the way of making a Liquor that will presently turn black with a solution either of Martial or Cupreous vitriol . Take equal parts of pure Salt of Tartar , and either Flowers of Sulphur , or at least Sulphur finely powder'd , and good Sal-armoniac , reduce the first and the last to powder separately , melt the Sulphur over a gentle fire , and by degrees put to it the Salt of Tartar , stirring them well , to make them incorporate and grow red ( or reddish . ) Then put this mixture pulveriz'd into a Glass Retort , or a cucurbite , and pour on it the Sal-Armoniac dissolv'd in fair Water , and closing well the Junctures , distill all in sand by degrees of a moderate fire , shifting the receiver once or twice , because the Liquors will be differingly ting'd and strong ; and that which ascends last , may bring over but very little of the Sulphur , whose volatile Tincture is yet the main thing we aim at in this operation . ( 4. ) I do not despair but that he , who were able to make a skilful use of the several Drugs and other Body's , Vegetable , Animal and Mineral , that may produce new colours in or with Mineral Waters , ( or in some cases with the substances that impregnate them , ) may by their means be also inabled to discover the presence or inexistence of divers other Minerals , some of them salubrious , or at least safe , and some others either hurtfull , or at least dangerous , that are not taken notice of by those that content themselves to imploy Galls and Oaken Leaves , in the exploration of the Waters they examine . For some of these Liquors contain Salts , that having not corroded either Martial or Cupreous Ores or Marcasites , do not betray themselves by producing either an Inky or a fainter degree of Blackness , or else a Purple , with the Drugs made use of to change their Colours . Ofthese Salts I have met with more than one sort , which may be more properly take notice of , when we consider the Mineral Water and its contents . 12. I think it likewise very possible , that industrious men should find wayes to discover , by the help of the change of colours , whether Orpiment or native Arsenick , or the like poisonous Minerals , do so impregnate the Water propos'd , as to make it very hurtful or dangerous , thô not absolutely pernicious . And as for Sulphur , there may be several Waters that partake of it , without being taken notice of to do so . For I remember , that I have sometimes purposely made a Liquor , that was limpid and colourless like Spring Water , and which would totally fly up , even with a gentle heat ; and yet this Liquor was richly impregnated with a Mineral Sulphur , as I convinc'd several virtuosi by manifest and ocular proofs . So that if Sulphur chanc'd to be combin'd with any Salt or Mineral , of those many subterraneal ones that nature hath hid from us , that can suppress or disguise its peculiar odour , the Water may be considerably , and yet unobservedly , impregnated with it . And yet 't is like this may easily be discover'd by the change of colour , producible in such a Sulphureous Liquor by vitriolate Bodies , and , other appropriate additaments : Which may be thought the more probable , because , thô the Spirit lately describ'd be very transparent and totally volatile in the form of a Liquor sometimes pale enough , yet common English Vitriol , as also that of Danzick which is Venereal , will presently turn it of a black or very dark colour . And to add here something more difficult to be perform'd , I have devis'd a way , which I elsewhere deliver , whereby it may appear that even Copper , that hath been melted into a Body , may be so subtiliz'd and disguis'd , as to have a multitude of its metalline Parts made to ascend , with others , in the form of a Transparent Liquor like common Water : And yet by putting to it a little of another substance , as volatile and colourless as it self , it would presently disclose the Copper it contain'd by turning blew as a Saphire . 13. Because Arsenic is a very pernicious Drug , and yet has been suspected to be clandestinely mingled with some Mineral Waters , which I thought the less improbable , because some of the Marcasitical Bodies by which some Mineral Waters pass , are judg'd not to be devoid of Arsenic , for these reasons , I say , and for this other which makes the mention of it pertinent in this place , that Galls did not ( as I elsewhere note , ) discover at all the inexistence of this poysonous Drug in Water , thô the Liquor were copiously impregnated with it , I thought fit to make some Trials , that seem'd to me likely to discover at once the in existence of Arsenic in Water , and somewhat of the nature of that dangerous Mineral . Happening some years ago to tast Arsenic , not without some little danger and inconvenience , the Tast of it did not seem to me to favour the vulgar supposition , that its poysonous nature consists in a highly Acid Salt ; whereas its Tast agrees well with my Conjecture , who suspect it to be of an exceeding corroding or fretting nature , but whose corrosiveness is sui generis , that is , of a peculiar kind . Having then made a strong solution of Arsenic in common Water , [ which does not without some skill easily dissolve it , ] we mix'd a small proportion of it with the German-Spaw Water , and then dropping into this mixture some highly dephlegm'd Spirit of Urine , we perceiv'd a light Lactescence to be produc'd , and a whitish Precipitate very slowly to subside . We found also that a little ( excellent ) Oyl of Tartar per deliquium , being drop'd into some of the lately mention'd solution of Arsenic , produc'd a heavy whitish cloud , which presently settled at the lower part of the Glass . We also put Oyl of vitriol , as one of the strongest Acids we know , into the solution of Arsenic , but did not perceive , that the Oyl made a Precipitation , or wrought much otherwise on it than it would have done upon common Water . And by these three Tryals one would suspect , that Arsenic is , at least ex praedominio , an Acid Body . But not content with these , we put some of the Arsenical Liquor upon some Syrup of Violets , and found it to change the Syrup , thô but slowly , rather to a Green than a Red or Purple Colour . We put , to another portion of the same Liquor , some of our volatile sulphureous Spirit , but took notice of no Precipitation that ensued . For a severer Examen we imploy'd a Tryal that we successfully make use of ( and have deliver'd in another Paper ) to discover such slight degrees of Acidity in Liquors , as by ordinary Tryals are not discoverable ; but we could not by this way discern the least Acidity in our Arsenical Solution , but rather a manifest token of an Urinous or Lixiviate Quality . With the former Experiment agreed very well that which we aftewards made , by putting some of the Arsenical Liquor into a strong solution of common Sublimate made in fair Water . For by this means we had a copious Precipitate , such as might have been expected from an Alkaline Precipitant . And this was not brick-colour'd , as fix'd Alcali's produce with dissolv'd Sublimate , but white , such as Urinous or Volatile Alcalies , ( as they call them , ) are wont to make with the same Liquor . The forgoing Tryals having been made at one time , when I was in hast , and not at all fond of having to do with Arsenic ( for which reason I caus'd the solution to be presently thrown away to prevent dangerous mistakes ; ) thô what I have hitherto try'd seems very favourable to our propos'd conjecture ; That thô Arsenic be a very corrosive Body , and perhaps upon that score poysonous , yet its deleterious nature does not consist only or mainly in a transcendently Acid , nor in a lixiviate caustick Quality , but in a corrosiveness sui generis , I mean peculiar and distinct : Yet I shall forbear to be positive in this conjecture till further Tryal , pretending only , by what has been said , to shew the need of examining the vulgar supposition by further Inquiries , and to give some hints towards the finding of Antidotes against this cruel Poyson . I shall now add that , for the sake of Water-drinkers , I cast about in my Thoughts for some way that might be of some use , thô of no certainty , in examining a Mineral Water suspected to contain Arsenic . To which purpose , for Reasons which hast forbids me to mention , I pitch'd upon vitriolate Bodies and found that if a little solution of Dantzick Vitriol were put to a convenient quantity of Arsenical Liquor , there would presently insue a great change of colour , and a dark Substance would by degrees precipitate it self and settle in the lower part of the Glass . The like effect we found , when we put English vitriol , which ( having no Copper added in the making , as that of Dantzick has , ) is either altogether or almost totally Martial , into a considerable proportion of the Arsenical Solution . I fear I shall be thought to have dwelt by far too long upon this one ( 13 ) Article of our Sett of Titles : But I was tempted to do it , Partly , because I thought the Subject seem'd both to merit and to need it , Partly , because I thought fit to give an Instance that may shew that even that part of the Exploration of Mineral Waters , that is judg'd to be the most cultivated , hath been but superficially enough consider'd . And Partly , too , because my want of health , and my preingagement to some Subjects that I am more concern'd for then I am for that I now treat of , permitting me to make few other than shorter Notes upon the particular Articles and clauses of this Scheme of Titles ; I thought it not amiss , by referring all the foregoing Observations and Tryals to the same Topick , to give one Specimen ( thô but an imperfect one ) of those that , for distinctions sake , I style Large Annotations . And though the Title , these belong to , be the Thirteenth in the Scheme ( of the II Part , ) yet I thought fit to premise these Notes to all the rest ? though divers of them be on Titles antecedent to the Thirteenth , because one or other , of the many Particulars refer'd to this last nam'd Title , may probably be of use to you in considering many of the other Articles of this Scheme , whether they follow the Thirteenth , or precede it . Marginal Notes For the II. Or Physico-Chymical Part of the Natural History of a Mineral Water propos'd . Notes on the first Title . I. 1. THe Article mentions Actual coldness and Heat , because we do not here consider that which the Schools call Potential . 2. The knowledge of the degree of Coldness in the Water , especially if it be extraordinary , may somewhat assist the Examiner to guess , whether the Spring come from some notable depth under ground before it ascends , or whether it runs through a soyl abounding with Salt-Peter or Sal-armoniac , or some such very refrigerating substance . 3. The degree of Coldness or Heat may be estimated several wayes as , if the Water be cold , by its having , or not having , the power to coagulate Essential Oyl of Anis seeds , or that of Fennell seed ; & if it be that , by its being , or not being , able to melt Bodies of somewhat differing dispositions to Fusion , as Butte , Tallow , Bees-was , &c. Or to coagulate the whites of Eggs , or to boyl Eggs in the Shell , &c. But the best way is to plunge into the Water propos'd , or least the whole Ball or globulous part of a good hermetically seal'd Thermoscope , whereon the degrees of cold and heat are carefully mark'd . Notes on the Second Title . II. The knowledge of the specifick Gravity of a Mineral Water , may be of great use to him that endeavonrs to discover its nature , not only as this knowledge inables him to distinguish the propos'd Water from others , but because it may afford him a considerable and double information . For , by comparing the weight of the propos'd Liquor with that of common Water , he may be , in case the former be heavier ( as it usually happens to be ) assisted to estimate what proportion of Salt , or Martial , or other Mineral Substance , it is impregnated with . And if it be very light , and much more if it be lighter than common Water , he may probably conclude that the Substance , that impregnates it , is either very small in quantity or proportion , or is not near so gross as is to be found in other Mineral Waters , but of a Spirituous and Volatile nature which is a discovery of no small moment in this affair . And thó that may seem a paradox which I here suppose , that a Water impregnated with a Metalline or Mineral Substance should be as light or even lighter than common Water . Yet upon Tryal carefully made I have found some Mineral Waters , as particularly that of Tunbridge well taken up , and ( thô they be somewhat less light ) that of the German Spaw , and of some of the Islington Springs , to be manifestly lighter than common Water , and some taken up at Tun bridge I found to be lighter than common Water , even purified by Distillation . And thô it be very hard to conceive , yet I think it not impossible , that a Subterreneal Substance , that impregnates Water , should be lighter in Specie than it : but yet I would not refer this surprizing Levity , in all cases , nor all of it in most cases , to the admixture of lighter Corpuscles , because some Tryals justify'd the suspicion I had , that much of the Comparative Lightness proceeded from this , That the Mineral Water was imbued with a smaller quantity of vulgar or culinary Salt , than common Water uses to contain . But yet these Tryals did not satisfy me , that this paucity of common Salt was the sole or adequate cause of the lightness of the mentioned Waters . But , to discover such minute differences , one must have good Instruments , and indeed , to speak freely , there are few , upon whose Reports I durst confidently relye , for the Specific Gravity of Mineral Waters . For to weigh Liquors any thing exactly there is requisite more Heedfulness , and more Skill , and better Instruments , than are easy to be met with together , and than we usually imagine . And , when Physicians and others weigh Mineral Waters , they are wont to do it in some Apothecary or other Trades ▪ mans Shop , where , if the Ballances be small , the Vessels and the Water are commonly too heavy for them , and oftentimes wrong them . And if , as is usual , the Bottles or other vessels be great , they require far better Ballances than are usually imploy'd in the Shops of Apothecaries or Grocers , whose Ballances a Critical Examiner will too often find to be far from being accurate , insomuch that usually , without at all altering the weights , thô perhaps not great ones , he may easily make which Scale he pleases manifestly preponderate , and continue in that position , and may as easily afterwards give the other Scale the same advantage : The diligent and experienced Mathematician Mersennus much complains of the difficulty he found to weigh Liquors exactly , even by the help of his Nicer Instruments . The accuratest way , I know , is by comparing the differing weights that the same sinking Body has in common Water , and in the Liquor propos'd . But this way ( which I elsewhere circumstantially deliver ) requiring , besides good Instruments , skill in Hydrostaticks , is practicable but by few . And the way of comparing Waters , by the greater or lesser sinking of the same Cylinder or other swiming Body into them , is scarce accurate enough . Wherefore I chose to make a very skilfull Artist blow , at the flame of a great Lamp , a thin round vial with a flattish bottom , that it might stand upright , and be very light , and this was furnish'd with a neck as large as a Goose quil drawn very even into a hollow Cylinder of above 3 Inches long , and fitted at the top with a little Gap , that hinder'd the Water from ascending above the due height . This Glass contain'd ℥ iiiss and 43 grains of common Water , and yet when empty , weigh'd but ʒvi+ 42 grains : So that I could use it , when full of Liquor , in such a Ballance , that the addition or detraction of half a Grain , or less , would make either Scale preponderate . The length and evenness of the stem was design'd for uses not needful to be mention'd here ; where it may suffice for my purpose to say , that this Glass was judged capable of holding Water enough for not uncurious Tryals , and yet not to be , thô well fill'd , too heavy for a tender Ballance . In this Vessel herefore we carefully weighed several Liquors ( whose Gravity belongs not to this place ) and among them diverse Mineral Waters , some of which , at least known here at London , were found to be of the annexed weights . The Glass being fill'd with several Liquors to the same height , and weighed in the same Ballances .   Ounces dr . gr . Common Water was found to weigh 3 4 43 Common Water distill'd 3 4 41 Acton Water 3 4 48 ½ Epsom Water 3 4 51 Dulledge Water 2 4 54 Straton Water 3 4 55 Barnet Water 3 4 52 North-Hall Water 3 4 50 The German Spaw Water 3 4 40 Tunbridge Water 3 4 38 Islington Water from the Musick House 3 4 36 Islington Water from the Vault with Steps 3 4 39 Islington Water from the Cellar 3 4 39 By this short account it may appear , that , as divers Mineral Waters ( that contain Salts in them ) are considerably heavier than Common Water , so some , especially Ferruginous Waters , are impregnated with so fine a substance , as to be lighter than common Water . Notes on the Fourth Title . IV. This Article may , in divers cases , give some light to the discovery of the kind of Soyl , through which the Water has pass'd ; and is also useful to distinguish the Spontaneous residence , if I may so call it , that the Liquor le ts fall by meer standing , from that which they call the Caput Mortuum , that remains after the total evaporation of the Water ; by which means also the weight of this last residence may be more truly known . Besides some other Mineral Waters , I found that the German Spaw Waters , brought very well stop't to London , afforded by long standing a pretty quantity of Terrestrial substance , that look'd almost like yellow Oke● , and perhaps was of great affinity to it in nature . 3. That clause in the Article , thô the Liquor be kept from the Air , was therefore set down , because I had found by Tryals , that some Liquors , by being expos'd to the free Air , would have copious , and sometimes surprizing , substances separated from them ; as if the Air contain'd some Precipitating Salts , fit to work on the Liquors , so as to make in them such notable separations . Notes on the Fifth Title . V. An accidental weakness I had , in my eyes , when I had the best opportunity to endeavour satisfying my self about this Inquiry , forc'd me to leave the prosecution of it to others . Only two things I shall take notice of on this occasion : One is that , having caus'd one that had young Eyes , and was accustom'd to make use of such Microscopes as are mention'd in the Article , to look upon some Mineral Waters through them , he said he could discern no difference between them and common Water . Notwithstanding which the Tryal ought to be repeated by various persons , on several Waters , with differing Engyscopes , and in differing Lights , and other circumstances . The other is , that whereas it is by divers learned men objected , against the goodness of these magnifying Glasses we now make use of to look on Liquors , that the little Bodies that the ingenious , Mr. Lewenhoeck , and since him divers other Virtuosi , have observ'd in Water wherein Pepper has been infus'd , are not , as he pretends , living creatures , but little inanimate concretions , that are casually form'd , and carry'd to and fro in the Liquor : To convince these Doubters , of whose number I was my self at first inclin'd to be , I devis'd the following experiment : Having laid , upon the magnifying Glass , a part of a drop of Water , wherein I could see store of these little Animals frisking up and down , we put to the Liquor , with a bristle or some such very slender thing , part of a drop of Spirit of Salt , which , as was expected , presently kill'd these little tender creatures , and depriving them of their Animal Motion , left them to be carry'd so slowly to and fro in the Liquor , as to make it visible that they were then dead and had been before alive . Notes on the Seventh Title . VII 1. The Odours of divers Mineral Waters are best judg'd of at the Spring head or other Receptacle , whence some of them being remov'd scarce afford any Odour at all ( perceptible by us men . ) 2. Perhaps the Sulphureous scent , that is sometimes , perceiv'd in Tunbridge and some other Waters in their sources , may in part proceed from loose Exhalations , that casually happen to be mingled with the Waters , but do not constantly belong to it . 3. The winy odour is mention'd among others : Because I am credibly inform'd that , in France , there is a Mineral Spring , if not more or less than one , that has such a smell . 4. I mention the Bituminous Odour , distinctly from the Sulphureous because men are too apt to confound them , and take all stinking Mineral ▪ Waters for Sulphureous , whereas divers are manifestly Bituminous ; as may be gather'd , to omit other signs , not only from their proper odours , but from more or fewer drops of Petroleum , or a kind of course Naphtha , that are found swimming upon the Water . 5. I think it also not unlikely , that sometimes a Spring may partake both of Sulphur and Bitumen , mingl'd together by the Subterraneal Heat , since I have found that I could easily enough melt and incorporate these two substances here above ground . Notes on Ninth Title . IX . 1. This is an almost necessary Article because many Persons , that drink Mineral Waters , cannot well , either for want of strength or conveniency , repair immediately to the Spring head , but are oblig'd to drink them in their Beds or their Lodgings , and perhaps to have them transported to a great distance , or even to another country . 2. Many Purging Waters are found to retain their Laxative vertue , and that perhaps for a considerable time , thô they be transported to places distant from those they rise in . 3. In such Ferruginous Waters , as are lighter than common Water , I found a manifest difference in reference to transportation : For most of them , even such as will bear removing , have something of freshness and quickness at the Spring head , ( perhaps from some Spirituous and Fugitive Exhalations , that there arise with them , but presently vanish , ) that they have not any where else . And some do not only lose this briskness by being remov'd , thô in vessels well stop'd , but they lose also the power of producing , with the powder of Galls , a Purple colour , as I found by Tryal purposely made in more than one of these Mineral Waters , which , to prevent fraud , I sent for to the Springs themselves by servants of my own : For thô these carryed their Glass Bottles along with them , and had no other Errand there but to fill and stop them carefully yet , by being transported less than one league , I found them so alter'd , that they would no longer make a Purplish colour with powder'd Galls , but a deep reddish one ; whereas the German Spaw Waters did almost alwayes here in London afford me , with the same Powder of Galls , a rich Purple Colour . And Tunbridge Waters afforded me the like , but not so deep a one . when I receiv'd them at London very well stopt . 4. This last clause was not to be omitted , because the exact or negligent closing of the vessels , wherein such Waters are transported , is a circumstance of great moment . For more than once I receiv'd at London , Waters sent me from Tunbridge by Physicians themselves , ( who us'd at least a moderate care in putting them up , ) which yet would by no means afford with Galls a purplish Colour . And I found that even the German Spaw-Water would almost presently lose its capacity of being made Purple by Galls , if it were considerably heated . 5. But the same Spaw-Water being , in Summer time , kept all night in an open Vessel , did the next morning till it was late , if not till Noon , retain a disposition to be made Purple by the admixture of Galls ; but that disposition it lost before the next day . Notes on the Fifteenth Title . XV. 1. Because it often happens , that men have not the leisure and the conveniency totally to evaporate the proposed Mineral Water , it may be an useful thing , to be able without evaporation to discover , whether it contain any common Salt and , if it do , to make some estimate , how copiously or sparingly the Liquor is impregnated with it . This might easily be done , with nicety enough , if I were not by very just Reasons restrain'd , for a while , from communicating that way of examining the saltness and freshness of Waters , of which I did , by the Kings command , show his Majesty some proofs , whereof mention was presently after made in the printed Gazets . But till it be free for me to impart that way to the publick , I shall only intimate , that some guess may be made at the Saltness of Waters , by observing , whether they will lather with wash-balls or Soap , and , if they will not , what quantity of curdled matter they will produce ; as also , whether the Waters will serve for washing of Linnen , and will boil Peas tender ? Which two are the most usual wayes that many Sea men take to examine the goodness of unknown Waters by . In divers Purging Waters this way may be difficult to be practis'd with certainty , because of other Salts that may be predominant in them ; but in the Examen of lightly Ferruginous Springs it may be more rely'd upon . 2. It may not be unworthy observation that , when I made use of my own way of examining the Saltness of Mineral Springs , I did not find even the lightest sort of them devoid of common Salt ; which I found , but not in equal proportions , to be contain'd , not only in the several Waters of Islington , Hamstead VVater , and , if I misremember not , in some others , but also particularly in Tunbridge VVaters , and those of the German-Spaw , which I did not much wonder at , because I had long known , that more or less of common Salt is very usually harbour'd , thô not observed , in many Soils , through which all sorts of Springs , and consequently Mineral ones , have their course . Notes on the Sixteenth Title . XVI . Thô Acidity be so usually a manifest Quality of Mineral Waters , that Authors are wont to divide them into Acidulae and Thermae , yet I have found , by several Tryals , that 't is not near so easy as men presume , to find a manifest Acidity in all Mineral Waters , that are not Sulphureous or Hot. For several Ferruginous Waters , having probably spent the Acidity they had upon the Iron Ore , which they dissolv'd in their passage , retain so little Acidity , that 't is hard to discover they have any , either by their working upon Coral , or by any conflict with Spirit of Urine , or the like , or by mixing them with Syrup of Violets , to change the colour of it ; insomuch that sometimes I should have concluded some such Waters to have no Acidity at all , if I had not had a way of discovering a far less degree of it , than I could discern it to have by other Tryals . The circumstances , that made this way of examining so critical , will cost me too many words to set down here , and I have done it in another Paper expresly written , of the way of discovering the Qualities of divers Bodies , by changes of colour made in or with them : And therefore I shall here but briefly tell you , that I discover the Acidity of Liquors by their operation upon the colours of an Infusion of Lignum Nephriticum made in Lympid Water , ( and order'd after a certain manner . ) By this means I found the German Spaw Water to retain a little Acidity , even here at London ; but more than one of our own Ferruginous Springs did not , even upon this Tryal , appear to have any . And ( which some may think strange ) I did not find even some of the Purging Springs , particularly that of Acton , to have any discernible Acidity . Notes on the Twentieth Title . XX. The Scope of this Inquiry was twofold : The first , to discover whether a change of Texture would notably alter the Qualities of the Liquor , when the Hermetical Seal hinder'd the Avolation of any Saline , Ferruginous , or Spirituous parts : And the other was , to see whether such an Agitation , by heat , as in the open Air would , as I had found , deprive the Spaw Water of the vertue of making a Purple colour with Galls , would cause any manifest separation of parts in the Liquor , and make any grosser substance to precipitate or subside . But thô we did twice ( not without difficulty ) make the experiment with Spaw Water , yet we made it without success . For the first time the Glass broke at the bottom , before the Water we immers'd it in was near boyling hot . And thô the other Glass resisted longer , and indur'd a greater heat , yet in not very many Minutes that also broke at the bottom . Which disappointments a faithful Historian ought as little to conceal , as better successes . And I chuse to leave this 20th Article of Inquiry in its place , among the rest of the Titles , because possibly some other may be more happy , than I was , in endeavouring to answer it . And I hold it not amiss , in drawing up Platforms of Natural History , to set down what Questions we think fit to be propos'd to nature ; because we cannot be sure , before Endeavours for Tryal be us'd , whether the thing to be attempted be practically performable or not . Notes on the Twenty sixth Title . XXVI . 1. Divers wayes may be propounded to discover which of the Qualities , mention'd in this Article , is predominant in the Salt to be examin'd ; but I confess I somewhat doubt , whether these waies of Tryal be so certain , as many will be forward to think them . 2. If Acidity be guess'd to be predominant in the Salt propos'd it will probably appear by such waies as these . By the Tast , odour , or both : By working upon Coral or Crabs eyes finely powder'd : By curdling of Milk ; By making Syrup of violets reddish : By the power of destroying the blew colour of the Infusion of Lignum Nephriticum : By not being Precipitable by Potent Acid Liquors as Oyl of Vitriol , Spirit of Salt ; and by being Precipitable by Oyl of Tartar per deliquium , as also by strong Spirit of Urine , and other volatile Alcaly's , as they are call'd . But , as I was noting above , I doubt whether these proofs be absolutely certain ; for , if I mistake not , I found some Purging Mineral Waters that would not give even so slight a proof of acidity , as to destroy the blewness of the Nephritic Tincture : Which yet would curdle Milk , and turn it to a kind of Posset ; and , on the contrary , I found that some German Spaw Water would not curdle Milk , & yet would readily deprive the newly mention'd Tincture of its ceruleous colour ; which yet I did not find that some of our English Ferruginous Waters were , at least when brought me to London , able to do . 3. The predominancy of an Alcaly , in the Salt of a Mineral Water , may be probably discover'd by such waies as these . By the Lixiviate Tast , Smell , or both ; the former of which may be observ'd in the true Niter of the Ancients , ( which I have had brought me from Aegypt , and a neighbouring Country , whose name I do not now remember : ) By the turning of Syrup of violets green : By the Precipitation of solution of sublimate made in Spring-Water : By an effervescence or conflict with some potent Acid , as Aqua fortis , or well dephlegm'd Sprit of Salt : By heightning the red Tincture of Logwood or Brazil , drawn with common Water , to which , may be added a Nicer way or two that I have elsewhere mention'd . But I propose these waies but as appearing rational , upon the score of my having successfully try'd them with other Saline Bodies that were Alcalisate . For as to those Mineral Waters , I have had occasion to examine , I do not remember I have yet met with any , wherein an Alcaly was predominant . 4. But perhaps farther Inquiry will discover to others here in England , what I have not yet met with : And I doubt not but that there are , in divers places of the Earth , Salts of an Alcalisate nature . And I presume that , if the Egyptians were any thing curious of such things , they would find , among their Springs or Wells , divers Waters impregnated with them . For I found by Tryals , purposely made upon Latron , as some knowing men call the true Egyptian Niter , presented me by an inquisitive Ambassador who came out of the East , that the native Salt exhibited divers of the same Phaenomena that other factitious Alcali's do . And some Salt , afforded by the famous Waters of Bourbon in France , being brought me thence , with a desire that I would examine it , I found it to be evidently Alcalisate ; insomuch that it would make a conflict with Acids , and presently turn Syrup of violets green . 5. If we suspect Vitriol to be much predominant in the Saline part of a Mineral Water , we may endeavour to discover it by such wayes as these . By its blackning a Solution of Galls : By its vomitive operation upon the Drinkers , thô this may sometimes be an uncertain way especially because an invisible permixture of Arsenic , or or perhaps Arsenical Fumes , may give the Water they impregnate an Emetic Quality : By putting Alcali's to a strong solution of the suppos'd Vitriol , and observing whether it will afford a yellow or yellowish Precipitate , if Salt of Tartar or Spirit of Urine be dropt into it . By taking notice , whether a Sulphureous Spirit , especially ▪ such an one as I formerly told I had made thô not here describ'd , will make a blackish or a very dark colour with it , as I first guess'd , and then found it would do with several vitriolate Liquors , and even with one , to make which we had dissolv'd but one grain of a Natural Vitriolate substance in above four or five thousand times its weight of Syrup or Water . But in the parts about London I remember not that , in any of the Waters I have made Tryals on , I have found Vitriol to be predominant , or to be so much as a manifest Ingredient : Which seem'd to me the more remarkable , because several parts about this City are not destitute of Marcasites , the Parents or Wombs of Vitriol . Since the writing of these Papers , being casually visited by a discerning Stranger , who had a particular occasion to take notice of the Residences of many of the Mineral Waters of France , his native Country ; he answer'd me that he never met with any that was manifestly Vitriolate ; and he seem'd to be of opinion , that no Vitriolate Spring had yet been discover'd , among the many Mineral ones that are known to be in that Country . 7. Since we so rarely meet with either manifestly Acid , or evidently Alcalisate , Salts in our English Mineral Waters , it may deserve a serious Inquiry , what other Salts they may be impregnated with ; and especially from what Salts , the Purgative vertue , that is found to belong to many of them , as Epsom , Barnet , Acton , &c. do's proceed ? Common Salt indeed , as is already noted , I have found tokens of in the German Spaw Water ; and in all the English Mineral Waters , I had occasion to try , not one that I remember excepted . But I did not find that common Salt was so copious in any of them , as to disclose it self by Chrystallizing in Cubical grains . And the way , I made use of , to examine the Saltness of the Water without Crystallization , is not equally certain in all sorts of them . And because I had not store enough of these Liquors , to evaporate them in large quantities , thô I could not discern , in the clear Salts they afforded , either Vitriol , or Salt Peter , or Allom , or even common Salt , by their peculiar and genuine Figures ; yet I dare not confidently say , that none of our English Mineral Springs abounds with any of those Salts . But as far as I can guess , by the Tryals that I have hitherto had opportunity to make , I am apt to think that the Salt , that is found in our Purgative Waters , and and in some of them copiously enough , dos not belong to any one known sort of Salts , but is either of a sort , for which as for many other Minerals , we have yet no name : or , which seems more probable , is a Salt of a compounded Nature , made up by the coalitions of some or all of the Salts above mention'd , and perhaps of some other , as yet nameless , Subterraneal Salt that the Spring inssolves in its passage , That two Bodies , which are neither of them Cathartic , may , by a change of Texture , wrought in one another , compose a third Body , that is briskly purgative , I have shewn in another Paper . Besides having formerly had occasion , in order to the resolution of a certain doubt I had entertain'd , to burn Salt of Tartar with about a double weight of common Sulphur , I thence obtain'd , as I expected , a Neutral Salt , that had peculiar Qualities differing from those of the Bodies imploy'd to make it up : And talking of this Salt with an ingenious Empyrick , he told me it had a Quality I had not mention'd , and that a very useful one , since in the dose of half a dram , or in some Bodies , being taken in Wine or Broth , it would considerably , and yet gently and without gripings , purge . And without the help of Salt of Tartar have sometimes made out of common Sulphur , a Chrystalline Salt of a somewhat Vitriolate Tast , the like to which might possibly be made under ground , where there are Subterraneal fires , tho perhaps not observed nor suspected , since we made this Salt without adding any thing to the Sulphur , only by the help of Fire and common Water . And I remember that a great Virtuoso , several years ago , brought me , in order to an Examen he desir'd I should make of it , a certain Salt afforded by a Spring in or near his land , which I remember was in the West of England , tho I have forgot the name of the County : Which Salt no Body knew what to make of , but I quickly told him , I took it to be of the nature of the Sal mirabile Glauberi , and predicted that in such Tryals it would afford such and such Phaenomena , which accordingly came to pass . And I thought that , if opportunity had not been wanting this Salt would have appear'd Purgative , as some factitious Salts that resemble it in transparency , colourlesness , and Figure have been observ'd to be . Notes on the Twenty seventh Title . 1. 'T is surprizing to observe , how great an inequality one may sometimes meet with in the proportion that the same quantity , of two ▪ differing Mineral Waters , bear to the Caput Mortuum they respectively afford : For a pound , for instance , of one may , after evaporation , leave behind it perhaps more drams of dry substance , than a pound of the other will leave behind it grains . But because I have no notes of the considerablest Instances of this kind , that came to my knowledge , I shall add only by and by the Product of a more recent Tryal . 2. As far as I have hitherto observ'd , those Ferruginous Waters , that are not heavier than common Water , and in most Drinkers prove but diuretick , afford but very little Caput Mortuum , or dry Substance upon the total Evaporation of the Liquor , whereas Mineral Waters , that are purging and manifestly more ponderous in Specie than common Water , leave , upon Evaporation , a considerable quantity of residence , thô some far less than others . 3. At once to explain , and partly prove , what I have been saying , I shall here recite that , from a pound of Barnet VVater ( which is known to be purgative ) slowly evaporated , we obtain'd a Dram of VVhite Powder . But from the like quantity of Tunbridge VVater , we obtain'd but about one grain of Caput Mortuum : And , if I misremember not , we had but about a grain and a half from 25. Ounces of the German Spaw Water . 4. It may seem scarce credible to many , that so small a quantity of matter , of which perhaps not one half is Saline , or Metalline , ( the rest being teresstrial , ) should impart a manifest vertue to so great a proportion of VVater . But this difficulty did not much trouble me , who have purposely made divers Experiments , to discover how small a proportion of Mineral matter may suffice , when dissolv'd , to impregnate common VVater . I remember I took one grain of Iron stone , casually found near the Springs at Islington , ( from which Mineral 't is probable those VVaters derive their vertue , ) this being open'd by the fire , and dissolv'd as far as it would be in a little Spirit of Salt , we let fall a drop or two of the yellowish solution into a great proportion of Infusion of Galls , to which it presently gave a deeper colour than Tunbridge Water , or even the German Spaw VVater , was wont to give here at London , with the Powder of Galls : So that we guess'd that , if we had then had at hand a competent quantity of the infusion , the remaining part of the Martial Solution would have been able to colour ten times a greater quantity of the Infusion , than our Tryal was made upon . This will be easily believ'd by him , that shall consider an Experiment , we afterwards made to the same purpose , which was this , VVe dissolv'd a half grain of a good Marcasite , taken up not far from London , in a small quantity of Spirit of Niter , ( which for a certain Reason I made choice of , thô other Acid Menstruums , as Aqua-fortis , and Spirit of Salt would have dissolved the Mineral . ) This small solution we put into a pound of pretty high Tincture of Galls , made by infusing them in common Water , and finding , as we expected , that this mixture , grew very dark , we fill'd a Vial with it , and emptying that Vial into a larger Glass , we fill'd the same Vial three times with common Water to dilute it ; notwithstanding which this new mixture , being put into one of our usual Glasses , appeared of a colour much deeper than that which the Water of Tunbridge , or the German Spaw , had formerly given with the Powder of Galls : So that probably , if another Vial of common Water had been added , it would yet have afforded a purple colour , if not a deeper ; so that one part of dissolv'd Marcasite communicated a Tincture to ( 61440 ) sixty one thousand four hundred and forty parts of Infusion of Galls . And that which makes this Experiment more considerable is , that this small quantity of Marcasite was not it self all Martial or Metalline : For from our English Marcasites , as well as others , I have obtain'd a pretty quantity of Sulphur like common Sulphur ; besides that they afford a not despicable quantity of Terrestrial Substance , about whose nature I have not yet satisfy'd my self . 5. I shall now add this reflexion that , since the Marcasite impregnated so much Water with its corporeal Parts , if I may so call them , obtain'd by bare dissolution , it seems highly probable , that the same quantity of Liquor may be impregnated by a far less quantity of Mineral matter , attenuated into a kind of Spirituous slate , by being rais'd in the form of Fumes or exhalations ; and that imperfect or embryonated Iron may be so , will scarce be deny'd by them that consider the way that I have , in another Paper , deliver'd to make Iron manifestly emit copious Fumes , without the help of external Fire . And if it be with some such Spirituous and volatile Exhalations , that a Mineral Water , as that of Tunbridge or of Islington , is impregnated , 't is not hard to conceive that they may easily lose their chief vertue , by the avolation of most or many of their fugitive Parts , upon their being remov'd to a distance from the Spring head . And to make it probable , that vitriolate Corpuscles may be made to ascend , without losing their nature , I shall here mention an Experiment , that I devis'd to give some light in this matter . I had often found by Tryal , that a Spirit , richly impregnated with volatiliz'd Sulphur , would with vitriol , whether in the form of a powder or a solution , produce in a trice a very dark or blackish colour ; And guessing that , in Mercury turn'd by the addition of Salt and Vitriol into corrosive sublimate , many of the Vitriolate Corpuscles might ascend with the Mercurial ones , I took such a Volatile Sulphureous Tincture as I have been mentioning , ( which for this purpose ought to be deep , ) and having dropt it upon good Sublimate , I found it turn presently of a very opacous colour . To show also that , to make a great dilatation or dispersion of the Martial Corpuscles of an Ore or Mineral , there needs no Spirit of Salt , or the like distill'd Menstruum , I procur'd from a copperas-work , ( or place where vitriol is made by art , ) some of the Liquor they imploy , before they cast in Iron , that being corroded by it , it may increase the weight , and give solidity and some other Qualities to the designed Vitriol . Now thó this Liquor be made , without any Chymical Menstruum , barely by Rain or Snow-Water , that impregnates it self with Saline or Metalline Particles in its passage through Beds of Marcasites , that lye expos'd to the Sun and Air ; yet in this Water such numbers of Martial Corpuscles are dispers'd that , having shaken four drops of it into 12 Ounces and a half of common Water , this Liquor , as I expected , was thereby so impregnated , that with powder of Galls it presently produc'd as deep a colour as good Tunbridge Water would have done . So that , supposing a drop of this Liquor to weigh about a grain , ( as by some Tryals purposely made we found it to do , ) it appears that one part of the vitriolate Water was able manifestly to impregnate 1500 Parts of common water . And yet of these 4 drops or Grains of Vitriolate Liquor , a considerable part may very probably be concluded , from the way of its production , to have been Rain Water , as will easily be granted when I shall have added , that , to examine this supposition or conjecture , we slowly evaporated some Ounces of the Vitriolate Liquor , and found that the remaining dry Substance did not fully amount to the 4th part of the weight of the whole . At which rate 't was easy to conclude , that one grain of Vitriolate substance would have been sound capable of so impregnating six thousand times its weight of common Water , as to make it sit to produce with Galls a purple tincture . We afterwards found , upon Tryal purposely and warily made , that the experiment will hold , thô the proportion of the Water , to the grain of tinging substance , should exceed that lately mention'd , by the weight of some hundreds of grains . TITLES . For the Natural History of a Mineral water propos'd . Consider'd as a Medicine . ( Being the III. Part of the designed work . ) SECT . VI. THough the effects of a Mineral Water upon Humane Bodies , as well as upon other Subjects , may challenge a place in the Natural History of it , yet because the Titles of this Third Part of this Scheme , for the most part , directly regard the cure or prevention of diseases , which are held to be the proper Offices of Physicians as such ; I forbore to make any comments upon the particular Titles of this Part of our Historical Idea , contenting my self , for the sake of those that are strangers to Platforms of Natural History , to have set down a series of Titles , which may point out to them what particulars may be fit for their Inquiry , and furnish them with heads whereto they may refer , and Receptacles wherein they may lodge what , upon Tryals or otherwise , they shall meet with worthy of observation . And so the accounts , that shall be given on these Subjects , may be somewhat more distinct , and less incompleat . To what Temperaments and constitutions the Mineral Water propos'd is the most proper , to what less proper , and to what noxious or inconvenient ? In what stated Diseases , and in what particular cases , the Mineral Water is proper , or to be suspected of being dangerous , if not certainly hurtful ? What difference there is , if any , between the Water taken up and presently drunk at the Spring it self or other receptacle , and that which is carryed to some distance off , whether in open , or in well stop'd Vessels ? Of the manifest Operations of the Water in those that take it , whether it be by vomit , by seige , by Urine , by several , or by two , or all of these waves . Whether any , occult vertues , or other hidden Qualities , can be discovered in the Mineral Water ? And if any , what ? What variation , in the effects of the Mineral Water , proceeds from its being drunk all of it quite cold , or hot , or lukewarm , or one part when 't is in one of those tempers , and the rest when in another ? Of promoting or facilitating the operation of the Water , in some by taking it in Bed , and in others by Moderate exercise . What assistance may be given to the operation of the Water , by giving with it , especially in the first draught , something to make it pass the better , or to correct its Crudity , or to strengthen the stomach and Bowels ? What advantages may accrue , from preparing the Patients Body before he enters upon his course of drinking the Waters ? And what inconveniences may attend the neglect of such preparation especially in gross , foul , or much obstructed Bodies ? Of the assistance the Water may receive by gently purging Medicines , discreetly given from time to time . Of the best Dose , or quantity of the Water , to be taken at once ; of the compass of time wherein it should be all drunk ; and of the gradual increasing and lessening the Dose at the beginning , and sometimes before the end , of the whole space of time appointed for the taking it . How much the greater or lesser length of time , spent in taking the Water , conduces to its good Effects ? and what is the fittest measure of time to continue the drinking of it , respect being had to the Patients strength , Disease , the time of the year , the accidental temperature of the Air , and other considerable circumstances . Whether the drinking of the Mineral Water , for several years together , be found almost necessary , or more beneficial than to intermit it sometimes for a year or two , or perhaps longer , and then to return to the use of it ? Of the Diet , as to meat , drink , exercise , sleep , &c. That ought to be observ'd by those that take the Water , and of the inconveniences that are wont to follow the neglect of it . Of the signes that declare the Water to work kindly and effectually , and of the Tokens of not doing so , and those of its being already hurtful or likely to prove so . Of the Inconveniences or unwelcome accidents ( if there be any , as usually there is ) that have been observ'd to happen , during , or some time after , the drinking of the Mineral Water , especially to Persons of such constitutions , or that are in such and such circumstances , and of the waies to prevent or remedy such inconveniences . Whether there be any necessity , or great use , of taking Physick after one has done drinking the Water ? And if there be , what are the fittest times and medicines to be imploy'd for the prevention of any bad effects of it , and what is the danger of neglect to make use of them ? VVhether and how the Mineral VVater may be usefully given by being simply commix'd with other Liquors or Bodies , as by boiling meat in it ; or by receiving , together with the Additament , a further preparation , as when the VVater is mingled with VVine , or some other Drink ; when with Milk 't is made into Posset drink ; when brewed with Mault alone , or with that and hopps , 't is turn'd into Ale or Beer ? VVhether any such saline , or other , substance may by evaporation Inspissation , Calcination , &c. be extracted , or obtained , from the Mineral VVater , as being given in a small Dose , may be substituted , as a Succedaneum to large quantities of the Water as nature affords it ? Of what uses ( if of any ) the Mineral VVater is , when outwardly apply'd , as by washing sore Eyes or Ulcers , bathing in it , &c. And whether the mud , or Sediment it leaves , where it passes or stagnates , being externally apply'd , have the same or other Medicinal vertues , and , if so , how the mud is to be administred to make it exert them . Of some Mechanico-Medical Trials , that may be made upon Animals , to help us to guess at the Qualities of the Mineral VVaters , as by injecting it into the veins of a Dog , to try whether it will coagulate his Blood , or make it more fluid , or operate powerfully by Vomit , Siege , or Urine : as also by keeping a Dog very long without allowing him any other Drink at all than the Mineral VVater . But I propose such Particulars , as are mention'd in this Article , but as Analogous Experiments , or Succedaneums to Tryals that should , but cannot well , because of the worthiness of the Subject , be try'd in living Humane Bodies . And indeed all the Titles of this third part of our design'd History , belong porperly to Physicians ; many of whom ( at least if they resemble you ) are far better qualifi'd , to cultivate this Medicinal Subject , than I , who being as little desirous , as fit , to incroach upon their Province , shall not inlarge upon this third member of our History , but willingly resign it into their , and especially into your own , more skilful hands . The Conclusion . ANd now , Sir , it may be seasonable to put an end , at least for the present , so this Rhapsody of Papers , by telling you , That theforegoing Idea or Platform of a History of Mineral VVaters , being a draught of , or a First essay upon , so difficult and and uncultivated a Subject , as I have ventur'd to treat of ; as I know you are too Iudicious to expect any thing of exactness and compleatness , in what I now present you , so I hope you will be so equitable , or so favourable , a Reader , as to forgive those omissions and other imperfections , that I cannot doubt , but you , ( and even I my self upon a review , ) shall discover in the first edition of the foregoing Papers . And thô , if hereafter they shall be thought worthy of a Second , I may possibly be able , if God be pleas'd to grant me health and Leisure , to rectify some oversights , and supply some omissions ; yet , to deal freely with you , I much fear , that it will be very difficult for far skilfuller Pensthan mine to deliver such Histories of Mineral VVaters , as the curious would wish , and those Criticks , that have never made Tryal of the difficulty of attempts of this nature , will be forward to require . And this difficulty will , I presume , be found a great one , not only , ( as I have already noted , ) by him that shall undertake to give a good account of Mineral VVaters á priori , but to him also that shall take in all the help he can obtain à posteriori . For there are so many circumstances , of seasons , VVeather , place , and a multitude of contingencies , that may vary the Phaenomena and effects of Mineral VVaters , that 't is extreamly difficult , either to comprize so many different things at once , and as it were survey them at one view , or without having such a comprehension and multitude of various regards , to be able to pronounce with certainty about the nature , the Medicinal Operations , and the other effects , of a Subject that may be influenc'd and diversify'd by so many causes and accidents , as a Mineral VVater may . And therefore , till further disquisitions and Tryals shall have better clear'd up the Subject , I shall , without pretending to more , think the past discourse not altogether useless , if it can well perform the office of the virgula divinatoria ; which , ( supposing the truth of what many Chymists and Metallists deliver , ) of how little value soever it be of it self , is fit to point at Mineral treasures , and show men the places where they are to seek for them . Farewel . This belongeth to the 16th Title of the first Part. 'T Is known , that the drinking of Ferruginous Waters , such as those of the German-Spaw and our Tunbridge , is usually prescrib'd for many Weeks , during which time it often enough happens , that the Fall of Rains makes men doubt whether the Mineral Water be not so much diluted , as to be spoil'd in its Medicinal Capacity . And indeed I have more than once observ'd , that some such Martial Waters , after considerable Rains lost their Power of producing the wonted Colour with Galls . And therefore it may in some cases be of good use , to be assisted to Conjecture , whether or no the Rain have made the Mineral Water unfit for Drinking . In order to this I shall take notice , that usually a small Rain does little or no harm to the Medicinal Spring . And sometimes even a moderate Rain , especially after a long Drought , may , instead of weakning it , increase its vertue , by washing down into its Channel some Salts , that during the dry weather , were concreted in the Pores of the Ground , and perhaps also by heightning the Water in the Channel , so as to dissolve some Salts concreted there , which it could not reach before . But if the Rain have long continu'd , the Estimate may best be made , partly by the greater or lesser depth of the Spring beneath the surface of the Ground , and partly and indeed chiefly , by the peculiar nature or strength of the Mineral Water . For some Springs are much more copiously impregnated than others , and therefore will bear a greater dilution by Rain-Water , of which I shall give you this notable Instance . That , whereas I found ( as I lately noted ) that more than one of our English Martial Springs , especially those near London , were too much weakned by the Water that Rained into them ; I had the Curiosity to try , how much of that kind of Liquor , some German-Spaw-Water , that came to me to London very well conditioned , would bear . In pursuit of which design I warily made some Tryals , which showed , ( what probably will be thought strange , that when the Mineral Water was diluted with no less than thrice its Weight of Rain-Water , it yet retained strength enough to produce with newly powdered Galls , a Purplish colour . FINIS . A Catalogue of late Physick Books sold by Samuel Smith , at the Prince's Arms in St. Pauls Churchyard . Fol. BOueti Anatomia , 2. Vol. 1680. — Mercurius , 1682. — Medicina Septentrionalis , 1684. Breinii Plantarum Exoticar . Cent. cum Figuris , 1680. Fabritii Hildani opera cum Severino , 1682. Hippocratis Opera Foetii . Hartmanni Opera omnia , 1684. Paracelsi Opera , 2 vol. Dioscoridis Opera , G. Lat. Saxoniae Opera Med. 1680. Piso Hist , naturalis de rebus Indiae . Schenkii Observat . Med. Mentzelii Index Plant. cum Figuris , 1683. Lepenii Bibliotheca Med. 1683. Riverii Opera , 1679. Zwelferii Pharmacopeia . Quartoes . Alpinus Medicina Aegypt . Borrichius de ortu & progressu Chimiae . — Hermetis Aegyptiorum & Chym. Sapientia . Bauhini Pinax cum Prodromo . Broeckhuysen Oeconomia Corporis Anim. 1683. Boyle Opera omina , 2 vol. Blasii Anatomia , 1681. Borellus de motu Animalium , 2 vol. Blegny Zodiacus Galen . Med. Chymic . 1682 ▪ Bartholini Acta Medica . 4 vol. Castelli Lexicon Med. 1682. Cardilucii Officina Sanitatis . Clauderi Methodus Balsamandi . Collect anea Chymica Leydensia , 1684. Clauderi Inventum cinnabaricum , 1684. Cleyer Specimina Medicinae Sinicae , 1682. Charas Pharmacopeia Regia , 1683. Charas Theri ca Andromachi , 1684. Diemerbroeck Anatomia . Davissomi Comment ▪ in Medicinam Severini . Dolaei Encyclopedia Med. 1684. Fernelii Opera , 1683. Van Helmontii Opera , 1682. Glisson de Naturae Substantia . Hoffmanni Praxis Med. 1680. Helwigii Observationes Med. 1680. Hoffmannus in Schroderum . Joel Opera medica . Kyperi Anthropologia corporis humani ▪ Konig Regnum Animale , 1682. Kirckringii Specilegium Anatom . Licetus de Monstris . Museum Hermetic . Miscellanea Curiosa M. Physica , 7 vol. 1682. — Id. Decuria secunda Anni Primi , 1683. Margravi Materia Medica . — Prodromus . Pauli Quadriparti tum Botanicum . Plateri praxis . Pechilinus de potu Theae , 1684. Regii Medicina . Rolfinchius de purgantibus , 1683 ▪ — Ordo & Methodus Med. Specialis . — Conoilia Med. Sacra Eleusinia patefacta , 1684. Schonckii Histde humor , totius corporis , 1684 ▪ Salamandrae Descriptio , 1683. Sylvii Opera Med. Schorkii Pharmacopeia . — Hisi . Moschi . Ang. Salae Opera Med. 1682. Swammerdam miraculum Natura . Vigerii Opera med . Versaschae de Apoplexia . Waltheri Sylva medica ▪ Welschii Decades X. med . Wedelii Opiologia . — Physiologia Med. — Pharmacia . — de medicam . facultatiam ▪ — de medicam . compositione . — Amaenitates Materiae Med. 1684. Weidenfeld de usu Spir. Vini Lulliani , 1684 ▪ Wepfericicut● Aquatica . Zwelferi Pharmacop . Octavoc● . Bartholini de ductu Salivali , 1685. Bruelis praxis Med. Bontekoe de Febribus , 1683. Tho. Bartholini Hist . Anatomica . Becke de Procidentia Uteri , 1683. Borelli Observat . Med. Briggs de Oculo . Barthol . Anatomia . Beck . Experimenta , 1684. Beckeri Physica subterr anea cum supplemento , 1681. Brunneri Experimenta nova circa Pancreas , 1682. Camerarii Sylloges memorabilium M 〈…〉 2 vol. 1683. Deckeri Exercitationis Med pract . Dodonai Praxis Medica . Franchimont Lithotomia Med. 1683. Funerwalfi Anatomia . Gockelii Concilia & observat . Med. 1683. De Graaf Opera . Grulichius de Hydrope , 1681. — De Bile , 1682. Grimm Compend . Med. Chym. 1684. Guiberti Opera Med. Hartmanni Praxis Chymiatrica , 1682. Heide Anatome inytuli & observat . Med. 1684. Hippocratis Opera , 2 vol. Juncken Chymia Experimentalis , 1681. — Medicus prasenti Seculo Accom . 1682. Juventa a nova Antiqua Med. 1684. Le Mort Pharmacia & Chimia , 1684. Lossii Concil . Med. 1684. Lister de Fontibus Med. Angliae . — De Insectis , 1685. Liseri Culter Anatomicus : Marchetti Anatomi : Meekren Observat . Med. Chyruri 1682 : Mereti Pinax : Plateri Observat . Med. Peonis & Pythagor . Exercit. Anat. & Med. 1682 : Plot de Origine Fontium , 1685 : Riverii Institutiones : — Praxis , 2 vol. — Observat . Rulandi Curationes Emperica , 1680. Sydenhami Opera Universa Londini , 1685. Straussii Isagoge Physica , 1684. Schroderi Pharmacopeia : Sculteti Chyrurgia cum Append. Sthal Aetioiogia Phys . Chym. 1683. Tilingii Lilium Curiosum , 1683 : Tilingii Prodromus , med . — De Laudano opiato . Versaschae Observat . med . Welsch rationale Vulnerum Lethalium , 1685. Wepferi de Apoplexia : Witten memoria medicor . Zypaei Fundamentu med . 1683 : Twelves . Bayle Tract . de Apoplexia . — Dissertationes Physicae . — Dissertationes Medicae . — Problemata Physica Med. Blondel Thermarum Aquis granen . & porcet , descript . 1685. Barbetti Chyrurgia : — Praxis cum notis Deckerii : Barthol . De Ovariis — De Unicornu : — De Pulmonum subst 〈…〉 : Beughen Bibliographia Med. & Physica , 1682 : Beguini Tyrocinium Chymicum : Comelini Catalogus Plantarum , 1682 : Drelincourt Praeludium Anat. — Experimenta Anat. 1684. Guiuri Arcanum Acidular . 1682 : Glissoni Opuscula , 3 vol. Van Helmont . Fundamenta Med. 1682 : Hoffmanus de usu Li●nis , &c. 1682 : Harvey de Gener. Animal . — De motu cordis : Hoffman de Cinnabari Antimonii , 1685. Ab Heer Fons Spadanus & Observ . Med. 1685. Kirchim de Peste , 1681. Kirckring ▪ in Basil Valent. currum Triumph . Kunckelii Observat . Chymiae , 1681 : Le Mort Compendium Chymicum , 1682. Muralti Vade mecum Anat. 1682. Mysteria Physico-Medica , 1681. Maurocordatus de motu Pulmonum , 1682. Macasii Promptuarium Materiae Med. Matthaei Experimenta Chymica , 1683. Muis Praxis Chyrurgica duabus partibus , 1684. Morelli Methodus perscribendi formulas Remedior . Primerose ars Pharmac . Pecket Anatomia : Redus de Insectiss Reidlini Observ . med . Rivinus de peste lips●ensi . 1680 : Riverii Arcana . St. Romani Physica , 1684. Recueil de Curiositez en Medicine , 1685. Smitzii Compend . med . 1682 : Stockhameri Microcosmographia , Swalve Quarelae Ventriculi : — Alcali & acidum : Tilingius de Renum structura . Verla Anat Oculi : Vigani Medulla Chymiae : Du Verney traite de L'organe de L'ouie , 1683 Spon Observations Sur les Fieures , 1684. Wedelii Theoremata Med. — De Sale Volat. Plantarum . Advertisement . THat these afore mentioned Books in Physick and Chymistry , with many other Forreign Books , are sold by Samuel Smith , at the Prince's Arms in St. Pauls Church-yard ; and that he will furnish himself with much variety of new Books in that kind , from time to time , as they shall come from Franckfort Mart ; and likewise he can procure such other Books for Gentlemen , whichperhaps are not to be met with here , from his Correspondents , if to be had , beyond Sea. Books Printed for , and sold by Samuel Smith . THe Philosophical Transactions published by the Royal Society Monthly , beginning January 1683 : Jo. Goedartius de Insectis in methodum redactus cum Notalurum Additione Opera M. Lister , item Appendicis ad Hist . Animalium Angliae , cum 21 Figuris Aeneis illustrata , 1685. Enquiry after Happiness by the Author of Practical Christianity , 1685. R. Boyl's Memoirs for the Nat. History of Human Blood , especially the Spirit of that Liquor , 1684. Price 2 s. — Experiments and Considerations about the Porosity of Bodies , in two Essays , 1684. Price 1 s. — 6 d. — Of the Reconcileableness of Specifick Medicines to the Corpuscular Philosophy , is now in the Press . Tuta an Efficax Luis Venerea , ●sepe absque mercurio ac semper absque Salivatione mercuriali curandae Methodus Authore D. A. M. D. 1614. De variatione , ac varietate ppulsus observationes , accessit ejusdem Author is nova Medicine tum Speculativae , tum practicae claevis . Sive Ars Explorandi medicas plantarum ac corporum quorumcumque facultates ex Solo Sapore 16q85 . The whole Art of the Stage , &c. Translated out of French : In Quarto , 1684 price 5. s. A new History of Ethiopia , being a full and Accurate Description of the Kingdom of Abessinia , vulgarly , though erroneously , called the Empire of Prester John in four Books ( illustrated with many Copper Plates ) and also a new and exact Map of the Countrey , and a Preface she wing the usefulness of this History ; with the life of Gregorius Abba , &c. By the learned Job Ludolphus Councellour to his Imperial Majesty and the Dukes of Saxony , and Treasurer to his Highness , the Elector Palatine , in Fol. 1684. Price 12. s. Guideon's Fleece , or a vindication of the Colledge of Physlcians in answer to a Book intituled the Conclave of Physicians . By Dr. Harvey , in Quarto , 1684. Pr. 6. 〈◊〉 An Anatomical account of an Elephant which was lately Dissected in Dublin , June 17 , in the year 1681. By A. M. Med. of Trinity Colledge near Dublin , illustrated with Cuts , in Quarto , 1682. Price 1. s. Swammerdami ( Johan . ) Amst . M. D. Miraculum Naturae . In Octavo . A Philosophical Account of the hard Frost , with what Effects it may probably have upon Human Bodies , as to Health and Sickness , in Quarto . 2 d. Stitcht . The true method of curing Consumptions . By S. H. Med. D. 1683. Price 1. s. A Discourse about Bagnio's , and Mineral Baths , and of the drinking of Spaw Water , with an Account of the Medicinal Vertues of them , and also shewing the usefulness of Sweating , Rubbing , and Bathing , and the great benefit many here received from them in various Distempers . By S. H. Med. Doct. 1683. Miracles , Works above and contrary to Nature ; or an Answer to a late Translation out of Spinosa's Tractatus Theologice-politicus , Mr. Hobs Leviathan , &c. in Quarto , 1683. Price 1. s. A Treatise of Self Examination , in order to the worthy receiving the Holy Communion . By Monsieur John Clade Minister of the Reformed Church at Paris : Translated from the French Original , in Twelves , 1683. Protestancy to be Embraced ; or a new and infallible Method to reduce Romanists from Popery to Protestancy . 1683. pr. 1. s. The Art of Divine Converse , being a New Years-Gift , directing how to walk with God all the year long , in Twelves , pr. 6. d. The Councils of Wisdom , or the Maxims of Solomon , in Twelves , 1683. pr. 1. s. The Ten Pleasures of Marriage . In Twelves . The Dutch Rogue : or Gusman of Amsterdam , traced from the Cradle to the Gallows , 1683. In Twelves . Dr. Thomas Smith's Sermon about frequent Communion , 1685. Mr. Fish's Sermon on the 9th of May , 1684. History of the Original and Progress of Ecclesiastical Revenues , by the Learned P. Simon , 1685. Contra Hist . Aristeae de LXX Interpretibus dissertatio , sive responsio ad D. Isaac Vossium de Septuaginta , &c. per H. Hoddy A. M. 1685. FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A29026-e2740 A Paper refer'd to contain ; Observations , about the Salubrity and Insalubrity of the Air , under whose 4th Proposition this Process is rang'd . 
A66395	----	The divine authority of the scriptures a sermon peached at St. Martin's in the Fields, May 4. 1695 : being the fifth of the lecture for this present year, founded by the honourable Robert Boyle, Esquire / by John Williams ... Williams, John, 1636?-1709. 1695 Approx. 47 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 21 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A66395 Wing W2703 ESTC R1958 12497822 ocm 12497822 62572 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A66395) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 62572) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 951:77) The divine authority of the scriptures a sermon peached at St. Martin's in the Fields, May 4. 1695 : being the fifth of the lecture for this present year, founded by the honourable Robert Boyle, Esquire / by John Williams ... Williams, John, 1636?-1709. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. [2], 36 p. Printed for Ri. Chiswell, and Tho. Cockerill, Senr & Junr ..., London : 1695. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Half title: Dr. Williams's fifth sermon at Mr. Boyle's lecture, 1695. Errata: p. 36. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Bible -- Sermons. Sermons, English -- 17th century. 2005-01 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-01 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-04 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2005-04 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion D r WILLIAMS's FIFTH SERMON AT Mr. BOYLE'S Lecture , 1695. IMPRIMATUR , Guil. Lancaster . May 1. 1695. The Divine Authority of the Scriptures . A SERMON Preached at St. Martin's in the Fields , May 4. 1695. BEING THE Fifth of the LECTURE For this present YEAR , Founded by the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE , Esquire . By JOHN WILLIAMS , D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty . LONDON : Printed for Ri. Chiswell , and Tho. Cockerill , Sen r & Jun r : At the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard ; and at the Three Legs in the Poultrey . MDCXCV . HEB. I. 1 , 2. God who at sundry times , and in divers manners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets , hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son , &c. IN these words , there is contained ( as I have before shewed ) 1. A description of Revelation , 't is God's speaking . 2. The Certainty of it , 't is by way of declaration , God who at sundry times , &c. 'T is taken for granted . 3. The Order observed in delivering this Revelation , it was at sundry times , and in divers manners , &c. 4. The Perfection and Conclusion of all , 't is in these last days by his Son. Under the Second I have shewed , 1. That God has actually revealed his Will at sundry times , and in divers manners . 2. What are the Characters of true Revelation . 3. I am now in order to prove that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament do contain the Matter of Divine Revelation , and have upon them the Characters belonging to it . In which there are two things to be considered . 1. The Matter contained in Scripture . 2. The Books containing that Matter . Which two will admit of a distinct Consideration . For , ( 1. ) These two , the Matter and the Books , were originally distinct ; for the Matter was revealed before it was written , and would have been of the same Authority , if unwritten , as written . The writing not being essential to the Authority , but only made use of as a fit means for the conveyance and preservation of the Matter . ( 2. ) These two are capable of a different proof : For the matter of Scripture was confirmed by Miracles , and had a Divine Attestation given to it : But we don't find the like Testimony given to the Books . There were Miracles upon Miracles , to confirm the truth , suppose , contained in the Four Evangelists ; but none to prove those Four Gospels to be wrote by Persons inspired , or that these were the Books wrote by them . For that has another sort of Evidence , to be hereafter inquired into . 2. 'T is fit these two should be considered apart . For , ( 1. ) If we were to discourse with a professed Infidel , we must begin with the Truth of the Matter , and then proceed to the Authority of the Books : And we may make Converts ( as the Apostles and others in those primitive times did ) from the proof we are able to make of the Truth and Authority of our Religion , though at the present we have not the Books . ( 2. ) It 's of no little advantage . For by handling the Matter apart from the Books , we need not for the present concern our selves in the Doubts and Objections about the Books ; such as the supposed Inconsistencies in Scripture ; the various Readings ; the uncertainty of the Authors ; the Subject of Inspiration , whether words as well as matter , &c. These being laid aside for the present , by this distinct consideration of the Matter and the Books , will shorten our Work ; and if we prove the matter to be of Divine original , we also gain a great point toward the proof of the Books themselves . I am to begin with the Matter contained in Scripture . Now that is of a diverse nature , and therefore according to the nature of it , so is its Authority . For there is matter of Fact , and Historical Relations of things ; and when we say these are of Divine Authority , we thereby mean they were recorded and committed to writing by the Appointment , Direction or Command of God. Again , there are Matters of a moral nature , which might be found out by , and are the Dictates of pure Reason ; and when we say these are of Divine Authority , we thereby understand that they are authorised by the Divine Command , as well as in their own nature obligatory . In which cases holy men of God spake , and wrote , as they were moved , incited , by the Holy Ghost , 2 Pet. 1. 21. But the more especial way was when the Matter was purely of Divine Revelation , and wholly proceeding from it ; and though this were not to be learned , and found out by Reason ( as has been before shewed ) yet 't is agreeable to it ; as I shall now proceed to prove ; and that I shall do in this order . 1. I shall consider , The Claim which the Matter of Scripture hath to Revelation and Inspiration . 2. The Characters upon which that Claim is grounded . 3. The Proof by which that Claim to Revelation is made good . 1. I shall consider the Claim , &c. And that is , if the Matter contained in the Scripture be not a Revelation from God , and the True Revelation , then there neither is , nor ever was , nor can be such a Revelation . 1. If That be not a Divine Revelation , there is no Revelation ; for as That denies and rejects all Revelation besides it self , so there is none other that can produce such Evidence for it : And consequently , if notwithstanding the Evidence producible for Scripture , That is not to be admitted for Divine , then there is no Revelation existent in the World , since no other has the Evidence which That appears to have . This we may leave to any indifferent person to judge of , by comparing the Alcoran with the Bible ; and the Chinese Divinity of a Confutius , with that of Christianity . 2. If this be not a Revelation from God ▪ then there never has been such a Revelation ; and that for the Reason before given , viz. That there is no other Revelation extant save this . But if there ever had been a Revelation , and a Revelation design'd for all Mankind ( as that of the Gospel apparently is ) , what was once , would always and for ever afterwards have been existent ; since the same reason there was once for a Revelation to Mankind , the same would have been for the Continuance of it ; and the same Divine Goodness that took care there should be a Revelation , would certainly have taken the like care for the preserving of it . But if there be no Revelation , ( as there is not , if the Scripture be not that Revelation ) then there never was a Revelation ; and so all that has been before said upon this Argument , about the Existence , Usefulness , and Necessity of a Revelation , must go for nothing . 3. If the Scripture be not of Divine Revelation , then there never can be a Revelation , or at least , such a Revelation as shall oblige us to receive and believe it : Since there can be no stronger Evidence produced for the Proof of it , than there is for that of Scripture . And therefore he that will ▪ pretend not to believe the Scripture-Revelation for want of sufficient Evidence , can never be convinced of the Truth of any Revelation . For what better Evidence can be given , as to the Matter , the Persons Inspired , the Supernatural Proofs of Miracles and Prophecy , &c. than what we have for the Scripture ? Admit then that there is , or ever was , or may be a Divine Revelation , we may be certain that the Matter contained in Scripture is of that nature . But though this must be allowed to be a good step toward the Proof of the Divine Authority of Scripture ; yet it remains to consider what that Evidence is which is thus peculiar to Scripture-Revelation , and that none besides ever have or can have : And this is the Subject of the Second General : Which is to consider , 2. The Characters belonging to Revelation , upon which that Claim is grounded . That Revelation may be distinguished from Imposture and mere Pretence , there must be proper Characters that are essential to Revelation ; without which Marks of distinction , we must do by it as few have done , and totally reject it ; or else as the Romans did by the Deities of other Countries , that admitted all into their Calendar , we must refuse none . But since there has been a Revelation ( as all Mankind have been inclined to believe ) , and several Pretences to it ( as the experience of all Ages has shewed ) , we must follow the direction of Scripture , which not only warns us of false Prophets , and exhorts us to try the Spirits ; but doth also furnish us with such Characters , as will enable us to distinguish the true from the false . And this direction , methinks , may pass for one Character , according to that of our Saviour , Joh. 3. 20 , 21. Every one that doth evil , or speaketh falsly , hateth the light , lest his deeds should be reproved , and his Pretences discovered . But he that doeth and speaketh truth , cometh to the light , that his deeds may be made manifest , that they are wrought in God ; or that what he saith , may appear to be a Revelation from him . Now when the Revelation so called doth thus offer it self to an impartial trial , and exhorts and requires all persons to examine and make enquiry , and lays down such Rules , Principles , and Characters , as in the opinion of all men are sufficient to distinguish the true from the false , 't is an undoubted sign that it is able to justify it self , and to make out its Claim to a Divine Authority , by a correspondence to those Characters . By this the Scripture is distinguished from all others ; for though there were several among the Heathen Lawgivers that pretended to derive their Laws from the direction of their gods , yet it was rather to prevent Enquiry , than encourage it ; and to oblige the people to an absolute submission : For who might dispute that which the gods commanded ? Or who durst so much as enquire , where the Fear of Religion restrained them ? But to expose it self to a trial , and to require that men examine before they receive and believe , and to give them such signs as shall serve to describe the Truth , and detect Imposture , is peculiar to the Scripture . From thence therefore it is that I shall produce such Characters as will give that a Title to Divine Authority , and oblige us to a belief of it . And what are such , if these are not ? viz. That it could come only from God , is worthy of him , and has a Divine and Supernatural Evidence to attest it . Where these are , there is a Divine Authority , there is a Revelation . And these I shall shew do belong to what the Scripture proposes as such . 1. It is a Character belonging to Revelation , and a sign of the Truth of it , when it apparently has God for the Author , and can proceed from none but him . This is a Character , I presume , will upon examination be found to belong to Scripture . As I shall now attempt to prove , by considering that which is the chief subject of it ; and that is the Revelation of God's Will to Mankind . Here I shall premise and take for granted , 1. That God having created Man , created him in a state of Innocency and Purity ; for being infinitely Good , it is not to be conceived that he made any thing evil in it self . 2. That Man fell from this happy state ; of innocent he became guilty ; of a pure , he became a depraved creature , as the experience of all Ages shews him now to be . 3. That Almighty God was disposed to pardon and admit him again to favour . Upon this state of things the Scripture proceeds : And because it was impossible for Man to find out of himself the way and means by which he might be restored , there needed a Revelation to inform him in it . I grant there is a Natural Means , and what the reason of the thing supposes to be necessary to our Reconciliation , and that is Repentance . But that this is of it self a Means sufficient , and upon which alone God will be reconciled to the Offenders , has been always doubted of ; as is evident from the several ways of Atonement , and especially of Sacrifices , practised in all parts of the world . For since God is the Governor of the world , it seems no more reconcilable with his Justice , and consistent with that Authority he is to maintain , to pardon all Offenders upon Repentance , than it is consistent with the ends of Government among men , to accept of the Offenders Penitence as a full Satisfaction to the Law , and to remit the Penalty threatned . We have an Instance to the contrary , in this very case ; when notwithstanding a supposed Repentance in Mankind , God inflicted the Penalty threatned , In the day thou eatest therof , thou shalt dye . Now therefore , since the natural Means of propitiating Almighty God was not sufficient , there is somewhat further in reserve ; and what that is , none could tell , but he who had it in his own power what to accept , and what to refuse ; it was for him to reveal , that was to institute . And if we take a view of the Scheme of what the Scripture sets before us as to this matter , it will abundantly confirm what I have proposed as a Character of Revelation , and that is , That it is from God , and only from him . The Sum of which is , That since Mankind had thus lapsed into a Preternatural State , in which through the Infirmity and Corruption of their Nature , they themselves neither were , nor could do what was acceptable to God in order to a Restitution and Reconciliation , it was designed that the Son of God himself should become a Mediator by a present Stipulation , and in a prefixed time , by an actual Undertaking to dye for us . That accordingly , in testimony of God's acceptance of the Atonement , and of his Reconciliation , the Son rose from the dead , and ascended into Heaven , is there our Intercessor , and the Dispenser of all those Gifts , and that supervenient Grace which is necessary to the reforming Mankind , and the fitting them for that state he is now invested in , and has promised to bestow upon such as are qualified for it . Now who is there , that upon a Review of these several Particulars that do constitute the Christian Religion , and make up the chief Subject of Scriptural Revelation , can pretend that this was to be found out by Human Consideration and Enquiry ; or rather , that must not grant it proceeded from God ? Especially if it be observed what a wonderful Intermixture there is in this Scheme , of the Divine Mercy and Justice ; of his Mercy in pardoning the Sinner , and of his Justice in requiring an Atonement . What a representation of his Hatred to Sin on one hand , when God established so valuable an Atonement as the Blood of his own Son ; and of his Favour and Love to Mankind , when he spared not his own Son , but delivered him up for us all ? What a foundation for our Hope on one hand , when he accepted of the Propitiation ; and what a dread of offending is there on the other , when he that knew no sin , was made a sin offering for us ? All which laid together , do confirm the Truth of this Character , and the Title that the Scripture-Revelation hath to it . But there is somewhat further to be added in Proof of this Point . That it was a Revelation from God ; and that is , The many Prophecies that are interwoven with it in Scripture ; which could proceed from none but Him who alone has all Causes and Events in his Power , and so alone could foretell how those Causes would operate , and what should be the Events of such Operation . These being the chief part of the Revelation concerning the whole Scheme of Man's Salvation , confirm what I have before said , That it was from God , and from Him alone . But this must be reserved to its proper place , under the Third General Head. To go on , II. A Character necessarily belonging to Divine Revelation , is , That it be worthy of God , and what becomes the Majesty of Heaven to make known to Mankind . When we say it is to be worthy of him , thereby is meant , that it is suitable to the Perfections of his Nature , to his Holiness and Justice , his Goodness and Mercy , his Wisdom and Power , &c. To which , and all of which , a Revelation truly so , can no more be repugnant , than God himself can be other than he is , and destitute of those Perfections which are essential to him . In discoursing upon which , we may observe , 1. That it cannot be denied , but the Revelation of himself to Mankind is worthy of God , though it be an Infinite Condescension . It was an Infinite Condescension in the Deity , that had all in himself , to make such a Creature as Man ; and it is no more unworthy of God to reveal himself to him , than it was to make him . For what other reason ▪ was there for the making such a Creature , and the enduing him with the Light of Reason , but that he might own , honour , and serve the Author of his Being ? And since to know and acknowledge God , is the chief end for which Man was made , it is as much becoming Almighty God to reveal himself to him , as it was to make him for the knowledge of himself . 2. That is a thing worthy of God to reveal , which is a thing worthy of God to do : And such is the Recovery and Restoration of Man to the like condition he was created in , and unhappily fell from ; for that is a kind of Re-making him , and giving him a New Being : And since a New Being is to a Depraved Being , what Being was to No Being , it is as much becoming Almighty God from a depraved state to raise him to a state of Purity and Holiness , as it was at the first to give Him a Being that before had none . And this is the great Subject of what we call Divine Revelation ; which as it respects Man , may come under a Twofold Consideration ; and that is , the Perfection of Human Nature , and the Happiness of Mankind . It will be a needless undertaking , to prove that these Ends are worthy of God ; but that which rather becomes us is to shew , That as it is the great design of the Scriptural Revelation to represent this , and to acquaint us with the Method that the Almighty Wisdom and Goodness thought fit to observe ; so the Method as there laid down , is worthy of such Wisdom and Goodness , as I shall now proceed to shew in the two Instances given . 1st . The Method Almighty God is in Scripture said to take for the purifying and the perfecting Human Nature , is highly worthy of so glorious a Being ; and that is Threefold , Cautionary , Moral , and Supernatural . ( 1. ) That which I call Cautionary , is the way Almighty God was pleased to take for the representing his Displeasure against Sin , and to make Mankind cautious of offending . The Means made use of before the Fall was a Penalty threatned , In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye . But because that had proved of so little force to restrain mankind , and for fear lest when God had received them into Favour after such a Threatning , his Mercy and Indulgence might be abused , and become an Encouragement to Sin , God added thereunto an Expiation ( as has been before said ) , and that to be made by his own Son ; who from the Dignity of his Person , and the voluntary Oblation of himself , should be reputed as a Representative of the whole , and the whole be esteemed to suffer with him . By which means , as God's Mercy would be abundantly testified in a design for redeeming them ; so his Justice would be exemplified , when he that had no sin of his own , should yet be made a Sin-offering , and suffer for them . For how could they presume after this to offend the Almighty Father , when rather than suffer his Laws to be violated , his Authority slighted , his Holiness and Justice disparaged , or leave Mankind under a temptation so to do , he would express his hatred against sin , and his resolution to punish it , by requiring and substituting such a Sacrifice as that of his Son in their stead ? This is the apparent Reason of such an Institution ; and both the Institution and Reason of it are worthy of the Divine Counsel ; since there is no way in which these things can be represented to greater advantage , than by the Scripture-Scheme of Man's Redemption . ( 2. ) There is the Moral Means , that serves the same end , viz. the purifying and perfecting Human Nature , to which Revelation gave the last and finishing hand . It is true , these Moral Principles are no other than Natural Maxims , and which were Nature , unassisted , sufficient for , might have been extracted out of it . But Mankind were no more able to attain to that skill of themselves , than an unexperienced person , and unacquainted with the Art of Chymistry , can extract such Exalted and Generous Spirits out of the Bodies of Plants and Animals , as upon trial we find they are endued with . It is another Light we view Nature by since the communicating of the Evangelical Revelation to the world . Nature and Reason now , are not the Nature and the Reason they were before , or are still where that Revelation has not been known : And therefore if we would know what the force of those Principles are , and how far they operated by their own power , and of themselves , the way is not to judge of it as it appears to us , where the Gospel-Revelation is , but as it was in the state of pure Heathenism , not excepting the finer part of it ( as it flourished in Greece it self ) and as it is now in some of the remote parts of the world , as in the West-Indies , &c. For Gentilism it self apparently mended upon the Publication of the Gospel ; and then their Moralists wrote with another strein , than those of their own Sect did before that time . For in the Scripture there is such an entire and compleat System of all things requisite to the perfection of Human Nature ( as far as in this state it is capable of it ) that nothing is wanting for direction and obligation . There we find the most Natural Characters of Good and Evil traced along from the first rise in all their tendencies , and the just bounds of both described . There we have on one hand the most enforcing Encouragements to Virtue and Goodness , and on the other the most necessary Cautions and Admonitions against Sin ; and both fortified with proper Instances and Examples . There we find the noblest Principles , and exactest Rules ; and the great Lines of our Duty plainly set forth in their utmost extent ; and that as well for the Regulation of the Thoughts and Desires , as the Government of our Actions . There we find that Duty enforced by the highest Obligation , by no less Authority than that of God himself , whose Precepts and Injunctions they are declared to be , and not the mere results of our own Nature and Reason . And whereas Nature falls as short in its Sanctions ( having only Conscience to enforce them ) as its Authority ; when these Moral Principles become God's Laws , they have Rewards and Punishments of another kind annexed to them , and as everlasting as our Souls , to bind them upon us . So that as far as Nature thus directed and excited can go , we have the most effectual means in our power for the amendment and purification of it . But because it is only so far in our own power , and that in the issue we prove too remiss in the exerting of it ; and that after all , Nature flags and recoils , and is too much Nature still . Therefore , ( 3. ) There is a Supernatural Means to render the other effectual , and to give encouragement and success to our endeavours ; and that is a Power as Divine as the Authority , which is the assistance of the Holy Spirit of God. Look we upon the Morality of the greatest Philosophers , how poor is that to the Doctrine of our Saviour and the Apostles ? Look we upon the fruits of it , and there we shall find them short of their Principles ; and that the case was much with them as with the Stoical Posidonius , that would not allow Passions in Human Nature ; that when invaded by the Gout , might chide both that and himself for his sensation of it ; but the Disease and Nature , kept on their course , and would own no such Authority . So it was with them that had only Nature to correct Nature ; that while they pretended to be the Physicians of it , could not cure themselves , nor alter so much as Custom , which had alter'd that . The Instances they give of a Philosophical Cure , are as rare as the Miracles they pretend to have been wrought in the Temple of Aesculapius , or by a Vespasian , few and questionable ; a Phoedon , or a Polemon , to credit the Schools of a Socrates or a Xenocrates . But the Instances of such as were converted by our Saviour and Apostolical Persons , were like his Miracles , numberless , and not to be disputed . When the Gospel flew like Lightning through the earth , and became as successful in reforming , as teaching the world ; Nature by it was changed , and the Temper became subject to the Divine Power . So that the Doctrine of Christ did turn those that were immersed in wickedness , to a life agreeable to Reason , and the practice of all Virtue ; as Origen shews , and appeals to his Adversary in . And what was then done , would always be done , if there were not some obstruction on our part , either as to asking that Assistance , or in the not improving it ; according to that of our Saviour , Matth. 13. 12 ▪ Whosoever hath and useth it , to him shall be given , and he shall have more abundance . 2dly . It is worthy of God , and becoming the most Benevolent as well as the most powerful of Beings , to consult what may be for the happiness of the reasonable Nature , and to propound this as an encouragement to them in the Performance of that Service he expects and requires of them . And what can make them happy , if the Order and Method of Salvation revealed in Scripture be not sufficient for it ? Whereby they are not only assured of the Protection and Blessing of Divine Providence in this Life , but also of a State of Immortality in the Life to come : Where they shall be taken into the Enjoyment of their Ever-blessed Creator ; and be fitted both in Body and Soul , by the Divine Power , for such a Participation . To which I may add , That it is as worthy of God to reveal the Way by which that Happiness is to be attained . I grant that by the use and power of Reason , and the sense we have of the difference between Good and Evil , we may learn , though obscurely and very imperfectly , what is acceptable to God : But yet without Revelation we are much in the dark , and can as little know what is on our part necessary toward the attainment of that Happiness , as we do what the Condition of the Future State is , and wherein the Happiness of it consists . There is as much difference between what is only supposed , and what is necessary , as there is between what we hope for , and what is certain . And therefore , as there needs a Revelation to assure us of that which without Revelation we only hoped for ; so there is as much need of Revelation to inform us of what is necessary to our Acceptance with God , and to our Happiness in another world ; and without which we are left to Conjecture only . So that as far as Certainty is to be preferr'd beyond Hope and Imagination ; and the Knowledge of what is necessary , is beyond Conjecture ; so much is the Comfort of Revelation beyond that of Nature ; and so much is it becoming Almighty God , who gave us our Nature and Being , to acquaint us with what may both make us happy , and lead us to it . Especially was this necessary , considering how far the World had wandred out of the right way ; and what superstitious and infamous Rites had been taken up ; and what Practices dishonourable to the Deity and Human Nature , had been used . And this way to Happiness the Scripture has plainly reveal'd . 3dly . It is a Design worthy of God , to reveal Himself to the World , and to give Mankind a right Notion and Representation of his Nature . The Being of God , is what the whole Creation proclaims ; and there are some Attributes of his lye open to all , and are conspicuous in their effects , such are his Wisdom and Power . But there are others that we rather know by Inference , and need a farther and brighter Light to inform us in ; and such are his Goodness and his Mercy . And since these are as essential Perfections of the Deity as the other , and exceed them in the influence they have upon mankind , as to our Love and Adoration of him ; and yet are not so legible in the Frame of Nature , nor so observable in the Course of his Providence as the other ; we cannot conceive but that it is as becoming our Creator to represent himself to be a God Gracious and Merciful in a Revelation to Mankind , as to be a God Great , Powerful , and Wise in the Creation . We see how confused the Gentile World was in their Notion of the Supreme Power ; how inconsistently they thought , and how low their Representations were of the Deity : And at best they had a very imperfect Notion of those Divine Attributes of Love and Goodness , of Pity and Compassion , of Indulgence and Condescension , of Patience and Forbearance , of Mercy and Forgiveness , which the Scripture represents with Life and Perspicuity There it is that we find the Almighty Creator stooping to the Creature , condescending to their Condition , bearing with their Infirmities , pitying their Miseries , forgiving their Sins . There we find him reproving , arguing , following Sinners with importunity , and leaving nothing undone , that was consistent with his Nature and Honour to do , toward the Salvation of Mankind . And above all , In this was manifested the love of God towards us , because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world , that we might live through him , 1 Joh. 4. 9. So that if to reveal what was not otherwise to be known , concerning God's Reconciliation to Mankind , and the Terms upon which he is reconciled ; if to restore Man to the state he is fallen from , and to promote him to a state of Purity , Perfection , and Happiness ; if for God to reveal and to render himself acceptable to mankind by the most obliging Characters of Love and Favour , be worthy of him ; lastly , If to reveal what is most worthy of God , be a Character of Revelation , Then the Scripture is such , and what is therein contained must be from God. III. A Character necessarily belonging to Revelation , and by which the True is to be distinguished from the False and Pretended , is a Divine and Supernatural Evidence ; which is the same with the Third General Head , viz. The Proof by which the Scripture's Claim to Divine Revelation is to be made good ; and that is next to be considered . Now there are Three Instances of this kind , viz. Prophecy , Miracles , and the wonderful Success of the Christian Religion , and the Preservation of it under the most Potent Opposition , and greatest Discouragements . ( 1. ) Prophecy . That is of it self a Revelation ; and as it is what all Nations , as well Learned as Barbarous , have acknowledged ; so being an Instance of Revelation , it is a good Proof of that Revelation which it doth accompany , and is interwoven with . And this is the case before us ; for the Scripture being composed of matters of a different kind , cannot have the same sort of Evidence : But Prophecy being self-evident ( when the Event has apparently answer'd the Prediction ) and a Supernatural Evidence , is a good Proof to what has no such Evidence ; and which for the sake of that Proof is as much a Matter of Faith , and as credible , as the Prophecy it self ; because such a Testimony being a Testimony from God , cannot be applied to the support of a Falshood . So that where there is Prophecy truly so , we may conclude that to be true , and to come from God , to which that Testimony is given ; for if the Testimony be Divine , the Doctrine confirmed by it must be Divine also . In discoursing upon which , I premise , 1. That there is such a thing as Prophecy ; that things future have been predicted : Tully saith , This all Nations have agreed in ; as has been aforesaid . 2. That Prophecy is a good Testimony to what it is given ( as I have proved already ) . So that there is nothing remains , but to shew that the Revelation in Scripture hath had this Testimony . And of this there are two sorts , Near , or Remote . Of both which we have an Instance in the Prophet sent to Jeroboam , 1 Kings 13. 2. The Remote was , That a Child should be born , Josiah by name , about 330 years after , who should burn mens bones upon that Altar . The Proximate ( which we may otherwise call a Sign ) was , That at that time the altar should be rent , and the ashes poured out . If the Remote had been alone , it would have had little influence upon them who were most nearly concerned ; and therefore there needed some present Sign to verify it . But otherwise , the Remote is the stronger , especially when at such a vast distance of time , as shall render it impossible for Men or Angels to foresee , or by any practices of theirs to accomplish ; when it depends upon Voluntary as Natural Agents , and is in the conclusion answered by a Parallel Event , it is to After-Ages a certain and indisputable Evidence . To which if we add the Concurrence of both , when there is a Chain and Series of Prophecies near and remote , in a certain and continued order following each other , the first looking forward to others that are to succeed , and the latter having a retrospect to the former ; there is no reasonable nor possible exception to be made against the matter thus testified , without excepting against the Testimony of Prophecy , contrary to the sense of all mankind . As for Instance ; if there be a Prophecy or Prophecies in several Ages , from which it plainly appears , that at such a precise time , in such an Age of the world , some Hundreds or Thousands of Years after , there should arise a certain Person , born at such a place , and in an extraordinary way , and descended from such and such Progenitors , who should come to reform Mankind ; and in confirmation of his Doctrine , should perform many astonishing Acts , and do many supernatural Works ; that at a certain time , and in a certain determined year , he should be put to death by his own Nation , and upon it that Nation should be captivated and destroyed , and the Countrey desolate ; it is a Testimony not to be disproved . And yet setting aside the many Prophecies in Scripture relating to particular Persons and Families , to the Jews and other Nations , I shall only instance in some of those concerning our Saviour ; and others of our Saviour's himself : The former of which will appear to be exactly parallel to the Case proposed . The first of these is the Prediction immediately after the Fall of Adam , and 4000 years before the actual Completion of it ; That there should be one born of the seed of the woman , and supernaturally made of her alone ( as Adam was out of the Earth without a Woman ) that should bruise the serpent's head , who had beguiled Eve through his subtilty . About 2000 years after which Prophecy , and so 2000 years before our Saviour , it was revealed to Abraham , That in his Seed , and by one who should descend from him , all the families of the earth should be blessed ; and which was afterward renewed to Isaac and Jacob. Again ; about 1700 years before Christ , it was prophesied by Jacob , That Shiloh , or the Messiah , should descend from his Son Judah . About 1000 years before our Saviour's Birth , David was exalted to the Throne , of whose Family the Messiah was to be a Branch ; whence it was that he was commonly known among the Jews , by the Character of David's Son. In the same Royal Prophet have we the Prediction of our Saviour's Death , Resurrection , and Glorification ; and in very minute Circumstances , as to the first of these , Vid. Psal. 16. 10. 22. 1 , 7 , 8 , 14 , 16 , 18. 110 , &c. This is also the great Theme of Isaiah's Prophecy , 700 years before the Accomplishment , That there should be a root out of Jesse , the Messiah , who should dye for the Sins of the People , be rejected by his own Nation , but be believed in by the Gentiles . Isa. 11. 10. 42. 10 , &c. 53. In the same Age lived Micah , who foretells the very Place he should be born in , viz. Bethlehem-Ephrata . Lastly ; About 500 years before our Lord's Incarnation , Daniel directly points to the Time and the Year the Messiah should suffer in , which was to be in the midst of the Seventieth Prophetical Week , ( each of which consists of Seven Years ) that is , the 490th . Year , from the Decree of Artaxerxes for the Rebuilding of Jerusalem . As may easily be computed by Ptolomy's Canon , and reckoning the Years backward from the Death of our Saviour , ( which was in the Reign of Tiberius ) to some fixed year of Artaxerxes . In consequence of which , the City and Sanctuary were to be destroyed , and the whole Countrey laid desolate , as with a Flood . This Conclusion leads us on to the Second Branch of Prophetical Observations , viz. our Saviour's own Predictions , which are very many ; but a most remarkable one is his Prophecy of the Destruction of that People , City , and Countrey , foretold by Daniel as to the very time ; and which our Saviour describes so particularly , as if he had it at that instant before his eyes , when he discoursed of it to his Disciples . There he foretells , * The preceding Signs , as Famines , and fearful Sights , &c. * that many False Prophets should arise . * That there should be barbarous Slaughters one of another . * That Jerusalem should be closely besieged ; but withal , that at that time there should be an opportunity for escaping ; which he advises them to take , and to fly to the Mountains for present security . * That the Enemy should at last cast a Trench about it , and keep them that remained in on every side . * That he should finally take the City , and lay it even with the ground ; and that not one stone of the stately Structure , the Temple , ( which they then were admiring ) should be left upon another . * That the surviving Jews should be led Captive into all Nations , and never return again to that Land as Proprietors . * And that all this was because they knew not the time of their visitation . * And that this should happen in that very Age. Never was any Prophecy more express , never any Sentence more terrible , nor more punctually fulfilled , as to all the Particulars before-recited ; and for which we may appeal to Josephus the Jew , who was an Eye-witness of all , and as exactly describes it as to those Instances , as if he was writing a Comment upon our Saviour's Prophecy ▪ Joseph . de Bell. l. 4 , 5 , 6 , 7. And accordingly , as the Temple , though attempted by Julian the Apostate's Order , never could be built , ( as the Heathen Historian Ammianus Marcellinus relates , Hist. l. 23. ) so that People to this day remain Vagabonds , without any certain place , dispersed over the world . Having traced this Subject thus far , we may proceed . 2. Another way by which we prove the Claim that the Matter of Scripture hath to a Divine Authority , is Miracles ; of which kind there is nothing wanting that can reasonably be desired ; and that either as to the Judaical , or Christian Dispensation . As for Instance : If a Person should pretend that he comes from God with a Revelation , and which he requires us to hearken to , on peril of Damnation : What Satisfaction should we desire ? Surely if the Doctrine he teaches be in it self credible , and worthy of God , and what in the nature and tendency of it proves to be useful and beneficial to Mankind , we have as much Evidence as the nature of the thing will bear . And farther , if the Person upon whom we are to rely , doth openly and in the sight of all , even of Enemies that watch him , as well as Friends , and in the most Publick Assemblies , cure all manner of Diseases , though naturally incurable , by a Word , or a Touch , and even at a distance . If he commands the Winds and the Seas , the Good and the Evil Angels , feeds Thousands in a Desart with no more than what would satisfy a few , and raises the Dead . If he tells the most secret Thoughts , Inclinations , and Practices of his Enemies as well as Followers . Lastly , If when himself is put to a violent Death , he in a few days , according to his own Prediction , rises again , appears to , and converses with those that knew him when alive , and saw him dead : And afterwards in the view of many ascends bodily into Heaven ; and within a few days , as a farther Testimony of his former Mission and present Glorification , confers the same or like Power upon his Disciples : Who can reasonably doubt of the Truth of what he has taught ? I need not here draw the Parallel . And if the Question should be put , as it was by those whom John the Baptist sent , Art thou he that should come ? Our Saviour's Answer will serve for one here , Tell John what things ye have heard and seen , how that the blind see , &c. Luke 7. 19. There needs no greater Evidence to convince Mankind . 3. Another Proof of the Divine Authority of the Matter of Scripture , is the Event and Success , correspondent to former Predictions . Such was that of the Israelites in Canaan ▪ And much more , the wonderful and astonishing Progress of the Gospel , without any of that Assistance and Force which that People had , and when it had the Force of Emperors and Kings to oppose it . Could it be thought possible , that a few simple and timerous Persons , who had been bred up to a mean Employment , and had never been out of their own Countrey , should each by himself undertake perilous and remote Journeys , among People they had no knowledge of , and to whose Tempers , Customs , and Language , they were altogether strangers ; and should prevail with them to change their gods and their Religion , their Customs and their Lives ? Could it be thought that Men of no Authority nor Interest , of no Learning , Depth of Judgment , nor Subtilty in Arguing , should be able to maintain and propagate a Doctrine that seemed to be foolish and absurd , a Doctrine of a Crucified Saviour , a Doctrine opposite to the sensual Inclinations and Interests of Mankind , ( as the state of the world then was ) a Doctrine that obliged them that believed it , to profess it with the Hazard of all that was dear to them in this world , and upon no other Encouragement than a Reward in another ? And yet even this Doctrine , so meanly attended , became so successful , that according to our Saviour's Prediction , Matth. 24. 14. before the Destruction of Jerusalem , and within Forty years after his Death , the sound of it went out into all the earth , Rom. 10. 18. Not to proceed further in this Argument than Scripture ; in those early times we find Converts , if not Churches , in the most frequented Cities for Trade , Learning , and Dominion ; in Corinth and Ephesus , Athens and Rome ; in the Courts of Princes , even of a Herod and a Nero : Acts 13. 3. Phil. 4. 22. And where not ? Now if there had not been Truth in the Doctrine ; If it had not been a Doctrine worthy of God , suitable to the Desires and Expectations of Mankind ; If it had not had a Supernatural Evidence and Testimony , and an Assistance as great as its Evidence , it could not in those Circumstances have made its own way , nor have proved in the Event so powerful and successful . No , it was God that chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise , and the weak things of the world to confound the things which were mighty : And it must be a Revelation from him alone , that had all these Testimonies on its side to confirm it . So that we may conclude as we began , That if ever there was a Revelation , the Revelation contained in Scripture is a Revelation , and the only True Revelation now in the World. And if so it be , then what an Obligation is there upon us to observe it ? When 't is God speaking to us , we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard from him , lest at any time we should let them slip , Heb. 2. 1. FINIS . ERRATA . In the License to this Sermon , for May 1. read May 4. P. 10. l. 5. r. Good-will . P. 12. l. 3. after God put a ( ; ) Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A66395-e310 2 Pet. 2. 21. 1 Joh. 4. 1 , &c. Justin. Hist. l. 3. Contr. Cels. l. 1 , & 2. Cic. de Divin . l. 1. Gen. 2. 14. Gal. 4. 4. Gal. 3. 16. Gen. 12 , 3 , &c. Gen 49. 8. Matth. 22. 42. Mic. 5. 2. Dan. 9. 24 , &c. Lev. 25. 8. 
A28989	----	Hydrostatical paradoxes made out by new experiments, for the most physical and easie / by Robert Boyle ... Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1666 Approx. 260 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 147 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A28989 Wing B3985 ESTC R17464 13161211 ocm 13161211 98187 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A28989) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 98187) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 446:26) Hydrostatical paradoxes made out by new experiments, for the most physical and easie / by Robert Boyle ... Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. [36], 247 p. : 3 plates, fold. Printed by William Hall, for Richard Davis ..., Oxford : 1666. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Hydrostatics -- Early works to 1800. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-05 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-07 Derek Lee Sampled and proofread 2006-07 Derek Lee Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion HYDROSTATICAL PARADOXES , Made out by New EXPERIMENTS , ( For the most part PHYSICAL and Easie . ) By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE , Fellow of the Royall Society . OXFORD , Printed by William Hall , for Richard Davis , Anno Dom. M.DC.LXVI . THE PUBLISHERS ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER . WHen the Author Writ the following Treatise , he had a design , as appears by some passages in the Preface , to publish together with it some things , which he had divers years before provided for an Appendix to the Physico-Mechanical Treatise about the Aire : But part of the Appendix consisting of Experiments , which the Authour has several times made , but trusting to his memory , did not think it necessary to Record , when he came to recollect particulars , he found that some years which had pass'd since divers of them were try'd , and variety of intervening occurrents , had made it unsafe for him to rely absolutely upon his Memory for all the circumstances fit to be set down in the Hystorical part of the design'd Appendix . And therefore he resolv'd to repeat divers Experiments and Observations , that he might set down their Phaenomena whil'st they were fresh in his Memory , if not objects of his sense . But though , when he Writ the following Preface ▪ he did it upon a probable supposition , that he should seasonably be able to repeat the intended Tryals , yet his Expectation was sadly disappointed by that heavy , as well as just , Visitation of the Plague which happened at London whil'st the Author was in the Country : and which much earlier then was apprehended , began to make havock of the People , at so sad a rate that not only the Glass-men there were scatter'd , and had , as they themselves advertis'd him , put out their Fires , but also Carriers , and other ways of Commerce ( save by the Post ) were strictly prohibited betwixt the parts he resided in and London ; which yet was the only place in England whence he could furnish himself with peculiarly shap'd Glasses , and other Mechanical Implements requisite to his purposes ; And the same Calamity continuing still , without yet affording us any certaine ground of determining when it will end : The Author chuses rather to suffer the following Paradoxes to come abroad without the Appendix , ( which is no way necessary to them , whatever they may be to It , ) then any longer put off those Ingenious persons that solicited the publication of them . The PREFACE . THe Rise of the following Treatise being a Command impos'd on me by the Royal Society , the Reader will , I hope , need no more then this intimation , to keep him from wandering to find some passages Worded as parts of a Discourse pronounce'd before an Assembly , it being not unusual ( though not necessary ) to present either in writing or by word of mouth , together with the Experiments made before that Illustrious Company , an Historical account of Them. But because 't is probable , that some Readers will desire to be satisfied about other particulars , relating to the publication of this Treatise , I presume it will not be amiss , both to say something of the Reasons , why I publish it as the first part of the present Appendix to my Physico-Mechanical Experiments , and to give some account of the manner of writing it . I had quickly both an opportunity and an Invitation to enlarge the papers I was to read , beyond the Limits of a bare description of the Phaenomena , and matters of fact , by my having been through some intervening Accidents so hindered from exhibiting them altogether , that I was desir'd to bring in an Accompt in Writing , that might be Registred ( how little soever worthy of such Company ) in the Societies Collection of Philosophical Papers , for the sake of those Members who could not be present at all the Experiments : So that finding some enlargements expected from me , I was easily induc'd to add the Explications of the Phaenomena I describ'd , whilst I perceiv'd that by a small addition of pains I might much gratifie divers Ingenious Friends that were not so well vers'd in Hydrostaticks as in the other parts of real Learning . Having thus been induc'd to enlarge the Account of my Experiments till it had attain'd the bulk 't is now arriv'd at , I confess I was without much difficulty perswaded , that to suffer it to pass abroad * in the Company of the Appendix wherewith 't is publish'd , would not prove unacceptable to the Curious , no more then an improper introduction to the rest of my Appendix , and that for several Reasons . For ( first ) the Hydrostaticks is a part of Philosophy , which I confess I look upon as one of the ingeniousest Doctrines that belong to it . Theorems and Problems of this Art , being most of them pure and handsome productions of Reason duly exercis'd on attentively consider'd Subjects , and making in them such Discoveries as are not only pleasing , but divers of them surprising , and such as would make one at first wonder by what kind of Ratiocination men came to attain the knowledg of such unobvious Truths . Nor are the delightfulness , and the subtilty of the Hydrostaticks , the only things for vvhich vve may commend Them : For there are many , as well of the more familiar , as of the more abstruse Phaenomena of Nature ; that will never be throughly understood , nor clearly explionted by those that are strangerste the Hydrostaticks ; upon whose Principles depend , besides many other things , the Explications of most of the Physico . Mechanical Experiments , we have ventur'd to present the Publick , and the Decision of those many Coutroversies , which they , and the Phaenomena of the Torrecellian Experiment have occasion'd among the Modern Inquirers into Nature . But the use of this Art is not alone Speculative , but Practical , since not onely the propositions it teaches , may be of great importance to Navigation , and to those that inquire into the magnitudes and gravities of Bodies , as also to them that deal in Salt workes : But that the Hydrostaticks may be made divers ways serviceable to the Chymists themselves , to whose Art that Doctrine seems to be so little of Kin , I might here manifest , if I could think it fit to transcribe , what I have * elsewhere deliver'd to that purpose . But that which invited me to Write something of this part of Philosophy , is , not only that I think it considerable , but that , notwithstanding its being so , I find it but very litle , and not very happily cultivated . For being not look'd upon as a Discipline purely Mathematical , the generality of Mathematicians have not in their Writings so much as taken notice of it , much less improv'd It. And since the admirable Archimedes , who , in his little Tract De insidentibus humido , has left us three or four very excellent propositions , ( but proved by no very easie Demonstrations ) among divers others that have more of Geometrical Subtility , then usefulness , Those Mathematicians , that , ( like Marinus Ghetaldus , Stevinus , and Galileo ) have added anything considerable to the Hydrostaticks have been ( that I know of ) very few , and those too , have been wont to handle them , rather as Geometricians , then as Philosophers , and without referring them to the explication of the Phaenomena of Nature . And as for the Peripateticks , and other School-Philosophers , though on some Occasions , as when they tell us , That water weighs not in water , nor aire in aire , they deliver assertions about matters belonging to the Hydrostaticks , ( which term , in this Treatise , I often take in a large sense because most of the things delivered about the weight of Bodys may by easy variations , be made applicable to other Fluids ) yet they are so far from having illustrated , or improv'd them , that they have but broach'd or credited , divers of the most erroneous conceits , that are entertain'd about them . So that , there being but few Treatises written about the Hydrostaticks , and those commonly bound up among other Mathematical works , and so written , as to require Mathematical Readers , this usefull part of Philosophy , has been scarce known any farther then by name , to the genèrality ev'n of those Learned men , that have been inquisitive into the other parts of it , and are deservedly reckoned among the ingenious Cultivators of the modern Philosophy . But this is not all , For some eminent men , that have of late years , treated of matters Hydrostatical ; having been prepossess'd with some errenous Opinions of the peripatetick School , and finding it difficult , to consult experience , about the truth of their Conclusions , have interwoven divers erroneous Doctrines among the sounder propositions , which they either borrow'd from Archimedes , and either circumspect Mathematicians , or devis'd themselves , and these mistakes being deliver'd in a Mathematical dress , and mingled with Propositions demonstrably true , the Reputation of such Learned Men , ( from which I am far from desiring to detract , ) and the unqualifiedness of most Readers , to examine Mathematical things , has procur'd so general an entertainment for those Errors , that now the Hydrostaticks is grown a part of Learning , which 't is not only difficult to attain , but dangerous to Study . Wherefore , though neither the Occasion and designe of this Treatise exacted , nor my want of skill and leasure qualified me to Write either a Body or Elements of Hydrostaticks : yet I hop'd I might doe something , both towards the illustrating , and towards the rescue of so valuable a Discipline , by Publishing the ensuing Tract ; where I endeavour to disprove the receiv'd errors , by establishing Paradoxes còntrary to them , and to make the Truths the better understood and receiv'd , partly by away of Explicating them unimploy'd in Hydrostatical Books , and partly by confirming the things I deliver by Physical and sensible Experiments . And over and above this , the more to recommend Hydrostaticks Themselves to the Reader , I have , besides the Paradoxes , oppos'd to the Errors I would disprove , taken occasion by the same way , to make out some of the usefullest of those Hydrostatical Truths , that are wont to seem strange to Beginners . If it be here demanded , why I have made some of my Explications so prolix , and have on several occasions inculcated some things . I answer , That those who are not us'd to read Mathematical Books , are wont to be so indispos'd to apprehend things , that must be explicated by Schemes , and I have found the generality of Learned men , and ev'n of those new Philosophers that are not skill'd in Mathematicks , so much more unacquainted , then I before imagin'd both with the principles and Theorems of Hydrostaticks , and with the ways of explicating and proving them , that I fear'd , that neither the Paradoxes themselves , that I maintain , nor the Hypotheses about the weight and pressure of the aire , upon which , little less then my whole Pneumatical Book depends , would be throughly understood without such a clear Explication of some Hydrostatical Theorems , as to a person not vers'd in Mathematical writings , could scarce be satisfactorily deliver'd in few words . And therefore , though I do not doubt , that those who are good at the most compendious ways of demonstrating , will think , I might in divers places , have spar'd many words without injury to my proofs , and though I am my self , of the same mind I exspect to find them of ; yet , I confess that 't was out of choice that I declind that close and concise way of writing , that in other cases I am wont most to esteem . For Writing now not to credit my self , but to instruct others , I had rather Geometricians should not commend the shortness of my Proofs , then that those other Readers , whom I chiefly design'd to gratifie , should not throughly apprehend the meaning of them . But this is not all for which I am to excuse my selfe to Mathematicall Readers . For some of them , I fear , will not like that I should offer for Proofs such Physical Experiments , as do not alwayes demonstrate the things , they would evince , with a Mathematical certainty and accuratenesse ; and much less will they approve , that I should annex such Experiments to confirm the Explications , as if Suppositions and Schemes , well reason'd on , were not sufficient to convince any rational man about matters Hydrostaticall . In Answer to this I must represent , that in Physical Enquiries it is often sufficient that our determinations come very near the matter , though they fall short of a Mathematical Exactness . And I choose rather to presume upon the equity of the Reader , then to trouble him and my self with tedious Circumlocutions , to avoid the possibility of being misunderstood , or of needing his Candor . And we see , that even Mathematicians are wont , without finding any inconvenience thereby , to suppose all perpendicular Lines , made by pendulous Bodies , to be parallel to one another : Though indeed they are not ; since , being produc'd , they would meet at the Centre of the Earth : And to presume , that the Surface of every calme water , in a Vessel , is parallel to the Horizon ; and consequently , a Plain : Though , in strictness , themselves think it the portion of a Sphere : And though also I have usually observ'd it to be higher , where 't is almost contiguous to the sides of the Vessel , then 't is in other places . Moreover , since we find that though water will be uniformly rais'd in Pumps to several heights , but not to thirty five foot , and will in ordinary open pipes , be almost of the same level within and without , but not if the pipe be extraordinary slender ; Upon these , and divers other such considerations , I may have sometimes made use of expressions , that seemed not positive and determinate enough to be employed about matters to which Mathematical Demonstrations are thought applicable . But I elsewhere give an account of the scruples I have about such Demonstrations , as they are wont to be apply'd to Physical matters . And , in the present Paradoxes , I think I have not done nothing , if in my Hydrostatical Explications I have made it appear , That in Experiments made with such Liquors and Glasses , as I employed , the Rules will hold without any sensible , or at least any considerable Error ; for thereby we may learn the Truth of many things , for the main , though in some we should not have attained to the exactness of measures and proportions , which yet our endeavors may assist others to arrive at . And as for my confirmation of Hydrostatical propositions by Physical Experiments , if some Readers dislike that way , I make no doubt but that the most will not only approve it , but thank me for it . For though , in pure Mathematicks , he that can demonstrate well , may be sure of the Truth of a Conclusion , without consulting Experience about it : Yet because demonstrations are wont to be built upon Suppositions or Postulates ; and some things , though not in Arithmetick or Geometry , yet in Physical matters , are wont to be taken for granted , about which men are lyable to slip into mistakes ; even when we doubt not of the Ratiocination , we may doubt of the conclusion , because we may , of the Truth of some of the things it supposes . And this Consideration , if there were no other , will , I hope , excuse me to Mathematicians , for ventring to confute some reasonings that are given out for Mathematical demonstrations . For I suppose it will be consider'd , that those whose presum'd Demonstrations I examine , though they were some of them Professours of Mathematicks , yet did not Write meerly as Mathematicians , but partly as Naturalists : so that to question their Tenets , ought not to disparage those , as well certain , as excellent and most useful Sciences , pure Mathematicks , any more then that the Mathematicians that follow the Ptolemaick , the Copernican , the Tichonian , or other Systemes of the world , Write Books to manifest one anothers Paralogismes in Astronomical matters : And therefore ( to proceed to what I was about to say ) it cannot but be a satisfaction to a wary man to consult sense about those things that fall under the Cognisance of it , and to examine by Experiences , whether men have not been mistaken in their Hypotheses and Reasonings , and therefore the Learned Stevinus himself ( the chief of the Moderne Writers of Hydrostaticks ) thought fit , after the end of his Hydrostatical Elements , to add in an Appendix some Pragmatical Examples ( as he calls them ) that is , Mechanical Experiments ( how cogent I now inquire not ) to confirm the Truth of his Tenth Proposition , to which he had , not far from the beginning of his Book , annexed what he thinks a Mathematical Demonstration . And , about the very Subjects we are now upon , the following Paradoxes will discover so many mistakes of eminent Writers , that pretend to have Mathematically demonstrated what they teach , that it cannot but make wary Naturalists ( and 't is chiefly to gratifie such that I publish this ) be somewhat diffident of Conclusions , whose proofs they do not well understand . And it cannot but , to such , be of great satisfaction to find the things , that are taught them , verified by the visible testimony of Nature her self . The importance of this Subject , and the frequent Occasion I have to make use of this kind of Apology , will I hope , procure me the Readers pardon if I have insisted somewhat long upon it . After what has been hitherto discours'd , 't wil be easie for me to give an Account , why I premised these Hydrostatical Paradoxes to the rest of the Appendix , wherewith they are * now publish'd : For since a great part of my work in that Appendix , was to be a further Explication of some things delivered in the Book it is subjoyn'd to , and the vindication of then from invalid objections : And since I have generally observ'd , that the objections that have bin , either publickly or privately ▪ made against the explications & reasonings contain'd in that Book , were wont to proceed from unacquaintedness , either with the true notion of the weight and spring of the aire , as I maintain them , or with the Principles and Theorems of Hydrostaticks , or else from erroneous Conceits about them ; I thought it would much conduce to both the forementioned ends of my Appendix , If I clear'd up that Doctrine to which my Experiments and reasonings have been all along Consonant , & whos 's being either not known , or misunderstood , seems to have occasion'd the objections that have been hitherto made against the Hypotheses I have propos'd , or the Explications I have thence given . And however , since the Proofs I offer for my opinions are for the most part drawn from Experiments new & easie , and that my aim is but to discover Truths , or make them out by clearer explications , without supposing , like those I dissent from , any thing that is either precarious or scarce , if at all , intelligible ; I hope , that if I should not prove happy enough to reach my ends , yet the Ingenious and Equitable Reader will approve my Designe , and be advantaged by my Experiments . Of which some of the chiefest , and some of the most difficult , having been seen ( divers of them more then once ) by the Royal Society it self , or by inquisitive Members of it ; it will , I presume , be but a reasonable request , if the Reader , that shall have the curiosity to try them over again , be desired not to be hasty in distrusting the matters of fact , in case he should not be able at first to make every thing succeed according to expectation . For as easie as I have endeavour'd to make these Experiments , yet I dare not promise my self that they will all of them be priviledg'd from the fate whereto I have observ'd other Physico-Mathematical ones to be not seldome obnoxious from some unheeded Physical Circumstance , by which those that are not acquainted with the subtleties of Nature , or , at least for the time , do not sufficiently consider them , are apt to be imposed upon . This Advertisement will perhaps be best illustrated , & recommended by an instance . And therefore I shall subjoyne one that will possibly seem somewhat odd . It has been taken notice of by two or three Ingenious modern Mathematicians , and I have had occasion to make it out by particular Experiments , that warm water is lighter in specie then cold : whence it has been deduc'd , that wax , and other Bodies , very near aequiponderant with common water , will swim in that which is cold , and sinck in that which is hot , or luke-warm . Which Experiment , though as it may be ( and perhaps it has been ) tryed , I readily allow to be agreeable to the known Laws of the Hydrostaticks ; Yet I have sometimes undertaken that the Tryal should have a quite contrary event . To this purpose having taken some yellow Bees-wax , which was formed into a Pellet of the bigness of a Cherry , and , by the help of a little Lead , was made so near aequiponderant to cold water , that ; being but a very little heavier , a very small diminution of its weight would make it emerge , I remov'd it out of the very cold water , into some that had bin purposely made lukewarm , ( or a little more then so ) where it quickly , somewhat to the wonder of the lookers on , appeard to swim on the top of the water . And that it might not be suspected that it was supported by any visible bubbles , which I have observed , in some cases , to buoy up even heavy Bodies , and deceive the unskilful , or unattentive ; I briskly enough duck'd the bullet 2 or 3 times under water to throw them off , notwithstanding which it constantly return'd to float , and yet being remov'd again into the same cold water it had been taken out of , and duck'd as before to free it from adherent bubbles , it lay quietly at the bottom , and , though rais'd several times to the upper part of the water , would immediately subside again , and fall to the very lowest . Now that which invited me to promise an Experiment which seems to contradict the principles of the Hydrostaticks , was not any distrust of those principles themselves , but a conjecture , that as by warmth the water would be made a little lighter in specie then 't was before ; so by the same warmth the spirituous and more agitable parts of the wax , whose texture is loose enough , would be somwhat ( though not visibly ) expanded , and would by that expansion gain a greater advantage towards floating , then the increas'd lightness of the water would give it disposition to sinck . And I confirm'd this conjecture by a farther experiment , which at first was it self somewhat surprising to the Beholders . For when the wax was first taken out of the cold water , & immediately immers'd in the warm , it would readily enough sinck , & being ( with a quill or a knife ) rais'd to the top of the water , it would again fall down , but more slowly then at the begining , & aftersome few minutes , if it were rais'd to the upper parts of the water , it would remain a float . ( And I have known it , when it had remain'd a while longer at the bottom , so to emerge , that if I were sure no unheeded bubbles had been newly generated , and held it up , it might be said to emerge of its own accord ) as on the other side , being put into the cold water as soon as ever it was taken out of the warm , it would at the very first float , and being then knock'd downwards , it would , readily enough , regain the upper part of the water , but if I continu'd to send it downwards about 6 or 7 times ( more or fewer ) successively , it would emerge every time more slowly then other , and at length not emerge at all , even when I try'd it in water made heavy , by being highly infrigidated with salt aud snow plac'd about the Glass . Which Phaenomena I had thought it reasonable to expect , because I presum'd , that the Wax being remov'd immediately out of the warm water , into the cold , must require some time , to loose the adventitious expansion , which the warmth had given it , and must be depriv'd of it by degrees , by the coldness of the water into which the wax was transferr'd . As on the other side , there must be some time necessary for so little a warmth , as that of the tepid ( or little more then tepid ) water , to give the wax that addition of dimensions ( which also it must receive by degrees ) that was necessary , in spite of the rarefaction of the water , to make it float . I might add , that these Tryals were repeated , for the main , with more Bullets of wax then one , and that they succeeded far otherwise , when , instead of a piece of wax , we imploy'd a pois'd glass bubble , in which the temperature could make either no change at all , or no considerable change of dimensions . And to these I might add other circumstances , if I did not remember , that I mention these Tryals but occasionally , and to make the caution , formerly recommended to the Reader , appear not to be impertinent , since a Hydrostatical Experiment , true in its self , may easily miscarry by over-looking such Circumstances as 't is not easie to be aware of . But by this Advertisement I would by no means divert Men from being diffident of Hydrostatical Traditions and Experiments . For , besides the many Erroneous Opinions , there are matters of fact , whose Truth , thò not question'd , but built upon , I think ought to be brought to tryal . For , even whilst I was concluding this Preface , I found that divers even of the Moderns , & particularly a very learned Man that has lately Writen of Hydrostaticks , have much troubled themselves to render a reason why , since , according to their Doctrine , water weighs not in water , Wooden vessels , though of a substance lighter then water , being by leaks , or otherwise , fil'd with water , should sinck and remain at the bottom of the water : whereas judging this Phaenomenon disagreable to what I look upon as the Laws of the Hydrostaticks , I was confirm'd in that opinion , by having had the curiosity to make some tryals of it , wtth 4 or 5 vessels of differing shapes and sizes , whereof two were of wax , which , though a matter but very little lighter then water , I could not sinck , or keep sunck by pouring water into them , or suffering them to fill themselves at leaks made near the bottom , and if they were depressed by force or weights , they , as also the wooden Vessels , would upon the removal of the impediment ( and sometimes with the cavity upwards ) emerge . And I am the more solicitous to have things in the Hydrostaticks duly ascertain'd , because the weighing of bodies in Liquors may hereafter appear to be one of the general ways I have employ'd , and would recommend , for the examining of almost all sorts of tangible Bodies . THE CONTENTS . PAradox . 1. That in Water and other Fluids , the lower parts are press'd by the upper . 24 Par. 2. That a lighter Fluid may gravitate or weigh upon a heavier . 43 Par. 3. That if a Body contignous to the water be altogether , or in part , lower than the highest level of the said water , the lower part of the Body will be press'd upward by the water that touches it beneath . 67 Par. 4. That in the ascension of water in Pumps , &c. there needs nothing to raise the Water , but a competent weight of an External Fluid . 94 Par. 5. That the pressure of an Externall Fluid is able to keep an Heterogeneous Liquor suspended at the same height in several Pipes , though those Pipes be of very different Diameters . 106 Par. 6. If a Body be plac'd under water , with its uppermost Surface parallel to the Horizon ; how much water soever there may be on this or that side aboyd the Body , the direct pressure sustain'd by the Body ( for we now consider not the Lateral nor the recoyling pressure , to which the Body may be expos'd& if quite environ'd with water ) is no more then that of a Colomne of water , having the Horizontal superficies of the Body for its Basis , and the perpendicular depth of the water for it's height . And so likewise , If the water that leans upon the Body be contain'd in pipes open at both ends ; the pressure of the water is to be estimated by the weight of a pillar of water , whose Basis is equal to the lower Orifice of the pipe , ( which we suppose to be parallel to the Horizon ) and its height equal to a perpendicular reaching thence to the top of the water ; though the pipe be much inclin'd towards the Horizon , or thought it be irregularly shap'd , and much broader in some parts , then the said Orifice . 117 Par. 7. That a Body immers'd in a Fluid , sustains a lateral pressure from the Fluid ▪ and that increas'd , as the depth of the immers'd Body , beneath the Surface of the Fluid , increaseth . 142 Par. 8. That water may be made as well to depress a Body lighter then it self , as to buoy it up . 160 Par. 9. That , what ever is said of positive Levity , a parcel of oyle lighter then water , may be kept in water without ascending in it . 165 Par. 10. That the cause of the Ascension of water in Syphom , and of its flowing through them , may be explicated without having a recourse to nature's abhorrency of a Vacuum . 170 Par. 11. That a solid Body , as ponderous as any yet known , though near the Top of the water , it will sinck by in own weight ; yet if it be plac'd at a greater depth then that of twenty times its own thickness ▪ it will not sinck , if its descern be not assisted by the weight of the Incumbent water . 184 Appendix . 1. Containing an Answer to seven Objections , propos'd by a late Learned Writer , to evince , that the upper parts of water press not upon the lower . 193 Ap. 2. Concerning the Reason why Divers , & others who descend to the bottom of the sea , are not oppress'd by the weight of the incumbent water . 221 Imprimatur , ROBERTUS SAY , VICE-CANCELLARIUS OXON . HYDROSTATICAL PARADOXES , Made out by NEW EXPERIMENTS : Presented to the ROYAL SOCIETY , ( The Lord Viscount Brouncker being then President . ) May 1664. My LORD , TO obey the orders of the Society , that forbid the making of Prefaces and Apologies in Accounts of the Nature of that which you expect from me ; I shall without any further preamble begin with taking notice , that upon perusal of Paschall's small French Book , which was put into my hands , I find it to consist of two distinct Treatises : The one of the AEquilibrium of Liquors , as he calls it ; and the other of the weight of the Mass of the Air. As for this latter , ( which I shall mention first , because I can in very few words dispatch the little I have to say of it ) Though it be an ingenious discourse , and containes things , which if they had been published at the time , when it is said to have been written , would probably have been very wellcome to the Curious : yet I have very little else to say of it in this place , in regard that since that time , such kind of Experiments have been so prosecuted , that I presume it is needless , and would not be acceptable to repeat what Monsieur Paschall has written , in this Society , which has seen the same Truths , and divers others of the like Nature , more clearly made out by Experiments , which could not be made by Monsieur Paschall , and those other Learned Men , that wanted the advantage of such Engines and Instruments , as have in this place been frequently made use of . Wherefore having already at a former meeting given you , by word of Mouth , an account of Paschall's Ingenious Invention , of a pair of Bellows without vent , to measure the various Pressure of the Atmosphaere ; I remember nothing else that needs hinder me from proceeding to the other part of his Book , The Treatise of the AEquilibrium of Liquors . This I find so short , and so worthy of the Author , that to give you all that I judge worth taking notice of in it , would obliege me to transcribe almost the whole Tract ; and therefore I shall rather invite you to read the whole , then divert you from the designe by culling out any part of it ; yet if you will not be satisfied without something of more particular , I shall be oblig'd to tell you , That the Discourse consisting partly of Conclusions and partly of Experiments ; the former seemed to me to be almost all of them ( there being but few that I doubt of ) consonant to the Principles and Lawes of the Hydrostaticks . But as for the latter , the Experimental proofs he offers of his opinions are such , that I confess I have no mind to make use of them . And the Reasons why , notwithstanding that I like most of Paschall's Assertions , I decline imploying his way of proving them , are principally these . First , Because though the Experiments he mentions be delivered in such a manner , as is usual in mentioning matters of fact ; yet I remember not that he expresly says that he actually try'd them , and therefore he might possibly have set them down as things that must happen , upon a just confidence that he was not mistaken in his Ratiocinations . And of the reasonableness of this Doubt of mine , I shall ere long have occasion to give an instance . Secondly , Whether or no Monsieur Paschall ever made these Experiments himself ; he does not seem to have been very desirous , that others should make them after him . For he supposes the Phaenomena he builds upon to be produc'd fifteen or twenty foot under water . And one of them requires , that a Man should sit there with the End of a Tube leaning upon his Thigh . But he neither teaches us how a Man shall be enabled to continue under water , nor how in a great Cistern full of water , twenty foot deep , the Experimenter shall be able to discern the alterations , that happen to Mercury and other Bodies at the Bottome . And Thirdly , These Experiments require not only Tubes twenty foot long , and a great Vessel of at least as many feet in depth , which will not in this Countrey be easily procured , but they require Brass Cylinders , or Pluggs , made with an exactness , that , though easily supposed by a Mathematician , will scarce be found obtainable from a Tradesman . These difficulties making the Experiments propos'd by Monsieur Paschall more ingenious then practicable , I was induc'd on this occasion to bethink my self ▪ of a far more Expeditious Way , to make out , not only most of the Conclusions wherein we agree , but others that he mentions not ; and this with so much more ease and clearnesse , That not only This Illustrious Assembly , but persons no more than moderately vers'd in the Vulgar principles of the Hydrostaticks , may easily enough apprehend what is design'd to be deliver'd , if they will but bring with them a due Attention , and minds dispos'd to preferre Reason and Experience to vulgar Opinions and Authors ; which last clause I annex , because the following Discourse , pretending to confute several of those , challenges a right to except against their Authority . It not being my present Task to deliver the Elements , or a Body of Hydrostaticks , but only ten or twelve Paradoxes , which I conceive to be proveable by this new way of making them out , I shall , to avoid Confusion , Deliver Them in as many distinct propositions ; After each of which , I shall indeavour in a proof , or an Explication , to show , both that it is true , and why it ought to be so . To all these I shall to avoid needless Repetitions , premise a word or two by way either of postulatum or Lemma . And because I remember to what Assembly I address This Discourse , I shall make use of no other then an easie supposition I met with in a short Paper ( about a Mercuriall Phaenomenon ) brought in a year or two since to this Learned Society , by a deservedly Famous Member of it * , For though his supposal be made upon occasion of an Experiment of another Nature , then any of the ensuing , it may be easily accomodated to my present purpose . This postulatum or Lemma , consists of three parts ; the first of them more , and the two last , less principal . Suppose we then , ( First ) That if a Pipe open at both Ends , and held perpendicular to the Horizon , have the lower of them under Water , there passes an Imaginary plain or Surface , which touching that Orifice is parallel to the Horizon ; and consequently parallel as to sense to the upper Surface of the water , and this being but a help to the Imagination will readily be granted . Secondly , To this it will be consonant , that each part of this designable surface , will be as much , and no more press'd , as any other equal part of it , by the water that is perpendicularly incumbent on it . For the water or other Fluid being supposed to be of an homogeneous substance , as to gravity , and being of an equal height upon all the parts of the imaginary Surface ; there is no reason why one part should be more press'd by a perpendicular pillar of that incumbent fluid , then any other equal part of the same Surface by another perpendicularly incumbent pillar of the same or equal Basis and height , as well as of the same Liquor . But Thirdly , Though whilst our imaginary Surface is equally press'd upon in all parts of it , the Liquor must retain its former position ; yet if any one part comes to have a greater weight incumbent on it , then there is upon the rest , that part must be displac'd , or depress'd , as it happens , when a stone or other Body heavier then water sincks in water . For wherever such a a Body happens to be underneath the water , that part of the imaginary plain that is contiguous to the lower part of the stone , having on it a greater weight then other parts of the same Surface , must needs give way , and this will be done successively till the stone arrive at the Bottom ; and if , on the other side , any part of the Imaginary Surface be less press'd upon then all the rest ; it will by the greater pressure on the other parts of the Surface be impell'd upwards , till it have attain'd a height , at which the pressure ( of the rais'd water , and the lighter or floating Body ( if any there be ) that leans upon it , and gravitates together with it , upon the subjacent part of the Imaginary Surface ) will be equal to that which bears upon the other parts of the same Surface . And because this seems to be the likeliest thing to be Question'd in our Assumption , though he that considers it attentively , will easily enough be induc'd to grant it : Yet I shall here endeavour to evince it Experimentally , and that by no other way of proof , then the same I imploy all along this present discourse . Take then a Cylindrical glass pipe ▪ of a convenient Bore open at both Ends , let the Tube be steadily held perpendicular to the Horizon , the lower end of it being two or three inches beneath the Surface of a convenient quantity of water , which ought not to fill the Glass Vessel that contains it . The pipe being held in this posture , 't is manifest , that the water within the pipe , will be almost in a level with the Surface of the water without the pipe , because the external and internal water ( as I am wont for Brevities sake to call them ) have free intercourse with one another by the open Orifice of the immers'd End of the pipe : yet I thought fit to insert the word almost , because if the pipe be any thing slender , the Surface of the water in it , will always be somewhat higher then that of the water without it , for reasons that 't is not so necessary we should now inquire after , as 't is , that we should here desire to have this taken notice of once for all ; That mistakes may be avoided without a troublesome repetition of the difference in heights of the Surface of Liquors within pipes and without them , in case they be any thing slender . The pipe being held in the newly mention'd posture , if you gently poure a convenient Quantity of Oyle upon the external water , you shall see , That as the Oyle grows higher and higher above the Surface of That water , the water within it , will rise higher and higher , and continue to do so , as long as you continue to poure on oyle ; Of which the Reason seems manifestly to be this ; That in the Imaginary plaine that passes by the Orifice of the immers'd end of the pipe , all that is not within the Compass of the Orifice , is expos'd to an additional pressure from the weight of the oyle which swims upon the water , and that pressure must still be increas'd , as there is more and more oyle poured on ; whereas a Circular part of the Imaginary plain , equal to the Orifice of the Glasse , is by the sides of the pipe fenc'd from the immediate pressure of the oyle ; so that all those other parts of the water , being far more press'd , then that part which is comprehended within the Cavity of the Tube : and consequently the press'd parts of the external water , are by the equal gravitation of the oyle , upon the parts of the external water , impell'd up into the Cavity of the pipe , where they find less resistance , then any where else , till they arrive at such a height , that the Cylinder of water , within the pipe , do's as much gravitate upon the subjacent part of the Imaginary Surface , as the water and oyle together , do upon every other equal part of the same Surface or plain . But as well the former Lemma , as this Experiment , will be sufficiently both clear'd and confirm'd by the following Explications ; to which I should for that Reason forthwith proceed ; Were it not that , since divers passages of the following Treatise suppose the Aire to be a Body not devoid of weight , which yet divers Learned adherents to the Peripatetick Philosophy do resolutely deny , it seems requisite to premise something for the proof of this Truth . And though I think the Arguments we have imploy'd to that purpose already , do strongly evince it : yet if I may be allow'd to anticipate one of my own Experiments of the Appendix , I shall give an instance of the weight of the Aire , not lyable so much as to those invalid objections , which some of the Aristotelians have made against those Proofs , wherewith we have been so happy , as to satisfie the learned'st even of our professed Adversaries . We caus'd then to be blown at the flame of a Lamp , a Bubble of glass , ( of about the bigness of a small Hen-egge ) which , that it might be light enough to be weigh'd in exact Scales , ought to be of no greater thickness , then is judged necessary to keep it from being ( when seal'd up with none but very much expanded aire in it ) broken by the pressure of the ambient Atmosphaere . This bubble was ( like a Peare with its stemme ) furnish'd with a very slender pipe of Glass , at which it was blown , that it might be readily seald up ; and then ( the Aire within it being by the flame of the Lamp gradually rarified , as much as conveniently could be ) whilst the Body of the Bubble was exceeding hot , the newly mentioned stemme was nimbly put into the middle of the flame ; where , by reason of its slenderness , the Glass , which was exceeding thin , was immediately melted ; whereby the Bubble was Hermetically seal'd up . This Glass being permitted leasurely to coole , I could afterwards keep it by me an hour , or a day , or a week , or longer , if I thought fit ; and when I had a mind to shew the Experiment , I put it in one of the scales of an exact ballance , that would turn , perhaps with the 30th , or 50th , or a lesse part of a grain ; and having carefully counterpois'd it , I then warily broke off the seal'd end , placing a sheet of paper just under the scale to receive the fragments of the Glass : and putting in again those fragments , that scale wherein the Glass was would considerably preponderate ; which it must do upon the account of the Weight of Aire , there being no other cause , either needful , or justly assignable , but the weight of the Aire that rush'd into the Cavity of the Glass , as finding less resistance there then elsewhere , by reason that the included Aire had it's spring much weakn'd by it's great expansion . This Experiment I many times tryed , sometimes before some Virtuosi , and sometimes before others ; who all allowed it to be conclusive . For here it could not be objected as against the weighing of Aire in a Bladder , ( which objections yet I could easily answer , if it were now proper ) that the aire which ponderates , it stuff'd with the Effluvia of him that blows the Bladder , and ( besides that ) is not aire in its Natural state , but violently compress'd . For here 't is the free aire , and in it's wonted laxity , that makes the Glass preponderate . And that there is a great Ingress of the external aire , is evident by these three Phaenomena . The one , that if you lend an attentive Ear , you shall plainly heare a kind of whistling noise to be made by the external aire , as it rushes violently in upon the breaking of the Glass ; The other , that the Rarefaction of the aire , seal'd up in the bubble , being very great , there is a great deal of space left for the ambient aire to fill upon its admission ; and the greatness of this Rarefaction may be guess'd at , both by the breaking of such bubbles now and then by the pressure of the External aire , which is not competently assisted by the Internal to resist ; and also by the third Phaenomenon I intended to take notice of , namely , That if , instead of breaking off the seal'd end of the Glass in the aire , you break it under water , that Liquor will , by the Pressure of the Atmosphaere , be forc'd to spring up like an artificial Fountaine into the Cavity of the Bubble , and fill about three quarters of it . By which last circumstance I gather , that the weight of the aire is more considerable then ev'n many , who admit the aire to have weight , seem to imagine . For we must not suppose , that all the aire contain'd in the Bubble , when broken , weighs no more then the weight requisite in the opposite Scale , to reduce the Ballance to an Aequilibrium ; since this additional weight is onely that of the aire , that intrudes on the breaking of the glass ; which aire , by the Observations newly mention'd to have been made with water , appears to be but about three quarters of the whole aire contain'd in the broken Bubble ; and yet , according both to our Estimate , and that of divers Virtuosi , and some of them eminent Mathematicians , when the capacity of the Bubble was short of two cubical Inches , ( and so proportionably in other glasses , ) the nice Ballance we us'd , manifested the newly admitted Aire to amount to some times near halfe a grain , and sometimes beyond it . And because one of the last Experiments that I made to this purpose , with seal'd Bubbles was none of the least accurate , I shall conclude this Subject with the following account of it . A thin glass Bubble , blown at the flame of a Lamp , and Hermetically seal'd when the contained aire was exceedingly rarified , was Counterpoiz'd in a nice paire of Scales , and then the seal'd apex being broken off , and put again into the same Scale , the weight appear'd to be increas'd by the re-admitted aire , a pretty deal above 11 / 16 ; ths , and consequently very near , if not full ¾ of a graine : Lastly , having by some slight ( for 't is no very easie matter ) fill'd it with common water , we weigh'd the glass and water together , and found the latter , besides the former , to amount to 906 grains : so that supposing , according to our former Estimate , countenanced by some Tryals , that the re-admitted aire , which amounted to ¾ of a grain , fill'd but ¾ of the whole Cavity of the Bubble , the aire that was in it , when seal'd , possessing one quarter of that Cavity , the whole aire contain'd in the Bubble , may be reasonably presum'd to weigh a whole grain ; in which case we might conclude ( abstracting from some little Niceties not fit to be taken notice of here ; as elsewhere ) that the water in our Experiment , weighed very little more then nine hundred times as much as an equal quantity of Aire . And therefore , though we allow , that in an Experiment so diligently made , as this was , the aire praexistent in the bubble did not adaequately possess so much as a fourth part , but about a fifth or a sixth of its Cavity , the aire will yet appear so heavy , that this Experiment will agree well with those others , recorded in another Treatise , wherein we assign'd ( numero rotundo ) a thousand to one , for the proportion wherein the specifick Gravity of water exceeds that of aire . PARADOX I. That in Water , and other Fluids , the lower parts are press'd by the upper . PRovide a Glass vessel of a convenient height and breadth A. B. C. D. fill'd with water almost to the Top ; Then take a glass Pipe , open at both Ends , Cylindrical , and of a small Bore , ( as about the eighth or sixth part of an Inch in Diameter . ) Put the lower End of this Pipe into clear Oyle or Spirit of Turpentine ; and having by Suction rais'd the Liquor to what part of the Pipe you think fit , as soon as it is there , you must , very nimbly removing your Lips , stop the upper Orifice with the pulp of your finger , that the rais'd Liquor may not fall back again : Then taking the Pipe and that Liquor out of the Oyle of Turpentine , place it perpendicularly in the Glass of water , so as that the Surface of the Oyle in the Pipe be somewhat higher then that of the water without the Pipe ; and having so done , though you take off your finger from the upper Orifice of the Pipe , the Oyle will not fall down at the lower Orifice , though that be open , but will remain suspended at the same height , or near there abouts , that it rested at before . Now Oyle of Turpentine , being a heavy Fluid , does , as such , tend downwards , and not being stopp'd by the Glass it self , whose lower Orifice is left open , it would certainly fall down through the Pipe , if it were not kept suspended by the pressure ( upwards ) of the water beneath it . There appearing no other Cause to which the Effect can reasonably be ascrib'd , and this being sufficient to give an Account of it , as we shall presently see . For that it is not any contrariety in Nature , betwixt the oyle and the water , as Liquors that will not mingle , is evident from hence , That if you had remov'd your finger when the Pipe was not so deeply immers'd in the Glass , but that the Surface of the oyl in the Pipe was an Inch or two more elevated above that of the water in the Glass , then in our present case we suppose it to be ; The Oyle , notwithstanding its presum'd contrariety to water , would have freely subsided in the Pipe , till it had attain'd an aequipollency of pressure with the External Water . The Reason therefore of the Phaenomenon seems to be plainly this . Supposing the imaginary surface , on which the Extremity Q of the pipe P Q leans , to be G H. If that part of the Surface , on which the Oyl leans at Q , be as much , and no more charged , or press'd upon by the weight of the incumbent Cylinder of Oyle Q X , then the other parts of the same imaginary Surface G H are by the water incumbent on Them , there is no Reason why that part at Q should be displac'd , either by being depress'd by the weight of the Cylinder of Oyle X Q , or rais'd by the equal pressure of water upon the other parts of the Superficies G H. And that this Aequilibrium , betwixt the Oyle and the Water , is the true cause of the Phaenomenon , may be confirm'd by observing what happens , if the altitude of either of the two Liquors be alter'd in Relation to the other . And ( First , ) we have already taken notice , That if the Cylinder of Oyle reach in the Pipe , much higher then that of the Surface of the water , the oyle will descend : Of which the Reason is , Because the designable Surface G H , being more charg'd at Q then any where else , the part Q , being unable to resist so great a pressure , must necessarily be thrust out of place by the descending oyle . Secondly , This subsiding will continue but till the Surface of the Oyle in the Pipe be fallen almost as low as that of the water without the Pipe ; because then , and not before , the parts at Q are but as much press'd by the oyle , as the other parts of the Surface G H are by the water that leans upon them . Thirdly , 'T is a concluding Circumstance to our present purpose , That if the Oyle and Water being in an Aequilibrium , you gently lift up the Pipe , as from Q to S , the depth of the water being lessend , the oyle in the Pipe will grow praeponderant , and therefore will fall out in Drops or Globuls , which by the greater Specifick Gravity of the water , will be buoy'd up to the Top of the Liquor , and there flote : And still as you lift up the Pipe higher and higher , towards the Surface L M , more and more of the Oyle will run out . But if you stop the Pipe any where in its Ascent , as at S , the Effluxion of the oyle will likewise be stopp'd . And at the imaginary Superficies ▪ J K , as by Reason of the shallowness of the water from L to J , or M to K , the pressure of the water upon the other parts of the Surface is not near so great , as it was upon the Surface G H , where the water had a greater depth : So by reason of the proportionate Effluxion of the oyle , whil'st the Pipe was lifted up from Q to S , the remaining Cylinder of oyle incumbent on S , is not able to press that part of the Superficies J K more strongly then the other parts of the same Superficies , are prest by the water Incumbent on them . And if the Pipe be lifted up till the lower Orifice be almost rais'd to V ; that is , almost as high as the uppermost Surface of the water L M , so much of the oyle will , for the Reason already given , run out , that there will scarce be any left in the Pipe T V. Fourthly , But if when the Pipe rests at the Surface G H , where the oyle is in an Aequilibrium with the water ; you should instead of lifting it from Q to S , thrust it down from Q to O ; then the External water would not only sustaine the oyle , but make it ascend in the Pipe to a height equal to the distance E G ; and so the Pipe will containe besides a longer Cylinder of oyle AE W , a shorter one of water AE O. For the pipe being transferr'd from the position P Q , to the position O N , there is a new Imaginary Surface E F , that passes by the lower Orifice of the Pipe. Now the part of this Surface at O will not , by the Incumbent oyle alone , be press'd as much as the other parts of the same Surface are by the Incumbent water . For the oyl alone was but in Aequilibrium with the water , when it was no deeper then L G , or H M ; so that the other parts of the Superficies E F , being more press'd upon by the water , then the part at O by the oyle , the oyle must give place , and be buoy'd up by the water , ( which , if it were not for the weight of the oyle , would be impell'd up into the pipe full as high as the Surface of the External water ) till the pressure of the admitted water O AE , and the Cylinder of oyle AE W , do both together gravitate as much upon the part O , as the rest of the Incumbent water does upon the other parts of the same Superficies E F. Fifthly and lastly , 'T is very agreeable to what has been delivered , touching the Aequilibrium of the oyle and water in the pipe P Q , that the Surface X of the oyle in the pipe , will not be of the same level with L M , that of the External water , but a little higher than it . For though the slenderness of the Pipe do somewhat contribute to this Effect , yet there would be an inequality , though not so great , betwixt these Surfaces upon this Account , That oyle of Turpentine being in Specie , ( as they speak in the Schools ) that is bulk for bulk , a lighter Liquor than Water , it is requisite that the height of it , incumbent on the part Q , be greater than that of the water on the other parts of the same Surface G H , to make the pressure of the oyle on the part it leans upon , equal to the pressure of the water on the other parts of the Surface . And if the inequality were greater betwixt the Specifick Gravities of these two Liquors , the inequalities betwixt the Surface X , and the Surface L M would be also greater , as may be try'd by substituting for common water , oyle of Tartar per deliquium , which is a saline Liquor much heavier than it . And that , in case the Pipe containe not a lighter Liquor then the External fluid , the Surface of the Liquor in the Pipe will not be higher than that of the Liquor without it , we shall by and by have opportunity to manifest by Experience . From what has been hitherto shewen , we may safely infer the Proposition , upon whose occasion all this has been delivered . For since the oyle in a Pipe , open at both Ends , may be kept suspended in any part under water , as at Q , because it is there in an Aequilibrium with the External water ; and since being lifted up in the water , as from Q to S , the oyle can no longer be kept suspended , but by its own gravity will runne out . And since , in a word , the deeper the water is , the greater weight and pressure is requir'd in the Cylinder of oyle , to be able to countervail the pressure of the water , and keep it self from being lifted up thereby ; there seems no cause to doubt but that the parts of the water incumbent on the Superficies G H , do more press that Superficies , than the parts of the water contiguous to the Superficies J K do press that ; and consequently , that the parts of the water that are under the uppermost Surface of it , are press'd by those of the same Fluid that are directly over them : As we saw also that the upper parts of the oyle , whil'st the pipe was in raising from Q to S , depress'd the lower so much , as to force them quite out of the Pipe ; there being in these cases no reason why the lowermost parts of a Liquor should press more , or have a stronger Endeavour against any other Liquor ( or any other Body ) the higher the Liquor incumbent reaches , if these inferiour parts deriv'd their pessure only from their own particular Gravity , ( which is no greater then that of the other Homogeneous parts of the Liquor ) and therefore they must derive the great force wherewith they press from the weight of the Incumbent parts , which consequently must be allow'd to press upon them . But before I proceed to the following propositions , it will not be amiss to mention here , once for all , a few advertisements , to avoid the necessity of repeating the same things in the sequel of the Discourse . And First , What is here said of the pressure of the parts of water upon one another , and the other Affections that we shall attribute to it , in the following paper , are to be apply'd to heavy Fluids in general , unless there shall appear some particular Cause of excepting some of them in particular Cases . Secondly , Whereas I lately intimated , That the inequality betwixt the Surfaces of the oyle in the Pipe , and of the External water , was in part to be ascrib'd to the slenderness of the Pipe , to be imploy'd in these Experiments , I did it for this cause , that , whatever the Reason of it be , ( which we need not here inquire after , ) we are assur'd by Experience , as we have elsewhere shewn , That when Glass pipes come to be slender , water and many other Liquors ( though not Quicksilver ) will have within them a higher Surface then that of the same Liquor without them , and this inequality of Surfaces ( as far as we have yet try'd ) increases with the slenderness of the pipe . But this , as to our present Experiment , is a matter of so little moment , That it may suffice to have intimated that we did not oversee it . Thirdly , Wherefore , notwithstanding this little inconvenience of slender Glasses , we think it Expedient to imploy such in the following Experiments , because we found , that in those of a wide Bore , upon such little inequalities of pressure as are not easily to be avoided , the oyle and water will pass by one another in the Cavity of the pipe , and so spoile the Experiment , which requires that the oyle within the pipe be kept in an intire and distinct Body . Fourthly , Common oyle and water , or any other two Liquors that will not mingle , may serve the turn in most of these Experiments ; but we rather chuse oyle of Turpentine , because it is light and thin , clear and colourless , and may be easily had in quantities , and is not so apt to spot ones Cloaths , or obstinately to adhere to the porous Bodies it chances to fall on , as Common , and other express'd oyles . And for their sakes to whom the odour is offensive , we presently correct it , by mingling with it a convenient quantity of oyle of Rhodium , or some other Chymical oyle that is odoriferous . Fifthly , Oyle of Turpentine , though it be not reckon'd among the saline Menstruums , will yet ( as we elsewhere note ) work upon Copper , and so by digesting it upon crude filings of that Metal , we obtaine a deep green Liquor , which may be made use of instead of the Limpid oyle , to make the Distinction of the Liquors more conspicuous . Sixthly , And for the same purpose we often use instead of clear water , a strong Decoction of Brazill , or Logg-wood , or else Red Inck it self , I say , a strong Decoction , because unless the Liquor be so deeply ting'd , as to appear Opacous in the Glass , when it comes into the slender pipe , its Colour will be so diluted , as to be scarce discernable . Seventhly , In the shape of the Glass Vessel , we need not be Curious ; though that of a wide Mouth'd Jarr , express'd in the Scheme , be for some uses more convenient than other shapes . The depth of these Glasses , and the length of the Pipes must be determin'd by the Experiments , about which one means to imploy them . To make out the first Paradox already prov'd , a Glass of about five or six Inches deep , and a Pipe about as many Inches long , will serve the turn : but for some others of the following Experiments , tall Cylindrical Glasses will be requisite ; and for some , Broad ones likewise will be Expedient . Eighthly , One must not be discourag'd by not being able at the first or second time , to suck up oyle of Turpentine to the due height , and stop it with ones finger from relapsing ; but one must try again , and again ; especially since many Tryals of this kind may be made in a few Minutes : and for Beginners 't is a safe and good , though not the shortest way , to suck up rather more Liquor then one judges will be needful ; because having fill'd the Pipe to that height , you may by letting in the Aire warily and slowly , between the Orifice of the Glass and the pulp of your finger , suffer so much Liquor to run out of the Pipe , as will reduce it to the height you desire ; and there , by close stopping the Orifice with your finger , you may keep it suspended as long as you please , and immerse it into any Heterogeneous Liquor , and take it out again at pleasure without spilling any of it . By which slight Expedient alone , I can decline several Difficulties , and do many things , which , according to Paschal's way , require a great deal of Trouble and Apparatus to be perform'd . Lastly , In such Experiments where it may be of use , That there be a considerable disparity betwixt the two unmingled Liquors , we may ( as is above intimated ) instead of fair water , imploy Oleum Tartari per deliquium , and tinge it with Brazill or Chochineele ; from either of which , but especially from the latter , it will obtaine an exceeding deep Redness : and where one would avoid strong sents and oyliness , he may , if he will be at the Charge , imploy oyle of Tartar per deliquium , instead of fair water , and highly Rectified Spirit of Wine , instead of oyle of Turpentine . For these two Liquors , though they will both readily mingle with water , will not with one another ; and if a great quantity of some other Liquor be to be substituted for simple water , when these Chymical Liquors are not to be had in plenty , one may imploy ( as we have done ) a very strong Solution made of Sea-salt , and filtred through Cap-paper : this Brine being near about as Limpid as common water , and farre heavier than it . And for a Curiosity , we have added to the two lately mentioned Liquors ( oyle of Tartar , and Spirit of Wine ) some oyl of Turpentine , and thereby had three Liquors of different Gravities , which will not by shaking , be brought so to mingle , as not quickly to part again , & retire each within its own Surface ; and by thrusting a Pipe with water in the bottom of it ( placing also ones finger upon the upper Orifice ) beneath the Surface of the lowermost of these Liquors , and by opportunely raising or depressing it , one may somewhat vary the Experiment in a way not unpleasant ; but explicable upon the same grounds with the rest of the Phaenomena mentioned in this Discourse . PARADOX . II. That a lighter Fluid may gavitate or weigh upon a heavier . I Know that this is contrary to the common opinion , not only of the Schools ▪ but ev'n of divers hodiern Mathematicians , and Writers of Hydrostaticks ; some of whom have absolutely rejected this Paradox , though they do but doubt of the truth of the former . But when I consider , that whether the cause of Gravity be the pulsion of any superior substance , or the Magnetical attraction of the Earth , or whatever else it be , there is in all heavy Bodies , as such , a constant tendency towards the Centre , or lowermost parts of the Earth ; I do not see why that tendency or endeavour should be destroy'd by the interposition of any other heavy Body ; Though what would otherwise be the effect of that endeavour , namely an approach towards the Centre , may be hindred by another Body , which being heavier then it , obtains by its greater gravity a lower place ; but then the lighter Body tending downwards , must needs press upon the heavier that stands in its way , and must together with that heavier press upon whatever Body it is that supports them both , with a weight consisting of the united gravities of the more , and the less heavy Body . But that which keeps Learned Men from acknowledging this Truth , seems to be this , That a lighter Liquor ( or other Body ) being environ'd with a heavyer , will not fall down but emerge to the Top ; whence they conclude , that , in such Cases , it is not to be considered as a heavy , but as a Light Body . But to this I answer , That though in Respect of the heavier Liquor , the less heavy may in some sence be said to be light ; yet , notwithstanding that relative or Comparative Levity , it retains all its absolute Gravity , tending downwards as strongly as before ; though by a contrary and more potent Endeavour upwards of the contiguous liquor ( whose lower parts , if less resisted , are pressed upwards by the higher elsewhere incumbent ; according to the Doctrine partly delivered already , and partly to be cleared by the proof of the next proposition , ) its endeavor downward is so surmounted that it is forcibly carry'd up . Thus when a piece of some light wood being held under water , is let go and suffer'd to emerge , though it he buoy'd up by the water , whose specifick Gravity is greater , yet ev'n whilst it alcends it remains a heavy Body ; so that the aggregate of the water & the ascending wood weighs more then the water alone would doe ; And when it floats upon the upper part of the water , as part of it is extant above the surface , so part of it is immerst beneath it , which confirms what we were saying , That a lighter Body may gravitate upon a heavier . And thus there is little doubt to be made but that if a man stand in one of the scales of a Ballance with a heavy stone ty'd to his hand , and hanging freely by his side , if then he lift that weight as high above his head as he can , notwithstanding that the stones motion upwards makes it seem a light Body in respect of the Man whose Body it leaves beneath it , yet it dos not , either during its ascent or after , loose any thing of its connatural weight . For the Man that lifts it up shall feel its tendency downwards to continue , though his force , being greater than that tendency , be able , notwithstanding that tendency , to carry it up : and when it is aloft , it will so press against his hand , as to offend , if not also to bruise it ; and the Stone , and the Man that supports it , will weigh no less in the Scale he stands in , then if he did not at all support it , and they were both of them weigh'd apart . Likewise , if you put into one Scale a wide mouth'd Glass full of water , and a good quantity of pouder'd common Salt ; and into the other Scale , a Counterpoise to them both ; you may observe , that , though at the beginning the Salt will manifestly lie at the bottome , and afterwards by degrees be so taken up into the Body of the Liquor , that not a grain will appear there ; yet nevertheless ( as far as I can judge by my Experiments ) the weight in that Scale will not be diminished by the weight of as much Sale as is incessantly either carried up , or supported by the restless motion of the dissolving Corpuscles of the water ; but both the one and the other , ( allowing for what may evaporate ) will concurrently gravitate upon the Scale that the glass containing them leans on . But of this more elsewhere . Now to prove the proposiion by the New Method , we have propos'd to our self in this Discourse . Take a slender Glass pipe , and having suck'd up into it fair water , to the height of 3 or 4 Inches , stop nimbly the upper Orifice with your finger , and inmerse the lower into a Glass full of oyle of Turpenrine , till the Surface of the oyle in the Vessel be somwhat higher than that of the water in the Pipe ; then removing your finger , though the Pipe do thereby become open at both Ends , the water will not fall down , being hinder'd by the pressure of the oyle of Turpentine . As will be obvious to them that have attentively consider'd the Explication of the former Paradox ; there being but this difference between this Experiment and that there Explain'd , that here the water is in the Pipe , and the oyle in the Vessel , whereas there the oyle was in the Pipe , and the water in the Vessel . And if you either poure more oyle into the Glass , or thrust the Pipe deeper into the oyle , you shall see that the water will be buoyed up towards the top of the Pipe ; that is , a heavier Liquor will be lifted up by a lighter . And since , by the Explication of the first Proposition , it appears , that the Reason why the Liquor is in this case rais'd in the Pipe , is the Gravity of the Liquor that raises it , we must allow that a lighter Liquor in specie , may by its gravity press against a heavier . And it agrees very well with our Explication , both of this , and of the first Experiment , that as there , the Surface of the oyle in the pipe was always higher than that of the water without it , because the oyle being the lighter Liquor , a greater height of it was requir'd to make an Aequilibrium ; so in our present Experiment , the Surface of the Liquor in the Pipe will alwayes be lower than that of the oyle without it . For in the imaginary plain E F , the Cylinder of water J G , contain'd in the Pipe J H , will , by reason of its greater gravity , press as much upon the part J , as the distill'd oyle ( K E , J L , ) being a lighter Liquor , can do upon the other parts of the same suppos'd plain E F , though the oyle reach'd to a greater height above it . This second Paradox , we have hitherto been discoursing of , may be also prov'd by what we formerly deliver'd , to make out the Truth of the third part of the Lemma premised to these Propositions . But because this and the former Paradox are of importance , not only in themselves but to the rest of this Treatise , and are likely ( in most Readers ) to meet with indisposition enough to be receiv'd , I will subjoyn in this place a couple of such Experiments , as will not , I hope , be unacceptable ; that I devis'd , the one to confirm this second Paradox , and the other to prove the first . Some of the Gentlemen now present may possibly remeber , that about the end of the Year that preceded the two last , I brought into this place a centain new Instrument of Glass , whereby I made it appear , that the upper parts of water gravitate upon the lower ; which I did by sincking a Body , that was already under water , by pouring more water upon it . But that Experiment belonging to other papers , I shall here substitute another perform'd by an Instrument , which though it makes not so fine a shew , may be more easily provided , and will as well as that other ( though you were pleas'd to command that from me ) serve to make out the same Truth ; which I shall apply my self to do , as soon as I have , by an Improvement of the Expedient I am to propose , made good my late promise of confirming the second Paradox . And before I can well draw an Argument from these Experiments , for either of the propositions to be prov'd by them , I must briefly repeat what I have elsewhere deliver'd already ( on another occasion ) touching the cause of the sincking of such Bubbles . Namely that the Bubble X. consisting ▪ of Glass , which is heavier in specie then Water ; and Aire , which is lighter in specie then Water ; and , if you please , also of Water itself , which is of the same specifick Gravity with Water ; as long as this whole aggregate of several Bodys is lighter then an equal bulk of Water , it will float ; but in case it grows heavier then so much water , it must , according to the known Laws of the Hydrostaticks , necessarily sinck , ( being not otherwise supported . ) Now when there is any competent pressure ( whether produc'd by weight or otherwise , ) upon the water , in which this Bubble is for the most part immers'd , because the glass is a firm Body & the water , though a Liquor , either suffers no compression , or but an inconsiderable one ; the Aire included in the Bubble , being a springy and very compressible Body , will be compell'd to shrink , and thereby possessing less Room , then it did before , the contiguous water will succeed in its place ; which being a body above a thousand times heavier then aire , the Bubble will thereby become heavier then an equall Bulk of water , and consequently will sink : but if that force or pressure be remov'd , the Imprison'd Aire will by its own Spring free it self from the intruding water ; and the Aggregate of Bodys , that makes up the Bubble , being thereby grown lighter then an equal bulk of water , the subsided bubble will presently emerge to the Top. This Explication of the Causes of the sinking of Bubbles agrees , in some things , with the Doctrine of the Learned Jesuites Kercher & Shottus , and some other writers , in the Acount they give of those two Experiments that are commonly known by the name , the one of the Romane , the other of the Florentine Experiments . But there are also particulars wherein I ( who have never a recourse to a fuoa Vacui , ) dissent from their Doctrine ; the principles I go upon , having invited and assisted me to make that Experiment , afford me some new Phaenomena , which agree not with their Opinions , but do with mine : but I forbear to mention them here , because they belong to other Papers ; and for the same reason I omit some accession of Ludicrous Phaenomena ( as they call them , ) which I remember I have sometimes added to those , which our Industrious Authors have already deduc'd from those Experiments . These things being premis'd , I proceed to the confirmation of the second Paradox , by the following Experiment . Take a long glass pipe , seal'd or otherwise exactly stop'd at one end and open at the other ( whose Orifice if it be no wider , then that it may be conveniently stop'd with mans . Thumb , the Tube will be the fitter to exhibit some other Phanomena . Into this pipe pour such a quantity of common water , as that there may be a foot , or half a yard , or some other competent part left unfill'd , for the use to be by and by mention'd . Then having poiz'd a glass Bubble with a slender neck , in such a manner as that though it will keep at the Top of the water , yet a very little addition of weight , will suffice to sinck it , put this Bubble thus poiz'd into the Tube ; where it will swim in the upper part of the water , as long as it is let alone , but if you gently pour oyle of Turpentine upon it , ( I say gently to avoid confounding the Liquors ) you will perceive that , for a while , the Bubble will continue where it was : but if you continue pouring on oyl , till it have attain'd a sufficient height above the water , ( which , 't will be easie to peceive , because those two liquors will keep themselves distinct ) you shall see the Bubble subside till it fall to the Bottom , and continue there as long as the oyl remains at the height above the water . The Reason of this Phanomenon , according to our Doctrine , is this , That the oyl of Turpentine , though a lighter Liquor then water , yet gravitates upon the subjacent water , and by its pressuce forces some of it into the cavity of the bubble at the open Orifice of its neck , whereby the Buble , which was before but very little less heavy then an equal Bulk of water , being by this accession made a little more heavy must necessarily sinck ; and the cause of its submersion , namely the pressure of the oyle , continuing , it must remain at the bottom . And to confirm this explication I shall add , that in case , by inclining the Tube or otherwise , you remove the Cylinder of oyl , or a competent part of it , ( in case it were longer then was necessary , ) the Bubble will again emerge to the Top of the water ( for , as for the oyle , that is too light a Liquor to buoy it up ; ) which happens only because the pressure of the oyle upon the water being taken of the Aire , by vertue of its own spring , is able to recover its former Expansion , and reduce the bubble to be as light as 't was before . And now we may proceed to that other Experiment , by which we lately promis'd to confirm the first Paradox . And in some regard this following Experiment has been preferr'd , as more strange , to that I have been reciting . For it seem'd much less improbable , that of two Heterogeneous Liquors , the inferior should be press'd upon by the incumbent , which , though lighter , kept in an intire body above it ; then that in water , which is a Homogeneous Liquor ; and whose parts mingle most freely and exquisitely with one another , the upper part should press upon the lower ; and that they will do so , may appear by the Experiment it is now time to sub joyn . Provide a long Tube and a poiz'd Bubble , as in the former Experiment , then having pour'd water into the Tube , till it reach above 5 or 6 Inches ( for a determinate height is no way necessary ) above the Bottome , cast in the Bubble , which will not only swim , but if you thrust it down into the water it will of it self emerge to the upper part of it . Wherefore take a slender Wand , or a Wire , or a slender glass pipe , or any such Body that is long enough for your purpose , and with it having thrust the bubble beneath the Surface of the water , pour water slowly into the Tube ( whose Cavity will not be near fill'd by the rod or wire ) till it have attain'd a competent height , ( which , in my last Tryals , was about a Foot , or half a Yard above the bubble : ) and you shall see , that the bubble , which before endeavour'd to emerge , will by the additional weight of the incumbent water , be depress'd to the bottom of the Tube . After which you may safely remove the wire , or other body that kept it from rising . For as the weight of the Incumbent water was that which made it sinck , so that weight continuing on it , the bubble will continue at the bottom . But yet it is not without cause , that we imploy a wire , or some such thing , in this Experiment , though we affirm it to be onely the weight of the Incumbent water , that makes the Bubble sinck . For if you should pour water into the Tube , to the height lately mention'd , or ev'n to a greater , if you did not make use of the Wire , it would not serve the turn ; because that as fast as you pour in the water , the Bubble being left to it self , will rise together with it ; and so , keeping always near the upper part of the water , it will never suffer the Liquor to be so high above it , as it must be , before it can depress it . But to confirm , that 't is the weight of the Superior water that sincks the Bubble , and keeps it at the Bottom ; if you take out of the Tube a competent quantity of that Liquor , and so take of the pressure of it from the Bubble , this will presently , without any other help , begin to swim , and regain the upper part of the water ; whence it may at pleasure be praecipitated , by pouring back into the Tube the water that was taken out of it . And these Confirmations , added to the former Proofs of the first and second Paradoxes , being we conceive sufficient to satisfie Impartial Readers of the Truth of them , we should presently advance to the next Proposition , if we did not think fit to interpose here a Scholium . SCHOLIUM . IT may perchance be wondred at , why , since we lately mention'd our having made some Tryals with oyle of Tartar per deliquium , we did not in the present Experiment , in stead of fair water , make use of that , it being a very much heavier Liquor , and ( though it may be incorporated with express'd oyles ) unmingleable in such Tryals with oyle of Turpentine . But to this I answer , That ev'n in such slender pipes , as those made use of about the first Experiment , I found that oyle of Tartar was ponderous enough to flow down , though slowly , into the oyle of Turpentine at one side of the immers'd Orifice , whilst the oyle pass'd upwards by it along the other side of the pipe . And my knowledge of this could not but make me a little wonder , That so Curious a person , as Monsieur Paschall , should somewhere teach , That if a Tube of above 14 foot long , and having its Orifice placed 14 foot under water , be full of Quicksilver , the fluid Metal will not all run out at the Bottom of the pipe , though the Top of it be left open to the Aire , but will be stop'd at a foot high in the pipe , For the Impetus , that its fall will give it , must probably make it flow quite out of the pipe : And , not here to mention those Tryals of ours with Quicksilver and slender Tubes , that made me think this very improbable ; if we consider that the Experiment will not succeed with much more favourable circumstances , betwixt oyle of Turpentine and oyle of Tartar , though the heavier of these two Liquors be many times lighter that quick . silver : It tempts me much to suspect , that Monsieur Paschall never actually made the Experiment , at least with a Tube as big as his Scheam would make one guess , but yet thought he might safely set it down , it being very consequent to those Principles , of whose Truth he was fully perswaded . And indeed , were it not for the impetus , the Quicksilver would acquire in falling from such a height , the Ratiocanation were no way unworthy of him . But Experiments that are but speculatively true , should be propos'd as such , and may oftentimes fail in practise ; because there may intervene divers other things capable of making there miscarry , which are overlook'd by the peculator ▪ that is wont to compute only the consequences of that particullar thing which he principally considers ; As in this case our Author seems not to haue consider'd , that in such Tubes , as the Torricelliah Experiment is wont to be made in the largness of them would make them unfit for this Tryal . And I have known Ingenious men , that are very well exercis'd in making such Experiments , complaine , that they could never make this of Paschall's to succeed . In which attempts , that the size of the Tubes much contributed to the unsuccesfulness of the Tryals , I shall ( without repeating what has been already intimated to that purpose ) in the following part of this Discourse have opportunity to manifest ; and withal to adde as Illustrious a proof of this our second Paradox , as almost any we have yet given . PARADOX III. That if a Body contiguous to the water be altogether , or in part , lower than the highest level of the said water , the lower part of the Body will be press'd upward by the water that touches it beneath , THis may be prov'd by what has been already delivered in the Explication of the first Experiment : For where ever we conceive the lowest part of the Body , which is either totally , or in part , immers'd in water , to be there the imaginary Superficies being beneath the true Superficies , every part of that imaginary Superficies must be press'd upwards , by vertue of the weight of the water incumbent on all the other parts of the same Superficies , and so that part of it , on which the immers'd Body chances to leane , must for the same Reason have an endeavour upwards . And if that Endeavour be stronger then that wherewith the weight of the Body tends downwards , then ( supposing there be no Accidental Impediment ) the Body will be buoy'd or lifted up . And though the Body be heavier then so much water , and consequently will subside , yet that Endeavour upwards of the water , that touches its lower part , is onely rendred ineffectual to the raising or supporting the body , but not destroyed ; the force of the heavy Body being from time to time resisted , and retarded by the water , as much as it would be if that Body were put into One Scale , and the weight of as much water , as is equal to it in bulk , were put into the other . To confirm this , we may have recourse to what we said in the Explication of the second Experiment . For in case the slender pipe , wherein the water is kept suspended , be thrust deeper into the oyl or in case these be more oyle pour'd into the Vessel , the water will be impell'd up higher into the pipe ; which it would not be , if the oyle , though bulk for bulk a lighter Body , did not press against the lower Surface of the vvater , ( where , alone , the two Liquors are contiguous , ) more forcibly then the water by its gravity tends dovvnvvards . And even vvhen the Liquors rest in an Aequilibrium , the oyle continually presses upvvards , against the lower Surface of the water ; since in that continual endeavour upvvards consists its constant resistance to the continual endeavour that the gravity of the water gives it to descend . And since the same Phaenomenon happens , whether we suspend water in oyle , as in the second Experiment , on oyle in water , as in the first : it appears , that the proposition is as well applicable to those cases , where the sustein'd Body is specifically heavier , as to those where 't is specifically lighter then the subjacent fluid . But a further and clearer proof of this Doctrine will appear in the Explication of the next proposition . In the mean time , to confirm that part of out Discourse , where we mention'd the Resistance made by the water to Bodies that sinck in it , Let us suppose , in the annexed Figure , That the pipe E F contains an oyle specifically heavier then water , ( as are the oyls of Guaisteum , of Cinnamon , or Cloves , and some others , ) and then , That the oyle in the pipe , and the water without , being at rest in an Aequilibrium , the pipe be slowly rais'd towards the Top of the Vessel . 'T is evident , from our former Doctrine , and from Experience too , that there will run out drops of oyle , which will fall from the bottom of the pipe , to that of the Vessel ; but far more slowly then if they fell out of the same pipe in the Aire . Now to compute how much the pressure of the water against the lower parts of the drop amounts too , let us suppose the drop to be G , to whose lowermost part there is contigueus , in any assignable place where it falls , the imaginary Superficies H J. 'T is evident , That if the drop of oyle were not there , its place would be supplied by an equal bulk of water ; which being of the same specifick Gravity with the rest of the water in the Vessel , the Surface H J would be laden every where alike ; and consequently to part of it would be displac'd ▪ But now , the drop of oyle being heavier then so much water , that part of the imaginary superficies , on which that drop leans , has more weight upon it , then any other equal part of the same Superficies ; and consequently , will give place to the descending drop . And since the case of every other suppos'd Surface , at which the drop can be conceiv'd to arrive in its descent , will be the same with that of the Superficies H J ; it will for the Reason newly given , continue falling till it comes to the bottom of the Vessel which will suffer it to fall no further . And in case the drop G were not , as we suppose it , of a substance heavier in specie then water , but just equal to it , the contiguous part of the Superficies H J would be neither more nor less charged then the other parts of the same Supeficies ; and the part lean'd on would be neither depress'd nor rais'd , but the drop G would continue in the same place . And so we may prove , ( what is affirm'd by Archimedes , and other Hydrostatical Writers ) That a Body acquiponderant in specie to water , will rest in any assignable place of the water where 't is put . And ( to proceed further ) since , if the drop G were of a matter but acquiponderant to water it would not sinck lower at all , no more then emerge ; it follows , that though being heavier in specie then water , it will fall , yet the gravity upon whose account it falls , is no more then that by which it surmounts an equal bulk of water ; ( since , if it were not for that over plus , the resistance of the water would hinder it from falling at all : ) and consequently , it looses in the water just as much of the weight it would have in the aire , as so much water , weigh'd likewise in the same aire , would amount to . Which is a Physicall Account of that grand Theorem of the Hydrostaticks , which I do not remember that I have seen made out in any Printed Book , both solidly and clearly ; The Learned Stevinus himself , to whom the later Writers are wont to refer , having but an obscure ( and not Physical ) demonstration of it . And , because this Theorem is not only very noble , but ( as we else where manifest ) very useful , 't will not be amiss to add , That it may easily be confirm'd by Experiment . For if you take ( for instance ) a piece of Lead , and hang it by a Horse haire ( that being suppos'd very near acquiponderant to water ) from one of the Scales of an exact Ballance ; and , when you have put a just Connterpoize in the other Scale , suffer the Lead to sinck in a ressel of water , till it be perfectly covered with it , but hangs freely in it , the counterpoize will very much preponderance , And , part of the Counterpoize being taken out till the Ballatice be again reduc'd to an Aequilibrium , you may easily ( by subducting what you have taken out , and comparing it with the whole weight of the Lead in the aire ) find what part of its weight it looses in the water And then if you weigh any other piece of the same Lead , suppose a Lump of 12 ounces , and hang it by a Horse haire at one scale , you may be sure that by puting into the other scale a weight less by a twelfth part , ( supposing Lead to water to be as twelve to one ) that is eleven ounces , though the weights be farr from an Aequilibrium in the Aire , they will be reduc'd to it when the Lead it cover'd with water . The pressure of water against the lower part of the Body immers'd in it may be confirmed by adding ; That we may thence deduce the cause of the emergency of wood and other Bodyes lighter then water ; which though a familiar Effect , I have not found its cause to have been so much as enquired into by many , nor perhaps to have been well rendred by any . If we suppose then that the pipe be almost fill'd , not with a sincking but a swimming oyle , as oyle of Turpentine , if , as in the first Experiment , the lower orifice be thrust under water , ( to a far less depth then that of the oyle in the pipe ) and the upper be slovvly unstop'd , the oyl vvill ( as vve formerly declar'd ) get out in drops at the bottom of the pipe . But to determine vvhy these drops , being quite cover'd and surrounded vvith vvater , and press'd by it as vvell dovvnvvards as upvvards , should rather emerge then descend , I shall not content my self to say , that vvater in specie heavier then this kind of oyle ; For , besides that in some cases ( e're long to be mention'd ) I have made the water to depress ev'n this kind off oyle , and besides that 't is not every piece of wood lighter in specie then water that will float upon water , how shallow soever it be : The Question is how this praepollent Gravity of the water comes to raise up the oyle , though there be perchance much more water , for it to break its way thorough , above it , then beneath it . The Reason then of the emersion of Lighter Bodies in heavier fluids , seems to be this , That the endeavour upwards of the water , contiguous to the lower part of the Body , is stronger then the endeavour downwards of the same Body , and the water incumbent on it . As , in the former Scheme , supposing the Drop G to be the oyle of Turpentine , and to touch the two imaginary and parallel plains H J , K L ; 't is evident , that upon the lower part of the Drop , N , there is a greater pressure of water , then upon the upper part of the same Drop , M : because that upon all the surface K L ▪ there is but an uniform pressure of water A K B L , and upon all the parts of the surface H I , there is a greater weight of water A H B I , except at the part N ; for there the oyle G , being not so heavy as so much water , the oyle being expos'd to a greater pressure from beneath , then its own gravity ( and that of the water incumbent on it ) will enable it to resist , must necessarily give way and be impell'd upwards . And the case being the same between that and any other parallel plain , wheresoever we suppose it to be in its ascent , it must consequently be impell'd further and further upwards till it arrive at the Top ; and there it will float upon the water : Or , ( to Explicate the matter without Figures ) when a specifically lighter Body is immers'd under water , it is press'd against by two pillars of water ; the one bearing against the upper , and the other against the lower part ; and because the lengths of both these Pillars must be computed from the Top of the water , the lower part of the immers'd body must be press'd upon by a Pillar longer then the upper part by the thickness of the immers'd Body ; and consequently must be press'd more upwards then downwards . And by how much the greater disparity of specifick Gravity there is betwixt the water and the emerging Body , by so much the swifter ( caeteris paribus ) it will ascend : because so much the more will there be of pressure upon all the other parts of the imaginary surface , then upon that part that happens to be contiguous to the Bottom of the ascending Body . And upon the same Grounds we may give ( what we have not yet met with ) a good solution of that Probleme , propos'd by Hydrostatical Writers , why , if a Cylindrical stick be cut in two parts , the one as long again as the other , and both of them , having been detain'd under water at the same depth , be let go at the same time and permitted to emerge , the greater will rise faster then the lesser . For suppose one of these Bodies , as O P , to be two foot high , and the other , Q R , to be half so much , and that the lowermost Surfaces of both be in the same imaginary plaine , parallel to the uppermost surface of the water and three foot distant from it ; in this case there will be against the lower part of each of the wooden Bodies a pressure , ( from the laterally superior water ) equal to that upon all the other parts of the Imaginary plain , whereto those Bodies are contiguous ; But whereas upon the upper surface of the shorter Body , Q R , there will lean a pillar of water two foot high , the pillar of the same Liquor that will lean upon the Top of the taller Body , P O , will be but one foot high ; as the attentive considerer will easily perceive . So that the wooden Bodys being lighter in specie then water , both of them will be impell'd upwards ; but that compounded pillar , ( if I may so call it ) which consists of one foot of wood and two foot of water , will by its gravity more resist the being rais'd , then that which consists of two foot of wood and but one foot of water : so that the cause of the unequal celerity in the Ascension of these Bodys consists chieflly , ( for I would neither overvalue nor exclude Concomitant Causes ) that the difference of the pressure against the upper and lower part of each body respectively is greater in one then in the other . And hence we may probably deduce a reason of what we often observe in the Distillation of the oyles of Annisseeds , Cloves , and diverse ▪ Aromatick vegetables , in Lembecks by the intervention of water ; for oftentimes , when the fire has not been well regulated , there will come over , besides the floating Oyle , a whitish water , which will not in a long time become cleare . And as we have elswhere taught , That whiteness to proceed from the numerous reflections from the oyly substance of the Concrete ' by the heat of the fire broken into innumerable little Globuls , and dispers'd through the Body of the water ; so the reason why this whiteness continues so long , seems to be chiefly ( for I mention not such things , as , the great surfaces that these little Globuls have in respect of their Bulk ) that , because of the exceeding minuteness of these Drops , the height of the water that presses upon the upper part , is almost equal to that of the water that presses against the lower part ; so that the difference between these two pressures being inconsiderable , it has power to raise the Drops but very slowly , ( insomuch that upon this ground I devis'd a Menstruum , wherewith I could mingle oyle in drops so exceedingly minute , that , ev'n when there was but a few spoonfuls of the mixture , it would continue whitish for divers whole days together ) though at length they will emerge ; and the sooner , because whilst they swim up and down , as they frequently chance to meet and run into one another , they compose greater Drops ; which are ( for the Reason already given ) less slowly impell'd up by the water : at the Top of which , the Chymist ; after a due time , is wont to find new oyl floating . But whether this be any way applicable to the swimming of the insensible particles of corroded metals in Aquaflortis , and other saline . Menstruums , I must not now stay to enquire . One thing more there is , that I would point at before I dismiss this Paradox ; Namely , that , for the same Reason we have all this while deduc'd , when the emergent drop , or any other Body , floats upon the Top of the water , it will sinck just so far , ( & no farther ) till the immers'd part of the floating Body be equal in Bulke to as much water as is equal in weight to the whole Body . For suppose , in the annexed figure , Y to be a Cube of wood three foot high and six pound in weight ; this wood , being much heavier then Aire , will sinck into the water , till it come to an imaginary superficies , X W , where , having the position newly describ'd , it will necessarily acquiesce . For all the other equal parts of the Superficies , X , W , Q , being lean'd upon by pillars of water equal in height to the part X A , or W B , if the whole weight of the wooden Cube be greater then that of as much water as is equal to the immers'd part , it must necessarily sinck lower , because the subjacent part of the Surface ( at V , ) will be more charg'd then any of the Rest . And , on the other side , if the Cube were lighter then as much water as that whose place the immers'd part takes up ; it must by the greater pressure of the water upon the other parts of the imaginary superficies X W , then upon that contiguous to the wood , ( as at V ) be impell'd upward , til the pressure of the whole wood upon the part it leans on , be of the same degree with that of the rest of the water , upon the rest of the superficies : and consequently be the same with the water , whose place the immers'd part of it takes up . The lightness of that immers'd part , in respect of so much water , being recompenc'd by the weight of the unimmers'd part , which is extant above the Superficies of the water . And we see , that when a piece of wood fals into water , though , by the impetus it acquires in falling , it passes through divers imaginary plains that lye beneath its due station ; yet the greater pressure , to which each of those plains is expos'd in all its other parts , then in that which is contiguous to the Bottom of the wood , dos quickly impel it up again , till , after some emersions and subsidings , it rests at length in such a position , as the newly explicated Hydrostatical Theorem assignes it . SCHOLIUM . THis Ingenious Proposition ( about floating Bodys ) is taught and prov'd after the manner of Mathematicians , by the most subtle Archimedes and his Commentators : and we have newly been endeavouring to manifest the Physical reason why it must be true . But partly because the Proposition ought to hold , not only in such intire and homogeneous Bodyes as men exemplifie it in , ( such as a piece of wood , or a Lump of wax ) but in all Bodyes , though of a concave figure , and made up of many Bodys of never so differing natures ; ( and perhaps some of them joyn'd together only by their superincumbency upon one another ) and partly because that a Truth , which is one of the main and usefullest of the Hydrostaticks , and may be of so much importance to Navigation , has noyet ( that I know of ) been attemtpted to be demonstrated otherwise then upon Paper : it will not be amiss , for the satisfaction of such of those whom it may concern , as are not vers'd in Mathematical Demonstrations , to add an Experiment which I made to prove it Mechanically ; as exactly as is necessary for the satisfaction of such persons . After ( then ) having imploy'd several Vessels , some of wood , some of Laton , and some of other materials , to compass what I desir'd ; we found glasses to be the most commodious we could procure . And therefore filling a large and deep glass to a convenient height with fair water , we plac'd in it another deeper glass , shap'd like a Goblet or Tumbler , that it might be the fitter for swimming ; and having furnish'd it first with Ballast , and then , for merryment sake , with a wooden Deck , by which a tall Mass , with a Sayle fusten'd to it , was kept upright ; we fraughted with wood , and by degrees pour'd Sand into it , till we had made it s●●●k just to the Tops of certaine conspicuous marks , that we had fasten'd on the outside of the Glass to opposite parts thereof . Then observing how high the water reach'd in the larger Glass , ( which by reason of the Vessels Transparency was easie to be seen ) we carefully plac'd two or three markes in the same level with the Horizontal Surface of the water ; and taking out the floating Vessel , as it was , with all that belong'd to it , and wiping the outside dry , we put it into a good paire of scales , and having found what it amounted to , we weigh'd in a competently large Viol ( first counterpoiz'd apart ) so much water , ( to a graine , or thereabouts , ) and pouring this water into the large Glass above mentioned , we found it to reach to the marks that we had fastened to the outside of the Glass , and consequently to reach to the same height to which the weight of the floating glass , and all that was added to make it resemble a Ship , had made it arise to . By which Experiment ( which we tried , as to the essential parts of it , with Vessels of differing sizes , shapes ; and ladings too , as Wood , Stone , Quick-silver , &c. ) it appears , that the floating Vessel it self , with all that was in it , or supported by it , was equal in weight to as much water as was equal in bulk to that part of the Vessel which was under water , suppos'd to be cut off from the extant part of the same vessel by a plain continuing the Horizontal Surface of the water : since the weight of the floating Vessel , which rais'd up the water in the larger Vessel to the greatest height it attain'd , was the same with the weight of the water , which being pour'd into the larger vessel ( when the other was taken out ) rais'd the water therein to the same height . We may also obtaine the same end , by a somewhat differing way , ( which is the best way in case the Vessels be too great viz. to observe , first , by pouring in water out of a Bowle or Paile , or other Vessel of known capacity , as often as is necessary to fill the great Vessel , or Cistern , or Pond , to the Top , ( or to any determinate height requir'd ) and , next , letting out , or otherwise removing all that water , to put in its place the Vessel , whose weight is to be found out . Thirdly , to let , or poure in , water till the Vessel be afloat , and by its weight raise the External water to the height it had before : And lastly , to examine how much this water , that was last pour'd in , falls short in weight of the water that was in it at first , and afterwards remov'd . For this difference will give us the weight of as much water , as is aequiponderate to the whole floating Vessel , whither small or great , with all that it either carries or susteins . The Hydrostatical Theorem we have been considering , and the Experiments whereby we have endeavour'd to confirm , or illustrate it , may ( Mutatis mutandis ) be apply'd to a Ship with all her Ballast , Lading , Guns , and Company ; it holding generally true , That ( to express the sence of the Proposition more briefly ) the weight of a floating Body , is equal to as much water , as its immers'd part takes up the room of . Whence we might draw some Arguments in favour of the Learned Stevinus , ( for whose sake it partly was that I annexed this Scholium ) who , if I mis-remember not , does somewhere deduce as a Corollary from certain Hydrostatical Propositions , That a whole Ship , and all that belongs to it , and leans upon it , presses no more nor less upon the Bottome it swims over , then as much water , as is equal in bulk to that part of the Ship which is beneath the Surface of the water . PARADOX IV. That in the Ascension of water in Pumps , &c. there needs nothing to raise the Water , but a competent weight of an External Fluid . THis Proposition may be easily enough deduc'd from the already mention'd Experiments . But yet , for further illustration and proof , vve vvill add that vvhich follovvs . Take a slender Glass-pipe , ( such as vvas us'd about the first Experiment ) and suck into it about the height of an Inch of deeply tincted vvater ; and , nimbly stopping the upper Orifice , immerse the lovver part of the pipe into a Glass half fill'd vvith such tincted vvater , till the Surface of the Liquor in the pipe be an inch ( or as low as you would have it ) beneath that of the External water . Then pouring on oyle of Turpentine till it swim 3 or 4 Inches , or as high as you please above the vvater ; loosen gently your finger from the upper Orifice of the pipe , to give the inclosed Aire a little intercourse vvith the External , and you shall see the tincted vvater in the pipe , to be impell'd up , not only higher then the Surface of the External vvater , but almost as high as that of the External oyl , through vvhich ( it being transparent and colourless ) the Red Liquor may be easily discern'd . Novv in this case it cau't be pretended , That the ascent of the water in the pipe proceeds from Natures abhorrency of a Vacuum ; since the pipe being full of aire , and its Orifice unstopp'd , though the vvater should not ascend , no danger of a Vacuum vvould ensue ; the aire and the vvater remaining contiguous as before . The true Reason then of the ascent of the water , in our case , is but this , That upon all the other parts of the Imaginary Superficies , that passes by the immers'd Orifice of the pipe , there is a pressure partly of water , and partly of the oyle swimming upon that water , amounting to the pressure of 4 or 5 inches of water ; whereas upon that part of the same superficies whereon the Liquor contain'd in the pipe leans , there is but the pressure of one inch of water , so that the parts near the immers'd Orifice must necessarily be thrust out of place by the other parts of water that are more press'd ; till so much Liquor be impell'd up into the pipe as makes the pressure on that part of the Imaginary Superficies , as great as that of the oyle and water on any other equal part of it : and then , by Vertue of the Aequilibrium , ( often mention'd ) the water will rise no further ; and , by vertue of the same Aequilibrium , it will rest a little beneath , the Surface of the External oyle , because this last nam'd Liquor is lesse heavy , bulk for bulk , then water . And by this we may be assisted to give a reason of the Ascension of water in ordinary sucking Pumps . For as the oyle of Turpentine , though a lighter Liquor then water , and not mingleable with it , does , by leaning upon the Surface of the External water , press up the water within the pipe , to a far greater height then that of the External water it self : so the Aire , which , though a far lighter Liquor then oyle of Turpentine , reaches I know not how many Miles high , leaning upon the Surface of the water in a Well , would press it up into the Cylindrical Cavity of the Pump ▪ much higher then the External water it self reaches in the Well , if it were not hinder'd . Now that which hinders it in the Pump , is either the Sucker , which fences the water in the Pump from the pressure of the External aire , or that pressure it self . And therefore , all that the drawing up of the Sucker needs to do , is , to free the water in the Pipe from the impediment to its Ascent , which was given it by the Suckers leaning on it , or the pillar of the Atmosphaeres being incumbent on it ; as in our Experiment , the sides of the pipe do sufficiently protect the water in the pipe from any pressure of the External oyle , that may oppose its ascent . And lastly , as the water in our pipe was impell'd up so high , and no higher , that the Cylinder of water in the pipe was just able to ballance the pressure of the water and oyle without the pipe ; so in Pumps , the water does rise but to a certain height , as about 33 or 34 foot : and though you pump never so long , it will be rais'd no higher ; because at that height the pressure of the water in the Pump , upon that part of the imaginary Superficies that passes by the lower Orifice of it , is the same with the pressure which other parts of that imaginary superficies ▪ sustaine from as much of the External water , and of the Atmosphaere , as come to lean upon it . That there may be cases wherein water may be rais'd by suction , not upon the Account of the weight of the aire , but of its spring , I have elsewhere shovvn ; and having likevvise in other places ; endeavour'd to explicate more particularly the ascension of vvater in Pumps ; vvhat has been said already may suffice to be said in this place , where 't is sufficient for me to have shovvn , That vvhither or no the Ascension of water may have other causes , yet in the cases propos'd , it needs no more then the competent vveight of an External Fluid , as is the Aire ; vvhose not being devoid of gravity , the Cogency of our Experiments has brought even our Adversaries to grant us . For confirmation of this , I will here add , because it now comes into my mind , ( what might perhaps be elsewhere somewhat more properly mention'd ) an Experiment that I did but lightly glance at in the Explication of the first , and the Scholium of the second Paradox . In order to this I must advertise , That , whereas I there took notice , that some Ingenious men had complain'd , that , contrary to the Experiment propos'd by Monsieur Paschall , they were not at all able to keep Mercury suspended in Tubes , however very slender , though the lower end were deeply immers'd in water , if both their ends were open : The Reasons of my doubting , whether our Ingenious Author had ever made or seen the Experiment , were , not only that it had been unsuccesfully tryed , and seem'd to me unlikely to succeed in Tubes more slender then his appear'd ; but because the Impetus , which falling quick silver gains by the acceleration of motion it acquires in its descent , must in all probability be great enough to make it all run out at the bottom of a Tube , open at both ends , and fill'd with so ponderous a Liquor , though the Tube were very much shorter then that propos'd by Monsieur Paschall . This advertisement I premise to intimate , that , notwithstanding the hopelessness of the Experiment , as it had been propos'd and tried , I might have reason not to think it impossible to perform , by another way , the main thing desir'd ; which was to keep Quicksilver suspended in a Tube , open at both ends , by the resistance of the subjacent water . For by the Expedient I am going to propose , I have been able to do it , even with a Liquor much lighter then water . Finding then , that even a very short Cylinder of so ponderous a fluid , as Mercury , would , if it were once in falling , descend with an impetus not easy to be resisted by the subjacent Liquor , I thought upon the following Expedient to prevent this inconvenience . I took a slender pipe , the Diameter of whose Cavity was little above the sixth part of an Inch , and having suck'd in at the lower end of it somewhat lesse then half an inch of Quicksilver , and nimbly stopp'd the upper Orifice with my finger ; I thrust the Quicksilver into , a deep glass of oyle of Turpentine , with a care not to unstop the upper Orifice , till the small Cylinder of quicksilver was 18 or 20 times its depth beneath the Surface of the oyle . For by this means , when I unstopp'd the pipe , the Quicksilver needed not ( as otherwise it would ) begin to fall , as having a longer Cylinder then was requisite to make an Aequilibrium with the other fluid . For by our Expedient the pressure of the oyle was already full as great , if not greater , against the lower part of the Mercurial Cylinder , as that which the weight of so short a Cylinder could exercise upon the contiguous and subjacent oyle . And accordingly , upon the removal of my finger , the Quicksilver did not run out , but remain suspended in the lower part of the pipe . And as ; if I rais'd it towards the Superficies of the oyle , the Mercury would drop out for want of its wonted Counterpoize ; so , if I thrust the pipe deeper into the oyle , the increas'd pressure of the oyle would proportionably impell up the Mercury towards the higher parts of the pipe , which being again a little , and but a little , rais'd , the Quicksilver would fall down a little nearer the bottom of the pipe : and so , with a not unpleasant spectacle , the ponderous Body of quick silver was made sometimes to rise , and sometimes to fall ; but still to float up on the Surface of a Liquor , lighter ther common Spirit of Wine it self . But , besides that the Experiment , if the maker of it be not very careful ; may easily enough miscarry , the divertisement it gives seldome proves lasting ; the oyle of Turpentine after a while insinuating it self betwixt the sides of the pipe , and those of so short a Cylinder of Mercury , and thereby disordering all . And therefore , though I here mention this Experiment , as I tryed it in oyle of Turpentine ; because that is the Liquor I make use of all along these Paradoxes ; and because also I would shew that a lighter fluid then water , ( and therefore why not aire , if its height be greatly enough increas'd : ) may by its weight and pressure , either keep the Mercury suspended in pipes , or even raise it in them : Yet I found water ( wherewith I fill'd tall glasses ) a fitter Liquor then oyle for the Experiment ; in which though I sought , and found some other Phaenomena , yet because they more properly belong to another place , I shall leave them unmention'd in this . And since Experience shews us , that a Cylinder of , Mercury , of about 30 Inches high , is aequiponderant to a Cylinder of water of about 33 or 34 foot high ; it s very easie to conclude , That the weight of the External aire , which is able to raise and keep suspended 33 or 34 foot of water in a Pump , may do the like to 29 or 30 Inches of Quicksilver in the Torricellian Experiment . PARADOX V. That the pressure of an External Fluid is able to keep an Heterogeneous Liquor suspended at the same height in several Pipes , though those Pipes be of very different Diameters . THE contrary of this Proposition is so confidently asserted and believed , by those Mathematicians , and others , that favour the Doctrine of the Schools ; That this perswasion of theirs seems to be the chief thing , that has hinderd men from acknowledging , that the Quicksilver in the Torricellian Experiment may be kept suspended by the Counterpoize of the external aire . And a famous writer , that has lately treated , as well of the Hydrostaticks , as of the 〈◊〉 of the Torricellian experiment 〈…〉 the falsehood of our Paradox , That , laying aside all other Arguments , he contents himself to confute his Adversaries with one Demonstration ( as he calls it ) grounded on the quite contrary of what we here assert . For his Objection runs to this sence . That if it were the pressure of the External Aire , that kept the Quicksilver suspended in the newly mention'd experiment , the height would not ( as Experience shews it is ) be the same in all Cylindrical pipes , though of very differing B●●es . For , supposing the height of the Mercurial Cylinder , in a Tube of half an Inch Diameter , to be 29 Inches ; 't is plain , that a Mercurial Cylinder of the same height , and three Inches in Diameter , must weigh divers times as much as the former ; and therefore the pressure of the External aire , being but one and the same , if it be a just Counterpoize to the greater Cylinder , it cannot be so to the less ; and if it be able to keep the one suspended at 29 Inches it must be able to keep the other suspended at a far greater height , which yet is contrary to experience . And indeed this Objection is so specious , That , though I elsewhere have already answer'd it , both by reason and Experience , as far forth as it concerns the Torricellian Experiment ; Yet , to shew the mistake on which it is grounded , it may be very well worth while to make out , our proposed Paradox , ( as that whose truth will sufficiently disprove that errour ) by shewing both that the Assertion is true , and why it must be so . Provide then a more then ordinarily wide mouth'd Glass , cleer , and of a Convenient depth ; into which having put a convenient quantity of water , deeply ting'd with Brazil or some other Pigment , fit to the Orifice a broad but thin Cork , in which , by burning or cutting , make divers round holes of very differing widenesses ; into each of which you may thrust a glass Cylinder , open at both ends , and of a size fit for the hole that is to receive it ; that so the several pipes may be imbrac'd by these several holes ; And , as neare as you can , make them parallel to one another , and perpendicular to the superficies of the water , into which they are to be immers'd . But we must not forget , that , besides these holes , there is an aperture to be made in the same Corke ( it matters not much of what figure or whereabouts ) to receive the slender end of a glass Funnel ; by which oyl may be convey'd into the vessel , when it is stopp'd with the Cork . And in the slender part of this Funnel we use to put some Cotton-week , to break the violence of the oyl that is to be pour'd in , which might else disorder the Experiment . All this being thus provided , and the Cork ( furnish'd with its pipes ) being fitted to the Orifice of the Vessel ; if at the Funnel you pour in oyl of Turpentine , and place the Glass betwixt your eye and the Light ; you may , through that transparent Liquor ; perceive the Tincted water , to be impell'd up into all the pipes , and to rise uniformly in them . And , when this tincted Liquor has attain'd to the height of two or three , or more Inches , above the lowermost Surface of the External oyl ; if you remove the Funnel , ( which yet you need not do , unless there be yet oyl in it , ) you may plainly perceive the water to reach as high , in one of the smaller pipes , as in another three or four times as great ; and yet the water in the several pipes ( as 't is evident ) is sustain'd , at that height above the level of the other water , by the pressure or counterprize of the external oyle ; which then if one being lighter in specie then water , will have its Surface somewhat higher without the pipes , then that of the Tincted water within them . And if by the Aperture , that receives the Funnel , you immerse , almost to the Bottom of the oyle , the shorter leg of a slender glass Syphon , at whose longer Leg you procure by Suction the oyle to run out ; you shall perceive , That , according as the depth and pressure of the External third decreases , so the water in the pipe will subside ; and that uniformely , as well in the lesser as in the greater pipes . The Reason of this is not difficult to be render'd , by the Doctrine already deliver'd . For suppose , E F to be the Surface of the water , both within and without the pipes , before any oyle was poured on it : if we then suppose the oyle to be poured in through the Funnel , its lightness in respect of water , wherewith it will not mingle , will keep it from getting into the cavity of the pipes L , M , N ; and therefore spreading it self on the outside of them above , it must necessarily , by its gravity , press down the Superficies of the external water , and impell up that liquor into the cavities of the pipes . And if we suppose the pouring on of the oyl to be continued till the uppermost surface of the oyl be raised to G H , and that of the external water depress'd to I K , ( or thereabouts , ) an imaginary plain passing along the lower Orifices of the pipes ; I say , the tincted waters in the pipes ought to have their uppermost Surfaces in the same level , notwithstanding the great inequality of their Bores . For that part of the Surface IK , which is comprehended within the Circular Orifice of the greatest pipe L , is no more charged by the incumbent water , then any other part , equal to that Circle of the same Imaginary Superficies , is by the water or oyle incumbent on it ; ( and consequently , no more then the part comprehended within the circle of the finall pipe N , is by the water contain'd in that small pipe ; ) the external oyle having as much a greater height upon the Superfices I K , then the water within the pipe , as is requisite to make the two Liquors Counter-ballance each other , notwithstanding the difference of their specifick Gravities . And though the pipe L were twice as bigg , it would Charge the subjacent plain I K no more then the pressure of the oyle on the other parts of the same imaginary Surface is able to resist . And yet this pressure of the External oyle ought not to be able to raise the water in the slender pipe N , higher then the Surface Q in the same Level with the Surface O. For , if the water were higher in the small pipe ; being a heavier Liquor then oyle , it must press upon that part of the Surface I K , it leans on , with greater force then the external oyle upon the other parts of the same plain I K ; and therefore with greater force then the weight of the External oyle could resist . And consequently , the water in the slender pipe must subside , till its Surface be inferiour to that of the External oyle ; since , till then , the difference of their specifick gravities cannot permit them to rest in an Aequilibrium . To be short ; It is all one , to the resistance of the external oyl , how wide the Cylinder is that it supports in the pipe ; provided the height of it be not greater in respect of the height of the oyl , then the difference of the respective Gravities of those two Liquors requires . For , so long the pressure of the Cylinder of water-will be no greater , on that part of the Imaginary Superficies which it leans upon , then the pressure of the external oyle will be on all the other parts of the same Superficies ; and consequently , neither the one , nor the other of those Liquors will subside , but they will both rest in an Aequilibrium , But here it will not he amiss to note ; First , that it is not necessary that the Glass Cylinders L , M , N , should be all of the same length ; since , the lower Orifice being open , the water will rise to the same height within them , whether the parts immers'd under the water be exactly of the same length or no. And Secondly , That throughout all this Discourse , and particularly in the Explication of this Paradox , we suppose , either that the slenderest pipes , that are imploy'd about these Experiments , are of a moderate size , and not exceeding small ; Or that , in case they be very small , allowance be made in such pipes for this property , That water will rise in them to a greater height , then can be attributed to the bare Counterpoize of either the water or the oyle , that impels it upwards and keeps it suspended . But this difference is of so little moment in our present Inquiries , That we may safely neglect it , ( as hereafter we mean to do ) now we have taken this notice of it for prevention of mistakes . PARADOX VI. If a Body be plac'd under water , with its uppermost Surface parallel to the Horizon ; how much water soever there may be on this or that side above the Body , the direct pressure sustain'd by the Body ( for we now consider not the Lateral nor the recoyling pressure-to which the Body may be expos'd if quite environ'd with water , ) is no more then that of a Columne of water ▪ having the Horizontal superficies of the Body for its Basis , and the perpendicular depth of the water for its height . And so likewise , If the water that leans upon the Body be contain'd in pipes open at both ends ; the pressure of the water is to be estimated by the weight of a pillar of water , whose Basis is equal to the lower Orifice of the pipe , ( which we suppose to be parallel to the Horizon ) and its height equal to a perpendicular reaching thence to the top of the water ; though the pipe be much inclin'd towards the Horizon , or though it be irregularly shap'd , and much broader in some parts , then the said Orifice . STevinus , in the tenth Proposition of his Hydrostatical Elements , having propos'd in more general termes the former part of our Paradox ; annexes to se a Demonstration to this purpose . If the Bottom E F be charged with a greater weight then that of the water G H F E , that surplusage must come from the adjoyning water ; therefore , if it be possible , let it be from the water A G E D , & H B C F ; which granted , the Bottom D E will likewise have a greater weight incumbent on it , upon the score of the neigbouring water G H F E , then that of the water A G E D. And , the reason being the same in all the three cases , the Basis F C must susteine a greater weight , then that of the water H B C F. And therefore the whole bottom D C , will have a greater weight incumbent on it , then that of the whole water A B C D ; which yet ( A B C D being a rectangular Body ) would be absurd . And by the same way of reasoning you may evince , That the Bottom E F sustains no less a weight , then that of the water G H F E. And so , since it sustains neither a greater weight , nor a less , it must sustein just as much weight as the Columne of water G H F E. This Demonstration of the Learned Stevinus may well enough be admitted by a Naturalist ( though , according to some Hypotheses touching the Cause and Nature of Gravity , it may faile of Mathematical exactness ; ) and by it may be confirm'd the first part of our propos'd Paradox . And some things annexed by Stevinus to this Demonstration , may be also apply'd to countenance the second . But because this is one of the noblest and usefullest Subjects of the Hydrostaticks , we think it worth while to illustrate , after our manner , each of the two parts of our Paradox by a sensible Experiment . First then , Take a slender Glass pipe , of an even Bore , turn'd up at one end like the annexed Syphon . Into this Syphon suck oyl of Turpentine till the Liquor have fill'd the shorter leg , and be rais'd 2 or 3 Inches in the longer . Then nimbly stopping the upper Orifice with your finger , thrust the lower part of the Syphon so farre into a deep Glass full of water , That the Surface of the oyle in the longer leg of the pipe , may be but a little higher then that of the External water ; and , upon the removal of your finger , you will find the Surface of the oyle to vary but little , or not at all , its former Station . And as , if you then thrust the pipe a little deeper , you will soe the oyle in the shorter leg to begin to be depress'd ; so , if afterwards you gently raise the pipe toward the top of the water , you shall see the oyle not only regain its former station , but flow out by degrees in drops that will emerge to the Top of the water . Now , since the water was able , at first , to keep the oyl , in the longer leg of the pipe , suspended no higher , then it would have been kept by a Cylinder of water equal to the Orifice of the shorter leg of the pipe , and reaching directly thence to the Top of the water ; ( as may be easily cried , by making a Syphon , where the shorter leg may be long enough to contain such a Cylinder of water to conterpoize the oyl in the longer ; ) & since , when once , by the raising of the pipe , the height of the incumbent water was lessen'd , the oyle did more then Counter-ballance it ; ( as appears by its flowing out of the Syphon , ) we may well conclude ; That , though thence were in the Vessel a great deal of water , higher then the immers'd Orifice of the Syphon , ( and it would be all one , though the Syphon were placid at the same depth in a pond or lake ; ) yet , of all that water , no more did gravitate upon the Orifice , then that which was plac'd directly over its , which was such a pillat of water , as the Paradox describes . And , by the way , we may hence learn ; That though water be not included in pipes , yet it may press as regularly upon a subjacent Body , as if it were . And therefore we may well enough conceive a pillar of water , in the free water it self , where there is nothing on any side , but the contiguous water , to bound the imaginary pillar . But I had forgot to add , That the first part of our Paradox will hold , not only when the water , superior to the Body it presses upon , is free ; but also , when it is included in Vessels of never so ( seemingly ) disadvantageous a shape . For , if you so frame the shorter leg of a Syphon , that it may expand its self into a funnel , like that of Fig. 6. employ'd about the proof of the foregoing ( fisth ) Paradox ; ( for which purpose the legs must be at a pretty distance from each other : ) though you fill that Funnel with water , the oyle in the longer and slender leg of the Syphon will be able to resist the pressure of all the water , notwithstanding the breadth of the upper part of the funnel . So that , ev'n in this case also , the Surface of the oyle in the longer leg , will be but a little higher then that of the water in the funnel . For further Confirmation of this ; we caus'd to be made a Syphon , so shap'd , that one of the legs ( which were parallel , and of the same Bore , ) had in the midst of it a Sphaere of Glass , save that it communicated with the upper and lower parts of the same leg . In the uniform leg of the Syphon , we put a convenient quantity of oyle of Turpentine , and into the other , as much water as fill'd not only the lower part of it , but the Globular part too . And yet we did not find , that all this water was able to keep up the oyle in the uniform leg , at a greater height then if the leg that contain'd the water had been uniform too ; as much of the water in the Globe , as was not directly over the lower Orifice of it , being supported by the lateral parts ( if I may so call them ) of the same Globe . And , if that leg were , instead of water , fill'd with oyle , and the uniform leg with water ; notwithstanding the far greater quantity of oyl , that was necessary to fill that leg , whereof the hollow sphaere was but a part ; the water in the uniform leg would not be kept up ▪ so much as to the same height with the oyle in the mishapen leg . But to make this matter yet the more clear , we caus'd a Syphon to be made of the Figure express'd in the adjoyning Scheme ; into which having poured a convenient quantity of Mercury , till it reach'd in the shorter leg C D , almost to the bottom of the Clobulou part E , and in the longer leg A B , to an equal height : We afterwards , poured a sufficient quantity of water into the said longer leg A B , which drove away the Quicksilver , and impell'd it up in the shorter leg till it had half , or more then half , fill'd the Cavity of the Globular part E , ( which yet we did not wholly fill with Quicksilver , because the Tube A B was not long enough for that purpose ; ) and then we observ'd , that , notwithstanding the great weight of ( that Body , which is of all Bodies , save one , the most Ponderous ) Quicksilver , which was contain'd in the lower part of the same leg of the Syphon , the surface of the Quicksilver H G , was impell'd up as high by the water in the Leg A B , as the disparity of the specifick weights of those two Liquors ( whereof one is about 14 times as heavy as the other ) did require : So that it appear'd not , that , for all the great weight of Quicksilver , contain'd in the Globulous Cavity E , there press'd any more upon the slender and subjacent part E C of that leg , then as much as was plac'd directly over the lower Orifice of the said Cavity E ▪ So that the other , and lateral parts of that Mercury , being supported by the concave sides of the Glass , whereunto they were contiguous , the water in the leg A B , appear'd not any more press'd by the quicksilver , then if the leg C D had been , as well as the other , of an uniform bigness ; and , by this means , if we had made the hollow Globe of a large Diameter , a small quantity of water , poured into the leg A B , might have been able to raise a quantity of quicksilver exceedingly much heavier then it self . But then so little water can raise the quicksilver , in so broad a pipe , but to an inconsiderable height . To make out the second part of our Paradox by an Experiment , we took three Glass-pipes ; the one made like a Bolt-head , with a round Ball and two opposite Stemms ; the other was an irregular pipe , blown with an Elbow , wherewith it made an Angle ; and the third was as irregularly shap'd , as I could get it blown ; being in some places much broader , and in some much narrower then the lower Orifice of it . And these two last nam'd pipes had their upper ends so inserted into holes , made fit for them in a broad piece of Cork ; that , when they were immers'd , they made not right Angles , but very oblique ones , with the Horizontal Surface of the Liquor . The other Glass likewise , which consisted of a great Bubble , and two opposite pipes , was fastened to the same Cork , which having before hand been made fit for a wide mouth'd glass of a good depth , and half fill'd with water , was thrust as a stopple into the mouth of the said glass , so that the water a scended a pretty way into each of the three pipes by their lower Orifices , which as well as the upper we left open ; Then a good quantity of oyle of Turpentine being pour'd into the same Vessel , through a funnel , the water was by the incumbent oyle impell'd up to the height of 2 or 3 Inches in each of the three pipes . Which argues , that , notwithstanding their being so unequal in bigness , and so irregular in shape , ( insomuch that we guess'd one of them was 10 or 12 times greater in one part , then in another , or then it was even at the Orifice ) the water , contain'd in each of them , press'd upon its lower Orifice no more ( I do not add , nor no less ) then it would have done if it had been a Cylinder , having the Orifice for its Basis , and the perpendicular depth of the water and oyle above , for its height . For in case each of the pipes had contein'd but such a Cylinder of water , that water would nevertheless have had its uppermost Superficies at the same height : and on the other side , it would have been impell'd up beyond it , if its weight did not as strongly endeavour to depress the immediately subjacent water , as the pressure of the External fluids endeavour'd to impel it up . And since the height of the water was about the same in the several pipes , though two of them , being very much inclin'd , contain'd much more water then if they were erected : yet by the same way of reasoning we may gather , That the imaginary plain , passing by the immers'd Orifice of either of these inclining pipes , sustain'd no more of pressure , then it would have done from a shorter Cylinder of water if erected . And indeed , in all these cases , where a pipe either is broader in other places then at its lower Orifice , or inclin'd any way towards the Horizon , the weight of the contain'd Liquor is not all supported by the Liquor or the Body contiguous to the lower Orifice , but partly by the sides of the pipe it self . And therefore if , when in a slender pipe you have brought a parcel of oyl of Turpentine to be in an Equilibrium with the External water , as in the Experiment belonging to the first Paradox ; If , I say , when this is done , you incline the pipe towards the sides of the Glass , You may indeed observe the Surface of the oyle in the pipe to be , as before , a little higher then that of the water without it : But you shall likewise see , That , though the Orifice of the pipe were not thrust deeper into the water , yet therewill be a pretty deal of water got up into the pipe ; because the oyle not leaning now upon the water only ; as it did before , but partly upon the water , and partly upon the pipe , its pressure upon the subjacent water is considerably lessen'd ; and there by the external water , whose pressure is not diminish'd too , is able to impel up the oyl , and intrude for a little way into the pipe . But if you re-erect the pipe , the pressure of the oyle being then again exerted upon the subjacent water , it will be able to depress , and drive it again out of the Cavity of the pipe . And to this agrees very well what we further try'd as follows : We caused 3 pipes to be blown ( shap'd as the adjoyning Figures ; ) one having in it divers acute Angles ; the other being of a winding form , like a scrue or worm of the Limbeck ; and the third very irregularly crooked ; and yet each of these pipes having all its crooked parts , and some of its streight & erected parts , fil'd with oyl of Turpentine ; being thrust to a convenient depth under water and unstopp'd there , ( after the manner already often declar'd ) we found , that , according to our Paradox , the surface of the oyle in the pipe was higher than that of the water without it , as much as it would have been in case the pipe had been streight , ( as we try'd by placing by the crookedest of them a streight pipe with oyle in it ) though the quantity of the oyle , in one of these pipes , were perhaps three times as much as would have suffic'd , if the pipe had been strait : So that this surplusage of oyle did not press upon the subjacent water , ( for if it had done so , the oyle would have run out of the pipe . ) And I remember , that lifting up as much of one of these crooked pipes , as I thought fit , somewhat above the Surface of the water ; when the Superficies of the oyle in the pipe was not above half an inch higher then that of the water without it , I estimated that the crooked pillar of oyl , contain'd in that part of the pipe which was above the Surface of the water , was about 7 or 8 Inches long . So true it is , that the pressure of Liquors , contain'd in pipes , must be computed by the perpendicular that measures their height , what ever be their length or bigness . SCHOLIUM . THE Learned Stevinus , having demonstrated the Proposition we lately mention'd out of him , subjoyns divers consectaries of which the truth hath been thought more questionable , then that of the Theorem it self . And therefore he thought fit to add a kind of Appendix to make good a Paradox , which seems to amount to this . That If , in the Cover of a large Cylindrical Box , exactly closed , there be perpendicularly erected a Cylindrical Pipe open at both ends , and reaching to the Cavity of the Box ; this Instrument being fill'd with water , the circular Basis of it will susteine a pressure , equal to that of the breadth of the Basis and height of the Pipe. I chose thus to express this Theorem , ( which might be , according to Stevinus , propos'd in more general terms , ) because this way of expressing it will best suit with the subsequent Experiment , and may consequently facilitate the understanding of the Paradox . But though the Learned Stevinus's aims were to be commended ; who finding this Proposition doubted , seems to have had a great mind to give an Experimental Demonstration of it , and therefore proposes no less then five pragmatical Examples ( as he calls them ) to make out the truth of what he asserts ; yet in this he hath been somewhat unhappy , that that Experiment , which alone ( for ought I can find ) has been try'd of all the five , is rejected as incompetent , by those that profess to have purposely made tryal of it . And indeed , by reason of the difficulty of bringing them to a practical examen , I have somewhat doubted whether or no this useful writer did ever make all those Tryals himself ; rather then set down the events , he suppos'd they must needs have ; as presuming his conjectures rightly deduc'd from a Demonstrative Truth . Wherefore though another of the Experiments , he proposes , be not free from difficulty , yet having , by the help of an Expedient , made it practicable , we are induc'd by its plainness and clearness to prefer it to what else he proposes to the same purpose . We provided then a vessel of Laton , of the figure express'd in the Scheme , and furnished it with a loose Bottom C D , made of a flat piece of wood cover'd with a soft Bladder and greas'd on the lower side neer the edges , that leaning on the rim of wood G H , contiguous every where to the inside of the Laton it might be easily lifted from off this Rim ; and yet lye so close , upon it , that the water should not be able to get out between them : And to the midst of this loose bottom was fastned a long string , of a good strength , for the use hereafter to be declared . The Instrument thus fitted , the water was poured in apace at the Top A B , which , by its weight pressing the false Bottom C D against the subjacent Rim , G H , contributed to make the Vessel the more tight , and to hinder its own passing . The Vessel being fill'd with water we took the forementioned string , one of whose ends was fastned to I , the middle part of the loose Bottom ; and , tying the other end K to the extremity of the Beam of a good pair of Scales , we put weights one after another into the opposite scale , till at length those weights lifted up the false Botom C D from the Rim G H ; and , consequently , lifted up the Incumbent water ; which presently after ran down between them . And having formerly , before we poured in any water , try'd what water would suffice to raise the Bottom C D , when there was nothing but its own proper weight that was to be surmounted ; we found , by deducting that weight from the weight in the scale , and comparing the Residue with the weight of as much water , as the cavity of the broad , but very shallow Cylinder B E C H G D F would have alone ( if there had been no water in the pipe A I ) amounted to ; we found , I say , by comparing these particulars , that the pressure upon C D was by so very great odds more , then could have been attributed to the weight of so little water , as the Instrument pipe and all contain'd , in case the water had been in an uniform Cylinder , and consequently a very shallow one , of a Basis as large as that of our Instrument , That we could not but look upon the success , as that , which though it did not answer what the reading of Stevinus might make a man expect ; yet may deserve to be further prosecuted , that whether or no the Paradox of Stevinus ( which not only some others , but the Learned Dr. Wallis himself question ) wil hold ; the Inquiry he has started , may be so persued , as to occasion some improvement of this part of Hydrostaticks : where , to define things with certainty , will perhaps be found a difficulter Task then at first glance one would think ; both because divers speculative things must be taken into consideration , whose Theory has not perhaps yet been clear'd , and because of the difficulty that will be found in practice by them that shall go about to make Stevinus's Experiments , or others of that sort with all requisite Accurateness : As indeed , it is far easier to propose Experiments , which would in likelyhood prove what we intend , in case they could be made , then to propose practicable Expedients how they may be made . PARADOX VII . That a Body immers'd in a Fluid , sustains a lateral pressure from the Fluid ; and that increas'd , as the depth of the immers'd Body , beneath the Surface of the Fluid , increaseth . THough I shall not wonder if this proposition seems strange enough to most Readers : yet I think I could make it out by several wayes , and particularly by one that is plain and easie , being but that which follows . Take then a slender Glass pipe ( like that imployd about the first Experiment ; ) and cause it to be bent within two or three Inches of one end , so that the longer and the shorter legs , E F and F G , may make , as near as can be , a right Angle at F ; then dipping the Orifice of the shorter leg F G in oyle of Turpentine , suck into the Syphon ( if I may so call it ) as much of the Liquor , as will fill the shorter leg , and reach two or three Inches high in the longer ; then , nimbly stopping the upper Orifice with your finger , immerse the lower part of the Glass under water , in such manner as that the longer leg E F may make , as to sense , right Angles with ( A B ) the Horizontal Surface of the water , and the shorter leg F G may be so far depress'd under that Surface , That I K , the Superficies of the oyle in the longer leg , be but a little higher then A B , that of the external water . Then , removing your finger , you may observe , That the oyle in the Syphon will continue ( with little or no change ) in its former station . By which it appears that there is a lateral pressure of the water against the oyle contiguous to G , the Orifice of the shorter leg of the pipe , since it is only that pressure that hinders the efflux of the oyl at that Orifice , notwithstanding the pressure of the perpendicular Cylinder of oyle that would drive it out . And that this pressure of the perpendicular Cylinder doth really urge the oyle in the shorter leg to flow out ; you may learn by slowly lifting the Syphon ( without changing its , former posture ) towards the Surface of the water . For as the lower leg comes nearer and nearer to that Surface , ( to which , as I newly intimated , it is still to be kept parallel ) the oyle in the Horizontal leg will be driven out in drops , by the pressure of the other oyle in the perpendicular leg . That likewise before you begin to raise the Syphon , the lateral pressure of the water against the lower Orifice of it is , at least in such Experiments , near about the same with what would be the perpendicular pressure of a Cylinder of water , reaching from the same Orifice G ( or some part of it ) to the top of the water , may be gather'd from hence , That the Surface of the oyle in the longer leg will be a litle higher then that of the external water , as ( by reason of the often mention'd comparative levity of the oyl ) it would be , if we suppose , That a pipe of Glass of the same bore , and reaching to the top of the water , being fitted to the Orifice of the Horizontal Leg ( as in the annex'd figure the Cylinder , G H ) were fill'd with water . And , to make out the latter part of our proposition , we need add no more , then that , if you plunge the Syphon deeper into the water , you shall find the oyle , by the Lateral pressure of the water , driven by degrees quite out of the shorter leg into the longer : and if you thrust it yet deeper , you may observe that the longer leg will admit a Cylinder of water , upon which that of oyle will swim ; the whole oyle alone being unable to counterballance the lateral pressure of the water at so great a depth . By which last circumstance , it appears , that water has also a lateral pressure against water it self , and that increas'd according to its depth ; since otherwise the external water could not impel that in the Horizontal leg of the Syphon , into the perpendicular leg , though to doe so , it must surmount the weight or resistance of the whole cylinder of oyl , that must be hereby violently rais'd in the said perpendicular leg . But if you gently raise the Syphon again , the lateral pressure of the water against the immers'd Orifice being diminish'd , ( according as the distance of that Orifice G from the Horizontal Surface , A B , comes to be lessen'd , ) the prevalent oyle will drive out the water , first out of the Longer leg , and then out of the shorter , and will at length flow out in drops at the immers'd Orifice , and thence emerge to the Top of the water . Besides , when the oyle in the Syphon does just counterballance the external water , if you keep the shorter leg parallel to the Surface of the water , and move the Orifice of it this way or that way , and place it nearer or further off from the middle or from the sides of the Glass , ( provided you keep it always at the same depth under the water , ) you 'l find the oyl in the longer Leg to continue ( as to sense ) at the same height : Whence we may learn ( what I have not yet found mention'd by any Writer , ) That , ev'n in the mid'st of the water , we may suppose a pillar of water , of a Basis equal to the side of an immers'd Body , ( and reaching to the lowest part of it ; ) And that , though this Imaginary aqueous pillar , such as in our figure G H , be not included in any solid Body or stable superficies ; nevertheless it s lower parts will have a lateral pressure tending outwards , against the imaginary sides , from the weight of the water that is above these subjacent and lateral parts ; and will have that pressure increas'd proportionably to the height to which the imaginary pillar reaches above them . Which observation , being duely noted and apply'd , may be of no mean use in the explication of divers Hydrostatical phaenomena . And lastly if , in stead of holding E F , the longer leg of our Syphon , perpendicular , ( and , consequently , the shorter parallel to the Horizon , ) you variously incline the former , so as to bring it to make an obtuse or an Acute Angle with the superficies of the water A B ; though by this means the shorter and immers'd leg , F G , will in Situation sometimes respect the Bottom , and sometimes the top of the Glass : yet in all these oblique situations of this leg , and the immers'd Orifice of it G , the oblique pressure of the water will so much depend upon the height of the Surface of the Liquor above the Orifice , and so much conform to the observations already deliver'd , That you shall still see the surface of the oyle I K , in the longer pipe , to be a little , and but a little superiour to that of the external water , A B , and so the AEquilibrium betwixt the Liquor , or Liquors , within the Syphon , and the water without it , will ev'n in this case also be maintain'd . SCHOLIUM . REmembring on this Occasion an Experiment , which though it do not shew what the precise quantity of Lateral pressure is , that the lower parts of the fluid may sustain from the more elevated ; yet it may confirm the foregoing Paradox , and by its Phaenomena afford some hints that may render it not unacceptable ; I shall subjoyn it , as I set it down not long after I devis'd it . In the first place then , there was made a glass Bubble with a slender neck ; and ( in a word ) of the figure express'd in the annex'd Scheme ; This Bubble I caus'd to be so poys'd , That , though it would float upon the water , yet the addition of a weight small enough would suffice to make it sinck . This done , I provided a very large wide mouth'd Glass , and caus'd to be fitted to it , as exactly as I could , a stopple of Cork , which being strongly thrust in , would not easily be listed up . In the middle of this Cork there was burn'd , with a heated instrument , a round hole ; through which was thrust a long slender pipe of Glass ; so that the lower end of it was a pretty way beneath the Cork , and the upper part of it was , as near as could be , at right Angles with the upper part of the said Cork . And in an other part of the stopple , near the edge , there was made another round hole , into which was likewise thrust another small pipe ; whose lower part reach'd also a pretty way beneath the Cork ; but its upper part was but about two or three Inches high ; and the Orifice of this upper part was carefully clos'd with a stopple and Cement . Then the glass vessel being fill'd with water , and the pois'd Bubble being made to float upon it , the stopple or cover of the great glass vessel was put on , and made fast with a close Cement , that nothing might get in or out of the vessel , but at the long slender pipe ; which was fastned into the Cork ▪ ( as was also the shorter pipe ) not only by its own fitness to the hole , it pass'd through , but by a sufficient Quantity of the same Cement , carefully apply'd to stop all crevesses . The Instrument thus prepar'd , ( and inclin'd this or that way , till the floating Bubble was at a good distance from that end of the long pipe , which reached a pretty way downwards beneath the Surface of the water , ) we began to pour in some of that Liquor at the open Orifice of the pipe E F ; and , the mouth of the Vessel being exactly stopp'd , the water for want of another place to receive it , ascended into the pipe through which it had fallen before . And , if I held my hand when the water I had pour'd in was able to reach but to a small height in the Cylinder , as for instance , to the Superficies J ; the Bubble X would yet continue floating . But if I continued pouring till the water in the pipe had attain'd to a considerable height above the Surface of that in the Vessel , as if it reach'd to K ; then the Bubble X would presently sinck to the bottome of the Vessel ; and there continue , as long as as the water continued at so great a height in the pipe E. F. This Experiment will not only teach us , That the upper parts of the water gravitate upon those that are under them , but ( which is the thing we are now to confirm ) That in a Vessel , that is full , all the lower parts are press'd by the upper , though these lower be not directly beneath the upper , but aside of them , and perhaps at a good distance from the Line in which they directly press : These things , I say , may be made out by our Experiment . For the Addition of the Cylinder of water K J , in the pipe E F , makes the Bubble X subside ; as the force or pressure of any other heavy body upon the water in the vessel would do . And since ( as may be gather'd from the Reason formerly given ( in the Proof of the second Paradox ) of the sincking of pois'd Bubbles ) the included aire in our Bubble was notably compress'd ; it will follow , that the Cylinder of water , KI , did press the subjacent water in the Vessel . For , without so doing , it could not be able to compress the aire in the Bubble . And since the said Bubble did not swimme directly under or near the pipe E F ; but at one side of it , and at a pretty distance from it , nay and floated above the lower Orifice , F , of the pipe ; 't is evident that that Aqueous Cylinder , JK , does not only press upon the water , or other Bodies that are directly under it ; but upon those also that are laterally situated in respect of it , provided they be inferior to it . And , according to this Doctrine , we may conceive , that every assignable part of the sides of the Vessel does sustaine a pressure , encreas'd by the encrease of that parts depth under water , and according to the largness of the said part . And therefore , if any part were so weak , as that it would be easily beaten out or broken by a weight equal to the Cylinder I K , ( making always a due abatement for the obliquity of the pressure ) it would not be fit to be a part of our Vessel : Nay the Cork it self , though it be above the Surface of the water in the Vessel ; yet because the water in the pipe is higher then it , each of its parts resists a considerable pressure proportionate to its particular bigness , and to the height of the water in the pipe . And therefore , if the Cork be not well stopp'd in , it may be lifted up by the pressure of the water in the pipe , if that be fill'd to a good height . And if the Cement be not good and close , the water will ( not without noise ) make it self a passage through it . And if the stopple G , of the shorter pipe G H , ( which is plac'd there likewise to illustrate the present conjecture ) do not firmly close the Orifice of it , it may be forced out , not without violence and noise . And , for further satisfaction , if , in stead of the stopple G , you close the Orifice with your finger , you shall find it press'd upwards as strongly , as it would be press'd downwards by the weight of a Cylinder of water of the breadth of the pipe , and of a not inconsiderable height , ( for 't is not easie to determine precisely , what height : ) so that ( to be short ) in the fluid Body , we made our tryal with , the pressure of the Superior parts was communicated , not onely to those that were plac'd directly under them , but ev'n to those that were but obliquely so , and at a distance from them . I had forgot to confirm , that it was the pressure of the superiour parts of the water , that made our floating bubble sinck , by such another circumstance as I took notice of in some of the former Experiments ; viz. that , when it lay quietly at the bottom of the Vessel , if by inclining the Instrument we pour'd off as much of the water in the pipe , E F , as suffic'd competently to diminish its height above the water in the Vessel A B C D , the air in the bubble , finding its former pressure alleviated , would presently expand it self , and make the bubble emerge . And to show , That the very oblique pressure which the bubble sustain'd from the water in the pipe , was not overmuch differing from that which it would have sustain'd from an External force , or from the weight of water plac'd directly over it ; I caus'd two such bubbles to be pois'd , and having put each of them into a long Cylindrical Glass , open above , and fill'd with water , upon which it floated , if we thrust it down a little way it would ( agreeably to what hath been above related ) ascend again ; so that we were forc'd to thrust it down to a good depth , before the pressure of the incumbent water was great enough to make it subside . And perhaps it will not be impertinent to take notice , before we conclude , how the pressure of such differing fluids , as aire and water , may be communicated to one another . For having sometimes forborn to fill the Vessel A B C D quite full of water , so that , when the Cork was fitted to it , there remain'd in it a pretty quantity of aire , ( as between the Surface L M , and the Cork ) nevertheless , if the stopple or cork were very closely put in , the pressure of the water that was afterwards poured into the pipe E F , from J to K , would make the bubble sinck , little otherwise , for ought I took notice of , then if the Vessel had been perfectly fill'd with water ; the aire ( above L M , ) that was both imprisoned and compress'd , communicating the pressure it receiv'd to the water contiguous to it : PARADOX VIII . That water may be made as well to depress a Body lighter then it self , as to buoy it up . HOw strange soever this may seem , to those that are prepossess'd with the vulgar Notions about gravity and levity : It need not be marvail'd at , by them that have consider'd what has been already deliver'd . For since , in Fluid Bodies , the upper parts press upon the lower , and upon other bodies that lie beneath them . And since , when a Body is unequally press'd by others , whether lighter or heavier then it self , it must necessarily be thrust out of that place , where it is more press'd , to that where 't is less press'd ; If that a parcel of oyle be by a contrivance so exposed to the water , as that the water presses against its upper Superficies , and not against the undermost or lateral parts of it ; If we suppose that there is nothing ( whose pressure is not inferiour to that of the water ) to hinder its descent , ( supposing , withal , that the oyle and water cannot pass by one another ; for which cause , we make use of a slender pipe ; ) the oyle must necessarily give way downwards , and consequently be depress'd and not buoy'd up . This is easily exemplified by the following Experiment . Take a slender Glass Syphon E F G H , of the bore we have often mention'd , whose shorter leg G H may be about 3 or 4 Inches long , and as parallel as the Artificer can make it to the longer E F ; dip the shorter leg in oyle of Turpentine , till the oyle quite fill the shorter leg , and reach to an equal height in the longer , as from F to J. Then stopping the Orifice E of the longer leg with your finger , and immersing the replenish'd part of the Syphon about an inch under water , you shall perceive that as you thrust it lower and lower , upon the removal of your finger , the oyle in the shorter leg will be made to sinck about an inch or somewhat more ; and as afterwards you thrust the pipe deeper , the oyle in the shorter leg will , by the weight of the incumbent water , H K , be driven downward more and more , till it come to the very bottom of the shorter leg ; whence , by continuing the immersion , you may impel it into the longer . The cause of which Phaenomenon , I suppose to be already clearly enough assign'd , to make it needless to add any thing here about it . It remains , that , before I proceed to the next proposition , I add ; That , to Exemplifie at once three Paradoxes , ( both this , and the next foregoing , and the second ) I caus'd to be made a slender Glass-pipe , of the Figure express'd in the annexed Scheme , and having , by the lower Orifice L , suck'd into it as much oyle of Turpentine , as reach'd in the longest leg , N O , as high as the Top of the other part of the Glass ; ( namely , to the part P , in the same level with the Orifice L , ) I first stopp'd the upper Orifice of it , O , with my finger . And then , thrusting it as before under water to a convenient depth , upon the removal of my finger , the External water did first drive away the oyle that was in L M , that part of the crooked pipe which was parallel to the Horizon ; then it depress'd the same oyle to the bottom of the shorter leg , that is from M to N : And lastly , it impell'd it all up into the longer leg N P O , to what height I thought fit . So that the oyle was press'd by the water both laterally , downwards , and upwards : the causes of which are easily deducible from the Doctrine already deliver'd . PARADOX IX . That , what ever is said of positive Levity , a parcel of oyle lighter then water , may be kept in water without ascending in it . TO make out what I have to represent about this Paradox the more intelligible , the best way perhaps will be to set down the Considerations that induc'd me to judge the thing it pretends to feasible . And in order to this , it would be expedient to consider , why it is that a Body lighter in specie then water , being plac'd never so much beneath the Superficies of that Liquor , will rather emerge to the Top , then sinck to the bottom of it ; if we had not already consider'd that problem in the Explication of the third Paradox . But being now allow'd to apply to our present purpose what hath been there deliver'd , I shall forthwith subjoyne , That 't was easie enough for me to collect from hence , that , the Reason why it seems not possible , That a parcel of oyle lighter then water , should without violence be kept from emerging to the Top of it , being this , That since the Surface of a Vessel full of standing water is ( Physically speaking ) Horizontal , the water that presses against the lower part of the immers'd Body , must needs be deeper then that which presses against the upper : If I could so order the matter that the water that leans upon the upper part of the Body should be being higher then the level of the rest of the water have a height great enough to ballance that which presses against the lower , ( and the Bodies not shift places by passing one by the other ) the oyle might be kept suspended betwixt two parcels of water . To reduce this to practise , I took the following course ; having suck'd into a slender pipe ▪ ( such as that imploy'd about the first experiment about an Inch of water , and kept it suspended there by stopping the Orifice of the pipe ; I thrust the lower part of the pipe about two inches beneath the Surface of some oyl of Turpentitie ( which , to make the effect the clearer , I sometimes tinge deeply with Copper : ) then removing my finger , the oyle being press'd against the immers'd Orifice with a greater force , then the weight of so little suspended water could resist , that oyle was impell'd into the lower part of the pipe to the height of near an inch ; and then again I stopp'd the upper Orifice of the pipe with my finger , and thereby keeping both the Liquors suspended in it , I thrust the pipe into a Glass full of water , three or four inches beneath the Surface of it ; and then ( for the Reason just now given ) the water , upon the Removal of my finger , will press in at the lower Orifice of the pipe , and impell up the oyle , till they come to such a station , as that express'd in the annex'd Scheme : where P Q is the water , newly impell'd up into the pipe , Q R is the oyl , and R S the water that was at first suck'd into the pipe . For in this station , these three liquors do altogether as much gravitate upon the part P , as the incumbent water alone does upon the other parts of the imaginary superficies G H ; and yet the oyle , R Q , does not ascend , because the diffluence of the water , R S , being hindred by the sides of the pipe , its superficies , T S , is higher then A D , the Superficies of the rest of the water ; by which means the incumbent water may be brought to have upon the upper part R of the oleous Cylinder , as great a pressure as that of the water , that endeavours to impel upwards the lower part Q of the same suspended Cylinder of oyle . PARADOX X. That the cause of the Ascension of water in Syphons , and of its flowing through them , may be explicated without having a recourse to natures abhorrency of a Vacuum . BOth Philosophers and Mathematicians , having too generally confest themselves reduc'd to fly to a fuga vacui , for an account of the cause of the running of water and other Liquors through Syphons . And ev'n those moderns , that admit a Vacuum , having ( as far as I have met with ) either left the Phaenomenon unexplicated , or endeavour'd to explain it by disputable Notions : I think the Curious much oblig'd to Monsieur Paschal , for having ingeniously endeavour'd to shew ▪ That this difficult Probleme need not reduce us to have recourse to a fuga vacut . And indeed his Explication of the motion of water in Syphons , seems to me so consonant to Hydrostatical principles , that I think it not necessary to alter any thing in it . But as for the experiment he propounds to justifie his Ratiocination , I fear his Readers will scarce be much invited to attempt it . For , besides that it requires a great quantity of Quicksilver ; and a new kind of Syphon , 15 or 20 foot long ; the Vessels of Quicksilver must be plac'd 6 or 7 yards under water , that is , at so great a depth , that I doubt whether men , that are not divers , will be able conveniently to observe the progress of the Tryal . Wherefore we will substitute a way , which may be try'd in a glass Tube , not two foot deep , by the help of another peculiarly contriv'd glass , to be prepar'd by a skilful hand . Provide then a glass Tube A B C D , of a good wideness , and half a yard or more in depth ; provide also a Syphon of two legs F K , and K G , whereunto is joyn'd ( at the upper part of the Syphon ) a pipe E K , in such manner , as that the Cavity of the pipe communicates with the cavities of the syphon ; so that if you should pour in water at E , it would run out at F and G. To each of the two Legs of this new Syphon , must be ty'd with a string a pipe of Glass , I and H , seal'd at one end , and open at the other ; at which it admits a good part of the leg of the Syphon to which it is fastned , and which leg must reach a pretty way beneath the Surface of the water , wherewith the said pipe is to be almost fill'd . But as one of these legs is longer then the other , so the surface of the water in the suspended pipe I , that is fastned to the shorter leg K F , must be higher ( that is , nearer to K or A B ) then the surface of the water in the pipe H , suspended from the longer leg KG ; that ( according to what is usual in Syphons ) the water may run from a higher vessel to a lower . All things being thus provided ; and the pipe E K being held , or otherwise made fast that it may not be mov'd ; you must gently poure oyle of Turpentine into the Tube A B C D , ( which , if you have not much oyle , you may before hand fill with water till the liquor reach near the Bottom of the suspended pipes , as to the superficies X Y ) till it reach higher then the top of the Syphon F K G , ( whose Orifice E you may , if you please , in the mean time close with your finger or otherwise , and afterwards unstop ) and then the oyle pressing upon the water will make it ascend into the legs of the Syphon ; and pass through it , out of the uppermost vessel J , into the lowermost H ; and if the vessel J were supply'd with water , the course of the water through the Syphon would continue longer , then here ( by reason of the paucity of water ) it can do . Now in this Experiment we manifestly see the water made to take its course through the legs of a Syphon from a higher vessel into a lower , and yet the top of the Syphon being perforated at K , the aire has free access to each of the legs of it , through the hollow pipe E K which communicates with them both . So that , in our case , ( where there is no danger of a Vacuum , though the water should not run through the Syphon ) the fear of a Vacuum cannot with any shew of Reason be pretended to be the cause of its running . Wherefore we must seek out some other . And it will not be very difficult to find , that 't is partly the pressure of the oyle , and partly the contrivance and situation of the vessels ; if we will but consider the matter somewhat more atentively . For the oyle , that reaches much higher then K , and consequently then the leggs of the Syphon , presses upon the surface of the External water , in each of the suspended pipes I and H. I say the External water , because the oyle floating upon the water , and the Orifice of both the legs F and G being immers'd under the water , the oyle has no access to the cavity of either of those legs . Wherefore , since the oyle gravitates upon the water without the legs , and not upon that within them , and since its height above the water is great enough to press up the water into the Cavity of the legs of the Syphon , and impel it as high as K , the water must by that pressure be made to ascend . And this raising of the water happening at first in both legs , ( for the cause is in both the same ) there will be a kind of conflict about K betwixt the two ascending portions of water , and therefore we will now examine which must prevaile . And if we consider , That the pressure , sustein'd by the two parcels of water in the suspended pipes I and H , depends upon the height of the oyle that presses upon them respectively ; it may seem ( at the first view ) That the water should be driven out of the lower vessel into the higher . For if we suppose that part of the shorter leg that is unimmers'd under water to be 6 Inches long , & the unimmers'd part of the longer leg to be seaven Inches ; because the surface of the water in the vessel I , is an Inch higher , then that of the water in the vessel H , it will follow , That there is a greater pressure upon the water , whereinto the longer leg is dip'd , by the weight of an Inch of oyle : so that that liquor being an inch higher upon the surface of the water in the pipe H , then upon that in the pipe I , it seems that the water ought rather to be impell'd from H towards K , then from I towards K. But then we must consider , That , though the descent of the water in the leg G , be more resisted then that in the other leg , by as much pressure as the weight of an Inch of oyle can amount to ; Yet being longer by an Inch then the water in the leg F , it tends downwards more strongly by the weight of an Inch of water , by which length it exceeds the water in the opposite leg . So that an inch of water being ( ceteris paribus ) heavier then an Inch of oyle ; the water in the longer leg , notwithstanding the greater resistance of the external oyle , has a stronger endeavour downwards , then has the water in the shorter leg ; though the descent of this be resisted but by a depth of oyl less by an Inch. So that all things computed , the motion must be made towards that way where the endeavour is most forcible ; and consequently the course of the water must be from the upper vessel , and the shorter leg , into the longer leg , and so into the lower vessel . The application of this to what happens in Syphons is obvious enough . For , when once the water is brought to run through a Syphon , the aire ( which is a fluid and has some gravity , and has no access into the cavity of the Syphon , ) must necessarily gravitate upon the water whereinto the legs of the Syphon are dip'd , and not upon that which is within the Syphon : and consequently , though the incumbent aire have somewhat a greater height upon the water in the lower vessel , then upon that in the upper ; yet the gravitation it thereby exercises upon the former more then upon the latter , being very inconsiderable , the water in the longer leg much preponderating ( by reason of its length ) the water in the shorter leg , the efflux must be out of that leg , and not out of the other . And the pressure of the External aire being able to raise water ( as we find by sucking Pumps ) to a far greater height , then that of the shorter leg of the Syphon ; the efflux will continue , for the same reason , till the exhaustion of the water , or some other circumstance , alter the case . But , if the legs of the Syphon should exceed 34 or 35 foot of perpendicular altitude ; the water would not flow through it ; the pressure of the external aire being unable , ( as has been elsewhere declared , ) to raise water to such a height . And if a hole being made at the top of a Syphon , that hole should be unstopp'd while the water is running , the course of it would presently cease . For , in that case , the aire would gravitate upon the water , as well within as without the cavity of the Syphon ; and so the water in each leg would , by its own weight , fall back into the vessel belonging to it . But because this last circumstance , though clearly deducible from Hydrostatical principles and Experiments , has not , that I know of , been verified by particular Tryals , I caus'd two Syphons to be made , the one of Tin , the other of Glass ; each of which had , at the upper part of the flexure , a small round hole or socket , which I could stop and unstop , at pleasure , with the pulp of my finger . So that , when the water was running through the Syphon , in case I remov'd my finger , the water would presently fall , partly into one of the subjacent vessels , and partly into the other . And if the legs of the Syphon were so unequal in length , that the water in the one had a far greater height ( or depth ) then in the other ; there seem'd to be , when the liquor began to take its course through the Syphon , some light pressure from the external aire upon the finger , wherewith I stopp'd the Orifice of the socket made at the flexure . And on this occasion I will add , what I more then once try'd ; to shew , at how very minute a passage the pressure of the External aire may be communicated , to Bodyes fitted to receive it . For , having for this purpose stopp'd the orifice of one of the above mentioned Syphons , ( insteed of doing it with my finger , ) with a piece of oyl'd paper , carefully fastned with Cement to the sides of the socket ; I found , as I expected , that though hereby the Syphon was so well clos'd , that the water ran freely through : yet , if I made a hole with the point of a needle , the aire would at so very little an orifice insinuate it self into the cavity of the Syphon , and , thereby gravitating as well within as without , make the water in the legs to fall down into the vessels . And though , if I held the point of the needle in the hole I made , and then caus'd one to suck at the longer leg ; this small stopple , without any other help from my hand , suffic'd to make the Syphon fit for use : Yet if I remov'd the needle , the aire would ( not without some noise ) presently get in at the hole , and put a final stop to the course of the water . Nor was I able to take out the needle and put it in again so nimbly , but that the aire found time to get into the Syphon ; and , till the hole were again stopp'd , render it useless , notwithstanding that the water was by suction endeavour'd to be set a running . PARADOX XI . That a solid Body , as ponderous as any yet known , though near the Top of the water it will sinck by its own weight ; yet if it be plac'd at a greater depth then that of twenty times its own thickness , it will not sinck , if its descent be not assisted by the weight of the incumbent water . THis Paradox , having never been ( that I know of ) propos'd as yet by any , has seem'd so little credible to those to whom I have mention'd it , ( without excepting Mathematicians themselves , ) that I can scarce hope it should be readily and generally received in this Illustrious Company , upon less clear Testimony , then that of Experience . And therefore , though ( if I mistake not ) some part of this proposition may be plausibly deduc'd by the help of an Instrument ingeniously thought upon by Monsieur Paschal ; Yet I shall have recourse to my own Method for the making of it out , for these two Reasons . The one , That a great part of the Paradox must be Explicated , as well as prov'd , by the Doctrine already setled in this paper . The other , That the Experiment propos'd by Monsieur Paschal , being to be done in a deep River , and requiring a Tube 20 foot long , whose Bottome must be fitted with a Brass Cylinder , made with an exactness , scarce ( if at all ) to be hoped for from our Workmen : If I should build any thing on this so difficult an Experiment , ( which himself does not affirm to have ever been actually tryed , ) I fear most men would rather reject the Experiment as a Chimaerical thing , then receive for its sake a Doctrine that appears to them very Extravagant . Let us then , to imploy in this case also the method we have hitherto made use of , Fill a Glass vessel , A B C D , almost full of water ; only , in regard that there is a great depth of water requisite to some Circumstances of the Experiment , This last must not be so shallow as those hitherto imploy'd : but a deep Cylinder , or Tube seal'd at one end , whose depth must be at least two or three foot , though its breadth need not be above 2 or 3 Inches ; and , to keep it upright , it may be plac'd in a socket of metal or wood , of a size and weight convenient for such a purpose . This Glass being thus fitted in water , let us suppose E F , to be a round and flat piece of solid Brass , having about an Inch in Diameter , and a fourth or sixth part of an inch in thickness . This Cylinder , being immers'd under water till it be just cover'd by the uppermost Surface of that Liquor , and being let go , must necessarily fall downwards in it ; because if we suppose the imaginary Superficies , G H , to pass along the Circle F , which is the lower part of the Brass Body , that metal being in specie far heavier then water , the Brass that leans upon the part F , must far more gravitate upon the said part F , then the incumbent water does upon any other part of the Superficies G H ; and , consequently , the subjacent water at F will be thrust out of place by the descending Body . And because that , in what part soever of the water , not exceeding nine times its thickness measured from the Top of the water A C , the ponderous Body , E F , shall happen to be ; there will be still , by reason of the specifick gravity of the Metal , a greater pressure upon that part of the imaginary Superficies that passes along the bottome of the Body on which the part F shall happen to lean , then upon any other part of the same imaginary Superficies ; the Brass Body would still descend by vertue of its own weight , though it were not assisted by the weight of the water that is over it . But let us suppose it to be plac'd under water on the designable plain J K ; and let this plain , which ( as all other imaginary plains ) is , as well as the real Surface of the water , to be conceiv'd parallel to the Horizon ; and let the depth or distance of this plaine , from the uppermost Surface of the water , be ( some what ) above nine times the thickness of the Brass Body : I say that , in this case , the body would not descend , if it were not press'd downwards by the weight of the water it has over it . For Brass being but about nine times * as heavy as water of an equal bulk to it , the Body E F alone would press upon the part F , but as much as a Cylinder of water would , which having an equal Basis were 8 or 9 times as high as the Brass is thick . But now all the other parts of the Imaginary surfaces , I K , being press'd upon by the incumbent water , which is as high above them as the newly mention'd Cylinder of water would be ; there is no reason why the part F should be depress'd , rather then any other part of the Superficies J K : But because it is true , which we formerly taught ; namely , that water retains its gravity in water ; and that too , though a body , heavier in specie then it , be plac'd immediately under it ; it will necessarily happen , That in what part soever the solid body be plac'd , provided it be every way environ'd with the water , it must , for the Reason newly given , be made to move downwards , partly by its own weight , and partly by that of the incumbent water ; and must continue to sinck , till it come to the bottom , or some other body that hinders its farther descent . But in case the water above the solid body did not gravitate upon it , and thereby assist its descent ; or , in case that the incumbent water were by some Artifice or other , so remov'd , That none of the lateral water ( if I may so call it ) could succeed in its place to lean upon the solid ; then it will follow , from what we have newly shown , that the solid would be kept suspended . And in case it were plac'd much deeper in the water , as over against the point L or M ; Then , if we conceive the incumbent water to be remov'd or fenc'd off from it , the pressure of the solid alone upon the part F , of the imaginary Superficies L M , being very much inferior to that of the water upon the other parts of the same Surface , the part F would be strongly impell'd upwards , by a force proportionate to the difference of those two pressures . And therefore , since I have found by tryals , purposely made in scales marvellously exact , and with refined Gold , ( purer then perhaps any that was ever weighed in water ) That Gold , though much the ponderoufest of bodies yet known in the world , is not full 20 times as heavy as water of the same Bulk ; I kept within compass ( as well as imploy'd a round number , as they call it ) when I said , That no body ( yet known , ) how ponderous soever , will subside in water by its own weight alone , if it were so plac'd under water , that the depth of the water did above twenty times exceed the height of the Body ; ( not to mention here , that though gold and water being weigh'd in the aire , their proportion is above 19 to one , yet in the water , gold does , as other sincking bodies , loose as much of its weight , as that of an equal bulk of water amounts too . ) I was saying just now , that in case the Brazen body were plac'd low eenough beneath the Surface of the water , and kept from being depress'd by any incumbent water , it would be supported by the subjacent water . And this is that very thing that I am now to shew by an Experiment . Let then the Brass body E F , be the cover of a brass Valve ; ( as in the annexed figure : ) and let the Valve be fastned with some strong and close Cement to a Glass pipe , O P , ( open at both ends ) and of a competent length and wideness . For then the Body , E F , being the undermost part of the Instrument , and not sticking to any other part of it , will fall by its own weight if it be not supported . Now then , tying a thred to a Button Q , ( that is wont to be made in the middle of the doors of Brass valves ) you must , by pulling that string streight and upwards , make the Body , E F , shut the orifice of the Valve , as close as you can ; ( which is easily and presently done . ) Then thrusting the Valve under water , to the depth of a foot or more ; the Cement and the sides of the Glass , O P , ( which reaches far above the top of the water X Y ) will keep the water from coming to beare upon the upper part of the body E F ; and consequently the imaginary Surface , V W , ( that passes by the lower part of the said body ) will , where it is contiguous thereunto , be press'd upon only by the proper weight of the body E F ; but in its other parts , by the much greater weight of the incumbent water . So that , though you let go the string , ( that held the body , E F , close to the rest of the Instrument ) the said body will not at all sinck , though there be nothing but water beneath it to support it . And to manifest that 't is onely the pressure of the water , of a competent depth , that keeps the solid suspended ; if you slowly lift up the instrument towards ( X Y ) the top of the water ; you shall find , that , though for a while the parts of the Valve will continue united , as they were before ; yet , when once it is rais'd so near the Surface , ( as between the plain J K , and X Y ) that the single weight of E F , upon the subjacent part of the imaginary plain that passes by it , is greater then the pressure of the incumbent water upon other parts of the same plain ; that Body , being no more supported as formerly , will fall down , and the water will get into the pipe , and ascend therein , to the level of the External water . But if , when the Valve is first thrust under water , and before you let go the thred that keeps its parts together , you thrust it down to a good depth , as to the Superficies R S : then , though you should hang a considerable weight , as L , to the Valve E F , ( as I am going to shew you a Tryal with a Massy Cylinder of stone broader then the Valve , and of divers inches in length ) the surplusage of pressure on the other parts of the plain , V W , ( now in R S ) over and above what the weight of the body E F , and that of the Cylindrical stone , L , to boot , can amount to , on that part of the Surface vvhich is contiguous to the said body E F , will be great enough to press so hard against the lower part of the Valve , that its own weight , though assisted with that of the stone , will not be able to disjoyne them . By which ( to note that by the way ) you may see , that though , when two flat and polish'd marbles are joyn'd together , we find it is impossible to sever them without force ; we need not have recourse to a fuga vacui , to Explicate the cause of their Cohaesion , whilst they are environ'd by the Aire , which is a Fluid not devoid of Gravity , and reaching above the Marbles no body knows how high . And to evince , That 't is only such a pressure of the water , as I have been declaring , that causes the Cohaesion of the parts of the Valve ; if you gently lift it up towards the top of the water , you will quickly find the Brass body , E F , drawn down by the stone ( L ) that hangs at it ; as you will perceive by the waters getting in between the parts of the Valve , and ascending into the pipe . To which I shall only add , what you will quickly see , That , in perfect Conformity to our Doctrine , the pressure of the body , E F , upon the subjacent water , being very much increased by the weight of the stone that hangs at it , the Valve needs not , as before , be lifted up above the plain J K , to overcome the resistance of the water , being now enabled to do it before it is rais'd near so high . APPENDIX I. Containing an Answer to seven Objections , propos'd by a late Learned Writer , to evince , that the upper parts of water press not upon the lower . AFter I had , this Morning , made an end of reviewing the foregoing papers , there came into my hands some questions lately publish'd , among other things , by a very recent Writer of Hydrostaticks . In one of which Questions . the Learned Author strongly defends the contrary to what has there been in some places prov'd , and divers places suppos'd . The Author of these Erotemata asserts , That , in consistent water , the upper parts do not gravitate or press upon the lower . And therefore , I think it will be neither useless , nor improper , briefly to examine here the Arguments he produces . Not useless ; because the Opinion he asserts , both is , and has long been , very generally receiv'd ; and because too , it is of so great importance , that many of the Erroneous Tenets and Conclusions , of those that ( whether professedly or incidentally ) treat of Hydrostatical matters , are built upon it . And not improper ; because our Learned Author seems to have done his Reader the favour to summe up into one page all the Arguments for his Opinions that are dispersedly to be found in his own or others mens Books . So that in answering these , we may hope to do much towards a satisfactory Decision of so important a Controversie . And , after what we have already deliver'd , our Answers will be so seasonable , that they will not need to be long : The things they are built on having been already made out , in the respective places whereto the Reader is referr'd . Our Author then maintains , that , in Consistent water , the Superiour do not actually press the Inferiour parts , by the seven following Arguments . Object . 1. Sayes he , Because else the inferiour parts of the water would be more dense then the Superior , since they would be compress'd and condens'd by the weight of them . Ans . But if the Corpuscles , whereof water consists , be suppos'd to be perfectly solid & hard ; the inferior Corpuscles may be press'd upon by the weight of the superior , without being compress'd or condens'd by them . As it would happen , if Diamond dust were lay'd together in a tall heap : For though the upper parts , being heavy and solid Corpuscles , cannot be deny'd to lean and press upon the lower ; yet these , by reason of their Adamantine hardness , would not be thereby compress'd . And 't is possible too , that the Corpuscles of water , though not so perfectly hard , but that they may a little yield to an extream force , be solid enough not to admit from such a weight , as that of the incumbent water , ( at least in such small heights as observations are wont to be made in , ) any compression , great enough to be sensible ; As , besides some Tryals I have formerly mention'd in another place , those made in the presence of this Illustrious Company seem sufficiently to argue ; viz. That water is not sensibly compressible by an ordinary force . And I find not , by those that make the Objection , that they ever took pains to try , whether in deep places of the Sea , the lower parts are not more condens'd then the upper : nor do I see any absurdity , that would follow from admitting them to be so . Object . 2. Our Authors second Argument is , Because Divers feel not , under water , the weight of the water that lyes upon them . Ans . But for Answer to this Argument , I shall content my self to make a reference to the ensuing Appendix , where this matter will be considered at large ; and where ; I hope , it will be made to appear , that the phaenomenon may proceed , partly from the firm Texture of the Divers body , and partly from the nature of that pressure which is exercis'd against bodyes immers'd in fluids ; which , in that case , ( as to sense ) presses every where equally , against all the parts of the body , expos'd to their Action . Object . 3. The third Argument is , That ev'n the slightest Herbs growing at the bottom of the water , and shooting up in it to a good height , are not oppress'd or lay'd by the incumbent water . Ans . But the Answer to that is easie , out of the foregoing Doctrine . For the Plants , we speak of , sustain not the pressure of the water above them by their own strength ; but by the help of the pressure of water that is beneath : which being it self press'd by the water that is ( though not perpendicularly over it ) superior to it , presses them upwards so forcibly , that if they were not by their Roots , or otherwise fastned to the ground , they , being in specie lighter then water , would be buoy'd up to the top of the water , and made to float ; as we often see that weeds do , which storms , or other accidents have torn from their native soyle . Object . 4. A fourth Objection is this , That a heavy Body ty'd to a string , and let down under water , is supported , and drawn out with as much ease , as it would be if it had no water incumbent on it ; nay , with greater ease , because heavy bodyes weigh less in water then out of it . Ans . But an Account of this is easie to be rendred out of our Doctrine ; For , though the water incumbent on the heavy body do really endeavour to make it sinck lower , yet that endeavour is rendred ineffectual , to that purpose , by the equal pressure of the water upon all the other parts of the Imaginary surface , that is contiguous to the bottom of the immers'd body . And that pressure upon the other parts of that suppos'd plain , being equal not only to the pressure of the pillar of water , but to that pillar , and to the weight of as much water as the immers'd body fills the place of ; it must needs follow , That not only the hand that susteins the body , should not feel the weight of the incumbent water , but should be able to lift up the Body more easily in the water , then in the aire . But though the pressure of the water incumbent on the stone can not , for the reason assign'd , be felt in the case propos'd ; yet if you remove that water , ( as in the Experiment brought for the proof of the last Paradox , ) it will quickly appear by the pressure against the lower part of the heavy body , and its inability to descend by its own weight , when it is any thing deep under water ; it will ( I say ) quickly appear , by what will follow upon the absence of the Incumbent water , how great a pressure it exercis'd upon the stone whilst it lean'd on it . Object . 5. The fifth Argument is propos'd in these words , Because a Bucket full of water , is lighter in the water , then out of it ; nor does weigh more when full within the water , then when empty out of it ; nay it weighs less , for the reason newly assign'd ( in the fourth Objection ; ) therefore the water of the Bucket , because it is within water , does not gravitate , nor consequently press downwards , either the Bucket , or the water under the Bucket . This is the grand and obvious Experiment , upon which the Schools , and the generality of Writers , have very confidently built this Axiom : That the Elements do not gravitate in their proper place ; and particularly , that water weighs not ( as they speak ) in its own Element . Ans . What they mean by proper or natural place , I shall not stand to examine , nor to enquire whether they can prove , that water or any other sublunary body possesses any place , but upon this account , that the cause of gravity , or some other movent , enables it to expel other contiguous Bodies ( that are less heavie or less moved , ) out of the place they possess'd before ; and gives it an incessant tendencie , or endeavour towards the lowermost parts of the Earth . But as to the Example propos'd , it s very easie to give an account of it . For suppose ABCD , to be a Well ; wherein , by the string E F , the Bucket is suspended under water , and has its Bottom contiguous to the imaginary plain I K. If now we suppose the Bucket to consist only of wood , lighter then water , it will not only not press upon the hand that holds the Rope at E , but will be buoyd up , till the upper parts of the Bucket be above the top of the water ; because the wood , whereof the Bucket is made , being lighter in specie then water , the pressure of the water in the Bucket G , and the rest of the water incumbent on that , together with the weight of the Bucket it self , must necessarily be unable to press the part H so strongly , as the other parts of the imaginary plaine I K are press'd by the weight of the meer water incumbent on them . But if , as t is usual , the Bucket consists partly of wood , partly of iron ; the Aggregate may often indeed be heavier then an equal bulk of water : But then the hand , that draws up the Bucket by the Rope F E , ought not , according to our Doctrine , to feel the weight of all the Bucket , much less that of the water contein'd in it . For though that aggregate of wood and iron , which we here call the Bucket , be heavier then so much water ; yet it tends not downwards with its whole weight , but only with that surplusage of weight , whereby it exceeds as much water as is equal to it in Bulk ; which surplusage is not wont to be very considerable . And as for the water in the Cavity , G , of the Bucket , there is no reason why it should at all load the hand at E , though really the water both in the Bucket and over it do tend downwards with their full weight ; because that the rest of the water , L I , and M K , do full as strongly press upon the rest of the imaginary Superficies I K , as the Bucket aud the incumbent water do upon the part H : and consequently the bottom of the Bucket is every whit as strongly press'd upwards by the weight of the water , upon all the other parts of the plain I K ; as it tends downwards , by virtue of the weight of the Incumbent water , that is partly in the Bucket , and partly above it ; and so these pressures ballancing one another , the hand that draws the Rope at E , has no more to lift up then the surplusage of weight , whereby the empty Bucket exceeds the weight of as much water as is equall in bulk ( I say , not to the Bucket as 't is a hollow Instrument , but ) to the wood and iron whereof the Bucket consists . And because this Example of the lightness of fil'd Buckets within the water has for so many Ages gain'd credit to , if it have not been the only ground of , the assertion , That water weighs not in its own Element , or in its proper place ; I shall add ( though I can scarse present it to such a company as this without smiles ) an Experiment that I made to convince those , that were , through unskilfulness or prejudice , indispos'd to admit the Hydrostatical account I have been giving of the phaenomenon . I took then a round wooden Box , which I substituted in the room of a Bucket ; and ( having fill'd it with melted Butter , into which , when it was congeal'd , some small bitts of lead were put , to make it a little heavier then so much water , ) I caus'd a small string of twin'd silk to pass through two small holes , made in the opposite parts of the upper edge of the box , and to be suspended at one end of the beam of a pair of Gold-smiths Scales ; and then putting it into a vessel full of water , till it was let down there , to what depth I pleas'd , it appear'd that not only the least endeavour of my hand would either support it , or transport to and fro in the water , or draw it up to the top of it ; and this , whether the box were made use of , or whether the butter and lead alone , without the box , were suspended by the silken string : but ( to evince , that it was not the strength of my hand , or the smallness of the immers'd body , that kept me from feeling any considerable resistance , ) I cast some grains into the scale that hung at the other end of the above mention'd Beame , and presently rais'd the Lead and Butter to the surface of the water . So that unless the Schoolmen will say that the butter & lead were in their own Element ; we must be allow'd to think , that the easie sustentation , and elevation of the box , did not proceed from hence , That those bodyes weigh'd not because they were in their natural place . And yet in this case , the effect is the same with that which happens when a bucket is drawing out of a well . And , to manifest that 't was the pressure of the water against the lower part of the surface of our suspended body , that made it so easie to be supported in the water , or rais'd to the top of it ; I shall add , that though a few grains suffic'd to bring the upper surface of the butter to the top of the water : yet afterwards there was a considerable weight requisite , to raise more & more of its parts above the waters surface ; & a considerabler yet , to lift the whole body quite out of the water . Which is very consonant to our Doctrine . For , suppose the bucket to be at the part N , half in and half out of the water : the hand or counterpoise , that supports it in that posture , must have a far greater strength then needed to sustein it , when it was quite under water ; because that now the imaginary plain P Q , passing by the bottom of the bucket , has on its other parts but a little depth of water , as from L to P , or M to Q , and consequently the bottom of the bucket , H , will searce be press'd upwards above half as strongly as when the bucket was quite under water . And if it be raised to O , & consequently quite out of the water ; that liquor reaching no longer to the bottom of the bucket , can no longer contribute to its supportation ; and therefore a weight not only equal , but somewhat superiour to the full weight of the bucket , and all that it contains , ( being all suppos'd to be weighd in the aire , ) will be necessary to lift it clear out of the water . But to dwell longer on this subject cannot but be tedious to those that have been any thing attentive to the former Discourses . I proceed therefore to our Authors sixth Argument , which is , Object . 6. That Horse-hairs , which are held to be of the same gravity with water , keep whatever place is given them in that Liquor ; nor are depress'd by the weight of the super-incumbent water . Answ . Whether the matter of fact bestrictly and universally true , is scarce worth the examining , especially since we find the difference in point of specifick gravity , betwixt most Horse-haires , and most waters , to be inconsiderable enough . But the phaenomenon , supposing the truth of it , is very easily explicable , according to the Doctrine above deliver'd . For supposing in the last Scheme the body , R , to be bulk for bulk exactly equiponderant to water ; 't is plain there is no reason why that body should press the part S , of the imaginary Superficies I ▪ K , either more or less then that part S would be press'd , if , the body R being annihilated or remov'd , it were succeeded by parcel of water of just the same bulk and weight . And consequently , though all the water directly above the solid R do really lean upon that body , and endeavour to depress it ; yet that endeavour being resisted by an equal and contrary endeavour , that proceeds ( as we have been but too often faine to declare ) from the pressure exercis'd upon the other parts of the Superficies , I K , by the water incumbent on them ; the body , R , will be neither depress'd nor rais'd . And its case being the same in what part of the water soever it be plac'd , provided it be perfectly environ'd with that Liquor ; it must keep in the water ( which in this whole Discourse we suppose to be Homogeneous as to gravity ) the place you please to give it . And , ( to add That on this occasion ) though Mathematicians have hitherto contented themselves to prove , that in case a Body could be found or provided , that were exactly equiponderant to water , it would retaine any assignable place in it ; yet the Curiosity we had , to give an Experimental proof of this Truth , at length produc'd some glass Bubbles , which some Gentlemen here present have not perhaps forgot , that were ( by a dexterous hand we employ'd about it ) so exquisitely pois'd , as , to the wonder of the Beholders , to retain the places given them , sometimes in the middle , sometimes near the top , & sometimes near the bottom of the water ( though that were Homogeneous ) for a great while , till some change of consistence or gravity in the water , or some of its parts , made the bubble rise or fall . The Application of this , to what has been objected concerning Horse-hairs , being too easie to need to be insisted on , there remains to be dispatched our Authors seventh and last Argument , which is this . Object . 7. That , otherwise , all the inferiour parts of the water would be in perpetual motion , and perpetually expell'd by the Superior . Answ . But if , by the inferior parts , he means , such portions as are of any considerable bulk ; the Answer newly made to the last objection ( where we shew'd that the body , R , would retain its place any where in the water , and consequently near the bottome ) will shew the invalidity of this Objection . And unless we knew of what bignesse and shape the Corpuscles of water are , it would perhaps be to little purpose to dispute how far it may be granted , or may be true in the particles that water is made up of . Onely this I shall add ▪ That , whereas this Learned Authour mentions it as an absurdity , that the lower parts of water should be in perpetual motion : And Stevinus himself , in the beginning of his Hydrostatical Elements , seems to me to speak somewhat inconsiderately of this matter ; and though , as I lately said , I allow such sensible bodies , as those whose gravity in water Writers are wont to dispute of , to be capable of retaining their places in water , if they be in specie equiponderant to it : Yet I am so far from thinking it absurd , that the inferiour Corpuseles of water should be perpetually in motion ; that I see not how otherwise they could constitute a Fluid body , That restless Motion of their parts , being one of the generalest Attributes of Liquors ; and being , in water , though not immediately to be seen , yet to be easily discover'd by its Effects : As , when Salt , being cast into water , the aqueous parts that are contiguous to it , and consequently near to the bottom , do soon carry up many of the faline ones , to the very top of the water ; where , after a while , they are wont to disclose themselves in little floating grains of a Cubical shape . But , of this restless motion of the parts of Liquors having professedly treated elsewhere already ; I shall add nothing at present : But rather take notice of what our Authour subjoyns to the last of his Arguments , ( as the Grand thing which they suppose ) in these words , Ratio porro , a priori , hujus sententiae videtur esse , quia res non dicitur gravitare nisi quatenus habet infra se Corpus levius se in specie . The erroniousness of which conceit , if I should now go about solemnly to evince ; I as well fear it would be tedious , as I hope it will be needless to those , that have not forgot what may concern this subject in the former part of the now at length finish'd discourse ; and especially where I mention those Experiments , which show , That neither a stone , nor Gold it self , when plac'd deep under water , would sinck in it , if the Superiour water , that gravitates on it , did not contribute to its depression . APPENDIX II. Concerning the Reason why Divers , and others who descend to the Bottome of the Sea , are not oppress'd by the weight of the incumbent water . AMongst the difficulties that belong to the Hydrostaticks , there is one which is so noble , and which does still so much both exercise and pose the wits of the Curious , That perchance it will not be unacceptable , if to the former Experiments we add , by way of Appendix , one that may conduce to the solving of this difficult problem ; viz. Why men , deep under water , feel no inconvenience by the pressure of so great a weight of water as they are plac'd under ? The common Answer of Philosophers and other Writers to this puzling Question , is , That the Elements do not gravitate in their own proper places ; and so , water in particular has no gravitation upon water , nor consequently upon bodies every way surrounded with water . But that this Solution is not to be admitted , may be easily gather'd from our proofs of the first Paradox , and from divers other particulars , applicable to the same purpose , that may be met with in the foregoing papers . A famous VVriter , and , for ought I know , the Recentest ( except Monsieur Paschal ) that has treated of Hydrostaticks , having rendred this Reason of the Phaenomenon . [ The Superior parts of consistent water ( as he speaks ) press not the inferior , unless beneath the inferior there be a Body lighter in specie then water ; and therefore , since a humane Body is heavier in specie then water , it is not press'd by the incumbent water , because this does not endeavor to be beneath a humane Body . ] He subjoyns , contrary to his Custome , this confident Epiphonema , Qui aliam causam hujus rei assignant , errant & alios decipiunt . But , by his favour , notwithstanding this confidence , I shall not scruple to seek another Reason of the Phaenomenon . For I have abundantly prov'd , that ( contrary to the Assertion on which his Explication is built ) the upper parts of water press against the lower , whether a body heavier or lighter in specie then water be underneath the lower . And , the contrary of which being the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this Controversie , perhaps the matter may be somewhat cleard , by mentioning here a distinction , which I sometimes make use of . I consider then a body may be said to gravitate upon another body in two senses . For sometimes it actually sincks into , or gets beneath the body that was under it , as a sincking stone gravitates upon water , and which I call Praevalent , or successful Gravitation ; & sometimes it does not actually , at least not visibly descend , but only exercises its gravitation by pressing against the subjacent body that hinders its descent ; as when a VVoman carries a Paile of water on her head , though the weight do not actually get nearer the Center of the Earth ; yet actually presses with its whole gravity upon the Womans head , and back , and other subjacent parts that hinder its actual descent ; and according to this Doctrine I cannot admit our Authors reasoning , that because a mans body is bulk for bulk heavier then water , therefore the water does not endeavour to place its self beneath it . For water , being a heavy body , derives from the cause of its gravity , ( what ever that be ) an incessant endeavour towards the Center of the Earth ; nor is there any Reason , why it s happening to be incumbent on a body heavier in specie then it self , should destroy that endeavour . And therefore , though it may be said that the water does not endeavour to place it self beneath a humane body , because indeed an inanimate Liquor cannot properly be said to act for this or any other end ; yet the water being a heavy body , tends continually towards the lower part of the Earth ; and therefore will get beneath any body that is plac'd betwixt it and that , ( without regard whether the inferior body be heavier or lighter in specie then it self ) as far as the degree of its gravity will enable it ; nor would it ever rest , till it have reach'd the lowermost parts of the Earth , if the greater ponderousness of the earth and other heavy bodies did not hinder , ( not its endeavour downwards , nor its pressure upon subjacent bodies , but only ) its actual descent . This Learned Author himself tells us , ( as well as Stevinus , and others , that have written of the Hydrostaticks , unanimously teach , ) that if the bottom of a vessel be parallel to the Horizon , the weight of water , that rests upon it , is equal to a pillar of water , having that bottome for its Basis , and for its height a perpendicular reaching thence to the uppermost Surface of the water . Nor is it reasonable to conceive that there will be any difference in this pressure of the incumbent water , whether the bottom be of Deale that will swimme , or of Box that will sinck in water ; or to speak more generally , whether it be of Wood , in specie lighter then water , or of Copper , or some other Metal , that is in specie heavier then it . And since water , being not a solid Body , but a fluid , consists ( as other fluids ) of innumerable Corpuscles , that , though extreamly minute , have their own sizes and figures ; And since the pressure of water upon the bottom of a vessel is proportionate to its perpendicular height over the bottom ; 'T is manifest , that the upper Corpuscles press the bottom as well as the lower ; which , since they cannot do immediately , they must do by pressing the intermediate ones . And I have already shown ( discoursing one of the former Paradoxes , ) that the Superior parts of water do not onely presse those that are directly under them , but communicate a pressure to those that are aside of them , and at a distance from them . And if it be objected , That water endeavours to get beneath a Bottome of Glass Vessels , or other bodies heavier in specie then its self , because under that bottome there is aire , which is a body lighter in specie then water : I say , that this is precarious ; for the indisputable gravity of the water is alone sufficient to make it always tend downwards , ( though it cannot always move downwards ) what ever body be beneath it . And who can assure the makers of this Objection , That there are not beneath even the bottome of Rivers , or of the Sea , ( where yet they say water is consistent , and rests as in its own place , ) vast spaces replenished but with aire , fumes , or fire , or some other body lighter then water ? For , ( not to mention that the Cartesians take the Earth we tread on , to be but a thin Crust of the Terrestrial Globe , whose inside , as farre as the Center , is replenish'd with a subtle fluid matter , like that whereof the Sunne consists . ) We know that in some places , as particularly at a Famous Coal-mine in Scotland , there are great Cavities that reach a good way under that ground that serves there for a bottome to the Sea : So that , for ought these Objectors know , ev'n according to their own Doctrine , the water ev'n in the Sea , may endeavour to get beneath a body heavier in specie then it self . But , for my part , I cannot but think , that , to imagine the water knows , whether or no there be aire or some lighter body then it self beneath the body it leans on , and the superior parts do accordingly exercise or suspend their pressure upon the inferior ; is to forget that it is a heavy Liquor , and an inanimate Body . Another Solution there is of this Hydrostatical problem , we have been discoursing of , which I met with in a Printed Letter of Monsieur Des Cartes , in these terms . Je ne me , &c. I remember not what reason 't is that Stevinus gives , why one feels not weight of water , when one is under it : but the true one is , that there can no more of water gravitate upon the body that is in it , or under it , then as much water as could descend in case that body left its place . Thus for Example : If there were a Man in the Barrel , B , that should with his Body so stop the hole , A , as to hinder the waters getting out , he would feel upon himself the weight of the whole Cylinder of water , A B C , of which I suppose the Basis to be equal to the hole A ; for as much as if he sunck down through the hole , all the Cylinder of water would descend too , but if he be a little higher , as about B , so that he does no longer hinder the water from running out at the hole A , he ought not to Feel any weight of the water which is over him , betwixt B and C , because if he should descend toward A , that water would not descend with him , but contrarywise a part of the water which is beneath him towards A , of equal bulk to his Body , would ascend into its place : so that in stead of feeling the water to press him from the Top downward , he ought to feel that it buoys him upward from the bottome ; which by Experience we see . Thus far this subtil Philosopher : for whose Ratiocinations though I am wont to have much respect , yet I must take the liberty to confess my self unsatisfy'd with this . For haveing already sufficiently prov'd , That the upper parts of water press the lower , and the bodies plac'd beneath them , whether such bodies be lighter in specie then water or heavier ; we have subverted the Foundation , upon which Monsieur Cartes's ingenious , though unsatisfactory , Explication is built . And yet I shall add ex abundanti , That supposing what he sayes , That in case the solid B should descend towards A , the incumbent water would not descend with it , but a part of the subjacent water , equal in bulk to the solid , would ascend , and succeed in its room ; yet that is but accidental , by reason of the steinchness and fulness of the Vessel . And though indeed the Superior water cannot actually desend upon the depression of the solid at B , if , at the same time while that body descends , an equal bulk of water succeeds in its place : Yet both the solid about C , and the water that succeeds it , do , in their turns , hinder the descent of the Superior water ; which therefore must gravitate upon which soever of the two it be that actually comes to be plac'd directly under it , if there be nothing , before the displacing of the solid , capable to take away the natural gravity , upon whose account the water , over B and C , does incessantly tend downwards . And though Monsieur Des Cartes does not so clearly express himselfe , whether he supposes the hole at A ▪ to be stopp'd with some other body , when the solid is plac'd about B : yet , because he is wont to speak consistently , I presume he means , that when the solid is remov'd to B , the hole at A is otherwise sufficiently stopp'd ; I say then , that the reason why the solid , which , whilst at A , sustain'd a great pressure from the incumbent water , feels not the weight of it , when plac'd at B , is not that which Monsieur des Cartes gives , but this , That the solid being environ'd with water , the subjacent water does ( as we have often had occasion to manifest ) press it upwards , full as strongly ( and somewhat more ) as the weight of the incumbent water presses it downwards ; So that a mans body , in stead of sincking , would be buoy'd up ; if , as it is a little heavier , it were a little lighter in specie then water . Whereas , when the solid was that alone which cover'd and stop'd the hole , there was a manifest Reason why it should be forcibly thrust downwards by the weight of the incumbent water B C. For , in that case , there was no water underneath it at A , to support the solid ; and , by its pressure upward , to enable it to resist so great a weight . And this , ( to hint that upon the by ) may perchance help us to guess at the reason of what Geographers relate of the Lake Asphaltites in Judea , ( in case the matter of fact be true , ) That this dead Sea ( as they also call it ) will not suffer any living creature to sinck in it . For the Body of a Man ( and for ought we know of other Animals , ) is not much heavier in specie then common fresh water : Now if in this Lake ( that stands where Sodom and Gomorrah did , before those impious Regions were destroy'd by fire from Heaven , ) we suppose , ( which the nature of the Soyle , and the Sacred Story makes probable enough ) That the water abounds with Saline or Sulphurous Corpuscles ; ( the former helping the later to associate with the water , as we see in sope consisting of salt and oyle , and in Chymical mixtures of Alcalis and Brimstone dissoluble in water ) the Liquor may have its gravity so augmented , as to become heavier in specie then the body of an animal . For I have learned of a Light Swimmer , that he could hardly begin to Dive in salt water , though he easily could in fresh . And 't is not difficult to make a Brine or Lixivium ( which are but Solutions of salt in water , ) heavy enough to keep up an egg from sincking . And , not only barely by dissolving a metalline body in a saline Menstruum , without otherwise thickning the Liquor , I have brought solid pieces of Amber it self to swim upon it : but I have try'd that certain saline Solutions , which I elsewhere mention ; nay , and a distill'd Liquor , ( I us'd defleam'd oyle of Vitriol ) without any thing dissolv'd in it , would do the same thing ; by reason of the numerous , though minute , Corpuscles of salt and sulphur , that it abounds with . There remains but one solution more of our Hydrostatical probleme , that I think worth mentioning , and that is given by the Learned Stevinus in these words , Omni pressu quo Corpus dolore afficitur , pars aliqua Corporis luxatur ; sed isto pressu nulla Corporis pars luxatur , isto igitur pressu Corpus dolore nullo afficitur . Assumptio syllogismi manifesta est , nam si pars aliqua , ut caro , sanguis , humor , aut quodlibet denique membrum luxaretur , in alium locum concedat necesse esset : atqui locus ille non est extra Corpus ; cum aqua undiquaque aequali pressu circumfusa sit ( quod vero pars ima , per 11. propositionem Hydrostaticorum , paulo validius prematur superiori , id hoc casu nullius momenti est , quia tantula differentia partem nullam sua sede dimovere potest ) neque item intra ipsum Corpus concedit , cum istic Corpore omnia oppleta sint , unde singulae partes singulis partibus aequaliter resistunt , namque aqua undiquaque eadem ratione Corpus totum circumstat . Quare cum locus is nec intra , nec extra Corpus sit ; absurdum , imo impossibile fuerit , partem ullam suo loco emoveri , ideoque nec Corpus hic afficitur dolore . This Solution of Stevinus , I esteem preferrible by farr , to those that are wont to be given of this difficult Probleme : But yet , the Phaenomenon seems to me to have still somewhat in it of strange . 'T is true , that if the Question were only that which some put , viz. Why the body of a Diver , when it is near the bottom of the Sea , is not press'd down by so vast a weight of water , as is incumbent on it ; It might be rationally answer'd , That the weight of so much water , as leans upon the body , is not sustein'd by the force of the body it self , but by that of the water which is under it . For , by the Experiments and Explications , we have annexed to some of the foregoing Paradoxes , it appears , That the subjacent water , by its pressure upwards , is able , not only to support the weight of the incumbent water , but so far to exceed it , that it would not only support the immers'd body , and the incumbent water , but buoy up the body , if it were never so little lighter in specie then water . And as for what Stevinus insinuates , That , when the water presses the body every way , that pressure is not felt , though it would be , in case it press'd upon some parts , and not upon others ; I am of the same opinion too ; and , to prove it , shall not make use of the example he proposes , in the words immediately following those of his , I just now recited : ( For I doubt , that example is rather a supposition , then a try'd thing ; ) but by an Experiment which may be easily made , and has diverse times been so , in our Pneumatical Engine . For , though the aire be a heavy fluid , and though , whilst it uniformely presses the whole superficies of the body , we feel not the pressure of it . And though , for this reason , you may lay the palm of your hand upon the open orifice of a small brass Cylinder , apply'd to the Engine instead of a Receiver , without any hurt ; Yet when , by pumping , the aire that was before under the palm of your hand , is withdrawn , and consequently can no longer help to support your hand , against the pressure of the external and incumbent aire ; the external aire will lean so heavy upon the back of your hand , that you will imagine some ponderous weight is lay'd upon it . And I remember by such an Experiment , I have not onely had my hand put to much pain , but have had the back of it so bent downward , as if it were going to be broken . But though such considerations , as these , may much lessen the difficulty of our phaenomenon , whose cause is inquired into ; Yet still it seems somewhat odd to me , That ( since 't is evident from the nature of the thing , and by Stevinus's his confession , that there is a vast pressure of water against every part of the body , whose endeavour tends inward , ) so exceedingly forcible a pressure , ( which thrusts , for instance , the Muscles of the Arms and Thighs against the Bones , the Skin and Flesh of the Thorax against the Ribs , ) should not put the Dives to any sensible pain ; As I find not ( by one that I examin'd ) that it dos ; ( Though this man told me , he stay'd a good while at the depth of betwixt 80 and 100 foot under the Sea water , which is heavier then fresh water ; ) For , that which Stevinus's Explication will only showis , That there must be no manifest dislocation of the greater parts of the Body ; whereas the bare compression of two small parts , one against another , is sufficient to produce a sense of pain . But it seems , the Texture of the bodyes of Animals is better able to resist the pressure of an every way ambient fluid , then , if we were not taught by experience , we should imagine . And therefore , to satisfie those that ( secluding the Question about the sense of pain , ) think it an abundantly sufficient Argument , ( to prove , that bodyes immers'd under water , are not compress'd by it ; ) That Divers are not oppress'd , and ev'n crush'd ▪ by so vast a load of water , ( amounting , by Stevinus's computation , to many thousands of pounds ) as is incumbent on them . We will add , that though an Experiment , propos'd by Monsieur Paschal to this purpose , were such , that at first sight I said that it would not succeed , ( and was not upon tryal mistaken in my conjecture ; ) yet it gave me the occasion to make another , which will , I hope , fully make out the thing I design'd it for . The Ingenious Monsieur Paschal would perswade his Readers , that if into a glass Vessel , with luke-warm water in it , you cast a flie ; and , by a Rammer , forcibly press that water , you shall not be able to kill , or hurt the flie . VVhich , says he , will live as well , and walk up and down as lively , in luke-warme water , as in the aire . But , upon tryal with a strong flie , the Animal was ( as we expected , ) presently drowned , and so made moveless , by the luke-warm water . Wherefore we substituted another Experiment , that we knew would not only succeed , ( as you will presently see it will do , ) but teach us how great a pressure the included Animal must have been expos'd to . VVe took then a somewhat slender Cylindrical pipe of Glass , seal'd at one end , and open at the other ; and to this we fitted a Rammer , which ( by the help of some thongs of soft leather , that were carefully wound about it ) did so exactly fill the pipe that it could not easily be mov'd to and fro ; and would suffer neither water , nor aire , to get by betwixt it , and the internal surface of the Glass . VVe also provided some small Tad-poles ( or Gyrini ) about an Inch long or less ; which sort of Animals we made choice of before any other , partly because they could , by reason of their smalness , swim freely to & fro in so little water as our pipe contain'd ; & partly because those Creatures , being as yet but in their Infancy , were more tender , and , consequently , far more expos'd to be injur'd by compression , then other Animals of the same Bulk , but come to their full age and growth , would be , ( as indeed such young Tad-poles are so soft and tender , that they seem , in comparison to the bigger sort of flies , to be but organiz'd Gelly . ) One of these Tadpoles being put into the water , and some Inches of aire being left in the pipe , for the use anon to be mention'd ; the water and aire , and consequently the Tadpole , were by the intrusion of the plug or rammer , with as great a force as a man was able to imploy , violently compress'd ; and yet , though the Tadpole seem'd to be compress'd into a little less Bulk then it was of before , it swom freely up and down the water , without forbearing sometimes to ascend to the very top , though the Instrument were held perpendicular to the Horizon . Nor did it clearly appear to us , That the little Animal was injur'd by this compression ; and most manifest it is , he was not crush'd to death , or sensibly hurt by it . And having repeated this Experiment several times , & with Tadpoles of differing ages ; we may , I presume , safely conclude , That the Texture of Animals is so strong , that , though water be allowed to weigh upon water , yet a Diver ought not to be opprest by It : Since , whether or no water weighs in water , 't is manifest that in our Experiment , the water , and consequently the Tadpole , was very forcibly by an External Agent compress'd betwixt the violently condens'd aire , and the rammer . And , by the notice we took of the quantity of aire before the compression began , and that to which it was reduc'd by compression ; The moderatest estimate we could make , was , That it was reduc'd into an eighth , or tenth part of it's former space ; and so ( according to what we have elswhere prov'd ) the pressure that was upon the aire , ( and consequently upon the water , and the included Tadpole , ) was as great as that of a Cylinder of water of above 200 if not 300 foot high . And yet all this weight being unable to oppress , or so much as manifestly to hurt , the tender Tadpole ( which a very small weight would suffice to have crush'd , if it prest only upon one part of it , and not upon the other ) we may thence learn the Truth of what we have been endeavouring to evince : That though water be allowed to press against water , and all immers'd Bodys ; yet a Diver may very well remaine unoppress'd at a great depth under water , as long as the pressure of it is uniforme against all the parts expos'd thereunto . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A28989-e170 * About this passage , See the Publisher , to the Reader . * Chiefly , in several places of the unpublish'd part of the Treatise of the osefulness of Experimental Philosophy . * An Account of this passage also , may be had from the Publishers Advertisement to the Reader . Notes for div A28989-e900 * That excellent Mathematician the Learned Dr Wallis , Savilian Professor of Geometry . This Experiment and the Explication of it , if to some they should here seem somewhat obscure , will be easily understood by the Figures and Explications belonging to the first ensuing Paradoxe . See the second Figure . In certain , Notes upon some of the Physics-mechanical Experiments , touching the Aire . Fig. 3. Fig. 1. 2. Fig. 4. Fig. 5. See PARADOX the sixth . Fig. 6. Fig. 8. Figur . 9. Fig. 10. Fig. 11. See Fig. 12. Fig. 13. Fig. 14. See the Proof of the 11. Paradox . Fig. 15. Fig. 16. Fig. 17. Fig. 18. In the Physico-Mechanical Experiments . Fig. 19. * The word , about , is added , because indeed the Author , as he elsewhere delivers , did by exact scales find Brass to weigh between eight or nine times as much as water ; but judg'd it needless to his present Argument , and inconvenient to take notice of the fraction . Fig. 20. In the History of fluidity & firmness Second Tome lettre 32. Fig. 22. Stevinus Hydrostat . Lib. 5. pag. 149. Sed Exemple clarius ita intelliges , este ABCD aqua , cujus fundum D C ▪ in quo foramen E habeat Epistimeus sibi iesertum , cui Dorso incumbat Homo F , Quae cum ita fiat , ab aqua pondere ipsi insidente nulla pars Corporis luxari poterit , cum aqua , ut dictus est , undiquaque aqualiter urgeat . Fig. 23. Si vero ejus veritatem explorare libeat , eximito Epistemiun , tumque tergum nulla re fultum sustinebitur , ut in locis cateris , ideoque istic tanto pressu afficietur , quantus tertio exemple secunda propositionis hujus demonstratus est : vidquantam efficit columna aquea cujus Basis sit foramica E , altitudo autem eadem quae aqua ipsi insidentis . Quo exemplo propositi veritas manifeste declaratur . Fig. 24. 
A28990	----	The martyrdom of Theodora and of Didymus by a person of honour. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1687 Approx. 258 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 135 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A28990 Wing B3987 ESTC R2732 13174551 ocm 13174551 98345 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A28990) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 98345) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 446:27) The martyrdom of Theodora and of Didymus by a person of honour. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. [30], 250 [i.e. 232], [6] p. Printed by H. Clark, for John Taylor ... and Christopher Skegnes ..., London : 1687. Attributed to Robert Boyle. Cf. BLC. First edition; published later (1703) under title: Love and religion demonstrated in the martyrdom of Theodora, and of Didymus. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-05 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-07 Jonathan Blaney Sampled and proofread 2006-07 Jonathan Blaney Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE Martyrdom OF THEODORA , And of DIDYMUS . By a Person of Honour . LONDON : Printed by H. Clark , for John Taylor at the Ship , and Christopher Skegnes at the Golden Ball , in St. Paul's Church-yard , 1687. SUCH AN ACCOUNT Of the following BOOK , Sent with it to a FRIEND ; As may serve instead of a PREFACE . TO convince you , Sir , how much more I am concern'd to have you think , I can Obey well , than Write well ; I venture to send you the Account , ( as imperfect and unpolish'd as it is ) that you are pleas'd to command Of the last Hours of Theodora . But I must beg your leave to accompany it with another Account ( though but a short one ) how I came to meddle with this Subject ; and why what I present you about it , is so much Maim'd , and has no more Uniformity . Having had occasion many years ago to turn over a Martyrology , and some other Books , that related to the Sufferings of the Primitive Christians ; I chanc'd to light on those of a Virgin , who , though ( to my wonder ) she was left unnam'd by the other Writers that mention'd her , seem'd plainly to be the same , that is by one of them expresly call'd Theodora : I own , I was not a little affected , at the reading of such moving and uncommon adventures as hers : and finding her story to be related , by the Author that nam'd both her and her Lover , not only very succinctly and imperfectly , but very dully too ; I found my self tempted so to enlarge this Story , as that it might be contriv'd into a somewhat voluminous Romance : But upon second thoughts , it appeared incongruous to turn a Martyr into a Nymph or an Amazon : And I consider'd too , that ( to omit what else might be objected against that sort of Composures ) as true Pearls are Cordials and Antidotes , which counterfeit ones , how fine soever they may appear , are not ; so True Examples do arm and fortify the mind far more efficaciously , than Imaginary or Fictious ones can do ; and the fabulous labours of Hercules , and Exploits of Arthur of Britain , will never make men aspire to Heroick Vertue half so powerfully , as the real Examples of Courage and Gallantry afforded by Jonathan Caesar , or the Black Prince . But yet , thinking it great pity , that so shining a Vertue as Theodora's should prove Exemplary , but to her own time , and to one City ; and remembring , that soon after the Age which she Ennobl'd , it was counted among the Primitive Christians an act of Piety , to build fair Monuments , upon the formerly abject Graves of the Martyrs ; to repay , by Honours done to their Memories , the indignities and Disgraces they had suffer'd in their Persons ; I thought fit to try , if I could rescue from more unskilful Hands than even mine , a story that abundantly deserv'd to be well told . But upon further thoughts , I soon foresaw , that this Task was not more worthy to be undertaken , than it would prove difficult to be well perform'd : For the Martyrologist having allow'd scarce one whole Page , to a Relation , that perhaps merited a Volume , had left so many Chasms , and so many necessary things unmentioned , that I plainly perceiv'd , I wanted a far greater number of Circumstances , than that he had supply'd me with to make up so maim'd a story tolerably compleat . And as the Relation deny'd me matter enough to work upon , so the nature of the Subject refus'd most of those Imbellishments which in other Themes , where young Gallants and fair Ladies are the chief Actors , are wont to supply the deficiences of the matter . Besides , my task was not near so easie as it would have been , if I had been only to recite the Intrigues of an Amour , with the liberty to feig surprizing adventures , to adorn the Historical part of the account , and to make a Lover speak as Passionately as I could , and his Mistress as Kindly as the indulgentest laws of decency would permit . But I was to introduce a Christian and pious Lover , who was to contain the expressions of his Flame within the narrow bounds of his Religion ; and a Virgin , who , being as modest and discreet as handsom , and as devout as either , was to own an high Esteem for an excellent Lover , and an uncommon Gratitude to a transcendent Benefactor , without intrenching either upon her Vertue , or her Reservedness . And I perceiv'd the difficulty of my Task would be encreas'd , by that of Reconciling Theodora's Scrupulousness to the humours of some young Persons of Quality of either Sex , who were earnest to engage my Pen on this occasion , and would expect that I should make Theodora more kind , than I thought her great Piety and strict Modesty would permit . But for all this ; the esteem I had for the fair Martyrs Excellencies , and the compliance I had for those that desir'd to receive an account of so rare a Persons actions and Sufferings , made me resolve to try what I could do . Which I adventur'd upon with the less Reluctancy , because , though I esteem'd it a kind of Profaneness , to transform a piece of Martyrology into a Romance ; yet I thought it allowable enough , where a Narrative was written so concisely , and left so unperfect , as That I had to descant upon ; to make such supplements of Circumstances , as were not improbable in the nature of the thing , and were little less than necessary to the clearness and entireness of the Story , and the decent connection of the parts it should consist of . I suppos'd too , that I needed not scruple , to lend Speeches to the Persons I brought upon the Stage , provided they were suitable to the Speakers , and Occasions ; since I was warranted by the Examples of Livy , Plutarch , and other Grave and Judicious Historians , who make no scruple to give us set Orations , of their own framing , and sometimes put them into the mouths of Generals at the head of their Armies , just going to give Battel : though at such times the hurry and distraction that both they and their Auditors must be in , must make it very unlikely , either that they should make elaborate Speeches , or their Hearers mind and remember them well enough to repeat them to the Historians . Encourag'd by these Liberties , which I thought I might justly allow my self : I drew up , as well as I could , what you have been told I wrote about Theodora . This I thought fit to divide into two parts ; in the first whereof , ( which was less remote from being Romantick ) I gave somewhat at large the Characters of them both . I mention'd the rise and progress of Didymus's Love ; the degeneracy of the then Christians , which provok'd Divine Providence , to expose them to a very Bloody Persecution : I declar'd , how Theodora being involv'd in it , was brought before the President of Antioch ; how she resolutely own'd her Religion before him , answer'd His Arguments , and resisted both his Promises , and his Menaces ; how thereupon the Judge doom'd her either to Sacrafice , or to be prostituted in the the publick Stews . How she , after an eager Debate in her own mind , refusing to offer sacrifice , was , ( notwithstanding her silence ) led away to the infamous place ; how being shut up there alone in a Room , she employ'd the little time , that was granted her to consider whether she would yet burn Incense to the Roman Idols , in fervent Prayer to the true God , for a rescue of her Purity , not her Life ; in order whereunto , she design'd and hop'd by Resistance and Contumelies to provoke her first Assailant , to become her Murderer , rather than her Ravisher . These were the chief Contents of the first Book . Those of the second , were more Historical ; and consisted of an account of the last hours of her Life , and particularly of those Sufferings that ended in her and Didymus's glorious Martyrdom . This piece having been perus'd by those for whose sake I wrote it ; was so fortunate , that it having , without my leave , been ventur'd into several hands , as a Book of a nameless and unknown Author , it was lucky enough to be , by some indulgent Readers , attributed to One , and by some to Another , of the two Persons , that were at that time counted the best writers of disguis'd Histories . But among the many Hands it pass'd through , it seems it fell into some , out of which a great part of the loose sheets , ( which were not bound in a Book , but only tack'd together ) were not to be retriev'd : whether it were by the negligence , or the contempt , that some had of so unpolish'd a Work ; or whether there were some fatality in the Business , that Theodoras Sufferings should outlive her , and her Story be as ill us'd as her Person had been . This loss , ( if it can deserve that name ) I did not much regret : Since I intended not to make the lost Papers publick , and had receiv'd much greater approbation and thanks than they merited , from the particular Persons they were design'd for . But after I had for many years worn out , not only the sense , but the memory of this loss : It was made more troublesom to me , than ever it was at first , by the earnest solicitations of some eminent Persons , that had a great power over me , and some of them the repute of great Judges of this kind of Composures . For having seen several Sheets , that I accidentally lighted on , in tumbling over some long neglected Papers ; they oblig'd me to cause those old rude sheets to be transcrib'd . And tho' almost all the first Book was wanting , ( upon which account , I could not be remov'd from my Resolution not to trouble my self about it ) yet there was so much of the Second Book , but in parts no way Coherent , little by little retriev'd , that a pretence was afforded to press me to repair those Breaches , and restore out of my memory , or otherwise , a piece , which they would needs perswade me might do some good , by rendring Vertue Amiable , and recommending Piety to a sort of Readers , that are much more affected by shining Examples , and pathetical Expressions , than by dry Precepts , and grave Discourses . If some of your more scrupulous Friends shall object , that I have mention'd Theodoras Beauty more often and advantagously , and represented her Lovers Passion more Pathetically , than the subject of the story exacted , and the truth requir'd in History would warrant ; I shall not altogether deny the Charge : Being rather content to have it thought , that a youthful 〈◊〉 heated fancy transported 〈◊〉 Pen , somewhat beyond the narrow bounds of History , than that so Pious a person as Didymus did not keep both his Flame , and the Expressions of it , within the limits of Reason and Religion . But though I pretend not to justifie , all that has been said in the strain of an Encomiast , or a Lover , yet I hop'd that I may much Extenuate , if not Excuse it , by representing such things as these . That I have been careful , that Theodora should not be made to do , or say , any thing , that , the great Obligations she had to her Rescuer consider'd , do intrench either upon her Piety , or her Vertue , or so much as upon her Reserv'dness . That as for Didymus ; I might say , that probably he thought , those Celebrations that would have been Flattery to another Lady , were but Justice to a Person so Extraordinary , and so accomplish'd as his Mistress ; and that he thought it allowable , not to suppress the chast effects of a Passion , that has not only been incident to Heroes , but perhaps help'd to make them such . But I will rather say , that those only are like to find much fault with his Expressions , who consider not how free they are from any degree of Prophaneness or Immodesty : And who are not accustomed to the reading of Stories , where Lovers are introduc'd , and made to Praise and Complement in a far more Bold and Romantick way , than I allowed my self in the following Paper . In which , all the Deference , wherewith Irene as well as Didymus treat Theodora , may be be accounted for by this ; That I remember'd to have , in some Author or other , found Mention made of a Person about Dioclesian's time , Whom I took for our Martyr , that was intimated to be of high Quality , if not a Princess . which Title I had without scruple given Her , If I had been half as sure that she Was a Princess , as that she Deserv'd to be One. That perhaps I was not unwilling , both to shew the Persons I wrote for , that One might have glittering Idea's of Beauty , without being dazl'd by them ; and also to convince them , that high Complements and passionate expressions , are no certain Marks of His being really Smitten ( to speak in a Lovers Phrase ) that can Imploy them ; since I retain'd my wonted freedom of mind , while I was Writing ; and presented them by the mouth of Didymus , but what Fancy , not Passion indited . And lastly , I was induc'd to allow my self a more fashionable Stile , than would perhaps be suitable to a meer Sermon , or Book of Divinity , because I fear'd , that the Youthful Persons of Quality of both Sexes , that I was chiefly to regard , would scarce be sufficiently affected by unfortunate Vertue , if the interweaving of passages relating to Beauty and Love , did not help to make the Tragical story , Delightful , and the Excellent Sufferers Piety , Amiable . If it be objected , that in some of the discourses of the two Martyrs , there are Passages that argue more Knowledge , than is likely to have been found in Lay Persons no Elder than they . I answer , that such Discourses indeed were somewhat strange , if they were ascrib'd to a young Gallant , and a younger Lady , of Our degenerate Times ; wherein so many Persons of that sort , make Diversion their grand Business ; and , having as little Leisure as Concern to mind any thing , but their Pleasures and petty Interests , think it their Priviledge to know little of Religion , and leave to meaner People the study of things Serious and Useful . But , though among this sort of Persons , it were so difficult to find many that would Emulate such Knowledge and Vertue as shin'd in Theodora , that I fear they would not so much as believe them ; yet among better qualify'd Judges , the lately propos'd objection will be of no great force , if it be consider'd , that Didymus and Theodora liv'd in the Primitive and devout times of the Church , and in the Roman Empire , when the Christian Religion was as diligently Taught by Excellent Divines , as frequently Oppos'd by Arguments , and violently assaulted by Persecutions . Upon which scores , the zealous Candidates of Martyrdom , many of which obtain'd the Crown of it , even in their greener Age , were early and skilfully instructed in the truths of their own Religion , and furnish'd with good Arguments , both to Defend It , and Confute the Erroneous Opinions and Impious worships of their Heathen Adversaries . Nor is it any wonder , that they should think That Religion worth Studying , that they thought worth Dying for . I will not here examine , whether the Ignorance wont to be imputed to Women , be Their fault , or that of their Accusers , and whether it is any natural want of Capacity , or rather want of Instruction , that keeps most of them from Knowledge , though This regards not Sexes . But without inquiry , whether it be not our Interest , or our Envy , that Makes Women what we are wont to decry them for Being ; I shall not scruple to own , that I have sometimes had the honour to converse with Ladys , that convinc'd me , That , to attain to a great proficiency in Knowledge , 't is not necessary to be a Doctor of Divinity , or so much as a Man , since they discours'd of Divine things , with no less Wit than Piety . And to return to our Martyr , if we may judge by the Effects , we may reasonably suppose , that our Virgins Parents not only thought it their Duty , but took much Pleasure , to Cultivate so excellent and promising a Subject as their fair Daughter . Since great advantages of Nature and general Grace should rather Invite , than Excuse , Improvements by Education ; as even the Garden of Eden , though an admirably fertile Soil , and planted by God's own Hands , was not so left to itself , but that Adam was appointed to dress it , and to keep it . And if the Discourses of our Martyrs are sometimes less short than they might have been made ; I hope it may be some excuse , that I was not unwilling , to lay hold now and then of the Rises afforded me by some occasions , to shew , that Romantick Subjects are not , as too many Persons of Quality think them , the Only ones , that may be treated of in a Gentleman-like stile ; and that even some noble Questions in Divinity , and some of the severer Dictates of the Christian Morals , may be discours'd of , without the harshness of the School Terms , or the downright plainness of some better Meant , than Pen'd , Books of Theology and Devotion . 'T is like Sir , you will think it strange , that I make so Pious a Person as Theodora , offer her Breast to Didymus's Sword , and by soliciting him to Kill her , tempt him to an Action , which would make her guilty of a Murder , and make him greatly accessory to it . But possibly her Action would not appear very strange , if we were not too enclinable to estimate the Affairs of Past Times , and Remote Regions , by the Opinions and Customes of our own Age and Countrys . For , what ever we now justly think of the sinfulness of Destroying a Mans self , whether immediately or otherwise , yet I must not deny , but that divers of the Ancient Christians thought it not Criminal , when it was necessary for the preservation of Chastity . And , if I much misremember not , St. Jerom himself , where he speaks of the unlawfulness of Self-destroying , intimates , that he excepts the Case of an inevitable danger of a Rape . But my chief answer is , that having found the Virgin Martyrs proposal expresly deliver'd by the Author I was to follow , I judg'd it the part of an Historian not to suppress it ; which I acknowledge , I the rather declin'd to do , because Theodoras offer was a noble evincement , both of her Gratitude and her Generosity . And therefore , instead of Omitting so considerable an Action of hers , I chose rather to Set my thoughts a work , to find a plausible Colour for it . Which whether I have happily done , by supplying her with the Example of a Prophet , who , though he would not cast Himself into the Sea , yet solicited Others to cast him , ( and that having first bound him ) I must leave You to judge . I freely confess , Sir , that , if the following Piece had been written by One , that I were fond of Censuring , I could my self find enough in it to Criticize upon ; and should object against it , besides the want of Uniformity throughout , That if judg'd of by the strict Rules of Art , it ought to pass for an Irregular Piece . And therefore I shall not wonder , if Nicer Criticks , and more vers'd in Exquisite Composures than I pretend to be , shall find fault with this Artless one of mine . But the reception that the following Papers met with , from the Persons for whom they were chiefly written , affords me the Consolation derivable from the ingenious saying of that excellent Wit , who declar'd , He had rather the Dishes serv'd up at his Treat , should please the Guests , than the Cooks . And I might say too , that some of the Passages that may meet with Censure , would perhaps escape it ; if in writing this Book many years agoe , I had not had some Aims , that I then thought more fit to be Pursu'd , than I now do to be Declar'd . Yet I will not here dissemble , that I know it may be thought by some , that this Paper should have consisted less of Conversations , and more of Narratives . But I chose the way of Writing I have employ'd , partly because the Authors I met with furnish'd me with so very few matters of Fact , that if I would have confin'd my self to Relations ; I must have compriz'd this piece in a very few Pages , and have finish'd it presently after I had begun it : And partly too , ( and indeed much more ) because ( as I lately began to intimate ) my chief design was not so much , to perform the Office of a meer Historian , as to take Rises from the several Circumstances I should relate , to convey unperceivedly , into the minds of those young Persons of Quality for whom I wrote , Sentiments of true Piety and Vertue . And these I thought would not so happily gain admittance and entertainment , if they were presented in a Scholar like-Discourse , or aprofess'd Book of devotion , as when they were taken , not from common places but from the Nature of the Things and Persons Introduc'd ; and without formality Instill'd by the occasional discourses of a young Gentleman and fair Lady , for whom the Beauty and the Merit ascrib'd to the Speakers , had given the Hearers as great Esteem and Kindness . And I shall not scruple to own , that I , who who value time above most other things , did not think it worth the expence of mine , to give my self the trouble of Writing a Book , only to give others a Divertisement in Reading it . And whilst I was Conversing with such Excellent Company , as our noble Martyrs , and Meditating on such Serious Subjects , as are Death , and the Worth of that Heavenly Religion for whose sake They despis'd It ; I found my self Incited , and thought my self Oblig'd , to aim less at the Pleasing of some few Nice Exactors of Regularity , than to Possess many Readers with high and noble Sentiments of the Christian Religion , and the sublime Dictates of it ; and thereby both Elevate their minds to a generous Contempt of all they can lose and suffer for it , and Fill them with bright Idea's of Heroick Vertue , and of the much brighter Glories that will Crown it . By such Reflections , I was induc'd not to omit some Passages that seem'd likely to further the main Ends I pursu'd , though I foresaw , that perhaps some rigid Judges would say , that they might have been spar'd . For as I writ not a Romance , wherein Authors are wont to aim no higher , than to Delight the Delicate Readers , and Escape the Critical ones , by making their Composures Diverting and Regular ; so I presum'd that to employ a more Useful , though less Fashionamble way of Writing , was allowable for Me , who ought to endeavour in such a piece as This , rather to propose Patterns of Vertue , than Models of Skill or Eloquence ; and to think it more Successful , if the Readers shall upon perusing it , Imitate our excellent Martyrs Piety , than if they should only Applaud their History . Which both as to Stile and Reasonings , is freely submitted to your Judgment , by Sir , your most &c. ERRATA . PReface Page 3. line 19. read Jonathan Caesar , &c. p. 5. l. 11. r. feign Contents Ch. 1. r. Chamber . Ch. 3. r. thinking . P. 80. l. 16. r. manifest Danger , &c. p. 89. l. 14. r. and let her see , &c. p. 152. l. 14. r. enough . p. 222. l. 17. r. her Kindness , &c. p. 227. l. 1. for having , r. did . ibid. l. 4. for assum'd , r. assume . p. 238. l. 15. r. of all other , &c. Some Books Printed for , and Sold by John Taylor , at the Ship in St. Paul's Church-yard . A Free Enquiry into the Vulgarly Receiv'd Notion of Nature , made in an Essay , address'd to a Friend . In English and Latine , for the Benefit of Forreiners . By R. B. Fellow of the Royal Society . The Declamations of Quintilian , being an Exercitation or Praxis upon his Twelve Books , concerning the Institution of an Orator . Translated ( from the Oxford Theater Edition ) into English , by a Learned and Ingenious Hand , with the Approbation of several Eminent Schoolmasters in the City of London . The Happy Ascetick , or the best Exercise ; with a Letter to a Person of Quality , concerning the Lives of the Primitive Christians . By Anthony Horneck , D. D. Preacher at the Savoy . Academia Scientiarum : Or the Academy of Sciences . Being a short and easie Introduction to the Knowledge of the Liberal Arts and Sciences . With the Names of those famous Authors that have written on every particular Science . In English and Latin. By D. Abercromby . M. D. THE Martyrdom OF THEODORA . BOOK II. CHAP. I. THough it may seem ill-natur'd to leave the Chast Theodora in so deplorable a Condition , yet it is requisite to do so for a while , that we may learn what was attempted to rescue her out of it . It is not to be doubted , but that , Didymus was not long kept a stranger to the barbarous usage she had suffered . That of so illustrious a Lady could not but make a great noise , and reach a multitude of ears ; and especially those of so concern'd a Person as Didymus : The wounds of Lovers tender hearts , giving them oftentimes secret Presages of approaching misfortunes relating to their Love : As many other wounded men have the unhappy Priviledge of being able , by feeling of pain , to discern such approaches of ill weather , as affect not unhurt men . Didymus therefore being quickly too much ascertain'd of the unwelcome News of the distress of his fair Mistress , was too generous a Lover to deliberate , whether he should expose his life for her rescue : His deliberation being only about the means , how to make so difficult an attempt a prosperous one . In order to this , he happily finds out one of the Officers of the Guards , that were placed about the infamous House , to which Theodora was condemned : Who having been his fellow Soldier in the Roman Armies ; he hoped would either for the sake of Vertue or of Didymus , be prevail'd with to further so handsom a Design as his . Wherefore addressing himself to this Commander , with a very obliging and yet civil Freedom : Generous Septimius , saies he , I cannot but look upon it as one of the chief advantages I have obtain'd by venturing my Life in the Roman Camps , that I had the happiness to be acquainted with you there , and to be a spectator of your Gallantry ; which did not only then raise me to a desire of imitating it , but allows me now to own a request to you , that none but a gallant Person ought to be entrusted with , or would easily grant . Generous Didymus , replies the Roman , When I accompanied you in following our propitious Eagles , I found so great a contentment in your acquaintance , and so strong a spur to Glory , in your examples , that I look'd upon the advantage of having been your fellow Soldier , as preferable to the honour of Leading the most numerous Troops I may at any time Command . And I shall think all the hazards I then expos'd my self to , abundantly rewarded , if any power they have procured me , may enable me to do you service . Tell me then frankly , in what case , and after what manner , you would have it employ'd for you ; and as I assure my self , that so vertuous a Friend as Dydimus , will desire nothing but what is just , so he may assure himself , not to be refus'd any service , that is but Dangerous . Our Lover embolden'd by so encouraging a declaration , first made him a very grateful Acknowledgment for it , and then proceeded to say , If you have ever had the happiness to be acquainted with Theodora , or so much as to have seen her , 't would be needless , as well as improper , for me to offer at giving you a Character of her , which you must needs think injurious to her . But if you have not , the shortness of the time will only permit me to assure you , that not only she has given me those Sentiments of her Excellencies , that I never had , nor ever thought my self capable of having , for any of her Sex ; but that in other Persons strangely indispos'd to admit such impressions , she has often excited such wonder and such flames , as very rarely have been produced in other men , and perhaps , more rarely been merited by other women . This admirable Person , for exercising among other vertues , that of an invincible Constancy , to her Religion , and refusing to Sacrifice to Venus , Flora , and some other of those Deities , whom her Perfections might , though her Religion did not , exempt from adoring ; is by your savage President condemn'd to be expos'd to the publick Lust : And a Party of those gallant Roman Soldiers , that use to be so gloriously led on by you , to win Battels , conquer Kingdoms , and enlarge at once the Fame and Limits of the Empire , are now employ'd to captivate innocent Virgins , and defend their brutish Ravishers . You may easily guess by this , continues he , that my request is like to prove an earnest one ; that you would please to treat with some of those soldiers of yours , in whom you think you have the greatest Interest , and dispose them to assist me in rescuing Theodora out of so infamous a Prison , and accept from me greater recompences for doing a handsom action , than they can expect from the President , for doing a barbarous one ; I hope I need not tell you , in the hast this affair requires , that all possible care will be taken to keep you from being endanger'd by Theodoras deliverance , nor will I add how unexpressible an Obligation you will lay on me , to heighten my gratitude to some proportion to your Favours ; because I know it must necessarily fall short of them , and are due to a person that loves to do gallant Actions for their own sake , and had rather have great debts of gratitude , remain due to him , than paid to him ; wherefore I shall only mind you , that the time is so short , that if your assistance be not as quick as obliging , I fear 't will be as ineffectual . I shall quicken you only by assuring you , that when you act for the accomplish'd Theodora , you act for a person that has a Right to all that Beauty and Vertue can give one a Title to . With the same freedom , replies Septimius , with which you have own'd to me your Religion , I declare to you , that mine is that of my Country , and my Ancestors ; and that I worship those propitious Deities , that have made the Romans the Conquerors of the World , and rewarded those that adored them with an Universal Monarchy ; but though I exceedingly approve so triumphant a Religion , yet I confess to you , that I do not like the waies that the President takes to propogate it : such cruel methods being apt to make the world suspect , that our best Argument is Force : And whilst the Persecutors think it a glorious thing to see the Temples fill'd at any rate ; I had rather see in them fewer but sincere Votaries , than have them throng'd with such pusillanimous Dissemblers , as would not come in , unless they were Scar'd in , thither . And , though Terrors and Torments work sometimes upon the weaker sort of Christians , yet the more resolute do so often despise them , that our Persecutions convert not those unhappy persons , but frequently stagger many of our own ; and I confess freely to you , Didymus , that all the Christians Arguments work less with me , than our inhumane manner of confuting them . But I do not only disapprove , but detest , this infamous Practice of our President ; which makes him loose not the respect only and the pitty , but the common Humanity we owe to Women , and think to do the Goddesses a service , by disfiguring their fairest Images here below , with the most shameful of Blemishes . I cannot bring my self to imagine , that such gentle Deities , can like such barbarous Worshippers , who not only immolate to them the lives of men , but what is far more precious , the Vertue and Honour of Women ; for if I could believe they like such Sacrifices , I should think them unworthy any Sacrifices at all . You will easily therefore , Didymus , credit me , that I was absent when my soldiers were put by the insolent Judge , upon so mean an employment . He durst not have offered to have obtruded it upon them , had I been there ; or if he had , I had dared to use him as his insolence had deserved . But without loosing time in passionate Expostulations , about things made remediless , by being past , let us speedily apply our selves to the rescue of Theodora . For , though I have heard strange things of her , and such as made me think Fame a great Flatterer , if not a frontless Liar , yet I believe the Reports about Theodora , as I believe the Delphick Oracles , now that I find so undeniable a Testimony of her merit , as her being your Mistress . I will therefore without delay , prepare some Soldiers to assist you in her Rescue , and I cannot doubt the success in an attempt made to serve a distrest Beauty , and a generous Friend . If there be occasion , you need not doubt of my more openly appearing for you . For how highly soever such an action may provoke the President , or even the Emperour , I hope to let you see , that you have trusted a Roman , a person that had rather be the object , than the minister of their Cruelties , and would not be accessary to such a misemployment of Absolute Power , to be made a Sharer in it . As soon as Septimius had ended these words , he did , to prevent those acknowledgments he saw Didymus was about to make him , take that gallant Youth by the hand ; and leading him towards the place , where he expected to find the Soldiers he most confided in , he entertain'd him in the way about the hopefullest Expedients for the compassing of his admirable Mistresses Rescue . And having afterwards sent for the two persons , he thought likeliest to be prevail'd on , to a convenient place , near to that to which they had brought Theodora ; he brieflly , but pathetically , declaring to them , how much the brave Didymus was his friend , and how much he deserv'd to be so , enflam'd them with an indignation at the savage Presidents disgracing them , by so infamous an employment , as they were now about ; and then assur'd them of rewards from Dydimus , suitable to the liberality of so generous a Person : After which withdrawing himself , to give Didymus a short account , how far he had proceeded , he left the rest to be compleated by him ; who prompted by his native liberality , and his high concern , did not stay to cheapen his Mistresses Liberty , but with the hasty Passion of a Lover , proffer'd them more than even Septimius's promises gave them reason to expect : Nor would he have declin'd to embrace any Articles of Agreement , they could have propos'd , though the parting with his Life had been one , so Theodoras Deliverance were another . The sence these soldiers had of the affront put on them , by the President , joyn'd with the Ambition they had to please their lov'd Commander , and the gratitude his friends profus'd Bounty had newly oblig'd them to ; made them quickly accommodate Didymus with a military Habit , and prepare some of their Comrades to allow him the first admittance into her Chamber ; partly by sharing some of the newly receiv'd Presents among them , and probably by representing him to them , when thus prepar'd , as a person who having been passionately in love with Theodora , and been scornfully slighted by her , was desirous at any rate , to satisfie at once his appetite and his revenge . And by this means , before that short time was expir'd , that had been as an Act of Grace , allow'd the disconsolate Virgin , to deliberate whether she would yet comply with the Judge ; an entrance into her Chamber was permitted to her Lover ; who ( in order not only to his present but further Design ) had purposely closed the vizor of his Helmet ; upon which score , not being knowable by his fair Mistress , he met with from her the reception we have formerly related . CHAP. II. THough , in the sad Condition wherein our disguis'd Lover , found his desolate Mistress , her sorrow and her fears , did somewhat cloud her Beauty , yet they could not hinder her looks from being so charming & majestick , as to create less pitty than respect . Wherefore with gestures , wherein this was as visible as he could make it , he told her , without approaching too near ; Do not , Madam , I beseech you , add to your other troubles , the apprehension , that because I appear in the circumstances of a Ravisher , I come to commit a Rape : Theodora is so great an ornament to the Christian Religion , and her Purity is an ornament so dear to Theodora , that Heaven will not permit , either that Antioch should be rob'd of one , or she of the other . And therefore , that Providence which you have so generously trusted , has sent me to your rescue , which after the care I have taken to dispose things without doors , 't will not be difficult to compass , if you please to make use of the Military Habit I have brought hither , disguise and convey your self hence . Nor need you be solicitous , what will become of me , for I am under the same care of the same Providence , that now justifies your reliance on it , by providing for your escape : And I that found means to come in hither , may be succesful in attempting a Retreat , or if I should not succeed in it , I shall not miss the joy of paying my Duty , where I had the most desire and cause to do it ; and shall leave the world with the satisfaction of having highly oblig'd it , by the preservation of the most accomplish'd Person in it . And Madam , ( continues Didymus ) that you may not doubt the willingness or the intentions wherewith this offer is made you , be pleas'd to know that it comes from the now fortunate Didymus , who justly thinks that in aspiring to your acceptance of it , he does less proffer a service , than beg a favour , that will not only be a full Recompence , but a high Obligation . The name of Didymus , and Discourse so suitable to it , made by him that assum'd it , soon dissipated the dismal apprehensions his habit , and her circumstances had given her : She knew so well his Courage , his Vertue , and his Love , that nothing unlawful or mean , was to be fear'd ; but the boldest things , if they were as noble as hazardous , might justly be expected , from him : So that this attempt did perhaps as much oblige her , as it surpris'd her . Wherefore , as soon as she had recompos'd her lately disorder'd thoughts , she told him , with looks serene enough to let him see how much she trusted him ; This action , generous Didymus , is of a nature so extraordinary , that my ingratitude would be so too , if my sense of it were not . To own and rescue a persecuted and affronted Maid , and to do it with more hazard than you need run in the Roman Armies , to purchase Fame and Honours , in an action so disinteressed , and so unexampled , that I want words to celebrate it , as well as merit to deserve it , and power to requite it . But I admire so rare an effect of Vertue , ( continues she ) can consent to the destruction of its Author . No , Generous Didymus , 't is enough that the vertues ▪ of Christians be treated as crimes by the Romans : They must not meet the like usage from Theodora ; she must not purchase a life , that she values as little her self as others have cause to do , at so high a rate , as your partial Charity persuades you to set upon it . For even those that do now most pitty me , would repine at the preservation of my life , if it should cost that of a Heroe . Especially , if I should designedly be accessory to so great a Loss : Which accompanied with a publick Indignation , and my own Reproaches for my Ingratitude , would certainly make that Life a Burden to me , that at so dear a rate you would preserve as a Blessing . But — Here Theodora was going to proceed , when her griev'd Lover , fearing that if she did so , she might make some Declaration unfavourable to his Wishes , thought fit to endeavour to prevent it , by saying to her with a profound respect . Ah , Madam , do not make your mistaking Compassion more cruel to me , than the severity of the Romans themselves , which we Christians justly Tax , can possibly be . For they will but in a few moments take away that Life , which you would at once protract and render Miserable . Do not , I beseech you , Madam , ( continues he ) think my services Meritorious , because they are paid you in this place , and in your Persecuted Condition . No , Madam , Theodora has Prerogatives enough , to make many less unworthy ( though not more zealous ) than I , ambitious to serve her , in what Circumstances soever Providence shall think fit to place her . Whatever the Romans , that worship Fortune and Victory as Goddesses , and find their Prosperity the powerfullest Argument to support and spread their Religion , may think of Sufferings embrac'd for Conscience sake : sure we Christians , that adore a Crucified Saviour , who , as he took upon him the form of a Servant , was put to Death between two Thieves , as a Slave and a Malefactor too ; ought not to let any Persecutions , or Indignities , lessen our Veneration or Concern for those that chuse to Suffer for him , and imitate as well as own him , whatever it cost them . Nor , Madam , ( pursues Didymus ) needs your having been brought to this place , make you think your self at all dishonour'd , in the Opinions of those that can make just Estimates of things . They look on Sufferers for truth with His undeceiveable Eyes , that , by one of the Pen-men he inspir'd , having mention'd those Persons that for Religions sake were Imprison'd , Destitute , Tormented , Affronted forc'd in the Skins of Beasts , to wander like them in Desarts , and lodge in Dens ; Honours them with this Character and Testimony , more glorious than all the Panegyricks of Orators , and Laurels of Conquerors , That the World was not worthy of them . And such Judges will think Venus an Infamous Courtezan , though the Romans adore her in their Temples ; and will not think Theodora the less excellent Person , for having been condemn'd on the score of Vertue to a Scandalous place . Honour were a mean thing , and not worthy to have its loss much fear'd , or regretted ; if we could forfeit it without having forsaken Vertue ; and much more , if we could be depriv'd of it for having closely follow'd Her. Nothing can blemish true Reputation , that cannot be declin'd without manifest injury to Religion , which justifies our Acting whatever it imposes . The Angels themselves that were sent to Sodom , scrupl'd less to go even thither , then to disobey him that made it their duty to do so , nor were polluted by entering into that abominable place ; and being attempted by the brutish Inhabiters of it , carried thence the Angelical Purity wherewith they came thither . Didymus thought fit to say what has been repeated , that he might Console so chast a Virgin as Theodora , who had still enjoy'd , as well as merited , a spotless Reputation ; by assuring her , that the barbarous Affront she had been expos'd to , for Constancy to her Religion , had not , among unbyass'd Judges , lessen'd the high Esteem her former Life had justly given them of her Vertue . But he would not discourse long of a Subject so Nice ; that 't was difficult not only to insist on it , but so much as to mention it , without being uneasie to so tender a Modesty as hers he was speaking to . Upon which account , passing on to another Argument , he told her , These things I have mention'd , Madam , to let you see , how little I can pretend to merit by the Circumstances of the duty I pay you ; and consequently , how little you need scruple to accept of my further Service , without which my past Endeavours will be useless to us both . And give me leave to own to you , Madam , that 't was not without much trouble , as well as surprize , that I heard the incomparable Theodora's Merit so much injur'd , as to have the valuableness of my Life put into the Ballance with that of hers , nay , and made to Preponderate . Alas , Madam , there are Legions , that as well as I dare expose their Lives to the greatest hazards , and run greater dangers for some despicable pay , or a sew worthless Leaves , than I do to serve my Religion , and the fairest Professor of it . Every day affords thousands of such Men as I : Else the Roman Camps would not be so frequently Recruited , and those Numbers that fall in Breaches , or in Battels , would not have their Rooms so ambitiously supplied , by Men that see them do so . But such Persons as attain to be both the Ornaments of their Religion , and the Honour of their Sex , must be so Excellent , and are so Rare , that 't is not every Age that produces so much as one of them . Such Exemplary Ladies , do as well improve as enoble the times and places they live in : The respect and love Men have for them , makes their good Counsels very persuasive ; the loveliness of their Persons is so diffus'd to their Actions , as , by making Men forward to take them for Examples , adds to to their Vertues , both a great Splendor , and a powerful Influence . That Theodora is not only one of that small Number , but eminent in it ; nothing but her Presence , could keep it from being uneasie for me to evince . But , Madam , ( continues he ) though in such Circumstances as mine , your scrupulous Modesty may keep Men silent , yet it ought not to keep them from being Just . Your profound Humility may draw a Curtain , that may hide your Vertues from your Eyes ; but in the Eyes of others , it cannot but encrease their Number , and exceedingly add to their Lustre . You need not therefore , Madam , ( pursues he ) scruple to receive the Service I aspire to do you , upon an injurious apprehension , that 't is above Reward ; whilst indeed it pretends not to any at all , except the Satisfaction and Honour , that will be inseparable from the performance it self . Here Didymus paus'd for some moments ; being sensible , how difficult a task he was entering upon : Since 't was , without prejudicing his Love , to own to his Mistress her self , that he did not serve her upon the score of That . But however ; the sincerity of his affection , and the great desire he had to make his persuasions prevalent , hasten'd him to prevent her Answer , by thus prosecuting his Discourse : 'T is true , Madam , that Theodoras perfections did not miss in me , to have the operation that they are wont to have , upon those that enjoy the opportunities of considering them : and if she had been in a distress greater than that she is now in , though her Religion had not at all contributed to bring her into it , I should joyfully have expos'd my self , to a greater hazard than I now run , to rescue her from it . But , Madam , that is not our case ; for that which now brings me hither , is none of those sentiments , that if I were possessor of a Crown , would bring me to lay that and my self at your feet , and think my self more happy in your acceptance of it , than in all the advantages and prerogatives that could belong to it . For , Madam , the resolution that led me hither , was not inspir'd by the fair , but by the devout and vertuous Theodora . If she had no Charms , but those that cannot be seen with bodily Eyes , or if her visible Beauty were but moderate , or none at all ; her Exemplary Piety and Unshaken Constancy , shining in such extraordinary Expressions of them , as she has this day given , would make me think my self unworthy of Life , if I should stick at hazarding it to save so precious a one , as hers , and what I knew she would far more unwillingly loose ; and thereby do some right to Divine Providence , which , by so unexampled a reliance on it , was thought in some sort engag'd to answer so uncommon and entire a Trust . After what she did for Christ , I did not think I could do enough for her , if I did less than I have endeavour'd to do . And therefore , Madam , ( concludes he ) I hope as well as beg , that you will no longer scruple to accept of that rescue , that Providence offers you , by an unmercenary and most wlling hand , but will to make use of this Military Garment ( at which words Dydimus with great respect , pointed at His ) and allow my endeavours , by procuring your safety , to secure my happiness . To this moving Speech , the fair person , that 't was address'd to , return'd this calm Answer . Though the handsom and obliging things you have been pleas'd to say , Generous Didymus , have made all the impressions on me that they ought to have ; yet I must , with your pardon , freely tell you , that they naturally afford an inference , quite opposite to what you would conclude from them ; since , by discovering more and more of your Gallantry & Friendship , they let me still further see , how much the World would loose , by being depriv'd of so much Vertue , and how unexcusable I , above all others , should be , if I should be willingly accessory to that loss . Your too too excessive Complements , I must not pretend to answer ; since 't would be too great a reflection on Your Judgment , as well as Mine , to think you meant them for any thing more than what I have call'd them . But in answer to the serious part of your Discourse , I shall tell you , that , if I had proceeded in what I was going to say to you , when you interrupted me , I had , perhaps , prevented some of the things you have said , by freely acquainting you ( as I now mean to do ) with the state of my Case , and the intentions it suggested to me . When the inhumane President ( continues Theodora ) had condemn'd me , either to offer Sacrifice in an Idol Temple , or be led away to this infamous place ; I was in such a perplexity and agony as can hardly be conceiv'd , especially by a Person that is not of my Sex ; for Death it self was thought too mild an evil , to be one of those , among which I was condemn'd to make my choice . On the one side ; the infamy of this detestable place was that which I could not think on , without the utmost horror and indignation : and not only my Sex and Breeding , but even the Dictates of more than one Vertue , ( Modesty and Chastity ) concurr'd to highten my abhorrence of it . But on the other side ; I remembred , that I did not vow Obedience to God with any exceptions or reserves ; that I was both a Disciple and a Worshipper of a Persecuted and Affronted Redeemer , for whom ( though there were not an infinite Inequality between our Conditions ) I could not suffer more , than he had already suffer'd for my sake ; having not only endur'd the Cross , but despis'd the Shame , which the Jews insolent Malice , and the Romans Barbarous Custom , had annexed to it . And I thought that , perhaps , Providence had led me into this distress , to give me an Opportunity of shewing , that I could do more than die for Christ . But I must not now trouble you , with the various thoughts that distracted my Mind on this dismal occasion ; on which all that I could say , to those that rudely press'd me to give a positive answer , was , that of the things they propos'd , I plainly saw that both were to be refus'd , and therefore I could make choice of neither . But since I would make no Election for my self , their Malice soon made one for me , of this detestable place . I was so confounded , and as it were stunn'd , at the first steps they forc'd me to take towards it , that I scarce knew what to think , or what I did ; save that I remembered , that Idolatry was in the Sacred Books represented as a most odious , though Spiritual , Fornication ; and that Apostacy would be my own Crime , whereas the Consequences of refusing it , could make me but the Object of anothers : And remembring my self to be a Daughter of him , that against Hope believed in Hope , to follow God's Call , I did like him , Obey , not knowing whither I went : Yet having this Satisfaction , that I acted according to the Dictates of a well inform'd Conscience , so that , whatever the way might prove , I need not fear to be misled by closely following an Infallible Guide . Here the Chast Virgins words were a little interrupted by the flowing Tears , and the inevitable Discomposure , that were produc'd by the sad remembrance of the distress'd Condition she was recounting . But having , as soon as she was able suppress'd , those visible effects of her vertuous Grief , she thus pursu'd her Discourse . Revolving these and the like thoughts in my Mind , I arriv'd at this infamous place . And being for a while left alone in this Room , to try whether yet I could be brought to change my Mind ; the nearer approach of what I was to endure , making it look more hideous to me , than , till then , I thought 't was possible for any thing to appear , made me presently think of flying for Refuge to the dark Sanctuary of Death ; and by dispatching my self drown in my yet untainted Blood , both my own dismal fears , and my Persecuters brutish hopes . But then there came into my mind , what I had been often taught , and , whilst I was unconcern'd , judg'd rational to believe , of the unlawfulness of Killing ones self , upon any account whatsoever . I consider'd , that God , who made our Love unto our selves , the standard of the affection we owe our Neighbour , in forbidding us to destroy anothers Life , must be suppos'd much more to prohibit us that violence against our own . And if Fratricide be justly listed amongst the blackest Crimes , because of that Relation the slaughter'd persons have to those that Kill them ; how Criminal upon that score must be the Murder of our selves , where the Relation is not nearer , only because 't is too near , to be properly any at all ? The Sovereign Author and absolute Lord of our Lives , having thought fit to employ us here in his Service , we cannot , without violating our Duty to him , desert it until we have perform'd his Errand , which is , to glorifie him by our Lives ; till loyalty to his Truth , or his Commands , convince us , that we may better glorifie him by our Deaths . Such Considerations as these would , I hope , have restrain'd me from ending my Life with a Crime ; but the thoughts of it were quickly supprest , by my remembering that in this place , I was destitute of Instruments to act it with . Wherefore remembring that Daniel had been preserv'd , though not from the Lyons Den , yet in it ; and his three Friends were not deliver'd from the Fiery Furnace , till they had been cast into it ; and having learned by those Examples , that no Succours can come too late , that God designs for our Rescue , I betook my self to Prayer , as the most hopeful , as well as the most innocent course , I could take ; and with an ardency , heighten'd with the extremity of my Distress , I was beseeching God , though with the loss of my Life , to preserve a Purity , that by his Grace had been hitherto kept unblemish'd , when your unexpected entrance brought me a return of those Prayers , I had yet scarce utter'd . Judge then , Generous Didymus ( subjoyns Theodora ) by the Condition I was in , how much I must think my self Oblig'd , by so brave and seasonable an attempt to deliver me out of it . To serve so bright a Vertue , lodg'd in so noble a Shrine , I thought , Madam ( says Didymus , Interrupting her ) to be as much my Duty , as to have found an Opportunity to do it , is my Happiness : and if you please to permit me , as I now hope you will , the Honour and Satisfaction of compleating my Endeavours to deliver you ; I shall much more value my self , upon the having paid you that Service ( though it be more proportionate to my power , than to my desires ) than if I had rescued a Roman General , or for successful attempts , been made one my self . When Thanks are purchas'd by Merit , replys Theodora , to disclaim a right to them , does not forfeit it , but encrease it ; nor need you make me any new Professions , since after the Testimonies you have given me already of your Vertues , and your Friendship , I should make my self unworthy of them , if I doubted of their Reality , or Greatness . Yes ; Didymus , I believe what you declar'd , of the Disinterestedness of your proceedings in the Rescue of a Person of no greater Merit , than I can pretend to : Since the Circumstances of your Attempt , make it appear too generous to let me suspect , that the Aim of it was other than noble too . And indeed , after what you have done ( continues She ) it would ill become me to scruple to be further oblig'd by you , and therefore I shall venture to make you a Request , as soon as I shall have acquainted you with the Reasons , 't is grounded on . Didymus being surpriz'd at this welcom Declaration , was going with Transports to assure Her , he could deny her nothing , nor obey her in any thing without Joy ; when she prevented him , by thus continuing her Discourse . You know , my Generous Deliverer , that Virgins have so great and clear a Right to keep themselves such , against all outward Assaults ; that Monarchs themselves ( whose Force is not to be by force oppos'd , when it tends but to deprive us of our Lives ) may be forcibly resisted , when they strive to offer Violence to our Chastity . Since then , an untainted Purity is a Jewel , that the Possessors are allowed to preserve and defend , even by uncommon ways , if others will not serve ; and such as would in other Cases be unwarrantable : Though I do not , as I lately told you , think it lawful , as many do , to secure Virginity by Self-Murder ; yet I cannot disapprove their Opinion , that allow a Virgin in case of Extremity , to emplore that Death from anothers hand , that she is forbidden to give her self , with her own ; since in such a Calamitous Condition , Heaven , by debarring her all other ways of escaping from Defilement , seems to approve of this . And the Scripture informs us , that though the Prophet Jonas held it unlawful to drown himself , yet he persuaded those that Sail'd with him , to cast him bound into the Sea , when neither they nor he expected he could out-live many Minutes ( as indeed 't was not without a Miracle that he did . ) Wherefore , pursues Theodora , if you will perfect what you have so Obligingly begun , you must lend me your Arm and Sword , to free me by a speedy Death , from mischiefs much greater than it . The Romans will easily believe , that my resistance and provocations transported you to a Revenge , at which the barbarous usage I have receiv'd at their hands , makes it unlikely they will be much offended : The grant of my request will not hinder you from being , what you are pleas'd to think a Title , Theodoras Deliverer . For , in the estimation of Equitable Judges , as well as in Hers , 't will suffice to give you a right to that Title , That you have deliver'd her from her geatest Calamity and Danger . Nor will the good office I desire , be inconsistent with my obtaining the Honour of Martyrdom : St. John the Baptist , because his bold Zeal for the Laws of Religion , gave the first rise to those Persecutions that terminated in his Death , is justly reckon'd among Martyrs , though he was privately beheaded in his Prison , at the solicitation of a Curtezan : and if one willingly suffers death for the Truth , or the Interest of Religion , there needs not a Scaffold or a Stake , and a publick Executioner , to make such a person a Martyr . And since the Persecutions that now make havock of the Church , are like to continue long ; and since I am resolv'd , by Gods assistance , never to avoid them , by any either unlawful or unhandsom way : the Escape you would persuade me to , would but for a while delay those Sufferings I ought not to shun , and would make them much less acceptable , by my having endeavor'd to avoid them ; especially by an action so mean , if not criminal too , as to consent to the loss of an excellent Person , that most generously expos'd himself for my safety . Deny me not therefore , concludes Theodora , with Tears in her Eyes , the last request I shall ever make you ; but by sheathing your Sword here , ( at which words she pointed with blushes , at her fair and innocent Breast ) be pleas'd , by one quick and charitable Stroke , to perfect my deliverance , without making me Stain it with the Blood of my deliverer ; free us both from eminent Danger , me of being Dishonour'd , and you of being Tormented ; and by the same Act of Friendship , secure me the Coronet of Virginity , and procure me the Crown of Martyrdom . Great was the Surprise , and greater was the Trouble , wherewith Didymus heard the conclusion of this Discourse : In answer to which , as soon as his astonishment would permit him to speak ; Ah Madam , says he , what have you ever seen in the unfortunate Didymus , that could tempt you to make him so strange a proposition . That I , whose Errand hither was to venture my Life in your Service , should my self destroy the admirable Person I came to Rescue ; and that Didymus should imbrue his guilty Hands in Theodora's innocent Blood , to save one drop of which , He would gladly shed all his own . As your Piety deserves to be the Pattern of more than one Age , so I doubt not , but that in times very remote from ours , your Memory will shine as bright , as your Vertue and your Eyes do now ; and then , how hideous a Monster must I appear to Posterity , that will look upon me as one , that could in a trice , pass from pretending to be your Deliverer , to be really your Murderer ; and this for no other Reason , than that you were pleas'd to manifest a great concern for my Preservation ? And pardon me , Madam , ( continues Didymus ) if I tell you , that your Generosity makes you forget some of your other Vertues , and even of the Dictates of the Religion you have hitherto adorn'd ; Since your Commands , if obey'd , would engage me to commit a Crime , and make you your self , more than accessory to it . For , Madam , since you acknowledg Self-Murder to be unlawful , how can your Commands give me a right to take from you , a Life , that you have not power to dispose of ? and what Excuse can I have , without so much as the pretence of acting under Authority , to destroy an Innocent Person ? For , Madam , since I am to declare , why I presume to do the thing in the World I would least be put upon , to disobey Theodora ; give me leave to tell you , that , should I execute what you require , the Action would not be excusable in either of us . For as Adam sinn'd in doing a forbidden thing , though she that prevail'd with him to do it , Was first in the Transgression ; and the Jewish Prophet was torn in pieces by a Lion , though he did what he was seduc'd to , by the persuasions of a Prophet : So the Scripture clearly condemns David of Murder , because he kill'd Vria , though not with his own hand , yet with the Sword of the Children of Ammon : And the Scripture tells us too , that God plagu'd the Children of Israel in the Wilderness , because , as the Text expresses it , They made the Calf , that Aaron made . And indeed , by whatever Hand innocent Blood is shed , the Guilt of it will light upon the Person that procur'd it to be spilt . And to this I must add , That since Christians are in some cases , not only permitted , but Exhorted , if not Commanded , To lay down their Lives for one another : The high value and concern , I justly have for yours , makes me conclude , that this is certainly one of those Cases , and consequently , that I may lawfully offer you a Service , which you , perhaps , cannot lawfully refuse : Since Providence has left you no other Innocent way , than the acceptance of it , to escape your present danger . And the guilt of Self-Murder may , for ought I know , be Contracted , not only by a positive Act , but by an Inflexible refusal of the proffer'd means of Safety . Pardon me , I beseech you , Madam , pursues Didymus , if the great Concern I have for such a Person as Theodora , has Extorted from me , a greater plainness of Speech , than my profound Respect for Her would permit me , upon any other occasion . And because I perceive that , that which makes you most scruple to grant my humble Request , is , That your Superlative Generosity , and what your Humility persuades you to think Gratitude , make you solicitous for the preservation of a Life , hazarded for your sake ; I must assure you , Madam , that your Inflexibleness will no way make provision for my safety . For , if I should be Condemn'd by your cruel Commands , to leave you expos'd to the barbarous and defiling rudeness of those Brutish Satyrs , that impatiently wait without , the regret and shame , of having mis'd the Honour of Theodora's Rescue , will give me far greater Torments , than the Romans can , for having effected it . And I must add on this Occasion , Madam , ( continues he , not without some change of Colour and Voice ) that some Sentiments ( which though I think not this a fit time or place to name , have been much Confirm'd and Heightned , by what I have this day had opportunity to observe ) have so fast tied my Happiness to your Welfare , that the presence of my Soul is scarce more necessary to my Life , than your Safety is . Nor fancy , Madam , that the belief I own of the unlawfulness of Self-Murder , will secure my Life : for there are other ways , to procure Death to him that 's weary of Life , than his own Sword , or a draught of Poyson ; since Passion alone , when rais'd to a competent degree , may do the office of either of those . And since Joy it self , though the most pleasing and friendly of the Passions , has by its Excess , prov'd destructive of Mens Lives ; why may not Grief , and Shame , and Indignation , which are Passions more violent , and very unfriendly to Nature , be able to produce as fatal Effects ? And to shew you , Madam , ( continues Didymus ) how much reason I have to think , that your Condition dispenses me from obeying the Dictates of your Generosity , let me . — But , before Didymus had annex'd his Reasons , a Noise made without , gave him a hot Allarm , and made him fear , the patience of some that waited without , would not last very much longer ; and therefore addressing himself to Theodora , with a Countenance as Petitioning as his Words , and Eyes , in which his Courage could scarce repress the Tears : How long , Madam , says he , will you upon groundless Scruples , neglect an Opportunity , whose Omission will be Irreparable . And how can you justifie to God , the slighting the means His Providence presents you , of easily securing your Safety . Ah , Madam , then ( concludes Didymus ) by one quick and necessary Resolve , regain your Liberty , preserve your Honour , and secure your Life . But if nothing that has relation to your self alone will move you , be pleas'd to reward the Services I have Essay'd to do you , with the implor'd grant of your own Safety ; and permit me for this once , rather to Serve you than Obey you . Nor need your generous Solicitude for me , hinder , or retard your Resolution : The World will not blame a Spotless Virgin , for doing what is necessary to keep Her self such ; nor look upon it as a part of Ingratitude , to grant , to one that has done his best to serve Her , a Recompence , that he is so ambitious of , as to venture his Life to obtain it at her Hands . In short , Madam , for the time allows me not a long Discourse , if your Cruelty will not permit me to prevent your Death ; Grief , and other Passions , will not allow me to survive it : And then , ( supposing I should fail of making retreat ) would it not be a much more happy Fate , that the constant Didymus should Die , for having sav'd the matchless Theodora , than for having lost Her ? CHAP. III. TO these pathetick Words he thought not fit to stay for an answer , but retiring to a corner of the room , he divested himself of his military Coat , and upon his knee , presented it to Theodora . She in the mean time , reflecting upon his Arguments , was by their force , convinc'd , that the motion she had made him , of killing her , was grounded upon a dangerous Error . And the noise that had been made , in the outward room , alarming her , at least as much as it had done him , let her see she had no further time left her to deliberate . And therefore , being prevail'd with , by supplications , made in so persuasive a way , that it appear'd a far less cruelty , even towards him , to accept , than finally to refuse , his offer : She first made her Blushes , and her silence intimate her consent , and then declar'd it more expresly , by raising him , and taking out of his hand what he presented to her . And to his joy ( which his foresight that his success would be fatal to him , could not hinder from being very great ) she receiv'd from him instruction how to put it on , and permitted him ( though not without strange disorder in her mind and looks ) to assist her : For as it was absolutely necessary to do it ; so he did it with all imaginable care , to distress so nice a Modesty , as little as was possible : And therefore , as soon as ever he had done that , with all the respect and decency the place and occasion would by any means permit , all that could be done without him , he left her to do herself , withdrawing to a part of the room , whence he could not see her . Which Retreat he was induc'd to make , not only out of civility and respect , but perchance because the dangers that threat'n internal Chastity , have this peculiar fate , that usually those persons are most careful to shun them , that are the most resolv'd , and the best able , to surmount them . As soon as the mutual Exchange of their habits had made it decent for them to discourse together , the disguis'd Virgin , with Cheeks cover'd with Blushes , and with looks so obliging , that they alone would have recompenc'd Didymus for any less service than that she now receiv'd , addressing herself to her Benefactor ; If your Reasons , saies she , had not convinc'd me , that I could not without a crime free my self from my wretched Condition by death , and if yet death were not the only way , by which , if I decline your generous proffer , I can possibly shun , what I far more apprehend than death , dishonor ; I should not leave you in a danger , wherein only your concern for Religion and for me , has engag'd you . But I doubt not the same Charity , that put you upon making me your generous proffer , and pressing me not to decline it , will make you pardon a fault , to which your own Reasons and Importunity have made you highly accessory ; especially since I know you think a tenderness of Honor , and an abhorrence of all Defilement , to be things so allowable in a Virgin , as very much extenuate , if not justifie , what they require of her . And indeed I shall do you but right , when I thankfully acknowledge , that in this whole transaction about my Rescue , your carriage has been such , as would leave me no doubt , if ever I had been so unjust as to have any , of the purity & disinterestedness of your intentions , by which I am not a little confirm'd in the opinion I have alwaies had , That Vertue may inspire as Noble and as Hazardous Enterprises , as Passion can . I know that in this daies work , you aim'd at higher Retributions than could be expected from one in my Condition . But yet I think my self oblig'd to assure you , That your Heroick Acts of Vertue and Friendship , have not been exercis'd towards a Person insensible of them ; but that your Merit , and your Favors , have produc'd all the esteem and other Sentiments , which they ought to produce , in a Person , that is not altogether incapable to discern and value them . And if the Pray'rs of a disconsolate Virgin , then sav'd by you , when all the rest of the World had abandon'd her , can have any interest at the Throne of Grace ; they will obtain for you , Blessings as great as your generosity to me has been ; and not less lasting , than my Sense of it will be ; and you will , during a long protracted life , either be allow'd quietly to enjoy the Glory , your many meritorious Hazards of it have purchas'd , or else be enabled to find a happiness in your very Sufferings , by vertue of those peculiar Consolations that are reserv'd for a persecuted Condition ; as anciently Manna was vouchsafed the Israelites , only whilst they were Exiles in the Wilderness . The quick success God has been pleas'd to grant my Pray'rs for my own deliverance , lets me not despair to find him propitious , to those I shall with no less ardency put up for yours : But if your Charity should expose you to further danger , I solemnly promise you , that you shall find , I have been instructed , as well as oblig'd , by your generosity , and would not have left you expos'd for my sake , that I might shun any danger that had threat'ned but my life . And now the mournful Virgin , being to bid her accomplish'd Votary a farewel , which probably enough would prove the last ; by a manifest change in her countenance , and the tone of her voice , and by the multitude of tears that fell from her fair Eyes , convinc'd him no less of the trouble she was in upon his account , than any verbal expressions could do it ; though she said to him , in a most obliging manner , Farewel my Generous Deliverer ; and may that God , who sees with what reluctancy I consent to your danger , free you happily from it , and richly recompense that noble Charity that led you into it . I hope we shall yet see one another again upon Earth . I am confident we shall meet joyfully in Heaven ; by which I must confess my self very highly favour'd , not only in my Deliverance , but in the instrument of it ; since God makes me not beholden for my Rescue to any common person , but is pleas'd so to order it , that I receive the greatest of earthly Benefits , from the most Generous of men . Madam , replies the much troubled Didymus , your own unequal'd perfections , and the operation they have had on me , make me so much yours , that your wishing me happy , does more towards the making me so , than your humility will allow you to be aware of . You have too much Merit , Madam , to let the Services I have paid you , have a title to any ; and what I have had the happiness to perform , is but what was every brave man in Antioch's duty to endeavor . But if your Goodness will needs make you think , that my poor Services should have another ( for they can scarce have a greater ) recompence , than you have already given them , by suffering them to conttribute to your safety ; and if you will vouchsafe to allow the memory of him that did them , a room in your thoughts , ( which is the happiest Station it can aspire to upon earth : ) I humbly beg your faithful servants Image may be look'd on without any troublesom degree of pity ; since his condition will then need none , and the Idea would very much misrepresent the Original , if it should disquiet her , whom he never approach'd , but to serve Her. 'T is suitable , Madam , to this frame of mind , that for Theodoras sake I must now deny my self so much , as to hasten her departure , least some cross accident should prevent it : At which words , looking on her with a countenance that all his Courage could not keep from a discernable Change : Farewel , said he , incomparable Theodora , may you continue long the Ornament and the Pattern of your Sex : And since we see that some Fruits may be as well preserv'd in Honey , as others in Brine and Vinegar , may the height of your Vertue be kept up , but the objects of it so chang'd , that by a settled Prosperity you may henceforth haveoccasion to exercise your moderation and your gratitude , instead of your courage and your patience . Once more Farewel , concludes he , unequal'd Theodora ; and may you live but with as much Contentment , as if I suffer for you , I shall die with Satisfaction . Though these moving Expressions , and the accent wherewith they were deliver'd , did very sensibly touch a person so well natur'd and grateful as Theodora ; yet she thought the fittest return she could then make to her Lover's discourse , was , presently to follow the advice he was so earnest to have her speedily embrace . And therefore , bidding him farewel only by a look , wherein high degrees of sorrow and gratitude were plainly mingled ; she immediately dispos'd herself to quit that dismal place : Which then afforded a noble instance , how little a great mind can be hindred from disclosing it self to be so , by the Stage 't is oblig'd to act upon . For whilst in divers of the stately Temples of Antioch , Whores , ( such as Venus and Flora , ) and Ravishers , and Adulterers , ( such as Jupiter and Mars ) were solemnly ador'd ; in an infamous Scene , dedicated to publick Lust and Violence ; the strictest Chastity was exercis'd , and Martyrdom it self was contended for . Having once ventur'd into the outward room , That Providence , to which she had in such discouraging Circumstances trusted her Virgin Purity , would not leave the rescue of it , incompleat ; but whilst the waiting Ruffians were eagerly contending , who should succeed the person they took by the Habit to be Didymus , ( and whose face they did not wonder to see muffled , presently after so savage an action as they suppos'd him to have committed ) brought her safely out of that infamous Place . Whence , by the least frequented Passages she knew , she was was quickly convey'd to the house of her dear Friend Irene , which happen'd to be nearer than her own . There to avoid suspicion , some of her friends and relations were met together , to lament her Captivity , and join in Prayer to him that alone could deliver her , to be directed by God how they might ( if it were possible ) contribute to her rescue . But , though their Prayers were probably made with more zeal than hope , they were not a little alarm'd , when looking out to see who knock'd at the door , they saw , as they thought , a Soldier , who would not have been quickly let in , if Irene had not presum'd it to be Didymus , who was coming to offer his Service to his captivated Mistress . But 't is not easie to express the wonder and the joy , with which they soon discover'd that this was not Theodoras Lover , but herself ; whose Beauty and her military Dress , would have made her , had the Roman Guards discover'd her , pass for their Pallas . Nor was such a Habit , though improper for a Virgin , unsuitable to a Great , as well as Chast Conqueror . But though her presence never needed the endearment of a Surprise , yet the unexpectedness of it at that time and place , added to the Transports it produc'd ; especially in Irene : Who after a thousand gratulations and caresses , at length begg'd in the name of the impatient Company , to know how the blessing they all receiv'd in her freedom , was procur'd . To which reasonable request she answer'd , by making a short but faithful Narrative , of what had occur'd since the time she was cited before the President , till she came to take Sanctuary among them ; piously concluding , that , as what she had done not misbecoming a Christian , was altogether by the assistance of Divine Grace , so the succour she receiv'd to bring her out of danger was by the Conduct of Divine Providence , which in her delivery made use of the high vertue and generosity of Didymus . This Relation made the Company first return Thanks and Praises to the Divine Goodness , which were followed by the celebrations of the happy Instrument of it : every one , as it were by turns , endeavouring to vye , who should most commend so venturous & disinteressed a Lover . Nor perhaps did Theodora her self , inwardly dissent from that gratefull company . For , though her modesty and reservedness kept her from declaring her Sentiments , as others did theirs ; yet perhaps that was because She thought , that having given a Candid account of his deportment , her Narrative had made her praises needless , the History it self being indeed a Panegyric . After the Companies curiosity was somewhat satisfied by what Theodora had told them , and both Irene and she had made a request to a Gentleman that knew Dydimus well , to endeavour to bring them speedy notice of what had happened to him , or was like to befall him : The two excellent Ladies retir'd to the apartment of Irene . There the pious Theodora , having devoutly paid her solemn Thanks and Praise , for her almost miraculous Deliverance , to the Divine Author of it ; she was accommodated by her Friend , with Cloaths befitting her Sex. Nor was it difficult for Irene , ( though on so sudden an occasion ) to furnish her with a Habit she liked for besides , that a Person so shap'd and fashioned as Theodora , could make almost any dress Graceful ; she us'd to pity the mean vanity of those Ladies , that could be either Ambitious or Proud of what they must owe to a Taylor or a Dresser , and affected to be taken notice of , not so much for what they are , as for what they wear : And therefore , tho' she did not scrupulously decline fashionable Clothes because they were so ; yet all the Ornaments that pass'd the limits of the modestest Decency , she alwayes as little valu'd , as she needed them . CHAP. IV. BEfore this rare Couple return'd to the rest of the Company , Irenes kindness for Didymus made her think , she ought not to loose this opportunity , of doing good offices to her absent Friend . And therefore having ( as she easily might ) brought the discourse to fall upon his late performances ; I hope , Madam , sayes she to Theodora , you are now satisfi'd , that the Character I gave you of the greatness of my Cousins Vertue , and the Ardency of his Flame , was dictated more by his Merit than my Friendship . I were very ungrateful , replies Theodora , if I did not willingly acknowledge his Generosity to be altogether extraordinary , and that , as he could not oblige me more highly than he has done , so it was not possible that he should do it more handsomly . I know , Madam , saith Irene , that Theodora may freely choose among all the illustrious Youth of Antioch , what person she would please to make happy : And , without considering her less obvious , though more admirable , Perfections ; far less Beauty than she is Mistress of , has in our times , given the Possessors a share in the Imperial Throne , and perhaps too , plac'd them upon the Roman Altars . But yet , continues she , since I have the honour to know you too well , not to be confident , that you value Piety and Vertue , and a Flame regulated and excited by them , above those outward advantages which weaker Spirits are influenc'd by ; I think I may presume to say ; that I know not any person in Antioch , to whom the fair Theodora may with less Condescension vouchsafe a Share in her Favour , than to him , that had the happiness to give her so clear a proof , of the ardency , the purity , and the disinterestedness of his Flame . If I had not , reply's Theodora with a somewhat dissatisfy'd look , been much surprised at the begining of your Discourse ; I had immediately stop'd you there : And lamented my infelicity , that Irene , whom I thought my self happy in having for my Friend , allows her self what is so repugnant to true friendship , as flattery is . I could , continues Theodora without pausing for fear of being prevented ; easily , and with the approbation of many of the best Judges in Antioch , return the fair Irene her own Complements , if I thought fit to imitate what I cannot approve . And to Speak seriously , continues She , neither you nor I , nor any of our Sex , ought to think Skin-deep Beauty as great a Blessing , as 't is an applauded one . For without our fault , and in Spight of our care to preserve it , a Thousand accidents may , and time certainly will , ruine the Loveliest Faces ; and perhaps to that degree , as not in the remains to leave it credible that ever they were hansom . 'T is true that those vain Men , whose Passion masters their reason , are wont ( for the most part with designs we ought not to be proud of ) to Speak extravagant things , and too often even prophane Ones , of the beauties they profess to adore . But though they really meant ( which they very seldom do ) all they say , in praise of those they represent as Goddesses ; yet I think a considering person will scarce be very proud of receiving that Title , from those who can think that a few Colours and Features luckily mingled , are sufficient to make a Deity . An uncommon degree of Beauty , adds she , exposes the owner to extraordinary troubles , from the Envy of those that want it , and the Importunities of those that court it . And , without as much caution and watchfulness as turn it into a trouble , it too often proves a strong Temptation to those that admire it , and a dangerous Snare to those that possess it . And if I had the vanity to think , what you would persuade me to believe , I should yet take Beauty in a woman , to be like a rich Perfume ; which though it be a thing very grateful in most companies , and perhaps ( especially at first ) very delightful to the wearer , yet does often discompose , not only strangers she chances to converse with , but the best Friend she has ; and not seldom does mischief even to herself , by disordering her head , or casting her into fits of the mother . I beg your pardon , Dear Madam , says the fair Irene , with somewhat of sadness in her looks , that whilst I had so much Beauty in my eye and thoughts , I forgot , that it was in Theodora accompany'd with a far greater and scrupulous Humility ; and I did not apprehend that I could be thought guilty of Flattery , so near to a witness ( at which words she pointed to a Looking-Glass , that hung up in the Room ) ready to justifie more than I had occasion to say . I willingly acknowledge with you , that the amiableness discoverable by the Eyes of every gazer , is a thing far less desirable than desired : And procures the possessors more praise , than it brings them happiness . And for my part , adds she , if I had the weakness to beleive my self Mistress of what the folly of some had made them flatter me with , yet I should not be over much pleas'd with a Quality , that would add to those harms my frailty makes me guilty of , those which I never intended ; and makes Ladies so mischievous , to those that most love them , that even when they do not rob men of their Innocency , they deprive them of their Quiet . I confess therefore , Madam , ( continues Irene ) that it was injurious to insist upon the praises of a face , when , how little soever it can be Match'd in its own kind , 't is accompanied with Several Beauties of a much nobler kind . But that which induc'd me to speak as I did , was , to let the fair Theodora see , that I was justly sensible , how great a thing I begg'd for my Friend ; when I implor'd for him an interest in Her Favour . And I do the less despair of the effects of your Goodness , both to him and me , because I beg them for an absent friend , who is not in a condition to speak for himself ; and who , as I perceiv'd by the obliging Relation you were pleas'd to make , of his Carriage towards you , declin'd making you any request , when his Services were so happy as not to be useless to you . His silence , answers Theodora , in such circumstances , had more effect on me , than his passionatest solicitations would have produc'd . But the thing , I presume , you aim at , for him , is of that moment to me , that I cannot think fit to discourse of it , till we can do so with more calmness and leisure , than we can at this time expect . You know , Irene , that I have still look'd upon Marriage as one of the most important Actions of Life : And , though I think they have too mean a notion of Happiness and Misery , who imagine , that one Creature can make either of them the portion of another ; yet I think , that not only the dictates of discretion , but those of sincerity and chastity , oblige a woman to have a great care , not to enter into so near and indissoluble a Relation , upon any grounds , that are not like to last as long as it , ( and consequently , as our lives : ) And therefore , a woman that resolves to be what she should be , when a wife , ought to deliberate much upon a Choice she can probably make but once ; and not needlesly venture to embarque herself on a Sea so infamous for frequent Shipwracks , only because she is offer'd a fine Ship to make the long Voyage with . But , continues the bashful Virgin , ( not without some little disorder in her looks ) since my dear Irene will needs make use of the priviledge she has , to know more of my thoughts than I would disclose to any other perperson in the world ; our friendship prevails with me to tell her , that if I were altogether at my own disposal , and could be induc'd to admit such a change of condition , as I have alwayes been averse from ; I should be more influenc'd in my choice by the shining Vertues and Extraordinary Services of Didymus , than by all the Advantages that either Titles , or Riches , or Dignities , could give any of his Rivals . But , my Dear Irene , ( adds she ) we live in such times , and I , for my own particular , am beset with such Circumstances ; that 't were not only very unreasonable , but wildly extravagant , for me to encrease my Commerce with the World. For , Irene , continues she , in my opinion , a Christian does not deserve to be happy , and a true one cannot think he is happy , whilst the Church of Christ is miserable : At least , as far as outward Calamities can make it . When I see the Empire over-run with Idolaters and Persecutors ; when I see Ravishers and Whores , ador'd instately Temples , and the only Worshippers of the True God driven into Corners , and pursu'd even thither ; when I see such as God is pleas'd to declare the World not to be worthy of , treated by men as persons not worthy to live in the World ; but daily expell'd out of it , with ignominy and torments : When I say , ( adds Theodora , with tears in her Eyes , ) I consider the general Desolation of the Church , and that I am like and willing to be , not a meer Spectator , but a suffering Actor , in this Tragedy ; I cannot , in the midst of Her Sighs and Groans , listen to the unseasonable Complements of a Lover , think of relishing any Contentment , that descends not from a place too high for Persecution to reach . In these Sentiments , subjoins she , I am warranted , by no less Authority that than of an Apostle ; who , though not unfavourable to the Marriage State , disadvises those women that are free , from entering into it , at least during the present distress ; though that were in his time , very much inferiour to those straits we are now reduc'd to . Yet , Madam , sayes Irene , those expressions of Friendship , that a Conjugal Relation invites , are not only made allowable by it , but commendable ; and are as real duties of Piety , and Vertue , as divers of the more abstracted Exercises of Religion . I do not contradict that , replies Theodora , but look upon that very thing , as a disswasive , from the state of life , you would recommend . For , if I could think fit , to enter into it , it should be with a resolution , to do all that becomes me in it . And in such a calamitous Time as we live in , I could not do that , without coming far more than I now am , within the worlds reach ; since I should think it my duty , and perhaps be engag'd upon another account , to have such apprehensions for a near friends danger , as my own would be uncapable of giving me . And the Contentment I now enjoy , in a disposition to quit the world without regret , would be destroy'd , or at least allay'd , by an uneasiness to part with , what duty and inclination would , perhaps , too much fasten me to . Here Irene was going to interrupt her by an answer ; when her fair friend prevented her , by thus continuing her discourse : And to me it seems very considerable , that the Apostle I lately mentiond , clearly enough intimates , that to persevere in a Virgin-State , in times of Persecution , gives those that prefer it , the great advantage of serving God more undistractedly ; and consequently of being more entirely and uninterruptedly imploy'd , in the direct Contemplation and Services , of an Object so Sublime , that our mind cannot divert to another , without stooping to an inferiour one . And though it be true , that the duties of a Relation , may rightfully challenge a part of an engag'd persons time and care ; yet I see not why one that has no need , should enter into a Relation , that would make those distracting Duties necessary . Though Irene found it scarce possible to answer Theodoras Reasons , yet her kindness to her absent friend , made her unwilling to lose the opportunity their privacy gave her , to make one attempt more in his favour : Which she did , by saying to his excellent Mistress ; But shall not the as faithful as unhappy Didymus , be allow'd to hope , that if once those dismal Clouds that pour down show'rs of Blood , shall be happily blown over , he may have a particular share in the publick joy and Tranquility ; that his Sufferings shal end with the Persecutions of the Church ; that those fatal resolutions , that are so destructive to his happiness , may cease with their occasion ; that Theodoras Severity will not out live the Roman Cruelty ; and that her heart will not be the last place , where the Emperours cruel Edicts will continue to have a fatal Operation . Alas Irene , says Theodora , somewhat troubled to be so press'd ; how unseasonably do you now discourse to me , about things relating to a time , to which very probably my life will never reach . For , Subjoines She , to deal clearly with you ; I am so far from flattering my self , with an Expectation of those Halcyon dayes I wish you may live to see , that I shall not be surpriz'd , if this day prove the last I shall Spend in this World. And if before Night , I pass thence into another ; where the frailty and Mortality , upon which Marriage was founded , ceasing , that condition of Life will have no Place ; but will be Succeded by an Angelical State , where our Friendships , as well as our Persons , will be Transfigur'd , and made Incomparably more Perfect than they can be here below . CHAP. V. THeodora had Scarce made an end of saying this , when her Conversation with her fair Friend was Interrupted , by the notice that was given them of , the arrival of a Gentleman of their Religion , who brought some News that it Concern'd them to know . This advertisement soon brought back these two Excellent Ladies to the rest of the Company ; to which this Intelligent and Inquisitive Person was going to give an account , which the Sadnes of his Looks prepar'd them to find an unwelcom one . However ; they listen'd to him with great attention , as well as Concern : and He after a short Preamble , briefly acquainted them with some particulars , that will hereafter be more fully related . But that which he himself seem'd most mov'd at the mention of , and which most affected his hearers , was this ; That when the President had notice of Theodora's escape , though there wanted not some Generous Men , that endeavour'd by severall Arguments to diswade him from prosecuting her any further ; Yet he was so far from being prevail'd with , to Comply with so reasonable a motion , that he solemnly Protested , that if ever he could get this Fugitive ( as he was pleas'd to call , that admirable Person ) once more into his power , he would never strive again to reclaim her by the fear of Infamy , ( a thing which , said he , I perceiv'd She despis'd ) but by the terrour of death ; Supposing , as he added , that She would not fly from an Altar , to a Scaffold , a Stake ; and resolving , in case She were inflexible , to Sacrifice her to the indignation of those ●●cens'd Deity 's She had so Obstinately provok'd . The former part of this Discourse , which related to Didymus , his Excellent Mistress heard not , with out such inward Commotions , that in Spight of the Calmness and reservedness of her temper , they clearly enough disclos'd themselves in her face , by several Changes of Colour , which those that had lately admir'd the greatness of her Courage , could not but ascribe to that of her concern for her distressed Lover . But when the Relator had concluded that part of his Narrative , that directly regarded her self , tho' it fill'd all the Auditors with grief and terrour , Theodora seem'd to have gain'd a new life ; Since in her looks , the visible tokens of a deep sadness , were succeeded by no less manifest Signs of joy . While the rest of those to whom the Melancholy account was given , were entertaining one another with the reflections they made upon it ; Irene having drawn her fair friend aside , was impatient to learn the cause of that pleasing change , she had observ'd in her looks . Whilst , answers Theodora , I was listening to the report of the Eminent Danger , which the Generous Didymus was Expos'd to for my Sake , I could not but be Extreamly Troubled , to find my Self restrain'd from attempting his Rescue , by the manifess : Danger , of being by the Barbarous President sent back to the infamous place , whence your vertuous friend had ventur'd so much to free me : But now that the Judge , by a Solemn Declaration , has tyed up his own hands from tempting me , by so justifiable a fear as that of Infamy ; 't was no wonder , my Looks disclos'd some Tokens of a joy , grounded upon so welcom an opportunity to exercise my Gratitude Without hazarding my Honour . What ? Theodora ! saith Ierene , as it were Thunder-struck with this unexpected answer ; do you put so small a value upon that wonderful Deliverance , that scarce an hour ago you did so devoutly and deservedly give Thanks for , that you will so soon rush into greater dangers , than those that requir'd little less than a miracle to rescue you from them ? I hope , replies calmly Theodora , that I shall never forget , nor without a deep sense remember , the admirable rescue you speak of . But I take the most gracious part of that Deliverance , to consist in my being rescu'd from Dishonour ; and think it would be much less obliging than it is , if it debar'd me from the surest and directest ways to Glory ; and if , to preserve my external Purity , it did condemn me to Ingratitude , towards the meritorious Instrument of that Preservation . Our Lives , saith Irene , being trusted to us , as well as vouchsaf'd us , by God ; are not so much at our own disposal , that 't is allowable for us to part with them , as we think fit : And 't is possible for us to abandon them , not only when we do directly and violently rid our selves of them , but when we do those things , whose natural Consequence is an untimely Death . I believe with you , saith Theodora , that our Lives are to be reckon'd among those Goods that we are entrusted with , rather as Stewards than unaccountable Proprietors ; and acknowledge too , that certain actions , that do not directly , may yet criminally , tend to their destruction . But I do not think the care of our Lives is committed to us , as that of our Souls is , with so indispensable an obligation to keep them ; that it can never upon any terms whatsoever , be lawful for us to loose them . For , I think Life to be a Talent , which is indeed to be carefully husbanded and preserv'd ; but is committed to us , not so much to keep safe , as to negotiate with ; and is entrusted to us in order to a condition better than it self . And therefore , if Religion , or Vertue , require any thing at our hands , which cannot be perform'd without endangering , or even loosing our Lives , in that case to venture them , or to part with them , is a duty ; and consequently at least a justifiable action : And this pursues Theodora , I take to be my case ; who am summon'd by Faithfulness to a just Promise , and by Gratitude to an extraordinary Benefactor , to endeavour the saving of an innocent Person , who is accus'd on my account , and has brought himself into a great danger , only for having most obligingly Rescu'd me from a greater . But what , replies Irene , if the attempt you design , is far more likely to destroy you , than to save Didymus ? For the barbarous Judge , is so much an Enemy to all Christians , as such , and so much incens'd against You , for your Escape , and Him for having been the Author of it ; that the Cruelty of that inexorable man , will make him gladly destroy you both , as far as humane pow'r and rage can do it . And so , without preserving to the Church of Antioch , one of its Ornaments , you will deprive it of another , and a greater ; by denying it the Influence it might receive , by so lasting and Exemplary a Vertue , as may justly be expected in a person so pious , and so young , as Theodora . The Experience , answers Theodora , that this very day has afforded me , forbids me to distrust Divine Providence ; and keeps me from despairing to find my endeavors to rescue your Kinsman , succesful ; if the Most Wise and Good , as well as Absolute Disposer , of Events , shall not think it less our advantage , to be repriev'd than crown'd . Without presuming therefore , to foresee Events , 't is my part to do what God has vouchsafed to put into my power : and 't is not my duty to rescue Didymus , but it is to attempt it ; and thereby acquit my self as far as I am able , of what I owe to my promise , and my gratitude . If I had the vanity to think , adds she , that in a person of my Sex and Frailties , such a Church as that of Antioch , could be much concern'd ; I should think too , that the attempt I am about to make , were the best way to make my life somewhat significant . For , whereas our heathen Adversaries are so blinded with Prejudices , that they look upon all we do or suffer for Christianity , as the effects of a kind of Superstitious Frenzy , that seizes us , and transports us , whenever the Articles of our Faith are contended for : My exposing my self to their fury , rather than be wanting to the dictates of Gratitude , which they , as well as we , look on as a Moral Vertue , may help to convince them , that our love to Vertue is general , and more disinterested , than they thought it : Since Christians can venture and part with their Lives , as well to shun Ingratitude , as to resist Idolatry . This gratitude , ( replies Irene ) whose excess gives you and us , so much trouble , is a relative thing ; and Benefits or Services receiv'd , ought to be requited by Actions , that are acceptable to those , they are design'd to gratify ; but sure , not by such , as we know will be unwelcome to them . And therefore , ( continues she ) the faithfulest , and most disinterested of your Servants , will be far more unhappy , than the Roman Cruelty can make him , if what he has done , doth not convince you , that he can never look upon any thing , as a favour or retribution to him , that shall destroy , or so much as endanger , his adored Mistress . I were very unworthy , ( rejoins Theodora ) if I did not think Didymus capable of the highest Sentiments that generosity and friendship can inspire . But he is too just , to forbid those he loves , to aspire to some share of those noble Quality's ; upon whose account , I am to consider , not so much what his Vertue will relish , as what his condition requires ; there being a sort of Debts , to which mine to him belong , that ought to be the more carefully paid , the more frankly they are remitted . The sorrowful Irene , being exceeding troubled , to see her endeavours unsuccessful , on an occasion , upon which of all others , she most wish'd to find them prevalent , was prompted by her grief , to bring her Eyes to the assistance of her Tongue ; and weeping , said to her inflexible Mistress ; If , Madam , you will not have any compassion for the excellent Theodora , at least take some pity upon the disconsolate Irene ; and if her Arguments cannot move you , be not at least inexorable to her Fears . You have , ( continues she ) vouchsaf'd me the honour of your friendship , and the happiness of your conversation ; and by both these blessings , have given me so much esteem and kindness , for so great a Benefactor , that if you deny me , what I now implore , you will turn the noblest parts of my happiness upon Earth , into instruments of my Infelicity ; since , in a World depriv'd of Theodora , the desolate Irene , will Languish , rather than Live , if she should be able to survive so great a Loss . Theodora , whose Resolution and good Nature were both of them extraordinary , though she had courage enough to support calmly her own personal Sufferings , yet she had tenderness enough to be very sensible of those of her Friends . And the moving expressions of the sorrowful Irene , together with the Tears that accompany'd them , made such an impression on her , that though , having foreseen this Storm , it did not surprize her , yet it did much distress her , and let her ; see , how many uneasie Victories she was to gain , before she could triumphantly compleat that days work . And though after a short , but sharp , Conflict , between her kindness and her Resolution , the latter of them prevail'd , yet , 't was not without some Reluctancy and Commotion , that she was able to return this Answer . Ah , dear Irene , do not exercise so much Cruelty your self , whilst you reproach me for being Cruel ; and do not add to the great affliction of parting with such a Friend as Irene , that of seeing her so much troubled on my account , and of seeing myself necessitated to the uneasie Task of denying a Request of hers . If what I owe to my Religion , and to your generous Cousin , would suffer me upon any terms , to alter the Resolves it prompted me to ; the delaration of your desire to have me do it , would have made all the Arguments you employ'd to perswade me to it , unnecessary . 'T is true , that among Vertuous Friends , kindness may challenge much , but not to the prejudice of Conscience and Reputation . I hope our Friendship is not , and am sure it ought not to be , barely a mutual fondness of two young Virgins ; but that vertue had a gteater share in making and continuing it , than Sympathy and Inclination had . And 't is but just , that a friendship , grounded chiefly upon Vertue , should be govern'd and regulated by it . Per-Permit me therefore ( pursues she ) with that freedom and plainness , that our Friendship allows , to put you in mind , that in the straits wherein Providence has now placed us , it calls upon us to consider , not only that we are Friends , but , that we are Christians too ; who ought in reason , as well for our departing as our departed Friends , to listen to the Apostle of us Gentiles , who forbids us , upon the removal of those we love , to give up our selves to Sorrow , as those that have no hope . Indeed , if we were Epicureans , that believe the Soul as mortal , as the Body ; or such other Pagans , as bury in the Graves of their Friends , the hopes , or at least the confidence , of meeting them again : we could scarce too bitterly deplore a Seperation , that would certainly , or at least for ought we knew , prove an Eternal one . But having , through the goodness of God been embracers of the Gospel , and enabled , though but imperfectly , yet sincerely , to live according to its Dictates , and be ready to die for its defence ; the same Grace may keep us from fearing , that the time of our separation will be lasting enough , to bear any considerable proportion to that Eternity , which will be allow'd us to enjoy each others Company in . And give me leave to tell you , Irene , that I cannot rejoice at any expressions , even of your kindness , that are injurious to your Piety , and bring your love of me , into a competition with that , which ought to be as unparrallel'd as its Object is . They love a Creature too much , that think it too good to be parted with , for the Creators service . 'T is a high injury to him , to think we can lose any thing for him , that he cannot make us a rich amends for . And I must not conceal my Opinion , that a Christian disparages both himself and his profession , if he complains , that any loss can make him unhappy , while he possesses the favour of God. Wherefore , my dearest Irene , ( concludes She ) let your Friendship alleviate my Grief , by shewing me how handsomly you bear your own ; and prefer , I beseech you , upon this sad occasion , the Exercise of the more generous , to That of the more tender , Effects of Kindness . Alas , Madam , says the distress'd Irene , all the fine things you say to comfort me , produce in me , an Effect quite contrary to that you design by them ; since they do but the more discover the Excellency and Kindness of the incomparable Person I am going to be depriv'd of ; after whose company , I shall find that of the rest of the World , too insipid , so much as to divert me : and therefore , if you will not grant me the Blessing of Living with you , at least do not deny me the satisfaction of Dying with you . For , though Martyrdom be very formidable to a frail Woman , yet Heaven is more desirable to a Christian ; and I shall not fear to take a Scaffold or a Stake in my way , when I travel to such a Place , as That , in such Company as yours . You know , ( replies Theodora ) as well I , that our Religion commands us to suffer Martyrdom , when we are oblig'd to do it ; but forbidsus to thrust ourselves unnecessarily upon so fatal and difficult a work : The Apostles themselves , whose peculiar Office it was , to be the Heralds and Champions of the Gospel , were commanded , when they were persecuted in one City , to fly into another ; and accordingly one of the most couragious of them , to avoid needless and unseasonable dangers , fled to Jerusalem from Damascus ; though to do so , He was fain to be let down from the wall of this Place in a Basket. And 't is but reasonable , we should not , without a manifest Call of Providence , venture upon a Conflict , in which we do so much depend upon extraordinary Assistances for the Victory , that the same bold Disciple , that so confidently promis'd our Saviour , that He would die for Him , was in an hour or two , the first that renounc'd him . An inspir'd Teacher , who was ambitious to be , as He afterwards prov'd , a Martyr , reckons it to be the Gift of God , not only to Believe in Christ , but to Suffer for that Belief . If ( continues She ) our Conditions were exchang'd , and Irene , instead of me , were by Divine Providence singl'd out for Martyrdom ; I should not envy Her the Glory , of letting many of both Religions see , that Christianity can elevate the Courage of a Woman , to a degree that they think appropriated to Men. I would employ my Prayers rather to obtain of Heaven , a divine Support of Her Resolution , than an inglorious Change of It. And imitating that well natur'd Israelite , who , not only willingly but gladly , parted with his dear Ester , when She went from Him to a Throne ; I should be more satisfied with Irene's Advancement , than with Her Company : And if I did not prefer Her Happiness to my Own , it would be , because indeed I should look upon them so united , that I should find Mine in Hers. Let me then ( says Theodora ) conjure you , by all Our past and future Friendship , rather to congratulate , than lament , the Remove I am going to make . And be not troubled , that One whom you have been pleas'd so much to Love , is call'd to be early happy . In such hazardous times as these , you know not how soon a Persecutor's Sword may send you after Her. And at most , this Mortal Life is too short , to let our Separation be very long . And in the mean time , the comfortable Expectation of an unchangeable state , of whose Blessedness the renewed Fruition of each other , will make a Part , and not the greatest neither ; may Console you for the absence of a Person , that in the interim will be happy enough to wish You where She is , upon much juster grounds than you can wish Her where She was . Let it then ( concludes Theodora , with weeping eyes , ) be a sufficient proof of my Esteem and Love of Irene , that I part from Her with Tears , when I am going to a Place , where the Divine Oracles assure us , that all Tears shall be wip'd from our Eyes , and be succeeded by a Fulness of Joy , that shall last for evermore . CHAP. VI. THough these Reasonings were such , as Irene knew not well how to answer , yet , being uncapable of acquiescing in any Discourse , that inferr'd it to be her duty ; to part with Theodora ; she resolv'd to try , whether the perswasions of the company , ( which she knew , would be very forward to assist her ) would not be more prevalent , than hers had been : And that seem'd an accident very . friendly to her design , that just then happen'd , by the arrival of an intelligent Gentleman , whom she had a while before employ'd to learn News of her Friend ; and who , on that score , had been a curious and heedful Spectator , of all that had pass'd , at the presidents , in relation to Didymus , and was come to bring Irene an account of it . To hear this , she and her sorrowful Friend were desir'd to rejoin the rest of the company : To which , the high and just esteem they all had of so brave a Gentleman , as Didymus , gave an impatient desire to be inform'd of his Adventures . To satisfie this Curiosity , the Gentleman that was to do it , did , after a short pause , make them the following Narrative . I suppose this company needs not be informed by me , of what happen'd to the generous Didymus , between the time , that the excellent Theodora was condemn'd to an infamous place , and that wherein he had the happiness , of helping her to make an escape out of it . And therefore without wasting any of that little time , whereof , I fear , we may have but too great need , I shall proceed to inform you , that when this astonishment , occasion'd by this Surprize , of finding a Young man in the escap'd Virgins Room , was a little over , and they had cloath'd Didymus in a habit more decent , to appear in , before a publick Assembly ; they led him away to the Judge : to whom some of them related , maliciously enough , what had pass'd earnestly begging Justice of him , against a Person , who ( they said ) could not but be a Christian ; and who was not content , to be himself an Offender against the Laws , but had dared to rescue another Offender , from the Punishment to which they had doom'd her . Against this Charge , the undaunted Didymus being ask'd , what Defence he had to make , addressing himself to the Judge , made this resolute answer . I stand accus'd of a twofold Crime , of being a Christian , and of Theodora's Rescue : And though I cannot so soon have forgot , how heinous my Accusers have endeavour'd to make them appear , yet , instead of denying either of them , I shall own , that I glory in both . As for Christianity , in an Age , wherin it is so cruelly Persecuted , I would not have embraced the profession of it , but that I was resolv'd , if there were occasion , to suffer for it . And therefore I shall neither deny what they call a Crime , nor make an Apology for it , nor deprecate any Infliction , ( for so I call it , rather than Punishment , which still supposes a fault ) whereto it can expose me . Nor could I , without being wanting to the duty of Humanity , refuse my assistance , to preserve the purity of so noble a Shrine of Chastity , as the Savage designers of a Rape on Theodora , were going barbarously to violate . And the inward satisfaction of having done what became me on such occasions , will support me under any Sufferings , that shall be drawn upon me , but by my Loyalty to persecuted Truth , and my compassion of distress'd Vertue . The experience I have had , ( answers the President ) of the effects of those desperate Errours , you miscall Religion , makes me inclinable enough , to think , that you , as well as many others of your wild Sect , have both Madness and Impiety enough , to put off the Apprehensions , as well as the other common sentiments , of Human Nature , and fear Death , as little as you do the Gods. But since you pretend to be more vertuous Men , and obedient Subjects , than others ; pray tell me , what you can say , for your rescuing a Malefactor , out of the hands of those Ministers of Justice , that were going to Execute the sentence of Condemnation upon her . If , ( replies Didymus ) the Sentence you speak of , had doom'd her but to Death ; though I should most gladly have suffer'd it in her stead , yet I had deplor'd your Cruelty , without attempting to defeat it . But I confess , I could not without Indignation , as well as Grief , see such a person as Theodora , who for her Beauty , Vertue , and other Perfections , is justly admir'd by all that know her , and look'd upon as the honour of her Sex ; most injuriously condemn'd to so infamous and barbarous an usage , as were unfit for the meanest and despicablest of Creatures , that belong to the Sex , ( whereof she is the Ornament . ) And considering with my self , that Chastity in Women , and especially in Virgins , is so much a Vertue , and their right to preserve it , so confes'dly inhaerent , that all Nations agree , in ascribing to them a right to defend it , without reserve , against whosoever attempts to deprive them of it ; I concluded , that to help a distressed Virgin to preserve so acknowledg'd a right , was to defeat Ravishers , rather than to oppose Magistrates , and not commit a Crime , but hinder the accomplishing of one . Nor could I think , that 't was against the Roman Judges I acted when I oppos'd Persons , whom their Savage design made me look upon as the worst sort of Barbarians . And I did not doubt Sir , ( continues Didymus ) that in your own Breast , when calmer thoughts shall come there , to succeed those that lately possess'd it , I shall be absolv'd from an action , which kept you from dishonouring your self as much , as the execution of your Sentence would have defil'd Theodora ; and kept you innocent as to Act , from what would have made you Enemies for ever , not only of the fairest half of Mankind , but of all those of our Sex , that retain any Sparks either of Vertue , or good Nature . If Theodora , ( replies the President ) were not a Beauty , and one of your obstinate Sect , I doubt you would never , for her sake , have adventur'd upon so desperate an Attempt , as makes you , not more Disobedient , than Obnoxious , to the Law. I see not , Sir , ( rejoins Didmuys ) why it should be a disparagement to Theodora's Beauty , or to the impressions I have receiv'd of it , that all that it has engaged me to do , has been , with the utmost hazard of my Life , To rescue her Purity , and deny my self , in the first place , the advantages I endeavour'd to deprive others of . But the Charms of her Mind , needed not those of her Face , to make me attempt to preserve her . I have often in Camps contended , not without hazard enough , with my victorious fellow-Soldiers , to keep them from violating the Chastity of Captives , who had neither Beauty to Captivate others , nor any thing else to engage me in their Quarrel , except their being innocent and distressed Women . But Theodora ; setting her Beauty and Birth aside , has been so eminent , for all the good Qualities and Excellencies that can accomplish a Person of her Sex , and especially , for her Chastity , that my Heart would have reproach'd mefor , not prizing Vertue enough , if I had declin'd so happy an Opportunity , to express the veneration I paid so shining a one , as Hers. But , ( pursues Didymus ) I would not by what I have said , be thought to deny , that my Religion had a share in the attempt I made to serve a Person , that did so much adorn it , and was so loyal to it . The Christian Doctrine , among many other excellent things , that it prescribes to its embracers , teaches them , that in some cases , among which ours is compriz'd , they Ought to lay down their Lives for one another . But Sir , ( concludes Didymus ) you may be pleas'd to take notice , that what I acted , was according to the Rules of it too . For I did not oppose the Execution of your cruel Sentence , by force , but only prevented it by an innocent Stratagem , whereby my ends were obtain'd without Bloodshed or Violence ; no Mans Life having been so much as endanger'd , except my own ; which I never thought my self bound to preserve from any Danger , that Piety or Humanity summon'd me to undertake . Though the President could not but be sensible , that Didymus had said more for himself , than was expected ; yet , that he might not be thought to be satisfied with the Defence of a Person , whom he meant to condemn , he told him ; I do not think it strange , that those who dare call the very Worship of the Gods , Superstition and Idolatry , and and that which all Men but your selves call Impiety , Religion , should stile Rebellion against the Magistrate ; Loyalty to the Truth . But how industriously soever you strive , not only to cloak a Criminal action , but transform it into a Vertuous one ; I can easily , through all its disguises , percieve the disobedience and refractoriness to Civil Government , that is so contagious , and so spred among the embracers of your Sect ; that Princes have no other way , but your Ruine , to secure their own Safety , which would be quickly endanger'd , if your power and numbers were half as great , as the disloyalty of your Principles and Practices . To be a Sufferer for my Religion , ( answers Didymus ) is that , which I shall not so properly submit to , with Resignation , as Embrace , with with Joy. But to find my Religion a sufferer with me , if not for me ; and to see Christianity made a State Crime , while it severely prohibits and condemns all Crimes , and none more expresly , than disobedience to the just commands of Magistrates ; is that , which , I confess , do's not a little trouble me . And therefore , Sir , I hope you will allow a Person , that is much more concerned to keep his Religion than himself , from being endanger'd by this Accusation ; to give you a righter apprehension , than our Calumniators have done , of the innocentest , as well as the truest , Religion in the World. Though for my part , ( continues Didymus ) I think , that the liberty of serving God , by such ways as are not repugnant to the Light , or Laws of Nature , or the welfare of civil Society's , is the common right of Mankind , and cannot be denied Man , without Injustice ; yet I do not now plead for it : and you are more concern'd to look to that , than I. For if you make me suffer , for the innocent use of that Right , which God and Nature have granted unto all men ; I shall but undergo a Transient Punishment , but you will expose your self , to an Eternal , and ( which is worse ) to a deserved one . No Persons in the World , can pay more Obedience to the Laws of their Superiours , than Christians do . We that can shed the Enemies Blood , and hazard our own , as freely , and perhaps as succesfully , as any Soldiers in your Armies , suffer you to shed ours , as tamely as any sheep you have in your folds . And sure , we are very unhappy , as well as you very incredulous , that those Professions of Loyalty and Obedience , that are not more visibly written in our Books , than frequently sign'd with our Blood , cannot gain Credit with you ; nor our death it self convince you , when the wounds that we quietly suffer to pierce our Breasts , would open you Windows into our hearts , if some had not a greater mind to peirce them , than to know them . But the same just care we have to obey Authority , what rate soever the submissions cost us , forbids us to do those things , for the refusal whereof , Authority condemns us . For God being , as the only Creator , so the Supreme Governor of man , his Laws are those of the truest Supreme Authority : and Princes themselves being his Subjects , and but his Lieutenants upon Earth ; to decline their commands , when ever they prove repugnant unto his , is not so much an Act of disobedience to the Subordinate power , as of Loyalty to the supreme and universal Sovereign . And in such cases we are no more Rebels against the Emperor , when we prefer the performance of Gods Laws , to a compliance with His , than we should be , in case we should disobey the orders of the Governour of the Province we live in , if they should prove repugnant to those of Augustus . And even in these cases ; if we cannot yeild an active obedience to the commands of the civil Sovereign , we do not refuss him , the utmost we can consent to , which is passive obedience : and when our consciences permit us not to do , those to us unlawful things , that he commands , they enjoin us to suffer unresistedly , whatever penalty's he pleases to impose . And give me leave Sir , to add , ( so Dydimus continues ) that we are so far , from making Religion a Cloak to the pursuit of present advantages , that you daily see us renounce them all , and our lives to boot , to maintain our Loyalty to our Maker , without hopes of being recompens'd , but in another World ; and even there we cannot expect any , but by the sentence of a Judge , whom none can either bribe or deceive , and who is more severe to crimes , than any Persecutor on Earth can be , to Innocents . I will not tell you , pursues Dydimus , that on the other side , the assurance we have of the inestimable rewards laid up in heaven , for Loyalty to God and his Truths , and the internal applauses of a good conscience , are things of so elevating and satisfying a nature , that our Religion can make the hearts it possesses , not only detest the Ambition of those Subjects , that aspire to Earthly Crowns , but perhaps , pitty the condition of those Princes , that possess them . But I dare , Sir , avow , that the harmlesness of our Principles , is not more legible in our Profession , than in our Practices and Sufferings . For the multitude of Christians is so great , that [ in your Cities , your Country , your Courts of Justice , your Camps , and all places of Publick Resort , except your Temples , they are not only present , but numerous ; ] and your Enemies , as well as your Armies , have been sufficiently convinc'd , they know as well how to Kill , as Dye ; so that 't is only because we will not forfeit our Innocence , by a forbidden way of defending it , that we are expos'd to such cruel Sufferings for it . And I doubt not but equitable Estimators of things will conclude , that our calmly submiting to such inhuman Usages , sufficiently shews , that we do not deserve them . The Judge , discerning still more clearly , that his discourses made much less impressions upon Didymus , than those of Didymus did upon the Hearers ; resolv'd to break off this kind of Conversation , and with a stern Countenance , told the Prisoner , that 't was high time for him to remember , that he was a Judge , and not a Priest ; and that therefore , though his compassion had hitherto invited him to employ Persuasions , yet now their unsuccesfulness oblig'd him to declare positively , that he was sure the gods , that he and the world worshipp'd , were the true ones ; and that if Didymus did not forthwith acknowledge them to be so , by Sacrificing to them , he should quickly feel their power , by being put to a death , his obstinacy made him both deserve , and appear fond of . Didymus , without seeming to be at all mov'd at this rough Language , calmly , as well as resolutely , reply'd . Tho' Sir , I am most ready , whenever I am call'd to it , to Suffer for my Religion , yet I would not be thought to expose my self , for an obstinate Denial , to hear and consider , what may be objected against it . We Christians , whatever wilfulness may be misimputed to us , are not so fond of Sufferings , or of our own Conceits , as not to be more willing to have them brought to the Bar ; than to be condemn'd there for them : And persecuted Opinions are things , which , as we do not renounce , so we do not embrace , for their being such . Nor are we so blind and wilful , as to reject clear Arguments , that would both instruct us and rescue us too , if any such could be propos'd , by the Embracers of your Religion . This I say , Sir , continues Didymus , not to contradict what you were saying , of your being not a Priest but a Judge ; but to clear Constancy from the imputation of Obstinacy , and declare , that if we could see Reasons on your side , fitted to deliver us from Error , and from death , we would not be so mad , or so perverse , as to chuse rather to renounce Life , than embrace Truth . But pardon me , Sir , ( subjoyns he ) if I think , that , though you are commission'd by the Supreme Power , to be a Judge for Life and Death , yet you are not constituted by the Supreme Verity , a Judge of Truth and Falshood . And therefore , I take your owning to worship many Gods , who , by their very being many Deities , are sufficiently proved not tobe true ones ; for a Declaration of your Opinion , not a Demonstration that it ought to be mine too . If you press us with Arguments , we are ready to answer yours , and offer you ours : But when instead of them , you employ Threats , we do not think it proper to argue against them , but to despise them ; since 't is not our Reason that they Assault , but our Constancy . And therefore , give me leave to tell you , Sir , concludes Didymus , that the Christian Religion can so fortifie and elevate the Mind , and place it so much above the reach of a Political Jurisdiction , that I shall suffer your Sentence with far less trouble , than you will soon or late feel , at the remembrance of your having pronounc'd it ; and you will not find it in the power of all your executed threats , to ruine either my Constancy , or so much as my Joy. The Judge , enrag'd , to see his Power thus despis'd , and as he interpreted it , affronted , by a Prisoner ; declar'd , he would defer no longer than one hour ( which space he allow'd him to repent his Errors in , ) to pronounce against him the fatal Sentence , and commanded him to be immediately led to the place , where 't was to be executed ; towards which he himself intended to follow at some distance : Whether it were to feed his cruel Eyes with a Spectacle , whose tragicalness his revenge would make acceptable to him ; or to prevent any Tumult or Disorders , that the Courage of Didymus , and the esteem and pity it had excited in the numerous by-standers , might possibly occasion . CHAP. VII . AS soon as the Gentleman , that made the past Discourse , had ended it , the just Idea it form'd in the minds of the hearers , and especially of the two Ladies , of the singular Piety and heroick Courage of Didymus , made such an impression on the grateful & compassionate Theodora , as exceedingly heightned her resolution to rescue him , if it were possible , and hast'ned her to begin immediately to attempt it . In order to which , having observ'd that the hearers listen'd so attentively to what the Relator said , that they then minded nothing else , she took that nick of time to withdraw herself silently , into another room ; and by a pair of back stairs , convey'd herself out of the house : Whence by indirect wayes , ( for fear of being overtaken in the shortest , ) she went with as much hast and gladness , to an almost certain death , as others are wont to shun and escape it with ; leaving Irene and her other friends , no less amaz'd than troubl'd , when sometime afterward , they perceiv'd her missing , and found all the diligence they employ'd to retrieve her , fruitless . For , Theodora , fearing she could not long escape the diligence of her Pursuers , unless she hasten'd to a place , where she justly thought they would not follow her ; delay'd not to go directly towards the Company , that she was told attended the President , in the affairs that were transacting in his Court. Among these Attendants , she had not staid long , before she descry'd her brave Lover , under a strict and rude Guard ; but with a look so manly , and so serene , as shew'd , that he deserv'd another usage ; and was not in the least daunted nor discompos'd by that he met with . This moving Sight , so affected the generous & compassionate Theodora , that tho' in so publick place and manner , she could with less reluctancy dye for Didymus , than she could plead for him ; yet her gratitude surmounting her bashfulness , after some conflict within herself , she made towards the Tribunal ; to which she found a more easie passage than she expected . For , the advantagiousness of her shape and stature , and gracefulness of her motions , easily produc'd for her , such Sentiments , in the admiring by-standers , as made them with great respect , give her way , & let her , without disturbance , pass on to the Bar. She had but a very little while staid there , before the President was mov'd , by the concourse of those whom Curiosity and Wonder invited to gaze on the fair stranger , to cast his eyes on Her ; and notwithstanding the unlikelihood , that she should appear there , without having been Forcibly brought thither ; as soon as , out of respect to his Dignity , she had lifted up her Veil , he discern'd that it was she , by a sort of Beauty so peculiar , as was not easily either to be met with in others , or to be forgotten by any that had ever seen it . But , though the Judge were thus surpriz'd at her presence , yet he little less admir'd her Courage , than her Beauty , when , with a Face , wherein the Blushes of her Cheeks , and the Assuredness of her Looks , equally discover'd her Modesty and her Fearlesness , she told him : I know , Sir , that 't is a very unusual thing , for a Person of my Sex and Religion , to come to this Place unsent for . But I hope you will be pleas'd to consider , that , as the Action is extraordinary , the Occasion of it is so too . For both Justice , the Virtue that you sit here to distribute ; and Gratititude , founded upon the highest Obligations , engage me to appear before you , on the behalf of that brave Prisoner , ( at which words she pointed at Didymus , ) and present you the Object , on which you may inflict with Legal Justice , what you cannot make him suffer , without being tax'd of Cruelty . For supposing a Debt to be due to the Law , yet it would be more Severe than Just , to prosecute the Security , now the Principal offers to pay the Debt . He may well be look'd upon as my Hostage , whom I now come to redeem : And 't is not , Sir , your interest , to decline the Exchange , since by it you will preserve a Person , whose Courage , ingag'd by his Gratitude , may do signal Service in the Roman Army . And since my Escape was all his Crime , I beseech you , let my surrender of my self , obtain his absolution . Here Theodora paus'd a while , partly to recover from the Disorder , so unusual and difficult an Effort of her Modesty had put her into ; and partly , to observe the Judges Countenance , upon his hearing what she had said , and to take measures thence in what she was further to speak . The President in the mean time continued silent , whether the longer to hear the musick of her Voice , or because so many Charms , as Nature had crouded in her Face , and so much sadness , as her concern for her Lover had display'd in her Looks , had somewhat mollify'd him , as they might have done a Tiger . Whereupon the fair Suppliant , hoping that his not interrupting her , proceeded from some relenting Thoughts , resumes her Discourse , in these terms . But if , Sir , to procure the dismission of this Gentleman , your Justice had need to be seconded by your Clemency , perhaps you never had , nor never will have , an Object whose merit may so well warrant the fullest Exercise of it . For his Life , ever since he bore Arms , has been imploy'd in the Service of his Princes , and fearlessly hazarded for their Greatness . And the Action for which he is now in trouble , is so Heroick , and so disinteressed an one of Courage and Compassion , that in it he could scarce have any other motive , than the Greatness of his Generosity , nor other End , than the Exercise of it . Nor need you fear , that your Clemency on this occasion should introduce a bad Example ; for this of Didymus is never like to be imitated , nor can be so , but by Persons too virtuous to be Delinquents . And if such Actions be Criminal , at least 't is unlikely they will grow common Crimes . And here Theodora , perceiving that the impatient Didymus ( now come again to himself , after the astonishing surprize this Adventure gave him ) was upon the point to interrupt her , she thus prevents him . And you , brave Didymus , forbear to oppose the accomplishment of my just Desires . The course that I now take , is the only that I could take , to evidence my Gratitude , and to let you see , that you have not exercis'd the noblest Acts of Generosity and Friendship , towards a Person insensible of the Dictates of those Vertues . I could not ( continues she ) but be glad to be rescu'd from the Ignominy of a Rape , but I did not intend to be robb'd of the Glory of Suffering for Christ ; which is also the only means left me to evince , that I Declin'd Dishonor , and not Death , and never meant so much to disoblige the World , as for the sake of an insignificant Maid , to deprive it of one of the most generous of Men. You have left yourself but one way to encrease your past favours , which is , to allow me the only real Expression I can make of my sense of them , & that in such a way , as can , at most , but make some little Diminution of them , without pretending to make a Retribution for them . If therefore ( concludes she ) you will compleat the Obligation you have laid on me , by preserving to me the Coronet of Virginity , you must not oppose my obtaining the Crown of Martyrdom . Didymus had need of all the Respect , that he paid his admirable Mistress , to keep him thus long , from interrupting a Discourse , that tended so little to his satisfaction ; and therefore she had no sooner put a period to it , than ( with a deep sigh ) he told her ; Cease , Theodora , cease , to plead for the continuance of Life , that you are almost as cruel to me , in thus endeavouring to preserve , as you are , in thus hazarding your own . And if I durst not hope for , from the President , more than I see I must on this occasion , expect from You ; I should think my self as perfectly wretched , as ( whatever your Intentions be ) your proceedings are unkind . But I am confident , our unbyas'd Judge is too impartial , not to discern in your Discourse , that the excess of your Goodness , has had the chief interest in the management of your Plea ; the case about which we differ , being in itself so clear , that alone to state it , is sufficient to Plead it on my Behalf . For , I entic'd you to escape out of Prison , and then , at my own peril , facilitated to you the means of doing so : You leave me behind , as a Pawn to the Laws , and these finding me in your room , make their great Minister , before whose Tribunal we stand , doom me , for your Offence , to the Death design'd for your Punishment : Which since I joyfully proffer my self to suffer for you ; or rather , since you suffer it in me your Proxy ; the illustrious President is too well acquainted with his Office , to need to be told , that , at least in Equity , the Surety's Payment , discharges the Principal from the Debt ; especially , when he not only proffers the Payment , but most earnestly desires the acceptance of It , as a great advantage to him . I hope then , Great Sir , says he , ( turning himself to the President , with additional Respect to that he had shew'd him before , ) that you will accept of my Life , instead of hers , who deserves a long and happy one ; and that , when my Sentence of Condemnation shall be pronounc'd , and gladly acquiesc'd in , it may Free her , I am Condemn'd for . The love of Self-preservation is so natural , that it cannot be made Capital , without affronting Nature , and punishing as well what Men are , as what they do : And the love of Purity and Honour does so much become a Chast Virgin , that the natural consequences of it are too Commendable , to be fit to be made Penal . 'T is I , who having despis'd Dangers that I might easily have avoided , when 't was Question to do an illegal thing , do yet glory in the Crime , that am the just and proper Object of the rigour of your Laws : And her Years are yet so tender , and her Disposition so innocent , that since , if she have err'd , it was by my persuasions , if she be to be punish'd , it should be in my person . All that she has since alledg'd to appropriate my guilt , or involve herself in it , will , I hope , by a Roman Magistrate be look'd on , as it is indeed , as an argument of her generosity , and not of her crime . And the Romans are too much friends to gallantry , to punish in a Lady , that Vertue , that they applaud and crown even in Soldiers . But now , continues Diydmus , I must address my self to you , O Theodora : And must complain of , or at least deplore , my infelicity ; that after I had done and suffer'd , all that I could , though 't was much less than I would , For the preservation of so dear a Life as yours ; you come now to hazard it , to make mine end with sorrow . But granting you should prevail , in the no less unwelcom than generous Attempt , you are pleas'd to make ; how cruel were you , to envy me at once , the two highest Honors , that my Ambition aspir'd to ; the Glory of Martyrdom , and that of Theodoras Rescue ? Had I as many lives , as you have vertues , I should esteem them all but a cheap ransom for a few hours of yours : So unlikely I am , and ought to be , to be either capable or desirous , of being preserv'd by your suffering for my actions . And therefore , Madam , if you think my little Services deserve some recompence ; since my highest contentments on earth , terminate in your happiness , there is no other way left you to reward them , but the care of your own preservation : It being the only return that I expect or desire of my Services , that you will not , by your inflexibleness , finally make them fruitless ; but be content to live for his sake , that will rejoyce to dye for yours . All the while this noble Dispute lasted , the Judge was , though not an unconcern'd , yet a silent Hearer of it : The strange novelty of the contest , and no less extraordinary generosity and gracefulness of the Contenders , having given him an attention , that kept him from interrupting them . But when their debate had proceeded thus far ; his stern nature , whose actings had been but suspended by his curiosity , prompted him to tell the generous Couple ; I know not what presumption makes you plead , as if each of you were the others only Judge , and had the Supreme Authority of condemning or absolving you ; and I were only an unconcern'd auditor , or at least , sate here to ratifie the Sentence you shall agree upon , between your selves . But you will quickly find , to your cost , that the Roman Laws , and Magistrates , are not to be trifled with . Great Sir , replies Didymus , you much misapprehend our Conduct , if you think your self slighted by it : For , 't was not want of respect to your Authority , and Power , that made us discourse as we did ; but a supposition , not injurious to you , that you would in the exercise of that Power , manifest that you deserve it , by tempering it with two excellent vertues , that best become a Magistrate , Equity and Clemency . This presumption , Sir , and not any disrespectful one , was that upon which we proceeded in our discourse ; still taking it for granted , that you would not punish two , for that which was indeed , but the fault of one ; and that if either of us were , by the others consent , to suffer ; your Equity , or your Clemency , would prevail with you , to release the other . Though Didymus , had worded what he said , so cautiously , that a discerning hearer might perceive , that his expressions related to the Judges Dignity , not his person ; yet that self-flattery , which is but too common an attendant on Men in Power , making the President take all these respectful words to himself , made him allow Didymus , without interruption , to proceed in his discourse , and say ; you will easily grant , Sir , that Goodness , whereof Clemency is a noble part , may bring a Magistrate , who is Heavens Vice-gerent upon Earth , as high a Veneration as Power or Greatness does ; if you please to consider , that those of your Religion , when they would with the most deference speak of God , give the Title of Most Good the preference to that of Most Great , styling him , as the Christians likewise often do , Deus Optimus maximus . Certainly , Clemency is never more a vertue , nor less grudg'd at by Justice , than when 't is exercis'd towards Vertuous Persons , by rescuing them from the persecutions of Fortune , and the unintended rigour of the Laws . I say unintended rigour , sayes Didymus , for I cannot think that the Roman Legislators , that have honor'd injur'd Chastity so much in Lucretia , and encourag'd Gallantry and other Vertues , by no less than Crowns and Triumphs ; meant to make the productions of Chastity , Constancy and Gratitude , Criminal things . And , tho' Christians dissent from others in matters of Religion , yet those moral Vertues that were so esteem'd by the Romans , do not lose their nature , when practis'd by Christians : And those brave men , whose love to Vertue made them Masters of the World , did not scruple to honour it in their very Enemies ; and did it so much , even in the most irreconcilable of them , that more than one or two Statues of Hannibal were erected at Rome ; to which Triumphant City 't is perhaps more glorious , to have thus honor'd him , than vanquish'd him . And sure they that thought Lucretias Chastity merited so many Statues , would not think that Theodoras deserv'd a Stake or a Scaffold . This Ladies actions and mine , are not so hainous , but that in happier persons , and milder times , they have been look'd on under a notion very differing from that of criminal ones . But Sir , continues Didymus , addressing himself to the President , in a very humble manner , if there must needs be offer'd up some sacrifice to appease the angry Laws , I beseech you to let their rigour be satisfied with my Blood , and spare this harmless Lady ; to whom , if your compassion be needful , I hope you will not want it for an object , whose Excellencies cannot only make it reasonable , but meritorious . For it will preserve to Antioch its fairest Ornament ; and a Life so Exemplary , that to give it an untimely period , for actions , which , being laudable in their own nature , nothing but a rigid interpretation of the Law can make criminal , would be to make the Laws a terror , rather to the good than to the wicked . It would be thought inhumane to treat her as a delinquent , whom you may justly wish your daughters should resemble ; when by the Grant of what I implore , you will be sure to receive both the thanks of her Sex , and the applause of ours , and what out values both , the satisfaction of having sav'd and oblig'd one of the most admirable Persons in the world . Didymus now perceiving , that the person he pleaded for , was preparing herself to interrupt him ; readdress'd himself to her , and told her ; do not , Madam , I beseech you , require of my obsequiousness , proofs inconsistent with my love ; and add not to my infelicity , by putting me in so uneasie a condition , as to find it my duty to oppose your desires : Ah! refuse not to oblige the world , by preserving the most accomplish'd it can glory in : Deny me not the satisfaction , whereof I am so ambitious , of being the happy instrument of your deliverance ; and then I may say , that I never could justly dye more seasonably than now , when being at the height of all my joyes , my longer life must of necessity give an ebb to my felicity ; since after the Glory of having sav'd Theodora , I hope for no higher on Earth , than that of dying for her . Then perceiving her ready to renew the Contest , he told her ( with a low voice , that the Judge might not hear him , and with a sadness in his looks , which she , that knew his Courage , could impute to nothing but his almost boundless concern for her ; ) Madam , though the Presidents impatience did not call upon us to conclude our Contest , yet my condition and resolution ought to put a hasty period to it : For , Madam , I must positively declare to you , that it would be as bootless as cruel , for you to think to protect my Life , by the abandoning of your own : Since to owe a Life to that Cause , would make it not only uneasie but insupportable to me , and consequently uncapable of lasting . So that enjoyning me to survive you , would condemn me to a Life , which after the loss of yours , must be spent , if it could last , in fruitless deploring that Loss . Forbear therefore , concludes he , I most earnestly beseech you Madam , to exact such proofs of my Obedience , that 't is as little in my power to give you , as it ought to be in your will to require them ; since for Didymus to survive Theodora , is as great an impossibility , as it would be an unhappiness . O admirable Contest ! where the noble Antagonists did not strive for Victory , but Death ; or endeavour'd to overcome each other , that the Victor might perish for the Vanquish'd : Where Self-love , the most radical affection of human Nature , is sacrific'd to a Love , equally chast and disinteress'd : And where Vertue makes each of the Contenders , in geniously Solicitous to appear Criminal , that the Antagonist may be treated as innocent . How well does this proceeding prove that inspir'd Sentence true , that Love is Stronger than Death , since in this Conflict , the generous Friends , are by the former , made Rivals for the latter ? CHAP. VIII . THE afflicted Virgin , to whom these moving things were said , finding that she should but lose her diswasions on Didymus , thought fit to address herself once more , to the President ; and with humble Gestures , accompany'd with Looks , and with a Voice , that would have soften'd any that were not invincibly Obdurate , she told him ; Though Sir , the Arguments us'd by this Gentleman , had far better prov'd than they have , that , of us two , he is the fittest person to be condemn'd ; yet I hope , where you Preside with so much Authority , he will not fare the worse for being generous ; and that what he has done , will be more prevalent with you , than what he has said . Ever since he was capable of bearing Arms , he employ'd them in the service of the Emperors ; and in their Camps chearfully follow'd the Roman Eagles , where-ever they durst fly : And after his having this day hazarded himself so generously , out of compassion to a distress'd Virgin ; what examples of gallantry may not be expected from such a Courage , engag'd by his Gratitude , when he shall act for the acquest of Glory , and the Service of his Country ? If a guilty intention be necessary to make an action so , his will not be found to be Criminal ; since he did not intend the violation of any Law , but to second , what we are told to be , the design of all just Laws ; which is , to protect the Innocent , and encourage Vertue . But if by a rigid interpretation of the Law , he may be brought within the reach of it ; I hope his Misdemeanor will not appear so great , but that your Clemency may allow him all that I beg for him , which is , that he may be permitted to repair a mistake in the exercise of his vertue , by the continuation of those Services in the Roman Army , which will be far more useful to the publick than his death , in his present circumstances , can be . To this Theodora would perhaps have added , ( though she could scarce have done it , without some reluctancy from her modesty ) The things , Sir , that he has been pleas'd to act and hazard for me , may persuade you , that if , contrary to my prayers and hopes , you should design severity towards him , you may more sensibly punish him , by my death , than by more immediate inflictions on himself . And 't is like she would have enforc'd her arguments and intreaties , for a Person for whom she was so much and so justly concern'd , when the President ▪ vex'd to find that both of them so little valu'd Life , whose deprivation was the most formidable thing he could threaten them with , prevented her , by saying , with a stern countenance , No , I will hear no more , having heard but too much already : It does not become a Roman Magistrate , to suffer any longer with patience ; that Prisoners and Criminals should daringly disobey the Laws , slight all their threats , and glory in their violation . What each of you has said to prove himself guilty , affords abundant reason to condemn you both . Wherefore , since you cannot agree among your selves , I will be your Umpire , and give both of you what each desires and merits . You , Obstinate Maid , sayes he , turning to Theodora , shall dye for having broken Prison . You Disobedient Soldier , sayes he to Didymus , shall dye for having perswaded and further'd her Escape . But to specifie your chiefest Crime , than which there needs no other , nor can be a greater , you both shall dye because you are Christians , and consequently Enemies to the Roman Emperors , and the Gods that made them so . This fatal Doom being pronounc'd , the Judge order'd the condemn'd Prisoners to be taken aside , and strongly guarded , till all things were in readiness for their Execution : Which preparatives he gave order to hasten . Yet finding by the discontented looks , and confus'd murmurs , of the by-standers , that the Charms and Innocence of Theodora , and the Youth , Courage and Friendship , of both the no less generous than unfortunate Prisoners , made his Sentence o be far less lik'd , than were the persons & behavior of those it had pass'd upon ; declar'd , that whilst he was dispatching other publick business , he permitted any that should have Charity enough to make a hopeless Attempt , to endeavour to convert those obstinate miscreants : Adding withal an intimation , that even they might speed in their suit , if they would seasonably , with incense in their hands , flee to the Altars of the Gods , and humbly implore of Them , Pardon and Safety . This respite , as it expos'd the generous Couple to have their constancy assaulted by Infidels , ambitious of making such illustrious Persons Proselytes , so it gave them the welcom opportunity , of interchanging some discourse with one another . These Conferences were begun by Didymus ; who seeing himself upon the point of final Separation from his admirable Mistress , could not forbear feeling in himself such disorders , as on all other sad occasions , his great Courage had kept him from resenting . And this unusual commotion of mind , was uneasie enough to oblige him to say , to the fair Person that occasion'd it ; Though , Madam , the military course of life I have with some forwardness pursu'd , has accustom'd me to meet Death in variety of formidable Shapes and Dresses , without being discompos'd by it ; yet when I see the world going to be rob'd of its noblest Ornament , and my self to be depriv'd of the person I most love and admire in it ; and when I see this matchless Person ready to he ravish'd from us , both in the flow'r of her age , and by the infamous hand of an Executioner ; I think it were rather stupidness not to be afflicted , than any weakness to be deeply so . I was ▪ answer'd Theodora , so fully satisfy'd before , of your Friendship and Compassion ; that this new grief of yours , as 't is a very needless proof of them , so 't is a very unwelcom one . For , if I were to allow any thing to grieve me , when I am entring into the fulness of Joy , it ought to be , that I find your good nature renders this seemingly distress'd Condition of mine very uneasie to You ; which through Gods assistance , is very little so to me ; and yet will be less so , if , congratulating rather than deploring our Martyrdom , you will ease me of the justest and greatest part of my Grief , that consists in being unhappily accessory to yours , and seeing you needlesly troubl'd at mine . That circumstance , adds she , of my death , which I perceive much afflicts you , might in my opinion more justly lessen , than aggravate your Sorrow . For , I look upon it rather as a Favour , than an Infelicity , that I am early remov'd out of the World , where I see , and suffer , and ( which is worst of all ) do , so much Ill. To be early rescu'd from the Snares of a Dangerous and Persecuting Age , and preserv'd from the Evil to come , is rather a Privilege , than a Calamity , to those that are duely sensible , as I desire to be , that one can never arrive unseasonably at Heaven , nor be too early happy . And , in this persuasion ( continues Theodora , ) I am confirm'd by considering , that the First of those who are recorded to have religiously deceas'd , in the old Testament , and in the new , just Abel , and John the Baptist ; both of them dy'd young , and perish'd by the hands of those that Persecuted them for their Piety . And even that spotless Lamb of God who did no sin , but by his Satisfaction , Precepts , and Example , takes away the sin of the World ; was sacrific'd almost in the flow'r of his Age : So little is it an unhappiness , or a mark of Gods disfavour , to escape the toyles and dangers of a troublesom Navigation , by being early , though by a boisterous Wind , blown into the Port. And , if it could become a Woman to encourage a Heroe , I should exhort both you and my self too , generous Didymus , ( continues she ) to entertain our present Condition with Sentiments becoming Christians . And , as it does not trouble me directly , so it ought not to trouble you upon the score of sympathy ; that I am secur'd from the hazards and inconveniencies of Age : But be pleas'd to make use of that Courage , now at the end of your daies , that you have constantly express'd in the course of your life . And , do not , I beseech you , repine , either that you or I , is to fall by the hand of an Executioner . For that seeming , and but seeming Ignominy , was the lot both of our Saviour's immediate Harbinger , and of our Saviour himself . And , when we consider for whom , and for what , we suffer ; we may find reason enough to assume the sentiments of the Apostles , who , after having been misus'd by the Jewish Council , went from their presence rejoycing , that they had been thought worthy to Suffer for His name ; for whom we are going to suffer the like things . For , Didymus , Gods gracious Providence has not left us to perish , by ling'ring or tormenting Sickness , or troublesom Old Age ; nor yet for some common Cause , or some unimportant End. But all in our fate is noble : And what to others is meer Death , a debt due to Nature , or the punishment of Sin , to us is Martyrdom , the noblest act of Christianity , and shortest way to Everlasting Glory . A Discourse that relish'd so much more of a Martyr than of a Virgin , gave Didymus a rise to continue a Conversation , by which he found himself as well assisted , as charm'd ; and therefore observing the serenity of his Mistresses looks , to be little inferiour to the beauty of her face , and remembring what instances she had that day given of an altogether extraordinary Piety and Courage ; was , by the sentiments these reflections produ'cd in him , prompted to tell her : I should be justly inconsolable , Madam , to see my self and the world , upon the point of being depriv'd of so admirable a Person , as Theodora has , by this daies various Tryals , manifested Her self to be ; if I were not confident , that my Loss will be as short as great ; and that in the State we are now entring upon , I shall be allow'd what approaching Death will deny me in this , and shall find in Heaven the endearing happiness of conversing with Her more freely , than our Persecutions and Her Reservedness would here permit . For Madam , ( continues He , ) I am Friend enough to my own Felicity , to believe assuredly , that those who shall be happy enough to meet in Heaven , will know one another there , and have their joyes hightned by the remembrance of what past between them upon Earth . For in the blest State we are hastening to , our Faculties , and consequently our memory , will not only be gratify'd with Suitable Objects , but be improv'd by enlarg'd Capacities . And even in a condition short of that we this day expect ; mens knowledge has been advanc'd , at least as much as is necessary for our knowing one another , without the helps that are ordinarily requisite to make us do so . As soon as ever Adam saw Eve , he could confidently say of her , that she was bone of his bone , and flesh of his flesh . When Noah awak'd from his Sleep , he could tell that during his sleep , his younger Son had behav'd himself irreverently towards him . When our Saviour was tranfigur'd on M. Tabor , the three chos'n disciples that attended him presently knew Moses & Elias , whom they had never seen before , in spite of the Diguise that the Glory they appear'd in put upon them . St. Paul tells his Thessalonians , they shall be his joy & crown , before their common Lord at his appearing : To the truth of which it seems requisite , that both the Preachers and the Converts shall be publickly known at that great appearance , and Assembly of the first born , whose names are written in Heaven ; and consequently , that men there shall know one another . Our Divine Redeemer , continues Didymus , teaches us , that there is Joy in the presence of the holy Angels over a repenting Sinner ; which argues , that whether they know of his Conversion in a more intuitive way , or by the information of those Angels , that are some times sent to this lower world about human affairs , they yet have a knowledg of particular persons , and take notice of particular things that concern them . And , which makes exceedingly for my present purpose , he elsewhere introduces Abraham in Paradice , calling upon the uncharitable Rich Man , to remember what his own and Lazarus's differing States had been upon Earth : And , which is yet more , to shew , that even in the place of utter Darkness and Torment , the Memory of past things and persons is not obliterated ; the Rich Man is introduc'd , as remembring not only Lazarus , but his own five Brothers , and their dangerous Condition . The pause that Didymus made , after these words , invited Theodora to tell him : Since , generous Didymus , I have observ'd our soundest Teachers to be of differing opinions about the Subject of your Discourse , and that they do not look upon it as an Article of Faith , either that the Blessed do , or that they do not , know one another in Heaven ; I presume I may be allow'd to think , that if they do , ( which I know is the most receiv'd Opinion ) they do it in likelihood with other sentiments than we commonly imagine . For , when the beloved Disciple teaches , that , though we be here the Children of God , it does not yet appear what we shall be ; and adds only in general , that , when our Saviour , or that Bless'd State , shall be manifested , we shall be like Him : When , I say , I reflect on this , and some things of the same import ; I am prone to fear , that we judge too much of our future glorious State , by wrong measures , taken from our present frail and mean Condition . And I am apt to think , that we must stay till we come to Heaven , before we shall frame Ideas suitable to the Prerogatives of its Bless'd Inhabitants . I think our Notions will then be rais'd , as well as our Dust , and our Love , and other Affections , will be transfigur'd , as well as our Bodies . If we know one another , though our mutual Love may perhaps be greater than it ever was on Earth , yet it will not be upon the former Accounts ; but will be as well better grounded , as better regulated . That external Beauty , pursues the fair Speaker , that here is so much doted on and overvalu'd , will there be found so much inferiour to that of every Glorify'd Body , that the difference and degrees of it will be very inconsiderable , and unable to make differing impressions on those that shall remember them : As the refulgent splendor of the Sun obscures all the Stars , and keeps our eyes from being any more affected by the greatest and brightest , than by any of the rest . So that our kindness to one another will be very little grounded upon External Qualities , which will there either cease , or be eclips'd ; nor upon secular Relations , which will there affect us far less , than our being nearly related to our common Lord ; our resemblance to whom will be the chief , as well as justest Ground of our mutual esteem and affection . When Children of the same Parents have been early parted , and long bred in distant places ; though when they are grown men and women , they chance to meet again , 't is observ'd , that at first they know not one another any more than meer strangers : and when they are inform'd of their Relation , 't is not the little accidents that happen'd to them at play ; nor some features , that perhaps pleas'd one of them in the others Face , but are now very much chang'd by Time and Growth ; that produce their new kindness : but the knowledge that they are Children of the same Father , and their finding in each other personal qualities , fit to adorn their present State , and thereby to challenge kindness and esteem . And if some years absence can produce so great a Change , as to make our nearest Relations unknowable by us ; and make us look with pity , on the fondnesses that trifles produc'd in us in our infancy : What Changes , may we think , must be made on those that convers'd together upon Earth , when after numerous ages , they shall meet in Heaven , with minds as much chang'd and improv'd as their bodies will then be ? Shall we not by the grounds of a vertuous Complacency , be more affected and united , than we are now by natural Relations , or by external Beauty , and those other ●rifles that here produce the greatest Fondnesses ? But Theodora , ( answers the surpriz'd Didymus ) can you be so rigid as to think , that pure and vertuous Affections cannot be admitted into Heaven ; since the Scripture informs us , that not only Joy & Desire are to be found even among the Angels , ( who are said to rejoyce at a sinners Conversion , and desire to pry into the Mysteries of our Religion ) but Care and Actings for opposite Ends ; ( as when the Angel of Persia withstood Michael , and the Angel that talk'd to Daniel . ) I do not absolutely deny , Theodora replies , that the Blessed know one another in Heaven . And , saies she , with a light change of colour , I am so far inclin'nd to believe it is true , as , for Didymus's sake , to wish it so . But , as I lately told you , I am not apt to think , the sentiments occasion'd by that knowledge , will be such as most men imagine . Besides those Reasons that you have ingeniously laid together , I think your perswasion of the Saints mutual knowledge the more probable , because it seems not readily conceivable , how at the great Day of Judgement , the Justice of God , in rewarding and punishing particular Vertues and Crimes , can be manifested to the world , without discovering the Persons by whom they were perform'd : Since Personal Circumstances do very much alter the nature of moral Actions . And since the happy residents in heav'n , will have an eternity alow'd them to converse with one another in ; it seems highly probable , that in their various Conferences , they will meet with , at least sometime or other , occasions , that by less sagacity than their enlightened minds will then be endow'd with , may be improv'd to the discovery of the Persons they were formerly acquainted with . But on the other side , ( continues Theodora ) we shall have such noble and charming Entertainments to employ our attention , as will engross it from the little and despicable Objects , ( as we shall then think them ) that now amuse or busie us ; as when we behold such a pompous Solemnity as a Roman Triumph , the variety of splendid and magnificent Objects , that Successively present themselves to our view , make us so intent upon those surprizing Spectacles , that even the nearest and dearest Relations , though perhaps gazing at the same Sight , out of the same windows , are apt to forget one another . And ( continues she ) even when the Saints actually know and remember one another , they may love and converse , upon terms very differing from those , that were suitable to their mortal Condition . Yes , Didymus , ( adds she ) As there will be no such difference of Ages and Sexes , in Heaven , as there are on Earth ; since all shall there be like the Angels , and have Bodies conform'd to the Glorious Body of their Redeemer : So , the Rational Friendships , that will be practis'd in that happy Place , will receive their measures from the new and personal Excellencies of the Friends ; from their being Rivals in the Love of God ; and from their differing degrees of resemblance to Him , that is the Brightness of his Glory , and the express Image of His Person . But , concludes Theodora , we need not spend more time in discoursing conjecturally about Questions , wherein the Change , we are now going to make , will soon bring us to be resolv'd . And in the mean time , we may well rest satisfy'd , with this assurance , That since Heaven is a Place , or State ▪ where we shall be Bless'd with the Fulness of Joy ; to know and converse with each other , will be there found , either a part of our Felicity , or not necessary to it . CHAP. IX . WHilst Didymas and his excellent Mistress , stood waiting , till the infamous Ministers of the Presidents Cruelty , had prepar'd all things requisite to the Execution of his barbarous Sentence ; among those many Roman Soldiers that were assembled there , to be spectators of the approaching Tragedy ▪ an Officer , whom his own Gallantry had strongly inclin'd to sympathize with a Person , in whom he saw that Quality so Eminent , thought himself oblig'd to attempt the diswading him , from persisting in so fatal a Resolution as he had taken . Wherefore , approaching our Martyr , with very obliging looks and gestures , and drawing him aside , The Gods , sayes he , can bear me witness , generous Youth , that 't is not without some amazement , and more trouble , than any affliction of my own has been wont to give me , that I see the Possessor of so much Gallantry , upon the point to be destroy'd by an unhappy Constancy , which , though in other cases a vertue , must , being exercis'd against the Gods , become a Crime . And therefore , I cannot but ardently wish , that after having shewn so much Patience and Courage , you would at length express your Prudence too , by letting your self be perswaded to a Compliance , that may rescue you at once from Impiety and from Death . An advice , answers Didymus , that is propos'd with so much kindness and civility , and yet press'd but by such unsatisfying Reasons , does justly deserve my thanks for it , but not my compliance with it . For the Argument you bring against my Constancy to the Truth , is only , that my persisting in it will cost me my Life ; which is a proof indeed , that the Religion I profess , will lead me into Danger , but none at all , that it has misled me into Error . 'T is altogether extrinsick and accidental to a Religions being true or false , that its Embracers happen to be encourag'd by Preferments , or expos'd to Persecutions . Fear is but an ill Counsellor in matters of Religion , unless it be the fear of chusing a bad one , or living unworthy of a good one . He deserves not the Blessing of having made a good choice among Religions , that does more seek in his choice , the Concernments of his Life , than of his Soul. And as 't is only for its being the true one , that we should make choice of our Religion : So having once chosen it , nothing should make us desert it , but a conviction of its being erroneous , and consequently of its wanting that Truth , whose appearance made us embrace it . If therefore , you can shew me , that the Christian Religion is false , or that yours is better ; I am not so in love with wandring , as to go on in a wrong way , because I once have , by weakness or misfortune , been misled into it . But if your Arguments be but menaces , or any thing that is of that sort , which can only manifest , that the power is on your side , but do not at all evince , that the truth is not on mine ; I must look upon what you urge , as not deserving to be comply'd with , but contemn'd . And if it were not my custom never to take any thing ill , that I think is meant well , I should esteem my self not a little injur'd , by the argument you employ to make me abandon Christianity . Since , if a person less civil and gallant had made use of it , I should conclude , that he must suppose me a Coward , to hope , by such perswasions to make a Proselyte . And though I were less assur'd than I am , of the Truth of the Religion I have alwaies own'd ; yet would I not for all the world , on this occasion , by professing yours , desert it : Least by forsaking it , when I am threaten'd for sticking to it ; I should procure my self a disquieting temptation to suspect , that I did not deal sincerely and impartially in chusing a Religion ; since I made choice of one , that I judg'd not worthy to be dy'd for . You mistake my intentions , Generous Didymus , replies the Roman , if you think I pretended to fright you into Apostacy : my Vertue would as little allow me to have so unworthy a design , as your Courage would permit a hope , that it should be succesful . But looking upon my self , as having made a right choice in that worship of the Gods , I make profession of , I could not think it injurious to you , to perswade you , rather to Live in the profession of a true Religion , than to Dye for that of a false one . And since my concerns for your safety , and the little time you have to deliberate , oblige me to speak freely to you ; I cannot but wonder , that a Person that hath courted Honour at the rate you have done , should lose himself , for One , whom the most Sacred Persons of his own Nation , crucified as a Malefactor ; and who has been so ill natur'd , as to invite his Followers , both by express words , and by the nature of the Religion he fram'd , which could not but be Persecuted , to involve themselves with him in the like unhappy fate . The Notions ( replies Didymus , somewhat nettled at this Discourse ) that Idolaters frame to themselves , of the nature of the Christian Religion , are commonly as erroneous , as the ways they take to confute it , are improper , and inhumane : And they are usually no less misinform'd about the Grounds and Mysteries of our Religion , than they are mistaken about the Objects of their own Adorations . 'T is true , that the Divine Person I adore , being sent from God his Father , to be the great Prophet and Reformer of the World , did , with a Prophetick Freedom , as well as Authority , sharply rebuke the Superstitions of the Jewish Scribes and Pharisees , among whom he convers'd ; and did not more unmask their Hypocrisie , and reproach their Practices , by the Light of his Doctrine , than by the shining actions of a most exemplary and unblemish'd Life . And his Holiness having exasperated these impious Hypocrites , that found their Authority undermin'd , and their Persons discredited by him : As their malice was too great , not to attempt the Destruction of such an Enemy ; so his Constancy was too great , to suffer him to decline the greatest dangers , by declining to persist in the wonted exercise of his Vertues ; whereby he thus became expos'd to a Death , which he foresaw , and frequently foretold , and which he also willingly underwent , to procure Everlasting Life , for those who should believe in him , and strive to imitate him . And that his Death , whereunto he submitted to expiate the sins of others , was not inflicted on him for his own , was evident , by his being absolv'd , not only by the very Judge , to whom a Criminal fear of his Accusers indicted the Sentence he pronounc'd against him , but by that Supreme and Infallible Judge , God himself ; who declar'd by astonishing Prodigies , both in Heaven and Earth , how much he was displeas'd with those , that put his Son to Death ; & by raising him from the Dead within three days , to an Immortal Life , proclaim'd how dear he was to him , and gave him Power , to make his Followers Partakers of that glorious condition he himself was advanc'd to . So that ( continues Didymus ) those Champions of his , whom he vouchsafes to single out from the rest of his Followers , and call to Martyrdom , have reason enough to look upon that Call , as an invaluable Honour , and a Priviledge : Since , as they are thereby made more conformable to him , in chearfully dying for Truth and Constancy ; so they will be made more plentiful sharers in those inestimable advantages , that his own meritorious Martyrdom procur'd him . Yes , for those to whom he vouchsafes the Power and Honour of Suffering for Him , and of imitating him , for the interest of Truth and Piety ; he does not only reserve such future Recompences , to crown their Love and Fidelity , but often gives them here such happy foretasts , in a perfect assurance of it , that I cannot but look upon it , as a vast accession to that immense Love , that made him dye for Us , that he calls and inables us to dye for Him. I confess , ( Didymus adds in pursuit of his Discourse ) that , as he took upon him the form of a Man , so he suffer'd himself to be us'd as good Men too often are . But his miraculous power and goodness , sufficiently proclaim'd , that he was not thrown down from Heaven to Earth , as your Vulcan is said to have been , but that he descended from Heaven , to make Men live an heavenly life : Nor did he , like many of your Deities , especially your Jupiter , assume an humane shape , to do actions below the dignity of humane Nature ; but he taught Men a Doctrine , worthy , as well as likely , to be brought from Heaven ; and gave them an exemplary life , whose imitation would fit them to be translated thither : And then submitted to the Torments and Infamy of the Cross , to purchase for his followers , by his Death , that heavenly condition , for which he had qualified them , by his Spirit and his Life . The Roman Officer , not yet quite discourag'd , by the unsuccesfulness he had hitherto met with in his attempt , resolv'd to prosecute it yet further , by saying : The same reason , that somewhat lessens my wonder at your despising Death , for your erroneous Religion , encreases my admiration at your unconcernedness , to avoid the kind of Death that threatens your obstinacy . For though the love of glory , may invite a gallant Man , like Didymus , to part with his life for the attainment of it ; yet that same heroick passion , ought to make those it possesses , more apprehensive than others of those Extremities , wherein Death is accompany'd with Infamy , and made justy terrible with ignominious Circumstances ; of which , none can be more disgraceful , than the receiving it at the base hand of a common Executioner . The Weakness and Examples of your Gods ( replies Didymus ) have too much seduced you , to make Estimates of Good and Evil , by those popular and pitiful measures , that I cannot but think very unworthy to be acquiesc'd in by a Christian ; who , to merit that Title , must be somewhat more than an ordinary Man. We judge of good and evil Actions , by the Laws of God , and right Reason , not by those of Men in Power . And therefore do not think , that Constancy ceases to be a Vertue , and consequently an honourable , not a disgraceful quality , because legal Tyrants will call it Obstinacy , and condemn Men for it , to the same Punishments that are allotted to dishonourable Actions . The respect our Religion commands us to pay to a Civil Magistrate , though a Persecutor , permits us not by force to resist his unjust Sentences . But this Submission of ours , does not at all keep his Sentences from being unjust , nor forbid us to think them so ; and consequently leaves us the inestimable satisfaction of our Consciences , that inwardly absolve us , when outward Judges condemn us . And for proof of this , you cannot but have taken notice , that , whereas truly Criminal , Persons being conscious of their own Guilt , either deny what they are accused of , or endeavour by all means , to palliate it , and to avoid the being condem'd for it . We Christians , on the contrary , do not only Confess what you call a Crime , but Glory in It ; and do not deprecate the fate , that attends our Constancy . Nor can it fright us from undergoing Death , for a glorious Cause , that we must receive it from an Infamous Hand . For that by which we estimate it , is , the quality of the action that procures it , not the condition of him that is employ'd to inflict it : And , so we can consider with joy , for what , we are not much troubled to see , by whom , it is that we suffer ; being satisfied , that the Executioners hand may destroy a Malefactor , but cannot make one ; and if the Cause that brings a Man to the Scaffold , be not culpable , the place cannot make the Death that is there suffered , infamous : Nay , and if Vertue leads him thither , the Instruments of his Death , cannot keep it from being Glorious ; since this demonstrates the Sufferers unshaken Constancy to be insuperable , not only by Death , but by that which many have embrac'd Death to shun , the Contempt of the generality of Men. Your gallant Roman Commander ( Attilius Regulus ) is much less remembred and celebrated , for all his Military Exploits and Attempts , than for the Cruel Death he suffer'd , by order of the Carthaginians , to whom , in performance of a Pomise , he yielded himself up , with expectation of some such barbarous Usage as he met with . And sure , as a submission to Indignities , was a duty not meanly glorious in him , to shun the breaking of his Word to his Enemies ; the like resignation of themselves , will not , by unbyass'd Judges , be thought an Action dishonourable in Christians , to prevent the violation of their Faith , solemnly given , not to a Savage Enemy , but to a Divine Friend , who has already , without any obligation to do it , suffered more shame for them , than the sublimity of his condition leaves it possible for them to suffer for him . And though that Greek Philosopher , Socrates , whom your own Oracles , with more of Truth than they are wont to be guilty of , pronounc'd the wisest of Men , was by his own Fellow-Citizens condemn'd to die by Poyson , brought him by the hand of an Executioner : Yet , since that Sentence was not occasioned by his Crimes , but his Vertues , the deadly draught did not destroy his Fame with his Life ; and poyson'd not his Reputation , which it extremely heightned , but that of his Accusers , and his Judges ; whom after Ages have look'd upon , as worse Criminals than ever they Condemned , and more unworthy Persons , than those they employed to execute their Sentence . And for my part , ( continues Didymus ) some passages of our sacred Records encourage me to expect , that , if a Posthume Fame be such a Blessing , as many imagine , the Indignities we suffer now , will hereafter procure it us . For I cannot but hope , and methinks I foresee , that the Roman Eagles will one day stoop to the Cross of Christ : And the Temples of your False Deities , will be consecrated to the Service of the True God. The Sword of the Civil Magistrate , which is now the great and only successful Argument on your side , will be then in Christian hands , which I wish may never employ it against your Religion ; whose ruine will not require the active opposition of Power , but the bare withdrawing of its preserving Support . And then posterity , more enlightned and more just , will read the History of those Destroyers of the Baptized ( which is , at least , the innocenter ) part of Mankind , with the same resentments , with which they will read the havocks made by Wars , Plagues , Massacres , and other publick Calamities . CHAP. X. THese Replies of Didymus made an end of convincing the Person , that occasion'd them , that our Martyrs resolution was not to be shaken , either by threats or perswasions . But yet the officious Roman , cherishing some hope , that , if Didymus should see his Mistress ready to be kill'd by an infamous hand ; that Beauty , which had conquered his heart , would soften it , and thereby make it capable of relenting impressions ; thought fit to make him one address more , and tell him ; It is not without extreme regret , that I see your inflexible obstinacy defeat all my endeavours to procure your safety . But though your mistaken gallantry , may make you think it unhandsom in a Soldier , to disclaim a threatned opinion , that he once adher'd to , lest the change should be imputed to Fear or Levity ; yet I hope you will not think , that the strict rules of that destructive Gallantry , ought to oblige a young Lady , in whose Sex , Courage is , at least , an unrequired , if not an altogether improper , Vertue . And therefore , I hope you will not refuse to second my Endeavours , to perswade her , not to throw herself out of a World , of whose grandeurs and pleasures , her transcendent Beauty promises her an extraordinary share , as well as her Youth fits her to relish them perfectly , and enjoy them long . Didymus , though at first somewhat surpriz'd at this motion , took no long time to return answer , by saying ; I confess , I cannot partake of the trouble you are pleas'd to express , for the not prevailing of your Endeavours to alter my Resolutions . For though the advice you press'd upon me , was obliging in you to give , yet it would have been Criminal for me to take it . And as for what you propose , in reference to Theodora , I must desire to be excus'd from making myself accessory to your design of tempting her . For , in my opinion , he that solicites another , to what he believeth a Crime , doth become guilty of one ; so that , as to what concerns Theodora , without being at all sure of shaking her Vertue , I should most certainly ruine my own innocence . Yet I cannot think ( says the Roman , interrupting him , ) but if you would enforce my perswasions with yours , the Interest you have in her , would prevail to make her rather accept of Life , than deny a Person , that she owes so much to ; and does not less highly , than justly , value . If ( replies Didymus ) I should yield to use so Criminal means , as to give her an Example of the Apostacy , you would have me invite her to ; the attempt would be less improbable : But for me to perswade her to what I am just going to give a convincing proof , that I believe to be worse than Death ; would make her both hate me , and despise me . And to convince you , that such a Motion as you would have me make , would lose me all the share I may have in her good opinion ; I will dare to own to you , that if I thought her capable , I say not of endeavouring to seduce me , but of being seduced by me , my esteem of her would alter upon her change : And though I could not deny my wonder to so rare a Master-piece of Nature , as is her visible part ; yet there would be a vast difference betwixt a meer admiration of external Beauty , which must become the Trophy of Age or Death ; and that high veneration , that I now pay to that admirable Person 's intrinsick Worth , and unconquerable Vertue . Nor should you doubt ( continues Didymus ) of the Entertainment , that such a Piety as hers , would give such a Motion as you would have me make ; since it would justly give her a higher resentment of my solicitations , than of all the importunities of her Heathen Persecutors : for these do but advise her to decline Danger , by embracing what they think Truth ; whereas that which you would have me to perswade her to , is , to purchase her safety , by renouncing , what I , as well as She , know to be Truth : And I doubt not , that such a proceeding would so highly offend her , as to enable her , by a bare Pardon , to acquit herself of those Respects and Services of mine , to which posssibly a Person of her goodness vouchsafes some Title to her gratitude . There is ( replies the Roman ) so great a difference betwixt the case of a resolv'd Soldier , that thinks himself in point of Reputation engag'd not to retreat , and that of a young Lady , from whom no Resoluteness , much less Obstinacy , can be expected , that I must yet think , our joynt perswasions , though unassisted by your Example , would with-hold her from Death , now she is near enough to it to see the horrors of it . Nay , ( rejoyns Didymus ) I did not speak what I have been saying about my own aversness , that I might hinder you from trying your Fortune , if you think fit , with Theodora's Vertue . I do not envy her Constancy ( whose successes have been hitherto no fewer than its tryals ) the honour of gaining more than one Victory , in one day . But what I have been saying , was , to give you one reason , of my refusing to joyn with you in your propos'd attempt : against which I shall now offer this other reason , that I think it little less than impossible it should succeed . For I thought I had already satisfied you , that as to my interest in Theodora , if it were much greater , than you , for want of knowing us both , imagine ; so great a misimployment of it , would make me justly forfeit it ; and perswasions that would seduce her to Apostacy , instead of making her follow the Advice , would make her but detest the Adviser . And as to the hopes , you ground on her seeing herself upon the point of passing out of the World ; let me tell you , that the severe Exercises , to which her strict Piety hath long accustomed her , have so disingaged her affections from temporal things , that , being already mortified to the pleasures and vanities of the World , Death can now do no more , but free her from the troubles and persecutions of it . She hath employed a great part of her life , in preparing herself to part with it joyfully , when-ever Nature or Vertue shall require it ; and she will find it very easie to lay it down for Religion , now she is in a suffering Condition , when in her most flourishing one , she found it enough to wean her from the love of the present life , that it detained her from the next . Great Vertues , such as hers , are like great Rivers , which , the nearer they come to the Sea , where they are to end their course , the greater they are wont to grow , and the more difficult the stream is to be withstood or hinder'd from its progress . Theodora now looks upon herself , as having but one step more to make , to reach that Crown she hath done and suffer'd so much for : And that glorious Object , viewed at so near a distance , so ravishes and so possesses her Eyes , that she will doubtless either not see , or not regard , any thing that would hinder or retard her taking possession of it . Here the Roman Officer , somewhat impatient at Didymus's Discourse , would no longer forbear interrupting it , by telling him ; To hear you speak , one would imagine , that you are not talking of a young Lady , but of some ancient Heroe , that had been long accustom'd to despise the Frowns of Fortune , and keep himself from over-valuing her smiles . Heroick Vertue ( replies Didymus ) does as little know Sexes , as doth the Soul wherein it properly resides . A habitude cannot always be Essential to the Nature of an Heroick Action : Since the first of that kind that one does , is not the consequent , but the beginning , of a a habitude : And a sincere and settled resolution to be highly vertuous , may make a Woman ( as well as a Man ) to be , that which the noblest subsequent Actions can but declare her to have been . And a Person that , like Theodora , acts by the assistance , and as in the presence , of the Deity , may , to maintain her Loyalty to God , and her Title to the inestimable Rewards he hath promis'd to persevering Piety , both act and suffer greater things , than those very Heroes you talk of were put upon , by such barely humane Motives , as Custom , Ambition , or Revenge . And particularly , as to the point of perseverance against Menaces , and Proffers ; these are not like to prevail against the Constancy of Christians much less possess'd with Divine Love and Hope , than Theodora is . And indeed , there can be nothing upon Earth capable to bribe Them , to let go the Joys of Heaven , that see themselves entring upon the Possession , and find themselves sensible of the inestimable Value of them . Wherefore ( concludes Didymus ) you will not , I presume , think it strange , that I refuse to joyn with you , in a Design , that I could not so much as attempt , either with Hope , or without a Crime ; and that thinking it worthier of my Endeavors , to imitate Theodora's Constancy , than to seduce her from it , I chuse rather to be a sharer in the Triumphs of her Vertue , than a Trophy . CHAP. XI . THis resolute Conclusion , oblig'd the Roman Officer to break off a Conversation , whereby he plainly saw , there was no cause to hope he could shake the Constancy of Didymus ; and much cause to fear , that Didymus's Constancy and his Discourses , would stagger many of the Heathen Auditors . And therefore withdrawing himself , much discontented at the unsuccesfulness of his perswasions , he thought it would be impious , to make any intercession , for Persons he judg'd invincibly obstinate , or divert the fatal Proceedings of the Judge ; who having by this time made an end of those other Affairs , whose dispatch Theodora's respite was not to outlast ; call'd for the innocent Criminals , and , with a stern Countenance and Voice , demanded , whether they were yet willing , to appease the Deities they had provok'd ; and by burning Incense to them , endeavour to attone for the Affronts they had offer'd them . Adding , that there was now no more time left for deliberating , but that they must immediately renounce thir Impious Religion , or suffer Death for it . But this could not shake the illustrious Prisoners Constancy ; which prompted them to make , with as much haste as the President could desire , an answer , that consisted but of a short and resolute declaration ; That they had liv'd Worshippers of Christ ; and had a thousand times rather die , than cease to be , or to profess themselves such : And that for the false Gods , the President would have them adore ; they had rather be their Victims , than their Suppliants ; and fall Sacrifices to them , than offer them any . This bold profession , so incens'd the person 't was made to , that he immediately gave order , that the Prisoners should be led away to the place of Execution ; and that the Ministers of Justice , ( as he misnamed his Cruelty ) should , without delay , go on with the preparations that were making , to destroy them . But while these Officers were solicitous to obey those Commands , Theodora took the opportunity , to tell the generous Companion of her Sufferings : It was fit , I confess , when we discours'd with Infidels , to recommend the Objects of our hopes , by giving them the glorious Titles of Crowns , and Triumphs ; since being to defend the reasonableness of our Constancy , by the greatness of the rewards we expect for it ; 't was very proper to represent those Coelestial Recompences , under the notion of such Goods , as those we argued with , acknowledged to be the most noble and desirable . But , ( continues she ) when we speak of Heaven among our selves , give me leave to tell you , that I think we should look upon it under a very differing notion ; and make a wide disparity betwixt the Christians Paradise , and the Poets Elysium . The Triumphs we should most desire in Heaven , should be , not over our outward Enemies , or personal Sufferings , but over Sin and Ignorance , and the frailties of our Natures , and the imperfections of our Vertues . And the positive Blessings that should most endear Heaven to us , should be , not so much that we shall there be Crown'd by Christ , as that we shall live with him , and follow that spotless Lamb where ever he goes ; That our gratitude it self shall be perfect , as well as the Blessings that engage it shall be compleat ; and That we shall have an eternal Day , to contemplate that Sun of Righteousness , without having that glorious Object veil'd by any interposing Cloud , much less hid from us by the vicissitudes of day and night . In short , I think , Devotion should in our future State , aspire to other things , than those that may be the Objects of meer Ambition . And now , generous Didymus , ( adds Theodora ) since we are entering upon the last scene of our mortal Life ; let us , ( I beseech you ) summon together and rouse up all the Graces and Vertues we have receiv'd from Heaven , and fervently implore both an encrease of them , and a supply of any that our present Circumstances require ; That we may go off the Stage Piously , as well as Handsomly , and both act and suffer as becomes Christian Martyrs . Let not any Crueltys or Affronts of our insulting Persecutors , be able to discompose us ; but let our evenness of mind convince them , that they can as little disorder us in our way to Heaven , as hinder us to get to our Journey 's end . But let not our undauntedness appear the effect of sullenness , or fierceness , or of meer resolvedness ; but let it be so calm and charitable , that we may not be suspected to be the Martyrs , rather of our Glory , or our Courage , than of our Religion . Let it not be thought that we hate life , or despise it , but only that we think it a cheap purchase for Heaven , and for the honour of owning and following a Redeemer , who , to merit it for us , took the Cross in his way thither . Admonitions so becoming a dying Christian , receiv'd such an entertainment , as the Piety of it , and the Veneration he had for the giver , might justly challenge , from so devout and elevated a Soul as that of Didymus : whose resolute answers to the Roman Officer , together with his behaviour , as well since as before he made them , leaving his Enemies no more expectation that he could be prevail'd with , either to alter his own resolution , or tempt his Mistress to change hers ; he was appointed to be first led away to Execution : that the sight of his Blood might terrifie Theodora , and fright her into a care to preserve her own . This resolution of his Enemies , did not at all lessen his ; but having easily obtain'd leave , from the Roman Officers , that could not but admire his Gallantry , and somewhat compassionate his condition , to say a few words to Theodora : He went to that excellent Person ; and approaching her with a far greater respect , than he would shew to any Power , that could but preserve that life , which the Romans were going to take from him : He told her : Your Piety , Madam , and your Example , making me presume , that upon such an occasion as this , I may with your consent , part with a life , which ever since I had the Fate to see you , has been so much at your disposal ; I am now going without reluctancy to perform that last duty , whereto Religion calls me . But thinking my self oblig'd , to begin with the most difficult part of my Martyrdom , before I bid farewel to the World , my enclination and respect , brings me to take my last leave of the fairest and excellentest Person in it . If , Madam , ( so he proceeds ) I were in a condition of paying you any further dutys , my humble request to you would be , to have the honour of your further Commands . But since my condition leaves me not a capacity of serving you for the future , one of my last Petitions to you must be , to be pleas'd to look upon my past Services , as extremely short of the desires of a Person , that lov'd you with as much ardency , as your Charms themselves could kindle ; and yet with so pure a flame , that had it been visible , even Theodora's Vertue , could not have disapprov'd it . But Madam , ( continues he ) although to rescue you from the condition you are in , there is no danger so desperate that I would not joyfully attempt , if I were again at liberty , and tho' it were possible I could survive you ; yet I am too much concern'd for the nobler part of Theodora , to wish , she would blemish so spotless a life to save it . Only , Madam , give me leave to be so kind and Charitable to the World , as to wish that Providence may find some expedient , to preserve for you , both your Crown and your Head ; and that you may arrive so late at Heaven , as to have time to bless the Earth with a long and Exemplary Life ; and may you lead it with as much Tranquillity , as you will with Vertue ; and without knowing so much as that trouble , which , I fear , your generous compassion may now and then offer to give you , upon the remembrance of the faithfulest of your Servants . These words , and the sad occasion of them , having drawn some Tears into Theodora's fair Eyes ; though the cause of them made them very obliging to Didymus , yet his concern for her quiet , presently engag'd him to help her to suppress them , by making haste to tell her , that 't was pity the serenity of her mind and looks , which Vertue had still kept calm , and even Persecutions had not been able to disorder , should be discompos'd by any other thing . And Madam , ( continues he ) though , being confident that your charity will make it unnecessary for me to beg your Prayers , I was going to make it my petition to you , that you would vouchsafe now and then to cast a thought on the memory of a Person , to whose mind you were constantly present : Yet , I must now retract that humble request , unless you are pleas'd to grant it me with this qualification ; That the honour you do me , may not be disquieting to you . For how great a blessing soever it is , to enjoy a place in your thoughts ; yet an Idea must represent quite another man than Didymus , that should , especially on its own score , become troublesome to Theodora ; whose compassion is as well needless , as undesired ; since 't is injurious both to her self and me , to look upon Him as a person to be pitied , that is going to receive the honour and satisfaction , to suffer in her sight , what he suffers partly for her service . And the place he implores but in her favourable not her mournful thoughts , will give him the noblest and desirablest Being , that he can have upon Earth , when he shall be in Heaven . The things which Didymus said , and the pathetical way he said them in , did not leave the fair Person they were address'd to , all the unmov'dness of mind , she us'd to be Mistress of on other occasions . And considering these as the last and dying words of an accomplish'd Gentleman , that had so highly serv'd and lov'd her , she could not hinder her resentments from making her , on such an occasion , remit somewhat of her wonted reserv'dness . Wherefore with Eyes , wherein though she endeavour'd to suppress Tears , she disclos'd an extraordinary Grief ; and with Looks , wherein both Gratitude and Obligedness display'd themselves ; she told him , If I look'd upon your Vertue , generous Didymus , as one that were but somewhat extraordinary , I should think my self oblig'd to make excuses ; and seek your pardon for having been , though undesignedly , so accessory to the early loss of a life , so worthy to be a long one . But what you have this day done , makes me apprehend that such Discourses , would not be very pleasing , to one that delights in such Actions . But do not think , I conjure you , that , though I cannot pretend to merit or requite Services of so unusual a strain as yours , I can be insensible , how much I owe to them , not only upon the score of their greatness , but upon that of the handsom and generous way wherein you did them . For ( continues she , with a colour that somewhat expounded the meaning of what she was going to say ) if after the Vertue and Gallantry you this day express'd , Providence had thought fit to place me in a condition of making you Retributions , I will allow you to think , that in chusing them for you , I should have been very much , if not unreservedly , guided by your wishes . Here she paus'd a while , and blush'd the latter , that she had said , what to her niceness seem'd so much ; and the former , to consider whether he deserv'd not to have more said to him . But her obliging looks did so well second and expound , her otherwise , somewhat indefinite words , that Didymus's Heart readily understood the Language of her Eyes ; and her Heart spoke so clearly in her Cheeks , somewhat that it scrupled to utter by her Tongue , that , expressing more than she said , without injuring her Modesty she righted her Gratitude : her passionate Admirer esteeming himself more highly recompenc'd , by this permission , to suppose her , kindness than he would have done by the perfectest assurance of any others love : And fancying , that by the sight of that new Fire that flash'd in her Cheeks , he could descern in her Breast such a resentment of his Services , as involv'd an approbation of their cause , and imply'd a peculiarity for his Person ; he took the high est retribution he ever did , for the highest he ever could receive from a Lady , whose Beauty and Reservedness were so great , that no favour of her granting , could appear little . But Theodora quickly recovering the disorder , this merited Declaration had put her into , made hast to prosecute her discourse , by adding , But 't is my satisfaction , and will I hope , be yours , that , since you acted upon Religions score , as well as mine , you will not want a recompence , greater than it had been possible for me to give you ; since in rescuing me upon a Christian account , you have serv'd a Master , that is able most richly to reward , even your Performances and Sufferings : And doubt not Didymus , ( continues she ) but that , when you shall once be possess'd of a Glorious and Immortal Crown in Heaven , you will have no cause , to be troubled , at your having , upon Earth , left a Crown of Lawrel , or miss'd one of Myrtle . If I were to tarry , or rather languish , here below , as many years as your mistaken kindness makes you wish me ; your favours have been so extraordinary , that , without being guilty of an ingratitude that would be so too , I could never lose the remembrance of them , nor omit paying you the highest acknowledgements , that the chief place , not only in my memory , but in my esteem and friendship , could make you . But do not Didymus , I beseech you , think of my Surviving you , when the holding out a few minutes longer for Christ , will introduce me into a Condition , where I shall ever see him , and never offend him . Let us then , ( concludes she ) quit the thoughts of this World , that we are going so soon to quit , and begin to fix them on those joys of another , that we are going to possess for ever ; and during that little time , that is requisite to go take our Crowns , let us summon up all our powers , to contribute to a behaviour befitting such Expectations . Let our last services to Religion , be our noblest ones , that our Deaths may at least adorn it , if not propagate it . Let us receive the last effects of our Persecution , as persons that do not deserve such an usage , and are above the reach of it . Let us aspire to Christs temper , in his cause ; and suffer Like him , as we suffer For him : and then we need not doubt , but , in spight of this short separaration we are yielding to for his Sake , we shall joyfully , and for ever , meet again , in a better place , and in an inestimably happier condition . Theodora had scarce made an end of speaking , when , all things being in a readiness to put the Judges Sentence in Execution , they to whom that infamous employment was committed , came to bring notice of it to Didymus , who , notwithstanding the reluctancy he had , to part with the admirable , and now obliging , Theodora ; thinking it would misbecome him , to stay for being press'd on such an occasion delay'd not , with all the resolution he was able to assume , to take his last farewel of her . This cruel separation , being not to have an end , before both their Lives , was solemniz'd by that excellent pair , with Gestures and Expressions so sensible and moving , that , declining an account , which I could not attempt to give , without sharing very much in a grief , that I should be able , but very imperfectly , to describe ; I shall silently pass over the Circumstances of this sad Separation , that more troubled the generous Lover , and perhaps his admirable Mistress too , than that of Soul and Body , which was presently to follow it . But Didymus , now finally parted from Theodora , whilst he was moving towards the place of his Sufferings , having by the assistance of him , whose Religion call'd Him to them , assum'd a temper of mind , suitable to the glorious work he was going to undertake , and entirely dispos'd himself , after having done all that became a Lover , to suffer as became a Christian . This was much the less difficult for him to do , because his whole past life was an excellent preparative , to make him act the last scene of it worthily . For ( to add somewhat on this occasion , to the Character given of him in the first Book . ) Didymus was a Person , in whom Divine Grace had produc'd so early a Piety , that he was a well grown Christian , before he was come to be a full grown Man. And judging the most flourishing time of his Age , to be , for that reason , the fittest to be Devoted to the most worthy of Objects ; He was enabl'd both to suppress the heats of Youth , and despise the Vanities of the World ; even while that usually ungovern'd Age , made the former most impetuous , and gave the latter , the great endearment of Novelty . Nor did his being a Soldier , prove an Obstacle to his Piety . The Examples of Joshua , David , Jonathan , and other brave Warriers of the Old Testament , shew , that Heroick Valour , may be accompany'd with eminent Piety . And the first Proselyte the Heathen World presented to Christianity , being a Captain , and continuing to be so after his Conversion ; argues , that a Military state of Life , is not inconsistent with the most innocent of Religions . And for Didymus ; as he fought not out of Fierceness , or Avarice , or Ambition ; but to exercise and improve his Vertue ; so amidst all his Military Conflicts , he was still careful To fight the good fight of Faith : And being taught by the Holy Scripture , that The Life of Man here on Earth , is a kind of Military one : He us'd the Roman Camp as a School to a higher sort of Warfare ; where , as the hardships are greater , and the Victories more difficult , so the Crowns and Triumphs are incomparably more Valuable and Glorious . A Person thus qualify'd and dispos'd , could not find it very uneasie , to part , for his Religion , with a Life that he had led so well , and hazarded so often ; nor to leave a World , That Sin and Persecutions embitter'd , and That was presently to be left by Theodora , that he might pass to a place where they should meet to be Crown'd . Wherefore , resolving to shew that the approach of a reputedly infamous Death , was not able , either to shake his Constancy , or extinguish his Charity ; he dispos'd himself to mingle in his last Actions and Sufferings , the courage of a Roman Soldier , with the resignment of a Christian Martyr . And accordingly , walking on towards the place of Execution , with a calmness and undauntedness , that could scarce have proceeded from a resolution not strengthen'd by Faith ; as soon as He came thither , He look'd round about him upon the Guards , and other Assistants of this sad Spectacle , in such a way , as if He raTher pity'd them , than lik'd the Pity , which many of them could not but by their Tears express for Him , and discours'd to them with all the gracefulness , that Youth and Courage could give so extraordinary a Person . And because he suppos'd , that ( as 't was usual on such occasions of Concourse ) there were among the Spectators , some Military Men that were Christians in their Hearts , though they had not been call'd to own it publickly ; He address'd himself particularly to them . And having premis'd , that he pretended not to instruct them as barely Christians , because he doubted not , but he had been prevented by the weighty and moving Sermons of divers burning and shining Lights , and guiders of the Church : He told them , he would confine his advices to what was suitable to the condition he shar'd in with them , of being Christian Soldiers . And then he briefly , but pathetically , exhorted them to all those Vertues and practices , that might recommend both their Persons , their Profession , and their Religion . The last of which , by many Arguments , ( which his example made the more Impressive ) he perswaded them , after having adorn'd it by their Lives , to confirm , if they were call'd to it , by their Deaths : Without forgetting , that the Fearful , are by the Scripture rank'd with the Vnbelievers , as destin'd to the same place of Torment ; and without fearing any unmerited disgrace , so much as that deserved one , threatn'd by the Captain of their Salvation , to those that shall deny him before Men. He Exhorted them , by their Courage and Obsequiousness to convince their unbeleiving Superiors ; that the valour of Christians could be eminently active , when their Religion did not confine it to be passive ; and that when Enterprises , how dangerous soever , were as just and noble as difficult , they could emulate , if not outshine , the Gallantry of those Deify'd Heroes they refus'd to Worship . And lastly , having press'd them to be loyal to the Emperor , and obedient too , as far as was consistent with Fidelity to Him that made him so : He begg'd their Prayers for himself , and put up ardent ones of his own , for the Church , the State , his Persecutors , and particularly , for the excellent Companion of his Martyrdom . This said ; he began to do what was to be done by him , towards the deliverance of his Soul from his Body ; and having done it with so much serenity of Mind and Looks , that he extorted an esteem of his vertue , even from those that destroy'd him him for it ; he let the Executioner do his part too , ( which probably , was done by taking off his Head ) and in a moment pass'd , from being a suffering Member of the Church Militant , to be a happy one of the Church Triumphant . CHAP. XII . THE Persecutors of Theodora , hoping to intimidate her by so Tragick a Spectacle , had conducted her to a place , whence she might see all that had pass'd ; of which 't will easily be believ'd that she had not been an unconcern'd Spectator : Her Vertue and Kindness making her a sharer in his Sufferings , by sympathising with him , and by endeavouring , as far as she could , to relieve him by her most ardent Prayers ; That his constancy under them might be Divinely Supported , and richly Crown'd . But while her thoughts were , with a Divine grief , Solemnising her loss ; those cruel Men that had procur'd it , being desirous to make use of the terrifying impressions they suppos'd she had receiv'd , while they were fresh and recent , advanc'd to Theodora , bringing with them the purposely disfigur'd remains of Didymus ; and then told her , that she was now convinc'd , that neither Youth nor Gallantry was able to protect , from the fatal anger of the Gods , those that obstinately refus'd to Worship them ; and therefore they expected , that , by a seasonable care of herself , she would shun the imitation of so Tragical an Example . To this the fair Martyr replied , that she was not at all surpriz'd at what had pass'd , and therefore , she knew not why she should be terrified by it . For Didymus and she , and all other considering Christians , that walk according to their Masters directions , were wont deliberately to weigh the consequences of embracing a strict and persecuted Religion , before they made Profession of it : And having foreseen what it might cost them , and satisfied themselves that it deserv'd a yet higher Price ; they were not discourag'd nor surpriz'd , to be put to pay that price ; especially , when it open'd to them an immediate passage to the possession of what they gave it for . She added , that if the Example of the generous Martyr , were to have any operation upon her , it ought not to fright her from , but confirm her in , the profession of a Religion , whose truth he thought worth dying for ; and which , notwithstanding all the handsome concerns he had for her preservation , he would never speak one word to perswade her to decline , for the protracting of her Life . His Example , ( continues Theodora ) lets me see , that no violences upon Earth , are able to destroy a Courage that is assisted from Heaven , and fights in view of the glories of it : And his Death manifests , how quick the passage may , be between this and an incomparably better Life ; and clearly shews , how soon the utmost effect of your Cruelty , can place those that despise it , above the reach of it . Then casting her mournful Eyes upon the saddest Object that ever they beheld ; If you should , says she , be so inhumane , as to exercise any further Cruelty upon this now inanimate Prison , whence his glad Soul has Escap'd ; you may intend him a mischief , but he will not feel it , unless it be in the encrease of the recompences of his Martyrdom . You may , if you please , insult over his dead Body ; and those whom his vertue made his Friends , may some of them be troubled at it : but while you are triumphing at his Death , and others are deploring it , I doubt not , but the welcomes and joys he receives in the blessed place he is gone to , make him happy enough , to pity not only those that hate him , but those that pity him too . What you shew me as the Trophy of your Power , I look upon , as that of his Constancy : and for what you presume to be Your Victory , He will be really Crown'd . The Grave , ( continues she ) is , I confess , a sad Prospect , to them that look no further , and terminate their sight there ; but not to those sufferers for the Truth , who , with the Eye of Faith , looking beyond it , see all those Glories on the other side of it , that expect them there ; whereunto , as some kind of Death must necessarily be the way , so Martyrdom of all , other is the Noblest . Wherefore , ( concludes Theodora ) you will very much miss your aim , if you forbear bringing my constancy to the last Tryal , only upon hopes , that Death dress'd with unusual Horror , by being besmear'd with Didymus's Blood , should frighten me into Apostacy : For , I am much less terrified by his Fate , than encouraged by his Example . In imitation of which , I declare to you once for all , that , as I always valued this World too little , to be much afraid to part with it for a better ; So I shall never be brought to quitan excellent Religion for a bad one , for fear of exchanging a wretched Life for a happy one . This positive and final declaration of Theodora , did so enrage those to whom she made it , that , finding themselves quite disappointed of the hopes they had , to terrifie her by their last Expedient , Didymus's Death ; they presently led her away to participate of his Fate , which they found her so resolv'd not to decline . And now the admirable Theodora , having receiv'd that cruel , but welcom Command , most readily dispos'd herself to obey it : And considering how near she was to put a period to all the afflictions of her Life , by the gloriousest Action it could be concuded with ; and how soon she should enjoy the happiness of entering Heaven , thorough the streightest and noblest Gate at which it is accessible : Her Beauty , that was before admirable , appear'd more so than ever , being strangely encreas'd , by the effusions of a Coelestial Joy , that did too much abound in her heart , not to flash out manifestly in her looks ; to whose native Charms , it superadded so much of Luster and Majesty , that she seem'd ( upon some peculiar design ) to be newly come from the Heaven she was going to . So great a constancy and chearfulness of mind , upon so sad an occasion , wanted not a resembling Operation , upon the generality of the wondering Assistants . For though the Report , that was quickly spread of so uncommon an Action , as that of Theodora , done by so extraordinary a Person , as Fame had represented her to be ; had drawn a great concourse of People , to see one that acted , as well as look'd , so handsomly : Yet when they had a while beheld her , and saw the cruel Instruments of what she was doom'd to suffer ; among that numerous Throng of Spectators , there were none that were not Admirers ; many that look'd on her with dazled , and few without flowing Eyes . Every sort of Spectators found something in her Person and Condition , that made them mournful Ones . The Christians that chanc'd to mingle with the rest of the Crowd , Lamented , to see their Religion depriv'd of so great an Ornament , and so shining an Example ; though their grief were moderated by considering , that she was entering into a most happy place , to which they might hope , ere long , to follow her . And in the mean time , 't was no small credit to their Religion , that a Lady of her Beauty , had liv'd according to the strictest Laws of it ; and a Person of her youth and sex , was ambitious to dye for it . Those among the Spectators that yet retain'd Roman Spirits , and were the genuine Off-spring of those noble Ancestors , that scrupled not in Rome it self , to allow publick marks of honour to its greatest Enemies ; could not but be troubled , to see so rare a thing as a Female Hero , punished for a Generosity , that could not sufficiently be Rewarded ; and brought to an untimely , and , in popular estimation , Ignominious End , for having followed Dictates of Gratitude and Piety . Those Infidels , on whose sentiments Vertue had more influence than Superstition , were very much dissatisfied with the rigour of their Magistrates ; thought it a discredit to their Religion , to use such barbarous , and yet ineffectual Courses , to fright Men into it ; and they thought it an invidious service to their Gods , to destroy the fairest Masterpieces they had made . But those that seem'd most to deplore the fair Martyrs condition , were those that were dispos'd to have their Affections wrought on by their Eyes , and were apt to be influenc'd by Beauty . For these much repin'd and griev'd , to see so glorious a Sun reduc'd to set in her East . They envy'd Didymus , for having so generously serv'd and suffer'd for so rare a Person ; who , they thought , instead of the barbarous usage she receiv'd , deserv'd to be as happy , as her Smiles could make her Adorers . And they allow'd themselves to think , that nothing could be a Vertue , that depriv'd the World of so much Beauty . In short , most of the By-standers griev'd , to behold a person , whose youth would pass for innocency , and whose charms would , give her Captives among Savages destroy'd in Greece by Romans . So that bating those few Barbarians , whose Superstition and Malice brought her to that Condition : All the other Spectators of her Sufferings , were deplorers of them too : And many to that degree , that to judge by Their looks , and those of our fair Martyr , one would have believ'd that the Assistants were to be sufferers in the approaching Tragedy , and She but the Spectator of it . And now the Matchless Theodora came to the place , whence her aspiring Soul was to take its flight to Heaven . In order to which , she first look'd about her with a kind of pity , on those , that either never , or later than she , were to be admitted into the felicity she was presently to possess : And afterwards she paus'd a while , to recover from some disorder that she was put into ; not so much to see her self environ'd with Guards , as surrounded with Gazers : and then , though her Bashfulness made it more uneasie to her to speak to the Assistants , because her speech must be a publick one , than because it must be her last ; yet with a Voice and Gestures , wherein the Modesty of a Virgin , and the Courage of a Martyr , were happily temper'd , she address'd her self to those that were about her , in such as the following terms . Since Custom has made it a kind of Duty , that those that come to this place , should say something to the Spestators ; and make a publick Confession of their Guilt , or protestation of their Innocence ; I shall in part do both the one and the other . For I will 〈◊〉 deny , that I am , what the Laws have condemn'd me for being . Yes ; I own my self a Christian , and in spight of all my past and approaching sufferings , I declare , that I think it an honour and a happiness to be so . But on the other side , I can most truly protest , that I have transgress'd no other Roman Laws , than those that are repugnant to those of God and Reason . And since we Christians are taught by our great masters Example , as well as Precepts , not only to forgive , but to love our Enemies , and pray for our Persecutors ; I think my self oblig'd , and by his assistance find my self enabled , not only to forgive , as I heartily do , the procurers of my Death , but ardently to implore for them , the Blessing , and the unmolested Exercise of a Religion , that they see I value more than I do my Life . And I hope , those in Authority will , by the frequent Executions that daily succeed one another in this place , be at ●●●gth convinc'd , how ineffectual , as well as inhumane , a way they take , to extirpate Christianity : Which being an Heavenly Light , can be as little ruin'd by the Violence employed against it on Earth , as Tempests can Extinguish the Sun. And because 't is likely that Charity or Curiosity has , among other Spectators , brought hither some Christians , I shall now address my self to Them ; yet not to desire their Pity , but their Prayers , That I may be enabled to overcome the last Enemy , Death , and finish my Course , in such a way , as may neither blemish my past Life , nor the glorious Cause I gladly loose it for . But the chief part of my Request regards your selves , not me . For I must beg you to remember , that , besides an All seeing Eye , there are many other Eyes upon you , that pry into your Actions with strong desires to find them Criminal : And that though the truth , nor the subsistance of Christianity does not , yet the Credit of it does much , depend upon the Nature of your Actions . For , as all your personal faults will be imputed to your Religion , so your shining Vertues , will probably bring many Infidels first to admire , and then to embrace Christianity ; justly concluding , that That Religion must be excellent , that makes its professors so ; and enables , as well as enjoins them , to live blameless in the World , and go joyfully out of it . If you lead such lives , you will not be much afraid of Martyrdom ; which will but send you sooner to receive those inestimable rewards of them , that Gods goodness hath promis'd and provided . I wish you may never have cause , nor upon occasion want Courage , to enter into Life at that streight Gate , that I am now going to pass through . But if you be call'd to that way of glorifying God , let neither the ignominy , nor the painfulness of it , deter you . 'T is not shameful , but glorious , to suffer for God , for Truth , and for a Crown ; and my Example may encourage the weakest of you to expect , that Gods strength will be made manifest in your Infirmity ; and that there 's no Temptation but may be resisted and vanquished , by the weakest hand , that is supported and strengthen'd by an Almighty Arm. And though the distance between Heaven and Earth , our Mortal and our Immortal state , be very great ; yet the passage between them may be very short : and a few moments may bring us to exchange our Agonys for Extasies , and pass from the Lamentations of our Friends , and the reproaches of our Persecutors , to the Congratulations of Angels , and the solemn Welcoms of Him , whom even those Heavenly Spirits adore . As soon as she had ended this Discourse , though her Soul , abandoning such a Body as hers , could scarce any where but in Heaven , find an advantage by a change of Mansion ; yet it cheerfully dispos'd it self to a Separation , that would give it a closer and more immediate Union with the Divine Object of its Coelestial love . And after she had decently and calmly , made all the preparation that on her part was requisite for what she was to suffer , she thought fit to make her Lifes last actions , as most of the rest had been , acts of Piety , and Charity . And therefore elevating her Eyes and Hands towards Heaven , where her Heart , as well as her Treasure , had been plac'd long before ; she first paid her God most humble thanks , for the Grace and opportunity he had vouchsaf'd her ; not only to believe in his Divine Son , but to suffer for him ; and then made a short , but very fervent Prayer , for the Church , for her Enemies , and for her self . Which done , with a Countenance wherein serenity was mingled with joy , she gave a sign to the Executioner to do his Office ; who thereupon did all that was necessary to compleat her Martyrdom . And the glad Soul was by the Angels , ( whom she had aspir'd to resemble in Purity and Devotion ) carry'd to that happy place , whose Glorys are neither to be Conceiv'd , by those that have not seen them , nor Describ'd by those that have ; such supernatural Felicities , as much Transcending mans Idea's and his Expressions as they surpass his Merit . THE CONTENTS OF THE Second Book , Of the MARTYRDOM OF THEODORA . CHAP. I. DIdymus hearing of Theodora's Captivity and Danger , addresses himself in order to her Rescue , to a Roman Officer , whose Soldiers were appointed for her Guard ; and by His Favour and their Assistance , He is admitted into her Chumber , under the Notion of one that came to Ravish Her. CHAP. II. There he presses her to make an Escape in his Clothes : She for a good while scruples to make use of this Expedient ; and instead of it , proposes that he would Kill her : ( she thinging it Lawful , as many then did , to die by anothers hand , and not by her own . ) CHAP. III. After this obliging contest , she yields to change Habits with him , and thus Disguis'd makes an Escape , and is receiv'd into Irenes House , with great wonder and joy . CHAP. IV. Irene takes this occasion , to represent to her the extraordinary merits of her Deliverer and Lover . But Theodora , after very kind acknowledgments of them , declares the Resolution she had made against Marriage , and the Reasons that had induc'd her to make it . CHAP. V. Theodora hearing what had happen'd to Didymus after her Escape , resolves , though earnestly diswaded by Irene , to attempt his Rescue . CHAP. VI. A Gentleman brings an Account , how Didymus was apprehended , and carried before the Judge : How he own'd and defended what he had done , and his Religion : And how He was Condemn'd in spight of this Defence . CHAP. VII . Whilst Didymus is leading away to the place of Execution , Theodora presents herself before the Judg , and begs to have him Releas'd : Offering to undergo the Death , that he was Condemned to , on her account . She speaks to Didymus , to perswade him to acquiesce in that Proposal : Whereupon grows a long Contest between them before the Judge . CHAP. VIII . He Condemns them both to die for being Christians . Divers Discourses pass between them , as they go towards the place of Execution . CHAP. IX . A Roman Officer strives to perswade Didymus to change his Religion , by several Arguments : To all which He gives him such resolute Answers , That , CHAP. X. The Roman despairing to gain him , endeavours to engage him to perswade Theodora to save her Life ; which Didymus refuses to do , for Reasons which includes an Encomium of Her Vertues . CHAP. XI . None of their Attempts succeeding , both the Martyrs are commanded to be put to Death . The farewel Speeches tbat past betwixt them . Their final Separation ; immediately after which , Didymus is first Executed . CHAP. XII . Theodora , being in vain solicited to shun the like tragical Fate , after a resolute Answer to her Persecutors , and a short Speech to the By-standers , acompany'd with a Prayer for them ; Receives the Crown of Martyrdom . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A28990-e1300 Jonah 1. 12. Heb. 11. 38. 1 Thess 4. 13. Act. 19. 25. Rev. 7. 17. Psal . 16. 11. 1 John , 3. 16. Tertul. Pliny . Acts 5. 41. Matt. 11. 4. Luke 9. 31. 1 Thes . 2. 19 , 20. Dan. 10. 13. Revel . 21. 8. Heb. 11. 10. 1 Cor. 11. 9. 2 Cor. 12. 4. 
A66396	----	The divine authority of the scriptures a sermon preached at St. Martins in the Fields, Sept. 2. 1695 : being the sixth of the lecture for the said year, founded by the honourable Robert Boyle, Esquire / by John Williams ... Williams, John, 1636?-1709. 1696 Approx. 50 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 21 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2009-03 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A66396 Wing W2704 ESTC R1959 12497863 ocm 12497863 62573 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A66396) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 62573) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 951:78) The divine authority of the scriptures a sermon preached at St. Martins in the Fields, Sept. 2. 1695 : being the sixth of the lecture for the said year, founded by the honourable Robert Boyle, Esquire / by John Williams ... Williams, John, 1636?-1709. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. [2], 36 p. Printed for Ri. Chiswell, and Tho. Cockerill, Senr & Junr ..., London : 1696. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Half title: Dr. Williams's sixth sermon at Mr. Boyl's lecture, 1695. Errata: p. 36. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Bible -- Sermons. Sermons, English -- 17th century. 2007-06 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2007-07 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2008-03 Elspeth Healey Sampled and proofread 2008-03 Elspeth Healey Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion D r WILLIAMS's SIXTH SERMON AT Mr. BOYL'S Lecture , 1695. The Divine Authority of the Scriptures . A SERMON Preached at St. Martins in the Fields , Sept. 2. 1695. BEING THE Sixth of the LECTURE For the said YEAR , Founded by the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE , Esquire . By JOHN WILLIAMS , D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty . LONDON : Printed for Ri. Chiswell , and Tho. Cocke●ill , Sen r & Jun r : At the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard ; and at the Three Legs in the Poultrey . M DC XC VI. HEB. I. 1 , 2. God who at sundry times , and in divers manners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets , hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son , &c. IN these words we have ( as has been observed ) 1. A description of Revelation , 't is God's speaking , or declaring his Will to Mankind . 2. The Certainty of that Revelation , 't is by way of Declaration , God who at sundry times , and in divers manners spake , &c. 3. The Order observed in delivering that Revelation , as to Time , Manner , and Persons ; In time past by the Prophets , and in the last days by his Son. 4. The Conclusion and Perfection of that Revelation , 't is in the last days by his Son. Under the Second I have shewed , 1. That there has been such a Revelation . 2. That the Scripture is of Divine Revelation , and has upon it the Characters belonging to such Revelation . For the better disposing of what I had to say under this Head , I proposed Four Questions to be resolved , viz. Q. 1. How we can prove the Matter of Scripture to be true ? Q. 2. How we can prove the Matter of Scripture to have been of Divine Revelation ? Q. 3. How we can prove the Books of Scripture to have been of Divine Inspiration ? Q. 4. How we prove these Books that are now extant , and received by the Christian Church as Canonical , to be those very Books ? I have already Treated of the Two former , and shall now take the Two latter into Consideration . Where we may observe somewhat as to the Writers , and then as to Inspiration . 1. As to the Writers ; of whom we may reckon Three sorts . ( 1. ) Merely Human ; such as St. Luke speaks of , that out of a good and pious intent , took in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which were most surely believed . And this may be done without any material Error by Persons duly qualified for it . ( 2. ) Those that had what they wrote immediately dictated , or at least approved by such Persons as were inspired . So Eusebius saith that the Gospel of St. Mark was approved by St. Peter , and St. Luke's by St. Paul. ( 3. ) Such as were immediately Inspired in the writing , as St. Peter and the rest of the Divine Writers are supposed to have been . Now though the first of these may be sufficient in ordinary cases , and of good use in the extraordinary , where there is no better ; yet where the Salvation of Mankind is concerned , there is somewhat farther necessary , and that is , that the Persons that write should be assisted and guided by the Holy Spirit of God , or write by the direction and approbation of those that are Inspired . 2. As to the Inspiration , that is Twofold : ( 1. ) Either when the Matter , Words ▪ and Order , are immediately Dictated by God himself ; as the Decalogue was , and all that was Revealed by Voice ; for then it was as Discourse with us . ( 2. ) Or , When Persons Selected wrote by Direction or Command from God , what was Revealed to them , as to the Matter only , whether by way of Declaration , or Representation . In which last case the Persons Inspired took their own way ; which is the reason of the difference in Style and Phrase between their several Compositions ; that , for example , Isaiah writ in a lofty courtly Style ; and that Amos , a Herdsman , writ after a more Rustical way . So Erasmus saith of St. Luke , that he writ in a purer and clearer Style , because of his skill in the Greek Tongue . Here the Office of the Divine Spirit was to suggest the Matter , or to represent the case , to assist and supervise , so that no Error should be in the Original Copy ; though he left each to the liberty of their own way in expressing it . As if we were to send several Messengers upon the same Errand , we deliver the Message to them , and tell them what they are to say ; but leave every one of them to express it as they think fit , and as they are able : Each of which is a faithful and wise Servant , though he keeps not exactly to the very words of his Master , and all agree in the drift and substance , though they differ in the expression or circumstance . So it is in the Evangelists , where they all agree in the material parts of the History , though they differ often in the words , and sometimes , perhaps , in some minute passages relating to it . In one or other of these two senses , the Scripture may be said to be wrote by Divine Inspiration ; that is , either by immediate and verbal Suggestion , or by Direction : And this I shall now endeavour to prove , by answering the Third Question , viz. Q. 3. How we do prove the Books of Scripture , which contain the matter of Revelation , to have been of Divine Inspiration ? In proceeding upon this I shall premise : 1. That the proper course for proving the Divine Authority of the Scripture , is to begin with the Matter , abstracted from the Books , ( as I have already done ) and then to proceed from thence to the Books . And therefore they begin at the wrong end , that would disprove the truth of the Revelation , or Matter contained in Scripture , by such Objections as they make from the Writing , and the Books . For the Matter stands upon a proof and evidence of its own ( as I have shewed ) and will stand , though the written Word , or Scripture , should fail of supporting its own Authority . Therefore those that will venture upon disproving the Revelation , must in reason begin with the Matter ; let them there try their skill , and call in question the proof by which that is supported . But this we have already prevented , by having proved the Matter of Scripture to have been of Divine Inspiration . 2. Though there seems not to be so clear and full a proof for the Inspiration of the Books , as there is for the Matter , since the Matter has the utmost attestation it is capable of , viz. Miracles ; but there were no Miracles wrought to prove these Books to have been of Divine Inspiration , ( as has been before observed ) : Yet if we prove that the Books were written by Inspired Persons , and that what they Wrote is the same with what they Taught , it is equivalent , and much of the same Force and Authority . For what need was there of Miracles to prove the Books to be written by Inspiration , when the Persons writing them were Inspired , and that what they wrote is the same with what they taught , and when what they taught was confirmed by the Miracles which they wrought ? Therefore while the Authors were in being , there needed no Miracles to prove these Writings to be theirs , when they themselves asserted them so to be : And after their decease we have as much reason to believe the Scriptures which they wrote to have been of Divine Inspiration , as what they taught to be a Revelation ; both now depending upon the like Evidence , that is , Testimony , as to which we have no more proof of the Matter , than we have of the Books . 3. From hence it follows , That not to believe the Scripture to have been of Divine Inspiration , is in effect to reject and deny the Revelation therein contained : The Scripture being the best , and in the present circumstances of Mankind , the only means left for the conveyance of it ; I say , in the present circumstances , it is the only means ; for when the circumstances were other than they are now , or have been for Sixteen hundred Years and upwards , there was then no such absolute need of a written Word : When the Instructors of Mankind had their Lives protracted to a vast extent , as it was with the Patriarch's of Old ; or when there were Inspired Persons alive to teach and rectify any mistakes that might arise and disturb the Peace of the Church ; as it was in the times of the Apostles . But when things fell into an ordinary course , and that fallible Persons ( as all afterwards were ) might mistake in their reports of Doctrine , &c. and the weak memories of others not retain what they had been taught , and that the insincere would wrest what was taught to serve their perverse designs ; the case being thus alter'd from extraordinary to ordinary , so was the means of conveyance . And God , that committed the Divine Oracles to be taught by Persons whom he thought fit to inspire , employed the same Persons to commit that Revelation to writing for the future Preservation of it , and the conveying it down safe and intire to Posterity . Without which Mankind , in these circumstances , neither could themselves have been certain of what they were to believe , nor could they have sufficiently proved to others what it was they were obliged to receive and to believe , as wanting Authentick Monuments and Records for it . So that we have sufficient reason to believe that the same Divine Goodness ▪ that did make known his Will to Mankind , would take the best means , and did take the best means for the continuing and preserving it . And Scripture being the only means of that kind , becomes a Rule of Faith ; and so is of Authority sufficient to oblige us to receive and obey it . If the Matter of Scripture be true and of Divine Inspiration , we are obliged by it , though the Writing , or Book containing it , should be only of Human Composition ; because it is the Doctrine , and not the way of delivery , that passes the immediate Obligation upon us : But when the Book containing that Matter , as well as the Matter it self , is of Divine Authority , and composed by Divine Appointment , Direction , or Inspiration , it obligeth us by vertue of the Composition , as well as the Matter ; and both are to be jointly received as proceeding from one and the same Original and Authority . But having asserted this , That the Scripture is the only means of conveyance of the Will of God to Mankind , and what becomes a Rule of Faith to us ; it is fit to return to the Question proposed , viz. How we can prove the Scripture to have been of Divine Revelation ; or that those Books , so called , were wrote by the Direction and Command of God , or by Inspiration from him ? A. 1. I Answer in the same way as before , That as there is no Revelation , if the Scriptural Revelation be not that Revelation ; so there is no written Revelation , if the Scripture be not that Book , and be not Inspired . And then we should want the only certain means of conveyance , which is Writing , or should have been wholly left to the doubtful and uncertain hand of Tradition , for the knowledge and preservation of Revelation . Now , I think , this to be an Argument of considerable force for the Divine Authority of Scripture ; that without this means we should after a Revelation be in effect without a Revelation : For so it will be if the Scripture contain not that Revelation , and that we have no sufficient Record , if that be not the Authentick Record of it . But to come nearer the point . 2. I Answer , That there is as much proof for the Inspiration of the Scripture , as the matter is well capable of , and as much as is sufficient ; and if that be so , then 't is unreasonable to reject it ; for they who do so , can do it upon no less pretence , than that they would have such a proof as the matter is not capable of , and more than is sufficient for the proof of it . But that there is such a proof for the Divine Authority of Scripture as is sufficient , I think , will be evident if we shew , 1. That the Scriptures have for proof of their Inspiration , the Testimony of such as were Inspired . 2. That they were written by Persons Inspired , and that were Inspired when they writ them . 3. That they are worthy of such Authors , and have upon them the Characters of such Inspiration . 1. The Scriptures have for proof of their Inspiration , the Testimony of such as were Inspired . The Testimony of Persons Inspired is as much a Proof of Inspiration , as if it had been a matter they themselves were Inspired with ; and therefore the Evidence that we have for the Inspiration of such Persons , is a sufficient Evidence for the Inspiration they give Testimony to . As for instance , suppose that we have not as good evidence for the Inspiration of the Old Testament as we have for the New ; yet if the New doth justify the Inspiration of the Old , quotes it as such , and bestows that Character upon it ; then by vertue of such a Testimony , we have as good Evidence for the Old as we have for the New. The meer Quotation of a Book by an Inspired Person , whether as to the Author , Words , or Matter , doth not give the like Authority to that with what he himself doth write by Divine Inspiration ; for then Aratus and Menander , Epimenides and Callimachus , who were Heathens , and are Quoted by St. Paul , would become Inspired Writers . But the Scriptures of the Old Testament are cited by our Saviour and the Apostles as the Oracles of God , and as Books of Divine Authority , and which they produce and appeal to upon all occasions in justification of the Doctrine which they taught : So we are told that all Scripture , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or the whole Scripture ( as Dionysius Carthus . expounds it ) is given by Inspiration of God. And what is meant by the Scripture , is no other than what was generally received by the Jewish Church as such , and which our Saviour distributes after their manner into the Three known parts , viz. The Law of Moses , the Prophets , and the Psalms : Which division comprehended in it all the several Books ; the Prophets containing not only the Books properly so called , but also the Historical , as written by Inspired Persons ; and the Psalms containing all the Poetical . And they descend yet lower ; for of the Thirty nine Books of the Old Testament , there are very few , not above Seven or Eight , but what are quoted in the New Testament by Name , or for some remarkable Passage , and as Books of the same Character . So that if we can prove our Saviour to be infallible , and the Evangelists and Apostles inspired ( as we have done before , when we proved the Matter revealed by them to have been of Divine Authority ) , at the same time we prove the Scriptures of the Old Testament to be of Divine Inspiration ; because they had this Testimony and Credit given to them by those that were themselves Infallible and Inspired . The like Testimony have we for the Divine Authority of St. Paul 's Epistles , by St. Peter , who gives them the same Title of Scripture with the Books that were of the Jewish Canon ; Our beloved brother Paul , according to the wisdom given unto him , hath written unto you , as also in all his Epistles : — Which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest , as also the Other Scriptures . But though this be a good and sufficient Proof , where it may be had , yet it is not applicable to all ; since the last of the Inspired Writers could have no such Evidence ; as Malachi among the Jews ; and St. John in the Primitive Church , who survived all the rest of the Divine Penmen . And therefore where this Proof of the Attestation given to some is wanting as to others , we must have recourse to other Arguments that will supply what is deficient . The Old Testament has the Testimony of the New to vouch for its Divine Authority ; but what can thus testify to the New , when there is no other Revelation , and no Inspired Persons to come after ? But this will be help'd by the next Evidence , which is , That 2. The Scriptures were written by Persons Inspired , and that were Inspired in the writing of them . ( 1. ) They were written by Persons Inspired : Thereby is meant , that whoever were the Authors , known or unknown , we have yet good and sufficient Evidence that the Penmen were Inspired both as to the Matter and Manner or Way of Writing . ( But this belongs to another place . ) Or that the Authors of those Books were the same that before taught by Inspiration . That the Writers of the Old Testament were of this kind , we have already proved from the Testimony of the New , as far as that is of Authority to verify it . And that the Evangelists and Apostles , whom we have before proved to be Inspired , were the Authors of the Books of the New Testament , we have as good Assurance as the Jews had that the Pentateuch was written by Moses , or the Psalms by David ; or that ever there were such Philosophers as Plato and Aristotle , or such Physicians as Hippocrates and Galen , or any Books writ by them . Nay , so much the stronger Evidence have we , as it has been the Duty ( as they thought ) and the Interest of so considerable a part of mankind as the Christians are , to preserve these Records safe and entire , and to take care that they be such in all points as they received them ; and consequently according to their sense of them they are of Divine Inspiration , and wrote by those Inspired Persons . And for which there can be no greater Evidence than this sort of Tradition ; unless we would have God reveal to every particular person , That the Authors of those Books were Inspired ; or point it out by some special Miracles , which shall serve as the Star to the Wise Men , to direct us to it . But since this is wanting , and cannot reasonably be expected , we must rest satisfied with that which is the only possible Evidence , and which not only the Primitive Christians did admit as sufficient , but was not contested by the most violent Adversaries of their Religion : Among whom the Question was not , Whether the Persons reputed to be Inspired , were the Authors of those Books ? or , Whether those whose Authors are not known , were of the same condition with those that were known ? but , Whether the matters of that supposed Revelation , and contained in those Books , were true , and that those Authors were sincere Relaters of it ? And whereas there were some Books of Scripture that were not so early and universally embraced as others , yet they were not so much doubted of as to their Authority , as the Authors , ( such as the Epistle to the Hebrews , the second and third of St. John , and the Revelation ) ; unless it were by the Alogi that Epiphanius writes of , who rejected the Works of St. John as not agreeable to their Opinion , That Christ was a mere Man. ( 2. ) The Sacred Penmen were Inspired in their Writing , in the sense before spoken of , p. 4. For , 1. There was as much need to Write , as to Teach ; to Write with respect to the absent , and to Posterity ; as to Teach and Preach to the present ; for there is no other way to Teach in those cases , than by Tradition or Writing . But the Defect which those Holy Men found all their Discourses labour'd under as to their Conveyance by Tradition , through the infirmity of Human Nature , and an incapacity of transmitting the Matters now contained in the Scriptures , to future Ages in that way , without Prejudice , Corruption , and Abuse , disposed them , under the direction of the Holy Spirit , to commit them to Writing . So St. John 20. 31. These things are written , that ye might believe . So St. Peter , 2 Pet. 1. 5. I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance . 2. There was as much need to Write by Inspiration , as to Teach by Inspiration , for Writing is but another way of Teaching . And if the Apostles had the Assistance of the Holy Ghost in all matters of moment when they Taught , it is reasonable to suppose ( had we no other Evidence for it ) that in the same Circumstances they had the same Assistance in what they Writ . Nay , so much the more might it reasonably be expected , that they should have the Assistance of that Divine Power operating upon their Minds , and guiding , as it were , their Pen in what they Writ ; as what they Writ was to continue in the Church , and to be a Standard of Faith , and Rule of Life to all Ages : Whereas what they Taught could continue no longer than the Memories of fallible men could retain it . So that we may conclude , That if they Taught and Preach'd by the special Assistance of the Holy Spirit , they were also under the Conduct of it when they Writ . 3. Those Divine Penmen conceived themselves to be alike Inspired in what they Writ , as in what they taught . Therefore we generally find the Apostles , and St. Paul always , unless when he writes in conjunction with others , to begin their Epistles with a Declaration of their Commission and Authority by virtue of their Office , Paul an Apostle , &c. requiring the same regard and the like submission to what they Writ , as to what they Spoke when present . And as they thus magnified their Office , so they writ as from Christ himself , after this and the like form , Grace be to you , and peace from God our father , and the Lord Jesus Christ , Rom. 1. 7 , &c. Nay , they insist upon their Inspiration , which they received when they writ , to gain it Authority with those they wrote to . So St. Paul , Gal. 1. 1. Paul an Apostle , not of men , neither by man , but by Jesus Christ , &c. Ver. 11 , 12. I certify you , brethren , that the Gospel which was preached of me , is not after man ; for I neither received it of man , nor was I taught it but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ . And that Apostle expresly saith , The things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord , 1 Cor. 14. 37. 2 Cor. 1. 13. So St. Peter , 1 Epist . 5. 12. I have written briefly , exhorting and testifying , that this is the true grace of God , wherein ye stand . Now if they conceived themselves to be Inspired in Writing , who themselves were Inspired ( as has been before proved ) and did Write with the same Apostolical Authority as they Taught , it is certain that they were Inspir'd in Writing ; for they were the best Judges of their own Inspiration , and could best know when they were Inspired . And therefore if any would undertake to disprove the Divine Authority or Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures , they must first of all prove that those Writers were not inspired , nor did ever give sufficient Evidence that they were Inspired . But if they were Inspired , and do withal declare that they Wrote those Books by Inspiration , we have as much reason to receive those Books as such upon their Affirmation , as we have no believe that they themselves were Inspired , or did ever Teach by Inspiration . 4. There is the same Proof for the Inspiration of the Apostolical Writers , in their Writing , as their Teaching , as what they Write is the same with what they Taught ; and therefore what they Taught being confirmed by sufficient Evidence to be from God , so must what they Writ ; the same Proofs that belong to the one , belonging to the other . And accordingly they in their Writings often appeal to what they Taught , as concordant with what they Writ , and to the Testimony given to the one for the confirmation of the other . They appeal to what they Taught : So St. Paul , 2 Cor. 2. 13. I write none other things to you , than what you read , or know and acknowledge . So Gal. 1. 8 , 9. Though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received , let him be accursed . So they appeal to the Evidences of their Inspiration in Teaching , for a confirmation of what they Writ : So 2 Cor. 12. 12. Truly the signs of an Apostle were wrought among you in all patience , and signs and wonders , and mighty deeds . Gal. 3. 5. He that ministreth to you the Spirit , and worketh miracles among you , doth he it by the works of the Law , or the hearing of Faith ? From whence it is that the Apostles challenge the same regard to be paid to their Writings , as their Teaching ; which they could not have done , were not their Writings of as good Authority as their Teaching , and were they not alike directed and assisted in the one as the other . So St. Paul , 1 Cor. 4. 1. Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ , or Apostles . 1 Cor. 5. 3 , 4. I verily , as absent in body , but present in spirit , have judged already as though I were present , &c. in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ , when ye are gathered together , and my Spirit , &c. All which is to give Authority to what they writ ; but what Authority could that be of to oblige others to receive it , if they themselves received it not by Inspiration ; and that their Teaching and Writing were not the same , and obtained in the same way ? 3. The Holy Scriptures are worthy of such Authors as were Inspired , and have upon them the Characters of such Inspiration . I have before proved , That the Matter contained in Scripture has upon it the Characters of a Divine Revelation . But the Design before us now is , to shew , That the Writing it self has upon it such Characters as will entitle it to Divine Inspiration , and is worthy of such Persons to write , as were Inspired . And that , 1. If we consider who the Persons were that were the Penmen of the Sacred Writ ; that were as well Ignorant and Illiterate , as Learned . Thus we find in the Old Testament , an Amos that was no Prophet , nor Prophet's Son , nor bred up in their Schools , but an Herdman , and Gatherer of Sycamore ▪ fruit , is made at once a Prophet , and as Inspired , as the Great , the Noble , and Eloquent Isaiah : And under the Gospel , we find a Matthew and a John , as well as a Luke ; a Peter as well as a Paul. For when the Workmanship proceeds not from the Hand , but the Intelligent Mind ; not from the Instrument , but the Efficient ; it is not what the Hand , the Instrument , and Agent is , but what the Efficient pleases ; and so God could make an Apostle and an Inspired Person out of an Illiterate Fisherman , as well as out of him that sate at the Feet of Gamaliel . For God chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise , and the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty , &c. that no flesh should glory in his presence , 1 Cor. 1. 27. And as it was in Preaching , so it is in Writing the Gospel , in which God no less gave them a Mind to indite , than a Mouth and Wisdom in Teaching , to speak . So that they needed no more to meditate before , what to write , than in that case what they should answer . It was there as the Spirit gave them utterance , and here as that did direct , and assist , or suggest . St. Paul exhorts Timothy , to give attendance to reading , till he himself should come to give him farther Instruction ; and to meditate and give himself wholly to them , that his profiting might appear to all , 1 Tim. 4. 13 , &c. But we find no such dependance on human means in what they wrote : Then it is Paul an Apostle , not of men , neither by man , but by Jesus , and God the Father ; the Gospel he wrote was the same he taught ; and which when he wrote , he no more received from man , than when he taught , and which he was taught by the revelation of Jesus Christ , Gal. 1. 1 , 11 , 12. And therefore where all was by Revelation , it was not as the Man was , but as he was made : And as St. Peter was as much an Apostle , an Inspired Teacher , so he was as much a Divine Writer as St. Paul , and writes with the same Divine Power and Authority , and with as much Certainty and Infallibility . So that there are as few Objections ( if we strictly consider it ) made against the most Illiterate as the most Learned of the Inspired Writers ; against St. Matthew and John , as against St. Luke ; against St. Peter , as St. Paul. But now if those Writers had wrote after man ( in St. Paul's Phrase ) and purely from themselves , As it was naturally impossible that ever those Unlearned Persons should apply themselves to study at the Age of St. Peter , and write of the most sublime Arguments more to the satisfaction of Mankind than the profoundest Philosophers ; so it was impossible but that in their Compositions they should have been guilty of manifold Mistakes , when they wrote of such various Points , and Points of no small difficulty to explicate . But when the Unlearned of them are as free from Error as the Learned , and as little liable to exception in what they writ , 't is evident they writ from the same Spirit with , and had the same Assistance as the Learned . And therefore the supposed Errors in any of them could not proceed from Inadvertency , or Unskilfulness , or want of right Information ; but are rather Errors supposed and imaginary , than real ; the Mistakes of the Reader or Transcriber , rather than of the Penmen ; as I have already shewed . ( Serm. IV. ) For if the Errors had proceeded immediately from the Writer , they would have appeared more in the Composures of the Unlearned than the Learned : But when the Unlearned are as free from them as the Learned , 't is an unquestionable sign that the Unlearned wrote from the same Spirit as the Learned , and both from a Spirit that is Divine . 2. The Scriptures will appear to be worthy of such Authors as are Inspired , if we consider the way in which they are written , which though not with excellency of speech , or of wisdom , that is , human , yet have such a Majesty and Authority shining through the whole , as gives them a Lustre as much beyond other Books , as the Bodies of Angels which they assumed for some special service , excelled those of Mortals , and that were of a Natural Composition ; and of which we may say in the like Phrase as Nicodemus of our Saviour , That none could write after this manner , except God were with them . I freely acknowledge , that they are not written according to the ordinary Rules of Art and Method , which Almighty God is no more obliged to observe , than he is to govern the World by the Methods and Rules that are ordinarily observed among Mankind . For as in the Government of the World , where there are different Ends to pursue , and divers Means to be made use of , God confines not himself to act as we would in such cases , but acts above all Rule known to us , and sometimes punishes where we would spare , and spares where we would punish ; sometimes gives to those that we would deprive of such Favours , and deprives those of them to whom we should think fit to give : So it is in the Divine Composures , in which he makes use of different Hands and Instruments , as there are different Tempers in Mankind : He makes use of the Poetical Vein in David , the Oratory of an Isaiah , the Rusticity of an Amos , the Elegancy of a Luke , the Plainness of a Peter , the Profoundness of a Paul , to serve the common Design of instructing Mankind in the knowledge of God , and their Duty to him , without that Artificial Method which the Learned Part of the World expect to find , and think fit to observe . The Heavens and the Earth have upon them the Signatures of an Almighty Power and Wisdom , and which we may with David employ our most serious Hours in the Contemplation of , with Pleasure and Advantage . But yet there is no strict Order visible to us , nor can be observed by us in the Situation of the Constellations ; nor can we give a reason why Orion and the Pleiades , or Arcturus , are placed in that Quarter of the Heavens which is assigned them : And the Earth is not like a Garden laid out in order , but rather there seems to us a rude Variety in the disposition of it ; and yet notwithstanding , who is there that doth not under all these seeming Disadvantages , find out the Traces of a Divine Original , and enough to entitle God to the Creation of all ? And so it is in the Holy Scriptures , where there often seems wanting the Accomplishments of Human Eloquence , the enticing words of man's wisdom , and that Decorum and Artifice which the Books of Human Contrivance and Invention are embellished with : But as the Apostle saith , when he declined the words which man's wisdom ( whether of Philosophers or Orators ) teacheth , it was that their Faith might stand not in the wisdom of men , but in the power of God : So we may see under the Veil of a seeming Irregularity so much Beauty shining forth , and experiment so much Virtue proceeding from it , that it will evidently appear , that the less there is of Man in the Composure , the more there is of God , and that it can have none for its Author and Inditer but him ; and which Irregularity can no more detract from the Authority and Divine Inspiration of the Scripture , than it can be questioned whether the Sun be the Fountain of Light , because of what we that are at a vast distance from it , call Spots . For we are at a great distance from the Apostolical Age , and much more from the latest times of the Inspired Writers of the Old Testament , and so must needs be under some difficulties from our unacquaintedness with the Style and Way of Writing , as well as the Customs of those Ages . And there will be therefore some Spots and Dark Places in them as there are in the Sun , not for want of Light and Elegance originally in them , no more than for want of Light in the Sun ; but because of some Deficiency in our selves , that are at a Distance , and under such Circumstances as intercept our Sight , and hinder us from making true and exact Observations . But if we could but stand , as we are to judge of Pictures , in the same Light in which they were drawn ; and had lived in the same Ages in which those Books were written , we should be able to make a much truer Judgment , and penetrate much farther into the meaning of them , than we now can do . But now though all the Parts of Scripture are not equally alike , but like the Inspired Writers themselves , of whom some were bred up in the Nurseries of Learning , and others fetch'd from the Fishery and the Sheepfold ; yet are they all plain in the same essential Doctrine , and in which the Salvation of Mankind is concerned . And not only so , but the Style and Order of Words , if thoroughly understood as to their Propriety , Elegance , and Use , would be very surprizing ( if we may judge of what we do not know , by what we do ) ; which has not been unobserved even by some of the Heathens . It was Dionysius Longinus the Rhetorician , that admired the Majesty and Sublimity of Moses's way of writing . It was Amelius the Platonist , that at the same time as he call'd St. John a Barbarian ( a Title which the Greeks and Romans bestow'd upon all but themselves ) found in his Gospel the Wisdom of a Philosopher . But above all , we may see the Footsteps of a Divine and Extraordinary Assistance in the admirable Discourses of our Saviour and the Apostles upon several occasions . Let us , for instance , take a view of our Saviour's last Discourse with the Disciples just before his Death , as recorded by St. John , chap. 14. &c. Turn we again to that of St. Paul about a Future State , and a Resurrection to it , which is the subject of 1 Cor. 15. See it again in the close and sensible Argumentations of the Author to the Hebrews . See it also in the very Digressions which those Holy Pen-men sometimes , by breaking off from their Subject in hand for a while , do fall upon ; where we shall find that which is equivalent to what is ordinarily said by the Prophets in the Messages they ▪ delivered , Thus saith the Lord ▪ and what is as expresly said , and will as much be found to be of Divine Revelation . It was certainly as much an effect of the Divine Power to Direct , and Assist , and even Inspire those Writers with such sublime Notions , such convincing Arguments , as it was of the Divine Commission to send the Prophets with Authority to publish the Divine Commands and Decrees . And therefore it is a very frivolous Exception which a late Author makes against the Divine Authority of the Apostolical Writings , That they consist of long Deductions and Argumentations ; whereas , saith he , God doth not reason , but command , as he did by the Prophets . But how often do we find in the Prophets God arguing with the Jews about the Vanity of their Idolatry , from the Incomprehensible Perfections of his Nature , & c. ? How often using Arguments to convince them of their Immoralities and Impieties ? How often exhorting them to Repentance and Reformation , from the most powerful Considerations ? And therefore why are the Apostles less inspired for that reason than the Prophets ? When God speaks to Men , and teaches one man by another , it is often after the manner of men ; and therefore as he doth sometimes require absolute Obedience to his Commands , so at other times he condescends so far as to shew them the Equity and the Reasonableness of them , both equally becoming the Divine Majesty , and which are a glorious Instance of the Divine Wisdom conspicuous throughout the Holy Scripture ; thereby adding both to the Excellency and the Usefulness of it ; and advancing it in both above any Book in the World. And for this , take the Word of one ( who is otherwise no Friend to our Religion , or to the Divine Authority of the Scriptures ) though in contradiction to himself . As the Lustre of an Oriental Diamond is more clearly perceived when compared with Counterfeit Stones ; so Christianity appears in its greatest Glory and Splendor , when compared with the Obscurity of Paganism ; the Deformity of the one serving as a Foil to the other . Nor doth the Divinity of the Scriptures ever better appear , than when compared with the Follies of the Talmud , the Alchoran , or the Constitutions of the Heathen Law-givers ; which is an infallible sign of their Excellence , that they so well bear the Test of Comparison . Thus 〈◊〉 he . IV. General . How we prove the Books that are now extant , and received by the Christian Church as Canonical , to be those very Books that were writ by Persons Inspired ? Now this will receive a sufficient Answer , if we prove , 1. That there were once such Books . 2. That these are the very Books which were once said to be Canonical and Inspired . 3. That these Books are not corrupted , so as not to be the Books now which once they were . 1. The first of these is not denied by the most violent Adversaries , such as Appion was to the Jews , and Celsus to the Christians . 2. That these are the Books which were heretofore Penn'd by Inspired Persons , and received by the Universal Church as such , we have as much Evidence as we have or can have for any thing past or distant in time or place from us , and which we our selves have not seen : And if we call in question the Sufficiency of the Evidence , or the Truth of what is proved by it , we take away all the Evidence that we can have , and the Truth and Certainty of whatever has been , or is , which we have not seen our selves . So that either these are those Books , or there is nothing of that kind which we can depend upon ▪ 3. These Books are uncorrupted , I mean , by Design , or by Accident . If by Design , it must either be by Jews , Hereticks , or those that are called Orthodox . 1. If by the Jews , that must either be before the time of our Saviour , or after it . If before , they would have certainly been taxed for it by our Saviour and the Apostles , who upon all occasions appeal to the Scriptures ; and yet never charge them with any such Falsifications . If they were corrupted by the Jews after our Saviour's time , How came they to leave those Prophecies uncorrupted which manifestly and principally prove our Saviour to be the Messiah ? For surely if they adulterated , or expunged , or added to the less , they would have offered as much violence to the greater . But it is eviden● the Jews were in a high degree superstitious , in preserving the Copies of the Scripture sound and entire . Or if they would have attempted this , how could they do it , and not be discovered and challenged for it by the Christians , who from that time forward had the Scriptures of the Old Testament in their custody as well as themselves ? 2. It could not be by the Hereticks , because the Scriptures were soon dispersed over all the Christian World , and were read both in publick and private ; and with that Care and Faithfulness , that they chose rather to part with their Lives , than become Traditores , and deliver up their Bibles to be burnt ; and keeping then so watchful an eye upon them , they could not be perverted by their fraudulent Arts , but they would soon be observed and complained of ; especially by those whose Office it was above others to study and preserve them . So when Marcion falsified the Text , he was presently detected and exposed for it . 3. Nor could it be by the Orthodox , if any of them were so weak as to think to serve their Cause by it : For as to the Old Testament , they were as watchfully observed by the Jews , as the Jews were by them ; and both the Copies of the Old and New were so soon and so far dispersed , that neither could any one attempt it with any likelihood of success , nor all agree in it , when impossible to convene for it . And therefore when Manichaeus and his Followers pretended the Corruption of the Scripture in their own vindication , they could not make out their Charge , though provoked by St. Austin , &c. to it . Use . We may observe from hence , what a Blessing we enjoy above the Ages of Tradition , when the knowledge of the Truth was conveyed from hand to hand ; which so sensibly declined , that the Truth was soon turn'd into Fable , and that so few Years after the Flood as the time of Terah , the greatest part of the World was overrun with Idolatry ; so that for the retrieving it , God drew Abraham out of that infected Mass ▪ and enjoined him to set up a Family separated from the rest of the World , that out of that he might constitute a Church for his Service . But we have that which those Ages wanted ▪ a Written and Certain Rule for our Faith and Manners ; and that so plainly and intelligibly wrote , and so compleatly and entirely furnished with all things necessary for us to know in order to the Happiness of another Life ; that as none in the Christian Church ( where the Guides and Teachers are faithful to their Flock ) can be or must unavoidably be ignorant ; so neither can any person be defective in the knowledge of his Duty , or void and destitute of a power of doing what is necessary toward his Happiness , unless by his own fault . If we keep but to our Rule , that is as an Infallible Compass to direct us , and we shall never fall short of knowing what God has revealed , or of obtaining what he hath promised . And here we may farther reflect upon our Happiness in this Church , that we have not the Key of Knowledge taken from us , and the Truth lock'd up in an Unknown Tongue ( as in the Church of Rome ) but plainly and faithfully rendred in our own Language , for the Instruction and Edification of all . What remains then , but that we make this our daily study , and labour to acquaint our selves with the Rich Treasures of Useful and Necessary Knowledge contained in those Sacred Repositories , and making them as David did , a Lamp to our feet , and endeavouring to conform our selves in all points to their holy Prescriptions ; and then we shall most certainly have reason to rejoice in the Comfort of the Promises , and with Patience look for that blessed hope and glorious appearance of the great God , and our Saviour Jesus Christ . To whom , &c. FINIS . ERRATA . SErmon I. 2 d Edit . P. 11. l. 4. r. manner . P. 13. l. 21. for only r. wholly . Sermon VI. ● . 2. Marg. 〈◊〉 IV. P. 10. l. 11. dele . both the Comma's . P. 25. l. 12. before and after that is dele ( , ) . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A66396-e220 Serm. V. Luk. 1. ● . Hist . Eccles . l. 2. c. 15. l. 5. c. 8. Exod. 20. 1 , 22. Serm. V. p. 12. Acts 17. 28. 1 Cor. 15. 33. Tit. 1. 12. 2 Tim. 3. 15 , 16. Luke 24. 44. V. Josephus con . App. l. 1. 2 Pet. 3. 15 , 16. V. Euseb ▪ Eccl. Hist . l. 23. c. 24 , 25. l. 5. c. 8. l. 7. c. 24 , &c. Phil. 1. 1. 1 & 2 Thes . Lecture V. Amos 7. 14. Luke 21. 14 , 15. 1 Cor. 2. 1 , 4. 1 Cor. 2. 4 , 5. Euseb . Praepar . Theol. Polit . c. 8. Anima Mundi , Sect. 1. V. Hieron . in 6. Isa . V. Philo de . Egress● Israel . ex ▪ Aegypto . ▪ Irenaus l. 1. c. 29. Tertul ▪ contra Marcion . l. 5. Epiphan . Haer. 42. Aug. de util . Cred. c. 3. 
A66409	----	The possibility, expediency, and necessity of divine revelation a sermon preached at St. Martins in the Fields, Jan. 7. 1694/5 : at the beginning of the lecture for the ensuing year, founded by the honourable Robert Boyle, Esquire / by John Williams ... Williams, John, 1636?-1709. 1695 Approx. 40 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 19 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2008-09 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A66409 Wing W2718 ESTC R2129 12498271 ocm 12498271 62586 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A66409) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 62586) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 951:85) The possibility, expediency, and necessity of divine revelation a sermon preached at St. Martins in the Fields, Jan. 7. 1694/5 : at the beginning of the lecture for the ensuing year, founded by the honourable Robert Boyle, Esquire / by John Williams ... Williams, John, 1636?-1709. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. [4], 29, [1] p. Printed for Ric. Chiswell ... and Tho. Cockerill ..., London : 1695. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Half title: Dr. Williams's first sermon at Mr. Boyle's lecture, 1695. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Revelation -- Sermons. Salvation -- Sermons. Sermons, English -- 17th century. 2007-06 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2007-07 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2007-11 Elspeth Healey Sampled and proofread 2007-11 Elspeth Healey Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion D r. WILLIAMS's FIRST SERMON AT M r. BOYLE'S Lecture . 1695. IMPRIMATUR , Jan. 26. 1694 / 5 ; . Guil. Lancaster . THE remaining Sermons for this Year will be Preach'd at St. Martins , the First Mondays of February , March , April , May , September , October , and November . The Possibility , Expediency , and Necessity of Divine Revelation . A SERMON Preached at St. Martins in the Fields , Jan. 7. 1694 / 5. AT THE Beginning of the LECTURE For the Ensuing YEAR . Founded by the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE , Esquire . By JOHN WILLIAMS , D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty . LONDON : Printed for Ric. Chiswell , at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard : And Tho. Cockerill , at the Three Legs in the Poultrey . M DC XC V. TO THE Most Reverend Father in God , THOMAS Lord Archbishop of Canterbury . Sir HENRY ASHHURST , Knight and Baronet . Sir JOHN ROTHERAM , Serjeant at Law. JOHN EVELYN , Senior , Esquire . TRUSTEES by the Appointment of the Honourable Robert Boyle , Esquire . MOST HONOURED , HAving by your Generous Election entred this Year upon the Lecture founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle , the Great Encourager of Piety and Learning , it becomes me in Obedience to your Order , and according to the Intent of the Deceased , to Present You with the First-fruits of my Labour . The Subject I treat of is of Vniversal Concernment to the Christian World , and is to be handled with Reverence and Care : The former I shall all along keep in my eye , and the latter I shall not neglect , as far as in me lies : But whatever Defects your Better Judgments shall espy throughout these Composures , I hope the same Goodness that disposed you to place me in this Sphere , will incline you to overlook ; and to accept of the Sincere Endeavours of , MOST HONOURED , Your most Faithful and Humble Servant , JOHN WILLIAMS . HEB. I. 1 , 2. God who at sundry times , and in divers manners , spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets , hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. THERE are Two ways by which Mankind may attain to the Knowledge of Divine Things ; namely , Natural or Supernatural . Natural is what we have springing up with our Faculties , or what we attain by Natural means , by Sight , Observation , and Experience , by Tradition ( which is the History of others Knowledge and Experience ) ; and lastly , by Reason and Argument , deducing Effects from their proper Causes , or finding out the Cause by its Effects : As for instance ; Thus we come to the Knowledge of God by observing the Frame of the World , by the Series , Order , and Course of Things , which could never be without some Cause to produce them , and that Cause no less than One Infinitely Powerful and Wise . Thus we Argue , That there is a Soul in Man distinct from the Body , and surviving a Separation from it ; forasmuch as there are such Operations as are not Competent to Matter ; and that there is such a desire of Immortality placed in Mankind , as would make the Flower and Choicest part of the Visible Creation , the most Miserable , if there was no Capacity in the Soul for such a State , or no such State for a Soul capable of it . Such Inferences as these , are as Natural to a Reasonable Mind , as those Observations are which we make from the reports of Sense ; and are therefore deservedly accounted Branches of Natural Religion . Now this kind of Knowledge is more or less evident , is stronger or weaker , according to the capacities and dispositions of Mankind , and according to the opportunities and means they have of Information . And therefore a Philosopher that sets himself to enquire into the Mysteries of Nature , and to observe the Curiosity , Order and Beauty of its Fabrick , may , in Reason be supposed to be more confirmed in the Belief of a God , and more disposed to Serve and Adore him , than he that is ignorant ; as he that understands Painting or Carving , can more observe and applaud the Ingenuity and Skill of the Artist , than he that is unacquainted with it . But after all , so much is the Subject above our reach , and so dark and intricate are all our Reasonings upon it , that the Sagest Philosopher , in the conclusion , is left as unsatisfied as the meanest Peasant ; and perhaps more unsatisfied with his Knowledge , and the deep and unfathomable Abyss he sees before him , than the other is with his Ignorance ; so far making good what Solomon observes , He that increaseth knowledge , increaseth sorrow , Eccles . 1. 18. So that there needs some brighter Light than that of Nature , to conduct us to Happiness , and bring us to a compleat and entire Satisfaction ; and that is a Supernatural Knowledge , a Knowledge that is not to be obtained by the ways aforesaid , by Enquiry and Observation , but by inspiration and Revelation from Almighty God. And this is the Subject of the Text. God who at sundry times , and in divers manners , spake in time past by the Prophets , hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. In which Words we have , 1. A Description given of Revelation , it 's God's speaking to the Fathers , &c. that is , it is God's delivering his Mind to Mankind by Persons chosen for that purpose , and peculiarly fitted for it by Inspiration . Such were the Prophets in time past , and the Son in the last days . 2. The certainty of it ; it is by way of Declaration , God who at sundry times , and in divers manners , spake , &c. The Apostle takes this for granted , as having been sufficiently proved , and so needs no farther confirmation . So it was in times past , when God spake by the Prophets ; and so it was in the last days in the Revelation of the Gospel , which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord , and was , saith our Apostle , confirmed unto us by them that heard him : God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders , and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost , Chap. 2. 3 , 4. And therefore as Moses did not think himself obliged at the entrance into his Divine Work , to prove there is a God , and that God made the World , when there is such an inbred knowledge of a Deity implanted in human Nature , and such clear and undoubted evidences of it throughout the Universe ; but supposes and asserts it , In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth : &c. So after such manifest proofs of the Divine Authority of both the Prophetical and Evangelical Revelation , the Apostle would not so much as suppose any doubt in the minds of those he wrote to ; but begins his Epistle , with a certain Majesty becoming an Inspired Author , God who at sundry times , &c. 3. The Order observed in delivering that Revelation , it was at sundry times , and in divers manners . At sundry times , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or in several parts ; which may refer either to the several Ages and Periods , viz. The Patriarchal , Mosaical , and Prophetical ; or to the several Manifestations of Divine Revelation through those Ages and Periods ; from the first Embryo of it in Adam , to the close of it in John the Baptist ; in whom the time past ended , and the last days began . In divers manners , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , according to the manifold ways the Divine Spirit thought fit to communicate it self ; whether by Illapses on the Persons Inspired , or by Raptures , Visions , Voices , &c. 4. The Perfection and Completion of Divine Revelation ; God hath in these last days spoken by his Son. So that what was gradually , and at sundry times , delivered in time past to the Prophets , was at once intirely and perfectly Revealed by the Son of God , whom he hath appointed heir of all things . Under the First of these I shall shew , 1. What we mean by Revelation . 2. The possibility of God's Revealing himself so to the Creature , that the Creature shall certainly and evidently know that it is God that speaketh . 3. The Expediency , Usefulness , and Necessity of a Revelation , with respect to the Circumstances Mankind are in . Under the Second I shall shew , 1. That as it 's possible for God to Reveal himself , and Expedient and Necessary for man that there should be a Revelation ; so God has actually thus Revealed himself at sundry times , and in divers manners by the Prophets , through the several Periods before spoken of , and in the last days by his Son. 2. I shall consider the difference between a real and pretended Revelation , and how we may distinguish the true from the false . 3. I shall shew , that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament contain the matter of Divine Revelation , and have upon them the Characters belonging to it . Under the Third , 1. I shall consider the several ways by which God did Reveal himself in times past by the Prophets , as by Illapses , Inspirations , Visions , &c. 2. I shall endeavour to shew the difference between Divine Inspirations , and Diabolical Illusions , Natural Impressions , and Delusory Imaginations . 3. I shall consider the several Periods before the Law , under the Law , and under the Gospel ; and the gradual progress of Revelation from first to last , from the lower to the higher degree , and the perpetual respect one had to the other . 4. I shall consider why God did thus gradually , and at sundry times , proceed in Revealing his Will to Mankind ; and why he did not at the first Communicate his Will to them as fully , and perfectly , as he did in the last days by his Son. Under the Fourth , I shall shew the Perfection of the Gospel-Revelation , and that there is not to be any other Revelation till the End cometh when our Lord shall be revealed from heaven , and shall deliver up the kingdom to the Father . I have chosen thus at once to lay in Order the Scheme of what I intend ( God granting Life and Assistance ) to pursue ; that so the dependance of one upon another , and the assistance each Point gives to the other throughout the whole , might be the better observed . I. I am to begin with Revelation . 1. Where I am to consider , What we mean by Revelation ; which is nothing else in the first Notion , but the making known that which before was a secret ; so things revealed and secret , are opposed , Deut. 29. 29. And when it 's applied to a Religious use , it 's God's making known Himself , or his Will , to Mankind , over and above what he has made known by the Light of Nature and Reason . Here we may observe , that there are Three Classes , into which whatever is the Object of our Knowledge may be reduced . 1. There are things of pure and simple Nature , and knowable by the Light of it , without Revelation ; of this kind is the Knowledge of God by the Effects of a Divine Power and Wisdom in the world ( as has been shewed ) of which the Apostle treats , Rom. 1. 20. The invisible things of him , from the creation of the world are clearly seen , being understood by the things that are made , even his eternal Power and Godhead . 2. There are things of pure and simple Revelation , that are not knowable by the Light of Nature , but only by Revelation ; and if not Revealed , are never in this state ( at least ) to be known or found out by Mankind ; of this sort is the Salvation of the World by Jesus Christ , which was not discoverable by Men or Angels ; so the Apostle describes the Mystery of it , Ephes . 3. 9 , 10. Which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God , — to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places , might be known by the Church the manifold Wisdom of God. So 1 Pet. 1. 12. 3. There are things partly of Nature , and partly of Revelation , discoverable by the Light of Nature , but imperfectly , which we see , as it were , through a glass darkly ; and so they need Revelation to give them farther Proof and Evidence ; of this the Apostle gives an instance , 2 Tim. 1. 10. when he saith our Saviour brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , making it as evident as the Light ; whereas before it was rather wished for , than certain , as was the case of the Heathens ; or much involv'd in Types , as among the Jews , Heb. 4. 3 , &c. So that Revelation , of which sort soever it is , is Supernatural , and is only from God. 2. I shall shew the Possibility of a Revelation , and that Almighty God , if he so pleases , can so Reveal himself to the Creature , that the Creature shall certainly and evidently know that the Revelation comes from God. This one would reasonably think should need no proof ; and I shall therefore briefly touch upon it , tha● I may proceed to the Third , which I principally intend to make the Subject of this present Discourse . I say it 's possible for God to Reveal himself to his Creatures . ( 1. ) Why should this be questioned , when we every day see men mutually discover their Minds each to other ; and by the use and direction of certain Organical Powers , signify their Intentions , Desires , and Commands ? And why may not the Creator Reveal his Will to the Creature , when one Creature thus can do it to another ? ( 2. ) Why should this be questioned , when we may be certain Evidences know that a person is sent from God ? And then certainly the person that produces such Evidences as are to the satisfaction of others , may himself be satisfied of the truth of his own Commission , and the certainty of a Divine Revelation . The former , that others may be satisfied concerning a Mission from God , is evident from such things declared , which none but God could Reveal , as Prophecies ; and such things done , which none but God , in man , could do , as Miracles . Where these are , they are as evident Proofs of a Revelation and Mission from God , as the works of Creation are a Proof a Divine Agent . The works of Creation prove a God , because they are worthy of such an Infinite Cause , and what none but such a Cause could produce : And when such things are discovered , which none but an Omniscient Being could discover , and such things done , which none but an Almighty Power could do ; we are , by a Parity of Reason , as sure that there is such a Revelation by which such things are made known , and in confirmation of which such mighty Works are done . ( 3. ) If this be questioned , it must be from a deficiency in God to impart such a Revelation to man ; or that there is an incapacity in man to receive it . But how can God's Power herein be questioned that he can Operate thus on the Soul , when he both Created it , and is thoroughly acquainted with all the secret springs of Motion , all the tendencies and inclinations , all the thoughts and desires of it , and consequently must be supposed to have a Power of directing it as he pleases ? And how can there be any incapacity in man , when as to the matter he can both receive it , and deliver it as he received ; and as to the manner , it 's in a way suitable to his Faculties , and is therefore call'd here , God's speaking to the Prophets , which is so as the other may understand . This is a matter so evident , that it has been generally believed throughout the world among the Heathens ; and therefore nothing more common than to have Oracles , Places where they were wont to consult their Deities , as well as the Jews had theirs : A Subject I am not at present concerned in , but it 's sufficient to shew what has been the sense of all Ages in this case : And which even those that would call this in question , in part consent to , while they grant somewhat equivalent to it , if not a branch of it , I mean Prophecy ; which when it falls not within the Power of any Natural Causes , is the product of what is Supernatural , and what the Prophet must then receive from a higher hand , God. Grant this , and the whole will follow ; for if it be possible in one case , it 's possible in all , to one and the same Infinite Power . 3. I am to Consider the Expedience , Usefulness , and Necessity of a Revelation ; for that is here supposed , when it 's said , God spake in time past , and in these last days ; that is , from the beginning of the world to that time . Now Revelation is a means extraordinary ( as has been shewed ) and consequently such as the means are , such must the case be , extraordinary ; for God , not doing any thing in vain , cannot be supposed to use extraordinary means , where the case is ordinary , and may as well be served by ordinary means . Thus it is in Miracles , which are acts above the common standard of Nature , and are then only exerted , when nothing less will engage the Attention of Faith of Mankind . And so it is in Revelation , which is to the Light of Reason , what Miracles are to the common Law of Nature , Supernatural and Extraordinary ; and consequently where Almighty God takes that course for the Information of Mankind , it shews that there is some deficiency or corruption that calls for it , and makes it expedient and necessary . As it was with Adam at his first Creation , who being an utter stranger to himself , and the world he was at once brought into , without some further kind of Information , instead of a pleasure he might have taken in viewing the glorious Fabrick of the Heavens , and the variety of Creatures in the Earth , must have been full of Amazement and Confusion . For in so wide a Scene as was before him , Where must he begin , or where could he hope to end ? How divided must he be in his own Mind ? What a cold and dry Speculation would it have been , if he had hit upon it , to have concluded , with that Modern Philosopher , Cogito , ergo sum ; I think , therefore I am ? He indeed felt himself to be , but how he came to be , he knew not ; for he saw nothing about him that could either be supposed to have given him that Being , or could tell him how he came by it . He saw he had a Body , and a Body that obsequiously moved as he pleased to direct and determine ; but what that Body was originally made of , he could not possibly tell : For how could he suppose such warm , soft , and tender Flesh , those firm and well compacted Joynts , those radiant and sparkling Eyes ( which he had as other living Creatures ) that moveable and limber , and well-complexioned matter of which his Body consisted , should be formed out of cold , moveless , crumbling , and shapeless Earth ? He felt his Body move , and pliable in all its motions to his Will , and quick as Thought to answer his Mind , but what that inward Principle was that moved it , he was wholly ignorant ; nor could he possibly , of himself at that instant , conceive that there was an inward Immaterial Spirit that was vitally United to a Gross and Material Body , that was the Principle of all , and was as distinct from the Body in it's Nature and Subsistence , as if it were not United at all to it . He might observe the Creatures about him of different sorts , that there were certain Notes that each Kind had , and all were known and understood among themselves ; but that notwithstanding they were all dumb to him , and he to them ; and what it was that made the difference , he could not understand . When he pleased himself in the Contemplation of the Heavens above , and that glorious Luminary that gave ( as he perceived ) Light to all about him ; he could not tell whether it was an intelligent Being , and that as it gave Light to all , so it was Superior to them : And when that set , he knew not but he was to be inclosed in perpetual Darkness . When a heavy Stupidness began to seize himself , and he was forced to submit to the power of it , he knew not but it was to end that Life , which was that day began , and that he was to close his Eyes , and conclude his Life together . So that though he had what we call Reason , and suppose it as his Body , in its prime ; yet even that Reason must have been his Torment for a while ; when it made him inquisitive , but could not give him satisfaction . To prevent which disorder and confusion he would otherwise be in , at the first opening of his Eyes and his Mind together , as it was necessary that he that was to begin the world , should be Created in a full Age and Strength ; and that he that was alone , should have a present power and faculty of Elocution and forming of Words for the Conversation he was to have with the Help designed for him ; so it was requisite that he should have some immediate Inspiration , to inform him of what was necessary for him to know as to God , himself , and the World ; and which he could not have known without such Inspiration , or the slow and tedious compass of Observation ; and so must have waited for satisfaction till time and experience had formed his Judgment , and made him a wise Philosopher . But this Adam was at the first , and so forthwith knew whom it was that he was to own as the Author of his Being , and of what his Body was made , and by what means an Intelligent Spirit came to be inclosed in a Material Body ; and could as soon resolve all those perplexing doubts , which otherwise he would have been assaulted with , as he understood at first sight that Eve was bone of his bone ; and knew how to give Names to the Creatures suitable to their Natures , Gen. 2. 19 , 23. But now the reasons for such an Inspiration to Adam were personal , belonging to him alone ; but after what manner the Divine Wisdom would have imparted the Knowledge of it self to Adam's Posterity , if he and they had stood and continued in a state of Primogenial Innocency ; or whether there would , in those Circumstances , have been any need of a Supernatural Inspiration after the Revelation made to Adam , from whom they might have Infallibly received it ; no more concerns us , than it doth to know how Mankind would then have been disposed of when they were not to Dye , but to have subsisted in the same State , Body and Soul inseparably United : Those are among the secret things which belong unto God ; but things revealed belong unto us . We must therefore alter the Scene , and consider Mankind in a State of Imperfection and Depravation ; and there we shall find Revelation absolutely necessary as a remedy against a fourfold Mischief , which , without it , would unavoidably ensue ; As with respect to the Confusion Adam was in by reason of Guilt ; The Danger he was in from his Enemy , The Subtile and Malicious Serpent ; The Ruin that threatned him from the impotency and disorder he found in his Faculties ; which like a Dislocation in the Limbs , though fit in themselves for Action , yet being removed out of their Sockets are not capable of discharging their Functions . This being the State of Fallen Man , there was need of a Supervenient Revelation to recover him , as well as it was the determination of the Divine Goodness to design it . There was need of this to comfort him under the sense of his Apostacy and the Guilt he had contracted , to prevent his Despair : To fortify him against the power of his insolent and triumphant Adversary , and to aid him under his contracted disability , for preventing his Discouragement : And to caution him against the sad effects of his Depravation , or the falling into a repetition of a new disobedience , for preventing his Presumption . For these Reasons Almighty God so soon interposed in the Garden by a new Revelation of Himself , and Instructed him in his gracious design to restore him to Favour , and in the method he would observe for that purpose , inwhat he saith to the Serpent , Gen. 3. 15. I will put enmity between thee and the woman , and between thy seed and her seed : it shall bruise thy head , and thou shalt bruise his heel . Thus the Gospel was Preached to Adam , who was the first Prophet to whom the Mystery of Salvation was revealed ; to which those places in the New Testament seem to refer , Luke 1. 70. As he spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets since the world began ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , from the beginning , so Acts 3. 21. This was the case of Adam , and the exigence he would have been in , without this immediate and comfortable Revelation . And the Condition of his Posterity would have been worse than his , without a Revelation ; had this Revelation died with this their Progenitor , and not have been transmitted to them . For besides the state of Guilt , which must equally have invaded them as it did him , and what Conscience in them could no more quietly digest , than in him ; there were several disadvantages they laboured under , which he did not . As if we consider Adam in a bare State of Nature ( without any Supernatural provision ) he had this advantage above his Posterity , that being Created in a full Age , he was free from all prepossessions of Sense or Education ; and in the first moment of his Being , had his Reason clear in the fountain of it , like the Sun in its Meridian Glory ; and all his Faculties bright , and as ripe at once for Observation and Reflection , as his Body was for Action . But his Posterity growing up from their Infancy among sensible Objects , from thence would ( in a meer course of Nature ) have received all their Information ; and by slow degrees from things Visible , must have argued themselves into the Belief of things Invisible ; and from the Effects of a Supreme Cause , to the Supreme Cause it self ; which in the Apostle's Words , Acts 17. 27. would be to seek the Lord , if haply they might feel after him , [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as men blundering in the dark ] and find him . In such danger would the fundamental Principles of Natural Religion have been , if there had been no Revelation to prevent it : And this was the reason of such a provision by Inspired Persons , to preserve those Principles alive and safe ; of the number of whom Abel is accounted , and therefore called a Prophet , Luke 11. 50. and Enoch , Jude 14. and Noah 2 Pet. 2. 5. But now as the Rays of the Sun , the farther they are projected , grow weaker and weaker ; so it was in the derivation of these Principles , which lost very much of their primitive lustre ; and notwithstanding the certainty of the evidence , the credibility and authority of those Holy Patriarchs ; Vice , like a deluge , broke in upon the world , so that every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts ( generally speaking ) was only evil continually , Gen. 6. 5. And if now when there was a Revelation , and a Revelation seconded by the Authority of such Eminent Persons , the World so soon grew Corrupted , What would it not have been , if there had been no such Revelation , or no such Curators of it ? And this the World was soon sensible of after the Flood ; for notwithstanding so late and astonishing an instance of the Divine Vengeance , yet in their several Dispersions , for want of a Revelation , they lost the sense of the true and great Principles of Religion ; some , as the Chaldeans , turning it into a vain Inquiry into the Influences of the Heavenly Bodies ; others placing their Religion in ridiculous and opprobrious Superstitions , as the Egyptians ; others pleasing themselves in nice Disputations , and the Vanity of new-discovered Deities and Religions , as the Greeks : And all acting in Divine matters , as if they were in inextricable Labyrinths , being distracted , and eternally divided about the Origine of the World , whether it were Eternal , or Accidental , or the Product of a Divine Power ; about the Origine of Evil ; about the Government of the World , whether it be by different Deities , Good or Evil ; or whether by none , but be wholly Acted by the levity of Chance , or the immutable Law of Destiny and Fate . So that in process of time the World was brought into the condition of Elymas , Acts 13. 8 , 11. that once had the advantage and pleasure of Sight , but upon the opposition made to St. Paul , immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness , that he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand . Too close a Representation of the condition of Mankind in that Degenerate State , who because that when they knew God , they glorified him not as God — but became vain in their imaginations ; their foolish heart was darkned , Rom. 1. 21. Of which darkness and confusion in matters of the greatest importance , the World , the Commonalty as well as the Philosophical part of Mankind , was sensible , and of the necessity of a Revelation , or somewhat beyond Nature , Reason and Argumentation , to remove these difficulties , to inform them of what they could not otherwise know , and to clear up to them what they did know but imperfectly . Of which I shall offer some undeniable Instances . 1. They universally complained of the loss they were at , and of the insufficiency of all their Maxims and Principles , of all their Enquiries and Speculations , to give them any tolerable satisfaction ; so that they were in nothing more divided , than about what Happiness is , as St. Austin from Varro has shew'd : And therefore there was somewhat further necessary to satisfy them , or else they must for ever remain unsatisfied . 2. There was nothing more desired than a Revelation , and therefore they were prone to hearken to all pretences to it ; and when they conceived , or were made to believe it was a Revelation , they were in nothing more obsequious and pliable . So that to gain Authority to his Laws , and to keep the People Quiet and Orderly , Numa Pompilius did then ( as Mahomet of latter years ) pretend he had all by Revelation from the Nymph Egeria . And of such Authority was this pretence , that as Tully saith , There was nothing so absurd which was not maintained by some of the Philosophers ; so I may say , There was nothing so foolish , or wicked , which was not an ingredient in the Worship they gave to their Deities . Insomuch , as the nature of things should be perverted , Reason and Humanity should be abandoned , and God himself be made worse than those that Worshipped him , in compliance with their pretended Revelations . What Beastiality and Lewdness ! what Savage and Barbarous Practices and Rites were allowed and required ! The Blood of Captives , and of their own Children , must be a Libation ; nay , even Suicide was not only Honourable , but a Religious Martyrdome , if the Oracle commanded it ; and they chose rather to be unnatural to the highest degree , than not to be Obedient to Divine Revelation . Now of what authority must that be , which should over-rule the Laws of Nature , and so infatuate Mankind , that they should not be able to espy the Imposture ? And what could thus impose upon them , if they were not sensible of the imperfect state they were in , and the need they stood in of some higher Principle and , greater Light to direct them , than that of Nature ? 3. There was no Nation without a Revelation , that is , without some pretence to it , and which they generally vouched for their Rites and Religious Observances ; from whence it was that there was scarcely a People of any note in the more Civilized parts of the World that had not their Sibyls , such as were accounted to be the mouth of their God ; to be sure none in any part of the known world without an Oracle , that they repaired to , and whose Injunctions they readily Obeyed . The use I make of all this is to show , what a sense Mankind had of a Revelation , and what all the World has thought Expedient , if not Necessary , which was the thing to be proved . From what has been said , we may observe , I. What a Happiness it is to have a Revelation , by which Mankind are brought out of darkness into a marvellous light ; and from an endless and fruitless Enquiry , Who will shew us my good ? are placed in a quiet and full possession of it . If there be no Revelation , we are , as it were , with ut God in the world ; and know not whether that Divine Power be our Friend or our Enemy ; or whether it shall be exerted to our Good or our Ruine . If there be no Revelation , we are still in our sins , and have no Sanctuary against the accusation of our own embittered Consciences , the fears of our own guilty Minds , or the Justice of an incensed Deity . If there be no Revelation , we have no hope , and can have no comfort in our Death , and no assurance of Immortality after it . If there be no Revelation , we are in a perpetual maze , as if we were at Sea without Star or Compass , and knew not what course to take to gain our Harbour . So thoughtful and pensive , so confounded and lost is Mankind without this , that if I were to chuse whether I would have no Revelation , or a false one , for the quiet of my own mind ( did I believe the false one to be true ) I would rather chuse the content of the latter , than the distraction of the former , and leave it to my own reason to rectify the manifest mistakes in it , rather than have my hovering Reason to be my constant affliction under the want of Revelation . But Blessed be God that there is no cause for such a supposition , and that we have all the reason in the world to believe there is a Revelation ; a Revelation that is such as all Mankind would desire , that touches upon all points necessary to our comfort and entire satisfaction , as to the Nature and Will of God , the Present and Future State of Mankind , the Providence that Governs this World , and the Rewards of another . A Revelation , where all the parts of it agree together , and bear a conformity to the Nature of things , to the Holiness , Justice , and Mercy of God , and to the Reason of Mankind ; where there is a System of the best Principles , and a Scheme of the best Rules and Directions ; and which , like the Book of Nature , the more it 's viewed and consulted , the more do the lively Characters of a Divine Hand and Wisdom appear in the Composure . A Character this is that the Book of Scripture exactly answers . For what holy Precepts ! what heavenly Promises ! what useful Examples ! what excellent Encouragements do the Sacred Pages abound in ! Such as are sufficient to direct us in every point of our Duty , to inform us in every necessary Truth , to establish our Hearts in every condition of Life , to enable us to encounter all the difficulties of it with Resolution , and to bear all the evil of it with Patience . Here behold God Reconciled to Mankind , the trembling Sinner Pardoned , the Weak sustained , the Doubtful satisfied , and nothing wanting on God's part to make us Happy , if we are not wanting in a fit disposition of Mind to receive it . So that if there be any Revelation , it is the Christian ; if that be not a Revelation from God , there is no Revelation in the World ; And if that be a Revelation , that only is so , and there can be no other . II. Such as the Revelation is , such is the Obligation ; the Authority it receives from God , the Obligation lies upon us to Obey as well as Believe it . The times of ignorance God winked at , and overlook'd ; but now he commandeth all men every where to repent , Acts 17. 30 ▪ He hath commanded them by a Revelation , which is of universal concernment , and extends its Authority over the World. So that a Bad man is no better or safer for a Revelation , how perfect soever it be , and how great soever the advantages of it are , than he that is without Revelation ; nay , so much the worse , as the latter is a state of Unbelief , the former of Disobedience ; this errs without his will , but the other with it . And therefore if the Heathens , who had only the Book of Nature to read , and a blundering Reason for their Guide , were yet so far inexcusable , because that when they knew God , they glorified him not as God , Rom. 2. 21. How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation ? which at the first was spoken by the Lord , and was confirmed by those that heard him ; God also bearing them witness , &c. Heb. 2. 3 , 4. What remains then , but since the Grace of God , in the Revelation of the Gospel , hath appeared unto all men , that we be thereby taught to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts , and to live soberly , righteously , and godlily in this present world . And then we may comfortably look for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God , and our Saviour Jesus Christ , who gave himself for us , that he might redeem us from all iniquity , and purifie unto himself a peculiar people , zealous of good works , Tit. 2. 11. FINIS . Books Printed for Richard Chiswell and Thomas Cockerill . RVshworth's Historical Collections : The Third Part in Two Volumes : Containing the Principal matters which happened from the Meeting of the Parliament , November 3 , 1640. to the end of the Year , 164● Wherein is a particular Account of the Rise and Progress of the Civil War to that Period . Fol. 1692. Dr. John Conant's Sermons , Octavo . Published by Dr. Williams . 
A69557	----	A confutation of atheism from the origin and frame of the world. Part II a sermon preached at St. Martin's in the Fields, November the 7th, 1692 : being the seventh of the lecture founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle ... / by Richard Bentley ... Bentley, Richard, 1662-1742. 1692 Approx. 55 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 21 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-10 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A69557 Wing B1917 ESTC R15263 12158577 ocm 12158577 55224 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A69557) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 55224) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 13:3g, 857:37) A confutation of atheism from the origin and frame of the world. Part II a sermon preached at St. Martin's in the Fields, November the 7th, 1692 : being the seventh of the lecture founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle ... / by Richard Bentley ... Bentley, Richard, 1662-1742. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 40 p. Printed for H. Mortlock ..., London : 1693. Appears on reel 13:3 as the seventh title in the author's The folly and unreasonableness of atheism, 1693. Reproduction of originals in the British Library and the Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. 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Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Religion and science -- Early works to 1800. Nature -- Religious aspects -- Early works to 1800. Christianity and atheism -- Early works to 1800. Atheism -- Controversial literature. Atheism -- Early works to 1800. Atheism -- Sermons. Sermons, English -- 17th century. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-09 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-10 Jason Colman Sampled and proofread 2006-10 Jason Colman Text and markup reviewed and edited 2007-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A Confutation of Atheism FROM THE Origin and Frame of the WORLD . PART II. A SERMON Preached at St. Martin's in the Fields , NOVEMBER the 7 th . 1692. Being the Seventh of the Lecture Founded by the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE , Esquire . By RICHARD BENTLEY , M. A. Chaplain to the Right Reverend Father in God , EDWARD , Lord Bishop of Worcester . LONDON , Printed for H. Mortlock at the Phoenix in St. Paul's Church-yard . 1693. Imprimatur . Ra. Barker , R mo in Christo Patriac D no D no Johanni Archiep. Cantuar . à Sacris Domest . LAMBHITH , Novemb. 10. 1692. Acts XIV . 15 , &c. That ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God , who made Heaven and Earth and the Sea , and all things that are therein : Who in times past suffer'd all Nations to walk in their own ways . Nevertheless , he left not himself without witness , in that he did Good , and gave us Rain from Heaven , and fruitfull Seasons , filling our hearts with Food and Gladness . WHen we first enter'd upon this Topic , the demonstration of God's Existence from the Origin and Frame of the World , we offer'd to prove four Propositions . 1. That this present System of Heaven and Earth cannot possibly have subsisted from all Eternity . 2. That Matter consider'd generally , and abstractly from any particular Form and Concretion , cannot possibly have been eternal : Or , if Matter could be so ; yet Motion cannot have coexisted with it eternally , as an inherent property and essential attribute of Matter . These two we have already established in the preceding Discourse ; we shall now shew in the third place , 3. That , though we should allow the Atheists , that Matter and Motion may have been from everlasting ; yet if ( as they now suppose ) there were once no Sun nor Starrs nor Earth nor Planets ; but the Particles , that now constitute them , were diffused in the mundane Space in manner of a Chaos without any concretion and coalition ; those dispersed Particles could never of themselves by any kind of Natural motion , whether call'd Fortuitous or Mechanical , have conven'd into this present or any other like Frame of Heaven and Earth . I. And first as to that ordinary Cant of illiterate and puny Atheists , the fortuitous or casual concourse of Atoms , that compendious and easy Dispatch of the most important and difficult affair , the Formation of a World ; ( besides that in our next undertaking it will be refuted all along ) I shall now briefly dispatch it , from what hath been formerly said concerning the true notions of Fortune and Chance . Whereby it is evident , that in the Atheistical Hypothesis of the World's production , Fortuitous and Mechanical must be the self-same thing . Because Fortune is no real entity nor physical essence , but a mere relative signification , denoting only this ; That such a thing said to fall out by Fortune , was really effected by material and necessary Causes ; but the Person , with regard to whom it is called Fortuitous , was ignorant of those Causes or their tendencies , and did not design nor foresee such an effect . This is the only allowable and genuine notion of the word Fortune . But thus to affirm , that the World was made fortuitously , is as much as to say , That before the World was made , there was some Intelligent Agent or Spectator ; who designing to do something else , or expecting that something else would be done with the Materials of the World , there were some occult and unknown motions and tendencies in Matter , which mechanically formed the World beside his design or expectation . Now the Atheists , we may presume , will be loth to assert a fortuitous Formation in this proper sense and meaning ; whereby they will make Understanding to be older than Heaven and Earth . Or if they should so assert it ; yet , unless they will affirm that the Intelligent Agent did dispose and direct the inanimate Matter , ( which is what we would bring them to ) they must still leave their Atoms to their mechanical Affections ; not able to make one step toward the production of a World beyond the necessary Laws of Motion . It is plain then , that Fortune , as to the matter before us , is but a synonymous word with Nature and Necessity . It remains that we examin the adequate meaning of Chance ; which properly signifies , That all events called Casual , among inanimate Bodies , are mechanically and naturally produced according to the determinate figures and textures and motions of those Bodies ; with this negation only , That those inanimate Bodies are not conscious of their own operations , nor contrive and cast about how to bring such events to pass . So that thus to say , that the World was made casually by the concourse of Atoms , is no more than to affirm , that the Atoms composed the World mechanically and fatally ; only they were not sensible of it , nor studied and consider'd about so noble an undertaking . For if Atoms formed the World according to the essential properties of Bulk , Figure and Motion , they formed it mechanically ; and if they formed it mechanically without perception and design , they formed it casually . So that this negation of Consciousness being all that the notion of Chance can add to that of Mechanism ; We , that do not dispute this matter with the Atheists , nor believe that Atoms ever acted by Counsel and Thought , may have leave to consider the several names of Fortune and Chance and Nature and Mechanism , as one and the same Hypothesis . Wherefore once for all to overthrow all possible Explications which Atheists have or may assign for the formation of the World , we will undertake to evince this following Proposition : II. That the Atoms or Particles which now constitute Heaven and Earth , being once separate and diffused in the Mundane Space , like the supposed Chaos , could never without a God by their Mechanical affections have convened into this present Frame of Things or any other like it . Which that we may perform with the greater clearness and conviction ; it will be necessary , in a discourse about the Formation of the World , to give you a brief account of some of the most principal and systematical Phaenomena , that occurr in the World now that it is formed . ( 1. ) The most considerable Phaenomenon belonging to Terrestrial Bodies is the general action of Gravitation , whereby All known Bodies in the vicinity of the Earth do tend and press toward its Center ; not only such as are sensibly and evidently Heavy , but even those that are comparatively the Lighted , and even in their proper place , and natural Elements , ( as they usually speak ) as Air gravitates even in Air and Water in Water . This hath been demonstrated and experimentally proved beyond contradiction , by several ingenious Persons of the present Age , but by none so perspicuously and copiously and accurately , as by the Honourable Founder of this Lecture in his incomparable Treatises of the Air and Hydrostaticks . ( 2. ) Now this is the constant Property of Gravitation ; That the weight of all Bodies around the Earth is ever proportional to the Quantity of their Matter : As for instance , a Pound weight ( examin'd Hydrostatically ) of all kinds of Bodies , though of the most different forms and textures , doth always contain an equal quantity of solid Mass or corporeal Substance . This is the ancient Doctrine of the Epicurean Physiology , then and since very probably indeed , but yet precariously asserted : But it is lately demonstrated and put beyond controversy by that very excellent and divine Theorist Mr. Isaac Newton , to whose most admirable sagacity and industry we shall frequently be obliged in this and the following Discourse . I will not entertain this Auditory with an account of the Demonstration ; but referring the Curious to the Book it self for full satisfaction , I shall now proceed and build upon it as a Truth solidly established , That all Bodies weigh according to their Matter ; provided only that the compared Bodies be at equal distances from the Center toward which they weigh . Because the further they are removed from the Center , the lighter they are : decreasing gradually and uniformly in weight , in a duplicate proportion to the Increase of the Distance . ( 3. ) Now since Gravity is found proportional to the Quantity of Matter , there is a manifest Necessity of admitting a Vacuum , another principal Doctrine of the Atomical Philosophy . Because if there were every-where an absolute plenitude and density without any empty pores and interstices between the Particles of Bodies , then all Bodies of equal dimensions would contain an equal Quantity of Matter ; and consequently , as we have shewed before , would be equally ponderous : so that Gold , Copper , Stone , Wood , &c. would have all the same specifick weight ; which Experience assures us they have not : neither would any of them descend in the Air , as we all see they do ; because , if all Space was Full , even the Air would be as dense and specifically as heavy as they . If it be said , that , though the difference of specifick Gravity may proceed from variety of Texture , the lighter Bodies being of a more loose and porous composition , and the heavier more dense and compact ; yet an aethereal subtile Matter , which is in a perpetual motion , may penetrate and pervade the minutest and inmost Cavities of the closest Bodies , and adapting it self to the figure of every Pore , may adequately fill them ; and so prevent all Vacuity , without increasing the weight : To this we answer ; That that subtile Matter it self must be of the same Substance and Nature with all other Matter , and therefore It also must weigh proportionally to its Bulk ; and as much of it as at any time is comprehended within the Pores of a particular Body must gravitate jointly with that Body : so that if the Presence of this aethereal Matter made an absolute Fullness , all Bodies of equal dimensions would be equally heavy : which being refuted by experience , it necessarily follows , that there is a Vacuity ; and that ( notwithstanding some little objections full of cavil and sophistry ) mere and simple Extension or Space hath a quite different nature and notion from real Body and impenetrable Substance . ( 4. ) This therefore being established ; in the next place it's of great consequence to our present enquiry , if we can make a computation , How great is the whole Summ of the Void spaces in our system , and what proportion it bears to the corporeal substance . By many and accurate Trials it manifestly appears , that Refined Gold , the most ponderous of known Bodies , ( though even that must be allowed to be porous too , being dissoluble in Mercury and Aqua Regis and other Chymical Liquors ; and being naturally a thing impossible , that the Figures and Sizes of its constituent Particles should be so justly adapted , as to touch one another in every Point , ) I say , Gold is in specifick weight to common Water as 19 to 1 ; and Water to common Air as 850 to 1 : so that Gold is to Air as 16150 to 1. Whence it clearly appears , seeing Matter and Gravity are always commensurate , that ( though we should allow the texture of Gold to be intirely close without any vacuity ) the ordinary Air in which we live and respire is of so thin a composition , that 16149 parts of its dimensions are mere emptiness and Nothing ; and the remaining One only material and real substance . But if Gold it self be admitted , as it must be , for a porous Concrete , the proportion of Void to Body in the texture of common Air will be so much the greater . And thus it is in the lowest and densest region of the Air near the surface of the Earth , where the whole Mass of Air is in a state of violent compression , the inferior being press'd and constipated by the weight of all the incumbent . But , since the Air is now certainly known to consist of elastick or springy Particles , that have a continual tendency and endeavour to expand and display themselves ; and the dimensions , to which they expand themselves , to be reciprocally as the Compression ; it follows , that the higher you ascend in it , where it is less and less compress'd by the superior Air , the more and more it is rarefied . So that at the hight of a few miles from the surface of the Earth , it is computed to have some million parts of empty space in its texture for one of solid Matter . And at the hight of one Terrestrial Semid . ( not above 4000 miles ) the Aether is of that wonderfull tenuity , that by an exact calculation , if a small Sphere of common Air of one Inch Diameter ( already 16149 parts Nothing ) should be further expanded to the thinness of that Aether , it would more than take up the Vast Orb of Saturn , which is many million million times bigger than the whole Globe of the Earth . And yet the higher you ascend above that region , the Rarefaction still gradually increases without stop or limit : so that , in a word , the whole Concave of the Firmament , except the Sun and Planets and their Atmospheres , may be consider'd as a mere Void . Let us allow then , that all the Matter of the System of our Sun may be 50000 times as much as the whole Mass of the Earth ; and we appeal to Astronomy , if we are not liberal enough and even prodigal in this concession . And let us suppose further , that the whole Globe of the Earth is intirely solid and compact without any void interstices ; notwithstanding what hath been shewed before , as to the texture of Gold it self . Now though we have made such ample allowances ; we shall find , notwithstanding , that the void Space of our System is immensly bigger than all its corporeal Mass . For , to proceed upon our supposition , that all the Matter within the Firmament is 50000 times bigger than the solid Globe of the Earth ; if we assume the Diameter of the Orbis Magnus ( wherein the Earth moves about the Sun ) to be only 7000 times as big as the Diameter of the Earth ( though the latest and most accurate Observations make it thrice 7000 ) and the Diameter of the Firmament to be only 100000 times as long as the Diameter of the Orbis Magnus ( though it cannot possibly be less than that , but may be vastly and unspeakably bigger ) we must pronounce , after such large concessions on that side and such great abatements on ours , That the Summ of Empty Spaces within the Concave of the Firmament is 6860 million million million times bigger than All the Matter contain'd in it . Now from hence we are enabled to form a right conception and imagination of the supposed Chaos ; and then we may proceed to determin the controversy with more certainty and satisfaction ; whether a World like the Present could possibly without a Divine Influence be formed in it or no ? ( 1. ) And first , because every Fixt Star is supposed by Astronomers to be of the same Nature with our Sun ; and each may very possibly have Planets about them , though by reason of their vast distance they be invisible to Us : we will assume this reasonable supposition , That the same proportion of Void Space to Matter , which is found in our Sun's Region within the Sphere of the Fixt Starrs , may competently well hold in the whole Mundane Space . I am aware , that in this computation we must not assign the whole Capacity of that Sphere for the Region of our Sun ; but allow half of its Diameter for the Radii of the several Regions of the next Fixt Starrs . So that diminishing our former number , as this last consideration requires ; we may safely affirm from certain and demonstrated Principles , That the empty Space of our Solar Region ( comprehending half of the Diameter of the Firmament ) is 8575 hundred thousand million million times more ample than all the corporeal substance in it . And we may fairly suppose , that the same proportion may hold through the whole Extent of the Universe . ( 2. ) And secondly as to the state or condition of Matter before the World was a-making , which is compendiously exprest by the word Chaos ; they must suppose , that either All the Matter of our System was evenly or well-nigh evenly diffused through the Region of the Sun , this would represent a particular Chaos : or All Matter universally so spread through the whole Mundane Space ; which would truly exhibit a General Chaos ; no part of the Universe being rarer or denser than another . Which is agreeable to the ancient Description of it , That * the Heavens and Earth had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , one form , one texture and constitution : which could not be , unless all the Mundane Matter were uniformly and evenly diffused . 'T is indifferent to our Dispute , whether they suppose it to have continued a long time or very little in the state of Diffusion . For if there was but one single Moment in all past Eternity , when Matter was so diffused : we shall plainly and fully prove , that it could never have convened afterwards into the present Frame and Order of Things . ( 3. ) It is evident from what we have newly proved , that in the Supposition of such a Chaos or such an even diffusion either of the whole Mundane Matter or that of our System ( for it matters not which they assume ) every single Particle would have a Sphere of Void Space around it 8575 hundred thousand million million times bigger than the dimensions of that Particle . Nay further , though the proportion already appear so immense ; yet every single Particle would really be surrounded with a Void sphere Eight times as capacious as that newly mention'd ; its Diameter being compounded of the Diameter of the Proper sphere , and the Semi-diameters of the contiguous Spheres of the neighbouring Particles . From whence it appears , that every Particle ( supposing them globular or not very oblong ) would be above Nine Million times their own length from any other Particle . And moreover in the whole Surface of this Void sphere there can only Twelve Particles be evenly placed ( as the Hypothesis requires ) that is , at equal Distances from the Central one and each other . So that if the Matter of our System or of the Universe was equally dispersed , like the supposed Chaos ; the result and issue would be , not only that every Atom would be many Million times its own length distant from any other : but if any One should be moved Mechanically ( without direction or attraction ) to the limit of that distance ; 't is above a hundred million millions Odds to an unit , that it would not strike upon any other Atom , but glide through an empty interval without any contact . ( 4. ) 'T is true , that while I calculate these Measures , I suppose all the Particles of Matter to be at absolute rest among themselves , and situated in an exact and mathematical evenness ; neither of which is likely to be allowed by our Adversaries , who not admitting the former , but asserting the eternity of Motion , will consequently deny the latter also : because in the very moment that Motion is admitted in the Chaos , such an exact evenness cannot possibly be preserved . But this I do , not to draw any argument against them from the Universal Rest or accurately equal diffusion of Matter ; but only that I may better demonstrate the great Rarity and Tenuity of their imaginary Chaos , and reduce it to computation . Which computation will hold with exactness enough , though we allow the Particles of the Chaos to be variously moved , and to differ something in size and figure and situation . For if some Particles should approach nearer each other than in the former Proportion ; with respect to some other Particles they would be as much remoter . So that notwithstanding a small diversity of their Positions and Distances , the whole Aggregate of Matter , as long as it retain'd the name and nature of Chaos , would retain well-nigh an uniform tenuity of Texture , and may be consider'd as an homogeneous Fluid . As several Portions of the same sort of Water are reckon'd to be of the same specifick gravity ; though it be naturally impossible that every Particle and Pore of it , consider'd Geometrically , should have equal sizes and dimensions . We have now represented the true scheme and condition of the Chaos ; how all the Particles would be disunited ; and what vast intervals of empty Space would lye between each . To form a System therefore , 't is necessary that these squander'd Atoms should convene and unite into great and compact Masses , like the Bodies of the Earth and Planets . Without such a coalition the diffused Chaos must have continued and reign'd to all eternity . But how could Particles so widely dispersed combine into that closeness of Texture ? Our Adversaries can have only these two ways of accounting for it . Either by the Common Motion of Matter , proceeding from external Impulse and Conflict ( without attraction ) by which every Body moves uniformly in a direct line according to the determination of the impelling force . For , they may say , the Atoms of the Chaos being variously moved according to this catholic Law , must needs knock and interfere ; by which means some that have convenient figures for mutual coherence might chance to stick together , and others might join to those , and so by degrees such huge Masses might be formed , as afterwards became Suns and Planets : or there might arise some vertiginous Motions or Whirlpools in the Matter of the Chaos ; whereby the Atoms might be thrust and crowded to the middle of those Whirlpools , and there constipate one another into great solid Globes , such as now appear in the World. Or secondly by mutual Gravitation or Attraction . For they may assert , that Matter hath inherently and essentially such an intrinseck energy , whereby it incessantly tends to unite it self to all other Matter : so that several Particles placed in a Void space at any distance whatsoever would without any external impulse spontaneously convene and unite together . And thus the Atoms of the Chaos , though never so widely diffused , might by this innate property of Attraction soon assemble themselves into great sphaerical Masses , and constitute Systems like the present Heaven and Earth . This is all that can be proposed by Atheists , as an efficient cause of a World. For as to the Epicurean Theory , of Atoms descending down an infinite space by an inherent principle of Gravitation , which tends not toward other Matter , but toward a Vacuum or Nothing ; and verging from the Perpendicular * no body knows why nor when nor where ; 't is such miserable absurd stuff , so repugnant to it self , and so contrary to the known Phaenomena of Nature ( yet it contented supine unthinking Atheists for a thousand years together ) that we will not now honour it with a special refutation . But what it hath common with the other Explications , we will fully confute together with Them in these three Propositions . ( 1. ) That by Common Motion ( without attraction ) the dissever'd Particles of the Chaos could never make the World ; could never convene into such great compact Masses , as the Planets now are ; nor either acquire or continue such Motions , as the Planets now have . ( 2. ) That such a mutual Gravitation or spontaneous Attraction can neither be inherent and essential to Matter ; nor ever supervene to it , unless impress'd and infused into it by a Divine Power . ( 3. ) That though we should allow such Attraction to be natural and essential to all Matter ; yet the Atoms of a Chaos could never so convene by it , as to form the present System : or if they could form it , it could neither acquire such Motions , nor continue permanent in this state , without the Power and Providence of a Divine Being . I. And first , that by Common Motion the Matter of Chaos could never convene into such Masses , as the Planets now are . Any man , that considers the spacious void Intervals of the Chaos , how immense they are in proportion to the bulk of the Atoms , will hardly induce himself to believe , that Particles so widely disseminated could ever throng and crowd one another into a close and compact texture . He will rather conclude , that those few that should happen to clash , might rebound after the collision ; or if they cohered , yet by the next conflict with other Atoms might be separated again , and so on in an eternal vicissitude of Fast and Loose , without ever consociating into the huge condense Bodies of Planets ; some of whose Particles upon this supposition must have travell'd many millions of Leagues through the gloomy regions of Chaos , to place themselves where they now are . But then how rarely would there be any clashing at all ? how very rarely in comparison to the number of Atoms ? The whole multitude of them , generally speaking , might freely move and rove for ever with very little occurring or interfering . Let us conceive two of the nearest Particles according to our former Calculation ; or rather let us try the same proportions in another Example , that will come easier to the Imagination . Let us suppose two Ships , fitted with durable Timber and Rigging , but without Pilot or Mariners , to be placed in the vast Atlantick or the Pacifique Ocean , as far asunder as may be . How many thousand years might expire , before those solitary Vessels should happen to strike one against the other ? But let us imagin the Space yet more ample , even the whole face of the Earth to be covered with Sea , and the two Ships to be placed in the opposite Poles : might not they now move long enough without any danger of clashing ? And yet I find , that the two nearest Atoms in our evenly diffused Chaos have ten thousand times less proportion to the two Void circular Planes around them , than our two Ships would have to the whole Surface of the Deluge . Let us assume then another Deluge ten thousand times larger than Noah's . Is it not now utterly incredible , that our two Vessels , placed there Antipodes to each other , should ever happen to concur ? And yet let me add , that the Ships would move in one and the same Surface ; and consequently must needs encounter , when they either advance towards one another in direct lines , or meet in the intersection of cross ones ; but the Atoms may not only fly side-ways , but over likewise and under each other : which makes it many million times more improbable , that they should interfere than the Ships , even in the last and unlikeliest instance . But they may say , Though the Odds indeed be unspeakable that the Atoms do not convene in any set number of Trials , yet in an infinite Succession of them may not such a Combination possibly happen ? But let them consider , that the improbability of Casual Hits is never diminished by repetition of Trials ; they are as unlikely to fall out at the Thousandth as at the First . So that in a matter of mere Chance , when there is so many Millions odds against any assignable Experiment ; 't is in vain to expect it should ever succeed , even in endless Duration . But though we should concede it to be simply possible , that the Matter of Chaos might convene into great Masses , like Planets : yet it 's absolutely impossible , that those Masses should acquire such revolutions about the Sun. Let us suppose any one of those Masses to be the Present Earth . Now the annual Revolution of the Earth must proceed ( in this Hypothesis ) either from the Summ and Result of the several motions of all the Particles that formed the Earth , or from a new Impulse from some external Matter , after it was formed . The former is apparently absurd , because the Particles that form'd the round Earth must needs convene from all points and quarters toward the middle , and would generally tend toward its Center ; which would make the whole Compound to rest in a Poise : or at least that overplus of Motion , which the Particles of one Hemisphere could have above the other , would be very small and inconsiderable ; too feeble and languid to propell so vast and ponderous a Body with that prodigious velocity . And secondly , 't is impossible , that any external Matter should impell that compound Mass , after it was formed . 'T is manifest , that nothing else could impell it , unless the Aethereal Matter be supposed to be carried about the Sun like a Vortex or Whirlpool , as a Vehicle to convey It and the rest of the Planets . But this is refuted from what we have shewn above , that those Spaces of the Aether may be reckon'd a mere Void , the whole Quantity of their Matter scarce amounting to the weight of a Grain . 'T is refuted also from Matter of Fact in the Motion of Comets ; which , as often as they are visible to Us , are in the Region of our Planets ; and there are observed to move , some in quite contrary courses to Theirs , and some in cross and oblique ones , in Planes inclined to the Plane of the Ecliptick in all kinds of Angles : which firmly evinces , that the Regions of the Aether are empty and free , and neither resist nor assist the Revolutions of Planets . But moreover there could not possibly arise in the Chaos any Vortices or Whirlpools at all ; either to form the Globes of the Planets , or to revolve them when formed . 'T is acknowledged by all , that inanimate unactive Matter moves always in a streight Line , nor ever reflects in an Angle , nor bends in a Circle ( which is a continual reflexion ) unless either by some external Impulse , that may divert it from the direct motion , or by an intrinsec Principle of Gravity or Attraction , that may make it describe a curve line about the attracting Body . But this latter Cause is not now supposed : and the former could never beget Whirlpools in a Chaos of so great a Laxity and Thinness . For 't is matter of certain experience and universally allowed , that all Bodies moved circularly have a perpetual endeavour to recede from the Center , and every moment would fly out in right Lines , if they were not violently restrain'd and kept in by contiguous Matter . But there is no such restraint in a Chaos , no want of empty room there ; no possibility of effecting one single Revolution in way of a Vortex , which necessarily requires either an absolute Fulness of Matter , or a pretty close Constipation and mutual Contact of its Particles . And for the same reason 't is evident , that the Planets could not continue their Revolutions about the Sun ; though they could possibly acquire them . For to drive and carry the Planets in such Orbs as they now describe , that Aethereal Matter must be compact and dense , as dense as the very Planets themselves : otherwise they would certainly fly out in Spiral Lines to the very circumference of the Vortex . But we have often inculcated , that the wide Tracts of the Aether may be reputed as a mere extended Void . So that there is nothing ( in this Hypothesis ) that can retain and bind the Planets in their Orbs for one single moment ; but they would immediately desert them and the neighbourhood of the Sun , and vanish away in Tangents to their several Circles into the Abyss of Mundane Space . II. Secondly we affirm , that mutual Gravitation or spontaneous Attraction cannot possibly be innate and essential to Matter . By Attraction we do not here understand what is improperly , though vulgarly , called so , in the operations of drawing , sucking , pumping , &c. which is really Pulsion and Trusion ; and belongs to that Common Motion , which we have already shewn to be insufficient for the formation of a World. But we now mean ( as we have explain'd it before ) such a power and quality , whereby all parcels of Matter would mutually attract or mutually tend and press to all others ; so that ( for instance ) two distant Atoms in vacuo would spontaneously convene together without the impulse of external Bodies . Now we say , if our Atheists suppose this power to be inherent and essential to Matter ; they overthrow their own Hypothesis : there could never be a Chaos at all upon these terms , but the present form of our System must have continued from all Eternity ; against their own Supposition , and what we have proved in our Last . For if they affirm , that there might be a Chaos notwithstanding innate Gravity ; then let them assign any Period though never so remote , when the diffused Matter might convene . They must confess , that before that assigned Period Matter had existed eternally , inseparably endued with this principle of Attraction ; and yet had never attracted nor convened before , during that infinite duration : which is so monstrous an absurdity , as even They will blush to be charged with . But some perhaps may imagin , that a former System might be dissolved and reduced to a Chaos , from which the present System might have its Original , as that Former had from another , and so on : new Systems having grown out of old ones in infinite Vicissitudes from all past eternity . But we say , that in the Supposition of innate Gravity no System at all could be dissolved . For how is it possible , that the Matter of solid Masses like Earth and Planets and Starrs should fly up from their Centers against its inherent principle of mutual Attraction , and diffuse it self in a Chaos ? This is absurder than the other : That only supposed innate Gravity not to be exerted ; This makes it to be defeated , and to act contrary to its own Nature . So that upon all accounts this essential power of Gravitation or Attraction is irreconcilable with the Atheist's own Doctrine of a Chaos . And secondly 't is repugnant to Common Sense and Reason . 'T is utterly unconceivable , that inanimate brute Matter ( without the mediation of some Immaterial Being ) should operate upon and affect other Matter without mutual Contact ; that distant Bodies should act upon each other through a Vacuum without the intervention of something else by and through which the action may be conveyed from one to the other . We will not obscure and perplex with multitude of words , what is so clear and evident by its own light , and must needs be allowed by all , that have any competent use of Thinking , and are initiated into , I do not say the Mysteries , but the plainest Principles of Philosophy . Now mutual Gravitation or Attraction ( in our present acception of the Words ) is the same thing with This ; 't is an operation or vertue or influence of distant Bodies upon each other through an empty Interval , without any Effluvia or Exhalations or other corporeal Medium to convey and transmit it . This Power therefore cannot be innate and essential to Matter . And if it be not essential ; it is consequently most manifest ( seeing it doth not depend upon Motion or Rest or Figure or Position of Parts , which are all the ways that Matter can diversify it self ) that it could never supervene to it , unless impress'd and infused into it by an immaterial and divine Power . We have proved , that a Power of mutual Gravitation , without contact or impulse , can in no-wise be attributed to mere Matter : or if it could ; we shall presently shew , that it would be wholly unable to form the World out of Chaos . But by the way ; what if it be made appear , that there is really such a Power of Gravity perpetually acting in the constitution of the present System ? This would be a new and invincible Argument for the Being of God : being a direct and positive proof , that an immaterial living Mind doth inform and actuate the dead Matter , and support the Frame of the World. I will lay before you some certain Phaenomena of Nature ; and leave it to your consideration from what Principle they can proceed . 'T is demonstrated , That the Sun , Moon and all the Planets do reciprocally gravitate one toward another : that the Gravitating power of each of These is exactly proportional to their Matter , and arises from the several Gravitations or Attractions of every individual Particle that compose the whole Mass : that all Matter near the Surface of the Earth , for example , doth not only gravitate downwards , but upwards also and side-ways and toward all imaginable Points ; though the Tendency downwards be praedominant and alone discernible , because of the Greatness and Nearness of the attracting Body , the Earth : that every Particle of the whole System doth attract and is attracted by all the rest , All operating upon All : that this Vniversal Attraction or Gravitation is an incessant , regular and uniform Action by certain and established Laws according to Quantity of Matter and Longitude of Distance : that it cannot be destroyed nor impair'd nor augmented by any thing , neither by Motion nor Rest , nor Situation nor Posture , nor alteration of Form , nor diversity of Medium : that it is not a Magnetical Power , nor the effect of a Vortical Motion ; those common attempts toward the Explication of Gravity : These things , I say , are fully demonstrated , as matters of Fact , by that very ingenious Author , whom we cited before . Now how is it possible that these things should be effected by any Material and Mechanical Agent ? We have evinced , that mere Matter cannot operate upon Matter without mutual Contact . It remains then , that these Phaenomena are produced either by the intervention of Air or Aether or other such medium , that communicates the Impulse from one Body to another ; or by Effluvia and Spirits that are emitted from the one , and pervene to the other . We can conceive no other way of performing them Mechanically . But what impulse or agitation can be propagated through the Aether from one Particle entombed and wedged in the very Center of the Earth to another in the Center of Saturn ? Yet even those two Particles do reciprocally affect each other with the same force and vigour , as they would do at the same distance in any other Situation imaginable . And because the Impulse from this Particle is not directed to That only ; but to all the rest in the Universe , to all quatters and regions , at once invariably and incessantly : to do this mechanically ; the same physical Point of Matter must move all manner of ways equally and constantly in the same instant and moment ; which is flatly impossible . But if this Particle cannot propagate Motion ; much less can it send out Effluvia to all points without intermission or variation ; such multitudes of Effluvia as to lay hold on every Atom in the Universe without missing of one . Nay every single Particle of the very Effluvia ( seeing they also attract and gravitate ) must in this Supposition emit other secondary Effluvia all the World over ; and those others still emit more , and so in infinitum . Now if these things be repugnant to human reason ; we have great reason to affirm , That Universal Gravitation , a thing certainly existent in Nature , is above all Mechanism and material Causes , and proceeds from a higher principle , a Divine energy and impression . III. Thirdly we affirm ; That , though we should allow , that reciprocal Attraction is essential to Matter ; yet the Atoms of a Chaos could never so convene by it , as to form the present System ; or if they could form it , yet it could neither acquire these Revolutions , nor subsist in the present condition , without the Conservation and Providence of a Divine Being . ( 1. ) For first , if the Matter of the Universe , and consequently the Space through which it 's diffused , be supposed to be Finite ( and I think it might be demonstrated to be so ; but that we have already exceeded the just measures of a Sermon ) then , since every single Particle hath an innate Gravitation toward all others , proportionated by Matter and Distance : it evidently appears , that the outward Atoms of the Chaos would necessarily tend inwards and descend from all quarters toward the Middle of the whole Space ( for in respect to every Atom there would lie through the Middle the greatest quantity of Matter and the most vigorous Attraction ) and would there form and constitute one huge sphaerical Mass ; which would be the only Body in the Universe . It is plain therefore , that upon this Supposition the Matter of the Chaos could never compose such divided and different Masses , as the Starrs and Planets of the present World. But allowing our Adversaries , that The Planets might be composed : yet however they could not possibly acquire such Revolutions in Circular Orbs , or ( which is all one to our present purpose ) in Ellipses very little Eccentric . For let them assign any place where the Planets were formed . Was it nearer to the Sun , than the present distances are ? But that is notoriously absurd : for then they must have ascended from the place of their Formation , against the essential property of mutual Attraction . Or were each formed in the same Orbs , in which they now move ? But then they must have moved from the Point of Rest , in an horizontal Line without any inclination or descent . Now there is no natural Cause , neither Innate Gravity nor Impulse of external Matter , that could beget such a Motion . For Gravity alone must have carried them downwards to the Vicinity of the Sun. And that the ambient Aether is too liquid and empty , to impell them horizontally with that prodigious celerity , we have sufficiently proved before . Or were they made in some higher regions of the Heavens ; and from thence descended by their essential Gravity , till they all arrived at their respective Orbs ; each with its present degree of Velocity , acquired by the fall ? But then why did they not continue their descent , till they were contiguous to the Sun ; whither both Mutual Attraction and Impetus carried them ? What natural Agent could turn them aside , could impell them so strongly with a transverse Side-blow against that tremendous Weight and Rapidity , when whole Worlds are a falling ? But though we should suppose , that by some cross attraction or other they might acquire an obliquity of descent , so as to miss the body of the Sun , and to fall on one side of it : then indeed the force of their Fall would carry them quite beyond it ; and so they might fetch a compass about it , and then return and ascend by the same steps and degrees of Motion and Velocity , with which they descended before . Such an eccentric Motion as this , much after the manner that Comets revolve about the Sun , they might possibly acquire by their innate principle of Gravity : but circular Revolutions in concentric Orbs about the Sun or other central Body could in no-wise be attain'd without the power of the Divine Arm. For the Case of the Planetary Motions is this . Let us conceive all the Planets to be formed or constituted with their Centers in their several Orbs ; and at once to be impress'd on them this Gravitating Energy toward all other Matter , and a transverse Impulse of a just quantity in each , projecting them directly in Tangents to those Orbs. The Compound Motion , which arises from this Gravitation and Projection together , describes the present Revolutions of the Primary Planets about the Sun , and of the Secondary about Those : the Gravity prohibiting , that they cannot recede from the Centers of their Motions ; and the transverse Impulse with-holding , that they cannot approach to them . Now although Gravity could be innate ( which we have proved that it cannot be ) yet certainly this projected , this transverse and violent Motion can only be ascribed to the Right hand of the most high God , Creator of Heaven and Earth . But finally , though we grant , that these Circular Revolutions could be naturally attained ; or , if they will , that this very individual World in its present posture and motion was actually formed out of Chaos by Mechanical Causes : yet it requires a Divine Power and Providence to have conserved it so long in the present state and condition . We have shewed , that there is a Transverse Impulse impress'd upon the Planets , which retains them in their several Orbs , that they be not drawn down by their gravitating Powers toward the Sun or other central Bodies . Gravity we understand to be a constant Energy or Faculty ( which God hath infused into Matter ) perpetually acting by certain Measures and ( naturally ) inviolable Laws ; I say , a Faculty and Power : for we cannot conceive that the Act of Gravitation of this present Moment can propagate it self or produce that of the next . But 't is otherwise as to the Transverse Motion ; which ( by reason of the Inactivity of Matter and its inability to change its present State either of Moving or Resting ) would from one single Impulse continue for ever equal and uniform , unless changed by the resistence of occurring Bodies or by a Gravitating Power ; so that the Planets , since they move Horizontally ( whereby Gravity doth not affect their swiftness ) and through the liquid and unresisting Spaces of the Heavens ( where either no Bodies at all or inconsiderable ones do occur ) may preserve the same Velocity which the first Impulse imprest upon them , not only for five or six thousand years , but many Millions of Millions . It appears then , that if there was but One Vast Sun in the Universe , and all the rest were Planets , revolving around him in Concentric Orbs , at convenient Distances : such a System as that would very long endure ; could it but naturally have a Principle of Mutual Attraction , and be once actually put into Circular Motions . But the Frame of the present World hath a quite different structure : here 's an innumerable multitude of Fixt Starrs or Suns ; all of which are demonstrated ( and supposed also by our Adversaries ) to have Mutual Attraction : or if they have not ; even Not to have it is an equal Proof of a Divine Being , that hath so arbitrarily indued Matter with a Power of Gravity not essential to it , and hath confined its action to the Matter of its own Solar System : I say , all the Fixt Starrs have a principle of mutual Gravitation ; and yet they are neither revolved about a common Center , nor have any Transverse Impulse nor any thing else to restrain them from approaching toward each other , as their Gravitating Powers incite them . Now what Natural Cause can overcome Nature it self ? What is it that holds and keeps them in fixed Stations and Intervals against an incessant and inherent Tendency to desert them ? Nothing could hinder , but that the Outward Starrs with their Systems of Planets must necessarily have descended toward the middlemost System of the Universe , whither all would be the most strongly attracted from all parts of a Finite Space . It is evident therefore that the present Frame of Sun and Fixt Starrs could not possibly subsist without the Providence of that almighty Deity , who spake the word and they were made , who commanded and they were created ; who hath made them Fast for ever and ever , and hath given them a Law , which shall not be broken . ( 2. ) And secondly in the Supposition of an infinite Chaos , 't is hard indeed to determin , what would follow in this imaginary Case from an innate Principle of Gravity . But to hasten to a conclusion , we will grant for the present , that the diffused Matter might convene into an infinite Number of great Masses at great distances from one another , like the Starrs and Planets of this visible part of the World. But then it is impossible , that the Planets should naturally attain these circular Revolutions , either by intrinsec Gravitation or the impulse of ambient Bodies . It is plain , here is no difference as to this ; whether the World be Infinite or Finite : so that the same Arguments that we have used before , may be equally urged in this Supposition . And though we should concede , that these Revolutions might be acquired , and that all were settled and constituted in the present State and Posture of Things ; yet , we say , the continuance of this Frame and Order for so long a duration as the known ages of the World must necessarily infer the Existence of God. For though the Universe was Infinite , the Fixt Starrs could not be fixed , but would naturally convene together , and confound System with System : for , all mutually attracting , every one would move whither it was most powerfully drawn . This , they may say , is indubitable in the case of a Finite World , where some Systems must needs be Outmost , and therefore be drawn toward the Middle : but when Infinite Systems succeed one another through an Infinite Space , and none is either inward or outward ; may not all the Systems be situated in an accurate Poise ; and , because equally attracted on all sides , remain fixed and unmoved ? But to this we reply ; That unless the very mathematical Center of Gravity of every System be placed and fixed in the very mathematical Center of the Attractive Power of all the rest ; they cannot be evenly attracted on all sides , but must preponderate some way or other . Now he that considers , what a mathematical Center is , and that Quantity is infinitly divisible ; will never be persuaded , that such an Universal Equilibrium arising from the coincidence of Infinite Centers can naturally be acquired or maintain'd . If they say ; that upon the Supposition of Infinite Matter , every System would be infinitly , and therefore equally attracted on all sides ; and consequently would rest in an exact Equilibrium , be the Center of its Gravity in what Position soever : This will overthrow their very Hypothesis ; at this rate in an infinite Chaos nothing at all could be formed ; no Particles could convene by mutual Attraction ; for every one there must have Infinite Matter around it , and therefore must rest for ever being evenly balanced between Infinite Attractions . Even the Planets upon this principle must gravitate no more toward the Sun , than any other way : so that they would not revolve in curve Lines , but fly away in direct Tangents , till they struck against other Planets or Starrs in some remote regions of the Infinite Space . An equal Attraction on all sides of all Matter is just equal to no Attraction at all : and by this means all the Motion in the Universe must proceed from external Impulse alone ; which we have proved before to be an incompetent Cause for the Formation of a World. And now , O thou almighty and eternal Creator , having consider'd the Heavens the work of thy fingers , the Moon and the Starrs which thou hast ordained , with all the company of Heaven we laud and magnify thy glorious Name , evermore praising thee and saying ; Holy , Holy , Holy , Lord God of Hosts , Heaven and Earth are full of thy Glory : Glory be to thee , O Lord most High. FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A69557-e300 Serm. V. p. 6 , 7. Serm. V. p. 12 , 13. Mr. Boyle's Physicom . Exp. of Air. Hydrostat . Paradoxes . Lucret. lib. 1. Newton Philos . Natur. Princ. Math. lib. 3. prop. 6. Mr. Boyle of Air and Porosity of Bodies . Mr. Boyle ibid. Newton Philos . Nat. Principia . Math. p. 503. * Diod. Sicul. lib. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Apoll. Rhodius lib. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Lucret. Nec regione loci certa , nec tempore certo . Serm. V. p. 32. Newton ibidem p. 480. Vide Serm. VI. & Serm. VIII . Newton Philosophiae Naturalis Princ. Math. lib. III. Psal . 148. Psal . 8. 
A28965	----	Essays of the strange subtilty great efficacy determinate nature of effluviums. To which are annext New experiments to make fire and flame ponderable. : Together with A discovery of the perviousness of glass. : Also An essay, about the origine and virtue of gems. / By the Honourable Robert Boyle ... ; To which is added The prodromus to a dissertation concerning solids naturally contained within solids giving an account of the Earth, and its productions. By Nicholas Steno. ; Englished by H.O. Essays of the strange subtilty, determinate nature, great efficacy of effluviums Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1673 Approx. 295 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 153 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). 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To which are annext New experiments to make fire and flame ponderable. : Together with A discovery of the perviousness of glass. : Also An essay, about the origine and virtue of gems. / By the Honourable Robert Boyle ... ; To which is added The prodromus to a dissertation concerning solids naturally contained within solids giving an account of the Earth, and its productions. By Nicholas Steno. ; Englished by H.O. Essays of the strange subtilty, determinate nature, great efficacy of effluviums Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. [8], 69, [3], 47, [1], 74, [10], 54, [4], 57-85, [23], 185 [i.e. 184] + p. Printed by W.G. for M. Pitt, at the Angel near the little North Door of St Paul's Church., London, : 1673. Numerous pagination errors (p. 98-111 and p. 181). Imperfect: Lacks The prodromus to a dissertation concerning solids naturally contained within solids. Reproduction of originals in the Bodleian Library and the Harvard University Library. 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Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Chemistry -- Early works to 1800. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-05 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-06 Derek Lee Sampled and proofread 2006-06 Derek Lee Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion ESSAYS Of the STRANGE SUBTILTY GREAT EFFICACY DETERMINATE NATURE OF EFFLUVIUMS . To which are annext NEW EXPERIMENTS To make FIRE and FLAME Ponderable : Together with A Discovery of the Perviousness of GLASS . BY The Honorable ROBERT BOYLE , Fellow of the Royal Society . — Consilium est , universum opus Instaurationis ( Philosophiae ) potius promovere in multis , quàm perficere in paucis . Verulamius . LONDON : Printed by W. G. for M. Pitt , near the little North Door of St Paul's Church . 1673. An Advertisement to the READER . ' T IS hop'd , the Reader will not think it strange , not to meet with in the following Papers a more close and uniform contexture of the passages that make them up , if he be seasonably inform'd of the rise and occasion of penning them , which was this . The Author having many years ago written an Essay about an Experiment he made of Nitre , by whose Phaenomena he endeavour'd to exemplifie some parts of the Corpuscular Philosophy , especially the Production of Qualities ; he afterwards threw together divers occurring thoughts and experiments , which he suppos'd might be imployed by way of Notes , to prove or illustrate those Doctrines , and especially those that concern'd the Qualities of Bodies ; and among these observing those that are call'd Occult , to be Subjects uncultivated enough , ( at least in the way that seem'd to him proper , ) he propos'd to handle them more largely than most of the rest ; and in order to that Design he judg'd it almost necessary , to premise some Considerations and experimental Collections about the Nature and power of Effluviums , about the Pores of Bodies and Figures of Corpuscles , and about the efficacy of such Local-motions as are wont either to be judged very faint , or to be pass'd by unheeded . For he had often look'd upon these three Doctrines , of Effluvia , of Pores and Figures , and of Unheeded Motions , as the three principal Keys to the Philosophy of Occult Qualities . But having hereupon made such Collections , as upon review appear'd too large to pass for Notes on so short a Text , he was induc'd to draw them into the form ( they now appear in ) of Essays ; but he would not put himself to the trouble of doing it , with care to keep them from retaiaing much of their first want of exact Method and Connexion . Nor was the Author solicitous to finish them up , in regard that his other Studies and occasions made him perceive , that in what he had design'd about Occult Qualities , he had cut himself out more work than probably he should during many years have opportunity to set upon in earnest , and complete . And in this Condition these Papers lay for divers years , ( as is well known to several that saw them , or even transcrib'd some of them , ) and might have continued to do so , if the Author had not been induc'd to let them come abroad , partly by considering , that though the Subjects , ( however he handled them ) were as well important as curious , yet he did not find himself prevented by others in what he had to publish about them ; and partly by the References he had made to them in some other Papers , that he had promised his Friends , wherein several things here deliver'd are vouched , and others suppos'd . And because the Notes concerning the Porosity of greater Bodies and the Figurations of minute Particles , together with the Paper about unregarded Motions , having been long laid aside among other neglected papers , were some of them missing , and others so mis-us'd , that they could not easily be made ready to accompany those that now come abroad ; the Author , that he might keep this Book from having its dimensions too disproportionate , was content to add to the thickness of it , by subjoyning one of those little Tracts , that lay by him , concerning Flame , because of the Affinity betwixt the preceding Doctrine about Effluviums in general , and Experiments that shew in particular the Subtilty and the Efficacy of those of Fire and Flame . And though , to that Tract it self , there belong another , design'd to examine , Whether the matter of what we call the Sun-beams , may be brought to be ponderable ; yet supposing this , hitherto cold and wet Summer , to be like to be as unfriendly to the Tryals to be made with Burning-glasses as of late years some other Summers have prov'd , he was easily prevail'd with , not to make those Experiments that were ready , wait any longer for those , that probably will not in a short time be so ; especially since those that now come abroad have no dependency upon the others . OF THE Strange SUBTILTY OF EFFLUVIUMS . BY The Honorable ROBERT BOYLE . LONDON : Printed by W. G. for M. Pitt at the sign of the White Hart , over-against the little North Door of St Paul's Church . 1673. OF The strange SUBTILTY OF EFFLVVIVMS . CHAP. I. WHether we suppose with the Antient and Modern Atomists , that all sensible Bodies are made up of Corpuscles , not only insensible , but indivisible ; or whether we think with the Cartesians , and ( as many of that Party teach us ) with Aristotle , that Matter , like Quantity , is indefinitely , if not infinitely divisible : It will be consonant enough to either Doctrine , that the Effluvia of Bodies may consist of Particles extremely small . For if we embrace the Opinion of Aristotle or Des-Cartes , there is no stop to be put to the sub-division of Matter , into Fragments , still lesser and lesser . And though the Epicurean Hypothesis admit not of such an interminate division of Matter , but will have it stop at certain solid Corpuscles , which for their not being further divisible are called Atoms ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ) yet the Assertors of these do justly think themselves injured , when they are charged with taking the Motes or small Dust , that fly up and down in the Sun-Beams , for their Atoms ; since , according to these Philosophers , one of those little grains of Dust , that is visible only when it plays in the Sun-Beams , may be composed of a multitude of Atoms , and exceed many thousands of them in Bulk . This the Learned Gassendus in his Notes on Diogenes Laertius makes probable by the instance of a small Mite , which , though scarce distinctly discernable by the naked Eye , unless when 't is in motion , does yet in a good Microscope appear to be a compleat Animal , furnished with all necessary Parts ; which I can easily allow , having often in Cheese-Mites very distinctly seen the Hair growing upon their Legs . And to the former Instance I might add , what I have elsewhere told you of a sort of Animals far lesser than Cheese-Mites themselves , namely those that may be often-times seen in Vinegar . But what has been already said may suffice for my present purpose , which is only to shew , that the wonderful minuteness I shall hereafter ascribe to Effluvia , is not inconsistent with the most received Theories of Naturalists . For otherwise in this Essay the Proofs I mean to employ , must be taken , not à Priori , but à Posteriori . And the Experiments and Observations I shall employ on this occasion will be chiefly those , that are referrible to one of the following Heads . I. The strange Extensibility of some Bodies whilst their Parts yet remain tangible . II. The multitude of Visible Corpuscles , that may be afforded by a small portion of Matter . III. The smallness of the Pores at which the Effluvia of some Bodies will get in . IV. The small decrement of Bulk or Weight , that a Body may suffer by parting with great store of Effluvia . V. The great quantity of Space that may be fill'd , as to sense , by a small quantity of Matter when rarified or dispers'd . But though to these distinct Heads I shall design distinct Chapters , yet you must not expect to find the Instances solicitously marshall'd , but set down in the order they occurr'd to me ; such a liberty being allowable in a Paper , where I pretend not to write Treatises , but Notes CHAP. II. AMong many things that are gross enough to be the Objects of our Touch , and to be managed with our Hands , there are some that may help us to conceive a wonderful minuteness in the small Parts they consist of . I do not remember what Cardan , and since him another Writer have deliver'd about the Thinness and Slenderness to which Gold may be brought . And therefore without positively assenting to , or absolutely rejecting what may have been said about it by others , I shall only borrow on this occasion , what I have mention'd on another upon my own Observation ; namely , That Silver , whose Ductility and Tractility are very much inferiour to those of Gold , was , by my procuring , drawn out to so slender a Wire , that , when we measur'd it , which was somewhat troublesom to do , with a long and accurate measure , we found , that eight Yards of it did not yet fully counterpoise one Grain : So that we might add a Grain more without making the Scale , wherein 't was put , manifestly preponderate , notwithstanding the Tenderness of the Ballance . Whence we concluded , that a single Grain of this Wire amounted to 27 Foot , that is , 324 Inches . And since Experience informs us , that half an English Inch can by Diagonal Lines be divided into 100 parts great enough to be easily distinguish'd , even for Mechanical uses , it follows , that a Grain of this wire-drawn Silver may be divided into 64800 parts , and yet each of these will be a true metalline , though but slender and short , Cylinder , which we may very well conceive to consist yet of a multitude of minuter parts . For though I could procure no Gilt Wire near so slender as our newly mention'd Silver-wire ; yet I tryed that some which I had by me was small enough to make one Grain of it fourteen foot long : At which rate an Ounce did amount to a full Mile , consisting of 1000 Geometrical Paces , ( of 5 foot a-piece , ) and 720 foot over and above . And if now it be permitted to suppose the Wire to have been , as in probability it might have been , further drawn out to the same slenderness with the above-mention'd Silver-wire , the Instance will still be far more considerable ; for in this case , each of those little Cylinders , of which 64800 go to the making of one Grain , will have a superficial Area , which , except at the Basis , will be cover'd with a Case of Gold ; which is not only separable from it by a mental Operation , but perhaps also by a Chymical one . For I remember , that from very slender gilt Wire , though I could get none so slender as this of meer Silver , I did more than once , for Curiosities sake , so get out the Silver , that the golden Films , whilst they were in a Liquor that plumpt them up , seem'd to be solid wires of Gold : But when the Liquor was withdrawn , they appear'd , ( as indeed they were ) to be oblong and extremely thin and double Membranes of that Metal , which , with an Instrument that had been delicate enough , might have been ripp'd open , and displayed , and been made capable of further . Divisions and Subdivisions . To this I shall add , that each of the little silver Cylinders I lately spake of , must not only have its little Area , but its Solidity ; and yet I saw no reason to doubt , but that it might be very possible , if the Artificer had been so skilful and willing as I wish'd , to have drawn the same quantity of Metal to a much greater length , since even an Animal substance is capable of being brought to a slenderness much surpassing that of our Wire , supposing the Truth of an Observation of very credible Persons critical enough in making Experiments , which , for a Confirmation and an Improvement of our present Argument , I shall now subjoyn . An Ingenious Gentlewoman of my Acquaintance , Wife to a Learned Physician , taking much pleasure to keep Silk-worms , had once the Curiosity to draw out one of the Oval Cases , ( which the Silk-worm spins , not , as 't is commonly thought , out of its Belly , but out of the Mouth , whence I have taken pleasure to draw it out with my Fingers , ) into all the Silken-wire it was made up of , which , to the great wonder as well of her Husband , as her self , who both inform'd me of it , appeared to be by measure a great deal above 300 Yards , and yet weigh'd but two Grains and a half : so that each Cylindrically shap'd Grain of Silk may well be reckon'd to be at least 120 Yards long . Another way , I remember , I also employed to help men by the extensibility of Gold the better to conceive the Minuteness of the Parts of Solid Bodies . We took six beaten Leaves of Gold , which we measured one by one with a Ruler purposely made for nice Experiments , and found them to have a greater equality in Dimensions , and to be nearer true Squares , than could be well expected : The side of the Square was in each of them exactly enough three Inches and 2 / 8 , ( or 1 / 4 , ) which number being reduc'd to a Decimal Fraction , viz. 3125 / 100 , and multiplied by it self , affords 105625 / 10000 for the Area , or superficial Content of each square Leaf : And this multiplied by 6 , the number of the Leaves , amounts to 633750 / 10000 square Inches , for the Area of the six Leaves . These being carefully weigh'd in a pair of tender Scales , amounted all of them to one Grain and a quarter : And so one Grain of this foliated Gold was extended to somewhat above fifty Inches ; which differ'd but about a fifth part from an Experiment of the like nature , that I remember I made many years ago in a pair of exact Scales ; and so small a difference may very well be imputed to that of the pains and diligence of the Gold-Beaters , who do not always work with equal strength and skill , nor upon equally fine and ductile Gold. Now if we recal to mind what I was lately saying of the actual divisibility of an Inch into an hundred sensible parts , and suppose an Inch so divided to be applied to each side of a square Inch of the Leaf-Gold newly mention'd , 't is manifest that by subtle parallel Lines , drawn between all the opposite Points , a Grain of Gold must be divisible into five hundred thousand little Squares , very minute indeed , but yet discernible by a sufficiently sharp-sighted Eye . And if we suppose an Inch to be divided into two hundred parts , as I lately told you it was in a Ruler I employ , then , according to the newly recited way , the number of the Squares , into which a single Grain is capable of being divided , will amount to no less than two Millions . There is yet another way that I took to shew , that the extensibility , and consequently the divisibleness of Gold is probably far more wonderful , than by the lately mention'd Tryal it appears . For this purpose I went to a great Refiner , whom I used to deal with for purify'd Gold and Silver , and inquir'd of him , how many Grains of Leaf-Gold he was wont to allow to an Ounce of Silver , when it was to be drawn into gilt Wire as slender as an Hair ? To this he answer'd me , that eight Grains was the proportion he allowed to an Ounce when the Wire was to be well gilt ; but if it were to be more slightly gilt , six Grains would serve the turn . And to the same purpose I was answer'd by a skilful Wire-drawer . And I remember , that desiring the Refiner to shew me an Ingot of Silver , as he did at first gild it ; he shew'd me a good fair Cylindrical Bar , whereon the Leaf-Gold , that overlaid the surface , did not appear to be by odds so thick as fine Venetian Paper ; and yet comparing this with gilt Wire , which I also desired to see , the Wire appeared to be the better gilt of the two ; possibly because the Gold in passing through the various Holes , was by the sides of them not only extended but polished , which made it look more vividly than the unpolish'd Leaves that gilded the Ingot . So that , if we suppose an Ounce of the gilt Wire formerly mention'd to have been gilt with six Grains of Leaf-Gold , it will appear by an easie calculation , that at this rate one Ounce of Gold , employ'd on gilding Wire of that slenderness , would reach between ninety and an hundred Miles . But if now we further suppose , as we lately did , that the slender Silver-wire , mention'd at the beginning of this Chapter , were gilt ; though we should allow it to have ( because of its exceeding slenderness , ) not , ( as the former ) 6 Grains , but 8 Grains of Leaf-Gold to an Ounce of Siver , it must be acknowledged , that an hollow Cylinder or sheath of Gold weighing but eight Grains , may be so stretch'd , that 't will reach to no less than 60 times as much ( in weight ) of Silver-wire as it covers : [ I said 60 times , for so often is 8 contain'd in 480 , the number of Grains in an Ounce ; ] and consequently ( a Grain of that Wire having been found to be 27 foot long , ) the Ounce of Gold would reach to seven hundred seventy seven thousand six hundred foot , that is , an hundred fifty five Miles and above a half . And if we yet further suppose this superficial or hollow Cylinder of Gold to be slit all along , and cut into as slender lists or thongs as may be , we must not deny that Gold may be made to reach to a stupendious length . But we need not this last supposition to make what preceded it an amazing thing : which yet though it be indeed Stupendious and seem Incredible , ought not at all to be judg'd Impossible , being no more than what upon the Suppositions and Observations above laid down , does evidently follow . CHAP. III. AFter what has been said of the minuteness of tangible Objects , 't will be proper to subjoyn some instances of the smallness of such as yet continue visible . But in regard these Corpuscles are singly too little to have any common measure apply'd to any of them , we must make an estimate of their minuteness by the number of those into which a small portion or fragment of matter may be actually divided , the multitude of these being afforded by so inconsiderable a Quantity of matter , sufficiently declaring , that each of them , in particular , must be marvelously little . Among the instances , where the smallness of Bodies may be deduc'd from what is immediately the Object of Sight , it may not be unfit to take notice of the evaporation of Water , which though it be granted to consist of gross particles in comparison of the spirituous and odoriferous ones of divers other Liquors , as of pure Spirit of Wine , Essential Oyls of Spices , &c. yet to shew that a small Quantity of it may be dispers'd into a multitude of manifestly visible Corpuscles , I thought upon , and more than once try'd , the rarefaction of it into Vapors by help of an Aeolipile , wherein , when I made the Experiment the last time , I took the pains to register the Event as follows . We put an Ounce of common Water into an Aeolipile , and having put it upon a Chasing-dish of coals , we observ'd the time when the streams of Vapors began to be manifest . This stream was for a good while impetuous enough , as appear'd by the noise it made , which would be much increased , if we applied to it at a convenient distance a kindled brand , in which it would blow up the fire very vehemently . The stream continued about a quarter of an hour ( sixteen minutes or better , ) but afterwards the Wind had pauses and gusts for two or three minutes before it quite ceased . And by reason of the shape of the Aeolipile , ( which being fram'd chiefly for other purposes , was not so convenient for this ) a great portion of the Vapors condens'd in the upper part of it , and fell down in drops ; so that supposing that they also had come out in the form of Wind , and the blast had not been intermitted toward the latter end , I guess'd it might have continued uninterruptedly 18 or 20 minutes . Note , That applying a measure to the Smoak , that came out very visible in a form almost conical , where it seem'd to have an Inch or more in Diameter , 't was distant from the hole of the Aeolipile about twenty Inches ; and five or six Inches beyond that , though it were spread so much , as to have four or five Inches in Diameter , yet the not uniform but still-cohering Clouds ( which was the form wherein the Vapors appear'd ) were manifest and conspicuous . After the rarefaction of Water when 't is turn'd into Vapors , we may consider that of Fewel when 't is turn'd into Flame ; to which purpose I might here propose several Tryals as well of our own as others , about the prodigious Expansion of some Inflammable Bodies upon their being actually turn'd into Flame . But in this place to mention all these , would perhaps too much intrench upon another Paper ; and therefore I shall here propose to your consideration but one instance , and that very easie to be tryed ; of which I find this account among my Adversaria . Having oftentimes burnt Spirit of Wine , and also Oyl in Glass-lamps , that for certain uses were so made , that the surface of the Liquor was still circular , 't was obvious to observe , how little the Liquor would subside by the wast that was made of it , in about half a quarter of an hour . And yet if we consider , that the naked Eye after some Exercise , may , as I have often tryed , discern the motions of a Pendulum that swings fast enough to divide a single minute of an hour into 240 parts , and consequently half a quarter of an hour into 1800 parts ; if we also consider into how many parts of the time imployed by a Pendulum , the Vibrations , slow enough to be discernible by the Eye , may be mentally subdivided ; and if we further consider , that without intermission , the Oyl is preyed upon by an actual Flame , and the particles of it do continually furnish a considerable stream of shining matter , that with a strange celerity is always flying away ; we may very well conceive , that those parts of Flame into which the Oyl is turned , are stupendiously minute , since , though the wasting of the Oyl is in its progress too slow to be perceived by the Eye , yet 't is undoubted that there is a continual decrement of the depth of the Oyl , the Physical surfaces whereof are continually and successively attenuated and turn'd into flame ; and the strange subtilty of the Corpuscles of flame would be much the stronglier argued , if we should suppose , that instead of common Oyl the flame were nourish'd by a fewel so much more compact and durable , as is that inflammable substance made of a Metalline Body , of whose lastingness I have elsewhere made particular mention , after having taught the way of preparing it . Having in a pair of tender Scales carefully weigh'd out half a Grain of good Gunpowder , we laid it on a piece of Tile , and whelm'd over it a vessel of glass ( elsewhere describ'd , and often mention'd ) with a Brass-plate to cover the upper orifice of it . Then having fir'd the Gunpowder , we observ'd that the smoak of it did opacate , and as to sense so fill the whole cavity of the Glass , though its Basis were eight inches , its perpendicular height above twenty inches , and its figure far more capacious than if it were conical , and this smoak , not containing it self within the vessel , issued out at two or three little intervals , that were purposely left between the orifice of the vessel and the plate that lay upon it . This cover we then remov'd , that we might observe how long the smoak would continue to ascend ; which we found it would do for about half a quarter of an hour , and during near half that time , ( viz. the three first minutes ) the continually ascending smoak seem'd to be , at its going out , of the same Diameter with the orifice at which it issu'd ; and it would ascend sometimes a foot , sometimes half a yard , sometimes two foot or more into the Air , before it would disperse and vanish into it . Now if we consider , that the cavity of this round Orifice was two inches in Diameter , how many myriads of visible Corpuscles may we easily conceive throng'd out at so large an out-let in the time above-mention'd , since they were continually thrusting one another forwards ? And into so many visible Particles of smoak must we admit , that the half Grain of Powder was shatter'd , beside those multitudes , which , having been turn'd into actual flame , may probably be suppos'd to have suffer'd a comminution , that made them become invisible . And though I shall not attempt so hopeless a work , as to compute the number of these small Particles , yet to make an estimate whereby it would appear to be exceeding great , I thought fit to consider , how great the Proportion was between the spaces , that to the Eye appear'd all full of smoak , and the dimensions of the Powder that was resolv'd into that smoak . Causing then the Glass to be fill'd with common Water , we found it to contain above two and twenty Pints of that liquor , and causing one of those measures to be weigh'd , it was found to weigh so near a pound ( of sixteen ounces , ) that the computation of the whole Water amounted to at least 160000 grains , and consequently 320000 half grains . To which if we add , that this Gunpowder would readily sink to the bottom of Water , as being ( by reason of the Saltpeter and Brimstone , that make up at least six parts of seven of it ) in specie heavier than it , and in likelyhood twice as heavy , ( for 't is not easie to determine it exactly , ) we may probably guess the space to which the smoak reach'd to exceed 500000 times that , which contain'd the unfir'd Powder ; and this , though the smoak , being confin'd in the vessel , was thereby kept from diffusing it self so far as by its streaming out it seem'd likely that it would have done . To these Instances from Inanimate Bodies I shall subjoyn one more taken from Animals . Whereas then men have with Reason wonder'd , that so small a Body as a Cheese-mite , which by the naked Eye is oftentimes not to be taken notice of , unless it move , ( if even then it be so , ) should by the Microscope appear to be an Animal furnish'd with all necessary parts ; whereas this , I say , has given just occasion to conclude , that the Corpuscles that make up the parts of so small an Animal , must themselves be extremely small ; I think the Argument may be much improved by the following Consideration . Those that have had the Curiosity to open from time to time Eggs that are sat upon by a hatching Hen cannot but have observed , how small a proportion in reference to the bulk of the whole Egg the Chick bears ; when that , which the Excellent Harvey calls Punctum saliens , discloses the motion of the Heart , and the colour of the Blood ; and that even about the seventh or eighth day the whole Chick now visibly form'd , bears no great proportion to the whole Egg , which is to supply it with Aliment , not only for its nourishment , but speedy growth for many days after . To apply this now to the matter in hand , having several times observed and shewn to others , that Cheese-mites themselves are generated of Eggs , if we conceive , that in these Eggs , as in ordinary one , the Animal at its first formation bears but a small proportion to the bulk of the whole Egg , the remaining part being to suffice for the food and growth of the Embryo probably for a pretty while ; since , if an Ingenious person , that I desired to watch them , did not mis-inform me , they used to be about ten or twelve days in hatching ; this whole Egg it self will be allowed to be but little in reference to the Mite it came from , how extremely and unimaginably minute may we suppose those parts to be , that make up the Alimental Liquors , and even the Spirits , that passing through the Nerves or Analogous parts , serve to move the Limbs and Sensories of but , as it were , the Model of such an Animal , as , when it rests , would not ( perhaps ) it self to the naked Eye be so much as visible ; and in which we may presume the nobler sort of stabler parts to be of an amazing slenderness , if we consider , that , though in other hairy Animals , the Optick or some other of the larger Nerves do , I know not how many times , in thickness and circuit surpass a hair of the same Animal ; yet in a Cheese-Mite , though none of the largest of those Creatures , we have divers times manifestly seen , as is before intimated , single Hairs that grow upon the Legs . Another way there is , that I imployed to give men cause to think , that the invisible Effluvia of Bodies that wander through the Air may be strangely minute ; and this was , by shewing how small a fragment of matter may be resolved into particles minute enough to associate themselves in such numbers with a Fluid so much more dense than Air , as Water is , as to impart a determinate Colour to the whole liquor . What I did with Cocheneel in prosecution of this design , my Experiments about Colours may inform you ; but I shall now relate the success of an attempt made another way , for which perhaps some of your friends the Chymists will thank me ; though I was not solicitous to carry on the Experiment very far with Gold , not because I judged that less divisible into a number of colour'd particles , but because I found , as I expected , that the paleness of the native colour of the Gold may make it in the end less conspicuous , though , if I had then had by me a Menstruum , as I sometimes had , that would dissolve Gold blood-red , perhaps the experiment with Gold would have surpass'd that , which 't is now time I should begin to relate , as soon as I have hinted to you by the way , that , for varieties sake , I made a tryal with Copper calcin'd per se , that I might not be accused of having omitted to employ a Metal whose Body Chymists suppose to be much opened by Calcination . And though the event were notable even in Comparison of that of the experiment made with Cocheneel , yet my conjectures inclin'd me much to preferr the way describ'd in the following Account . We carefully weigh'd out in a pair of tender Scales one grain of Copper not-calcin'd , but barely fil'd ; and because , as we made choice of this Metal for its yielding in most Menstruums a Blew , which is a deep and conspicuous colour ; we also chose to make a solution , not in Aqua fortis or Aqua regis , but the Spirit of Sal Armoniack ( as that is an urinous Spirit , ) having found by former tryals , that this Menstruum would give a far deeper solution than either of the others . This lovely Liquor , of which we us'd a good proportion , that all the Copper might be throughly dissolved , we put into a tall cylindrical Glass of about four inches in Diameter , and by degrees pour'd to it of distill'd Water , which is more proper in this case than common Water , which has oftentimes an inconvenient Saltishness , 'till we had almost fill'd the Glass , and saw the colour grow somewhat pale , without being too dilute to be manifest ; and then we warily pour'd this liquor into a conical Glass , that it might be the more easie to fill the vessel several times to the same height . This conical Glass we filled to a certain mark four times consecutively , weighing it , and the liquor too , as often in a pair of excellent Scales purposely made for Statical experiments , and which , though strong enough to weigh some pounds in each Scale , would , when not too much loaden , turn with about one grain . These several weights of the Glass , together with the contained liquor , we added together , and then carefully weighing the empty Glass again , we deducted four times its weight from the above-mentioned summ , and thereby found the weight of the liquor alone , to be that , which reduc'd to grains amounted to 28534 ; so that a grain of Copper , which is not full half so heavy in specie as fine Gold , communicated a Tincture to 28534 times its weight . But now if you please to take notice , that the scope of my Experiment was to shew , into what a number of parts one grain of Copper might be divided , you will allow me to consider , as I did , that this multitude of parts must be estimated by the Proportion , not so much in weight as in bulk , of the tinging Metal to the tinged Liquor , and consequently , since that divers Hydrostatical tryals have inform'd me , that the weight of Copper to the weight of Water of the same bulk is proximè as 9 to 1 , a grain-weight of Copper is in bigness but the ninth part of as much Water as weighs a grain ; and so the formerly mention'd number of the grains of Water must be multiplied by 9 , to give us the Proportion between the tinging and tinged Bodies , that is , that a single grain of Copper gave a blewness to above 256806 parts of limpid Water , each of them as big as it . Which , though it may seem stupendious , and scarce credible ; yet I thought fit to prosecute the Experiment somewhat farther , by pouring all the liquor out of the tall cylindrical Glass into another clean vessel , whence filling the conical Glass twice , and emptying it as often into the same cylindrical Glass , the third time I fill'd the conical Glass with colourless distill'd Water , and pouring that also into the cylindrical Glass , we found the mixt liquor to have yet a manifest , though but a pale , blewness . And , lastly , throwing away what was in the cylindrical Glass , we poured into it , out of the same conical Glass , equal parts of distill'd colourless Water , and of the tincted Liquor we had formerly set apart in the clean Vessel , and found , that , though the colour were very faint and dilute , yet an attentive Eye could easily discern it to be blewish ; and so it was judg'd by an intelligent Stranger that was brought in to look upon it , and was desir'd to discover of what colour he thought it to be . Whereby it appears , that one grain of Copper was able to impart a colour to above double the quantity of Water above mentioned . This Experiment I have allow'd my self to be the longer and more particular in relating , both because I know not , that any such has been hitherto either made or attempted , and because it will probably gratifie your Chymists , that love to have the Tinctures of Metals believ'd very diffusive ; and because , if Circumstances were not added , it would seem to you as well incredible , as perhaps it does seem stupendious , that a portion of matter should be able to impart a conspicuous colour to above 256806 times its bulk of Water , and a manifest tincture to above 385200 , ( for so it did , when the proportion of the ting'd part to the whole mixture , made of it and the unting'd part , was as 2 to 31 , ) and a faint , but yet discernible and distinguishable colour to above five hundred and thirteen thousand six hundred and twenty times its bulk of Water . CHAP. IV. IT were easie for me ( Pyroph . ) to give you several Instances , to shew , that the Effluvia of Liquors may get in at the Pores of Bodies that are reputed of a close Texture , but I shall at present forbear to mention such Examples , not only because they belong to another place * , where I take notice of them , but because many such would not seem so remarkable , nor be so considerable to our present purpose , as a few taken from Bodies that are not Fluid . And first , it is deliver'd by Writers of good credit , that several Persons , ( for the Experiment does not hold in all ) by barely holding for some time dryed Cantharides in their hands , have been put to much pain at the neck of the Bladder , and have had some other parts ministring to the secretion of Urine sensibly injured . That this is true , I am induced to believe , by what I have elsewhere related to you of the unwelcome experiment I had of the effect of Cantharides applied but outwardly to my neck , and that unknown to me , upon the Urinary Passages ; and that these Operations are due to material Effluxes , which , to get into the Mass of Blood , must pass through the pores of the skin , you will not , I presume , put me to prove . Scaliger Exercit. 186. relates , that in Gascony , his Countrey , there are Spiders of that virulency , that , if a man treads upon them to crush them , their poyson will pass through the very soles of his Shooes . Which story , notwithstanding the Reputation of the Author , I should perhaps have left unmention'd , because of a much stranger about Spiders , which he relates in the same Section , but that I met with one that is analogous in the diligent Piso's late History of Brasile ; where , having spoken of another venemous Fish of that Country , and the Antidotes he had successfully used to cure the hurts it inflicts , he proceeds to that Fish the Natives call Amoreatim , of one kind whereof , call'd by the Portugals Peize Sola , his words are these ; Quae mira sanè efficacia non solum manum vel levissimo attactu , sed & pedem , licet optimè calceatum , Piscatoris incautè pisciculum conterentis , Paralysi & Stupore afficit , instar Torpedinis Europaeae , sed minus durabili . Lib. 5. cap. 14. What I shall ere long have occasion to tell you of the power of the Torpedo , and some other Animals , to affect the Hand and Arm of him that strikes them , seems applicable to the matter under consideration : For , though their affecting the striker at a distance , may very well be ascrib'd to the stupefactive or other venemous Exhalations that expire ( and perhaps are as it were darted ) from the Animal irritated by the stroke , and are breath'd in together with the air they infect ; yet their benumming , or otherwise affecting the Arm that struck them , rather than any other part , seems to argue , that the poysonous steams get in at the pores of the skin of the Limb , and so stupifie , or otherwise injure , the nervous and musculous parts of it . Other Examples belonging to this Section may be referr'd hither from divers other places in these Papers about Occult Qualities , and therefore I shall only add here that most remarkable Proof , That some Emanations , even of solid Bodies , may be subtil enough to get through the pores , even of the closest Bodies ; which is afforded us by the Effluvia of the Loadstone , which are by Magnetical Writers said to penetrate without resistance all kind of Bodies . And though I have not tryed this in all sorts , yet having tryed it in Metals themselves , I am apt to think , the general Rule admits of very few Exceptions , especially , if that can be fully made out , which is affirm'd about the perviousness of Glass to the Effluxions of the Loadstone . For , not only Glass is generally reputed to be as close a Body as any is , but ( which weighs more with me ) I have by Tryals purposely made , had occasion to admire the closeness of very thin pieces of Glass . But the reason why I just now express'd my self with an If , was , because I was not entirely satisfied with the Proof wont to be acquiesc'd in , of the perviousness of Glass ; namely , that in Dials and Sea-Compasses that are cover'd with plates of Glass , the Needle may be readily moved to and fro by a Loadstone held over it . For these Plates being commonly but fasten'd on with Wax , or at best with Cement , a Sceptick may pretend , that the magnetical Effluvia pass not through the Glass , but through that much more pervious matter , that is imployed to secure the Commissures , only from the access of the Air. To put then the matter past doubt , I caused some Needles to be Hermetically seal'd up in Glass-pipes , which being laid upon the surface of water ( whereon by reason of the bigness of the Cavities they would lightly float , ) the included Needles did not only readily feel the virtue of an externally applied Loadstone , ( though but a weak one ) but complied with it so well , that I could easily , by the help of the Needle , lead , without touching it , the whole Pipe , this was shut up in , to what part of the surface of the water I pleased . And I also found , that by applying a better Loadstone to the upper part of a sealed Pipe , and a Needle in it , I could make the Needle leap up from the lower part as near to the Loadstone as the interposed Glass would give it leave . But I thought it would be more considerable , to manifest that the Magnetical Effluvia , even of such a dull Body , as the Globe of the Earth , would also penetrate Glass . And though this seem difficult to be tryed , because no ordinary Loadstone , nor any Iron touch'd by it , was to be imployed to work on the included Iron ; yet I thought fit to attempt it after this manner : I took a cylindrical piece of Iron of about the bigness of ones little finger , and between half a foot and foot long , ( for I had formerly observed , that the quantity of unexcited Iron furthers its Operation upon excited Needles , ) and having Hermetically seal'd it up in a Glass-pipe but very little longer than it ; I supposed , that if I held it in a perpendicular posture ; the Magnetical Effluvia of the Earth , penetrating the Glass , would make the lower extreme of the Iron answerable to the North Pole ; and therefore having applied this to the point of the Needle in a Dial , or Sea-Compass , that look'd toward the North , ( for Authors mean not all the same thing by the Northern Pole of a Needle or Loadstone , ) I presum'd it would , according to the Laws Magnetical ( elsewhere mention'd ) drive it away , which accordingly it did . And having for farther tryal inverted the included Iron , ( so that the end which was formerly the lowermost , was now the uppermost ) and held it in a perpendicular posture just under the same point of the Needle , that extreme of the Iron-rod , which before had driven away this point , being by this inversion become ( in a manner ) a South-Pole , did ( according to the same Laws ) attract it : By which sudden change of Poles , meerly upon the change of situation , it also appear'd , that the Iron ow'd its Virtue only to the Magnetism of the Earth , not that of another Loadstone , which would not have been thus easily alterable . And this Experiment I the more particularly relate , because this is not the only place , where I have occasion to make use of it . CHAP. V. ANother proof of the great Subtilty of Effluviums , may be taken from the small Decrement of weight or bulk that a Body may suffer by parting with great store of such Emanations . That Bodies , which infus'd in Liquors impregnate them with new Qualities suitable to those of the immers'd Bodies , do so by imparting to them somewhat of their own Substance , will , I presume , be readily granted by those that conceive not , how one Body should communicate to another a solitary and naked Quality , unaccompanied by any thing Corporeal to support and convey it . But I would not have you think , Pyrophilus , that the only matter of fact I have to countenance this notion , is that Experiment , which has convinc'd divers Chymists and Physicians , otherwise not friends to the Corpuscular Philosophy , that Medicines may operate without any consumption of themselves . For , though divers of these , some of them Learned men , have confidently written , that Glass of Antimony and Crocus Metallorum , being either of them infus'd in a great proportion of Wine , will make it vomitive ; and if that liquor be poured off , and new be poured on , every new portion of such liquor will be impregnated with the same virtue , and this though the liquor be chang'd a thousand times , and yet the Antimonial Glass or Crocus will continue the same as well in weight as virtue ; and though thence some of them , especially Chymists , argue , that some Metals without imparting any thing substantial , but only , as Helmont speaks of some of his Arcana , by irradiation : Yet , I confess , I have some doubts , whether the Experiment have been competently tryed , and shall not fully acquiesce in what has been said , till some skilful Experimenter deliver it upon his own Tryal , and acquaint us too , with what Instruments and what Circumspection he made it . For , besides that the Ingeniousest Physicians I have question'd about it , acknowledg'd the Tast , and sometimes the Colour of the Wine to be alter'd by the infus'd Mineral , I could not acquiesce in the affirmation of an ordinary Chymist or Apothecary , or even Physician , if he should barely averr , that he had weigh'd an Antimonial Medicine before 't was put to infuse , and after the infusion ended , and observ'd no decrement of weight . For I have had too much experience ( as I elsewhere mention ) of the difficulty of making exact Statical tryals ; not to know , that such Scales , as are wont to be imployed by Chymists and Apothecaries in weighing Drugs , are by no means fit to make tryals with the nicety which that I am speaking of requires : It being easie , even with the better sort of such unaccurate Scales , especially if they be not suspended from some fixt thing , but held with the hand , to mistake half a grain or a grain ; and perhaps a greater quantity , and at least more than by divers of the Experiments of this Essay appears necessary to be spent upon the impregnating of a considerable proportion of Liquor with Corporeal Effluxions . Besides , that if , when the beaten Crocus or Glass be taken out of the Wine to be weigh'd again , the Experimenter be not cautious enough to make allowance for the Liquor that will adhere to the Medicament , 't is plain that he may take notice of no decrement of weight , though there may be really Effluviums of the Mineral amounting to several grains , imbib'd by the Liquor . And though he be aware of this , and dry the powder , yet 't is not so easie , even for a skilful man , to be sure that none of the more viscous particles of the Liquor stick to the Mineral , and being sensible upon the Ballance , though not to the Eye or Hand , repair the recess of those emetick Corpuscles that diffus'd themselves into the Menstruum . And the sense of these difficulties put me upon the attempting to make so noble an Experiment with excellent Scales , and the care that it deserves : But after a long tryal , an unlucky accident frustrated at last my endeavours . But though , till competent Relators give us an account of this matter upon their own tryal , and repeat the Infusion very much oftener , than , for ought I find , any man has yet done , I must not acquiesce in all that is said of the Impregnation of Wine or other Liquors by Antimonial Glass and Crocus Metallorum ; yet that after divers repeated Infusions the Mineral substance should not be sensibly diminish'd in bulk or virtue , may well suffice to make this Instance , though not the only or chief that may be brought for our purpose , yet a pertinent one to it . For that there is a powerful Emetick Quality imparted to the Liquor , is manifest by experience ; and that the Mineral does not impart this virtue as 't were by irradiation , but by substantial effluxion , seems to me very probable ; not only because I conceive not , how this can be done otherwise , but because , as 't is noted above , the Wine does oftentimes change colour by being kept a competent time upon the Mineral , as if it drew thence a Tincture ; and even when it is not discolour'd , I think it unsafe to conclude , that the Menstruum has not wrought upon it . For I have kept good Spirit of Vinegar for a considerable time upon finely powder'd Glass of Antimony made per se , without finding the Spirit to be at all ting'd , though 't is known , that Antimonial Glass is soluble in Spirit of Vinegar , as mine afterwards appear'd to be , by a longer digestion in the same Liquor . But there may be a great number of minute particles dissolved in the Menstruum before they be numerous enough to change the Colour of it . And with this agrees very well what is observ'd , That though too great a quantity of the prepar'd Antimony be put into the liquor , yet it will not be thereby made too strongly Emetick . For the Wine , being a Menstruum , will , like other Menstruums , be impregnated but to a certain measure , without dissolving the overplus of the matter that is put into it . And Mars , which is a harder and heavier body than Glass of Antimony , is it self in part soluble in good Rhenish or other white Wine , ( and that in no long time , ) and sometimes even in Water . I do not therefore reject the Emetick Infusion , as unfit to have a place in this Chapter , but till the experiment have been a little more accurately made , I think it inferiour , as to our purpose , to some of the Instances to be met with in the next Chapter , and perhaps also to that mention'd by Helmont , and tryed by more than one of my Acquaintance , concerning the Virtue of killing Worms , that Mercury imparts to the water or wine wherein it has been long enough infus'd , or else for a while decocted . Though Quicksilver given in substance is commended as an effectual Medicine against Worms , not only by many profest * Spagyrists , but by divers ** Methodists of good Note . And though , some other things , Chymical and Philosophical , keep me from being of their opinion , who think that in this case the Mercury impregnates the liquor as it were by Irradiation , rather than in a Corporeal manner , yet the Eye does not perceive , that even limpid water takes any thing from clean and well purg'd Mercury , which we know that divers corrosive liquors themselves will not work upon . To this Instance I must add one that is yet freer from exceptions , which is , that having for Curiosity sake suspended in a pair of exact Scales , that would turn with a very small part of a grain , a piece of Amber-greece bigger than a Walnut , and weighing betwixt an hundred and six-score grains , I could not in three days and a half that I had opportunity to make the tryal , discover , even upon that Ballance , any decrement of weight in the Amber-greece ; though so rich a perfume , lying in the open Air , was like in that time to have parted with good store of odoriferous Steams . And a while after suspending a Lump of Assa foetida five days and a half , I found it not to have sustain'd any discernible loss of weight , though , in spite of the unfavourable cold weather , it had about it a neighbouring Atmosphere replenish'd with foetid exhalations . And when twelve or fourteen hours after , perhaps upon some change of weather , I came to look upon it , though I found that in that time the Aequilibrium was somewhat alter'd , yet the whole Lump had not lost half a quarter of a grain ; which induc'd me to think , that there may perhaps be Steams discernible even by our Nostrils , that are far more subtil than the odorous exhalations of Spices themselves . For , having in very good Scales suspended in the Month of March an ounce of Nutmegs , it lost in about six days five grains and a half . And an ounce of Cloves in the same time lost seven grains and five eigths . You will perhaps wonder , why I do not preferr to the Instances I make mention of in this Chapter , that which may be afforded by the Loadstone , that is acknowledg'd continually to emit multitudes of Magnetical Steams without decrement of weight . But though I have not thought fit to pass this wholly under silence ; yet I forbear to lay so much stress on it , not only because my Ballances have not yet satisfied me about the Effluvia of Loadstones , ( for I take them not all to be equally diffusive of their Particles ; ) but because I foresee it may be doubted , whether Loadstones , like odorous Bodies , do furnish afresh of their own , all the Corpuscles ▪ that from time to time issue from them ? Or , whether they be not continually repaired , partly by the return of the Magnetical Particles to one Pole that sallied out of the other ; and partly by the continued passage of Magnetical matter ( supplied by the Earth or other Mundane Bodies ) it make the Pores or Channels of the Loadstone their constant Thorow-fares . I doubt not but it will make it more probable , that a small Quantity of matter being scatter'd into invisible Effluvia may be exceedingly rarified and expanded , if it can be made appear , that this little portion of matter shall , for a considerable time , emit multitudes of visible parts , and that in so close an order among themselves , as to seem in their Aggregate but one intire liquor , endow'd with a stream-like motion , and a distinct superficies , wherein no interruption is to be seen , even by an Eye plac'd near it . To devise this Experiment , I was induc'd , by considering , that hitherto all the ( total ) dissolutions that have been made of Pigments , have been in liquors naturally cold , and consisting probably of much less subtile , and certainly of much less agitated parts , than that fluid aggregate of shining matter that we call Flame ; whereas I argued , that if one could totally dissolve a Body compos'd of parts so minute as those of a Metal into actual Flame , and husband its Flame so , as that it should not immoderatly waste , I should thereby dissolve the Metal in a far more subtil Menstruum than our common water , or Aqua fortis , or Aqua Regis , or any other known Menstruum I have yet imployed . And consequently the attenuation and expansion of the Metal in this truly Igneous Menstruum would much surpass not only what happens in ordinary Metalline solutions , but possibly also what I have noted in the third Chapter of this Essay , about the strange diffusion of Copper dissolv'd in Spirit of Urine and Water . In prosecution of this design , I so prepar'd one single grain of that Metal , by a way that I elsewhere teach , that it was dissolv'd in about a spoonful of an appropriated Menstruum . And then having caus'd a small Glass-lamp to be purposely blown to contain this liquor , and fitted it with a socket and wieck , we lighted the Lamp , which , without consuming the wieck , burnt with a flame large enough and very hot , and seem'd to be all the while of a greenish blew , as if it were a but finer and shining solution of Copper . And yet this one grain of prepar'd Metal ting'd the flame that was from moment to moment produc'd , during no less than half an hour and six minutes . And now if we consider , that in this flame there was an uninterrupted Succession of multitudes of colour'd Particles newly extricated , and flying off in every of those many parts wherein a minute of time may either actually or mentally be divided ; and , if we consider Flame as a light and very agitated body , passing with a stream upwards through the Air , and if we also consider the quantity of liquor that would ( as I shall by and by tell you ) run through a Pipe of a much lesser diameter than that Flame , within the compass of the forementioned time : What a quantity of the streaming fluid we call Flame , if it could have been preserv'd and collected into one Body , may we suppose would appear to have issued out of one grain of Copper in the space of thirty-six minutes ; and what a multitude of metalline Corpuscles may we suppose to have been supplied for the tinging of that Flame during so long a time ? since a Cylindrical stream of water falling but through a very short Pipe of glass , constantly supplied with liquors , did pass at such a rate , that , though the aqueous Cylinder seem'd more slender by half , ( or perhaps by two thirds or better ) than the Flame , yet we estimated , by the help of a Minute-watch and a good pair of Scales , that , if I had had conveniencies to let it run long enough , the water efflux'd in thirty-six minutes ( the time of the Flames duration ) would have amounted to above nine gallons , or , ( reckoning a pint of water to contain a pound of sixteen ounces ) seventy-two pounds . CHAP. VI. THE last sort of Instances I shall propose to shew the strange Subtilty of Effluvia , is of such , as discover the great quantity of space that may by a small quantity of matter , when rarified or dispers'd , be either fill'd as to sense , or , at least , made ( as they speak ) the sphear of its activity . To manifest this Truth , and thereby as well confirm the foregoing Chapter , as make out what is design'd in this , I shall endeavour to shew , and help your imagination to conceive , how great a space may be impregnated with the Effluxions of a Body , oftentimes without any sensible , and oftener without any considerable decrement in bulk or weight of the Body that affords them . And in order to this , though I shall not pretend to determine precisely how little the substances , I am to instance in , would waste upon the Ballance , because you will very easily see they are not that way to be examin'd ; yet I presume , you will as easily grant , that the decrement of weight would be but inconsiderable , since of such light substances the loss even of bulk is so ; which last clause I shall now attempt to make good , by setting down some Observations , partly borrow'd from the writings of approv'd Physicians , and partly that my friends and I have made about the durable Evaporation of such small particles of the Effluxions of Animals , as are actually not to be discern'd by the Eye to have any of those things sticking to them , which are so very long in flying successively away . 'T is wont to be somewhat surprizing to men of Letters , when they first go a hawking with good Spaniels , to observe , with how great sagacity those dogs will take notice of , and distinguish by the scent , the places where Partridges , Quails , &c. have lately been . But I have much more wonder'd at the quick scent of an excellent Setting-dog , who by his way of ranging the fields , and his other motions , especially of his Head , would not only intimate to us the kinds of game , whose scent he chanc'd to light on , but would discover to us where Partridges had been ( though perhaps without staying in that place ) several hours before , and assist us to guess how long they had been gone before we came . I have had strange answers given me in Ireland , by those who make a gain if not an intire livelihood by killing of Wolves in that Countrey , ( where they are paid so much for every head they bring in ) about the sagacity of that peculiar race of dogs they imploy in hunting them ; but not trusting much to those Relators , I shall add , that a very sober and discreet Gentleman of my acquaintance , who has often occasion to imploy Blood-hounds , assures me , that if a man have but pass'd over a field , the scent will lye ( as they speak ) so as to be perceptible enough to a good dog of that sort for several hours after . And an ingenious Hunter assures me , that he has observ'd , that the scent of a flying and heated Deer will sometimes continue upon the ground from one day to the next following . And now we may consider these three things ; First , That the substance left upon the grass or ground by the transient tread of a Partridge , Hare , or other animal , that does but pass along his way , does probably communicate to the grass or ground but some of those Effluxions , that transpire out of his feet , which being small enough to escape the discernment of the Eye , may probably not amount to one grain in weight , or perhaps not to the tenth part of it . Next , That the parts of fluid Bodies , as such , are perpetually in motion , and so are the invisible particles that swim in them , as may appear by the dissolution of Salt or Sugar in water , and the wandering of aqueous Vapours through the Air , even when the Eye perceives them not . And thirdly , That though the Atmosphere of one of these small parcels of the exhaling matter we are speaking of , may oftentimes be exceeding vast in comparison of the emittent Body , as may be guess'd by the distance , at which some Setters , or Blood-hounds , will find the scent of a Partridge , or Deer ; yet in places expos'd to the free air or wind , 't is very likely that these steams are assiduously carried away from their Fountain , to maintain the fore-mention'd Atmosphere for six , eight , or more hours , that is , as long as the scent has been observ'd to lye , there will be requisite a continual recruit of steams succeeding one another And that so very small a portion of matter as that which we were saying the fomes of these steams may be judg'd to be , being sensibly to impregnate an Atmosphere incomparably greater than it self , and supply it with almost continual recruits , we cannot but think , that the steams it parts with , must be of an extreme and scarce conceivable minuteness . And we may further consider , that the substances , which emit these steams , being such as newly belong'd to Animals , and were , for the most part , transpir'd through the pores of their feet , must be in likelihood a far more evaporable and dissipable kind of Bodies than Minerals or adust Vegetables , such as Gunpowder is made of ; so that if the grains of Gunpowder emit Effluviums capable of being by some Animals perceiv'd at a distance by their smell , one may probably suppose , that the small grains of this powder may hold out very many times longer to supply an Atmosphere with odorable steams , than the Corpuscles left on the ground by transient Animals . Now though it be generally agree'd on , that very few Birds have any thing near so quick a sense of smelling as Setting-dogs or Blood-hounds , yet that the odour of Gunpowder , especially when assisted by the steams of the Caput mortuum of Powder formerly fir'd in the same Gun , may be Fowls be smelt at a notable distance , particularly when the wind blew from me towards them , I often perswaded my self I observ'd , especially as to Crows , when I went a shooting ; and was confirm'd in that opinion , both by the common Tradition , and by sober and ingenious persons much exercis'd in the killing of Wild-fowl , and of some fourfooted Beasts . I had forgotten to take notice of one Observation of the experienc'd Julius Palmarius : Whence we may learn , that Beasts may leave upon the Vegetables , that have touch'd their bodies for any time , such Corpuscles , as , though unheeded by other Animals , may , when eaten by them , produce in them such diseases as the infected Animals had . For this Author writes in his useful Tract de morbis Contagiosis , that he observ'd Horses , Beeves , Sheep and other Animals , to run mad upon the eating of some of the straw on which some mad Swine had layn . And now to resume and prosecute our former discourse , you may take notice , that the Effluvia , mention'd to have been smelt by Animals , are , though invisible , yet big enough to be the objects of sense ; so that 't is not improbable , that , among the steams that no sense can immediately perceive , there should be some far more subtil than these , and consequently capable of furnishing an Atmosphere much longer , without quite exhausting the effluviating matter that afforded them . * Forestus , an useful Author , recites an Example of Pestilential contagion long preserv'd in a Cobweb . Alexander Benedictus writes also , that at Venice a Flock-bed did for many years harbour a pestiferous malignity to that degree , that when afterwards it came to be beaten , it presently infected the by-standers with the Plague . And the Learned * Sennertus himself relates , that in the year 1542. there did in the City of Uratislavia ( vulgarly Breslaw , ) where he afterwards practised Physick , dye of the Plague , in less than six Months , little less than six thousand men , and that from that time the Pestilential Contagion was kept folded up in a linnen cloth about fourteen years , and at the end of that time being display'd in another City , it began a Plague there , which infected also the neighbouring Towns and other places . * Trincavella makes mention of a yet lastinger Contagion , ( which occasion'd the death of ten thousand persons ) that lay lurking in certain Ropes , with which at Justinopolis those that dy'd of the Plague had been let down into their Graves . But , though none of these Relations should to some Criticks appear scarce credible , it may be objected , that all these things , wherein this Contagion resided , were kept close shut up , or at least were not expos'd to the Air. Wherefore having only intimated , that the exception , which I think is not irrational , would , though never so true , but lessen the wonder of these strange Relations , without rendering them unfit for our present purpose , I shall add , that though 't is the opinion of divers Learned Physicians , that the matter harboring Contagion cannot last above Twenty or a few more days , if the Body it adheres to be expos'd to the free air and the wind , and though I am not forward to deny , that their judgement may hold in ordinary cases ; yet I must not deny neither , that a Contagion may sometimes happen to be much more tenacious and obstinate : Of which I shall give but that one , almost recent instance observ'd by the Learned * Dimmerbrook in his own Apothecary , who having but remov'd with his foot , from one side to the other of a little Arbour ( in his Garden ) some straw , that had layn under the Pallet , on which near eight Months before a Bed had layn , wherein a Servant of the Apothecaries , that recover'd , had been sick of the Plague ; the infectious steams presently invaded the lower part of his leg , and produc'd a pungent pain and blister , which turn'd to a pestilential Carbuncle , that could scarce be cur'd in a Fortnight after , though during that time the Patient were neither feaverish , nor , as to the rest of his Body , ill at ease . This memorable instance , together with some others of the like kind , that our Author observed in the same City ( of Nimmegen ) obtain'd , not to say , extorted , even from him , this Confession ; which I add , because it contains some considerable , and not yet mentioned Circumstances of the recited case : Hoc exemplo Medicorum Doctrina de Contagio in fomite latente satis confirmatur . Mirum tamen est , hoc Contagium tanto tempore in praedicto stramine potuisse subsistere , utpote quod tota hyeme ventis & pluviis , ( he adds in another place ) nivibus & frigori , expositum fuisset . And now I will shut up this Chapter with an instance , that some will think , perhaps , no less strange than any of the rest , which is , that though they that are skilful in the perfuming of Gloves , are wont to imbue them with but an inconsiderable quantity of odoriferous matter , yet I have by me a pair of Spanish Gloves , which I had by the favour of your fair and virtuous Sister ( F. ) that were so skilfully perfum'd , that partly by her , partly by those , that presented them her as a Rarity , and partly by me , who have kept them several Years , they have been kept about eight or nine and twenty years , if not thirty , and they are so well scented , that they may , for ought I know , continue fragrant divers years longer . Which instance , if you please to reflect upon , and consider , that such Gloves cannot have been carried from one place to another , or so much as uncover'd ( as they must often have been ) in the free Air , without diffusing from themselves a fragrant Atmosphere , we cannot but conclude those odorous Steams to be unimaginably subtile , that could for so long a time issue out in such swarms , from a little perfum'd matter lodged in the pores of a Glove , and yet leave it richly stock'd with particles of the same nature ; though , ( especially by reason of some removes , in which I took not the Gloves along with me , ) I forgot ever since I had them , to keep them so much as shut up in a Box. Of the GREAT EFFICACY OF EFFLUVIUMS : BY The Honorable ROBERT BOYLE . OF THE GREAT EFFICACY OF EFFLVVIVMS . CHAP. I. THey that are wont in the Estimates they make of Natural Things , to trust too much to the negative informations of their Senses , without sufficiently consulting their Reason , have commonly but a very little and slight opinion of the Power and Efficacy of Effluviums ; and imagine that such minute Corpuscles ( if they grant that there are such , ) as are not , for the most part of them , capable to work upon the tenderest and quickest of Senses , the Sight , cannot have any considerable Operation upon other Bodies . But I take this to be an error , which , as it very little becomes Philosophers , so it has done no little prejudice to Philosophy it self , and perhaps to Physick too . And therefore though the nature of my design at present did not require it , yet the importance of the subject would invite me to shew , That this is as ill-gounded as prejudicial a Supposition . And indeed if we Consider the subject attentively , we may observe , That though it be true , that , caeteris paribus , the greatness of Bodies doth , in most cases , contribute to that of their Operation upon others , yet Matter or Body being in its own precise nature an unactive or moveless Subject , one part of the Mass acts upon another but upon the account of its Local Motion , whose Operations are facilitated and otherwise diversified by the Shape , Size , Situation and Texture both of the Agent and of the Patient . And therefore if Corpuseles , though very minute , be numerous enough , and have a competent degree of motion , even these small Particles , especially if fitly shap'd , when they chance to meet with a Body , which the congruity of its texture disposes to admit them at its Pores , and receive their either friendly or hostile impressions , may perform such things in the patient , as visible and much grosser Bodies , but less conveniently shap'd and mov'd , would be utterly unable ( on the same Body ) to effect . And that you may with the less difficulty allow me to say , that the Effluviums of Bodies , as minute as they are , may perform Considerable things , give me leave to observe to you , that there are at least six ways , by which the Effluviums of a Body may notably operate upon another ; namely , 1. By the great number of emitted Corpuscles . 2. By their penetrating and pervading nature . 3. By their celerity , and other Modifications of their Motion . 4. By the congruity and incongruity of their Bulk and Shape to the Pores of the Bodies they are to act upon . 5. By the motions of one part upon another , that they excite or occasion in the Body they work upon according to its Structure . And 6ly , By the Fitness and Power they have to make themselves be assisted , in their Working , by the more Catholick Agents of the Universe . And though it may perhaps be sufficiently proved , that there are several cases wherein a Body that emits Particles , may act notably upon another Body by this or that single way of those I have been naming ; yet usually the great matters are performed by the association of two , three or more of them , concurring to produce the same Effect . Upon which score when I shall in the following Paper referr an Instance or a Phenomenon to any one of the forementioned Heads , I desire to be understood as looking upon that but as the Head , to which it chiefly relates , without excluding the rest . CHAP. II. TAking those things for granted , that have , I hope , been sufficiently proved in the former Tract about the subtlety of Effluviums , I suppose it will readily be allowed , That the Emanations of a Body may be extremely minute ; whence it may be rightly inferr'd , that a small portion of matter may emit great multitudes of them . Now that the great number of Agents may in many cases compensate their littleness , especially where they Act or Resist per modum unius , ( as they speak , ) men would perhaps the more easily grant , if they took notice to this purpose of some familiar Instances . We see that not only lesser Land-floods that overflow the neighbouring Fields , but those terrible Inundations that sometimes drown whole Countreys , are made by Bodies singly so so small and inconsiderable as Drops of Rain when they continue to fall in those multitudes we call Showers . So the aggregates of such minute Bodies as grains of Sand being heaped together in sufficient Numbers , make Banks wherewith greatest Ships are sometimes split , nay and serve in most places for Bounds to the Sea it self . And though a single Corn of Gunpowder , or two or three together , are not of Force to do much mischief , yet two or three Barrels of those Corns taking Fire all together are able to blow up Ships and Houses , and perform prodigious things . But instead of multiplying such Instances , afforded by Bodies of small indeed but yet visible Bulk , I shall ( as soon as I have intimated , that the above-mentioned drops of Rain themselves consist of convening Multitudes of Vapors most commonly Invisible in their Ascent , ) endeavour to make out what was proposed , by two or three Instances drawn from the Operations of Invisible particles . And first , we see , that though Aqueous Vapours be look'd upon as the faintest and least active Effluviums that we know of , yet when multitudes of them are in Rainy weather dispersed thorow the Air , and are thereby qualified to work on the Bodies exposed to it , their Operations are very considerable , not only in the dissolution of Salts , as Sea-Salt , Salt of Tartar , &c. and in the putrefactive changes they produce in many Bodies , but in the intumescence they cause in Oak and other solid Woods ; as appears by the difficulty we often find in and before Rainy weather , to shut and open Doors , Boxes , and other Wooden pieces of work , that were before fit enough for the Cavities they had been adjusted to . I might here urge , that though the strings of Viols and other Musical Instruments are sometimes strong enough to sustain considerable weights , yet if they be left screwed to their full tension , ( as it frequently happens ) they are oftentimes by the supervening of moist weather made to break , not without impetuosity and noise . But it may sute better with my present aim , if I mention on this occasion , ( what I elsewhere more fully take notice of : ) Being desirous to try what a multitude even of Aqueous Steams may do , I caused a Rope that was long , but not thick , and was in part sustained by a Pully , to have a Weight of Lead so fastned to the end of it , as not to touch the ground , and after the Weight had leisure allowed it to stretch the Cord as far as it could , I observed that in the moist weather the waterish particles , that did invisibly abound in the Air , did so much work upon and shorten the Rope , as to make it lift up the hanging Weight , which was , if I mis-remember not , about an hundred Pounds . The invisible Steams , issuing out of the Walls of a newly plaster'd or whited Room , are not sensibly prejudicial to those that do but transiently visit it , or make but a very short stay in it , though there be a Charcoal-fire in the Chimney ; but we have many instances of persons , that by lying for a night in such Rooms , have been the next morning or sooner found dead in their Beds , being suffocated by the multitude of the noxious Vapours emitted during all that time . And here I think it proper to observe , That it may much assist us to take notice of the multitude of Effluvia , and make us expect great matters from them , to consider , that they are not emitted from the Body that affords them all at once , as Hail-shot out of a Gun , but issue from it as the Vaporous Winds do out of an Aeolipil well heated , or Waters out of a Spring-head in continued Streams , wherein fresh parts still succeed one another ; so that though as many Effluxions of a Body as can be sent out at one time were numerous enough to Act but upon its Superficial parts , yet the Emanation of the next minute may get in a little farther , and each smallest portion of time supplying fresh Recruits , and perhaps urging on the Steams already entred , the Particles may at length get into a multitude of the pores of the invaded Body , and penetrate it to the very innermost parts . CHAP. III. I Come now to shew in the second place , That the subtile and penetrating nature of Effluviums , may in many cases cooperate with their multitude in producing notable effects ; and that there are Effluviums of a very piercing nature , though we shall not now enquire upon what account they are so , we may evince by several Examples . For not only the invisible Steams of good Aqua Fortis and Spirit of Nitre do usually in a short time , and in the cold , so penetrate the corks wherewith the Glasses that contained them were stop'd , as to reduce them into a yellow pap ; but also the emanations of Mercury have been sometimes found in the form of coagulated , or even of running Mercury in the heads or very bones of those Gilders , or Venereal Patients , that have too long or too unadvisedly been exposed to the fumes of it , though they never took Quicksilver in its gross substance . Chymists too often find in their Laboratories , that the steams of Sulphur , Antimony , Arsnick , and divers other Minerals , are able to make those stagger , or perhaps strike them down , that without a competent wariness unlute the Vessels wherein they had been distilled or sublimed ; of which I have known divers sad Examples . And of the Penetrancy even of animal Steams we may easily be perswaded , if we consider , how soon in many Plagues the contagious , though invisible , Exhalations are able to reach the Heart , or infect other internal parts ; though in divers of these cases the Blood helps to convey the infection , yet still the Morbifick particles must get into the body before they can infect the mass of Blood. And in those stupefactions that are caused at a distance by the Terpedo , the parts mainly affected seem to be the Nervous ones of the Hand and Arm , which are of the most retired and best fenced parts of those members . And there is a Spirit of Sal Armoniack , that I make to smell to , whose invisible Steams , unexcited by heat , are of so piercing a nature , that not only they will powerfully affect the Eyes and Nostrils , and Throats , and sometimes the Stomachs too ( yet without proving Vomitive , ) of the Patients they invade , but also when a great cold has so clog'd the organs of smelling , that neither sweet nor stinking odours would at all affect them , these piercing Steams have not only in a few minutes both made themselves a way , and which is more , so open'd the passages , that soon after the Patient has been able to smell other things also . And by the same penetrating Spirit , a person of Quality was , some time since , restored to a power of smelling , which he had lost for divers Years , ( if he ever had it equally with other men . ) I could easily subjoyn Examples of this kind , but they belong to other places . And here I shall only add , that the steams of Water it self assisted by warmth , are capable of dissolving the Texture of even hard and solid bodies , that are not suspected to be Saline ; as appears by the Philosophical calcination ( as Chymists call it ) wherein solid pieces of Harts-horn are brought to be easily friable into pouder , by being hung over waters , whil'st their steams rise in distillation and without the help of Furnaces . The Exhalations , that usually swim every night in the air , and almost every night fall to the ground in the form of Dews ( which makes them be judged Aqueous , ) are in many places of the Torrid Zone of so penetrating a nature , that , as Eye-witnesses have informed me , they would in a very short time make Knives rust in their sheaths , and Swords in their scabbards , nay and Watches in their cases , if they did not constantly carry them in their pockets . And I have known even in England divers hard bodies , into which the Vapours swimming in the air have insinuated themselves , so far as to make them friable throughout . But of the penetration of Effluviums , I have given , in several places , so many instances , that 't is not necessary to add any here . And therefore to shew , that , as I intimated at the beginning of this Chapter , the Penetrancy and the multitude of Effluviums may much assist each other , I shall now subjoyn ; That we must not for the most part look upon Effluviums as swarms of Corpuscles , that only beat against the outsides of the Bodies they invade , but as Corpuscles , which by reason of their great and frequently recruited numbers , and by the Extreme smallness of their Parts , insinuate themselves in multitudes into the minute pores of the bodies they invade , and often penetrate to the innermost of them ; so that , though each single Corpuscle , and its distinct action , be inconsiderable , in respect of the multitude of parts that compose the body to be wrought on ; yet a vast multitude of these little Agents working together upon a correspondent number of the small parts of the body they pervade , they may well be able to have powerful effects upon the Body , that those parts constitute ; as , in the case mentioned in the former Chapter , the Rope would not probably have been enabled to raise so great a weight , though a vehement Wind had blown against it , to make it lose its perpendicular straightness , but a vast multitude of Watery Particles , getting by degrees into the pores of the Rope , might , like an innumerable company of little wedges , so widen the pores as to make the thrids or splinters of Hemp , the Rope was made up of , swell , and that so forcibly , that the depending weight could not hinder the shortning of the Rope , and therefore must of necessity be rais'd thereby . And I have more than once known solid and even heavy Mineral Bodies , burst in pieces by the moisture of the Air , though we kept them within-doors carefully shelter'd from the Rain . CHAP. IV. THat the Celerity of the motion of very minute Bodies , especially conjoyned to their multitudes , may perform very notable things , may be argued from the wonderful effects of fired Gunpowder , Aurum fulminans , of Flames that invisibly touch the Bodies they work on , and also Whirlwinds , and those streams of invisible Exhalations and other aerial Particles we call Winds . But because instances of this sort suit not so well with the main scope of this Tract , I shall not insist on them , but subjoyn some others , which , though less notable in themselves , will be more congruous to my present Design . That the Corpuscles whereof Odours consist , swim to and fro in the Air , as in a fluid Vehicle , will by most , I presume , be granted , and may be easily prov'd . But I have elsewhere shewn , That the motion of the Effluviums of some sufficiently odorous Bodies , has too little Celerity to make a sensible impression on the organs of smelling , unless those Steams be assisted to beat more forcibly upon the Nostrils by the Air , which hurries them along with it , when it enters the Nostrils in the form of a stream , in the act of Inspiration . And I have by familiar observation of Hunters , Fowlers , and partly of my own made manifest , that Setting-dogs , Hounds , Crows and some other animals , will be much more affected with sents , or the odorous Effluvia of Partridges , Hares , Gunpowder , &c. when the Wind blows from the object towards the sensory , than when it sits the contrary way , which way soever the Nostrils of the animal be obverted , so the Air be imbued with the odorous Steams : And consequently the difference seems to proceed from this , that when the Nostrils are obverted to the Wind , the Current of the Air drives the Steams forcibly upon the Sensory , which otherwise it does not . That there is a briskness of motion requisite , and more than ordinarily conducive to Electrical attractions , may be argued from the necessity that we usually find by rubbing Amber , Jett , and other Electrical bodies , to make them emit those Steams , by which 't is highly probable their action is performed : And though I have elsewhere shewn , that this precedent rubbing is not alwayes necessary to excite all Electrical bodies ; yet in those that I made to attract without it , it would operate much more vigorously after attrition ; which I conconceive makes a reciprocal motion amongst the more stable parts , and does thereby as 't were discharge and shoot out the attracting Corpuscles ; whose real emission , though it may be probably argued from what has been already said , seems more strongly proveable by an Observation that I made many years ago , and which I have been lately inform'd to have been long since made by the very Learned Fabri . The Observation was this ; That if , when we took a vigorously excited Electrick , we did at a certain nick of time ( which circumstances may much vary , but was usually almost as soon as the body was well rubbed ) place it at a just distance from a suspended Hair or other light body , or perhaps from some light powder ; the Hair , &c. would not be attracted to the Electrick , but driven away from it , as it seem'd , by the briskly moving steams that issue out of the Amber or other light body . This Argument I could confirm by another Phaenomenon or two of affinity with this , if I should not borrow too much of what I have elsewhere noted about the History of Electricity . I know a certain substance , which though made by distillation , does in the cold emit but a very mild and inoffensive smell , but when the vessel that holds it is heated , though no separation of constituent Principles appear to be thereby made , ( the Body being in all usual tryals homogeneous , ) the Effluviums will be so altered , that I remember a Virtuoso , that , to satisfie his curiosity ▪ would needs be smelling to it , when 't was heated , complain'd to me , that he thought the Steams would have killed him , and that the Effluviums of Spirit of Sal Armoniack it self were nothing near so strong and piercing as those . And even among solid Bodies , I know some , which , though abounding much in a substance wherein some rank smells principally reside , yet ( if they were not chafed ) were scarce at all sensibly odorous ; but upon the rubbing of them a little one against the other , the attrition making them , as it were , dart out their Emissions , would in a minute or two make them stink egregiously . And as the Celerity of motion may thus give a vigor to the Emanations of Bodies , so there may be other modifications of motion , that may contribute to the same thing , and are not to be wholly neglected in this place . For as we see , that greater Bodies do operate differingly according to such and such modifications ; as there is a great difference between the effects of a Dart or Javelin , so thrown as that its point be alwayes forwards , and the same weapon if it be so thrown , that during its progressive motion the extremes turn about the Center of gravity or some inward parts , as it happens when Boyes throw sticks to beat down fruit from the tops of trees ; so there is little doubt to be made , but that in Corpuscles themselves 't is not all one , as to their effects , whether they move with or without rotation , and whether in such or such a line , and whether with or without undulation , trembling or such a kind of consecution ; and in short , whether the motion have or have not this or that particular modification ; which how much it may diversifie the Effects of the Bodies moved , may appear by the Motion , that the Aerial particles are put into by Musical Instruments . For , though the effects of harmony , discord and peculiar sounds be sometimes very great , not only in Human bodies , but , as we shall shew in the following Tract , in Organical ones too ; the whole efficacy of Musick and of Sounds that are not extraordinarily loud and different , seems , as far as 't is ascribable to Sonorous bodies , to depend upon the different manners of motion whereinto that Air is put , that makes the immediate impression on our organs of hearing . CHAP. V. I Should now proceed to shew , how the Celerity and other modes , that diversifie the motion of Effluviums , may be assisted to make them operative by their determinate sizes and figures , and the congruity or incongruity which they may have upon that score with the Pores of the grosser Bodies they are to work on : But I think it not fit to entrench upon the subject of another * Tract , where the relation between the figures of Corpuscles and the Pores of grosser bodies is amply enough treated of . And therefore I shall only in this place take notice of those effects of Lightning , which seem referable , partly to the Celerity and manner of Appulse , and partly to the distinct sizes and shapes of the Corpuscles that compose the destructive matter , and to the peculiar relation between the particles of that matter and the structure of the bodies they invade . I know that many strange things that are delivered about the Effects of what the Latins call Fulmen ( which our English word Lightning does not adaequately render ) are but fabulous ; but there are but too many that are not so ; some of which I have been an Eye-witness of , within less than a quarter of an hour after that the things happened . And though it be very difficult to explicate particularly many of these true Phenomena , yet it seems warrantable enough to argue from them , that there may be Agents so qualified , and so swiftly moved , that notwithstanding their being so exceedingly minute , as they must be , to make up a flame , which is a fluid Body , they must in an imperceptible time pervade solid Bodies , and traversing some of them without violating their Texture , burn , break , melt , and produce other very great changes in other Bodies that are fitted to be wrought on by them . And of this I must not forget to mention this remarkable instance ; That a person Curious enough to collect many rarities , bringing me one day into the Study where he kept the choicest of them , I saw there among other things a fine pair of Drinking-glasses that were somewhat slender , but extraordinarily tall ; they seem'd to have been designed to resemble one another , and made for some drinking entertainment . But before I saw them , that resemblance was much lessen'd by the Lightning , that fell between them in so strange a manner , that , without breaking either of them , that I could perceive , it alter'd a little the figure of one of them , near the lower part of the Cavity ; but the other was so bent near the same place as to make it stand quite awry , and give it a posture , that I beheld not without some amazement . And I cannot yet but look upon it as a very strange thing , and no less considerable to our present purpose , that Nature should in the free Air make of Exhalations , and that such as probably when they ascended were invisible , such an aggregate of Corpuscles , as should without breaking such frail Bodies as Glasses , be able in its passage thorow them , that is , in the twinkling of an Eye , to melt them ; which to do is wont even in our Reverberatory Furnaces to cost that active flames a pretty deal of time . And this calls into my memory , that upon a time , hearing not far off from me such a clap of Thunder as made me judge and say , that questionless some of the neighbouring places were thunder-strook , I sent presently to make inquiry ; which having justified my conjecture , I forthwith repaired to the house , where the mischief was done , by something , which those , that pretended to have seen it coming thither , affirm'd to be like a flame moved very obliquely . To omit the hurt , that seemed to have been done by a Wind that accompanied it , or was perhaps produced by it , to divers persons and cattel ; that which makes me here mention it , was , that observing narrowly what had happen'd in an upper room , where it first fell , I saw , that it had in more than one place melted the Lead in its passage , ( though that possibly outlasted not the twinkling of an Eye , ) without breaking to pieces the glass-casements , or burning ( that I took notice of ) either the Bed or Hangings or any other combustible houshold-stuff ; though near the window it had thrown down a good quantity of the solid substance of the Wall , through which it seem'd to have made its passage in or out . And that , which made me the less scruple to mention this accident , is , that having curiously pry'd into the Effects of the Fulmen , not only in that little upper room , but in other parts of the House , beneath whose lowermost parts it seem'd to have ended its extravagant course , I could not but conclude , That if so be it were the same Fulmen , it must have more than once gone in and out of the House , and that the line of its motion was neither straight , nor yet reducible to any curve or mixed line , that I had met with among Mathematicians ; but that , as I then told some of my Friends , it moved to and fro in an extravagant manner , not unlike the irregular and wrigling motion of those fired Squibs that Boys are wont to make by ramming Gunpowder into Quills . But about Thunder more perhaps elsewhere . I shall here only add , That whereas 't is a known Tradition , which my own Observations heedfully made seem now and then to confirm , that vehement Thunder , if Beer be not very strong , will usually ( for I do not say alwayes ) sowre it in a day or two ; if this degeneration be not one of the consequences of the great and peculiar kinds of the concussions of the Air that happens in lowd Thunder ( in which case the Phenomenon will belong to the next Discourse , ) the effect may probably be imputed to some subtile Exhalations diffused thorow the Air , which , penetrating the pores of the Wooden vessels , whose contexture is not very close , imbue the liquor with a kind of acetous Ferment ; which conjecture I should think much confirmed by a tryal , it suggested to me , if I had made it often enough to rely upon it . For considering that the pores of Glass are straight enough to be impervious ( for ought I have yet observed ) to the Steams or spirituous parts of Sulphur as well as to other odorous Exhalations , I thought it worth trying , whether there be any sulphureous Steams or other Corpuscles diffused thorow the Air in time of Thunder , that would not be too gross to get in at such minute pores as those of Glass . And accordingly having Hermetically sealed up both Beer and Ale apart , I kept them in Summer time till there happen'd a great Thunder , a day or two , after which the Beer which we drank , that was good before , being generally complained of as sowred by the Thunder , I suffer'd my liquors to continue at least a day or two longer , that the sowring Steams , if any such there were , might have time enough to operate upon them , and then breaking the Glasses , I found not that the liquors had been sowred , though we had purposely forborn to fill the Glasses , to facilitate the degeneration of the liquors . Perhaps it will be pardonable on this occasion to mention a practice , which is usual in some places where I have been , and particularly employ'd by a great Lady , that is a great house-keeper , and is very curious and expert in divers Physical Observations ; for , talking with her about the remedies of the Sowring of Beer and other drinks by Thunder , which is sometimes no small prejudice to her , she affirm'd to me , that she usually found the practice , I was mentioning , succeed : And that before the then last great Thunder , of which I had observed the Effects upon Beer , she preserved hers by putting , at a convenient distance , under the Barrels , Chaffing-dishes of Coals , when she perceiv'd that the Thunder was like to begin , which practice , if it constantly succeed , may put one a considering , whether the Fire do not by rarifying the Air and discussing the sulphureous or other Steams , by altering them , or by uniting with them the Exhalations of the Coals , or by some such kind of way , render ineffectual these sowring Corpuscles , which perhaps require a determinate bulk and shape , besides their being crowded very many of them together , to have their full Operation on Barrell'd Liquors . But these things are but meer Conjectures , and therefore I proceed . CHAP. VI. THE fifth way whereby Effluviums may perform notable things , is the Motion of one part upon another , that they may excite or occasion in the Body they work on according to its structure . I shall in the following Tract have occasion to say something of the Motions into which the Internal parts of Inanimate Bodies may put one another ; but the Examples now produced are designed to manifest the Efficacy , that Effluviums may , on the newly mentioned accounts , have on Organical and living Bodies . To which Instances it would yet be proper to premise , That even Inanimate and Solid Bodies may be of such a structure as to be very much alterable by the appropriated Effluviums of other Bodies , as may be instanc'd in the power , that I have known some vigorous Loadstones to have , of taking away in a trice the attractive virtue of an excited Needle , or giving a verticity directly contrary to the former without so much as touching it . And we may pertinently take notice of the attractive virtue of the Loadstone , as that , which may afford us an eminent Example of the great power of a multitude of invisible Effluviums , even from Bodies that are not great , upon Bodies that are Inorganical or liveless : For taking it for granted , what both the Epicureans , Cartesians , and almost all other Corpuscularian Philosophers agree in , that Magnetism is performed by corporeal Emissions , we may consider , that these passing unresistedly thorow the pores of all solid Bodies , and even Glass it self , which neither the subtilest Odours nor Electrical Exhalations are observ'd to do , seem to be almost incredibly minute , and much smaller than any other Effluviums , though themselves too small to be visible ; and yet these so incomparably little Magnetical Effluxions proceeding from vigorous Loadstones , will be able to take up considerable quantities of so ponderous a Body as Iron ; in so much that I have seen a Loadstone not very great , that would keep suspended a weight of Iron , that I could hardly lift up to it with one Arm ; and I have seen a little one , with which I could take up above eighty times its weight . And these Effluvia do not only for a moment fasten the Iron to the Stone , but keep the Metal suspended as long as one pleases . This being premised , I come now to observe , That the chief effects of Effluvia belonging to the fifth Head are wrought upon Animals , which by virtue of their curious and elaborate structure , have their parts so connected and otherwise contrived , that the motions or changes that are produced in one , may have by the consent of Parts a manifest operation upon others , although perhaps very distant from it , and so fram'd as to declare their being affected by actions that seem to have no affinity at all with the Agents that work upon the part first affected . I have shewn at large in another * Treatise , that a Humane Body ought not to be look'd upon meerly as an aggregate of Bones , Flesh , and other consistent parts , but as a most curious and a living Engin , some of whose parts , though so nicely fram'd as to be very easily affected by external Agents , are yet capable of having great Operations upon the other parts of the Body , they help to compose . Wherefore without now repeating what is there already deliver'd , I shall proceed to deliver such Effects as are wrought on Human Bodies by these Effluviums without any immediate contact of the Bodies that emit them . And first , not to mention Light , because its being or not being a Corporeal thing is much disputed even among the Moderns ; 't is plain , that our organs of Smelling are sensibly affected by such minute Particles of matter as the finest odours consist of . Nor do they alwayes affect us precisely as odours , since we see , that many persons , both men and women , are by Smells , either sweet or stinking , put into troublesom Headaches . If it were not almost ordinary , it would be more than almost incredible , that the smell of a pleasing Perfume should presently produce in a Human Body , that immediately before was well and strong , such faintnesses , swoons , loss of sensible respiration , intumescence of the Abdomen , seeming Epilepsies , and really convulsive motions of the Limbs , and I know not how many other frightfull Symptoms , that by the unskilful are often taken for the effects of Witchcraft , and would impose upon Physicians themselves , if their own or their Predecessors Experience did not furnish them with Examples of the like Phaenomena produc'd by Natural means . Those Symptoms manifest , what the consent of Parts may do in a Humane Body ; since even Morbifick Odours , if I may so call them , by immediately affecting the organs of Smelling , affect so many other parts of the genus Nervosum , as oftentimes to produce Convulsive motions , even in the extreme parts of the Hands and Feet . Nor is the efficacy of Effluviums confined to produce Hysterical fits , since these invisible Particles may be able ( and sometimes as suddenly as Perfumes are wont to excite them ) to appease them , as I have very frequently , though not with never-failing success , tryed , by holding a Spirit , I usually make of Sal Armoniack , under the Nostrils of Hysterical persons . My remedy did not only often recover , in a trice , those whose Fits were but ordinary , but did more than once , somewhat to the wonder of the By-standers , relieve , within a Minute or two , persons of differing Ages and Constitutions , that were suddenly fallen down by Fits , that the By-standers judg'd Epileptical , ( but I , Hysterical . ) I attribute the good and evil Operations of the fore-mentioned Steams , rather in general to the consent of the parts that make up the genus Nervosum , than to any hidden Sympathy or Antipathy betwixt them and the Womb , not only for other reasons , not proper to be insisted on here , but because I have known Odours have notable Effects even upon Men. I know a very eminent person , a Traveller , and a man of a strong constitution , but considerably Sanguine , who is put into violent Head-aches by the Smell of Musk. And I remember , that one day being with him and a great many other men of note about a Publick Affair , a man that had a parcel of Musk about him , having an occasion to make an application to us , this person was so disordered by the smell , which to most of us was delightful , that in spight of his Civility he was reduc'd to make us an Apology , and send the perfumed man out of the room , notwithstanding whose recess this person complained to me , a good while after , of a violent pain in his Head , which I perceived had somewhat unfitted him for the Transaction of the Affair whereof he was to be the chief manager . I know another person , whose happy Muse hath justly made him many Admirers , that is subject to the Head-ach upon so mild a smell as that of Damask-Roses , and sometimes even of Red-Roses , in so much that walking one day with him in a Garden , whose Alleys were very large , so that he might easily keep himself at a distance from the Bushes , which bore many of them Red-Roses ; he abruptly broke off the discourse we were engag'd in , to complain of the harm the Perfume did his Head , and desired me to pass into a Walk , that had no Roses growing near it . If it were not for the Sex of this person , I could relate an Instance that would be much more considerable of the Operation of Roses . For I know a discreet Lady to whom their smell is not unpleasing , ( for she answer'd me that 't was not so at all , ) but so hurtful , that it presently makes her sick , and would make her swoon if not seasonably prevented : And she told me that being once at a Court in which she was a Maid of Honour , though she her-self did not know whence it came , she found her self extremely ill on a sudden , and ready to sink down for faintness ; but being then in discourse with a person , whose High Quality she payd her profound respect to , her Civility , that kept her from complaining or withdrawing , might have been dangerous if not fatal to her , had not the Princess who was speaking with her , and who knew her Antipathy to Roses , taken notice that her Face grew strangely pale , and was covered with a cold sweat . For thereby presently guessing what might be the cause , which the sick Lady her self did not , she asked aloud whether some body had not brought Roses ( which were then in season ) into the Bed-chamber , which question occasioned a speedy withdrawing of a Lady , that stood at a distance off , and had about her Roses , which were not seen by the Patient , who was by this means preserved from falling into a swoon , though not from being for a while very much discomposed . But this you may tell me was the case of a Woman , who complain'd her malady affected her Heart , not her Head. Wherefore returning to what I was speaking of before I mention'd Her , I shall proceed to tell you , that as Odours may thus give Men the Head-ach , so I have often found the smell of rectified-Spirit of Sal Armoniack to free Men as well as Women from the Fits of that distemper ; and that sometimes in so few Minutes , that the person reliev'd could scarcely imagine , they could so quickly be so . To which I shall not add the Tryals that I have successfully made upon my self , because being , thanks be to God , very seldom troubled with that distemper , the occasions I have had of making them have not been many . And though I have not alwayes found so slight a Remedy to work the desired Cure , yet that it does it often , even in Men , is sufficient to shew the Efficacy of Sanative Effluviums . Now , to manifest , that Steams do not Operate only upon Hysterical Women , or persons subject to the Head-ach , I will add some Instances of the Effects they may produce upon other persons , and parts . 'T is but too well known an Observation , that Women with Child have been often made to miscarry by the stink of an ill-extinguisht Candle , though perhaps the smoak ascending from the Snuff were dissipated into the invisible Corpuscles , a good while before it arriv'd at the Nostrils of the unhappy Woman ; and what violent and straining motions Abortions are frequently accompanied with , is sufficiently known already . I think I have elsewhere mentioned , that a Gentleman of my acquaintance , a proper and lusty man , will be put into the fits of Vomiting by the smell of Coffee , boyl'd in Water ; I shall therefore rather mention , that I know a Physician , who having been , for a long time when he was young , frequently compelled to take Electuarium lenitivum , one of the gentlest and least unpleasant Laxatives of the Shops , conceived such a dislike of it , that still , as himself has complained to me , if he smell to it , as he sometimes happens to do in Apothecaries Shops , it will work ( now and then for several times ) upwards and downwards with him . I know another very ingenious persons of the same faculty , that has been a Traveller by Sea and Land , who has complain'd to me , that the smell of the Grease of the Wheels of a Hackney-coach , though it do but pass by him , is wont to make him sick and ready to Vomit . Every body knows , that Smoak is apt to make mens Eyes water , and excite in the organs of Respiration that troublesom and vehement commotion we call Coughing . But we need not have recourse at all to visible Fumes , for the production of the like Effects ; since we have often observed them , and repeated Sneezings to boot , to proceed from the invisible Steams of Spirit of Sal Armoniack , when Vials containing that liquor , though they were perhaps but very small , were approached too hastily , or perhaps too near to the Nostrils . And because in most of the foregoing Instances , the chief Effects seem to be wrought , by the consent of parts , on the genus Nervosum and the action of one of them upon the other , and thereby upon several other parts of the Body , I will subjoyn a remarkable instance of the Operation of a mild and grateful Odour upon the Humors themselves , and that in a Man. A famous Apothecary , who is a very tall and big man , several times told me , that though he was once a great lover of Roses , yet having had occasion to employ great quantities of them at a time , he was so altered by their Steams , that now , if he come among the Rose-bushes , the smell does much discompose him . And the odour of Roses , ( I mean Incarnate-Roses , which we commonly call Damask-Roses , though they be not the true ones , ) makes such a colliquation of Humors in his Head , that it sets him a coughing , and makes him run at the Nose , and gives him a sore throat ; and by an affluence of Humors makes his Eyes sore , in so much that during the season of Roses , when quantities of them are brought into his House , he is oblig'd for the most part to absent himself from home . CHAP. VII . ONE may shew on this occasion , that as there might be considerable things performed by Effluviums , as they make one part of a living Engine work upon another by virtue of its structure , so the action of such invisible Agents may in divers cases be much promoted by the fabrick and laws of the Universe it self , upon this account , that , by the Operation of Effluvia upon particular Bodies , they may dispose and qualifie those Bodies to be wrought upon , which before they were not fit to be , by Light , Magnetisms , the Atmosphere , Gravity or some other of the more Catholick Agents of Nature , as the World is now constituted . But not to injure another Tract , I shall conclude this , when I shall have taken notice , that in the Instances hitherto produced , there has been a visible Local distance between the Body that emits Steams , and that on which they work . But if I thought it necessary , it were not difficult to shew , that one might woll enough referr to the title of this Tract divers Effects of Bodies that are applied immediately to ours ; such as are Blood-stones , Cornelions , Nephritick-stones , Lapis Malacensis , and some Amulets , and other solid substances applied by Physicians outwardly to our Bodies . For in these applications the gross Body touches but the Skin , and the great Effects , which I elsewhere relate my self to have sometimes ( though not often , much less alwayes ) observed to have followed upon this External contact or near application , may reasonably be derived from the subtle Emanations , that pass thorow the Pores of the Skin to the inward parts of the Body : As is evident in those , who by holding Cantharides in their Hands , or having them apply'd to some remote External part , have grievous pains produc'd in their Urinary parts , as it has happen'd to Me as well as to many others . And to the insinuation of these minute Corpuscles , that get in at the Pores of the Skin , seems to be due the Efficacy of some Medicines , that purge , vomit , resolve the Humors , or otherwise notably alter the Body being but externally applied ; of which I could here give several Instances , but that they belong more properly to another place , and are not necessary in this , where it may suffice to name the notorious Power , that Mercurial Oyntments or Fumes , either together or apart , have of producing Copious Salvations , to shew in general , that both the Steams and the Emanations of outwardly applied Medicinal Bodies may have some great Effects on Human ones . OF THE Determinate Nature OF EFFLUVIUMS . OF THE DETERMINATE NATURE OF EFFLVVIVMS . CHAP. I. THE Effluviums of Bodies , Pyrophilus , being for the most part invisible , have been wont to be so little consider'd by vulgar Philosophers , that scarce vouchsafing to take notice of their Existence , 't is no wonder that men have not been solicitous to discover their distinct Natures and Differences . Only * Aristotle , and ( upon his account ) the Schools , have been pleased to think , that the two grand parts of our Globe do sometimes emit two kinds of Exhalations or Steams ; the Earthy part affording those that are hot and dry , which they name Fumes , and very often , simply , Exhalations ; and the Aqueous part , others that are ( not as many of his Disciples mistake him to have taught , Cold and Moist , but ) Hot and Moist * , which they usually call Vapours , to discriminate them from the Fumes ( or Exhalations , ) though otherwise , in common acceptation , those Appellations are very frequently confounded . But , though the Aristotelians have thus perfunctorily handled this Subject , it would not become Corpuscularian Philosophers , who attribute so much as they do to the Insensible Particles of Matter , to acquiesce in so slight and jejune an account of the Emanations of Bodies . And since we have already shewn , that besides the greater and more simple Masses of Terrestrial and Aqueous matter newly mention'd , there are very many mixt Bodies , that emit Effluviums , which make , as it were , little Atmospheres about divers of them , it will be congruous to our Doctrine and Design , to add in this place , That besides the slight and obvious differences , taken notice of by Aristotle , the Steams of Bodies may be almost as various as the Bodies themselves that emit them ; and that therefore we ought not to look upon them barely under the general and confused notion of Smoak or Vapours , but may probably conceive them to have their distinct and determinate Natures , oftentimes ( though not always ) suitable to that of the Bodies from whence they proceed . And indeed the newly mentioned Division of the Schools gives us so slight an account of the Emanations of Bodies , that , methinks , it looks like such another , as if one should divide Animals into those that are Horned , and those that have Two Feet : For , besides that the Distinction is taken from a Difference that is not the considerablest , there are divers Animals ( as many four-footed Beasts and Fishes ) that are not comprised in it ; and each member of the Division comprehends I know not how many distinct sorts of Animals , whose differences from one another are many times more considerable , than those that constitute the two supreme Genus's , the one having Bulls and Goats , and Rhinoceros's , and Deer , and Elks , and certain Sea-Monsters whose Horns I have seen ; and the other Genus comprising also a greater Variety , namely , a great part of Four-footed Beasts , and , besides Men , all the Birds ( for ought we know ) whether of Land or Water . And as it would give us but a very slender Information of the Nature of an Elk or an Unicorn , to know that 't is an Horned Beast ; or of the Nature of a Man , an Eagle , or a Nightingale , to be told , that 't is an Horn-less Beast ; so it will but very little instruct a man in the Nature of the Steams of Quicksilver or of Opium , to be told , that they are Vapours Hot ( or rather Cold ) and Moist ; or of the Steams of Amber or Cantharides , or Cinnamon , or Tobacco , to be told , that they are Hot and Dry. For , besides that there may be Effluviums , which , even by their Elementary Qualities , are not of either of these two supreme Genus's , ( for they may be Cold and Dry , or Cold and Moist , ) these Qualities are often far from being the Noblest , and consequently those that deserve to be most consider'd in the Effluviums of this , or that , Body ; as we shall by and by have occasion to manifest . CHAP. II. ANd here it may not be improper to mention an Experiment , that , I remember , I divers years since employed to illustrate the Subject of our present Discourse . I consider'd then , that Fluid Bodies may be of very unequal density and gravity , as is evident in Quicksilver , Water and pure Spirit of Wine ; which , notwithstanding their great difference in specifick gravity , may yet agree in the conditions requisite to Fluid Bodies . Therefore presuming , that by what I could make appear visible in one , what happens analogically in the other , may be ocularly illustrated , I took some Ounces of Roch-allom , and as much of fine Salt-peter . I took some Ounces of each , because , if the quantity of the ingredients be too small , the concoagulated grains will be so too , and the success will not be so conspicuous . These being dissolved together in fair Water , the filtrated solution was set to evaporate in an open-mouthed Glass , and being then left to shoot in a cool place , there were fastned to the sides and other parts of the Glass several small Crystals , some Octoedrical , which is the figure proper to Roch-allom , and others of the Prismatical shape of pure Salt-peter ; besides some other Saline concretions , whose being distinctly of neither of these two shapes , argued them to be concoagulations of both the Salts . And this we did by using such a degree of Celerity in Evaporating the liquor , as was proper for such an effect . For , by another degree , which is to be employ'd when one would recover the Salts more distinctly and manifestly , the matter may ( as I found by tryal ) be so ordered , that the aluminous Salt may , for the most part , be first coagulated by it self , and then from the remaining liquor curiously shap'd Crystals of Nitre may be copiously obtained . Tryals like this we also made with other Salts , and particularly with Sea-Salt , and with Allom and Vitriol ; the Phaenomena of which you may meet with in their due places . For the recited Experiment may , I hope , alone serve to assist the imagination to conceive , how the Particles of Bodies may swim to and fro in a Fluid , ( which the Air is , ) and though they be little enough to be invisible , may many of them retain their distinct and determinate natures , and their aptness to cohere upon occasion ; and others may , by their various occursions and coalitions , unite into lesser Corpuscles or greater Bodies differing from the more simple Particles , that composed them , and yet not of indeterminate though compounded Figures . CHAP. III. THese things being premis'd , we may now proceed to the particular Instances of the Determinate Nature of Effluviums ; and these we may not inconveniently reduce to the three following Heads , to each of which we shall assign a distinct Chapter ; the first of these I shall briefly treat of in this third Chapter , and treat somewhat more largely of the others in the two following . In the first place then , That the Effluviums of many Bodies retain a determinate Nature oftentimes in an invisible smallness , and oftener in such a size as makes them little enough to fly or swim in the Air ; may appear by this , that these Effluvia being by Condensation or otherwise reunited , they appear to be of the same nature with the Body that emitted them . Thus in moist weather , the Vapours of Water , that wander invisibly through the Air , meeting with Marble-Walls or Pavements , or other Bodies , by their Coldness and other Qualifications , fit to condense and retain them , appear again in the form of Drops of Water ; and the same Vapours return to the visible form of Water , when they fall out of the Air in Dews , or Rains. Quicksilver it self , if it be made to ascend in distillation with a convenient degree of Fire , will almost all be found again in the Receiver in the form of running Mercury . Which strange and piercing Fluid , is in some cases so disposed to be strip'd of its Disguises , and re-appear in its own form , that divers Artificers , and especially Gilders , have found , to their cost , that the fumes of it need not be , as in Distillation , included in close Vessels to return to their pristine nature , Mercury having been several times found in the Heads and other parts of such People , who have in tract of time been killed by it , and sometimes made to discover it self during the Lives of those that dealt so much in it ; of which I elsewhere give some Instances . Wherefore I shall only observe at present , that 't is a common Practice , both among Gilders , and some Chymists , that , when they have occasion to make an Amalgam , or force away the Mercury from one by the fire , they keep Gold in their Mouthes , which by the Mercurial fumes , that wander through the Air , will now and then , by that time 't is taken out of their Mouths , be turned white almost , as if it had been silver'd over . A mass of purified Brimstone being sublimed , the ascending fumes will condense into what the Chymists call Flores Sulphuris , which is true Sulphur of the same nature with that , formerly exposed to sublimation ; and may readily by melting be reduced into such another mass . And to give you another like Example of dry Bodies ; I tryed , that by subliming good Camphire in close vessels , it would all , as to sense , be raised into the upper vessel , or part of the Subliming-glass in the form of dry Camphire as it was before . Nay though a Body be not by Nature , but Art compounded of such differing Bodies as a Metal and another Mineral , and two or three Salts ; yet , if upon Purification of the mixture from its grosser parts , the remaining and finer parts be minute enough and fitly shap'd , the whole liquor will ascend , and yet in the Receiver altogether recover its pristine form of a transparent Fluid , composed of differing Saline and Mineral parts . This is evident in the Distillation of what Chymists call Butter , or Oyl of Antimony , very well rectified . For , this Liquor will pass into the Receiver diaphanous and fluid , though , besides the Particles of the Sublimate , ( which is it self a factitious compounded Body ) it abounds with Antimonial Corpuscles , carried over and kept invisible by the corroding Salts ; whatever Angelus Sala , and those Chymists that follow him , have affirm'd to the contrary ; as might be easily here proved , if this were a fit place to do it in . I found by inquiring of an Ingenious person , that had an interest in a Tin-Mine , that I was not deceived in guessing , that Tin it self , though a Metal whose Ore is of a very difficult fusion , and which I have by it self kept long upon the Cupel without finding it to fly away , would yet retain its Metalline nature in the form of fumes or flowers . For this experienc'd Gentleman answer'd me , that divers times they would take great store of a whitish Sublimate from the upper part of the Furnaces or Chimnies , where they brought their Ore to fusion , or wrought further upon it ; and that this Sublimate , though perhaps elevated to the height of an ordinary Man , would , when melted down , afford at once many Pounds of very good Tin. On which occasion I shall add , that I have my self more than once raised this Metal in the form of white Corpuscles by the help of an Additament , that did scarce weigh half so much as it . CHAP. IV. THe second way , by which we may discover the Determinate Nature of Effluviums , is , by the difference that may sometimes be observ'd in their Sensible Qualities . For , these Effluviums that are endow'd with them , proceed from the same sort of Bodies , and yet those afforded by one kind of Bodies being in many cases manifestly differing from those that fly off from another , this evident disparity in their Exhalations argues their retaining distinct natures , according to those of the respective Bodies whence they proceed . I will not now stay to examine , whether in the Steams , that are made visibly to ascend from the Terrestrial Globe by those grand Agents and usual raisers of them , the Sun , and the agitation of the Air , the Eye can manifestly distinguish the diversity of colours : But in some productions of Art such different colours may be discovered in the Exhalations , even without the application of any external heat to raise them . For , when Spirit of Nitre , for example , has been well rectified , I have often observ'd , that even in the cold the fumes would play in the unfill'd part of the stop'd Vials it was kept in , and appear in it of a reddish colour , and , if those vessels were open'd , the same fumes would copiously ascend into the Air , in the form of a reddish or orange-tawny Smoak . Spirit or Oyl of Salt also , if it be very well dephlegm'd , though it will scarce in the cold visibly ascend in the empty part of a Vial , whilst it is kept well stop'd ; yet , if the free Air be allow'd access to it , it will , in case it be sufficiently rectified , fly up in the form of a whitish fume . But this is inconsiderable in comparison of what happens in a volatile Tincture of Sulphur , I have elsewhere taught you to make with Quick-lime . For , not only upon a slight occasion the vacant part of the Vial will be fill'd with white fumes , though the Glass be well stop'd ; but upon the opening the Vial these fumes will copiously pass out at the neck , and ascend into the Air in the form of a Smoak , more white than perhaps you ever saw any . And both this and that of the Spirit of Salt-peter do by their operation , as well as smell , disclose what they are ; the latter being of a Nitrous nature , ( as is confess'd ) and the former , of a Sulphureous : In so much that having for curiosities sake in a fitly shap'd Glass caught a competent quantity of the ascending white fumes , I found them to have conven'd into Bodies transparent and Geometrically figur'd , wherein 't was easie to discover by their sensible qualities , that there were store of Sulphureous particles mixt with the Saline ones . That the liquors of Vegetables , distill'd in Balneo or in Water , are not wont to retain any thing of the colour of the Bodies that afforded them , is a thing easie to be observ'd in Distillations made without Retorts or the violence of the Fire . But it may be worth while to make tryal , whether the Essential Oyl of Wormwood ascend colour'd like the Plant , whence 't is first drawn over with Water in the Limbec , or rectified in Balneo . For , I forgot to take notice of it , when upon some particularities , I observ'd in that Plant , my curiosity led me to find , that not only in the first distillation in a Copper Limbec , tinn'd on the inside , the Oyl came over green , but by a rectification purposely made in a Glass-vessel , the purified liquor was not depriv'd of that colour . The mention of these Essential Oyls , as Chymists call those that are drawn in Limbecs , leads me to tell you , that , though these liquors be but Effluvia of the Vegetables they are distill'd from , condens'd again in the Receiver into liquors ; yet , as subtile as they are , many of them retain the genuine taste of the Bodies , whence the heat elevated them ; as you will easily find , if you will tast a few drops of the Essential Oyl of Cinamon , for example , or of Wormwood dissolv'd by the intervention of Sugar or Spirit of Wine in a convenient quantity of Water , Wine , or Beer . For , by this means you have the natural taste of this Spice or Herb. And Wormwood is a Plant , whose Effluvia do so retain the nature of the Body that parts with them , that I must not forbear to alledge here an Observation of mine , that may shew you , that 't is possible , though not usual , that even without the help of the Fire the expirations of a Body may communicate its tast . For , among other things , that I had occasion to observe about some quantity of Wormwood laid up together , I remember , I took notice , and made others do the like , that coming into a room , where 't was kept , not only the organs of smelling were powerfully wrought upon by the Corpuscles that swarm'd in the Air , but also the Mouth was sensibly affected with a bitter tast . Perhaps you will scarce think it worth while , that after this instance I should add , that I found the expirations of Amber , kept a while in pure Spirit of Wine , tast upon the tongue like Amber it self , when I chew'd it between my teeth . But I choose to mention this instance , because it will connect those lately mention'd with another sort , very pertinent to our present purpose . For , the expirations that I have obtain'd from Amber , both with pure Spirit of Wine , and a more piercing Menstruum , did manifestly retain in both those liquors a peculiar smell , with which I found it to affect the Nostrils , when , for tryals sake , I excited the Electrical faculty of Amber by rubbing . And as for Odours , 't is plain , that the Essential Oyls of Chymists , well drawn , do many of them retain the peculiar and genuine sent of the Spices or Herbs that afforded them . And that these Odours do really consist of , or reside in certain invisible Corpuscles that fly off from the visible Bodies , that are said to be endow'd with such Smells , I have elsewhere prov'd at large ; and it may sufficiently appear from their sticking to divers of the Bodies they meet with , and their lasting adhesion to them . Other Examples may be given of the setled difference of Effluviums directly perceivable by Humane Organs of Sense , as dull as they are ; which last expression I add , because I scarce doubt , but that , if our Sensories were sufficiently subtile and tender , they might immediately perceive in the size , shape , motion , and perhaps colour too of some now invisible Effluviums , as distinguishable differences , as our naked Eyes in their present constitution see , between the differing sorts of Birds , by their appearances , and their manner of flying in the Air , as Hawks , and Partridges , and Sparrows , and Swallows . To make this probable I will not urge , that in fine white Sand , whose grains by the unassisted Eye are not wont to be distinguished by any sensible Quality , I have often observ'd in an excellent Microscope , a notable disparity as to bulk , figure , and sometimes as to colour : And that in small Cheese-mites , which the naked Eye can very scarcely discern , so far is it from discovering any difference between them , one may ( as was noted in the last essay ) plainly see , besides an obvious difference in point of bigness , many particular parts , on whose accounts the structure of those moving points may difference them from each other . And I have sometimes seen a very evident disparity even in point of shape between the very Eggs of these living Atoms , ( as a Poet would perhaps stile them . ) But these kinds of proofs ( as I was saying ) I shall forbear to insist on , that I may proceed to countenance my conjecture by the effects of the Effluviums , that are properly so call'd , upon Animals . And first , though the Touch be reckon'd one of the most dull of the five Senses , and be reputed to be far less quick in Men than in divers other Animals ; yet the gross Organs of that , may , in Men themselves , even by accident , be so dispos'd , as to be susceptible of impressions from Effluvia : Of this in another Paper I give some Instances . And I know not whether divers of the Presages of Weather to be observ'd in some Animals , and the Aches and other pains , that , in many crazy and wounded men , are wont to fore-run great changes of Weather , do not often ( for I do not say alwayes ) proceed ( at least in part ) from invisible and yet incongruous Effluxions , which , either from the subterraneal parts , or from some Bodies above ground , do copiously impregnate the Air. And on this occasion it will not be impertinent to mention here what an experienc'd Physician being ( if I much misremember not ) the Learned Dimmerbrook , relates concerning himself , who having been infected with the Plague by a Patient that lay very ill of it , though by Gods blessing , which he particularly acknowledges , upon a slight but seasonable Remedy , he was very quickly cured , and that without the breaking of any Tumor ; yet it left such a change in some parts of his Body , that he subjoyns this memorable passage ; Ab illo periculo ad contagiosos mihi appropinquanti in emunctoriis successit dolor , vix fallax Pestis indicium . Two or three other Observations of the like nature you meet with in another of my Papers * . And I shall now add , that I know an ingenious Gentlewoman ( Wife to a famous Physician ) who was of a very curious and delicate complexion , that has several times assur'd me , that she can very readily discover , whether a person , that comes to visit her in Winter , came from some place where there is any considerable quantity of Snow ; and this she does , ( as she tells me ) not by feeling any unusual cold ( for if the ground be frozen but not cover'd with Snow , the Effect succeeds not , ) but from some peculiar impression , which she thinks , she receives by the organs of Smelling . I might add , that I know also ( as I may have formerly told you ) a very ingenious Physician , who falling into an odd kind of Feaver , had his sense of Hearing thereby made so very nice and tender , that he very plainly heard soft whispers , that were made at a considerable distance off , and which were not in the least perceiv'd by the healthy by-standers , nor would have been by him before his sickness . Which ( sickness ) I mention as the thing , that gave his organs of Hearing this preternatural quickness , because when the Feaver had quite left him , he was able to hear but at the rate of other men . And I might tell you too , that I know a Gentleman of eminent parts and note , who , during a distemper he had in his Eyes , had his organs of Sight brought to be so tender , that both his friends and himself also have assur'd me , that when he wak'd in the Night he could for a while plainly see and distinguish Colours , as well as other objects , discernable by the Eye , as was more than once try'd , by pinning Ribbands or the like Bodies of several colours , to the inside of his Curtains in the dark . For if he were awaken'd in the Night , he would be able to tell his bed-fellow , where those Bodies were plac'd , and what colour each of them was of . I have mention'd these Instances only to shew you , that if our Sensories were more delicate and quick , they would be sufficiently affected by Objects , that , as they are generally constituted , make no impressions at all upon them . For otherwise I know , that the Species ( as they call them ) both of Sounds and Colours , are not held by many of the Moderns , ( from whom in that I dissent not , ) to be so much corporeal Effluxions , trajected through the medium , as peculiar kinds of Local Motion convey'd by it . Therefore I shall now confirm the conjecture I would countenance by the discrimination made by the organs of other Animals of such Effluvia as to us men are not only invisible but insensible . And therefore partly to strengthen what I deliver'd , and partly to confirm what I am now discoursing of , it will not be impertinent to subjoyn two or three Relations , that I had from persons of very good credit , whom I thought likely to make me no unsatisfactory returns to my Questions about things they were very well vers'd in . A person of Quality , to whom I am near allied , related to me , that to make a tryal , whether a young Blood-hound was well instructed , ( or as the Huntsmen call it , made ) he caus'd one of his Servants , who had not kill'd , or so much as touch'd any of his Deer , to walk to a Countrey-town , four Mile off , and then to a Market-town three Miles distant from thence ; which done , this Nobleman did , a competent while after , put the Blood-hound upon the scent of the man , and caus'd him to be follow'd by a Servant or two , the Master himself thinking it also fit to go after them to see the event ; which was , that the Dog , without ever seeing the Man he was to pursue , follow'd him by the scent to the above-mentioned places , notwithstanding the multitude of Market-people that went along in the same way , and of Travellers that had occasion to cross it . And when the Blood-hound came to the chief Market-town , he pass'd through the streets , without taking notice of any of the people there , and left not till he had gone to the House , where the Man , he sought , rested himself , and found him in an upper Room to the wonder of those that follow'd him . The particulars of this Narrative the Nobleman's Wife , a person of great veracity , that happen'd to be with him when the tryal was made , confirm'd to me . Enquiring of a studious person , that was Keeper of a Red-dear-park and vers'd in making Blood-hounds , in how long time , after a Man or Deer had pass'd by a grassy place , one of those Dogs would be able to follow him by the scent ? He told me , that it would be six or seven Hours : Whereupon an ingenious Gentleman , that chanc'd to be present , and liv'd near that Park , assur'd us both , that he had old Dogs of so good a scent , that if a Buck had the day before pass'd in a Wood , they will , when they come where the scent lies , though at such a distance of time after , presently find the scent and run directly to that part of the Wood where the Buck is . He also told me , that though an old Blood-hound will not so easily fix on the scent of a single Deer , that presently hides himself in a whole herd ; yet if the Deer be chas'd a little till he be heated , the Dog will go nigh to single him out , though the whole herd also be chas'd . The above-nam'd Gentleman also affirm'd , that he could easily distinguish whether his Hounds were in chase of a Hare or a Fox by their way of running , and their holding up their Nose higher than ordinary when they pursue a Fox , whose scent is more strong . These Relations will not be judg'd incredible by him that reflects on some of the Instances that have already ( in the foregoing Essay ) been given of the strange subtilty of Effluvia : To which I shall now add , that I remember , that to try whether I could in some measure make Art imitate Nature , I prepared a Body of a vegetable substance , which , though it were actually cold , and both to the Eye and Touch dry , did for a while emit such determinate and piercing , though invisible , Exhalations , that having for Tryals sake applied to it a clear Metalline Plate ( and that of none of the very softest kind neither ) for about one Minute of an Hour , I found , that , though there had ▪ been no immediate contact between them , I having pursposely interposed a piece of Paper to hinder it ; yet there was imprinted on the surface of the Plate a conspicuous stain of that peculiar colour , that the Body , with whose Steams I had imbued the vegetable substance , was fitted to give a Plate of that mix'd Metal . And though it be true , that in some circumstances , the lately mention'd Instances about Blood-hounds have a considerable advantage of this I have now recited ; yet that advantage is much lessen'd , not to say countervail'd , by some circumstances of our Experiment . For , not to repeat , that the emittent Body was firm and cold , the Effect produced by the Effluvium that guided the Setting-dog , was wrought upon the Sensory of a living and warm Animal ; and such an one , whose organs of Smelling are of an extraordinary tender Constitution above those of Men and other Animals , and probably the Impression was but transient ; whereas in our case the invisible Steams of the vegetable substance wrought upon a Body which was of so strong and inorganical a Texture as a ( compounded ) Metal , though it were fenc'd by being lapt up in Paper , notwithstanding which these Steams invaded it in such numbers , and so notably , as to make their Operation on it manifest to the Eye , and considerably permanent too ; since coming to look upon the Plate after the third day , I found the induced Colour yet conspicuous , and not like suddenly to vanish . Hitherto in this Chapter I have argued from the constant and setled difference of the sensible Qualities of Effluviums , that they do not always lose their distinct natures , when they seem to have lost themselves by vanishing into Air. But before I dismiss this Subject , I must consider an Objection , which I know may be made against the Opinion we have been countenancing . For it may be alledg'd , that there may be many cases , wherein the Effluviums of Bodies are , in their passage through the Air , sensibly alter'd , or do affect the Organs of sense otherwise than each kind of them apart would do : Nor is this difficulty altogether irrational . For it seems consonant enough to Experience , that some such cases should be admitted , and therefore in the foregoing Discourse I have , where I thought it necessary , forborn to express my self in such general and absolute terms , as otherwise I might have done . But , as for such cases as I have insisted upon , and many more , I shall now represent , that the objected alterations need not hinder , but that Effluviums at their first parting from the Bodies , whence they take wing ( if I may so speak , ) may retain as much of the nature of those Bodies , as we have ascribed to them , since the subsequent change may very probably be deduc'd from the combinations or coalitions of divers Steams associating themselves in the Air , and acting upon the Sensory , either altogether and conjointly , or at least so near it , that the Sense cannot perceive their Operations as distinct . This I shall elucidate , but not pretend to prove , by what happens in Sounds and Tasts . For if , by way of instance , in a Musical instrument , two strings tun'd to an eight , be touch'd together , they will strike the Ear with a sound , that will be judg'd one , as well as pleasing , though each of the trembling strings make a distinct noise , and the one vibrates as fast again as the other . And if , into Oyl of Tartar per Deliquium , you drop a due proportion of Spirit of Nitre , and exhale the superfluous moisture , the Acid and Alcalizate Corpuscles , that were so small as to swim invisibly in those liquors , will convene into Nitrous Concretions , whose tast will be compounded of , but very differing from , both the tasts of the Acid and Tartareous Particles ; which Particles may yet , for the most part , by a skilful Distillation , be divorc'd again . And so , if to a strong solution of Pot-ashes or Salt of Tartar you put as much in weight of Sal Armoniack , as there is of either of those fixt Salts contain'd in the liquor ; you may , besides a subtil Urinous Spirit that will easily come over in the distillation , obtain a dry Caput mortuum , which is almost totally a compounded Salt , differing enough from either of the ingredients , especially the Alcalizate , as well in Tast as in some other Qualities : This Salt ( free'd from its faeces ) being that Diuretick Salt , I several years ago gave quantities of , to some Chymists and Physicians , from the most of whom I received great thanks , accompanied with the ( more acceptable ) accounts of the very happy success they had employed it with , though usually but in a small Dose , as from six , eight or ten Grains to a Scruple . But this being mentioned only upon the by , I shall proceed to tell you , that , since I intimated to you already , that I would mention Examples of Sounds and Tasts only to illustrate what I had been delivering ; I shall now add some Instances by way of Proof , of the Coalition and resulting change of Steams in the Air. 'T is easily observable in some Nose-gays , where the differing Flowers happen to be conveniently mix'd , that in the smell afforded by it , at a due distance , the Odours of the particular Flowers are not perceiv'd , but the Organ is affected by their joynt-action , which makes on it a confused but delightful impression . And so , when in a Ball of Pomander , or a perfum'd Skin , Musk , and Amber , and Civet , and other sweets are skilfully mix'd , the coalition of the distinct Effluvia of the ingredients , that associate themselves in their passage through the Air , produce in the Sensory one grateful perfume , resulting from all those Odours . But if you take Spirit of fermented Urine and Spirit of Wine , both of them Phelgmatick , and mix them together , they will incorporate like Wine and Water , or any other such liquors , without affording any dry concretions . But if you expose them in a convenient Vessel but to the mild heat of a Bath or Lamp , the ascending Particles will associate themselves , and adhere to the upper part of the Glass in the form of a white but tender Sublimate , consisting both of Urinous and Vinous Spirits , associated into a mixture , which differs from either of the liquors , not only in Consistence , Tast and Smell , but in some considerable Operations performable by this odd mixture ; which , this is not the place , to take further notice of . And if Spirit of Salt and Spirit of Nitre be , by Distillation , elevated in the form of Fumes , so order'd as to convene into one liquor in the Receiver , this liquor will readily dissolve crude Gold , though neither the Spirit of Nitre alone , nor that of Salt would do so . And that you may have an ocular proof of the Possibility of the distinctness and subsequent Commixture of Steams in the Air ; I shall now add an Experiment , which I long since devis'd for that purpose , and which I soon after shew'd to many curious persons , most of whom appear'd somewhat surpriz'd at it . The Experiment was ; that I took two small Vials , the one fill'd with Spirit of Salt , but not very strong , the other with Spirit of fermented Urine or of Sal Armoniack very well rectified : These Vials being plac'd at some distance , and not being stop'd , each liquor afforded its own smell , at a pretty distance , by the Steams it emitted into the Air , but yet these Steams were invisible . But when these Vials , ( which should be of the same size ) came to be approach'd very near to each other , though not so , as to touch ; as when the two liquors are put together in the form of liquors , they will notably act upon one another ; so their respective Effluviums meeting in the Air , would , answerably to the littleness of their bulk , do the like , and , by their mutual occursions , become manifestly visible , and appear moving in the Air like a little portion of Smoak or of a Mist , which would quickly cease , if either of the Vials were remov'd half a Foot or a Foot from the other . And I remember , that , to add to the oddness of the Phaenomenon , I sometimes made a drop of the Spirit of Salt hang at the bottom of a little stick of Glass or some other convenient Body , and held this drop thus suspended in the Orifice of a Vial that had Spirit of Sal Armoniack in it , and was furnish'd with a somewhat long neck ; for by this means it happen'd , as I expected , that the ascending Urinous Particles , though invisible before , invading plentifully the Acid ones of the drop , produced a notable Smoak , which , if the drop were held a little above the neck of the Glass , would most commonly fly upwards to the height of a Foot or half a Yard : But if the drop were held somewhat deep within the Cavity of the neck , a good part of the produced Smoak would oftentimes fall into the Cavity of the Vial , which was left in great part empty , sometimes in the form of drops , but usually in the form of a slender and somewhat winding stream of a white colour , that seem'd to flow down just like a Liquor from the depending drop , till it had reach'd the Spirit of Sal Armoniack ; upon whose surface it would spread it self like a Mist . But this only upon the by . As for the main Experiment it self , it may be , as I have found , successfully try'd with other Liquors than these ; but 't is not necessary in this place to give an account of such Tryals ; though perhaps , if I had leisure , it might be worth while to consider , whether these Coalitions of differing sorts of Steams in the Air , and the Changes resulting thence of their particular precedent Quantities , may not assist us to investigate the causes of divers sudden Clouds and Mists , and some other Meteorological Phaenomena , and also of divers changes that happen in the Air in reference to the coming in and ceasing of several either Epidemical or contagious Diseases , and particularly the Plague , that seem to depend upon some occult temperature and alterations of the Air , which may be copiously impregnated by the differing subterraneal ( not to add here , Sidereal ) Effluviums , that not unfrequently ascend into it ( or otherwise invade it , ) with Pestiferous or other Morbifick Corpuscles , and sometimes with others of a contrary Nature , and sometimes too perhaps , neither the one sort of Steams , which may be suppos'd to have imbued the Air , is in it self deleterious ; nor the other salutary , but becomes so upon their casual coalition in the Air. You will perhaps think this Conjecture of the resultancy of pestilential Steams , the less improbable , if I here add that odd Observation , which was frequently made in the formerly mentioned Plague at Nimmegen by a Physician so Judicious as * Dimmerbrook , whose words are these ; Illud notatu dignum saepissime observavimus , nempa in illis aedibus in quibus nulla adhuc pestis erat , si linteamina sordida aquâ & sapone nostrate ( ut in Belgio moris est ) illio lavarentur , eo ipso die , vel interdum postridie , duos tres-ve simul peste correptos fuisse , ipsique aegri test abantur faetorem aquae saponatae illis primam & maximam alterationem intulisse . Hoc ipsum quoque in meo ipsius hospitio infelix experientia docuit , in quo post lota linteamina statim gravem alterationem perceperunt plaerique domestici , & proximè sequenti nocte tres peste correptae , ac brevi post mortuae fuere . I omit the Instances he further sets down to confirm this odd Phaenomenon , of which , though perhaps some other Cause may be devised , yet that I lately assign'd seems at least a probable one , if not the most probable ; since , as 't is manifest by daily experience , that the smell occasion'd by the washing of foul Linnen with the Soap commonly used in the Netherlands , produces not the Plague ; so by our Learned Author's Observation it appears , either that there were not yet any Pestilential Effluxions in the Air of those places , which on the occasions of those washings became infected , or at least that by the addition of the fetid Effluvia of the soapy Water , those Morbifick Particles , that were dispers'd through the Air before , had not the power to introduce a malignant constitution into the Air , and to act as truly Pestilential , till they were enabled to do so by being associated with the ill-scented Effluvia of the Soap . Whether also Salutary , and , if I may so call them , Alexipharmacal Corpuscles may not be produc'd in the Air by Coalition , might be very well worth our Enquiry : Especially if we had a competent Historical Account of the yearly ceasing of the Plague at Grand Cayro . For , as I have elsewhere noted out of the Learned Prosper Alpinus , who practis'd Physick there ; and as I have also been inform'd by some of my Acquaintance who visited that vast City , that almost in the midst of Summer as soon as the River begins to rise * , the Plague has its malignity suddenly check'd , even as to those that are already infected , and soon after ceases ; so if other Circumstances contradict not , one might guess , that this strange Phaenomenon may be chiefly occasion'd by some Nitrous or other Corpuscles that accompany the overflowing Nile , and by associating themselves with what Hippocrates somewhere calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , disable them to produce their wonted pernicious Effects . To which Hypothesis suits well what is deliver'd by more than one Traveller into Egypt , and more particularly by our Ingenious Countreyman Mr. George Sandys , who not only takes notice , that about the time of the overflowing of Nilus , whose abounding with Nitre has been observed even by the Antients , there is a certain moistening Emanation diffus'd thorow the Air. To prove , sayes he * , speaking of the overflowing of Nilus , that it proceedeth from a natural Cause , this one , though strange , yet true Experiment will suffice . Take of the Earth of Egypt adjoining to the River , and preserve it carefully , that it neither come to be wet nor wasted , weight it daily , and you shall find it neither more nor less heavy until the seventeenth of June , at which day it beginneth to grow more ponderous , and augmenteth with the augmentation of the River , whereby they have an infallible knowledge of the state of the Deluge , proceeding without doubt from the Humidity of the Air , which having a recourse through all passible places , and mixing therewith increaseth the same , as it increaseth in moisture . That these Sanative Steams perform their Effects meerly because they are moist , I presume Naturalists will scarce pretend ; but that they may be of such a nature as by their Coalition with the Morbifick Corpuscles to increase their Bulk and alter their Figure , or precipitate them out of the Air , or clog their Agility , or pervert their Motions , and in a word destroy all or some Tat least of those Mechanical ▪ Affections which made those Corpuscles Pestilential : That , I say , these Antidotal Vapours ( if I may so call them ) may have these Effects upon those that formerly were Morbifick , and that so there may result from the Association of two sorts of Particles , whereof one was of a highly noxious nature , a harmless mixture , might here be made probable by several things ; but that I hope what I have lately recited about the Coalitions of the Effluvia of Spirit of Salt and of Urine ( Liquors known to be highly contrary to each other ) is not already forgotten by you . And the Experiment with which I am to conclude this Essay will perhaps make you think it possible , that the Pestiferous Steams that have already pass'd out of the Air , and invaded , but not too much vitiated , the Bodies of Men , may have their malignity much debilitated by the supervening of these Antidotal Particles . For in that Experiment you will find , that the Steams emitted into the Air from the Liquor there described , though that were actually cold , were able to reach , and manifestly to Operate , ( and that probably by way of Praecipitation , ) upon Corpuscles that were fenc'd from them by the Interposition of other Bodies ; not more porous than those of living Men. Whether the fume of Sulphur , which by many is extoll'd to prevent the Infection of the Air , do by its acid or other Particles disarm , if I may so speak , the Pestilential ones , I have not now time to inquire : No more than whether in Ireland and some few other Countries , that breed or brook no poysonous Animals , that hostility may proceed , at least in great part , from the peculiar Nature of the Soyl , which both from its superficial and deeper parts , constantly supplies the Air with Corpuscles destructive to venemous Animals . And some other Particulars , that may be pertinently enough consider'd here , you may find treated on in other Papers . And therefore at present I shall only intimate in a word , that having purposely made a visible and lasting Stain on a solid Body barely by cold Effluvia , I did by the invisible and cold Steams of another Body make in two or three Minutes a visible change in the colour of that Stain . And as for the other part of the Conjecture , ( viz. ) That Meteors may sometimes be produc'd by the Occursions of Subterraneal Effluvia , some of them of one determinate Nature , and some of another , I think I could , to countenance it , give you divers Instances of the plentiful Impregnation ) of the Air at some times , and in some places , with Steams of very differing Natures , and such as are not so likely to be attracted by the Heat of the Sun , as to be sent up from the Subterraneal Regions , and sometimes from Minerals themselves . But for Instances of this kind , I shall , for brevities sake , refer you to another Paper * , where I have purposely treated of this Subject , and particularly shewn , That though usually the Effluxions that come from under ground are ill-scented , yet they are not alwayes so ; and also that Sulphureous Exhalations even from cold , and , for the most part , Aqueous Liquors may retain their determinate nature in the Air , and act accordingly upon solid Bodies themselves , to whose Constitution those Effluvia chance to be proportionate . But one memorable Story not mention'd 〈…〉 that Discourse is too much to our present purpose to be here omitted , especially having met with it in so approved an Author as the experienc'd Agricola , who having mention'd out of antient Historians the Raining of White and Red liquors , which they took ( erroneously I doubt not ) for Milk and Blood , subjoyns , * Ut autem majorèm fidem habe amus Annalium monumentis facit res illa decantata , quae Patrum memoriâ ( in another place he specifies the Year of our Lord ) in Suevia accidit ; Aer enim ille stillavit guttas , quae lineas vestes crucibus rubris quasi sanguineis imbuebant . Which I the rather mention , because it does not only prove what I alledge it for ; but may keep , what is lately and very credibly reported to have happen'd in divers places of the Kingdom of Naples soon after the Fiery Eruption of Vesuvius , from being judg'd a Phaenomenon either altogether fabulous , ( as doubtless many have thought it , ) or a Prodigie without all example , as is presum'd even by those that think it not miraculous . And to this I add , that 't will be the less improbable , that the more agile Corpuscles of Subterraneal Salts , Sulphurs and Bitumens , may be rais'd into the Air , and keep distinct natures there , if so fixt a Body as common Earth it self can be brought to swim in the Air. And yet of this the worthy Writer newly quoted gives us , besides what Annals relate , this Testimony upon his own knowledge : * Certè hîc Kempnicii undecimum abhinc annum mense Septembri effluxerunt imbres , sic cum terra lutea commisti , ut eâ passim plateas scilicet stratas viderem conspersas . And to shew you that in some cases the Particles even of Vegetable Bodies may not so soon perish in the Air as they vanish there , but may retain distinct natures at a greater distance , than one would think , from the Bodies that copiously emit them ; I shall add , that having desir'd an ingenious Gentleman , that went on a considerable Employment to the East-Indies , to make some Observations for me in his Voyage ; he sent me among other things this Remarque : That having sayl'd along the Coast of Ceylon , ( famous for Cinnamon-trees and well-scented Gums , ) though they Coasted it almost a whole day , the Wind , that then chanc'd to blow from the shoar , brought them a manifestly odoriferous Air from the Island , though they kept off many miles ( perhaps twenty or twenty-five ) from the shoar . Nor should this be thought incredible , because the diffusion seems so disproportionate to that of other Bodies dissolved by Fluids ; as , for instance , though Salt be an active Body and resoluble into abundance of minute Particles , yet one part of Salt will scarce be tastable in an hundred parts of Water . For sensibly to affect so gross an Organ as that of our Tast , there is usually required in sapid Particles a bigness far exceeding that which is necessary to the making Bodies fit Objects for the sense of Smelling , and , which is here mainly to be considered , there is a great difference between the power a Body has to impregnate so thin and fine a Fluid as Air , whose parts are so rare and lax , and that which it has to impregnate Liquors , such as Water or Wine , whose parts are so constipated as to make it not only visible and tangible , but ponderous . On which occasion I remember that having had a Curiosity to try how far a sapid Body could be diluted without ceasing to be so , I found by Tryal , that one drop of good Chymical , and , as Artists call it , Essential Oyl of Cinnamon being duly mix'd by the help of Sugar with Wine , retain'd the determinate tast of Cinnamon , though it were diffus'd into near a quart of Wine . So that making a moderate estimate , I concluded , that upon the common supposition , according to which a drop is reckon'd for a Grain , one part of Oyl had given the specifick Tast of the Spice , it was drawn from , to near fourteen thousand parts of Wine . By comparing which Experiment with what I noted about the proportion of Salt requisite to make Water tast of it , you will easily perceive ; that there may be a very great difference in point of diffusiveness between the little Particles that make Bodies sapid : Which may serve to confirm both some part of the first Chapter of the foregoing Essay of the Subtilty of Effluvia ▪ and what I was lately saying to shew it possible , that Antimonial Glass might impart store of Steams to the Emetick Wine , without appearing upon common Scales to have lost of its weight ; since we see , that one Drop of so light a Body as Oyl may communicate not insensible Effluvia , but tastable Corpuscles to near a Quart of Liquor . But this is not all for which I mention our Experiment : for I must now add , that besides the almost innumerable Sapid parts of a spicy Drop communicated to the Wine , it thence diffused a vast number of odorous Particles into the Air , which both I , and others perceived to be imbued with the distinct scent of Cinnamon , and which perhaps the Liquor would have been found able to have Aromatized for I know not how long a time , if I had had leisure to prosecute the Observation . CHAP. V. THE third and last way I shall mention of shewing the Determinate Nature of Effluviums , is to be taken from the Consideration of their Effects upon other Bodies than the Organs of our Senses ; ( for of their Operations upon these we have already spoken in the foregoing Chapter ▪ ) For the Effects , that certain Bodies produce on others by their Effluviums , being constant and determinate , and oftentimes very different from those , which other Agents by their Emissions work upon the same and other subjects , the distinct nature of the Corpuscles emitted may be thence sufficiently gather'd . We may from the foregoing Tract of the Subtilty of Effluvia , borrow some Instances very pertinent to this place . For the temporary benumbedness or stupefaction , for example , produc'd in the Fisherman's Foot by the Effluvia * of the Fish ( Amoreatim ) mention'd by the Ingenious Piso , manifests , that those stupifying Emanations retain'd a peculiar and venemous nature during their whole passage through the Shoe , Stocking and Skin , interpos'd betwixt the Fish and the nervous part of the Foot benumb'd by it . And though there are very few other Bodies in the World , that are minute enough to pass through the pores of Glass , 't is apparent , by the Experiment there recited of the oblong Iron Hermetically seal'd up in a Glass-pipe , that the Magnetical Effluvia of the Earth may retain their peculiar and wonderful nature in a smallness that qualifies them to pass freely through the pores of Glass it self . But that I may neither repeat what you have already met with in the foregoing Tract , nor anticipate what I have to say in the next ; I will employ in this Chapter some Instances that may be spar'd from both . That divers Bodies of a Venemous nature may exercise some such Operations upon others by their Effluviums transmitted through the Air , as they are wont to do in their gross substance , is a Truth , whereof though I have not met with many , yet I have met with some Examples among Physicians . The Learned * Sennertus observes as a known thing , that the Apprentices of Apothecaries have been cast into profound Sleeps , when in distilling Opiat and Hypnotick Liquors they have received in at their Nostrils the Vapours exhaling from those Bodies . 'T is recorded by the * Writers about Poysons , that the root and juyce of Mandragora casts those , that take it , into a deep Sopor not unlike a Lethargy . And though the Apples of the same Plant be thought to be much less malignant ; yet Levinus Lemnius relates that it happen'd to him more than once , that having laid some Mandrake-Apples in his Study , he was by their Steams made so sleepy , that he could hardly recover himself ; but the Apples being taken away he regain'd alacrity , and threw off all drowsiness . Among all Poysons there is scarce any whose Phaenomena are in my opinion more strange than those that proceed from a mad Dog ; and yet even this Poyson , which seems to require Corpuscles of so odd and determinate a nature , is recorded by Physicians to have been conveyed by Exhalations . Aretaeus writes ( as a Learned modern quotes him , ) Quòd à rabido cane , qui in faciem , dum spiritus adducitur , tantummodò inspiraverit , & nullo modo momorderit , in rabiem homo agatur . And as there are relations , among Physicians , of Animals , that have become Rabiosi by having eaten of the parts or excrements of rabid Animals ; so * Caelius Aurelianus , who writes , that some have been made to run mad , not by being bitten , but wounded only with the Claws of a mad Dog , tells us also of a man , that fell into a Hydrophobia ( which is wont to be a high degree of the Rabies , and by some of the antienter Writers was employ'd to signifie that Disease ) without being bitten by a mad Dog , but infected solo odore ex rabido cane attracto . By which Odours in this and other Narratives of Poysons I understand not a bare Scholastick species , but a swarm of Effluvia , which most commonly are all or at least some of them odorous . And though it may justly seem strange to many , that the Venom of a mad Dog should be communicated otherwise than by biting , which is suppos'd to be the only way he can infect by , it may appear less improbable , because Matthaeus de Gradibus names a person , who , he says , prov'd infected after many days , by only having put his Hand into the Mouth of a mad Dog , who did not bite him . And the formerly mentioned Matthiolus relates , that he saw two , that were made rabid without any would by the slabber of a mad Dog , with which they had the misfortune to be besmear'd . * Sennertus himself affirms of a Painter of his acquainance , that , when he had open'd a Box , in which he had long kept included Realgar , a noxious Mineral , sometimes used by Painters and not unknown to Chymists , and had unfortunately snuff'd in the Steams of it , he was seis'd with a giddiness in his Head and fainting fits , his whole Face also swelling , though by taking of Antidotes he escap'd the danger . Divers other Examples we have met with in the writings of Physicians , which I forbear to add to these , because , I confess , I very much doubt the Truth of them , though the deliverers of some of them be men of Note . But the probability of most of the things already cited out of credible Authors may be strengthned by what I shall now subjoyn , as a further proof of the distinct Nature of Effluvia ; of which it will be a very considerable Proof , if Medicines , which are of a milder and more familiar nature and operation than Poysons , shall yet be able in some cases to retain , in their invisible Particles swimming in the Air , the same , ( though not so great ) power of Purging , which is known to belong to them when their gross Body is taken in at the Mouth . Of this I have elsewhere , on another occasion , given some Examples . To which I shall now add , that I know a Doctor of Physick , that is usually Purg'd by the Odours or Exhalations of a certain Electuary , whose Cathartick Operation , when it is taken in substance , is wont to be but languid . And another Doctor of my acquaintance , causing good store of the root of black Hellebore to be long pounded in a mortar , most of those , that were in the room , and especially the party that pounded it , were thereby purg'd , and some of them strongly enough . And the Learned Sennertus somewhere affirms , that some will be purg'd by the very Odour of Colocynthis . And 't is not to be pass'd by unregarded ; that in the cases I have alledg'd , Exhalations , that are endow'd with Occult Qualities , ( for those of Cathartick Medicines are reckon'd among such ) ascend into the Air without being forc'd from the Bodies they belong'd to by an External heat . And if I would in this place alledge Examples of the Operations of such Effluvia , as do not pass into the Air , but yet operate only by the contact of the External parts of the Body , I could give Instances , not only of the Purgative , but the Emetick Qualities of some Medicines exerted without their being taken in at the Mouth , or injected with Instruments . There are also other sorts of Examples than those hitherto mentioned , that argue a Determinate Nature in the Effluxions of some Bodies emitted into the Air. Approv'd Writers tell us , that the Shadow of a Walnut-tree with the Leaves on it is very hurtful to the Head ; and some Instances they give us of great mischief it has sometimes done . And though the Shadow , as such , is not likely to be guilty of such bad Effects ; yet the Effluvia of the neighbouring Plant may be noxious enough to the Head. For I , that was not at all prepossess'd with an opinion that it was so , and therefore without scruple resorted to the Shade of Walnut trees in a hot Countrey , was by experience forc'd to think it might give others the Head-ach , since it did to me , who , thanks be to God , both was , and am still very little subject to that distemper . And this brings into my mind an Observation that I have met with among some ingenious Travellers into the West-Indies , who observe in general , and of late a Country-man of our own affirms it in particular , of the poysonous Manchinello-tree , that Birds will not only forbear to eat of the Fruit of venemous Plants , but , as to some of them , will not so much as light on the Trees : Which I therefore mention , because probably Nature instructs them to avoid such Trees by some noxious Smell , or other Emanation , that offends the approaching Birds . And I remember , that some of our Navigators give it for a Rule to those that happen to land in unknown Islands or Coasts , that they may venture to eat of those parts of Fruits which they can perceive , the Birds , like kind Tasters , to have been pecking at before . Nicolaus Florentinus ( cited by Sennertus ) tells us of a certain Lombard , that having in a House , that he nam'd , at Florence , burn'd a great black Spider at the flame of a Candle , so unwarily , that he drew in the Steams of it at his Nostrils , presently began to be much disorder'd and fell into a fainting fit , and for the whole night had his Heart much disaffected , his Pulse being so weak , that one could scarce perceive he had any ; though afterwards he was cured by Treacle , Diamose , and the powder of Zedoary mixt together . And I remember , that being some years ago in Ireland , I gather'd a certain Plant ( peculiar to some parts of that Countrey ) which the Natives call Maccu-buy , because of strange Traditions that go about it ; the chief of which I found by tryal not to be true : But yet being satisfied , that its Operations were odd and violent enough , I was willing to gratifie the chief Physician of the Countrey , who was desirous I should propose to him some wayes of correcting it ; and whilst I was speaking of one that required the pounding of it , he told me on that occasion , that intending to make an extract of it with Vinegar , he caus'd his man to beat it well in a Mortar , which the man soon repented he had begun to do : And the Doctor himself , though at a pretty distance off , was so wrought upon by the Corpuscles that issued out into the Air , that his Head , and particularly his Face , swell'd to an enormous and disfiguring bulk , and continued tumid for no inconsiderable time after . I have not leisure to subjoyn many more Instances to shew the Determinate Nature of Effluviums , small enough to wander through the Air ; nor perhaps will it be necessary , if you please but to consider these two things . The first , that many odoriferous Bodies , as Amber , Musk , Civet , &c. as they will , by the adhesion of their whole substance , perfume Skins , Linnen , &c. so they will in time perfume some Bodies disposed to admit their action , though kept at a distance from them . And the other is , that in Pestilential Feavers and divers other Contagious sicknesses , as the Plague , Small-pox , or Measels , the same determinate Disease is communicable to found persons , not only by the immediate contact of the infected party ; but without it , by the Contagious Steams that exhale from his Body into the Air. And having said this and desir'd you to reflect upon it , I shall conclude this Chapter with an Experiment , that possibly will not a little confirm a great part of it . Considering then with my self , how I might best devise a way of shewing to the very Eye , That Effluvia elevated without the help of Heat , and wandering in the Air , may both retain their own Nature , and upon determinate Bodies produce Effects , that a Vulgar Philosopher would ascribe to Occult Qualities : I remember'd , that I had found by tryals ( made to other purposes ) that Volatile and Sulphureous Salts would so work upon some Acid ones sublim'd with Mercury , as to produce an odd diversity of Colours , but chiefly an Inky one ; on which account I judg'd it likely that my aim would by answer'd by the following Experiment . I took an Ounce , or better , of such a Volatile Tincture of Sulphur , as I have elsewhere * taught you to make of Quick-lime , Sulphur and Sal Armoniack , and stop'd it up in a Vial capable of containing at least twice as much ; then taking a Paper whereon something had been written with invisible Ink , I laid it down six Inches off of the Vial , which , being unstop'd , began , upon the access of the Fire , to emit white Fumes into it ; and by these , what was written upon the Paper , notwithstanding its distance from the Liquor , quickly became very legible , though not quite so suddenly , as if a Paper , written with the same clear Liquor , were held at the like distance directly over the orifice of the Vial. And having caus'd several pieces of clean Paper to be written on , with a new Pen dip'd in the clear Solution of Sublimate made in Water , 't was pleasant to see , how divers of the Letters of several of these Papers , being plac'd within some convenient distance of the Vial , would be made plainly legible , and some of them more , some less blackish , according to their distances from the smoaking Liquor , and other Circumstances . But 't was more surprizing to see , that when I held or laid some of these Papers , though with the written side upwards , just upon or over the orifice of the Vial , though the contained Liquor did not by some Inches reach so high , yet the latent Letters would become not only legible but conspicuous in about a quarter of a Minute of an Hour ( measur'd by a good Watch fit for the purpose , as more than one tryal assur'd me . ) And as it may be observ'd , that in some Circumstances the smoaking Liquor and the Solution of Sublimate will make an odd Precipitate almost of a silverish colour , so in one or two of our Tryals we found a like colour produc'd , by the Steams of that Liquor , in some of the colourless Ink. Nor is it so necessary to employ a visibly smoaking Liquor for the denigrating of invisible Ink at a distance . For I have , to that purpose , with good success , though not equal to that I have recited , employ'd a couple of Liquors , wherein there was neither Sulphur , nor Sal Armoniack , nor Sublimate . What other Tryals I made with our Volatile Tincture of Sulphur , 't is not necessary here to relate , only one Experiment , which you will possibly think odd enough , I shall not omit ; because it will not only confirm the precedent Tryals , but also much of the foregoing Essay , by shewing the great Subtilty and penetrating power of Effluviums that seem rather to issue out very faintly , than to be darted out with any briskness . Causing then something to be written with dissolv'd Sublimate upon a piece of Paper , we folded the Paper with the written side inwards , and then inclos'd this in the midst of six sheets of Paper , laid one upon another , not plac'd one within another , and folded up in the form of an ordinary Letter or packet to be seal'd , that , the edges of the enclosing Paper being inserted one within the other , the Fumes might not get into this written Paper but by penetrating through the Leaves themselves : This done , that side of the Packet , on which there was no commissure , and on which , were it to be sent away , the Superscription should be written , was laid upon the orifice of the Vial , which ( as was before intimated ) was some Inches higher than the surface of the Liquor , and left there about ten Minutes ; after which taking off the folded Papers , and opening them , we found , that the Steams had pervaded all the Leaves , in which the written Paper had been enclos'd . For , though the Leaves did not appear stain'd or alter'd , yet the formerly latent Characters appear'd conspicuous . I have not time to discourse , whether and how far this Experiment may assist us to explain some odd Effects of Thunder , or of that strange Phaenomenon , ( glanc'd at in the foregoing Chapter , ) which is said to have happen'd lately in the Kingdom of Naples after the great Eruption of Vesuvitus , which is said to have been follow'd by the appearing of the Crosses formerly mention'd , some of which have been found on the innermost parts of Linnen , that had been carefully folded up . But of these and the like things , I say , I have now no time to discourse , whether any thing derivable from our Experiment may be pertinently apply'd to their Explication . For which reason I shall add no more than that afterwards for further tryal we took a printed Book , that chanc'd to be at hand , and which we judg'd the fittest for our purpose , because the leaves being broad they might the better preserve a small Paper to be plac'd in the mid'st of them from being accessible to the Exhalations sidewise , and having put the design'd Paper into this Book , and held it to the orifice of the Vial , though there were no less than twelve leaves between them ; yet those Letters , that happen'd to be the most rightly plac'd , were made inky in the short space of three Minutes at the utmost ; though this Liquor had been so long kept and so often unstop'd to try Conclusions with it , that it had probably lost a good part of the most spirituous and piercing Particles . NEW EXPERIMENTS , To make the PARTS OF FIRE and FLAME Stable & Ponderable . BY The Honorable Robert Boyle . LONDON : Printed by WILLIAM GODBID , for Moses Pitt , at the Sign of the White Hart in Little Britain . 1673. A PREFACE ; SHEWING The Motive , Design , and Parts of the ensuing Tract . THE Inducements which put me upon the Attempt , express'd in the Title of this Essay , were chiefly these : First , I consider'd , that the Interstellar part of the Universe , consisting of Air and Aether , or Fluids analogous to one of them , is diaphanous ; and that the Aether is , as it were , a vast Ocean , wherein the Luminous globes , that here and there like Fishes swim by their own motion , or like Bodies in Whirlpools are carried about by the Ambient , are but very thinly dispers'd , and consequently that the proportion , that the Fixt Stars and Planetary Bodies bear to the diaphanous part of the World , is exceeding small and scarce considerable ; though we should admit the Sun and Fixt Stars to be Opacous Bodies upon the account of their terminating our sight : Which diffident Expression I employ , because I have elsewhere shewn by two or three Experiments , purposely devised , that a Body may appear opacous to our Eyes , and yet allow free passage to the beams of Light. I further consider'd , that there being so vast a disproportion between the diaphanous part of the World and the Globes , about which 't is every way diffused , and with which it is sometimes in great portions mingled , as in the water , which together with the Earth makes up the Globe we inhabit ; and the nature of Diaphanous Bodies being such , that , when the Sun or any other Luminous Body illustrates them , that which we call Light does so penetrate and mix it self per minima with them , that there is no sensible part of the transparent Body uninlightned ; I thought it worth the enquiry , whether a thing , so vastly diffused as Light is were some thing Corporeal or not ? And whether , in case it be , it may be subjected to some other of our Senses besides our Sight , whereby we may examine ; whether it hath any affinity with other Corporeal beings , that we are acquainted with here below ? I did not all this while forget , that the Peripateticks make Light a meer Quality , and that Cartesius ingeniously endeavours to explicate it by a modification of Motion in an Aetherial matter : But I remember'd too , that the Atomists of old , and of late the Learned Gaffendus , and many other Philosophers assert Light to be Corporeal ; and that some Tears since , though I declined to pass my Judgement about the Question , yet I had employ'd Arguments , that appear'd plausible enough to shew , That 't was not absurd to suppose , that the Sun , which is the Fixt Star most known to us , might be a Fiery Body . And therefore doubting , whether the Corporeity of Light would be in haste Determined by meer Ratiocinations , I thought it very well worth the endeavouring to try whether I could do any thing towards clearing the dispute of it by Experiments ; especially being perswaded , that , though such an attempt should be ineffectual , it would but leave the controversie in its former state , without prejudicing either of the contending Hypotheses ; and yet , if it should prove successful , the consequences of it would be very great and useful towards the explicating of divers Phaenomena in divers parts of Natural Philosophy , as in Chymistry , Botanicks , and ( if there be any such ) the allowable part of Astrologie . ( Nor perhaps would it be impossible by the help of slight Theorical alterations ; to reconcile the Experiments , I design'd , to either of the above-mention'd Hypotheses , and so as to the Explication of Light , to one another . ) To compass then , what I aim'd at , I thought , 't was fit in the first place to try , what I could do by the Union of the Sun-beams , they being on all hands confess'd to be Portions ( as I may so speak ) of true and Celestial Light : And then , I thought fit to try , what could be obtain'd from Flame ; not only because that is acknowledg'd to be a Luminary but because I hoped , the difficulties , I foresaw in the other Tryals , might be in some measure avoided in those made with Flame ; and if both sorts of them should succeed , the later and former would serve to confirm each other . According to the Method I proposed of handling these two Subjects , I should begin with some account of what I attempted to perform in the Sun-beams : But the truth is , that when I chanc'd to fall upon the Enquiry that occasion'd this Paper , besides that the time of the Year it self was not over-favourable , the weather proved so extraordinary dark and unseasonable that it was wonder'd at ; so that , though I was furnish'd with good Burning-glasses , and did several times begin to make tryals upon divers Bodies , as Lead , Quicksilver , Antimony , &c. yet the frequent interposition of Clouds and Mists did so disfavour my Attempts , that , however they were not all alike defeated , yet I could not prosecute the greatest part of them to my own satisfaction . And therefore being unwilling to build on them as yet ; I shall reserve an account of them for another opportunity ; and now proceed to the mention of that sort of Experiments which depending less on Casualities , 't was more in my power to bring to an Issue . I know I might have saved both you and my self some time and pains by omitting several of these Tryals , and by a more compendious way of delivering the rest . But I rather chose the course I have taken ; partly because the Novelty and Improbabilities of the Truth I deliver seems to require , that it be made out by a good number of Tryals ; partly because I thought it might not be altogether useless to you and your Friends , to see upon what Inducements the several steps were made in this Inquiry ; partly because I was willing to contribute something towards the History that now perhaps will be thought fit to be made of the Increment or Decrement that particular Bodies may receive by being exposed to the Fire ; and partly ( in fine ) because the Incongruity of the Doctrine here asserted to the Opinions of the Schools , and the general Prepossessions of Mankind , made me think it fit by a considerable Variety , as well as number , of Experiments to obviate , as far as may be , the differing Objections and Evasions wherewith a Truth so paradoxical may expect to be encountred . New EXPERIMENTS , To make FIRE and FLAME PONDERABLE . THough there be among the following Tryals a Diversity that invites me , as to rank them into four or five differing sorts , so to assign them as many distinct Sections ; yet for the conveniency of making the References , there will be occasion to make betwixt them , I shall wave the Distinction , and set them down in one continued Series . And because I am willing to comply with my hast , as well as to deal frankly and without Ceremony with you , I shall venture to subjoyn the naked Transcripts of my Experiments , as I had in an artless manner set them down with many others for my own remembrance among my Adversaria , without so much as retrenching some Circumstances that relate less to my present Argument , than to some other purposes . I shall then begin with the mention of a couple of Experiments , which though they might conveniently enough be referr'd to another Paper ; yet I shall here set them down , because it seems very proper to endeavour to shew in the first place , that Flame it-self may be as 't were incorporated with close and solid Bodies so as to increase their bulk and weight . Tryals of the First sort . EXPERIMENT I. [ A Piece of Copper-plate not near so thick as a Half-crown , and weighing two Drachmes and twenty-five Grains , was so plac'd with its broad part Horizontal , in a Crucible , whose bottom had a little hole in it , for Fumes to get out at , that it could not be removed from its Position , nor be easily made to drop down or lose its Level to the Horizon , though the Crucible were turned upside down : Then about an Ounce and half of common Sulphur being put into a taller and broader Crucible , that , wherein the Copper stuck , was inverted into the orifice of it , that the Sulphur being kindled , the flame , but not the melted Brimstone in substance , might reach the Plate , and have some vent beyond it at the above-mentioned hole . This Brimstone burn'd about two Hours , in which time it seem'd all to have been resolved into Flame , no flowers of Sulphur appearing to have sublimed into the inside of the upper Crucible ; and though the Copper-plate were at a considerable distance from the ignited Sulphur , yet the Flame seem'd to have really penetrated it , and to have made it visibly swell or grow thicker ; which appear'd to be done by a real accession of substance : since , after we had wip'd off some little adhering sordes , and with them divers particles of Copper that stuck close to them , the Plate was found to weigh near two and thirty Grains more than at first , and consequently to have increased its former weight by above a fifth part . ] EXPER. II. [ Having , by refining one Ounce of sterling Silver with Salt-peter , according to our way reduc'd it to seven Drachms or somewhat less ; we took a piece of the thus purified Silver , that weighed one Drachm wanting two Grains , and having order'd it as the Copper-plate had been in the former Experiment , after the flame of above one Ounce and a quarter of Sulphur , ( that Quantity chancing to be suitable to the Capacity of the Crucible ) had for about an Hour and a half beat upon it , the Silver-plate seem'd to the Eye somewhat swell'd , and the lower surface of it , that was next the flame , was brought to a great smoothness , the weight being increas'd to one Drachm five Grains and three quarters ; which increase of weight falling so short of that which was gain'd by the Copper , I leave it to you to consider , whether the difference may be attributed to the closeness and compactness of the Silver , argued by its being heavier in specie than Copper ; or to the greater congruity of the pores of Copper to be wrought on by the fiery Menstruum ; or to some other cause . ] If you should here ask me , by what Rational inducements I could be led to entertain so extravagant an expectation , as that such a light and subtile Body as Flame should be able to give an augmentation of weight to such ponderous Bodies as Minerals and Metals ; I shall now , to avoid making anticipations here , or needless repetitions hereafter , return you only this Answer : That the expectation you wonder at may justly be entertained upon the same or such like inducements , as you may easily discover in another Paper , entitled Corollarium Paradoxum . For , supposing upon the grounds there laid , that Flame may act upon some Bodies as a Menstruum , it seems no way incredible , that , as almost all other Menstruums , so Flame should have some of its own Particles united with those of the Bodies expos'd to its action : And the generality of those Particles being , ( as 't is shewn in the Paradox about the Fewel of Flames , ) either Saline , or of some such piercing and Terrestrial nature , 't is no wonder , that being wedg'd into the Pores , or being brought to adhere very fast to the little Parts of the Bodies expos'd to their action , the accession of so many little Bodies , that want not gravity , should , because of their multitude , be considerable upon a Ballance , whereon one or two , or but few of these Corpuscles would have no visible Effect . I could here , if it were expedient , mention some odd scruples about the preceding Experiments , and some also of the subsequent ; but , lest you should , with some other of my Friends , upbraid me with being too jealous and Sceptical , I will not trouble you with them ; but proceed to the next sort of Tryals , wherein , though the matter were not always manifestly beaten on by a shining Flame ; yet it was wrought on by that , which would be called Flame by those who take not that word strictly , but in a latitude , and which this Igneous substance may more properly be stiled , than it can be call'd common Fire , this being visibly harbour'd in burning Coals or other gross materials , from which our Metals were fenc'd . And I have elsewhere shewn by experiment , that Visibility is not in all cases necessary to Actual Flame , particularly when the Eye receives a predominant impression from another Light. Tryals of the Second sort . EXPER. III. INto a Crucible , whose sides had been purposely taken down to make it very shallow , was put one Ounce of Copper-plates ; and this being put into our Cupelling-furnace , and kept there two Hours , and then being taken out we weighed the Copper ( which had not been melted ) having first blown off all the ashes , and we found it to weigh one Ounce and thirty Grains . EXPER. IV. [ Supposing that Copper , being reduc'd to filings , and thereby gaining more of Superficies in proportion to its bulk , would be more expos'd to the Action of the Fire , than when 't is in places as it was formerly ; we took one Ounce of that Metal in filings , and putting them upon a very shallow Crucible , and under a Muffler , we kept them there about three Hours , ( whilst other things that required so long a time were Cupelling ; ) and afterwards taking them off , we found them of a very dark colour , not melted but caked together in one Lump , and increas'd in weight ( the ashes and dust being blown off ) no less than about forty-nine Grains . Part of which increment , above that obtained by the Copper-plates in the former Experiment , may not improbably be due to the longer time that in this Experiment the fil'd Copper was kept in the Fire . ] EXPER. V. [ Being willing to see , whether calcin'd Harts-horn , that I did not find easie to be wrought on by corrosive Menstruums , would retain any thing of the Flame or Fire to which it should be expos'd ; we weigh'd out one Ounce of small Lumps of Harts-horn , that had been burnt till they appear'd white , and having put them into a Crucible , and kept them in a Cupelling-furnace for two Hours , whilst some Metals were driving off there by the violence of the Fire ; we found , that when they were taken out , they had lost six or seven Grains of their former weight ; perhaps either because , notwithstanding the external whiteness of the Lumps , the internal Parts of some of them might not be so exquisitely calcin'd , but retain some Oleaginous or other Volatile Substance ▪ or , because , having omitted to ignite them well before they were weigh'd , they may have since their first Calcination imbib'd some moist Particles of the Air. Which conjecture seem'd the likelier , because , having kept them a while in the Scales they were weigh'd in , they did within two or three Hours make it somewhat preponderate . On which occasion I shall add , that , at the same time , with the Harts-horn we put in one Ounce of well-heated Brick , and kept that likewise in the Furnace for above two Hours ; at the end of which weighing it whilst it continued hot , we did not find it to have either sensibly got or lost ; but , some time after , it seem'd upon the Ballance to have imbib'd some , though but very little , moisture from the Air. ] EXPER. VI. [ Upon a good Cupel we put one Ounce of English Tin of the better sort , and having plac'd it in the Furnace under a Muffler , though it presently melted , yet it did not forsake its place , but remain'd upon the concave surface of the Cupel , till at the end of about two Hours it appear'd to have been well calcin'd ; and then being taken out and weighed by it self , the Ounce of Metal was found to have gained no less than a Drachm . ] EXPER. VII . [ An Ounce of Lead was put upon the Cupel , made of calcin'd Harts-horn , and placed under the Muffler after that the Cupel was first made hot and then weighed . This Lead did not enter into the Cupel , but was turn'd into a pretty kind of Litharge on the top of it , and broke the Cupel , whereby some part of the Cupel was lost in the Furnace , and yet the rest , together with the Litharge , weigh'd seven Grains more than the Ounce of Lead and the heated Cupel did when they were put in . ] But because , though this tryal shew'd that some weight was gain'd either by the Metal or Cupel , or both ; yet it did not by this appear , what either of them acquir'd ; it seem'd fit to subjoyn a further tryal . EXPER. VIII . [ We took a Cupel about two Ounces in weight , made of about ten parts of Bone-ashes , and one of Charcoal-ashes , made up together with Ale. This was by it self put in a Cupelling-furnace , under a Muffler ; and the Laborant , well vers'd in weighing , was order'd to take it out , when 't was throughly and highly heated , and to weigh it whilst 't was in that condition ( I being then present : ) This being done , 't was forthwith plac'd again under the Muffler , where some Metalline Bodies were Cupelling , and kept there for about two Hours ; at the end of which time 't was taken out red-hot , and presently put into the same Ballance , as before , which was already fastned to a Gibbet ; where having caus'd the adhering ashes to be blown off , I found , that whereas , when 't was first taken from under the Muffler , we had but two Ounces and two Grains , now the same weight being put into the opposite Scale , it had gain'd very near one and twenty Grains . And here note , that 't was not without some cause , that I was careful to have the Cupel weighed red-hot . For I had a suspition , that , notwithstanding the dryness of the Bone , it might receive some little alteration of weight by imbibing some little Particles wandering in the Air ; which suspition the event justified . For leaving the Cupel counterpois'd to cool in the Ballance , in a short time it began sensibly to preponderate ; and suffering it to continue there nine or ten hours , till we had occasion to use the Ballance , I found it at the end of that time to be about three Grains heavier than before . ] This was not the only tryal we made about the augmenting the weight of Cupels ; but this being the fairest , and exempt from those mischances , from which the other were not altogether free ; I shall content my self to have set down this : In the mention of which I thought fit to take notice of the increase of the weight of the Cupel after it had layn in the Scales , and also that we weighed it at first whilst it was throughly hot , because those Circumstnces , as not being suspected , may easily be left unthought on , even by skilful Experimenters ; and yet the weighing of the Cupel , when it had been well neal'd , and the not weighing it soon enough after 't is taken from the Fire , may keep those , that shall reiterate this Experiment , from making it cautiously and accurately enough . For if the former Circumstance be omitted , that which the Cupel may seem to have lost of its substance , was nothing but the adventitious moisture of the Air ; and if the later Circumstance be neglected , the weight , it may seem to have gain'd from the Fire , was indeed due to the waterish Particles of the Air. I could wish also , that tryal were made , whether the success would be the same in Cupels made in differing sorts of Bone-ashes , and other materials , wont to be employed for that purpose . For That I had not opportunity to do . EXPER. IX . Iron being a Metal , that experience had inform'd me will more easily be wrought on by Fluids that have Particles of a Saline nature in them , than is commonly believed ; 't was not unreasonable to expect , that Flame would have a greater Operation on it , ( especially if it were before-hand reduc'd to small Parts ) than on any of the Bodies hitherto describ'd . Which supposition will be confirm'd by the short ensuing Note . [ Four Drachms of filings of Steel being kept two Hours on a Cupel under a Muffler , acquir'd one Drachm six Grains and a quarter increase of weight . ] EXPER. X. [ A piece of Silver , refin'd in our own Laboratory , being put upon a Cupel under a Muffler , and kept there for an hour and half , whilst other things were refining , was taken out and weigh'd again , and , whereas before it weighed three Drachms , thirty-two Grains and a quarter , it now weighed in the same Scales three Drachms , thirty-four Grains and a half , or but little less . ] Finding this Memorial among divers others about the Weight of Bodies , expos'd to the Fire , I thought it not amiss to annex it in this place ; though finding it to be but single , I would not have it to be rely'd on till further tryal have been made to discover , whether it was more than a casual and anomalous Experiment ; and if the Silver had not been refin'd , I should have suspected , that the Copper , that was blended with it , as 't is usually blended with common Silver , might have occasioned the increased of weight . ( Postcript . ) Since the foregoing Experiment was first set down , meeting with an opportunity to reiterate the tryal once more , we did it with half an Ounce of filings of Silver , well refin'd with Lead in our own Laboratory , and kept it about three hours upon the Cupel ; after the end of which time taking it out , we found it to be of a less pleasant colour than it was of before , and melted ( though not so perfectly ) into a Lump , which weigh'd four Drachms and six Grains ; and yet , the success being so odd , and , if it prove constant , of such moment , I could wish the tryal were further repeated in differing quantities of the Metal . EXPER. XI . [ We took a Drachm of filings of Zink or Spelter , and having put it upon a Cupel under a Muffler , we kept it there in a Cupelling-fire about three Hours , ( having occasion to continue the Cupellation so long for other tryals ; ) then taking it off the Cupel , we found it to be caked into a brittle and dark-colour'd Lump , which look'd as if the filings had been calcin'd . This being weigh'd in the same Scales gain'd full six Grains , and so a tenth part of its first weight . ] EXPER. XII . Among our various tryals upon common Metals , we thought fit to make one or two upon a Metal brought us from the East-Indies , and there call'd Tutenâg , which name being unknown to our European Chymists , I have elsewhere endeavoured to give some account of the Metal it self ; whence I shall borrow the ensuing Note , as directly belonging to our present purpose . [ Two Drachms of filings of Tutenâg being put upon a Cupel , and kept under the Muffler for about two hours , the filings were not melted into a Lump of Metal , but look'd as if Ceruss and Minium being pouder'd had been mingled together ; some of the parts appearing distinctly white ; and others red : The Calx being put into the Ballance appear'd to have gained twenty-eight Grains and a quarter . Another time the Experiment being reiterated with the like Circumstances , we found , that two Drachms of the filed Tutenâg gained the like increase of weight , abating less than one Grain . ] So that this Indian Metal seems to have gain'd more in the fire , in proportion to its weight , than any we have hitherto made tryal of . EXPER. XIII . [ Being desirous to confirm by a clear Experiment , what I elsewhere deliver contrary to the vulgar Opinion of those that believe , that in all Cupellations almost all the Lead that is employ'd about them , does , together with the baser Metals that are to be purg'd off from the Silver or Gold , fly away in Smoak , as indeed in some sort of Cupellations a good proportion may be blown off that way : We took two Ounces of good Lead and one Drachm of filings of Copper , and having caus'd a Cupel to be ignited , and nimbly taken out of the Furnace , and weighed , whilst 't was very hot , 't was presently put back , together with the two Metals laid on it , into the Cupelling-furnace , where having been kept for about two hours , it was taken out again , and 't was found , according to what ( as I elsewhere * note ) uses to happen in such Circumstances , to have nothing on the surface of it worth weighing distinctly in the Scales , in which the Cupel with what was sunk into it amounted to four Ounces three Drachms and eleven Grains , which wanted but nine Grains of the whole weight of the Cupel and the two Metals , when they were all three together committed to the Fire . ] So that , though we make a liberal allowance for the increment of weight that may with any probability be supposed to have been attained by the Cupel and what was put upon it , yet it will easily be granted , that very much the greater part of the Metals was not driven off in Fumes , but enter'd into the Substance of the Cupel . Tryals of the Third sort . AFter having shewn that either Flame or the Analogous Effluxions of the Fire will be , what Chymists would call , Corporified with Metals and Minerals exposed naked to its action ; I thought it would be a desirable thing to discover , whether this Flame or igneous Fluid were subtile enough to exercise any such Operation upon the Light Bodies shelter'd from its immediate contact by being included in close Vessels ; but it being very difficult to expose Bodies in Glasses to such vehement Fires without breaking or melting the Glass , and thereby losing the Experiment ; I thought fit , first to employ Crucibles carefully luted together , that nothing might visibly get in or out , and of that attempt I find among my Notes the following Account . EXPER. XIV . [ We took an Ounce of Steel freshly filed from a Lump of that Metal , that the filings might not be rusty , and having included them betwixt two Crucibles , as formerly , kept them for two hours in a strong Fire , and suffer'd them to continue there till the Fire went out ; the Crucibles being unluted , the filings appear'd hard caked together , and had acquir'd a dark colour somewhat between black and blew , and were increas'd five Grains in weight . ] The foregoing Experiment being the first I mention of this kind , 't will not be amiss to confirm it by annexing the following Memorial . [ An Ounce of filings of Steel being put between the Crucibles luted together , after they had been kept about an hour and half in the fire , were taken out , and being weigh'd , were found to have gained six Grains . ] EXPER. XV. [ Two Ounces of Copper-plate were put into a new Crucible , over which a lesser was whelmed , and the commissures were closed with lute , that nothing might fall in . After the same manner two Ounces of Tin were included betwixt Crucibles , and also two Ounces of Lead ; these being put into the Cupelling-furnace were kept in a strong Fire about an hour and a half , while something else was trying there . And then being taken out , the event was , that the Copper-plates , though they stuck together , were not quite melted , and seem'd some of them to have acquir'd scales like Copper put into a naked Fire , and the two Ounces had gain'd eight Grains in weight . The Lead had broke through the bottom of the Crucible , and thereby hinder'd the design'd Observation . The Tin acquir'd six Grains in weight , and was in part brought to a pure white Calx , but much more of it was melted into a Lump of a fine yellow colour , almost like Gold , but deeper . ] The prosecution of this tryal as to the Copper-plates you will meet with in Experim . XXI . to which I therefore referr you . N. B. Because Lead in Cupellation enters the Cupel , we were willing to try , if we could so far hinder it from doing so , as to make some estimate what change of Weight the Operation of the Fire would make in it : And therefore being able already to make a near guess , how much a quantity of Tin may gain by being calcined on a Cupel , and remembring also from some of my former tryals the indisposition which Tin gives Lead to Cupellation , we mixed a Drachm of Tin with two Ounces of Lead , and exposing the mixture ( in a Cupel ) to the Fire under a Muffler , we first brought it to fusion , and then it seem'd at the top dry and swell'd and discolour'd ; notwithstanding which , having continued the Operation a good while , because of other things that were to be done with the same Fire , we were not lucky enough to bring the Experiment to an issue worth the relating here , in reference to the scope above-propos'd , though in relation to another the success was welcome enough . ] EXPER. XVI . [ Supposing that if Copper were beaten into thinner plates than those we lately us'd , and kept longer in the fire , this would have a more considerable Operation upon them , we took one Ounce of very thinly hammer'd pieces of Copper , and putting them betwixt two Crucibles ( one whelm'd over another ) as in Experim . XV. with some lute at the corners of the juncture , to keep the fire from coming immediately at the Metal , we kept them in the Cupelling-furnace about three hours , and then disjoyning the Vessels , we found the Metal covered with a dark and brittle substance , like that describ'd in the above recited Experiment . Which substance , when scal'd off , disclos'd a finely colour'd Metal , which , together with these burnt scales , amounted to one and twenty Grains above the weight that was first put in . ] If , when these things were doing , I had been furnished with a very good Lute , which is no such easie thing to procure , as Chymists , that have not frequently employed vulgar Lutes , are wont to think ; I would have made a tryal of the ensuing Experiment for a good while in the naked Fire , notwithstanding that divers Metalline Minerals will scarce be brought to fusion in Glasses , especially without such a Fire , whose violence makes them break the Vessels . For I thought , that by making a fit choice of the Metals to be employed , I could prevent that inconvenience : But wanting the Accommodations I desir'd , and yet presuming , that in a Sand-furnace I might by degrees administer heat enough to melt so fusible a Metal as fine Tin , and keep it in fusion ; I resolved to make some tryals , first upon that , and then upon another Metal . For though I was not sure of being then able to prosecute the Experiment far enough ; yet I hoped , I might at least see some Effects of my first tryal , which would enable me to guess , what I was to expect from a complete one . EXPER. XVII . [ We took then a piece of fine Block-Tin , and in a pair of good Scales weighed out carefully half a Pound of it ; this we put into a choice Glass-retort , and kept it for two days or thereabouts in a Sand-furnace , which gave heat enough to keep the Metal in fusion without cracking the Glass . Then taking out the mixture , we carefully weigh'd it in the same Scales , and found the superficies a little alter'd ( as if it were dispos'd to calcination ) and the weight to be increased about two Grains or somewhat better . ] EXPER. XVIII . [ The other Experiment , I tryed in Glasses , was with Mercury , hoping , that , if I could make a Precipitate per se in a Hermetically seal'd Glass , I should by comparing the weight of the Precipitate , and the Quick-silver that afforded it , have a clear Experiment to my purpose ; and I should have no bad one , if I could but make it succeed with a Glass , though not seal'd , yet well stop'd ; instead of those Infernal-glasses ( as they call them ) which are commonly us'd and wont to be left open ( though some slightly stop them with a little Paper or Cotton : ) But though , partly that I might a little diversifie the Experiment , and make it the more likely to succeed in one or other of the Glasses , I divided the Mercury and distributed it amongst several of them , and but a little to each , the success did not answer expectation , the Hermetically seal'd Glasses being unluckily broken ; and the Precipitation in the others proceeding so slowly , that I was by a remove oblig'd to leave the tryal imperfect ; only I was encouraged , ( in case of a future opportunity ) to renew it another time , by finding that most of the Glasses , though tall , and stop'd with fit Corks , afforded some very fair Precipitate , but not enough to answer my Design . ] Tryals of the Fourth sort . MOst of the Experiments hitherto recited , having been made as it were upon the by with others , whose exigencies 't was fit these should comply with ; very few of the expos'd Bodies were kept in the Cupelling-fire above two hours or thereabouts . Upon which account I thought fit to try , how much some Bodies , that had been already expos'd to the Fire , would gain in weight by being again expos'd to it ; especially considering , that most calcinable Bodies , ( for I affirm it not of all ) which yield rather calces than ashes by being without additament reduc'd in the Fire to fine powder , seem'd to be by that Operation open'd , or ( as a Chymist would speak ) unlock'd , and therefore probably capable of being further wrought upon and increas'd in weight by such a Menstruum as I suppos'd Flame and igneous Exhalations to be . And about this Conjecture I shall subjoyn the ensuing Tryals . EXPER. XIX . [ One Ounce of Calx of Tin , that had been made per se for an Experiment in our own Laboratory , being put in a new Cupel and kept under the Muffler for about two hours , was taken out hot and put into the Scales , where the powder appear'd to have gain'd in weight one Drachm and thirty-five Grains by the operation of the Fire , which made it also look much whiter than it did before , as appeared by comparing it with some of the Calx that had not been exposed to the second Fire : No part of the Puttie was , as we could perceive , melted by the vehemence of the Fire , much less reduc'd into Metal . ] EXPER. XX. [ Out of a parcel of filings of Steel , that had been before expos'd to the fire and had its weight thereby increas'd some Grains , not Scruples ; we took an Ounce , and having expos'd it at the same time with the Calx of Tin , and , for the same time , kept it in the Fire , we took it out at the two hours end ; and found the weight to be increas'd two Drachms and two and twenty Grains . The filings were very hard bak'd together , and , the Lump being broken , looked almost like Iron . ] EXPER. XXI . The following Experiment , though it may seem in one regard but a Continuation of the XV th ; yet it has in this something peculiar from all the foregoing , that not only it affords an instance of the increase of Weight obtain'd by a Metal at the second time of its being expos'd to the fire , but shews also , that such an increment may be had , though this second ignition be made in close Vessels . ] [ Some of the Copper mention'd in Experim . XV. being accidentally lost , one Ounce and four Drachms of what remain'd was included betwixt two Crucibles and expos'd to a strong fire for two hours , and suffer'd to continue there till the fire went out : When it was taken out , it appear'd to have gain'd ten Grains in weight , and to have upon the superficial parts of the Plates ( as we observ'd ) divers dark colour'd flakes , some of which stuck to the Metal , but more , upon handling it , fell off . ] And here I shall conclude One of the Two Parts of our designed Treatise : For , though I remember , that these were not all the Tryals that were made and set down upon the Subject hitherto treated of ; yet these are the chief , that having escaped the mischances , which befel some others , I can meet with among my promiscuous Memorials ; whose number , when I drew them together , I could scarce increase , having by all these and other Tryals of differing kinds wasted my Cupels and commodious Glasses , where I could not well repair my loss . Whether I should have been able by Reduction , specifick Gravity , or any other of the ways , which I had in my thoughts , to make any discovery of the Nature of the Substance that made the Increment of Weight in our Ignited Bodies ; the want as well of leisure , as of accommodations requisite to go through with so difficult a task , keeps me from pretending to know . But these three things , I hope , I may have gained by what has been deliver'd . The First , That we shall henceforth see cause to proceed more warily in the Experiments we make with Metals in the Fire , especially by Cupellation . The next , That it will justifie and perhaps procure an easier assent to some passages in my other Writings , that have Relation to the Substance , what-ever it be , that we are speaking of . And the third , ( which is the principal , ) That it will probably excite you , and your inquisitive Friends , to exercise their sagacious Curiosity , in discovering what kind of Substance that is , which , though hitherto overseen by Philosophers themselves , and , being a Fluid , far more subtile than visible Liquors , and able to pierce into the Compact and Solid Bodies of Metals , can yet add something to them , that has no despicable Weight upon the Ballance , and is able for a considerable time to continue fixt in the Fire . Additional Experiments , ABOUT ARRESTING and WEIGHING OF Igneous Corpuscles . EXperiments to discover the Increase in Weight of Bodies , though inclos'd in Glasses , being those that I considered as likeliest to answer what I design'd in the hitherto prosecuted Attempt , and finding the seventeenth Experiment as well as the next ( try'd upon Mercury ) to be very slow , and its performance not to be very great , I began to call to mind , what , many years ago , Experience had shewn me possible to be perform'd , as to the managing Glass-vessels , even without coating them , in a naked Fire , provided a wary person were constantly employ'd to watch them . And supposing hereupon , that , in no longer time than a Laborant might , without being tir'd , hold out to attend a Glass , a Metal expos'd in it to a naked fire might afford us a much more prosperous tryal than that lately referr'd to , I afterwards resolv'd , when I should be able to procure some Glasses conveniently shap'd , to prosecute my Design ; in pursuance of which though I had not any Furnaces fitted for my purpose , I directed a Laborant to make the following Tryals . EXPER. I. [ We took eight Ounces ( Troy weight ) of Block-Tin , which being cut into bits was put into a good round Vial with a long neck , and then warily held over quick Coals without touching them till it was melted ; after which it was kept almost continually shaken , to promote the Calcination , near an hour , the Metal being all the while in fusion , and the Glass kept at some distance from the throughly kindled Coals . The most part of this time the orifice of the Vial was cover'd with a Cap of Paper ( which sometimes fell off by moving the Glass ) to keep the Air and Steams of the Coals from getting into the neck . And at the end of this time , he that held the Glass being tir'd , and having his Hand almost scorch'd , the Vial being remov'd from the fire was broken , that we might take out the Metalline Lump , which had a little darkish Calx here and there upon the upper surface , but much more beneath , where it had been contiguous to the bottom of the Glass ; then putting all this carefully freed from little fragments of broken Glass into the same Ballance with the self-same counterpoise I had us'd before , I found , according to my Expectation , an increase of weight , which amounted to eighteen Grains , that the Tin had acquir'd by this Operation . ] EXPER. II. [ This done we separated the Calx for fear of losing it , and having melted the Metal in a Crucible , that by pouring it out it might be reduc'd to thin Plates capable of being cut in pieces , and put into such another Vial as the last ; we weigh'd it again together with the ●●tely reserv'd Calx , but found , that , notwithstanding all our oare , we had lost three Grains of the eighteen we had gain'd . This done we put the Metal into another Vial. But in regard the neck was shorter than that of the former , and could not like it be long held in ones Hand ; and because also I was willing to see what Interest the shaking of melted Tin has in the quickness of the Calcination , the Glass , which had a stopple of Paper put to it to keep out Smoak and Air , was held at some distance from the Coals , only whilst the Tin was melting ; and then was warily laid upon them and kept there for two hours , at the end of which 't was again taken off , and the Metal weigh'd with the same Counterpoise and Ballance as formerly ; and then it appear'd to amount to eight Ounces twenty-four Grains , and to have much more separable Calx than at the first time . Nor did I much wonder , that the weight should be increas'd in this last Operation but nine Grains in two hours , and in the former twice so many in half the time ; since , during the two hours , the Glass was kept in one posture , whereas in the first Operation , it was almost perpetually shaken all the while 't was kept in fusion . And 't is observ'd , that the agitation of melted Minerals will much promote the Effect of the Fire upon them , and conduce to their Calcination . ] EXPER. III. Though these Tryals might well satisfie a person not very scrupulous , yet to convince even those that are so , I undertook , in spite of the difficulties of the Attempt , to make the Experiment in Glasses Hermetically seal'd , to prevent all suspition of any accession of Weight accruing to the Metal from any Smoak or Saline Particles getting in at the mouth of the Vessel . And in prosecution of this design I thought upon a way of so Hermetically sealing a Retort , that it might be expos'd to a naked fire without being either crackt or burst ; an Account of which Tryal was thus set down . [ Eight Ounces of good Tin carefully weigh'd out was Hermetically seal'd up in a new small Retort with a long neck , by which 't was held in ones Hand , and warily approach'd to a kindled Charcoal-fire , near which the Metal was kept in fusion , being also ever now and then shaken for almost half an hour , in which time it seem'd to have acquir'd on the surface such a dark colour as argued a beginning of Calcination , and it both emitted Fumes that play'd up and down , and also afforded two or three drops of Liquor in the neck of the Retort . The Laborant being not able to hold the Glass any longer , 't was laid on quick Coals , where the Metal continued above a quarter of an hour longer in fusion ; but before the time was come that I intended to suffer it to cool in order to the removing it , it suddenly broke in a great multitude of pieces , and with a noise like the Report of a Gun ; but ( thanks be to God ) it did no harm neither to me nor others that were very near it . In the neck we found some drops of a yellowish Liquor , which a Virtuoso that tasted it affirm'd to be of an odious but peculiar Sapor ; and as for the Smell , I found it to be very stinking , and not unlike that of the distill'd Oyl of Fish . ] But , though our first Attempt of this kind had thus miscarried , we were not thereby discourag'd , but in prosecution of the same design made the ensuing Tryal . EXPER. IV. [ The Tin which had been before ( in the first or some such Experiment ) partly calcin'd in a Glass , being melted again in a Crucible , that it might be reduc'd to pieces small enough to be put into another Glass , was put again into the Scales , and the surplusage being laid aside , that there might remain just eight Ounces ; these were put into a Bolt-head of white Glass with a neck of about twenty Inches long , which being Hermetically seal'd ( after the Glass had been a while kept over the fire , lest that should break by the rarefaction of the Air , ) the Metal was kept in fusion for an hour and a quarter , as ( being hinder'd by a Company of strangers from being there my self ) the Laborant affirm'd . Being unwilling to venture the Glass any longer , it was taken from the fire , and when 't was grown cold , the seal'd end was broken off ; but before I would have the bottom cut out , I observ'd , that the upper surface of the Metal was very darkly colour'd , and not at all smooth , but much and very odly asperated ; and the lower part had between the bottom and the lower part of the Lump a pretty deal of loose dark-colour'd Calx , though the neighbouring surface and some places of the Lump it self look'd by Candle-light ( it being then Night ) of a golden Colour . The Lump and Calx together were weigh'd in the same Scales carefully , and we found the weight to have increas'd twenty-three Grains and better , though all the Calx , we could easily separate , being weigh'd by it self amounted not to four Scruples or eighty Grains . ] For Confirmation of this Experiment I shall subjoyn another , wherein but a quarter of so much Metal was employed with such success as the annexed Memorial declares . EXPER. V. [ Two Ounces of filings of Tin were carefully weigh'd and put into a little Retort , whose neck was afterwards drawn slenderly out into a very small Apex ; then the Glass was plac'd on kindled Coals , which drove out fumes at the small orifice of the neck for a pretty while . Afterwards the Glass ; being seal'd up at the Apex , was kept in the fire above two hours ; and then being taken off was broken at the same Apex ; whereupon I heard the outward Fire rush in , because when the Retort was seal'd the Air within it was highly rarified . Then the body of the Glass being broken , the Tin was taken out , consisting of a Lump , about which there appear'd some gray Calx and some very small globuls , which seem'd to have been filings melted into that form . The whole weigh'd two Ounces twelve Grains , the later part of which weight appear'd to have been gain'd by the Operation of the Fire on the Metal . In the neck of the Retort , where it was joyn'd to the body , there appear'd a yellowish and clammy substance thinly spread , which smelt almost like the foetid Oyl of Tartar. ] EXPER. VI. To vary the foregoing Experiments by making Tryals on a Mineral that is held to be of a very Metalline nature , but is not a true Metal , nor will be brought to fusion by so moderate a Heat as will suffice to melt Tin , and yet has parts less fixt than Tin , as being far more easily sublimable , we thought fit to make the following Experiment . [ We took an Ounce of filings of Zinke carefully weigh'd , and having as carefully put them into a round Bolt-glass , we caus'd the neck to be drawn out very slender , and then order'd the Laborant to keep it upon quick Coals for the appointed time . Afterwards returning home , I call'd for the Glass , which he said he had kept four hours upon the Coals ; answering me also , that there did for a great part of the time Smoak appear to ascend from the Zink and get out at the unstopt Apex . And in effect I observ'd , that the upper part of the Glass was lin'd with Flores or Sublimate of a darkish gray . The Glass being dextrously cut asunder , we took out not only the filings of Zinke , some of which were melted into little globuls , but the Flores too , and yet weighing all these in the same Scales , we had us'd before , we found five Grains and somewhat better wanting of an Ounce . Which we the less wonder'd at , because of the continuance of the lately mention'd Exhalations emitted by the filed Mineral . ] EXPER. VII . For more ample confirmation of the truth discover'd by what I have been reciting about Tin , I thought fit to try the like Experiment upon another Metal , which though of somewhat more difficult fusion than Tin , I had reason to think might , if employed in a moderate quantity , and warily managed , be kept melted in Glass without breaking it . And accordingly having carefully weigh'd out four Ounces of good Lead cut before-hand into pieces little enough for the orifice of the Glass , I caused them to be put into a small Retort with a long neck , wherein was afterwards left but an orifice not much bigger than a pins head : Then leaving directions with the Laborant what to do , because I was my self call'd abroad , at my return he brought me together with the Glass , this Account : That he had kept it over and upon the Coals two hours , or better , and then supposing the danger of breaking the Glass was over , he had sealed it up at the little Orifice newly mention'd , and kept it on the Coals two hours longer . Before the Glass ( which I found to be well seal'd ) was broken , I perceived the pieces of Lead to have been melted into a Lump , whose surface was dark and rugged , and part of the Metal to have been turn'd into a dark-colour'd Powder or Calx : All this being taken out of the Retort , was weigh'd in the same Ballance , whereon the Lead appear'd to have gain'd by the Operation somewhat above thirteen Grains . EXPER. VIII . To shew that Metals are not the only Bodies that are capable of receiving an increase of Weight from the Fire , I thought fit to make upon Coral a tryal , whereof my Memorial gives me this Account . [ Little bits of good red Coral being Hermetically seal'd up in a thin bubble of Glass , after two Drachms of them had been weigh'd out in a pair of nice Scales , were warily kept at several times over and upon kindled Coals , and at length being taken out for good and all , were found of a very dark Colour , and to have gain'd in weight three Grains and about a half . ] EXPER. IX . One Experiment there is , which , though it might have come in more properly at another place , is not to be omitted in this because it may invite us to consider , whether in the foregoing Experiments , excepting those made on Lead and Tin in seal'd Vessels , there may not be more of the Fire adherent to or incorporated with the Body expos'd to it , than one would conclude barely from the recited Increments of their Weight . For having taken very strong fresh Quick-lime provided on purpose for choice Experiments , and expos'd it , before the Air had time to slake it , upon the Cupel , to a strong fire where it was kept for two hours ; I found that it had increas'd in weight even somewhat beyond my expectation : For being seasonably put into the Ballance , the Lumps that weigh'd , when expos'd , but two Drachms , amounted to two Drachms and twenty-nine Grains ; which makes this Experiment a pregnant one to our purpose . For by this it appears , that notwithstanding a Body may for many hours , or even for some days , be expos'd to a very violent Fire , yet it may be still capable of admitting and retaining fresh Corpuscles ; so that , though well made Lime be usually observ'd to be much lighter than the Stones whereof 't is made ; yet this lightness does not necessarily prove , that , because a burnt Lime-stone has lost much of its matter by the Fire , it has therefore acquir'd no matter from the Fire ; but only inferrs , that it has lost far more than it has got . And this may give ground to suspect , that in most of the foregoing tryals the accession of the fiery Particles was greater ( though in some more , in others less so , ) than the Ballance discover'd ; since , for ought we know , divers of the less fixt Particles of the expos'd Body might be driven away by the vehemence of the Heat ; and consequently the Igneous Corpuscles that fastned themselves to the remaining matter might be numerous enough , not only to bring the accession of Weight that was found by the Scales , but to make amends for all the fugitive Particles , that had been expell'd by the violence of the Fire . And since so fixt a Body as Quick-lime is capable of being wrought upon by the Igneous Effluvia , so as that they come to be as 't were incorporated with it , it may perchance be worth considering , whether in other calcin'd or incinerated Bodies the remaining Calces or Ashes may not retain more than the bare Impression ( unless that be stretch'd to mean some participation of a substance , ) of the Fire . Whether these Particles that adhere to or are mingled with the stony ones of the Lime may have any thing to do in the Heat and tumult that is produc'd upon the slaking of Lime , this is not a fit place to examine . And though by this Experiment and those made in seal'd Retorts , which shew that what is afforded by Fire may in a Corporeal way invade , adhere and add Weight to even fixt and ponderous Bodies , there is a large Field open'd for the Speculative to apply this Discovery to divers Phaenomena of Nature and Chymistry ; yet I shall leave this Subject unmedled with in this place . A DISCOVERY Of the PERVIOUSNESS OF GLASS TO PONDERABLE PARTS OF FLAME . With some Reflexions on it by way of COROLLARY . Subjoyned as an Appendix to his Experiments about Arresting and Weighing of IGNEOUS CORPUSCLES , BY. The Honorable ROBERT BOYLE . LONDON : Printed by W. G. for M. Pitt at the sign of the White Hart , over-against the little North Door of St Paul's Church . 1673. A DISCOVERY OF The Perviousness of GLASS TO Ponderable Parts of FLAME . THAT I might obviate some needless scruples that may be entertain'd by suspitious Wits upon this Circumstance of our Additional Experiments , That the Glasses employ'd about them were not exposed to the Action of mere Flame , but were held upon Charcoals , ( which to some may seem to contain but a Grosser kind of Fire : ) And that also I might , by diversifying the way of tryal , render such Experiments both more fit to afford Corollaries , and more serviceable to my other purposes , I attempted to make it succeed with a Body so thin and disingaged from gross matter as mere Flame is allowed to be , knowing , that by going cautiously with it to work , one might handle a Retort without breaking it , in spite of a violent agitation of kindled matter . EXPER. I. Supposing then that good common Sulphur by reason of its great Inflammability and the vehemency and penetrancy of its Flame , would be a very fit fuel for my purpose , I provided a small double Vessel so contrived , that the one should contain as many Coals as was necessary to keep the Sulphur melted , and that the other , which was much smaller , and shap'd like a Pan , should contain the Brimstone requisite for our Tryal ; and ( lastly , ) that these two should be with a convenient Lute so joyned to one another , that all being clos'd at the top , save the orifice of the little Pan , ( the fire and smoak of the Coals having their vent another way , ) no fire should come at the Retort to be employed , but the flame of the burning Brimstone . Then two ounces of filings of Tin being heedfully weigh'd out , and put into a Glass-Retort provided for such Tryals , and made fit to be easily seal'd up at the neck , when the time should be convenient , the Sulphur ( which ought to be of the purer sort ) was kindled , and the Glass by degrees exposed to it ; where it continued , as the Laborant inform'd me , ( the smell of Brimstone , peculiarly offensive to me , forbidding me to be present , ) near two hours before the Metal melted ; after which he kept the Retort near an hour and half more with the Metal melted in it . Then bringing it me to look upon , I perceived a pretty deal of darkish Calx at the bottom , and partly too upon the surface of the far greater part of the Metal , which now lay in one Lump . The part of the Retort that had been seal'd being broken off , we first took out the Calx , and then the Lump , and putting them into the Scales , they had been formerly weigh'd in , found them to have made a very manifest acquist of weight , which , if both the Laborant and I be not mistaken , ( for the paper , which should inform us , is now missing ) amounted to four grains and a half , gained by the recited Operation . Afterwards , we being grown more expert in making such Tryals , the experiment was repeated with the same quantity of filings of the same Metal : At the end of the Operation , ( which in all lasted somewhat above three hours ) having broken off the seal'd neck of the Retort , we found , that a good proportion of dark-colour'd Calx had been produc'd . This being weighed with the uncalcin'd part of the Metal , the two ounces we first put in appear'd to have acquir'd no less than eleven grains and a half ( and somewhat better . ) Such Superstructures , both for number and weight , may possibly in time be built on this and the like Experiments , that I shall venture to obviate even such a scruple as is like to be judg'd too Sceptical . But I remember , that , considering upon occasion of some of the Experiments formerly recited , that though it were very improbable , yet it did not appear impossible , that the increment of Weight , acquir'd by Bodies expos'd in Glass-vessels to the Fire , might proceed , not from the Corpuscles of Fire , but from the Particles of the Glass it self , loosened by the power of so intense a Heat , and forcibly driven into the inclos'd Body ; I was content to take a couple of Glasses , whereof one was shap'd into a little Retort , and having weigh'd them , and then having kept them for a considerable time upon kindled Coals , and then weigh'd them again , I could gather little of certainty from the Experiment , ( the Retort at one time seeming to have acquir'd above half a grain in the fire , ) save that there was no likelihood at all , that so considerable an increase of weight , as we divers times obtain'd in close vessels , should proceed from the Glass it self , and not from the Fire . EXPER. II. Because it seems evident enough , that , whatever Chymists tell us of their Hypostatical Sulphur , common Brimstone is a body Heterogeneous enough , having in it some parts of an oyly or inflammable nature , and others acid ; and very near of kin to the Spirits of Vitriol ; I thought fit to vary our Experiment , by making it with a liquor that is generally reputed to be as Homogeneous as Chymists themselves are wont to render any , I mean with a Spirit of Wine , or some such liquor as will totally flame away without affording Soot , or leaving any drop of Phlegm behind it . In prosecution of this design , we carefully weighed out an ounce of filings of Block-Tin , and put them into a Glass-Retort , fit for the purpose , whose neck was afterwards drawn out to a great slenderness ; and we also provided a conveniently shap'd metalline Lamp , such as that the flame of this ardent Spirit might commodiously burn in it , and yet not melt nor crack it ; which Lamp , though furnished with a Cotton wick , afforded no Soot , because as long as it was supplied with liquor enough , it remained unburnt . These things being in readiness , the Retort was warily approach'd to the flame , and the Metal was thereby in a short time melted . After which the Glass being kept expos'd to the same flame for near two hours in all , the seal'd apex of the Retort was broken off , and there appear'd to have been produc'd a not inconsiderable Quantity of Calx , that lay loose about the remaining part of the Tin , which , upon its growing cold , was harden'd into a Lump . This , and the Calx , being taken out of the Retort with care , that no little fragment of Glass should at all impose upon us , was weigh'd in the same Scales as formerly , and found to have gain'd four grains and a half , besides the Dust that stuck in the inside of the Retort , of which we reckon'd enough to make about half a grain more ; so that of so fine and pure a flame as of this totally ardent Spirit , enough to amount to five grains was arrested , and in good measure fixt by its operation on the Tin it had wrought upon . EXPER. III. For confirmation of the former tryal , wherein we had imployed the Spiritus ardens of Sugar , we made the like experiment with highly Rectified Spirit of Wine , only substituting an ounce of Lead instead of one of Tin. The event , in short , was this ; that after the Metal had been for two hours or better kept in the flame , the seal'd neck of the Retort being broken off , the external Air rush'd in with a noise , ( which shew'd the Vessel to have been very tight , ) and we found pretty store of the Lead ; for 't was above seven scruples , turn'd into a grayish Calx , which together with the rest of the Metal being weigh'd again , there was very near , if not full , six grains of increase of weight acquir'd by the Operation . 1. N. B. The Lump of Lead , that remain'd after the newly recited Operation , being separated from the Calx , was weighed and cut in pieces , that it might be put into a fresh Retort , wherein it was again expos'd to the flame of Spirit of Wine , that I might satisfie my self , whether probably the whole Body of the Lead might not , by repeated Operations , or ( perhaps by one continued long enough ) be reduc'd to Calx . And though , after the Retort ( whose neck had been drawn out ) had been kept in the flame for about two hours , it was , by the negligence of a Foot-boy , unluckily broken , and some of the Calx lost ; yet we made a shift to save about five grains of it , ( whose colour was yellowish ; ) which was enough to make it likely , that , if we had had conveniency to pursue the Operation to the utmost , the whole Metal might have been calcin'd by the action of the flaming Spirit . 2. N. B. And lest you should be induc'd by some Chymical conceits to imagine , that the particles that once belong'd to flame , did make more than a Coalition with those of the Lead , and by a perfect Union were Really transmuted into the Metal whose weight they increas'd ; I shall add , that ( according to a Method elsewhere deliver'd ) I examin'd the seven scruples of Calx , mention'd to have been made in the third Experiment , by weighing them in Air and Water , and thereby found , as I expected , that though the absolute Gravity of the Metal had been increas'd by the particles of Flame that stuck fast to it , yet this Aggregate of Lead and extinguish'd Flame had lost much of its specifick Gravity . For , whereas Lead is wont to be to Water of the same bulk , as about eleven and a half to one , this subtil Calx of Lead was to Water of the same bulk little , if at all , more than as nine to one . These are not the only Experiments I made of the Operation of meer Flame upon Bodies inclos'd in Glasses ; but these , I suppose , are sufficient to allow me to comply with my present haste , and yet make good the Title prefixt to this Paper . For , whence can this increase of absolute weight ( for I speak not of specifick Gravity , ) observ'd by us in the Metals expos'd to the mere flame , be deduc'd , but from some ponderable parts of that Flame ? And how could those parts invade those of the Metal inclos'd in a Glass , otherwise than by passing through the pores of that Glass ? But , because I judge it unphilosophical , either to more careful that what one writes should appear strange , than be true ; or to be forward to advance the repute of Strangeness , to the prejudice of the Interest of Truth , though it be perhaps but a remote one , or a collateral one ; I shall deal so impartially , as to subjoyn on this occasion two or three short Intimations , that may prove both seasonable for Caution , in reference to the Porousness of Glass , and give a hint or two in relation to other Things . I do not then by the foregoing Experiments pretend to make out the Porosity of Glass any farther , than is exprest in the Title of this Paper ; namely , in reference to some of the Ponderable parts of Flame . For otherwise I am not at all of their mind , that think Glass is easily penetrable , either , as many do , by Chymical Liquors ; or , as some , by Quicksilver ; or , as others , at least by our Air : Those opinions not agreeing with the Experiments I made purposely to examine them , as you may find in another Paper . Again , if we compare the Increase we observe to be made in the Weight of the Bodies that we expose to the naked Fire , and those of the same or the like kinds that we included in Glasses , or so much as in Crucibles ; it may be worth considering , Whether this difference in acquir'd weight may not give cause to suspect , that the Corpuscles , whereof Fire and Flame consists , are not all of the same size , and equally agitated , but that the interpos'd Vessel keeps out the grosser Particles like a kind of Strainer , though it gives passage to the minutest and most active ? I offer it also to Consideration , Whether this perviousness of Glass , even to the minute particles that pervade it , and their adhesion to the Metal they work on , does necessarily imply Pores constantly great enough to transmit such Corpuscles ? or , Whether it may not be said , that Glass is generally of a closer Texture , than when in our Experiments the pores are open'd by the vehement Heat of the flame that beats upon it , and in that state may let pass Corpuscles too big to permeate Glass in its ordinary state ; and that this penetration is much assisted by the vehement agitation of the Igneous parts , which by the rapidness of their motion both force themselves a passage through the narrow pores of the Glass , and pierce deep enough into those of the included Body to stick fast there ; ( as hail-shot thrown with ones hand against a board , will pass off from it , but being shot out of a Gun will pierce it , and lodge themselves in it ? ) And I know a Menstruum that does not work upon a certain Metal whilst the liquor is cold , or but faintly heated , and yet by intending the Heat would be made to turn it into a powder or Calx , ( for it does not properly dissolve it . ) Perhaps it may not be amiss to add on this occasion , that though Glass be generally acknowledged to have far smaller pores , than any other matter wont to be implyed to make vessels , that are to be expos'd to the fire ; yet till I be farther satisfy'd , I shall forbear both to determine , whether the rectitude , that some Philosophers suppose in the pores of Glass , as 't is a transparent body , or rather in their ranks or rows , may facilitate the Perviousness we above observ'd in Glass , and to conclude from the foregoing Experiments , that ponderable parts of Flame will be able as well to pass through the pores of Metalline vessels as those of Glass . For though , with a silver vessel , made merely of plate without Soder , I made two or three Tryals ( of which you may command an account ) in order to the resolving of these doubts ; yet by an accident , which , though it were not a surprizing one , was unlucky enough to defeat my endeavours , I was kept , for want of fit Accommodations , from bringing my intended tryals to an issue . And now having endeavour'd by the foregoing Advertisements to prevent the having unsafe Consequences drawn from our Experiments ; it remains that I briefly point at three our four Corollaries that may more warily be deduc'd from them . To which , if I get time , I may subjoyn a hint or two about further Inquiries . COROLLARY I. Confirming this PARADOX , That Flame may act as a Menstruum , and make Coalitions with the Bodies it works on . THE Experiments , we have made and recited of the premeating of Flame ( as to some of its parts ) through Glass-vessels , and of its working on included Metals , may much confirm the Paradox I have elsewhere propos'd , That Flame may be a Menstruum , and work on some Bodies at the rate of being so ; I mean not only by making a notable Comminution and Dissipation of the parts , but by a Coalition of its own particles with those of the fretted Body , and thereby permanently adding Substance and Weight to them . Nor is it repugnant to Flames , being a Menstruum , that in our experiment the Lead and Tin , expos'd to it , were but reduc'd to powder , and not dissolv'd in the form of a Liquor , and kept in that state . For , besides that the interpos'd Glass hinder'd the Igneous particles from getting through in plenty enough ; I consider , that 't is not necessary , that all Menstruums should be such Solvents , as the objection supposes . For whether it be ( as I have sometimes suspected , ) that Menstruums , that we think simple , may be compounded of very differing parts , whereof one may precipitate what is dissolved by the other ; or for some other Cause , I have not now time to discuss . Certain it is , that some Menstruums corrode Metals and other Bodies without keeping dissolved all , or perhaps any considerable part ; as may be seen , if you put Tin in a certain quantity of Aqua fortis , which will in a very short time reduce it almost totally to a very white substance , which , when dry , is a kind of Calx . And so by a due proportion of Oyl of Vitriol , abstracted from Quicksilver by a strong fire , we have divers times reduc'd the main body of the Mercury into a white powder , whereof but an inconsiderable part would be dissoluble in water . And such a white Calx I have had by the action of another fretting Liquor on a Body not Metalline . And having thus clear'd our Paradox of the oppos'd Difficulty , my haste would immediately carry me on to the next Corollary , were it not , that there is one Phaenomenon belonging to this place that deserves to be taken notice of . For , whether it be , as seems probable , from the vehement agitation of the permeating particles of Flame , that violently tear asunder the Metalline Corpuscles , or from the nature of the Igneous Menstruum , ( which being as 't were percolated through Glass it self , must be strangely minute , ) 't is worth observing , how small a proportion , in point of weight , of the additional adhering Body may serve to corrode a Metal , in comparison of the Quantity of vulgar Menstruums that is requisite for that purpose . For , whereas we are oblig'd to imploy , to the making the solution of crude Lead , several times its weight of Spirit of Vinegar , and ( though not so many times ) even of Aqua fortis , 't was observ'd in our Experiment , that , though the Lead was increas'd but six grains in weight , yet above six score of it were fretted into powder , so that the Corrosive Body appear'd to be but about the twentieth part of the corroded . COROLL . II. Proposing a PARADOX about Calcination and Calces . Another Consequence , deducible from our discovery of the perviousness of Glass to Flame , may be this ; That there is cause to question the Truth of what is generally taken for granted about Calcination , and particularly of the notion , that not only others , but Chymists themselves , have entertain'd about the Calces of Metals and Minerals . For , whereas 't is commonly suppos'd , that in Calcination the greater part of the Body is driven away , and only the Earth , to which Chymists add the Fixt Salt , remains behind ; and whereas even Mechanical Philosophers , ( for two or three of Them have taken notice of Calcination , ) are of opinion , that much is driven away by the violence of the fire ; and the remaining parts by being depriv'd of their more radical and fixt moisture are turn'd into dry and brittle particles : Whereas these Notions , I say , are entertain'd about Calcination , it seems , that they are not well fram'd , and do not universally hold ; since , at least they are not applicable to the Metals , our Experiments were made on . For , it does not appear by our Tryals , that any proportion , worth regarding , of moist and fugitive parts was expell'd in the Calcination ; but it does appear very plainly , that by this Operation the Metals gain'd more weight than they lost ; so that the main body of the Metal remain'd intire , and was far from being , either as a Peripatetick would think , Elementary Earth , or a compound of Earth and Fixt Salt , as Chymists commonly suppose the Calx of Lead to be . From which very erroneous Hypothesis they are wont to inferr the sweet Vitriol of Lead , which they call Saccharum Saturni , to be but the sweet Salt of it extracted only by the Spirit of Vinegar , which does indeed plentifully enough concurr to compose it . Whence I conclude , that the Calx of a Metal even made ( as they speak ) per se , that is , by fire without additament , may be , at least in some cases , not the Caput mortuum , or Terra damnata , but a Magistery of it . For , in the sense of the most intelligible of the Chymical Writers , that is properly a Magistery wherein the Principles are not separated , but the bulk of the Body being preserved , it acquires a new and convenient form by the addition of the Menstruum or Solvent imployed about the preparation . And , not here to borrow any Argument from my Notes about particular Qualities , you may guess , how true it is , that the greatest part of the Body , or all the radical moisture is expell'd in Calcination , which therefore turns the Metal into an arid unfusible powder ; by this , That I have several times from Calx of Lead reduc'd corporal Lead . And I remember , that having taken what I guess'd to be but about a third or fourth part of the Calx of Lead , produc'd by the third Experiment ; I found by a tryal purposely devis'd , that without any Flux-powder or any additament , but meerly by the application of the Flame of highly Rectified Spirit of Wine , there could in a short time be obtain'd a considerable proportion of malleable Lead ; whereof the part I had the Curiosity to examine , was true malleable Lead ; so little was the arid powder , whence this was reduc'd , depriv'd by the foregoing Calcination of the suppo'sd radical moisture requisite to a Metal . The Consideration of what may be drawn from this Reduction in reference to the Doctrine of Qualities belongs not to this place . COROLL . III. One use , among the rest , we may make , by way of Corollary , of the foregoing Discovery , which is in reference to a Controversie warmly agitated among the Corpuscular Philosophers themselves . For , some of them , that follow the Epicurean or Atomical Hypothesis , think , that when Bodies are expos'd in close vessels to the fire , though the Igneous Corpuscles do not stay with the Bodies they invade , yet they really get through the Pores of the interpos'd Vessels , and permeate the included Bodies in their passage upwards ; whereas others , especially favourers of the Cartesian Doctrine , will not allow the Atomists Igneous Corpuscles , which they take to be but vehemently agitated particles of Terrestrial matter , to penetrate such minute pores as those of Glass ; but do suppose the operation of the fire to be perform'd by the vehement agitation made of the small parts of the Glass , and by them propagated to the included Bodies , whose particles by this violent Commotion are notably alter'd , and receive new Textures , or other modifications . But our Experiments inform us , that , though neither of the two Opinions seems fit to be despised , yet neither seems to have hit the very mark ; though the Epicurean Hypothesis comprize somewhat more of the Truth than the other . For , though it be not improbable , that the brisk agitation communicated by the small parts of the Glass to those of the Body contain'd in it , may contribute much to the effect of the fire ; and though , by the small increment of weight , we found in our expos'd Metal , 't is very likely , that far the greater part of the Flame was excluded by the close Texture of the Glass ; yet on the other side 't is plain , that Igneous particles were trajected through the Glass , which agrees with the Epicureans ; and they , on the other side , mistook , in thinking that they did but pass through , and divide and agitate the included Bodies ; to which nevertheless our Experiments shew , that enough of them , to be manifestly ponderable , did permanently adhere . Whether these Igneous Corpuscles do stick after the like manner to the parts of meat , drest by the help of the fire , and especially roast-meat , which is more immediately expos'd to the action of the fire , may be a question , which I shall now leave undiscuss'd , because I think it difficult to be determin'd , though otherwise it seems worthy to be consider'd , in regard it may concern mens Health , to know , whether the Coction of meat be made by the fire , only as 't is a very hot body , or whether it permanently communicates any thing of its substance to the meat expos'd to it : In which ( last ) case it may be suspected , that not only the degree and manner of application of a fire , but the nature of its fuel may be fit to be consider'd . COROLL . IV. The Experiments above recited give us this further Information , That Bodies very spirituous , fugitive , and minute , may , by being associated with congruous particles , though of quite another nature , so change their former Qualities , as to be arrested , by a solid and ponderous Body , to that degree , as not to be driven away from it by a fire intense enough to melt and calcine Metals . For , the foregoing Tryals ( taking in what I * lately deliver'd of the lessen'd specifick Gravity of calcin'd Lead ) seems plainly enough to discover , that even the agitated parts of flame , minute enough to pass through the pores of Glass it self , were as 't were entangled among the metalline particles of Tin and Lead , and thereby brought to be fixt enough to endure the Heat that kept those Metals in fusion , and little by little reduc'd them into calces : Which is a Phaenomenon that one would not easily look for , especially considering how simple a Texture that of Lead or Tin may be suppos'd to be in comparison of the more elaborate structures of very many other Bodies . And this Phaenomenon , which shews us , what light and fugitive particles of matter may permanently concurr to the Composition of Bodies ponderous and fixt enough , may perchance afford useful hints to the Speculative ; especially if this strict Combination of spirituous and fugitive substance with such , as being gross or unwieldy , are less fit than organiz'd matter to entangle or detain them , be applied , ( as it may be with advantage ) to those aggregates of spirituous Corpuscles , and organical Parts , that make up the Bodies of Plants and Animals . And this hint may suggest a main Inference to be drawn from the Operations of the Sun-beams on appropriated subjects , supposing it to prove like that of flame on Tin and Lead . And now having dispatch'd our COROLLARIES , we might here inquire , Whether all the particles of Fire and Flame , that are subtile and agitated enough to penetrate Glass , and fasten themselves to included Bodies , be reduc'd by Ignition to the same nature , or else retain somewhat of their proper Qualities ? Which Inquiry I have some cause not to think so undeterminable , as at first blush it may appear . For , one of the ways , that may be propos'd for this Examen , is already intimated at the close of the third Experiment , which shews , that we may compare the specifick Gravity of the Calces of the same Metal , made in Glasses by the operation of Flames ; whose fuels are of very differing Natures . And I said , one of the ways , because 't is not the only way I could name , and have partly tryed . But though I might say more concerning Expedients of this kind , and could perhaps propound other Inquiries that may reasonably enough be grounded upon the hitherto recited Phaenomena ( and those of some other like tryals , ) yet I must not unseasonably forget , that the pursuit of such Disquisitions would lead me much farther than I have now the leisure to follow it . ERRATA . Pag. 44. l. 19. r. some Metals work ; pag. 1. in the Discourse about the Determinate Nature of Effluviums , add the name of the Author , viz. By the Honorable ROBERT BOYLE . FINIS . The Printer to the Reader . IT hath been thought , it might be the Interest of the Reader , especially Foreiners , to be advertised , That these Essays are already Translating into Latin , and beginning also to be printed in that Language ; which that it may duly be done , both as to this and the Author 's other Writings , to be publisht for the future , the greater care will be taken here , because it hath been several times found both at home and elsewhere , that the Versions made of them abroad , and not in the place , where in case of any difficulty the Author may be consulted with by the Latin Interpreters , are often very defective , and not seldom injurious to the sense he hath deliver'd them in . Which being consider'd by those that desire to know the genuine sense of the Author , 't is presumed , they will rather choose those Versions , which are made by persons that have that advantage of comsulting him in any case of doubt , than such as shall mis-inform them ; notwithstanding the pretence of a cheaper rate of the Book . Which being thus advertised , the Printer taketh this opportunity of farther acquainting the Reader from the Latin Interpreter , that these Essays , to his knowledge , were ready and in the Press several Months before Dr. Bartholin's Acta Philosophica & Medica appear'd in England , in which there are two or three passages that may seem of affinity with some to be met with in the latter part of the Papers about Experiments of Arresting the parts of Flame , and of making them Ponderable . A Catalogue of the Writings Publisht by The Honorable ROBERT BOYLE . 1. SEraphick Love. London , for Henry Herringman , 1660. in 8o. 2. New Experiments Physico-Mechanical , touching the Spring of the Air , and its Effects . Oxford , for Thomas Robinson , 1660. in 8o. In Latin : Oxford ; for the same , 1661. in 8o. 3. Certain Physiological Essays ; to which is added , The Physico-Chymical Essay about the Differing parts , and Redintegration of Salt-peter ; as also , the History of Fluidity and Firmness . London , for Henry Herringman , 1661. in 4o. In Latin ; London , by the same , 1661. in 4o. 4. Some Considerations touching the Style of the H. Scriptures . London , for H. Herringman , 1661. in 8o. 5. The Sceptical Chymist . London , for John Crook , 1661. in 8o. In Latin ; London , for the same , in 8o. 1662. 6. A Defence of the Doctrine touching the Spring and Weight of the Air , against the Objections of Franciscus Linus . London , for Tho. Robinson , 1662. in 4o. 7. An Examen of Mr. Hobbes his Dialologus Physicus de Natura Aeris ; with an Appendix touching Mr. Hobbes his Doctrine of Fluidity and Firmness . London , for Tho. Robinson , 1662. in 4o. 8. Vsefulness of Experimental Philosophy . Oxford , for Rich. Davies , 1663. in 4o. 9. Experimental History of Colours . London , for H. Herringman , 1664. in 8o. In Latin : London , for the same , 1665. in 12o. 10. History of Cold. To which is added , an Examen of Antiperistasis , and of Mr. Hobbes his Doctrine of Cold. London , for John Crook , 1665. in 8o. 11. Hydrostatical Paradoxes . Oxford , for Rich. Davies , 1666. in 8o. In Latin ; Oxford , for the same , 1669. in 12o. 12. Origine of Forms and Qualities . Oxford , for Rich. Davies , 1667. in 8o. In Latin ; Oxford , for the same , 1669. in 12o. 13. Free Considerations about Subordinate Forms . Oxford , for Rich. Davies , 1667. in 8o. In Latin ; Oxford , 1669. 14. Continuation of New Experiments Physico-Mechanical touching the Spring and Weight of the Air , and the Atmosphere of Consistent Bodies . Oxford , for Rich. Davies , 1669. in 4o. 15. Of the Absolute Rest of Solid Bodies . London , for H. Herringman , 1669. in 4o. In Latin ; London , for the same , 1672. in 12o. 16. Several Tracts ; viz. An Introduction to the History of Particular Qualities : Of Cosmical Qualities and Suspitions : Of the Temperature of the Subterraneal and Submarine Regions : Of the bottom of the Sea. Oxford , for Rich. Davies , 1671. in 8o. In Latin ; London , for the same , 1672. in 12o. 17. Small Tracts ; viz. Of a Discovery of the admirable Rarefaction of the Air , even without Heat : New Observations about the Duration of the Spring of the Air : New Experiments touching the Condensation of the Air by meer Cold , and its Compression without Mechanical Engins : The admirably Differing Extension of the same Quantity of Air rarified and compressed . London , for H. Herringman , 1670. in 4o. In Latin ; London , for the same , 1670. in 12o. 18. Of the Vsefulness of Natural Philosophy , Tom. 2. Oxford , for Rich. Davies , 1671. in 4o. 19. An Essay about the Origine and Virtue of Gems . London , for Moses Pitt , 1672. in 8o. In Latin ; London , for the same , 1673. in 12o. 20. Several Tracts , containing New Experiments touching the Relation betwixt Flame and Air , and about Explosions : An Hydrostatical Discourse answering some Objections of Dr. Henry More : An Hydrostatical Letter , dilucidating an Experiment about a way of weighing Water in Water : New Experiments of the Positive or Relative Levity of Bodies under Water : Of the Air 's Spring on Bodies under Water : About the differing Pressure of Heavy Solids and Fluids . London , for Rich. Davies , 1672. in 8o. 21. Essays , of the strange Subtilty , the great Efficacy , and the Determinate Nature of Effluviums . To which are annext , New Experiments to make Fire and Flame Ponderable ; together with a Discovery of the Perviousness of Glass . London , for Moses Pitt , 1673. in 8o. 22. A Dialogue concerning the Positive or Privative nature of Cold ; by a Member of the R. Society : And a Discourse about the Saltness of the Sea ; and another of a Statical Hygroscope ; together with some Phaenomena of the force of the Air 's Moisture . To which is added a Paradox about the Natural and Praeternatural State of Bodies , especially the Air. London , for Rich. Davies , 1673. in 8o. Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A28965-e200 And some that were publish'd An. 1669. under the Title of The Atmospheres of consistent Bodies . Notes for div A28965-e600 This Essay was designed to be but a part of the Author's Notes upon his Essay about Salt-peter . In a Paper about Improbable Truths . In some Papers about Flame . * A Discourse of Pores of Bodies , and Figures of Corpuscles . * As Quercetanus , Libavius , Zabata , Burggravius . ** As Vidius , Paraeus , Caesalpinus , &c. * Lib. 6. Observ . 22. * Lib. 4. de Eeb. cap. 3. * Libr. 3. Con. 17. * Lib. 4. de Peste . Notes for div A28965-e3210 * Of the Pores of Bodies , and Figures of Corpuscles . * The Vsefulness of Experimental Philosophy . Notes for div A28965-e4530 * Lib. 1. Meteor . cap. 3 , & 4. * Cap. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * About Cosmical Suspitions . * Tract . de Peste , lib. 2. cap. 3. * The Plague which here miserably rageth upon the first of the Flood doth instantly cease ; in so much as when five Hundred dye at Cayro the day before , which is nothing rare , ( for the sound keep company with the sick , holding Death fatal , and , to avoid them , Irreligion , ) not one doth dye the day following ; says Mr. Sandys in his Travels , Lib. 2. * Mr. Sandys in the Book above-cited . * An Essay of Subterraneal Exhalations . * Agric. de Nat. eorum quae effluunt è Terra , Lib. 12. pag. 236. * Agric. de Nat. eorum quae è Terra effluunt , Lib. 12. pag. 263. * See the Essay of the Subtilty of Effluviums , Chap. 4. * Lib. 6. parte 7. cap. 1. * In Explicatione Herbarum Biblicarum , cap. 2. * Libro 3. Acutor . Morbor . * Sennert . Libr. 6. part . 6. cap. 2. * The Liquor here mention'd is , for the main , the same with that describ'd by the Author in his Book of Colours , Experiment the 〈…〉 Notes for div A28965-e7550 * Essay the sixth of the Useful . of Nat. Philos . Notes for div A28965-e9840 * Exp. III. N. B. 2. 
A42035	----	Curiosities in chymistry being new experiments and observations concerning the principles of natural bodies / written by a person of honour ; and published by his operator, H.G. Person of honour. 1691 Approx. 156 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 61 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2008-09 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A42035 Wing G1877 ESTC R9237 12253362 ocm 12253362 57199 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A42035) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 57199) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 146:6) Curiosities in chymistry being new experiments and observations concerning the principles of natural bodies / written by a person of honour ; and published by his operator, H.G. Person of honour. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. [3], 103 [i.e. 113], [2] p. Printed by H.C. for Stafford Anson ..., London : 1691. Ascribed by BM to Robert Boyle; not in Fulton. An attempt to prove that water is "the only first material principle of natural bodies". Advertisements ([2] p.) at end. Reproduction of original in Harvard University Libraries. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. 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Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Chemistry -- Early works to 1800. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-12 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2007-02 Robyn Anspach Sampled and proofread 2007-02 Robyn Anspach Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Imprimatur , Tractatus Cui Titulus Curiosities in Chymistry . Sept. 30. 1690. Ex Aedibus Collegij . Guall . Charleton . Proefes Coll. Med. Lond. Censore . Tho. Burwell , J. Gordon , Will. Dawes , Tho. Gill. Curiosities in Chymistry : BEING NEW EXPERIMENTS AND Observations Concerning the PRINCIPLES OF Natural Bodies . Written by a Person of HONOUR , and Published by his Operator , H. G. LONDON : Printed b● H.C. for Stafford Anson , at the Three Pigeons in St. Paul's Church-yard , 1691. NEW EXPERIMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS Concerning the PRINCIPLES OF NATURAL BODIES . The Introduction . THE Ingenious Author of this Treatise has herein laid a great many Experiments and Observations together , in order to prove that Water is the only first Material Principle of Natural Bodies ; and that all the other pretended Hypostatical Principles are ultimate and reducible into mere Elementary Water . Wherefore to give a brief and perspicuous account of his Reasonings upon this Subject , he has thought it expedient to reduce them to the following Propositions . Sect. I. The Ardent Spirits of Vegetables are nothing else but the Oleous Particles of these Vegetables subtilized by Fermentation , and thereby dissolved in , and united to some part of their own Phlegm . FOR Lavender , Rue , Marjoram , &c. distilled without addition , and without a previous Fermentation , afford an Oyl , but never yield any burning Spirit . Whereas after Fermentation they yield an ardent Spirit , but no Oyl ; which is a manifest proof , that the inflamable Oyl is converted into an inflamable Spirit : especially , since by the lasting action of the Air upon this Spirit , the Oleous part will at last be brought to separate it self from the phlegm and swim above it . Moreover if you pour Oyls in small quantity upon Fermenting Vegetables , they will come over in Distillation in the form of Spirits . As for the Spirits of Aniseeds , Wormwood , and such other Oleous and Aromatick Vegetables , that are prepared with Spirit of Wine without any previous Fermentation ; they are nothing else but the Oyls of these Vegetables that the Spirit of Wine has imbibed and carried up along with it in Distillation . For this Spirit , being it self no other thing than the Oyl of Wine Dissolv'd in Phlegm , will presently imbibe any Aromatick Oyl dropt into it . Hence it is , that , in the Preparation of Spirit of Aniseeds , the Oleous part of the Spirit of Wine imbibes as much of their Oyl as it can receive , and the rest ( for they abound with Oyl ) being joyn'd with the Phlegmatick part of the Spirit of Wine , compose a Milk-coloured Liquor , ( as all Oyls do when they are mixed with Water , which we see daily in the Preparation of Emulsions ) whose Oily parts may be imbibed by fresh Spirit of Wine , and by that means yield Spirit of Aniseeds anew . Finally , 't is upon the account of their Oleous nature , that ardent Spirits are so Inflamable ; and that they so much weaken the Corroding Acidity of Aqua fortis , as to render it innocent enough to be taken inwardly , though they themselves be endowed with a certain Volatile Acid. Sect. II. The Spirits of Vegetables , made by Incineration , are nothing else but the Volatile Salts of the Tartar of these Plants , dissolved in their own Phlegm . FOR they consist of the Effluvia that ascend from the Plants , while their Tartar is a Calcining into a fixt Salt , kept from flying away into the Air , by reason of the peculiar structure of the Furnaces , &c. imployed in this kind of Incineration : and are therefore altogether of the same nature with Spirit of Soot , or even with the genuine bitterish Alcaline Spirit of Tartar of Wine . N.B. Since in the Juice of Grapes , the Alcali and Acid , mutually Coagulated , obtain the name of Tartar , Why should not the same Salts , con-coagulated in the Juices of other Vegetables , though endowed with very different Seeds , obtain the same Appellation , rather than that of Essential Salts ? For there is really , in the Juices of all Vegetables , a Tartar not unlike to that of Wine . So that the Spirits , prepared by the Incineration of Plants , do , like that of Vinous Tartar , proceed from the Tartars of these Plants ; which seeing they consist of the same Salts , namely Alcaly and Acid , those Spirits are indeed nothing else but these Salts in a Fluid state . Hence if genuine Spirit of Tartar be drawn off from an Alcalisate Salt , the Volatile Acid being left in the fixt Alcaly , it will strike your Nose with the pungent scent of a Volatile Urinous Salt. Sect. III. The Alcaline Vrinous Spirits of Animals are nothing else , but the Volatile Salts of these Animals , dissolved in a little of their own Phlegm . [ FOR , 1. If you put Spirit of Urine , or any other Urinous Spirit , well rectified , into a glass conveniently shaped , a gentle heat will sublime good store of dry Volatile Salt into the slender neck of the Glass , leaving a weak Phlegmatick Liquor in the bottom ; which would be mere insipid Phlegm , if it could be perfectly freed from the Volatile Salt that 't is yet impregnated with , and from the subtle Particles of Oyl that generally , if not constantly , ascend together with these Spirits , and continue invisibly mixed with them ( though never so well rectified , even to a perfect transparency ) for a long time , 'till at length by the action of the Air , or evaporation of the Volatile Salt ( if the Glass be not very well stop'd ) or the intestine motion of the parts of the Liquor , though it be , the Particles of Oyl begin to seperate themselves from the rest of the Liquor , and gather together into numerous little drops , which , though they be singly invisible , yet render the whole Liquor muddy and of a reddish colour . 2. In the Distillation , for instance , of Fermented Urine , or of Sal Armoniack mingled with a fixt Salt , usually the Volatile Salt sublimes at first in a dry form ; but if you continue the Distillation , so much of the Phlegm will ascend as shall dissolve all your Volatile Salt , and wash it it down into the Receiver , where you have it in the form of a Spirit . 3. If you dissolve , in common Water Distilled , as much Volatile Salt of Human Blood ( for instance ) as it will take up , and Distil this mixture , you will by that means obtain a Liquor , that by its smell , tast , and divers Operations , appears to be a good brisk Spirit of Human Blood ; as that incomparable promoter of Experimental Philosophy , Mr. Boyle , has observed in his late useful Treatise about Human Blood. The same is to be said of the Alcaline Spirits , that are Distilled from Peas , Beans , and some other Vegetables : For they appear by divers effects to be much of the same nature with Urinous Spirits . ] Sect. IV. The Acid Spirits of Minerals ( as Sea-salt , Vitriol , Sulphur , &c. ) are nothing else but the Acid Salts of these Minerals freed from the more Terrestrial Parts , united with a little Phlegm , and so reduced into a fluid state by the force of the fire . FOR you may reduce them to a dry Salt by pouring them upon an Alcaly . For instance , Spirit of Vitriol , after it has been imployed to corrode Iron , and the superfluous moisture evaporated , recorporifies into Vitriol . And Spirit of Nitre , satiated with Salt of Tartar or any other fixt Salt , turns into Nitre again after evaporation . Moreover these Acid Spirits are often found upon the Corks ( that stop the Glasses wherein they are kept ) in a dry saline form . The same is to be said of the Acid Spirits of Vegetables , as that of Vinegar , Tartar , Guaiac , &c. which are nothing else but Essential Salts dissolved in Phlegm . Sect. V. The Oyls or Sulphurs of Vegetables are nothing else but Volatile Salts concentrated , in union with an unctuous inflamable Acid ; which by its unctuosity hinders them to mix readily with Water , as all Salts use to do . THerefore Helmont often affirms , that Vegetable Oyls may be turned into Volatile Salts . But however that be , being joyned with fixt Salts , they turn into a Soap ; and if they be frequently drawn off , they are thereby at last resolved into mere Elementary Water : which is also true of all Fermented ardent Spirits , since they are but Oyls dissolved in Phlegm . Thus Spirit of Wine , drawn off from Salt of Tartar , leaves its seminal Acid behind it , and comes over weak and Phlegmatick : and if this abstraction be often reiterated , it is thereby at length resolved into pure Elementary Water , as will be more fully declared hereafter . There is a certain Vegetable Sulphur , found in Charcoals before they be burnt to ashes , by vertue whereof they glow . It is separated by means of Alcali's and Precipitation . This Sulphur is of a golden colour , and of no contemptible use : but if the Charcoal be Distilled in a Retort with an open fire , it turns , like all other Sulphurs , into an Acid Spirit , which being poured upon the fixt Salt of the Caput mortuum , makes an effervescence with it , and so is Coagulated into a Salt. Sect. VI. The Sulphurs of Animals , namely Oyl and Fat , are also nothing else but Volatile Alcaline Salts concentrated , and somewhat suppressed by an occult Acid ( that is not manifest to sense ) so that they cannot make any Effervescence with manifest Acids . THESE Volatile Salts may be discovered after the very same manner with those of Vegetable Oyls . Yea , sometimes Dogs-grease , for instance , exposed in a Glass to the Sun , sublimes into a Volatile Salt without any other art : and 't is , upon the sole account of this Volatile Salt , that it has been found beneficial to the exulcerated Lungs of Consumptive persons . The Oyl of Harts-horn also may be sublimed into a Volatile Salt. Sect. VII . The Acid Oyls of Minerals ( as Vitriol , Sulphur , Allom , Sea-salt , &c. ) are not true Oyls , but Acid Salts concentrated ; and differ not from the fore-mentioned Acid Spirits of the same Minerals , but in that they are less diluted with Phlegm . Sect. VIII . All Mineral Sulphurs , if they be kindled , turn into a very Acid saline Spirit . THE fixt incombustible Sulphurs of Metals , that Helmont speaks of , are ( if there be any such Sulphurs ) reducible into a Salt , since the same Author informs us , that the Metals themselves may be totally reduced to an aequiponderant Salt , and this into insipid Water . As for the Earthy part of Natural Bodies , being useless and of no activity , it scarcely uses to be reckoned amongst the Principles . And however Helmont informs us , that the Liquor Alcahest turns this Earth into Water , by depriving it of its Essence , i. e. of its seminal vertue . From what has been said it appears that all those substances , that the vulgar Chymists obtain from Bodies by the Fire , and style Principles , are reducible to Salts and and Phlegm ( or Water . ) Now our ingenious Author goes on to prove , at great length , that even , Sect. IX . All sorts of Salts , whether Acid or Alcalisate , Fixt or Volatile , are finally reducible to Elementary Water . HERE first of all 't is to be acknowledged , that Salts do naturally exist in Bodies before they have suffered the Fire : although in many Bodies , as Woods , Flints , &c. the Salts are so bound up , by reason of the close contexture of the Parts of these Bodies , that they cannot easily be put into motion and dissolved , and therefore do not affect the Organs of tast , 'till the concretion of the Parts be dissolved , and the scattered saline Particles be brought together and Colliquated by the Fire . Nor is it true , that the Terrestrial Particles are turned into Salts by the Operation of the Fire : for , Why is it then that Ashes , once Elixiviated , will not yield one grain more of Salt , though you Calcine them again ? Why do not any Terrestrial Particles acquire a saline tast by the Operation of the Fire ? But yet , Sect. X. The fixt Salts of Vegetables , prepared by Calcination , were not naturally pre-existent in that form , but are produced of the Volatile Salts , colliquated amongst themselves and with the Earthy Particles , by the force of the Fire . 'T IS true , there naturally exists , in the Juice of Grapes and of all other Vegetables , a Tartar so fixt as to be inodorous , and to endure the Air ( though not the Fire ) without flying away . Which fixtness proceeds from the Acid , that saturates the Volatile Alcali of this Tartar ; as we see in the Volatile Salt of Urine , Soot , &c. which being satiated with Spirit of Salt , are thereby fixed into Sal-Armoniack , that has no smell . The Fermentation of the Juices , pressed out of Apples , Pears , &c. is a manifest proof of this Tartarous Salt ; for there can be no Fermentation without Acid and Alcaly , which are the constituent Principles of Tartar. But there is no Salt , pre-existent to Calcination in any Vegetable , so fixt as to endure the Fire as well as the Air. For , First , the ordinary way of preparing fixt Salts , is , by burning the dried Vegetables to Ashes in an open Fire , Lixiviating these Ashes by decoction in common Water , and exposing this Lee to some heat , 'till the greatest part of the Water being Evaporated , the saline Particles , formerly dispersed in the Pores of the Liquor , unite together for want of room into Crystals , of different Figures , according to the diversity of the seminal Acid. Others Distill a certain Acid seminal Spirit from the Plant , reduced to Ashes by a moderate Fire , and Lixiviate the Salt that remains in the retort with this Spirit . Again others , instead of this Acid , cast a little Sulphur upon the Salt , when 't is highly Calcined , whose seminal Acid gives a certain form to the Salt , in place of that which the extreme Calcination had destroyed ; lest , if the Salt were wholly destitute of a seminal Acid , it should resolve into Elementary Water , as shall be made out hereafter . But Tachenius's method is the best ; namely , to reduce the Plants , whilst they are fresh and green , into black Ashes with a very gentle Fire , so as they may not break out into a manifest flame ; to Calcine these Ashes to whiteness in an Earthen Pot over the fire , stirring them ever now and then ; after this to Lixiviate them with common Water ; to evaporate the Lee to the consistence of Honey ; then to urge it with a moderate Fire to browness : and last of all to dissolve and Chrystallise it . One pound of Ashes , prepared after this manner , will yield near four ounces of very pure fixt Salt : whereas four pound Calcined by the former methods , will scarce yield one ounce . The reason of so great a difference , depends partly upon the greenness of the Plants , and partly upon the moderateness of the Fire imployed to Calcine them . For dried Plants ( for instance Wormwood ) do always afford less fixt Salt than green ones ; whence it manifestly follows , that by Exs●iccation some Saline Particles are carried away with the Aqueous ones , which would have composed a part of the fixt Salt , if the Plant had been Calcined while it was green : now these Salts could not fly away unless they were Volatile . Again , as the Volatile Salts of a Plant are spent by the action of the Air in Exsiccation , so are they likewise by the action of the Fire in Calcination ; and this so much the more , by how much the Fire is more violent ; for the Particles of a manifest flame , being in exceeding quick motion , excite the Volatile Salts to a swifter motion , and consequently a more copious avolation , than those of a gentle smothering Fire . Secondly , If you take the Soot that ascends in the Calcination of Tartar , ( otherwise called the Spirit of Tartar , ) and put it back again to the Caput mortuum , you will thereby much increase the quantity of the fixt Salt : And if all the Volatile saline Particles of Tartar could be kept from flying away in Calcination , they would all turn into a fixt Salt. But if all of them were driven away , 't were not possible to obtain one grain of fixt Salt : which yet never happens , because they cannot all fly away at once , but one after another ; so that those , which were to fly away last , are by reason of their longer stay in the fire , Colliquated , and so fixed ; and that partly by the Acid Particles that feed the flame ( and condense the smoak into Soot ) and partly by the Earthy Particles , commixed with the Volatile Salts that are Coagulated in the Fire . Thirdly , 'T is impossible to extract one grain of fixt Salt from any Vegetable , not yet calcined to Ashes , that is , so long as there remains any smoke , or the least motion , of the Vegetable Particles ( such as we see in glowing Charcoal ; ) but when this motion ceases , 't is a sign that all the remaining Particles are Coagulated and fixed . Fourthly , Soot is nothing else but a heap of Volatile Particles Coagulated together , and yet by Calcination it affords a considerable quantity of fixt Salt ; which must proceed from the Colliquation of the Volatile Salts , since there can be none but such in Soot : for fixt Salts are so constant in the Fire that they cannot ascend in the form of Flame or Smoak , and consequently cannot enter the composition of Soot . And that the Salts of Soot are Volatile , is also manifest from hence , that , by means of Spirit of Salt , they may be turned to Sal-Armoniack , and consequently ( when the Acid Spirit is separated by the addition of a fixed Alcali ) into a Volatile and highly Urinous Salt. So that the matter , of which the fixt Salt of Soot consists , are these Volatile Salts of Soot , one Acid and another Urinous , Colliquated together and with the Terrestrial Particles , by the force of the Fire . Nor can it be said , that the fixt Salt of Soot was carried up by the Volatile ; for ( besides that there was no fixt Salt pre-existent in the mixt Body ) by this means it would be no more a fixt but a Volatile Salt : and if we consider the proportion of the fixt Salt of Soot to the weight of the Soot it self , it will easily appear , that Soot contains not enough of Volatile Salt to elevate such a quantity of Fixt , since that ought to exceed this almost in a triple proportion . Thus though if you mingle fixt Salt of Tartar , with a sufficient proportion of its own , or any other , Volatile Salt , and commit this mixture to sublimation , our Author denies not but that some parts of the fixt Salt will be elevated by the other Salt ; yet he affirms , that these are not integral parts , but have lost the nature of a fixt Salt , and are really turned into a Volatile one , because this sublimation separates them from the Terrestial Particles , their union with which was the only thing that kept them in a fixt state . In the like manner Spirit of Wine , being digested with fixt Salt of Tartar , and drawn off by Distillation , carries along with it some of the saline Particles ( whence it is said to be Tartaris'd , ) but no Terrestrial ones , and consequently no fixt Salt but a Volatile . Again , as 't is impossible to obtain one grain of fixt Salt from Soot , before a violent Calcination , so the quantity of the fixt Salt is increased by all the same methods that restrain the Volatile from flying away in this Calcination : namely if it be Calcined in a close Vessel , with an intense Fire at the beginning , ( that the Volatile Salts may be the sooner colliquated , before they can have time to fly away ) then beaten , and kept stirring over the Fire 'till it be of a cineritious colour . The Soot also , that ascends in the Calcination of Soot , being put back again to the Caput Mortuum , increases the quantity of the fixt Salt. Fifthly , Whatsoever separates the Terrestrial parts from any fixt Salt , does at the same time destroy its Fixity , and Volatilise the saline parts . Which our Author makes out by several Experiments . 1. If you pour Spirit of Salt , by degrees , upon a Lee of Salt of Tartar , ( or of any other Alcalisate Salt , ) 'till it be almost satiated , ( which is known by the abating of the Effervescence , ) you shall observe a kind of Earth precipitate out of the fixt Salt , ( namely because , upon the mutual conflict , between an Acid and an Alcali , whatsoever heterogeneous substance is contained in either of them uses to precipitate . ) The Earthy part of the Salt of Tartar being thus separated , the saline part is thereby render'd Volatile , and would actually fly away , were it not for the Acid that fixes it anew : and if you separate this Acid , by the addition of new Salt of Tartar , it will by this means be set at liberty , and strike your Nostrils with an Urinous odour . Thus , if you separate the Liquor from the precipitated Earth by Filtration , then reduce it to Crystals by evaporation , and last of all , mingle an equal quantity of Salt of Tartar , with these Crystals in a Mortar ; the Acid rit Spirit will joyn it self to this new Salt of Tartar , and so the Volatile Alcali , being freed from the Acid , flies away . Nor can it be said , that the forementioned Earth did but externally adhere to the Salt of Tartar , and was not intimately united with it by Colliquation ; since the experiment succeeds with Oyl of Tartar per deliquium , though it be clear and limpid like Rock-water : but observe , that the Earth does not fall out of the Pores of the Oyl of Tartar , 'till the Salts have attain'd the point of saturation , and then the Liquor , that was lympid before , begins to look troubled ; and when the Glass has stood a while , a whitish colour'd substance settles to the bottom . But the Volatile Salt , that is separated from the Oyl of Tartar , is weaker than that which is separated from the dry Salt ; because Salts approach so much the nearer to the nature of Elementary Water , by how much the easier they run per deliquium . 2. In the very same manner , and for the same reason , a Volatile Urinous Salt may be obtain'd from the Caput mortuum of Sal-Armoniac , by the addition of new fixt Salt. For in Sal-Armoniack there is a somewhat fixt Acid Spirit , combined with the Volatile Salt of Urine and Soot ; which Acid , being imbib'd by the Salt of Tartar , ( that is mingled with the Sal-Armoniack immediately before Distillation , ) the Volatile Salt is set at liberty , and presently flies away . And in the mean time , the forementioned Acid dissolves the Union , between the Earthy and Saline Particles of the Salt of Tartar , and thereby renders the saline ones Volatile ; which therefore , so soon as they are freed from this Acid , by the addition of new Salt of Tartar to the Caput mortuum , do presently ascend , even without Fire , with a most piercing Urinous odour . And even from this second Caput mortuum you may obtain a Volatile Salt , by the addition of a third portion of Salt of Tartar. 3. The Volatilisation of Salt of Tartar , by the help of Vinegar , depends upon the same Principle . For they pour Vinegar upon the Salt of Tartar , and draw it off very Phlegmatick ; for the Acid Salt is left in the Salt of Tartar. Then they pour on fresh Vinegar , and abstract it as before ; and reiterate this Operation so often , 'till the Vinegar came over as Acid as when it was poured on : which is a sign that the Salt of Tartar is now satiated with the Acid of the Vinegar , and consequently Volatilis'd by the separation of the Earth that fix'd it . For if you pour Vinegar upon the Lee of Tartar , to the point of saturation , the Earth of the Tartar will presently precipitate . 4. The Preparation of Balsam of Samech is of no small affinity to this ; namely , the Volatilisation of Salt of Tartar , by a frequent abstraction of Spirit of Wine from it . For the Spirit that is first poured on , though it were highly rectifi'd , comes off Phlegmatick , with very great loss of its igneous vertue ; because 't is in great part turned into a Water , by being rob'd of its seminal Acid. But , so soon as the Salt of Tartar is fully satiated with this Acid , ( which cannot be without reiterating the abstraction of fresh Spirit a great many times , since Salt of Tartar requires a great quantity of the strongest Vinegar to satiate it , though the Acidity of Vinegar be manifest and more fixt , whereas that of Spirit of Wine is occult and Volatile , ) and the Spirit comes off without loss of strength , the Alcali of the Tartar is found to have been Volatilis'd , by being separated from the Earth that fix'd it . Hence you may observe a sweetness in the Spirit of Wine Tartarised , which argues , that the Acid Particles of the Spirit are Converted into sweet ones , by being Coagulated in the Alcalisate ones of the Salt of Tartar that ascend with them ; in like manner as when Vinegar is Coagulated in Saturn or Mars . N. B. 'T is not necessary , in this Operation , to separate the Acid from the Volatilis'd Alcaly , before this Alcaly can be made to ascend , as it was in the Experiments made with Spirit of Salt and Vinegar ; because the Acid of the Spirit of Wine is much more Volatile than that of Spirit of Salt or Vinegar , and therefore , tho' it be Coagulated in the Volatilis'd Alcaly , yet it hinders not it's Volatility . 5. The same Observation holds of Oyl of Cinnamon ( and the like Distil'd Oyls ) which being long Digested and Circulated with it's own Fixt Salt , Volatilizes it , and is together with it totally converted into a Volatile Salt , if Helmont rightly informs us , And 't is easy to understand the reason of this , if we consider that there is an Acid in all distill'd Oyls , as well as in Spirit of Wine and all other Inflamable Substances ; which we shall manifestly prove hereafter . 6. In the Fermentation of Salt of Tartar with its own proper Ferment , namely Crude Tartar ; the Acid of the latter Precipitates the Earth of the former ; ( from eight ounces of each the Author has seen two Drams of Earth separated ) but the Volatilis'd Alcaly , being kept under the power of this Acid , does not yet manifest it self : so that the Volatile Urinous Salt which is obtain'd from hence , does not so much proceed from the Salt of Tartar , as from the Crude Tartar , on which the Salt of Tartar operates in this case , much after the same manner as it uses to do as Sal-Armoniac . Which is the more probable , because a very piercing Urinous Salt may be obtain'd from Crude Tartar alone , without any Salt of Tartar , only by the addition of an equal weight of Crude Alum , as Dan. Ludovicus informs us . 7. Oyl of Tartar per deliquium , digested with Flowers of Sulphur in a gentle heat , emits Particles extremely Urinous ; which effect the Author attributes to the Acid of the Sulphur : and adds , that , having had occasion to reduce faetid Oyl of Harts-horn into a soap with a certain Alcalisate Salt , the Glass grew warm without any External Heat , and a strong Urinous Odour pierc'd his Nose . [ I am apt to think that this Odour came not from the Alcalisate Salt , as the Author seems to believe , but from the Oyl of Harts-horn , which without doubt contains an Urinous Salt in it . And if it contain an Acid also , as the Author thinks it does , the Incalescence might proceed from some conflict betwixt this & the Alcalisate Salt , which being united together , the Urinous Salt was perhas thereby set at liberty from the Acid that formerly detain'd it . ] The like Odour is observable in the Salt produc'd by frequent abstraction of Spirit of Wine from Salt of Tartar : Where the Author observes that some , after they have several times pour'd Spirit of Wine upon warm Salt of Tartar and abstracted it again , do last of all pour on Oyl of Vitriol , and then obtain the Volatile Salt by the addition of fresh Salt of Tartar. Which Experiment , tho' the Author has not try'd , yet he judges it may succeed ; since the Terestrial parts of the Salt of Tartar may be separated by the Oyl of Vitriol , and the Alcaline parts , being united with this Acid , may be set at liberty by the addition of new Salt of Tartar. Here the Author takes occasion to discourse of the Vertues of Salt of Tartar Volatilis'd , and affirms that it has no peculiar Effects , ( neither in the Curing of Diseases , nor in the Dissolution of Bodies , ) but what other Urinous Salts do likewise produce . But yet he acknowledges a Specifick Difference between them , upon the account of the Seed in the Acid of Tartar , which differs from the Seeds of other Acids : and in this respect other Urinous Salts do also differ from one another ; since the renowned Boyl has observ'd , that the Volatil Salt of Harts-horn resembles a Parallelopiped , but that of Human Blood , digested with Spirit of Wine , is like a Rhombus . This diversity of Figure is owing to the different Seeds or Idea's , as residing in the Acids , that are the causes of the Solidity and Coagulation of these Salt : Wherefore the Fixt Salt of Tartar Cristallis'd does also resemble a Rhombus , because the Seminal Acid of this Salt , is of the same kind with that of the Spirit of Wine , which being stronger than the Seminal Acid of the foremention'd Volatile Salt of Blood , this Salt is Coagulated according to the Idea of the Vinous Acid : even as , when Spirit of Nitre is pour'd upon Salt of Tartar , the Acid of the former being the more powerfull , forms the Crystals of an Oblong figure like Nitre , but not like Salt of Tartar , which resembles a Rhombus . The Author concludes , that this Seminal difference of Volatile Alcalies is of little moment in Medicine , since all Alcalies , even the purest , are endow'd with so much of a Seminal Acid , as does indeed preserve them from a Spontaneous resolution , into Elementary Water , but yet hinders them not from being in a capacity to imbibe this or that Hostile Morbisic Acid indifferently . The same thing is to be said of the fixt Alcalisate Salts of Vegetables , for the Seminal Vertues are lost in the Calcination , and there remains only so much of a seminal Acid , as keeps them from relapsing into Elementary Water , and does indeed cause them to differ specifically from one another , but not to produce different Effects in Medicine . From all the foremention'd Particulars , concerning the Volatilising of Fixt Salts , our Author concludes , that there can never be any Method found out to effect it , but by separating the Terrestrial Particles . As for Zwelfers Volatile Salt of Tartar , prepar'd by often reiterated Solutions ( per deliquium ) and Abstractions , he affirms that 't is nothing else but useless Elementary Water ; as will manifestly appear to him that considers , that Alcalisate Salts are fundamentally nothing else but Aqueous Particles , converted by a little Seminal Acid into rigid Salts , which , as soon as the Acid is destroy'd , turn again into Water : wherefore the more violent the Calcination is , and by consequence the greater your loss is of this seminal Acid , they are the more easily resolv'd per deliquium in moist Air , which by it's vertue , as a Menstruum , does in great part consume the little Acid that remains and thereby resolve a great part of the Alcalisate Salt into Elementary Water , wherein the other Particles , not yet depriv'd of their Seed , do swim , ( for when Salts approach to the nature of Water , they are readily dissolv'd in it ; ) but if the Water be abstracted from them , and they expos'd to the Air again , their remaining Acid is destroy'd , and they resolv'd into Water in great part : and if they run per deliquium and be abstracted often enough , all the Seminal Acid will be at length destroy'd , and nothing remain but bare Elementary Water , which will all of it easily ascend . And by this means any Fixt Alcalisate Salt may be totally reduc'd into Elementary Water . Sect. XI . THE Volatile Salts of Vegetables , since they are the Matter of which ( Colliquated with the Acid and Terrestrial Particles ) the Alcalisate Salts consist ; And the Volatile Salts of Animals , since ( as the Author has prov'd ) they differ not essentially from those of Vegetables ; are both of them ultimately reducible into Elementary Water . Sect. XII . ACID Salts , made fluid by the force of Fire , and drawn off from fixt Alcalies , may be thereby so rob'd of their Acid , that nothing will ascend but Elementary Water . And the Alcalisate Salt , that has imbib'd the Acid , being frequently resolv'd per deliquium and the Phlegmatic part as frequently abstracted , may by this means be at length totally converted into pure Elementary Water . Thus the Author having particularly examin'd the pretended Chymical principles , and found them all ultimately reducible into Elementary Water ; Concludes that Sect. XIII . ALL Mixt Bodies are made up of Water , as the only first Material Principle and Seeds ( which differ according to the differing species of Bodies ) as the Formal Principle , united together by means of Acid Ferments : That is to say , Water is Coagulated into a Plant , by the Ferment of a Vegetable Seed ; into a Metal , Stone , &c. by that of a Mineral Seed ; and into Flesh , Bones , &c. by the Ferment of an Animal Seed . For in all Mixt Bodies there are certain Acid Particles , wherein the Seeds or Ideas of Natural things do reside , and which , in Coagulating the approximated Aliment , do follow the draught of these Ideas , and so are thereby determin'd to give it the form of this or the other Vegetable Mineral , or Animal . Thus in a Mans Stomach , for example , there lurks a certain Acid , that discovers it self by the sour belches of healthy men , and by the Vomiting of Coagulated Milk , tho' it were taken fluid . This Acid easily receives the Alcalical Particles of the Meat extracted by ( the Alcalical Menstruum ) the Spittle , and imprints the Idea of its own Seed upon them , by which they are determin'd to nourish Man only , and no other Animal ; as afterwards , when they come to every particular Part of the Body , by the Circulation of the Blood , they are determin'd by the seminal Acid residing in that Part , to nourish it rather than any of the rest . And that Aliment , which has once receiv'd the Seal or Impression of the seminal Idea of any Animal in the Stomach , or of any part of the Animal in that same Part ; will never receive the Idea of another Animal , nor of another Part of the same Animal , unless it be suppress'd by a more powerfull Ferment ; as when Sheeps Bones , tho' furnish'd with their own proper Ferment and Idea yet , being unable to resist the stronger one of a Dogs stomach , are therein turn'd into fit nourishment for the Dog , and afterwards for his Musculous Flesh it self and other Parts , as well as for his Bones . In like manner Grass has its own Ferment and Idea suppress'd by that of a Cows stomach , which seals it with such an Impression , as renders it fit Nourishment for a Cow , but not for any other Animal . But if the same Grass had been taken into the stomach of a Horse , it would have been turn'd into Nourishment fit for a Horse , but unfit for a Cow or any other Animal . Again common Mercury , which is the Nourishment of Metals , is converted into this or the other Metal , according to the diversity of the Acid seminal Sulphur that Coagulates it . Finally all Vegetables also are endow'd with a seminal Acid , and therefore their express'd Juices do , after long Fermentation , tast Acid. And in the Fermentation of Cream of Tartar with Salt of Tartar , the Seed , Idea or Archeus , that reside in the Acid of the Tartar , forms certain Bubbles very much resembling natural Grapes . All this will be better understood hereafter , from the Authors particular expication of the nature of the foremention'd Seeds , Ideas and Ferments : But now , to put it past all doubt , that Water is the only Material Principle of all Mixt Bodies , the Author has not only prov'd that all Substance 's that Mixt Bodies can be resolv'd into by the Chymical Art , are totally reducible into Elementary Water ; but likewise he proves particularly , that Prop. XIV . Water is the only and Catholic Nourishment of all Vegetables , Animals , and Minerals . AND 'T is manifest that every Body consists of the same Matter that nourishes . 1. As for Vegetables , Helmonts Experiment proves this beyond contradiction ; namely , he put 200 pound of Earth ( dry'd in an oven ) into an earthen vessel , moisten'd it with Rain-water , planted it in the trunk of a Willow Tree weighing 5 pound , and let it alone there for 5 years time , only watering it , as need requir'd , with Rain-water or distill'd Water . [ And to keep the neighbouring Earth from getting in , he imploy'd a plate of Iron tin'd over and perforated with many holes . ] At the 5 years end he found the Tree had grown so well , that it weighed 169 pound and three ounces : And yet the Earth , being dry'd again , weigh'd but two ounces less than it had done at first : so that above 160 pound of Wood , Bark , Root , &c. had grown up out of mere Water , Coagulated by the Seminal Ferment of the Vegetable into the severall Substances newly mention'd . Hence Rain does wonderfully refresh , envigorate and advance the growth of , all sorts of Plants , and without that they decay , wither and dye . For Water is indifferent to them all , till it be turn'd by the Ferment of the Vegetable Seed into Leffas , as Helmont calls the Juice that is the immediate Aliment of the Plant. Thus Wolf-bane Aconitum and Lavender , for instance , growing in the same Soyl , are both nourish'd by the same Rain-water , which by the Ferment of the one is Coagulated into a poysonous Herb , and by that of the other into a wholsome one . Secondly , That Animals are nourish'd with Water alone , appears in Fishes ; for they live only in the Water , and yet have no food supply'd them from any where else , nor is there any Rudiment of it to be found in their Stomachs , as Helmont observes . [ And tho' some Fishes feed upon others , yet these others feed only upon Water , and therefore are materially nothing else but Water . ] As for Terrestrial Animals ; some of them , as Horses , Cows , Sheep , &c. feed wholly upon Water and Grass , which the Author has already prov'd to be materially nothing else but Water , and therefore that which grows in well water'd places , prospers best , others , as a Lyon , Wolf , &c. tho' they be not nourish'd by Grass and Water only , but feed upon other Animals , yet still their food is materially nothing else but Water , being that these Animals live only upon Grass and Water , except when they are too young to digest Grass , that they are nourish'd by their Mothers Milk , which also is materially nothing else but Water , since it is generated of the Mothers nutriment . [ The same things are easily applicable to Birds ; ] and to Men , which feed only upon Vegetables , Fishes , and the Flesh of Beasts that are nourish'd only by Vegetables . Thirdly , As for Minerals ; Mercury is the immediate Aliment of Metals , and some other Minerals , and the nearest Matter of which they are produc'd . Now Mercury is nothing but Elementary Water , Coagulated by a certain Metalline and Arsenical Sulphur into such a Water as does not wet the Hands : and by other various Sulphurs 't is further Coagulated into Antimony and divers Metals . Hence Mines are never found but where there is a great conflux of Water . Gold is gather'd out of the Sands of some Rivers . Sand abounds no where so much as near the Sea and great Rivers . Stones are nothing else but sand compacted together . [ And the illustrious Mr. Boyle has fully prov'd in a most ingenious as well as judicious Discourse about the Origine and virtues of Gems , that many Gems and Medical Stones were once fluid Bodies . But 't were too long , here to give an account of the many cogent Arguments he there imploys to prove this Assertion , which very much countenances our Authors Hypothesis . ] The experienc'd Helmont informs us , that it often happens in Mines when the Workmen are breaking the Rocks , that the Wall cleaves , and a little water of a whitish green Colour flows out of the cleft , & presently thickens like liquid Soap ; afterwards it growes yellow or white or of a deeper green . This Juice he calls Bur , and affirms it to be the nearest Matter of all Minerals , and to be nothing else but Water Coagulated by a Mineral Ferment , as Leffas is by a Vegetable . To make it yet more evident , that Water is the only first Material Principle of Natural Bodies ; the Author undertakes to prove that Prop. XV. All Animals , Vegetables , and Minerals are ultimately resoluble into Elementary Water . [ FIRST the substances that Animals are resolv'd into by Distillation , are Phlegm , Volatile Salt , Urinous Spirit , Oyl , and Earth or Caput mortuum , but very little if any Fixt Salt. The Phlegm is nothing else but Elementary Water , except in as far as it partakes of the Volatile Salt and Oyl , of which it always carries up some Particles , nor can it ever be perfectly separated from them . ] 2. The Volatile Salt of Animals is of the same nature with that of Vegetables , which being Colliquated by the force of the Fire with Acid and Earthy Particles , is thereby turn'd into a Fixt Salt. And this fixt Salt being frequently deliquated , and the Phlegm as often abstracted , is at length totally resolv'd into Elementary Water . All this was abundantly prov'd before ; as also that 3. The Spirit is nothing else but Volatile Salt dissolv'd in Phlegm . 4. The Oyly and Fat parts of Animals may be united with an Alcalisate Salt into Soap , from which being often abstracted , they turn at length into meer Elementary Water . And this is to be observ'd of all the Fat 's of Animals , that by frequent Circulation with Salt of Tartar they are converted into Water . 5. [ As for the Fixt Salt of Animal Substances , 't is the common Opinion that none can be abstracted from them ; perhaps because all their Saline Parts are so Volatile , that ( to speak consonantly to our Authors Hypothesis ) they cannot sustain a Colliquation with the Earthy Parts , especially since there are very few , if any , manifestly Acid ones to concur to their Fixation . But that indefatigable Searcher into Nature , Mr. Boyle , informs us , that by an obstinate Calcination of eight ounces and a half of Caput mortuum of Human Blood , he obtain'd above seven drams of Salt , which , tho it were not truly Lixivial , but rather of the nature of Sea-salt , yet it was Fixt enough to endure a Calcination for two days together , without flying away . However , 't is probable , that this was nothing else but some unalter'd part of the Sea-salt that season'd the Aliments , that the person or persons whose the Blood was fed upon . ] 6. The Earth also may be totally resolv'd into Elementary Water , by being depriv'd of its seminal vertue by means of the Alcahest , if we may believe Van Helmont . Hence t is that dead Animals , when they putrify , are resolv'd into an Aqueous Substance . And Helmont has deliver'd a notable Experiment to this purpose , namely , that if you dig up a Frog at full Moon , in the coldest time of Winter , ( atrocissimo hyemis borea ) wash it , and tye it to a stick in the Fields , the next morning 't will be turnd into a white and transparent Mucilage , not unlike to liquifi'd Gum Tragacanth , but retaining the figure of a Frog . Yea he affirms that the Cadaver of a Man or Beast , exposd all night to the Rayes of the Moon , will in the Morning be almost fluid with rottenness , ( putrilagine diffluet : ) so great power has the Moon to reduce dead Bodies into an Aqueous Mucilage . [ Secondly , Vegetable Substances Chymically analys'd , yield Phlegm , Volatile Salt , Spirit of several sorts , Oyl , Fixt Salt , and Earth . To the first , second , fourth and sixth may be apply'd what was said of the Phlegm , Volatile Salt , Oyl , and Earth of Animal Substances . The Fixt Salt may be totally resolv'd into Elementary Water , by reiterated Solutions in the Air , and Abstractions , as above . There are 4. sorts of Spirits afforded by Vegetable Substances . 1. Vinous inflamable Spirits , which were formerly prov'd to be nothing but Oyls dissolv'd in Phlegm by Fermentation : as also that 2. Volatile Saline Spirits , as Spirit of Soot , Spirit of Beans ( that have been kept in a dry place for some Months ) &c. are nothing but Volatile Salts dissolv'd into Phlegm . And that 3. Acid Spirits , as Spirit of Vinegar , Spirit of Beans newly gather'd , &c. Are nothing but Acid Salts in a fluid state and united with Phlegm : and being pour'd upon Fixt Salts , they are together with them ultimately resoluble into Elementary Water . 4. Adiaphorous Spirits of Box , Guaiacum &c. Which the judicious Mr. Boyle , who was the first Observer of them , suspects to be generated of the finer parts of the Oyl of the Wood , reduc'd to an extraordinary smallness , and by that means exquisitely mix'd with the Plegm the juice of Grapes affords : all these 4 sorts of Spirits , as Mr. Boyle has observ'd in his excellent Discourse concerning the Producibleness of the Chymical Principles . Thirdly , As for Minerals ; We must rely upon the testimony of Van Helmont , whom Mr. Boyle concludes to be a veracious Author , ( except in that extravagant Treatise of the Magnetical Cure of Wounds , ) from the success he has had in trying some of his Experiments , that might seem not the most likely to succeed : [ and I think we may justly lay great weight upon the judgement of so experiencd and judicious a person as Mr. Boyle , concerning the sincerity of any Chymical Author . ] Helmont then in several places informs us , that all Stones , Gems , Marcasites , Metals &c. may be transmuted into an aequiponderant Salt , and this into Insipid Water . And as for Metals , it seems indeed that common Mercury is their nearest Matter , into which they may be resolv'd by the separation of their Coagulating Salts : and the famous Langelot has made an Experiment of this in the Regulus of Antimony . Now if the other Metals also may be resolv'd into Mercury by depriving them of their Sulphurs , and the Mercury it self be reducible into Water , ( by robbing it of the Sulphurs yet remaining in it , ) as Mr. Boyle somewhere affirms , it may in great part , and as several other Authors of good credit attest ; then it can no more be doubted , that all Minerals are reducible into Water . [ It will not be unseasonable in this place to mention a few Experiments , deliver'd in Mr. Boyles Septical Chymist , that do very much countenance the three last Propositions . That excellent Author then informs us , that about the middle of May he caus'd his Gardiner , to dig out some good Earth , dry it well in an Oven , weigh it , put it in a very shallow Earthen Pot , and set in it a Seed of Squash ( a sort of Indian Pompion that grows apace ) which he water'd only with Rain or spring Water . And tho the hastning Winter hinder'd it from attaining any thing near its wonted magnitude , yet being taken up about the middle of October , the Pompion together with the Stalk and Leaves weighed three pound wanting a quarter . And yet the Earth , being very well dry'd in an Oven , was found to have lost little or nothing of its first weight . He try'd the like Experiment with two Cucumbers , which being taken out of the Earth wherein they had grown , weighed ( together with the Roots and Branches ) fourteen pound and six ounces ; and yet the Earth had lost but a pound and a half of its first weight , which the Gardiner judg'd to have been in great part wasted in the ordering . But granting that some of the Earth , or rather of the dissoluble Salt harbour'd in it , was wasted in the nourishment of the Plant ; yet 't is plain , that the main Body of it consisted of trasmuted Water . This Experiment may be try'd with the Seeds of any Plant that is bulky and grows hastily . Likewise A top of Spearmint of an inch long , being put into a vial full of Spring-water with its lower part immers'd , did in a few days shoot forth numerous Roots into the Water , ( as if it had been Earth , ) and display it self upwards into many Leaves , with a pretty thick stalk . The same Experiment has also succeeded with Marjoram ( tho' more slowly ) Balm , and Peniroyal , to name no more . One of these Vegetables cherish'd only by Spring-water , and that never renew'd , afforded by distillation ( besides Phlegm ) an Empyreumatical Spirit , an adust Oyl , and a Caput mortuum , that appearing to be a Coal , consisted no doubt of Salt and Earth . And if Helmont had distill'd the foremention'd Tree , no doubt it would have afforded him the like distinct Substances as another of the same kind . But a more considerable Instance ( to prove that all sorts of Bodies are nothing else but Water subdu'd by Seeds ) than any yet mention'd , is afforded us by Mr. de Rochas , who tells us , that he took simple Water , that he well knew to be mix'd with no other thing but the Spirit of Life , and having with a heat Artificial , Continual , and Proportionate , prepar'd it by the Graduations of Coagulation , Congelation , and Fixation , which he had spoken of before , untill it was turn'd into Earth ; this Earth produc'd Animals that mov'd of themselves , Vegetables and Minerals . The Animals he found , by a Chymical Anatomy he made of them , to be compos'd of much Sulphur , little Mercury , and less Salt ; and the Minerals ( which were solid and heavy , and began to grow , by converting into their own Nature one part of the Earth thereunto dispos'd ) of much Salt , little Sulphur , and less Mercury . And tho the judicious Mr. Boyle has some suspitions of this strange Relation , yet as to the Generation of Animals and Plants , he thinks it not incredible , since common Water ( which is indeed often impregnated with variety of Seminal Principles and Rudiments ) long kept will putrify and stink , and then perhaps too produce Moss and little Worms , or other Insects , according to the Nature of the Seeds that were lurking in it . And tho' the Distillation of Eels yielded him some Oyl , Spirit , Volatile Salt , and Caput mortuum , yet were all these so disproportionate to the Phlegm ( in which at first they boyl'd as in a pot of Water ) that they seem'd to have been nothing but Coagulated Phlegm ; which does likewise strangely abound in Vipers , as hot in their operation and as vivacious as they are . And seven ounces and a half of Human Blood yielded near six ounces of Phlegm , before any of the Spirits began to arise , and require the Receiver to be chang'd . Corrosive Acid Spirits , tho they seem to be nothing but Fluid Salts , yet you 'l find them to abound with Water , if either you entangle , and so six their Saline part by making them corrode some idoneous Body , or mortify it with a contrary Salt. Thus in making of Balsamus Samech with distill'd Vinegar instead of Spirit of Wine , the Salt of Tartar from which it is distilld , will , by mortifying and retaining the Acid Salt , turn near twenty times its weight of the Vinegar into worthless Phlegm , before it be satiated . And in making the true Balsamus Samech ( which is nothing but Salt of Tartar dulcifi'd , by distilling from it Spirit of Wine till it be glutted with the Vinous Sulphur , ) as soon as the Spirit of Wine is depriv'd of its Sulphur by the Salt of Tartar , the rest ( which is incomparably the greater part ) remigrates into Phlegm : so that if Helmonts process be true ( which was confirmed to Mr. Boyle by a sober and skilfull Spagyrist , who did indeed prepare the Spirit and Salt by a way that is neither short nor easie , but added nothing to them ) Spirit of Wine seems to be Materially nothing but Water under a Sulphureous disguise , tho' being so igneous that it will totally flame away , 't is of all Liquors the most likely to be free from Water . But Helmont's grand Argument for his Hypothesis , is taken from the operation of the Alcahest ; which , he says , does adequately resolve Plants , Animals , and Minerals into one Liquor or more , according to their several internal Disparaties of Parts , ( without Caput mortuum or the destruction of their seminal vertues ; ) and that the Alcahest being abstracted from these Liquors in the same weight and vertue wherewith it dissolv'd them , they may by frequent Cohobations from Chalk or some other fit substance , be totally depriv'd of their seminal Endowments , and by that means reduc'd to Insipid Water . Here Mr. Boyle judiciously observes , that it may be doubted whether this Water , because insipid , must be Elementary ; since the candid P. Laurembergius affirms that he saw an insipid Menstruum , that was a powerfull Dissolvent : and the Water which may be drawn from Quicksilver without addition , tho' almost tastless , will manifest a very differing nature from simple Water , if you digest in it appropriated Minerals . However the forementiond Experiments concerning the growth of Vegetables , do sufficiently prove that Salt , Spirit , Earth , and Oyl ( which are four of the pretended Chymical Principles ) may be produc'd out of simple Water . But to return to our Author . ] Having prov'd , That Water is the only Material Principle of Bodies usually calld Mixt , by three Arguments . 1. Because none of the other pretended Chymical Principles have a right to that Title ; some of them not being naturally pre-existent in the Bodies from which they are obtain'd ; and all of them being reducible to Elementary Water . 2. Because Water is the only Nourishment of all Animals , Plants , and Minerals ; and by consequence the only Matter of which they consist . Because all Animals , Plants , and Minerals are by a true Analysis ultimately reducible to simple insipid Water . Having evinc'd this , I say , by these three newly mention'd Arguments ; and Fire being the only Sublunary Body ( besides Air , of which heareafter ) that these Arguments , as hitherto prosecuted , can with any colour of reason be pretended not to reach ; and being likewise by many enumerated amongst the Principles of Natural Bodies ; the next Proposition shall be , that Prop. XVI . Fire is nothing but an Acid Volatile Sulphur very swiftly mov'd . FOR there is a certain Sulphur in every Inflamable Body , which takes fire as soon as 't is put into a rapid motion , whatsoever the Cause be that excites it to that motion . This appears in the striking of fire by the collision of two Flints ; in the firing of the Axel-tree of a Mill or Coach , that sometimes happens upon a long continued and vehement attrition ; and in many other such obvious Instances . Oyl of Vitriol contains a great many Acid Sulphureous Particles , proceeding as well from the Embryonated Acid , that Corroded the Iron or Copper Oar in the Bowels of the Earth , as from the Iron or Copper it self : these Particles , being excited to motion by the affusion of Oyl of Tartar ( or even genuine Spirit of Tartar ) produce a notable heat and Effervescency . The Sulphur of Quick-lime ( whether it be innate , or adventitious from the fire ) conceives a vehement Heat , as soon as 't is excited to motion , by the Alcaline Lixivial Particles set at liberty by the affusion of Water . Finally ( to add no more ) Butter of Antimony consists chiefly of the Sulphureous Particles of the Antimony , and the Salino-Acid ones of the Mercury Sublimate : the latter being wash'd off with Water , the former do more manifestly appear , ( namely in Mercurius vitae , which causes Vomiting without any danger of Corroding the Bowels : ) and both of them being vehemently mov'd by the affusion of Spirit of Nitre , there is an intense heat produc'd . So that the Formal nature of Fire or Heat consists in Motion . Now that the Sulphureous Particles of which Fire is materially constituted , are of an Acid nature , will abundantly appear from the ensuing Considerations . I. The particles of the Flame of common Sulphur , being receiv'd and Condens'd in a Glass Bell , do compose a very piercing Acid Liquor . II. There are not any Bodies more akin to Fire , than the totally inflamable Spirits of fermented Vegetables . And yet all the Principal Effects of these Fermented Spirits , depend upon a Volatile Acid. For 'T is upon the account of its Acid Salt , that Spirit of Wine is Coagulated in Spirit of Urine or Salarmoniac , or in any other Volatile Alcali , as also , that it loses its strength by distillation from Salt of Tartar , which imbibes and retains the Acid , and receives an increase of weight thereby . And Generous Wine , that is turgent with this Spirit , being drunk moderately , sends a Volatile Acid to the Brain , that makes a subtile effervescence with the ( Alcaline ) Animal Spirits , and thereby produces Cheerfulness and a Vigorous Promptitude to Action ; ( as on the contrary , the Sadness of Melancholy persons proceeds from the Fixation of the Animal Spirits by a more Fixt Acid. ) But upon excessive Drinking , that Volatile Acid ascends too copiously to the Brain , conquers and fixes the Animal Spirits , and so stupefies the Organs of Sense and Motion : yea sometimes it may Suppress the Vital Acid ( or Innate Heat ) of the Blood , and at length totally Coagulate it ; especially if the Wine be endow'd with a strong Acid , as the French , and chiefly the Hungarian Wines are wont to be . And indeed , that the Inebriating vertue of Wine ( and all other strong Drinks ) is entirely owing to a Volatile Acid , may be prov'd by many Arguments . 1. Hence 't is , that Volatile Alcaline Salts do prevent Drunkenness , especially Spirit of Salt-Armoniack , if some drops of it be now and then mingled with the Drink . 2. Bitter Almonds and other Oleous things , do likewise prevent Drunkenness , by weakning and suppressing the vaporous Acid of the Wine , so that it cannot reach the Brain . 3. The same Acid inflames Drunkards Faces , and adorns them with purulent Pimples , like so many Gems . For the whitish colour'd Matter , contain'd in these Pimples , proceeds only from the Volatile Acid of the Wine that infects the ferment of the Muscles of the Face , coagulates and precipitates the Blood that comes thither for Nutrition , and so changes its Purple Colour into a whitish one . For proof of this Assertion , 't is to be noted , that the Purple Colour of the Blood proceeds from the resolution of the Sulphurous Acid Parts by the ferment of the Heart , which sets them at liberty , so as that they may mix per minima , and make a subtile effervescence with the Alcaline Spirits : as when Spirit of Salt-Armoniack or of Harts-horn , or any other that is Alcalical , is digested with Spirit of Wine , they produce together a very red Tincture , because the Acid Sulphur of the Wine , being by Digestion intimately mix'd , and making a subtile effervesence with the subtil Alcaly , is at length so resolv'd as to manifest it self by tinging the whole Liquor : after the same manner , in the Tincture of the Salt of Tartar , the Spirit of Wine is ting'd by the Volatilis'd Alcaly of Tartar : and common Sulphur boyl'd in the Lixivium of any Fixt Salt , is thereby exalted to a Red Colour ; but because the Alcaline Salt is so ty'd to the Terrestrial Particles , that it cannot penetrate the Sulphur per minima , therefore the Colour is obscure and dark . Now , if you pour another Acid Liquor upon these Sanguine Tinctures , immediately they become of a Milk-white Colour . Just so it happens , when the Blood is extravasated , and putrefi'd in any Part of the Body , the Acidity , that arises from this Putrefaction , Precipitates the Sulphur that ting'd the Blood , and thereby turns it into white stinking Pus ; even as common Sulphur , when it is Precipitated out of any Lixivium by the affusion of Vinegar , strikes the Nose with an ungratefull Odour , tho it was utterly inodorous before : so that Pus is nothing but Blood , whose vital Alcaline Balsamical Spirits are suppres'd by an hostile Acid , and the tinging Sulphureous Particles Precipitated in Wounds & Abscesses , while the Pus is a making , the motion of the Acid Particles do often produce a Symptomical Feaver , an Inflammation in the Part affected , Convulsive Motions in the Brain , and Pains in the Nervous Parts : but these Symptoms abate as soon as the Pus is made , and the motion of the Particles ceas'd . 4. Amongst the External Medicins , that are wont to be apply'd to the foremention'd Pimples in the Face , the Preparations of Saturn are the chief ; because they imbibe the Acid of the Wine , or other Inebriating Liquor , that inflames the Face . For Saturn readily receives all sorts of Acids or Sulphurs , even those of Metals , as is well known to the Refiners . Thus the unripe Sulphurs of Metals , Coagulated in Saturn , do compose Litharge . Vinegar , Coagulated in Saturn , produces Sugar of Lead . And all Acids in general , Coagulated in Saturn , Mars , or any other Body whatsoever , are wont to be dulcifi'd thereby . For all Sugars are nothing but Acid Salts Coagulated in other Particles : whence 't is , that they are resolv'd by Distillation into a very Ardent and powerfully Inebriating Spirit ; and are extream sit to promote or even begin Fermentations : and therefore 't is , that the Syrups of the shops have a manifestly Acid Tast ; and Sugar is very hurtful to Scorbutical persons , because upon the account of its Acidity it excites divers vitious Effervescencies , produces Tumors of the Bowels &c. And vitiates the Vital Ferment of the Stomach . III. That the Particles of Fire are of an Acid Nature , may evidently appear from all other Inflameable Substances , especially those that are Oyly and Fat , as well as from common Sulphur and Spirit of Wine . For in the first place , 't is certain , that Oleous and Fat Bodies are really endow'd with an Acid ; as appears from the following Reasons . 1. Chirurgions observe , that Oyls , and fat Substances , are very noxious to the Bones , ( especially the Skull , which is a Porous Bone ) and particularly , that they are apt to make them Carious ; which must happen upon the account of their Corroding Acid. And for the same reason , they render Vlcers sordid , by increasing the Corroding Acid. 2. What else is that Greenness , that adheres to Lamps , but the Acid of the Oyl-Olive Coagulated in the Particles of the Metal , that it has Corroded ? whence comes the Blew Colour of Oyl of Camomil distill'd in Copper Vessels , but from some Particles of the Veins Corroded by the Acidity of the Oyle ? 3. The Heart-burn ( Ardor Ventriculi ) is often occasion'd by Fat things , ( especially if you drink after them , because the Acid Salts are thereby dissolv'd and put into a swifter motion ) as well as by austere and sourish Wines : and the Remedy , in both Cases , is , to use things fitted to Precipitate the Acid. 4. Oleous and Fat things are hurtful in Erysipelatous Distempers , ( which proceed from the Coagulation of the Blood by an Acid , ) because they increase the Peccant Acidity , whence the Putrefaction is increas'd , the Bones are corroded , and the Natural Heat of the Part is at last totally suppress'd , and mortify'd . ( Yet the Author denyes not , but these Effects do also partly depend upon the Obstruction of the Pores of the Part , by the foresaid Fat substances , so that the Effluvia , wont to transpire through the Pores , being detain'd in the Body , and inordinately mov'd , do increase the Feaver . ) 5. 'T is likewise upon the account of their Acidity , that Oyls are hurtful to all Inflammations , without such a Preparation as consumes or corrects their Acid. Thus Lin-seed Oyle mingl'd with an equal weight of Spirit of Wine , and boyl'd ( with continual stirring ) till the Spirit be consum'd , is us'd safely and successfully , both inwardly and outwardly , in Pleurisies , Peripneumonies , Inflammations of the Liver &c. because the Coagulating Acid is readily imbib'd by this Oyl , that has been depriv'd of its own Acid by the Spirit of Wine , which , being a much more Volatile Oleous Body than the Oyle of Lin-seed , evaporates before it , and carryes its Acid along with it ; even as the same Spirit , being mingl'd with Aqua fortis and distill'd in a Cucurbit , ascends before it , and carrys a great part of its Acidity along with it , insomuch that the remaining Aqua fortis becomes a very safe Internal Medicine , tho' before , the smell of it only would cause an Atrophia in the whole Body . The same Oyl of Lin-seed is also Corrected , by frequently extinguishing red hot Steel in it , till it appear by the ceasing of the hissing & smoke , that the Acid Particles are either Evaporated in smoke and spent by Deflagration , or Coagulated in the Mars . And if after this it be Distill'd from Quick-lime , that if any Acidity yet remains , it may be therein Coagulated , the Oyl of Lin-seed becomes an excellent Remedy for Inflammations , Burns and the like : as Oyl-Olive also does , by Distillation from Quick-lime . And this last nam'd Oyl , being imbib'd in old Tyles or Bricks ( which are depriv'd of all moisture by their having been long expos'd to the heat of the Sun ) heated red hot , and quench'd in it , and then distill'd in a Retort , is thereby robb'd of all its Acidity , and acquires a singular Vertue in the Palsey , Gout , Cramp &c. And all Oyls are wholsomer boyl'd than crude , because a great part of the Acid is exhal'd in the boyling . 6. Helmont teaches that Distill'd Chymical Oyls , which are otherwise very hot , may by an artificial Circulation for three Months time with an Alcali Salt be turn'd into a very temperate Volatile Salt : namely because the hot Acid of the Oyl is Saturated by the Alcali , and by that means reduc'd temperate . Nor can there be any other Reason given , why the Alcaly should have this effect upon the Oyl , but that the Acid of the Oyl corrodes the Alcaly and is Coagulated in it . Now in the next place , That the Heat and Inflammability of Oyly Substances depend upon the Acid , that the Experiments , newly deliver'd , prove to be contain'd in them , may be evinc'd from those same Experiments ; most of which do not only prove , that Oleous and Fat Bodies are endow'd with an Acid , but likewise , that the effects usually ascrib'd to the hot Quality of these Bodies , do indeed depend upon this Acid ; and that whatsoever mitigates or destroys this Acid , does at the same time weaken or destroy their Heating Power . And 2. that this may also be truly apply'd to their Inflammability , and that the Acid Particles contain'd in Oyly and Fat Substances are really the Matter of which the Flame of these Substances ( when they are burning ) consists , does plainly appear by the Abstraction of Oyls from Spirit of Wine , Quick-lime , or Bricks ; for , being by this means depriv'd of their Acid , they become less Inflammable than the crude Oyles were . And Candles made of Sheeps Tallow , burn sooner away than those made of any other Tallow , because there is greater store of Acid Particles in it ; as appears by the Griping of the Guts , which cannot happen without a Corroding Acid , ( for all the Medicines , effectual against this Distemper testify that to be the Cause of it ) and which is very often occasion'd by eating Fat Mutton , especially if the Acid Salts be dissolv'd by drinking after it , in like manner as when Salt Butter is sweetned by melting it , and pouring it into water , and thereby dissolving the Salt. Likewise recent Fat , or Oyl burns sooner away , than that which has been long kept , and thereby lost much of its Volatile Acid. N.B. Since Tallow , as well as every other Body , is materially nothing else but water Coagulated by a seminal Acid , and since 't is only the Acid Particles that feed the Flame ; it follows , that when they are consum'd , he remainder , being robb'd of , the Coagulating , Acid must return into Elementary Water , and therefore 't is insensibly dissipated like a Vapour : even as the water of Spirit of Wine kindled vanishes into a Vapour . IV. The Particles of Fire being fix'd or Coagulated in any Body whatsoever , do plainly manifest themselves to be Acid , as appears from the following Instances . 1. Fire Coagulated in Mars , turns it into a Crocus , that differs nothing from Rust , ( which proceeds always from an Acid ) and is every way like to that Crocus which is prepar'd with Acids , and endow'd with the same Medicinal Vertues . V. Tachen . Hipp. Chym. cap. 28. 2. Fire Coagulated in Saturn is separated by means of a Fixt Alcaly , or even of Venetian Borax ; for Minium ( which receiv'd its red Colour from the Sulphur of the Coals , even as the Sulphur of Antimony Coagulated in Mercury , turns it [ into Cinnabar ] of an exceeding high red , is by the help of these Salts reduc'd to crude Lead . N. B. According to Tachenius's Computation , 100 pound of Lead retains in Calcination ten pound of Fire . 3. All the Remedies for Burns are such as are capable to imbibe , saturate , or suppress the Igneous Acid ; for instance , Sugar of Saturn , Ceruss , Litharge , Oyls depriv'd of their Acidity , Lixiviums , &c. And unwashen Threed mitigates Erysipelatous Inflammations , because of the Alcaly of the Spittle . V. And lastly , The Acidity of the Particles of Fire appears from its efficacy in Chirurgery , and particularly in exstirpating ill condition'd Ulcers . For the cause of Vlcers being a Corrosive Acid , they may be cur'd by three sorts of external Medicines . 1. Those that Saturate this Acid , as Spirit of Salt-Armoniac , Quick-lime Water , Oyl of Tartar per deliquium , and the like . 2. Those that imbibe and assume this Acid , as all the Preparations of Saturn . The Author has known Ulcers in the Legs cur'd , meerly by applying thin Plates of Lead to them ; because the Acid , corroding the Musculous Flesh , was coagulated in the Lead . 3. Those that by a more potent Acidity suppress this weak one ; as Verdegreese , which consists of the Acid Salts of Vinegar Coagulated in Particles of Venus ; now these Salts are much more powerfull than in common Vinegar , because they are concentrated and separated from strong Phlegm , and thereby enabl'd to suppress the weaker putredinous Acid of the Ulcers ; which Aqua fortis , Spirit of Salt , and other Acid Spirits also do . But nothing performs this so effectually , as Actual Cauteries , because there is no Acid so powerful as that of Fire . N. B. I. The Acid Effluvia , that are continually passing away from Inflammable Bodies while they are burning , do compose Flame , so long as they continue numerous enough within a certain Sphere , and in a very swift motion , but having pass'd the limits of this Sphere , they begin to move more slowly , and are by degrees dispers'd . So that the same Acid Effluvia , which being in a rapid motion , produce tormenting Pains and Convulsive Motions by corroding the Nervous Parts ; when they are in a moderate Motion , do produce in our Body a temperate and gratefull heat , by inciting the Nervous Capillaments to gentle Spasms . N. B. 2. Tho' Actual Fire be so far from being one of the Material Principles of Mixt Bodies , that it cannot exist in them without destroying them ; yet there are certain Acid Particles in all mixt Bodies , differing but in Rest , or in Degrees of Motion from Actual Fire , in which the Seeds or Ideas reside , that are the Formal Principles of those Bodies . But these Acid Particles do themselves return into Elementary Water , when they are devested of those Seeds . Which Seeds or Ideas , so often heretofore mention'd , t' will now be seasonable to explain . Having abundantly prov'd , that Simple Water is the only Matter of which all Mixt Bodies consist , 't is plain that they all agree in one and the same Material Principle ; so that their difference one from another proceeds not from any diversity in the Matter of which they consist , or in the proportion of the Elements that may be suppos'd to concur to their Composition But , Prop. XVII . The diversity , that is among Natural Bodies , is wholly owing to the different Seminal Ideas , that regulate the Operation of the Plastick Spirit , which Coagulates Water into various Substances , differing in Figure , Solidity , Bigness , Order and Connection of Parts , and other Modifications , according as its Motions are guided by these Ideas . FOR when God at first Created out of nothing the Terraqueous Globe , and furnish'd it with numerous Bodies of several Species or kinds ; he was pleas'd , because the Individuals were Corruptible , to endow them by vertue of his Omnipotent Word ( Be fruitful and multiply , ) with a Power of producing out of Pre-existent Matter , new Individuals like themselves , and of their own Species ; that so , when the first Individuals were dissolv'd , the Species might nevertheless be preserv'd in these new Individuals generated by the first ; & so on , as long as the world endures . This Generative Power is seated in the seeds ; [ which are very obvious in Animals and Vegetables , but more doubtful in Minerals , at least in severall sorts of them . ] As for Animals , and particularly Man ; the Feminine seed is a limpid Liquor , contain'd in the little Eggs , that are found in the Testicles . This Seminal Liquor contains in it self an exact Idea of an entire Human Body ( of the femal sexe , ) consisting of as many particular distinct Ideas , as there are different Parts in a Human Body , which all together concur to make up one entire Idea of an entire Woman : so if it were possible for us to contemplate this Idea with our Bodily Eyes , as well as we can do with our Intellectual , we might discern in it sensible signatures of all the Parts of the Body , alltogether making up a lively representation , and as 't were exact Model , of an entire Woman . The Idea of every particular Part in this Seed , is a Particle of the Idea that resides in that same part of the Womans Body that generates this Seed . For every Part of a Womans ( Mans , or any other Animals ) Body , whether Similar or Organical , has its own Idea residing in it , in which Idea is imprinted upon , or ( which is all one ) communicates a Particle of it self unto the Blood , that Circulates through the Part ; and the Blood carryes all these Ideas to the Testicles , where they are gather'd together , dispos'd into the same Order that the Parts , they come from , have in the Womans Body , and so united into one entire Idea , which is inclos'd within the Tunicles of the Egg , that being defended from Injuries thereby , the particular Parts of it may be able to retain their due situation , and may not be lyable to be confounded one with another or misplac'd . This Idea is endow'd in the Testicles with a particle of that moving Vital Spirit , which is the Principle of all Vital Actions , and the only Mover of all Seeds , which , without this , are Barren and Unfruitful , because they cannot unfold themselves . But yet this Plastick Spirit in the Feminine Seed is too weak for to accomplish the evolution of the Ideas , without it be strengthen'd , Actuated , and Fecundated by that more powerfull Spirit which the Masculine Seed is impregnated with . All that has been said of the Feminine Seed , is applicable also to this , saving , that it contains Ideas of all the Parts of a Human Body of the Male Sex only , not of the Female ; and that these Ideas are confounded one with another , because the Seed not being inclos'd in Tunicles in the form of Eggs , but contain'd in the Testicles in a liquid form , they fluctuate and cannot retain any certain Order . Hence it is , that as the Feminine Seed alone can never be fruitful , till its weaker Spirit be corroborated by Conjunction with the Masculine ; so neither can the Masculine Seed alone ever produce a Foetus , till its confus'd Ideas be reduc'd into due Order by conjunction with the Feminine , each Idea taking its own proper place , by applying it self to the correspondent Ideas of the Feminine Seed . In short , the Masculine Seed cannot reduce the confus'd Ideas into Order , but being set in Order by the Feminine , it can explicate or unfold them , which the Feminine cannot . Wherefore the Masculine Seed must be injected into the Womb , whence it emits a Seminal and Vital Spirituous Exhalation through the Tubi Fallopiani into the Testes or Ovarium , where one ( or more ) of the Eggs , being impregnated with this Exhalation , and foecundated thereby , is thrust out of its place , and falls into the extremity of the Tubus Fallopianus , which conveys it to the Womb. For tho' the two Seminal Spirits be now united into one , yet even this is not sufficient for the Evolution of the Ideas ; till it be excited to motion by the Heat of the Womb ; and then it begins the Evolution of the Ideas , by Coagulating the approximated Aliment into a substance agreeable to the particular Ideas , and applying it to them : by which means the Ideas , that were utterly insensible before , do quickly acquire a visible bulk : insomuch that Kerkringius tells us of a Foetus , but four days old , wherein the distinction of the Parts was plainly discernible . This Apposition of Aliments to , and gradual Evolution of the Ideas , begins at the first Conception , and continues after the Child has left the Womb , till the Body have attain'd its full stature ; ( that is , to a perfect Evolution of the Ideas , for when the Ideas are not capable of any further Evolution , the Growth of the Body must cease . ) So that Ganeration is really nothing else , but the first Nutrition ; or the Apposition of Aliment to and Evolution of the Ideas while they are yet insensible : and on the other side , Nutrition is nothing but a continued Generation . For 't is the same Plastick Spirit , guided by the same Ideas , that Coagulates and Applyes the Aliment to every Part , both in and out of the Womb. And the immediate Aliment of all the Parts in both states is the same , namely Blood , but with this Difference , that the Embryo is nourish'd with the Mothers Blood , communicated to it by the Vmbilical Vein from the Placenta Vterina : whereas , after the Child is born , it takes in various Aliments by the Mouth , and makes Blood of them it self for its own Nourishment . This Blood is already determin'd to nourish the Human ( and no other Animals ) Body , by the Impression that the Idea of the Stomachal Ferment has seal'd the Aliments , it is made of , with ; but is indifferent to all the Parts of the Human Body , till it come to be determin'd to the Nourishment of particular Parts by being stamp'd ( as it were ) with the Seal of the particular Ideas residing in them . For every Organ hides in its Ventricle an Idea of its own Body , that regulates the Apposition of the Aliment to that Part , ( and is the same that regulated the first Formation of it . ) And the Native Heat , or vital Spirit of every different Part , Coagulates the Blood into a differing Substance , and applyes it in a differing manner , according to the diversity of that Idea , which guides the Motions of this Coagulating Spirit . These Ideas were concreated with the Parts of the first Individuals . And after what has been said , 't will not be difficult to conceive , how they were folded up ( as it were ) and united into one entire Idea in the Seed of these first Individuals : how the second were generated by the gradual unfolding again of the same Ideas , & apposition of Aliment to them : in a word , how by the convolutions and Evolutions , ( so to speak ) of those Ideas , the Propagation of Mankind has been continu'd to this day . ( And the same is to be said of all other Animals , as well as of all Vegetables . ) This is as brief and clear an Account , as I could give of the Authors Notion of the Generation of Animals : which tho' it may seem already more prolix than is agreeable to the Design of this Treatise , yet , because the Theory of Generation is so difficult , and because I have not elsewhere met with so intelligible an Account of the Seeds and Ideas that Helmont so often speaks of ; I thought it would not be foreign to my Design , if I insist a little longer upon a Theory , that will so much conduce to facilitate the Reading of an Author , that many are deterr'd from , by the Obscurity of his Notions , and that has deliver'd so many and so considerable Chymical Experiments ; for the obscure hints he gives of some of the Principal , will be much better understood by one that is acquainted with His Notions , than by one that is not , caeteris paribus . Wherefore I shall proceed , without any farther Apology , to deduce , from the Hypothesis , already deliver'd , an explication of some of the chief Phaenomena of Generation ; continuing to insist upon one single Instance , taken from the chief Species of Animals , Man : for the same things , that are here deliver'd concerning Man , may , with a little alteration , be easily apply'd to other Animals . ] The Sexe of the Foetus is determin'd by the prevalency of the Ideas of the Fathers , or of those of the Mothers Seed . If there be a parity of both , the Foetus will partake of both Sexes . A Mole happens , when an Egg falls out of the Ovarium into the Womb , merely by the irritation of Lust , without congress with a Man : for the Tunicles of this Egg swell and are extended in the Womb ; but the moving Spirit of the Masculine Seed is wanting , to unfold the Ideas of the Egg and apply Aliment to them : for the Ideas , tho' they give the due Figure to every Part , yet they cannot unfold themselves ; and the Feminine Spirit in the Egg is not vigorous enough to do it ; tho' it have really some activity , whereby it concurs with the Masculine in the formation of a true Foetus , and makes itself alone some unperfect evolution of the Ideas in a Mole , which has been observ'd sometimes by Kerkringius and others , to contain the Parts of a Human Body sensibly , tho' imperfectly , delineated . 'T is because of this strength and vigour of the Spirit of Mens Seed , that they are said to be of a hotter temperament than Women ; and that Eunuchs turn Effeminate in their voice , manners , and disposition . Abortion happens upon the lest manifest Acidity of the Aliment of the Foetus , for this Coagulates and suffocates the Spirit , that by its occult and milder Acidity should Coagulate the Aliment , and apply it to the Nourishment of the Foetus . Hence a four Scorbutick disposition of the Blood makes Women subject to miscarry ; and the use of red Coral , Mother of Pearl , and the like is good to prevent it . The Plurality of Foetus's happens when more Eggs than one are foecundated by the Mans Seed , and fall out of the Ovarium into the Womb. For the Ideas of the Mans Seed , being to be reduc'd into order by application to those of the Womans , every particular Idea may be divided , and apply it self to the correspondent Idea of several Eggs. This is manifest in the Seed of a Cock , which if the Hen have but once receiv'd , it suffices oftentimes to make her Eggs fruitful for a whole year thereafter . So that every particular Idea of his Seed , must have been divided into as many Particles , as there were Eggs foecundated by it . Marcus Marci , De Ideis operatricibus , ascribes the plurality of foetus's to the Plurality of Hearts in the Seed , howsoever this be occasion'd ; for the Heart being the Center of Evolution , as many Hearts as there are , so many Centers of Evolution , and by consequence so many Foetus's . The monstrous Plurality of Parts in one Foetus happens , when the Ideas of the Masculine Seed are not exactly apply'd to the correspondent Ideas of the Feminine Seed ; but decline to the right or left hand ; so that , being separately unfolded , they make up distinct Parts . The want of a particular Part ( as Arms , Legs &c. ) happens , when the Idea of that Part is not unfolded for want of Aliment ; or is extinguish'd by some impure Acid Particles of the Aliment , or by the force of the Mothers Imagination of some person presented to her , that has ( by an Accident perhaps , ) lost that Part. A Pygme or Dwarf-Stature happens , when the Evolution of the Ideas is hinder'd , either by the impurity or manifest Acidity of the Aliment apply'd to them , some time after the Foetus has left the Womb ; or by the force of an Idea imprinted in the Mothers Imagination , that so mingles it self and becomes one with the Idea , that forms the Foetus , as to determine it , not only in respect of Figure but of Stature ; so that the Formative Idea , being straitly ty'd with the Imaginative , is compell'd thereby to stop before a perfect Evolution . If this Idea take root in one Subject , it may be propagated to Posterity , till it be extinguish'd by a supervening Idea of greater Force . On the contrary , a Gigantine Stature proceeds from the Evolution of the Formative Idea beyond its due bounds ; which Marcus Marci ascribes to two Causes , namely , either the Refraction of the Ideal Rayes by falling into a dissimilar Medium , or the Mothers strong Imagination of some huge Statue . And indeed there are many obvious Instances , to prove , that a strong Imaginative Idea of the Mothers , impress'd upon the Seed , ( or even upon the Embryo , after the Evolution is begun ) may have powerful Effects in the Formation of the Foetus . For hence it is , that we can often distinguish Men of several Nations by their Aspect : because the Women of every Nation form in their Imagination so strong an Idea , from the constant sight of their owne Country-men , as , by uniting it self to the Formative Idea , determines it to fashion the Foetus like them , in some Propertyes of the Countenance , that most , if not all , of them , agree in : Jacobs Rods also are a signal Instance to this purpose . And there are many Relations of White Women , that by reason of a strong Imaginative Idea , occasion'd by the frequent , or unexpected and affrighting sight of Blackamores , have brought forth black Children . This Imaginative Idea continues , till it be extinguish'd by the accession of another more powerfull Idea . The Author tells us of a Woman with Child , affrighted at the sudden coming of a Blackamore ; who being presently washd all over , by the prudent advice of a By-stander , did so strongly imagine the washing off of the Blackness hereby , that the Idea of Blackness , formerly conceiv'd , and already imprinted upon the Foetus , was by this means extinguish'd ; for she brought forth a white Child , but spotted between the Fingers and Toes , and in a few other Parts that the washers hand had miss'd . Finally , to add no more , 't is a very usual Observation , that if a Woman with Child conceive a strong Idea of any Thing , whether by a longing desire after it , or being affrighted at the sight of it &c. the Child seldom fails to have a Mark in some part of its Body , representing that thing both in Colour and Figure ; whether it be a Cherry , Mouse , or any other such like thing : and if the Thing , that surprises the Mother , fall upon or hit against a particular Part , the Idea of it will be impress'd upon that same Part of the Foetus . [ An Eye-witness related to me , that a pregnant Woman , that had been affrighted with a Cat suddenly thrown upon her lap , brought forth a Child with two Marks , one above each Knee ; which Marks , when the Knees were brought together ( into the same posture that the Mothers were in , when the Cat affrighted her ) did exactly represent an entire Cat , with the Head above the one Knee , and the Tail above the other , in the very same posture that the Cat fell in . But , tho' it plainly appears from these and many more such Instances , that the Mothers Imagination has a powerfull influence upon the Foetus ; yet to give a clear and intelligible Explication of the Manner how it produces such Effects , is a matter of no small difficulty ; and our Author gives but little account of it . However I shall offer some Considerations , that may somewhat lessen this Difficulty , tho' I shall not pretend to give a clear and satisfactory Solution of it . First of all then , I consider , that , since the Formation of the Foetus is wholly regulated by the Seminal Ideas , 't is easy enough to conceive , that an Imaginative Idea , impress'd upon the Seed , may have a considerable Influence in the Formation of the Foetus . For Instance , the Idea of a Blackamore ( simply as such , regarding only the Colour of his skin , and not the figure , proportion , and other Qualities of the Parts of his Body ; or at least , not being so strong in regard of them , but that other different , and more prevalent Ideas of these Qualities , may render this ineffectual , as to them : this Idea ( I say , ) impress'd upon the Seed , may determine the Formative Spirit to form the Foetus with a black skin ; since it has been formerly prov'd , that all the Modifications ( and consequently the Colour ) of every Part , depend intirely upon the Ideas residing in the Seed . In the next place I consider , that , since 't is highly probable , that the Animal Spirits , which come from the Brain through certain little Nerves to the Testes , do there mingle themselves with the spirituous part of the Blood , brought thither by the Arteries , and concur with it to make up the Matter whereof the Seed consists : and since the Idea of a Blackamore ( to keep to the former Instance ) is convey'd to the Brain and imprinted there by the Animal Spirits , which receive it from the Image or Idea painted in the bottom of the Eye , upon the Tunica Retina or ( as others think ) the Choroeides , by the Rayes of Light reflected from the Blackamores Body : it may be easily enough conceiv'd , that the Animal Spirits may also convey the same Idea from the Brain to the Testes , and there impress it upon the Seed . For if the Animal Spirits of the Optick Nerves transmit this Idea from the Eyes to the Brain , and there imprint it ; why may not the Animal Spirits of the Par vagum transmit the same Idea from the Brain ( through certain little Branches that reach , ) to the Testes , and there communicate it to the Seed . And since the Rayes of Light , that come from the Object , may be Reflected from a Specular Body to the Eye , without losing thereby that Figuration , Motion , or whatever other Modification it be , that qualifyes them to paint an exact Idea of the Object , they receiv'd it from , upon the Retina or Choroeides : why may not the Animal Spirits , that receive the very same Modification from the Tunicle of the Eye , be Reflected from the Brain to the Testes , and there impress the same Idea upon the Seed . Nor can it be said , that the Seed is not a Subject capable of such Ideas , since ( as was noted before ) the Animal Spirits are Part of the Matter whereof it consists , so that by taking them into its own substance , it must receive the Ideas they bring along with them . And 't is most certain , that many Impressions , made in particular Parts of the Body , and transmitted to the Brain , do not stop there , but are Reflected back to the same , or to other Parts , where they often produce very notable Effects ; & that barely by the strength of the Impression , without any concurrence of the Wills Determination , yea many times in direct opposition to it . And tho' the Substance of the Brain seems very remote from being Specular ; yet since that Quality depends upon such a Modification of the surface of any Opacous Body , as qualifies it to Reflect the Rayes of Light in the same order they fell in , without at all confounding them , or altering the Modifications they receiv'd from the Object ; 't is plain that the Brain , if it be at all capable of Reflecting the Impressions that come from visible Objects , ( as certainly it is ) must , as well as Specular Bodies , tho' perhaps upon very different accounts , be qualify'd to Reflect them without confounding or altering them ; for if the Brain should confound or alter them , there could be no true distinct Ideas of the Objects , they come from , form'd in it . All these Considerations may be also apply'd , to lessen our wonder at the powerful Influence of the Mothers Imagination upon the Foetus in the Womb already form'd . For so long as the Foetus is in the Womb , it may very justly be consider'd as a Part of the Mothers Body ; since her Blood Circulates through and nourishes it , as well as the other Parts of Her Body . And being 't is very probable , that the Animal Spirits , convey'd by the Nerves to every Part of the Mothers Body , do there mingle with the Blood brought thither by the Arteries , and concur with it to the Nutrition of the Part : I may very reasonably suppose , that the Animal Spirits , that come to the Womb , may there mingle with the Arterial Blood , and be trasmitted together with it by the Umbilical Vein into the Body of the Foetus for its Nourishment . And if there be a strong Impression of any Idea in the Brain , the Animal Spirits may ( as was formerly explain'd with relation to the Testes ) ▪ convey it to the Womb , and there impres● it upon the Body of the Foetus ; which , being so soft and tender , may upon that account be more susceptible of any such Impression , than the other Parts of the Mothers Body ; especially since Her frequent and solicitous Thoughts of the Womb , and the Foetus therein contain'd , may determine the Animal Spirits to flow more copiously thither than to other Parts , and keep those Pores of the Brain that lead thither more open : so that the Reflection of any Impression , made upon the Brain , may have a freer course that , than any other way . And tho' the Impression made upon the Foetus be but weak at first , yet it may be afterwards sufficiently confirmd by often reiterated Imaginations . Finally , tho' it be very little at first , yet it may increase daily as the Foetus grows : which may be both illustrated and confirm'd by Figures lightly cut in the Rind of a Gourd , which grow bigger and bigger as the Gourd increases . And now I see not any considerable Difficulty remaining in this Subject , after I shall have added this one Consideration ; namely , That , because the Formative Idea , residing in every Part of the Foetus , is a Particle of the Idea that resides in the same Part of the Mothers Body ; an Imaginative Idea , produc'd in her Brain , by a sudden Impression made upon any Part of her Body , may , when it is communicated to the Foetus , be more apt to unite it self with the Formative Idea , belonging to that same Part of the Foetus , than with any other ; and upon this account , that Part may more easily , than any other , receive the Impression . For the Idea of the Object comes to the Mothers Brain , accompany'd with the Idea of the Part , that the Impression is made upon , and the Imagination connects them together as it were into one Compound Idea , and transmits them to the Foetus ; where the latter easily unites it self with the Formative Idea homogeneous to it , and the former impresses itself upon the Part , that this Idea resides in . If it be objected , that after all that has been said , we are still in the dark about the main Point , for want of a clear and distinct Notion of the Ideas so often mention'd . I answer , that many things have been already , and some more yet remain to be , deliver'd , tending to clear the Nature of those Ideas , all which laid together , and attentively consider'd , may go a great way in assisting judicious Readers , to form as clear Notions about them , as can well be expected in so abstruse a Subject , as the Generation of Animals . And 't is no less cefficult , if not much more , to give an Intelligible and satisfactory explication , of the Nature of Imaginative Ideas , representing sesible Objects in the Brain ( which no man questions the reality of , ) than of those Formative Ideas , that the Notions , here propos'd about Generation , are built upon . And he that denyes the later , because he cannot be distinct enough in his Conceptions of them , may upon the same ground deny the former , yea and even disbelieve his own Eyes , when he sees the Ideas of many various Objects transmitted through a small hole ( fill'd with a Convex Glass ) into a dark Room , and there delineated to the life , without the least confusion , upon a piece of White Paper , plac'd opposite to the hole , at a convenient distance . And such a Person I cannot better answer , than by recommending to his serious Perusal , A Discourse of things above Reason , lately Published ; where the acute and judicious Author very convincingly proves , that , 't is highly reasonable to believe many things , that our Reason cannot comprehend ; many that we cannot form any clear and distinct Notions of ; and many that we cannot reconcile to other unquestionable Truths . For the Ideas , we have been speaking of , may very justly claim a place in the second of the three , newly mention'd , Ranks of Priviledg'd Things , which that Author styles Inexplicable . 'T is true , that profound and subtil Philosopher , Des Cartes , has attempted , in his Book de Homme , to give a Mechanical Account of the Ideas , that are imprinted in the Brain by insensible Objects . But he founds his Notions upon an Hypothesis , concerning the Structure of the Brain , and the Motion of the Spirits in it , which tho' it be most ingeniously devis'd , yet 't is so far from being countenanc'd by Anatomical Observations , that it seems utterly inconsistent with the best and most accurate , that have been made upon that Part. But 't is more than time to conclude this Digression , and proceed to the rest of our Authors Observations about the Seminal Ideas of Animals , and particularly of Man. The Propagation of Hereditary Distempers ( such as the Epilepsie , Gout , Stone , Consumption ) from Parents to their Children , depends upon this : That the seminal Idea which forms the Lungs ( for instance ) of the Foetus , is a Particle of that Idea which resided in the Parents Lungs : Which is to be understood also of the Reins , Joynts , Brain , and all the other Parts of the Body . Hence many Children are born with Moles , or Spots , in the very same Parts of their Body where their Parents had them , and of the same shape ; insomuch , that whole Families have taken their Names from the Things that the Moles , common to these Families , were observ'd to resemble , as the Cicerones , Pisones , Lemuli , &c. For there are certain subtil Corpuseles , that go out of every ( even the smallest ) Part of the Parents Body , and mingle themselves with the Spirituous Part of the Blood that Circulates through it . Which Effluvia , being modifi'd , and as it were figur'd , after a peculiar manner by the Part they come from , impress this Modification upon the fore-mention'd Spirit ; which Spirit , being afterwards united in the Seed with the Ideas of all the other Parts , ( that is , the Spirits come from every Part with a peculiar Modification impress'd upon them by it ) and excited to Motion , and extricated from the grosser Parts of the Seed by the heat of the Womb , begins to form , of its own Substance , a Body like unto that Part , from which it receiv'd the Modifications impress'd upon it . And thus the prima stamina of the Foetus are form'd ; which are nourish'd at first by the grosser Part of the Seed , and afterwards , partly by the Mothers Blood , and partly also , perhaps , by the Liquor contain'd in the Amnos or inner Membrane of the Foetus . From this Process of Generation , 't is easie to understand , how that Disposition of some particular Part of the Parents Body , which renders Him or Her obnoxious to any particular Distemper , may be communicated to the same Part of the Foetus , and render it obnoxious to the same Distemper . Only the nature of the Impression which is made upon the Spirit that forms the Parts of the Foetus , and which qualifies it to form them like the Parts of the Parents Body which it came from ; I say , the particular nature of this Modification remains in the dark still . Nor do I know how to illustrate it better , than by comparing it to that which is little less obscure than it self ; namely , the Modification , which the Rayes of Light receive by being Reflected from various Objects , and by which they are qualifi'd , to produce , in a darkned Room , lively and distinct Representations of each of those Objects , both as to their Figure and the Colour of their surface ; and 't is from the surface only , that the Rayes receiv'd this Modification , whereas the fore-mention'd Effluvia come from all the innermost Recesses of every Part , and therefore from the correspondent Part of the Foetus like unto it , not only in Figure and Colour , but in the whole Nature and inward Textur of it . That the Ideas of all the Parts do really exist in the Blood , appears from the following Arguments . 1. They have sometimes visibly appear'd in the Blood , receiv'd into a Cucurbit immediately as it slows out of the Vein , ( whilst it is warm and turgid with Spirits ) for some Medicinal Preparation : See Borell . Observ . 2. Some , that have drunk the Blood of any Animal , or of another Man , have been observ'd to partake of the Nature and Disposition of that Man or Animal . Commodus his disposition was owing to his Mother , who , presently after his Conception , drank the Blood of a cruel Gladiator that she was desperately in love with . A certain Maid , having drank some Cats-Blood , as a Remedy for the Epilepsie , did imitate Cats in her voice , motion and Actions , when the Fit was coming upon her ; watching silently at little Mouse-holes . See Becker . Microcosm . Therefore ( to note that by the way ) the Transfusion of Blood seems not a safe way of curing Diseases . 3. The Spittle of a Mad Dog makes other Dogs , Men , Horses , or any other Animal , wounded by his Teeth , turn mad also , and imitate his Actions and Gesticulations , such as Barking , Grinning , Fearfulness of Water , &c. Now Spittle is an immediate production of the Blood that circulates through the Salivary Glandules , & therefore must have receiv'd from thence the Ideas , that it infects the Spirits of the bitten Animal with . Also other Venemous enraged Animals , as the Tarantula , &c. communicate such Ideas by the little Wounds that their Teeth make in the Part they bite , as transform the Spirits of the Party bitten to a ridiculous imitation of their Gesticulations . Though every particular Part of the Foetus be form'd , as has been said , by the Evolution of its own Idea , convey'd , by the Circulation of the Blood , from the Correspondent Part of the Parents Body , unto the Testes , where the Seed is made ; yet maimed Parents may have perfect Children ; namely , if both Father and Mother be not mutilated ( at least not of the same Parts ; ) or if they have had perfect Seed in store , before they were dismembred ; or if the defect of the Architect tonic Spirit , that should have come to the Seed from the Part that is deficient , be suppli'd by the strength of the Parents Imagination ; who by seeing daily other Infants , Boys , Girls , Men , Women , all perfect , without the defect of any Part , may conceive so firm an Idea of a perfect Foetus , as will ( by the Sympathy , between the Imagination and the Seed , formerly explain'd ) produce the very same Modification in the Seed , that an Idea , convey'd by the Blood from the deficient Part , ( if it had not been wanting ) would have done . For the Mothers Imagination may not only add to the Foetus a Spot representing the Thing Imagin'd in Figure and Colour , but even the very Thing it self in its whole Nature . How many Instances are there of Pregnant Women , that have conceiv'd so strong an Idea of the Horns of some Beast that has terrifi'd them , that the Impression , thereby made upon the Foetus , has produc'd ( not a Spot only representing it , but ) a real substantial Horn , though , perhaps , this Cause of the Phaenomenon be not always observed . And hence it is , that if the Parents be maimed from their Birth , their Children are often mutilated of the same Part , because they cannot easily conceive a firm Idea of the entireness of that Part , which they never felt entire in themselves : But if they were dismembred long after , they can easily form a strong Idea of the Part that they have felt entire , and known the use of , in themselves , and so supply the defect of that Idea in the Seed . 'T is also probable , that the Mothers Imagination is the principal Cause , why the Childs Face sometimes resembles the Fathers , sometimes the Mothers , and sometimes some other Person , according to the Idea that is prevalent in the Mothers Brain , while she is with Child . That the Mother ( as well as the Father ) is furnish'd with true Seed , endow'd with the Ideas of the Parts of her own Body ( as well as the Fathers is with the Ideas of his ) and consequently , that she does contribute part of the Plastick vertue that forms the Foetus , as well as afford the Matter of which it is form'd and nourish'd in the Womb , appears from several Parts of the foregoing Discourse , as well as from the three following Considerations . 1. The Ideas of the Masculine Seed can only be taken from the Parts of the Mans Body , and therefore can never form the Organs peculiar to a Woman . 2. The vitious Conformation of any Part of the Mothers Body , as well as of the Fathers , is often propagated to the Foetus . 3. When a Male and Female of differing Species copulate , the Foetus is of a mixt kind , resembling the one in some of its Parts , and the other in others . We have ( besides the instance of Mules ) too many instances of this in the Monstrous Foetus's produc'd by the detestable Venery of some Men , that copulate with Female Brutes . The flowing of the Menstruous Blood to a young Womans Womb , is a sign of Maturity , because it signifies , that , besides the Seminal Idea of her own Sex ( which she was really furnish'd with before ) there is now also Aliment provided for the Evolution of that Idea , whensoever it comes to be Foecundated by the Masculine Seed . Death happens , when the Vital Spirit ( or Calidum innatum ) that is the chief Mover in the Evolution of the Ideas , and in all the Animal Functions , is supp●●ss'd or extinguish'd by any Cause whatsoever . ( This may be better understood from what was formerly deliver'd of Abortion , which is nothing else but the Death of the Foetus . ) But the Ideas do still remain in the Cadaver , though they are become Barren for want of the Moving Spirit ; which shall be restor'd again at the Resurrection , and no new Evolution thereby made , but the entire Idea , as it was already unfolded at the time of Death , resuscitated or animated anew . And some of the Spectres , that are seen in Church-yards , may be nothing else but the Ideas , remaining in the Human Cadavers , elevated by means of a certain Central Heat , which would be seen in the day time also , if the Light of the Sun did not keep them from appearing . Serpents , cut to pieces and putrefi'd , breed new Serpents by the influence of the Sun , which restores to the quiescent Ideas that moving Spirit , which they had lost by Death . Frogs also bruis'd , in the Winter , and resolv'd into Mud , do , upon the same account , revive in the Summer . Ducks , putrefi'd , are reported to breed Serpents , and it has been confirm●d to the Author , by a credible eye-witness : whence it evidently appears , that the seminal Ideas of the Serpents Flesh ( which they use to feed often upon ) have not been totally destroy'd , even by so many Digestions , but have continu'd entire under the dominion of the Ducks seminal Ideas . Swallows , when the cold Winter comes , bury themselves under the Water , where they continue without any sign of the least Motion or life , 'till the returning Sun inspire them with new vital Spirit , and thereby raise them to life again . All these Instances do strongly argue the possibility of the H●●●●●… Resurrection : Which ( as also the Authors conjectures about Sp●●●…es ) is likewise much confirm'd by the Resuscitation of Vegetables , hereafter mention'd . Naturalists observe , that , in some Persons , the Passion is so great in time of Coition , that , for the present , it quite bereaveth them of the use of Reason . And therefore it is , ( which should have been noted before ) that the Parents Imagination , at that time , produces more powerful Effects in the Seed , than the same Imagination , at any other time , could have done . For when the Animal Spirits flow in such abundance into the Organs of Generation , any Idea , that is very strong in the Imagination , must of necessity be carry'd down together with them and infect the Seed . But I have already insisted too long upon this Subject : And therefore I shall add no more , but pass on to the Generation of Vegetables . Every Species of Vegetables has its own particular Seed . The visible Seed is but the Receptable , that contains , and secures from External Injuries , the true Seed or Idea of the Plant , which ( says our Author ) all sound Philosophers affirm to be but the 2800 parts of its own Body ; intimating this determinate Proportion , that in all Generations the true Seed is very remote from any sensible bulk . The Seminal Idea of every Plant ( as was formerly said of Animals ) consists of as many particular distinct Ideas , as there are different Parts in the Vegetable , all together representing an exact Model of the entire Plant. The Evolution of this Idea is perform'd in this manner . When the Body of the Seed , or external Capsula of the Seminal Ideas , begins to be soften'd by the moisture of the Earth , so that the Ideas may take up a larger space , the heat of the Sun excites the innate fire of the Seed , which is Congeneal to it ; ( for all fruitful Seeds are endow'd with a Particle of that universal Spirit of Life , which is the Principle of all Vital Actions , Foecundates all Seeds , and is the only Mover in all Generations : ) and which being , put in motion , begins , by the Coagulative vertue 't is endow'd with upon the account of its Acidity , to Coagulate the Water that is at hand , into a Substance agreeable to the nature of the Ideas , and fill up the little spaces of the Ideas with it : Which are by this means gradually explicated , 'till they have attain'd the utmost Evolution that they are capable of . This Evolution , of the Ideas of a Vegetable seed , may be clearly represented to the Eye by Artificial Vegetation , which is perform'd in the following manner , according to Tachenius . Take the ripe Seed of any Plant , gather'd in fair Weather , bruise it in a Glass Mortar , and keep it in a Glass Hermetically seal'd , of a shape and bigness answerable to that of the Plant , 'till you observe a convenient Evening , when Dew is like to fall ; then take out your Seed , and expose it all night upon a Plate of Glass , that it may be wet with Dew ; but be sure to seal it up again before Sun-rise , with a solution of the Salt of Dew , in its own distill'd Liquour pour'd upon it to the heighth of three fingers breadth . Expose this seal'd Glass to the Rayes of the Sun and Moon in fair Weather , and keep it in a warm Fire-room in rainy Weather . After some days the Seed will appear like a Mucilage , and the supernatant D●w will be of a Green Colour saturate according to the nature of the seed , and coverd over with a skin or divers Colours . When these signs are compleat , if you heat the Glass , you shall see a perfect lively Idea of the Plant rise up within it , which will disappear again when the Glass is remov'd from the Heat . This odd Phaenomenon depends upon a Particle of the Vniversal Spirit contain'd in the Dew , which excites the innate Spirit of the Seed to an occult Fermentation , whereby the Idea is freed from its external earthy Receptacle , so that it may be elevated by the application of external Heat , leaving the heavy terrestrial Particles behind . But the Author does not give credit to the Experiment , that some pretend to , of elevating this Idea from the Ashes of a Plant ; because the Calcination drives away that Spirit , which is the immediate Receptacle of the Idea of the Plant. The foremention'd Salt of Dew is made by Filtring and Distilling the Dew 'till it leave no more Faeces , then Calcining the Faeces , and Extracting the Salt from them , which is to be dissolv'd in the Distill'd Dew , and so pour'd on upon the Seed , as above . In the last place , Minerals also are endow'd with Seminal Particles . For though they be not made up of so many dissimular Parts , and of distinct Organs , as Vegetables , and especially Animals are ; and consequently , though we cannot suppose any Ideas in them consisting of Integral Organical Parts : Yet they have a certain Seminal Ferment , which , in Metals particularly , is evident enough ; for 't is this Ferment that converts Mercury into a Metalline Substance . Therefore , Iron Mines , that have been almost quite exhausted , are after some years found as rich in the Oar as they were at first . And the same thing is observ'd in Tin , ( and likewise in Nitre . ) And such a Seminal Power there is in common Gold , though this Metal be unfit to impregnate other Metals therewith , and consequently improper for the Grand Philosophical work of Transmutation ; because its Sulphur , being once Coagulated , loses all Power of Motion for the future , and therefore is unfruitful and dead . But 't was this same Seminal Sulphur , that , when the Gold was produc'd , did Coagulate it self with Mercury , and thereby convert it into Gold. And there appears not any solid Reason against the possibility of the Transmutation so much sought after ; since , though Seeds cannot be converted into other Seeds , yet those , that are endow'd with a weaker Mover , may be overcome by , and brought under the Dominion , of such Seeds as are furnished with a stronger . And now having establish'd the Material and Formal Principles of Natural Bodies , the Efficient only remains to be consider'd . Prop. XVIII . The chief Mover ( under God ) of all Natural Bodies , that actuates and foecundates all Animal , Vegetable and Mineral Seeds ; that Coagulates Elementary Water into all sorts of Bodies , according to the various Ideas of those Seeds ; that applies the same Water to those Ideas , and in a word , the chief Efficient in all the Phaenomena of Nature , is a certain subtil Spirit of an Igneous nature , diffus'd through the whole visible World , but chiefly treasur'd up at the Center thereof in the Sun. N.B. [ 1. BY Spirit here , is not meant an Immaterial Substance , but a Body consisting of very Minute and very Active Particles , peculiarly fitted for Motion , and endow'd with a great measure of it . 2. By the visible World , I understand here , that part of the Corporeal Universe which contains the Earth with the other six Planets , and makes up one great Vortex , whereof the Sun is the Center . As for the rest of the Universe , it is altogether unknown to us , only , as that most ingenious conjecture of the incomparable Des Cartes concerning it , is very likely to be true ; namely , that every one of the fixt Stars , we see , is the Center and Sun , as 't were , of a distinct Vortex : So 't is no less likely , that each of them has the same relation to its own Vortex , and the same Influence upon the Planets , or whatever Bodies they are which it contains , that the Sun has to our Vortex , and upon the Bodies comprehended there in particularly the Terraqueous Globe . And though this Part of our Authors Hypothesis concerning the Anima Mundi or Vniversal Spirit , may be applicable in the sense newly explain'd , to the whole Universe of Bodies , yet his other Principles of Water and Seeds are not so comprehensive ; and whatever he says of them , must be limited to the Bodies contain'd in this little Point of the Universe , that the Almighty Creator has given to Mankind for an Habitation . And the truth is , we have but little certain knowledg of the other Parts of the World , and that little we have is very superficial . ] 3. This Vniversal Spirit is actually Igneous in its Fountain , the Sun ; and after it is incorporated in Terrestrial Bodies , even the coldest of them , it differs but in the slower Motion of its Particles from actual Fire , and therefore , when-ever they are put into a rapid motion , it turns into actual Fire again . And those Particles of Combustible Bodies , that , being in a vehement Agitation , do chiefly constitute our Culinary Fire , were once Particles of this Vniversal Spirit , and came Originally from the Sun. 4. This is the Spirit that mov'd upon the Water at the beginning of the Creation . For when God created the Matter of which he intended to form this Terraqueous Globe , namely , a great Mass of simple Elementary Water , he endow'd it with all sorts of Seeds , and made use of this Spirit to Coagulate a great part of the foresaid Mass , according to the Signatures of those Seeds , into Mineral , Vegetable and Animal Bodies of all kinds . [ And the Word in the Original , which our Translators render Mov'd , seems to agree very well with this Hypothesis : For it properly belongs to Birds sitting upon and fluttering over their Eggs and young ones , to excite , quicken and foecundate the Seed contain'd in the Eggs , and so bring forth the young ones ; and to cherish them when they are brought forth : so that , in this place , the Word may be very reasonably suppos'd to imply , that the Vital Spirit , which God had Created , did , as 't were , sit upon , and move it self in the Waters , to actuate the Seeds they contain'd , and by this means Hatch'd , as 't were , and brought forth the after-mention'd Bodies . ] 5. Tho' this Spirit , by Coagulating the Elementary Water into several Bodies , was it self Coagulated and Incorporated together with it , and tho' it has been propagated to all sorts of Bodies that have been produc'd , by Generation , ever since the Terraqueous Globe was first Created ; so that every fruitful Seed has a Particle of this quickning Spirit connate with it : Yet this Particle is not sufficient to accomplish the Evolution of the seminal Ideas , and actuate the Body in all the Functions that belong to it , unless it be maintain'd , corroborated , and multipli'd by constant fresh supplies , from that Inexhaustible Treasure of this Vital Fire , which is plac'd in the Sun ; and thence diffus'd , with the Rayes of that glorious Body , to all Parts of the visible World , and particularly to the Terraqueous Globe , where it maintains and actuates the fore-mention'd Native Spirit of all Animals , Vegetables and Minerals . 6. The Vital Substance , that flows continually from the Sun , is equally capable of all Forms , and unites it self indifferently with all Seeds . But when 't is once united , it loses its indifferency , and is specifi'd according to the determinate nature of every particular Seed that it incorporates with . Hence the Sulphurs of Vegetables are quite different from those of Animals , and both from the Sulphurs of Minerals ; nor can they be transmuted into one another by humane Art : So streightly does the Vniversal Spirit unite it self with particular Seeds . The reason of this so close an union , is , because the Native pre-existent in every Seed , is of the same Spirit Nature and Original with this Vniversal Spirit . As for the Proof of the Proposition hitherto explained , the Vniversal Spirit , asserted in it , is manifest , 1. From the absolute necessity of constant Respiration to Men , and most other Animals ; for hence it is evident , that there is a certain Vital Substance in the Air , that they cannot live a Minute without fresh supplies of , now that the Air is but the Vehicle of this Vital Substance , flowing continually from the Sun , and the Medium , through which it is convey'd to sublunary Bodies , shall be prov'd hereafter . So that it must be the Vniversal Spirit , cloath'd with Air , that is constantly receiv'd into the Lungs by Inspiration , and thence transmitted to the Heart ; which ( being the chief Fountain of the Animal Life , that constantly diffuses a Vital Spirit through the Arteries , together with the Blood , to all Parts of the Body , and thereby maintains and cherishes the Native Heat and Vital Spirit residing in each of them ) must have constant supplies from the Vniversal Spirit , to Corroborate , Maintain , and Multiply its own Particular Spirit . For the Vniversal Spirit , that flows from the Sun to all Parts of the Macrocosm , is of the same Nature with this Particular Spirit , that flows from the Heart to all Parts of the Microcosm , and is therefore very fit to nourish and support it with constant new supplies . 2. The same Vniversal Spirit is no less evident from what has been deliver'd under the former Proposition , concerning the Generation of Animals . To which I shall only add , that Nature has solicitously provided to secure the Seed from External Air , because , if it were expos'd but a moment to the Air , the Vniversal Spirit , that dwells there , would instantly suck up ( so to speak ) the Congeneal Spirit that foecundates the Seed , as not being yet incorporated . [ Wherefore the Seed , of Oviparous Animals , is carefully shut up from the Contact of the External Air within the Egg. And in Viviparous Animals , presently after the Injection of the Masculine Seed into the Womb , and the Union thereof with the Feminine , ] the Orifice of that Part is exactly clos'd , and the two united Spirits do presently fall to Work , and begin the Evolution of the seminal Ideas , and the Apposition of Aliment thereunto . But this Work could never be accomplish'd , nay , nor even begun , unless the seminal Spirit were excited , cherish'd , corroborated , and supported by the Heat of the Womb , [ and by constant supplies of the Mothers Vital Spirit , convey'd , with the Arterial Blood , from her Heart to the Placenta Vterina , and thence transmitted , through the Vmbilical Vein , into the Vena Cava , and so into the Heart of the Foetus , which is the Centre of Evolution , and the chief Spring of all the Animal Actions , both in and out of the Womb : But no sooner is the Foetus separated from the Mother , and thereby depriv'd of the supplies that the Vital Spirits , residing in the Heart , receiv'd from her in the Womb , than it begins to draw supplies for maintaining of the same Vital Substance , from the Vniversal Spirit lodg'd in the Air , as was said before . 3. 'T is the Vital Spirit residing in every particular Part of the Human , or any other Animals Body , maintain'd by the Influence of the Vniversal Spirit convey'd with the Air , by Respiration , into the Lungs , and from thence communicated , by means of the Circulation of the Blood , first to the Heart , and , from that , to the whole Body ; ] 't is this Spirit , I say , that Coagulates the Fluid Blood into the solid substance of that Part , and is the true Efficient of all the Vital Functions belonging to it . [ Those Animals that are destitute of Lungs , are nevertheless endow'd with Organs of Resparation of an equivalent use . For that excellent Anatomist , Malpigius , has happily discover'd , that those blackish Points , which we observe in Insects , all along the length of their Body , on both sides , are really the Orifices of so many Tracheas or Wind-Pipes , which convey the Air into the Stomach , Spinal Marrow , and all the other Bowels , as well as the Heart , so that the Air has immediate access to seed the Vital Spirit that resides in each of them , because there is no Circulation of the Alimentary Juice in these Animals ; or if there be , it is too slow to convey sufficient supplyes of the Vniversal Spirit from any one Part to all the rest , as it doth from the Heart and Lungs in perfect Animals . And the constant ingress and egress of the Air by these little Holes , is so necessary to the life of Insects , that if you immerge their whole Body into Oyl , or but anoint these little spots with it , they presently dye ; whereas if you anoint only the Intervals with Oyl , without touching these little Holes , they receive no harm . And tho' Fishes have no Lungs nor Air Pipes , because they live in the Water ; yet instead thereof they have Gils , which are Dilated and Contracted by a perpetual Reciprocation , to give ingress and egress to the Water , as the Lungs of other Animals are to Inspire and Exspire the Air. Nor can Fishes live without Water , any more than Land-Animals can do without Air. Whence 't is highly probable , that the former receive constant supplyes of some vital substance from the Water , as well as the later do from the Air : especially if we farther consider , that the Vital Liquor Circulates through the Gils of the one by the Ramifications of their Arteria Bronchialis , as well as it do's through the Lungs of the other by those of the Arteria Pulmonaris . Wherefore , if in Land-Animals the said Vital Liquor divide it self into little Rivulets in its passage through the Lungs , that every part thereof may at each Circulation receive fresh supples of Vital Spirit from the Air , that is diffus'd through the whole substance of those Respiratory Organs , by the numerous Ramifications of the Wind-pipe ; if this be so , I say , ( as we formerly prov'd it to be ) we may very reasonably suppose , that in Fishes the same Vital Liquor Circulates in like manner through the Gils , that it may receive constant fresh supplies of a vital substance from the Water , that washes the Gils perpetually . N. B. The Gils of Crusted Fish , as Lobsters , &c. and of Shell-fish , as Oysters , &c. are spongious , and not only receive the Water into all their innermost parts ( where it communicates with the numerous Vessels , that diffuse the Vital Liquor through the whole substance of the Gils ) but give it a Passage also into all the Internal Cavities of the Body , where it is laid up as in Bottles , to supply the foresaid Fishes with Vital Spirit , when the Ebbing of the Sea leaves them in sicco : whereas the Gils of sanguineous Fishes that live constantly in the Water , are not spongious , and the Water washes only their outward surfaces without penetrating any farther . But instead of enlarging any more upon this point , I shall refer the curious Reader to Dr. Willis's Book of the soul of Brutes , Chap. 3. where he will find it very fully and accurately handled . ] 4. The Existence of an Vniversal Spirit is evident from what has been said concerning the Growth of Vegetables . For 't is a Particle of this Spirit in the seed , excited , strengthn'd and maintain'd by the Suns Vital Influence , that Explicates the Seminal Idea , and Coagulates the Water into solid substances , as Wood , Bark , &c. which could never be produc'd out of simple Water without this Coagulating Spirit . 5. The same Argument may with equal , if not greater , force be applied to Minerals , and especially to Metals , which , tho' they be the solidest substances yet known , are nevertheless made of Mercury , which of all Liquors is the most fluid . In the next place , To evince that the Sun is the chief Fountain of this Vniversal Spirit , I need only put the Reader in mind of what was formerly observ'd concerning vegetable seeds ; namely , that they would be perpetually barren , if their Native Spirit were not actuated by that vital substance which is every where diffus'd with the Rayes of the Sun. But to confirm this a little farther , 't is evident beyond contradiction , that the Growth of Vegetables depends upon the Influences of the Sun , since the different Seasons of the Solar Year have so constant and so powerful Effects upon them . For in Winter the Influence of the Sun is very weak , because of the Obliquity of his Rayes , and the shortness of the dayes : and therefore Seeds lye dormant in the Earth without any motion : Herbs fade and wither , or dye totally : Trees are depriv'd of their Leaves and lively Verdure , shoot forth no Twigs , produce no Blossoms , bear no Fruit , and in a word cease from all Vital Actions . Yea many Animals themselves loose much of their Vigour , and some of them ( such as Flyes , Frogs , Swallows , &c. ) lye dead , as it were , all the Winter long , in Chinks of Walls , or in Cavities of the Earth , or under Water , without any motion , Sense , or the least appearance of Life : But when the Sun comes to be more vertical , and the Dayes grow longer , every thing capable of Life is quickn'd or reviv'd ; and the whole Face of the Earth , that look'd dead and lifeless before , appears fresh , verdant , lively , and quite new , insomuch that 't is astonishing to behold so vast an alteration : the Vital Spirit remaining in the Roots of such Herbs , as did not quite dye in the preceeding Winter , being Reviv'd , Excited to Motion and Corroborated , falls to work afresh , and produces new Stalks , Leaves , Flowers , Seed , Fruit , &c. the Vital Spirit that had in a great measure retir'd from the Branches of Trees into their Roots and Body , explicates it self anew , restores their fresh and lively Verdure , and adorns them with new Leaves , Twigs , Buds , Blossoms , Fruit , &c. Finally the Vital Spirit of the forementioned Animals , that had Concentred it self in the middle of their Body , actuates the Members anew which it had before deserted , and restores to them Sense , Motion , and the Exercise of all their Vital Functions . Lastly , The Vniversal Spirit appears to be of an Igneous Nature , 1. Because it flows from the Sun , which is an actual Fire . Yea the Solar Rayes themselves , which diffuse this Vital Substance through the Visible World , being Collected by a Burning Glass into a Center , produce all the Effects of our Actual Culinary Fire . [ 2. The Vital Spirit of Animals is fed by the Universal Spirit , as has been evidently prov'd , and by consequence is of the same Nature with it . Now this Vital Spirit , in Hot Sanguineous Animals , has all the Essential Properties of an Actual Flame : For it constantly diffuses a sensible Heat through all the Members of the Body : it is maintain'd by constant fresh supplies of sulphureous Fuel from the Aliments , that are taken into the Stomach and thence conveyed to the Blood , where this subtil Flame invisibly burns ; and of an Aerial Pabulum from the Air , that is taken into the Lungs by Inspiration , and there communicated to the same Liquor : it constantly emits Fuliginous Effluvia , both through the Wind-Pipe also through all the Pores of the Skin , which are like so many Chimneys appointed to ventilate this vital Fire : It is kindled first in the Seminal Liquor , either by another vital Fire , as in viviparous Animals ; or by the Intestine Motion of the Sulphureous Parts , excited and cherished by a continu'd External Warmth , as in Oviparous Animals : but so long as the Foetus is included in the Womb or Egg , it burns very faintly , and never breaks out into an actual Flame till the Air have free nccess to it by Respiration : finally it dyes as soon as it is depriv'd of Sulphureous Fuel , of Aerial Pabulum , or of Ventilation . Now these Properties seem to be peculiar to Flame : and particularly there is nothing we know of in the World besides Life and Fire , whose Motion is instantly suppressed by withdrawing the Air. See Willis de Accentione Sanguinis . ] Prop. 19. The Vniversal Spirit , that Coagulates Elementary Water into Solid Substances of the Animal Vegetable and Mineral Kingdoms , consists of Acid Particles . For 1. IT is of an Igneous nature ; and Fire has been prov'd to consist of Acid Particles put into a rapid Motion . 2. All Chimists agree that the Concretion of Bodies depends upon the Saline Principle . Now Acaline Salts are apt rather to Dissolve Bodies , than either to Coagulate or be Coagulated : Whereas we have a multitude of Instances of Coagulation and Fixation perform'd by Acid Salts ; which tho' they Corrode ( and so Dissolve ) many Bodies , yet their Property is to Concoagulate with the Bodies they have Corroded . [ Thus Quicksylver is Fixed and Coagulated by the Acid Particles of common or Antimonial Sulphur , into Cinnabar ; by those of Salt and Vitriol into Sublimate Corrosive ; by Spirit of Nitre into Red Precipitate , as the Chymists abusively call it ; by Oyl of Vitriol , Oyl of Sulphur , or Oyl of Alum into Turbith Mineral , finally by the Acid Particles of Fire into Precipitate per se . These Instances are the more pertinent to our purpose , because Mercury is a more Fluid Body than Simple Water it self . And the last of them , tho' at first it appear somewhat Paradoxical , yet upon better examination it seems to be very reasonable ; since Precipitate per se , as well as the rest of the newly mentioned Preparations of Quicksilver , may be reviv'd into running Mercury , by being distill'd from Salt of Tartar , Quick-lime , or such other Alcalisate Bodies as are very apt to be wrought upon by Acid Salts , and thereby to disengage the Quicksilver that was Coagulated with them : and since the Particles of Fire ( which have been prov'd to be Acid ) may penetrate Glass , and many times increase the weight of the inclosed Bodies , as Mr. Boyle has undeniably evinced by a great many Experiments : and finally since Fire is the only Agent in this Preparation . ] The Sulphur of Lead deprives Quicksilver of its Fluidity . Volatil urinous Salts are so powerfully fix'd by Acid Spirits as to endure an open Fire for some time ; but they recover their former volatility , as soon as they are disengaged from the Acid Salts that fixed them , by the addition of any Alcalisate Body . All sorts of Acid Salts do coagulate Milk : and the Coagulation of the Creamy parts of Milk into Butter , depends upon the internal Acid of the Milk ; for if you throw any Alcalisate Salt into it , there can be no Butter obtain'd from it . The Acid Salts of Nitre do so powerfully fix the vomitive Sulphur of Antimony , as to render it a good Diaphoretic . [ The Acid of Spirit of Wine instantly Coagulates Spirit of Vrine ; for , if both these Liquors be highly rectified , as soon as ever you have mingled them , the whole mixture loses its Fluidity , insomuch that tho' the Glass be inverted , not one drop will fall out : yea our Author affirms that ] if Spirit of Wine highly rectified be kept for some months upon Salt of Urine in a gently digestive heat , they will unite together into a Calculus of a reddish Colour : and ( which is yet more strange ) four parts of this Stone will convert one part of new Spirit of Urine into its own Substance , and four parts of this one more , and so on without any end : and that the Stone in the may be Generated after the same manner by the Plaistick Vertue of an Internal Acidum , joyned with the Salt of Urine , and being mixt with Gravel by Fermentation , concentrates into a Concreate Substance . We found by a Stone being taken out of a Humane Bladder , and Anatomized , by Distillation , to consist of Oyl , Spirit , and Volatile Salt , with a very large Caput Mortuum : but of this we shall say no more at present , but leave the Reader to judge what may be gathered by the foregoing Experiment ; so that it 's believed , the Universal Spirit that Coagulates Elementary Water , as well as other Bodies into solid Substances , consists of Acid Particles . FINIS . Some Books Printed for and sold by Stafford Anson , at the three Pidgeons in St. Paul's Church-yard , 1691. 1. DIctionarium Historicum , Geographicum , Poeticum : Opus admodum utile & apprime necessarium . A Carolo Stephano Inchoatum . Ad incudem vero revocatum , innumerisque pene locis auctum & emaculatum per Nicolaum Lloydium , Collegii Wadhami in Celeberrima Academia Oxoniensi socium . Editio novissima . In qua Historico Poetica , & Geographica seorsim sunt Alphabetice digesta ; & Liber totus tum emendationibus , tum additamentis ( recentioribus tredicem Annorum Lloydii Elucubrationibus , manuque ultima ) ita adornatur , ut novus ac plane alius videripossit . Cui accessit Index Geographicus , ubi hodierna & vernacula Locorum nomina Antiquis & Latinis proponuntur . 2. The History of the Council of Trent ; containing eight Books . In which , besides the ordinary Acts of the Council , are declared many notable Occurrences which happened in Christendom , during the space of forty years and more , and particularly the Practices of the Court of Rome , to hinder the Reformation of their Errors , and to maintain their Greatness . Written in Italian by Pietro Soave Polano ; and faithfully translated into English by Sir Nathaniel Brent , Knight . Whereunto is added the Life of the Learned Author , and the History of the Inquisition , in Folio . 3. Dionysii orbis Descriptio , Annotationibus Eustathii , & Hen. Stephani , nec non Guil. Hill commentario Critico & Geographico , ac Tabulis illustrata , 8vo . 4. P. Virgilii Maronis opera , Interpretatione & notis Illustravit Car. Ruaeus , ad usum Delphini . Juxta Editionem novissimam Parisiensem , 8vo . 5. Horatii opera ad Vsum Delphini , 8vo . 6. Phaedri Fabulae , ad Vsum Delphini , 8vo . 7. Virgilii operacum Annotationibus Johannis Minellii . 8. — — Id. cum Notis . T. Farnabii , 12ves : 9. P. Terentii Comoediae cum notis . T. Farnabii , 12ves : 10. Isocratis Orationes duae . 1. Ad Demonicum . 2. Ad Nicoclem . Nova methodo & apprime utili , quoad verbum & sensum Latine redditae : Graecismis Phrasibus & sententiis in quibus maxima vis Rei consistit , 
A71259	----	The characters of divine revelation a sermon preached at St. Martins in the Fields, March 4. 1694/5 : being the third of the lecture for the ensuing year, founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esquire / by John Williams ... Williams, John, 1636?-1709. 1695 Approx. 41 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 19 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A71259 Wing W2696 ESTC R1810 12497393 ocm 12497393 62561 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A71259) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 62561) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 951:73 or 1110:1) The characters of divine revelation a sermon preached at St. Martins in the Fields, March 4. 1694/5 : being the third of the lecture for the ensuing year, founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esquire / by John Williams ... Williams, John, 1636?-1709. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. [4], 32 p. Printed for Ri. Chiswell, and Tho. Cockerill ..., London : 1695. Half-title (p. [1]) reads: Dr. Williams's third sermon at Mr. Boyle's lecture, 1695. "Imprimatur" (p. [2]) dated and signed: March 6. 1694/5. Guil. Lancaster. Errata: p. 32. Duplicate copies appear on reels 951 and 1110. Reproduction of original in the Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. 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Sermons, English -- 17th century. 2005-01 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-03 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-04 Mona Logarbo Sampled and proofread 2005-04 Mona Logarbo Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion D r WILLIAMS's THIRD SERMON AT Mr. BOYLE's Lecture , 1695. IMPRIMATUR , March 6. 1694 / 5. Guil. Lancaster . The Characters of Divine Revelation . A SERMON Preached at St. Martins in the Fields , March 4. 1694 / 5. BEING THE Third of the LECTURE For the Ensuing YEAR , Founded by the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE , Esquire . By JOHN WILLIAMS , D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty . LONDON : Printed for Ri. Chiswell , and Tho. Cockerill : At the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard ; and at the Three Legs in the Poultrey . M DC XC V. HEB. I. 1 , 2. God who at sundry times , and in divers manners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets , hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. IN these Words there is , ( as I have shewed ) I. A Description given of Revelation , 't is God's speaking , or declaring his Will to Mankind . II. The Certainty of it ; 't is by way of Declaration , God who at sundry times , and in divers manners spake , &c. 'T is taken for granted , and that it needs no Proof . III. The Order observed in delivering this Revelation ; it was at sundry times , and in divers manners ; in time past by the Prophets , and in the last days by his Son. IV. The Perfection and Conclusion of all ; 't is in the last days by his Son. Under the First I have shewed , 1. What is meant by Revelation , in contradistinction to Natural Light. 2. The Possibility of it . 3. The Expedience , Usefulness , and Necessity of it . Under the Second I have shewed , 1. The Certainty of it ; or that there has been such a Revelation . 2. I shall now proceed to shew the Difference between Pretended and True Revelation ; or what are the Characters by which we may know Revelation to be True. In treating upon which , I shall premise , 1. That the proper Subject-matter of Revelation , called here God's speaking , being not self-evident , and out of the Road of Nature , requires some extraneous Principles to prove it by . Sensible Objects lye open to the Sense , and need no Proof ; for who ever thought it necessary to labour in proving there is a Sun in the Heavens ; that it rises and sets , and has its stated Times and Periods of Revolution ; which every man that has his Eye-sight knows and sees as well as himself ? And there are Rational Inferences which we make from precedent Postulata , that are as evident as the Principles from which they are deduced , and which all men alike agree in . But in matters of mere Revelation , there is no manner of Connection between them and what we know before , and are therefore never to be wrought out , or learned by the Book of Nature or Reason ; but are only to be understood and known , as God is pleased to communicate them . We might search and search eternally , and yet never have found out the Mystery of our Redemption ; that Mystery which not only the Prophets enquired and searched diligently , 1 Pet. 1.10 . but also the angels desire to look or pry into , ver . 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; and were obliged to wait till the manifold wisdom of God was in its proper time made known to them by the Church , Eph. 3.10 . ( as has been before suggested ) . This then being the Subject of Revelation , 't is reasonable that this Revelation should have some other ways of Proof ; that what is thus Divine in its Discovery , should have a suitable Evidence to justify it . 2. The Matter of Revelation being thus of Divine Inspiration and Authority , must also be worthy of God , and of great Importance , and consequently requires a Proof suitable to the Nature and Importance of it . If the Matter in debate be inconsiderable , we are contented with probable Arguments , nor are we much concerned which way it is determined : As 't is indifferent whether the Sun or the Earth be the Centre , as long as we receive the benefit of both : Or whether our Diet nourishes , or Physick operates by Qualities , or the Texture of its parts , as long as we find the happy Effects of it : Let Philosophers and Naturalists write Volumes , and wrangle eternally about these disputable Points , I find not my self concerned , as long as my Interest is not affected nor concerned in the Quarrel . But when the matter is of no less consequence than my Eternal Happiness , it requires the most serious Thoughts and Attention to be satisfied which is the right , and which the wrong ; whether there be a Revelation , or which is the true , and which the false ; especially since there are different Pretenders to it . 3. Revelation being the Declaration of God's Will to Mankind , as he doth not require us to believe without sufficient Evidence , so it doth suppose that there is such Evidence , and that there are some Marks or Signs by which the Truth and Certainty of such Revelation may be known and proved . For otherwise every Pretender to Revelation would challenge our belief ; and we should not know but that the True Revelation might be the False , and the False the True. 4. There are some things so necessary and inseparably belonging to Revelation , that the want of them will utterly overthrow the Veracity and Authority of it , and yet without further Evidence they are not sufficient to prove it : Of this kind are Self-agreement , a Consonancy to the Principles of Nature , and to the true and certain Notions of Mankind concerning Good and Evil. We are certain if a Revelation fails in any one or more of these , that it is false , and not of Divine Inspiration : For the Light of Nature , and a true and right Notion of things , are from God ; and to suppose a Revelation to be opposite to these , is to make God contradict himself . Thus if we understand any thing , we know God to be infinitely Good and Holy , worthy of the profoundest and most solemn Adoration , because of the Perfections of his Nature , and his Good Will and Beneficence to Mankind . And therefore to sacrifice Men and Children , and to mingle the most Impure and Ludicrous Practices with the Worship paid to him , is rather an Offering to be presented to the most Beastly and Savage Daemons , than the Holy and Merciful Creator of all things ; and consequently cannot be of his Institution . In this case a Contradiction in the Nature of things , would be like a Contradiction in Terms , or a Contradiction in the Revelation it self . And therefore a Revelation that shall evidently contradict them , is a Revelation in Pretence only , it is not Divine . But tho these are thus necessary to Revelation , that the want of them is sufficient to detect what is false ; yet however it will not follow , That whereever these are [ that because a Sum of Doctrine agrees with it self , is consonant to the Light of Nature , and the right notion we have of things ] that it is therefore of Divine Revelation . For tho it is seldom but the Imposture fails in one or more of these , yet it may have all these Characters , and be a Doctrine of Men , of human Contrivance and Composure . And therefore there is somewhat farther requisite to the Proof of a Revelation , somewhat peculiar to it , and that so belongs to it , as not to be common to any thing with it . And that is a Point I shall now take into Consideration . Toward the clearer Proof of which I shall distribute it after a Threefold manner . 1. I shall consider the case of such as were themselves inspired , and to whom the Revelation was made , and how they could be satisfied of the Truth of such a Revelation . 2. The case of those that received the matter revealed immediately from the Persons inspired , and how they were to judge of the Truth of such a Revelation . 3. The case of those that lived in Ages remote from that of the Inspired Persons , and after that the Revelation was compleated , ( as was the case of the Jews more especially that lived between the time of Malachi , and John the Baptist ; and as the case is of all Christians since the Apostolical times ) and what Satisfaction and Evidence may there be expected in those Circumstances . 1. The Case of those that received the Revelation ; and how they themselves could be satisfied about the Certainty of such a Revelation . The Resolution of this Point belongs in part to the Third General , under which the Difference remains to be shewed between a Revelation and Imagination . But I shall not wholly refer it thither . There seems to be so near an Affinity between Revelation and Imagination ; and Imagination is so far operative in many Branches of Inspiration , that 't is very difficult to set out the bounds exactly , and to say , This is of Divine Inspiration , and this the effect of Fancy . But whatever it may seem to us that have no Sensation or Experience of such Divine Representations as the Prophets had ; and so 't is no more possible for us to describe it , than 't is for one that never had his Sight , to conceive what Light and Colour is : Yet as the blind man may be convinced that there are such things as Light , Colour , Figure , and Sight , by what he hears and observes from those that are about him , and that he converses with : So we may be as well assured that there was in Prophetical Schemes that powerful Representation on the part of the Divine Agent , and that clearness of Perception on the part of the Person Inspired , as would abundantly make good those Phrases of Vision and Speaking , by which it is described in Scripture ; and which may well be supposed as much more to advantage , as the Power that operated upon them was beyond that of mere Imagination . So that those Inspired Persons after such Illumination , might as well question what they heard or saw by the Natural Organs of Sense , as doubt of what was revealed to them by the Impressions made upon them through the Agency of the Divine Spirit . To deny this , is to deny that God can so communicate himself to an Intelligent Creature , that the Creature shall certainly know that it proceeds from his immediate Suggestion ; which I have before shewed it is unreasonable to question : And indeed what is no more to be questioned or denied because we our selves have no experience of it , than the Blind from their Birth can reasonably question or deny there is what we call Light and Colour ; or the Deaf , that there are Sounds , Voices , and Words , because they have no Notion or Idea of these things . Now if we think it reasonable that the Deaf and the Blind should notwithstanding a Natural Inaptitude and Incapacity in themselves , assent to what all Mankind besides do unanimously aver , and not call in question the Truth or Possibility of what is thus affirmed , because of their want of Sensation : So it is not fit or reasonable to think this way of Revelation never was , and cannot be , because we have not an experimental knowledge of such a Manifestation . For Almighty God can so clarify the Understanding by a Beam of Light let in from above , as shall be as evident a Proof of its Divine Original , as it is that the Light proceeds from the Sun the Fountain of it ; or as a Person himself is sure of the Truth of any Proposition , which by an Argument before unthought of , or unconsider'd , he comes to be fully convinced of , in spight of all former Prejudices and Opinions . So little Truth or Reason is there in a bold Assertion of a certain Author , That Revelation is uncertain , and never certain without a sign : And therefore , saith he , Abraham , Moses , and Gideon , asked a Sign , over and above Revelation . But it is far from being true , that those persons therefore desired a Sign , because they conceived the Revelation to be uncertain , or that they doubted of the truth of it ; but as a Sign was for the greater confirmation of their Faith , in some Points difficult to be believed , or in some very difficult Services , ( for Faith , as other Graces , is capable of Addition and Improvement ) . In which cases their asking a Sign is no more an evidence of their distrust of God , or a doubting of the Truth and Certainty of the Revelation , than God's confirming his Promise by an Oath , was an evidence that he thought not his Word sufficient without it ; or than Abraham could be supposed not obliged to believe upon a Promise alone , without that superabundant confirmation of an Oath , Heb. 6.17 . Thus it was even in the case of that Holy Patriarch , to which this Author refers ; where before ever he asked a Sign , he is said to have so believed in the Lord , that it was counted to him for righteousness , Gen. 15.6 , 8. his Faith was highly commended , and he is for that reason called the father of the faithful . So that Revelation may be certain when there is no Sign ; and the person was bound to believe it , and was obliged by it , as well where there was no Sign , as where there was . I grant when the Revelation comes at second hand to a person , and rests on Human Testimony , on the Ability and Sincerity of the Relater , or person supposed to be inspired , there needs some farther Evidence , some Sign or Signs , that are to be , as it were , the Credentials from Heaven ; since all men are liars , Psal. 116.11 . that is , may be deceived , or may deceive ; may either be so weak as to be imposed upon by their own Imagination , or the Imposture and Practices of Evil Spirits ; or be so wicked , as under the pretence of Revelation and Inspiration , to impose upon others . In such a case , no man's Affirmation or Pretence is ordinarily to be heeded , further than as he is able to produce such Testimonies as are really as Divine as he would have his Revelation accounted to be . But when a person is himself the Recipient to whom the Revelation is imparted , there is no absolute need of a Sign or further Evidence to ascertain the Truth of it to him ; when if God so pleases , the Revelation of it self might be made as clear as it could be made by the Sign . What need is there of a sign to prove that it is Day , when by the Light of it we see every thing about us ? Or to justify the Truth of a self-evident Proposition ? These are things in their own nature that need no proof . And when a Revelation has an Evidence of its own , as Truth has , it needs no other Light to discover it , no further Sign to prove it , for its own sake , and as to the Person to whom the Revelation is made . A Sign therefore makes no alteration in the Evidence ; for whether with a Sign , or without a Sign , the Revelation is to be believed ; for else they that had a Revelation without a Sign , were not obliged to believe , and the Revelation without the Sign had in effect been no Revelation ; since no one is obliged to believe , where there is no reason for it ; and there is no reason for it , where there is no Evidence , or that Evidence not sufficient . So that if it be asked , how a person shall himself be satisfied concerning the Certainty of a Revelation made to him , it will receive the same answer with that , How he shall be satisfied concerning the Truth of a Proposition , or a self-evident Proposition ; for the further Proof of which God may work a Miracle , and give a Sign , but the thing is the Proof of it self . But however , suppose a person never so well satisfied in what he calls Revelation , and that in his own opinion he is as sure of it as of his own Being and Existence ; yet what is this to others , that are concerned in that Revelation , if it be true , and as much bound to believe it , and be directed by it , as if they themselves had been in the place of that Inspired Person , and received it as he did , immediately from God ? This brings us to the Second Case . 2. The Case of those that did not themselves receive that Revelation immediately from God , but from the Person or Persons Inspired : And then the Question is , How these are to judge of the Truth of that Revelation ? A Revelation to another , how evidently and convincingly soever it may be represented to him , is nothing to me , unless I am fully assured that he has had such a Revelation : But that I cannot be assured of , unless it be by the like immediate Revelation , or by sufficient and uncontroulable Testimony . But it would be an unreasonable motion to demand that we be alike inspired , and have the same Revelation to confirm his Revelation ; for that would be as if one that was born blind should obstinately refuse to believe there is a Sun in the Firmament , or Day , or Sight , unless he has the same Visive Faculty with those that do affirm it . It might then as reasonably be required with Thomas , that we see the Print of the Nails , and put our hand into the Side , and have all actually brought home to our Senses , or else we will remain Infidels , and not believe . This would be to drive all Faith out of the world , and so it would be unpracticable . We must then take the Case for granted , and that it is as reasonable for us to believe , where there are sufficient Motives of Credibility , as if we were alike actually inspired as they to whom the Revelation was immediately conveyed . And here let us place our selves in those circumstances , as if we were to judge of the Truth or Falshood of a Revelation ; and consider what we our selves would in reason desire for our own satisfaction , when the Persons to whom this Revelation is made , stand ready to give it . And if I mistake not in judging for others by what I my self would desire , it may be resolved , 1. Into the Veracity , Sincerity , and Credibility of the Persons pretending to Inspiration . 2. Into the Matter or Subject of Revelation . 3. Into the Testimony produced for it . 1. The Credibility of the Person ; by which we understand his Probity and Sincerity ; his Capacity , Prudence , and Understanding , which render him worthy of Credit , and are meet and necessary Qualifications for a Divine Missionary . The being a Prophet to others , ( as those are to whom a Revelation is made , and that are inspired by Almighty God ) so as to teach and direct them in the stead , as it were , of God , whose Mouth and Representatives they are unto the People , is an Office of great Dignity , and requires somewhat of the Divine Image as well as Authority , to recommend them and their Message to others ; and therefore Prophets and Holy Men are in Scripture frequently put together , 2 Pet. 1.21 . Matth. 13.17 . implying that none were fit to be employed in so sacred an Office , that were not Persons of known Probity , and approved Integrity . I grant in the ordinary Cases , as there were Prophets bred up in the Schools or Nurseries of Learning and Morality , there might be such Persons as were employed without a strict regard had to these qualifications , as Messengers that carried an Errand by the order of their Superiour ; as 2 Kings 9.1 . I grant again , that God might and did sometimes upon some occasions , inspire such Persons as had none of these Qualifications to recommend them ; as he did Balaam : But then this was no more than when God opened the Mouth of the Ass , to rebuke the Madness of that Prophet ; and who was so over-ruled by the Divine Power , as against his will to bless those whom he came to curse ; which was so much the more considerable , as it was the Testimony of an Enemy . But as Revelation is a Divine Communication , and a Mark of Divine Favour , so it doth suppose in the nature of it , that the Person so dignified is duly qualified for it ; and which is so requisite in the opinion of mankind , that without it he would rather be accounted an Impostor , than a Messenger from God , and ordinarily have no more Reverence paid to his Errand than to his Person . And what has been thus said in general , as to the Morality and Virtue of Persons inspired , will hold in some degree as to their Prudence and Understanding , which is so necessary a Qualification , that the Divine Election of Persons for so peculiar a Sevice , doth in that way either find or make them fit . It is no wonder that a late Author maintains Revelation to be uncertain , when he saith that the Prophets were not endued with a more perfect Understanding than others , but only with a more Vivid Power of Imagination ; and that the Wisest of Men , such as Solomon , and Heman , &c. were not Prophets , but contrariwise Rusticks , and untaught Persons , and even despicable Women , such as Hagar . For if these and such as these were the only Persons employed in the Messages of Heaven to Mankind , and whom all the Revelation center'd in , there would be no improbable grounds of suspicion that they were mis-led into such an Opinion , by the Fascination of a working Imagination , and so it would be Fancy , and not Revelation . But what thinks he of Moses , a Person acquainted with all the Learning of the Egyptians , and richly accomplished with all Endowments requisite to compleat a Governor of a Numerous People , and to consolidate them into a settled Constitution ; and therefore has the Preference given him to all the most Famous and Ancient Lawgivers , by Plato , Pythagoras , Diodorus Siculus , & c. ? What thinks he of Joshua , that was bred up under the best Instructor , and that knew the Art of Government and Conduct in Peace and War ? What of Samuel , that from his Youth , and even Childhood indeed , commenced a Prophet , and was also the Judge of the whole Nation in unsettled and perilous times , Acts 3.24 . 13.20 . ? What of David , justly called a Prophet , Acts 2.30 . and whose Writings shew him to excel in all manner of Poetry and sublime Composures ? What , lastly , of Solomon himself , to whom , it 's said , the Lord appeared twice , 1 Kings 11.9 . in a more eminent manner ; and at other times , 1 Kings 3.5 . 6.12 . 9.2 . 11.11 . ? And if at other times God ( who is not confin'd in his Choice or Operations to the Capacity of Instruments ) was pleased to reveal himself to , and employ such Rusticks and Illiterate Persons as Amos , and afterward the Apostles , he gave them a mouth and wisdom , Luke 21.15 . and endued them with such extraordinary Gifts of Elocution and Magnanimity , as made them fit to appear before Kings , and to confront the Wisest of Philosophers , so as that of the Apostle was abundantly verified in them , 1 Cor. 1.25 , &c. That the foolishness of God is wiser than men , and the weakness of God is stronger than men , &c. But it is not only requisite that the Persons to whom the Revelation is made , and that are employ'd in delivering that Revelation to others , be Wise and Cautious , such as are capable of discerning , and not apt to be imposed upon ; but it is as requisite that they be Faithful and Sincere , and that will not impose upon others . For otherwise the more knowing they are , the more able are they by plausible Insinuations and Pretences to deceive . And what greater Evidence of this can be desired , than when the Persons Inspired live by the best Rules , as well as give them ? What greater Evidence , than when for the sake of publishing , propagating , and confirming the Truth of what they teach , they deny themselves of all the Pleasures , Profits , and Honours of this present life ; when though they knew before hand , that bonds and tribulation abide them , yet none of these things move them , neither count they their lives dear unto them ; but with admirable Patience , Resolution , and Constancy , expose themselves to the utmost Severities , for the hope of such Reward as they propose for their own and the Encouragement of others ? What greater Testimonies can be given of their Sincerity , and if not of the Truth , yet of their own Belief of it ? Who could with such Chearfulness invite the greatest Dangers , and with such a brave Magnanimity despise all the Threatnings of the most Potent Adversaries , and run the Gantelope , as it were , through the most formidable Persecutions , without the least Demur or Haesitation , if they themselves were not abundantly and fully convinced of the Truth , Excellency , and Necessity of that Doctrine they were thus commission'd to teach ? If these are not sincere , there is no Sincerity in the world . So that as far as the Credibility of the Persons is a Proof of a Revelation ; and so far as the Wisdom , Probity , and Sincerity of Persons , are a Proof of their Credibility ; we have an Evidence to rest upon , and a Character to try the Truth of a Revelation by . The 2 d. Proof in this Case , desirable and necessary toward a Satisfaction , is the Subject-matter of it ; I mean that which runs as it were a Vein through the whole Body of Revelation . There are some Revelations which concern particular Persons or Families , as that of the Angel to Hagar , concerning Ishmael and his Posterity , which neither made her a Prophet , nor were strictly of Concernment to the rest of the world . But when we enquire after the Matter of Revelation , it is principally the main Subject of it , such as the Law of Moses in the Old Testament , and the Gospel in the New. And here it may be reasonably expected , that the Revelation should be worthy of God , as it is a Revelation from him ; and what should be for the Advantage , Satisfaction , and Happiness of Mankind , as it is a Revelation to them . It is to be worthy of God , and what would become him to speak , dictate , and do , if he were himself to speak , dictate , and act . In all Relations and Descriptions there is a certain Decorum to be observed , with respect to the Nature , Condition , and Circumstances of the Things related and described , which makes up what is called Symetry and Proportion . But above all a due regard is to be had hereunto , in the Ideas and Notions we entertain , or the Representations we make of God , that they may be agreeable to the Dignity and Perfections of his Nature . And if in all our Conceptions of the Divine Being such a scrupulous Care is to be taken , that we judge not amiss of his Nature , Will , and Operations ; we cannot but suppose that in the Revelation of himself to Mankind , he who best and only knows himself , will give such a Representation of those , as is suitable to his Majesty and Authority ; and may ingenerate in the minds of men such an Awe , Reverence , and Regard , as is due from Finite , Created , and Imperfect Beings , to him that is Infinite , Uncreated , and in all Points absolutely Perfect . There we may well expect to find the most lively Characters of the Divine Perfections , as far as we are capable of conceiving ; where Justice and Power are set forth in all their Authority , and yet so temper'd with his Mercy and Kindness , as shall as well raise and quicken the Hopes , attract the Love , and establish the Comfort of Good Men , as administer matter of just Terror to the Wicked . There we may suppose the Mysteries of the Divine Counsels unlocked , and the Beauties and Harmony of the Divine Providence illustrated and described , as far as God's Government of the World , and the condition of Mankind in it will permit . There we may expect to find the best Principles , Rules , and Precepts , to inform and direct us in what we are to know and do ; the best Arguments and Motives for our Encouragement , and the best Means for the purifying and the perfecting of our Natures , and the making us as happy as we are capable ; and which shall as much exceed what we find in the Moralists , as Revelation is above Nature , and the Dictates of Almighty God are beyond the Prescripts of Human Wisdom . Such , in fine , as will lead us to God , make us like to him , and fit us for the enjoyment of him . So that as much as Virtue makes for the Good , Perfection , and Happiness of Men , so much should Revelation make for the Practice of Virtue by its Principles and Rules , its Precepts and its Arguments . Lastly , There we may expect to be satisfied about the chief Subjects of Human Enquiry , of what Mankind would not only desire , but what is best and most necessary for them to know . And what is there more material , and of greater Importance , than to be satisfied about the Origine of all things , and how they came at first to be ? What more desirable , than since God is infinitely good , and consequently could produce nothing that is in it self evil , than to know how the Nature of Mankind came to be corrupted ; and that where there is such a clear sense of the difference between good and evil , such Convictions following that Sense , such Memento's , and such Presignifications , such Reflections upon it , that there should be such a Potent Sway , Bent and Propension to Evil , that with all their Care it can never be prevented , or totally exterminated ? What more desirable , than to know what Nature and Reason of it self is insufficient for [ when we can get no further than a Video meliora proboque , &c. in the Apostle's Language , The good that I would , I do not ; but the evil which I would not , that I do ] may be otherwise effected ; that these Inclinations may be subdued , and Nature brought to a Regular State ? What more desirable , than to know how after all , God may be appeased , Forgiveness may be obtained , and that heavy load upon Human Nature , arising from the Guilt of a Man's Mind , may be removed ? Lastly , What more desirable , than to know the Certainty and Condition of a Future State , and how we may attain to the Happiness of it ? These and the like , used to be the Prime Questions which all , and especially the most thoughtful and considerate part of Mankind sought , but in vain , for Satisfaction in . And therefore since Revelation is to make up the Defects of Natural Light , and is as well for the satisfaction of Mankind , as to be worthy of God , we may reasonably expect that these should be the chief Subject of such Revelation . And a Revelation without this , that should leave Mankind in the same Circumstances of Ignorance and Dissatisfaction as they were in before such Revelation , is no more to be esteemed , than that Course of Physick , which after all Pretences to Infallibility , leaves a Person as much under the Power of his Disease , as before he followed those Prescriptions : It is no Revelation , and can have no Pretence to such a Venerable Title . But when the Subject is Great , Noble , and Sublime , thus worthy of God , and thus beneficial to Mankind : When there is an exact Concord between the Principles of Nature and Reason , and that all falls in with the true and just Notion we have of things . When there is an Harmony through the whole , we have good reason to say , This , if any , is the Revelation . And as far as these Characters belong to Revelation , so much reason have we to believe the Matter of Scripture to be such ; as I shall afterwards shew , when I come to examine the Revelation of Scripture by these Characters . 3. It would be very desirable toward the Confirmation of a Revelation , and for the Satisfaction of those that are required to believe it , that there be an Evidence and Testimony as Extraordinary , as the Matter Revealed is , and the Authority it rests upon ; such as the one is , such in reason ought the other to be : And that is Divine Attestation . A Divine Attestation I account that to be , which exceeds the Power , and is out of the Road of Nature ; for nothing less can change the Course , and alter the Law of Nature , but that which is above Nature , and gave Law to it ; and it must be somewhat above Nature , that can be a sufficient Witness to what is Supernatural . And this may justly be required to justify the Truth of a Revelation , and to distinguish it from Enthusiasm and Imposture . For when the Case is such as Moses puts it , Exod. 4.1 , &c. They will not believe me , nor hearken to my voice ; for they will say , the Lord hath not appeared unto thee ; there needs somewhat beyond a bare Affirmation , to support the Credit of the Revelation , and the Authority of him that pretends to it . And accordingly , he was endued with a Power of working Miracles , That , saith the Text , they may believe that the God of their fathers , Abraham , Isaac , and Jacob , hath appeared to thee . A sort of Evidence ( as that implies ) that is very necessary , and what may reasonably be demanded ; and which is a Proof of the highest nature , and what as all ordinarily can judge of , being a matter of Sense , so where it is true , what we are to be concluded by . The first thing then required and to be considered , is the Reality of the thing , That there is such an Alteration in the Course and State of Nature , which our own Senses will inform us in . The next thing is , That this Alteration cannot proceed from any Natural or Created Cause ; ( for that would be to set Nature above it self . ) The last thing is , That this Alteration in Nature is brought about for such an end , and is solely for the sake of that Revelation , and to give Testimony to it . Where this is , there is the Finger of God , and an Infallible Proof of the Truth and Certainty of what it is to witness to . Now let us lay all this together , and see what it amounts to ; viz. The Capacity , Ability , and Integrity of the Persons to whom this Revelation is made ; the Unanimity and Consent of Persons remote and distant in Time and Place ; the Usefulness and Reasonableness , the Excellency , Sublimity , and Perfection of the Doctrine they taught ; the Testimony given to them by such Operations and Productions as exceed the Power of Created Causes , and are wholly from the Supreme . Where these are concurring , and with one mouth , as it were , giving in their Evidence , we may say it is the Voice of God , and that it is his Revelation which carries upon it the conspicuous Stamp of his Authority . For God cannot be supposed to bear witness to a Falshood , and to set up that as a Light to direct men in their Enquiry , which is no other than an Ignis Fatuus , and tends to their unavoidable Amusement and Deception . But supposing those that were Cotemporaries with Inspired Persons , had all these concurring Evidences for their satisfaction , yet what is this to those that live in Times distant and remote from them , and have it only by Tradition of Persons uninspired ; or as contained in certain Books said to be wrote by Persons inspired ? This brings me to the last Point , which is , 3. The Case of those that live in After-Ages , when Inspiration is not pretended to , and Miracles have ceased , and so want those Advantages for their Satisfaction , which they that were coetaneous with Inspired Persons , might receive ; and yet being obliged alike to believe as the other , must be supposed to have sufficient Authority and Proof for what they are to believe . And then the Question is , What is that Evidence which will be sufficient for them to ground their Belief upon ? I answer 1. That if such have all the Evidence that can be in their Circumstances , they have what is sufficient , and what is to be presumed necessary . The Evidence is sufficient , if it proves there were Persons so Inspired ; that in confirmation of it they wrought Miracles ; and that those Persons wrote certain Books which contain the Records of those Revelations and Miracles ; and which Books are the same that now go under their Name . And if they have all the Evidence for this that in their Circumstances can be reasonably demanded , they have that which is sufficient . And what Evidence can be given of Matters transacted 1600 Years ago , but Testimony , and what is usually called Moral Evidence ? A way of Proof that is as certain as that we our selves were born , and born of such Parents , at such a time ; and that there is any such thing as Faith and Trust in Mankind . 2. Tho these of After-Ages want the Evidence those Cotemporaries of Inspired Persons had ; yet they have some Advantages above them . For they have not only the concurrent Evidence of all before them , and the Reasons of their Judgment that have been downwards from those times , the most considerable part of Mankind for Wisdom and impartial Consideration ; but having lived to see the whole Scheme of Revelation compleated , and at once plac'd in their view , 1. They can by that means compare one part with the other , and see how all agrees , and makes up one entire and coherent Body . 2. They can compare the Events already pass'd , with the Predictions , and see how all came on , and in their season are fulfilled , and how the former is still confirmed by the latter . In all which there appears an admirable Contrivance of the Divine Prescience , in describing those things so long before-hand , and of the Divine Wisdom and Power in carrying on the Prophetick Line through all the Stages of Second Causes , and an Infinite Variety of Events , to the last Moment of its Accomplishment ; and to all which a watchful Providence of the Almighty must constantly attend . 3. They have seen the Wonderful Success of the Gospel in Verification of Prophecy ; and notwithstanding all the Opposition made to it by the Power and Interest of the World , back'd with the Venom , Spite , and Malice of inveterate Enemies . 4. They have seen the Wonderful Preservation of it through all the various Scenes of Prosperity and Adversity ; and how miraculously it has been restored out of the lowest Abyss , when seemingly , and as to all outward appearance , beyond Recovery . So that we see how in every Case there are ways chalked out for our Satisfaction in this Argument of a Divine Revelation ; the Case of Latter Ages not excepted . And therefore , That Unbelief is now as inexcusable after the Times of Revelation , as in those times . We are apt to think , and sometimes to plead , That if we had lived in the Apostolical Age , when the Revelation was attended with the irrefragable Testimony of many Glorious Miracles , we should then have been inexcusable , if we had remained incredulous amidst those Instances of the Divine Power , or impenitent under the Force of such convincing Arguments ; and that the want of these may justly be pleaded for our Excuse . But this is much like those Jews , Matth. 23.30 . that said , If we had been in the days of our fathers , we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets ; when yet they were acted by the same Spirit . And I may say , Those that believe not now under all the Motives of Credibility , would not have believed , any more than the Jews did , that were Eye and Ear-Witnesses of our Saviour's Miracles and Doctrine , and yet remained to the last Incredulous . Such are incurable ; for if they hear not Moses and the Prophets , the Testimonies yet remaining , neither would they be persuaded , tho Christ and the Apostles rose from the dead , and the whole Process of that Testimony given by them , was afresh represented to them . The Best Man is the best Judge ; and the better he is , the more capable he is of Judging ; according to that memorable Saying of our Saviour , John 7.17 . If any man will do the will of God , he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God , or whether I speak of my self . Wherefore ( to conclude with that of the Apostle , James 1.21 . ) lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness , and receive with meekness [ and humility ] the ingrafted word , which is able to save your souls . But be ye doers of the word , and not hearers only , deceiving your own selves . FINIS . ERRATA . SErmon I. Page 18. Line 2. read Threefold . Sermon II. P. 11. l. 18. dele . Miracles . P. 15. l. 15. for II. r. 2. P. 24. Marg. add Praepar . l. 13. c. 12. P. 28. l. 23. after Poet r. quoted by Porphyry . P. 29. l. 24. r. Antedeluvian . P. 37. after line 12. add 2. Miracles ; of which hereafter . Sermon III. P. 3. l. 15. ( or pry ) in a Parenthesis . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A71259-e280 Theol. Polit. c. 2. Theol. Polit. c. 2. 
A28998	----	Memoirs for the natural history of humane blood, especially the spirit of that liquor by Robert Boyle. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1683 Approx. 281 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 159 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2008-09 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A28998 Wing B3993 ESTC R25642 09050180 ocm 09050180 42323 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A28998) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 42323) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1276:15) Memoirs for the natural history of humane blood, especially the spirit of that liquor by Robert Boyle. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. [14], 289, 7 p. Printed for Samuel Smith, London : 1683/4. Errata: p. [4] (1st grouping) Reproduction of original in the Cambridge University Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Blood -- Early works to 1800. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-11 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2007-05 Robyn Anspach Sampled and proofread 2007-05 Robyn Anspach Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion MEMOIRS FOR THE NATURAL HISTORY OF Humane Blood , Especially The Spirit of that Liquor . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Fellow of the Royal Society . Etsi enim haud pauca , eáque ex praecipuis , supersint absolvenda , tamen consilium est universum opus potiùs promovere in multis , quàm perficere in paucis . Verulam . in Praefat. ad Histor . Natural . & Experiment . LONDON , Printed for Samuel Smith at the Princes Arms in St. Pauls Church-yard , 1683 / 4. THE Preface Introductory ADDRESS'D To the very Ingenious and Learned Doctor J. L. I Willingly acknowledge , that divers Physicians have Amply and Learnedly , and some of them very Eloquently , set forth the praises of the Blood , and manifested how noble and excellent a Liquor it is , But I must beg their pardon if I doubt whether their Writings have not better celebrated its Praises , then discover'd to us its Nature . For , tho the laudable curiosity of the Moderns has acquainted us with several things not deliver'd to us by the Ancients , yet , if I mistake not , what is generally known of Humane Blood , is as yet imperfect enough , and consists much more of Observations than Experiments ; being suggested far more by the Phaenomena that Nature her self has afforded Physicians , than by Tryals industriously made , to find what she will not , unsolicited by Art , discover . I will not be so rash as to say , that to mind ( as too many Anatomists have done ) the Solid parts of the Body , and overlook Enquiries into the Fluids , and especially the Blood , were little less improper in a Physician , than it would be in a Vintner to be very solicitous about the Structure of his Cask , and neglect the consideration of the Wine contain'd in it . But though I will not make so bold a Comparison , yet when I consider how important a part of the Humane Body , the Blood is ; and that as when it is well constituted , and does orderly move , it conveys nourishment and vigour , and motion , and in a word health to the rest of the living Engine : So the Mass of Blood being either vitiated , or ( which is very often the effect of that Depravation ) disorderly mov'd , is the Seat of divers , and the Cause of most Diseases , whose cure consequently depends mainly upon the rectifying of the Blood when ( I say , ) I consider these things , I cannot but think it an Omission , that so important a Subject has not been more skilfully and industriously enquir'd into . But I hope you were not in earnest , when you solicited me to repair that Omission . For you know , I have not the Vanity to pretend to be a Physician . And being none , I must want both the Skill and many Opportunities , wherewith a Man that were professedly so , would be advantag'd . And though I deny not that many years ago I propounded to some Ingenious Physicians a History of the Fluid parts of the Body , such as the Humours and other Juices , and also the Spirits of it ; and did particularly draw up a set of Enquiries , and make divers Experiments in reference to the Blood , yet those Papers being since lost , and a long Tract of Time , and Studies of a quite other nature , having made me lose the Memory of most of the Particulars ; I find my self unable to contribute any thing considerable to your laudable design . And as all the search your Commands oblig'd me to make after my Papers , has hitherto prov'd fruitless , so they having been written when I had far more Health , Vigour , and Leisure than I now have , and when my Thoughts were much more conversant with Medicinal Subjects ; any thing that I shall now present you about the Blood , will not only be extremely short of what ought to be said , but will also be short even of what , if I mistake not , I did say of it . But yet all this is said , not to excuse me from obeying you at all , but to excuse me for obeying you so unskilfully . For , since you will have me set down what I can retrieve about Humane Blood , you shall receive it in the following Paper ; which consists of Four Parts . The First whereof contains a set of Titles ( which I call Of the First Order , for Reasons to be given you in the Advertisements about them ) towards the Natural and Medical History of Humane Blood , which may direct those that want better Guides , what Enquiries to make , and to what Heads to refer , what they have found by Observation or Tryal . But because this Part contains but bare Titles ( whose Systeme yet perhaps I look upon as likely to make the usefullest part of the ensuing Papers ) and because I have neither leisure nor Materials to answer all or most of the Titles , I thought fit in a couple of Subjects , namely the Serum of Humane Blood , which is a Natural , and the Spirit , which is a Factitious part of it , to give some instances of what I had thoughts to do on others ; and propose some Example to those that may be more unpractis'd in drawing up Natural Histories , than the general design and course of my Studies of Natural Things permitted me to be . And what is said on these two Subjects , makes the Third and Fourth Part of these Papers . As for the other Titles ( of the History of the Blood ) I contented my self , in compliance with my haste , to set down what occur'd to me in the Casual Order wherein they offer'd themselves ; without scrupling to mingle here and there among the Historical Notes , some Experiments that I formerly but design'd , as Tryals that might prove Luciferous , whatever the event should be . This Rapsody of my own Observations makes one of the Four Parts , and the Second in Order , of what your Commands embolden me to offer you at this time . And I shall be very glad to be so happy as to find , that by doing a thing , that I am wont to do so delightfully as to obey you , I have by breaking the Ice contributed something to so noble and useful a work as the History of Humane Blood. About which , that I may not make the Porch much too great for the Building , I shall add to this Preamble nothing but these two Advertisements ; of which the First shall be , That it is not my design in these Papers , to treat of my Subject , as it may be consider'd ( to borrow a School Phrase ) in fieri , which would have oblig'd me to trace the Progress from the reception of Aliments at the Mouth , to the full Elaboration , which were to write the History of Sanguification as well as that of Blood ; but to treat of this Liquor as 't is compleatly elaborated , and that too , not as 't is form'd in the Vessels of a living Body , but as it is Extravasated , and let out by the Lancet ; such Blood alone being that on which I had some opportunity to make Tryals , and to this first Advertisement , I shall subjoyn as the Second , That in the following Papers I have , as the Title intimates , treated but of such Humane Blood , as was taken from sound Persons ; both because being no profess'd Physician , I had not the Opportunities of Examining that of Sick Persons molested with particular Diseases , ( which yet would much conduce to a compleat History of the Blood ; ) and because the Knowledge of the Nature of the Blood , when 't is rightly conditioned , is necessary to those that would discern , in what particulars , and how far it deviates in the Sick , according to that generally received Axiome , Rectum est Index sui & Obliqui : On which account the Scheme of Titles drawn up for the History of Healthy Blood , may serve for a direction to any that would write the History of Morbid or Depraved Blood in any particular Disease , as a Pleurisie , a Quartan Ague , the Dropsy , the Scurvy , &c. For having compared the Qualities and Accidents of this vitiated Blood , with those of the Blood of Sound Men deliver'd in the forementioned Systeme of Titles , 't will not be difficult for a Physician to find , to what heads he is to refer those things that considerably recede from such as belong to Healthy Blood. And these Recessions or Depravations , with perhaps a few Additions of some Peculiarities , if any occur , will make up the History of the Blood as 't is wont to be vitiated in that Particular Disease , one General Admonition sufficing ( if that it self be not unnecessary ) to make the Reader take notice , that in all other Points the Blood of Persons sick of that Disease is not unlike that of those that are Healthy . This Book being Printed in the absence of the Author , some Errata's have escaped the Press which be pleas'd to correct thus . PAg. 4. line 4. for he takes read it takes . p. 12. l. 8. for he r. the. ibid. l. 14. for Sorts r. Salts . p. 18. l. 23 for a Blood r Blood. ibid. l. 24. for Liquor r. a Liquor . p. 30. l. 12. for Vrine r. Wine . p. 57. l. 15. for or , r. and. p. 65. l. 5. for ℥ viij . r. ℥ viijss . p. 70. l. 25. for the Water . r. in the Water . p. 77. l. 25. for at r. a. p. 100. l. 5. for which r. with , p. 140. l. 2. for operation of this r. operation . Of this . p. 157. l. 18. for weeks r. months . ibid. l. 19. for months r. weeks . p. 187. l. 10. these words , For the sixt Salt of Blood does it self much resemble Sea-Salt , whether its Spirit be Acid or no , should be included in a Parenthesis . p. 190. l. 12. for so r. so close , p. 194. l. 15 , for base r. bare . p. 215. l. 21. for Dephlegm'd Sulphur r. Dephlegm'd , Sulphur . p. 217. l. 10 for + in which r. in which . p. 225. l. 11. for Histories r. History . p. 228. l. 13. for their remain'd ℥ ij . + . r. there remain'd ℥ iij. + . p. 229. l. 10. for portion r. proportion . p. 230. l. 9. for their r. there , ibid. l. 10. for Fourteen r. Thirteen . p. 233. l. 3. for subliming Salt r. subliming the Salt. p. 234. dele the first three lines Experiments belonging , &c. p. 252. l. 15. for by r. that by . ibid. l. 16. for what r. one may see what . p. 259. l. 3. deest [ Experiment I. ] p. 268. l. 12. after made deest . [ Having set down these Preliminaries , I shall proceed to ] Experiment I. &c. p. 274. l. 3. deest [ eight . ] p 282. for Conclusion r. Post-script . THE Natural History OF Humane Blood. PART . I. Containing A List of Titles for the History of Humane Blood . To which are Premis'd some Advertisements about them . THat the Scope and meaning of the ensuing Scheme of Titles , ( and divers others that I drew up for differing Subjects ) may be the more clearly understood , I must lay down in this place some passages borrowed from the ( unpublish'd ) Essay or Letter I wrote to Mr. Oldenburg ( Secretary to the R. Society ) about the way of compileing a Natural History . I propos'd then in that tract three sorts of Heads , to which the particulars that might occurr , and properly belong to the History of the Subject to be treated of , whether a Body , or a Quality or an Operation , or a Process , ( that is , a progressive change ) might conveniently be referred . These distinct sets of Topicks or Enquiries I call Orders , Ranks or classes , and because to each of these sets , it was found by Experience , that things of somewhat differing nature were to be referr'd , as Queries more properly So called , Propositions either Affirmative or Negative , and other Heads of Natural History , that are less fit to be reduc'd to either of the two former Sorts , then to be look'd upon as Subjects to be treated of . For this reason , I say , among others , I thought fit to comprize all these sorts of particular Topicks , or Articles or Inquiry ( to use our illustrious Verulam's phrase ) under the general and comprehensive name of Titles . The first Order or Classis of these Titles , I would have to consist of such as occurr'd readily enough to my thoughts , upon the first deliberate view , or general Survey , of the Subject to be treated of . For 't is scarce to be expected that at the first attempt a man should be so clear sighted , or so happy , as to pitch , or light upon as direct and compendious ways of Indagation , and as good Methods of Digesting , and delivering what is discovered , as when a studious Enquiry has furnish'd him with better Informations about the Subject he is to treat of ; and therefore it may suffice for the first time , that the mind do as it were walk round the Object , it is to contemplate , and view it on every side , observing what differing Prospects it will that way afford , ( as when a Painter or an Anatomist looks upon a mans Body , first when the Face and Belly are towards him , then when the Back and other hinder parts are so ) and that he takes notice of the Limits and Boundaries of it , and of the most Essential and considerable Parts , or other things that belong to it . Wherefore in the first Uassis of Titles , one need not be too scrupulous about the enumerating , and marshalling the Particulars referable to it , but may be more Solicitous , that the Titles should be various , and comprehensive enough , than that they should be nicely Methodical , and much less than that they should be accommodated to any particular Hypothesis . And because , even at the first deliberate view , some ( though perhaps very few ) of these Titles may appear considerable , and fertile enough to deserve , that there should to each of them be refer'd two or a greater number of Subordinate , and more particular Topicks ; I thought fit for methods sake to call the Capital Titles , that is those of the first Classis , Primary Titles , and the Subordinate , Secondary ones . [ Of which Distinction a Notable Instance will be met with in what is hereafter delivered , about the Spirit of Humane Blood. All the Sixteen Titles together with the Appendix , contained in that Epistolary Discourse , being Secondary Titles , referable to that Primary one , which is the Eighteenth in the first Classis of the History of Humane Blood. ] When by Reading , Conference , Meditation , and ( which is here mainly to be consider'd ) the Tryals suggested in the Topics of the first Classis , or order , the Naturalist has receiv'd the best and fullest Information he can procure , of all that belongs to the Subject he is to treat of , he may then proceed to frame another set of Titles , which may be called the Second , or ( if no other interpose ) the last Order or Classis of them , which , if he have been diligent and any thing prosperous , will be much more copious and better rang'd than the first . For now divers things will in likelyhood appear to belong to the Subject of the History , which were not at first taken notice of to do so , yea perhaps were not at all thought of , and the further discovery made of the nature of the thing treated of , may direct the Historian to range his Topics , or Titles in a better Order , and more natural Method , than those of the first Classis . And , which is a thing of far greater Moment , divers , and perhaps most , of the Particular Titles will appear to be of greater extent , or more comprehensive , than they were formerly conceived to be : so that a Particular Title may well be thought fit to be branch'd into many Subordinate Topics , or Articles ( which we lately called Secondary Titles ) some one of which may perhaps comprize as many Experiments , or Observations , as 't was at first guess'd would appertain to the prime or more general Title itself . And from the Materials orderly drawn together under this last set or Classis of Titles , with some requisite changes in point of Method , and Connexions , and some Additional things as Transitions &c. by the help I say , of such Alterations and Additions , the Particulars whereof the last Order or Classis consists , may be digested and framed into an Inchoate Natural History of the Subject they have relation to ; I said , an Inchoate History , to intimate , hat even after all that has been already done , I think it too probable that the History will hereafter appear to have been rather begun then compleated , the nature of things , & the Industry of skilful men being so very fertile , that the knowledg of the Subject of the History will from time to time be encreas'd , and so the History it self may be enlarged and corrected , but will not , I fear in many Ages , if ever it be at all , be made absolutely perfect . And on this occasion I must add That when the Subject to be treated of is very comprehensive or very Difficult , as the Generation of living Creatures , Magnetism , Fermentation , Gravity , &c. it may be very useful , if not almost necessary , to interpose between the Titles of the Last and those of the First Classis , a set of Titles that may be call'd of the middle Order , or Classis . For the framing whereof the Historian is considerately and narrowly to re-survey the Nature of the Subject , and make a heedful Collation of that , and of the several Notices attain'd by his Endeavours to furnish the differing Titles of the first Classis with a Competent number of Particulars . For by this Collation there will in likelihood be suggested to him , many new Topics of Enquiry , and Hints , which added to the former will deserve to have a new Classis fram'd consisting of Articles more copious , and various than the First , and fit to be rang'd in another Order . It may perhaps illustrate what I have been saying and am going to say , about the several Classes of Titles , if on this occasion I shall add , that a Natural Subject being proposed to be Historically treated of , there may occurr something like what happen'd to the Israelites , in reference to the Land of Canaan . For at their first entrance into it , Joshua , and the other Spyes took a transient view of the Country , and could bring back but an unaccurate account of it , together with a little of the most remarkable Fruit. But upon a second Expedition , the Spyes were furnished with fuller Instructions , and order'd to direct their Researches to the answering of a great many particular Articles of Enquiry ; their Industry to answer which produced in Methodical Tables or Schemes , a far more copious and distinct Chorography , and Survey of the fruitfull land of Canaan . It is scarce to be expected that at the very first time the Titles , whether Primary or Secondary , of a natural History should be made so comprehensive , and be so skilfully bounded , as not to need to be either enlarged , or reformed by Second Thoughts , and a further Progress in the Practical knowledge of the Subject treated of . I therefore thought it necessary , or at least useful , to subjoin to the first Edition of the Titles of each of the Natural Histories , I delineated , a Mantissa or Appendix , that should consist of two Sorts of Particulars ; viz , Paralipomena and other Addenda , whereof the first should contain such things , as may be properly referrable to some one or more of the Titles , ( either Primary , or Secondary , ) distinctly enumerated in the Scheme of the History , and were but by haste or oversight kept from having place among them . The other consists of new Particulars , that , after the History was written , were Suggested by further Discoveries ; whether these Particulars did directly belong to any of the preceding Titles , or might only in a general way contribute somewhat to the knowledge , or illustration of the Subject . Titles of the First Order . For the Natural History of Humane Blood of Healthy men . 1 OF the Colours of Humane Blood Arterial and Venal . 2. Of the Tast of Humane Blood. 3. Of the Odours of Humane Blood. 4. Of the Heat of freshly emitted Humane Blood. 5. Of the Inflammability , and some other Qualities of Humane Blood. 6. Of the Aerial Particles naturally mix'd with Humane Blood ; and also found in its distinct Parts . 7. Of the Specifick Gravity of Humane Blood entire . 8. Of the Specifick Gravity of the two obvious Parts of Humane Blood , the Red ( and Fibrous ) and he Serous . 9. Of the Consistence of entire Humane Blood. 10. Of the Disposition of Humane Blood to Concretion , and the Time wherein it is performed . 11. Of the Liquors and Sorts that coagulate Humane Blood. 12. Of the Liquors and Salts that impede or dissolve its coagulation . 13. Of the Liquors , &c. that preserve Humane Blood. 14. Of the Mixtures that Humane Blood may admit from Aliments . 15. Of the Spontaneous or natural Analysis of Humane Blood into a Serous and a Fibrous part . 16. Of the respective Quantities of the Serous and Fibrous part of Humane Blood. 17. Of the Differences between the Serous and the Red part of Humane Blood. 18. Of the Artificial or Chymical Analysis of Humane Blood , and first of its Spirit . 19. Of the Vol. Salt of Humane Blood , and its Figures . 20. Of the Phlegm of Distill'd Humane Blood. 21. Of the two Oyls of Humane Blood. 22. Of the Fixt Salt of Humane Blood. 23. Of the Terra Damnata of Humane Blood. 24. Of the Proportion of the differing Substances chymically obtain'd from Humane Blood. 25. Of the Fermentation or Putrefaction of Humane Blood , and its Phoenomena . 26. Of the Mechanical uses of Humane Blood , as in Husbandry , &c. 27. Of the Chymical uses of Humane Blood. 28. Of the Medicinal uses of Humane Blood. 29. Of the Difference between Humane Blood as 't is found in sound Persons differingly constituted and circumstantiated , as men , women , ( when menstruous , and when not ) Children Moors , Negro's , &c. 30. Of the Affinity and Difference between the Blood of men , and that of divers other Animals , as Quadrupeds , Birds , Fishes , and Sanguineous Insects . An Appendix , containing 1. PAralipomena relating to the History of Humane Blood. 2. Miscellaneous Observations , Experiments and Enquiries about Humane Blood ( to be added to the History of it . ) I do not think it unlikely that some of the Titles of our intended History of Blood and a greater number of the particulars that you will meet with in it , may seem frivolous to you at the first perusal . But perhaps in process of time , these very things will not appear impertinent , nor be found useless . For 't is a matter , as of more difficulty , so of more utility , than men are wont at first to discern , to find out , and bring into a narrow compass , a considerable number of particulars relating to one Subject , and present them as it were at one view , to the Intellect to act upon And there is many a particular Experiment o● Observation which upon the first , or perhaps the 2d reading may seem but slight or Superfluous , which afterwards is found capable of being made good use of by those who seriously intend , and endeavour to attain , not a maim'd or a Superficial , but a deep and solid knowledge of the Subject of their Enquiry . And to such Indagators many particulars , that at first were past by unregarded , because there appeared no direct use or obvious application of them , will be found serviceable to hint new Hypotheses or Theories , or to illustrate them , to examine those of others , and if they be true , to confirm them , and if erroneous , to confute them . For , to be short , the knowledge of matters of fact cannot but be some way or other , and probably more ways than one , serviceable to a Naturalist , that has Sagacity and Judgment to make a right use of them . Having already advertis'd you , that the following Papers treat of none but Extravasated Blood , since I had no other at command , to make my Tryals upon ; I presume you will not wonder that you find not in the Scheme of Titles such as these . Of the Process of Sanguification , or the Series of changes that the Aliment successively undergoes , from its being taken in at the mouth , till it be turned into Blood. Of the motions of the Mass of Blood , and particularly its Circulation . Of the Chyle , Lympha , and other Liquors , that are suppos'd to enter and mingle with the Blood. Whether the Humours , Phlegm , Gall , and Melancholy , be really contained in the Blood , as constituent Parts of it . Whether some other substances may not with as much reason be admitted into the composition of the Blood. These , as I was saying , and perhaps some other Titles should have been added , if my Design had reached further , than to treat of Blood separated from the Body , and I wish that you , who by your Abilities and Profession are far better qualify'd than I for such a work , would fill up these , Titles and add them , some as Preliminaries , and others as Appendices , to the History of Blood I have adventur'd to begin . Perhaps it may not be altogether impertinent to add , that I had once some Thoughts of a Designation of a Natural History of other Liquors of a humane Body , as well as the Blood ; I mean such as the Gall , the Lympha , the Succus Pancreaticus , Spittle , Urine , Milk , &c. But I quickly perceiv'd it was fit for me to resign such Tasks to Physicians ; only I shall here Subjoin , as a small Specimen , a set of Titles for the History of Urine , which though by reason of its Affinity in many regards to Blood , it must have many Titles in common with it , yet some will be differing according to the nature of the Subject ; which ( Liquor ) I therefore pitch upon , because I dare own to you , and I do it not without Premeditation , and having wrought on Urine longer than on a Blood itself , that I think Urine to be a Liquor , which , as much despis'd as it is by others , deserves to be solicitously enquir'd into by Physicians , Naturalists , and upon special Accounts by Chymists ; who will perhaps be excited to seek and hope for great matters , both for Medicine and Alchymy , from this Liquor skilfully handled , when they consider that the Phosphorus , of which I have elsewhere related so many new , and some of them surprizing , Phaenomena , is made , at least according to my way of Meer Urine by a Simple Distillation . Titles of the First Classis , For the Natural History of Humane Vrine emitted by Healthy men . 1. OF the Colours of Humane Urine . 2. Of the Tast of Humane Urine . 3. Of the odours of Humane Urine fresh and putrify'd . 4. Of the Heat and Cold of Humane Urine . 5. Of the Specific Gravity of Humane Urine . 6. Of the Consistence of Humane Urine , as to Density , Viscosity , &c. 7. Of the Aerial Particles contain'd in Humane Urine . 8. Whether Humane Urine is a fit Liquor for Fermentation properly so call'd . 9. Of the Differences between fresh and stale Humane Urine . 10. Of the Fermentation or Putrefaction of Humane Urine , and the time it requires . 11. Of the Spontaneous Separation of Parts in Humane Urine . 12. Of the vulgar Analysis of Humane Urine by Distillation . 13. Of some other ways of distilling Humane Urine . 14. Of the Proportion of the Principles , or Ingredients of Humane Urine . 15. Of the Spirits of Humane Urine . 16. Of the Phlegm of Humane Urine . 17. Of the Volatile Salt of Humane Urine . 18. Of the Fixt Salt of Humane Urine . 19. Of the compounded Salt of Humane Urine . 20. Of the shining Substances obtainable from Humane Urine . 21. Of the Salt that is predominant in Humane Urine . 22. Of the Empyreumatical Oyl , or Oyls of Urine . 23. Of the Mellago , or Rob of Humane Urine , and its uses . 24. Of the Terra Damnata of Humane Urine . 25. Of some accidental Differences of Humane Urine , as 't is emitted in the morning , or at certain Distances from meat , or after the use of certain Aliments , or Medicaments , as Sparagus , Turpentine &c. Or at differing Seasons of the year , as Winter , Summer , &c. 26. Of the Affinity of Humane Urine with divers other Bodies , especially Vegetable and Mineral . 27. Of the Hostility of Humane Urine with Acids , &c. 28. Of the Affinity and Difference between Urine , Blood , Gaul , Milk , &c. and divers other Liquors , or Juices belonging to the Animal Kingdom particularly of the comparison between Humane Urine and that of Beasts . 29. Of the Mechanical uses of Human Urine . 30. Of the Chymical uses of Humane Urine , and its parts especially as Menstruums . 31. Of the Medicinal uses of Humane Urine , External and Internal . An Appendix , containing 1 PAralipomena relating to the History of Humane Urine . 2. Promiscuous Observations , Experiments and Inquiries about Humane Urine , ( To be added to the History of it . ) The II. Part. Containing Miscellaneous Experiments and Observations , about Humane Blood. IF I were furnished with all the former Experiments , Observations , and Papers , that at several times I made and wrote about Humane Blood , or were supplyed with Materials and Opportunities to repair the want of them , ( as possibly , God assisting , I may hereafter be , ) this Second Part of our Work would perhaps appear much less maimed , and jejune , than it will now be found . But I am so sensible of the disadvantage , that the want of those requisite helps must have brought to this Rapsody of unconnected Notes , ( written at differing times , and on differing occasions ) that I was more than once inclin'd totally to omit it . And 't is the importance of the Subject , upon which even mean Experiments may sometimes prove of good use , that keeps me from suppressing it . Which I thus early give notice of , that nothing more than loose Experiments , and those referable but to some of the Titles of the History of Humane Blood , ( divers others being left untouch'd ) may in the Second Part of our Memoirs be expected . To the IV. ( Primary ) Title OF THE History of Humane Blood , Experiment I. HAving for some reasons , that need not here be mention'd , been induc'd to enquire of more than one person , that has us'd to let many men Blood , whether they did not observe , that some persons found a manifest and considerable change in the heat of the Blood , as it came to issue out first or last ? I was answered Affirmatively and told that several persons that had no Feaver said , that after their Blood had run out a while , they found it come sensibly hotter than before ; and some of them complain'd , that it came with a degree of Heat that was troublesom , and as they fancy'd , ready to scald them . To the same Title OF THE History of Humane Blood. Experiment II. I Got a Chirurgeon to put a seal'd Weather-glass , adjusted by the Standard of Gresham Colledge , into the Porringer wherein he was going to bleed a young Gentlewoman , that , as the Blood ran out of the open Vein , it might fall upon the Ball of the Instrument ; in which the Liquor was made by the warmth to ascend a good way , but not much ( if at all ) nearer than about an Inch to the smaller upper Ball of the Thermoscope . To the same Title , Experiment 3. BUt within less than an hour before this time , having procured a man of middle age ( that seemed healthy enough , and was let blood in the same Shop by the same Chirurgeon ) to bleed upon the same Weather-glass , the tincted Spirit of Wine ascended above all the Marks belonging to the Stem , and from the top of the stem expanded it self to a considerable quantity in the small upper Ball of the Stem , ( for the Chirurgeon told me it was a fourth part of the height of the Ball ; ) so that , though we could not determine how high it would have risen if the Stem had been long enough , yet it seem'd manifest that the Warmth that made it rise , did considerably exceed the usual Warmth of the Air in the Dog-days , these gag'd Thermoscopes being wont to be so fram'd , as to keep the Liquor in the Stem all the year long without sinking quite into the greater Ball in Winter , or ascending into the lesser in Summer . We employed also , when a young Woman was blooded , a sealed Thermometer that was not gag'd , but was much shorter than the other , and in this the tincted Spirit was raised almost to the top , which argued no inconsiderable degree of Heat . To the same Title , Experiment 4. I know not whether it may be worth while to take notice on this occasion , that a Porringer whereinto a healthy man had been let blood having been brought from the Chirurgeons house to my Lodging , though the Blood was already Coagulated , yet when I thrust into it the Ball of the forementioned gag'd Thermoscope , it appeared to have retained Warmth enough to make the Spirit of Urine ascend , by my guess , at least Three or Four fingers breadth above its former station . To the V. Title OF THE HISTORY . SInce Humane Blood does in Distillation afford a not inconsiderable quantity of Oyl , one may well suppose it to be a Combustible Body : but every one will not think it so Inflammable , as upon Tryal purposely made I found it to be . For having taken a piece of Humane Blood dryed till it was almost pulverable , and held it in the flame of a Candle , it would take fire , and afford a Flame much like that which excited it , burning with a crackling noise ( much like that of Sea Salt cast into the Fire ) and here and there melting . But the Inflammableness of such dryed Blood did much better appear , when putting together 4 or 5 throughly kindled Coals , we laid on them a piece of dry'd Blood of the bigness of a small Nutmeg , or thereabouts , for this yielded a copious and very yellow Flame , and if it were seasonably and warily blown from time to time , as the Effluvia degenerated into smoak , it would by these frequent re-accensions continue to yield clear and Yellow Flames of no contemptible bigness ( in proportion to the Body that yielded them ) much longer than one would expect . And during a good part of this Deflagration , the Blood appeared as it were to fry upon the Coals , and in good part to melt into a Black substance almost like Pitch . There was also a crackling noise produc'd , like that which Chymists observe when they decrepitate common Salt. These Experiments for the substance were repeated . But I shewed another Instance of the Inflammableness of Blood , that was somewhat surprising . For , having caus'd some Humane Blood ( being part of the same that was made use of in the foregoing Tryals ) to be so far dry'd that it was reducible to fine Powder , I took some of this Powder that had past through a fine Search , and casting it through the Flame of a good Candle , the grains in their quick Passage through it took fire , and the Powder flash'd , not without noise , as if it had been Rosin . This Experiment was reiterated with success . To the VII . Title OF THE HISTORY . THE specific Gravity of Humane Blood is more difficult to be ●etermin'd , than one would readily ●magine . For the Gravity of Blood may differ sensibly in several persons according to their Sex , Age , Constitution , &c. And in the same person it may be varyed by the time of the year , and of the day , and by being drawn at a greater or lesser distance from a Meal , and by divers other Circumstances . But besides all these things there is a Mechanical difficulty , if I may so call it , that attends the work we are speaking of . For the Blood begins to coagulate so soon after it is emitted , that 't is scarce a practicable thing to weigh it hydrostatically , either by immersing into it a Solid Body heavier than it self or by weighing the whole Blood in Water ; the former way being opposed by the fibrous part of the Blood , and the latter by the Serum . And upon the same account it is somewhat ( though not so much ) difficult to compare with any accurateness , the weight of Blood , with that of water in a Glass , as also for other reasons which he that shall considerately go about to try it , will quickly find But however , since it may be a thing of considerable use , to have some tolerable Estimate , though nor an exact one , of the difference in Gravity between Water and Humane Blood , by which so many parts of the Body , consistent as well as fluid , are by various changes of Texture both constituted and nourished . I shall subjoyn a Tryal , that this consideration invited me to make as well as I could . We took the Blood of a sound man emitted all at one time , and put the whole mass of it , as well the Serous as the Fibrous part , into an oblong Glass , of the fittest size and shape we could light on amongst several . And haveing suffered the Blood to rest till all was setled , and the many Bubbles vanished , we carefully mark'd with a Diamond that narrower part of the Glass , which the upper surface of the Blood reach'd to . Then we weighed the Glass and the Blood in a very good Ballance and having poured out the Blood ( for other uses ) and washed the Glass , it was filled with common Water to the lately mentioned Mark , and then weighed again in the same Ballance ; afterwards the Water being poured out , the Glass alone was Counterpoised in the same scales , and its weight being deducted from each of the two formerly mentioned weights , the Water was found to have weighed ℥ ix . ʒvi . 50. Gr. And the Blood ( equal to it in bulk ) to have weigh'd ℥ x. ʒij . 4. Gr. So that the difference between them being ʒiij . 14. gr . the Blood was beavier than so much Water , but about the 25th part ( for I omit the Fraction ) of its own weight . But this Experiment , for the Reasons above intimated , deserves to be reiterated more than once . To the XI . Title OF THE HISTORY . THough rectified Spirit of Wine be a Menstruum consisting of very subtil parts , and upon that account be a good Dissolvent of divers Vegetable Substances , and as Experience has assured me , of some Metalline ones too , that seem to be more solid than the Fibrous part of Humane Blood ; yet looking upon this Body as of a very differing texture from those , I thought Spirit of Wine might have a very differing Operation upon it . And accordingly having separated from the Serum a clot of Blood , that was coagulated but soft enough , as the Fibrous part uses to be before 't is dryd , I kept it for divers hours in a very well dephlegmed Vinous Spirit , from whence I afterwards took it out as hard as if it had been well dry'd by the fire . To the XIX . Title OF THE HISTORY , Experiment 1. THe Volatile Salt of Humane Blood as fugitive as 't is , is yet so fusible , that if it be dextrously handled , one part of it may be brought to melt , and as I have tryed , even to boil , whilst the rest is flying away . The like I have tryed with some other Volatile Salts , and I presume the Observation will hold in most , if not all of them . To the same Title , Experiment 2. THough the Volatile Salt of Humane Blood , when 't is by sublimation made white and clean , seems to be a very homogeneous Substance and according to the Principles of the Chymists ought to be so ; yet I am apt to suspect , either that its Substance is not altogether Similar , or that the Corpuscles that compose it are of sizes , if not also of shapes , differing enough . For having weighed out some Grains of a resublimed Salt of Humane Blood , that seemed very pure , the Odour was so strong and diffusive , that one would have expected the whole Salt , being but six Grains , should in a few hours evaporate away , especially being left in a South Window exposed to the Air in a flat piece of Glass . And yet several days after , if I mistake not seven or eight , I found the Salt so little diminish'd as to its sensible bulk , ( for I did not think fit to weigh it ) that it seemed to have wasted but little , and yet what remained had scarce any odour at all that I ( whose Organs of smelling are acute enough ) could well perceive , notwithstanding which this White Body retain'd a saline Tast ; and a little of it being for tryals sake put upon a solution of common Sublimate in fair Water , readily turned it White . So that it seemed that the penetrant and diffusive Odour of the Volatile Salt of Blood proceeded from some Particles much more subtile and fugitive than the other parts that composed it . But this Experiment ought to be reiterated with differing Quantities of Salt by which means perhaps a heedful observer may discover , whether the comparative Fixity of the Salt , that remains after the Odorous Particles are ( at least for the most part ) flown away , may not arise from their Coalition with some Acid Corpuscles that are wont to rove up and down in the Air , and adhere to Bodies , disposed to admit their Action . To the same Title , Experiment 3. A dram of Volatile Salt of Humane Blood sublim'd in a lamp furnace , was put into as much common Water , as in a narrow Cylindrical Glass served to cover the whole Ball of our Standard or gag'd Thermoscope , and when after this had stood a while in the Water to be brought to its temper , we put in the above mentioned Salt , the tincted Spirit of Wine manifestly subsided about two tenth parts of an Inch , and probably would have fallen lower if there had been more water in the vessel , to make a seasonable solution of the Salt , whereof a considerable part lay undissolved at the bottom . To the same Title , Experiment 4. WHen we perceived the Liquor to subside no more , we put to it by degrees some strong spirit of Nitre , till it would no longer make any manifest conflict with the dissolved Salt. The event of which Tryal was , that the Liquor in the Thermoscope began presently to mount , and continued to do so as long as the conflict lasted , at the end of which we found by measure , that it had ascended more than three Inches and a half above the Station it rested at when the Ebullition began . To the same Title , Experiment 5. THe figuration of the Volatile Salt of Humane Blood may be considered , either in regard of the Single Grains , or of that Aggregate of them , which when they are made to ascend to the top of the Glass , may be called its Sublimate . The latter of these may be best observed , when the Saline Exhalations first ascend , and fasten themselves to the inside of the blind head , or other Glass that is set to receive them . For , though towards the end of the Operation the Corpuscles lye so thick and confus'd , as to leave no distinct figures , yet at first one may often observe the little Saline concretions to lye in Rows , sometimes straight enough , and sometimes more or less crooked , with differing Coherencies and Interferings , so that though sometimes these Rows of concretions may , especially if a little befriended by the Spectators fancy , represent either Trees , or their Branches , or Harts-horn , &c. yet these seem not to be constant Representations , depending upon the particular Nature of Humane Blood , but casual figurations that depend upon several accidental causes and circumstances , such as the degree of Fire employ'd to sublime the Salt , the plenty or paucity of the ascending Matter the capacity and figure of the vessel that receives it , besides several others not needful to be here enumerated . Nor is the Salt of Humane Blood the only Volatile one , among whose elevated concretions I have observed the above named Circumstances to produce diversity of Configurations . But as to single grains of the Volatile Salt of Blood , I discerned a good many of them to be finely shap'd . But whether it were accidental or not , further Tryal must inform me . I could not , that I remember , observe these handsom Figures in the concretions that compos'd the Sublimate , that was obtained by rectifying or elevating again the Salt that first came over , but in the grains that in the first Destillation fasten themselves to the upper part and sides of the Receiver ; For of these divers were of considerable bigness and solidity , and though they were not all of the same shape , some of them being not unlike to Cubes , others to Parallelopipeds , others to Octoedrons , being almost like Grains of Alum ; yet most of them were prettily shaped , being comprehended by Planes smooth , finely figur'd , and aptly terminating in solid Angles , as if the Concretions had been cut and polished by a Jeweller . To the same Title , Experiment 6. THere is another way that I have used to observe the Figures of the Salt of Blood which was to rectify the Spirit of Blood , so as it may be fully satiated with the Salt whilst the Liquor ( in the Receiver continued yet somewhat warm . For then setting aside this over impregnated Liquor when it came to be quite refrigerated ( which should be done very slowly ) there appear'd at the bottom of the Vial a good number of Saline concretions of differing Sizes , several of which , as far as the rest would suffer me to see them , were shot into Crystalline Plates very smooth , and prettily figur'd , having to the best of my conjecture , their broad and parallel Surfaces of a Hexagonal or an Octogonal Figure regular enough . To the same Title , Experiment 7. ACcording to the Hypothesis of divers Learned Naturalists and Physicians , I suppos'd it would be thought considerable , to know what would happen upon putting together the Volatile Salt of Humane Blood , and the Spirit of Nitre , with the more fugitive parts of which Salt they conceive the Air to be plentifully , and some of them to be vitally impregnated . To gratify some of these Philosophers , we took a dram of dry Volatile Salt of Blood , ( which we made choice of , rather than Spirit , because we had a mind to know what quantity of Acid Salt it would retain ; ) and having dissolv'd it in some distill'd Water , we drop'd into it good Spirit of Nitre , till the two Liquors , thô they were shaken , would no longer manifestly act upon one another ; the Conflict being ceas'd , we slowly evaporated the superfluous moisture , which steam'd almost all away before the Saline part would coagulate . At length it came to driness , and then the middlemost part appear'd in the form of thin Crystals , not unlike those of Salt Petre ; but the rest , which was by much the greater part of the concretion seem'd to be a confus'd mass without any distinct figure . This mass weighed but 12 gr . more than a dram . So that as far as this single Experiment can inform us , the Volatile Salt of Blood may be satiated by so little as a Fifth part of its weight of the Saline Corpuscles of Spirit of Nitre . This compounded Salt being laid in a Window , did appear to be very prone to be resolv'd by the moisture of the Air , or in the Chymists Phrase to run per deliquium . A little of the same Salt being put upon a well-kindled Coal , readily melted , and seem'd to boil , and towards the latter end , made a noise , and afforded a flame very like common Nitre , save that its colour was more yellow . The strong smell that accompanied this deflagration , was like that which is peculiar to Spirit of Nitre . To the XXI . Title OF THE HISTORY , Experiment 1. HUmane Blood , as most of the other Subjects of the Animal Kingdom that I have had occasion to examine , afforded by Distillation in a Retort an Empyreumatical and very fetid Oyl , whose colour was almost black ; but that seem'd to me to proceed only from the intense and opacous Redness of the Liquor , since some Portions of it being purposely look'd on against the Light , when they were spread very thin upon Glass , appear'd of a deep yellow , or of a Reddish colour , as they chanc'd to lye more or less thick upon the Glass . Experiment 2. WHen the Blood was well dry'd , before it was committed to Distillation , I found it to afford a greater quantity of Oyl , in proportion to the weight of the dry Body , than was at first expected . Once out of a pound of not over-well dry'd Blood , we had near an ounce and a half of Oil ; and from another parcel we had it in a far greater proportion to the quantity of Blood that afforded it . Experiment 3. I Remember , that having many years ago had the curiosity to ●repare Blood by a very convenient Digestion , and to rectifie very carefully the Distill'd Liquors that came over , with the Flame of a Lamp , I obtain'd among other things two Oyls of very differing colours , the one being of a Yellow or pale Amber colour , and the other of a deep Red. But that which surpriz'd even ingenious Spectators , was , that thô these Oils were both of them afforded by the same Blood , and were clear and pure enough , yet they would not only swim in distinct Masses one over another , but if they were confounded by being shaken together , would little by little separate again , as common Oil and Water are wont to do . Whether the difference in Specifick Gravity between these two Oils could keep them from permanently mixing , when they were mingled , as well as it kept their Masses distinct before they were shaken ; or whether this seeming Antipathy proceeded from some particular Incongruity in the Textures of these Liquors , I shall not now stay to dispute . Experiment 4. IT may be of some use , especially to those that aim at making Medicinal uses of Humane Blood , to know , that having had a suspicion that the Oil of Blood might contain or conceal divers Saline Particles , capable of being separated from it ; we took a parcel of unrectifi'd Oil , and having put to it a convenient quantity of Distill'd Water ( I suppose Rain-water would have done as well , thô common Water would not ) we diligently confounded these Liquors by frequent agitation , that the Water might rob the Oil of its separable Saline Corpuscles . Of which Trial the Event was , that after the Liquors were well settled , the Water ( whereof we purposely forbore to employ too much ) was found impregnated with Saline Corpuscles , that it had by dissolution obtain'd from the Oil , by vertue of which it was endowed with a moderately brisk tast , and would readily turn Syrup of Violets green , and precipitate out of a Solution of common Sublimate a white Powder , to name now no other of its resemblances to weak Spirit of Humane Blood. And this operation I the more willingly relate on this occasion , that you may be invited to try what the like Method will do on other Empyreumatical Oils , as of Hartshorn , Urine , &c. drawn from Bodys that belong to the Animal Kingdom . Experiment 5. TO examine a Conjecture , whose Grounds I cannot stay to set down , we put some unrectified Oil of Humane Blood into a concave piece of Glass , and then having dropt into it as much Oil of Vitriol as might by guess amount to a fourth or third part of the Fetid Oil , we stirr'd them well together with a slender piece of solid Glass , by which means the mixture was made to send up good store of whitish Fumes or Smoke , and grew , as was expected , considerably hot , it being indeed so hot , that thô it amounted not to above a spoonful , yet I was not able without pain & inconvenience , to hold my finger underneath that part of the Glass that contain'd the incalescent Liquors . Experiment 6. IT may be worth while to relate , that what I have elsewhere observ'd about some other Empyreumatical Oils , holds true in that of Humane Blood : For having taken some of this Liquor unrectifi'd , thô in that state it appear'd gross , and dark , and muddy , yet it would readily , even in the cold , dissolve in , or mingle with highly rectifi'd Vinous Spirits , to which it communicated a Reddish colour deep enough , agreeably to what I formerly noted touching the colour of this Oil. To the XXII . Title OF THE HISTORY . I do not remember to have met with , in any Author , an account of the Qualities of the fix'd Salt of Humane Blood , and I know not whether any have had the curiosity to prepare it , whereat I do not much wonder , since to obtain so much as ℥ j. Of it there is requisite a considerable quantity , perhaps some pounds of Blood , and the Calcination requires so obstinate a fire , that a mans patience may easily be tired before the Operation be perfected , or by the small appearance of Calcination that the Caput Mortuum will afford him after having been kept Three or Four hours in the fire , he may be induc'd to conclude that all the Salt of Blood is volatile in a good Fire , and consequently , that it will yield no fix'd Salt. But having by an obstinate Calcination obtain'd between Three or Four Drams of this Salt , I found not that it was a fix'd Alcaly or a Lixiviate Salt , but rather as I expected , of the nature of common or Sea-Salt , thô not without some little diversity which discover'd itself by some nice Tryals . But as to the main our Salt was scarce distinguishable from marin Salt , for it tasted very like it , a strong Solution of it did not readily ( for I was not at leisure to wait long for the Event ) turn Syrup of Violets green or greenish , nor ( which was more ) Precipitate a Brick Colour or brownish Yellow , no more than a white Powder , out of Solution of Sublimate . I also found by Tryal that the Spirit of Salt did not dissolve it as an Alcaly . And to these ways of examining it I added three others , that I had not known us'd for such a purpose , and which had all three of them such Events as were expected , for having put some Oyl of Vitriol upon a little of our dry Salt , it did immediately , as I had divers times observ'd it to do upon common Salt , corrode it with great violence , and with much foam and smoak . We also drop'd a little of our fix't Salt dissolved in distilled water , upon a Solution of fine Silver made in Aqua Fortis , whereupon immediately ensued a Precipitation of a copious white Powder . And lastly for further Tryal , having put some leaf Gold into Aqua fortis , which would not ( as will easily be believ'd ) work upon it , whilst it was swimming there without being so much as discolour'd , I put a little of our Powder'd Salt into the Liquor , which being thereby turned into a kind of Aqua Regia , did in a trice , without the assistance of heat , totally dissolve it . To the XXIII . Title OF THE HISTORY OF Humane Blood. THere is a far greater Calcination than one would expect , required to obtain the Caput Mortuum of Humane Blood , which affords but very little of it . For from ℥ xxiv . of dry'd Blood , ( which perhaps was but the Third or Fourth part , in weight of the entire Blood that afforded it ) we could get after two days Calcination but ʒij . 9 gr . of Earth . And though this were so carefully made that it may very probably be supposed to deserve the name of Terra Damnata , better then most substances to which Chymists are wont to give that appellation , yet one may suspect , that this it self was not pure Elementary earth , since it had a red colour , very like that of Colcotar of Vitriol . To the VXXI . Title OF THE HISTORY . THe Quantities of the Principles , or rather of the Several differing Substances , obtain'd by Distillation from Humane Blood , may seem easy , but is indeed very difficult , if at all possible , to be determin'd not only because of the sometimes great disparity , as to proportion , that may be met with of the Fibrous , or concreted part to the Serum , in the Blood of differing Persons , and even of the same Person according to differing Circumstances , but also , because it is more difficult to distill even the dryed and pulverable part of Blood without addition , than those that have not try'd , will easily judge , and I doubt that few have try'd it well , because I have not met with any that takes notice of the necessity of shifting the Retort , to gain as much Volatile Substance as may be obtain'd , and leave as little as may be in the Caput Mortuum . For when we distill'd a somewhat considerable quantity of dry'd Blood , though it was warily done by an expert Artist , yet the same heat , that made the lower part of the Blood pass in the form of Exhalations into the Receiver , made the matter so swell , that it heav'd up to the upper part of the vessel a considerable quantity of Black Matter , which an ordinary Distiller would have taken and thrown aside for Caput Mortuum , but which an heedful Eye might easily discern to be much of the same nature with what it was , when it was first put in , though it were blackened by the ascending fumes . Wherefore we took it out and mixing it with the remaining Substance , that was less remote from the Nature of a true Caput Mortuum , it was again in another Retort committed to Distillation , whereby we obtain'd more Oyl , &c. And perceiving that even this seeming Caput Mortuum , had at the top of it a pretty deal of matter , that I did not think sufficiently dispirited , if I may so speak , I caused it to be taken out and distill'd in a fresh Retort , in which it afforded a not contemptible quantity of Volatile matter . Having thus prepar'd you not to expect any thing of accurateness , in the determination of the Quantities of the differing substances obtainable even from dryed Humane Blood , that I may assist you to make some guess at it , that may approach somewhat ●ear the truth , I will inform you , That having thus in three Retorts distill'd 24 Ounces of dryed Humane Blood , we obtained of Volatile ●ubstances , I mean Spirit together with a little Phlegm , white Salt , and very high coloured Oyl ℥ xiij . and a dram , besides several Parcels of thick Oyl , that stuck to the Retorts and the Receiver , which we estimated at Seven drams more . So that the whole quantity of the Volatile part amounted to Fourteen Ounces , of which we found the Oyl to be about ℥ iij. + ʒvj . And the clear Liquor ( which though probably not without some Phlegm , may deserve the name of Spirit , because it was fully satiated with Saline and Spirituous parts ) to be ℥ vi + . ʒiijss . besides the Volatile Salt , which when the Spirit was drain'd from it , appear'd white , but wet ; for which reason 't was not possible to determine exactly , neither how much Liquor it yet retain'd , nor consequently how much it self weighed but you may guess pretty near the truth when I shall have told you , that having carefully sublim'd the Salt , there remain'd in the glass ʒij and about five grains of Phlegmatick Liquor , which was not judged devoid of Salt , thô it could not by that operation be separated . And of Volatile Salt in a dry form we obtain'd ℥ j + ʒijss . The Caput Mortuum amounted to ℥ viij , and somewhat better , which being calcin'd for two days together , afforded not white , but only brownish red Ashes ; whence we obtain'd ʒvij and a quarter of White and Fixt , but not truly Lixiviate , Salt , and ( as was lately noted to another purpose , under the next foregoing Title ) ʒij , and nine grains of Earth . In this troublesom Experiment there occurr'd so many necessary Operations , in each of which we could scarce possibly avoid losing some , and now and then a considerable portion of the matters we handled , that if you had been present at the Tryals , perhaps you would not think it strange that I should write , ( as I did a little above ) that I think it a very difficult thing in Practice , to determine exactly the Proportions of the differing Substances , that may be chymically obtain'd by vulgarly known Operations , from a proposed parcel of Humane Blood ; especially since I think that 't is without sufficient grounds that Chymists do universally take it for granted , that in Distillations carefully made , the matter that passes into the Receiver , or at least ascends , together with the Remains , or Caput Mortuum , amount to just the weight that the entire Body had before Distillation . Which Paradox I endeavour to make highly probable , if not certain , in another Paper , that belongs not to the present Collection . The Third Part , Containing Promiscuous Experiments and Observations about the Serum of healthy Mans Blood ; ( Whereof the first may be referr'd to the Sixteenth , and most of the rest to the Seventeenth of the Titles of the first Order . ) SInce the Division that Nature her self makes of Humane Blood , when being let out of the Veins , it is suffer'd to refrigerate and settle , is , into a fluid or Serous , and a consistent or Fibrous part ; and since 't is found that oftentimes the former of these Parts either equals or exceeds the latter in quantity ; I thought it might probably much conduce to the better discovery of the Nature of the Blood , to make some Tryals upon the Serum by it self , of which it will not , I hope , be useless to give a summary account in the following promiscuous Observations , that were made only upon the Serum , or Whey of the Blood of Persons presum'd to be sound . 1. Having separately weighed the Serum , and the Consistent Part of a parcel of Humane Blood , obtained at once by a single Phlebotomy , we found the latter to weigh ℥ iv + ʒviss . and the former ℥ iij + ʒvj . And having made the like Tryal with another parcel of Blood drawn from another person , the Fibrous part weighed ℥ iv + ʒv , and the Serum four ounces . But thô in both these Tryals the weight of Serum that appear'd in one Mass , was inferiour to that of the Fibrous Part , yet it would not be safely inferr'd , that , absolutely speaking , the Fibrous part of either of these parcels of Blood exceeded the other , since we weighed only the Serum that we found in a distinct Mass ; whereas a multitude of Serous Particles may well be suppos'd to be lodg'd between the Parts of the Consistent Mass or Portion of the Blood ; since besides that it is , probably upon the account of the Interspersed Serosity , very soft , it affords a great deal of Aqueous Liquor . 2. This may sufficiently appear by the following Experiment , which was purposely made to examine this Conjecture . We took a Porrenger of Blood , wherein the Serum was separated from the Fibrous Portion , that was coagulated into one Consistent Mass , and having carefully pour'd off all the fluid part , we put the remaining Mass , ( which weighed ℥ iv . + ʒ v + 34 gr . ) into a small Head and Body , and distill'd it in the Digestive Furnace , till the Matter left in the bottom of the Cucurbite was quite dry , which it did appear to be long before it was so indeed . Then taking out the separated Parts of this Red Mass , the dry'd Portion was found to weigh but ℥ j + ʒiij + 34 gr . whereas the Serous Liquor that pass'd into the Receiver , and was lympid and aqueous , without any shew of Salt or Oyl , amounted to ℥ iij + 53 gr . For further satisfaction we repeated this Experiment with the Fibrous part of another parcel of Humane Blood , and found the dry Mass remaining in the Cucurbite to weigh but ℥ j + ʒvj + 50 gr . whereas the Phlegmatick Liquor distill'd from it amounted to ℥ vij , that is to more than three times and a half as much as the dry part . 3. Having Hydrostatically examin'd the Serum of Humane Blood , we found it heavier than common Water . For a piece of Red Sealing-Wax , being suspended in a good Ballance by a Horse-hair , was found in the Air to weigh ʒj + 56. gr . and the Water 35 gr . but did in the Serum weigh but 33 gr . This Tryal was confirm'd by a more exact one , made with an Instrument that I purposely caus'd to be made for weighing Liquors nicely , in which , when Common Water weighed 253 grains , an equal bulk of Serum weighed 302. And because I suppos'd that all Serums of Humane Blood would not be of equal Specific Gravity , I thought fit to try that of the Blood of another person in the same Instrument , and found it to weigh two grains less , that is , 300 grains in all . 4. We once employ'd some Serum that could not be ( or at least was not ) pour'd off so clear , but that it appear'd of a reddish colour ; and thô we filter'd it through Cap-paper , yet a good number of the tinging Corpuscles were so throughly mingled with it , that the Liquor passd through the Filtre of a Yellow Colour . 5. To try whether Acids would coagulate our Serum , as I had found they would some other Animal Liquors , I dropt into it some Spirit of Salt , which did immediately produce with it some white Concretions that quickly subsided to the bottom , and there ( when there was a pretty quantity of them ) appear'd like a very light and tender Cheese-Curd . The like Operation , but more powerful had Oyl of Vitriol upon another parcel of our Serum . 6. We dropt into some of our Liquor , good Spirit of Sal-Armoniac , which , as we expected , rather made it more Fluid , than did appear to coagulate it , as the Acid Liquors had done . 7. To try whether these Precipitations did not more proceed from the Coalition and Texture of the Acid Salts and the Serum , than barely from the peculiar action of those Salts as Acids , we dropt into another portion of our Serum , a strong Alcalisate Salt , viz. Oyl of Tartar per deliquium , which instantly produc'd a White Curd , as the Spirit of Salt had done , but not , as it seem'd to us , so copiously . 8. We pour'd also upon some Serum , highly rectifi'd Spirit of Wine , which , as we expected , did presently coagulate some part of it into a White Curd , that was copious enough , but appear'd much lighter than either of the former , since it would not like them subside , but kept at the top of the Liquor . 9. To try also what a Salt compounded with a Metal , would do upon our Serum , we put to it a little strong Solution of Sublimate , with which it presently afforded a white and curdled substance . We put some of our Serum upon some Filings of Mars , but by reason of the colour of the Liquor it self , we could not satisfie our selves about the Event . And thô we afterwards put another parcel of Serum upon Filings of the same Metal , yet neither did this give us satisfaction , in regard the Vial having been mislaid , was not look'd upon again till many days after ; at which time the Liquor was grown so thick and muddy , that we could not well discern any more of the colour , than that it was somewhat dark , but not either black or blackish ; yet by a Tryal or two that we made with a little of this Liquor , it seem'd to have made a Solution of some part of the Steel : For putting it to some fresh Infusion of Galls made with Water , it presently afforded a copious Precipitate ; but this was so far from being Inky , that it was not so much as dark colour'd , but rather whitish ; at which some analogous Experiments ( mentioned in another Treatise ) that I formerly made , kept me from wondering . Yet I shall not omit to add on this occasion , that having mix'd with some of our impregnated Serum , a convenient quantity of Infusion of Galls made in a highly rectifi'd Vinous Spirit , the two Liquors did not only afford a kind of Coagulum , or Precipitate , but being left together for some hours , associated into a Consistent Body , wherein the Eye discover'd no distinct Liquor at all . 10. But expecting more clear success , by putting some of our Liquor upon Filings of Copper , which when wrought upon by Bodys that have in them any thing of Urinous Salt , are wont to give a conspicuous Tincture , we accordingly found that the Metal had in a very few hours discolour'd the Menstruum ; and afterwards ( the Vial being left unstopt , that the Air might have Access to the Liquor ) it began by degrees to grow more and more Blew , and within a day after was of a deep Ceruleous Colour . 11. And , to be confirm'd in our Conjecture , that this Tincture proceeded from some Particles of Volatile Salt latent in the Liquor , we mix'd some of it with a convenient quantity of Syrup of Violets , and thereby obtain'd what we look'd for , namely , a colour , which by reason of the action of those Particles upon the Syrup , appear'd of a fine Green. 12. The Blew Tincture or Solution of Copper ( mention'd number the 10th ) I thought fit to keep for some time , to try whether the Metalline Particles would as it were embalm the Serum they were dispers'd through , and preserve the Liquor from Putrefaction . And in Effect , thô the Vial was left unstopt in a window in my Bed-Chamber for many weeks , yet I ( whose Organs of smelling are very tender , and who did often put the Vial to my Nose ) did not perceive the Liquor to grow at all stinking . 13. About ℥ ij , by guess of Serum of Humane Blood were left in an unstop'd vial , ( which they more then half fill'd ) for Twenty days or Three weeks and though the Glass usually stood in a South Window , and in the month of July , yet , somewhat to our wonder , the Serum did not by the smell appear putrefy'd , and yet had let fall a considerable quantity of Whitish Sediment . But within Three or Four days after this , the Liquor was found to stink offensively . Wherefore we tryed whether this more then incipient Putrefaction was accompanyed with any Acidity , but could not perceive that it was , since it would not so much as take off the blew colour of the infusion of Lignum Nephriticum or our Succedaneum to it . When it was in this state we put it to distill in a low Cucurbite with a gentle fire , to try if from this faetid Liquor , as is usual from putrefy'd Urine , the Spirit would first ascend . But we found the Liquor that first came over to be so little Spirituous or Saline , that it would not in an hours time turn Syrup of Violets green . But yet we judg'd it not quite destitute of Volatile Alcaly , because having let fell some of it into a good solution of Sublimate , it presently made at White Precipitate . 14. We took some Ounces of Serum of Humane Blood , filtred through Cap Paper to free it from all concreted Substance , and having committed it to Distillation in a small Retort place'd in a Sand Furnace , we obtained only a few large drops of a Darkish red Oyl , some of which subsided to the bottom of the other Liquor , but the greater part swam upon it . We obtain'd in this first Distillation no Volatile Salt in a dry form , but after a pretty deal of insipid Phlegm had been drawn off , there came over a good proportion of Spirituous Liquor , which smell'd almost like the Spirit of Blood ; and contain'd a pretty deal of Volatile Alcaly , so that it would readily turn Syrup of Violets Green , and make a White Precipitate in the solution of Sublimate , and a great Ebullition with Spirit of Salt : This Spirit being rectifyed in a small Head and Body , there was left in the bottom of the Glass a greater quantity than was expected of a substance thick like Honey , and which was for the most part of a dark Red , and seem'd to contain more Oyl than appeared upon the first Distillation . The Liquor that came over the Helm , seem'd more pure , but not very much stronger . than the first Spirit . Yet , having put it into a Glass Egg with a slender neck , and given the vessel a convenient situation in hot Sand , we obtain'd a Volatile Alcaly that sublim'd into the neck in the form of a White Salt. If this Tryal be reiterated with a success like that I have now recited , 't will seem to argue that the Serous or Fluid part of the Blood affords the same Elementary Principles or Similar Substances , both as to number and kind , that the Fibrous and Consistent part does , though not as to quantity , that of the Oyl and dry Salt being less in a determinate portion of Serum , than they would be in a like quantity or weight of the concreted part of the Blood. Having long since observ'd , that though the Spirituous parts of Mans Urine are wont to require that the Liquor be digested or putrefy'd about Six weeks , to loosen them from the more sluggish parts , and make them ascend before the Phlegm , yet if fresh Urine be pour'd upon a due proportion of Quick-lime , a good part of the Spirit will presently be untyed , and made capable of ascending in Distillation , I thought it worth while to try , what would be afforded by the Serum of Humane Blood if it were put upon Quick-lime , before we distill'd it . In pursuit of this Enquiry , we put these two Bodies together , upon whose commixture there ensued ( but not presently ) a sensible but transient heat . This compounded Body being committed to distillation afforded first a kind of Phlegm in a gentle fire , and then in a stronger , a moderate quantity of Liquor that was thought to smell manifestly of the Lime , but had not a brisk tast . This was accompany'd with somewhat more of high coloured & faetid Oil than was expected . The other Liquor being slowly rectify'd , the Spirit that first came over had a strong and piercing smell , but less rank than that of Humane Blood drawn the ordinary way . It s tast also was not only quick , but somewhat fiery . Being dropt upon Syrup of Violets , it presently turn'd it green , with a strong Solution of Sublimate in Water , and another of Quick-silver in Aqua Fortis , it immediately made two White Precipitates . And being mingled with some good Spirit of Sea-Salt though upon their being confounded there appear'd a thick but whitish Smoke , there was not produc'd any visible conflict or Bubbles . Yet the Colour of the Spirit of Salt , appear'd much heightn'd by this Operation . But here I must , though not in due place , take notice , that having put the lately mentioned mixture of the Spirit of Serum and of Salt to evaporate , that we might observe whether it would afford a Salt much figur'd like Sal-armoniac ; we found , that it did not , bot that the Colour produc'd in the Mixture whilst fluid , was so heightned in the concretion we speak of , that it appeared of a Blood-red Colour , but for the shape , it was so confus'd , that we could not reduce it to any known kind of Salt. By all which Phoenomena this Spirit of the Serous part of Blood , seems to be very near of kin to that of the concreted part of Blood , elsewhere by us described . Because Quick-lime is wont to be suspected by Physicians , by reason of its Caustick and Fretting Quality , I thought fit to try whether the Fixt Salt of Pota-shes ( which is a Lixiviate Alcaly as well as Lime , ) being substituted in the Room of it , would in Distillation have the same Effect upon Serum of Humane Blood. Wherefore to Four parts of the Liquor , we put one of the Salt , and having Distill'd them slowly in a Glass Head and Body , we obtain'd good store of a Liquor , which was not judg'd any thing near so strong , as that formerly mention'd to have been drawn off from Quick-lime . And having put this weak Liquor , afforded by our Serum , to rectify with a gentle heat , we found that even the two spoonfuls of Liquor that first ascended , were not Spirituous , but very Phlegmatick . Nor would it well turn Syrup of Violets Green , though it afforded some little and light Precipitate , when it was put upon a Solution of Sublimate . This may seem somewhat the more remarkable , if I add on this occasion an Experiment , that may be sometimes of Practical use , especially in Physick , and may afford much Light to those that are studious , to know the Nature and Preparations of so very useful a Subject , as Humane Vrine . We took three parts of fresh Urine , ( that was not many hours old ) and having put into it one part of Salt of Pot-ashes , ( because that was at hand , for else I presume the fixt Salt of Tartar , or even of Common Wood ashes , would have served the turn ) and having slowly distill'd them in a Head and Body , there first ascended a Liquor Spirituous enough ; which being set aside , We continued the Distillation ( after having poured the Mixture into a Retort ) till the Remains appeared dry . In this operation it is to be noted ; that we obtain'd not one drop of Oyl ; and that ( perhaps for that reason ) this Spirit of Urine was not near so faetid , as being made the Common way 't is wont to be : and that the Liquor that came over toward the latter end of the Distillation , was so unlike that which the Serum of Blood afforded us , that it was not only considerably strong , and manifestly stronger than that which first ascended , but had a penetrating and fiery Tast , which left a lasting Impression upon the Tongue ; and with good Spirit of Salt made a notable Ebullition , which I remember not , that upon Tryals purposely made , I found the Spirit of Urine drawn from Quicklime to have done . And , whereas with this last mentioned Liquor , I never ( that I remember ) found any Volatile Salt to ascend ( in a dry form ) in the operation made by the help of Salt of Pot-ashes , there came up without Rectification , divers Grains of Volatile Salt , one of which was Crystalline , and considerably large ; so that we could with pleasure observe it to be like a Plate curiously figur'd ; but because of some lesser Corns of Salt , that hid one part of it , I could not clearly discern whether it were Hexagonal or Octogonal . But here I must not conceal , that having for greater certainty reiterated this Experiment , it had not so good success ; the Liquor that came over appearing much more Phlegmatick , than that which the former Tryal afforded us ; tho we both times employ'd Salt of Pot-ashes taken out of the same Vessel , and the Urine of the same Person . So that what the reason of the difference may be , does not yet occur to me ; but perhaps will upon further Tryals : yet this Liquor , that appear'd so weak at its first coming over , being rectified per se , afforded more than was expected of a Brisk Saline Spirit , from which we easily obtain'd a pretty quantity ( in proportion to the Liquor ) of Volatile Salt in a dry form , and of a very White Colour . We took between two and three Ounces of Serum of Humane Blood , and having put it into a Bolthead , capable by our guess of containing about four times as much Liquor , and having seal'd the Glass Hermetically , set it by , as well to observe whether any manifest Changes would appear in it within a Week or two , ( of which none in that time occurr'd to us ) as for some other Purposes , that may be guess'd at by the following Account of the Event . 1. After we had kept the Liquor seal'd up above a whole Year , it did not appear to be at all coagulated , nor to have let fall any manifest Residence ; but seem'd to be as fluid as when it was first put in . 2. It did not appear to have bred any the least Worm or Maggot . And this I the rather take notice of , because it agrees very well with what I have elsewhere alledg'd , in disfavour of their Opinion , that think , all the fluid and soft Parts of Humane Bodies do naturally , and of themselves , in no long time breed Worms , or some such Insects ; which , for my part , I never observ'd to be generated in Blood it self , though very long kept , and putrified , provided it were fresh enough when put into the Glass , and by an exact Closure kept from being any way blown upon by Flies , or impregnated by Seminal Particles , that may be unsuspectedly convey'd to it by the Air. 3. Nor did there appear to the Eye any Mother , as they call it , or Recrementitious Substance , that is suppos'd in Liquors always to accompany , and betoken Putrefaction . 4. One of my Designs , in our Experiment , being to try whether the Serum would , by the mutual Action of the Parts upon one another , or by that of some Catholick , permeating Fluid , afford so much Air as would either crack , or more violently break the Glass ; the Tip at which the Bolt-head was seal'd , was warily taken off with a Key , whereupon there rush'd out a pretty deal of Air , with a considerable noise : And I doubted not that this generated ( or at least extricated ) Air , had been considerably compress'd whilst it was pent up ; when casting my Eyes on the Liquor , to discover what change this Eruption had made there , I perceiv'd on the upper Surface of the Liquor a multitude of small Bubbles , such as are wont to be seen in Drink a little Bottled , upon the opening of the Vessel ; and also in divers Liquors , after the Air has been pent up with them , when the Glasses come to be unstopp'd . And I also the less wonder'd at this , because I remember'd what formerly hapned to me , after having seal'd up some Sheeps Blood , and kept it for several Days in a gentle warmth ; for , tho the Glass it was enclos'd in , were far larger than this that contained our Serum ; yet after some time , when no Body offer'd any violence to it , or was near enough to stir it , it was suddenly blown up with a surprizing noise by the Aereal or Elastical Corpuscles that were produced , or set free by the Putrefaction we discover'd to have been made . 5. The smell of our Serum was strong , but not Cadaverous , but rather resembled that of the Tincture of Sulphur made with Salt of Tartar and Spirit of Wine , or of some such Sulphureous Preparation . 6. One of the chief aims I had in keeping our Serum so long Seal'd up , was to try , whether by a Digestion , or Putrefaction for some Months , the Serum of Blood would like Urine ( which is commonly thought to be a Liquor made of it , and of very near Cognation to it ) afford a Saline Spirit , or an Alcaly Volatile enough to ascend before the Phlegm . And in pursuit of this enquiry we committed our Serum to Distillation in a small Glass Head and Body , and in a Digestive Furnace , being careful to take the first Spoonful , or thereabouts of Spirit that passed into the Receiver : But we found , that , tho this Liquor at first smell'd strong enough , ( I say at first , because the Odour soon after grew fainter ) yet the tast was not at all brisk nor Spirituous like that wont to be obtain'd by Distillation from Putrify'd Urine . Nor did our Liquor being drop'd into a little Syrup of Violets , give it presently any manifest greenness . But yet , because I found it not insipid , I thought fit to examine it a little more critically , and dropt a convenient quantity of it into a clear and Saturate Solution of Sublimate in Common Water , by which means there was produc'd a whiteness like that ( but not near so dense ) which Spirit of Urine , or Volatile Salt would have produc'd . And by this I was invited to mix some of it with a little Syrup of Violets upon a piece of White Paper , and also to wet with the same ( Distill'd ) Liquor , some small filings of Copper spread upon another piece of Paper , and to leave them both all Night in the open Air , that the Liquor might have time enough to work upon the Syrup , and the Metal . By which course we found in the Morning , that the former was turn'd green , and the latter was so far dissolv'd as to leave a large blewish stain upon the Paper . I mention these things the rather , because according to the Opinion of some Learned Men , this degenerated Serum should have been of an Acid , not an Alcalisate nature . 7. The near Cognation that , according to some Learned Physicians , there is between Milk , and the more Serous part of the Blood , invited me to try whether , ( according to an Experiment made on New Milk , that I have heard ascribed to the famous Sylvius , ) our Serum of Humane Blood would grow Red , by being kept continually stirring over a moderate heat with a competent quantity of Salt of Tartar , but in two tryals , we found not any redness produc'd , tho one of them was made in a Vessel of refin'd Silver , with an eighth part of the Salt in reference to the Serum , which was the same proportion that we had us'd when we made the Experiment succeed well in Milk. 8. Perhaps it will be needless to take notice , that the Serum of Humane Blood will by heat be in a short time coagulated into a kind of Gelly , or rather , as far as I have observ'd , into a Substance like a Custard , as to Consistence , tho not as to Colour . And therefore I shall now add , that having found that Acid Spirits also would coagulate Serum . I thought fit to try , whether Alcalys would not oppose , or retard its Coagulation . Of which Tryal the event was , that having put Spirit of Humane Blood to a convenient quantity of Serum , and caus'd them to be kept stirring over a very gentle Fire , though the Volatile Alcaly did not hinder the Coagulation , yet it seem'd to make it both more slow , and more soft or laxe . And this effect was yet more considerable , when we try'd another parcel of Serum with Salt of Tartar instead of Spirit of Blood. The Fourth Part , Containing the History of the Spirit of Humane Blood Begun ; In an Epistolary Discourse to the very Learned Dr. J. L. Sir , HAving by want of leisure and opportunity , been reduced to treat of the History of Humane Blood in so imperfect and desultory a way , that several of the Titles have been left wholly untouch'd , and others have been but transiently and jejunely treated of ; I thought fit to handle more fully , some one of the Primary Titles , and branch it into its several subordinate or secundary Titles . And for this purpose I pitch'd upon the Spirit of Humane Blood , being willing on so noble a Subject to give a Specimen of what might have been done to Illustrate the other Primary Titles , if some requisites had not been wanting . And since the Spirit of Humane Blood is at least one of the noblest of Urinous or Volatile Alcalies ; so that most of the things that shall be taught concerning that , may with some little variation be apply'd to Spirit of Urine , Hartshorn , Sal-Armoniac , Soot , &c. I thought fit to lay down a Scheme of subordinate Titles , whose Heads ( which amount to above half the number of the Primary ones , that belong to the whole History of Blood ) should be so numerous and comprehensive , that this Paper may pass not only for an Example , but for a kind of summary of the History of Volatile Salts in general , and so supply the loss of a Paper that I once begun on that Subject . And now I should without further Preamble proceed to the intended History , but that I think it requisite to premise three or four short Advertisements . Whereof the First shall be , That the Spirit I employ'd in making the following Tryals and Observations , was drawn from Humane Blood without any Sand , Clay , or other Additament , ( save perhaps that by a mistake that could do no mischief , a small parcel had some Vinous Spirit put to it to preserve it a while ) and that the first distillations ( which I so call to distinguish them from Rectifications ) were perform'd in Retorts plac'd in Sand , ( and not with a naked Fire ) care being taken that the Vessels were not too much fill'd because Blood , N. B. if it be not well dry'd , is apt to swell much , and pass into the Neck of the Retort , if not into the Receiver . Secondly , I desire to give notice , that the Blood we made use of , was drawn from Persons that parted with it out of custom , or for prevention , which was the main reason why I was so scantly furnished with Blood , that of sound persons being in the place I resided in , very difficult to be procur'd in quantity , and that of sick persons being unfit for my purpose . Thirdly , It may not be amiss for obviating of some Scruples , to advertise that , there being so great a Cognation between the Spirit and Volatile Salt of Humane Blood , that , as we shall see anon , 't is probable that the latter is little other than the Spirit in a dry form , and the former than the Salt united with Phlegm enough to give it a Liquid form ; 't is presum'd that it may be allowable to consider the Volatile Salt of Blood as its dry Spirit . Lastly , To the three foregoing , 't will be fit to add this Fourth Advertisement , That tho , in comparison of the Particulars thrown in to the Second and Third Part of those Memoirs , the ensuing Fourth Part is methodically written , yet you are not to expect to find in the Method any thing of Accurateness ; since the Experiments and Observations whereof this Fourth Part consists , were written in loose Papers , at distant times and on differing occasions , and because of this and of my haste , will be found , without any regular dependence or connexion , referr'd to the Titles under which they are ranged , in that order , or rather disorder , wherein they chanc'd to come to hand . A List of the Secondary Titles concerning The Spirit of Humane Blood. a. 1. WHether Humane Blood may be so order'd by Fermentation or Putrefaction , as that in Distillation , a Spirit , either Urinous or Vinous , may ascend before the Phlegm . b. 2. Whether Spirit of Humane Blood be really any thing but the Volatile Salt and Phlegm well commix'd . c 3. Of the Species of Saline Bodies to which Spirit of Humane Blood is to be referr'd . d. 4. Whether Spirit of Humane Blood be differing from Spirit of Urine , and other Spirits that are call'd volatile Alcalies . e. 5. Of the Quantity of Spirit contain'd in Humane Blood : Whether accompanyed which its Serum or dry'd . f. 6. Of the Specifick Gravity of Spirit of Humane Blood. g. 7. Of the Odour , Tast , Colour , Transparence and Consistence of the Spirit of Humane Blood. h. 8. Of the Dissolutive Power of the Spirit of Humane Blood. i. 9. Of the Tinctures that may be drawn with Spirit of Humane Blood. k. 10. Of the Coagulating Power of the Spirit of Humane Blood. l. 11. Of the Precipitating Power of the Spirit of Humane Blood. m. 12. Of the Affinity between Spirit of Humane Blood , and some Chymical Oyls and Vinous Spirits . n. 13. Of the Relation between Spirit of Humane Blood and the Air. o. 14. Of the Hostility of Spirit of Humane Blood with Acids , whether they be in the form of Liquors , or of Fumes . p. 15. Of the Medicinal vertues of Spirit of Humane Blood outwardly applied . q. 16. Of the Medicinal vertues of Spirit of Humane Blood inwardly us'd in Pleurisies , Headachs , Coughs , Fevers , Scurvies , Cachexies , Dropsies , Fits of the Mother , &c. App. An Appendix containing Parralipomena , and Promiscuous Experiments , and Observations concerning the Spirit of Humane Blood. The I. ( Secondary ) Title . Whether Humane Blood may be so order'd by Fermentation , or Putrefaction , as that in Distillation a Spirit either Vrinous or Vinous , may ascend before the Phlegm . IT is not unlike , that you will think the Question propos'd in this Title , more curious than necessary ; and I shall not quarrel with you if you do so . But that you may not think it groundless , I desire two things may be consider'd ; first , how ordinary it is , especially since the Learned Dr. Willis's Writings came to be applauded , to look upon Fevers as inordinate Fermentations of the Blood. And the second , that tho Humane Urine , which has a great cognation with the Humane Blood , will not , whilst fresh , afford by Distillation a Spirit or Volatile Salt , till the Phlegm be first drawn off , and then requires a good Fire to make it rise ; yet , if it be kept for a competent time ( which usually amounts to divers weeks ) in Fermentation , ( as Chymists commonly call that , which in this case I would rather stile Putrefaction ) the Spirit and Volatile Salt will with a gentle Fire ascend , before much , if not before any Phlegm . These two Considerations , as I was intimating , may keep that from being thought a groundless Question , which has been above propos'd . And , thô I more incline to the Negative than to the Affirmative , at least as to the first part or member of the Question , yet I thought it well deserv'd to be determin'd , if it may be , by Experiment . But for want of a sufficient quantity of Blood , and good luck in making Tryals with that I could procure , I must suspend my Judgment , till further Experience resolve me one way or other . By what I have yet try'd , I am not much encourag'd to expect from Humane Blood a Vinous or Ardent Spirit , thô that be the usual product of Fermentation in Liquors , and I am the less encourag'd to expect this , because I am not sure that there is any Fermentation truly & properly so call'd in Humane Blood , either within or out of the Body ; having never yet found any thing in the Blood , or Urine , that convinc'd me , that either of those Liquors would afford an ardent Spirit . I remember I once kept Humane Blood for a year together , in a Glass very carefully , and if I mistake not , Hermetically clos'd , with a purpose to try , whether any Spirits would first ascend . But when the Blood came to be expos'd to the contact of the Air , the stink was so great and offensive , especially to some Ladies that liv'd in the house , that we were fain to have it hastily thrown away . Another time , having caus'd some Sheeps Blood to be digested in a pretty large Vial Hermetically sealed , after it had continued a good while in the Digestive Furnace , upon a sudden , thô no Body touched it , it broke with a surprizing noise , and blew off the long neck of the Vial. Two or three almost like mischances I had with Attempts made on Humane Blood , which I was the more troubled at , because I thought it not very improbable , that by Putrefaction the Texture of Blood , like that of Urine , may be so loosen'd or otherwise alter'd , that a Volatile Salt or Spirit may in a slow distillation ascend before the Phlegm . But , as I said before , 't is only from further Experience that I must expect Satisfaction in these Enquiries . Yet in the mean time I shall add on this occasion , That the ill success I had in my Attempts to draw a Spirit from entire Portions of Blood , without separating any part from it , or adding any foreign Body to it , did not hinder , but rather invite , me to try , whether I could not make some Experiment of affinity to those above mentioned upon whose success I might ground some kind of Conjecture , what would have been the Events of those Tryals , in case they had not miscarryed . Wherefore looking upon the Serum of Blood as the likelyest part of it , as well as much more likely than the entire Blood , to concur to a Fermentation properly so call'd ; we took some Ounces of this Serum , and put to it about a fourth part of Raisins ( of the Sun ) well bruis'd , and kept them in a Glass , whereof a considerable part was left empty , and having clos'd the Vessel , we kept it in a warm room for many days . The Event of this Tryal was , that within few days the Raisins began to emerge , and afterwards continued to float ; and there was produc'd or extricated a considerable quantity of permanent and Springy Air , as by a certain Contrivance described in another Paper , did manifestly appear . Both which Phaenomena seem'd plainly to argue , that there had been some degree of Fermentation produc'd in the mixture . But yet when we came to distill the thus alter'd Serum , thô it did not stink , as if it had putrefied it would have done , yet the Liquor that first ascended , even with a gentle heat , did not tast or smell like a Vinous Spirit , thô it was differing from meer Phlegm . If I had been furnished with a greater quantity of Serum , perhaps the reiterated Experiment would have given more satisfaction ; and in making it I would have been careful to observe , whether the produc'd Fermentation might not be suspected to proceed not so much from the whole Serum as such , as from the Aqueous Particles , in distinction from the others that concur'd with them to compose it . As for the Second Question intimated in this present First Title , namely , whether Blood will by Digestion or Putrefaction be so opened , as that when it is distill'd , the Spirit will ascend before the Phelgm : I likewise endeavour'd to try , That , with the Serous part of the Blood pour'd off from the Fibrous or Coagulated , as supposing it in this separated state , more proper for our Tryal than the entire Blood : and having kept a pretty quantity of this Serum above four times as long , as I had observ'd to have been sufficient , to make Urine in Distillation part with its Spirit before its Phlegm ; we distill'd this long kept Liquor with a very gentle sire , that few or none besides the fugitive parts might at first ascend . But we found the Liquor that came over , to have but little strength , either as to smell or Tast , nor would it readily turn Syrup of violets Green. I say readily , because after they had been some hours together it would . But yet as a Volatile Alcaly , it would presently turn a strong solution made of common Sublimate in fair Water , into a White , Opacous , and almost Milky Liquor . The II. ( Secondary ) Title , Whether Spirit of Humane Blood be really any thing but the Volatile Salt and Phlegm well commix'd ? SInce the Question mov'd in this Title may be also propounded concerning other Alcalisate Spirits , as those of Urine , Harts-horn , Soot , &c. It is upon that account the more important . And for this Reason , as well as for the difficulty of determining it by cogent Proofs , I may think my self oblig'd to forbear taking upon me to decide it peremptorily , till further Experience shall have furnish'd me with fuller Information . So that for the present about this difficult Question , I shall venture to say no more than this , that what has hitherto occurr'd to me , inclines me to think that the Spirit of Humane Blood is totally compos'd of Volatile Salt and Phlegm , if by Phlegm , we understand not Simple , or Elementary Water , but a Liquor , that , althô it pass among Chymists for Phlegm , and deserves that name better than any other Liquor afforded by Humane Blood , yet in the strictest acception it is not That ; for when the Spirit , Volatile Salt , and Oil , are separated from it by Distillation and Sublimation , as far as they are wont to be in Chymical Preparations of Volatile Alcalies , the remaining Liquor , which passes for Phlegm , will yet be impregnated with some Particles of Oyl , and perhaps also with some few of volatile Salt , that are too minute to be distinguishable by the naked Eye . But whether frequent Rectifications may so accurately separate these Heterogeneous parts , as perfectly to free the Aqueous ones from them , and thereby reduce the Phlegm to Simple or Elementary Water , I am content at least till I shall have had sufficient Quantities of distill'd Blood for making the requisite Tryals , to leave as a Problem . And this the rather , because I am not sure , but that by frequent Distillations , some Particles of the Fire may from time to time Substantially be associated with those of the Liquor ; nor yet but that even in the first Distillation of Humane Blood , The Fire may have either separated or produc'd a Liquor that though almost strengthless , and not justly referable to either of the receiv'd Principles or Ingredients , Oyl , Salt and Earth , is not yet Phlegm truly so call'd , but a Liquor as yet Anonymous ; as I have elsewhere shewn , that Woods and many other Bodies afford by Distillation a Liquor that is not an Oyl , and is neither Acid nor Alcalisate , and yet is no true Phlegm , but as I have there styled it , an Adiaphorous Spirit . It will probably be thought Material , if on this occasion I add , in favour of the Opinion or Conjecture to which I lately own'd my self inclin'd , That considering that the knowledge of the Composition of a Body may be sometimes as well , if not better , investigated by the way of generating or producing of it , as by that of Analysing or Resolving it ; I made for Tryals sake the following Experiment . We dissolv'd in distilled Water as much Volatile Salt of Humane Blood as the Liquor would take up , and then having carefully distill'd it in a conveniently shap'd Vessel , with a regulated degree of Heat , the Distillation afforded us such a Liquor as was desir'd , namely one that by Smell , Tast and divers Operations , appear'd to be a good brisk Spirit of Humane Blood. This Experiment for the main , was made another time with the like success . The III ( Secondary ) Title . Of the Species of Saline Bodies to which the Spirit of Humane Blood is to be refer'd . I need not spend much time to declare a thing that is now so well known to many Physicians and Chymists of this and some of the neighbouring Countries , as 't is that of late years Saline Spirits obtain'd by Distillation have been observ'd to be of two sorts . But because there are many , even of the Learned especially in the remoter parts of Europe , that are not well acquainted with this Distinction , lest some to whom you may shew this Paper should chance to be of that number , it may not be amiss to intimate in two or three Words , that the Saline Spirits that ascend in Distillation , are some of them Acid in Tast , as Spirit of Nitre , Spirit of Vitriol , &c. And some others have Tasts very differing from that , being rather somewhat like Common Salt , or like Lixiviate Salts . And the difference is greater in their operations than in their Tasts ; For being put together there will presently ensue a manifest Conflict between them , and usually ( for I have not found it to hold in all cases ) the one will Precipitate the Bodies that the other hath Dissolved . And 't is necessary to add , that among the Salts called Alcalies , some are Fixt in considerable degrees of Fire , and others not , for which reason divers modern Spagyrists and Physicians , that take Acid and Alcaly for the true Principles of Mixt Bodies , call the one Fixt and the other Volatile Alcalies . And , though I have elsewhere questioned this Doctrine , and given my Reasons why I approve neither it nor the Appellations newly mention'd , and often call the Salts made by Combustion , simply Alcalies or else Lixiviate Salts , and those that ascend sometimes Vrinous , and sometimes Volatile Salts and Spirits : yet , since the Names of Fixt Alcalies and Volatile ones are now much in request , I shall comply with custom , & oftentimes ( though not always ) make use of them in the sense of those that employ them . These things being premis'd I may now seasonably propound this important Question , To what Species of Saline Bodies the Spirit of Humane Blood is to be referr'd ? I say of Saline Bodies because though the Spirit of Blood be a Liquor , yet it s more efficacious Operations seem almost ( if not more then almost ) totally to depend upon the Fugitive Salt wherewith it abounds . The ground of the foregoing Question may be twofold ; the one , that I have elsewhere prov'd against the general supposition , that some Volatile Salts , that arise even in a dry form , may not be of an Alcalisate ; but Acid nature , and the other , that not only Helmont and his Disciples , but a great part of the Modern Chymists and Physicians too , ascribe Digestion to an Acid Ferment or Menstruum in the Stomach ; Whence one may suspect that store of Acid Corpuscles may pass into the Mass of Blood , & impregnate it , as I elsewhere shew that Particles of differing Natures may be even by the senses discovered to do . But notwithstanding this , I shall not scruple to say in answer to the propounded Question , that , as far as I have hitherto been able to observe , the Spirit of Humane Blood is manifestly referable to that Classis that many call Volatile Alcalies ( and I often call Vrinous Spirits ) for I find Spirit of Blood capable of doing those things , the performance of which has been looked on almost ever since I publickly propos'd them , as the Touchstone to know Volatile Alcalies , and distinguish them from the other sorts of Saline Bodies . For the Spirit of Humane Blood will make a great conflict with divers Acid Spirits , as Spirit of Salt , Aqua fortis , &c. It will immediately turn Syrup of Violets from its Blew Colour into a fair Green , 't will Precipitate a Solution of Sublimate in common Water , into a White Powder , and in short I found it to perform those other things that may be expected from Volatile Alcalies as such , as often as I had occasion to make Tryal of it , sometimes on one Body , and sometimes on another . If I were sure ( as for Reasons elsewhere declar'd I am not ) that the Digestion of Aliments were made by an Acid Ferment or Juice , whencesoever the Stomach is furnish'd with it , I should be prone to suspect that some Acid Particles may be mingled with the Blood. But however that would not hinder me from referring the Spirit of Humane Blood to Volatile Alcalies , because so few Acid Particles would be either destroy'd by the Alcalisate ones , that are so abundant in the Spirit , or at least these would be so very much predominant , as to allow us very warrantably to give on their account a Denomination to the Mixture . As if a few drops of Spirit of Vinegar were mix'd with some Pints or Pounds of stale Vrine , they would either be depriv'd of their Acidity by some Corpuscles of a contrary nature , that they would meet with in the Liquor , or they would be so obscur'd and overpower'd by the Fugitive Salts it abounds with , that the Acetous Corpuscles would not hinder the Spirituous Liquor drawn from the Mixture by distillation to be justly referable to the Classis of Volatile , Vrinous Salts . The IV. ( Secondary ) Title . Whether Spirit of Humane Blood be differing from Spirit of Vrine , and other Spirits that are call'd Volatile Alcalies ? THe Question , Whether there be any difference be●ween the Spirit of Humane Blood , and other volatile Alcalies ? As Spirit of Urine , Harts-horn , &c. seems to me very difficult to be decided , because two Bodies may agree in many Qualities , and perhaps in all of those that are the most obvious , and yet may on some third Body , or in some Cases , manifest distinct Powers , and have their peculiar Operations . Nor do I yet see any certain way , by which the Affirmative part of the Question , thô it should be true , can be clearly demonstrated . Therefore leaving the peremptory Decision of this Question , to those that shall think themselves qualify'd to make it , I shall ( at least till I be further inform'd ) content my self to make a Couple of Remarks , in reference to the propos'd Enquiry . And first I think , there may be a great difference between Volatile Salts or Spirits , as they are ordinarily prepar'd for medicinal uses , and as they may , by reiterated Rectifications , and otherways of Depuration , be brought to as great a simplicity or Purity , as a dextrous Chymist can bring them to : I thus express my self , because as to an Exquisite or Elementary Simplicity thô some eminent Artists pretend to it , I am not sure that Chymists can attain it ; especially considering what I elsewhere shew of the unheeded Commixtures , that may ( at least sometimes ) be made by the Corpuscles of the Fire , with those of the Bodies it works on . My other Remark is , that whether or no , if the Spirit of Humane Blood , and other Liquors abounding like it in Volatile Alcalies , were reduc'd to as great a purity as they can by Art be brought to , they would be altogether alike in their Nature and Qualities ; yet , if we consider them ( as men use to do ) in that state wherein they are wont to be thought pure enough for medicinal uses , and are accordingly employ'd by Physicians and Chymists ; I think it very probable , that there is some difference between the Spirit of Humane Blood and some other Volatile Alcalies , and particularly those afforded by Urine and by Harts-horn . For thô to me the bad smells of all these Liquors seem to be much alike , yet divers Ladies , and those of very differing Ages , affirm they find a manifest difference between these smells , and do abhor the odour of Spirit of Blood as a stink , though they will with pleasure hold their noses a great while over the Sp. of Harts-horn , and even that of ( vulgar or European ) Sal-armoniac ( which is in effect a Sp. of Mans Urine ) and affirm themselves to be much refresh'd by it . And , whereas with Spirit of Urine or of Sal-armoniac joyn'd in a due proportion with Spirit of Salt , I have usually ( as I have long since noted in another Paper a ) been able to make a Salt that shoots into the peculiar Figure of Sal-Armoniac , which figure is very differing from that of Sea Salt , Nitre , &c. I have seldom , if ever obtain'd ( at least in any quantity ) a Salt of that shape , by the commixture of the Spirit of Humane Blood , with that of common Salt ; for , though their Saline Corpuscles , upon the Evaporation of the Superfluous moisture , would coagulate together , yet the concretion seem'd confus'd , and either all or a great part of it was destitute of that neat and distinct shape , that I had several times observ'd in concretions , made by the mixture of the Spirit of Sea-Salt with Urinous Spirits . And , as to the Medicinal vertues of Spirit of Blood , though I have not had opportunity to make comparisons experimentally , and therefore shall forbear to affirm any thing my self , yet , if we credit the famous Helmont , there is a considerable difference between the Sp. of Humane Blood , & that of Humane Urine , since he somewhere expressly notes , ( though I remember not the place , nor have his Book at hand ) that the Spirit of Humane Blood cures Epilepsies , which is a thing the Spirit of Urine will not do . The V. ( Secondary ) Title . Of the Quantity of Spirit contain'd in Humane Blood whether accompany'd with its Serum or dry'd . 'T Is not easy to determine the exact proportion of that Liquor , which , when by Distillation obtain'd from Humane Blood , the Chymists call its Spirit , in reference to the other Principles or Ingredients whereof the Blood consists . For some Mens Blood may be much more Phlegmatick or serous than that of others , which it self may be more or less Spirituous according to the Complexion , Age , Sex , &c. of the person that bleeds . But , to make some Estimate , that will not probably much recede from what may be ordinarily found , I shall inform you , that Twelve Ounces of healthy Humane Blood afforded us seven Ounces and a half of Phlegm , and consequently about Four Ounces and a half of dry stuff . And then I shall add , that having committed to Distillation in a Retort in a Sand Furnace seven Ounces of well dry'd ( but not scorch'd ) Blood , we obtain'd about seven Drams , that is , about an Eighth part of Spirit , to which thô it were not rectified , that Name may well enough be given , because it was so very rich in Spirituous and Saline parts , that it left in the Receiver , and in the Vial I kept it in , a good deal of Volatile Salt undissolv'd , which a Phlegmatick Liquor would not have done . And if that be admitted for a truth , that was above propos'd as a very likely Conjecture ; namely , that Spirit of Blood is but Salt and Phlegm united , we may well suppose that Humane Blood yields a far greater proportion of Spirit than this ; since from the seven Ounces of dry'd Blood last mentioned , we obtain'd about Five Drams of Volatile Salt , which if we had by Distillations united with a fit quantity of Phlegm , would probably have afforded us near Two Ounces more of a Liquor deserving the name of Spirit . The VI. ( Secondary ) Title . Of the Consistence and Specifick Gravity of the Spirit of Humane Blood. TO the Consistence of the Spirit of Humane Blood , taken in the more laxe sense of the word Consistence , one may refer its Specifick Gravity , ( as that is usually proportionate to the Density of Bodies , ) the greater or lesser degree of Fluidity that belongs to the Liquor as a Mass , and the greater or lesser Subtilty of the Minute Parts whereof it is compos'd , or wherein it abounds . And as to the first of the Three Attributes , we have noted to be referrable to the Consistence of our Spirit ; Gravity is a Quality that is so radicated , if I may so speak , in the nature of Visible Fluids or Liquors , and does so obstinately accompany them , that I durst not omit to examine the Specifick Gravity ( that is , the Gravity in proportion to the Bulk ) of Spirit of Humane Blood ; though by reason of the small quantity I had of it , I could not make use of the same Instruments , that I was wont to employ in Hydrostatical Tryals , where I was not so stinted in the Liquor to be examined . But however I made a shift to make a Tryal of this kind , by which I found , that a compact body weighing fifty eight Grains in the Air , and in Water six Grains and three fourth parts weighed in Rectified Spirit of Humane Blood , but five Grains and one fourth part . And on this occasion I shall tell you , what I presume , you did not expect , which is , that notwithstanding the Volatility of our Spirit of Blood , I found that a pretty large piece of Amber being put into it , did not , as most men would confidently expect , fall to the bottom of the Liquor , but kept itself floating at the upper part of it , and if plung'd into it would emerge . The next Quality we refer'd to the Consistence of our Spirit of Blood , is the Degree of its Fluidity , or , if you please , it s greater or lesser Immunity from Tenaciousness or Viscosity , which some Modern Philosophers ( whose Opinion needs not here be discuss'd ) think to belong to all Liquors as such . Now one may be the more inclin'd to expect a manifest Degree of Tenacity in the Spirit of Humane Blood , because among many Modern Chymists it passes for an Alcaly ; and we know that divers other Alcalisate Liquors , as Oyl of Tartar per deliquium , Fix'd Nitre resolv'd the same way , Solution of Pot-ashes , &c. are sensibly unctuous , and but languidly Fluid . But yet I did not observe , that some rectified Spirit of Humane Blood , that I purposely try'd between my Fingers , did feel more unctuous than Common Water . And whereas those that sell Brandy , or Spirit of Wine , are wont to shake it , till it afford some Froth , and then by the stay this makes on the Surface , to judge of the Tenacity or Tenuity of the Liquor , esteeming that to be the most Vnctuous , whereon the Bubbles make the longest stay , and that the finest on which they soonest disappear ; I thought fit by the same Method to examine Spirit of Humane Blood , and found that the Froth would last very little on the Surface of it , the bubbles breaking or vanishing , almost ( if not quite ) as nimbly , as if the Liquor had been good Spirit of Wine . And I likewise observ'd , that when I warily let fall some of our well rectify'd Spirit of Blood upon some other body , it seemed to me , that the single drops were manifestly smaller than those of Water , and of several other Liquors , would have been , which will be much confirm'd by one passage of what I have to say about the third Quality referrable to the Consistence of the Spirit we treat of . Because it may be a thing of some Importance , as well as Curiosity , to know how subtil the active parts of Spirit of Humane Blood are , and how disposed and fitted to disperse or diffuse themselves through other Liquors of convenient Textures ; to make a visible discovery of this , I bethought my self of a Method , that having formerly devised for several purposes , I thought fitly applicable to my present Design . For having looked upon it as a great defect , that men have lazily contented themselves to say in general , that such a Body is of subtile , or of very subtile Parts , without troubling themselves to find out any way of making more particular and less indeterminate Estimates of that subtilty ; I was invited to find out and practise a way that might on divers occasions somewhat supply that defect . But having delivered this easy method in another Paper , I shall forbear to repeat a tedious account of it in this ; since it may here suffice to tell you in short , what will perhaps surprize you ; namely , That according to the forementioned way , we so prepar'd Common Water by Infusions made in it without heat , that by putting one single drop of our rectified Spirit of Humane Blood into ℥ iv . + ℈ iv . ( which make 2000 grains ) of the prepar'd Water , and lightly shaking the Vial , there appeared throughout the Liquor a manifest Colour , whereof no degree at all was discernible in it just before . Which sufficiently argues a wonderful subtilty of Parts in the Spirit we employ'd ; since that a single drop of it could disperse its Corpuscles , so as to diffuse it self through , and mingle with two thousand times as much Water , and yet retain so much Activity , as to make their presence not only sensible , but conspicuous , by a manifest change of Colour they produc'd . I confess this computation is made , upon supposition that a drop of Water weighs about a grain , and that a drop of our Spirit of Blood was of the same weight with a drop of Water . The former supposition is commonly made ; and though I have not found it to be exactly true , but that a drop of Water weigh'd a Tantillum more than a Grain ; yet that difference is much more than recompens'd , by that which we found between the weight of a drop of Water , and the weight of one of Spirit of Humane Blood. For having in a very good and carefully adjusted Ballance , let fall ten drops of Common Water , and as many of our Rectified Spirit of Humane Blood , ( as judging it a safer way to make an Estimate , by comparing so many drops of each Liquor than one alone ; ) we found , as we might well expect , that a drop of this last nam'd Liquor , as it was manifestly lesser , so it was far lighter , than a drop of Water , in so much , that the whole ten drops did not amount to four Grains . So that we may safely judge the drop of Spirit to have manifestly diffused it self , and acted upon above 4000 times so much Water in weight , ( and perhaps in bulk too ) since indeed the proportion extended a good way towards that of one to 5000 ; and so may be said to be as that of one to between 4000 and 5000 , which , tho it may seem incredible to those that are unacquainted with the great subtilty of Nature and Art , in the Comminutions they can make of Bodies ; yet I can by repeating the Experiment easily convince a doubter , in less than a quarter of an hour . And this Subtilty of the Parts of Blood will appear yet greater , if it be consider'd , ( what I think I can evince , ) that no contemptible part of the single drop I employ'd was Phlegm , useless to the change produc'd , the operation being due to the Energy of the Saline Spirits of the little drop . The VII . ( Secondary ) Title . Of the Odour , Taste , Colour , and Transparence of the Spirit of Humane Blood. THose Qualities , that in my Opinion more generally than deservedly are call'd first , do not any of them belong to the Spirit of Humane Blood , in such manner as to oblige me to say any thing of them in relation to it . And therefore I shall content my self to have made this transient mention of them , to keep it from being thought , that through forgetfulness I had overlook'd them . Yet something there is , that may not inconveniently be refer'd to the heat or coldness of Spirit of Humane Blood ; in regard that Physicians , as well as Philosophers , distinguish these Qualities into Actual and Potential . For it seems , that the Spirit of Humane Blood is in reference to some Liquors potentially cold , since it refrigerates them , and in reference to some others potentially hot , since being mingled with them , the mixture becomes actually hot . Of this last I shall here set down the ensuing Instance . Into a slender Cylindrical Glass we put the lower part of an Hermetically Seal'd Thermoscope , which in this Paper and elsewhere I usually call the gag'd one , because it was adjusted according to the standard of such Instruments kept at Gresham Colledge . Into this Cylindrical Glass we pour'd as much moderately strong Spirit of Blood , as would cover the Ball of the Thermometer , and then drop'd on that Liquor some good Spirit of Salt , upon whose mingling with it there was produc'd a Conflict accompany'd with noise and bubbles , and a heat , which nimbly enough made the Spirit of Wine ascend above two inches and a half . This Experiment is therefore the more considerable , because there are divers Volatile Alcalies that being confounded with Acid Spirits , tho they seem to make a true Effervescence , yet do really produce a notable degree of Coldness . And that which to me seem'd considerable on this occasion , was , that whereas I had several times found by Tryal , that the Spirit of Verdegrease ( which some call the Spirit of Venus ) would with the Volatile Salt of Sal Armoniack , or of Urine , produce a seeming Effervescence , but a real coldness ; this Spirit of Verdegrease it self , being mix'd in the forementioned small Cylindrical Glass , with but moderately strong Spirit of Blood , did not only produce a hissing noise and store of bubbles , but an actual heat , whereby the Spirit of Wine in the Thermoscope was made quickly to ascend above an inch and a half , tho the Liquors employ'd amounted not both together to two spoonfuls . The VIII . ( Secundary ) Title . Of the Dissolutive Power of Spirit of Humane Blood. IT will not only serve to manifest the Subtilty and Penetrancy of the Spirit of Human Blood , but it may be also of some use to Physicians , if it be made appear by Experiments , that this Spirit is by itself not only a good Medicine for several diseases , ( as will be hereafter shewn , ) but may be also employ'd as a Menstruum , to dissolve several Bodies , and even some Metalline ones . And because these last mention'd are the most unlikely to be readily dissoluble , by a substance belonging to the Animal Kingdom , as Chymists speak ; I shall subjoyn two Tryals , that I made to evince this Dissolutive Power of the Spirit of Blood. And first we took Crude Copper in Filings , ( which if they be very small , are so much the fitter for our purpose ) and having pour'd on them some highly rectify'd Spirit of Human Blood , we shook them together , and in about a quarter of an hour or less , perceiv'd the Menstruum to begin to look a little Blewish , which argu'd its operation to have already begun . And this colour grew higher and higher , till after some hours the Menstruum had dissolved Copper enough to make it deeply Ceruleous . Some other , and somewhat differing Tryals on the same Metal will be met with in their proper place . In the mean time I shall here take notice , that in some Circumstances the Spirit of Blood has such an operation upon Copper , whose quickness is surprising . For having made a coin'd piece of that Metal clean and bright ( that no grease or foulness might hinder the effect of the Liquor , ) and put a drop or two of our Spirit upon it , within about half a Minute of an Hour , ( observ'd by a watch that shew'd Seconds ) the verge of the moistned part of the Surface appear'd blewish , and almost presently after , the rest of the wetted part acquir'd a fine Azure Colour . We also took filings of Zink , or ( as in the shops they call it ) Spelter , and having pour'd on them very well rectified Spirit of Blood , we observ'd , that even in the cold it quickly began to work manifestly , thô not vigorously . But being assisted with a little heat , it dissolv'd the Zink briskly , and not without producing store of bubbles , being also a little discolour'd by the operation of this Experiment , some use is made in another place , and therefore need not be deliver'd in this . On this occasion I shall add , that for curiosities sake I took a piece of Coagulated Blood , but not dry'd , somewhat bigger than a large Pea , having a care to take it from the lower part of the lump of Blood , that it might be black , the superficial part of Fibrous Blood that lies next the Air , being usually Red. This clot of Blood we put into a slender Vial of clear Glass , that the colour might be the better discern'd , and then pour'd on it a little Rectified Spirit of Humane Blood , and shook the Glass alittle ; whereupon in a trice the colour of ( at least ) the Superficial part of the Blood , was , as I had conjectur'd , manifestly chang'd , the blackness quite disappearing , and being succeeded by a very florid colour like that of fine Scarlet . The Liquor also was ting'd , but not with near so deep or so fair a Red , and by the little bubbles that from time to time past out of the Clod into it , it seem'd to work somewhat like a Menstruum . And yet soon after coming to look upon this lump of Blood again , I found it to have much degenerated from its former colour , to one less fair and more dark . We took also another Clot of Blood like the former , save that one part of it which had lain next the Air , was not black ; and having in a Vial like the former pour'd on it some Spirit of Blood , taken out of the same Vial whence I took the first parcel , the Reddish colour seem'd presently to be much improv'd , and made more fair , and like true Scarlet . But the black was not so alter'd , as to be depriv'd of its blackness , but retain'd a dark and dirty colour . So that this second Experiment requires a further Tryal , when there shall be conveniency to make it , and it will the rather deserve one , because what has been already recited of the Operation of the Spirit upon the two parcels of Blood , may suggest uncommon Reflections to Speculative Wits . And here on this occasion it will be proper to relate to you , that having a confus'd remembrance , that I had a great while before put up some Humane Blood , with a certain quantity of Volatile Spirit , to keep it fluid and preserve it , without distinctly remembring what Volatile Alcaly I had employ'd ; I found among other Glasses that had been laid aside , one Bolt-head with a long Neck , to which was ty'd a Label , importing that at such a time twelve Drams of Humane Blood , were put up with two Drams of Spirit of Humane Blood. By the date of this Paper it appear'd , that this Blood had been preserv'd much above a whole twelve Month ; and yet it appear'd through the Glass of a fine Florid Colour , and seem'd to be little less than totally Fluid . And indeed when we came to open the Vessel , which was carefully stopt with a good Cork , and hard Sealing Wax , we found no ill scent or other sign of Putrefaction in the Mixture , and but a very small Portion of Blood lightly clotted at the bottom ; the rest passing readily through a Rag. So that the Spirit of Humane Blood seems to have a great embalming Vertue ; since 't was able so long and well to preserve six times its weight , of a Body so apt to Concrete and Putrefie , as Humane Blood is known to be , and probably would have preserv'd it much longer , if we had thought fit to prosecute the Experiment . To this account of our Trial I know not whether it will be worth while to add , that having broken it off , that we might distill the above mentioned Mixture with a very gentle heat , the first Liquor that ascended was not a Spirit , but a kind of Phlegm , thô afterwards there came up , besides a Spirituous Liquor , a Volatile Salt in a dry form . On this occasion I shall subjoyn the following Tryal , long since made with a Spirit , that I supposed to have been weaker than that , with which the lately mentioned Experiments were made . In order to a design that need not here be mentioned , I caus'd some Filings of Mars to be purposely made , that being presently employ'd they might not contract any Rust , whereby the operation of our Liquor might be made doubtful . On these we poured some of our Spirit , and having kept them together a while in Digestion , we found as we expected , that the Liquor had wrought on the Metal , and produc'd a considerable quantity of a light substance , in colour almost like Crocus , but something paler . And we also found more than we expected ; for there appeared in the Liquor good store of thin Plates , like a kind of Terra Foliata , ( as the Chymists speak ) which after a very slight agitation , being held against the Sunbeams , exhibited the Colours of the Rain-bow in so vivid a manner , as did not a little delight , as well as surprize the Spectators , but I did not perceive that the tast of the Liquor was considerably Martial . The IX . ( Secondary ) Title . Of the Tinctures that may be drawn with Spirit of Humane Blood. MOst of those Extractions the Chymists call Tinctures , being , as I have elsewhere shewn , partial Solutions of the Bodies from which they are obtain'd , 't will I presume be easily granted , that since the Spirit of Blood is able ( as in the foregoing Title it has appear'd to be ) to dissolve Copper and Zink , that are Solid and Metalline Bodies , 't will be able to extract Tinctures out of divers others . But , that this power of our Menstruum may be rather prov'd than supposed , it will not be amiss to add a few Instances of it . Spirit of Blood being put upon English Saffron , did soon acquire upon it a fine Yellow Colour . Spirit of Blood being put upon Powder'd Curcuma , or , as Tradesmen are wont to call it , Turmerick , did in the cold Extract from it a lovely Tincture , like a rich solution of Gold ; which probably ( to intimate that upon the by ) may prove a good de-obstruent Medicine , particularly in the Jaundise ; in which disease Turmerick that is taken to be a kind of East Indian Saffron , is upon experience commended , and in this our Tincture is united with Spirit of Humane Blood , which is very near of kin to Spirit of Urine , and probably at least as efficacious ; with which Liquor , when well rectify'd , I have had more than ordinary success in the Jaundise . To make some Trial of the Extracting Power of the Spirit of Blood , upon substances that have belong'd to Animals , I thought it might particularly conduce to some Medical purposes , to try what it would do upon the solid part of Humane Blood it self slowly dry'd , so as not to be burn'd , but only to be reducible with some pains to fine Powder . Accordingly upon this well sifted Powder of Blood , we put some moderately strong Spirit of the same subject , on which the Liquor began very soon to colour it self , even in the cold ; and within no long time after , it appear'd as Red as ordinary French Claret Wine . This Extraction made me suspect , that the Phlegm that was not carefully separated from the Spirit I then employ'd , might hasten the coloration of the Menstruum . For which reason I put upon another Portion of the same Powder some rectify'd Spirit of Blood , so well deflegmed that it would not dissolve a grain of the Volatile Salt of Blood : And I found indeed , as I suspected , that this Menstruum did not any thing near so soon draw a Tincture , as the other had done ; for after divers hours the colour it had obtain'd was but brown , but after some hours longer the colour appear'd to be heightned into Redness , but yet manifestly inferiour to that of the somewhat Phlegmatick Spirit above mentioned , whereto it did yet in a longer time grow almost equal . By this means we may not only disguise the Spirit of Blood , but impregnate it with the finer parts of the unanalys'd solid Body , which may possibly make the Spirit a Remedy more proper for some Diseases or Constitutions : and this Medicine I sometimes call the entire Tincture of Humane Blood , because it consists of nothing else but such Blood. To shew at length that the Spirit of Humane Blood may extract Tinctures out of some of the hardest Bodies , I made the following Experiment . We took some choice Filings of Steel ( for such are those that are saved by the Needlemakers ) and having put them into a small Egg , we pour'd on them some highly rectify'd Spirit of Blood , and kept them all Night in digestion in a moderate heat . The next day ( but not early ) we found the Menstruum turn'd of a Brownish Red colour , that was deep enough . And some of the Filings that chanc'd to stick to the sides of the Glass , but were higher than the Liquor could reach in its gross body , seem'd to have been , either by Exhalations from the Menstruum , or perhaps by the Transient Contact of it , as it was pouring in , turn'd into a kind of Yellow Crocus Martis . I must not here forget , that having kept the Menstruum and the Filings together in the forementioned Egg for some days longer , the colour was grown opacous , and appear'd to be black , when it was look'd on in any considerable bulk , this last expression I employ , because it had another appearance , when it was somewhat thinly spread upon White Paper . Perhaps it may be a Remark not altogether useless to Physicians , among many of whom Chaly beate Remedies are in very great request , if I add , that for reasons not needful to be mentioned here , having a suspicion that our Spirit would work upon Steel , in another manner than the Acid Solvents wont to be used by Chymists and Physicians , we pour'd some of our Tincture drawn from Filings of Steel , upon a freshly drawn Tincture of Galls ( infus'd in Common Water , ) and did not find that this Liquor would with the Infusion make any Inky mixture , nor that the Precipitate that was quickly produc'd , was of a black , much less of a true Inky colour : Though I have found means to produce in a trice a black mixture , with other Martial Solutions and Tinctures , which for curiosities sake I sometimes made Green , sometimes Red , sometimes Yellow , and sometimes , if I mistake not , of neither of those colours . I have been the more express in setting down the Particulars above delivered , because I hope they may be somewhat helpful to Rectify the Judgment of divers very ingenious modern Physicians , especially among the Cultivaters of Chymistry , who build much upon a supposition , which though I deny not to be specious , I doubt is not solid , and I fear may be of ill consequence . For by the above recited Tryals it may appear , that 't is unsafe either to suppose , that if Chalybeates be dissolv'd in the body , it must be by some Acid Juice ; or to conclude , that if Steel be dissolv'd by the Liquors of the Body , it must be ex praedominio , ( as they speak ) Alcalisate ; since a Liquor that exercises a great Hostility against Acids , dissolves it ; and by parity of reason one may probably infer the quite contrary of what they suppose ; in regard that Steel in our Experiment was ( partially at least ) dissolv'd by what they call an Alcaly ; and consequently ought to be ex praedominio , of an Acid nature . But of this Hypothesis we elsewhere purposely discourse , and therefore shall here add nothing concerning it , but leave it to be consider'd , whether it would not be requisite to seek out some other way , than Physicians have hitherto pitch'd on , to explicate the manner of operation of Chalybeate Medicines in the Humane Body ; and whether some use may not be made in Medicine , of Martial Remedies prepar'd by Volatile Alcalies , instead of Acids . I put some Spirit of Humane Blood upon powder'd Amber , sifted through a fine Sieve , and kept it in Digestion for some days , giving it a pretty degree of heat ; but we obtain'd not hereby any Tincture at all considerable ; whether it was , that the Spirit was not yet highly enough rectify'd , or that the Amber ( which was of a finer sort of white Amber ) was not so proper to yield its Tincture , as I have several times found courser , but deeper colour'd Amber to be . To this ( IX . ) Title may be refer'd the event that followed , upon our having put some Spirit of Humane Blood upon that sort of Gum-Laccae , that comes out of the East Indies in Grains , and ( for that reason ) is commonly call'd Seed-Lac . For the Spirit we put upon this , tho this be a resinous Gum , and of no easy Solution , soon became tincted ; which I expected it should , because I conjectur'd that the Redness wont to appear in many of the Seed-like Grains , is but superficial , and proceeds from some adhering Blood of the little ( winged ) Insects , that by their bitings occasion the production of this Gum , upon the Twigs of the Tree where the Lac is found ; on which Twigs I have more than once seen store of these Gummous Grains . So that the Tincture seems not to be drawn from the Lac it self , but rather to be afforded by the Blood of these little Animals , which the Spirit of Humane Blood , that will draw Tinctures from dry'd Mans Blood , dissolves ; and this Tincture may probably be a good Medicine , since most of the Insects us'd in Physick , as Millepedes , Lice , Bees , Aunts , &c. Even in our colder Climates , afford Medicines of very subtle and pierceing parts , and of considerable efficacy . The X. ( Secondary ) Title . Of the coagulating Power of the Spirit of Humane Blood. THough the Spirit of Humane Blood , have such a dissolving power as we have mention'd , in reference to some Bodies , yet upon some others it seems to have a quite contrary Operation . I say seems , because it may be question'd , ( and I am not now minded to dispute it ) whether the effect I am going to speak of be a Coagulation , properly so call'd , that one Body makes of another or a Coalition of Particles fitted , when they chance to meet one another , ( in a convenient manner , ) to stick together . But whatever name ought to be properly given to the thing I am about to speak of , I have found by Tryal purposely made , that the highly rectifyed Spirit of Humane Blood , being well mingled by shaking with a convenient quantity , ( which should be at least equal ) of Vinous Spirits that will burn all away , ( for if either of the Liquors be Phlegmatick , the Experiment succeeds either not at all , or not so well ) there will presently ensue a Coagulation or concretion , either of the whole Mixture , or a great portion of it , into Corpuscles of a Saline form , that cohering loosly together , make up a Mass that has consistence enough not to be fluid , though it be very soft : and in this form it may remain as far as I have yet tryed , for a good while , perhaps several weeks , or months at least , if it be kept in a cool place . The XI . ( Secondary ) Title . Of the Precipitating Power of Spirit of Humane Blood. OF the Precipitating Power of Spirit of Humane Blood , I have yet observ'd nothing that is peculiar , and therefore it may suffice to say in general , that , as far as I have had occasion to try , it has in common with those other Volatile Spirits , which I elsewhere call Vrinous , a Power of Precipitating most Bodies that are dissolv'd in Acid Menstruums I say most , because ( as I have elsewhere more fully shewn ) it is an Error , though a vulgar one , to suppose ( as Chymists and Physicians are wont to do ) that whatever is dissolv'd by an Acid will be Precipitated by an Alcali as such , whether Fixt or Volatile , which latter sort they take the spirits of Urine , Blood , &c. to be of . For there is no Necessity this Rule should hold , when the Body is of such a nature , that it may be dissolv'd as well by an Alcaly as by an Acid. And though , the Hypothesis of Alcali and Acidum allowed them not to think there were any such Bodies , yet I have in another Paper Experimentally evinc'd , that there are so . And it may be prov'd without going very far , since we lately observ'd a that good Spirit of Humane Blood Would in the cold dissolve both Copper & Zink , which are Bodies that will each of them be readily dissolv'd by Aqua fortis , and some other Acid Menstruums . Bating such Bodies as those I have been speaking of , I have not found but that Spirit of Humane Blood Precipitates other Bodies dissolv'd in Acid Menstruums , much after the same manner that Spirit of Urine and other such Volatile Alcalies are wont to do . Of this , among other Instances , I remember that I made Tryal upon Red-lead or Minium dissolv'd in the Acid Salt of Vinegar , Silver in Aqua fortis , Gold in Aqua Regia , and Tin dissolv'd in an appropriated Menstruum . I also with our Spirit Precipitated the Solutions of divers other Bodies , which need not here be nam'd . But in regard of the great and frequent use that men make of Sea Salt , in preserving and seasoning what they eat , it may not be amiss particularly to mention that out of a solution of common Salt made in common Water , we could readily Precipitate with the Spirit of Blood , a substance that looked like a White Earth ; and such a substance I obtain'd in far greater quantity , from that which the Salt-makers call Bittern , which usually remains in their Salt pans after they have taken out as much , or near as much Salt , as would Coagulate in figured grains . The Spirit of Humane Blood does also make a Precipitation of Dantsick Vitriol dissolv'd in Water , but not , that I have observ'd , a total one , which you need not wonder at , because it will dissolve Copper , which is one of the Ingredients of Blew Vitriol . The XII . ( secondary ) Title . Of the Affinity between Spirit of Humane Blood and some Chymical Oyls and Vinous Spirits . THough in another Paper a I declare my self , for Reasons there express'd , dissatisfy'd with the Vulgar Notions of Sympathy , Antipathy , Friendship , Affinity , Hostility , &c. that are presum'd to be found among Inanimate Bodies , yet in this place nothing forbids to employ the Terms Affinity Cognation , and Hostility , in the laxe and popular sense , wherein they are us'd not only by the Vulgar , but by School Philosophers and Chymists . It seems then , according to this acception of the Word Affinity , that there is such a thing between Rectifyed Spirit of Humane Blood , and pure Spirit of Wine ; since we have formerly ( under the Tenth Title ) observ'd , that being put together they will readily Concoagulate , and continue united a long time . It is very probable , that the like Association may be also made with other Ardent Spirits prepar'd by Fermentation . We have likewise formerly noted , that our Spirit will make a Solution of the finer parts of Humane Blood well dry'd , which Instance I mention on this occasion , because it seems to be the Effect of some Affinity or Cognation ( as most men would call , what I would call Mechanical Congruity ) between the Spirit and the Body it works on , in regard I found , by more than one Tryal purposely made , that a highly Rectifyed Vinous Spirit ( for if it be Phlegmatick , the Water may dissolve some of the Blood ) would not ( at least in divers hours that my Tryals lasted ) draw any Tincture from it . With Lixiviate Liquors , such as are made of Salt of Tartar , fix'd Nitre , &c. resolv'd in the Air or otherwise , the Chymist will expect that the Spirit of Blood should have an Affinity , since they esteem all these Liquors Alcalies though this be Volatile and those be fix'd . But though these Liquors comport well with one another , yet we find not that they strictly Associate by Concoagulation , as we lately observ'd the Spirit of Blood to do with Spirit of Wine . The same Spirit of Blood mingles readily with that Spirit of Vegetables , that I have elsewhere given a large account of under the Title of Adiaphorous Spirit , which argues that there is some Affinity between them , or rather , that there is not any manifest Hostility or contrariety . The like Relation may be found between Spirit of Blood and many other Liquors , which it were needless and tedious to enumerate . It may better deserve the consideration of a Chymist , that though there is manifestly a near Cognation between the Spirit of Humane Blood and the Oyl , since they both proceed immediately from the same Body , yet even dephlegm'd Spirit of Blood being shaken , and thereby confounded with its Oyl , will quickly separate again from it , though with Spirit of Wine ( which is according to the Chymists a Liquid Sulphur as well as the Oyl ) it will permanently unite , notwithstanding that these two Liquors do ( to speak in their Language ) belong even to differing Kingdoms , the one to the Animal , and the other to the Vegetable . With the Essential Oyls ( as Chymists call them ) of Aromatick Vegetables , or at least with some of them the well Rectifyed Spirit of H. Blood seems to have a greater Affinity . For having taken a dram of this Liquor , and an equal weight of Oyl of Anise-seeds drawn in a Lembick [ per vesicam , ] and shaken them well together they made a soft or semifluid White Coagulum , that continu'd in that form for a day or two , and probably would have longer done so , if I had not had occasion to proceed further with it . It may not be impertinent on this occasion to take notice , that because I presum'd , that , though Spirit of Blood would not totally mix with Essential Oyls , ( as Chymists call them ) it might either communicate some Saline parts to them , or work a change in them ; I digested a while in a Glass with a long neck , some Rectifyed Spirit of Humane Blood , with a convenient quantity of Oyl of Anise-seeds drawn in a Lembick , and found , as I expected , that the Oyl grew colour'd of a high Yellow , and afterwards attain'd to a Redness ; which Experiment I the rather mention , because it may possibly afford you a hint about the Cause , of some Changes of Colour , that are produc'd in some of the Liquors of the Body . Upon the foremention'd Affinity or congruity of the Spirit of Blood with that of Wine , and with ( some ) Essential Oyls , I founded a way of taking off the offensive smell of Spirit of Humane Blood , which is the only thing that is likely to keep the more delicate sort of Patients from employing so useful a Medicine , as this will hereafter appear to be . But to deal with a Philosophical candor , I must not conceal from you , that , till Experience shall be duly consulted , I shall retain a Doubt , whether the way employ'd to deprive our Spirit of its stink , will not also deprive it of part of its Efficacy . But on the other side , I consider it as a thing probable enough , that these Aromatis'd Spirits may , by being impregnated with many of the finer parts of the Oyls employ'd to correct their Odour , be likewise endow'd with the vertues of those Oyls , which are Liquors that Chymists not improbably believe to consist of the noblest parts of the Vegetables that afford them . To Aromatise the Spirit of Humane Blood we employ'd two differing ways , the first whereof was this ; we took a convenient quantity of well Rectifyed Spirit of Blood and having put it into a Glass Egg , we added to it as much , or ( what may in many Cases more than suffice ) half as much , Essential Oyl of Anise-seeds for instance ; And having shaken these Liquors together to mingle them very well , we plac'd the Glass in a sit posture , in a Furnace where it should not have too great a heat , by which means the slight Texture of the Coagulum being dissolv'd , part of the Oyl ( sometimes a great portion of it ) appear'd by it self floating at the top of the Spirit . Whence being separated by a Tunnel or otherwise , the remaining Liquor was Whitish and without any stink , the smell predominant in it being that of the Anise-seeds , of which it tasted strongly , though the Saline Spirituous parts of the Blood did in this Liquor retain a not inconsiderable degree of their brisk and penetrant Tast . The other way I thought of to Aromatise our Spirit of Blood , was by employing a Medium to unite it with Essential Oyls . For which purpose in a Vinous Spirit , so Dephlegm'd that in a Silver spoon it would totally burn away , we dissolv'd by shaking a convenient proportion , as an eighth part or a far less ( according to the strength of the Oyl ) of an Essential Oyl ( of Anise-seeds for instance , ) and to this solution we added an equal quantity , or some other convenient one , of our Rectifyed Spirit of Blood , and having by shaking mix'd them as well as we could , we suffer'd the expected Coagulum ( which was soft and not uniform ) to rest for some time , after which it appear'd that some of the Oyl was reviv'd , and swam in drops distinct from the other Liquor , which consisted of a Mixture of the two Spirits , impregnated with the Particles of the Oyl they had intercepted and detain'd . This Liquor abounded with little concretions made by the concoagulation of the Sanguineous and Vinous Spirits . And these with a very gentle heat sublim'd in the form of a Volatile Salt , to the upper part of the Glass ; Which Salt seem'd to have a much less penetrating odour , then the meer Volatile Salt of Humane Blood , but had quite lost its stink , and yet retain'd a considerable Quickness , and somewhat of the scent of the Anise Seeds ; the remaining Liquor also was depriv'd of its ill smell , and moderately imbued with that of the Oyl . I thought it worth trying , whether there would be any Affinity between our Spirit ( which I perceiv'd contain'd in it many latent Particles of an Oleaginous nature ) and the highly rectifyed Oyl of Petroleum ; which is a Mineral Bitumen : and having shaken together a Convenient quantity of these two Liquors in a new Vial , they presently turn'd into a White Mixture . And tho after it had for many hours been left to settle , the greater part of the Oyl swam above the Spirit , yet there appear'd betwixt the two Liquors a good quantity of a whitish Matter , which seem'd to be something that had been produc'd by the Precipitation or Union of many Particles of the Spirit and Oyl , that were more dispos'd than the rest to combine with one another . The XIII . ( Secondary ) Title . Of the Relation between Spirit of Humane Blood and the Air. THat the Contact of the Air has a speedy and a manifest operation upon Humane Blood , is elsewhere shewn by some Experiments of an Italian Virtuoso , Signior — and some of mine . But whether , after Humane Blood has had its Texture so much alter'd , as it uses to be by Distillation , it will retain any peculiar Relation to the Air , I have not been able to make Tryals enough to determine ; but however it will not be amiss , to set down the chief Experiments I made on this occasion , because they may be considerable as parts of our History , tho they should not be so , as Arguments decisive of our controversy . The first Experiment was quickly made , by thinly spreading upon a piece of White Paper , ( which ought to be close , that it may not soak up the Liquor ) some small Filings of Copper , and wetting them well , without covering them quite over , with a few drops of good Spirit of Blood , for by this means being very much expos'd to the free Air , the Action of the Liquor was so much promoted , that within a Minute or two it did , even in the cold , begin to acquire a blewish colour , and in fewer Minutes than one would have expected , that colour was so heightened as to become Ceruleous . But when I put another parcel of the same Filings into a Vial , and cover'd them with Spirit of Blood , and then stopt the Vial , to keep it from intercourse with the external Air , the Liquor would not in some Hours acquire so deep a colour . The other Experiment we made , in order to the lately propos'd enquiry , was the same for substance , that I had formerly made , ( and have elsewhere at large deliver'd ) with the Spirit of Urine , and with that of Sal-Armoniac , save that , to spare our Spirit of Blood , we employ'd a far less quantity of it , then we did of either of the foremention'd Liquors . For having in a clear Cylindrical Vial of about an Inch Diameter , put more Filings of Copper than were requisite to cover the bottom , we pour'd upon it , but so much Spirit of Humane Blood , as serv'd to swim a Fingers breadth , or about an Inch above them . This Liquor , because of the quantity of Air , that was contain'd in the Vial , did within few Hours acquire a rich Blew colour , and this after a day or two began to grow more faint , and continued to do so more and more , till it came to be almost lost ; but yet the Liquor was not altogether Lympid , or colourless , as I have often had it with Spirit of Urine , or of Sal-Armoniac ; which remains of blewishness I was apt to attribute to the great quantity of Air , that was included in the Vial with so small a quantity of Liquor . And tho I thought it not impossible , but that length of time might destroy these Remains of blewishness also , yet not having leisure to wait so long , I unstopt the Vial , and perceiv'd , as I expected , that in a very short time , perhaps about two Minutes of an hour , the Surface of the Liquor , where it was touch'd by the newly enter'd Air , became Ceruleous , and in a short time after , perhaps less than a quarter of an hour , the whole Body of the Liquor had attain'd a deeper colour than that of the Sky , which colour , the Vial being seasonably and carefully stop't , began in two or three days to grow paler again . These Experiments would , I question not , to many seem manifestly to infer a great Cognation or Affinity ( for I know not well what name to give it ) between the Spirit of Humane Blood and the Air. But tho I shall not deny the Conclusion as 't is an Assertion , I dare not rely on the validity of the Inference ; because I have for curiosities sake made the like Experiments succeed , with other Spirits abounding with Volatile Salt. I foresee it may very speciously be pretended , that those Tryals succeeded upon the account of some Spirituous parts of the Blood , since Spirit of Urine is made of a Liquor separated from the Blood ; and that , tho the Sal-Armoniack that is made in the East , may consist in great part of Camels Urine , yet that which is made in Europe , ( where Camels are rarities ) and is commonly sold in our Shops , is made of Mans Urine , and consequently its Spirit may well be presum'd to be impregnated with Spirit of Humane Blood. And I confess , that when this consideration came first into my mind , it appear'd so probable , that I should perhaps have acquiesced in it , if it were not for what I am going to subjoyn ; namely , That I found by Tryal carefully made , that with another Volatile Spirit made without any substance that is afforded by the body of Man , I could with Filings of Copper make an Experiment , very analogous to that above related . But because in this Tryal , the reiterated contact of the Air produc'd in the Liquor not a Ceruleous , but a Green colour , I am willing to suspend my Judgment about the Problem lately propos'd , till experience shall have further inform'd me . I know not whether it will be worth while to relate , that having in an unstopt Glass , put some Spirit of Humane Blood into a Receiver , plac'd upon our Pneumatick Engine , and withdrawn the incumbent Air by pumping ; the Spirit of Blood seem'd to afford lesser and fewer Aereal Bubbles , than such a quantity of Common Water it self would probably have done . But , as I lately intimated , I know not whether this observation be considerable , because being not willing to weaken by exposing it , a fresh parcel of Spirit , I know not whether the paucity of Air observ'd in that lately mentioned , were accidental or not . The XIV . ( Secondary ) Title . Of the Hostility of the Spirit of Humane Blood to Acids , whether they be in the form of Liquors or Fumes . THat there is in the Spirit of Humane Blood , such a thing , as a Chymist or a vulgar Philosopher would call Hostility , or an Antipathy in reference to Acids , has been plainly enough , tho very briefly , intimated in a Passage belonging to the third of the precedent Titles . But yet it may not be impertinent to add in this place , that our Spirit of Humane Blood exercises this Hostility against more than one sort of Acid Spirits , tho perhaps they differ not a little from one another , as Spirit of Salt , Spirit of Nitre , Spirit and Oyl of Vitriol , Aqua Fortis , Aqua Regia , &c. and not only against Factitious Acids , but against Natural ones too , the Spirit of Humane Blood may discover a manifest Hostility , as I found by the conflict it would make with newly express'd Juice of Lemmons which it would put into a confus'd agitation accompany'd with bubbles . And this was yet the more evident , when I employ'd the Volatile Salt of Blood , that is , the Spirit in a dry form : for having squeez'd upon a parcel of this , some Juice of Lemmons , there was presently excited a great commotion , accompany'd not only with froth , but with noise . But ( to return to the strongly Acid Liquors made by Distillation ) whether the great commotion , and froth , and hissing noise , that usually follows upon the mixing of Spirit of Humane Blood with any of these Menstruums , do proceed from a true Hostility , or an Antipathy deservedly so call'd , or else be a motion to Coalescence or Union ; or an effect of the disturb'd motions proper to the differing , but now confounded , Liquors ; or lastly , a consequent of some Impediment , which the new Texture of the mingled Liquors gives to the free passage of some Aethereal or other suttle Permeating Matter or Fluid , I shall not take upon me to determine ; but rather to what I lately told you , of the at least seeming contrariety of the Spirit of Humane Blood to Acid Spirits , I shall add ( what perhaps you did not expect ) that this Hostility extends even to the invisible Effluvia or Emanations of these Liquors , as may be readily seen by the following way , that I long since pitch'd upon to make it not only visible but manifest . This is easily done by putting any strong Acid Spirit , as of Salt , or of Nitre , &c. into a Vial somewhat wide-mouth'd , and some well dephlegm'd Spirit of Blood into another , for when I purposely inclin'd these Glasses so towards one another , that their Lips did almost touch , and their respective Liquors were ready to run out , tho neither of the Liquors did at all visibly fume whilst they were kept asunder , tho the Glasses were unstopt , yet , as soon as the Liquors came to be approached in the way just now mention'd , the Fumes meeting each other in the Air would make little Coalitions , which would be manifestly visible in the form of ascending Smoke , which was wont at first to surprize the delighted Spectators ; and this production of Smoke would continue a good while , if the Vials were not sever'd to make it cease , which upon their remove it would presently do . I have divers times practis'd a more easy way of making these Fumes conspicuous ; but it belongs more to another Paper , and what has been now deliver'd may suffice for my present purpose . Yet it may not be improper to take this occasion , to acquaint you with an Experiment that I made , to observe what the contrary Salts , that abound in our Spirit of Blood and in some Acid Liquors , would produce , when they were combin'd and brought into a dry form . I shall therefore annex a Transcript of the Experiment I speak of , as I find it registred in one of my Note Books . [ We took some pure Volatile Salt of Humane Blood , and having just satiated it with Spirit of Nitre , we slowly evaporated away the superfluous moisture , that the Acid and Urinous Salts might be united into a dry Concretion , from which my design was to separate them again , the Salt of Blood in its Pristine form , and the Spirit of Nitre in the form of Salt-peter . To effect this , we put the compounded Salt into a small Bolt-head with a long and slender neck , and then added to it a convenient quantity of Salt of Tartar , and as much distill'd Water as would suffice to make the Mixture somewhat Liquid , to promote the Action of the contrary Salts upon one another . By which mutual Actions we suppos'd , that the Saline Spirits of Nitre , being more congruous to the fix'd Salt than to the Volatile , would forsake the Salt of Blood , ( which it detain'd before from flying away , ) and give it leave to sublime ; and accordingly having kept the Glass , wherein the mixture was made , for a competent time in a convenient heat , we obtain'd what we look'd for ; since a good proportion of fine Volatile Salt ascended in a dry form , into the Neck . ] Having put to some of the Spirit of Humane Blood , a small quantity of exceeding strong Spirit of Nitre , there was upon the conflict of the two Liquors excited so great a quantity of thick white Fumes , that I could not but wonder at it , having never seen any thing of that kind comparable to it . And these Fumes Circulating long in the Cavity of the Glass , whereof perhaps a tenth part was full of Liquor , did many of them , tho the Vessel were wide-mouth'd , fall back and run down the sides of the Glass into the stagnant mixture , as if they had compos'd streams of a Milky Liquor . And when at length , after these Fumes had disappear'd , we dropt in a little more of the same smoaking Spirit of Nitre , the like strange plenty of white Exhalations did presently ensue , and continue to Circulate a great while in the open Glass , the Mixture in the mean while appearing reddish . Being settled , and seeming to have been so discolour'd by a fattish substance , we put to it a little Rain or Distill'd Water , and having by Filtration separated it from the Faeces , and slowly evaporated the thus Clarified Liquor , the Saline parts shot into Crystals much of the shape , and crossing one another much after the manner , of Stiriae of Salt-peter ; but their colour after a while appear'd Yellow , as if some Oyly substance were yet mix'd with them . N. B. Tho on several occasions the Spirit of Blood appear'd thus . Oily , yet I remember I had not long since some Distill'd from another parcel of Blood , which after having been kept a year , was limpid and colourless like an ordinary Vegetable Spirit . Some of the forementioned Crystalls being put upon well kindled Charcoals , did presently melt and burn away with a noise not unlike Salt-peter ; but the flame seem'd not quite so halituous , and was more differing in colour , being not at all Blew but very Yellow . After the deflagration was quite past , I was curious to see if any fixt substance was left upon the Coals , and found it to be somewhat odd ; for it was not of a light colour , nor of an incoherent Body , like Ashes , but a little lump of a dirty colour'd matter , in which I could not perceive an Alcalisate tast , and indeed scarce any at all . And this brittle substance ( for such it was ) being held in the flame , became red hot , without appearing destroy'd by that Ignition , no more than afterwards it did by being a good while kept upon a glowing Coal . The XV. ( Secondary ) Title . Of the Medicinal Vertues of Spirit of Humane Blood outwardly apply'd . HAving resided for many years last past , in a place so well furnished with learned Physicians as London is , I was careful to decline the occasions of entrenching upon their profession . And tho that care did not always secure me quiet , yet it did it so far , as that you , to whom my circumstances are not unknown , will not I hope expect , that I should say much upon my own experience , of the Medicinal Vertues of Spirit of Humane Blood ; yet since I had some few opportunities to get Tryals made by practitioners in Physick , ( who were pleas'd very willingly to make them for me , ) that I may not leave this Subject wholly untouch'd , I will subjoyn what occurs , either to my Memory , or to my Thoughts , about it . When I consider , that , as far as I have observ'd , we do not meet regularly with any Acid Substance , ( except perhaps in the Succus Pancreaticus ) in a sound Humane Body : For the fixt Salt of Blood does it self much resemble Sea-salt , whether its Spirit be Acid or no ; whereas the several parts of it , whether Solid , as Bones , or Liquid , as Blood , afford in Distillation store of Liquor impregnated with Volatile Salt ; I am induc'd to think it probable , that the Spirit of Humane Blood , wherein such a Salt abounds , and whereof it is the main and predominant Ingredient , is like to have notable operations upon the Humane Body , and afford Medicines of great Efficacy in many of its Diseases . And , tho against most of these it is to be internally given , yet there are some against which it may be successful , when but Externally administred . For , as well rectified Spirit of Humane Blood abounds with very subtile Particles , which in point of Tast , Odour , Diffusiveness and Penetrancy , do much resemble those of strong Spirits of Urine , of Harts-horn , and of Sal-Armoniack ; so one may very probably expect to find the same vertues in the Spirit of Blood , that Experience has manifested to belong to those other Spirituous Liquors . I have seldom , if ever , seen any Medicine operate so nimbly in Fits of the Mother , as a well dephlegm'd Spirit of Sal-Armoniac ; which as I formerly noted is in effect mainly a Spirit of Urine ; which it self is granted to be , a Liquor separated from Blood : for this Spirit being held to the Noses of Hysterical Women , has often in a trice , to the wonder of the By-standers fetch'd them out of their Fits. Nor is this the considerablest effect that I have had of this Spirit , for sometimes it has with a strange quickness brought to themselves Patients that were fallen to the ground , and either really were , or were judg'd to be , Epileptical . And even in Agonizing Persons , where it could not recover them , it would frequently for the time , bring them out of their swoons , and make them know and understand the Assistants , and perhaps speak to them too : of which , if it were needful I could give more then one instance . But I shall rather add , that if nature be not quite spent , and the case wholly desperate , this may be of great advantage , because it allows the Physician some ( tho perhaps but little ) time , and a good opportunity to administer other Remedies which the Patient , unless excited and brought to himself , would not be made to take . Of which I shall give you a memorable instance in a Patient of the very learned Dr. Willis's , who being in the Fitt of an Apoplexy , when he was necessitated to go from her out of the Town , and leave her in that Condition , he Committed her to the care of a very Ingenious Physician , who ( whether by his direction or no , I remember not ) came to me to acquaint me with it , complaining that they could not hope for any success of their Remedies , in regard she was so stupid , and had shut her mouth so , that they could not get any down ; whereupon I gave him , and told him the use of , a very subtile Spirit that I had by me for such cases , tho I remember not , whether it were of Sal-armoniac , or some other Volatile and Liquid Alcaly ; by applying which to her Nose , the Physician found he could presently make her open her Eyes , and in part come to her self ; but then she would again , when the Glass was remov'd , soon relapse into her former Condition . Wherefore having by those frequent Vicissitudes gain'd some time , and got a Medicine for his purpose he then held the glass to her Nose for a good while together ; by which means she so recovered her senses , that she knew the By-standers , and being exhorted to take a Medicine that was offered her , which they told her would do her much good , she understood them , and swallowed it ; and tho afterwards , upon the removal of the Vial , she relaps'd into a senseless state , yet by the help of the Urinous Spirit they kept her alive , till the very brisk Medicine she had taken began to act its part , and make a Copious Evacuation , which did not only rouse her , but little by little relieve her ; So that in a short time she happily escap'd a danger , that was judg'd to be very hardly , if at all , superable by any Medicines . But here I must give you notice , that in such difficult and desperate Cases I am not content that a Vial with a somewhat long neck be held to the nose , but sometimes order that little Pellets of Lint or Cotton , or of thin rags , be dipt into the Spirit and thrust up into the Nostrils . And the same thing I would advise , if need should require it , in the administration of Spirit of Humane Blood. And as , for external uses , I make a particular Preparation of Spirit of Sal-Armoniac , or of Urine , that is more strong and penetrant , then that which is made the more ordinary way : So , if I had been furnish'd with store of Spirit of Blood , I would have handled it in a not very unlike manner . And however with the little I had , I made the following Experiment , for Tryals sake . We took some dry'd Volatile Salt of Humane Blood , ( being then better able to spare that than Spirit , ) and put to it as much Spirit of Nitre , as would just serve to satiate it ; and then by Evaporation we obtain'd thence an Anomalous kind of compounded Salt , which afterwards , because we desired a Medicine in a dry form , we sublim'd from a Convenient quantity of a well chosen fixed Alcaly , ( if I mistake not , we took an equall weight of Salt of Tartar ) fit to retain , not only the Phlegmatick parts , but the Oleaginous too , which oftentimes lye conceal'd in Volatile Salts and Liquors , wherein they do not at all at first appear , and unto which the greatest part of their foetid or offensive smell may probably be imputed . By this means we obtain'd a dry white Salt of a very piercing smell . But I had no opportunity to try this sublim'd Salt upon diseased Persons : for whose sake , I also made use of another way to bring over the Saline part of Blood in a Liquid form , ( which for the use of smelling I for the most part prefer to the dry ) for which purpose we mix'd two parts of dry'd Humane Blood , with three parts of Lime , and then distill'd them with a pretty strong Fire , by which means we obtain'd , as we expected , a pretty deal of Spirit unaccompanyed with any Volatile Salt in a dry form , which Spirit seem'd , even without Rectification , to have a stronger smell , and a more fiery tast then other Spirit of Blood , after a Rectification . And I guess'd that if we had taken more or stronger Lime , we should have had less Oyl , and a more piercing Spirit , since the Lime would probably have retain'd most of the Oyl , and perhaps all the Superfluous Moisture . I have likewise often found , that slighter Head-aches have been cured in less ( and perhaps much less ) time than a quarter of an hour , by the base smell of some of these well depurated Volatile Alcalies ; and if I misremember not , I have been relieved particularly by that of H. B. ) and I have very rarely for these many years us'd , or ( thanks be to God ) needed any other Medicine to free my self from pains of the Head. And even Violent and durable pains of that part have been , if not quite remov'd yet much lessen'd , by the same remedy often reiterated , which I have likewise observ'd to be usually enough very effectual in faintings , especially those of Hysterical and Hypochondriacal Women ; which makes it probable , that our Spirit of Humane Blood , which is a Liquor that in many Qualities manifestly resembles other Volatile Alcalies , ( and perhaps surpasses them , ) and which , when well freed from its Oyl , can by few , if by any , be distinguisht from other Urinous Spirits , may by its odour be available in the forementioned Maladies . I expect you should tell me , that the ill scent of Spirit of Blood will hinder that sex from useing it externally , to divers of whose Distempers it is the most proper . To this it may be answer'd , that most of those that find themselves in pain or danger , would be content to be eas'd or rescu'd by an unpleasant Medicine . For we may apply to health , what Vespasian said of the Tax that was paid him , upon the score of Urine , Lucri bonus odor ex re qualibet . And accordingly we see , that Ladies themselves ordinarily make use in such Cases of burnt Feathers , and in these and some others of Castoreum , Galbanum and Asafoetida , whose smells are offensive enough to men . But for the more delicate and Nauseous Patients , one may much lessen the offensive odour of our Spirit , by long Digestions , or by reiterated , or skilful Rectifications . And if even then they cannot be reconcil'd to the odour of so good a Remedy , that odour may ( as was formerly intimated on another occasion ) be corrected by uniting it with a Convenient quantity of highly rectified Spirit of Wine ; by which means it may perhaps ( for I am not sure on 't ) lose somewhat of its penetrancy , as well as of its Urinous odour , but yet may remain subtile and active enough for divers good purposes . And if you would not only correct the smell of the Spirit of Blood , but make it afford a fragrant one , you may do it by dissolving in the Spirit of Wine a convenient quantity of some Aromatick , or other well scented , Chymical Oyl , whose proportion may be found by letting it fall drop after drop into the Vial , and frequently shaking it to mingle the Liquors well , till you find by your smell , That the offensive odour of the Spirit of Blood is sufficiently obscured ; or ( if you will not only correct it , but perfume the Liquor ) that the mixture is sufficiently imbued with the grateful Odour of the Oyl , wherewith you compounded it . I shall add on this occasion , that , if we aim chiefly at correcting or changing the smell of Spirit of Blood , we may usefully employ a Chymical Oyl , more mild or temperate than the Aromatick ones of Cinnamon or Cloves . For Tryal purposely made has inform'd me , that , if the Oyl of Rhodium ( which is much esteem'd by perfumers ) be sincerely and skilfully made , ( which I fear it is not over frequently ) a very few drops of it will make an ounce of Alcohole of Wine so fragrant , that this Solution being shaken together with a convenient quantity ( perhaps much less than an equal one ) of well rectify'd Spirit of Humane Blood , there will emerge a mixture , that I found to have a scent brisk enough , and yet to be not only free from stink , but imbu'd , tho not strongly , with the Odoriferous Particles of the Rhodium . I must not here omit , that divers happy Practitioners , as well Physicians as profess'd Chymists , do highly extol the Oyl of Amber , against Convulsion fits and other Distempers of the Brain and Genus Nervosum : And indeed Experience has so recommended some Medicines of Amber to me , that in some cases there are few that I more willingly give or take . And besides the great Character that Helmont has left of Amber dissolv'd in Spirit of Wine , Experience has brought such Credit to it in divers cases , ( for there are some cases and constitutions wherein I suspect it of too much heat ) that many Patients , as well Women as Men , had much rather endure the smell , than deny themselves the benefit of the Tincture or the Oyl . And if you have any such Patients , perhaps you will not be ill pleas'd to be advertiz'd , that you may according to the formerly mentioned way , employ the high Tincture of Amber taken with Spirit of Wine ; to correct the Odour , and encrease ( at least in number ) the Vertues of Spirit of Humane Blood. And because it requires some skill , and not seldom a pretty deal of time , to draw this Tincture from Crude Amber , tho finely powder'd , I bethought my self of the following way , to draw speedily a strong Tincture from the Oyl it self ; for , tho this Oyl will not , even by long shaking , dissolve throughly in Spirit of Wine , as the Aromatick and other Oyls lately mentioned will do ; yet I found that by well shaking those two Liquors together , and leaving them to settle at leisure ; tho they would separate into distinct Masses , yet the Spirit of Wine would even in the cold extract from the Oyl a fine Tincture of a high Yellow colour , little , if at all , different from that of the Oyl it self . Of which Tincture I afterwards mix'd as much with Spirit of Blood , as suffic'd to obscure the Urinous smell , and make that of the Oyl of Amber somewhat predominant , and as we judg'd , more subtile and brisk than it was before . Three things more I have to intimate concerning the external use of our Spirit of Blood. The first is , that by what has been said of the good effects it may have , when ( after it has been , by the lately mentioned or other preparations , imbu'd with Chymical Oyls ) it is smelt to , I would by no means be thought to deny , that it is after these changes fit to be also inwardly employ'd , as I shall have ere long occasion more particularly to declare . My second Admonition shall be , that , whereas in some mixtures it will be hard to hit upon the proportion of the Chymicall Oyl , or other things employ'd to correct the smell of the Spirit of Blood , so exactly , but that after the mixture has had some time to settle , a separation of some oleaginous parts will be made : The bulk of the mixture may be freed from it , by pouring all into a Glass Tunnel somewhat sharp at the bottom , after the manner us'd among Chymists to separate Oyls from other Liquors , and then the mixture that will run through before the Oyl , may be kept close stopt in a Vial by it self , and the fragrant Oyl ( unless it be of Cinnamon or Cloves ) reserv'd for other uses . And whereas frequently , if not most commonly , if the Vinous Spirit were sufficiently Rectified , there will , by the Concoagulation of the Saline and Urinous Particles , be produc'd a kind of Salt ; you may either pour the Liquid part from it into another Vial , and use each of them separately without more ado , or else without thus separating them , you may sublime with a very gentle warmth , as much as will ascend from the rest of the Mixture in a dry form . And this Sal Volatile Oleosum of Spirit of Blood , when it was duly prepar'd , I found to be depriv'd of its former bad scent , and perhaps endow'd with a fragrant one , and yet to have an Odour more subtile , brisk , and piercing , than I had thought it reasonable to expect . The third and last thing I would advertise , is , that besides those Medicinal uses , that may be made of the Odours of Spirit of Blood Simple or Compounded , it may have considerable Vertues , apply'd in substance as a Liquor , by way of Fomentation or otherwise ; which I think the more likely , because the Spirit of Sal-Armoniac has been much commended , for mitigating the sharp pains of the Gout , and is said to have been successfully us'd in the Erysipelas . And when I consider , that our Liquor is very Spirituous and Penetrating , and so fit to strengthen and resolve , and also of an Alcalisate nature , which fits it to mortify Acidities , it seems very probable , that , by vertue of these and other friendly Qualities , it may , by being apply'd in its Liquid form , prove good in divers cases , where the Chyrurgions or the Physicians help is wont to be requir'd . But 't is high time for me to proceed , from the External to the Internal uses of the Spirit of Humane Blood , The XVI . ( Secondary ) Title . Of the Medicinal Vertues of Spirit of Humane Blood inwardly us'd . I Have long been prone to think , that 't is not necessary the number of specifically different Morbific Matters ( as Physicians call actually noxious Humours or other substances ) in the Humane Body , should be near so great as that of the Diseases 't is obnoxious to ; and consequently , that every Disease , that has a distinct Name assign'd to it , does not always require a distinct sort of Peccant Matter to produce it ; but that the same hurtful Humour , or other Agent , may produce sicknesses that pass for differing ones , ( and accordingly have distinct Denominations ) only as the same Morbific Agents bad effects are diversify'd , partly by its own greater or lesser quantity , and more or less active Qualities , and partly ( and indeed chiefly ) by the particular Natures , or Structures and Situations , of the parts that it invades . To this Opinion I have been led by divers Inducements , that I shall not now stay to set down ; especially , since the probability of it may be easily deduc'd , from what frequently enough occurs among sick persons , of the Metastases of Morbific Matters ; the same Acid or Sharp Humour , for instance , producing sometimes a Colic , sometimes after that a Palsey , sometimes a Cough , sometimes a Flux of the Belly , sometimes an Ophthalmi● , sometimes a violent Head-ach , sometimes Convulsions , and sometimes other Distempers ; as the Peccant Humour , or other Noxious Matter , happens primarily to invade , or afterwards to be translated to , this or that particular part of the Body . And to the hitherto propos'd Notion 't is very agreeable , that one Remedy , by being capable victoriously to oppugn one or two of the principal kinds of Morbific Matter , may be able to cure differing Diseases ; especially if it be endow'd with any variety of active Vertues . And upon this ground I am apt to think , that the Spirit of Humane Blood , skilfully Prepar'd and Administred , may be a good Remedy in no small number of Internal Affections of the Humane Body . And indeed Volatile Alcalies in general , have been in England so prosperously made use of in Physick , since the year 1656 , ( about which time I had the good fortune to contribute so to introduce them , as to bring them by degrees into request , by divulging easy ways of making them , as well as by declaring their Vertues ) that I see small cause to doubt , but that they will hereafter be more generally esteem'd and employ'd , than yet they are , and will little by little invite Physicians to prefer them to a great many vulgar Remedies , that for want of better are yet in common use , tho they clog or weaken the Patient , and want divers advantageous Qualities that may be found in Volatile Alcalies . For ( to apply what has been said to our present Subject , as an instance that may serve for other Urinous Spirits ) the Spirit of Humane Blood is endowed with divers Qualities , that are both Active and Medicinal . For it mortifies Acid Salts , which are the causes of several Diseases , and , if I mistake not , of some that are not wont to be imputed to them . It is a great Resolvent , and on that score fit to open Obstructions , that produce more than a few Diseases . It is both Diaphoretick and Diuretick , and on both these accounts fit to assist Nature , to discharge divers Noxious Salts , and expel divers Contagious or Malignant Corpuscles that offend her . It resists Putrefaction and Coagulation of the Blood , gives it a briskness and Spirituosity that promotes the free Circulation of the Blood , to which it is Congeneal ; by which means ( tho not perhaps by these only ) it becomes a good Cordial , and probably against some Poysons an Antidote . And , which is none of the least , nor least extensive , Vertues , it is very friendly to the Genus Nervosum , and upon that account is like to be very proper in Fits of the , Mother ( as they are call'd , ) Convulsions , some sorts of Head aches , Palseys , Incipient Apoplexies , some sort of Asthmas , &c. It is also Balsamical in some Circumstances , and may have divers other Vertues that have not yet been observ'd . For a Medicine that does not weaken , not cause great Evacuations , nor clog the Stomach , nor is blemish'd with the excess of any manifest Quality , but has in it self a Complex of so many useful Powers , may reasonably be suppos'd , likely to be available in more than a few Diseases ; since a good part of those that Humane Bodies are lyable to , may be powerfully oppugn'd by some of those excellent Qualities , one or more , whose Confluence may be found in the Spirit of Humane Blood. I presume therefore that one may rationally propose it , as likely to be a good Remedy in many Distempers , especially wherein either Spirit of Urine , or the Urinous Spirit of Sal-Armoniac , have been found successful Medicines ; such as Hysterical Fits , Pleurisies , Coughs , some Scorbutick Distempers , Convulsions , Apoplexies , some kinds of Feavers , Head-aches , the Jaundise , &c. But I formerly prepar'd you not to expect that I should say much of the Virtues of the Spirit of Humane Blood ( inwardly given , ) upon my own personal experience . And therefore I shall not scruple to tell you , that Helmont himself , as little as he is apt to praise other than his own or the Paracelsian Arcana , more than once commends the Spirit of Cruor , though that be in his sense of the Word , not yet fully elaborated Humane Blood ) against the Epilepsy , which he says it will cure even in adult persons , which is a Vertue he expresly denies to the Spirit of Urine . And a famous Writer about the Hermetick Physick ( but , if I mistake not , better vers'd in divers other parts of Learning , than in Chymical Arcana , ) tho he so far depretiates Spagyrical Preparations , as to commend the Utility but of a very few of them , is pleas'd to put the Distill'd Liquor of Blood into the number of those very few that he vouchsafes a good Character to . I am the more inclin'd to give Credit to these praises of Spirit of Blood , because , as I remember , this was the Medicine that I made use of in the following Case . A young Lady , in whose family the Consumption was an hereditary disease , was molested with a Violent and Stubborn Cough , that was judg'd consumptive , and look'd upon by those that gave her Physick , as not to be cured by any other way , then a seasonable remove from London into the French Air ; but she was already so far gone and weakened , and there remain'd so much of the Winter , that 't was judg'd she would die before the season would make it any way fit for her to undertake so long and troublesome a journey ; but if she could be kept alive till the end of the Spring , there would be some hopes she might in France recover . On this occasion being solicited by some friends of hers and mine , to try what I could do to preserve her , I sent her some Spirit of Humane Blood very carefully prepar'd and rectify'd , ( to which I gave some name that I do not well remember , ) upon the use of which she manifestly mended , notwithstanding the unfriendliness of the Season ; insomuch that about the end of February , she had gain'd relief and strength enough to venture to cross the Seas , and make a journey to Montpellier , whence in Autumn she brought home good looks and recovery . If I much misremember not , the same Spirit of Blood , made very pure and subtile by the help of a Lamp Furnace , was the Medicine that I put into the Hands of an Ingenious and Successful Physician , who complain'd to me that he had a Patient , that had quite puzzled him , as well as baffled the endeavours of other eminent Doctors , whom the difficulty of the case had invited at several times to try their skill upon him . This man was frequently Obnoxious to such violent and tormenting fits of the Head-ach , that he could not endure the light , and was offended with almost every noise or motion that reach'd his Ears ; insomuch that he was forc'd to give over his Profession , which was that of a Taylor : But upon the constant use of the before mentioned Spirit of Blood , ( for the other Medicines he took were much inferior to it , and had not before been available ) he received such relief , as made him with great joy and thankfulness return to the exercise of his Trade , and the Physician , to whom I gave the remedy for him , told me one circumstance , too considerable to be here omitted ▪ Namely , That the Patient having by our famous Harvey's advice , been us'd to bleed once in two or three Months , the Physician counsell'd him , notwithstanding his recovery , not abruptly to break off his ancient custom , and the Patient thereupon sent for the same Chyrurgeon that had been formerly wont to let him Blood , and to complain of the great badness of his Blood ; but when this Chyrurgeon who knew not what had been done to the Patient , came to open a Vein again , and perceived what kind of Blood it afforded , he was so surpriz'd , that he stop'd the operation , and asked the man with wonder , how he came by such Florid Blood , adding , that 't was pitty to deprive him of so well conditioned a Liquor . The Medicinal Vertues hitherto mentioned belong to the Spirit of Humane Blood , as 't is pure and simple : But 't is not improbable that it may acquire other , and perhaps nobler Faculties ; if it be dexterously corrected , diversified , or united with fit Ingredients , that is , in a word , skilfully altered or compounded . These things may be performed several ways . For they may be done either by uniting as well as one can , by long digestion , or frequent Cohobations , the Spirit of Humane Blood with the Oyls , Salt , and ( if need be ) Phlegm , of the same Concrete , into such a kind of Mixture as some Chymists call Clyssus . Or , 2. By uniting the Spirit of Blood with Acids , as with Spirit of Nitre , Spirit of Vinegar , Spirit of Verdegrease , Oyl of Vitriol , &c. and employing these mixtures , either in their Liquid form , or reduced by Evaporation into Chrystals or other Salts ; and making use of these either as they are , or after a kind of Analysis of them . Or , 3. By uniting our Spirit with Metalline Solutions , as of Gold , Silver , Mercury , and with solution of Minium made with Spirit of Vinegar , by mixture of which Liquor with Spirit of Blood , and a slow Evaporation of them , I remember I have had pretty store of finely figured Chrystals . Or , 4. By dissolving in Spirit of Blood carefully Dephlegm'd Sulphur opened with Salt of Tartar. Or else , By dissolving in it some Metalline Bodies , as Copper , Zink , and Iron , which last will afford a Martial Liquor , that differing much from other preparations of Steel , that are wont to be made with Acids , may probably have some Vertues , distinct from those of the known Remedies made of that Metal . But I cannot stay to enumerate the several ways whereby the Spirit of Humane Blood may be made serviceable to the Medicinal Art. Yet one Preparation there is , which tho I have already taken notice of in the foregoing Title , and therefore can scarce mention without some repetition , yet I think I ought not to pre●ermit it on this occasion ; partly because whereas it was formerly propos'd with respect only to the outward uses of it , I shall now consider it with reference to the inward ; and partly because by this way of proceeding we may at once correct , diversifie and compound our Spirit of Blood. This Operation may be perform'd two ways , whereof the former is more simple than the latter . The first is , to add to well Rectify'd Spirit of Blood , a double weight , or about an equal one , ( as the Liquors , especially the Volatile Alcaly , are more or less strong ) of Alcohole of Wine . For these Liquors being well shaken together , will in very great part coagulate into Salt , which with a very gentle heat will sublime in a dry form , + in which I found it to have lost almost all its offensive smell . And tho against this way of proceeding I know it may be objected , ( as was formerly intimated ) that the efficacy of the Medicine may , as well as the Urinous smell , be much weakned by this Preparation ; yet I found this Salt to retain a considerable degree of Quickness and Penetrancy , which its Volatility kept me from thinking strange . And experience has perswaded me , that divers of these compounded , or , if I may so stile them , Resulting Salts , ( which some Chymists call Salia Enixa , for all agree not in the Sense of that name ) tho they seem to have their Activity clog'd , may have considerable operations both in Chymistry and Physick . And why the Emergent Salt we speak of , may not be of that number , I see no sufficient cause ; ( N. B. ) especially since such a kind of Mixture , tho made with another Urinous Spirit , has had such effects in Feavers , as I thought extraordinary . Nor is the Liquor that our Compounded Salt leaves behind , to be thrown away : since if it be Dephlegmed , it may afford a not Despicable Liquor , both for Medical and Mechanical uses , of which it may here suffice to have given you in general this hint . And if the more simple way of altering the Spirit of Humane Blood , be carry'd on a little further , by dissolving in the Alcohole of Wine , before the conjunction of the two Spirits be made , a convenient proportion ( as perhaps a Twentyeth or Twenty-fourth part ) of an Essential Chymical Oyl , as of Cloves , Anise-seeds , Marjoram , &c. the Volatile Salt that will be sublim'd from this Mixture , will not only be depriv'd of its stink , but endow'd with the smell and the Relish of the Oyl ; which by being thus united with a Salt very subtile and friendly to nature , will less overpower and offend the Brain and Stomach , than meer Chymical Oyls are wont to do ; and being associated with such Agile and penetrating Corpuscles , will with them gain admission into the more inward Recesses of the Body , and there exercise the Vertues that belong to the Vegetables that afforded the Oyls , or at least to the Oyls themselves . In these odoriferous Aromatick Mixtures the Oleaginous Particles are , by the intervention of the Saline ones , brought to mix readily with other Liquors , and even with Aqueous Vehicles , and to continue long enough mix'd , for the Patient to take them commodiously . And thus by this one method there may be a multitude of Salia Volatilia Oleosa , that is , of pleasing , subtile and efficacious Remedies for inward uses , prepar'd , even as many as the Physician or Chymist shall please to make Essential Oyls , ( or others that will dissolve in Alcohole of Wine ; ) and if these be drawn from Cephalick Plants , as Marjoram , Rosemary , Lavender , &c. or from Cephalick Spices , as Nutmegs , Cinnamon , &c. they will probably afford very brisk and grateful Medicines to relieve and comfort the Brain and Spirits ; as they may the Heart , Liver , and other Viscera , if in the sublimation the Saline Particles of Blood be associated with those of Oyls , drawn from Vegetables whose Vertues do peculiarly respect those parts . Other ways might be here propos'd of making Remedies , whereof the Spirit of Blood should be the main ingredient . But I willingly leave that work to your self , and those of your profession , if you think fit to prosecute it ; since my present task does not require that I should write like what I am not , a profess'd Physician , but like what I endeavour to be , a Diligent Natural Historian . And for the same reason I purposely forbear , to insert here some Chymical processes that I have met with of Remedies that admit of Distill'd Blood , tho I have also declin'd the mention of them for two other Reasons , one , that the Authors do not recommend them upon their own Experience , and the other , that these Medicines being much , more compounded than those I lately propos'd , wherein our Spirit is mingled but with some one Chymical Oyl or other , diluted with Alcohole of Wine ; their preparations are less fit for my Design ; which leads me to consider the Effects of Humane Blood upon Patients , less as they are Sanative , than as they are Signs of Qualities , whose knowledge tends to the discovery of the Nature of Spirit of Humane Blood , and so of that of Blood it self . And this , Sir , it may suffice to have at present set down , touching the History of the Spirit of Humane Blood ; of which , and of the other parts constituting that Red Body , or obtainable from it , I might have given you a far less incomplete Account , if I had had more leisure ; and if , for want of Materials to make Experiments upon the entire Liquor , and the Concreted and Serous Parts of it distinctly , and especially to afford a sufficient quantity of the Spirit , I had not been so straitned that I was fain to leave many things untry'd , and to try some others in much less quantities , and much more unaccurately than otherwise should have been done by , Sir , your , &c. AN APPENDIX TO THE MEMOIRS FOR THE HISTORY OF Humane Blood. HAving elsewhere mentioned the Reasons that mov'd me to think it fit to subjoyn an Appendix to each of the Natural Histories , that I drew up , or design'd , of particular Subjects ; it would be needless to trouble you with them in this place , where it may therefore suffice to advertise you , that the following Particulars I have thrown together as they occur'd to me , to be annexed to the foregoing History of Humane Blood , are made up of two sorts : Some which through haste or otherwise were Praetermitted , when they should have been rang'd under one or other of the foregoing Titles , and so are answerable to those , that in the First Part of these Memoirs were call'd Paralipomena ; and others that are for the most part of kin to those , that are there stil'd Addenda ; tho some of them may be judg'd to deserve better the name of Supernumerary , which yet I thought fit to let pass among the rest , because , tho they do not directly belong to any of the distinct Titles of our History , yet they may obliquely be refer'd to one or other of them , or are at least capable of being made some way subservient to the general Design of the History it self . But the paucity of the particulars that I am at present furnished with , makes me fear it may favour of Ostentation , if in so much penury of matter I should curiously refer the Particulars that now occur to me to the differing Titles , Primary and Subordinate , that have been enumerated in the Schemes of our intended Histories . And therefore , till I be better stock'd with materials , I shall forbear to make Scrupulous References of them , or so much as constantly distinguish the Paralipomena , from the other Addenda ▪ contenting my self to refer some of them in a general way , and in the order they Chance to come to hand , to that part of the Memoirs , whether the Second , the Third , or the Fourth , to which they respectively seem most to belong . 'T is hop'd that neither Connection nor style will be expected , in loose Notes hastily set down at several times , to secure the Matters of fact , then fresh in Memory , from being , as to any necessary Circumstances , forgotten . Some Tryals may seem to have been made extravagantly and quite at random , which perhaps would be otherwise thought of , but that I judg'd it not worth while , especially writing in haste , to spend time in setting down the Inducements I had to make them , or the Aims I had in them . I am well aware , that some few of the following Tryals may seem but Repetitions of others , recited in the Body of the History . But these were added on purpose , that where the Event of both Tryals was the same , they might confirm one another , which , where the subject has lain uncultivated , is oftentimes a desireable thing ; and where they disagree in any considerable Circumstances , their Difference may occasion further Tryals , and in the mean time keep us from building Dogmatical Conclusions upon the Circumstances wherein they differ . Particulars referable to the Second Part of the History . Experiment . I. THe Proportion of the substances obtainable from dry'd Humane Blood , being as I formerly noted , very difficult , to be determin'd , because of that Difficulty , and the Importance of the Inquiry , I thought fit to employ some Blood , that I made a shift to collect since the writing of the Second Part of the foregoing History , in making another Experiment , that we may make the nearer and safer estimate , of the Quantities of the distinct substances sought after . For this end I caus'd Twelve Ounces of dry'd Blood to be carefully distill'd by an expert Laborant , well admonished of the Difficulty of his Task , and the exactness he was to aim at in performing it . The Distillation being ended , the substances obtain'd were brought me , with this note of their Quantities . Twelve Ounces of dry'd Humane Blood yielded , of Volatile Salt and Spirit together five Ounces , of which we pour'd off from the wet Salt ʒxiij+ . 54. gr . So that their remain'd ℥ xiij+ . ʒij+ . 6. gr . Of Volatile Salt ; of foetid Oyl there were two Ounces , of Caput Mortuum four Ounces , and two Drams . So that in spite of all his care there was lost , by sticking to the Retorts and other Glasses ( which I presum'd , retain'd little else than the more viscous Oyl and phlegm , ) and by avolation of some more subtil parts ( especially upon pouring the Liquors from Vessel to Vessel , ) about Six Drams . The four Ounces and two Drams of Caput Mortuum being diligently calcin'd , afforded but Six Drams and a half of Ashes : Of which very great Decrement , the Accension and Consumption of the more fixed Oleaginous Part seems to be the cause . And if it be so , we may suppose , that there is a far greater portion of Oyl , in Humane Blood , than has been hitherto taken notice of . These Ashes were not white or Gray , as those of other Bodies use to be , but of a Reddish Colour , much like that of Bricks ; and yet the watchful Laborant affirm'd , he could easily know them to be true Ashes , because that whilst there remain'd any thing Oily or Combustible in the Caput Mortuum , it would look like a throughly kindled Charcoal ( which it would continue to do far longer , than one would expect : ) But when that Combustible substance was quite wasted , the remaining Caput Mortuum would look in the fire like dead and ordinary Ashes , tho , when they were Cold , they appear'd and continued Red. These Ashes being carefully Elixiviated , afforded five Scruples of White-fixt Salt , besides a little , which being casually got into the Contiguous sand , and thence recover'd by water , and reduc'd to the like White Salt , amounted to about a Scruple more . So that their remained for the Terra damnata Fourteen Scruples & about a half , that is , a good deal above twice the weight of the Salt , whence it appears , that according to this Analysis , the pure fixt Salt of Humane Blood is but between the 57th and 58th part even of dry'd Blood , and therefore probably amounts but to the 150th or perhaps the 170th part ( in weight ) of Blood , as it flows from the Vein opened by a lancet : and the Fixt Earth or Terra damnata , is to the dry'd Blood that affords it , as 19. and about a half to 1. Experiment II. IN regard the foregoing Experiment , and another of the like nature formerly mentioned were made with dried and pulverable Blood of several Persons put together , though I knew it would be scarce possible , in so small a quantity of Blood , as I could obtain at once from one Person , to find out with any accurateness , the quantities of the several substances , it was capable of affording ; yet , to be able to make some tolerable estimate grounded upon experience , I was invited to make a tryal , whose success , though in one part of it unlucky , was registred as follows . An entire parcel of Humane Blood weighing ten ounces and 73 gr . being slowly distilled to dryness in a Head and Body on a digestive Furnace , afforded of phlegmatick Liquor ℥ vij+ . ʒij+ . 47. gr . and of Caput Mortuum , or rather of dry substance ℥ ij+ . ʒij . This pulverable matter being beaten and put into a Retort , and distill'd in sand by degrees of Fire afforded ʒij+ . 48. gr . of Oyl . But there happen'd an unlucky mistake about the Salt and Spirit : for after the latter was poured off , which weighed but 48. gr . the wet Salt which stuck in good quantity to the lateral and upper parts of the Receiver , instead of haveing been wash'd out , as it should have been , with the phlegm of the same Blood , was wash'd out with distill'd water , whence we obtained by sublimation into the neck of a glass Egg , ʒj+ . 5. gr . of dry Salt. But by the tast of the distill'd Water whence it was sublim'd , it appear'd that all the Salt had not been raised : which invited me to put to it as much good Spirit of Salt as I supposed to be at least sufficient to satiate it , with design to try , whether by evaporating this Mixture to dryness , and subliming Salt by the help of an Alcaly , we might not recover all , or almost all , the Volatile Salt , that had been somewhat fix'd by the Acid Spirit . The Retort being cut , that the Caput Mortuum might be taken out , it was found to weigh ʒvj+ . 12. gr . which being carefully calcined yielded but two Scruples and four grains of Ashes , which the Laborant said were Red. These being Elixiviated , afforded eighteen grains of Salt , besides the remaining Earth or Terrestrial substance , which , I keep by me , because , notwithstanding all the violence of fire it has undergone , 't is of a Red Colour , which seems to some to have an Eye of Purple in it . Experiments belonging to the Primary Title of the Natural , History of Humane Blood. Experiment III. SPirit of Vinegar being put upon the florid Superficies of a parcel of Humane Blood , did very quickly deprive it of its fresh Scarlet Colour , and make it of a dark or dirty Colour . Experiment IV. THe Juice of a Lemmon squeez'd upon the Florid Surface of Blood , did presently somewhat impair the colour , but did not appear to alter it any thing near so much , as the Spirit of Vinegar had done . Experiment V. JUice of Orange chang'd the Colour of the Florid Surface of Blood , less than Juice of Lemmons had done . Experiment VI. THe Black or lower part of a Portion of Humane Blood being turn'd uppermost , and thereby expos'd to the Air , within half or three quarters of an hour , ( somewhat more or less ) acquired by the Contact of it , a pleasant and florid colour . Experiment VII . BUt if upon the Black Surface of the Blood some good Urinous Spirit ( as that of Sal-Armoniack ) were dropt , there would be an alteration produced in a trice , and a pleasant Red colour , tho perhaps somewhat inferiour to that produc'd by the contact of the Air , would presently appear on the Surface of the Blood. Experiment VIII . FIxt Alcalies , or Lixiviate Salts resolv'd Per deliquium , did likewise alter the Black Superficies of the Blood to a Red colour , but not so Florid or Pleasant , as that produced by the Urinous Spirit above mentioned . Experiment IX . THe freshly drawn Juice of the Leaves of Scurvygrass , being dropt upon the Black Superficies of a lump of Humane Blood , seemed presently to make some change in the colour of it , making us judge it somewhat Reddish and inclinable to Floridness . The seven foregoing Notes suppose it to be already known , that when healthy Blood is suffered to settle in a Porringer , that Surface of the Concreted Part , which is expos'd to the Air , will be adorned with a fine Red colour , and if the same Mass be turned upside down , that which before was the lower Surface of it , will appear of a very dark and blackish colour . Experiment X. HAving for tryals sake almost filled a Vial capable of containing by guess near a pound of Humane Blood , with a mixture of that Liquor , and some rectify'd Spirit of Wine , whose proportion I cannot remember , but guess it was a fourth , or eighth part : At the end of above three years , looking upon the same Glass , stop'd with nothing but a Cork , we found it coagulated , or , to speak more warily in a consistent form . And the Vessel being unstop'd , there appeared no sign of Putrefaction in the Blood ; and having smelt to it , we could not perceive that it did at all stink : So Balsamick a Vertue has Dephlegmed Spirit of Wine , to preserve Humane Blood. Experiment XI . WE took a piece of Fibrous or Concreted Blood , of the bigness of a large Bean ( or thereabouts ) and having put it into a small Glass Vessel with a flattish bottom , we poured on it as much highly rectify'd ▪ Vinous Spirit , as might serve to cover it , tho it had been twice thicker than it was ; then we lightly cover'd this Open-mouth'd glass with another , and set the Vessel in a quiet place , that the Vinous Spirit might have leisure to imbibe the serous or aqueous parts of the Blood , and thereby harden that yet soft substance ; and in effect it quickly seemed to have gain'd a superficial Crust , but the internal parts continuing yet soft , we left the Liquor upon the Blood for a day or two longer , and then we found , that the action of the Liquor had quite penetrated the lump of Blood , and made it moderately hard and friable . This Experiment , having been made in the cold , may much confirm a Tryal elsewhere mentioned , to have been made to the same purpose ; and both of them together induc'd me to fear that two or three ingenious Writers , that in their Chymical Receipts prescribe Solutions and Tinctures of Concreted Blood in Spirit of Wine , have set down the Pompous Processes wherein these Operations are prescrib'd , rather according to Conjectures than Experience . Experiment XII . IT may be of some use to the Speculative , to know how much Volatile Salt of Blood is dissoluble in Water or Phlegm ; and therefore having caused an ounce of Distilled Water ( for common Water , because of some Saltishness that usually accompanies it , would not have been so proper on this occasion ) to be carefully weigh'd out , we put into it , little by little , some dry and white Volatile Salt of Blood , and shook it well into the Liquor , to make it disperse the better ; we allow'd it also a competent time for solution , and by this means we found , that ℥ i. of Water would dissolve at least ʒij . that is , a fourth part of its weight of dry Salt , and that in the cold . For afterwards by the help of heat , we made the same Liquor dissolve near five and twenty Grains more . In which last part of the Experiment I had a further aim , which was to try , whether upon the Refrigeration of the Liquor , the dissolv'd Salt would not shoot into Crystals of observable Figures . But the event answered not at that time my desire ; yet left me not without some intention to reiterate the Experiment , if I shall get another opportunity . POST-SCRIPT . Experiment XIII . WE put the above mentioned Solution into a Retort , to be drawn off with a pretty quick heat , ( which on this occasion we prefer'd to a much slower one ) and thereby obtain'd a Distill'd Liquor , that contain'd all the Volatile Salt , save a little that escaped in a dry form ; which Liquor tasted strong enough to pass for quite , or at least almost , as brisk a Liquor , as moderate Spirit of Blood drawn the common way , and consequently discover'd near enough , what proportion should be taken , of the Aqueous Ingredient to the Saline when one would make such a Spirit . The knowledge of which Proportion may probably ease us of some Tryals , that would otherwise be necessary to find it out , when we are ( as we may often be ) less stored with Spirit than with Volatile Salt , and desire to employ this in a Liquid form ; in which we are wont to call it , for distinctions sake , the Aqueous ( not the Phlegmatick ) Spirit of Blood. If opportunity had not been wanting , we would have try'd , whether by repeating the Distillation twice or thrice , a better or stricter union of the Salt and Liquor would not have been effected : and this the rather , because having ordered the Vial that contain'd this Aqueous Spirit , in which the Water had been , if I may so speak , Superonerated to be kept stopt during a Frosty Night , we perceived at the bottom of the Glass ( what we had miss'd of before ) a pretty deal of Volatile Salt , coagulated or shot into Crystals , tho the Crystals that were this way obtain'd , were fine and clear , and some of them larger than Spangles , yet being much more numerous than we desired , by adhering closely and confusedly enough to one another , they kept us from being able to discover the Figure of particular Grains , and made me somewhat doubt , whether the single Crystals were all of them of the same shape ; all that I could clearly discern , being , that divers of those Concretions were flat , thin Plates with fine Rectilinear Angles that inclin'd us to think , that if the whole Plains could have been perfectly discovered their broadest Surface would have been found Hexagonal , or of some Polygone Figures very near of kin to that . Experiment XIV . WE put an ounce of Distilled Water , wherein we dissolv'd as much Volatile Salt of Humane Blood , as it would well take up , into a Glass Egg , and exposed it during a Frosty Night to congeal : which we did with design to discover , whether , as the Saltness that is in Sea Water keeps it here in England from freezing , ( at least in ordinary Winters , ) so the Volatile Salt of Humane Blood , which much resembles the other in Tast , would have the like effect upon Water , especially if it were fully impregnated therewith . To this Conjecture the event was answerable , the Frost having produced no Ice in our solution , nor having so much as made any of the Salt manifestly shoot , ( as I wish'd it had done , hoping thereby to discover somewhat about the Figuration of the Salt of Humane Blood. ) And , tho afterwards we removed it into a Frigorifick Mixture , that would probably have frozen Beer and Ale , and perhaps the weaker sort of French Wine ; yet we did not perceive it to glaciate any part of our solution , but only made it let fall a pretty deal of Matter , that seemed to be Feculent , ( for what it was , I had not opportunity to examine . ) Experiment XV. SEa-salt dissolv'd in Water renders that Liquor much more difficult to be frozen , than it was before ; and yet being joyn'd with Ice or Snow , the other Ingredient of our Frigorifick Mixture , it does , when outwardly apply'd , very much conduce to the Artificial Congelation of it , which usually would not succeed without it . Wherefore to try whether , as Volatile Salt of Humane Blood , being dissolved in Water , did , as was formerly noted , hinder it from freezing , so it would outwardly apply'd highly promote its Glaciation ; we mixed by guess about a Scruple of this Salt with a convenient quantity of beaten Ice , and having put into this Mixture a somewhat slender Pipe of Glass with Common Water in it , we found , after a while , the Water that lay in the lower part of the Glass Vessel , and was surrounded by the Mixture , was turned into Ice . Experiment XVI . TO try some suspicions I had about the Saline and Aqueous Parts , that I thought might he concealed in the Fibrous or Consistent part of Humane Blood , I caused some of it to be in an open and shallow Glass exposed to the Air in a Frosty Night , and the next morning found it to be lightly frozen , and the Surface of the Ice prettily figur'd with resemblances of Combs , with Teeth on both sides or edges ; on which account these Figures did not ill resemble those , that I have oftentimes obtained , by slowly coagulating into Salt , a solution of Sal-Armoniack made in Common Water . In the Second Part of the foregoing Memoirs , I have not said any thing of the Medicinal Vertues of Humane Blood it self , ( for those of the Spirit belong to the Fourth Part ) and , tho I might now , if I thought fit , say something not impertinent to that Subject , in this Appendix , both out of some Printed Books and my own observations , yet I now forbear to do it , not only for a reason that 't is not necessary I should here declare , but because four or five Processes that I have met with about Humane Blood in Paracelsus , Burgravius , ( famous for his Biolychnium made of that Subject ) and one or two more , about the Transplantation of Diseases by means of the Patients Blood , are such , as either I do not well understand , because of their being ( probably on purpose ) obscurely pen'd , or seem in themselves unlikely , of which sort is the Biolychnium , or Lamp of Life , in which 't is pretended that the Blood is so prepar'd , that the state of Health of the Person whose it is , may be discover'd by the manner of the burning of the Flame it affords , ( tho he be perhaps at a great distance from it , ) and his Death by its Extinction . Besides that , as I have elsewhere noted , some Circumstances relating to the Ashes of Humane Blood , make me doubt , whether some of these Processes were not rather the Products of Fancy than Experience . And , tho I think those Medicines less improbable , that without much destroying the Texture of the Blood by Fire , aim at transplanting Diseases by its intervention , yet I thought fit to decline transcribing the forementioned Medicines , till Experience shall warrant me to do it . And I shall also at present forbear to set down my own Tryals , because I have not yet seen the Events of them . But yet I shall invite you to endeavour with me to prepare two , that , if they succeed , may afford , especially the last of them , considerable Medicines . The first Medicine that I attempted , was , by putting to Salt of Tartar Oyl of Humane Blood instead of Oyl of Turpentine : and by keeping them long , and stirring them frequently , in the open Air , to make such a Saponary Concretion , as is not unknown to many in London , by the name of Matthews's Corrector , which as he made it with Common Oyl of Turpentine , tho it seem but a slight Composition , is yet esteemed and imploy'd with good success , by some Doctors of Physick and other Practitioners in London . To make the other Medicine , we endeavoured to unite by long Digestion , the Salt , Spirit , and Oyl of Humane Blood , into a Mixture , which some Chymists ( for their Terms are not by all of them used in the same sense ) call a Clyssus . But having begun this , without having had time to finish it , we shall say no more of it , but that divers Chymists may not improbably look upon this sort of Compositions , as one of the noblest sort of Preparations that many a Drug is capable of . Particulars referable to the Third Part of the History . Experiment . I. A Young Man having bled into a Porringer , and the Blood having been kept several hours , that a sufficient separation might be made of the Coagulated or consistent part and the fluid , the fibrous portion and the Serum were separately weighed : and the difference of the two masses in point of weight was not so great as one would have expected , the curdled part of the Blood weighing about six Ounces , and the Serous part not many drams from that weight . This Tryal is here set down by comparing it with some others , what difference there is between the Bloods of sound Persons , as to the proportion of the Serum , and the concreted part . Experiment . II. HUmane Urine , having first ( that I know of ) by the very ingenious Mr. Hook , and oftentimes by me , been observ'd , when frozen , to have on the surface of the Ice , figures not ill resembling Combs or Feathers ; the great affinity generally supposed to be betwixt Vrine and the Serum of Blood , made me think fit to try at once whether this last nam'd Liquor would freeze with such a degree of Cold , as would easily , and yet not very easily glaciate water , and whether , in case it should freeze , the Ice would have a surface figur'd like that of frozen Urine . But , having for this purpose exposed some Serum of Humane Blood to the Cold Air , in two freezing nights consecutively , the Serum was not found to congeal , tho some Grumous parts of the same Blood did , as has formerly been noted , yet I scarce doubted , but an exceeding hard frost would have produc'd , at least a thin Plate of Ice upon the surface of our Liquor . And to confirm this Conjecture , we took the same Serum , and having strained it through a Linnen cloath , to separate the Liquor as much as by that way we could , from any clotted or Fibrous Parts , that might have lain conceal'd in it , we put it into a shallow , concave glass , and laid that upon some of our Frigorifick mixture , made of Ice and Salt , which we have described , and often made use of , in the History of Cold. By this means the exposed Serum , being frozen from the bottom upwards , there appeared here and there upon the Ice contiguous to the Air , certain Figures , that did not ill resemble those of Conglaciated Urine . Experiment . III. HAving formerly had occasion to observe that Mans Urine would tolerably well serve for what they call an invisible Ink : and haveing consider'd ( when I remembred this ) the great Affinity that is suppos'd to be between Urine and the Serum of Blood , I thought fit to try , whether the latter might not be employ'd like the former to make a kind of invisible Ink , To this effect we took some Serum of Humane Blood , and having dipt a new Pen in it , we trac'd some Characters upon a piece of white Paper , and having suffer'd them to dry on , we held the unwritten side of the Paper over the Flame of a Candle , keeping it always stirring , that it might not take fire . By which means the Letters that had been written , appeared on the upper surface of the Paper , being tho , not of an Inky Blackness , yet of a Colour dark enough to be easily legible and very like to some others that having been purposely written with fresh Urine , and made visible , by heat , were compar'd with them . Particulars referable to the Fourth Part of the History . I confess , the Defectiveness of our Historical knowledge of Humane Blood extravasated , has been such , that among the Authors I have had occasion to peruse , I have met with so few matters of fact delivered upon their own knowledge , that the things I have thought fit to transcribe out of their Books into this little tract , do scarce all of them together amount to half a sheet of Paper , But yet I would not impute this Penury , either to the Laziness or the Ignorance of Writers , but rather to this that they wanted some Person , exercised in designing Natural Histories to excite their Curiosity , and direct their Attention ; there being many that would enquire , if they knew what Questions were fit to be ask'd , about a propos'd subject , as for instance Humane Blood , and what Researches ought to be made , to discover its nature . Upon this account , I hope that after some time the foregoing Scheme of Titles , and the Papers that refer to it , will give occasion to a great many more Experiments and Observations about the Blood , ( and perhaps other Liquors of the Humane Body ) than hitherto have been published by others , or are now imparted by me . Which last words I set down , because I would not be thought guilty of the vanity of pretending to have near exhausted the subject I have treated of ; since besides other deficiencies , I now perceive that I wholly omitted a considerable Title which might either have been refer'd to the Primary ones of the first order , or employ'd as a kind of Preliminary to the Secondary Titles of the History of the Spirit of Blood. This pretermitted Title should have been of the several ways of Distilling Humane Blood ; since according to these , the produc'd Spirit , Salt , &c. may be considerably diversify'd . Upon this account I thought fit , to distil three Portions of dry'd Blood , each with a differing Additament . The first with a Mineral Alcaly , Quicklime : the next with a Vegetable Alcaly , Calcin'd Tartar : and the third with a Sulphureous Acid , Oyl of Vitriol . And , tho some Accidents kept me from prosecuting the Tryals as I desir'd , yet the first having succeeded indifferent well , and the two others not having wholly miscarried , I shall subjoyn the Accounts of all three as they were set down in my Notes . Having observed that divers Bodies , when they were Distill'd with Quick lime , afforded Liquors differing from those they would have yielded , if they had been distilled , either per se , or with some Vulgar Additaments ; we took ℥ v. of concreted , but not dry'd Humane Blood , and having mixed it with an equal weight of Quick-lime , ( such as I could procure , but not so strong as I have often seen , ) we distilled it by degrees of Fire in a Retort placed in Sand , by which means we obtain'd a large Proportion of Reddish Spirituous Liquor , which did not seem considerably Phlegmatick ; together with some Oyl , which was but in very small quantity , the rest being probably kept back , ( and perhaps some of it destroy'd ) by the Lime : and of this little Oyl that did come over , there was a small portion that sunk in the Spirit , the rest swimming upon it . The above mentioned Spirit being put into a small Head and Body , was set into a Digestive Furnace , to Rectify at leisure with a very gentle heat , and the Receiver was three or four times shifted , that we might observe what difference , if any , there would be betwixt the successively ascending Portions of Liquor . The first Spirit that came over did not smell near so rank as that is wont to do that is distill'd per se . This Observation belongs also to the three or four succeeding Portions of Liquor : probably , because the Lime had better freed the Spirit of the first Distillation from the Faetid Oyl , many of whose Particles are wont , tho unperceivedly , to mingle with it when it is drawn over without Additament . The Rectify'd Spirit , which was clear and colourless , had a tast much stronger than its smell ; for a small drop of it upon the Tongue , had something of Fieryness that was surprizing , and lasted longer than one would wish ; which made me doubt , whether the Spirituous part of the Blood had not carry'd up with it , some of the Fiery parts of the Quick-lime ; which doubt , if future Tryals resolve in the Affirmative , one may expect some uncommon effects from such a Spirit , which in this case would be enriched with a kind of Volatilis'd Alcaly , a thing much desir'd by many Chymists and Physicians . Upon occasion of this suspition , we dropt a little of it into a strong solution of Sublimate in fair Water , and it seemed at the first contact to make a Precipitate a little enclining to Yellow , ( as I have observed the Saline parts of Quicklime to do in a greater measure , ) tho afterwards the Precipitate appeared white , like that made with ordinary Volatile Liquors of an Urinous Nature . But because I expected that our Alcalisate Spirit of Blood , if I may so call it , would have some peculiar Qualities , discriminating it from the Spirit drawn without addition ; I thought fit to make a few Tryals with it , whose event justify'd my conjectures . For having put into a Glass Egg with a slender neck , some of our well rectify'd Spirit , it did not then afford any Volatile Salt in a dry form : ( tho afterwards , if I mistook not , by another Tryal , we at length obtain'd a little ) and having continued the Tryal somewhat obstinately , we found the Spirit to have by the action of the Fire , lost its Limpidness , and to have been made muddy or troubled . Having mingled another portion of it with a highly rectify'd , ardent Spirit , and kept them all night in the cold , no coagulation ensued , nor could we perceive any , after it had been kept divers hours in a moderate heat . But the Mixture acquired a Yellow colour , and let fall , somewhat to our surprize , a pretty deal of darkish Powder , tho not enough to invite us to make any Tryals upon it . We put to another parcel of our Spirit some good Spirit of Salt , but , tho they smok'd much at their meeting , yet we observ'd no noise nor bubbles upon their commixture . And having mingled another Portion with Oyl of Vitriol , tho there was produc'd a very great smoke , and besides that an intense degree of Heat , ( the quantity of the matter considered , ) yet there was no visible Ebullition , nor any noise or bubbles produc'd , but the colour of the Oyl of Vitriol was very much heightned , the mixture growing almost red . From these , and the like Phaenomena one may gather , that our Alcalisate Spirit of Blood is in several things differing from the simple . Whether this disparity will make it a more potent Medicine , or make it , by too much participation of the fiery parts of the Lime ; a less safe Remedy , future Experience must discover . But it seems not improbable , that either as a Medicine , or as a Menstruum , if not in both capacities , it may be a not Inconsiderable Liquor . For which reason I have made my account of it the more Circumstantial . Experiment II. WE tooke ℥ ij of Tartar Calcined to whiteness by equal weight of ( kindled ) Nitre , and mingled this Alcaly with ℥ ij of dry'd and powder'd Humane Blood. This mixture being distill'd in a Retort in a Sand Furnace , made it appear by its Productions , that Quicklime on these occasions acts otherwise upon the Blood than other Alcalies do . For , whereas the Distillation wherein Lime was employ'd , afforded us , as has been noted , a Spirit that before Rectification was very strong , and unaccompanied with dry Salt ; the Calcinatum of Nitre and Tartar afforded us at the very first Distillation , a Spirit less strong ; but withal , so much Volatile Salt as cover'd almost all the inside of the Receiver , not now to mention the difference of their respective Caput Mortuums . ) And tho the strong Saline Spirit of Blood made with Quicklime , did not , as we lately noted , make an Effervescence with Acid Spirits , yet this Volatile Salt readily did it upon the affusion of Spirit of Salt. Experiment III. BEsides the fixt Alcalisate Additaments , with which I distill'd the dry'd Blood of Men , I thought fit to add to it a very Acid Additament , viz. Oyl of Vitriol ; and this the rather , because I had long since found by Tryal , ( and , if I misremember not , have elsewhere related ) that this Liquor being mix'd with some other Bodies , particularly with some belonging to the Animal Kingdom , did in an odd manner mingle its own substances ( for I take it not to be a simple body ) with them , and notably diversify the Products of the Distillation . We put therefore upon ℥ iij. of powder'd Humane Blood , an equal weight of Oyl of Vitriol , and left them for some time together , to try if by the action of this Corrosive Menstruum , tho upon a Body not of a Mineral Nature , some heat would not be excited , and accordingly we found , that after a while , tho not at the very first , the mixture grew sensibly warm . Then we removed the Retort into a Sand Furnace , and distilling it by degrees of Fire , we had a Spirit which was preceded by a pretty deal of Phlegmatick Liquor , of an odd sulphureous smell , but so strong and lasting , that I could not but wonder at it . The Caput Mortuum I was fain to let alone , because I had some Inducements to suppose , that it was of so compounded a nature , that I should not in my present Circumstances have the opportunity to examine it throughly . But it seemed remarkable , that , notwithstanding the great Acidity of Oyl of Vitriol , and the fixative power it exercises on many Bodies , wherewith it is committed to Distillation , our Experiment afforded us a pretty quantity of Volatile matter in the form of a white Salt. But indeed the smell and tast of it were so uncommon , that I was troubled I had not then conveniency to examine it carefully ; much less to try , whether it had any peculiar Vertues or Operations in Physick ; tho I had then by me a Glass Instrument , that I purposely provided to obviate the great inconvenience that is usually met with , and has been often complain'd of by me as well as others , in the way Chymists are wont to imploy , when they are put to make repeated Sublimations of Volatile Salts , whether alone or with Additaments of this Instrument I cannot now stay to give you an account , but if it continue to appear as usefull as expeditious , I may hereafter do it by presenting you one ready made . Experiment . I. TO some Naturalists and Physicians that delight to frame Hypotheses , perhaps it may not be unwelcome to know , that for curiosities sake we attempted to make Aurum fulminans , by Precipitating a solution of Gold ( made in Aqua Regia ) with Spirit of Humane Blood , by dulcifying the Precipitate with Common water , and then drying it leisurely and that by this means we succeeded in the attempt . Experiment . II. HAving into a wide-mouth'd glass put as much Spirit of Blood , as would more than cover the Ball of a small seal'd Weather-glass , and suffer'd this Instrument to stay a while , that the Ambient Liquor and the Included might be reduc'd to the same temper , as to Heat and Cold ; we pour'd on some Spirit of Verdegreece made per se , and observ'd that , tho this Spirit with some other Volatile Saline Liquors , had a very differing operation , yet working on our Spirit of Blood , with which it made a conflict and excited Bubbles , there was produc'd in the Mixture a degree of Warmth , that was not insensible on the outside of the glass , but was much more sensible in the Thermoscope , whose Liquor being hereby rarified , ascended to a considerable height above the former station , towards which when the conflict of the two Liquors was over , it began , tho but slowly , to return . Experiment . III. HAving by degrees mix'd our Spirit of Blood , with as much good Spirit of Nitre as it would manifestly work on , there was , not without noise , produc'd great store of Bubbles by their mutual conflict ; which being kept in a quiet place , till after the Liquors had quite ceased to work on one another , it began to appear , that notwithstanding all our care to free the Spirit of Blood from Oyl , something of Oleaginous that had been concealed in it , had been manifested , and partly separated , by this Operation ; since not only a somewhat red Colour was produced by it , but after a while the surface of the Liquor was covered with a film , such as I have often observed in Saline Liquors , copiously impregnated with Antimony or other Sulphureous Bodies . And this thin Membrane had its Superficies so disposed , that looking upon it with Eyes placed Conveniently in reference to it and the Light , it did to me , and other Persons , that did not at all look on it from the same place , appear adorned with vivid Colours of the Rainbow , as Red , Yellow , Blew and Green ; and as I remember , in the same order that these Colours are to be seen in the Clouds . Experiment . IV. HAving unexpectedly found amongst some other long neglected Glasses , a Vial that was written upon above twelve years before , and inscrib'd Spirit of Humane Blood , it appear'd to have been , by I know not what Accident , very loosely stopt : and yet not so , as to give me cause to think , that the Liquor was much wasted . But notwithstanding this , and that the Liquor had acquired a deep Colour , almost like that of Red Wine ; yet it was so dispirited and strengthless , that it appear'd to be very little other than nauseous Phlegm . Which Observation I therefore think not unworthy to be preserv'd , because by it we may guess , how little a portion of the noble and genuine Spirit or Salt , may suffice to make a Liquor pass for Spirit of Humane Blood. Experiment . V. IN a Frosty season we expos'd late at night two or three spoonfulls by guess of Spirit of Humane Blood , that was not of the best , being at the utmost but moderately strong . And tho the Cold of that season had throughly frozen a Vial almost full of Oyl of Vitriol , and the night wherein our Spirit was exposed , was ( at least ) moderately Frosty , yet the next morning we did not find so much as any Superficial Ice upon it . But having remov'd the Vial into a mixture of Powder'd Ice and Common Salt we found in no very long time , that most part of the Spirit was turn'd into thin Plates of Ice , which joyn'd close together , and had their edges upwards , like those of the Leaves of a Book , when it is held with its back downwards . Experiment . VI. TO make a further Tryal of that imperfect one mentioned in the Subordinate Title , we took a Clot of Humane Blood of the bigness of a Bean , or thereabouts , and having put it into a Vial in such manner , that that part , which before was contiguous to the Air , and for that reason , was florid , was now the undermost , and the other , which was blackish lay now uppermost , we made haste to pour upon it as much Spirit of Humane Blood , as was more than sufficient to cover it , and perceiv'd that the contact of it presently began to lessen the blackness of the surface of the Blood , and bring it to a considerable degree of Floridness ; and to try whether that would continue , we stopt the Vial , and set it by till the next morning , ( for it was then night , ) when looking upon it , we found the Superficial Colour not to be Black but still Red. Experiment VII . UPon the Powder of dry'd Humane Blood we put ( in a small Vial ) some of the rectify'd Spirit of Humane Blood , which quickly dissolv'd part of it , and acquired a deep and pleasant Colour . But highly rectified Spirit of Wine , being put upon some of the same Powder in a like glass , did not in many hours acquire any manifest Tincture , and got but a pale Yellow one , even after having been for a longer time kept in a moderate heat . And yet Common water , being put upon another portion of the same Powder , did quickly enough appear , by the Colour it acquir'd , to have dissolv'd a pretty deal of it . Experiment VIII . SOme of our Spirit of Humane Blood being put upon some curious Vitriol , that I had as a Rarity ( if I mistake not ) from the East Indies , part whereof was in lumps , and part beaten to Powder ; that Liquor which was put upon the former , being able to dissolve it but slowly , made little or no Froth ; but the Spirit that was put upon the latter , by hastily working on it produc'd a manifest one . And the Solutions made of both parcels of Vitriol , were of a deeper and more lovely Blew , than the Mineral it self had been : nor did I observe in them any Precipitate of a dark Colour , as I have done upon the Mixture of Spirit of Urine and Ordinary Vitriol . Experiment IX . HAving with a clean Pen drawn some Letters upon white Paper with Spirit of Humane Blood , and as soon as 't was dry , mov'd the unwritten side over the Flame of a Candle , we found that this Liquor may for a need be imployed , as an invisible Ink , that seemed to be somewhat better , than those formerly mentioned to have been afforded us by Serum and Urine . Experiment X. HAving found by Tryal that divers Salts , some that are Volatile and some that are not , being put in Powder into water , will whilst they are dissolving , sensibly refrigerate it ; and on the other side that some very subtil Spirits actually cold , being put into cold Water , will quickly produce in it a sensible warmth , I thought it would not be amiss to try , what Spirit of Humane Blood would do , when employed after the same manner . Having therefore placed a sealed Thermoscope in an open mouthed glass , furnished with as much distilled water as would cover the Ball of the Instrument , we left it there for a while to bring the internal Liquor and the external to the same degree of Coldness . Then we poured upon the immersed Ball two or three spoonfuls of Spirit of Humane Blood ( which was all we could spare for this Tryal ) but perceived very little alteration to ensue in the Thermoscope , only that it seemed , the Spirit of Wine in the stem did a little , and but a very little , subside which effect ( tho it had been much more manifest ) I should not have been surpriz'd at , partly because I found Spirit of Urine to have a like , or somewhat more considerable effect , and partly because I remembred , what I elsewhere relate about the Operation of the pure Salt of Humane Blood upon Distill'd Water ; which Liquor I therefore make use of in these and many other Experiments , because in our common Pump-Water or Well-Water , and in most other common Waters , I have observed a kind of common Salt , which tho in very small quantity , makes it apt to coagulate with , or precipitate , some kind of Saline Corpuscles , whether more simple , or more compounded . But before I quite dismiss the lately recited Experiment , I must acknowledge , that I dare not acquiesce in it . Since probably the effect of the Spirit of Blood would have been more considerable , if I had been furnish'd with a sufficient quantity of it , to pour into the Water . Experiment XI . INto a slender Cylindrical Vial we put Filings of Copper , more than enough to cover the bottom , and then pouring on some Spirit of Humane Blood , till it reach'd about an Inch above the Filings , we stopt the Glass close , and , as we expected , the Menstruum dissolved some of the Metal , and acquired upon it a deep ceruleous colour , which by keeping the Vessel in a quiet place for some days , did by degrees disappear , and left the Liquor like Water . And then the Glass being unstopt , there did , as was expected , appear a fine Blew surface on the confines of the Air and the Liquor , in a Minute of an hour or less ; and this fine colour extending it self downwards , was in no long time diffus'd through the whole Body of the Liquor ; and that so plentifully , as to render it almost opacous . But , tho I kept the Glass many days after well stopt , yet ( whether it were that there was too much Air left in the Vial , or for some other reason ) the colour did not disappear , as was expected , but continued very intense . This may confirm and diversifie an Experiment related in the thirteenth Title of the Fourth Part of the Memoirs . Experiment XII . IT is not only upon Copper in its perfect Metalline form , but by Nature it self Embryonated in , or blended with stony matter , that our Spirit of Humane Blood did manifestly work : for having pour'd some upon well powdered Lapis Armenus , the Liquor did even in the cold , and in no long time , ( for it exceeded not a few hours ) acquire a deep and lovely Blew , almost like the solution of Filings of Crude Copper , made with the same Menstruum . THE CONCLUSION . ANd here , Sir , I shall at length dismiss a Subject , about which I now perceive I have already entertained you much longer than at first I imagined . And yet , if I prevail with you , your trouble is not quite at an end ; since I must exhort you to take the pains , for your own satisfaction and mine , to try over again such of the foregoing Experiments , as you shall judge likely to be of a contingent Nature . For , tho I hope you 'l do me the right to believe , that I have as faithfully as plainly delivered Matters of Fact , without being biassed by Hypotheses , or aiming at Elegance , yet my Exhortation may be reasonable . For I have observ'd Humane Blood to be a thing so diversifyable by various Circumstances , and especially by the Habitual Constitution of the person that bleeds , and his present condition at the very time of Phlebotomy , that I dare not undertake , that every repeater of the like Experiments with mine , will always find the Events to be just such as I have recited mine to have had . Nay I dare not promise my self an exact uniformity of successes , even when I my self shall reiterate some ( of the nicer ) of my own Tryals ; especially if I can do it , as I desire with greater Quantities of Blood than ( for want of them ) the first were made with . To the Particulars already deliver'd in order to the History of Humane Blood , I could now , Sir , add some others , if Time and Discretion would permit me to do it . For , as little cultivated as the Subject has been , I found it not so barren , but that , whilst I was delivering some Tryals concerning it , the consideration of those , and of the Nature of the thing , suggested new ones to me . But 't is high time I should break off an Appendix , that , being but a Rhapsody of the Notes and other things , that have occur'd to me since the Memoirs were written , may I fear , seem already too prolixe , as well as confused . I do not forget , that the two last Subordinate Titles of the Fourth Part of the Memoirs , concern the External and Internal use of the Spirit of Blood in Physick ; and that therefore perchance it may be expected , that I should here add some Experiments or Observations , relating to those Titles . But I hope the lately mentioned Reasons , and my just backwardenss to part with some of them , because they are not yet finished , will make you easily excuse my laying them aside ; which I am like to do long , unless you , and your Learned Friends shall peremptorily require them of me , in a fitter season than this ; in which some occasions , that I cannot dispense with , call me off to other Employments , and oblige me to leave a further inquiry into this Subject to your self , and those able profess'd Physicians , who have , as well more Obligation , as more Ability than I , to pursue it effectually . This I may well hope that you and they will do , since upon a cursory review of a part only of what I have written , so many things sprang up even in my thoughts , as Original Tryals , if I may so call them , or as other things fit to be further consider'd , that I perceived 't would not be difficult to encrease the Appendix , by two sorts of particulars ; the one made up of designed Experiments , that is , such as have not yet been try'd , and yet seem worthy to be so , ( to which 't is probable our excellent Verulam would have given the Title of Historia Designata : ) the other should consist of such Tryals as I call ▪ Succedaneous Experiments , that is , such as I intended should be made upon the Blood of Beasts , in such Cases and Circumstances , wherein the Blood of Men , either cannot be had , or ought not to be procured . When I shall next have the happiness to converse with you , you may command a sight of what I have drawn up of this kind . And , if God shall please to vouchsafe me Health and Conveniency , I may perhaps ( for I must not absolutely promise it ) offer you what Addenda have occur'd to me , as things not unfit to make way for a more copious , and less unaccurate , Scheme of Titles , such as those that in the first part ( of the Memoirs ) are call'd Titles of the Second Classis , or Order : for which Scheme I was the rather invited to think it fit , Materials should be by some body provided , because second thoughts made me sensible that the Particulars compil'd in this small Book , come far short , ( as I lately acknowledged , and you will easily believe , ) of comprizing all that should and may be known of so noble and useful a Subject , as I have ventur'd to treat of . And I will freely confess to you on this occasion , that for my part , in the prospect I have of the future Advancement of Humane Knowledge , I think most of those Virtuosi that now live , must content themselves with the satisfaction , of having imploy'd their Intellects on worthy Objects , and of having industriously endeavoured , by promoting useful Knowledge , to glorify God and serve Mankind . For I presume , that our enlightned Posterity will arrive at such attainments , that the Discoveries and Performances , upon which the present Age most values it self , will appear so easy , or so inconsiderable to them , that they will be tempted to wonder , that things to them so obvious , should lye so long conceal'd to us , or be so much priz'd by us ; whom they will perhaps look upon with some kind of disdainful Pity , unless they have either the equity to consider , as well the smalness of our helps , as that of our Attainments ; or the generous gratitude to remember the Difficulties this Age surmounted , in breaking the Ice , and smoothing the way for them , and thereby contributing to those Advantages , that have enabled them so much to surpass us . And since I scruple not to say this of those shining Wits and happy inquirers , that illustrate and ennoble this learned Age , I hope you will not think that I , who own my self to be more fit to celebrate than Rival them , would disswade you from improving and surpassing the slight Performances , that are in this little Tract submitted to your Judgment by , Sir , your very Humble Servant . Knightsbridge , December 22 , 1683. FINIS . A Catalogue of late Physick Books sold by Samuel Smith , at the Prince's Arms in St. Pauls Churchyard . Fol. BOneti Anatomia , 2. Vol. 1680. — Mercurius , 1682. Breinii Plantarum Exoticar . Cent. cum Figuris , 1680. Fabritii Hildani opera cum Severino , 1682. Hippocratis Opera Foetii . Dioscoridis Opera , G. Lat. Saxoniae Opera . Med. 1680. Piso Hist . naturalis de rebus Indiae . Schenkii Observat . Med. Mentzelii Index Plant. cum Figuris , 1683. Lepenii Bibliotheca Med. 1683. Riverii Opera , 1679. Zwelferii Pharmacopeia . Quartoes . Bauhini Pinax cum Prodromo . Broeckhuysen Oeconomia Corporis Anim. 1683. Boyle Opera omnia , 2 vol. Blasii Anatomia , 1681. Borellus de motu Animalium , 2 vol. Bl●ny Zodiacus Galen . Med. Chymicus , 1682. Bartholini Acta Medica . Castelli Lexicon Med. 1682. Cardilucii Officina Sanitatis . Clauderi Methodus Balsamandi . Cleyer Specimma Medicinae Sinicae , 1682. Charas Pharmacopeia Regia , 1683. Diemerbroeck Anatomia . Fern●lii Opera , 1683. Van Helmontii Opera , 1682. Gockelii Deliciae Academicae , 1682. Hoffmanni Praxis Med. 1680. Helwigii Observationes Med. 1680. Hoffmannus in Schroderum . Joel Opera medica . Kyperi Anthropologia corporis humani . Konig Regnum Animale , 1682. Kirckringii Specilegium Anatom . Licetus de Monstris . Museum Hermetic . Miscellanea Curiosa M. Physica , 7 vol. 1682. — Id. Decuria secunda Anni Primi , 1683. Margravi Materia Medica . — Prodromus . Regii Medicina . Rolfinchius de purgantibus , 1683. — Ordo & Methodus Med. Specialis . — Concilia Med. Sylvii Opera Med. Schorkii Pharmacopeia . — Hisi . Moschi . Ang. Salae Opera med . 1682. Swammerdam miraculum Naturae . Vigerii Opera med . Versaschae de Apoplexia . Waltheri Sylva medica . Welschii Decades X. med . Wedelii Opiologia . — Physiologia Med. — Pharmacia . — de medicam . facultatibus . — de medicam . compositione . Wepferi cicutae Aquaticae . Zwelferi Pharmacop . Octavoes . Borelli Observat . Med. Barthol . Anatomia . Beckeri Physica subterranea cum supplemento , 1681. Brunneri Experimenta nova circa Pancreas , 1682. Camerarii Sylloges memorabilium Med. 2 vol. 1683. Deckeri Exercitationis Med pract . Dodonaei Praxis Medica . Franchiment Lithotomia Med. 1683. Funerwalfi Anatomia . Gockelii Concilia & observat . Med. 1683. De Graaf Opera . Grulichius de Hydrope , 1681. — De Bile , 1682. Hartmanni Praxis Chymiatrica , 1682. Heido Anatome nytuli & observat . Med. 1684. Hippocratis Opera , 2 vol. Juncken Chymia Experimentalis , 1681 : Medicus praesenti Seculo Accommodat . 1682. Liseri Culter Anatomicus : Ma●chetti Anatomia : Meekren Observat . Med. Chyrur . 1682 : Mereti Pinax : Plateri Observat . Med. Peonis & Pythagor . Exercit. Anat. & Med. 1682 : Riverii Institutiones : Schroderi Pharmacopeia : Swalve Quaerelae Ventriculi : — Alcali & acidum : Tilingii Lilium Curiosum , 1683 : Tilingii Prodromus , med . Versaschae Observat . med . Wepferi de Apoplexia : Witten memoria medicor . Zypaei Fundamenta med , 1683 : Twelves . Barthol . De Ovariis : — De Unicornu : — De Pulmonum substantia : Beughen Bibliographia Med. & Physica , 1682 : Barbetti Chyrurgia : — Praxis cum notis Deckerii : Beguini Tyrocinium Chymicum : Comelini Catalogus Plantarum , 1682 : Drelincourt Praeludium Anat. Guiuri Arcanum Acidular . 1682 : Glissoni Opuscula , 3 vol. Van Helmont . Fundamenta Med. 1682 : Hoffmanus de usu Lienis , &c. 1682 : Harvey de Gener. Animal . — De motu cordis : Kirckring . in Basil Valent. currum Triumph . Kunckelii Observat . Chymiae , 1681 : Le Mort Compendium Chymicum , 1682 : Mauro Cordatus de motu Pulmonum , 1682. Macasii Promptuarium Materiae Med. Matthaei Experimenta Chymica , 1683 : Muis Praxis Chyrurgica duabus partibus , 1684. Morelli Methodus perscribendi formulas Remedior . Primerose ars Pharmac . Pecket Anatomia : Redus de Insectis : Reidimi Observ . med . Rivinus de peste lipsiensi . 1680 : Smitzii Compena . med . 1682 : Stockhameri Microcosmographia , 1682 : Verlae Anat. Oculi : Vigani Medulla Chymiae : Advertisement . THat these above mentioned Books in Physick and Chymistry , with many other Forreign Books , are sold by Samuel Smith , at the Prince's Arms in St. Pauls Church-yard ; and that he will furnish himself with much variety of new Books in that kind , from time to time , as they shall come from Franckfort Mart ; and likewise he can procure such other Books for Gentlemen , which perhaps are not to be met with here , from his Correspondents , if to be had , beyond Sea. Books Printed for , and sold by Samuel Smith . THe Philosophical Transactions published by the Royal Society Monthly , beginning January 1683 : The whole Art of the Stage , &c. Translated out of French : In Quarto , 1684 price 5. s. A new History of Ethiopia , being a full and Accurate Description of the Kingdom of Abessinia , vulgarly though erroneously , called the Empire of Prester John in four Books ( illustrated with many Copper Plates ) and also a new and exact Map of the Countrey , and a Preface shewing the usefulness of this History ; with the life of Gregorius Abba , &c. By the learned Job Ludolphus Councellour to his Imperial Majesty and the Dukes of Saxony , and Treasurer to his Highness , the Elector Palatine , In Fol. 1684. Price 12. s. Guideon's Fleece , or a vindication of the Colledge of Physicians , in answer to a Book intituled the Conclave of Physicians . By Dr. Harvey , in Quarto , 1684. Pr. 6. d. An Anatomical account of an Elephant which was lately Dissected in Dublin , June 17 , in the year 1681. By A. M. Med. of Trinity Colledge near Dublin , illustrated with Cuts , in Quarto , 1682. Price 1. s. Swammerdami ( Johan . ) Amst . M. D. Miraculum Naturae . In Octavo . The true method of curing Consumptions . By S. H. Med. D. 1683. Price 1. s. A Discourse about Bagnio's , and Mineral Baths , and of the drinking of Spaw Water , with an Account of the Medicinal Vertues of them , and also shewing the usefulness of Sweating , Rubbing , and Bathing , and the great benefit many have received from them in various Distempers . By S. H. Med. Doct. 1683. Price 1. s. Miracles , Works above and contrary to Nature ; or an Answer to a late Translation out of Spinosa's Tractatus Theologice-politicus , Mr. Hobs Leviathan , &c. in Quarto , 1683. Price 1. s. A Treatise of Self Examination , in order to the worthy receiving the Holy Communion . By Monsieur John Claude Minister of the Reformed Church at Paris : Translated from the French Original , in Twelves , 1683. Price 1 s. Protestancy to be Embraced ; or a new and infallible Method to reduce Romanists from Popery to Protestancy . By Dr. Abercromby , M. D. in Twelves , 1683. pr. 1. s. The Art of Divine Converse , being a New Years-Gift , directing how to walk with God all the year long , ( by the same Author ) in Twelves , price 6 d. The Councils of Wisdom , or the Maxims of Solomon , in Twelves , 1683. pr. 1 s. The Ten Pleasures of Marriage . In Twelves . The Dutch Rogue , or Gusman of Amsterdam , traced from the Cradle to the Gallow's , 1683. In Twelves . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A28998-e2810 Of this Salt see the Notes referr'd to the 22d Title . Notes for div A28998-e5550 a The usefulness of Experimental Philosophy . a See the viii . Title . a About the Mechanical Origine or Production of Qualities . See the Producibility of Chymical Principles . Spiritus Vitae N. 16. Pag. M. 122. 
A28949	----	A continuation of new experiments physico-mechanical, touching the spring and weight of the air and their effects. The I. part whereto is annext a short discourse of the atmospheres of consistent bodies / written by way of letter to the right honourable the Lord Clifford and Dungarvan by the honourable Robert Boyle ... Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1669 Approx. 473 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 125 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A28949 Wing B3934 ESTC R34411 14398415 ocm 14398415 102306 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A28949) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 102306) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1056:21) A continuation of new experiments physico-mechanical, touching the spring and weight of the air and their effects. The I. part whereto is annext a short discourse of the atmospheres of consistent bodies / written by way of letter to the right honourable the Lord Clifford and Dungarvan by the honourable Robert Boyle ... Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. [24], 198, [11] p., 7 p. of plates : ill. Printed by Henry Hall ... for Richard Davis, Oxford : 1669. Reproduction of original in the Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. 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Physics -- Experiments. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-05 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-06 Derek Lee Sampled and proofread 2006-06 Derek Lee Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A CONTINVATION OF Nevv Experiments Physico-Mechanical , Touching the SPRING and VVEIGHT of the AIR , and their Effects . THE I. PART . Written by way of Letter , to the Right Honourable the Lord Clifford and Dungarvan . VVhereto is annext a short Discourse Of the ATMOSPHERES of Consistent Bodies . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE , Fellow of the Royal Society . OXFORD , Printed by Henry Hall Printer to the University , for Richard Davis , in the Year 1669. The PREFACE . HAving at the beginning of the Treatise , whereof This is a Continuation , acquainted my Readers with several things that belong in common as well to the following Experiments , as to those There publish'd ; it will not be necessary for me to trouble the Reader with a repetition of what he may have met with there already , nor to acquaint him in this Address with any Other particulars then Those that concern the Experiments I am now about to present him . I doubt not but it will be remembred by some , that I seem'd in the above mentioned Book to have promis'd a Second part of it , or a large Appendix to it : but Intimations of that kind do many times respect onely the Thing it self , leaving the Giver of them free in point of Time : and I wanted not sufficient inducements to delay a while to perform my Promise , if I made any . I had indeed , partly before the Book already referr'd to came from the Press , and partly sometime after , made divers other Tryals in order to a Supplement of it : but being oblig'd to make some Journeys and Removes , which allowed me no Opportunity to prosecute the Experiments , I had made no very great Progres in my Design , before the convening of an Illustrious Assembly of Virtuosi , which has since made it self sufficiently known under the Title of the Royal Society . And having then thought fit to make a Present , to persons so like to imploy it well , of the great Engine , I had till then made use of in the Physico-Mechanical Experiments about the Air ; and being unable afterwards to procure another so good , I applied my Studies to other Subjects , and gave over for a great while the care of making more Experiments of that kind : and the rather , because that finding by the very favourable reception Those I had publish'd had met with among the Curious in several parts of Europe , that they were like to be Considered and Perused ; I thought I might safely leave the Prosecution of them to Others , who would probably come more Fresh and untired to such an Exercise of their Curiosity . But observing , that the great Difficulties men met with in making an Engine , that vvould exhaust and keep out a Body so subtle as the Air , and so ponderous as the Atmosphere , ( besides perhaps some other impediments ) vvere such , that in five or six year I could hear but of one or two Engines that vvere brought to be fit to Work , and of but one or two Nevv Experiments , that had been added by the Ingenious Owners of Them ; I began to listen to the Perswasions of Those that suggested , That unlesse I resum'd this work my self , there would scarce be much done in it . And therefore having ( by the help of Other work-men then Those I had unsuccesfully imploy'd before ) procured a new Engine lesse than the Other , and differing in some Circumstances from it , we did ( though not without trouble enough ) bring it to work as well as the Other , and , as to some purposes , better . And having once got This , I made hast to try with it those Experiments , that belonged to the design'd Continuation , and do now make up this Book . I hope , that to such Readers as the following Papers are principally intended for , I shall not need to make an Apology either for the Plainenesse of my Style , ( wherein I aim'd at Perspicuity , not Eloquence , ) or for my not having adorn'd or stufft this Treatise with Authorities or Sentences of Classick Authors , which I had neither the leisure to seek , nor thought I had any great need to imploy , though it had been far more easie then perhaps it would have proved , to borrow from them things that would have been very proper to a Treatise where my main Design was , to make out by practicable Experiments divers things among other that have not hitherto been advantaged by that way of Probation , nor perchance thought very capable of it ; so that I shall have obtained a great part of what I aim'd at , if I have shewn , that those very Phaenomena , which the School-Philosophers , and their party urge , and sometimes triumph in , as clear Proofs of Natures abhorrency of a Vacuum , may be not onely explicated , but actually exhibited , some by the Gravity , and some also by the bare Spring of the Air. Which Latter I now mention as a distinct thing from the other , not that I think it is actually separated in these Tryals , ( since the Weight of the upper parts of the Air does , if I may so speak , bend the Springs of the lower , ) but because that having in the already published Experiments , and even in some of These , manifested the Efficacy of the Airs gravitation on Bodies , I thought fit to make it my Task in many of These , to shew , that most of the same things that are done by the Pressure of all the superincumbent Atmosphere acting as a VVeight , may be likewise performed by the Pressure of a small portion of Air , included indeed ( but without any new Compression ) acting as a Spring . The present first part of our Continuation might I confesse have been not inconveniently divided into two parts . For first it contains some Experiments that are already related in the Printed book , though they be here so repeated , as to be confirmed , illustrated , or improved , by being reiterated either with better Instruments , or with better Successe than when they were made in my large Receiver , which holding ( if I misremember not ) about eight Gallons , could not easily be so well exhausted as those small Receivers I often since imployed . And secondly , the other and far more numerous sort of Experiments , related in this First part , are new and superadded . And yet I forbear to assign each of these two sorts a place by it self , because I could not conveniently set down my Tryals otherwise then as they came to hand among my Notes ; and I considered , that in divers places the New ones and the Old ones being mentioned together , might serve by their neighbourhood to illustrate or confirm each other . And however at another Edition of our Continuation it will be a very easie task , if it appear to be a requisite one , to give the improvements of the former Experiments , and the superadded new ones , distinct Titles and Places . As for the Mechanical contrivances I imployed in making the following Experiments , though most of them have had the good fortune to meet with an approbation , and some of them with more than that , from no mean Virtuosi and Mathematicians ; yet as I expect that Critical Readers will judg , that in some Experiments more artificial Instruments might have been made use of , so I hope that they will not look upon those I was reduced to imploy , as alwayes the best that ever I could have directed , since it sufficiently appears by diverse passages of the following Experiments , that they were not made at London , but in places where the want of a Glass-house and other acaccommodations reduced me to make my Tryals not after the best manner I could devise , but in the best way I could then and there put in practice . And let me add on this occasion to what I have elsewhere said to the like purpose , that t is both a great discouragement to many ingenious men , and no small hinderance to the advancement of Natural Philosophy , that some nice Criticks are so censorious in exacting from Attempters the very best Contrivances , and many that would be attempters stand too much in awe of such mens judgments ; for though in very nice Experiments the exactnesse of instruments is not onely desireable and useful , but in some cases necessary ; yet in many others , where the production of a new Phaenomenon is the thing aimed at , they are to be looked upon as Benefactors to the History of Nature , that performe the substantial part of a Discovery , though they do it not by the most easie and compendious wayes deviseable , or attain not to the utmost preciseness that might be wished , and is possible . For such performances , notwithstanding their being short of perfection , make discoveries to the World of new and useful things ; which though others , that are more lucky at Contrivances , and have better accommodations , may compasse by more compendious wayes , or with greater precisenesse ; yet still the World is beholding to the first Discovery for the improvements of it , as we are to Archimedes for the first devising a way , to find by weighing Bodies in Water , how much Gold or how much Silver a mixture of those Metals does contain , though ( if Historians have not injured that great man in the relation ) he went a more laborious and lesse accurate way to work than modern Hydrostatians , who ( as I elsewhere shew ) may perform the same thing by a far better way , which yet probably we should not have thought of , if that attributed to Archimedes had not preceded , and afforded us a fundamental Notion . And that the not being so dexterous at contriving the wayes to effect a thing , is no sure argument that a man has not a true and solid knowledge of it , we may easily learn from Euclid , vvhom our Geometricians generally and justly acknowledge to be their Master , and to have enriched the World with many useful Truths , and solidly demonstrated all his Propositions , though divers of his modern Commentators have found out more compendious wayes for effecting several of his Problems , as vvell as of demonstrating divers of his Theorems , especially since the excellent invention of specious Algebra , by whose help that accurate Mathematician Dr. Wallis has , besides other Specimens upon intricate Propositions , clearly demonstrated the ten first and for the most part perplexing Theorems of the second Element , in litle more than as few lines . In summe , in Experiments that are very nice , accurate Contrivances and Instruments are industriously to be sought , and highly to be valued , and even in such other Experiments as are frequently to be reiterated the most commodious and easie ways of performing them are very desireable , but those practical Compendiums , though very welcome to them that would repeat Tryals , are not so important to the generality of Readers , as being but useful to save pains , not necessary to discover Truths ; to vvhich men may oftentimes do good service , without any peculiar gift at Mechanical Contrivances , since in most cases They may be lookt upon as promoters of Natural Philosophy , who devise Experiments fit to discover a new Truth if the attempt succeeds , and propose wayes of bringing it to Trial , which though perhaps not the most skilful or expeditious , are yet sufficient and practicable , the increase of Physical knowledg being the product of the things themselves that are discovered , whatever were the Instruments men imploied about making the Discoveries . As for the Cuts , I endeavoured to make their Relations , and Descriptions of most of the Experiments , so full and plain , as to need as few Schemes as might be to illustrate them : but though I hope , that they who either were verst in such kind of Studies , or have any peculiar facility of imagining , would well enough conceive my meaning onely by words ; yet lest my own accustomance to devise such Trials , and to see these made , should make me think them more easily intelligible than most Readers will find them , I advised with a Learned friend or two , fit to be consulted on such an occasion , what Experiments were requisite to be illustrated with Diagrams , and to such I took care they should be annexed . Onely I forbore to adde to the Figure of each Instrument Alphabetical explications of its parts , as judging that troublesome work lesse easie for me , than it would be for such Readers as this Tract is designed for , to understand what is delivered by the help of a litle Attention in conferring the Schemes of the Instruments with the Verbal accounts of the Experiments they relate to . But there is one Particular about the Cuts may require both to be given notice of and excused : which is , that having occasion to alter the method of my Experiments , when I began to foresee that I should be obliged to reserve divers things for another opportunity ; and being my self absent from the Graver for a good part of the time he was at work , some of the Cuts were misplaced , and not graven in the Plates , in which , according to the present series of Experiments , they might most properly have been put . But perhaps I may ( for I am not sure of it ) more need the Readers pardon for ( unknowingly ) troubling him in this Continuation with some passages , that he may have already met with in the Book it refers to : which though I had not read over for some years before , I chanced not to have at hand , when divers of the following Papers were written ; and though afterwards I recovered it , yet the indisposition of my Eyes made me think it unfit rather to tire them by reading over the whole Book , than to trust to the Readers good Nature ( in case I should need it ) for the pardon of a few unintended Repetitions . I doubt not , many Readers will be inquisitive to know , why this Treatise is stiled the First part of a Continuation : To give these some account of the Title , I must put them in mind , that in the already published Experiments I intimated , that two sorts of Tryals might be made by the help of our Engine : the one , such as needed but a short absence of the Air , and the other such as required that the Air should not onely be withdrawn for a vvhile , but kept out for a considerable time , from the Bodies vvhereupon the trial is made . Of the former sort of Experiments are these this present Book does ( as vvell as that heretofore published did ) consist of . And though I have been so much called upon , and troubled for certain Writings , whereof I had made such mention in those that past the Presse , as some Readers interpreted to be an engagement , that it made me think fit , when I satisfied their demands , to be thence forward very shy of making the Publick any promise ; yet I was induced not to alter the Title of this Treatise , partly because it may intimate to the Curious , that there are yet a great many things to be performed by our Engine , besides the productions of it I have hitherto presented them , and partly because , though I still persist in my former aversnesse to make promises to the World ; yet t is very possible , that if God grant me life and health , I may in due time present my Friends with what may serve for a Second part of our Continuation , consisting of Experiments that require a longer absence of the Air from the bodies to be wrought upon ; and I shall think , if this First part prove not unacceptable to the Curious , that the Latter will be not unwelcome to them , as being designed to consist of Sets of Experiments , which by their being most of them New , and some of them odd enough , may perchance afford some not despicable hints to the Speculative . But the very nature of these Experiments , requiring that some of them should be long in making , my Friends could not reasonably expect a quick dispatch of a work of this kind , though I should not meet for the future with such intervening impediments , as have hitherto disturbed it , ( as want of instruments , of health , of leisure , and of the liberty , which is so requisite in this case , of staying long enough in one place : ) notwithstanding all which difficulties I have by snatches been able through God's blessing to make forty or fifty of designed Tryals , being such as require the least of time to be performed in , though I now think not fit to mention any of them , as well for other reasons , as because though they be made by the help of our Engine , yet they require a peculiar apparatus of Instruments , very differing from those we have hitherto mentioned , and not to be intelligibly described without many words and divers figures . In the mean time , lest the industrious should be discouraged by a surmise , that there is nothing left for them to do by the help of our Engine , at least as to the first sort of Experiments , I shall inform them , that I had thoughts to have added divers others of that kind to these that now come forth , and particularly two Clusters of Pneumatical trials , the one about Respiration , and the other about Fire and Flame ; but several of my Notes and Observations being at present out of the way , my having neither health nor leisure to repair these inconveniences , and prosecute Tryals of that sort with any assiduity , makes me chuse rather to reserve them for an Appendix , than to make those that now come abroad stay for them . Which will not ( I presume ) be the more disliked , because by taking this course I may , in delivering of the phaenomena of Nature , imitate Nature her self , of whom t is the Roman Philosophers saying , Rerum Natura sacra sua non simul tradit . Some Advertisements touching the Engine it self . THough the Engine already published , and that which I imployed in the following Tryals , have the same Uses , & agree both in the ground and the main part of their Construction , yet they differ in some particulars fit to be taken notice of : for after I had presented the great Engine I formerly made use of to the Royal Society , partly the difficulty of procuring such another of that Size and Make , and partly the desire of making some improvements invited me to make some alterations in the Structure ; some of them suggested by others , ( especially by the Ingenious M r Hook , ) and some of them that I added my self , as finding that without them I could not do my work . Wherefore it will not be amiss to point at the chief differences between the former and the latter Engine , and to intimate some of the conveniences and inconveniences that attend them . As for the Construction of the second Engine it self , since t is presumed , that the Readers of this Book have already perused That of which this is a Continuation , and understood the contrivance of the Instrument that belongs to it , it was presumed sufficient to exhibit in the first Plate the delineation of the entire Engine ready to be set at work ; and in the second , the figures of the several Metalline parts that compose it , before they are set together . For though these have not verbal and Alphabetical explications annexed to them , yet the sight of them may suffice to make those that have an imagination fitted to conceive Mechanical contrivances , and are acquainted with the former Engine , comprehend the structure of this ; which , Alphabetical explications would scarce make such Readers do , as are not so qualified : onely two things there are , which being of some difficulty , as well as of importance to be conceived , I shall here particularly tak notice of . The first of which is , that in regard the Sucker is to be alwayes under water , and the perforation p q , that passes perpendicularly quite through it , and serves together with the stick r s for a Valve , is to be stopt at the bottom of the Cylinder , as at n o , when t is full of water , t was requisite to make the stick r p of a considerable length , as two or three foot : The other and chief thing is that in the second Plate , the Pipe AB , whose end B bends upward , is made to lie in a gruve or gutter purposely made in the flat wooden Board c d e f , on which the Receivers are to rest ; which square board I caused to be overlaid with very good Cement , on which I took care to apply a strong plate of iron , of the bigness and shape of the Board , leaving onely a small hole for the erected part of the Pipe to come out at , which I added , not onely to keep the wooden Board the better from warping , but because I knew ( what will perhaps be thought strange ) that the pressure of the Atmosphere on one side of the Board , when there is no pressure or but very litle on the other side , will enable many Aerial particles to strain through the very wood , though of a good thickness , and imbued with oyl to choak the Pores ; to this iron-plate we sometimes fit a Lip turning up about it , to hinder the Water that on some occasions will come from the Receiver from falling on the Room ; ( and to add that upon the by ) though the Stop-cock g h i k , that belongs to the hitherto mentioned Pipe , may be inserted at I. into the Barrel or Cylinder l m n o by the help of Soder , yet we chose as a much better way to have the Branch I. of the Stop-cock made like a Screw , which being once firmly screwed in to the Barrel , is not apt to be broken off , and may be more easily mended if any thing happen to be out of order , which the Engine is the most liable to be in or about the Pipe , partly because it may fall out , ( though but very rarely if due care be but taken , ) that the Air will insinuate it self between the wooden Board and the iron-plate , and so get up ( where the Pipe bends upwards ) into the cavity of the Receiver , and partly because the Pipe being for a just reason made but slender , and the part of it that looks upwards very short , it happens not very unfrequently , that when we imploy Receivers with narrow Orifices , where the Cement must lie close to the opening of the Pipe , it happens , I say , that the Cement , especially if it be much softned by heat , is suckt ( as they speak ) into the Pipe , and so choaks it up ; or else that some part of the body included in the Receiver is drawn to the orifice of the Pipe , and lying upon it as a Cover hinders the free passage of the Air into the Barrel , against which inconvenience , to add that upon the by , we use amongst other Expedients to place just about the Orifice of the Pipe a small cover of Tin , like that of a litle Box , which covers it at the top to hinder any thing from lying immediately upon the Pipe , and has a small opening or two in the side , to give the Air of the Receiver free access to the Pipe. The square and hollow wooden part of this Engine , discernable in the first plate , is so made , that it may contain not onely the Cylinder , but so much water , as will alwaies keep the Cylinder quite cover'd with that liquor ; by which means the Sucker , lying & playing alwaies under water , is kept still turgid and plump , and the water being ready at hand to fill up any litle interval or chink , that may happen to be between the Sucker and the inside of the Barrel , does together with the newly mentioned plumpness of the Sucker very much conduce to the exact keeping out of the Air. But this advantage is not without some inconvenience , for divers times , if great care be not taken in turning the Stop-cock , the water will be impell'd into the Receiver , and much prejudice sundry Experiments , when the included bodies are such that may be spoiled or impaired ( at least for the present ) by that liquor . The smalness of our Cylinder is a convenience in regard of the facility it affords to make and dispatch those many Experiments that may be performed in small Receivers , though it make those more troublesome and tedious , that require the Exhaustion of large and capacious ones . The flat Plate ( mentioned a litle above ) has this great conveniency in many Experiments , that the Receiver needs no Stop-cock of its own ; for such a vessel being made all of an entire piece of Glass , and whelmed on upon the Plate well covered with Cement , can better keep out the Air , than if there were a stop-cock , at which the Air does but too frequently get in ; but besides that in divers Experiments such Receivers do usually require to be wide mouthed , whereby a greater compass is to be fenced against the ingress of the Air , several Experiments cannot so conveniently be tryed in this sort of Receivers . But because , that though this second form of our Engine hath as to several purposes its peculiar conveniences and advantages , yet some Virtuosi may be furnished with the other already , and some may conceive it the more clearly of the two , or may judg it preferable for their particular designs ; I shall here intimate , that for most of the Experiments , if not all , that follow in this Treatise , they may make use of , or at least make a shift with the first Engine , with a very few alterations ; whereof the chief is to be this , That to the upper part of the great Cylinder , on the side opposite to the iron-rack , there is to be fastned such a square Board , and suitable iron-plate , as is used in the second Engine , betwixt which Board and Plate is to be lodged such a Pipe as was lately described , being either a continuation of the outward branch of the Stop-cock , or else firmly fastned to it by sodering or screwing : for by this means , when the Sucker is deprest , the Air will through the Cavity of this Pipe , and the Stop-cock whereto it is annexed , pass freely by virtue of its own Spring out of the Receiver into the exhausted Cylinder ; though this , and the Sucker that moves in it , being not kept as in the second form of the Engine under water , the greater care will be needed to keep the Air from insinuating it self between them . A good Cement , to fasten the Receivers to the often mentioned Plate of Iron , is a thing of no small moment in making the following Experiments , of which we imploy differing Compositions for differing purposes , some of which are not necessary to be mentioned in that part of this work that now comes forth ; but that which in almost all the following Tryals we chiefly make use of , is a well wrought mixture of ( yellow ) Bees wax and Turpentine , which composition as it serves better than most others to keep out the Air , so it has the conveniency , which is no small one , of seldome needing to be heated , and seldomer to be much so ; especially if we imploy a litle more Turpentine in Winter than in Summer , in the former of which seasons , as much , or very near as much of that ingredient as of the Wax does well , for as in Summer a mixture of three parts of Wax to about two of Turpentine is more proper . ERRATA . By an oversight a short Paragraph was omitted in the 14. page , importing , that the second figure of the 4th . Plate was designed onely to make some representation of the difference that would appear , if instead of making the 4. Experiment with Water , as in the foregoing figure , the Tryal was made with Quick-silver . So lik wise in pag. 104. lin . 4. and 8. for 14 of the 12 Book read 14 of the 11. pag. ib. l. 9. read Cylinders of equal heights are to one another as their Bases . The Reader is desired to perfect with his Pen the marginal Notes referring to the Plates as being defective , and also to insert such others as were wholly omitted , according to the following Directions ; which could not otherwise be conveniently supplied , without putting a stop to the Press . In the Margent of Page the — 3 d. read See Plate the III. Figure the 1. 14. r. See plate the IV. figure the 2. 30. r. See plate the III. figure the 2. 33. r. plate the III. fig. the 2. 34. See plate the III. figure the 3. 43. r. See plate the V. figure the 1. 54. r. See plate the III. figure the 4. 73. against the 16. line , insert — See the whole Baroscope delineated Plate the V. fig. the 2. 87. against the last line but two , insert — See plate the V. figure the 3. 88. against the 6. line insert — See plate the V. figure the 4. 107. against the 28. line , insert See plate the VI. figure the 1. 111. against the 20. line , insert See plate the VI. fig. the 2. 113. r. See the 2. figure of the 7. plate : ( adding thereto ) which though made primarily for the 39. Experiment , may facilitate the conceiving of This. 120. against the 17. line , insert See plate the VI. figure the 3. 122. against the 9. line , insert See plate the VI. figure the 4. 123. against the 19. line , insert See plate the VI. figure the 5. 125. against the 14. line , insert See plate the VI. figure the 6. 130. read See plate the VI. fig. the 7. 132. r. See plate the VII . fig. the 1. 136. against the 8. line , insert See plate the VII . figure the 3. 139. read See plate the VII . figure the 4. 144. r. See plate the VIII . fig. the 1. 155. r. See plate the IV. fig. the 3. 161. r. See plate the VIII . Fig. the 2. and 4. 165. against the 21. line , insert See plate the VIII . fig. the 4. and against the last line save one , insert See plate the VIII . fig. the 3. 166. r. See plate the VIII . fig. the 5. 174. Within 3 lines of the bottom , insert See plate the IV. figure the 4. The I. Plate . The II Plate . A CONTINVATION OF Nevv Experiments Physico-Mechanical , Touching the SPRING and VVEIGHT of the AIR , and their Effects . THE I. PART . Written by way of Letter , to the Right Honourable the Lord Clifford and Dungarvan . My Dear Lord , SInce I have already in proper places of the Physico-Mechanical Experiments about the Air , which I formerly presented your Lordship , giv'n you a sufficient account of several things touching the Scope , Occasion , &c. of my Attempt ; it will not be necessary to make a solemn Preface to the ensuing Experiments . And therefore presuming upon an acceptance , which the favourable Entertainment , which your Lordship , as well as the Publick , was pleas'd to give my first Tryals of this kind , encourages me to expect , I shall , without troubling you with any further Preface , immediately fall upon a Continuation ; especially since Your Lordship will perhaps wonder , that you have not receiv'd it much sooner , as , indeed , you should have done , if I had been befriended with Accommodations and Leisure . EXPERIMENT I. About the raising of Mercury to a great height in an open Tube , by the spring of a little included Air. DIvers ways have been proposed to shew both the Pressure of the Air , as the Atmosphere is a heavy Body , and that the Air , especially when compress'd by outward force , has a Spring that enables it to sustain or resist a pressure equal to that of as much of the Atmosphere , as can come to bear against it , and also to shew , that such Air as we live in , and is not condens'd by any humane or adventitious force , has not onely a resisting Spring , but an active Spring ( if I may so speak ) in some measure , as when it distends a flaccid or breaks a full-blown Bladder in our exhausted Receiver . But observing that there seems to want a visible Experiment to convince those that are not so easily satisfy'd with Reasons , though drawn by just consequence from Physical or Mechanical Truths , or even from other Experiments , taking notice , I say , hereof , I made the following Experiments ; not so much to prevent or removed a scruple no better grounded , as to have a new way of making an Estimate by some known and determinate measure of the force of the bare Spring of the Air , both in its natural state , ( as t is said to be when not compress'd nor ratify'd , more then the free Air we breath , ) and according to its several degrees of Expansion . We took then a Viol , with a neck not very large , and having fill'd about a fourth part of it with Quick-silver , we so erected and fastned a long and slender Pipe of Glass , open at both ends in the neck of the Viol , with hard sealing wax , that the lower end reach'd almost to the bottom of the Quick-silver , and the upper more then a yard above the viol . Then having blown in a little air , to try whether the Instrument did not leak , ( which t is very difficult to keep such instruments from doing , ) we conveigh'd it into a long and slender Receiver , fit for such an use , and having withdrawn the Air as well as we could , we found according to our expectation , that the Spring of the Air , included in the viol , impell'd up the Quick-silver into the erected Pipe , to the height of 27. inches , and having suffer'd the External air to return into the Receiver , the Quick-silver subsided in the Tube , sometimes almost , and sometimes quite as low as the stagnant Quick-silver in the viol . For the better illustration of this Experiment , thus summarily related , but with the like success , as to the main , several times repeated , we will subjoyn the following Observations and Notes . I. That we try'd this Experiment several times , and the last time in the presence of the famous Savilian Geometer , D r Wallis , who saw the Quick-silver in the Pipe impell'd up to 27. inches , being one himself of the measurers ; and though at other times we found it to be much about the same height with the last , yet once it seem'd plainly to be a pretty deal higher ; which yet we specifi'd not , because a mischance took off the mark , which we had made to measure the height by . II. Having once , to try the stanchnesse of the viol , blown in so much Air , ( without taking out any thing as we use to do in the like case ) that the Air in the cavity of the viol rais'd and kept the Quicksilver 3. inches high in the Pipe , when we went on with the rest of the Experiment , according to the way above describ'd , we found , by emptying the Receiver of air , that we were able to raise the Quicksilver in the Cane 30. inches , or somewhat more above that in the viol . III. Sometimes it may happen , that the Mercury , when taken very soon out of the Receiver , will not appear to have subsided to its first lownesse , which perhaps 't will not sink to in some while after : which is not to be wondred at , since in such a Receiver , which contains but little air , the heat of the Cement and the iron , imploy'd to melt it quite round the Receiver , may impart a little warmth to the air in the viol , which will after return to its former Temper . But this Accident is neither constant nor necessary to the Experiment . IV. T is very remarkable , that if the Receiver be fitly stopt , and slender enough ; upon the turning of the Stop-cock , to let out the air at the first exuction , the Mercury will be impell'd up by the spring of the Air in the viol , suddenly flying abroad or stretching it self , so that it will be rais'd several inches above the height it will rest at afterwards , and will make several vibrations up and down before it come to settle , just as the Mercury does in the Torricellian Experiment , ( the bare pressure of the little air doing here to the Mercury , what the weight of the Atmosphere does there , ) and such motions of the Mercury will be made four or five subsequent Exuctions , upon the withdrawing of the air in the Receiver . But as these grow lesser and lesser , as the Spring of the included Air grows fainter , so none of them is any thing near so considerable as the vibrations made upon the first Suck . V. Agreeable hereunto we observ'd , that at the first Exuction , when the Spring of the included Air was yet strong , the Mercury would be rais'd by our Estimate above half , if not ⅔ of the whole height , whereto 't will at length be brought , ( though that must be according to the bignes of the Receiver , and other circumstances , ) and the subsequent Exuctions do still adde less and less proportions of height to the Mercurial Cylinder , and that for two Reasons : the one , because the more there is of Mercury impell'd into the Tube , the greater weight of Mercury presses upon the included air : and the other , because the air has so much the more room in the viol to expand it self , whereby its spring must be proportionably weakned . Lastly , when we made most of these Tryals , I had the curiosity to observe the height of the Mercury in a good Barometer , and thereby found , that the Air was then but light ; its greatest height reaching but to 29 inches , and ⅜ , and its height soon after the Tryal , whereof D r Wallis was a witnesse , amounting but to 29. inches . To make an estimate of the Quantity of Air , that had rais'd the Quicksilver to 27 inches , we took the viol that was imploy'd about this Experiment ; and having counterpois'd it , whilst it was empty , we afterward fill'd it with water , and found the Liquor to weigh 5. Ounces , 2. Drachms , and about 20. Grains ; and then having pour'd out the water , till it was sunk to a mark which we had made on the outside of the Glass , to take notice how high the Quick-silver reach'd that we pour'd in : and lastly , weighing the remaining water , equal in bulk to the Quick-silver , we found it to amount to 1. Ounce , 2. Drachms , 14. Grains ; so that the air , that had rais'd up the Mercury , possess'd ( before its Expansion ) in the viol the place but of 4. ounces , and a few odde grains , i. e. of about ¼ of a Pint of water . And as for the Pipe also , imploy'd about the same Experiment , we found its Cavity to have about ⅛ part of an Inch in Diameter . It was one of the Uses I hop'd to make of this Experiment , that by comparing the several degrees of Expansion of air included in the viol , with the respective and increasing heights of the Mercury that was impell'd up into the Pipe , some estimate might be made of the force of the Spring of the Air weaken'd by several degrees of Dilatation ; but for want of conveniences I forbore to venter upon such nice Observations , especially because the Pressure of the dilated air , that remains in the Receiver , and is external to the air included in the viol , must also be taken into consideration . Another Use of our Experiment may be this : That it may supply us with a considerable Argument against some Learned men , who attribute the suspension of the Quick-silver in the Torricellian Experiment to a certain rarify'd matter , which some call a Funiculus , and whereto others give other names ; which rarify'd substance they suppose to draw up and sustain the Quick-silver , in compliance of Natures abhorrency of a Vacuum . For in the Experiment under consideration , the Quick-silver being not onely sustain'd at the height of 27 inches in the Tube , but elevated thither ; if the cause of This be demanded , it will be answer'd , according to their hypothesis , that the air in the Receiver , external to that of the Viol , being , by reason of the sucking out of some of it by the Pump , more rarified than that in the viol , it draws up to it the Quick-silver in the Cane , and the more it is rarify'd , the higher it is enabl'd to draw it . But then I demand , whence it comes to pass , that though we can , by persevering to pump , more and more rarifie the little remaining air , or the Aëreal substance in the Receiver , That in the viol not appearing to be also rarified , yet the air in the Receiver does not by virtue of its superadded rarefaction , whereby it exceeds that of the air in the viol , pull up the Quick-silver to a greater height in the Tube then 27. inches : For , that this is not the greatest height , to which Mercury may be rais'd by this rarefy'd substance , our Adversaries must not deny , who tell us , that in the Torricellian Experiment it sustains a Mercurial Cylinder of 29. inches , and ½ , and can raise a Cylinder of 29 inches to 29 ½ , or higher , in case that the Cylinder be made to vibrate up and down in the Tube . And as for those , that will in such cases , as our Experiment suggests , have recourse onely to that which they call the Fuga Vacui , they may please also to consider , that since the Quick-silver remains the same , its ascension in the Tube will not be available for what they think to be Natures purpose ; for , whether it reach higher or lower in the Tube , it will adaequately fill no more space in one posture , or in one figure , then in another , in what part soever of the cavity of the Receiver it be plac'd . EXPERIMENT II. Shewing , that much included Air rais'd Mercury in an open Tube , no higher than the weight of the Atmosphere may in a Baroscope . IN the former Experiment , by reason of the smalness of the viol , that was employ'd about it , there was so little Air included , that the Expansion of it so far , as was requisite to impell up the Mercury in the Pipe to the above mentioned height of 27. inches , may be probably suspected to have very much weaken'd its Spring , and therefore it may be thought , that ( especially considering the great force that several of our Experiments manifest imprison'd air to have , ) if there were a greater Quantity of air included in the vessel , so that the Expansion , sufficient to raise the Mercury to the former height , would not need to be considerable , ( because that the capacity of the Tube being but the same , the whole included air will be so much the lesse expanded , by how much the more of it there is , ) it seem'd probable that the Spring of the Air , being but a little weakned by so small a dilatation , would remain strong enough to raise a much taller Cylinder of Mercury in the Tube , and perhaps make the Liquor run over into the Receiver . But though this Suggestion seem probable enough , yet when I consider'd , that the weight of the Atmosphere is able to sustain a Cylinder of Quick-silver but of 30. inches , or thereabouts , ( in perpendicular height , ) and consequently that the pressure of such a Mercurial Cylinder is equivalent to that of an Atmospherical Cylinder of the same bore ; 't was not difficult to conclude , that since the Air in a viol , before the mouth is clos'd , has a Spring but equal in strength to the weight of the Atmospherical Pillar that leans upon it , ( for if the Spring were too strong for the weight that leans on it , some of the air would get out of the viol , ) a greater viol , and consequently a greater quantity of included air would not be able by its spring to elevate and sustain a longer Cylinder of Mercury , than the weight of the Atmosphere is able to do ; nor indeed altogether so much , because of some little ( though but little ) Diminution of the Spring by some ( though but a small ) expansion , that the included Air suffers , by succeeding in the place of the Mercury , that is impell'd up . To clear therefore this matter by an Experiment , we took a strong glass-bottle , capable of holding about a Quart of Liquor , and having put into it a convenient quantity of Quick-silver , we erected in it a very long and slender pipe of Glass , open at both the ends , and reaching at the lower end beneath the surface of the stagnant Mercury , and having fasten'd this pipe in the neck of the Bottle , by choaking up that neck very accurately with good Cement , that none of the included air might be able to get out , we conveigh'd the whole into a Receiver , like that imploy'd about the I. Experiment in shape , but much larger , that it might be able to contain so great a vessel ; and then the Engine being set a work , we quickly rais'd the Quick-silver to a greater height than formerly , and when we saw it come to a stand , we did by the help of some marks , made before hand on the pipe , and by the help of a very long and well divided Ruler , measure , with as much care and accurateness as the figure of the vessels would allow us to do , the height of the Mercurial Cylinder , which we found to be 29. inches , and about ⅞ , to which abating half an inch , which was rais'd , before the Pump was employed , by some air that had been blow'd into the Bottle , to try whether it were stanch ; deducting , I say , this half Inch of Quick-silver , which remain'd in the Tube after the external Air was let in , ( as well as it had been there before the Receiver was exhausted , ) out of the newly mention'd number there remain'd 29. inches , and neer ⅜ , for the height of the Mercury , rais'd by the Spring of the Air , shut up in the Bottle : and then consulting with the above mentioned Baroscope , which stood in a window in another part of the house , I found , that the weight of the Atmosphere did bear a Mercurial Cylinder of about 29. Inches and ½ , which was higher by ⅛ than that to which the Spring had rais'd the Quick-silver in the exhausted Receiver : and the Difference perhaps would have been greater , if the place , where the Experiment was made , had not by its warmth added some little matter to the Spring of the Air , and if also we could have kept the Mercury so long elevated , as to give it leave to discharge its self of those small bubbles , which t is almost impossible in such Experiments as this to free Quick-silver from , without some help from time . Lastly , though we caus'd the Pump to be ply'd , to try whether we could not , by the more diligent Exuction of the Receiver , raise the Quick-silver above the height of that which the Atmosphere kept sustain'd in the Baroscope , yet our labour gave us but a confirmation , that the Spring of the Air would not raise the Mercury higher , then did the weight of the Atmosphere , which may not a little confirm the 2 d Observation . N B. This was not the onely nor the first Experiment we made of this kind , but this being carried on without mischances , ( with which divers others were attended , ) and made with much care , I thought fit to set down This in stead of all , intimating generally about the rest , that they seem'd to agree well for the main with that , which is here recited ; onely there is one thing relating to those other Experiments , that seems not altogether unworthy to be taken notice of ; which is , that when our Tryals were made in vessels , that contain'd a considerable quantity of Air , though upon the exhaustion of the Receiver the Spring of the included Air could not raise the Quick-silver to the top of the pipe , yet sometimes by other Effects it manifested it self to be very strong , as once or twice by the blowing out or breaking the Cork or Cement , and other matter that was imploy'd to stop the Glass it was shut in ; and once by an Accident too memorable to be here past over in silence . I had one day invited D r Wallis to see such an Experiment as I have been relating , made with ( not a viol , but ) a bottle of Green Glass , ( such as we use now for Wine , ) and 4 or 5 pounds of Mercury . After this Learned Person and I had continued Spectators as long as we thought fit , we withdrew into another Room , where we had not sat long by the fire , before we were surpriz'd by a suddain noise , which the person , that occasion'd it , presently came running in to give us an account of , by which it appear'd , that this Ingenious young Man , ( whom I often imploy about Pneumatical Experiments , and whom I mention'd to Your Lordship , because I. M. has the honour to be somewhat known to You , ) being desirous in our absence to satisfie the Curiosity he had to know , whether the Quick-silver could not be rais'd higher in the pipe than I had foretold , plyed the Pump so obstinately , that at length , the Bottle being not , it seems , every where equally strong , the imprison'd air found it more difficult to make the Quick-silver run over at the top of the pipe , than to break the Bottle in the weakest place , and accordingly did not onely throw off a piece of the Bottle , but threw it with such violence against the large and strong Receiver , as broke that also , and render'd it unserviceable for the future . But the Doctor and I laying together the Pipe , which happen'd to be broken into but few pieces , concluded by the place , to which we were told it reacht when this Accident happened , that it had not exceeded , nor indeed fully equall'd the height , to which the weight of the Atmosphere might have rais'd it . EXPERIMENT III. Shewing that the Spring of the included Air will raise Mercury to almost equal-heights in very unequal Tubes . HAving shown in the two former Experiments , that the Active strength of the Airs Spring is very considerable , I thought good also to examine , whether or no to the other resemblances in operation between the weight of the free Air , and the pressure of the included Air , this also may be added , that as the gravitation of the Atmosphere is able ( as we shall hereafter prove ) to sustain the Mercury at the same height in lesser and greater Tubes , seal'd at the top ; so the Pressure of the included Air may be able to sustain the Mercury at the same height in slenderer and in larger Tubes , though in the latter it must sustain a far greater weight of Mercury than in the former ; provided allowance be made for the weakning , which the Spring of the included Air must be subject to , by reason that , to succeed in the place of a large Cylinder of Mercury impell'd up into the greater Tube , it must expand it self more , and consequently have its Spring more weakned , than if the Tube were slender . To prosecute this Experiment , I thought on a peculiar shape of vessels , which , if I had been where there is a Glass-house , I would have caus'd to be blown for the more convenient trying of two Pipes of different bores at the same time . But though I wanted this Accommodation , I thought I might well enough show what I intended by imploying successively two Tubes of very differing sizes , provided the vessel for the including of the Air were the same . Wherefore taking the Glass bottle , made use of to try the former Experiment , and erecting in it after the manner above described a Cylindrical pipe of Glass , a good deal larger than the former , ( if not as large agen , ) we prosecuted the Experiment as we had made it , with the slender Tube above mentioned , and found that we were able , by the Spring of the Air in the bottle , to raise the Quick-silver to a considerable height , which , measuring as well as the vessel would allow us , was , by the least estimate that was made of it , ( which was mine ) 28. inches , and ⅛ , by which it appear'd to want somewhat above an Inch of the height of the Mercurial Cylinder , which the weight of the Atmosphere could have sustain'd , as appear'd by the Barometer , wherein the Quick-silver at that time was about 29. inches , and ¼ high ; which difference was no more then I expected , considering that , whereas the weight of the Atmosphere is still the same when the Mercury is at its full height ( and that whether the Pipe be great or small ) in a seal'd Tube ; the Spring of our included Air must needs be weakned the larger the Tube is , and the higher the liquid Metal is impell'd in it , so that it seem'd a considerable Phaenomenon , that the Spring of so little Air should be able to raise the Mercury as high within an Inch or thereabouts in a wider as in a slenderer Tube , since the Diameter of the Cavity of the former being by our estimate double to that of the latter , ( into which the slender Pipe could easily be put as into a Case too big for it : ) The greater Mercurial Cylinder may be suppos'd to have weighed near four times as much as the lesser ; I say , near , because there was an Inch difference in their heights : but in case these had been equal , then the Solidities of the Cylinders would have been to one another as their Bases ; and since these , being Circular , are in duplicate proportion to their Diameters , that is , as the Squares of their Diameters ; its plain , that if the Diameters be as one to two , the Squares of them must be as one to four ; and these Cylinders consisting of the same Mercury , their Weights will have the same Proportions with their Solidities , and consequently would be as one to four , making the abatement formerly intimated for the Inch and a little more of Mercury , by which the larger Cylinder came short of the height of the former . NB. 1. This and the two former Experiments tryed by us with Quick-silver , may be also tryed with Water ; but besides that we could hardly procure Tubes long enough for such Tryals , we were not very sollicitous about it : for if we attentively enough consider , what has been already deliver'd , and the Proportion in specifick gravity betwixt Water and Quick-silver , ( whereof the latter is near 14. times as heavy , bulk for bulk , as the former , ) 't will not be difficult to foresee the Event of such Experiments , which he , that has a mind to make , should be furnish'd not onely with long Tubes , but with capacious Vessels to shut up the Air in . Else the Air will be so far expanded before the Water has attain'd near the height , to which the weight of the Atmosphere may raise it , that the Experiments will not seem to succeed near so well with Water , as ours did with Quick-silver . 2. We thought it worth trying , whether , when the included Air had rais'd the great Cylinder of Mercury to the utmost height , it could elevate it to , by the Spring it then had ; it would not be brought to raise the Quick-silver yet higher , if , notwithstanding the Expansion it had already , there were an agitation made by the heated Corpuscles of the same Air. And in pursuance of this Curiosity having caus'd an hot Iron and a Shovel of kindled Coals to be held near the opposite parts of the Receiver , we perceiv'd after a while , that the Mercury ascended ⅛ of an inch or better above the greatest height it had reach'd before . But conjecturing that it would have risen higher , were it not that whilst the application of the hot bodies was making , some Particles of Air had unperceivably stolen into the Receiver , I caus'd the Pump to be ply'd again to withdraw the Air , I suspected to have got in , by which means the Mercury was quickly rais'd ⅝ of an inch , ( or better , ) by virtue of this Adventitious Spring , ( if I may so call it , ) which the included Air acquir'd by heat , and I made no doubt , that it might have been rais'd much higher , but I was unwilling by applying a less moderate heat to hazard the breaking of my Glasses , in the place I then was in , where such a mischance could scarce have been repair'd . EXPERIMENT IV. About a new Hydraulo-pneumatical Fountain , made by the Spring of uncompress'd Air. I Shall now add such an application of the Principle whereon the former Experiment was grounded , as I should scarce think worth mentioning in this place , were it not that besides that divers Virtuosi seem not a little delighted with it , it may for ought I know prove to be of some Philosophical use ( to be pointed at hereafter . ) We took a Glass-bottle with a convenient quantity of Water in it , and fitted this Bottle with a slender glass-pipe open at both ends , and about three foot long , which was so plac'd , that the lower Orifice was a good way beneath the Surface of the Water , and the Pipe it self passed perpendicularly upwards through the Neck of the Bottle , which Neck was , by the Pipe and by good hard Cement imploy'd to fill the space betwixt the Pipe and the inside , so well and firmly clos'd , that no Water or Air could get out of the bottle , nor no externall Aire could get into it , but by passing through the Pipe. This Instrument was convey'd into a large Receiver shap'd like a Pear , of which a good part of the blunt end , and a small part of the sharp end are cut off by Sections parallel to the Horizon , and consequently to one another . And because this Receiver was not ( nor ought to be ) long enough to receive the whole Pipe , there was Cemented on to the upper part of it a smaller Receiver of white Glass , of such a length and bigness , that the upper end of the Pipe might reach to the middle of its Cavity , or thereabouts , and that the motions of the springing water might have a convenient Scope , and so be the better taken notice of . This double Receiver being cemented on to the Engine , a little of the Air was by one Suck of the Pump drawn out from it , by which the Pressure of the remaining Air being weakned , it was necessary , that since the Air included in the Bottle had not its Spring likewise weakned , it should expand it self , and consequently impell up the water in the same Bottle through the Pipe , which it did so vigorously , as to make it strike briskly at first against that part of the top of the smaller Receiver , which was just over the Orifice of the Pipe. But after it had a while made the Water thus shoot up in a perpendicular line , as the Spring of the Air in the Bottle grew by that Airs dilatation to be weaken'd , the Water would be impell'd up less strongly and less directly , till the Air in the Bottle being as much expanded as that in the Receiver , the Ascent of the Water would quite cease , unless by Pumping a little more Aire out of the Receiver we renew'd it again . About the making of this Experiment these Particulars may be noted . 1. T is convenient , that the upper part of the Pipe be made ( as it easily may be at the flame of a Lamp ) very slender , that the Water having but a very small Orifice to issue out at , may be spent but slowly , and thereby make the Experiment last so much the longer . 2. You may , if you please , in stead of making the upper part of the Pipe slender , as was just now directed , Cement on to it a Top either of Glass or Brass , consisting of three or more very slender Pipes , with a Pin-hole at the end of each , that one of these pointing directly upwards , and the others to the right hand and to the left , the Water may spin out several ways at once , by which kind of branched Pipes we have sometimes imitated the Jets d' eau ( as the French call them ) and Artificial fountains of Gardens and Groto's . 3. In regard that so short a Cylinder of Water , as exceeded not the length of our Glass pipe , could not make any considerable resistance to the expansion of the included Air , it was thought and found safe enough to imploy in stead of a strong Glass-bottle a much larger Viol , without being sollicitous about its shape , or that it should be very strong , and by this means we could make this pleasant Spectacle last a great while , especially if we also made use of the expedient to be mentioned in the following Note . 4. If you find that the included Air have by expanding it self too much weaken'd its Spring , whilst there yet remains with it a good quantity of Water in the Bottle or Viol , you may reinforce the pressure of the Air by onely turning the Stop-cock , and letting in what air you think fit to the exhausted Receiver : for upon the admission of this new Air , the Air in the Receiver will press sisted on ? If as a Law-maker , then even the Sanction will continue , by which such Laws as these obliged formerly : So they will still oblige as Laws , whilst the same reason continues for which God was at first pleas'd to impose them . If as an infallible Judge of Reason ; still it will follow , that whilst the Reason holds , they will be so far from being made unlawful in such Particulars wherein the Reason does indeed hold , that their performance will still be acceptable to God , tho' not commanded by him . Either way of Explication is sufficient to overthrow his whole way of reasoning , as manag'd by our Adversaries . But what if we should turn this way of reasoning us'd by the Apostles , against our Adversaries ? What if we should conclude , That because Instrumental Musick was us'd then in their Temple Sacrifices , therefore it should still be at least fit and acceptable in our present Eucharistical Sacrifices ? I cannot foresee what they could say , why we should not have reason'd as the Apostles did ; or how the Apostles could blame us for doing so ; or why our Adversaries should blame us ; who profess themselves such Enemies of Impositions , if they did not impose upon us more than the Apostles , in so easily condemning matters of this nature as unlawful . They can pretend no more condemnation in other places of the Writings of the Apostles in this Case , than in those others wherein the Apostles themselves allow this way of Arguing . And I know no reason from the natures of the things themselves , that even our Adversaries can pretend to be temporary , or that will not make Instrumental-Musick as suitable to our present Worship , as it was to that of the Apostles . No sort of Sacrifices were more proper for Hymns than those that are Eucharistical , and such all ours are now , but were not so in the Days of the Apostles . And the use of Hymns neither is , nor can be denied by our Adversaries , as well in the private Synaxes of the Apostolical Christians , as in the Worship of the Temple . The Hymn to Christ as a God in Pliny , appeal'd to in the latter end of the second Century as a very early evidence of the belief of his Deity , seems to have been joined with the Eucharist . For Pliny tells us , on the same occasion , of the Covenant the Christians entred into against all the liberties us'd by wicked Persons . And the publick Singers are mention'd in the earliest distinct Accounts we have of their Offices , not as newly introduc'd , but as actually obtaining without any memory of a late Original . Had the reasons of the things been all that had been requisite for raising of the Affections , I cannot conceive any need our Adversaries can pretend for Singing : That does no otherways contribute to the raising of the Affections , than as the assistance and improvement of the Imagination may be supposed to contribute to it . The Singing does not add a new Reason , nor impose the old ones , why the Affections should be raised . But however , they do dispose the Affections to follow Reason , more readily and more vigorously than they would if they had not the assistance of a favourable Imagination : And that by the Nature of the Things themselves ; and in that regard , Musick Instrumental , also was acknowledg'd to have the same influence that Singing had by the Imagination over the Affections ; and to add to the advantages of Singing Vocally : So it was , that David's playing on the Harp cured Saul of the evil Spirit , by curing that Melancholy which disposed him to receive the Influences of the Evil Spirit : So it was , that the like use of Instrumental Musick dispos'd Elisha for the influences of the good Spirit , by composing that Passion which his Zeal against the Idolatry of the King of Israel had put the Prophet into ; it made him capable of being acted by the Spirit of Prophesy : For chearfulness of Temper is one of the Dispositions requir'd by the Rabinnical Jews themselves , for fitting Men for Prophecy . That may possibly be the Reason why the Scriptures mention Instrumental Musick as receiv'd in the Schools of the Prophets , especially when they were actually Prophesying ; as it should seem to dispose them for the freer Influences of the Divine Spirit . The Singing Hymns to such Instruments is call'd Prophesying , in the places now mention'd . So far the nature of the Spiritual Worship of the Gospel , is from superseding this assistance of Instrumental Musick , as our Adversaries would have us believe , that on the contrary I had done ) not satisfied about them . Onely He sometimes ( as I also did ) observ'd the Salient water to describe part of a line perfectly enough Parabolical , with which sort of Curves he has been particularly conversant . This made me resolve for further satisfaction to attempt by another contrivance , ( of whose success , if I can procure the Implements I need , Your Lordship may expect an account , ) what the Figures will be not onely of Salient water , but Mercury , and other Liquors ; and that when the Receiver is much better exhausted , then it was necessary it should be in the foregoing Experiment . EXPERIMENT V. About a way of speedily breaking Flat Glasses , by the weight of the Atmosphere . FOr the more easie understanding of some of the subsequent Tryals , it will be requisite in this place to mention among Experiments about the Spring of the Air the following Phaenomenon belonging to its Weight . This is one of those that is the most usually shown to Strangers , as a plain and easie proof both that the Weight of the incumbent Air is considerable , and that the round figure of a Receiver doth much more conduce to make an exhausted Glass support that weight , than if the upper part of the Receiver were flat . To make this Experiment we provided a Hoop or Ring of Brass of a considerable thickness , whose height was 2 ½ , or 3 Inches , and the Diameter of whose Cavity as well at the upper as lower Orifice ( should have been just 3. Inches , but through the errour of the workman ) was 3. inches and 2 / 10. To this Hoop we successively fasten'd with Cement divers round pieces of Glass , such as is used by Glasiers ( to whose Shops we sent for it ) to make Panes for Windows , and thereby made the Brass-ring with its Glass-cover a kind of Receiver , whose open Orifice we carefully cemented on to the Engine ; and then we found , as we had conjectured , that usually at the first Exuction ( though sometimes not till the second ) the Glass-plate would be broken inwards with such violence , as to be shatter'd into a great multitude of small fragments , and ( which was remarkable ) the irruption of the external Air driving the Glass inwards did constantly make a loud Clap , almost like the Report of a Pistol . Which Phaenomenon , whether it may help us to discover the cause of that great noise , that is made upon the discharging of Guns , ( for the Recoyl seems to depend upon the Dilatation and Impulse of the Powder , ) I must not stay to consider . EXPERIMENT VI. Shewing , that the breaking of Glass-plates in the foregoing Experiment , need not to be ascrib'd to the Fuga Vacui . THough I long since inform'd you , that in the Experiments I then presented Your Lordship , it was not my purpose to deliver my own Opinion whether there be a Vacuum , or no , and though I do not in this Tract intend to declare my self either way ; yet , that I may on this occasion also show , that the Pressure of the Air may suffice to account for divers Phaenomena , which according to the vulgar Philosophers must be referr'd to Natures abhorrency of a Vacuum , I will illustrate the foregoing Experiment by another , the substance whereof is this . That if , instead of the above mentioned brass Hoop , both whose Orifices are of equal breadth , you imploy a hollow ( but taller ) piece of Brass , or ( which is more easily made ) of Latton , shap'd like a Conus iruncatus , or a Sugar-loaf , whose upper part is taken off parallel to the bottom ; and if you make the two Orifices of a breadth sufficiently unequal , as if the larger being made as wide as that of our Brass-hoop , the straiter were less than an Inch in Diameter ; You will find , that if this piece of Metal be made use of , as the other was in the foregoing Experiment , the flat Glass cemented on to the Orifice , will be easily broken , as formerly when t is fastned to the wider Orifice ; but if the straiter Orifice be turn'd upward , the Glass that covers it , if it be of a due thickness , ( though no thicker than the former , ) will remain entire , notwithstanding the withdrawing of the Air from beneath it : Which seems sufficiently to argue , that t is not precisely Natures abhorrency of a vacuum , that is the cause why Glasses are usually broken in such Experiments , since whether the wider or the narrower Orifice be uppermost , and cover'd , ( the Metalline part of the vessel being the same , and onely varying its posture , ) the capacity of the exhausted vessel will be equal ; and therefore Nature ought to break the Glass as well in one case as the other , which yet the Experiment shows she does not . Wherefore this Diversity seems much better explicable by saying , that when the wider Orifice is uppermost , the Glass that covers it must serve for the Basis of a large Atmospherical Pillar , which by its great weight may easily force the resistance of the Glass : whereas when the smaller Orifice is uppermost , there leans upon its Cover but so slender a Pillar of the Atmosphere , that the natural tenacity or mutual cohaesion of parts in the Glass is not to be surmounted by a weight that is no greater . EXPERIMENT VII . About a convenient way of breaking blown Bladders by the Spring of the Air included in them : THe foregoing Experiments having sufficiently manifested the strength of the Airs Spring upon fluid Bodies , I next thought fit to try , whether the force of a little included Air would also upon consistent and even Solid bodies emulate the Operations of the weight of the Atmosphere . In the prosecution of which Enquiry we thought fit to make two sorts of Tryals : the one , where the Air is included in the Bodies , on which its Spring does work ; and the other , where t is External to them . Of the first sort are this 7 th , and the two following Experiments ; and of the second sort are some other Tryals , to be comprehended under the 10 th Experiment . Having formerly mention'd to Your Lordship , that we were several times able ( though sometimes not without much difficulty ) to make a blown Bladder break with the Spring of its own Air ; I should not think it worth while to say any thing here about the same Phaenomenon , but that ( besides that it seems odd enough , and is not unpleasant to many Spectators , ) it may deserve not to be wholly neglected , because a Good way to break Bladders in the much Exhausted Receiver , may sometimes prove an useful Expedient , especially in such cases where the Experimenter ( who sometimes either is not skilful enough , or well enough furnish'd with accommodations to regulate the ingress of the Air ) would very suddainly supply the Receiver with fresh Air , when it has been much emptied , without danger of letting in too much Air from without . Not to mention , that the Air , included in the Bladder to be broken , may be so mingled with streams , or imbu'd with divers qualities , as to be much fitter than common Air for some particular Purposes . We shall then for the affinities sake between this Tryal and the former , subjoyn now the way , by which we seldom fail'd of breaking Bladders in our emptied Receivers . For this purpose , the blown Bladder that was to be burst , having the neck very closely and strongly tyed , was kept a pretty while in the Receiver , whilst the Air was pumping out , and then taken out again , that , now the fibres were stretcht and relax'd , the Capacity being lessen'd by a new ligature that I order'd to be strongly made near the Neck , the Bladder might be lessen'd though the Air were but the same , and the Membrance being not so capable of yielding as before , upon the second exhaustion of the Receiver the Bladder in it would break , far more easily then otherwise , and perhaps be oddly enough lacerated . We sometimes also varied this way of disposing Bladders to be burst , by omitting the preparatory putting in of the Bladder into the Receiver , and onely taking it in a little near the Neck , that , the Bladder having not been blown very full at first , the tension of the included Air might be greater . But this last way is to be made use of , when the thing we desire is , that the Bladder by breaking at a certain time may part with its Air , and not when t is onely to give an instance of the force of the Spring of uncompress'd Air against the sides of the Vessel that contain it . EXPERIMENT VIII . About the lifting up a considerable Weight by the bare Spring of a little Air included in a Bladder . YOu will easily believe , that the Force imploy'd ( in the foregoing Experiment ) by the Air , to break the well blown Bladders t is included in , is considerable , if I here adde , that a small quantity of Air , which will not fill ¼ of a Bladder , will not onely serve to blow it quite up , but will manifestly swell it , though that Effect be oppos'd not onely by the resistance of the Bladder it self , but by a considerable weight tied to the bottom of it , as in the following Experiment . We took a middle siz'd Bladder ( of a Hog or Sheep , ) and having press'd out the Air , till there remain'd but about a fourth or fifth part ( by guess , ) we caus'd the Neck to be very strongly tyed up again : also round about the opposite part of the Bladder , within about an inch of the bottom , we so strongly tyed another String , that it would not be made to slip off by a not inconsiderable weight we hung at it . Then fastning the Neck of the Bladder to the turning Key , we convey'd the Bladder and the Weight hanging at it into a large Receiver , in which when it began to be pretty well exhausted , the Air within the Bladder being freed from the wonted Pressure of the Air without it , did by its own Spring manifestly swell , and thereby notably shorten the Bladder that contain'd it , and by consequence visibly lifted up the Weight , ( that resisted that change of figure , ) which exceeded 15 pound of 16. ounces to the Pound . After that we took a larger Bladder , and having let out so much Air , that it was left lank enough , we fasten'd the two ends of it to the upper part of the Receiver , ( for which else it would have been too long , ) and tyed a Weight ( but not the same ) so as that it hung down from the middle of the Bladder ; then exhausting the Receiver as before , though the Bladder , and this new Weight which stretcht it , reach'd so low , as that for a while we could scarce see whether it hung in the Air or no , yet at length we perceiv'd the Bladder to swell , and concluded that it had lifted up its Clog about an Inch ; which was confirm'd by the return we permitted of the Air into the Receiver , upon which the Bladder became more wrinkled than before , and the Weight descended , which being taken off , and weighed in a Statera , amounted to abovt 28 Pounds . We would have reiterated the Experiment , but so heavy a Weight having broken the Bladder , we were discouraged from proceeding any farther , especially in regard of the difficulty of bringing by this contrivance the strength of the Airs Spring to any exact computation , though it sufficiently shews what I design'd it should , namely that the Spring of a little included Air may be able even in so slight a contrivance to raise a great Weight . Whether this Experiment may any way illustrate the motion of Muscles , made by Inflation , Contraction , &c. it belongs not to this place to consider . EXPERIMENT IX . About the breaking of Hermetically seal'd Bubbles of Glass by the bare Spring of their own Air. I Shall premise to the following Tryals an Experiment , wherein Uncompress'd Air is made by its own bare Spring to break the solid body it self t is shut up in . And this I the rather set down before the subsequent Tryals , because in our already publish'd Physico-Mechanical Experiments mention has been made of this Tryal , as of one that we could not then make to succeed ; we have since , imploying smaller Receivers , made it often enough prosperously , somewhat to the wonder of eminent Virtuosi , who confess'd to me they had made frequent and divers attempts to perform the same thing , without ever succeeding in any of them . But it will not be requisite to multiply relations about this Particular , and therefore I shall set down but this one , which I meet with among my loose Notes . A large Glass Bubble Hermetically seal'd being put into the Receiver , and the Air drawn out as much as in usual Operations , and somewhat more , though I told the Company before hand that I had several times observ'd , that such Bubbles would not break immediately , but somewhile after the withdrawing the Air from about them , yet this continued so long entire after we had left off Pumping , that presuming it had been blown too strong , I began to dispair of the Experiments succeeding ; when , whilst we were providing something else to put into the Receiver , and as I guess'd 4. minuts after the Pump had been let alone , the Bubble surpriz'd us with its being broken with such violence by the Spring of the included Air , that the fragments of it were dash'd every way against the sides of the Receiver , and broken so very small , that when we came to take it up , the Powder was by the By-standers compar'd to the small Sand wont to be imploy'd to dry Papers , that have been newly writ upon with Inck. The Reason why the Bubble broke so slowly I cannot now stay to propose , no more then to examine whether the difficulty of breaking vessels of Glass , no thicker then these Bubbles , proceed from some weakning of the Spring of imprisoned Air , by its stretching a little the including Glass , ( for in another case we have observ'd this Glass to be stretchable by the pressure of Air ; ) or from hence , that 't was very hard , as I have elsewhere mention'd , to avoid rarifying the Air a little , and consequently weakning its Spring , by the heat that was necessary to be imploy'd about the sealing up the Bubble . EXPERIMENT X. Containing two or three Tryals of the force of the Spring of our Air uncompress'd upon stable and even solid Bodies , ( whereto t is external . ) IN prosecution of the Enquiry propos'd in the Title , we made ( among others ) the following Tryals . The I. TRYAL . 1. WE took the Brass-hoop , mention'd in the 5 th Experiment , ( whose Diameter is somewhat above 3. Inches , ) and having caus'd a Glazier to cut some Plates of Glass , such as are used for making the Quarrels of Windows , till he had brought them to a Size , & a roundness fit to serve for Covers to that brass-hoop , we carefully fasten'd one of them with Cement to the upper Orifice of the Hoop or Ring , and then cementing the lower Orifice to the Engine , so that the Vessel , compos'd of the Metal and Glass , serv'd for a small Receiver ; we whelm'd over it a large and strong Receiver , which we also fasten'd on to the Engine with Cement after the usual manner . By which Contrivance it was necessary , that when the Pump was set on work , the included Receiver ( of Brass and Glass ) should have its Air withdrawn , and yet the Air in the larger Receiver should not be pump'd out but by breaking through the Glass , so that the internal Air of the Metalline Receiver ( as we may call it for distinctions sake ) being pump'd out , the Glass Plate , that made part of that Receiver , must lye expos'd to the pressure of the Ambient Air shut up in the other Receiver , without having the former assistance of the now withdrawn Air to resist the Pressure ; wherefore , as we expected , at the first or second Exuction of the Air , included in the small metalline Receiver , the Glass-plate was , by the Pressure of the incumbent Air , contain'd in the great Receiver , broken into an 100 pieces , which were beaten inwards into the Cavity of the Hoop . The II. Tryal . 2. This done , to shew that there needed not the Spring of so great a quantity of included Air to break such Glasses , we took another Roundish one , which , though wide enough at the Orifice to cover the Brass Ring & the new Glass-plate that we had cemented on it , was yet so low , that we estimated it to hold but a 6 th part of what the large Receiver , formerly imploy'd , is able to contain ; and having whelm'd this smaller vessel , which was shap'd like those Cups they call Tumblers , over the Metalline Receiver , and well fasten'd it to the Engine with Cement , we found that though this External Receiver had a great part of its Cavity fill'd by the included one , yet when this Internal one was exhausted by an Exuction or two , the Spring of the little Air that remain'd , was able to break the Plate into a multitude of fragments . The III. Tryal . 3. Because the Glass-Plates hitherto mention'd seem'd not so thick , but that the Pressure of the included Air might be able to give considerabler Instances of its Force ; in stead of the Metalline Receivers hitherto employed , we took a square Bottle of Glass , which we judg'd to be able to contain about a Pint ( or Pound ) of Water , and which had been provided to keep subtle Chymical Liquors in , for which use we are not wont to choose weak ones . This we inverted , and apply'd to the Engine as a Receiver , over which we whelm'd the large Receiver formerly mention'd ; and having cemented it on , as in the foregoing Experiments , we set the Pump on work to empty the internal Receiver , ( or square Bottle , ) by which means the withdrawing of the Air , and the figure of the vessel ( which was inconvenient for resisting ) suffer'd the Pressure of the Air included in the external Receiver to crush the viol into a great number of pieces . And to vary this Experiment , as we did that of breaking the metalline Receivers , we took another Glass of the shape and about the bigness of the former , and having apply'd it to the Engine as before , and cover'd it with a Receiver that was little higher than it self , we found , that upon the exhaustion of the Air the second square Glass was likewise broken into many fragments , some of which were of so great a thickness , as mov'd some wonder , that the bare Pressure of the Air was able to break such a vessel , though probably the Cracks , that reacht to them , were begun in much weaker parts of the Glass . NB. 1. The bottoms and the necks of both these square Bottles were entire enough ; by which it seem'd probable , that the vessels had been broken by the Pressure of the Air against the Sides , which were not onely thinner than the parts above named , but expos'd a larger Superficies to the lateral Pressure of the Air , than to the perpendicular . 2. We observ'd in one of the two last Experiments , that the Vessel did not break presently upon the last Exuction that was made of the included Air , but a considerable time after , which it seems was requisite to allow the comprest parts of the Glass time to change their places ; and this Phaenomenon I therefore mention , because the same thing that here happen'd in the breaking a Glass inwards by the Spring of the Air , I elsewhere observ'd to have happen'd in breaking a Glass outwards by the same Spring . 3. To confirm , that it is the Spring of the External Receivers Air that is the Agent in those Fractures of Glasses , and to prevent or remove some scruples , we thought fit to make this variation in the Experiment . We applyed a Plate of Glass , just like those formerly mentioned , to the Brass-hoop ; but in the cementing of it on , we plac'd in the thickness of the Cement a small Pipe of Glass of about an Inch long , whose Cavity was not so big as that of a Straw , and which being left open at both the ends might serve for a little Channel , through which the Air might pass from the External Receiver to the Internal ; over This we whelm'd one of the small Receivers above mentioned , & then , though we set the Pump on work much longer then would have needed if this litle Pipe had not been made use of , we found , as we expected , that the Internal Receiver continued entire , because the Air , whose Spring should have broken it , having liberty to pass through the Pipe , and consequently to expand it self into the place deserted by the Air pump'd out , did by that Expansion weaken its Spring too much , to retain strength enough to break the Metalline ( or Internal ) Receiver . But here t is to be noted , that either the Pipe must be made bigger than that lately mentioned , or the Exuction of the Air must not be made by the Pump as nimbly as we can , or otherwise the Plate of Glass may be broken notwithstanding the Pipe ; because the Air contain'd in the External Receiver , having a force much greater than is necessary to break such a Plate , it may well happen ( as I have sometimes found it do ) that if the Air be hastily drawn out of the Internal Receiver , that Air , which should succeed in its room , cannot get fast enough out of that external Receiver through so small a Pipe , and the Air remaining in that external Receiver will yet retain a Spring strong enough to break the Glass . To illustrate which , I shall propose this Experiment , That sometimes , when I have at the flame of a Lamp caus'd Glass Bubbles to be blown with exceeding slender Stems , if they were nimbly remov'd out of the flame whilst they were ignited , they would according to my conjecture be either broken , if they cool'd too fast ; or compress'd inward , if they long enough retain'd the Softness they had given them by Fusion . For the Air in the Bubble being exceedingly rarified and expanded , whilst the Glass is kept in the flame , and coming to cool hastily when remov'd from thence , looses upon refrigeration the Spring the heat had given it , and so , if the External Air cannot press in fast enough through the too slender Pipe , there will not get in Air enough to resist the Pressure of the Atmosphere , and therefore if this Pressure find the Bubble yet soft , it will press it a little inwards , and either flatten it , or make a dimple in it , though the Orifice of the Pipe be left open . EXPERIMENT XI . Shewing , that Mercury will in Tubes be raised by Suction no higher then the weight of the Atmosphere is able to impell it up . T Is sufficiently known , that the common opinion of Philosophers , and especially of those which follovv Aristotle , has long been , and still is , that the cause of the Ascension of Water upon Suction , and particularly in those Pumps , where the Water seems of its own accord to follow the rising Sucker , is Natures abhorrency of a Vacuum . Against this receiv'd Opinion divers of the Modern Philosophers have oppos'd themselves . But as some of them were Vacuists , and others Plenists , they have explicated the Ascension of Water in Sucking-pumps upon very different grounds ; so that many Ingenious men continue yet irresolv'd in this noble Controversie . Wherefore though I have formerly made , and now renew a solemn Profession , that I do not in this Treatise intend to declare either for or against the being of a Vacuum ; and though I have * elsewhere occasionally acknowledg'd my Self not to acquiesce fully in what either the ancient or the modern Philosophers have taught about the adequate cause of Suction ; ( in the assigning of which , I think , I have shown them to have been somewhat deficient , ) yet since I think some Experiments , of importance to this Controversie , may be better made by the help of our Engine , than they have been by any Instrument I have yet heard of , I shall now adde the Tryals I made , to shew both that whether there be or may be a Vacuum or not , there is no need to have recourse to a fuga vacui to explicate Suction ; and also that whatever other Causes have by Gassendus and Cartesius been ingeniously propos'd to explicate Suction , it seems to depend clearly upon the Weight of the Atmosphere , or in some cases upon the Spring of the Air ; though I deny not , that other Causes may contribute to that Pressure of the Air , which I take to be the grand and immediate Agent in these Phaenomena . We took a Brass-Pipe bended like a Siphon , and fitted at the bigger end with a Stop-cock &c , as is delineated in the Figure , ( which Instrument for brevities sake I often call an Exhausting ( or Sucking ) Siphon , ) and to the slender end of this we fastned with good Cement the upper end of a Cylindrical Pipe of Glass , of about fifty inches long , and open at both ends , and having the lower end open into a Glass of stagnant Quick-silver , whose upper Superficies reacht a pretty deal higher than the immerst Orifice of the Glass Cane . These things being thus prepared , we caus'd the Pump to be set on work , whereby the Air being by degrees drawn out of the Exhausting Siphon , and consequently of the Glass-Cane that open'd into it ; the stagnant Mercury was proportionably impell'd up into the Glass-pipe , till it had attain'd to its due height , which exceeded not 30. inches . And then , though there remain'd in the upper part of the Pipe above 20 inches unfill'd with Quick-silver , yet we could not by further pumping raise that fluid Metal any higher . By which it seems manifest enough , that whatever many Learned men have taught , or others do yet believe about the unlimited power that Nature would exercise , to prevent what they call a Vacuum ; yet this power has its bounds , and those depend not so much upon the Exigency of that Principle , which the School-men call a fuga vacui , as upon the specifick Gravity of the Liquor to be rais'd by Suction . For confirmation of which , we substituted in stead of the stagnant Mercury a bason of Water , and though instead of the many Sucks we had fruitlesly imploy'd to raise the Quick-silver above the lately mentioned height , we now imploy'd but one Exsuction , ( or less then a full one , ) which did but in part empty the Exhausting Siphon : yet the Water upon the opening of the Stop-cock was not onely impell'd to the very top of the Glass-Cane , but likewise continued running for a good while through the Exhausting Siphon , and thence fell upon the plate of the Engine ; so that it seem'd an odd spectacle to those that knew not the reason of it , to see the Water running very briskly of its own accord as they imagined out of the shorter leg of a Siphon ; especially that leg being perhaps not above a a quarter so long as the other . And here I must not omit this considerable circumstance , that though sometimes in the Torricellian Experiment I have observ'd the Mercury to stand at thirty inches , and now and then above it , yet the height of the Mercury elevated in our Glass-Cane appear'd not , when measured , to reach fully 29. inches and a quarter , which I thought it was not difficult to render a reason of , from the varying weight of the Atmosphere ; and accordingly consulting the Baroscope , ( that stood in another room , ) I found the Atmosphere to be at that time somewhat light , the Quick-silver in it being in height but 29. inches and an eighth , which probably would have been the very height of the Quick-silver rais'd by the Engine , if it had had time by standing to free it self from Bubbles . From whence we may conclude , that Suction will elevate liquors in Pumps no higher then the weight of the Atmosphere is able to raise them , since the closeness requisite in the Pump of our Engine to be stanch makes it very unlikely , that by any ordinary Pump a more accurate Suction can be effected . I have nothing to adde about the related Experiment but this one ; that it may afford us a notable confirmation of the argument we formerly propos'd against them , that ascrib'd the elevation and sustentation of the Quick-silver in the Torricellian Experiment to a certain rarified Air , which the more highly it is rarified , the greater power it acquires to attract Quick-silver , and other contiguous Bodies ; for in our Experiment though by continuing to pump we can rarifie or distend more and more the Air in the Exhausting Siphon , yet we were not able to raise the Mercury above 30 inches , ( which exceeds not the height to which the Atmosphere is able to elevate it , ) and this , though , the stagnant Mercury being exposed to the free Air , it cannot be pretended ( as in some other cases it may , though not satisfactorily , be done ) that the Mercury cannot be raised higher , without offering violence to the body incumbent on the stagnant Mercury : for in the Experiment we are considering if Nature should raise the Quick-silver higher and higher in the Pipe , to succeed in the room of the Air that is withdrawn ; the formerly Stagnant Mercury , that would on this occasion be rais'd , might be immediately succeeded by the free and undilated Air , so that Nature would be put to offer violence to the Quick-silver onely , which if she were scrupulous to do , what ayl'd her to raise it ( as she did in our Tryal ) against the inclinations of so ponderous a body , to above 29. Inches high ? Annotation . Though the Exhausting Siphon , mentioned at the beginning of this Experiment , may be easily enough conceiv'd by an attentive inspection of the Figure , yet because I frequently make use of it in Pneumatical Experiments , t will not be amiss to intimate here once for all these three particulars about it . 1. That though the bending Pipe its self may be for some uses more conveniently made of Glass than of Metal , because the Transparency of the former may inable us to discover what passes in it ; yet for the most part we choose to imploy Pipes of the latter sort , because the others are so very subject to break . 2. That t is convenient to make the longer leg of the Siphon a little larger at the bottom than the rest of the Pipe usually needs to be , that it may the more commodiously admit the shank of a Stop-cock , which is to be very carefully inserted with Cement ; by seasonably turning and returning of which Stop-cock , the passage ( for the Air ) between the Engine and the Vessel to be exhausted is to be opened and shut . 3. That though we sometimes content our selves to apply immediately the brass Siphon its self to the Engine , by fastning with Cement the external shank of the Stop-cock to the Orifice of the little Pipe , through which the Excuction of the Air is made ; yet the bended Pipe alone , if it be not almost constantly held , is so apt to be loosen'd by the motion of the Engine , and the turning of the Stopcock , ( which frequently occasions Leaks , and disturbs the Operation , ) that for the most part we make use of a Siphon consisting of a brass Pipe , and Stop-cock , and a Glass of 6 , 8 , or 10 Inches in height , and of some such shape ( for it need not be the very same ) as that represented in the Figure : for by this means , though the Exhaustion is because of this additional Glass , somewhat longer in making , yet it is more securely and uninterruptedly carried on by reason of the stability , which the breadth of the lower Orifice of the Glass gives to the whole Instrument . Besides which , we have these other conveniences , that not onely the Siphon is hereby much lengthned , which in divers Tryals is very fit ; but also that we may commodiously place in the Glassie part of this compounded Syphon a Gage , whereby to discern from time to time how much the Air is drawn out of the Vessel to be exhausted . EXPERIMENT XII . About the differing Heights whereto Liquors will be elevated by Suction , according to their several Specifick Gravities . IF , when I was making the foregoing Experiment , I had been able to procure a Pipe long enough , I had tried to what height I could raise Water by Suction , though I would have done it rather to satisfie Others then my self , who scarce doubted , but that as Water is ( bulk for bulk ) about 14 times lighter than Quick-silver : so it would have been rais'd by Suction to about four or five and thirty foot , ( which is 14 times as high as we were able to elevate the Quick-silver , ) and no higher . But being not furnished for the Tryal I would have made , I thought fit to substitute another , which would carry the former Experiment somewhat further . For whereas , in That , we shew'd how high the Atmosphere was able by its whole Gravitation to raise Quick-silver ; and whereas likewise that , which appears in Monsieur Paschals Experiment , is , at what height the whole weight of the Atmosphere can sustain a Cylinder of Water : by the way that I thought on , it would appear , ( which hath not yet ( that I know of ) been shewn , ) how a part of the Pressure of the Air would in perpendicular Pipes raise not onely the two mentioned Liquors , but others also to Heights answerable to the degree of Pressure , and proportionable to the specifick Gravities of the respective Liquors . To make this Tryal the more clear and free from exceptions , I caus'd to be made and inserted to the shorter Leg of the above mentioned Exhausting Siphon a short Pipe ; which brancht it self equally to the right hand and the left , as the adjoyning Figure declares . In which contrivance I aim'd at these two conveniences : one that I might exhaust two Glass-Canes at the same time ; and the other , to prevent its being surmis'd that the Engine was not equally applied to both the Glasses to be exhausted . This additional Brass-pipe being carefully cemented into the Sucking Syphon , we did to each of its two branches take care to have well fastned with the same Cement a Cylindrical Glass of about 42 Inches in length , ( that being somewhat near the height of our exhausting Syphon above the floor , ) the lower Orifice of one of these two Glasses being immerst in a vessel of stagnant Mercury , and that of the other in a vessel of Water , where care was taken by those I imploy'd , that as the Tubes were chosen near of a bigness , ( which yet was not necessary , ) so the surfaces of the two different Liquors should be near of a height . This being done , we began to pump warily and slowly , till the Water in one of the Pipes was elevated to about 42 inches , and then measuring the height of the Quick-silver , in the other Pipe above the surface of the Stagnant Quick-silver , we found it to be almost 3 Inches ; so that the Water was about 14 times as high as the Quick-silver . And to prosecute the Experiment a little further , we very warily let in a little Air to the Exhausting Syphon , and had the pleasure to see the two Liquors proportionably descend , till turning the Stop-cock when the Water was about 14 inches high , we thereby kept them from sinking any lower , till we had measured the height of the Quick-silver , which we found to be about one inch . We tried also the proportion of these two Liquors at other heights , but could not easily measure thē so well as we did at those newly mentioned ; and therefore though there seem'd to be some slight variation , yet we lookt upon it but as what might be well imputed to the difficulty of making such Experiments exactly ; and this displeas'd me not in these Tryals , that whereas it was observ'd , and somewhat wondred at , that the Quick-silver for the most part seem'd to be somewhat ( though but a very little ) higher then the proportion of 1 to 14 required , I had long before by particular Tryals found , that though 14 and 1 be the nearest of small integer numbers that express the proportion between the Specifick Gravities of Quicksilver and Water , yet the former of those Fluids ( or at least that which I made my Tryals with ) is not quite so heavy as this proportion supposes , though I shall not here stay to determine precisely the difference , having done it in another Tract , where the method I imployed in the investigation of it is also set down . The above mentioned Experiment , made by the help of our Engine , as to Quick-silver and Water being confirmable by Tryals ( to be by and-by mentioned ) made in other Liquors , affords our Hypothesis two considerable advantages above the vulgar doctrine of the Schools , ( for I do not apply what follows to all the Plenists , ) who ascribe the ascension of Liquors by Suction to a Traction made ob fugam vacui , as they are wont to speak . For first it is manifestly agreeable to our Doctrine , that , since the Air , according to It , is a Fluid that is not void of Weight , it should raise those Liquors that are lighter , as Water , higher then those that are ponderous , as Quick-silver ; and that answerably to the disparity of their Weights ▪ And secondly , there is no reason why , if the Air be withdrawn by Suction from Quick silver and Water , there should be less left a vacuum above the one then above the other , in case either of them succeed not in the place deserted by the Air , and consequently when the Air is withdrawn out of both the forementioned Glass-pipes , if there would be no vacuum in case no liquor should succeed it , why does Nature needlesly to prevent a vacuum make the Water that is an heavy body ascend contrary to its own nature , according to which it tends towards the Center of the Earth ? And if the succeeding of a liquor be necessary to prevent a vacuum , how chance that Nature does not elevate the Quick-silver as well as the Water , especially since t is manifest by the foregoing Experiment that she is able to raise that ponderous Liquor above 26 inches higher than she did in the Experiment we are now discoursing of . Perhaps it would not be amiss to take notice , on this occasion , that among other applications of this Experiment it may be made somewhat useful to estimate the differing Gravities of liquors , to w ch purpose I caus'd to be put under the bottom of the forementioned Glass pipes two vessels , the one with fresh water , & the other with the like water impregnated with a good proportion of Sea-salt that I had caus'd to be dissolv'd in it , for want of Sea-water , which I would rather have imploy'd . And I found , that when the fresh water was rais'd to about 42 inches , the Saline solution had not fully reacht to 40. But though this difference were double to that which the proportion and Gravity betwixt our Sea-water and fresh water would have required , yet to make the disparity more evident , and also because I would be able the better to guess at the proportion of the dissolv'd Salt by making it as great as I could , I caus'd an unusual Brine to be made , by suffering Sea-salt to deliquate in the moist Air. And having applyed this Liquor and fresh water to the two already mentioned Pipes , and proceeded after the former manner , we found that when the pure water was elevated to near 42 Inches , the liquor of Sea-salt wanted about 7. Inches and a quarter of that height ; and when the water was made to subside to the middle of its Pipe , or thereabouts , the Saline liquor in the other Pipe was between 3 and 4 inches lower then it . I would have tryed the difference between these Liquors and Oyl , but the Coldness of the Weather was unfavourable to such a Tryal : but to shew a far greater Disparity then That would have done betwixt the height of Liquors of unequal Gravities , I took fair Water , and a liquor made of the Salt of Pot-ashes suffered to run in a Sellar per deliquium , ( this being one of the ponderousest Liquors I have prepar'd , ) and having proceeded as in the former Tryals , I found that when the common Water was about 42 inches high , the newly mention'd Solution wanted somewhat of 30 inches ; and when the Water was made to subside to the middle of its Pipe , or thereabouts , the deliquated Liquor was between 6 and 7 inches lower then it . I had some thoughts , when I applied my self to make these Tryals , to examine how well we could by this new way compare the Saltness of the waters of several Seas , and those also of Salt-springs ; and likewise whether , and ( if any thing near ) how far we might by this Method determine the proportion of the more simple Liquors that may be mingled in compounded ones , as in the mixture of Water and Wine , Vinegar and Water , &c. but being not provided with Instruments fit for such nice Tryals , and a mischance having impair'd the Glasses lately mentioned before the last Tryals were quite ended , and having soon after broken one of them , I laid aside those Thoughts . EXPERIMENT XIII . About the Heights to which Water and Mercury may be rais'd , proportionably to their specifick Gravities , by the Spring of the Air. IN prosecution of the Parallel formerly begun , betwixt the Effects of the Weight of the Atmosphere , and the Spring of included Air , we thought fit after the foregoing to make the following Experiment . We took a strong Glass-bottle , capable to hold above a Pint of Water , and having in the bottom of it lodg'd a convenient quantity of Mercury , we pour'd on it a greater quantity of Water , ( because this Liquor was to be impell'd up many times higher than the other , ) and having provided two slender Glass-pipes , each open at both ends , we so plac'd and fastned them , by means of the Cement wherewith we choak'd the upper part of the neck of the Bottle , that the shorter of the Pipes had its lower Orifice immerst beneath the surface of the Quick-silver , and the longer Pipe reacht not quite so low as that Surface , and so was immerst but in the Water , by which contrivance we avoided the necessity of having two distinct vessels for our two stagnant Liquors , which would have been inconvenient in regard of the slenderness of the upper part of our Receiver . This done , we conveyed the Bottle into a fitly shap'd Receiver , ( formerly describ'd at the first Experiment , ) and having begun to pump out the Air , we took notice to what heights the Quick-silver and Water were impell'd up in their respective Tubes , on which we had before made marks from inch to inch with hard Wax , ( that they might not be remov'd by wet or rubbing , ) and we observ'd , that when the Quicksilver was impell'd up to two inches , the Water was rais'd to about eight and twenty ; and when the Quick-silver was about one inch high , the Water was about fourteen . I say , about , partly because some allowances must be made for the sinking of the Superficies of the Stagnant Quicksilver , and the greater subsidence of that of the stagnant Water , by reason of the Liquors impell'd into the two Pipes ; partly because that the breadth of the Mark of wax was considerable , when the Quick-silver was but about an inch high , and so made it difficult to discern the exact height of the Metal , when the water was fallen down to fourteen inches : especially in regard that the Quick-silver never ascending so high as the neck of the Bottle , ( which the water left far beneath it , ) the thickness of the Receiver , and that of so strong a Bottle made it difficult to discern so clearly the station of the Quick-silver as I could have wished . EXPERIMENT XIV . About the Heights answerable to their respective Gravities , to which Mercury and Water will subside , upon the withdrawing of the Spring of the Air. FOr the further illustration of the Doctrine propos'd in the last and some of the foregoing Experiments , about the raising and sustentation of Liquors in Pipes by the Pressure of the Air ; I thought it not unfit to make the following Tryal , though it were easie to foresee in this peculiar Experiment a peculiar difficulty . We caus'd then to be convey'd into a fitly shap'd Receiver two Pipes of Glass very uneven in length , but each of them seal'd at one end , the shorter Tube was fill'd with Mercury , and inverted into a small Glass Jarr , wherein a sufficient quantity of that Liquor had been before lodg'd : the longer Pipe was fill'd with common Water , and inverted into a larger Glass , wherein likewise a fit proportion of the same Liquor had been put . Then the Receiver being closely cemented on to the Engine , the Air was pump'd out for a pretty while before the Mercury began to subside ; but when it was so far withdrawn , that its Pressure was no longer able to keep up a Mercurial Cylinder of that height , that liquid Metal began to sink ; the Water in the other Tube , though this were three times as long , still retaining its full height . But when the Quick-silver was fallen so low , as to be but between three & four inches above the surface of the Stagnant Quick-silver , the Water also began to subside , but sooner then according to the laws of meer Staticks it ought to have done , because many Aerial Particles emerging from the body of the Water to the upper part of the Glass , did by their Spring concurr with the Gravity of the water to depress this Liquor . And so when the Quick-silver was three inches above the stagnant Mercury , the water in the other Pipe was fallen divers inches beneath 42 , and several inches beneath 28 when the Mercury had subsided an inch lower . But this being no more then was to be expected , after we had caus'd the Pumping to be a while continued , to free the water the better from the latitant Air , we let in the external Air , and having thereby impell'd up again both the Liquors into their Pipes , and remov'd the Receiver we took out those Pipes , and inverting each of them again to let out the Air , ( for even that wich held the Quick-silver had got a small Bubble , though inconsiderable in comparison of the Air that had got up out of the Water , ) we fill'd each of them with a little of the restagnant Liquor belonging to it , and inverting each Tube once more into its proper liquor , we repeated the Experiment , and found it , as it seem'd , to require more pumping then before to make the Liquors begin to subside ; so that when the Mercury was fallen to three inches , or two , or one , the water subsided so near to the heights of 42 , 28 , or 14 inches , that we saw no sufficient cause to hinder us from supposing , that the litle differences that appear'd between the several heights of the Quick-silver , and fourteen times as great heights of the Water ( which fell somewhat lower than its proportion in Gravity required ) proceeded from some Aerial Corpuscles yet remaining , in spite of all we had done , in the water , and by their Spring , though but faint , when once they had emerg'd to the upper part of the Glass , furthering a little the depression of it : not now to mention lesser Circumstances , particularly , that the surface of the stagnant Water did not inconsiderably rise by the accession of the Water lately in the Pipe ; whereby the Cylinder of water , rais'd above that surface , became by so much the shorter . However Your Lordship may , if You think fit , cause the Experiment to be reiterated , which I could not so well do , by reason of a mischance that befell the Receiver . EXPERIMENT XV. About the greatest height to which Water can be rais'd by Attraction or Sucking Pumps . SInce the making and the writing of the foregoing Experiments , having met with an opportunity to borrow a place somewhat convenient to make a Tryal to what height Water may be rais'd by Pumping ; I thought not fit to neglect it . For though both by the consideration of our Hypothesis , to whose truth so many Phaenomena bear witness ; and though particularly by the Consequences deduceable from the three last recited Experiments I were kept from doubting what the event would be , yet I thought it worth while to make the Tryal . I know what is said to have been the Complaint of some Pump-makers . But I confess the Phaenomenon , 't was grounded on , seem'd not to me to be certainly enough deliver'd by a Writer or two , that mention what they complain'd of ; and their observation seems not to have been made determinately or carefully enough for a matter of this moment . Since that which they complain of seems to have been in general , that they could not by pumping raise Water to what height they please , as the common Opinion of Philosophers about Natures fuga vacui made them expect they might . And it may well have happen'd , that as they endeavoured onely to raise it to the height their occasions required , so all that their Disappointment manifested , was , that they could not raise it to that particular height : which did not determine , whether if the Pump had been a Foot or a Yard shorter , the Water would then have been elevated to the upper part of it or no : but that which I chiefly consider is , that these being but Tradesmen , that did not work according to the Dictates of , or with design to satisfie , a Philosophical Curiosity , we may justly suspect , that their Pumps were not sufficiently stanch , nor the Operation Critically enough perform'd and taken notice of . Wherefore , partly because a Tryal of such moment seem'd not to have yet been duely made by any ; and partly because the varying weight of the Atmosphere was not ( that appears ) known , nor ( consequently ) taken into consideration by the ingenious Monsieur Paschal in his famous Experiment , which yet is but analogous to this ; and partly because some very Late as well as Learned Writers have not acquiesc'd in his Experiment , but do adhere to the old Doctrine of the Schools , which would have Water raiseable in Pumps to any height , ob fugam vacut , ( as they speak , ) I thought fit to make the best shift I could to make the Tryal , of which I now proceed to give Your Lordship an Account . The place I borrowed for this purpose was a flat Roof about 30 foot high from the ground , and with Railes along the edges of it . The Tube we made use of should have been of Glass , if we could have procured one long and strong enough . But that being exceeding difficult , especially for me , who was not near a Glass-house , we were fain to cause a Tin-man to make several Pipes of above an inch bore , ( for of a great length 't was alleadg'd they could not be made slenderer , ) and as long as he could , of Tin or Laton , as they call thin Plates of Iron Tinn'd over ; and these being very carefully soder'd together made up one Pipe , of about one or two and thirty foot long , which being tied to a Pole we tried with Water whether it were stanch , and by the effluxions of that Liquor finding where the Leaks were , we caus'd them to be stopt with Soder , and then for greater security the whole Pipe , especially at the Commissures , was diligently cas'd over with our close black Cement , upon which Plaister of Paris was strewed to keep it from sticking to their hands or cloaths that should manage the Pipe. At the upper part of which was very carefully fastned with the like Cement a strong Pipe of Glass , of between 2 and 3 foot in length , that we might see what should happen at the top of the water . And to the upper part of this Pipe was ( with Cement , and by the means of a short elbow of Tin ) very closely fastned another Pipe of the same Metal , consisting of two pieces , making a right Angle with one another , whereof the upper part was parallel to the Horizon , and the other , which was parallel to the Glass-pipe , reacht down to the Engine , which was plac'd on the flat Roof , and was to be with good Cement sollicitously fastned to the lower end of this descending part of the Pipe , whose Horizontal leg was supported by a piece of Wood , nail'd to the above mentioned Rails ; as the Tube also was kept from overmuch shaking by a board , ( fasten'd to the same Rails , ) and having a deep Notch cut in it , for the Tube to be inserted into . This Apparatus being made , and the whole Tube with its Pole erected along the Wall , and fastned with strings and other helps , and the descending Pipe being carefully cemented on to the Engine , there was plac'd under the bottom of the long Tube a convenient vessel , whereinto so much Water was poured , as reach'd a great way above the orifice of the Pipe , and one was appointed to stand by to pour in more as need should require , that the vessel might be still kept competently full . After all this the Pump was set on work , but when the water had been raised to a great height , and consequently had a great Pressure against the sides of the Tube , a small Leak or two was either discovered or made , which without moving the Tube we caus'd to be well stopt , by one that was sent up a Ladder to apply store of Cement where it was requisite . Wherefore at length we were able after a pretty number of Exuctions , to raise the Water to the middle of the Glass-pipe above mentioned , but not without great store of bubbles , ( made by the Air formerly conceal'd in the pores of the water , and now emerging , ) which for a pretty while kept a kind of Foam upon the surface of it , ( fresh ones continually succeeding those that broke . ) And finding the Engine and Tube as stanch as could be well expected , I thought it a fit season to trie what was the utmost height to which Water could by Suction be elevated ; and therefore though the Pump seem'd to have been plyed enough already , yet for further satisfaction , when the Water was within few inches of the top of the Glass , I caus'd 20 Exuctions more to be nimbly made , to be sure that the water should be raised as high as by our Pump it could be possibly . And having taken notice where the Surface rested , and caus'd a piece of Cement to be stuck near it , ( for we could not then come to reach it exactly , ) and descending to the Ground where the stagnant water stood , we caus'd a string to be let down , with a weight hanging at the end of it , which we applied to a mark , that had been purposely made at that part of the ( Metalline ) Tube , which the superficies of the stagnant water had rested at , when the water was elevated to its full height : and the other end of the string being , by him that let it down , applied to that part of the Glass , as near as he could guess , where the upper part of the Water reacht , the Weight was pull'd up ; and the length of the string , and ( consequently ) the height of the Cylinder of Water was measur'd , which amounted to 33 foot , and about 6 inches . Which done , I return'd to my lodging , which was not far off , to look upon the Baroscope , to be informed of the present weight of the Atmosphere , which I found to be but moderate , the Quick-silver standing at 29 inches , and between 2 and 3 eights of an inch . This being taken notice of , it was not difficult to compare the success of the Experiment with our Hypothesis . For if we suppose the most received proportion in bulk between Cylinders of Quick-silver and of Water of the same weight , namely that of 1 to 14 , the height of the water ought to have been 34 foot and about two inches , which is about 8 inches greater than we found it . But then Your Lordship may be pleased to remember , that I formerly noted ( before ever I made this Experiment ) that I did not allow the proportion betwixt Mercury and Water ( at least such water as I made my Tryals with ) to be altogether so great , and though in ordinary Experiments we may with very litle inconvenience make use of that proportion to avoid fractions , yet in so tall a Cylinder of Water as ours was , the difference is too considerable to be neglected . If therefore in stead of making an Inch of Quick-silver equivalent to 14 inches of Water , we abate but a quarter of an inch , which is but a 56 part of the height of the Water , this abatement being repeated 29 times and a quarter , will amount to 7 inches , and above a quarter , which added to the former height of the Water , namely 33 Foot and 6 inches , will make up 34 foot and above an inch ; so that the difference between the height of the Mercury sustain'd by the weight of the Atmosphere in the Baroscope , and that of the Water rais'd and sustain'd by the Pressure of the same Atmosphere in the long Tube did not appear to differ more than an Inch or two from the proportion they ought to have had , according to the difference of their specifick Gravities . And though in our Experiment the difference had been greater , provided it exceeded not 8 or 10 Inches , it would not have been strange : partly , because of the difficulty of measuring all things so exactly in such an Experiment , partly because as Waters are not all of the same weight , so a little disparity of it in so long a Cylinder may be considerable , and partly ( and perhaps chiefly ) because the Air flying out of the bubbles , that rose out of so great a quantity of water , and breaking at the top of it , and so near that of the Tube , might by its Spring ( though but very weak ) assisting the weight of so much water , somewhat ( though not much ) hinder the utmost elevation of that Liquor . But our Experiment did not make it needful for me to insist on these considerations , and the inconsiderable difference that was betwixt the height of the water we found , and that which might have been wish'd , did rather countenance then at all difavour the thing to be made out by our Experiment , since by no Pumping we could raise the Water quite so high ( though I confess it wanted but very little ) as the weight of the Atmosphere was able to keep up a Cylinder of Mercury proportionable to it in height , and equivalent in weight : and yet I presume , Your Lordship will easily grant , that there was at least as much care used in this Experiment , to keep the things imploy'd about it tight , as has been wont to be used by Tradesmen in their Pumps , where t is not so easie either to prevent a little insinuation of the Air , or to discern it . T is not that I am sure , that even all our care would have kept the water for any long time at its full height ; but , that the Air was sufficiently exhausted for our purpose , when we determin'd the height of the water , I was induc'd to conclude by these Circumstances . 1. As well the construction of the Engine , as the many ( formerly related ) Experiments , that have been successfully tryed with it , shew that t is not like it should be inferiour in closeness to the great Water-Pumps , made by ordinary Tradesmen : and particularly the XI . Experiment foregoing , manifests , that by this Pump Quick-silver was rais'd to as great a height , as the Atmosphere is able to support in the Torricellian Experiment . 2. The stanchness of the Pipe appear'd by the Diminution ( as to number ) of Bubbles , that appear'd at the top of the Water , and by their size too , for when there was a leak , ( though but so very small , that the water could not get out at it in the Tube , ) it might usually be taken notice of by the attentive ear of him that stood to watch upon the Ladder , erected by the side of the Tube ; and the Air that got in , did easily discover it self to the Eye by large Bubbles , manifestly differing from those that came from the Aerial particles belonging to the water ; and if the leak were not so very small , the Air that got in would suddenly lift up the water above it , and perhaps fill with it the descending Pipe. 3. Though there had been some imperceptible Leak , yet that would not have hindred the success of the Experiment for the main . For in leaks that have been but small , though manifest enough , we have often , by causing the Pump to be ply'd less nimbly then it now was , been able to prosecute our Tryals ; because the Pump carried of still more Air than could get in at a leak that was no greater . 4. And that litle or no ( intruding ) Air was left in the upper part of our Tube , was evident by those marks , whereby it was easie for them that are well acquainted with the Pump , to estimate what Air is left in the vessel it should exhaust , and particularly towards the end of our operation I observ'd , that when the Sucker was deprest , there came out of the Water that cover'd the Pump , so very few bubbles , that they might be imputed to the Air afforded by the Bubbles , springing from the water in the Tube ; whereas if any adventious Air had got into that Cylinder of water , it would have appear'd in the water that cover'd the Pump . 5. Lastly , it were very strange , that if the water was but casually hindred by some Leak from ascending any higher , it should be so easy to raise it to the very number of feet that our Hypothesis requires , and yet we should be unable by obstinate Pumping to raise it one foot higher . Note , 1. as soon as we had made our Experiment , and thereby found , that what was requisite to it was in order ; I sent to give notice of it to D r Wallis , and D r Wren , as Persons whose curiosity makes them as well delighted with such Tryals , as their deep knowledg makes Them most competent Judges of them . But before They could be found , and come , it being grown somewhat late and windy , I that was not very well , and had tired my self with going up and down , could not stay with them so long as I intended , but leaving the rest of the Repeated Experiment to be shewn them by I. M. ( who had been very industrious in fitting and erecting the Tube ) they and their Learned friend ( whom they brought with them ) Doctor Millington , told me a while after , that they also had found the greatest height , to which they could raise the water , to be 33 foot and an half . 2. When the Water began first to appear in the Glass , the Bubbles would be , as I had foretold , exceeding numerous ; so as to make a froath of near a foot high , if the water were newly brought , and had never been rais'd in the Tube before . But if the Pumping were long continued , the number and height ( or at least one of the two ) of the Aggregate of Bubbles , would ( as there remain'd fewer and fewer Aerial particles in the water ) be lesser and lesser ; but their emerging did never that I remember wholly cease . 3. At the beginning also there would appear great vibrations of the water in the upper part of the Tube ; the rising and the falling amounting sometimes to a foot , or near half a yard : but these grew lesser and lesser , as those of the Quicksilver in the Torricellian Experiment use to do . 4. One may use an ordinary Pail to hold the stagnant water ; but we rather imploy'd a vessel of Earth made ( for another purpose ) somewhat slender , and of a Cylindrical shape , because in a narrow vessel t is more easie to guess by the rising and falling of the Liquor , how the Pump is ply'd , and to perceive even smaller Leaks . 5. I must not forget to take notice , that though the newly nam'd Gentlemen came to me ( when they had seen the Experiment tryed ) within less than an hour after the time I had look'd upon the Baroscope , and observ'd the Quick-silver to stand somewhat beneath 29 inches , and 3 eights ; yet when presently upon their return I consulted the same instrument again , the Mercury appear'd to be sensibly risen , being somewhat ( though but very litle ) above 9 and 20 inches , and 3 eights , and 5 or 6 hours after ( at bed-time ) I found it to be yet more considerably risen . Which may keep Your Lordship from wondring at what I intimated a little above , touching Monsieur Paschal's Experiment , as well as touching the disappointment of the Pump-makers endeavours . For t is not onely possible , that ( as I have elsewhere noted ) Water may be raised in the same Pump ( though we suppose it still equally stanch ) higher at one time than at another : but 't was contingent , that , in Monsieur Paschal's noble attempt to imitate the Torricellian Experiment with Water in stead of Quick-silver , the proportion betwixt the heights of those two Liquors in their respective Tubes answer'd so well to their specifick Gravities . For , the varying weight of the Atmosphere being not then ( that appears ) known , or consequently taken into consideration ; if Monsieur Paschal , having tryed the Torricellian Experiment , when the Air was for instance very heavy , had tryed his own Experiment , when the Atmosphere had been as light as I have often enough observ'd it to be , he might have found his Cylinder of Water to have been half a Yard or two foot shorter than the formerly measur'd height of the Quick-silver would have required . I have now no more to adde about this 15 th Experiment , but that it may serve for a sufficient confirmation of what I note in another Treatise , against those Hydraulical & Pneumatical Writers , who pretend to teach wayes of making Water pass by inflected Pipes , and by the help of Suction , from one side of a Mountain to the other , be the Mountain never so high . For , if the Water be to ascend as 't were spontaneously above 35 or 36 foot , a Sucking Pump will not ordinarily , at least here in England , be able to raise it . And now I speak of Mountains , it will not be altogether impertinent to add , that if it had not been for unseasonable weather , I had thought fit to make the foregoing 11 th Experiment ( of elevating Mercury by Suction ) to be tryed at the top of an Hill , not far from the place I then was at . For by what has been already delivered , it appears , that we might have estimated the height , to which the Water may be there elevated by Suction , without repeating the Experiment with a thirty five foot Tube , ( which we could not hope for conveniency to do , ) by the utmost height to which our Engine could have rais'd Mercury : and it may be of some use to be able from Experiments to make some estimate ( for it can scarce be an accurate one ) how much it may be expected , that Pumps shall ( caeteris paribus ) loose of their power of elevating Water by Suction , by being imploy'd at the top of an Hill , in stead of being so at the bottom , or on a Plain . Remembring always what I lately intimated , that even in the same place Liquors will be brought to ascend by Suction to a greater or less height at one time than another , according to the varying Gravity of the Atmosphere . EXPERIMENT XVI . About the bending of a Springy Body in the Exhausted Receiver . THe cause of the Motion of Restitution in Bodies , and consequently of that which makes some of them Springy , which far the greater part of them are not , has been ingeniously attempted by some Modern Corpuscularians , and especially Cartesians ; but since divers Learned and Judicious men do still look upon the cause of Elasticity , as a thing that needs to be yet farther enquired into ; and because I am not my self so well satisfied as to blame their Curiosity , I held it not unfit to examine by the help of our Engine their Conjecture , who imagine that the Air may have a great stroak in the making of bodies Springy ; and this I the rather did , because I had * elswhere shewn , that there is no need to assert , that in all Bodies , that have it , the Elastical power flows immediately from the Form , but that in divers of them it depends upon the Mechanicanical structure of the Body . To make some Tryal therefore , whether the Air have any great Interest in the Motion of Restitution , we took a piece of Whalebone of a convenient bigness and length , and having fasten'd one end of it in a hole made in a thick and heavy Trencher , to be placed on the Plate of the Engine , we tyed to the other end a Weight , whereby the Whalebone was moderately bent , the weight reaching down so near to a Body plac'd in a level position under it , that if the Spring were but a little weaken'd , the weight must either lean upon , or at least touch the Horizontal plain : or if on the other side the Spring should grow sensibly stronger , it might be easily perceiv'd by the distance of the weight , which was so near the plain , that a litle increase of it must be visible . This done , we convey'd these things into the Receiver , and order'd those that pump'd to shake it as litle as they could , that the weight might not knock against the Body that lay under it , or so shake it , as to hinder us from discerning whether or no it were depress'd by the bare withdrawing of the Air. And when the Air had been well pump'd out , I watcht attentively whether any notable Change in the distance of the weight from the almost contiguous plain would be produc'd upon its being let in again : for the weight was then at rest , and the returning Air flowing in much more speedily than it could before be drawn out , I thought this the likeliest time to discover whether the absence of the Air had sensibly altered the Spring of the Whalebone . But though the Experiment were made more than once , I could satisfie my self onely in this , that the depression or elevation of the Weight , that was due to the true and meer change of the Spring , was not very considerable , since I did not think my self sure , that I perceiv'd any at all : for though it be true , that sometimes , when the Receiver was well exhausted , the Weight seem'd to be a little deprest , yet That I thought was very litle , if any thing more than what might be ascrib'd to the absence of the Air , not consider'd as a Body that had any thing to do directly with the Spring , but as a Body that had some ( though but a litle ) Weight ; upon which account it made the medium , wherein the Experiment was tried , contribute to support the Weight that bent the Spring ; which Weight , when the Air was absent , must ( being now in a lighter medium ) have its Gravitation increas'd by as much weight , as a quantity of the exhausted Air , equal to it in bulk , could amount to . But this Experiment being tried only with VVhalebone , and in a Receiver not very Great , may deserve to be further tryed in taller Glasses , with Springs of other kinds , and by the motions of a VVatch , and other more artificial Contrivances . EXPERIMENT XVII . About the making of Mercurial , and other Gages , whereby to estimate how the Receiver is exhausted . BEcause the Air being invisible , it is not always easie to know whether it be sufficiently pump'd out of the Receiver that was to be exhausted ; we thought it would be very convenient to have some Instrument within the Receiver , that might serve for a Gage , or Standard ; whereby to judge whether or not it were sufficiently exhausted . To this purpose divers Expedients were thought on , and some of them put in practise ; which , though not equally commodious , may yet all of them be usefully imploy'd , one on this occasion , and another on that . The First ( if I misremember not ) that I propos'd , was a Bladder , ( which may be greater or less , according to the Size of the Vessel it is to serve for ) to be very strongly tied at the neck , after having had onely so much Air left in the folds of it , as may serve to blow up the Bladder to its full dimensions , when the Receiver is very well exhausted , and not before . But though Your Lord-ship will hereafter find that I yet make use of small Bladders on certain occasions , in which they are peculiarly convenient , yet in many cases they do , when the Glasses are well exhausted , take up too much room in them , and hinder the Objects , included in the Receiver , from being observ'd from all the sides of it . Another sort of Gage was made with Quick-silver , pour'd into a very short Pipe , which was afterwards inverted into a litle Glass of stagnant Quick-silver , according to the manner of the Torricellian Experiment . For this Pipe being but a very few inches long , the Mercury in it would not begin to descend , till a very Great proportion of Air was pump'd out of the Receiver ; because till then , the Spring of the remaining Air would be strong enough to be able to keep up so short a Cylinder of Mercury . And this kind of Gage is no bad one . But because , to omit some other litle inconveniences , it cannot easily be suspended , ( which in divers Experiments 't is fit the Gage should be , ) and the Mercury in it is apt to be too much shaken by the motion of the Engine , there was another kind of Gage by some Ingenious man ( who ever he were ) substituted in its place , consisting of a kind of Siphon , whose shorter leg hath belonging to it a large Bubble of Glass , most commonly made use of at an Illustrious meeting of Virtuosi ; where Your Lordship having seen it , I shall not need to describe it more particularly . But none of the Gages I had formerly us'd , nor even this last , having the conveniences that some of my Experiments require ; I was fain to devise another , which is That I most make use of , as having advantages , some or other of which each of the Gages already mentioned wants ; for even that with Spirit of Wine , not to mention lesser disadvantages , hath a Bubble too Great to let it be useful in vessels so slender , as for some purposes I divers times imploy ; and this short Cylinder of so light a Liquor as spirit of Wine , makes the subsidence of the Liquor be indeed a good sign that the Receiver is well exhausted , but gives us not an account what Quantity of Air may be in the Receiver , 'till it be arriv'd at that great measure of Rarefaction ; and the same Liquor , being upon a very small leak ( such as would not be prejudicial to many Experiments ) impell'd up to the top of the Gage , we cannot afterwards by this Instrument take any measure of the Air that gets in at the Leak . But now there are divers Experiments where I desire to see the Phaenomena that will happen , not onely ( or perhaps not at all ) upon the uttermost Exhaustion of the Air , but when the Pressure of it is withdrawn to such or such a measure , and also when the Air is gradually readmitted . To make the Gage we are speaking of , take a very slender and Cylindrical Pipe of Glass , of 6 , 8 , 10 , or more Inches in length , and not so big as a Goose-quill , ( but such as we imploy for the Stems of seal'd Weather Glasses , ) and having at the flame of a Lamp melted it , but not too near the middle , to make of it by bending it a Siphon , whose two Legs are to be not onely parallel to one another , but as litle distant any where from one another as conveniently may be . In one ( which is usually the longer ) of these Legs , there is to be left at the top , either half an inch , or a whole inch , or more or less than either , ( according to the length of the Gage , or the scope of the Experimenter ) of Air in its natural state , neither rarefied , nor condens'd ; the rest of the longer leg , and as great a part of the shorter as shall be thought fit , being to be fill'd with Quick-silver . This done , there may be Marks plac'd at the outside of the longer ( or sealed ) leg , whereby to measure the Expansion of the Air included in the same leg , and these marks may be either litle Glass Knubs , about the bigness of Pins heads , fasten'd by the help of a Lamp at certain distances to the longer leg of the Siphon , or else the divisions of an Inch made on a list of Paper , and pasted on either to the Siphon it self , or to the slender Frame , which on some occasions we fasten the Gage to . This Instrument being convey'd into a Receiver , ( which for expedition sake we choose as small as will serve the turn , ) the Air is to be very diligently pump'd out , and then notice is to be taken to what part of the Gage the Mercury is deprest , that we may know , when we shall afterwards see the Mercury driven so far , that the Receiver , the Gage is plac'd in , is well exhausted . And if it be much desired to know more accurately ( for one may arrive pretty near the truth by Guess ) what stations of the Mercury in the Gage are answerable to the degrees of the Rarefaction of the Air in the Receiver ; that may be compassed either by Calculation , ( which is not so easie , and supposes some Hypotheses , ) or ( though not without some trouble ) by letting in the water as often as is necessary , into a Receiver , whose intire capacity is first measured , and in which there may be Marks made to shew when the water to be let in shall fill a fourth part , or half , or three quarters &c. of the Cavity . For if ( for instance ) when the Quick-silver in the Gage is deprest to such a Mark , you let in the water , and that Liquor appears to fill a fourth part of the Receiver , you may conclude , that about a 4 th part of the Air was pump'd out , or that a 4 th part of the Spring , that the whole included Air had , was lost by the Exhaustion , when the Quick silver in the Gage was at the Mark above mentioned ; & if the admitted water do considerably either fall short of , or exceed the quantity you expected , you may the next time let in the water either after the Mercury has a litle past the former Mark , or a litle before it is arriv'd at it . And when once you have this way obtain'd one pretty long and accurate Gage , you will not need to take so much pains to make others , since you may divide them by the help of that one ; for this being plac'd with any other in a small Receiver , when the Mercury in the Standard-Gage ( if I may so call it ) is deprest to any of the determinate divisions obtain'd by observation , you may thence conclude how much the Air in the Receiver is rarefied , and consequently by taking notice of the place where the Mercury rests in the other Gage , you may determine what degree of Exhaustion in a Receiver is denoted by that station of the Mercury in this Gage . Perhaps I need not tell your Lordship that the Ground of this contrivance was , that whereas in divers other Gages , when the Pump came to be obstinately ply'd , the Expansion of the included Air would be so great , that it would either drive out the Liquor , especially if it were light , or in part make an escape through it : I judg'd that in such an Instrument , as that newly describ'd , those inconveniences would be avoided , because that the more the Air should come to be dilated , the greater weight of Quick-silver it would in the shorter Leg have to raise , which would sufficiently hinder it from making that heavy liquor run over ; and the same ponderousness of the Liquor , together with the slenderness of the Pipe , would likewise hinder the included Air from getting through in Bubbles . NB. 1. For most Experiments , where exact measures are not required , it will not be so necessary to mark the Gage at any other station of the Quick-silver then that which t is brought to by the Exhaustion of the Receiver , for by that alone we may know when the Air is well pump'd out of the Receiver , wherein the Gage is included : and when one is a litle us'd to some particular Gage , one may by the subsidence of the Mercury guess at the degree of the Airs rarefaction , so near as may serve the turn in such Experiments . But when this Instrument is to be us'd about nice Tryals , where it may be thought requisite to have it divided according to one of the ways formerly proposed , it will on divers occasions be more secure ( in case the maker of the Gage has skill to do it , ) to put to the Divisions rather by litle Knubs of Glass , than by Paper ; because this will on such occasions be in danger either to be rubb'd off , or wetted . And if Glass-marks be us'd , it will be convenient that every fifth , or tenth , or such Ordinal number as shall be judg'd fit , be made of Glass of a differing colour , for distinction sake , & the more easie reckoning . We sometimes for a need apply , in stead of these Glass-knubs , little marks of hard sealing Wax , which will not be injur'd by moisture , as those Papers will that are pasted on ; but these of Wax , though in many cases useful , are not comparable to the other in all , since if they be very small , they are easily rubb'd off , and if large , they make not the Division exact enough , and often hide the true place of the Quick-silver . I shall here about the Mercurial Gages add onely this Hint , that what I propos'd to my self in that Contrivance , was not onely to estimate the Air pump'd out of the Receiver , or that remaining in it ; but also , by the help of this Instrument ( as elsewhere by another Experiment ) to measure ( somewhat near ) the strength of the Spring of rarefied Air , according to its several degrees of Rarefaction ; and by this Observation , in concurrence with other things , I hoped we might ( according to what I have elsewhere insinuated ) be assisted to estimate , by the Cylinder of Mercury rais'd in the open leg , the Expansion of the Air included in the sealed leg : but of these things I design'd in this place to give but an Intimation . 3. That leg of the Gage that includes the Air , may be seal'd up either at the beginning , before the Pipe be bent into a Syphon , or ( which is much better ) after the following manner . Before you bend the Pipe , draw out the end of it , which you mean to seal , to a short and very slender Thread ; then having made the Pipe a Siphon , pour into the leg , which is to remain open , as much Quick-silver as you shall judg convenient , which will rise to an equal height in the other leg ; out of which by gently inclining the Siphon , you may pour out the superfluous Mercury , ( if there be any , ) and when you see that there is an inch , or half an inch ( or what part you design'd to leave for Air ) unfill'd with Mercury , next to the end that is to be clos'd ; and that the rest of that leg , and as much ( as you think fit ) of the other is full of Quick-silver , you may , by keeping the Siphon in the same posture , and warily applying the slender Apex above mentioned to the upper part of the flame of a Lamp , blown Horizontal , easily seal up that Apex without cracking , or prejudicing the open leg , or considerably injuring the Air hole , that was to be seal'd up in the other . And this sealing of one leg must ( as t is evident ) keep the Mercury suspended in it , though it be higher by divers inches than that in the open leg , till the withdrawing of the external Air enable the included , by expanding it self to depress the Mercury in the seal'd leg , and raise it in the open . 4. How the length of these Mercurial Gages is to be varied , according to the Bigness and Shape of the slender Receivers they are to be imploy'd in , and how they may easily be made either to stand upright at the bottom of the Receiver , or be kept hanging in the middle , or near the top of it ( as occasion may require , ) and how the open end may be made to secure the Mercury , in cases where that is needful , belongs not so properly to this Treatise , as to the Second part of the Continuation ; where , if ever I trouble Your Lordship with it , the Usefulness of this sort of Gages , and the Circumstances that may advantage them , will best appear . 5. There being some Experiments , wherein it is not desir'd that the Receiver should be neer exhausted , but rather that the degrees of the Airs rarefaction , which ought not to be very great , should be well measur'd ; we may in such cases make use of Gages shap'd like those hitherto describ'd , but made as long as the Receiver will well admit , and furnish'd in stead of Quick-silver either with spirit of Wine coloured with Cocheneel , or else with the tincture of red Rose-leaves , drawn onely with common Water , made shap by a litle either of the Oyl , or the spirit of Vitriol , or of common Salt. For the lightness of these Liquors in comparison of Quick-silver will allow the Expansins of the Air included in the Gage to be very manifest , and notable enough , though not half , or perhaps a quarter of the Air be pump'd out of the Receiver . 6. You may also in such cases as these , where the Receiver is large enough , and is not to be quite exhausted , make use of a Mercurial Gage , differing from those above describ'd onely in this , that the shorter leg need not be above an inch , or half an inch long , before it expand it self into a Bubble of about half an inch , or an inch in Diameter ; and having at the upper part a very short and slender unseal'd Pipe , at which the Air may get in and out : by which Contrivance you may have this Convenience , that You need not include so much Air , as otherwise would be requisite , at the top of the longer Leg , because the Mercury in the shorter cannot , by reason of the breadth of the Bubble , whereinto the Expansion of the Air drives it , be considerably rais'd : Upon which account it becomes more easie to estimate by the Eye the degrees of the included Airs Rarefaction , which may be done almost as easily , as if there were water in stead of Mercury : provided it be remembred , that Quick-silver by reason of its ponderousness , does far more assist the dilatation of the Air , then so much Water would do . EXPERIMENT XVIII . About an easie way to make the Pressure of the Air sensible to the Touch of those that doubt of it . THough several of our Experiments sufficiently manifest to the Skilful , that the Pressure of the Air is very considerable ; yet because some of them require peculiar Glasses , and other Instruments , which are not always at hand , and because there are many that think it surer to estimate the force of Pressure by what they immediately feel , than by any other way ; I was invited for the sake of such to imploy an easie Experiment , which usually proved convincing , because it operated on that Sense , whereon they chiefly rely'd . I caus'd then to be made a hollow ( but strong ) piece of Brass , not above two or three inches high , ( that it might be in a trice exhausted , ) and open at both ends , whose Orifices were Circular and parallel , but not equal , ( the Instrument being made tapering , so that it might be represented by an excavated Conus truncatus , or a Gigg , with the lower part cut transversly off . ) This piece of Brass being cemented on , as if it were a small Receiver to the Engine , the Person , that would not believe the Pressure of the Air to be near so considerable as was represented , was bidden to lay the Palm of his Hand upon the upper Orifice ; and being ordered to lean a little upon it , that so the lower part of his hand might prove a close Cover to the Orifice , one Exuction of the Air was made by the help of the Pump : and then upon the withdrawing of the greatest part of the Pressure of the internal Air , that before counterballanc'd that of the External , the Hand being left alone to support the weight of the Ambient Air , would be pressed inwards so forceably , that though the stronger sort of men were able ( though not without much adoe ) to take off their Hands , yet the weaker sort of Tryers could not do it , ( especially if by a second Suck the litle Receiver were better exhausted , ) but were fain to stay for the Return of the Air into the Receiver to assist them . This Experiment being design'd rather to convince than to punish those that were to make it , we took care not onely that the Brass should be so thick , and the Orifices so smooth , that no Sharpness nor Roughness of the Metal should offend the Hand ; but also that the narrower Orifice ( which was the oftenest made use of ) should be but about an inch and a quarter in Diameter . But if any were desirous of a more sensible conviction , 't was very easie to give it him by making the larger Orifice the uppermost , which was the reason why the Instrument was , as we formerly noted , made tapering . But yet this larger Orifice ought not to exceed 2 Inches , or 2 Inches and 1 / 2 in wideness , least the great Weight of the Air endanger the breaking or considerably hurting the Hand of the Experimenter . Which Caution I am put in mind of giving , by remembring that I once much endangered my own Hand , through the mistake of him that manag'd the Pump , who unawares to me set it on work , when , for another purpose , I had laid my Hand upon the Orifice of an Instrument of too great a Diameter . THe famous Experiment of Torricellius , mentioned in the 17 th of our already published Tryals , is of that Noblenesse and Importance , that though divers Learned men have ( but upon very differing principles ) discours'd of it in Print , which gives me the lesse mind to insist long upon it here , yet I shall not scruple to subjoin some Notes concerning Tryals that I made , ( though for want of opportunity I could not repeat them according to my custom , ) which I had not met with in Others , and which may serve to confirm the Hypothesis made use of in this Continuation , and the Treatise it belongs to . EXPERIMENT XIX . About the Subsidence of Mercury in the Tube of the Torricellian Experiment to the level of the stagnant Mercury . A Baroscope being included in a Receiver , made of a long Bolt head with the lower part of the Ball cut Circularly off , upon the first Exuction of the Air , the Quick-silver that before stood at 29 inches , ( the Atmosphere appearing then by a constant Baroscope very light , ) would fall so low as to rest at 9 or 10 inches , ( for once I measur'd the Subsidence beneath its former Elevation , ) and in about three Sucks more it would be brought quite down to the Level of the Stagnant Quick-silver , and somewhat below , ( as t is the property of Quick-silver , quite contrary to Water , to rise less in a slender Pipe than in a wide . ) The Air being let into the Receiver , the Quick-silver would be impell'd up slowlier or faster , as we pleas'd , to the former height of 29 inches , or thereabouts . NB. 1. That if the Air were suffer'd to go hastily out of the Receiver , the Mercury would , by virtue of the accelerated motion acquir'd in its descent , at the very first Suck descend till it reacht within an inch or two of the stagnant Mercury , though it would presently after a few risings and fallings settle at the height of 9 or 10 inches , till the next Suck brought it down lower . 2. If when the Mercury was reimpell'd up to its due height , those that manag'd the Pump did , in stead of rarifying the Air , a little compress it , the Quick-silver would by the compress'd Air be easily made to rise an inch or more above the former standard of 29 inches . Which Circumstance I mention , not as a new thing , but to confirm ( what some think strange ) a Passage printed , page the 59 th , where I mention , that if the Air in the Receiver , in stead of being rarify'd in the Engine , were a litle comprest by it ; the Pressure of the included Air , being somewhat increas'd by having its Spring thus bent , would sustain the Mercury in the Torricellian Tube at a greater than the wonted Height . And to confirm another passage in the same Page , where I observ'd , that if the Pressure of the Air upon the stagnant Mercury be not so great as t is wont to be , the Mercury will begin to subside in a ( fill'd and inverted ) Tube , which wants of the usual height ; we took a Glass Cane , ( seal'd at one end , ) much shorter than the due length , and having fill'd it with Mercury , and inverted it into a Glass full of stagnant Mercury , we placed all in the former Receiver ; where the Mercurial Cylinder for want of the requisite height remain'd totally suspended , but upon the first or second Suck it would subside , and in two or three Sucks more it would fall to the levell of the stagnant Mercury , or a little below it . Upon the letting in of the Air it would be impell'd to the very Top of the Tube , bating an Aerial bubble , which seem'd to come from the Mercury it self , and was so little , as not to be at all discernable , save to a very attentive Eye . This Experiment I should not think fit here to relate , since I formerly acquainted Your Lordship with the Subsidence of the Mercury upon the withdrawing of the Air from the Receiver , were it not that , in the mention of that Tryal , I remember I confess'd to You , that I could not so free the great Receiver I then us'd from Air , but that the litle that remained or leak'd in , made me unable to bring the Mercury in the Tube totally to subside , or fall much nearer than within an Inch of the Surface of the stagnant Mercury , with which in our present Tryals that in the Tube was brought to a Level . EXPERIMENT XX. Shewing that in Tubes open at both ends , when no fuga Vacui can be pretended , the weight of Water will raise Quick-silver no higher in slender than in larger Pipes . BEcause I find it , even by Learned and very Late Writers , urg'd as a clear and cogent Argument against those that ascribe the Phaenomena of the Torricellian Experiment to the weight of the External Air ; That t is impossible , that the Air , though 't were granted to be a heavy Body , could sustain the Quick-silver at the same height in Tubes of very differing bigness , since the same Air cannot equally counterpoise Mercurial Cylinders of such unequal weights ; and because this Objection is wont very much to puzzle those that are not well acquainted with the Hydrostaticks , I presume Your Lordship will allow me , till I can shew you some Hydrostatical Papers , by which the Objection may appear to be but ill grounded upon the true Theoremes of that Art , to annex the Transcripts of a couple of Expeperiments , ( that I once made to remove this , supposedly insuperable , Difficulty , ) just as I find them registred in my Note-books . The I. Tryal . Sept. the 2. 1662. We took a very large Glass-Tube , Hermetically seal'd at one end , and about two Foot and a half in Length . Into this we poured Quick-silver to the height of 3 or 4 fingers . Then we took a couple of Cylindrical Pipes of very unequal sizes , ( the wider being as big agen as the slenderer ) and open at both Ends. The lower Ends of these two Pipes we thrust into the Quick-silver , and fasten'd them near their upper Ends to the Tube with strings , that they might not be lifted up , nor mov'd out of their posture , in which the convex Surface of the Mercury in both the Pipes seem'd to lie almost in a Level , the Tube also it self being plac'd upright in a Frame . This done , by the help of a Funnel we poured in Water by degrees at the top of the Tube , and observ'd , that as the Water gravitated more and more upon the stagnant Mercury , so the included Mercury rose equally in both the Pipes , till the Tube being almost fill'd with Water , the Mercury appeared to be impell'd up to and sustain'd at as great a height in the Big Tube , as in the Lesser , being in either raised about two Inches above the Surface of the Stagnant Quick-silver . NB. 1. Having caus'd about half the Water ( having no conveniency to withdraw any more ) in the Tube to be suck'd out at the Top , we observ'd the Quick-silver in both the Tubes to subside uniformly , and to reascend alike upon the reaffusion of the Water . 2. We endeavoured to try the Experiment ( for their sake who have not the Conveniency to have such Tubes purposely made ) in a wooden vessel , into which , when it was fill'd with water , we let down a flat Glass furnisht with stagnant Mercury , whereinto the Ends of the two Pipes were immers'd . But the Opaeousness of the Cylinder ( which reduced us to see onely from the Top the Reflection of the stagnant Mercury , ) and other Impediments , disabled us to perceive the Motions and Stations of the Mercury in the Pipes , though we once made use of a Candle the better to discern them . The II. Tryal . We took a very wide Tube of Glass , of about a Foot long , and into it poured a convenient Quantity of Quick-silver . We took also two Pipes of about equal length , and of that disparity in Bigness that we newly mentioned , ( those Pipes lately described being indeed cut off from these we are now to speak of , ) and these being fill'd with Quick-silver ( after the manner of the Torricellian Experiment ) were by a certain Contrivance let down into the Tube , and unstopt under the Surface of the stagnant Mercury , and then the Quick-silver in the Pipes falling down to its wonted Station , and resting there , we poured into the Tube about a foot height ( by Guess ) of Water , whereupon the Quick-silver as it before stood , as it were , in a Level in both the Pipes , so it was , for ought appear'd to us , equally impell'd up beyond its wonted Station , and sustain'd there both in the slender and in the bigger Pipe , and upon the withdrawing of some of the Water it began to subside alike , as to sense , in them both , falling no lower in the bigger than in the slenderer . And Water being a second time poured down into the Tube , the Mercury did in both Pipes rise uniformly as before . By which and the former Experiment it sufficiently appeared , that a Gravitating Liquor as Air or Water , may impell or keep up Mercury to the same height in Tubes that are of very differing Capacities : And that Liquors ballance each other according to their Altitude , and not barely according to their Weight . For in this last Experiment , the Additional Cylinder of one Inch of Mercury was manifestly rais'd and kept up by the Water incumbent on the stagnant Mercury , ( the other Cause , whatever it were , of the Mercury's Suspension , being able to sustain but a Cylinder shorter by an Inch. ) And the same parcel of Water did counterpoise in the differing Pipes two Mercurial Cylinders , which though but of the same Altitude , ( namely about an Inch ) were of very unequal Weight . EXPERIMENT XXI . Of the Heights at which pure Mercury , and Mercury Amalgam'd with Tin , will stand in Barometers . COnsidering with my self , that if the Sustentation of the Quick-silver in the Torricellian Experiment at a certain height , depends upon the Aequilibrium , which a Liquor of that Specifick Gravity does at such a height attain to with the External Air , if that peculiar and determinate Gravity of the Quick-silver be altered , the height of it , requisite to an Aequilibrium with the Atmosphere , must be altered too : ( Considering this I say ) I thought it might somewhat confirm the Hypothesis hitherto made use of , if a Phaenomenon so agreeable to it were actually exhibited . This I supposed performable two differing wayes , namely by mixing or ( as Chymists speak ) Amalgamating Mercury either with Gold , to make it a mixture more heavy , or with some other Metal that might make it more light than Mercury alone is . But the former of those two ways I forbore to prosecute being where I then was unfurnished with a sufficient quantity of refined Gold , ( for that which is Coyn'd is generally allayed with Silver , or Copper , or both , ) and therefore Amalgamating Mercury with a convenient proportion of pure Tin , ( or , as the Tradesmen call it , Block-Tin , ) that the mixture might not be too thick to be readily poured out into a Glass-Tube , and to subside in it , we fill'd with this Amalgam a Cylindrical Pipe , sealed at one end , and of a fit length , and then inverted it into a litle Glass furnished with the like mixture . Of which Tryal the Event was , that the Amalgam did not fall down to 29 , nor even to 30 inches , but stopt at 31 above the surface of the stagnant Mixture . Note 1. That though one may expect , that the Event of the Experiment would be the more considerable , the Greater the Quantity is that is mingled of the light Metal , yet care must be taken that the Amalgam be not made too thick , least part of it stick here and there ( as we did to our trouble find it apt to do ) to the inside of the Pipe , by which means some Aerial Corpuscles will meet with such convenient Receptacles , as to make it very difficult , if not almost impossible , to free the Tube quite from Air. 2. It may perhaps be worth while to try , whether by comparing the height of the Amalgam , to what it ought to be upon the score of the specifick Gravities of the Mercury , and the Tin , mingled in a known Proportion in the Amalgam , any discovery may be made whether those two Metals do penetrate one another after such a manner ( for there is no strict Penetration of Dimensions among Bodies ) as Copper and Tin have , as I elsewhere note , been ( by some Chymists ) observ'd to do , when being melted down together they make up a more close and specifically ponderous Body , than their respective Weights seem'd to require . 3. That by comparing this 21. Experiment with the 18 th of those formerly published , it may appear , that the height of the Liquor , suspended in the Torricellian Experiment , depends so much upon its aequilibrium with the outward Air , that it may be varied by a change of Gravity in either of the two Bodies that counterballance each other , whether the change be of weight in the Atmosphere , or of Specifick Gravity in the suspended Liquor . Advertisement . I Should here acquaint Your Lordship with what I have since tried in reference to the 18 th of the Printed Experiments , where I mention , that I observed , by long keeping the same Instrument with which I once made the Torricellian Experiment in the same place , that the height of the suspended Mercury would vary according as the weight of the Atmosphere hapned to change . But though about the Barometer ( as others have by their imitation allowed me to call the Instrument hitherto mentioned , put into a Frame ) I made in the year 1660 several Observations , that would not perhaps be impertinent in this place , yet having long since left them with a Friend , who lives far off , and not having them now in my power , I must beg Your Lordships permission to reserve them for a part of the Appendix , which I doubt I shall be engaged to adde to this Epistle . And in the mean time I shall not forbear to present Your Lordship those other Papers that I have by me , relating to the Barometer ; some of which will , I presume , sufficiently confirm my lately mentioned conjecture about the cause of the Variation observed in the Height of the suspended Mercury . EXPERIMENT XXII . Wherein is propos'd a way of making Barometers , that may be transported even to distant Countries . THinking it a desireable thing ( as I have elsewhere intimated ) to be able to compare together , by the help of Barometers , the weight of the Atmosphere at the same time , not onely in differing parts of the same Country , as of England , but in differing Regions of the World ; I could not but foresee that 't would be very difficult to accomplish my desire without altering the form of the Barometers I had hitherto made use of . For as these be unfit to be transported far , because that stagnant Mercury would be so apt to spill . So the procuring them to be made in the places where they are to be used , though it be no bad expedient , and such as I have divers times made use of , is liable to this inconvenience ; that , besides that few will take the pains , and have the skill , requisite to make Baroscopes well , though they be sufficiently furnished with Glasses and Mercury for that purpose , besides this , I say , except men be more than ordinarily diligent and skilful , ( and perhaps though they be , ) 't will be very difficult to be sure that the Baroscope newly made in a remote Country , is as Good ( and but as good ) as that which a man makes use of in this ; in regard that at the making of the former , they are supposed to have no other Baroscope to compare it with ; and to be sure , they have not the same with which it is to be compared Here. Being by these considerations invited to attempt the making of Portable or Travailing Baroscopes , ( if I may so call them , ) I thought it requisite to endeavour these three things : The first , to make the vessel that should contain both the sustained and the stagnant Mercury all of one piece of Glass , of a like bigness : The next , to place this vessel , when fill'd , in such a Frame , as may be easie to be transported , and yet in a reasonable measure defend the Glass from external violence , no part of it standing quite out of the Frame , as in all other Baroscopes : And the third , so to order the vessel , that it may not be subject to be easily broken by the violent motion of the Mercury contain'd in it . The first of these will not seem practicable to those that imagine ( without any warrant from the Hydrostaticks ) that t is as well necessary as usual , that the stagnant Mercury should have a vessel much wider than the Tube , wherein the Mercurial Cylinder is sustain'd ; but to us the difficulty seem'd much less to make the Glass part of our Tube of one piece , and of a convenient shape , than afterwards to fill it . But to do both , we took a Glass Cylinder seal'd at one end , and of a convenient length , ( as about 4 or 5 foot , ) and caus'd it by the flame of a Lamp to be so bent , that , to those that did not take notice 't was sealed at one end , it seem'd to be a Syphon of very unequal Legs , the one being 3 or 4 times longer than the other ; by virtue of which Figure the shorter Leg may serve in stead of the distinct vessel usually imployed to contain the stagnant Mercury . To fill this , which is not easie , one may proceed after this manner . Take a small Funnel of Glass , with a long and slender Shank , so that it may reach 3 or 4 Inches , or further , into the shorter Leg of our Barometrical Syphon ( if I may so call it ; ) and by this Funnel pour into this shorter Leg as much Mercury as may reach about 2 or 3 Inches in both Legs ; then stopping the Orifice with your finger , and slowly inclining the Tube , the Mercury in the longer Leg will gently fall to the sealed end ; and the Air that was there before , will pass by it , and so make it room . The Mercury in the shorter Leg ( which Leg ought to be held uppermost ) will by the same inclination of the Tube fall towards the Orifice , but , being by the finger that stops that , kept from falling out , if you do slowly reerect the Glass , and then make it stoop again as much as before , the Mercury will pass out of the shorter Leg into the longer , and joyn with that which was there before ; and if all the Mercury do not so pass , the Orifice is to be stopt again with your Finger , and the Tube inclin'd as formerly . This done , the Tube is to be erected , and by the help of the Funnel more Mercury is to be poured in , and the foregoing process of stopping the Orifice , inclining the Tube &c. is to be repeated , till all the Mercury pour'd into the shorter Leg , be brought to joyn with that in the longer ; and then the open Leg is to be furnisht with fresh Mercury , observing this , that the nearer the longer Leg comes to the being fill'd , the less you must raise it from time to time , when you pour Mercury into the shorter ; as also , that when you see the longer Leg quite full of Mercury , ( though there be but litle in the shorter , ) you need not pour in any more , if the longer do much exceed a Yard ; because upon the restoring of the Tube to an erected posture there will subside from the taller leg into the other a pretty quantity of Mercury , by reason of the space at the seal'd end , which will be deserted by the Mercury that was there . But because t is difficult by this way , as well as by that practised already , to fill a Tube with Mercury without leaving any visible bubbles ; to free it from such ( if any happen to be ) you must once more stop the Orifice with your finger , and incline , and reerect the Tube divers times , till you have thereby brought most of the smaller bubbles into one greater ; ( which you may if you please increase , by letting in a little Air : ) for by making this Great bubblle pass leisurely two or three times from one end of the Tube to the other , it will in its passage as it were lick up all the small Bubbles , and unite them to its self ; which may afterwards by one inclination more of the Tube be made to pass into the shorter Leg , and thence into the free Air. But there is another sort of Funnels , which if one have the skill and conveniency to make , ( as I. M. easily doth , ) one may very expeditiously fill the bended Tubes of our portable Barometers . For if you make the slender part of the Funnel not streight but bended , in the form of an Obtuse Angle , and of such a length , that the part which is to go into the shorter Leg of our Siphon may reach to the Flexure ( of the Siphon ; ) then you may , by so holding the Tube that the sealed end be somewhat lower than the other , and by pouring in Mercury at the Obtuse end of the Angular Funnel , easily make it run over the Flexure into the longer Leg of the Siphon ; provided you do now and then , as occasion requires , erect a litle and shake the Tube , to help the Mercury to get by the Air , and expell it . By such wayes as these we have found by Experience , that t is possible ( though not easie ) to do in such a bended Glass , as our purpose requires , what , besides a very late Learned Writer , the Diligent Mersennus himself , admonishes his Reader , that t is not a practicable thing to do in the Ordinary Glasses of the Torricellian Experiment , viz. to free the Mercury of a straight Tube from Air and Bubbles , ( s as to be able by inclining the Glass to make the Liquor ascend to the very top . ) The First of our 3 above mentioned Scopes being thus attained , it was not difficult to compass the Second , by the help of a solid piece of Wood , which is to be somewhat longer than the Tube , and a good deal broader in the lower part than in the upper , that it may receive the shorter Leg of the Siphon . In such a piece of Wood , which was about an Inch thick , we caus'd to be made a Gutter or Channel , of such a depth and shape , that our Siphon might be placed in it so deep , that a flat piece of Wood ( like a plain'd Lath ) might be layd upon it , without at all pressing upon or so much as touching the Glass ; so that this piece of Wood may serve for a Cover to defend the Glass , to be put on when the Instrument is to be transported , and taken off again when t is to be hung up to make Observations with ; the Channel-piece of wood serving both for a part of a Case , and for an entire Frame ; which may for some uses be a litle more commodious , if the Cover be joyned ( as it may easily be ) to the rest of the Frame , by 2 or 3 litle Hinges and a Hasp , by whose help the Case may be readily opened and shut at pleasure . The 3 d thing we proposed to our selves is nothing near so easie as the 2 d , nor have we yet had opportunity to try , whether the way we made use of will hold , if the Barometer be transported into very remote parts , though by smaller Removes we found cause to hope that 't will succeed in Greater . The Grand difficulty to be obviated was this ; That though 't were easie to hinder the spilling of the Mercury , by stopping the Orifice of the shorter Leg of our Siphon , yet that would not serve the turn ; for the upper part of the Tube being destitute of Air , if the Mercury be by the motion of the Instrument put to vibrate , it will be apt ( for want of meeting with any Air in the upper part of the Tube to check its motions ) to hit so violently against the Top of the Glass as to beat it out , or to crack some of the neighbouring parts . To obviate this great inconvenience our way is , to incline the Tube , till the Mercury be impell'd to the very top of it , and yet there will remain a competent quantity in the shorter leg of the Glass , if that be not at first made too short . This done , the remaining part of the shorter Leg is to be quite fill'd up either with Water or Mercury , and the Orifice of it is to be very carefully and firmly stopt , ( for which purpose we use our strong black Cement : ) for by this means the Mercury in the longer Leg , having no room to play , cannot strike with violence as before , against the top of the Glass . But though by many times successively shaking the Baroscope we did not perceive that 't was very like to be prejudiced by the shakes it must necessarily indure in Transportation to remote places , if due care be had of it by the way , yet till further Tryal have been made I shall not pretend to be certain of the Event . But thus much of conveniency we have already found in this Contrivance , that we sent it some miles off to the top of a Hill , and had it brought home safe again , the phaenomena at the top and bottom of the Hill being answerable to what we might have expected if we had imployed another Baroscope . When the Instrument is to be sent away , the height of the Mercurial Cylinder ( to be measured from the surface of the stagnant Mercury in the shorter Leg ) being taken for that place , day , and hour , and compar'd ( if it may be ) with that of another good Baroscope , which is to continue in that place ; as much of the Gutter as is unfill'd by the Glass may be well stuffed with Cotten , or some such thing , to keep the Glass the more firm in its posture ; and that the Tube be not shaken or press'd against the Wood , some of the same matter may be put between the rest of the Frame and the Cover , which ought to be well bound together . And when the Instrument is arriv'd at the remote place where t is to be imployed , ( for if it be to be sent but a litle way , it may be carried safely without using any adventitious Liquor , ) the Water that is added , may be taken off again , by soaking it up with pieces of Sponge , Linnen , &c. but if in stead of Water you put in Mercury , as it ought to have been put in by Weight , so it is to be taken out , till you have just the Weight that was put in : and t is not difficult to take out the Mercury by degrees , by the help of a small Glass-pipe , since You may either suck up litle by little as much as remains of the additional Mercury , when by erecting the Barometer , and warily unstopping the Orifice of the lower Leg , as much Mercury as will of its self flow out is efflux'd ; or else you may take out the superfluous Mercury , by thrusting the lower end of the litle Pipe into that Liquor , and when it has taken in enough , stopping the upper end close with your finger , to keep it from falling back again when you remove the Pipe. NB. If it should happen in a long voyage , that by the numerous Shakings of the Instrument there should from the additional Water or Mercury in the shorter Leg get up into the longer any litle Aerial Bubble , which seems the onely ( but I hope not likely ) danger in this Contrivance , he that is to use the Instrument , at the end of the Voyage may , if he be skilful , free the Mercury from it by the same way , that we lately prescrib'd to free it from Air , when the Instrument was first fill'd . I presume I need not tell Your Lordship , that the chief use of this Travailing Baroscope is , That he that uses it in a remote part , keeping a Diary of the heights of the Mercury , by comparing these heights with those at which the Mercury stood at the same times in the Barometer that was not remov'd , the Agreement or Difference of the weight of the Atmosphere in distant places may be observed . To which this may be added , the Conveniency , which the structure of these Instruments gives them to be securely let down into deep Wels or Mines , and to be drawn up to the top of Towers and Steeples , and other elevated places : not here to consider , whether by a convenient addition , these , as well as some other Barometers , may not be made to discover even very minute Alterations of the Atmospheres Pressure . Whether this Travailing Baroscope , being furnish'd at its upper end with a very good Ball and Socket , and at the lower end with a great weight , ( which way of keeping things steady in a Ship has been happily used by the Royal Society on another occasion , ) whether , I say , our Instrument may by this Contrivance , or some other that might be suggested to the same purpose , be made any thing serviceable at Sea , notwithstanding the differing motions of the Ship , I have had no opportunity to try : but whether it may or may not be useful in spite of the rolling of the Ship , it may at least be made use of in flat Calms , ( which divers times happen in long Voyages , especially to the East-Indies , and to Africk , ) and then the Instrument , which at other times may lie by without being at all cumbersom , may be made use of , as long as the Calm lasts , to acquaint the Observer with the weight of the Atmosphere in the Climate where he is , and that upon the Sea : which may give some welcome Information to the Curiosity of Speculative Naturalists , and perhaps prove either more directly or in its consequences of some use to Navigators themselves , as by enabling them by its suddain changes to foretell the end of the Calme . Besides that , having one of these Instruments ready at hand , where ever they set foot on shore , though it be but upon a small Island , or a Rock , they can presently and easily take notice of the Gravity of the Atmosphere in that place ; which whether or no , if compared with other Observations , it may in time prove not altogether useless to the Guessing whereabouts they are , and the foreseeing some aproaching changes of Weather , I leave to future Experience , if it shall be thought worth the making , to determine . Besides the ordinary Baroscope , and this Travailing one , I have imployed 2 or 3 other Instruments of quite differing kinds , to discover the varying Gravities of the Atmosphere ; but though they have hitherto succeeded well ( for the main , ) yet being willing to make further Observations about them , I reserve one of them for another opportunity , and think fit to leave the other in a Tract it belongs to . A Post-script Advertisment . SInce the writing of the foregoing and the following Experiments about the Travailing Baroscope , having had occasion to make one at a place about 50 miles distant from that where I was when I writ them , I took notice , that the Mercury in the Travailing Baroscope was not by 1 / 4 of an Inch so high as that in another Baroscope made the ordinary way ; and yet 't was not easie to perceive , that the former had been less carefully fill'd than the latter . So that I yet know not well to what cause to impute the Difference , unless it should perhaps depend upon this Circumstance ; That the Pipe , whereof the Travailing Baroscope was made , was very slender , and much more so than the Tube of the other ; and I have already elsewhere observed , that Mercury , contrary to what happens in Water , is lesse apt to rise in very slender Pipes . And though I remember that , at the Place where I writ the Experiment , to which this Postscript belongs , in the Tube I then imployed to make the Travailing Baroscope , the Mercury ascended as high as in a noted one made the common way , yet not being in the other place furnished with a Tube long and big enough , I think my self oblig'd , till I can clear the Doubt by further Tryal , to give Your Lordship this Advertisement , lest either the Cause already suspected , or some other unheeded thing may in some cases make these Travailing Baroscopes somewhat differing from others . But though they should prove to be so , yet it would not follow that they cannot be made serviceable : for keeping a pretty while that Instrument , which suggested the Scruple to me , just by the other with which I had compar'd it , and carefully taking notice of the respective heights at which the Mercury rested in both , I observ'd that when it rose or fell in the other Barometer , it did also rise and fall in the Portable one ; and when it rested at its first station in the Fromer , it did so in the Later ; and though there seem'd to be an inequality in the quantity of the Ascent , and subsidence of the Mercury in the two Instruments , yet that seem'd to be accountable for by some Circumstances , especially the very unequal breadth of the vessel that contain'd the stagnant Mercury in the other Barometer , and that shorter Leg which answer'd to that vessel in the Travailing Barometer . But till the formerly proposed Scruple be by further Observation removed , the safest way will be to make the Barometer to be sent to remote places , as like as may be ( in highness , and length of the Tube ) to another Portable one kept at home ; that so when they are once adjusted , the Collations may be made betwixt two Instruments of the same kind , whereof that which is kept at home may also , if it be thought fit , be compared , when the Observations are made , with a Baroscope made the ordinary way . EXPERIMENT XXIII . Confirming , that Mercury in a Barometer will be kept suspended higher at the top , than at the bottom of a Hill. On which occasion something is noted about the height of Mountains , especially the Pic of Tenariff . TO give Your Lordship some Instance ( till I can present You with a Nobler one ) of the Use of our Travailing Barometer , I shall now adde : That when I writ the foregoing Experiment , chancing to be within 2 or 3 miles of a Hill , which , though not high , was the least low in that Countrey , I thought our Instrument might be sfely , and not altogether uselesly , carried on Horse-back to the top of it , which was too remote from the bottom to be conveniently reacht by me on foot in the midst of Winter . This Tryal therefore I resolv'd to make , because , though I formerly told you of a considerable one that had been made in France by some Eminent Virtuosi of the Country , yet I was willing , not onely to have a Proof how safely our Baroscope might be transported , but to confirm to Your Lordship upon our own Observation , made in another Region , so considerable an Argument , as these kind of Experiments afford to our Hypothesis : And though when I came to try the Experiment , I hapned to have an Indisposition that forbid me to do it all my Self , yet having carefully mark'd on the edge of the Frame the height to which the suspended Quick-silver reach'd , and compar'd it with a good Baroscope made the ordinary way , I commmitted our Instrument to a couple of Servants , that I had often imployed about Pneumatical and Mercurial Experiments , giving them particular Instructions what to do . And the Instrument being such as might be safely carried on Horseback , I had in two or three hours an Account brought me back , the Summe of which was : That they found the suspended Mercury fall a litle as they ascended the Hill , at whose Top they gave the Liquor leave to setle , and carefully took notice by a mark of the Place it rested at ; which was ; as I afterwards found , ¼ of an Inch , or somewhat better beneath the Mark I had made , and this notwithstanding the Hill was not high , and the Air and Wind seem'd to them to be much colder at the top of it , than beneath . But though , as they descended more and more , they observ'd the Mercury to rise again higher and higher , ( as being press'd against by a taller column of the Atmosphere , ) and though consequently the Experiment agreed very well with our Hypothesis , and may serve for a Confirmation of it ; yet by reason of the small height of the Mountain the Decrement of the height of the Mercurial Cylinder was not so considerable , but that I should perhaps have omitted the mention of this Tryal , if it did not shew that our Travailing Baroscopes may be fit to be imployed about such Experiments . And therefore , when I can recover some of my scatter'd Papers , I shall by way of Appendix subjoin to this some other Observations , that I procur'd to be made by Ingenious men , who had the Opportunity of living near higher Mountains . Some further Tryals I have recommended to be hereafter made by some other inquisitive Persons ; and to make them the more instructive , I could wish that others would do what I should have done , if Opportunity had befriended me . For I design'd to make the Experiment at the bottom , the top , and the intermediate part of the hill , at three differing constitutions of Air ; viz. when it should appear by a good ordinary Baroscope , that the Atmosphere was very heavy , when it should be found to be very light , and when it should have a moderate degree of Gravity : And I hoped , that if sagacious Experimenters should make these diversity'd Observations on distant and unequal Hils , good Hints may result from the Collations that may be made of the varying Decrements of the Mercurial Cylinders height , according to the differing Gravities of the Atmosphere at several Times , and the differing heights of the Hils and Stations where the Observations should be made . I also indeavoured to get a Baroscope carried down to the bottoms of deep Mines ; partly , to try whether the Atmospherical Pillar being longer There then at the Top , the Mercury in the Tube would not be impell'd up higher ; and partly , in order to other Discoveries . But some Impediments in the structure of those Mines made it not very Practicable to imploy Barometers there ; which yet makes me not despair of Success in some other Mines , where the Shafts or Pits are sunck more perpendicularly . Perhaps I told Your Lordship already by word of mouth , that I have been sollicitously endeavouring to get the Torricellian Experiment tried upon the Pic of Teneriff , but hitherto I have had no Account of the success of my Endeavours ; for which I am the more concern'd , because of the Eminent ( if not Matchless ) height of the Mountain , of which You may receive some Satisfaction , by what I am going to subjoin about it . An Appendix about the height of Mountains . FOrasmuch as on the one hand not onely Kepler , but divers other modern Writers of Note , do endeavour to straiten the Atmosphere , and make it lower by half than the least height to which , according to our Estimation , it should reach ; and to countenance their Opinion , will not allow the Clouds to be often above a Mile high , ( nor even the highest Mountains to exceed two miles . ) And forasmuch as on the other side other Learned men seem to make the Clouds and the Mountains of a stupendous height ; we , who take a middle way of estimating the height of the one and the other , hold it not unfit to subjoyn on this occasion some uncommon Observations , in favour of our Opinion , that we have obtain'd from inquisitive Travellers . But first I will subjoyn a Passage I have somewhere met with in Ricciolus his Almigestum novum , where he ( if I well remember ) relates , that the Rector Metensis ( as he calls him ) of the Jesuites Colledg affirm'd to him some years since , that he had measured the height of many Clouds , without having found any of them higher than 5000 paces : which argues , that he met with some so high , though indeed the height of Clouds must needs bevery various , according to the Gravity or Lightness , Density or Thinness , Rest or Agitation of the Air , and the condition of the Vapors & Exhaltations they consist of . And if either that be true which we have formerly had occasion to mention concerning Maignan's Observation , or if it be true that Sublunary Comets ( for I speak not of Celestial ones ) are Generated of Exhalations of the Terrestrial Globe , we may well conjecture that the Atmosphere , ( especially if its height be not uniform , ) and even Clouds ( especially those that have most Fumes , and fewest Vapors ) may reach much higher than Cardan , Kepler , and others have defin'd . But of the height of Clouds ( which we have sometimes attempted to take Geometrically ) we may have elsewhere occasion to speak again ; and therefore I shall now proceed to what I have to say concerning the Height of Mountains . Which being an Enquiry curious and difficult enough in it self , and of some Importance in the Disquisition about the height of the Atmosphere , ( it being evident that That must reach at least as high as the tops of Mountains , upon whose tops men can live ; ) I hope it will not be unacceptable to Your Lordship , if having a while since ( as I was intimating ) had the opportunity to discourse with some credible Persons that have been upon the top of exceeding high mountains , particularly of the Pic of Tenariff , ( and especially with one Gentleman , who was a few dayes before brought to satisfie the Curiosity of our Inquisitive and Discerning Monarch , by giving him an Account of his Journey , ) I acquaint You with those of the Particulars , which I learn'd from thence , that are the most pertinent to our present purpose . First then whereas divers late Mathematicians will not allow above two miles or half a German league ( and some of them not half so much ) to the height of the highest Mountain ; the Mountain we speak of , in the Island of Tenariff , one of the Canaries or Fortunate Islands , so high , that , though perhaps I think those Travellers I have taken notice of , speak with the most when they write , that the top of this Mountain is to be seen at Sea 4 degrees off , i. e. at least threescore German Leagues ; yet having ask'd the ingenious Gentleman lately mentioned , Mr. Sydenham , from what distance the top of the Sugar-loaf ( or highest part of the Hill , so called from its Figure ) could be seen at Sea , according to the common opinion of Seamen ? he answer'd , that that Distance was wont to be reckon'd 60 Sea-leagues , of 3 miles to a League : adding , that he himself had seen it about 40 leagues off , and yet it appear'd exceeding high , and like a blewish Pyramid , manifestly a great deal higher than the Clouds . And what he related to me about the Distance , was afterwards confirmed by the Answers I receiv'd from observing men of differing Nations , who had sail'd that way ; and particularly by a Noble Virtuoso , skill'd in the Mathematicks , who was then Admiral of a brave English Fleet : And the above mentioned Gentleman ( M r S. ) also told me , that sometimes men could from thence see the Island of Madera , though distant from it 70 leagues ; and that the Great Canary , though 18 leagues off , seem'd to be very near them that were on the top of the Sugar-loaf , as if they might leap down upon it : Thus far M r Sydenham . By whose Relation it appears , that this Pic must be far higher than Kepler and others allow Mountains to be : for else it could not be seen at Sea from so great a Distance . And the Learned Ricciolus supposing it to be ( as some Navigators report it to be ) discoverable at Sea 4 degrees off , calculates its height measur'd by a Perpendicular line , and allowing too for Refraction , to amount to Ten miles , which Altitude also the accurate Snellius assigns it . But I fear this Learned man may have been somewhat misinform'd by the Navigators he relyes on , or else that the way of allowing for Refractions is not yet reduc'd to a sufficient Certainty . For I do not find by those who have purposely gone to the top of it , that the Mountain is so high as his Calculation makes it . And whereas the same Eminent Writer resolutely ponounces that the Height of mount Caucasus , Deduction being made for Refraction , is 51 Bolonian miles , ( which are considerably greater than the Roman miles , ) I doubt that here likewise , though I question not his Supputations if You grant him the Grounds of them , he makes this Mountain far higher than indeed it is . For the Passage of Aristotle , on which he founds his Opinion , is obscure enough ; and Aristotle , himself does sometimes take up Reports upon Hear-say , without over-strictly examining their Truth or Probability ; whereas all the Navigators and Travellers I have hitherto met with , ( and Your Lordship knows , that I have upon a Publick Account the opportunity of meeting often with such men , ) do almost unanimously agree , that the Pic of Teneriff is the highest Mountain hitherto known in the World , and yet that is so far from being 15 leagues high , ( as some Eminent and even late Writers would perswade us , ) that it is scarce a 7 th part so high as Ricciolus computes Mount Caucasus to be . For having ask'd M r Sydenham , and others , what was the Estimate made by the most knowing Persons of the Island of the height of the Hill , he told me that his Guides accounted it to be one and twenty mile high from the Town called L'oretava , seated on the lower part of the Hill ; from which . town to the Sea there is 3 miles of way alwayes descending . But in regard that the way , which amounted to 21 miles in length , is , as other wayes whereby steep places are wont to be ascended , made to wind and turn for the conveniency of Travellers ; I can scarce deduct less than 2 thirds for the Crookedness of the way : and accordingly having ask'd him , whether the Perpendicular height of it had been accurately taken by any with Mathematical Instruments , he answered , that he could say nothing to that upon his own knowledg , but that a Sea-man with great confidence affirmed himself to have accurately enough measur'd it by Observations made in a Ship , and to have found the Perpendicular height of the Hill to be about 7 miles . Which Estimate agrees well enough with the Calculations of Ricciolus and Snellius , if we lessen the Distance from which the top of the Hill is to be discovered , from 60 German leagues of 4 miles to a League , to the like number of common Leagues at 3 miles to a League . And because eminent Writers have so confidently deliver'd prodigious things touching the height of this Mountain , I will here , to confirm the Estimate already made , adde these Particulars , which I took from the Gentleman 's own mouth , ( and which were afterwards confirm'd to me by another that went with him , and partly also by a 3 d , who went up to the top at another time of the Year , ) viz. That they begun their Journey from L'oretava on the 18 th of August , about 10 of the Clock at night , and travell'd till Five in the Afternoon on the Munday following , resting two Hours by the way , and travelling about 10 miles of their way upon Mules , which afterwards they were forc'd to leave , and betake themselves to their feet . Resting upon Munday till midnight , they resum'd their journeying , and travell'd till about Nine the next morning , at which time they arriv'd at the top of the Sugar-loaf , or highest Pile of the Mountain ; so that they travell'd in all but 26 hours , in which , considering the steepness and ruggedness of the ways , and that they were forc't to goe above half way on foot , to which they were unaccustomed , t is likely enough that the length of the way did not much , if at all , exceed the Computation of the Guides . We have since endeavour'd , but without yet knowing what will be the succes , to have the height of this Mountain carefully taken by skilful men . In the interim I shall not deny , but that if what Aristotle and other Authors report of Mount Caucasus be true , there may be far higher Mountains than the Pic of Tenariff ; especially since there is one Consideration , which perhaps You will not think despicable , that I find not taken notice of by those that have written of the height of Mountains ; viz. That of two Mountains that , measur'd by Geometrical Instruments , may appear to be of the same height , there may yet be a Great inequality ; because the Measurer measures onely from some plain piece of Ground at the bottom of the Hill to the top , whereas it may be , that the Country , wherein one of those Mountains stands , may be exceedingly much higher than that wherein the other is plac'd : which difference of heights in the several Countreys , he that is to measure onely the height of one of the Mountains , is not wont to take any Notice of ; and consequently though in respect of the Plains , adjacent to the feet of the Mountains , their Altitudes may be equal , yet in respect of the Level or Superficies of the Terraqueous Globe , consider'd as having no Mountains at all but those two , the height of the one may far exceed that of the other ; and so the Pic of Tenariff being look'd upon from the Level of the Sea , may be much less high than some other Hils , but may appear much higher than some other Hils , which yet protuberating above the level part of some Country which is it self generally exceeding high , may have its top more remote from the Centre of the Earth , than that of the Pic , and would appear higher than it , if as well the one as the other were look'd upon from the same Superficies of the Sea. But to return to the height of the Atmosphere ; in order to the making an Estimate of what we have consider'd as to the height of Mountains , I shall adde , that though by what has been already said touching the height of the Pic , and other Hills , it appears , that the Atmosphere reaches far higher than many learned men would hitherto allow , yet we are not to think that the Atmosphere may not reach almost incomparably higher than the tops of Mountains . Nor do I suffer my self to be concluded by what many Comentators of Aristotle and other Writers are wont to teach touching the distinct narrow Extent they allow to that Sphere , within whose Limits they would have the Steams of the Terrestrial Globe to produce Meteors . How far the Height of Mountains may make the Air at the tops of them inconvenient for Respiration , shall be ( God permitting ) consider'd , when I come to acquaint Your Lordship with my loose Tryals about Respiration . EXPERIMENT XXIV . Shewing that the Pressure of the Atmosphere may be exercis'd enough to keep up the Mercury in the Torricellian Experiment , though the Air press upon it at a very small Orifice . BY a very slight variation of the foregoing 22 th Experiment we may both confirm one of the most important and the least likely Truths of the Hydrostaticks , and remove an Objection , which , for want of the knowledg of this Truth , is wont to be urg'd against your Hypothesis even by Learned men . For divers of these , when they see the same Phaenomena happen in the Torricellian Experiment , whether it be made in the open Air , or in a Chamber , are forward to object , That if it were , as we say t is , the weight of the Air , incumbent on the stagnant Mercury , which keeps that suspended in the Tube from falling down , the Mercury would not be sustain'd at any thing near the same height in the open Air , where the Pillar that is suppos'd to lean upon the stagnant Mercury , may reach up to the top of the Atmosphere , as in a close room , where they imagine that no more Air can press upon it , than what reaches directly up to the Roof or Sealing . And when to this t is answer'd , that though if a Room were indeed exactly clos'd , the Sustentation of the Mercury ought to be ascrib'd to some other cause than the weight of the Imprison'd Air , ( which other Cause I have elsewhere shewn to be its Spring ; ) yet in ordinary Rooms there is still a Communication between the internal and external Air , either by the Chimney , or , if the Room have none , by some Crevice in the Window , or by some Chink between the Wall and the Door , or at least by the Key-hole . And when to this t is objected , that the Orifice of the Keyhole is much narrower than the Superficies of the stagnant Mercury , and consequently , though the Atmosphere were not reduc'd to press obliquely on the Mercury , yet , entring at so small an Orifice , it could not press sufficiently upon it ; when , I say , in answer to this Objection I have alleadg'd that Hydrostatical Theoreme , That the Pressure , in such cases as ours , is to be estimated by the heights of the Liquors and not the breadths , the Assertion has been thought unlikely and precarious . To confirm therefore this Hydrostatical Truth , one may take the bended Tube , mention'd in the 22 th Experiment ; and inclining it till the greatest part of the Mercury pass from the shorter Leg into the longer , the upper end of this shorter Leg may by the flame of a Lamp be drawn out so slender , that the Orifice of it shall not be above an 8 th or 10 th part ( not to say a much lesse ) as big as 't was before . For this being done , and the Tube erected again , if the tall Cylinder of Mercury be of the usual or former height , as we have found it , 't will appear congruous to our Hypothesis , that the weight of the external Air may exercise as much Pression upon the stagnant Mercury through a little hole , as when all the upper Superficies of that Mercury was directly expos'd to it . And if one have not the conveniency to draw out the shorter Leg as is prescrib'd , one may nevertheless make the Tryal , by carefully stopping up the Orifice with a Cork and Cement , leaving onely ( or afterwards making ) a very small hole for the Air to pass in and out . If I had not wanted a fit Instrument , I would have tried to exemplifie the Truth of what has been delivered , by adding to the Glasses we imploy'd to make the V th . Experiment , such a Cover , as might be cemented on to the Edge of the Glass , having onely a very small hole in the midst , at which the Atmosphere would be reduc'd to exercise its Pressure ; and the like Cover I would have made use of in the X th Experiment , about the breaking of Glass-plates in the unexhausted Receiver , by the bare Spring of the Air. EXPERIMENT XXV . Shewing that an Oblique pressure of the Atmosphere may suffice to keep up the Mercury at the wonted height in the Torricellian Experiment , and that the Spring of a little included Air may do the same . BY adding a couple of little Circumstances to the Tryals lately propos'd , we may confirm two considerable Articles of our Hypothesis . For 1. if , in stead of drawing the shorter Leg of our Barometrical Syphon ( if I may so call it ) directly upwards , or parallel to the longer Leg as in the foregoing Experiment , You make the slender part bend off so , as that , if it were continued , it would make a right Angle with the longer Leg of the Syphon , or else an acute Angle tending downwards ; this being done , I say , if when the Tube is erected the Mercury rest at its wonted station , 't will appear , that the Pressure of the Atmosphere may be exercis'd upon it as well obliquely , when the Pipe that conveyes it is either Horizontal , or opens downwards . And 2. if in stead of bending this slender Pipe , one seal it up Hermetically , the continuance of the Mercurial Cylinder at the same height will shew , that the Spring of a very litle Air , shut up with the Presure of the Atmosphere upon it , ( though no more than what the Air here below is ordinarily expos'd to by the weight of the incumbent Air , ) is able to support as tall a Cylinder of Mercury as the weight of the whole Atmosphere , i. e. of as much of it , as can come to exercise its Pressure against the Mercury . NB. If when the shorter Leg of the Baroscope is seal'd up , you move the Instrument up and down , the Mercury will vibrate , by reason of the somewhat yielding Spring of the imprisoned Air ; but because of the resistance of the Spring , the motion will be diversified after an odde and pretty manner : which may be easily perceiv'd by the Impression it makes upon the Hand , but not so easily describ'd . And because that , when the shorter Leg is drawn out slender enough , after the Instrument is furnish'd with Quick-silver , t is easie to seal it up with the flame of a Candle , without the help of any Instrument at all , I shall here take notice to Your Lorship , ( which I could not reasonably do before , ) that it may on some occasions be convenient to seal up the Barometer , before it be transported , and , in some cases , to incline the Tube beforehand , till the Quick-silver have quite fill'd the longer Leg ; by this means the vibrations of the Quick-silver will be less than otherwise they would be , and 't will be no trouble at all , when the Instrument is brought to the design'd place , to break off the slender Apex of the shorter Leg , and so expose again the Mercury to the Pressure of the Atmosphere . As about the former Experiments , so about these two this Advertisement may be given ; viz. That the same Tryals , for the main , may be made without confining ones self to the propos'd wayes of making them . 1. For the First of these new Tryals may be made by Cementing very carefully on to the Orifice of the shorter Leg ( which need not be alter'd ) a short Pipe of Glass , whose upper end may be drawn out very slender , and bent either Horizontally or downwards ; which is far easier to be done , than to draw out the shorter Leg when the Glass is furnish'd with Mercury . 2. And as for the 2 d Tryal , that may be well enough made , by carefully stopping the unalter'd Orifice of the shorter Leg with a good Cork , and our close Cement , or with the later onely ; and when you would afterwards use this Instrument as a Baroscope , You need but heat a Pin or slender Wire red hot , and so burn a hole through the Stoppel . And this Expedient , which I could not conveniently advertise Your Lordship of sooner , may be of Use when a Travailing Baroscope is to be often remov'd : because having once stopt the whole Orifice well , t is far more easie to stop and open a Pin-hole accurately , than to close and unstop the whole Orifice of the Tube . Note , I endeavoured to confirm more than one of the foregoing Particulars by this one Experiment . Having caus'd a Portable Barometer to be made with the shorter Leg of a somewhat more than ordinary length , I afterwards caus'd the upper part of this Leg to be drawn out very slender , ( as in this 25 th Experiment ; ) and lastly I caus'd the same shorter Leg to be either about or somewhat above the middle bended downwards , so that the small Orifice of the slender Apex pointed towards the Ground . This done , I was to have measur'd the height of the suspended Mercury , but not having a fit Ruler at hand , I then deferr'd , and afterwards forgot to do it ; but I remember , that neither I , nor some others vers'd in such Experiments , to whom I shew'd it , took any notice that the Mercury was less high than in ordinary Barometers ; whence 't was concluded , that the Atmosphere could exercise his Pressure not onely at a very small Orifice , ( which in our Experiment did litle , if at all , exceed a Pin-hole , ) but when the Air must at this little Orifice press upwards to be able to press upon the Surface of the stagnant Mercury : EXPERIMENT XXVI . About the making of a Baroscope ( but of litle practical use ) that serves but at certain times . TO shew some Ingenious men by a Medium , that has not hitherto ( that I know of ) been made use of , That the not subsiding of Quick-silver in an inverted Tube , that is a little shorter than 30 inches , or thereabouts , does not proceed from such a fuga Vacui as the Schools ascribe to Nature , but from the Gravity of the external Air , I devised the following Experiment . Having made choice of a time , when it appear'd by a good Baroscope , ( which I had frequently consulted for that purpose , ) that the Atmosphere was considerably heavy , I caus'd Galspipe , Hermetically seal'd at one end , and in length about 2 foot and a half , to be fill'd with Quick-silver , save a very litle wherein some drops of Water were put , that we might the better discern the Bubbles , if any should be left after the inversion of the Tube into an open Glass with stagnant Mercury in it . Having by this means ( though not without difficulty ) freed the Tube from bubbles , we so order'd the matter , that the Quick-silver and the litle water that was about it , fill'd the Tube exactly , without leaving any interval that we could discern at the top , and yet the Mercurial Cylinder was but very little higher than that of our Baroscope was at that time . This done , the newly fill'd Pipe was left erected in a quiet place , where the Liquors retain'd their former height for divers dayes . But though an ordinary School-Philosopher would confidently have attributed this sustation of so heavy a Body to Nature's fear of admitting a Vacuum , yet it seems , that either she is not alwayes equally subject to that fear , or some other cause of the Phaenomenon must be assign'd ; for when ( a pretty while after ) I had observ'd by the Baroscope , that the Atmosphere was grown much lighter than before , repairing to my short Tube , I found that according to my expectation the Quick-silver was not inconsiderably subsided , and had left a Cavity at the top , which afterwards grew lesser , according as the Atmosphere grew heavier . NB. 1. The Tube imployed about this Experiment , may be brought to the requisite shortness , either by wearing off a little of the Glass at the Orifice of it , or by increasing the height of the stagnant Mercury , into which it hath been inverted . 2. When the Quick silver in our short Tube was much subsided , there appeared in the Water that swam upon it a litle Bubble , about the bigness of a small Pins head , but , considering how careful we had been to free the Tube from bubbles before we set it to rest , it may very well be , that this so small a Bubble was not produc'd till after the subsiding of the Quick-silver , whereupon the Aerial Particles in the Water became less compress'd than before ; not to mention that the Bubble ( such as it was ) appear'd very much greater than it would have done , if the Pressure of the Atmosphere had not been kept from it by the weight of the subjacent pillar of Mercury . EXPERIMENT XXVII . About the Ascension of Liquors in very slender Pipes in an Exhausted Receiver . VVHat I related to Your Lordship in the 35 th of the publish'd Experiments , ( pag. 138. ) about the seemingly spontaneous Ascension of Water in slender Pipes , has occasion'd the making of many Tryals by the Curious , whereby that Experiment has been not a little diversify'd ; but because among those I have yet heard of none have been made in our Engine , it may not be amiss to adde the following Tryal , which may be of use in the Examen of one or two of the chief Conjectures that have hitherto been propos'd about the cause of that odde phaenomenon . We ting'd some spirit of Wine with Cocheneel , which being put into the Receiver , and the Air withdrawn , did exceedingly bubble for a pretty while . Then little hollow Pipes of differing Sizes being put into it , the red Liquor ascended higher in the slenderer than the others , but upon the withdrawing of the Air there scarce appear'd any sensible difference in the heights of the Liquor , nor yet upon the letting it in again . Afterwards two such Pipes of differing Sizes , being fasten'd together ( at a distance ) with Cement , were let down into the same spirit of Wine when the Receiver was well exhausted , notwithstanding which the Liquor ascended in them , for ought we could plainly see , after the ordinary manner ; onely when the Air was let in again , there seem'd to be some little ( and but very litle ) rising at least in one of the Pipes . In this Tryal this Phaenomenon was noted : That though there appear'd no Bubbles at all in the vessel'd spirit of Wine , ( notwithstanding that we continued to pump , ) yet there did for a pretty while arise bubbles in that part of the Liquor that was got into the slender Pipes ; which I guess'd to proceed from the sustentation ( in part ) of the spirit of Wine , made by the inside of the Pipe whereto it adher'd . EXPERIMENT XXVIII . About the great and seemingly spontaneous Ascension of Water in a Pipe fill'd with a compact body , whose Particles are thought incapable of imbibing it . VPon occasion of the ( seemingly ) spontaneous Ascension of Water in slender Pipes of Glass , I consider'd that 't would be easie by another way to make it rise to a far Greater height than hitherto had been done ; for since we had found by Observation that , caeteris paribus , the slenderer the little Pipes were that we imployed , the higher the Liquor would rise in them ; and since the Hydrostaticks had taught us , that often times even in very crooked Pipes Water would be made to ascend by the same wayes ( of raising it ) to the same perpendicular height ( or thereabouts ) as in straight ones ; I thought , that I might well substitute a Powder , consisting of solid Corpuscles heap'd upon one another , and included in a Glass-Cane in stead of the litle Pipes I had hitherto used . For I consider'd the litle intervals , that would necessarily be left between these differingly shap'd and confusedly plac'd Corpuscles , would allow passage to the Water as did the Cavities of the little Pipes , and yet would in many places be straiter than the slenderest Pipes I had us'd . And though beaten Glass , or fine Sand , &c. might have been imployed about this Experiment , yet I judg'd it far more convenient to make use of some Metalline Calx , because the Operation of the Fire , making a more exquisite Comminution of Solid bodies than our Pestles are wont to do , is fit to supply us with exceeding minute Granes , that intercept proportionable Cavities between them . Upon this Consideration therefore ( besides others to be hereafter hinted ) I took a strait pipe of Glass , open at both ends , and of a moderate wideness , ( for it need not be very slender , ) and having tyed a Linnen-rag to one end of it , that the Water might have free passage in , and the Powder not be able to fall out , we carefully and as exactly as we could , fill'd the Cavity with Minium , ( which is Lead calcin'd , without addition , to Redness ; ) and then having erected the Tube , so that the bottom of it rested upon that of a somewhat shallow and open mouth'd Glass , containing Water enough to swim an Inch or two above the bottom of the Tube ; into whose cavity it did , as I expected , insinuate it self by degrees , as appear'd by a litle change of colour in that part of the Minium which it reacht , till ( the open Glass being from time to time supplied with fresh liquor ) it attain'd to the height of about 30 inches . And then , our Society expressing a Curiosity to see it , and have it plac'd among better things , I was hinder'd from making any further Observations with that particular Glass . Wherefore taking afterwards another Tube , and some Minimum carefully prepared , I prosecuted the Experiment so as to make the Water rise in the Pipe about 40 inches above the surface of the stagnant Water ; and I guess'd it had risen higher , but , by reason that at the upper part of the Minimum the difference of colour was so small , as not to be easily distinguishable with certainty , I forbore to allow a greater height to the Ascension of the Water : nor could I , where I then was , much promote the Experiment , for want of such Accommodations as I desir'd ; but about the Experiment , as I try'd it , I shall take notice of the following particulars . I tryed some other Powders besides red Lead , ( as beaten Glass , pieces of fine Spunge , Putty , &c. ) but did not find any of them do so well ; which success was yet perhaps but accidental , and therefore the Tryal may be repeated , especially with Putty , because that being a Metalline Calx as well as Minium , consists of very small Grains , and by reason of its Great whiteness receives a Greater change of colour by wetting than Minium does ; in which , especially if it be very fine , the discoloration that Water makes toward the upper part of the Tube , is sometimes not so easie to be clearly discern'd . 2. I did indeed endeavour to remedy this inconvenience , by using , in stead of meer Water , tincted Liquors , as Ink , tincture of Safron , &c. but they seem'd not to rise near so high as Water alone , as if the dissolv'd ingredients did by degrees choak the pores of the Minium . 3. To have the Grains of our Powder more minute and the smaller intervals between them , I chose not onely to use the finest sort of Minium I could procure , but also to sift it through a very fine Searce , and to put it but by litle and litle into the Tube , that by ramming it from time to time it might be made to lie the closer ; which Expedients succeeded not ill . 4. It seem'd by a Tryal or two ( for I am not sure the observation will alwayes hold , ) that if the Tube were very slender , ( as about the bigness of a Swans quill , ) the Experiment succeeded not well . 5. It may be worth while to observe in what times the Water ascends to such and such heights ; for at the beginning t will ascend much faster then afterwards , and sometimes t will continue rising 24 or 30 hours , and sometimes perhaps much longer . 6. One of the scopes I propos'd to my self in this Experiment was to discover a mistake in the Explication that some Learned modern Writers have given us of the cause of Filtration ; for whereas they teach that the parts of Filtre that touch the Water , being swell'd by the ingress of it to their pores , are thereby made to lift up the Water , till it touch the superiour parts of the Filtre that are almost contiguous to them ; by which means these being also wetted , and swell'd , raise the Water to the other neighbouring parts of the Filtre , till it have reacht to the top of it , whence it s own Gravity will make it descend . But in our case we have a Filtre made of solid Metalline Corpuscles , where t will be very hard to shew that any such intumescence is produc'd , as the recited Explication requires . 7. Water ascends so few inches even in very slender Pipes , as to seem much to favour their Judgment , who dissallow the conjecture lately entertain'd by some ingenious men , ( particularly M r H. ) about the raising of the Sap in Trees after the like manner that Water is raised in slender Pipes ; but without fully delivering yet my thoughts of that Speculation , I may take notice , that in the last Tryal above recited , I made Water to ascend near , if not above , 3 foot ½ and if by so sleight an Expedient , Water may be made to rise as high as is necessary for the Nutrition of some thousands of Plants , ( for such a number there is , that exceed not 3 foot 1 / 2 in height , ) one may without absurdity ask , why t is not possible that Nature , or rather the most wise Author of it , may have made such Contrivances in Plants , as to make Liquors ascend in them to the Tops of the tallest Trees ; especially since , besides divers things that we may already suspect , ( as Heat , and something equivalent to well plac'd Valves , ) many others , that perhaps are not yet dreamt of , may probably concur to the Effect . 8. As I formerly made , by bending the slender Pipes we have been talking of , short Syphons through which the Water runs , without being at first assisted by Suction , so I thought fit to try , whether I could not in larger Pipes , by the help of Minium , make much longer Syphons . But though when the Orifices were turn'd upwards , fine Minium were ramm'd into both the Legs , and the Orifices were both of them clos'd , yet when they came to be again turn'd downwards , the weight of the Minium would somewhere or other ( and for the most part at or near the flexure ) make some such chink or discontinuation , as to hinder the farther progress of the Water . Which impediment , though I judg'd it superable enough , ( especially by making at the Flexure a little Pipe or Socket , by which both Legs might be closely fill'd ) yet for want of Accommodations and leisure it was left unsurmounted . Upon which account also I did not satisfie my self about the success of some former Tryals , as of the Ascension of Water into pieces of Wood of differing sorts , the operation of the Vicissitudes of the Suns beams , and the absence of them upon liquors ascending in Tubes fill'd with Minium , &c. 9. Whether the Pressure of the outward Air be the cause of the Ascension of Liquors in our Tubes furnisht with Minium , is a Probleme , in order to whose Solution I could acquaint Your Lordship with a Contrivance , wherewith to make some Tryals in our Engine . But since it can scarce be well describ'd without many words , unless You express a particular Curiosity to know it , I shall not trouble You with it : and the rather , because the best way I know of examining this difficulty belongs to the 2 d part of this Continuation , where mention is made of an attempt about it , which did not , I confess , displease me . EXPERIMENT XXIX . Of the seemingly spontaneous Ascension of Salts along the sides of Glasses , with a conjecture at the Cause of it . TO the same Cause ( or the like ) with that of the Ascension of Water in slender Pipes may be probably referr'd an odde Phaenomenon , which though I remember not to have been mentioned by any Chymical or other Writer , I have not unfrequently observed as well by chance as in Tryals purposely made to satisfie my self and others about the truth of it . The Phaenomenon , in short , was this . That having in wide-mouth'd Glasses ( which should not be very deep ) expos'd to the Air a strong Solution of common Sea-salt or of Vitriol , which reacht not by some inches to the top of the Glass ; and having suffered much of the aqueous part to exhale away very slowly , the coagulated Salt would at length appear to have lin'd the inside of the Glass , and to have ascended much higher , not onely than the place where the surface of the remaining Water then rested at , but than the place to which the Liquor reacht when 't was first poured in . And if the Experiment were continued long enough , I sometimes observed this Ascension of the Salt to amount to some inches , and that the salt did not onely line the inside of the Glass , but , getting over the brim of it , cover'd the outside of it with a Saline Crust : which made them that saw how litle liquor remain'd in the Glass , admire how it could possibly get thither . And though I have mentioned but the Solution of Vitriol and Sea-salt , because they are much easier than others to be procur'd , and yet the Experiment succeeds better in Them than in some other far less parable Salts ; yet they are not the onely ones by whose Solutions the recited Phaenomenon may be Exhibited . As for the Cause of this odd Effect , though I shall not propose any thing about it with Confidence , till I have further inquired into it , and especially till I have tryed whether the Phaenomenon may be produced in an Exhausted Receiver ; yet , by what I have hitherto observed , I am inclin'd to conjecture , that it may be referr'd to such a cause as that of the Ascension of Liquors in Pipes after some such manner as this . First , I observed , that in Water and Aqueous liquors , that part of the Surface which is next the sides of the Glass , is ( whatever the reason of it be ) sensibly more elevated than the rest of the Superficies ; and if very litle clippings of Straw or other such minute and light bodies , floating upon the Water , chance to approach near enough to the sides of the Glass , they will be apt ( which one would not expect ) to run up as t were this ascent of Water , and rest against the sides of the Glass . Next we may take notice with the Salt-boylers and Chymists , that Sea-salt is usually wont to coagulate at the top of the Water in small and oblong Corpuscles , so that as to these t is easie to conceive , to them that have considered the first Observation , how numbers of them may fasten themselves round about to the inside of the Glass . And besides Sea-salt , I have found by tryal divers others , if their Solutions be slowly enough evaporated , that will , whilst yet there remains a good proportion of Liquor , afford Saline Concretions at the top of the Water . And the fastning of Saline particles to the sides of the Glass may perhaps be promoted by the Coldness that may be communicated to the Corpuscles contiguous to the Glass , by reason of the coldness which the Glass may be suspected to have , upon the score of its Density , in comparison of Water . But to proceed : I consider , that by the Evaporation of the aqueous parts of the Solution , the surface of the remaining liquor must necessarily subside , and those Saline particles , that were contiguous to the inside of the Glass and the more elevated part of the Water , having no longer enough of Liquor to keep them dissolv'd , will be apt to remain sticking to the sides of the Glass , and upon the least farther Evaporation of the Water will be a litle higher than the greater part of the Superficies of that Liquor ; by which means it will come to pass , that , by reason of the litle inequalities that will be on the internal surface of the adhering Corpuscles of the Salt , and perhaps also on the internal Superficies of the Glass , there will be intercepted between the Salt and the Glass litle Cavities , into which the Water contiguous to the bottom will ascend or be impell'd upon such an account as that , whereon t is rais'd in slender Pipes . And when the Liquor is thus got to the top of the Salt , and comes to be exposed to the Air , the Saline part may , by the evaporation of the Aqueous , be brought to coagulate there , and consequently to increase the height of the Saline filme , ( if I may so call it ; ) which by the like means may be at length brought to reach to the very top of the Glass , whence it may easily be brought over to the outside of the vessel , where the natural weight of the Solution will facilitate its progress downwards ; and the skin of Salt , together with the contiguous surface of the Glass , may ( at length ) constitute a kind of Syphon . To this Explication it agrees well , that I have usually observed the Saline filme hitherto mentioned to be with great ease separable from the Glass in large Fleaks ; which argues , that they did not stick close to one another except in some few places , but had a thin Cavity intercepted between them , through which the water might ascend . Nor is it repugnant to this Explication , that in case the Water ascended , it should , as it seems , dissolve the Salt. For the Liquor being already upon the point of Concretion , is so glutted with Salt , that it can dissolve no more . Whence we may also render a reason , why , when the Saline filme chances to reach to the outside of the Glass , the Liquor ( divers times ) does not run down to the bottom , but is coagulated by the way . And I have also had a suspicion , ( though I could not seasonably take notice of it before now , ) that when the Concretion is once begun , the Film may be raised and propagated , not onely by the motion of the Liquor between the inside of it and the Glass , but by the same Liquor 's insinuating it self on the outside of the Film into the small Chinks and Crevises , intercepted between the Saline Corpuscles , as Ink ( especially if somewhat thin ) rises into the Slit , and along the sides of the Nib of a Pen , though nothing but its very point be dipt in the surface of the liquor . And by this means the impregnated Solution may as it were climb up to the top of the saline Concretion , and by coagulating there adde to its height . Some other Circumstances I have noted of our Phaenomenon , that agree with the propos'd Explication , but perhaps it would not be worth while to spend more time about it . Not to examine here whether what has been related , so as to make it probable that ascending Water may carry up wherewithall to heighten and increase the Pipes or vessels through which it rises , may contribute any thing more then was suggested in the former 28 th Experiment , towards the Explication of the Rising and diffusing of the Sap in Trees . EXPERIMENT XXX . About an attempt to measure the Gravity of Cylinders of the Atmosphere , so as that it may be exprest by known and common Weights . VVHilst I was making the former Experiments , 't was more than once my wish , that by knowing the just weight of a Cylinder of Quick-silver of a determinate Diameter , and of 29 or 30 inches high , which is near the height that the Air does usually counterballance , I might the better estimate the weight of a Cylinder of the Atmosphere of that Diameter , and consequently make the better Guesses how near the effects of the Spring of the Air ( as well as of its Weight , ) produc'd by the help of our Engine , approach'd to the utmost of what might have been expected , in case all the instruments imployed had been perfect , and all concurrent circumstances had been favourable : And upon this account I several times regretted my want of a long Instrument of Steel or hardned Iron , wherewith I many years since made an Observation , that was more carefully registred than preserved , of the weight of a Mercurial Cylinder of a determinate height as well as Diameter ; which weight I did not think it so safe to determine by the help of Glass-Tubes , because t is very difficult to have them uniformly Cylindrical , and to know that they are so , in regard that they are form'd but by blowing and drawing out , and , besides the inequality that may happen to the Cavity upon other accounts , t is very difficult to make the sides of the Glass equally thick , and to examine whether they be so or no. But at length lighting upon ( what I had too often wanted in the foregoing Experiments ) a dexterous Artificer , that chanced to come for a while to the place where I then was , I indeavour'd to repair my loss , as well as he could help me to do it , by causing him to turn very carefully a Cylindrical piece of Brass , of an inch in Diameter , and 3 inches in length , and open ( that it might be the better wrought ) at both ends , to one of which was exactly fitted a flat bottom of the same Metal , fastned very close to it with little Screws on the outside ; this being judg'd a better way , than if it had been turn'd all of a piece : This instrument being diligently counterpois'd in a trusty pair of Scales , was carefully fill'd with Mercury , which ( for greater caution ) we took out of a new parcel , that we had not yet imployed about other Experiments , and finding it to weigh XVII Ounces , one Dram , 45 Gr : Troy weight , ( or 137 dr : 45 gr : ) multiplying that by 10 , there will come for the weight of a Mercurial Cylinder , of one inch in Diameter , and 30 inches in height , ( and so high I have divers times seen the Mercury to be in a good Barometer , ) about 14 , 2l , ( i.e. 14l , 2 Ounces , and above three drams , Troy-weight ; and almost 11 , 8l . Haberdupoise weight , ( i.e. 11l , 12 Ounces , and above 6 Drams , ) which is a greater weight than without such a Tryal one would easily imagine that so short a Cylinder of Mercury , and much less that a Cylinder of so light a Body as Air , being neither of them above an Inch Diameter , could amount to . Note First , to examine at the same time the weight of the Mercury , and its proportion to Water , we did , before the Mercury was pour'd into the Brass-vessel , fill it with Water , ( after which we wip'd it dry before the Mercury was put into it ; ) and this liquor weighing 10 drams , and 15 gr : the proportion between the Mercury and the Water appeard to be that of 13 18 / 41 to 1 : which though it seem somewhat of the least , yet Your Lordship may remember , that I formerly told You I had several times found the receiv'd proportion of 14 to 1 , between Mercury and Water , to be somewhat too great ; and besides that , in a vessel whose orifice was no lesse than an inch in Diameter , t is exceeding difficult to be sure when t is precisely full either of Water or Mercury ; because the former has a Superficies considerably concave , and the other one that is notably convex , and though we us'd some litle Artifices ( which would be troublesome here to mention ) to estimate the proturberance of the one liquor , and the deficience of the other , as near the truth as could be , yet I am not sure but there may have been a few Mercurial Corpuscles more than there should have been , and that consequently some small abatement may have been made of the weight newly attributed to the whole Mercurial Cylinder of 30 inches . 2. I had thoughts of making use of the Barrel of a Gun , of a convenient length , to find the weight of a Mercurial Cylinder of 2 foot and 1 / 2 , but I preferr'd the Instrument already made use of ( especially not being where I could have one bored after a peculiar way , ) not onely because I could not meet with one whose Diameter was a just inch , and consequently as convenient for calculations , and because that the Barrels of Guns are often bor'd a litle Tapering ; but because a skilful Artificer confest to me , that they scarce ever bore such Barrels , but with a foure-square Bit , ( as they call it , ) which leaves the Cavity too Angular , or too imperfectly round ; whereas if an Hexahedrical Bit be imploy'd it will , as he affirm'd , make the Cavity almost as Cylindrical as can be reasonably desired . I say nothing here of making use for our purpose of a Trunk , as they call a hollow Cylinder of Wood , because I elsewhere shew , that Wood ( at least such as the Trunks to shoot Pellets with are wont to be made of ) is not of a Texture close enough for such an use . 3. Because in Cylinders of Mercury , 30 inches is a height which the Atmosphere is seldome heavy enough to be able to counterpoise , and because 29 inches is somewhat nearer the middle between the greatest and the least heights , at which I have observed the Mercury at differing times to stand in good Barometers . Your Lordship may , if You please , abate a 30 th part of the weight assign'd above to a Mercurial Cylinder of 30 inches , ( though I take 29 and ¼ , or thereabouts , to be somewhat a more usual height of the Mercury , than precisely Nine and twenty . ) 4. The Weight of a Mercurial Cylinder in an Aequilibrium with the Atmosphere , and of one inch in Diameter being thus setled , we may , by the help of the doctrine of Proportions , and a few Propositions , especially the 14 th of the 12 th book of Euclides Elements , easily enough calculate the weight of a Cylinder of Mercury of another Diameter , and consequently the force of the Pressure of an Atmospherical Pillar of the same Diameter . For since according to the forenam'd 14 th Proposition of the 12 th , Cylinders of equal Bases are to one another as their Heights ; and since by the 2 d Proposition of the same 12. Element , Circles such as are the Bases of Cylinders ) are to one another , as the Squares of their Diameters ; and since lastly we suppose , that Mercury being a Homogeneous body , at least as to sense , the Mercurial Cylinders will have the same proportion to each other in Weight that they have in Bulk ; since , I say , these things are so , if , for instance , we desire to know what will be the weight of a Cylinder of 30 inches high , whose Diameter is two inches , the Rule will be this . As the square of the Diameter of the Standard Cylinder , ( as I call that whose weight is already known ) is to the square of the Diameter of the Cylinder propos'd , so will the bulk of the former Cylinder be to that of the later , and the weight of that to the weight of this . According to which Rule , the square of 1 inch ( which is the Diameter of the standard Cylinder ) being but 1 , ( whereby Your Lordship may perceive how much the measure I pitcht on facilitates Computations , ) and the square of 2 ( which is the Diameter of the propos'd Cylinder ) being 4 , the bulk or solid Contents of this later Cylinder , and consequently its Weight , will be 4 times as great as those of the standard Cylinder ; and so , since the lesser has been already suppos'd to weigh 11 , 8l Haberdupoise , the Mercurial Cylinder of two inches in Diameter , will weigh 47 , 2l of the same weight . EXPERIMENT XXXI . About the Attractive virtue of the Loadstone in an Exhausted Receiver . SOme Learned modern Philosophers , that have attempted to explicate the cause and manner of Magnetical Attraction or Coition , give such an account of it , as supposes , that the Air between the two Magnetical Bodies , being driven away by their Effluviums from between them , presses them on the parts opposite to those where the Contact is to be made ; and upon some such score ( for I must not now stay to deliver their Theories Circumstantially ) the Air is suppos'd to contribute very much to the Attraction and Sustentation of the Iron by the Loadstone : wherefore partly to examine this Opinion , and partly for some other Purposes ( not necessary now to be mentioned ) we thought fit to make the following Exptriment . We took a small but vigorous Loadstone , cap'd and fitted with a loose plate of Steel , so shap'd , that when it was sustained by the Loadstone , we could hang at a litle Crook , that came out of the midst of it , and pointed downwards , a Scale , wherein to put what Weights we should think fit . Into this Scale we put sometimes more and sometimes less weight , and then by shaking of the Loadstone as much as we guess'd it would be shaken by the motion of the Engine , we found the greatest weight , that we presum'd it would be able to support , in spite of the Agitation 't would be exposed to , which prov'd to be , besides the Iron-plate and the Scale , VI Ounces Troy weight , to which if we added half an ounce more , the whole weight appear'd too easie to be shaken off . This done , we hung the Loadstone , with all the weight it sustain'd , at a Button of Glass , which we had procur'd to be fastned on to the top of the inside of a Receiver , when 't was first blown , and though in about 12 Exuctions we usually emptied such Receivers as as much as was requisite for most Experiments ; yet this time , to exhaust it the more accurately , we continued pumping till we had exceeded twice that number of Exuctions , at the end of which time shaking the Engine somewhat rudely , without thereby shaking off the Weight that hung at the Loastone , the Iron seem'd to be very near as firmly sustain'd by it as before the Air began to be pump'd out . I said very near , rather than altogether , because that the withdrawing of the Air , though it be not suppos'd to weaken at all the Power of the Loadstone precisely considered , yet it must lessen its power to sustain the Steel , because this in so thin a medium must weigh heavier , than in the Air , by the weight of as much Air , as is equal in bulk to the appended Body . Some other Magnetical Tryals ( and also some Electrical ones ) I remember I attempted to make by the help of our Engine , but not having the Notes I took of them now at hand , I shall suspend the mentioning them , till I can give Your Lordship a more punctual Account of them . EXPERIMENT XXXII . Shewing , that when the Pressure of the External Air is taken off , t is very easie to draw up the Sucker of a Syringe , though the Hole , at which the Air or Water should succeed , be stopp'd . HAving taken notice , that some learned Opposers of the Modern Doctrine about the weight of the Atmosphere think themselves more than ordinarily befriended by the difficulty we find in drawing up the Embolus or Sucker of a Syringe , when the hole , at which the Air or Water should succeed , is stopt , and by the violence , with which , as soon as t is let go , tis , as they imagine , drawn back . And supposing the reason of this confidence of theirs to be , that Men have not yet been able in these Phaenomena ( as in some others ) to prove the interest of the Atmosphere's Gravity by direct or confessedly analogous Experiments ; I presum'd it will not be unwelcome to Your Lordship , if I here fortifie the Speculations that have been or may be propos'd to explicate these things according to the Hypothesis of the weight of the Air , by what we tried to that purpose , among others , when we were making use of a Syringe in our Engine . The I. Tryal . We took a Syringe of Brass , ( that Metal being closer and stronger then Pewter , of which such instruments are usually made , ) being in length ( in the Barrel ) about 6 inches , and in Diameter about 1 inch ⅜ and having , by putting a thin Bladder about the Sucker , and by pouring a litle Oyl into the cavity of the Cylinder ( or Barrel , ) brought the instrument to be stanch enough , and yet the Sucker to move to and fro without much difficulty , we thrust this to the bottom ( or Basis ) of the Barrel to exclude the Air , and having unscrew'd and laid aside the slender Pipe of the Syringe ( which in this and some other Tryals was like to prove not onely needless , but inconvenient ) we carefully stopt the Orifice , to which the Pipe in these instruments is wont to be screw'd , and then drawing up the Sucker we let it go , to judg by the violence , with which it would be driven back again , whether the Syringe were light enough for our purpose , and finding it to be so , we fastned to the Barrel a ponderous piece of Iron to keep it down , and then fastning to the handle of the Rammer ( or Axle-tree of the Sucker ) one end of a String , whose other end was tied to the often mentioned turning-key : We convey'd this Syringe , and the weight belonging unto it , into a Receiver ; and having pump'd out the Air , we then began to turn the Key , thereby to shorten the String that tied the handle of the Syringe to it ; and , as we foretold , that the Pressure of the Air , lately included in the Receiver , being withdrawn , we should no more find the wonted resistance in drawing up the Sucker from the bottom of the Cylinder , so we found upon Tryal that we could very easily pull it up without finding any sensible resistance . However having thought fit to repeat the Experiment , ( which we did with the like success , ) lest it might might be objected , that this want of resistance might proceed , as partly from our imploying the Turning-key to raise the Sucker , so principally from some unperceived Leak , at which the Air may be suppos'd to have got into the cavity of the Cylinder ; I thought fit not onely to examine by Tryal , after the Receiver was remov'd from off the Pump , whether the Syringe were not stanch , ( upon which I found that I could not , without some straining , draw up the Sucker even a litle way , and that it would be violently beaten back again , ) but also in one of these Experiments to make this variation ; That when , the Receiver being exhausted , we had drawn up the Sucker almost to the top of the Barrel by such a string as was purposely chosen somewhat weak , we kept the parts of the Syring in that posture , till we had open'd a passage to the outward Air , upon whose ingress the Sucker was ( as we intended it should be ) so forceably deprest , that it broke the String by which it was tied to the Turning-key , and was violently driven back to the lower part of the Barrel , & that notwithstanding these two disadvantageous Circumstances ; one , that the string was not so weak , but that one , whom I imploy'd to try it before it was fastned to the Syringe , made it sustain a lump of Iron that weighed between four and five pound ; and the other , that yet this string was broken long before all the Air , that flowed in to fill the Receiver , had got in : so that the pressure of all the admitted Air would doubtless have broken a much stronger string , if we had imploy'd such a one to resist the depression of the Sucker , which will yet be more evident by a phaenomenon of our Syringe , that I shall presently have occasion to relate . The II. TRYAL . Containing a Variation of the foregoing . We took the Syringe imploy'd in the foregoing Experiments , and having found by Tryal that it was , though not perfectly , tite , ( nor altogether so much so as before , ) yet enough so for our present purpose , ( since , when the Orifice of the vent in the Basis was stopt , if the Sucker were more forceably drawn up a litle way , and then let go , it would hastily return , or rather violently be impell'd back towards the bottom of the Barrel , ) we made it serve us as well as we could for the following Experiment . Of this Syringe we did very carefully with a Cork and our Cement close the vent ; and then having tied to the barrel of the Syring a Weight that hapned to be at hand , ( and to amount to 2 Pound , and as many Ounces , ) we suspended the Rammer of the Syringe by a string in a large Receiver ; and then causing the Pump to be applied , we made 11 or 12 Exuctions of the Air , without any appearance of change in the Syringe : but because I had judg'd the above mentioned Weight sufficient , and suppos'd that the little Air still remaining in the Receiver , had yet too strong a Pressure to be surmounted by it , I caus'd the Pumping to be continued , and within 2 or three Exuctions more I perceiv'd the Cylinder to begin to be drawn down ( though but very slowly ) by the Weight hanging at it , ( assisted by its own Gravity : ) and likewise tried ( after having purposely stopt a while the working of the Pump ) that just upon a fresh Suck the descent would be manifestly accelerated . And when we had suffer'd the Barrel and Weight to slide down as far as we thought fit , we let in the External Air , which ( as was to be expected ) rais'd them both again much faster than they had subsided . NB. There would not have needed any thing near so great a Weight to depress the Barrel of the Syringe , but that it is difficult in such an instrument to make the Sucker fill it accurately enough , without making it somewhat uneasie to be mov'd to and fro : Upon which account t was necessary that a Weight should be added , not onely to surmount the Pressure of the Air remaining in the Receiver , ( which was not , nor needed to be diligently exhausted in this Experiment , ) but to overcome that resistance , which we just now noted the inequalities of the inside of the Cylinder and those of the Sucker to give to the motion of the one in or over the other . And yet for all this t is not easie , though it be not impossible , to make one of these Syringes very Tight , especially when the Nose is well stopt , and the Sucker drawn up ; there being often some litle Air that strains in between the Sucker and the Barrel , and some that will be harbour'd between the Sucker ( though thrust home ) and the bottom of the Barrel , besides what may lurk between the same Sucker and the Cork that stops the orifice of the Vent . Nor were we confident , that our Syringe did not at length let some Aerial particles insinuate themselves into the Cavity , which the depression of the Barrel had made betwixt the Bases of that Barrel and the Sucker : and in such cases we ought not to wonder , if upon the return of the Air the Barrel and Weight be not impell'd up all together to the same height they rested at , when they were first suspended in the Receiver . 2. It agreed very well with our Doctrine , that as the Cylinder and Weight began not to fall , till a great quantity of Air had been pump'd out of the Receiver , so they did not begin to move upwards presently upon the freedom that was allow'd the Air to return into the Receiver . For till it had continued a pretty while flowing in , there was not enough of it entred to restore by its pressure the Cylinder and the annexed Weight to their former situation . 3. What has been deliver'd about our Experiment may be confirm'd by this Variation which we made of it : That having substituted a far heavier Weight instead of that lately mention'd , the depression of the Barrel of the Syringe succeeded 2 or 3 times one after another much sooner than formerly , viz. about the sixth , or at most , the seaventh Exuction . EXPERIMENT XXXIII . About the opening of a Syringe , whose Pipe was stopt in the Exhausted Receiver , and by the help of it making the Pressure of the Air lift up a considerable Weight . THough the Trial I am about to relate , had not all the success I desir'd , yet perhaps it will not be impertinent to make mention of it , because there is not any sort of Experiments , that is wont so much to perswade the Generality of Spectators , of the great force of the Pressure of the Air , as those , wherein they plainly see heavy and solid Bodies made to ascend , ( upon the operation of the Air on them , ) without seeing any other thing lift them up . We took the often mention'd Syringe , and having clos'd up the Hole at the bottom with good Cement , we ty'd to the Barrel a hollow piece of Iron , that serv'd us for a Scale , into which we put divers Weights one after another , trying from time to time whether , when the Sucker was forceably drawn up , and held steddily in its highest station , the Weight tyed to the Barrel ( which was held down , whilst the Sucker was drawn up , and afterwards let go ) would be considerably rais'd . And when we perceiv'd , that the addition of half a Pound , or a Pound more , would make the Weight too Great to be so rais'd , we forbore to put in that increase of weight ; and having tied the Handle of the Rammer to the Turning-key , we convey'd the Syringe together with its clog into a Receiver , out of which a convenient quantity of Air being pump'd , we were thereby enabled easily to draw up the Sucker without the Cylinder ; after which having let in the Air , the by-standers concluded , that the weight was rais'd a litle , which yet I would not have allow'd , if we had not been able , by inclining the Engine and the Receiver , to make the Syringe and Weight a litle to swing . But to make the effect more evident , I caus'd a two pound weight to be taken out , and then the Receiver being somewhat exhausted , and the Air readmitted , the Clog , when all the Air was come in , was swiftly raised , and as it were snatch'd up from the midle to the upper part of the suspended Rammer . It is no easie matter to measure , with any certainty and exactness by a Syringe , the weight of an Atmospherical Pillar equal to it in Diameter , especially if there be any imperfection in the Syringe , either because the Sucker does not go close enough , in which case it can scarce be stanch , or because by its Pressure against the inside of the Barrel ( which often happens if it be too close ) it hinders the Sucker and Barrel from sliding without resistance by one another , and consequently there is an undue resistance made to the endeavour of the Atmosphere , to raise the Barrel and Weight . And therefore , though our Syringe being , upon the account of some ill accident , less in order than it was in some of the foregoing Experiments , I must not conclude that a Cylinder of the Atmosphere of the same wideness with it , is equipollent to no greater a weight , than that which was taken up in our Trial , yet we may safely conclude that so slender a Pillar of the Atmosphere is able to raise by a Syringe at least such a Weight , as in our Experiment it actually lifted up , which amounted to about sixteen pound ( Haberdupoise weight , ) for it exceeded fifteen pound and three quarters , besides the weight of the Syringes barrel it self . EXPERIMENT XXXIV . Shewing , that the cause of the Ascension of Liquors in Syringes is to be deriv'd from the Pressure of the Air. I Shall not here trouble Your Lordship with what I have elsewhere propos'd about the explicating of Suction : but as by the lately recited Experiments ( I mean the 31 , 32 , and 33 ) it has appear'd , that t is to the Pressure of the External Air that we should ascribe the difficulty of drawing up the Sucker of a Syring , when the Pipe ( or the Vent ) is stopt ; so I shall now endeavour to shew , that the Ascension of Liquors , which follow the Sucker when t is drawn up , the Pipe being open , depends also upon the Pressure of the Air , ( incumbent on that Liquor . ) If I had been furnish'd with very tall Receivers , and such other Glasses as I could have wish'd , I had tried the following Experiments with Water , as well as Quick-silver , but for want of those Accommodations I was reduc'd to make my Experiment with the later onely of those Liquors , which yet will I hope sufficiently make out what was intended . The I. Tryal . We took a small Receiver , shap'd almost like a Pear , cut off Horizontally at both ends , ( being the same cap'd Glass that is elsewhere mentioned in the accounts of other Experiments : ) we also took the Syringe formerly describ'd , and having fastned on to it with good Cement , in stead of its own Brass-pipe , a small Glass pipe of about half a foot in length , we put this Syringe in at the narrow end of the Receiver ; to whose Orifice was ( afterwards ) carefully cemented on the Brass-cap with the Turning-key , whereto was tied by a string the handle of the Rammer . Then having conveniently plac'd upon the Engine a very short thick Glass shap'd like a Sugar-loaf , ( which was made use of for want of a better , ) with a sufficient Quantity of Quick-silver in it ; we so placed the Receiver over it , that the lower end of the Pipe of the Syringe reacht almost to the bottom of this Glass , and consequently was immerst a pretty way beneath the surface of the Quick silver . We had also poured a little Water in the upper part of the Syringe , that no Air might get in between the Sucker and the Cylinder , notwithstanding that by some Accident or other the Syringe was become somewhat less Tite than before . And last of all we cemented the Receiver to the Engine after the usual manner . That which now remained , being to try the Experiment it self , in order to which all this had been done , the Air was pump'd out of the Receiver , ( and consequently out of the little Glass that held the Mercury , ) and then the Sucker being warily drawn up , we could not see the Quick-silver ascend to follow it , though a litle Water , which it seems the outward Air had thrust in between the Sucker and the Cylinder , was either rais'd or stopt in the Glass-pipe of the Syringe , ( whereof yet much the greatest part remain'd unfill'd ; ) of which the reason according to our Hypothesis was manifest , namely , that the Air being pump'd out of the Receiver , the litle that remain'd had not strength enough to press up so ponderous a Liquor as the Quick-silver into the Pipe , ( though even that litle unexhausted Air might have Spring enough left to raise a litle water . ) And since it appear'd by this , that without the Pressure of the Air the Quick-silver would not be elevated , we thought it seasonable to shew , that by the Pressure of the Air it would . Whereupon the Air being let slowly into the Receiver , the Mercury was quickly impell'd up at least to the top of the Glass-pipe , ( though by reason of some unperceiv'd leak it was not long sustain'd there . ) And for further satisfaction , when the Experiment was to be tried over again , we order'd it to be so made , that it might plainly be observed , that though when , the Receiver not being yet exhausted , the Sucker was drawn up but one inch , the Mercury would be rais'd to the upper part of the Glass-pipe of the Syringe , yet after the exhausting of the Receiver , though the Sucker was drawn up twice as high , there appear'd no ascension of the Mercury in the Pipe , ( whose lower part onely was darkned by the litle Glass which contain'd that fluid Metal . ) Before I dismiss this Experiment , I must , to make good a promise I made Your Lordship , acquaint You with a Phaenomenon , which does not a litle confirm our Doctrine , according to which it was easie both to foresee and to explain it : The phaenomenon was , That if when the Air was diligently pump'd out of the Receiver , the Sucker were endeavour'd to be pull'd up , it could not be so , without much difficulty and resistance , such as was formerly found when the Vent of the Syringe was stopt , of which in our Hypothesis the reason may be clearly this ; That there being no common Air in the Receiver to assist by its Pressure ( whether immediate or mediate ) the raising of the Sucker , this could not be raised but by a force great enough to surmount the Weight of the external Air or Atmospherical Pillar that lean'd upon it . So that as the other Phaenomena of our Experiments manifest , that the raising of Liquors by a Syringe , which is commonly ascrib'd to Attraction , depends upon the Pressure of the Air ; so by this Phaenomenon it appears , that the difficulty of opening a Syringe , whose Pipe is stopt , need not be attributed to such a fuga vacui as vulgar Philosophers refer it to ; since in our case the same difficulty was found , though the Pipe were open , and the Liquor 't was immerst in , might have had free access to the place deserted by the Sucker . The II. Tryal Being a Prosecution of the former Attempt . To vary as well as confirm the foregoing Experiment , we caus'd the Syringe to be tied fast to a competently ponderous Body that might keep the Cylinder unmov'd , when the Sucker should be drawn up . We also cemented on to the vent or screw at the bottom of the Syringe a Pipe of glass of about two inches in length , ( which should have been longer , but that then there would not have been room in the Receiver for the pulling up of the Sucker , ) and having plac'd the heavy Body whereto the Syringe was tied upon a Pedestal of a convenient height , that the Glass-pipe might be all seen beneath it , and a very low Viol almost fill'd with Quick-silver might be so plac'd underneath the Pipe , that the stagnant Mercury reach'd a good way above the immerst orifice of the said Pipe. These things being thus provided , and the Handle of the Syringes Rammer being tied with a string to the Turning-key that belong'd to the Brass-cover of the Receiver , this vessel was cemented on to the Engine , and by it Exhausted after the usual manner . When this was done , we look'd upon the Syringes Glass-pipe above mentioned , and being able to see through it , ( whereby we were certain that it was not yet full of Quick-silver ) we did by the string draw up the Sucker to a good height , but could not perceive the Pipe to be fill'd with any succeeding Mercury . Wherefore warily letting in some Air , we quickly saw the Mercury impell'd to the very top of the Pipe ; and we concluded from the quantity of Quick-silver that was rais'd , that a pretty deal was also driven into the cavity of the Cylinder . NB. I had once before seen the Mercury ascend into the Pipe upon the letting in of the Air into the emptied Receiver , but it seeming somewhat difficult to me to determine whether the Sucker had been raised , because there was no mark to guide my Aestimate by , I thought it might be suspected , that in case the Sucker had not been rais'd , the Ascension of the Quick-silver might have proceeded from hence , That the Air contain'd in the Glass-pipe , breaking out through the stagnant Mercury upon the Exhausting of the Receiver , the Quick-silver might upon the return of the Air into the Receiver be prest up into the place deserted by the Air , that broke out of the Pipe. Wherefore we caus'd a string to be tied about the Rammer , as near as we could to the top of the Cylinder , by which means , when the Receiver was the next time exhausted , we perceiv'd , that by drawing up the Sucker vve had rais'd it about two inches , if not more , and yet vve could not discern any Mercury to follow it , ( the Glass-pipe still continuing transparent , ) till we had let some Air return into the Receiver . This Experiment joyn'd with those we have formerly related to have been tried with our Syringe , may teach us , that if a Syringe were made use of above the Atmosphere , neither the stopping of the Pipe vvould hinder the easy drawing up of the Sucker , nor the drawing up of the Sucker , though the Pipe vvere not stopt , vvould raise by suction the Liquor vvhich the Pipe was immerst in . Postscript . SInce the last recited Experiment was made , and written , finding some of our Instruments to be in better order than they were when that Tryal was made , vve thought fit to endeavour by that which follows , to repair an omission or two , that formerly we could not well avoid . Having then caus'd such a Glass-pipe , as has been lately mentioned , to be vvell cemented on to the Syringe , ( vvhose Sucker did now move more easily , and yet fill the Barrel more exactly , than before , ) I order'd ( being to be absent for a while my self ) that the Pipe should be fill'd with spirit of Wine tincted with Cocheneel , that the liquor and its motions might be the better discern'd , and that the Pipe being fill'd , that Air might be excluded , which vvould else be harboured in the Pipe , ( which Caution was omitted in the foregoing Experiment . ) And this the Person , to whom I committed it , affirm'd to have been carefully done , though when he inverted the Pipe thus fill'd into the rest of the red Liquor , that was put into a Viol , he could not possibly do it so well , but that a bubble of Air got into the Pipe , and took up some ( though but a litle ) room there . By that time , I was call'd upon , to see the Event of the Tryal , and could come to look upon it , the Receiver was almost quite exhausted ; vvherefore after I had made the pumping be continued a litle longer , and perceived that the tincted spirit was fallen down out of the Pipe , and that which lay in the Viol seem'd almost to boyl at the top , by reason of the emersion of numerous Bubbles , I caus'd the Sucker to be , by the help of the Turning-key , drawn up ( by our aestimate ) about two inches and a half , notwithstanding which vve could not perceive the spirit of Wine to rise in the Pipe , ( though the Pumping were before left off . ) For vvhich reason I order'd the Air to be let in very leisurely , upon which vve could plainly see that the red spirit was quickly driven up to the top of the Pipe , and that it was so likewise into the Cavity of the Barrel , appeared , when the Receiver was removed , by the small Quantity of Liquor that remained in the viol , and the plenty of it which came out of the Syringe . NB. That if I had not vvanted dexterous Artificers , to work according to a Contrivance I had design'd , I had attempted to imitate , by the help of the bare Spring of the Air , such Experiments , as in the lately recited Tryals vvere made to succeed , by the help of the Pressure exercis'd by the Air upon the account of its Weight . EXPERIMENT XXXV . Shewing , that upon the Pressure of the Air depends the sticking of Cupping Glasses to the fleshy parts they are apply'd to . T Is sufficiently known , that if the Air within a Cupping Glass be rarified by the flame of Tow , Flax , or the like , ( burn'd for a litle while in it , ) and the Glass be presently clapt upon some fleshy part of a Mans body , there will quickly ensue a painful and visible swelling of the part cover'd by the Cupping Glass . T is also known , that this Experiment is wont to be urg'd by the Schools as a clear proof of that abhorrence of a Vacuum they ascribe to Nature ; for , say they , the reason of this phaenomenon is plainly , that the internal Air of the Cupping Glass , praeternaturally rarified by heat when the Instrument is applied , That heat after a while ceasing , the succeeding Cold must again necessarily condense the Air ; and so this contracted Air being no longer able to fill the whole space it replenished before , there would ensue a vacuum , if the flesh covered by the Cupping Glass , or adjoyning to it , did not swell into the Cavity of it , to fill the place deserted by the Air. Those Moderns that assert the Weight of the Atmosphere , do thence ingeniously endeavour to deduce the phaenomenon . And indeed if to their Hypothesis about the Airs Weight , the consideration of its Spring be added , 't will be easie enough to explicate the phaenomenon , by saying , That when the Cupping Glass is first set on , though much of the Air it formerly contain'd were a litle before expell'd by the heat , yet the same heat , increasing the pressure of the remaining Air , is the cause that the absence of the Air driven out of the Glass , does not immediately occasion so sensible a pain : but , when that adventitious agitation of the included Air ceases , that Air having now , because of the paucity of its Corpuscles , but a weak Spring , can no longer press upon the part covered by the Cupping Glass neer so strongly , as the outward Air does by its Weight press upon all the neighbouring parts of the flesh : by which means ( according to what we have more than once explicated already ) some of the yielding flesh ( or other body covered by the skin ) must be forceably thrust into the cavity of the Cupping Glass , where there is less Pressure , then at the outside of it . And the fibres and membranous parts being thus violently stretcht , there must needs follow a sensible Pain as well as Tumour . Which Tumour yet does not fill up the Cupping Glass , not onely because of the resistance of the skin to be so far distended , but also , if the included Air have not been much rarified because of the Spring of the imprisoned Air , ( which grows so much the stronger , by how much the swelling flesh reduces the Air into less room , ) as I have sometimes tried , by applying a Cupping Glass to Quick-silver , or even to Water , which will rise in it but to a certain height . But though by this , or some such Explication , the Argument urged by the Schools in favour of the fuga vacui may be sufficiently enervated ; yet it suited better with the design of this Treatise to propose some new Experiment , to illustrate our Hypothesis ; and though it seem'd to be far more difficult to do it in reference to Cupping Glasses , than to other subjects , yet I pitcht upon two different wayes of Experimenting ; whose success not disappointing me , I shall now give Your Lordship an account of them , We took a Glass of about one Inch and a half in Diameter , but a good deal longer , than an ordinarily shap'd Cupping Glass of that breadth would have been , that there might be the more room for the flame to burn in it , and rarifie the Air. We also provided a Receiver shap'd almost like a Pear , this Receiver was open at both ends ; at the sharper whereof there was but a small orifice , but at the obtuse end there rose up a short neck , whose Orifice was wide enough to admit with ease the newly mentioned Cupping Glass without touching the sides of it , and we were not willing it should be much larger , lest it should not be so exactly cover'd by the Palm of the hand that should be laid upon it , and lest also the hand should be broken or hurt by the too great weight of the Atmosphere , when the included Air should be withdrawn from under it . These things being thus prepared , and the smaller Orifice of the Receiver being fastned with Cement to the Engine , I caused the Cupping Glass to be fastned , with the mouth upwards , to the Palm of the hand of a Youth , ( whom your Lordship may remember to have seen with me , ) whose hand seem'd fram'd by Nature for this Experiment , being broad , strong , and very plump . And having pull'd the Glass , to try whether it stuck well on , I caus'd him to put it into the Receiver , and lay his hand so upon the Orifice lately mentioned , that it might serve for a Cover to it , and hinder any Air from getting in between them . That which we pretended was , that the Receiver being but small , ( that it might be quickly exhausted , and so not put the Youth to a long pain , ) upon an Exuction or two made with the Pump , of the Air about the Cupping Glass , the remaining Air should have its Pressure so far weakned , as not to be able to support the Cupping Glass ; especially since if the Air without the Cupping Glass ( but yet in the Receiver ) should be more rarified by the removal of that which had been pump'd out , than the Air included in the Cupping Glass was by the precedent Heat ; this last mentioned Air having a stronger Spring ( or tendency to expand it self ) than the External Air of the Receiver , the Glass must needs fall down , or rather be thrust off , though , in case there had been no Air at all left in the Cavity of the Cupping Glass , the Air in the Receiver would by its Pressure sustain a far Greater weight . The Event of our Trial agreed very well with our conjecture . For upon the first Suck the Cupping Glass fell off , the weight of the Atmosphere pressing so hard upon the Young mans hand , that , though he be more than ordinary strong , he complain'd he could very hardly take it off the Glass it was almost thrust into , and , a while after , that his hand was very sore . But this last inconvenience became not so quickly very sensible , but that we had time to repeat our Experiment , by fastning the Cupping Glass more strongly than before ; so that he complain'd that it drew in his hand very forceably , and though that part be not wont to be fleshy , yet the Tumour occasioned by the Cupping Glass was manifest enough to the eye : but as before , so now , at the very first turning of the Stop-cock , ( to let out the Air of the Receiver , ) the Cupping Glass fell off . EXPERIMENT XXXVI . About the making , without heat , a Cupping Glass to lift up a great Weight . THe other Experiment I lately told Your Lordship we had made , to illustrate our Doctrine about the cause of the sticking of applied Cupping Glasses , was tried after the following manner . We took the Brass-hoop or Ring , mentioned in the 5 th and 6 th Experiments , and cover'd it with a Bladder , ( which was wetted to make it the more limber , ) and was so tied on to it , ( which was easie to do , ) that the bottom of the Bladder covered the upper orifice of the Hoop , and was stretcht ( though not strongly ) upon it , almost like the Membrane that makes the head of a Drumm ; and the neck of the Bladder was tied with a string near the middle of the lower Orifice of the Hoop , and in this lower part of the Bladder we made two or three small Holes for the Air to pass in and out at . Then having plac'd at the bottom of the often mentioned capp'd Receiver a thick piece of Wood , that had a hole in it , to receive the neck of the Bladder , we so plac'd the cover'd Hoop upon this piece of Wood , that the upper part of the Bladder lay parallel to the Horizon . This done , we suspended , at the Turning-key belonging to the Cap of our Receiver , a blind head ( as Chymists call it ) of Glass , which for want of a true Cupping Glass we were fain to substitute , and which indeed was not very unlike one either for shape or size ; and to the upper part of this Glass we fastned a large Ring of Metal , the better to depress it , and make it lean strongly on the Bladder . These things being thus made ready , and the Receiver cemented on to the Engine , we did by help of the Turning-key let down the Cupping Glass , ( for so we shall hereafter call it , ) till it came almost to touch the level Superficies of the Bladder ; and when the Receiver was as far exhausted as we thought fit , ( but not near as far as it might have been , ) we let down the Cupping Glass a litle lower , so that it lean'd upon the Bladder , and touch'd it with all the parts of its orifice : so that the Cupping Glass with the subjacent Bladder was become an internal Receiver ( if I may so call it , ) whose Air was considerably expanded , and consequently weakned as to its Spring . All this being done , we warily let the Air into the Receiver , and thereby the Air , that did surround the Cupping Glass , ( which we just now called the Internal Receiver , ) having now a stronger Pressure than the Air in the Cupping Glass could resist ; the Bladder , on which the Cupping Glass rested , was as we look'd for , thrust up a pretty way into the cavity of the Glass , in which it made a conspicuous Tumor ; and was made to stick so close to the orifice of it , that one would have thought that the Bladder had been violently drawn in , as the skin is wont to be in the ordinary applications of Cupping Glasses . And because we took notice , that though this Glass were not capacious , ( for it scarce held a Pint of Water , ) yet the orifice of it was not very narrow , ( being in Diameter an inch and ⅘ , ) we thought fit in repeating the Experiment to adde something that seem'd odd enough , and was fit to manifest that Cupping Glasses may , without heat , by the bare Pressure of the external Air , be more strongly fastned , than for ought we know they are by the help of flame . Having then reiterated the former Experiment with this onely variation , that we exhausted the Receiver further than before , we took out the Cupping Glass and the Bladder , which together with the included Brass-hoop was hanging at it ; and then having tied the Glass to the Hook of a good Statera , and tied a large Scale to the neck of the Bladder , we put in by degrees Weights into the Scale , till we had loaded it enough to force off the Bladder from the Glass ; which hapned not till the whole Weight , that tended to draw down the Bladder , amounted to 35 Pound ( if not better , ) of sixteen ounces in the pound . Nor did we doubt , but that the Pressure of the Atmosphere would in our Experiment have kept up a much greater Weight , if we had , before we let in the outward Air , diligently exhausted the Receiver ; which we had purposely forborn to do , for fear the too disproportionate Pressure of the external Air should break the Bladder : which puts me in mind of adding , upon the by , That as more Weight was put into the Scale , the Bladder ( stretcht more and more by the Weight on one side , and the Air on the other , ) appear'd to swell higher in the cavity of the Glass . EXPERIMENT XXXVII . Shewing , that Bellows , whose Nose is very well stopt , will open of themselves , when the Pressure of the external Air is taken off . IT is wont by the Peripateticks and others to be made a great argument for the fuga vacui which they attribute to Nature , That if the Nose of a pair of Bellows be well stopt , one cannot open them by raising the upper board from the lower . But of this another reason may be easily assigned , without determining whether there be a vacuum or no , namely the Weight and Pressure of the Air : for when the Nose of a pair of Bellows , that are Tite enough , is well stopt , no Air being able to insinuate it self upon the disjoining of the boards into the Cavity made by that disjunction , This cannot be effected , but by such a force as is almost able ( I say almost , because ordinary Bellows cannot be so well shut , but that there will remain some Air in them , whose Spring will facilitate the opening of them ) to raise an Atmosphere Pillar , whose Basis shall be the upper board , vvhich is commonly so large , that a less force may serve to break common Bellows , then to raise so great a Weight : but if they vvere made strong enough , and there vvere applied a sufficient force to lift so Great a vveight as the newly mentioned Pillar of the Atmosphere , the sides might be disjoyn'd , how close and stanch soever the Instrument vvere made . Thus far one may argue upon the bare principle of the weight of the Air , but taking in the Spring of it too , I thought one might proceed so much further , that I ventur'd to foretell divers ingenious men , that if the Pressure of the ambient Air were taken off , not onely it would be easie to open the Bellows in spite of their being carefully stopt at the nose , but that they would fly open as it were of their own accord , without the application of any external force at all . And 't was partly to justifie this prediction , as well as to make a Trial , I thought more considerable , that we made the following Experiment . We caus'd ( then ) to be made a pair of Bellows , differing from ordinary ones in these particulars . First , that the Boards were circular , ( and so without handles , ) and of about 6 inches in Diameter : 2. That there was no Clack or Valve : 3. That the nose was but an inch long , or less , ( being to be lengthned if occasion required vvith a Pipe : ) 4. That the Leather ( which vvas not spar'd , that the instrument might be the more capacious ) was not horny or very stiff , but limber . The Reason of the first and third diversity was , that the Bellows might be capable to be conveyed into our Receiver ; ( for vvhich purpose also , if there had appear'd need , the nose might have been made in the uppermost of the two Boards : ) the reason of the 2 d variation was , that the instrument might be the more stanch : and of the 4 th , that the bases of the Bellows might ( as in Organ-bellows ) be clapt closer together , and harbour less Air in the wrinkles and cavity . So that when the Bellows vvere opened to their full extent , by drawing up the upper Basis at a button purposely made in the midst of it , the Bellows look'd like a Cylinder of 16 or 18 inches high ; upon which resemblance I take the liberty to call both the Boards ( as Geometricians do both the circular parts of a Cylinder ) Bases . But though these were made by an Artificer , otherwise dexterous , yet it not being his Trade to make Bellows , nor any other mans in the Town I then was in , he could not make them so Tite , but that in spite of our oyling the Leather , and choaking the Seams with good Cement , there was some litle and unperceived hole or cranny , whereby some Air had passage when the nose was accurately stopt : but this was not so considerable , but that if we drew up the upper Basis from the lower , the external Air would on all sides press the Leather inwards , and so make the shape of the instrument very far from being so Cylindrical , as it would be if the nose were left open . Wherefore concluding , that notwithstanding this imperfection the Bellows would serve , though not for both the Experiments I design'd , yet for one of them , we carefully stopt the nose , after we had approach'd the Bases to one another , and conveying them into a large Receiver , it quickly appear'd , when the Pump was set on work , that at every Exsuction of the incumbent Air , the Air harbour'd in the folds of the Leather , and the rest of the litle Cavitie that could not but be left between the Bases , made the upper of those Bases manifestly rise , though its weight ( because of the thickness and solidity of the Wood ) would soon after depress it again , either by driving out some of the Air at some place where the instrument was not sufficiently Tite , or by making it as it were strain'd through the Leather it self ; and if the Pump were agitated somewhat faster than ordinary , the Expansion of the internal Air would be greater than could be rendred quite ineffectual by so small a Leak , and the upper part of the Bellows would be soon rais'd to a considerable height , as would appear more evidently if we hastily let in the external Air , upon whose ingress the Bases would be clapt together , and the upper of them a good vvay deprest . So that the imperfection of the Bellows made the Experiment rather more than less concluding ; for since there was no external force applied to open them , if notwithstanding that some of the included Air could get out of thē , yet the Spring of the internal Air was strong enough to open the Bellows when the ambient Air was withdrawn , much more would the effect have been produc'd , if the Bellows had been perfectly stanch . EXPERIMENT XXXVIII . About an Attempt to examine the Motions and Sensibility of the Cartesian Materia subtilis , or the Aether , with a pair of Bellows ( made of a Bladder ) in the exhausted Receiver . I Will not now discuss the Controversie betwixt some of the Modern Atomists , and the Cartesians ; the former of whom think , that betwixt the Earth and the Stars , and betwixt these themselves there are vast Tracts of Space that are empty , save where the beams of Light do pass through them ; and the later of whom tell us , that the Intervals betwixt the Stars and Planets ( among which the Earth may perhaps be reckon'd ) are perfectly fill'd , but by a Matter far subtiler than our Air , which some call Celestial , and others Aether . I shall not , I say , engage in this controversie , but thus much seems evident , That if there be such a Celestial Matter , it must make up far the Greatest part of the Universe known to us . For the Intersteller part of the world ( if I may so stile it ) bears so very great a proportion to the Globes , and their Atmospheres too , ( if other Stars have any as well as the Earth , ) that it is almost incomparably Greater in respect of them , than all our Atmosphere is in respect of the Clouds , not to make the comparison between the Sea and the Fishes that swim in it . Wherefore I thought it might very vvell deserve a heedful Enquiry , whether we can by sensible Experiments ( for I hear what has been attempted by Speculative Arguments ) discover any thing about the Existence , or the Qualifications of this so vast Aether : and I hoped our Curiosity might be somewhat assisted by our Engine , if I could manage in it such a pair of Bellows as I design'd . For I propos'd to my self to fasten a convenient weight to the upper Basis , and clog the lower with another , great enough to keep it Horizontal and immoveable , that when by the help of the Turning-key , frequently above mention'd , the upper Basis should be rais'd to its full height , the cavity of the Bellows might be brought to its full dimensions . This done , I intended to exhaust the Receiver , and consequently the thus open'd Bellows with more than ordinary diligence , that so both the Receiver and they might be carefully freed from Air. After vvhich I purpos'd to let go the upper Base of the Bellows , that being hastily deprest by the incumbent Weight , it might speedily enough fall down to the lower Basis , and by so much , and so quickly lessening the Cavity , might expell thence the Matter ( if any were ) before contain'd in it , and that ( if it could by this way be done ) at the hole of a slender Pipe , fasten'd either near the bottom of the Bellows , or in the upper Basis : against or over the orifice of which Pipe there was to be plac'd at a convenient distance either a Feather , or ( if that should prove too light ) the Sail of a litle Wind-mill made of Cards , or some other light body , and fit to be put into motion by the impulse of any Matter that should be forc'd out of the Pipe. By this means it seem'd not improbable , that some such discovery might be made , as would not be altogether useless in our Enquiry . For if notwithstanding the absence of the Air , it should appear by the Effects that a stream of other Matter , capable to set visible bodies a moving , should issue out at the Pipe of the comprest Bellows ; it would also appear , that there may be a much subtiller Body than common Air , and as yet unobserv'd by the Vacuists , or ( their Adversaries ) the Schools , that may even copiously be found in places deserted by that Air ; and that it is not safe to conclude from the absence of the Air in our Receivers , and in the upper part of those Tubes where the Torricellian Experiment is made , that there is no other body left but an absolute Vacuity , or ( as the Atomists call it ) a vacuū coacervatū . But if on the other side there should appear no motion at all to be produc'd , so much as in the Feather , it seem'd that the Vacuists might plausibly argue , that either the Cavity of the Bellows was absolutely empty , or else that it would be very difficult to prove by any sensible Experiment that it was full , and , if by any other way of probation it be demonstrable , that it was replenish'd with Aether , we that have not yet declar'd for any party , may by our Experiment be taught to have no confident expectations of easily making it sensible by Mechanical Experiments ; and may also be inform'd , that t is really so subtle and yielding a Matter , that does not either easily impell such light bodies as even Feathers , or sensibly resist as does the Air it self the motions of other bodies through it , and is able without resistance to make its passage through the Pores of Wood , and Leather , and also of closer bodies , which we find not that the Air doth in its Natural or wonted state penetrate . To illustrate this last Clause I shall adde , that to make the Trial more accurate , I wav'd the use of other Bellows , ( especially not having such as I desired , ) & caus'd a pair of small Bellows to be made with a Bladder , as a Body , which some of our former Experiments have evinc'd to be of so close a Texture , that Air will rather break it than passe through it : and that the Bladder might no where loose its entireness by Seams , we glued on the two Bases , the one to the bottom , and the other to the opposite part of it , so that the Neck came out at a hole purposely made for it ; in the upper Basis , and into the Neck it was easie to insert what pipe we thought fit , binding the Neck very close to it on the outside . We had likewise Thoughts to have another pair of Tite Bellows made with a very light Clack in the lower Basis , that by hastily drawing up the other Basis , when the Receiver and Bellows were very carefully exhausted , we might see by the rest , as the lifting up of the Clack , whether the subtle Matter that was expell'd by the upper Basis in its Ascent , would , according to the Modern Doctrine of the Circle made by moving Bodies , be impell'd up or not . We also thought of placing the litle Pipe of the Bladder-bellows ( if I may so call them ) beneath the surface of Water exquisitely freed from Air , that we might see whither upon the Depression of the Bellows by the incumbent Weight , when the Receiver was carefully exhausted , there would be any thing expell'd at the Pipe , that would produce Bubbles in the liquor , wherein its Orifice was immerst . To bring now our Conjectures to some Trial , we put into a capp'd Receiver the Bladder accommodated as before is mentioned , and though we could have wish'd it had been somewhat larger , because it contain'd but between half a Pint and a Pint , yet in regard it was fine and limber , and otherwise fit for our Turn , we resolv'd to try how it would do ; and to depress the upper Basis of these litle Bellows the more easily and uniformly , we cover'd the round piece of Pastboard , that made the upper Basis , with a Pewter-plate , ( with a hole in it for the neck of the Bladder ; ) which nevertheless upon trial prov'd not ponderous enough , whereby we were oblig'd to assist it by laying on it a Weight of Lead . And to secure the above mentioned Feather , ( which had a slender and flexible Stem , and was left broad at one end , and fastned by Cement at the other , so as to stand with its broad end at a convenient distance just over the Orifice of the Pipe , ) from being blown aside to either hand , we made it to move in a perpendicular slit in a piece of Pastboard , that was fastned to one part of the upper Basis , as that which the Feather was glued to was to another part . These things being thus provided , the Pump was set a work , and as the ambient Air was from time to time withdrawn , so the Air in the Bladder expanded it self so strongly , as to lift up the metalline Weight , and yet in part to sally out at the litle Glass-pipe of our Bellows , as appear'd by its blowing up the Feather , and keeping it suspended till the Spring of the Air in the bladder was too far weakned to continue to do as it had done . In the mean time we did now and then , by the help of a string fasten'd to the Turning-key , and the upper Basis of the Bellows , let down that Basis a litle , to observe how upon its sinking the blast against the Feather would decrease , as the Receiver was further and further exhausted . And when we judg'd it to be sufficiently freed from Air , we then let down the Weight , but could not perceive that by shutting of the Bellows the Feather was at all blown up , as it had been wont to be , though the upper Basis were more than usually deprest . And yet it seems somewhat odd , that when , for Curiosity , in order to a further Trial , the Weight was drawn up again , as the upper basis was rais'd from the lower , the sides of the Bladder were sensibly ( though not very much ) prest , or drawn inwards . The Bellows being thus opened , we let down the upper basis again , but could not perceive that any blast was produc'd ; for though the Feather , that lay just over and near the orifice of the litle Glass Pipe , had some motion , yet this seem'd plainly to be but a shaking and almost vibrating motion ( to the right and left hand , ) which it was put into by the upper basis , which the string kept from a smooth and uniform descent ; but not to proceed from any blast issuing out of the cavity of the Bladder . And for further satisfaction we caus'd some Air to be let into the Receiver , because there was a possibility , that unawares to us the slender Pipe might by some accident be choak'd ; but though upon the return of the Air into the Receiver , the bases of the Bellows were prest closer together , yet it seem'd that , according to our Expectation , some litle Air got through the Pipe into the cavity of the Bladder : for when we began to vvithdraw again the Air we had let into the Receiver , the Bladder began to swell again , and upon our letting down the Weight , to blow up and keep up the Feather , as had been done before the Receiver had been so well exhausted . What conjecture the opening and shutting of our litle Bellows , more than once or twice , without procducing any blast sensible by the raising of the Feather , gave some of the by-standers , may be easily guess'd by the preamble of this Experiment ; but whilst I was endeavouring to prosecute it for my own further information , a mischance that befell the Instrument , kept me from giving my self the desir'd satisfaction . EXPERIMENT XXXIX . About a further attempt to prosecute the Inquiry propos'd in the foregoing Experiment . COnsidering with my self , that by the help of some contrivances not difficult , a Syringe might be made to serve , as far as our present occasion required , in stead of a pair of Bellows ; I thought it would not be improper to try a differing , and , in some regards , a better way to prosecute an attempt , which seem'd to me to deserve our Curiosity . I caus'd then to be made , for the formerly mentioned Syringe , in stead of its streight Pipe , a crooked one ; whose shorter Leg was parallel to the longer . And this Pipe was for greater closeness , after 't was screw'd on carefully , fastned with Cement to the Barrel ; and because the Brass-pipe could scarce be made small enough , we caus'd a short and very slender Pipe of Glass to be put into the orifice of the shorter Leg , and diligently fasten'd to it with close Cement . Then we caus'd the Sucker ( by the help of Oyl , Water , and moving it up and down ) to be made to go as smoothly as might be , without lessening the stanchness of the Syringe . After this , there was fastned to the handle of the Rammer a Weight , made in the form of a Ring , or Hoop , which by reason of its figure might be suspended from the newly mention'd handle of the Rammer , and hang loose on the outside of the Cylinder , and which both by its Figure and its Weight might evenly and swiftly enough depress the Sucker , when That being drawn up the Weight should be let go . This Syringe thus furnished , was fastned to a broad and heavy Pedestal , to keep it in its vertical posture , and to hinder it from Tottering , notwithstanding the Weight that clogg'd it . And besides all these things , there was taken a Feather , which was about two inches long , and of which there was left at the end a piece about the breadth of a mans Thumb-naile , ( the rest on either side of the slender stalk ( if I may so call it ) being stript off ) to cover the hole of the slender Glass pipe of the Syringe ; for which purpose the other extreme of it was so fastned with Cement to the lower part of the Syring , ( or to its Pedestal , ) that the broad end of the Feather was plac'd ( as the other Feather was in the foregoing Experiment ) just over the litle orifice of the Glass , at such a convenient distance , that when the Sucker was a litle ( though but very litle ) drawn up and let go again , the Weight would depress it fast enough to blow up the broad part of the Feather , as high as was permitted by the resistance of the Stalk , ( and that was a good way , ) the Spring of which would presently restore the whole Feather to its former position . All these things being done , and the handle of the Rammer being tied to the Turning-key of a capp'd Receiver , the Syringe and its Pedestal were inclosed in a capacious Receiver , ( for none but such a one could contain them , and give scope for the Rammers motions , ) and the Pump being set on worke , we did , after some quantity of Air was drawn out , raise the Sucker a litle by the help of the Turning-key , and then turning the same Key the contrary way we suffer'd the Weight to depress the Sucker , that we might see at what rate the Feather would be blown up ; and finding that it was impell'd forceably enough , we caus'd the pumping to be so continued , that a pretty many pauses were made , during each of which we rais'd and depress'd the Sucker as before , and had the opportunity to observe , That as the Receiver was more and more exhausted of the Air , so the Feather was less and less briskly driven up , till at length , when the Receiver was well emptied , the usual elevations and depressions of the Sucker would not blow it up at all that I could perceive , though they were far more frequently repeated than ever before ; nor was I content to look heedfully my self , but I made one whom I had often imploy'd about Pneumatical Experiments to watch attentively , whilst I drew up , and let down the Sucker , but he affirm'd that he could not discern the least beginning of Ascension in the Feather . And indeed to both of us it seem'd , that the litle and inconsiderable motion that was sometimes ( not alwayes ) to be discern'd in the Feather , proceeded not from any thing that issued out of the Pipe , but from some litle Shake , which t was difficult not to give the Syringe and Pedestal , by the raising and depressing of the Sucker . And that which made our Phaenomenon the more considerable , was , that the Weight that carried down the Sucker being still the same , and the motions of the Turning-key being easie to be made equal at several times , there seem'd no reason to suspect that Contingencies did much ( if at all ) favour the success ; but there hapned a thing , which did manifestly enough disfavour it . For I remember , that before the Syringe was put into the Receiver , when we were trying how the Weight would depress it , and it was thought that though the Weight were conveniently shap'd , yet it was a litle of the least ; I would not alter it , but foretold , that when the Air in the Cavity of the Syringe ( that now resisted the quickness of its descent , because so much Air could not easily and nimbly get out at so small a Pipe ) should be exhausted with the other Air of the Receiver , the elevated Sucker would fall down more easily , which he , that was imploy'd to manage the Syringe whilst I watch'd the Feather , affirm'd himself afterwards to observe very evidently . So that when the Receiver was exhausted , if there had been in the cavity of the Syringe a matter as fit as Air to make a Wind of , the Blast ought to have been Greater , because the celerity that the Sucker was deprest with was so . After we had long enough tried in vain to raise the Feather , I order'd some Air to be let into the Receiver ; and though when the admitted Air was but very litle , the motions of the Sucker had scarce if at all any sensible operation upon the Feather , yet when the quantity of Air began to be somewhat considerable , the Feather began to be a litle mov'd upwards , and so by letting in Air not all at once but more and more from time to time , and by moving the Sucker up and down in the intervals of those times of admission , we had the opportunity to observe , that as the Receiver had more Air in it , the Feather would be more briskly blown up . But not content with a single Tryal of an Experiment of this consequence , we caused the Receiver to be again exhausted , and prosecuted the Tryal with the like success as before , onely this one Circumstance , that we added for confirmation , may be befit to be here taken notice of . Having , after the Receiver was exhausted , drawn up and let fall the Sucker divers times ineffectually ; though hitherto we had not usually rais'd it any higher at a time , than we could by one turn of the hand , both because we could not so conveniently raise it higher by the Hand alone , and because we thought it unnecessary , since that height suffic'd to make the Air briskly toss up the Feather ; yet ex abundanti we novv took an instrument that was pretty long and fit so to take hold on the Turning-key , that we could easily raise the Sucker between two and three inches ( by our Aestimate ) at a time , and nimbly depress it again ; and for all this , which would much have increas'd the Blast , if there had been a Matter fit for it in the Cavity of the Syringe , we could not sensibly blow up the Feather , till we had let a litle Air into the Receiver . To be able to make an aestimate of the Quantity of Air pump'd out , or let in , when the Feather vvas strongly or faintly , or not at all rais'd by the fall of the Sucker ; vve took off the Receiver , and convey'd a Gage into it , but though for a vvhile vve made some use of our Gage , yet a mischance befalling it before the Operation was quite ended , I shall forbear to adde any thing concerning that Tryal , and proceed to say something of another Attempt , wherein though I foresaw and met with such difficulties , as kept me from doing altogether what I desired , yet the success being almost as good as could be expected , I shall venture to acquaint Your Lordship with the Tryal , which was this . In stead of the hitherto imploy'd Pipe of Brass , there was well fastned ( with Cement ) to the Syringe a Pipe of Glass , whose figure differ'd from that of the other in this particular , that the shorter ( or remoter ) Leg of our new Pipe , after it had for a while been carried parallel to the other Leg , was bent off so , that above an inch and a half of it tended downwards , that the orifice of it might be immerst into Water contain'd in a small open Jarr . The design of which contrivance was , that when the Receiver should be well exhausted , we might ( according to what I told Your Lordship vvas at first design'd ) try vvhether by the raising and depressing of the Sucker any such Matter would be driven out at the nose of the Pipe , as would produce bubbles in the incumbent Water , which , Air ( though highly rarefied , perhaps to some hundreds of times beyond its wonted Dimensions , ) is capable of doing . And I choose to imploy rather Water than Quick-silver , because though by using the later I might hope to be less troubled with bubbles , yet the ponderousness and opacity of it seem'd to outweigh that convenience . I need not tell Your Lordship , that in other respects this Experiment was made like the former , so that I shall mention onely its peculiarities , which were , That as the Air was pump'd out of the Receiver , that in the Glass pipe made its way through the Water in Bubbles , and a litle Air having once by a small Leak got in , and forc'd some of the Water out of the Jarr into the pipe , when the Receiver was again vvell emptied , both that Water and even the litle quantity of stagnant Water , that was contain'd in the immerst part of the Pipe , produc'd so many bubbles of several sizes , as quite disturb'd our Observations . Wherefore we let alone the Receiver , exhausted as it was , for 6 or 7 hours , to give the Water time to be freed from Air , and then causing what Air might have stolen in to be again pump'd out , till we had perceiv'd by the Gage that the Receiver was well exhausted , we caus'd the Sucker ( of the Syringe ) to be rais'd and deprest diverse times , and though even then a Bubble vvould now and then make our Observations troublesome , and less certain , yet it seem'd to us , that when we were not thus confounded , we sometimes observed that the elevation and fall of the Sucker , though reiterated , did not drive out at the Pipe any thing that made any discernable bubbles in the incumbent Water ; for though there would appear now and then some small bubbles on the surface of the Water , yet I could not perceive that the Matter that made them , issued out at the Pipe ; and some of them manifestly proceeded from Aerial Particles , till then lurking in the Water , as I concluded from the place and time of their rising . But this Non-eruption of bubles at the nose of the Pipe , vvas not that which gave me the most of satisfaction . For at length both I and another had the opportunity to observe the Water in the immerst part of the Pipe , which was very slender , to be about an inch higher than the rest of the stagnant Water , and to continue at that height or place in the Pipe , though the Sucker vvere divers times together rais'd and depress'd by Guess between 2 and three inches at a time . Which seem'd to argue , either that there was a vacuum in the cavity of the Syringe , or else that if it were full of Aether , that body vvas so subtle , that the impulse it received from the falling Sucker vvould not make it displeace a very litle Thread ( perhaps not exceeding a Grain in Weight ) of Water that vvas in the slender Pipe , though it appear'd by the bubbles , that sometimes disclos'd themselves in the Water , after the Receiver had been exhausted , that far more Water vvould be displac'd and carried up by a small bubble consisting of such rarified Air , that according to my Aestimate the Aerial particles of it did not , before the Pump vvas begun to be set on vvork , take up in the Water a five-hundredth part of the quantity of a Pins head . But whilst we were considering what to do further in our Tryal , a litle Air , that strain'd in at some small undiscoverable Leak , drove the Water into the emptied part of the Pipe , and put an end for that time to our Tryal , which had been too toylsome to invite us then to reiterate it . I had indeed thoughts of prosecuting the Enquiry , by dropping from the top of the exhausted Receiver light Bodies conveniently shap'd , to be turn'd round , or otherwise put out of their simplest motion of Descent , if they met with any resistance in their fall ; and by making such Bodies move Horizontally and otherwise in the Receiver , as vvould probably discover whither they were assisted by the medium : and other contrivances and wayes I had in my thoughts , whereby to prosecute our Enquiry , but vvanting time for other Experiments , I could not spare so much as was necessary to exhaust large Receivers so diligently , as such nice Trials would exact ; and therefore I resolv'd to desist , till I had more leisure than I then had , ( or have since been Master of . ) In the interim , thus much we seem to have already discovered by our past Tryals , that if when our Vessels are very diligently freed from Air , they are full of Aether , that Aether is such a body , as will not be made sensibly to move a light Feather by such an impulse as would make the Air manifestly move it , not onely whilst t is no thinner than common Air , but when t is very highly rarified , ( which , if I mistake not , it was in our Experiment so much , as to be brought to take up above an hundred times more room than before . ) And one thing more we gain'd by the Tryal made with water , namely a clear confirmation of what I deliver'd in the 34 th Experiment , about the cause of the Suction that is made by Syringes ; for Your Lordship may remember , that at the close of the Experiment we have all this while been reciting , I observ'd , that when the external Air was so very well withdrawn , the pulling up of the Sucker would not make the stagnant Water , that the Pipe of the Syringe was immerst in , to ascend one inch , or so much as the tenth part of it . EXPERIMENT XL. About the falling , in the Exhausted Receiver , of a light Body , fitted to have its motion visibly varied by a small resistance of the Air. PArtly to try whether in the space deserted by the Air , drawn out of our Receivers , there would be any thing more fit to resist the motion of other light Bodies through it , than in the former Experiment we found It to impell them into motion ; and partly for another purpose to be mention'd by and by , we made the following Tryals . We took a Receiver , which , though less tall than we would have had , was the longest we could procure : and that we might be able , not so properly to let down as , to let fall a Body in it , we so fastned a small pair of Tobacco-Tongs to the inside of the Receivers Brass-Cover , that by moving the Turning-key , we might by a string tied to one part of them , open the Tongs , which else their own Spring would keep shut . This being done , the next thing was to provide a Body , which vvould not fall down like a Stone , or another dead Weight through the Air , but would in the manner of its descent shew , that its motion was somewhat resisted by the Air ; vvherefore that vve might have a Body that vvould be turn'd about Horizontally ( as it were ) in its fall , we thought fit to joyn Cross-wise four broad and light Feathers ( each about an Inch long ) at their Quils with a litle Cement , into vvhich vve also stuck perpendicularly a small Label of Paper , about an 8 th of an inch in breadth , and somewhat more in height , by vvhich the Tongues might take hold of our light Instrument vvithout touching the Cement , which else might stick to them . By the help of this small piece of Paper , the litle Instrument , of vvhich it made a part , vvas so taken hold of by the Tongs , that it hung as Horizontal as such a thing could well be plac'd : and then the Receiver being cemented on to the Engine , the Pump vvas diligently ply'd , till it appear'd by a Gage , which had been conveyed in , that the Reciver had been carefully exhausted : Lastly , our eyes being attentively fix'd upon the connected Feathers , the Tongs were by the help of the Turning-key open'd , and the litle Instrument let fall , which , though in the Air it had made some turns in its descent from the same height it now fell from , yet now it descended like a dead Weight , without being perceiv'd by any of us to make so much as one Turn , or a part of it : notwithstanding which I did , for greater security , cause the Receiver to be taken off , and put on again , after the Feathers were taken hold of by the Tongs , whence being let fall in the Receiver unexhausted , they made some Turns in their descent , as they also did being a second time let fall after the same manner . But when after this , the Feathers being plac'd as before , we repeated the Experiment by carefully pumping out the Air , neither I nor any of the By-standers could perceive any thing of Turning in the descent of the Feathers ; and yet for further security we let them fall twice more in the unexhausted Receiver , and found them to turn in falling as before ; whereas when we did a 3 d time let them fall in the well exhausted Receiver , they fell after the same manner as they had done formerly , when the Air , that vvould by its resistance have turn'd them round , vvas remov'd out of their vvay . Note 1. though ( as I intimated above ) the Glass , vvherein this Experiment was made , were nothing near so tall as I would have had it , yet it was taller than any of our ordinary Receivers , it being in height about 22 inches . 2. One that had had more leisure and conveniency , might have made a more commodious Instrument than that we made use of : for being accidentally visited by that Sagacious Mathematician D r Wren , and speaking to him of this matter , he was pleas'd with great dexterity as well as readiness to make me a little Instrument of Paper , on which , when t was let fall , the resistance of the Air had so manifest an operation , that I should have made use of it in our Experiment , had it not been casually lost when the ingenious Maker was gone out of these parts . 3. Though I have but briefly related our having so order'd the matter , that we could conveniently let fall a Body in the Receiver when very well exhausted , yet to contrive and put in practice what was necessary to perform this , was not so very easie , and it would be difficult to describe it circumstantially without very many words ; for which reason I forbear an account , that would prove too tedious to us both . 4. What has been hitherto related , was done in prosecution of but one of the two Designs I aim'd at in the foregoing Contrivance , by which I intended , if I could have procured a Receiver tall enough , to try whether Bodies ( some very light , and some heavier ) being let fall when the Air was very diligently pump'd out , would not descend somewhat faster than if the Receiver were full of Air. But though I had provided a Pendulum that vibrated quarters of Seconds , yet the Glass being no higher than it was , the Descent even of our Feathers took up so litle time , that even this Pendulum was of no use ; onely it seem'd to all of us that were present at making the above recited Tryals , that when the Feathers were let fall at such times as the Air ( that would have turn'd them round in their descent ) was removed , they came to the bottom sensibly sooner than at other times . But when we shall have opportunity to repeat the Experiment in taller Glasses , and to make some variation of it , I hope to be able to give Your Lordship a fuller satisfaction about this Particular . And in the mean while I shall forbear to examine whether the Air might somewhat retard the descent of the Feathers upon some other account , or meerly upon that of its being a medium not quite devoid of Gravity . Annotations . 1. But here I must be so sincere as to inform Your Lordship , that this 40 th Experiment seem'd not to prove so much as did the foregoing made with the Syringe : for being suspicious that , to make the feathered body above mentioned turn in its fall , there would need a resistance not altogether inconsiderable , I caus'd the Experiment to be repeated , when the Receiver was by our Aestimate ( which was not made at random neither ) litle or nothing more than half exhausted , and yet the remaining Air was too far rarified to make the falling Body manifestly turn . 2. And yet perchance it would have hapned otherwise , if the Receiver had been tall enough ; which though I had not then leasure and conveniency to make it , yet it will not be amiss to let Your Lorship know by what means we did , that it might be somewhat fit to make the recited Experiment and some others , bring it to the height it had , which did considerably exceed that of the tallest Glass we could then procure . To lengthen our Receiver therefore , we thought fit to try , whether we could not close enough fasten to the bottom of it , with very good Cement a Cylindrical Pipe of Laton , whose upper orifice should have neer the same breadth with the bottom of the Glass . And though this Contrivance seem'd liable to a couple of not mean difficulties ; The one , that the Laton being every where bended , and in some places necessary to be souder'd , it would be very hard ( as indeed we found it ) to avoid some small cracks and leaks : And the other , that if the metalline Pipe were wide enough , so great and heavy a pillar of the Atmosphere would come to bear against it , as to press it inwards , if not also to break it ; yet we hoped we should be able to obviate both of these inconveniences . Against the first of which our Remedy was , to Coat over very carefully the whole Pipe with the same close Cement , wherewith we fastned it to the Glass Receiver . And against the Second , we provided a litle Frame consisting of divers small Iron Bars fastned together ; which Frame ( though t were not too wide to go into the Cylinder of Laton , yet it ) was wide enough to be so neer it on the inside , that ( though the weight of the Atmosphere should , as we feared , press the Laton so as to make it yield inward , yet ) it could make it bend no further than the Iron-frame would permit ; which was not far enough to spoile either the Receiver or the Experiment . And this not unpleasant phaenomenon would somewhat surprise unaccustomed Spectators , that when after the Receiver had been very well exhausted , the external Air was permitted to return , there would be heard during some time , from the metalline part of the Receiver , divers Sounds brisk enough , which would make an odd Cracking noise proceeding from the Laton-plate , which having been forceably , though but slowly , bent inwards by the predominant Pressure of the Atmosphere , was now assisted by the Pressure of the returning Air , to regain its former Figure . And as I thought not fit to omit this Circumstance , because it confirms the practicableness of the Remedy propos'd against the 2 d Inconvenience ; so I thought fit to mention this way of enlarging and heightning Receivers , because what we have related seems to give Grounds of hoping that this Contrivance may be made good use of in divers other Tryals , and particularly in attempts to make Receivers capacious enough to contain larger Animals , and perhaps even a Boy , or a Man. In order to some of which purposes we indeavoured to get an improvement made of our Metalline Cylinder by additional contrivances ; but could not ( where we then were ) get Artificers , that would perform what was directed . EXPERIMENT XLI . About the propagation of Sounds in the Exhausted Receiver . TO make some further Observation than is mention'd in the * Publish'd Experiments , about the Production and conveying of Sounds in a Glass whence the Air is drawn out , we imploy'd a Contrivance , of which ( because we make use of it in divers other Experiments ) it will be requisite to give Your Lordship here some short description . We caus'd to be made at the Turners a Cylinder of Box , or the like close and firme Wood , and of a length suitable to that of the Receiver it was to be imploy'd in . Out of the lower Basis of this Cylinder ( vvhich might be about an inch and a half in Diameter ) there came a smaller Cylinder or Axle-tree not a quarter so thick as the other , and less than an inch long : this vvas Turn'd very true , that it might move to & fro ( or , as the Tradesmen call it , Ride ) very smoothly in a litle Ferrule or Ring of Brass , that was by the same Turner made for it in the midst of the fixt Trencher , ( as we call a piece of solid Wood shap'd like a Milstone , ) being 4 or 5 inches ( more or less according to the wideness of the Receiver ) in breadth , and between one and two in thickness ; and in a large and round Groove , or Gutter , purposely made in the lower part of this Trencher , I caus'd as much Lead as vvould fill it up to be plac'd and fasten'd , that it might keep the Trencher from being easily mov'd out of its place or posture , and in the upper part of this Trencher it vvas intended that Holes should be made at such places as should be thought fit , to place bodies at several distances as occasion should require . The upper Basis of the Cylinder had also coming out of the midst of it another Axletree , but wider than the former , that , into a Cavity made in it , it might receive the lower end of the Turning-key divers times already mentioned , to which t was to be fastned by a slender peg of Brass , thrust through two correspondent holes , the one made in the Key , and the other in the newly mentioned Socket ( if I may so call it ) of the Axletree . Besides all vvhich , there were divers Horizontal Perforations bored here and there in the Pillar it self , to which this Axis belong'd , vvhich Pillar we shall to avoid ambiguity call the Vertical Cylinder . The general use of this contrivance ( whose other parts need not to be mentioned before the Experiments where they are imploy'd ) is , that the end of the Turning-key being put into the Socket , and the lower Axis of the Vertical Cylinder into the Trencher , by the motion of the Key a Body fasten'd at one of the holes to the Cylinder may be approach'd too , or remov'd from , or made to rub or strike against another Body fastned in a convenient posture to the upper part of the Trencher . To come now to our Tryal about Sounds , vve caus'd a Hand-Bell ( vvhose Handle and Clapper were taken away ) to be so fastned to a strng Wire , that , one end of the Wire being made fast in the Trencher , the other end , vvhich vvas purposely bent downwards , took hold of the Bell. In another hole , made in the circumference of the same Trencher , vvas vvedg'd in ( vvith a wooden Peg ) a Steel-spring , to whose upper part was tied a Gad of Iron or Steel , less than an inch long , but of a pretty thickness . The length of this Spring was such , as to make the upper part of the Hammer ( if I may so call the piece of Iron ) of the same height with the Bell , and the distance of the Spring from the Bell was such , that when it was forc'd back the other way , it might at its return make the Hammer strike briskly upon the outside of the Bell. The Trencher being thus furnisht and plac'd in a Capp'd Receiver , ( as You know , for brevity sake , we use to call one that is fitted with one or other of the Brass Covers , often mentioned already , ) the Air was diligently pump'd out ; and then , by the help of the Turning-key , the Vertical Cylinder was made to go round , by which means as often as either of a couple of stiff Wires , or small Pegs , that were fastned at right Angles into holes , made not far from the bottom of the Cylinder , pass'd ( under the Bell , and ) by the lately mentioned Spring ; they forceably did in their passage bend it from the Bell , by which means , as soon as the Wire was gone by , and the Spring ceas'd to be press'd , it would fly back with violence , enough to make the Hammer give a smart stroak upon the Bell. And by this means we could both continue the Experiment at discretion , and make the percussions more equally strong than it would otherwise have been easie to do . The event of our Tryal was ; That , when the Receiver was vvell emptied , it sometimes seem'd doubtful , especially to some of the By-standers , whether any Sound were produc'd or no ; but to me for the most part it seem'd , that after much attention I heard a Sound , that I could but just hear ; and yet , vvhich is odd , me thought it had somewhat of the nature of Shrilness in it , but seem'd ( which is not strange ) to come from a good way off . Whether the often turning of the Cylindrical Key kept the Receiver from being so stanch as else it vvould have been , upon vvhich score some litle Air might insinuate it self , I shall not positively determine : but to discover vvhat interest the Presence or the absence of the Air might have in the Loudness or Lowness of the Sound , I caus'd the Air to be let into the Receiver , not all at once but at several times , with competent intervals between them ; by which Expedient it was easie to observe , that the Vertical Cylinder being still made to go round , when a litle Air vvas let in , the stroak of the Hammer upon the Bell ( that before could now and then not be heard , and for the most part be but very scarcely heard ) began to be easily heard . And when a litle more Air was let in , the Sound grew more and more audible , and so increased , till the Receiver was again replenished with Air ; though even then ( that we omit not That phaenomenon ) the Sound was observ'd to be much less loud than when the Receiver was not interpos'd between the Bell and the Ear. And whereas in the already publish'd Physico-Mechanical Experiments I acquainted Your Lordship with what I observ'd about the Sound of an ordinary Watch in the Exhausted Receiver , I shall now adde , that That Experiment was repeated not long since , with the addition of suspending in the Receiver a Watch , with a good Alarum , which was purposely so set , that it might , before it should begin to ring , give us time to cement on the Receiver very carefully , exhaust it very diligently , and settle our selves in a silent and attentive posture . And to make this Experiment in some respect more accurate than the others we made of Sounds , we secur'd our selves against any leaking at the Top , by imploying a Receiver that was made all of one piece of Glass , ( and consequently had no Cover cemented on to it , ) being furnish'd onely within ( when 't was first blown ) with a Glass-knob or Button , to which a string might be tied . And because it might be suspected , that if the Watch were suspended by its own Silver Chain , the tremulous motion of its sounding Bell might be propagated by that Metalline Chain to the upper part of the Glass ; to obviate this as well as we could , we hung the Watch , not by its Chain , but a very slender Thread , whose upper end was fastned to the newly mentioned Glass-button . These things being done , and the Air being carefully pump'd out , we silently expected the time when the Alarum should begin to ring , which 't was easie to know by the help of our other Watches ; but not hearing any noise so soon as we expected , it would perhaps have been doubted whether the Watch continued Going , if for prevention we had not order'd the matter so , that we could discern it did not stand still . Wherefore I desir'd an ingenious Gentleman to hold his Ear just over the Button , at which the Watch was suspended , and to hold it also very near to the Receiver , upon which he told us that he could perceive , and but just perceive something of Sound , that seem'd to come from far ; though neither we that listned very attentively near other parts of the Receiver , nor he , if his Ears were no more advantaged in point of position than Ours , were satisfied that we heard the Watch at all . Wherefore ordering some Air to be let in , we did by the help of attention begin to hear the Alarum ; whose Sound was odd enough , and , by returning the Stop-cock to keep any more Air from getting in , we kept the Sound thus low for a pretty while , after which a little more Air , that was permitted to enter , made it become more audible ; and when the Air was yet more freely admitted , the by standers could plainly hear the noise of the yet continuing Alarum at a considerable distance from the Receiver . From what has hitherto been related we may learn what is to be thought of what is delivered by the Learned Mersennus , in that Book of his Harmonicks , where he makes this to be the first Proposition . Sonus à Campanis , vel aliis corporibus non solùm producitur in illo vacuo ( quicquid tandem illud sit , ) quod fit in Tubis Hydrargyro plenis , posteaque depletis , sed etiam idem acumen , quod in Aere libero vel clauso penitus observatur & auditur . For the proof of which Assertion , not long after , he speaks thus : Porro variis Tubis , quorum extremis lagenae vitreae adglutinantur , observari Campanas in illo vacuo appensas , propriisque malleis percussas idem penitus acumen retinere , quod in Aere libero habent : atque soni magnitudinem ei sono , qui fit in Aere quem Tubus clausus includit , nihil cedere . But though our Experiments sufficiently manifest that the presence or absence of the common Air is of no small importance as to the conveying of Sounds , and that the interposition of Glass may sensibly weaken them ; yet so diligent and faithful a Writer as Mersennus deserves to be favourably treated : and therefore I shall represent on his behalf , that what he sayes may well enough have been true , as far as could be gathered from the Tryals he made . For First , t is no easie matter , especially for those that have not peculiar and very close Cements , to keep the Air quite out for any considerable time in vessels consisting of divers pieces , such as he appears to have made use of . And next , the bigness of the Bell in reference to the capacity of the exhausted Glass , and the thickness of the Glass , and the manner whereby the Bell was fastned to the inside of the Glass , and the Hammer or Clapper was made to strike , may much vary the Effect of the Tryal , for Reasons easie to be gather'd out of the past Discourse , and therefore not needful to be here insisted on . And upon this Account we chose to make our Experiment , with sounds that should not be strong or loud , and to produce them after such a manner , as that as litle shaking as could be might be given by the sounding Body to the Glass 't was included in . The Proposal made by the same Mersennus , to have those that have industry enough , try whether a Bag-pipe will be made to afford the same Sound as in the open Air , in such Vessels as he used for his Bels , though he seems to think it would succeed , is that which Your Lordship will not , I presume , sollicite me to make Tryal of , if You remember what is related in the almost immediately foregoing Experiments , shewing , That we could make nothing come out of the Cavity of a pair of Bellows , that had force enough to blow away a Feather , when that Cavity was freed from Air ; as the Bagpipe would be by the same operation , that empties the Glass that contains it , or else the Sound would not be made in such a Vacuum as the scope of the Experiment requires . If I had had Conveniency , I would have made some Tryals by conveying a small string'd Instrument ( perhaps some such as they commonly call a Kit ) exactly tun'd , into a large Receiver , and then upon briskly striking the String of a bigger Instrument , ( tuned , as they speak , to an Unison to ( or with ) that of the smaller Instrument ) I should have taken notice , whether the Sound would have been so uniformly propagated , notwithstanding the Interposition of the Glass Receiver , as sensibly to shake the included String ; in order to the discerning of which , a bended piece of Straw , or Feather , or some such light body , was to be hors'd upon the String to be shaken . I also intended , in case the string were made to move , to make the like Tryal after the Receiver was diligently exhausted . And lastly I design'd to try , whether two Unison strings of the same Instruments , or of a couple to be plac'd in the same Receiver , would , when the Air ( which is the usual medium of Sounds ) was well pump'd out , yet maintain such a Sympathy ( as t is call'd , ) that upon the motion of the one , the other would also be made to stir : Which Tryals may be varied , by imploying for the external Instrument another in stead of a stringed one . And because Contraries ( as is vulgarly noted ) serve to illustrate each other , I thought to subjoyn , to the Tryals above related , about the propagation of Sounds in a thinner medium than the Air , some observations about the conveyance of them through that thicker medium , Water ; but having unluckily mislaid my Notes upon that Subject , I cannot at present acquaint Your Lordship with what I intended , but must defer the doing it , till I shall have recovered Them. EXPERIMENT XLII . About the breaking of a Glass-drop in an Exhausted Receiver . YOu know , that among the Causes that have been propos'd of the strange flying of a Glass-drop into a multitude of pieces , when the slender Stem of it comes to be broken off , One of the least improbable was taken from the Pressure of the Air : as if that within the poreous ( and as 't were honey-comb'd ) inside of the Glass , being highly rarified when the drop of melted Glass fell into the Water at its first formation , it was forc'd to continue in that praeternatural state of Expansion by the hardness and closeness of the external Case of Glass , that inclos'd the Pithlike part ( if I may so call it ; ) so that upon the breaking off a part of this solid Case at the Stem , the external Air gaining access , and finding in the Spungy part very litle resistance from the highly rarified and conse quently weaken'd Air included there , rushes in with such violence , as to shiver the Glass-drop into a multitude of pieces . I shall not now trouble Your Lordship with the mention of what may be alleadg'd to question this Hypothesis , especially if it be compared with that accurate Account of the Phaenomena of such Glass-drops , which was sometime since presented to the Society by that great Ornament of it , S r Robert Moray . But I shall onely say in this place , that when I consider'd , that if the Dissilition of the Glass would succeed when the Air was pump'd out of it , it would be hard to ascribe that Effect to the irruption of the external Air , I thought fit to try what would happen , if a Glass-drop were broken in our exhausted Receiver . And accordingly did , though not without some difficulty , so order the matter , that the blunter part of the Glass-drop was fastned to a stable Body ( convey'd into the Receiver , ) and the crooked Stem was tyed to one end of a string , whose other end was fastned to the Turning-key ; by which means , when the Air had been diligently pump'd out , the Stem was ( by shortning the string ) broken off , and the Glass drop was shatter'd into a thousand pieces . This Experiment was long after repeated with the like success , and having at that time no Gage to try how far the Air had been drawn out , we let the external Air impell up the Water out of the Pump into the Receiver , and thereby found , that That vessel had not been negligently exhausted . EXPERIMENT XLIII . About the production of Light in the exhausted Receiver . I Presume , I need not put Your Lordship in mind , that divers attempts were made to try , whether either a Flame , or kindled Coals would be made to continue for sometime burning in our Receiver : But those Tryals making it evident , that it would be either impossible , or very difficult to produce any durable Light , without the presence of the Air , by the burning of bodies ; I thought it not amiss , considering the Nobleness of Light , to make trial , whether it might be otherwise produc'd in our exhausted Receiver ; since whether or no the Attempts should prove successful , the Event would probably be instructive . For as t is the property of Light , when t is produc'd , to be discoverable by it self ; so in such a Tryal as we intended , it would teach something concerning Light , to find that the absence of the Air would or would not hinder it from being produc'd . In prosecution of this Design , knowing that hard Sugar , being nimbly scrap'd with a knife , will afford a sparkling Light , so that now & then one would think that sparks of Fire fly from it ; we caus'd a good lump of hard Loaf-sugar to be conveniently and firmly placed in the cavity of our capp'd Receiver , and to the vertical Cylinder formerly mentioned we caus'd to be fastned some pieces of a Steel-spring , which being not very thick , might in their passage along the Sugar , grate , or rub forceably against it , and then the Receiver being diligently exhausted in the Night-time , and in a dark Room , the vertical Cylinder ( whose lower Axis was inserted into the often mentioned Trencher ) was made for a pretty while to move round by the help of the Turning-key , manag'd by a hand steady and strong enough . By which means the Irons that came out of the vertical Cylinder , making in their passage vigorous impressions upon the Sugar that stood somewhat in their way , there were manifestly produc'd a good number of litle flashes , and sometimes too , though not frequently , there seem'd to be struck off litle sparks of Fire . EXPERIMENT XLIV . About the production of a kind of Halo , and Colours in the Exhausted Receiver . VVE took a large inverted Cucurbite for a Receiver , which being so well wip'd both within and without as to be very clear , allow'd me to observe , and to make others do so too , That when the Pump began to be set a work , if I caus'd a pretty large Candle to be held on the other side of the Glass , upon the turning of the Stop-cock to let the Air out of the Receiver into the Cylinder , the Glass would seem to be full of Fumes , and there would appear about the Flame of the Candle , seen through them , a kind of Halo , that at first commonly was between Blew and Green , and after some Sucks would be of a Reddish or Orange colour , and both very vivid . The production of this Meteor ( if I may so call it ) was , according to my conjecture , made on some such score as this . That the Cement being somewhat soft and new ( as is convenient for this Experiment ) abounds with Turpentine , and having a litle ( as well to fasten on the Receiver , as for the other purpose ) apply'd to it a hot Iron , whereby the Cement was both softned and heated , it seem'd rational to expect , That upon the withdrawing of the Air in the Receiver , the Aerial Particles in the Cement , freed from their former Pressure , would extricate themselves , and with the looser steams of the Turpentine and perhaps of the Bees-wax would with a kind of Explosion expand themselves in the Receiver , and by their interposition between the Light and the Eye exhibit those delightful Colours we had seen . To confirme which , I afterwards found , that by watchfully observing it I could plainly enough perceive the colouring steams , just upon the turning of the Stopcock , to fly up from the Cement towards the top of the Glass ; and if we continued Pumping , the Receiver would grow clearer , and the Colours more dilute , ( till we had occasion to put on the Receiver , and heat the Cement afresh : ) of which the reason might be , partly that the Aerial and Volatile Particles of the upper part of the Cement did in that tract of time spend themselves more and more ; and partly , because the Agitation they receiv'd from the heat communicated by the Iron did continually decay . Not to mention , that when the Receiver is more exhausted , the want of Air makes it more difficult for Steams to be supported , and as it were swim up and down in it . But for farther Confirmation , I caus'd some Cement to be put into a small Crucible , warm enough to melt it ; and conveying this into a clear Receiver of a convenient shape and size , I caus'd the Pump to be set a work ; whereupon it appear'd manifestly enough , That upon the opening of the Stop-cock to let out the Air , the Steams would copiously be thrown about from the Crucible into the capacity of the Receiver , and would , after having a litle play'd there , fall down again . But in these apparitions the Vividness , and sometimes the Kind of the exhibited Colours seem'd much to depend upon divers circumstances , such as the degrees of Heat , the bigness and shape of the Receiver , the quantity of Air that yet remain'd unpump'd out , and the nature of the Cement its self ; which last particular I the rather mention , because , though I were hinder'd from doing it , I had thoughts to try a suspicion I had , that by varying the Materials expos'd to this kind of operation , some pretty variety might be made in the phaenomena of the Experiment . Whether or no the Apparition of Whiteness , or Light , that we sometimes hapned to take notice of divers years agoe , and have mentioned in the already * publish'd part of our Physico-mechanical Experiments , may be partly ( though not entirely ) referr'd to some of the Cements I then imploy'd , differing from those I now use most , and to the unheeded temper of those Cements , as to Warmth , and degrees of Softness , is a Doubt that further Observation may possibly enable us to determine . EXPERIMENT XLV . About the production of Heat by Attrition in the Exhausted Receiver . THe opinion that ascribes the Incalescence of solid Bodies , struck or rubb'd hard against one another to the attrition or vehement agitation of the intercepted Air , is famous and received enough to seem worthy of a particular Examination . But I confess to Your Lordship , that t was not any thing relating to this Opinion that chiefly induc'd me to make the Experiment I am now about to give an account of ; for I thought it might be usefull to more purposes than one , to be able to produce by Attrition a somewhat durable Heat even in our exhausted Receiver : and therefore though 't were easie to foresee , that it would prove no easie task , yet we thought fit to attempt it in spight of the difficulties met with at our first Tryal . In what way and with what success we afterwards made this attempt , I now proceed to relate . Cross the stable Trencher , formerly often mentioned , there was fastned a pretty strong Spring of Steel or Iron , shap'd almost like the Lathe of a Cross-bow , and to the midst of this Spring was strongly fastned on the outside a round piece of Brass hollow'd almost like a concave Burning-glass , or one of those Tools wherein they use to grind Eye-Glasses for Telescopes . To this piece of Brass , which was not considerably thick , nor above 2 inches Diameter , was fitted a convex piece of the same Metal , almost like a Gage for a Tool to grind Glasses in , which had belonging to it a square Handle , whereinto as into a Socket was inserted a square piece of Wood , proceeding from the Basis of a square wooden Pillar , which we made use of on this occasion in stead of our vertical Cylinder . By the help of another piece of Wood coming from the other Basis of the same Pillar , the Turning-key was joyned to this Pillar , which was made of such a length , that when the Turning-key was forceably kept down as low as the Brass Cover , it was a part of , would permit ; the convex piece of Metal lately describ'd did depress the concave piece a pretty way , notwithstanding a vigorous resistance of the subjacent Spring . Besides these things , a litle fine powder of Emery was put between the convex and concave pieces of Brass , to make them more congruous , and facilitate the motion that was to be made ; and there was fastned to the upper part of the Turning key a good Wimble , without which we presum'd the turning of the Key would not produce a sufficient motion : in order to the making of which , it was , after the first Tryal , judged requisite to have a strong man , that was us'd to exercise his hands and armes in Mechanical labours , upon which account we sent for a certain Lock-smith , that was a lusty and dexterous fellow . All things that were thought necessary being thus in readiness , and a Mercurial Gage being convey'd into the Receiver , we caus'd the Air to be diligently pump'd out ; and then the Smith was order'd to turn the Wimble , and to continue to lean a litle on it , that he might be sure to keep the Turning-key from being at all lifted up by the formerly mentioned Spring . Whilst this man with much nimbleness and strength was moving the Wimble , I watch'd the Gage , to observe whether the agitation of the Stop-cock , and consequently the Engine , did not prejudice the Experiment ; and for greater caution I caus'd the Pump to be almost all the while kept at work , though that seem'd not so necessary . When the Turner of the Wimble was almost out of Breath , we let in for hast the Air at the Cover of the Receiver by lifting up the Turning-key , and nimbly removing the Receiver we felt the pieces of Brass , betwixt whom the Attrition had been made , and , as we expected , found both of them very sensibly warm . But being willing to confirm the Experiment by a second Tryal , which we hoped might , after the Experience taught us by the first , be somewhat better performed , we caus'd the Smith , after he had well refresh'd himself with rest and drink , to lay hold of the Wimble again , when the Gage made it appear that the Receiver was well exhausted , so that by further Pumping the Quick-silver seem'd not to be further deprest . And in this 2 d Tryal the nimble Smith plaid his part so well , ( the Pump in the mean while not being neglected , ) that when we did as before hastily let in the Air , and take out the Bodies that had been rubb'd against one another , they were both of them ( especially the uppermost ) so hot , that I could not endure to hold my hand on either of them , and they did for a considerable time retain a not inconsiderable degree of Warmth . The same day I caus'd to be made at the Turners two bodies of Wood , for size and shape like those of Brass we had just before imploy'd ; the upper of these was of hard Oak , the other of Beech , ( such a difference between Woods , to be heated by mutual Attrition , being thought to be an advantageous circumstance ; ) but though the Wimble was swiftly turn'd as before , and that by the same Person , nevertheless the Wood seem'd not to me ( for all the By-standers were not of my opinion ) to have manifestly acquired any Warmth ; and yet that there had been a considerable Attrition , appear'd by the great Polish which part of the Wood had evidently acquir'd , vvhich made me suspect , that though the Wood seem'd dry enough , yet it might not really be so , notwithstanding the contrary was affirm'd to me : but not being willing to sit down with a single Tryal , I caus'd the Experiment to be repeated with more obstinacy than before , the effect of which was , that the Wood , especially the upper piece of it , vvas brought to a Warmth unquestionably sensible . EXPERIMENT XLVI . About the slaking of Quick-Lime in the Exhausted Receiver . THe several Scopes I aim'd at in making the following Tryal are not necessary to be here particularly taken notice of . But one of them may be guess'd at by the subsequence of this Experiment to that immediately foregoing , and the phaenomena of it may be mentioned in this Epistle upon the account of their being exhibited by our Engine . We took in an Evaporating Glass a convenient quantity of Water , and having convey'd it into a Receiver , and well drawn out the Air , we let down into it by the Turning-key a lump of strong Lime , about the bigness of a Pipin ; and observ'd not that at the first immersion , nor for some while after , there appear'd any considerable number of Bubbles , but within about 1 / 4 of an hour , as I guess'd it , the Lime began ( the Pump having been and being still ply'd from time to time ) to slack with much violence , and with bubbles wonderfully great , that appear'd at each new Exuction , so that the inside of the Receiver ( though pretty large ) was at length lin'd with Lime-water , and a great part of the mixture did from time to time overflow the vessel , that had purposely been but little fill'd ; nor did any thing but our weariness put a period to the bubling of the mixture , whose heat was sensible even on the outside of the Receiver , and which continued considerably hot in the Evaporating Glass for ¼ of an hour ( as I conjectured ) after the Receiver was removed . Note , That the Lime imployed about this Experiment was of a very good and strong kind ( made of hard stones , ) and not such Lime , made of Chalk , as is commonly used at London , which probably would not have been strong enough to have afforded us the same phaenomenon . EXPERIMENT XLVII . About an attempt made to measure the force of the Spring of included Air , and examine a Conjecture about the difference of its strength in unequally broad mouth'd Vessels . THough several of the foregoing Tryals have sufficiently manifested that the Spring of the Air in its natural or wonted state , hath a force very considerable , and indeed much Greater than men seem to have hitherto believed ; Yet I could not hope by any of these Experiments to determine by any known weight , how Great that force is , so as to conclude that it is equivalent to such a Weight , as so many Pounds , Ounces , &c. and to no more . Wherefore among the Uses I had design'd to make of our Syringe , formerly often mentioned , it was One , to try if by the help of that Instrument , we could determine somewhat near ( for no more was to be expected ) how much Weight a Cylinder of uncomprest Air included in it , and consequently of the same Diameter vvith the cavity of the Barrel , would be able to sustain or also to lift up . In order to this Tryal , 1. we provided a stable Pedestal , or Frame , wherein the Syringe might be kept firm , and erected . Next , vve also provided a Weight of Lead shap'd like our Brass-hoop , or Ring , * formerly describ'd , that by the advantage of its figure it might be made to hang down by strings from the top of the Handle of the Rammer , and so press evenly enough on all sides , without making the upper part of the instrument top-heavy . 3. We took care to leave , between the bottom of the Syringe ( which was firmly clos'd with strong Cement ) and that part of it where the Sucker was , a convenient quantity of Air , to expand its self , and lift up the Weight , when the Air external to that included Air should be pump'd out of the Receiver : And lastly , the Handle of the Rammer ( from which the Annular weight lately spoken of depended ) was so fastned to the Turning-key of the Cover of the Receiver , that the Weight might not compress the Air included in the Syringe , but leave it in its natural state or wonted Laxity , till the Air were withdrawn from the Receiver . But notwithstanding all this , when we actually tryed the Experiment , That hapned which I feared . For though by this method the included Air would well enough lift up a Weight of 7 or 8 pound , yet when the Rammer came to be clogg'd with so considerable a Weight , as my scope in making the Experiment required , the Instrument prov'd not so stanch , but that it was easier for some particles of Air to force themselves a passage , and get away between the Sucker and the inside of the Barrel , than to heave up so great a Weight . And yet I have thought fit to relate the Experiment thus particularly , because , if an exact Syringe can be procured , ( which I fear will be very difficult , but do not think impossible , this seems to be one of the likeliest and least exceptionable wayes I know , of measuring the force of the Airs Spring . But despairing to get such a Syringe , as I desir'd , in the place where I then was , I bethought my self of another way , by which I hop'd to be able ( though not to arrive at an exact knowledge of the full force of the Airs Spring , yet ) at least to approach nearer it than I have been able to do by the help of the Syringe . For this purpose considering with my self , that if a convenient quantity of Air were included in a fine small Bladder , the sides of it would hinder the Air from getting away , and the limberness of them would permit the Air to accommodate it self and the Bladder to the Figure of a Cylindrical vessel , into which it might be put . Wherefore with much adoe I procured to be made by a person exercised in Turning a couple of hollow Cylinders , whose sides were of a sufficient thickness , ( that they might resist the pressure of the Air to be imprisoned in them , ) and of such differing breadths , that the first had but one inch in Diameter , and the 2 d two ; their depths being also unequal , that the one might receive a much larger Bladder than the other . With the lesser of these ( which was very carefully Turned ) I made a diligent Tryal ; whose Circumstances I cannot now acquaint Your Lordship with , the Paper , wherein they vvere amply recorded , having been vvith other Notes belonging to this Continuation unluckily lost : but the most considerable things in the Event were , That t was very difficult to procure a Bladder small and fine enough for that litle Cylinder ; and that one , which at length we procured , would not continue stanch for many Tryals , but would after a vvhile part with a litle Air in the well exhausted Receiver , when t was clog'd with the utmost Weight it could sustain : but whilst it continued stanch vve made one fair Tryal vvith it , from vvhence vve concluded , that a Cylinder of Air of but an inch in Diameter , and lesse than two inches in length , was able to raise visibly ( though but a litle ) a Weight of above ten Pounds , ( I speak of Averdupoiz vveights , vvhere a Pound contains 16 ounces . ) The manner of making this Experiment , and the cautions us'd in judging of it , Your Lorship may learn by the recital of the subsequent Tryal ; my Notes about which were not so unfortunate as those that concern'd the former . Into a hollow Cylinder of Wood of four inches in depth , and two in Diameter , furnished with a broad and solid bottom or Pedestal , to make it stand the firmer , was put a Lambs or Sheeps bladder very strongly tyed at the Neck , on vvhich vvas put a Wooden Plug , markt with Ink where the Edg of the Cylinder vvas contiguous to it ; this Plug being loaded with Weights , amounting to 35 pound , ( the uppermost of vvhich Weights was fastned to the Turning-key , to keep it upright , and to help to raise it at first , ) the Receiver vvas exhausted , till the Mark appeared very manifestly above the brim of the Cylinder ; and then , though the string were by turning the Key quite slackned , yet the mark on the Plug continued very visible : and vvhen so much Air was let into the Receiver , as made the Weight depress the Plug quite beneath the Mark , upon the repumping out of the Air the Weight was without the help of any Turning-key lifted up , and by degrees all the mark on the Plug was raised about 3 / 8 above the edge of the Cylinder . Wherefore we substituted for a 7 pound weight one that was estimated at 14 , ( for then we had not a Ballance strong enough to weigh it with , ) and using the same Bladder we repeated the Experiment , onely having a care to support a litle the uppermost Weight by the Turning-key , till the Bladder had attained its expansion ; and then the Weight being gently let go , depress'd not the Plug so low , but that we could yet see the mark on it , ( which yet was all we could do , ) though that part of the Plug , where the mark vvas , vvere manifestly more deprest than the other . For the clearing up of some particulars relating to this Tryal , we will subjoyn the following Notes . 1. The Plug is to be so fitted to the Cavity of the Cylinder , as easily to slip up and down in it , without Grating against the sides of it , lest it needlesly increase the resistance of the Weight to be rais'd . And this Plug ought to be of a convenient length , as about an inch and 1 / 2 at least , that it may be the fitter to help to reduce the Bladder by compression into a somewhat Cylindrical shape , and yet that it may not be thrust in too deep by the incumbent Weight ; and that the Weight might rest more firmly upon it , there was a broad and strong Ledge made at the top of it , by which it might lean on every side upon the brim of the hollow Cylinder . 2. Before the Instrument was conveyed into the Receiver , the Bladder ( which ought to be of a just size , and not full blown , and of a fine and limber contexture ) was put into the Cylinder , and by divers gradual ( but not immoderate ) compressions was reduc'd to conform its self , as much as might be , to the Cylindrical shape of the containing vessel . And then the Weight being put on , and taken off again , there was a mark ( in the form of an horizontally plac'd Arch ) made with Ink , where the edge of the brim of the hollow Cylinder did almost touch the Plug . This we thought necessary to do , to avoid a mistake ; for we must not judg , that all the Weight , that might be rais'd by our Bladder , may pass for the Weight sought after by our Experiment ; since the Air in the Bladder is by reason of the incumbent weight more comprest than t was before , and consequently its being able to heave up a Great weight will not infer , that our common Air is able in its natural state ( as they call it ) to exert so Great a strength ; that Weight being onely to be lookt on as rais'd or sustain'd by the uncomprest Air , that is rais'd or sustain'd when the Plug is lifted up to the mark , since till then the Spring of the Air does but bring it back from its new state of adventitious compression to its natural or wonted Laxity . 3. When , after the operation was ended , we took the Bladder out of the vessel , it had obtain'd a form Cylindrical enough , and though it could be but 2 inches in Diameter , yet it was so litle as to be but half an inch more long than broad . 4. The reason why I chose to have the two Cylinders made of the unequal Diameters above mentioned , was to examine , as far as by this way I could , a conjecture I had , that the force of the Spring of differing Cylinders of Air to lift up solid Weights , would , at the very first raising of the Weights , be in duplicate proportion to the Diameters of their Cylinders , ( those Diameters being proportionable to the Areas of the plain Superficies , against which the Air does immediately press , ) without very much considering the inequality that may be between the quantity of the several parcels of Air , whose pressures are compared . But t is to be remembred , that I said at the very first raising of the weights , because presently after That , the quantity of the parcels of Air may be very considerable : for , as I have shewn in another Treatise , two very unequal quantities of Air being made by their Expansion to possess two equal spaces , the lesser quantity of Air must be much more rarified in proportion than the greater ; and consequently , ( to bring this home to our present Argument ) though both be lifted up ¼ or ½ of an inch , the Spring of a very litle Air must be much more weakned than that of a very considerable Quantity , and so it cannot continue to lift up its weight , as the above mentioned proportion would ( if it were not for this Advertisement ) seem to require . Taking then our conjecture in the sense now declared , the success of our Tryals is agreeable to it , inviting us to conclude , that the Air in the Bladder , which was but two inches in Diameter , was able by its Pressure to countervaile the weight of 42 pound , which is about four times the weight that we lately observ'd the Spring of a Cylinder of Air of one inch in Diameter to be able to lift up . For though , according to what we have formerly said of a duplicate proportion , 42 pound seems to be somewhat more than ought to have been lifted up in the Cylinder of two inches bore , when that of one inch lifted up not much above 10 pound ; yet this disagrees not with the Hypothesis , if we consider that the substance of the Bladder straitens the cavity of the smaller Cylinder in a Greater proportion than that of the bigger . 5. Though we have thus ( as far as the Instruments we were able to procure would assist us ) measured the Pressure of included Air , yet I must not forbear to advertise Your Lordship , that considering what I formerly observ'd to You about the weight of an Atmospherical Pillar of an inch in Diameter , I cannot but think , that if a Cylinder , or other convenient instrument , exactly Tite , can be procured , the Spring of an Aerial Cylinder will appear to be Greater than we found it by the foregoing Tryals ; in which I consider that , not to mention the resistance of the Bladder its self , the membraneous substance that lin'd the Cylinders ( though t were very thin and fine ) could not but somewhat straiten their Cavities , and consequently somewhat ( though not much ) lessen the Diameters of the included Aerial Cylinders . 6. To all these Notes I must adde this Advertisement , That it may be therefore the more difficult in such Tryals as ours to ascertain the force of the Airs Spring , because , that Air its self when t is included , being shut up with the Pressure of the Atmosphere upon it , t is probable , that since that Pressure ( as we have shewn ) is not at all times the same , the Spring of the included Air will accordingly be varied . And , if my memory fail me not , when the lately recited Experiments were made , our Barometer declared the Atmosphere to be somewhat light . From what has been hitherto delivered , this may result ; that t is likely , that the Spring of an Aerial Cylinder an inch broad , may be able to sustain , if not raise , a pretty deal more than ten pound Weight ; and that the past Tryals , without determining that the Air can raise no more than in them it did , do , at least , prove that it can raise up as much Weight as we have related , since we actually found it to do so . EXPERIMENT XLVIII . About an easie way of making a small quantity of included Air raise in the exhausted Receiver 50 or 60 pound , or a greater weight . I Would very willingly have further prosecuted the foregoing Tryals , to see how far the lately propos'd Conjecture or Hypothesis would hold ; but was hindered by the want of Receivers tall and capacious enough to contain the Weights , that such an attempt required : but remembring that there were not any Experiments made in our Engine , that appear'd more strange to the Generality of Spectators , and serv'd more to give them a high opinion of the Airs Spring , than those wherein they saw solid Bodies actually lifted up by it , and remembring , that I had lying by me a Brass vessel , ( which had been bespoken for another Experiment , for which the Workmen had not made it fit , ) I thought it not amiss to imploy it about making a Tryal very easie , and yet fit to be shewn to Strangers , to convince them , that the Spring of the Air is a much more considerable thing than they imagined . We took then a Brass vessel made like a Cylinder , and having one of his Orifices exactly covered with a flat Plate very firmly fastned to it , the other Orifice being wide open . The depth of this vessel was 4 inches , and the Diameter should have been precisely ( but wanted about a quarter of an inch of ) 4 inches . To this hollow Cylinder we fitted a wooden Plug , like one of those described in the foregoing Experiment , save that it was not quite so long , and that it was furnished with a Rimme or Lip , which was purposely made of a considerable breadth , that it might afford a stable Basis to the Weight that should lean upon it . And then taking a middle siz'd and limber Bladder , strongly tyed at the Neck , but not near full blown , we press'd it by the help of the Plug into the Cylinder to make it the better accommodate it self to the figure of it . Then taking notice by an inky mark how much of the Plug was extant above the orifice of the vessel , we laid the Weights upon the Plug , ( whose Rimme or Lip hinder'd it from being deprest too deep into the cavity of the vessel ; ) and having convey'd them into the Receiver , we found as we expected , that if we had loaded the Plug but with a single Weight , ( as to avoid trouble , and the danger of breaking the Glass we usually thought fit to do , ) though that were a common half hundred weight , ( which You know amounts to 56 pounds , ) it would very quickly be manifestly heav'd up by the Spring of the included Air. For confirmation of more than which , I shall subjoyn the ensuing Tryal , as I find it recorded among my loose Notes . The Weight that was lifted up by the Bladder in the Cylinder 4 inches broad , was 75 pound ; this Weight was lifted up till the wooden Plug disclos'd the Mark , that was to shew the height , at which the Air kept the said Plug before it was comprest : disclos'd it I say visibly at the 5 th Exuction , and at the 7 th that mark was ⅛ , or rather 3 / 16 above the Edge of the Cylinder . In the Gage where the Mercury in the open Air was wont to stand about ⅛ above the uppermost Glass-mark , it was deprest till it was ⅛ below the second mark . When the Air was let in , it was a pretty while before the Weight did manifestly begin to subside ; the Bladder being taken out , and the place it had possess'd in the Cylinder being supply'd with a Sleeve , or some such thing , and the Weight laid again upon the Plug , we found that at 24 Exuctions the Mercury was deprest to the lowest Mark of the Gage ; and it was the 34 or 35 th Exuction before the Receiver appear'd to be so exhausted , as to put an end to the sinking of the Mercury , which was then above ⅛ beneath the lowest mark . Your Lordship will easily believe , that most of the Spectators of such Tryals thought it somewhat strange to see a small quantity of Air , which was not onely uncomprest in the Bladder , but did not near fill it , ( and left it very soft and yielding to the least touch , ) lift up so easily by its bare Spring such Great Weights as indeavoured to oppress it . But this not being any thing near a sufficient Tryal , how far the conjecture or Hypothesis formerly propos'd will hold , I thought fit to make the utmost Tryals the tallest Receivers I could procure would admit : and having caus'd leaden weights to be purposely cast flat like Cheeses , and as broad as we could conveniently put into the Receiver , that by the advantage of this shape we might be able to pile up the more of them , without much danger that any of them should be shaken down ; we laid divers of them one upon another , and then the upper part of the Receiver growing too narrow to admit more of them , we added a less broad Weight or two ; and then exhausting the Receiver , till we perceiv'd by the Gage that the Air was manifestly withdrawn , we found ( as near as we could measure ) by the help of a Mark and a pair of Compasses , that the Plug was so far rais'd , as that t was concluded , that the Elevation vvould have been much Greater , if the included Air , being put upon so Great a Conatus , had not found it easier to produce some Leak at the neck of the Bladder , than to lift up so Great a Weight , which by our Reckoning came to about 100 pound of 16 ounces to the pound . But this last Experiment , for want of some requisite accommodations , vve vvere hinder'd from repeating and promoting ; though the above mentioned Hypothesis made me presume , that a far Greater weight might this way have been rais'd if the Bladder had been stanch , and the Receiver high enough . I need not tell Your Lordship , that if a larger Bladder be imploy'd and included in a Brass vessel of a sufficiently wide Orifice , a far Greater weight may be lifted up by the Spring of the internal Air. But yet it will not be amiss to give Your Lordship on this occasion this Advertisement , which may be fit to be taken notice of on divers others : That care must be had not to make Receivers , that ought to be well emptied , too large , and especially too wide at the Orifice ; for otherwayes they will be expos'd to so great a Pressure of the Atmosphere , that they need be of an extraordinary strength to resist it ; and even Receivers , that seem'd thick enough proportionably to their bulk , and which held out very well till the close of the Operation , yet when they came to be very diligently exhausted , they did , by reason of the wideness of their Orifices , begin to crack at the bottom . EXPERIMENT XLIX . IN one of my publish'd Experiments * I long since told Your Lordship , that when I endeavoured , by the help of a seal'd bubble , weigh'd in an exhausted Receiver , to compare the Gravity of Air and Water , I was hinder'd by the casual breaking of the Glass from compleating the Experiment . Wherefore I afterwards thought fit to repeat the Tryal ; and though when I had done so twice or thrice , having given away the large Receiver I had made use of about them , and not being able ever since to procure a Good one , that was capacious enough for the tender Scales I thought so nice an Experiment required , I did not prosecute that Attempt so far as I intended ; yet this very difficulty I met with to procure the Requisites of making the Tryal , invites me to subjoyn the two following Notes , which I find among my loose Papers . We weigh'd a Bubble in the Receiver , which we found to weigh above half a Grain heavier , when much of the Air was exhausted , than when it was full . Afterwards we took out this seal'd Bubble , and weighing it found it to weigh 68 Grains and a half ; then breaking off the small tip of it under water , we found that the heat , by which it was seal'd up , had rarifi'd its included Air , so that it admitted 125 Grains of Water , for the admitted Water and Glass weighed 193 ½ Grains . Then filling it full with Water , we found it to contain in all 739 Grains of Water , for it weighed 807 1 / 2 Grains : whence t is evident , that the difference between the weight of Water and Air was less than 1228 to 1. ] We weighed in the Receiver a Bubble , the Glass of which weighed 60 Grains : the Air that fill'd it weighed in vacuo 27 / 32 of a Grain : the Water that fill'd it weighed 720 ¼ Grains : So that by this Experiment the proportion of the weight of Air to Water is as ( one ) to ( 853 17 / 27. ) The Tryals mentioned in these Notes , though they were too few for me to acquiesce in , yet being made in a nevv vvay , and which has some advantages above those that have been hitherto imployed to weigh the Air , may yet serve to keep us from the contrary . Extremes , that have not been avoided by such eminent Mathematicians as Galileo and Ricciolus ; the former of which makes Water to be but about 400 times as heavy the Air ; and the later , whose conjecture is much remoter from the Truth , 10000 times heavier . But it is so desireable a thing , and may prove of such importance , to know the proportion in Weight betwixt Air and Water , that I shall not scruple to acquaint Your Lordship with an attempt or two that I made to discover it by another way : For , though at first sight this Experiment may seem to be the same with one publish'd a pretty while ago in the learned Schottus his Mechanica Hydraulico pneumatica ; yet Your Lordship will easily perceive this difference between them : That , whereas the industrious Author of that Experiment contents himself to shew , by the diminution of the weight of a Glass , when the Air has been drawn out of it , that the Air , before t was drawn out , was not devoid of Gravity ; the following Tryal does not onely perform the same thing , and by a superadded circumstance confirm the Truth to be thereby prov'd , but it indeavours also to shew the Proportion in Gravity betwixt the Air and Water . The Tryals themselves were registred among my Adversaria as follows . A small Receiver being exhausted of Air by the Engine , and counterpois'd whilst it continued so ; the Stop-cock was turn'd , and the Air readmitted , which made it weigh 36 Grains more than it did before : and to prevent Jealousies , we caus'd it to be applied the second time to the Engine , by which the Air being emptied once more , the Glass was put into the other Scale of the former Ballance , and so counterpois'd ; and then the External Air being readmitted , ( which rush'd in as formerly with a whistling noise ) , there was found 36 Grains or better , requisite to restore the Ballance to an Aequilibrium . We took a small Glass Receiver fitted with a Stopcock , and having exhausted it of the Air , and counterpois'd it , and let in the outward Air , we found the vveight of the Vessel to be increased by that admission 36 Grains . This done , we took the Receiver , after having well counterpois'd it , out of the Scale ; and having apply'd it the second time to the Engine , we once more withdrew the Air , and then turning the Stop-cock to keep out the external Air , vve took care that none of the Cement , imploy'd to joyn it to the Engine , should stick to it , as we had diligently freed it from adherent Cement before we last apply'd it to the Engine . Then weighing it again , we found it to weigh either 35 or 36 Grains ( but rather the former ) heavier than it did , when t was last counterpois'd in the same Ballance . This being also done , we immers'd the Stop-cock into a Bason of fair Water , and let in the Liquor , that we might find how much Water would succeed in place of the Air vve had drawn out . When no more vvater vvas impell'd in , vve turned the Stop-cock once more , to keep it from falling out , and then weighing it in the same Scales , ( after we had wip'd the Stop-cock , that no Water might stick to it on the outside , ) we found the water ( without computing the vessel ) to weigh 47 ounces , 3 drachms , and 6 Grains , vvhich divided by 35 Grains , ( which I took to be the weight of the Air , that vvas equal in Bulk to this vvater that succeeded it , ) the Quotient was ( wanting a very litle ) 650 Grains , for the proportion of the vveight between Air and Water of the same bigness , at the time when the Experiment was made : vvhich circumstance I therefore take notice of , because the Atmosphere appear'd by the Baroscope ( wherein the Mercury stood then at 29 inches and 3 / 4 ) to be very heavy ; which made me the less wonder to find this proportion not so Great , as at other times I had observed it to be between Water and Air in point of weight : though I suspected , that because this odd Experiment cannot be nimbly dispatched , some litle Air may have got in at the Stop-cock , besides the Air that disclos'd it self in numerous bubbles in the vvater that vvas admitted , vvhere though it lay in such small particles as not to be discerned before ; yet these particles , by this opportunity to expand themselves , extricated themselves from the vvater , and by getting together might somewhat resist the Ingress of more ; vvhich is a difficulty , vvhere to the measuring the proportion between VVater and Air in a heated Eoliple is liable . But the Stealing in of any Air , before the vvater vvas let in , is mentioned but as a Suspicion . Your Lordship may perhaps think it somewhat strange , that I should present You Tryals , whose Events do not so vvell agree together , as perchance You expected . But this very Disagreement vvas one of the motives that induc'd me to acquaint You vvith them : for all those compris'd in these Experiments being made faithfully , and not without ( at the least ) an ordinary diligence , as they seem to make it probable , that one may without any Great errour estimate the proportion of our English Air to VVater to be as ( One ) to some number betwixt 600 and 1100 ; so t is not to be expected , that the Proportion , vvhatever it be that should be pitch'd upon , should be accurate and stable . For though Learned men seem to have hitherto taken it for granted , that it may suffice once for all diligently to investigate the proportion betwixt those two Bodies , yet , not onely I am apt to believe that a Determinate quantity of Air ( as a Pint or Quart ) may be unequally heavy in distant Countreys , and even in differing places of the same Countrey ; but what I have taken notice of in the 17 th of the printed Experiments , and afterwards frequently observ'd of the Great inequalities of the vveight of the Atmosphere , inclines me to think , that in the self same place two Experiments may be made with the same Instruments , and equal diligence , and yet the weights of the Air may be found differing enough ; which may keep Your Lordship from much wondering , that in the 36 th printed Experiment , made when I had the variations of the Atmospheres Gravity in my Eye , I found the Air to be less ponderous in reference to Water , than in these later Tryals . But of this I hope I shall , if God permit , make further Tryals with the same vessels , at times when I shall perceive by the Baroscope , that the Gravity of the Atmosphere is very Great and very Small . And I wish the Curious would make the like Tryals in other Regions . I do not forget , that not onely the School philosophers , but most of the Moderns deny , that Air hath any weight in Air , no more than Water in Water ; but having a elsewhere declared and explained my sense about this received Opinion , I shall not here spend any of the litle time I have remaining , to justifie my Dissent ; for which Your Lordship may find sufficient Grounds in the newly related Experiments , especially if You please to consider , that though the Opinion I disallow have been chiefly and generally grounded upon some Arguments supposed to evince , that vvater has no vveight in vvater , I have b elsewhere shewn those Proofs not to be cogent , and taught a Practical way of weighting vvater in vvater with a pair of ordinary Scales . c EXPERIMENT L. About the disjoyning of two Marbles ( not otherwise to be pull'd asunder without a great weight ) by withdrawing the pressure of the Air from them . IN our formerly publish'd Experiments about the Air * , I did , if I misremember not , acquaint Your Lordship with an Attempt I had made to make a couple of coherent Marbles fall asunder , by withdrawing the Air from them ; but though I then esteem'd that their Cohaesion depended upon the Pressure of the Air , yet not being at that time furnish'd with all the accommodations requisite to make an Experiment not easie to be perform'd succeed , I thought fit , when I had afterwards opportunity , to prosecute what I then began , and add some circumstances that I could not then make Tryal of ; and yet whose success will not I presume be unwelcome , since it supplies us with no less than matters of fact ; whence we may argue , that this Experiment of coherent Marbles ( which not onely the Aristotelian Plenists have of late much triumph'd in , but which some recent Favourers of our Hypothesis have declar'd themselves to be troubled with ) is not onely reconcileable to our Doctrine , but capable of being made a confirmation of it ; notwithstanding what has lately been publish'd ( upon the supposition of a case , which at first Blush may seem somewhat of kin to our Experiment , ) by a very learned * Writer , to whose objection against our Hypothesis , though as well confidently as very civilly proposed , an Answer may in due place , if your Lordship desire it , be return'd . We took two flat round Marbles , each of them of two inches and about 3 quarters in Diameter , and having put a litle Oyl between them to keep out the Air , we hung at a Hook fastned to the Lowermost a Pound weight to surmount the Cohaesion , which the tenacity of the Oyl and the imperfect Exhaustion of the Receiver might give them . Then having suspended them in the cavity of a Receiver , at a stick that lay ( Horizontally ) a cross it ; when the Engine was fill'd , and ready to work , we shook it so strongly , that those that were wont to manage it , concluded , it would not be near so much shaken by the Operation . Then beginning to pump out the Air , we observ'd the Marbles to continue joyned till it was so far drawn out , that we began to be diffident whether they would separate . But at the 16 th Suck , upon the turning of the Stop-cock , ( which gave the Air a passage out of the Receiver into the Pump , ) the shaking of the Engine being almost , if not quite , over , the Marbles spontaneously fell asunder , wanting that Pressure of the Air , that formerly had kept them together : which Event was the more considerable , not onely because they hung parallel to the Horizon , but adher'd so firmly together when they were put in , that having try'd to pull them asunder , and thereby observ'd how close they stuck together , I foretold it would cost a good deal of pains so far to withdraw the Air , as to make them separate : which Conjecture Your Lordship will the less wonder at , if I adde , that a weight of 80 and odd pounds , fastned to the lowermost Marble , may be drawn up together with the uppermost , by vertue of the firmness of their Cohesion . NB. This is not the onely time that this Experiment succeeded with us . For sometimes , when they were not so closely press'd together before they were put in , the Disjunction was made at the 8 th Suck , or sooner , and we seem'd to our selves to observe , that when we hung but half a pound weight to the lower Marble , it requir'd a Greater exhaustion of the Receiver to separate them , than when we hung the whole Pound . After , having proceeded thus far with the Instruments we then had , meeting with an Artificer that was not altogether unskilful , we directed him to make ( what we wanted before in that place ) such a Brass-plate to serve for a Cover or Cap to the upper orifice of Receivers open at the top , as we have divers times had occasion to mention already in giving accounts of some of the foregoing Tryals : by the help of which Contrivance we prosecuted the newly related Experiment much further than we could do before , as may appear by the following account . We fasten'd to the lower most of the two Marbles a weight of a very few ounces , ( for I remember not the precise number , ) and having cemented the capp'd Receiver with the Marbles in it , as before , to the Pump , we did by a string , whereof one end was tied to the bottom of this Turning-key , and the other to the uppermost Marble , and which ( string ) past through the Crank or Hook belonging to the Brass-Cover ; we did , I say , by the help of this string , and by turning round the Key , draw up the superiour Marble , and by reason of their coherence the lowermost also , together with the weight that hung at it : by which means being sure , that the two Marbles stuck close together , we began to pump out the Air that kept them coherent ; and after a while , the Air being pretty well withdrawn , the Marbles fell asunder . But we having so order'd the matter , that the lowermost could fall but a litle way beneath the other , we were able by inclining and shaking the Engine to place them one upon another again , and then letting in the Air somewhat hastily , that by its Spring it might press them hard together , we found the Expedient to succeed so well , that we were not onely able by turning the abovementioned Cylindrical Key , to make the uppermost Marble take up the other , and the annexed weight ; but we were fain to make a much more laborious and diligent Exhaustion of the Air to procure the disjunction of the Marbles this second time , than was necessary to do it at the first . And for further prevention of the Objections or Scruples that I foresaw some Prepossessions might suggest , I thought fit to make this further Tryal , that when the Marbles were thus asunder , and the Receiver exhausted , we did , before we let in the Air , make the Marbles fall upon one another as before ; but the litle and highly expanded Air that remained in the Receiver , having not a Spring near strong enough to press them together , by turning the Key we very easily rais'd the uppermost Marble alone , without finding it to stick to the other as before . Whereupon we once more joyn'd the Marbles together , and then letting in the external Air , we found them afterwards to stick so close , that I could not without inconvenience strain any further , than I fruitlesly did , to pull them fairly asunder ; and therefore gave them to one that was stronger than I , to try , whether he could do it , which He also in vain attempted to perform . And now , my Lord , though I had thoughts of adding divers other Experiments to those I have hitherto entertained You with ; yet ( upon a review ) finding These to amount already to fifty , I think it not amiss to make a Pause at so convenient a Number . And the rather , because an odd Quartainary Distemper , that I slighted so long , as to give it time to take Root , is now grown so troublesome , that I fear it may have too much influence upon my Style ; which Apprehension obliges me as well to avoid abusing , or distressing Your Lordship's Patience , as to allow my self some seasonable Refreshment , to reserve the mention of the design'd Additions till they can with less trouble to us both be presented You by My Dear Lord Your Lordship's most humble Servant , and Affectionate Uncle , ROBERT BOYLE . Oxford , March the 24. 1667. NOTES &c. About the ATMOSPHERES of Consistent Bodies ( here below . ) SHEWING , That even HARD and SOLID BODIES ( and some such as one would scarce suspect ) are capable of emitting EFFLUVIA , and so of having ATMOSPHERES . An Advertisement . HE that shall take the pains to peruse the following Paper , will easily believe me , when I tell him , that t was not design'd to come abroad with the Experiments , in whose company it now appears . But the Stationer earnestly representing that divers Experiments being reserved by me for another occasion , the remaining ones alone would not give the Book a Thickness any thing proportionable to its Breadth ; I consented , at his sollicitation , to annexe to them the following Observations , because of some affinity between the small Atmospheres of lesser Bodies , and the great Atmosphere that surrounds the Terrestrial Globe ; in which the other , that do at least help to compose it , are lost and confounded , as Brooks and Rivers are in the Ocean . And to save the Reader the pains of making Guesses to what kind of Writing the ensuing Discourse may belong , I shall here intimate , that t is dismembred from certain Papers about Occult Qualities in general , which make part of the Notes I long since designed , and also partly published , about the Origine of Qualities , of which Notes those that concern'd Effluviums , being the most copious , I referr'd them to four general Heads ; whereof the first onely is treated of in the following Discourse , the others being withheld , as having not affinity enough with the Atmosphere to accompany This , whereon they have no such absolute Dependance , but that they may well enough spare it . And I make the less Scruple to let it appear without them , because the Inducements already mentioned are not a litle strengthned by this superadded Consideration , That the following Notes may give light to several of the Observations I have made of some lesse heeded Phanomena of the Alterations of the Air , in case they be allowed to enter into the Appendix to this Continuation . Of the Atmospheres of Consistent Bodies . THe School Philosophers , and the Vulgar , in considering the more abstruse Operations and Phaenomena of Nature , are wont to run into Extremes ; which , though opposite to one another , do almost equally contribute to keep men ignorant of the true causes of those Effects they admire . For the Vulgar , being accustomed to converse with sensible objects , and to conceive grosly of things , cannot easily imagine any other Agents in Nature , then those that they can see , if not also touch , and handle ; and as soon as they meet with an Effect , that they cannot ascribe to some palpable , or at least sensible Efficient , they are , and stick not to confess themselves utterly at a loss . And though the vulgar of Philosophers will not acknowledg themselves to be pos'd by the same phaenomena with the vulgar of Men , yet in effect they are so . But the School-philosophers on the contrary , do not onely refuse to acquiesce in sensible Agents , but to solve the more Mysterious Phaenomena of Nature , nay and most of the Familiar ones too , they scruple not to run too far to the other side , and have their recourse to Agents that are not onely invisible , but inconceivable , at least to men that cannot admit any save Rational and consistent Nations : they ascribe all abstruse Effects to certain substantial Forms , which however they call Material , because of their dependence on Matter , they give such Descriptions to , as belong but to Spiritual Beings : as if all the abstruser Effects of Nature , if they be not perform'd by visible Bodies , must be so by immaterial substances : whereas betwixt visible bodies and Spiritual Beings there is a middle sort of Agents , invisible Corpuscles ; by which a Great part of the difficulter phaenomena of Nature are produc'd , and by which may intelligibly be explicated those Phaenomena , which 't were absurd to refer to the former , and precarious to attribute to the latter . Now for methods sake I will refer the Notes , that occur to me about Effluviums , to four Heads ; whereof the first is mentioned in the Title of this Paper , and each of the other three shall be successively treated of in as many distinct ones . That Fluid Bodies , as Liquors , and such as are manifestly either moist , or soft , should easily send forth Emanations , will I presume be granted without much difficulty ; especially considering the sensible Evaporation that is obvious to be observ'd in Water , Wine , Urine , &c. and the loose contexture of parts that is suppos'd to be requisite to constitute soft Bodies , ( as Flowers , Balsomes , and the like : ) but that even Hard and ponderous Bodies , notwithstanding the Solidity and strict cohesion of their component parts , should likewise emit Steams , will to many appear improbable enough to need to be solemnly prov'd . Whether you admit the Atomical Hypothesis , or prefer the Cartesian , I think it may be probably deduc'd from either , that very many of the Bodies we are treating of , may be suppos'd exhaleable as to their very minute parts . For according to the Doctrine of Lucippus , Democritus , and Epicurus , each indivisible particle of Matter hath essentially either a constant actual motion , or an unlooseable endeavour after it , so that though it may be so complicated in some Concretions , with other minute parts , as to have its Avolation hindred for a while ; yet it can scarce otherwise be , but by this incessant Indeavour of all the Atomes to get loose , some of them should from time to time be able to extricate themselves , and fly away . And though the Cartesians do not allow Matter to have any innate motion , yet according to them both Vegetables , Animals , and Minerals , consist of litle parts so contexed , that their Pores give passage to a Celestial Matter ; so that this Matter continually streaming through them , may well be presum'd to shake the Corpuscles that compose them : by which continued concussion now some Particles , and then others , will be thrown and carried off into the Air , or other contiguous Body , fitted to receive them . But though by these , and perhaps other considerations , I might indeavour to shew à priori , as they speak , that t is probable Consistent Bodies themselves are exhaleable , yet I think it may be as satisfactory , and more useful , to prove it à posteriori , by particular Experiments , and other Examples . That then a dry and consistent form does not necessarily infer , in the Bodies that are endowed with it , an indisposition to send forth Steams , which are as it were litle Colonies of Particles , is evident , not onely in the leaves of Damask Roses , whether fresh or dried ; as also in Wormwood , Mint , Rue , &c : but in Ambergreece , Musk , Storax , Cinamon , Nutmegs , and other odoriferous and spicy bodies . But more eminent Examples to our present purpose may be afforded us by Camphire , and volatile Salts , such as are Chymically obtain'd from Harts-horn , Blood , &c. for these are so fugitive , that sometimes I have had a considerable Lump of volatile Salt ( either of fermented Urine , or of Harts-horn ) fly away by litle and litle out of a Glass , that had been carefully stopt with a Cork , without leaving so much as a Grain of Salt behind it . And as for Camphire , though by its being uneasie to be powder'd , it seems to have something of Toughness or Tenacity in it ; yet I remember , that having for tryals sake counterpois'd it in nice Scales , even a small lump of it would in a few hours suffer a visible loss of its weight , by the avolation of strongly sented Corpuscles , and this , though the Experiment were made both in a North Window , and in Winter . But I expect you should require Instances of the Effluviums of Bodies of a close or solid Texture ; wherefore I proceed to take notice , that Amber , Hard wax , and many other Electrical bodies do , when they are rubb'd , emit Effluviums . For though I will not now meddle with the several Opinions about the cause and manner of Electrical Attraction , yet besides that almost all the Modern Naturalists , that aim at explicating things intelligibly , ascribe the Attraction we are speaking of to Corporeal effluxes ; and besides that I shall ere long have occasion to shew you , that there is no need to admit with Cartesius , That because some Electrical bodies are very close and fixt , what they emit upon rubbing is not part of their own Substance , but somewhat that was harbour'd in their Pores : besides these things , I say , I have found that many Electrical bodies may by the very Nostrils be discovered , when they are well rubb'd , to part with store of Corpuscles , as I have particularly , but not without attention , been able to observe in Amber , Rosin , Brimstone , &c. I know not whether it will be worth while to take notice of the great Evaporation I have observ'd , even in Winter , of Fruits , as Apples , and of Bodies that seem to be better cover'd , as Eggs , which notwithstanding the closeness of their Shels , did daily grow manifestly lighter and lighter ; as I observ'd in them , and divers other bodies , that I kept long in Scales , and noted their Decrements of weight : but perhaps you will be pleas'd to hear , that having a mind to shew how considerable an Evaporation is made from Wood , I caus'd a thin Cup , capable of holding about a Pint , or more , to be Turn'd of a Wood , that was chosen by the Turner as solid and dry enough , though it were not of the closest sort of Woods , such as are Lignum vitae , and Box. And as I caus'd the shape of a Cup to be given it , that it might have a greater Superficies expos'd to the Air , and consequently might be the fitter to emit store of Steams into it ; so the Success did not onely answer my Expectation , but exceed it : for though the Tryal were made some time in Winter , there was so quick and plentiful an Evaporation made from the Cup , that I found it no easie matter to counterpoise it ; for whilst Grains were putting into the opposite Scale , to bring the tender Ballance to an Aequilibrium , the copious avolation of invisible Steams from the Wood ( which had so much of Superficies contiguous to the Air ) would make the Scale that held it sensibly too light . And I remember , that for further satisfaction , being afterwards in a City where there were both good Materials and workmen , I order'd to be made a Boule , about the same bigness with the former , of well season'd wood , which being suspended in the Chamber I lay in , ( which circumstance I therefore mention , because the Weather and a litle Physick I had taken obliged me to keep a fire there , ) it quickly began manifestly to loose of its weight ; and though the whole Cup wanted near two Drams of 2 Ounces , yet in 12 hours , viz. from 10 a clock in the morning to the same hour at night ; it lost about 40 Grains , ( for t was above 39 : ) but of such Experiments , and the Cautions belonging to them , I may elsewhere speak farther . It were not difficult for me to multiply Instances of the continual Emanation of Streams from Vegetable and Animal Substances ; but I am not willing to enlarge my self upon this Subject , because I consider that there are other Bodies which seem so much more indispos'd to part with Effluviums , that a few instances given in such , may evince what I would prove , much more then a multitude produc'd in other bodies . And since I consider that those Substances are the most unlikely to afford Effluvia , that are either very cold , or very ponderous , or very solid and hard , or very fixt ; if I can shew you that neither of these Qualifications can keep a Body from emitting Steams , I hope I shall have made it probable , that there is no sort of Bodies here below that may not be thought capable of affording the Corporeal Emanations we speak of . And first I remember , that I have not onely taken Eggs , and in a very sharp Winter found them , notwithstanding the coldness of the Air where I kept them , to grow sensibly lighter , in a faithful pair of Scales , in not very many hours ; but because Ice is thought the coldest visible Body we know , I thought fit to shew that even this Body will loose by Evaporation ; for having counterpois'd a convenient quantity of Ice in a good Ballance , and forthwith expos'd it therein to the cold Air of a Frosty night , that the Evaporations should be from Ice not from Water , I found the next morning , that though the Scale wherein the Ice were put was dry , which argued as well as the coldness of the Weather that the expos'd Concretion had not thaw'd ; yet I found its weight to be considerably diminished , and this Experiment I succesfully made in more than one Winter , and in more than one place . And t is now but a few dayes since , exposing not long before midnight , lesse than two ounces of Ice in a good Ballance to a sharply freezing Air , I sent for it before I was up in the morning , and though by the dryness of the Scales the Ice that was in one of them appear'd not to have thaw'd , yet it had lost about ten Grains of its former weight ; so that here , the Evaporation was made in spite of a double Cold , of the Ice , and of the Air. I should now proceed to the mention of ponderous and solid Bodies , but before I do so , it may be expedient to give you notice , that , to make the Proof of what I have propos'd more satisfactory , and more applicable to our future purposes , I shall forbear to give you any Examples of the exhalations of Bodies , where so potent an Agent as the Fire is made to intervene . But though I purposely forbear to insist on such Examples , yet it may not be amiss to intimate , that in explicating some occult Qualities , even such Exhalations as are produc'd by the help of the Fire may be fit to be taken into consideration , as we may hereafter have occasion to shew . And therefore we may observe in general , that the Fire is able to put the parts of Bodies into so vehement a motion , that except Gold , Glass , and a very few more , there are not any Bodies so fixt and solid , that t is not thought capable to dissipate either totally , or in part . T is known to those that deal in the fusion of Metals , that not onely Lead and Tin , but much harder Bodies will emit copious and hurtful Steams . And there are some kinds of that Iron , which our Smiths call Cold share iron , about whose smell whilst it was red hot , when I made inquiry , the ingeniousest Smith I had then met with told me , that he had found it several times to be so strong , and rank , that he could scarce indure to work with his Hammer those parcels of Metal whence it proceeded . And even without being brought to fusion , not onely Brass , and Copper will , being well heated , become strongly sented , but Iron will be so too , as is evident by the unpleasing smell of many Iron-Stowes . And on this occasion I might not impertinently adde here a Tryal we made to observe , whether the Steams of Iron may not be made , though not immediately visible , yet perceptible to the Eye it self , though the Metal had not a Red , much less a White heat . But having elsewhere related it at large , in a Discourse You may command a sight of , I shall rather refer You to it , than loose the time 't would take up to transcribe it . These things premis'd , I proceed now to the mention of ponderous Bodies ; and concerning them , to represent , that if You will admit what almost all the Corpuscularians assert , and divers of the Peripateticks do not now think fit to deny , that the Magnetical operations are perform'd by Particles issuing forth of the body of the Loadstone , or other Magnetical Agent : I shall not need to go far for an Instance to our present purpose , since I have Hydrostatically found , that some Loadstones ( for I have found those Minerals very differing in Gravity ) are so ponderous , as to exceed double the weight of Flints , or other Stones of the same bulk . But not to insist on Loadstones , Stone-cutters will inform You , ( as they did me , ) that black Marble , and some other solid and heavy stones will , upon the attrition they are expos'd to , when the Workmen are polishing them , ( especially without water , ) emit , and that without the help of external heat , a very sensible smell , which I found to be much more strong and offensive when , to make it so , I had the curiosity to cause a piece of solid black Marble to have divers fragments struck off from it with a Chizel and a Hammer : for the stroaks succeeding one another fast enough to make a great concussion of the parts of the black Marble , ( for in white , which is not so solid , the Tryal will not succeed well , ) there quickly follow'd as I expected a rank and unpleasant smell ; and you will grant me I know , that Odours are not diffus'd without corporeal Emanations . I remember also , that having procur'd some of those acuminated and almost Conical stones , that pass among the vulgar for Thunder-stones , by rubbing them a litle one against the other , I could easily according to my expectation excite a strong Sulphureous stink . I have also tried upon a certain Mineral Mass , that was ponderous almost as a Metal , but to Me it seem'd rather an unusual kind of Marchasite , that I could in a trice without external heat make it emit more strongly sented Exhalations , than I could contentedly endure : to which I shall adde this Example more , that having once made a Chemical mixture of a Metalline body , and coagulated Mercury , which you will believe could not but be ponderous , though this Mixture had already endur'd as violent a fire as was necessary to bring it to Fusion , in order to cast it into Rings ; yet it was so dispos'd to part with corporeal Effluxes , that a very ingenious Person that practis'd Physick , and was there when I made it , earnestly begg'd a little of it of me for some Patients troubled with distempers in the Eyes , and other parts remote enough from the hand ; which he affirm'd himself to have very happily cured , by making the Patient wear a Ring of this odde Mixture , or wearing a litle of it as an Appensum near the disaffected part . If you make a vitrum Saturni with a good quantity of Minium in reference to the Sand or Chrystal , which it helps to bring to Fusion , you shall have a Glass exceeding ponderous , and yet not devoid of Electricity : And I remember , that having sometimes caus'd Brass it self to be Turn'd like Wood , that I might try , whether so Great ( though invisible ) a Concussion of all the parts would not throw off some Steams that might be smell'd , I was not reduc'd to foregoe my Expectation ; but yet because it was not fully answer'd , and because also there is great difference of Brass upon the score of the Lapis Calaminaris , whereof together with Copper t is made , I enquired of the Workman , who us'd to turn great quantities of Brass , whether he did not often after find it more strong ; and he inform'd me that he did , the smell being sometimes so strong , as to be offensive to Strangers , that came to his Shop , and were not us'd to it . I proceed now to the Effluviums of solid and hard Bodies , of which , if most of our Corpuscularian Philosophers , and divers others be not much mistaken , I may be allow'd to give instances in all Electrical Bodies , which , as I have already noted , must according to their Doctrine be acknowledged to operate by substantial Emanations . Now among Electrical Bodies I have observ'd divers , that are of so close a Texture , that Aqua fortis its self , nor spirit of Salt will work upon them , and to be so hard , that some of them will strike fire like Flints : Of the former sort I have found divers Gems ( which I nam'd in my Notes about Electricity , ) and even the Cornelian it self , which I found to attract Hairs , though it be thought to be of a much slighter Texture than precious Stones , did yet resist Aqua fortis , as I tried in a large Ring , ( brought out of the East-Indies , ) which I purposely broke , and reduced some part of it to powder , that I might make these and some other Tryals with it . Rock Chrystal also , though it have a very manifest attractive virtue ( as they call it , ) I have yet found it so hard , as to strike fire rather better than worse than ordinary Flints . And to shew that no hardness of a Body is inconsistent with its being Electrical , I shall adde , that though Diamonds be confest to be the hardest Bodies that are yet known in the world , yet frequent Experience has assur'd me , that even These , whether raw or polish'd , are very manifestly ( and sometimes vigorously enough ) Electrical . And to let you see , that I need not to have recourse to this kind of Bodies , to prove , that very solid ones are capable of Effluvia ; I will , to what I have formerly noted about the Odour of black Marble , subjoin two or three Examples of the like nature . The first shall be taken from a sort of Concretions very well known in divers parts of Italy by the name of Cugoli , because of the great use that is made of it by the Glass-men . These Concretions you will easily believe are very hard , as other Minerals of that sort are wont to be ; and yet being invited by my Conjectures about the Atmospheres of Bodies , to try them by rubbing them one against the other , I found as I expected , that they afforded not onely a perceptible , but a very strong smell , ( which was far from that of a Perfume . ) And this brings into my mind , that having met with some Stones cut out of Humane bladders , whose Texture was so close , that I could not with Corrosive Menstruums make any sensible Solution of one whereon I made my Tryal ; though to facilitate the Liquors operation , part of it were reduc'd to fine Powder , yet by a litle rubbing of one of these so closely contexed Stones , it would presently afford a rank smell , very like the stink of stale Urine . I remember I have caus'd Iron to be turn'd with a Lath , to examine whether by the internal commotion , that would by that operation be produc'd in the corpuscles of the Metal , even that solid as well as ponderous Bodie would not become capable of being smell'd ; and though by reason of the nature of that parcel of iron whereon we made our Tryal , or some accidental disposition , which was at that time ( being Winter ) in my organs of Smelling , the Odour seem'd to me but very faint ; yet upon the enquiry I made of the Artificers , whether in Turning greater pieces of iron they did not find the smell stronger ? they told me , that they often found it very strong , and sometimes more so than they desired . And this brings into my mind , what I have carefully observ'd in Grinding of iron ; for there are many Grindstones so qualify'd , that in case iron instruments be held upon the Stone , whilst it is nimbly turn'd under it , though the water that is wont to be us'd on such occasions stifles ( if I may so speak ) the Smell , and keeps it from being commonly taken notice of ; yet if you purposely cause ( as I remember I have done ) the use of Water to be forborn , your Success will not be like mine , if you do not find that store of foetid Exhalations will be produc'd . And though it be not always so easie to discern by the smell , from which of the two Bodies they issue , or whether they proceed from both ; yet it seems probable enough , that some of the Steams come from the iron , and t is more than probable that if they proceed not from that Metal , they must from a Body that is so hard as to be able to make impressions in a trice upon Iron and Steel themselves . The last Example I shall name under this head , is furnish'd me by Marchasites , some of which would after a short concussion without external heat be made to exhale for a pretty while together a strong Sulphureous odour , and yet were so hard , that when struck with a Steel-hammer , ( which would not easily break them ) they afforded us such a number of Sparks , as appear'd strange enough . And t is known , that t is from their disposition to strike fire , ( which yet I dare not attribute to all sorts of Marchasites , ) that this kind of Mineral is , by a name frequently to be met with in Writers , call'd Pyrites . And in this Example we may take notice , that a Body , capable of being the source of corporeal Emanations , may be at once both very solid and very ponderous . It remains now that I manifest , that even the Fixedness of Bodies is not incompatible with their disposition to emit Effluviums . I might alleadg on this occasion , that the Regulus of Antimony , and also its Glass , though they must have endur'd Fusion to attain their respective Forms ; yet they will without heat communicate to Liquors Antimonial Expirations , with which those Liquors being impregnated become Emetick and Purgative . I might also adde , that divers Electrical Bodies are very fixt in the fire , and particularly that Chrystal , as we have more than once tried , will endure several Ignitions and Extinctions in water , without being truly Calcin'd , being indeed but crackt into a great multitude of litle parts ; but because the above named Antimonial bodies will after a while fly away in a strong fire , and because the Effluviums of Chrystal are not so sensible as those which can immediately affect our Eyes or Nostrils , I will here subjoyn one instance , such as I hope will make it needless for me to adde any more , it being of a Body which must have sustain'd an exceeding vehement fire , and is look'd upon by most of the Chymists as more understroyable then Gold it self , and that is Glass , which is able as you know to endure so great a brunt of the fire , that you did not perhaps imagine I should of all Bodies name it on this occasion . But my conjectures about the Atmospheres of Bodies leading me to think , that Glass it self might afford me a confirmation of them ; I quickly found , that by rubbing a very litle while two solid pieces of it ( not , as I remember , of the finer sort ) one against the other , they would not onely yield a sensible Odour , but sometimes so strong an one , as to be offensive . By which you will easily perceive why I told you above , that I did not acquiesce in the Cartesian Argument against Electrical Bodies performing their operations by Emanations of their own substance , drawn from hence , that Glass does attract light Bodies , ( as indeed it does , though but weakly , ) and yet is too fixt to emit Effluviums , the contrary of which Supposition the lately mentioned Experiment ( and by us often repeated ) does sufficiently evince . From what other solid Bodies , and that will endure the fire , I have , or have not been able to obtain such odorous Steams , it is not necessary to declare in this place , but may perhaps be done in another . You may I presume have taken notice , that according to what I intimated a while agoe , I have forborn in the precedent Examples to mention those Effluvia of solid Bodies , that need the action of the Fire to be obtain'd . But since the Sun is the grand Agent of Nature in the Planetary world , and since during the Summer , and especially at Noon , and in Southern Climates , his Heat makes many bodies have litle Atmospheres , that we cannot so well discern that they have constantly ; I see not why I may not be allow'd to ascribe Atmospheres to such Bodies , as I have observ'd to have them when the Sun shines upon them , and also to think that the like may be attributed at least sometimes to such other Bodies , as will do the things usually perform'd by Effluviums , when yet they are excited but by an external heat , which exceeds not that of the hot Sun. Of these two sorts of Bodies I shall for brevities sake name but two or three Examples , and then hasten to a Conclusion . The first of these I must make bold to borrow from my Observations about Electricity , among which this is one , that to shew that the particular and usual manner of exciting such Bodies , namely by rubbing them , is not alwayes necessary ; I took a large piece of good Amber , and having in a Summer morning , whilst the Air was yet fresh , tried that it would not without being excited attract a light Body I had expos'd to it ; I remov'd it into the Suns beams , till they had made it moderately hot , and then I found according to my expectation that it had acquir'd an Attractive virtue , & that not onely in one particular place , as is usually observ'd when t is excited by rubbing , but in divers and distant places at once ; at any of which it would draw to it the light body plac'd within a convenient distance from it : so that even in this Climate of ours a solid Body may quickly acquire an Atmosphere by the presence of the Sun , and that long before the warmest part of the day . The next instance you will perchance think somewhat strange , it being that when for want of an opportunity to make the like Trial in the warm Sun , I took a litle but thick vessel made of Glass , and held it near the fire till it had got a convenient degree of heat , ( which was not very great , though it exceeded that which I had given the Amber , ) I found as I had imagin'd that the heat of fire had made even this Body attractive , as that of the Sun had made the other . What degree of heat I have observ'd to be either necessary , or the most convenient to excite Electrical bodies according to their different natures , ( for the same degree will not indifferently serve for them all , ) this is not the properest place to declare , and it will be more to our present purpose to make some short reflection on what has been hitherto delivered . It seems then probably deduceable from the foregoing Experiments and Observations , that a very great number if not the greatest part even of Consistent bodies , whether Animal , Vegetable , or Mineral , may emit Effluviums , and that even those that are solid may ( at least sometimes ) have their litle Atmospheres , though the neighbouring Solids will often keep the Evaporations from being every way ambient in reference to the Bodies they issue from . For as the instances hitherto alleadg'd ( which are not all that I could have nam'd ) do plainly shew that divers Bodies ( and some that have not been thought very likely ) are such as we speak of , so several things induce me to believe , that there may be many more of the like nature . For first , very few if any have ( that I know of ) had the curiosity to make use of nice Scales , ( which such Tryals require , ) to examine the Expirations of inanimate bodies , which if they shall hereafter do , I make litle doubt but they will light on many things , that will confirm what we have been proposing , by their finding that some Bodies , which are not yet known to yield Exhalations , do afford them , and that many others do part with far more copious ones than is imagin'd . For one would not easily have thought , that so extremely cold a Body as a solid piece of Ice should make a plentiful Evaporation of its self in the cold Air of a freezing night ; or that a piece of Wood , that had long lain in the house , and was light enough to be conveniently hung for a long time at a Ballance , that would loose its Aequilibrium with ( as I remember ) half a quarter of a Grain , should in less than a minute of an hour , send forth steams enough to make the Scales manifestly turn , and that in Winter . But supposing ( which is my second Consideration ) that Tryals were made with good instruments for weighing , though it will follow , that in case the exposed body grow lighter , something exhales from it ; yet it will not follow , that if no diminution of weight be discover'd by the instrument , nothing that is corporeal recedes from it . I will not urge that t is affirm'd , not onely by the generality of our Chymists , but by learned modern Physitians , that when either Glass of Antimony , or Crocus metallorum impregnate Wine with Vomative and Purgative Particles , they do it without any decrement of their weight ; because the Scales in Apothecaries Shops , and the litle accurateness wont to be imployed in weighing things , by those that are not vers'd in Statical affairs , make me ( though not deny the Tradition which may perchance be true , yet ) unwilling to build upon observations , which to be relyed on are to be very nicely made ; and therefore I shall rather take notice , that though the Loadstone be concluded to have constantly about it a great multitude of Magnetical Effluvia , ( which may be call'd its Atmosphere , ) yet it has not been observed to loose any thing of its Weight by the recess of so many Corpuscles . But because if the Cartesian Hypothesis about Magnetisms be admitted , the Argument drawn from this instance will not be so strong as it seems , and as it otherwise would be : I shall add a more unexceptionable Example , for I know you will grant me that Odours are not diffus'd to a distance without Corporeal Emanations from the Odorous body : and yet , though good Amber-Greece be , even without being excited by external heat , constantly surrounded by a large Atmosphere , you will in one of the following Discourses find cause to admire how inconsiderable the wast of it is . If it be said , that in Tract of time a Decrement of weight may appear in Bodies , that in a few hours or dayes discovers not any ; the Objection , if granted , overthrows not our Doctrine , it being sufficient to establish what we have been saying , if we have evinc'd that the Effluvia of some Bodies may be subtle enough not to make the Body by their avolation appear lighter in Statical Trials , that are not extraordinarily ( and as it were obstinately ) protracted . And this very Objection puts me in mind to adde , that for ought we know the Decrement of Bodies in Statical Experiments long continued , may be somewhat Greater than even nice Scales discover to us ; for how are we sure that the weights themselves , which are commonly made of Brass , ( a Metal very unfixt , ) may not in Tract of time suffer a litle Diminution of their Weight , as well as the Bodies counterpois'd by them : and no man has I think yet tryed whether Glass , and even Gold may not in tract of time loose of their Weight , which in case they should do , it would not be easily discover'd , unless we had Bodies that were perfectly fixt , by comparison to which we might be better assisted , than by comparing them with Brass weights , or the like , which being themselves less fixt , will lose more than Gold and Glass . My third and last consideration is , that there may be divers other wayes , besides those furnish'd us by Staticks , of discovering the Effluvia of solid Bodies , and consequently of shewing , that t is not safe to conclude , that because their Operation is not constant or manifest , such Bodies do never emit any Effluvia at all , and so are uncapable to work by their intervention on any other Body , though never so well dispos'd to receive their Action . And this I the rather desire that you would take notice of , because my chief ( though not onely ) design in these Notes is ( you know ) to illustrate the Doctrine of occult Qualities ; and it may conduce to explicate several of them , to know that some particular Bodies emit Effluvia , though perhaps they do it not constantly , and uniformly ; and though perchance too , they do not appear to emit any at all , if they be examin'd after the same manner with other exhaleable Bodies , but onely may be made to emit them by some peculiar way of handling them , or appear to have emitted them by some determinate operation on some other single Body , or at most small number of Bodies . Perchance you did not think , till you read what I lately told you about Glass , that from a Body that had endured so violent a fire , there could , by so sleight a way as rubbing a litle while one piece against another , be obtain'd such steams , as may not onely affect but offend the Nostrils . Nor should we easily believe , if Experience did not assure us of it , that a Diamond , that is justly reputed the hardest known Body in the World , should by a litle rubbing be made to part with Electrical Effluvia . Nay , ( that I may give some kind of confirmation to that part of the last Paragraph that seems most to need it , ) I shall adde , that I once had a Diamond not much bigger than a large Pen , which had never been polish'd or cut , whose Electrical virtue was sometimes so easily excited , that if I did but pass my fingers over it to wipe it , the virtue would disclose it self ; and if as soon as I had taken it out of my Pocket , I applied a hair to it , though I touch'd not the Stone with my fingers , that I might be sure not to rub it , that Hair would be attracted at some distance , and many times one after an other , especially by one of the sides of the Stone , ( whose surface was made up of several almost triangular Planes , ) and though this excitation of the Diamond seemed to proceed onely from the warmth that it had acquir'd in my Pocket , yet I did not find that That warmth , though it seem'd not to be alter'd , had alwaies the same effect on it , though the wiping it with my finger fail'd not ( that I remember ) to excite it . Something like this uncertainty I always observ'd in another Diamond of mine , that was much nobler than the first , and very well polished , and in a small Ruby , that I have yet by me , which would sometimes be considerably Electrical without being rubb'd , when I but wore the Ring it belong'd to on my litle finger ; and sometimes again it seem'd to have lost that virtue ( of operating without being excited by friction , ) and that sometimes within a few minutes , without my knowing whence so quick a change should proceed . But I must insist no longer on such particulars , of which I elsewhere say something ; and therefore I prceed to take notice , that we should scarce have dream'd , that when a Partridg , or a hunted Deer has casually set a foot upon the ground , that part where the Footstep hath been ( though invisibly ) impress'd , should continue for many hours a Source of Corporeal Effluxes ; if there were not setting Dogs , and Spaniels , and Bloud-hounds , whose noses can take notice at that distance of time of such Emanations , though not onely other sorts of Animals , but other sorts of Dogs are unable to do so . I saw a stone in the hands of an Academick , an Acquaintance of mine , which I should by the Eye have judg'd to be an Agate , not a Blood stone , and consequently I should not have thought that it could have communicated Medicinal Effluvia appropriated to excessive Bleeding , if the Wearer of it had not been subject to that Disease , and had not often cur'd both himself and others , by wearing this stone about his neck ; which if he left off , as sometimes he did for Trials sake , his exceedingly sanguine complexion ( to which I have rarely seen a Match ) would in a few daies cast him into Relapses . What I have elsewhere told you about the true virtues of some Stones , ( for I fear that most of those that are wont to be ascrib'd to them are false , ) may give some confirmation to what I have been delivering , which I cannot now stay to do , being to draw to a Conclusion as soon as I have put you in mind , that it would not probably have ever been expected that so ponderous and solid a Body as the Loadstone should be invironed by an Atmosphere , if Iron had been a scarce Mineral , and had not chanc'd to have been plac'd near it . And with this instance I shall put an end to these Notes , because it allows me to make this Reflextion ; that since solid Bodies may have constant Atmospheres about them , and yet not discover that they have so , but by their operation upon one particular Body , or those few which participate of That ; and since there are already ( as we have seen ) very differing wayes whereby Bodies may appear to be exhaleable , it is not unlikely that there may be more and more Bodies ( even of those that are solid and hard ) found to emit Effluvia , as more and more wayes of discovering that they do so , shall either by chance or industry be brought to light . FINIS . The CONTENTS . Experiment 1. ABout the raising of Mercury to a great height in an open Tube , by the Spring of a litle included Air. 2 VVherein is set down the height the Mercury was raisd to , p. 3. its sudden ascent upon the first Suck , with the vibrations it makes before it settles : what proportion of height it has upon the several Exuctions , and what height the Mercury was at in the Barometer at the time of the trials of this Experiment . p. 2. 3. 4. as also what the quantity of the included Air was , and how the Experiment may be made use of against those , that in the explication of the Torricellian Experiment recur to a Funiculus or a fuga vacui . p. 5. 6 Experiment 2. Shewing , that much included Air rais'd Mercury in an open Tube , no higher than the weight of the Atmosphere may in a Baroscope . 7 The reason that induc'd the Authour to think it would be so : the successe of the Experiment , and notice taken of the great force of the Spring of the Air then when it could not raise the Mercury any higher . 8. 9. 10. Experiment 3. Shewing that the Spring of the included Air will raise Mercury to almost equal heights in very unequal Tubes . 10 Of the allowance that is to be made for the weakning of the Spring of the Air , whilst it expands it self into the place of a larger Cylinder of Mercury , together with the Reason why this and the former Experiment were not tried in water , as also an account of an adventitious Spring that was superadded to the Air by heat . 11. 12. 13 Experiment 4. About a new Hydraulo-pneumatical Fountain , made by the Spring of uncompress'd Air. 13. Several directions for it . 14. 15. The uses to be made of it ; as in Hydraulo-pneumaticks , or to shew by what degrees the Air restores it self to its Spring , or especially to find what kind of line the salient water describes in rarified Air. 16. &c. Experiment 5. About a way of speedily breaking flat Glasses by the weight of the Atmosphere . 18 Experiment 6. Shewing , that the breaking of Glass plates in the foregoing Experiment , need not to be ascrib'd to the Fuga Vacui . 19 Experiment 7. About a convenient way of breaking blown Bladders by the Spring of the Air included in them . 20 And of the usefulness of this Experiment in other tryals . 21 Experiment 8. About the lifting up a considerable Weight by the bare Spring of a litle Air included in a Bladder . 22 VVith a hint that this may not be unserviceable for the explanation of the Muscles . 23 Experiment 9. About the breaking of Hermetically seal'd Bubbles of Glass by the bare Spring of their own Air. 24 That they broke not presently , and what the reason might be of the slowness of that effect . ib. 25 Experiment 10. Containing two or three Tryals of the force of the Spring of our Air uncompress'd upon stable and even solid Bodies , ( whereto t is external . ) 25 Several trials of it with different circumstances , that the vessels broke not here neither immediately upon the last Exuction : 27 with a Note necessary for the practise of one of the Trials . 28 Experiment 11. Shewing , that Mercury will in Tubes be raised by Suction no higher than the weight of the Atmosphere is able to impell it up . 29 The principle of the Schoolmen of a fuga vacui shewn to be insufficient , as also the supposition of a Funiculus . 30 &c. Some particulars to be taken notice of concerning the exhausting a Siphon , an instrument of frequent use in these Experiments . 32. 33 Experiment 12. About the differing heights whereto Liquors will be elevated by Suction , according to their several specifick Gravities . 34 Notice given , that the proportion of the Specifick gravity of Mercury to water is not quite as 14 to 1. 35. 36 The notion of a fuga vacui unreasonable . ib. The use that may be made of this experiment in the estimating the gravity of several liquors , with some tryals thereupon . 36. 37. 38 Experiment 13. About the heights to which Water and Mercury may be raised , proportionably to their specifick Gravities , by the Spring of the Air. 38 Experiment 14. About the heights answerable to their respective Gravities , to which Mercury and Water will subside , upon the withdrawing of the Spring of the Air. 39. &c. VVith notice of the difficulty of the Trial , and the allowance that must be made in it . ib. Experiment 15. About the greatest height to which Water can be rais'd by Attraction or sucking-Pumps . 41 The motives for the trying of it , the apparatus . 42. 43 The height of the water , the same compar'd to that of the Quick-silver at the same time in a Baroscope , and examin'd according to the proportion of their specifick Gravities . 44. &c. Some circumstances delivered , that induced the Author to think the trial was exactly enought performed . 46. 47 An intimation given of the difference there may be in these kind of trials from the varying weight of the Atmosphere . 49 A mistake of VVriters of Hydraulicks in the conceit of carrying water over never so high mountains . 49. 50 Experiment 16. About the bending of a Springy body in the Exhausted Receiver . 50 No alteration of the Spring discovered . 52 Experiment 17. About the making of Mercurial , and other Gages , whereby to estimate how the Receiver is exhausted . 52 Several Gages mentioned . 53. One preferr'd and describ'd , and directions for it given . 54. &c. Two other Gages useful , when t is not requir'd the Engine should be very much exhausted . 58. 59 Experiment 18. About an easie way to make the Pressure of the Air sensible to the Touch of those that doubt of it . 59 VVith a Caution in using of it . 61 Experiment 19. About the subsidence of Mercury in the Tube of the Torricellian Experiment to the level of the stagnant Mercury . 61 Some confirmations of what had been said in the first Treatise of the Physico-Mechanical Experiments . Exp. 17. 62. 63 Experiment 20. Shewing , that in Tubes open at both ends , when no fuga Vacui can be pretended , the weight of Water will raise Quick-silver no higher in slender than in larger Pipes . 63 Two Tryals , one with Tubes of several bignesses open at both ends . 64. 65. the other with them after the Torricellian way . 65. 66 Experiment 21. Of the Heights at which pure Mercury , and Mercury Amalgam'd with Tin , will stand in Barometers . 66 A Note concerning the inconvenience , if the Amalgam be too thick : the use that may be made of this Experiment , to discover how much two mixt Bodies penetrate one another , as also to further illustrate that the height of the Liquors in the Torricellian Experiment depends upon the Aequilibrium with the outward Air. 67 Experiment 22. Wherein is proposed away of making Barometers , that may be transported even to distant Countries . 68 The figure the Barometer is to be of , the way of filling it , putting it into a Frame , and securing it from the harm the Mercury its self might do in the Transportation by its moving up and down in the upper empty part . 69. 70. &c. The great serviceableness of this Instrument , with an intimation of others of a different kind . 74. 75 A Postscript advertising , that there has been since some difference found betwixt an ordinary Baroscope and these Travailing ones , with a guess at the reason of it , and that for all this the portable Baroscopes may be serviceable . 76. 77 Experiment 23. Confirming , that Mercury in a Barometer will be kept suspended higher at the top , than at the bottom of a Hill. On which occasion something is noted about the height of Mountains , especially the Pic of Tenariff . 77 Other Authors Opinions about it examined . 80 A more moderate height allow'd than that asserted by Ricciolus . 81. 82. with a consideration to be had in the measuring the altitude of Mountains distant from the Sea. 84 Experiment 24. Shewing , that the Pressure of the Atmosphere may be exercis'd enough to keep up the Mercury in the Torricellian Experiment , though the Air presse upon it at a very small Orifice . 85 Experiment 25. Shewing , that an oblique pressure of the Atmosphere may suffice to keep up the Mercury at the wonted height in the Torricellian Experiment , and that the spring of a litle included Air may do the same . 87 VVhat use may be made of the former Experiment for a portable Baroscope . 88. 89 Experiment 26. About the making of a Baroscope ( but of litle practical use ) that serves but at certain times . 90 The Argument it affords against a fuga Vacui . ib. Experiment 27. About the Ascension of Liquors in very slender Pipes in an Exhausted Receiver . 91 Experiment 28. About the great and seemingly spontaneous Ascension of Water in a Pipe fill'd with a compact body , whose Particles are thought incapable of imbibing it . 93 By it an Explication that has been made of the cause of Filtration examined . A probable cause of the Ascension of Sap into trees hence suggested . An attempt to make a Syphon , that should run of it self without Suction . 95. 96 Experiment 29. Of the seemingly spontaneous ascension of Salts along the sides of Glasses , with a conjecture at the Cause of it . 97 Experiment 30. About an attempt to measure the Gravity of the Cylinders of the Atmosphere , so as that it may be exprest by known and common weights . 101 Wherein also the specifick Gravities of Mercury and VVater are compared . 102 Experiment 31. About the Attractive virtue of the Loadstone in an Exhausted Receiver . 105 Experiment 32. Shewing , that when the Pressure of the External Air is taken off , t is very easie to draw up the Sucker of a Syringe , though the Hole , at which the Air or VVater should succeed , be stopt . 106 The first Tryal . 107. The 2 d Tryal , containing a variation of the foregoing . 109 Experiment 33. About the opening of a Syringe , whose Pipe was stopt in the exhausted Receiver , and by the help of it making the pressure of the Air lift up a considerable weight . 111 Experiment 34. Shewing , that the cause of the ascension of Liquors in Syringes is to be derived from the pressure of the Air. 113 Exemplified in three several Tryals . 113. 115. 117 Experiment 35. Shewing , that upon the pressure of the Air depends the sticking of Cupping-glasses to the fleshy parts they are apply'd to . 118 Experiment 36. About the making , without heat , a Cupping-Glass to lift up a great weight . 122 Experiment 37. Shewing , that Bellows , whose nose is very well stopt , will open of themselves , when the pressure of the external Air is taken off . 124 Experiment 38. About an attempt to examine the Motions and Sensibility of the Cartesian Materia subtilis , or the Aether with a pair of Bellows ( made of a Bladder ) in the exhausted Receiver . 127 Experiment 39. About a farther attempt to prosecute the Inquiry propos'd in the fore-going . Experiment . 132 First with a Syringe and a Feather . 132. 133. &c. Then with a Syringe in water . 136 If there be an Aether , what kind of body it must be , with a confirmation of the 34 th Experiment . 138 Experiment 40. About the falling , in the exhausted Receiver , of a light body , fitted to have its motion visibly varied by a small resistance of the Air. 139 A Design mentioned to try this way , what the degrees of celerity would be of descending bodies in an exhausted Receiver . 141 A Caution given concerning this present Experiment . ib. Directions given , which way to lengthen Receivers for the Trial of this and other Experiments . 142 Experiment 41. About the propagation of Sounds in the exhausted Receiver . 143 A Contrivance describ'd necessary for this and divers Experiments . 144 The Trial perform'd by it . 145. 146 Another Trial with an Alarum watch . 146. 147 An assertion of Mersennus examined : a proposal of his shewn to be unpracticable . 148. 149 A mention of some other Trials designed concerning Sound . 149. 150 Experiment 42. About the breaking of a Glass-drop in an Exhausted Receiver . 150 VVherein an Hypothesis , ascribing the cause of the breaking of them to the force of the external Air , is examined . ib. Experiment 43. About the production of Light in the exhausted Receiver . 151 Experiment 44. About the production of a kind of Halo , and Colours in the Exhausted Receiver . 152 The reason of it proposed , with a suggestion that the same cause might have been of that Apparition of Light mentionea in the formerly publisht Experiments . 153. 154 Experiment 45. About the production of Heat by Attrition in the exhausted Receiver . 154 Experiment 46. About the slaking of Quick-Lime in the Exhausted Receiver . 157 Experiment 47. About an attempt made to measure the force of the Spring of included Air , and examine a Conjecture about the difference of its strength in unequally broad mouth'd Vessels . 158 The first Trial by a Syringe ; 159 Another different Trial ; the successe of which is summarily related , and the way of making the Experiment delivered : 160. &c. with the above named conjecture about &c. 163 Experiment 48. About an easie way of making a small quantity of included Air raise in the exhausted Receiver 50 or 60 pound , or a greater weight . 165 Experiment 49. About the weight of Air. 168 Two Notes in prosecution of the 36 th of the already published Experiments , concerning the estimating the weight of the Air , by the help of a seal'd Bubble . 168. 169 Another Tryal , by weighing the Receiver its self . 169. &c. An Advertisement of the variation of the gravity of the Air , and that by Experiments made at different times or places there are obtain'd different proportions betwixt It and Water . 171. 172 Experiment 50. About the disjoyning of two Marbles ( not otherwise to be pull'd a sunder without a great weight ) by withdrawing the pressure of the Atmosphere . 172 NOTES &c. about the Atmospheres of Consistent Bodies ( here below : ) 177 An advertisement , shewing the reason why these Notes are annex'd , and what discourse they belong to . 179. 180 The Proemium . 181 That there are such Atmosphares , prov'd à priori , both from the Atomical and Cartesian Hypothesis . 182 Demonstrated by particular Examples in several Bodies . 183. 184 In such as are most unlikely to emit Effluvia , as first in very cold bodies . 185. 186. in very ponderous . 186. &c. in very solid and hard bodies . 189. &c. and lastly , in those that are most fixt . 191 where the Argument of Des-Cartes against Electrical emanations , drawn from the fixednesse of Glass , is examined . 192 Observations about the exciting the Electricity of Bodies , as that of Amber by the Sun , and that of Glass by the heat of the fire . 193 The Considerations that may induce us to believe , that very many other Bodies , not yet discovered to do so , emit their Effluviums . 194. &c. M r BOYLE'S CONTINUATION OF EXPERIMENTS of the Air. The VIII . Plate Plate the VII . The V Plate The 6 Plate . The IV Plate The III Plate . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A28949-e150 Seneca quaest . nat . lib. 7. c. 31. Notes for div A28949-e1560 See plate the III Figure the See the latter part of the following Experiment . See plate the Figure the 10. The same reasons which made Instrumental Musick fit for Sacrifices in the Apostles days make it fit still . Pli. l. x. Ep. 1 Sam. x. 5. Chr. xxv . ● . Exp. 8. pag. 36. * The place here meant is a passage in the Author's Examen of Mr. Hobbs his Dialogue about the Air. See Plate the Fig. the and the Annotations at the close of this Experiment . See plate the Figure the Plate the Fig. the See plate the Figure the * In Notes about the history of Elasticity . See plate the Figure the Exper. the XVII . pag. the 54 , and 55. The like Consideration I since found to have been had , before me , by the learned Ricciolus . This was ( if I forget not ) about the later end of the year 1662. See the fig. of the plate See Plate the Fig. the See plate the Figure the See Plate the Fig. the * Page the 105. 106. See plate the Figure the See the Figure last referr'd to . The Contrivance here mentioned may be conceiv'd , by considering the Figure belonging to the 41. Experiment . * pag. 156. &c ▪ See Plate the Fig. the * Expe. the Vth. See plate the Figure the See Plate the Fig. the * viz. the XXXVI . April the 19. 1662. May. 26. 1662. a In the Hydrostatical Paradoxes . b In an Appendix to those Paradoxes . c This method was omitted in the English Edition of the newly mentioned Appendix , but not in the Latin Version . * Experiment the XXXI . See also the cause of this Phaenomenon discours'd of in the Authors History of Fluidity and Firmness . * Dr. H. M. in the 2d . chap. of the 2d . Book of the new Edition ( in folio ) of his Antidote against Atheism . 
A28994	----	Medicinal experiments, or, A collection of choice and safe remedies for the most part simple and easily prepared, useful in families, and very serviceable to country people / by R. Boyle ; to which is annexed a catalogue of his theological and philosophical books and tracts. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1693 Approx. 241 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 174 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A28994 Wing B3990 ESTC R10015 11670546 ocm 11670546 48050 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A28994) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 48050) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1479:14) Medicinal experiments, or, A collection of choice and safe remedies for the most part simple and easily prepared, useful in families, and very serviceable to country people / by R. Boyle ; to which is annexed a catalogue of his theological and philosophical books and tracts. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. The second edition. 2 v. Printed for Sam. Smith ..., London : 1693. Includes index in each volume. Vol. I has two parts, each with special t.p., and the Catalogue of theological and philosophical books and tracts, which has special t.p. and separate pagination. Reproduction of original in the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign Campus). Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. 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Dispensatories. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-05 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-07 Derek Lee Sampled and proofread 2006-07 Derek Lee Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Medicinal Experiments : OR , A COLLECTION OF Choice and Safe Remedies , FOR The most part Simple , and easily . Prepared : Useful in Families , and very Serviceable to Country People . By the Honourable R. BOYLE , Esq ; Fellow of the Royal Society . To which is annexed a Catalogue of his Theological and Philosophical Books and Tracts . The Second Edition . London : Printed for Sam. Smith , at the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Church-yard . 1693. Price THE PREFACE OF The Publisher . THese Receipts , taken out of a large Collection , as consisting of a few safe Ingredients , commonly to be found at easie Rates in most places , were sent to a learned Physician beyond Sea : To whom they were a welcome Present , and answer'd , without doubt , the Ends he had in desiring them . That excellent Person , to whom these choice Prescriptions are owing , did permit a few Copies of them to be Printed , and was pleased to put them in the Hands of some of his Friends , provided , as there was occasion , they would make Tryal of them , and faithsully report the Success . Divers of those , who on these Conditions had received so great a Favour , held themselves obliged to enquire for Persons affected with any of the Maladies against which the said Medicines were prescribed ; and , upon many Experiments carefully made , having found , that frequently they have relieved those who used them , and sometimes strangely outdone Expectation ; they addressed themselves with much Importunity to the Noble Author , to suffer Things , which were of such general Benefit , and so easily to be procured by the Poor , to be made more publick . And at length he hath been prevailed with not only to allow the former Receipts , which but few had seen , to be Reprinted , but hath , out of his rich Treasury , stored us with a fresh Collection , which , as in Number it exceeds what we had before , so in Quality and Virtue it falls not short of it . And if what here , with such an honest and kind Design is offered to the Publick , be but candidly and favourably receiv'd , we may still hope for more Blessings of this sort from him , who has not only a constant Will and great Ability to do good , but hath , perhaps , obliged the Age as much as any private Person in it . The Author's PREFACE . THE following Prescriptions are a part of a Collection of Receipts and Processes , that from Time to Time have been recommended to me by the Experience of others , or approv'd by my own : Receipts that being Parable or Cheap , may easily be made servicable to poor Country People . For Medicines so Simple , and for the most part so Cheap , I have found all of them to be good in their kind : And though I think most of them safer than many other Medicines that are in great Request , yet I do not pretend that these should play the Part of Medicines and Physicians too ; but that they may be usefully employed by one who knows how to administer them discreetly . I distinguish them into three Classes or Orders , annexing to the Title of each particular Medicine one of the Three first Letters of the Alphabet ; whereof A is the Mark of a Remedy of the highest Classis of these , Recommended as very considerable and efficatious in its kind . B , Denotes a secondor inferior sort , but yet to be valuable for their good Operations . C , belongs to those Remedies that are of the lowest Order , tho' good enough not to be dispised . Those Receipts , which were my own , are expressed in my own Terms ; so also those which I received from others by word of Mouth : But them which were imparted to me in Writing , though I my self would not have worded them , as they did that I had them from , yet I oftentimes made a Scruple to Correct or Alter their Expressions , tho' not suitable to the Current Style of the Formularies of Receipts , being more concern'd that the Meaning should be close kept to , than the Style rectified . THE TABLE OF DISEASES . Note , The Number answers to the Page . A. AGues . Pag. 4 , 13 , 25 , 74 Amulet against Agues . 13 Amulet against Cramps . 15 Acidities to Cure. 19 After-Birth to bring away . 21 Appetite to restore . 21 Antimonial Remedy for Leprosies and Fevers . 54 Antimonial Infusion . 56 Apoplexy to prevent . 65 Arthritick Pains . 71 Apoplectick Fits. 78 B. Bloody-Flux . Pag. 7 Bowels to Strengthen . 14 Blood to stanch . 16 Blood to Sweeten . 19 Brest Vlcerated . 23 Broken Belly . 33 , 40 Black Jaundice . 44 Burns . 84 C. Coughs . Pag. 1 , 32 Convulsions . 9 , 20 Consumptions . 12 Child to bring away . 14 Cramp . 15 Contusions . 28 , 29 Cutis Excoriated . 30 Continual Fevers . 51 , 52 , 54 , 79 Chilblains . 53 Colick . 55 , 62 , 78 , 85 Childbearing to be cleansed after . 57 Cancer not broken . 67 Colds . 69 Childrens Jaundice . 70 Chin Cough . 74 D. Dysentery . Pag. 7 , 18 , 59 , 68 Diseases from Obstruction . 38 Difficulty of Hearing . 39 Drink for continual Fevers . 51 , 52 Drink for the Scurvy . 64 Diuretick Medicine . 64 Decoction of Quick-Silver . 80 E. Evil. Pag. 7 Eyes to Cure. 20 Excoriations . 30 External Piles . 63 Experiment for a Weak Sight . 73 External Remedy for Fevers . 79 F. Fits of the Stone . Pag. 8 Fluxes sharp . 18 , 26 , 37 , 59 Films to clear . 20 Fits of Agues . 4 , 13 , 25 Fits of the Gout . 40 Fits of the Mother . 50 Fevers continual . 51 , 52 , 54 , 79 Falling Sickness . 75 Fits Apoplectick . 78 Fits strain . 83 G. Gripings . Pag. 26 Gout . 40 , 50 , 71 Gums to Strengthen . 69 H. Hemorrhoids . Pag. 10 , 17 , 27 , 63 , 84 Heart Burning . 34 Hearing difficult . 39 Hoarsness on a Cold. 69 Heat in the Eyes . 72 Heat of the Stomach . 87 I. Jaundice Yellow . Pag. 5 , 6 , 70 Inflammations of Vlcers 31 Jaundice Black. 44 Itch to cure . 58 Internal Piles . 63 Issue raw to make . 86 K Kings Evil. Pag. 7 Kings Evil cured with Lime Water , &c. 82 L. Lime Water to make . Pag. 11 Lime Water for Obstructions . 12 Legs Inflamed and Vlcerated . 31 Loosness . 37 Leprosie . 54 Lungs Stuffed . 74 Lime Water for the Kings Evil. 82 M Medicine for the Stone . Pag. 49 , 76 Mother Fits. 50 Medicine for a fresh Strain . 52 Medicine to cleanse the Womb. 57 Medicine for a sore Throat . 60 , 66 , 77 Medicine for the Colick . 62 Medicine for a Cancer . 67 N Nitre , a Medicine of it for the Colick . Pag. 85 O. Obstructions . Pag. 12 , 38 Outward Contusions . 28 , 29 Oil of Turpentine mixt with Ointment of Tobacco , and Balls of Sulphur for the Piles . 84 P. Pains of the Stone . Pag. 2 Pain of the Teeth . 4 Piles . 10 , 17 , 27 , 63 , 84 Pains . 31 , 50 , 71 Plaister to discuss Tumours . 43 Plaister to strengthen the Joynts . 50 Pleurisie . 68 Prolapsus Vteri . 71 Q. Quick-Silver prepared against Worms . 80 R. Rheumes . Pag. 1 , 32 , 68 Ruptures . 33 , 40 Resent Strain . 35 Remedy for Chilblains . 53 Remedies for Fluxes . 7 , 18 , 26 , 59 S. Stone . Pag. 2 , 8 , 49 , 76 Sharpness of Vrine . 3 Strengthen the Bowels . 14 Stanching Blood. 16 Stomach to Strengthen . 21 Strain . 34 , 35 , 37 , 52 , 83 , 85 Strengthning Plaister . 31 Sores . 41 Sore Throat . 60 , 66 , 86 Sharp Humours . 62 Scurvy . 64 Strengthen the Gums . 69 Syrup for Rheums . 68 Sharp Humours in the Eyes . 72 Sight Weak . 73 Stomach heat . 87 Stomachical Tincture . 88 T. Tooth Ach. Pag. 4 , 32 Tertian Ague . 13 , 74 Tumours . 17 Tickling Rheum . 32 Teeth to keep Sound . 32 Tumours to discuss and ripen . 43 Throat Sore . 60 , 66 , 77 , 86 Teeth to make firm . 69 U. Vrine Sharp . Pag. 3 Vlcers of the Brest . 23 Vlcers . 41 Uteri Prolapsus . 71 Vrine stopt . 76 W. Women in Labour . Pag. 14 Wounds bleeding . 16. Weakness of the Joynts . 37 Water for Vlcers . 41 Womb to cleanse . 57 Wash for the Itch. 58 Weak Sight . 73 Worms in Children . 80 Whitloe to Cure. 81 Y. Yellow Jaundice . Pag. 5 DECAD I. I. For Coughs , especially such as proceed from thin Rheums . TAke of choice Olibanum , finely powder'd , from one Scruple to half a Dram , and mix carefully with it an equal weight of Sugar-candy , ( white or brown , ) or , in want of that , of fine Sugar ; and let the Patient take it at Bed-time in the Pap of an Apple , or some other proper Additament , for several nights together : If it be found needful , it may be taken at any other time , when the Stomach is empty . II. To give Ease in the Pains of the Stone , even that of the Bladder . TAke the transparent Sparr that grows upon the Veins of Lead-ore , and having reduc'd it to fine Powder , give from half a Dram to a whole Dram of it at a time , in a moderate Draught of some convenient Vehicle . N. B. Though there be ( at least in most of our English Mines ) two Teguments , as it were , of the Veins of Lead , that grow close together ; yet that which the Diggers name Cawk , which is white and opacous , is not the Medicine I mean , but the Transparent , or at least Semi-Diaphanous ; which easily breaks into smooth Fragments , and in the Fire cleaves into several pieces , that are wont to be smooth , and prettily shap'd . III For Sharpness of Vrine . TAke of the dry stuff that divides the Lobes of the Kernels of Walnuts , beat them to Powder , and of this give about half a Dram at a time , in a draught of White-wine , or Posset-drink made with it , or in any other convenient Liquor . IV. To Appease the Violent Pains of the Tooth-ach . MAke up a Scruple of Pillulae Mastichinae , and half a Grain of Laudanum , into two or three Pills for the Patient to take at Bed-time . V. For Agues . TAke Salt of Card. Benedict . and Salt of Wormwood ana 15 Grains , Tartar Vitriolate half a Scruple , mix them , and give them in a few Spoonfuls of Rhenish-wine , or of some other convenient Vehicle , either before the Fit , or at some other time when the Stomach is empty . VI. For the Yellow-Jaundice . TAke an Ounce of Castle Soap , ( the Elder the better , ) slice it thin , put it into a Pint of Small-beer cold , set it on the Fire , let it boil gently half away , after boiling some time , scum it once ; then strain it through a small Sieve , warm it , and drink it all in a morning , fasting ; take a small Lump of Sugar after it , and fast two or three hours : The Party may walk about his Business , and eat his accustomed Meals : If at any time he drinks Wine , let it be White-wine . N. B. If he be far gone in the Distemper ; two or three days after , he may take it once or twice more , and no oftner . Refrain all other Medicines : It will keep a Week or longer . VII . For the Jaundice . TAke two or three Ounces of Semen Cannabis ( Hempseed ) and boil them till the Seeds ( some of them ) begin to burst , and a little longer , in a sufficient quantity of New Milk , to make one good Draught ; which the Patient is to take warm , renewing it , if need be , for some days together . VIII . For the Dysentery . TAke Pigs-Dung , dry it , and burn it to grey ( not white ) Ashes ; of these give about half a Dram for a Dose , Drinking after them about three Spoonfuls of Wine-Vinegar . IX . For the Kings Evil. TAke Cuttle-bone uncalcin'd , and having scrap'd off the out-side or colour'd part , dry the white part ; and of this , finely powder'd , give half a Dram for a Dose in Aqua Malvae . X. A Safe and Easie Medicine in Fits of the Stone . TAke Sack , or , in want of that , Claret-wine , and by shaking , or otherwise , mix with it , as well as you can , an equal quantity of Oyl of Walnuts ; and of this Mixture give from 4 or 6 to 8 or 10 Ounces at a time as a Glyster . DECAD II. I. For Convulsions , especially in Children . TAke Earth-worms , wash them well in White-wine to cleanse them , but so as that they may not die in the Wine : Then , upon hollow Tiles , or between them , dry the Worms with a moderate heat , and no further than that they may be conveniently reduc'd to Powder ; to one Ounce of which add a pretty number of Grains of Ambergrise , both to perfume the Powder , ( whose scent of it self is rank ) and to make the Medicine more Efficacious . The Dose is from one Dram to a Dram and half in any convenient Vehicle . II. For the Pyles . TAke the Powder of Earth-worms prepared as in the former Receipt , ( but leaving out the Ambergrise , ) and incorporate it exactly with as much Hens-grease , as will serve to make it up into an Oyntment . Apply this to the Part affected , whose Pains it usually much and safely mitigates . III. To make Lime-water Vseful in divers Distempers . TAke one Pound of good Quick-lime , and slake it in a Gallon of warm Water , and let it stand 'till all that will subside be settled at the bottom , and ( Separation being made , ) the Water swim clear at the top : ( At which time it will often happen , that a kind of thin and brittle Substance , almost like Ice , will cover the Surface of the Liquor : ) As soon as the Water is thus sufficiently impregnated , delay not to pour it off warily , and keep it very well stopp'd for Use . IV. A Lime-water for Obstructions and Consumptions . TAke a Gallon of Lime-water made as above , and infuse in it cold , Sassafras , Liquorice , and Anyseeds , of each four Ounces , adding thereto half a Pound of choice Currans , or the like quantity of slic'd Raisins of the Sun : The Dose of this compound Lime-water is four or five Ounces , to be taken twice a day . V. An Amulet against Agues , especially Tertian . TAke a handful of Groundsel , shred and cut it small , put it into a square Paper Bag of about four Inces every way , pricking that side that is to be next the Skin , full of large holes ; and cover it with some Sarcenet or fine Linnen , that nothing may fall out . Let the Patient wear this upon the Pit of his Stomach , renewing it two hours before every Fit. VI. For Women in Labour to bring away the Child . TAke about one Dram of choice Myrrh , and having reduc'd it to fine Powder , let the Patient take it in a Draught of Rhenish-wine or Sack ; or , if you would have the Liquor less active , White-wine , Posset-drink , or some other temperate Vehicle . VII . For Strengthening the Bowels . TAke Cloves or Chives ( not Bulbs ) of Garlick , and let the Patient from time to time swallow one or two , without chewing . VIII . An Amulet against the Cramp . TAke the Root of Mechoacan , and having reduc'd it to Pouder , fill with this Pouder a little square Bag or Sacket of Sarcenet , or some such slight Stuff ; which Bag is to be about three Inches square , and to be hung by a String about the Patient's Neck , so as that it may reach to the Pit of the Stomach , and immediately touch the Skin . IX . For Stanching of Blood , especially in Wounds . TAke those round Mushrooms that Botanists call Crepitus Lupi , ( in English Puff-balls ▪ ) when they are full ripe ( which is in Autumn ) ; and breaking them warily , save carefully the Pouder that will fly up , and the rest that remains in their Cavities : And strew this Pouder all over the Part affected , binding it on , or proceeding further , if need be , according to Art. X. For the Tumors and Pains of the Hemorrhoides , not too much inflamed . LET the Patient dip his Finger in Balsam of Sulphur , made with Oyl of Turpentine , and with his Finger so besmeared anoint the Tumors , whether external or internal , once or twice a day . DECAD III. I. For the Dysentery and other sharp Fluxes . TAke the Stalks and Leaves of the Herb call'd in Latin , Coniza Media ( in English , Flea-bane ▪ ) dry it gently , till it be reducible to Pouder ; of this Pouder give about one Dram at a time , twice or thrice a day , in any convenient Vehicle ; or else incorporate it in Conserve of Red Roses ▪ II. To Sweeten the Blood , and Cure divers Distempers caused by its Acidity . TAke Coral , the clearest and reddest you can get ; reduce it ( by exactly grinding it on a Porphory , or Marble Stone , ) to an impalpable Pouder . Of this Magistery made without Acids , give the Patient once or twice a day ( as need shall require , ) a large Dose , viz. ordinarily about one Dram at a time , or from two Scruples to five . N. B. Let him long continue the Use of it . III. To clear the Eyes , even from Filmes . TAke Paracelsus's Zibethum Occidentale ( viz. human Dung ) of a good Colour and Consistence , dry it slowly till it be pulverable : Then reduce it into an impalpable Pouder ; which is to be blown once , twice , or thrice a day , as occasion shall require into the Patients Eyes . IV. For Convulsions in Children . GIve the Patient from 2 , 3 , or 4 , to 5 , 6 , or 7 , Grains , according to the Child's Age , of the true Volatile Salt of Amber , in any proper Vehicle . N. B. 'T is not near so Efficacious in full grown Persons . V. To bring away the After-birth . GIve about 30 Drops , or any Number between 25 and 35 , of good Essential ( as Chimists call it , ) Oyl of Juniper , in a good Draught of any convenient Vehicle . VI. To strengthen the Stomach , and help the want of Appetite . MAke the Roots of Gentian ( sound and not superannuated , ) pulverable , with no more waste of their moisture than is necessary . Reduce these to Pouder ; of which let the Patient take from 12 or 15 Grains to double that quantity ( or more if need be , ) twice or thrice a day . N. B. It may be taken on an empty Stomach , or , if that cannot conveniently be done , at Meal-times . To correct the Bitterness , one may add to it pouder'd Sugar , or make it up with some fit Conserve , or mix it with a Syrup . It is very good , not only for want of Appetite , but for Obstructions . And I ( R. B. ) have usefully given it in Vertiginous Affections of the Brain , and to lessen , if not quite take away , the Fits of Agues , and even Quartans . But in this last Case the Dose must be considerably augmented . One may also , if one pleases , instead of the Pouder , give the Extract drawn with fair Water , and for those that like that form , made up into Pills with a sufficient quantity of pouder'd Tumerick , or the like proper Additament ; to which I have sometimes added some Grains of Salt of Wormwood with good Success , in Fluxes that proceeded from Crudities and Indigestion . Where the Winter-Season or the Patients cold Constitution invite , or the Medicine is to be long kept , I chuse rather to make the Extract with Wine moderately strong , than with Water . VII . For Vlcers in the Breast , and elsewhere . TAke Millepedes , ( in English by some called Wood-lice , by others Sows , ) and having wash'd them clean with a little White-wine , and dry'd them with a Linnen Cloth , beat them very well in a Glass or Marble Mortar ( for they ought not to be touch'd with any thing of Metal ) and give the first time as much Juice , as you can by strong Expression obtain from five or six of them . This Juice may be given in small Ale or White-wine , in which the next time you may give as much as can be squeez'd out of Eight or Nine Millepedes ; and so you may continue , increasing the number that you employ of them by two or three at a time , till it amount to twenty five or thirty ; and if need be , to forty or more , for one taking . And note , that if upon the Pounding of these Insects , you find the Mass they afford too dry , as it now and then happens ; you may dilute it with a little White-wine or Ale , to be well agitated with it , that being penitrated , and so softned , with the Liquor , the Mass may the better part with its Juice . VIII . For taking off the Fits of Agues . TAke good common Brimstone ( not Flores Sulphuris , ) and having reduc'd them , by passing them through a very fine Sieve , to the subtilest Pouder you can ; give of this Pouder one Dram and half or two Drams , either made up into a Bolus with a little good Honey , or else in any appropriated Vehicle ; let it be given at the usual times , and reiterated once or twice , if need be , especially if the Fits should return . IX . For Fluxes , especially accompanied with Gripings . TAke of Crude Lapis Calaminaris finely pouder'd two Scruples , of White Chalk one Scruple , mix them exactly , and give them in a spoonful or two of New Milk twice , or , if the case be urgent , thrice a day . X. For the Pains of the Piles . TAke of Myrrh , Olibanum , and common Frankincense , of each alike quantity ; having pouder'd them , mix them very well , and let the Patient receive the Fume of this Mixture , cast upon a Chafsen-dish with Embers , in a Close-stool , for about a quarter of an hour , ( less or more , as he needs it , and is able to bear it . ) DECAD IV. I. For an Outward Contusion . APply to the Part affected , skim'd or purify'd Honey , spread upon Cap-paper , to be kept on with some convenient Plaister , or the like Bandage , and shifted once or twice a day . II. Another for the same . BEat Aloes Succotrina ( or else Hepatica , ) to fine Pouder ; then pour on it as much Rose-water as you guess may dissolve a great part of it . This done , stir them well for a while , and when the Mixture is setled , pour off the Liquor , and in it dip Linnen Rags , which being applied to the Part affected , will soon stick to it , and seldom need be remov'd till the Patient be reliev'd ; and then to get them off , the Rags must be well wetted with warm water , which will soften and loosen the adhering Aloes . III. For a slighter Excoriation . MElt Mutton-Suet taken from about the Kidneys , and freed from its superfluous Fibres or Strings , and to about two Ounces of this add little by little about 16 or 18 Drops ( sometimes 8 or 10 may serve ) of Oyl ( not Aethereal Spirit ) of Turpentine ; spread this Mixture on a Linnen Cloth , and by binding or otherwise , keep it upon the Part affected . IV. For an Excoriation , when the true Cutis is affected . TAke Prunella ( in English Self-heal , ) and having pounded it very well in a Marble or Glass Mortar , ( not one of Metal , ) apply it to the Part affected , renewing it but seldom , and not without need . V. To take off the Pain and Inflammation of Vlcers in the Legs and elsewhere . IN a Quart of Water boil about so much White-bread , as in ordinary years may be found in a Halfpenny-loaf ; then add to it two Ounces of good Sheeps Suet cut very small ; and when that is boil'd a little , add to it one Ounce of finely pouder'd Rosin , and a little well searc'd Brimstone : Of these make a Cataplasm , which is to be kept constantly on the Part affected , and shifted once or twice a day , as need shall require . VI. For a Cough , especially accompany'd with a Tickling Rheum . TAke equal Parts of finely pouder'd Olibanum and Venice Treacle , incorporate them exactly , and of this Mass form Pills of what bigness you please . Of these let the Patient take about half a Dram at Bed-time , or , if need be , one Scruple , ( or more , ) twice a day . VII . To prevent the Tooth-ach , and keep the Teeth sound . LEL the Patient frequently rub his Teeth moderately with the Ashes that remain in Tobacco-pipes , after the rest of the Body hath been consum'd in Smoak ; sometimes after washing ( if need be , ) his Mouth with fair Water not too cold . VIII . For a Rupture , especially in a Child or young Person . TAke of that Geranium or Cranes-bill that is commonly called Columbinum , reduce the Root and Leaves to fine Pouder , and of this let the Patient take about half a Spoonful Night and Morning for three or four Weeks together , washing it down each time with some Spoonfuls of Red Wine . IX . For the Heart-burning as they call it . TAke from 15 or 20 , to 30 or 40 , Grains of Crabs-eyes , ( known commonly in the Shops by the Name of Lapides Canororum , ) reduc'd to very fine Pouder , and either take it alone , or in any convenient Conserve or Syrup . 'T is for the most part best to take this Medicine when the Stomach is empty . X. For a Strain . TAke the strongest Vinegar you can get , and boil in it a convenient quantity of Wheat-Bran , till you have brought it to the consistence of a Poultess . Apply this as early as may be to the Part affected , and renew it when it begins to grow dry . DECAD V. I. For a Recent Strain . TAKE Worm-wood and pound it very well in a Mortar of Stone or Glass ; then put to it as much of the Whites of Eggs , beaten to Water , as may serve to make it up into such a Consistence , as may be applied like a Poultess to the Part affected . II. A Strengthening Plaister after a Strain , or when there is any Weakness in the Joynt . MELT down together and incorporate very well , two parts of Diapalma , and one part of Emplastrum ad Herniam ; spread this Mixture , ( but not very thick , ) upon Leather , and lay it to the Joynt to be strengthened . III. For Loosenesses . BOil a convenient quantity of Cork in Spring-water , till the Liquor taste strong thereof : Of this Decoction let the Patient drink a moderate Draught from time to time , till he finds himself sufficiently reliev'd by it . IV. For Obstructions , and divers Diseases proceeding thence . LET the Patient drink , every Morning fasting , a moderate Draught of his own Vrine newly made , and ( if it can conveniently be , ) whil'st 't is yet warm ; forbearing Food for an hour or two after it . V. For difficulty of Hearing , from a cold Cause . OUT of a Bulbe or Root of Garlick , chuse a Chive of a convenient Bigness ; then having pass'd a fine piece of Thread or Silk through one end of it , that thereby it may be pull'd out at pleasure , crush it a little between your Fingers , and having anointed it all over with Oyl of Bitter ( or in want of that , Sweet ) Almonds , put it into the Cavity of the Patients Ear at Bed-time , and draw it out the next Morning , stopping the Ear afterwards with Black Wooll ; but if need require , this Operation is to be reiterated with fresh Garlick for some days successively . VI. For Ruptures in the Belly , especially in Children . HAving well cleans'd the Roots of Sigillum Salamonis , scrape one Ounce of them into a Quart of Broth , and let the Patient take a Mess , or a Porringer full of it for his Break-fast ; or else give half a Dram or two Scruples of the Pouder of it at a time , in any convenient Vehicle . VII . To give Check to Fits of the Gout , and in some measure to prevent them . TAke three Ounces of Sarsaparilla slic'd and cut thin ▪ to these add an equal weight of Raisins of the Sun , rubb'd very clean , but not broken : Put both these Ingredients into three Quarts of Spring water , and let the Vessel stand in a moderate heat , that the Liquor may simper for many hours , yet without bursting most part of the Raisins ; keep this Decoction , well stop'd , and let the Patient use it for his only Drink , till he need it no longer . VIII . A Water for Vlcers and Sores . TAke a Solution of Venetian Sublimate , and having made with very good Quick lime as strong a Lime-water as you can , ( so that , if it be possible , it may bear an Egg , ) drop this upon the dissolv'd Sublimate , till it will precipitate no more reddish stuff at all ; ( which will not so soon be done as one that hath not try'd will imagin : ) As soon as you perceive that the Liquors act no longer visibly upon one another , pour the Mixture into a Filter of Cap-Paper , which retaining the Orange-colour'd Precipitate , will transmit an indifferently clear Liquor : Which is to be in a Glass Viol kept stopp'd for its proper Use ; namely , that the Part affected may be therewith wash'd from time to time , and , if need be , kept covered with double Linnen Cloths wetted in the same Liquor . IX . A Plaister to Discuss Tumours , or Ripen them if it cannot Discuss them . TAke of Yellow Wax , Frankincense , and Rosin , of each four Ounces , or a sufficient quantity , melt them together gently , and being strain'd , make up the Mass into a Roll for Use . X. For the Black Jaundice it self . TAke a Spoonful of Honey , boil it gently , and scum it , till it come to a good Consistence ; then add of Wheat-flower and Saffron ( reduced to a Pouder , ) as much of each as you may take up upon the point of a Knife ; and having mix'd all well , put it over the Coals again , until it lose its Smell : Afterwards you may put it into a little Stone or Earthen Pot , and keep it for Use ; which is , that the Patient take the quantity of a Pea , and anoint the Navil , and fill the Cavity thereof with it ; repeating the Application for some days together , when the Stomach is empty , and abstaining from Meat and Drink about two hours after the Medicine is us'd . The End of the First Part. Medicinal Experiments : OR , A COLLECTION OF Choice Remedies , FOR The most part Simple , and Easily Prepared . The latter Five DECADS being A SECOND PART . By the Honourable R. BOYLE , Fellow of the Royal Society . LONDON : Printed for Sam. Smith , at the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Church-yard . 1693. DECAD VI. I. A parable Medicine for the Stone . TAke of the Seed of Flixweed , and give of it about as much as will lie upon a Shilling , either whole or grosly bruis`d , in any convenient Vehicle . II. For Fits of the Mother . DIssolve store of Sea-Salt in the best Wine Vinegar , and in this dip a soft Linnen Cloth , which being folded so as to make 3 or 4 Doubles , is to be applied somewhat warm to the Soles of the Patient's Feet , and kept on till the Fit be over . III. A Choice Plaister to Strengthen the Joynts after the Gout , and hasten the going off of the Pain . TAke of Paracelsus and Diapalma ana , melt them and incorporate them exactly together , and spread the mixture very thin upon fine Leather , to be us'd as a Plaister to the Part affected . IV. A very good Drink in continual Fevers . MAke a Decoction of the Leaves of Rue in fair Water , till the Liquor tast pretty strong of the Plant : This , being strain'd , is to be made somewhat Palatable with Liquorice , or a little Sugar , or Aromatic Body : To half a Pint of this add about 10 Drops of Spirit ( not Oyl ) ) of Vitriol : Let the Patient use this for his ordinary Drink . V. A good Drink to be frequently used in Fevers , especially continual Ones . GIve , in half a Pint of some small convenient Drink , half an Ounce of Harts-horn , burnt to great whiteness ; which is to be a little boyled in the Liquor ; and this , thus alter'd , is to be given from time to time . VI. An easie Medicine for a fresh Strain . MAke up the Clay , with which the Bungs of Barrels are wont to be stopp'd ; with as much Vinegar as will bring it to the Consistence of an indifferently stiff Cataplasm : Then warm it a little , and apply it to the Part affected . VII . A Remedy much used for Chilblains . TAke a Turnep , roast it well under the Embers , and beat it to a Poultice ; then apply it very hot to the Part affected ; and keep it on ( if need be , ) for 3 or 4 days , in that time shifting it twice or thrice , if occasion require . VIII . A Simple Antimonial Remedy , that has often done much Good even in the Leprosie , and all continual Fevers . TAke Crude Antimony , well chosen and pouder'd ; of this give about one , two , or three Scruples Morning and Evening , according to the Age of the Patient , in a little Syrup of Clove-Gilly-Flowers , or any such Vehicle , or else mix'd with fine Sugar , enough to make it somewhat Palatable . This may be continued for 4 or 5 Months , if need require ; and if the first Dose prove Beneficial to the Patient , in Cases not urgent , a Scruple or half a Dram may serve the Turn , nor need the Exhibition be continued for so long a time . IX . For the Cholick , and divers other Distempers . TAke four or five Balls of fresh Stone-horse Dung , and let them steep for about a quarter of an Hour ( or less , ) in a Pint of White-wine , in a Vessel well stopp'd that the Liquor may be richly impregnated with the more volatile and subtil Parts of the Dung ; strain this , and give of it from a quarter to half a Pint , or some Ounces more at a time ; the Patient having a Care not to take Cold after it . X. An often Experimented Antimonial Infusion . TAke one Ounce of pouder'd Antimony ; tied up in a little Bag of clean Linnen , and hang it in a Gallon of Beer or Ale that is brought from the Brew-house , and is yet scarce fit to be drawn out , much less to be drank . Of this Liquor , when 't is ripe , let the Patient make use for his ordinary Drink ; only having a Care , that if by Age or Accident it be perceived to grow sour , that Vessel then be left off , for fear , lest the Acidity of the Liquor , corroding the Antimony , might make it vomitive . DECAD VII . I. An easie Medicine to cleanse the Womb , especially after Child-bearing . TAke a large white Onyon , of about four Ounces in weight , if you can get so big a one , and boyl it in about a Pint of Water , with any thing fit to make a very thin Broth , till a third part or more of the Liquor be consumed : Of this Broth , which may be made a little palatable with Nutmeg , &c. the Patient is to take six or eight Ounces twice or thrice a day . II. An Experienced Wash that quickly cures the Itch. TAke strong Quicklime one Pound , and put to a Gallon of Spring-Water , let them lie together for some hours , and then warily pour off the clear , filter the rest , and take two Ounces of Quick-Silver , ty'd up in a Linnen Bag , and hang it in the Liquor , and boil it for half an hour or more ; then pour off the cleer Liquor once more , and wash the Hands only with it twice , or at most thrice , a day . III. A Remedy often us'd , with Success , in Fluxes , and even Dysenteries . TAke fresh Roots of Bistort , cut them into thin Slices , and moisten them well with fair Water and Wine , to make them more soft and Succulent ; then press out the Juice as strongly as you can . And of this give about three or four Spoonfuls , mingled with half a Dozen Spoonfuls , or somewhat more , of Red Wine , or some other convenient Liquor . IV. A good Medicine for a sore Throat . TAke the White of a New-laid Egg , and by beating it , reduce it into Water ; and with this Water mix diligently so much Conserve of Red Roses as will reduce it to a soft Mass ; Whereof the Patient is to let a little Bit at a time melt leisurely in his Mouth . V. A choice Medicine for a sore Throat . TAke a piece of greasie Linnen Cloth , of such a bigness , as that , being doubled , it may make a Bag in form of a Stay , to reach from one side of the Throat to the other , and contain as much Matter , as may make it of the thickness of an Inch or more : This Bag being fill'd with common Salt is to be heated throughly , and apply'd to the Part affected as warm as the Patient can conveniently indure ; and within 2 hours after , or when it begins to grow too cold ; another like it and well heated , is to be substituted in its room ; and whil'st this is cooling , the other may be heated and made ready for use : So that the Part affected may be always kept in a considerable degree of warmth , for about 48 hours , if the Remedy be so long needed . VI. An often experienc'd Medicine for the Cholick , especially produced by sharp Humors . TAke a Quart of Claret , and put into the Vessel about two Ounces of Nettle-seeds , stop the Bottle , and keep it in boiling Water , till the Water has made three or four walms , to assist the Wines Impregnation with the finer part of the Seeds : Of this Liquor let the Patient take a small Draught once or twice a day . VII . To appease the Pain of the Haemorrhoids , whether Internal or External . TAke two Parts of Flowers of Sulphur , and one part of Sugar very finely pouder'd , mix them exactly together , and make them up with a sufficient Quantity of a Mucilage of Gum Tragacarth into Lozenges , of about a Dram a piece : Of which you may give one at a time , thrice in a day , or if need be , 4 or 5 times . VIII . To make an excellent Drink for the Scurvy . TAke two handfuls of Water Trefoil , and let it work in about 8 Gallons of Wort , instead of Hops , or of Small Ale or Wort , made for it : And let the Patient use it for all , or for a great part of his ordinary Drink . IX . To make an easie Diuretick . PEel off the Inner Skin of an Egg-shell , then beat the Shell to a very fine Pouder : Give about a Scruple of it at a time in any convenient Vehicle . X. A Powerful Application to prevent and check the Apoplexy . MAke an Issue at the Meeting of the Sutures , and keep it open for a good while ; but if the Case will not admit delay , clap on a good Cupping-Glass , without Scarification , or with it , as need shall require , upon the same Concourse of the Sutures . DECAD VIII ▪ I. A Choice Medicine for a sore Throat . TAke Housleek , and having lightly beaten it in a Glass or Stone Mortar , press out the Juice hard between two Plates ; to this Juice put almost an equal Quantity of Virgin-Honey , mix them well , and add to the mixture a little Burnt Allum , as much as is requisite to give it a discernable Alluminous Taste : Let the Patient take this from time to time , with a Liquorish Stick , or some such Thing . II. An Approv'd Medicine for a Cancer not broken . TAke Dulcify'd Colcothar , and with Cream , or Whites of Eggs beaten to a Water , bring it to the Consistence of a Cataplasm ; which ought to be made large , and spread about the thickness of half a Crown , and applied warm to the part affected ▪ shifting it at least once a day . III. To make a very good Syrup for thin Rheums . TAke Syrup of Jujubes , Syrup of Dryed Roses , and Syrup of Corn Poppy Flowers , of each alike quantity , mix and use them as the necessity of the Sick requires . IV. For the Dysentery and Pleurisie . GRate to fine Pouder the dry'd Pizzel of a Stagg , and give of it as much as will lie upon a Shilling , or thereabouts , once or twice a day , in any convenient Vehicle . V. To Strengthen the Gums , and make the Teeth grow firm . TAke Catechu , Terra Japonica , or Japonian Earth , and dissolve as much as you can of it in a Pint of Claret , or Red Wine ; then Decant the Liquor warily from the subsiding Faeces , and let the Patient now and then wash his Mouth with it , especially at Bed time . VI. For a Hoarsness upon a Cold. TAke three Ounces of Hyssop Water , sweeten it with Sugar-Candy ; then beat well into it the Yolk of one Egg , and Drink it at a Draught . VII . A Choice Medicine for the Jaundice in Children . TAke half an Ounce of choice Rhubarb made into Pouder ; incorporate with it exactly by long beating , two Handfuls of well chosen , and cleans'd Currans . Of this Electuary let the Patient take every Morning about the quantity of a Nutmeg , for several days together . VIII . A rare Medicine to take away Gouty , and other Arthritick Pains . TAke highly rectify'd Spirit of Mans Vrine , and anoint the Part with it , the Cold being just taken off , once or twice the first day ; and no longer , unless the Pain continue . IX . For a Prolapsus Uteri . APply to the Patients Navel a pretty large Cupping-Glass ; but let it not stay on too long , not above a quarter of an hour , for fear of injuring the part it covers , especially the Navel-String . X. To allay heat in the Eyes , proceeding from sharp Humours . BEat the White of an Egg into a Water , in which dissolve a pretty quantity of Refined Loaf-Sugar , and then drop some of it into the Patients Eye . DECAD IX . I. An Experienc'd Medicine for Strengthening a Weak Sight . TAke of Eye Bright , sweet Fennel Seeds , and fine Sugar , all reduc'd to Pouder , of each an Ounce , Nutmeg also pulveriz'd , one Dram ▪ ( at most ; ) mix these very well together , and take of the Composition from a Dram to two or more , from time to time . II. An often try'd Medicine for Tertian Agues . TAke Crude Allum and Nutmeg finely scrap'd , of each about half a Dram , mix the Pouders well together , and with about six Grains of Saffron ; Give this in two or three Spoonfuls of White-Wine Vinegar at the usual time . III. For Stuffings of the Lungs , and the Chin Cough . MAke Syrup of Penny Royal , or of Ground Ivy , moderately Tart with Oil of Vitriol ; and of this let the Patient take very leisurely about a quarter of a Spoonful from time to time . IV ▪ For the Falling Sickness in Children . TAke half a Dram of choice Amber , finely pouder'd , and give it for six or seven Weeks together , once a day , when the Stomach is empty , in about four Ounces of good White-Wine . V. An approv'd Medicine to drive the Stone , and cure Suppression of Vrine , proceeding from it . TAke the Roots of Wild Garlick , ( by some Country People called Crow Garlick ) wipe them very clean , stamp them very well in a Mortar of Stone or Glass , and strain out the Juice ; with which make a moderate Draught of good White-Wine considerably strong , and let the Patient take it once or twice a day . VI. An Experienc'd Medicine for Sore Throats . TAke of Scabious Water six Ounces , of Wine Vinegar a small Spoonful , of Mustard Seed beaten , and of Honey , of each a Spoonful ; stir and shake them very well together ; and then filter the mixture and keep it for Use . VII . An often experienced External Remedy in Apoplectick Fits. FIx a Cupping-Glass ( without Scarification ) to the Nape of the Neck , and another to each of the Shoulders , and let them stick on , a competent time . VIII . An easie but approv'd Medicine for the Cholick . TAke about half a Dram of Mastich , and mix it with the Yolk of a new laid Egg , and give it the Patient once or twice a day . IX . To appease the heat of Feavers by an External Remedy . APply to the Soles of the Feet a mixture , or thin Cataplasm made of the Leaves of Tobacco , fit to be cut to fill a Pipe with , beaten up with as much of the Freshest Currans you can get , as will bring the Tobacco to the Consistence of a Poultis . X. The Medicine that is in such Request in Italy against the Worms in Children . INfuse one Dram of clean Quicksilver all Night in about two Ounces of the Water of Goats Rue , distill'd the common way in a cold Still : And afterwards strain and filter it , to sever it from all Dregs that may happen in the making it . This quantity is given for one Dose . DECAD X. I. A Choice Medicine for a Whitloe . TAke Shell Snails , and beat the pulpy part of them very well , with a convenient quantity of fine chopt Parsly , which is to be applied warm to the affected part , and shifted two or three times a day . II. A Simple but Vseful Lime-Water , good for the Kings Evil , and divers other Cases . TAke half a Pound of good Quick-Lime , and put it into one Gallon of Spring-Water , and infuse it for Twenty four Hours ; then decant the Liquor , and let the Patient Drink a good Draught of it two or three times a day , or he may use it for his ordinary Drink ; this Infusion may be coloured with Saffron , or Red Sanders ; and if need be to make it stronger , add more Lime , and warm the Water and keep it well stopt . III. An Excellent Medicine for a fresh Strain . TAke four Ounces of Bean Flower , two Ounces of Wine Vinegar ; of these make a Cataplasm to be applied a little warm to the part affected ; but if this should prove something too sharp , ( as in some Cases it may ) then take two Drams of Litharg , and boil it a little in the Vinegar ; before you put it to the Bean-Flower . IV. For the Pyles . TAke Balsam of Sulphur made with Oil of Turpentine , Ointment of Tobacco , equal Parts , Incorporate them well , and Anoint the grieved place therewith . V. For a Burn. MIngle Lime Water with Linseed Oyl , by beating them together with a Spoon , and with a Feather dress the Burn several times a day . VI. For a fresh Strain . BOil Bran in Wine Vinegar to the consistency of a Poultis , apply it warm , and renew the Poultis once in twelve hours , for two or three times . VII . An experienced Medicine for the Cholick . TAke good Nitre one Ounce , and rub it well in a clean Mortar of Glass or Stone , then grind with it half a Scruple or more of fine Saffron , and of this mixture give about half a Dram for a Dose in three or four Ounces of Cold Spring Water . VIII . To make an Issue raw , that begins to heal up . TAke of Lapis Infernalis one Ounce , of Crown Soap an Ounce and half , Chalk finely pouder'd six Drams , mix them all together carefully , and keep them close stopt , except when you mean to use them . IX . For a Sore Throat . MAke a Plaister of Paracelsus , three or four Fingers broad , and length enough to reach almost from one Ear to the other , and apply it to the part affected , so that it may touch the Throat as much as may be . X. For heat about the Orifice of the Stomach . MAke a Syrup with the Juice of House Leek and Sugar , and give about one Spoonful of it from time to time . A Stomachical Tincture . TAke Agrimony , two Drams , small Centory Tops one Dram , Coriander Seeds bruised one Scruple , Sassafras Shavings and Bark , one Dram , Gentian Root half a Dram , Zedoary Root ten Grains ; pour upon these three quarters of a Pint of boiling Spring Water , cover it , and let it steep twelve hours , then Strain it , and put it in a Bottle ; then drop a drop of Oil of Cinnamon , upon a lump of Sugar , and put it into the Liquor . The Dose is three Spoonfuls twice a day , an hour or two before Meals . THE END . A CATALOGUE OF THE Philosophical Books and Tracts , Written by the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esq ; Together with the ORDER or TIME Wherein each of them hath been Publish'd respectively . To which is added , A CATALOGUE Of the THEOLOGICAL BOOKS , Written by the same Author . LONDON : Printed for Sam. Smith , at the Sign of the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Church-yard . 1693. Advertisements of the Publisher . I. Many Ingenious Persons , especially Strangers , having pressingly endeavour'd to procure a Catalogue of the Honourable Mr. Boyle's Writings ; and the Author himself being not at leisure to draw one up ; 't was thought it might be some Satisfaction to those Inquirers , if I publish'd the following List , as it was drawn out , for his own use , of the Philosophical Transactions , as well as the Printed Volumes , by an Ingenious French Physician , studious of the Authors Writings , some of which he Translated and Printed in his own Language . II. The Letter L affixt in the Margin , denotes the Book related to , to have been Translated , and Publish'd in the Latin Tongue also . Several of the rest having likewise been Translated into Latin , but not yet Published . III. Those that have an Asterisk prefix'd to them came forth without the Authors Name , tho' 't is not doubted but they are His. IV. Such as have this Mark ☞ prefix'd to them , are Sold by Samuel Smith at the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Church-yard . V. Divers of those mentioned as drawn out of the Transactions , did probably come abroad in Latin ; some of the Transactions themselves having been published in that Language . A Catalogue of the Philosophical Books and Tracts . NEW Experiments Physico Mechanical , touching the Spring and Weight of the Air , and its Effects , ( made for the most part in a new Pneumatical Engine ) written by way of Letter to the Right Honourable Charles Lord Viscount of Dungarvan , Eldest Son to the Earl of Cork , by the Honourable Robert Boyle Esq ; A Defence of the Doctrine , touching the Spring and Weight of the Air , propos'd by the Author in his New Physico-Mechantoal Experiments ; against the Objections of Franciscus Linus , wherewith the Objectors Funicular Hypothesis is also examin'd . An Examen of Mr. Tho. Hobbes's Dialogus Physicus de Naturâ Aeris , as far as it concerns the Authors Book of New Experiments , touching the Spring of the Air ; with an Appendix touching Mr. Hobbes's Doctrine of Fluidity and Firmness . These three together in a Volume in 4 to , being a Second Edition ; The First at Oxford 1662 , had been publish'd Anno 1660. The two others at London 1662 , had been publish'd , Anno 1661. The Sceptical Chymist , &c. 1661. Physiological Essays , or Tentamina , Written and Collected upon divers Times and Occasions , with an History of Fluidity and Firmness , in 4 to . 1662. An Experimental History of Colours begun , 8vo . 1663. Some Considerations touching the Usefulness of Experimental Natural Phylosophy , propos'd in a Familiar Discourse to a Friend , by way of Invitation to the Study of it : A Second Edition , 4to . Oxford , 1664. The first had been publish'd 1663. Of the Usefulness of Natural Philosophy , the Second Part ; The first Section , of its Usefulness to Physick , with an Appendix to this First Section of the Second Part , 4to . 1669. Of the Usefulness of Experimental Natural Philosophy , &c. the Second Tome , containing the latter Section of the Second Part , 4to , Oxford , 1671. The First Volume of these three Books , contains Five Essays . The First , Of the Usefulness , &c. Principally as it relates to the Mind of Man. The Second , A Continuation of the former . The Third , A further Continuation . The Fourth , A requisite Digression concerning those , who would exclude the Deity from intermedling with Matter . In the Fifth , The Discourse , interrupted by the late Digression , is resum'd and concluded . The Second Volume contains likewise five Essays . The first , Of the Usefulness , &c. As to the Physiological part of Physick .. The second , As to the Pathological part of Physick . The third , As to the Semeiotical part of Physick . The fourth , As to the Hygieinal part of Physick . The fifth , As to the Therapeutical part of Physick , in 20 Chapters . The Third Volume contains six Essays . The first , General Considerations about the Means , whereby Experimental Phylosophy may become useful to Human Life . The second , Of the Usefulness of Mathematicks to Natural Phylosophy . The third , Of the Usefulness of Mechanical Disciplines to Natural Phylosophy . The fourth , That the Goods of Mankind may be much increased by the Naturalists insight into Trades , with an Appendix . The fifth , Of doing by Physical Knowledge , what is wont to require Manual Skill . The sixth , Of Mens great Ignorance of the Uses of Natural Things . An experimental History of Cold , and some Discourses concerning New Thermometrical Experiments , and Thoughts about the Doctrine of Antiperistasis ; with An Examen of Mr. Hobbes's Doctrine touching Cold , a second Edition , Quarto , 1665. Attempts of a way to convey Liquors immediately into the Mass of Blood , communicated in the Philosophical Transactions of December the 4th , 1665. Observations and Experiments upon the Barometer or Ballance of Air , invented , ditected and begun , Anno 1659 , communicated to Dr. Beal that continued them , and mentioned in the Transactions of February the 12th , and March the 12th , 1666. Hydrostatical Paradoxes made out by new Experiments ▪ for the most part Physical and easie , occasion'd by Monsieur Paschal's Tract of the Equilibrium of Liquors , and of the Weight of the Air , 1666. An account of an Earthquuke near Oxford , and the Con comitants thereof , communicated in the Philosophical Transactions of April 2d , 1666. New Observations and Directions about the Barometer in the same . General Heads for a Natural History of a Country , great or small , communicated in the same . The Origine of Forms and Qualities illustrated by Considerations and Experiments , in two Parts , 8vo , 1666. A way of preserving Birds , taken out of the Egg , and other small Eaetus's , communicated in the Philosophical Transactions of May the 7th , 1666. An Account of a new kind of Baroscope , which may be called Statical , and of some advantages and conveniences it hath above the Mercurial , communicated in the Philosophical Transactions of July the 2d , 1666. A new Frigorific Experiment , shewing how a considerable degree of Cold may be suddenly produced , without the help of Snow , Ice , Hail , Wind or Nitre , and that at any time of the year , communicated in the Philosophical Trasnactions of July the 18th . 1666. Tryals proposed to Dr. Lower for the improvement of transfusing Blood out of one live Animal into another , communicated in the Philosophical Transactions of February the 11th , 1666. Free Considerations about Subordinate Forms , being an Appendix to the Origine of Forms and Qualities published last year , and reprinted with this , 1667 , in 8●o . A Letter to the Author of the Philosophical Transactions , giving an Information of some Experiments which he had made himself several years ago , by injecting acid Liquors into Blood , upon the occasion of those communicated by Signior ▪ Fracassari , in a Letter written from Oxford , October the 19th , 1667. New Experiments concerning the Relation between Light and Air , ( in shining Wood and Fish ) in a Letter from Oxford to the Publisher of the Philosophical Transactions of January the 6th , 1668. A Continuation of the same Letter in the Philosophical Transactions of February the 10th , 1668. A Continuation of New Experiments , Physico-Mechanical , touching the Spring and Weight of the Air , and their Effects ; The first part . With a Discourse of the Atmospheres of Consistent Bodies , Oxford , 1669. An Invention for estimating the Weight of Water with ordinary Ballances and Weights , in the Phylosophical Transactions of August the 16th , 1669. Certain Philosophical Essays and other Tracts , a second Edition ; with a Discourse about the Absolute rest of Bodies , Quarto , London 1669. The first Edition had been published Anno 1662. New Pneumatical Experiments about Respiration , upon Ducks , Vipers , Frogs , &c. communicated in the Philosophical Transactions of August 8. 1670. A Continuation of the same Experiments in the Philosophical Transactions of September the 12th , 1670. Tracts : About the Cosmical Qualities of Things : The Temperature of the Subterraneal and Submarine Regions , and the bottom of the Sea ; together with an Introduction to the History of particular Qualities , 8vo . Oxford , 1670. Tracts : A Discovery of the admirable Rarefaction of the Air ( even without Heat : ) New Observations about the duration of the Spring of the Air. New Experiments touching the condensation of the Air by meer Cold , and its compression without Mechanical Engines , and the admirably differing extentions of the same Quantity of Air , rarified and compressed , Quarto , London , 1670. An Essay about the Origine and Virtues of Gems , Quarto , London , 1672. Some Observations about shining Flesh , both of Veal , and Pullet , and that without any sensible Putrefaction in those Bodies , communicated by way of Letter to the Publisher of the Philosophical Transactions , in the Transactions of December , the 16th , 1672. A new Experiment concerning an Effect of the varying Weight of the Atmosphere upon some Bodies in the Water , the Description whereof was presented to the Lord Broncker , Anno 1671. Suggesting a Conjecture , that the Alterations of the very Weight of the Air , may have considerable Operations , even upon Mens Sickness or Health , communicated in the Philosophical Transactions of February the 24th , 1673. Tracts : Containing new Experiments , touching the Relation between Flame and Air , and about Explosions . An Hydrostatical Discourse , occasioned by some Objections of Dr. Henry Moor , &c. to which is annexed an Hydrostatical Letter about a way of weighing Water in Water : New Experiments of the positive , or relative , Levity of Bodies under Water : Of the Air-Spring on Bodies under Water , and about the differing Pressure of heavy Solids and Fluids , Octavo , London , 1672 , 1691. Essays of the strange Subtilty , great Efficacy , and determinate nature of Effluviums ; to which are annexed new Experiments to make the parts of Fire and Flame , Stable and Ponderable , with Experiments about arresting and weighing of Igneous Corpuscles ; and a Discovery of the perviousness of Glass to ponderable parts of Flame , Octavo , London , 1673. A Letter of September the 13th , 1673. concerning Ambergreece , and its being a Vegetable Production , mentioned in the Philosophical Transactions of October , the 8th , 1673. Tracts : Observations about the Saltness of the Sea : An Account of the Statical Hyroscope , and its Uses , together with an Appendix about the force of the Air 's Moisture , and a Fragment about the Natural and Preternatural state of Bodies . To all which is premised a Sceptical Dialogue about the positive or privative Nature of Cold , Octavo , London , 1674 , 1691. A Discourse about the Excellency and Grounds of the Mechanical Hypothesis , occasionally proposed to a Friend , annexed to another , Entituled , The Excellency of Theology , compared with Natural Philosophy , Octavo , London , 1674. An Account of the two sorts of Helmontian Laudanum , together with the way of the Noble Baron F. M. Van Helmont ( Son to the famous John Baptista ) of preparing his Laudanum , communicated in the Philosophical Transactions of October the 26th . 1674. Tracts : Containing , 1. Suspicions about some hidden Qualities of the Air , with an Appendix touching Coelestial Magnets , and some other particulars . 2. Animadversions upon Mr. Hobbes's Problemata de Vacuo . 3. A Discourse of the Cause of Attraction by Suction , Octavo , London , 1674 , 1691. Some Physico-Theological Considerations about the possibility of the Resurrection , annexed to a Discourse , Entituled , The Reconciliableness of Reason and Religion , Octavo , London , 1674 / 5. A Conjecture concerning the Bladders of Air , that are found in Fishes , communicated by A. J. and illustrated by an Experiment , suggested by the Author in the Philosophical Transactions of April the 26th , 1675. A new Essay Instrument , invented and described by the Author , together with the Uses thereof , in 3 Parts . The first shews the Occasion of making it , and the Hydrostatical Principles 't is founded on . The second describes the Construction of the Instrument . The third represents the Uses ; which , as relating to Metals , are 1. To discover whether a proposed Guinea be true or Counterfeit . 2. To examine divers other Gold Coins , and particularly half Guinea's . 3. To examine the new English Crown pieces of Silver . 4. To estimate the Goodness of Tin and Pewter . 5. To estimate Alloys of Gold and Silver , and some other Metalline Mixtures . All this maketh up the Philosophical Transactions of June 21. 1675. Ten new Experiments about the weaken'd Spring , and some unobserved Effects of the Air , where occur not only several Trials to discover ; whether the Spring of the Air , as it may divers ways be increased , so may not by other ways than Cold , or Dilation be weakened , but also some odd Experiments to shew the Change of Colours producible in some Solutions and Precipitations by the Operation of the Air , communicated in the Philosophical Transactions of December 27th , 1675. An Experimental Discourse of Quicksilver , growing hot with Gold , English and Latin , communicated in the Philosophical Transactions of February 21. 1676. Experiments , Notes . &c. about the Mechanical Origin or Production of divers particular Qualities , amongst which , is inserted a Discourse of the Imperfections of the Chymists Doctrine of Qualities , together with some Reflections upon the Hypothesis of Alcali and Acidum , Octavo , London , 1676 , 1690. This Discourse comprehends Notes , &c. about the Mechanical Origine and Production of Cold. Of Heat . Of Tasts . Of Odours . Of Volatility . Of Fixtness . Of Corrosiveness . Of Corrosibility . Of Chymical Precipitation . Of Magnetical Qualities . Of Electricity . New Experiments about the superficial Figures of Fluids , especially of Liquors contiguous to other Liquors : likely to conduct much to the Physical Theory of the grand System of the World , communicated in the Philosophical Transactions of January , the 29th , 167 6 / 7 A continuation of the same Experiments in the Philosophical Transactions in February the 167 6 / 7. The Sceptical Chymist , or Chymico-Physical Paradoxes , touching the Experiments whereby Vulgar Spagyrists are wont to endeavour to evince their Salt , Sulphur and Mercury to be the true Principles of Things , to which in this second Edition are subjoyned divers Experiments and Notes about the Producibleness of Chymical Principles , Octavo Oxford , 1680 , 1690. A second Continuation of new Experiment Physico-Mechanical , in which , various Experiments , touching the Spring of the Air , either compressed or artificial , are contain'd , with a Description of new Engines to persorm them , 1680. The Aerial Noctiluca , or some new Phoenomena , and a Process of factitious Self-shining Substance , Octavo , London . The Glaical or Icy Noctiluca , with a Chymical Paradox founded on new Experiments , whence it may be made probable , that Chymical Principles may be converted one into another , Octavo , London , 1680. Memorials for the Natural History of Human Blood , especially the Spirit of that Liquor , London , 1684 Experiments and Considerations about the Porosity of Bodies , in Two Essays : The former of the Porousness of Animal Bodies ; The other of the Porousness of solid Bodies , Octavo , London , 1684. Short Memoirs for the Natural Experimental History of Mineral Waters , Octavo , 1685. An Historical Account of a strangely Self-moving Liquor , communicated in the Philosophical Transactions of November , the 26th , 1685. Of the Reconcileablness of Specifick Medicines , to the Corpuscular Philosophy , to which is annexed a Discourse about the Advantages of the use of simple Medicines , propos'd by way of Invitation to it , Octavo , London , 1685. An Essay of the great Effects of Languid and unheeded Motion . To which is annex'd an Experimental Discourse of some unheeded Causes of the Salubrity and Insalubrity of the Air and its Effect , Octavo , London , 1685 , 1690. A free Inquiry into the vulgarly receiv'd Notion of Nature , in an Essay address'd to a Friend , Octavo , London , 168 5 / 6. A Disquisition about the Final Causes of Natural Things . With an Appendix of some Uncommon Observations about vitiated Sight , Octavo , London , 1688. Medicina Hydrostatica : Or , Hydrostaticks , applied to the Materia Medica , shewing , How by the Weight that divers Bodies us'd in Physick , have in Water ; one may discover , whether they be Genuine or Adulterate . To which is subjoin'd , a previous Hydrostatical way of estimating Ores , Octavo , London , 1690. Experimenta & Observationεs Physicae ; wherein are briefly treated of several Subjects relating to Natural Philosophy in an Experimental way ; to which is added , a small Collection of strange Reports , in two Parts , Octavo , London , 1691. Medicinal Experiments : Or , a Collection of Choice Remedies , for the most part simple and easily prepared , Twelves , London , 1692. Price 1 s. Advertisements . Because among those that willingly read the Author's Writings , there are some that relish those most , ( as most suitable to their Genius , addicted to Religious Studies ) that Treat of Matters relating to Divinity : The Publisher thinks fit to gratifie them with a Catalogue of those Theological Books that pass for Mr. Boyle's , because they were ascribed to him , and never positively disown'd by him ; tho' such of them as are mark'd with an Asterisk , come abroad without having his Name prefixt to them . SEraphic Love , five or six times Printed , but first Published in the Year 1660. Octavo . Considerations about the Stile of the Scripture , whereof the first Edition was Publish'd in the Year 1662. in English , and afterwards turn'd into , and several times Printed in Latin , Octavo . Occasional Reflections on several Subjects , with a Preliminary Discourse of the way of meditating there Exemplified ; First Publish'd in the Year 1665. and afterwards turn'd into Latin , but not yet Printed in that Language , Octavo . Of the Excellency of the Study of Theology , compared with that of Natural Philosophy . Printed in the Year 1674. Octavo . Considerations about the Reconcileableness of Reason and Religion . To which is annex'd a Discourse about the Possibility of the Resurrection . Printed in the Year 1675. Octavo . A Treatise of Things above Reason . To which are annex'd some Advices about Things that are said to transcend Reason . Printed in the Year 1681. in English , and afterwards Translated into Latin , but not yet Printed in that Language , Octavo . Of the Veneration that Man's Intellect owes to God. Printed in the Year 1685. The Martyrdom of Theodora , and of Didymus , London , 1687. The Christian Vertuoso : Shewing , That by being addicted to Experimental Philosophy , a Man is rather assisted , than indisposed , to be a good Christian . The First Part ; To which are subjoin'd , 1. A Discourse about the Distinction , that represents some Things as above Reason , but not contrary to Reason . 2. The first Chapters of a Discourse , Entituled , Greatness of Mind promoted by Christianity , Octavo , London , 1690. A Catalogue of new Physick Books Printed for Sam. Smith , at the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard . PHarmacopoeia Bateara . Quâ nonginta Circiter Pharmaca , plerâque omnia è. Praxi Georgii Batei Regi Carolo secundo Medici Primarii excerpta , ordine alphabetico concisè exhibentur . Quorum Nonnulla in Laboritorio Publico Pharmacopoeano Lond. fideliter parantur Venalia : Atque in usu sunt hodierno apud Medicos Londinenses . Editio Altera Priori multò Locupletior : Cum viribus ac dosibus annexis . Huic accesserunt Arcana Goddardiana ex Autographo Authoris desumpta . Item ad Calcem Orthotonia Medicorum Observata : Insuper & tabula Posologica Dosibus Pharmacorum accommodata . Cum Indice Morborum , Curationum , &c. Curâ J. S. Pharmacopoei Lond. In Twelves . 1691. Praxeos Mavernianae in Morbis internis Praecipue Gravioribus & Chronicis Syntagma ex Adversariis , Consiliis ac Epistolis ejus , summâ Curâ ac Diligentiâ concinnatum . Londini . In Oct. 1690. Phthisiologia seu Exercitationes de Phthisi Tribus Libris comprehen●ae . Totumque Opus variis Historiis illustratum . Autore Richardo Morton , Med. D. & Regii Collegii Medicor . Lond. Socio . Londini . In Octavo . 1689. Osteologia N●●a , or some New Observations of the Bones , and the Parts belonging to them , with the manner of their Accretion , and Nutrition , communicated to the Royal Society in several Discourses . I. Of the Membrane , Nature , Constituent Parts , and Internal Structure of the Bones . II. Of Accretion , and Nutrition , as also of the Affections of the Bones in the Rickers , and of Venereal Nodes . III. Of the Medulla , or Marrow . IV. Of the Mucilaginous Glands , with the Etiology or Explication of the Causes of a Rheumatism , and the Gout , and the manner how they are produced . To which is added , A Fifth Discourse of the Cartilages . By Clopton Havers , M. D. Fellow of the Royal Society . London . In Octavo . 1691. Synopsis Methodica S●irpium Britannicarum , in quatum Notae generum Characteristicae traduntur , tum Species singulae breviter describuntur : Ducentae quinquaginta plus minus novae Species partim suis locis inseruntur , partim in Appendice seorsim exhi●entur . Cum Indice & Virium Epitome . Auctore Joanne Raio è Soceita●e Regia . Londini . In Octavo . 1690. Pharmacopoeiae Collegii Regalis Londini Remedia Omnia succinctè descripta , atque serie alphabeticâ ita digesta , ut singula promptius primo intuitu investigare possi●t , Editio Altera Priori Castigatior & Auctior : Huic Annexus est Catalogus Simplicium tum locupletior tum compendiosor quàm antehâc editus ; Accedit in Calce . Manuale ad forum nec non Pinax posographicus , Curâ Ja. Shipton , Pharmacop . Lond. In Twelves 1689. Richardi Morton , M. D. II PETOAOTIA , seu de Morbis Universalibus Acutis . Octavo . Lond. 1692. Gualt . Harris , M. D. De Morbis Acutis Infantum . Octavo . Lond. 1689. The Wisdom of God manifested in the Works of the Creation . In two Parts , viz. The Heavenly Bodies , Elements , Meteors , Fossils , Vegetables , Animals , ( Beasts , Birds , Fishes , and Insects , ) Of the Admirable Structure of the Bodies of Men and other Animals , and of their Generation , &c. Miscellaneous Discourses concerning the Dissolution and Changes of the World. Wherein the Primitive Chaos and Creation , the General Deluge , the Universal Conflagration and Future State are largely Discussed and Examined . Both Written by John Ray , Fellow of the Royal Society . In Octavo ▪ London , 1692. The Duty of Apprentices and Servants . Containing , 1. The Parents Duty , how to Educate their Children , that they may be sit to be employed and trusted . 2. The Servants Duty towards God , their Masters , and themselves . With suitable Prayers and Directions for the Worthy Receiving of the Holy Sacrament . By Richard Lucas , D. D. Vicar of St. Stephen's Coleman-street . London , 1692. The Plain Man's Guide to Heaven . Containing , 1. His Duty towards God. 2. Towards his Neighbour ; with proper Prayers , Meditatitions , and Ejaculations . Designed chiefly for the Country-man , Tradesman , Labourer , and such like . London , 1692. THE END . Imprimatur , May 3. 1693. Robert Southwell . P. R. S. Medicinal Experiments : OR , A COLLECTION OF Choice and Safe Remedies , For the most part Simple , and easily prepared : Useful in Families , and very Serviceble to Country People . By the Honourable R. BOYLE , Esq ; Fellow of the Royal Society . The Second Volume . CONTAINING About Three Hundred Receipts , Published from the Author 's Original Manuscripts , and by him Recommended to the Care of his Executors , and to be perused by some of his Learned Friends . Together with a large Preface , written by the Author 's own Hand . London : Printed for S. Smith , and B. Walford , at the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard . 1693. THE Author's PREFACE . THough Physick be not my Profession , yet I hope this small Collection of Receipts will not incur the Censure of Equitable and Charitable Persons , tho' divers of them are professed Physicians , since as I was induc'd to what I had done by the Dictates of Philanthropy and Christianity , so I was warranted by great Examples , both in Ancient Times , and in ours . Of the former sort , I might take notice of several of the old Philosophers , such as Democritus , Pythagoras , to which some add Aristotle ; and even divers Monarchs and great Men of those Times ; such as Jubar , King of Mauritania ; another King , Nechepsos , cited by Galen * , Cato , Pliny , &c. And of the second sort , not only by the last Age , and the first part of our own , but by very late Times , and in a Neighbouring Nation , whose Customs we are wont sufficiently to esteem and imitate , we may be furnish'd with Examples to our present purpose . For the French King himself , who has rais'd the Majesty of a Crown'd Head so high , did not think it beneath the Grandeur of so great a Monarch to Order the Publication of the English Remedy , as the French called the Peruvian Bark , which at a great Rate he Purchased from Talbor , an English Emperick , Famous for his many and speedy Cures of Quartans , and other Agues . By the Authority of the same Prince , who has been a great Encourager of divers parts of Learning , there has been some Years since setled at Paris a Society or Assembly of Physicians , Chirurgeons , and others , whose main Business is to keep Correspondency in several Parts , and receive Informations of the Novelties that occur about Diseases , and impart to the Publick such as they shall think worthy and seasonable ; which Communications consist not only of new Discoveries , odd Cases , Speculations , and Observations , but of Receipts and Processes of Remedies , Printed for the most part in French , the common Language of the People . Divers of which Remedies , have upon Tryal been found useful , as well in England as in France . There has been also lately in that Kingdom a Book Printed more than once , that makes yet more for my purpose . For there has been publish'd in the French Tongue a large Collection of Receipts , for almost all Diseases , plac'd in Alphabetical Order ; and thô these Receipts are Circumstantially delivered in the Mother-Tongue of the People , yet they came not forth without the License or Authority of the Faculty of Physick , and were ( at least the first Tome ) so well receiv'd and approv'd , that in divers places the respective Bishops authorized them by their Publick Approbation , and recommended them upon the Account receiv'd , or the good Effects they had produc'd both to the other Charitable Persons , and to the Curates ( or Parish Priests ) in their Diocesses . In complying with the desires of many , and with the Dictates of Philanthropy , I hope I may procure my Medicinal Receipts and Processes the more favourable Reception , if I shew that I might justly have a peculiar and personal Repugnancy to this Work. For many may think it strange , as I my self have been prone to do , that I should presume to recommend Medicines to others , who for divers ▪ Years have been so infirm and sickly my self . And some 't is like will upbraid me with Medicoe Curateipsum . But on this occasion , I may represent , that being the thirteenth or fourteenth Child of a Mother , that was not above 42 or 43 Years old when she dyed of a Consumption , 't is no wonder I have not inherited a robust , or healthy Constitution . Many also have said , in my Excuse , as they think , that I brought my self to so much sickliness by over-much Study . But I must add , that thô both the sorementioned Causes concur'd , yet I impute my infirm Condition more to a third , than to both together . For the grand Original of the Mischiefs that have for many Years afflicted me , was a fall from an unruly Horse into a deep place , by which I was so bruised , that I feel the bad Effects of it to this day . For this Mischance happening in Ireland , and I being forc'd to take a long Journey , before I was well recovered , the bad Weather I met with , and the as bad Accommodation in Irish Inns , and the mistake of an unskilful or drunken Guide , who made me wander almost all Night upon some Wild Mountains , put me into a Fever and a Dropsie , ( viz. an Anasarca : ) For a compleat Cure of which I past into England , and came to London ; but in so unlucky a time , that an ill-condition'd Fever rag'd there , and seiz'd on me among many others ; and thô through God's goodness , I at length recovered , yet left me exceeding weak for a great while after ; and then for a farewel , it cast me into a violent Quotidian or double Tertian Ague , with a sense of decay in my Eyes , which during my long Sickness I had exercis'd too much upon Critical Books stuft with Hebrew , and other Eastern Characters : I will not urge that divers have wondred that a Person in such bad Circumstances has by the help of Care and Medicines ( for they forget what ought to be ascrib'd to God ) should be able to hold out so long against them . But this after the foregoing Relation may well be said , that it need be no great wonder , if after such a train of Mischiefs , which was succeeded by a Scorbutick Cholick that struck into my Limbs , and deprived me of the use of my Hands and Feet for many Months , I have not enjoy'd much Health , notwithstanding my being acquainted with several Choice Medicines ; especially since divers of these I dare not use , because by long sitting , when I had the Palsie , I got the Stone , voiding some large ones ( as well as making bloody Water ) and by that Disease so great a tenderness in my Kidneys , that I can bear no Diureticks , thô of the milder sort , and that I am forc'd to forbear several Remedies for my other Distempers , that I know to be good ones , and among them divers , that by God's Blessing , I have successfully try'd on others . This short Narrative may , I hope , suffice to shew that my Personal Maladies and Sickliness cannot rightly infer the inefficacy of the Medicines I impart or recommend , and if it shew That , it will do all that was aim'd at by this Representation . If some Receipts or Processes ( for I hope they will not be many ) should happen to be met with in the following Collection , that may be also found either in some Printed Book or other , 't is hop'd an indulgent Reader will either excuse or pardon that Venial fault , especially if we consider , First , That neither Physick nor Chymistry being my Profession , I did not think my self oblig'd to peruse any store of Medicinal Books , and therefore may well be suppos'd to be unacquainted with a great many of them , much more with many of their Receipts and Processes . And indeed I find by some of the later Printed Catalogues of Books written about the Physicians Art , that there is a multitude of them , which when I wrote , I had never seen , or perhaps so much as heard of . Secondly , That 't is so usual for Authors , especially that Write either Systems or Collections , to set down store of Prescriptions dictated by their Conjectures , not their Tryals , and yet without giving a distinct Character of almost any of them in particular : That if I had met there with some of the same that I am speaking of , I should not have selected them from a great number of other undistinguish'd ones ; and 't is easie to observe that there is a great deal of difference betwixt being told by an Author that many things , and among the rest , but not before them , this or that Drug , Receipt is good for such a Disease , and to have particular notice given of it , and not only to be confirm'd that 't is good , but to be told how good it is , and possibly also that it may be usefully employ'd in other Distempers besides those for which 't is prescrib'd in the Printed Book . The most of these Receipts are intended chiefly for the use of those that live in the Country , in Places where Physicians are scarce if at all to be had , especially by Poor People . And because very frequently a Labouring-Man , or a Handicrafts Man , or some Tradesman has a whole Family depending upon him , being maintain'd by his Pains and Industry , and yet is disabled to help himself and them , not by any Internal Disease , but by External , and often-times Accidental Maladies ; such as Bruises , Strains , Cuts , Tumors , Aches , Burns , and the like , I have been careful to furnish this final Collection with a pretty number of good Receipts , obtain'd most of them from able Surgeons and Practitioners for those External Accidents , that those poor Upholders of Families , who cannot find or Fee a Surgeon or a Doctor , may be cheaply reliev'd without either of them . The INDEX . A. APoplexy Page 1. Aches 2. 122 Ach or Strain 2 Ach Scorbutical 2 , 3. 3 , 4 Aches and pricking pains 5 Anasarca ibid. Agues 6 , 7. 7. 9 Aguish Distempers 7 Ague Plaister 8 Agues Tertian 10 Ague Quartan 11 Acidities in the Stomach 12 Asthma 12 , 13. 41 Anodyne Clyster 89 Arthritick Pains 95. 122 Affections of the Nerves 120 Aloetick Pills 121 B. BReathing difficult 14 Breasts flaggy 16 Bruise 16 , 17. 141 Blood to stanch 18 , 18. 21 , 22 Blood extravasated 20 Burns 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 25 Burns and Scalds 24 Blisters to draw 26 , 27 , 28 Breast affected with Cold Page 33 Bloody-flux 49. 49. 81 , 82 , 83 , 83 , 84. 86. 178 Blood-shot Eye 54. 56. 59 Biting of Mad Dogs 119 Biting of Vipers 177 Balsam for Wounds 179 Bloody Water 188 C. COnvulsive Asthma 13. 41 Cholick Scorbutick 15 Contusion 16. 31 Coagulated Blood 17 Costiveness 29. 41 Cancer in the Breast 29 Chilblains 31 Consumption 32. 35 Colds 33 Coughs 34 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 36 Corns 37 , 38 , 38 , 39 Convulsive Fits 39 , 40 Convulsions 42. 79 Cholick 42 , 43 , 43 , 44 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47. 149 Cramp 47 , 48 Contusion of the Eye 52. 60. 73. 136 Clouded Eyes 68 Clyster Anodyne 89 Children Griped 90 Contractures 117. 130 Courses stopt Page 172 Cuts and Wounds 183 Clyster for Fluxes 190 D. DRopsie Anasarca 5 Distemper Aguish 7 Difficulty of Breathing 14 Drink for Cholicks 43 Dropsie 48 Dysentery 49. 49. 81 , 82 , 83. 83 , 84. 86. 178 Digestive 50 Diabetes 51. 172 Diarrhoea 51 Defluxions on the Eyes 65 , 66 , 69 , 72 Drink for Fevers 80 , 81 Drink to correct sharp Humors 101 Dulness of Hearing 102 Drink for the sight 137 Drink for the Stone 145 E. EXtravasated Blood 20 Expectoration 36 Eye contused 52. 60. 73 Eye Blood-shot 54. 59 Eye-sight to preserve 55. 74. 134. 138. 186 Eye-Water 56. 58. 62. 64. 67. 67. 70. 76. 135. 138. 186 Erysipelas 57 Eye Medicament 60 Eye-lids pained Page 63 Eye clouded 68 Eye Rheumatick 65 , 66. 69. 72 Eye-Plaister 72 Electuary for the sight 74 Epilepsie 77. 79. 191 Elixir Salutis 78 Excoriation 133 F. FLaggy Breasts 16 Fits of the Mother 44 Flux bloody 49. 49. 81 , 82 , 83 , 84. 86 Flux common 51. 83 , 84. 86. 190. 192 Films in the Eyes 64. 75 Falling-sickness 77. 79. 191 Fevers 80 Flux of the Whites 84 Fundament falling 87 French Pox 123 G. GAngreen 88 Griping of the Guts 89 Gripes 90. 139 Gargle 91. 91 Gout 93 , 94 , 95 , 96. 99. 122 Gunpowder to remove 134 Gravel 145 Gums Scorbutick 156 Gonorrhoea 92 , 93. 98 H. HEart-burnings Page 12 Hysterical Vapours 40 Hydropsie 48 Humor in the Eye 52. 58 Hurts in the Eye 61. 77 Head pouder 100 Hearing hurt 102 Haemorrhoids 102 , 103 , 103 , 104 , 104 , 105 , 106 , 106 , 107 , 107 , 108 , 109 , 109 , 110. 121 Hollow aching Tooth 153 Humor of the Kings-Evil to correct 189 I. INcontinency of Urine 51 Itch in Hands , &c. 111. 167 Jaundies Yellow 112 , 112 , 113 , 114 K. KIngs-Evil 115. 189 , 190. Kidneys pained 115 Kidneys stopped 116 L. LOoseness 51 Laxation of a Part 123 Liquor for Ulcers and Wounds 175 Lime-Water to make 188 M. MOther-Fits 44 Milk to increase 117 , 118 Mad Dogs Biting Page 119 Marks of Gunpowder to remove 134 Mouth sore 168 Menses stopt 172 N. NUrses Milk to increase 117 , 118 Nerves affected 120 O. OLD Aches 2 Ophthalmick Water 55 Ophthalmia 56. 59. 74 Oyntment for the Gout 94 Obstinate Tumor of the Knee 161 P. PRicking pains 5 Plaister for Agues 8 Plaister for Corns 37 , 38 , 38 , 39 Pain in the Side 5. 46 Pearl in the Eye 54 Pain in the Eye-lids 63 Pericarpium 68 Phlyctena in the Eye 71 Plaister for the Eyes 72 Piles 102 , 103 , 103 , 104 , 104 , 105 , 106 , 106 , 107 , 107 , 108 , 109 , 109 , 110. 121 Pains Scorbutick 116. 122 Pills of Aloes 121 Palsie Page 124 , 125 , 126 Pimples in the Eye-lids 127 Pleurisy 127 , 128 Pouder for the sight 136 Pissing Blood 188 Q. QUartan Ague 11 R. REcent Burn 24 , 25 Redness of Eyes 64 , 66 Running of the Reins 92 , 93 , 98 Running Gout 97 Rheumatism 125. 130 Rest to cause 131 Recent Strain 141 , 141 , 143 , 143 , 144 Retention of Urine 171 , 171 S. SCorbutical Aches 2 , 3 , 3 , 4 Strain 2 Sides pained 5. 46 Scorbutick Cholick 15 Stanching Blood 18 , 18 , 19. 21 , 22 Styptick Water 19. 21 , 22 Scalding 24 , 25 Specifick for Cholicks 44 , 44 Solution of continuity in the Eye 61 Sight to strengthen 55. 74. 134. 138. 186 Scorbutick Gout 97 Sharp Humors Page 101 Specifick for the Jaundies 113 Scorbutick Pains 116. 122 Small Pox 129 Scurvy 132. 157 Skin rough 133 Stomach to strengthen 139 , 139 Stomach-Plaister 140 Strains 141 , 141. 143 , 143 , 144 Stone 144 , 145 , 145 , 146 , 147 , 147 , 148 , 149 , 150 , 192 Sore Throat 162 , 162 , 163 , 164 , 164 , 165 , 165 , 166 T. TErtian Ague 10. 10 Tumor in the Eye 71 Tooth-ach 150 , 151 , 152 , 152 , 153. 158 Teeth to fasten 154 , 154. 155 , 156. 156 , 157 , 157. 158 , 158 Tumors to ripen 159 Tumors in the Throat 160 Tumor of the Knee 161 Throat sore 162 , 162 , 163 , 164 , 164 , 165 , 165 , 166 Tettars 167 Thrush in Children 168 Tenesmus 169 Terms stopt 172 V. VApours Hysterical Page 40 Urine sharp 170. 172 Urine stopt 171 , 171. 173 , 173 , 174 Urine running away 172 Vomiting 175 Ulcers 175 , 176 , 176 Vipers biting 177 Voiding Blood 178 W. WRist-Plaister for Agues 8. 68 Womens Breasts flaggy 16 Water Ophthalmick 55 , 56. 58. 62. 64. 67 , 67. 70. 76. 135. 138. 186 Whites in Women 84. 185 Weakness in the Hands 125 Wounds 175. 179 , 179. 183 Wound Drink 180 Worms in Children 184 Ulcer of the Womb 185 Whitloe 187 Warts 187 A COLLECTION OF Choice Remedies . The Second Volume . A. 1. A Powerful Remedy in Apoplectick Fits. TAke the Herb Mastick , and distil by an Alembick with a Copper Body an Essential Oyl , of which with such a Pipe or Quill that one end may be open'd and stopt at pleasure , ( the other still remaining open ) blow up some drops , first into one of the Patient's Nostrils , and a while after into the other . 2. A good Plaister for Aches , especially Scorbutical . SPread thinly upon Slinck or very fine Kids-Leather the Emplastrum de Mucilaginibus , and let it lye upon the aching Part as long as there is need . 3. For an Old Ach or Strain . TAke of Lucatella's Balsam one Ounce , of Oyl of Turpentine one Dram , incorporate them very well with a gentle heat , and anoint the Part affected therewith , wearing on it a piece of unwash'd Flannen besmear'd with the same Oyntment . 4. For Scorbutick Aches , especially about the Share-bone . TAke two parts of Palm-Oyl , and one of Oyl of Camomile , ( to which if you please you may add a little Oyntment of Elder ) mix these exactly , and anoint the Part affected . 5. A Powerful Remedy for Scorbutick Aches . TAke to one Ounce of Oyl of Turpentine , one Dram or two of the Volatile Salt of Harts-horn , or as much as being well ground with it in a Mortar of Glass or Marble , will bring it to the consistence of a kind of Oyntment , with which , the cold being taken off , the Part affected is to be lightly anointed . 6. A very easie Medicine for light Scorbutick Aches or Pains . ANoint the pained Part from time to time with fasting-spittle ; and if you will have the Medicine a little stronger , the Patient may put Roch Allom to the bigness of a small Pea into his mouth , before he employs his Spittle . 7. For Aches and pricking Pains in the Sides and elsewhere . WIth a sufficient quantity of clean Sulphur finely pouder'd , mix diligently as much Venice-Treacle as will bring it to a consistence for Pills . Of this Mixture you may give the quantity of a Pistol-bullet twice , or at most , thrice a day , drinking any convenient Liquor after it . 8. An Experienc'd Medicine for an Anasarca , or General Dropsie of the whole Body . FRY freshly-gather'd Rue with Oyl of Walnuts , till it become fit to be applyed hot as a Cataplasm or Pultice to the Navil ; and keep it on that part for some hours , renewing it once or twice a day , if need require . 9. An External Medicine often successfully try'd for Agues . TAke 5 , 7 , or 9 ( for 't is pretended it must be an odd Number ) of the Roots of Ribwort , and having made them clean , put them into a little Bag of Sarsnet or fine Linnen , and let the Patient wear it upon the nape of his Neck , renewing it within 2 , 3 , or 4 days if need require . 10. A try'd Remedy for Agues . TAke of the Bark of Sassafras-Root , and of Virginian Snakeweed , both in pouder , of each 10 Grains , and with half a Dram , or two Scruples of Mithridate or Venice-Treacle , or as much as will give it a due consistence , make a Bolus to be taken at the usual hours . 11. A Choice Medicine for Aguish Distempers . TAke of Salt of Wormwood 15 Grains , Crabs-eyes , or Pouder of Crabs Claws simple 8 or 10 Grains ; mix these well , and give them in two or three Spoonfuls of some Cordial Water . 12. An Excellent Wrist-Plaister for Agues . TAke Wax , and spread it to about the thickness of a Crown Piece of Silver , and of a convenient breadth and length to make an entire Wrist-Plaister ; up-this spread and display as well as you can the Leaves of the tops of Rue , not yet fully open'd by time , so that they may cover the whole Plaister as well as you can make them do it . Then apply this Emplaster , and let it lye on for several days consecutively . 13. An often-try'd Medicine for Agues . TAke Ribwort , gather the leaves as near the Root as you can in a dry Morning , wipe them clean , but do not wash them ; then dry them carefully , till you may reduce them to Pouder : Of this Pouder give from one Dram to two at most , mixt with one Dram of Conserve of Roses , or the Crumbs of White-bread , or the Yolk of an Egg or two . N. B. You may before you dry the Leaves , distil a Water out of some of them , and make an Extract out of others with Spirit of Wine , or which is better , with Spirit of Dew . They are both good for the same Disease that the Pouder is . The Dose of the Water is one Ounce , or an Ounce and half at the usual times . And that of the Extract about one Dram in some Ounces of White-wine . 14. An Excellent Medicine for Agues , especially Tertians . GIve as much of well-condition'd Virginian Snake-Root reduc'd to fine Pouder , as will lye upon a Shilling , in a Cup of Sherry just before the beginning of the cold Fit , repeating it once or twice if it need to be us'd oftner . 15. For a Tertian Ague . TAke of the Root of Angelica grated , or otherwise made into Pouder , and give of it from half a Dram to a Dram in any convenient Vehicle at the usual times ( viz. about two hours before the Cold Fit. ) 16. A Medicine with which a Quartan was cur'd , that could not be cured with the Jesuits Bark . TAke one Dram of the black tips of Crabs Claws , and having reduc'd them to exceeding fine Pouder , let the Patient take it in any convenient Vehicle or Conserve , twice or thrice , as he would take the Cortex , without intermitting any day . 17. An easie Remedy , which long continued does much destroy Acidities , or Heart-burnings in the Stomach . TAke half a Dram at least of finely pouder'd red Corral , and give it from time to time in any convenient Vehicle , till the Patient be reliev'd . 18. A very often try'd Remedy for the Asthma . TAke Soap-boilers Lees ( made with Pot-Ashes and Quick-lime ) one part , Spirit of Wine rectify'd two parts ; set them in Digestion , ( to unite them well ) and then add some drops ( at discretion ) of Chymical Oyl of Carraways , and if you please , of Aniseeds too . The Dose in younger Persons is about 10 drops , in elder ones , from half a Dram to one Dram in some convenient Vehicle . 19. An Excellent Medicine for a dry or Covulsive Asthma . TAke choice Saffron , reduce it ( by rubbing it in a Stone or Glass Mortar ) to a kind of Pouder , and with any convenient Mixture give 8 or 10 Grains of it in the form of Pills at Bed-time . B. 20. An Experienc'd Remedy for Difficulty of Breathing . TAke of choice Castoreum dry'd enough to be pouder'd , 2 , 3 , or at most 4 Grains , mix this with 10 or 11 Grains of Gasgoin's Pouder reduc'd to very fine Pouder ; mix up these with some little Syrup or Conserve , and when the Patient has taken it , let him wash it down with the Mixture , consisting of five Drams of Pennyroyal-water , and half a Dram , or at most two Drams of Briony-Water Compound . 21. An Approved Medicine for Inveterate Scorbutick Cholicks , and Pains of the Bowels . TAke English Barley , and having well wash'd it , boil it in a sufficient quantity of fresh Spring-water till it be just ready to burst : Then pour off the clear upon the yellow part of the Rinds of Lemmons , freshly cut off from the white part , and put them into a Bottle , which being carefully stopt , the Liquor is to be kept so for use , which is , that the Patient make it his constant Drink . 22. To reduce flagy Breasts to a good shape and consistence . TAke green Hemlock well bruis'd , and reduc'd to a kind of Cataplasm or Pultise , which is to be apply'd ( the Cold being first taken off ) to the Parts 't is to work upon , and to be kept on till it hath perform'd what was intended , shifting it once a day . 23. An easie , but useful Remedy for a fresh Bruise or Contusion . TAke fresh Butter and Parsley , of each a sufficient quantity , and having chopt the Herb , mix it very well with the Butter , to the consistence of a Cataplasm , ( which is to be apply'd warm ) to the newly bruised Part. 24. For Coagulated Blood , or a Bruise . TAke black soft Soap , and with a sufficient quantity of soft Crumbs of white-bread very well mixt with it , make a Paste , which is to be laid on the Part with a linnen Rag , and kept bound upon it for some hours , that it may have time to resolve the congealed Blood , and bring the contused Part from a livid to a red colour , which will much hasten and facilitate the restoring it to its former state . 25. To stanch Blood falling from the Nose , by a Simple held in ones hand . LET the Patient hold Knot-grass and Solomon's Seal in his hand till it grow warm there , or longer if need be . 26. An Excellent Remedy to stanch Blood in any part of the Body . TAke Plantane-water two Ounces , Barley-Cinnamon-water , six Drams , Spirit of Vinegar one Ounce , Dragons-blood half a Dram , Syrup of Myrtles five Drams ; mix and make a Julep , of which let the Patient take three spoonfuls every hour . 27. The Styptick Water for stopping of Blood in any part of the Body . TAke one Pound of Excellent Quick-lime , and put it into a clear Earthen Pot , pour upon it five or six Pounds of Fountain-Water , cover the Pot close , and let it lye to infuse about an hour without touching it , then after stir it with a stick for a little time ; then let it lye as before for 24 hours , sometimes stirring it , in the end you shall let it settle to a Sediment , the Water being very clear above , pour it off by inclination without stirring : Take of this Water one Pound , which being put into a Vial , you shall add to it a Dram and half of Sublimate finely pouder'd , then shake very well all together , so that the Pouder may dissolve , and be of an Orange colour , or more reddish than yellow , and in the end clear and limpid , because the red Powder will praecipitate to the bottom . Your Water being clarify'd , you must separate the Water from the Grounds into another Vessel , without troubling the Sediments ; and to the Water you shall add one Dram of Oyl of Vitriol , and an Ounce of Saccharum Saturni . Shake all together , that they may mix the better , afterwards let all settle , and pour off the clear Water , and keep it for your use . 28. A Choice Medicine to resolve extravasated Blood. GRate or Rasp the Root of Burdock , and spreading the pouder upon a Linnen Cloath , bind it quite round the Part affected , renewing it twice a day . 29. To make an Excellent Styptick for stanching of Blood. TAke Hungarian Vitriol , Allom , of each half a Pound , Phlegm of Vitriol ten Pounds : Boyl to a dissolution of the Vitriol and Allom ; being cold , filter it through brown Paper , and if any Crystals shoot , separate the Liquor from them , adding to each Pound one Ounce of Oyl of Vitriol . Dip Cloaths into this Liquor , and apply them to the Part affected . 30. An often try'd Styptick to stanch Blood , especially in Wounds . TAke Colcothar as it comes out of the Retort , and having pouder'd it , roll Tents of Lint in it , and apply them to the Orifices of the greater Vessels , and employ other usual means to compress the Vessel upon the Tent , and to fill the Cavity of the Wound , partly with Colcothar too . 31. A very often Experienc'd Remedy for Burns . TAke two parts of Oyl of Walnuts , and one of Honey , mix them well together over a gentle Fire , and when they are thorowly incorporated , dip a Feather in the Mixture , and anoint therewith the Part affected , so as the Oyntment may touch it immediately , and then strew on it some Pouder of Ceterarch , or Spleen-wort , and keep the Part quiet , and defend it from the Air. 32. An easie Medicine , and common enough , but useful against Burns . TAke Onions , and beat them into a soft Mass , and apply them as speedily as you can to the Part affected , and keep them on it , till they begin to grow dryish , and then if need be , shift them , and apply fresh ones . 33. For a Recent Burn. TAke Onions a sufficient quantity , and beat them very well with common Salt finely pouder'd into a Mash , that may be applyed as a Cataplasm ( the Cold being first taken off ) to the Part affected , and renewing it , if need be , till the impression of the Fire be taken out . 34. An Excellent Oyntment for Burns and Scaldings . TAke of the inner Rind of Elder-Tree , and of fresh Sheeps dung , without any adhering straws or foulness , of each one Handful , and with fresh Butter or Oyl make thereof an Oyntment , to be applyed as is usual in such Distempers . 35. An easie and approv'd Remedy for Burns , especially Recent ones . TAke a sufficient quantity of Adders-Tongue , and boil it softly in Linseed-Oyl till the Liquor be strongly impregnated with the Herb , then strain it , and keep it stopt for use . 36. An Excellent Oyntment for Burns and Scaldings . TAke of Saccharum Saturni half a Dram , of the sharpest Vinegar four Ounces , make a solution of the former in the latter , and add to this Solution drop by drop ( often stirring or shaking them together ) as much Oyl of Elder as will serve to reduce the Mixture into the form of a Nutritum or Oyntment . 37. A slow but innocent way of making Blisters without Cantharides . TAke Crows-foot , and putting to a handful of it about half a spoonful of Mustard ; beat them very well together to the consistence of a Poultise , put this to the thickness of ones little Finger into the cover of a Box , cut shallow , and of about the breadth of the Palm of ones Hand ( tho' this cover be less necessary than convenient ) and cutting a hole of the wideness of the Box in a Plaister of Diapalma or the like , to make it stick , you must apply it to the Part , and let it lye on 12 or 14 hours , because it works as well more slowly than Cantharides , as more safely and innocently . 38. A good Medicine to raise Blisters . TAke Cantharides reduc'd into Pouder , and upon half an Ounce of this put two or three Ounces of good Spirit of Wine , let them lye together four or five days , that the Spirit may acquire a good Tincture , then filter it , and dip into it a piece of Linnen Cloath 6 , 7 , or 8 times double , and of the figure and largeness that you desire . This Cloath being throughly wetted and cover'd with a Melilot Plaister , or one of Diachylum , or some other that will stick , to keep it on , must be applyed to the Part. At the end of five or six hours you may take off your Plaister , and the Linnen Cloath , and find your work done . 39. To raise a Blister without Cantharides . THE Seed of Clemmatis Peregrina being bound hard upon any part , will in an hour , or at most two , have an Operation , like that of another Vesicatory , as far as its contact reaches . C. 40. An Vseful Medicine for Costiveness . TAke Virgin. Honey a sufficient quantity , and mix exactly with it as much finely pouder'd Cremor Tartari as will suffice to bring it to the consistence of a somewhat soft Electuary , of which the Patient may take upon the point of a Knife the bigness of an Almond ( more or less ) as upon tryal you shall see cause . 41. For a Cancer in the Breast . TAke of the Warts that grow on the hinder Legs of a ( Stone ) Horse , dry them gently , till you can reduce them to a Pouder , of which you may give half a Dram for a Dose in any convenient Vehicle . 42. A Potent Medicine for Contusions , and divers other Affections . TAke Alcohole of Wine , and dissolve in it as much pure Camphire as you easily can , and keep it very close stopt , till you have occasion to use it . Then moisten thorowly with it some thin pieces of Linnen or fine Flannel , and apply them luke-warm ; and likewise you may with a rag dipt in it apply it to the Eye-lids , having a care that none of it get into the Eye it self , since there it would cause great smart . It may also be very usefully apply'd to Burns , and yet more to Contusions . 43. A try'd Medicine for Chilblanes . TAke pretty thick Parings freshly cut off from Turnips , and hold them to the fire till they be very crisp , then apply them to the unbroken Tumors or Blisters , as hot as the Patient can endure it , and keep them on a competent time , and put on new if need require . They will cause the peccant Matter to transpire , or otherwise waste without breaking the Blisters . 44. To make a very Nourishing Aliment , that hath recover'd divers in Consumptions . TAke 8 or 10 Craw-fishes , ( or , if they be not of the larger size , a dozen ) boil them ( after the blackest Gut or String is taken out ) in Barley-water , till they become very red , then take them out , and beat them long , Shells and all , in a Marble or Glass Morter , to a soft Mash , and in a Press strongly squeeze out the Juice ; which may be given either alone , or mixt with about an equal part of Chicken-Broth , or some such convenient Alimental Liquor . 45. A Vulgar but often Approv'd Medicine for a Cold , especially that affects the Breast . TAke a Sheet , or half a Sheet pro re nata of brown Paper , of as even a Texture as you can get , and anoint it over evenly and very well with the eldest Tallow , or Candle-grease you can procure , so that the Paper may be thorowly penetrated by it . Then cover it thinly with Nutmeg , as you were to rub the Spice upon a Toast , and clap it warm to the Pit of the Stomach , that it may reach a good way both above it and beneath it . 46. An Experienc'd Medicine for Coughs . BOil good Turnips in Water , and having exprest the Juice , mix with it as much finely pouder'd Sugar-candy as will bring it into a kind of a Syrup , of which let the Patient swallow a little as slowly as he can from time to time . 47. A good Medicine for Asthmatick Coughs . TAke two Ounces of Oyl of sweet Almonds freshly drawn , and put them upon one Dram of Flowers of Brimstone , keep them for a fortnight in Digestion in a moderate heat , and then decant off the Oyl , or pass it through a clean Linnen Rag to keep back the Brimstone : Of this Liquor give a spoonful or two at a time . 48. An easie Medicine , which cur'd not long since a Gentlewoman that had taken much Physick for a Consumptive Cough . TAke 8 , 10 , or 12 well chosen Raisins of the Sun , and having slit them open , take out the little Kernels , and stuff the Raisins with the tops or small tender Leaves of Rue ; and let the Patient take them either as they are , or in the form of a Bolus or the like , pretty early in the Morning , fasting after them two or three hours at least , if he cannot conveniently fast till Noon . 49. A Potent Medicine ( for those that can bear it ) to ripen Coughs , and hasten the Expectoration of Phlegm . TAke Onions , cut them into slices , and fry them with fresh Butter , as if you were to eat them , then take them out of the Frying Pan , and boyl them in New Milk , till it be well impregnated with them , and they be made tender : Of this Mixture let the Patient take a moderate quantity from time to time . 50. An Excellent Remedy for a Cough . TAke of Virgin-Honey two Ounces , of red Roses warily dry'd and finely pouder'd half an Ounce , of choice Sulphur very well sifted two Drams , of good Benjamin reduc'd to fine Pouder one Dram. Beat and mix all these very well , and of this let the Patient take the Mixture from time to time . 51. A Plaister to prevent Corns . TAke yellow Bees-wax 4 Ounces , Verdigrise exactly pouder'd and sifted one Ounce , the Caput Mortuum of the Scull of a Man one Dram : Incorporate them well with boiling them a little , and make thereof a Plaister according to Art. 52. An Effectual Plaister for softning and loosening Corns . SPread a Plaister of Gum Ammoniacum ( not too thick ) without being dissolv'd in Vinegar , and applying it to the Part affected , let it lye on , till it have sufficiently done the designed work of Emolition . 53. A Powerful ( but smart ) Remedy for Corns . EVaporate the strongly exprest Juice of Radishes to the consistence of a soft Plaister , to be applyed to the Part affected , and shifted as often as it grows dry . N. B. 'T will sometimes smart for a while at first , but afterwards 't will do its work . 54. A good Remedy for Corns of the Feet . TAke the Yeast of Beer ( not Ale ) and spreading it upon a Linnen Rag , or other Cloath , apply it to the Part affected , renewing it once a day . 55. An Excellent Remedy that has cur'd many Children of Convulsive Fits. TAke two or three drops of ( Chymical ) Oyl of Rosemary , and put it into half an Ounce of Sack in an Ounce Bottle , stop the Vial , and let it be well shak'd to make a whitish Mixture of the Liquors just before you give it . Or else in a half-pint Bottle or Vial , put four Ounces of Sack , or some appropriated Liquor , and drop into it forty drops of the foremention'd Oyl ; and when-ever you are to give the Medicine , shake the Vial well stopt , and presently give of the whitish Mixture a Child's little spoonful . 56. A successful Medicine for Convulsive Fits , and Hysterical Vapours ( as they call them ) or Fits of the Mother . TAke the Liver of a Hare , ( if it hath been hunted , it may be the better ) and hang it up in a dry place till it be somewhat fryable , having a care that it putrifie not ; of this reduced to Pouder let the Patient take two or three Scruples at a time in any convenient Vehicle . 57. An Excellent Medicine for dry or Convulsive Asthma's , and also for Costiveness . GIve at Bed-time 8 or 10 Grains of choice Saffron pulveriz'd grosly in a little Syrup or Conserve , as of Violets , &c. to embody it with . 58. An Excellent Mixture for Fits of the Cholick , and some kinds of Convulsions . TAke one Ounce of Flowers of Sulphur , and as much Sugar-candy , grind them very well together in a Glass or Stone Mortar , and upon this quantity drop thirty drops of Oyl of Carraway-seeds , as much of Oyl of Orange , and as much of the Oyl of Aniseeds : Incorporate these well , and of the Mixture give about 20 or 30 grains for a Dose . 59. An incomparable Medicine for the Cholick . THE yellow Peel of Oranges , being reduc'd to Pouder , give from half a Dram to two Scruples of it in any convenient Vehicle . 60. To make a good Purging Drink for the Cholick . TAke two Ounces of Rhubarb , four Ounces of Gentian , and a quart of good Aniseed-water , let the Roots infuse along in it , and give the Patient about two spoonfuls at a time as often as need requires . 61. An almost Specifick Remedy for a Fit of the Cholick . TAke about half a Dram of express'd Oyl of Nutmegs ( usually sold in the Shops for East-Indian Oyl of Mace. ) Dissolve this in some spoonfuls of good Wine , which the Patient is to take as hot as conveniently he can . 62. An uncommon , but try'd Remedy for Cholicks , ( without much Matter ) and good in Fits of the Mother . TAke good Ginger dry , and instead of poudering it , cut it into as thin slices as you easily can : With these fill a Tobacco-pipe , and take the smoak as you would that of Tobacco . Do this twice , thrice , or four times a day , but especially at Bed-time , and in the Morning . 63. An Excellent Medicine for Convulsive Cholicks . TAke of the Volatile Salt of Pigeons-dung two or three Grains , or somewhat more ( not exceeding five or six in all ) mix these with a Scruple or half a Dram of the same Dung crude , but well and slowly dry'd , and finely pouder'd . Give this Mixture for one Dose in some spoonfuls of any convenient Vehicle . 64. For the Cholick , or Pains in the Sides . TAke two Balls of fresh Horse-dung , and infuse them for 12 hours ( if haste require , 3 or 4 may serve the turn ) in good White-wine in a close Vessel ; then strain the Liquor , and let the Patient take five or six Ounces of it at a time . 65. For the Cholick . BOyl about one Ounce of the Seeds of the black stinging Nettles in about a quart or more of good Claret-Wine ; then strain the Decoction , and give of it a Wine-glass full at a time , two or three times a day , or as often as need requires . 66. An Excellent Medicine for the Cholick . TAke of Doctor Stephens's Water half a Pint , Plague-water half a Pint , Juniper-Berry-water half a Pint , Pouder of Rhubarb 2 Ounces ; mingle these together , shake the Bottle when you take any of it , and take about four spoonfuls at a time . 67. For the Cramp . TAke the Leaves of Rosemary , chop them very small , and sew them so in fine Linnen or Sarsnet , as to make a kind of Garter of them , to be tyed about the Patient's bare Leg. 68. To take off the Pain of the Cramp . TAke of the Oyntment of Populeon two parts , Oyl of Spike one part ; mix them , and with the Mixture anoint well or chafe the Part affected . D. 69. A Remedy , by which an Hydropical Merchant was cur'd . GIve about half a Dram or two Scruples for a Dose of yellow transparent Amber twice or thrice a day in any convenient Vehicle . 70. An Experienc'd Medicine for a Dysentery , or Bloody-flux . GIve about three Ounces of the Juice of Ground-Ivy , mixt with one Ounce of the Juice of Plantane , once or twice a day . 71. For to stop a Dysentery , or Bloody-flux . USE the Pouder of Crepitus Lupi , or Fuss-balls , made up with some Conserve of Roses , or other convenient Additament into Pills . Of this Mixture give in Dysenteriâ , as much at a time , as contains from about a Scruple , to about half a Dram of the Pouder . 72. An easie , but very often try'd Digestive , to be used instead of Basilicum . TAke two Ounces of good Venice Turpentine , and incorporate very well with it the Yolks of two fresh Eggs , and then add to it ( at discretion ) a little Spirit of Wine ; with this dress the Part Morning and Evening , laying it on thicker , if the Part be near some Nerve , or other dryer Part , and less thick if it be fleshy or moist . 73. A good Medicine for Incontinency of Vrine , and the beginning a Diabetes . CUT off the Necks of well blown Sheeps-Bladders , of the remaining Membranes put up pretty store one over another into a cover'd Pot , where being dry'd gently , and yet sufficiently , in a Baker's Oven , take them out , and pulverize them well . The Dose is as much as will lye upon a large Groat , or small Sixpence . 74. For a Diarrhoea , Loosness , or Flux of the Belly . MIX up 15 Grains , or if the Distemper be but slight , 10 Grains , of pouder'd Rhubarb with half a Dram of Diascordium , and let the Patient take it either going to Bed , or early in the Morning after his first sleep . E. 75. For a Contusion of the Eye . TAke the Crumb of Whitebread , and diligently incorporate with black soft Soap as much of it as will make a somewhat soft Paste ; and then with your Thumbs make a little Cake ( as it were ) of it , and apply to the bruised Part , the Eye being first shut , and bind it so , that it may lye on for some hours , or a day if need be . But this ought to be used with Caution . 76. An Excellent Medicine for clammy Humors of the Eyes . TAke New Milk , and let it stand till it hath got a little Cream upon it , then let the Patient when he is in Bed , take up with his Finger a little of the Cream ( and not of Milk ) and shutting his Eye-lids , besmear his Eyes with it , having a care that very little or none get into his Eyes , because it would make them smart ; let this Cream lye on till the next Morning , and in case the Patient chance to wake in the Night , he may , if he finds cause , lay on a little more , and wash all off in the Morning . 77. A somewhat sharp but often try'd Medicine to take off the Pearl on the Eye . TAke of the Juice of Celandine , and mix with it about an equal part of pure Honey ; and of this Mixture employ a drop , or at most two , at a time , letting it fall upon the Part affected Morning and Evening . 78. An easie Remedy for a Recently Blood-shot Eye . TAke a rotten Apple , and as many tops of Wormwood , as being well beaten together with it will make a Mass of the consistence of a Cataplasm ; warm this a little , and put a sufficient quantity of it into a thin and clean Linnen Rag , and let the Patient keep it upon the Part affected all Night , the next Morning wash it off with some red Rose-water , or the like Liquor . 79. To make a choice Opthalmick Water to preserve the Eyes and Sight . TAke of the distill'd Water of Rue , Celandine , and Vervain , of each one Ounce ; mix them , and infuse in them two Drams of Crocus Metallorum exquisitely ground for a Week or Ten days ; then very carefully filter the Infusion , that none of the Atoms of Pouder pass thorow with the Liquor . Of this let fall into the Eye a drop or two , Morning and Evening , having a care not to shake the Glass , when you employ the Liquor , lest some unheeded dust may have escap'd the filter , and be rais'd . 80. For a slight Opthalmia , or Blood-shot Eye . SHake half a Dram of diligently prepar'd Tutty into an Ounce of red Rose-water , and drop it often into the Eye . 81. An Experienc'd Eye-water for an Inflammation and Tumor of the Eye . TAke of prepar'd Tutty half an Ounce , the Water of white Roses and of Frogs Spawn , and also of the best Canary Wine ( not distill'd ) of each two Ounces , of Aqua Mirabilis half an Ounce : Mix these well , and drop a very little at a time into the Patient's Eyes . 82. An odd and often try'd Medicine for an Eresipalas . TAke the Blood of a hunted Hare whilst 't is yet warm , and drench thorowly in it clean Linnen Rags , which are to be dry'd in the Wind or free Air , and then kept in a dry place for use : Lay a good piece of Linnen thus stain'd upon the Part affected , and either by binding it on , or covering it with some silken or other Cloath , whose edges have some sticking Plaister , keep it from falling off , and renew it from day to day , if there be need . N. B. If it grow too stiff with long keeping , you may soften it with a little sprinkling of fair Water . 83. An experienc'd Water for sharp and slimy Humors in the Eyes and Eye-lids . TAke of prepar'd Tutty half an Ounce , prepar'd Coral and Pearl of each half a Scruple , Trochisci-Albi Ras . five or six Grains , Red Rose-water , and Succory-water , of each an Ounce and half ; mix them well , and if you will have the Medicine stronger , you may put three or four Grains of Aloes into it . 84. A Choice Remedy for an Opthalmia , or Blood-shot Eyes . TAke of the Juice of Housleek two parts , Daisies and Ground-Ivy of each one part ; mix these Juices together , and to about two spoonfuls of the Mixture , put five or six drops of clarify'd Honey : Let the Juices depurate themselves by residence , and then in some small Silver Vessel clarifie them , and of this Mixture let fall a drop or two into the Eye three or four times a day . N. B. But if the Inflammation be not so great , but there is more need of Abstersion , use more of the Juice of Ground-Ivy , and less of that of Housleek . 85. For a light Stroke or Contusion of the Eye . TAke two Ounces of Bettony-water , and three drops of clarify'd Honey , mix them well together , and drop them into the Eye three or four times a day ; the Composition must be made fresh every second and third day . 86. A Potent but smarting Medicine for things growing on the Eye . TAke white Paper , and let it flame away upon a clean Pewter Platter , till there remain so much Oyl behind as you think you shall need ; blow off the Cinders of the Papers , and with a little of your Spittle mixt by your Finger with the Oyl , make up a kind of Oyntment ; which being taken up with a Feather , is to be apply'd once or twice a day , as need shall require , ( and as the Patient can well bear ) to the affected Eye : Which course is to be continu'd till the Cure be compleated . 87. For Hurts that make a Solution of Continuity in the Eye . TAke two Ounces of Celandine-Water , and put to it 2 , 3 , or 4 drops of good clarify'd Honey , enough to give the Water a faint tast : With this dress the Eye at least twice ( if not thrice ) a day . But the Mixture must be made fresh once in two or three days , or else it will grow sourish . 88. An Excellent and very often try'd Eye-Water , especially for outward Affections of the Eye . TAke of Plantane-leaves 4 Ounces , and of Strawberry-leaves as much ; Digest these for 24 hours in a Pound of good White-wine . Then distil them to dryness in a Glass Head and Body in a Balneo Mariae . The Liquor that is thus obtain'd put into a very clean Brass ( not Copper ) Vessel , and let it stand there for some hours , till it have acquir'd a manifest , but not a very deep blew Tincture , and then put to it ( when pour'd on ) an equal weight of White Rose-Water distill'd after the common way : Shake these together , and let fall one drop into the Internal corner of the Eye , the Patient stooping backward , and shutting his Eye-lids for a Minute or two , that the Water may disperse on the Eye , and that the quickness of the Liquor , which may make him weep , may the less prejudice him . 89. To make a Vseful Medicine for Pain or Itching in the Eye-lids , or on that account in the Eyes . TAke half a spoonful of French Barley ( after the first Water it was put into over the Fire is cast away ) and boyl it softly for a little while in a Pint of Spring-water , seasonably putting to it a good Pugil of dry'd Damask Rose-leaves . ( N. B. Sometimes you may add if you please a few Red Rose-leaves , or Melilot-flowers , or both . ) With this Liquor foment the Part with a soft Sponge for a pretty while , in the Morning , and at Night , having a care that it be apply'd pretty hot , or at least warm . 90. To make an Excellent Eye-Water for Redness and light Films , &c. upon the Eye . MAke some Lime-Water , by pouring a Gallon of Scalding-hot Water upon a Pound , or somewhat more of Quicklime ; stir them together , and after some hours decant warily that which is clear . And to a Pound of this Water put half an Ounce ( and no more ) of choice Verdigrise pulveriz'd : And in a very moderate heat extract a Tincture of a fine , but somewhat dilute , Saphirine colour , ( but it ought not to be too deep . ) Decant this very warily , and let a drop or two of it at a time fall into the Eye , as often as need requires . 91. An Excellent Remedy to stop a violent Defluxion on the Eye . TAke red Sage and Rue , of each one handful , a spoonful of fine Wheat-flower , and the white of a new-laid Egg beaten to Water , mix these very well , and spread them upon very thin Leather or black Silk , and apply it to the Temples ; 't is to be about the bigness of a Silver Crown at least . 92. An Excellent Remedy for Red Eyes , made such by a defluxion of a hot or sharp Humor . TAke of the tops of Rosemary about one Dram , and beat them up with one or two Ounces of rotten Pearmains or Pippins , or if those cannot be had , with the like weight of the soft part of the same Apples that are sound . And when by exquisite beating , you have reduc'd these things to a Cataplasm , apply them , the cold being first taken off , to the Part affected , binding it thereupon , and letting it lye all Night . 93. An Eye-Water . TAke House Snails , and beat them in their Shells , and stratifie them with about an equal quantity of Juice of Celandine ; draw off the Water in a cold or Pewter Still ( such as is us'd for Rose-Water ) and keep the Liquor that will come over close stopt for your use . 94. The Lady Fitz-harding's Eye-Water , which lately cur'd an almost blind Person , whose Eyes look'd like Glass . Lady Fitz-harding's Eye-water . TAke three spoonfuls of White Rose-Water , as much Eye-bright Water , and as much sifted White Sugar-candy as will lye on a Three-pence , and the same quantity of fine Aloes sifted and put to the Water , and shak'd together , and drop a few drops every Night going to Bed. 95. A Pericarpium , or Wrist-Plaister , that often-times frees the Patients from flying Clouds in the Eyes , and sometimes lesser specks , specially if Recent . TAke of Rue , Camomile , Hemlock , each half a handful , of Bay-Salt two spoonfuls , one or two Ounces of Leaven ; Incorporate these well together , and make thereof Pericarpia , to be apply'd to the Patient's Wrists , and kept on , till growing dry , they become troublesom . 96. An Excellent Medicine for hot Defluxions on the Eyes . TAke of prepar'd Tutty half an Ounce , White Rose-water and Frogs spawn-water carefully drawn in very good Canary Wine , of each two Ounces , of Aqua Mirabilis half an Ounce ; mix these well together , and let fall two or three drops into the Patient's Eye ( especially at Bed-time . ) 97. An easie but useful Eye-Water to keep the Eye cool and moderately dry . TAke to two Ounces of Succory-water half a Dram of prepar'd Tutty , shake them well , and keep them together for use . 98. An often try'd Pericarpium , or Wrist-Plaister for Defluxions and Fumes in the Eyes . TAke Rue , Camomile , Hemlock , Wormwood , of each half a handful , Bay-Salt pulveriz'd about two spoonfuls , sour Dough about an Ounce ; mix all these together very diligently , moistning them from time to time with Elder-Vinegar , to a consistence fit for Pericarpia , one of which is to be apply'd to the Wrist of that side on which the Part affected is , and to be renewed , if there be occasion . 99. For a Phlyctena or little Tumor in the Carneous Tunicle of the Eye . TAke the Decoction of Mucilages that is proper for Phlyctaea's , and dress the Eye from time to time , to ripen the Tumor : Then open it with a Lancet , and squeeze out all the Matter ; and lastly , cleanse and heal the Part with Honey . N. B. But when the Tumor is beginning , or not great , you may , in want of the Decoction of Mucilages , dress the Eye with the Mixture of equal parts of the Water of Melilot , Camomile , and Betony . 100. A Plaister to strengthen the Eyes , and stop Defluxions on them . TAke of Frankincense 2 Ounces , Olibanum and Mastich , each half a Dram ; mix these well , and reduce them into fine Pouder , of which a convenient quantity is to be melted and spread upon black Ribbon , or some such thing , with a hot Knife or Spatula , and so presently apply'd to the Temples . 101. An often Experienc'd Medicine for little Strokes or Contusions of the Eye . TAke Betony-water three Ounces , and five drops of clarify'd Honey , mix them , and drop a little of the Mixture from time to time into the Patient's Eye . N. B. Take Succory-water , Crumbs of White-bread , a little Saffron , and sometimes a little Honey , for sharp Humors in the Eye lids , and burns or small specks ( of the Eye ) four Grains of Roman Vitriol to four Ounces of Water , of either Rose-water , Succory-water , or Fennel-water , &c. 102. A good Electuary to strengthen the Sight . TAke Conserve of Borrage and Betony of each an Ounce and half , Venice-Treacle two Drams , Species Dionisi , Diarrhodon abbatis , Diatrion Santalon , of each half a Dram , Tartar Vitriolate a Scruple , Diacorallion a Dram and half , Oyl of Fennel seven drops , Syrup of Violets and Coral , of each a sufficient quantity ; mix and make an Electuary . 103. A Choice Medicine for an Opthalmia Sicca . TAke of the Leaves of Fennel , Hyssop , Celandine , Betony , and Carduus , of each half a handful , or a whole handful ; of Linseeds , Quince-seeds , Fenugreek , and Flea-wort , of each half a Dram , of French Barley one Ounce : Boyl all these a little in two quarts of fair Water , and half a Pint of White-Wine . Let the Patient hold his Head ( well fitted with a Napkin for the purpose ) over the Fumes for about a quarter of an hour . 104. For a Film , or other such thing growing in the Eye . TAke of Crude Roch-Allom two parts , Turmerick one part , and refin'd Sugar three parts . Pulverize each of these separately , then mix them exactly , and warily blow it into the Patient's Eye from time to time , as need shall require . 105. To make an Excellent as well as Famous Eye-Water . TAke Celandine ( the whole Plant except the Root ) and having shred it or chopt it a little , put it into a Retort , and distil it in Balneo . When all the Liquor is come over , empty the Vessel , and put in as much of the fresh Plant , and distil the Liquor from it to make it more strong of the Plant. Put this Liquor once more upon new or fresh Celandine , and distil in Balneo as before ; and keep this well-impregnated Water close stopt . 'T is to be outwardly us'd in the Dose of 2 , 3 , or 4 drops at a time . 106. A Medicine for Hurts in the Eye . TAke Succory-Water and crumbs of White-bread , enough to bring it almost to a consistence ; then add a little Saffron to tinge and quicken it , and sometimes also you may put to it a little Honey , to make it more cleansing and healing . Apply it ( if need be ) with Plagets of Flax to the Part affected . 107. A Remedy that hath cured the Epilepsie . GIve daily half a Dram at a time of choice and very finely pouder'd Amber in any convenient Vehicle for about six Weeks together . 108. Elixir Salutis . TAke of the Seeds of Anise , Sweet Fennel , Coriander , and Parsley , of each two Ounces ; of Liquorish scrap'd , wash'd , and bruis'd , and choice Leaves of Senna , of each likewise two Ounces ; of Raisins of the Sun , rub'd clean and bruis'd one Pound ; of Elecampane-Roots and Guajacum Wood , of each one Ounce . Mix these Ingredients , and pour on them two quarts of Aqua Vitae , or English Spirits ( for Brandy is too hot a Liquor . ) Let these infuse together 48 hours . Then put them all into a hair Bag , and press them strongly in an Apothecary's Press , and if there be need , pass what is strain'd , through an Hippocras-bag after the Liquor is setled . Keep this in Bottles well stop'd in a cool place , and give of it two or three spoonfuls at a time , in the Morning fasting , and if need require , at Bed-time . 109. An Experienc'd Remedy for Convulsions and Epilepsies in Children . TAke about half a Dram , or from one Scruple to two , or somewhat more , of well chosen , and very finely pouder'd Amber , Native Cinnabar 10 Grains ; mix them , and of this sweetned with some pouder'd Sugar , or other fit thing that may give it a relish ; let the Patient take twice a day ( at least for most days ) during six Weeks , unless he fully recovers before that time . And however , he is to take it for two or three days before each New and Full Moon , for some Months successively . F. 110. An Excellent Drink in Fevers , even Malignant . TAke a quart of Spring Water , and having given it a walm or two , put to it one Ounce at least of Harts-horn , calcin'd to perfect whiteness , and when the Mixture is cold , put to it three Ounces of Syrup made of the Juice of Lemons , shake this Mixture ; when you will use it , shake it well , and let the Patient take of it a moderate draught several times in the Day and Night . 111. An Vseful Drink in Feverish Distempers . IN a Pint and a half of clear Posset-drink , boyl about one Ounce of cleans'd Roots of Dandelion , or Piss-a-beds , cut or slic'd very small , till near half a Pint be wasted , and then strain it , and let the Patient take half a Pint , or the whole quantity if he can , at a time . 112. An Excellent Remedy for Dysenterical Fluxes . TAke good Venice Turpentine , and with a very gentle heat evaporate so much of it , that when 't is cold , it may be but little short of Coagulation . This yet sost , but not fluid Substance , incorporate with fine Sugar , enough to make it up into Pills , whereof give in the Morning fasting as many as will amount from a Scruple to half a Dram or two Scruples , or a whole Dram of the Turpentine , besides the Sugar . 113. An uncommon , but Experienc'd Remedy for Dysenterical Fluxes . TAke the Bone of the Thigh of a hang'd Man perhaps another may serve , but this was still made use of ) Calcine it to whiteness , and having purg'd the Patient with an Antimonial Medicine , give him one Dram of this white Pouder for one Dose , in some good Cordial , whether Conserve or Liquor . 114. For the Dysentery , and Fluxes caused by sharp Humors . TAke from half a Dram to one Dram of Merourius Dulcis , and as much either of fine Sugar or Sugar-candy , and with some Purgative or other , let the Patient take it once a day , with care , that none of it remain in his Mouth , or stick in his Throat . 115. An often try'd Medicine for Fluxes of the Belly , thô Bloody ones . GIve for a Dose in any convenient Vehicle as much pouder'd or grated Pizzle of a Hart or Deer as will lye upon an ordinary Half-Crown Piece . 116. An Effectual Medicine for Dysenterical and other Fluxes . TAke of a Hare the Skin , Liver , Gall , and all the Parts , except the Muscles , and having dry'd them so far ( and no further ) as that they may be conveniently reduc'd to Pouder . Give of this Pouder from about two Scruples to one Dram , in any convenient Vehicle . 117. An Experienc'd Remedy for sharp Fluxes of the Belly . TAke a pint of new Milk , and dissolve in it two Ounces of Loaf-Sugar , and at length about the bigness of a Walnut of good Mithridate ; give this Mixture moderately warm for a Clyster , to be reiterated if there be occasion . 118. To stop Fluxes and Whites . FOR Fluxes you may in divers cases give the Patient from time to time a moderate quantity of a Decoction of half an Ounce of Ising-glass , in about a pint of new Milk. 119. An easie Medicine for Fluxes , especially those caus'd by sharp Humors . INstead of Butter take well-condition'd Oyl-Olive , and thorowly drench therewith a good Toast , and let the Patient eat it . 120. For a Bloody-Flux . TAke half an Ounce of London-Treacle , an Ounce , or an Ounce and half of Conserve of red Roses , mix them together with some Syrup of Clove ▪ Gilly-Flowers , or Syrup of Citrons , and keep them thus mix'd in a Pot cover'd for your use . Take of this about the quantity of a Walnut at Night , and in the Morning for two days , fasting two hours before and after , intermit then a day , and take it again in the like manner . 121. A try'd Medicine for the falling down of the Fundament . TAke some Ginger , and having carelesly slic'd it , put it in a little Pan , heat it by clear and well kindled Coals , and let the Patient receive the Fume of it , cast on by little and little in a kind of Close-stool , or some equivalent Seat , where the lower part of his Body may be well cover'd for about half a quarter of an hour at a time . G. 122. A Medicine for a light incipient Gangreen . AFter having lightly scarify'd the Part affected , apply as hot as the Patient can well bear it , a Cataplasm made of strong Brandy , and the Pith or Crumb of Whitebread , shifting it three or four times a day , or somewhat oftner , if need be . N. B. Some use Turneps boyl'd , and made Unctuous with a little fresh Hogs-lard to resolve the hard Tumors of Womens Brests . 123. A Choice Anodyne Clyster . TAke Marsh-Mallow Roots half an Ounce , Leaves of the same , Mallows , Mullein , of each one handful , Camomile ▪ Flowers two Pugils : Boyl them in a sufficient quantity of Water to ten Ounces , and dissolve therein Goats-suet 2 Ounces , Yolks of two Eggs , and Oyl of Camomile an Ounce and half : Mix and make a Clyster for easing Pain . 124. A slight but often try'd Medicine for the Griping of the Guts . TAke about a quarter of a Pint of Brandy , and having made a Toast of Bread ( not too fine and white ) throw it in very hot into the Liquor , and as soon as 't is thorowly drencht let the Patient take it out , and eat it hot ; and this may be repeated , if there be need , two or three times a day . 125. An often try'd Remedy for the Gripes in little Children . TAke of Oyl of Nutmegs , and of Wormwood , of each a like quantity , mingle them well , and with the Mixture a little warm'd anoint the Patient's Navil , and the Pit of the Stomach . 126. To make an Excellent Gargle . TAke six Ounces of Scabious-Water , one spoonful of Mustard , one spoonful of Honey , and one spoonful of Vinegar ; grind all these very well together in a Marble or Glass Mortar , till you have reduc'd them to a liquid Mixture , which is to be used as a Gargle . 127. A Choice Gargle for a sore Throat . TO four Ounces of Plantane-Water add three or four spoonfuls of Red Rose-water , and mix very well with these the White of an Egg beaten to a Glair , or Water ; sweeten this Mixture with a small spoonful of white Sugar-candy , or in want of that , as much very fine Loaf-Sugar . Let the Patient Gargle this as often as need requires . 128. An Experienc'd Medicine for a Gonorrhoea . TAke two Ounces of ripe Laurel-Berries , and infuse them for a day in a quart of good White-Wine : Of this let the Patient drink about two or three spoonfuls twice a day for a pretty while together ; only once in three days ( or thereabouts ) intermitting , that he may take some gentle Purging Medicine . 129. For a Gonorrhoea . TAke choice Mastich a sufficient quantity , and having very finely beaten and searc'd it , take about half an Ounce of it at a time in the Yolk of a new-laid Egg , washing it down , if it be thought needful , in any convenient Liquor . 130. An Excellent Remedy to take off the Pains of the Gout . TAke Minium or Red-Lead ground fine half a Pound , Oyl of Earth-worms one Pound , or a sufficient quantity : Boyl them to the consistency of a hard or solid Emplaster , without burning : Afterwards add of Camphire two Ounces , dissolved in Oyl of Earth-worms , so much as may make the Emplaster of a just consistency . 131. An Excellent Oyntment in the Gout . TAke Barbadoes Tar , and Palm-Oyl , of each a like quantity , melt them together in no more fire than is needful to make them incorporate well ; with this Mixture warm , the Part is to be anointed and warily chafed . 132. A slight but effectual Medicine to appease Gouty Pains . TAke Linseed well condition'd , and with a little Water beat them in a Marble or Glass Mortar , rubbing them very well , that the Medullary part may be separated in some measure from the Husk , and may make the Water considerably white . In this Liquor dip clean Rags , and when they are thorowly wetted , apply them somewhat warm to the Part affected , shifting them if need be once in an hour , or at most in two . 133. A speedy Remedy to take off Arthritick or Gout-Pains . TAke good Spirit of Sal Armoniac , and with a Feather dipt in it moisten gently all the Part , or Parts affected . 134. A Medicine that almost presently appeases the Pains of the Gout . TAke of black Soap four Ounces , choice Wood-soot finely sifted about a Dram and half , and add to these about half the Yolk of an Egg : Incorporate them diligently together , and spreading the Mixture somewhat thin , apply it ( the cold being first taken off ) by way of Cataplasm to the Part affected . 135. A homely but often try'd Medicine to appease the Pains of Scorbutical Running Gouts . TAke Earth-worms cleans'd , and having fill'd an earthen Pot with them , and luted on a cover very well , set it into an Oven with a batch of Bread , and let it stand there till the Oven be cold . Then take out the Pot , and having remov'd the cover , you will find the Matter turn'd into a gross Liquor ill scented . Strain this with expression , and keep it stopt for use , which is , to rub therewith the Part affected with a warm hand once or twice a day . N. B. If the smell be offensive , you may put to it a few drops of Oyl of Rhodium , or some other Odoriferous one , to Correct it . 136. An Excellent Remedy for the Gonorrhoea . TAke of choice Amber , and of Mastich , both reduc'd to very fine Pouder , and very well mixt , equal parts , and of this Mixture give half a Dram at a time in a proper Vehicle , or in a draught of Chocolate . Continue this for three Weeks , or a Month , if need require , purging the day before you begin to take it , and once every Week afterwards , especially when you leave off the use of the Pouder . 137. To appease the Pain of the Gout , and by degrees lessen the Fits. TAke one part of Spirit of Sal Armoniac , and three parts of Spirit of Wine , neither of them too well rectify'd : Shake them together , ( and if you please digest them a while ) and having dipt old but clean Linnen Rags in the Mixture , apply them to the Part affected , shifting them now and then , as need shall require . H. 138. To make an Excellent Cephalick or Head-Pouder , good also for the Eyes . TAke the Leaves or Flowers of Betony , Marjoram , and Damask Roses , also the Flowers of Sage and Rosemary , all at discretion . To these add the Pouder of Lignum Aloes , and some Seeds of Nigella Romana . Reduce all these to Pouder , to be us'd as a Hair-pouder , when the Patient goes to Bed. 139. An useful Drink , to be frequently employ'd to Correct Sharp Humors . TAke two Ounces of choice Barley ( English or French ) well wash'd from its Dust and Sordes : Boyl this in a quart or more of Spring-water till the Grains begin to burst . Then strain the Decoction through a clean Cloath , and let the Patient use it at Meals and other times , for his ordinary Drink . 140. An experienc'd Medicine for Dulness of Hearing , and Hysterical Affections . THE Juice of red Onions is Excellent for Diseases of the Ears , and for a Deafness in its beginning . N. B. Briony-Roots also wonderfully prevail against all Affections of the Womb. 141. An Experienc'd Medicine for the Pain of the Haemorrhoids . TAke the sole of an Old Shooe , worn by some Man that walks much , cut it in pieces , and burn it , not to white or gray Ashes , but to a fryable and tender Coal ; reduce this to impalpable Pouder , and then with a sufficient quantity of unsalted Lard make it into an Unguent , wherewith the Part affected is to be anointed from time to time . 142. For the Haemorrhoids . MAke a Suppository of Hogs-Lard or Bacon , or instead of that employ Goose-grease made up into the same form . 143. For the Haemorrhoids . IN the Yolk of an Egg , or a little of some convenient Syrup or Conserve , give from half a Dram to two Scruples or one Dram , or somewhat more of Flower of Brimstone , once , or if the case be urgent , twice a day . The Pouder may be also given in Milk , to those that like it better than sweet Vehicles . 144. A Choice Internal Remedy for Painful Haemorrhoids . TAke about two Scruples of choice Sulphur vive , and mix it with a little Sugar to make it relish , and give that Dose once , or at most twice a day . 145. A very choice Medicine for the Pain and Tumors of the Haemorrhoids . TAke fresh Leeks ( the whole Plant ) shred them small , and fry them well with fresh Butter , till they be fit to be brought to the consistence of a Cataplasm or Poultise , that is to be apply'd very war to the Part affected , and to be renewed from time to time , as need shall require . 146. An Vseful Medicine for the Pain of the Haemorrhoids . MAke up Flower of Brimstone and an equal weight or a double of fine Sugar , with a Solution of Gum Dragon , into Tabulets that may weigh about a Dram a piece ; of those that contain the most Sulphur you may give one twice a day , but of the other sort much oftner , if need require . 147. A choice Remedy for the Pain of the Haemorrhoids . TAke Album Graecum , or white Dogs-turd , reduc'd to an impalpable Pouder , mix it up with a sufficient quantity of Goose-grease , and by grinding it well in a Leaden Mortar , reduce it to a black Oyntment , to be apply'd moderately warm to the Part affected . 148. An Experienc'd Remedy for unbroken Haemorrhoids . TAke calcin'd Oyster-shells , and incorporate them with as much Honey as will make up the Pouder into an Oyntment , with which the Part affected is to be tenderly anointed from time to time . 149. For the Haemorrhoids , a very successful try'd Medicine . TAke Maiden Leeks ( as some call those that grow without having been transplanted ) and casting away the green part , make of the bulbous part and a sufficient quantity of whole Oatmeal a Caudle , whereof let the Patient eat plentifully . 150. A Choice Drink for the Pain of the Haemorrhoids . TAke Yarrow , and boyl a handful of it in about a Pint and a half of Posset-drink , in a cover'd Vessel , till it be strong of the Plant ; and of this Decoction let the Patient drink pretty plentifully from time to time . 151. An Excellent Remedy for the Pain of the Haemorrhoids . TAke of Mastick , Olibanum , Aloes , and Myrrh , of each a like quantity , pouder and mix them very well , then lay or strew a sufficient quantity of this upon a Pledget of Lint or Cotton , moistened throughly with Spirit of Wine over a few well kindled Coals , that the Pouder may melt , and be clapt hot to the Pit of the Stomach , or the Navel . 152. A Medicine for the Pains of the Haemorrhoids . TAke a quart , or at least a pint of New Milk , and boil it well for a while , and then taking it off the Fire , presently put it into a Close-stool in some open mouth'd Vessel , and let the Patient sit over the Fume of it . 153. An Excellent Medicine to appease the Pains of the Haemorrhoids . TAke two fresh Eggs , and roast them pretty hard , then peel off the Shells and mince them . To these add two Pippins , the core being first taken out , that must be roasted to pap ; mix these , and incorporate them very well with the Eggs , reducing all to a kind of Cataplasm , which is to be apply'd very warm , if not very hot , to the Part affected , and to be renewed if need be . 154. A Choice Medicine for the Pains of the Haemorrhoids . TAke half a Dram of good Flower of Brimstone , and boyl it a little in New Milk , and let the Patient take fasting in the Morning both the Liquor and the Pouder for many days successively . And if need be , the like Dose may be taken between four and five in the Afternoon . Also one may make up the like quantity of Flores with a little fine Sugar and Gum Tragacanth into Tablets or Lozenges , to be taken instead of the Pouder and Milk. I. 155. An Experienc'd Liquor to Cure the Itch in the Hands or Face , without Mercury or Sulphur . TAke a handful of the Roots of Elecampane , and as much of sharp-pointed Dock , shred them small , and boyl them in two quarts of Spring-water till the consumption of a pint . Then strain the Liquor , and with it let the Patient wash his hands or other parts affected once ( or at most ) twice a day . 156. An Experienc'd Magnetical Cure of the Yellow-Jaundies . TAke the Gall-Bladder of a Sheep , and near the top , without emptying the Liquor , make a small hole , at which put in two or three drops of the Patient 's warm Urine ; then tye up the upper part of the Bladder , and hang it in the free Air till it dry up , &c. 157. A homely but not ineffectual Medicine for the Yellow-Jaundies . GIve about half a Dram of the white part of Hens-dung dry'd and mixt with a little Sugar , in a few spoonfuls of White-wine . 158. A Medicine almost Specifick for the Yellow-Jaundies . TAke of clean filings of Steel a sufficient quantity , and to make them grind the better , mix with them some Loaf-Sugar ; grind them long with great exactness , for in that consists the chief Secret of this Medicine . Of this impalpable Pouder give about half a Dram for a Dose ( besides the Sugar ; ) and if need be , give it twice or thrice a day , in any convenient Vehicle . 159. A Specifick Remedy for the Yellow-Jaundies . TAke one part of good Saffron dry'd , enough to be rub'd in a Glass Mortar into Pouder , and incorporate it well with four parts of choice Turmerick . In the mean time take a handful of fresh Sheeps-dung , and let it steep in about a quart of strong Ale in a moderate heat , till the Liquor be fully impregnated with the Vertue of the Dung. Then strain it lightly thrô a Linnen Cloath , into a pint of it , or as large a draught within the limit as the Patient can well take , give about half a Dram of the foremention'd mixt Pouder . This do in the Morning fasting , aud in the Evening about Bed-time , giving also another Dose the Morning after the first . K. 160. The great Medicine of a Famous Emperick for the Kings-Evil . GIve for a good while together a pretty strong Decoction of Devils-bit . 161. To mitigate Pains in the Kidneys . TAke Oyl of Scorpions , and Oyl of Bees-wax , of each a like quantity ; mix them well , and with this Mixture moderatly warm , anoint the pained Kidney . 162. An Effectual Remedy for stoppage in the Kidneys . GIve in any convenient Liquor about a dozen Grains of Salt of Amber for a Dose . L. 163. A Pleasant Medicine to appease Scorbutick Pains in the Limbs . TAke liquid Styrax , spread it thin upon Slinck , or some very fine Kids-Leather , and keep it upon the Part affected till it dry up of it self , or till the Patient has no more need of it . 164. An Experienc'd thô simple Medicine for a Contracture produc'd by keeping of Limbs too long in an undue Posture . ANoint well once or twice a day the Part affected with Dogs-grease , chafing it in with a warm hand , and keeping the Part warm afterwards . M. 165. A good Medicine to inincrease Milk to those that give Suck . MAke Pottage with Lentils ( which many distinguish not from Vetches ) and let the Patient use freely of it . 166. Another Medicine to increase Milk in Nurses . TAke Earth-worms , wash them well , freeing them carefully from their Excrements , and from all adhering Earth and Filth . Then dry them so as they may not stink , and yet be pulverable . Of these , reduc'd to Poúder , give half a Dram or two Scruples for a Dose , in Wine or any other proper Vehicle . 167. A Remedy , by which many Dogs bitten by a Mad-Dog , have been all of them preserv'd this Year from running Mad. TAke three Plants ( i. e. Roots and Leaves ) of that Herb which is called Rose-Plantane , or by some Star-Plantane , and having chopt it small with a convenient quantity of Butter , let the bitten Dog take it the first day ; the second day give him five Plants order'd as before , and the next day seven . N. 168. A good Remedy for divers Affections of the Genus Nervosum , or Nervous System . TAke of the fresh Roots of the Male Piony one Ounce , of the Seeds of the same Plant two Drams , and with a sufficient quantity of the Syrup of Piony , or some Conserve of the like Nature , beat them up into an Electuary , ( which is best done not long before you mean to make use of it ) of which the Patient may take the quantity of a small Nutmeg or more if need be twice a day , and if occasion requires it , thrice . P. 169. Aloetick Pills , that do scarce at all occasion the Piles . TAke of the Frankfort Angelick Pills , and give of them from one Scruple or half a Dram to two Scruples or more , for a Dose . 170. A Medicine for the Pain and Tumors of the Piles . TAke the Patient 's own Urine moderately warm , and with Rags dipt in it foment for a while the Parts affected , and then anoint them with Vnguent Populeon . This do if need be three or four times a day , and if the Tumors be internal , you may then inject a little of the foremention'd Urine . 171. An Excellent Remedy for Scorbutick and other Pains in the Limbs . TAke red and unsophisticated Oyl of Peter , and anoint therewith from time to time the Part affected . 172. An easie but Excellent Poultise to appease Pains and Aches , even Arthritick or Gout-Pains . TAke Onions , and boyl or stew them in Water till they be soft enough to make a Poultise , then drain away the Water and beat them , and having spread them to a good thickness upon a Linnen Cloath , apply them as hot as the Patient can well bear , let him keep them on all Night . 173. To strengthen a Part weakened by a Sub-laxation . SPread Emplastrum Divinum upon soft Leather , and apply it , keeping it on for some time . 174. A somewhat rough Emetick , by which the French-Pox has been often cur'd . TAke good Mercury Sublimate , and Mithridate or Venice-Treacle , of each one Ounce , mix them together , and put them into a quart of Spring-Water ; set them in Balneo to dissolve in a close Vessel ; and of this Liquor well setled , let the Patient take about half a spoonful , or if need be a spoonful , but never above a spoonful and a half , in four Ounces of small Ale warm , fasting in the Morning , and once in the Afternoon or Evening , the Stomach being empty . Every second day intermit , and give a gentle Purge . 175. A Choice Medicine for the Palsie . TAke Sarsaparilla a Pound and half , Bark of Guajacum , China in Chips , of each 2 Ounces and a half : Boyl all in six Pints of Water to a consumption of a third part : At the end add Raisins of the Sun stoned four Ounces , Liquorish bruised one Dram , fat Figs number twelve , boyl and strain it . Of this let the Diseased drink warm , as their ordinary Drink . 176. For weakness in the hands , arising from the Palsie , or an ill-cur'd Rheumatism . TAke the tops of Rosemary , and bruising them a little , make them up into a Ball of the bigness of a small Orange , or a large Walnut with the green Husk on . Let the Patient often roll one of these Balls between his hands , and for divers hours in a day grasp one of them in the hand affected , that it may grow hot there , and transmit its Effluvia into the part . Continue this course as long as the Distemper requires . 177. A Choice External Remedy for Paralitick Affections . MAke a strong Decoction of Rosemary-Leaves ( or Flowers if the Season afford them ) and let the Patient hold the Part affected for a good while at a time in the Liquor kept very warm . If after several tryals this Medicine prove not effectual enough , take ten drops of Oyl of Worms , and mix with it well four or five drops of Oyl of Turpentine ; and with this Mixture well warm'd anoint the Part from time to time ; or else let the Patient keep the Part for a good while together , for more than once or twice if need require , in warm Rain-water ( to dissolve the Scorbutick Salts . ) 178. To take off little Pimples or grating inequalities within the Eye-lids . TAke one spoonful of Eyebright-Water , one spoonful of Plantane-Water , and half a spoonful of good Red Rose-Water ; mix these , and put to them about 15 Grains of choice Tutty finely prepar'd ; shake them together , and then let the Pouder fall to the bottom , and with the clear Liquor moisten the Eye several times in a day , if it be found needful . 179. For the Pleurisy . CUT green Broom-tops short , and fill therewith a Skillet or Pipkin of a pint and a half ; then fill it up with Ale , boyl it softly till it be wasted to two or three spoonfuls , it will look black like Treacle , and be thick . When 't is enough and cold , add as much Mithridate as a Nutmeg , and mingle it well , and give it the Party warm in Bed , and let him sweat three hours or more after it , by adding some Cloaths . If it help not at first , repeat it next day , or the second not to fail . 180. An Experienc'd ( and by some good Authors Excellent ) Medicine for the Pleurisy . TAke as many fresh Balls of Stone-Horse Dung , as the Horse in good case may disburden himself of at one time ; cover these , whilst they are warm , with good White-wine ; let them stand a little to act on one another , and then press out gently through a clean Linnen Cloath as much Liquor or Juice as the Mixture will readily afford ; and of this ( somewhat warm ) give a moderate draught , from time to time ; as need shall require . 181. A very often Experienc'd Medicine for the Small-Pox ( especially in Children . ) . TAke the little Balls of fresh Sheeps-düng , and having freed them from straws and dust , and other things forrain to them , put an handful of them thus cleans'd into a quart of good White-wine , and in a Vessel well stopt , let them infuse in a moderate heat for a Night , or till the Liquor be well impregnated with the taste and colour of them . Strain this Infusion , and give of it warm about a spoonful at a time , once in two or three hours , or oftner if need require . N. B. In case of Necessity , the Infusion may be much sooner made , by putting into the Wine a greater proportion of the Sheeps-dung . R. 182. A Successful Remedy for a kind of Rheumatism , and a Contracture of the Limbs that followed upon it . TAke the inward Bark ( that which grows next the Wood ) of an Elder-Tree , cut or tear it into small bits , and with them loosely plac'd fill about a third part of a Bottle . Then pour in as much small Ale or Beer as will fill up the remaining part of the Vessel , stop it well till the Liquor be strong of the Infusion . And of this let the Patient drink a good draught once or twice a day , or if he can well bear it , let him use it as a Diet-drink . 183. An approv'd outward Medicine to cause Rest without Opiates . TAke of Rose-Water 8 Ounces , good Wine 4 Ounces , strong Vinegar 2 Ounces ; mix these well , and having warm'd stupes in them , foment therewith the Part affected , laying them on but moderatly warm , but taking them off when they begin to grow cold : This fomenting may last between a quarter and half an hour before the Patient should compose himself to Rest . S. 184. A Choice and diversify'd Medicine for the Scurvy . FRom the freshly gather'd tops of Firr a little bruis'd , abstract Spirit of Wine , or at least good Nants Brandy , and with this Liquor draw a deep Tincture from other fresh tops , of which Tincture reduce some part into an Extract , whereof to form Pills ; keep these , the Tincture and the impregnated Liquor apart , to be employ'd separately or conjoyntly as occasion may require . 185. For an Excoriation , and for preternatural Tenderness of any part of the Skin . TAke Vnguentum Diapompholigos , and spread it thinly upon Lint , which must be apply'd to the Part affected , and kept on by a Bandage or some sticking Plaister . 186. To take off the heat and roughness of the Skin , especially on the Lips. ANoint the Part affected with fresh ( or at least not too stale ) Cream . 187. To take out the marks of Gun-pouder shot into the Skin of the Face , or elsewhere . TAke fresh Cow-dung , and having warm'd it a little , apply it as a thin Poultise to the part affected , renewing it from time to time as occasion shall require . 188. An Excellent Medicine to strengthen a weak Sight . TAke Eye-bright , Penny-royal , Rue , Celandine , Lovage , Saxifrage , of each half a handful , Blewbottle-Flowers , Fennel-seeds , Parsley-seeds , of each half a Dram , Grains of Paradice one Dram , Hyssop , Organy , Willow-leaves , each half an Ounce , Galingal three Drams , Ginger half a Dram , Cinnamon one Dram , Sugar half an Ounce . Let them be finely pouder'd , and very well mixt together . Take of this Pouder one Scruple or half a Dram every day with your Dinner . 189. A distilled Water for strengthening the Sight . TAke Rosemary-Flowers , Sage , Betony , Rue , and Succory , of each one handful . Infuse these in two quarts of good Sack , distil them in a Copper Alembick . The Dose is a moderate spoonful . 190. A Choice Medicine , which I have several times used for a light Stroke or Contusion of the Eye . PUT to two Ounces of Carduus-Water , or that of Betony , three or four drops of Honey , use it every three hours . ( But have a care not to keep it above a day or two , lest it grow sour . ) 191. A much commended Pouder to strengthen the Sight . POuder of Eye-bright 1 Ounce , ordinary Fennel-seed in Pouder half an Ounce , Pouder of Nutmegs half a quarter of an Ounce , double refin'd Sugar two Ounces . All these being finely pouder'd and sifted , are to be mixt together , and taken as much as will lye on a Shilling at a time , as often as you please . The Pouder is to be taken dry , and kept in a Box close shut in some dry place . This has done great Cures in dimness of Sight , and Rheums in the Eyes . 192. To make a Drink to be taken like Tea for strengthening the Sight . TO a quart of Water ready to boyl , put in half a handful of Eye-bright , and then let the Liquor boyl but one walm or two , before you take it off to drink it instead of Tea . 193. A rare Water to strengthen the Sight . TAke Clary , and distil it in a cold Still ; and of the Water , let the Patient take every Morning , and if need be , every Night going to Bed , from two or three spoonfuls to six , either alone , or sweetned with a little Sugar ; let him also with the same Water unsweeten'd ▪ bath or wash the Parts affected in the Morning , and at Bed-time ; and if need be , once or twice more every day . 194. An Excellent External Medicine to strengthen the Stomach . TAke Wormood , Mint , and Mugwort , and by beating them well in a stone or glass Mortar , make a Cataplasm , to be apply'd somewhat warm to the Stomach , and kept upon it for a pretty while . 195. An often try'd Remedy to strengthen the Stomach , and also to take off Griping Pains in or near it . ( 'T is good also for Colds . ) TAke Emplastrum Stomachum of the London Dispensatory , and drop upon it five or six drops of Oyl of Cinnamon , rubbing it well over with your finger , and so apply it to the Patient's Stomach , and after three or four days , or as soon as it grows dry , remove it , and having scrap'd the Plaister , and warm'd it on the wrong side , let fall some drops of the Oyl of Cinnamon upon it , or more drops of the Cordial Spirit , and apply it again . 196. An Excellent Plaister to strengthen the Stomach and Chest . TAke of Cinnamon , Nutmegs , Cloves , and Mace , of each a sufficient quantity , pouder them well , and strew some of the Pouder all over the bottom of a Deal Box of a convenient length and breadth , and fit it with a cover to shut close , upon this Pouder lay a piece of clean Flannel well dry'd , and strew it over thinly with some of the same Pouder ; then lay on another piece of the like Flannel of the same Dimensions with the former , and upon that likewise if need be a little more Pouder . This done , shut the Box till the time of use , and then take out one of the pieces of Flannel , and having lightly dusted off the Pouder , lay it on the Patient's Brest , Stomach , and Belly , and let it lye on there for some days . When you perceive its Vertue begins to languish , you must substitute for it the other piece of Flannel , and put the first in the Box to receive new Vertue , and so proceed alternatively as long as you need the Medicine , adding now and then some fresh Pouder , if Necessity require . Note , That each piece of Flannel ought to be long and large enough to cover the Brest , and to reach from about the Paps to the Navel , or lower . 197. For a Recent Strain . TAke a pint or more of Claret-Wine , and boyl in it for a little while , in a close Vessel , about a handful of Red Rose-leaves , till the Liquor be strong of the Plant. In this well heated dip a piece of Linnen or Flannel , and wringing out the moisture , double it , and apply it hot to the Part affected , using a Fillet , or some such thing to keep it on . 198. My Lord Bacon's Experienc'd Medicine for a Recent Strain or Bruise . TAke a good handful of fresh Wormwood , and boyl it in a sufficient quantity of strong Ale to the softness of a Poultise , then take it off the fire , and when you apply it , which you should do whilst 't is very hot , put to it a spoonful or two of good common Brandy . 199. A Choice Plaister for a Recent Strain . TAke equal parts of the Plaisters called Diapalma and Oxycroceum , and make of them a compounded Plaister , to be spread upon thin Leather , and apply'd to the Part affected , and to be renewed , if need be , twice a day . 200. An approv'd Medicine for a Recent Strain . APply seasonably a Cataplasm made of Bran boyl'd in good Vinegar till it be soft enough to make a Poultise . 201. A slight but choice Remedy for a Recent Strain . TAke two spoonfuls of Vinegar , and beat into it very well the white of an Egg , and spreading it upon Flax or Tow , apply it to , and keep it on the Part affected . 202. A Parable but Excellent Medicine in the Fit of the Stone . TAke somewhat less than a handful of red Chick-Pease , or Cicers , and boyl them softly in a quart of Spring-water till the Liquor be red , and well impregnated with the Seeds : Strain this Decoction and sweeten it with Syrup of Marsh-Mallows , out of which all the stronger Diureticks are left . 203. For the Stone . TAke a quarter or half a pint of simple Arsmart-Water , sweeten it with a little Sugar or some convenient Syrup , and Aromatize it with a little Nutmeg scrap'd , and give this Mixture for one Dose . 204. For the Stone and Gravel in the Reins and Bladder . TAke equal weights of common Daucus-seeds , and of Burdock-seed , and having mixt these together , put one Ounce of the Mixture to a Gallon of small Ale , and let the Patient use it as a constant Drink . 205. A good Liquor to use as Drink in a long Fit of the Stone . MAke Posset-drink of three or four parts at most of Milk , and one of White-Wine . Into two quarts of Posset-drink scrape or thinly slice a Nutmeg and a half , or two Nutmegs ; add a little Juice of Lemon to your Palate , and if you please sweeten it a little with Syrup of Marsh-Mallows . Take of this Drink a pretty quantity at a time , and use it often in a day . 206. A good Medicine for the Stone . TAke a pint or a quart of Ale , somewhat new , sweeten it with pure Honey , and boyl it to the consumption of about one half , skimming it well from time to time . Then dissolve in it the Yolk of a new-laid Egg ; and let the Patient drink a good draught of this Mixture once or twice a day , till he find relief thereby . 207. A Choice Medicine in an actual Fit of the Stone . TAke the Decoction made according to the London Dispensatory for the Syrup of Marsh-Mallows , with this difference , That to the same quantity of Water , you must take but half the quantities of each of the Ingredients . Let this corrected Decoction be well clarify'd , and let the Patient take of it warm 6 , 8 , or 10 Ounces at a draught , from time to time , as need shall require . 208. The Stone , and the Cure. Taken out of the History of the Barbadoes , written by Rich. Lygon , Gent. p. 118 , 119. AFter the stoppage of Urine more than fourteen days , the following Medicine did not only break , but brought away all the Stones and Gravel . And about three Weeks after , the like Pains returning , the same Medicine did the like effect within ten hours after the taking thereof . Take the Pizzle of a green Turtle ( or Tortoise ) which lives in the Sea , dry it with a moderate heat ; pound it in a Mortar to Pouder , and take of this as much as will lye upon a Shilling , in Beer , Ale , White-Wine , or the like ; and in a very short time it will do the Cure. These are to be had easily , both at the Charibee and Lucaick Islands , where these Fishes abound . 209. A good Medicine in Pains of the Stone , or Cholick . TAke half a pint of good Sallet-Oyl , and as much good Sack , ( or if that cannot be had , good Claret Wine ) shake them very well together , and give them moderately warm for a Clyster . 210. To expel the Stone in a Fit. TAke Crabs-Eyes pouder'd , and dissolve a large proportion of them in good White-wine Vinegar , and of this Drink let the Patient take from two spoonfuls to five or six at a time . T. 211. An almost Specifick Remedy for the Tooth-ach . INto a quart of red Wine ( or at least of Claret ) put one Dram of Allom , and another of Acorns , a Dram and half of Galls , and half a handful of good dry'd Rose-leaves . Boyl this to the Consumption of near half , and then take it from the fire and strain it , and dissolve in it a Dram and a half of Acacia cut into small bits , and with this Liquor a little hot , you must wash the Part several times in a day . 212. An uncommon , but not unuseful Remedy for the Tooth-ach . LET the Patient lye on the Ear that is opposite to the Part affected , and into the other Ear drop two or three drops of the freshly exprest Juice of Rue a little warm , and stop the Ear lightly with fine black Wool or Cotton . 213. An odd but very Succesful External Remedy for the Tooth-ach . IN the declining of the Moon in August , take the Fruit called Hipps , viz. those of the Wild Bryar , with all the Fuzey stuff that grows upon it , and lapping it up in a piece of thin Sarcenet , tye it upon the Arm that is on the same side with the Part affected , and keep it on as long as there is need . 214. For the Tooth-ach . TAke a handful of Red Sage , and a handful of Clary , shred them small and beat them , sprinkle them with May Dew ; then strain out the Juice , put it in a Glass Bottle , and set it in the Sun in a Window , and when you use it put three drops into a Spoon and heat it over a Candle blood warm , and drop it into the Ear , and let them eat a Crust of Bread , wet either in Broth or Posset , and chew it upon the Teeth that ake . 215. An Approved Medicine for an aking Tooth that is hollow . TAke two parts of common Pepper ground to fine Pouder , and mix exactly with it one part of Sugar moderately fine over a gentle heat ; form these into a small Pill of a shape and bigness fit for your purpose , and when your Stuff grows cold 't will harden , and may be apply'd when you please to the Part affected . 216. An Excellent Remedy to fasten Teeth . TAke of burnt Allom , Acorns , of each one Dram , Galls a Dram and half , Red Roses half a handful . Beat all these together , and make them boyl in about a quart of good Red Wine , to the consumption of about a fourth part . Then strain the Decoction , and dissolve in the transmitted Liquor of good Acatia cut into very small bits half a Dram. With this Decoction the Mouth is to be washt several times in a day . 217. To fasten the Teeth . PUT Mastick finely pouder'd upon the end of an Handkerchief , rub your Teeth therewith twice or thrice in a day , and chew Mastick often . Also boyl Pomegranate-flowers with Mint or Mastick in Red or Claret Wine , Gargle or wash your Mouth often with it . 218. A Medicine prescrib'd to a great Prince ( Charles the First ) to fasten the Teeth . TAke a pint of Spring-water , and put to it four Ounces of Brandy ; let the Patient wash his Mouth with the Mixture of these every Morning , and twice or thrice a day besides ; and let him in the Morning , roul for a little while , a bit of Roch-Allom to and fro in his Mouth . 219. A good Astringent Liquor to fasten the Teeth . TO four Ounces of Claret-Wine , or some other convenient Menstruum , you may put to dissolve about four Drams of Terra Japonica . 220. An Excellent Medicine to fasten the Teeth in Scorbutick Gums . TAke of Choice Bole-Armoniack two Drams , choice Myrrh ( not lucid ) one Dram , Roch-Allom crude half a Dram , Claret-Wine one Pint. Boyl these softly a little while together , and let the Patient use twice , thrice ( or if need be ostner ) in a day . 221. To fasten Teeth , made loose by the Scurvy . ANoint the Parts affected with Oleum Myrrhae made by Deliquium with Whites of Eggs boyl'd hard . 222. A Lotion to fasten the Teeth . IN a quart of Spring-water Decoct for a while one Ounce of the best Terra Japanica reduc'd to gross Pouder . And then having filter'd the Decoction , keep it stopt for use . 223. A good Astringent Liquor to fasten loose Teeth . IN a Pint of Red Wine infuse about half an Ounce of Terra Japanica , till as much as will be dissolv'd be taken up by the Liquor . Decant it from the Faeces ( if there be need ) and keep it well stopt for use . 224. An useful Liquor to fasten the Teeth , and prevent the Tooth-ach . TO a Pint of Spring-water put half an Ounce of clean Sal Armoniack , and with the Solution of this Salt , let the Patient wash his Mouth from time to time . 225. To make an Excellent Poultise to ripen Tumors . TAke eight Ounces of ( fat ) Figs , two Ounces of white Lilly-Roots , and two Ounces of Bean-Flower ( or Meal : ) Boyl these together in Water , and reduce them to the consistence of a Poultise ; which is to be spread to a good thickness , and laid warm enough upon the Part , and shifted as often as it begins to grow dry . 226. An Excellent Medicine to relieve those that are troubled with Tumors in the Throat , and some other Parts . TO a quart of New Milk put a handful of Mallow-leaves , with as much of the Leaves of Solanum , or Nightshade , shred them small , let them boyl , till the Herbs be tender as if they were to be eaten . Then put into the Milk as much Crumbs of White-bread , as being stirred well with the other Ingredients , will bring all to the consistence of a Poultise . This is to be spread upon a Stay for the Throat , or some other thing fit to be apply'd to any other Part affected , and is to be laid on as hot as the Patient can well endure it , and when it begins to grow cold , it is to be succeeded by fresh made very hot , and so long as the case shall require . 227. A Medicine that lately cur'd an Obstinate Tumor of the Knee , that had baffled some Chirurgeons . TAke a green Colewort-Leaf with red Veins or Streaks , and having cut the Ribs flat and almost level to the rest of the Leaf , bruise it with the haft of a Knife , or some such thing , apply it to the Part affected , renewing it once or twice a day . 228. A Powerful and Experienc'd Topick for a Sore Throat . TAke two new-laid Eggs roasted moderately hard , and the Pap of two well-roasted Pippins ; beat them well together , and add to them as much Cruds of Posset made with Ale. Having incorporated them all very well , apply the Mixture very warm to the Part affected , shifting it if need be once in five or six hours . 229. An Approved Remedy for a Sore Throat . TAke Verjuice of Grapes one Ounce , good Honey half an Ounce , crude Allom about a Dram and half , and Sea-Salt half a Dram ; Pouder the Salts finely , and incorporate them very well with the Liquors into the form of a kind of Liniment . In this dip a long Feather , or a piece of Rag tyed about the end of a slender Stick ( as of Liquorish ) and with it touch the Part affected three , four , or five times : between each , two times gargling with a Mixture of Plantane-water , and some red Rose-water . 230. A Choice External Remedy for Sore Throats . TAke Millepedes , Sows or Hogs-Lice alive , and sew them up between the foldings of a piece of Linnen , and apply them to the Throat in the form of a Stay , which is to be kept on all Night . 231. An easie but try'd Remedy for a Sore Throat . TAke Bay-Salt dry'd , and having pounded it , put it into the folds of a Rag in a sufficient quantity to make a Stay to be ty'd about the Throat , and apply it over night as hot as the Patient can conveniently ▪ endure it . 232. A Choice Remedy for a Sore Throat , especially if enflam'd . TAke a little handful of the Leaves of common Mallows , and eight or ten good Figs ; boyl these about a quarter of an hour in a Pint of New Milk , and let the Patient use it very hot and often . 233. A homely but Experienc'd Medicine for a Sore Throat . TAke about one Dram of Album Graecum , or white Dogs-turd burnt to perfect whiteness , and with about one Ounce of Honey of Roses , or clarify'd Honey , make thereof a Linctus to be very slowly let down the Throat . 234. A homely but Experienc'd Remedy for a Sore Throat . INto the Leg of a worsted Stocking that has been long worn next to the Flesh , put in a sufficient quantity of good Sea-Salt exactly dry'd , or else decrepitated , and this Salt being put in warm , if not hot , the Stocking is to be ty'd about the Patient's Neck , and kept on all Night . And if by the next Day the Distemper be not remov'd , you may apply fresh Salt ( in the proportion ) in the same Stocking as before , the Night following . 235. A try'd Medicine for a Sore Throat , caused by Acid Humors in the Internal Parts of it . TAke half a handful of the Leaves of common Mallows , and boyl them in about a Pint of New Milk near half an hour ; then let it run through a clean Cloath , and let the Patient use it a little warm three or four times a day as a Gargle , or else let him use it by holding it in his Mouth , and letting some drops slowly slide down his Throat . 236. An often Experienc'd Remedy for Tettars , and the Itch. TAke Flowers of Sulphur , finely pouder'd , Ginger , and burnt Allom , each alike , save , that of the Allom there must be somewhat less . Incorporate these with as much fresh Butter ( without any Salt ) as will bring them to the consistence of an Oyntment ; with this anoint the Part affected at Bed-time , as hot as the Patient can well endure it , and let it lye on all Night , wash it off in the Morning with Celandine-water well heated ; and whilst you continue the use of this Medicine , take daily some Cordial , to keep the noxious Humour from being driven inwards . This will not fail to do the Work. 237. A Choice Medicine for a Thrush in Young Children , or a Sore Mouth . TAke an Egg , and put out the Meat , then fill it with the Juice of Red Sage , and set it on hot Embers till it boyl ; then skim it whilst any skum doth rise . Then take as much Allom beaten as the bigness of a Pea or Bean , and half a spoonful of Honey , and let this be put in the Egg and boyl it a little , and so take it off ; and when 't is cold , rub the Child's Mouth as oft as you see cause . 238. An almost Specifick Remedy for a Tenesmus . MIX Balsam of Sulphur made with Oyl of Turpentine with Linseed-Oyl , or some other convenient Oyl , till the Balsam be thereby so far allay'd , that the Patient may well endure it ; and then let him dip his Finger in it , and make use of it as a small Suppository two or three times , or if need be , oftner in a day . U. 239. An Excellent Emulsion to be used in sharpness of Urine , especially caused by Blistering Plaisters . TAke Mallows two handfuls , Gum Arabick two Drams , Barley-water a sufficient quantity ; boyl all to a quart , to which add sweet Almonds blanch'd one Ounce , of the four great cold Seeds , of each two Drams . Make an Emulsion , strain , and add two Ounces of Syrup of Marsh-Mallows , of which drink at pleasure . 240. A Powerful Medicine for stoppage of Urine . FRY Chervil with a sufficient quantity of Oyl of Walnuts , and apply a Cataplasm made of it very hot to the Navel ( and if need be , to the Os Pubis ) or Share-bone . 241. For a Retention of Urine . TAke Chervil , and with fresh Hogs-Lard fry it well , and lay it very hot upon the Patient's Navel and all the adjacent Parts , shifting it , if there be need , once or twice . 242. An useful Pouder for such as cannot hold their Urine . TAke Root of the Male Piony , Yellow Amber , Red Coral , and choice Gum Arabick , of each a sufficient quantity : Reduce them to fine Pouder , mix them well , and let the Patient take of this Mixture from 10 to 20 Grains twice a day . 243. An easie Medicine for sharpness of Urine , and for Obstruction of the Menses , and their flowing too much , if the Distempers be not obstinate . GIve about half . an Ounce at a time of the newly exprest Juice of Ground-Ivy in any convenient Vehicle . 244. An Old Lithotomist's Medicine for Suppression of Urine , ( given me by himself . ) GIve from about 50 Grains to one Dram for a Dose of the Pulvis Hollandi , and if the Necessity be very urgent , you may give from one Dram to four Scruples , or a Dram and half , not neglecting in the mean while other proper Remedies . 245. For Suppression of Urine . GIve about a spoonful at a time of bruised Mustard-seed in any convenient Vehicle . 246. A try'd Medicine for a Suppression of Urine that is not very Obstinate . DIssolve half an Ounce of choice Castile-Soap in half a Pint of White-wine , or some appropriated Liquor ; pass the Solution through a Woollen Filter , that the more greasie parts may rest behind , and the Liquor pass more clear ; put to this five or six Grains of Saffron : Divide it into two Doses , whereof one is to be given some few hours after the other , if the first do not Operate well . 247. A speedy Remedy for Fits of Vomiting . TAke a large Nutmeg , grate off one half of it , and toast the flat side of the other , till the Oily part begin to ouze or sweat out , then clap it to the Pit of the Patient's Stomach as hot as he can well endure it , and let him keep it on whilst it continues warm , and then if need be put on another . 248. To make an Astringent Liquor , of great use in Ulcers and ( some ) Wounds . BOyl two Drams of choice Catechu , or Japan Earth , in a quart of Spring-waster ; pour off the clear , and with it by Injection or otherwise dress the Ulcers or Wounds . 249. For Outward Ulcers . TAke the green Bark of Oak , and chop it altogether , both inside and outside , into very small pieces . Upon these pour good Lime-water freshly made , and let them infuse in it till the Liquor has acquir'd a deep Tincture . With this dress the Ulcer once , and if need require , twice a day . 250. The Famous Scotch Emperical Medicine for a Stubborn Ulcer . BUrn to Ashes , but not too much , the gross stalks on which the red Colewort ( not Cabbage ) grows , and with any fit Additament make thereof a Cataplasm to be apply'd to the Ulcer , and shift it at reasonable distances of time . 251. A Remedy against the Bitings of Vipers , and other Venomous Creatures . AS soon as ever one is bitten ( for if the Poyson be diffus'd through the Mass of Blood , the Experiment may not succeed ) a hot Iron may be held as near the Wound as the Patient can possibly endure , till it has , as they speak , drawn out all the Poyson , which will sometimes adhere like a yellowish Spot to the surface of the Iron . 252. Medicines against Voiding of Blood out of several Parts . TAke two Drams of Henbane-seed , and the like weight of white Poppy-seed ; beat them up with an Ounce of Conserve of Red Roses , of which give to the quantity of a Nutmeg or Walnut . Or , Take the express'd Juice of twelve handfuls of Plantane-Leaves , and six Ounces of fresh Comfrey-Roots , well beaten together with a convenient quantity of fine Sugar . These two Medicines have wonderful Effects to stop Bleeding . W. 253. A Simple but Powerful Remedy for fresh Wounds . TAke the Juice of Celandine , and dress with it Recent Wounds and Cuts , instead of a Balsam . 254. To make a Simple , but Excellent Balsam to stanch the Blood of fresh Wounds newly made , and to heal them speedily . TAke good Venice-Turpentine , and in a Limbeck , or some other convenient Vessel distil off a good part of it with a very moderate Fire , till there remains a thick Substance , yet not like Colophony , but of a Liquid and Balsamick consistence . What you have distill'd off set aside for other uses , for the remaining Substance is what we now seek for , and is to be apply'd as a Balsam both per se , and with Plagets and other helps . 255. An Excellent Wound-Drink . TAke Harts-tongue , Liverwort , Wood-Bugle , Wood-Sage , Wood-Betony , Southernwood , Wormwood , Alehoof , Bugloss , Scabious , Ribwort , White-bottles , Mugwort , Comfrey , Mints , Agrimony , Strawberry and Violet-leaves , Cinquefoil , Daisie-Leaves , Roots , and Flowers , Wild Hony-suckles , Wild Angelica , Avens , Plantane , Clowns Wound-wort , Hawthorn-buds , Oak-buds , and Bramble-buds . Gather these Herbs in May , or as many as can then be had ; the Buds in March as soon as ever they put forth , before they come to Leaves ; measure them , and take equal quantities of them , and dry them severally in the shade , and when throughly dryed put them up in Bags , and so keep them for use . How to make the Drink . Take one Gallon of Spring-water , one Pottle of the best White-wine , add to this two good handfuls of all the Herbs , mingled well together being dryed , but if green , then one good handful of each . Boyl them in a Pipkin or Iron Pot to the consumption of the half ; then strain it out , and put to the Liquor a quart of Honey , and let it boyl again , and skim it , and when it 's cold , put it up into Bottles stopt very close , then let the Patient drink thereof Morning and Evening about a quarter of a Pint at a time ( some use only three spoonfuls at a time ) fasting after taking of it one hour or two . Observe , the Liverwort is ever best to be put in green . If you make use of this for any Sore , or Ulcer in the Body , lay any Searcloath or Plaister to it , of Vnguentum Apostol . or Minium , or such like , as they use for Wounds in the Body , or a Plaister of Honey and Wax . This Drink is effectual for Sores old or new , Womens Breasts , putrified Bones , causing them to scale ; 't is good for any Ach in the Stomach , for the Kings-Evil it hath cured , also caused Bullets in the Flesh to come out , having long continued there . Sir Jo. Mince was healed by drinking of this , being wounded through the Loyns . 256. A quick Remedy for a small and fresh Cut , or Wound . LET the Patient speedily plunge the hurt Part into Brandy , and keep it there for a while , till the Pain , which will be excited , be extinguish'd , or much abated : Or if the Part be unfit for this Operation , the Liquor may be apply'd to it immediately with a soft Sponge , & c. 257. A good Vehicle for divers Remedies , and that 't is it self useful against the Jaundies , and Worms in Children . THE distill'd Water of the Husks of Walnuts is a very good Vehicle in divers Diseases , particularly in Jaundies ; 't is a Cordial , and exceeding proper to be mixt with Julaps in Fevers . 'T is also an excellent Antiverminary , or Medicine against the Worms , especially for Children . 258. A Powerful Medicine for White Fluors , ( and the like Distempers . ) TAke a Pottle of Ale , and shred into it two Ounces of white Ichthyocolla ( Isinglass , ) and in a loosely stopt Vessel , let the Liquor simper till about half is wasted ; strain the rest , and give of it two or three Ounces at a time once or twice a day , as need shall require . 259. A tryed Medicine for an Ulcus Uteri . TAke of true and choice Bitumen Judaicum , or Asphaltum , and having reduc'd it to very fine Pouder , let the Patient take of it about a Dram at a time in any proper Vehicle , once or twice a day . 260. An Excellent Water to preserve the Sight . TO half an Ounce of Celandine-Water , and two Drams of Succory-Water , mixt together , put two or three drops of clarify'd Honey , and shake them all together when you are to use them . Of this Water let fall a drop or two into the Eye once or twice a day . It will not keep above three or four days , especially in Summer , and therefore must be often renewed . 261. A try'd Medicine for a Whitloe . TAke House Snails and beat them , shells and all , in a Stone or Wooden Mortar , so long till they be reduc'd to the Consistence of a Cataplasm ; which apply somewhat warm to the Part affected , and keep it on for 16 or 24 hours , renewing it then if need be . 262. A powerfully Dissolving Oyntment for Warts , and divers Tumors . TAke May-Butter , and having melted it in a moderate heat , mix with it very diligently , but by little and little , as much Oyl of Tartar per deleq . as will give it a sensible , but not a considerably strong taste . 263. An Experienced Remedy for Bloody Water . TAke Waters of the black Alder , of Mallows , of each three Ounces , Syrup of Comfrey one Ounce : mix them , and let the Patient take four spoonfuls immediate ; and four or five times a day . 264. To make a well Experimented Lime - Water . TAke fresh Quick-lime 2 Pound , on which pour two Gallons of Water boyling hot ; when they have stood together about 24 hours , pour off the clear , and into one Gallon of this , put of Anniseeds , Liquorish , and Sassafrass thinly slic'd , of each four Ounces . Let them infuse for 24 or 48 hours in a cover'd Vessel ; then take a pound and a half of Smirna Raisins ( which some call great blew Currans ) wash'd and stamp'd . Let these infuse for a few hours , and then pass the whole Mixture first through a Sieve , and then through a woollen Bag. The Dose is about a quarter of a pint ▪ warm twice a day . 265. An Experienc'd Medicine to Correct the peccant Humor in the Kings-Evil . TAke half an Ounce of Cuttle-Bone dry'd till it may be finely pouder'd . Give this to the Patient for one Dose . 266. An Excellent and often-try'd Clyster in Fluxes , especially in sharp Humors , and some other Distempers of the Bowels . IN a Quart of New Milk boyl softly two small spoonfuls of grosly pouder'd Rice till it be brought to the consistence of Cream , then dissolve in it two Ounces of our Suet of Sheeps-Kidneys , and having strain'd it to keep back the Fibres , give it at once for a Lavement . 267. A Cure for Scrophula's , and the Kings-Evil . TAke a handful of Paronychia folio rutaceo , call'd Rue Whitlow-grass , and by some , Felon-wort , boyl it every Morning in a quart of small Beer , strain it , and drink it for your ordinary Drink . It wastes the peccant Humor , appeases the Pains , discusses the unbroken Tumors , and heals the broken ones . 268. Against Epilepsies , or the Falling-Sickness . TAke of the Pouder of the true Misseltoe of the Oak as much as will lye upon a Sixpence , early in the Morning , in Black Cherry-water , for some days near the Full Moon . 269. A Simple Remedy for the Stone . TAke Persicaria , or Arsmart , as much as you please , Distil it in a common Rose-water Still , and give some spoonfuls of it in or before the Fits. 270. An Excellent Remedy against Fluxes . TAke unsalted Butter , boyl it gently till a pretty part be consum'd , skimming it diligently from time to time , whilst it stands over the Fire : Of this Butter melted give now and then a considerable quantity , as the Patient is able to bear it . This Medicine was very Successful in Ireland . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A28994-e3830 B A B B A B B B B B B B C B B B B A A B A B A A B B A B A B C B B B B B B A B B B B C B B A B B B A Notes for div A28994-e7790 B B A A A B C A B B B A B B A A B A C A A B A B B B A A B B B B B B A A A B C B A B A A B A A B A B A Notes for div A28994-e12530 I. ☜ L L ☞ L ☞ ☜ L L L L L L ☜ L L L L ☜ L ☞ ☜ L ☜ L ☞ L ☞ L ☞ L ☞ ☞ L ☞ ☞ * L ☜ * ☜ ☜ ☜ ☜ Notes for div A28994-e15280 ☞ L * ☞ * ☞ * ☜ * * L ☜ * ☜ ☜ Notes for div A28994-e16390 * * De simpl . Medic. Facultatibus , lib. ix . Titulo Jaspis Viridis . Ac nonnulli quoque annulis inserunt , Scalpuntque in eo draconem radios habentem : Velut Rex Ne●hespos memoriae ●rodidit in sexto & decimo libro . 
A29016	----	Of the reconcileableness of specifick medicines to the corpuscular philosophy to which is annexed a discourse about the advantages of the use of simple medicines / by Robert Boyle ... Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1685 Approx. 265 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 129 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A29016 Wing B4013 ESTC R7218 11799471 ocm 11799471 49353 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A29016) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 49353) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 525:9) Of the reconcileableness of specifick medicines to the corpuscular philosophy to which is annexed a discourse about the advantages of the use of simple medicines / by Robert Boyle ... Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. [14], 136 p., [2], 137-225 p. Printed for Sam. Smith, London : 1685. Reproduction of original in Bristol Public Library, Bristol, England. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Medicine -- Early works to 1800. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-05 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-07 Derek Lee Sampled and proofread 2006-07 Derek Lee Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion OF THE Reconcileableness OF SPECIFICK MEDICINES TO THE Corpuscular Philosophy . To which is Annexed A Discourse about the Advantages Of the Use of SIMPLE MEDICINES . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Fellow of the Royal Society . LONDON , Printed for Sam. Smith at the' Princes Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard . 1685. August 24. Imprimatur Hen. Maurice , Rmo . D ●o . W. Cant. Arch po . a sacris . THE PREFACE . THE rise of the following Tract , intimated near the beginning of it , was not such a fictitious thing as the Reader may imagine . But tho' I really receiv'd a Visit from a Physician , known to me , but by his Reputation purposely to propose to me his Objections against the Corpuscular Phylosophy , and he had a long conference with me about them ; yet , because the Historical passages of that interview , cannot be circumstantially related in few words , I suppose the Reader will willingly allow me , to imploy this Preface in giving him Advertisements about the scope and design of the Treatise it ushers in . I shall therefore advertise him , that he will be much mistaken , if he shall expect , as I perceive several have done already , to find in this Book a Collection of Receits of Specifick Remedies . For a moderate attention to the Title Page will enable him manifestly to discern , that the following Paper in its own nature , and in the direct and immediate design of it , is a Speculative discourse ; since it tends but to show , that , in case there be Specifick Medicines ( as 't is probable there are some ) their experienced vertues are reconcilcable to the principles of the Corpuscular , or ( as many call it ) the new Philosophy ; and at least do not subvert them ; if these Effects and Operations be not clearly explicable by them . And as this is the , avowed scope of the following Essay , so I chose to treat of it less like a Physician than a Naturalist . For Physicks being a Science , whose large extent invites and warrants its Cultivaters , to search into the nature and Phaenomina of things corporeal indefinitely ; it must often happen , that the Medicinal Art and this Science will be conversant about the same subject , tho' in differing ways , and with differing scopes . For there are divers hurtful or advantageous accidents and changes of the humane Body , whereof the Naturalist takes notice , but as they are Phaenomina or changes produc'd by Natural causes in the Body of an Animal , whilst the Physician considers them as Symptoms of Diseases , or Effects of Medicines , the former directing his Speculations to the discovery of truth , and the other his Theory to the recovery of health . But because I else where particularly consider the Cognation and distinction , between the Discipline that the Naturalist , and that which the Physician cultivates , I shall for bear to mention them in this place ; but rather acknowledge , that I scarce doubt but that I might have inrich'd the following discourse with some choice particulars , if I would have perus'd and borrow'd from the learned writings of the famous Dr. Willis : But besides that I had not his Books at hand , I was unwilling to be prepossess'd or byass'd by his notions , and I presum'd the Person I wrote to would not be unwilling to see , what , without their help , the consideration of the thing I treated of suggested to me . About this I shall now proceed to observe , that tho' the direct scope of the following discourse , being to explicate the Phaenomena of some bodies , which from their use , are call'd Medicinal , and declare how possibly they may produce the Effects ascrib'd to them , the ensuing discourse is for the main of a Speculative nature ; yet the consequences that may be drawn from it , and the applications that in this industrious Age are like to be made of some things that it contains , may probably render it practical . For I have more than once observ'd , that divers considerable Remedies , and some not unpromising methods too , have either remain'd unthought of , both by many Galenical Physicians , and divers of their modern Antagonists too , or if propos'd by others , have been rejected or slighted , barely upon this supposition , that no rational account can be given of their way of working , or how they should do good , and 't is said to be unworthy of a rational Physician ; to make use of a Remedy , of whose manner of operating he cannot give a reason . How prejudicial it may be to many Patients , that Physicians be prepossess'd with a bad opinion of an useful Remedy , may be guess'd by him that shall consider , what multitudes of Teeming Women , that probably might have been sav'd by the skilful use of Phlebotomy , have been suffer'd to dye for want of it , upon a dislike of that Remedy that Physicians for many Ages thought to be grounded upon no less authority than a positive Aphorism of Hippocrates . And therefore if , to remove the specious objection newly mention'd against that whole kind of Remedies call'd Specificks , the following Tract has been so happy as to show , that 't is at least possible , that Medicines said to be Specifick , may perform their operations by ways , which tho' not explicable by the vulgar Doctrine of the Schools , are intelligible , and reconcileable , to the clear Principles of the Mechanical Phylosophy : If , I say , this have been done by the Theory propos'd in this Treatise , it may conduce somewhat to inlarge the minds of many Physicians , and invite them to make use of several Remedies , of which they did not think , or against which they were prejudic'd . And since Specificks , where they can be had , are wont to be free from any immoderate manifest quality , and for the most part to work more benignly , as well as more effectually , caeteris paribus , than other Medicines ; I think that to bring them into due request , and invite Physicians to search for new ones , as well as imploy those already known , may tend much to shorten many Cures , and make them more easy and more safe . Est aliquid prodire tenus si non datur Vltra . THE Advertisement OF THE PUBLISHER . THE Author had occasion to touch upon some of the same Subjects that he here treats of , in a Book , The Usefulness of Experimental Philosophy , long since publisht ; but he had the misfortune to be reduc'd to write the following Discourse about Specifick Medicines , and the Utility of Simple Remedies , in a Village where he had not that Book at hand , and could not call to mind all that he had therein published seventeen or eighteen years before : On which account , though he studiously forbore to repeat the particulars that he remembred to have set down in that Treatise , how opposite soever they would have been to his present purpose , yet having since the following Discourse was sent to the Press , got a sight of that other ( which he had not read in many years ) he finds upon a transient View that some of the same things are mentioned in both Books : at which discovery , though he be somewhat troubled , yet he is the less so , because they are but few , in comparison of the new ones , and set down on such occasions , or with such other circumstances , that may make a favourable Reader look on them , as not bare repetitions . And tho' in the forecited Treatise , some of the motives to make use of simple Medicines , be lightly touch'd , yet besides , that they are not all that are mention'd in the following invitation , those arguments that are there but pointed at , are here treated of , and both confirm'd , and explain'd by other Observations , and Receits . And since the Printed Book above mention'd has been for divers years very scarce , 't is presum'd that those many Readers that have it not , will not be displeas'd to find here some few things for which they cannot resort thither : And as the Author foresaw he might be oblig'd to consent to the translation of the following papers into the Roman Tongue , so he thought his Latine Readers would not repine , tho' a great number of particulars had been borrow'd of a Book that is not yet extant in their Language . I shall give you no farther account of the particulars contain'd in the two ensuing Treatises , since the title pages give a sufficient hint of the Noble Authors main scope , and chief design , I shall only say , that the first Treatise effectually performs what has not been as yet attempted by answering a very considerable objection against the Doctrine of the Corpuscularian Philosophers , namely , that which is taken from what we call Specifick Medicines , their vertues , and operations being hitherto judg'd by several of the learnedest sort wholly irreconcileable to the principles of the new Philosophy ; whereby he gratifieth not only the curiosity of Speculative Philosophers , but does likewise a notable piece of Service to all Physicians , ushering in here and there such notions as may be the Principles of a sure , and easie Practice , yea and enable them too , to give a good account of their own Receits ; I mean of those that contain Specifick Medicines , whose vertues hitherto we could not describe to our Patients , but by saying they did work we knew not how , or by some Specifick , that is by some occult or hidden quality . The second Treatise , which is an Invitation to the use of simple Medicines , is of such a general use , that Mankind is much indebted to this Noble Author for it , 't is so well grounded both upon Reason , and Experience , that this as well as the foremention'd discourse , does fully answer the great repute of the Author both at home , and abroad , where he is commonly stil'd the English Phylosopher . The Publisher thought fit to translate for the benefit of every common Reader , some Latine passages contained in the foregoing Treatises . P. 70. From the year of our Lord 1645. in the space of fourteen years I cur'd above a thousand Frebricitants without Bleeding , Purging , or Sweating , by the help of a single precipitating Remedy , without any regard to the nature of the Feaver , whether it were intermittent , or continued , whether it were a Tertian , or a Quartan , which is harder to cure than any other , yea without considering any other circumstance either of Time , Place , Sex , or Age , and that in a very short time , without any danger of Relapse , and without any considerable trouble of the Patient , if through his own . Intemperance , he fell not into new Fits again . Kergerus de fermentati Sect. 3. cap. 3. p. mihi 250. P. 130. I have made my self a frequent trial of this Stone , having carried several of those little Stones tyed together about my Neck in such a manner , that the Stones did touch the Mouth of my Stomach , yet they were beneficial , tho they had nothing graven upon 'em , &c. Galen . de simpl . med . facul . 1. 9. tit . de lap . P. 131. We have seen sometimes the Hemerods cured , as likewise the copious monthly issues by wearing Rings made of this Stone . Nic. Monard . simpl . med . histo . c. 36 P. 329. OF THE Reconcileableness of Specifick Medicines , TO THE Corpuscular Philosophy . The Introduction , To my Learned Friend , Dr. F. SIR , PErceiving , by our late Conference , that the thing which most alienates you , from the Corpuscular Philosophy , is an Objection drawn from your own Profession and Experience , namely , that the Specifick Vertues of Medicines are not reconcileable to it ; my unwillingness that an Hypothesis , I am so kind to as I am to the Mechanical , should continue under the disfavour of a Person I so much esteem , as I do Dr. F. makes me venture to offer you the annexed Paper , thô it be but an Inlargement of a dismembred part of what I long since , to gratify a Friend , noted about the Origine or Production of Occult Qualities . For thô I pretend not , that this Trifle should satisfy a man of your Judgment and Learning , yet it may perhaps serve to keep you from thinking it impossible , that a skilful Pen may be able quite to surmount those Difficulties , that so bad a Pen as mine is capable of lessening . A Paper belonging to the writings about the Mechanical Origine of Qualities . AMong the several kinds of occult qualities that , which is afforded by Specifick Vertues of Medicines , is not here to be pretermitted . For these Qualities do not only , like other hidden ones , invite , our curiosity , but concern our health and may hereafter ( if I mistake not ) appear to be of much greater importance , than as yet they are commonly thought . However it may be worth while to take some notice of them in this place , if it were but because divers Learned Physicians do , as some of themselves owned to me , reject or disfavour the Corpuscular Philosophy upon this account , That they think it cannot be reconcil'd to the vertues of Specifick Remedies , or at least cannot , either in a particular or in a general way , give any tolerable account of them . I find three sorts of Qualities mention'd in the Books of physicians , under the notion of Specifick Vertues . For by some a Medicine is said to have a Specifick Faculty , because it is eminently and peculiarly friendly to this or that particular Part of the Body , as the Heart , the Brain , the Eye , &c. By others it is said , by a Specifick Power , to attract and evacuate some determinate Humour , as Choler , Phlegm , &c But the most usual account , upon which a Medicine is said to be Specifick , is that it has the vertue to cure , by some hidden property , this or that particular disease , as a Pleurisy , an Asthma , the colick , the Dropsy , &c. And this being the principal and most common sense , in which the word Specifick is employ'd by Physicians , I shall ordinarily make use of it , in that sense , in the following discourse , but yet without so confining my self to it , as not to consider it in the two other senses , when occasion shall require . But before I descend to particular considertions 't will not be amiss to obviate mistakes by declaring , in what sense in this Paper , I shall employ the Term Specifick Medicine , especially in the last of the three foremention'd Acceptions . I do not then by a Specifick understand a Medicine , that will cure the disease it is good for Infallibly , and in all Persons that take it , for I confess I never yet met with any such remedy . Nor do I by Specifick understand a Medicine that , almost like a Charm , works only by some latent and unaccountable Property , without the assistance of any known Quality , as Purgative , Diuretick , Sudorific , &c. to be found in other Medicines : But by Specifick I mean , in this discourse , such a medicine as very often , if not most commonly , does very considerably , and better than ordinary Medicines , relieve the Patient , whether by quite curing , or much lessening , his disease , and which acts principally upon the account of some Property or peculiar vertue ; so that if it have any manifest Quality that is friendly , yet the good it does is greater , than can reasonably be ascribed to the degree it has of that manifest Quality , as hot , cold , bitter , sudorifick , &c. There are two grand Questions , that may be propos'd about the Specifick vertues ascrib'd to Medicines , The first is , whether there be really any such , and the second whether , if there be , the Mechanical Hypothesis can be accommodated to them . The former of these Questions may admit of a double sense , for it may be propos'd with respect , either to the present measure of our knowledge , or to those further attainments that , in future times , men may arrive at . In the latter of these senses , ( to dispatch first the consideration of that ) I shall not presume to maintain , without restriction , either part of the Question . For I do not only hope , but am apt to think , that in time the Industry and Sagacity of men will be able to discover Intelligible causes of most of those Qualities , that now pass for Occult , and among them of many of the Specifick vertues ascrib'd to Medicines . And yet , on the other side , I much fear that men will not be successful , in tracing out the true and immediate causes of those good effects of some remedies , that depend upon such fine and uncommon Textures , and such latent and odly guided Motions , as fall not under our Senses , thô perhaps assisted by Instruments . Which conjecture will appear the less improbable , if we consider those admirable Idiosyncrasiae , or Peculiarities of Disposition , whereof the Books of eminent Writers afford us many instances , to whose number I could , upon my own Observation , add several , if I thought it needful . And , thô I am not ignorant that some of these may be plausibly accounted for , as that of some mens aversion to cheese , or to cats ; yet I do not think that the like explications can be extended to some others , that might be nam'd , if it were here pertinent to discuss that throughly . As to the former sense , of the Question lately propounded , I confess my self very amiable to the Affirmative , as far as I can judge by those writings of Physicians I have had occasion to peruse . Which limitation I add , because I would not derogate from the knowledge of particular persons , who in so learned and inquisitive an Age , may be arriv'd at far greater attainments than those Physicians have done , that have entertain'd the Publick about the Occult and Specifick Qualities of Medicines . I know there have been , and still are , Dogmatical Physitians , that upon the Principles , as they pretend , of the School-Philosophy , reject all Medicinal vertues that they think not reducible to manifest Qualities . But of such Galen somewhere justly complains , that they either deny matters of fact , or assign very incompetent causes o the effects they pretend to explain . And , for my part , I am so far from believing these men capable of giving sufficient reasons of the more hidden Properties of Medicins , that I am not apt to think them able , by their Principles , to give clear and particular explications , even of the more easy and familiar vertues of simples . I am therefore dispos'd to think that , in the sense formerly deliver'd of the Term Specifick Medicines , there are some Remedies that deserve that name . To this opinion I have been led by several Reasons ▪ And first ( to begin with the least weighty ) it has the suffrage of many learned Physicians , both Ancient and Modern , and particularly that of Galen himself in several places of his Works . And I remember that , treating of a Specifick Remedy against the biting of a mad Dog , which vertue he ascribes to an occult Quality , or , as he speaks , to the Propriety of the whole Substance ; he takes occasion to promise , that he would write a Book of things that operate upon that account . Which Book , if it had scap'd with his other Works ( for he elsewhere cites it as having written it ) would probably have furnish'd us with several things to strengthen our opinion . And thô in Matters Philosophical I am little sway'd by mere Authority , yet the concurrent suffrage , of many eminent Physicians , may in this controversy be the more considerable , because most of them , being noted Practitioners , had opportunity to observe whether or no any Remedies deserv'd the name of Specificks : And their Testimony is , in our case , the more to be regarded , because Physicians , especially famous ones , are not wont to be willing to acknowledge , that there are Effects , which fall under the Cognisance of their art , whereof they cannot give the causes . My next Inducement , to admit Specificks , is founded upon Parity of Reason : For 't is manifest , that there are divere formidable Maladies , that are produc'd by inconsiderable quantities of Poysons , that have not been discover'd to produce such great and dismal Effects by any Manifest Quality , whether first , second , or third , as Medical Authors ( I doubt not over accurately ) distinguish them . On this occasion I shall add a very odd Accident , about which I was advis'd with by an expert oculist , very soon after it happen'd : The Case was this . A man lying somewhat long in Bed in the morning , and chancing , as he lay upon his Back , to cast up his Eyes to the Tester , saw a great Spider , that stood still just over his Face : Wherefore having reproach'd his Wife , who happen'd to be in the Room , with gross negligence , she took a Broom , and struck it upon the upper part of the Tester , to beat down the Spider ; but the Animal held so fast with his Feet that she miss'd her aim , and he , whether frighted or irritated by this rude shake , let fall upon the Man , that was staring at it to see what would happen , a drop of Liquor that lighted directly upon one of his open Eyes . But finding no heat nor sharpness insue , but rather a very sensible coldness , he made nothing of it , but rose and put on his cloth's . But presently after , happening to rub with his finger the other Eye , he was sadly surpriz'd to find himself suddenly benighted , and calling for assistance , he found that the Eye , which the Spider had let fall something on , thô no change were noted in it by the by-standers , was totally depriv'd of sight . Upon which score he repair'd to the above mention'd Oculists : But whether he afterwards recover'd his sight or no , I cannot tell ; all the endeavours the Oculist arid I imploy'd to find out his Lodging ( to which it seems he had left a wrong direction ) having been Fruitless . This brought into my mind , that I had sometimes wonder'd to see how much more quickly Spiders will kill Flyes , than the cutting off their Heads , or running them quite through with Pins or Needles will do . But to return to what I was saying , of the great Mischief done to Humane Bodies , by very small quantities of Poyson ; methinks one may thence argue that it seems not improbable that Appropriated Medicines , especially when administred in greater quantity , may produce very notable changes in the Humane Body to the advantage of it . But on this occasion I expect to be told , that 't is much more easy to do harm , than good , and I confess 't is so in the general , but yet , in the particular case before us , I consider that some Poysons , that produce such dreadful Symptoms in the Body , are frequently cur'd by their appropriated Antidotes , which therefore must have a Sanative Power great enough , with the help but of the ordinary Concourse of Nature , to surmount the efficacy of the venemous Matter . To which I shall add this more familiar instance that as Perfumes do often enough produce various , and sometimes frightful , Symptoms in many Histerical Women ; so the fumes of the burnt Feathers of Patridges , Woodcocks , &c. do frequently cure the Fit in as little time as the sweet smell procur'd it . And I have often found the smell of strong Spirit of Harts-horn , or Sal-Armoniac , recover such Women in far less time , than the fragrant odours imploy'd to make them si●● . The Third and Principal Inducement I had , to think there are Specifick Remedies , is from Experience . I might urge , on this occasion , the Testimony of Galen , who tells us more than once , that he himself therefore confided , in the Ashes of burnt Craw-Fishes , for the cure of the biting of a Mad Dog , because never any of those that took it dy'd . And to annex that upon the by , for the usefulness of it , he adds , that thô the effect of these ashes be admirable , even when given alone , yet their vertue may be increased , by adding to ten parts of burnt Craw Fishes five of Gentian and one of Frank-incense . And the great vertue of these burnt Shell-fishes I find to have been taken notice of some ages before Galen ; Dioscorides much commending them against the same Disease that the Pergamenian does . I shall in this place purposely forbear to mention such Medicines , as , thô by divers learned Physicians commended as Specificks , are yet by others much question'd , if not flatly deny'd to be so . Since it may be more proper , and may perhaps suffice , to mention two or three , whose efficacy is more notorious . 'T is known , by almost daily experience , in Italy and divers other hot Countreys , that thô the stings of Scorpions oftentimes produce very acute Pains , and formidable Symptoms , yet the Mischief is easily remedy'd , either by presently crushing the Body of the Scorpion upon the Hurt , or by anointing the part affected with Oyl of Scorpions , ( for that reason to be almost every where found , ) which being made by suffocating those Insects in common Oyl , and keeping it long in the Sun , the Liquor does not at all appear to have any manifest Quality , to which its sanative Efficacy may be ascribed . The Bitings of those Serpents , which for the noise they are wont to make , with a kind of empty Bladders in their Tails , the English call Rattle-snakes , are counted much more poysonous and dangerous than the stings of Scorpions . Of which I remember a learned Eye witness , that liv'd divers years in Virginia , where they much abound , related to me a very strange Instance , which I cannot now stay to set down . And yet the English Planters , when they have the misfortune to be bitten by these Serpents , are wont to cure themselves very happily by the use of that plant , which from its effects , and the place it grows in , is well known by the name of Virginian Snakeweed , [ or Serpentaria Virginiana . That the Peruvian Bark , commonly call'd here in England the Jesuits Powder , is a Specifick against Agues , particularly Quartans , divers learned Physicians not only grant but assert . And I remember the justly famous Dt. Willis gave me this Character of it in private discourse , ( not without taking notice that some decry'd it , ) 'T is the noblest Medicine we ( meaning the Physicians ) know . But thô I will not dispute , whether it be so certain and safe a Specifick for Agues , as 't is believ'd by , divers eminent Doctors , yet I think it can scarce be deny'd , to be a Specifick Medicine to stop the fits of Agues , ( in the notion of Specifick Remedies formerly deliver'd ) since it does that far more effectually , than the generality of Physicians , for many ages , were wont to do , with their other Antifebrile Medicines . I might here tell you , that I have my self seen a stone , whose efficacy in stopping Hemorrhagies invited my Wonder ; and another , which perform'd extraordinary things in more than one Distemper thô I could not perceive that either of them did these things by any manifest Quality . And I might here add some other particulars , that may be borrow'd from Experience , in favour of our opinion , but that 't is like they will be more properly alledg'd hereafter in some places of the remaining Part of our Discourse . I know those , that have rejected Specifick Medicines , have confidently urg'd three plausible Arguments against them . For some Physicians deny there are any Effects of Medicines so considerable , as to make them deserve the name of Specifick . Others would probably allow that Experience favours our opinion , if they did not think the way of a Specifick Medicines operating must be inexplicable , and consequently ought not be admitted by Physicians . And others again ( being of Sentiments very differing from these ) will allow them to be very efficacious , but endeavour to derive their whole Efficacy from Manifest Qualities , as heat , cold , tenuity of Parts , faculty of making large Evacuations by Vomit , Siege , &c. But these objections will be more opportunely consider'd in due places , Only there is one Argument , that may be objected by the deniers of Specifick remedies , which I confess is so specious , as to deserve to be particularly examin'd in this place , lest it should , if unremov'd , beget too strong a prejudice against a great part of the ensuing Discourse . For it may be said , that a Medicine taken in at the Mouth must , in the Stomach and Guts , be at lest very much chang'd by Digestion , and the Aliments it meets with there , and a good Part of it will be proscrib'd among excrements . That alter it has pass'd out of the Stomach , it must meet with divers strainers of differing Textures , which will probably stop all or most of the Medicinal Corpuscles that would pervade them . And that if any shal be so lucky , or so penetrating , as to surmount all these obstacles , they will probably either be assimilated unto the Substance of the Body , or quite chang'd by the parts they will be fain to combine with there . Or , if yet any should be able so obstinately to retain their pristine Nature , they will in all likely hood be too few to have any considerable operation upon the Body . But to this plausible objection I have several things to oppose by way of Answer . 1. And first I may represent , that divers Specifick Medicines , as some some Oyntments , Plaisters , Poultis's Amulets , Pericarpia , &c. Being outwardly apply'd , their Corpuscles can get into the Mass of Blood without passing through the Stomach , and consequently are not concern'd in the propos'd objection . 2. Against most of the Galenical Physicians , that are wont to urge the formerly propos'd objection , I see not why one may not argue ad hominem by putting them in mind , that the same Difficulties for the main , or others not inferior , may be alledged against a common opinion of their own . For since they believe that Purgatives , Cordials , Diaphoreticks , besides Cephalicks , Hepaticks , and some other sorts of Medicines , do contemperate , and sweeten the Blood , and usefully affect the newly mentioned stable Parts ; and since these Medicines act not by naked Qualities but by small Particles , of their own substance , if they can give us an intelligible account of the ingress of these Particles in considerable numbers , into the Recesses of the Body , without being , dispoyl'd of their particular virtues , they will at the same time instruct us , how to answer the objection they urge against us . 3. And in regard the generality of Physicians hold , that Milk , and Urine , were materially in the Mass of Blood , and are separated from it by the Breasts , and Kidneys ; I think one may by experience shew she invalidity of their ratiocination against Specificks . For 't is obvious to observe , and I have several times done it my self , that Rubarb will ( perhaps for many hours ) tinge the Urine of those that take any considerable dose of it And in some of our English American Colonies , there grows a fruit , which the planters call the Prickled Pear , whose inward Substance is exceeding red , and whose being pleasant in tast , as well as colour , frequently invites eaters ; but its Juice is of so penetrating a nature , that it passes from the stomach into the Bladder , and then into the chamber-pot , with so little loss of its redness , that strangers are wont to be surpris'd and frighted at it , as thinking this unknown fruit had made them void bloody Urine , if not blood rather than Urine . This is a known thing among those , that have dwelt in our Southern Plantations , and has been affirm'd to me by unsuspected Eye-witnesses , and among them by a famous Physician . As for Milk , the great Hippocrates himself informs us , that if a Woman , or a she-goat take Elaterium , the Cathartick vertue passes into the Milk , and will purge the Child that drinks it . And I remember that haying occasion to make some stay , in the Spring or beginning of Summer , in the confines of Switzerland and Savoy , I had the opportunity to observe this odd Phaenomenon , That when the Cows , in that District , fed , as they would in that season plentifully do , upon a certain weed , said to be a kind of Wild-Garlick , that grew copiously in the Pastures , the very Butter made of their Milk had so rank a tast of the Herb , that though I was not , yet divers other strangers were , thereby diverted from eating of it , though otherwise fresh and good . And I remember too , that having pass'd a Winter on the Sea-coast of the County of Cork in Ireland , I found it a known observation , that a sort of greedy Sea-fowl , whose name comes not now into my mind , living almost wholly upon Fish , ( upon whose scholes I have sometimes wondered to see such a multitude of ravenous Fowls attending ) they acquire a Tast that makes some pleasantly Question , whether the food they afford be to be reputed flesh or fish . But how constantly the Particles of divers Bodies may retain their nature in all the digestion , and strainers they pass through , I have more amply discours'd in another Tract , About the concealments and disguises of seminal Principles . And I presume I have here said enough , to allow me to proceed to the fourth part of my answer . 4. I consider then , in the last place , that whereas 't is objected , that so small a quantity of the matter of a Specifick , as is able to retain its nature when it arrives at the part it should work on , must have little or no power left to relieve it . This difficulty will not much stagger those that know , how unsafe it is to measure the power that natural Agents may have , to work upon such an engine as the Humane Body , by their bulk rather than by their subtilty and and activity A sober Gentleman , that was Governour of a Colony in the Torrid one , and commanded a Warlike English Vessel , that sail'd up very far in the great River of Gambia or Gambra in Africk , and staid there some time to trade with the Negro's of the Inland Countrey , being inquired of by me , among other things , about the Poysons that are said to be extraordinarily powerful in the Parts he came from ; he answered me , that the Blacks had a Poyson , that was , though somewhat slow , yet very mortal ; in so small a dose , that it was usual for them to hide enough of it to kill a man , under one of their Nails , which they wear somewhat long : Whence they would drop it so dextrously into the Drink , or Milk , or Broth or other Liquid Aliment of those they ow a spite to , that 't is scarce possible for a stranger to be watchful enough to prevent it . For which reason , as he told me , though he sometimes eat with their petty Princes , or Governours , at the same table , yet he would never eat out of the same dish , nor drink out of the same Cups with any of them . He added that , in another part of Africa , a famous Knight , who commanded the English there , and lately died a ship-board in his way home , was so poysoned at a parting Treat , by a young Negro Woman of Quality , whom he had enjoy'd and declin'd to take with him , according to his promise , into Europe . And though my Relator early gave him notice of what he suspected to be the cause of this Indisposition , and engag'd him thereupon to take Antidotes , and Cordials , as Treacle , &c. yet his languishing distemper still increased , till it kill'd him . I could name a Vegetable Substance , growing in Europe , and perhaps not far from hence , which though some Empiricks employ as a Medicine , is so violently , operative , that a Learned and famous Modern Physitian relates , that no more than half a grain would work so violently , as to cause very dangerous Hypercatharses , of which though he remedy'd some , yet he was not able to keep all from being Mortal . And because many ingenious men deny that out English Vipers are poysonous , I shall add in favour of the Argument that I have been enforcing that I know a Young man , who having been bitten by an English Viper , which he too rashly laid hold on , though the tooth pricked but his hand , yet the venom , convey'd by so small a hurt which perhaps equal'd not in quantity the hundredth part of Pins head , quickly produc'd in him the bad Symptoms that usually follow the Biteing of that Serpent , ; And among others ( for I particularly ask'd him about that ) a violent vomiting of ill condition'd stuff . I know also a person , that practis'd Physick in the Isle of Iava , where Scorpions are held to be more venemous than in Italy who having , after he had drank some what freely , provok'd , and bin stung by , a Scorpion , thô the Hurt was but in his Thumb , and was so small that I could not perceive the least scar it had left , that it put him presently to such violent tortures , for some hours , till he had procur'd Specifick remedies , that he look'd upon himself a dead man ; and felt so raging a heat within that he thought ( to use his own Expression ) that hell-fire was got into his Body . Nor is it only by mere poysons , that a Humane Body may be greatly affected , thô the agent be but very inconsiderable for bulk and weight , for we see , that divers Women , otherwise strong and healthy , will be cast into sounding fits , and perhaps will complain of suffocation , and be put into convulsive Motions , by the fragrant Odours of Musk , or Civet ; though if all the Effluvia , that cause these Symptomes , were reduc'd into one aggregate , this would not probably amount to a hundredth , nor perhaps to a thousandth , part of a grain . And I have oftentimes speedily suppress'd such fits , by the odour of the volatile Salts Harts-horn , Sal Armoniac , or the like , or of destill'd Spirits abounding with such Salts ; though perhaps all the Particles , that actually relieved the patient , and calm'd these frightful Symptoms , if pack'd together , would not have equal'd , either in bigness or in weight , the tenth , not to say the fifteenth , or the hundredth , part of a grain of mustard-seed . And as for inward remedies , 't is vulgarly known , that in the infusion of Crocus Metallorum , Corpuscles that render the Liquor vehemently vomitive and Purgative , are so very minute , that great proportions of Wine , or other Vehicles may ▪ be strongly impregnated with them without any sensible diminution of the Body that parts with them . And of this we have a not less , if not more , considerable instance , when Quick-Silver is decocted or long infus'd in common Water . For Helmont observes that , though the Liquor be not altered in Colour , or Tast , nor the Quick-silver at all sensibly chang'd , nay nor grown any thing lighter in a ballance , yet the Liquor does , by means of these insensible and unponderable Effluxes of the Quicksilver , acquire a notable virtue against worms ; for which purpose not only Helmont , but before him that experienc'd Chymist Hartman , and another eminent Writer , extoll this Medicine . And on this occasion I remember that a fine Boy , born to be heir to a very illustrious family , falling into a dangerous Feaver , which was judg'd to proceed from worms or verminous matter ; a famous and Experienc'd Physitian , that treated him , confess'd to me , that he was out of hopes of him ; Because the Child , having been bred to have his will , and tir'd with unsuccessful Remedies , was so obstinate and carefull in refusing to take any thing , that smeld or relish'd of a Medicine , that he forbore , in spite of all the art us'd to deceive him , even to drink any thing but small Beer Whereupon I perswaded both the Doctor , and the Lord , whose son the child was , to impregnate his small beer with Mercurial particles , by frequently shaking it with good Quick-silver in it . By which means the patient , perceiving no change of Colour or Tast in the Drink , swallow'd it greedily , and through the blessing of God was soon after restor'd to a Health , which the Parties concern'd ascrib'd to the Mercurial remedy . I should condemn my self , for having bestowed so many words upon one objection , but that I hope the Answer , given to it in this place , will facilitate and shortens several things relating to my present Subject Specifick Medicines . About which I shall now proceed to offer my thougths in some Propositions , and short discourses upon them . Having now dispatch'd the first of the two formerly propos'd Inquiries , I proceed to the second , namely , whether the Mechanical Hypothesis can be accommodated to Specifick Medicines , so as that they may be either intelligibly explicated by a , or at least shown to be reconcilable to it . I presume you will easily believe , that there are few writers more inclinable , than I'am , to confess the dimness of our knowledge , and the obscurity of many things in nature ; or that are more forward than I to grant , that many of the operations , of Specifick Medicines , are to be reckoned among those abstruse things , whereof nature seems to affect the concealment . But notwithstanding this , when I consider how comprehensive and fertile the principles of the Corpuscular Philosophy are , I cannot despair bur that it will be found , that divers of the effects of these Medicines may be , in a general way explicated by them , and not any will appear inconsistent with them . This I desire may be here taken notice of once for all that , retaining the Scope of the following discourse still in your memory , you may not think it strange , that I content my self , on most occasions , to give in general possible explications , and to shew that Specifick Medicines may operate on some such account as I propose , without affirming that they certainly do so I observ'd soon after the beginning of this Paper that there were three sorts of virtues to which Physicians ( thô not unanimously ) have given this Title of Specifick ; namely such as evacuate some particular humour , such as are peculiarly friendly to this or that part of the Humane Body , and such as in an unknown way cure or much lessen this or that determinate Disease . But yet I shall now apply my discourse peculiarly to the last sort of these Medicines , as being both more considerable in it self and the chief subject intended in present Discourse , giving nevertheless , as occasion serves , such additional Hints and observations , as may make the Reflections , belonging to this Third sort of Specificks , easily applicable Mutatis Mutandis to the other two . And I shall begin with laying here for a foundation what I have in another Treatise had occasion to deliver and make out , namely , That a living Humane Body is not to be look'd upon as a mere statue , or a mere Congeries of the Materials 't is compos'd of , Flesh , Blood , Bones , Fat , Nerves , Veins , Arteries , &c. But an admirably fram'd Engine , consisting of Stable , Liquid , and Pneumatick Substances , so exquisitely adapted to their respective functions and Uses , that oftentimes the effects of an agent upon it are not to be measured so much by the power of that agent considered in it self , as by the effects that are consequently produc'd by the action of the parts of the Living Engine it self upon one another . This premis'd , I consider ▪ that there is no need to grant that the operations of all Specificks , or of the same in differing Diseases , must be of one kind ; but that differing Specificks may operate in several manners , and some by one of these ways may oppugn such a disease , and others may do good against such another . And of these general ways I shall briefly propose six or seven that now occur to my thoughts . For having first given you this important caution , that the Specifick Remedy do's not commonly ( though sometimes it may ) relieve the patient by this or that single way of operating , but by a concurrence of two or more , that as it were joyn their forces to produce the desired effect . PROPOSITION . I. And first , sometimes the Specifick Medicine may cure by discussing , or resolving the morbifick matter , and thereby making it fit for expulsion by the greater common shores of the Body , and the Pores of the skin . 'T is known that many Diseases , and those oftentimes stubborn and Chronical , proceed from certain tough or viscous Humours , that obstruct the passages wereby the blood should circulate , or other usefull Liquors be transmitted . And these peccant Humours are oftentimes so viscid and obstinate , that ordinary Remedies will do little or no good upon them . And yet a Specifick may , by the smalness , and congruous Figure of some of its Corpuscles , get through the Pores into the Recesses of this stubborn matter ; and by their solidity , Figure , and Agitation , promoted by the heat of the patients Body , may dissolve and ruine the texture of the Morbifick matter , and render it capable of being proscribed by nature , by Urine , Sweat , or some other commodious and innocent Evacuation . Thus the blood , or some other Liquor of the Body , being ( to use the Chymists Phrase ) impregnated with the friendly and operative Particles of the Remedy , becomes an appropriated Menstruum in referrence to the Pecant matter : impregnated with Sal Armoniack becomes a Menstruum , that by degrees will dissolve both Copper and Iron , as compact bodies as they are . I said appropriated Menstruum , because there is no sufficient reason to suppose , that the Menstruum works by any manifest quality , as Heat Moisture , &c. or even by Acidity it self : But rather by virtue of the fitness , which the shape , bulk , solidilty , and other Mechanical affections of its particles , concur to give it , to disjoyn the parts of a body of such a determinate Texture . For as I have in another Paper amply shewn , there are far more Menstruums of distinct sorts than are commonly taken notice of , and the operations of these cannot safely be measured by the strength of their manifest qualities , since it may several times happen , that a Menstruum , less acid or less strongly tasted , may dissolve this or that body , which another Menstruum , that seems far stronger , will not work on . Thus cold water will dissolve the white of an Egg , which pure spirit of wine will be so far from dissolving , that it will coagulate it ; [ and so will spirit of Salt and Oyl of Vitriol it self . ] Thus dephlegm'd spirit of Urine will readily dissolve minute filings of Copper , which spirit of Vinegar will but slowly work upon ; and yet this Liquor will speedily dissolve Crabs Eyes , which spirit of Urine will leave entire . Thus Quicksilver , that is insipid , will in the cold dissolve Gold , which Aqua Fortis it self , though assisted by exeternal heat will not work upon ; and yet Aqua Fortis will furiously bear asunder the parts of Iron , though Quicksilver will not so much as adhere to its surface . And thus in fine ( not to accumulate instances ) common Oyl , that is so smooth upon the Tongue , and will not dissolve so much as an Egg-shell , will dissolve Brimstone , which yet will resist Aqua Fortis it self , that will dissolve almost all Metals , beside many hard Stones and Minerals . And I know a liquor , having more than once prepar'd it , which , though so weak that one may drink a Wine Glass full of it pure without danger , will yet work on some very hard bodies , both Stones & Metals , in a way that is not to be matched , among the highly corrosive Menstruums in use among Chymists . And now , supposing that the active Corpuscles , of a specifick Medicineassociated with the blood , or other Vehicle they impregnate , may act upon the morbifick matters they meet with in the body , after the manner of Menstruum ; supposing this I say , we may hence illustrate several things that have reference to the operation of specifick Medicines . 1. And we may hence derive a Guess , why an appropriated Medicine will perform things , which will not be done by another , whose manifest qualities seem to be the same for kind , and much stronger in degree . For Menstruums do not always act according to the degree of their Acidity , or the like sensible quality , but according to the congruity of their Corpuscles to the pores of the body they are to dissolve ; and also oftentimes according to a fitness that depends upon other Mechanical Affections of the acting Liquor . And therefore Physicians , as well as others , may easily mistake in their Argumentations à majori ad minus , & à minori ad majus . For the consequence is not good to argue either thus , Water , which is so strengthless Liquor , will dissolve Gum Arabic , therefore highly rectified spirit of Wine , which is a much more subtil and penetrateing Liquor , will doe the same thing more powerfully ; for Experience shews , it will not dissolve it at all : or thus , strong Oyl of Vitriol is more corrosive in taste , and will dissolve many bodies that Aqua Fortis will not , therefore it will also dissolve Silver as well as Aqua Fortis , the contrary of which is true . Nay 't is not a good inference to argue thus , Aqua Fortis is dissolves Silver by virtue of its acid Spirits , therefore the more it abounds with these , the more potently it will dissolve that Metal , whereas I have elsewhere prov'd by Experience , that if Aqua Fortis be made exceeding strong , it will not work upon Silver , but it will readily do it if it be weakned by the addition of a fit quantity of Common Water . To this I shall add , that the dissolution of a Body may depend , as well upon the peculiar texture of the body it self , as the manifest strength of the Menstruum . 2ly . The foregoing Doctrine may suggest a Reason , why a Medicine that does wonders in one disease , may do little or nothing in another , that some may think to be a kin to it , and perhaps too , more easily superable by it . For the presum'd cognation may not be so great , but that some dissimilitude of texture in the morbifick matters , may make one of them unfit to be wrought upon by the same Menstruum that dissoloves the other . And though pure Spirit of Wine will easily enough dissolve Gummi Guajacum , and also the little portion of resinous matter that are harbour'd in the Pores and small cavities of the Wood ; yet the same Menstruum will not work upon the Wood it self of the Tree that affords those soluble Substances . 3. This may keep it from being thought strange , that Specifick Medicines should sometimes fail of their usual Effects . For , as the Bodies of individual Patients , may differ very much , either according to their natural Constitution , or to that which they acquire by the disease that distempers them , or on both those accounts ; So it ought not to seem strange , that in some sick Persons among many , the congruity between the agent ct patient should be alter'd , either by some considerable change in the Texture of the Morbifick matter , or by some notable alteration that the Corpuscles of the Medicine receive in their passage through the Vessels , by the admixture of some incongruous Particles of the Blood or other Vehicle . Thus Spirit of Salt will , as I have try'd , dissolve Copper , as Spirit of Niter does : which notwithstanding , thô this last nam'd Liquor will dissolve Silver , yet if you mix with it Spirit of Salt , which by the like operation of both upon Copper , seems to be amicable to it , the Spirit of Niter will no more be able to dissolve Silver , as it could before . 4thly . Our Hypothesis may also hint to us an answer to one of the main and most plausible objections of the deniers of Specifick Medicines . For some of them ask in a Scornful way , how 't is possible that a Medicine should rove up and down in the Mass of Blood , and neglecting all other things , should single out , and fasten upon the Morbifick matter men wish it should proscribe . For if the Medicine acts by impregnating the Blood , or some other Liquor of the Body , and turning it into a kind of Menstruum , 't is very possible , both that the strainers through which the Corpuscles must pass , may keep back the inconvenient parts of the vehicle , and ( which is in our case more considerable ) the Menstruum may be either appropriated to the peccant Humour , as has been formerly declar'd , or else may at least be qualify'd , to resolve that more easily than any other Substance it meets with in the Body . As if you take some Bone-ashes , and Crocus Martis , and Saw-dust , and powdered Sea-Salt , and Filings of Gold , and blend all these together , if upon one half of this mixture you pour common Water , it will not meddle with any other of the Ingredients except the Sea-Salt , which it will readily dissolve : & if upon the other half of the same mixture , you put a sufficient quantity of Quick-silver , and rub them together , this Metalline Liquor will neglect all the rest of the Ingredients , and the Sea Salt it self , and fasten upon the Gold. And those that work in the Spanish Gold mines inform us , that when they have well ground some Ore , that contains Gold and Copper , besides Heterogeneous Minerals , well heated Quick-silver will take up the Gold much sooner and better than it will the Copper , scarce meddling with the latter , as long as there remains any not despicable quantity of the former , to be wrought upon by it . And as for the supposed difficulty , that the Medicine should Ferret out , if I may so speak , the morbifick matter , in what vessel soever of the Body it lies , this objection might have been considerable , before the discovery of the Bloods circulation : But 't is not so now that we know , that things that once get into the Mass of Blood , are presently whirl'd about with it , and may be convey'd by it even to small vessels lying in the remotest Parts of the Body . 5thly . And this prompts me to take notice , that our Hypothesis may help us to answer those many learned Physicians , that either reject , or at least despise , most External remedies , especially Pericarpia , Amulets , and Appensa , upon a supposition , both that they neither can furnish the Body they do but externally touch , with any store of Medicinal Particles ; and which is chiefly in this place to be consider'd , that being but external remedies , they must be very unable to do good in Internal diseases , especially such as are seated in Parts , remote from those which the Medicine is apply'd to . But as to the former part of the objection , 't will not be difficult to answer it to him that has read what I have elsewhere written of the subtility , numerousness and efficacy of Effluviums . And we need but consider , what plenty of Particles sensible to the nostrils , are for a long time emitted by a small quantity of Amber-greece , or even of Camphire ( which is often externally us'd ) and the multitude of Magnetical Corpuscles , that for many years constantly effluviate from a small vigorous Load-stone , to think it possible that even dry and stable Bodies may afford sufficient store of effluvia , to perform considerable things in so curiously fram'd an Engine , as the Humane Body is ; where we see that the odour of Musk , or Civet , for instance , may speedily cast divers Persons into Fits , and the smell of Castor or Assa faetida , and much more that of Salt of Harts-horn or of Sal Armoniack , quickly relieve them . And as to the Second Part of the objection , what I have elsewhere made out , and the best Modern Physicians grant , of the Porosity of the Skin , shows , that 't is very possible for the subtil Effluvia of several Bodies , to get through the Pores of the Skin ; and when they have once got admittance , so much as into the smaller Vessels , 't is easie to conceive how these may carry them into the greater , and consequently into the Mass of Blood , by whose Circulation they may be readily conveyed to all the Parts of the Body , and among them to the seat of the disease : & perhaps , ( to add that upon the by , ) the efficacy of these Corpuscles , that , if I may so speak , get in at the Key-hole , not at the Door , may be the more considerable , because they get presently into the Mass of Blood , without passing thrô those Digestions in the stomach and other Parts , which oftentimes much weaken the vertue of Medicines taken in at the Mouth , before they arrive at the Blood. PROPOSITION . II. Sometimes a Specifick Medicine may mortify the over Acid , or other immoderate Particles that infest the Mass of Blood , and destroy their coagulatory or other effects . Thô I am not of their opinion , who of late are wont to impute almost all Diseases to acidity , abounding in the Blood and other Liquors of the Body , by whose intervention the stable parts also are offended ; yet I readily grant that a considerable number of Distempers are , at least in great part , produc'd either by Acids themselves , or by their bad effects or Productions . Agreeably to which Doctrine we may very probably conceive , that several Maladies may be either quite cur'd , or much lessen'd , by a Specifick Remedy that abounds in Corpuscles fitted to mortify Acids . This mortification may be effected by more than one way , and of these wayes the chief that now occur to my thoughts , are two . For there are some Bodies , that mortify or disable Acids by a positive Hostility , if I may so term it ; that is , by such a contrariety as is discernable by the Tast , and more by the visible conflict , and manifest Tumult , that is produc'd , when they come to invade an Acid. Of this sort of mortifiers of Acids , are the most part of those that are call'd Alcalisate Salts . Whether fixt , as the Lixivial Salts of Plants , or volatile , as the Spirits and ascending Salts of Urine , Blood , Harts-horn , Soot , &c. As may be exemplify'd , when any of these comes to be mingled with Aqua fortis , Spirit of Salt , Oyl of Vitriol , or the like Acid Liquors , by which by the way we may see , that those Galenists mistake , who ascribe the vertues of Spirit of Harts-horn , and of Urine , only to their tenuity of Parts , Briskness of Motion , and the like affections , that they might not seem beholding to the Chymists for so useful a notion , as that of the contrariety of Acids and Alcalies . The other principal way , by which Acids may be mortifi'd , or disabled to bite , is by Sheathing them , if I may so express it . For as a knife may be disabled to cut , either by filing off or otherwise blunting its Edge , or else by covering the Blade with a sheath fit for it , or by sticking it into a Loaf of Bread , or the like Body fit to receive and detain the whole Blade ; so an Acid Corpuscle may lose its power of cutting or pricking , either by having its Figure spoil'd by the action of a strong and manifest Alcaly , or else by being as it were sheath'd in a Porous Body , thô perhaps endow'd with no Tast , or any other manifest Quality , by which one would think it contrary to the Acid it disables , as a file is to the edge of a knife . Of this way of mortifying Acids , Chymical operations afford us many instances , as when Menium destroyes the Acidity of Spirit of Vinegar , as I have found Chalk will do that of Aqua Fortis it self ; and Lapis Calaminaris very much lessens , as well as alters , the Acidity of Spirit of Salt , and even of Spirit of Niter . And I the rather mention this Mineral , both because its Qualities are less known to Physicians , and the generality of Chymists , and because it supplies me with an Argument to prove that Acids may be , thô I do not think they alwayes are , rather sheath'd in , than destroy'd by the Bodies that silently mortify them . For , as Glauber has truly enough observed , Acid Spirits ( as I have try'd in some ) may by force of fire be driven in Distillation out of the Lapis Calaminaris , very much dephlegm'd , and stronger than before . I know it may be here objected , that the Mortification of Acids is perform'd by a manifest Quality , and therefore makes nothing for the feavourers of Specifick Medicines . But to this I answer . 1. That the power of mortifying Acids , especially by sheathing them , or if you please , by Absorption of them , is none of those Qualities , whether First , Second or Third , that the former Physicians took notice of in Medicines ; thô the sufficiency of these Qualities to cure diseases , has been , and still is , us'd by many as a ground of denying the Specifick vertues of remedies . 2. That I have often look'd upon it as an happy mistake , and of ill consequence , that so many learned modern Physicians take it for granted , that if a Medicine be endow'd with a manifest Quality , as Acid or Alcalisate , the good it does , ( and the like for the most part may be said of the Harm ) may safely be abscrib'd to that Quality , that is to its being of an Acid , or else of an Alcalisate nature ; whereas in my poor Judgment , there being a considerable disparity , as various Tryals have assur'd me , between Acid and Acid , as likewise between Alcaly aud Alcaly , 't is fit to distinguish betwixt an Acid for instance , as meerly such , and the peculiar modification that may belong to that Acid. Thus , thô all Acid Menstruums that I know of , if they be well dephlegm'd , will dissolve Copper , yet Aqua Regis that will dissolve not only that Metal , but the much more closely compacted body of Gold , will not at all dissolve Silver ; as on the other side Aqua Fortis , as corrosive a Menstruum as it is , will not of it self dissolve Gold , but if you give it a new Modification , by adding to it common Spirit of Salt , which it self I have often found ( whatever Chymists think or have written to the contrary ) will leave it entire , the Aqua Fortis will easily dissolve that Metal . Nay a different Modification may not only make a Disparity between Acid , but that which according to the receiv'd way of Judging , ought to be call'd a contrariety : for Spirit of Salt will precipitate Silver , which Aqua Fortis has dissolv'd , and Spirit of Niter , thô one of the Acidest Menstruums we have , will not only precipitate an Antimonical powder out of that odd substance , that Chymists call Butter of Antimony , but will do it with a wonderful conflict , tumult , and effervesence ; and yet this Butter of Antimony is so highly Acid , that a little quantity of it , put into a considerable one of Water , makes it so sour , that many Chymists call it Acetum Philosophorum . And now to apply these things to the lately propos'd objection , I desire it may be remembred , that near the beginning of this Letter I plainly intimated to you , that I did not deny , but that a Specifick Medicine may sometimes be accompany'd with , or even in part operate by a manifest quality , but that yet I thought the good effect was not due , barely to the kind or degree of the manifest Quality , but to somewhat superadded which gave it a Specifick vertue , against this or that particular Disease . And suitably to this it may be said , that , as there are several kinds of Acids , and of Alcalies too , 't is not every Acid that will be mortifi'd by every Alcaly ; and have its Effects destroy'd by it , which may be illustrated by this , that , thô when Copper is dissolved in Aqua Fortis 't is possible , by the help of meer Chalk skilfully apply'd to make the Menstruum let go the Corpuscles of the Metal , yet if upon such a high colour'd solution of Copper , you shall pour ( as to convince some ingenious men , I have purposely done a due quantity of Spirit of Urine , or the like volatile Alcaly , thô there will presently ensue a great conflict and manifest ebullition , with noise and store of Bubbles , yet between these Hostile Salts , a multitude of the Acid Corpuscles of the Aqua Fortis will not be so mortified , as to let go the Metal , but the solution varying its colour , will have and keep a deeper one than before . And when I consider the differences that a Skilful Observer may find , between Vinegar , Alum , Crystals of Tartar , Juice of Lemmons , Juice of Barbaries , the essential Salts ( as Chymists call them ) of those Plants that are sour in Tast , to omit divers other Acids , I am apt to think , that disorder'd nature may have , in a diseased Body , produc'd Acids of several sorts which are not particularly known to us , and that some of these may be of such a nature , that none of our common Alcalies , as such , is able to mortify them , and which yet may be mortify'd , at least by the way of Sheathing , by some appropriated or peculiarly modify'd Corpuscles of a Specifick Remedy which may be illustrated by what is elsewhere observ'd , that , thô neither Spirit of Vinegar , nor Spirit of Salt , nor Oyl of Vitriol it self , would , as far as I have try'd , dissolve a stone taken out of a mans Body , yet Spirit of Niter , ( which does not dissolve several Podies , that I have found dissoluble in Oyl of Vitriol ) will readily work upon it , and thereby lose , its Corrosiveness . Before I leave this Subject , 't will not be amiss to intimare a couple of things , that perhaps you will not think impertinent to it . One of these is , that , whereas I not long ago distinctly nam'd Acids themselves and their Productions , I did it ( not out of Inadvertence , but ) because I think Preternatural Acids do not only disaffect the Body whilest they continue sensibly Acid , but may in divers cases be the causes of some Distempers , whereof most men would think them more likely to be the remedies . For , thô Acids be reputed to have an Incisive and Resolutive vertue , and therefore Oxymel and some other Acetous Medicines are commended to cut tough Phlegm , and Spirit of Vitriol is us'd for the same purpose , and to dissolve coagulated Blood ; Yet , as I am willing to grant this vertue unto Acids in some cases , so there are others wherein I much suspect , that obstructions , and consequently the diseases that usually attend obstinate ones , may be occasion'd by Acids , as they coagulate some Fluids in the Mass of Blood , that are dispos'd to be thicken'd by them , and by that consistence made unfit to pass with the rest of the circulating Blood , through the smaller Vessels and strainers of the Body , where upon that account they make obstructions . This I shall exemplify by the coagulation that I have made by some Acid Salts , as Spirit of Salt , of the White of an Egg , especially if by beating reduc'd to an Aqueous Consistence . And the like coagulation may easily be effected in Milk , which may not only be speedily curdl'd with Spirit of Salt , but , as is known by Bodies not Chymically prepar'd , as Rennet and Juice of Lemons . And Experiments purposely made have shown , that , if some Acids be convey'd immediately into the Mass of Blood , they will coagulate even that Liquor , whilst it continues in the Vessels of the yet living Animals . The other thing I lately told you , I was to observe , is , that , thô Acid Corpuscles are those , that modern Physicians and Chymists are wont to take notice of as hurtful , both in the Blood and stable Parts of the Body , except the Stomach , and perhaps some few neighbouring Parts , as the Spleen and Pancres . And , thô some ingenious men proceed so far , as to impute almost all Diseases to the bad Effects of Acids , yet I am very inclinable to think , that divers maladies and ttoublesom Symptoms proceed from Corpuscles , that , whether they be of a Saline nature or not , are different from Acids properly so call'd . For I consider , that there may be many Bodie , which may as 't were result from the combination of Acids with other Saline Particles , that much alter their nature , as I have elsewhere noted , that Spirit of Salt will , with Spirit of Urine , compose a kind of Sal-Armoniac ; and Spirit of Niter with Salt of Tartar dissolv'd in common Water , will concoagulate with it into Salt Petre ( or a Body exceeding like it , ) and the same Spirit of Niter or Aqua Fortis with Spirit of Urine , or of Blood , or the like , will afford a very fusible Salt , differing enough from what either of the Ingredients was before their conjunction . And 't is vulgarly known , that Oyl of Vitriol , and Oyl of Tartar per deliquium , do by their coalition produce Tartarum Vitriolatum , in which the Acidity of the former , and the Alcalisateness of the latter , are very much infring'd , a third Body being by resultancy produc'd , that differs much both from the former and the latter Oyl , or rather Saline Liquor . And when , besides Instances of this nature , I consider how many differing sorts of Corpuscles so fruitful a Principle as nature may have form'd , that , without being Acid , may yet have notable and hurtful Effects upon the Blood , or some particular solid part of the Body . It seems probable to me , that there may be other Qualities requir'd , to mortify or disable these Morbifick Corpuscles , than a contrariety to Acid Salts , and consequently , that a Medicine that affords Corpuscles peculiarly fitted to correct or enervate this particular sort of hurtful ones , may deserve the name of a Specifick . And here I further consider , that , as in the Body there may be divers coagulations made by Saline Corpuscles manifestly Acid ; so there may be others produc'd by Corpuscles , Whether Saline in tast or no , that are not manifestly Acid , but perhaps rather of a contrary nature , which observation , being wont to be overlook'd by Physicians , and yet in my opinion of no small importance , may deserve to be a little the more carefully made out . I have sometimes for curiosity made a Liquor , that was not in Tast either Acid or Urinous ; to which having put a moderate proportion of a distill'd Liquor , which it self was not in tast either Acid , or Urinous , or lixiviate , it would in a very short time , perhaps in not many minutes , be coagulated into so consistent a Body , that , thô the wide mouth'd Vessel were held with the Orifice downwards , nothing would fall out of it . I have taught in another ( unpublish'd Paper , that if upon a certain solution ( which I there show how to make ) one drop some Spirit of Urine , or anorhet Volatile Alcaly , there will presently be produc'd a Gelly , whose consistence and colour may make it easily be taken for common Starch , ready to be imploy'd to stiffen Linnen . The like Gelly , but more transparent , I have more than once made , without the help of any thing , that is sensibly Acid or Urinous . I have also , to convince some virtuosi , showed them somewhat to their surprise , a substance I had prepar'd without the help of Urine , or any volatile Alcaly , ( and sometimes almost in a trice ) that would in very few minutes coagulate above twice , if not thrice its weight of highly rectify'd and inflamable vinous Spirit into a stable Mass . And to shew you , that 't is not requisite that a Liquor be strongly , or so much as sensibly Acid , to coagulate an Animal Substance , as I lately noted , that the Spirit of Salt did the White of an egg , I shall add , that well dephlegm'd Spirit of Wine will do the same thing as well , if not better . PROPOSITION III. Sometimes the Specifick Medicine may help the Patient , by precipitating the Peccant matter out of the Blood , or other Liquor ( of the Body ) that harbours it . Thô Precipitation be oftentimes a consequent of the Mortification of Acids , or of Alcalies , by Corpuscles of a contrary Quality , yet I thought fit to say something of it apart : Because I have observed that some Acids and Alcalies may be put together without causing Precipitation by their contrariety ; and on the other side , that divers Precipitations may be produc'd where there do's not appear any Hostility , though I know divers ingenious men , who think this Effect it self a sufficient Argument , that the hostility of Acids and Alcalies must be the cause of it . But that should not be taken for granted , but prov'd by collateral Experiments , that do not suppose the Truth of the Hypothesis it self . But to proceed to our Exampls , I know ( and elsewhere mention ) several Urinous Spirits , that I could mix with Acid Menstruum without making any manifest Conflict , or Precipitation ; And on the otherside , Acids and Alcalies , that will make a manifest Conflict by their mutual creation , and yet if they be mingled in a just proportion , will have for the consequent of their Mixture , Coalition instead of Precipitation ; as may be exemplified in certain Mixtures of Spirit of Sal-Armoniac ( made with Salt of Tartar , or Pot-Ashes ) and Spirit of Nitre or Aqua Fortis ; and also when Spirit of Urine and Spirit of Salt , being mingled in a certain proportion , convene into Corpuscles for the making of Sal-Armoniac , which the Phlegm of those Liquors will keep swimming . But that which makes most for my present purpose , is , that there may be Precipitations , where , whatever may be suppos'd , it does not appear that there is any Tumult or Contrariety , as when Silver being dissolved in Aqua Fortis , and the Menstruum diluted with 30 or 40 parts of distill'd Water , or of Rain Water , if clean Plates of Copper be immers'd in the Solution , the Metal will be very slowly Precipitated out of it , in the form not of a Calx , consisting of Metalline , and Saline Parts incorporated together , but , at least at the beginning in the form of pure shineing Scales of Silver , almost like the white and glittering Scales of some smal Fishes . There is also a way , by which I have brought dissolv'd Gold to settle about a Body , suspended in the Solution , in the form of a fine and high-colour'd Calx of pure Gold. But you may easily see an Instance of silent Precipitation , if you do but rub a little either Roman or Dantzick Vitriol , upon the well whetted blade of a knife wetted with Water or Spittle , for you will have the Steel , almost in a trice , overlaid with a reddish substance , which by its colour and other signs appears manifestly to be Cupreous . And here I shall advertise you , that 't is not only , as is wont to be suppos'd , out of Solutions made with Acids , that bodies may be thus Precipitated , for upon search I have found that there are in nature Precipitants , that are capable of silently Precipitating some Bodies dissolv'd in Urinous Menstruums , or others not Acid . I know it may be suspected , and that not without colour of Reason , that such Precipitations may be dangerous , by producing Heterogeneous Corpuscles in the Blood , that may be too-heavy or gross to be evacuated . And I look upon this as a suspicion , for whose Resolution 't were fit to consult Experience . But in the mean time one may represent . 1. That , thô some Inconvenience may happen from the Bulk of the precipitated Corpuscles , yet that may be much inferiour to the danger threatned by the over-active & hostile Particles , that produc'd or fomented the disease . 2. That , 't is not necessary that all concretions should consist of Corpuscles so bulky , as to be too big to be thrown out of the Mass of Blood , for we see that stony matter , which , as the Chymical Analysis of it shews , is of a very compounded nature , may be carryed to all Parts of the Body . And I remember I knew a Lady , who a while before she told me the Story , had a stone taken out of the lower part of her Tongue . And Physicians , that prescribe great quantities of Mineral Waters impregnated with Iron , such as I found those of Tunbridge to be , and with Sulphur , such as some of the Bath Waters are , are wont to build their expectations of Curing with them , upon a supposition , that they are carryed into the Mass of Blood , and consequently to the innermost parts of the Body . 3. That yet 't is possible , Precipitations may be made of matters contain'd in the Blood , by Medicines that do not get into the Mass of it . As Physicians give Steel in Substance sometimes crude , as well as oftentimes prepar'd , to mortify the Acidities of the Blood , though the Metalline Corpuscles do not , for ought we know , pass into the Mass of it , but are wrought upon by the matter , that in its circulation is thrown out of it into the Stomach & Guts , where their operation on it is probably inferr'd from the blackness , that Chalybeates are wont give the excrements of the lower Belly ; and if they will have it , that prepar'd Steel , for instance , calcin'd with Sulphur , gets through the Pores of the Bowels , or the extremities of the capillary Vessels , into the Mass of Blood it self , 't will be obvious to demand , why nature should not be able to expel Precipitate Corpuscles at the same passages , at which such compounded Concretions , as those of Sulphur and Metal , can get in . 4. That some may very speciously pretend ; that Experience has been already consulted about the expediency of imploying Precipitating Medicines . For not to urge , that the learned and judicious Sennertus seems to intimate , that in some cases the Fibrile Matter may be surmounted by being Precipitated out of the Blood ; there is a Professor of Physick , who , thô I cannot assent to some of his Principles & Doctrines , has deliver'd several considerable things about Fermentation and Feavers : & this Professor , by name Kergerus , very solemnly declares * , that for fourteen years he cur'd above a thousand Febricitants without bleeding , purging , or sweating Medicines , ( to which he adds some others sorts ) by a single precipitating Remedy . I endeavour'd to obtain from Germany an account of the truth of the matter of fact , but did not receive it ; only I found that a Physician of this Emperours , does , in a lately publish'd Book , declare himself inclin'd to believe it to be true . I shall much the more easily be induc'd to think , that great and desireable changes may be wrought in the fluid Parts of the Body by appropriated Precipitants , if that be true which is unanimously taught by a multitude of Physicians , who impute many Diseases to the Putrefaction of the Blood and other Liquors of the Body . For , tho certain Reasons oblige me to desire you , not to ask me any Questions about the Remedy I am going to speak of , because I must not yet Answer them ; yet I am willing you should on this occasion know Historically , ( what probably you will think strange ) that there is in rerum natura , a certain Substance , which is so powerful an Enemy to Putrefaction , that , when a few grains or drops of it were put into a considerable quantity of Water , that had been kept till it stunk so strongly and offensively , that , if I had not known what it was , I should have judg'd the smell to have proceeded from Carrion . This Medicinal Liquor , I say , ( for so I may call it , ) being diffus'd by agitation through this abominably stinking Water , ( which did not appear turbid to the Eye ) in so very small a proportion , Precipitated out of it a very little and light Feculency , which being separated , the rest of the Liquor was quite freed from all stink ; nor did I observe that the Feculency it self had any . And , which is very notable , all this was done in a very few minutes , by a Precipitant , whose Tast was not at all either Bitter , or Acid , or Urinous , or Lixivial . All which are Circumstances , that may afford good Hints to speculative and sagacious Inquirers . PROPOSITION IV. Sometimes the Specifick Remedy may work , by peculiarly strenthening , and cherishing the Heart , and by that means , or without it , the Part affected . This Observation can scarce be made good , without entring into the Controversy , which for its difficulty and importance , has perplex'd divers Modern Physicians ; whether there be any Medicines , that have a Sympathy with the Head , Heart , Liver &c and thereby deserve the name of Cephalic , Cordial , or Hepatic &c. Or , to speak somewhat more clearly , whether there be any Medicines , that in a peculiar manner do good to this or that particular internal part of the Body . In this dispute the Affirmative part has been held , but I doubt upon slender grounds of reason , in most of the Physick Schools for several Ages . But in our times , many do not only maintain the Negative , but deride the Opinion they have forsaken . For some of them object in a Triumphant Style , that t is ridiculous to fancy such a Sympathy , betwixt a dead Medicine , and the Parts of a living body . As that the Physician may send the Drug , as 't were of an Errand , to find out one in the dark , among a multitude of others , and do it good offices . But notwithstanding this , I think it very possible , that a Medicine may so far respect a particular Part , as , though not to be beneficial to that only , yet to be friendly to that , in a peculiar manner or degree . And this I conceive it may be , upon one or more of the Accounts , that I shall briefly mention . And First , when I consider that the stable Parts of the Body , as the Heart , Brain , Liver , Kidneys &c. have each its particular structure , wherein it differs from others , and probably the fluid Parts also , as Blood , Gall , Lympha &c. have their distinct Textures , it seems not improbable to me , that the Corpuscles of a Medicine dissolv'd in the Stomach , and carryed too and fro by the Liquors of the Body , may according to the determinate shape , size , stiffness or flexility , motion , &c. be much more fit to be detain'd by one part of the Body , as the Brain , the Heart &c. than by the rest ; and so , by lodging it self in its Pores , or associating with its Fibres , may supply it with such congruous Particle , as it either does want , or in case it do not , may by their congruity be of advantage to it , by re-establishing or strengthening the Tone of it . And by this Corroboration , the Part may be made able to resist the Hostilities of Morbifick Matters , which Physicians usually observe to be wont , by the more Vigorous Parts , to be thrown upon the Weakned or Distemper'd ones ; as is manifest in persons that are much subject to the Gout , in whom oftentimes peccant humors are very apt , upon several occasions , to be thrown off by the nobler Parts , if they be robust , upon the frequently debilitated Joints ; on which score the Gout , if it be well managed , is , not irrationally , wont to be thought conducive to long life . And on this occasion I remember , that I formerly knew a Learned Physician , who , though a great Traveller , and , as such , accustom'd to great varieties in point of Diet , had such a peculiar indisposition in his Jaw , that though he could moderately drink Wines of several sorts without inconvenience , yet the drinking even of a very little Brandy , would soon after give him the Tooth Ach , of which odd distemper he has sometimes complain'd to me . But this upon the by : For I must now proceed to illustrate and make probable , what I was saying of the possible fitness of some Medicinal Corpuscles , to associate themselves with those of the Part they are to befriend , by observing what happens in Nutrition , especially in that of sucking-children . For in these , one single Aliment , namely Milk , does afford , besides various excrements , such as the grosser faeces of the Guts , and the more fluid ones of the Bladder , the Mouth , the Nose , the pores of the Skin &c. a great number of Corpuscles , that are not only detain'd , but assimilated by Parts of differing Structures , as the Brain , the Heart , the Bones &c. since otherwise these parts could never be so plentifully nourished by them , as dayly to increase in all their Dimensions . And t is considerable , that some Parts , which in Babes are Cartilaginous , do in process of time become Boney , which change seems not probably referable to the bare exsiccation , produc'd by Native heat , increasing with the Persons Age. Secondly , the friendly Corpuscles of a Specifick Medicine , may not only confirm the good estate of a determinate Part , but , which makes most for our present purpose , they may very much conduce to restore it to a sound condition , when it is distempered , and this they may do upon two or three Accounts . For in the first place , those friendly Particles may dispose the Obstructing or other Morbifick matter , to be more easily and safely expell'd . And this they may do , not barely as they impregnate the whole Mass of Blood , and so may be carried by it , as well to many other Parts , as to that we now consider ; but as by their particular Texture , Motion &c. they may in a peculiar manner respect that peculiar Modification , which the Peccant matter may have acquir'd by being produc'd or harbour'd in that determinate part : And that the distinct Structure of an affected Part may much diversifie the condition of a Morbifick matter , I argue from this , among other things , that Physicians are wont to teach ( though I have found the Observation rather to hold commonly than unreservedly ) that in those that are subject to this Stone , the Petrescent matter , when it is bred in the Kidneys is reddish or yellowish , but when in the Bladder , white , or of a light gray ; and that the Stones that are generated in the first nam'd Parts , are more friable , or at least of a slighter Texture , than those that have their Original in the Bladder , some of which are exceeding hard , especially in comparison of large ones , that I have had out of the Bladder or Gall of lusty Animals . The aptness then that the Corpuscles of the Specifick may give the Blood , or other Liquor that conveys them , to act as an appropriated Menstruum , upon the peculiarly modified Matter that obstructs , or otherwise disaffects , the Liver , for Instance , may enable the Remedy , to be very helpful to that Part , by preparing the molesting Matter for expulsion . But it may also succour the same Part in another way . For in the second place , it may so work upon the Fibres , and stable portion of the Part affected , as both to enable it , and excite it to free its self from its Enemy . For it may give firmness and strength to the Fibres of the part ; it may also contemperate , or correct the immoderate heat , coldness &c. of it : It may mortify the Acid , or other incongruous Particles , that are lodg'd in the minute Intervals of the stable Parts , end perhaps , even in the Pores of the Fibres : It may appease its Convulsions , Cramps , or other inordinate motions , that hinder it from daily executing its proper Functions ; it may relax or widen the Pores , according to the exigency of the work to be perform'd . And having thus , by means of its friendly Corpuscles , prepar'd the matter to be expell'd , and disposed the part to expell it , it may then also excite the Part to do its office , by irritating the Fibres , or motive Organs , or stimulating them to disburthen the Part of the Matter that offends it , as a very small Dose of Cantharides is known by this way of irritation , to be capable of making the Bladder forcibly , though not safely , discharge it self of Urine , and with that oftentimes expel the Sand and Gravel , or lesser Stones , and the Excrementitious Slime that molested it before . And this Instance may be of use to us , in answering that which we formerly noted to be so confidently urged by the Rejecters of Specifick Medicines . For here we have a Medicine , though a dangerous one , whose Corpuscles have such a peculiar reference to the Bladder , and Urinary Organs , that though being gotten into the Mass of Blood , they are carried by it indiscriminately to other parts of the Body , as well as to these ; yet oftentimes , without manifestly disaffecting the rest , they exceedingly irritate the Bladder , and determine it to the excretion of what it contains . And whereas it may be objected , that the first of the three ways , by which we noted , that a particular Part may be succour'd by a Specifick , seems contrary to the second ; the former tending to corroborate the Part , and the later to relax and irritate it : I answer two things , one , that since the Part may be sometimes in a Natural , and sometimes in a Preternatural state , in the former , a Medicine may deserve the name of Friendly or Appropriated , because it keeps it sound , which is most properly done by strengthening it ; and in the later it may merit the Title of a Specifick , because it helps to restore it to a state of soundness : And the other , that though to effect this Recovery , 't is often very expedient , if not necessary , that the Medicine procure an Evacuation of some matter that offends it ; yet that Evacuation itself is often much promoted and facilitated , by stengthening the Part so , as to enable it to disburthen it self . And the same Medicine may contain , and communicate to the Blood , Corpuscles of such differing shapes , sizes , motions &c. as may at least successively relieve the Part by both these ways ; as Physicians observe that Rhubarb does , not only by its finer and Laxative Parts , purge the Liver of Choler , but by its more earthy Astringent Corpuscles strengthen the Tone of that Part : [ What farther belongs to the Illustration of this matter will be met with in due place . ] On this occasion , 't will not be impertinent to add , that in some cases , this very Corroboration of a Distempered Part , may restore it to soundness ; there being some Diseases of such a nature , that they are , if I may so speak , almost always in Fieri , that is , they could not continue to subsist in the affected Part , unless through its debility , and the consequences of it , it were subject to admit from time to time fresh recruits of peccant matter , to foment the Malady : And in such Distempers , if the Structure and Tone of the Part be re-established by the operation of the Specifick Medicine , it s acquir'd vigour will enable it to resist the Ingress of new supplies of peccant Matter , and to turn them off into the Mass of Blood , to be thence discharg'd by the Common Shores of the Body ; whilst in the mean time Nature will be able by degrees to subdue , dissipate , or otherwise dispose of , that comparatively little Portion of peccant Matter , that was lodg'd in the Diseas'd Part. We have not in this Paper given any Example of the peculiar respect of a Specifick Medicine to a determinate disaffected Part , that one would think so incredible , as that a heavy stony substance , being in no great quantity taken in at die Mouth , should manifestly contribute to the Cure of a broken Bone in one of the Limbs , as the Leg or the Hands . And yet , not to urge the Testimony of Chymical Writers , I remember a German Physician , that was Famous for notable Cures , related Wonders to me of the efficacy of that Stone growing in his Country , which from its effect they call Osteocolla , especially if it be improv'd by a Skilful Preparation , which he communicated to me , but I had not opportunity to make Tryal of it . But without Preparation , the judicious and long experienc'd Chirurgeon Fabricius Hildanus much commends upon his own Observation a single Dram of it finely Powder'd , for the breeding of a Callus to soder together the Parts of a broken Bone : Insomuch that he gives a caution to use it but sparingly in young and vigorous Patients , lest it breed too great a Callus , of which he gives a notable Instance . And the like caution was inculcated to me from Experience , by the lately mention'd German Doctor , because otherwise ( he said ) his Preparation would in such Persons make the Medicine generate a Callus too soon and too great . PROPOSITION V. Sometimes a Specifick Medicine may do its work , by producing in the Mass of Blood , such a disposition , as may enable Nature , by correcting , expelling or other fit waies , to surmount the morbifick Matter , or other Cause of the Disease . He that shall heedfully observe the practise of divers Learned and succesful modern Physitians , may discern that many , if not most , of their Prescriptions are founded upon a supposition , that a great Part of the Diseases incident to Mans Body , and the recovery from them , depends mainly upon the vitiated Constitution of the Blood , and the restoring it to a sound Condition . This advantageous change of the Blood may be effected by a Specifick , several waies , ( sometimes separately , and sometimes jointly , ) and particularly by those that follow . 1. That which I shall first name , is , by furnishing the Blood with some sort of active Corpuscles , that it needs to ferment it , or excite an useful Commotion or Agitation in it . I will not here examine , whether the Mass of Blood , contain'd within the Vessels of a living man , is capable of a Fermentation properly and strictly so call'd ; and therefore I employ'd also the word Commotion , which will be easily admitted , if the other be disliked . But in regard Fermentation is a Term that hath generally obtain'd , I shall not scruple to make use of it , after what I have intimated about it . But because many modern Physitians , especially since the Learned Willis's Notions came to be in request , have looked upon Feavers and Agues to consist in , or be produc'd by vitious Fermentations of the Blood ; I thought fit to add to the Fermentation I am about to speak of , the distinguishing Epithets of useful . This premis'd , it seems not improbable to me , that , as there is oftentimes a vitious Fermentation of the Blood , so there may be sometimes a want of Fermentation , or a certain Sluggishness , upon whose account , either the brisk intestine Agitation , that it ought to have as a warm Fluid of such a Nature as 't is wont to be in sound Persons , or a due quickness of Circulation through the Heart is wanting : To which Sluggish State of the Blood , if it be obstinate and lasting ▪ several Distempers are wont to be consequent . Now , although there be divers Medicines , such as Spices , Brandy , and other Spirituous Liquors distill'd from fermented vegetables , that are usually , and oftentimes succesfully enough , employ'd to correct this dull Indisposition of the Blood ; Yet in regard they are wont to be very hot , being usually pitch'd upon by those that prescribe them because they are so ; there are several constitutions of Patients , and divers other Circumstances , wherein they are not safe , but may do more harm by their immoderate Heat , than good by their Spirituosity , Besides , that the Sluggishness of the Blood may sometimes proceed from Causes , that this sort of hot Medicines will not correct . I remember , that having for Tryals sake moderately dry'd a parcel of Human Blood , a Vinous Spirit Total inflammable would not , at least in many hours that my Experiment lasted , make a Solution of it , or draw a red Tincture from it , though it were well pulveris'd : Whereas a well rectified Vrinous Spirit grew red upon it in less than the tenth , or perhaps the twentieth , part of that Time. Now a Specifick Medicine may abound in Corpuscles of such a Nature , that without dangerously , or incommodiously heating the Blood , they may disable those Corpuscles , they meet with in the Blood , that make that Liquor viscous , or roapy , or dispirited ; and also by enlivening the Mass of Blood , if I may so speak , or puting it into a more brisk and kindly Agitation , may make it fit to throw off those Heterogeneous Parts , or recrements , that were blended with it before , and to permeate , as freely as it ought , the Viscera , whose Capillary Vessels and Pores would formerly scarce , and but very sparingingly , admit it . That a Specifick may perform this , you will perhaps the more easily allow , if you consider , that the generality of Physitians teach , that there are several Cordials , which they style some of them Temperate , and divers of them Cold , ( as in effect 't is not usually observ'd , that they considerably , if at all sensibly , heat the Body ; ) as Pearls , and some of them , being gratefully Acid , should rather cool it , as Wood-sorrel ( Alleluja ) and Goats-Rue ( Galega . ) And 't is very possible , that the Corpuscles , that make the Blood thick , and Sluggish , may not be of a Cold Nature , but of a Hot , and therefore may have their Effects rather befriended than destroy'd by divers Hot Remedies : As , if the white of an Egg be by beating reduc'd to Water , ( which is not necessary to the Experiment , but shews it better ) if you put to it a certain Proportion of well dephlegm'd Spirit of Wine , instead of destroying the viscosity of the Liquor , it will curdle a good part of it , and thereby produce a Body far more remote from Thinness and Fluidity . And I remember , I once for Tryal sake made a vegetable Liquor , which , from somewhat Sluggish that it was before , did presently by the Addition of a little Spirit of Wine , grow surprisingly viscous , and roapy . 2. Another way , by which a Specifick may befriend the Mass of Blood , is , by imparting to it a dilatation or tenuity that it wants . This Second way is of much affinity to the First , but yet is not the same : Because in that , the thing mainly considered was , the Fermentation or Agitation of the Blood ; Whereas this mainly respects the Consistence of it , which is a thing of no mean importance to health . For if the Blood be too thick , as oftentimes it is , it cannot pass so freely and readily , as it ought , through the Capillary Vessels , which thereby come to be by little and little obstructed , and the Circulation inconveniently retarded ; Whence 't is easy to foresee , that divers mischiefs must in time arise . And on the other side , if the Blood be too thin , especially if it be over much agitated too , t is apt to make its way out of the Vessels , and produce Hemorrhagies , in case it flow out of the Body , or other bad Effects that usually attend the Extravasation of the Blood. Which Liquor , when it is out of its proper Vessels , in so warm a place as a Living Human Body , is very Subject to Putrefaction , and thereby apt to produce Imposthumes and several mischievous Symptoms . Now a Specifick Medicine may remedy this faulty Consistence of the Blood , by furnishing it with Corpuscles , fitted by their figure , bulk , motion , &c. to disable those peccant ones that make the Blood gross , or else to cut , or divide the Parts of the Blood it self , and so dispose them to be more fluid : Or else they may produce in it such Pores , as may , as it were invite the subtil Aetherial matter , that abounds in the Atmosphaere , to insinuate it self into the Mass of Blood , and rarifie it . And on the other side , when the Blood is too thin , as not only some Diseases , but some Medicines , especially Aloes , are wont to make it ; A Specifick Remedy may reduce it to a good Consistence , either , by furnishing it with Corpuscles , apt to Combine themselves with the active ones , that did too much Attenuate the Blood ; Or , by helping Nature to expel those over-busy Particles , by insensible Transpiration , or some other undisturbing way . 3 : There is yet another way , by which a Specifick Remedy may conduce to rectifie the State of the Blood And that is , by so working on the Heart , as to make it advantageously regulate the Transmission of that Liquor through it . That a Specifick Medicine may peculiarly befriend this or that particular Part , and consequently the Heart , is granted by the Generality of Physitians , who are wont to reckon up many Cordials , ( of which yet I fear , but few deserve that name . ) But , since 't is elsewhere in this Paper shewn , that some Medicines may particularly respect a determinate Part of the Body , and consequently the Heart ; One may be allowed to suppose , that the Corpuscles of a Specifick may either dissolve some Particles they meet with in the Heart , by which that Noble Viscus is by Irritation , or otherwise disturb'd in the Regularity of its Dilatations , and Contractions ; Or , so Corroborate the Fibres , or Motive Organs of it , as to dispose it to moderate the Circulation of the Blood that passes through it , in the most advantageous way . And that the Disposition of the Heart , even when men have no sense of it in the Part it self , may be of moment as to health and sickness , will appear credible , if we reflect on two thing . One , that a living Human Body is not a meer Aggregate of Flesh , Bones , &c. But an exquisitely contriv'd , and very sensible Engine ; Whose Parts are easily set a work by proper , though very Minute , Agents ; And may , by their Action upon one another , perform far greater things , than could be expected from the bare Energy of the Agents , that first put them into Motion . The Second , ( which supposes the first , ) that the Disposition of the Heart , being , though perhaps insensibly , chang'd , it may produce a notable Alteration in the Motions of the Blood , and its passage through the Heart , in point of quantity , celerity , or both . How much this change in the Circulation may in many Cases conduce to sickness or recovery may partly appear by the Effects of vehement or durable passions of the mind . As 't is observ'd , that in a deep sorrow , which does in a manner straiten the Passages of the Heart , the Blood being too sparingly dispens'd , the enlivening Spirits are not generated plentifully enough ; And ( besides other bad Effects of this State of the Heart ) the Blood is so dispirited , as ( in these Parts of Europe ) to dispose the Body to the Scurvy , which does either produce or irritate divers other Maladies . We see also , that the Passion of shame does oftentimes suddenly alter the Motion of the Blood , and make it swell the little Vessels that lye under the Cuticula of the Face , and sometimes other Parts ; as is very manifest in young Maids , and other Persons of a Delicate Complexion , the white Part of whose Faces in blushing turns Red. The like Effect I have seen produc'd by a great and sudden Joy. And though Grief , which is the opposite Passion to it , has been usually taken notice of , as a thing that deads the Appetite to meat ; Yet so much does depend upon a well moderated Transmission of the Blood , that it has been observ'd in divers Persons , and I have known an eminent Instance of it , that great Joy has very much lessen'd Hunger : Of which Effect Mr. Des Cartes ingeniously attempts to derive the cause , from the vary'd Dilatation and Motions of the Heart . And it seems not absur'd to conceive , that such like Motions may be caus'd by the Corpuscles of a Specifick Medicine ; Which by affecting the Fibres of the Heart , after the like manner that Joy is wont to do , may produce in it such friendly Dilatations and Contractions , as are wont to flow from the agreeable Passions . In favour of which conjecture , I shall take notice that a Lady of my acquaintance has complain'd to me , that the smell of perfum'd Gloves is wont to make the Blood fly to her Face , and continue there for a great while , giving it such a colour as if shame , or joy had cover'd it with blushes . And the like she says she has observ'd in others of her Sex. But having in another Tract spoken of the power of the Passions of the mind , to alter the state of the Body , by producing changes in the Blood , that is transmitted through the Heart ; what has been said may now suffice to make it credible , that a Specifick Remedy , by peculiarly befriending the Heart , may contribute much to introduce , or re-establish a healthy Crasis in the Blood. And this being thus rectified , and invigorated it self , may both befriend the Body in general , and conduce to the removal of some particular Diseases , by strengthening , and perhaps too exciting , the particular part , in which the peccant matter resides , to subdue or expel that which it already harbours , and resist any accession of more . And the Blood , being it self well constituted , as well as the stable Parts corroborated , the Specifick Medicine that produces these good effects , may be said to cure , tho' perhaps but slowly , divers particular Diseases ; such as those elsewhere mention'd in this Paper , which to continue , must be frequently supplyed with vitious matter by the Circulating Blood. EXPERIMENT VI. Sometimes a Specifick Remedy may unite its Particles with those of the Peccant matter , and with them constitute a Neutrum quid , that may be easily proscrib'd , or not necessary to be expell'd . This I take to be one of the most proper and genuine ways of doing good , that belongs to a Specifick Medicine , as such , because in this operation an effect is produc'd , either without the assistance , or beyond the meer power , of the manifest qualities ( as Physicians call them ) of the remedy ; and the cure or relief the Patient finds , is usually attain'd without violence , and without tormenting or much disordering him . This way of working of a Specifick Medicine is of near affinity with one or two of those formerly discours'd of ; but yet these ways differ in some things , as may be gather'd by the sequel of § this discourse § sometimes when a certain kind of Acid has impregnated the Blood , or lodg'd it self in some stable part , as the Liver , Spleen , Kidneys , &c. The Corpuscles of a Specifick may , without any sensible luctation or conflict , which usually happens when Acids are mortify'd by Sapid Alkalies , be so qualifi'd , as both to make Coalitions with the small Parts of the Peccant Acid , and with them to constitute little Concretions , which differing from the minute Parts of the Acid , either in Bulk , Figure , Solidity , Stifness , Motion , or in two or more of these ; may be quite of another nature , and of a much innocenter , than the Acid was before 't was so corrected . Of this we may be furnished with a notable Illustration , by what I have elsewhere taken notice of about Aqua Fortis it self ; for as corrosive a Menstruum as that is , yet by digesting it , and perhaps , distilling it too , with an equal , or rather double weight of Ardent Spirit , I found the highly Acid Liquor would be so chang'd , as not to retain any sensible corrosiveness ; and exchange its piercing Stink and great Acidity , for a not only inoffensive , but pleasant Scent , and a grateful and possitively sweetish Tast . Which brings into my mind the practice of a President of the Famous London Colledge , who ( as himself told me ) was wont to relieve a Patient of very great Quality in Nephritick Torments , by giving her a good Dose of an inflammable Spirit . ( But this upon the by . ) I have elsewhere given an account of the effects of Spirit of Wine , upon several other Acid Menstruums , wherewith I mingl'd and digested it ; by which it may appear , that it does not work upon them uniformly , as they are all of them Acids ; but differingly enough , according to the Nature and Proportion of the Acid Corpuscles , with which the vinous Spirits are brought to be associated . And , to shew that this change and contemperation of the Menstruum by the Spirit of Wine , is produc'd rather by a peculiar fitness of the convening Corpuscles of both , than by the contrariety or hostility , that the vinous Spirit , which some Moderns will have to be an Alcaly , has to the Aqua Fortis as an Acid ; I shall add , that pure Spirit of Wine being mixt in a due proportion with Highly rectifi'd Spirit of Urine ; which is reckon'd by Chymists among volatile Alcalies , and of which a drop or two is so fiery upon the tongue ; as to be ready to burn it , or to blister it ; this Vinous Spirit I say , will very much take off the caustick penetrancy of the urinous one , and compose with it a Salt much more moderate than the Spirit was , and which being sublim'd , or ( which is better but harder to be done , ) reduc'd into a Liquor , affords a mixture of no little use in fome Fevers and other Diseases as a Medicine ; and with a small , if skilful alteration , is of great use in divers Chymical Experiments as a Menstruum . A few grains of Glass of Antimony made without addition , being taken inwardly , will vehemently both vomit and purge . But tho' Wine , notwithstanding its copious Spirits , will , if it be well impregnated with the Corpuscles of this Glass , work upwards and downwards violently enough ; yet of Spirit of Vinegar , that is , of degenerated Wine , be for a competent time digested upon this Glass finely powder'd , and , when the Liquor is sufficiently impregnated with the Particles of the Glass , be abstracted from it , there will emerge from the Antimonial and Acetous Corpuscles , a multitude of minute Concretions , of which many grains may be given without ordinarily provoking either Vomits or Stools : Which correction may hint , that 't is not necessary that all Mortifications usefully made by Medicines , should be of Acids , since here we see , that Acids themselves prove Correctors . And perhaps it may be by some such kind of Combinations , that some Poisons ( for I do not think they all work one way , or peculiarly assault the heart ) may be subdued . And I have sometimes suspected , that it may as probably be upon this account , as upon any that has been offer'd , that a man stung with a Scorpion may be cur'd , by crushing the Animal that stung him upon the hurt , as is prescrib'd by many Physicians , and as an acquaintance of mine told me , he try'd upon himself ( as another Virtuoso did on a Souldier ) with good success : And when I consider what a multitude and variety of figures may fit the Corpuscles that are endowed with them , to make Coalitions very different from both the component parts ; I can scarce think it very improbable , that in a Patients Body there may be made , between the Corpuscles of the Peccant matter , and those of a Medicine , such useful combinations as may produce resulting Concretions , innocent , if not also beneficial . If I had leizure , and thought it fit , I could easily add a great number of instances , about such changes of Colours , Odours , Tasts , and other qualities , as are produc'd by the coallescence of the small parts of differing Bodies , and discourse of the natural consequent of such Coalitions : but having done that sufficiently in other Papers , it will be here more proper to intimate to you , that when a particle of peccant matter comes to be associated with one of a Specifick Medicine , that combination may alter it for the better , not only by changing its bigness and figure , but also by encreasing , or lessening its stifness , and its solidity , and giving a new modification to its motion ; as a little attention to the natural consequences of the Coalitions of Bodies , may easily induce you to grant . And I shall add ( as it were ex abundanti ) that the small Concretions , made by the union of some Morbifick with some Medicinal Corpuscles , may not only become innocent , but sometimes also beneficial , which may be illustrated by what happens by a further preparation , to common sublimate ; for though this be a substance so highly corrosive and mischievous , that a few grains of it may suffice to kill a man ; yet by making a Coalescence of it with less than its weight of Quicksilver , which is a Body insipid as well as modorous , the Corrosive sublimate will be so alter'd and tam'd , as to be turn'd into what Chymists call , because 't is freed from sharpness , Mercurius Dulcis ; which if it be skilfully prepar'd and given , though in the quantity of many grains , is not only for the most part an innocent thing , but a very good Medicine , and that perhaps in more cases than Physicians generally know it to be good in . The newly mention'd account may hint to us a probable Argument , to show , that , notwithstanding all the digestions and changes that a Specifick Medicine may receive in its way , it may prove a salutary one , when it arrives at the Part it should relieve . For , tho' the Corpuscles of the Medicine should in their way to the Part affected be considerably chang'd , yet 't is possible that these alter'd Corpuscles may , by that very alteration , be made Medicinal ; since they may be qualifi'd , ( even by those changes ) when they arrive at the Part affected , to combine themselves strictly with some Corpuscles , whether Morbifick or others , that they find already there ; and may with them compose new Concretions that may acquire a new Nature very friendly to the Patient . Something Analogical to this we may observe in Asparagus , which being eaten , afford store of Particles , that mixing with those they meet with in the Kidneys or the Bladder , produce a new Odour , very differing , both from that of meer Urine , and from that of the Plant it self . And so if good Turpentine be taken at the Mouth , 't is known that arriving at the Kidneys and Bladder , it will mingle its minute Parts with those it meets with there ; whence will emerge Corpuscles , that will impregnate the Urine with a very differing Odour , from that which belongs to either of the Liquors , since it oftentimes has a fragrancy somewhat like the smell of Violets . Before I conclude this Paper , 't is like it will be thought fit that I should take notice of a difficulty , that I know maybe objected , if not against the past discourse , yet against the sufficiency of it to answer the design I propose to my self in writing it . For it may be said , that , whereas my Arguments and Explications suppose all along , that the Specifick Remedies are taken in at the Mouth ; 't is known that divers of the Asserters of Specificks reckon among them , some that are not by swallowing taken into the Body , but only outwardly apply'd , or perhaps do but barely touch it ; as may be observ'd in Amulets , Rings , &c. On occasion of this considerable difficulty , I have , if I misremember not , represented divers things in another Tract . But however it may be fit in this place , briefly to say somewhat , by way of Answerto it . We may then take notice , that the confidence with which many Physicians reject , and some of them deride , External Specificks , if I may so call them , seems to be built upon these two things : The One , that the Medicine cannot in part , as 't is certain it do's not in the Mass , get into the Body ; and the other , that , in case a Specifick should have some part of it subtil enough to gain admittance , that Part must be too small and inconsiderable , to be able to produce in the Body any such notable change , as is necessary to the expulsion of Peccant Humours , and the conquering of a Disease . As to the former of these Grounds , I largely enough show in another Paper , * that a Mans Skin , tho' it seems an entire continued Body , is really perforated with a great multitude , and perhaps a not inconsiderable variety , of little Cutlets and Inlets , which we call Pores ; many of which are visible , even in the Skins of dead Animals , by good Microscopes ; and others are manifestly inferr'd , from the numerous little drops that cover all the Skin , at the first Eruption of Sweat. And that these little Perforations may be Inlets to the finer Particles of Externally apply'd Medicines , may appear probable by several Phaenomena , such as these . That Water will soak through the Pores of a fine Bladder , and dissolve Salt of Tartar , or even white Sugar , contain'd in it : That I have prepar'd a certain Liquor , whose Fumes , tho' not agitated by Heat , would quickly penetrate divers Membrans of dead Animals , and manifestly work on Metalline Bodies wrapt up in them : That 't is a known thing , that Quicksilver outwardly apply'd in Ointments , Girdles , &c. will get in at the Pores of the Skin , and invade the Internal Parts of the Body , and stay there longer , and perhaps too operate more , than the Physician desired . And when once the Effluvia of these Externally apply'd Remedies have gain'd admittance at the Pores of the Skin , 't is not very difficult to conceive , how they may proceed further . For underneath the Cuticula or Scarf Skin , and close to it , there are so great a multitude of Capillary Vessels , that you can scarce thrust a small Pin into any Part , but that the point of it will meet and tear some of these little Vessels ; as will appear by a small drop of Blood , that will be made to issue out at the new made hole , as small as it is . To which instance , if it were necessary , I could add divers others of the multitude and spreading of the Capillary Vessels , that lie close beneath the Skin , and for the most part carry Blood , tho' some of them may contain other Juices , and discharge their recrements by Sweat , or insensible Transpiration , at the Cutaneous Outlets . Now these Capillary Vessels , as small as they are , having their Cavities immediately continu'd with those of less slender ones , and by their intervention with those of the greater , which are branches of the greatest of all ; the Corpuscles of the Medicine , once got into the Capillary Vessels , may have an easy passage , by means of the Liquors they contain , into these greater branches of the principal Veins , and so , by vertue of the Circulation , come to be quickly mingled with the Mass of Blood , and by it may be easily convey'd to all the Parts of the Body : As it has been divers times observ'd , * that Arsenical Amulets worn upon the Breast , did , tho' they scarce touch'd the Skin , produce threatning Distempers in the Heart , and several mischievous Symptoms in other Parts of the Body . And I find it recorded in good Authors , that Cantharides , even when but held in the Hand , nay sometimes , tho' but carried in ones Pocket , transmitted their hurtful Effluvia as far as the Bladder , and excited great Pain and other bad Symptoms there . As for the second Ground on which Specifick Remedies are rejected , that , tho' they could get entrance into the Body , yet it would be but by their Effluvia ; and these are no way likely to prove efficacious enough , to have any considerable effect upon an Internal Disease : To remove this difficulty , I shall briefly observe ; 1. That the number of the Corpuscles , that may pass from the outward Medicine into the Body , may be far greater , and therefore make them more considerable , than most men are apt to think . This may be rendred probable , by the great multitudes of Odorous , and consequently Sensible , Expirations , that are continually emitted for a very long time together , by Ambergreece , Musk , Civet , and much more by skilfully made Compositions of them . And that also subtil Effluvia , even without the assistance of Heat , may quickly penetrate Membrans so plentifully , as to act on stable Bodies contain'd in them , I have intimated a little above , and have experimentally made appear to divers curious men . 2. That the Corpuscles of a Medicine may retain their Nature , and not loose their power of operating , notwithstanding their being , as it were , strain'd through the Skin ; as may be argued from the Mercury , that we not long since mention'd to have been found in the form of Quick-silver , in the Bodies of some men , that had been too frequently anonited with Mercury , mix'd up with unctuous things into an Ointment : By which the Patient may be as long and violently Salivated , as if he had swallow'd a Bolus or Pills with Mercury . And so I have divers times observ'd , as I doubt not but others have oftner done , that a little Opium , mix'd up with other Ingredients for Plaisters , did by outward application take off the Acute Pains of inward Parts , tho' moderately remote from the Plaister . 3. And that the Corpuscles of a Specifick may on divers occasions act more powerfully , by getting in at the Pores of the Skin , than if the Remedy that afforded them had been taken in at the Mouth : Because if it had , the Particles might be divided , or perhaps on other accounts , ( as by dilution , composition with those of the Chyle , &c. ) much alter'd , by the Ferment or the Menstruum of the Stomach , by their Filtration through the Guts , and their long and winding passage through them and the Lymphiducts , before they arrive at the Heart , to be mingled with the Blood ; whereas the Corpuscles of the External Specifick , presently after they are past the Skin , get into the Capillary Vessels of the Blood that lie under it , and by their means are speedily mix'd with the Circulating Mass of that Liquor , and so escape the formerly mention'd alterations , that other Medicines are subject to before they are admitted into the Mass of Blood. By which it may appear , that those Physicians are much mistaken , that think a Topical Medicine can at best relieve but the Part 't is apply'd to , because its Corpuscles cannot be suppos'd to reach beyond that Part of the Body , that lies very near the Medicine they issue from . But , tho' this reasoning might be excusable enough , if not allowable , before the Circulation of the Blood was discover'd , yet , now 't is known how great an intercourse that Liquor maintains between distant Parts of the Body , the Argument is not seasonable . And on this occasion , I shall add an advertisement , that I remember not I have met with in Authors ; which is , that Body 's outwardly apply'd may prove Specificks for some Diseases or Distempers , that one would not think them very good for , by the bare knowledge of their effects when taken in at the mouth . Thus Camphire swallow'd , is , in the dose of a very few grains , a great heater of the Blood , and is in some Country's , perhaps not altogether without reason , extoll'd by Physicians in some kinds of ill condition'd Fevers : but outwardly it is apply'd to take off those Rednesses of the Face , that are thought to proceed from Heat of Blood ; and 't is us'd in Ointments against Burns . So Spirit of Wine , that is so hot when drunk , is a very good remedy to take out the fire , as they speak , in Burns , especially if the Part be early moistend with it . Bread , that is counted so moderate and well temper'd and Aliment , when eaten , if it be chew'd and outwardly apply'd , hath considerable vertues in several external affections . And I know an ancient and experienc'd Physician , that uses to purge . Children , that will not easily be brought to swallow Medicines , by applying something to their Navels , that do's not offend them by Colour , Smell , or Griping : And this himself more than once confess'd to me , is but an ordinary Aliment , that most men , and I among others , have frequently taken unprepar'd , which he freely nam'd to me , but which I have not yet had opportunity to make Tryal of . That what we have been saying about the possible efficacy of external Specificks , may appear the less improbable , 't will be fit to take notice of soms observations , that comport very well with our Doctrine . And though the Instances to be brought will not be all of them of remedies that deserve the name of Specificks ; yet , besides that some of them may perhaps have a Title to it , they will all conduce to show , that Simples or Druggs externally apply'd , may have considerable operations against Internal Distempers of the Body . 'T were easy for me to mention a great many external Specificks out of Physicians Books . But I purposely forbear it , because to speak freely , I suspect that most of those Remedies , though greatly extoll'd , have been but little examin'd , by the deliverers of them . And it may suffice for my present purpose to alledge a few Instances that have been recommended to me , either by my own experience , or that of some Friends . Only there is one observation that is so solemnly and expresly deliver'd by Galen , upon his own knowledge , & so well back'd , by other eminent Physicians , that I shall let it lead the way . This memorable story , that is related by Galen , is of a Piony Root , which having been worn as ah Apensum about a Boy , that had been Epileptick for divers months , kept him from his Disease as long as he wore it about him ; but when by an accident he ceas'd to do so , the Disease invaded him again , and yet by applying the Remedy again , he was the second time freed from it , which Galen observing , did for curiosity make the Root be laid aside , but finding the Fits to return , he imploy'd it again with the former success . I liv'd in the same house with a learned and Judicious Person , that was subject to be Paralytick , who being frequently tortur'd by violent Cramps , was ordinarily and speedily reliev'd by wearing or handling the Tooth of a true Hippopotamus or River-Horse . And he affirm'd to me , that upon leaving off , the use of it , for any considerable time , either out of curiosity , or to accommodate some Friend , the Fits would return with violence upon him . I remember also , that having my self been for some years frequently subject to Cramps , and complaining of it to a Physician that had been a Traveller into cold Country's , he told me , that he had brought home with him some Rings made of the true Elks hoof , from a place where these Animals are usually imploy'd , and that with these he had cur'd many of the Cramp , and therewithal presented me one to make tryal of , which I the more willingly accepted , because he confess'd to me , that divers Rings that were sold for such as his , and look'd like them , were either counterfeit or of no efficacy . And tho' I did not find that if the Cramp seiz'd me in the calf of the Leg , the Ring would much relieve me , yet when the Fits were but moderate , and in other Parts , especially the hands , I found my self eas'd , so often , and so soon , that I was at first surpriz'd at it , and us'd to have the remedy laid every night by my Bed-side , to have it ready when occasion should require . And that which I thought some what strange , was , that several times , when the Cramp seiz'd my Foot or my Toes , the Pain was quickly remov'd , tho' I apply'd the Ring but to my Finger : which made me much regret the loss of it . An eminent Physician speaking to me one day of a Patient of his , that was subject to a nocturnal Incontinentia Urinae , that was very inconvenient as well as shameful ; I told him of an Empyrical Remedy , which is mention'd in another Paper , whose success I neither would warrant , nor did altogether dispair of , and which at least seem'd safe , tho' it should not prove effectual . This was only a simple substance , ( belonging to the Animal Kingdom ) that was to be worn in a sine Sarsanet Bag between the Shift and the Skin , for which a good while after the Physician gave me great thanks , telling me , that he was surpriz'd at the effect of it , and that he observ'd that when the Patient had worn it so long , that probably the vertue began to decay , that is in my sense , that the Effluvia were almost spent , the Patient found need to take a fresh Remedy , to continue the benefit she had found by the former . I do not affirm or expect , that the three fornam'd Appensa , nor the other Remedy's I am about to mention , will always succeed . And I think , one may assign some not improbable reasons of the want of uniformity in their effects . But for my present argument , it suffices that they do sometimes succeed , since that is enough to show it possible , that outward Medicines may operate upon inward Distempers . Having one day given a visit to one of the skilfullest and candidest Physicians of the Famous Colledge of London , I observ'd in his Chamber , a fine new fashion'd Clock ; and having taken notice of it to him , as a thing I had not seen there before ; he desir'd me not to think , he was rich and vain enough to purchase , so dear a rarity ; but that it belong'd to a Courtier whom he nam'd to me , of whose Daughter he told me this story . This young Lady had a great Tumor in her Neck or Throat , which being apprehended to be of a Scrophulous Nature , made her Father fear it would oblige him to increase her Portion more than his Estate could conveniently bear . Wherefore at length he address'd himself to my Relator , who judging the case to be difficult , and being unwilling to torment the Lady with a long course of Physick , told the Courteour , that if he could animate her to suffer a Remedy he would propose , and would assist him to procure it , he hop'd to remove this Tumour without weakning her , or putting her to pain . Soon after , all Parties being agreed , and the desired conveniency procur'd , the Patient was brought into a Room , where there was yet in Bed the Body of a man that had dy'd of a lingring Disease . This mans Hand the Doctor took , and laid it upon his Patients Tumour , keeping it there till she either complain'd or confess'd that she felt the coldness of it penetrate to the innermost Parts of her Tumour . This application was afterwards repeated more than once , whilst the Body continued without smelling : And by this course the Tumour was dispell'd , and the Patient so reliev'd , that her Father , by way of gratitude , knowing how much the Physician was a lover of curiosities , made him a present of that Clock . The Learned Doctor ascrib'd this odd Remedy to Helmont , who is indeed to be thank'd for having mention'd and recommended a Medicine , that was unlikely to be good , besides that it was not in use . But the knowledge of it seems to me to have been for the main very much ancienter than our Age : since there is mention made of one very like it by so Ancient an Author as Pliny ; tho' since his time till Helmonts it hath been generally forgotten or disbeliev'd , save that one Physician ( Franciscus Ulmus ) who , tho' no ill Observer , has not had the Fortune to be Famous , takes notice of a case very like that of our Courtiers Daughter , affirming , that by that one Remedy , after others had been fruitlesly imploy'd , he knew a Noble Virgin to have been perfectly cur'd . I was one Summer , to my great surprize obnoxious to frequent Bleedings at the Nose ; for which I sometimes us'd one Remedy , and sometimes another , for the most part with good , but not still with quick success . But falling once unexpectedly into a Fit , whose violence somewhat alarm'd me , I resolv'd to try an unusual Remedy : And having easily obtain'd of my Sister , in whose house this Accident happen'd , some true Moss of a dead Mans Scull , which had been sent her , by a great Person , for a present out of Ireland , in which Country , I found it less rare and more esteem'd than elsewhere : I was going to imploy it after the usual manner , which is to put it up into the Patients Nostrils , but before I did it , I had the curiosity to try , notwithstanding the briskness of my Haemorrhagy , whether the Medicine would produce its effect by being only held in my Hand , and therefore covering a piece of the Moss with my Fist , that the warmth might a little actuate the Medicine , I found , to the wonder of the by-standers , that the Blood speedily stopp'd , nor thanks be to God have I been troubled with a Haemorrhagy for some years from that very time . But this is far less strange than what was affirm'd to have happen'd to one of the Eminentest Members of the Royal Society . This Learned Gentleman , who was of a very Sanguine Complexion , found himself much affected by the use of the Moss of a human Scull , [ pieces of which I have seen sticking to the Roots of the Vegetable , when it was genuine ] which had so strange an operation upon him , that sometimes when he was let Blood , if for curiosities sake he held a quantity of this Moss in his Hand , the Efflux of the Blood would cease , till he laid it by again ; which was not only solemnly averr'd to me by himself , but confirm'd to me by his Ingenious Physician , with both whom I had a particular Acquaintance ; which otherwise I should have thought scarce credible , unless imagination , a faculty very strong in that Gentleman , contributed to the strange effect of the Remedy . The hitherto mention'd External Specificks are afforded by Vegetables and Animals , which being Bodies of a slighter Texture , may be suppos'd to have their Parts more Effluviable : And therefore I shall now add two or three examples afforded by the Mineral Kingdom , which consisting of Bodies that never were living , and which are for the most part very close and compact , are generally thought to have their Parts indispos'd to emit Effluvia . I knew a Person of great Learning , and by Profession a Physician , who enjoy'd a Health good enough , save that usually after a few hours sleep , he wak'd in the Night with great Terrors , follow'd for a long time with such violent Palpitations of the Heart , as were very troublesom , and sometimes frightful to him . To remove this Distemper , he try'd all that his Art suggested to him , but without success , Whereupon he complain'd of it to several of his Acquaintance ; and mentioning it one day among a Company of Merchants , whereof some frequented very remote Country's ; one of them told him , he would easily relieve him , by a Remedy that had been found efficacious both upon himself and others . This he told him was , to take divers flat and smooth Cornelian Stones , such as they bring from the East-Indies , to cut Rings out of , and to sow eight or ten of them to a piece of Scarlet or Flannel , to be hung about his Neck , so as that the Stones may immediately touch the Skin over against the Heart , and the Mouth of the Stomach . This Remedy the Physician procur'd , and in no long time , found the great benefit of it , insomuch that he thought he might now securely leave off the use of these Stones , which he did once or twice out of curiosity , as well as for his ease , but finding the Distemper to return each time , within very few Weeks after he had laid aside his Remedy , he resolv'd to keep it always on , as he had long successfully done , when he told me the story . And to convince me , presented me with some of the Cornelians , that he had , for fear of wanting them , procur'd in greater number than he needed at once . But since I have not yet had occasion to make tryal of them , I shall not conclude that the Remedy will always succeed , but only ( which is enough for my present purpose ) that 't is at least possible that such an External Remedy may be very effectual . I afterwards thought ( which I here note , to add to the probability of what I have been relating ) that pos ; sibly those that first made use of the foremention'd Remedy , may have had a hint from what Galen saith of the Jasper : Which Stone we observe to be various in point of Colour , and I have seen in the green mixtures of Red almost as deep as that of Cornelians . Of this Stone Galen relates that some made Rings , in which were graven a Dragon having Beams issuing from him , and commended it as very friendly to the Stomach , being apply'd to the Mouth of it . And tho' he omitted ( and found he safely might do it ) the Sculpture , he yet approves the Stones upon his own frequent experience , applying them almost as our Merchant did ; Sane hujus ( says he ) ego quo lapidis abunde feci periculum Torquem enim ex hujusmodi lapillis confectum collo suspendi ita ut lapides os ventriculi contingerent apparebant , autem nihilominus prodesse etiamsi sculpturam non haberent , &c. I have lately mention'd the efficacy of a Cramp Ring upon some Parts of the Genus Nervosum . But some will perhaps think it more considerable , if a Stone Ring worn on the Finger shall be able to work upon the Mass of Blood , and particularly that deprav'd Portion of it , that Nature relegates to such distant Parts as the Hemorrhoidal Veins . And yet the experienc'd Monardes , having desrib'd the Blood-Stone that is brought from New - Spain , and represented it as a Jasper , not only commends it against Hemorrhages , being applyed to the Bleeding Part , but adds the following words , which declare that he speaks upon experience , Vidimus nonnullos Haemorrhoidum Fluxu afflictos Remedium sensisse , Annulos ex hoc Lapide confectos in Digito continue gestando : nec non & Menstruum Fluxum sisti . I know you will expect here , that I should not on this occasion pretermit the Lapis Nephriticus ; of which sort of Stones , tho' many have been found ineffectual against the Disease that gives them their name , and tho' it be scarce possible to choose those few that are good , without having particularly and actually try'd them ; yet that some of them are of great virtue , we have the Testimony of the inquisitive and judicious Boetius , and that other Learned Writer about Gems Johannes de Laet , whose Praises are confirm'd by the Historical Testimonies of Monardes and others . But none that I have met speaks more home to our purpose than a considerable Merchant of Leipsick , whose rare Observations are recorded by a man of very great reading the Learned * Untzerus , to whom I refer you , contenting my self to mention in this place two of the ten Remarks he sets down , the first , that the Merchant affirm'd to our Author , that by wearing this Stone for some days , the calculous matter was so powerfully proscrib'd , that a multitude of small grains of Sand were expell'd , even at the corners of his Eyes . The like effect , to which he often observ'd of that Remedy in divers other Persons . The second , that by wearing the same Stone , his Wife who was troubled with a great Catarrh found it considerably Cathartick , insomuch that the first day she was thereby purg'd fourteen or fifteen times , the next nine or ten times , and afterwards had her Body kept very open . And he adds , that he found also this Stone to operate like a Purge , tho' not so strongly upon himself . But enough , if not more than enough , of the vertues of Periapta and Appensa especially , since more instances of them may be met with in some other Papers : And even without them , or at least with them , those particulars I come from mentioning , may furnish a sufficient Answer to the Objection that has occasion'd them . The Conclusion . And now , Sir , you have what the consideration of the Nature of the things I treat of suggested to me , about the Principal ways , by which I conceive Specifick Medicines may cure Diseases , or at least much lessen them . I said the Principal ways , because I am far from denying , that there may be many others , that must not here be mention'd , lest I should too much transgress the limits that become an Epistle ; especially , this being already far more prolix than I at first intended ; though I purposely omitted the Authorities and Arguments of divers Physicians and Chymists , that maintain that there are Specifick Medicines , bccause they proceed upon Principles , ( such as substantial Forms , real Qualities , Ideas , or Chaoses and the like , ) which I could not fairly employ , because I do not admit them . But though I forbore to lengthen my discourse , by improper , and I hope needless Transcriptions out of others ; yet 't is long enough to prompt me , now at the close of it to remind you of two or three things that I declar'd at the beginning . As First , that I did not pretend that a Specifick Medicine , or Nature by a Specifick , does commonly effect the cure by one of the particular ways that I propos'd , exclusively to the rest ; since I rather think that oftentimes two , and sometimes more , concur to the effect . Secondly , that I propos'd to my self , to explicate the ways of working of Specifick Remedies , only in general . And Thirdly , that I did not assert , that the ways I pitch'd upon were the true and genuine ones , by which the Medicine does act , but only propounded them , as ways by which it may act : So that without being Dogmatical , I offer you my Explications , but as possible , and perhaps not improbable ; and that may suffice for the occasion and scope of this Letter ; in which I presume , you remember I aim'd but at shewing you , that the operations of Specifick Medicines are not irreconcileable to the Principles of the Corpuscular Philosophy : Which I hope you will without reluctancy grant , if , by my good Fortune , the difficulties that made you hesitate , seem to you to be lessen'd by so barren an intellect as mine , discoursing of an abftruce subject , which belongs to a prosession that I am not of . Upon which account it may be justly presum'd , that you , who have so much more sagacity , and are so much more concern'd than I in the subject I have been treating of ; and who being a profess'd Physician , have much more opportunity to discover the various courses that Nature does or may take in curing Diseases ; will be able to give your self far more satisfaction , than you could hope to receive from me , who have therefore propos'd to you my conjectures very diffidently , tho' I am very poisitive in asserting my self to be SIR , Your most , &c. ROBERT BOYLE . THE ADVANTAGES Of the Use of SIMPLE MEDICINES . Propos'd by way of INVITATION To it . By the Honourable ROBERT BOLE Fellow of the Royal Society . AN INVITATION To the Use of Simple Medicines . To the very Learned Dr. F. §I . SIR , Since SPECIFICK MEDICINES , to deserve that name , must be very Efficacious ; and yet are for the most part either simple or very little compounded , what has been said about them in the foregoing Tract concerning Specificks may afford me a not improper rise to invite you , and thereby others of your Profession , on whom your Authority and Example may justly have much influence , to seek after and Imploy , more than they are wont to do , such Remedies as are either simple , or , when there happens a necessity to compound , are made up of no more Ingredients than are absolutely requisite to answer the Indications , and the Physicians Scope . This sort of simple , or but lightly Compounded , Remedies , I am induc'd to prefer before those pompous compositions , wherein men seem to have hop'd to surmount diseases by the multitude of the Ingredients , upon the following Reasons . In all which I desire the advantages ascrib'd to simple Medicines , above others may be understood , not in an absolute and indefinite sense , but , as they speak caeteris paribus , which I here give you notice of once for all And the first advantage that I shall mention , is , That it is much less difficult , to foresee the operation of a simple , than of a very compounded Medicine . So that Physicians may proceed more securely , in imploying the former than the latter sort of Remedies . And indeed , if I do not greatly mistake , we often presume too much of our own Abilities when we believe that we know before hand , what the Qualities and Effects of a Mixture of many Ingredients of differing Natures , will be : Since many Bodies , by Composition , and the change of Texture consequent thereupon , do receive great and unexpected Alterations in their Qualities . Several manifest Instances of this Truth may be met with in our History of Colours ; In divers of whose Experiments , the Colour produc'd upon the Mixture of Bodies , is quite different from that of any of the Ingredients . As , when a blew Solution of Copper made in Spirit of Urine , does with Syrup of Violets , which is also blew , produce a fair Green. And even since I began to write this Section , a Tryal purposely made has afforded me a new Instance of the same import . For having put together some Tincture of Iron , made with good Spirit of Vinegar , and a Volatile Tincture of Sulphur , ( which I elsewhere show how to make ) from a Confusion of these two very red Liquors , there emerg'd in a trice , a very dark and almost Inky Mixture , that retain'd nothing at all of Redness . The like notable changes I have several times produc'd by Mixtures , in divers other Qualities of Bodies than their Colours , as in their Odours , Tasts , &c. And why such Alterations may not be also effected by Composition , in some of the Medicinal Qualities of Bodies , I do not yet see . Quick-silver it self inwardly taken , does usually cause , either no manifest evacuation , or one that is made at the mouth : But if it be dissolv'd in Spirit of Niter , and Precipitated with Sea-Salt , this white Precipitate being edulcorated , if it be warily given in a just Dose , doth ( as far as I can yet learn ) seldom fail of working , and yet seldomer work by Salivation , but by Siege . On the other side Glass of Antimony ( made per se ) whereof a very few Grains given in substance , are wont to work violently upwards and downwards , being dissolved in Spirit of Vinegar , ( which is not easily and quickly done ) will not usually either Vomit or Purge , tho the Menstruum be drawn from it , and tho it be given in a larger Dose , than that of the uncompounded Glass . And tho if Crude Antimony be flux'd with Niter and Tartar , as in the ordinary way of making Crocus Metallorum , there is produc'd , as is vulgarly known , a Medicine so Emetick and Cathartick , that an Ounce or less of the Wine wherein it has been infus'd , without sensibly loosing its weight , is wont to work strongly enough both upwards and downwards : Yet I have known some that would without scruple , take several Grains of Crude Antimony in substance , and one particularly that continued the use of it long , without being vomited or purg'd by it . And Tryals purposely made have inform'd me , that if , instead of Salt-Peter and Tartar , Antimony be prepar'd with well dry'd Sea-Salt , and a little Salt of Tartar , tho both , these amount not to above half the weight of the Niter and Tartar vulgarly us'd , yet the Antimony well flux'd with these ( for about an hour ) is thereby so alter'd and corrected , that it affords an useful Medicine , of which one may give from 12 or 15 Grains to half a Dram , or more in substance , without ordinarily working , either by Vomit or Siege , but usually by Sweat , and sometimes by Urine . Whence we may gather , that Antimony may be either made a more dangerous , or a more friendly Medicine , than of it self it is , according to the Ingredients 't is associated with , tho these be in themselves Innocent , and perhaps of kin to one another . And even Chymists , as well as other prescribers of Remedies , may be found , tho less frequently , to add to a Simple , such things as rather deprave , than improve it . As one of their great Patrons ( a happy Practitioner ) complains , that Flower of Sulphur , by being sublim'd , ( as by many it is ) from Calcin'd Vitriol , and one or two other things , under pretence of purifying and subtillizing it , does really acquire a hurtful Corrosiveness . And if I had here the Leizure , Instances enough might be brought to show , that Chymists sometimes mistakingly produce by their additions to a Medicine , other Qualities , if not also worse , than they design'd or expected . § II. ANother Advantage of Simpler Medicines , is , that caeteris paribus , they are more safe than compounded ones , especially if the Patients be valetudinary persons . 'T is too much the custom , both of many Herbarists , and several other Writers on the Materia Medica , to give us rather Encomiums than impartial Accounts of the Simples they treat of ; enumerating and magnifying all the vertues they have , and sometimes more than they have , without taking notice of their ill Qualities , upon whose account nevertheless they may be inconvenient , if not hurtful and dangerous , to some Constitutions , and in divers Cases . We know that divers Perfumes , as Musk and Amber , tho very grateful and refreshing to most Mens Spirits , are yet very hurtful to many Women , and especially to those that are Hysterical . And I have known the smell of Musk very much disaffect an eminent Person , though otherwise of a robust Constitution . I have also known several Persons , not all of them of the same Sex , very much offended by the smell of Roses , which yet is very moderate , as well as to most Persons , whether Men or Women , very grateful . I know a very great Person to whom Honey , whether inwardly taken , or outwardly apply'd , is almost as hurtful as Poyson , having several times produc'd strange and frightful Symptoms , even when the Patient knew not that any Honey had been imploy'd , and consequently could not be thus oddly distemper'd by the force of Imagination . I think I have elsewhere taken notice of the harm , that both I and others , subject to Diseases of the Eyes , have receiv'd , even by the moderate use of Parsley . On this occasion I shall add what occurr'd to me long after I had dictated what I said of Parsley , that Worm-wood , tho for many uses , an excellent Plant , has been found by many so apt to disaffect the head , and so unfriendly to the Eyes , that I have for some years forborn it my self for fear of the head-ach , and forewarn'd others of it that are subject to weak Eyes . But I know a very Learned Man , whose Elegant Pen has made him deservedly be taken notice of by many , who , tho he have naturally very good Eyes , found upon an Obstinate Tryal , that his Curiosity seduced him to make of the plentiful use of Worm-wood-Wine and Beer , that within less than three Weeks , his sight was by degrees brought to be so weak , that he could not read a Gazet without Spectacles ; but by totally leaving off Worm-wood , he quickly recover'd the vigour of his sight , without the use of any of the helps that his profession , which is Physick , would have plentifully suggested to him . this Relation I had from himself soon after the thing happen'd , on occasion of what I told him about Parsley , &c. And to speak more generally , I doubt not , but if Men were not so prepossess'd with the Praises that Authors give to Simples , that they overlook the Inconveniencies they may on divers occasions produce , we should find in many Medicines bad Qualities , that are not yet taken notice of . And I have more than once hit , but too well , in the Prognosticks I made of the Hurt , some Patients would receive by the use of applauded Medicines , prescribe them , even by considerable and Learn'd Men , when upon their Authority my warnings were neglected , and the use of the Medicines unhappily persisted in . I remember I once saw in the hands of a learned and curious Traveller into the Eastern Parts of the World , an Arabick Manuscript about the Materia Mèdica , which made me regret the loss of the most part of the little skill I once had in that Language . For besides that it was written in a delicate hand , and the Letters in fit Places , curiously adorn'd with Gold and Azure , the Method seem'd to be more accurate than any thing I had seen on that Subject . And that which pleas'd me not a little , was , that the Author had been so wary , that after the columns wherein he taught , besides many other things , the Vertues , Doses , &c. of every Drug he treated of , he had a distinct column for the bad Qualities of it , and the constitutions and Diseases wherein the use of it may be dangerous or inconvenient . I think it therefore not unreasonable to suspect , that , where a great many Ingredients are blended into one Medicine , one or other of them may have other operations , besides that design'd by the Physician ; it may awaken some sleeping Ferment , and , if not produce a new Distemper , may excite and actuate some other hostile matter , that lay quiet in the Body before , and perhaps would have been little by little subdu'd by nature , if it had not been unseasonably rous'd and assisted by some Ingredient , that perhaps was needlesly put into the Medicine . I have had so many unwelcome Proofs of this in my self , that it engages me to be the more careful to caution others against the like Inconvenience . § III ANother benefit accrewing from the use of Simpler Medecines , is , that thereby the Patient may , without burdening his Stomach , or nauseating the Remedy , take a larger Dose of the Medicine , or of that Ingredient of it wherein the vertue chiefly resides . For , whereas Physicians are oblig'd to stint themselves in the Dose of the Medicine , for fear of disgusting the Patient , or oppressing his Stomach ; when there are many things heap'd together in a moderate Dose of one compounded Medicine , these Ingredients that are either superfluous , or at least are less efficacious , must necessarily take up a considerable part of that determinate Dose , and consequently leave much the less of the more appropriated or useful Ingredients . To say , that all the Ingredients that are thrust into a great composition , are proper and conduce unto the same purpose , I doubt is not always true . And however is not a sufficient Answer , since it does not avoid the Inconvenience I have been objecting . If a Baker , being to make the best Bread he can , especially for a Person of a weak Stomach , should to Wheaten Flower add the Meal of Rye , of Barley , and of Oats ; tho' all these Ingredients be good and nourishing , and each of them is by many us'd to make Bread , yet none will take him for a skilful Baker , and few would prefer this compounded Bread , to that more simple one made of Wheat alone . And so to make good Gun-Powder a skilful man would not to Salt-Peter , Brimstone , and Charcole add Wax , Rosin , and Camphire , though these be very inflammable Substances as well as Sulphur . And thus if one would make an Aqua Vitae , whereof but one small cup were to be given for the quick recovery of fainting Persons , he would not with Spirit of Wine , or good Brandy , mix Mead or Cyder , and strong Bear or Ale , tho' each of these be it self a Spirituous Liquor . Gum Arabick ( whereof I prefer that which is transparent and colourless ) is prescrib'd in several compositions , as a Drug proper to mitigate the sharpness of Urine . But by the quantity of the other Ingredients that 't is mix'd and clog'd with , no more than a small proportion of it usually comes to be given in one Dose . But when I have had the Curiosity , leaving out all the other things , to give about a dram , or perhaps more of it at one time , reduc'd by long Pounding ( for the best is very tough ) to fine Powder , in a large draught of small Ale or Beer , or some other convenient Vehicle , I found very considerable Effects of it . And I remember that a Gentleman of great note , coming to bid me farewel , because of a long and troublesome Journey , he was taking to Mineral Waters , which he intended to drink for many weeks , to ease him of a very painful sharpness of Urine ; I that knew it was not venereal nor from the Stone of the Bladder ( for when those Causes of the Strangury , the Medicine is not near so powerful ) I desir'd him , before he went to make use of this Powder , once , or ( if there should be need ) twice a day . Which when he had done , it so reliev'd , him that he thought himself quite cur'd , and forbore his intended Journey not only that Year , but the next . For the Chin-cough , as they call it in Children , whose odd Symptoms do usually fright the Parents and Attendants , and oftentimes frustrate the Endeavours of Physicians , skilful in curing other Coughs , I have not known any magisterial composition so effectual , as the simple Juice of Pulegium ( by many call'd Penny-royal ) sweetn'd a little with SugarCandy , and given long enough from time to time , in the quantity of a Childs Spoonful . ( This Plant may be also made to afford a Syrup , that will keep , and is useful in Coughs , but which I doubt , is not so efficacious as the Simple Juice . ) There are many and obvious experiments of the great efficay of so simple a Remedy as Asses Milk ; ( which yet in some cases , I think inferiour to Goats Milk , ) if it be given in a sufficient quantity , and for a competent time , there are also many Instances of dangerous and stubborn Diseases , that have been cur'd even by Common Cows Milk , when it has been very plentifully taken , and for a long continuance of time , and perhaps it is no less remarkable , that in a far less time now and then , not extending to very many daies , Fluxes , as Dyarrhaeas , and tho more seldom even Dysenterical ones , are happily and easily cur'd , as I have sometimes known by the bare use of so slight a Remedy as Milk , wherein , whilst it is gently boyling , an equal quantity of fair Water is little by little put , till at last there remains but as much Liquor as the Milk alone amounted to at first . This simple Alimentous Medicine being liberally taken ( for it should be us'd instead of all other Drinks whilst the Disease continues ) has been very frequently found to cure Fluxes , not all of one sort , in Ireland it self , where that kind of Disease is Endemical . And , tho I have formerly in another Paper recommended the use of Paronychia foliis rutaceis , against that sad and stubborn Disease the Kings-Evil , yet I presume you will allow me , by the mention of a Tryal that was since made with it , to give a notable Confirmation of the Utility of giving an Alterative Simple , if need require , in considerable quantity . A Physician that I knew , was sent for to a Scrophulous Patient , in whose Throat there was a Tumour , so big and so unluckily seated , that much compressing the Asophagus it rendr'd Deglutition exceeding difficult : So that being likewise so hard and stubborn , that tho the Physician was also a famous Chyrurgion , he could neither discuss it , or bring it to Suppuration ; The Patient , tho rich , was in imminent danger of being starv'd . In this Strait the Physician remembring the Character I had given of Paronychia , or Whitlom Grass , sent about the Country to to get all that could be procur'd : And at first gave a little of it in form of Infusion , in such liquid Aliments as the Patient was able , with much ado , little by little to get down . And having by this means , after some time , made the Deglutition less difficult , he gave the Remedy more and more plentifully , to imbue the whole mass of Blood and Juices of the Body with the Vertue of the Herb , whereby the Tumour was at length resolv'd , and the Patient secur'd , so much to the Physicians Reputation as well as Profit , that , as he said , he thought Gratitude oblig'd him to give me a Circumstantial Account of his Success ; as he very civilly did in a long Letter whereof I have given you the Substance . And tho I might here entertain you with the Vertues of some other Simple Remedies , plentifully given , yet for brevity sake I shall rather observe in general , That I doubt not but several Simple Medicines ( I speak of alterative not evacuating ones , would be found far more effectual than they are commonly thought , if they were given in a much larger Dose , and continued for a competent time . And probably so many Physicians ( especially of the Old School , ) would not be so forward to reject either Specifick or simple Remedies , as having found some of them not to answer Expectation ; if they would allow them as fair a Tryal , as they give to their own Prescriptions , such as the Chalybeats of the Shops , the Spaw , or Tunbridge Waters , the Decoctions of Guajacum , &c. which they often give with divers intermediate helps for a Month or six Weeks , and sometimes for two Months together , without expecting that in a few weeks , much less in a very few days , they should perform the cure . § IV. THE Fourth thing that may recommend the use of Simple Medicines , is , That caeteris paribus they are more easy to be procur'd then Compounded ones . This Assertion needs little proof . And where several Simples are requir'd , one or more of them may oftentimes be difficult to be got ; and all of them will still be troublesome to be fetcht , and to be made up into a Composition . How useful the knowledge of Parable Remedys may be , I have indeavour'd to show in a distinct Paper ; and therefore shall not discourse of it here , but only add this one Observation , that some Medicines are so parable , that without resorting for them to Apothecarys shops ( which are not every where at hand , nor always furnished with them ) we may find them in those of other Trades-men . Thus among Masons and Bricklayers we most commonly meet with Quicklime ; whose bare Infusion in common Water [ about a pound of the former , as 't is more or less strong , to about three or four Quarts of the latter , ] is of it self a good Medicine in divers Cases , and as Experience has perswaded me , may be made the Basis of several good Remedys , both Inward and Outward . Among the latter of which may be reckon'd an Oyntment , that I usually kept by me for Burns , and made only by beating up strong Lime-Water with as much good Lin-seed Oyl , as could be made throughly to incorporate with it into a very white Unguent . And I shall add concerning Linseed Oyl , ( since I have mention'd it ) which is to be had in the shops of Varnishers and Painters ; that of it self , being exhibited in a large Dose , as of several Ounces at a time , I have known it answer the Commendations given it by eminent Physicians , for breaking of Pleuritical Empyemas Simple Oyl of Turpentine also , that may be usually had in the shops of the same Trades-men , is in reality a noble Remedy in divers Affections , not only Inward , in which Chymists commend it , but Outward too . And I have had great thanks , both from Physicians and Chyrugeons , for recommending the use of it to them in Wounds , and particularly , where one would expect little from it in the stanching of Blood , if it be seasonably apply'd very hot to the wounded Parts , where it also much promotes a good Digestion . And I am confirm'd in the good Opinion I have long had of this Oyl , by the Information that 's given me , That very experienced Chyrurgeon has lately been so charitable , as to publish a little Book , considerable for the useful Observations it contains , of notable Cures done by him in Chyrurgical Cases , chiefly with Oyl of Turpentine . And I shall add , that a Chyrurgeon to a great Monarch , and one of the skilfullest men I ever met with of his Profession , confess'd to me , that in an admir'd Cure that he had then lately done of a desperate Gangrene , in an eminent person , very aged and almost bed-rid , the Medicine he ascrib'd most to , was the Oyl we were speaking of . And , because both he and others make much and good use of Spirit of Wine in Gangrens , which yet is thought to be unmingleable with Oyl of Turpentine , because if it be shaken with it , it will quickly separate again from it ; I thought it might do Practitioners some service , to make for them a Mixture of Oyl of Turpentine and Spirit of Wine , that might probably be more penetrant than the former , and less fugitive than the latter , which of it self does not stay long enough upon the Parts 't is apply'd to . Which Mixture I easily made , by digesting for a while , and strongly shaking from time to time , about equal parts by guess of good Oyl of Turpentine and throughly dephlegm'd Spirit of Wine , till this Liquor , by imbibing or dissolving great store of the Oleaginous Parts , have attain'd a Yellow Colour , for which reason I call it the Tincture of Oyl of Turpentine . And , since my subject has led me into the shops of Colour-sellers , I will before I leave them , take notice of one Simple that is wont to be found there , which if it were not very offensive to the Tast , and somewhat disagreeable to the stomach , would be perhaps preferable for its Antinephritick Vertue , to the most pompous Compositions of the shops , and some of the celebrated Arcana of the ( vulgar ) Chymists . I procur'd it , not without some difficulty , from a Spagyrist , very well vers'd in the School of Paracelsus and Helmont ; who , tho a sparing Commender of Remedyes , extoll'd this as the best he had ever met with , to cure the Stone where it was not too big to pass , and to prevent the increase of it where it was . I have known it us'd in Clysters , with very good success in a Fit of that Disease . But Inwardly I had no occasion to try it but upon my self . And judging it innocent enough , ( as indeed I found it rather Anodyne than Driving , I took it now and then , mix'd with Oyl of sweet Almonds chiefly to allay the Tast , for otherwise I had long found that alone , insufficient ) as a Preservative from Grave . And , thanks be to God , I divers times thought it more manifestly effectual to that purpose , by lessening either the bulk of the Grains , or the quantity of the Sand , or both , than any of the Remedyes I had taken for prevention in several years before . And yet I scarce took a quarter of the Dose , prescrib'd by the Spagyrist that communicated the Medicine to me ; which in short is ( for I presume you would gladly know it ) to take from time to time , by it self or in some convenient Vehicle two or three ounces of the express'd Oyl of Walnuts , which , if the great staleness of it he requires be necessary , ( which I mean to examine by Tryals ) is scarce to be had but at the shops of Artificers , because he would have it at least a year old , and judg'd it the elder the better . Before I quite leave the Shops of Trades-Men , I shall take notice of one Medicine more , that seems to have been first lodg'd there , and from thence translated into the Shops of Apothecaries . The Medicine I mean is Castile or else Venetian Soap , ( for either is often imploy'd in stead of the other ) which being a Body abounding with Alcalisite Salts and Oleaginous Parts well combin'd , invited me to make some Experiments with it , as a Substance that may be applicable to good uses , not only Mechanical but Medical . Of some of tho former sort I elsewhere make mention . And as to its Medicinal vertues , I take notice in another Paper of its Efficacy against the Jaundise ; for which I have since been inform'd , that , as nauseous a Medicine as it is , 't is in great request among some Skilful Men in Holland . And some fresh , but not sufficient , experience has recommended it to me against the Stone . But that vertue of it which I as yet most prize it for , and now intend to communicate to you , you will best gather from the following Story . Having had some dealings with a considerable Merchant ( of Cork , in Ireland ) he sadly complain'd to me , that he was afflicted with a necessity of making Bloody Water to that degree , that he fear'd he must soon quit his Profession , being already unable to ride about his business , and scarce able to walk a foot the length of a Street , without stooping to make red Water . Hereupon I told him I had a Medicine , that , if he could digest the unpleasantness of it , would , I thought , by the blessing of God , do good even in his case . And it was only to scrape with a Knife as much Castile Soap into a Spoon , as it would conveniently hold without being press'd , i. e. neat a dram , and having fill'd the vacant part with small Ale , or some other , convenient Drink , to facilicate the swallowing so nauseous a Remedy , wash it down with a somewhat large Draught of the same Liquor , or other fit Vehicle , repeating the Dose twice or thrice a day , if need requir'd . The manifest relief he found by this seemingly despicable Medicine , within ( if I misremember not ) two or three days , invited him to continue the use of it a while longer , and afterwards to return me solemn thanks for it ; declaring that now for four years together he had liv'd quite free from his Distemper , without scrupling to ride Journeys on Horse Back , as his occasions requir'd . To which he added , that in regard I had not confin'd him to secresy , he presum'd I intended the Medicine should do as much good as might be , and therefore scrupled not to give it to several others , who were likewise happily cur'd by the use of the same Remedy . Which Account was therefore the more welcom to me , because in the place were I liv'd , I had not opportunity to make further Tryals of its Efficacy . And on this occasion I shall beg leave to advertise you once for all , in reference to the Remedies deliver'd by me , either in this Paper or in my other Writings ; That I am as sensible as another of the almost insuperable Difficulty , of making any certain Experiments in Physick ; and that , having of a long time ( for Reasons given in due place ) studiously , tho not unreservedly , declin'd the Occasions of giving ( and consequently of reiterating ) Medicines : I justly desire that none of my Readers , and especially that Dr. F. would too much rely upon them , till they have been more competently try'd , than perhaps some of them , for want of opportunity , have been ; and administred to Patients of differing Complexions , Ages , and other Circumstances . You may find other Instances of the vertue of Parable , and some of them unpromising Medicines , in one of my Essay's Of the Usefulness of Experimental Philosophy ; to which I the less scruple to refer you , because I do not remember what I have there written many years ago , so perfectly , as not to fear that I might by enlarging this Section , put you to the trouble of reading some things here that you have met with there already . And yet I am somewhat incouraged both to mention to you that Book , and to present you some other Receipts in this Paper ; because it has pleas'd God so far to bless divers of the Medicines I have there recommended , or do there mention , that they have been prosperous to many Patients , and not altogether unuseful to some noted Physicians ; and have procur'd me from both more thanks than I pretended to ; besides inviting Encouragements to further Communications . §. V. THE last thing in order , but not in importance , that induces me to wish , that Physicians would imploy Simpler Medicines as much as conveniently may be , is , that 't is one of the likeliest ways , ( and perhaps little less than absolutely necessary ) to promote the Practical knowledge of the Materia Medica . For , whilst in one Receipt ▪ a multitude of Ingredients are mingl'd , if not confounded , 't is almost impossible to know with any certainty , to which of the Simples the good or bad Effect of the Remedy is to be attributed , or whether it be not produc'd by a Power , resulting from the particular Quality's of all of them , united into one Temperament , and by its means acting conjointly , and , as the School men speak per modum unius . So that by this way of heaping up or blending Simples into one compounded Remedy , I see not how in many Ages Men will be able to discover the true qualities good and bad , of the particular Bodies , that are compris'd under the name of the Materia Medica ; whereas , when a Physician often imploys a Simple , and observes the Effect of it , the relief or prejudice of the Patient , may very probably , if not with medical certainty , be ascrib'd to the good or bad Qualities of that particular Remedy . And this difficulty of discerning , what Ingredient it is of a very compounded Medicine , that helps or hurts the Patient , is much increas'd to those that affect to write Bills , wherein something is prescrib'd , which tho , because it goes under one name , passes but for one Ingredient , is yet a very compounded Body ; as is evident , in those many pompous Receipts wherein Treacle , ( that alone consists of above sixty several Simples ) Methridate , and divers other famous ancient compositions ; that each of them consists of good store of Ingredients . I had once thoughts of drawing up a discourse of the Difficulties of the Medicinal Art ; and had divers materials by me for such a work , which afterwards I laid aside , for fear it should be misimploy'd to the prejudice of worthy Physicians . But among the difficulties that occurr'd to me , I shall on this occasion mention one , which was ; That 't is a harder work than most men think , to discover fully the nature , or the good and bad quality's in reference to Physick , of this or that single Plant , or other Simple , that has a place in the Materia Medica . For besides the great difference that there may be in Plants of the same denomiation , according to the Climate , Soil , the goodness of the seeds that produce it , the culture , or the want of it , the time of the year , the seasonableness or intemperateness of the weather , the time and manner of gathering it , how it has been kept , the parts of it that are , and those that are not made use of , together with other circumstances too many to be here enumerated : besides all these , I say , the unheeded Textures of parts that are thought of an uniform nature , and the length of time during which they have been kept , without being suspected to be superannuated , and indeed without being so , may so much vary the nature of a Plant , that I have sometimes almost in a trice shewn the curious a notable disparity in the parts of the same fresh Leaf of a common Plant : And ( NB. ) I have found by Tryal purposely made , that some seeds of common use in Physick ( and not putrefy'd ) will , being distill'd at one time of the year , afford an Acid Spirit or Liquor ; but at another time of the year , tho destill'd the same way without any addition , afford not an Acid , but a kind of urinous Spirit , that contains a volatile Salt , which in Smell , Tast , and divers Operations , I found to be of great affinity to the volatile Salt of Urine , or that of Hartshorn . And indeed so many things may be pertinently and usefully propos'd to be inquir'd into , about this or that particular Plant made use of by Physicians , that perhaps they would be less inclin'd to compound numbers of them in one Receipt , if they were aware how much useful employment the indagation of the Quality's of so much as a few single Plants would give them : and yet without the knowledg of the properties of the separated Ingredients , a Physician prescribes , it will be scarce possible for him to know , with sufficient certainty , how the compound made up of them , will be qualify'd and operate , which reflection , I the less scruple to propose , because I am conifirm'd in it by Galen himself , who very Book , where he largely treats De Medicamentorum Compositione , hath this Assertion ; In universum , nemo probe uti possit medicamento composito , qui simplicium vires prius non accurate didicerit . I presume you will easily allow , that much of what has been said in favour of those simple Medicines we owe to Natures ( or rather to its Authors ) Bounty , may be extended to many of the Remedy's that are afforded us by the Chymists Art. For without now entering into the Question , whether the Spirits , Oyls , and Salts , that are obtain'd by what Spagyrists call Analyses by the fire , are Principles in the strict sense of the word ; it will scarce be doubted , but that the Spirit , or the Oyl , or the Salt of a mix'd Body chymically resolv'd , is so slightly or unequally compos'd , that the Ingredient whence it takes its name , is far more predominant , than it was when combin'd with others , in the entire or not yet Analys'd Concrete . And that such supposed Principles , OF Medicines of a simpler Order , may be very efficacious Remedys , may be justly argu'd from the great and beneficial effects of such as Oyl of Vitriol , Spirit of Urine ( NB. ) a Medicine of great use both Inward and Outward , Spirit of Harts-horn , Spirit of Niter , Spirit of Wine , and Oyl of Turpentine ; of which last nam'd Liquor I shall add , that , besides the vertues already ascrib'd to it in this Paper , whilst it retains its simplicity , it may in many Cases be imploy'd as a Menstruum , and by being combin'd with an Ingredient or two , be made to afford divers Medicines , which tho but little compounded , are not of little vertue . For I have found it readily enough to dissolve Camphire , Mastick , and some other Gums , of which Balsoms may be made , and others may be obtain'd by the help of the same Liquor , even from divers Mineral and Metalline Bodies . I will not insist on so known a Medicine as the common Terebinthinate Balsom of Sulphur ; tho this be a Remedy , with as much as 't is peculiarly extoll'd for Diseases of the Lungs , ( wherein yet its heat requires that it be very warily given to Patients of some complexions ) has vertues that are not confin'd to the Distempers of those parts ; since both I and some I commended it to , have found it very effectual ( outwardly apply'd ) in troublesome Haemorroidal Pains and Tumors : and ( NB. ) some experience inclines me to think its vertues may not be much greater in Pulmonick than in Paralytick Distempers : in which ( last ) it may be us'd , not only Outwardly , but chiefly Inwardly ; and that in a pretty large Dose with a Cephalick , and , in some Cases , an Antiscorbutick Vehicle . But I shall rather take notice to you , that perhaps it will be found worth while to try , at least in external Affects , the use of divers Tinctures , and consequently Balsoms that may be obtaind by the help of Oyl of Turpentine from divers solid Mineral Body's , upon which I have found by tryal , that this Liquor may be ting'd ( tho not of the same colour on all of them , ) among which I shall name , besides Crude Zink , Crude Antimony , and even Crude Copper ( in filings ; ) a noble Subject , Antimonial Cinnabar ; from which , tho I found I could ( but not hastily ) draw a fine Tincture , I had not opportunity to make tryal of that promising Medicine . §. VI. ANd as for those other Medicines , that are not made by bare Analysis , but by Synthesis or composition ; tho I think an experienc'd Chymist may , in many cases , with less uncertainty than a Galenist ( who employs Crude Ingredients of a more compounded nature ) foresee what quality the produc'd mix'd Body may have : Yet I could wish , that even the Spagyrists themselves were more sparing , than many of them are , in the number of the Ingredients they imploy to compose one Medicine . For most of the Arguments , upon which I grounded my Invitation to the use of simple Remedies , are applicable to Chymical ones , as well as others : And on this occasion I shall represent two things . First That in many cases , preparations skilfully diversify'd , may be usefully substituted to composition : Since one Body dexterously expos'd to differing Operations , may acquire as various , or as considerable , Qualities , as would accrew to it by the addition of such other Bodies , as an ordinary Chymist would in probability associate with it . Thus , not to mention Quick-silver , Antimony alone , whether prepar'd without addition , as when Flowers of several sorts are made of the more Volatile , and true Antimonial Glass of the more fixt part , or being associated but with one or two Ingredients , may afford a skilful Spagyrist , Medicines numerous and various enough , almost to furnish a Shop ; or at least to answer the Physicians Scope , where he would imploy an Emetick , a Cathartick , a Diaphoretick , a Deobstruent , a Diuretick , a Bezoardick or cordial Medicine ; to name now no other Qualities , that may be found in some Antimonial preparations , in a degree considerable enough to ennoble them . Which . Instances , and others of the like nature I presume you will allow me to make use of in this discourse , because , though I do commonly , yet I do not always , imploy the Term Simple Medicine or Remedy in the strict and absolute sense , but in a comparative one , that excludes compositions of more than two or three , or at the utmost a very few , Ingredients . Secondly , Without bringing together a Chaos , or so much as a considerabe number , of Ingredients , one or two , or at most three auxilary ones , if judiciously chosen and skilfully manag'd , may oftentimes produce more efficacious Remedies , than the admirers of pompuous Processes would expect , or perhaps be able to make those Processes vye with . The violently Emetick and purgative vertue of Glass of Antimony made per se , may be , as I elsewhere show , more powerfully corrected by mere distill'd Vinegar , than by many famous Stomachick and Cordial Elixirs , and other Elaborate Preparations . And sometimes a seemingly improper addition may not only correct , but give new and unexpected vertues to a Drug . Thus , though Sublimatum corrosivum be a mercurial concrete , so fretting , that a very few Grains of it may be able to kill a man ; yet by adding and carefully uniting to it about an equal weight of running Mercury , there is obtain'd , when they are well united by Sublimations , a Compound that is so free from being corrosive , that Chymists call it Mercurius dulcis , which though some unwary Practitioners , as well Galenists as Chymists , have too often by their misimployment of it , discredited , yet experience shows that in Skilful hands it may be usefully imployed , not only in some venereal affections , but in divers other Distempers . And I shall now add , that being carefully prepar'd , and well given , it may not only be freed from corrosiveness , but much allay the Sharpness both of some emptying Medicines , & of some peccant humors . To countenance the latter part of which observation , I shall acquaint you with one use of it , that perhaps you have not yet made . I remember , I had an opportunity to observe the Efficacy of Mercurius dulcis , in a stubborn disentery , that had baffled the Remedies of an eminent Physician . But though a reflection on the vertue , I knew this Medicine to have , of allaying Sharp humors , and resisting Putrefaction , may justly increase my favourable opinion of it ; yet not thinking my Experience competent , I imparted it to an ancient and expert Chyrurgeon , that was the chief of those that belong'd to a famous and judicious General of an Army ; who thereupon frankly confess'd to me , that this was his great Arcanum , wherewith he had cur'd many scores , or rather hundreds of Souldiers in this generals Army . Only , where as my way is to give from 8 , or 10 , to 12 , or at most 15 Grains of Mercurius dulcis for a Dose , made up with some little Rhubarb , &c. Or other Ingredient that would make it work , once , twice , or thrice with another Patient , ( for the disentery it self helps to carry off the Medicine ) he , both to disguise it , and to make it more easily takeable , made it up with Sugar and Mucilage of Cum-dragon into Lozenges , whereof one might containfrom near a Scruple to half a dram of the Mercurius dulcis , of which he order'd the Souldiers to take one at a time , without hindering their March ; only bidding them have a great care , that nothing should stick between their Teeth , or in their Throats . 3. But the efficacy of this simple preparation of Mercury , is much inferiour to that more simple , although more tedious , preparation of Gold , which was made the same way in two differing Countries , by two dexterous Physicians , both of them of my acquaintance . For though I had long been prejudic'd ( not without specious grounds ) against pretended Aurum potabiles , and other boasted preparations of Gold ; ( for most of which I have still no over-great esteem ) yet , I saw such extraordinary and surprizing Effects of the Tincture of Gold I speak of , upon Persons of great note , that I was particularly acquainted with both before they fell desperately sick , and after their strange Recovery , that I could not but change my former opinion , or a very favourable one of some preparations of Gold ; and I should have thought that this Medicine ( as little compounded as it is , ) could scarce he paid , by a great store of the Noble Metal that afforded it , if it could have been made in great quantity , or without a great deal of pains and time . I can speak thus circumstantially , because by the kindness of the Artists , and the pains I had spent in working on the same Subject they make their Menstruum of , I so far knew , and partly ( by themselves invited ) saw , the preparation of it , that to bring home what has been said , to the present occasion ) I can tell you , that there is no Ingredient associated to the Gold , save one , that comes from above , and is reputed one of the simplest Bodys in nature , and of which one may take two or three Ounces altogether unprepar'd , without the least inconvenience . And yet the Dose of this almost insipid Medicine , that was given to an old Courtier , even in a violent Apoplexy , wherein other Remedies had by skil'ful men been us'd in vain , was but six or eight drops . In another very ancient and corpulent person the Dose was greater , because the Tincture was more unripe and diluted ; but the effect was as sudden , tho the Patient was not bled , and tho there was not in either of these two cases , any notably sensible , evacuation made . [ Both these recover'd Persons are yet alive ] the same Medicine a while after , saved the life of another Gentleman I know , who , having lain above two and twenty days sick of an ill conditioned Feaver , was condemn'd by three Physicians , whereof one told me with great grief , that he would not out-live the next morning ; and yet upon the taking of a large Dose of this Tincture , he was presently reliev'd , and from that time found a sensible amendment towards a recovery , which he now injoys ; tho he were then reputed to be about , if not above fourscore years old . Some other odd effects of this . Remedy I could tell you of : But it has already much swell'd this Section , and yet I thought it not amiss to relate these things to you , both , because they are very pertinent to the scope of it , and because you may be , as I long was , prejudic'd against Medicines made of so fix'd , and , as is suppos'd , un-alterable a Metal as Gold. 4. This is not the only Medicine made of that noble Body , of which I have known very notable effects . But , because they belong to another Paper , I shall not particularly mention them in this ; but pass on to tell you , that the Preparation of Silver , that I have long since deliver'd in another Book , tho' it may seem but slight , has been found very effectual , and much us'd , by one of the eminentest Physicians of this nation , to whom I recommended it : and who acknowledg'd to me , that He gave it to Patients of very high Quality , tho' disguis'd , to avoid alarming those that are fearful of Chymical Medicines . And since that I gave it to a great Lady that was Hydropical , and judg'd to be dangerously ill , with notable success ; and the Cure has already for some years held good . But I confess to you , that I look upon Copper , and its Magistery Blew Vitriol , as a much nobler Subject to make Remedy's of , than Silver , and perhaps than Gold it self . And if I were to make Physick my Profession , there is no Metal which I should so willingly bestow pains upon as Copper induc'd thereunto by the excellent and very extraordinary Effects , ( not all of them to be mention'd in this Paper , that I have had opportunity to see , of some Remedies , which tho' I could never learn how to make , I knew were made of that Metal , or Vitriol abounding in it . [ But first freed from all cruelticle violence . ] And for appeasing of Pains , produc'd even by inveterate Maladies , the Laudanums ) and other opiate Preparations , that are prescrib'd and prais'd in Physicians and Chymists Books , and much us'd ( oftentimes with good success ) in their practice , seem to me , bccause of the Stupor , and some other inconvenient Symptoms , they are wont more or less to be followed by , far inferiour to the Sulphureous Parts , as a Chymist would call them , of skillfully prepar'd Venus ; these being much more harmlesly and friendly Anodynous . And I remember that an Empyrick , to whom , at his request , I taught a very uncertain way ( for it rarely hits ) of making a kind of Sulphur of Vitriol alone , in the form of a Brick colour'd Powder ; came purposely to give me solemn Thanks for the Reputation he had gain'd by that Medicine , of which the first time he had the good luck to make it , he gave , as he was instructed , four or five grains of it , to a Woman that could not sleep , but had been for divers months raving mad , [ Maniaca . ] which single dose not only gave her a good Nights rest , but brought . her to talk sense when she wak'd in the Morning . I knew also a Chymist , that was much courted even by learned Doctors , for an internal Anodyne he us'd , and could sell at almost what rate he pleas'd , to take off inveterate Pains in the Heads and Shins of venereal Patients ; and the same Person cur'd venereal Ulcers in a very short time , only by strowing on them an Indolent Powder . And tho he was so shy , that he would not let even the Physicians , I recommended to him , see his Medicine , yet having one day been told of a kindness I had done him , unknown to him ; he took it so well , that he not only allow'd me to see and handle his Medicine , but when I guess'd by the ponderousness and effects ; of it , that it was some . Preparation of Mercury fixt with Sulphur of Venus , he frankly acknowledg'd to me , that , tho it would indure not only Ignition , but a strong & lasting fire , that in the former part of my Conjecture ( that the Body of it was Mercurial ) I was in the right ; and in the latter part I shot very near the Mark ; but added , that that the true Sulphureous parts of Venus were in his way so difficult to be obtain'd , and requir'd so much time , that he could seldom prevail with himself , ( who indeed was voluptuous enough ) to go through so troublesome a work . And in effect I found , upon various Tryals , the constituent Parts of that Metal to be much more strictly united than the generality even of Chymists imagaine . For the extraordinary effects of this Medicine , I can refer you to the Testimony of very ingenious men of your own Profession , ( and probably acquaintance too . ) And since I know you study Helmont , I presume you will the more readily believe them , if I put you in mind of that notable Passage , where he says : Nihil , aeque victoriose in Humidum Radicale , agit atque primum ens cupri , vel ad vitam longam Sulphure vitrioli est benignius ; ideoque Sulphur Philosophorum indigitat . But my intended Brevity forbids me to insist longer on this Metal , or to take notice of more than one other Metal . And because that of Steel , Physicians as well as Chymists make great variety of Remedies , some of which are produc'd by Preparations slight enough ; And the like may be said of Mercury , witness the Remedy formerly commended against the Worms , made of nothing but crude Quick-Silver barely decocted in common water : For this reason , I say , I shall pitch upon Lead , whose calx dissolv'd in Spirit of Vinegar affords as you know , Saccharum Saturni , which tho so easy and simple a preparation , is a magistery that has more vertues than every Physican knows , or perhaps so much as suspects ; especially in mortifying sharp humours in the Eyes , which I have known or made it do sometimes almost in a trice . [ But I do not think it safe to make the Plantain or Rose-water 't is to be dissolv'd in , considerably strong of it . ] And for Burns , I have seldom seen any thing equal to it , and therefore have often us'd it upon my self ( barely dissolv'd in Common , or else Plantain Water . ) But I fear 't is not so safe as effectual , in some inward Distempers of the Bowels , that are judg'd to be caus'd by Acid humours ; unless it be very warily and skilfully given . [ But as to its external use , I presume , I need not tell so skilful a Doctor as you ( NB. ) how great it is in healing , and in the mean time appeasing , the Pains of divers sorts of Ulcers . And therefore I shall mention but one Particular , which 't is like you have not met with ; namely , that I know a very Ancient and experienc'd Person , who , besides a vast practice otherwise , was Chyrurgeon to a great Hospital ; who professing much kindness , and owning some obligation to me , confess'd to me , that amongst all the Medicines he has try'd to stop Bleeding , and prevent Accidents in Amputations , that which he oftenest us'd , and most rely'd on , is a solution of Saccharum Saturni in Plantain Water ( or for a need in pure common Water : ) for having dissolv'd ℥ j. of the former in about a Pint or pound of the latter ; as soon as ever the Limb or other part is taken off , he immediately apply's Stupes drench'd in this Liquor , as hot as the Patient can well endure ; and having bound them carefully on , he makes , no hast to take them off , but allows the Medicine time enough to perform its operation : To countenance this I would tell you an odd experiment of mine , of the efficacy of a Saturnine Liquor to resist Putr faction , in the Bodys of Animals , but that the relation would take up too much time . ] 5. Perhaps I need not tell you , that I could here mention divers other Experiments , as well upon Saturn , as the other Metals I have nam'd above ; but that my Scope confines me to such Preparations , as wherein the Metaline Subject is compounded but with very few others ; and also that of those that are more remote from simplicity , you may meet with several in some of my other Papers , which I am not in this to defraud . What has been above noted about Metals , may be extended to Minerals : namely , that when there is need to compound them , it may of tentimes be sufficient to associate them with one or two , or at most a very few Auxiliary Ingredients , if I may so-call them ; this is apparent in several useful Preparations of Antimony , that are vulgarly enough known . To which divers may be added that are made of common Sulphure , by slight additions . Of which sort , because I elsewhere deliver several , I shall now mention but one , which though I have many years ago describ'd in the History of colours , I shall not scruple to take notice of here , because I there consider not its Medicinal vertues , which yet are very great , especially in Asthmas and Coughs , in which I do not remember that I ever gave it without benefit to the Patient ; nor was it less successful in the hands of Physicians , that were willing to try it for me , especially in those of a Person , who though well furnish'd with choice Remedies of his own , often came to me for a supply of this Spirituous and penetrating Tincture , with which he assur'd me he did notable things in Asthmatical cases ; and particularly in one that was very obstinate , and had lasted many years . But not having had quite so many opportunities as I wished of giving it my self , I shall be glad , that further Tryal may be made of it by so skilful an Administrer as you . And therefore lest you should not have the Book lately refer'd to at hand , I shall here repeat , that our Medicine is made of Flowers of Sulphur , exactly mix't with an equal weight of finely powder'd Sal-Armoniac , and somewhat more than an equal weight of good Quick-lime , separately reduc'd to a Suttle Powder . For these three Ingredients being diligently and nimbly mix'd , and put into a Retort , to be plac'd in a sand Furnace , and fitted with a large receiver very well luted to it . This Mixture , I say , being duly distill'd in such vessels , will afford a Blood red and smoaking spirit , exceeding Sulphureous both in smell and oven Mechanical Operations . And in this Distillation the Sulphureous Parts sometimes came over accompany'd with such store of saline ones , that a good part of what past into the Receiver shot into the form of a Volatile Sulphureous Salt. And I remember that having for curiosity's sake added to the Fluid Tincture a due proportion of an Ardent Spirit ( such as that of Wine ) exactly dephlegm'd , I had a Mixture ( whether in the form of a Coagulum or not ) which afforded me some odd Phaenomena not here to be mention'd , and which we subled with a gentle fire to unite them into a composition that may for distinction sake be call'd Sa trium regnorum , because it contains Urinous Particles , Vinous ones , ( and perhaps some of Soot ) and Sulphureous ones : whereof the First belongs to the Animal , the Second to the Vegetable , and the last to the Mineral Kingdom , as Chymists are wont to speak . But what vertues this Salt ( that would presently gild Silver , ) and the Spirit that may be made to accompany it , may have in Physick , I had not occasion to try . But yet I have mention'd it upon the by , that you may make use of it , if you think it worth while to do so . To whch I shall here present you with no Inducements , since I perceive that the Particulars above mention'd about simple preparations of Gold and other Metals , have already made this Section enormously great . And yet I hope you will not be displeas'd at it ; since to so sugacious a person as Dr. F. these passages may afford some not altogether useless hints : and at least 't is an Encouragement to Industry , to know that the subjects a man works on are capable of affording Excellent things . §. VII . 1. I Foresee it may be objected against the frequent use of simple Medicines , that oftentimes it happens that a Disease , or a morbisick Matter , is not the effect of a single Cause , but is produc'd by the concurrence of two , or perhaps more , Causes , which producing several symptoms , 't is not probable that one Simple Drag will be able to answer those different Indications This Objection I confess is considerable , & there are cases wherein I acknowledg it to be so weighty as to invite & warrant a Physician , to imploy in them a Medicine consisting of more Ingredients than one or two ; which I can admit without prejudice to any Design , since I formerly declar'd I did not intend to perswade you to consine your self to Simple Remedy's ( so much as in the late sense above intimated of that Term ) but only to imploy them where they may suffice ; and where they cannot to make use of Medicines as little compounded as the case will permit , 2. But having premis'd this Advertisement , I presume I may offer you two or three considerations , that may lessen the force of the lately propos'd objection And first , tho I readily grant , that there are Diseases , whereof each may proceed from differring causes , and that a Remedy may be available against it , When 't is produc'd by one of those causes , without being so when it flows from another ; yet it may also easily happen , that in one case the Disease may be cur'd by one simple Medicine , and in another , by a Remedy not compounded . Nay , it may also happen , that the same simple may cure a Distemper , by which soever OF the two causes it is produe'd . This I have in another Paper endeavour'd to make out . And what we see of the Effects of the Jesuits Powder , as they call it in different kinds of Agues , as Tertians , Quartans , &c. and of pacating Medicines ( most of which indeed owe their vertue to Opium , but some are Mineral , and have nothing of the Poppy in them ) in appeasing Pains produc'd by Humours , and other causes very differing ; may keep what has been said from appearing improbable , And , if I mistake not , it may divers times happen , that , whatever it were that at first produc'd a portion of Morbisick matter , that first produc'd matter , is the cause of the continuance of the Disease , by vertue of some peculiar Texture or Noxious Constitution , which if a generous Medicine can destroy , the Disease will , at least little by little , cease . 3. It not unfrequently happens , that several Symptoms that seem very differing , may so depend upon the primary or principal cause of the Disease , that if a Medicine , how simple soever , be capable to destroy that cause , all the various Symptoms will , by degrees at least , vanish of themselves : as we often see , that when Mercury , tho perhaps but crude , is skilfully apply'd , and raises a kindly salivation , a great variety of Inconveniencies that afflicted a Venereal Patient , and seem'd to require many differing and topical Applications , are remov'd by the same Remedy ; insomuch that not only frightful Ulcers , but such Modes as one would think searce possible to be dissipated by the strongest Plaisters , are sometimes happily cur'd by well prepar'd Quicksilver , taken in at the mouth , as I have been assured by more than one eminent Physician upon his own Experience , And tho not unfrequently there be several , & sometimes very different Symptoms , that accompany that Disease of children that in England we call the Rickets ; ( and of which there dye several almost every week in London alone ) ▪ yet that Medicine which I have elsewhere describ'd under the name of Ens ( primum ) Veneris [ made of strongly calcin'd and well dulcify'd Colcothar of Dantsick Vitriol , and elevated with Sal Armoniack into the form of a reddish sublimate ] has prov'd , by Gods blessing on it , so successful , that partly by a Sister of mine , ( to whom I communicated it ) and partly by my self , and those I directed to take it , or to give it ; I think I may safely say , that two or three hundred children have been cur'd by it , and that almost always without the help of any other inward Medicine , or using any Topical application at all . 4. But the main thing that I intended , by way of answer to the foreseen Objection , was , that in a simple Medince nature her self does oftentimes so well play the Apothecary , as to render the compositions made in his shop unnecessary . For , tho we are wont to look upon this or that Plant or Mineral , as an entire and simple Body , yet we may much mistake , if we look upon it as a Homogeneous one . In several Plants that are organical Bodies , this Truth is manifest ; as for instance , in Oranges the Succulent part is soure and cooling , but the Yellow Rind considerably bitter and hot : and so in Lemons the Pulp , the Yellow part of the Rind , and the seeds have their differing Qualities and Medicinal vertues . And even in such vegetable Substances as are Homogeneous as to sense , there may be Parts , whose operations may be not only differing , but contrary ; as is manifest in the Root , we call Rhubarb , which affords as well notably Astringent , as Laxative and Purgative Parts . And so in Minerals themselves good and clean Lead-Oar , for instance , tho an uniform body as to sense , consists of very dissimilar Parts , and affords Sulphureous and perhaps other Recrements , besides Malleable Lead , which is it self a compounded Body . Thus also shining Marcasites , tho they appear Homogeneous , will by barely being expos'd for a competent time to the moist Air , afford an Efflorescence , that is perfectly vitriolate , and consequently contains an Acid Salt , two kinds of Sulphur , a Terrestrial Substance , and at least one Metal , ( for oftentimes it holds both Copper and Iron , tho one predominate , ) which last nam'd Substances themselves are neither of them simple Bodies . 5. And if we admit the Chymical Analysis of mixts to be genuine , we shall find that almost all those that belong to the Vegetable Kingdom , or to the Animal , and many that are refer'd to the Mineral Kingdom , how uniform soever they may appear to the Eye , do each of them contain several different , and sometimes hostile Substances . Thus Hartshorn , tho it appears a dry and Homogeneous Substance , will in distillation afford a volatile Salt , an urinous Spirit , a waterish Liquor , or Phlegm , a swiming Oyl and a sinking one , a white and porous Earth , or Terra damnata , and perhaps some , tho but very little , fixt Salt. Thus also in the Vegetable Kingdom , Tartar , for instance , may without addition be made to afford , as Experience hath assur'd me , a volatile Salt very like that of Urine , a Phlegme , an Acid Spirit , another Spirit too which I have elsewhere given the name of Adiaphorous , two faetid Oyls , whereof one will sink in Water , and the other swim on it , an Earth or Terra Damnata , and a fixt Lixivial Salt , upon which the newly mention'd Acid Spirit manifests such a hostility , that when they are put together , they tumultuate with noise and Bubbles , and in the Conflict mortify each other . And thus likewise in the Mineral Kingdom , not to repeat what I lately said of the compoundedness of Vitriol ; Nor confidently to urge the Opinion of divers Eminent Physicians , that Mars ( as they call Steel and Iron ) affords parts whereof some are Astringent , and other Operative , because I am not yet sure these contrary qualitys , do not proceed from the differing degrees of Fire , and other Circumstances of the preparations of the Metal : We see that Native Cinnabar affords by Distillation , besides running Mercury , a dry substance , whence I have obtain'd a Sulphur that would presently gild Silver , and a Terrestrial substance , whose nature I had not occasion to examine . And I the rather take notice of these differing Parts in Native Cinnabar , because it is a Mineral that I much esteem ; and tho here in England it is very rarely , or scarce at all imploy'd as an inward Medicine , yet I know some Forraign Physicians of several Nations , that look upon it , as one of their chief Arcanums , and both use it , and conceal it , accordingly . But I do not willingly imploy it , till it has been prepar'd , by grinding it exactly , upon a Porphire , or other fit Stone , as a Painter would do to make a Pigment of it , and by freeing it from certain Salts , that often undiscernedly adhere to it , and sometimes may be hurtful ; which is done by First washing it very carefully with boyling Water , and then , after it has been throughly dry'd , by burning upon it several times , one after another , some Vinous Spirits perfectly dephlegm'd . [ The Dose , if it be to be long continu'd , may be three , four or five grains : but when 't is to be given but seldom , and for an urgent Case , it may be from six or seven , to ten or twelve grains . §. VIII . 1. WHat has been said in the foregoing discourse , to manifest , that a simple , whether Organical or not , may notwithstanding its intireness or its seeming Homogeneity , contain or afford very , dissimilar parts ; may help us to conceive , that being really a compounded Body , it may afford Parts differing enough to answer differing Indications , or attain several Scopes , that are wont to be look'd on by Physiciaus as necessary , or at least very useful to the cure of this or that disease ; as in many Diarrhaeas or Fluxes of the Belly , whereas , 't is judg'd requisite first to evacuate the Peccant matter , and then to give Astringents , to hinder the immoderate evacuation wherein the disease is thought to consist ; Rhubarb answers both those Indications , by its Purgative and its more terrestrial Parts , whereof the former dispatch their work first , which makes the Astringent operation of the latter seasonable and safe . 2. I have divers times observ'd , that so common and despicable a simple as Ground Ivy , has perform'd things whose variety seem'd to argue , that it contains Parts of very differing vertues ( as of opening , contemperating , healing , &c. ) and is thereby capable of answering differing intentions , especially in Distempers of the Lungs & Breast , & indeed partly by the Syrup of it , partly by the infusion of the Leaves , and partly by Medicines made of them in a consistent form ; the happy Effects of this simple have procur'd me the thanks of divers considerable persons , some of which had before unsuccesfully us'd many Prescriptions of learned men . And I remember I knew an Ingenious Person , who being Master of a considerable manufacture , which was gainful to him , whilst his Servants continu'd tolerably well , was very much incommodated and perplex'd , to find them so obnoxious to violent Colicks , ( which he imputed to the Copious Steams of the Vinegar his Art requir'd , ) that he was forc'd almost weekly to allow them some days of cessation from working , to preserve or recover themselves . And I remember that from this Inconvenience , he was at length , as himself confess'd to me , in great part freed by making his workmen frequently use a strong Infusion or Tincture of the Leaves of our ground-Ivy made with ( not pure or dephlegm'd Spirit of Wine , but ) good unrectify'd Nants Brandy . I could here add divers other uses , both Internal and External , of this seemingly despicable Plant , there being scarce any one English Herb known to me , of which , for its manifest vertues , the Experience of others and my own have given me a greater Esteem . And I am apt to think , that the Efficacy which this and some other Simples , that the fear of Prolixity makes me silently pass by , would be found both greater and more various than they are commonly thought , if Physicians in prescribing Medicines would more often either ordain Simple ones , or at least associate but very few together , and compensate the small number of Ingredients , by the greater quantity of those that are the most appropriated or operative , and by persisting in their use for a competent time . Tho 't is not every efficacious Simple , or but lightly compounded Remedy , that can fitly be imploy'd about the Proof of what I am now endeavouring to show , yet I shall subjoyn such Instances , as will , I hope , suffice for the present Occasion . Mineral Waters , as well Acidubae , as the German Spaw , our Tunbridge , &c. as Thermae , such as those of Bath , &c , tho but Natural Medicines ; and some of them but outwardly administred , are notoriously known in their native simplicity to be able one of them single , frequently to cure several Diseases , and consequently to take off a good number of differing Symptoms , that afford various Indications . It may help much to make it probable that the same Simple may comprise Qualities fit to answer differing Scopes , and thereby cure differing Symptoms , if it be consider'd , that there are several Poysons that do each of them produce Symptoms not only very frightful , but very various , and yet all these have been oftentimes conquer'd by a Specifick Antidote , that is perhaps but a simple Herb or other uncompounded Drug . I had once , ( and but once ) the opportunity of making a Tryal , whereof I shall now give you a brief Account , of the vertue of a stone taken out of the Head of an enormously great African Serpent ; which stone was affirm'd to the Possessor of it , Governour of the famous English East India Company , to be highly available against the Bitings of all venemous Animals . The substance of the Experiment ( to give it you in short ) was this , I caus'd a young Cat to be bitten by a fierce and highly irritated Viper , which so inrag'd the Cat , that in revenge he endeavour'd to bite off her Head , which he took in his Mouth , and did not let go , till , as the Spectators concluded , she had bit him again , at , least by the tongue ; soon after which venemous Hurt , the Cats Head swell'd very much , and tho he soon grew so weak , that he was not able to stand on his Legs , but lay along on the ground , yet he seem'd to be grown quite mad , for he foam'd at the Mouth , and snapt at the end of a Wand , or such like things , that were but held near him ; and , which was more , in his rage bit one of his own Legs , that lay not far from his Mouth , much to the surprise of the Spectators . But , tho in this desperate condition it seem'd in vain to attempt any thing for his Rescue , because one could make him take nothing , and every one was affraid to come near him ; yet having mix'd a little of the powder'd stone with some sponfuls of fair Water , it was by the help of the neck of a glass Retort , that we imploy'd in stead of a funnel , pour'd by degrees upon the Cats Mouth ; which lying open , tho he endeavour'd to shake it off , yet some of it was concluded to have got in ; and within one hour or two after , if not less , he did , to the no small wonder of the By-standers , get upon his Legs again , and not only seem'd to have much of the Tumidness of his Head , but readily enough took the Medicine I caus'd to be given him ; and would probably have scap'd very well , if , whilst I was at dinner with the Company , some unruly People had not hurt him more mortally than the Viper had done . Physicians and others have observ'd in the Plague a great variety of Symptoms , among which there are divers , whereof each , if single would psas for a particular Disease . And this diversity of Symptoms may be not unfrequently observ'd , not only in Pestilences that happen at times , or in Countries distant from one another , but in the same Plague reigning in the same Place . And yet 't is possible , that a simple Remedy may be available against this so multifarious or manifold ( if I may so call it ) and violent a Disease . Of Which Observation ( to omit what might be alledg'd out of some other Authors ) I shall give one instance out of Galen himself , who , treating at large of the Terra Samia , takes occasion 'to bring in the vertues of Bolarmony ( Bolus Armena ) which I should guess by his manner of mentioning it to have been little , if at all , known to Physicians till his Time. This Earth , that appears a Body so simple and uniform ; He not only commends for sevearal Diseases , as spitting of Blood , Fluxes of the Belly , Dysenteries Catarrhs , Defluxions from the Head upon the Breast , Difficulty of Breathing thence insuing , and even Ulcers of the Lungs ; but adds , what makes very much and directly for our purpose , in the following words . In magna hac Peste , ( whereof he had spoken before ) cujus eadem facies fuit atque ejus quae Thucidydis memoria grassabatur , quotquot hoc Medicamen bibere celeriter curati sunt . [ The way of giving it ( which I add by the by , because it may sometime or other be of use ) was this , Bibitur , says He , ex vino albo consistentiâ tenui , modice diluto , si aut planè Febri careat , aut leviter eâ teneatur , sin gravius febriat , admodum aqueo . ] And so excellent a Medicine did this simple one prove in that terrible Plague , that our Author sayes , Quibus non profuit omnes interiere ; Scil. cum nec alio quovis Medicamine , juvarentur : unde colligiter , concludes He , quòd iis duntaxat non fuerit auxilio qui plane erant incurabiles . 3. There are few Diseases that put on so many forms , or are attended with greater variety of Symptoms , than that which Physicians call Affectio Hysterica , and whose Paroxysus or effects are vulgarly known in England by the name of Fits of the Mother . And yet we have often remov'd , and not seldom in a quarter of an hour or less , Hysterical Paroxysus and Symptoms , and sometimes such as made the Patient swoon or lye along as almost dead , by the bare Odour , of well rectify'd Spirt of Harts-horn , or the mere pungent and powerful smell of a Spirit of Sal Armoniack , which by a peculiar way I made very strong , purposely for external Uses . And if I had not out of the experienc'd Monardes , Physician to the Viceroy of the Spanish Indies , already mention'd in another Treatise an Antiscorbutical Gem ; I would here add another Remedy against the same Disease , more considerable to my present purpose , since 't is only a simple Stone outwardly apply'd . 4. But , because I think not fit in this place to insist on a Testimony already alledg'd , tho its Credibility , as well as that of the thing to be confirm'd by it , may be much favour'd by what has been related , concerning the Vertues of Stones outwardly apply'd , in the latter part of the Discourse about Specificks : For this Reason , I say , I shall add a couple of other remarkable Instances , of the Efficacy of even Dry and Solid Bodies , tho but externally apply'd in Diseases attended with several , and divers of them uncommon Symptoms , whereof , whatever many think of the harmlessness of our English Vipers , I have here known several Instances , in Men as well as Brutes . And yet in these dangerous Cases , many that come from East India extol the great Efficacy of some of those Stony Concretions , that are said to be found in the Heads of a certain kind of Serpents about Goa , and some other Eastern Countreys : for tho most Physicians reject or question the Power ascrib'd to these stones , for curing the Bitings of Vipers , and tho I do not wonder at their diffidence , because in effect many of the stones brought from India are but counterfeit ; and of those that were really taken out of Serpents , several , for a Reason I must not stay to mention , are insignificant ; ( and such perhaps were those that the learned and curious Redy made his Tryals with ) yet there are others , whose vertues are not well to be deny'd . For , not to build on vulgar Traditions , which are but too often deceitful , one of the eminentest Doctors of the London Colledge assur'd me , that he had , with one of these stones , done , tho contrary to his expectation ; a notable Cure , which he related to me at large . And one of our chief English Chyrurgeons affirm'd to me , that he had done the like upon another person ; both of these Cures being perform'd by the bare application of the Stone , to the Place bitten by the Viper or Adder . And a very intelligent person , who had the direction of a considerable Company of Traders in East India , where he long liv'd , assur'd me that he had with this Stone cur'd several persons of the Hurts of venemous Animals , But , this Testimony is much less considerable , as to the number of Cures , than that of a great Traveller into the Southern parts of the same India , who , tho he were bred by a famous Cartesian Philospher , and were forward enough to discredit vulgar Traditions about the Countreys he had long liv'd in ; yet being for those Reasons ask'd by me , what I might safely believe of the Stones I speak of , seriously affirm'd to me , that he had cur'd above threescore persons of the Bitings or Stings of several sorts of poysonus Creatures ; and that he perform most of those Cures , by the outward Application of one Stone ; because , finding it excellent , He was invited to keep to it , especially in difficult . cases . And this same Experience of my own , made with a Genuine Stone of this kind , upon the Bodies of Brutes , much inclines me to give credit to . But , because this Stone is afforded by an Animal , I shall add the vertues of another , that properly belongs to the Mineral Kingdom ; in a Disease , whose Symptoms , tho not so various , are sometimes dangerous , and too often mortal . To shew you then , that in spite of great Closeness and Hardness , a simple Remedy outwardly apply'd , may be a very effectual one , I shall inform you , that tho the Solid I am speaking of past for a Bloodstone , yet by its colour and some other visible qualities , I should rather have taken it for an Agat . It was but about the bigness of a small Nutmeg , and had in it a Perforation , by which a stiring past through it , to fasten it to the Part affected . This Stone had been long kept in the Family that possess'd it , when I saw it , being for its rare vertues left by one to another . But , to omit the reports that went of it , the notable case , that makes it pertinent for me to mention it here , was this . An ingenious Gentleman , that was a man of Letters , and when I saw him , was in the Flower of his Age , and of a complexion so highly Sanguine , as is not usually to be met with , was from time to time subject to Hemorrhages at the Nose ; so profuse and so difficult to be restrain'd , that his Physician , tho a Person famous and very well skill'd in his Art , told me he often fear'd he should loose his Patient , and that he would be carry'd away by this unbridled Distemper ▪ But when good method and variety of Remedies had been try'd , without the desir'd success , this Stone was at length obtain'd from an ancient Kinswoman of the Gentlemans , to tye about his Neck , so as to touch his naked Skin . This when he did in the Fits , it would stop the Bleeding ; and if he wore it for some considerable time together , he all that while continu'd well , as both his learned Physician and himself inform'd me . And , because I was apt to ascribe somewhat of this effect to imagination , on , the Patient told me , that a while before one of the chief Women in the City , ( whom he nam'd to me ) fell into so violent a Bleedings , that , tho' it brought her into a Swoon , yet that it self , which is somewhat strange , did not hinder her to Bleed on , till the Stone , having been ty'd about her Neck , made her cease to do so , tho' she knew nothing of its having been apply'd to her . And this it self is less strange than what the Gentleman affirm'd to me of the Power of this Gem , as it may deservedly be called . For his complexion inclining him , as was above intimaed , to breed great store of Blood , his Doctor thought fit to order him , for prevention , to breath a Vein , from time to time , which when he was about to do , he was obliged to lay aside the Stone for a while , because , whilst he kept it on , the Blood would not issue out , at least with the requisite Freedom . But how far have I already past beyond the designed Limits of this little Tract ! wherein I at first intended , but to lay before you the five chief advantages I had observ'd , mere simple Remedies to have of very compounded ones ; and briefly to propose the main grounds , on which I ascrib'd those advantages to such Remedies . But tho' the better to keep this writing from being prolix , I design'd that it should consist chiefly of such particulars , as I could best spare from other Papers ; And tho' for that reason I have purposely omitted many parable , and other but little Compounded or Elaborate Medicines : Yet I now perceive that , so many new particulars having offer'd themselves on several occasions , whilst I was writing , my Pen has slipt into the mention of many more Receipts , and Historical passages , than were at first intended . But believing the subject to be very useful , and not despairing but that the things deliver'd on it may not be altogether useless ; I dare hope you will pardon such faults , as only my desire of making the Parts of this small writing , rather serviceable than Methodical or well proportion'd , drew me unawares into . But whatever were the cause of my Prolixity , the bulk which I see this Paper has already swell'd to , admonishes me , that I ought to put a speedy period to it , without spending time solicitously to declare in what sense I commend the Medicines deliver'd in this Invitation , For by recalling to mind , what I have formerly wrote ( in a Treatise you have been pleas'd to peruse * ) about the Limitations , with which I would have the praises I give of Tome Remedys understood , and the cautions with which I would have them administred ; you will easily be perswaded , that looking upon them but as fit Tools in a skilful Workmans Hands , I do not pretend that any of them should do the Offices both of Physick and Physician too : and that I propose not the Medicines mention'd in this short Paper , as sure Specificks , but as instances that there are Remedies , which notwithstanding their being but simple ones , may be very good ones . I am Sir your most &c. R. B. FINIS . A Catalogue of late Physick Books sold by Samuel Smith , at the Prince's Arms , in St. Pauls Churchyard . Fol. BOneti Anatomia , 2. Vol. 1680. — Mercurius , 1682. — Medicina Septentrionalis , 1684. Bidloo Anat. humani Corporis ( 105 fig. illnjirata ) 1685. Breinii Plantarum Exoticar . Cent , cum Figuris , 1680. Bibliotheca Anatom . cum fig. 2 vol. 1685. Fabriti Hildani opera cum Severino , 1682. HippocratisOpera Foetii . Hartmanni Opera omnia , 1684 , Horstii Opera Med. Paracelsi Opera , 2 vol. Dioscoridis Opera , G. Lat. Saxoniae Opera Mid. 1680. Piso Hist . natsiralis de rebus Indiae . Schenkii Observat . Med. Mentzelii Index Plant , cum Figuris , 1683. Lepenii Bibliotheca Med. 1683. Riverii Opera , 1679. Zwelferi Pharmacopeia , 2 vol. Pharmacop . Angust . Renovata , fine Notis , 1685. Wedelii Tabulae . Quartoes . Alpinus Medicina AEgypt . Borriehius de ortu & progressu Chimiae . Borrichii Hermetis Aegyptiorum & Chym. Sapientia . — De Somno & somniferis . Baubini Pinax cum Prodromo . Broeckbuysen Oeconomia Corporis Anim. 1683. Blasii Anatomia , 1681. Borellus de motu Animalium , 2 vol. 1685. price 12 s. Bellinus At Urinis & Pulsibus . 1685. Bohn Chymia , 1685. Barbetti Opera omnia . 1685. Blegny Zodiacus Galen . Med. Chymic . 1682 — Zodaius Gal. Med. An. 4 & 5. 1685. Bartholini Acta Medica . 4 vol. Castelli Lexicon Med. 1682. per Bruno , Cardilucil Officina Sanitatis . Clauderi Methodus Balsamandi . — De' Tinctura universali . Collectanea Chymica Leydensia , 1684. Clauderi Inventum cinnabaricum , 1684. Cleyer Specimina Medicinae Sinicae , 1682. Coberi Observat . Med. 1684. Charas Pharmacopeia Regia , 1683. Charas Theriaca Andromachi , 1684. — Opera Omnia , 1684. Diemerbroeck Anatomia . Davissoni Comment , in Medicinam Severini Ettmulleri Opera Med , 1685. — Medicus , 1685. — Chimia . Dolaei Encyclopedia Med. 1684. Fernelii Opera , 1683. Van Helmontii Opera , 1682. Glisson de Naturae Substantia . Hoffmanni Praxis Med. 1680. Helwigii Observationes Med. 1680. Hoffmannus in Schroderum . Joel Opera medica . Kyperi Anthropologia corporis humani . Konig Regnuim Animale , 1682. Kunckelii Ars Vitraria . Kirekringii Specilegium Anatom . Licetus de Monstris . Micaelis de Apoplexia , 1685. Morhoff de Scypho Vitreo . Museum Hermetic . Miscellanea Curiosa M. Physica , 7 vol. An. X — Id. Decuria secunda Anni Primi , 1683. — Dec. 2. An. 2. — Dec. 2. An. tertius , 1685. Margravi Materia Medica . — Prodromes . Pauli Quadripartitum Botanicum . — De Febribus . Plateri praxis . Pecblinus de potu Theae , 1684. Paulini Cynographia curiosa , 1685. Peyeri Merycologia , 1685. Regii Medicina . Rolfinchius de purgantibus , 1683. — Ordo & Methodus Med , Specialis — Concilia Med. — Chimia . Sacra Eleusinia patefacta , 1684. Schenckii Hist . de humor , totius corporis , 1684 Salamandrae Descriptio , 1683. Sylvii Opera Med. Schrokii Pharmacopeia , Augustana . — Hist . Moschi . Sturmii Collegium Curiosum , 2 vol. 1584. Du Verney de auditu , in fig. 1685. Ang. Salae Opera Med , 1682. Swammerdam miraculum Naturae . Vigerii Opera med , Versaschae de Apoplexia . Weltheri Sylva medica . Welschii Decades X. med . — Observat . & curat , med . — Concilia , med . Wedelii Opiologia . — Physiologia Med. — Pharmacia . — de medicam . facultatibus . — de medicam . compositione . — Am aenitates Materiae Med. 1684. — Disputationes variae , 2 vol. Weidenfeld de usu Spir. Vini Lulliani , 1684 Wepferi cicutae Aquaticae . Zwelferi Pharmacop . Octavoes . Bartholin de ductu Salivali ; 1685. Bruelis praxis Med. Bontekoe de Febribus , 1683. Tho. Bartholini Hist . Anatomica . Becke de Procidentia Uteri , 1683. Borelli Observat . Med. Briggs Opthalmo Graphin . — Nova Visionis Theoria , Barthol . Anatomia . Beck . Experimenta , 1684. Beckeri Physica subterranea cum supplemento , 1681. Brunneri Experimenta nova circa Pancreas , 1682. Charleton de Causis Catumor , &c. 1685. Ent contra Parisanum , de circ . Sang. 1685. — Contra Thruston de Respiat . 1685. Camerarii Sylloges memorabilium Me. 2 vol. 1683. Deckeri Exercitationis Med pract . Dodonaei Praxis Medica . Franchimont Lithotomia Med. 1683. Franciscus de Venae Sectione . 1685. Felicis de Ovis cont . Malpighi , 1684. Funerwalfi Anatomia . Gockelii Concilia & observat . Med 1683. De Graaf Opera . Grulichius de Hydrope , 1681. — De Bile , 1682. Grimm Compend . Med. Chym. 1684. Gieswin Hodegus , med . Guiberti Opera Med. Hartmanni Praxis Chymiatrica , 1682. Heide Anatome mytuli & observat . Med. 1684. Hippocratis Opera , 2 vol. Juncken Chymia Experiment alis , 1681. — Medicus praesenti Seculo Accom . 1682. Inventa nova Antiqua Med. 1684. Le Mort Pharmacia & Chimia , 1684. Lossii Concil . Med. 1684. Lister de Fontibus Med. Angliae . — De Insectis , 1685. — Appendix ad Hist . Animal . Angl. 1685. Liseri Culter Anatomicus : Maachetti Anatomi Meekren Observat . Med. Chyrur . 1682 : Merett Pinax : Oeconomia Animalis , 1685. Plateri Observat . Med. Peonis & Pythagor . Exercit. Anat. & Med. 1682 : Plot de Origine Fontium , 1685. Rulandip de Phlebotomia . Riverii Institutiones : — Praxis , 2 vol. — Observat . Rulandi Curationes Empericae , 1680. Sydenhami Opera Universa Londini , 1685. Sraussii Isagoge Physica , 1684. Schroderi Pharmacopeia : Sacchius iris Febrilis , 1684. — Methodus Curandi Febris , 1685. Sculteti Chyrurgia cum Append. Sthal Aetiologia Phys . Chym. 1683. Tilingii Lilium Curiosum , 1683 : Prodromus , med . — De Laudano opiato . — De Febribus . Theatrum Chymicum , 6 vol. Tulpii observat . med . 1685. Versaschae Observat . med . Welsch rationale Vulnerum Lethalium , 1685. Wepferi de Apoplexia : Witten memoria medicor . Weberi Anchora Saucitor . Zypaei Fundamentu med . 1683 : Twelves . Bayle Tract . de Apoplexia . — Dissertationes Physicae . — Dissertationes Medicae . — Problemata Physica Med. Blondel Thermarum Aquis granen . & porcet . descript . 1685. Barbetti Chyrurgia : — Praxis cum notis Deckerii : Broen de Duplici Bile Veterum , 1685. Barthol . De Ovariis : — De Unicornu : — De Pulmenum substantia : Beughen Bibliographia Med. & Physica , 1682 : Beguini Tyrocinium Chymicum : Comelini Catalogus Plantarum , 1682 : Closs . de Aquis min. & mixtionibus , 1685. Drelincurt Praeludium Anat. — Experimenta Anat. 1684. — De Foeminarum Ovis . — De Conceptione Advers . 1685. — De Hum , foetus membranis . P 685. Guiuri Arcanum Acidular . 1682. Glissoni Opuscula , 3 vol. Van Helmont . Fundamenta Med. 1681 : Hoffmanus de usu Lienis , &c. 1682 : Harvey de Gener. Animal . — De motu cordis : Hoffman de Cinnabari Antimonii , 1685. Ab Heer Fons Spadanus & Observ . Med. 1685. Kirchim de Peste , 1681. Kirckring . in BasilValent . currum Triumph . Kunckelii Observat . Chymiae , 1681 : Le Mort Compendium Chymicum , 1862. Muralti Vade mecum Anat. 1682. Mysteria Physico-Medica , 1681. Maurocordatus de motu Pulmonum , 1682. Macasii Promptuarium Materiae Med. Matthaei Experimenta Chymica , 1683. Muis Praxis Chyrurgica duabus partibus , 1684. — Decus quinta , 1685. Morelli Methodus perscribendi formulas . Remedior . Primerose ars Pharmae . Pecket Anatomia . Redus de Insectis . Reidlini Observ . med . Rivinus de peste lipsiensi , 1680. Riverii Arcana . St. Romani Physica , 1684. Recuell de Curiositez , en Medicine , 1685. Smitzii Compend . med . 1682. Stockhameri Micocosmographia . Severi in Synopsis Chyrurgio . Schraderi Observationes , med . Schola Salernitana . Sponii Aphorismi Hippoc. 1684. Swalve Quaerelae Ventriculi . — Alcali & Acidum . Tilingius de Renum structura , Verlae Anat. Oculi . Vigani Medulla Chymiae . Du Verney traite de L'organe de L'ouvie , 1683. Tencke Instrumenta curat . morb , 1683. Wedelii Theoremata Med. — De Sale Volat. Plantarum . Advertisement . THat these afore mentioned Books in Physick and Chymistry , with many other Forreign Books , are sold by Samuel Smith , at the Prince's Arms in St. Pauls Church yard ; and that he will furnish himself with much variety of new Books in that kind , from time to time , as they shall come from Franckfort Mart ; and likewise he can procure such other Books for Gentlemen , which perhaps are not to be met with here , from his Correspondents , if to be had , beyond Sea. Books Printed for , and sold by Samuel Smith . THe Philosophical Transactions published by the Royal Society Monthly , beginning January 1683 : Jo. Goedartius de Insectis in methodum redactus cum Notularum Additions Opera M. Lister , item Appendicis ad Hist . Animalium Angliae , cum 21 Figuris Aeneis illustrata , 1685. Enquiry after Happiness by the Author of Practical Christianity , 1685. The Duty of Servants , &c. by the same Author , 1685. Boyl's Memoirs for the Nat. History of Human Blood , especially the Spirit of that Liquor , 1684. Price 2 s. — Experiments and Considerations about the Porosity of Bodys , in two Essays , 1684 , Price 1 s. 6 d. History of Mineral Waters , 1685. Price 1 s. — Of the Reconcileableness of Specifick Medicines to the Corpuscular Philosophy , with an Invitation to the use of Simple Medicines . Tuta ac Efficax Luis Venerea , sepe absque mercurio ac semper absque Salvatione mercuriali curandae Methodus Authore D.A.M.D. 1684. De variatione , ac varietate pulsus observationes , accessit ejusdem Authors nova Medicinae tum Speculativae , tum practicae clavis . Sive Ars Explorandi medicas plantarum ac corporum quorumcumqne faultates ex Solo Sapore , 1685. The whole Art of the Stage , &c. Translated out of French. In Quarto , 1684. Price 5 s. A New History of Ethiopia , being a full and Accurate Description of the Kingdom of Abessinia , vulgarly , though erroneously , called the Empire of Prester John , in four Books ( illustrated with many Copper Plates ) and also a new and exact Map of the Countrey , and a Preface shewing the usefulness of this History , with the Life of Gregorius Abba , &c. By the Learned Job Ludolphus Counceller to his Imperial Majesty and the Dukes of Saxony , and Treasurer to His Highness , the Elector Palatine . In Fol. 1684 Price 12 s. Guideon's Fleece , or a Vindication of the Colledge of Physicians , in answer to a Book intituled the Conclave of Physicians . By Dr. Harvey , in Quarto , 1684. Pr. 6. di An Anatomical account of an Elephant which was lately Dissected in Dublin , June 17 , in the year 1681. By A. M. Med. of Trinity Colledge near Dublin , illustrated with Cuts , in Quarto , 1682. Price 1. s. Swammerdami ( Johan . ) Amst , M. D. Miraculum Naturae . In Octavo . A Philosophical Account of the hard Frost , with what Effects it may probably have upon Human Bodies , as to Health and Sickness , in Quarto . 2 d. Stitcht . The true method of curing Consumptions . By S. H. Med. D. 1683. Price 1. s. A Discourse about Bagnio's , and Mineral Baths , and of the drinking of Spaw Water , with an Account of the Medicinal Vertues of them , and also shewing the usefulness of Sweating , Rubbing , and Bathing , and the great benefit many here received from them in various Distempers . By S. H. Med. Doct. 1683. Miracles , Works above and contrary to Naturer ; or an Answer to a late Translation out of Spinosa's Tractatus Theologice-politicus , Mr. Hobs Leviathan , &c. in Quarto , 1683. Price 1. s. A Treatise of Self Examination , in order to the worthy receiving the Holy Communion . By Monsieur John Claude Minister of the Reformed Church at Paris : Translated from the French Original , in Twelves , 1683. Protestancy to be Embraced ; or a new and infallible Method to reduce Romanists from Popery to Protestancy . 1683. pr. 1. s. The Art of Divine Converse , being a New Years-Gift , directing how to walk with God all the year long , in Twelves , pr. 6 , d. The Councils of Wisdom , or the Maxims of Solomon , in Twelves , 1683. pr. 1. s. The Ten Pleasures of Marriage . In Twelves . The Dutch Rogue : or Gusman of Amsterdam , traced from the Cradle to the Gallows , 1683. In Twelves . Dr. Smith's Sermon about frequent Communion , 1685. Mr. Fish's Sermon on the 9th of May , 1684. History of the Original and Progress of Ecclesiastical Revenues , by the Learned P. Simon , 1685. Contra Hist . Aristeae de LXX Interpretibus dissertatio , five responsio ad D. Isaac Vosfium de Septuaginta , &c. per H. Hoday A. M. 1685. Epigramatum delectus ex omnibus tum veteribus tum recentioribus Poetis s accurate decerptus , &c. cum dissertatione , de ver a pulchritudine & adumbrata , in qua ex certis principiis , rejectionis at Selectionis Epigramatum Causae reduntur . Adjectae sunt Elegantes Sententiae ex Antiquis Poetis parce , sed severiori judicio selectae . 1685. A Discourse about Toleration , wherein the late Pleas for it made by the D. of B. and the nameless Author of the Considerations concerning Toleration are fully answered , and the Popular Arguments drawn from the Practices of the United Netherlands stated at large , and shown to be weak , fallacious and insufficient ; in Quarto , Pr. 1 s. 1685. FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A29016-e620 Galen . de Simpl . Medicam . Fac. Lib. 11. Galen . de simpl . Med. Fac. lib. 11. The Essay of the Porosity of Animal Bodies . * Ego ab anno 1649. in hunc diem per integros 14 annos ultra mille Febricitantes sine Ven. , sectione , sine Purgatione , sine Sudoriseris , sine Diureticis , sine Alterantibus , sine Corrobarantibus , sine Topicis , & siquid praeterea unico fere Medicamento Praecipitante , Deo inprimis benedicente , curavi : non considerando , an Febris sit Intermittens , an Continua , an Tertiana vel Quartana ( quae tamen difficilius curatur quàm aliae ) nec expectatà Coctione , nec habito respectu sexûs , ( ne p●erperis quidem exceptis ) aetatis , anni , temporis , vel aliarum Circumstantiarum : & quidem paucorum dierum spatio sine Recidiva vel aliquo notabili incommodo , nisi ubi aeger ipse per Incontinentiam de novo Paroxysmos provocarit . Kergerus de Fermentatione , sect . 3. cap. 3. Pag. mihi 250. N. B. * The Paper here mean't is the Essay of the Porosity of bodys . * See this at large proved by the Learned Diemerbro●●k de Peste , lib. 2. cap. 11. in Annotat. Galen de Simp. Med. facultatib . Lib. ●ono . Tit. de Lapid . Nic. Monard Simpl. Med. Hist . cap. 36. p. 329. * Untzer . de Nephrit . Lib. 1. cap. 24. Notes for div A29016-e5940 Galen . de Con. p. Sec. Gen. lib. 1. The Vsefulness of Exp. Philosophy . Galen . de Simpl. Med. Facult . lib. ix . Tiul . de Terra Samia . See Nicol. Monard Simpl . Med. Histor . Cap. 36. P. m. 329. * See the Appendix to the I Section of the II Part of the usefulness of Exper. Philosophy . p. 389-390 And of the 2d . Edition . 
A28966	----	The excellency of theology compar'd with natural philosophy (as both are objects of men's study) / discours'd of in a letter to a friend by T.H.R.B.E. ... ; to which are annex'd some occasional thouhts about the excellency and grounds of the mechanical hypothesis / by the same author. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1674 Approx. 344 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 156 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2008-09 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A28966 Wing B3955 ESTC R32857 12774707 ocm 12774707 93740 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A28966) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 93740) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1521:12) The excellency of theology compar'd with natural philosophy (as both are objects of men's study) / discours'd of in a letter to a friend by T.H.R.B.E. ... ; to which are annex'd some occasional thouhts about the excellency and grounds of the mechanical hypothesis / by the same author. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. [32], 232, [6], 40 p. Printed by T.N. for Henry Herringman ..., London : 1674. "About the excellency and ground of the mechanical hypothesis" has special t.p. and separate paging. "T.H.R.B.E." is the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esq. Errata: p.[8] at beginning; p. [1] before About the excellency and ground of the mechanical hypothesis. Reproduction of original in the Union Theological Seminiary Library, New York. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. 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Physics -- Early works to 1800. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-11 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2007-05 Robyn Anspach Sampled and proofread 2007-05 Robyn Anspach Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE EXCELLENCY OF THEOLOGY , COMPAR'D WITH NATURAL PHILOSOPHY , ( as both are Objects of Men's Study . ) Discours'd of In a LETTER to a Friend . By T. H. R. B. E. Fellow of the Royal Society . To which are annex'd Some Occasional Thoughts about the EXCELLENCY and GROUNDS Of the MECHANICAL HYPOTHESIS . By the same Author . Felicitatem Philosophi quaerunt ; Theologi inveniunt ; soli Religiosi possi●ent . LONDON , Printed by T. N. for Henry Herringman , at the Anchor in the Lower Walk of the New Exchange . 1674. The PUBLISHER's Advertisement to the Reader . WHen I shall have told the Reader , that the following Discourse was written in the year 1665 , while the Authour , to avoid the great Plague that then rag'd in London , was reduc'd with many others to go into the Countrey , and frequently to pass from place to place , unaccompanied with most of his Books ; it will not , I presume , be thought strange , that in the mention of some things taken from other Writers , as his memory suggested them , he did not annex in the Margent the precise places that are referr'd to . And , upon the same score , it ought not to seem strange , that he has not mention'd some late Discoveries and Books that might have been pertinently taken notice of , and would well have accommodated some parts of his Discourse ; since things that may thus seem to have been omitted , are of too recent a Date to have been known to him when He writ . But if it be demanded , why then a Discourse finished so long ago , did not come abroad much sooner ? I must acquaint the Reader , That 't was chiefly his real Concern for the welfare of the Study he seems to depreciate , that kept these Papers so long by him . For he resisted for several years the desires of Persons that have much power with him , and suppress'd the following Discourse , whilst he fear'd it might be misapply'd by some Enemies to Experimental Philosophy , that then made a noise against it , without suffering these Papers to come abroad , till the Addresses and Encomiums of many eminent Forreign Virtuosi , and their desire to be admitted into the Royal Society , had sufficiently manifested , how little its Reputation was prejudic'd , or like to be endanger'd , by the attempts of some envious or misinform'd Persons . And to this Reason must be added the Authors backwardness to venture abroad a Discourse of an unusual Nature , on which account , among others , he declin'd to have his Name prefix'd to it ; though , now the Book is Printed , he finds cause to fear , that 't will not be long conceal'd ; since he meets with some Marginal References to other Tracts of His , which ( these Papers having long lain by him ) he forgot to have been set down for private use , and which should not have been expos'd to publick view . ERRATA . IN the Author's Preface , p. 13. l. 7 , 8. for somewhat , r. much . In the Introduction , p. 2. l. 18. point thus , else ; our . In the Book , p. 51. l. 17. for Corpuscularium , r. Corpuscularian . p , 75. l. 2. for he , r. we . p. 114. l. 3. r. Theology for Philosophy . p. 133. l. 10. r. yet many of . ibid. l. 19. r. else do but. p. 171. l. ult . for of . r. or . p. 172. l. 28. for indeed , r. 't will perhaps he said that . p. 201. l. 12. point thus ; Predecessors , did unanimously teach . The Author's PREFACE . I Am not so little acquainted with the Temper of this Age , and of the Persons that are likeliest to be Perusers of the following Tract , as not to foresee it to be probable enough , that Some will ask , For what Reason a Discourse of this Nature was written at all ; and that Others will be displeas'd that it has been written by Me. Those that would know , by what Inducements my Pen was engag'd on this Subject , may be in great part inform'd by the Epistle it self , in divers places whereof , as especially about the Beginning , and at the Close , the Motives that invited me to put Pen to Paper are sufficiently express'd . And though several of those Things are peculiarly apply'd , and ( if I may so speak ) appropriated to the Person the Letter is address'd to ; yet that Undervaluation , I would disswade Him from , of the Study of Things Sacred , is not His fault alone , but is grown so rise among many ( otherwise Ingenious ) Persons , especially Studiers of Physicks , that I wish the ensuing Discourse were much less seasonable than I fear it is . But I doubt , that some Readers , who would not think a Discourse of this Nature Needless or Useless , may yet not be pleased at its being written by One , whom they imagine the Acceptance his Endeavours have met with , ought to oblige to spend his whole Time in Cultivating that Natural Philosophy , which in this Letter he would perswade to quit the Precedency , they think it may well challenge , before all other sorts of Learning . I am not unsensible of the favourable Reception that the Philosophical Papers I have hitherto ventured Abroad , have had the Happiness to receive from the Curious : But I hope , they will not be displeas'd , if I represent , that I am no Lecturer or Professor of Physicks , nor have ever engag'd my self by any Promise made to the Publick , to confine my self , never to write of any other Subject ; nor is it Reasonable , that what I did or may write , to gratifie other mens Curiosity , should deprive me of mine own Liberty , and Confine me to One Subject ; especially since there are divers Persons , for whom I have a great Esteem and Kindness , who think they have as much Right to solicit me for Composures of the Nature of this , that They will now have to go abroad , as the Virtuosi have to exact of me Physiological Pieces . And though I be not ignorant , that ( in particular ) the following Discourse , which seems to depreciate the Study of Nature , may at first sight appear somewhat improper for a Person , that has purposely written to show the Excellence and Usefulness of it ; yet I confess , that , upon a more Attentive Consideration of the Matter , I cannot Reject , no , nor Resist , Their Reasons , who are of a quite differing Judgment . And 1. My Condition , and my being a Secular Person ( as they speak ) are look'd upon as Circumstances that may advantage an Author that is to write upon such a Subject as I have handled . I need not tell you , that as to Religious Books in general , it has been observ'd , that those penn'd by Lay-men , and especially Gentlemen , have ( caeteris paribus ) been better entertain'd , and more effectual than those of Ecclesiasticks : And indeed 't is no great wonder , that Exhortations to Piety , and Disswasions from Vice , and from the Lusts and Vanities of the World , should be the more prevalent for being press'd by Those , who have , and yet decline , the Opportunities to enjoy plentifully Themselves the pleasures They disswade Others from . And ( to come yet closer to our present purpose ) though I will not venture to say with an excellent Divine , That what ever comes out of the Pulpit , does with many pass but for the foolishness of Preaching ; yet it cannot well be deni'd , but that if all other Circumstances be equal , He is the fittest to commend Divinity , whose Profession It is not ; and That it will somewhat add to the Reputation of almost any Study , and consequently to that of things Divine , That 't is prais'd and preferr'd by Those , whose Condition and Course of Life exempting them from being of any particular Calling in the Common-wealth of Learning , frees Them from the usual Temptations to Partiality to this or that sort of Study , which Others may be engag'd to magnifie , because 't is their Trade or their Interest , or because 't is Expected from them ; whereas these Gentlemen are oblig'd to commend it , onely because they really Love and Value it . But there is another thing that seems to make it yet more fit , that a Treatise on such a Subject should be Penn'd by the Authour of This : For profess'd Divines are suppos'd to be busied about Studies , that even by their being of an Higher , are confess'd to be of Another , Nature , than those that treat of things Corporeal . And since it may be observ'd , that there is scarce any sort of Learned men , that is more apt to undervalue those that are vers'd onely in other parts of Knowledge , than many of our Modern Naturalists , ( who are conscious of the Excellency of the Science they Cultivate , ) 't is much to be fear'd , that what would be said of the Preeminences of Divinity above Physiology by Preachers ( in whom the Study of the Latter is thought either but a Preparatory thing , or an Excursion ) would be look'd upon as the Decision of an Incompetent , as well as Interressed , Judge ; and their undervaluations of the Advantages of the study of the Creatures , would be ( as their depreciating the Enjoyment of the Creatures too often is , ) thought , to proceed but from their not having had sufficient opportunities to relish the pleasures of them . But these Prejudices will not lie against a Person , who has made the Indagation of Nature somewhat more than a Parergon , and having by a not-lazie nor short Enquiry manifested , how much He loves and can relish the Delight It affords , has had the good Fortune to make some Discoveries in it , and the Honour to have them Publickly , and but too Complementally , taken notice of by the Virtuosi . And it may be not Impertinent to add , that those who make Natural Philosophy their Mistris , will probably be the less offended to find her in this Tract represented , if not as an Handmaid to Divinity , yet as a Lady of a lower Rank ; because the Inferiority of the Study of Nature is maintain'd by a Person , who , even whilst he asserts it , continues ( if not a Passionate ) an Assiduous Courter of Nature : So that , as far as his Example can reach , it may show , that as on the one side a man need not be acquainted with , or unfit to relish , the Lessons taught us in the Book of the Creatures , to think them less Excellent than those , that may be learned in the Book of the Scriptures ; so on the other side , the Preference of this last Book is very consistent with an high Esteem and an Assiduous Study of the first . And if any should here object , that there are some Passages , ( which I hope are but very few ) that seem a little too unfavourable to the Study of Natural things ; I might alledge for my excuse the great difficulty that there must be in comparing two sorts of Studies , both of which a man much esteems , so to behave ones self , as to split a hair between them , and never offend either of them : But I will rather represent , that in such kind of Discourses as the ensuing , it may justly be hop'd , that equitable Readers will consider , not onely what is said , but on what occasion , and with what design 't is delivered . Now 't is plain by the Series of the following Discourse , that the Physeophilus , whom it most relates to , was by me look'd upon as a Person , both very partial to the study of Nature , and somewhat prejudic'd against that of the Scripture ; so that I was not always to treat with him , as with an indifferent man , but , according to the Advice , given in such cases by the Wise , I was ( to use Aristotle's expression ) to bend the crooked stick the contrary way , in order to the bringing it to be straight , and to depreciate the study of Nature somewhat beneath its true value , to reduce a great Over valuer to a just Estimate of it . And to gain the more upon Him , I allow'd my self now and then to make use of the contempt he had of the Peripatetick and Vulgar Philosophy , and in some passages to speak of them more slightingly , than my usual Temper permits , and than I would be forward to do on another occasion ; that , by such a Complaisance for his Opininions , I might have Rises to Argue with him from them . But to return to the Motives that were alledg'd to induce me to the Publication of these Papers , though I have not nam'd them all , yet all of them together would scarce have prov'd effectual , if they had not been made more prevalent by the just Indignation I conceived , to see even Inquisitive Men depreciate that kind of Knowledge , which does the most Elevate , as well as the most Bless , Mankind , and look upon the Noblest and Wisest Employments of the Understanding , as Signs of weakness in it . 'T is not that I expect , that whatever can be said , and much less what I have had occasion to say Here , will make Proselytes of those that are resolved against the being made so , and had rather deny themselves the Excellentest kinds of Knowledge , than allow that there can be any more Excellent , than what they think themselves Masters of : But I despair not , that what is here represented , may serve to fortifie in a high Esteem of Divine Truths those that have already a just Veneration for them , and preserve Others from being seduc'd by Injurious , though sometimes Witty , Insinuations , to undervalue that kind of Knowledge , that is as well the most Excellent in it self , as the most Conducive to Man's Happiness . And for this Reason I am the less displeas'd to see , that the following Letter is swell'd to a Bulk far greater than its being but a Letter promises , and then I first intended . For I confess , that when the Occasion hapned that made me put Pen to Paper , as I chanc'd to be in a very unsetled Condition ( which I fear has had too much influence on what I have written , ) so I did not design the insisting near so long upon my Subject as I have done ; but new things springing up ( if I may so speak ) under my Pen , I was content to allow them room in my Paper , because writing as well for my own satisfaction , as for that of my Friend , I thought it would not be useless to lay before my own Eyes , as well as His , those Considerations that seem'd proper to justifie to My self as well as to Him , the Preference I gave Divine Truths ( before Physiological ones ) and to confirm my self in the Esteem I had for them . And though I freely confess , that the following Discourse doth not consist of nothing but Ratiocinations , and consequently is not altogether of an Uniform Contexture ; yet that will , I hope , be thought no more than was fit in a Discourse , design'd not onely to Convince , but to Perswade : Which if it prove so happy as to do , as I hope the Peruser will have no cause to regret the trouble of Reading it , so I shall not repent that of Writing it . THE INTRODUCTION . SIR , I Hop'd you had known me better , than to doubt in good earnest , how I relish'd the Discourse your Learned Friend entertain'd us with yester-night . And I am the more troubled at your Question , because your way of inquiring , how much your Friends Discourse obtain'd of my Approbation , gives me cause to fear , that you vouchsafe it more of yours then I could wish it . But before I can safely offer you my sense of the Discourses , about which you desire to know it , I must put you in mind , that they were not all upon one Subject , nor of the same Nature : And I am enough his Servant to acknowledge , without the least reluctancy , that he is wont to shew a great deal of wit , when he speaks like a Naturalist , onely of things purely Physical ; and when he is in the right , seldom wrongs a good cause by his way of managing it . But as for those passages , wherein he gave himself the liberty of disparaging the learned Dr. N. onely because that Doctor cultivates Theological as well as Physical Studies and does both oftentimes read Books of Devotion ▪ and sometimes write them ; I am not so much a Courtier , as to pretend that I liked them . 'T is true , he did not deny the Doctor to be a learned and a witty Man , as indeed the wise providence of God has so ordered it , That to stop the bold mouthes of some , who would be easily tempted to imagine , and more easily to give out , that none are Philosophers , but such as , like themselves , desire to be nothing else . Our Nation is happy in several men , who are as eminent for Humane , as studious of Divine Learning ; and as great a veneration as they pay to Moses and St. Paul , are as well vers'd in the Doctrine of Aristotle , and of Euclid ; nay , of Epicurus and Des Cartes too , as those that care not to study any thing else . But though for this reason Mr. N. had not the confidence to despise the Doctor , and some of his Resemblers , whom he took occasion to mention ; yet he too plainly disclos'd himself to be one of those , who though they will not deny , but that some , who own a value for Theology , are men of parts ; yet they talk , as if such persons were so , in spight of their being Religiously given ; That being , in their opinion , such a blemish , that a man must have very great Abilities otherwise , to make amends for the disadvantage of valuing Sacred Studies , and surmount the disparagement it procures him . Wherefore since this disdainful humour begins to spread much more than I could wish it did among differing sorts of men , among whom I should be glad not to find any Naturalists ; and since the Question you ask'd me , and the esteem you have for your Friend , makes me fear you may look on it with very favourable eyes : I shall not decline the Opportunity you put into my hands of giving you , together with a profession of my dislike of this practice , some of my Reasons for that dislike ; and the rather , because I may do it without too much exceeding the limits of an Epistle , or those which the haste , wherewith I must write this , does prescribe to me . For your Friend does not oppose , but onely undervalue Theology ; and professing to believe the Scriptures ( which I so far credit , as to think he believes himself when he says so ) we agree upon the principles : So that I am not to dispute with him as against an Atheist , that denies the Authour of Nature , but onely against a Naturalist , that over-values the study of it . And the Truths of Theology are things , which I need not bring Arguments for , but am allowed to draw Arguments from them . But though , as I just now intimated , I design brevity ; yet for fear the fruitfulness and importance of my Subject should suggest things enough to me to make some little method , requisite to keep them from appearing confused ; I shall divide the following Epistle into two distinct parts . In the former of which I shall offer you the chief positive Considerations , by which I would represent to you the study of Divinity , as preferable to that of Physicks : And in the second part I shall consider the Allegations , that I foresee your Friend may interpose : in favour of Natural Philosophy . From which distribution you will easily gather , that the Motives on the one hand , and the Objections on the other will challenge to themselves distinct Sections in the respective parts whereto they belong . So that of the Order of the particulars you will meet with , I shall not need to trouble you with any further Account . THE EXCELLENCY OF THEOLOGY : OR , The Preeminence of the Study of Divinity , above that of Natural Philosophy . THE FIRST PART . TO address my self then , without any farther Circumstance or Preamble , to the things themselves , that I mainly intend in this Discourse , I consider in the General , That as there are scarce any Motives accounted fitter to engage a Rational man in a study , than That the Subject is Noble , That 't is his Duty to apply himself to it , and That his Proficiency in it will bring him great Advantages ; So there is not any of these three Inducements , that does not concur in a very plentiful measure to recommend to us the Study of Theological Truths . THE FIRST SECTION . ANd first , The Excellency and Sublimity of the Object we are invited to contemplate , is such , that none that does truly acknowledge a Deity can deny , but that there is no Speculation , whose Object is comparable in point of Nobleness , to the Nature and Attributes of God. The Souls of inquisitive men are commonly so curious , to learn the Nature and Condition of Spirits , as that the over-greedy desire to discover so much as That there are other Spiritual Substances besides the Souls of Men , has prevail'd with too many to try forbidden ways of attaining satisfaction ; and many have chosen rather to venture the putting themselves within the power of Daemons , than remain ignorant whether or no there are any such Beings : As I have learned by the private acknowledgments made me of such unhappy ( though not unsuccessful ) Attempts , by divers learned men ( both of other Professions , and that of Physick , ) who themselves made them in differing places , and were persons neither Timerous nor Superstitious : ( But this onely upon the By. ) And certainly that man must have as Wrong as Mean a Notion of the Deity , and must but very little consider the Nature and Attributes of that infinitely perfect Being , and as little the Nature and infirmities of Man , who can imagine the Divine Perfections to be Subjects , whose investigation a man may ( inculpably ) despise , or be so much as fully sufficient for . Not onely the Scripture tells us , That his Greatness is incomprehensible , and his wisdom is inscrutable ; That he humbles himself to look into ( or upon ) the Heavens and the Earth ; and , That not onely this or that man , but all the Nations of the World are , in comparison of him , but like the small Drop of a Bucket , or the smaller Dust of a Ballance : But even the Heathen Philosopher , who wrote that eloquent Book De Mundo , ascrib'd to Aristotle in his riper years , speaks of the Power , and Wisdom , and Amiableness of God , in terms little less lofty , though necessarily inferiour to so infinitely Sublime a Subject ; which they that think they can , especially without Revelation , sufficiently understand , do very little understand themselves . But perhaps your Friend will object , That to the knowledge of God there needs no other then Natural Theology ; and I readily confess , being warranted by an Apostle , that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , was not unknown to the Heathen Philosophers ; and that so much knowledge of God is attainable by the light of Nature , duly employ'd , as to encourage men to exercise themselves more than most of them do in that noblest of Studies , and render their being no Proficients in it , injurious to themselves as well as to their Maker . But notwithstanding this , as God knows Himself infinitely better then purblind Man knows Him , so the Informations He is pleased to vouchsafe us , touching His own Nature and Attributes , are exceedingly preferable to any account , that we can give our selves of Him , without Him. And methinks , the differing Prospects we may have of Heaven , may not ill adumbrate to us the differing Discoveries that may be made of the Attributes of its Maker . For as , though a man may with his naked eye see Heaven to be a very glorious Object , enobled with radiant Stars of several sorts ; yet when his eye is assisted with a good Telescope , he can not onely discover a number of Stars ( Fix'd and Wandring ) which his naked eye would never have shown him ; but those Planets which he could see before , will appear to him much bigger , and more distinct : So , although bare Reason well improv'd will suffice to make a man behold many glorious Attributes in the Deity ; yet the same Reason , when assisted by Revelation , may enable a man to discover far more Excellencies in God , and perceive them , he contemplated before , far greater and more distinctly . And to shew how much a dim Eye , illuminated by the Scriptures , is able to discover of the Divine Perfections , and how unobvious they are to the most piercing Philosophical Eyes , that enjoy but the dim light of Nature ; we need but consider , how much more suitable Conceptions and Expressions concerning God are to be met with in the Writings of those Fishermen and others , that penn'd the New Testament , and those illiterate Christians that received it , than amongst the most Civiliz'd Nations of the World ( such as anciently the Greeks and Romans , and now the Chineses and East-Indians ) and among the eminentest of the Wise-men and Philosophers themselves , ( as Aristotle , Homer , Hesiod , Epicurus , and others . ) Besides that the Book of Scripture discloses to us much more of the Attributes of God , than the Book of Nature ; there is another Object of our Study , for which we must be entirely beholding to Theology : For though we may know something of the Nature of God by the Light of Reason , yet we must owe the knowledge of His Will , or Positive Laws , to His own Revelation . And we may ghess , how curious great Princes and wise Men have been to inform themselves of the Constitutions established by wise and eminent Legislators ; partly by the frequent Travels of the Ancient Sages and Philosophers into Forreign Countries , to observe their Laws and Government , as well as bring home their Learning ; and partly by those Royal and Sumptuous Expences , at which that Great and Learned Monarch Ptolomeus Philadelphus stuck not to procure an Authentick Copy of the Law of Moses , whom he considered but as an eminent Legislator . But certainly That , and other Laws recorded in the Bible , cannot but appear more noble and worthy Objects of Curiosity to us Christians , who know them to proceed from an Omniscient Deity , who being the Authour of Mankind , as well as of the rest of the Universe , cannot but have a far perfecter knowledge of the Nature of Man , than any other of the Law-givers , or all of them put together can be conceived to have had . But there is a farther Discovery of Divine Matters , wherewith we are also gratified by Theology : For besides what the Scripture teaches us of the Nature and the Will of God , it contains divers Historical Accounts ( if I may so call them ) of His Thoughts and Actions . The Great Alexander thought himself nobly employ'd , when he read of the Grecian Actions in Homer's Verses ; and , To know the Sentiments of great and wise Persons , upon particular occasions , is a curiosity so laudable , and so worthy of ▪ an Inquisitive Soul , that the Southern Queen has been more prais'd than admir'd , for coming from the remoter parts of the Earth , to hear the Wisdom of Solomon . Now the Scripture does in many places give our Curiosity a nobler Employment , and thereby a higher Satisfaction , than the King of Macedon , or the Queen of Sheba could enjoy ; for in many places it does , with great clearness and ingenuity , give us accounts of what God Himself hath declar'd of His own Thoughts , of divers particular Persons and Things , and relates , what He that knows and commands all things , was pleas'd to say & do upon particular Occasions . Of this sort of Passages are the things recorded to have been said by God to Noah , about the sinful Worlds ruine , and that Just Man's preservation ; and to Moses in the case of the Daughters of Zelophehad . And of this sort are the Conferences , mentioned to have pass'd betwixt God and Abimelech , concerning Abraham's Wife ; betwixt God and Abraham touching the destruction of Sodom ; betwixt God and Solomon , about that Kings happy choice ; betwixt God and Jonah , about the Fate of the greatest City of the World : And above all these , those two strange and matchless Passages , the one in the first Book of Kings , touching the seducing Spirit that undertook to seduce Ahab's Prophets ; and the other , that yet more wonderful Relation of what pas'd betwixt God and Satan , wherein the Deity vouchsafes not onely to Praise , but ( if I may so speak with reverence ) to Glory in a Mortal . And the being admitted to the knowledge of these Transactions of another World ( if I may so call them ) wherein God has been pleased to disclose himself so very much , is an advantage afforded us by the Scripture , of so noble a Nature , and so unattainable by the utmost improvement we our selves can make of our own Reason , that , did the Scripture contain nothing else that were very Considerable , yet that Book would highly deserve our Curiosity and Gratitude . And on this occasion , I must by no means leave unobserv'd another Advantage that we have from some Discourses made us in the Bible ; since it too highly concerns us , not to be a very Great one ; and it is , That the Scripture declares to us the Judgment , that God is pleas'd to make of some particular Men , upon the Estimate of their Life and Deportment . For though Reason alone , and the Grounds of Religion in general , may satisfie us in some measure , that God is Good and Merciful , and therefore 't is likely he may Pardon the sins and frailties of Men , and accept of their Imperfect Services ; yet , besides that we do not know , whether He will Pardon , unless we have His Promise of it ; besides this ( I say ) though by vertue of general Revelation , such as is pretended to in divers Religions , we may be assured , that God will accept , forgive , and reward those that sincerely obey him , and perform the Conditions of the Covenant , whether it be Express , or Implicite , that he vouchsafes to make with them ; yet since 't is He that is the Judge of the Performance of the Conditions , and of the sincerity of the Person ; and since He is Omniscient , and a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and so may know more Ill of us , than even we know of our selves ; a concerned Conscience may rationally doubt , whether in Gods Estimate any particular man was so sincere as to be accepted . But when He Himself is pleas'd to give Elogiums ( if I may with due respect so style them ) to David , Job , Noah , Daniel , &c. whilst they were alive , and to others after they were dead , ( and consequently having finished their Course , were pass'd into an Irreversible state ) we may learn with Comfort , both that the Performance of such an Obedience as God will accept , is a thing really Practicable by Men ; and that even great sins and misdemeanors are not ( if seasonably repented of ) certain evidences , that a man shall never be Happy in the future Life . And it seems to be for such an use of consolation to Frail men ( but not at all to encourage Licentious ones ) that the Lapses of holy Persons are so frequently recorded in the Scriptures . And bating those Divine Writings , I know no Books in the world , nor all of them put together , that can give a considering Christian , who has due apprehensions of the Inexpressible Happiness or Misery of an Immortal state in Heaven or in Hell , so great and well grounded a Consolation , as may be deriv'd from three or four lines in St. John's Apocalypse , where he says , That he saw in Heaven a great multitude , not to be numbred , of all Nations , and Tribes , and People , and Tongues , standing before the Throne , and before the Lamb , clothed in white Robes , with Palms ( the Ensigns of Victory ) in their hands ; and the Praises of God and of the Lamb in their mouthes . For from thence we may learn , that Heaven is not reserv'd onely for Prophets , and Apostles , and Martyrs , and such extraordinary Persons , whose Sanctity the Church admires , but that through Gods goodness , multitudes of his more Imperfect Servants have access thither . Though the Infinite Perfections and Prerogatives of the Deity be such , that Theology it self can no more than Philosophy afford us another Object for our Studies , any thing near so Sublime and Excellent , as what it discloses to us of God ; yet Divinity favours us with some other Discoveries , namely , about Angels , the Universe , and our own Souls , which though they must needs be inferiour to the knowledge of God Himself , are , for the nobleness of their Objects , or for their Importance , highly preferable to any that Natural Philosophy has been able to afford its Votaries . But before I proceed to name any more particulars , disclos'd to us by Revelation , 't will be requisite , for the prevention or removal of a Prejudice , to mind you , that we should not make our Estimates of the worth of the things we owe to Revelation , by the Impressions they are wont now to make upon Us Christians , who learned divers of them in our Catechisms , and perhaps have several times met with most of the Rest in Sermons , or Theological Books . For 't is not to be admir'd , that we should not be strongly affected at the mention of those Truths , which ( how valuable soever in themselves ) were for the most part taught us when we were either Children , or too Youthful to discern and prize their Excellency and Importance . So that though afterwards they were presented to our riper understanding , yet their being by that time become familiar , and our not remembring that we ignor'd them , kept them from making any vigorous Impressions on Us. Whereas if the same things had been ( with Circumstances evincing their Truth ) discover'd to some Heathen Philosopher , or other vertuous and inquisitive Man , who valu'd important Truths , and had nothing but his own Reason to attain them with , he would questionless have receiv'd them with wonder and joy . Which to induce us to suppose we have sundry Instances , both in the Records of the Primitive Times , and in the recent Relations of the Conversion of men to Christianity among the People of China , Japan , and other Literate Nations . For though bare Reason cannot discover these Truths , yet when Revelation has once sufficiently propos'd them to Her , she can readily embrace , and highly value divers of them ; which being here intimated once for all , I now advance to name some of the Revelations themselves . And first , as for Angels , I will not now question , whether bare Reason can arrive at so much as to assure us , That there are such Beings in Rerum Naturâ . For though Reason may assure , that their Existence is not Impossible , and perhaps too not improbable ; yet I doubt , whether 't were to meer Ratiocination , or clear Experience , or any thing else but Revelation , convey'd to them by imperfect Tradition , that those Heathen Philosophers , who believ'd that there were separate Spirits other than Humane , ow'd that perswasion . And particularly as to Good Angels , I doubt , whether those Antient Sages had any cogent Reasons , or any convincing Historical Proofs , or , in short , any one unquestionable Evidence of any kind , to satisfie a wary person so much as of the being ( much less to give a farther account ) of those Excellent Spirits . Whereas Theology is enabled by the Scripture to inform us , that not onely there are such Spirits , but a vast multitude of them ; That they were made by God and Christ , and are Immortal , and propagate not their Species ; and that these Spirits have their chief Residence in Heaven , and enjoy the Vision of God , whom they constantly praise , and punctually obey , without having sinn'd against him ; That also these Good Angels are very Intelligent Beings , and of so great power , that One of them was able in a night to destroy a vast Army ; That they have Degrees among themselves , are Enemies to the Devils , and fight against them ; That they can assume Bodies shap'd like ours , and yet disappear in a trice ; That they are sometimes employ'd about Humane affairs , and that not onely for the welfare of Empires and Kingdomes , but to protect and rescue single Good men . And though they are wont to appear in a dazling Splendor , and an astonishing Majesty , yet they are All of them ministring Spirits , employ'd for the good of the designed Heirs of Salvation . And they do not onely refuse mens Adoration , and admonish them to pay it unto God ; but , as they are in a sense made by Jesus Christ , who was true Man as well as God ; so they do not onely worship him , and call him simply , as his own Followers were were wont to do , The Lord , but stile themselves Fellow servants to his Disciples . And as for the other Angels , though the Gentiles , as well Philosophers as others , were commonly so far mistaken about them , as to adore them for true Gods , and yet many of them to doubt whether they were immortal ; the Scripture informs us , that they are not Self-originated , but created Beings ; That however a great part of Mankind worships them , they are wicked and impure Spirits , Enemies to Mankind , and Seducers of our first Parents to their Ruine ; That though they beget and promote confusion among men , yet they have some Order among themselves , as having one Chief , or Leader ; That they are evil Spirits , not by Nature , but Apostacy ; That their power is very limited , insomuch that a Legion of them cannot invade so contemptible a thing as a Herd of Swine , without particular leave from God ; That not onely Good Angels , but Good Men , may , by resisting them , put them to flight , and the sincere Christians that worsted them here , will be among those that shall judge them hereafter ; That their being immortal , will make their misery so too ; That they do themselves believe and tremble at those Truths , they would perswade men to reject ; and That they are so far from being able to confer that Happiness , which their Worshippers expect from them , that themselves are wretched creatures , reserv'd in chains of darkness to the judgment of the great Day ; at which they shall be doom'd to suffer everlasting torments , in the company of those wicked men that they shall have prevail'd on . We may farther consider , That as to things Corporeal themselves , which the Naturalist challenges as his peculiar Theme , we may name particulars , and those of the most comprehensive nature , and greatest Importance , whose knowledge the Naturalist must owe to Theology . Of which Truths I shall content my self to give a few instances in the World it self , or the universal Aggregate of things Corporeal ; that being look'd upon as the noblest and chiefest Object , that the Physicks afford us to contemplate . And first , Those that admit the Truths reveal'd by Theology , do generally allow , that God is not onely the Author , but Creator of the World. I am not ignorant of what Anaxagoras taught , of what he call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — ( and Tully mentions ) in the production of the World ; and that what many other Grecians afterwards taught of the Worlds Aeternity , is peculiarly due to Aristotle , who does little less then brag , that all the Philosophers that preceded him were of another mind . Nor will I here examine ( which I else-where do ) whether , and how far by Arguments meerly Physical , the Creation of the World may be evinc'd . But whether or no meer Natural Reason can reach so sublime a Truth ; yet it seems not that it did actually , where it was not excited by Revelation-Discovery . For though many of the antient Philosophers believ'd the World to have had a Beginning , yet they all took it for granted , that Matter had none ; nor does any of them , that I know of , seem to have so much as imagin'd , that any Substance could be produced out of Nothing . Those that ascribe much more to God than Aristotle , make Him to have given Form onely , not Matter , to the World , and to have but contriv'd the pre-existent Matter into this orderly Systeme we call the Universe . Next , whereas very many of the Philosophers that succeeded Aristotle , suppose the World to have been Aeternal ; and those that believ'd it to have been produc'd , had not the confidence to pretend to the knowing how old it was ; unless it were some extravagant ambitious People , such as those fabulous Chaldaeans , whose fond account reach'd up to 40000 or 50000 years : Theology teaches us , that the World is very far from being so old by 30 or 40 thousand years as they , and by very many Ages , as divers others have presum'd ; and does , from the Scripture , give us such an account of the age of the World , that it has set us certain Limits , within which so long a Duration may be bounded , without mistaking in our Reckoning . Whereas Philosophy leaves us to the vastness of Indeterminate Duration , without any certain Limits at all . The Time likewise , and the Order , and divers other Circumstances of the Manner , wherein the Fabrick of the World was compleated , we owe to Revelation ; bare Reason being evidently unable to inform us of Particulars that preceded the Origine of the first Man ; and though I do not think Religion so much concern'd , as many do , in their Opinion and Practise , that would deduce particular Theorems of Natural Philosophy from this or that Expression of a Book , that seems rather design'd to instruct us about Spiritual than Corporeal things . I see no just reason to embrace their Opinion , that would so turn the two first Chapters of Genesis into an Allegory , as to overthrow the Literal and Historical sense of them . And though I take the Scripture to be mainly design'd to teach us nobler and better Truths , than those of Philosophy ; yet I am not forward to condemn those , who think the beginning of Genesis contains divers particulars , in reference to the Origine of things , which though not unwarily , or alone to be urg'd in Physicks , may yet afford very considerable Hints to an attentive and inquisitive Peruser . And as for the Duration of the World , which was by the old Philosophers held to be Interminable , and of which the Stoicks Opinion , that the World shall be destroyed by fire ( which they held from the Jews ) was Physically precarious ; Theology teaches us expresly from Divine Revelation , that the present course of Nature shall not last always , but that one Day this world ( or at least this Vortex of ours ) shall either be Abolished by Annihilation , or ( which seems far more probable ) be Innovated , and , as it were , Transfigur'd , and that by the Intervention of that Fire , which shall dissolve and destroy the present frame of Nature : So that either way , the present state of things ( as well Naturall as Political ) shall have an end . And as Theology affords us these Informations about the Creatures in general ; so touching the chiefest and noblest of the visible ones , Men , Revelation discovers very plainly divers very important things , where Reason must needs be in the dark . And first , touching the Body of Man ; The Epicureans attributed its Original , as that of all things else , to the Casual Concourse of Atoms ; and the Stoicks absurdly and injuriously enough ( but much more pardonably than their follower herein , Mr. Hobbs ) would have Men to spring up like Mushrooms out of the ground ; and whereas other Philosophers maintain conceits about it , too wild to be here recited ; the Book of Genesis assures us , that the Body of Man was first form'd by God in a peculiar manner , of a Terrestrial Matter ; and 't is there described , as having been perfected before the Soul was united to it . And as Theology thus teaches us , how the Body of Man had its first beginning ; so it likewise assures us , what shall become of the Body after death , though bare Natural Reason will scarce be pretended to reach to so abstruse and difficult an Article as that of a Resurrection ; which , when propos'd by St. Paul , produc'd among the Athenian Philosophers nothing else but wonder or laughter . Not to mention , that Theology teaches us divers other things about the Origine and Condition of Mens Bodies ; as , That all Mankind is the Off-spring of One Man and one Woman ; That the first Woman was not made of the same Matter , nor after the same Manner as the first Man , but was afterwards taken from his side ; That both Adam and Eve were not , as many Epicureans and other Philosophers fanci'd that the first men were , first Infants ; whence they did , as we do , grow by degrees to be mature and compleat Humane Persons , but were made so all at once ; and , That hereafter , as all mens Bodies shall rise again , so they shall all ( or at least all those of the just ) be kept from ever dying a second time . And as for the Humane Soul , though I willingly grant , that much may be deduc'd from the Light of Reason onely , touching its Existence , Properties , and Duration ; yet Divine Revelation teaches it us with more clearness , and with greater Authority ; as , sure , he that made our Souls , and upholds them , can best know what they are , and how long he will have them last . And as the Scripture expresly teaches us , that the Rational Soul is distinct from the Body , as not being to be destroy'd by those very Enemies that kill the Body ; so about the Origine of this Immortal Soul ( about which Philosophers can give us but wide and precarious conjectures ) Theology assures us , that the Soul of man had not such an Origination , as those of other Animals , but was Gods own immediate Workmanship , and was united to the Body already form'd : And yet not so united , but that upon their Divorce , she will survive , and pass into a state , in which Death shall have no power over her . I expect you will here object , that for the knowledge of the Perpetual Duration of separate Souls , we need not be beholding to the Scripture , since the Immortality of the Soul may be sufficiently prov'd by the sole Light of Nature , and particularly has been demonstrated by your great Des Cartes . But you must give me leave to tell you , that , besides that a matter of that weight and concernment cannot be too well prov'd , and consequently ought to procure a welcome for all good Mediums of Probation ; besides this , I say , I doubt many Cartesians do , as well as others , mistake , both the difficulty under consideration , and the scope of Des Cartes's Discourse . For I grant , that by Natural Philosophy alone , the Immortality of the Soul may be prov'd against its usual Enemies , Atheists and Epicureans . For the ground , upon which these men think it mortal , being , That 't is not a true substance , but onely a modification of Body , which consequently must perish , when the frame or structure of the Body , whereto it belongs , is dissolv'd : Their ground being this , I say , if we can prove by some Intellectual Operations of the Rational Soul , which Matter , however modifi'd , cannot reach , That it is a Substance distinct from the Humane Body , there is no reason , why the Dissolution of the Latter should infer the Destruction of the Former , which is a simple Substance , and as real a Substance as Matter it self , which yet the Adversaries affirm to be Indestructible . But though by the Mental Operations of the Rational Soul , and perhaps by other Mediums it may , against the Epicureans , and other meer Naturalists , who will not allow God to have any thing to do in the case , be prov'd to be Immortal in the sense newly propos'd ; yet the same Proofs will not evince , that absolutely it shall never cease to be ▪ if we dispute with Philosophers , who admit , as the Cartesians and many others do , that God is the sole Creator and Preserver of all things . For how are we sure but that God may have so ordain'd , That , though the Soul of Man , by the continuance of his ordinary and upholding Concourse , may survive the Body , yet , as 't is generally believ'd , not to be created till it be just to be infus'd into the Body ; so it shall be annihilated when it parts with the Body , God withdrawing at death that supporting influence , which alone kept it from relapsing to its first Nothing . Whence it may appear , that notwithstanding the Physical proofs of the Spirituality and separableness of the Humane Soul , we are yet much beholding to Divine Revelation for assuring us , that its Duration shall be endless . And now to make good what I was intimating above , concerning the Cartesians , and the scope of Des Cartes's Demonstration , I shall appeal to no other than his own Expressions to evince , that he consider'd this matter for the main as we have done , and pretended to demonstrate , that the Soul is a Distinct Substance from the Body ; but not that absolutely speaking it is Immortal . Cur ( answers that excellent Author ) de immortalitate Animae nihil scripserim , jam dixi in Synopsi mearum Meditationum . Quod ejus ab omni corpore distinctionem satis probaverim , supra ostendi . Quod vero additis , Ex distinctione Animae á corpore non sequi ejus Immortalitatem , quia nihilominus dici potest , illam à Deo talis naturae factam esse , ut ejus Duratio simul cum Duratione vitae corporeae finiatur , fateor á me refelli non posse . Neque enim tantum mihi assumo ut quicquam de iis quae à libera Dei voluntate dependent , humanae rationis vi determinare aggrediar . Docet Naturalis cognitio , &c. Sed si de absoluta Dei potestate quaeratur , an forte decreverit , ut humanae animae iisdem Temporibus esse desinant , quibus Corpora quae illis adjunxit ; solius Dei est , respondere . And if he would not assume to demonstrate by Natural Reason , so much as the Existence of the Soul after death , unless upon a supposition ; we may well presume , that he would less take upon him to determine , what shall be the condition of that Soul after it leaves the Body . And that you may not doubt of this , I will give you for it his own confession , as he freely writ it in a private Letter to that Admirable Lady , the Princess Elizabeth , first Daughter to Frederick King of Bohemia , who seems to have desir'd his Opinion on that important Question , about which he sends her this Answer , Pour ce qui , &c. i. e. As to the State of the Soul after this Life , my knowledge of it is far inferiour to that of Monsieur ( he means Sir Kenelm ) Digby . For , setting aside that which Religion teaches us of it , I confess , that by mee● Natural Reason we may indeed make many conjectures to our own advantage , and have fair Hopes , but not any Assurance : And accordingly in the next clause he gives the imprudence , of quitting what is certain for an uncertainty , as the cause why , according to Natural Reason , we are never to seek Death . Nor do I wonder he should be of that mind . For all that meer Reason can demonstrate , may be reduced to these two things ; One , that the Rational Soul , being an Incorporeal Substance , there is no necessity that it should perish with the Body ; so that , if God have not otherwise appointed , the Soul may survive the Body , and last for ever : The other , that the Nature of the Soul , according to Des Cartes , consisting in its being a Substance that thinks , we may conclude , that , though it be by death separate from the Body , it will nevertheless retain the power of thinking . But now , whether either of these two things , or both , be sufficient to endear the state of separation after death , to a considering man , I think may be justly question'd . For , Immortality or Perseverance in Duration , simply consider'd , is rather a thing presuppos'd to , or a requisite of , Felicity , than a part of it ; and being in it self an adiaphorous thing , assumes the nature of the state or condition to which 't is joyn'd , and does not make that state happy or miserable , but makes the possessors of it more happy or more miserable than otherwise they would be . And though some School-men , upon Aery Metaphysical Notions , would have men think it is more eligible to be wretched , than not to be at all ; yet we may oppose to their speculative subtilties the sentiments of Mankind , and the far more considerable Testimony of the Saviour of Mankind ▪ who speaking of the Disciple that betray'd him , says , That it had been good for that man if he had never been born . And Eternity is generally conceived to aggravate no less the miseries of Hell , than it heightens the joys of Heaven . And here we may consider , first , That meer Reason cannot so much as assure us absolutely , that the Soul shall survive the Body : For the Truth of which we have not onely Cartesius's Confession , lately recited , but a probable Argument , drawn from the nature of the thing , since , as the Body and Soul were brought together , not by any meer Physical Agents , and since their Association and Union whilst they continued together , was made upon Conditions that depended solely upon Gods free and arbitrary Institution ; so , for ought Reason can secure us of , one of the Conditions of that Association may be , That the Body and Soul should not survive each other . Secondly , supposing that the Soul be permitted to outlive the Body , meer Reason cannot inform us what will become of her in her separate state , whether she will be vitally united to any other kind of Body or Vehicle ; and if to some , of what kind that will be , and upon what terms the Union will be made . For possibly she may be united to an unorganiz'd , or very imperfectly organiz'd , Body , wherein she cannot exercise the same Functions she did in her Humane Body . As we see , that even in this Life the Souls of Natural Fools are united to Bodies , wherein they cannot discourse , or at least cannot Philosophize . And 't is plain , that some Souls are introduc'd into Bodies , which , by reason of Paralytical and other Diseases , they are unable to move , though that does not always hinder them from being obnoxious to feel pain . So that , for ought we naturally know , a Humane Soul , separated from the Body , may be united to such a portion of Matter , that she may neither have the power to move it , nor the advantage of receiving any agreeable Informations by its interventions , having upon the account of that Union no other sense than that of pain . But let us now consider what will follow , if I should grant that the Soul will not be made miserable , by being thus wretchedly matched . Suppose we then , that she be left free to enjoy what belongs to her own nature : That being onely the Power of always thinking , it may well be doubted , whether th'exercise of that Power wil suffice to make her happy . You will perchance easily believe , that I love as well as another to entertain my self with my own thoughts , and to enjoy them undisturbed by visits , and other avocations ; I would , onely accompanied by a Servant and a Book , go to dine at an Inn upon a Road , to enjoy my thoughts the more freely for that day . But yet , I think , the most contemplative men would , at least in time , grow weary of thinking , if they received no supply of Objects from without , by Reading , Seeing , or Conversing ; and if they also wanted the opportunity of executing their thoughts , by moving the Members of their Bodies , or of imparting them , either by Discoursing , or Writing of Books , or by making of Experiments . On this occasion I remember , that I knew a Gentleman , who was , in Spain , for a State-crime , which yet he thought an Heroick action , kept close prisoner for a year in a place , where though he had allowed him a Diet not unfit for a Person of Note , as he was ; yet he was not permitted the benefit of any Light , either of the Day or Candles , and was not accosted by any humane creature , save at certain times by the Jaylor , that brought him meat and drink , but was strictly forbidden to converse with him . Now though this Gentleman by his discourse appear'd to be a man of a lively humour , yet being ask'd by me , how he could do to pass the time in that sad solitude , he confessed to me , that , though he had the liberty of walking too and fro in his Prison , and though by often recalling into his mind all the adventures and other passages of his former life , and by several ways combining and diversifying his Thoughts , he endeavoured to give his mind as much variety of employment as he was able ; yet that would not serve his turn , but he was often reduc'd , by drinking large draughts of Wine , and then casting himself upon his bed , to endeavour to drown that Melancholly , which the want of new objects cast him into . And I can easily admit , he found a great deal of difference between the sense he had of thinking when he was at liberty , and that which he had when he was confin'd to that employment , whose delightfulness , like fire , cannot last long , when it is , as his was , denied both fuel and vent . And , in a word , though I most readily grant , that Thinking interwoven with Conversation and Action , may be a very pleasant way of passing ones Time , yet Man being by nature a sociable creature , I fear , that alone would be a dry and wearisome Imployment to spend Eternity in . Before I proceed to the next Section , I must not omit to take notice , That though the brevity I propos'd to my self , keeps me from discoursing of any Theological Subjects , save what I have touch'd upon about the Divine Attributes , and the things I have mention'd about the Universe in general , and the Humane Soul ; yet there are divers other things , knowable by the help of Revelation , and not without it , that are of so noble and sublime a Nature , that the greatest Wits may find their best Abilities both fully exercis'd , and highly gratifi'd by making Enquiries into them . I shall not name for proof of this the Adorable Mystery of the Trinity , wherein 't is acknowledg'd , that the most soaring Speculators are wont to be pos'd , or to loose themselves : But I shall rather mention the Redemption of Mankind , and the Decrees of God concerning Men. For though these seem to be less out of the Ken of our Natural Faculties ; yet 't is into some things that belong to the former of them , that the Scripture tells us , The Angels desire to pry ; and 't was the consideration of the latter of them , that made one that had been caught up into the Mansion of the Angels , amazedly cry out , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. Not are these the onely things that the Scripture it self terms Mysteries , though , for brevities sake , instead of specifying any of them , I shall content my self to represent to you in general ; that , since Gods wisdom is boundless , it may , sure , have more ways than one to display it self . And though the material World be full of the Productions of his Wisdom ; yet that hinders not but that the Scripture may be enobled with many excellent Impresses , and , as it were , Signatures of the same Attribute . For , as I was beginning to say , it cannot but be highly injurious to the Deity , in whom all other True Perfections , as well as Omniscience , are both united and transcendent , to think , that he can contrive no ways to disclose his Perfections , besides the ordering of Matter and Motion , and cannot otherwise deserve to be the Object of Mens studies , and their Admiration , than in the capacity of a Creator . And I think , I might safely add , that besides these Grand and Mysterious Points I came from mentioning , there are many other noble and important things , wherein unassisted Reason leaves us in the dark ; which though not so clearly reveal'd in the Scripture , are yet in an inviting measure discover'd there , and consequently deserve the indagation of a Curious and Philosophical Soul. Shall we not think it worth enquiring , whether the Satisfaction of Christ was necessary to appease the Justice of God , and purchase Redemption for Mankind ? Or whether God , as Absolute and Supreme Governour of the World , might have freely remitted the Penalties of sin ? Shall we not think it worth the inquiring , upon what Account , and upon what Terms , the Justification of Men ●●wards God is transacted , especially considering how much it imports us to know , and how perplexedly a Doctrine , not in it self abstruse , is wont to be delivered ? Shall not we inquire , whether or no the Souls of Men , before they were united to their Bodies , pre-existed in a happier state , as many of the Ancient and Modern Jews and Platonists , and ( besides Origen ) some Learned Men of our times do believe ▪ And shall not we be curious to know , whether , when the Soul leaves the Body , it do immediately pass to Heaven or Hell ( as 't is commonly believed , ) or for want of Organs be laid , as it were , asleep in an insensible and unactive state , till it recover the Body at the Resurrection ? ( as many Socinians and others maintain : ) Or whether it be conveyed into secret Recesses , where , though it be in a good or bad condition , according to what it did in the Body , 't is yet repriev'd from the flames of Hell , and restrain'd from the Beatifick Vision till the Day of Judgment ? ( which seems to have been the opinion of many , if not most of the Primitive Fathers and Christians . ) Shall not we be curious to know , whether at that great Decretory Day , this vast Fabrick of the World , which all confess must have its frame quite shatter'd , shall be suffer'd to relapse into its first Nothing , ( as several Divines assert ; ) or shall be , after its Dissolution , renew'd to a better state , and , as it were , Transfigur'd ? And shall not we inquire , whether or no in that future state of things , which shall never have an end , we shall know one another ? ( as Adam , when he awak'd out of his profound sleep , knew Eve whom he never saw before ; ) and whether those Personal Friendships and Affections , we had for one another here , and the pathetick Consideration of the Relations ( as of Father and Son , Husband and Wife , Chaste Mistris and Virtuous Lover , Prince and Subject , ) on which many of them were grounded , shall continue ? Or whether all those things , as antiquated and slight , shall be obliterated , and , as it were , swallowed up ? ( as the former Relation of a Cousin a great way off , is scarce at all consider'd , when the Persons come so to change their state , as to be united by the strict Bonds of Marriage . ) But 't were tedious to propose all the other Points , whereof the Divine takes cognizance , that highly merit an inquisitive mans curiosity ; and about which , all the Writings of the old Greek and other Heathen Philosophers put together , will give us far less information , than the single Volume of Canonical Scripture . I foresee indeed , that it may nevertheless be objected , that in some of these Inquiries , Revelation incumbers Reason , by delivering things , which Reason is obliged to make its Hypothesis consistent with . But , besides that this cannot be so much as pretended of all ; if you consider how much unassisted Reason leaves us in the dark about these matters , wherein she has not been able to frame so much as probable determinations , especially in comparison of those probabilities that Reason can deduce from what it finds one way or other delivered in the Scripture : If you consider this , I say , you will , I presume , allow me to say , That the revealed Truths , which Reason is obliged to comply with , if they be burdens to it , are but such Burdens as Feathers are to a Hawk , which instead of hindring his flight by their weight , enable him to soar toward Heaven , and take a larger prospect of things , than , if he had not feathers , he could possibly do . And on this occasion , Sir , the greater Reverence I owe to the Scripture it self , than to its Expositors , prevails upon me to tell you freely , that you will not do right , either to Theology , or ( the greatest Repository of its Truths ) the Bible ; if you imagine that there are no considerable Additions to be made to the Theological Discoveries we have already , nor no clearer Expositions of many Texts of Scripture , or better Reflections on that matchless Book , than are to be met with in the generality of Commentators , or of Preachers , without excepting the Antient Fathers themselves . For , there being in my opinion two things requisite , to qualifie a Commentator to do right to his Theme , a competency of Critical Knowledge , and a Concern for the Honour and Interest of Christianity in general , assisted by a good Judgment to discern and select those things that may most conduce to it ; I doubt , there are not many Expositors , as they are call'd , of the Scripture , that are not deficient in the former or the latter of these particulars , and I wish there be not too many that are defective in both . That the knowledge of at least Greek and Hebrew is requisite to him , that takes upon him to expound Writings penn'd Originally in those Languages , if the nature of the thing did not manifest it , you might easily be perswaded to believe , by considering with what gross mistakes the Ignorance of Languages has oftentimes blemish'd not onely the Interpretations of the School-men and others , but even those of the Venerable Fathers of the Church . For though generally they were worthy men , and highly to be regarded , as the grand Witnesses of the Doctrines and Government of the antient Churches ; most of them very pious , many of them very eloquent , and some of them ( especially the two Criticks , Origen and Jerom ) very Learned ; yet so few of the Greek Fathers were skill'd in Hebrew , and so few of the Latin Fathers either in Hebrew or Greek , that many of their Homilies , and even Comments , leave hard Texts as obscure as they found them ; and , sometimes misled by bad Translations , they give them senses exceeding wide of the True : So that many times in their Writings they appear to be far better Divines then Commentators , and in an excellent Discourse upon a Text , you shall find but a very poor Exposition of it . Many of their Eloquent and devout Sermons being much better Encomiasts of the Divine Mysteries they treat of , than Unvailers . And though some Modern Translations deserve the Praise of being very useful , and less unaccurate than those which the Latine Fathers us'd ; yet when I read the Scriptures ( especially some Books of the Old Testament ) in their Originals , I confess I cannot but sometimes wonder , what came into the mind of some , even of our Modern Translators , that they should so much Mistake , and sometimes Injure certain Texts as they do ; and I am prone to think , that there is scarce a Chapter in the Bible ( especially that part of it which is written in Hebrew ) that may not be better Translated , and Consequently more to the Credit of the Book it self . This Credit it misses of , not onely by mens want of sufficient Skill in Critical Learning , but ( to come to the second Member of our late Division ) for want of their having Judgment enough to observe , and Concern enough to propose those things in the Scripture , and in Theology , that tend to the Reputation of either . For I fear there are too many , both Commentators and other Divines , that ( though otherwise perhaps pious men ) having espous'd a Church or Party , and an Aversion from all Dissenters , are solicitous when they peruse the Scripture , to take notice chiefly , if not onely ( I mean in points Speculative ) of those things , that may either suggest Arguments against their Adversaries , or Answers to their Objections . But I meet with much fewer than I could wish , who make it their Business to search the Scriptures for those things ( such as unheeded Prophecies , over-look'd Mysteries , and strange Harmonies ) which being clearly and judiciously proposed , may make that Book appear worthy of the high extraction it challenges ( and consequently of the veneration of Considering men ) and who are sollicitous to Discern and Make out , in the way of Governing and of Saving Men , reveal'd by God , so excellent an Oeconomy , and such deep Contrivances , and wise Dispensations , as may bring credit to Religion , not so much as 't is Roman , or Protestant , or Socinian , but as 't is Christian . But ( as I intimated before ) these good affections for the repute of Religion in general , are to be assisted by a deep Judgment . For men that want either That , or a good Stock of Critical Learning , may easily over-see the best Observations ( which usually are not Obvious ) or propose as Mysteries , things that are either not Grounded , or not Weighty enough ; and so ( notwithstanding their good meaning ) may bring a Disparagement upon what they desire to Recommend . And I am willing to grant , that 't is rather for want of good Skill and good Judgment , than good Will , that there are so few that have been careful to do right to the Reputation of the Scripture , as well as to its Sense . And indeed when I consider , how much more to the Advantage of those Sacred Writings , and of Christian Theology in general , divers Texts have been explain'd and discours'd of by the Excellent Grotius , by Episcopius , Masius , Mr. Mede , and Sir Francis Bacon , and some other Late great Wits ( to name now no Living ones ) in their several kinds ; than the same places have been handled by vulgar Expositors , and other Divines : And when I remember too , that none of these newly named Worthies was at once a great Philosopher , and a great Critick ; ( the three first being not so well vers'd in Philosophical Learning , and the last being unacquainted with the Eastern Tongues : ) I cannot but hope , that when it shall please God to stir up persons of a Philosophical Genius , well furnish'd with Critical Learning , and the Principles of true Philosophy , and shall give them a hearty Concern for the Advancement of his Truths ; these men , by exercising upon Theological matters , that Inquisitiveness and Sagacity that has made in our Age such a happy Progress in Philosophical ones , will make Explications and Discoveries , that will justifie more than I have said in praise of the study of our Religion and the Divine Books that contain the Articles of it . For these want not Excellencies , but onely skilful Unvailers . And if I do not tell you , that you should no more measure the Wisdom of God couch'd in the Bible , by the Glosses or Systems of common Expositors and Preachers , than Estimate the Wisdome he has express'd in the contrivance of the World by Magirus's or Eustachius's Physicks ; yet I shall not scruple to say , That you should as little think , that there are no more Mysteries in the Books of Scripture , besides those that the School-Divines and Vulgar Commentators have taken notice of , and unfolded ; as that there are no other Mysteries in the Book of Nature , than those which the same School-men ( who have taken upon them to interpret Aristotle and Nature too ) have observ'd and explain'd . All the fine things , that Poets , Orators , and even Lovers have Hyperbolically said in praise of the Beauty of Eyes , will nothing near so much recommend them to a Philosophers esteem , as the sight of one Eye skilfully dissected , or the unadorn'd Account given of its Structure , and the admirable uses of its several parts , in Scheiner's Oculus , and Des-Cartes's Excellent Dioptricks . And though I do not think my self bound to acquiesce in , and admire every thing that is propos'd as Mysterious and Rare by many Interpreters and Preachers ; yet I think , I may safely compare several things in the Books we call the Scripture , to several others in that of Nature , in ( at least ) one regard . For , though I do not believe all the Wonders , that Pliny , Aelian , Porta , and other Writers of that stamp , relate of the Generation of Animals ; yet by perusing such faithful and accurate accounts , as sometimes Galen , De usu Partium , sometimes Vesalius , sometimes our Harvey ( de Ovo ) and our later Anatomists , and sometimes other true Naturalists , give of the Generation of Animals , and of the admirable Structure of their Bodies , especially those of Men , and such other parts of Zoology , as Pliny , and the other Writers I nam'd with him , could make nothing considerable of ; by perusing these ( I say ) I receive more pleasure and satisfaction , and am induc'd more to admire the works of Nature , than by all their Romantic and Superficial Narratives . And thus ( to apply this to our present Subject ) a close and critical account of the more vail'd and pregnant parts of Scripture , and Theological Matters , with such Reflections on them , as their Nature and Collation would suggest to a Philosophical , as well as Critical , Speculator , would far better please a Rational Considerer , and give him a higher , as well as a better grounded , Veneration for the things explain'd , than a great many of those sleighter or ill-founded Remarks , wherewith the Expositions and Discourses of Superficial Writers , though never so florid or witty , gain the applause of the less discerning sort of men . And here , on this occasion , I shall venture to add , that I despair not , but that a further use may be made of the Scripture , than either our Divines or Philosophers seem to have thought on . Some few Theologues indeed have got the name of Supralapsarians , for venturing to look back beyond the Fall of Adam for God's Decrees of Election and Reprobation . But , besides that their boldness has been dislik'd by the generality of Divines , as well as other Christians , the Object of their Speculation is much too narrow to be any thing near and adequate to such an Hypothesis as I mean. For me-thinks , that the Encyclopedia's and Pansophia's , that even men of an elevated Genius have aimed at , are not diffus'd enough to comprehend all that the Reason of a Man , improv'd by Philosophy , and elevated by the Revelations already extant in the Scripture , may , by the help of free Ratiocination , and the hints contain'd in those pregnant . Writings ( with those assistances of God's Spirit , which he is still ready to vouchsafe to them that duly seek them , ) attain unto in this life . The Gospel comprises indeed , and unfolds the whole Mystery of Man's Redemption , as far forth as 't is necessary to be known for our Salvation : And the Corpusculariùm or Mechanical Philosophy , strives to deduce all the Phoenomena of Nature from Adiaphorous Matter , and Local Motion . But neither the Fundamental Doctrine of Christianity , nor that of the Powers and Effects of Matter and Motion , seems to be more than an Epicycle ( if I may so call it ) of the Great and Universal System of God's Contrivances , and makes but a part of the more general Theory of things , knowable by the Light of Nature , improv'd by the Information of the Scriptures : So that both these Doctrines , though very general , in respect of the subordinate parts of Theology and Philosophy , seem to be but members of the Universal Hypothesis , whose Objects , I conceive , to be the Nature , Counsels , and Works of God , as far as they are discoverable by us ( for I say not to us ) in this Life . For those , to whom God has vouchsafed the priviledge of mature Reason , seem not to enlarge their thoughts enough , if they think , that the Omniscient and Almighty God has bounded the Operations of his Power , and Wisdom , and Goodness , to the Exercise that may be given them for some Ages , by the Production and Government of Matter and Motion , and of the Inhabitants of the Terrestrial Globe , which we know to be but a Physical Point in comparison of that Portion of Universal Matter , which we have already discover'd . For I account , that there are four grand Communities of Creatures , whereof things meerly Corporeal make but one ; the other three , differing from these , are distinct also from one another . Of the first sort are the Race of Mankind , where Intellectual Beings are vitally associated with Gross and Organical Bodies . The second are Daemons , or evil Angels ; and the third , good Angels ; ( whether in each of those two kinds of Spirits , the Rational Beings be perfectly free from all union with Matter , though never so fine and subtile ; or whether they be united to Vehicles , not Gross , but Spirituous , and ordinarily invisible to Us. ) Nor may we think , because Angels and Devils are two names quickly utter'd , and those Spirits are seldome or never seen by us , there are therefore but few of them , and the Speculation of them is not considerable . For , as their Excellency is great , ( as we shall by and by shew ) so for their number , they are represented in Scripture as an Heavenly Host , standing on the right and left hand of the Throne of God. And of the good Angels , our Saviour Speaks of having more than twelve Legions of them at his command . Nay , the Prophet Daniel saith , that to the Antient of days , no less than millions ministred unto him , and hundreds of millions stood before him . And of the evil Angels the Gospel informs us , that enough to call them a Legion ( which you know is usually reckon'd , at a moderate rate ▪ to consist of betwixt six and seven thousand ) possess'd one single man. For my part , when I consider , that matter , how vastly extended , and how curiously shap'd soever , is but a brute thing , that is onely capable of Local motion and its effects and consequents on other Bodies , or the Brain of man , without being capable of any True , or at least any Intellectual , Perception , or true Love or Hatred ; and when I consider the Rational Soul as an immaterial and immortal Being , that bears the Image of its Divine Maker , being indow'd with a capacious Intellect , and a Will that no Creature can force : I am by these Considerations dispos'd to think the Soul of Man a nobler and more valuable Being , than the whole Corporeal World ; which though I readily acknowledge it to be admirably contriv'd , and worthy of the Almighty and Omniscient Author , yet it consists but of an Aggregate of Portions of brute Matter , variously shap'd and connected by Local Motion ( as Dow , and Roles , and Loves , and Cakes , and Vermicelli , Wafers , and Pie-crust , are all of them diversified Meal ; ) but without any knowledge either of their own Nature , or of that of their Author , or of that of their Fellow-creatures . And as the Rational Soul is somewhat more noble and wonderful , than any thing meerly Corporeal , how vast soever it can be , and is of a more excellent Nature , than the curiousest piece of Mechanism in the world , the Humane Body ; so to enquire what shall become of it , and what Fates it is like to undergo hereafter , does better deserve a man's Curiosity , than to know what shall befall the Corporeal Universe , and might justly have been to Nebuchadnezzar a more desirable part of knowledge , than that he was so troubled for want of , when it was adumbrated to him in the mysterious Dream , that contain'd the Characters and Fates of the four Great Monarchies of the World. And as man is intrusted with a Will of his own , whereas all material things move onely as they are mov'd , and have no self-determining power , on whose account they can resist the Will of God ; and as also of Angels , at least some Orders of them , are of a higher Quality ( if I may so speak ) than Humane Souls ; so 't is very probable , that in the Government of Angels , whether good or bad , that are Intellectual Voluntary Agents , there is requir'd and employ'd far greater displays of Gods Wisdom , Power , and Goodness , than in the guidance of Adiaphorous Matter ; and the method of God's Conduct in the Government of these , is a far nobler Object for men's Contemplation , than the Laws , according to which the parts of Matter hit against , and justle , one another , and the effects or results of such Motions . And accordingly we find in Scripture , that , whereas about the production of the material World , and the setting of the frame of Nature , God employ'd onely a few commanding Words , which speedily had their full effects ; to govern the Race of Mankind , even in order to their own Happiness , he employ'd not onely Laws and Commands , but Revelations , Miracles , Promises , Threats , Exhortations , Mercies , Judgments , and divers other Methods and Means ; and yet oftentimes , when he might well say , as he did once by his Prophet , What could I have done more to my Vineyard that I have not done it ? he had just cause to expostulate as he did in the same place , Wherefore , when I looked that it should bring forth grapes , brought it forth wild grapes ? and to complain of men , as by that very Prophet he did even of Israel , I have spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people . But not to wander too far in this digression ; what we have said of Men , may render it probable , that the grand Attributes of God are more signally exercis'd , and made more conspicuous in the making and governing of each of the three Intellectual Communities , than in the framing and upholding the Community of meer bodily things . And since all Immaterial Substances are for that reason naturally Immortal , and the Universal Matter is believ'd so too , possibly those Revolutions , that will happen after the Day of Judgment , wherein though probably not the Matter , yet that state and constitution of it , on whose account it is This World , will be destroyed , and make way for quite new Frames and Sets of things corporeal , and the Beings that compose each of these Intellectual Communities , will , in those numberless Ages they shall last , travel through I know not how many successive changes and adventures ; perhaps , I say , these things will no less display , and bring glory , to the Divine Attributes , than the Contrivance of the world , and the Oeconomy of Man's Salvation , though these be ( and that worthily ) the Objects of the Naturalists and the Divines Contemplation . And there are some passages in the Prophetical part of the Scripture , and especially in the Book of the Apocalypse , which , as they seem to intimate , that as God will perform great and noble things , which Mechanical Philosophy never reach'd to , and which the generality of Divines seem not to have thought of ; so divers of those great things may be , in some measure , discover'd by an attentive Searcher into the Scriptures , and that so much to the advantage of the devout Indagator , that St. John , near the beginning of his Revelations , pronounces them happy , that read the matters contain'd in this Prophecy , and * observe the things written therein . Which implies , that by heedful comparing together the Indications couched in those Prophetick Writings , with Events and Occurrences in the Affairs of the World , and the Church , we may discover much of the admirable Oeconomy of Providence in the Governing of both : And I am prone to think , the early discoveries of such great and important things , to be in Gods account no mean vouchsafements , not onely because of the title of Happy is here given to him that attains them , but because the two persons , to whom the great discoveries of this kind were made , I mean , the Prophet Daniel and St. John , the first is by the Angel said to be , on that account , a person highly favour'd ; and the other is in the Gospel represented as our Saviour's beloved Disciple . And you will the more easily think the foreknowledge of the Divine Dispensations gatherable from Scripture to be highly valuable , if you consider , that , according to St. Paul , those very Angels that are call'd Principalities and Powers in heavenly places , learnt by the Church some abstruse points of the manifold wisdom of God. But I must no longer indulge Speculations , that would carry my Curiosity beyond the bounds of time it self , and therefore beyond those that ought to be plac'd to this occasional excursion . And yet , as on the one side , I shall not allow my self the presumption of framing conjectures about those remote Dispensations , which will not , most of them , have a beginning before this world shall have an end ; so on the other side I would not discourage you , or any pious Inquirer , from endeavouring to advance in the knowledge of those Attributes of God , that may successfully be studied , without prying into the Secrets of the future . And here , Sir , let me freely confess to you , that I am apt to think , that , if men were not wanting to Gods glory , and their own satisfaction , there would be far more Discoveries made , than are yet attain'd to , of the Divine Attributes . When we consider the most simple or uncompounded Essence of God , we may easily be perswaded , that what belongs to Any of His Attributes ( some of which thinking men generally admire ) must be an Object of Enquiry exceeding Noble , and worthy of our knowledge . And yet the abstruseness of this knowledge is not in All particulars so invincible , but that I strongly hope , a Philosophical Eye , illustrated by the Revelations extant in the Scripture , may pierce a great deal farther than has yet been done , into those mysterious Subjects , which are too often ( perhaps out of a mistaken Reverence ) so poorly handled by Divines and Schoolmen , that not onely what they have taught , is not worthy of God ( for that 's a necessary , and therefore excusable , deficiency ) but too frequently it is not worthy of Men , I mean , of Rational Creatures , that take upon them to treat of such high Points , and instruct others about them . And I question not but your Friend will the less scruple at this , if he call to mind those new and handsome Notions about some of the Attributes of God , that his Master Cartesius , though but moderately vers'd in the Scriptures , has presented us with . Nor do I doubt but that a much greater progress might be made in the Discovery of Subjects , where , though we can never know all , we may still know farther , if Speculative Genius's would propose to themselves particular Doubts and Enquiries about particular Attributes , and frame and examine Hypotheses , establish Theorems , draw Corollaries ; and ( in short ) apply to this study the same sagacity , affiduity , and attention of mind , which they often imploy about Inquiries of a very much inferiour nature ; insomuch as Des-Cartes ( how profound a Geometrician soever he were ) confesses in one of his Epistles , that he employ'd no less then six weeks to find the solution of a Problem or question of Pappus . And Pythagoras was so addicted to , and concern'd for Geometrical Speculations , that when he had found that famous Proposition , which makes the 47 th . in Euclid's I. Book , he is recorded to have offer'd a Hecatomb , to express his joy and gratitude for the Discovery : which yet was but of one Property of one sort of Right-lin'd Triangles . And certainly if Christian Philosophers did rightly estimate , how noble and fertile Subjects the Divine Attributes are , they would find in them wherewithall to Exercise their best parts , as well as to Recompence the Imployment of them . But because what I would disswade , does not perhaps proceed onely from Laziness , but from a Mistake ; as if there were little to be known of so Incomprehensible an Object as God , save that in General all his Attributes are like himself , Infinite , and consequently not to be fully Known by Humane Understandings , because They are Finite ; I shall add , that though it be true , that by Reason of God's Infinity , we cannot Comprehend him , that is , have a full and adequate knowledge of him ; yet we may not onely know very many things concerning him , but , which is more , may make an Endless Progress in that Knowledge . As , no doubt , Pythagoras ( newly mention'd ) knew very well what a Triangle was , and was acquainted with divers of its Properties and Affections before he discover'd that famous One. And though since him , Euclid , Archimedes , and other Geometricians have demonstrated , I know not how many other Affections of the same Figure , yet they have not to this day Exhausted the Subject : And possibly , I , ( who pretend not to be a Mathematician ) may now and then in managing certain Aequations I had occasion for , have lighted upon some Theorems about Triangles , that occurr'd not to any of them . The Divine Attributes are such fruitful Themes , and so worthy of our Admiration , that the whole Fabrick of the Universe , and all the Phenomena exhibited in it , are but Imperfect Expressions of Gods Wisdom , and some few of his other Attributes . And I do not much marvel , that the Angels themselves are represented in Scripture as imploy'd in Adoring God , and Admiring his Perfections . For even they being but Finite , can frame but inadequate Conceptions of Him ; and consequently must Endeavour by many of them to make amends for the Incompleatness of every one of them ; which yet they can never but Imperfectly do . And yet Gods Infinity can but very improperly be made a Discouragement of our Enquiries into his Nature and Attributes . For ( not now to examine whether Infinity , though express'd by a Negative word , be not a Positive thing in God ) we may , notwithstanding his Infinity , discover as much of him as our Nature is capable of knowing : And what harm is it to him that is drinking in a River , that he cannot drink up all the water , if he have liberty fully to quench his thirst , and take in as much Liquor as his stomack can contain . Infinity therefore should not hinder us from a Generous Ambition to learn as much as we can of an Object , whose being Infinite does but make our knowledge of it the more noble and desirable , which indeed it is in such a degree , that we need not wonder that the Angels are represented as never weary of their Employment of contemplating and praising God. For , as I lately intimated , that they can have but inadequate Idea's of those boundless Perfections , and by no number of those Idea's can arrive to make amends for the Incompleatness of them ; so it need not seem strange that in fresh Discoveries of new Parts ( if I may so call them ) of the same Object , it being such a one , they should find nobler and happier Entertainments than any where else variety could afford them . The second Section . HAving thus taken notice of some Particulars of those many which may be employ'd to shew , how Noble the Objects are , that Theology proposes to be contemplated ; I now proceed to some Considerations that may make us sensible how great an Obligation there lies on us , to addict our selves to the study of them . Yet of the Particulars whereon this Obligation may be grounded , I shall now name but two , they being indeed comprehensive ones , Obedience , and Gratitude . And first let me represent , that it needs not , I suppose , be solicitously proved , That 't is the Will and Command of God , that men should learn those Truths that he has been pleased to teach , whether concerning his Nature or Attributes , or the way wherein he will be Served and Worshipped by Man. For if we had not Injunctions of Scripture to that purpose , yet your Friend is too Rational a Man to believe , that God would so solemnly cause his Truths to be published to Mankind , both by Preaching and Writing , without Intention to Oblige , those ( at least ) that have the capacity and opportunity to enquire into some of them ; and if it appear to be His will , that a person so qualified , should search after the most important Truths that he hath reveal'd , it cannot but be their duty to do so . For though the nature of the thing it self did not lay any Obligation on us , yet the Authority of Him that Commands it , would : since being the Supreme and Absolute Lord of all His Creatures , he has as well a full right to make what Laws he thinks fit , and enjoyn what service he thinks fit , as a power to punish those that either violate the one , or deny the other ; and accordingly 't is very observable , that before Adam fell , and had forfeited his happy state by his own transgression , he not onely had a Law Impos'd upon him , but such a Law , as , being about a matter it self Indifferent ( for so it was to eat or not to eat of the Tree of Life as well as of any other , ) derived its whole power of obliging from the meer will and pleasure of the Law-giver . Whence we may learn , that Man is subject to the Laws of God , not as he is Obnoxious to him , but as he is a Rational Creature , and that the thing that is not a duty in its own nature , may become an indispensible one barely by its being commanded . And indeed , if our first Parent in the state of Innocency and Happiness , wherein he tasted of Gods Bounty , without , as yet , standing in need of his Mercy , was most strictly obliged out of meer Obedience to conform to a Law , the matter of which was indifferent in it self ; sure we , in our laps'd condition , must be under a high Obligation to obey the declared will of God , whereby we are enjoyned to study his Truths , and perform that which has so much of intrinsick Goodness in it , that it would be a duty , though it were not commanded ; and has such Recompences proposed to it , that it is not more a Duty , then it will be an Advantage . But it is not onely Obedience and Interest that should engage us to the study of Divine things , but Gratitude , and that exacted by so many important Motives , that he who said , Ingratum si dixeris , omnia dixeris , could not think Ingratitude so much worse than ordinary Vices , as a contempt of the Duty I am pressing , would be worse than an ordinary Ingratitude . It were not difficult on this occasion to manifest , that we are extremely great Debtors unto God , both as he is the Authour and the Preserver of our very Beings ; and as he ( immediately or mediately ) fills up the measure of those continual Benefits with all the Prerogatives and other Favours we do receive from him as Men ; and the higher Blessings , which ( if we are not wanting to our selves ) we may receive from him as Christians . But to shew , in how many Particulars , and to how high a Degree , God is our Benefactor , were to lanch out into too Immense a Subject ; which 't were the less proper for me to do , because I have in other Papers discours'd of those matters already . I will therefore single out a Motive of Gratitude , which will be peculiarly pertinent to our present purpose . For whereas your Friend does so highly value himself upon the Study of Natural Philosophy , and despises not onely Divines , but States-men , and even the Learned'st Men in other parts of Philosophy and Knowledge , because they are not vers'd in Physicks ; he ows to God that very Skill , among many other Vouchsafements . For it is God who made Man unlike the Horse and the Mule , who have no understanding , and endow'd him with that noble power of Reason , by the exercise of which he attains to whatever knowledge he has of Natural things above the Beasts that perish . For , that may justly be applied to our other Acquisitions , which Moses , by Gods appointment , told the Israelites concerning the Acquists of Riches ; where he bids the people beware , That when their Herds , and their Flocks , and other Treasures were multipli'd , their heart be not lifted up , and prompt them to say , My power , and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth . But , ( subjoyns that excellent Person , as well as Matchless Law-giver ) Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God , for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth . But to make Men Rational Creatures , is not all God has done towards the making them Philosophers . For , to the knowledge of particular things , Objects are as well requisite as Faculties ; and if we admit the probable Opinion of Divines , who teach us , that the Angels were created before the Material World , as being meant by those Sons of God , and Morning Stars , that with glad Songs and Acclamations celebrated the Foundations of the Earth ; we must allow , that there were many creatures endowed with at least as much Reason as your Friend , who yet were unacquainted with the Mysteries of Nature , since She her self had not yet receiv'd a Being . Wherefore God having as well made the World , as given Man the Faculties whereby he is enabled to contemplate it ; Naturalists are as much obliged to God for their Knowledge , as we are for our Intelligence to those that write us Secrets in Cyphers , and teach us the skill of decyphering things so written ; or to those who write what would fill a Page in the compass of a single Peny , and present us to boot a Microscope to enable us to read it . And as the Naturalist hath peculiar Inducements to Gratitude for the Endowment of Knowledge ; so Ingenuity lays this peculiar Obligation on him to express his Gratitude in the way I have been recommending , That 't is one of the acceptablest ways it can be express'd in ; especially since by this way , Philosophers may not onely exercise their own gratitude towards God , but procure him that of others . How pleasing mens hearty Praises are to God , may appear among other things , by what is said and done by that Royal Poet , whom God was pleased to declare a man after his own heart ; for he introduces God pronouncing , Whoso offereth Praise , glorifieth me ; where the word our Interpreters render offereth , in the Hebrew signifies to Sacrifice ; with which agrees , that else-where those that pay God their Praises , are said to Sacrifice to him the calves of their lips . And that excellent Person , to whom God vouchsafed so particular a Testimony , was so assiduous in this Exercise , that the Book which we , following the Greek , call Psalms , is , in the Original , from the things it most abounds with , called Sepher Tehillim , i. e. The Book of Praises . And to let you see , that many of his Praises were such , as the Naturalist may best give , he exclaims in one place , How manifold are thy works , O Lord ? how wisely hast thou made them , ( as Junius and Tremellius render it , and the Hebrew will bear ) and else-where , The Heavens declare the glory of God , and the Firmament sheweth his handy-work , &c. Again , in another place , I will praise thee , because I am fearfully and wonderfully made . Marvellous are thy works , and that my soul knoweth right well . And not content with many of the like Expressions , he does several times in a devout Transport , and Poetical strain , invite the Heavens , and the Stars , and the Earth , and the Seas , and all the other Inanimate Creatures , to joyn with him in the celebration of their common Maker . Which though it seem to be meerly a Poetical Scheme , yet in some sort it might become a Naturalist , who by making out the Power , Wisdom , and Goodness of the Creator , and by reflecting thence on those Particulars wherein those Attributes shine , may , by such a devout Consideration of the Creatures , make them , in a sense , joyn with him in glorifying their Author . In any other case , I dare say , your Friend is not so ill natur'd , but that he would think it an unkind piece of Ingratitude , if some great and excellent Prince , having freely and transcendently obliged him , he should not concern himself to know what manner of Man his Benefactor is ; and should not be solicitous to inform himself of those particulars , relating to the Person and Affairs of that obliging Monarch , which were not onely in themselves worthy of any mans Curiosity , but about which the Prince had solemnly declar'd he was very desirous to have men Inquisitive . And sure 't is very disingenious , to undervalue or neglect the knowledge of God Himself for a Knowledge which we cannot attain without him , and by which he design'd to bring us to that study we neglect for it : which is not onely not to use him as a Benefactor , but as if he meant to punish him ( if I may so speak ) for having oblieged us , since we so abuse some of his Favours , as to make them Inducements to our Unthankful Disregard of his Intentions in the rest . And this Ingratitude is the more culpable , because the Laws of Ingenuity , and of Justice it self , charge us to Glorifie the Maker of all things visible , not onely upon our own account , but upon that of all his other works . For by Gods endowing of none but Man here below with a Reasonable Soul , not onely he is the sole visible Being that can return Thanks and Praises in the World , and thereby is oblieged to do so , both for himself , and for the rest of the Creation ; but 't is for Mans advantage , that God has left no other visible Beings in the World , by which he can be studied and celebrated . For , Reason is such a Ray of Divinity , that , if God had vouchsafed it to other parts of the Universe besides Man , the absolute Empire of Man over the rest of the World must have been shar'd , or abridg'd . So that he , to whom it was equally easie to make Creatures Superior to Man ( as the Scripture tells us of Legions , and Myriads of Angels ) as to make them Inferiour to him , dealt so obligingly with Mankind , as rather to Trust ( if I may so speak ) our Ingenuity , whether he shall reap any Celebrations from the Creatures we converse with , than Lessen our Empire over them , or our Prerogatives above them . But I fear , that , notwithstanding all the Excellency of reveal'd Truths , and consequently of that onely Authentic Repository of them , the Scripture , you , as well as I , have met with some ( for I hope there are not many ) Virtuosi , that think to excuse the neglect of the study of it , by alledging , that to them who are Lay-men , not Ecclesiasticks , there is requir'd to Salvation the Explicit knowledge but of very few Points , which are so plainly summ'd up in the Apostles Creed , and are so often and conspicuously set down in the Scripture , that one needs not much search or study it to find them there . In answer to this Allegation , I readily grant , that through the great goodness of God , who is willing to have all men saved , and come to the knowledge of the Truth , that is necessary to be so , there are much fewer Articles absolutely necessary to be by all men distinctly believed , than may be met with in divers long Confessions of Faith , some of which have , I fear , less promoted Knowledge than impair'd Charity . But then it may be also consider'd , 1. That 't is not so easie for a Rational Man , that will trouble himself to enquire no farther than the Apostles Creed , to satisfie himself upon good grounds , that all the Fundamental Articles of Christianity are contain'd in it . 2. That the Creed proposes onely the Credenda , not the Agenda of Religion ; whereas the Scriptures were designed , not onely to teach us what Truths we are to believe , but by what Rules we are to live ; the obedience to the Laws of Christianity being as necessary to Salvation , as the belief of its Mysteries . 3. That besides the things which are absolutely necessary , there are several that are highly useful , to make us more clearly understand , and more rationally and firmly believe , and more steadily practise , the points that are necessary . 4. And since , whether or no those words of our Saviour to the Jews , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , be to be rendred in the Imperative or the Indicative Mode ; St. Paul would have the word of Christ to dwell richly in us , ( by which , whether he mean the holy Scriptures then extant , or the Doctrine of Christ , is not here material ; ) thereby teaching us , that searching into the matters of Religion may become necessary as a Duty , though it were not otherwise necessary as a Means of attaining Salvation . And indeed 't is far more pardonable to want or miss the knowledge of Truths , than to despise or neglect it . And the goodness of God to illiterate or mistaken persons , is to be suppos'd meant in pity to our Frailties , not to encourage our Laziness ; nor is it necessary , that he that pardons those Seekers of his Truths that miss them , should excuse those Despisers that will not seek them . But whether or no by this design'd neglect of Theology the persons , I deal with , do sufficiently consult their own safety , I doubt they will not much recommend their Ingenuity . For to have received from God a greater measure of Intellectual Abilities than the generality of Christians , and yet willingly to come short of very many of them , in the knowledge of the Mysteries and other Truths of Christianity , which he often invites us , if not expresly commands , to search after , is a course that will not relish of over-much gratitude . Is it a piece of That , and of Ingenuity , to receive ones Understanding and ones Hopes of Eternal Felicity from the Goodness of God , without being sollicitous of what may be known of his Nature and Purposes by so excellent a way as his own Revelation of them ? To dispute anxiously about the Properties of an Atome , and be careless about the Inquiry into the Attributes of the great God , who formed all things ; to investigate the spontaneous generation of such vile Creatures as Insects , than the Mysterious Generation of the Adorable Son of God ; and , in a word , to be more concern'd to know every thing that makes a Corporeal part of the World , than the Divine and Incorporeal Authour of the whole ? And then , is it not , think you , a great piece of respect , that these men pay to those Truths , which God thought fit to send sometimes Prophets and Apostles , sometimes Angels , and sometimes his onely Son himself to reveal , that such Truths are so little valued by them , that rather than take the pains to study them , they will implicitly , and at adventures believe , what that Society of Christians , they chance to be born and bred in , have ( truly or falsly ) delivered concerning them ? And does it argue a due regard to points of Religion , that those , who would not believe a Proposition in Staticks , perhaps about a meer Point , the Centre of Gravity , or in Geometry , about the Properties of some nameless curve Line , or some such other things , ( which to ignore , is usually not a blemish , and about which , to be mistaken , is more usually without danger , ) should yet take up the Articles of Faith , concerning matters of great and everlasting Consequence , upon the Authority of Men , Fallible as themselves , when satisfaction may be had without them from the Infallible Word of God ? In this very unlike those Bereans , whom the Evangelist honours with the Title of Noble , that when the Doctrines of the Gospel were proposed to them , they searched the Scriptures daily , whether those things were so . Again , if a man should refuse to learn to read any more , than just as much as may serve his turn , by intituling him to the benefit of the Clergy , to save him from hanging , would these men think so small a measure of Literature , as he had acquir'd on such an account , could prove that man to be a Lover of Learning ; and yet a neglecter of the study of all not absolutely necessary-Divine Truths , during ones life , because the belief of the Articles of the Creed may make a shift to keep him from being doom'd to Hell for Ignorance after his death , will not by ( what in a Learned man must be ) so pitiful a degree of knowledge be much better intitled to that Ingenuous Love of God and his Truths , that becomes a Rational Creature and a Christian . The antient Prophets , though honour'd by God with direct Illuminations , were yet very solicitous to find out and learn the very Circumstances of the Evangelical Dispensations , which yet they did not know . And some of the Gospel Mysteries are of so noble and excellent a nature , that the Angels themselves desire to look into them . And though all the Evangelical Truths are not precisely necessary to be known , it may be both a Duty not to despise the study of them , and a Happiness to employ our selves about it . It was the earnest Prayer of a great King , and no less a Prophet , that his eyes might be opened to behold ( not the obvious and necessary Truths , but ) the wondrous things of Gods Law. He is pronounced Happy in the beginning of the Apocalypse , that reads and observes the things contain'd in that dark and obscure part of Scripture . And 't is not onely those Truths that make Articles of the Creed , but divers other Doctrines of the Gospel , that Christ himself judged worthy to be concluded with this Epiphonema , He that hath ears to hear , let him hear ; on which the excellent Grotius makes this just Paraphrase , Intellectus nobis à Deo potissimum datus est , ut eum intendamus documentis ad pietatem pertinentibus The third Section . I Come now to our third and last Inducement to the study of Divine things , which consists in , and comprises the Advantages of that study , which do as much surpass those of all other Contemplations , as Divine things transcend all other Objects . And indeed , the utility of this study is so pregnant a Motive , and contains in it so many Invitations , that your Friend must have as little sense of Interest as of Gratitude , if he can neglect such powerful and such ingaging Invitations . For , in the first place , Theological studies ought to be highly endeared to us by the Delightfulness of considering such noble and worthy Objects as are therein propos'd . The famous Answer given by an excellent Philosopher , who being ask'd what he was born for , repli'd , To contemplate the Sun , may justly recommend their choice , who spend their time in contemplating the Maker of the Sun , to whom that glorious Planet it self is but a shadow . And perhaps that Philosopher failed more in the Instance than in the Notion : For his Answer implies , That Man's End and Happiness consists in the exercise of his noblest Faculties on the noblest Objects . And surely the seat of Formal Happiness being the Soul , and that Happiness consequently consisting in the Operations of her Faculties ; as the Supreme Faculty of the Mind is the Understanding , so the highest Pleasures may be expected from the due Exercise of it upon the sublimest and worthiest Objects . And therefore I wonder not , that though some of the School-men would assign the Will a larger share in Mans Felicity , than they will allow the Intellect ; yet the generality of them are quite of another mind , and ascribe the Preheminence in point of Felicity to the Superiour Faculty of the Soul. But , whether or no this Opinion be true in all Cases , it may at least be admitted in ours : For , the chief Objects of a Christian Philosophers Contemplation , being as well the Infinite Goodness , as the other boundless Perfections of God , they are naturally fitted to excite in his mind an ardent love of that adorable Being , and those other joyous Affections and virtuous Dispositions , that have made some men think Happiness chiefly seated in the Will. But having intimated thus much by the way , I pass on to add , That the contentment afforded by the assiduous discovery of God and Divine Mysteries , has so much of affinity with the Pleasures , that shall make up mens Blessedness in Heaven it self , that they seem rather to differ in Degree than in Kind . For , the happy state even of Angels is by our Saviour represented by this Imployment , that they continually see the face of his Father who is in Heaven . And the same infallible Teacher , intending elsewhere to express the Celestial Joys that are reserv'd for those , who for Their sake deny'd themselves sensual Pleasures , imploys the Vision of God as an Emphatical Periphrase of Felicity , Blessed , said he , are the pure in heart , for they shall see God. And as Aristotle teaches , that the Soul doth after a sort become that which it Speculates , St. Paul and St. John assure us , that God is a transforming Object , and that in Heaven we shall be like him , for ( or , because ) we shall see him as he is . And though I readily admit , that this Beatisick Vision of God , wherein the Understanding is the proper Instrument , includes divers other things which will concur to the compleat Felicity of the future Life ; yet I think , we may be allowed to argue , that that ravishing Contemplation of Divine Objects , will make no small part of that happy Estate , which in these Texts take its Denomination from it . I have above intimated , that the Scripture attributes to the Angels themselves Transports of Wonder and Joy upon the Contemplation of God , and the Exercises they consider of his Wisdom , Justice , or some other of his Attributes . But least in referring you to the Angels , you should say , that I do in this Discourse lay aside the Person of a Naturalist , in favour of Divines ; I will refer you to Des Cartes himself , whom I am sure your Friend will allow to have been a rigid Philosopher , if ever there were any . Thus then speaks he in that Treatise , where he thinks he imploys a more than Mathematical Rigor ; and where he was obliged to utter those ( I had almost said Passionate ) words , I am going to cite from him , onely by the Impressions made on him by the transcendent Excellency of the Ob●●… he Contemplated ; Sed priusquam ( says he ) hoc diligentius examinem , simulque in alias veritates quae inde colligi possunt , inquiram , placet hic aliquandiu in ipsius Dei contemplatione immorari , ejus attributa apud me expendere , & immensi hujus Luminis pulchritudinem , quantum caligantis Ingenii mei acies ferre poterit , intueri , admirari , adorare . Ut enim in hac sola Divinae Majestatis Contemplatione summam alterius vitae felicitatem ex consistere fide credimus ; ita etiam jam ex eadem , licet multo minus perfecta , maximam , cujus in hac vita capaces simus , voluptatem , percipi posse experimur . But as high a satisfaction as the study of Divine things affords by the Nobleness of its Object , the Contentment is not much Inferiour that accrues from the same study upon the score of the Sense of a mans having in it performed his Duty . To make actions of this nature satisfactory to us , there is no need , that the things we are employ'd about , should in themselves be Excellent or Delightful ; the inward gratulations of Conscience for having done our Duties is able to ●●…d the bitterest Pills , and , like the Wood that grew by the Waters of Marah , to correct and sweeten that Liquor , which before was the most distastful . Those antient Pagan Heroes , whose Vertues may make us blush , being guided but by natural Reason , and innate Principles of Moral Virtues , could find the most difficult and most troublesome Duties , upon the bare account of their being Duties , not onely Tolerable but Pleasant . And though to deny some Lusts be , in our Saviours esteem , no less uneasie , then for a man to pluck out his right eye , or cut off his right hand ; yet even Ladies have with satisfaction chosen , not onely to deny themselves the greatest Pleasures of the Senses , but to Sacrifice the Seat of them , the Body it self , to preserve the Satisfaction of being Chaste . Nor are they onely the Dictates of Obedience that we comply with in this study , but those of Gratitude ; and that is a Vertue that has so powerful an Ascendant upon Ingenuous Minds , that those , whose Principles and Aims were not elevated by Religion , have , in acknowledgment to their Parents and their Countrey , courted the greatest Hardships , and Hazards , and Sufferings , as if they were as great Delights and Advantages . And a gratefull Person spends no part of his Life to his greater satisfaction , than that which he ventures or imploys for those to whom he is oblieged for it ; and oftentimes finds a greater Contentment even in the difficultest Acknowledgments of a favour , than he did in Receiving of it . Another Advantage , and that no mean one , that may accrue from the Contemplation of Theological Truths , is , the Improvement of the Contemplator himself in point of Piety and Virtue . For , as the Gospel is styl'd , The mystery of godliness ; and St. Paul elsewhere calls what it teaches , The truth which is according to godliness , that is , a Doctrine fram'd and fitted to promote the Interest of Piety and Virtue in the World : so this Character and Encomium belongs ( though perhaps not equally ) to the more Retir'd Truths discover'd by Speculation , as well as to those more Obvious ones , that are familiarly taught in Catechisms and Confessions of Faith. I would by no means lessen the Excellency and Prerogatives of Fundamentals ; but , since the grand and noblest Engagements to Piety and Virtue , are a high Veneration for God and his Christ , and an ardent Love of them ; I cannot but think , that those particular Inquiries , that tend to make greater Discoveries of the Attributes of God , of the Nature , and Offices , and Life of our Saviour , and of the Wisdom and Goodness they have display'd in the Contrivance and Effecting of Man's Redemption ; do likewise tend to Increase our Admiration , and Inflame our Love , for the Possessors of such Divine Excellencies , and the Authors of such invaluable Benefits . And as the Brazen Serpent , that was but a Type of one of the Gospel Mysteries , brought Recovery to those that look'd up to it ; so the Mysteries themselves , being duly consider'd , have had a very Sanative Influence on many that contemplated Them. Nor is it likely , that he that discerns more of the depth of Gods Wisdom and Goodness , should not , caeteris paribus , be more disposed than others to Admire him , to Love him , to Trust him , and so to resign up himself to be Governed by him : Which frame of mind both is it self a great Part of the Worship of God , and doth directly tend to the Production and Increase of those Vertues , without the practise of which , the Scripture plainly tells us , that we can neither Obey God , nor express our Love to him . And from this Bettering of the mind by the study of Theology , will flow ( to add that upon the by ) another Benefit , namely , that by giving us a higher value for God and his Truths , it will endear Heaven to us , and so not onely assist us to come Thither , but heighten our Felicity There . I know it may be said , that the Melioration of the mind is but a Moral Advantage . But give me leave to Answer , that , besides that 't is such a Moral Advantage as supposes an Intellectual Improvement whose fruit it is , a Moral Benefit may be great enough , even in the Judgment of a meer Philosopher , and an Epicurean , to deserve as much study as Natural Philosophy it self . And that you may not think that I speak this onely , because I write in this Epistle as a Friend to Divines , I will tell you , that Epicurus himself , who has now adays so numerous a Sect of Naturalists to follow him , studied Physicks , and writ so many Treatises about them for this End , that by knowing the Natural Causes of Thunder , Lightning , and other dreadful Phaenomena , the Mind might be freed from the disquieting Apprehensions Men commonly had , that such strange and formidable things proceeded from some incensed Deity , and so might trouble the Mind , as well as the Air. This account I have been giving of Epicurus his Design , is but what seems plainly enough intimated by his own words , preserved us by Laertius , near the end of his Physiological Epistle to Herodotus , where recommending to him the consideration of what he had delivered about Physical Principles in general , and Meteors in particular , he subjoyns , Si enim ab istis non discesserimus , tum id unde oritur perturbatio , quodque metum ingerit , recta cum ratione edisseremus , nosque ab ipsis eximemus . And to this in the close of his Meteorological Epistle to Pythocles , his best Interpreter , Gassendus , makes him speak consonantly , in these words , Maxime veró dede teipsum speculationi Principiorum , ex quibus constant omnia , & Infinitatis Naturae , aliorumque his cohaerentium Insuper veró & Criteriorum , affectuumque animi , & scopum illius in quem ista edisserentes collineavimus , attende , Tranquillitatem intelligo statumque mentis imperturbatum . But this is not all the Testimony I can give you from Epicurus himself to the same purpose , for among his Ratae Sententiae , preserved us by Laertius , ( himself reputed an Epicurean ) I find one that goes further ; Si nihil ( says he ) conturbaret nos quod suspicamur , veremu que ex rebus sublimibus , neque item quod ex ipsa morte , ne quando nimirum ad nos pertine at aliquid , ac nosse praeterea possemus , qui Germani fines dolorum atque cupiditatum sint ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) nihil Physiologiâ indigeremus . Thus far the testimony of Epicurus , of whose mind though I am not at all , as to what he would intimate , That Physiology is either proper to free the Mind from the Belief of a Provident Deity , and the Souls Immortality , or fit for no other considerable purposes ; yet this use we may well make of these Declarations , that , in Epicurus's opinion , a Moral Advantage that relates to the Government of the Affections , may deserve the pains of making Inquiries into Nature . And since it hence appears , that a meer Philosopher , who admitted no Providence , may think it worth his pains , to search into the abstrusest parts of Physicks , and the difficultest Phaenomena of Nature , onely to ease himself of one troublesome Affection , Fear ; it need not be thought Unphilosophical , to prosecute a Study , that will not onely Restrain One undue Passion , but Advance All Vertues , and free us from all Servile Fears of the Deity ; and tend to give us a strong and well-grounded Hope in Him ; and make us look upon Gods greatest Power , not with Terrour , but with Joy. There is yet another Advantage belonging to the study of Divine Truths , which is too great to be here pretermitted . For whereas there is scarce any thing more incident to us whilst we inhabit our ( Batté Chómer ) Cottages of Clay , and dwell in this vale of tears , than Afflictions ; it ought not a little to endear to us the newly mention'd Study , that it may be easily made to afford us very powerful Consolations in that otherwise uneasie state . I know it may be said , that the Speculations about which the Naturalist is busied , are as well pleasing Diversions , as noble Imployments of the Mind . And I deny not that they are often so , when the Mind is not hinder'd from applying it self attentively to them ; so that Afflictions slight and short may well be weather'd out by these Philosophical Avocations ; but the Greater and Sharper sort of Afflictions , and the approaches of Death , require more powerful Remedies , than these Diversions can afford us . For in such cases , the Mind is wont to be too much discompos'd , to apply the attention requisite to the finding a pleasure in Physical Speculations ; and in Sicknesses , the Soul is oftentimes as indispos'd to relish the Pleasures of meerly Humane Studies , as the languishing Body is to relish those Meats , which at other times were delightful : And there are but few that can take any great pleasure to study the World , when they apprehend themselves to be upon the point of being driven out of it , and in danger of losing all their share in the Objects of their Contemplation . It will not much qualifie our Sense of the burning heat of a Feaver , or the painful gripes of the Cholick , to know , That the three Angles of a Triangle are equal to two Right ones ; or that Heat is not a real Quality ( as the Schools would have it , ) but a Modification of the Motion of the Insensible parts of Matter ; and Pain not a Distinct , Inherent Quality in the things that produce it , but an Affection of the Sentiment . The Naturalists Speculations afford him no Consolations that are extraordinary in , or peculiar to , the state of Affliction ; and the Avocations they present him with , do rather Amuse the mind from an Attention to lesser Evils , than bring it any Advantages to Remove or Compensate them ▪ and so work rather in the nature of Opiates , than of true Cordials . But now , if such a Person as Dr. N. falls into Adversity , the case is much otherwise ; for we must consider , that when the study of Divine things is such as it ought to be , though , That in it self , or in the Nature of the Imployment , be an act or exercise of Reason ; yet being apply'd to , out of Obedience , and Gratitude , and Love to God , it is upon the account of its Motives , and its Aim , an act of Religion ; and as it proceeds from Obedience , and Thankfulness , and Love to God , so it is most acceptable to him ; and upon the account of his own Appointment , as well as Goodness , is a most proper and effectual means of obtaining his Favour ; and then I presume , it will easily be granted , that he who is so happy as to enjoy That , can scarce be made miserable by Affliction . For not now to enter upon the Common-place of the Benefits of Afflictions to them that love God , and to them that are lov'd by him , it may suffice , that he who ( as the Scripture speaks ) knows our frame , and has promised those that are his , that they shall not be Over-burden'd , is dispos'd and wont to give his afflicted Servants , both extraordinary Comforts in Afflictions , and Comforts appropriated to that state . For though Natural Philosophy be like its brightest Object , the Stars , which , however the Astronomer can with pleasure Contemplate them , are unable , being meer Natural Agents , to afford him a kinder Influence than usual , in case he be cast upon his Bed of Languishing , or into Prison ; yet the Almighty and Compassionate Maker of the Stars , being not onely a Voluntary , but the most Free , Agent , can suit and proportion his Reliefs to our Necessities , and alleviate our heaviest Afflictions by such supporting Consolations , that not onely they can never surmount our Patience , but are oftentimes unable so much as to hinder our Joy ; and when Death , that King of Terrours , presents it self , whereas the meer Naturalist sadly expects to be depriv'd of the pleasure of his knowledge by losing those Senses and that World , which are the Instruments and the Objects of it ; and perhaps ( discovering beyond the Grave nothing but either a state of Eternal Destruction , or of Eternal Misery , ) fears either to be Confin'd for ever to the Sepulchre , or expos'd to Torments that will make even such a Condition desirable ; the pious Student of Divine Truths , is not onely freed from the wracking Apprehensions of having his Soul reduc'd to a state of Annihilation , or cast into Hell , but enjoys a comfortable expectation of finding far greater Satisfaction than ever in the Study he now rejoyces to have pursu'd ; since the change , that is so justly formidable to others , will but bring him much nearer to the Divine O●jects of his devout Curiosity , and strangely Elevate and Inlarge his Faculties to apprehend them . And this leads me to the mention of the last Advantage belonging to the study I would perswade you to ; and indeed , the highest Advantage that can recommend Any Study , or invite Men to any Undertaking ; for this is no less than the Everlasting fruition of the Divine Objects of our Studies hereafter , and the comfortable Expectation of it here . For the employing of ones time and parts , to admire the Nature and Providence of God , and contemplate the Divine Mysteries of Religion , as it is one of the chief of those Homages and Services , whereby we Venerate and Obey God ; so it is one of those , to which he hath been pleased to apportion no less a Recompence , than ( that which can have no greater ) the Enjoyment of Himself . The Saints and Angels in Heaven have divers of them been employ'd to convey the Truths of Theology , and are sollicitous to look into those Sacred Mysteries ; and God hath been pleased to appoint , that those men who study the same Lessons that they do here , shall study them in their company hereafter . And doubtless , though Heaven abound with unexpressible Joys , yet it will be none of the least that shall make up the Happiness even of that Place , that the Knowledge of Divine things , that was here so zealously Pursu'd , shall there be compleatly Attain'd . For those things that do here most excite our Desires , and quicken the Curiosity and Industry of our Searches , will not onely there Continue , but be Improv'd to a far greater measure of Attractiveness and Influence . For all those Interests , and Passions , and Lusts , that here below either hinder us from clearly Discerning , or keep us from sufficiently Valuing , or divert us from attentively enough Considering , the Beauty and Harmony of Divine Truths , will there be either abolish'd , or transfigur'd : And as the Object will be Unveil'd ; so our Eye will be Enlighten'd , that is , as God will there disclose those worthy Objects of the Angels Curiosity , so he will Inlarge our Faculties , to enable us to gaze without being dazl'd upon those sublime and radiant Truths , whose Harmony as well as Splendor we shall be then qualifi'd to Discover , and consequently with Transports to Admire . And this Enlargement and Elevation of our Faculties , will , proportionably to its own measure , Increase our Satisfaction at the Discoveries it will enable us to make . For Theology is like a Heaven , which wants not more Stars than appear in it , but we want Eyes , quick-sighted and piercing enough to reach them . And as the Milky Way , and other Whiter parts of the Firmament , have been full of Immortal Lights from the beginning , and our new Telescopes have not plac'd , but found them , there ; so , when our Saviour , after his glorious Resurrection , instructed his Apostles to teach the Gospel , 't is not said that he alter'd any thing in the Scriptures of Moses and the Prophets , but onely open'd and enlarg'd their Intellects , that they might understand the Scriptures : And the Royal Prophet makes it his Prayer , That God would be pleased to open his eyes , that he might see wonderful things out of the Law ; being ( as was above intimated ) so well satisfi'd , that the Word of God wanted not Admirable things , that he is onely sollicitous for the Improvement of his own Eyes , that they might be qualifi'd to discern them . I had almost forgotten one particular , about the Advantages of Theological Studies , that is too considerable to be left unmention'd : For as great as I have represented the Benefits accruing from the Knowledge of Divine Truths ; yet to endear them to us , it may be safely added , that , to procure us these Benefits , the actual Attainment of that Knowledge is not always absolutely Necessary , but a hearty Endeavour after it may suffice to entitle Us to them . The patient Chymist , that consumes himself and his Estate in seeking after the Philosophers Stone , if he miss of his Idoliz'd Elixir , had as good , nay better , have never sought it , and remains as poor in Effect , as he was rich in Expectation . The Husbandman that employs his Seed and Time , to obtain from the Ground a plentiful Harvest , if , after all , an unkind Season happen , must see his toil made fruitless ; — longique perit labor irritus Anni . Too many Patients , that have punctually done and suffer'd for Recovery all that Physicians could prescribe , meet at last with Death in stead of Health . You know what entertainment has been given by skilful Geometricians to the laborious endeavours , even of such famous Writers as Scaliger , Longomontanus , and other Tetragonists ; and that their Successor Mr. Hobbs , after all the ways he has taken , and those he has propos'd , to Square the Circle , and Double the Cube , by missing of his end , has , after his various attempts , come off , not onely with Disappointment , but with Disgrace . And ( to give an Instance even in things Celestial ) how much pains has been taken to find out Longitudes , and make Astrological Precictions with some certainty , which for want of coming up to what they aimed at , have been useless , if not prejudicial to the Attempters . But God ( to speak with St. Paul on another occasion ) that made the world , and all things therein , and is Lord of heaven and earth , seeks not our Services , as though He needed any thing , seeing he giveth Life , and Breath , and all things : His Self-sufficiency and Bounty are such , that He seeks in our Obedience the Occasions of rewarding it , and prescribes us Services , because the Practise of them is not onely sutable to our Rational Nature , but such as will prevail with his Justice , to let His Goodness make our Persons happy . Agreeably to this Doctrine we find in the Scripture , that Abraham is said to have been justified by faith , when he offered his son Isaac upon the Altar , ( though he did not Actually sacrifice him ) because he endeavour'd to do so ; although , God graciously accepting the Will for the Deed , accepted also of the bloud of a Ram instead of Isaac's . And thus we know , that 't was not David , but Solomon that built the Temple of Hierusalem , and yet God says to the former of those Kings ( as we are told by the latter ) For asmuch as it was in thine heart to build an House for my name thou didst well in that it was in thine heart ; notwithstanding thou shalt not build the House , &c. And if we look to the other Circumstances of this Story , as they are delivered in the Second Book of Samuel , we shall find , that upon David's declaration of a design to build God an house , God himself vouchsafes to honour him , as he once did Moses , with the peculiar Title of His Servant ; and commands the Prophet to say to him , Also the Lord tells thee , that He will make Thee an House : To which is added one of the graciousest Messages that God ever sent to any particular man. By which we may learn , that God approves and accepts even those Endeavours ( of his Servants ) if they be real and sincere , that never come to be actually accomplished : Good Designs and Endeavours are our part , but the events of those , as of all other things , are in the All-disposing hand of God , who , if we be not wanting to what lies in us , will not suffer us to be Losers by the defeating Dispositions of his Providence ▪ but crown our endeavours either with Success , or with some other Recompence , that will keep us from being Losers by missing of that . And indeed , if we consider the great Elogies that the Scripture , as well frequently as justly , gives God's Goodness ( which it represents as Over , or as Above , all his Works ) and that his purer eyes Punish , as well as See , the Murder and Adultery of the heart , when those Intentional sins are hinder'd from advancing into Actual ones ; we can scarce doubt but He , whose Justice punishes sinful Aims , will allow his Infinite Goodness to recompense pious Attempts : And therefore our Saviour pronounces them blessed , that hunger and thirst after righteousness , assuring Them that they shall be satisfi'd , and thereby sufficiently intimating to us , That an earnest Desire after a Spiritual Grace ( and such is the knowledge of Divine things ) may entitle a man to the complete Possession of it , if not in This life , yet in the Next , where we shall not any more walk by Faith , but by Sight , and obtain as well a Knowledge as other Endowments , befitting that Glorious state , wherein the Purchaser of it for Us , assures us , that we shall be [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] equal , or like to the Angels . The Considerations , Sir , I have hitherto laid before you , to recommend the Study of Divine Truths , have , I hope , perswaded you , That 't is on many accounts both noble and eligible in it self ; and therefore I shall here conclude the First Part of this Discourse . And in regard that the Undervaluation Physiophilus expresses for that excellent Imployment , seems to flow ( chiefly at least ) from his fondness and partiality for Natural Philosophy ; it will next concern us to compare the study of Theology with that of Physicks , and show , that the Advantages which your Friend alledges in favour of the Latter , are partly much lessen'd by disadvantageous Circumstances , and partly much out-weigh'd by the Transcendent Excellencies of Theological Contemplations : The study whereof will thereby appear to be not onely Eligible in it self , but Preferrible to its Rival . And I must give you warning to expect to find the Second Part , which the making this Comparison challenges to it self , a good deal more Prolix than the First ; not onely because it often requires more trouble , and more words to detect and disprove an Errour , than to make out a Truth ; but also because that divers things tending to the Credit of Divinity , and which consequently might have been brought into the First Part of this Discourse , were thought more fit to be interwoven with other things , in the Answers made to the Objections examin'd in the Second . THE EXCELLENCY OF THEOLOGY : OR , The Preeminence of the Study of Divinity , above that of Natural Philosophy . THE SECOND PART . I Shall , without Preamble , begin this Discourse , by considering the Delightfulness of Physicks , as the main thing that inveigles your Friend , and divers other Virtuosi , from relishing , as they ought , and otherwise would , the pleasantness of Theological Discoveries . And to deal ingenuously with you , I shall not scruple to acknowledge , that though the Address I have made to Nature has lasted several years , and has been toilsome enough , and not unexpensive ; yet I have been pleas'd enough with the favours , such as they are , that she has from time to time accorded me , not to complain of having been unpleasantly imploy'd . But though I readily allow the attainments of Naturalists to be able to give Philosophical Souls sincerer Pleasures , than those that the more undiscerning part of Mankind is so fond of ; yet I must not therefore allow them to surpass , or even equal , the Contentment , that may accrue to a Soul qualified by Religion , to relish the best things most from some kind of Theological Contemplations . This , I presume , will sufficiently appear , if I shew you , that the Study of Physiology is not unattended with considerable Inconveniencies , and that the pleasantness of it may be , by a Person studious of Divinity , enjoy'd with endearing Circumstances . But before I name any of the particular Reasons that I am to represent , I fear it may be requisite to interpose a few words , to obviate a mistake , which , if not prevented , may have an ill aspect , not onely upon the first Section , but upon a great part of the following Discourse . For I know that it may be said , that whereas I alledge divers things , to lessen the lately mentioned delightfulness of the study of Physic , and to depreciate some other advantages , by which the following Sections would recommend it , some of the same things may be objected against the delightfulness of the study of Divinity . But this Objection will not , I presume , much move you , if you consider the argument and scope of the two parts of this Letter . For in the former I have shewn by positive Proofs , that the study of Theology is attended with divers advantages , which belong to it , either onely as some of them do , or principally as others . And now in the second part I come to consider , whether what is alledged in behalf of the study of Philosophy , deserve to counter-ballance those Prerogatives or Advantages ; and therefore it neither need be , nor is my design , to compare , for instance , the delightfulness of the two studies , Philosophy and Physicks , but by shewing the Inconveniences that allay the latter , to weaken the Argument that is drawn from that delightfulness , to conclude it preferrable to the study of Theology . So that my work , in this and the following Sections , is , not so much to institute Comparisons , as to obviate or answer Allegations . For since I have in the past Discourse grounded the Excellency of the study of Divinity , chiefly upon those great advantages that are peculiar to it ; my Reasonings would not be frustrated , though it should appear , that in point of Delightfulness , Certainty , &c. that Study should , in many cases , be liable to the same Objections with the Study of Nature , since 't is not mainly for these Qualities , but , as I was saying , for other and peculiar Excellencies that I recommended Divinity , And therefore , supposing the Delightfulness , &c. of that and of Physicks , to be allayed by the same , or equal Inconveniences or Imperfections ; that Supposition would not hinder the Scales to be swayed in favour of Divinity , upon the score of those Advantages that are unquestion'd , and peculiarly belong to it . I know not whether I need add , that , notwithstanding this , you are not to expect , that I should give Philosophy the wounds of an Enemy . For my design being not to discourage you , nor any Ingenious man , from courting Her at all , nor from courting Her much , but from courting her too much , and despising Divinity for her , I employ against her not a Sword to wound her , but a Ballance , to shew , that her Excellencies , though solid and weighty , are less so , than the preponderating ones of Theology . And this temper and purpose of mine renders my Task difficult enough to have , perhaps , some right to your pardon ▪ as well as some need of it , if I do not every where steer so exactly , as equally to avoid injuring the Cause I am to plead for , and disparaging a Study , which I would so little depreciate , that I allow it a great part of my Inclinations , and not a little share of my Time. And having said this , to keep the Design of this Discourse from being misunderstood , I hope we may now proceed to the particulars , whose scope we have been declaring . Returning then to what I was about to say before this long , but needful , Advertisement interrupted me , I shall resume my Discourse of the Delightfulness of the Study of Physicks , about which I was going in the first place to tell you , that I know you and your Friend will freely grant me , that the knowledge of the empty and barren Physiology , that is taught in the Schools , as it exacts not much pains to be acquir'd , so it affords but little satisfaction when attain'd . And as I know you will give me leave to say this ; so , being warranted by no slight experience of my own , I shall take leave to say also , that the study of that Experimental Philosophy , which is that whereof your Friend is so much enamour'd , is , if it be duly prosecuted , a very troublesome and laborious Imployment . For , ( to mention at present but This ) that great variety of Objects the Naturalist is not onely by His Curiosity , but by Their secret dependances upon one another , engag'd to consider , and several ways to handle , will put him upon needing , and consequently upon applying himself to such a Variety of Mechanick People , ( as Distillers , Drugsters , Smiths , Turners , &c. ) that a great part of his time , and perhaps all his Patience , shall be spent in waiting upon Trades-men , and repairing the losses he sustains by Their disappointments , which is a Drudgery greater than any , who has not try'd it , will imagine , and which yet being as inevitable as unwelcome , does very much counter-ballance and allay the Delightfulness of the Study we are treating of . In which so great a part of a mans care and time must be laid out in providing the Apparatus'es necessary for the trying of Experiments . But this is not all . For when you have brought an Experiment to an Issue , though the Event may often prove such as you will be pleas'd with ; yet it will seldome prove such as you can acquiesce in . For it fares not with an Inquisitive mind in studying the Book of Nature , as in reading of Aesop's Fables , or some other collection of Apologues of differing sorts , and independant one upon another ; where when you have read over as many at one time as you think fit , you may leave off when you please , and go away with the pleasure of understanding those you have perus'd , without being sollicited by any troublesome Itch of Curiosity to look after the rest , as those which are needful to the better understanding of those you have already gone over , or that will be explicated by them , and scarce without them . But in the Book of Nature , as in a well contriv'd Romance , the parts have such a connection and relation to one another , and the things we would discover are so darkly or incompleatly knowable by those that precede them , that the mind is never satisfied till it comes to the end of the Book ; till when all that is discover'd in the progress , is unable to keep the mind from being molested with Impatience to find that yet conceal'd , which will not be known till one does at least make a further progress . And yet the full discovery of Natures Mysteries , is so unlikely to fall to any mans share in this Life , that the case of the Pursuers of them is at best like theirs , that light upon some excellent Romance , of which they shall never see the latter parts . For indeed ( to speak now without a Simile ) there is such a Relation betwixt Natural Bodies , and they may in so many ways ( and divers of them unobserv'd ) work upon , or suffer from , one another , that he who makes a new Experiment , or discovers a new Phaenomenon , must not presently think , that he has discover'd a new Truth , or detected an old Error . For , ( at least if he be a considering man ) he will oftentimes find reason to doubt , whether the Experiment or Observation have been so skilfully and warily made in all circumstances , as to afford him such an Account of the matter of fact , as a severe Naturalist would desire . And then , supposing the Historical part no way defective , there are far more Cases than are taken notice of , wherein so many differing Agents may produce the exhibited Phaenomenon , or have a great Influence upon the Experiment or Observation , that he must be less jealous than becomes a Philosopher , to whom Experiments doe not oftentimes as well suggest new doubts , as present new Phaenomena . And even those Trials , that end in real Discoveries , do , by reason of the connection of Physical Truths , and the relations that Natural Bodies have to one another , give such hopes and such desires of improving the Acquists we have already made , to the explicating of other Difficulties , or the making of further Discoveries , that an Inquisitive Naturalist finds his work to increase daily upon his hands , and the event of his past Toils , whether it be good or bad , does but engage him into new ones , either to free himself from his scruples , or improve his successes . So that , though the pleasure of making Physical Discoveries , is , in it self consider'd , very great ; yet this does not a little impair it , that the same attempts which afford that delight , do so frequently beget both anxious Doubts , and a disquieting Curiosity . So that , if knowledge be , as some Philosophers have styl'd it , the Aliment of the Rational Soul , I fear I may too truly say , that the Naturalist is usually fain to live upon Sallads and Sauces , which though they yield some nourishment , excite more appetite than they satisfie , and give us indeed the pleasure of eating with a good stomach , but then reduce us to an unwelcome necessity of always rising hungry from the Table . Of divers things , that lessen the Delightfulness of Physiological Studies , I do so amply discourse in other Papers , that I might well remit you thither ; but indeed it is not necessary that I should insist on this Argument any further . 'T is true , that such a Reference might be very proper , if the Mysteries of Theology and Physick were like those of Theology and Necromancy , or some other part of unlawful Magick , whereof the former could not be well relish'd without an abhorrence of the latter . But as the two great Books , of Nature and of Scripture , have the same Authour ; so the study of the latter does not at all hinder an Inquisitive man's delight in the study of the former . The Doctor I am pleading for , may as much relish a Physical Discovery , as Physiophilus ; nay , by being addicted to Theology and Religion , he is so far from being uncapable of the contentments accruing from the study of Nature , that beside those things that recommend it to others , there are several things that peculiarly endear it to Him. For I. he has the contentment to look upon the wonders of Nature , not onely as the Productions of an admirably wise Author of things , but of such an one as he intirely honours and loves , and to whom he is related . He that reads an excellent Book , or sees some rare Engine , will be otherwise affected with the sight or the perusal , if he knows it to have been made by a Friend , or a Parent , than if he considers it but as made by a stranger , whom he has no particular reason to be concern'd for . And if Rehoboam did not as well degenerate from the sentiments of Mankind , as from his Family , he could not but look upon that Magnificent Temple of Solomon with another Eye , than did the throngs of Strangers that came onely to gaze at it , as an admirable piece of Architecture , whilst he consider'd that 't was his Father that built it . And if ( as we see ) the same Heroick Actions , which we read in History , of some great Monarch , that strangers barely and unconcernedly admire , the Natives of his Countrey do not onely venerate , but affectionately interest themselves therein , because they are his Countrey-men , and their Ancestors were his Subjects : How much may we suppose the same Actions would affect them , if they had the honour to be that Prince's Children ? We may well therefore presume , that 't is not without a singular satisfaction , that the Contemplator , we are speaking of , does in all the Wonders of Nature discover , how wise , and potent , and bountiful that Author of Nature is , in whom he has a great Interest , and that so great an one , as both to be admitted into the number of his Friends , and adopted into the number of his Sons , and is thereby in some measure concern'd in all the Admirations and Praises , that are paid either by himself or others , to those Adorable Attributes that God has displayed in that great Master-piece of Power and Wisdom , the World. And when he makes greater discoveries in these Expresses and Adumbrations of the Divine Perfections , the delightfulness of his Contemplation is proportionably increas'd upon such an Account , as that , which indears to the passionate Lover of some charming Beauty an Excellent , above an Ordinary , Picture of her ; because that the same things that make him , as it does other Gazers , look upon it as a finer piece , make Him look upon it as the more like his Mistress , and thereby entertain him with the sublimer Idea's of the belov'd Original ; to whose transcendent Excellencies he supposes that the Noblest Representations must be the most resembling . And there is a farther Reason , why our Contemplator should find a great deal of contentment in these Discoveries . For we have in our nature so much of Imperfection , and withall so much of Inclination to self-love , that we do too confidently proportion our Idea's of what God can do for us , to what we have already the knowledge or the possession of . And though , when we make it our business , we are able with much ado somewhat to enlarge our apprehensions , and raise our expectations beyond their wonted pitch ; yet still they will be but scantly promoted and heightned , if those things themselves be but mean and ordinary , which we think we have done enough if we make them surpass . A Countrey Villager , born and bred in a homely Cottage , cannot have any suitable apprehensions of the Pleasures and Magnificence of a great Monarchs Court. And if he should be bid to scrue up his Imagination to frame Idea's of them , they would be borrow'd from the best Tiled House he had seen in the Market-towns where he had sold his Turnips or Corn , and the Wedding-feast of some neighbouring Farmers Daughter . And though a Child in the Mother's womb had the perfect use of Reason , yet could it not in that dark Cell have any Idea's of the Sun or Moon , or Beauties or Banquets , or Algebra or Chymistry , and many other things , which his Elder Brothers , that breath fresh Air , and freely behold the Light , and are in a more mature Estate , are capable of knowing and enjoying . Now among Thinking men , whose thoughts run much upon that future state which they must shortly enter into , but shall never pass out of ; there will frequently and naturally arise a distrust , which though seldome own'd , proves oftentimes disquieting enough ! For such men are apt to question , how the future condition which the Gospel promises , can afford them so much happiness as it pretends to ; since they shall in Heaven but Contemplate the Works of God , and praise him , and converse with him , all which they think may , though not immediately , be done by men here below , without being happy : But he that by Telescopes and Microscopes , dexterous Dissections , and well imploy'd Furnaces , &c. discovers , the wondrous power and skill of him that contriv'd so vast and immense a Mass of Matter , into so curious a piece of Workmanship as this World , will pleasingly be convinc'd of the boundless power and goodness of the great Architect . And when he sees how admirably every Animal is furnish'd with parts requisite to his respective nature ; and that there is particular care taken , that the same Animal , as for example , Man , should have differing provisions made for him according to his differing states within the womb , and out of it , ( a humane Egg , and an Embrio , being much otherwise nourished and fitted for action , than is a ( compleat ) Man ; ) He , I say , who considers this , and observes the stupendious Providence , and excellent Contrivances , that the curious Priers into Nature ( and none but they ) can discover , will be as well enabled as invited to reason thus within himself : That sure God , who has with such admirable Artifice fram'd Silk-worms , Butterflies , and other meaner Insects , and with such wonderful providence taken care , that the nobler Animals should as little want any of all the things requisite to the compleating of their respective Natures ; and who , when he pleases , can furnish some things with Qualifications , quite differing from those which the knowledge of his other works could have made us imagine , ( as is evident in the Load-stone and in Quick-silver among Minerals , and the Sensitive Plant among Vegetables , the Camelion among Animals , &c. ) This God , I say , must needs be fully able to furnish those he delights to honour ▪ with Objects suitable to their improv'd . Faculties , and with all that is requisite to the Happiness he intends them in their glorifi'd state ; and is able to bring this to pass by such amazing contrivances , as perhaps will be quite differing from any , that the things we have yet seen suggest to us any Idea's of . And sure he , that has in so immense , so curious , and so magnificent a Fabrick , made such provision for Men , who are either desperately wicked , or but very imperfectly good , and in a state where they are not to Enjoy happiness , but by Obedience and Sufferings to Fit themselves for it , may safely be trusted with finding them in Heaven Imployments and Delights becoming the Felicity he designs them There ; as we see that here below , he provides as well for the soaring Eagle , as for the creeping Caterpillar , ( and is able to keep the Ocean as fully supply'd with Rivers , as Lakes or Ponds are with Springs and Brooks . ) And as a state of Celestial happiness is so great a Blessing , that those things that afford us either greater assurances , or greater foretastes of it , are of the number of the greatest Contentments and Advantages , that short of It we can enjoy ; so 't is hard for any Divine to receive so much of this kind of satisfaction , as he who by skilfully looking into the Wonders of Nature , has his apprehensions of God's power and manifold wisdom ( as an Apostle calls it ) elevated and enlarg'd . As when the Queen of Sheba had particularly survey'd the astonishing Prudence that Solomon display'd in the ordering of his Magnificent Court ; she transportedly concluded those Servants of his to be happy enough to deserve a Monarchs Envy , that were allowed the Honour and Priviledge of a constant and immediate Attendance on him . The second Section . I Doubt not but you have too good an Opinion of your Friend , not to think that you may alledge in his favour , that the chief thing which makes him prefer Physiology to all other kind of knowledge , is , That it enables those who are Proficients in it to do a great deal of good , both by improving of Trades , and by promoting of Physick it self . And I am too mindful of what I writ to Pyrophilus , to deny , either that it can assist a man to advance Physick and Trades , or that , by so doing , he may highly advantage Mankind . And this , I , ( who would not lessen your Friends Esteem for Physicks , but onely his Partiality ) willingly acknowledge to be so allowable an Endearment of Experimental Philosophy , that I do not know any thing , that to men of a Humane , as well as Ingenious Disposition , ought more to recommend the study of Nature ; except the opportunity it affords men to be Just and Grateful to the Author both of Nature and of Man. I do not then deny , that the true Naturalist may very much benefit Mankind ; but I affirm , that , if men be not wanting to themselves , the Divine may benefit them much more . It were not perchance either unseasonable , or impertinent to tell you on this occasion , that he who effectually teaches men to subdue their Lusts and Passions , does as much as the Physician contribute to the preservation of their Bodies , by exempting them from those Vices , whose no less usual than destructive Effects are Wars , and Duels , and Rapines , and Desolations , and the Pox , and Surfets , and all the train of other Diseases that attend Gluttony and Drunkenness , Idleness and Lust ; which are not Enemies to Mans Life and Health barely upon a Physical account , but upon a Moral one , as they provoke God to punish them with Temporal as well as Spiritual Judgments ; such as Plagues , Wars , Famines , and other publick Calamities , that sweep away a great part of Mankind ; besides those personal afflictions of Bodily Sickness , and disquiets of Conscience , that do both Shorten mens Lives , and Imbitter them . Whereas Piety having ( as the Scripture assures us ) Promises both of this Life , and of that which is to come , those Teachers that make men Virtuous and Religious , by making them Temperate , and Chaste , and Inoffensive , and Calm , and Contented , do not onely procure them great and excellent Dispositions to those Blessings , both of the Right hand and of the Left , which God's Goodness makes him forward to bestow on those , who by Grace and Virtue are made fit to receive them ; but do help them to those Qualifications , that by preserving the Mind in a calm and cheerful temper , as well as by affording the Body all that Temperance can confer , do both Lengthen their Lives , and Sweeten them . These things , I say , 't were not impertinent to insist on , but I will rather chuse to represent to you , That the Benefits which men may receive from the Divine , surpass those which they receive from the Naturalist , both in the Nobleness of the Advantages , and in the Duration of them . Be it granted then , that the Naturalist may much improve both Physick and Trades ; yet since these themselves were devised for the service of the Body , ( the one to preserve or restore his Health , and the other to furnish it with Accommodations or Delights ; ) the boasted use of Natural Philosophy , by its advancing Trades and Physick , will still be to serve the Body ; which is but the Lodging and Instrument of the Soul , and which , I presume , your Friend , and which I am sure your self , will be far from thinking the noblest part of Man. I know it may be said , nor do I deny it , that divers Mechanical Arts are highly Beneficial , not onely to the Inventors , but to those Places , and perhaps those States , where such Improvements are found out and cherish'd . But though I most willingly grant , that this Consideration ought to recommend Experimental Philosophy , as well to States as to private Persons ; yet , besides that many of these Improvements do rather Transfer than Increase Mankind's goods , and prejudice one sort of Men as much as they Advantage another , ( as in the case of the Eastern Spices , of whose Trade the Portugals and Dutch by their later Navigations , did , by appropriating it to themselves , deprive the Venetians ) or else does but increase that , which , though very Beneficial to the Producers , is not really so to Mankind in general : Of which we have an Example in the Invention of Extracting Gold and Silver out of the Oar , with Mercury . For though it have vastly enrich'd the Spaniards in the West Indies , yet 't is not of any solid advantage to the World ; no more than the Discovery of the Peruvian and other American Mines ; by which , ( especially reckoning the multitudes of unhappy men that are made miserable , and destroyed in working them , ) Mankind is not put into a better condition than it was before . And if the Philosopher's Stone it self , ( supposing there be such a thing ) were not an Incomparable Medicine , but were onely capable of transmuting other Metalls into Gold , I should perhaps doubt , whether the Discoverer of it would much advantage Mankind ; there being already Gold and Silver enough to maintain Trade and Commerce among men ; and for all other purposes , I know not , why a plenty of Iron , and Brass , and Quick-silver , which are far more useful Metalls , should not be more desirable . But not to urge this ; we may consider , that these Advancements of inriching Trades do still bring Advantages but to the outward man , and those many Arts and Inventions that aim at the heightning the pleasures of the Senses , belong but to the Body ; and even in point of gratifying That , are not so requisite and important , as many suppose : Education , Custome , &c. having a greater Interest than most imagine in the rellish men have even of Sensitive pleasures . And as for Physick , not to mind you , that it has been Lowdly ( how Justly , I here examine not , ) complain'd of , that the new Philosophy has made it far greater promises than have yet been perform'd ; I shall onely take notice , that since all that Physick is wont to pretend to , is , to preserve health , or restore it , there are multitudes in the world that have no need of the assistance the Naturalist would give the Physician ; and a healthy man , as such , is already in a better condition , than the Philosopher can hope to place him in , and is no more advantag'd by the Naturalist's contribution to Physick , than a sound man that sleeps in a whole skin , is by all the fine Tools of a Chirurgeons Case of Instruments , and the various Compositions of his Chest . And as the Benefits that may be derived from Theology , much surpass those that accrue from Physicks , in the Nobleness of the Subject they relate to ; so have they a great advantage in point of Duration . For all the service that Medicines , and Engines , and Improvements can do a man , as they relate but to this Life , so they determine with it . Physick indeed and Chymistry do , the one more faintly , and the other more boldly , pretend sometimes not onely to the Cure of Diseases , but the Prolongation of Life : But since none will suspect , but that the Masters of those parts of knowledge would employ their utmost skill to protract their own Lives , those that remember , that Solomon and Helmont liv'd no longer , than millions that were strangers to Philosophy ; and that even Paracelsus himself , for all his boasted Arcana , is by Helmont and other Chymists confessed to have died some years short of 50 ; we may very justly fear , that Nature will not be so kind to her greatest Votaries , as to give them much more time than other men , for the payment of the last Debt all men owe her . And if a few years respite could by a scrupulous and troublesome use of Diet and Remedies be obtain'd ; yet that , in comparison of the Eternity that is to follow , is not at all considerable . But , whereas within no great number of years , ( a little sooner , or a little later ) all the Remedies , and Reliefs , and Pleasures , and Accommodations , that Philosophical Improvements can afford a man , will not keep him from the Grave , ( which within very few days will make the body of the greatest Virtuoso as hideous and as loathsome a Carcase as that of any ordinary man ; ) the Benefits that may accrue to us by Divinity , as they relate Chiefly , though not Onely , to the other World ; so they will follow us out of this , and prove then incomparably greater than ever , when they alone shall be capable of being enjoy'd . So that Philosophy , in the capacity we here consider it , does but as it were provide us some little Conveniences for our passage ( like some Accommodations for a Cabbin , which out-lasts not the Voyage , ) but Religion provides us a vast and durable Estate , or , as the Scripture styles it , an unshaken Kingdom , when we are arriv'd at our Journeys end . And therefore the Benefits accruing from Religion , may well be concluded preferible to their Competitors , since they not onely reach to the Mind of Man , but reach beyond the End of Time it self ; whereas all the variety of Inventions that Philosophy so much boasts of , as whilst they were in season they were devis'd for the service of the Body , so they make us busie , and pride our selves about things , that within a short time will not ( so much as upon Its score ) at all concern us . The third Section . I Expect you should here urge on your Friends behalf , That the study of Physicks has one Prerogative , ( above that of Divinity , ) which , as it is otherwise a great Excellency , so does much add to the Delightfulness of it . I mean , the Certainty , and Clearness , and the thence resulting Satisfactoriness of our Knowledge of Physical , in comparison of any we can have of Theological matters , whose being Dark and Uncertain , the Nature of the things themselves , and the numerous Controversies of differing Sects about them , sufficiently manifest . But upon this Subject , divers things are to be consider'd . For first , as to the Fundamental and Necessary Articles of Religion , I do not admit the Allegation , but take those Articles to be both Evident , and capable of a Moral Demonstration . And if there be any Articles of Religion , for which a Rational and Cogent Proof cannot be brought , I shall for that very reason conclude , that such Articles are not absolutely Necessary to be believ'd ; since it seems no way reasonable to imagine , that God having been pleased to send not onely his Prophets and his Apostles , but his onely Son into the World , to promulgate to Mankind the Christian Religion , and both to cause it to be consign'd to writing , that it may be known , and to alter the course of Nature by numerous Miracles , that it might be believ'd ; it seems not reasonable , I say , to imagine , that he should not propose those Truths , which he in so wonderful and so solemn a manner recommended , with at least so much Clearness , as that studious and well-dispos'd Readers may certainly understand such as are necessary for them to believe . 2. Though I will not here engage my self in a Disquisition of the several kinds , or , if you please , Degrees , of Demonstration , ( which yet is a Subject that I judge far more considerable than cultivated , ) yet I must tell you , that as a Moral certainty ( such as we may attain about the Fundamentals of Religion ) is enough in many cases for a wise man , and even a Philopher to acquiesce in ; so that Physical Certainty , which is pretended for the Truths demonstrated by Naturalists , is , even where 't is rightfully claim'd , but an inferiour kind or degree of certainty , as Moral certainty also is . For even Physical Demonstrations can beget but a Physical Certainty , ( that is , a Certainty upon supposition that the Principles of Physick be true , ) not a Metaphysical Certainty , ( wherein 't is absolutely impossible , that the thing believ'd should be other than true . ) For instance , All the Physical Demonstrations of the Antients about the causes of particular Phaenomena of Bodies , suppose , that ex nihilo nihil fit ; and this may readily be admitted in a Physical sense , because according to the course of Nature , no Body can be produc'd out of Nothing , but speaking universally it may be false , as Christians generally , and even the Cartesian Naturalists , asserting the Creation of the World , must believe , that , de facto , it is . And so whereas Epicurus does , I remember , prove , that a Body once dead cannot be made alive again , by reason of the dissipation and dispersion of the Atoms , 't was , when alive , compos'd of ; though all men will allow this assertion to be Physically demonstrable , yet the contrary may be true , if God's Omnipotence intervenes , as all the Philosophers that acknowledge the Authority of the New Testament , where Lazarus and others are recorded to have been raised from the dead , must believe , that it actually did appear , and even all unprejudic'd Reasoners must allow it to be Possible , there being no Contradiction impli'd in the Nature of the thing . But now to affirm , that such things as are indeed Contradictories cannot be both true , or , that factum infectum reddi non potest , are Metaphysical Truths , which cannot possibly be other than true , and consequently beget a Metaphysical and absolute Certainty . And your Master Cartesius was so sensible of a dependance of Physical Demonstrations upon Metaphysical Truths , that he would not allow any certainty not onely to them , but even to Geometrical Demonstrations , till he had evinc'd , that there is a God , and that he cannot deceive men that make use of their Faculties aright . To which I may add , that even in many things that are look'd upon as Physical Demonstrations , there is really but a Moral Certainty . For when , for instance , Des-Cartes and other Modern Philosophers , take upon them to demonstrate , That there are divers Comets that are not Meteors , because they have a Parallax lesser than that of the Moon , and are of such a bigness , and some of them move in such a Line , &c. 't is plain , that divers of these Learned men had never the opportunity to observe a Comet in their Lives , but take these Circumstances upon the credit of those Astronomers that had such Opportunities . And though the Inferences , as such , may have a Demonstrable Certainty ; yet the Premisses they are drawn from having but an Historical one , the presumed Physico-Mathematical Demonstration can produce in a wary mind but a Moral Certainty , and not the greatest neither of that kind that is possible to be attain'd ; as he will not scruple to acknowledge , that knows by experience , how much more difficult it is , than most men imagine , to make Observations about such nice Subjects , with the exactness that is requisite for the building of an undoubted Theory upon them . And there are I know not how many things in Physicks , that men presume they believe upon Physical and Cogent Arguments , wherein they really have but a Moral assurance ; which is a Truth heeded by so few , that I have been invited to take the more particular notice of them in other Papers , written purposely to show the doubtfulness and incompleatness of Natural Philosophy ; of which Discourse , since you may command a sight , I shall not scruple to refer you thither for the Reasons of my affirming here , that the most even of the modern Virtuosi are wont to fancy more of Clearness and Certainty in their Physical Theories , than a Critical Examiner will find . Onely that you may not look upon this as a put off , rather than a reference , I will here touch upon a couple of Subjects , which men are wont to believe to be , and which indeed ought to be , the most throughly understood ; I mean the Nature of Body in general , and the Nature of Sensation . And for the first of these , since we can turn our selves no way , but we are every where environ'd , and incessantly touch'd by Corporeal Substances , one would think that so familiar an Object , that does so assiduously , and so many ways affect our Senses , and for the knowledge of which we need not inquire into the distinct Nature of particular Bodies , nor the properties of any one of them , should be very perfectly known unto us . And yet the Notion of Body in general , or what it is that makes a thing to be a Corporeal Substance , and discriminates it from all other things , has been very hotly disputed of , even among the modern Philosophers , & adhuc sub judice lis est . And though your Favourite Des-Cartes , in making the nature of a Body to consist in Extension every way , has a notion of it , which 't is more easie to find fault with , than to substitute a better ; yet I fear , 't will appear to be attended , not onely with this Inconvenience , That God cannot , within the compass of this World , wherein if any Body vanish into Nothing , the place or space left behind it must have the three Dimensions , and so be a true Body , annihilate the least particle of Matter , at least without , at the same instant and place , creating as much , ( which agrees very ill with that necessary and continual dependance , which he asserts Matter it self to have on God for its very Being ; ) but with such other inconveniences , that some Friends of yours , otherwise very inclinable to the Cartesian Philosophy , know not how to acquiesce in it : and yet I need not tell you , how Fundamental a Notion the deviser of it asserts it to be . Neither do I see , how this Notion of a Corporeal Substance will any more , than any of the formerly received Definitions of it , extricate us out of the Difficulties of that no less perplexed , than famous Controversie , de Compositione Continui . And though some ingenious men , who perhaps perceive better than others , how intricate it is , have of late endeavoured to shew , that men need not be sollicitous to determine this Controversie , it not being rightly propos'd by the Schoolmen that have started it ; and though I perhaps think , that Natural Philosophy may be daily advanc'd without the decision of it , because there is a multitude of considerable things to be discover'd and perform'd in Nature , without so much as dreaming of this Controversie ; yet still , as I would propose the Question , the Difficulties , till removed , will spread a thick night over the Notion of Body in general . For , either a Corporeal and extended Substance is ( either really or mentally ) divisible into parts endow'd with Extension , and each of these parts is divisible also into other Corporeal parts , lesser and lesser , in infinitum ; or else this subdivision must stop somewhere , ( for there is no mean between the two members of the Distinction ; ) and in either case the Opinion pitch'd upon will be liable to those Inconveniences , not to say Absurdities , that are rationally urg'd against it by the maintainers of the Opposite ; the Objections on both sides being so strong , that some of the more Candid , even of the Modern Metaphysicians , after having tir'd themselves and their Readers with arguing Pro and Con , have confess'd the Objections on both sides to be insoluble . But though we do not clearly understand the Nature of Body in general ; yet sure we cannot but be perfectly acquainted with what passes within our selves in reference to the particular Bodies we daily See , and Hear , and Smell , and Taste , and Touch. But alas , though we know but little , save by the Informations of our senses ; yet we know very little of the manner by which our Senses informs us . And to avoid prolixity , I will at present suppose with you , that the Ingenious Des Cartes and his followers have given the fairest account of Sensation , that is yet extant . Now according to him , a Man's Body being but a well organiz'd Statue , that which is truly called Sensation is not perform'd by the Organ , but by the Mind , which perceives the motion produc'd in the Organ ; ( for which reason he will not allow Brutes to have Sense properly so call'd ; ) so that if you ask a Cartesian , how it comes to pass that the Soul of Man , which he justly asserts to be an immaterial Substance , comes to be wrought upon , and that in such various manners , by those external Bodies that are the objects of our Senses , he will tell you , that by their Impressions on the Sensories , they variously move the Fibres or Threds of the Nerves , wherewith those parts are endow'd , and by which the Motion is propagated to that little Kernel in the Brain , call'd by many Writers the Conarion , where these differing motions being perceiv'd by the there residing Soul , become Sensations , because of the intimate union , and , as it were , Permistion ( as Cartesius himself expresses it ) of the Soul with the Body . But now , Sir , give me leave to take notice , that this Union of an Incorporeal with a Corporeal Substance , ( and that without a Medium ) is a thing so unexampled in Nature , and so difficult to comprehend , that I somewhat question , whether the profound Secrets of Theology , not to say the adorable Mystery it self of the Incarnation , be more abstruse than this . For how can I conceive , that a Substance purely immaterial , should be united without a Physical Medium , ( for in this case there can be none , ) with the Body , which cannot possibly lay hold on It , and which It can pervade and flie away from at pleasure , as Des-Cartes must confess the Soul actually does in Death . And 't is almost as difficult to conceive , how any part of the Body , without excepting the Animal Spirits , or the Conarion , ( for these are as truly Corporeal as other parts of the Humane Statue , ) can make Impressions upon a Substance perfectly Incorporeal , and which is not immediately affected by the motions of any other parts , besides the Genus Nervosum . Nor is it a small difficulty to a meer Naturalist ( who , as such , does not in Physical matters take notice of Revelations about Angels , ) to conceive how a finite Spirit can either move , or , which is much the same thing , regulate and determine the motion of a Body . But that which I would on this occasion invite you to consider , is , that supposing the Soul does in the Brain perceive the differing motions communicated to the outward Senses ; yet this , however it may give some account of Sensation in general , will not at all show us a satisfactory Reason of particular and distinct Sensations . For if I demand , why , for Instance , when I look upon a Bell that is ringing , such a motion or impression in the Conarion produces in the mind that peculiar sort of perception , Seeing , and not Hearing ; and another motion , though coming from the same Bell at the same time , produces that quite differing sort of perception that we call Sound , but not Vision ; what can be answered , but that it was the good pleasure of the Author of Humane Nature to have it so ? And if the question be ask'd about the differing Objects of any one particular Sense ; as , Why the great plenty of unperturbed Light that is reflected from Snow , Milk , &c , does produce a Sensation of whiteness , rather than redness or yellowness ? Or why the smell of Castor , or Assa foetida , produces in most persons that which they call a Stink , rather than a Perfume ? ( especially since we know some Hysterical Women , that think it not onely a wholesome , but a pleasing smell . ) And if also you further ask , why Melody and sweet things do generally delight us ? and discords and bitter things do generally displease us ? Nay , why a little more than enough of some Objects that produce pleasure , will produce pain ? ( as may be exemplifi'd in a cold hand , as it happens to be held out at a just , or at too near a distance from the fire : ) If , I say , these , and a thousand other questions of the like kind , be ask'd , the Answer will be but the general one , that is already given , that such is the nature of Man. For to say , that moderate Motions are agreeable to the nature of the Sensory they are excited in , but violent and disorderly ones , ( as j●ring Sounds , and scorching Heat ) do put it into too violent a motion for its Texture ; will by no means satisfie . For , besides that this Answer gives no account of the variety of Sensations of the same kind , as of differing Colours , Tastes , &c. but reaches onely to Pleasure and Pain ; even as to these , it will reach but a very little way ; unless the Givers of it can show , how an Immaterial Substance should be more harm'd by the brisker motion of a Body , than by the more languid . And as you and your Friend think , you may justly smile at the Aristotelians , for imagining that they have given a tolerable account of the Qualities of Bodies , when they have told us , that they spring from certain substantial Forms , though when they are ask'd particular Questions about these Incomprehensible Forms , they do in effect but tell us in general , that they have such and such Faculties , or Effects , because Nature , or the Author of Nature , endow'd them therewith ; so I hope you will give me leave to think , that it may keep us from boasting of the Clearness and Certainty of our knowledge about the Operations of sensible Objects , whilst , as the Aristotelians cannot particularly show , how their Qualities are produc'd , so we cannot particularly explicate , how they are perceiv'd ; the principal thing that we can say , being , in substance , this , that our Sensations depend upon such an union or permistion of the Soul and Body , as we can give no Example of in all Nature , nor no more distinct account of , than that it pleased God so to couple them together . But I beg your pardon for having detain'd you so long upon one Subject , though perhaps it will not prove time mis-spent , if it have made you take notice , that in spight of the clearness and certainty , for which your Friend so much prefers Physicks before Theology , we are Yet to seek , ( I say Yet , because I know not what Time may Hereafter discover ) both for the Definition of a Corporeal Substance , and a satisfactory account of the manner of Sensation : though without the true Notion of a Body we cannot understand that Object of Physicks in general , and without knowing the Nature of Sensation , we cannot know That , from whence we derive almost all that we know of any Body in particular . If after all this your Friend shall say , That Des-Cartes's account of Body , and other things in Physicks , being the best that men can give , if they be not satisfactory , it must be imputed to Humane Nature not to the Cartesian Doctrine , I shall not stay to dispute how far the allegation is true ; especially since , though it be admitted , it will not prejudice my Discourse . For , whatsoever the Cause of the imperfection of our Knowledge about Physical matters be , that there is an Imperfection in that Knowledge is manifest ; and that ought to be enough to keep us from being puffed up by such an imperfect Knowledge , and from undervaluing upon its account the study of those mysteries of Divinity , which , by reason of the Nobleness and Remoteness of the Objects , may much better than the Nature of Corporeal things , ( which we see , and feel , and continually converse with , ) have their obscurity attributed to the weakness of our humane Understandings . And if it be a necessary Imperfection of Humane Nature , that , whilst we remain in this mortal condition , the Soul being confin'd to the dark prison of the Body , is capable ( as even Aristotle somewhere confesses ) but of a dim knowledge ; so much the greater value we ought to have for Christian Religion , since by its means ( and by no other without it ) we may attain a condition , wherein , as our Nature will otherwise be highly blessed and advanced ; so our Faculties will be Elevated and Enlarged , and probably made thereby capable of attaining degrees and kinds of knowledge , to which we are here but strangers . In favour of which I will not urge the received Opinion of Divines , that before the Fall ( which yet is a less noble condition than is reserved for us in Heaven , ) Adam's knowledge was such , that he was able at first sight of them to give each of the Beasts a name expressive of its Nature ; because that in spight of some skill ( which my Curiosity for Divinity , not Philosophy , gave me ) in the holy Tongue , I could never find , that the Hebrew names of Animals , mention'd in the beginning of Genesis , argued a ( much ) clearer insight into their Natures , than did the names of the same or some other Animals in Greek , or other Languages ; wherefore , ( as I said ) I will not urge Adam's knowledge in Paradise for that of the Saints in Heaven , though the notice he took of Eve at his first seeing of her , ( if it were not convey'd to him by secret Revelation ) may be far more probably urg'd , than his naming of the Beasts : But I will rather mind you , that the Proto-martyr's sight was strengthened so , as to see the heavens open'd , and Jesus standing at the right hand of God ; and when the Prophet had pray'd , that his Servant's Eyes might be open'd , he immediately saw the Mountain , where they were , all cover'd with Chariots and Horsemen , which , though mention'd to be of Fire , were altogether invisible to him before . To which , as a higher Argument , I shall onely add a couple of passages of Scripture , which seem to allow us even vast Expectations as to the knowledge our glorifi'd Nature may be advanc'd to . The one is that which St. Paul says to the Corinthians , For now we see through a glass darkly , but then face to face : Now I know in part , but then shall I know even as also I am known . And the other , where Christ's Favourite-Disciple tells Believers , Beloved , now we are the Sons of God , and it doth not yet appear what we shall be ; but we know , that when he shall appear , we shall be like him : for we shall see him as he is . What has hitherto been discours'd , contains the first Consideration , that I told you might be propos'd about the Certainty ascrib'd to the knowledge we are said to have of Natural things ; but this is not all I have to represent to you on this Subject . For I consider further , that 't is not onely by the Certainty we have of them , that the knowledge of things is endear'd to us , but also by the Worthiness of the Object , the Number of those that are unacquainted with it , the Remoteness of it from common Apprehensions , the Difficulty of acquiring it without peculiar Advantages , the Usefulness of it when attain'd , and other particulars , which 't is not here necessary to enumerate . I presume , you doubt not but your Friend does very much prefer the knowledge he has of the Mysteries of Nature ( at many of which we have as yet but Ingenious Conjectures ) to the knowledge of one that understands the Elements of Arithmetick , though He be Demonstratively sure of the Truth of most of his Rules and Operations . And questionless Copernicus received a much higher satisfaction in his Notion about the Stability of the Sun , and the Motion of the Earth , though it were not so clear but that Tycho , Ricciolus , and other eminent Astronomers have rejected it , than in the knowledge of divers of the Theorems about the Sphere , that have been demonstrated by Euclid , Theodosius , and other Geometricians . Our discovering that some Comets are not , as the Schools would have them , Sublunary Meteors , but Celestial Bodies , and the Conjectural Theory , which is all that hitherto we have been able to attain of them , do much better please both your Friend , and you , and me , than the more certain knowledge we have of the time of the Rising and Setting of the Fixed Stars . And the Estimates we can make , by the help of Parallaxes , of the Heights of those Comets , and of some of the Planets , though they are uncertain enough , ( as may appear by the vastly different distances that are assigned to those Bodies by eminent Astronomers ; ) yet these uncertain measures of such Elevated and Celestial Lights do far more please us , than that we can by the help of a Geometrical Quadrant , or some such Instrument , take with far greater Certainty the height of a Tower or a Steeple . And so a Mathematician , when he probably conjectures at the compass of the Ter●estrial Globe , and divides , though but unaccurately , its Surface , first , into proportions of Sea and Land , and then into Regions of such Extents and Bounds , and , in a word , skilfully plays the Cosmographer ; thinks himself much more nobly and pleasantly imploy'd , than when , being reduc'd to play the Surveyor , he does with far more certainty measure how many Acres a Field contains , and set out with what Hedges and Ditches it is bounded . Now , that the knowledge of God , and of those Mysteries of Theology , that are ignor'd by far the greatest part of Mankind , has more sublime and excellent Objects , and is unattain'd to by much the greatest part even of Learned men , and nevertheless is of unvaluable Importance , and of no less Advantage towards the purifying and improving of us here , and the making us perfect and happy hereafter , the past Discourse has very much miscarried if it have not evinc'd . Wherefore , as to be admitted into the P●ivy-Council of some Great Monarch , and thereby be enabled to give a probable ghess at those thoughts and designs of his , that Govern Kingdoms , and make the Fates of Nations , is judged preferrable to that clearer knowledge that a Notary can have of the dying thoughts and intentions of an ordinary Person whose Will he makes : And as the knowledge of a skilful Physician , whose Art is yet conjectural , is preferrable to that of a Cutler that makes his Dissecting Knives , though this man can more certainly perform what he designs in his own profession , than the Physician can in his : And ( in fine ) as the skill of a Jeweller , that is conversant about Diamonds , Rubies , Saphires , and some other sorts of small Stones , which being for the most part brought us out of the Indies , we must take many things about them upon report , is , because of the Nobleness of the Object , preferr'd to that of a Mason that deals in whole Quarries of common Stones , and may be sure upon his own Experience of divers things concerning them , which as to Jewels we are allowed to know but upon Tradition : So a more dimm and imperfect knowledge of God , and the Mysteries of Religion , may be more desirable , and upon that account more delightful , than a clearer knowledge of those Inferior Truths that Physicks are wont to teach . I must now mention one particular more , which may well be added to those that peculiarly indear Physicks to the Divine that is studious of them . For , as he contemplates the works of Nature not barely for themselves , but to be the better qualified and excited to admire and praise the Author of Nature ; so his Contemplations are delightful to him , not barely as they afford a pleasing Exercise to his Reason , but as they procure him a more welcome approbation from his Conscience , these distinct satisfactions being not at all inconsistent . And questionless , though Esau did at length miss of his aim , yet , while he was hunting Venison for the good old Patriark that desired it of him , besides the pleasure he was us'd to take in pursuing the Deer he chas'd , he took a great one in considering , that now he hunted to please his Father , and in order to obtain of him an inestimable Blessing . So , when David imployd his skilful Hand and Voice in praising God with Vocal and Instrumental Musick , he receiv'd in one Act a double satisfaction , by exercising his Skill and his Devotion ; and was no less pleas'd with those melodious sounds , as they were Hymns , than as they were Songs . And this Example prompts me to add , that as the devout Student of Nature we were speaking of , does Intentionally refer the knowledge he seeks of the Creatures to the glory of the Creator ; so in his Discoveries , that which most contents him , is , that the Wonders he observes in Nature , heighten that Admiration he would fain raise to a less disproportion to the Wisdom of God ; and furnish him with a nobler Holocaust for those Sacrifices of Praise he is justly ambitious to offer up to the Deity . And as there is no doubt to be made , but that , when David invented ( as the Scripture intimates that he did ) new Instruments of Musick , there was nothing in that Invention that pleas'd him so much , as that they could assist him to praise God the more melodiously ; go the pious Student of Nature finds nothing more welcome in the Discoveries he makes of her Wonders , than the Rises and Helps they may afford him , the more worthily to celebrate and glorifie the Divine Attributes adumbrated in the Creatures . And as a Huntsman or a Fowler , if he meets with some strange Bird or Beast , or other Natural Rarity , thinks himself much the more fortunate if it happen to be near the Court , where he may have the King to present it to , than if he were to keep it but for himself or some of his Companions ; So our Devout Naturalist has his Discoveries of Natures Wonders indear'd to him , by having the Deity to present them to , in the Veneration they excite in the Finder , and which they inable him to ingage others to joyn in . The fourth Section . BUt I confess ( Sir ) I much fear , that That which makes your Friend have such detracting thoughts of Theology , is a certain secret Pride , grounded upon a Conceit , that the Attainments of Natural Philosophers are of so noble a kind , and argue so transcendant an Excellency of Parts in the Attainer , that he may justly undervalue all other Learning , without excepting Theology it self . You will not , I suppose , expect , that a person , who has written so much in the praise of Physiques , and laboured so much for a little skill in it , should now here endeavour to depretiate that so useful part of Philosophy . But I do not conceive , that it will be at all injurious to it , to prefer the knowledge of Supernatural , to that of meer Natural things , and to think , that the Truths , which God indiscriminately exposes to the whole Race of Mankind , and to the bad as well as to the good , are inferiour to those Mysterious ones , whose Disclosure he reckons among his peculiar Favours , and whose Contemplation employs the Curiosity , and , in some points , exacts the wonder of the very Angels . That I may therefore repress a little the overweening Opinion your Friend has of his Physical Attainments , give me leave to represent a few particulars conducive to that purpose . And first , as for the Nobleness of the Truths taught by Theology and Physicks , those of the former sort have manifestly the Advantage , being not onely conversant about far nobler Objects , but discovering things that Humane Reason of it self can by no means reach unto ; as has been sufficiently declared in the foregoing part of this Letter . Next , we may consider , that , whatever may be said to excuse Pride ( if there were any ) in Moscus the Phoenician , who is affirmed to have first Invented the Atomical Hypothesis , and in Democritus and Leucippus , ( for Epicurus scarce deserves to be named with them , ) that highly Advanc'd that Philosophy ; and in Monsieur Des-Cartes , who either Improv'd , or at least much Innovated the Corpuscula●ian Hypothesis : Whatever ( I say ) may be alledged on the behalf of these Mens pride ; I see no great Reason , why it should be allowed in such as your Friend ; who , though Ingenious Men , are neither Inventors , nor eminent Promoters of the Philosophy they would be admir'd for , but content themselves to Learn what others have Taught , or at least to make some little further Application of the Principles that others have Established , and the Discoveries they have made . And whereas your Friend is not a little proud of being able to confute several Errours of Aristotle and the Antients , it were not amiss if he consider'd , that many of the chief Truths that overthrow those Errours , were the Productions of Time and Chance , and not of his daring Ratiocinations : For , there needs no great Wit to disprove those that maintain the Uninhabitableness of the Torrid Zone , or deny the Antipodes , since Navigators have found many Parts of the former well Peopl'd , and Sailing round the Earth , have found men living in Countreys Diametrically opposite to Ours . Nor will it warrant a man's Pride , that he believes not the Moon to be the onely Planet that shines with a borrowed Light , or the Galaxy to be a Meteor ; since that now the Telescope shows us , that Venus has her Full and Wain like the Moon , and that the Milky way is made up of a vast multitude of little Stars , inconspicuous to the naked Eye . And indeed of those other Discoveries that overthrow the Astronomy of the Antients , and much of their Philosophy about the Celestial Bodies , few or none have any cause to boast , but the excellent Galileus , who pretends to have been the Inventor of the Telescope : For that Instrument once discover'd ; to be able to reject the Septenary number of the Planets by the Detection of the four Satellites of Jupiter , or talk of the Mountains and Valleys in the Moon , requires not much more excellency in your Friend , than it would to descry in a Ship , where the naked Eye could discern but the Body of the Vessel , ( to descry , I say ) by the help of a Prospective Glass , the Masts , and Sails , and Deck , and perceive a Boat tow'd at her Stern : Though indeed Galileo himself had no great cause to boast of the Invention , though we are much oblig'd to him for the Improvement of the Telescope , since no less a Master of Dioptricks than Des-Cartes , does acknowledge with other Writers , that Perspective-Glasses were not first found out by Mathematicians or Philosophers , but casually by one Metius , a Dutch Spectacle-maker . On which occasion I shall mind you , that to hide Pride from Man , divers others of the chief Discoveries that have been made in Physicks , have been the Productions , not of Philosophy , but Chance , by which Gunpowder , Glass , and , for ought we know , the Verticity of the Load-stone , ( to which we owe both the Indies ) came to be found in these later Ages ; as ( more recently ) the Milky Vessels of the Mesentery , the new Receptacle of the Chyle , and that other sort of Vessels which most men call the Lymphae-ducts , were lighted on but by Chance , according to the Ingenious Confession of the Discoverers themselves . We may farther consider , that those very things which are justly are alledg'd in the praise of the Corpuscularian Philosophy it self , ought to lessen the pride of those that but make use of it . For that Hypothesis , supposing the whole Universe ( the Soul of Man excepted ) to be but a great Automaton , or self-moving Engine , wherein all things are perform'd by the bare motion ( or rest ) the size , the shape , and the scituation or texture of the parts of the Universal Matter it consists of ; all the Phaenomena result from those few Principles , single or combin'd , ( as the several Tunes or Chimes that are rung on five Bells , ) and these fertile Principles being already establish'd by the Inventors and Promoters of the Particularian Hypothesis ; all that such Persons as your Friend , are wont farther to do , is but to investigate or guess , by what kind of Motions the three or four other Principles are varied . So that the World being but , as it were , a great piece of Clock-work , the Naturalist as such , is but a Mechanitian ; however the parts of the Engine , he considers , be some of them much larger , and others much minuter , than those of Clocks or Watches . And for an ordinary Naturalist to despise those that study the Mysteries of Religion , as much inferiour to Physical Truths , is no less unreasonable , than it were for a Watch-maker , because he understands his own Trade , to despise Privy-Counsellers , who are acquainted with the secrets of Monarchs , and Mysteries of State ; or than it were for a Ship-carpenter , because he understands more of the Fabrick of the Vessel , to despise the Admiral , that is acquainted with the secret Designs of the Prince , and imploy'd about his most important affairs . That great Restorer of Physicks , the illustrious Verulam , who has trac'd out a most useful way to make Discoveries in the Intellectual Globe , as he calls it , confesses , that his work was ( to speak in his own terms ) partus temporis potius quám ingenii . And though I am not of his opinion , where he says in another place , that his way of Philosophizing does exaequare ingenia ; yet I am apt to think , that the fertile Principles of the Mechanical Philosophy being once setled , the Methods of inquiring and experimenting being found out , and the Physico-mechanical Instruments of working on Natures and Arts Productions being happily invented , the making of several lesser improvements , especially by rectifying of some almost obvious or supine Errours ▪ of the Schools , by the assistance of such facilitating helps , may fall to the lot of persons not endow'd with any extraordinary Sagacity , or acuteness of parts . And though the Investigation and clear establishment of the true Principles of Philosophy , and the devising the Instruments of Knowledge , be things that may be allowed to be the proper work of sublimer Wits ; yet , if a man be furnish'd with such assistances , 't is not every Discourse that he makes , or thing which he does by the help of them , that is difficult enough to raise him to that illustrious rank . And indeed , divers of the vulgar Errours , as well as of Scholars as other men , being mainly grounded upon the meer , and often mistaken , Authority of Aristotle , and perhaps some frivolous Reasons of his Scholastic Interpreters of such precarious and ungrounded things , that to ruine them , does oftentimes require more of boldness than skill ; it may perhaps be said of your Friend , in relation to his Philosophical Successes against such vulgar Errours , as I am speaking of , what a Roman said of Alexander's Triumph over the effeminate Asiaticks , Quod nihil aliud quám bene ausus sit Vana contemnere . And in some cases it happens , that , when once a grand Truth , or a happy way of Experimenting has been found , divers Phaenomena of Nature , that had been left unexplain'd , or were left mis-explain'd by the Schools , did , in my opinion , require a far less straining Exercise of the mind to unriddle and explain them , than must have been requisite to dispel the darkness that attended divers Theological Truths that are now clear'd up , and perhaps than I have my self now and then imploy'd in some of those Attempts , to illustrate Theological Matters , that you may have met in some Papers that I have presum'd to write on such Subjects . And indeed the Improvements , that such Virtuosi as your Friend are wont to make of the fertile Theorems and Hints , that have been presented them by the Founders or prime Benefactors of true Natural Philosophy , are so poor and slender , and do so much oftner proceed from Industry and Chance , than they argue a transcendent sagacity , or a sublimity of Reason , that , though such persons may have cause enough to be Delighted with what they have done , yet they have none to be Proud of it ; and their Performances may deserve our Thanks , and perhaps some of our Praise , but reach not so high as to merit our Admiration ; which is to be reserv'd for Those , that have been either Framers , or Grand Promoters , of True and Comprehensive Hypotheses , or ( else ) the Authors of other noble and useful Discoveries , many ways applicable . It will not perhaps be improper to add on this occasion , that , as our knowledge is not very deep , not reaching with any certainty to the bottom of Things , nor penetrating to their intimate or innermost Natures ; so its Extent is not very large , not being able to give us , with any Clearness and particularity , an account of the Celestial and deeply Subterraneal parts of the World , of which all the others make but a very small ( not to say contemptible ) portion . For , as to the very Globe that we inhabit , not to mention , how many Plants , Animals , and Minerals , we are as yet wholly ignorant of , and how many others we are but slenderly acquainted with ; I consider , that the objects about which our Experiments and Inquiries are conversant , do all belong to the Superficial parts of the Terrestrial Globe , of which the Earth , known to us , seems to be but as it were the Crust or Scurf . But what the Internal part of this Globe is made up of , is no less disputable than of what Substance the remotest Stars we can descry , consist : For even among the modern Philosophers some think , the internal Portion of the Earth to be pure and Elementary Earth , which ( say they ) must be found there , or no where . Others imagine it to be Fiery , and the Receptacle either of Natural or Hellish Flames . Others will have the Body of the Terrestrial Globe to be a great and solid Magnet . And the Cartesians on the other side , ( though they all admit store of Subterraneal Loadstones ) teach , that the same Globe was once a Fix'd Star , and that , though it have since degenerated into a Planet , yet the Internal part of it is still of the same Nature that it was before ; the change it has received proceeding onely from having had its outward parts quite cover'd over with thick spots ( like those to be often observ'd about the Sun , ) by whose Condensation the firm Earth we inhabit was form'd . And the mischief is , that each of these jarring Opinions is almost as difficult to be demonstratively prov'd False as True. For , whereas to the Centre of the Earth there is , according to the modestest account of our late Cosmographers , above three thousand and five hundred miles ; my Inquiries among Navigators and Miners have not yet satisfi'd me , that mens Curiosity has actually reached above one mile or two at most downwards , ( and that not in above three or four places , ) either into the Earth or into the Sea. So that as yet our Experience has scarce grated any thing deep upon the Husk , ( if I may so speak ) without at all reaching the Kernel of the Terraqueous Globe . And alas ! what is this Globe of ours , of which it self we know so little , in comparison of those vast and Luminous Globes that we call the Fix'd Stars , of which we know much less ? For , though former Astronomers have been pleased to give us , with a seeming accurateness , their Distances and Bignesses , as if they had had certain ways of measuring them ; yet Later and Better Mathematicians will ( I know ) allow me to doubt of what Those have deliver'd . For since 't is confess'd , that we can observe no Parallax in the Fix'd Stars ( nor perhaps in the highest Planets , ) men must be yet to seek for a Method to measure the distance of those Bodies . And not onely the Copernicans make it to be I know not how many hundred thousands of miles greater than the Ptolomeans , and very much greater than even Tycho ; but Ricciolus himself , though a great Anti-Copernican , makes the distance of the Fix'd Stars vastly greater , than not onely Tycho , but ( if I mis-remember not ) than some of the Copernicans themselves . Nor do I wonder at these so great Discrepances , ( though some amount perhaps to some millions of miles , ) when I consider , that Astronomers do not measure the distance of the Fix'd Stars by their Instruments , but accommodate it to their particular Hypotheses . And by this uncertainty of the remoteness of the Fix'd Stars you will easily gather , that we are not very sure of their Bulk , no not so much as in reference to one another ; since it remains doubtful , whether the differing Sizes , they appear to us to be of , proceed from a real Inequality of Bulk , or onely from an Inequality of Distance , or partly from one of those causes , and partly from the other . But 't is not my design to take notice of those Things , which the famous Disputes among the Modern Astronomers manifest to be dubious . For I consider , that there are divers things relating to the Stars , which are so remote from our knowledge , that the Causes of them are not so much as disputed of , or inquired into , such as may be among others , Why the number of the Stars is neither greater nor lesser than it is ? Why so many of those Celestial Lights are so plac'd , as not to be visible to our naked eyes , nor even when they are help'd by ordinary Telescopes ? ( which extraordinary good ones have assured me of . ) Why among the familiarly visible Stars , there are so many in some parts of the Sky , and so few in others ? Why their Sizes are so differing , and yet not more differing ? Why they are not more orderly plac'd , so as to make up Constellations of regular or handsome Figures ( of which the Triangle is , perhaps , the single Example ) but seem to be scatter'd in the Skie as it were by Chance , and have as confus'd Configurations , as the Drops that fall upon ones Hat in a shower of Rain ? To which divers other Questions might be added , as about the Stars , so about the Interstellar part of Heaven , which several of the Modern Epicureans would have to be empty , save where the beams of Light ( and perhaps some other Celestial Effluvia ) pass through it ; and the Cartesians on the contrary think to be full of an Aethereal matter , which some , that are otherwise favourers of their Philosophy , confess they are reduc'd to take up but as an Hypothesis . So that our knowledge is much short of what many think , not onely if it be consider'd Intensively , but Extensively , ( as a Schoolman would express it . ) For there being so great a disproportion between the Heavens and the Earth , that some Moderns think the Earth to be little better than a Point in comparison even of the Orb of the Sun ; and the Cartesians , with other Copernicans , think the great Orb it self , ( which is equal to what the Ptolomeans call'd the Sun's Orb ) to be but a Point in respect of the Firmament ; and all our Astronomers agree , that at least the Earth is but a Physical Point in comparison of the Starry Heaven : Of how little extent must our knowledge be , which leaves us ignorant of so many things , touching the vast Bodies that are above us , and penetrates so little a way even into the Earth that is beneath us , that it seems confin'd to but a small share of the superficial part of a Physical Point ! Of which consideration the natural result will be , that , though what we call our Knowledge , may be allowed to pass for a high Gratification to our minds , it ought not to puff them up ; and what we know of the System , and the Nature of things Corporeal ▪ is not so perfect and satisfactory , as to justifie our despising the Discoveries of Spiritual things . One of the former parts of this Letter may furnish me with one thing more , to evince the Excellencies and Prerogatives of the knowledge of the Mysteries of Religion ; and that One thing is such , that I hope I shall need to add nothing More , because it is not possible to add any thing Higher ; and that is , That the Preeminence above other Knowledge , adjudg'd to that of Divine Truths by a Judge above all Exception , and above all Comparison , namely , by God himself . This having been but lately shown , I shall not now repeat it , but rather apply what hath been there evinc'd , by representing , that if He , who determines in favour of Divine Truths , were such an one , as was less acquainted , than our over-weening Naturalists with the secrets of their Idoliz'd Physicks ; or if he were , though an Intelligent , yet ( like an Angel ) a Bare Contemplator of what we call the Works of Nature , without having any Interest in their Productions , your Friends not acquiescing in his estimate of things might have , though not a fair Excuse , yet a stronger Temptation . But when he , by whose direction we prefer the higher Truths revealed in the Scripture , before those which Reason alone teaches us concerning those comparatively mean Subjects , things Corporeal , is the same God that not onely understands the whole Universe , and all its parts , far more perfectly , than a Watch-maker can understand one of his own Watches , ( in which he can give an account onely of the Contrivance , and not of the Cause of the Spring , nor the Nature of the Gold , Steel , and other Bodies his Watch consists of , ) but did make both this great Automaton , the World , and Man in it : We have no colour to imagine , that he should either be ignorant of , or injuriously disparage , his own Workmanship , or impose upon his Favourite-Creature , Man , in directing him what sort of Knowledge he ought most to covet and prize . So that since 't is He who fram'd the World , and all those things in it we most admire , that would have us prefer the knowledge he has vouchsafed us in his Word , before that which he has allow'd us of his Works , sure 't is very unreasonable and unkind to make the Excellencies of the Workmanship a disparagement to the Author , and the Effects of his Wisdom a Motive against acquiescing in the Decisions of his Judgment ; as if , because he is to be admir'd for his Visible Productions , he were not to be believ'd , when he tells us , that there are Discoveries that contain Truths more valuable than those which relate but to the Objects , that he has expos'd to all men's Eyes . The fifth Section . I Doubt , I should be guilty of a most important Omission , if I should here forget to consider One thing , which I fear has a main stroak in the Partiality your Friend expresseth in his preference of Physicks to Theology ; and that is , That he supposes he shall by the Former acquire a Fame , both more Certain and more Durable , than can be hop'd for from the Latter . And I acknowledge , not onely with readiness , but with somewhat of Gratulation of the felicity of this Age , That there is scarce any sort of Knowledge more in request , than that which Natural Philosophy pretends to teach ; and that among the awaken'd and inquisitive part of Mankind , as much Reputation and Esteem may be gain'd by an insight into the Secrets of Nature , as by being intrusted with those of Princes , or dignifi'd with the splendid'st marks of their favour . But though I readily confess thus much , and though perhaps I may be thought to have had , I know not by what fate , as great a share of that perfum'd Smoak , Applause , as ( at least ) some of those , which among the Writers that are now alive , your Friend seems most to Envy for it ; yet I shall not scruple to tell you , partly from observation of what has happen'd to others , and partly too upon some little Experience of my own , that neither is it so easie as your Friend seems to believe it , to get by the study of Nature a sure and lasting Reputation , neither ought the Expectation of it , in reason , make men undervalue the study of Divinity . Nor would it here avail to object ( by way of prevention ) that the Difficulties and Impediments of acquiring and securing Reputation , lie as well in the way of Divines as Philosophers , since this Objection has been already consider'd at the beginning of this Second Part of our present Tract . Besides , that the progress of our Discourse will shew , that the Naturalist , aspiring to fame , is liable to some Inconveniences , which are either not at all , or not near equally incident to the Divine . Wherefore without staying to take any further notice of this preventive Allegation , I shall proceed to make good the first part of the Assertion that preceded it ; which that I may the more fully do , give me leave ( after having premised , That a man must either be a Writer , or forbear to Print what he knows ; ) to propose to you the following Considerations . And first , if your Physeophilus should think to secure a great Reputation , by forbearing to couch any of his Thoughts or Experiments in Writing , he may thereby find himself not a little mistaken . For if once he have gain'd a repute ( upon what account soever ) of knowing some things that may be useful to others , or of which studious men are wont to be very desirous , he will not avoid the Visits and Questions of the Curious . Or , if he should affect a Solitude , and be content to hide himself , that he may hide the things he knows ; yet he will not escape the sollicitations that will be made him by Letters . And if these ways of tempting him to disclose himself , prevail not at all with him to do so , he will provoke the Persons that have employ'd them ; who finding themselves disoblieg'd by being defeated of their Desires , if not also their Expectations , will for the most part endeavour to revenge themselves on him , by giving him the Character of an uncourteous and ill-natur'd person ; and will endeavour , perhaps successfully enough , to decry his parts , by suggesting , That his affected Concealments proceed but from a Conscientiousness , that the things he is presum'd to possess , are but such , as , if they should begin to be known , would cease to be valu'd . You will say ( perchance , ) that so much reservedness is a fault : Nor shall I dispute it with you , whether it be or not ; but , if he be open and communicative in Discourse to those Strangers that come to pump him , such is the disingenious temper of too too many , that he will be in great danger of having his Notions or Experiments arrogated by those to whom he imparts them , or at least by others , to whom those may ( though perchance designlessly ) happen to discourse of them . And then , if either Physeophylus , or any of his Friends that know him to be Author of what is thus usurp'd , should mention him as such , the Usurpers and their Friends would presently become his Enemies ; and , to secure their own Reputation , will be sollicitous to lessen and blemish his . And if you should now tell me , that your Friend might here take a Middle way , as that which in most cases is thought to be the best , by discoursing at such a rate of his Discoveries , as may somewhat gratifie those that have a Curiosity to learn them , and yet not speak so clearly as divest himself of his Propriety in them ; I should reply , That neither is this Expedient a sure one , nor free from Inconveniences . For most men are so self-opinionated , that they will easily believe themselves Masters of things , if they do but half understand them . And however , though the Persons to whom the Discourse was immediately made , should not have too great an Opinion of themselves , no more than too great a Sagacity ; yet they may easily , by repeating what they heard and observ'd , give some more piercing Wit a hint sufficient to enable him to make out the whole Notion , or the Discovery , which he will then without scruple , and without almost any possibility of being disprov'd , assume for his own . But if it happen , ( as it often will in Extemporaneous Discourse ) that a Philosopher be not rightly understood ; either because he has not the leisure , no more than a design , to explain himself fully , or because the Persons he converses with bring not a competent Capacity and Attention , he then runs a greater danger than before . For the vanity most men take in being known to have convers'd with eminent Philosophers , makes them very forward to repeat what they heard such a famous Wit say ; and oftentimes being secure of not being contradicted , ignorantly to misrecite it , or wittingly to wrest it in favour of the Opinion they would countenance by it . So that , whereas by the formerly mention'd franckness of Discourse he is onely in danger to have the Truths he discover'd arrogated by Others , this reservedness exposes him to have Opinions and Errours that he never dream'd of , father'd on Him. And when a man's Opinions or Discoveries come once to be publickly discours'd of , without being propos'd by himself , or some Friend well instructed by him , he knows not , what Errours or Extravagancies may be imputed to him ( and that without a Moral possibility left to most men to discern them , ( by the mistake of the Weak , or the disingenuity of the Partial , or the Artifices of the Malitious . And even the greatness of a mans Reputation does sometimes give such countenance to vain Reports and Surmises , as by degrees to shake , if not ruine , it . As we see , that Fryer Bacon , and Trithemius , and Paracelsus , who for their times were knowing as well as famous men , had such feats ascrib'd to them , as by appearing Fabulous to most of the Judicious , have tempted many to think , that all the great things that were said of them were so too . These are some of the Inconveniences that a Naturalist may be liable to , if he forbear the communicating of his Thoughts and Discoveries himself : But if Physeophilus should , to shun these , aspire to Fame by the usual way of writing Books , he may indeed avoid these , but perhaps not without running into other inconveniences and hazards , very little inferiour to them . First then , we may consider , that whether a man writes in a Systematical way , as they have done who have publish'd entire Bodies of Natural Philosophy , or Methodical Treatises of some considerable part of it , or whether he write in a more loose and unconfin'd way , of any particular Subject that belongs to Physicks ; whichsoever , I say , of these two ways of writing Books he shall make choice of , he will find it liable to Inconvenience enough . For if he write Systematically , first , he will be obliged ( that he may leave nothing necessary undeliver'd ) to say divers things that have been said ( perhaps many times ) by others already , which cannot but be unpleasant , not onely to the Reader , but ( if he be Ingenious ) to the Writer . Next , there are so many things in Nature , whereof we know little or Nothing , and so many more of which we do not know Enough , that our Systematical Writer , though we should grant him to be very Learned , must needs , either leave divers things that belong to his Theme untreated of , or discourse of them slightly , and oftentimes ( in likelihood ) Erroneously . So that in this kind of Books there is always much said that the Reader did know , and commonly not a little that the Writer does not know . And to this I must add in the third place , that Natural Philosophy , being so vast and pregnant a Subject , that ( especially in so Inquisitive an Age as this ) almost every day discovers some new thing or other about it , 't is scarce possible for a Method , that is adapted but to what is Already known , to continue Long the most proper ; as the same Clothes will not long fit a Child , whose Age will make him quickly out-grow them . And therefore succeeding Writers will have a fair pretence to compile new Systems , that may be more adequate to Philosophy improv'd since the publication of the former . And though there were little of New to be added , and it were more easie to Alter than to Mend the Method of our supposed Authour ; yet Novelty it self is a thing so pleasing and inviting to the generality of men , that It often recommends things that have nothing else to recommend them ; and we may apply to a great many other things , what I remember a famous Courtier of my acquaintance used to say of Mistresses , That Another was preferable to a Better , ( the Better being but the same . ) But now if , declining the Systematical way , one shall choose the other of writing loose Tracts and Discourses , he may indeed avoid some of the lately mention'd Inconveniences , but will scarce avoid the being plunder'd by Systematical Writers : For these will be apt to cull out those things that they like best , and insert them in their Methodical Books , ( perhaps much curtal'd , or otherwise injur'd in the repeating , ) and will place them , not as their own Authour did , where they may best confirm or adorn his Discourse , and be illustrated or upheld by it ; but where it may best serve the turn of the Compiler : And these Methodical Books promise so much more Compendious a way than others to the Attainment of the Sciences they treat of , that though really for the most part they prove greater helps to the Memory , than the Understanding ; yet most Readers , being , for want of Judgment or of Patience , of another mind , they are willing to take it for granted , that in former Writers , if there have been any thing considerable , it has been all carefully extracted , as well as orderly digested by the later Compilers : And though I take this to be a very Erroneous and Prejudicial Conceit , yet it obtains so much , that as Gol●smiths that onely give shape and lustre to Gold are far more esteem'd , and in a better Condition , than Miners , who find the Ore in the bowels of the Earth , and with great pains and industry dig it up , and refine it into Metall ; so those that with great study and toil successfully penetrate into the hidden Recesses of Nature , and discover latent Truths , are usually less regarded or taken notice of by the Generality of Men , than those who by plausible Methods and a neat Style reduce the Truths , that others have found out , into Systems of a Taking Order and a Convenient Bulk . I consider in the second place , That as the Method of the Books one writes , so the Bulk of them may prove prejudicial to the Naturalist that aspires to Fame : For if he write large Books , 't is odds but that he will write in them many things unaccurate , if not impertinent , or that he will be oblig'd to repeat many things that others have said before ; and if he write but small Tracts , as is the custome of the Judiciousest Authors , who have no mind to publish but what is New and Considerable , as their Excellency will make them to be the sooner dispers'd , so the smallness of the Bulk will endanger them to be quickly lost ; as Experience shows us of divers Excellent little Tracts , which , though publish'd not many years ago , are already out of Print , ( as they speak ) and not to be met with , save by chance , in Stationers Shops . So that these Writings ( which deserve a better fate ) come , after a while , either to be lost , ( which is the case of divers , ) or to have their Memory preserv'd onely in the larger Volume of some Compiler , whose Industry is onely preferable to his Judgment ; it being observable , that ( by I know not what unlucky fate ) very few ( for I do not say , None ) that addict themselves to make Collections out of others , have the Judgment to cull out the choisest things in them ; and the small Tracts , we are speaking of , being preserv'd but in such a Quoter or Abridger , will run a very great danger of being convey'd to posterity but under such a Representation as it pleases the Compiler . And This ( that I may proceed to my third Consideration ) may make the Naturalists Fame very uncertain , not onely because of the want of Judgment , that ( as I newly said ) is too often observable in Compilers , whereby they frequently leave far better things than they take , but for the want of skill to understand the Author they Cite and Epitomize , or Candor to do him right . For sometimes mens Physical Opinions , and several Passages of their Writings , are so misrepresented by Mistake or Design , especially if those that recite their Opinions be not Of them , that men are made to teach or deliver things quite differing from their Sense , and perhaps quite contrary to it ; of which , I my self have had some unwelcome Experience , a Learned Writer pretending , I know not how often , that I asserted an Opinion , about which I did expressly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And another noted Writer having ( not out of design , but unacquaintedness with Mechanicks , and the Subject I writ of , ) given me commendations for having , by a new Experiment , prov'd a thing , the quite contrary whereof I intended thereby to evince , and am not Alone mistaken , if I did not do it . Other Naturalists I have met with , whose Writings Compilers have traduc'd out of hatred to their Persons , or their Religion ; as if Truth could in nothing be a Friend to one that is the Traducers's Enemy ; or as if a man that falls into an Errour in Religion , could not light upon a good Notion in Philosophy , in spite of all the Truths we owe to Aristotle , Epicurus , and the other Heathen Philosophers . Nay , some there are , that will set themselves to decry a man's Writings , not because they are directly His Enemies , but because He is esteem'd by Theirs ; as you may remember an Instance in a Servant of yours , who had divers things written against Him upon this very Account . Nor is it onely by the Citations of profess'd Adversaries or Opponents , that a worthy Writer's Reputation may be prejudic'd , since 't is not unfrequently so by those , that mention him with an Encomium , and seem dispos'd to honour him . For I have observ'd it to be the Trick of certain Writers , to name an Author with much Complement , onely for some one or few of the least considerable things they borrow of Him ; by which artifice they endeavour to conceal their being Plagiaries of more and better ; which yet is more excusable than the Practise of some , who proceed to that pitch of disingenuity , that they will rail at an Author , to whom indeed they owe too much , that they may not be thought to be beholden to him . But ( 4. ) I must add , that besides these dangers that a Naturalists Reputation with posterity may run through the Ignorance or Perversness of men , it is liable to divers other hazards , from the very Nature both of Men , of Opinions , and of Things . For , as men's Genius's and Inclinations are naturally various in reference to Studies , one man passionately affecting one sort of them , and another being fond of quite differing ones ; so those Inclinations are oftentimes variously and generally determin'd by external and accidental Causes . As when some great Monarch happens to be a great Patron , or a Despiser , and perhaps Adversary , of this or that kind of Learning : And when some one man has gain'd much applause for this or that kind of Study ; Imitation , or Emulation oftentimes makes many others addict themselves to it . Thus though Rome under the Consuls was inconsiderable for Learning , yet the Reputation of Cicero , and Favour of Augustus , brought Learning into request there ; where the small countenance it met with among most of the succeeding Emperours , kept it far inferiour to what it had been among the Greeks about Alexander's Age. And the Age of the same Augustus was enobled with store of Poets , not onely by the countenance which He and Maecenas afforded them , but probably also by the Examples they gave to , and the Emulation they excited in , one another . And after the decay of the Roman Empire , in the Fourth Century , Natural Philosophy and the Mathematicks being very little valued , and less understood , by reason that mens Studies were , by the Genius of those Ages apply'd to other Subjects , every hundred years scarce produc'd One Improver , ( not to say one Eminent Cultivator ) either of Mathematicks or of Physicks : By which you may see , how little Certainty there is , that , because a man is skill'd in Natural Philosophy , and that Science is now in Request , his Reputation shall be as great as now , when perhaps the Science it self will be grown out of Repute . But besides the Contingencies that may happen to a Naturalist's Fame upon this Account , That the Science He cultivates , is , as well as others , subject to Wanes and Eclipses in the general esteem of men ; there is another uncertainty arising from the Vicissitudes that are to be met with in the Estimates men make of differing Hypotheses , Sects , and ways of Philosophizing about the same Science , and particularly about Natural Philosophy . For during those Learned Times , when Physicks first and most flourish'd among the Grecians , Democritus , Leucippus , Epicurus , Anaxagoras , Plato , and almost all the Naturalists that preceded Aristotle , were Corpuscularians , endeavouring , though not all by the same way , to give an account of the Phaenomena of Nature , and even of Qualities themselves , by the Bigness , Shape , Motion , &c. of Corpuscles , or the minutest active parts of Matter : Whereas Aristotle , having attempted to deduce the Phaenomena from the four first Qualities , the four Elements , and some few other barren Hypotheses , ascribing what could not be explicated by them , ( and consequently far the greatest part of Natures Phaenomena ) to Substantial Forms and Occult Qualities ; ( Principles that are readily nam'd , but scarce so much as pretended to be understood , ) and having upon these slight and narrow Principles reduc'd Physicks into a kind of System , which the judicious Modesty of the Corpuscularians had made them backward to do ; the Reputation that his great Pupil Alexander , as well as his Learning gave him ; the Easiness of the way he propos'd to the attainment of Natural Philosophy ; the good luck his Writings had to survive those of Democritus , and almost all the rest of the Corpuscularians , when Charles the Great began to establish Learning in Europe : These , I say , and some other lucky Accidents that concurr'd , did for about seven or eight hundred years together , make the Corpuscularian Philosophy not onely be Justled , but even Exploded out of the Schools by the Peripatetick ; which in our Times is , by very many , upon the Revival of the Corpuscularian Philosophy , rejected , and , by more than a few , derided as precarious , unintelligible , and useless . And to give an instance in a particular thing , ( which , though formerly named , deserves to be again mention'd to our present purpose , ) Aristotle himself somewhere confesses , ( not to say brags ) that the Greek Philosophers , his Predecessors did , unanimously teach , that the World was ( I say not Created , but ) Made , and yet He , almost by his single Authority , and the subtile Arguments ( as some have been pleased to think them , ) that he employ'd , ( though divers of them were borrow'd of Ocellus Lucanus , ) was able for many Ages to introduce into the Schools of Philosophers that Irreligious and Ill-grounded Opinion of the Eternity of the World , which afterwards the Christian Doctrine made men begin to question , and which now both that and Right Reason have perswaded most men to reject . And this invites me to consider farther , That the present success of the Opinions that your Physeophilus befriends , ought not to make him so sure as he thinks he is , that the same Opinions will be always in the same , or greater Vogue , and have the same Advantages , in point of General Esteem that they now have , over their Corrivals . For , Opinions seem to have their Fatal Seasons and Vicissitudes , as well as other things ; as may appear , not onely by the Examples of it newly given , but also by the Hypothesis of the Earths Motion , which having been in great request before Pythagoras , ( who yet is commonly thought the Inventor of it , ) had its Reputation much increas'd by the suffrage of the famous Sect of the Pythagoreans , ( whom Aristotle himself takes notice of as the Patrons of that Opinion ; ) and yet afterwards for near 2000 years it was laugh'd at , as not onely false , but ridiculous . After all which time , this so long antiquated Opinion being reviv'd by Copernicus , has in a little time made so great a progress among the modern Astronomers and Philosophers , that if it go on to prevail at the same rate , the Motion of the Earth will be acknowledg'd by all its Mathematical Inhabitants . But though it be often the Fate of an oppress'd Truth , to have at length a Resurrection , yet 't is not always its peculiar priviledge ; for , Obsolete Errours are sometimes reviv'd , as well as discredited Truths : So that the general disrepute of an Opinion in one Age will not give us an absolute security , that 't will not be in as general Request in another , in which it may perhaps not onely Revive , but Reign . Nor is it onely in the Credit of mens Opinions about Philosophical Matters , that we may observe an Inconstancy and Vicissitude , but in the very Way and Method of Philosophizing ; for Democritus , Plato , Pythagoras , and others , who were of the more sincere and ingenious Cultivators of Physicks among the Greeks , exercis'd themselves chiefly either in making particular Experiments and Observations , as Democritus did in his manifold Dissections of Animals ; or else apply'd the Mathematicks to the Explicating of a particular Phaenomenon of Nature , as may appear ( not to mention what Hero teaches in his Pneumaticks , ) by the Accounts , Democritus , Plato , and others , give of Fire and other Elements , from the Figure and Motion of the Corpuscles they consist of . And although this way of Philosophizing were so much in request before Aristotle , that ( albeit he unluckily brought in another , yet ) there are manifest and considerable footsteps of it to be met with in some of his Writings , ( and particularly in his Books of Animals , and his Mechanical Questions ; ) yet the Scholastick followers of Aristotle did , for many Ages , neglect the way of Philosophizing of the Antients , and ( to the great prejudice of Learning ) introduc'd every where in stead of it a quite contrary way of Writing . For , not onely they laid aside the Mathematicks , ( of which they were for the most part very ignorant , ) but instead of giving us Intelligible and Explicite ( if not Accurate ) Accounts of particular Subjects , grounded upon a distinct and heedful Consideration of them , they contented themselves with hotly disputing , in general , certain unnecessary , or at least unimportant questions about the Objects of Physicks , about Materia Prima , Substantial Forms , Privation , Place , Generation , Corruption , and other such general things , with which when they had quite tyr'd themselves and their Readers , they usually remain'd utter strangers to the particular Productions of that Nature , about which they had so much wrangled , and were not able to give a man so much true and useful Information about Particular Bodies , as even the meanest Mechanicks , such as Mine-diggers , Butchers , Smiths , and even Dary-maids , could do . Which made their Philosophy appear so Imperfect and Useless , not onely to the Generality of Men , but to the more Elevated and Philosophical Wits , that our great Verulam attempted with much Skill and Industry , ( and not without some Indignation ) to restore the more modest and useful way practis'd by the Antients , of Inquiring into particular Bodies , without hastening to make Systems , into the Request it formerly had ; wherein the admirable Industry of two of our London Physicians , Gilbert and Harvey , has not a little assisted him . And I need not tell you , that since Him , Des-Cartes , Gassendus , and others , having taken in the Application of Geometrical Theorems , for the Explication of Physical Problems ; He , and They , and Other Restorers of Natural Philosophy , have brought the Experimental and Mathematical way of Inquiring into Nature into at least as high and growing an Esteem , as ever it possess'd when it was most in Vogue among the Naturalists that preceded Aristotle . To the Considerations I have hitherto deduc'd , which ( perhaps ) might alone suffice for my purpose , I shall yet subjoyn one that I take to be of greater weight than any of them , for the manifesting how difficult it is to be sure , that the Physical Opinions , which at present procure a Champion or Promoter of them Veneration , shall be still in request . For besides that inconstant Fate of applauded Opinions , which may be imputed to the Inconstancy of Men , there is a greater danger that threatens the Aspirers Reputation from the very Nature of things : For the most general Principles of all , viz. the Figure , Bigness , Motion , and other Mechanical Affections of the small parts of Matter , being ( as your Friend believes ) sufficiently and clearly establish'd already ; he must expect to raise his Reputation from subordinate Hypotheses and Theories ; and in these I shall not scruple to say , that 't is extremely difficult , even for those that are more exercis'd than He , in framing Them and in making of Experiments to have so reaching and attentive a prospect of all things fit to be known , as not to be liable to have their Doctrine made doubtful , or disprov'd by something that He did not discover , or that After-times may . This , I doubt not , but you would easily be prevail'd with to allow , if I had leisure and conveniency to transmit to you my Sceptical Naturalist . And without having recourse to that Tract , it may possibly suffice , that we consider , that one of the Conditions of a good * Hypothesis is , that It fairly comport not onely with all other Truths , but with all other Phaenomena of Nature , as well as those 't is fram'd to explicate . For this being granted , ( which cannot be deny'd , ) He that establishes a Theory , which he expects shall be acquiesc'd in by all succeeding Times , and make Him famous in them , must not onely have a care , that none of the Phaenomena of Nature , that are already taken notice of , do contradict his Hypothesis at the present , but that no Phaenomena that may be hereafter discover'd , shall do it for the future . And I very much question , whether Physiophilus do know , or , upon no greater a number and variety of Experiments than most men build upon , can know , how incompleat the History of Nature we yet have , is , and how difficult it is to build an Accurate Hypothesis upon an Incompleat History of the Phaenomena 't is to be fitted to ; especially considering that ( as I was saying ) many things may be discover'd in After-times by Industry or Chance , which are not now so much as dream'd of , and which may yet overthrow Doctrines speciously enough accommodated to the Observations that have been hitherto made . Those Antient Philosophers , that thought the Torrid Zone to be uninhabitable , did not establish their Opinion upon wild Reasonings ; and as it continu'd uncontrol'd for many Ages , so perhaps it would have always done , if the Discoveries made by Modern Navigations had not manifested it to be Erroneous . The Solidity of the Celestial Orbs was , for divers Centuries above 1000 years , the general opinion of Astronomers and Philosophers , and yet in the last Age and in Ours , the free Trajection , that has been observ'd in the Motion of some Comets from one of the supposed Orbs to another , and the Intricate Motions in the Planet Mars , ( observ'd by Kepler and others , to be sometimes nearer , as well as sometimes remoter from the Earth than is the Sun ; ) these , I say , and other Phenomena undiscover'd by the Antients , have made even Tycho , as well as most of the recent Astronomers , exchange the too long receiv'd Opinion of solid Orbs for the more warrantable belief of a Fluid Aether . And though the Celestial part of the World , by reason of its remoteness from us , be the most unlikely of any other to afford us the means of overthrowing old Theories by new Discoveries ; yet even in that we may take notice of divers Instances to our present purpose , though I shall here name but this One , viz. That , after the Ptolemaick Number and Order of the Planets had past uncontradicted for very many Ages ; and even the Tychonians and Copernicans , ( however they did by their differing Hypotheses dissent from the Ptolemaick System ( as to the Order , ) did ( yet ) acquiesce in it as to the number of the Planets ; by the happy Discoveries , made by Galilaeo of the Satellites of Jupiter , and by the excellent Hugenius , of the New Planet about Saturn , ( which I think I had the luck to be the first that observ'd and shew'd Disbelievers of it in England , ) the Astronomers of all perswasions are brought to add to the old Septenary number of the Planets , and take in Five others that their Predecessors did not dream of . That the Chyle prepar'd in the Stomach pass'd through the Mesaraick Veins to the Liver , and so to the Heart , was for many Ages the unanimous Opinion , not onely of Physicians , but Anatomists , whose numerous Diffections did not tempt them to question it ; and yet , since the casual , though lucky , Discoveries made of the Milky Vessels in the Thorax by the dextrous Pecquet , those that have had with you and I the curiosity to make the requisite Experiments , are generally convinc'd , that ( at least ) a good part of the Chyle goes from the Stomach to the Heart , without passing through the Mesaraick Veins , or coming at all to the Liver . 'T were easie to multiply Instances of this kind , but I rather choose to add , that 't is not onely about the Qualities , and other Attributes of things , but about their Causes also , that New and oftentimes Accidental Discoveries may destroy the credit of Long and generally approv'd Opinions . That Quick-lime exceedingly heats the Water that is pour'd on to quench it , on the account of Antiperistasis , has been very long and universally receiv'd by the School-Philosophers , where 't is the grand and usual Argument , urg'd to Establish Antiperistasis ; and yet I presume you have taken notice , that this Proof is made wholly Ineffectual in the judgment of many of the Virtuosi , by some contrary Experiments of mine , and particularly that of exciting in Quick-lime full as great an Effervescence by the Affusion of Hot water in stead of Cold ▪ So it has been generally believ'd , that in the Congelation of Water , that Liquor is condens'd into a narrower room ; whereas our late Experiments * have satisfied most of the curious , that Ice is Water expanded , or ( if you please ) that Ice takes up more room than the Water did , whilst it remain'd unfrozen . And whereas the Notion of Natures abhorrence of a Vacuum , has not onely ever since Aristotle's time made a great noise in the Schools , but seems to be Confirmable by a multitude of Phaenomena ; the Experiments of Torricellius , and some of * Ours , evidencing , that the Air has a great Weight and a strong Spring , have , I think , perswaded almost all , that have impartially consider'd them , that , whether there be or be not such a thing as they call Fuga Vacui , yet Suction , and the Ascension of Water in Pumps , and those other Phaenomena that are generally ascrib'd to It , may be very well Explicated without it , and are indeed caus'd by the Weight of the Atmosphere , and the Elastical power of the Air. And this puts me in mind to take notice , that even practical Inventions , where one would think the Matter of Fact to be Evident , may by undream'd of Discoveries be brought to lose the general Reputation they had for compleatness in their kind . For to endear the Invention of Sucking Pumps and of Syphons , it has been generally presum'd , that by means of either of these , Water and any other Liquor may , ob fugam vacui , be rais'd to what height one pleases ; and accordingly ways have been propos'd by famous Authors , to convey Water from one side of an high Mountain to the other : Whereas first the unexpected Disappointments that were met with by some Pump-makers , and afterwards Experiments purposely made , sufficiently evince , that neither a Pump nor a Syphon will raise Water to above 35 foot or thereabouts , nor Quicksilver to so many Inches . And as to the Invention of Weather-glasses , which has been so much and justly applauded and us'd , as it has been generally receiv'd for the truest Standard of the Heat and Cold of the Weather ; so it seems to be liable to no suspition of deceiving Us : For not onely 't is evident , that in Winter , when the Air is very Cold , the Water rises much higher than in Summer and other Seasons , when 't is not so ; but if you but apply your warm hand to the Bubble at the top , the Water will be visibly depress'd by the rarifi'd Air , which upon the removal of the Hand returning to its former Coldness , the Water will forthwith as manifestly ascend again . And yet by finding , that , as the Atmosphaere has a considerable weight , so this weight is not always the same , but varies much , and that , as far as I can yet discover , uncertainly enough ; I have had the luck to satisfie many of the Curious , that these Open Thermometers are not to be safely rely'd on , since in them the Liquor is made to rise and fall , not onely , as men have hitherto suppos'd , by the Cold and Heat of the Ambient Air , but ( as I have shewn by divers new Experiments ) according to the varying Gravity of the Atmosphaere ; which Variation has not onely a Sensible , but a very Considerable Influence upon the Weather-glass . To these Instances I shall annex onely one more , from which we may learn , that notwithstanding a very heedful survey of all that at present a man can take notice of , or well suspect that he ought to take into his Consideration , the Case may be such , that having devis'd an Instrument , He may use it many years with good success ; and yet , unless he were able to live very many more , he shall not be sure to out-live the danger of finding the same Instrument ( though to sense as well condition'd as ever ) fallacious : As he that first appli'd a Magnetick Needle to the finding of the Meridian Line , might very probably conclude , that his Needle pointing directly N. and S. or declining from it just two or three , or some other determinate number of Degrees , he had discover'd a certain and ready way , without the help of Sun or Stars , or Astronomical Instruments , to describe a Meridian Line , and if he liv'd but an ordinary number of years after his Observation , he might probably have found his Instrument not deceitful ; which yet it may now be , the Magnetick Needle not onely declining in many places from the true points of N. and S. but ( as later Discoveries inform us ) varying in tract of time its Declination in the self same place . The Considerations hitherto propos'd might easily enough be encreas'd by more of the same tendency , especially if I thought fit to borrow from a Discourse ( of mine ) purposely written about the Partiality and Uncertainty of Fame ; but in stead of adding to their Number , I should think my self oblieged to excuse my having already mention'd so many , and insisted so much upon them , if I did not vehemently suspect , that in your Physiophilus , ( as well as in many other modern Naturalists , ) scarce any thing does more contribute to an Undervaluation of the study of Divinity , than that being eagerly ambitious of a Certain , as well as a Posthume Fame , he is confident that Physiologie will help to it ; and therefore the design of his Discourse made me think it expedient to spend some time to manifest , That 't is far less easie than he thinks , to be as sure that he shall have the praises of Future Ages , as that ( though he have them ) he shall not hear them . The past Considerations have , I presume , convinc'd you , that 't is no such easie matter for a Naturalist to acquire a great reputation and be sure it will prove a lasting one . Wherefore , that I may also confirm the second Part of what formerly I propos'd , I now proceed to show , that , though the case were otherwse , yet he would have no reason to slight the study of Divinity . 1. For , in the first place , nothing hinders , but that a man who values and inquires into the Mysteries of Religion , may attain to an Eminent degree in the knowledge of those of Nature . For frequently men of great parts may successfully apply themselves to more than one Study ; and few of them have their thoughts and hours so much ingross'd by that one Subject or Imployment , but that , if they have great Inclinations as well as Fitness for the study of Nature , they will find time , not onely to Cultivate it , but to Excel in it . You need not be told , That Copernicus , to whom our late Philosophers owe so much , was a Churchman ; That his Champion Lansbergius was a Minister , and that Gassendus himself was a Doctor of Divinity . Among the Jesuites you know , that Clavius and divers others have as prosperously addicted themselves to Mathematicks as Divinity . And as to Physicks , not onely Scheiner , Aquilonius , Kircher , Schottus , Zucchius , and others , have very laudably cultivated the Optical and some other Parts of Philosophy ; but Ricciolus himself , the Learned Compiler of that Voluminous and Judicious Work of the Almagestum novum , wherein he has inserted divers accurate Observations of his own , is not onely a Divine , but a Professor of Divinity . And without going out of our own Countrey , I could , if I durst for fear of offending the modesty of those I should name , or injuring the merit of those I should omit ; I could ( I say ) if it were not for this , among our English Ecclesiasticks name you divers , who though they apply themselves so much to the study of the Scripture , as to be not onely solid Divines , but Excellent Preachers , have yet been so happily conversant with Nature , that , if they had liv'd in the Learned times of the Greeks , they would have rivall'd , if not eclips'd , some of them , Pythagoras and Euclid ; others of them , Anaxagoras and Epicurus ; and some of them , even Archimedes and Democritus themselves . And certainly , provided there be Curiosity and Industry enough imploy'd in the study of Nature , it is not Necessary , that the knowledge of Nature should be the ultimate End of that Study ; a Fondness of the Object being requir'd onely in order to the Engaging the mind to such a serious Application , as a higher aim May sufficiently invite us to ; and Will rather promote than discourage . David became no less skilful in Musick , than those that were addicted to it onely to please themselves in it ; though we may reasonably suppose , that so pious an Authour of Psalms and Instruments aspired to an Excellency in that delightful Science , that he might Apply and Prefer it to the Service of the Temple , and promote the Celebration of God's Praises with it . And as Experience has manifested , that the Heathen Philosophers , that courted Moral Vertue for her self , did not raise it to that pitch , to which 't was advanc'd by the Heroick Practises of those true Christians , that in the highest Exercise of Vertue had a Religious aim at the pleasing and injoying of God ; so I see not , why Natural Knowledge must be more prosperously cultivated by those selfish Naturalists , that aim but at the pleasing of themselves in the attainment of that Knowledge , than those Religious Naturalists , who are invited to Attention and Industry , not onely by the pleasantness of the Knowledge it self , but by a higher and more ingaging Consideration ; namely , that by the Discoveries they make in the Book of Nature , both themselves and others may be excited and qualifi'd the better to admire and praise the Authour , whose Goodness does so well match the Wisdom they celebrate , that he declares in his Word , That those that honour him , he will honour . And as a man that is not in love with a fair Lady , but has onely a respect for her , may have as true and perfect , though not as discomposing an Idea of her face , as the most passionate Inamorato ; so I see not , why a Religious and Inquisitive Contemplator of Nature may not be able to give a good account of her , without preferring her so far to all other Objects of his study , as to make her his Mistress , and perhaps too his Idol . II. And now I proceed to consider in the second place , That matters of Divinity may , as well as those of Philosophy , afford a Reputation to Him that discovers , or illustrates them . For though the Fundamental Articles of Christian Religion be , as I have formerly declar'd , little less Evident than Important ; yet there are many other points in Divinity , and passages in the Scripture , which ( for Reasons that I have elsewhere mention'd ) are exceeding hard to be clear'd , and do not onely pose ordinary Readers , and the common sort of Scholars , but will sufficiently exercise the Abilities of a Great Wit , and give him opportunity enough to manifest that He is One. For divers of the points I speak of are much benighted upon the score of the Sublimity of the Things they treat of ; such as are the Nature , Attributes , and Decrees of God , which cannot be easie to the dimm understandings of Us that are but Men : And many other particulars that are not Abstruse in their own Nature , are yet made Obscure to us by our Ignorance , ( or at least Imperfect Knowledge , ) of the disus'd Languages wherein they are deliver'd , and the great remoteness of the Ages when , and the Countreys where , the things recorded were done or said . So that oftentimes a man may need and show as great Learning and Judgment to dispel the Darkness , wherein Time has involv'd Things , as that which Nature has cast on them : And in effect we see , that St. Augustine , St. Hierom , Origen , and others of the Fathers , have acquir'd no less a Reputation , than Empedocles , Anaxagoras , or Zeno ; And Grotius , Salmasius , Mr. Mede , Dr. Hamond , and some other Critical Expounders of difficult Texts of Scripture , have thereby got as much Credit , as Fracastorius by his Book De Sympathia & Antipathia ; Levinus Lemnius by his De Occultis rerum Miraculis ; or Cardanus ( and his Adversary Scaliger ) by what they writ De Subtilitate ; or even Fernelius himself by his Book De Abditis Rerum Causis . And it will contribute to the Credit which Theological Discoveries and Illustrations may procure a Man , that the Importance of the Subjects , and the earnestness wherewith men are wont to busie themselves about them , some upon the score of Piety , and others upon that of Interest , some to Learn Truths , and others to Defend what they have long or publickly taught for Truth , does make greater numbers of Men take notice of such Matters , and concern themselves far more about them , than about almost any other things , and especially far more , than about matters purely Philosophical , which but few are wont to think themselves fit to judge of , and concern'd to trouble themselves about . And accordingly we see , that the Writings of Socinus , Calvin , Bellarmine , Padre Paulo , Arminius , &c. are more famous , and more studied , than those of Telesius , Campanella , Severinus Danus , Magnenus , and divers other Innovators in Natural Philosophy . And Erastus , though a very Learned Physician , is much less famous for all his Elaborate Disputations against Paracelsus , than for the little Tract against particular Forms of Church-Government . And I presume You have taken notice , as well as I , that there are scarce any Five new Controversies in all Physicks , that are known to , and hotly contended for by so many , as are the Five Articles of the Remonstrants . III. My second Consideration being thus dispatch'd , it remains , that I tell you in the Third place , that Supposing , but not Granting , that to prosecute the Study of Divinity , one must of necessity neglect the Acquist of Reputation ; yet this Inconvenience it self ought not to deter us from the Duty it would disswade . For in all Deliberations , wherein any thing is propos'd to be quitted or declin'd , to obey or please God ; me thinks , we may fitly apply that of the Prophet to the Jewish King , who being perswaded ( to express his Concern for God's Glory ) to decline the Assistance of an Idolatrous Army of Israelites , and objecting , that by complying with the Advice given Him , he should lose a Sum of Money , amounting to no less than the Hire of a Potent Army ; receiv'd from the Prophet this brisk , but rational , Answer , The Lord is able to give thee far more than this . The Apostle Paul , who had been traduc'd , revil'd , buffetted , scourg'd , imprison'd , shipwrack'd , and ston'd for his Zeal to propagate the Truths , whose study I plead for ; after He had once had a Glimpse of that great Recompense of Reward that is reserved for us in Heaven , scruples not to pronounce , that he finds upon casting up the Account ( for He uses the Arithmetical term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory that is to be reveal'd in us . And if all that the Persecuted Christians of his time could suffer were not suitable ( for so I remember the same Greek word to signifie elsewhere ) or proportionable to that Glory ; it will sure far out-weigh what we can now forego or decline for it . The loss of an Advantage , and much more the bare missing of it , being usually but a Negative Affliction , in comparison of the Actual sufferance of Evil. Christ did not onely tell his Disciples , that He who should give the least of his Followers so much as a cup of cold water upon the score of their relation to Him , should not be unrewarded ; but when the same persons asked Him , what should be done to Them , who had left All to follow Him ; He presently allots Them Thrones , as much outvaluing that All they had lost , as an ordinary Recompense may exceed a cup of cold water . And indeed God's Goodness is so Great , and his Treasures so Unexhausted , that as He is forward to recompence even the least Services that can be done Him , so He is able to give the Greatest a proportionable Reward . Solomon had an Opportunity , such as never any Mortal had , ( that we know of , ) either before or since , of satisfying his Desires , whether of Fame , or any other Thing that he could wish ; Ask what I shall give thee , was the proffer made him by Him , that could give All things worth Receiving ; and yet the Wisdom even of Solomon's choice , approv'd by God Himself , consisted in declining the most ambition'd things of this Life , for those things that might the better qualifie him to serve and please God. And to give you an example in a Greater than Solomon , we may consider , that He who being in the form of God , thought it not robbery to be equal with God ; and who by leaving Heaven , did , to dwell on earth , quit more than any Inhabitant of the Earth can to gain Heaven , and deny'd more to become Capable of being tempted , than he did when he was tempted with an offer of All the Kingdoms of the world , and the Glory of them : This Saviour , I say , is said in Scripture to have , for the joy that was set before him , endured the Cross , and despised the shame ; as if Heaven had been a sufficient Recompence for even His Renouncing Honours , and Embracing Torments . He that declines the Acquist of the Applause of men for the Contemplation of the Truths of God , does but forbear to gather that whilst 't is immature , which by waiting God's time he will more seasonably gather when 't is full ripe , and wholesome , and sweet . That immarcescible Crown ( as St. Peter calls it ) which the Gospel promises to them , who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour , will make a rich amends for the declining of a Fading Wreath here upon Earth , where Reputation is oftentimes as undeservedly acquir'd , as lost : Whereas in Heaven , the very having Celestial Honours argues a Title to them . And since 't is our Saviour's Reasoning , That His Disciples ought to rejoyce when their Reputation is pursued by Calumny , as well as their Lives by Persecution , because their reward is great in Heaven , we may justly infer , That the Grounded Expectation of so illustrious a Condition may bring us more Content , even when 't is not attended with a present Applause , than this Applause can give those who want that comfortable Expectation . So that , upon the whole matter , we have no reason to despond , or to complain of the Study of Theology , for but making Us decline an empty and transitory Fame for a solid and eternal Glory . The Conclusion . BY this time , Sir , I have said as much as I think fit ( and therefore , I hope , more than upon your single account was necessary ) to manifest , that Physeophilus had no just cause to undervalue the study of Divinity , nor our Friend the Doctor , for addicting himself to it . I hope you have not forgotten what I expressly enough declar'd at the beginning of this Letter , That both your Friend and you admitting the holy Scriptures , I knew my self thereby to be warranted to draw Proofs from their Authority . And if I need not remind you of this , perhaps I need not tell you by way of Apology , that I am not so unacquainted with the Laws of Discoursing , but that , if I had been to argue with Atheists or Scepticks , I should have forborn to make use of divers of the Arguments I have imploy'd , as fetch'd from unconceded Topicks , and substituted others for such as yet I think it very allowable for me to urge , when I deal with a Person , that , as your Friend does onely undervalue the study of the Scriptures , not reject their Authority . And if the prolixity I have been guilty of already did forbid me to increase it by Apologies not absolutely necessary , I should perchance rather think my self obliged to excuse the plainness of the Style of this Discourse ; which both upon the Subject's score , and yours , may seem to challenge a richer Dress . But the matter is very serious , and you are a Philosopher , and when the things we treat of are highly important , I think Truths clearly made out to be the most perswasive pieces of Oratory . And a Discourse of this Nature is more likely to prove Effectual on Intelligent Perusers , by having the Reasons it presents perspicuously propos'd , and unprejudic'dly entertain'd , than by their being pathetically urg'd , or curiously adorn'd . And I have the rather forborn expressions that might seem more proper to move than to convince ; because I foresee , I may very shortly have occasion to employ some of the former sort in another Letter to a Friend of yours and mine , who will , I doubt , make you a sharer in the trouble of reading it . But writing this for you and Physeophilus , I was far more sollicitous to give the Arguments I imploy a good temper , than a bright gloss . For even when we would excite Devotion , if it be in rational men , the most effectual pieces of Oratory are those , which like Burning-glasses inflame by nothing but numerous and united Beams of Light. If this Letter prove so happy as to give you any satisfaction , it will thereby bring me a great one . For prizing you as I do , I cannot but wish to see you Esteem those things now , which I am confident we shall always have cause to esteem ; and then most , when the Light of Glory shall have made us better Judges of the true worth of things . And it would extremely trouble me to see you a Disesteemer of those Divine things , which as long as a man undervalues , the Possession of Heaven it self would not make him happy . And therefore , if the Blessing of Him whose Glory is aim'd at in it , make the Success of this Paper answerable to the Wishes , the Importance of the Subject , will make the Service done you by it suitable to the Desires of , SIR , Your most Faithful , most Affectionate , and most Humble Servant . FINIS . ERRATA . IN the Introduction , p. 2 l. 18. point thus ; else ; our . p. 51. l. 17. r. Corpuscularian . p. 114. l. 3. r. Theology for Philosophy . p. 133. l. 10. r. yet many of . ibid. l. 19. r. else do but. p. 201. l. 12. point thus , predecessors , did unanimously teach . ABOUT THE EXCELLENCY AND GROUNDS Of the MECHANICAL HYPOTHESIS , Some Considerations , Occasionally propos'd to a Friend . By T. H. R. B. E. Fellow of the Royal Society . LONDON , Printed by T. N. for Henry Herringman , at the Anchor in the Lower Walk of the New Exchange . 1674. The Publisher's ADVERTISEMENT . THe following Paper having been but occasionally and hastily pen'd , long after what the Author had written ( by way of Dialogue ) about the Requisites of a good Hypothesis , it was intended , that if it came forth at all , it should do so as an Appendix to that Discourse ; because though one part of it does little more than name some of the Heads treated of in the Dialogue , yet , according to the exigency of the Occasion , the other part contains several things , either pretermitted , or but more lightly touched on in the Discourse . But , although the Author's design were to reserve these thoughts , as a kind of Paralipomena to his Dialogue ; yet , since he is not willing to let that , at least quickly , come abroad , and these are fallen into my hands ; I will make bold , with his good leave , to annex them to the fore-going Treatise , not onely to compleat the Bulk of the Book , but because o● some affinity between them , since both aim at manifesting the Excellency of the Studies they would recommend . And perhaps 't will not be unwelcome to some of the Curious to find , that our Noble Author in the same Book , wherein he prefers the Study of Divine things to that of Natural ones , does himself prefer the Mechanical Principles before all other Hypotheses about Natural things ; they being in their own Nature so accommodate to make considering men understand , rather than dispute of , the Effects of Nature . Of the Excellency and Grounds Of the CORPUSCULAR Or MECHANICAL Philosophy . THe importance of the Question , you propose , would oblige me to refer you to the Dialogue about a good Hypothesis , and some other Papers of that kind , where you may find my thoughts about the advantages of the Mechanical Hypothesis somewhat amply set down , and discours'd of . But , since your desires confine me to deliver in few words , not what I believe resolvedly , but what I think may be probably said for the Preference or the Preeminence of the Corpuscular Philosophy above Aristotles , or that of the Chymists , you must be content to receive from me , without any Preamble , or exact Method , or ample Discourses , or any other thing that may cost many words , a succinct mention of some of the chief Advantages of the Hypothesis we incline to . And I the rather comply , on this occasion , with your Curiosity , because I have often observ'd you to be allarm'd and disquieted , when you hear of any Book that pretends to uphold , or repair the decaying Philosophy of the Schools , or some bold Chymist , that arrogates to those of his Sect the Title of Philosophers , and pretends to build wholly upon Experience , to which he would have all other Naturalists thought strangers . That therefore you may not be so tempted to despond , by the Confidence or Reputation of those Writers , that do some of them applaud , and others censure , what , I fear , they do not understand , ( as when the Peripateticks cry up , Substantial Forms , and the Chymists , Mechanical Explications ) of Nature's Phaenomena , I will propose some Considerations , that , I hope , will not onely keep you kind to the Philosophy you have embrac'd , but perhaps , ( by some Considerations which you have not yet met with , ) make you think it probable , that the new Attempts you hear of from time to time , will not overthrow the Corpuscularian Philosophy , but either be foiled by it , or found reconcilable to it . But when I speak of the Corpuscular or Mechanical Philosophy , I am far from meaning with the Epicureans , that Atoms , meeting together by chance in an infinite Vacuum , are able of themselves to produce the World , and all its Phaenomena ; nor with some Modern Philosophers , that , supposing God to have put into the whole Mass of Matter such an invariable quantity of Motion , he needed do no more to make the World , the material parts being able by their own unguided Motions , to cast themselves into such a System ( as we call by that name ) ; But I plead onely for such a Philosophy , as reaches but to things purely Corporeal , and distinguishing between the first original of things , and the subsequent course of Nature , teaches , concerning the former , not onely that God gave Motion to Matter , but that in the beginning He so guided the various Motions of the parts of it , as to contrive them into the World he design'd they should compose , ( furnish'd with the Seminal Principles and Structures or Models of Living Creatures , ) and establish'd those Rules of Motion , and that order amongst things Corporeal , which we are wont to call the Laws of Nature . And having told this as to the former , it may be allowed as to the latter to teach , That the Universe being once fram'd by God , and the Laws of Motion being setled and all upheld by His incessant concourse and general Providence ; the Phaenomena of the World thus constituted , are Physically produc'd by the Mechanical affections of the parts of Matter , and what they operate upon one another according to Me●hanical Laws . And now having shewn what kind of Corpuscular Philosophy 't is that I speak of I p●oceed to the particulars that I thought the most proper to recommend it . I. The first thing that I shall mention to this purpose , is the Intelligibleness or Clearness of Mechanical Principles and Explications . I need not tell you , that among the Peripateticks , the Disputes are many and intricate about Matter , Privation , Substantial Forms , and their Eduction , &c. And the Chymists are sufficiently puzled , ( as I have elsewhere shewn , ) to give such definitions and accounts of their Hypostatical Principles , as are reconcileable to one another , and even to some obvious Phaenomena . And much more dark and intricate are their Doctrines about the Archeus , Astral Beings , Gas , Blass , and other odd Notions , which perhaps have in part occasion'd the darkness and ambiguity of their expressions , that could not be very clear , when their Conceptions were far from being so . And if the Principles of the Aristotelians and Spagyrists are thus obscure , 't is not to be expected , the Explications that are made by the help onely of such Principles should be clear . And indeed many of them are either so general and slight , or otherwise so unsatisfactory , that granting their Principles , 't is very hard to understand or admit their applications of them to particular Phaenomena . And even in some of the more ingenious and subtle of the Peripatetick Discourses upon their superficial and narrow Theories , me thinks , the Authors have better plaid the part of Painters than Philosophers , and have onely had the skill , like Drawers of Landskips , to make men fancy , they see Castles and Towns , and other Structures that appear solid and magnificent , and to reach to a large extent , when the whole Piece is superficial , and made up of Colours and Art , and compris'd within a Frame perhaps scarce a yard long . But to come now to the Corpuscular Philosophy , men do so easily understand one anothers meaning , when they talk of Local Motion , Rest , Bigness , Shape , Order , Situation , and Contexture of Material Substances ; and these Principles do afford such clear accounts of those things , that are rightly deduc'd from them onely , that even those Peripateticks or Chymists , that maintain other Principles , acquiesce in the Explications made by these , when they can be had , and seek not any further , though perhaps the effect be so admirable , as would make it pass for that of a hidden Form , or Occult Quality . Those very Aristotelians , that believe the Celestial Bodies to be mov'd by Intelligences , have no recourse to any peculiar agency of theirs to account for Eclipses . And we laugh at those East-Indians , that , to this day , go out in multitudes , with some Instruments that may relieve the distressed Luminary , whose loss of Light they fancy to proceed from some fainting fit , out of which it must be rouz'd . For no Intelligent man , whether Chymist or Peripatetic , flies to his peculiar Principles , after he is informed , that the Moon is Eclipsed by the interposition of the Earth betwixt her and it , and the Sun by that of the Moon betwixt him and the Earth . And when we see the Image of a Man cast into the Air by a Concave Spherical Looking-glass , though most men are amaz'd at it , and some suspect it to be no less than an effect of Witchcraft , yet he that is skill'd enough in Catoptricks , will , without consulting Aristotle , or Paracelsus , or flying to Hypostatical Principles and Substantial Forms , be satisfied , that the Phaenomenon is produc'd by the beams of Light reflected , and thereby made convergent according to Optical , and consequently Mathematical Laws . But I must not now repeat what I elsewhere say , to shew , that the Corpuscular Principles have been declin'd by Philosophers of different Sects , not because they think not our Explications clear , if not much more so , than their own ; but because they imagine , that the applications of them can be made but to few things , and consequently are insufficient . II. In the next place I observe , that there cannot be fewer Principles than the two grand ones of Mechanical Philosophy , Matter and Motion . For , Matter alone , unless it be moved , is altogether unactive ; and whilst all the parts of a Body continue in one state without any Motion at all , that Body will not exercise any action , nor suffer any alteration it self , though it may perhaps modifie the action of other Bodies that move against it . III. Nor can we conceive any Principles more primary , than Matter and Motion . For , either both of them were immediately created by God , or , ( to add that for their sakes that would have Matter to be unproduc'd , ) if Matter be eternal , Motion must either be produc'd by some Immaterial Supernatural Agent , or it must immediately flow by way of Emanation from the nature of the matter it appertains to . IV. Neither can there be any Physical Principles more simple than Matter and Motion ; neither of them being resoluble into any things , whereof it may be truly , or so much as tolerably , said to be compounded . V. The next thing I shall name to recommend the Corpuscular Principle , is their great Comprehensiveness . I consider then , that the genuine and necessary effect of the sufficiently strong Motion of one part of Matter against another , is , either to drive it on in its intire bulk , or else to break or divide it into particles of determinate Motion , Figure , Size , Posture , Rest , Order , or Texture . The two first of these , for instance , are each of them capable of numerous varieties . For the Figure of a portion of Matter may either be one of the five Regular Figures treated of by Geometricians , or some determinate Species of solid Figures , as that of a Cone , Cylinder , &c. or Irregular , though not perhaps Anonymous , as the Grains of Sand , Hoops , Feathers , Branches , Forks , Files , &c. And as the Figure , so the Motion of one of these particles may be exceedingly diversified , not onely by the determination to this or that part of the world , but by several other things , as particularly by the almost infinitely varying degrees of Celerity , by the manner of its progression with , or without , Rotation , and other modifying Circumstances ; and more yet by the Line wherein it moves , as ( besides Streight ) Circular , Elliptical , Parabolical , Hyperbolical , Spiral , and I know not how many others . For , as later Geometricians have shewn , that those crooked Lines may be compounded of several Motions , ( that is , trac'd by a Body whose motion is mixt of , and results from , two or more simpler Motions , ) so how many more curves may , or rather may not be made by new Compositions and Decompositions of Motion , is no easie task to determine . Now , since a single particle of Matter , by vertue of two onely of the Mechanical affections , that belong to it , be diversifiable so many ways ; how vast a number of variations may we suppose capable of being produc'd by the Compositions and Decompositions of Myriads of single invisible Corpuscles , that may be contained and contex'd in one small Body , and each of them be imbued with more than two or three of the fertile Catholick Principles above mention'd ? Especially since the aggregate of those Corpuscles may be farther diversifi'd by the Texture resulting from their Convention into a Body , which , as so made up , has its own Bigness , and Shape , and Pores , ( perhaps very many , and various ) and has also many capacities of acting and suffering upon the score of the place it holds among other Bodies in a World constituted as ours is : So that , when I consider the almost innumerable diversifications , that Compositions and Decompositions may make of a small number , not perhaps exceeding twenty of distinct things , I am apt to look upon those , who think the Mechanical Principles may serve indeed to give an account of the Phaenomena of this or that particular part of Natural Philosophy , as Staticks , Hydrostaticks , the Theory of the Planetary Motions , &c. but can never be applied to all the Phaenomena of things Corporeal ; I am apt , I say , to look upon those , otherwise Learned , men , as I would do upon him , that should affirm , that by putting together the Letters of the Alphabet , one may indeed make up all the words to be found in one Book , as in Euclid , or Virgil ; or in one Language , as Latine , or English ; but that they can by no means suffice to supply words to all the Books of a great Library , much less to all the Languages in the world . And whereas there is another sort of Philosophers , that , observing the great efficacy of the bigness , and shape , and situation , and motion , and connexion in Engines , are willing to allow , that those Mechanical Principles may have a great stroke in the Operations of Bodies of a sensible bulk , and manifest Mechanism , and therefore may be usefully imploy'd in accounting for the effects and Phaenomena of such Bodies , who yet will not admit , that these Principles can be apply'd to the hidden Transactions that pass among the minute Particles of Bodies ; and therefore think it necessary to refer these to what they call Nature , Substantial Forms , Real Qualities ▪ and the like Un-mechanical Principles and Agents . But this is not necessary ; for , both the Mechanical affections of Matter are to be found , and the Laws of Motion take place , not onely in the great Masses , and the middle-siz'd Lumps , but in the smallest Fragments of Matter ; and a lesser portion of it , being as well a Body as a greater , must , as necessarily as it , have its determinate Bulk and Figure : And he that looks upon Sand in a good Microscope , will easily perceive , that each minute Grain of it has as well it s own size and shape , as a Rock or Mountain . And when we let fall a great stone and a pibble from the top of a high Building , we find not but that the latter as well as the former moves conformably to the Laws of acceleration in heavy Bodies descending . And the Rules of Motion are observ'd , not onely in Canon Bullets , but in Small Shot ; and the one strikes down a Bird according to the same Laws , that the other batters down a Wall. And though Nature ( or rather its Divine Author ) be wont to work with much finer materials , and employ more curious contrivances than Art , ( whence the Structure even of the rarest Watch is incomparably inferiour to that of a Humane Body ; ) yet an Artist himself , according to the quantity of the matter he imploys , the exigency of the design he undertakes , and the bigness and shape of the Instruments he makes use of , is able to make pieces of work of the same nature or kind of extremely differing bulk , where yet the like , though not equal , Art and Contrivance , and oftentimes Motion too , may be observ'd : As a Smith , who with a Hammer , and other large Instruments , can , out of masses of Iron , forge great Bars or Wedges , and make those strong and heavy Chains that were imploy'd to load Malefactors , and even to secure Streets and Gates , may , with lesser Instruments , make smaller Nails and Filings , almost as minute as Dust ; and may yet , with finer Tools , make Links of a strange Slenderness and Lightness , insomuch that good Authors tell us of a Chain of divers Links that was fastned to a Flea , and could be mov'd by it ; and , if I mis-remember not , I saw something like this , besides other Instances that I beheld with pleasure of the Littleness that Art can give to such pieces of Work , as are usually made of a considerable bigness . And therefore to say , that , though in Natural Bodies , whose bulk is manifest and their structure visible , the Mechanical Principles may be usefully admitted , that are not to be extended to such portions of Matter , whose parts and Texture are invisible ; may perhaps look to some , as if a man should allow , that the Laws of Mechanism may take place in a Town-Clock ; but cannot in a Pocket-Watch ; or ( to give you an instance , mixt of Natural and Artificial , ) as if , because the Terraqueous Globe is a vast Magnetical Body of seven or eight thousand miles in Diameter , one should affirm , that Magnetical Laws are not to be expected to be of force in a spherical piece of Loadstone that is not perhaps an inch long : And yet Experience shews us , that notwithstanding the inestimable disproportion betwixt these two Globes , the Terrella , as well as the Earth , hath its Poles , Aequator , and Meridians , and in divers other Magnetical Properties , emulates the Terrestrial Globe . They that , to solve the Phaenomena of Nature , have recourse to Agents which , though they involve no self-repugnancy in their very Notions , as many of the Judicious think Substantial Forms and Real Qualities to do ; yet are such that we conceive not , how they operate to bring effects to pass : These , I say , when they tell us of such indeterminate Agents , as the Soul of the World , the Universal Spirit , the Plastic Power , and the like ; though they may in certain cases tell us some things , yet they tell us nothing that will satisfie the Curiosity of an Inquisitive Person , who seeks not so much to know , what is the general Agent , that produces a Phenomenon , as , by what Means , and after what Manner , the Phenomenon is produc'd . The famous Senner●us , and some other Learned Physicians , tell us of Diseases which proceed from Incantation ; but sure 't is but a very slight account , that a sober Physician , that comes to visit a Patient reported to be bewitch'd , receives of the strange Symptoms he meets with , and would have an account of , if he be coldly answer'd , That 't is a Witch or the Devil that produces them ; and he will never sit down with so short an account , if he can by any means reduce those extravagant Symptoms to any more known and stated Diseases , as Epilepsies , Convulsions , Hysterical Fits , &c. and , if he can not , he will confess his knowledge of this Distemper to come far short of what might be expected and attain'd in other Diseases , wherein he thinks himself bound to search into the Nature of the Morbific Matter , and will not be satisfi'd till he can , probably at least , deduce from that , and the structure of an Humane Body , and other concurring Physical Causes , the Phaenomena of the Malady . And it would be but little satisfaction to one , that desires to understand the causes of what occurrs to observation in a Watch , and how it comes to point at , and strike , the hours , to be told , That 't was such a Watch-maker that so contriv'd it : Or to him that would know the true cause of an Eccho , to be answer'd , That 't is a Man , a Vault , or a Wood that makes it . And now at length I come to consider that which I observe the most to alienate other Sects from the Mechanical Philosophy ; namely , that they think it pretends to have Principles so Universal and so Mathematical , that no other Physical Hypothesis can comport with it , or be tolerated by it . But this I look upon as an easie indeed , but an important , mistake ; because by this very thing , that the Mechanical Principles are so universal , and therefore applicable to so many things , they are rather fitted to include , than necessitated to exclude , any other Hypothesis that is founded in Nature , as far as it is so . And such Hypotheses , if prudently consider'd by a skilful and moderate person , who is rather dispos'd to unite Sects than multiply them , will be found , as far as they have Truth in them , to be either Legitimately , ( though perhaps not immediately , ) deducible from the Mechanical Principles , or fairly reconcilable to them . For , such Hypotheses will probably attempt to account for the Phaenomena of Nature , either by the help of a determinate number of material Ingredients , such as the Tria Prima of the Chymists , by participation whereof other Bodies obtain their Qualities ; or else by introducing some general Agents , as the Platonic Soul of the World , or the Universal Spirit , asserted by some Spagyrists ; or by both these ways together . Now to dispatch first those , that I named in the second place ; I consider , that the chief thing , that Inquisitive Naturalists should look after in the explicating of difficult Phaenomena , is not so much what the Agent is or does , as , what changes are made in the Patient , to bring it to exhibit the Phaenomena that are propos'd ; and by what means , and after what manner , those changes are effected . So that the Mechanical Philosopher being satisfied , that one part of Matter can act upon another but by vertue of Local Motion , or the effects and consequences of Local Motion , he considers , that as , if the propos'd Agent be not Intelligible and Physical , it can never Physically explain the Phaenomena ; so , if it be Intelligible and Physical , 't will be reducible to Matter , and some or other of those onely Catholick affections of Matter , already often mentioned . And , the indefinite divisibility of Matter , the wonderful efficacy of Motion , and the almost infinite variety of Coalitions and Structures , that may be made of minute and insensible Corpuscles , being duly weighed , I see not why a Philosopher should think it impossible , to make out by their help the Mechanical possibility of any corporeal Agent , how subtil , or diffus'd , or active soever it be , that can be solidly proved to be really existent in Nature , by what name soever it be call'd or disguis'd . And though the Cartesians be Mechanical Philosophers , yet , according to them , their Materia Subtilis , which the very name declares to be a corporeal Substance , is , for ought I know , little ( if it be at all ) less diffus'd through the Universe , or less active in it than the Universal Spirit of some Spagyrists , not to say , the Anima Mundi of the Platonists . But this upon the by ; after which I proceed , and shall venture to add , That whatever be the Physical Agent , whether it be inanimate or living , purely Corporeal , or united to an Intellectual Substance , the above mention'd changes , that are wrought in the Body that is made to exhibit the Phaenomena , may be effected by the same or the like means , or after the same or the like manner ; as , for instance , if Corn be reduc'd to Meal , the Materials and shape of the Milstones , and their peculiar Motion and Adaptation , will be much of the same kind , and ( though they should not , yet ) to be sure the grains of Corn will suffer a various contrition and comminution in their passage to the form of Meal ; whether the Corn be ground by a Water-mill , or a Wind-mill , or a Horse-mill , or a Hand-mill ; that is , by a Mill whose Stones are turned by Inanimate , by Brute , or by Rational , Agents . And , if an Angel himself should work a real change in the nature of a Body , 't is scarce conceivable to us Men , how he could do it without the assistance of Local Motion ; since , if nothing were displac'd or otherwise mov'd than before , ( the like hapning also to all external Bodies to which it related , ) 't is hardly conceivable , how it should be in it self other , than just what it was before . But to come now to the other sort of Hypotheses formerly mention'd ; if the Chymists , or others that would deduce a compleat Natural Philosophy from Salt , Sulphur , and Mercury , or any other set number of Ingredients of things , would well consider what they undertake , they might easily discover , That the material parts of Bodies , as such , can reach but to a small part of the Phaenomena of Nature , whilst these Ingredients are consider'd but as Quiescent things , and therefore they would find themselves necessitated to suppose them to be active ; and That things purely Corporeal cannot be but by means of Local Motion , and the effects that may result from that , accompanying variously shap'd , siz'd , and aggregated parts of Matter : So that the Chymists and other Materialists , ( if I may so call them , ) must ( as indeed they are wont to do ) leave the greatest part of the Phaenomena of the Universe unexplicated by the help of the Ingredients , ( be they fewer or more than three , ) of Bodies , without taking in the Mechanical and more comprehensive affections of Matter , especially Local Motion . I willingly grant , that Salt , Sulphur , and Mercury , or some Substances analogous to them , are to be obtain'd by the action of the Fire , from a very great many dissipable Bodies here below ; nor would I deny , that , in explicating divers of the Phaenomena of such Bodies , it may be of use to a skilful Naturalist to know and consider , that this or that Ingredient , as Sulphur , for instance , does abound in the Body propos'd , whence it may be probably argu'd , that the Qualities , that usually accompany that Principle when Predominant , may be also , upon its score , found in the Body that so plentifully partakes of it . But not to mention , what I have elsewhere shown , that there are many Phaenomena , to whose explication this knowledge will contribute very little or nothing at all ; I shall onely he●e observe , that , though Chymical Explications be sometimes the most obvious and ready , yet they are not the most fundamental and satisfactory : For , the Chymical Ingredient it self , whether Sulphur or any other , must owe its nature and other qualities to the union of insensible particles in a convenient Size , Shape , Motion or Rest , and Contexture ; all which are but Mechanical Affections of convening Corpuscles . And this may be illustrated by what happens in Artificial Fire-works . For , though in most of those many differing sorts that are made either for the use of War , or for Recreation , Gunpowder be a main Ingredient , and divers of the Phaenomena may be deriv'd from the greater or lesser measure , wherein the Compositions partake of it ; yet , besides that there may be Fire-works made without Gun-powder , ( as appears by those made of old by the Greeks and Romans , ) Gun-powder it self owes its aptness to be fir'd and exploded to the Mechanical Contexture of more simple portions of Matter , Nitre , Charcoal , and Sulphur ; and Sulphur it self , though it be by many Chymists mistaken for an Hypostatical Principle , owes its Inflammability to the convention of yet more simple and primary Corpuscles ; since Chymists confess , that it has an inflammable Ingredient , and experience shews , that it very much abounds with an acid and uninflammable Salt , and is not quite devoide of Terrestreity . I know , it may be here alledg'd , that the productions of Chymical Analyses are simple Bodies , and upon that account irresoluble . But , that divers Substances , which Chymists are pleased to call the Salts , or Sulphurs , or Mercuries of the Bodies that afforded them , are not simple and homogeneous , has elsewhere been sufficiently proved ; nor is their not being easily dissipable or resoluble a clear proof of their not being made up of more primitive portions of matter . For , compounded and even decompounded Bodies , may be as difficultly resoluble , as most of those that Chymists obtain by what they call their Analysis by the Fire ; witness common green Glass , which is far more durable and irresoluble than many of those that pass for Hypostatical Substances . And we see , that some Amels will be several times even vitrified in the Fire , without losing their Nature , or oftentimes so much as their colour ; and yet Amel is manifestly not onely a compounded , but a decompounded Body , consisting of Salt and Powder of Pebbles or Sand , and calcin'd Tinn , and , if the Amel be not white , usually of some tinging Metall or Mineral . But how indestructible soever the Chymical Principles be suppos'd , divers of the Operations ascrib'd to them will never be well made out , without the help of Local Motion , ( and that diversified too ; ) without which , we can little better give an account of the Phaenomena of many Bodies , by knowing what Ingredients compose them , than we can explain the Operations of a Watch , by knowing of how many and of what Metalls the Balance , the Wheels , the Chain , and other parts , are made ; or than we can derive the Operations of a Wind-mill from the bare knowledge , that 't is made up of Wood , and Stone ; and Canvas , and Iron . And here let me add , that 't would not at all overthrow the Corpuscularian Hypothesis , though either by more exquisite Purifications , or by some other Operations than the usual Analysis of the Fire , it should be made appear , that the Material Principles or Elements of mixt Bodies should not be the Tria Prima of the vulgar Chymists , but either Substances of another nature , or else fewer , or more in number ; as would be , if that were true , which some Spagyrists affirm , ( but I could never find , ) that from all sorts of mixt Bodies , five , and but five , differing similar Substances can be separated : Or , as if it were true , that the Helmontians had such a resolving Menstruum as the Alkahest of their Master , by which he affirms , that he could reduce Stones into Salt of the same weight with the Mineral , and bring both that Salt and all other kind of mixt and tangible Bodies into insipid Water . For , what ever be the numnumber or qualities of the Chymical Principles , if they be really existent in Nature , it may very possibly be shewn , that they may be made up of insensible Corpuscles of determinate bulks and shapes ; and by the various Coalitions and Contextures of such Corpuscles , not onely three or five , but many more material Ingredients , may be compos'd or made to result : But , though the Alkahestical Reductions newly mention'd should be admitted , yet the Mechanical Principles might well be accommodated , even to them . For , the Solidity , Taste , &c. of Salt , may be fairly accounted for , by the Stifness , Sharpness , and other Mechanical Affections of the minute Particles , whereof Salts consist ; and if , by a farther action of the Alkahest , the Salt or any other solid Body , be reduc'd into insipid Water , this also may be explicated by the same Principles , supposing a further Comminution of the parts , and such an attrition , as wears off the edges and points that inabled them to strike briskly the Organ of Taste : For , as to Fluidity and Firmness , those mainly depend upon two of our grand Principles , Motion and Rest . And I have else-where shewn , by several proofs , that the Agitation or Rest , and the looser contact , or closer cohaesion , of the particles , is able to make the same portion of Matter , at one time a firm , and at another time , a fluid Body . So that , though the further Sagacity and Industry of Chymists ( which I would by no means discourage ) should be able to obtain from mixt Bodies homogeneous substances differing in number , or nature , or both , from their vulgar Salt , Sulphur , and Mercury ; yet the Corpuscular Philosophy is so general and fertile , as to be fairly reconcilable to such a Discovery ; and also so useful , that these new material Principles will , as well as the old Tria Prima , stand in need of the more Catholick Principles of the Corpuscularians , especially Local Motion . And indeed , what ever Elements or Ingredients men have ( that I know of ) pitched upon , yet if they take not in the Mechanical Affections of Matter , their Principles have been so deficient , that I have usually observ'd , that the Materialists , without at all excepting the Chymists , do not onely , as I was saying , leave many things unexplain●d , to which their narrow Principles will not extend ; but , even in the particulars they presume to give an account of , they either content themselves to assign such common and indefinite Causes , as are too general to signifie much towards an inquisitive mans satisfaction ; or if they venture to give particular Causes , they assign precarious or false ones , and liable to be easily disproved by Circumstances , or Instances , whereto their Doctrine will not agree , as I have often elsewhere had occasion to shew . And yet the Chymists need not be frighted from acknowledging the Prerogative of the Mechanical Philosophy , since that may be reconcileable with the Truth of their own Principles , as far as these agree with the Phaenomena they are apply'd to . For these more confind Hypotheses may be subordinated to those more general and fertile Principles , and there can be no Ingredient assign'd , that has a real existence in Nature , that may not be deriv'd either immediately , or by a row of Decompositions , from the Universal Matter , modifi'd by its Mechanical Affections ▪ For , if with the same Bricks , diversly put together and rang'd , several Walls , Houses , Furnaces , and other Structures , as Vaults , Bridges , Pyramids , &c. may be built , meerely by a various contrivement of parts of the same kind ; how much more may great variety of Ingredients be produc'd by , or , according to the institution of Nature , result from , the various coalitions and contextures of Corpuscles , that need not be suppos'd , like Bricks , all of the same , or near the same , size and shape , but may have amongst them , both of the one and the other , as great a variety as need be wish'd for , and indeed a greater than can easily be so much as imagin'd . And the primary and minute Concretions that belong to these Ingredients , may , without Opposition from the Mechanical Philosophy , be suppos'd to have their particles so minute and strongly coherent , that Nature of her self does scarce ever tear them asunder ; as we see , that Mercury and Gold may be successively made to put on a multitude of disguises , and yet so retain their nature , as to be reducible to their pristine forms . And you know , I lately told you , that common Glass and good Amels , though both of them but factitious Bodies , and not onely mix'd , but decompounded Concretions , have yet their component parts so strictly united by the skill of illiterate Tradesmen , as to maintain their union in the vitrifying violence of the Fire . Nor do we find , that common Glass will be wrought upon by Aqua fortis , or Aqua Regis , though the former of them will dissolve Mercury , and the later Gold. From the fore-going Discourse it may ( probably at least ) result , That if , besides Rational Souls , there are any Immaterial Substances ( such as the Heavenly Intelligences , and the Substantial Forms of the Aristotelians ) that regularly are to be numbred among Natural Agents , their way of working being unknown to us , they can but help to constitute and effect things , but will very little help us to conceive how things are effected ; so that , by what ever Principles Natural things be constituted , 't is by the Mechanical Principles that their Phaenomena must be clearly explicated . As for instance , though we should grant the Aristotelians , that the Planets are made of a quintessential matter , and moved by Angels , or Immaterial Intelligences ; yet , to explain the Stations , Progressions , and Retrogradations , and other Phaenomena of the Planets , we must have recourse either to Eccentricks , Epicycles , &c. or to motions made in Elliptical or other peculiar Lines ; and , in a word , to Theories , wherein the Motion , and Figure , Scituation , and other Mathematical or Mechanical Affections of Bodies are mainly employ'd . But if the Principles propos'd be corporeal things , they will be then fairly Reducible , or Reconcilable , to the Mechanical Principles ; these being so general and pregnant , that , among things corporeal , there is nothing real , ( and I meddle not with Chymerical Beings , such as some of Paracelsus's , ) that may not be deriv'd from , or be brought to , a subordination to such comprehensive Principles . And when the Chymists shall shew , that mix'd Bodies owe their qualities to the predominancy of this or that of their three grand Ingredients , the Corpuscularians will shew , that the very Qualities of this or that Ingredient flow from its peculiar Texture , and the Mechanical affections of the Corpuscles 't is made up of . And to affirm , that , because the Furnaces of Chymists afford a great number of uncommon Productions and Phaenomena , there are Bodies or Operations amongst things purely Corporeal , that cannot be deriv'd from , or reconcil'd to , the comprehensive and pregnant Principles of the Mechanical Philosophy , is , as if , because there are a great number and variety of Anthems , Hymns , Pavins , Threnodies , Courants , Gavots , Branles , Sarabands , Jigs , and other ( grave and sprightly ) Tunes to be met with in the Books and Practises of Musitians , one should maintain , that there are in them a great many Tunes , or at least Notes , that have no dependence on the Scale of Music ; or , as if , because , besides Rhombusses , Rhomboids , Trapeziums , Squares , Pentagons , Chiliagons , Myriagons , and innumerable other Polygons , Regular and Irregular , one should presume to affirm , that there are among them some Rectilinear Figures , that are not reducible to Triangles , or have Affections that will overthrow what Euclid has taught of Triangles and Polygons . To what has been said , I shall add but one thing more ; That , as , according to what I formerly intimated , Mechanical Principles and Explications are for their clearness preferr'd , even by Materialists themselves , to others in the cases where they can be had ; so , the Sagacity and Industry of modern Naturalists and Mathematicians , having happily apply'd them to seueral of those difficult Phaenomena , ( in Hydrostaticks , the practical part of Opticks , Gunnery , &c. ) that before were , or might be referr'd to 〈◊〉 Qualities , 't is probable , that , when this Philosophy is deeplier searched into , and farther improv'd , it will be found applicable to the solution of more and more of the Phaenomena of Nature . And on this occasion let me observe , that 't is not always necessary , though it be always desirable , that he that propounds an Hypothesis in Astronomy , Chymistry , Anatomy , or other part of Physicks , be able , à priori , to prove his Hypothesis to be true , or demonstratively to shew , that the other Hypotheses propos'd about the same subject must be false . For as , if I mistake not , Plato said , That the World was God's Epistle written to Mankind , & might have added , consonantly to another saying of his , 't was written in Mathematical Letters : So , in the Physical Explications of the Parts and System of the World , me thinks , there is somewhat like what happens , when men conjecturally frame several Keys to enable us to understand a Letter written in Cyphers . For , though one man by his sagacity have found out the right Key , it will be very difficult for him , either to prove otherwise than by trial , that this or that word is not such as 't is ghess'd to be by others according to their Keys ; or to evince , à priori , that theirs are to be rejected , and his to be preferr'd ; yet , if due trial being made , the Key he proposes , shall be found so agreeable to the Characters of the Letter , as to enable one to understand them , and make a coherent sense of them , its suitableness to what it should decipher , is , without either confutations , or extraneous positive proofs , sufficient to make it be accepted as the right Key of that Cypher . And so , in Physical Hypotheses , there are some , that , without noise , or falling foul upon others , peaceably obtain discerning mens approbation onely by their fitness to solve the Phaenomena , for which they were devis'd , without crossing any known Observation or Law of Nature . And therefore , if the Mechanical Philosophy go on to explicate things Corporeal at the rate it has of late years proceeded at , 't is scarce to be doubted , but that in time unprejudic'd persons will think it sufficiently recommended by its consistency with it self , and its applicableness to so many Phenomena of Nature . A Recapitulation . PErceiving , upon a review , of the foregoing Paper , that the difficulty and importance of the Subject , has seduc'd me to spend many more words about it that I at first design'd ▪ t will not now be amiss to give you this short Summary of what came into my mind to recommend to you the Mechanical Phelosophy , and obviate your fears of seeing it supplanted ; having first premis'd once for all , that presupposing the Creation and general Providence of God , I pretend to treat but of things Corporeal , and do abstract in this Paper from Immaterial Beings , ( which otherwise I very willingly admit , ) and all Agents and Operations Miraculous or Supernatural . I. Of the Principles of things Corporeal , none can be more few , without being insufficient , or more primary than Matter and Motion . II. The natural and genuine effect of variously determin'd Motion in portions of Matter , is , to divide it into parts of differing sizes , and shapes , and to put them into different Motions , and the Consequences , that flow from these , in a World fram'd as ours is , are , as to the separate fragments , posture , order , and situation , and , as to the Conventions of many of them , peculiar Compositions and Contextures . III. The parts of Matter endow'd with these Catholick affections are by various associations reduc'd to Natural Bodies of several kinds , according to the plenty of the Matter , and the various Compositions and Decompositions of the Principles ; which all suppose the common matter they diversifie : And these several kinds of Bodies , by vertue of their Motion , Rest , and other Mechanical Affections , which fit them to act on , and suffer from , one another , become indow'd with several kinds of Qualities , ( whereof some are call'd Manifest , and some Occult , ) and those that act upon the peculiarly fram'd Organs of Sense , whose Perceptions by the Animadversive faculty of the Soul are Sensations . IV. These Principles , Matter , Motion , ( to which Rest is related ) Bigness , Shape , Posture , Order , Texture , being so simple , clear , and comprehensive , are applicable to all the real Phaenomena of Nature , which seem not explicable by any other not consistent with ours . For , if recourse be had to an Immaterial Principle or Agent , it may be such an one , as is not intelligible ; and however it will not enable us to explain the Phaenomena , because its way of working upon things Material would probably be more difficult to be Physically made out , than a Mechanical account of the Phaenomena . And , notwithstanding the Immateriality of a created Agent , we cannot conceive , how it should produce changes in a Body , without the help of Mechanical Principles , especially Local Motion ; and accordingly we find not , that the Reasonable Soul in Man is able to produce what changes it pleases in the Body , but is confin'd to such , as it may produce by determining or guiding the Motions of the Spirits , and other parts of the Body , subservient to voluntary Motion . V. And if the Agents or active Principles resorted to , be not Immaterial , but of a Corporeal Nature , they must either in effect be the same with the Corporeal Principles above-nam'd ; or , because of the great Universality & Simplicity of ours , the new ones propos'd must be less general than they , and consequently capable of being subordinated or reduc'd to ours , which by various Compositions may afford matter to several Hypotheses , and by several Coalitions afford minute Concretions exceedingly numerous and durable , and consequently fit to become the Elementary Ingredients of more compounded Bodies , being in most Trials Similar , and as it were the Radical parts , which may , after several manners , be diversified ; as in Latin , the Themes are by Prepositions , Terminations , &c. and in Hebrew , the Roots by the Haeemantic Letters ▪ So that the fear , that so much of a New Physical Hypothesis , as is true , will overthrow or make useless the Mechanical Principles , is , as if one should fear , that there will be a Language propos'd , that is discordant from , or not reducible to , the Letters of the Alphabet . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A28966-e970 Ps . 145. Ps . 147.5 . Ps . 113.6 . Isa . 40.15 . Rom. j. 19 . Genes . vj. Numb . xxvij . 7 . Genes . xx . Genes . xviij . 1 Kings iij. Jonah iv . 1 Kings ▪ xxij . from ver . 19. to ver . 24. Job j. 6 , 7 , &c. Job ij . 3 . See Heb. v. 9 . Psal . ciij. 17 , 18. Acts j. 21 . 1 Joh. iij. 20 . Revel . vij . 9 . Matth. xxvj . 53. Dan. vij . 10 . Joh. j. 3 . Heb. j. 7 . Luke xx . 35 , 36. Col. j. 16 . Matth. xxiv . 36 . Mark xiij . 32 . Matth. xviij . 10 . Isa . vj. 2 , 3 Matth. vj. 10 . 2 Sam. xiv . 20 . Mark xiij . 32 . 2 King. xix . 35 . 1 Thess . iv . 16 . Jude ix . Dan. x. 13 , 21. Col. j. 16 . Revel . xij . 7 . Acts xij . 7 , 8 , 9 , 10. Dan. x. 13 . Acts xij . 11 . 2 Kings vj. 17 . Luke xxiv . 4 . Judg. xiij . 6 . Heb. j. 14 . Revel . xix . 10 . Revel . xxij . 9 . Matth. xxviij . 6 . Revel . xix . 10 . Joh. j. 3 Coloss . j. 16 . Matth. viij . 7 . Luke iv . 33 . Joh. viij , 34. 1 Pet. v. 8 . 2 Cor. xj . 3 . Revel . xij . 9 . Revel . xij . 7 . Matth. xxv . 41 . 1 Joh. iij. 8 . Jude 6. Mark v. 9 , 10 , 13. Jam. iv . 7 . 1 Pet. v. 9 . 1 Cor. vj. 3 . Matth. xxv . 41 . Jam. ij . 19 . 2 Pet. ij . 4 . Jude 6 , 13. Matth. xxv . 41 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Jam. iij. 6 . 2 Pet. iij. ● , 10 , 13. Gen. ij . 7 . Acts xxiv . 15 . Acts xvij . 20 , 32. Gen. ij . Acts xvij . 26 . Gen. ij . 21 , 22. Acts xxv . 15 . Luke xx . 35 , 36. Matth. x. 28 . Gen. ij 7. Zek. xij . 1 . Luke xx . 35 , 36. Matt. xxv . 46 . D●s Cartes Responsione ad Objectiones secundas , pag. m. 95. Mark xiv . 21 . 1 Pet. j. 12 . Rom. xj . 33 . Gen. ij . 21 , 22 , 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Joh. v. 39 . Acts xx . 27 . Matth. xxvj . 53 . Dan. vij . 10 . Mark v. 9 . Luke viij . 30 . Dan. ij . 31 , 32 , &c. Isa . v. 4 . Isa . lxv . 2 . * * Rev. j. 3 . To render the Original word ( observe , or ) watch , rather than keep , seems more congruous to the sense of the Text , and is a Criticism suggested to me by an eminent Mathematician as well as Divine , who took notice , that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is us'd by the Greeks as a term of Art , to express the Astronomical Observation of Eclipses , Planetary Conjunctions , Oppositions , and other Celestial Phaenomena . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Ephis . iij. 10 ▪ Isa . vj. 2 , 3. Luke ij . 13 , 14. Revel . v. 11 , 12. Gen. ij . 16 , 17. Seraph . Love. Psal . xxxij . 9 . Deut. viij . 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 18 , Job xxxviij . 5 , 6 , 7. Psa . L.23 . Hos . xiv . 2 . Psal . civ . 24 . Psal . xix . 1 . Psal . cxxxix . 14 . 1 Tim. ij . 4 . Joh. xiij . 7 . Heb. v. 9 . Joh. v. 39 . Search , or , You search the Scriptures . Coloss . iij. 16 . Prov. xxvj . 10 . Acts xvij . 11 . 1 Pe● . j. 10 , 11. 1 Pet. j. ●2 . Psal . cxix . 18 . Revel . j. Matth. xj . 15 . Mark iv . ● , 23. Luke viij . 8 . Matth. v. 8 . 1 Joh. iij. 2 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Medit. tertia sub finem . Exod. xv . 25 . Matth. v. 29 , 30. 1 Tim. iij. 16 . Tit. j. 1 . Numb . xxj . 9 . Diogenis Laertii libr. 10. Iob iv . 19 . Psal . ciij. 14 . 1 Cor. 10.13 . Job xviij . 14 . Dan. ix . 21 , 22. Luke j. 11 , 26. Acts x. 4 , 5 , 6. 1 Pet. j. 12 . Luke xxiv . 45 . Psal . cxix . 18 . Acts xvij . 24 , 25. Jam. ij . 21 . 2 Chron. vj. 8 , 9. 2 Sam. vij . ver . 5. ver . 11. Hab. j. 13 . Matth. v. 6 . 2 Cor. v. 7 . Luke xx . 36 . Notes for div A28966-e7520 Ephes . iij. 10 . See Examples of this in my Notes about Sensation and Sensible Qualities . Acts vij . 56 . 2 Kings vj. 17 . 1 Cor. xiij . 12 . 1 Joh. iij. 2 . Gen. xxxvij . Amos vj. 5 . * * See the Requisites of a good Hypothesis . See this Subject handled at large in an Appendix to the Author's Ex●men of Antiperistasis . * * In the History of Cold. * * Now publish'd in the Book of New Physico-Mechanical Experiments . See a Tract on this Subject , premis'd by the Authour to his Book of Cold. Amos vj. 5 . 1 Sam. ij . 30 . 2. Chron. xxv . 9 . Rom. viij . 18 . Luke xxiij . 15 . ● Kings iij. 5 . Phil. ij . 6 . Heb. xij . 2 . Rom. ij . 7 . Matth. v. 11 , 12. Notes for div A28966-e12720 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 
A28982	----	A free enquiry into the vulgarly receiv'd notion of nature made in an essay address'd to a friend / by R.B., Fellow of the Royal Society. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1686 Approx. 438 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 221 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2004-03 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A28982 Wing B3979 ESTC R11778 11688005 ocm 11688005 48184 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A28982) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 48184) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 15:11) A free enquiry into the vulgarly receiv'd notion of nature made in an essay address'd to a friend / by R.B., Fellow of the Royal Society. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. [24], 412, [4] p. Printed by H. Clark for John Taylor ..., London : 1685/6 [i.e. 1686] Reproduction of original in Library of Congress. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Nature -- Early works to 1800. Natural history -- Pre-Linnean works. 2003-09 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2003-09 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2003-10 Jonathan Blaney Sampled and proofread 2003-10 Jonathan Blaney Text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-12 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A FREE ENQUIRY Into the Vulgarly Receiv'd NOTION OF NATURE ; Made in an ESSAY , Address'd to a FRIEND . By R. B. Fellow of the Royal Society . Audendum est , & veritas investiganda ; quam etiamsi non assequamur , omnino tamen propius , quam nunc sumus , ad eam perveniemus . Galenus . Imprimatur . Carolus Alston , R. P. D. Hen. Episc. Lond. à Sacris , Jan. 29. 1685. LONDON , Printed by H. Clark , for Iohn Taylor at the Globe in St. Paul's Church-yard , 1685 / 6. THE PREFACE . I Have often wonder'd , that , in so Inquisitive an Age as This , among those many Learned Men , that have with much Freedom , as well as Acuteness , written of the Works of Nature , ( as They call Them , ) and some of Them of the Principles too , I have not met with any , that has made it his business to write of Nature Herself . This will perhaps hereafter be thought such an Omission , as if , in giving an Account of the Political Estate of a Kingdom , One should Treat largely of the Civil Judges , Military Officers , and other Subordinate Magistrates , and of the particular Ranks and Orders of Inferior Subjects and Plebeians , but should be silent of the Prerogatives and Ways of Administration of the King ; or , ( to use a Comparison more suitable to the Subject , ) as if One should particularly treat of the Barrel , Wheels , String , Ballance , Index , and other Parts of a Watch , without examining the Nature of the Spring , that sets all These a moving . When I say this , I do not forget , that the Word Nature is every where to be met with in the Writings of Physiologers . But , though they frequently employ the Word , they seem not to have much consider'd , what Notion ought to be fram'd of the Thing , which they suppose and admire , and upon Occasion celebrate , but do not call in Question or discuss . Weighing therefore with my self , of what great Moment the framing a right or a wrong Idea of Nature must be , in Reference both to the Speculative and Practical Part of Physiology ; I judg'd it very well worth the while , to make , with Philosophical Freedom , a serious Enquiry into the Vulgarly Receiv'd Notion of Nature ; that , if it appeared well-grounded , I might have the Rational Satisfaction of not having acquiesc'd in It , till , after a previous Examen ; if I should find it confus'd and ambiguous , I might endeavour to remedy that Inconvenience , by distinguishing the Acceptions of the Word ; if I found it dubious as to its Truth , I might be shy in trusting too much to a distrusted Principle ; and , if I found erroneous , I might avoid the raising Superstructures of my Own , or relying on those of Others , that must owe their Stability to an unsound and deceitful Foundation . And , because many Atheists ascribe so much to Nature , that they think it needless to have Recourse to a Deity , for the giving an Account of the Phaenomena of the Universe : And , on the other side , very many Theists seem to think the commonly Received Notion of Nature , little less , than necessary to the Proof of the Existence and Providence of God ; I , who differ from both these Parties , and yet think every true Theist , and much more every true Christian , ought to be much concerned for Truths , that have so powerful an Influence on Religion , thought my self , for Its sake , oblig'd to consider this Matter , both with the more Attention and with regard to Religion . And yet , being to write this Treatise as a Physiologer , not a Christian , I could not rationally build any positive Doctrine upon mere Revelation , which would have been judg'd a Foreign Principle in this Enquiry . Only , since the Person , I intentionally address'd my Thoughts to , under the Name of Eleutherius , was a good Christian , I held it not impertinent , now and then , upon the by , to intimate something to prevent or remove some Scruples , that I thought he might have , on the score ( I say not of Natural Theology , for That is almost directly pertinent , but ) of the Christian Faith. But these Passages are very few , and but transiently touch'd upon . Since the Reader will be told by and by both That , and Why the Papers , that make up the following Treatise , were not written in one continued Series of Times , but many Years were interpos'd between the Writing of some of Them , and that of Those which precede and follow Them : I hope it will be thought but a venial Fault , if the Contexture of the whole Discourse do not appear so Uniform , nor all the Connections of its Parts so apt and close , as , if no Papers had been lost and supply'd , might reasonably be look'd for . I expect the Novelty of divers of the Sentiments and Reasonings , propos'd in the following Discourse , will be surprising , and encline Many to look upon the Author as a bold Man , and much addicted to Paradoxes . But , having formerly , in a distinct Essay , deliver'd my Thoughts about Paradoxes in general , I shall not now ingage in that Subject , but confine my self to what concerns the ensuing Paper . I say then , in short , That in an Opinion , I look upon its being New or Antient , and its being Singular or commonly Receiv'd , as Things that are but Extrinsical to its being true or false . And , as I would never reject a Truth , for being generaly Known or Receiv'd , so will I not conclude an Opinion to be a Truth , merely because great Numbers have thought it to be so ; nor think an Opinion Erroneous , because 't is not yet Known to Many , or because it opposes a Tenent embrac'd by Many . For I am wont to judge of Opinions , as of Coins : I consider much less in any One , that I am to Receive , whose Inscription it bears , than what Metal 't is made of . 'T is indifferent enough to me , whether 't was Stamp'd many Years or Ages since , or came but Yesterday from the Mint . Nor do I regard through how many , or how few , Hands it has pass'd for Current , provided I know by the Touch-stone , or any sure Tryal , purposely made , whether or no it be genuine , and does or does not deserve to have been Currant . For , if upon due proof it appears to be Good , its having been long and by Many receiv'd for such , will not tempt me to refuse it . But , if I find it Counterfeit , neither the Princes Image or Inscription , nor its Date ( how Antient soever , ) nor the Multitude of Hands , through which it has pass'd unsuspected , will engage me to receive It. And one disfavouring tryal , well made , will much more discredit It with me , than all those specious Things , I have nam'd , can recommend It. By this Declaration of my Sentiments about Paradoxes in General , I hope it will be thought , that the Motive I had to Question that Notion of Nature , which I dissent from , was not , that this Notion is Vulgarly Receiv'd . And I have this to say , to make it probable , That I was not ingag'd in this Controversie , by any Ambition of appearing in Print an Heresiarch in Philosophy , by being the Author of a strange Doctrine , that the following Discourse was written about the Year 1666. ( that is , some Lustres ago , ) and that not long after , the Youth , to whom I dictated it , having been inveigled to steal away , unknown to me or his Parents , into the Indies , ( whence we never heard of him since , ) left the loose Sheets , wherein ( and not in a Book ) my thoughts had been committed to Paper , very incoherent , by the Omission of divers necessary Passages . Upon which Account , and my Unwillingness to take the Pains to supply what was wanting , those Papers lay by me many Years together neglected , and almost forgotten ; 'till the Curiosity of some Philosophical Heads , that were pleas'd to think they deserv'd another Fate , oblig'd me to tack them together , and make up the Gaps that remain'd between their Parts , by retrieving , as well as , after so many Years , my bad Memory was able to do , the Thoughts I sometimes had , pertinent to those purposes . And indeed , when I consider'd of how vast importance it is in Philosophy , and the Practice of Physick too , to have a right Notion of Nature ; and how little the Authority of the generality of Men ought , in so nice and intricate a Subject , to sway a free and impartial Spirit ; as I at first thought myself oblig'd , since others had not sav'd me the labour , to make a Free Enquiry into this Noble and Difficult Subject , so I was afterwards the more easily prevail'd with , by those that press'd the Publication of it . With what Success I have made this Attempt , I must leave others to judg . But if I be not much flatter'd , whatever becomes of the main Attempt , there will be found suggested here and there , in the following Discourse , some Reflections and Explications , that will at least oblige the zealous Assertors of the Vulgar Notion of Nature , to clear up the Doctrine , and speak more distinctly and correctly about Things that relate to it , than hitherto has been usual . And that will be Fruit enough to recompense the Labour , and justifie the Title , of a Free Enquiry . In Prosecution of which , since I have been oblig'd to travel in an untrodden Way , without a Guide , 't will be thought , I hope , more pardonable than strange , if , in attempting to discover divers general Mistakes , I be not so happy as to escape falling into some particular Ones myself . And , if among These , I have been so unhappy , as to make any that is injurious to Religion , as I did not at all intend it , so , as soon as ever I shall discover it , I shall freely disown it Myself , and pray that it may never mislead Others . What my Performance has been , I have already acknowledg'd that I may be unfit to judg ; but , for my Intentions , I may make bold to say , they were , to keep the Glory of the Divine Author of Things from being usurp'd or intrench'd ▪ upon by His Creatures , and to make His Works more throughly and solidly understood , by the Philosophical Studiers of Them. I do not pretend , and I need not , that every one of the Arguments , I employ in the following Tract , is cogent , especially if consider'd as single . For Demonstrative Arguments would be unsuitable to the very Title of my Attempt ; since , if about the Receiv'd Notion of Nature , I were furnish'd with unanswerable Reasons , my Discourse ought to be styl'd , not a Free Enquiry into the Vulgar Notion of Nature , I consider , but a Confutation of It. And a heap of bare Probabilities may suffice to justifie a Doubt of the Truth of an Opinion , which they cannot clearly evince to be False . And therefore , if any Man shall think fit to Criticize upon the less Principal or less necessary Parts of this Treatise , perhaps I shall not think my self oblig'd to be concern'd at It. And even , if the main Body of the Discourse itself shall be attack'd from the Press ; I , who am neither Young nor Healthy , nor ever made Divinity , Philosophy , or Physick , my Profession , am not like to oppose him in the same Way : Since , as I ought not to wish , that any Errors of mine ( if this Essay teach any Such , ) should prevail ; so , if the Things I have deliver'd be True for the Main , I need not despair but that , in such a Free and Inquisitive Age as Ours , there will be found Generous Spirits , that will not suffer weighty Truths to be oppress'd , tho' the Proposers of them should , by averseness from Contention , or by want of Time or Health , be themselves kept from defending them . Which I have thought fit to take Notice of in this Place , that the Truth ( if I have been so happy , as to have found and taught It , ) may not suffer by my Silence ; nor any Reader surmize , that , if I shall leave a Book Unanswered , I thereby acknowledg it to be Unanswerable . But This regards only the main Substance of our Essay , not the Order or Disposition of the Parts : Since , if any shall censure That , I shall not quarrel with him about It. For indeed , considering in how preposterous an Order the Papers , I have here tack'd together , came to Hand ; and how many Things are upon that score unduly plac'd , I shall not only be content , but must desire , to have this Rhapsody , of my own loose Papers , look'd upon but as an Apparatus , or Collection of Materials , in order to [ what I well know this maim'd and confus'd Essay is not , ] a compleat and regular Discourse . Yet ( to conclude , ) I thought , that the affording even of a little Light , in a Subject so Dark and so very Important , might keep an Essay from being useless ; and that to fall short of Demonstration would prove a pardonable Fault , in a Discourse , that pretends not to Dogmatize , but only to make an Enquiry . Sept. 29 , 1682. A Free Enquiry Into the Received NOTION OF NATURE . SECT . I. I Know not Whether or no it be a Prerogative in the human Soul , that , as 't is itself a True and Positive Being , so 't is apt to conceive all other things , as True and Positive Beings also . But , Whether or no this Propensity , to frame such kind of Idea's , suppose an excellency , I fear it occasions mistakes ; and makes us think and speak , after the manner of True and Positive Beings , of such things , as are but Chimerical , and some of them Negations or Privations themselves ; as Death , Ignorance , Blindness , and the like . It concerns us therefore , to stand very carefully upon our Guard , that we be not insensibly misled by such an innate and unheeded Temptation to error , as we bring into the World with us . And consequently I may be allowed to consider , whether , among other Particulars , in which this deluding Propensity of our minds has too great , though unsuspected , an Influence upon us ; it may not have impos'd on us , in the Notion we are wont to frame concerning Nature . For this being the fruitful Parent of other Notions , as Nature herself is said to be of the Creatures of the Universe ; the Notion is so general in its Applications , and so important in its Influence ; that we had need be jealously careful , of not over-easily admitting a Notion , than which there can scarce be any that more deserves to be warily examin'd , before it be throughly entertain'd . Let me therefore make bold to enquire freely , Whether That , of which we affirm such great Things , and to which we ascribe so many Feats , be that almost Divine thing , whose works among others we are ; or a Notional thing , that in some sense is rather to be reckon'd among our works ; as owing its Being to Human Intellects . I know , most men will be forestall'd with no mean prejudices against so venturous an Attempt ; but I will not do Eleutherius the Injury , to measure Him by the prepossess'd generality of Men ; yet there are two scruples which I think it not amiss to take notice of , to clear the way for what shall be presented you in the following Discourse . And first , it may seem an ingrateful and unfilial thing , to dispute against Nature , that is taken by Mankind for the Common Parent of us all . But though it be an undutiful thing , to express a want of respect for an acknowledg'd Parent , yet I know not , why it may not be allowable to question One , that a Man looks upon but as a pretended one , or at least does upon probable grounds doubt , Whether she be so or no ; and , 'till it appear to me that she is so , I think it my duty to pay my gratitude , not to I know not what , but to that Deity , whose Wisdom and Goodness , not only design'd to make me a Man , and enjoy what I am here bless'd with , but contriv'd the World so , that even those Creatures of his , who by their inanimate condition are not capable of intending to gratifie me , should be as serviceable and useful to me , as they would be , if they could and did design the being so ; and you may be pleas'd to remember , that , as men may now accuse such an Enquirer , as I am , of impiety and ingratitude towards Nature : So the Persians , and other Worshipers of the Coelestial Bodies , accus'd several of the Ancient Philosophers , and all the Primitive Christians , of the like Crimes , in reference to the Sun ; whose Existence , and whose being a Benefactor to Mankind , was far more unquestionable , than that there is such a Semi-Deity as Men call Nature : And it can be no great disparagement to me , to suffer on the like Account with 〈◊〉 good Company , especially , when several of the considerations that Justifie them , may also Apologize for me . I might add , that , it not being half so evident to me , that what is called Nature is my Parent , as that all Men are my Brothers , by being the Off-spring of God ; ( for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Aratus is adopted by St. Paul ) I may justly prefer the doing of them a service , by disabusing them , to the paying of Her a Ceremonial Respect . But setting Allegories aside , I have sometimes seriously doubted , whether the Vulgar Notion of Nature has not been both injurious to the Glory of God , and a great Impediment to the solid and useful Discovery of his Works . And first , it seems to detract from the Honour of the great Author and Governor of the World ; that Men should ascribe most of the admirable things that are to be met with in it , not to him , but to a certain Nature , which themselves do not well know what to make of . ●Tis true that many confess , that this Nature is a thing of His establishing , and subordinate to Him ; but , though many confess it when they are ask'd , Whether they do or no ? yet , besides that many seldom or never lifted up their eyes to any higher Cause , he that takes notice of their way of ascribing things to Nature , may easily discern , that , whatever their words sometimes be , the Agency of God is little taken notice of in their thoughts : And however , it does not a little darken the Excellency of the Divine management of things , that , when a strange Thing is to be effected or accounted for , men so often have recourse to Nature , and think she must extraordinarily interpose to bring such things about : Whereas it much more tends to the Illustration of God's Wisdom , to have so fram'd things at first , that there can seldom or never need any extraordinary Interposition of his Power . And , as it more recommends the skill of an Engineer , to contrive an Elaborate Engine , so as that there should need nothing to reach his ends in it , but the contrivance of parts devoid of understanding ; than if it were necessary , that ever and anon a discreet Servant should be employ'd , to concur notably to the Operations of this or that Part , or to hinder the Engine from being out of order : So it more sets off the Wisdom of God in the Fabrick of the Universe , that he can make so vast a Machine , perform all those many things which he design'd it should , by the meer contrivance of Brute matter , managed by certain Laws of Local Motion , and upheld by his ordinary and general concourse ; than if he imployed from time to time an Intelligent Overseer , such as Nature is fancied to be , to regulate , assist , and controul the Motions of the Parts . In confirmation of which , you may remember , that the later Poets justly reprehended their Predecessors , for want of skill , in laying the Plots of their Plays , because they often suffered things to be reduced to that Pass , that they were fain to bring some Deity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the Stage , to help them out . ( Nec Deus intersit , nisi dignus vindice nodus , ) &c. And let me tell you freely , that , though I will not say , That Aristotle meant the mischief his Doctrine did , yet I am apt to think , that the Grand Enemy of God's Glory made great use of Aristotle's Authority and Errors , to detract from it . For as Aristotle , by introducing the Opinion of the Eternity of the World , ( whereof he owns himself to have been the first Broacher ) did , at least in almost all Mens Opinion , openly deny God the Production of the World : So , by ascribing the admirable Works of God , to what he calls Nature , he tacitly denies him the Government of the World. Which suspicion , if you judg severe , I shall not , at more leisure , refuse to acquaint you , ( in a distinct Paper ) why I take divers of Aristotle's Opinions relating to Religion , to be more unfriendly , not to say pernicious , to It , than those of several other Heathen Philosophers . And here give me leave to prevent an Objection , that some may make , as if , to deny the receiv'd Notion of Nature , a Man must also deny Providence ; of which Nature is the Grand Instrument . For in the first place , my Opinion hinders me not at all from acknowledging God to be the Author of the Universe , and the continual Preserver and Upholder of it ; which is much more than the Peripatetick Hypothesis , which ( as we were saying ) makes the World Eternal , will allow its Embracers to admit ; and those things which the School-Philosophers ascribe to the Agency of Nature , interposing according to Emergencies , I ascribe to the Wisdom of God in the first Fabrick of the Universe ; which He so admirably contrived , that , if He but continue his ordinary and general concourse , there will be no necessity of extraordinary interpositions , which may reduce him , to seem as it were to Play After-Games ; all those Exigencies , upon whose account Philosophers and Physicians seem to have devis'd what they call Nature , being foreseen and provided for in the first Fabrick of the World ; so that meer Matter , so ordered , shall in such and such Conjunctures of Circumstances , do all that Philosophers ascribe on such occasions to their almost Omniscient Nature , without any knowledg of what it does , or acting otherwise than according to the Catholick Laws of Motion . And methinks the difference betwixt their Opinion of God's Agency in the World , and that which I would propose , may be somewhat adumbrated , by saying , That they seem to imagine the World to be after the nature of a Puppet , whose Contrivance indeed may be very Artificial , but yet is such , that almost every particular motion the Artificer is fain ( by drawing sometimes one Wire or String , sometimes another ) to guide , and oftentimes over-rule , the Actions of the Engine ; whereas , according to us , 't is like a rare Clock , such as may be that at Strasbourg , where all things are so skilfully contriv'd , that the Engine being once set a Moving , all things proceed according to the Artificers first design , and the Motions of the little Statues , that at such hours perform these or those things , do not require , like those of Puppets , the peculiar interposing of the Artificer , or any Intelligent Agent imployed by him , but perform their functions upon particular occasions , by vertue of the General and Primitive Contrivance of the whole Engine . The Modern Aristotelians and other Philosophers would not be tax'd as injurious to Providence , though they now ascribe to the ordinary course of Nature , those regular Motions of the Planets , that Aristotle and most of his Followers ( and among them the Christian School-men ) did formerly ascribe to the particular guidance of Intelligent and Immaterial Beings , which they assign'd to be the Movers of the Coelestial Orbs. And when I consider , how many things , that seem Anomalies to us , do frequently enough happen in the World , I think it is more consonant to the respect we owe to Divine Providence , to conceive , that as God is a most free , as well as a most wise Agent , and may in many Things have ends unknown to us : He very well foresaw , and thought fit , that such seeming Anomalies should come to pass , since he made them ( as is evident in the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon ) the Genuine consequences of the Order , He was pleas'd to settle in the World ; by whose Laws the Grand Agents in the Universe were impower'd and determin'd , to act according to the respective Natures he had given them ; and the course of things was allowed to run on , though that would infer the happening of seeming Anomalies , and things really repugnant to the Good or Welfare of divers particular Portions of the Universe . This , I say , I think to be a Notion more respectful to Divine Providence , than to imagine , as we commonly do , that God has appointed an Intelligent and Powerful Being , called Nature , to be as his Vice-gerent , continually watchful for the good of the Universe in general , and of the particular Bodies that compose it ; whilst in the mean time , this Being appears not to have the skill , or the power , to prevent such Anomalies , which oftentimes prove destructive to multitudes of Animals , and other Noble Creatures , ( as in Plagues , &c. ) and sometimes prejudicial to greater Portions of the Universe , ( as in Earth-quakes of a large spread , Eclipses of the Luminaries , great and lasting Spots on the Sun , Eruptions of Vulcan , great Comets or new Stars that pass from one Region of Heaven to another . ) And I am the more tender of admitting such a Lieutenant to Divine Providence , as Nature is fancied to be , because I shall hereafter give you some Instances , in which it seems , that , if there were such a thing , she must be said to act too blindly and impotently , to discharge well the Part she is said to be trusted with . I shall add , that the Doctrine , I plead for , does much better than its Rival comply with what Religion teaches us , about the extraordinary and supernatural Interpositions of Divine Providence . For when it pleases God to over-rule , or controul , the establish'd course of things in the World , by his own Omnipotent Hand , what is thus perform'd may be much easier discern'd and acknowledg'd to be miraculous , by them that admit , in the ordinary course of Corporeal Things , nothing but Matter and Motion , whose Powers Men may well judg of ; than by those who think there is besides , a certain Semi-Deity , which they call Nature , whose Skill and Power they acknowledg to be exceeding great , and yet have no sure way of estimating how great they are , and how far they may extend . And give me leave to take notice to you , on this occasion , that I observe the Miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles , pleaded by Christians on the behalf of their Religion , to have been very differingly look'd on by Epicurean and other Corpuscularian Infidels , and by those other Unbelievers who admit of a Soul of the World , or Spirits in the Stars , or , in a word , think the Universe to be Governed by Intellectual Beings , distinct from the Supream Being we call God. For this later sort of Infidels have often admitted those matters of Fact , which we Christians call Miracles ; and yet have endeavour'd to solve them by Astral Operations , and other Ways not here to be specified : Whereas the Epicureàn Enemies of Christianity have thought themselves oblig'd , resolutely to deny the matters of Fact themselves ; as well discerning , that the things , said to be perform'd , exceeded the Mechanical Powers of Matter and Motion , ( as they were managed by those , that wrought the Miracles , ) and consequently must either be deny'd to have been done , or be confess'd to have been truly Miraculous . But there may hereafter be occasion , both to improve the things already said , and add others , to satisfie Theological scruples about our Hypothesis . I formerly told you , that 't was not only to the Glory of God , ( as that results from his Wisdom , Power , an● Goodness , express'd in the World ) that I suspected the Notion of Nature , that I am examining , to be prejudicial , but also to the Discovery of his Works . And you will make no great difficulty to believe me , if you consider , that , whilst Men allow themselves so general and easie a way , or rendring accounts of things that are difficult , as to attribute them to Nature ; shame will not reduce them to a more industrious scrutiny into the Reasons of Things , and curiosity itself will move them to it the more faintly : Of which we have a clear and eminent Example , in the Ascension of Water in Pumps , and in other Phaenomena's of that kind , whose true Physical Causes had never been found out , if the Moderns had acquiesced , as their Predecessors did , in that imaginary one , that the World was Govern'd by a Watchful Being , call'd Nature , and that she abhors a vacuum , and consequently is still in a readiness , to do irresistibly whatever is necessary to prevent it : Nor must we expect any great Progress , in the discovery of the true Causes of natural Effects , whilst we are content to sit down with other , than the particular and immediate ones . 'T is not that I deny , that there are divers things , as the number and situation of the Stars , the shapes and sizes of Animals , &c. About which , even a Philosopher being ask'd can say little , but that it pleased the Author of the Universe to make them so ; but when we give such general Answers , we pretend not to give the particular Physical Reasons of the things propos'd , but do in effect confess we do not know them . To this I add , that the veneration , wherewith Men are imbued for what they call Nature , has been a discouraging impediment to the Empire of Man over the inferior Creatures of God. For many have not only look'd upon it , as an impossible thing to compass , but as something of impious to attempt , the removing of those Boundaries which Nature seems to have put and setled among her Productions . And whilst they look upon her as such a venerable thing , some make a kind of scruple of Conscience , to endeavour so to emulate any of her Works , as to excel them . I have staid so long , about removing the first of the two scruples I formerly propos'd against my present attempt , that , not to tire your Patience , I shall in few words dispatch the second , which is , That I venture to contradict the sense of the generality of Mankind : To which I answer , That in Philosophical Inquiries , it becomes not a Naturalist to be so solicitous , what has been , or is believ'd , as what ought to be so ; and I have also elsewhere , on another occasion , shew'd , how little the sense of the generality of Men , ought to sway us in some Questions : But that which I shall at present more directly reply , is , First , That 't is no wonder , Men should be generally prepossest with such a Notion of Nature , as I call in question , since Education ( especially in the Schools ) has imbued them with it from their Infancy , and even in their maturer years they find it taken for granted , and imployed not only by the Most but by the Learnedst Writers , and never hear it call'd in question by any ; and then it exceedingly complies with our Innate Propensity , to think that we know more than we do , and to appear to do so . For to vouch Nature for a Cause , is an Expedient , that can scarce be wanting to any Man , upon any occasion , to seem to know what he can indeed render no good reason of . And to this first part of my Answer , I shall subjoin this second . That the general custom of Mankind , to talk of a Thing as a real and positive Being , and attribute great matters to it , does but little weigh with me ; when I consider , that , though Fortune be not any Physical thing , but a certain loose & undetermin'd Notion , which a Modern Meta-Physician would refer to the Classis of his non Entia , yet not only the Gentiles made it a Goddess , ( Nos te facimus , Fortuna , Deam , Coeloque locamus , ) which many of them seriously Worship'd , but eminent Writers , in Verse and in Prose , Ethnick and Christian , Ancient and Modern , and all sorts of Men , in their common Discourse do seriously talk of It , as if it were a kind of Antichrist , that usurped a great share in the Government of the World ; and ascribe little less to It , than they do to Nature . And not to speak of what Poets , Moralists and Divines tell us of the Powers of Ignorance and Vice , which are but Moral defects : Let us consider what things are not only by these Men , but by the generality of Mankind seriously attributed to Death , to which so great and fatal a Dominion is assign'd ; and then if we consider too , that this Death , which is said to do so many and such wonderful things , is neither a Substance , nor a Positive Entity , but a meer Privation ; we shall , I trust , the less believe , that the Feats ascribed to Nature do infer , that there is really such a Physical Agent as is suppos'd . And now having , as I presume , clear'd our Enquiry , as far as 't is yet necessary , [ and 't will be further done hereafter ] from those Prejudices , that might make the Attempt be censur'd before it be examin'd , I proceed to the Inquiry it self ; wherein I shall endeavour ( but with the brevity my want of leisure exacts ) to do these six things . First , To give you a short account of the great Ambiguity of the word Nature , arising from its various acceptions . Secondly , To shew you , that the Definition also , that Aristotle himself gives of Nature , does not afford a clear or satisfactory Notion of it . Thirdly , To gather from the several things , that are wont to be affirmed of , or attributed to , Nature , the received Notion of it , which cannot be well gathered from the Name , because of its great ambiguity . Fourthly , I will mention some of those Reasons , that dissuade me from admitting this Notion of Nature . Fifthly , I shall endeavour to answer severally the chief things , upon which Men seem to have taken up the Idea of Nature , that I disallow . And , Sixthly , I shall propose some of the chief Effata or Axioms , that are wont to be made use of , concerning Nature in general , and shall shew , how far , and in what sense I may admit them . And here it may be opportune , to prevent both mistakes and the necessity of interrupting the Series of our Discourse , to set down two or three Advertisements . 1. When any where in this Tract I speak of the Opinions of Aristotle and the Peripateticks , as I would not be thought to impute to him all the sentiments of those that will be thought his followers , some of which seem to me to have much mistaken his true meaning ; so ( on the other side ) I did not conceive , that my Design oblig'd me to inquire anxiously into his true sentiments , whether about the Origine of the Universe , ( as whether or no it were self-existent , as well as Eternal ) or about less important Points : Since , besides that his expressions are oftentimes dark and ambiguous enough , and the things he delivers in several passages do not seem always very consistent ; it suffic'd for my purpose , which was to question Vulgar Notions , to examine those Opinions , that are by the generality of Scholars taken for the Aristotelian and Peripatetick Doctrines , by which , if he be mis-represented , the blame ought to light upon his Commentators and Followers . 2. The Rational Soul or Mind of Man , as it is distinct from the sensitive Soul , being an immaterial Spirit ; is a substance of so Heteroclite a kind , in reference to things so vastly differing from it as mere Bodies are , that since I could neither , without injuring it , treat of it promiscuously with the Corporeal Works of God , nor speak worthily of it , without frequently interrupting and disordering my Discourse by Exceptions , that would either make it appear intricate , or would be very troublesome to you or any other that you may think fit to make my Reader ; I thought I might , for others ease and my own , be allow'd to set aside the considerations of it in the present Treatise : And the rather , because all other parts of the Universe being , according to the receiv'd Opinion , the Works of Nature , we shall not want in them Subjects more than sufficiently numerous , whereon to make our Examen . Though I shall here consider the World but as the great System of things Corporeal , as it once really was , towards the close of the sixth day of the Creation , when God had finish'd all his material Works , but had not yet Created Man. SECT . II. I. A Considering Person may well be tempted to suspect , that Men have generally had but imperfect and confused Notions concerning Nature ; if he but observes , that they apply that Name to several things , and those too such , as have some of them very little dependance on , or connexion with , such others . And I remember that in Aristotle's Metaphysicks , I met with a whole Chapter expresly written , to enumerate the various Acceptions of the Greek word , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , commonly render'd Nature ; of which , if I mistake not , he there reckons up six . In English also we have not fewer , but rather more numerous significations of that Term. For sometimes we use the word Nature , for that Author of Nature , whom the School-men , harshly enough , call Natura Naturans ; as when 't is said , that Nature hath made Man partly Corporeal , and partly Immaterial . Sometimes we mean by the Nature of a thing , the Essence , or that which the School-men scruple not to call the Quiddity of a thing , namely , the Attribute or Attributes , on whose score it is , what it is ; whether the thing be corporeal or not ; as , when we attempt to define the Nature of an Angle , or of a Triangle , or of a Fluid Body as such . Sometimes we confound that which a Man has by Nature , with what accrues to him by Birth ; as , when we say , that such a Man is noble by Nature , or such a Child naturally forward , or sickly , or frightful . Sometimes we take Nature for an Internal Principle of Motion ; as , when we say , that a Stone let fall in the Air , is by Nature carried towards the Centre of the Earth ; and , on the contrary , that Fire or Flame does Naturally move upwards towards Heaven . Sometimes we understand by Nature , the Establish'd course of things , as , when we say , that Nature makes the Night succeed the Day : Nature hath made Respiration necessary to the Life of Men. Sometimes we take Nature for an Aggregate of Powers belonging to a Body , especially a Living one ; as , when Physicians say , that Nature is strong , or weak , or spent ; or that in such or such Diseases , Nature left to her self , will do the Cure. Sometimes we take Nature for the Universe , or System of the Corporeal works of God ; as , when 't is said of a Phoenix , or a Chimera , that there is no such thing in Nature , ( i. e. ) in the World. And sometimes too , and that most commonly , we would express by the Word Nature , a Semi-deity , or other strange kind of Being , such as this Discourse examines the Notion of . And besides these more Absolute Acceptions , if I may so call them , of the word Nature ; it has divers others ( more Relative ) as Nature is wont to be set in Opposition or Contradistinction to other things ; as , when we say of a Stone when it falls downwards , that it does it by a Natural motion ; but that if it be thrown upwards , its motion that way is violent . So Chymists distinguish Vitriol into Natural and Fictitious , or made by Art , ( i. e. ) by the Intervention of Human Power or Skill ; so 't is said , that water kept suspended in a sucking Pump , is not in its natural place , as that is , which is Stagnant in the Well . We say also , that Wicked Men are still in the state of Nature ; but the Regenerate , in a state of Grace : That Cures wrought by Medicines , are Natural Operations ; but the miraculous ones , wrought by Christ and his Apostles , were Supernatural . Nor are these the only Forms of Speech , that a more diligent Collector , than I think it necessary I should here be , might instance in , to manifest the Ambiguity of the word Nature , by the many and various things 't is applied to signifie ; tho' some of those already mentioned , should be judged too near to be co-incident . Among Latin Writers I found the acceptions of the word Nature to be so many , that I remember , one Author reckons up no less than fourteen or fifteen . From all which 't is not difficult to gather , how easie 't is for the generality of Men , without excepting those that write of Natural Things , to impose upon others and themselves , in the use of a word so apt to be mis-imploy'd . On this occasion I can scarce forbear to tell you , that I have often look'd upon it as an unhappy thing , and prejudicial both to Philosophy and Physick ; that the word Nature hath been so frequently , and yet so unskilfully imploy'd , both in Books and in Discourse , by all sorts of Men , Learned and Illiterate . For the very great Ambiguity of this term , and the promiscuous use Men are wont to make of it , without sufficiently attending to its different Significations , makes many of the Expressions wherein they imploy it , ( and think they do it well and truly ) to be either not intelligible , or not proper , or not true : Which Observation , tho' it be not heeded , may , with the help of a little attention , be easily verified ; especially because the Term Nature is so often used , that you shall scarce meet with any Man , who , if he have occasion to discourse any thing long of either Natural or Medicinal Subjects , would not find himself at a great loss , if he were prohibited the use of the word Nature , and of those Phrases whereof it makes the principal part . And I confess I could heartily wish , that Philosophers , and other Learned Men ( whom the rest in time would follow ) would by common ( tho' perhaps Tacite ) consent , introduce some more Significant , and less ambiguous Terms and Expressions in the room of the too licenciously abused word Nature , and the Forms of Speech that depend on it . Or would , at least , decline the use of it , as much as conveniently they can ; and where they think they must imploy it , would ▪ add a word or two , to declare in what clear and determinate sense they use it . For without somewhat of this kind be done , Men will very hardly avoid being led into divers mistakes , both of things , and of one another ; & such wranglings about Words and Names , will be ( if not continually multiplied ) still kept on foot , as are wont to be manag'd with much heat , tho' little use , and no necessity . And here I must take leave to complain , in my own excuse , of the scarce superable Difficulty of the Task , that the design of a Free Inquiry puts me upon . For 't is far more difficult than any one that hath not try'd , ( and I do not know that any Man hath , ) would imagine , to Discourse long of the Corporeal Works of God , and especially of the Operations and Phaenomena's that are attributed to Nature , and yet decline making oftentimes use of that Term , or Forms of Speech whereof 't is a main part ; without much more frequent , and perhaps tedious , Circumlocutions ; than I am willing to trouble you with . And therefore I hope you will easily excuse me , if , partly to shun these , and to avoid using often the same words too near one another , and partly out of unwillingness to imploy Vulgar Terms , likely to occasion or countenance Vulgar Errors ; I have several times been fain to use Paraphrases or other Expressions , less short than those commonly received : And sometimes for one or other of these Reasons , or out of Inadvertence , miss'd of avoiding the Terms used by those , that admit and applaud the Vulgar Notion of Nature : whom , I must here advertise you , that partly because they do so , and partly for brevity's sake , I shall hereafter many times call , Naturists : Which Appellation I rather chuse than that of Naturalists ; because , many , even of the Learned among them , as Logicians , Orators , Lawyers , Arithmeticians , &c. are not Physiologers . But if on this occasion you should be very urgent to know , what Course I would think expedient , if I were to propose any , for the avoiding the Inconvenient use of so Ambiguous a Word , as Nature : I should first put you in mind , that , having but very lately declar'd , that I thought it very difficult , in Physiological Discourses especially , to decline the frequent of that Term ; you are not to expect from me the satisfaction you may desire in an Answer . And then I would add , that yet my unwillingness to be altogether silent , when you require me to say somewhat , makes me content to try , whether the mischief complain'd of , may not be in some measure either obviated or lessen'd , by looking back upon the ( Eight ) various significations , that were not long since deliver'd of the Word Nature , and by endeavouring to express them in other Terms , or Forms of Speech . 1. Instead then of the Word Nature taken in the first sense , [ for Natura Naturans , ] we may make use of the Term 't is put to signifie , namely , God ; wholly discarding an Expression , which , besides that 't is harsh and needless , and in use only among the School-men , seems not to me very suitable to the profound Reverence we owe the Divine Majesty ; since it seems to make the Creator differ too little by far from a Created ( not to say an Imaginary ) Being . 2. Instead of Nature in the second sense , [ for , That on whose account a Thing is what it is , and is so call'd , ] we may imploy the Word Essence , which is of great Affinity to it , if not of an adequate import . And sometimes also we may make use of the Word Quiddity , which , though a somewhat Barbarous Term , is yet frequently imploy'd , and well enough understood , in the Schools ; and , which is more considerable , is very comprehensive , and yet free enough from Ambiguity . 3. What is meant by the Word Nature taken in the third sense of it , [ for , what belongs to a living Creature at its Nativity , or accrues to it by its Birth , ] may be express'd sometimes , by saying , that a Man or other Animal is Born so ; and sometimes by saying , that a Thing has been Generated such ; and sometimes also , that 't is thus or thus Qualifi'd by its Original Temperament and Constitution . 4. Instead of the Word Nature taken in the fourth Acception [ for , an Internal Principle of Local Motion ] we may say sometimes , that this or that Body Moves as it were , or else that it seems to Move , spontaneously ( or of its own accord ) upwards , downwards , &c. or , that 't is put into this or that Motion , or determin'd to this or that Action , by the concourse of such or such ( proper ) Causes . 5. For Nature in the fifth signification , [ for , the establish'd course of Things Corporeal ] 't is easie to substitute what it denotes , the establish'd Order , or the setled Course of Things . 6. Instead of Nature in the sixth sense of the Word [ for , as Aggregate of the Powers belonging to a Body , especially a Living one ] we may imploy the Constitution , Temperament , or the Mechanism , or the Complex of the Essential Properties or Qualities , and sometimes the Condition , the Structure , or the Texture of that Body . And if we speak of the greater Portions of the World , we may make use of one or other of these Terms , Fabrick of the World , System of the Vniverse , Cosmical Mechanism , or the like . 7. Where Men are wont to imploy the Word Nature in the seventh sense [ for , the Vniverse , or the Systeme of the Corporeal Works of God ] 't is easie , and as short , to make use of the Word World or Vniverse ; and instead of the Phaenomena of Nature to substitute the Phaenomena of the Vniverse , or of the World. 8. And , as for the Word Nature taken in the eighth and last of the fore-mention'd Acceptions [ for , either ( as some Pagans styl'd Her ) a Goddess , or a kind of Semi-Deity ] the best way is not to imploy it in that sense at all ; or at least as seldom as may be , and that for divers Reasons , which may in due place be met with in several Parts of this Essay . But though the foregoing Diversity of Terms and Phrases may be much increas'd , yet I confess it makes but a part of the Remedy , I propose , against the future mischiefs of the confus'd Acception of the Word Nature , and the Phrases grounded on it . For besides the Synonymous Words , and more literal Interpretations lately propos'd , a dextrous Writer may oftentimes be able to give such a Form ( or , as the Modern Frenchmen speak , such a Tour ) to his many-ways variable Expressions , as to avoid the necessity of making use of the Word Nature ; or sometimes so much as of those shorter Terms , that have been lately substituted in its place . And to all this I must add , that though one or two of the eight fore-mention'd Terms or Phrases , as Quiddity and Cosmical Mechanism , be Barbarous or Ungenteel ; and some other expressions be less short than the Word Nature : Yet 't is more the Interest of Philosophy to tolerate a harsh Term , that has been long received in the Schools in a determinate sense , and bear with some Paraphrastical Expressions , than not to avoid an Ambiguity that is liable to such great inconveniences as have been lately , or may be hereafter , represented . There are , I know , some Learned Men , who , ( perhaps being startled to find Nature usually spoken of so much like a kind of Goddess , ) will have the Nature of every thing , to be only the Law that it receives from the Creator , and according to which it acts on all occasions . And this Opinion seems much of kin to , if not the same with , that of the famous Helmont , who justly rejecting the Aristotelian Tenent of the Contrariety or Hostility of the Elements , will have every Body , without any such respect , to act that which 't is commanded to act . And indeed this Opinion about Nature , though neither clear nor comprehensive enough , seems capable of a fair Construction . And there is oftentimes some resemblance between the orderly and regular Motions of inanimate Bodies , and the Actions of Agents , that , in what they do act , conformably to Laws . And even I sometimes scruple not , to speak of the Laws of Motion and Rest , that God has establish'd among things Corporeal , and now and then , ( for brevities sake , or out of Custom ) to call them , as Men are wont to do , the Laws of Nature : Having in due place declar'd , in what sense I understand and imploy these Expressions . But to speak strictly , ( as becomes Philosophers in so weighty a matter ) to say that the Nature of this or that Body , is but the Law of God prescrib'd to it , is but an improper and figurative Expression . For , besides that this gives us but a very defective Idea of Nature , since it omits the general Fabrick of the World , and the Contrivances of particular Bodies , which yet are as well necessary as Local Motion itself , to the production of particular Effects and Phaenomena's ; besides this , I say , and other imperfections of this Notion of Nature , that I shall not here insist on , I must freely observe , that , to speak properly , a Law being but a Notional Rule of Acting according to the declar'd Will of a Superior , 't is plain , that nothing but an Intellectual Being can be properly capable of receiving and acting by a Law. For if it does not understand , it cannot know what the Will of the Legislator is ; nor can it have any Intention to accomplish it , nor can it act with regard to it ; or know , when it does , in Acting , either conform to it or deviate from it . And 't is intelligible to me , that God should at the Beginning impress determinate Motions upon the Parts of Matter , and guide them , as he thought requisite , for the Primordial Constitution of Things : and that ever since he should , by his ordinary and general Concourse , maintain those Powers , which he gave the Parts of Matter , to transmit their Motion thus and thus to one another . But I cannot conceive , how a Body , devoid of understanding and sense , truly so call'd , can moderate and determine its own Motions ; especially so , as to make them conformable to Laws , that it has no knowledg or apprehension of . And that Inanimate Bodies , how strictly soever call'd Natural , do properly act by Laws , cannot be evinc'd by their sometimes acting Regularly , and , as Men think , in order to determinate Ends : Since in Artificial things we see many Motions very orderly perform'd , and with a manifest Tendency to particular and pre-design'd Ends ; as in a Watch , the Motions of the Spring , Wheels and other parts , are so contemperated and regulated , that the Hand upon the Dyal moves with a great Uniformity , and seems to moderate its Motion , so as not to arrive at the Points , that denote the time of the day , either a minute sooner , or a minute later , than it should do , to declare the hour . And when a Man shoots an Arrow at a Mark , so as to hit it , though the Arrow moves towards the Mark , as it would if it could and did design to strike it , yet none will say , that this Arrow moves by a Law , but by an External , tho' well directed , Impulse . SECT . III. II. BUT possibly the Definition of a Philosopher may exempt us from the perplexities , to which the Ambiguous expressions of common Writers expose us . I therefore thought fit to to consider , with a somewhat more than ordinary attention , the Famous Definition of Nature that is left us by Aristotle , which I shall recite rather in Latin than in English , not only because 't is very familiarly known among Scholars , in that Language , but because there is somewhat in it , that I confess seems difficult to me , to be without Circumlocution render'd intelligibly in English : Natura ( says He ) est Principium & causa Motus & Quietis ejus , in quo inest , primo per se , & non secundum accidens . But though when I consider'd that according to Aristotle , the whole World is but a System of the Works of Nature ; I thought it might well be expected , that the Definition of a thing , the most important in Natural Philosophy , should be clearly and accurately deliver'd ; yet to me this celebrated Definition seem'd so dark , that I cannot brag of any assistance I received from it , towards the framing of a clear and satisfactory Notion of Nature . For I dare not hope , that what , as to me , is not itself intelligible , should make me understand what is to be declared or explicated by it . And when I consulted some of Aristotle's Interpreters upon the sense of this Definition , I found the more considerate of them so puzzled with it , that their Discourses of it seem'd to tend , rather to free the Maker of it from Tautology and Self-contradiction , than to manifect that the Definition itself is good and instructive , and such as affords a fair account of the thing Defin'd . And indeed , though the immoderate Veneration they cherish for their Master , engages them to make the best they can of the Definition given by him , even when they cannot justifie it without strain'd Interpretations , yet what every one seems to defend in gross , almost every one of them censures in parcels ; this Man attacking one part of the Definition , and that Man another , with Objections so weighty , ( not to call some of them so unanswerable ) that if I had no other Arguments to urge against it , I might borrow enough from the Commentators on it , to justifie my dislike of it . However , we may hereafter have occasion to consider some of the main parts of this Definition , and in the mean while , it may suffice that we observe , that several things are commonly receiv'd as belonging to the Idea , or Notion of Nature , that are not manifestly or not at all comprehended in this Aristotelian Definition , which doth not declare , whether the Principle or Cause ( which Expression already makes the sense doubtful ) here mention'd is a Substance , or an Accident ; and if a Substance , whether Corporeal or Immaterial , nor is it clearly contain'd in this Definition , that Nature does all things most wisely , and still acts by the most compendious ways without ever missing of her end , and that she watches against a vacuum for the welfare of the Universe , to omit divers other things , that you will find ascrib'd to her in the following Section : To which I now proceed . That the great shortness of this Third Section may not make it too disproportionate in length , to the others , this Tract consists of ; I shall in this place , though I doubt it be not the most proper that could be chosen , endeavour to remove betimes the Prejudice , that some Divines and other Pious Men may perhaps entertain , upon the account , as they think , of Religion , against the care I take , to decline the frequent use of that Word Nature , in the Vulgar Notion of it : Reserving to another and fitter place some other things , that may relate to the Theological scruples , if any occur to me , that our Free Inquiry may occasion . The Philosophical Reason that inclines me to forbear , as much as conveniently I can , the frequent use of the Word Nature , and the Forms of Speech that are deriv'd from it , is , That 't is a Term of great Ambiguity : On which score I have observ'd , that , being frequently and unwarily imploy'd , it has occasion'd much darkness and confusion in many Mens Writings and Discourses . And I little doubt , but that others would make the like Observations , if early Prejudices and universal Custom did not keep them from taking notice of it . Nor do I think my self oblig'd , by the just Veneration I owe and pay Religion , to make use of a Term so inconvenient to Philosophy . For I do not find that for many Ages the Israelites , that then were the only People and Church of God , made use of the Word Nature in the Vulgar Notion of it . Moses in the whole History of the Creation , where it had been so proper to bring in this first of second Causes , has not a word of Nature . And whereas Philosophers presume , that she , by her Plastick Power and Skill , forms Plants and Animals out of the Universal Matter ; the Divine Historian ascribes the Formation of them to Gods immediate Fiat . Gen. i. 11. And God said , let the Earth bring forth Grass , and the Herb yielding Seed , and the Fruit tree yielding Fruit after his kind , &c. And again , Vers. 24 , God said , Let the Earth bring forth the living Creature after its kind , &c. Vers. 25 , And God ( without any mention of Nature ) made the Beast of the Earth after his kind . And I do not remember , that in the Old Testament , I have met with any one Hebrew word that properly signifies Nature , in the sense we take it in . And it seems , that our English Translators of the Bible were not more fortunate in that , than I ; for , having purposely consulted a late Concordance , I found not that Word Nature in any Text of the Old Testament . So likewise , though Iob , David and Solomon , and other Israelitish Writers , do , on divers occasions , many times mention the Corporeal Works of God , yet they do not take notice of Nature , which our Philosophers would have his great Vicegerent in what relates to them . To which , perhaps it may not be impertinent to add , that , though the late famous Rabbi Menasseh Ben Israel , has purposely written a Book of numerous Problems touching the Creation , yet I do not remember that he imploys the Word Nature , in the receiv'd Notion of it , to give an account of any of Gods Mundane Creatures . And when St. Paul himself , who was no stranger to the Heathen Learning , writing to the Corinthians who were Greeks , speaks of the Production of Corn out of Seed sown , he does not attribute the produc'd Body to Nature , but when he had spoken of a grain of Wheat , or some other seed put into the ground , he adds , that God gives it such a Body as he pleaseth , and to every seed it s own Body , i. e. the Body belonging to its kind . And a greater than St. Paul , speaking of the gaudiness of the Lillies , ( or , as some will have it , Tulips ) uses this Expression , If God so cloath the grass of the Field , &c. Matt. vi . 28 , 29 , 30. The Celebrations that David , Iob , and other Holy Hebrews , mention'd in the Old Testament , make an occasion of the admirable Works they contemplated in the Universe , are address'd directly to God himself , without taking notice of Nature . Of this , I could multiply Instances , but shall here , for brevity's sake , be contented to name a few , taken from the Book of Psalms alone . In the hundredth of those Hymns , the Penman of it makes this , That God has made us , the ground of an Exhortation , To enter into his Gates with Thanksgiving , and into his Courts with Praise , Psal. lxxix . 34. And in another , Let the Heaven and Earth praise God , [ that is , give Men ground and occasion to Praise Him ] congruously to what David elsewhere says to the Great Creator of the Universe . All thy work 's shall praise thee , O Lord , and thy Saints shall bless thee , Psal. cxlv . 10. And in another of the Sacred Hymns , the same Royal Poet says to his Maker , Thou hast cover'd me in my Mothers womb . I will praise thee , for I am fearfully and wonderfully made , marvellous are thy works , and that my soul knoweth right well , Psal. cxxxix . 13 , 14. I have sometimes doubted , whether one may not on this occasion add , that , if Men will need takes in a Being subordinate to God , for the management of the World ; it seems more consonant to the Holy Scripture , to depute Angels to that charge , than Nature . For I consider , that , as to the Coelestial Part of the Universe , in comparison of which the Sublunary is not perhaps the ten-thousandth part ; both the Heathen Aristotelian's , and the School Philosophers among the Christians , teach , the Coelestial Orbs to be moved or guided by Intelligences , or Angels . And as to the lower or sublunary World , besides that the Holy Writings teach us , that Angels have been often imploy'd by God for the Government of Kingdoms , ( as is evident out of the Book of Daniel ) and the Welfare and Punishment of particular Persons ; one of those Glorious Spirits , is , in the Apocalypse , expresly styl'd the Angel of the Waters : Which Title divers Learned Interpreters think to be given him , because of his Charge or Office , to oversee and preserve the Waters . And I remember , that in the same Book there is mention made of an Angel , that had Power , Authority , or Iurisdiction , ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) over the Fire : And though the Excellent Grotius gives another conjecture of the Title given the Angel of the Waters ; yet in his Notes upon the next Verse save one , he teaches , That there was an Angel appointed to preserve the Souls that were kept under the Altar there-mention'd . And if we take the Angel of the Waters to be the Guardian or Conserver of them , ( perhaps as the Romans ( in whose Empire St. Iohn wrote ) had special Officers to look to their Aqueducts and other Waters ; ) it may not be amiss to observe ( upon the by ) that he is introduc'd Praising his and his fellow-Spirits Great Creator : Which is an Act of Religion , that , for ought I know , none of the Naturists , whether Pagan or even Christians , ever mention'd their Nature to have perform'd . I know it may on this occasion be alledg'd , that subordinata non pugnant , and Nature being God's Vicegerent , her Works are indeed his . But that he has such a Vicegerent , it is one of the main businesses of this Discourse to call in Question , and till the Affirmative be solidly prov'd , ( nay , and tho' it were so ) I hope I shall be excus'd , if with Moses , Iob , and David , I call the Creatures , I admire in the visiible World , the Works of God , ( not of Nature ) and praise rather Him than Her , for the wisdom and goodness displayed in them : Since among the Israelites , till they were over-run and corrupted by Idolatrous Nations , there was for many Ages a deep silence of such a Being , as we now call Nature . And I think it much more safe and fit , to speak as did those , who for so long a time were the peculiar People of God , than which the Heathen Poets and Philosophers , who were very prone to ascribe Divinity to his Creatures , and sometimes even to their own . I mention these things , not with Design to ingage in the Controversie , about the Authority or Use of the Scripture in Physical Speculations , but to obviate or remove a prejudice , that ( as I formerly intimated ) I fear may be taken up , upon the account of Theology or Religion , against my studiously unfrequent imploying the word Nature , in the vulgar sense of it ; by shewing , that , Whether or no the Scriptures be not design'd to teach us higher and more necessary Truths than those that concern Bodies , and are discoverable by the meer light of Reason ; both its expressions and its silence give more countenance to our Hypothesis , than to that of the Naturists . SECT . IV. III. HAving shewn , that the Definition given of Nature by Aristotle himself , as great a Logician as he was , has not been able to satisfie so much as his Interpreters and Disciples , what his own Idea of Nature was ; 't would be to little purpose to trouble you and my self , with enquiring into the Definitions and Disputes of other Peripateticks , about so obscure and perplex'd a Subject ; especially , since 't is not my business in this Tract , solicitously to examine what Aristotle thought Nature to be , but what is to be thought of the vulgarly receiv'd Notion of Nature ; and tho' of this , the Schools have been the chief Propagators , for which Reason it was fit to take notice of their Master Aristotle's Definition ; yet the best way , I know , to investigate the commonly receiv'd Opinion of Nature , is , to consider what Effata or Axioms do pass for current about Her ; and what Titles and Epithets are unanimously given Her , both by Philosophers and other Writers , and by the generality of Men that have occasion to Discourse of Her and Her actings . Of these Axioms and Epithets , the principal seen to be these that follow . Natura est sapientissima , adeoque opus Naturae est opus Intelligentiae . * Natura nihil facit frustra . Natura fine suo nunquam excidit . † Natura semper facit quod optimum est . Natura semper agit per vias brevissimas . Natura neque redundat in superfluis , neque deficit in necessariis . Omnis Natura est conservatrix sui . Natura est morborum medicatrix . Natura semper invigilat conservationi Vniversi . Natura vacuum horret . From all these Particulars put together , it may appear , that the vulgar Notion of Nature may be conveniently enough expres'd by some such Description as this . Nature is a most wise Being , that does nothing in vain , does not miss of her Ends ; does always that which ( of the things she can do ) is best to be done ; and this she does by the most direct or compendious ways , neither employing any things superfluous , nor being wanting in things necessary ; she teaches & inclines every one of her Works to preserve it self . And , as in the Microcosm ( Man ) 't is she that is the Curer of Diseases , so in the Macrocosm ( the World , ) for the conservation of the Universe , she abhors a Vacuum , making particular Bodies act contrary to their own Inclinations and Interests , to prevent it , for the publick Good. What I think of the Particulars , that make up this Paneygrical Description of Nature , will ( God permitting ) be told you in due place ; my present work being only to make you the clearest Representation I can , of what Men generally ( if they understand themselves ) do , or with Congruity to the Axioms they admit and use , ought to conceive Nature to be . 'T is not unlike that you may expect , or wish , that on this occasion , I should propose some Definition or Description of Nature , as my own . But declining ( at least at present ) to say any thing , Dogmatically , about this matter , I know not whether I may not , on this occasion , confess to you , that I have sometimes been so Paradoxical , or ( if you please ) so Extravagant , as to entertain , as a serious Doubt , what I formerly intimated , viz. Whether Nature be a Thing , or a Name ? I mean , whether it be a real Existent Being , or a notional Entity , somewhat of kin to those fictitious Terms , that Men have devis'd , that they might compendiously express several things together , by one Name ? as when , for Instance , we speak of the Concocting Faculty ascrib'd to Animals ; those that consider , and are careful to understand , what they say , do not mean I know not what Entity , that is distinct from the Human Body , as 't is an Engine curiously contriv'd , and made up of stable and fluid parts ; but , observing an actuating power and fitness in the Teeth , Tongue , Spittle , Fibres and Membranes of the Gullet and Stomach , together with the natural Heat , the Ferment , or else the Menstruum , ) and some other Agents , by their Co-operation , to cook or dress the Aliments , and change them into Chyle ; observing these things , I say , they thought it convenient , for brevity's sake , to express the Complex of those Causes , and the Train of their Actions , by the summary Appellation of concocting Faculty . Whilst I was indulging my self , in this kind of Ravings , it came into my mind , that the Natuists might demand of me , How , without admitting their Notion , I could give any tolerable Account of those , most useful , Forms of Speech , which Men imploy , when they say , That Nature does this or that ; or , That such a thing is done by Nature , or according to Nature , or else happens against Nature ? And this Question I thought the more worth answering , because these Phrases are so very frequently us'd by Men of all sorts , as well Learned as Illiterate , that this Custom hath made them be thought , not only very convenient , but necessary ; insomuch , that I look upon it as none of the least things , that has procur'd so general a reception to the vulgar notion of Nature , that these ready and commodious Forms of Speech suppose the Truth of it . It may therefore , in this place , be pertinent to add , That such Phrases , as , that Nature , or Faculty , or Faculty , or Suction , doth this or that , are not the only ones , wherein I observe , that Men ascribe to a notional thing , that which , indeed , is perform'd by real Agents ; as , when we say , that the Law punishes Murder with Death , that it protects the Innocent , releases a Debtor out of Prison , when he has satisfied his Creditors ( and the Ministers of Justice ) on which , or the like occasions , we may justly say , That 't is plain that the Law , which , being in it self a dead Letter , is but a notional Rule , cannot , in a Physical sense , be said to perform these things ; but they are really performed by Judges , Officers , Executioners , and other Men , acting according to that Rule . Thus , when we say , that Custom does this or that , we ought to mean only , that such things are done by proper Agents , acting with Conformity to what is usual , ( or customary ) on such Occasions . And , to give you an yet more apposite Instance , do but consider , how many Events are wont to be ascrib'd to Fortune or Chance ; and yet Fortune is , in reality , no Physical Cause of any thing , ( for which Reason probably it is , that Ancienter Naturalists than Aristotle , as himself intimates , take no notice of it , when they treat of Natural Causes , ) and only denotes , that those Effects , that are ascribed to it , were produc'd by their true and proper Agents , without intending to produce them ; as , when a Man shoots at a Deer , and the Arrow lightly glancing upon the Beast , wounds some Man that lay beyond him , unseen by the Archer ; 't is plain , that the Arrow is a Physical Agent , that acts , by virtue of its Fabrick and Motion , in both these Effects ; and yet Men will say , that the slight hurt it gave the Deer , was brought to pass according to the course of Nature , because the Archer design'd to shoot the Beast ; but the mortal Wound , it gave the Man , happen'd by Chance ▪ because the Archer intended not to shoot Him , or any Man else . And , whereas divers of the old Atomical Philosophers , pretending ( without good Reason , as well as against Piety ) to give an account of the Origin of things , without recourse to a Deity , did sometimes affirm the World to have been made by Nature , and sometimes by Fortune , promiscuously employing those Terms : They did it , ( if I guess aright ) because they thought neither of them to denote any true and proper Physical Cause , but rather certain Conceptions , that we Men have , of the manner of acting of true and proper Agents . And therefore , when the Epicureans taught , the World to have been made by Chance , 't is probable , that they did not look upon Chance , as a True and Architectonick Cause of the System of the World , but believ'd all things to have been made by the Atoms , considered as their Conventions and Concretions into the Sun , Stars , Earth , and other Bodies , were made without any Design of Constituting those Bodies . Whilst this Vein of framing Paradoxes yet continued , I ventur'd to proceed so far , as to Question , Whether one may not infer , from what hath been said , That the chief Advantage a Philosopher receives from what Men call Nature , be not , that it affords them , on divers occasions , a Compendious way of expressing themselves ? Since ( thought I , ) to consider things otherwise than in a Popular way , when a Man tells me , that Nature does such a thing , he does not really help me to understand , or to explicate , how it is done . For it seems manifest enough , that whatsoever is done in the World , at least wherein the rational Soul intervenes not , is really effected by Corporeal Causes and Agents , acting in a World so fram'd as Ours is , according to the Laws of Motion setled by the Omniscient Author of things . When a Man knows the contrivance of a Watch or Clock , by viewing the several pieces of it , and seeing how , when they are duely put together , the Spring or Weight sets one of the Wheels a work , and by that another , till by a fit Conse cution of the Motions of these and other parts , at length the Index comes to point at the right Hour of the Day : The Man , if he be wise , will be well enough satisfied with this knowledge of the Cause of the propos'd Effect , without troubling himself to examine , whether a Notional Philosopher will call the time-measuring Instrument , an Ens per se , or an Ens per accidens ? And whether it performs its Operations by virtue of an internal Principle , such as the Spring of it ought to be ? or of an external one , such as one may think the appended Weight ? And , as he , that cannot , by the Mechanical affections of the parts of the Universal matter , explicate a Phaenomenon , will not be much help'd to understand , how the Effect is produc'd , by being told , that Nature did it : So , if he can explain it Mechanically , he has no more need to think , or ( unless for brevity's sake ) to say , that Nature brought it to pass , than he , that observes the Motions of a Clock , has to say , that 't is not the Engine , but 't is Art , that shews the Hour ; whereas , without considering that general and uninstructive Name , he sufficiently understands how the parts , that make up the Engine , are determin'd by their Construction , and the Series of their Motions , to produce the Effect that is brought to pass . When the lower end of a Reed , being dipp'd , for Instance , in Milk or Water , he that holds it , does cover the upper end with his Lips , and fetches his Breath , and hereupon the Liquor flows into his Mouth : We are told , that Nature raiseth it to prevent a Vacuum , and this way of raising it , is call'd Suction ; but , when this is said , the word Nature does but furnish us with a short Term , to express a concourse of several Causes ; and so does in other Cases , but what the Word Suction does in this . For neither the one , nor the other , helps us to conceive , how this , seemingly spontaneous , Ascension of a heavy Liquor is effected ; which they that know , that the outward Air is a heavy fluid , and gravitates , or presses , more upon the other parts of the Liquor , than the Air , contained in the Reed , ( which is rarefy'd by the Dilatation of the Sucker's Thorax ) does upon the included part of the Surface , will readily apprehend , that the smaller pressure will be surmounted by the greater , and , consequently yield to the Ascension of the Liquor , which is , by the prevalent external pressure , impell'd up into the Pipe , and so into the Mouth , ( as I , among others , have elswhere fully made out . ) So that , according to this Doctrine , without recurring to Nature's Care , to prevent a Vacuum , one that had never heard of the Peripatetick Notions of Nature , or of Suction , might very well understand the mention'd Phaenomenon . And if afterwards he should be made acquainted with the receiv'd Opinions , and Forms of Speech , us'd on this occasion , he would think , that so to ascribe the Effect to Nature , is needless , if not also erroneous ; and that the common Theory of Suction can afford him nothing , but a compendious Term , to express , at once the Concourse of the Agents , that make the Water ascend . How far , I think , these extravagant Reasonings may be admitted , you will be enabled to discern , by what you will hereafter meet with , relating to the same Subjects , in the VII . Section of this Discourse . And therefore , returning now to the rise of this Digression , namely , That 't is not unlike you may expect , I should , after the Vulgar Notion of Nature , that I lately mention'd , without acquiescing in it , substitute some Definition or Description of Nature , as Mine : I hope you will be pleas'd to remember , that the Design of this Paper was , to examine the Vulgar Notion of Nature , not propose a new one of my own . And indeed the Ambiguity of the Word is so great , and 't is , even by Learned Men , usually employ'd to signifie such different things ; that , without enumerating & distinguishing its various Acceptions , 't were very unsafe to give a Definition of it , if not impossible to deliver one that would not be liable to Censure . I shall not therefore presume to Define a thing , of which there is yet no settled and stated Notion agreed on among Men. And yet , that I may , as far as I dare , comply with your couriosity , I shall tell you , that if I were to propose a Notion , as less unfit than any I have met with , to pass for the principal Notion of Nature , with regard to which , many Axioms and Expressions , relating to that Word , may be not inconveniently understood , I should distinguish between the universal , and the particular Nature of Things . And , of universal Nature , the Notion , I would offer , should be some such as this , That Nature is the Aggregate of the Bodies , that make up the World , framed as it is , considered as a Principle , by virtue whereof , they Act and Suffer according to the Laws of Motion , prescrib'd by the Author of Things . Which Desrciption may be thus Paphras'd , That Nature , in general , is , The Result of the Vniversal Matter , or Corporeal Substance of the Vniverse , considered as it is contrived into the present Structure and Constitution of the World , whereby all the Bodies , that compose it , are inabled to act upon , and fitted to suffer from , one another , according to the setled Laws of Motion . I expect , that this Description will appear Prolix , and require to be heedfully perus'd : But the Intricateness and Importance of the Subject hindred me from making it shorter , and made me chuse rather to presume upon your Attention , that not endeavour to express my self intelligibly and warily , about a Subject of such moment . And this will make way for the other ( Subordinate ) Notion , that is to attend the former Description : Since the particular Nature , of an Individual Body , consists in the general Nature , apply'd to a distinct portion of the Vniverse . Or rather , supposing it to be plac'd , as it is , in a World , fram'd by God , like Ours , it consists in a Convention of the Mechanical affections ( such as Bigness , Figure , Order , Scituation , Contexture , and Local Motion ) of its parts , ( whether sensible or insensible ) convenient and sufficient to constitute in , or to entitle to , its particular Species or Denominations , the particular Body they make up , as the Concourse of all these is considered as the Principle of Motion , Rest , and Changes , in that Body . If you will have me give to these two Notions more compendious Expessions , now that , by what hath been said , I presume , you apprehend my Meaning ; I shall express , what I call'd General Nature , by Cosmical Mechanism , that is , a Comprisal of all the Mechanical Affections ( Figure , Size , Motion , &c. ) that belong to the matter of the great System of the Universe . And , to denote the Nature of this or that Particular Body , I shall style it , the Private , the Particular , or ( if you please ) the Individual Mechanism of That Body ; or , for Brevity's sake , barely the Mechanism of it , that is , the Essential . Modification , if I may so speak , by which , I mean , the Comprisal of all its Mechanical Affections conven'd in the Particular Body , consider'd , as 't is determinately plac'd , in a World so constituted , as Ours is . 'T is like , you will think it strange , that in this Description I should make the present Fabrick of the Vniverse , a Part , as it were , of the Notion I frame of Nature , though the generality of Philosophers , as well as other Men , speak of Her , as a plastick Principle of all the Mundane Bodies , as if they were Her Effects ; and therefore they usually call them , the Works of Nature ; and the Changes that are observ'd in them , the Phaenomena of Nature . But , for my part , I confess , I see no need to acknowledg any Architectonick Being , besides God , Antecedent to the first Formation of the World. The Peripateticks , whose School either devis'd , or mainly propagated , the Received Notion of Nature , conceiving ( not only Matter , but ) the World to be Eternal , might look upon it , as the Province , but could not , as the Work of Nature , which , in their Hypothesis , is its Guardian , without having been its Architect . The Epicureans themselves , that would refer all things , that are done in the World , to Nature , cannot , according to their Principles , make what they now call Nature , to have been Antecedent to the first Formation of our present World. For , according to their Hypothesis , whilst their numberless Atoms wildly rov'd in their infinite Vacuity , they had nothing belonging to them , but Bigness , Figure and Motion : And 't was by the Coalition , or Convention of these Atoms , that the World had its Beginning . So that , according to them , it was not Nature , but Chance , that Fram'd the World ; though afterwards , this Original Fabrick of things , does , by virtue of its Structure , and the innate and unloseable motive power of Atoms , continue things in the same state for the main ; & this course , though casually fallen into , & continued without Design , is that , which , according to their Hypothesis , ought to pass for Nature . And , as meer Reason doth not oblige me to acknowledge such a Nature , as we call in Question , Antecedent to the Origin of the World ; so neither do I find , that any Revelation , contain'd in the Holy Scriptures , clearly teaches , that there was then such a Being . For , in the History of the Creation , 't is expresly said , that In the beginning God made the Heavens and the Earth ; and , in the whole Account that Moses gives of the progress of it , there is not a word of the Agency of Nature ; and , at the later end , when God is introduc'd , as making a re-view of all the Parts of the Universe , 't is said , that God saw every thing that he had made ; and 't is soon after added , that He blessed and sanctified the Seventh Day , because , in it , ( or rather , just before it , as I find the Hebrew Particle elsewhere us'd , ) He had rested from all his Works , which God created and made . And tho' there be a passage in the Book of Iob , that , probably enough , argues the Angels ( there call'd , the Sons of God ) to have existed , either at the beginning of the first Day 's Work , or some time before it ; yet 't is not there so much as intimated , that they were Co-operators , with their Maker , in the Framing of the World , of which they are represented as Spectators and Applauders , but not so much as Instruments . But since Revelation , as much as I always reverence it , is , I confess , a Foreign Principle in this Philosophical Enquiry , I shall wave it here , and tell you , That , when I consult only the Light of Reason , I am inclin'd to apprehend the First Formation of the World , after some such manner as this . I think it probable , ( for I would not Dogmatize on so weighty , and so difficult a Subject , ) that the Great and Wise Author of Things , did , when he first Form'd the universal and undistinguish'd matter , into the World , put its Parts into various Motions , whereby they were necessarily divided into numberless Portions of differing Bulks , Figures , and Scituations , in respect of each other . And that , by his Infinite Wisdom and Power , he did so guide and over-rule the Motions of these Parts , at the beginning of things , as that ( whether in a shorter or a longer time , Reason cannot well determine ) they were finally dispos'd into that Beautiful and Orderly Frame , we call the World ; among whose Parts some were so curiously contriv'd , as to be fit to become the Seeds , or Seminal Principles , of Plants and Animals . And I further conceive , that he setled such Laws or Rules , of Local Motion , among the Parts of the Universal Matter , that by his ordinary and preserving Concourse , the several Parts of the Universe , thus once completed , should be able to maintain the great Construction , or System and Oeconomy , of the Mundane Bodies , and propagate the Species of Living Creatures . So that , according to this Hypothesis , I suppose no other Efficient of the Universe , but God himself , whose Almighty Power , still accompanied with his Infinite Wisdom , did at first Frame the Corporeal World , according to the Divine Idea's , which he had , as well most freely , as most wisely , determin'd to conform them to . For , I think , it is a Mistake to imagine , ( as we are wont to do ) that what is call'd , the Nature of this or that Body , is wholly compris'd in its own Matter , and its ( I say not Substantial , but ) Essential Form ; as if from that , or these only , all its Operations must flow . For an Individual Body , being but a Part of the World , and incompass'd with other Parts of the same great Automaton , needs the Assistance , or Concourse , of other Bodies , ( which are external Agents ) to perform divers of its Operations , and exhibit several Phaenomena's , that belong to it . This would quickly and manifestly appear , if , for Instance , an Animal or an Herb could be remov'd into those Imaginary Spaces , the School-men tell us of , beyond the World ; or into such a place , as the Epicureans fancy their Intermundia , or empty Intervals , between those numerous Worlds , their Master dream'd of . For , whatever the Structures of these living Engines be , they would as little , without the Co-operations of external Agents ; such as the Sun , Aether , Air , &c. be able to exercise their Functions , as the great Mills , commonly us'd with us , would be to Grind Corn , without the assistance of Wind or running Water . Which may be thought the more credible , if it be considered , that by the meer Exclusion of the Air , ( tho' not of Light , or the Earth's Magnetical Effluvia , &c. ) procur'd by the Air-pump , Bodies plac'd in an extraordinary large Glass , will presently come into so differing a state , that warm Animals cannot live in it ; nor flame ( tho' of pure Spirit of Wine ) burn ; nor Syringes draw up Water ; nor Bees , or such winged Insects , fly ; nor Caterpillars crawl ; nay , nor Fire run along a train of dryed Gunpowder : All which I speak upon my own experience . According to the foregoing Hypothesis , I consider the frame of the World already made , as a Great , and , if I may so speak , Pregnant Automaton , that , like a Woman with Twins in her Womb , or a Ship furnish'd with Pumps , Ordnance , &c. is such an Engine as comprises , or consists of , several lesser Engines . And this Compounded Machine , in conjunction with the Laws of Motion , freely establish'd and still maintain'd , by God among its Parts ; I look upon as a Complex Principle , whence results the setled Order , or Course , of things Corporeal . And that which happens according to this course , may , generally speaking , be said to come to pass according to Nature , or to be done by Nature , and that which thwarts this Order may be said to be Preternatural , or contrary to Nature . And indeed , though Men talk of Nature as they please , yet whatever is done among things Inanimate , which make incomparably the greatest part of the Universe , is really done but by particular Bodies , acting on one another by Local Motion , Modifi'd by the other Mechanical Affections of the Agent , of the Patient , and of those other Bodies , that necessarily concur to the Effect , or the Phaenomenon produc'd . N. B. Those , that do not relish the knowledg of the Opinions and Rights of the Ancient Iews and Heathens , may pass on to the next or V. Section , and skip the whole following Excursion , compris'd between double Paratheses's , which , though neither impertinent nor useless to the scope of this Treatise , is not absolutely necessary to it . [ In the foregoing ( III. ) Section of this Treatise , I hope I have given a sufficient Reason of my backwardness to make frequent use of the Word Nature , and now , in this ( IV. ) Section , having laid down such a Description , of Nature , as shews that her Votaries represent her as a Goddess , or at least a Semi-Deity : 'T will not be improper in this place , to declare some of the Reasons of my dissatisfaction with the Notion or Thing it self , as well as with the use of the Name ; and to shew , why I am not willing to comply with those Many , that would impose it upon us as very friendly to Religion . And these reasons I shall the rather propose , because not only the Generality of other Learned Men , ( as I just now intimated ) but that of Divines themselves , for want of Information , or for some other cause , seem not to have well consider'd so weighty a matter . To manifest therefore the Malevolent Aspect , that the Vulgar Notion of Nature has had , and therefore possibly may have , on Religion ; I think fit , in a general way , to premise , what things they are , which seem to me to have been the Fundamental Errors , that mis-led the Heathen World , as well Philosophers as others . For , if I mistake not , the looking upon meerly Corporeal , and oftentimes Inanimate Things , as if they were endow'd with Life , Sense , and Understanding ; and the ascribing to Nature , and some other Beings , ( whether real or imaginary ) things that belong but to God , have been some , ( if not the chief ) of the Grand Causes of the Polytheism and Idolatry of the Gentiles . The most Ancient Idolatry , ( taking the word in its laxer sense ) or at least one of the earliest , seems to have been the Worship of the Coelestial Lights , especially the Sun and Moon : That kind of Aboda zara , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as the Iewish Writers call strange or false Worships ) being the most Natural , as having for its Objects , Glorious Bodies , Immortal , always regularly mov'd , and very beneficial to Men. There is Recorded , in the Holy Scripture , a Passage of Iob , who is probably reputed to be , at least , as Antient as Moses , which seems to argue , that this Worship , of the two great Luminaries , was practis'd in his time , and look'd upon as Criminal by Religious Men , and , as our English Version renders the Hebrew Words , Punishable by the Civil Magistrate . If , says Iob , I beheld the Sun when it shined , or the Moon walking in brightness : And my heart hath been secretly inticed , or my mouth hath kiss'd my hand , &c. Iob xxxi . 26 , 27. And that this Idolatry was practis'd in Moses's time , may be gather'd from that Passage in Deuteromy . And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto Heaven , & when thou seest the Sun , & the Moon , and the Stars , even all the Host of Heaven . shouldst be driven to worship them , & serve them , &c. Deut. 4. 19. The Sabaeans , or , as many Criticks call them , the Zabians , are by some very Learned Men thought to have been the earliest Idolaters : And the ablest of the Iewish Rabbies , Maimonides , makes them to be so Antient , that Abraham was put to Dispute against them . And their Superstition had so over-spread the East , in Moses's time , that the same Maimonides judiciously observes , that divers of the Ceremonial Laws , given to the Iews , were instituted in opposition to the Idolatrous Opinions , Magical Rites , and other Superstititions , of these Zabians . Of this , he ( seconded therein by our Famous Selden ) gives several Instances ; to which , some are added by the Learned Hottinger . But this only upon the By ; my purpose , in mentioning these Zabians , being to observe to you , that they look'd upon the Planets , and especially the Sun and Moon , as Gods , & Worshipp'd them accordingly , taking them for Intelligent Beings , that had a great Interest in the Government of the World. This may be prov'd out of some Eastern Writers , especially Maimonides , who , in one place , asserts the Zabians to have Ador'd the Sun and Moon , and the Host of Heaven , ( as the Scripture styles the Coelestial Lights ) as true Gods. And this we shall the less wonder at , if we consult another place of the same Learned Author , where he informs the Readers , that these Idolaters ( the Zabians or Chaldaeans ) made Statues of Silver and Gold , those for the Sun , and these for the Moon ; which , being Consecrated by certain Rites and Ceremonies , did invite , and , as it were , attract the Spirits of these Stars into those Shrines : Whence they would speak to their Worshippers , acquaint them with things Profitable , and even Predict to them things to come . And of some such sort of speaking-Images , some learned Criticks suppose the Teraphim ( as the Original Text calls them ) to have been , that Laban so priz'd , as to call them his Gods : Which 't is guess'd Rachel stole from her Father , lest , by consulting them , he might learn what way her Husband and his Company had taken in their flight . And the same great Rabbi , having inform'd his Readers that he saw several Books of the Zabian Superstition , somewhere mentions one or two , that treated of speaking-Images . And 't was perhaps from these Zabians , or their Disciples , that Zeno , the Founder of the Stoical Sect , taught , as Stobaeus informs us , that the Sun , Moon , and the rest of the Stars were indow'd with Understanding and Prudence . And Seneca , an eminent Champion of that rigid Sect , * reprehends Epicurus and Anaxagoras , ( whose Disciple he was in that Opinion ) that they held the Sun to be a burning Stone , or an aggregate of Casual Fires , and any thing rather than a God. I am sorry , I could not avoid thinking the Great Hippocrates , to have been involv'd in the great Error we are speaking of , when in his Book De Principiis aut carnibus , near the beginning , I met with this Passage . Videtur sane mihi id , quod ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) calidum vocamus , immortale esse , & cuncta intelligere & videre , & audire & scire omnia , tum praesentia tum futura . According to which Supposition , he presently attempts to give some such Account of the Origin of the World's Frame , as he could in a very few lines ; and then spends the rest of the Book , in giving particular Accounts , how the Parts of the Human Body come to be Fram'd , wherein , though I commend the Attempt in general , because , without acquiescing in I know not what Faculties , he endeavours to give an intelligible and particular Account , how things come to be perform'd and produc'd ; yet I cannot but look on this Book , as a Remarkable Instance of this Truth , that , without having recourse to the True God , a satisfactory Account cannot be given of the Original or Primitive Production of the Greater and Lesser World , since so great a Naturalist as Hippocrates , by the help of his Idoliz'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , was unable to perform this Task , with any satisfaction to an Attentive and Intelligent Enquirer . And Galen himself , who was not unacquainted with Moses's Writings , and liv'd where Christianity was propagated thro' a great Part of the World ; Galen , I say , even in that admirable Treatise , De usu Partium , where he so excellently Declares and Celebrates the most Wise Author of Things , was so far transported with the Errour , which infected so many other Heathen Philosophers , that he Phancied the Earth itself , though he speaks contemptibly of it , had a certain Soul or Mind , imparted to it by the Superior Bodies , which , he saith , is so conspicuous , first in the Sun , next in the Moon , and afterwards in the other Stars ; that by their Beauty the Contemplator will be induc'd to think it reasonable , that the more pure their Corporeal Substance is , 't is inhabited by a Mind , so much the better and more perfect , than that of these Terrestial Bodies . And having spoken of the reasoning Nature , that shin'd in Plato , Aristotle , Hipparchus , Archimedes , &c. He thus infers . Si igitur in tanta colluvie ( quo enim alio nomine quis appellet id quod ex carne , sanguine , pituita , ac bile utraque est conflatum ) mens gignatur , adeo eximia & excellens ; quantam ejusdem putandum est esse excellentiam in Sole , Luna , allisque etiam Sideribus ? ( to which he subjoins ) Mihi quidem , dum haec mecum voluto , non exigua quaedam mens talis , per ipsum etiam nos Aerem ambientem , esse extensa videtur . Fieri enim non potest , quum lucis ipsius Solis sit particeps , quin vim etiam ab ipso assumat . But this upon the By. Nor did this Opinion , of the Divinity of the Coelestial Bodies , die with the Zabians , or the Greek Philosophers . For I found , by some Questions I propos'd to an Inquisitive Person , who , having liv'd many years in China and several of the Neighbouring Kingdoms , had acquired Skill enough in the Tongues to converse with the Natives ; I found , I say , that in a solemn Conference he had with some of the more Eminent and Philosophical Doctors of the Chineses Religion , they frankly profest , that they Believe the Heavenly Bodies to be truely Divine , and to be Worshipp'd , and that upon this particular Ground , That they imparted to Men such good things , as Light , Heat , Rain , &c. and the Productions and Consequences of these . And this Belief they declar'd , they thought more Rational , than that of the Europeans , who Worship a Deity , whose neither Shape , nor Colour , nor Motion , nor Efficacy on Sublunary things , were at all visible . It agrees very well with the Opinion of the Ancient Greeks , who , as Origen relates , call'd the Sun , Moon , and the Stars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Conspicuous and Sensible Gods. And we are taught by Eusebius , that the Ancient Aegyptian Theologizers , whose Religion was neer of kin to that of the Chaldeans , if not borrow'd of it , look'd upon the Sun and Moon , whom they Worshipp'd under the Names of Osiris and Isis , not only as the Chief Gods , but as the Makers and Governours of much , if not of all , of the rest of the Universe . I will not here enquire , whether these Old Heathen Philosophers did , besides the Stars and other Beings , that they ador'd as Gods , Believe one only Numen or Supream Deity . But that may suffice for my present purpose , which seems manifest , viz. that they ascrib'd to Sensible Beings , Attributes peculiar to the True God ; that this was occasion'd by their thinking them Intelligent and Governing , and that these Inferiour Beings were , by far , the most usual and familiar Objects both of their Discourses and their Worship , and that they did ( to use the Phrase of the Apostle of the Gentiles ) Worship the Creature besides , or more than , ( for the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie either ) the Creator , who by Moses , the Prophets , and the Apostles , expresly declares a dislike of this Worship , and even in that more specious and seemingly excuseable kind of it , which was in use among the Ten Tribes , that Profess'd , and perhaps Believ'd , their Worship to be directed to the one Supream God , and him the true God of Israel . But this also upon the By. This Belief , that the World and divers of its Principal Parts , as the Sun , Moon , Stars , &c. were animated and endowed with Intelligent Minds , was so Contagious , that , not only it help'd to seduce the Emperor Iulian from Christianity to Heathenism , ( insomuch that He gives the Sun solemn Thanks for His Advancement to the Roman Monarchy ; ) but it infected very Learned Men among the Iews and Christians . Of the former , I shall need to name but two ; the first being the Famousest and Judiciousest of the Ancienter Rabbins , Maimonides , in whom , I confess , I wonder'd to find this Assertion , That the Sun and Stars were animated Beings , endow'd with Understanding and Will : And the other , being-reputed the Chief and the most Learned of the Moderns , Menasseh Ben Israel , ( with whom I have Convers'd at Amsterdam ) who in his Problems , De Creatione ; hath this notable Passage . — Quod de Intelligentiis tradunt id vero mera Fabula est ; nam Coeli , secundum Rabbi Mosem , & rei veritatem , habent animas proprias rationali vita praeditas , sicut alibi à me demonstrabitur . And a Greater Man than Maimonides , Origen himself , among the Christians , not only in one place adventures to say , Siquidem etiam Coelestes Stellae Animalia sunt Rationalia , virtute praedit● illustrata Cognitionis Lumine , à S●●●entia illa quae est Splendor aeterni Luminis ; but in another proceeds so far , that I found ( not without surprize ) that He says , The Christians sing Hymns to God the Lord of all , and God the Word ; no otherwise than do the Sun , Moon , and Stars , and the whole Heavenly Host , since all these , being a Heavenly Quire , do with just Men celebrate the Supream God , and his only Begotten [ Son. ] The Boldness of these unjustified Paradoxes I the the less wonder at , when I consider , what has for many Ages been taught by the School Philosophers , from Aristotle ; namely , that the Coelestial Spheres had their peculiar Intelligences , that is , Rational , Immortal , Powerful and Active Beings . 'T is true , that in the Jews and Christians , I have been speaking of ; the malignity of the Error , they embrac'd , was Corrected and Master'd by the sound and Orthodox Principles they held together with it . But still 't is dangerous for those , that would be Loyal to Him , that styles himself a Iealous God , to Adopt Premises that have been able to Mis-lead such Great Persons , and from which many Famous Philosophers have plausibly enough drawn Consequences very repugnant to true Religion . Nor are Christians themselves so much out of danger of being seduc'd by these Heathenish Notions , about an Intelligent World , but that ( not again to mention the Apostate Emperor ) even in these times there is lately sprung up a Sect of Men , as well professing Christianity , as pretending to Philosophy ; who ( if I be not mis-inform'd of their Doctrine ) do very much symbolize with the Ancient Heathens , and talk much indeed of God , but mean such a One , as is not really distinct from the Animated and Intelligent Universe ; but is , on that account , very differing from the True God , that we Christians Believe and Worship . And , though I find the Leaders of this Sect to be look'd upon , by some more Witty than Knowing Men , as the Discoverers of unheard of Mysteries in Physicks and Natural Theology ; yet their Hypothesis does not at all appear to me to be new , especially when I remember , besides the Passages of the Ancients , cited in this Paper , some others of the same Import , such as is particularly that of Lucan . Estque Dei sedes , ubi Terra , & Pontus , & Aer , Et Coelum , & Virtus : Superos quid quaerimus ultra ? Iupiter est quodcunque vides , quocunque moveris . The great Affinity between the Soul of the World , so much talk'd of among the Heathen Philosophers , and the thing that Men call Nature , makes it fit for me to take notice , in this place , of the Influence which the Belief of that Imaginary Soul had upon the Gentiles with reference to Religion . That divers of the Ancient Philosophers held the World to be Animated , hath been observed by more than one Learned Man. But that which makes more for my present purpose , is , that the same Old Sages did also ( at least for the most part ) Believe , that this Mundane Soul was not barely a Living , but a most Intelligent and wisely Active Being . This may be easily enough discerned by him , that shall heedfully peruse Diogenes Laertius's Lives of the Philosophers , and particularly of Zeno. But at present I shall rather make use of an Author , who , though he be very seldom cited for Philosophical History , seems to me to have been very well vers'd in it . The Writer I mean , is the Acute Sceptick Sextus Empiricus , ( who is thought to have lived about Plutarch's time , and by some , to have been his Nephew ; ) who recites a long Ratiocination of Xenophon , which , whether it be solid or not , is at least ingenious and plausible , but too prolix to be Transcrib'd in this place , where it may suffice to say , that he thus concludes : Est ergo Mundus mente praeditus & Intelligens , &c. which Assertion Sextus himself thus proposes for him ; Si non esset aliqua Mens in Mundo , neque ulla Mens in te esset . Est autem in te Mens aliqua ; ergo est etiam in Mundo . Et Ideo Mundus est Mente & Intelligentia praeditus . The same Sceptick introduces Zeno Cittiens . discoursing thus ; quod immittit semen ejus quod est particeps rationis , est ipsum quoque rationis particeps . Mundus autem emittit Semen ejus quod est particeps rationis ; est ergo Mundus rationis particeps . To which Testimonies I might add many others out of the same Author , who , in the same Discourse , tells us , That the Stoicks held the World to be an Animal . But the Opinion that the Old Philosophers , we have been speaking of , held of the World 's being endowed with an Understanding or Rational Soul , will be yet more evident by what I now proceed to alledge , to manifest how this Opinion of theirs led them to the Worship of another , than the True God. Sextus Empiricus , in the lately cited Discourse of Xenophon , infers from the Worlds being an Intelligent Being , that it is also a Divine One ; for to the lately recited Conclusion , Est ergo Mundus mente praeditus & intelligens , he immediately subjoins this Other , Et ideo Deus . And alittle after , repeating their Discourse that defended this Argumentation of Xenophon against an Objection , he concludes their Reasoning thus ; Ideo Mundus est mente & Intelligentia praeditus : Cum sit autem Mente & Intelligentia praeditus , est etiam Deus . Quemadmodum ( says also Phurnutus the Philosopher , ) nos anima gubernamur , sic & Mundus animam habet , quae vindicet illum ab interitu ; & haec vocatur Iupiter . To which agrees that in Cicero's Academick Questions ; Mundum esse sapientem , & habere mentem , quae seipsam Fabricata sit , & omnia moderatur , regat . And the Reasoning of the Stoicks in St. Augustin is very ryclear to the same purpose ; * Dicunt ( saith he , speaking of the Embracers of that Sect ) omnia Sidera partes Iovis esse , & omnia vivere atque rationales animas habere , & ideo sine Controversia Deos esse . And Socrates is introduc'd by Aristophanes , as no less than Invocating the Air and the Aether together , in these words . O Rex , O Imperator , Aer vaste , quae Terram contines suspensam , Nec non splendide Aether . Which brings into my Mind that plain Confession of the Poet Manilius . Qua pateat , Mundum divino Numine verti , Atque ipsum esse Deum . To all these I shall add that notable and express Passage of the Elder Pliny ; † Mundum & hoc quod alio nomine Coelum appellare libuit , cujus circumflexu teguntur omnia , Numen esse credi par est , aeternum , immensum , neque genitum , neque interiturum unquam . Sacer est , aeternus , immensus , totus in toto , vero ipse totum , finitus & infinito similis , extra , intra , cuncta complexus in se , idemque Naturae opus , & rerum ipsa Natura . If it be objected , that the Passages , I have cited out of Heathen Philosophers , concern the Soul of the World , and not Nature ; I Answer , that the Affinity of these Two is so great , that divers of the Old Sages seem to have confounded them , and not to have made account of any other Vniversal Nature , than the Soul of the World. And however , the great and pernicious Errors they were led into , by the Belief that the Universe itself , and many of its nobler Parts , besides Men , were endowed , not only with Life , but Understanding and Providence , may suffice to make us Christians very Jealous of admitting such a Being , as that which Men venerate under the Name of Nature : Since they ascribe to it as many wonderful Powers and Prerogatives , as the Idolaters did to their Ador'd Mundane Soul. But I shall give a further Answer to the above propos'd Objection , if I can shew , how Sacrilegiously they abus'd the Being we are speaking of , as well under the very Name of Nature , as under that of the Soul of the World. On this occasion I remember a Passage in * Seneca , that I did not expect to meet with , where , speaking of some Ethnick Opinions about Thunder , Non Iovem , ( says he ) qualem in Capitolio colimus , fulmina mittere , sed custodem rectoremque Vniversi , animam ac Spiritum Mundani hujus Operis Dominum & Artificem , cui nomen omne convenit . To which , within a few lines after , he adds , Vis illam Naturam vocare ? Non peccabis , est enim ex quo nata sunt omnia , cujus Spiritu vivimus . Vis illam vocare Mundum ? Non falleris , ipse enim est totum quid , totus suis partibus inditus & se sustinens vi sua . And the same Author elsewhere , Nihil ( says he ) Natura sine Deo est , nec Deus sine Natura , sed idem est Vterque . And , in another of the Roman Sages , we have this Passage ; Natura est Igitur quae continet Mundum omnem , eumque tuetur , & quidem non sine sensu ac ratione . And the Opinion , not of a Private Philosopher , but of the Sect of Stoicks , is thus delivered by Lactantius : Isti uno Naturae nomine res diversissimas comprehenderunt , Deum & Mundum , Artificem & Opus , dicunique alterum sine altero nihil posse , tanquam Natura sit Deus Mundo permistus . Nam inter dum sic confundunt , ut sit Deus ipsa mens Mundi , & Mundus sit Corpus Dei ; quasi vero simul esse caeperint Mundus & Deus . And , to let you see , that in this our Free Enquiry , I do not , without Cause , here and there style Nature sometimes a Semi-Deity , and sometimes a Goddess , and talk of some Mens Idolizing Her ; I shall here annex part of a Hymn of Orpheus's , address'd immediately to Nature . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. which his Interpreter thus renders into Latin ; O Natura omnium Mater Dea , artificiosa admodum Dea , Suscitatrix honorabilis , multa creans , Divina Regina , Omnidomans , indomita gubernatrix , ubique splendens . And after a few Lines ; Aetheria , Terrestiis , & Marina Regina , &c. I know Aristotle , and his Commentators , do not so directly Idolize Nature , as did Orpheus ( or whoever was the Antient Author of the Hymns , that bear his Name ; ) but yet I doubt they pass further than they can justifie , when they so freely and often assert , that Natura est sapientissima , that Opus Naturae est opus Intelligentiae , that Natura fine suo nunquam excidit , that Natura semper quod optimum est facit , ( to which may be added other-like Axioms : ) And when they most commonly call the Works of God , the Works of Nature , and mention Him and her together , not as a Creator and a Creature , but as two Co-ordinate Governors , like the two Roman Consuls ; as when they say frequently , and without scruple , ( what I find to have been first by Aristotle himself ) ▪ that Deus & Natura nihil faciunt frustra ; to which Phrase may agree that Expression of Ovid , where , speaking of the Chaos , whilst the Bodies , that compos'd it , lay shuffled together , and were not yet pack'd , he says , Hanc Deus & melior litem Natura diremit . To the recital of the Irreligious Errors of the Ancient Heathens , about the Divinity of the World , and some of its Principal Parts , as the Sun , Moon , Stars , Aether , &c. I should add a redargution of them ; if I thought it necessary , in this place , solemnly to refute Opinions , some of which are altogether precarious , and others very improbable . Those Greek and Latin Philosophers , that held the Sun to be a Fire , were much at a loss to find out Fuel to maintain the Flame . But those Zabians and Chaldeans that thought him indow'd , not only with a living Soul , but with Understanding and Will , must , if they had duly consider'd things , have ben much more puzzled , to find not only Food for so vast a Body , ( above 160 times bigger than the Terraqueous Globe ) but to find in him the Organs necessary to the preparation and digestion of that Food , and to the other Functions that belong to Animal-Nutrition . And , if we admit the Cartesian Hypothesis , the Way whereby the Sun , fix'd Stars , and Planets , are Generated , will sufficiently manifest them to be neither Intelligent nor Living Bodies . And , perhaps , I could here propose a quite other Hypothesis , about the Nature of the Sun , and the Fuel of its Fire , that may be countenanc'd by some Phaenomena and Experiments , without making him other than an Igneous , and altogether Inanimate Body , whose Flame needs to be repair'd by Fuel furnish'd to it nearer hand , than from the Sea or Earth . But I purposely omit such Objections against the Opinion I oppose , as , though drawn from the Dictates of sound Philosophy , about the Origine of things , may be question'd without being to be clear'd in few words . 'T is also without proof , that 't is presum'd and asserted , That the Coelestial Bodies , newly mention'd , are indow'd with Understanding and Prudence , especially , so as to be able to know the particular Conditions and Transactions of Men , and hear and grant the Prayers of their Worshippers . And the Moon , which was one of their Principal Deities , and by them prefer'd before all the other Planets and Stars , the Sun excepted , is so Rude and Mountainous a Body , that 't is a wonder that Speculative Men , who consider'd how many , how various , and how noble Functions belong to a sensitive Soul , could think , a Lump or Mass of Matter , so very remote from being fitly Organiz'd , should be Animated and Govern'd by a true living & sensitive Soul. I know that both these Deifiers of the Coelestial Globes , and also the Heathen Disciples of Aristotle , besides divers of the same mind , even among the Christians , say great and lofty things of the Quintessential Nature of the Heavenly Bodies , and their consequent Incorruptibility ; of the Regularity of their Motions , and of their Divine Quality of Light , that makes them refulgent . But the persuasion they had , of this Quintessential Nature of the Superior Part of the World , was not , if I guess aright , grounded upon any solid Physical Reason , but was entertain'd by them for its Congruity to the Opinion they had of the Divinity of the Coelestial Bodies : Of which , Aristotle himself , especially in his Books De Coelo , speaks in such a way , as hath not a little contributed , among his Followers ; to such an excessive Veneration for those Bodies , as is neither agreeable to true Philosophy , nor friendly to true Religion . He himself takes notice , that the Pythagoreans held our Earth to be One of the Planets , and that it moved about the Sun , which they plac'd in the middle of the World. And since this Hypothesis , of the Earths Motion , was in the last Age reviv'd by Copernicus , not only those great Men Keplerus , Galileo , and Gassendus , but most of the best Modern Astronomers ; and , besides Des-Cartes and his Sect , many other Naturalists have imbrac'd this Hypothesis : Which , indeed , is far more agreeable to the Phaenomena , not only than the Doctrine of Aristotle , ( who was plainly mistaken about the Order and Consistence of the Heavens ) but than the Ancient and generally received Ptolomaick System . Now , supposing the Terraqueous Globe to be a Planet , he that considers , that 't is but a round Mass of very Heterogeneous Substances , ( as appears by the differing Natures of its great constituent Parts , Land and Sea ) whose Surface is very rude and uneven , and its Body opacous , unless as it happens to be inlightned by the the Sun , Moon , and Stars , and so very Inorganical for so much as Nutrition , that it seems wholly unfit to be a living Animal , much less a Rational one . I say , he that considers such things will scarce be forward to ascribe Understanding and Providence , much less a Divine Nature , to the other Stars . As for Instance , to the Moon , which our best Telescopes manifest to be a very Craggy and Mountainous Body , consisting of Parts of very differing Textures , ( as appears by her brighter Parts and permanent Spots ) and which of herself is Opacous , having no manifest Light , but what she borrows from the Sun , and perhaps from the Earth . As for the boasted Immutability of the Heavenly Bodies , besides that it may be very probably call'd in question by the Phaenomena of some ( for I do not say every one ) of the Comets , that by their Parallax were found to be above the Moon , and consequently in the Coelestial Region of the World ; besides this , I say , the Incorruptibleness and Immutability of the Heavenly Bodies is more than probably disproveable by the sudden and irregular Generation , Changes and Destruction , of the Spots of the Sun : Which are sometimes so suddenly destroyed , that , I remember , in the Year 1660. on the 8 th of May , having left in the Morning a Spot , whose Motions we had long observ'd through an excellent Telescope , with an expectation , that it would last many days visible to us , we were surpriz'd to find , that when we came to observe it again in the Evening , it was quite dissipated , though it seemed thick ; and by comparing it to the Sun , we estimated the extent of its Surface to be equal to that of all Europe . As to the constancy of the motions of the Stars ; if the Earth , which we know to be Inanimated , be a Planet , it moves as constantly and regularly about the Sun , ( in that which they call the Great Orb , ) as the other Planets do , or as the Moon doth about the Earth . And I consider , that though we should suppose our Globe not to be a Planet , yet there would manifestly be a constant motion , and Regular enough , of a great Part of it : Since ( bating some Anomali's , that Shores , Winds , and some other Extrinsick things , occasion , ) there is a Regular Ebbing and Flowing twice a Day , and also Spring-Tides twice a Month , of that vast Aggregate of Waters , the Ocean ; which perhaps is not inferior in Bulk to the whole Body of the Moon , and whereof also vast Tracts are sometimes observed to Shine . And Lastly , Whereas a great Proof of the Divinity of the Stars is taken from their Light ; though I grant it to be the noblest of Sensible Qualities , yet I cannot think it a good proof of the Divine , or very Excellent , Nature of Bodies endow'd with it , whether they be Coelestial or not . For whereas the Zabians and Chaldeans Consider'd and Ador'd the Planets , as the Chief Gods , our Telescopes discover to us , that , except the Sun , ( if he be one , rather than a Fix'd Star ) they Shine but by a borrow'd Light ; in so much that Venus , as vividly Luminous as it appears to the naked Eye , is sometimes seen ( as I have beheld it ) Horn'd like the Moon in no long time after her Change. And at this rate also the Earth , whether it be a Planet or no , is a Luminous Body , being enlightned by the Sun : And possibly , as a Body forty times bigger , communicates more Light to the Moon , than it receives from Her , as is probably Argued from the Light seen on the Surface of the Moon in some of Her Eclipses . And , though in the Night , when the darkness hath widened the Pupils of our Eyes , and the Moon Shines with an unrival'd Lustre , she seems exceeding Bright , yet she may be , for ought I know , more Opacous than the solid Part of the Terrestrial Globe . For I remember , that I have more than once heedfully observ'd a small Cloud in the West , where the Moon then was , about Sun-set ; and comparing them together , the little Cloud , as Opacous and Loose a Body as it was , reflected the Light as strongly to my Eye , as did the Moon , that seem'd perhaps to be not far from It , both of them appearing like little whitish Clouds , though afterwards , as the Sun descended lower and lower beneath the Horizon , the Moon grew more and more Luminous . And , speaking of Light Indfienitely , 't is so far from Arguing a Divine Nature in the Bodies that are endow'd with it , whether , as the Planets , by participation from an External Illuminant , or as the Sun , from an Internal Principle ; that a burn'd Stone , witness that of Bolonia , will afford , in proportion to its Bulk , incomparably more borrow'd Light than one of the Planets . And a Light from its Internal Constitution may be found , not only in such abject Creatures as Insects , whether winged , as the Cucupias of Hispaniola , or creeping , as our Glow-worms ; but also in Bodies Inanimate and Corrupted , as in rotten Wood , in stinking Whitings , and divers other putrify'd Fishes . I cannot now stay to Enquire , how the Zabians , and such Idolaters as they , could make out the Connexion , Symmetry , and Subordination or Dependance of the several Parts of the World , compos'd of so many different and distant Beings , endowed not only with Animal Souls , but with their Distinct and Peculiar Understandings and Wills , and many of them also with Divine Nature . Nor shall I consider , how strange a Monster , rather than an Animal and a Deity , those many Heathen Philosophers and their Adherents must make of the Universe , who held it to be but one ; and yet were of the Paradoxical Opinion , that ( as hath been elsewhere noted ) is roundly profess'd by Stobaeus , at the very beginning of his Physical Eclogues , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. i. e. Iupiter ( quidem ) totus Mundus est : Animal ex Animalibus ; Numen ex Numinibus compositum . These , I say , and the like Objections against the Pagan Doctrine , I must not now insist on , because I perceive that I have slipp'd into a somewhat long Digression , which yet perhaps may not be altogether unseasonable or useless , ) which therefore I shall here break off , to resume and conclude the Discourse , that this Section was allotted to , which I might easily have enlarg'd , but I presume there is enough said in it already , to let you see , that 't is a dangerous thing to Believe other Creatures , than Angels and Men , to be Intelligent and Rational ; especially to afcribe to any of them an Architectonick , Provident and Governing Power . And though I readily acknowledge , that that there is no great danger , that well Instructed Christians should , like some Heathens , Worship Nature as a Goddess ; yet the things I formerly alledg'd , to shew it unsafe to cherish Opinions , of kin to those that mis-led a Multitude even of Philosophers , make me fear too many , and not a few of the Learned themselves , may have a Veneration for what they call Nature , much greater than belongs to a meer Creature : If they do not , to use a Scripture Expresssion , Worship the Creature , above or besides the Creator , who , and not the World , nor the Soul of It , is the True God. And though I should grant , that the received Notion of Nature doth neither subvert , nor much endanger any Principle of Religion : Yet that is not enough for the purpose of those Naturists I Reason with , since they are here supposed to make it a fault in others , not to ascribe to the Nature they Venerate , as much as themselves do : And they represent their own Notion of it , not only as Innocent , but as very Useful , if not necessary to Religion . ] SECT . V. IV. I Come now , Eleutherius , to acquaint you with some of the Reasons , that have made me backward to entertain such a Notion of Nature , as I have hitherto Discours'd of . And I shall at present comprise them under the following five . I. The first whereof , is , That such a Nature , as we are speaking of , seems to me to be either asserted , or assum'd without sufficient Proof . And this single Reason , if it be well made out , may , I think , suffice for my turn . For , in matters of Philosophy , where we ought not to take up any thing upon Trust , or believe it without Proof , 't is enough to keep us from believing a thing , That we have no positive Argument to induce us to assent to it , though we have no particular Arguments against it . And , if this Rule be to take place in lesser Cases , sure it ought to hold in this , where we are to entertain the belief of so Catholick an Agent , that all the others are look'd upon but as its Instruments , that act in subordination to it ; and which , being said to have an immediate Agency in many of the Phaenomena of the World , cannot but be suppos'd to be Demonstrable by divers of them . I have yet met with no Physical Arguments , either Demonstrative , or so much as considerably Probable , to evince the Existence of the Nature , we examin . And , though I should admit the use , that some Divines contend for , of the Holy Scriptures in Philosophical Controversies , yet I should not be persuaded of the Existence of the Nature , we Dispute of . For , I do not remember , that the Scripture any where declares to us , that there is such a thing , ( in the sense by me question'd ) though ( as I formerly noted more fully in the IV. Section , ) in Genesis and some other places , where the Corporeal Works of God are expresly treated of , ( though in order to Spiritual ends ) one might probably enough expect to find some mention of God's Grand Vicegerent in the Universe of Bodies , if he had establish'd any such . But , whatever be the true cause of the Scriptur's silence about this matter , the silence itself is sufficient to justifie me , for examining freely , by Reason , a thing that is not impos'd on my belief by Revelation . And , as for the Physical Arguments that may be brought in favour of the question'd Notion of Nature , I shall , e're long , examine the Principal of them , and shew that they are not Convincing . To these things may be added , as to the Proof drawn from the General Opinion about Nature , That , being a Popular , not a Physical Argument , it may indeed pass for currant with the Vulgar , but ought not to do so with Philosophers . II. The second Reason is taken from the Unnecessariness of such a Nature , as is pretended . For , since a great part of the Work of true Philosophers has been , to reduce the Principles of things to the smallest Number they can , without making them insufficient ; I see not , why we should take in a Principle , of which we have no need . For , supposing the common Matter of all Bodies to have been at first divided into innumerable minute Parts , by the Wise Author of Nature , and these Parts to have been so dispos'd of , as to form the World , constituted as it now is ; and especially , supposing that the Vniversal Laws of Motion , among the Parts of the Matter , have been establish'd , and several Conventions of Particles contrived into the Seminal Principles of various things ; all which may be effected by the meer Local Motion of Matter , ( not left to itself , but skilfully guided at the beginning of the World ) if ( I say ) we suppose these things , together with God's ordinary and general Concourse , which we very reasonably may : I see not , why the same Phaenomena , that we now observe in the World , should not be produc'd , without taking in any such Powerful and Intelligent Being , distinct from God , as Nature is represented to be . And , 'till I see some Instance produc'd to the contrary , I am like to continue of this mind , and to think that the Phaenomena , we observe , will genuinely follow from the meer Fabrick and Constitution of the World. As , supposing the Sun and Moon to have been put , at first , into such Motions about the Earth , as Experience shews they have ; the determinate Celerity of these Motions , and the Lines , wherein they are performed , will make it necessary , that the Moon should be sometimes Full , sometimes scarce Illuminated at all to us-ward , sometimes Horned , and , in a word , should exhibit such several Phases as every Month she doth , and that at some times She and the Sun should have a Trine , or a Quadrate Aspect , &c. and that now one , and now the other of them , should at set times suffer an Eclipse : Though these Eclipses were by the Romans and others of old , and are by many Unlearn'd Nations at this day , look'd upon as Supernatural things ; and though also Aristotle , and a multitude of his Followers , fancy'd , that such Regular Motions could not be maintain'd without an Assistent Intelligence , which He and They therefore Assign'd to each of the Heavenly Orbs. And indeed the difficulty , we find , to conceive , how so great a Fabrick , as the World , can be preserved in Order , and kept from running again to a Chaos , seems to arise from hence , that Men do not sufficiently consider the unsearchable Wisdom of the Divine Architect or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as the Scripture styles him ) of the World , whose piercing Eyes were able to look at once quite through the Universe , and take into his Prospect both the beginning and end of Time : So that perfectly fore-knowing , what would be the Consequences of all the possible Conjunctures of Circumstances , into which Matter , divided and mov'd according to such Laws , could , in an Automaton so Constituted as the Present World is , happen to be put ; there can nothing fall out , unless when a Miracle is wrought , that shall be able to alter the Course of things , or prejudice the Constitution of them , any further , than He did from the Beginning foresee , and think fit to allow . Nor am I sure , that the received Notion of Nature , though it be not necessary , is at least very useful , to explicate Physical Phaenomena . For , besides that , I shall shew e're long , that several Explications , where recourse to it is presum'd to be the most advantagious , are not to be allow'd : To give the Nature of a Things for the Cause of this or that particular Quality , or Operation of it , is to leave Men as ignorant as they were before ; or , at least , is to acknowledg , that a Philosopher can , in such Cases , assign no better particular and immediate Causes of Things , than a Shepherd or a Tradesman , that never learnt Natural Philosophy , can assign of the same things , and of a Thousand others . And though it be true , ( as I formerly also intimated ) that , in many Cases , Philosophers themselves can answer no otherwise , to such Questions as may be Propos'd to them , than by having recourse to the Nature of the Thing ; yet such Answerers do not declare the proper Cause of a Dark Phaenomenon , but only that he , who imploys them , does not yet know it : And so this indefinite Notion of Nature , which is equally applicable to the resolving of all difficulties , is not useful to disclose the thing , but to delude the Maker of the Question , or hide the ignorance of the Answerer . III. My third Argument is , That the Nature , I question , is so dark and odd a thing , that 't is hard to know what to make of it , it being scarce , if at all , intelligibly propos'd , by them that lay most weight upon it . For it appears not clearly , whether they will have it to be a Corporeal Substance , or an Immaterial One , or some such thing , as may seem to be betwixt both ; such as many Peripateticks do represent substantial Forms , and what they call real Qualities , which divers School-men hold to be ( at least by Miracle ) separable from all Matter whatsoever . If it be merely Corporeal , I confess , I understand not , how it can be so Wise , and almost Omniscient an Agent , as they would have it pass for . Besides that , if it be a Body , I would gladly know , what kind of Body it is , and how , since , among Bodies , there can be no Penetration of Dimensions , this Body can so intimately pervade , as they pretend Nature does , all the other Bodies of the World ? And to this I would add divers other Questions , that would not be easily answered . ( But I shall resume this Third Argument in another place . ) If it be said , that Nature is a Semi-substantia , as some of the Modernest Schoolmen are pleas'd to call substantial Forms , and real Qualities ; I roundly answer , that I acknowledge no such Chymerical and Unintelligible Beings , and shall only desire you to apply to them a good part of the Discourse , made in certain Papers , occasion'd by a Chymico-Physical Essay about Salt-petre , against the pretended Origine , and inexplicable Nature , of the imaginary substantial Forms of the Peripateticks . It remains therefore , that this Nature , we speak of , if it be any thing positive , should be an Immaterial Substance . But to have Recourse to such an one , as a Physical Agent , and not only a Determiner , but the Grand Author , of the Motion of Bodies , and that , especially in such familiar Phaenomena , as the Ascension of Water in Pumps , the Suspension of it in Watering-Pots for Gardens , the running of it through Siphons , and I know not how many others ) and to Explain its Casuality , as they speak , will , I think , prove a Work exceeding difficult : Though I shall not here spend time to shew you the farther inconveniences of such a Supposition , being to do that hereafter ; and , in the mean-while , contenting myself to observe , as to many of the Naturists , That , though their Doctrine may favour it , they seem rather content to talk darkly , and uncertainly , of what they call Nature , than by clearly-Defining it , expose it to Objections not easie to be answered , and who foresee the advantage , that the unsetledness of the Notion gives them , to pretend Knowledg , or disguise Ignorance . IV. Since many of the most Learned amongst the Naturists are Christians , and not few of them Divines too , it may not be improper ( which else I should , perhaps , think it would be , ) to add , in this place , that the next thing , for which I dislike the Vulgar Notion ( or Idea ) of Nature , is , That I think it dangerous to Religion in general , and consequently to the Christian. For this Erroneous Conceit defrauds the True God of divers Acts of Veneration and Gratitude , that are due to Him from Men , upon the account of the Visible World , and diverts them to that Imaginary Being they call Nature , which has no Title to them ; for , whilst Nature is suppos'd to be an Intelligent Thing , that wisely and benignly Administers all that is done among Bodies , 't is no wonder that the generality of Philosophers , and , after their Example , of other Men , should admire and praise Her , for the wonderful , and for the useful things that they observe in the World. And , in effect , though Nature , in that sense of the Word I am speaking of , be never ( that I remember ) to be found in the Sacred Writings ; yet , nothing is to be more frequently met with ( and that adorn'd with Titles and Encomiums ) in the Books of Philosophers , than Nature and Her Effects . And , if we consider , that , whatever has been said , by some , in excuse of Aristotle himself , yet the generality of the Peripateticks , from whom the Vulgar Notion of Nature is chiefly receiv'd , made the World to be Eternal , and referr'd all the Transactions among the Bodies it contains , to what they call'd Nature . Whence , 't will not be difficult to perceive , that , if they do not quite exclude God , yet , as they leave him no Interest in the first Formation of the Universe ; so they leave him but very little in the Administration of the Parts it consists of , especially the Sublunary Ones . So that , instead of the True God , they have substituted , for us , a kind of a Goddess , with the Title of Nature : Which , as they look upon as the immediate Agent and Director in all excellent Productions , so they ascribe to Her the Praise and Glory of Them. Whether this great Error , in a Point of such Importance , may not Undermine the Foundation of Religion , I think it may not irrationally be suspected . For , since the most General and Efficacious Argument , that has persuaded Philosophers , and other Men , that there is a God and a consideration of the Providence , is afforded by the visible World , wherein so many Operations and other Things are observ'd , that are manag'd ( or perform'd ) with such Conduct and Benignity , as cannot justly be ascrib'd but to the Wisdom and Goodness of a Deity : They that ascribe these Things to mere Nature , do much weaken the force of that Argument , if they do not quite take away the necessity of acknowledging a Deity , by shewing , that , without any need of having Recourse to Him , of the Administration of the World and of what is perform'd among Things Corporeal , an Account may be given . Though , when Men are put upon considering the matter , and press'd to declare themselves more clearly , they are asham'd to affirm , that God and Nature are the same Thing , and , will confess , that She is but his Vicegerent ; yet , in Practise , their Admiration and their Praises are frequently given to Nature , not to God : In like manner , as , though the Sun be the Fountain of Light , and the Moon derives all Hers from the Sun ; yet the Sea , in Its grand Motions of Ebbing and Flowing , appears to respect the Moon , and not the Sun : For thus , the generality of Men , though they will acknowledg that Nature is inferior and subordinate to God , do yet appear to regard Her more than Him. To be short , Nature uses to be so frequently recurr'd to , and is so magnifi'd in the Writings of Physiologers , that the excessive Veneration Men have for Nature , as it has made some Philosophers ( as the Epicureans ) deny God , so , 't is to be fear'd , that it makes many forget Him : And , perhaps , a suspicious Person would venture to add , That , if other Principles hindred not ( as , I know , that in many , and , think , that in most , of the Christian Naturists they do , ) the Erroneous Idea of Nature would , too often , be found to have a strong tendency to shake , if not to subvert , the very Foundations of all Religion ; mis-leading those that are inclin'd to be its Enemies , from overlooking the Necessity of a God , to the Questioning , if not to the denyal , of his Existence . V. My Fifth and Last Argument is taken from hence ; That I observe divers Phaenomena , which do not agree with the Notion or Representation of Nature , that I Question . For , if indeed there were such an Intelligent , Powerful and Vigilant Being , as Philosophers are wont to Describe Nature to be , divers things would not be done , which Experience assures us are done . And here I shall once for all give an Advertisement , which I desire may be call'd to mind , whenever there shall be Occasion , in the following part of this Tract , which is this ; That , because Inanimate Bodies are usually more simple , or less compounded , and of a slighter and less complicated or curious Contrivance , than Animals or Plants , I thought fit to chuse most of the Instances I employ , rather among lifeless Bodies , whose Structure and Qualities are more easy to be Intelligibly and with Brevity Discours'd of , than among living Creatures , whose Textures , being Organical , are much more intricate and subtil . And this Course I did not scruple to take , because the Celebraters of Nature give her a Province , or rather an Empire , as large as the World , and will have her Care and Jurisdiction reach , as well to Inanimate as to Living Bodies ; and accordingly most of the conspicuous Instances they Alledge , of her Providence and Power , are taken from Bodies destitute of Life ; as when they tell us , That the Ascension of Water in Sucking-Pumps , and the Sustentation of it in Gardeners Watering-Pots , are caus'd by Nature's abhorrence of a Vacuum : That heavy Bodies ( unhinder'd ) fall to the Ground in a Perpendicular Line , because Nature directs them the shortest way to the Centre of the Earth ; and that Bubbles Rise thro' the Water , and Flames Ascend in the Air , because Nature directs these Bodies to re-join themselves to their respective Elements ; to omit other Instances of this sort , that there will be occasion to mention hereafter : Till when , these may suffice to warrant my taking most of my Instances from Inanimate Bodies ; though I shall not confine my self to these , especially when I shall come to Answer Objections that are taken from living Creatures . The foregoing Advertisement will be , I hope , found conducive to clear the way for my Fifth Argument , lately propos'd , which concludes , that , if indeed there were such a Being , as Nature is usually Represented to be , several things would be otherwise Administred in the Universe , than Experience shews they are . To enumerate all the Particulars that may be propos'd to make this good , would swell this Discourse much beyond the Bulk to which my Haste obliges me to confine it . But , to make you amends for the Paucity of Instances , I shall now name , by the kind of them , I shall propose such as , for the most part , are taken from those very things , whence the Wisdom and Vigilancy of Nature is wont to be confidently Argued , which I the rather do , that by such I may make way for , and shorten the Answers I am to give to the Arguments e're-long to be Examined . First then , Whereas the great Care and Vigilancy of Nature , for the common Good of the Universe , is wont to be Demonstrated from the watchful Care she takes , to prevent or replenish a Vacuum , which would be very Prejudicial to the Fabrick of the World : I Argue the quite contrary from the Phaenomena , that occur about a Vacuum . For whereas 't is Alledg'd , that Nature , in great Pumps , and in the like Cases , lifts up the heavy Body of Water in spight of its tendency towards the Centre of the Earth , to obviate , or fill up a Vacuity ; and that out of a Gardener's Pot , or Inverted Pipe , stopp'd at one end , neither the Water , nor even Quick-Silver , that is near fourteen times as heavy , will fall down , lest it should leave a Vacuum behind it ; I demand how it comes to pass , that , if a Glass-Pipe be but a Foot longer than 34 or 35 Feet ; or an Inverted Tube , fill'd with Quick-silver , be but a Finger's breadth longer than 30 Inches , the Water in the one , and the Quick-silver in the other , will subside , though the one will leave but about a Foot , and the other but about an Inch , of deserted Space , which they call Vacuum , at the top of the Glass . Is it possible , that Nature , that in Pumps is said to raise up every Day so many Hundred Ton of Water , and , if you will believe the Schools , would raise it to any height , ( left there should be a Vacuum ) should not have the Discretion , or the Power , to lift up , or sustain , as much Water as would serve to fill one Foot in a Glass-Tube , or as much Quick-silver as an Inch of a slender Pipe will contain , to obviate or replenish the Vacuum , she is said so much to abhor ? sure , at this rate , she must either have very little Power , or very little Knowledge of the Power she has . So likewise , when a Glass-Bubble is blown very thin at the Flame of a Lamp , and Hermetically seal'd whilst 't is very hot , the Cause , that is rendered , why 't is apt to break , when it grows cold , is , that the inward Air , which was before rarefied by the Heat , coming to be Condens'd by the Cold , left the space deserted by the Air , that thus Contracts itself , should be left void , Nature , with violence , breaks the Glass in pieces . But , by these Learned Mens favour , if the Glass be blown but a little stronger than ordinary , though at the Flame of a Lamp , the Bubble , as I have often tryed , will continue unbroken , in spight of Natures pretended abhorrency of a Vacuum : Which needs not at all to be recurr'd to in the Case . For the Reason , why the thin Glass-Bubble broke not when 't was hot , and did when it grew cold , is plainly this ; That , in the former state , the Agitation of the Included Air , by the Heat , did so strengthen the Spring of it , that the Glass was thereby assisted and enabled to resist the weight of the Incumbent Air : Whereas , upon the Cessation of that Heat , the Debilitated Spring of the Internal , being unable to assist the Glass , as formerly , to resist the Pressure of the External Air , the Glass itself being too thin becomes unable to support the Weight or Pressure of the Incumbent Air , the Atmosphaerical Pillar , that leans upon a Bubble of about two Inches Diameter , amounting to above one Hundred Pound Weight ; as may be manifestly concluded from a late Experiment that I have try'd , and you may meet with in another Paper . And the Reason , why , if the Bubble be blown of a due thickness , it will continue whole after it is Cold , is , that the thickness of it , though but faintly assisted by the weakned Spring of the Included Air , is sufficient to support the Weight of the Incumbent Air , though , several times , I have observed , the Pressure of the Atmosphaere , and the resistence of the Bubble , to have been , by Accident , so near the aequipollent , that a much less outward Force , than one would imagine , applyed to the Glass , as , perhaps , a Pound , or a less Weight , gently laid on it , would enable the outward Air to break it , with Noise , into a Multitude of pieces . And , now give me leave to consider , how ill this Experiment , and the above-mentioned Phaenomena , that happen in Glass-Pipes , wherein Water and Quick-silver subside , agree with the Vulgar Apprehension , Men have of Nature . For , if in case She did not hinder the falling down of the Water , or the Quicksilver , there would be no such Vacuum produced , as She is said to abhor ; Why does She seem so solicitious to hinder it ? And why does She keep three or four and thirty Foot of Water in Perpendicular height , contrary to the nature of all heavy Bodies , suspended in the Tube ? And , Why does she furiously break in pieces a thin seal'd Bubble , such as I come from speaking of , to hinder a Vacuum ? if in case She did not break it , no Vacuum would ensue . And , on the other side , if we admit her Endeavours , to hinder a Vacuum , not to have been superfluous , and consequently foolish , we must confess , that , where these endeavours succeed not , there is really produc'd such a Vacuum , as She is said to abhor . So that , as I was saying , either She must be very indiscreet to trouble Herself , and to transgress Her own ordinary Laws , to prevent a danger She need not fear ; or Her strength must be very small , that is not able to fill a Vacuity , that half a Pint of Water , or an Ounce of Quick-silver , may replenish ; or break a tender Glass-Bubble , which , perhaps , a Pound Weight on it , would , with the help of so light a Body as the Incumbent Air , crush in pieces . The other Grand Instance , that is given of the Wisdom of Nature , and Her watchfulness for the Good of the whole World , is , the Appetite She has Implanted in all heavy Bodies , to descend to the Centre of the Earth , and in all light Ones , to ascend towards Heaven ; or , as some would have it , towards the Element of Fire , contiguous to the Orb of the Moon . But , for positive Levity , 'till I see it better prov'd , than it hath hitherto been , I allow no such thing Implanted in Sublunary Bodies ; the praepollent Gravity of some , sufficing to give others a Comparative or Respective Lightness . As a piece of Oak , or the like Wood , being let go in the Air , falls down by its own Gravity , or rather by virtue of the Efficient of that Gravity ; but if it be let go under Water , it will , though it be never so great a Log or piece of Timber , ascend , with a considerable force , to the top of the Water ; which , I hope , will not be ascribed to a positive Levity , since , when it descended in the Air , 't was by its Gravity that it did so . But not to insist on this , nor to take notice , how wisely Nature has Implanted into all heavy Bodies an Appetite to Descend to the Centre of the Earth , which , being but a Point , is not able to contain any one of Them ; not to urge these things , I say , I will only invite you to consider one of the most familiar things that occur among heavy Bodies . For , if , for Example , you let fall a Ball upon the Ground , it will Rebound to a good height , proportionable to that from whence you let it fall , or , perhaps , will make several lesser Rebounds , before it come to rest . It it be now ask'd , Why the Ball , being let out of your Hand , does not fall on this or that side , or move upwards , but falls directly toward the Centre of the Earth , by that shortest Line , ( which Mechanitians call Linea Directionis ) which is the Diameter of the Earth prolong'd to the Centre of Gravity of the Ball ? 'T will be readily Answer'd , That this proceeds from the Balls Gravity , i. e. an Innate Appetite , whereby it tends to the Centre of the Earth the nearest way . But then I demand , Whence comes this Rebound , i. e. this Motion upwards ? For , 't is plain , 't is the Genuine Consequence of the Motion downwards , and therefore is encreas'd according as that Motion in the Ball was encreas'd , by falling from a greater height : So that it seems , that Nature does , in such Cases , play a very odd Game , since She forces a Ball , against the Laws of heavy Bodies , to ascend divers times upwards , upon the Account of that very Gravity , whose Office it is to carry it downwards the directest way : And , at least , She seems , in spight of the Wisdom ascribed to Her , to take Her M●asures very ill , in making the Ball move downwards with so much violence , as makes it , divers times , fly back from the place She intended it should go to . As if a Ball which a Child can play with , and direct as he pleases , were so unweildy a Thing , that Nature cannot manage it , without letting it be hurried on with far greater violence , than her Design requires . The Reflection , I have been making on a Ball , may ( mutatis mutandis , as they speak ) be applyed to a Pendulum . For , since 't is unanimously affirm'd , by all that have written of it , that it falls to the Perpendicular , upon the Account of its Gravity : It must not be deny'd , that 't is from a Motion proceeding from the same Gravity , that the swinging Weight passes beyond the Perpendicular , and consequently ascends , and oftentimes makes a multitude of Diadroms , or Vibrations ; and consequently , does very frequently ascend , before it comes to rest in the Perpendicular : Which is the Position wherein its Gravity is best comply'd with , and which therefore it had been best setled in at first . I shall not here mention those Grand Anomalies , or Exorbitances , even in the vaster Bodies of the Universe ; such as Earth-quakes , that reach some Hundreds of Leagues , Deluges , Destructive Eruptions of Fire , Famines of a large spread , Raging Pestilences , Coelestial Comets , Spots in the Sun , that are recorded to have obscured it for many Months ; the sudden Appearing , the Dis-appearing , and the Re-appearing of Stars , that have been judg'd to be as high , as the Region of the fix'd Ones . I will not , I say , enquire how far these Anomalies agree to the Character wont to be given of Natures Watchfulness and Vigilancy , because , probably , I may have hereafter a fit opportunity to do it , and must now proceed to the remaining Instances I promis'd you , which are taken from what happens to Animals : As soon as I shall have dispatch'd some Considerations and Advertisements , that seem necessary to be premis'd , to what I have to offer about that difficult Subject . If the past Discourse give rise to a Question , Whether the World , and the Creatures that compose it , are as perfect as they could be made ? The Question seems to me , because of the Ambiguity of the Terms , too intricate to be resolv'd by a single Answer . But yet , because the Problem is not wont to be discuss'd , and is , in my Opinion , of Moment , in reference to Natural Theology ; I shall venture briefly to intimate some of the Thoughts that occurr'd to me about it : Having first declar'd , that I am , with reason , very backward to be positive in a matter of this Nature , the Extent of the Divine Power and Wisdom being such , that its Bounds , in case it have any , are not known to me . This premis'd , I consider , that the sense of the Question may be , Whether God could make the Material World , and the Corporeal Creatures It consists of , better and more perfect that they are ? speaking in a general way and absolute sense : Or else , Whether the particular Kinds or Orders of the Creatures , in the World , could any of them be made more perfect or better , than they have been made ? To Answer the Question in the first-nam'd sense of it , I think it very unsafe to deny , that God , who is Almighty and Omniscient , and an Owner of Perfections , which , for ought we know , are participable in more different manners and degrees than we can comprehend , could not Display , if it be not fitter to say Adumbrate , them , by Creating a Work more excellent than this World. And , his Immense Power and Unexhausted Wisdom considered , it will not follow , either , that because this World of Ours is an admirable piece of Workmanship , the Divine Architect could not have better'd It ; or , because God himself is able to make a greater Master-piece , this exquisitely contriv'd System is not admirably Excellent . But the propos'd Question , in the other sense of it , will require some more words to resolve it . For , if we look upon the several Species of Visible Creatures , under a more absolute Consideration , without respect to the Great System of the Universe , of which they are Parts , or to the more particular Designs of the Creator ; it seems manifest , that many sorts of Creatures might have been more perfect than they are , since they want many compleating things , that others are indow'd with ; as an Oyster , that can neither hear , nor see , nor walk , nor swim , nor fly , &c. is not so perfect a Creature , as an Eagle , or an Elephant , that have both those Senses that the Oyster wants , and a far more active Faculty of changing places : And , of this inequality of perfection in Creatures of differing kinds , the Examples are too obvious to need to be enumerated . But if the Question be better propos'd , and it be inquir'd , not whether God could have made more perfect Creatures , than many of those he has made , for that , 't is plain , He could do , because He has done it ; but , Whether the Creatures were not so curiously and skilfully made , that 't was scarce possibly they could have been better made , with due regard to all the wise Ends He may be suppos'd to have had in making them , it will be hard to prove a Negative Answer . This I shall indeavour to illustrate by a Supposition . If one should come into the well-furnish'd Shop of an excellent Watch-maker , and should there see a plain Watch , design'd barely to shew the Hour of the Day ; another , that strikes the Hours ; a third that is also furnish'd with an Alarm ; a fourth , that , besides these , shews the Month Current , and the Day of it ; and lastly , a fifth , that , over and above all these , shews the Motions of the Sun , Moon and Planets , the Tydes , and other Things , which may be seen in some Curious Watches . In this Case , I say , the Spectator , supposing him judicious , would , indeed , think one of these Watches far more Excellent and Compleat than another ; but yet he would conclude each of them to be perfect in its own own kind , and the Plain Watch to answer the Artificer's Idea and Design in making it , as well as the more Compounded and Elaborate one did . The same thing may , in some Circumstances , be further Illustrated , by considering the Copy of some excellent Writing-Master , for , though there we may find some Leaves written in an Italian Hand , others in a Secretary , and , in others , Hands of other Denominations ; though one of these Patterns may be much Fairer , and more Curious than another , if they be compar'd together ; yet , if we consider their equal Conformity to the respective Idea's of the Author , and the suitableness to the Design he had of making each Copy , not as Curious , Sightly and Flourishing as he could , but as Conformable to the true Idea of the sort of Hand he meant to exhibit , and the Design he had to shew the Variety , Number and Justness of his Skill , by that of the Patterns he made Compleat in the respective Kinds ; we shall not think , that any of them could have been better'd by him : And if he should have made a Text-Hand as fair as a Roman-Hand , by giving it more Beauty and Ornament , he would not have made it better in its Kind , but spoil'd it , and , by a Flourish of his Skill , might have given a Proof of his want of Judgment . But , to return thither whence I began to make this Excursion , perhaps , Eleutherius , you will object against the Examples I have produc'd before it , that the Exceptions , I have taken at some of the Proceedings of Nature , may be as well urg'd against Providence , and exclude the One as well as the Other , from the Government of the World. But to this I Answer , that this Objection is Foreign to the Question , which is about Mens Notion of Nature , not God's Providence ; which , if it were here my Task to Assert , I should establish It upon Its proper and solid Grounds : such , as the Infinite Perfections of the Divine Nature , which both engage and enable Him to Administer His Dominion over all things ; His being the Author and Supporter of the World ; The exquisite Contrivance of the Bodies of Animals , which could not proceed but from a stupendious Wisdom ; The supernatural Revelations and Discoveries He has made of Himself , and of His particular care of His Creatures , by Prophecies , Apparitions , true Miracles , and other ways , that transcend the Power , or overthrow , or , at least , over-rule the Physical Laws of Motion in Matter : By these , I say , and the like proper Means , I would evince Divine Providence . But being not now oblig'd to make an Attempt , which deserves to be made very solemnly , and not in such haste as I now write in . I shall , at present , only observe to you , that the Case is very differing between Providence and Nature , and therefore there is no necessity , that the Objections , I have made against the Later , should hold against the Former . As , ( to give you a few Instances of the Disparity ) in the first place , it appears not , nor is it likely , that 't is the Design of Providence to hinder those Anomalies and Defects , I have been mentioning : Whereas , 't is said , to be the Duty and Design of Nature , and Her only Task , to keep the Universe in Order , and procure , in all the Bodies that compose it , that things be carried on , in the best and most regular way that may be , for their Advantage . Secondly , Nature is confess'd to be a Thing inferior to God , and so but a subordinate Agent , and therefore cannot , without disparagement to Her Power , or Wisdom , or Vigilancy , suffer divers things to be done , which may , without Degradation to God , be permitted by Him ; who is not only a self-existent and Independent Being , but the Supream and Absolute Lord , and , if I may so speak , the Proprietor of the whole Creation : Whence both Melchizedec and Abram style Him , ( Gen. xiv . 19 , 23. ) not only the most High God , but , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Koneh , Possessing ( or , as our Version has it , Possessor of ) Heaven and Earth : And Who , when He made the World , and established the Laws of Motion , gave them to Matter , not to Himself . And so , being obliged to none , either as His Superior , or Benefactor , He was not bound to Make , or Administer , Corporeal Things after the best manner , that He could , for the good of the things themselves : Among which , those that are capable of Gratitude , ought to Praise and Thank Him , for having vouchsafed them so much as they have , and have no Right to except against His having granted them no more . And , as being thus oblig'd to none of his Works , He has a Sovereign Right to dispose of them ; so , He has other Attributes , which He may justly Exercise , and both intend And expect to be Glorified for , besides his Goodness to Inferior Creatures : and His Wisdom may be better set off to Men , and perhaps to Angels or Intelligences , by the great Variety of His Contrivances in His Works , than by making them all of the excellentest Kind : As Shadows in Pictures , and Discords in Musick , skilfully Plac'd and Order'd , do much recommend the Painter , and the Musician . Perhaps it may be added , That the permitting the Course of Things to be somewhat violated , shews , by the Mischief such Exorbitances do , how good God has been in setling and preserving the orderly Course of Things . Thirdly , As God is a most Absolute and Free , so He is an Omniscient , Being ; and , as , by His Supream Dominion over the Works of His Hands , He has a Right to dispose of them , as He thinks best for His own Glory , so upon the score of His unfathomable Wisdom , He may have Designs , and , if I may so speak , Reaches , in the Anomalies that happen in the World , which we Men are too short-sighted to discern ; and may exercise as much Wisdom , nay , and as much Providence ( in reference to Man , the Noblest Visible Object of His Providence ) in sometimes ( as in Divine Miracles ) receding from what Men call the Laws of Nature , as He did at first in establishing them : Whereas the Office of Nature , being but to preserve the Universe in General , and Particular Bodies in It , after the best manner that their respective Conditions will permit ; we know , what 't is She aims at , and , consequently , can better discern , when She misses of Her Aims , by not well Acting what is presum'd to be Her Part. Fourthly , We must consider , that , as God is an Independent , Free and Wise , so He is also a Just Agent ; and therefore may very well be suppos'd to cause many Irregularities and Exorbitances in the World , to punish those , that Men have been guilty of . And , whereas Nature is but a Nursing-Mother to the Creatures , and looks e'ne upon wicked Men , not in their Moral but in their Physical capacities , God expresly declares , in the Sacred Scriptures , that , upon Adam's Fall , He Curs'd the Ground , or Earth , for Man's sake , Gen. iii. 17 , 18. and that there is no penal evil in the City that is not deriv'd from Him , Amos iii. 6. He is not over-rul'd , as Men are fain to say of Erring Nature , by the head-strong Motions of the Matter , but sometimes purposely over-rules the regular Ones , to execute His Justice ; & therefore Plagues , Earth-quakes , Inundations , and the like destructive Calamities , though they are sometimes Irregularities in Nature , yet , for that very Reason , they are design'd by Providence ; which intends , by them , to deprive wicked Men of that Life , or of those blessings of Life , whereof their Sins have render'd them unworthy . But , whil'st I mention Designs , I must not forget , that Mine was only to give you a Tast of the Considerations , by which one may shew , that such things , as manifest Nature to act unsuitably to the Representation that is made of Her , may yet , when attributed to Divine Providence , be made out to have nothing inconsistent with It. And yet , somewhat further to clear this weighty matter , and particularly some things , but briefly hinted in what I have been lately Discoursing , I think it fit , before I descend to the Particulars , that I am to employ against the Vulgar Notion of Nature , to premise somewhat by way of Caution , that I may do some Right ( though I can never do enough , ) to Divine Providence ; and take care betimes , that no Use , Injurious to It , may be made of any thing that my Argument hath oblig'd me , or will oblige me , to say about that Imaginary Thing , Vulgarly call'd Nature , either in This or the VI. Section , or any other Part of our present Enquiry . I conceive then , that the Divine Author of Things , in making the World , and the particular Creatures that compose it , had respect to several Ends ; some of them knowable by us Men , and others hid in the Abyss of the Divine Wisdom and Counsels . And that of those Ends , which are either manifest enough to us , or , at least , discoverable by Human Sagacity and Industry , some of the Principal are , The manifestation of the Glory of God , The Utility of Man , and The maintenance of the System of the World ; under which is comprised , the Conservation of particular Creatures , and , also , the Propagation of some Kinds of them . But this General Design of God , for the welfare of Man and other Creatures , is not ( as I conceive ) to be understood , but with a twofold Limitation . For , First , though Men , and other Animals , be furnish'd with Faculties or Powers , and other Requisites , to enable them to preserve themselves , and procure what is necessary for their own welfare , yet this Provision , that God has been pleas'd to make for them , is made with reference to what regularly , or what most usually , happens to Beings of that Species or Sort that they belong to ; but not with regard to such things as may happen to them irregularly , contingently , and ( in comparison of the others , ) unfrequently . Thus it is , in General , far better for Mankind , that Women , when they are brought to Bed , should have their Breasts fill'd with Milk , to give Suck to the new-born Babe , than that they should not ; though sometimes , as , if the Child die in the Delivery , or presently after , and in some other Cases also , the plentiful recourse of Milk to the Mothers Breasts proves troublesome and inconvenient , and sometimes also dangerous , to her . Thus a Head of Hair is , for the most part , useful to the Person , whether Man or Woman , that Nature has furnish'd with it , though , in some Cases ( as of Consumptions , and in a few other Circumstances ) it happens to be prejudicial to the Wearer ; and therefore Physicians do often , with good success , prescribe , that it be shaven off . Thus the Instinct , that Hens have to Hatch their Eggs and take care of their Young , is , in General , very useful , if not necessary , for the Conservation of that Species of Birds ; and yet it sometimes mis-guides and deludes them , when it makes them take a great deal of pains to Brood upon those Duck-eggs , that Housewives , ( having taken a way the Birds own Eggs ) lay in her Nest , which makes her very solicitous to Hatch and take care of Ducklings , instead of Chickens . Thus 't is an Institution that ordinarily is profitable for Man , that his Stomach should nauseate or reject things that have a loathsome taste or smell , because the generality of those things , that are provided for his Nourishment , are well , or , at least , not ill-tasted ; and yet , on some occasions of Sickness , that disposition of the Stomach to refuse , or vomit up , nauseous Purges , and other dis-tastful Medicines , ( as such Remedies are usually loathsom enough ) proves very prejudicial , by being a great impediment to the Recovery of Health . And thus ( to be short ) the Passions of the Mind , such as Fear , Joy and Grief , are given to Man , for his Good ; and , when rightly us'd , are very advantageous , if not absolutely necessary , to him : Though , when they grow unruly , or are ill-manag'd , as it but too often happens , they frequently prove the Causes of Diseases , and of great Mischief , as well to the passionate Man himself , as to Others . The second Limitation ( which has a natural Connexion with the former , ) is this , That the Omniscient Author of Things , who , in His Vast and Boundless Understanding , comprehended , at once , the whole System of His Works , and every Part of it , did not mainly intend the Welfare of such or such particular Creatures , but subordinated His Care of their Preservation and Welfare , to His Care of maintaining the Universal System and Primitive Scheme or Contrivance of His Works , and especially those Catholick Rules of Motion , and other Grand Laws , which He at first establish'd among the Portions of the Mundane Matter . So that , when there happens such a Concourse of Circumstances , that particular Bodies , fewer or more , must suffer , or else the setled Frame , or the usual Course of Things , must be alter'd , or some general Law of Motion must be hinder'd from taking place : In such Cases , I say , the Welfare and Interest of Man himself ( as an Animal ) and much more That of inferior Animals , and of other Particular Creatures , must give way to the Care , that Providence takes of Things of a more General and Important Nature or Condition . Thus ( as I formerly noted ) God establish'd the Lines of Motion , which the Sun and the Moon observe , tho' he foresaw , that , from thence , there would necessarily , from time to time , ensue Eclipses of those Luminaries ; which he chose rather to permit , than to alter that Course , which , on several accounts , was the most convenient . Thus a blown Bladder , or a Foot-Ball , falling from a considerable height upon the Ground , rebounds upwards , and so , contrary to the Nature of Heavy Bodies , moves from the Centre of the Earth , lest the Catholick Laws of Motion , whereby the Springyness and Reflection of Bodies , in such Circumstances , are established , should be violated or intrench'd upon . Thus , He thought not fit to furnish Sheep with Paws , or Tusks , or Swiftness , or Animosity , or Craft , to defend or preserve themselves from Wolves and Foxes , and other Beasts of Prey . And tame and fearful Birds , such as Hens , are so ill provided for defence , that they seem designed to be the food of Hawks , Kites , and other rapacious Ones . Thus Oysters , having neither Eyes nor Ears , are not near so well provided for , as the generality of Beasts and Birds , and even most other Fishes . And thus Silk-Worms ( to name no other Catterpillars , ) usually ( at least in these Countries , ) live not much above half a Year , being less furnish'd with the Requisites of longaevity , than the generality of Birds , and Beasts , and Fishes . I have thought fit to lay down the two foregoing Limitations , partly , because they will be of use to me hereafter , and , partly , because they contain something , that may be added to what hath been lately Represented on behalf of the Divine Providence ( as it falls under the Naturalist's Consideration . ) For , by these Limitations , we may perceive , that 't is not just , presently to deny , or censure the Providence of God , when-ever we see some Creatures less compleatly furnish'd to maintain themselves ; or some Cases less provided for , than we think they might be ; or seeming Anomalies permitted , which we look upon as mischievous Irregularities . For the Welfare of Men , or of this or that other Particular sort of Creatures , being not the Only , nor , in likelihood , the Principal End of God , in making the World ; it is neither to be admir'd nor reprehended , that He has not provided for the safety and conveniency of Particular Beings , any further , than well consists with the Welfare of Beings of a more considerable Order , and , also , will comport with his Higher Ends , and with the maintenance of the more General Laws and Customs , setled by Him among Things Corporeal : So that divers seeming Anomalies and Incongruities , whence some take occasion to Question the Administration of Things , and to deny the Agency of Providence , do not only comport with it , but serve to accomplish the Designs of It. I have the more expresly declar'd my Mind on this occasion , because , indeed , of the two main Reasons , which put me upon so difficult a Work , as I foresaw this Treatise would be , as one was , the Love I bear to Truth and Philosophical Freedom ; so the other was , a just Concern for Religion . For thinking it very probable , that , in so Inquisitive an Age as This , some Observations , like Mine , about Nature itself , might come into the minds of Persons ill-affected to Divine Providence , who would be glad and forward to wrest them , and make a perverse use of them ; I thought it better , that such Notions should be candidly propos'd , by One that would take care to accompany them with those Cautions , that may keep them from being injurious to Religion . Having premis'd the two foregoing Advertisements , to obviate Misconstructions ; I hope , I may now safely proceed to Particulars ; whereof , for Brevity's sake , I shall here mention but a few , leaving you to add to them those others , that occur in other parts of this Treatise . In the first place then , I shall take notice , that there are several Instances of Persons that have been choak'd with a Hair , which they were unable , either to cough up , or swallow down . The reason of this fatal Accident , is , probably , said to be the Irritation that is made , by the stay of so unusual a thing , as a Hair , in the Throat ; which Irritation occasions very violent and disorderly , or convulsive , Motions to expel it , in the Organs of Respiration , by which Means the continual Circulation of the Blood , necessary to the Life of Man , is hinder'd , the Consequence whereof is speedy Death . But this agrees very ill with the Vulgar Supposition of such a Kind and Provident Being , as they represent Nature , which is always at hand to preserve the Life of Animals , and succour them in their ( Physical ) dangers and distresses , as occasion requires . For since a Hair is so slender a Body , that it cannot stop the Throat , so as to hinder , either , the free passage of Meat and Drink into the Stomach , or , that of the Air to or from the Lungs ; ( as may be argued from divers no-way Mortal Excrescences and Ulcers in the Throat , ) were it not a great deal better for Nature , to let the Hair alone , and stay , 'till the Juices of the Body have resolv'd or consum'd it , or some favourable Accident have remov'd it , than like a passionate and transported Thing , oppose it , like a Fury , with such blind violence , as , instead of ejecting the Hair , expels the Life of him , that was troubled with it ? How the Care and Wisdom of Nature will be reconcil'd to so improper and disorderly a Proceeding , I leave Her Admirers to consider . But it will appear very reconcileable to Providence , if we reflect back upon the lately given Advertisement . For , in regard of the use and necessity of Deglutition , and in many Cases of Coughing and Vomiting , it was , in the General , most convenient , that the Parts that minister to these Motions , should be irritated by the sudden Sense of things that are unusual , though , perhaps , they would not be otherwise dangerous or offensive , because ( as we formerly noted , ) 't was fit , that the Providence of God should , in making Provision for the Welfare of Animals , have more regard to that , which usually and regularly befalls them , than to extraordinary Cases or unfrequent Accidents . Though most Women are offended with the Stink of the smoaking Wick of a Candle , which is no more than Men also are , yet it has been frequently observ'd , that Big-bellied Women have been made to Miscarry , by the smell of an extinguish'd Candle , which would before have indeed displeas'd , but not endanger'd , the same Persons : So that it seems , Nature is , in these Cases , very far from being so prudent and careful , as Men are wont to fancy Her , since , by an Odour , ( which , if calmly receiv'd , would have done no harm to the Teeming Woman , ) She is put into such unruly Transports : And , instead of watching for the Welfare of the Teeming Woman , whose Condition needed a more than ordinary measure of Her care and tenderness , She violently precipitates her poor Charge into a danger , that oftentimes proves fatal , not only to the Mother , but the Child also . The improper , and oftentimes hurtful , Courses that Nature takes , in Persons that are sick , some of one Disease , some of another , will be , hereafter , taken notice of in opportune places ; and therefore , for the present , I shall only observe , that Nature seems to do Her Work very weakly , or bunglingly , in the Production of Monsters , whose Variety and Numerousness is almost as great as their Deformity , or their Irregularity ; insomuch that several Volums have been written , and many more might have been , to give the Description of them . How these gross Aberrations will agree with that great Uniformity , and exquisite Skill , that is ascrib'd to Nature , in her seminal Productions , I leave the Naturists to make out . I know , that some of them lay the fault upon the stubbornness of the Matter , that would not be obsequious to the Plastick Power of Nature , but I can hardly admit of this Account from Men of such Principles , as they are that give it : for 't is strange to me , they should pretend , that Nature , which they make a kind of Semi-Deity , should not be able to mould and fashion so small , and soft , and tractable , a Portion of Matter , as that wherein the first Model and Efformation of the Embrio is made ; when , at the same time , they tell us , That 't is able , in Sucking-Pumps , to raise , and , if need be , sustain , whole Tons of Water , to prevent a Vacuum : And can , in Mines , toss up into the Air , Houses , Walls , and Castles , and , perhaps , the Rocks they are built on , to give the kindled Gun-powder the Expansion , that its New state requires . Other Arguments , that , by a light Change and easie Application , may be made use of and added to these , against the Vulgar Notion of Nature , may be met with in divers Parts of this Treatise , and especially in the VII . Section ; for which Reason ( among others ) I decline lengthning this Part of my Discourse with the mention of them . I foresee it may be said , that , unless we admit such a Being as Nature , to contrive and manage Things Corporeal , and , in a Regular and Methodical way , direct them to their respective Ends , there will appear no visible Footsteps or Proof of a Divine Wisdom in the Corporeal World. And this Argument , I confess , is so specious , that 't was one of the things that made me the longest hesitate , what I should think of the Receiv'd Notion of Nature . But having further consider'd the matter , I saw it might be answer'd , that the curious Contrivance of the Universe , and many of Its Parts , and the orderly Course of Things Corporeal , with a manifest Tendency to determinate Ends , are Matters of Fact , and do not depend upon the Supposition of such a Being , as they call Nature ; but , setting aside this or that Hypothesis , may be known by Inspection , if those that make the Inspection be Attentive and Impartial : As , when a Man sees a Humane Body skilfully Dissected by a dexterous Anatomist , he cannot , if he be intelligent and unprejudic'd , but acknowledg , that there is a most curious and exquisite Contrivance in that Incomparable Engine , and in the various Parts of it , that are admirably fitted for distinct and determinate Functions or Uses . So that I do not at all , nor indeed can , suppress the manifest Tokens of Wisdom and Design , that are to be observed in the wonderful Construction and orderly Operations of the World and Its Parts : But I endeavour to refer these Indications of Wisdom to the true and proper Cause . And whereas , in the Hypothesis of the Objectors , there may be three Causes assign'd of these Specimens or Foot-steps of Wisdom , namely , God , Nature , and Chance ; if , according to the Doctrine by me propos'd , Nature be laid aside , the Competition will remain only between God and Chance : And sure he must be very dull , or very strongly prejudic'd , that shall think it reasonable to attribute such admirable Contrivances and such regular Conducts , as are observable in the Corporeal World , rather to Chance , ( which is a blind and senseless Cause , or indeed no proper Cause at all , but a kind of Ens rationis ) than to a most Intelligent Being , from which the curiousest Productions may with Congruity be expected : Whereas , if such a Celebrated Thing , as Nature is commonly thought , be admitted , 't will not be near so easie to prove the Wisdom ( and consequently the Existence ) of God by His Works , since they may have another Cause , namely , that most watchful and provident Being , which Men call Nature . And this will be especially difficult in the Peripatetick Hypothesis of the Eternity ( not of Matter only , for in that the Atomists and others agreed with them , but ) of the World. For , according to this Account of the Universe , there appears no necessity , that God should have any thing to do with it , since he did not make this Automaton , but it was always Self-existent , not only as to Matter , but to Form too : And as for the Government or Administration of the Bodies it consists of , that is the proper business of Nature . And if it be Objected , that this Being is by its Assertors acknowledg'd to be subordinate to God ; I shall answer , That , as , upon the Reasons and Authorities I elsewhere deliver , it may justly be question'd , Whether many Philosophers , and perhaps some Sects of them who are Adorers of Nature , confess'd Her to be but the Substitute of a Superior and Divine Being ? So , this distinction and subordination is not so easie to be prov'd against those that side with those other Ancient Philosophers , who either acknowledg'd no such thing , or expresly deny'd it . Besides that , this Objection supposes the Existence and Superiority of a Deity , which therefore needs to be prov'd by other ways ; whereas in the Hypothesis I propose , the same Phaenomena that discover admirable Wisdom and manifest Designs in the Corporeal World , do themselves afford a solid Argument , both of the Existence and of some of the grand Attributes of God , with which the rest , that properly belong to Him , have a necessary Connexion . SECT . VI. V. HAving , in the foregoing Section , propos'd some of the Considerations , that have dissatisfied me with the Receiv'd Notion of Nature , it may now be justly expected , that I should also consider , what I foresee will be alledg'd in Its behalf , by the more Intelligent of Its Favourers . And I shall not deny the Objections , I am going to name against my Opinion , to be considerable , especially for this Reason , that I am very unwilling to seem to put such an Affront upon the generality as well of Learned Men as of Others , as to maintain , that they have built a Notion of so great weight and importance upon slight and inconsiderable Grounds . The Reasons , that I conceive may have induced Philosophers to take up , and rely on , the Receiv'd Notion of Nature , are such as these that follow . And the first Argument , as one of the most obvious , may be taken from the general Belief , or , as Men suppose , Observation , that divers Bodies , as particularly Earth , Water , and other Elements , have each of them its natural Place assign'd it in the Universe ; from which Place , if any portion of the Element , or any mixt Body , wherein that Element predominates , happens to be remov'd , it has a strong incessant Appetite to return to it ; because , when 't is there , it ceases either to gravitate , or ( as some School-men speak ) to levitate , and is now in a place , which Nature has qualifi'd to preserve it , according to the Axiom , that Locus conservat locatum . To this Argument I answer , that I readily grant , that , there being such a Quantity of very bulky Bodies in the World , 't was necessary they should have Places adequate to their bigness ; and 't was thought fit by the wise Architect of the Universe , that they should not be all blended together , but that a great Portion of each of them should , at the beginning of things , be dispos'd of and lodg'd in a distinct and convenient Place . But when I have granted this , I see not any necessity of granting likewise , what is asserted in the Argument above-propos'd . For Inanimate Bodies having no Sense or Perception , ( which is the Prerogative of Animadversive Beings ) it must be all one to them in what Place they are , because they cannot be concern'd to be in one Place rather than in another , since such a preference would require a knowledg , that Inanimate things are destitute of . And , for the same reason , a Portion of an Element , remov'd , by force or chance , from what they call its proper Place , can have no real Appetite to return thither : For , who tells it 'tis in an undue Place , and that it may better its Condition by removing into another ? And who informs it , whether that Place lies on this hand of it , or that hand of it , or above it , or beneath it ? Some Philosophers indeed have been somewhat aware of the weakness of the Argument , drawn from the vulgarly propos'd Instance ( which yet is the best that is wont to be imploy'd , ) of Earthy Bodies , which being let fall from the top of an House , or thrown into the Air , do of themselves fall , in a direct Line , towards the Centre of the Earth ; and therefore they have strengthned this Argument , as far as might be , by pretending , that these Bodies have not indeed , as former Philosophers were wont to think , an Appetite to descend to the Centre of the Earth , but to the great Mass of their Connatural Bodies . I I will not therefore accuse these Philosophers of the inconsiderate Opinion of their Predecessors , who would have Nature make all heavy Things affect to lodg themselves in the Centre of the Earth , which ( as was formerly noted , ) being but a Point , cannot contain any one of them , ( how little soever it be ; ) but yet the Hypothesis of these Moderns is liable , though not to that , yet , to other weighty Objections . For the First Argument , I lately imploy'd , will hold good against these Philosophers too , it not being conceivable , how an Inanimate Body should have an Appetite to re-joyn Homogeneous Bodies , neither whose situation , nor whose distance from it , it does at all know . Secondly , It does not appear that all Bodies have such an Appetite , as is presum'd , of joyning themselves to greater Masses of Connatural Bodies ; as , if you File the end of an Ingot or Bar of Silver or of Gold , the Filings will not stick to their own Mass , though it be approach'd never so near , or made to touch them , and much less will they leap to it , when 't is at a distance from them . The like may be said almost of all Consistent Bodies we are acquainted with , except the Loadstone and Iron , and Bodies that participate of one of those two . Thirdly , 'T is obvious to them that will observe , that , that which makes Lumps of Earth , or Terrestrial Matter , fall through the Air to the Earth , is some general Agent , whatever that be , which , according to the wise disposition of the Author of the Universe , determines the Motion of those Bodies , we call heavy , by the shortest ways that are permitted them , towards the Central part of the Terraqueous Globe ; Whether the Body , put into Motion downwards , be of the same , or a like , or a quite differing nature , from the greater Mass of Matter , to which , when 't is aggregated , it rests there ? If , from the side of a Ship , you let fall a Chip of Wood out of your Hand , when your Arm is so stretch'd out , that the Perpendicular , or shortest Line , between that and the Water , lies never so little without the Ship , that Chip will fall into the Sea , which is a fluid Body , and quite of another Nature than itself , rather than swerve in the least from the Line of Direction , as Mechanicians call it , to rejoyn itself to the great bulk of Wood , whereof the Ship , though never so big , consists . And , on the other side , if a Man , standing upon the Shore just by the Sea , shall pour out a Glass of Water , holding the Glass just over his Feet , that Water will fall into the Sand , where 't will be immediately soak'd up and dispersed , rather than deviate a little , to joyn itself to so great a Mass of Connatural Body , as the Ocean is . And as to what is generally believ'd , and made part of the Argument that I am answering , That Water does not weigh in Water , because it is in its own natural Place , and Elementa in proprio loco non gravitant . I deny the matter of Fact , and have convinc'd divers curious Persons by Experiment , * that Water does gravitate in Water , as well as out of it , though indeed it does not praegravitate , because 't is Counter-ballanc'd by an equal weight of Collateral Water , which keeps it from descending . And Lastly , For the Maxim , that Locus conservat locatum ; besides that , it has been prooflesly asserted , and therefore , unless it be cautiously explain'd , I do not think my self bound to admit it ; besides this , I say , I think , that either the proper Place of a Body cannot be inferr'd , as my Adversaries would have it , from the Natural tendency of a Body to it ; or else it will not hold true in general , that Locus conservat locatum ; as when , for Instance , a poor unluky Seaman falls , from the Main-yard of a Ship , into the Water , does the Sea , to which he makes such hast , preserve him or destroy him ? And when in a foul Chimney , a lump of Soot falls into the Hearth , and presently burns up there , can we think that the Wisdom of Nature gave the Soot an Appetite to hasten to the Fire , as a greater Bulk of its Connatural Body , or a Place provided by Nature for its Conservation . And now I speak of such an Innate Appetite of Conjunction between Bodies ; I remember , what I lately forgot to mention in a fitter place ; That Bubbles themselves may overthrow the Argument , I was Answering . For if a Bubble happens to arise from the bottom of a Vessel to the upper Part of it , we are told , that the Haste , wherewith the Air moves thorow Water , proceeds from the Appetite it has to quit that Preternatural Place , and re-joyn the Element , or great Mass of Air , detain'd at the very Surface of the Water by a very thin skin of that Liquor , together with which it constitutes a Bubble . Now I demand , how it comes to pass , that this Appetite of the Air , which , when it was at the bottom of the Water , and also in its passage upwards , is suppos'd to have enabled it to Ascend with so much eagerness and force , as to make its way thorow all the incumbent Water , ( which possibly was very deep , ) should not be able , when the Air is arriv'd at the very top of the Water , to break thorow so thin a Membrane of Water , as usually serves to make a Bubble , and which suffices to keep it from the beloved Conjunction with the great Mass of the External Air ? especially since they tell us , that Natural Motion grows more quick , the nearer it comes to the End or Place of rest ; the Appetites of Bodies encreasing , with their approaches to the Good they aspire to ; upon which account , Falling Bodies , as Stones , &c. are said ( though falsesly ) to encrease their swiftness , the nearer they come to the Earth . But if , setting aside the Imaginary Appetite of the Air , we attribute the Ascension of Bubbles to the Gravity and Pressure upwards of the Water , 't is easie Hydrostatically to Explicate , why Bubbles often move slower when they come near the Surface of the Water , and why they are detain'd there ; which last Phaenomenon proceeds from this , that the Pressure of the Water being There incosiderable , 't is not able to make the Air quite Surmount the Resistence made by the Tenacity of the Superficial Part of the Water . And therefore in good Spirit of Wine , whose Tenacity and Glutinousness is far less than that of Water , Bubbles rarely continue upon the Surface of the Liquor , but are presently broken and vanish . And to make this presum'd Appetite , of the smaller Portions of the Air to unite with the great Mass of it , appear the less probable ; I shall add that I have often observ'd , that Water , in that state which is usually call'd its Natural State , is wont to have store of Aerial Particles mingled with it , notwithstanding the Neighbourhood of the External Air , that is incumbent on the Water , as may appear by putting a Glass full of Water into the Receiver of the new Pneumatical Engine . For the Pressure of the External Air being by the Pump taken off , there will , from time to time , disclose themselves in the Water , a multitude of Bubbles , made by the Aerial Particles , that lay conceal'd in that Liquor . And I have further try'd , as I doubt not but some others also have done , that , by exactly inclosing , in a conveniently shap'd Glass , some Water , thus freed from the Air , and leaving a little Air at the top of the Vessel , which was afterwards set by in a quiet place ; the Corpuscles of that incumbent Air did , one after another , insinuate themselves into the Water , and remain'd lodg'd in it ; so little Appetite has Air , in general , to flee all Association with Water , and make its escape out of that Liquor ; though , when sensible Portions of it happen to be under Water , the great inequality in Gravity , between those two Fluids , makes the Water press up the Air. But , though 't were easie to give a Mechanical Account of the Phaenomena of mingled Air and Water , yet , because it cannot be done in few Words , I shall not here undertake it ; the Phaenomena themselves being sufficient , to render the Supposition of my Adversaries improbable . Another Argument , in favour of the Received Opinion of Nature , may be drawn from the strong Appetite , that Bodies have to recover their Natural state , when by any means they are put out of it , and thereby forced into a State that is called Preternatural ; as we see , that Air being violently compress'd in a blown Bladder , as soon as the force is remov'd , will return to its first Dimensions : And the Blade of a Sword being bent by being thrust against the Floor ; as soon as the force ceases , restores itself , by its innate power , to its former straightness : And Water , being made Hot by the fire , when 't is removed thence , hastens to recover its former Coldness . But though I take this Argument to have much more weight in it , than the foregoing ; because it seems to be grounded upon such real Phaenomena of Nature , as those newly recited , yet I do not look upon it as Cogent . In Answer to it therefore , I shall represent , that it appears by the Instances lately mention'd , that the Proposers of the Argument ground it on the affections of Inanimate Bodies . Now , an Inanimate Portion of Matter being confessedly devoid of Knowledge and Sense , I see no Reason , why we should not think it uncapable of being concern'd to be in One state or constitution , rather than Another , since it has no knowledge of that , which it is in at present , nor remembrance of that , from which it was forc'd ; and consequently , no Appetite to forsake the Former , that it may return to the Latter . But every Inanimate Body , ( to say nothing now of Plants and Bruit Animals , because I want time to launch into an ample Discourse ) being of itself indifferent to all Places and States , continues in in that Place or State to which the action and resistence of Other Bodies , and especially Contiguous Ones , effectually determine it . As to the Instance afforded by Water , I consider , that before it be asserted , That Water , being Heated , returns of itself to its Natural Coldness , it were fit , that the Assertors should determine , what degree or measure of Coldness is Natural to that Liquor ; and this , if I mistake not , will be no easie Task . 'T is true indeed , that , in reference to us Men , Water is usually Cold , because its minute Parts are not so briskly agitated , as those of the Blood and Juices , that are to be found in our Hands , or other Organs of Feeling . But , that Water is actually cold in reference to Frogs , and those Fishes that live in it , whose Blood is cold as to our Sense , has not , that I know of , been prov'd , nor is easie to be so . And I think it yet more difficult to determine , what degree of Coldness is natural to Water , since this Liquor perpetually varies its Temperature , as to Cold and Heat , according to the temper of the Contiguous or the Neighbouring Bodies , especially the Ambient Air. And therefore the Water of an unshaded Pond , for Instance , though it rests in its proper and natural Place , as they speak , yet in Autumn , if the Weather be fair , the Temperature of it will much vary in the compass of the same Day , and the Liquor will be much hotter at Noon , than early in the Morning , or at Midnight ; though this great diversity be the Effect only of a Natural Agent , the Sun , acting according to its regular Course . And , in the depth of Winter , 't is generally confess'd , that Water is much colder than in the Heat of Summer ; which seems to be the Reason of what is observ'd by Watermen , as a wonderful thing , namely , that in Rivers , Boats equally Laden will not sink so deep in Winter as in Summer , the cold Condensing the Water , and consequently making it heavier in specie , than it is in Summer , when the Heat of the Ambient Air makes it more thin . In divers parts of Africk , that Temperature is thought natural to the Water , because 't is that which it usually has , which is far hotter than that which is thought natural to the same Liquor in the frigid Zone . And , I remember , on this occasion , what perhaps I have elsewhere mention'd upon another , that the Russian Czars chief Physician inform'd me , that in some Parts of Siberia , ( one of the more Northern Provinces of that Monarch's Empire , Water is so much more Cold , not only than in the Torrid Zone , but than in England , that two or three foot beneath the surface of the Ground , all the Year long ( even in Summer itself , ) it continues Concreted in the form of Ice , so Intense is the Degree of Cold that there seems natural to it . This odd Phaenomenon much confirms what I lately intimated , of the Power of Contiguous Bodies , and especially of the Air , to vary the Degree of the coldness of Water . I particularly mention the Air , because , as far as I have try'd , it has more Power to bring Water to its own Temperature , than is commonly suppos'd . For though , if , in Summer-time , a Man puts his Hand into Water , that has lain expos'd to the Sun , he will usually feel it Cold , and so conclude it much colder , than the Ambient Air ; yet , that may often happen upon another Account , namely , that the Water being many Hundred times a more Dense Fluid than the Air , and consisting of Particles more apt to insinuate themselves into the Pores of the Skin , a greater Part of the Agitation of the Blood and Spirits , contained in the Hand , is communicated to the Water , and thereby lost by the Fluids that part with it . And the Minute Particles of the Water , which are , perhaps , more Supple and Flexible , insinuating themselves into the Pores of the Skin , which the Aerial Particles , by Reason of their Stifness , and perhaps Length , cannot do ; they come to affect the somewhat more Internal Parts of the Hand , which , being much Hotter than the Cuticula or Scarf-skin , makes us feel them very Cold ; as , when a Sweating Hand is plung'd into Luke-warm Water , the Liquor will be judg'd Cold by Him , who , if his Other Hand be very Cold , will with it feel the same Water Hot. To confirm which Conjecture , I shall add , that , having sometimes purposely taken a Seal'd Weather-glass , whose included Liquor was brought to the Temperature of the Ambient Air , and thrust the Ball of it under Water , kept in the same Air , there would be discover'd no such Coldness in the Water , as One would have expected ; the former Reason of the sensible Cold the Hand feels , when thrust into that Liquor , having here no Place . To which I shall add , that having , for Tryal's sake , made Water very Cold , by dissolving Sal-armoniac in it , in Summer time , it would , after a while , return to its usual degree of Warmth . And , having made the same Experiment in Winter , it would return to such a Coldness , as belong'd to it in that Season : So that it did not return to any Determinate degree of Coldness , as Natural to it , but to that Greater or Lesser , that had been Accidentally given it by the Ambient Air , before the Sal-armoniac had Refrigerated It. As to the Motion of Restitution , observable upon the Removal or Ceasing of the Force in Air violently compress'd , and in the Blade of a Sword forcibly bent ; I confess it seems to me a very difficult Thing , to assign the true Mechanical Cause of It. But yet , I think it far more likely , that the Cause should be Mechanical , than , that the Effect proceeds from such a Watchfulness of Nature , as is pretended . For First , I question , Whether we have any Air here Below , that is in Other than a Preternatural or Violent State ; the Lower Parts of our Atmospherical Air being constantly compress'd by the weight of the Upper Parts of the same Air , that lean upon them . As for the Restitution of the bent Blade of a Sword , and such like Springy Bodies , when the force that bent them is remov'd ; my Thoughts about the Theory of Springynes belong to another Paper . And therefore , I shall here only , by way of Argument ad Hominem , consider , in Answer to the Objection ; That if , for Example , you take a somewhat long and narrow Plate of Silver , that has not been hammer'd , or compress'd , or , which is surer , has been made red-hot in the Fire , and suffer'd to cool leasurely , you may bend it which way you will , and it will constantly retain the last curve Figure , that you gave It. But if , having again streightned this Plate , you give it some smart stroaks of a Hammer , it will , by that meerly Mechanical Change , become a Springy Body : So that , if with your Hand you force it a little from its Rectitude , as soon as you remove your Hand , it will endeavour to regain its former Streightness . The like may be observ'd in Copper , but nothing near so much , or scarce at all , in Lead . Now upon these Phaenomena , I demand , Why , if Nature be so careful to restore Bodies to their former State , She does not restore the Silver Blade or Plate to its Rectitude , when it is bent this way or that way , before it be Hammer'd ? And why a few stroaks of a Hammer ( which , acting violently , seems likely to have put the Metal into a Preternatural State , ) should entitle the Blade to Nature's peculiar Care , and make Her solicitous to restore it to its Rectitude , when it is forc'd from It ? And Why , if the Springy Plate be again Ignited and Refrigerated of itself , Nature abandons Her former Care of It , and suffers it quietly to continue in what crooked Posture , One pleases to put it into ? Not , now , to demand a Reason of Nature's greater Partiality to Silver , and Copper and Iron , than to Lead and Gold itself , in Reference to the Motion of Restitution ; I shall add to what I was just now saying , that even in Sword-Blades it has been often observ'd , That though , if soon after they are bent , the force that bent them be withdrawn , they will nimbly return to their former straightness ; yet , if they ( which are not the only Springy Bodies , of which this has been observ'd , ) be kept too long bent , they will lose the Power of recovering their former streightness , and continue in that crooked Posture , though the force that put them into it cease to act : So that , it seems , Nature easily forgets the care She was presum'd to take of it , at first . There is an Axiom that passes for current among Learned Men , viz. Nullum violentum durabile , that seems much to favour the Opinion of the Naturists , since 't is grounded upon a Supposition , that what is violent , is , as such , contrary to Nature , and , for that Reason , cannot last long . And this trite Sentence is , by the Schools and even some Modern Philosophers , so particularly apply'd to Local Motion , that some of them have , not improbably , made it the Characteristick token , whereby to distinguish Natural Motions from those that are not so ; that the Former are perpetual , or at least very durable , whereas the Later , being continually check'd more and more by the Renitency of Nature , do continually decay , and within no long time are suppress'd or extinguish'd : But , on this occasion , I must crave leave to make the following Reflections . 1. It may be justly Question'd , upon Grounds laid down in another Part of this Essay , Whether there be any Motion , among Inanimate Bodies , that deserves to be call'd Violent , in Contradistinction to Natural ; since among such , all Motions , where no Intelligent Spirit intervenes , are made according to Catholick , and almost , if not more than almost , Mechanical Laws . 2. Methinks , the Peripateticks , who are wont to be the most forward to imploy this Axiom , should find but little Reason to do so , if they consider how unsuitable it is to their Doctrine , That the vast Body of the Firmament and all the Planetary Orbs are , by the Primum Mobile , with a stupendious swiftness , whirl'd about , from East to West , in four and twenty Hours , contrary to their Natural tendency ; and , That this violent and rapid Motion , of the incomparably greater Part of the Universe , has lasted as long as the World itself , that is , according to Aristotle , for innumerable Ages . 3. We may observe here below , that the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea , which is generally suppos'd to proceed either from the Motion of the Moon , or that of the Terrestrial Globe , or some other External Cause , has lasted for some Thousands of Years , and probably will do so , as long as the present System of our Vortex shall continue . I consider also , that the other great Ocean , the Atmosphere , consists of numberless Myriads of Corpuscles , that are here below continually kept in a violent State ; since they are Elastical Bodies , whereof the Lower are still compress'd by the weight of the Higher . And , to make a Spring of a Body , it is requisite that it be forcibly bent or stretch'd , and have such a perpetual endeavour to fly open , or to shrink in , that it will not fail to do so , as soon as the External Force , that hinder'd it , is remov'd . And , as for the States of Inanimate Bodies , I do not see , that their being or not being Natural can be , with any certainty , concluded , from their being or not being very Durable . For , not to mention , that Leaves that wither in a few Months , and even Blossoms that often fade and fall off in few Days , are as well Natural Bodies , as the solid and durable Trees that bear them ; 't is obvious , that , whether we make the State of Fluidity , or that of Congelation , to be that which is Natural to Water , and the other that which is Violent ; Its change from one of those States into another , and even its return to its former State , is oftentimes , at some Seasons , and in some Places , made very speedily , perhaps in an Hour or less , by Causes that are acknowledg'd to be Natural . And Mists , Hail , Whirlwinds , Lightning , Falling-Stars , to name no more , notwithstanding their being Natural Bodies , are far from being lasting , especially in comparison of Glass , wherein the Ingredients , Sand and Fixt Salt , are brought together by great violence of Fire . And the Motion that a thin Plate , or slender Wire , of this Glass can exercise , to restore itself to its former Position , when forcibly bent , is ( in great part ) a lasting Effect of the same violence of the Fire . And so is the most durable perseverance of the Indissolubleness of the Alcalisate Salt , that is one of the two Ingredients of Glass , notwithstanding its being very easily dissoluble in Water and other Liquors , and not uneasily e'ne in the moist Air itself . There is a distinction of Local Motion , into Natural and Violent , that is so generally receiv'd and us'd , both by Philosophers and Physicians , that , I think , it deserves to have special Notice taken of it in this Section ; since it implicitely contains an Argument for the Existence of the Thing call'd Nature , by supposing it so manifest a Thing , as that an Important Distinction may justly be grounded on It. This imply'd Objection , I confess , is somewhat difficult to clear ; not for any great Force , that is contained in It , but because of the Ambiguity of the Terms , wherein the Distinction is wont to be imploy'd : For most Men speak of the propos'd Distinction of Motion , in so obscure , or so uncertain a way , that 't is not easie to know what they mean by either of the Members of It. But yet some there are , who endeavour to speak Intelligibly , ( and for that are to be commended ) and define Natural Motion to be That , whose Principle is within the Moving Body itself ; and Violent Motion , That which Bodies are put into by an External Agent or Cause . And , in in regard these speak more clearly than , the rest , I shall here principally consider the lately mention'd Distinction , In the Sense They give It. I say then , that , even according to this Explication , I am not satisfied with the Distinction : For , whereas 't is a Principle received , and frequently employ'd , by Aristotle and his Followers , Quicquid movetur ab alio movetur ; it seems , that , according to this Axiom , all Motion may be called Violent , since it proceedes from an External Agent ; and indeed , according to the School Philosophers , the Motion of far the greatest Part of the Visible World , though this Motion be most Regular and Lasting , must , according to the propos'd Distinction , be reputed Violent ; since they assert , that the Immense Firmament itself , and all the Planetary Orbs , ( in comparison of which vast Coelestial Part of the World , the Sublunary Part is little more than a Physical Point , ) is perpetually ( and against its Native Tendency , ) hurry'd about the the Centre of the World , once in Twenty four Hours , by an External , though Invisible , Agent , which they therefore call the Primum Mobile . And as for the Criterion of Natural Motion , that , Its Principle is within the Moving Body , it may be said , that all Bodies , once in the State of Actual Motion , whatever Cause first brought them to It , are mov'd by an Internal Principle : As , for Instance , an Arrow , that actually flies in the Air towards a Mark , moves by some Principle or other residing within itself ; for , it does not depend on the Bow 't was shot out of , since 't would continue , tho' That were Broken , or even annihilated ; nor does it depend upon the Medium , which more resists than assists its Progress , as might be easily shewn , if it were needful ; and , if we should suppose the Ambient Air either to be annihilated , or ( which in our Case would be Aequialent , ) render'd uncapable of either furthering or hindring its Progress , I see not why the Motion of the Arrow must necessarily cease , since in this Case there remains no Medium to be penetrated , and on that account oppose its Progress . When in a Watch that is wound up , the Spring endeavours to unbend or display itself ; and when the String of a drawn Bow is broken or let go , the Spring of the former , and the woo●y Part of the later , does each return to a less crooked Line . And though these Motions be occasioned by the forcible Acts of External Agents , yet the Watch , Spring , and the Bow , have in themselves ( for ought appears to those I Reason with , ) an inward Principle , by which they are mov'd till they have attain'd their Position . Some , perhaps , would add , that a Squib , or a Rocket , though an artificial Body , seems , as well as a falling Star , to move from an Internal Principle : But I shall rather observe , that , on the other side , External Agents are requisite to many Motions , that are acknowledg'd to be Natural , as , to omit the Germination and Flourishing of divers Plants , as Onions , Leeks , Potato's , &c. though hung up in the Air , by the heat of the Sun in the Spring ; to pass by this , I say , if in the Pneumatical Engine or Air-Pump , you place divers Insects , as Bees , Flies , Catterpillars , &c. and withdraw the Common Air from the Receiver , they will lye moveless , as if they were dead , though it be for several hours , whilst they are kept from enjoying the presence of the Air : But , when the External Air is permitted again to return upon them , they will presently be reviv'd , ( as I have with pleasure try'd , ) and be brought to move again , according to their respective Kinds ; as if a Fly , for Instance , resembled a little Windmill in this , that being Moveless of itself , it required the Action of the Air to put its Wings and other Parts into Motion . But , to insist no farther on these Arguments ad Hominem , we may consider , that , since Motion does not essentially belong to Matter , as Divisibility and Impenetrableness are believ'd to do ; the Motions of all Bodies , at least at the beginning of Things , and the Motions of most Bodies , the Causes of whose Motions we can discern , were impress'd on them , either by an External Immaterial Agent , God ; or by other Portions of Matter ( which are also Extrinsecal Impellers ) acting on them . And this occasion invites me to observe , that , though Motion be deservedly made one of the Principal Parts of Aristotle's Definition of Nature , yet Men are wont to call such Motions Natural , as are very hard to distinguish from those , they call Violent . Thus , when Water falls down to the Ground , they tell us , that this Motion is Natural to that Liquor , as 't is a heavy Body ; but when a Man spurts up Water out of his Mouth into the Air , they pronounce that Motion , because of its tendency upwards , to be contrary to Nature . And yet when he draws Water into his Mouth , by sucking it through a long Pipe held Perpendicularly , they will have this Motion of the Water , though directly upwards , to be not Violent , but Natural . So when a Foot-Ball , or Blown Bladder , being let fall upon a hard Floor , rebounds up to a good height , the Descent and Ascent are both said to be Natural Motions , though the former tends towards the Centre of the Earth , and the later recedes as far as it can do from it . And so if from a considerable height you let fall a Ball of some close Wood , that yet is not too heavy , as Oak or the like , into a deep Vessel of Water , it will descend a great way in that Liquor , by a Natural Motion ; and yet its contrary Motion upwards ought not to be esteem'd Violent , since , according to the Schools , being lighter in Specie than Water , 't is Natural to it to affect its proper Place , for which purpose it must ascend to the top of the Liquor , and lye afloat there ; and yet 't is from these tendencies to opposite Points , ( as the Zenith and the Nadir ) that Men are wont to judg many Motions of Bodies to be Natural or Violent . And indeed , since it must be indifferent to a Lifeless and Insensible Body , to what place 't is made to move , all its Motions may , in some respect , be said to be Natural , and in another , Violent : For as very many Bodies of visible Bulk are set a moving by External Impellents , and , on that score , their Motions may be said to be Violent ; so the generality of Impell'd Bodies do move either upwards , downwards , &c. toward any Part of the World , in what Line or Way soever they find their Motion least resisted ; which Impulse and Tendency , being given by vertue of what they call the general Laws of Nature , the Motion may be said to be Natural . I might here take notice , that , according to the Epicurean Hypothesis , it need not at all be admitted , that Motion must be produc'd by such a Principle , as the Schoolmens Nature . For , according to that great and ancient Sect of Philosophers , the Atomists , every indivisible Corpuscle has actual Motion , or an incessant endeavour to change Place , essentially belonging to it , as 't is an Atom : Insomuch that in no case it can be depriv'd of this Property or Power . And all sensible Bodies being , according to these Physiologers , but casual Concretions or Coalitions of Atoms ; each of them needs no other Principle of Motion , than that unloseable endeavour of the Atoms that compose it ; and happen , on the account of Circumstance , to have the Tendency of the more numerous , or at least the predominant , Corpuscles , determin'd one way . And to these I might add some other such Reflections . But I shall , in this place , say no more concerning Motion , not only because , even after having consider'd the differing Definitions , that Aristotle , Cartesius , and some other Philosophers , have given of it , I take it to be too difficult a Subject , to be clearly explicated in few words ; but because the only occasion I had to mention it here , was , to shew that the vulgar Distinction of it into Natural and Violent is not so clear and well-grounded , as to oblige us to admit ( what it supposes , ) that there is such a Being , as the Naturists assert . I come now to consider the Argument , that may be drawn in favour of the Receiv'd Notion of Nature , from the Critical Evacuations which happen at certain times in Diseases , and the strange Shifts that Nature sometimes makes use of in them , to free Herself from the Noxious Humours that oppress'd Her. This Argument I willingly acknowledg to be very considerable . For we really see , that in Continual Feavers , especially in hotter Climates , there do usually happen , at certain times of the Diseases , Notable and Critical Commotions or Conflicts , after which the Morbifick Matter is dispos'd of and discharg'd by Ways strange and surprising , to the great and speedy Relief of the Patient , if not to his perfect Cure ; as may appear by many Instances , to be met with in the Observations of Physcians about Feavers , Pleurisies , &c. Upon this Account , I take the Argument drawn from Crises's to be much the weightiest , that can be urg'd for the Opinion from which I Dissent , and therefore I shall employ the more words in clearing this important Difficulty . In order to this , I desire it may be kept in mind , that I do not only acknowledge , but teach , that the Body of a Man is an incomparable Engine , which the most wise Author of Things has so skilfully fram'd , for lasting very many Years , that , if there were in it an Intelligent Principle of Self-preservation , ( as the Naturists suppose there is ) Things would not , in most Cases , be better or otherwise manag'd , for the Conservation of the Animals Life , than they generally are . So that the Question is not , Whether there is a great deal of Providence and Wisdom exercis'd , in the Crises's of Diseases , but upon what Account it is , that these apposite Things are perform'd ? The Universal Opinion of Physcians is , that 't is that Intelligent Principle they call Nature , which , being solicitous for the Welfare of the Patient , and distress'd by the quantity or hurtfulness of the Morbifick Matter , watches Her opportunity ( especially when 't is concocted ) to expel it hastily out of the Body , by the most safe and convenient Ways , which , in the present condition of the Patient , can be taken . And I , on the other side , attribute Crises's to the Wisdom and ordinary Providence of God , exerting Itself by the Mechanism , partly of that great Machine , the World , and partly of that smaller Engine , the Human Body , as 't is constituted in the Patients present Circumstance . And the Reasons that hinder me , from acquiescing in the general Opinion of Physicians about Crises's , are principally these . First , I observe that Crises's , properly so call'd , do very seldom happen in other than Feavers , and the like acute Diseases ; where , according to the common Course of Things , the Malady is terminated , in no long time , either by Recovery , or Death , or a change into some other Disease : But Chronical-sicknesses , such as Coughs , Dropsies , Gouts , &c. unless they happen to be accompany'd with Feaverish Distempers , are not wont to have Crises's ; which argues , that Nature doth not make Critical Evacuations , upon the account of such Care and Watchfulness , as Physicians ascribe them to : Since She neglects to employ so Salutary an Expedient in Diseases , that are oftentimes no less Dangerous and Mortal , than divers acute Diseases , which She attempts to Cure by Crises's . Next I consider , that Critical Evacuations may be procur'd by the bare Mechanism of the Body . For , by vertue of That , it will often happen , that the Fibres , or motive Organs of the Stomach , Bowels , and other Parts , being Distended or Vellicated by the Plenty or Acrimony of the Peccant Matter , will , by that Irritation , be brought to contract themselves vigorously , and to throw out the Matter that offends the Parts , either by the Emunctories or Common-Shores of the Body , or by whatever Passages the proscrib'd Matter can be , with most ease , discharg'd . Thus , when some Men find their Stomachs burden'd with a Clog of Meat or Drink , they use to thrust their Fingers into their Throats , and , by that Mechanical way , provoke the Stomach to disburden itself of its offensive Load , without being beholden to Natures Watchfulness for a Crisis , which probably She would not ( at least so seasonably ) attempt . And thus , whereas 't is usual enough , for Crises's to be made in Feavers by large Haemorrhagi's at the Nose , and sometimes at other Parts , which is ascrib'd to Natures Watchful Solicitude for the Patients Recovery ; I must take leave to add , that it hath been divers times observ'd , that , even after Death , large Bleedings have succeeded , at the Nose and other Parts of the Body : Which shews , that such Excretions may be made by vertue of the Structure of it , and the Turgescence and Acrimony of the Humours , without any Design of Nature , to save the Life of the Patient , already Dead . Indeed , if it did appear by Experience , that all , or almost all , the Crises's of Diseases , did either expel the Morbifick Matter , or at least notably relieve the Patient , the Critical Attempts of Nature would much favour the Opinion Men have conceiv'd of her Vigilance and Conduct : But unwelcome Instances daily shew , that , as some Crises's are Salutary , ( as they call them ) so others prove Mortal . And among those that do not directly or presently kill the Patient , there are divers that leave him in a worse Condition , than he was before . And therefore , I wonder not , that Physicians have thought themselves oblig'd to lay down several Circumstances , as necessary Requisites of a laudable Crisis , if any of which be wanting , 't is not thought of the best kind ; and if the contrary to some of them happen , 't is to be judg'd either pernicious , or at least hurtful . For , whereas there are two general Ways , suppos'd to be employ'd by Nature in making Crises's , the one by expulsion of the Peccant Matter out of the Body , and the other by the setling of the Matter somewhere within it : Neither of these two Ways is constantly successful . And therefore Experience hath oblig'd Physicians to divide Crises's , not only into perfect , that fully determine the event of the Disease , and imperfect , that do but alter it for the better or the worse ; but into Salutary , that quite deliver the Patient , and Mortal , that destroy him . And to a Perfect and Salutary Crisis , some Learned Men require no less than six Conditions ; namely , that it be preceded by Signs of Coction of the Peccant Matter ; that it be made by a manifest and sufficiently copious Excretion or Translation ; that it be made upon a Critical Day , as the seventh , fourteenth , twentieth , &c. that it leave no Relicks behind it , that may indanger a Relapse ; that it be made safely , that is , without dangerous Symptoms : And lastly , that it be suitable to the Nature of the Disease , and the Patient . By this it may appear , that 't is no common thing to meet with a Perfect and Salutary Crisis , so many laudable Conditions must concur in it ; and indeed Nature doth usually take up with but imperfectly good Ones , and it were happy if She made not better , provided She made no worse . But 't is found , by sad Experience , that She rouses Herself up to make a Crisis , not only upon improper , and , as Physicians call them , Intercident Days , such as the Third , Fifth , Ninth , &c. or upon those they call Empty or Medicinal Days , which seldom afford any Crisis , and much seldomer a good One , but also when there appear not any signs of Coction , or at least of due Coction , and by these unseasonable Attempts weaken the Patient , and encrease the Malady , or perhaps make it speedily Mortal . Nor will it justifie Nature , to say , with some Learned Physicians , that these Attempts are Accidentally brought on by the Acrimony or Importunity of the Morbifick Matter , by which She is provok'd , before the time , to endeavour an Expulsion of it . For if Nature be indeed so Prudent and Watchful a Guardian , as She is thought , She ought not to suffer Herself to be provok'd to act Preposterously , and make furious Attempts , that lavish to no purpose , or worse than no purpose , that little strength the Patient hath so much need of . And therefore Physicians do oftentimes very well , when , to act agreeably to the Dictates of Prudence , they forget , how much Wisdom they are wont to ascribe to Nature , and employ their best Skill and Remedies to suppress or moderate the inordinate Motions , or the improper and profuse Evacuations , that irritated Nature rashly begins to make . And though the Crises's that are made by a Metastasis of the Peccant Matter , or by lodging it in some particular Part of the Body , whether External or Internal , be oftentimes , when they are not Salutary , somewhat less Hurtful , than those that are made by Excretion ; yet these do frequently , though perhaps more slowly , prove Dangerous enough , producing sometimes inward Imposthumes , and sometimes External Tumors , in Parts that are either Noble by their Functions , or by their Situation , or Connexion , or Sympathy with others , that are not to be without Hazard or great Inconvenience oppress'd . I know that Physicians make it a great Argument of Nature's Providence and Skill , that She watches for the Concoction of the Peccant Matter , before She rouses Herself up to expel it by a Crisis . What is to be meant by this Coction of Humours , ( for it ought not to be confounded with the Coction of the Aliments ) they are not wont so clearly to declare . But , as I understand it , when they say that a Portion of Peccant Matter is brought to Coction , they mean , that it has acquir'd such a Disposition , as makes it more fit , than before , to be separated from the sounder Portion of the Mass of Blood , or from the consistent Parts , to which it perhaps formerly adhered , and to be afterwards expell'd out of the Body . This may be partly exemplifi'd by what happens in some recent Colds , where the Lungs are affected , in which we see , that , after a few days , the Phlegm is made more fluid ; and that which is lodg'd in the Lungs , ( not sticking so fast to the inside of the Aspera Arteria ) is easily brought up by Coughing , which could not dislodg it before . And in Feavers , that separation in the Urine , formerly Cloudless , that Physicians look upon as a good sign of Coction , seems to be produc'd by some part of the Peccant Matter , that , beginning to be separated from the Blood , mingles with the Urine , and is not usually distinguish'd from it , whilst this Liquor is warm ; but when it is grown cold , does , on the score of its Weight or Texture , somewhat recede , and appear in a distinct Form , as of a Cloud , a Sediment , &c. But whatever they mean by Coction , 't is plain enough , by what hath been lately noted , that , on many occasions , Nature doth not wait for it , but unseasonably , and oftentimes dangerously , attempts to proscribe the Matter that offends Her , before it be duly prepar'd for Expulsion . I come now to that Circumstance of Crises's , that is thought the most Wonderful , which is , that Nature does oftentimes by very unusual Ways , and at unexpected Places , discharge the Matter that offends Her , and thereby either Cures , or notably Relieves , the Patient . And it must not be deny'd , that , in some cases , the Critical Evacuations have somewhat of Suprising in them ; and I shall also readily grant , that , N. B. [ Divine Providence may expressly interpose , not only in the infliction of Diseases by way of Punishment , but in the removal of them in the way of Mercy . ] But , setting aside these extraordinary Cases , I think it not absurd to conjecture , that the performances of Nature , in common Crises's , may be probably referr'd , partly to the particular condition of the Matter to be expell'd , and partly ( and indeed principally ) to some peculiar Disposition in the Primitive Fabrick of some Parts of the Patients Body , or some unusual change made in the Construction of these Parts by the Disease itself , or other Accidents ; which Original or Adventitious disposition , of the Sick Man's Body , not being visible to us , at least whilst he is alive , we are apt to ascribe the unexpected Accidents of a Crisis , if it prove Salutary , to the wonderful Providence of Nature . And , if it happen to be other than Salutary , we are wont to overlook them . To illustrate this Matter , we may consider , that plentiful Evacuations , procured by Medicines , are a kind of Artificial Crises's : We see , that some Bodies are so constituted , that , although the peccant Humour , wrought on by the Medicine , ought , as the Physitian thinks , to be expell'd by Siege , and indeed is wont to be so , in the Generality of those that take that kind of Medicine , as , for Instance , Rhubarb or Senna ; yet the peculiar disposition of the Patient's Stomach will make that an Emetick , which was intended to be , and regularly should be , a Cathartick . Nor does this Constitution of the Stomach equally regard all Purging Medicines ; for the same Stomach , that will reject them in the Form , for Instance , of a Potion , will quietly entertain them , being in the Form of Pills . And to this let me add what we observe of the Operation of Mercury ; which though , if it be duly prepared , it is usually given to procure Salivation , especially to Succulent Bodies ; yet there are some Patients , wherein , instead of Salivating , 't will violently and dangerously work downwards , like a Purge , or make some other unexpected Evacuation . And I have seen a Patient , who , though Young and very Fat , could not be brought to Salivate , neither by the Gentler ways , nor by Turbith-Mineral and Other harsher Medicines , though administred by very skilful Physitians and Chyrurgeons . And this Peculiarity may be as well Contracted , as Native . For some Persons , especially after Surfeits , having been rufly dealt with , or at least tyr'd out with a Medicine of this or that kind of Form , will afterwards Nauseate and Vomit up the like Medicine , tho' in other Bodies it be never so far from ●●ing Emetick . We see also , that sometimes Sudorifick Medicines , instead of procuring Sweat , prove briskly Diuretick , and sometimes either Purging or Vomitive . From all this we may Argue , that the qualities of the irritating Matter , and much more the particular disposition of the Patients Body , may procure Evacuations at unexpected Places . I remember too , that , among the Observations I have met with of famous Physitians , there are Instances of Periodical and Critical Evacuations , at very inconvenient , as well as unusual , Vents ; as some Women are Recorded to have had their Menses , sometimes at the Eyes , sometimes at the Navil , and sometimes at the Mouth ; of which there seems no cause so probable , as some peculiar Structure , whether Native or Adventitious , of the Internal Parts concern'd in that discharge ; and of such unusual Structures , Anatomists must have seen Many , since I my self have observ'd more than One or Two. If these uncommon Ways of disposing of the Morbifick Matter were always Salutary to the Patient , the Argument grounded on them would have more weight : But though most Men take notice of this sort of Crises's , but when they are Lucky , yet an Impartial Observer shall often find , that ill-condition'd and hurtful Crises's may be made by unusual and unexpected ways . And , in some Translations of the Morbifick Matter to distant and nobler Parts , perhaps it will be as difficult to shew , by what Channels or known Ways the Matter pass'd from one to another , as 't is to determine , how it was conducted to those Parts , at which it was the most happily Vented . In the foregoing Discourse about Crises's , there is , I confess , much of Paradox ; and 't was unwillingly enough ; that I made an Excursion , or In-road , into a Subject that has been look'd upon as the Physitians peculiar Province . And , you may remember , that not far from the beginning of this little Book , I told you , that I was willing to decline medling with Other , than Inanimate Bodies : Living Ones being , as of a less simple Sort , so of a more intricate Speculation ; which Reflexion will , I hope , excuse me to you , if you find , that my propos'd Brevity , or the difficulty of the Subject , has had any great Influence on what I write , about Health , Diseases and Crises's . And , as for the Sons of Aesculapius , it may be represented to them , in my favour , that , besides that I have treated of Sickness and Crises's , rather as a Physiologer than a Physician , I could not leave them unconsider'd , without being thought , if not to betray , at least to be wanting to , the Cause I was to plead for . If it should be dislik'd , that I make the Phaenomena of the merely Corporeal Part of the World , under which I comprize the Bodies of Animals , though not the Rational Souls of Men , to be too generally referr'd to Laws Mechanical ; I hope you will remember , for me , several things dispers'd in this Treatise , that may , when laid together , afford a sufficient Answer to this Surmize ; and particularly , that almost all the Modern Philosophers , and among Them divers eminent Divines , scruple not to forsake the spread Opinion , That the Coelestial Orbs were mov'd and guided by Intelligences ; and to explicate , by Physical Causes , the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon , the Production or Apparition and Phaenomena of Comets , and other Things , that the Romans , as well as other Heathens , both Ancient and Modern , have ascrib'd to the immediate Agency of Divine Causes . This allows me to observe to you , that , since these Modern Naturalists and Divines are wont to explicate the Phaenomena of the vast Coelestial Bodies , by their Local Motions and the Consequences of Them ; They do , as well as I , endeavour to account for what happens in the incomparably greatest Part of the Vniverse , by Physico-Mechanical Principles and Laws . And , even in the Terrestrial Part of the World , which we Men inhabit , most of the Moderns , that have freed themselves from the Prejudices of the Schools , do not stick to give Statical , Hydro-Statical , and other Mechanical Explications of the Ascension of Water in Pumps , the Detention of it in Watering-Pots , whose upper Orifices are clos'd , and of other various Phaenomena , which were formerly unanimously ascrib'd to Nature's wonderful Providence , express'd in Her care to hinder a Vacuum . But perhaps you will think it fitter for me to provide against their Censure , who will dislike what I have written about Crises's , not because I have ascrib'd too much to merely Physical Causes , but ( on the contrary , ) because I do not strictly confine my self to Them. For I doubt , that if you should shew these Papers to some of your Friends , that affect to be strict Naturalists , they will think it strange , that in one of the Clauses in the foregoing Discourse about Crises's , ( I mean , that to which this Mark N. B. is prefix'd , ) I admit that their Events may sometimes be vary'd by some peculiar Interposition of God. But yet I own to you , that the Clause , 't is like they would take Exceptions at , did not unawares slip from my Pen. For 't is my setled Opinion , that Divine Prudence is often , at least , conversant in a peculiar manner about the Actions of Men , and the things that happen to Them , or have a necessary Connexion with the One , or the Other , or Both. And tho' I think it probable , that in the Conduct of that far greatest Part of the Universe , which is merely Corporeal , the Wise Author of it does seldom manifestly procure a Recession from the settled Course of the Universe , and especially from the most Catholick Laws of Motion : Yet , where Men , who are Creatures , that He is pleas'd to indow with Free Wills , ( at least in reference to things not Spiritual , ) are nearly and highly concern'd ; I think he has , not only sometimes by those signal and manifest Interpositions we call Miracles , acted by a Supernatural way , but , as the Sovereign Lord and Governor of the World , doth divers times , ( and perhaps oftner than mere Philosophers imagine ) give by the Intervention of Rational Minds , as well united , as not united , to human Bodies , divers such determinations to the Motion of Parts in those Bodies , and of Others , which may be affected by Them , as by Laws merely Mechanical , those Parts of Matter would not have had : By which Motions , so determin'd , either Salutary or Fatal Crises's , and many other Things , conducive to the Welfare or Detriment of Men , are produc'd . The Interposition of Divine Providences , in cases of Life and Death , might be easily shewn to Christians out of divers Passages of Scripture , which expresly propos'd long Life as a Reward to Obedient Children , and to other Righteous Persons among the Iews , and threatens bloody and deceitful Men , that they shall not live out half their days ; and which relates , that a King of Israel had his Disease made Mortal by his Impious recourse to the false God of Eckron ; and that , upon Hezekiah's Prayers and Tears , God was pleased to add fifteen Years to his Life , and grant a special Benediction to an outward Medicine , apply'd to his threatning Sore . To which Passages divers may be added out of the New-Testament also , and especially that of St. Iames , who exhorts the Sick to seek for Recovery by Prayer ; and that of St. Paul , where , speaking to the Corinthians of the unworthy Receivers of the Sacrament of the Eucharist , he tells them , that , For that cause , divers were become sick and weak among them , and many also died . But though the nature of this Discourse dissuades me from imploying here the Authority of Scripture , yet it allows me to observe , ( what is considerable on this occasion ) that Natural Theology and Right Reason comport very well with our propos'd Doctrine . For , as I lately intimated , and do more fully shew in another Paper , * God has left to the Will of Man the direction of many Local Motions in the Parts of his own Body , and thereby of some others ; though the Mechanical Laws , on which the ordinary Course of Things mainly depends , do not only regulate the Motions of Bodies , but the Determinations too : And since Man himself is vouchsaf'd a Power , to alter , in several Cases , the usual Course of Things , it should not seem incredible , that the latent Interposition of Men , or perhaps Angels , or other Causes unthought of by Us , should sometimes be imploy'd to the like purposes by God , who is not only the All-wise Maker , but the Absolute , and yet most Just and Benign , Rector of the Universe , and of Men. To conclude the Excursion , which I hope will not appear useless , that has been occasion'd by the Discourse of Crises's , I think it becomes a Christian Philosopher , to admit , in general , that God doth sometimes in a peculiar , though hidden way , interpose in the ordinary Phaenomena and events of Crises's ; but yet , that this is done so seldom , at least in a way that we can certainly discern , that we are not hastily to have recourse to an extraordinary Providence , and much less to the strange care and skill of that question'd Being call'd Nature , in this or that particular Case , though perhaps unexpected , if it may be probably accounted for by Mechanical Laws , and the ordinary Course of Things . And here , though in a place less proper than I might have chosen , if I had timely remembred it , I shall , both in reference to the extraordinary Accidents that sometimes happen in Crises's , and more generally to the seemingly irregular Phaenomena of the Universe , venture to offer you a Notion , that perhaps you will not dislike . I think then , that , when we consider the World , and the Physical Changes that happen in It , with reference to the Divine Wisdom and Providence ; the Arguments for the Affirmative ought , in their kind , to have more force than those for the Negative . For it seems more allowable , to argue a Providence from the exquisite Structure and Symmetry of the Mundane Bodies , and the apt Subordination and Train of Causes , than to infer from some Physical Anomalies , that Things are not fram'd and administred by a wise Author and Rector . For the Characters and Impressions of Wisdom , that are Conspicuous in the curious Fabrick and orderly Train of Things , can , with no probability , be referr'd to blind Chance , but must be to a most Intelligent and Designing Agent . Whereas , on the other hand , besides that the Anomalies , we speak of , are incomparably fewer , than those Things which are regular , and are produc'd in an orderly Way ; besides this , I say , the Divine Maker of the Universe being a most free Agent , and having an Intellect infinitely Superior to Ours , may , in the Production of seemingly irregular Phaenomena , have Ends unknown to us , which even the Anomalies may be very fit to compass . Thus , when a Man , not vers'd in the Mathematicks , looks upon a curious Geographical Globe , though , as soon as he perceives that the differing Bignesses , and particular Confines of Kingdoms and Provinces , and the apt Situations , true Distances and Bearings of the Cities and Towns he knows by Sight or Fame , be rightly set down ; he cannot but conclude , from these Impresses of Art or Skill , that this was the Work of a designing Artificer . But though he also sees on the same Globe several Circles , as the Tropicks , the Zodiack , the Meridians , &c. if he be a sober Man , he will not think that these were made by Chance only , because he knows not the Reasons or Uses of Them , or because some of the Lines , as those Curve-Lines the Seamen call Rumbs , are not , like the other , Circular , but do odly , and with a seeming Irregularity , intersect them : But will rather think , that the Artist , that had knowledg enough to represent the Globe of the Earth and Waters , in a Body not two foot in Diameter , had also skill enough to draw those Lines , with some Design worthy of the same Skill , though not obvious to those that are unacquainted with his Art. I did not incogitantly speak of Irregularities , as if they might sometimes be but seeming Ones . For I think it very possible , that an Artificer of so vast a Comprehension , and so piercing a Sight , as is the Maker of the World , might , in this great Automaton of His , have so order'd Things , that divers of Them may appear to us , and as it were break out , abruptly and unexpectedly , and at great distances of Time or Place from one another , and on such accounts be thought Irregular ; which yet really have , both in his Preordination , and in the Connection of their Genuine Causes , a reference that would , if we discern'd it , keep us from imputing it either to Chance , or to Nature's Aberrations . To illustrate this a little , let us consider , that if , when the Jesuits , that first came into China , presented a curious striking Watch to the King , he that look'd to it had wound up the Alarm , so as to strike a little after One ; if , I say , this had been done , and that these Chineses , that look'd upon it as a living Creature , or some European Animal , would think , that when the Index , pointing at two of the Clock , likewise struck the same Hour , and so three , four , and onward , they would judg that these Noises were regularly produc'd , because they ( at equal Intervals of time ) heard them , and whensoever the Index pointed at an Hour , and never but then ; but when the Alarm came unexpectedly to make a loud , confus'd , and more lasting Noise , they could scarce avoid thinking , that the Animal was sick , or exceedingly disorder'd : And yet the Alarming noise did as properly flow from the Structure of the little Engine , and was as much design'd by the Manager of it , as those Sounds of the Clock , that appear'd manifestly Regular . SECT . VII . I proceed now to the Sixth and Difficultest part of my Task , which is to shew , That the most general and current Effata and Axioms concerning Nature , that are wont to be imploy'd in the Writings of Philosophers , may have a fair Account given of them , agreeably to the Doctrine I have hitherto propos'd , tho' these Axioms do some of them suppose , and others seem strongly to support , the receiv'd Notion of Nature . To clear the way for the ensuing Explications , I must desire you to recall to mind the two Cautions I have formerly offer'd you ( in the Fifth Section , ) wherewith I would have the common Doctrine , about the Ends or Designs of Nature , to be understood or limited . And therefore I shall not here repeat , what I there said , but only add in two words , that if those , and some few other such things , had been observ'd and duly consider'd , they might perhaps have prevented much of the Obscurity , and some of the Errors , that relate to the Notion of Nature . I hope you have not forgot , that the design of this Paper was , to examine the Vulgar Notion of Nature , not to establish a new One of my own . And indeed the Ambiguity of the Word is so great , ( as hath in the Second Section been made appear ) and 't is , even by Learned Men , frequently imploy'd to signifie such different Things ; that , without Enumerating and Distinguishing its various Acceptions , it were very unsafe to venture a giving a Definition of it , and perhaps it were very impossible to give any , that would not be liable to censure . I shall not therefore here presume to define a Thing , of which I have not found a stated and setled Notion so far agreed on amongst Men , but that I was oblig'd , out of Aristotle and Others , to compile , in the Fourth Section , a Collective Representation of the vulgarly receiv'd Idea , or Notion of Nature : And afterwards to draw up , as well as I could , instead of an accurate Definition , tolerable Descriptions of what , on most occasions , may be intelligibly meant by It. Wherefore , desiring and presuming , that you will retain in your Mind , and , as occasion shall require , apply , in the following Part of this Essay , the Things already delivered in the Fourth Section , I will not trouble you with the Repetition of Them. But before I descend to treat of the particular Effata or Sentences , that are Receiv'd concerning Nature's Actings , it may not be improper , nor unuseful , to try if we can clear the way , by considering in what sense Nature may , or may not , be said to act at all , or to do this or that . For , for ought I can clearly discern , whatsoever is perform'd in the merely Material World , is really done by particular Bodies , acting according to the Laws of Motion , Rest , &c. that are setled and maintain'd by God among Things Corporeal . In which Hypothesis , Nature seems rather a Notional Thing , than a true Physical , and distinct or separate , Efficient ; such as would be , in case Aristotles Doctrine were true , one of those Intelligences , that he presum'd to be the Movers of the Coelestial Orbs. But Men do oftentimes express themselves so very ambiguously or intricately , when they say , that Nature does this and that , or , that She acts thus and thus ; that 't is scarce ( if at all ) possible to translate their Expressions into any Forms of Speech , adequate to the Original and yet Intelligible . For which Reason , though I have in the Section said something to the same purpose with what I am now to propose , yet the difficulty and weight of the Subject makes me think it may be expedient , if not necessary , in this place somewhat more fully to declare what Men do , or should , mean , when they speak of Nature's acting , or of a Thing 's being Naturally done or performed , by giving their Words and Phrases sometimes one Interpretation , and sometimes another . I. Sometimes when 't is said , that Nature does this or that ; 't is less proper to say , that 't is done by Nature , than , that it is done according to Nature . So that , Nature is not here to be look'd on , as a distinct or separate Agent , but as a Rule , or rather a Systeme of Rules , according to which , those Agents , and the Bodies they work on , are , by the Great Author of Things , determin'd to act and suffer . Thus , when Water is rais'd in a Sucking-Pump , 't is said , that Nature makes the Water ascend after the Sucker , to prevent a Vacuum ; though in reality this Ascension is made , not by such a separate Agent , as Nature is fancied to be , but by the Pressure of the Atmosphere , acting upon the Water , according to Statical Rules , or the Laws or the Aequilibrium of Liquors , settled by God among Fluids , whether Visible or Pneumatical . So , when the strict Peripateticks tell us , that all the Visible Coelestial Orbs , being by a Motion , that they call Violent , hurried about the Earth every four and twenty Hours from East to West ; each of the Planetary Orbs has a Natural Motion , that is quite contrary , tending from the West to the East : If they will speak congruously to their Master's Doctrine , they must use the term Natural in the sense our Observation gives It : Since Aristotle will have the Coelestial Orbs to be moved by external or separate Agents namely , Spiritual Intelligences . Our Observation may be also illustrated by other forms of Speech , that are in use ; as when 't is said , that the Law takes care of Infants and Lunaticks , that their indiscreet Actions or Omissions should not damnifie their Inheritances ; and , that the Law Hangs Men for Murther , but only Burns them in the Hand for some lesser Faults ; of which Phrases the Meaning is , that Magistrates and other Ministers of Justice , acting according to the Law of the Land , do the things mention'd . And it tends yet more directly to our purpose to take Notice , that 't is common to ascribe to Art those things that are really perform'd by Artificers , according to the Prescriptions of the Art , as when 't is said , that Geometry ( as the Name imports , ) measures Lands , Astrology foretels Changes of Weather and other future Accidents , Architecture makes Buildings , and Chymistry prepares Medicines . II. Sometimes , when divers Things , such as the Growth of Trees , the Maturations of Fruits , &c. are said to be perform'd by the course of Nature , the Meaning ought to be , that such things will be brought to pass by their proper and immediate Causes , according to the wonted Manner and Series or Order of their Actings . Thus 't is said , that , by the course of Nature the Summer days are longer than those of the Winter : That , when the Moon is in Opposition to the Sun , ( that is in the Full Moon , ) that Part of Her Body which respects the Earth , is more Enlightned than at the New Moon , or at either of the Quadratures : And lastly , That when She enters more or less into the Conical Shadow of the Earth , She suffers a total or a partial Eclipse . And yet these and other Illustrious Phaenomena may be clearly explicated without recourse to any such Being as the Aristotelians Nature , barely by considering the Situations and wonted Motions of the Sun or Earth , and the Moon , with reference to each other , and to the Terrestrial Globe . And here it may not be amiss to take notice , that we may sometimes usefully distinguish between the Laws of Nature , more properly so call'd , and the Custom of Nature , or , if you please , between the Fundamental and General Constitutions among Bodily Things , and the Municipal Laws , ( if I may so call them , ) that belong to this or that particular sort of Bodies . As , to resume and somewhat vary our Instance drawn ftom Water ; when this falls to the Ground , it may be said to do so by virtue of the Custom of Nature , it being almost constantly usual for that Liquor to tend downwards , and actually to fall down , if it be not externally hinder'd . But when Water ascends by Suction in a Pump , or other Instrument , that Motion , being contrary to that which is wonted , is made in virtue of a more Catholick Law of Nature , by which 't is provided , that a greater Pressure , which in our case the Water suffers from the weight of the Incumbent Air , should surmount a lesser , such as is here the Gravity of the Water , that ascends in the Pump or Pipe. The two foregoing Observations may be farther illustrated , by considering , in what sense Men speak of things which they call Praeter-natural , or else Contrary to Nature . For divers , if not most , of their Expressions of this kind , argue , that Nature is in Them taken for the Particular and Subordinate , or , as it were , the Municipal Laws establish'd among Bodies . Thus Water , when 't is intensly Hot , is said to be in a Praeter-natural State , because it is in One that 't is not usual to It , and , Men think , doth not regularly belong to It ; though the Fire or Sun , that thus agitates It and puts it into this State , is confess'd to be a Natural Agent , and is not thought to act otherwise than according to Nature . Thus , when a Spring , forcibly bent , is conceiv'd to be in a State contrary to its Nature , as is argued from its incessant Endeavour to remove the compressing Body ; this State , whether Praeter-natural , or contrary to Nature , should be thought such , but in reference to the Springy Body . For otherwise 't is as agreeable to the grand Laws , that obtain among Things Corporeal , that such a Spring should remain bent by the degree of Force , that actually keeps it so , as that it should display itself in spight of a less , or incompetent , Degree of Force . And to omit the Six Non-natural Things , so much spoken of by Physitians , I must here take notice , that though a Disease be generally reckon'd as a Praeter-natural Thing , or , as Others carry the Notion further , a State contrary to Nature ; yet , that must be understood only with reference to what customarily happens to a human Body : Since excessively cold Winds , and immoderate Rains , and sultry Air , and other Usual Causes of Diseases , are as Natural Agents , and act as agreeably to the Catholick Laws of the Universe , when they produce Diseases , as when they condense the Clouds into Rain or Snow , blow Ships into their Harbour , make Rivers overflow , ripen Corn and Fruit , and do such other Things , whether they be hurtful or beneficial to Men. And , upon a like Account , when Monsters are said to be Praeternatural Things ; the Expression is to be understood with regard to that particular Species of Bodies , from which the Monster does enormously deviate , though the Causes , that produce that Deviation , act but according to the general Laws , whereby Things Corporeal are guided . 3. I doubt , whether I should add as a Third Remark , or as somewhat that is referrable to one or both of the Two foregoing , that sometimes , when 't is said , that Nature performs this or that Thing , we are not to conceive , that this Thing is an Effect really produc'd by other than by proper Physical Causes or Agents ; but , in such Expressions , we are rather to look upon Nature , either as a Relative Thing , or as a Term imployed to denote a Notional Thing , with reference whereunto Physical Causes are consider'd , as acting after some peculiar manner , whereby we may distinguish their Operations from those that are produc'd by other Agents , or perhaps by the same , consider'd as acting in another Way . This , I think , may be Illustrated by some other receiv'd Expressions , or Forms of Speech . As , when many of the Ancient , and some of the Modern , Philosophers , have said , that Things are brought Fatally to pass ; they did not mean , that Fate was a distinct and separate Agent , but only , that the Physical Causes perform'd the Effect , as , in their Actings , they had a necessary Dependance upon one another , or an inviolable Connexion that link'd them together . And on the other side , when Men say , as they too frequently do , that Fortune or Chance , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( for Aristotle and his Followers distinguish Them , ascribing to the former , what unexpectedly happens to Deliberating or Designing , and to the later , what happens to Inanimate or Undesigning Beings , ) has done this or that : Considerate Philosophers do not look upon Fortune or Chance as a true and distinct Physical Cause , but as a Notional Thing , that denotes , that the proper Agents produc'd the Effect without an Intention to do so , ( as I have more fully declar'd in the Fourth Section . ) One may , for ought I know , without Impertinence , refer to this our Third Observation , That many Things are wont to be attributed to Time ; as , when we say , that Time ripens some Fruits that are too early gather'd ; that it makes many things moulder and decay , ( Tempus edax rerum ; ) that 't is the Mother of Truth ; that it produces great Alterations , both in the Affairs of Men , and in their Dispositions and their Bodies : To omit many other Vulgar Expressions , which represent Time as the Cause of several Things , whereof really it is but an Adjunct or a Concomitant of the Effects , ( however Coincident with the successive Parts of Time , and so , some way , related to It ) being indeed produc'd by other Agents , that are their true and proper Efficients . Sometimes likewise , when it is said , that Nature does this or that , we ought not to suppose , that the Effect is produc'd by a distinct or separate Being ; but , on such Occasions , the Word Nature is to be concei●●d to signifie a Complex or Convention of all the Essential Properties , or necessary Qualities , that belong to a Body of that Species whereof the real Agent is , or to more Bodies respectively , if more must concur to the Production of the Effect . To this sense we are to expound many of those Forms of Speech , that are wont to be imploy'd , when Physicians , or others , speak of what Nature does in reference to Diseases , or the Cure of them . And , to give a right sense to such Expressions , I consider Nature , not as a Principal and Distinct Agent , but a kind of Compounded Accident , that is ( as it were ) made up of , or results from , the divers Properties and Qualities that belong to the true Agents . And , that the Name of a Compounded Accident may not be startled at , I shall , to explain what I mean by it , observe , that , as there are some Qualities or Accidents , that , at least in comparison of others , may be call'd Simple , as Roundness , Streightness , Heat , Gravi●● , &c. so there are others , that may be conceiv'd as Compounded , or made up of several Qualities united in one Subject : As , in divers Pigments , Greenness is made up of Blew and Yellow , exquisitely mix'd ; Beauty is made up of fit Colours , taking Features , just Stature , fine Shape , graceful Motions , and some other Accidents of the Human Body and its Parts . And , of this sort of Compounded Accidents , I am apt to think , there are far more , than , at the first mention of them , one would imagine . And to this kind of Beings , the Expressions , that Naturists do on divers occasions imploy , incline me to think , that , what is call'd Nature has a great Affinity , at least in reference to those Occasions . On which Supposition , one may conceive , that , as when 't is said , that Health makes a Man Eat well , Digest well , Sleep well , &c. Considering Men do not look upon Health as a Distinct and Separate Cause of these Effects ; but , as what we lately call'd a Compounded Accident , that is , a Complex of all the Real and Genuine Causes of good Appetite , Digestion , Sleep , &c. insomuch that Health is not so properly the Cause of these , as their Effect or Result : So in divers Things that Nature is said to do , we need conceive no more , than that the Effects are produc'd by Physical Bodies and Qualities , or other proper Causes ; which , when we consider as conspiring , or rather concurring , to produce the same Effect , by a Compendious Term we call Nature . By these and the like ways of Interpretation , I thought fit to try , whether I could give an Intelligible and Commodious sense to divers of the Maxims or Sentences ; and other Forms of Speech , that are imploy'd by those , that , on many Occasions , and in differing Expressions , say , That Nature does this or that , and acts thus and thus . But I confess , that to clear all those ambiguous and unskilfully fram'd Axioms and Phrases , I found to be so intricate and difficult a Task , that , for want of Time , and perhaps too of Patience , I grew weary before I had prosecuted it to the utmost . For which Reason , though 't is not improbable , that some Light may be given in this dark Subject , by what I have been now saying , ( as immature and unfinish'd , as it is ) especially if it be reflected on in Conjunction with what hath been formerly deliver'd ( in the Fourth Section ) about Nature , General and Particular ; yet I shall , at present , make but very little use of the Things that have been now said , in expounding the Axioms I am particularly to consider in this Seventh Section ; hoping , that I may , by the help of other Mediums , dispatch my Work without them . And , to do it the more easily ; I shall , without tying myself to the Order wherein they are marshall'd after the beginning of the Fourth Section , treat of them in the Order wherein I think their Explications may give most Light to one another , or in That , wherein the Papers that belong'd to them were retriev'd . The first of the receiv'd Axioms I shall consider , is , that which pronounces , that Omnis Natura est conservatrix sui ; where , by the Word Nature , I suppose , they understand a Natural Body , for otherwise I know not what they meant : Now this Axiom easily admits of a twofold Interpretation . For , either it may signifie no more , than that no one Body does tend to its own Destruction , that is , to destroy Itself : Or else , that in every Body there is a Principle call'd Nature , upon whose Score , the Body is vigilant and industrious to preserve Its Natural State , and to defend Itself from the Violence and Attempts of all other Bodies that oppugn It , or endeavour to destroy or harm It. In the former of these two Senses , the Axiom may be admitted , without any prejudice to our Doctrine . For since according to our Hypothesis , Inanimate Bodies can have neither Appetites , nor Hatreds , nor Designs , which are all of them Affections , not of Bruit Matter but of Intelligent Beings ; I , that think Inanimate Bodies have no Appetites at all , may easily grant , that they have not any to destroy themselves . But , according to the other Sense of the propos'd Axiom , 't will import , that every Body has within itself a Principle , whereby it does desire , and with all its Power endeavour , to compass its own Preservation : And both to do those things , that tend thereunto , and oppose all endeavours , that outward Agents , or internal Distempers , may use in order to the Destruction of It. And as this is the most Vulgar Sense of this Axiom , so 't is chiefly in this Sense , that I am concern'd to Examine It. I conceive then , that the most Wise Creator of Things did at first so frame the World , and settle such Laws of Motion between the Bodies , that , as Parts , compose It ; that by the Assistence of his General Concourse , the Parts of the Universe , especially those that are the Greater and the more Noble , are lodg'd in such Places , and furnish'd with such Powers , that , by the help of his general Providence , they may have their Beings continued and maintained , as long and as far forth , as the Course he thought fit to establish , amongst Things Corporeal , requires . Upon this Supposition , which is but a reasonable one , there will appear no necessity to have any recourse , for the Preservation of particular Bodies , to such an Internal Appetite and Inbred Knowledg in each of them , as our Adversaries presume . Since , by virtue of the Original Frame of Things , and established Laws of Motion , Bodies are necessarily determined to act on such Occasions , after the Manner they would do , if they had really an Aim at Self-preservation : As you see , that , if a blown Bladder be compress'd , and thereby the included Air be forc'd out of its wonted Dimensions and Figure , it will uncessantly endeavour to throw off , and repel , that which offers Violence unto It ; and first displace that Part of the compressing Body , that it finds Weakest ; though in all this , there be no Appetite in the Air , ( as I elswhere shew ; ) no more than in the Bladder , to that particular Figure , to maintain itself in which it seems so concern'd . Thus , 't is all one to a ●lump of Dough , whether you make it into a round Loaf , or a long Rowl , or a flat Cake , or give it any other Form : For whatever Figure your Hands or your Instruments leave in It , that it will retain , without having any Appetite to return to that , which it last had . So , 't is all one to a piece of Wax , whether your Seal Imprints on It the Figure of a Wolf , or that of a Lamb. And , for Brevity's sake , to pass by the Instances that might be drawn from what happens to Wood , and Marble , and Metals , as they are differently shap'd by the Statuaries Art and Tools ; I will only observe , that the Mariner's Needle , before it is excited , may have no particular Propensity to have respect to one Part of Heaven , more than another ; but when it has been duly touch'd upon a Load-stone , the Flwer-de-Luce will be determin'd to regard the North , and the opposite Extream the South . So that , if the Lilly be drawn aside , towards the East or towards the West , as soon as the Force , that detain'd it , is remov'd , it will return to its former Position , and never rest , 'till it regard the North. But , in spight of this seeming Affection of the Lilly to that Point of the Horizon , yet , if the Needle be duly touch'd upon the contrary Pole of the same or another vigorous Load-stone , the Lilly will presently forget its former Inclination , and regard the Southern Part of Heaven ; to which Position it will , as it were , spontaneously return , having been forc'd aside towards the East , or towards the West , if it be again left to its Liberty . So that , though it formerly seem'd so much to affect one Point of Heaven , yet it may , in a trice , be brought to have a strong Propensity for the Opposite : The Lilly having , indeed , no Inclination for one Point of Heaven , more than another , but resting in that Position , to which it was last determin'd by the prevalence of Magnetical Effluvia . And this Example may serve to illustrate and confirm , what we have been lately saying in General . II. Another Received Axiom concerning Nature , is , That She never fails or misses of Her End , Natura sine suo nunquam excidit . This is a Proposition , whose Ambiguity makes it uneasie for me to deliver my Sense of It. But yet , to say somewhat , if by Nature we here understand that Being , that the School-men Style Natura Naturans , I grant , or rather assert , that Nature never misseth its End. For the Omniscient and Almighty Author of Things , having once fram'd the Word , and establish'd in It the Laws of Motion , which he constantly maintains , there can no Irregularity , or Anomaly , happen , especially among the greater Mundane Bodies , that he did not from the Beginning foresee and think fit to permit , since they are but genuine Consequences of that Order of Things , that , at the Beginning , he most wisely Instituted . As I have formerly declar'd in Instances of the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon ; to which I could add Others , as the Inundations of Nilus , so necessary to the Health and Plenty of Aegypt . And though , on some special Occasions , this Instituted Order , either seemingly or really , has been violated , as when the Sun is said to have Stood still in the days of Ioshua , and the Red Sea to have Divided itself to give free Passage to the Israelites , led by Moses ; yet these things having been rarely done , for weighty Ends and Purposes , by the peculiar Intervention of the first Cause , either guiding or over-ruling the Propensities and Motions of Secundary Agents ; it cannot be said , that God is frustrated of his Ends by these design'd , though seeming , Exorbitances , by which he most Wisely and Effectually accomplishes Them. But , if by Nature be meant such a Subordinate Principle , as Men are wont to understand by that Name , I doubt the Axiom is in many Cases false ; for though it it be true , as I have often said , that the Material World is so constituted , that , for the most part , Things are brought to pass by Corporeal Agents , as regularly , as if they designed the Effects they produce , yet there are several Cases , wherein Things happen quite otherwise . Thus 't is confess'd , that when a Woman is with Child , the Aim of Nature is , to produce a Perfect or Genuine human Foetus ; and yet we often see , that Nature widely missing Her Mark , instead of That , produces a Monster . And of This we have such frequent Instances , that whole Volumes have been publish'd , to recount and describe these gross and deform'd Aberrations of Nature . We many times see , ( and have formerly noted , ) that in Feavers , and other acute Diseases , She makes Critical Attempts upon improper Days , and in these unseasonable Attempts does not only , for the most part , miss of her End , which is to Cure the Patient , but often brings him to a far worse Condition , than he was in , before She us'd those miscarrying Endeavours . To this may may be referr'd the Cheats Men put upon Nature ; as when , by Grafting , the Sap , that Nature raises with Intention to feed the Fruit of a white Thorn. ( for Instance , ) is by the Gardener brought to nourish a Fruit of quite another Kind . So , when Maulsters make Barley to sprout , that Germination , whereby Nature intended to produce Stalks and Ears , is perverted to a far differing Purpose , and She deluded . And now , to annex some Arguments ad Hominem , we are told , that Nature makes every Agent aim at assimulating the Patient to itself , and that upon this account , the Fire aims at converting Wood , and the other Bodies it works on , into Fire : But , if this be so , Nature must often miss of Her End in Chymical Furnaces , where the Flame does never turn the Bricks , that it makes red-hot , into Fire ; nor the Crucibles , nor the Cuples , nor yet the Gold and Silver , that it throughly pervades , and brings to be of a Colour , the same , or very near the same , with its own , and keeps in a very intense Degree of Heat , and in actual Fusion . And , even when Fire acts upon Wood , there is but one Part of it turn'd into Fire , since , to say nothing of the Soot and concreted Smoke , the Ashes remain fix'd and incombustible . And so , to add another Instance ad Hominem , when we are told , that Nature makes Water ascend in Sucking-Pumps , ob fugam Vacui , She must needs ( as I formerly noted to another Purpose , ) miss of Her Aim , when the Pump exceeds Five and Thirty , or Forty , Foot in Height ; for then , though you Pump never so much , and withdraw the Air from the upper Part of the Engine , the Water will not ascend to the Top ; and consequently , will leave a Cavity , for whole replenishing She was suppos'd to have rais'd that Liquor Two or Three and Thirty Foot. III. Another of the celebrated Axioms concerning Nature , is , that She always acts by the shortest or most compendious Ways , Natura semper agit per vias brevissimas . But this Rule , as well as divers Others , does , I think , require to be somewhat explained and limited , before it be admitted . For , 't is true , ●hat , as I have frequently occasion to inculcate , the Omniscient Author of the Universe has so Fram'd It , that most of the Parts of it act as regularly in order to the Ends of It , as if they did it with Design . But , since Inanimate Bodies , at least , have no Knowledge , it cannot reasonably be suppos'd , that they moderate and vary their own Actions , according to the Exigency of particular Circumstances , wherewith they must of necessity be unacquainted , and therefore it were strange , if there were not divers Occurrences , wherein they are determin'd to Act by Other , than the shortest , Ways that lead to particular Ends , if those Other Ways be more congruous to the General Laws or Customs , established among Things Corporeal . This I prove by Instances taken from Gravity itself , which is , perhaps , that Quality , which of all others is most probably referr'd to an inbred Power and Propension . For 't is true , that if a Stone , or another heavy Body , be let fall into the free Air , 't will take its Course directly towards the Centre of the Earth ; and , if it meet with an inclining Plane , which puts it out of its Way , it will not for all that loss its Tendency towards the Centre , but run along that Plane , by which Means its Tendency downwards is prosecuted , though not , as before , in a perpendicular Line , yet in the shortest Way it is permitted to take . These obvious Phaenomena , I confess , agree very well with the Vulgar Axiom , and possibly were the chief Things that induc'd Men to frame it . But now let us suppose , that a small Bullet of Marble or Steel , after having for a pretty space fallen through the Air , lights upon a Pavement of Marble , or some such hard Stone , that lies , as Floors are wont to do , Horizontal ; in this Case , Experience shews , ( as was formerly noted on another occasion ) that the falling Stone will rebound to a considerable Height , ( in Proportion to That it fell from ) and falling down again rebound the second time , tho' not so high as before ; and , in short , rebound several times , before , by setling upon the Floor , it approaches , as near as is permitted it , to the Centre of heavy Bodies . Whereas , if Nature did in all Cases act by the most Compendious ways , this Bullet ought not to rebound at all ; but , as soon as it found , by the hardness of the Floor , it could descend no lower , it ought to have rested there , as in the nearest place it could obtain to the Centre of the Earth , whence every Rebound must necessarily remove it to a greater Distance . And so likewise , when a Pendulum , or Bullet fasten'd to the end of a String , is so held , that the String is ( praeter propter ) Perpendicular to the Horizon , if it be thence let fall , it will not stop at the Perpendicular Line , or Line of Direction , which is suppos'd to reach from the Nail or other Prop , through the Centre of the Bullet , to the Centre of the Earth , but will pass beyond it , and vibrate or swing to and fro , 'till it have pass'd again and again the Line of Direction , for a great while , before the Bullet come to settle in it , though , whenever it removes out of it , towards either hand , it must really ascend or move upwards , and so go further off from the Centre of the Earth , to which , 't is pretended , its innate Propensity determines it to approach , as much and as soon as is possible . But this Instance having been formerly touch'd upon , I shall now observe , to the same purpose , that having taken a good Sea-Compass , [ and the Experiment succeeded with a naked , yet nicely pois'd , Needle ] and suffer'd the Magnetick Needle to rest North and South ; if I held the proper Pole of a good Loadstone at a convenient Distance , on the right or left hand of the Lilly , this would be drawn aside from the North Point towards the East or West , as I pleas'd ; and then the Loadstone being remov'd quite away , the Lilly of the Needle would indeed return Northward , but would not stop in the Magnetick Meridian , but pass on divers Degrees beyond it , and would thence return without stopping at the Meridian Line : And so would , by its Vibrations , describe many Arches still shorter and shorter , 'till at length it came to settle on it , and recover that Position , which , if Nature always acted by the most Compendious Ways , it should have rested at the first time , that by the removal of the Loadstone it had regain'd it . But the Truth is , that , at least , Inanimate Bodies , acting without knowledg or design of their own , cannot stop or moderate their own Action , but must necessarily move as they are determin'd by the Catholick Laws of Motion , according to which , in one Case , the Impetus , that the Bullet acquires by falling , is more powerful to carry it on beyond the Line of Direction , than the Action of the Causes of Gravity is to stop it , assoon as it comes to the nearest place they can give it to the Centre of the Earth . And something like this happens in Levity , as well as Gravity ; for if you take an oblong and conveniently shap'd piece of light Wood , as Firr or Deal , and , having thrust or sunk it to the Bottom of a somewhat deep stagnant Water , give it Liberty to ascend , it will not only regain the Surface of the Water , where , by the Laws of Gravity , it ought to rest , and did rest before it was forc'd down , but it will pass far beyond that Surface , and in part as it were shoot itself up into the Incumbent Air , and then fall down again , and rise a second time , and perhaps much oftner , and fall again , before it come to settle in its due place , in which it is in an aequilibrium with the Water , that endeavours to press it upwards . Another of the Sentences that are generally receiv'd concerning Nature , is , that She always does what is best to be done : Natura semper quod optimum est facit . But of this it will not be safe for me to deliver my Opinion , 'till I have endeavour'd to remove the ambiguity of the Words ; for they easily admit of two different Senses , since they may signifie , that Nature in the whole Universe does always that which is best , for the conservation of It in its present State ; or , that in reference to each Body in particular , Nature does still what is best , that is , what most conduces to the Preservation and Welfare of that Body . If the first of these Senses be pitch'd upon , the Axiom will be less liable to Exception . But then , I fear , it will be difficult to be positively made out , by such Instances as will prove , that Nature acts otherwise than necessarily according to Laws Mechanical ; and therefore , 'till I meet with such Proofs , I shall proceed to the other Sense that may be given our Axiom , which , though it be the most usual , yet , I confess , I cannot admit , without it be both explain'd and limited . I readily grant , that the All-wise Author of Things Corporeal has so fram'd the World , that most things happen in it , as if the particular Bodies that compose it , were watchful both for their Own Welfare , and That of the Universe . But , I think , withall , that particular Bodies , at least Those that are Inanimate , acting without either Knowledg or Design , their Actions do not tend to what is best for them in their private Capacities , any further than will comport with the general Laws of Motion , and the important Customs establish'd among Things Corporeal : So that to conform to these , divers Things are done that are neither the Best , nor so much as Good , in reference to the welfare of particular Bodies . These Sentiments I am induc'd to take up , not only by the more Speculative Considerations , that have been formerly discours'd of and therefore shall not here be repeated , but by daily Observations and obvious Experience . We see oftentimes , that Fruit-Trees , especially when they grow old , will for one Season be so overcharg'd with Fruit , that soon after they decay and die ; and even whilst they flourish , the excessive Weight of the too numerous Fruits does not seldom break off the Branches they grow upon , and thereby both hinders the Maturity of the Fruit , and hastens the Death of the Tree : Whereas , this fatal Profuseness would have been prevented , if a wise Nature , harbour'd in the Plant , did , as is presum'd , solicitously intend its Welfare . We see also in divers Diseases , and in the unseasonable and hurtful Crises's of Feavers , how far , what Men call , Nature oftentimes is , from doing that , which is best for the Sick Man's Preservation . And indeed , ( as hath been formerly noted on another Ocsicaon , ) in many Diseases , as Bleedings , Convulsions , Cholera's , &c. a great Part of the Physicians Work is , to appease the Fury , and to correct the Errors , of Nature , which being , as 't were , transported with a blind and impetuous Passion unseasonably produces those dangerous Disorders in the Body , that , if She were wise and watchful of its Welfare , She would have been as careful to prevent , as the Physicians to remedy Them. Add to all this , that , if Nature be so Provident and Watchful for the Good of Men and other Animals , and of that Part of the World , wherein they live ; How comes it to pass , that from time to time , She destroys such Multitudes of Men and Beasts , by Earthquakes , Pestilences , Famine , and other Anomalies ? And , How comes it so often to pass in Teeming Women , that , perhaps by a Fright , or a longing Desire , or the bare Sight of any outward Object , Nature suffers Herself to be so disordered , and is brought to forget Her Plastick Skill so much , as , instead of well-form'd Infants , to produce hideous Monsters , and those oftentimes so mishapen and ill-contriv'd , that not only Themselves are unfit to live one Day , or perhaps one Hour , but cannot come into the World without killing the Mother that bare Them. These and such other Anomalies , though ( as I have elsewhere shewn , ) they be not repugnant to the Catholick Laws of the Universe , and may be accounted for in the Doctrine of God's General Providence ; yet they would seem to be Aberrations , incongruous enough to the Idaea the Schools give of Nature , as of a Being , that , according to the Axiom hitherto consider'd , does always that which is best . But 't is time that we pass from that , to the Examen of another . Though I have had occasion to treat of Vacuum in the Fifth Section , yet I must also say something about it in This , because I there consider'd it , but as it is imploy'd by the Peripateticks and others , to shew the Necessity of the Principle they call Nature . But now I am to treat of it , not so much as an Argument to be confuted , as on the score of its belonging to a ( very plausible ) Axiom to be consider'd ; although I fear , that , by reason of the Identity of the Subiect , ( though consider'd in the Fifth Sect. and here , to differing purposes ) I shall scarce avoid saying something or other , co-incident with what has been said already . V. The Word Vacuum being ambiguous , and us'd in differing Senses , I think it requisite , before I declare my Opinion about the generally receiv'd Axiom of the Schools , that Natura Vacuum horret , ( or , as some express it , abhorret à Vacuo ) to premise the chief Acceptions in which , I have observ'd , the Term Vacuum to be made use of . For it has sometimes a Vulgar , and sometimes a Philosophical or strict , Signification . In common Speech , To be empty , usually denotes , not to be devoid of all Body whatsoever , but of that Body that Men suppose should be in the Thing spoken of , or of That which it was fram'd or design'd to contain ; as when Men say that a Purse is empty , if there be no Mony in it ; or a Bladder , when the Air is squeez'd out ; or a Barrel , when either it has not been yet fill'd with Liquor , or has had the Wine or other Drink drawn out of it . The Word Vacuum is also taken in another sense by Philosophers that speak strictly , when they mean by it , a Space within the World , ( for I here meddle not with the Imaginary Spaces of the School-men , beyond the bounds of the Universe , ) wherein there is not contain'd any Body whatsoever . This Distinction being premis'd , I shall inform you , that taking the Word Vacuum in the strict Sense , though many , and , among them , some of my best Friends , press'd me to a Declaration of my Sense about that famous Controversie , An detur Vacuum , because , they were pleas'd to suppose , I had made more Tryals than others had done about it , yet I have refus'd to declare myself , either Pro or Contra , in that Dispute . Since the decision of the Question seems to depend upon the stating of the true Notion of a Body , whose Essence the Cartesians affirm , and most other Philosophers deny , to consist only in Extension , according to the three Dimensions , Length , Breadth , and Depth or Thickness : For , if Mr. Des Cartes's Notion be admitted , 't will be irrational to admit a Vacuum , since any Space , that is pretended to be empty , must be acknowledg'd to have the three Dimensions , and consequently all that is necessary to Essentiate a Body . And all the Experiments , that can be made with Quicksilver , or the Machina Boyliana ( as they call it , ) or other Instruments contriv'd for the like Uses , will be eluded by the Cartesians , who will say , that the space deserted by the Mercury , or the Air , is not empty , since it has Length , Breadth , and Depth , but is fill'd by their Materia Subtilis , that is fine enough to get freely in and out of the Pores of the Glasses , as the Effluvia of the Loadstone can do . But though , for these and other Reasons , I still forbear ( as I lately said I have formerly done , ) to declare either way in the Controversie about Vacuum , yet I shall not stick to acknowledg , that I do not acquiesce in the Axiom of the Schools , that Nature abhors a Vacuum . For , First , I consider , that the chief , if not the only , Reason , that moves the Generality of Philosophers to believe , that Nature abhors a Vacrum , is , that in some Cases , as the Ascension of Water in Sucking-Pumps , &c. they observe , that there is an unusual endeavour , and perhaps a forcible Motion in Water and other Bodies , to oppose a Vacuum . But I , that see nothing to be manifest here , save that some Bodies , not devoid of Weight , have a Motion upwards , or otherwise differing from their usual Motions , ( as in Determination , Swiftness , &c. ) am not apt , without absolute necessity , to ascribe to Inanimate and Senseless Bodies , such as Water , Air , &c. the Appetites and Hatreds that belong to Rational , or or least to Sensitive , Beings ; and therefore , think it a sufficient Reason , to decline imploying such improper Causes , if without them , the Motions , wont to be ascrib'd to Them , can be accounted for . 2. If the Cartesian Notion of the Essence of a Body be admitted by us , as 't is by many Modern Philosophers and Mathematicians , it can scarce be deny'd , but that Nature does not produce these oftentimes Great , and oftner Irregular , Efforts to hinder a Vacuum ; since , it being impossible there should be any , 't were a fond thing to suppose that Nature , who is represented to us as a most wise Agent , should bestir Herself , and do Extravagant Feats , to prevent an impossible Mischief . 3. If the Atomical Hypothesis be admitted , it must be granted , not only that Nature does not abhor a Vacuum , but that a great Part of the Things She does require it , since they are brought to pass by Local Motion ; and yet there are very many Cases , wherein , according to these Philosophers , the necessary Motions of Bodies cannot be perform'd , unless the Corpuscles , that lie in their way , have little empty Spaces to retire , or be impell'd into , when the Body , that pushes them , endeavours to displace them . So that the Effatum , That Nature abhors a Vacuum , agrees with neither of the two great Sects of the Modern Philosophers . But , without insisting on the Authority of either of them , I consider , that , for ought appears by the Phaenomena imploy'd to demonstrate Nature's abhorrency of a Vacuum , it may be rational enough to think , either that Nature does not abhor a Vacuum , even when She seems solicitous to hinder It ; or , that She has but a very moderate Hatred of It , in that Sense wherein the Vulgar Philosophers take the Word Vacuum . For if we consider , that , in almost all visible Bodies here below , and even in the Atmospherical Air Itself , there is more or less of Gravity , or Tendency towards the Centre of our Terraqueous Globe , we may perceive , that there is no need that Nature should disquiet Herself , and act irregularly , to hinder a Vacuum : Since , without Her abhorrence of It , it may be prevented or replenish'd , by Her affecting to place all heavy Bodies as near the Centre of the Earth , as heavier than they will permit . And even without any Design of Hers , not to say without Her Existence , a Vacuity will be as much oppos'd , as we really find it to be , by the Gravity of most , if not of all , Bodies here below , and the Confluxibility of Liquors , and other Fluids . For , by vertue of their Gravity , and the Minuteness of their Parts , they will be determin'd to insinuate themselves into and fill all the Spaces , that they do not find already possess'd by other Bodies , either more ponderous in Specie than themselves , or , by reason of their firmness of Structure , capable of resisting or hindring their Descent . Agreeably to which Notion we may observe , that , where there is no danger of a Vacuum , Bodies may move , as they do , when they are said to endeavour its Prevention . As , if you would thrust your Fist deep into a Pail full of Sand , and afterwards draw it out again ; there will need nothing but the Gravity of the Sand to make it fill up the greatest Part of the space deserted by your Fist. And if the Pail be replenish'd , instead of Sand , with an Aggregate of Corpuscles more Minute and Glib than the Grains of Sand , as for Instance , with Quicksilver or with Water , then the Space , deserted by your Hand , will be , at least as to Sense , compleatly fill'd up by the Corpuscles of the Liquor , which , by their Gravity , Minuteness , and the Fluidity of the Body , they compose , are determin'd to replenish the Space deserted by the Hand , that was plung'd into either of those Liquors . And I elsewhere shew , that , if you take a Pipe of Glass , whose Cavity is too narrow to let Water and Quick-silver pass by one another in It ; if , I say , you take such a Pipe , and having ( by the help of Suction , ) lodg'd a small Cylinder of Mercury of about half an Inch long in the lower Part of It , you carefully stop the upper Orifice with the Pulp of your Finger , the Quick-silver will remain suspended in the Pipe. And , if then you thrust the Quick-silver directly downwards into a somewhat deep Glass , or other Vessel , full of Water , till the Quick-silver be depress'd about a Foot or more beneath the Surface of the Water ; if then you take off your Finger from the Orifice of the Pipe which it stopt before , you shall immediately see the Quick-silver ascend swiftly five or six Inches , and remain suspended at this new Station . Which Experiment seems manifestly to prove , what I did long ago devise and do now alledge it for : Since here we have a sudden Ascent of so heavy a Body as is Quick-silver , and a Suspension of It in the Glass , not produc'd to prevent or fill a Vacuum , for the Pipe was open at both Ends , the Phaenomena being but genuine Consequences of the Laws of the Aequilibrium of Liquors , as I elsewhere clearly and particularly declare . When I consider , how great a Power the School-Philosophers ascribe to Nature , I am the less inclin'd to think , that Her abhorrence of a Vacuum is so great , as they believ'd . For I have shewn in the Fifth Section , that Her aversion from It , and Her watchfulness against It , are not so great , but that , in the sense of the Peripateticks , She can quietly enough admit it in some Cases , where , with a very small Endeavour , She might prevent or replenish It , as I have particularly manifested in the fore-cited Section . I just now mention'd a Vacuum in the Sense of the Peripateticks , because when the Torricellian Experiment is made , though it cannot , perhaps , be cogently prov'd , either against the Cartesians , or some other Plenists , that , in the upper Part of the Tube , deserted by the Quick-Silver , there is a Vacuum in the strict Philosophical Sense of the Word ; yet , as the Peripateticks declare their Sense , by divers of their Reasonings against a Vacuum , mention'd in that Section , 't will to a heedful Peruser appear very hard for them to shew , that there is not One in that Tube . And , as by the School-mens Way of Arguing Nature's hatred of a Vacuum , from the Suspension of Water and other Liquors in Tubes and Conical Watring-Pots , it appears , that they thought that any Space here below , deserted by a visible Body , not succeeded by another Visible Body , or at least by common Air , may be reputed Empty . So , by the Space deserted by the Quick-silver at the top of the Pipe of a Baroscope Thirty One Inches long , One may be Invited to doubt , Whether a Vacuum ought to be thought so formidable a Thing to Nature , as they imagine She does , and ought to , think It ? For what Mischief do we see insue to the Universe upon the producing or continuance of such a Vacuum , though the deserted Space were many time greater than an Inch , and continued many Years , as has divers times happen'd in the taller sort of Mercurial Baroscopes ? And those Peripateticks that tell us , that , if there were a Vacuum , the Influences of the Coelestial Bodies , that are absolutely necessary to the Preservation of Sublunary Ones , would be Intercepted , since Motion cannot be made in Vacuo , would do well to prove , not suppose , such a Necessity ; and also to consider , that in our Case the top of the Quick-silver , to which the Vacuum reaches , does usually appear Protuberant ; which shews , that the Beams of Light ( which they think of great Affinity to Influences , if not the Vehicle , ) are able to traverse that Vacuum , being in spight of It reflected from the Mercury to the Beholder's Eye . And in such a Vacuum , as to common Air , I have try'd that a Load-stone will emit his Effluvia and move Iron or Steel plac'd in It. In short , it is not Evident , that here below Nature so much strains Herself to hinder or fill up a Vacuum , as to manifest an Abhorrence of It. And , without much peculiar Solicitude , a Vacuum , at least a Philosophical One , is as much provided against , as the Welfare of the Universe requires , by Gravity and Confluxibility of the Liquors and other Bodies , that are placed here below . And as for those that tell us , that Nature abhors and prevents a Vacuum , as well in the Upper Part of the World as the Lower , I think we need not trouble ourselves to answer the Allegation till they have prov'd It. Which I think will be very hard for Them to do ; not to mention , that a Cartesian may tell Them , that 't were as needless for Nature to oppose a Vacuum in Heaven as in Earth , since the Production of It is every where alike Impossible . VI. I come now to the celebrated Saying , that Natura est Morborum Medicatrix , taken from Hippocrat . who expresses it in the plural , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And because this Axiom is generally Receiv'd among Physicians and Philosophers , and seems to be one of the principal Things , that has made them introduce such a Being as they call Nature , I think it may be Time well employ'd , to consider somewhat attentively , in what Sense , and how far , this famous Sentence , may , or should not , be admitted . First then , I conceive it may be taken in a Negative Sense , so as to import , that Diseases cannot be cur'd in such Persons , in whom the Aggregate of the Vital Powers or Faculties of the Body is so far weaken'd or deprav'd , as to be utterly unable to perform the Functions necessary to Life , or at least to actuate and assist the Remedies employ'd by the Physitian to preserve or recover the Patient . This I take to be the Meaning of such usual Phrases , as , that Physick comes too late , and , that Nature is quite spent . And in this Sense I readily acknowledge the Axiom to be true . For , where the Engine has some necessary Parts , whether Fluid or Solid , so far deprav'd or weakn'd , as to render it altogether unable to co-operate with the Medicine , it cannot be rationally expected , that the Administration of that Medicine should be effectual . But in this , I presume , there is no Difficulty worthy to detain us . I proceed therefore to the positive Sense , whereof our Axiom is capable , and wherein it is the most usually imploy'd . For Men are wont to believe , that there resides , in the Body of a sick Person , a certain Provident or Watchful Being , that still industriously employs itself , by its own Endeavours , as well as by any occasional Assistence that may be afforded it by the Physitian , to rectifie whatever is amiss , and restore the distemper'd Body to its Pristine state of Health . What I think of this Doctrine , I shall leave you to gather from the following Discourse . I conceive then in the first Place , that the Wise and Beneficent Maker of the World and of Man , intending that Men should , for the most part , live a considerable number of Years , in a Condition to act their Parts on the Mundane Stage ; He was pleas'd to frame those Living Automata , Human Bodies , that , with the ordinary succours of Reason , making use of their exquisite Structure fitted for Durableness , and of the friendly , though undesign'd ▪ Assistence of the various Bodies among which they are plac'd , they may in many Cases recover a State of Health , if they chance to be put out of it by lesser Accidents than those , that God , in compliance with the great Ends of his General Providence , did not think fit to secure them from , or enable them to surmount . Many things therefore , that are commonly ascrib'd to Nature , I think , may be better ascrib'd to the Mechanisms of the Macrocosm and Microcosm , I mean , of the Universe and the Human Body . And , to illustrate a little my Meaning by a gross Example or two , I desire you will consider with me a Sea-compass , wherein the excited Magnetick Needle , and the Box that holds It , are duly pois'd by Means of a competent number of opposite Pivats : For though , if you give this Instrument a somewhat rude Shake , you will make the Box totter , and encline this way and that way , and at the same time drive the Points of the Magnetick Needle many Degrees to the East , or to the West ; yet , the Construction of the Instrument and the Magnetism of one main Part of It , are such , that , if the Force , that first put it into a disorderly Motion , cease from acting on It , the Box will , after some Reciprocations , return to its Horizontal Situation ; and the Needle , that was forc'd to deviate , will , after a few irregular ▪ Motions to this and to that side of the Magnetical Meridian , settle itself again in a Position , wherein the Flower-de-Luce stedfastly regards the North. And yet this recovery to its former State is effected in a factitious Body , by the bare Mechanism of the Instrument itself , and of the Earth , and other Bodies , within whose Sphere of Activity it is plac'd . But , because Many have not seen a Mariner's Compass , I will add a less apposite but more obvious and familiar Example : For , if when an empty Ballance is duly counterpois'd , you shall , by your Breath or Hand , depress one of the Scales , and thereby , for the time , destroy the Aequilibrium ; yet , when the Force is once remov'd , the depress'd Ballance will presently ascend , and the Opposite will descend ; and , after a few Motions up and down , they will both of them , of their own accord , settle again in an exact Aequilibrium , without the help of any such Provident Internal Principle , 〈◊〉 Nature : The absence of whose Agency may be confirm'd by This , that the depress'd Scale does not at first stop at the Horizontal Line , beneath which it was first depress'd , ( as it ought to do , if it were rais'd by an Intelligent Being , ) but rises far above It. If it be here objected , that these Examples are drawn from Factitious , not from merely Physical , Bodies ; I shall return this brief Answer , and desire that it be apply'd not only to the Two freshly mention'd Examples , but to All of the like Kind , that may be met with in this whole Treatise . I say then , in short , that divers of the Instances , we are speaking of , are intended but for Illustrations ; and that Others may be useful Instances , if they should be no more than Analogous Ones : Since Examples , drawn from Artificial Bodies and Things , may have both the Advantage of being more clearly conceiv'd by ordinary Understandings , and That of being less obnox●●s to be question'd in that Pa●●●●ar in which the Comparison or Correspondence consists . And I the less scruple to employ such Examples , because Aristotle himself and some of his more learned Followers make use of divers Comparisons drawn from the Figures and other Accidents of Artificial Things , to give an account of Physical Subjects , and even of the Generation , Corruption and Forms of Natural Bodies . This Advertisement premis'd , I persue this Discourse , it interrupted , by adding , Thus in a human Body , the Causes that disorder it are oftentimes but Transient , whereas the Structure of the Body itself and the Causes that conduce to the Preservation of that Structure , are more stable and durable , and on that account may enable the Engine to out-last many Things , that are Hostile to It. This may be somewhat illustrated , by considering , that Sleep , though it be not properly a Disease , easily becomes One , when it frequently transgresseth its due Bounds ; and even whilst it keeps within them , it does , for the time it lasts , hinder the exercise of many Functions of the Body , more than several Diseases do ; and yet , according to the common course of Things , the Matter that lock't up the Senses being spent , the Man of himself recovers that sensible and active State , on whose score he is said to be awake . But to come somewhat closer to the Point ; We see , that many Persons , who get a Praeter natural Thirst with over-much Drinking , get rid of it again in a few days by forbearing such Excesses ; and many , that by too plentiful Meals are brought to a want of Appetite , Recover , as it were , of course , by a spare Diet , in a few days ; the renewed Ferment , or Menstruum of the Stomach , being able in that time to concoct by little and little , or expell the indigested Aliments or peccant Humours that offended the Stomach , and caus'd the want of Appetite . And here I desire to have it taken Notice of , as a thing that may be considerable to our present Purpose , that I look not on a Human Body , as on a Watch or a Hand-mill , i. e. as a Machine made up only of Solid , or at least Consistent , Parts ; but as an Hydraulical , or rather Hydraulo-pneumatical Engine , that consists not only of Solid and Stable Parts , but of Fuids , and those in Organical Motion . And not only so , but I consider , that these Fluids , the Liquors and Spirits , are in a living Man so constituted , that in eertain Circumstances the Liquors are dispos'd to be put into a Fermentation or Commotion , whereby either some Depuration of Themselves , or some Discharge of hurtful Matter by Excretion , or both , are produc'd , so as , for the most part , to conduce to the Recovery or Welfare of the Body . And , that even Consistent Parts may be so fram'd , and so connected with other Parts , as to act , as it were , pro re nata , varying their Motions , as differing Circumstances make it convenient they should be varied , I purposely shew in another Paper . To this I might altogether refer you ; but , in regard the Thing is a Paradox , and lays a Foundation for Another not Inferior to itself , I shall here borrow thence one Instance , not mention'd that I know of by Others to this purpose , that may both declare my Meaning , and confirm the Thing itself : I consider then , that what is call'd the Pupil or Apple of the Eye , is not ( as 't is known , ) a substantial Part of the Organ , but only a round Hole or Window made in the Vvea , at which the Modify'd Beams of Light enter , to fall upon the Chrystalline Humour , and thence be refracted to the bottom of the Eye , or seat of Vision , to make there an Impression , that is usually a kind of Picture ( for 't is not always a neat One , ) of the Object . Now the Wise and All-foreseeing Author of Things has so admirably contriv'd this Instrument of Sight , that , as it happens to be employ'd in differing Lights , so the Bigness or Area of the Pupil varies . For when the Light is vivid , and would be too gteat if all the Beams were let in , that might enter at an Aperture as large as the usual , the Curtain is every way drawn towards the Middle , and thereby the round Window made Narrower . And , on the other side , when the Light is but faint , and the Object but dimly illustrated , there being more Light requisite to make a sufficient Impression at the bottom of the Eye , the Curtain is every way drawn open , to let in more Light : And when the Eye is well constituted , this is regularly done , according as the Organ has need of more or less Light. Of this , some late Masters of Opticks have well Treated , and I have spoken about it more fully in another place . And the truth of the Observation you may easily find , if you look upon the Eyes of a Boy or a Girl , ( for in young Persons the change is the most notable ) when the Eyes are turn'd from looking on dark Objects towards bright or more illuminated Ones . And I have found the Variation yet more conspicuous in the Eyes of a young Cat , as I elsewhere particularly relate . So that , referring you to the Writings already pointed at , I shall only add in this place , that these various Motions in the Eye are produc'd by mere Mechanism , without the Direction , or so much as Knowledg or Perception , of the Rational Soul. And , upon the like Account it is , that other Motions , in several Parts belonging to the Eye , are produc'd , as 't were spontaneously , as occasion requires . And so , as to the Fluid Parts of the Body , we find , that , according to the Institution of the Author of Things , when healthy Women are of a fit Age , there is a Monthly Fermentation or Commotion made in the Blood , which usually produces a kind of Separation , and then an Excretion , advantagious to the Body . And , that you may the better make out what I meant by the Disposition , or Tendency , of the Parts , to return to their former Constitution , I shall desire you to consider , with me , a thin and narrow Plate of good Steel , or refined Silver ; for , if one End of it be forcibly drawn aside , the changed Texture of the Parts becomes such , or the Congruity and Incongruity of the Pores , in reference to the ambient Aether , that endeavours to permeate them , is made such , that , as soon as the Force that bent it is remov'd , the Plate does , as it were , spontaneously return to its former Position . And yet here is no internal watchful Principle , that is solicitous to make this Restitution , for otherwise it is indifferent to the Plate what Figure it settle in ; for , if the Springy Body stand long Bent , then , as if Nature forgot her Office , or were unable to execute it , though the Force that held the Spring bent be remov'd , it will not endeavour to regain its former streightness : And , I have tryed , in a Silver Plate , that , if you only heat it red-hot , and let it cool , if you put it into a crooked Posture , it will retain it ; but barely with two or three stroaks of a Hammer , which can only make an invisible change of Texture , the Plate will acquire a manifest and considerable Springyness , which you may again deprive it of , by sufficiently heating it in the Fire , without so much as melting it . But , to return to the Discourse , formerly begun , about Distempers wont to be harmless by being Transient , we may observe , that the third or fourth day after Women are brought to Bed , there is commonly a kind of Feaver produc'd , upon the plentiful resort of the Milk to the Breasts ; for which cause , this Distemper is , by many , call'd the Feaver of Milk. And this is wont , in a short time , to pass away of itself , as depending upon Causes far less durable , than the Oeconomy of the Womans Body . And , if it be objected , that these are not Diseases , because they happen according to the Instituted Course of Nature ; I will not now dispute the validity of the Consequence , though I could represent , that the Labour of Teeming Woemen , and the breeding of Teeth in Children , happen as much according to the Institution of Nature , and yet are usually very painful , and oftentimes dangerous : But I will rather answer , that , if the troublesome Accidents , I have alledg'd , cannot serve to prove , they may at least to illustrate , what I aim at . And I shall proceed to take notice of a Distemper , that Physicians generally reckon among Diseases , I mean , the flowing of Blood at the Haemorrhoidal Veins : For , though oftentimes this Flux of Blood is excessive , and so becomes very dangerous , and therefore must be check'd by the Physician , ( which is no great Argument , that a Being , wise and watchful , manages this Evacuation , ) yet frequently , if not for the most part , the Constitution of the Body is such , that the superfluous or vitiated Blood goes off , before it has been able to do any considerable mischief , or perhaps any at all , to the Body . And so we see , that many Coughs , and Hoarsenesses , and Coryzas are said to be cur'd , that is , do cease to trouble Men , though no Medicine be us'd against them , the Structure of the Body being durable enough to out-last the Peccant Matters , or the Operation of those other Causes , that pro-duce these Distempers . It is a known thing , that most Persons , the first time they go to Sea , especially if the Weather be any thing Stormy , are , by the unwonted Agitations , which those of the Ship produce in them , ( assisted perhaps by the Sea-Air , and Smells of the Ship ) cast into that Disease , that , from the Cause of it , is call'd the Sea-sickness , which is sometimes dangerous , and always very troublesome , usually causing a loss of Appetite , and almost continual Faintness , a pain in the Head , and almost constant Nauseousness , accompany'd with frequent , and oftentimes violent , Vomitings ; which Symptoms make many complain , that , for the time , they never felt so troublesome a Sickness ; and yet usually , after not many days , this Distemper , by degrees , is master'd by the Powers of the Body , tending still to persevere in their orderly and friendly Course , and suppressing the adventitious Motions that oppose it , and the sick Person recovers without other help . And so , though Persons unaccustom'd to the Sea , whether they be sick or no , are , by the inconvenient Motions of the Ship , usually brought to a kind of habitual Giddiness , which disposes them to reel and falter , when they walk upon firm ground : Yet , when they come a Shore , they are wont in no long time to be freed from this uneasie Giddiness , without the help of any Medicine : The usual and regular Motions of the Parts of the Body obliterating by degrees in a few days ( I us'd to be free from it within some hours , ) that adventitious Impression , that caus'd the Discomposure . To the same purpose , we may take notice of that which happens to many Persons , who riding backwards in a Coach are not only much distemper'd in their Heads , but are made very sick in their Stomachs , and forced to Vomit , as violently and frequently , as if they had taken an Emetick : And yet all this Disorder is wont quickly to cease , when the Patient leaves the Coach , without the continuance of whose Motion , ( that continues a preposterous One in some Parts of the Patient ) the Distemper will quickly yield to the more ordinary and regular Motions of the Blood , and other Fluids of the Body . So , when in a Coach , or elsewhere , a Man happens to be brought to Faintness , or cast into a Swoon , by the closeness of the Place , or the over-charging of the Air with the fuliginous Reeks of Mens Bodies ; tho' the Disease be formidable , yet , if the Patient be seasonably brought into the free Air , the friendly Operation of That External Body , assisting the usual Endeavours or Tendency of the Parts of the Patients Body to maintain his Life and Heath , is wont quickly to restore him to the State he was in , before this sudden Sickness invaded him . Divers things , that happen in some Diseases , may be grosly illustrated , by supposing , that into a Vial of fair Water some Mud be put , and then the Vial be well shaken , for the Water will be troubled and dirty , and will lose its Transparency , upon a double Account ; that of the Mud , whose opacous Particles are confounded with It ; and that of the newly generated Bubbles , that swim at the top of it ; and yet to clarifie this Water , and and make it recover its former Limpidness , there needs no particular Care or Design of Nature , but according to the common Course of Things , after some time the Bubbles will break and vanish at the top , and the earthy Particles , that compose the Mud , will , by their Gravity , subside to the bottom , and settle there , and so the Water will become clear again . Thus also Must , which is the lately express'd Juice of Grapes , will for a good while continue a troubled Liquor ; but though there be no Substantial Form to guide the Motions of this factitious Body , yet , according to the Course of Things , a Fermentation is excited , and some Corpuscles are driven away , in the Form of Exhalations or Vapours , others are thrown against the sides of the Cask , and harden'd there into Tartar , and others again subside to the bottom , and settle there in the Form of Lees ; and by this means leave the Liquor clear , and , as to Sense , uniform . And why may not some Depurations and Proscriptions of Heterogeneous Parts be made in the Blood , as well as they are usually in Must , without any peculiar and solicitous Direction of Nature . There is indeed one Thing , to which the Sentence of Nature's being the Curer of Diseases may be very speciously apply'd , and that is the healing of Cuts and Wounds , which , if they be but in the Flesh , may oftentimes be cured without Plaisters , Salves , or other Medicines ; but , not to mention Haemorrhagies and some other Symptoms , wherein the Chriurgeon is fain to curb or remedy the Exorbitancies of Nature ; this Healing of the Solutio continui seems to be but an Effect or Consequent of that Fabrick of the Body , on which Nutrition depends . For the Alimental Juice , being , by the Circulation of the Blood and Chile , carried to all Parts of the Body to be nourish'd , if it meets any where , either with preternatural Concretions , or with a Gap made by a Cut or Wound , its Particles do there concrete into a kind of Bastard-flesh , or some such other Body , which that Juice , in the Place and other Circumstances 't is in , is fitted to constitute . Thus we see , that not only Wens and Scrophulous Tumors are nourish'd in the Body , but mis-shapen Mola's do by Nutriment grow in the Womb , as well as Embryo's feed there . And , to come closer to the present Argument , we see , that , in Wounds , Proud-Flesh , and perhaps Fungus's , are as well produc'd and entertain'd by the Aliment brought to the wounded Part , as the true and genuine Flesh ; so that either Nature seems much mistaken , if She designs the Production and Maintenance of such superfluous and inconvenient Bodies ; or the Chirurgeon is much to blame , who is industrious to destroy them , though oftentimes he cannot do it , without using painful Corrosives . But , for ought appears , Nature is not so shy and reserv'd in Her Bounty , but that She sends Nourishment , to repair as well Things that do not belong to the Body , as genuine Parts of It , as to restore Flesh to wounded Parts , as may appear by Warts and Corns , that grow again after they are skilfully cut . And , I remember , I have seen a Woman , in whose Forehead Nature was careful to nourish a Horn , about an Inch and more in length , which I fully examin'd , whilst it was yet growing upon Her Head , to avoid being impos'd upon . But , besides the Diseases hither to discours'd , there are many Others , as well Acute as Chronical , wherein , 't is confess'd , that Nature alone does not work the Cure , so that as to these , ( which are more numerous , than the former ) I may well pretend , that the Aphorism , that makes Nature the Curer of Diseases , is not true , otherwise than in a limited Sense . But , because I know 't is pretended , that even in these Diseases Nature is the principal Agent , by whose Direction the Physician acts in subserviency to her Designs ; and Physicians themselves ( whether out of Modesty or Inadvertence , I now enquire not , ) are wont to acknowledg , that they are but Nature's Ministers , I think it necessary to consider briefly , what Sense is fit , according to our Doctrine , to be given to these Assertions , to make them receivable by us . But , to make way for what we are to say on this Occasion , it may be fit to observe , that one great Cause of the common Mistakes about this Matter , is , as hath been partly intimated already , That the Body of a Man is look'd upon , rather as a System of Parts , whereof Most are gross and consistent , and not a Few hard and solid too , than as , what indeed it is , a very compounded Engine ; that , besides these Consistent Parts , does consist of the Blood , Chyle , Gall , and other Liquors ; also of more subtil Fluids , as Spirits and Air ; all which Liquors and Fluids are almost incessantly and variously moving , and thereby put divers of the Solid Parts , as the Heart and Lungs , the Diaphragma , the Hands , Feet , &c. into frequent and differing Motions . So that , as , when the Constitution or the Motions , that in a sound Body do regularly belong to the Fluid Parts , happens the former to be Deprav'd , or the later to grow Anomalous , the Engine is immediately out of Order , though the gross solid Parts were not primarily affected : So , when by proper Remedies ( whether Visible or not , ) the vitiated Texture or Crasis of the Blood or other Juices is corrected , and the inordinate Motions , that They and the Spirits are put into , or , that they also put the consistent Parts into , are calm'd and rectify'd , the grosser and more solid Parts of the Body , and so the whole Animal Oeconomy , if I may so call It , will be restored to a more convenient State. Thus we see , that in many Hysterical Women , by the fragrant Effluvia of a Spanish Glove , or some Other strong Perfume , the Spirits and Genus Nervosum being affected , several disorderly Symptoms are produc'd , and oftentimes the Motion of the Blood is so stopt or abated , that any Pulse at all is scarcely to be felt , nor Respiration discern'd , and the whole Engine , unable to sustain itself , falls to the Ground , and lies moveless on It ; and yet we have often , by barely holding to the Patient's Nostrils a Vial full of very strong Spirit , or Volatile Salt , or Sal-armoniack , or of Harts-horn , in less than a quarter of an Hour , sometimes in a few Minutes , restor'd Women in that Condition to their Senses , Speech and Motion . We are also here to consider , what I have formerly inculcated , that the Oeconomy of the human Body is so constituted by the Divine Author of It , that it is usually fitted to last many Years , if the more General Laws , setled by the same Author of the Universe , will permit it . And therefore 't is not to be wonder'd at , that in many Cases , the Automaton should be in a Condition to concur , though not with Knowledge and Design , to its own Preservation , when , though it had been put somewhat out of Order , 't is assisted by the Physicians Hands or Medicines to recover a convenient State. And if it be objected , that the Examples , that have been in this past Discourse frequently drawn from Automata , are not adequate , and do not fully reach the Difficulties we have been speaking of , I shall readily grant it , provided it be consider'd , that I avowedly and deservedly suppose the Bodies of living Animals to be , Originally , Engins of God's own framing , and consequently Effects of an Omniscient and Almighty Artificer . So that , 't is not Rational to expect , that in the incomparably inferior Productions of human Skill , there should be found Engins fit to be compar'd with These , which , in their Protoplasts , had God for their Author . Not to mention , ( what yet may be considerable in reference to the Lastingness of human Life , ) that a Man is not a mere Mechanical Thing , where nothing is perform'd for the Preservation of the Engine , or its Recovery to a good State , but by its own Parts , or by other Agents , acting according to Mechanical Laws without Counsel or Design ; since , though the Body of a Man be indeed an Engine , yet there is united to It an Intelligent Being , ( the Rational Soul or Mind , ) which is capable , especially if instructed by the Physitians Art , to discern , in many Cases , what may hurt It , and what may conduce to the Welfare of It , and is also able ( by the Power it has to govern the Muscles and other Instruments of voluntary Motion , ) to do many of those Things it judges most conducive to the Safety and the Welfare of the Body , 't is join'd with . So that , a Man is not like a Watch , or an Empty Boat , where there is nothing but what is purely Mechanical ; but like a Mann'd Boat , where , besides the Machinal Part , ( if I may so speak ) there is an Intelligent Being that takes Care of It , and both steers It , or otherwise guides It , and , when need requires , trimms It ; and , in a word , as Occasion serves , does what he can to preserve It , and keep It fit for the Purposes , 't is design'd for . These Things being premis'd , I think the Physitian ( here suppos'd to be free from Prejudices and Mistakes , ) is to look upon his Patients Body , as an Engine that is out of Order , but yet is so constituted , that , by his Concurrence with the Endeavours , or rather Tendencies , of the Parts of the Automaton itself , it may be brought to a better State. If therefore he find , that , in the present Disposition of the Body , there is a Propensity or Tendency to throw off the Matter that offends It , and ( which ought to be some way or other expell'd , ) in a convenient Way , and at commodious Places ; he will then act so , as to comply with , and further , that Way of Discharge , rather than Another . As , if there be a great Appearance , that a Disease will quickly have a Crisis by Sweat ; he will rather further It by covering the Patient with warm Cloaths and giving Sudorifick Medicines , than , by endeavouring to carry off the peccant Matter by Purging or Vomiting , unseasonably hinder a Discharge , that probably will be beneficial : And in this Sense Men may say , if they please , that the Physicians are Ministers or Servants of Nature ; as Sea-Men , when the Ship goes before a good Wind , will not shift their Sails , nor alter the Ships Motion , because they need not . But to shew , that 't is as 't were by Accident , that the Physitian does , in the fore-mention'd Case , obey Nature , ( to speak in the Language of the Naturists , I reason with , ) I need but represent , that there are many other Cases , wherein the Physitian , if he be skilful , will be so far from taking Nature for his Mistress , to direct him by Her Example , what should be done ; that a great Part of his Care and Skill is imploy'd , to hinder Her from doing what She seems to Design , and to bring to pass Other Things very differing from , if not contrary to , what She Endeavours . Thus , though Nature in Dropsies inportunately crave store of Drink , the Physician thinks himself oblig'd to deny It ; as he does what they greedily desire , to his Patients of the Green-Sickness , or that Distemper they call Pica : Though the absurd and hurtful Things , as very unripe Fruit , Lime , Coals , and other incongruous Things , be earnestly long'd for . Thus also the Chirurgeon does often hinder Nature from closing up the Lips of a Wound , as She would unskilfully do , before it be well and securely heal'd at the bottom . So the Physician does often , by Purging or Phlebotomy , carry off that Matter , that Nature would more dangerously throw into the Lungs , and expel by frequent and violent Coughs . And so , if a Nerve or Tendon be prick'd , the Chirurgeon is fain , with Anodynes , and other convenient Medicines , to prevent or appease the unreasonable Transports of Nature , when , being in a Fury , by violent and threatning Convulsions , She not only much disorders , but endangers , the Patient . And so likewise , when in those Evacuations that are peculiar to Women , Nature affects , in some Individuals , to make them by undue and inconvenient Places , as the Nipples , the Mouth , or the Eyes , whereof we have divers Instances , among the Observations collected by Schenckius , or related by other good Authors . The Physitian is careful by Bleeding the Patient in the Foot and by using other Means , to oblige Nature to alter Her Purpose , and make the intended Evacuations by the proper Uterine Vessels . And , tho' according to the Institution of Nature , as they speak , there ought to be a Monthly discharge of these Superfluities , and therefore , whilst this is moderately made , the Physician does rather further than suppress It : Yet if , as it often happens in other Patients , Nature overlashes in making those Evacuations , to the great weakning or endangering the Sick Person , the Physitian is careful by contemperating Medicines and other Ways to correct Nature's exorbitancy and check Her profuseness of so necessary a Liquor , as the Blood. Other Instances , more considerable , than some of these hitherto mention'd , might be given to the same purpose ; but I forbear to do it , because , there being some , though perhaps very needless , Controversies about Them , I could not make out their fitness to be here alledg'd without more Words , than I am now willing to employ about unnecessary Proofs , fearing it might be thought , I have dwelt too long already upon the Explication of One Aphorism . I shall therefore only observe in short , that I look upon a good Physician , not so properly as a Servant to Nature , as One that is a Counsellor and a Friendly Assistant , who , in his Patient's Body , furthers these Motions and other Things , that he judges conducive to the Welfare and Recovery of It ; but as to Those , that he perceives likely to be hurtful , either by encreasing the Disease , or otherwise endangering the Patient , he think it is his Part to oppose or hinder , though Nature do manifestly enough seem to endeavour the exercising or carrying on those hurtful Motions . On this occasion , I shall take notice of the Practice of the more Prudent among Physicians themselves , who , being call'd to a Patient , subject to the Flux of the Haemorrhoids , if they find the Evacuation to be moderate , and likely either to benefit the Patient on another account , ( as in some Cases 't is , ) or at least to end well , they do , as some of them speak , commit the whole business to Nature ; that is , to speak intelligibly , they suffer It to take its Course , being incouraged to do so , in some Cases , by the Doctrine of Hippocrates , and in others by Experience . But , if the Evacuation prove to be too lasting , or too copious , they then are careful to hinder Nature from proceeding in it , and think themselves oblig'd to imploy both inward and outward Means , to put a stop to an Evacuation , which may bring on a Dropsie , or some other formidable Disease And if it be said , that Nature makes this Profusion of so necessary a Liquor as Blood , only because She is irritated by the Acrimony of some Humour mix'd with it ; I say , that this Answer , which , for Substance , is the same that Naturists may be compell'd to fly to , on many Occasions , is in effect a Confession , that Nature is no such wise Being as they pretend ; since She is so often provok'd to act , as it were , in a Fury , and do those things in the Body , that would be very mischievous to It , if the Physitian , more calm and wise than She , did not hinder Her. So that , notwithstanding the reverence I pay the great Hippocrates , it is not without due Caution and some Limitations , that I admit that notable Sentence of his , where he thus speaks ; * Invenit Natura ipsa sibi-ipsi aggressiones . And after three or four lines , Non edocta Natura & nullo Magistro usa , ea quibus opus est facit . Which , I fear , makes many Physitians less couragious and careful than they should , or perhaps would be , to employ their own Skill on divers Occasions , that much require It. I shall now add , that , as in some Cases , the Physitian relieves his Patient in a Negative Way , by opposing Nature in her unseasonable or disorderly Attempts : So in other Cases , he may do it in a Positive Way , by employing Medicines that either strengthen the Parts , as well Fluid as Stable , or make sensible Evacuations of Matters necessary to be proscrib'd by Them ; or ( he may do it , ) by using Remedies , that by their manifest Qualities oppugn those of the Morbifick Matter or Causes ; as when by Alcaly's or absorbing Medicaments he mortify's Praeter-natural Acids , or disables Them to do Mischief . And , perhaps , One may venture to say , that , in some Cases , the Physitian may ▪ in a Positive Way , contribute more to the Cure even of an inward Disease , than Nature Herself seems able to do : For , if there be any such Medicine preparable by Art , as Helmont affirms may be made of Paracelsus's Ludus , by the Liquor Alkahest ; or , as Cardan relates , that an Empirick had in his Time , who , travell'd up and down Italy , curing Those where-ever he came , that were tormented with the Stone of the Bladder ; If , I say , there be any such Medicines , the Physitian may , by such Instruments , perform that , which , for ought appears , is not to be done by Nature Herself , since we never find , that She dissolves a confirm'd Stone in the Bladder . Nay , sometimes the Physician does , even without the help of a Medicine , controle and over-rule Nature , to the great and sudden Advantage of the Patient . For , when a Person , otherwise not very weak , happens by a Fright , or some surprising ill News , to be so discompos'd , that the Spirits hastily and disorderly thronging to some inward Part , especially the Heart , hinder the regular and wonted Motion of It , by which disorder the Circulation of the Blood is hinder'd , or made very imperfect : In this Case , I say , the Patient is by Nature's great Care of the Heart , ( as is commonly suppos'd even by Physitians , ) cast into a Swoon ; whence the Physitian sometimes quickly frees him , by rubbing and pinching the Limbs , the Ears and the Nose , that the Spirits may be speedily brought to the External Parts of the Body ; which must be done by a Motion to the Circumference , ( as they call It , ) quite opposite to That towards the Centre or Heart , which Nature had given Them before . But as to the Theory of Swoonings , I shall not now examine its Truth , it being sufficient to warrant my drawing from thence an Argument ad Hominem , that the Theory is made Use of by Those I reason with . By what has been discours'd One may perceive , that , as there are some Phaenomena , that seem to favour the Doctrine of the Naturists about the Cure of Diseases , so there are Others , that appear more manifestly favourable to the Hypothesis we propose . And both these sorts of Phaenomena , being consider'd together , may well suggest a Suspition , that the most Wise and yet most Free Author of Things , having fram'd the first Individuals of Mankin'd , so as to be fit to last many Years , and endow'd those Protoplasts with the Power of propagating their Species ; it thereupon comes to pass , that in the subsequent Hydraulico-pneumatical Engines we call Human Bodies , when neither particular Providence , nor the Rational Soul , nor over-ruling Impediments interpose , Things are generally perform'd according to Mechanical Laws and Courses ; whether the Effects and Events of these prove to be conducive to the welfare of the Engine itself , or else cherish and foment Extraneous Bodies or Causes , whose Preservation and Prospering are hurtful to It. On which Supposition it may be said , That the happy things , referr'd to Nature's prudent Care of the Recovery and Welfare of sick Persons , are usually genuine Consequences of the Mechanism of the World , and the Patients Body ; which Effects luckily happen to be co-incident with his Recovery , rather than to have been purposely and wisely produced in order to It ; since , I observe , that Nature seems to be careful to produce , preserve , and cherish Things hurtful to the Body , as well as Things beneficial to It. For we see in the Stone of the Kidneys and Bladder , that out of Vegetable or Animal Substances of a slighter Texture , such as are the Alimental Juices , which , in Sucking Children ( who are observ'd to be frequently subject to the Stone in the Bladder ) are afforded by so mild a Liquor as Milk ; Nature skilfully frames a hard Body of so firm a Texture , that it puzzles Physicians and Chymists to tell , how such a Coagulation can be made of such Substances : And I have found more than one Calculus to resist both Spirit of Salt , that readily dissolves Iron and Steel , and that highly Corrosive Menstruum , Oyl of Vitriol itself . We see also , that , divers times , the Seeds or Seminal Principles of Worms , that lye conceal'd in unwholesome Fruits , and other ill-qualifi'd Aliments , are preserv'd and cherish'd in the Body , so , as in spight of the Menstruum's ferments , &c. they meet with there , they grow to be perfect Worms , ( of their respective kinds ) that are often very troublesome , and sometimes very dangerous , to the Body that harbours them : Producing , though perhaps not immediately , both more and more various Distempers ( especially here in England ) than every Physician is aware of . This Reflection may very well be applied to those Instances we meet with in good * Authors , of Frogs , and even Toads , whose Spawn , being taken in with corrupted Water , hath been cherished in the Stomach 'till the Eggs being grown to be compleat Animals , they produc'd horrid Symptoms in the Body , that had lodg'd and fed them . And if , according to the receiv'd Opinion of Physicians , stubborn Quartans are produc'd by a Melancholy Humour seated in the Spleen ; it may be said , that Nature seems to busie Herself to convert some Parts of the Fluid Chile into so tenacious and hardly dissipable a Juice , that in many Patients , notwithstanding the Neighbourhood of the Spleen and Stomach , neither strong Emeticks , nor Purges , nor other usual Remedies , are able , in a long time , to dislodg it , or resolve it , or correct it . But that is yet more conducive to my present purpose , that is afforded me by the Consideration of the Poyson of a Mad-dog , which Nature sometimes seems industriously and solicitously to preserve : Since we have Instances , in approved Authors , that a little Foam convey'd into the Blood by a slight hurt , ( perhaps quickly heal'd up , ) is , notwithstanding the constant Heat and perspirable Frame of the Human Body , and the dissipable Texture of the Foam , so preserved , and that sometimes for many Years , that , at the end of that long time , it breaks out , and displays its fatal Efficacy with as much vigour and fury , as if it had but newly been receiv'd into the Body . To this agrees That which is well known in Italy , about the biting of the Tarantula . For , though the Quantity of Poyson can scarce be visible , since 't is communicated by the Tooth of so small an Animal as a Spider , yet , in many Patients , 't is preserved during a great part of of their Lives , and manifests its Continuance in the Body by Annual Paroxysms . And , I know a Person of great Quality , who complain'd to me , that , being in the East , the biting or stinging of a Creature , whose offensive Arms were so small , that the Eye could very hardly discern the Hurt , had so lasting an Effect upon him , that , for about twelve Years after , he was reminded of his Mischance , by a Pain he felt in the hurt Place , about the same time of the Year that the Mischief was first done him . And , in some Hereditary Diseases , as the Gout , Falling-sickness , and some kinds of Madness , Nature seems to act as if She did , with Care as well as Skill , transmit to the unhappy Child such Morbifick Seeds or Impressions of the Parents Disease , that , in spight of all the various Alterations the younger Body passes through , during the Course of many Years , this constantly protected Enemy is able to exert its Power and Malice , after forty , or perhaps fifty , Years concealment . Such Reflections as these , to which may be added , that the Naturists make no scruple to style That Death , which Men are brought to by Diseases , a Natural Death , make me backward to admit the fam'd Sentence of Hippocrates hitherto consider'd , Morborum Naturae Medici , without limitations , especially those two that are deliver'd in the Fifth Section : To which I refer you the rather , because they may help you to discern , that divers Phaenomena , that favour not the receiv'd Notion of a kind and prudent Being , as Nature is thought to be , are yet very consistent with Divine Providence . SECT . VIII . I have now gone through so many of the celebrated Axioms , concerning Nature , that , I hope , I may reasonably presume , that the other Sentences of this kind , that my Haste makes me leave unmention'd , will be thought capable of being fairly explicated , and with Congruity to our Hypothesis , by the help of the Grounds already laid , since , with light Variations , they may be easily enough improv'd , and apply'd to those other Particulars , to which they are the most Analogous . But this Intimation ought not to hinder me to make a Reflection , that not only is pertinent to this place , but which I desire may have Retrospect upon a great part of the whole precedent Discourse . And it is This , that , though we could not Intelligibly explicate all the particular Axioms about Nature , and the Phaenomena of Inanimate Bodies , that are thought , but not by me granted , to favour them by Mechanical Principles ; it would not follow , that we must therefore yield up the whole Cause to the Naturists . For we have already shewn , and may do so yet further ere long , that the Supposition of such a Being , as they call Nature , is far from enabling Her Partizans to give intelligible Accounts of these and other Phaenomena of the Universe . And though our Doctrine sh●●ld be granted to be , as well as that generally receiv'd about Nature , insufficient to give good Accounts of Things Corporeal : Yet I shall have this Advantage in this Case , that a less degree of Probability may serve , in Arguments imploy'd but to justifie a Doubt , than is requir'd in Those that are to demonstrate an Assertion . 'T is true , that the Naturists tell us , that the Nature they assert is the Principle of all Motions and Operations in Bodies ; which infers , that in explicating Them , we must have recourse to Her. But before we acquiesce in , or confidently employ , this Principle , it were very fit we knew what it is . This Question I have discours'd of in the Section : But having there intimated a Reference to another Place , the Importance , as well as Difficulty of the Subject , invites me to resume in this Place the Consideration of It ; and both vary and add to what I formerly noted , that I may as well inculcate as clear my T●oughts about It. I demand then o● Those , that assert such a Nature as is vulgarly describ'd , whether it be a Substance or an Accident ? If it be the later , it should be declar'd , what kind of Accident it is ; how a Solitary Accident can have Right to all those Attributes , and can produce those numerous , manifold , and wonderful Effects , that they ascribe to Nature ; and why a complex of such Accidents , as are the Mechanical affections of Matter , ( as Figure , Bulk , Motion , &c. ) may not altogether , as probably as that Accident they call Nature , be conceived to have been Instituted by the perfectly Wise Author of the Universe , to produce those Changes among Bodies , which are ( at least for the most part , ) intelligibly referable to Them ? And if Things be not brought to pass by their Intervention , 't were very fit , as well as desirable , that we should be Inform'd , by what other Particular and Intelligible Means Nature can effect them better , than they may be by that Complex . But if it be said , as by Most it is , that the Principle , call'd Nature , is a Substance , I shall next demand , Whether it be a Corporeal , or an Immaterial One ? If it be said to be an Immaterial Substance , I shall further ask , Whether it be a Created One , or not ? If it be not , then we have God under another Name , and our Dispute is at an End , by the removal of its Object or Subject , which is said by the Schools to be God's Vicegerent , not God Himself . But if Nature be affirm'd ( as She is , at least by all Christian Philosophers , ) to be a Created Being , I then demand , Whether or no She be endowed with understanding , so as to know what she does , and for what Ends , and by what Laws She ought to Act ? If the Answer be Negative , the Supposition of Nature will be of very little Use to afford an intelligible Account of Things ; an unintelligent Nature being liable to the Objections , that will a little below be met with against the usefulness of Nature , in case She be suppos'd a Corporeal Being . And though it should be said , that Nature is endowed with Understanding , and performs such Functions as divers of the Antients ascribe to the Soul of the World ; besides , that this Hypothesis is near of kin to Heathenism , I do not think , that they who shall with many Grecian , and other Philosophers , who preceded Christianism , suppose a kind of Soul of the Universe , will find this Principle sufficient to explicate the Phaenomena of It. For if we may compare the Macrocosm and Microcosm in This , as well as many are wont to do in other Things ; we may conceive , that , though Nature be admitted to be indowed with Reason , yet a multitude of Phaenomena may be Mechanically produc'd , winhout Her immediate Intervention ; as we see that in Man , though the Rational Soul has so narrow a Province to take care of , as the Human Body , and is suppos'd to be intimately united to all the Parts of It ; yet , abundance of things are done in the Body by the Mechanism of it , without being produc'd by that Soul. Of this we may alledge , as an Instance , that , in Sleep , the Circulation of the Blood , the regular Beating of the Heart , Digestion , Nutrition , Respiration , &c. are perform'd without the immediate . Agency , or so much as the actual Knowledge , of the Mind . And , when a Man is awake , many things are done in his Body , not only without the Direction , but against the Bent of his Mind ; as often happens in Cramps and other Convulsions , Coughing , Yawnings , &c. Nay , though some Brutes , as particularly Apes , have the Structure of many Parts of their Bodies very like that of the Analogous Ones of Human Bodies : Yet , that admirable Work of the Formation and Organization of the Foetus , or little Animal , in the Womb , is granted by Philosophers to be made by the Soul of the Brute ( that is therefore said to be the Architect of his own Mansion , ) which yet is neither an Incorporeal , nor a Rational Substance . And , even in a Human Foetus , if we will admit the general Opinion of Philosophers , Physitians , Divines and Lawyers , I may be allowed to observe , that the Human Body , as exquisite an Engine as 't is justly esteem'd , is form'd without the Intervention of the rational Soul , which is not infus'd into the Body , 'till This hath obtain'd an Organization , that fits it to receive such a Guest ; which is commonly reputed to happen about the end of the Sixth Week , or before that of the Seventh . And this Consideration leads me a little further , and prompts me to ask , How much , by the Supposition or Knowledge of the Mind , ( at the newly mention'd time , ) we are enabled to explicate the Manner , How the foremention'd Functions of an Embryo are perform'd , when at the end of six or seven Week the Rational Soul supervenes and comes to be united to this living Engine ? And , if it be urg'd , that Nature being the Principle of Motion in Bodies , their various Motions , at least , which amount to a considerable Part of their Phaenomena , must be explainid by having recourse to Her : I answer , that 't is very difficult to conceive , how a Created Substance , that is Immaterial , can by a Physical Power or Action move a Body : The Agent having no impenetrable Part , wherewith to impell the Corporeal Mobile . I know , that God , who is an mmaterial Spirit , ought to be acknowledg'd the Primary Cause of Motion in Matter , because ( as we may justly with Monsieur Des Cartes infer , ) Motion not belonging to Corporeal Substance , as such ; This must owe That to an Incorporeal One. But then , I consider , that there is that infinite Distance between the Incomprehensible Creator , and the least imperfect Order of his Creatures , that we ought to be very Cautious , how we make Parallels between Him and Them , and draw Inferences from His Power & manner of Acting to Theirs . Since He , for Instance , can immediately act upon Human Souls , as having Created Them , but they are not able so to act upon one another . And I think it the more difficult to conceive and admit , that , if Nature be an Incorporeal Substance , She should be the greater Mover of the Mundane Matter , because we see , that , in a Human Body , the Rational Soul , ( which the School-Philosophers assert to be an Immaterial Spirit , ) tho' vitally united to it , can only determin the Motion of some of the Parts , but not give Motion to any , or so much as Regulate it in most . And , if Nature be said to move Bodies in another than a Physical Way , I doubt , whether the Supposition of such a Principle will be of much Use to Physiologers in explicating Phaenomena ; since I shall scarce think him an Inquisitive or a Judicious Doctor , who should imagine , that he explains , that it gives an intelligible and particular Account of the astonishing Symptoms of those strange Diseases , that divers very Learned and Sober Physitians impute to Witchcraft , when he says , that those strange Distortions and convulsive Motions , for Instance , and other Prodigious Effects , were produc'd by a wicked immaterial Spirit , call'd a Devil . But having to this purpose said more in another Paper , which you may command the Sight of , I shall not trouble you with it here . The past Discourse opposes their Opinion , who assert Nature to be an Immaterial Creature . But because 't is thought , that a greater Number of Philosophers , at least among the Moderns , take Her to be Corporeal , I shall now address my Discourse to their Hypothesis . And though I might object , that , if Nature be a Body , it may be demanded , How She can produce , in Men , Rational Souls , that are Immaterial Beings , and not capable to be produc'd by any Subtiliation or other Change of Matter whatsoever ? Yet , waving this Objection , I shall first demand , Whether Those , I reason with , believe Nature , though Corporeal , to act Knowingly , i. e. with Consciousness of what She does , and for pre-designed Ends ; or else to be blindly and necessarily moved and directed by a Superior Agent , indow'd with ( what She wants , ) an excellent Understanding ; and then I shall represent a few things , appliable some to one or the other of the two Answers , that may be made , and some to both . And first , the Cartesians would ask , How , if Nature be a Corporeal Substance , we can conceive Her capable of Thinking ; and , which is more , of being a most Wise and Provident Director of all the Motions that are made in the Corporeal World ? Secondly , A Philosophizer may justly ask , How a Corporeal Being can so pervade , and , as it were , com-penetrate the Universe , as to be intimately present with all its Minute Parts , whereof yet 't is said to be the Principle of Motion ? Thirdly , He may also demand , Whence Nature , being a Material Substance , comes itself to have Motion , whereof 't is said to be the Principle ? Since Motion does not belong to Matter in itself , and a Body is as truly a Body when it rests , as when it moves . And , if it be answer'd , that the First Cause , that is , God , did at first put it into Motion ; I reply , that the same Cause may , at least as probably , be suppos'd to have put the unquestion'd Mundane Matter into Motion , without the Intervention of another Corporeal Being , in whose Conception , ( i. e. as 't is Matter , ) Motion is not involv'd . Fourthly , It may likewise be ask'd , How the Laws of Motion come to be observ'd or maintain'd by a Corporeal Being ? which , as merely such , is either uncapable of understanding them , or of acting with respect to them , or at least is not necessarily endow'd with any knowledge of them , or power to conform to them , & to make all the Parts of the unquestion'd Mundane Matter do so too . Fifthly , And I do not see , how the taking in such an unintelligent & undesigning Principle will free our Understandings from great Difficulties , when we come to explicate the Phaenomena of Bodies . For , as is elsewhere noted , if Nature be a Bodily Creature , and acts necessarily , and ( if I may so speak , ) fatally , I see no Cause to look upon It but as a kind of Engine ; and the Difficulty may be as great , to conceive how all the several Parts of this supposed Engine , call'd Nature , are themselves fram'd and mov'd by the Great Author of Things , and how they act upon one another , as well as upon the undoubted Mundane Bodies ; as 't is to conceive how , in the World itself , which is manifestly an admirably contriv'd Automaton , the Phaenomena may , by the same Author , ( who was able to endow Bodies themselves with Active Powers , as well as he could , on other scores , make them Causes , ) be produc'd by Vertue , and in consequence of the Primitive Construction and Motions that He gave it ( and still maintains in it , ) without the Intervention of such a thing , as they call Nature . For This , as well as the World , being a Corporeal Creature , we cannot conceive , that either of them act otherwise than Mechanically . And it seems very suitable to the Divine Wisdom , that is so excellently display'd in the Fabrick and Conduct of the Universe , to imploy in the World , already fram'd and compleated , the fewest and most simple Means , by which the Phaenomena , design'd to be exhibited in the World , could be produc'd . Nor need we be much mov'd by hearing some Naturists say , that Nature , though not an Incorporeal Being , is of an Order Superior to mere Matter ; as divers of the School-men teach the Things , they call Material Forms to be . For , who can clearly conceive an Order or Kind of Beings , that shall be Real Substances , and yet neither Corporeal nor Immaterial ? Nor do I see , how the Supposition of this Unintelligible , or at least Unintelligent Being , though we should grant it to have a kind of Life or Soul , will much assist us to explicate the Phaenomena ; as if a Man be acquainted with the Construction of Mills , he he may as well conceive , how Corn is ground by a Mill , driven by the Wind or by a Stream of Water , which are Brute and Senseless Beings , as he can by knowing , that 't is kept at Work by a Horse , who , though an Animated Being , acts in our Case but as a Part of an Engine that is determin'd to go round , and who does neither intend to grind the Corn , nor know that he grinds It. And in this Place ( though perhaps not the very fittest , ) I may Question , With what Congruity to their Master's Doctrine , the School-Philosophers teach , that Nature is the Principle of Motion in all the Bodies , they call Natural . For , not to urge , that those great Masses of Sublunary Matter , to which they give the Name of Elements , and the Mixt Bodies , that consist of them , are , by divers learned Men , said to be mov'd to or from the Centre of the Earth , by distinct Internal Principles , which they call Gravity in the Earth and Water , and Levity in the Fire and Air ; and that there is ascrib'd also to every compounded Body , that Quality of the Two , which belongs to the Element that predominates in It. Not to urge this , I say , consider , that the Coelestial Part of the World does so far exceed the Sub-Coelestial in Vastness , that there is scarce any Comparison between them ; and yet the Generality of the Peripateticks , after Aristotle , tell us , that the Coelestial Globes of Light , and the vast Orbs they suppose them to be fix'd in , are mov'd from West to East by Intelligences , that is , Rational and Separate Beings , without whose Conduct they presume , that the Motions of the Heavens could not be so Regular and Durable , as we see they are . So that , in that Part of the Universe , which is incompararably vaster than the Sublunary is , Intelligences being the Causes of Motion , there is no Recourse to be had to Nature , as the true and internal Principle of It. And here it may not , perhaps , be improper to declare somewhat more fully a Point already touch'd upon , namely , that , if to know what is the general Efficient Cause of Motion , can much contribute to the Explication of particular Phaenomena ; the Hypothesis of those Naturists I now reason with , will have no considerable Advantage , if any at all of Ours ; which derives them from the Primitive Impulse given by God to Matter , and from the Mechanical Affections of the greater and lesser Portions of It. For 't is all one to Him , that would declare by what particular Motion , as Swift , Slow , Uniform , Accelerated , Direct , Circular , Parabolical , &c. this or that Phaenomenon is produc'd ; to know , whether the Motions of the Parts of Matter were Originally impress'd on them by Nature , or immediately by God ; unless it be , that He , being of infinitely Perfect Knowledge , may be , more probably than a Creature , suppos'd to have at first produc'd in Matter Motions best accommodated to the Phaenomena , that were to be exhibited in the World. Nor do I see sufficient Cause to grant , that Nature Herself ( whatever She be , ) produces any Motion de Novo , but only , that She transfers and regulates That , which was communicated to Matter at the beginning of Things : ( As we formerly noted , that in the Human Body , the Rational Soul or Mind has no Power to make new Motions , but only to direct those of the Spirits and of the grosser Organs and Instruments of voluntary Motion . ) For , besides that many of the Modern Naturalists approve of the Cartesian Opinion , That the same Quantity of Motion is always preserv'd in the whole Mass of of the Mundane Matter , that was communicated to it at first , though it be perpetually transferring it from one Part to another : Besides this , I say , I consider , that , if Nature produces in these & those Bodies Motion , that were never before in Beings ; ( unless much Motion be annihilated , which is a thing as yet unprov'd , ) the Quantity of Motion in the Universe must have for some Thousands of Years perpetually increas'd , and must continue to do so ; which is a Concession , that would much disorder the whole Theory of Local Motion , and much perplex Philosophers , instead of assisting Them , in explicating the Phaenomena of Bodies . And as for the Effects of Local Motion in the Parts of the Universal Matter , which Effects make a great Part of the Phaenomena of the World : After what I have formerly declar'd , you will not wonder to hear me confess , that , to me , the Supposition of Nature , whether Men will have Her an Immaterial or Corporeal Substance , and either without Knowledge or else indowed with Understanding , doth not seem absolutely Necessary , nor perhaps very Useful , to make us comprehend , how they are produc'd . The Bodies of Animals , are divers of them little less curiously fram'd than Mens , and most of them more exquisitely , than , for ought we know , the great Inanimate Mass of the Corporeal World is : And yet , in the Judgment of no mean Naturalists , some of the Mechanical Philosophers , that deny Cogitation , and even Sense properly so call'd , to Beasts , do , at least as Intelligibly and Plausibly , as those that ascribe to them Souls indow'd with such Faculties as make them scarce more than gradually different from Human Ones , explicate the Phaenomena that are observ'd in them . And I know not , whether I may not on this Occasion add , that the Peripateticks themselves , especially the Moderns , teach some things , whence One may argue , that the Necessity of recurring to Nature does not reach to so many things by far , as is by them suppos'd . For the Efformation ( or Framing ) of the Bodies of Plants and Animals , which are by great odds the finest pieces of Workmanship to be met with among Bodies , is ascrib'd not immediately to Nature , but to the Soul itself , which they will have to be the Author of the Organization of the Body , and therefore call it the Architect of its own Mansion ; which , they say , that it frames by an Innate Power and Skill , that some call Plastick , and to which others give other Names . And unto the same Soul , operating by Her several Functions , they attribute the Concoction of Aliments , the Expulsion of Excrements , the Production of Milk , Semen , &c. the Appetitive , Loco-motive , and I know not how many other Faculties , ascrib'd to Living Bodies . And , even in many Inanimate Ones , the noblest Properties and Operations are , by the same School-Philosophers , attributed to what they call their Substantial Forms ; since from These they derive the wonderful Properties of the Load-stone , the attractive Faculty of Amber and other Electricks , and the Medical Vertues of Gems and other Mineral Bodies , whether Consistent or Fluid . But not to insist on this Argument , because 't is but ad Hominem , ( as they speak , ) if we consider the Thing itself , by a free Examen of the pretended Explanations , that the Vulgar Philosophers are wont , by recurring to Nature , to give of the Phaenomena of the Universe ; we shall not easily look on those Accounts , as meriting the Name of Explications . For to explicate a Phaenomenon , 't is not enough to ascribe it to one general Efficient , but we must intelligibly shew the particular manner , how that general Cause produces the propos'd Effect . He must be a very dull Enquirer , who , demanding an Account of the Phaenomena of a Watch , shall rest satisfied with being told , that 't is an Engine made by a Watch-Maker ; though nothing be thereby declar'd of the Structure and Co-aptation of the Spring , Wheels , Ballance , and other Parts of the Engine ; and the manner , how they act on one another , so as to cooperate to make the Needle point out the true Hour of the Day . And ( to improve to my present purpose an Example formerly touch'd upon , ) as he that knows the Structure and other Mechanical Affections of a Watch , will be able by Them to explicate the Phaenomena of It , without supposing , that it has a Soul or Life to be the internal Principle of its Motions or Operations ; so he , that does not understand the Mechanism of a Watch , will never be enabled to give a rational Account of the Operations of It , by supposing , as those of Chiness did , when the Jesuits first brought Watches thither , that a Watch is an European Animal , or Living Body , and indow'd with a Soul. This Comparison seems not ill to befit the Occasion of propounding It ; but to second It by another , that is more purely Physical ; when a Person , unacquainted with the Mathematicks , admires to see , That the Sun rises and sets in Winter in some Parts of the Horizon , and in Summer in Others , distant enough from them ; that the Day , in the former Season , is by great odds shorter than in the Later , and sometimes ( as some days before the Middle of March and of Sept. ) the Days are equal to the Night ; that the Moon is sometimes seen in Conjunction with the Sun , and sometimes in Opposition to Him ; and , between those two States , is every Day variously illuminated ; and , that sometimes one of those Planets , and sometimes another , suffers an Eclipse ; this Person , I say , will be much assisted to understand , how these things are brought to pass , if he be taught the clear Mathematical Elements of Astronomy . But , if he be of a Temper to reject these Explications , as too defective , 't is not like , that it will satisfie him , to tell him after Aristotle and the School-Men , That the Orbs of the Sun and Moon , and other Coelestial Spheres , are mov'd by Angels or Intelligences ; since to refer him to such general and undetermin'd Causes , will little , or not at all , assist him to understand , how the recited Phaenomena are produc'd . If it be here objected , That these Examples are drawn from Factitious , not from merely Physical , Bodies ; I shall return this brief Answer , and desire that it be apply'd not only to the Two freshly mention'd Examples , but to All of the like Kind , that may be met with in this whole Treatise , ( near the Beginning of which , had I remember'd it , something to the same purpose should have had Place . ) I say then in short , that divers of the Instances we are speaking of are intended but for Illustrations ; and that others may be useful Instances , if they should be no more than Analogous Ones : Since Examples , drawn from Artificial Bodies and Things , may have both the Advantage of being more clearly conceiv'd by ordinary Understandings , and That of being less obnoxious to be Question'd in that Particular , in which the Comparison or Correspondence consists . And I the less scruple to imploy such Examples , because Aristotle himself , and some of his more learned Followers , make Use of divers Comparisons , drawn from the Figures and other Accidents of Artificial Things , to give an Account of Physical Subjects , and even of the Generation , Corruption and Forms of Natural Bodies . This Advertisement premis'd , I persue the Discourse it interrupted , by adding , That thus we see That confirm'd , which was formerly observ'd , namely , that though Mechanical Principles could not be satisfactorily imploy'd for explaining the Phaenomena of our World ; we must not therefore necessarily recur to , and acquiesce in , that Principle , that Men call Nature , since neither will That intelligibly explain Them : But in that Case , we should ingeniously confess , That we are yet at a loss , how they are perform'd ; and that this Ignorance proceeds , rather from the Natural Imperfection of our Understandings , than from our not preferring Nature ( in the Vulgar Notion of It , ) to the Mechanical Principles , in the Explication of the Phaenomena of the Universe . For whereas Monsieur Des Cartes , and other acute Men , confidently teach , that there are scarce any of these Phaenomena , that have been truly and intelligibly deduc'd from the Principles peculiar to the Aristotelians and School-Philosophers ; it will scarce be deny'd by any that is acquainted with Physico-Mathematical Disciplines , such as Opticks , Astronomy , Hydrostaticks , and Mechanicks , more strictly so call'd , but that very many Effects ( whereof Some have been handled in this present Tract , ) are clearly explicable by Mechanical Principles ; which , for that Reason , Aristotle himself often imploys in his Quaestiones Mechanicae and elswhere . So that , if because the Corpuscularian Principles , cannot be satisfactorily made Use of to account for all that happens among Things Corporeal , we must refuse to acquiesce in them : It is but just , that , since a Recourse to what is call'd Nature is yet more dark and insufficient , at least , we must reject as well the Later as the Former Hypothesis , and endeavour to find some Other preferrable to Both. And now , if it be demanded , what Benefit may redound to a Reader from the Explications given in the foregoing Seventh Section ? and in general , from the Troublesome , as well as Free , Enquiry , whereof they make a considerable Part ? I shall Answer , That I am not quite out of Hope , that the Things hitherto discours'd may do some Services both to Natural Philophy and to Religion . And as to the first of these ; this Tract may be of Use to the cultivaters of that Science , by dissuading them from employing often , and without great need , in their Philosophical Discourses and Writings , a Term , ( I mean Nature , ) which , by reason of its great Ambiguity , and the little or no Care , which Those that use It are wont to take , to distinguish its different Acceptions , occasions both a great deal of Darkness and Confusedness in what Men say and write about Things Corporeal ; and a multitude of Controversies , wherein really Men do but wrangle about Words , whilst they think they dispute of Things ; and perhaps would not differ at all , if they had the Skill or Luck to express themselves clearly . Besides which Service , the past Discourse may do this Other , to wean Many from the fond Conceit they cherish , that they understand or explicate a Corporeal Subject or a Phaenomenon , when they ascribe it to Nature . For to do That , One needs not be a Philosopher , since a Country Swain may easily do the same Thing . On this Occasion , I must not forbear to take notice , that the unskilful Use of Terms of far less Extent and Importance , and also less Ambiguous , than the word Nature is , has been , and still is , no small Impediment to the Progress of Sound Philosophy . For not only the greatest Part both of Physitians ( though otherwise learned Men , ) and of Chymists ; but the Generality of Physiologers too , have thought , that they have done their Part , though not on all Occasions yet on very Many , when they have referr'd an Effect or a Phaenomenon to some such Things as those , that are presum'd to be Real Qualities ; or are by some styl'd Natural Powers ; or are by others , by a more comprehensive and more usual Name , ( which therefore here chiefly imploy , ) call'd Faculties ; for each of which they are wont to form a Name , fit for Their purpose : Though they do not intelligibly declare , what this Faculty is , and in what manner the Operations they ascribe to It , are perform'd by It. Thus the attractive Faculty ascrib'd to a Man , that is enabled by Nature's ( presum'd ) abhorrence of a Vacuum , to suck up Drink through a Straw or Pipe , has been for many Ages acquiesced in , as the true Cause of the Ascension of that Liquor in Suction ; of which nevertheless the Modern Philosophers , that have slighted Explications deriv'd merely from Faculties , have assign'd ( as has been already declar'd , ) Intelligible , and even Mechanical Causes . The Power that a Load-stone has with one Pole to attract ( as they speak , ) the Northern Point of the Mariner's Needle , and with the Other to drive it away , is look'd upon as one of the Noblest and most proper Faculties of that admirable Stone . And yet I elsewhere shew , how in a very small , indeed , but true and natural Magnet , I have , by a bare , and sometimes invisible , Change of Texture , given that Extream of the Magnet , that before drew the Southern Point of the Needle , the Power to draw the Northern , and to the opposite Extream , the Power to drive it away : So much does even this wonderful attractive Faculty , as 't is call'd , depend upon the Mechanical Structure of the Mineral , and its Relation to other Bodies , among which 't is plac'd , especially the Globe of the Earth , and its Magnetical Effluvia . But because in another Paper , I purposely discourse of what Naturists call Faculties , I shall here content my self to note in general , that the Term Faculty may , indeed , be allowed of , if . It be applied as a compendious Form of Speech , but not as denoting a real and distinct Agent ; since in reality the Power or Faculty of a Thing is ( at least ) oftentimes but the Matter of It , made Operative by some of its Mechanical Modifications ; [ I say , some , because the Complex of all makes up its Particular Nature . ] And with how little Scruple soever , Men commonly speak of Faculties , as supposing Them to be distinct and active Principles ; yet this Condition does not necessarily belong to them . For sometimes , if not frequently , the Effect , of what is reputed a Natural Power of Faculty , is produc'd by the Texture , Figure , and , in a word , Mechanical Disposition of the Agent ; whereby it determines the Action of a remoter Agent to the produc'd Effect . Thus in a Clock , to make the Ballance vibrate , to point at the Hour , to make , at set times , the Hammer strike upon the Bell , are but different Effects of the Weight or Spring , that sets and keeps the Engine in Motion . And so a Key may either acquire or lose its Power of opening a Door ( which , perhaps , some School-Men would call its aperitive Faculty , ) by a Change , not made in itself , but in the Locks it is apply'd to , or in the Motion of the Hand that manages It. And least it should be objected , that these Instances are taken wholly from Artificial Bodies , I shall add , that , when a clear Piece of Native Chrystal has obtain'd , as it often does , a good Prismatical Shape , and is , in a due Position , expos'd to the Sun-beams ; its Figuration , by inabling it to refract and reflect those Beams after a certain Manner , gives it a Colorifick Faculty , whereby it is inabled to exhibit that wonderful and pleasing variety of Colours , that emulate , if not surpass , those of the Rain-bow . And so in a Concave Metalline Looking-glass , though there seem to be many distinct Faculties , such as that of Reflecting , Inverting , Magnifying divers Objects , and Melting , Burning , &c. several Bodies ; yet all these Powers are but the genuine Consequences of the Figure , Capacity and Smoothness , which are Mechanical Affections of the Matter of the Speculum . And , indeed , if I judge aright , ( though what I am going to say will seem a Paradox , ) yet many Qualities of very many Bodies are but lasting Dispositions to be thus or thus wrought upon by the Action of External Agents , and also ( perchance ) to modifie that Action ; as we see , that the Power of making an Eccho , that is observ'd in divers hollow Places , is nothing but the Mechanical Disposition , their Figure and Resistence gives them to reflect a Sound . And , to resume the lately mention'd Instance of a Key , we may add , that , by bare Position , either End of it , especially if the Key be long , may be made to acquire or lose a Transient Magnetick Faculty from the Effluvia of that great Magnet , the Earth ; and that also the same Key may , in a few Moments , acquire a durable Magnetism , by a Mechanical Change receiv'd from the Load-stone , as is known to Those , that are any thing vers'd in the Philosophy of that wonderful Mineral . And to me it seems likely , that one main Reason , why learned Men have ascrib'd such inherent and active Powers , as they call Faculties , to so many Bodies , is , because that , not being conversant enough with Natural and Artificial Things , they did not duly perpend , how great a Difference there may be between a Body consider'd absolutely , or by itself , and the same Body consider'd in such Circumstances , as it may be found in . For in some Cases a Physical Body many have strange Things justly ascrib'd to It , though not as 't is such a Body consider'd simply , or unassociated with other Bodies ; but as 't is plac'd among congruous Ones , and makes the Principal or most Operative Part of a compounded Body , or of the Complex of Bodies it is joyn'd with , and which are of such determinate Structures , as are convenient for the Phaenomena , to be exhibited . This may be Analogically seen in what happens to a Spring . For if , being bent , 't is held in Ones Hand , or crouded into a Box , 't is but a Simple thing , that does only , by its Expansive Endeavour , strive to remove the Bodies that keep it compress'd . But in a curious Watch , it may , by virtue of the Structure of that Engine , become the Principle of I know not how many differing , and perhaps contrary , Motions , among the Parts of It ; and of many notable Phaenomena and Effects exhibited or produc'd thereby . This Reflection may , perhaps , be improv'd , if I here add , that , in many Bodies , a Fluid Substance , determin'd to convenient Motions , may be equivalent to an Internal Spring ; especially if it be assisted by friendly External Agents . This may be illustrated by considering , that if One that plays skilfully on a Flute , blow out of his Mouth into the open Air , he will but turn it into a vapid Aereal Stream : But if this Wind duly pass into the Instrument , and be modify'd there by the Musician's Fingers and Skill , the simple Stream of Air may be form'd into very various and melodious Tunes . Thus Gunpowder artificially temper'd , tho' , if it be fir'd in the open Air , it will give only a rude and sudden Flash , that presently vanishes ; yet , if it be skilfully dispos'd of in Rockets and other well-contriv'd Instruments , and then kindled , it will exhibit a great and pleasing variety of Shining Bodies and Phaenomena , that are justly admir'd in the best sort of Artificial Fire-works . A Physical Instance also , in favour of our Analogical or Vicarious Springs ( if I may so call them , ) is afforded me by the Bulbs of Onions , and the Roots of Aloes , commonly call'd Semper-vive , and some other Vegetables , which in the Spring being expos'd to the Air , the Juices and Spirits , contain'd in them , will be so agitated by the Warmth of that Season , and so modify'd by the particular Structure of the more firm Parts , that , though neither Earth nor Rain co-operate , they will shoot forth green Stalks or Leaves for many Weeks together , as if they were planted in a good Soil ; ( though the Matter of these green Productions be furnish'd by the radical Parts themselves , as may be argued both from the manifest Diminution of the Bulb in Bigness , and the great and gradual Decrement in Weight , that I observ'd in making Experiments of this King. And so also the Air , which is an External Fluid , concurring with the Juices and Spirits of divers Insects and other cold Animals , may both be put into Motion , and have that Motion so determin'd by their Organization , as to recover in the Spring or Summer , as it were , a new Life , after they have lain moveless and like dead Things , all the Winter ; as we see in Flies , that , in a hot Air , quickly recover Motion and Sense , after having lost Both , for perhaps many Months . And the like Change may be far more suddenly observ'd in Them , in the warmer Seasons of the Year , when the Air is drawn from Them by the Pneumatick Pump , and afterwards permitted to enliven Them again . And to give another Instance , that may possibly please better , ( because , as 't is purely Physical , so 't is Simple and very Conspicuous , ) tho' that which the Sun-beams are wont primarily to produce be but Light and , perhaps , Heat ; yet falling in a due Manner upon a rorid Cloud , they form there the Figure of a vast Bow , and , being variously reflected and , refracted , adorn it with the several Colours , Men admire in the Rain-Bow . But I must not farther prosecute an Observation , that I mention'd but occasionally , as an Instance whereby to shew , that the advancement of solid Philosophy may be much hinder'd by Mens Custom of assigning , as true causes of Physical Effects , Imaginary Things or perhaps Arbitrary Names ; among which none seems to have had a more malevolent Influence upon Physiology than the Term Nature , none having been so frequently and confidently us'd , or imploy'd to so many differing Purposes . And therefore , though I would not totally forbid the Use of the word Nature , nor of Expressions of Kin to It , in Popular Discourses or even in some Philosophical Ones , where Accurateness is not requir'd or Ambiguity is prevented by the Context ; nor ( to dispatch ) whereit may be imploy'd as a compendious form of speech , without danger to Truth , or Prejudice to Sound Philosophy , ( in which Cases I myself forbear not the Use of It ; ) yet , I hope , our Free Enquiry may ( somewhat at least , ) conduce to the more skilful Indagation , and happy Discovery , of Physical Truths , if it can perswade Men to make Use less frequently , and with more Circumspection , of so ambiguous , and so often abus'd , a Term as Nature ; and cease to presume , that a Man has well perform'd the part of a true Physiologer , till he have circumstantially or particularly deduc'd the Phaenomenon he considers , by Intelligible Ways , from Intelligible Principles . Which he will be constantly put in Mind of doing , or discover that he hath not done it ; if , by forbearing general and ambiguous Terms and Words , he endeavours to explain Things by Expressions , that are clear to all attentive Readers , furnish'd with an ordinary measure of Understanding and Reason . And this perspicuous Way of Philosophizing should be not a little recommended to ingenious Men , by the valuable Discoveries , which Those that have imploy'd it , in their Researches and Explications of difficult Things , have in this Inquisitive Age happily made , not only about the various Phaenomena , commonly referr'd to the Fuga Vacui ; but in the Hydrostaticks , Opticks , Anatomy , Botanicks , and divers other Parts of real Learning , that I cannot now stay to enumerate . And thus much it may possibly be sufficient to have said , about the Service our Doctrine may do Natural Philosophy . As for Religion , if what I have formerly said in favour of it be duly consider'd and apply'd , the past Discourse will not appear unfriendly , nor perhaps useless , to It. And therefore , if I do here abridge what I have there said , and add to it some Considerations , that were fit to be reserv'd for this Place ; I hope the Doctrine , we have propos'd , may appear fit to do it a threefold Service . I. And in the First Place , Our Doctrine may keep Many , that were wont , or are inclin'd , to have an excessive Veneration for what they call Nature , from running , or being seduc'd , into those Extravagant and Sacrilegious Errors , that have been upon plausible Pretences imbrac'd not only by many of the old Heathen Philosophers but , by divers Modern Professors of Christianity , who have of late reviv'd , under new Names and Dresses , the impious Errors of the Gentiles . This I venture to say , because many of the Heathen Writers , as hath been shewn in the Fourth Section , ackonwledg'd indeed a God ( as these also own they do , ) but meant such a God , as they often too little discriminated from Matter , and even from the a World ; and as is very differing from the true One , ador'd by Christians and Jews : For Ours is a God , first , infinitely Perfect ; and then secondly , by consequence , both Incorporeal and too Excellent to be so united to Matter , as to animate it like the Heathens Mundane Soul ; or to become to any Body a Soul properly so call'd ; and thirdly , Uncapable of being divided , & having either Human Souls or other Beings , as it were , torn or carv'd out , or otherwise separated from him , so as to be truly Parts or Portions of his own Substance . b b The Error here rejected , was the Opinion of many of the Heathen Philosophers , and particularly of the Stoical Sect ; of whose Author , * * In Vita Zenonis . Laertius says , De Divina Substantia Zeno ait Mundum totum atque Coelum . And several Ethnick Philosophers , even after the Light of the Gospel began to shine in the World , adopted the Argument of the Elder Stoicks , who inferr'd the World to be Animated and Rational from the Nature of the Human Soul , which they thought a Portion of the Intelligent Part of the World , that some of them confounded with the Deity . For the Soicks ( in Laertius ) affirm , De Vitis Phil. l. 7. Mundum esse Animale & Rationale & Animatum ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) & Intelligibile . And 't is added , Mundum animatum esse , inde manifestum est , quod Anima nostra inde veluti avulsa sit . Thus Seneca , Epist. 92. Quid est autem cur non existimes , in eo divini aliquid existere , quae Dei pars est ? Plutarch in Quaest. Plut. So Plutarch , speaking of the Soul , Non opus Solum Dei , sed & pars est ; neque ab ipso , sed ex ipso nata est . And Epictetus , Dissert . 1. caip . 14. Animae ita alligatae & conjunctae Deo sunt , ut particulae ejus sint . Whereas , the Idolaters and Infidels I speak of , conceiv'd , under the Name of God , a Being , about which they dogmatically entertained Conceptions , which , tho' different from one another , are much more so from the Truth . For first , Most of Them thought Their God to be purely Corporeal , as , besides what Diogenes Laertius and Others relate , I remember Origen doth in several Places affirm . If you will believe c c Praepar . lib. 3. cap. 4. Eusebius , the Ancient Aegyptian Theologers not only affirm'd the Sun , Moon and Stars to be Gods , but deny'd Incorporeal Substances , or Invisible Nature's , to have fram'd the World , but only the Sun , that is discoverable to our Eyes . And this Corporiety of God seems manifestly to be the Opinion of Mr. Hobbs and his genuine Disciples , to divers of whose Principles and Dogmas it is as congruous , as 't is repugnant to Religion . But secondly , There are Others , that allow'd a Soul of the world , which was a Rational and Provident Being , together with the Corporeal Part of the Universe , especially Heaven , ( which , I remember , Aristotle himself styles a d d De Coelo l. 2. c. 3. Divine Body , ( or , as some render his Expressions , the Body of God : ) But withal , They held , that this Being did properly Inform this great Mass of the Universe , and so was , indeed , a Mundane Soul. And though some of our late Infidels ( formerly pointed at in this Treatise , ) pretend to be great Discoverers of new Light in this Affair , yet , as 〈◊〉 ●s I am inform'd of their Doctrine , it has much Affinity with , and is little or not at all better than That which I formerly noted out of Lactantius to have been asserted by the Stoicks , and the Doctrine which is express'd by Maximus ( a Pagan ) to St. Austin . Equidem Vnicum esse Deum summum atque magnificum , quis tam demens , tam mente captus , ut neg●t esse certissimum ? Hujus nos virtutes per Mundanum opus diffusas , multis vocabulis invocamus , quoniam Nomen ejus Cuncti proprium ignoremus . Or by that Famous and Learned Roman , Varro , who is cited by St. Austin , De Civit Dei lib. 7. cap. 6. to have said , Deum se arbitrari Animam Mundi , & hunc ipsum Mundum esse Deum : Sed sicut Hominem Sapientem , cum sit ex Animo & Corpore , tamen ab animo dicimus Sapientem ; ita Mundum Deum dici ab Animo , cum sit ex Animo & Corpore . The Doctrine , by us propos'd , may ( 't is hop'd , ) much conduce to justifie some Remarkable Proceedings of Divine Providence , against those Cavillers , that boldly censure It , upon the account of some Things , that they judge to be Physical Irregularities , ( for Moral Ones concern not this Discourse , ) such as Monsters , Earth-quakes , Floods , Eruptions of Volcanos , Famines , &c. For , according to our Doctrine , — 1. God is a most Free Agent , and Created the World , not out of necessity , but voluntarily , having fram'd It , as he pleas'd and thought fit , at the beginning of Things , when there was no Substance but Himself , and consequently no Creature , to which He could be oblig'd , or by which he could be limited . 2. God having an Understanding infinitely Superior to that of Man , in Extent , Clearness , and other Excellencies , He may rationally be suppos'd to have fram'd so Great and Admirable an Automaton as the World , and the subordinate Engines compriz'd in it for several Ends and Purposes , some of them relating chiefly to His Corporeal , and others to His Rational Creatures ; of which Ends , he hath vouchsafed to make Some discoverable by our dim Reason , but Others are probably not to be penetrated by it , but lye conceal'd in the deep Abyss of His Unfathomable Wisdom . 3. It seems not Incongruous to conceive , that this most Excellent and Glorious Being thought fit to order Things so , that both His Works and Actions might bear some Signatures , and as it were Badges of His Attributes , and especially to stamp upon His Corporeal Works some Tokens or Impresses , discernable by Human Intellects , of His Divine Wisdom ; an Attribute that may advantagiously disclose Itself to us Men , by producing a vast Multitude of Things , from as few , and as simple , Principles , and in as Vniform a Way , as , with Congruity to His other Attributes , is possible . 4. According to this Supposition , it seems , that it became the Divine Author of the Vniverse to give It such a Structure , and such Powers , and to establish among its Parts such general and constant Laws , as best suited with His purposes in Creating the World ; and , to give these Catholick Laws , and particular Parts or Bodies , such Subordinations to one another , and such References to the Original Fabrick of the Grand System of the World , that , on all particular occasions , the Welfare of inferior or private Portions of It , should be only so far provided for , as their Welfare is consistent with the general Laws setled by God in the Vniverse , and with Such of those Ends , that he propos'd to himself in framing It , as are more Considerable , than the Welfare of those particular Creatures . Upon these Grounds , if we set aside the Consideration of Miracles , as Things supernatural , and of those Instances , wherein the Providence of the great Rector of the Universe , and Human Affairs , is pleas'd peculiarly to interpose ; it may be rationally said , That God having an Infinite Understanding , to which all Things are at once in a manner Present , did , by vertue of it , clearly discern , what would happen , in consequence of the Laws by Him establish'd , in all the possible Combinations of Them , and in all the Junctures of Circumstances , wherein the Creatures concern'd in Them may be found . And , that having , when all these things were in His Prospect , setled among His Corporeal Works , general and standing Laws of Motion suited to His most Wise Ends , it seems very congruous to His Wisdom , to prefer ( unless in the newly excepted Cases ) Catholick Laws , and higher Ends , before subordinate Ones , and Uniformity in His Conduct before making changes in It according to every sort of particular Emergencies : And consequently , not to recede from the general Laws He at first most Wisely establish'd , to comply with the Appetites or the Needs of particular Creatures , or to prevent some seeming Irregularities ( such as Earth-quakes , Floods , Famins , &c. ) incommodious to Them , which are no other than such as He fore saw would happen ( as the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon from time to time , the falling of Showers upon the Sea and Sandy Desarts , and the like must do , by vertue of the Original Disposition of Things , ) and thought fit to ordain , or to permit , as not unsuitable to some or other of those Wise Ends , which He may have in His All-pervading View , who either as the Maker and Upholder of the Universe , or as the Sovereign Rector of His Rational Creatures , may have Ends , whether Physical , Moral , or Political ; ( if I may be allowed so to distinguish and name Them , ) divers of which , for ought we can tell , or should presume , are known only to Himself , whence we may argue , that several Phaenomena , which seem to us Anomalous , may be very Congruous or Conducive to those secret Ends , and therefore are unfit to be censur'd by us , dim-sighted Mortals . And indeed , the admirable Wisdom and Skill , that , in some conspicuous Instances , the Divine Opificer has display'd in the fitting of Things for such Ends and Uses , for which ( among other purposes ) He may rationally be suppos'd to have design'd Them , may justly persuade us , that His Skill would not appear Infeferiour in reference to the rest also of His Corporeal Works , if we could as well in These , as in Those , discern their particular final Causes . As if we suppose an excellent Letter about several Subjects , and to different Purposes , whereof some Parts were written in plain Characters , others in Cyphers , besides a third sort of Clauses , wherein both Kinds of Writing were variously mix'd , to be heedfully perus'd by a very intelligent Person , if he finds that those Passages , that he can understand , are excellently suited to the scopes that appear to be intended in them , it is Rational as well as Equitable in Him to conclude , that the Passages or Clauses of the third sort , if any of them seem to be insignificant , or even to make an Incongruous Sense , do it but because of the illegible Words ; and that both these Passages , and Those written altogether in Cyphers , would be found no less worthy of the excellent † † See the Discourse of Final Causes . Writer , than the plainest Parts of the Epistle , if the particular purposes , they were design'd for , were as clearly discernable by the Reader . And perhaps you will allow me to add , that by this way of ordering Things so , that , in some of God's Works , the Ends or Uses may be manifest , and the exquisite fitness of the Means may be conspicuous ; [ as the Eye is manifestly made for seeing , and the Parts it consists of admirably fitted to make it an excellent Organ of Vision ] and in others , the ends design'd seem to be beyond our reach : By this way , ( I say ) of managing Things , the most Wise Author of them does both gratifie our Understandings , and make us sensible of the Imperfection of Them. If the Representation now made of Providence serve ( as I hope it may , ) to resolve some scruples about it ; I know you will not think it useless to Religion . And though I should miss of my aim in it , yet since I do not dogmatize in what I propose about it , but freely submit my thoughts to better Judgments ; I hope my well meant Endeavours will be , as well as the unsuccessful ones of abler Pens have been , excus'd by the scarce superable difficulty of the Subject . However , what I have propos'd about Providence , being written , rather to do a service to Theology , than as necessary to justifie a dissatisfaction with the Receiv'd Notion of Nature , that was grounded mainly upon Philosophical Objections ; I hope our Free Enquiry may , though this Second Use of it should be quite laid aside , be thought not unserviceable to Religion , since the First Use of it , ( above deliver'd ) does not depend on my Notions about Providence , no more than the Third , which my Prolixity about the former makes it fit I should in few words dispatch . III. The last then , but not the least , service , I hope our Doctrine may do Religion , is , that it may induce Men to pay their Admiration , their Praises , and their Thanks , directly to God Himself ; who is the True and Only Creator of the Sun , Moon , Earth , and those other Creatures that Men are wont to call the Works of Nature . And in this way of expressing their Veneration of the True God , ( who , in the Holy Scripture styles Himself a Iealous God , Exod. xx . 5. ) and their gratitude to Him , they are warranted by the Examples of the ancient People of God , the Israelites , and not only by the Inspir'd Persons of the Old Testament , but by the Promulgators of the New Testament , and even by the Coelestial Spirits ; who , in the last Book of It , are introduc'd , Rev. iv . 2. Praising and Thanking God himself for His Mundane Works , without taking any notice of His pretended Vice-gerent , Nature . THE CONCLUSION . AND now , dear Eleutherius , you have the whole Bundle of those Papers that I found and tack'd together , ( for they are not all that I have written ) touching my Free Enquiry into the Receiv'd Notion of Nature : At the Close of which Essay , I must crave leave to represent two or three things about It. 1. Since this Treatise pretends to be but an Enquiry , I hope that any Discourses or Expressions that you may have found Dogmatically deliver'd , about Questions of great moment or difficulty , will be interpretated with congruity to the Title and avow'd Scope of this Treatise ; and that so favourable a Reader , as Eleutherius , will consider , that 't was very difficult in the heat of Discourse , never to forget the Reserves , that the Title might suggest , especially since , on divers occasions , I could not have spoken , with those Reserves , without much enervating my Discourse , and being , by Restrictions and other cautious Expressions , tedious or troublesome to you . But this , as I lately intimated , is to be understood of Things of great moment or difficulty . For otherwise , there are divers Notions , Suppositions , and Explanations , in the Vulgarly Receiv'd Doctrine of Nature , and Her Phaenomena ; which I take to be either so precarious , or so unintelligible , or so incongruous , or so insufficient , that I scruple not to own , that I am dissatisfied with them , and reject them . 2. Though , upon a transient view of these Papers , I find that several Parcels , that came first into my hands , having been laid and fasten'd together , ( to keep them from being lost , as others had already been ) before the others were lighted on , some of them will not be met with in Places that are not the most proper for them ; yet Haste and Sickness made me rather venture on your good Nature , for the Pardon of a venial Fault , than put myself to the trouble of altering the Order of these Papers , and substituting new Transitions and Connections , in the room of those , with which I formerly made up the Chasms and Incoherency of the Tract , you now receive . And if the Notions and Reasonings be themselves solid , they will not need the Assistence of an exact Method to obtain the Assent of so discerning a Reader , as they are presented to : Upon the score of whose Benignity , 't is hop'd , that the former Advertisement may likewise pass for an Excuse , if the same things , for substance , be found more than once in a Tract written at very distant Times , and in differing Circumstances . For , besides that such seeming Repetitions will not ( if I be not mistaken ) frequently occur , and will , for the most part , be found , by being variously express'd , to elucidate or strengthen the Thought or Argument , they belong to : And besides , that the Novelty and Difficulty of some Points may have made it needful , not only to display , but to inculcate them ; besides these things , ( I say ) 't is very possible that the same Notion may serve to explicate or prove several Truths ; and therefore may , without Impertinency , be made use of in more than one Part of our Treatise . And if our Enquiry shall be thought worthy to be Transcrib'd , and presented to you a second time , after I shall have review'd it , and heard Objections against it , and consider'd the Things , that either you , or I myself , may find fault with in it ; 't is very possible , that ( if God grant me Life and Leisure , ) this Tract , which , in its present Dress , I desire you would look on but as an Apparatus ( towards a more full and orderly Treatise , ) may appear before you in a less unaccurate Method : And that my Second Thoughts may prove more Correct , more Mature , or better Back'd and fortifi'd , than my First . 3. The Subject of my Enquiry being of great Extent , as well as Consequence , it oblig'd me to consider , and treat of many Things , ( as Philosophical , Medical , Theological , &c. ) and , among them , of divers that are not at all of easie Speculation . And I found it the more difficult to handle them well , because the Attempt I have ventur'd upon being new , and to be prosecuted by Discourse , many of them opposite to the general Sentiments of Mankind , I was not to expect much Assistence from any thing , but Truth and Reason . And therefore , as I cannot presume not to need your Indulgence , so I cannot despair of obtaining it , if in this my first Essay , upon a variety of difficult Points , I have not always hit the Mark , and as happily found the Truth as sincerely sought it . But if you shall ( which 't is very probable you will ) find that I have fallen into some Errors , 't will be but one Trouble for you , to make me discern them , and forsake them , ( especially any , wherein Religion may be concern'd ) which I have , by way of Praevision , made it the more easie for myself to do ; because ( if my Style have not wrong'd my Intentions , ) I have written this Discourse , rather like a doubting Seeker of Truth , than a Man confident that he has found It. FINIS . A Catalogue of some Books lately Printed for , and are to be sold by , John Taylor at the Globe in St. Paul's Church-yard . THE Declamations of Quintilian , being an Exercitation or Praxis upon his Twelve Books , concerning the Institution of an Orator ; Translated ( from the Oxford Theatre Edition ) into English , by a Learned and Ingenious Hand , with the Approbations of several Eminent School-masters in the City of Landon . Octavo . Price 4 s. 6 d. England's Happiness in a Lineal Succession ; and the Deplorable Miseries which ever attended Doubtful Titles to the Crown , Historically demonstrated by the Bloody Wars between the two Houses of York and Lancaster . Twelves . Price 1 s. 6 d. The Happy Ascetick , or the Best Exercise ; with a Letter to a Person of Quality , concerning the Lives of the Primitive Christians . By Anthony Horneck , D. D. Preacher at the Savoy . Octavo . Price 4 s. 6 d. THis Book is now Printing in Latine , by the Author 's own Direction , and will be Publish'd by Trinity Term next . Printed for , and Sold by Iohn Taylor at the Globe in St. Paul's Church-Yard , 1686. ERRATA . Pag. 27. l. 17. r. Angel , p. 47. dele To which I now proceed , p. 131. l. 10. r. Causality , p. 134. l. 15. & 16. r. God and a Providence is afforded by the Consideration of the Visible , &c. p. 273. l. 16. r. World. Mal-punctations , or small Literal Faults ( if any be , ) the Courteous Reader is desired to correct with his Pen. ADVERTISEMENT . THE Reader is here to be advertis'd of a great Oversight that happen'd to be made by several Transpositions of the loose Sheets , wherein ( and not in a Book , ) the Copy was sent to the Press . For the Discourse beginning at the sole Break that is to be met with in the Hundred and Fiftieth Page , and ending with another Break at the second Line of the Hundred Fifty and Sixth Page , ought to have been plac'd at the sole Break that is to be met with in the Hundred Sixty and Second Page . And the Discourse that reaches from the beginning of the Hundred Seventy and Eighth Page , to the Close of the V. Section , which ends in the Hundred Eighty and Second Page , ought to have been Printed among the Arguments that may be alledg'd by the Naturists , among which it should , if I misremember not , have been brought in at the Close of the Two Hundred Forty and Eighth Page , and thence have reach'd to the end of the Sixth Section . These Transpositions are thought necessary to have notice given of Them , to avoid Confusion , since the Printed Sheets did not come to Hand , 'till too much of the Book was wrought off before the Transpositions could be discern'd ; which makes it fit to give Notice of what 't is too late to remedy . And though also some Connections and Transitions , relating to the Transpos'd Papers , be not such as they should be , yet 't is not judg'd fit , that the Reader be troubled with long Advertisements about them ; because his Discretion may easily correct them , and the Incongruities are not of Moment enough to spoil the Discourses they relate to . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A28982-e1340 Act. 17. See the III , the IV , and also the last Section of this Treatise . Notes for div A28982-e4680 2 Phys. c. 1. l. 3. 1 Cor. xv . 37 , 38. Rev. xvi . 5. Rev. xiv . 18. Verse 7. Notes for div A28982-e6000 * Arist. de Coelo , l. II. c. 11. † Arist. de Coelo l. II. c. 5. it . de Gen. l. II. c. 10. §. 22. Gen. i. 31. Gen. ii . 3. Job . xxxviii . 4 , 6 , 7. More Nevoch . lib. iii. cap. 30. Histor. Orientalis . lib. i. cap. 8. Lib. iii. cap. 36. 2 King. xvii . & 16. 2 Chron. xxxiii . & 3. Mor. Nevoch . lib. iii. cap. 25. Gen. xxxi . & xix . vers . 30. * Sen. de Benef. lib. vii . cap. 21. Galenus de usu Partium , l. xvii . apud Lacunam in Epitome Oper. Galeni . Origen . cont . Celsum . l. v. Prae parat . l. iii. c. 4. Damascius vita Isidori apud Photium : Colunt prae coeteris Diis Aegyptii Osirim & Isin ( i. e. Solem & Lunam , ) illum omnia condere , & figuris numerisque materiam adornare arbitrati . Rom. i. 25. Sed nec illam , quam ejusdem Numinis ( Solis ) beneficio adeptus sum , sortem conditionemque parvi facio ; quod ex eo genere , penes quod Terrarum Dominatus atque Imperium est , temporibus nostris ortum acceperim . Julian . ad Regem Solem . More Novochim . l. 3. c. 29. ( ni fallor . Pag. M. 98. Origen-contra Celsum . l. v. Origen . contra Celsum . lib. 8. Exod. xx . Sextus Empir . adversus Mathemat . lib. 8. P. M. 326. * August . de Civit. Dei. l. 7. c. 2. † Natur. Hist. l. 2. c. 1. * Natur. Quaest. l. 2. c. 45. De Benef. l. 4. c. 7. Lib. 7. Cap. 1. Deus & Natura nihil prorsus faciunt frustra . Arist. de Coelo , lib. ii . cap. 5. See Lib. xi . cap. 3. Aristot. de Coelo . l. xi . c. 13. Rom. 1. 25. Notes for div A28982-e12470 Heb. xi . 10. See the IV. Section . Notes for div A28982-e16220 * See the Appendix to the Hydrostat . Paradoxes . Natura est Principium quoddam & Causa , cur id moveatur & quiescat , in quo inest , &c. Aristot. Auscult . lib. II. cap. 1. The Fifth Commandment , in Exodus xx . Psalm v. 6. Psalm lv . 23. 2 Kings i. 16. Isa. xxxviii . James v. 25. 1 Cor. xi . 30. * A Discourse relating to Miracles . Notes for div A28982-e19780 Differunt autem Fortuna & Casus , quia Casus latius patet . Quod enim à Fortuna est , Casu est : hoc autem non omne est à Fortuna . Arist. Auscult . lib. ii . cap. 4. Natura semper id facit quod est optimum eorum quae fieri possunt . Arist. de Coelo . lib. ii . C. 4. See also Arist. de Gen. lib. ii . cap. 10. §. 22. Hippocrat . Epidem . lib. 6. §. 5. t. 1. Schenk . Obser. l. IV. pag. m. 633. & seq . Hippocrat . Lib. vi . Aphorism . xi . * Hippocrat . Epidem . l. 6. § 5. text . 2. 4. * Schenck . Observ. Lib. 3. Pag. mihi 337. & seq . See Pag. 164. to Pag. 173. Notes for div A28982-e25030 a Thus the Stoicks , in Laertius , describe the World thus , Mundus est qui constat ex Coelo & Terra atque ex illorum Naturis ; sive , Qui constat ex Diis & Hominibus , iisque Rebus quae Horum gratia conditae sunt . And of Chrysippus , one of the Patriarchs of that Sect , the same . † Historian in the same Book says , Purissimum dixit ac liquidissimum Aethera , quem etiam primum asserunt Stoici esse Deum , sensibiliter veluti infusum esse , per ea quae sunt in Aere , per cunctas Animantes & Arbores , per Terram autem ipsam secundum Halitum . To which agrees not only that noted Passage of Virgil , Principio Coelum , &c. — But another , which I somewhat wonder Learned Men should read with no more Reflexion : Since he there gives the Sky the very Title of the High God : Tum Pater Omnipotens foecundis imbribus Aether , &c. † Diog. Laertius l. 7. in Vita Zenon . 
A28985	----	The general history of the air designed and begun by the Honble. Robert Boyle ... Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1692 Approx. 511 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 137 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A28985 Wing B3981 ESTC R11260 13572026 ocm 13572026 100378 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A28985) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 100378) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 836:21) The general history of the air designed and begun by the Honble. Robert Boyle ... Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. xii, 259, [1] p. Printed for Awnsham and John Churchill ..., London : 1692. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). 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Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Air -- Early works to 1800. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-06 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-08 Andrew Kuster Sampled and proofread 2006-08 Andrew Kuster Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE General History OF THE AIR , Designed and Begun BY THE honble ROBERT BOYLE Esq . IMPRIMATUR . June 29. 1692. Robert Southwell , P. R. S. LONDON , Printed for Awnsham and John Churchill , at the Black Swan in Pater-noster-Row , near Amen-Corner . MDCXCII . Advertisement of the Publisher to the READER . THE Design of the following Papers the Author 's own Preface will acquaint thee with . And though , as thou wilt there see , his Expectation of Assistance ( in a Work too great for one single Man's Vndertaking ) from others fail'd him ; yet I doubt not but his own Experiments and Collections would have made this Treatise much larger before it had been published , had his Health allowed him Opportunity : But that permitting him not so much as to review these Papers , or range them into that order , which would be most advantageous , thou art not to wonder , if thou findest some Defects , some Dislocations , and other Faults in this Publication , which the Author's last Hand would have prevented . The Negligence of Transcribers has let slip the Characters of Relators , and Names and Places of Author's from whom several of the Particulars in the following Papers were taken : Nor could it be hoped that the Authors own Memory ( were he in a State of Health fit to be troubled with it ) should after so long a time as this Collection has been making , and in that Variety of Men and Books he has had to do with , be able to retrieve them . But this will be no great Loss to the learned World , which is sufficiently acquainted with his great Cantion , and will make no Difficulty confidently to rely upon his unaffected Candor and Sincerity . I know not how much some other Parts of his noble , and always busy Designs for the Advancement of Knowledg , and the Benefit of Mankind , may suffer by that Tenderness of his Constitution , which the Importunity of his Friends can hardly prevail upon him to withdraw from Philosophical Cares . But this he has ordered so , that imperfect as it is , one cannot call it deficient ; since the Foundation being here laid , and the Draught made , every one may , if he please , add towards the compleating of the building , I will not say with Materials equal to what his Sagacity and Laboratory used to afford : For we must not expect to find in every Age a Man able and ready to lay out so much Cost , Pains and Skill , frankly , for the Improvement of Natural Philosophy , and the Information of the World , as he has done . The Scheme of Titles under which these Materials for a History of the Air are ranged , is somewhat different from that printed by him several Years since , and distributed amongst his Friends . But this is without any Prejudice to the main Design , since whatsoever any one hath collected under those Heads , will be easily reducible to these , which in a more natural Order are more comprehensive . In that first Draught he followed my Lord Bacon's Advice , not to be over-curious or nice in making the first Set of Heads , but to take them as they occur . But now that thus much comes to be published , which perhaps may serve to some Men as a common Place for the History of the Air , the Titles have been a little more increased or methodized , to which any one may add as he finds Occasion : Only in these the Reader is desired to observe , I. That under the Title of Mineral Substances , are comprehended Earth , and all other Fossiles to avoid multiplying of Articles . II. That when any mixed Body is ranked under Animal , Vegetable , or Mineral Substances , it is put under that of the three which either it partakes most of , or to which most is owing in the present Experiment , or which in its own Nature it most resembles . III. That it is not by an Over-sight that Lightning is put under two different Titles ; for in one it is considered only in reference to the Sight ; in the other it is considered as the Product of sulphureous or inflamable Effluviums taking fire , with the strange Effects it produces ; which may be an Example of puting the same thing with different Views , under different Heads . What is abovesaid was written whilst the Author was living , to which it is necessary now to add , That the Titles , as here printed , and the Orders of the Papers , as now ranged under them , were shewn to the Author , and approved by him as fitter for the General History of the Air , than those he had formerly printed . So that , Reader , thou hast these Papers as they were prepared and ordered to be published in his Life-time ; and they had then gone to the Press to be printed , just as thou now receivest them , had not the Publisher the last Winter been hastily called out of Town . The CONTENTS of the several TITLES of the History of the AIR . Title 1. WHAT we understand by the Air , Page 1 Title 2. Of the constant and permanent Ingredients of the Air , 2 Title 3. Of the Aether in the Atmosphere , 9 Title 4. Of the Springy Particles of the Air , and the Spring of the Air , 11 Title 5. Of the Magnetical Particles in the Air , 15 Title 6. Of the Destruction , Generation , Absorption and Extrication of the Air , 17 Title 7. Of the Accidental or less constant Ingredients of the Air , 27 Title 8. Of Aqueous Particles in the Air , and of the Moisture and Driness of the Air , 29 Title 9. Of Clouds , Mists and Fogs , 36 Title 10. Of Terrestrial Steams in the Air , 37 Title 11. Of Salts in the Air , 39 Title 12. Of Sulphur and inflamable Particles in the Air , and of Lightning , and its Effects , 60 Title 13. Of Celestial Influences or Effluviums in the Air , 67 Title 14. Of the Height of the Atmosphere , 83 Title 15. Of the Motion of the Air , and of Winds , 84 Title 16. Of the Air as the Medium of Sounds , and of Sounds and Noises in the Air , and particularly Thunder ; and of the Air 's Operation on the Sounds of Bodies , 89 Title 17. Of the Weight of the Air , 90 Title 18. Of the Consistency of the Air , its Rarity , Density , Fluidity , Subtilty , 148 Title 19. Of the Heat and Coldness of the Air , 150 Title 20. Of the Air in reference to Light , its Perspituity , Opacity , Reflections , Refractions , Colours , Light and Lightning , 189 Title 21. Of the Operation of the Air on the Consistency of Animal Substances , 201 Title 22. Of the Operation of the Air on the Consistency of Vegetable Substances , 204 Title 23. Of the Operation of the Air on the Consistency of Mineral Substances , 206 Title 24. Of the Air in reference to Fire and Flame , 208 Title 25. Of the Air in reference to Fermentation , 210 Title 26. Of the Air as the Receptacle of Odours , 211 Title 27. Of the Operation of the Air on the Odours of Animal Substances , 212 Title 28. Of the Operation of the Air on the Odours of Vegetable Substances , 214 Title 29. Of the Operation of the Air on the Odours of Mineral Substances , 215 Title 30. Of the Operation of the Air on the Tastes of Animal Substances , 216 Title 31. Of the Operations of the Air on the Tastes of Vegetable Substances , 217 Title 32. Of the Operations of the Air on the Tastes of Mineral Substances , 218 Title 33. Of the Operations of the Air on the Colours of Animal Substances , 219 Title 34. Of the Operations of the Air on the Colours of Vegetable Substances , 220 Title 35. Of the Operations of the Air on the Colours of Mineral Substances , 222 Title 36. Of the Air destroying or introducing other less obvious Qualities into Animal Substances , 229 Title 37. Of the Air destroying or introducing other less obvious Qualities into Vegetable Substances , 230 Title 38. Of the Air destroying or introducing other less obvious Qualities into Mineral Substances , 232 Title 39. Of the Air in reference to the Propagation and Vegetation of Plants , 234 Title 40. Of the Air in reference to the Generation , Life and Health of Animals , 235 Title 41. Of heavy Bodies sustained in , or taken up into the Air , 251 Title 42. Of Dew , 252 Title 43. Of Rain , 253 Title 44. Of Hail , 255 Title 45. Of Snow , 256 Title 46. Of other things falling out of the Air , 257 Title 47. Promiscuous Experiments and Observations of the Air , 258 Title 48. Desiderata in the History of the Air , and Proposals towards supplying them , 259 THE PREFACE . THE continual Vse of the Air is so absolutely necessary to our Life ; the good or bad Temperature of it is so important to our Health ; and the scarce evitable Presence and powerful Pressure of it , has so great an Interest in many of the Phaenomena we meet with here below , and even in divers where its Agency is not suspected ; that among mere Bodies there are perhaps few Subjects that more deserve our Curiosity , whether as we are Animals , or as we are Naturalists . Upon which Account I can scarce think that any thing that conduces to the fuller Knowledg of a Body so diffused , so necessary , and so powerful , is fit to be despised , or is unworthy to be preserved in Writing . And therefore , though I have formerly had occasion to treat , in distinct Tracts , of some of the Qualities or Affections of the Air , as its Gravity , Springiness , &c. yet I found my self inclined to contribute further to the Knowledg of that vast and useful Subject , by setting down some Memorials , partly out of my own Observations and Trials , and partly out of those I had from Persons of good Credit , concerning some Causes and Effects of the Changes of the Air , and consequently concerning several of its Qualities that were requisite to be taken into Consideration in a work of that Nature . And not content with this , though my own Studies and Affairs would not permit me to prosecute my self the Design I am going to mention , yet thinking it might be a very useful thing , in reference both to Philosophy and Physick , that a Natural History of the Air ( though at first it should prove but a very imperfect one ) were faithfully compiled , I propounded the Design to some Virtuosi that seem'd to relish it , and undertook to be Assistant in it . And to facilitate their Work , I drew up a Set of Heads and Inquiries of that sort , which in another Paper I call Titles of the first Classis or Order ; which , tho purposely set down without any anxious Method , were comprehensive enough to have a good Number and Variety of Particulars conveniently referr'd to them . But afterwards finding the Persons to whom I had committed these Schemes , to have been for many Years very unmindful of their Promises ; I did on this Discouragement lay aside , not only the Hopes of a General History of the Air , but what I had already written about the Changes of that Body . And upon the same Accounts , those scattered Notes lay many Years in loose neglected Papers , till at length the Curiosity and Desires of some Virtuosi , that knew I had gathered some Remarks , though few and incoherent , touching some Qualities of the Air , obliged me to draw together those that without a troublesome Search I could retrieve , offering themselves to promote the Design that others had abandon'd . The Desire to gratify these Inquisitive Men , and the Conviction I am brought under , by such Reasons as are mentioned at the Beginning of this Paper , that scarce any Truth , whether Historical or Doctrinal , that relates to so important a Subject as the Air , is unfit to be preserv'd , prevail'd with me , rather to chuse a very disadvantageous way of setting down what I have to deliver about it , than suffer the loose Observations I had occasion to make about some Phanomena and Qualities , and especially the Changes of the Air , to be lost . And therefore , though I have not the leisure to methodize my incoherent Notes , and much less to weave them into continued Discourses ; yet rather than let them perish , and disappoint those that will have them such as they are , I am content to refer to some of the Titles prefixed to this Treatise , as to a kind of Common Places , what my Memory , or some old Notes about divers things relating to the Air , and especially to the Causes and Effects of its Changes , supply me with in reference to that Body . And upon the like Account , I have not strictly confined my self to the mention of my loose Observations , and those that I have been furnished with by Answers to the Questions I put to divers Travellers and Navigators : but I have also cast in several pertinent Passages that chanced to occur to me in the reading of some Voyages , and other Books , especially such as either are out of Print , or are but in few Hands , or else are not extant in those that are called the Learned Languages . And that those Virtuosi that are willing to contribute their Industry to carry on the Design that was at first proposed , might have some Heads whereunto to refer what shall occur to them ; I thought fit to premise to my Papers the above-mentioned Scheme , or rough Draught , of the General History ( which after many Years I chanced to recover . ) I have also thought fit , that under three or four Titles , my Collections of Particulars should be somewhat large and Methodical , to afford the same Persons some Specimens of what I should have thought requisite to do upon particular Subjects , if I would have ventur'd upon such a Task , as to write a Natural History of the Air. I am not ignorant that I expose my self to Censure , for suffering to pass out of my Hands , Memoirs so maimed and imperfect , that several of the Subjects mentioned in the Scheme of Titles are left altogether untouch'd ; and those that are particularly mentioned , are for the most part touch'd upon but lightly . But the chief , though not perhaps the only Reasons that kept me from being silenc'd by these Considerations , though I confess them to be weighty , were these . First , That not pretending to write the History of the Air , but only some Memoirs for it ; I might without Incongruity or Indecency contribute what had occurr'd to me in reference to some of the Titles , though I left the others to those that had made Experiments or Observations about them . Next , That having through the Fraud or Negligence of some Persons , lost sundry loose Papers that I had provided for the History of the Air , my Unwillingness that the rest should undergo the same Fate , invited me to impart them to many , as the best Expedient to secure them . To which I , Thirdly , add an Inducement , which though last named , was the first in Efficacy , as that which made the other two significant ; namely , that I had more than once observed , that when a Work of this Nature has been once begun and taken notice of , in such an inquisitive and active Age as this of ours , it seldom fails to excite the Curiosity and Industry of others , whom , if the Design be any thing well laid , the Utility that it promises will invite to carry it on . TITLE I. What we understand by the AIR . BY the Air I commonly understand that thin , fluid , diaphanous , compressible and dilatable Body in which we breath , and wherein we move , which envelops the Earth on all sides to a great height above the highest Mountains ; but yet is so different from the Aether [ or Vacuum ] in the intermundane or interplanetary Spaces , that it refracts the Rays of the Moon and other remoter Luminaries . TITLE II. Of the constant and permanent Ingredients of the Air. A short Answer to a Question about the Nature of the Air , given by Mr. Boyle to Mr. H. Oldenburg . AS to your Question , What I think the Air to be ? I shall in the first place take it for granted , that by the Air you mean not , either the pure Element of Air , which some , nor that Etherial or Celestial Substance , that others ( upon what Grounds I must not here examine ) assert ; but that , which I am wont to call the Atmospherical Air , which is that common Air we breath and move in . But though I know you too well , to suspect that you design any Ambiguity in your Question ; yet I shall not adventure to answer it , till I have premised a Distinction that is not usual : For , according to my Thoughts , the Air may be taken either for that which is Temporary , ( if I may so call it ; ) or in a Transient State ; or that which is Lasting , and in a Permanent State. This Distinction , which perhaps you look'd not for , I shall illustrate by this Example ; That if you sufficiently heat an Eolipile furnished with Water , and stay a pretty while to afford time for the expulsion of the Aerial Particles by the Aqueous Vapours , you may afterwards observe , that these last named will be driven out in multitudes , and with a noise , and will emulate a Wind or Stream of Air , by blowing Coals , held at a convenient distance , like a pair of Bellows , and by producing a sharp and whistling Sound against the edg of a Knife , held in a convenient Posture almost upon the Orifice of the Pipe , whence they issue out . But this vapid Stream , though in these , and some other things it imitates true Air , whilst the vehement Agitation lasts , which the Vapours it consists of , received from the Fire ; yet in a very short time , especially if the Weather , or the Vessels it enters into , be cold , loses the temporary Form it seemed to have of Air , and returns to Water , as it was at first . This premised , I come to speak directly , but dare not do it confidently , to your Question : For though possibly I may have made as many Trials as another about the Nature of the Air ; yet I freely confess to you , that I much suspect there lies yet something concealed in it , that needs a further Discovery , which may perhaps be made by further Trials . But in the mean time , ( not wholly to baffle your Curiosity , since 't is so modest , as to desire to know of me , not what the true Nature of the Air is , but what I guess concerning its chiefest Property or Attribute ) I will acquaint you with some of the Thoughts I long ago had , and which I yet took upon my self , and desire to have them look'd upon by you but as Conjectures , entertain'd only till farther Discoveries confirm them , or suggest better in their room . It seems then not improbable to me , that our Atmospherical Air may consist of three differing Kinds of Corpuscles . The first is made of that numberless Multitude and great Variety of Particles , which , under the form of Vapours or dry Exhalations , ascend from the Earth , Water , Minerals , Vegetables and Animals , &c. and in a word , of whatever Substances are elevated by the Celestial or Subterraneal Heats , and made to diffuse themselves into the Atmosphere . The second sort of Particles that make the Air , may be yet more subtile than the former , and consist of such exceeding minute Parts , as make up the Magnetical Steams of our Terrestrial Globe , and the innumerable Particles , that the Sun and other Stars , that seem to shine of themselves , do either emit out of their own Bodies , or by their Pressure thrust against our Eyes , and thereby produce what we call Light ; which , whether we explicate it by the Epicurean or Cartesian Hypothesis , argues a great Plenty of a Celestial , or some other very subtile Matter , to be dispersed through , or harboured in the Intervals of the stabler or grosser Corpuscles of the Atmosphere . But because you expect from me a distinguishing , and as it were , Characteristick Quality , which may put a difference between the Parts already named of the Atmosphere , and those to which most of the Phenomena of our Engine , and many other Pneumatical Experiments , seem to be due ; I shall add a third sort of Atmospherical Particles , compared with which , I have not yet found any , whereto the Name of Air does so deservedly belong . And this sort of Particles are those , which are not only for a while , by manifest outward Agents , made Elastical , but are permanently so , and on that account may be stil'd Perennial Air. Of the Structure of the Elastical Particles of the Air , divers Conceptions may be framed , according to the several Contrivances Men may devise to answer the Phenomena : For one may think them to be like the Springs of Watches , coil'd up , and still endeavouring to fly abroad . One may also fancy a Portion of Air to be like a Lock or Parcel of curled Hairs of Wooll ; which being compressed by an external Force , or their own Weight , may have a continual endeavour to stretch themselves out , and thrust away the neighbouring Particles , and whatever other Bodies would hinder them to recover their former State , or attain their full Liberty . One may also fancy them like extreamly slender Wires , such as those of Gold and Silver , that Tradesmen unwind from some Cylindrical Bodies of differing Sizes , on which they were rolled ; which Pieces of Spiral or curled Wire may be , as of differing Substances and Consistences , so of very differing Lengths and Thicknesses , and have their Curls greater or lesser , nearer each other , or more distant , and be otherwise diversified ; and yet all have Springiness in them , and ( notwithstanding ) be , by reason of their Shape , readily expansible on the score of their native Structure , as also by Heat , Girations , and other Motions ; and compressible by an external Force into a very little room . I remember too , that I have among other Comparisons of this kind , represented the springy Particles of the Air , like the very thin Shavings of Wood , ( that Carpenters and Joiners are wont to take off with their Plainers ; ) for , besides that these may be made of differing Woods , as Oak , Ash , Firr , &c. and thereby be diversified as to their Substance , they are usually of very various Breadths , and Lengths , and Thicknesses . And perhaps you may the rather prefer this Comparison , because it may seem somewhat to illustrate the Production of the springy Particles of the Air : for to make these Shavings , there is no Art nor curious Instruments required ; and their Curls are no ways uniform , but many ways differing , and seemingly casual ; and , which is chiefly considerable , these Shavings are producible out of Bodies , that did not appear , nor were suspected to be Elastical in their Bulk , as Beams and Blocks ; almost any of which may afford springy Shavings , barely by having some of its Parts so taken off , as to be thin and flexible enough , and commodiously shap'd : Which may perhaps illustrate what I tried , that divers solid , and even mineral Bodies , not suspected of Elasticity , being put into corrosive Menstruums , devoid of that Quality , there will , upon the convenient Comminution of Parts , insuing the Action and Re-action , that passes between them in the Dissolution , result or emerge a pretty Quantity of permanently Elastical Fire . But possibly you will think that these are but extravagant Conjectures ; and therefore without adding any thing in favour of them , I shall proceed , and willingly grant , that one may fancy several other Shapes ( and perhaps fitter than these we have mentioned ) for these springy Corpuscles ; about whose Structure I shall not now particularly discourse , because of the variety of probable Conjectures that , I think , may be proposed concerning it . Only I shall here intimate , that though the Elastical Air seem to continue such , rather upon the score of its Structure , than any external Agitation ; yet Heat , that is a kind of Motion , may make the agitated Particles strive to recede further and further from the Centers of their Motions , and to beat off those , that would hinder the freedom of their Gyrations , and so very much add to the endeavour of such Air to expand it self . And I will allow you to suspect , that there may be sometimes mingled with the Particles that are springy , upon the newly mentioned Account , some others , that owe their Elasticity , not so much to their Structure , as their Motion , which , variously brandishing them and whirling them about , may make them beat off the neighbouring Particles , and thereby promote an expansive Endeavour in the Air , whereof they are Parts . And though some of these may , in very cold Climates and Seasons , prove to be of those , which I not long since referr'd to temporary Air ; yet others of them may be so minute and agile , and so advantageously shap'd , that at least in our Climate , the Air will scarce be so cold , but that the Causes , which entertain the Agitation , and keep it fluid , may also give a competent Motion to Particles so well disposed to be kept in it . And now , Sir , 't will be time to indeavour to proceed to some Particulars , that may countenance the Conjectures I have hitherto been proposing . Having not now the leisure to prosecute this Discourse uninterruptedly , till it be compleatly finish'd , I thought it not unfit , not only to set down , in this Paper , some of those occurring Thoughts and Observations of my own , upon this Subject , that were the likeliest , unless this way preserved , to vanish out of my Memory , and which may serve to recal divers others into it ; but also to annex some Passages referable to the same Purposes , borrowed from such Books , as probably I may not have at hand , when I shall resume this Treatise . These two sorts of Passages make up the following Notes , and are therefore to be look'd upon but as materially here laid together to be preserved , not so much for themselves ( though some of them perhaps deserve not to perish ) as in Order to the finishing of the design'd Structure . And though , for that Reason , they may often appear very confusedly placed , yet they may seem more incoherent than they are , there being certain Transitions , and other things , by which some of them may be so connected , as to be fit to make discoursive Parts and Paragraphs of the Treatise they belong to ; upon which Account 't is that they are put at divers Distances one from another , that if hereafter I have leisure , there may be room for the Transitions , &c. by which they are designed to be connected into coherent Discourses . What is above said in reference to this Tract in general , is applicable to those particular Parts of it , whether Chapters or Sections , or other Divisions that follow a Line of Astericks , such as the ensuing ********************** imployed to separate the unfinish'd Part of the Division it belongs to , from the foregoing . TITLE III. Of the Aether in the Atmosphere .   TITLE IV. Of the Springy Particles of the Air , and the Spring of the Air. Aerem validè comprimere , aut dilatare . FOllibus lusoriis aerem pyulco ingerentes majorem subinde atque majorem difficultatem percipiunt ; quo enim magis aer conclusus à naturali raritate recedere cogitur , etiam major nisu resistit , neque solum magis densari renuit , sed & se latiùs explicare molitur . Hinc didicimus & pneumaticos fontes construere , qui spiritu interno urgente aquam in altum evibrant , & plumbeas glandes fistulis ejaculari , non pulvere nitrato ignem concipiente , sed aere per vim densato ad antiquas dimensiones recuperandas erumpente . Quoniam verò ingesta jam in conceptaculum non exigua aeris copia difficiliùs comprimitur novâ aeris accessione , quàm ut manus valeat trusillum rectâ impellere ; idcirco trusilli hastulam deformatam in helicem , & suae matrici insertam , adhibere operae pretium erit : dum enim manubrio agitante contorquetur cochlea , sensim deprimitur embolus , aeremque ingerit . Ne autem morâ longiore opus sit perpetuâ versatione manubrii , ita cochleae matrix externam vasis faciem contingat , ut illi adnecti , atque ab eo disjungi valeat : initio enim , quando adhuc levis est aeris modicè compressi resistentia , lamella illa suo foramine interiùs claviculatim striato cohaerens hastulae emboli , si à vase disjuncta fuerit , unà cum hastulâ movebitur : deinde vero , quando jam trusillis aegrè impellitur , lamella illa cum vase connectatur , & non nisi versato manubrio adduci atque reduci embolus poterit , id quod satis lentè perficietur . Rem claritatis gratia in fonte pneumatico explicemus . Porrò hastula H. K. perforata sit , & continuo ductu usque ad emboli K. S. fundum pateat aeri ingredienti via H. S. sed foramini S. adjecta sit valvula , quae aeri regressum obstruat . Similiter modioli fundo in I. valvula exteriùs apposita aperiatur ingesto aeri transitum praebens ; sed aeri intra vas compresso cum nusquam exitus pateat , valvula ipsa modioli foramen I. occludit . Hastulae verò H. K. exterior facies sit in helicem striata , & lamellae M. N. tanquam matrici congruat , quae in M. & N. cochleolis adnecti queat exteriùs vasi , quasi esset ansae fulcrum . Ubi immissum fuerit quantum satis est aquae , cochleolis M. & N. revolutis disjungatur matrix à vase : tum attractâ ansâ H. O. unà cum lamellâ M. N. attrahitur embolus K. S. & per apertum ductum H. S. ingreditur aer , modiolum implens . Impulso deinde embolo , valvula ad S. clauditur , & aer ex modiolo per patentem valvulam I. ingeritur in vas ; ex quo nequit exire , neque aquam propellere , clauso scilicet epistomio E. & foramine A. qua propter comprimitur , & densatur ; ideoque attracto denuo embolo K. S. inclusus vasi aer se latius explicare connitens valvulam I. valide applicat foramini modioli , sibique exitum obstruit . Toties adducitur atque reducitur embolus , & aer ingeritur , quoad magna premendi difficultas percipiatur ; ubi eò ventum fuerit , tunc lamella M. N. iterum vasi adnectatur suis cochleolis ; nec jam embolus rectâ adduci potest ; sed areptum in O. manubrium versatur , & embolus intrà , modiolum circumactus sensim attollitur , qui deinde revoluto in contrarium manubrio deprimitur , & multâ vi aer in vase comprimitur . Laxato demum Epistomio E. compressus in vase aer , aquam exprimit per tubum C. D. primùm quidem vehementius , subinde remissius , prout aeris vis elastica sensim longuescit . Hoc idem quod de aere intra vas comprimendo ad aquam evibrandam comminisci placuit , servatâ analogiâ , dicendum est de aere , tum conatu manûs rectâ trusillum impellentis , tum ope cochleae similiter conformatae , intrà conceptaculum comprimendo , ut ex fistulâ deinde multâ vi emittatur plumbea glans , ubi reseratus aeri exitus illum subitò dilatari permiserit . Quin & pneumatica hujusmodi tormenta citrà conceptaculum aeris compressi construere non inutilè accidat , si , quemadmodum nostrates pueri surculos sambuceos fungosâ medullâ exhauriunt , & utraque tubuli extremitate papyraceis globulis obstructâ , alterum globulum congruo cylindro propellunt , atque inclufum aerem densant , quoad aeris vim elasticam , & impellentis manus conatum non ferens extremus alter globulus edito seloppo expellatur ; ita ferream fistulam longiorem paraveris , cujus alteri extremitati immittatur plumbea glans obducta papyro , aut simili materiâ , ut exquisitè tubi osculum implens demum universam aeris . vim excipiar , alteram extremitatem aliquot spiris ambiat cava cochlea , quam impleat cylindrus ferreus in congruentem cochleam deformatus ; si enim hujusmodi cylindrus vix brevior fuerit , quàm fistula , & apto manubrio convolutus in fistulam sensim immittatur , totum aerem , quo fistula replebatur , ad exiguas spatii angustias adiget , ex quibus magnâ vi demum , quâ data : porta , erumpens ejaculabitur plumbeum globulum . TITLE V. Of the Magnetical Particles in the Air.   TITLE VI. Of the Destruction , Generation , Absorption and Extrication of the Air. New Experiments about producing of Air. And examining the Bodies produced . THAT the Air has a great Interest in the Production of many Phenomena of Nature , either not formerly known , or not formerly ascribed unto it , as the chief Agent , if as any at all , has been , I suppose sufficiently manifested by our own Experiments , as well as by those published by abler Writers . That also the Air is necessary not only to the well-being , but to the verry Being and Motions of the Generality of Animals , will be easily deduc'd from those Trials whereby we have made it appear , that Animals whose Blood is hot , may be killed in our Engine by the withdrawing of the Air in about one Minute of an Hour , and that even those minute Creatures , whose Blood or Analogous Juice is cold , will for the most part , without excepting Cheese-Mites themselves , presently lose all their visible Motions , upon the Recess of the Air , may appear from our Experiments about Respiration . Wherefore the Air , being a Body so important in our Speculations of Nature , and so necessary to the Continuance of our Lives , I could not but think it deserv'd , that we should solicitously inquire , whether it may or may not be produc'd by Art ; for if it can be so by any , not very uneasily practicable ways , the Discovery may not only help us to explicate some difficult Phenomena of Nature , but may afford us , among several other Uses , that of enabling us to supply divers , if not also submarine Navigators with fresh Air produced under Water , and thereby lengthen their staying in Places , where the Continuance of it may be of great Use both speculative and practical . Upon these and the like Motives , I resolv'd , notwithstanding the Difficulties I foresaw my Curiosity would meet with in so new an Attempt , to try what I could do . But before I relate the Success of this Attempt , I must premise a couple of necessary Advertisements . And first , when I here speak of Production of Air , I desire to be understood in a familiar Sense , meaning by that Expression the obtaining a sensible Quantity of Air , from Bodies wherein it did not appear before they were handled after our way , that so much Air , if any at all , was pre-existent . This I say , because I would not in this Place needlesly ingage in the Controversy about the Ingenerability ( as they speak ) or the mutual Transmutation of the Bodies that are called Elementary : for though I am not sure , but that some of our Experiments may argue a new and real Production of Air , or a Generation of it in the stricter Sense , yet I shall now imploy the words Generation and Production , in the large and popular Acception , and would signify by them , as I lately intimated , the obtaining of a sensible Quantity of Aerial Substances from Bodies , that did not appear to have it , whether this obtain'd Substance were due to an Extrication and Union of Aerial Particles latent in the Pores of the Bodies that afforded it , or to a real Production or Generation of Air , no where existent antecedently to our Experiments . And this is the first of my two Advertisements . The second is this , That among the Difficulties , I foresaw , in making Experiments suited to my Design , I look'd upon it as one of the greatest , though the least obvious , that to satisfy such a Disposition as mine , that is naturally prone enough to question things , it would be requisite for me to consider , and , if I could , to determine by appropriated Trials , whether the fluid Substances my Experiments might afford me , deserv'd the Name of Air or not . Wherefore I saw my self oblig'd to increase my Task , and so direct my Inquiries , that in the first Place they may afford me sensible Portions of such a Substance , as in a popular Sense may be stiled Air , whether these obtain'd Substances ought to be look'd upon as true Air or no. So that my intended Disquisition would naturally consist of two Parts , whereof the former was to contain the ways of producing , that which seems Air ; and the other to propound those of examining , how far the produc'd Substance is indow'd with the Qualities , that are judg'd to belong to Air as such . But in regard that I thought it most convenient so to contrive my Experiments , as to make such of them as I could to serve me , both to produce Air , and to examine it , I shall be more than once obliged to mingle the two Parts of my Disquisition , and reserve for the latter of them , only those few Trials , that concern purely the Examen of the produced Air. And upon this Score it will be seasonable to take notice in this Place , that forasmuch as there are divers Qualities ascribed to Air , which to me seem but accidental , and not universally to belong to Air as such , I have not observed any one Attribute that I think to be so much the Property of Air , and so fit to distinguish its true Particles from aqueous Vapours , earthy Exhalations , and the Effluvia of other Bodies , as a durable Elasticity or Springiness . And therefore I shall henceforth imploy that , as the chief Criterion , whereby to constitute a Portion of Matter Aerial , and discriminate it from other flying and fluid Substances , and consequently to allow or deny it the Title of Air. Now among the several Ways I thought of , whereby to produce Air , those I judg'd fittest to put in practice were these . 1. By Fermentation . 2. By Corrosions and Dissolutions of Bodies . 3. By boiling of Water and other Liquors . 4. By the mutual Actions of some , especially saline Bodies , upon one another . 5. By the Analyses and Resolutions of certain Substances . On January 17 , we conveyed into a long and large Tube some Filings of Steel , and as much Water as was thought convenient to dilute the Oil of Vitriol , which we also conveyed in a peculiarly shap'd Glass , seal'd at both Ends , but with a Hole opened near one of them ; the external Tube , and the Water in them being exhausted , and the Mercury in the Gage , which we had also included , being so far impelled up into the open Leg , that there was scarce any at all left in the seal'd one ; this , I say , being done , the external Tube was by our way exactly closed : and then the Oil of Vitriol being by little and little , and at good Intervals of Time , poured out of the internal Tube , to actuate the Water , there were produced exceeding large Bubbles by the Action of the Solvent upon the Metal , which also produc'd a sensible Heat , though not a great one . When this Conflict had lasted a while , we observed , in compliance with the chief Scope of this Experiment , whether there would be any springy Air produced by all those Bubbles ; and we perceiv'd that there seem'd to be so much of it generated , that at length the Mercury in the Gage was impell'd to the very bottom of the open Leg , and the Air included in the other seemed to be more compress'd than it had been when it was put in by the Weight of the Atmosphere . But to try whether this Spring ( wherein the Warmth , formerly mentioned , might be suspected to have for that time some Interest ) would continue , I removed the Tube into another Room where was no Chimny ; and coming to look on it the next Day , did not take notice of any sensible Alteration in the Gage ; and with the like Success I visited it for three or four Days : But then coming one Day to look upon it , I found the Mercury in the Gage to have ascended about one Inch and an half , and about that quantity of Water to have got into the sealed Leg ; which inclined me so much the more to suspect , that this Change in the Gage might have been accidental , a Boy having unknown to me removed the Tube from its wonted Station , to place somewhat else there , without doing it heedfully enough . And this Conjecture seems the more likely , because I have not seen any notable Change to have happened in the Gage from that time to this , ( which is the 25th of January at Night ) the Mercury in the open Leg being about one Inch and an half . March 8. A Glass Vial holding about a Pint ( by guess ) was filled with Wheat Flower , and as much Water as was sufficient to drench it well . Afterwards the Orifice was exactly and strongly closed with a Cork , and an excellent Cement : the Glass was set in a warm Place of the Laboratory , because of the Coldness of the Season ; and having stood there a Fortnight bating one Day , it this Morning broke by the mere Dilatation of the included Matter , whose visible Part was last Night observ'd to leave a considerable Part unfill'd beneath the Cork . Notice was taken by the Laborant of the Event of this Trial , by a Noise which yet was no louder than one made upon the bursting of the Glass into several Pieces : To my Taste the included Matter was but a little sourish , but another afterwards judged it to be manifestly acid . March 9. Having on the 23d of February put into a pretty large Bolt-head a convenient Quantity of bruised Raisons , with as much Water as I thought necessary to make them ferment ; and having caused the Air to be carefully pump'd out , and taken sufficient Order to keep any from forcing or stealing into the Glass , I set it in the Laboratory , that the Warmth of the Air might facilitate the Fermentation . At the end of four or five Days , it did not appear by a Mercurial Gage , ( which had been purposely inclosed together with the Raisons ) that there was generated any springy Substance . But being hindred by several Occasions from looking after this Glass from time to time , it seems the contained Liquor fermented more violently than the time of the Year would have made one expect : for about four of the Clock in the Afternoon , no body being in the Laboratory , the Glass flew in pieces with a loud Noise like the Report of a Pistol ; which alarming a Domestick of mine , that was in a Chamber not far off , made him hasten to the Laboratory , where he found the Raisons thrown all about , and the middle part of the Bolt-head ( for the Bottom and the Pipe were intire enough ) scattered into such little Pieces , that they seemed almost to be vanished . On the 22d of February , I filled a Glass that had a somewhat wide Mouth , and might hold by Estimation three Pints ( or Pounds ) of Water ; to which that Liquor , and a convenient Quantity of bruised Raisons upon the Orifice of the Glass , were tied the Neck of a pretty large Bladder , out of which the Air having been diligently express'd , it was strongly fastned to our Glass with one of our close Cements ; so that by squeezing the Bladder , we could not perceive that any Air could get in or out . Then , this done , we left the Glass in a convenient Place in the Laboratory , till the 8th or 9th of March ; and then finding the Bladder to be pump'd up , we would have tied up the contained Air , but could not do it by reason of an imperceiv'd Hole , perchance made with the Point of a Pin , by some one of them that handled it . Wherefore taking off this Bladder , we caused another that was very limber , to be put on after the manner newly described ; and yesterday Morning we found it , though by Estimation it might hold about two Pounds of Water , to be so full of Air , that we could not without difficulty , and losing a pretty deal of the contain'd Air , tie the Bladder very close near the Neck of it . And to try whether this same Mixture would continue to produce Air , ( whether fermented or not , I must not here dispute ) I caused another Bladder to be fastned to the same Glass as before , and found it this Morning March 11. as full as if it were distended with a Pair of Bellows . April 28. Into the bottom of a wide-mouth'd Vial we put some good Spirit of Salt , and Filings of Steel , and whelm'd over it a Rr. fitted with an Eel-skin and a Wire ; to the latter of which was tied a thin Glass-Vessel , hermetically seal'd at the bottom , tho 't was but slender , and furnished with a competent Quantity of Filings of Copper , then we exhausted the Rr. well with our Engine , and afterwards by thrusting the Glass that held the Filings against the bottom of the Vial , we broke it off , upon which the Filings fell into the Menstruum , which acting upon them , there ensued good store of Bubbles that made a Froth much deeper than was the Liquor , and the successive Generation of these Bubbles continued a good while , and appear'd some of them large enough , though in the free Air they would scarce have been visible , or at least would not have been taken notice of , the Vial having been kept in our Vacuum for a Quarter of an Hour longer , and no Greenness to be seen in the Liquor , the Rr. was taken off , and the Vial left open to the Air. A Bubble of Air , whose Diameter was near in length to that of a middle siz'd Pea , was left at the top of a round Vial with a long narrow Neck , whose Cavity was fill'd with fine Oil of Turpentine , and then being inverted into a Vial fill'd with the same Liquor , was set aside in a quiet Place , and left there for a competent time . Another Vial shap'd like the former , but a pretty deal less , was fill'd Neck and all with Alcohol of Wine , save a Bubble of Air about the same Bigness with the former : This Vial being inverted into another furnish'd with the same Liquor , was set aside in the same Window with it , and at the same time : The Event was , that about the End of the 6th Day , the Bubble disappear'd in the Glass that contain'd the Oil of Turpentine . And the like Absorption , if I may so call it , I observ'd to have been made of the Air by the contiguous Spirit of Wine , the next Day after . May the 23d . We open'd another exhausted Receiver , wherein was an unstop'd Vial more than half full of an opacous and blackish Liquor , which we guess'd ( for we found no Inscription belonging to it ) to have been Frogs Spawn , and were sure to have been included at least three Years : By the Mercurial Gage that was put up with it , it appear'd to have afforded some Air , but not very much . It s Smell was stinking , much like that of the Pump of a Ship , but yet it had produc'd no Insects , nor had any Appearance of Mouldiness . A Gentleman of my Acquaintance , an industrious Digger for Mines , and Owner of a good one , informs me , that when the Miners meet with running Water under Ground , they are thereby supplied with Air enough for free Respiration : And when I ask'd whether he thought that Air was produced or extricated by the Motion of the Water , or else were only concomitant to the Stream ? He answered , that it seemed to him more like to proceed from the Water it self : and further answered me , that standing Waters did not afford Air to the Diggers ; and that running Waters did it even at considerable Depths , amounting to many Fathoms . Experiments about the Production of Air , and the examining thereof proposed . Sect 1. TO produce Air by Fermentation in exactly closed Receivers . To produce Air by Fermentation in seal'd Glasses . To separate Air from Liquors by boiling . To separate Air from Liquors by the Engine . To produce Air by Corrosion , especially with Sp. Anti. To separate Air by Animal and sulphureous Solvents . To obtain Air in the exhausted Receiver by burning Glasses , and red hot Irons . To produce Air out of Gun-powder , and other nitrous Bodies . Sect. 2. Examine the produc'd Aerial Substance by its preserving or reviving . 1st . Animals . 2dly . Flame . 3dly . Fire . 4thly . The Light of rotten Wood , Fish . To examine it by its Elasticity , and the Duration thereof . As also by its Weight . And by its lifting up the Smoak of Liquors . TITLE VII . Of the Accidental or less constant Ingredients of the Air.   TITLE VIII . Of Aqueous Particles in the Air , and of the Moisture and Driness of the Air. I Shall not here determine whether in all the Instances that are referr'd to this Title , the Phenomena be produced by the meer Moisture of the Air as such , or by some other Agents , whose Corpuscles are accompanied and assisted by the moist Air as a Vehicle and a concurrent Cause . But without nicely distinguishing the Grounds of particular Operations , we shall refer the Phenomena in general to the Moisture of the Air , ( or moist Air ) that Quality being the most obvious to be observ'd in these Phenomena ; in the Production of some of which it seems either the only , or the main Cause , in others an assistant Cause , and in all a not useless Concomitant . The Account upon which a Body is dry , being usually but this , that the Pores intercepted between its more stable Parts , are not fill'd with any visible Liquor , it is not to be expected that a Quality so near of kin to a Privation , should furnish much to our present historical Notes : But yet Driness may sometimes have a not-inconsiderable Interest in the Changes of a Body , and that upon differing Scores , whereof I take these two to be the chief . 1st . As the Body by Exsiccation is deprived of those liquid and exhalable Parts that were before harbour'd in its Pores , and were perhaps the Principle of divers Operations ascribed to it . And , 2dly . As these Evaporable Parts by their Recess may occasion a Change of Texture in the Body , especially in regard of the Pores , whose Bigness , Figure , and perhaps Position , being alter'd , the Body by this Change of Texture acquires a Disposition to act , and be acted on , in several Cases , otherwise than formerly . Sometimes when the Weather began to be overcast , the Hygroscope did not sensibly appear to grow heavier , and sometimes it would preponderate when I took notice of no Vapours to make it do so : and though these things happen'd but seldom , in respect of the ordinary Changes of the Hygroscope according to those of the Weather ; yet they made me suspect that sometimes the Clouds may consist of other Steams than Aqueous , or that there may be some Exhalations that may have a peculiar Congruity with the Pores of the Hygroscope , and whose Nature may be such as to the Power of drying the Hygroscope , that upon these or some other , yet unheeded Accounts , the Steams that are sometimes diffused in the Air , may controul the usual and regular Causes of increasing or lessening the Gravity of the Hygroscope . And this Suspicion was the stronger , because having made Hygroscopes with Powder and Salt , and also with the Saw-dust of Wainscot , hung at nice Scales in very thin open Glasses , purposely blown for Lightness sake at the Flame of a Lamp , though they usually acquired and lost Weight , as the Weather grew moister or drier , yet sometimes they did not . At half of an Hour after nine a Clock at Night , I look'd upon the Half Hundred Weight that hung at the bottom of the Rope , the Weather being then fair , and a Mark being put at that part of the erected Board where the bottom of the Weight touch'd , I perceiv'd the Sky a while after to grow cloudy and overcast , but without Rain ; wherefore going to visit the Weight again , I found it to be risen ¼ of an Inch or more ; and looking on my Watch , perceiv'd there had pass'd an Hour and a Quarter since the Mark was made . This Morning I came again to look upon the Weight between eight and nine of the Clock , and found it raised above the newly mentioned Mark , made last Night about one Inch , ( for 't was about 9 / 10 of an Inch. ) This Day the Weather being fair and windy , the Weight was fallen by ten at Night about six Inches beneath its Station , at which I found it when I look'd on it in the Morning . Being not well yester-night , the Weight was observ'd at Bed-time , by two of my Servants , and it then rested at the 11th of the erected Bound . This Morning about eight of the Clock , I visited it my self , and found it to be risen about ⅛ of an Inch above the eighth Inch , the Morning being cloudy , though the Morning very dry and dusty . The Weather growing more overcast , within somewhat less than an Hour after , I visited the Weight again , some scatter'd Drops of Rain then beginning to fall , and found it to be risen about half an Inch above the newly mention'd eighth Mark. I look'd when I was ready to go to Bed upon the suspended Weight of 56 Pound , and mark'd how low it reach'd upon the divided Board ; and a great part of the Night having been rainy , I look'd again when I was dress'd in the Morning , which was about half an Hour after eight a Clock , and I found the Cord so shrunk , that the Weight was raised above five Inches higher than I left it the Night before ; but the Day recovering dry and windy , and sometimes warm , the Rope was so stretch'd , that at Night the Weight sunk a good way beneath all the Marks . N. B. The Rope near the Weight was in Diameter ● of an Inch , and four decimal Parts of a tenth . We took a Rope of near three Foot and an half in length from the Point of Appension , and somewhat less than ● ( Inch ) in Diameter ; this we suffer'd to be stretch'd for some Days by a Weight of Lead with an Iron Ring or Ansula , weighing a Quarter of an Hundred , according to the great Hundred , which is five score and twelve : and then placing a flat Board under it so , that the Weight just rested upon it , we had the Rope well wetted over them with a Spunge dip'd in Water , and so often applied to it , that the Liquor might be thorowly soak'd into the Pores of the Rope , which at first seem'd thereby a little stretch'd , rather than shorten'd ; but after an Hour or two it began to shrink , so that we could make the Weight swinge like a Pendulum over the Piece of Board it lean'd upon before . But afterwards the same Day the Weight stretch'd out the Rope again as much as formerly . 'T is observable , that though Morocco be an Inland-Town , and the Soil of those Parts be usually dry , if not parched ; yet Doctor D. who was lately there , informed me , that about Morocco , notwithstanding the violent Heats he felt in the Day-time , he observed the Nocturnal Air to be very damp , so as to make the Clothes he put off at Night exceeding moist , and unfit to be worn without airing the next Morning . He added , That though the Air was very piercing , and manifested it self to be so by many other Signs , yet it would not make his Knife rust in his Pocket , or his Sword in the Scabbard , though it would quickly produce a Rust in Instruments of that Metal exposed naked to it . Air too moist cannot be wholesome . The Air in our Parts , viz. about Oakly in Buckingham-shire , though a high Country , is , as I said before , between Michaelmas and Alhallontide very moist , especially in rainy Weather , and upon a Thaw , insomuch that Wainscots , Stair-cases and Pictures will stand all of a Water , and after run down in great Drops ; and at Brill , upon that high Hill , 't is in divers Houses worse than in the Valley , insomuch that the Stair-cases , especially if laid in Oil , will run down with Water : the North and North-East side of our Houses are observed to be moister , insomuch that the Furniture will rot , if Fires be not made sometimes in the Rooms , and the things aired : This is observ'd to be the most aguish Season of the Year . Mr. J. T. As in another Experiment wetried , whether or no the Removal of the Air out of the Receiver would much alter the Temperature of the included Medium or Space , as to Heat and Cold : so we indeavour'd to discover , whether the Alteration would be notable , as to Driness and Moisture . To this purpose we did indeed wish for such a Hygroscope ( or Instrument wherewith to measure the Moisture and Driness of the Air ) as we used many Years ago , and since found well described by the industrious Kircher , in a Place of his Ars magnetica , to which I therefore refer your Lordship . But in regard that to this Instrument there is requisite the Beard of a wild Oat seasonably gather'd , which we could not then procure ; we recall'd to Mind another Hygroscope , which , though it discover not such small Mutations as the former , we thought might be usefully enough substicuted instead of it . Of this Hygroscrope , having particularly described it in another Paper , we shall now only say in a word , that 't is made by fastning to the upper End of a Piece of Gut-string , or great Lutestring , a very light Index , and strongly fastning the lower end of the same String to the bottom of a Box , or other convenient Frame , the Circumference of whose upper Part may be at pleasure divided into Degrees or other Partitions , upon which the Index may move to and fro . For the Instrument being thus made , when the Air grows moister , the Vapours insinuating themselves into the Pores of the Filaments that compose the String , do somewhat shorten it ; and thereby those Filaments being altered in point of Contortion , the Index that is fastned to them turns one way : and upon the recess of those Vapours , or of others of like nature , the String comes to be wreath'd , and consequently the Index to be moved another way . So that in a String of about three Inches long , the Point of the Index will be oftentimes made to change its Place very notably , by such a mutation of the Air , as to Driness and Moisture , as was to be met with in the Morning and at Noon of the same Day , tho such a Change did not always need either Rain , Clouds or Mists , or the absence of them , to make it notable . We took then one of these Hygroscopes , and conveyed it into a small Receiver , that the removal of the Air being sudden , the Change of Temperature ( if any should happen ) in the exhausted Cavity , might be the more sudden and conspicuous . But we found not that the emptying of the Receiver made the Index sensibly change place . And though this Experiment were carefully made , yet for the greater Security we repeated it once more ; and neither then perceiving the Index to remove , we kept the Receiver exhausted for a pretty while , lest there should be some more time requisite to the Operation of the Medium upon the Instrument . But neither did this Trial produce any sensible Alteration of the Index ; but after the Key was turned , and Access was thereby given to the excluded Air , tho the Cover were still kept on , we found that then within some Hours , the Index was considerably removed . So that as far as these Experiments informed us , the Ether or subtile Matter that succeeds in the place deserted by the Air , if that Place be not left void ; and consequently the thinner and more fluid part of the Atmosphere ( in which the Corpuscles , that may be more properly called Aerial , swim ) seems in its own nature to be very sensibly , neither cold , or hot , or dry , or moist . I said , as far as these Experiments , I mean those we made in this Engine with the Thermoscope and Hygroscope , inform us : because this Conjecture ( for I dare yet call it no more ) may be examined divers other ways , whose Events may either confirm , or oppose , or limit it . In the mean time I could wish , that if your Lordship had one of Kircher's Hygroscopes at hand , you would frequently and carefully try the last-recited Experiment with it ; because I have found , that if such a Hygroscope be very well made , 't is admirable , as well as pleasant , to see how small a Mutation of the neighbouring Air it will take notice of . But I thought fit to desire to have it frequently tried , because Care must be taken that such Motions of the Index be not mistaken for the Effects of the altered Temper of the Medium in the Receiver , which may in some Cases proceed from those Steams of the Oil and Water , which we elsewhere mention , that we now and then , tho but seldom , observed to get out of the Cylinder into the Receiver , and play up and down there . TITLE IX . Of Clouds , Mists and Fogs . HEaring that an excellent Astronomer of my Acquaintance , had often measured the Height of Clouds , I enquired of him what Height he observ'd them to have ? and was answered , That though he had measured eighteen or twenty even of white Clouds in fair Weather , yet he observed scarce any one to be higher than three quarters of a Mile , and few of them he found to exceed half a Mile . A Mist coming , driving upon the Sea towards the Shoar , though without any sensible Wind , will raise a greater Swell of a Sea , than a brisk Wind will do . N. I have observed in a Ground near my House , which is somewhat moist in Winter , as also in other Places , especially after a warm Day , and against fair Weather in Autumn , a moist blewish Mist to ascend about twenty or thirty Foot high , and then to subside again in Dew . Mr. J. T. TITLE X. Of Terrestrial Steams in the Air. INquiring of an ingenious Acquaintance of mine , who , in an inclosed Scope of Ground , has several Veins of differing Metals and Minerals , whether he did not see , and sometimes smell Steams ascending out of this or that Spot of his Ground , in Circumstances where their Ascension could not be imputed to the Action of the Sun ? He and his Son , who was also a Virtuoso , told me , that they had divers times seen as 't were Pillars of Fumes ascending like Smoak , whereof some would be inodorous , some ill-scented , and some , though but seldom , well-scented . And you may have observed , as well as I , that Fogs , some of which I have known to be very lasting , and to have a large Spread , did require no tender Nostrils to perceive them to stink . I have frequently observed the smoaking Steams that arose out of the Shafts of Mines not wrought in : And it is certain , the Charcoal made in Cornwal ( especially of that Wood that grows in the Mineral Part thereof ) doth afford a manifest Arsenical and Sulphureous Smell beyond other Charcoal . N. Tel est par exemple ce nuage horrible d'une fumée epaisse qui s'eleva de la mer de Crete au Commencement de l'Este de l'an 721. et qui s'etant repandu dans l'air le fit paroistre tout en feu . La mer n'en fut pas mesme exempte ; car les grosses masses de pierres enflammées qu'on en vit sortier , et qui se joignirent a l'Isle qu' on nomme Hiera , échauferent si fort les eaux qu'elles en bruloient les mains . TITLE XI . Of Salts in the Air. 'T IS sufficiently known that the Peripatetick Schools teach the Air to be an Element warm and moist ; and if it be an Element , it ought , according to their Principles , and those of the greatest part of other Naturalists , to be a simple and Homogeneous Body . But because such an elementary or uniform Purity is much easier to be found in the Writings of Schoolmen , than amongst the Works of Nature , many of the modern Philosophers have justly forsaken this Doctrine of the elementary Simplicity of the Air in some measure ; but perhaps very few of them , if any , have asserted the Air to be so exceedingly compounded a Body , as in my Opinion it really is . For divers of them grant indeed , that the Atmosphere is not absolutely pure , but yet think , that it differs but gradually from true and simple Air , as Water a little moved and troubled does from clear and settled Water . But for my part , I confess I acquiesce not in either of those Notions of the Air. For , as I have elsewhere more fully declared in a short Discourse , purposely treating of the Substance of the Air , although I will not deny that there is an Ethereal Matter more subtile than the common Air , which Ether I take to be diffused through all the Interstellar Part of the Universe known to us , reaching to and surrounding all its great Globles ; yet speaking of the Air which we Men live and breath in , I take our Atmosphere to consist not only of the purer Ether , but in great part of a vast multitude of Effluvia emitted by the Terraqueous Globe , and the various Bodies it is made up of , and perhaps in some part also of substantial Emanations from the Celestial Bodies ; and that that whereby the Atmosphere differs from such pure Air , as the Schools tell us of , is not a bare and indeterminate Feculency , but a confused Aggregate of several distinct and perhaps disagreeing kinds of Effluvia . And amongst those , one of the principal sorts I take to be the Saline ones , which rove up and down amongst others in that vast Ocean of Effluxions , we call the Atmosphere : wherein yet I do not think there are to be met with , either all sorts of them every where , or perhaps any sort in like Plenty , in all Places , and at all Seasons . To shew that the Air is not unfurnished with Parts of a saline Nature , I might alledg some Considerations that seem to make it probable à priori , as they speak , that there are always some such Corpuscles emitted into the Air. But instead of insisting on such Particulars , because they may seem too little of an Historical Nature , to be fit for this Paper , I shall content my self to take notice in the general , that almost ( if not more than almost ) all the Arguments I have employed , to prove the copious Ascension of subterraneal Steams into the Air , may be applied to our present Purpose , since amongst the effluviating Substances of the Terraqueous Globe , there are , as I have declared in another Paper , huge quantities of common or Marine Salt , besides Nitrous , Aluminous , Vitriolate , and perhaps other kinds of Salts . To which I shall add , that the emission of Subterraneal Aporrheas or Effluxes , is not the only Means whereby the Air may be impregnated with saline Particles ; since the Exhalations and Vapours produced by the Action of the Sun-beams upon the more superficial Parts of the Earth and Sea , may supply the Air with Swarms of Corpuscles , as well of saline , as of any other Nature . Not to mention that the Number of these may , in divers Places , be much increased , by those Vulcans , that have open Vents to discharge their Fumes into the Air ; by those numerous Fires which burning in our Chimnies , produce much saline Smoak ; and by other ways , which I shall here forbear to discourse of , for the Reason lately given for my declining Arguments drawn à priori : though some things applicable to this purpose , will in likelihood occur amongst the Instances I am about to add , to make it seem probable à posteriori , or by some Effects and Phenomena , that the Air is impregnated with saline Corpuscles , that are none of its least active Parts , and may have great Interest in divers of its Operations . From what has been hitherto delivered , to make it probable that there is a saline Substance in the Air , I thought fit to proceed to other Inquiries . The first ; Whether the Aerial Salts be of differing kind ? and if so , which they are ? And the second ; How it comes by its saline Substance ? But about such differing Points I durst promise my self but little Satisfaction , and therefore shall not pretend to give you much . And yet , to say something to the first of the two Inquiries , I am prone to think , that the saline Particles of the Atmosphere are not all of one sort , but that there may be three or four differing kinds of Aerial Salts . I know that divers learned Men , some Physicians , some Chymists , and some also Philosophers , speak much of a Volatile Nitre , that abounds in the Air , as if that were the only Salt wherewith it is impregnated . But though I agree with them , in thinking that the Air is in many Places impregnated with Corpuscles of a Nitrous Nature ; yet I confess I have not been hitherto convinc'd of all that is wont to be delivered about the Plenty and Quality of the Nitre in the Air : For I have not found , that those that build so much upon this volatile Nitre , have made out by any competent Experiment , that there is such a volatile Nitre abounding in the Air. For having often dealt with Salt-peter in the Fire , I do not find it easy to be raised by a gentle Heat ; and when by a stronger Fire , we distil it in close Vessels , 't is plain that what the Chymists call Spirit of Nitre , has quite differing Properties from crude Nitre , and from those that are ascribed to the volatile Nitre of the Air ; these Spirits being so far from being refreshing to the Nature of Animals , that they are exceeding corrosive : And even when I caused Earth to be dug up in an old Pigeon-House , because that is accounted the most nitrous sort of Earth , and distill'd it with moderate Fires , I did not find the volatile saline Parts , that came over , to be like that , which these learned Men conceive the Air to be stored with . Nor have I met with among them any positive Proof , to evince the Truth of their Opinion ; which yet , as I was saying , I am content to admit as an ingenious Supposition , 'till something be offered that shall prove it to be more ; which I think not impossible to happen , at least as to some Times and Places . But I am not yet sure , that the Exhalations , that ascend from the subterraneal Parts , and perhaps also the Sun-Beams themselves , may volatilize many of the nitrous Corpuscles they chance to act upon , and elevate them into the Air , without analyzing them , or destroying their Texture , as our Fires are wont to do . But however , I do not take the hitherto mention'd Nitre to be the only Salt , that impregnates the Air : For when I consider how vast a Portion of the Terraqueous Globe is cover'd with the salt Sea , and how vast Quantities of fossile Salt , as well fine and clear , as course , are dug up in Poland , especially near Cracovia ; in Hungary , Transylvania , and in divers other Parts of the Earth : When I consider too , that we seldom find Salt-peter in the Earth , but that there is Sea-Salt mix'd with it , which puts the Salt-peter-men to a great deal of Trouble to separate it ; and that even from Salt-peter , that passes for good , I had Trouble enough , when I had the Curiosity purposely to refine it , to free the purely Nitrous from the other saline Particles : I am prone to suspect , that in very many Places , especially maritime ones , the Effluvia of common Salt do , at least as plentifully as those of Salt-peter , abound in , or impregnate the Air : which Conjecture might be favoured by divers things , if I had leisure to insist on them . That in some Places , that abound with Marchasites , there is a kind of fretting Vitriolate Salt , copiously dispersed through the Air , I have been inclin'd to think , partly by other Inducements , and partly by the Answers made me by a very observing Man , who liv'd in a Place , that I remember I visited ; where being forced to reside a good while , he found the Hangings of his Chamber , and the Curtains of his Bed , rotted by the Vitriolate Steams expir'd by the Soil , whose Effluvia had also very manifest and unwelcome Effects , on divers other things , that were kept near that Place ; tho on the opposite Side of the River , in a Town that is not half a Mile distant from this Place , neither I , at my being there , heard any such thing complain'd of , nor the Relator , who had often occasion to repair thither , observ'd any such mischievous Effects ; the Soil of this latter Place being chalky ; whereas the other above mentioned is vitriolate , insomuch that he observ'd , that when the moist and blackish Mould had been beaten upon by the Sun , that here and there the superficial Parts would be as 't were besprinkled with a somewhat whitish saline Efflorescence . Besides the hitherto-mention'd kinds of Salts , it seems not improbable to me , that the Air ( especially about great Towns , and some other particular Places ) may be impregnated with volatile Salts , that are of a Nature contrary to Acids . For that there may be Places in the Earth , even at a good Depth under Ground , that lodg such Salts , I have been induced to think by the Experience of an Acquaintance of mine : who , hoping to find in the Salt of what he supposed to be Virgin-Earth , the true Receptacle of an universal Spirit , from which he promised himself great and profitable Matters , caused to be dug up a great deal of a certain Clay , in a Place abounding with Minerals , and obtain'd thence by mere Distillation , no inconsiderable Quantities of Spirit and Salt , which in divers Qualities , as Smell , Taste , &c. I judg'd to be near of kin to the Spirit of Urine or Hartshorn . And yet this Earth was dug up at the Depth of many Feet , not to say Yards , beneath the Surface of the Ground , ( as an ingenious Potter , from whom the Chymist had the Clay , assur'd me upon the Place it self ) which I once visited , to see some other choice Minerals , that innobled that Soil ; whence I would have got a Quantity of the above-mentioned Clay , but that it being then the midst of Winter , the Rain had ( as the Workmen speak ) drowned 〈◊〉 Pit. In great Cities , and also Towns , where much Wood is burnt , 't is probable that numerous Particles of volatile Salt may be dispersed through the neighbouring Air. For , as I have elsewhere shewn , the Soot of burn'd Wood , which is but that small part of the Smoak which chances in its passage upwards to stick to the Chimny , does very much abound in a volatile saline Spirit , which by many Trials are found to have so much Affinity to that of Urine and of Hartshorn , as not to be easily , but by the Smell distinguished from it . Besides , in several Places the Putrefaction of Substances , that once were Parts of animal Bodies , may furnish the Air with volatile Salts , as I have elsewhere mentioned , that I found , that Urine , without Distillation , will by bare Putrefaction afford saline and spirituous Parts , that , whilst they yet swim in the copious Phlegm , that makes up the Body of the Liquor , will manifestly discover themselves to be volatile , not only by their Smell , but by their hissing with acid Spirits , and by their dissolving some Bodies , and precipitating others , according to the manner of volatile sulphureous Salts , as those that abound in Spirit of Hartshorn , Blood , &c. And I am apt to think , that 't is not only in the parts of Animals , but also in those of many Vegetables , that Putrefaction may either extricate or produce volatile Salts . And I remember , I have observ'd in some succulent Vegetables , that chancing to lie in a Heap together , in a convenient Season of the Year , to make them rot ; I observ'd , I say , when the Putrefaction was come to a certain Point , that the Stink did so resemble that of Carrion , that 't was not easy for me to believe it came from Cadaverous Plants , not Animals . And that 't is not impossible for a Vegetable to afford , without the Help of an Additament , a volatile Salt , even in forma sicca , may be gathered from what I elsewhere relate , of my having distill'd such a Salt from a certain spirituous Seed , though I freely confess , I never obtained any ( without previous Incineration ) from above two or three Vegetables . But of this enough in this Place . I shall now add , that besides the more simple Salts hitherto enumerated , 't is not unlikely , that in some Places the Air may sometimes contain compounded Salts . For I have elsewhere shewn , that some sorts of saline Spirits , meeting one another in the Air , may there convene . And I elsewhere teach how to order a couple of Liquors so , that one will never of it self afford any thing in a dry form ; and yet the spirituous Effluvia of this Liquor , meeting with those of the other , will exhibite a volatile and saline Body in a dry form ; though the Liquors themselves being mingled , will not afford any such Substance . What I have elsewhere delivered concerning subterraneal Steams , may make it probable , that at least now and then , and in some Places , there may be sent up from under Ground into the Air , among other Effluvia , store of saline ones , which needs not be supposed all of them to be of an uncompounded Nature . With which that agrees very well , that was related to me by a very intelligent Acquaintance of mine , that liv'd long in Parts of America , where there was a Vulcan , which he and some others having the Curiosity to visit , told me , that before they came any thing near the Fire , or were offended by the Heat , not only the Skin of his Face was almost corroded by the Sharpness of the Exhalations , but the Colour of his Hair was alter'd by it ; which kept him from prosecuting his intended Discovery . 'T is a known thing , and I have received Information of it from more than one Eye-witness , that about Mount Vesuvius , the ascending Exhalations , that issue out at some of the Holes , are of so saline and sulphureous a Nature , that part of them stick about the Orifices of those Vents , in the form of Flower of Brimstone ; of which a learned Acquaintance of mine brought away some Quantity . And I have had brought me from some of those Vulcans , a Stone , whose Caveties abounded with a white Salt , which , by fit Trials purposely made , was found near a-kin to Sal-Armoniac , and easily resoluble into a Salt , whereof one part was somewhat fix'd , and the other very volatile , which made it highly probable , that the Salt was compounded in the Bowels of the Vulcan : whence I have been credibly inform'd , that great Quantities of it have been cast up in the fiery Eruptions , and therefore Store of it might in Likelihood be dispersed through the Air , since I found the Salt it self to be sublimable . But , besides the saline Substances hitherto mention'd , which may be referr'd to determinate Species , I think it not impossible , that the Air may , at least in some Times and Places , be impregnated with Corpuscles of a saline Nature , whether simple , or compounded , or of both kinds , not easily reducible to any of the sorts , we have been speaking of , or are acquainted with . For which Reason I shall not presume to give them any other Denomination , than that indefinite one of Anonymous . And I have been inclin'd to think , there may be such Bodies in the Air , by these two Inducements . The first ; That the particular aerial Salts , that have been hitherto recited , are but few , as it seems probable , by what I have said in other Papers of subterraneal Steams and Menstruments ; and that therefore there may ascend out of the Earth into the Air , saline Fumes differing enough from those , whose kinds we have hitherto describ'd . But besides this Consideration à priori , ( as they speak ) Experience has presented us with some Phenomena , that seems à posteriori to confirm this Conjecture . For there happen such Changes to some Bodies , by being exposed to the Air , as , though I am not sure , and therefore shall not be confident , that they are mainly produc'd by some nameless Substance of a saline Nature , may yet make it allowable to suspect them to proceed thence . And amongst these I shall take leave to insert some , which I deny not to be probably referrable , either to one or other of the formerly enumerated kinds of aerial Saltness . For laying these Instances before you together , they may , by appearing thus associated , give the stronger Probability to our Opinion , that there are saline Substances in the Air. And those Instances , that are not so proper to perswade you , that there are anonymous Salts , may serve to confirm that there are , at least in divers Places , differing sorts of aerial Salts . I remember I have more than once visited old Glass-windows , in high and ancient Buildings , and found some of the Panes of Glass here and there corroded , as if they had been worm-eaten ; which probably enough argued the sharp and fretting Corpuscles , to have been carried along with the Winds to which they were exposed , as will not easily be reduced to any formerly nam'd Salts , whose being unable to corrode Glass , especially no finer than that was I speak of , is sufficiently known to Chymists . Besides the above-mention'd Phenomena , others have occurr'd to me , which possibly 't would not be thought impertinent to subjoin on this occasion ; but I chuse rather to reserve them for another Discourse ; and now should put an End to this , but that I dare not conceal from you , that I sometimes had Thoughts of trying , whether a Discovery may not be made , what kind of Saltness there is to be found in the Air , and whether the aerial Saltness does or does not abound there , at least at this or that time . But this I freely confess to be so difficult an Attempt , that all that I can offer pretends but to disswade you from rejecting it , as too desperate and extravagant a thing to be fit to be tried . And I speak the less promisingly of what I am to say in the remaining part of this Paper , because I have not by me any Notes to assist my Memory , ( which I dare not trust alone ) concerning the Issues of the not numerous Trials , I had Opportunity to attempt in pursuance of those Thoughts . This I well remember , that among other ways of making the intended aerial Discoveries , I look'd upon this as the least unpromising , that such Subjects should be carefully chosen out , as being disposed to be differingly wrought upon , according to the differing sorts of Saltness , that may be found predominant in the Air. This more general way of investigating the Salts of the Air , may contain divers particular Methods , of which I shall now touch upon the following three . First , It may be worth while , to expose to the Air such Bodies , as we judg fittest to be wrought upon by the Salt , that we think likeliest to be met with in it . So where we guess the Air to be impregnated with Nitre , we may expose Lime to it , or some other Body that we think disposed to imbibe or retain such a Saltness . We may also hang up in such an Air , Clothes or Silks died with such Colours , that Nitrous ( for Instance ) or Salino-Sulphureous Spirits ( as some Chymists call them ) have been found peculiarly apt to make to fade , or to discolour them . In the Places where we suspect vitriolate Steams to abound , some appropriated Preparations of Sulphur , either common or metalline , may be exposed to try whether they will acquire a Blackness , as I have several times found some of those Sulphurs , though otherwise of no dark Colour , to do , upon the least Contact of vitriolate Corpuscles . In some Places also , which are judg'd likely to afford subterraneal Steams , guesses may be made , whether this or that kind of Salt ascends into the Air , by spreading upon the Ground , in Places free from Dirt and Dusts , large Pieces of clean and white Linen Cloth , that has no Relish of Sope or Lees ; and observing , after they have lain a competent while , whether , and how they are discoloured , and what kind of Saltness , if any , is to be found in the Moisture imbib'd by them , from the ascending Steams and falling Dew . The next of the above-mention'd ways of inquirng after the Saltness of the Air , may be , to find , if it be possible , some one Body , that is both capable to be wrought on by several aerial Salts , and will be so differingly wrought on by them , as to discover which kind of Salt it is , that has produc'd the Change. That 't is very difficult to find such a Body , I will readily grant , but that it may be possible I will not be forward to deny . For having pitch'd upon Copper to make this Trial with , though the Attempt did not succeed according to my Wish , yet perhaps it was chiefly for want of Time and Accommodations that it miscarried . For having taken Plates of Copper beaten thin , ( without regarding their Bigness , or Figure , or Smoothness , as things not necessary to my purpose ) I caused the Surfaces to be made very clean , that the Colours might be the more easily produced , and the better discerned ; then , keeping these over Glasses wherein were placed divers Spirits , as of common Salt , and of Nitre , partly sincere , and partly diluted with Water , I observ'd , as I expected , that though I put the Glasses in no Heat , yet there ascended fretting Particles out of the Liquors , and that within less than a Day , the Steams of the two above-mention'd Liquors had much darken'd the Surfaces of the Copper Plates , they met with in their way , the keeping them a while in the Air was not hard to know by the differing Discolorations that appear'd , which Plate had been invaded by the saline Corpuscles , and which by the nitrous : Which I did not at all wonder at , because I have formerly found , as I have elsewhere noted , that whereas Spirit of Nitre will make of Copper a greenish blew Solution , Spirit of Salt will , if duly imployed , dissolve that Metal into a grass-green Liquor ; as the Spirit of Soot and that of Urine will into a deep Blew , almost like Ultramarine . But , as I said , the want of Time , of which good store may be requisite for such Trials , kept me from prosecuting my Attempt to an Issue . Notwithstanding which I look not upon the Design as desperate , not only because of the Incouragement I have already mention'd to resume it : But because I have observ'd Pieces of malleable Copper , brought me , to examine , out of an English Mine , ( which is yet conceal'd ) to be overcast here and there with a fair Verdigrease , which by Circumstances I judg'd to have been produc'd , not by gross Liquors , but by the Air impregnated with Steams fit to work on that Metal . And possibly there may be other subterraneal Bodies , and even metalline ones , that by their Degree of Colour , or peculiar kind of Rust or Stain , that they will acquire in the Air , may help us to guess , what Substances , and among others what Salts the Air of that Place is impregnated with . I have been in a great and stately House , which being oddly seated , had this peculiar Inconvenience , upon the Score of the Steams that infested the Air , that those that dwelt in it , as one of the chief of themselves complained to me , could not keep their Silver Plate , of which they had great Store , from being blemished by odd Discolorations , or as they seem'd to think it , Rust ; though when it was not used , they carefully kept it in a Place judg'd convenient for such a Purpose . And I have been informed by an observing Man who liv'd there some time , that there is nothing more generally known in Amsterdam , than that their Silver Plate there , exposed a little while to the common Air , tarnishes immediately , contracting a dirty Colour , partaking of yellow and black . Another Instance or two , though not afforded by Plate , I could mention to the same Purpose ; but I reserve them for another Place ; my Haste obliging me to pass on to the last of the three ways I proposed , of investigating the Differences of aerial Salts . The third way may be look'd upon , if you please , as a Variation of the second ; but there is this Difference betwixt them , that here we make use of metalline Bodies , not crude , but already prepared by some Chymical Operations ; so that being before-hand reduc'd to very small Parts , by the Intervention of saline Substances , the Operation of the Air upon them is wont to be much the sooner performed . In this third way then we imploy such factititious Minerals or other Bodies , as having for the most Part an adventitious Colour already , will change that Colour by being exposed to the Air. For it seems not impossible , but that by diligently observing what Difference may be found in the Discolorations , produc'd in these Substances by the differing kinds of Salts , as Nitrous , Salino-Sulphureous , &c. that we have shewn may be met with in the Air , some guesses may be made in a short time of this or that Salt , which has the chief Stroak in the Production of the exhibited Colour . And I shall on this occasion mention two or three Bodies , without determining , till I be better satisfied , whether their Changes proceed only or chiefly from the Salt of the Air ; but I am content not to pretermit them , because if they do not prove what I propose , they will at least clear the meaning of it , and may however help us to guess at the Resemblance or Difference of Airs in several Places , by the Likeness or Unlikeness of the produc'd Changes of Colour , whether these Changes proceed from saline , or from any other Substance intermingled with the Air. If we precipitate a strong Solution of good Silver made in Aqua fortis , with a competent Quantity of Spirit of Sea-Salt , we shall have a Pouder , which at first will be very white ; but if the Liquor be not poured off , this being exposed for a good while to the Air , it would acquire on the Surface a dark Colour , which perhaps an attentive Eye will discern somewhat various , as this or that kind of Saltness happens to be predominant in the Air. We took an equal Weight of good Filings of Copper , and pouder'd Sal-Armoniac , which being well mix'd , were put into a cover'd Crucible , and kept in a moderate Fire over ignited Coals , till the Sal-Armoniac had either quite or almost done smoaking ; then as much of the remaining Mass as could be parted , was taken out , and look'd of a dark Colour ; but this Mass being grosly beaten , and exposed for some time to the Air , look'd like a kind of Verdigrease , which is a Substance , whose Colour may be observ'd somewhat to vary , according to the Nature of the particular Salts , which by working on , and imbodying with the Copper , produce the Pigment . But a Parcel of the same Mass being , before the Air had time to work much upon it , grosly pouder'd , and hermetically seal'd in a glass Egg , to fence it from the Air , and left in a South Window , did not appear discoloured , when the out side of the other Parcel shew'd like Verdigrease : which seems to argue , the Change of Colour to have been made by the aerial Salt , if we suppose the Moisture of the Airto have had no Interest in the Change , or to have concurr'd to it , but as a kind of Vehicle assistent to the Salt. I also took Spirit of the Soot of Wood , and having poured a little of it on the Filings of Copper , my Expectations were answer'd by my finding , that the Liquor dissolved some Parts of the Metal into a deep and lovely Azur like Ultramarine ; and that this Solution being suffer'd to grow dry in an open Glass , by the the mere Operation of the Air , the Ceruleous Colour very soon degenerated , even before the matter was quite dry , into a Cyanious Colour , such as may be seen in good Turquoises . And to manifest that this Change proceeded not from any Peculiarity in the Spirit of Soot , and that this Spirit acted as abounding with a Salino-sulphureous Salt ; I shall add , that I had the like Success in a Trial made with an urinous Spirit drawn from animal Substances , and put upon crude Filings of Copper . And in those Trials I sometimes observ'd the Differences of Colours , that did not discourage me from hoping , that the Prosecution of them might not be insignificant to my Purpose . I have not been solicitous to describe the fore-mention'd Changes of Colours more particularly , because it had been very difficult to do so , and therefore I judg'd it more expedient not to attempt it . For there is so great a Variety of Colours , that few but Painters can exactly enumerate , and distinguish them by proper Names . And yet , besides those more noted ones , there are many others , for which , though our Language , nor perhaps any other , is not copious enough to furnish us with distinct Appellations , yet our Eyes , especially when they have been attentively conversant with such Objects , are sharp enough to discern them : and by the Help of these nameless , as well as the stated Colours , I am apt to think a heedful Observer may perceive divers Variations in the Colours of the Bodies , we have been speaking of , that may assist him to guess , what Substance it is in the Air whereto these Diversities may be ascribed . And as Nature is much more rich in Things , than our Dictionaries are in Words , so has she furnished Men with Sensories capable of distinctly perceiving a far greater Variety of Objects , than they are able verbally to express . And this might be shewn by Instances , in the Organs and Objects of Senses less acute than Sight , whose Subtilty in distinguishing things I could exemplify , not only by what is related , but by what has been perform'd by some Persons , not unknown to me , particularly our famous Doctor Harvey . But Examples of this kind I have not leisure to stay on ; and therefore without spending more Words upon this third way of discovering aerial Salts , I shall barely recommend the Care of such Observations to their Curiosity , who shall think it worth while to make them . With how little Confidence of Success , Trials that have the Aims of those I have been speaking of , are to be attempted , not only Consideration , but Experience hath made me sensible . But yet I would not discourage humane Curiosity from adventuring even upon slight Probabilities , where the Nobleness of the Subjects and Scope may make even small Attainments very desirable . Those adventurous Navigators that have made Voyages for Discovery in unknown Seas , when they first discern'd something of obscure near the Horizon , at a great Distance off , have often doubted , whether , what they had so imperfect a Sight of , were a Cloud , or an Island , or a Mountain : But though usually it were more likely to be the former , ( as that which more frequently occurr'd than the latter ) yet they judg'd it advisable to stere towards it , till they had attained a clearer Prospect of it : For if it were a deluding Meteor , they would not however sustain such a Loss in that of no great Labour , as in case it were a Country , they would in the Loss of what might prove a noble and rich Discovery . And if they desisted too soon from their Curiosity , they could not rationally satisy themselves , whether they slighted a Cloud , or neglected a Country . I do not perceive that the Air of our Inland Parts is considerably impregnated with Esurine Salt ; since I do not find the Barrs and Casements of our Windows much impaired by Rust after near eighty Years standing ; or that they are more rusty towards one Quarter than another ; though the Air hereabout ( viz. Oakly in Buckingham-shire ) is very damp about the End of Autumn , and Beginning of Winter . So that I conceive this Salt either proceeds from the Sea-Vapours near the Sea-Coasts , or else from the Dissolution of this Esurine Salt in the Air , upon the burning of Sea or other mineral Coles . Mr. J. T. Mox ollam ex igni removent ; postea ex refrigerata eximunt halinitrum purissimum : quod candidi marmoris speciem gerit ; atque tunc etiam id quod terrenum est , in fundo residet . At terra , ex qua dilutum fuit factum , & rami quernei vel consimilis arboris alternis sub dio ponantur , & aqua quae combibit halinitrum conspergantur : quò modo quinque vel sex annis rursus apta fit and conficiendum dilutum . Halinitrum quodammodo purum , quod dum terra tot annos quievit interea , ortum fuit , & quod lapidei parietes in cellis vinariis & locis opacis exudant , cum primo diluto permistum decoquatur . Si verò locus aliquis talium venarum copiam suppeditaverit , ipsae statim non conjiciantur in castella ; sed primo convehantur in areas , atque cumulentur : quanto enim diutius aeri & pluviis expositae fuerint tanto meliores fiunt . Nam in ejusmodi cumulis , aliquot post mensibus , quam venae in areas fuerunt congestae , nascuntur fibrae longe venis bonitate praestantes : deinde vehantur in sex , plurave castella , longa & lata ad novem pedes , ad quinque alta . Si verò dum dilutum recoquitur , separata non fuerint , mox ex minoribus vasis infundatur in majora , eaque concludantur : in quibus item atramentum sutorium separatum ab alumine concrescit : utrumque excisum , & in hypocausto siccatum divendatur dilutum , quod in vasis & cupis non concrevit in cortinam refusum recoquatur : sed terra , quae in fundo cujusque cortinae resedit , ablata in castello unà cum venis , denuo aqua & urina diluatur . At terra quae in castellis diluto , postquam effluxit , superfuit egesta & coacervata quotidiè , rursus magis ac magis fit aluminosa , non aliter atque terra , ex quâ halinitrum fuit confectum , suo succo plenior fit : quare denuo in castella conjicitur , & aquae affusae ea percolantur . A learned Observer , who practised Physick in one of the most Southern of the English Colonies , being ask'd by me about the Effects of the Air there upon Iron ; affirm'd to me , that the great Guns there are so subject to become rusty , that after they have lain a very few Years in the Air , one may with a Hammer knock off whole Scales , or rather Cakes of Crocus Murtis : and he observ'd , that those Guns , that lay only expos'd to the Air , did this much more than those that by Accidents were drown'd , and lay cover'd with the salt Water . And since Dew is made of Steams of the Terrestrial Globe , which whilst they retain that Form , and were not yet convened into Drops , did swim to and fro in the Air , and made part of it ; the Phenomena that shew the Power of Dew in working on solid Bodies , may help to manifest how copiously the Air may be impregnated with subtil saline Parts . Wherefore I shall here add , that having met with a Person that was bred as well a Scholar as a Traveller , and had visited not only some of the maritine Places of Brasil , but some of the inward Parts of that vast Country , I inquired of him about the Subtilty of Brasilian Dew , and its Power to rust Metals , about which he told me , that it was certainly very great , and would not only rust Knives and such Instruments , but likewise Money , which he assured me he had particularly observed ; adding , that in several Places the Portugals kept their great Guns cased over , that the Dew might not fall upon them , and by its Corrosiveness so rust them , as to be apt after a while to break in the Discharge . And when I demanded whether he tasted the Dew , to observe the Saltness of it ? he replied , that he had not , but that he had in divers Places observ'd , that it left the Grass , &c. that it had rested on , cover'd over with a pure white Salt , as if it had been a hoar Frost . An ingenious Traveller , and Student of Physick , being discoursed with by me about some Particularities of his Country ( which is Sweedland ) relating to Minerals , and their Effects upon the Air , assured me , that in a City , or notable Town called Fahlun , which is built on the lower Part of an Hill , containing one of the best Copper Mines in Sweden , the Exhalations , that are copiously emitted by the latent Minerals , do so affect the Air in and about the Place , that their Silver Coins are oftentimes notably discolour'd by them , not seldom made even black or blackish , though the Money be kept well tied up in Bags or Purses , and these perhaps placed one within another , and the whole Aggregate be kept lock'd up in Coffers or Presses made of Wood of perhaps an Inch thick : He added , that these subterraneal Steams have manifest Effects upon Brass , ( wherewith that Country abounds ) insomuch that there being kept in the principal Church seven Crowns made of that Metal upon a particular Occasion , the sulphureous Steams made those that look'd to them , take the Pains to cleanse and brighten them at a Months End , till finding that the Labour was every Month to begin again , they at length grew weary of it , and suffer'd these Crowns to grow , as they yet continue , as black ( to use his own Phrase ) as the Tunnel of a Chimny : This he averr'd to be true , as having a good Opportunity to be sure of it , in regard of his being a Native of this Town . And he further assured me , that the corrosive Exhalations did so penetrate the Bars and Vessels of Iron that lie exposed to the Air , that after a while , 't is easy with a Hammer to knock off Scales of Mars , which are friable into a Pouder like Crocus , save that the Colour is more dark . TITLE XII . Of Sulphur , and inflamable Particles in the Air ; and of Lightning , and its Effect . YEsterday a Neopolitan Lord , a Person of high Quality , and very curious , being ask'd by me some Questions about some natural Phenomena relating to Vesuvius and the adjacent Country ? assured me , that having had occasion to stay for divers Months at a Country House , but little distant from Naples , he took much Pleasure , taking the Air on Horse-back upon a very sulphureous Soil , to take notice of divers Observables to be met with there ; and that he often found , that when his Horse trod something hard upon the Ground , there would be produced a great , and as it were a crackling Noise , which would have frighted a Stranger ; and that oftentimes he could discern , that where his Horse had trod , there would presently arise a Dust , and Fumes that were manifestly sulphureous and ready to take Fire : adding , that sometimes he thought that they actually did so . He further told me , that he sometimes for Curiosity sake , caused some Clods , or as it were Turfs , to be cut out of that Soil , and laid in a kind of Heap , and that then in the Night he could observe , that the Steams that plentifully issued thence would sometimes be kindled by or in the Air , as they ascended in it . The same Noble-Man told me , that when some Years ago there were Eruptions of Fire in Mount Vesuvius , he and others observ'd , with Amazement and Horror , that the Flame , which shot up into the Air from the Volcano , was of so prodigious a Height , as invited them to measure it with a Quadrant , by which they found it to be near two Miles high : And when I ask'd if he comprised in that Height the Altitude of the Mountain it self ? he answered , that he did not , for the Flame that appear'd above the top of the Mountain , appear'd as high as the Mountain it self ; and 't was from the top of the Hill , and not the bottom , that they computed the Height of the Flame . He added , that sometimes the Earth would tremble , and there would be Discharges of such vast Stones , and other heavy things , that he saw some Massis of ignited Matter thrown up a great way into the Air , that were bigger than the Chamber he did me the Honour to visit me in , though that were a large Room for a Bed-chamber . Voila tout ce qu' on peut dire de cette Isle , qui semble un enfer , car on voit la mer du port , & de la coste toute noire & Brûlée d' un petit escueil , qui paroist depuis enuiron soixante ans , & d' ou on vit sortir en ce temps lá une grande flamme , qui y a laisse une ouuerture si profonde , que si on y jette une pierre , on ne l' entend point tomber . Mais ce qui est arriue depuis en ce port , n' est pas moins estonnant , je le rapporteray icy comme je l' ay appris de diuerses personnes en plusieurs endroits . Il y a enuiron 18. ans que durant la nuit d' un certain Dimanche , commenca dans le port de Santorini un tres grand bruit lequel s' entendit jusques á Chio , qui en est eloigne de plus de deux cent milles , mais de telle sorte qu' on crut à Chio que c ' estoit l' armée Venitienne qui combattoit contre celle des Turcs , ce qui sit que dés le matin chacun monta aux lieux les plus éleuez pour en estre spectateur , & me souuiens que le Reverend Pere Bernard Superieur des Capucins de Chio , homme venerable , & tres digne de foy , me conta qu' il y avoit este trompé comme les autres , car il crut aussi bien qu' eux entendre plusieurs coups de canon ; cependant ils ne virent rien , & en effet ce fut un feu qui se prit dans la terre du fond du port de Santorini , & y fit un tel effet , que depuis le matin jusqu ' au soir il sortit du fond de la mer quantite de pierres de ponce , qui montoient en haut auec tant de roideur & tant de bruit , qu' on eust dit que ce fusset autant de coups decanon , & cela infecta tellement l' air , que dans ladite Isle de Santorini , il mourut quantite de personnes , & plusieurs de la mesme Isle en perdirent la veue , qu' ils recouurerent pourtant quelques jours apres . Cette insection s' estendit aussi loin que le bruit qui l' avoit precede , car non seulement dans cette Isle , mais mesme a Chio , & á Smyrne , tout l' argent deuint rouge , soit qu' il sut dans les Coffres , ou dans les poclies ; & nos Religieux demeurans en ces lieux lá me dirent que tous leurs calices en estoient deuenus rouges . Au bont de quelques jours cette infection se dissipa , & l' Argent reprit sa premiere couleur . Ces pierres de ponce qui sortirent de la couurirent tellement la mer de l' Archipel , que durant quelque temps , quand il regnoit de certains Vents , il y avoit des ports qui en estoient bouchez , en facon qu' il n' en pouuoit sortir aucune barque , pour petite qu' elle fut , que ceux qui estoient dedans ne se fissent le chemin au travers de ces pierres de ponce auec quelques pieux ; & on en voit encor a present par toute la mer Mediterranée , mais en petite quantité , cela s' estant dispersé ca & là . Seneque raconte en une de ses Epistres que Santorini est bastie sur des mines de souphre , & cesont elles qui fournissent asseurement la matiere pour allumer ce feu . On dit qu' Alexandre le Grand mesura la mer en cet endroit , & n' y trouua point de fond . Il y a pourtant une petite Isle appellée Firesia , a la pointe de laquelle on peut donner fonds , & point en aucun autre endroit . It has been often observ'd , that upon the Falling of Thunder there has been produc'd in the Air , near the Places where it fell , a strong Odour of Burnt Brimstone . And I remember , that being one Night at a Town built almost upon the great Lake of Geneva , anciently called Lacus Lemanus : The Thunder was so violent as much frighted the Inhabitants ; though ( by reason of the Neighbourhood of the high Mountains of Savoy and Switzerland ) Thunders be very frequent there : And the next Day I had a great Complaint made me , of the strong Stink of Sulphur , produc'd by the Thunder that fell hard by , into the Lake , and was ready to overcome by its Smell , even a Souldier that stood Centionel near it . On July 24. An. 1681. The Ship Albemarl , whereof Mr. Edward Lad was then Master , being an hundred Leagues from Cape Cod in Latitude 48. about 3 P. M. met with a Thunder Storm , the Lightning burnt the Main-top-sail , split the main Cap in pieces , rent the Mast all along . There was in special one dreadful Clap of Thunder , in Report bigger than of a great Gun , at which all the Ships Company were amazed : then did there fall something from the Clouds upon the Stern of the Boat , which it broke into many small Parts , split one of the Pumps , the other Pump much hurt : it was a Bituminous Matter , smelling much like fired Gunpowder : it continued burning in the Stern of the Boat. They did with Sticks dissipate it , and poured much Water on it , and yet they were not able , by all they could do , to extinguish it , until such time as all the Matter was consumed . But the strangest thing of all is yet to be mentioned . When Night came , observing the Stars , they perceived that their Compasses were changed . As for the Compass in the Biddekel the North Point was turned clear South . There were two other Compasses unhung in the Locker in the Cabbin , in one of which the North Point stood South like that in the Biddekel . As for the other the North Point stood West , so that they sailed by Needle , whose Polarity was quite changed . The Sea-men were at first puzled to work their Vessel right , considering that the South Point of their Compass was now become North : But after a little Use it was easy to them ; thus did they sail a thousand Leagues . As for the Compass , wherein the Lightning had made the Needle to point Westward ; since is was brought to New-England the Glass being broken , it has , by means of the Air coming to it , lost its Vertue . One of their Compasses which had quite changed the Polarity , from North to South , is still extant in that Country , in the Hands of Mr. Encrease Mather ; the North Point of the Needle doth remain fixed to this Day as it did immediately after the Lightning caused the Alteration . An industrious Gentleman that was long an eminent Planter of Trees , wherewith he furnished many of his Neighbours , presented me with a Piece of a Branch that seemed to have had a Slit , for it reached thorow the Bark almost to the very Wood , from one End to the other , but had now the Lips of the Wound overgrown on each side with new Bark : Of this kind of Gashes , he told me , he found in other Branches of the same Tree , which made him think that some envious Knave had done this in Spite : but considering the Circumstances more curiously , he found that Conjecture much discountenanced by some of them , and suspected that these Wounds must have been made by some designless Agent . For by his own Observations , and those of his Friends , it appeared , that these Fissures are to be met with , not only in divers others of his own Trees , of differing kinds , and in differing Plantations , but also in the Trees of several others , which tho growing in the same Country , were remote enough from his : so that it having been observed with some Wonder , that in the foregoing Season , Lightnings had been very numerous and frequent , he and his Friends concluded , for Reasons that need not be here repeated , that the above-mentioned Gashes were some of the odd Effects of those Lightnings , which kept me from wondering at his negative Answer , to the Curiosity I had to know , whether all these Wounds of the Trees look'd the same way , as East or West , North or South . For I had formerly observed , that the same Fulmen or Flash of Lightning reaching to the Earth in the Form of Fire , appeared by the recent Effects as well of its impetuous Motion as of its violent Heat , to have moved in an irregularly winding-Line : which made me compare its Motion to that of a Squib , and help'd me to solve some odd Phenomena of Lightning , that this is not the fittest Place to discourse of : the foregoing Mention of what happened to the Trees , being designed , partly to preserve the Memory of an unusual Phenomenon , and partly to show that whatever is wont to happen in Animals , Lightning is not always destructive or corruptive of Vegetables , since the Wounds inflicted to Trees were happily cicatrized , and did not kill or poison the Plants . And whether this Phenomenon were produced , by some mineral Exhalations kindled in the Air , or by the violent and irregular Motion of some such Substance , or by both together , the Phenomenon will be pertinent to the Subject or Design of the present Tract . TITLE XIII . Of Celestial Influences or Effluviums in the Air. To Mr. HARTLIB . Dear Sir , I Shall not I hope altogether forget the Charge which you have been pleased to lay upon me , in reference to the Consideration of all winy Liquors , their Affections , and the several Distempers incident to them , with my Thoughts about the preserving of them , so as may best retard the Quickness of their Motion , and hinder their Dyscrasy and Corruption . To which End an exact Scrutiny into the Air , its Quality , Temperament and Motion , and an Inquiry of the Efficacy and Force that this hath upon all such Bodies , will be in some measure necessary . And this puts me in mind to leave one Request with you , viz. to beg-your Assistance and Countenance on all Occasions to Mr. Streete , when he shall at any time wait on you , who both as to his Undertaking , and to the Modesty and Simplicity of his Spirit , doth very much emulate our so much joint-esteemed Friend Mr. Mercator , who , though he may differ from the former , in reference to his Method , or to some of the profounder Parts of Learning : yet I think it very possible to reconcile them in the main , and cannot but expect something extraordinary , in the asserting and perfecting of the Theory of the Planets , will be brought forth between them , which I should the more gladly see , by how much most Scholars complain of it , as of a thing hitherto wanting , by how much also I guess , that having the Examples of so many who have already attempted the same thing in vain , they will find themselves the more constrained to lay down some new choice , singular and undeniable Hypothesis , for the better Invitation of the Admittance of their Opinion among Learned Men , although such a Work be no less necessary also for other Reasons . For if we assert not the Theory of the Planets rightly , and upon such Ground as are indubitably demonstrable ; we shall never be free from Errors and Disagreements in Opinion about their Motions , and the right Calculation of them . And if we mistake in either of these , we must mistake of the true Place in the Heavens , in which each Planet is , or constantly ought to be : And if we at all err in our Judgment of their due Places , it is impossible we should assert their several Aspects , and the mutual Influences and Virtues they have ( through this ) one upon another : And so the Physical Use of their Motions falls to the Ground wholly , or at least becomes subject to very much Uncertainty . And truly , if there be no such Use at all of the Motions of these Bodies , as that which I may call Physical , viz for predicting , and for ( in some measure ) determining the Affections , Dispositions and Alterations , that are introduced into several things here , either immediately , or into the Air immediately , by reason of the Course of these superior Bodies , it would very much lessen and depretiate with me , that Toil , Cost , Pains , Watchings , and continual Exercises , and Indeavours , that have been used for the gaining of exact Observations in Astronomy . Seeing when we have done all , and obtained all beyond the mere bare Knowledg of them , we can propound no End , Benefit , Use or Advantage , that may recompense the Trouble and Pains bestowed upon them , ( at least upon some of them ) nor so much as any real or particular Relation , between us and them ; and if so , we know them only to know them . But we shall at present presume the contrary , and therefore shall crave leave to say , that although several Objections are commonly brought against any such Use or Application of these Bodies , or of their Power , Influence or Motions , which are occasioned partly by the Superstition and Paganism incident to this kind of Doctrine ; partly by the Imposture , Ignorance , and want of Learning , generally observed in the Persons professing this Knowledg ; partly by the manifest Mistakes and Uncertainty that there is in the Predictions of this Nature ; and partly by the Inexplicableness of the Way or Manner how they come to affect one another , which admits not , as many conceive , of an easy visible or familiar Demonstration . Yet all these Objections , if throughly examined , do not , as we humbly conceive , really null or take away the Possibility of the thing simply , but are raised rather against the Enormities and Imperfections that are confessed to be in it : and it may , notwithstanding all those Objections , still be certain , that these Celestial Bodies ( according to the Angles they make one upon another , but especially with the Sun or with the Earth in our Meridian , or with such and such other Points in the Heavens ) may have a Power to cause such and such Motions , Changes and Alterations ( stronger or weaker , according to the Nature of the Angle ) as the Extremities of which shall at length be felt in every one of us : And this may be evidenced , 1st . by undeniable Experiments , not only from things inanimate and vegitate , but from the undoubted Observations of Physicians , as well in several Chronical as acute Distempers , and more eminently in all Lunatick , Epileptick , Paralitick or Lethargick Persons . 2dly . It may further admit of a Demonstration : for if the extream Motions of Physick be Generation and Corruption , and the mean Motions Rarefaction and Condensation , allowing then these Bodies to have a share in promoting the mean Motions , ( viz ) of Rarefaction and Condensation , we shall or may soon be convinced , that their Effects then upon all other things here , cannot but be exceeding considerable . For the better understanding of which , I shall offer , a little more largely to you my Conceptions , viz. That to speak properly and simply , I take Generation and Corruption to be the Extreams of Motion , rather than Motions themselves : for the Scope , Intentions or Effects of all Physical Motions ( strictly so taken ) are only to one of these Ends , viz. either for Generation or Corruption : and these two are they also which limit and bound all Motion ; for beyond these Meets there is no Physical Progression , and therefore these two must be the true Termini , as well à quo , as ad quem , of all such Motion , seeing all things are corrupted to be generated , and all things generated are at length corrupted . But if these be rather the Termini and Extreams of Motion , then Motion it self . We must acknowledg , there are Motions , which Nature useth as Means , between these two Extreams ; which mean Motion must be as opposite also one to another , as the two Extreams . Otherwise we should never be at a Certainty , which way Nature intends by her Motion : otherwise also we must say one and the same Course , or one and the same thing in Nature , may simply and of it self , be the immediate Cause of Generation and Corruption , of Life and of Death , of Hardness and Softness , which is absurd and impossible . Now as these two Motions of Rarefaction and Condensation , are opposite one to the other , as is required , so do they square to all other the Instruments and Phenomena in Nature , ( viz. ) the one answering to Heat , the other to cold ; the one to Hardness , Compactness and Aridity , the other to Gentleness , Softness , Sweetness , Maturity , &c. For which Reasons therefore , as well as for many other , which might be urged , ( if insisted on ) we do conclude , ( submitting it nevertheless to be examined ) that Generation and Corruption , Rarefaction and Condensation , is the simplest , plainest and truest Analysis , that can be found in Nature , for all Physical Motions , as unto some of which all Motion , purely Physical , may ( as we humbly conceive ) without straining , be immediately referred , and as by and through which all may likewise , with as little Difficulty , be resolved . And having laid this as a second Argument ; we say 3dly . That it cannot be denied , but all the Affections and Dispositions of Moisture , Heat , Cold , Drought , the Course of all Winds , Showers , Thundering , or whatsoever else is used by Nature , to produce these two general and universal Effects of Rarefaction and Condensation , do in a great Measure , if not wholly , depend upon , and are altogether regulated by the Course , Motion , Position , Situations or Aspects of the Superiour and Celestial Bodies or Planets . And therefore , 4thly . We say , that every Planet hath its own proper Light : And as the Light of the Sun is one thing , the Light of the Moon another ; so every Planet hath its distinct Light , differing from all the other . Now we must either say , that this Light is a bare Quality , and that the utmost Use and End of it is only to illuminate ; and there is no Light but is accompanied further with some Power , Virtue or Tincture , that is proper to it : which if granted , it will inform us then , that every Light hath its own Property , it s own Tincture and Colour , it s own specifique Virtue and Power ; and that according to the several Bodies of Light , there are several Properties , Tinctures and Powers ; and that as one Star differs from another in Glory ( according to the Apostle ) so one Star and one Planet differs from another in its Virtue , in its Colour , in its Tincture , and in its Property . And consequently , that those eminent Stars and Planets that are in the Heavens , are not to be considered by us as sluggish inergetical Bodies , or as if they were set only to be as bare Candles to us , but as Bodies full of proper Motion , of peculiar Operation , and of Life . The Sun not only shining upon the rest of the Planets ; but by his quickning Warmth , awakening , stirring and raising the Motions , Properties and Powers , that are peculiar to them . According therefore to the Angles , they make with the Sun , and according as they are more or less enlightned by him ; according also as they are at the same time more directly or more obliquely , more remotely or more nearly scituated and placed , in respect to us ; so must the Effects of the Powers , Virtues and Tinctures , that are proper to them , be more or less felt by us . 5thly . For the manner of the Planets , transmitting these their Properties and Powers , and of their affecting other Bodies at so remote Distance , there is nothing begged or required in it , that is insuperable to a Man's Apprehension or Belief : ( seeing , ) 1. We affirm not any Property , Operation , Virtue , or Power , to be transmitted from any of the said Planets , but what doth descend with its Light , and is the real Property of its Light. 2. No Man judgeth , that the Light of any Planet , or of the Sun it self , is refracted , or by any other means weakned , hindred or impaired by the Aether ( or that Substance which fills up the Space between one Planet and another ) through which it passeth ; but that it doth descend whole directly and inrefracted unto , or upon our Atmosphere . 3. But whatsoever is received by the Atmosphere , is also received by the thin and subtile Air , that is contiguous to the Atmosphere : And this Air therefore cannot but be capable of being moved , stirred , altered , and impressed by these Properties , Virtues and Lights , as penetrating each Part of it . 4. Not only the Air , by reason of its Thinness and Subtilty , is capable of being thus penetrated , moved and altered , by these Planetary , Virtues and Lights : But forasmuch also as our Spirits , and the Spirits likewise of all mix'd Bodies , are really of an Aerious , Ethereal , Luminous Production and Composition ; these Spirits therefore of ours , and the Spirits of all other Bodies , must necessarily no less suffer an Impression from the same Lights , and cannot be less subject to an Alteration , Motion , Agitation and Infection , through them and by them , than the other ( viz. ) the Air : But rather as our Spirits are more near and more Analogous to the Nature of Light than the Air , so they must be more prone and easy to be impressed than it . And if our Spirits , and the Spirits of all mix'd Bodies may be altered , changed , moved and impressed by these superiour Bodies , and their Properties ; then these Spirits being the only Principles of Energy , Power , Force and Life , in all Bodies wherein they are , and the immediate Causes , through which all Alteration comes to the Bodies themselves . It is impossible therefore Spirits should be altered and changed , and yet no Alteration made in the Bodies themselves : and therefore a less Limit or Extream cannot be set to the Power or Operation , or Force of the superiour Bodies upon the Inferiour , than what must terminate at length into the very Bodies themselves . 5. As a further Confirmation or Proof of this , in reference at least to our selves , I shall offer to your Consideration the Accidents that often happen to Men , by the mere Air , as Convulsions , Cramps , Blastings , Lameness , Colds , many of which indure a Man's Life-time ; and which ( with many bitter Infirmities that sometimes seize upon a Man , while standing , walking , or lying in the Air ) are rarely or never felt or discerned at the Instant of their Approach or Insults upon a Man , nor yet accompanied with the Sense of any Excess in the Air for Heat or Cold at that time , and therefore not well referrable to any Cause in the Air , if not to the Power of those Properties and Operations of the Celestial Bodies that we speak of : And this I submit to the Judgment of common Experience . 6. Lastly ; As the Sun-shining on the rest of the Planets doth not , as we said , only barely illuminate their Bodies ; but besides this , through the Power , Virtue and Activity it hath , doth also raise , excite , awaken and stir up the several Properties and Dispositions that are in those several and respective Bodies , whereby they are more lively and effectually brought forth upon us ; so we are to suppose it is in reference to this our Planet , which is the Earth , which is not only enlightned , warmed , cherished and fructified by the Power , Virtue and Influence of the Sun ; but hath its proper Magnetical , Planetary Virtue , also fermented , stirred , agitated and awakened in it , which it remits back with the reflected Light of the Sun : and together with this Magnetick Planetary Property of the Earth , which is stirred and raised by the Sun , are awakened also the seminal Dispositions , Odors and Ferments that are lodged in , and proper unto particular Regions or Places , which do likewise emit and diffuse through the Air , as their several and respective benign , grateful , so their several malignant , congelative and fracedonous Natures and Qualities . And hence therefore , though the Air , its Temperament , Disposition and Quality in general , is to be look'd at , according to the Motions , Influences and Aspects of the several superiour Bodies ; yet the particular Healthfulness and Unhealthfulness of Places , the evil Disposition of the Air , Evenings , Nights , and early in the Mornings , in some Parts more than in others ; the super-abundant Moisture , excessive Winds , Droughts or other Seasons , proper to one Country , and not to be observed in another neighbouring to it ; all these are rather to be allowed and referred to those Odors , Vapors and Exhalations , that are through the Power of the Sun , or other Planets , drawn forth from their particular Seats into the Air , from the Planets themselves . And thus I have hinted , as well as I may , at the Solutions of all the Phenomena pertaining to this matter , that I can think of . And if this be so , then wholly to neglect this Physical Use ( and Consideration ) of the Motion of these Bodies , and either to reject it , because of the Superstition that hath been mix'd with it , or to exclude it from all manner of Care , and from all other further Scrutiny , as a thing not worth our Inquiry or Search at all after , is as great an Extream on the other hand , and a Mistake , that must not pass untaxed among Learned Men. You did not expect , I am sure , I should have adventured into so particular an Apology for Astrology ; nor did I intend it , when I begun my Letter ; nor do I now aim to justify any thing further , than what may properly , if not necessarily , fall into the Consideration of Natural Philosophy , being indeed much induced to think , that were the Theory of the Planets so exactly stated , so perfectly , or so undeniably demonstrated , that we might be sure we rightly understood the Place , Course and Position of each of their Bodies in the Heavens ; this other Doctrine of their Physical Use , with the Weight , Dignity , Extent , Considerableness or Inconsiderableness of it , would soon confirm and demonstrate it self by the Evidence and Proof of it self , especially if any will please to take the Pains to calculate these Motions for his own private Use , and according to the Meridian he is in , and so compare them with his own Observations , of the Change and Alteration of the Air from Day to Day . Which doubtless , as it was the way at first taken by the Ancients , to find out their Efficacy , ( I mean the making such a constant Observation , and keeping such a Diary ) so the doing of that again , and giving us first an History or Diary of the Observations of the Weather , and its Changes in all Respects , and then an Account of the several Places , Motions , or Aspects , each Day , of the several Bodies of the Heavens , with the Agreements , Doubts , or Disagreements , that these bear one to another , and that must necessarily rise thereupon , would be that , that could not but prove both satisfactory and delightsom to us , in this great Point , about their Physical Power and Use . And the Commodity of this in our Oeconomical or Civil Concerns in Husbandry , in Gardening , in Physick , and to the producing many other very stupendous Effects , cannot possibly be so well credited or discerned as it would , if some such plain Foundation and Demonstration of the Power of these Bodies , in general , were laid . Which methinks we should be much the more incouraged to undertake , having an Advantage given us in this Age , beyond what most Ages ever had , by the Use of those rare Instruments , that they call the Thermometers , or Weather-Glasses . And truly when I consider , that things of the greatest Consequence do oft-times depend upon the most common Observations ; and that Matters of the highest Improvement do receive their Beginning from mean , small , ordinary Experiments : I would have no Man , who hath Leisure , Opportunity and Time , to think it a slight thing to busy himself in collecting Observations of this Nature . It being much more commendable for a Man to preserve the History of his own Time , though but in the Observation of the Motions of this kind , than to say , upon every Occasion that offers it self , this is the hottest , or this is the coldest ; or this is the rainiest , or this is the most seasonable or unseasonable Weather that ever he felt ; whereas it may perhaps be nothing so . And if there were no other Use , yet Observations of this Nature would much conduce to compleat the natural History of any Place , as we may observe by that Learned Author who writ Historiam Naturalem Brasiliae ; and who , to prove not only the Habitableness , but Healthfulness of that Climate and Country , exhibites the Account of every Day 's Weather , observed by him for many Years together , and so the Agreement of it to that Temper , which we account healthful . But the instituting and perfecting of accurate Observations of this Nature , by the help of several large and exact Thermometers , placed in several Rooms , or exposed after some convenient Manner to the Air it self , would be a more noble and useful Undertaking , than ordinary . I say , the doing this accurately , by large and exact Glasses , by placing several of them , either together , or at some fit Distance one from another . It being much to be lamented , and that which I cannot but complain to my self of , that no Improvement considerable hath , as I can learn , been made by any Man , of these Glasses , either in our own Country , or any where else , since their first Invention , ( but only to hang them in a Room for Ornament sake ) there being many things yet wanting , that were much to be desired for the perfecting of them . For ; 1. None hath hitherto given us the best Proportions between the Diameter of the Head , and the Diameter of the Bodies or Cylinder , although this be indeed the very first Consideration , and that which is most necessary in the Use of these Instruments ; for as by how much the bigger the Cylinder is , and by how much the lesser the Head , by so much the more slow and imperceptible the Air 's Alteration and Motion will be ; so by how much the bigger the Head , and smaller the Cylinder is , by so much the more quick , subtile and discernable will every small Difference of the Air appear , which therefore being on both sides capable of an Extream , ought to be regulated necessarily , according to some mean. 2. Admitting a mean or convenient Proportion between these two Diameters , to be as one to 16 , or one to 24. We in the next Place do no less want the fittest Proportion for the Length of the Cylinder , which must doubtless also be varied answerably , as we vary the Proportion of its Diameter , the smaller Cylinder in Proportion to its Head , requiring the greater Length , the bigger Cylinder on the contrary the shorter Length . 3. I have not hitherto seen any Cylinder that hath been well graduated , 12 or 16 Degrees being the most that are set upon the common Weather-Glass : whereas to the making of accurate Observations , it would require a Cylinder to be divided into at least 360 Parts ; though I think it neither unreasonable nor unpracticable , to have one divided into 1000 Parts , allowing but 10 Degrees to each Inch , which is no unusual Division , seeing such an one will much better discover , not only the small , but the more suddain and remarkable Changes of the Weather , ( which are of chiefest Use ) than any others that are common and ordinary . 4. Although no Liquor ought to be used in these Glasses , that is subject to Frost ; yet we have little or no Account what those Liquors are , that might be best or fittest for the accurate making of those Experiments ; whether those whose Property it is , somewhat to attract the Air , and so to preserve themselves in at least their first Quantity , as Oleum Sulphuris per Campanam , Ol. Vitrioli , Liquor Salis Tartari , &c. Or , 2dly . Whether those whose Parts are finest , subtilest , and nearest of kin to the Air , such as is Spirit of Wine , Spirit of Terebinth , well rectified , and according as there is occasion still fresh supplied . Or , 3dly . Whether those that are of a middle Nature , as strong Spirit of Vinegar . Or , 4thly . Whether instead of these , and beyond these , it may not be best to use only well-refined Quicksilver . All which several Particulars , as they are necessary , and ought to be first ascertained , yet they are but preliminary to the Experiments themselves . In the making of the Experiments themselves , therefore it would be convenient ; 1st . That several Thermometers of one Proportion , Length and Graduation in their Cylinders in all Respects , as near as may be , were set in one Frame together , either with one and the same , or with Variety of Liquors . 2dly . That several of these Frames were set in several Rooms , and that fome were exposed immediately to the Air it self ; yet so as it may be conveniently sheltred from the actual Rays of the Sun , and from the Injury of Storms , Rain and Winds . In the History it self , there cannot be too much Care and Exactness provided ; the Air of the Chimny , Cranny of a Wall or Door , Breath of People , or other such Accidents , do not interpose to deceive a Man's Observation , which must be circumspectly foreseen and considered . The Proportion between the Warmth of the Day and Night , in constant Weather ; the Agreement or Disagreement of the Motion of the Air ; with the Motions of the superiour Bodies , in all uncertain , changeable and inconstant Weather ; the Efficacy or Inefficacy through these , in foretelling of Winds and Rain ; the Air its particular Disposition , under Thunder , under times of Mildews or Blastings , eminent Eclipses , Conjunctions ; with many other the like Particulars , which will of themselves be incident to an ingenious , diligent , apprehensive Person , may be the Subject of this History . I shall not digress so far , as to tell you , what other things may be done by the Help of this excellent Instrument , this being not pertinent to our present Purpose . Yet it is certain , that Drebble , that great , singular , learned Mechanick , did by the Help of this Instrument , make a Dial continually to move of it self ; regularly shewing both the times of the Day , and other Motions of the Heavens ; did also make an Automatous Instrument of Musick ; and found out a Furnace which he could govern to any Degree of Heat : but whether these have died with him , or how far the Meditations of others have wrought upon them , I shall humbly refer to a more leasurable Inquiry . And if you can inform me among any of your Acquaintance or Correspondents , I should be glad to hear and to learn any thing of this Nature , or relating to the further Use , Experiment or Improvement of this rare little Instrument , or to the further clearing , ventilating or discussing the Theory or Doctrine of the Planets , or the Physical Use and Power of these Bodies that we have thus briefly made an Essay of . Thus far that Letter . They have a received Tradition in Java , and probably in divers other Islands of the South Sea , that the Beams of the Moon are wont to cause Contractures in the Body of those Men that stay too long exposed to them : The Truth of which Tradition was lately confirmed to me by an ingenious Doctor , that with Applause practised Physick in those Parts ; who assured me , that he had observed , that upon the Account before mentioned some were made lame , or else had some of their Limbs contracted for divers Weeks , and some for many Months , or even a longer time . And when I asked him , whether he had at any time been subject to that Mischief himself ? He answered , that whilst he was a Novice in those Parts , after a very hot Day , he laid himself down very slenderly covered , to sleep ( according to the Custom of the Place ) near the Door of the House he lodg'd in ; but being unacquainted with the Tradition , he unskilfully chose a Place upon which the Moon could fully beat for a good part of the Night , which being past before he wak'd , when he went to rise , he found his Neck so stiff , that he was scarce able at all to stir it ; and his Mouth was so drawn awry , that 't was hideous to behold , and continued so unsightly , that Shame forced him to keep within for some Days ; during which he made Use of brisk Aromatick Medicines , by whose Help he got off a Contracture that used to stay very much longer with others . And when I asked him , if these Distempers were not occasioned rather by the Coldness of the Night and Subtilty of the Air , than the Operation of the Moon 's Beams ? He answered me , that 't was generally observ'd , that the other Causes , without the direct Beams of the Moon , were not wont to produce such bad Effects ; and that his Landlord , when he saw his Mouth awry , told him , that if he had made him acquainted with his Design to pass the Night in the open Air , he would have prevented this Mischief , by lodging him in a Place unexposed to the Moon 's Light. TITLE XIV . Of the Height of the Atmosphere .   TITLE XV. Of the Motion of the Air , and of Winds . Extract of a Letter from Fort St. George , dated January the 23d , 1668. ALthough the Bar of Porta Nova proved more shallow and dangerous than we were informed ; yet she ( our Ship ) got safe in thither : and it was well she did so . Had we kept her here , there had been no Possibility of her Escape from perishing in a dreadful Storm , or rather Hurricane , which happened here the 22d of November : The like hath not been known here in any Man's Memory . The Tempest of Wind and Rain was so exceeding violent , that nothing could stand before it ; Men and Beasts carried into the Sea by the Violence of the Winds and Floods : the Generality of the Houses in this and the Neighbour Towns were ruined : scarce any Trees left standing in Gardens or elsewhere : the Wall of this Town laid flat in several Places ; your Godownes and other Houses in and about the Fort , uncovered and exceedingly shattered : no Place in the Fort where we could keep our Persons , Books or Papers free from the Wind or Rain : nor scarcely any Doors could stand against the Violence of it : and we hourly feared the falling of the Fort down upon us , it was so exceedingly rock'd : and yet abroad we could have no Shelter , nor were able to stand against it . The repairing of the Damage will necessarily require a great Charge , which at first we thought would have amounted to 3000 Pagothes : but hope it will come short thereof . Captain Brookehaven told me , that about the Island Mauricius , Hurricanes were the most frequent of any Place he knows ; and that near that Island he met with one which lasted four Days in all : in one of which Days the Storm had seven Paroxysms or Exacerbations , which the Seamen call Frights of Weather , each of which he observed to differ two Points of the Compass from the preceding ; by which Means the Surface of the Sea , by the Collision of the Waves , became to be all white , as if the Ship had been among Rocks . He added , that the Storm made the Day exceeding dark : And that the Noise was rather like that of Thunder , than of Wind , insomuch that those on the Shrouds could not hear those on the Deck . A Learned Physician that travelled into America , affirmed to me , that those Countries only have constant Winds from the Land in the Night , which are furnished with Hills ; and therefore the Barbadoes wants such Winds , because it has no Hills . One of the East-Indian Committee ( who had lived Years in the Island of Teneriff ) answered me , that he usually observed there the Briezes to come in from the Sea about nine of the Clock in the Morning , and that about two Hours after Sun set , there blew a sharp Land Wind , every way from the Island to the Sea-ward , which continued all Night till the next Morning . A Learned Traveller answered me , that though the Air were generally calm and clear at the Top of the Mountains , yet sometimes he had met there with Winds considerably strong . In Lettere di Venetia . MArtedi sui li 29. Agosto 1679. alle hore 19. incirca si leuolevò nelle Paludi della Villa di Fauis del Dominio Casareo tre miglia lontana da Palma Noua Dominio Veneto un uento chiamato Bissa boua , che allargandosi per circa cinquanta passi scorse con tanto empito , e furore , che portò per aria diuersi huomini , che tagliauano il fieno in quei Prati , e anco alcuni Carri carichi di fieno con i Buoui precipitandoli assai lontano con la rouina delli animali , de Carri , e degli huomini , e passando per i Campi sbarbicando ogni sorte di Piante le portò per aria gettandole molti passi lontano , rendendo la terra per oue scorse cosi arsa , che pare non ui sii mai stata piantata cosa alcuna . Arriuò nella villa decta Bagnaria del Dominio Veneto doue gettò a terra molte Case sino a fondamenti , et altre discoperse , e rouinò portando per aria tauole , traui , et ogni altra cosa che era dentro esse Case restando mal trattate molte Persone senza però la morte di alcuno . Fuori di dettata Villa ui e una Chiesa chiamata S. Tomaso la quale resto scoperta , e rouinata una parte del muro portando uia il Campanile , e Campane che nel giorno seguente non si erano per anco trouate ; — Di lá si portò uerso Seuigliano Dominio Veneto e rouinò tutta la Campagna senza danno però della Villa , mentre li passò poco lontano , de girando poco lungi dalla Villa stessa spiantò da fondamenti un Palazzo del D. Co. Horatio Strasoldo , nel quale gli amazzò ogni sorte di animali che ui erano , portando per aria li mobili e sino le botti , esterminando parre della possessione . Non restorono però offese Persone , perche erano alla Campagna a lauorare , e nel camino getto pure a terra due altre Case che sono nel Taglio per andare a Strasoldo spiantandole affacto con la morte diuna Donna , d'un Fanciullo , e diuersi Animali . Di là uoltò uerso Palma , et arriuando sino alle mura della Fortezza girò uerso la Villa di Priuano mezo miglio distante quale rouinò la meta , spiantando da fondamenti belissimi Palazzi , portando per aeria travi , tavole , et ogni altra cosa con la morte di molti , quantità di feriti , e diuersi strapazzati con far alla Campagna di molto male . Di poi scorse nella Villa di Visco Dominio Imperiale , e tra li altri danni fatti roninò tutto il Palazzo novo del D. Marco Foscolini Gentilhuomo di Cinidal nel quale essendoni una gran rimessa da Carozze , la di cui Porta hauena tre Cadenazzi , & entrando il Turbine per li balconi gettò la Carozza con tanto empito nella Porta stessa che la ruppe , e portò fuori la Caroza tutta fracassata gettandola sopra un muro della Corte assa alto , portando il Cielo della stessa mezzo miglio lontano , e vertò nel medemo Palazzo ferito , e mal trattato un seruitore di esso Foscolini , di cui ronino pure una Braida , & un Brolo essendo in detta Villa restati due morti , e diversi feriti ; — S' inoltrò poi nella Villa di S. Vido di Crauglio stato Imperiale , la quale rouino tutta affatto senza restarui nemeno una Casa , portando per Aria coppi , travi , legne , sassi , e mobili con la morte di moltissime Persone , e moltissimi feriti e rouinati , et in detta Villa non si può anddare , ne con Carri , ne con Caualli per la grande moltitudine di rouinazzo , arbori et altro che hanno attrauer-sato le strade , essendo rimassi morti gran numero di animali — . Da questo luoco si portò uerso Villes Villa Imperiale buona parte della quale gettò a terra per andar al Territorio di Monfalcone con la morte di molte persone , et quantità di animali con lasciar le Campagne per dove è passata senza piante , e come strada battuta — . Hà danneggiato anco altre Ville ma leggiermenre ; ne per anco si sà quello hauerà fatto piu avanti nel detto Territorio . Questo successo hà lasciato un spauento grande in queste Parti , essendosi uedute cose incredibili mentre pioveuano sassi , tauole , arbori , traui , coppi , huomini , donne , fanciulli , botti , sorghi , uva , galline , animali , et in conclusione ciò che incontraua portaua per aria con un rumore , e fracasso cosi gradne , che faceua terrore essendo per dette Ville un concorso grande di Popolo uicino per uedere cose che si rendono incredibili . Doctor B. answered me , that though the Eastern Winds blow near ▪ of a Year at Tangier , yet they seem not to reach far into the Inland Country , where he observed them to be very unfrequent . An ingenious Gentleman who is Owner of a Mine or two near the Sea , being asked by me , whether he could , by any peculiar Change appearing in the deeper Parts of the Mines , foretel any Alterations of Weather ? He answered me , that the only Presage he had constantly observed , was of the Change of the Wind. For many Hours before the Wind was to shift from some other Corner , and get into the South , the Water at the bottom of the Mine would appear manifestly more troubled , or less limped than before : and when the Wind was to blow from the East , he was usually forewarned of it by an unusual Degree of Clearness in the Waters , which would appear more diaphanous than ordinary , though the South-Wind had not immediately before operated on the Waters . The Depth of the Mine was between fifteen and twenty Fathom . He told me , that the Hurricans about Goa , are observed to come usually but at two Seasons , about the Beginning of March , and the 4th of October . TITLE XVI . Of the Air as the Medium of Sounds , and of Sounds and Noises in the Air , and particularly Thunder ; and of the Air 's Operation on the Sounds of Bodies . THIS Variety of the Air is the Cause of most dreadful Thunders , which , when Gregory described , he astonished his Hearers . For upon the rising of several Tempests altogether , the Sky is of a sudden covered over with black and thick , as it were Globes of smokey Clouds : By and by the Thunder breaks forth on every Side , ratling continually with Lightning , as incessantly flashing , enough to amaze the most resolute and most accustomed to the Noise . Ludolph's Hist . of Ethiop . l. 1. c. 5. The String of a Viol has been by Mr. F. observed to give a sharper Sound against or in rainy Weather , by almost half a Note . Mr. F. also assures me , that more than once or twice it has happened to him , that having put up false Strings in his Pocket , to make Frets of , as judging them useless for any other Purpose , the want of Strings having driven him to make Use of those , he has found them not false any more , but good Strings . And also that he observes some Strings apter to receive a Tension from the moist Air , than others are . TITLE XVII . Of the Weight of the Air. A short Account of the Statical Baroscope , imparted by Mr. Boyl , March 24. 1665. In a Letter to Mr. H. Oldenburgh . AS for the new kind of Baroscopes , which I lately intimated to you , that my Haste would not permit me to give you an Account of , though the Necessity of preparing for an approaching Journey , gives me the same Excuse , I then had ; yet since your Letters acquaint me , that you still design a communicating to the Curious , as much Information as may be , in reference to Baroscopes , I shall venture to send you some ( though but an imperfect ) Account of what I did but name in my former Letter to you . Though by a Passage you may meet with in the Page of my Thermometrical Experiments ; and though you may find , that I did some Years ago think upon this new kind of Baroscope ; yet the Changes of the Atmosphere's Weight not happening then to be such as I wished , and being unwilling to deprive my self of all other Use of the exactest Ballance that I ( or perhaps any Man ) ever had : I confess to you , that successive Avocations put this Attempt for two or three Years out of my Thoughts , till afterwards returning to a Place , where I chanc'd to find two or three Pairs of Scales , I had left there , the Sight of them brought it again into my Mind ; and though I were then unable to procure exacter , yet my Desire to make the Experiment some Amends for so long a Neglect , put me upon considering , that if I provided a Glass Bubble more than ordinarily large and light , even such Ballances as those might , in some measure , perform , that which I had tried with the strangely nice ones above-mentioned . I caused then to be blown at the Flame of a Lamp some Glass Bubbles as large , thin , and light , as I could then procure : and chusing among them one , that seem'd the least unfit for my turn , I counterpoized it in a pair of Scales , that would lose their Equilibrium with about the 30th part of a Grain , and were suspended at a Frame . I placed both the Ballance and the Frame by a good Baroscope , from whence I might learn the present Weight of the Atmosphere : then leaving these Instruments together , though the Scales being no nicer , than I have expressed , were not able to shew me all the Variations of the Air 's Weight , that appear in the Mercurial Baroscope ; yet they did what I expected , by shewing me Variations no greater than alter'd the Height of the Mercury half a quarter of an Inch , and perhaps much smaller than those : nor did I doubt , that if I had had either tender Scales , or the means of supplying the Experiment with convenient Accommodations , I should have discerned far smaller Alterations of the Weight of the Air , since I had the Pleasure to see the Bubble sometimes in an Equilibrium , with the Counterpoize , sometimes when the Atmosphere was lighter , preponderate so manifestly , that the Scales being gently stirred , the Tongue would play altogether on that side , at which the Bubble was hung : and at other times , when the Air was heavy ( that which was at the first but the Counterpoise ) would preponderate , and upon the Motion of the Ballance , make the Tongue vibrate altogether on its side : and this would continue sometimes many Days together , if the Air so long retained the same measure of Gravity ; and then again the Bubble would regain an Equilibrium , or a Preponderance . So that I had oftentimes the Satisfaction by looking first upon the Statical Baroscope ( as for Distinction sake it may be called ) to foretel , whether in the Mercurial Baroscope the Liquor were high or low . Which Observations , though they hold as well in Winter as the Spring , yet the Frequency of their Vicissitudes ( which perhaps was but accidental ) made them more pleasant in the latter of these Seasons . So that the Matter of Fact having been made out by Variety of repeated Observations , and by sometimes comparing several of those new Baroscopes together , I shall add some of those Notes , about this Instrument , which readily occur to my Memory , reserving the rest till another Opportunity . And , 1. If the Ground on which I went in framing this Baroscope , be demanded , the Answer in short may be ; 1st . That though the glass Bubble , and its Counterpoise , at the time of their first being weighed , be in the Air , wherein they both are weighed , exactly of the same Weight ; yet they are nothing near of the same Bulk , the Bubble by reason of its capacious Cavity ( which contains nothing but Air , or something that weighs less than Air ) being perhaps a hundred , or two hundred times bigger , than the Metalline Counterpoise . 2dly . That according to an Hydrostatical Law , ( which you know I have lately had occasion to make out ) if two Bodies of equal Gravity , but unequal Bulk , were to be weighed in another Medium , they will be no longer equiponderant : but if the new Medium be heavier , the greater Body , as being lighter in specie , will lose more of its Weight than the lesser and more compact : but if the new Medium be lighter than the first , then the bigger Body will outweigh the lesser . And this Disparity arising from the Change of Mediums , will be so much the greater , by how much the greater Inequality of Bulk there is between the Bodies formerly equiponderant . 3dly . That laying these two together , I consider'd , that 't would be all one , as to the Effect to be produced , wherein the Bodies were weighed in Mediums of differing Gravity , or in the same Medium , in case its ( specifick ) Gravity were considerably altered ; And consequently , that since it appeared by the Baroscope , that the Weight of the Air was sometimes heavier , and sometimes lighter , the Alteration of it in Point of Gravity , from the Weight it was of , at first counterpoising of the Bubble in it , would unequally affect so large and hollow a Body as the Bubble , and so small and dense an one , as a Metalline Weight ; and when the Air , by an Encrease of Gravity , should become a heavier Medium than before , it would buoy up the Glass more than the Counterpoize , and if it grew lighter than it was at first , would suffer the former to proponderate . ( The Illustration and Proof can scarce be added in few Words , but if it be desired , I may , God permitting , send you them at my next leisure . ) And though our English Air , being about a thousand times lighter than Water , the Difference in Weight of so little Air , as is but equal in Bulk to a Bubble , seem'd to give small Hopes , that it would be sensible upon a Ballance ; yet by making the Bubble very large and light , I supposed , and found the Event , I have already related . 2. The hermetically seal'd glass Bubble , I imployed , was of the Bigness of a somewhat large Orange , and weighed about one Drachm and ten Grains . I thought it very possible , if I had been better furnished with Conveniences ( wherein I afterwards found , I was not mistaken ) to make ( among many that might be expected to miscarry ) some , that might be preferrable to this , either for Capacity or Lightness , or both , especially if Care be taken , that they be not seal'd up whilst they are too hot . For though one would think , that it were advantageous to ratify and drive out the Air , as much as is possible , because in such seal'd Bubbles the Air it self ( as I have elsewhere shewn ) has a Weight , yet the Advantage countervails not the Inconvenience of being obliged to increase the Weight of the Glass , which when it includes highly ratified Air , if it be not somewhat strong , will be broken by the Pressure of the external Air , as I have sufficiently tried . 3. By reason of the Difficulties , and Casualties , that may happen , about the procuring and preparing such large and light Bubbles , as I have been lately mentioning , it may in some Cases prove a Convenience to be informed , that I have sometimes , instead of one sufficiently large Bubble , made Use of two that were smaller : And though a single Bubble of competent Bigness be much preferrable , by reason , that a far less Quantity and Weight of Glass is requisite to comprize an equal Capacity , when the Glass is blown into a single Bubble , than when it is divided into two ; yet I found , that the employing of two instead of one , did not so ill answer my Expectation , but that they may for a need serve the turn , instead of the other , than which they are much easier to be procured . This Instrument may be much improved by divers Accommodations . As , 1st . there may be fitted to the Ansa ( or Checks of the Ballance ) an Arch of a Circle , divided into 15 or 20 Degrees , ( more or less according to the Goodness of the Ballance ) that the Tongue resting over against any of these Divisions , may readily , and without Calculation , shew the Quantity of the Angle , by which when the Scales propend either way , the Tongue declines from the Perpendicular , and the Beam from its Horizontal Parallelism . 2dly . Those that will be so curious , may instead of the ordinary Counterpoise ( of Brass ) imploy one of Gold , or at least of Lead , whereof the latter being of equal Weight with Brass , is much less in Bulk , and the former amounts not to half its Bigness . 3dly . These Parts of the Ballance that may be made of Copper or Brass , without any Prejudice to the Exactness , will by being made of one of those Metals , be less subject than Steel to rust with long standing . 4thly . Instead of the Scales , the Bubble may be hung at one End of the Beam , and only a Counterpoise to it at the other , that the Beam may not be burden'd with unnecessary Weight . 5thly . The whole Instrument , if placed in a small Frame , like a square Lanthorn with Glass Windows , and a Hole at the top for the Commerce of the internal and external Air , will be more free from Dust and irregular Agitations , to the latter of which it will otherwise be sometimes liable . 6thly . This Instrument being accommodated with a light Wheel , and an Index , may be made to show much more minute Variations than otherwise . 7thly . The Length of the Beam , and Exquisitness of the Ballance , may easily , without any of the foregoing Helps ( and much more with them ) make the Instrument far exacter than those , I was reduced to imploy . And to these Accommodations , divers other may be suggested by a further Consideration of the Nature of the thing . Though in some Respects the Statical Baroscope be inferiour to the Mercurial , yet in others it has its own Advantages and Conveniency about it . At first it confirms ad oculum , our former Doctrine , that the falling and rising of the Mercury depended upon the varying Weight of the Atmosphere , since in this Baroscope it cannot be pretended that a fuga vacui , or a Funiculus , is the Cause of the Changes we observe . 2dly . It shows , that not only the Air has Weight , but a more considerable one than some learned Men , who will allow me to have proved , that it has some Weight , will admit . 3dly . This Statical Baroscope will oftentimes be more parable than the other , for many will find it more easy to procure a good pair of Gold Scales , and a Bubble or two , than a long Cane seal'd , a Quantity of Mercury , and all the other Requisites of the Mercurial Baroscope , especially if we comprize the Trouble and Skill that is requisite to free the deserted part of the Tube from Air. 4thly . And whereas the Difficulty of removing the Mercurial Instrument has kept Men from so much as attempting to do it even to Neighbouring Places , the essential Parts of the Scale Baroscope ( for the Frame is none of them ) may very easily in a little room be carried wheresoever one will , without the Hazard of being spoil'd , or injur'd . 5thly . There is not in Statical Baroscopes , as in the other , a Danger of Uncertainty , as to the Goodness of the Instrument , by reason , that in the Mercurial the Air is in some more , and in some less , perfectly excluded ; whereas in these that Consideration has no Place . 6thly . It being , as I formerly intimated , very possible to discover Hydrostatically , both the Bigness of the Bubble , and the Contents of the Cavity , and the Weight and Dimensions of the glassy Substance ( which together with the included Air make up the Bubble ) much may be discovered by this Instrument , as to the Weight of the Air , absolute or respective . For when the Mercury in the Mercurial Baroscope is either very high , or very low , or at a middle Station between its greatest and least Height , bringing the Scale-Baroscope to an exact Equilibrium ( with very minute Divisions of a Grain ) you may by watchfully observing , when the Mercury is risen or fallen just an Inch , or a 4th , or ● of an Inch. &c. and putting in the like minute Divisions of a Grain to the lighter Scale , till you have again brought the Ballance to an Equilibrium , you may , I say , determine what known Weight in the Statical Baroscope , answers such determinate Altitudes of the ascending and descending Mercury in the Mercurial : And if your Ballance be accommodated with a divided Arch , or a Whele and Index , these Observations will assist you for the future , to determine , by seeing the Inclination of the Tongue , or the Degree mark'd by the Index , to conclude readily , what Potency the Bubble has , by the Change of the Atmosphere's Weight , acquired or lost . Some Observations of this Nature I watchfully made , sometimes putting in a 64th , sometimes a 32d , sometimes a 16th , and sometimes heavier parts of a Grain to the lighter Scale : But one that knew not for what Uses these little Papers were , coming to a Window where my Baroscope stood , so unluckily shook them out of the Scales , and confounded them , that he robb'd me of the Opportunity of making the nice Observations I intended , though I had the Satisfaction of seeing , that they were to be made . 7thly . By this Statical Instrument we may be assisted to compare the Mercurial Baroscopes of several Places ( though never so distant ) and to make some Estimates of the Gravities of the Air therein . As if , for instance , I have found by Observation , that the Bubble I imploy ( and one may have made divers Bubbles of several Sizes , that the one may repair any Mischance that may happen to another ) weighed just a Drachm , when the Mercurial Cylinder was at the Height of 29½ Inches ( which in some Places I have found a moderate Altitude ) and that the Addition of the 16th part of a Grain is requisite to keep the Bubble in an Equilibrium , when the Mercury is risen an 8th , or any determinate part of an Inch , above the former Station : When I come to another Place , where there is a Mercurial Barometer , as well freed from Air as mine ( for that must be supposed ) if taking out my Scale-Instrument , it appears to weigh precisely a Drachm ; and the Mercury , in the Baroscope there , stand at 29½ Inches , we may conclude , the Gravity of the Atmosphere not to be sensibly unequal in both those two Places , though very distant . And though there be no Baroscope there , yet if there be an additional Weight , as for instance , the 16th part of a Grain , requisite to be added to the Bubble , to bring the Scales to an Equilibrium , it will appear , that the Air , at this second Place , is at that time so much heavier than the Air of the former Place was , when the Mercury stood at 29½ Inches . But in making such Comparisons , we must not forget to consider the Situation of the several Places , if we mean to make Estimates not only of the Weight of the Atmosphere , but of the Weight and Density of the Air. For though the Scales will show , as hath been said , whether there be a Difference of Weight in the Atmosphere at the two Places ; yet if one of them be in a Vale or Bottom , and the other on the Top , or some elevated part of a Hill , it is not to be expected , that the Atmosphere in this latter Place , should gravitate as much as the Atmosphere in the former , on which a longer Pillar of Air does lean or weigh ; so that the Bubble in both these Places should be precisely of the same Weight . And the mention I have made of the differing Situation of Places , puts me in mind of something , that may prove another Use of our Statical Baroscope , and which I had Thoughts of making Trial of , but was accidentally hindered from the Opportunity of doing it ; namely , that by exactly poizing the Bubble , at the Foot of a high Steeple or Hill , and carrying it in its close Frame to the top , one may , by the Weight requisite to be added to the Counterpoize , there to bring the Beam to its horizontal Position , observe the Difference of the Weight of the Air at the bottom and at the top ; and in case the Hill be high enough , at some intermediate Stations . But how this may assist Men to estimate the absolute or comparative Height of Mountains , and other elevated Places , and what other Uses the Instrument may be put to , when it is duly improved , and the Cautions , that may be requisite in the several Cases , which shall be proposed , I must leave to more leisure , and further Consideration . I caused to be made with great Care , by a skilful Mathematical-Instrument-maker , a hollow Cube of Brass , whose every Side was as exactly as could be procured , an English Inch. This we carefully counterpoised in a very good pair of Scales , and found it to weigh 11 Drachms , 1 Grain and ½ , ( Troy-Weight ) Then placing it in one of the Scales as horizontally as we were able , we warily fill'd it with clear common Water , ( of the best sort of that called Pump-water ) till the Surface of the Water seem'd to lie as level , as we could make it , to the Brims of the Vessel : then weighing it carefully , we found the Water alone ( for the Cube had been counterpoized before ) to weigh 254 9 / 16 Grains : So that in regard 't is scarce possible to know , that such a Vessel is so filled , as to come nearer Exactness , than within a Drop or two : I presume we may , without any sensible Error , suppose an Inch of Water to weigh 256 Grains , which latter Number I rather chufe , because its aliquot Parts make it more convenient , and it agrees well enough with some Trials , that I made with solid Cubes , to measure the true Weight of a Cubick Inch of Water . This done , the Vessel was well dried within , and the same Scales being well counterpoized , the Instrument was so too , and being placed on one of the Scales as Horizontically as we could , Mercury ( distilled to have it more pure ) was warily put into it , till by Degrees it had filled the Vessel as to Sight ; but we neither expected , nor found , that it would be brought to an exact Level , and exquisitly fill all the Corners of the Vessel . But when it seem'd to be so well filled , that even a critical Eye could not readily find fault with it , though the Mercury appeared capable of some Accession without overflowing , we weighed the Quicksilver it self ( for the Vessel had been counterpoized before ) and found it to weigh 7 Ounces , 2 Drachms , ( Troy ) which falling somewhat short ( though not very much ) of what the above-mention'd Weight of the Water required , we tried to add a little more Quicksilver , without making it run over , and found the Increase of 82 Grains ; so that now the Quicksilver weighed 7 Ounces , 3 Drachms , 22 Grains ; but it seem'd when the Eye was placed in a Level with the Brims of the Vessel , that it was rather a little of the highest , than any way depressed , and yet was not so full , but that we could add 112 Grains to the former Weight , without making it run over ; and perhaps we might have added yet more , but I decline doing it , because the last mentioned Accession seem'd manifestly to make it so much swell above the Brims of the Vessel . By all which 't is evident that 't is scarce possible to determine precisely by such hollow Instruments , the true Weight of a Cubick Inch of Quick-silver . And therefore , since by other ways of Trial , I have found the Proportion of the Weight of Mercury to Water of the same Bulk , to be somewhat less than that of 14 to 1 , I think we may , without any considerable Inconvenience , suppose the Weight of a Cubick Inch of Quick-silver to be 3580 Grains , which is near 14 times the above-mentioned Weight of a Cubick Inch of Water , and comes near enough to the second or middlemost of the three Estimates lately set down ; and by the least Estimate of all it appears that a Cubick Inch of Quicksilver weighs 7¼ Ounces Troy Weight , that is 8 Ounces Averdupois Weight : And consequently when the Quicksilver of the Baroscope , kept up by the Counterpoize of the Air 30 Inches , ( as I have observed it several times to be within a Month last past ) the Weight of the Air that is incumbent on an Inch Square here below , amounts to 18 l. ⅛ Troy Weight ; that is in Averdupois Weight 15 l. 1 / 17. As 11 to 14 , or rather as 355 to 452 , so is the Area of a Square inscribed in a Circle to the Area of the circumscribed Circle . Hence 355 : 452 : : 1 : 1 , 2732394. Hence if the side of an inscribed Square be an Inch , that multiplied by an Inch , renders a Cubick Inch for the solid Content . In like manner if the Height of a Cylinder erected on the circumscribing Circle , be an Inch , the solid Content of that Cylinder is 1,2732394 . Wherefore 1 , and 1 , 2732394 multiplied , by the Weight of the Cubick Inch of any kind of Metal , give the Weight of a Cubick Inch , and of a Cylindrick Inch that circumscribes the same , whence an Inch Table for both is easily made , by continual Addition , or for any Height propounded , multiplying both by the same . Mr. Townly's Register , if I misremember not . Nov. 23 2       28. 98 24 8       29. 54   9 p     28. 90 25 3¼         80 27 9 p       99 29 9       28. 97   9 p     29. 09 Dec. 6 9 p     28. 97 7 9         60 8 9       29. 05 11 9       28. 93   3 p     29. 01 13 8●       28. 90   9 p       95 25 9 p     29. 04 26 9 p     28. 32 28 10 p     29. 13 Jan. 1 9 p     28. 99 2 9         82 3 9       29. 08   9 p       06 5 10       28. 70 6 10       29. 09   9½ p     28. 62 7 8       28. 99 12 10       28. 88   4 p       98 16 1       29. 13   9 p     28. 65 17 10         14 21 9½       29. 05 22 4       28. 99   9 p       94 23 9         99 24 11 p     29. 06 25 9       28. 50   9 p     29. 10   29 9     28. 90     9 p     71   30 8       80 31 9 p 30. 12     Febr. 1 12     22     2 8½   29. 97     15 9 p     28. 99 16 9 p       95 17 8       29. 10 Mar. 2 9 p     28. 98 4 8½         78   9         86 12 9       28. 80   9 p       66 13 8½       29. 03 1671 Apr. 1 6 p     28. 99   2 9 p     78 3 8½       29. 03 June 8 1       29. 18   8 p     28. 86 9 7         99 Aug. 12 6     28. 90 Sept. 6 8½       29. 15 7 10½       28. 65 8 7½       29. 05 12 9½       28. 98 29 8       28. 96   3 p     29. 08 30 9 p     29. 19 Octo. 1 10     28. 63   3 8     29. 10 A Register kept by Mr. Locke in Oxford . d h Th. Bar. Wind. Weather at Oxford . 1666 June 24 9 70 29   N E 2 Fair.   22 76 ․ 29 1     Fair. 25 4˙ 73˙ 29 1˙ N E 1 Fair.   10 74 ․ 29 1˙ E 1 Fair.   15 ․ 77 ․ 29 1 ․ S E 2 Fair. 26 9˙ 73˙ 28 8 ․ N 1 Fair.   12 75 ․ 28 7˙ N E 1 Thunder .   13 75 ․ 28 7˙ S W 4 Thunder , Rain , Hail .   14 74 ․ 28 8 ․ N 0 Thunder , Rain .   18 73 ․ 28 8 ․ N 1 Clouds , dry .   22 72 ․ 28 8 ․     Fair. 27 7 70 ․ 28 8 ․ N W 1 Rain .   9 70 ․ 28 8 ․ N W 1 Rain .   16 68˙ 28 8 ․ W 1 Fair. 28 9 63˙ 29 1˙ W 0 Clouds .   17 67˙ 29 1˙ N 1 Clouds . 29 9 63˙ 29 2 ․ N 1 Clouds .   19 69 ․ 29 1˙ N 1 Clouds . 30 9 64 ․ 29 2 ․ N 0 Clouds .   20 64 ․ 29 2˙ N 1 Fair. July               1 9 57˙ 29 4 ․ W 2 Fair. 2 11 63 29 3 ․ W 1 Clouds . d h Th. Bar. Hy. Wind. Weather   21 67˙ 29 2 ․       Rain . 3 9 66 ․ 29 1˙   W 1 Clouds .   22 66 ․ 29 1 ․       Clouds . 4 11 64˙ 28 8˙   W 0 Clouds .   17 68˙ 28 7 ․   S E 2 Clouds . 5 9 65 ․ 28 7 ․   S W 2 Clouds .   23 65˙ 28 7 ․   S W 2 Rain . 6 9 63 29 1˙   W 1 Fair.   16 67 ․ 29 1˙   S W 1 Clouds . 7 9 67 29 1˙   S 2 Fair.   23 72 28 7˙       Lightning . 8 9 70 ․ 28 8˙   S W 2 Clouds . 9 9 66· 29 2·   S W 2 Fair. 10 9 66˙ 29 1˙   S 2 Clouds . 11 10 67 ․ 29 1·   S 2 Clouds . 12 10 66 ․ 29 2·   S 2 Fair. 13 10 66 ․ 29 3˙   W 1 Fair. 14 3 75 ․ 28 8·   S W 2 Clouds . 15 9 67 ․ 29 1˙   S W 1 Fair. 16 11 70˙ 29 1˙   S W 2 Fair. 17 5 71 ․ 28 8·   E 0 Clouds after Rain .   19 71 ․ 28 8·   W 1 Rain . 18 7 62 ․ 29 2·   S W 2 Fair.   9 64 ․ 29 2˙   S W 2 Fair. 19 9 65 ․ 29 3 ․   S W 2 Cloudy . 20 12 67 ․ 29 4 ․   W 1 Fair. 21 8 64˙ 29 4·   W 1 Fair. 22 9 67 ․ 29 3·   S W 1 Fair. 23 9 67 ․ 29 2 ․   E 1 Thunder , Rain .   15 71 ․ 29 1˙   N E 1 Fair.   17 71 ․ 29 1˙   E 1 Rain .   21 69˙ 29 2 ․     1 Clouds , Lightning . 24 9 67˙ 29 2˙   N 1 Clouds . 25 9 67˙ 29 2·   N 1 Clouds . 26 6 64˙ 29 3˙   N 1 Close . 30 23 69˙ 29 3˙ 15     Fair. 31 7 67˙ 29 3˙ 15 N W 0 Fair. August                 15 10 60 29 2˙ 20     Clouds . 16 9 59˙ 29 2˙ 19 N 1 Fair. 29 21 64 29 2˙ 19       30 9 59 29 3· 19 N 0 Fair. 31 7 61 ․ 29 3· 20 N E 0 Fair.   9 61 29 3 ․ 20 N E 1 Fair. September                 1 6 55 29 3˙ 17 N E 1 Fair.   9 55· 29 3˙ 17 E 2 Clouds . 2 9 52˙ 29 3 ․ 16 E 3 Clouds . 3 9 49˙ 29 4 ․ 16 E 2 Fair. 4 9 47˙ 29 3˙ 15 E 1 Fair.   13 50˙ 29 3 ․ 15 E 2 Dim reddish Sun-shine   20 51 ․ 29 2˙ 14     This unusual Colour of the Air , which without a Cloud appearing , made the Sun-beams of a strange red dim Light , was very remarkable . We had then heard nothing of the Fire of London : But it appeared afterwards to be the Smoak of London then burning , which driven this way by an Easterly Wind , caused this odd Phenomenon . 5 22 49 ․ 29 1         6 9 44· 29 2 ․ 15 N E 1 Fair. 8 9 44 ․ 29 4˙ 15 N E 1 Fair. 9 9 46 ․ 29 4 ․   S W 1 Thick , Sun.   17 52 ․ 29 2 ․ 18 S 2 Rain .   22 53 ․ 29 — ․ 20   2 Rain . 10 9 52˙ 28 8· 20 S W 3 Fair.   16 56˙ 28 8 ․ 20 W 2 Rain . 11 11 53 28 8· 22 S W 2 Cloudy . 12 9 52 29 — 23 S 3 Close . 13 9 50· 29 2· 23 W 2 Fair. 14 9 53˙ 29 1 ․ 23 S E 2 Fair. 15 10 57 ․ 29 1 ․ 27 N E 1 Close .   11 57˙ 29 1 ․ 28 N E 1 Rain .   23 61 ․ 29 1 ․ 35     Fair. 16 9 59˙ 28 8˙ 34 E — Mist .   21 61˙ 28 7˙ 37     Rain . 17 9 54˙ 28 8 ․ 35 N W 1 Close .   22 49· 28 1· 30     Rain . 18 9 42 ․ 28 8 ․ 37 N E 4 Close after Rain .   11 43 ․ 29 1 ․ 36 E N 3 Close .   13 44 ․ 29 2 ․ 35 E N 3 Close .   17 45· 29 3 ․ 35 E 2 Fair.   23 45 29 4 ․ 35   0 Fair. 19 9 41˙ 29 5 ․ 35 N 1 Fair. 20 9 46 ․ 29 4 ․ 37 N 1 Close . 21 8 47˙ 29 3˙ 36   0 Thick Mist .   22 52 ․ 29 4 ․ 38   0 Fog . 22 10 48 ․ 29 4 ․ 37 S W 1 Close . 23 9 46 ․ 29 5˙ 37 W 0 Clouds . 24 8 49˙ 29 4˙ 38 S W 1 Fair.   21 55 ․ 29 2 39   2 Fair , h 19 few drops 25 6 53 ․ 29 1 ․ 38 S 1 Clouds .   10 54 28 8 ․ 39 S 3 Rain .   21 50 ․ 29 1· 38   0 Fair. 26 8 49˙ 28 7˙ 39 W 3 Close . 27 9 48˙ 29 2 ․ 37 W 3 Fair.   23 48˙ 29 4 ․ 36   2 Fair. 28 7 45 ․ 29 5 ․ 36 W 2 Fair.   19 47˙ 29 4˙ 37   2 Rain . 29 7 51 29 4 ․ 40 W N 1 Rain .   12 53 29 5 ․ 38 W N 2 Fair.   18 53 ․ 29 5˙ 35 N W 0 Fair. 30 9 48 29 6˙ 37 W S 0 Clouds .   21 57˙ 29 5˙ 46   2 Fair. October                 1 8 54˙ 29 5˙ 45 S 1 Clouds .   19 61· 29 5· 43   0 Fair. 2 9 56˙ 29 5˙ 44 S W 2 Close . 3 7 54 ․ 29 5 ․   S W 0 Close . November                 25 10 ․ 32˙ 29 1·         26 9˙ 31 ․ 29 2 ․     0 Thick Fog .   18 31 ․ 29 1·     0 Fog . 27 11 33 ․ 29 1·   W 0 Fair.   18 34˙ 29 2·     0 Clouds .   22 34 ․ 29 2 ․     2 Clouds . 28 10 39· 28 7˙ 63 S W 2 Rain .   21 36˙ 28 7˙ 62   2 Fair. 30 9 31 28 7 ․ 60 W S 2 Fair.   22 31 ․ 29 1 61     Fair. December                 1 9 29· 29 3˙ 61 W 0 Fair.   22 29 ․ 29 4 ․ 61   0 Fair. 2 9 27 ․ 29 2 ․ 60 S E 2 Clouds , Thaw . 3 9 27˙ 28 7˙ 60 E 1 Clouds .   17 27˙ 29 7˙ 61   0 Rain . 4 9 26˙ 28 8˙ 60 S E 0 Thick Fog .   12 26˙ 28 8· 61 S 1 Snow . 5 9 30 ․ 28 6˙ 63 S 1 Hard Rain .   21 34 ․ 28 6˙ 63   2 Fair. 6 9 34· 29 1 ․ 64 W S 1 Fair.   18 36˙ 29 1˙ 64   0 Small Rain . 7 9 32˙ 29 3 ․ 63 W 0 Fair. 8 9˙ 32 29 3˙ 65 W S 3 Small Rain .   23 35 ․ 29 3 ․ 64   0 Rain hard . 9 9 31 29 1 ․ 63 N 2 Hard Snow .   17 29˙ 29 1˙ 63   0 Fair. 10 21 26 ․ 29 5 ․ 63     Fair. 11 9 24˙ 29 5˙ 63 W N 1 Hard Frost , fair .   21 21˙ 29 5˙ 60   2 Fair. 12 9 20 ․ 29 6 ․ 59 N 1 Fair , hard Frost . 13 10 21˙ 29 6˙ 61 N 1 Fair , hard Frost . 14 9 22˙ 29 6 ․ 63 N W 1 Little Mist , and slow Thaw .   11 24 ․ 29 5˙ 63 N W 2 Clouds , Thaw . 15 9 25˙ 29 6 ․ 64 N 1 Fair , little Thaw . 16 9 24· 29 6˙ 63 N E 0 Fog , hoar Frost .   17 24˙ 29 6 ․ 63 NE 0 Thaw , Clouds . 17 9 22˙ 29 6˙ 63 N 0 Clouds , hard Frost .   22 23 ․ 29 5˙ 64     Thaw , Clouds . 18 10 24 ․ 29 5 ․ 65 N 2 Small misty Rain .   21 24˙ 29 5˙ 64     Small Rain . 19 9 23 ․ 29 5 ․ 64 N W   Small Snow , Thaw . 20 9 23 ․ 29 5 ․ 64 N 2 Mist , Thaw .   22 22˙ 29 5˙ 64   0 Fair , freeze . 21 10 20˙ 29 3˙ 63 S W 2 Hard Frost , Clouds .   21 22 ․ 29 2˙ 63   1 Snow . 22 9 22 ․ 29 2˙ 63 N W   Clouds , no Thaw .   22 21˙ 29 2 ․ 63     Frost , fair . 23 8 21 ․ 29 1· 64 N 0 Little Snow last Night , Frost , close .   21 20 ․ 29 3 ․ 63   0 Fair , hard Frost . 24 10 17 ․ 29 4· 62 N W 2 Fair , hard Frost .   17 18˙ 29 3˙ 63 W 1 Snow . 25 9 18˙ 29 4 62 N W 1 Hard Frost , fair .   22 19 ․ 29 4· 61     Fair , hard Frost . 26 9 18˙ 29 3 ․ 62 W 1 Fair , hard Frost .   19 22 ․ 29 2˙ 63   0 Clouds , Thaw . 27 8 22˙ 29 2· 64 N W 1 Fog .   16 22˙ 29 2· 63 N W 1 Close , Thaw .   21 22 ․ 29 2· 63 N W 0 Close , Freeze . 28 9 20˙ 29 3 ․ 63 N W 0 Close , Frost .   22 18 ․ 29 3˙ 63 N W 0 Close , Frost . 29 10 16 29 4˙ 63 N W 0 Fog , hard Frost .   22 15˙ 29 5 ․ 62   0 Thick Fog , hard Frost . 30 9 15 ․ 29 4˙ 62 N W 0 Very thick Fog , and hard Frost .   22 15 ․ 29 4· 62 N W 0 Clear , hard Frost . 31 8 14 ․ 29 4˙ 62 N W 0 Fair , hard Frost .   15 15 ․ 29 5 ․ 63 N W 0 Fair , hard Frost . January 1667                 1 8 12 ․ 29 4˙ 62 N W 0 Fog , hard Frost . 2 10 13˙ 29 6· 63 S E 0 Fair , hard Frost . 3 9 10˙ 29 5˙ 63 S E 0 Fair , hard Frost .   22 11˙ 29 3˙ 63   0 Close , hard Frost . 4 10 13 29 3 ․ 63 E S 1 Close , hard Frost . 5 11 12 ․ 29 2˙ 62 E 0 Snow , Frost . 6 9 13 ․ 28 8· 63 E S 0 Snow , Frost .   15 14˙ 28 7˙ 63 E 0 Close , Frost . 7 9 16˙ 28 6· 64 E 0 Close , hard Frost .   17 18˙ 28 6 ․ 64 E 0 Little dewy Rain , and Tendency to a Thaw . 8 8 20˙ 28 6˙ 65 E N 0 Close , Thaw , little Rain .   21 21˙ 28 8 ․ 64   0 Close , Thaw . 9 8 21˙ 29 2 ․ 65 E N 0 Little Snow , and little Thaw .   21 22 ․ 29 3˙ 65   0 Close . 10 9 21 ․ 29 3˙ 65 N E 0 Close , Frost .   22 21˙ 29 2 ․ 65   2 Close . 11 8 20˙ 29 2˙ 65 N E 1 Close , Frost .   12 21 ․ 29 2 ․ 65 N E 0 Close , gentle Thaw . 12 9 21˙ 29 2 ․ 64 NE 0 Close , Frost . 13 11 22 ․ 28 7˙ 65 NE 0 Thick Fog , Thaw .   22 23· 28 8 ․ 65   0 Close , great Thaw . 14 8 24˙ 28 7· 65 E 1 Fog , perfect Thaw .   21 24˙ 28 6˙ 65   2 Close . 15 10 22˙ 28 6˙ 64 EN 2 Close , Frost .   22 23 ․ 28 6˙ 65   0 Small Rain . 16 8 23˙ 28 7 ․ 65 ES 1 Close . 17 8 25 ․ 28 7˙ 65 EN 0 Fog . 18 7 25 ․ 28 6 ․ 65 NE 2 Snow , Thaw .   21 23 28 8˙ 64   2 Little Snow . 19 8 21 ․ 29 2˙ 64 NE 0 Frost , little Snow .   22 20 ․ 29 4 ․ 64     Hard Frost . 20 9 18 ․ 29 5 ․ 63 N 0 Fair , hard Frost .   22 20 ․ 29 6 ․ 63   0 Fair , Frost . 21 8 18 ․ 29 6˙ 63 NW 0 Fair , hard Frost .   17 21 ․ 29 6˙ 63 W 1 Fair , Frost . 22 9 25 ․ 29 5 ․ 66 SW 2 Rain .   23 28˙ 29 3˙ 66   3 Rain . 23 9 29 29 3˙ 67 WS 1 Clouds .   17 32˙ 29 4· 67 W 1 Fair. 24 9 29 29 5˙ 66 WS 1 Fair.   21 32· 29 3˙ 66   4 Close .   23 33˙ 29 2˙ 66   4 Close . 25 8 36 ․ 28 8 ․ 67 SW 3 Little misty Rain .   19 42˙ 28 6 ․ 73   3 Little misty Rain . 26 8 38 ․ 28 8˙ 72 WS 2 Close .   12 37˙ 28 8˙ 73 WS 1 Rain . 27 10 33 29 2˙ 70 WS 2 Fair. 28 22 30˙ 29 2˙ 69   1 Rain . 29 6 30˙ 29 2˙ 70   1 Mist .   16 31 ․ 29 3· 70 NW 0 Clouds . 31 13 26˙ 29 4· 69 E 2 Close . February                 1 9 26˙ 29 5· 69 E 2 Close . 2 9 28 ․ 29 5 ․ 70 E 1 Close . 3 9 31 ․ 29 4˙ 72 SE 0 Thick Fog . 4 9 33˙ 29 5· 72 E 0 Fog .   22 34 ․ 29 6· 73   0 Close . 5 8 32˙ 29 7 ․ 72 E 1 Close .   22 31 ․ 29 7˙ 71   2 Close . 6 18 26 ․ 29 7 ․ 68 NE 1 Clouds . 7 9 24 ․ 29 5˙ 69 NE 1 Clouds , Snow in the Night .   23 23 ․ 29 5· 67   1 Close . 8 10 22˙ 29 5· 67 EN 2 Frost , close . 9 8 21˙ 29 4˙ 67 ES 1 Close , Frost .   22 22 ․ 29 4 ․ 68     Snow . 10 9 23˙ 29 3˙ 69 SE 1 Rain .   16 28· 29 3 ․ 71 SW 2 Misty .   23 32 ․ 29 2˙ 73   2 Close . 11 9 34˙ 29 2˙ 73 SW 2 Misty .   22 36˙ 29 1˙ 74     Close . 12 8 35 ․ 28 7 ․ 74 SE 2 Close .   22 37 ․ 28 4· 73   2 Fair. 13 8 34˙ 28 4 ․ 72 SW 3 Fair.   22 36 ․ 28 2˙ 70   2 Close . 14 8 34 ․ 28 4˙ 69 WS 3 Fair.   22 33 ․ 28 6 ․ 68     Fair. 15 8 32 ․ 28 5˙ 69 S 2 Rain .   23 32˙ 28 5˙ 69 S 2 Fair. 16 23 31˙ 28 7 ․ 69 N 1 Close . 17 9 30˙ 28 8˙ 69 W 1 Fog . 18 11 32˙ 29 4 ․ 66 NW 2 Fair. 19 9 28 ․ 29 7 ․ 64 NW   Hoar Frost , fair .   15 33 ․ 29 6 ․ 56 S 2 Fair. 20 9 28˙ 29 6˙ 63     Fair. 21 9 28˙ 29 5˙ 63 ES 1 Fair. 22 8 29 ․ 29 5˙ 62 NE 1 Close .   15 29 ․ 29 5 ․ 60 NE 1 Rain . 23 8 27˙ 29 5· 63 NE 2 Close . 24 9 26 ․ 29 6 ․ 62 NE 2 Close . 25 10 25 ․ 29 5 ․ 62 NE 1 Snow . 26 7 23˙ 29 4 ․ 61 NE 1 Frost , little Snow . 27 8 23 ․ 29 2 ․ 61 NE 1 Close , Frost . 28 9 21˙ 29 1 ․ 60 NE 1 Fair , Frost . March                 1 11 22˙ 29 2 ․ 59 E 1 Fair , hard Frost . 2 10˙ 23˙ 29 3 ․ 60 NE 1 Clouds , Frost .   17 26˙ 29 3 ․ 59 NE 1 Hail . 3 9 24˙ 29 4 60 NE 2 Close .   21 25˙ 29 4˙ 62   2 Misty , Rain . 4 9 25 ․ 29 4˙ 60 NE 2 Close . 5 9 24˙ 29 2· 60 NW 2 Close , about 6 small Snow . 6 23 17˙ 29 4· 56   2 Fair , hard Frost . 7 9 15 ․ 29 4 ․ 55 NE 2 Fair , very hard Frost .   13 16 ․ 29 4˙ 54 NE 2 Snow . 8 8 14˙ 29 2˙ 54 NE 2 Very hard Frost , Thames frozen , Carts went over . 9 8 18 ․ 28 8· 58 NE 2 Snow hard , already deep , hard Frost . 10 9 18˙ 29 2 ․ 58 NE 2 Close , hard Frost . 11 8 19 29 3˙ 57 NE 1 Hard Frost , little Snow . 12 8 21 ․ 29 5 ․ 57 EN 1 Frost . 13 9 21 ․ 29 5˙ 56 NE 1 Close , Frost . 14 8 21˙ 29 4˙ 56 SE 2 Close , Frost .   16 23˙ 29 3 ․ 55 SE   Close , Thaw . 15 8 23˙ 29 2˙ 57 E 1 Mist , Thaw . 16 8 27 ․ 29 1· 59 SE 2 Rain .   21 30˙ 29 0 60   0 Fair. 17 11 31 ․ 29 2˙ 60 NE 1 Close . 18 8 28˙ 29 6· 61 NE 1 Fair.   18 35· 29 6 ․ 62 S 1 Fair. 19 8 33· 29 6· 61 SW 1 Close . 20 6 37 ․ 29 6 ․ 61 W 1 Fair. 21 10 35˙ 29 4 ․ 55 SW 2 Small Rain .   12 36· 29 4 ․ 56 SW 2 Small Rain .   23 38 ․ 29 1˙ 59   3 Close . 22 9 37˙ 29 1· 58 W 2 Fair. 23 9 35˙ 29 1· 58 SE 1 Clouds .   11 36˙ 29 1 ․ 58 SE 1 Rain . 24 9 35˙ 29 2˙ 58 NW 1 Clouds . 26 7· 30 29 5 ․ 50 NW 1 Fair. 27 7 29˙ 29 6· 49 NE 1 Fair. 28 9 28˙ 29 5· 48 NE 2 Fair. 1669 December I began to keep a Register of Heat and Cold at London , by a Thermometer of the Royal Society's Standard : This Thermometer I marked 2 d h T. 2 Bar. Hy. Wind. Weather 26 9 3 ° —           Extream hard Frost 1670 January                 13 10 4 ·               23 4 ··           Close . 14 10 4           Close .   22 4 ·           Mix'd , i. e. Part Clouds , Part clear . 15 23 3 ···             16 10 2 ···           Fair. 17 10 2 ·           Fair. 18 9 2 ···           Mist . 19 10 1 ···           Mist . 20 1 0 ··           Clouds .   9 0           Close , Frost . 21 9 1           Close . 22 23 1 ···           Fair. 23 9 1 ··           Fair. 24 9 1 ·           Fair. 25 9 1           Close . 26 8 0 ·           Snow . 27 10 0 ·           Snow . 28 10 0 ···           Snow . 29 23 0           Hard Frost . 30 11 0 ·           Hard Frost . 31 11 0 ···           Thaw . February                 2 11 0           Frost . 3 10 0 ···           Frost . 6 23 0             7 9 0 ·           Snow . 8 9 0 ··           Fair. 9 10 0 ·           Fair. 10 9 1 —           Close . 11 10 0 ··           Fair. 12 10 1 ·           Thaw . 13 9 1 ···           Rain . 14 9 0 ···           Fair , Frost . 17 23 3           Mist . 20 11 2 ···           Fair. April                 1 10 1 ···           Close . 1670 May I here divided the Degres of the Gresham-Colledg-Thermometer , each into 4 , so that 24 is now the same that 6 was before . d h T. 2 Bar. Hy. Wind. Weather . 27 9 24           Fair. 29 11 31           Fair.   23 24           Fair. 30 7 22           Fair.   23 29           Fair. June                 1 9 28           Cloudy . 1671                 May                 29 8 20           Rain . June                 5 8 31           Cloudy . 1672                 January                 31 9 4 .       NE   Fair. February                 1 8 5 . —           Fair. June                 15 16 36··           Cloudy . 16 9 33 ․           Cloudy .   17 37 ․       SW 2 Fair. 20 9 29           Cloudy . August                 15 6 24             17 8 22˙           Close . 1672 October                 13 9 20 ․             December                 23 22 20·             27 17 18˙             1673 January                 1 22 18             4 18 14·             April                 3 17 5˙           Snow . May                 10 21 16 ․       E     June                 9 22 22 ․       E   Rain . 10 9 21 ․           Cloudy . 12 9 23 ․           Fair. 13 22 22˙           Rain . 14 9 24˙           Close . 17 9 26˙             18 9 26˙           Close . 20 9 22˙           Fair. 21 9 24 ․           Fair. 2 6 23˙           Fair. 27 10 26˙             28 9 25˙           Rain . 1673 July Memorand . That from the Beginning of May , till the middle of July , there was scarce one dry Day , but so great Rains , that produced greater Flouds than were known in the Memory of Man. d h T. 2 Bar. Hy. Wind. Weather . 2 9 25˙             8 10 26 ․             10 8 25 ․           Fair. 14 17 31˙           Fair. 25 22 35˙             28 12 33˙           Close . 30 9 24˙           Fair. 1674 March                 9 8 1       N E   Frost and Snow . 19 6 5˙           Snow . 20 10 5·       N E   Snow all Day . December                 25 15 11 ․           Fair. 27 16 11 ․       W   Fair. 28 15 14˙       W   Close . 1675 January                 3 16 14 ․       W   Fair. April                 25 9 12 ․       N E   Fair. 26 10 12 ․       N   Fair. 27 12 12˙       E   Fair. 28 9 12 ․       E   Close . 1675 May                 2 9 16 ․           Close . 23 15 27 ․           Cloudy . June                 8 22 21 ․           Cloudy . 9 13 21˙           Close . 10 14 22 ․           Close . 13 10 22˙       E   Close . 14 9 17 ․           Fair. 1681 March The Thermometer marked 3 is one , which I began now to use at my Return to Oxford . d h T. 3 Bar. Hy. Wind. Weather . 14 14 46 29 4 ․   W   A little Mist . 15 8 36 29 6   N W   Fair. 16 12 45 29 5˙   N W 2 Little Rain . 17 7 37 29 7˙   E   Fog . 18 8 33 29 7˙   E   Fair. 23 11 34 28 8˙   N W   Close . 24 12 32 29 2˙   N   Cloudy . 25 18 33 28 7˙   N W   Cloudy . 26 15 32   8 ․   N   Cloudy . 27 13 28 29 2·   N   Fair , Snow this Morning .   14   29 2middot ;   N   Snow hard . 28 11 29   5 ․   N   Cloudy . 30 7 34   5˙   W   Close : All the foregoing Week it rained in Showers every Day . April                 6 18 49   4˙   S   Very fair . 7 9 45   5˙   S   Very fair .   17 55   4˙   S W   Very fair . 9 8 50   3 ․   S W   Close .   14 50   2˙   S W   Rain . 10 11 44   3˙   W 2 Clouds , and a little Shower this Morning . 11 17 46   5˙   S W 2 Fair ever since Yesterday . 12 15 51   2·   S 3 Fair since . 13 14 49   3˙   W 2 Fair since . 14 13 45   3˙   S W 3 Fair since . 15 17 54   3˙   E N 3 Close all Day . 16 8 45   3·   E N 1 Misty .   17 52   2·   E N 1 A little Shower between 4 and 5 17 6 49   2·   N E 1 Thick Fog , Showers between 6 and 7 last Night . 18 7 46   2·   S W 2 Fair , and Clouds since . May                 3 14 50 29 4 ․   N E 2 Close , no Rain since 18 April , but very hot and fair Weather till Yesterday , the Wind for the most part between N and E. 4 10 44   4·   N E 1 Close since . 5 8 37   4·   N E 1 Clouds . 6 8 37   2˙   E N 1 Fair , Clouds Yesterday .   19 46 29     W 1 Cloudy . 7 7 41 28 8˙   W N 2 Clouds .   11 43   8·   W 1 Rain .   16 47   7˙   W 1 Close . 8 9 41 29     N E 1 Cloudy since . 9 9 42   2˙   E N 1 Fair. 10 4 47   3·   N 1 Fair since . 11 9 48   3·   S E 1 Fair since .   15 61   2·   S W 1 Fair since . 16 11 54   6˙   S W 1 Fair , a little Shower or two since .   18 65   5˙   W 1 Fair since . 17 8 55   6˙   W N 1 Fair since . 19 17 70   2˙   N E 1 Fair since . 20 6 64   3·   N E 2 Cloudy , no Rain from hence till June 20 the driest Spring that hath been known , there having been no Rain from the End of March to the End of June . August                 2 6 65   3˙ 7 N W 1 Fair. 3 11 60   3˙ 8 N 1 Fair. 4 9 62   3· 9 W 1 Fair. 5 9 62   3· 8 E 1 Fair. 6 15 71   1·   S 1 Fair. 7 9 68   2 ․ 9 S 1 Fair.   15 72 28 8˙ 8 S W 2 Cloudy . 8 8 68   7˙ 9 S 2 Close .   11 69   7˙ 9 S 2 Rain a little . 9 9 64   8˙ 10 S W 1 Close .   17 66   7˙ 10 S 1 Rain a hard Shower . 10 6 62   7˙ 11 S W 2 Close . 11 9 62 29 1· 11 S W 1 Close . 12 8 66   2 ․ 17 S W 1 Mist . 13 9 69 28 8˙ 18 S 1 Rain .   14 72   7˙ 17 SW 1 Fair , Clouds . 14 8 67   8 ․ 17 S 1 Fair.   16 72   6 ․ 16 SE 1 Thunder Shower . 16 9 69 29 2 ․ 17 SW 1 Rain for ⅛ Hour , and then fair . 17 6 69   2 ․ 16       18 4 67   3˙ 16       1682 February                 10 12 25 29 5˙   EN 1 Close , Frost . 11 10 24 29 6˙   NE 1 Fair , Ice . 12 15 27 29 7 ․   NE   Very fair . 13 11 24 29 7˙ 61 NE 1 Thick Fog . 14 8 23 29 6˙ 63 NE 1 Fair. 15 8 29 29 5˙ 65 EN 1 Close . 17 8 31 29 0 72 S 2 Cloudy , and some Rain . 20 17 42 28 7˙ 75 SE 2 Rain . 21 8 44 28 6˙ 75 S 2 Rainy . 22 9 42 28 7 ․ 77 S 2 Close . 24 10 41 29 2 ․ 74 SE 1 Close . 25 15 39 28 7˙ 75 NE 1 Rain ever since Yesterday in the Afternoon . 26 10 38 29 1˙ 74 N 1 Close . 27 7 37 29 3˙ 75 NW 1 Close . 28 10 39 29 4· 73 W 1 Close . 1682 March                 d h T. 3 Bar. Hy. Wind. Weather . 1 9 42 29 3· 74     Fog . 5 16 30 29 1 ․ 67 S 1 Very fair , hard Frost in the Morning . 6 10 28 29 2 ․ 67 NE 1 Fair. 7 11 25 29 2· 65 N 2 Very fair . 22 13 29 29 2 ․ 57 N 3 Cloudy , and a little Snow . 23 8 25 29 4˙ 56 N 2 Close , Frost . 24 7 29 29 4 ․ 57 W 1 Close . 25 9 36 29 2 ․ 59 N 2 Clouds . 26 8 31 29 4˙ 56 N 1 Close . 27 8 34 29 4 ․ 57 W 2 Fair.   13 39 29 3 ․ 59 WN 1 A Shower . 28 7 35 29 4 ․ 56 NW 1 Fair. 29 7 30 29 5˙ 50 N   Clouds . 30 8 30 29 5· 48 NE 2 Fair.   11 31 29 5˙ 47 NE 3 Snow . 31 8 30 29 6 ․ 48 NE 2 Fair. April                 1 8 30 29 6 ․ 49 NE 2 Close . 2 9 33 29 6 ․ 50 NE 1 Close .   19 36 29 6 ․ 51 NE 1 Small Mist . 3 7 34 29 6 ․ 51 NE 1 Small Mist . 4 9 34 29 6 ․ 50 NE 1 Close . 5 7 34 29 5 50 NE 1 Fog , and Sun-shine . 6 9 39 29 4 ․ 49 N 1 Fair. 7 9 39 29 5 ․ 48 N 1 Fair. 8 8 39 29 5˙ 44 NE 1 Fog , and Sun-shine .   11 43 29 5˙ 44 SE 2 Fair. 9 7 40 29 3 ․ 40 SE 2 Thick Fog .   14 41 29 1· 41 S 2 Rain .   20 43 28 7 44 S 2 Rain till past 6 , now fair . 10 7 43 28 6˙ 47 SW 2 Close , Rain in Showers most part of the Day . 11 8 43 28 6 ․ 49 SW 2 Close Rain in Showers most part of the Day . 12 7 41 28 5 ․ 48 SW 1 Close , Shower about Noon .   16 44 28 6˙ 47 WN 1 Fair. 13 6 37 28 8· 47 SE 1 Fair.   17 44 28 5˙ 47   2 Rain . 14 7 42 28 2˙ 48 SE 2 Rain all the Morning , till past 12   14 45 28 5· 50 W 3 Rain , more or less , almost all the Afternoon . 15 6 40 29 1· 50 SW 2 Fair. 16 7 43 29 1˙ 48     Fair , hard Shower about 18 17 7 47 28 8· 49 SE 1 Close , Showers several times in the Day . 18 7 43 28 7˙ 50 SE 1 Rain the greatest part of the Day . 19 6 44 28 7 ․ 52 S 2 Close , Rain a great part of the Day . 20 6 44 28 6 ․ 51 SE 1 Rain , and so in Showers several times of the Day . 21 4 45 28 6˙ 51 S 1 Cloudy , Rain most part of the Morning . 22 8 47 28 7 ․ 51 S 1 Rain .   17 51 28 8˙ 52 N 1 Rain most part of the Afternoon . 23 7 46 29 2˙ 52 N 1 Close .   13 49 29 3· 52 S 1 Close , Rain almost all the Afternoon .   22 49 29 3˙ 52 N about 18 Hard Rain . 24 6 46 29 4 ․ 52 E 1 Close , hard Rain at Night . 25 7 47 29 1˙ 52 ES 1 Close , some Rain .   14 42 28 8˙ 53 SE 1 Dropping .   22 54 28 7 ․ 54   3 Hard Rain from 18 26 7 52 28 6 ․ 54 S 2 Cloudy , Rain often in the Day . 27 5 52 28 8 ․ 55 SW 1 Close , a good deal of Rain before Night . 28 18 51 28 ˙ 55 SW 1 Close , Rain a good part of the Morning , and some in the Afternoon . 29 8 47 29 1 ․ 55 SW 1 Cloudy , a little Rain in the Afternoon . 30 5 47 28 8˙ 55 SW 1 Fair.   18 46 28 6 ․ 55 NE 1 Hard Rain , which began about 11 , and lasted till 21 or 22 1682 May                 d h T. 3 Bar. Hy. Wind. Weather . 1 4 42 28 8 ․ 55 NW 2 Cloudy .   21 47 29 2 ․ 54 NW 1 Fair. 2 8 43 29 2· 54 SW 1 Cloudy , hard Rain from 19 or 20 all Night . 3 6 49 28 7˙ 54 SW 2 Clouds , Wind W. all the Afternoon , but fair , bating a little Rain in the Evening . 4 5 52 28 7 ․ 54 SE 1 Rain hard till 13   13 54 28 7˙ 54 N 1 Rain hard till Night . Memorand . That new fitting my Barometer , here the Mercury was raised by Addition of more in the Receiver about 2 / 10 Inch , which is almost 2 of my Degrees , which are Eights , though I suspect it is still by reason of included Air , a Degree or two too low .                   22 53 29 2˙ 54     Small Rain . 5 8 48 29 3 ․ 54 E 1 Rain .   20 51 29 3· 55 E 1 Close Rain most part of the Morning , and 2 or 3 Showers in the Afternoon . 6 7 48 29 3· 55 NE 1 Mist . 7 8 46 29 4· 55 E 2 Rain a great part of the Day . 8 4 53 29 2 ․ 56 SW 2 Hard Rain till 7 or 8 9 10 54 29 1˙ 55 E 1 Close .   14 55 29 1· 55 SW 1 Rain . 10 9 50 29 2˙ 54 S 1 Cloudy , a little Rain about 17 , and again about 22 11 6 49 29 2˙ 54 SW 1 Close . 11 9 50 29 2˙ 55 SW 1 Short Shower : several short Showers in the Afternoon . 12 6 49 29 3 ․ 54 SW 1 Close ; a Shower in the Morning . 13 4 51 29 2· 53 E 1 Close , several Showers in the Day . 14 9 53 29 4· 54 SW 2 Clouds . 15 7 51 29 4˙ 51 S 1 Fair. 16 8 61 29 2 ․ 48 SE 1 Fair , hard Shower about 18 17 5 60 29 3· 48 SW 2 Close . 18 7 57 29 5· 47 W 1 Fair. 19 8 58 29 5 ․ 45 WS 1 Fair. 20 5 63 29 3· 43 SE 1 Fair.   16 69 29 3· 43 WS 1 Very fair . 21 8 59 29 3˙ 44 S 1 Fair. 22 9 69 29 1˙ 42 SE 1 Fair.   17 47 29 1 ․ 38 SW 2 Fair. 23 7 64 29 2˙ 38 W 1 Fair , gentle Rain from 8 to 11   10 63 29 2˙ 38 W 1 Rain . 24 7 62 29 2 ․ 39 N 1 Close . 25 6 59 29 3 ․ 42 NW 1 Fair. 27 9 53 29 5 ․ 42 W 1 Fair. 28 14 67 29 3˙ 33 S 1 Fair. October                 14 9 45 29 6 ․ 49 W 1 Close , Rain last Night . 16 13 48 29 4˙ 51 SW 2 Rain till Bed-time . 1682 October               17 9 47 29 2˙ 51 W 1 Fair , little Rain . 18 10 41 29 1˙ 51 SW 2 Cloudy , hard Rain from 5 to Bed-time . 19 9 39 28 7˙ 51 W 1 Fair , Shower in the Afternoon . 20 9 34 28 7˙ 51   0 Rain . 27 22 38 29 7˙ 60     Close . 28 10 37 29 7 ․ 60 EN 2 Fair. November                 8 18   29 8 ․       Fair , hard Frost . 9 9 22 29 8 ․ 57 N 1 Fog , gone before Noon : hard Frost . 10 10 26 29 8· 58 EN 1 Fair , hard Frost . 11 9 25 29 7˙ 56 NE 1 Close , hard Frost . 12               Fair , hard Frost . 13 10 26 29 5˙ 57 NE 1 Close , hard Frost . 14 13 23 29 7 ․ 57     Thick Fog , fair in the Afternoon . 15 10 36 29 4 ․ 56 SW 1 Close , Rain this Morning , hard Rain 22 16 5 41 29 1˙ 66     Hard Rain , Rain most part of the Day .   17 41 29 1· 65 SW 1 Rain . 17 11 39 29 1 ․ 64 WS 2 Fair. 18 9 37 28 7˙ 64   0 Fog , Rain most part of the Day . 19 9 33 29 1˙ 62 W 1 Fair , Rain in the Night 20 10 40 29 1˙ 64 WN 1 Fair , Rain in the Afternoon .   22 42 29 2 ․ 63   2 Fair. 21 6 42 29 1· 64     Hard Rain till 10   16 43 29 2˙ 64 W 2 Fair. 22 11 33 29 5 63 W 1 Small Fog , Frost this Morning . 23 9 28 29 5˙ 62 NW   Fog , thick Fog all Day . 24 9 25 29 5 ․ 62 NW   Thick Fog , little Rain in the Evening . 25 8 35 29 3 67 SW 1 Close , Rain in the Evening . 26 9 35 29 4· 65 WN 1 Fair. 27 10 31 29 7˙ 64 WN 1 Fair. 28 4 32 29 8˙ 65     Fair. 29 8 33 29 7˙ 65 WS   Small Fog . 30 9 35 29 7˙ 65 SW 1 Fair. December                 1 8 35 29 6˙ 66 S 1 Mist . 2 9 34 29 6˙ 66 S 1 Close . 3 9 34 29 6˙ 66 SW 1 Foggy . 1683. June                 21 9 62 29 3˙ 46 W 1 Close . 22 8 65 29 2˙ 48 WS 2 Close , some Showers . 23 7 59 29 4˙ 46 W 1 Cloudy . 25 19 67 29 4˙ 44 WN 1 Fair , Mist in the Morning . 26 10 64 29 5 ․ 43 S 1 Very fair .   17 72 29 3˙ 43 S W 2 Fair. 30 13 62 29 3˙ 37 W N 3 Fair. An Explication of the foregoing Register . THE first Column with d at the Top , contains the Day of the Month. The second Column with h at the Top , contains the Hour of the Day , which beginning from Midnight , I count to 24 , which is Midnight again ; so that 13 stands for 1 Afternoon , and so on . The third Column with Th. at the Top , marks the Degrees of my Thermoscope , which having been blown at a Lamp , though the Spaces of the Degrees were equally divided , yet because of the unequal Bigness of the small Tube , towards the Extremities , where it grew bigger , it did not always in every Degree mark equally proportionable Degrees of Heat and Cold. The Points to be observed in that and the next Column , which is that for the Baroscope , shew the just Place where the Top of the tinged Spirit of Wine in the one , and the Mercury in the other , stood between the Line of the Degree marked , and the following , when the Observation was made . The Thermoscope I made use of till December , 1669 , was a seal'd one , with all the Degrees increasing with the Heat in one continued Series . The Thermoscope which I used from Decemb. 1669. to June 1675. and is marked 2. was one of Mr. Cotgraves adjusting , which beginning the reckoning from the temper of freezing , hath the Numbers increasing both upwards and downwards ; the Points shew it to be in the Degrees ; above 0 , if set over ; and under 0 , if set under : and ˙ ˙˙ or ˙˙˙ shew it higher or lower in each Degree . The Thermoscope used from March 1681 , to the End , is marked 3 , and is of the kind of that used first . The Column having Hy. at the Top , contains the Degrees of Moisture , as marked by an Hygroscope made of the Beard of a wild Oat . In the Column of the Wind , I not having the Convenience to observe the Points exactly , have marked but 8 , but yet with this Variety , that where I set two Letters , the Wind was most from that Point whose Letter stands first , v. g. W N signifies more West than North. When I set only one Letter , it was in or very near that Cardinal Point . The Strength is marked by 0 , 1 , 2 , 3 , 4. 0 signifies not so much Wind that mov'd any Leaf that I could see in a Garden I look'd into out of my Window , but the Letter join'd to it signifies which way the Weather-Cock then stood , whether the former Wind left it so , or the present Breeze blew that way . 1 signifies a gentle Gale , just perceivable by the moving of the Leaves or Plants . 4 signifies a very violent Storm : 2 and 3 the several Degrees between 1 and 4 , as well as I could judg . These Degrees , though not so exactly measured as I could have wish'd , I yet thought better than nothing . LE Tuyau recourbé estoit fermé au bout ae et Ouuert alautre extremité B. La recourbure depuis . G. Jusq ' a C. estoit pleine de Mercure & tout lereste estoit plein d' air . La longueur Ae. C. estoit 4 Pouces ou 32 / 8. J'echauffay cet air , et il feit baisser le Mercure Jusques en f. qui estoit ⅜ plus bas , & en mesme temps il monta jusq ' en H. qui estoit 3 / 8 plus haut que G. ou C. Pour sçauoir quélle hauteur de Mercure auroit este necessaire pour empescher la dilatation de lair , & retenir le mercure en C. Je nay quá trouuer ce qui seroit necessaire pour repousser le mercure en C. Etainsy contenir lair dans léspace Ae. C. non obstant la Chaleur . Je pose pour principe ceque lexperience fait voir , Cest que quand une quantité dáir occupe un certain espace que Jáppelle . Ae. et que la pression qui leretient dans cet espace soit B. si●on vient a augmenter certe pression de telle quantité que lón voudra comme X. on diminuera L'espace Ae. d'une certain quantité . D. Laquelle quantité est au restant . M. comme X est a B. D. M. : : X. B. donc M. D. : : B. X. Il est aisé d áppliquer cettereigle à lexperience cy dessus Car Ae. f. ou 35 / 8 de pouce sont lespace Ae. Lapression ordinaire de lâir qui est de 30 Pouces Jointe ae un pouce de haut que se trouue entre f. et H. est B X 31 Pouces de mercure : et si nous y en adjoustons assez pour reduire láir a léspace . Ae. C. Ledit . Ae. C. sera M. X 32 / 8 Et. f. C. Sera D. X ⅜ Posant donc . M. D. B. 32. 3. 31. La quatriesme proportionelle sera . X. X 2 29 / 32 pouces , qui estants joints a B. X 31 Pouces feront 33 29 / 32 pouces dont láir sera pressé en C. Ae. qui sont pres de 4 Pouces audessus de la pression ordinaire . Experiment made at the Spire of the Cathedral-Church in Sarum , by Colonel John Windham , assisted by Mr. Tho. Naish , Clerk of the Works , and John Warner , in November , 1684. HAving gotten together all the surveighing Chains the City afforded , and carefully examined their Truth , and having prepared a proper Frame for the Baroscope , we went into the Church , filled the Tube , and with all the Nicety we could use , purged it of the airy Particles , and then immersing it , as in the Forricellian Experiment , the Mercury was there suspended 30 Inches , and 50 Cents of an Inch , measuring it from the Surface of the Stagnum : Then drawing it up to the first Floor above the Vaulting , which is 1033 Inches and ½ high from the Pavement , the Mercury subsided 9 Cents of an Inch : From thence drawing it up to the middle Floor , which is 935 Inches higher , the Mercury subsided 8 Cents lower than before : And from thence drawing it up to the Weather-Door , which is 2313 Inches higher than the last , the Mercury subsided 23 Cents below its last Station . So the whole Height 't was drawn up , is 4281 Inches and a half ; and the whole Difference of the Mercury's standing is 40 Cents of an Inch. And letting it down again the same way , the Mercury reascended to its first Stations . At another time with an inverted Baroscope , like that Figure in the Margin , having made a Mark where the Liquor stood when 't was below in the Church , and drawing it up to the first Floor over the     Inches .   Inc. Cen. Vaulting Which is above the Pavement of the Church 1033 and ½ . The Liquor ascended 1 25 To the middle Floor 1968. 2 39 To the 8 Doors Floor 2467. 3 22 To the Weather-Door 4281. 5 64 To the Top 4800 , or 400 Feet . 6 40 If your Honour desires to have any other Experiments made at that Spire , Mr. Naish whom I have mentioned above , is a Person well skill'd in the practical Parts of Mathematicks , and a great Lover of Learning , but more especially natural and experimental Philosophy , having all or most of your Honour 's Phylosophical Works . This Person I know would most gladly and heartily imbrace any Opportunity of serving your Honour , whensoever you 'l be pleased to let me impart any thing to him in a Letter . This is humbly advertised by , Sir , Your Honour 's most Obliged , and most Obedient Servant , JOHN WARNER . ♃ Decembris 17. Anno 1685. At a Place in the great Continent in Europe , but not far from the Ocean , a learned Acquaintance of mine keeping a Baroscope some Years , and being discours'd with by me , about the Difference of the Phaenomena that may be expected in Places situate upon the Continent , from what we find in this Country , as it is an Island : He related to me , that a few Years since , casting his Eyes upon the Baroscope , in ordinary Weather , and that was calm enough ; he was surprized to see the Mercury so strangely raised , as to exceed above two Inches its wonted Station , which great Alteration he found within few Hours to have been the Fore-runner of so hideous a Storm as was generally wondred at , and did a great deal of Mischief both in the Towns and Country of those Parts , where it left sad Instances of its Fury . This Wind came all along the Continent : but my Relator divers times observed , that when very boisterous Winds blew from the Sea , and the Storms came thence , ( which lying to the Southward ) the Mercuty in the Baroscope would considerably subside , as has likewise been often observed here in England by an ingenious Gentleman , living within less than two Leagues of the Sea , to whom I presented a Baroscope to make Observations with . An industrious young Man , that whilst he was my Domestick , I bred up to Chymistry , ( of which he now teaches Courses ) related to me the other Day , that toward the latter End of the last Month ( which was June ) being at Oxford , where his House is , he had occasion to cast his Eyes upon his Baroscope , and was not a little surprized to find that the Quick-silver was in an extraordinary Measure alter'd from the Height it stood at but a while before : Whereupon , though the Weather were very hot and fair , as is usual in June , and had continued so for some Days ; yet he took upon him to foretel from this great and quick Subsidence of the Mercury , that there would be e're long some notable Change of Weather . And accordingly it happened within about four or five Hours ; that the Sky was all overcast ; and there fell a hideous Storm of Rain , Lightning and Thunder , accompanied with such a Whirlwind , as scarce any remember to have seen in that City . A Letter to the Author . Honoured Sir , I Have been able to do so little in the Attempts I have made to serve you , that I am ashamed to have been so well furnished to so small purpose . The Barometer I had from you was conveyed safe into the Country , and as soon as it came to my Hands , I rode to Minedeep , with an Intention to make use of it there , in one of the deepest Gruffs ( for so they call their Pits ) I could find : the deepest I could hear of was about 30 Fathom , but the Descent so far either from easy , safe , or perpendicular , that I was discouraged from venturing on it . They do not , as in Wells , sink their Pits strait down , but , as the Cranies of the Rocks , give them the easiest Passage ; neither are they let down by a Rope , but taking the Rope under their Arm , by setting their Hands and Legs against the sides of the narrow Passage , clamber up and down , which is not very easy for one not used to it , and almost impossible to carry down the Barometer , both the Hands being imployed . This Information I should have suspected to come from their Fear , had not an intelligent Gentleman , Neighbour to the Hill , assured me 't was their usual way of getting up and down . For the Sight of the Engine , and my Desire of going down into some of their Gruffs , gave them terrible Apprehensions , and I could not perswade them but that I had some Design : So that I and a Gentleman that bore me Company , had a pleasant Scene , whilst their Fear to be undermined by us , made them disbelieve all we told them ; and do what we could , they would think us craftier Fellows than we were . But , Sir , I will not trouble you with the Particulars of this Adventure : but certain it is the Women too were alarm'd , and think us still either Projectors or Conjurers . Since I could not get down into their Gruffs , I made it my Business to inquire what I could concerning them : The Workmen could give me very little Account of any thing , but what Profit made them seek after ; they could apprehend no other Minerals but Lead Oar , and believed the Earth held nothing else worth seeking for : besides , they were not forward to be too communicative to one , they thought they had Reason to be afraid of . But at my Return , calling at a Gentleman's House , who lives under Minedeep-Hills , and who had sent out his Son to invite me in ; amongst other things he told me this , that sometimes the Damps catch them , and then if they cannot get out soon enough , they fall into a Swound , and die in it , if they are not speedily got out ; and as soon as they have them above ground , they dig a Hole in the Earth , and there put in their Faces , and cover them close up with Turfs ; and this is the surest Remedy they have yet found to recover them . In deep Pits they convey down Air by the side of the Gruff , in a little Passage from the Top ; and that the Air may circulate the better , they set up some Turfs on the Lee side of the Hole , to catch , and so force down the fresh Air : But if these Turfs be removed to the windy side , or laid close over the Mouth of the Hole , those below find it immediately , by want of Breath , Indisposition , and Fainting : and if they ehance to have any sweet Flowers with them , they do not only lose their pleasant Smell immediately , but stink as bad as Carrion . Notwithstanding this ill Success , I had attempted some Trials once more , had not the spreading of the Contagion made it less safe to venture abroad , and hastened me out of the Country sooner than I intended . But I have some Hopes , the next Journey I make into those Parts , to give you a better Account than this that follows . Near the House where I sometimes abode , was a pretty steep and high Hill. April . 3. hora inter 8 & 9. Matutin . the Wind West , and pretty high , the Day warm , the Mercury was at 29 Inches and 1 / ●● being carried up to the Top of the Hill , it fell to 28 Inches ¾ : ( or thereabouts , for I think it was a little above 28 Inches ¾ : ) Both going up and coming down , I observed that proportionably as I was higher or lower on the Hill , the Mercury fell or rose . At my return to the bottom of the Hill , the Mercury wanted of ascending to its former Height ● of an Inch , which I impute to the Sun 's rarifying some Particles of Air that remained in the upper Part of the Tube , rather than to any other Change in the Air ; for I find it harder to clear the Tube of Air perfectly , than at first I thought , or of Water , if that have been put in with the Mercury , and I fear liable to the same Inconvenience with Air inclosed . I know this is far short of what you might have expected , and has , I fear , but little answered your Desires , since I guess it was the perpendicular Height of the Place I made the Experiment in , that you would have had , and perhaps other Considerations of Air , inclosed , and liable to mineral Steams , would have made a Trial in one of the Gruffs more acceptable to you . I do not think any thing in this Letter worthy of you , or fit for the Publick . But since I find by the two last Philosophical Transactions , that Observations on the Torricellian Experiment are much look'd after , and desired to be compared ; if for want of better , this should be thought fit to fill an empty Space in the Philosophical News-Book , I shall desire to have my Name concealed . But I fear that this very Caution of being in Print , where there is no Danger of it , has too much of Vanity in it . I 'm sure 't is Boldness enough , though allaid with Obedience , to venture such slight things to your Sight . I visited the incrusting Spring I formerly mentioned to you , and could not find any thing incrusted within at least 20 Yards of the Rise of it . The Place where it works most , is about 40 or 50 Yards from the Spring-head , and is at a Fall higher than my Head : there it sheaths every thing with stony Cases , and makes the sides of the Bank hard Rock , and from thence all along its Stream , it covers Sticks , &c. with a Crust ; and some so candied I found above this Fall , but not so frequent ; whether the mixing of Air with the Water in the Fall , contributes any thing to the Effect , I cannot guess ; but that the Fall does , I suppose : for besides that at the above-mentioned Fall , it seems to operate most strongly , I observed , that though I could not find any thing incrusted within a good Distance of the Spring , yet that the Moss above the Spring was a little incrusted , ( but not so firmly as at the other Place ) for the Water in the Winter , when the Springs are full , runs out also at a Hole two or three Yards above the Place , where now only it rises , and from thence falls perpendicularly into this lower Spring , from whence it runs by an easy Descent to the next Fall. A Gentleman in whose Field it rises , and by whose House it runs , told me upon Inquiry , that he uses it both in his Kitchen and Brew-house , without any sensible ill Effects , he being a pretty ancient , but healthy Man , and long Inhabitant of that Place . It will bear Soap , freezes quickly ; and waters his Grounds upon Occasion , with Advantage . All the ill Effects of it , that he can guess , are , that his Horses are usually short-breathed , which he imputes to the drinking of that Water . I brought with me from Minedeepe some Oar , and some Stones ; but I think them so inconsiderable , that I shall not judg them worth sending , unless you please to command them . I am , SIR , Your most Humble and most Obedient Servant , JOHN LOCKE . Ch. Ch. 5º May , 1666. POSTSCRIPT . I had forgot to mention to you , that in their Gruffs , after burning , ( when they meet with hard Rocks in their way , they make a Fire upon them , that they may dig through the easier ) they find it very dangerous to go down into them , as long as there remains any Fire or Heat in any Chinks of the Rocks . Some Days ago the King doing me the Honour to discourse with me about the Use of Baroscopes , was pleased to say , among other remarkable things , that at a time his Majesty then named , he went from Whitehall about six in the Morning , towards the Mouth of the River , attended by divers of the Nobility , and particularly by one of the Lords then present , whom his Majesty put in Mind of the Adventure ; and then he added , that though the Weather were exceeding fair , and likely to continue so , insomuch that some of the Courtiers congratulated to his Majesty so promising a Morning ; yet when they were once gone too far to return , he told them he thought they would be much mistaken , and that they were to prepare for a Storm ; which Conjecture his Majesty grounded upon his having , unknown to the Company , consulted a good Baroscope before he went out , and found the Mercury in it to have suddenly , and very notably subsided . And accordingly within a very few Hours the Event verified his Majesty's Prediction , a sudden Storm driving on the Yatch he was in , for divers Leagues , at a very unusual rate . Nous apprenons de ces experiences , que puisque le poids de l' Air et le poids de l' eau qui est dans les Pompes se tiennent mutuellement en Equilibre , ils pesent precisement autant l' un que l' autre ; & qu' ainsi en connoissant la hauteur ou l' eau s' éleve en tous les lieux du monde , nous connoissons en mesme temps combien chacun de ces lieux est pressé par le poids de l' Air qui est au dessus d' eux ; et partant . Que les lieux , qui sont au bord de la mer , sont pressez par le poids de l' Air , qui est au dessus d' eux jusques au haut de sa Sphere , autant precisement , que si au lieu de cét Air on substituoit une colomne d' eau de la hauteur de 31 Pieds deux poulces . Ceux qui sont plus élevez de dix toises , autant que s' ils portoient de l' eau de la hauteur de 31 Pieds un poulce . Ceux qui sont élevez audessus de la mer de 500 Toises , autant que s' ils portoient de l' eau à la hauteur de 26 Pieds onze poulces : & ainsi du reste . Nous apprenons par ces experiences que l' Air qui est sur le niveau de la mer pese autant que l' eau , à la hauteur de 31 Pieds deux poulces ; mais parce que l' Air pese moins sur les lieux plus élevez que sur le niveau de la mer ; et qu' ainsi il ne pese pas sur tous les Points de la terre egalement , & mesine qu' il pese differemment par tout , on ne peut pas prendre un pied fixe , qui marque combien tous les lieux du monde sont Chargez par l' Air , le fort portant le foible ; mais on peut en prendre un par conjecture bien approchant du juste ; comme par exemple , on peut faire estat , que tous les lieux de la terre en general considerez comme s' ils estoient également chargez d' Air , le fort portant le foible , en sont autant pressez , que s' ils partoient de l' eau à la hauteur de 31 Pieds ; et il est certain qu' il n' y a pas un demy pied d' eau d' erreur en cette Supposition . Or nous avons veu que l' Air qui est au dessus des montagnes hautes de 500. toises sur le niveau de la mer , pese autant que l' eau à la hauteur de 26 Pieds 11 Poulces . Et par consequent tout l' Air qui s' étend de puis le niveau de la mer jusqu ' au haut des montagnes , hautes de 500 Toises , pese autant que l' eau à la hauteur de 4 Pieds un poulce , qui estant à peu prés la septiéme partie de la hauteur entiere ; il est visible que l' Air compris depuis la mer jusques à ces montagnes est à peu pres la septiéme partie de la masse entiere de l' Air. Nous apprenons de ces mesmes Experiences , que les vapeurs qui sont épaisses dans l' Air , lors qu' il en est le plus Chargé , pesent autant que l' eau à la hauteur d' un pied huit Poulces ; puisque pour les contrepeser , elles font housser l' eau dans les Pompes à cette hauteur , par deffus celle ou l' eau contrepesoit déja la pesanteur de l' Air : de sorte que si toutes les vapeurs qui sont sur une contrée estoient reduites en eau , comme il arrive quand elles se changent en pluye , elles ne pourroient produire que cette hauteur d' un pied huit poulces d' eau sur cette contrée . Et s' il arrive par fois des orages ou l' eau de la pluye qui tombe vienne à une plus grande hauteur ; c ' est parce que le vent y porte les vapeurs des contrées voisines . Nous voyons aussi de là , que si toute la Sphere de l' Air estoit pressée & comprimée contre la terre par une Force qui la poussant par le haut , la reduisist en bas à la moindre place qu' elle puisse occuper , & qu' elle la reduisist comme en l' eau , elle auroit alors la hauteur de 31 Pieds seulement . Et par consequent qu' il faut considerer toute la masse de l' Air en l' estat libre ou elle est , de la mesme sorte que si elle eust este autrefois comme une masse d' eau de 31 pieds de haut á l' entour de toute la terre , qui eust esté rarefiée et dilatée extremement , et convertie en cet estat ou nous l' appellons Air , auquel elle occupe à la verite plus de place , mais auquel elle conserve precisement le mesme poids que l' eau à 31 pieds de haut . Et comme il n' y auroit rien de plus aisé que de supputer combien l' eau qui environneroit toute la terre à 31 Pieds de haut peseroit de livres ; et qu' un enfant qui scait l' Addition et la Soustraction le pourroit faire ; on trouveroit par le mesme moyen combien tout l' Air de la Nature pese de liures , puisque c ' est la mesme chose ; et si on en fait l' épreuve , on trouvera qu' il pese à peu prés huit Millions de Millions de Millions de Liures . I' ay voulu avoir ce plaisir , et j ' en ay fait le compte en cette sorte . I' ay suppose que le Diametre d' un cercle est à sa circonference , comme 7 á 22. I' ay suppose que le Diametre d' une Sphere estant multiplié par la circonference de son grand cercle , le produit est le contenu de la superficie Spherique . Nous Scavons qu' on a divise le tour de la terre en 360 degrez cette division à esté voluntaire , car on l' eust divisée en plus ou moins si on eust voulu , aussi bien que les cercles celestes . On a trouve que chacun de ces degrez contient 50000 toises . Les lieues autour de Paris sont de 2500 toises ; et par consequent il y a 20 lieues au degré : D' autres en comptent 25 mais aussi ils ne mettent que 2000 toises à la lieue ; ce qui revient à la mesme chose . Chaque toise a 6 pieds . Un pied Cube d' eau pese 72 libres . Cela posé , il est bien aise de faire la supputation qu' on cherche . Car puisque la terre a pour son grand cercle , ou pour sa circonference 360 degrez . Elle a par consequent de tour 7200 lieues . Et par la proportion de la Circonference au Diametre aura 2291 lieues . Donc en multipliant le Diametre de la terre par la Circonference de son grand cercle ; on trouvera qu' elle á en toute sa superficie Spherique 1649200 lieues quarrées . C ' est à dire 103 , 095 , 000 , 000 , 000 , toises quarr . C ' est à dire 3711 , 420 , 000 , 000 , 000 , pieds quarr . Et parce qu' un pied cube d' eau pese 72 livres . Ils ' ensuit qu' un prisme d' eau d' un pied quarre de base , et de 31 pieds de haut , pese 2232 livres . Donc si la terre estoit couverte d' eau jusques à la hauteur de 31 pieds ; il y auroit autant de prismes d' eau de 31 Pieds de haut , qu' elle a de pieds quarrez en toute sa surface . ( Ie scay bien que ce ne seroient pas des prismes , mais des secteurs de Sphere ; et je neglige exprés cette Precision . ) Et partant elle porteroit autant de 2232 livres d' eau , qu' elle a de pieds quarrez en toute sa surface . Donc cette masse d' eau entiere peseroit . 8283 , 889 , 440 , 000 , 000 , 000 , livres . Donc toute la masse entiere de la Sphere de l' Air qui est au monde , pese ce mesme poids de 8283. 889 , 440 , 000 , 000 , 000 , livres . C ' est à dire , Huit Millions de Millions de-Millions , deux cent quatre vingt trois mille huit cent quatre vingt neuf Millions de Millions , quatre cent quarente mille millions de livres . Mr. Pascal in his small Tract , either De la Pesanteur de l' air ; or in that Del ' Equilibre des liqueurs . De caetero , feci haud ita pridem experimentum ponderandi aeris , quod pulchrè successit ; nam sumptâ vitreâ lagenâ , valde levi et ad lampadem sufflatâ , ejus figurae , qualem hic excusam vides , magnitudine parvae pilae quales habentur in sphaeristeriis , non habente nisi minimam quandam aperturam per quam immittatur pilus in extremitate orificii sui B. ponderavi eam in bilance valde exacta , & frigida pondus habuit 78 granorum cum dimidio : Postea calefeci eam carbonibus impositam , & reposui in bilaneem eo situ quo hic descriptum vidos , nimirum orificio in imum verso , & deprehendi eam vix habere pondus 78 granorum , tum immergendo orificium in aquam , refrigescere feci , & dum aer se condensat pro modo quo refrigescit lagena , intravit tantundem aquae quantum aeris calor antea expulerat ; denique ponderans eam cum omniilla aqua deprehendi eam habere pondus 72 granorum & dimidii plus quam antea : unde concludo aerem qui per ignem expulsus erat , se habere ad aquam quae in locum suum regressa erat uti ½ se habet ad 72½ , aut uti se habet 1. ad 145. sed potui in eo errasse difficile quippe est in ea re omnino exactum esse ; Id saltem certò scio , quòd pondus aeris hoc modo fit sensibile , & prolixe hic deduxi processum meum , ut si te eadem curiositas incessat , possis id eodem modo perficere experimentum . Vale. TITLE XVIII . Of the Consistency of the Air ; its Rarity , Density , Fluidity , Subtilty . A Thin but large Bladder , wherein there was about the third part of the Air it was capable of containing , being strongly tied at the Neck , and at the opposite Part suspended and clog'd at the bottom , with a Weight of 14 Pound ; so that it rested on the Floor , which sustained it ; the Strings that tied the Bladder were well stretch'd before , and could not shrink a quarter of an Inch without drawing up the Weight . Then two Fire-shovels , with small Coals and Ashes were applied at a convenient Distance , and kept moving to warm and rarify the included Air , without cracking the Bladder , by which means after some of the Wrinckles of the Bladder had been displayed , not without Noise , the Air being expanded , and consequently the Bladder a little swell'd , and the whole String shorten'd , the Weight was raised and made to swing like a Pendulum . The same Experiment being tried two or three times with a quarter of an Hundred , succeeded not , though with larger Bladders , the Heat still either breaking the Bladder with Noise , or occasioning some little Leak which hinder'd the desir'd Success , though once we came so very near it , that 't is scarce to be doubted , that if we had had good Accommodations , it would have succeeded well , and that perhaps if the Weight had been greater . To try whether the Corpuscles of the Air would dive into a Liquor that was exposed but to the ordinary Pressure of the free Air or Atmosphere . We cover'd the bottom of a Cylindrical Vial with Filings of Copper , and then pour'd on it an urinous Spirit , to the Height of about three Fingers breadth , and on this Liquor we poured Oil of Almonds to the Thickness of a Crown Piece of Silver , or that of about the fifth part of an Inch ; then we stopp'd the Vial well , and left it in a quiet Place for several Days . The Event was such as we expected , namely , that the urinous Liquor did first acquire , and then lose a blew Tincture , both were done but slowly . And when the Colour was pretty well lost ( for the Liquor was not clear , but somewhat troubled ) we took out the Cork , and kept the Vial unstopp'd for one Minute of an Hour , and then stopp'd it again ; that in that short time the upper Part of the urinous Spirit began to be ting'd with Blew , and within an Hour , though the Vessel were all the while kept stopp'd , the Sky-Colour reach'd to the lower part of the Liquor , which at this time is wholly and deeply of that Colour , the Oil that swims above it being clear . TITLE XIX . Of the Heat and Coldness of the Air. THough the Peripatetick Doctrine about the Limits and Temperaments of the three Regions , into which they divide the Air , hath been so plausibly proposed , that it has been readily entertained , not only by the Aristotelian Schools , but by the Generality of Philosophers , as well modern as ancient : yet since I think it becomes a Naturalist to consider , not so much how easy a Doctrine is , by reason of its Concinnity , to be remembred or supposed , as how strongly 't is to be proved . I must not dissemble , that as to this vulgar Theory , I think it fitter we should wish it to be true , than that we should believe it is so : for I confess , that upon the best Informations I have been able to procure from Travellers by Land and Sea , or from Writers that relate rather what they have observed , than what they have been taught , I have been much tempted to question the received Doctrine of the Schools , about the Regions of the Air. And that you may judg , whether or no my Thoughts be rational , the ensuing Discourse shall acquaint you with several of the Particulars on which they are grounded . What I have in other Papers written concerning Cold , does not only make it less proper for me to treat of it indefinitely in this Place , but would make it difficult for me to say much on this Subject without Repetition . And it were perhaps fittest for me to say nothing on an occasion wherein I have left my self little to say that is new and pertinent ; but yet since this Title promises not any thing about Cold in general , but only some less heeded Particulars , relating to the Coldness of the Air : That I may not leave it wholly unfurnished , I will refer to it a few Instances that ensue . The Physician , elsewhere mentioned , that was lately at Morocco , answered me , that notwithstanding the excessive Heat that reign'd there in the Day-time , he felt the Night very cold , and so he did the mountanous Air in those Parts . An intelligent Gentleman that stay'd a Year in Guinea , and spent part of that time in the Land , answer'd me , that notwithstanding the excessive Heat of the Climate , he was divers times about four of the Clock in the Morning , reduced to be ready to tremble for Cold , as he lay in his Hammock , for about an Hour together . A learned Man that lived at Jamaica , assured me , that when he laid in his Hammock , about three or four Foot from the Ground , though he had much Clothes under him , and little or none over him , he felt it cold beneath , and hot above . 'T is obvious to every Man's Sense or Observation ; that the greater Heat that is usually found in our Air , during the Summer , than in other Seasons of the Year , has manifest Effects upon such easily agitable Bodies as Liquors , and upon the Juices and Flesh of Animals , and the softer Parts of Vegetables . But that even in Places shelter'd from the Sun-beams , the Warmth of a temperate Summer should be able sensibly to rarify and expand so cold and compact a Body , as Glass it self , would not be easily suspected or believed . And yet that this is one of the Effects of the Temperature of the Air in Summer , seems very probable by this Experiment , that having two large factitious Crystal Viols , caused some Stopples of the same Matter to be exquisitely ground , and fitted this or that Vessel , exactly closed when the Stopple was in it , was very easy to be opened in Winter , and in the colder Parts of the Neighbouring Seasons ; but in Summer 't was oftentimes so difficult to unstop the same Vessel , that a Man's Force , though assisted with a String , was not able to pull out the Stopple : To that I was often reduced to cause the Necks of the Vials to be held under a Pump , or to be stirred to and fro in a Vessel full of Water , that the Coldness of that Liquor might take off the Expansion that the Heat of the Season had given the Glass , which being by this means made to shrink into its former Dimensions , the Vial and Stopple would be easily enough disjoined . This was tried in several Vessels , and in more than one Year . But to make this Experiment successful , two Parts must at first have been exquisitly adjusted to one another , which in those Glasses , with Stopples of the same Matter that are commonly sold , they are not usually found to be . We are wont to attribute the Effects we feel of the Summers Heat , to the bare Warmth of the Air , and to the Agitations that such Warmth produces in the Parts of our Bodies , especially in the Blood , Juices and Spirits , whereas it may very well happen , that we may find odd Changes in our selves , upon very hot Weather , which proceed not from the Heat of the Air , as such , but rather from this Cause , that by such a Degree of Heat , divers Bodies that we think not of , may be solicited to send forth Effluvia that have emitted none by Force , or at least no such Quantity as could make them sensibly operative . And these Effluvia may be the true and immediate Causes of divers Effects that are unwarily ascribed to the mere Heat of the Air , and that which it produces in our Bodies . To illustrate and confirm this Conjecture , I shall propose the following Experiment . Being in the Heat of Summer in the Country , I took a some-what large Piece of fine Amber , that I usually imployed about Electrical Experiments ; and when the Sun had reach'd a considerable Height above the Horizon , I placed it in a shaded Part of a Window , on which he shined freely , though I left the Amber here for a competent time , yet I could not find that it would draw a Piece of Straw , Feather , or other light Body , that at a convenient Distance was held to it . But when I removed it a very little further into a Part of the Window , into which the Sun-beams fell freely , they quickly put its Parts into such an Agitation as made it emit Electrical Effluvia , and readily attract those light Bodies that would not stir before , and which it would soon , though not immediately , lose the Power of drawing , as before , if it were removed back into the neighbouring shaded part of the Window . May 26. Mr. Nickson , who was four Years Governour of the English Colony in Hudsons-Bay , answered me , that when they sail'd within a certain Distance of floating Islands of Ice , if the Wind blew from thence toward the Ship , or as the Seamen speak , if they were to the Leeward of the Ice , they could by the new and sensible Cold they felt , know that such Ice lay to Windward of them , sometimes even before they were able to discover it by Sight . And when I further asked , at what Distance that might be , he answered , that 't was sometimes twelve or fifteen Miles , if not twenty . He added , that usually when the Wind blew from those great Masses of congealed Water , it brought along with it a foggy Air , which he supposed to come ( as well as the Cold ) from the Ice . The same Gentleman , answer'd me , that in that Part of Hudsons-Bay wherein he winter'd , the Rivers began to freeze about the latter end of October , or beginning of November , and usually were not free from Ice till about the middle or latter end of May , though he divers times took the Latitude of Charleton Island , the Place most frequented by the English , and seated at the bottom of the Bay , and found it to be near the same with that of London , and at most but about 52 Degrees . When I inquired about the Depth of the Ice in the Rivers , he answered , that they had often occasion to observe it ; for in the Winter they made their Wells there , ( not in the Ground ) and were obliged to dig about six Foot deep in the Ice , before they could come at unfrozen Water . He answered me , that when they sent their Men up into the Country , their Bottles of Brandy would oftentimes so freeze , that about a fourth Part of it would be turned into Ice . And when I asked , whether the unfrozen Part of the Liquor was not exceeding strong , he answered me , that it was , and sometimes so much so , as to be too fiery and unpleasant to the Taste . He answered me , that he always found the Ice fresh that floated upon the Sea-Water ; and that when they wanted fresh Water , or had a Mind to spare what they had aboard , they often supplied themselves out of the Cavities of great floating Masses of Ice ; in which hollow Places the Sun-Beams thawing some Parts of the Ice , they frequently found store of Liquor that was produced by the Action of the Sun-Beams upon the superior Parts of the Ice , whence the Water ran into these Cavities . He added , that when the Seamen were in haste , they used to relieve themselves by cutting or breaking off Pieces of the floating Ice , and presently melting it in their Pots . A learned Traveller , that made some considerable stay among the high Pyrenean Mountains , answer'd me , amongst other notable things , about which I made Inquiry , that he had several times observed at the Top of one or other of those tall Hills , that the Air would be very hot , and that yet the same Day , and perhaps within very few Hours , the Place would be cover'd with Snow , though it were then Summer-time . Doctor N. answered me , that the Winds he felt at Morocco were so very hot , that they were ready to stifle him , seeming to him like the Steams and Smoak coming out of the Mouth of an Oven . The Russian Emperor's Physician confirmed to me , that at Arch-angel ( where he was more than once ) they averr'd to him , that in Winter-time a Northerly Wind ( which comes from the Sea ) produces a kind of Thaw , so as to make the Eves drop , though a North-East Wind rather confirms the Frost ; but on the contrary , a Southerly Wind blows over a thousand or a hundred Mile of frozen Land , does rather increase the Frost than bring the Thaw . A very inquisitive Person that visited the lofty Pyrenean Mountains , answered me , that he and his Company had more than once observed , from the Top or higher Part of one of those Hills , that though it were fair Weather there , yet a great way beneath them , the Hill was surrounded with thick Clouds , which produced Storms of Rain on the lower Grounds : and that ( which was the chief Point , I inquired after ) they could manifestly see , that out of those Clouds , when it thunder'd , Lightnings flash'd upwards , as well as they are generally observ'd to do it downward . October 19. Doctor Stubbs assured me , that having at Jamaica taken a Bolt-head about two Foot and a half in length , he usually found that betwixt 7 and 8 in the Morning , which they there call the faint time ( of the Day ) because for want of the daily Breezes , the excessive Heat makes them to faint away ; the Water was wont to rise in the Neck but a quarter of an Inch and a half , though at that time by reason of the Winds , Men found the Heat very supportable : and after Noon was past , the Water would subside by Degrees till towards the above-mention'd time the next Morning . This happened in a South Window , where the fresh Winds come fully and freely in to beat upon the Bolt-head , without any Glass to skreen the Vessel from the Wind. He added , that though the Bolt-head were not stopped , yet the Water did not even in that hot Country decrease sensibly in eight or ten Months . A heedful Person that frequented the Coast of Sumatra in the South-Sea , answered me , that he never observed Ice or Frost , or Snow , in that great Island , but that he had known Hail fall even in that torrid Climate . Though the famous Island of Ceylon lies almost in the midst of the torrid Zone , namely , between the 6th and 10th Degrees of Northern Latitude , yet an observing Man that lived many Years upon it , told me , that in Hills not so high , but that we might easily ascend to the Top in half an Hour , the Inequality of the Air 's Temperature , as to Heat and Cold , was very great : for he had divers times observed in himself and others , that though at the bottom of the Hill the Heat was so great , as to oblige them to go almost stark naked , yet when they ascended the Hill , they found the Air quite alter'd ; and as they went up higher and higher , the Cold increased upon them ; so that notwithstanding the Heat , so uneasy a Motion as Climbing , had given them , the Coldness of the Air obliged them to put on unusually warm Clothes ; and at the Top of the Hill they would for all that be ready to quake for Cold. Captain Knox answered me , that in 18 Years that he spent in the Inland of Ceylon , he never observ'd any Ice or Snow , nor any more than a little kind of Meteor that was between Dew and hoar Frost , which sometimes in Winter-Mornings appeared very oddly , but quickly vanished . And when I asked if he had not seen Hail it self ; he answered , that he never saw it but once , but the Inhabitants look'd upon it as a wonderful thing , unseen by them before , that the Hail was as large as a black Cherry , but not very round , and seem'd to have the Corners melted , which made him think it had been form'd high in the Air ; that for fear of mistaking , he not only gather'd some of it , but champ'd it between his Teeth , and found it cold and hard , like our European Hail ; and that he was fain to be nimble in making his Trials , because when the Hail came to touch the Ground , it would melt away much more suddenly than one would have expected . Gregory being ask'd , upon a very sultry Day , whether it were not very hot in Germany , made Answer , To Day has been something hot : Such is the Winter in Suaquena . Ludolf . Hist of Ethiop . l. 1. c. 5. The Heat of the Island Suaquena , Gregory used to call Infernal : For , says he , it excoriates the Skin ; melts hard Indian Wax in a Cabinet , and sears your Shooes like a red hot Iron . The higher you ascend the Mountains of Ethiopia from the Coast of the red Sea , the more temperate you shall feel the Air , insomuch , that as Tellezius witnesses , in many Regions of Ethiopia the Summer . Heats are more mild than in Portugal , so many Degrees distant toward the North ; nay there are some Mountainous Countries , as in Samen , where the Cold is more dreaded than the Heat . Nevertheless there falls none or very little Snow in these Parts , only a certain small sort of Hail sometimes covers the Ground , which at a Distance looks like Snow . An intelligent Person , that was for many Years Consul of the English Nation at Tripoli in Barbary ; being asked some Questions about the Air , and the Winds in those Parts , answered me , that when in Summer-time the Wind blew over the great Sandy Deserts that reach very far into the Country , the Wind , and the Sand it brought along with it , oftentimes felt as hot as the Steams that come out of an Oven when the Mouth is opened , insomuch that he could not , without great Inconvenience , turn his Face towards the Quarter whence the Wind blew . An ingenious Gentleman , that was imployed in the French Colony , on the Coast of Africk , and liv'd in those Parts about five Years , answered me , that in the Island of St. Lovis , or near it , at a certain Season of the Year , when the hot Winds blew from the Continent , the Sand on the Shores would be so scorching hot , that he was not able to stand upon it , but it would , through the Soles of his Shooes , scorch his Feet , unless he walked very fast . And then the Air seem'd to him to be thick , and as he expressed it , heavy and hot , as if it came out of an Oven . And when the Wind blew from a Wood , where divers Elephants and other wild Beasts lay dead ; the Steams of their Carcasses would make the Air so stinking and offensive , that is was scarce supportable . In summo ejus montis , Idae sc . fastigio sacellum est quod aedificiolo duntaxat constat saxis sibi invicem impositis & sine calce cohaerentibus fornicis in modum constructo , ad tectum prebendum . Sublimi adeo loco est , & à vehementioribus ventis interdum ita perflato , ut lapilli inde transferantur . Paulo infra id sacellum planities conspicitur montibus undique cincta , in quâ multa sunt pascua , ubi Arietes & Caprae Cretenses aestate pinguescunt . Si quis ex summo montis vertice undique prospiciat parum aberit , quin totius Insulae ambitum videat cum aliis vicinis Insulis , Miso , Cerigo , sive Cytherareliquisque Archipelagi . Aeris intemperies in hoc monte adeo magna est quemadmodum ut in caeteris praecelsis montibus , ut in ipsis Caniculae ardoribus meridie , nullo etiam spirante vento , ingens sentiatur frigus : qua de causa nec hyeme , nec aestare quisquam eum incolit . Nam licet pastores interdiu ovium greges ad pascua agunt noctu tamen in valles se recipiunt . In the next Chapter . Latè porro patet hic mons ejusque radices utrinque maris littora , ut ante diximus attingunt ; nam licet urbi Candiae sunt vicinae , meditullium tamen insulae occupat ipse mons , adeo in sublime evectus , ut nives ejus verticem perpetuo tegant ; tamque frigida aura mediis etiam aestatis ardoribus isthic est ut vix ferri queat : tametsi in convallibus magnus sit aestus . Contigit id meae experientiae , quod etiam aliis contigisse audivi , ut ascenderem ad summitatem usque montis Veneris , qui omuium in Patavino agro altissimus est , ibi per totum diem habui aerem serenissimum , sed infra circiter medium montis vidi nubes , quae me visione vallium prohibebant , vesperi autem postquam de illo monte descendi , inveni factam eo die infera parte magnam pluviam cum in montis cacumine nihil pluisset ; ex eo intellexi me transiisse per mediam aeris regionem , in qua est facta pluvia , nec tamen eam sensi frigidissimam , imò vix aliquam animadverti differentiam frigidioris & calidioris aeris , nam aestivum tempus erat , pro aestivo tempore eram vestitus , nec tamen tantum frigoris , quod me laederet , ex eo loco percepi , pars igitur illa non est absolutè frigida , sed solùm comparatione inferi , aeris calidioris . Idem de Alpibus proprio exemplo edoctus testatum reliquit Bartholinus Syst . Phys . Instit . Succinct . de Terra , Aere & Igne , C. 4. Resp . 1. Doctor B. answered me , that being at and near Morocco , he could see Mount-Atlas cover'd with Snow , though it was then in the Heat of Summer , and excessively hot where he was . An intelligent Traveller that had visited some high Mountains , and particularly the Alpes , and the Pico of Teneriffe , answered me concerning this prodigious Hill , that he found it very cold in ascending towards the Top ; and that as for the Mount Cenes , one of the famousest of the Alpes , when he passed over it into Italy , though it were in August , and the Weather very clear , yet he felt at the Top a Wind so cold , that he could scarce possibly indure it , and seem'd to him the coldest that in all his various Travels he had ever felt ; and yet some of the Mountains seemed much higher , being then covered with Snow . An intelligent Gentleman that had been a Traveller into the East-Indies , told me , that he never saw nor heard of any Snow or Ice in Guinea , but that in some Parts of Barbary , where in the Plains and Vallies he found the Heat scorch insupportable , he could see the Top of the Mountains covered with Snow , in which State they continued all the Year . A Man of Letters that lived in many Countries of the East-Indies , being ask'd by me divers Questions , partly about other things , and partly about the Temperature of the Air in several Regions , gave me among other Answers , this , That on the high Mountain in the Island of Ceylon , notwithstanding the Heat of the Country , there was Snow ; and the like he saw on the tops of the Mountains of Congo , though in the lower Parts of the Country they never have , that he heard of , either Ice , Snow or Hail . About Mid-summer , 1688 , I placed in the Cave a Glass , with Spirits , which stood above temperate , about ½ of one of the small Divisions : Another Glass placed without , in a common Room , stood at hot . The Christmass following , I placed the same Glasses in the same Places , and the Glass in the Cave stood as before , about temperate , that without stood at Frost . The Cave is cut into the bottom of a Clift that fronts to the Sea , the Earth is about 80 Foot above it , and it is cut right in about 130 Foot. The other Day two Gentlemen belonging to the Province of New-Hampshire in New-England , ( whence they came not long since ) and imployed by that Colony to his Majesty here , answer'd me , that in the Winter the coldest Wind that blows in their Country , is the North-West ; and being ask'd again , what was their hottest Wind in Summer , they told me , it was likewise the North-West . At which Answer being surprized , I ask'd them , whether they could give any Reason of so odd a Phenomenon . Whereto they answered , that they ascribed it to the large Tract of the Continent , and the great Woods that lay to the North-West ; which Woods , they said , in the Winter had their Branches , through which the Wind past , all laden with Snow : And in the Summer , they said , the close Air of the Vallies , and the thick Steams that fill'd it , would conceive so intense an Heat , that sometimes in the Heat of Summer , when a sudden Puff of Wind blew upon their Faces from those sultry Vales , it seem'd to them as if it came out of the Mouth of a Furnace , and would be ready to overcome them with the Faintness produced by the Heat and Vapours it brought along with it . De montibus ad Bavariam stantibus mira est Alberti Chanow ●● nostri narratio : post Bergreichensteinam ( oppidum fodinis hodie quae nobile ) esse montes non tam situ ( alii enim ad septentrionem , alii ad meridiem latus obvertunt ) quam Coelo & temporibus adversantes , callibus latissimis montes illos dirimentibus ; monstri instar est ( quod se vidisse , & Anno 1639 , in rem praesentem venisse religiosissimus ille & Apostolicus vir asserit ) in altero monte saepius aestatem , in altero apposito hiemem dominari , ita ille siccus aestivat , hic altissimis nivibus obsitus à viatore superari non potest ; ob eamque causam Messes ipsae variant , & dum in montibus ad nos obversis demessa sunt omnia , altera Montium parte seges virescit : Mirius illud quod in Biessinensibus & Czachroviensibus Agris in tractu Plsnensi , contiguis , quos unus tantum sulcus dirimit ac dividit , deprehenditur : Czachrovienses adhuc hibernant , cum in Biessinensi Coelum ardeat , ibi caput attollit humo ●●●●mentum , cum Czachroviiadolescit in culmum ; elemento quoque dispari , illud riget , hoc tepet & fervet , eâque ex causâ , dum Czachrovienses bene pelliti ingrediuntur , Biessinenses pellibus onerari se sentiunt , villosque deponunt . Aliquid tale Anno 1652. mihi quoque accidisse memini : nam cum Glacio Zambergam in Bohemia contenderem , & Glacio ob nives altissimas certum vehiculi genus , quod trabas dicimus , sumpsissem , superatis montibus , qui comitatum Glacensem à Bohemia dividunt , subitò alia rerum facies apparuit : altero enim montium latere viridia omnia reperimus , sic ut Trahae nulli jam rei & usui essent , & currum petere cogeremur , nisi in luto natare placuisset ; at accolae montium illorum quotannis id sibi accidere confirmabant , ut unum latus montium profundissimae nives contegerent , quando alterum latus lectissimos flores proferret , & cum ibi omnia ventis verti viderentur apud se e floribus suavissimos odores efflari . I learned , by Inquiry , of an ingenious Gentleman , who several times went down into the Hungarian Gold-Mine at Cremnitz , that when he was drawn up out of the deep Pit , or perpendicular Groove , whose Depth exceeded 100 Feer ; when he had ascended above half the way , he found the Air sensibly warm , and so it continued till he came by many Foot nearer the Day , as the Workmen call the Orifice of the Pit. And when I ask'd whether this notable and suddain Heat did not proceed from some Mineral through which he passed in that Region of the Earth , or part of the Groove ; He answered me , that he believed it did , in regard he was there surrounded with a Vein or Bed of native Vitriol , some of one Colour , some of another , which he found to be soft under Ground , though it soon after harden'd in the Air : and of these differingly colour'd sorts of Vitriol he brought up thence several Pieces , some of which he presented me . And when I ask'd whether the new Heat he found in that Part of the Mine , did not proceed from its being much nearer than the lower Part to the Air , which at that time was hot ; and whether he found the Heat to increase as he came nearer the Day : He answered in the Negative , and told me , that after he had in his Ascent left beneath him that warm Region , he found himself cold again in the superiour Part of the Groove , to which the Vitriolate Region did not reach . I remember on this occasion , that asking an intelligent Person , who had more than once crossed the Torrid Zone , what Expedient they used in his Ship , to keep their Beer and other Liquors , cool enough to be drinkable in those sultry Climates : He answered , that their way was to take the Bottle they mean to use , and wrap it about with a course Linnen Cloth dipp'd in the Sea-water , and then in some convenient Place of the Ship hang it in the Wind , which beating freely and uncessantly upon it , would in no long time cool it to be potable enough . And this Gentleman , who was an observing Person , added farther , that having sometimes for Curiosity sake taken away a Bottle before it had been exposed above half the usual time , he was able to find by the Taste , that part of the Beer or Wine , that was next the sides of the Bottle to be refrigerated , whilst the more inward Parts of the Liquor did yet continue hot . The Czar's chief Physician confirmed to me , that in the Year 1664 , or 63 , extraordinary dry and great Scopes of Land were set on Fire , and miserably wasted by the great Heat of the Sun. And he added , that the very last Year he found the like to have happened in Norway , particularly in a Place call'd by us Bear-haven ; where having seen the Ruine of divers Wood-houses burnt , and inquiring into the Cause , he was answered , that the Weather being very dry and hot , not only the Grass and other Vegetables were scorch'd up , but those wooden Houses among others , were set on Fire ; which was confirmed to him by the Governor of the Place , and countenanced by this Circumstance , that he saw the Country covered with a fresh and verdent Livery of new Grass , brought up , instead of that which was burnt , by some Rains that fell a while before . A Traveller and Scholar being ask'd by me , whether at Mozambique , which is thought the hottest Place in the known World , he had never observed the Houses to be set on Fire with the mere Heat of the Sun ? He answered me , that in the three Months he stayed there , he saw no such thing , but the Inhabitants affirmed it not to be very unfrequent ; and as he passed to and fro , shewed him divers Houses that had been so burnt : which was the less strange , because the Houses are not built of ordinary Stone , whereof they have none there , but fetch'd from another Place he named , where the Stone is mingled with a Substance , much of the Nature of a Sulphur Vivum . And he added , that he himself had divers times seen the Stones so heated in hollow Places , that Musket Bullets being exposed there to the direct Beams of the Sun , were in no very long time melted . He said farther , that much of the excessive Heat of Mozambique proceeded from the Soil , which is exceeding bare and dry , consisting of white Sand ; and that it is not covered with Grass , nor shaded with Trees . An observing Traveller that had been at Mozambique , being for the most part where 't is not shaded with Trees , sandy , he found the Sun , which was almost in the Zenith , to heat the Ground so much , that he was not able to stand still for some time , but was fain to keep walking to avoid burning the Soles of his Feet . Un Gentilhomme de mes a mis plein de merit et digne de creance me mande entre plusieures choses extraordinaires qu' il a observées proche de Barege aux Pyrenées Qu'il y a des ponts de niege d' un rocher à lautre pardessous les quells passent des torrents . Il en a vu un qui embrasse deux torrents , et qui a vint neuf toises de long et autant de large par dessus . Il y a par dessous ce pont Neuf toises et demi entre les Naissances de la voute les ponts sont tellement forts qu' il estime que du Canon y passeroit , et il a fait rouler de grosses pieces par dessus . Le tremblement de Terre que souffrit la Syrie l'an 750. ne fut gueres moins surprenant ; puisque la Terre s'estant ouverte de toutes parts , plusieurs Villes furent abîmées , d'autres renversées , et quelques unes qui estoient elevees sur des hauteures transportées dans des plaines eloignées de six mille de leur situation . On en peut dire autant du froid extreme qui l'an 753. glaça le Pont-Euxin a la longueur de cent mille , et toute l'estendue de la mer voisine , jusqu ' à 30 condées de profondeur , quoy qu'on ne fût encore qu'au commencement de l'automne . Journal de Seavans III. 1685. Asking an intelligent Person that liv'd a good while in Guinea , how they did to keep their Water cool in so hot a Place ; he told me , that in some Corner of their Hutts they were wont to make Holes in the Ground , in which they buried over Night the long Earthen Jarrs , or other Vessels , so as that the Orifice of the Vessels might be lower ( though not very much so ) than the Level of the Ground . By this Means the Water would become drinkable , with some Coolness , from the Beginning of the Morning to nine or ten of the Clock ; after which 't would grow distastefully hot . He added , that when they were abroad in the Fields , he did as well cool his Water by putting it into Callibashes , and hanging them all Night upon the Branches of Trees , especially where they were exposed to the Wind. February . Since now I have spoken so much of the Cold , I hope it will not be too coldly taken , if in a few Words I make it some way to appear unto our Readers . We made three Differences of the Cold , all according to the Places : In our House , in the Woods , and in the open Air , upon the Ice , in our going to the Ship. For the last , it would be sometimes so extream , that it was not indurable ; no Clothes were Proof against it , no Motion could resist it . It would , moreover , so freeze the Hair on our Eye-lids , that we could not see ; and I verily believe , that it would have stifled a Man in a very few Hours : We did daily find by Experience , that the Cold in the Woods would freeze our Faces , or any part of our Flesh that was bare ; but it was yet not so mortifying as the other . Our House on the out-side was cover'd two third Parts with Snow ; and on the inside frozen and hung with Ice-sickles . The Clothes on our Beds would be cover'd with hoar Frost , which in this little Habitacle was not far from the Fire . But let us come a little nearer to it . The Cook 's Tubs wherein he did water his Meat , standing about a Yard from the Fire , and which he did all Day ply with melted Snow-water ; yet in the Night-season , whilst he slept but one Watch , would they be firm frozen to the very bottom : And therefore was he fain to water his Meat in a brass Kettle close adjoining to the Fire ; and I have many times both seen and felt , by putting my Hand into it , that side which was next the Fire , was very warm , and the other side an Inch frozen . I leave the rest to our Cook , who will almost speak Miracles of the Cold. The Surgeon , who had hung his Bottles of Syrups , and other liquid things , as conveniently as he could , to preserve them , had them all frozen . Our Vinegar , Oil and Sack , which we had in small Casks in the House , were all firm frozen . It may further in general be conceived , that in the Beginning of June , the Sea was not broken up ; and the Ground was yet frozen ; and thus much we found by Experience in the burying of our Men ; in setting up the King's Standard towards the latter End of June ; and by our Well , at our coming away in the Beginning of July ; at which time , upon the Land , for some other Reasons , it was very hot Weather . Capt. James . Monsieur L. J. confirmed to me what he had formerly told me , that upon the highest Mountain of the Pyreneans , called Pic De Midi , he ascended at the End of August , or the Beginning of September ( in the Morning ) to the very Top , where he and his Company spread a Tent , and staid till the Evening : He says , he found the Air temperate where the Sun did not beat ; but on that side of their Bodies whereon the Sun shone , the Heat was exceeding great , and was offensive , even to them that sat in the Tent of Oil'd Cloth , if they sat too near the Sunny side of the Tent : they sometimes had Wind at the Top of the Hill , which they found to blow cool enough , ( and found it very cold when they returned to the Bottom . ) This Hill is so high , that it may be seen from Montauban , which is 27 Leagues distant . When I asked whether the Air in those Places , where the Sun did not beat , was considerably cold ? He told me , that the Exercise they had been put to in ascending the Top of the Hill ( for the most part of the way they rid up ) kept them from being very competent Judges of that ; but they found the Wind Northerly , though weak , yet very cooling ; and the North Side of the Mountain was even then cover'd with Snow , and scarce at all passable . An ingenious Physician , Dr. B. that has been in divers of the Inland Parts of Africa , among other Answers that he return'd to the Questions that I ask'd him , about the Temperament of the Air in those Parts , gave me this memorable one , That having had occasion at Morocco to use some good dried fine Jalap that he had brought with him out of England , he found it by the Heat of the Air to be melted , and by Comsequence to be impulverable , in which State it continued whilst he liv'd in that Country : but when he was returned to Tangier , he found it both there , and in the neighbouring Parts , pulverable again . Nel capo di Comorino si termina cosi I' esta , come I' inverno dalla parte , di la dal capo verso Notte , & dal ' altra parte correspond ill tempo assai contrario è diverso , di maniera che , chi va navigando , per quella costa nel mese di Ottobre , sino ad Aprile naviga nel esta , è non puo in tutto questo tempo , passare il capo per Esser iui la stagione dell inverno , et ill Padre , che resiede nelle Chies ch' appartengono al Capo di Comorinone Alcune la state , il che e cosa di gran Meraviglia , essendo cio nel medessimo tempo nella distanza sola mente di due , otre miglia . An eminent Virtuoso answer'd me , that in Tirol he had visited a very deep Mine into which he descended three hundred Klasters , which by his Computation makes about eighteen hundred of our Feet : That he pass'd not through , that he took notice of , one hot Region by the way . That at the Bottom of the Mine he breath'd very freely , because of the Air-Shafts , by which Access was given laterally to the superiour Air ; and that being thinly clothed with one of the Digger's Habits , he found at the Bottom the Air temperate , as to Heat and Cold , though it were then Summer-season of the Year : so that notwithstanding what is said of Antiperistasis , no intense Cold was retreated thither , to shun the Heat of the superiour Air. An ingenious Gentleman , very conversant in our English Mines , of one of which he is Owner , answer'd me , that the deepest Mine he had particularly visited , was a Tin Mine , whose Depth was sixty six Fathoms , that is almost four hundred Foot. That descending into this Mine in Summer , he found it very cold at the Bottom , and the greatest part of the way going down , without perceiving any hot Region . And when I ask'd him how soon he begun to find a sensible Cold in descending , he told me , that he found it within two Fathom or less of the Orifice of the Pit ; and that in this and divers other Mines he perceived a sensible Cold to begin before he got down a Yard , or perhaps half a Yard beneath the upper Part of the Fast , as the Mine-men call the solid Earth , in which they distinguish from the loose Earth that lies above it ; and is , if I may so call it , the Scurf of the Earth , that is far more light and porous than the other , though it be upon this loose Earth that Plants grow , and into which even great Timber-trees themselves shoot , and spread their Roots seldom or never reaching to , or penetrating into the Fast , though this lie sometimes near enough to the external Surface of the crusty Earth . An exact Relation of the Pico Teneriff , taken from Mr. Clappham . ABout the 20th of August , 1646 , Mr. Clappham , together with Mr. Philip Ward , John Webber , John Cowling , Thomas Bridge , and George Cove , all of them very considerable Merchants , and worthy of Credit , with one Guide , Servants and Horses to carry their Wine and Provisions , did set out from Oratava , a Port-Town in the Island of Teneriff , situated on the North , at two Miles Distance from the main Sea : They travelled from twelve at Night till eight in the Morning , by which time they got to the Top of the first Mountains towards the Pico de Teraira ; here , under a very great and conspicuous Pine-tree they brake their Fast , dined , and refreshed themselves till two in the Afternoon , and then proceeded through much sandy way , over many lofty Mountains , but naked and bare , and not covered with Pine-Trees , as their first Night's Passage were , which exposed them to excessive Heat , till they arrived to the Foot of the Pico , where they found many huge Stones which seemed to have been fallen down from some superiour Part. But before we proceed further , to give any Account of this Journey , give me leave here to intersert the Opinion of Dr. Pugh , a Person of very great Reputation , at this time in the City , who lived twenty Years himself on the Place , both in the Quality of a Physician , and a Merchant , and was very curious and inquisitive into all that was in the Island : His Opinion is , that the whole Island of Teneriff , being a Ground mightily impregnated with Brimstone , did in former times take Fire , and blow up all , or near upon all at the same-time ; and the many Mountains of huge Stones calcined and burnt , which appear every where about the Island , especially in the South-West Parts of it , were raised and heaved up out of the Bowels of the Earth , at the time of the general Conflagration ; and the greatest Quantity of this Sulphur lying about the Center of the Island , raised up the Pico to that Height , at which it is now seen . And he says , that any one upon the Place , that shall carefully note the Situation and Manner of these calcined Rocks , how they lie for three or four Miles almost round the bottom of the Pico , and in such Order one above another , almost to the very Sugar-Loaf ( as 't is called ) as if the whole Ground , and rising up together with the Accension of the Brimstone , the Torrents and Rivers of it did with a suddain Eruption roul and tumble them down from the rest of the Rocks , especially ( as was said before ) to the South-West ; for on that side , from the very Top of the Pico , almost to the Sea-shore , lie huge Heaps of these burnt Rocks , one under another : and there remain to this time the very Tracts of the Rivers of Brimstone , as they ran over all this Quarter of the Island , which has so wasted the Ground beyond recovering , that nothing can be made to grow there , but Broom . But on the North Side of the Pico , few or none of these Stones appear ; and he concluded hence , that the Vulcano discharged it self chiefly to South-West . He adds further , that Mines of several Metals were broken and blown up at the same time : These calcined Rocks resembling some of them Iron Oar , some Silver , and others like Copper , particularly at a certain Place in these South-West Parts , called the Azuleios , being very high Mountains , where never any English but himself ( that he ever heard of ) was . There are vast Quantities of a loose blewish Earth , intermix'd with blew Stones , which have on them a yellow Rust , as that of Copper and Vitriol ; and likewise many little Springs of vitriolate Waters ; here he supposes was a Copper-Mine . And he was told by a Bell-founder of Oratava , that out of two Horse-Loads of Earth , he got as much Gold as made two large Rings : And a Portuguese told him , who had been in the West-Indies , that his Opinion was , there were as good Mines of Gold and Silver there , as the best in the Indies . There are likewise hereabouts nitrous Waters and Stones cover'd with a deep Saffron colour'd Rust , and tasting of Iron . And further , he mentions one Mr. Gilbert Lambell , a Friend of his , who of two Lumps of Earth or Oar , brought from the Top of this Side the Mountain , made two Silver Spoons . All this he confirms from the late Instance of the Palm-Island eighteen Leagues from Teneriff , where a Vulcano was fired about twelve Years since , the Violence whereof made an Earthquake in this Island , so great , that he and others ran out of their Houses , fearing they would have fallen upon their Heads : They heard the Noise of the Torrents of flaming Brimstone , like Thunder , and saw the Fire as plain by Night , for about six Weeks together , as a Candle in the Room ; and so much of the Sand and Ashes brought from thence , by the Wind , by Clouds , fell on his Hat , as filled a Sand-box for his Ink-horn . Thus far he . To resume therefore the Narrative of their Journey ; about six a Clock this Evening , they began to ascend up the Pico ; but being now a Mile advanced , and the way no more passable for their Horses , they quitted and left them with their Servants . In this Mile's Ascent some of their Company grew very faint and sick : and from Dr. Pugh's Report of eighteen in his Company , that went up about the middle of August , long after this , but ten got up , and these had all drank very plentifully below ; the rest so disorder'd by Fluxes , Vomitings , and aguish Distempers , they could go no farther : Their Horses Hair stood upright , like Bristles , with the vehement Cold , who stood shaking , and refused to eat any thing till they came down . But calling for some of their Wine , which was carried in small Barrels-on a Horse , they found it so wonderfully cold , that they could not drink it , till they had kindled a Fire to warm it , although yet the Temper of the Air was very calm and moderate ; but when the Sun was set , it began to blow with Violence , and grew so cold , that taking up their Lodging under certain great Stones in the Rocks , they were constrained to keep great Fires before the Mouth of them all Night . About four in the Morning they began to mount again , and being come about a Mile up , Mr. Cowling , one of the Company , failed , and was able to proceed no further . Here begin the black Rocks . The rest pursued their Journey till they arrived to Sugar-Loaf , where they begin to travel again in a white Sand , being fore-shod with Shoes , whose single Soles are made a Finger broader than the upper Leather , to incounter this difficult and unstable Passage , till they are half way up ; and a Spaniel that went up afterwards with Dr. Pugh , ( as he relates ) went crying all the way , having his Skin burnt off his Feet ; and then being ascended as far as the black Rocks , which are all flat , and lie like a Pavement , they climbed within a Mile of the very Top of the Pico : but Mr. Clappham , who was the formost , would have perswaded Mr. Cove to descend again , as imagining the Top of all on Fire : but at last overcoming that Apprehension , and persisting , they gained the Summite , where they found no such Smoak as appeared a little below , but a continual Breathing of a hot and sulphurous Vapour , which made their Faces extreamly sore . In this Passage they found no considerable Alteration of Air , and very little Wind ; but being at the Top , it was so impetuous , that they had much ado to stand against it , whilst they drank the King's Health , and fired each of them a Piece : Here they also brake-fast , but found their Strong-Waters had quite lost its Force , and was become almost insipid , whilst their Wine was rather more spirituous and brisk than it was before . The Top on which they stood being not above a Yard broad , is the Brink of a Pit called the Caldera , which they judged to be about a Musket-shot over , and near fourscore Yards deep , in shape like a Cone , within hollow like a Caldron , and all over cover'd with small loose Stones , mixed with Sulphur and Sand , from Heat ; and stirr'd up with any thing , puffs and makes a Noise , and so offensive , that Dr. Pugh was almost stifled with the sudden Emanation of Vapours , upon the removing of one Stone of these ; these Stones are so hot , as they are not to be easily handled : They descended not above four or five Yards into the Caldera , in regard of its sliding from their Feet , and the Difficulty ; but some have adventured to the Bottom . Other observable Materials they discovered none , besides a clearer sort of Sulphur , which looks like Salt upon the Stones . From this famous Pico they could ken the Grand Canaries , fourteen Leagues distant ; Palma 18 , and Gomera 7 Leagues ; which Interval of Sea seemed to them no larger than the River of Thames about London : they discerned also the Hierro , being distant above twenty Leagues ; and so to the utmost Limits of the Sea much farther . So soon as the Sun appeared , the Shadow of the Pico seemed to cover not only the whole Island , and the Grand Canaries , but the Sea to the very Horizon , where the Top of the Sugar-Loaf , or Pico , visibly appeared to turn up , and cast its Shadow into the Air it self , at which they were much suprized . But the Sun was not far ascended when the Clouds began to rise so fast , as intercepted their Prospect , both of the Sea , and the whole Island , excepting only the Tops of the subjacent Mountains , which seemed to pierce them through . Whether these Clouds do ever surmount the Pico , they could not say ; but to such as are far beneath , they sometimes seem to hang above it , or rather wrap themselves about it , as constantly when the North-West Winds blow : This they call the Capp , and is a certain Prognostick of ensuing Storms . Mr. John Webber , one of this Company , who had made a Journey two Years after , arriving at the Top of the Pico before Day , and creeping under a great Stone to shroud himself from the cold Air , ( after a little space ) found himself all wet , and admiring whence it should proceed , perceived it at last to come from a perpetual Trickling of the Water from the imminent Rocks above him . Many excellent and very exuberant Springs they found issuing from the Tops of most of the other Mountains , gushing out in great Spouts , almost as far as the huge Pine-tree which was mentioned . Having stayed some time upon this Top , they all descended by the sandy way , till they came to the Foot of the Sugar-Loaf , which being steep , even to almost a Perpendicular , they soon passed : and here they meet a Cave of about ten Yards deep , and fifteen broad , being in Shape like an Oven or Cupola , having a Hole at the Top , which is near eight Yards over ; by this they descended ( an active Spaniard shewing them the way ) by a Rope , which their Servants held at the Top , whilst the other End being fastened about his middle , he swings himself , till being over a Bank of Snow , he slides down and lights upon it . They are forced to swing thus in the Descent , because in the middle of the bottom of this Cave , opposite to the Overture at the Top , is a round Pit of Water , resembling a Well , the Surface whereof is about a Yard lower than the Snow , but as wide as the Mouth at the Top , and is about six Fathom deep , as Mr. Lambell reports , who plumbed it . They suppos this Water not a Spring , but dissolved Snow , or Water blown in ; for some Years it lies so full , one cannot get into the Cave for Water trickling through the Rocks . About the Sides of the Grotte , for some Height is Ice , and Icecles hanging down to the Snow : but being quickly weary of this excessive cold Place , and drawn up again , they continued their Descent from the Mountains by the same Passages they went up the Day before ; and so about five in the Evening arrived to Oratava , from whence they set forth : their Faces so red and sore , that to reduce them and cool them , they were forced to wash and bathe them in Whites of Eggs , &c. The whole Altitude of the Pico in Perpendicular , is vulgarly esteemed to be two Miles and a half . No Trees , Herbs or Shrubs in all the Passage , but Pines ; and amongst the white Sands a kind of Broom , being a bushy Plant ; and at the Side where they lay all Night , a kind of Cardon , which has Stems of eight Foot high , the Trunk near half a Foot thick , every Stem growing in four squares , and emerging from the Ground like Tuffets of Rushes ; upon the Edges of these Stems grow very small red Buttons or Berries , which being squeezed , produce a poisonous Milk , which lighting upon any part of a Horse , or other Beast , fetches off the Hair from the Skin immediately : Of the dead Part of this they made their Fires all Night . This Plant is also universal over the Island , and is happly , and as I conjecture , a kind of Euphorbium . In some part of this Island also there grows a crooked Shrub , which they call Legnan-vell , which they bring for England as a sweet Wood. There are likewise Apricoks , Peaches , and in Standards , which bear twice a Year : Pear Trees also which are as pregnant ; Almonds of a tender Shell , Palms , Plantanes , Oranges and Lemons , especially the Pregnadas , which have small ones in their Bellies , from whence they are so denominated . Also they have Sugar-Canes , and a little Cotton and Colloquintida ; the Roses blow at Christmas ; there are good Carnations , and very large , but Tulips will not grow or thrive there : Sampier clothes the Rock in abundance , and a kind of Clover the Ground . Another Grass growing near the Sea , which is of a broader Leaf , so luscious , as it will kill a Horse that eats of it , but no other Cattel . There is also an Herb which they make Thread of . Eighty Ears of Wheat have been found to spring from one Root , but it grows not very high ; the Corn of this is transparent and bright , like unto the purest yellow Amber ; and one Bushel has produced 130 in a seasonable Year . The Canary-Birds ( which they bring to us in England ) breed in the Barrancos of Gills , which the Water has fretted away in the Mountains , being Places very cold . There are also Quails , Partridges larger than ours , and exceeding beautiful ; great Wood-Pigeons , Turtles at Spring , Crows ; and sometimes from the Coasts of Barbary appears the Faulcon . Bees are carried into the Mountains , where they prosper wonderfully . They have wild Goats on the Mountains , which climb to the very Top of the Pico sometimes . Also Hogs , and Multitudes of Conies : Camels are brought from Lancerote , besides other Cattel . Fish . The Cherna , a very large and excellent Fish , better tasted than any we have in England . The Mero , Dolphin , Shark , Lobsters without the great Claws , Mussels , Periwinkles , and the Clacas , which is absolutely the very best Shell-fish in the World ; they grow on the Rocks , five or six under one great Shell , through the Top whereof they peep with their Nebbs , from whence ( the Shells being broken a little more open with a Stone ) they draw them forth . There is likewise another Fish like an Eel , which has six or seven Tails of a Span in length , united to one Head and Body , which is also as short . Besides these they have Turtles and Cabridos , which are preferable before our Trouts . The Island is full of Springs of pure Water , tasting like Milk ; and in La Laguna ( where the Water is not altogether so limpid and olear ) they percolate it through a kind of spungy Stone cut in form of a Bason . The Vines which afford those excellent Wines , grow all about the Island , within a Mile of the Sea ; such as are planted farther up , are nothing esteemed , neither will they thrive in any other Islands . For the Guanchios , or the ancient Inhabitants , Dr. Pugh gives this full Account . September the 3d. about twelve Years since , he took his Journey from Guimar , a Town inhabited for the most part by such as derive themselves from the old Guanchios , in the Company of some of them , to view their Caves , and the Bodies buried in them . This was a Favour they seldom permit to any , ( having in great Veneration the Bodies of their Ancestors , and likewise being most extreamly against any Molestation of the Dead ) but he had done many several Eleemosinary Cures amongst them , ( for they are generally very poor , yet the poorest thinks himself too good to marry with the best Spaniard ) which endeared him to them exceedingly ; otherwise it is Death for any Stranger to visit those Caves or Bodies . These Bodies are sewed up in Goat-skins , with Thongs of the same , with very great Curiosity , particularly in the incomparable Exactness and Evenness of the Seams ; and the Skins are made very close and fit to the Bodies : most of these Bodies are entire , the Eyes closed , Hair on the Head , Ears , Nose , Teeth , Lips , Beard , all perfect , only discoloured , and a little shrivled : likewise the Pudenda of both Sexes . He saw about three or four hundred in several Caves , some of them are standing , others lie on Beds of Wood , so hardned by an Art they had , ( which the Spaniards call Curar , to cure a Piece of Wood ) which no Iron can pierce or hurt . He said , that one Day being a Hunting , a Ferret ( which is in use there ) having a Bell about his Neck , ran after a Coney into a Hole , where they lost the Sound of the Bell ; the Owner being afraid he should lose his Ferret , seeking about the Rock and Shrubs , found the Mouth of a Cave , and entring in , was so affrighted , that he cried out : it was at the Sight of one of these Bodies , very tall and large , lying with his Head upon a great Stone , his Feet supported by a little Wall of Stone , the Body resting on a Bed of Wood , as before was mentioned . The Fellow being now a little out of his Fright , enter'd in , and cut off a great Piece of the Skin that lay on the Breast of this Body , which the Doctor says was more flexible and pliable than ever he felt any Kids Leather Glove , and yet so far from being rotten , that the Man made Use of it for his Flail many Years after . These Bodies are very light , as if made up of Straw : and in some broken Limbs he observed the Nerves and Tendons , and also some Strings of the Veins and Arteries very distinctly . His great Care was to enquire of these People , what they had amongst them of Tradition , concerning the embalming and Preservation of these Bodies ? From some of the oldest of them ( above a hundred and ten Years of Age ) he received this Account : That they had of old one particular Tribe of Men that had this Art amongst themselves only , and kept it as a thing sacred , and not to be communicated to the Vulgar ; these mix'd not with the rest of the Inhabitants , nor married out of their own Tribe ; and were also their Priests and Ministers of Religion : that upon the Conquest of the Spaniard , they were most of them destroyed , and the Art lost with them , only they held some Traditions yet of a few Ingredients that were made use of in this Business . They took Butter of Goats Milk , ( some said Hogs Grease was mingled with it ) which they kept in the Skins for this Purpose ; in this they boiled certain Herbs ; 1st . A sort of wild Lavender , which grows there in great Quantities on the Rocks . 2dly . An Herb called Jara , of a very gummy and glutinous Consistence , which now grows under the Tops of the Mountains only . 3dly . A kind of a Cyclamen or Sow-Bread . 4thly . Wild Sage growing plentifully in this Island . These , with Stones bruised and boiled in the Butter , render'd it a perfect Balsam . This prepared , they first unbowelled the Corps ; and in the poorer sort , to save Charges , they took out the Brain behind : and these Poor also were sewed up in Skins with the Hair on , whereas the Richer were ( as was said before ) put up in Skins so sinely and exactly dressed , as they remain most rarely pliant and gentle to this Day . After the Body was thus order'd , they had in a Readiness a Lixivium , made of the Bark of Pine-Trees , with which they washed the Body , drying in the Sun in Summer , and in Stoves in Winter ; this repeating very often . Afterwards they began their Unction with the Balsam , both without and within , drying it again , as before : This they continue till the Balsam had penetrated it self in the whole Habit , and the Muscles in all Parts appeared through the contracted Skin , and the Body became exceeding light ; then they sewed them up in the Goat-skins , as already mentioned . He was told by these ancient People , that they have above twenty Caves of their Kings and Great Persons , with their whole Families , yet unknown to any but themselves , and which they will never discover . Lastly , he says , that Bodies are found in the Caves of the Grand Canaries , in Sacks , and quite consumed , not as those in Teneriff . Thus far of the Bodies and Embalming . Anciently when they had no knowledg of Iron , they made their Lances of Wood , harden'd as before , some of which the Doctor has seen : he has also seen Earthen Pots so hard , that they cannot be broken , of these some are found in the Caves , and old Barrancos , and used by poorer sort of People that find them , to boil Meat in ; likewise they did Curar Stone it self , that is to say , a kind of Slate now called Tabona , which they first formed to an Edg or Point , as they had occasion to use them , either as Knives , or Lancets to let Blood. Their Food was Barly rosted , and then ground with little Mills , which they made of Stones , and mix'd with Milk and Honey ; this they still fed on , and carried it on their Backs in Goat Skins . To this Day they drink no Wine , nor care for Flesh ; they are generally very lean , tall , active , and full of Courage . He himself has seen them leap from Rock to Rock , from a very prodigious Height , till they came to the bottom , sometimes making ten Fathom deep at one Leap. The manner is thus . First , they tertiate their Lance , ( which is about the Bigness of a half-Pike ) that is , they poise it in their Hand , then they aim the Point of it at any Piece of a Rock , upon which they intend to light , sometimes not half a Foot broad ; at their going off they clap their Feet close to the Lance , and so carry their Bodies in the Air ; the Point of the Lance first comes to the Place , which breaks the Force of their Fall ; then they slide gently down by the Staff , and pitch their Feet upon the very Place they first designed , and from Rock to Rock , till they come to the bottom . Their Novices sometimes break their Necks in Learning . He added several Stories to this Effect , of their great Activity in leaping down Rocks and Clifts , and how eight and twenty of them made an Escape from the Battlement of an extraordinary high Castle in the Island , when the Governour thought he had made sure of them . He told also ( and the same was seriously confirmed by a Spaniard , and another Canary . Merchant then in the Company ) that they whistle so loud , as to be heard five Miles off ; and that to be in the same Room with them when they whistle , were enough to endanger breaking the Tympanum of the Ear : And added , that he being in the Company of one that whistled his loudest , could not hear perfectly for fifteen Days after , the Noise was so great . He affirms also , that they throw Stones with a Force almost as great as that of a Bullet , and now use Stones in all their Fights , as they did anciently . Mr. Sydenham told me this Day , that upon the 18th of August , he and his Company began their Journey toward the Pike of Teneriff , setting out from L' Oratava , a Town seated on the lower Part of the Mountain , from which Town to the Sea there are three Miles of way always descending . He began his Journey on Sunday about 10 a Clock at Night , and travell'd till five in the Afternoon of the Monday following , resting two Hours by the way ; the Ground was continually rising , and during this time they travelled about 10 Miles of their way upon Mules . Resting upon Monday till 12 a Clock at Night , they resumed their Journey , and travelled till about 9 in the Morning , at which time they arrived at the Top of the Sugar-Loaf , or highest Pile of the Mountain . They went up on the South Side of the Hill , on which Side there was no Snow , though on the North Side there were much . They stayed about two Hours on the Top of the Sugar-Loaf , and then returned to that Part of the Hill where they had lodg'd the Night before . I ask'd Mr. Sydenham what was the Estimate made by the most knowing Persons of the Island , of the Height of the Hill ? and he told me , that the Guides accounted it to be one and twenty Miles high from the Town , which , as was noted before , is seated three Miles above the Sea. And he added , that a Sea-man with great Confidence affirming himself to have accurately enough measur'd by Observations made in a Ship , and to have found the Perpendicular Height of the Hill to be about seven Miles . I asked him also from what Distance the Top of the Sugar-Loaf could be seen at Sea , according to the common Opinion of Sea-men ? He answer'd , that the Distance was wont to be reckoned threescore Sea-Leagues , of three Miles to a League ; adding , that he himself had seen it above forty Leagues off , and yet it appeared exceeding high , and like a blewish Pyramide , manifestly a great deal higher than the Clouds . And he also told me , that sometimes Men could from thence see the Island of Madera , though distant from it 70 Leagues ; and that the great Canary , though 18 Leagues off , seem'd to be very near them , as if they might leap down upon it . He told me , that the higher Part of the Region of Snow was two Miles , or two Miles and a half lower than the Foot of the Sugar-Loaf ; and that on the upper part of the Hill they felt no Wind. Mr. Sydenham told me , that being at the Top of the Sugar-Loaf , drinking the King's Health , he indeavoured to shoot off a Birding-Piece he had carried up with him , but though he snap'd it above twenty times , he could not make it go off ; whereas when he came down into the ordinary Air , the first time he tried to shoot ; it went readily off . I ask'd him whether he had taken notice that the Flint struck out any Sparks of Fire or no at the Top of the Hill , and whether he had mended and alter'd the Flint coming downwards ? To the first he answered he did not remember , to the other that he remembred he did not . He also told me , that having carried up a Borracha of Sack , when they came to the Top of the Mountain , they drank divers Healths very freely , but could not find themselves heated , or sensibly discomposed by the Wine ; whereas when they were come down into a thicker Air , they manifestly felt the heady Operation of the Liquor , which then made their Guide and one of their Company drunk . He described the Sugar-Loaf to be in the midst of a barren Plain , in the upper Part of the Mountain , and to be exceeding steep . The Top of the Sugar-Loaf is made shelving inward almost like a Dish . But in many Places of it there appear little Holes ( regularly placed ) as it were so many little Vents to a great Fire burning in or below the Bowels of the Mountain . He told me , that the Guide disswaded him from going to the middle of this shelving Top , affirming it to be exceeding dangerous : but he ventur'd to thrust the scowring Stick of his Gun somewhat deep and rudely into one of those Holes , from whence there arose a hot Steam , which had like to have killed him , and hindred him from further Trials . He added , that the Top of the Mountain seem'd to be little else than Stones and Sulphur , and that there were great Store of Pieces of Brimstone , which are guessed to be sublimed up from the internal Parts of the Hill. Being asked , whether he was sick or no in the Ascent ? he said , that both he and all his Company , which were about a dozen Men , were sick for three or four Hours , when they came into the subtile and piercing Air of the upper Part of the Mountain : but as they went down again , they were not sick . And being asked what kind of Sickness it was they felt ? he said it was like Sea-sickness . He told me , that the Sack they carried up with them to refresh themselves , seem'd to them at the Top of the Mountain so very cold , that they were not able to drink above two or three Drops at a Draught , by reason of the Operation of the excessive Cold upon their Teeth . He added upon my Inquiry , that his Feet were not more than ordinarily warm , and yet one of the two Pair of Pumps he carried up with him were burnt off his Feet by the Brimstone . When I asked him about the Difference of Seasons at the same time in the same Mountain , he told me , that he passed over one of them by Name . On the one Side of which it was excessively hot near the Top or Ridg , as well , though not quite so much , as in the lower Regions on the Side of the Mountain ; but within a Mile or two on the other Side of the Ridg he found Winter-Weather , as to Cold and Storminess , and yet there was Snow as well on the other Side as on this . To what Depth the Water will be frozen in hard Winters . To what Depth the Earth will be frozen in that Season . Whether Muscovian Ice be considerably , or at least sensibly harder than English Ice . Whether by casting up Water , or by spitting , the Liquor will freeze before it comes to touch the Ground . Whether Brandy , Sack , &c. will freeze in Russia . Whether Instruments of Iron and Steel be much more brittle there than here . Of the cracking of the Timber in wooden Houses , and the Causes of it . Of the Preservation of Flesh , Fish , Herbs , Eggs , &c. in hard Weather . Of the curing of those whose Nose , Cheeks , &c. are frozen . Of the Symptoms of those that are frozen to Death . Of the keeping of dead Bodies . TITLE XX. Of the Air in reference to Light ; its Perspicuity , Opacity , Reflections , Refractions , Colours , Light , and Lightning . A Very learned Traveller affirmed to me , that having occasion to reside sometimes on the Riviera or Coast of Genoua , he had often observed , that from a high Place he could both Morning and Evening clearly discern the Island of Corsica ; and sometimes also other Places in that Sea , though he could not see them at Noon , how fair and clear so ever the Weather was , when the Sun was in or near the Meridian . His late Majesty K. Charles the Second , doing me one Day the Honour to discourse about several Marine Observations , was pleased among other things to acquaint me with this rare Phaenomenon . He was one Day walking upon the Beach on the Strand , not far from Dover , to injoy the fresh Air , and the Prospect of the Sea , when casually looking forwards to the Verge of the visible Horizon , he was very much surprized to discover there a new Coast , with rising and falling Grounds , newly , as it were , emerged out of the Ocean , in a Place where no such thing had been seen before . The Strangeness of this unlook'd-for Apparition made Him suspect something of Illusion offer'd to his Eyes by the Beams of the Sun that shone upon the Neighbouring Objects ; wherefore he rubb'd his Eyes , and the new Scene not vanishing , he call'd to his Royal Highness the Duke of York , ( who was present when his Majesty was pleased to make me the Relation ) and to some of the attending Courtiers that were nearest at hand , to make them Partakers and Witnesses of this delightful Spectacle , which after it had been gazed on a little while , did somewhat slowly disappear , as if it had sunk down again into the Ocean . Of the Cause of this rare Phaenomenon , I ventur'd to propose to the King this Conjecture : That the Place where it was seen lying the same way that the Coast of France did , and that Coast being but a little too far off to be discern'd before , it might very well happen , that either by Action of the Sun , or rather by subterraneal Steams , the Air interposed between the Shore and his Majesties Eyes , was fill'd with Vapors and Exhalations that made it much more refractive than formerly ; and by Help of this supervening Refraction , the French Coast that lay beyond it was raised , and as it were lifted up , in reference to the Sight , and so became visible as long as that new Refraction lasted : And when the Steams that occasion'd it , were either got up too high , or were by the Winds or Sun too much dissipated or dispersed , the Apparition ceased , together with the unusual Refraction that caused it . And in favour of this Conjecture I alledg'd that familiar Experiment in which a Piece of Gold , or the like convenient Object , being put into the bottom of an empty Cup , and the Eye being so placed , that the Object is but just hid from it by the Interposition of the Side of the Cup , if Water be poured into the Vessel , though neither the Eye nor the Object be at all removed , yet the Piece of Gold will be plainly seen , because the Surface of the Water , which is a thicker Medium than the Air , breaking the Rays that tend from the Object towards the Beholder's Eye , according to the Laws of Refraction , that is from the Perpendicular they are so bended , that those fall now into the Pupil , that if it were not for the Water , would either fall upon the Side of the Cup , and so be hinder'd from passing forward ; or else would fall upon the Eye-lids or Eye-brows , or some other Part above the Pupil , and so would not make the Object visible . The Duke of York was also pleased to tell me , that he was somewhat surprized , when being near the Borders of Scotland , in a Season that did not promise much fair Weather , he saw one Morning the Sky very red , and thereupon said , that he fear'd they should have foul Weather , according to the usual Prognostick of Country-men and Mariners : but some of the Scotish Nobility that attended his Highness , told him , that in that Country such red Mornings did not bode a foul Day , but rather promise a fair one ; which Prediction of theirs was justified by the Event . Upon which occasion I enquired of a very intelligent Scotish Noble-man , how far the Observation held in his Country ? To which he answer'd , that with a due Limitation it was most commonly true ; for though when the Redness seems to be very near the Ground , and appears in somewhat narrow Streaks of an intense Red , it signifies bad Weather ; yet if the Morning Redness appears elevated in the Air or Sky , especially if the Wind be Easterly , it usually foretels a fair Day . Some Observations of Capt. James , in his Northern Voyage , Mr. J. T. and others . February . I practised some Observations by the rising and setting of the Sun , calculating the time of his rising and setting , by very true running Glasses . As for our Clock and Watch , notwithstanding we still kept them by the Fire-side in a Chest , wrap'd in Clothes , yet were they so frozen , that they could not go . My Observations by these Glasses , I compared with the Stars coming to the Meridian : By this means we found the Sun to rise twenty Minutes before it should ; and in the Evening to remain above the Horizon twenty Minutes ( or thereabouts ) longer than it should do : And all this by reason of the Refraction . Capt. James . March. This Evening the Moon rose in a very long Oval alongst the Horizon . April . The Weather continued with this Extremity until the fifteenth , at which time our Spring was harder frozen than it had been all the Year before . I had often observed the Difference betwixt clear Weather and misty refractious Weather , in this manner : From a little Hill which was near adjoining to our House , in the clearest Weather , when the Sun shone with all the Purity of Air that I could conceive , we could not see a little Island , which bare off us South-South-East some four Leagues ; but if the Weather were misty , ( as aforesaid ) then we should often see it from the lowest Place . This little Island I had seen the last Year when I was on Danby-Island . The 13th I took the Height of it instrumentally , standing near the Sea-side , which I found to be 34 Minutes , the Sun being 28 Degrees high . This shows how great a Refraction here is . Yet may this be noted by the way , that I have seen the Land elevated by reason of the refractious Air ; and nevertheless the Sun hath risen perfect round . January 6. I observed the Latitude with what Exactness I could , ( it being very clear Sun-shine Weather ) which I found to be 51 , 52. This Difference is by reason that here is a great Refraction . January 21. I observed the Sun to rise like an Oval alongst the Horizon ; I called three or four to see it , the better to confirm my Judgment , and we all are agreed , that it was twice as long as it was broad . We plainly perceived withal , that by Degrees as it got up higher , it also recovered Roundness . Attending upon Sir Peter Wych , in his Journey for Warsaw the Beginning of June , 16 69 / 70 , whilst we lay about three Polish Miles from the City , attending the Preparations for his Reception there , we had very clear and extream cold Weather ; and for two Days together we observed the Sun and two Parhelions , or three Suns , from above ten a Clock to near twelve , not the least Cloud appearing in the Air , but that so serene , that we took notice of the Icy Spangles in the Air , flying about like Atoms in the Sun's Beams . This is also worth taking notice of ; that whereas in ordinary frosty Weather any smooth Iron , or other Metal , whether Heads of Sticks , Pomels of Swords , or Barrels of Guns , being brought out of the open Air into a warm Room , there will presently , first a Dulness in the Glass , and then Drops of Water appear : At this time there would immediately appear the Likeness of an hoar Frost . Now whether the Particles of Cold be so subtile as to pierce or enter into polished Metal , I will not determine ; tho the Experience of wetting one Finger with his Spittle , and forthwith laying it to Iron when it freezes hard , by its immediate Adhesion , even in the Moment of touching it , would make some way for the Affirmative . That same Month returning back from Warsaw , I saw , upon my Journey , the Sun rise with a large Pillar , coloured like a Rain-bow ; perpendicular over it , out of a clear Horizon ; and I remember Monsieur Hevelius told me , he observed it once set with the like , N. In Cornwall they observe in their driving home Levels or Sink , the Waters do also manifestly partake of the Minerals , for in some Mines they are Sanative , where Iron is observed ; and in others apt to cause Wounds to fester and rankle . As the first was most manifest at Karne Key , the latter at Relistian , both famous Tin-Works . Asking of a Chymist that travelled with a famous Virtuoso of my Acquaintance over part of the Alpes that is said to be much subject to Thunders , divers Questions about Thunder , I had among other Answers , this , That he and my Friend being together at the Top of a forked Mountain , between whose Parts there lay a Valley , that seem'd almost cover'd with a thick Cloud ; and though the Weather were clear at both the Tops , he observed that the subjacent Cloud being big with Thunder , the Lightning appeared quite through it , and seem'd to lie deep in it , so that casting his Eyes down upon the Cloud , he fancied that what he saw , was , ( to use his own Comparison ) as if a shining Fish were moving to and fro very swiftly in a somewhat troubled Water . If I had seasonably had the Relation , I had enquired of my Friend about it ; but I was the more inclined to believe it , because I remember , that passing over a part of the Alpes , less high than that where the recited Observation was made , though it was very fair Weather , and a clear Sky at the Top of the Mountain where we were , yet a great way beneath us we saw dark Clouds , through part of which we afterwards in our Descent were obliged to pass , though then ( whether part of the Matter had been in the mean while discussed , I examine not ) it seemed to us little different from a thick Fog , which when we had passed thorow , we found the Weather fair and clear enough to the Foot of the Mountain . Meeting with an inquisitive Noble-man that liv'd long at Naples , I asked him whether he had ever seen any of those famous Apparitions that are said sometimes to shew themselves in or near the Sicilian Strait , and is known by the Name ( if I mistake not ) of Morgane ? To this he answered me , that during the Spring-time , he had once the Curiosity to try whether this Tradition had so much Ground as was commonly believed ; and that accordingly on several fair Mornings he rose before the Sun , and look'd solicitously along the Coast , without seeing any thing that answered his Expectation : But not being discouraged by these Disappointments , he one Morning perceived , as he thought , two Steeples in a Neighbouring Town where he knew there was but one ; which Phaenomenon inviting him to continue his Curiosity , he chose the first fair and cloudless Morning to rise early on ; and casting his Eyes towards the lately mentioned Town , and the Coast it was not remote from , he was surprized with a delightful Prospect of a new Town beyond the other , and incomparably greater than it , and furnish'd , as it seem'd to him and a Doctor of Physick that accompanied him , with Walls and Towers , and Steeples and Houses , and other things that were delightful , as well as wonderful to behold . But he answer'd me , that the Colours were not near so lively as the Figures , being for the most part somewhat dim , though adorned here and there with some Redness : but this odd Spectacle , as it was not invariable during the whole time it lasted , did not continue very long ; for when the Sun was gotten up to such a Height above the Horizon as made his Beams powerful , they quickly confounded all these Airy Structures in a kind of Chaos , and made the fantastick City vanish . Moist Vapours are not the only Cause or Sign of the Opacity of the Air , since that dry blighting East Wind , which from the Effects Country People call a red Wind , makes the Air at a Distance seem blewish and thick . This is the Wind which these two Years last past , has been so pernicious to Apples , and indeed to all sorts of Trees , not only to blast the Fruit , but the very Leaves of such Trees as it met withal , just in the Tender ( as the Woodmen call it ) i. e. when they are newly expanded out of the Buds . Mr. J. T. That Air is sometimes more clear and transparent , and sometimes more dark , and , as it were , muddy , being clogg'd and opacated with terrestrial Steams , is every Man's Observation . But there are some Phaenomena that depend upon the Density , Diaphancity , &c. of the Air , that are not so vulgarly taken notice of : For besides those that require Skill in the Doctrine of Refractions , on which therefore I shall not now insist ; there are some others that may be worth your notice , which I shall give a Taste of . Considering the differing Accounts that are given by good Authors , of the number of the Fixed Stars , and comparing them with some Observations of our own , I was thereby , and upon some other Grounds , induced to suspect that the differing and unheeded Constitutions of the Air might occasion a Difference in assigning the Number of the Stars : which made me inquire of several Navigators and Travellers , some into the torrid Zone , and others into the frigid ones , what Difference they found in contemplating the Stars in those Climates , and in ours ; and by this Inquiry , I learned that in some Places where the Air is very pure , Celestial Observations may be more happily made . And particularly because I supposed that intense Cold , by precipitating the darkning Vapours out of the Air , may probably make it more defecate and clear . I desired an ingenious Physician that travelled in Muscovy , to take notice of any thing that should favour or disfavour this Conjecture . In Compliance with which Request of mine he informed me , that travelling one Night in a Sled in the more mediterranean Parts of Russia , the Weather being extraordinary cold , he was invited to quit his Sled a little to consider the Sky , where he saw so many Stars , and so much brighter than he had ever seen before , that he was almost as much surprized as delighted with so glorious a Spectacle , which he shewed to some of his Fellow-Travellers that shared in his Wonder . And this brought into my Mind , that remembring that the ingenious Capt. James being forc'd to winter in Charlton-Island , which though but of the Latitude almost of Cambridg , is but little , if at all , less cold than Nova Zembla it self , I should probably find something pertinent to our present Subject in so diligent an Observer . I resorted to his Voyage , where I met with these notable Observations . January 30 and 31 , there appeared in the Beginning of the Night more Stars in the Firmament than ever I had seen before , by two thirds . I could see the Cloud in Cancer full of small Stars : and amongst the Pleiades a great many small Stars . About ten a Clock the Moon did rise , and then a quarter of them was not to be seen . The Wind for the most part of this Month hath been Northe●ly , and very cold , &c. Capt. James , p. 62. The Russian Emperor's Physician confirmed to me by word of Mouth , what he had some Years since told me in a Letter , that one Night which was exceeding cold and clear , being awakened out of his Sleep by a Shake that had like to have overturn'd his Sled , he look'd out and saw more Stars by far than ever he saw in England , or the Neighbouring Parts of Europe , and particularly that he saw many about the 7 Stars , or the Pleiades , and divers others he had not seen before in several other Parts of the Sky . He farther told me , that these Stars seemed far more beautiful and bright than was usual , insomuch that he doubts not , that if it had not been for the Snow , some of them would have cast a discernable Shadow . For Confirmation , he saith , that the Phaenomena were not only taken notice of by him , but by others that travelled with him ; and that though he often gazed at the Sky , since that time he never could see there near so many Stars , nor so bright . December 4. I had not time the last Week to tell you of something , that to us that have not been long in this Country seems strange , but the People of this Place say happens very often . On the 29th of the last Month , after I had written and sent away my Letters , looking out of the Dutchesses Window to see what Weather it was , I saw towards the N E. alongst the Horizon , it look'd as light , and just as if it had been Break-of-Day , ( it was then about a quarter past eleven ) and gave as great a Light ; I went then into the Drawing-Room , and looking out of that Window , could look more Northerly , and saw it was more light due N. and saw several Streaks of Light , like the Tail of the Blazing Star , all pointing N. and S. one of which was as long or longer than that we saw last Year , for it reached from the Horizon , and pass'd betwen Charles's Wain and the N. Star , and reached up just over our Heads . The small ones sometimes disappeared : and then we saw others of the same Dimensions appear in other Places , they were all near the great one ; two of them seem'd as if their Light had come from the two Guards in Charles's Wain ; and when they vanished , others appeared more South . I went to the other Side of the House , and saw that the Light reached from the W. or W N W. by the N. to the E. or E N E. I did not go out , because it blew very hard , and was very wet , contenting my self to see it out of the House , but sent Geo. Man up the Hill , who saw the same , and it was so clear they could see the Frith . About the New Moon before , there was such a Light as this seen by Lord Belcarus , as he came in the Night from St. Andrews to his House , and by the Seamen of the Yacht at Leith , and by some here in Town : But though the Sky was not then so clear , there being broken Clouds , yet it gave such Light , as they could read very plainly , as they told me ; that began about 7 , and lasted till 9. This last I did not see till after 11 , and at a quarter of 12 it began to lessen , at which time I went to Bed , and the Tails were then no more to be seen . Tell Dr. Flamsted of this , and know of him , whether he has seen or heard of such kind of things . This was from his Royal Highness the Duke of York , then High Commissioner in Scotland . An intelligent Gentleman that liv'd in Africk , being asked by me , how far off he was able to see the Top of the Pico of Teneriff at Sea ? replied , that by the Estimate of the Captain of the Ship , it was near 50 Leagues , and yet it appear'd to him so high above some Clouds , and so near , that he was fain to cast his Head up to see it . TITLE XXI . Of the Operation of the Air on the Consistency of Animal Substances . AS on the one side the Schools teach the Air to be a simple and elementary Body , that is , only hot and moist ; so on the other Side , the Generality of Men are so accustomed to judg of things by their Senses , that not finding the Air to be a visible Body , they ascribe less to it than even the School-men do ; and what is invisible , they think to be next Degree to nothing . And indeed both the one sort of Men and the other , are wont to consider the Air only as a Receptacle , that barely harbours the visible and palpable Bodies committed to it , or as it were deposited in it , without acting upon them , unless it be perhaps a little upon the Account of its manifest Qualities , Heat and Moisture . But for my part , who look upon the Air under another Notion , and think it may as well alter as receive the Bodies that lie exposed to it ; I am apt to allow it in reference to some Bodies , certain other Faculties and Powers , among which some may be called Generative and Maturative , and others Corruptive ; and this not only in respect of Animals and other Bodies of a slighter Texture , but even of Salts and Minerals themselves . An observing Man that had sailed to and fro between Europe and the East-Indies , answered me , among other things , about their way of transporting Cheese ; That the Cheese they used to take along were Cheshire , of a very considerable Thickness , which they inclosed in leaden Boxes fit for them , and thereby were able to preserve them sound till they came to the East-Indies . But in case they were not able , or neglected to make use of such Boxes , he several times observed , that cutting a Cheese in two , when they were any thing near the Equinoctial , that most part of it would be very dry and brittle , and seem'd as if it were spoil'd : Whereas the Parts about the middle were so fat and soft , as if all the unctuous Parts that were wanting in the dried Portion of the Cheese had retired thither , and was between Cream and Cheese . Which Conjecture was not contradicted by this , that if they cut some of them Cheeses , when having left the Torrid Zone behind them , and had made a good Progress in the Temperate Zone , they found the external Portion good , and the Consistence of the Cheese uniform enough . Quere , Whether the moist Particles that flie in the Air , be not the great Cause of all Corruption of Bodies , since Acosta says , that in Peru , where it seldom rains , all things , like dead Bodies , keep a great while uncorrupted ? The like may be observed of Egypt , if it be not to be rather imputed to the Nitrous Salt with which the Air of that Country so much abounds . Mr. J. T. A Man of Letters , that divers times crossed the Line in great Portugal Ships , answered me , That when they came near it and under it , he observed among other things , that there was a very manifest Change made in the Consistence of their Bisket ; that most of their Meat , and even their Salt Fish was much impaired , so that they were scarce able to eat it ; and that their Pilot , who had been 23 times in the Indies , assured them , he observed when they came to the Equinoctial , that fresh Water would not there be at all troubled or stinking , but clear and sweet , as if it were but newly put into the Cask . Doctor Stubbs being inquired of by me concerning , &c. told me , that in Jamaica the silken Stuffs that were brought thither , will rot even whilst they keep their Colour , if they be shown to the Air ; though if they be not show'd thereto , but kept up close , they were not observed to rot , or be discoloured . TITLE XXII . Of the Operation of the Air on the Consistency of Vegetable Substances . MAY 16. We opened a small Glass-Receiver ground to a Plate of Glass , in which there had been included for three Years and some Months , ( though I know not how many ) the half of a Lemon cut transversly , together with a Mercurial Gage : The Lemon kept its Colour pretty well , and its Shape very well , save that at the Orifice the upper Part of the Pulp was depressed , seeming as it were dried up by the Recess of the Liquor contain'd in it ; which Liquor did now stagnate upon the Glass Plate . When this began to be disjoined from the upper Glass , there rush'd in , not without Noise , a pretty deal of external Air , which argued that the Air afforded by the included Lemon in so long a time , had not been near sufficient to fill the Cavity of the Receiver . Neither the half Lemon nor the Liquor had any ill Scent , or other sign of Putrefaction or Corruption ; neither of them had the least Mould , which gave me a Suspicion , as far as it could be grounded upon this Experiment , that such a Mould as might have been expected , being ( as may be guessed by the Microscope ) a Congeries of a very small kind of Vegetables , could not any more than many greater ones , be produced without the Concurrence of the Air. The Liquor was clear enough , and without Faeces , being in Colour between brown and reddish . It contained an acid Taste ; and when I put a little of it upon Sirrup of Violets , it turned it to a Purplish Colour ; and which is more , being put upon small Fragments ( not Pouder ) of red Coral , presently began manifestly to corrode them , and that in the Cold. To the Heat and piercing Moisture of the Air combin'd together , may be referr'd the Observation of an intelligent Scholar , from whom , when I ask'd him what he had taken notice of about these Qualities , when he sail'd under or near the Line , ( which he did several times ) he told me , that divers Pastils or Lozanges that he was wont to carry in his Pockets , were so dissolved , that they spoil'd his Pockets , and obliged him to cut them out , though the Pastils of the same kind did never lose their old Consistence till he came near the Equator , nor keep their new Consistence after he had passed some Degrees beyond it , but grew solid again as before . TITLE XXIII . Of the Operation of the Air on the Consistency of Mineral Substances . INquiring of an ingenious Swedish Gentleman that was a great Dealer in the Metals his Country abounds with , whether the great Cold of sharp Winters in those Northern Climates had not a sensible Operation upon Iron : I learned from him , that in the chief Copper Mine ( which he had curiously visited ) being to draw up the Oar from an exceeding great Depth , they fastned their Baskets , not as they use in other Mines , to Iron Chains , but to Ropes made of Ox or Bull-Hides ; and that chiefly for this Reason , That during the hard Winter-Frosts that are there usual , the Links of their Iron Chains were very subject to be broken by the great Cold joined to the Weight of the Oar , to the great Danger , and oftentimes the Destruction of the poor Workmen that were digging beneath : which Inconvenience was avoided by imploying Leather , which the Cold could not make brittle , instead of Iron . Asking an ingenious Master of a Glass-House , whether he had not observed that Glasses , though as well neal'd as is ordinary , would sometimes of themselves break with a Noise long after ; he answered me affirmatively : adding , That particularly having one time had an occasion to lay by for about half a Year or longer , a numerous Parcel of Glasses , when he came to take them out , he found that about a fourth Part of the whole Batch was frozen of themselves ; and that in most or all of them , the Cracks proceeded from some seeming Stone or great Grain of Sand , which yet indeed was not Sand , but some part of Salt that had not obtained a sufficient Comminution . A learned Gentleman that is Owner of an Iron Mine , informs me , that he has a House in Suffolk within 6 Miles of the Sea ; and though the House be but 80 Years old , yet the Iron Bars of the Window that look towards the Sea , are swelled , and ( as he calls it ) rotten , being brittle , and easy to be crumbled into Pouder . And when I asked him whether the Wind that came from the Sea to these Windows were not Southern , he answered affirmatively . And to confirm what I was saying of the Operation of Sea-Salt upon Iron , he told me , that having had occasion to cause many Bars of Iron to be laid in a Place upon the Neighbouring Shore , above the high-Water-mark , a great Storm chanced to increase the Tide so far as to drench those Bars for some Hours after ; which remaining in the Air , they were very much impaired , great thick Flakes being easy to be struck off from them when they came to be hammer'd . A very experienc'd Mason informed me , that the Cathedral of Salisbury is made of Purbeck-Stone , which in the Air grows softer and softer , and will moulder away ; and so will some Blechington-Stone , though not exposed to wet ; whereas the Stones dug up at Painswick , within four Miles of Glocester , being very soft and friable at first , will by lying in the Air ( as he has particularly observed ) acquire a Crust-hard and Glassy like Marble ; and the oftner 'tis washed , the sooner will it acquire this hard and yellowish Crust , which reaches but a very little way ( scarce the Thickness of half a Crown ) beneath the Surface contiguous to the Air. TITLE XXIV . Of the Air in reference to Fire and Flame . A Gentleman of my Acquaintance being ask'd by me about the burning of Candles in Grooves ( or Sutts ) that are not furnish'd with Air-shafts , he told me , that the Depths I desired to be informed of were very uncertain , and varied considerably , according to the different Nature of the Soil , and perhaps other Circumstances , so that sometimes a Candle would go out much sooner , and sometimes it would continue burning , though it were let down to the Depth of eight , ten or more Fathom . That when they come into close Ground , though their Candle will burn at first , yet after a while working , ( more especially if the Stone be full of Mundick ) the Dust raised by their Working will make their Candles go out , so that they must leave working for a time , except they will be at the Charge of conveying down Air by Pipes . I mention this as different from other sorts of Damps . N. Experiments touching the Relation between Flame , Air. THE burning of Candles , &c. under a Glass Bell. The burning of Spirit of Wine under a Glass Bell. The burning of Match , Touch-wood , Sponck , &c. under a Bell. The keeping of Animals under the same Instrument whilst the Flame is burning . The burning of Bodies to Ashes in seal'd Glasses . The doing the like in exactly closed Receivers . The burning of Cotton in a seal'd Glass . The burning of the Mixture of Flames under Water in an E. R. The burning of Spirit of Wine and Oil of Turpentine in Glass Vessels with slender Necks . The Experiment of burning Gun-Powder . Another of the Pistols not firing in an E. R. The burning of a saline Substance in an E. R. The burning of Mixtures of Salt-peter in an E. R. TITLE XXV . Of the Air in reference to Fermentation . WE took a small handful of Raisons , and having put them into a Bolt-head , ( not large , but half filled with Water ) we drew out the Air , and then we removed the Portable and exactly closed Receiver , and put it on the Digestive Furnace , that the Warmth of that Place might promote the Fermentation in spight of the Unfavourableness of the Season of the Year . After a while there appeared Signs of Fermentation by the emerging of the Raisons , which swan for some Days on the Top of the Water , most of them beset with numerous Bubbles ; nor did above very few of them subside at last , though after some Days the Bubbles grew fewer and fewer , and there appeared a Sediment at the Bottom of the Glass . A Fortnight after they were first sealed up , the upper part of the Glass was accidentally broken whilst I stood by ; whereupon the external Air rushed in with some Noise : and I taking the Vessel in my Hand , perceived the Surface of the Liquor to be overspead with Bubbles , almost like the Forth of Bottle-Drink : there seem'd to me to come out at the little Orifice made where the Apex was broken off , a visible Fume , which had a somewhat languid Smell . The Liquor was high colour'd of the Raisons , and seem'd to have extracted something from them that gave it a better Consistence than that of Water . TITLE XXVI . Of the Air as the Receptacle of Odours .   TITLE XXVII . Of the Operation of the Air on the Odours of Animal Substances . MAY 23. We opened an exhausted Receiver , wherein was pretty Store of Verjuice , or green and sour Grapes . And though they had lain there we are sure about three Years , and possibly much longer , yet there appear'd no Mouldiness at all upon any of them : But the Surfaces of the uppermost Grains were somewhat discoloured , perhaps by a saline and confusedly formed Efflorescence , which having look'd upon through a Glass , and also tasted , I guessed to be a kind of Tartar. The like Liquor that the Grains had afforded had an acid Taste , and would in the Cold corrode Coral , but the Grains smell'd somewhat musty . In all this time the Verjuice had produced so little Air , that we could scarce take notice of it by the Mercurial Gage that had been shut up with it . I inquired of my Lord of Sandwich , and a couple of Gentlemen that accompanied him , whether it be true which is reported of the Purity of the Air at Madrid , that though they have no Houses of Office , but every Night throw out their Excrements into the Streets ; yet by the Morning there remains no more Smell of them . To which I was answered , That 't was true the Excrements were so disposed of , but that Madrid is the stinkingst Town they ever came into ; yet that 't was difficult to discern in the Morning any peculiar Smell of what had been cast into the Street by Night ; but they jointly affirmed , that the Place where the Ambassador's numerous Family resorted to make Water in , did not smell of Piss ; and that they often observed the Dogs and Cats that lay dead in the Streets were deprived of Stench : and his Lordship supposed that the Stench of a dead Mule would in few Hours vanish . TITLE XXVIII . Of the Operation of the Air on the Odours of Vegetable Substances . MAY 16. At the same time we opened another small Receiver , wherein above three Years before some large Pieces of Orange had been included : The Rinds of these were much discolour'd , their Surfaces being almost black . They had scarce afforded any Liquor , and yet we could not perceive the least Mould in any of them , nor had they a putrid Smell . TITLE XXIX . Of the Operation of the Air on the Odours of Mineral Substances .   TITLE XXX . Of the Operation of the Air on the Tastes of Animal Substances . HE answered me , that they could very well preserve Meat , as Beef , without salting it , as long as the Frost lasted , that is , during the whole Winter . But when it was once thorowly frozen , they could not dress it so as to make it relish like good Meat . Mr. Nickson . TITLE XXXI . Of the Operations of the Air on the Tastes of Vegetable Substances .   TITLE XXXII . Of the Operations of the Air on the Tastes of Mineral Substances .   TITLE XXXIII . Of the Operations of the Air on the Colours of Animal Substances . ENquiring of a Man of Letters , that had the Curiosity to travel into the Inland Parts of Brasil , whether in that Countrey the Air had not a great Influence upon the Colours of Clothes : He told me it had , and even upon Black ; insomuch that a kind of black Taffety , which is the usual wear of the better sort , will , after it hath been worn a very few Days , degenerate into an Ironish Colour : yet he answered me , that in the Shops where 't is carefully kept from the Air , the Taffety continued of a good Black. Nor is it only upon the Colour of Stuffs , but of Animals too , that he says the Brasilian Air has an Operation ; for he says , that at a Place 50 Leagues beyond Parigna , there is a Region where white People do in a very short time grow Basannez ( or tawny , ) though a little way out of that particular Region , as for Instance beyond it , they quickly recover their wonted Colour . He told me , that upon Charleton Island they have Flocks of certain Birds , which the English there call Partridges , though they resemble ours more in Bulk than Shape , being somewhat like wild Pigeons , but a good deal bigger : These he says are white in the Winter , and gray in the Summer . TITLE XXXIV . Of the Operations of the Air on the Colours of Vegetable Substances . ALearned Man that was Physician to the Governor of Jamaica , being at his Return ask'd divers Questions by me , concerning that Island , gave me among others , the following Answer : Lignum Vitae , said he , and most other Trees at Jamaica , when they are newly cut down , where-ever you cut the Wood , that part which is exposed to the Air will quickly grow green , though that which is a little beneath it be yellow , or of another Colour ; and this Lignum Vita , when green , is as soft as Oak , or softer ; and many other Jamaica Woods that are soft , when newly cut down , will afterwards so harden in the Air , that ordinary Tools will make no Impression upon them ; and the Nails that pierced them easily before , can no more be forc'd out of them ; and this is chiefly conspicuous in the Cabbage-Tree , which being a Wood soft enough when 't is cut down , the Pith which is very copious will quickly rot of it self , and the rest of the Tree serves for a Pipe of perhaps 100 Foot long , that will not corrupt under Ground , but grow almost as hard as Iron . Enquiring of an inquisitive Traveller , what he had observed about the Power of the Air , which I had been inform'd was great , in working upon divers Bodies at the Island of St. Jago : He told me , that he and his Company had not staid long enough there to make much Observation of that kind ; but that seeing Aloes growing plentifully there , they had gathered some Plants of it , whose Juice he found , as I have here in Europe , to be very clammy , and excessively bitter , and , which was wondred at , of a very dark Colour ; but having carried them in the Ship towards the Equinoctial , they found for a time the Juice to be altered , having lost almost all its Bitterness , and acquired a green Colour . Stains of Linen will best go out at the time of the Year , when the Fruits or Plants whose Juice made them , are in their Prime : This a Gentlewoman assured me she had tried in new Linen stain'd with Juice of Quinces ; and the Lady N. N. affirmed , that she had particularly tried it in Stains made with the Juice of Hopps , which she says are the worst Stains of all ; and which having in vain tried to get out of her Linen , she laid up her Linen in her Chest , and at the time of the Year when Hopps flourish , she found the Stains vanish of themselves . TITLE XXXV . Of the Operations of the Air on the Colours of Mineral Substances . AConsiderable Instance of the Changes that the Contact of Air is able to produce even upon solid Minerals , I gave those that saw it by the following Experiment . We took one part of Lapis Calaminaris , and about four Parts of good Salt-peter ; these being well pouder'd and mix'd , were put into a strong Crucible , and kept in a vehement Fire some Hours , by which means the Matter , as we expected , was alcaliz'd : upon the thus prepared Lapis Calaminaris we poured a convenient Quantity of fair Water , which afforded us a Solution that was somewhat muddy , but appear'd of a deep red : this we pour'd into a wide-mouth'd Glass , which we set in a Window , that it might be the more accessible to fresh Air. There after a while our darkish red Solution turn'd quite green , and more Diaphanous than before ; but continuing for some Days to keep the Glass in the same Window , ( which respected the South ) we found our green Solution to lose its Colour by Degrees , and at last to be resolv'd into a transparent Liquor , and a subsiding Pouder , that was not at all green , but red , or like Brick-Dust . These Changes of Colour succeeded in more than one Parcel of our Mineral Solution . We took a very strong Spirit of Vinegar , and boiled it a while on crude Filings of Copper , without finding that 't was manifestly coloured by that Operation , nor yet by letting it lie some Hours in the same Glass Egg wherein it had been boiled . Wherefore supposing this want of Coloration to depend upon the Air 's not co-operating in the best manner it might easily be made to do , we poured the Liquor and the Filings together into a broad flat Glass , ( which we plac'd in a Window shelving ) so that though the Filings were wet , yet but one part of them was cover'd to any Depth by the Menstruum . This done , we observed , as was expected , that the Filings exposed to the Air , changed Colour , and became of a greenish Blew ; whilst those that were under the Liquor manifested no Change of Colour , but kept that which belongs to Copper , till the Menstruum evaporating by Degrees , they also being accessible to the Air , acquir'd the same Colour with the former Vinegar . Q. Whether in a longer time the Coloration would not have been made ? We took some Filings of Copper , and divided it into two Parcels ; one we put into a flat and shallow Glass with a wide Mouth , and the other into a Glass Viol , whose Neck was of the Breadth usual to such Vessels . Upon each of these Parcels of Filings we pour'd a convenient Quantity of one and the same strong Solution of Sal Armoniac made in fair Water , and without covering each of the Vessels , let them stand by one another for a competent time . Of which Trial the Event was such as was expected ; namely , that the Liquor in the Viol was but faintly colour'd , when that in the open Glass , that had a large Surface exposed to the free Air , was very richly tinged . And this Circumstance is not to be forgotten , that whereas all the lower part of the Solution was of a deep Blew almost like Ultra-Marine , that part which was contiguous to the Air was cover'd over with a kind of Film like thin Ice , which was of a very differing Blew , exceeding like that of the finer sort of Turcoices . We took two small Parcels of Filings of Copper , and put each of them into a small Piece of Paper , with the Edges turn'd upward , and then put upon each of them three Drops of good Spirit of Sal Armoniac . One of these Papers we left in the Window , the other we put into a small Receiver , which by help of our Engine was emptied in little more than a Minute of an Hour . At the End of two Minutes , after the putting on of the Spirit , there appeared a manifest Blew on some Parts of that Paper that was left in the Window ; but that which was in the exhausted Receiver , being deprived of the Air that should befriend its Operation , continued there full a quarter of an Hour or more ( by a Minute Clock ) without appearing to be at all colour'd : Wherefore taking off the Receiver , we remov'd the Paper to the same Window where the other stood , and within about two Minutes it began to disclose a Blewness , which within about two Minutes more was considerably heightned . Into a slender Viol , wherein we put a convenient Quantity of the Volatile or Urinous Spirit of the Lees of Wine ( elsewhere by us described ) which was of a yellow Colour , we let fall some Filings of Copper ; and stopping the Glass well , we drew a Tincture , which according to Expectation was manifestly green , but not of the pleasantest and most transparent sort of green Liquors ; then suffering the Viol to rest in a Window for many Days , we observed that the Liquor did then but slowly return to a yellow Colour , which when it had acquired , without any Mixture of Greenness ; we open'd the Viol for a very little while to let in the Air , and then stopp'd it well again ; the admitted Air quickly began to change the Surface of the Liquor into a green Colour ; which , though slowly , extended it self downwards , till it had tinged the whole Liquor . This Colour afterwards , by long standing , did by Degrees grow to a pale Yellow . The 19th of August presented me with some Phaenomena that made me almost despair of reducing all those of our variable Liquors to a settled Theory . For coming that Day at about ten a Clock in the Forenoon to a Closet where I kept several Vials furnish'd with this Liquor , I perceived one of them that stood in the Window , that had once almost quite lost its Colour , to have re-acquired a very fair Blew , at least as deep as that of the Sky in a fair Day . This Viol I the rather watch'd , because I had taken notice , not without somewhat wondring at it , that for two Days before , instead of losing , according to Custom , the little Remains of Colour , that after many Days standing it yet retained ; the Colour began again to increase , though the Viol were constantly kept stopp'd as before ; and that which made this regaining of the Colour seem more strange , was , that there stood just by it another Viol furnished with the Spirit , and with Filings taken out of the same Parcels , yet the Liquor of this Parcel continued colourless . Wherefore suspecting that some Accident might have happened , whereby some little Portions of Air might have insinuated themselves thorow the Cork of the altered Liquor , I cast up my Eyes to another Viol that stood in so high a Place that was not easy to reach it , and where it had long rested , and lost its Colour : But upon this View I was confirmed , that the Change lately mentioned in one of the Viols , was not from the Cork , but from some unobvious Cause : For though this upper Viol was furnish'd with a good Glass Stopple ; yet the Liquor it contain'd was again grown Caeruleous , though the Liquor of another Viol that stood just by it continued colourless . Wherefore to satisfy my self further , I presently went to a private Place , where I had in a Cavity made in the Thickness of a Wall set aside two Viols , that several Days before had quite lost their Colour ; and my former Surprize was increased , when I found that one of them which was stopp'd with a Cork , continued colourless ; yet the other that had a Glass Stopple , and stood just by it , had regain'd a fair Caeruleous Colour . Both these were fitted for Trial , with the same Spirit and Filings , and the same Day with the others above-mentioned ; and the Heat of the Weather had so little Influence upon this Effect , that this Day was remarkably cold , being made so by a Northern Wind , which made me observe it more so than I had found it for some time before . I must not forget on this occasion , that I was invited by the foregoing Phaenomena , to look upon some Spirit , not Oil of Amber , that I had kept in a Viol for several Days upon Filings of Copper , and had sometimes exposed to the Air by unstopping the Glass , and found , that though formerly the Spirit kept its native Colour better than I desired , yet it had acquired a green Colour , which whether it will lose again by longer standing , Time must determine . The slender Viol , with Spirit of Honey mention'd N o the _____ though it had been wont to exchange its yellow Colour for a blew , by the Contact of the external Air in a very short time , and sometimes within a Minute or two ; yet being open'd this Afternoon , in the same Place where it used to be so , did not in above an Hour's time turn blew , but remain'd a transparent yellowish Colour . The Viol with a Glass Stopple , mentioned N o 945. being for divers Weeks left unstirred in the Window where it stood before , I several times observed it to lose and regain Colour ; and though sometimes it would only appear of a more faint or a more rich Blew , yet sometimes also it would appear either quite or almost colourless , and perhaps in a Day or two after it would be again as blew as the Sky . And this , though I could not find that any thing in the Weather was the true Cause of this Change , since the Liquor would not only gain , but lose Colour in colder Weather ; and so it would also do in warmer : But on Michaelmas-Day I found it to have attained a deep Blew ; and though since it has been now and then somewhat more dilute , yet during all the past Month of October , I remember not to have seen it any thing mere colourless ; and this Day being the first of November , I found it to have resumed a high Colour , though a Viol with a Glass Stopple , which had for many Weeks stood just by it , and formerly did divers times correspond with it in its Changes , has continued all the last Month of a very pale Blew , without either deepning its Colour , or growing quite colourless . An inquisitive Gentleman of my Acquaintance , being ask'd by me about a Mountain in Wales , called _____ , where solid Stones are said to change their Colour very oddly , told me , that within sight of that Hill , in a large Piece of Ground that was then newly put under Tillage , he saw good Numbers of Stones that look'd like Flints , and were full as hard , if not harder ; the Colour of most of them was dark , the rest grey : these Stones , which when the Ground was newly turn'd up , were Rust-coloured , he observed afterwards to grow lighter and lighter coloured ; so that after three or four Years , being invited by this Observation to take notice of it at his coming to that Place again , he found these Stones almost all of them turn'd white . About which Phaenomenon , questioning the ancient Inhabitants , with some Expressions of Wonder , they seem'd to make little of it , and assured him , in the Neighbouring Mountain almost all the Stones that were exposed to the Air , underwent the like Changes , and within a few Years were blanch'd . Having put some Mercurius sublimatus dalcis , and Vitriolum Romanum ( tied up in several Papers apart ) into one Box , at the end of twenty two Months I found the sublimate Mercury wholly changed into a Substance so like Antimony , that some not ignorant of the Materia Medica , have taken it for the same : and the Superficies only of the Vitriol had acquired the same Colour , but was not at all altered within . This from a credible Relator . TITLE XXXVI . Of the Air destroying or introducing other less obvious Qualities into Animal Substances .   TITLE XXXVII . Of the Air destroying or introducing other less obvious Qualities into Vegetable Substances . AN intelligent Gentleman that staid a Year in Guinea , related to me , that he and his Company found the great Heat and Moisture of the Air to dispose Bodies so to Putrefaction , that he observed the white Sugar to be sometimes full of Maggots ; and found that divers Drugs , Salves , and other medicinal things that were brought with him , had quite lost their Virtue ; and some of them , especially Ointments , were verminous . And he added , that in the Island St. Jago ( one of those of Cabo-verde ) they laid store of Sweet-Meats upon Tables to the Heat of the Sun , to dry up the superfluous Moisture , which in strange Abundance they had contracted the preceding Night , which otherwise would quite spoil the Sweet-Meats , and bring them to putrify . Oxford , though seated for the most part of it on a gravelly Hill , I have known to be very disagreeable to some moist Splenetick and Valetudinary Bodies , who I have heard complain , that they could not be so well there as elsewhere , especially in the Spring ; so that I take the Air of that Place to be generally moist . Mr. J. T. Air too dry , though sufficiently hot , is not favourable , for the Production of divers Insects : for I have observed these two last dry Springs , that there has been no soft Garden-Snails to be found abroad , and very few Fleas bred in the House , which I impute to extraordinary long Driness of the Air , for want of moist Vapors to nourish them ; since in wet Summers we always swarm with Snails , Gnats , Fleas , &c. whereas this Year we have few or none . TITLE XXXVIII . Of the Air destroying or introducing other less obvious Qualities into Mineral Substances . OBservandum etiam quod Antimonium Diaphoreticum quocunque modo , sive cum solo Nitro aut addito etiam Tartaro , paratum sit , tractu temporis aeri expositum pravam , & quasi malignam induat naturam , sumptumque intra corpus cordis angustias , cardialgias , lipothymias , vomitusque & similia prava Symptomata procreet , quae facilè tamen evitabimus , si vel singulis diebus vel tribus mensibus recenter illud conficiamus , vel jam paratum Antimonium diaphoreticum vetustum additâ portiunculâ Nitri , aut etiam absque Nitro , per unam vel alteram horam Vulcano tradamus , penitusque igniamus , iterumque si Nitrum additum fuerit , edulcoremus , & parumper reverberemus . To prove that it proceedeth from a natural Cause , this one , though strange , yet true Experiment , will suffice , Take of the Earth of Egypt adjoining to the River , and preserve it carefully , that it neither come to be wet nor wasted ; weigh it daily , and you shall find it neither more nor loss heavy until the 17th of June , at which Day it beginneth to grow more ponderous , and augmenteth with the Augmentation of the River , whereby they have an infallible Knowledg of the State of the Deluge , proceeding , without doubt , from the Humidity of the Air , which having a Recourse through all passible Places , and mixing therewith , increaseth the same as it increaseth in Moisture . A learned Physician of the Colledg of London confessed to me , that he found by his own Observation , that Antimonium Diaphoreticum , being kept some Years , though in a cover'd Vessel , acquir'd a Vomitive Quality , which it had not before ; and that having long kept in a stopp'd Glass a Parcel of his own Ceruss of Antimony , of which he used to give 12 , 15 , or more Grains , without finding it Emetick ; he found that in process of time it was so degenerated , that when he gave four or five Grains , it would cause Vomits . Earth laid up together in the Air for four , five or six Years , does make far better Pots for Closeness , and holding of the Fire , than that which has lain but one Season above Ground , though that it self be much better than that which is newly dug up , which will be very apt to crack in the Fire , or when it comes to wet ; as also those Bricks that lie at the Top of the Furnace , and therefore are not so thick covered as they burn , and are apt to deceive Builders when they come to be exposed to the Rain and Weather . TITLE XXXIX . Of the Air in reference to the Propagation and Vegetation of Plants . AN ingenious Traveller that frequented the Pyrenean Mountains , especially that which many count the highest of them , and is known by the Name of Pic de Midi , affirmed to me , that he , as well as several others , had manifestly observed a scarce credible Difference between that Side of those Mountains that regards France , and that which reaches to Spain ; for at the same time the former was verdant and flourishing , and yeilded a delightful Prospect to the Traveller , as well as plentiful Provisions to the Inhabitants : the Spanish Side of the Hills was parch'd , and russet , and barren , and look'd dismally , like a Wilderness : Which great Difference of Countries , observable in the same Hills at the same time of the Year , he imputed to the fierce Parching , and sometimes blasting Winds beat upon the Spanish Side , and made that look so squallid , whilst the Hills that suffer'd this Mischief on one side , did by their Height check these hurtful Winds , and skreening from them , the French Side of the Mountains left them to injoy Advantages that the Soil and Climate furnished them with . TITLE XL. Of the Air in reference to the Generation , Life and Health of Animals . DE vita igitur ac morte , & iis pene omnibus quae huic considerationi affinia sunt , dictum est . Desanitate verò morboque non solum medici sed & Physiciest , causas quadantenus referre . Quatenus verò hi differant , & quatenus diversa contemplantur ignorare non convenit . Equidem quòd confinis sit quadantenus haec Medici Physicique Tractatio , & res ipsa testatur . Nam & Medici , quicunque paulò elegantiores & diligentiores sunt , de natura dicunt , & artis sua principia inde sumere dignantur ; & Physici omnes fere , qui concinnitatis aliquid habent , tractationem naturae usque ad medicinam persequuntur . August 13. The Temperature of the Air , both as to Salubrity and other Regards , may be deriv'd as well from the subterraneal Steams , as the superficial Effluviums of the Earth , and both these sorts of Steams being variously transported and shuffled , and compounded by the Winds and other Motions of the Air , upon the Mixtures of them , the local Qualities of the Air , in differing Places , may be supposed to result . About three Months before the late great Plague began in London , ( in the Year 1665 ) there came to Dr. M. a Patient of his , to desire his Advice for her Husband ; and the Doctor having inquired what ail'd him , she answered , that his chief Distemper was a Swelling in his Groin , and upon that occasion added , that her Husband assured her of his being confident that the next Summer the Plague would be very rife in London : for which Prediction he gave this reason , That in the last great Plague he fell sick of that Disease , and he then had a Pestilential Tumor ; so in two other Plagues that since happened , though much inferiour to that great one , each of them had a rising in his Body to be its Fore-runner ; and now having a great Tumor in the forementioned Place , he doubted not but it would be followed by a raging Pestilence , which accordingly ensued . Having heard much Talk of something of this Nature , as related by the Doctor , I inquired of him how much of it was true , and received for Answer the foregoing Narrative . You did not perhaps expect that the mere local Motion of the Air should be mentioned by me among the Causes of the Effects of its Changes : And indeed the Phaenomena I have yet met with reducible to this kind , have been but very few , notwithstanding which I shall take notice , that this local Motion may in certain Cases operate on other Bodies , either as it turns the Air into a Wind , or as the tremulous Motion of the Air is modified into found , or as the Air is put into a vehement and disorderly Motion by Thunder . As to the first of these 't is evident , that upon the Vehemence or Slackness , and the Places whence and where the changing Wind happens to blow , there may divers Effects ensue , especially in animated Bodies . And this not only as the Wind is accompanied with Cold and Hear , or Moisture , or Driness , but ( to restrain our selves to Instances more closely pertinent to our present Purpose ) as the Wind is flowing Air , or an Aireal Stream , for only as such it may ventilate the Places through which it passes , and by expelling the Stagnant Air , and introducing other Air , may contribute to many of those Changes ( especially as to the Health of Animals ) that we see to depend upon the Alteration of Air , and perhaps among the more tender sort of Animals , there may be found some in which the Motion of the external Air , though excluded by Walls and Windows , may have a considerable and immediate Operation : For I have learned by Enquiry from some curious Natives of Languedoc ( where I had the Curiosity to look after Silk-worms , abounding in that Province ) that in case it happened when the Worms having eaten their fill , began to dispose themselves to work their silken Eggs ; in case , I say , it then happened to be thundering Weather , a great part of the Worms , especially the less vigorous , would be destroyed . He affirmed to me , that in some Mines of above a thousand Foot deep , he saw Horses that had been let down by Ropes to the 3d part of the Depth , that is above a hundred Yards , and that several of them died either in the letting down , or by the Change of Air ; yet several of them survived , and were imployed about the Engines belonging to the Mines , and seem'd not to have any sensible Inconvenience as to Respiration , though in the Receptacles they wrought in , they were furnished with Air but from the Groove through which they were let down , and by a moderately big Shaft . An ingenious Traveller that has had the Curiosity to visit the Mines of several Countries , as Bohemia , Saxony , Swedeland , &c. answered me , that the deepest Mine he saw in Bohemia was of about 2000 of our Feet . An intelligent Person that was for many Years Consul of the English Nation at Tripoli in Barbary ; and at another time Governour of the Castle ( called ) of the Coast , belonging to the English African Company in Guinea , being discoursed with by me , about the Diseases incident to that very unhealthy Place , and about the Worms that bred in Mens Legs , told me , That the great Noxiousness of the Air was not constant , but frequently ceased , and return'd within no long Compass of time ; insomuch that all his Men would continue in Health for many Days together , and then on a sudden divers of them would fall sick , especially of Feavers and Fluxes that usually killed them in forty eight Hours or less . Dr. C. chief Physician to the Russian Emperor , confirmed to me , that being in Russia in the Winter , when the Frost was very hard , and the East or North-East Wind blew cold , if he turned his Face toward the Wind , and walked against , ( which at other times he was wont , and took a Delight to do ) he found himself unable to fetch his Breath , and almost stifled , as if the Air were very thick , or rather a great Stiffness brought upon the Organs of Respiration , whereby he was unable to move them as at other times , so that he was fain to turn his Head from the Wind that he might be able to fetch his Breath . An observing Person being ask'd about a Tradition of Sea-men , that the Lice of Europeans die when the Ships pass the Line : answered me , that he did not find it to be true , as it is wont to be delivered ; but this he plainly observed in several of our English with whom he sailed , that all the Lice quitted their Bodies , and got up into their Heads , whence they dispersed themselves again when the Ship had left the Equator a pretty way behind it . But I remember that another Acquaintance of mine , that divers times passed the Equinoctial in Portugal Ships , which use to go to the Indies well crouded with People , many of them more poor than cleanly , answered me , that he had heedfully observed those Peoples numerous Lice to die away as they cross the Line , though in no long time after the same sort of Cattle would begin to molest them again . His Royal Highness the Duke of York , at his Return out of Scotland , having been pleased to discourse with some of us , that had the Honour to be then near him , of some Observations he made in his Journey , mentioned among other things , that Agues were very unfrequent in Scotland , which yet that Year were very rife over almost all England . This gave me afterwards the Curiosity to inquire of a studious Person , who is one of the chief of the Scotish Nobility , what he knew about the Unfrequency of Agues in his Country . To which his Lordship replied , that as to Quartan Agues it was generally taken notice of ; insomuch that when News was brought , that a Gentleman whom he named fell sick of that Disease , amongst them in the Country it was look'd upon as a strange and remarkable thing . And though divers Persons bring Quartans out of England to Edinburg , yet they so seldom keep them long there , that a Scotish Physician , whom he named to me , offered to lay five to one of the quick Recovery of several Patients of his , if they would make some reasonable Stay in that City . Aer autem corrigetur causa corruptionis ablata , & quod jam inductum est mali extinguendo , si igitur ex nimio humore aer putrescit , ignibus accensis qui omni putredini remedio sunt , exsiccandus , sic ignes , per vias & domus fiant ex odoratis plantis , qualis Laurus est , Mirtus , Pinus , Cupressus , Rosmarimus , & reliquae ejus generis , qua ratione pestem Athenis Hippocrates extinxit ; vapores praeterea maligni per aerem sparsi , dissipandi sunt , id quod a magnis ventis fieri solet . Sic Olysiponi , cum trium dierum ingens procella venisset pestis extincta nuper est & in Maroco ingens pestilentia vento quodam evanuit ; qui veluti è fornace ( adeo calidus erat ) exire videbatur , aerem autem nos imitando ventos commovere poterimus ; si bombardarum strepitus multos fieri curemus ; si verò vapores ex paludibus , ac stagnantibus aquis fieri videntur ; eas resiccare aut novare oportet frequenter , maximè per aestatem . Renovantur autem novis supervenientibus aquis quas è fluminibus per canales traducere oportet ; aut siccandae sunt factis rivulis , & fossis per quae superfluant ad flumina ; quod cum primus magnus Etruriae Dux Cosmus Pisis fecisset ; & magna animi contentione , nunc faciat Ferdinandus , factum est , ut saluberrimus ejus urbis aer per omne anni tempus sit redditus verum si cadaverum inhumatorum multitudo aerem inficit ; magna & profunda facta fovea sepeliantut ; si ab immunditie , & excrementis , quae per urbem & domos sparguntur , id quod , ut reor Bisantii , & Olysiponi , in causa est , cur pestis adeo saeviat , ac duret , mundare oportet omnia ; viae ac domus quotidiè , vel saltem semel in septimanâ repurgandae . 1. Joh. Beguinus in Tyrocin . Chymic . lib. 2. cap. 13. Dignum admiratione est , quod quamvis in viciniâ Hydriae Comitatûs Goriciensis , ubi reperitur copiose Mercurius , singulis ferè annis Lues pestifera grassatur , illa tamen semper immunis ab hac manere soleat , idque viri provectae aetatis se observasse , & à majoribus suis accepisse , mihi sanctè confirmarunt . Hinc patet , Mercurium esse summum omnis putredinis ac corruptionis alexipharmacum . 2 Michael Majerus in lusu de Mercurio . Argentum vivum est plurimorum morborum alexipharmacum , & ut testantur quidam , ipsius Pestis ( cum eo loco ubi Mercurius effoditur , & tractatur , nunquam aut rarissimè hoc Contagium grassetur ) dummodò maneat in suâ propriâ naturâ , & non à salibus aut aquis corrosivis inficiatur , ac venenosus reddatur . A very ingenious Physician that travell'd much in the East-Indies , and visited some Islands in the South-Sea , to which our English were not permitted to have Access , being ask'd of me some Questions about the Effects and Changes of the Air in those Parts , related to me , that having made some stay in the fam'd Island of Ternate , he learned , that the Dutch ( who had master'd the Inhabitants ) did , upon a Composition made with the King for his Damages , cut down almost all the numerous Clove-trees that grew in that Island , that thereby they might keep up the high rate of that Spice , as indeed they have done . Whereupon there happened a Change in the Temperature of the Air , that gave cause to conclude , that the Exhalations of the Blossoms which ( being dried ) afford the Cloves , were not only very pleasant , but very healthful too : For no long time after the Excision of these fragrant Trees , the Island became very unhealthful , which this Physician very probably imputed to the corrosive and noxious Steams , which plentifully issuing out from a kind of Vulcan , or smoaking , and sometimes burning Hill , depraves the Air of that Island that is but little , but had their hurtful Effects formerly prevented by the Aromatick and benign Emanations of those numerous Blossoms and Trees that richly impregnated the Air , and by their volatile and oily Salts , opposed and hindred the Effects of the sulphureous , and other sharp Steams of the Vulcan . And my Relator assures me , that this Change of the Air 's Constitution was so remarkable , and acknowledg'd when he was there , that whereas formerly sick and valetudinary Persons used to be sent thither from Batavia to recover their Health by the Goodness of the Air ( as we often send consumptive Persons into France ) the Air at his being in Ternate had been for divers Years so unhealthful , that the Dutch were fain ( from Batavia , or other more healthy Places ) to send Men twice a Year to releive the Garisons , and bring back the many sick they usually found at their Arrival in that formerly healthy Island . An observing Physician lately return'd from Tangier , answered me , that though otherwise it be a healthy Place , he took notice that 't was not unusual for new Comers to find themselves feverish for many Weeks , or some Months after their Arrival , especially if the piercing easterly Wind happened to reign . This , he says , he found in himself , not only by a constant Heat and some other Symptoms , but by that main one of the praeternatural Quickness of his Pulse . He added , that this Disease , though very mild , held him near four Months : When the Easterly Winds happened to blow , on which his Feaverishness so depended , that he could easily , when he awaked in the Morning , know without asking whether that Wind blew or not . May 16. We put into a small Receiver five or six little Ants , which run about very briskly ; but the Air being pump'd out , they presently lost their Motion , which they soon recovered upon the restoring of the Air to them . Then the Air was again withdrawn , and the Insects thereby brought to lie ( some upon their Backs ) as stark dead : in which Condition they were suffered to remain about five or six Hours ; after which the Air being let in upon them , they nevertheless continued seemingly dead for many Minutes , ( as we guessed between 15 and 30 ) but at length all recovered , running nimbly up and down the Glass , though it were late at Night . Si Patrono queste barche dalla costa della pescaria , e vanno all isola di Ceilam , nella costa della quale per la lunghezza di venti miglia , tre sole miglia lontane da terra , sette braccia abbasso arrivando sino alli dieci nel fondo , si ritrova infinita quanta di madreperle , escono per questa pesca le barche la matina col vento di terra , & arrivando al posto delle madreperle , gettare l'ancore , e fermaresi in quel posto , cominciano a tuftarsi nel mare i marinari , de quali ogni barca ne ha quindeci , e venti , e ciafcuno di essisi lega nel mezzo , con una fune , della quale ha cura uno , che resta in barca e con un ' altra func segandosi una pietra alla gamba , un ' altro ha pure cura di quella , e cingendosi un ' sacco di cuoio dinanzi , mettendosi le guante alle mani , cosi legato si tufta con violenza nel mare , lentando quelli le funi , e col peso della Pietra , va con grandiss ' violenza giu , & arrivato ch'e , scioltasi dalla gamba quella fune , con la quale sta legata la pietra , resta egli libero , & la pietra viene subito tirata soprada quello , che n'ha cura , et il marinaro poi comincia con molta follecitudine à pigliare quelle madreperle , che li vengono dinanzi , e le mette nel sacco , e sentendosi mancare la respiratione , tocca la fune , con la quale sta legato nel mezzo , e quello subito con grandiss ' velocita lo tira et arrivando nella barca , scaricando le madre perle ripiglia fiato , e dopo torna a legarsi di nuovo la pietra , e di nuovo si tufta come sopra's ' e detto , e sempre cosi per tutta la giornata . Et è tanto faticosa questa pesca , ch' essendo , tanto profunde le Madre perl nel mare , molti mancando loro la respiratione si trovano affogati . It is , by long Observation and often repeated Experience , found certain , that if any Foreigner lie on shore all Night at Johanna , they seldom miss to be taken with Sickness there , or within a few Days after their Departure from the Island , and are commonly seized with putrid Feavers , whereof most die in two or three Days , though those that have remained upon the Place all Day-long , for several Days together , are almost always safe , if they go on board of Ship every Night about a Mile , or a little further , from the Shore . The Island abounds with the greatest Variety of Plants and Trees that can be almost imagined in that Circumference , and is generally excessive hot in the day-time , but cold after Sun-set . Whence it may possibly be supposed , that the most volatile Parts of those promiscuous ( and probably many of them poisonous ) Plants , exalted in the day-time by Degrees , and suddenly condensed at Night , may by Inspiration infect the Mass of Blood much after the same manner as in Pestilential Airs . The Inhabitants themselves are very much subject to Feavers , ( of what sort I could not learn ) for which they cut or scarify their Breast or Abdomen in several Places : but they observe that few live , except their Feaver terminates in a considerable number of Botches in divers Parts of the Body . There is one Hill there remarkable for Height , which is seldom or never free from thick Fogs or Clouds hovering over the Top of it , sometimes higher , sometimes lower , according as the Weather alters . Upon the Coast of Cormandell , and most maritime Places of the East-Indies , there are sometimes ( I think yearly ) Fogs so thick ( notwithstanding it is then very hot ) that all , or most Inhabitants from other Nations , and the tenderer sort of the Natives , are necessitated to keep their Houses , with the Doors and Windows fast shut , there being little or no Commerce at that time . At Balassore in the Bay of Bengale , and in divers other Parts in that Country , there happens after great Rains , so great Corruption of the Air , that the stinking Smell is very nauseous to the Inhabitants : which I presume may be chiefly occasioned by a great number of Frogs , and other Reptiles ( wherewith those Places abound ) left upon the dry Places after the Inundation , and then putrified by the excessive Heat of the Sun. At this time there is great Sickness and Mortality amongst the Natives , chiefly by violent Feavers . In the return of English Ships from the East-Indies , they generally put their sick People on Shore at St. Helena , where they find so sensible Alteration , that altho carried thither , there are few that do not recover so much Strength as to walk about in two or three Days , which , in all Probability , must chiefly be attributed to the Alteration of Air , not of Food , there being in most Ships much the same Benefit of fresh Provision for those that are diseased . Le chemin plus court de Mosul a Bagdad , est par la Mesopotamie ; mais on n'y trouve aucun Village , & le Samiel y regne tout l'Eté depuis Mosul jusques a Sourat ; ce qui oblige a prendre l'eau , sur le Tigre où ce vent ne Souffle point . Le nom de ce vent et composé des mots , Sam et jel , c'est a dire poison et vent comme qui diroit vent de poison . Ce pourroit être le vent urens , dont parle Job xxvii . 21. Lorsque quelqu ' un a respiré ce vent , il tombe mort subitement quoi qu'il en ait quelques uns qui ont le temps de dire qu' ils brûlent au dedans . D' abord qu' on est mort , on devient tout noir , et si on tire le mort par le bras où par la jambe où par un autre endroit la chair quite les os et reste entre les mains de ceux qui la touchent . Thevenot dans le Bibliotheque Universel Tom. xiii . p. 266. Doctor Colins relates , that in Muscovy their Horses are much subject to a very scurvy Disease , whose Russian Name I have forgot , from which the Natives are wont to preserve them , by keeping Goats in their Stables : And being ask'd by me , whether he had this by Tradition , or upon his own Trial ? He affirmed , that he had found it true himself , and that he therefore was wont to keep Goats in his own Stable . The ingenious Mr. Rycaut , English Consul at Smyrna , being ask'd of me , whether at Smyrna as well as at Aleppo , he observed that the Plague that uses to rage in the former part of the Summer , degenerates into other Diseases about the latter End of June , and beginning of July : He answered me , that at Smyrna the Observation does not hold so much as at Aleppo ; but yet at Smyrna they generally observe , that about that time of the Year , though exceeding hot , that the Malignity of the Plague does notably lessen , for it is not quite so infectious , nor near so generally mortal as it was in the former part of the Summer . When many Years ago I heard of this strange Phaenomenon of the Pestilence at Aleppo , I began to think whether a possible , though not perhaps the true Cause of it may not be such as this : That the Pestilential Corpuscles that rove up and down in the Air , during the former part of the Summer , require such a Bulk or Grossness to enable them to exercise their pernicious Operations ; but when the Weather grows to be exceeding hot , that Heat of the Air becomes able to dissipate those Corpuscles , and deprive them of that Bulk that we have supposed necessary to their destructive Efficacy . For Illustration of this Conjecture , we may take notice of the Smoak that issues out of the Weik of a Candle newly blown out ; for whilst the sooty Corpuscles retain their Bigness and Texture , they are able to offend the Nostrils very much by their Stink , and sometimes to cause Convulsive Motions and Abortions in teeming Women ; but if you apply a Flame to this Smoak , it presently discusses this fuliginous Matter , and dissipates it into Particles of quite another Nature , which by this means are deprived of all their offensive Smell , and some other ill Qualities . It may also be said , that the great Increase of Heat in July , may enable the Sun-beams , by penetrating , the Earth deeper , and agitating its lower Parts stronger , and producing Crevisses , and other new or formerly obstructed Passages in the upper Parts of it , may elevate into the Air divers saline and other new Corpuscles , which may either divide or dissipate the Pestilential ones , or else by associating themselves with them , make up new Concretions , differing from the Pestilential Corpuscles , in Bulk , Shape , Texture or Motion , in most or all of these , by which means the morbifick Corpuscles being much altered , their Operations on the humane Bodies they invade , may be so too , and the Diseases they produce may become less malignant , or degenerate into some other Disease . And if it be demanded why this does not happen elsewhere as well as at Aleppo and Smyrna ? it may be answered , That the Concourse of Causes may not be the same , and particularly that the Soil of those two Places may be peculiarly disposed to emit Pestilential Corpuscles of such a determinate Nature , with such a Degree of Heat , and dissipable by a greater , or with a more intense Heat , to afford also Exhalations capable to correct the former , as 't is delivered by good Authors , and ingenious Men have confirmed it upon their own Observation , that yearly , at Grand Cairo , in the Heat of Summer the Plague ceases to be mortal , and almost to be infectious , when the Nile begins to overflow , which wonderful Change I should not so much ascribe to a Frigeration of the Air , that usually accompanies the Swellings of the Waters , ( since Pestilences rage in much cooler Weather than can be supposed in so hot a Climate as that of Egypt in July ) as to some nitrous and other corrected Exhalations that are plentifully emitted by the freshly arriving Waters . There is an Account that has not , that I know of , been taken notice of , upon which the supervening Coldness and Heat of the Air may pro tempore very much alter the Qualities of it , in reference to the Bodies and Health of Men : For the Air being a fluid Body as well as Water , and impregnated with Salts of different kinds , some merely saline , and others associated with sulphureous and other kinds of Particles ; it seems not improbable , that what happens in that grosser fluid Water , impregnated with differing sorts of Salts , and alter'd by succession of Heat and Cold , takes place also in the Air. I purposely tried in Water , that by dissolving in it convenient Quantities of two differing Salts , though whilst the Liquor was hot , or perhaps so much as lukewarm , they would swim together undistinguishably in the Liquor , and so were in a Capacity to act jointly , and as the Schools speak , actione communi , on divers Occasions : yet when the Liquor was cold , and sometimes when there was only a considerable Remission of the Heat , the saline Particles of one kind , being not capable of being any longer sufficiently agitated by so faint a Degree of Heat , would convene into Grains or Cristals ; and losing their Fluidity and Motion , visibly separate themselves from the other kind of Salts , which yet continued fluid in the Water where it could now act but by its own particular Qualities , and not as formerly , actione communi . The clearest Instance I found of this Observation was afforded me by an Experiment made with the Solutions of Alum and Nitre ; a Relation of which I find among my Adversaria , in the following terms . Equal Parts of Alum and Nitre being dissolv'd in the same Portion of fair Water ; and the Liquor being in good measure evaporated , the Earthen Vessel that contain'd it was set in the cold , by which means , at the bottom and the lower part of the sides , the Alum appear'd to be first coagulated in many Octaedrical Grains , no Chrystals of Nitre yet being visible . Afterwards , upon a further Evaporation of the Water , and the Removal of the Vessel from the Fire , there appear'd more Grains of Alum , but as yet no Nitre : wherefore having yet further evaporated the Liquor , at length the Nitre shot plentifully into fine little Chrystals of the Shape proper to that Salt. This is the Account my Note-Book contains of this Trial , which seems to invite us to conjecture , that of the numerous sorts of saline Corpuscles that rove up and down in the Air , whilst it is well heated by the Sun , or other Causes , some sorts may by the Absence of that Heat , or some supervening Causes of Coldness , be made to separate from the others , which were thereby contemperated , or perhaps enabled to co-operate to divers Purposes that they were not fit for alone ; and to form Concretions , which though not singly visible , may be too great to be kept in a State of Fluidity by the diminish'd Heat of the Air. A Mouse lived ten Minutes at least with a quarter Air , and three afterwards . TITLE XLI . Of heavy Bodies sustained in , or taken up into the Air.   TITLE XLII . Of Dew .   TITLE XLIII . Of Rain . AN eminent Virtuoso informed me , that in the Country of Campen , he had seen divers Pits that are digg'd for Turf , or rather Peat , which were not deep , for the most part , but reach'd to a kind of quick Sand , upon which the Rain falling , did by Degrees in some Years , form a kind of slimy Earth or Clay , which was much of a martial Nature ; and being skilfully handled , would yield good Iron . The same Person assured me , that he had divers times distilled the Water of Campen in new and fine Glasses , and still found them to leave a considerable Quantity of stony Matter at the Bottom , notwithstanding the Rectification . Quicquid erit , sine fuco significat , velut Rottenberg , Silesiae compastum appellant , perinde Milessow Temporum prognostes , jure merito dici posset . Vidi ex proximo totum aliquando montem densissimis Nebulis contectum , eâ prorsus imagine , qua Mons Sinai Moyse in Nebula latente depingitur , at caeteri circum Montes , innubes & hilares velut rerum gerendarun ignari stabant , Sol ipse formosissimus ibat ; at accolae locorum domum fugiebant , pecora urgebant , meque , ut domum protinus recipirem , properarem , & equos currum trahentes concitari juberem , monebant , neque horae quadrans intercessit , jam Coelum obduci , Sol contegi , eripi omnis aspectus . Virg. Immensum Coelo ruit agnem aquarum ; — ruit arduus aether , Et pluvia ingenti sata laeta , boumque labores . Diluit , implentur fossae , & quae divinus Poeta prosequitur . At contra etiam accidere vidi , ut caeteri fumarint montes , Milessow nihil se commovente , nihil aut nubilum , aut turbidum minante ; Incoloe rogati , nihil esse magnopere timendum à caeteris spondebant , hunc unum intuendum esse , horum nubila omnia à Milessow quodammodo devorari . TITLE XLIV . Of Hail . ON ecrit de l'Isle en Flandres le 25 May , style nouveau , qu'il tomba dans cette ville la une graifle dout les moindres grains estoient comme des oeufs de Pigeon . Cet orage a passé sur la Citadelle & la ville , & na pas laissé une vitre entiere du coste du vent : les maisons sont toutes decouvertes , & les arbres rompus , les bleds coupez , & les perdrix & les lieures morts . On a pese plusieurs grains de cette graisle , dout les uns estoient d'un quarteron , de demi livre , de trois quarterons , et les plus gros d'une livre & d'avantage . Il y en avoit un entr ' autres qui avoit dans le milieu une espece de matiere brune qu'ou mit dans le feu , qui fit faire un grand bruit . Il y en avoit un qui estoit diaphane , lequel estant mis aupres du feu , fondit tout aussi tost comme du plomb , quoy qu'il fut beaucoup plus dur que les autres . TITLE XLV . Of Snow .   TITLE XLVI . Of other things falling out of the Air. EO ipso anno quo Dux Eboracensis postremo rediit e Scotia Londinum , depluere tanta copia pisciculi halecibus colore , figurâ , sapore quam simillimi in superiore Gallocidiae in Scotia parte non procul a mari , ut duo terrae jugera ad Robertum Murray de Brughton equitem pertinentia nunc Londini , ut audio , degentem , cooperuerint . Rem autem totam serenissimo Duci Eboracensi prius de eadem ab eo interrogatus , quod tum certior ab aliis de hâc pluvia factus esset , tanquam testis oculatus , ut qui aliquos horum pisciculorum videram ; confirmavi : is porro ingeniosissime , summâque veri specie nodum ita solvit , ut diceret hos pisciculos unà cum aquis furentium ventorum gyro in turbinem actis evectos esse nubes , e quibus non procul inde pondere rursus suo relapsi fuerint in vicinam terram . TITLE XLVII . Promiscuous Experiments and Observations of the Air.   TITLE XLVIII . Desiderata in the History of the Air , and Proposals towards supplying them .   Books Printed for , and Sold by A. and J. Churchill , at the Black Swan in Pater-Noster-Row . Livius's Roman History . Boccacio's Novels and Tales . Sir Ricaut's Lives of the Popes of Rome . — History of the Turks . Two Vol. Rushworth's Historical Collections . Lloyd Dictionarium Historicum , Poeticum , Geographicum . Statutes of Ireland . Bolton Justice of Ireland . Sir Wheeler's Travels into Greece . Leybourn's Dialling . Buchanan's Chronicle and History of the Kings of Scotland . Machiavel's Works . Thesaurus Brevium . Sir Dew's Journal of Parliament , Q. Elizabeth . Dr. Brady's Introduction to the History of England . Milton's Paradise regain'd . Leybourn Cursus Mathematicus . Sir Aesop's Fables . Bp. Hall's Contemplations . Clark Praxis Cur. Ecclesiasticis . Dr. Gibson's Anatomy . Dr. Patrick Mensa Mystica . Gentleman's Recreations . Monsieur Clerc's Logica , &c. Drelincourt of Death . Leybourn's Arithmetick . Protestant Reconciler , Compleat . Homer's Iliads . Poetae Minores . Royal Grammar . Gibbon's Heraldry . Partridge's Treasury of Physick . Bp. Wilkins of Prayer and Preaching . Thibault's Chymistry . Glasier's Chymistry . Valerius Maximus , English . Two Treatises of Government . The Three Letters for Toleration . Some Considerations of the Consequences of Lowring Interest , and raising the Value of Money . Sir Temple's Observations on Holland . — Misellanea . Dr. Burnet's Travels . Plato Redivivus . Selden's Table-Talk . Debates of Oxon and Westminster Parliaments . Titi Petronii arbitrii Satyricon , cum fragmentis Attaece Graecaerecuperatis . Anno 1688. Livii Orationes selectae . 12o. Sleidan de quatuor summis Imperiisve . Aristotle's Rhetorick , English . Dr. Whitby's several Pieces . Partridge's Astrology . Isocrates Orationes , large 12o. Lat. Guide to Heaven . 24o. Latin Testament , the Cambridg Edition . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A28985-e3030 Casati Mechanicorum , lib. 8. cap. 5. p. 792 , 793 , &c. Notes for div A28985-e3210 Experiment I. Experiment : II. Experiment III. Experiment IV. Experiment V. Experiment VI. Experiment VII . Experiment VIII . Notes for div A28985-e4190 A Transcript of an Observation made at Stanton . Experiment I. Experiment II. Experiment III. Notes for div A28985-e4720 Journal des Scavans III. 1685. Notes for div A28985-e4850 Experiment I. Experiment II. Experiment III. Experiment IV. Agricola de Re Metallicâ , Lib. duodec . Notes for div A28985-e5790 Voyage de Levant , p. 203. Accident extraordinaire à Santorini . Notes for div A28985-e7430 Weight of a Cubick Inch of Water . The Weight of a Cubick Inch of Quick-silver . The Weight of a Pillan of the Atmosphere . In all those Papers the Mercury was still about 12 of one Inch higher than is set down , for the Numbers signify only bottom of the Cap. Notes for div A28985-e84750 Ludolp . Hist . of Ethiop . l. 1. c. 5. Ludolp . Hist . of Ethiop . l. 1. c. 5. Petri Bellonii , lib. 1. cap. 16. Jacobi Zaharelli de Regionibus Aeris , c. 8. Balbini Hist . Bohem. l. 1. c. 9. De montibus , & de valle Lauezka , p. 29. Chanowsky in vestigio Boh. piae , C. ult . Montes parte alterâ aestatem , altera hiemem referentes . Id. ibid. Observations on the Top of the Pyreneans . I' . Francesco Barretto Relatione della Provincia di Malavar . p. 52. Notes for div A28985-e89740 Novemb. Notes for div A28985-e91150 Zwelfer , pag. 800. Purchas's 2d Part , lib. 6. cap. 8. A vulgar Experiment generally affirmed , as by Alpinus in Med. Egypt . l. 4. c. 8. who long liv'd here upon the Testimony of Paulus Moucilus , the French Consul , Baptistae Elianus a Jesuit , and John Varot an English Man. Notes for div A28985-e91460 Aristot . de Respirat . cap. 21. & parag . 87. Roderici Fons . de Sanit . tuend . pag. 105 , 106. Relatione della Provincia di Malavar . pag. 64 & 65. Notes for div A28985-e92710 L. 1. c. 8. De Mont. Bohemiae , p. 26. A Milessow monte temporum praesagia capiuntur . 
A29052	----	Tracts containing I. suspicions about some hidden qualities of the air : with an appendix touching celestial magnets and some other particulars : II. animadversions upon Mr. Hobbes's Problemata de vacuo : III. a discourse of the cause of attraction by suction / by the honourable Robert Boyle Esq. ... Selections. 1674 Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1674 Approx. 298 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 162 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A29052 Wing B4054 ESTC R17545 13161366 ocm 13161366 98191 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A29052) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 98191) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 446:30) Tracts containing I. suspicions about some hidden qualities of the air : with an appendix touching celestial magnets and some other particulars : II. animadversions upon Mr. Hobbes's Problemata de vacuo : III. a discourse of the cause of attraction by suction / by the honourable Robert Boyle Esq. ... Selections. 1674 Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1 v. (various pagings) Printed by W. G. and are sold by M. Pitt ..., London : 1674. "Errata": verso of 3rd prelim. leaf. In pt. [6] the 2nd prelim. leaf, containing "Advertisement to the book binder", has been cut out, as in most copies. Pts. [2-6] have separate paging and signatures and special title pages. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Svspicions about some hidden qualities in the air -- Obsevations about the grovvth of metals in their ore -- Some additional experiments relating to the suspicions about the hidden qualities of the air -- Animadversions upon Mr. Hobbes's Problemata de vacuo -- Of the cause of attraction by suction -- New experiments about the preservation of bodies in vacuo Boyliano. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Hobbes, Thomas, 1588-1679. -- Problemata physica. Air -- Early works to 1800. Pneumatics -- Early works to 1800. 2000-00 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2001-09 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2002-06 Allison Liefer Sampled and proofread 2002-06 Allison Liefer Text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-07 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion TRACTS : CONTAINING I. SUSPICIONS about some Hidden Qualities of the AIR ; with an Appendix touching CELESTIAL MAGNETS , and some other Particulars . II. ANIMADVERSIONS upon Mr. Hobbes's PROBLEMATA De VACUO . III. A DISCOURSE of the CAUSE of Attraction by SUCTION . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE , Esq Fellow of the ROYAL SOCIETY . LONDON , Printed by W.G. and are to be Sold by M. Pitt , at the Angel against the Little North Door of St. Paul's Church . 1674. Preface . AMong other Papers that I design'd to contribute towards the Natural History of the Air , I began some years ago to set down a Collection of some new or less heeded Observations and Experiments relating to the Causes and Effects of Changes in the Air , which I referr'd to several Heads , as to the Airs Heat , Coldness , Moisture , Driness , Diaphaneity , Opacity , Consistence , several Saltnesses and other Titles ; the last of which was of the Occult Qualities of the Air , supposing there be any such . And though afterwards I was , by Sickness and other Impediments , diverted from proceeding in that Collection , and induc'd to lay aside some of the Observations I had provided , and imploy in other Treatises such as were proper to them ; yet as to the Title that contain'd Suspicions about some Hidden Qualities of the Air , the possibility , if not likelihood , that either the Matters of fact , or the Intimations delivered in them , might afford hints not useless to the S●gacious and Inquisitive , perswaded me to let it escape the Fate of its Companions , though possibly , if I had more consulted my own Reputation , I should least of all have suffer'd this Title to appear , there being none of the rest , that was not less conjectural . But it being thought unfit , that any thing should perish , that related to so considerable and uncommon a Subject , as that of this Title , I was content to cast the collected Experiments into the following Essay for the Reasons express'd at the beginning and close of the insuing Paper . Which , 't was hop'd , may be the better understood , and less liable to have its Design mistaken , by being usher'd in by this Advertisement about the occasion of it . ERRATA . IN the first Tract , pag. 41. l. 4. read Halicarnasseus . In the Tract of the Cause of Suction , p. 14. l. 4. r. 33½ for 36½ . SVSPICIONS ABOUT Some Hidden QUALITIES in the AIR . BEsides the four first Qualities of the Air , ( Heat , Cold , Dryness and Moisture ) that are known even to the Vulgar ; and those more unobvious , that Philosophers and Chymists have discovered , such as Gravity , Springiness , the power of Refracting the beams of Light ; &c. I have often suspected , that there may be in the Air some yet more latent Qualities or Powers differing enough from all these , and principally due to the Substantial Parts or Ingredients , whereof it consists . And to this conjecture I have been led , partly ( though not only or perhaps chiefly ) by considering the Constitution of that Air we live and breath in , which , to avoid ambiguities , I elsewhere call Atmospherical Air. For this is not , as many imagine , a Simple and Elementary Body , but a confus●d Aggregate of Effluviums from such differing Bodies , that , though they all agree in constituting , by their minuteness and various motions , one great mass of Fluid matter , yet perhaps there is scarce a more heterogeneous Body in the world . And as by Air I understand not ( as the Peripateticks are wont to do ) a meer Elementary Body ; so , when I speak of the Qualities of the Air , I would not be thought to mean such naked and abstracted Beings ( as the Schools often tell us of , ) but such as they call Qualities in concreto , namely Corpuscles indued with Qualities , or capable of producing them in the Subjects they invade and abound in . I have elsewhere shewn it to be highly probable , that , besides those vapours and exhalations which by the Heat of the Sun are elevated into the Air , and there afford matter to some Meteors , as Clouds , Rain , Parhelions and Rainbow● ; there are , at least at some times , and in some places , store of Effluviums emitted from the Subterraneal parts of the Terrestrial Globe ; and 't is no less probable , ( from what I have there and elsewhere deliver'd , ) that in the Subterraneal Regions there are many Bodies , some fluid and some consistent , which , though of an operative nature , and like upon occasion to emit steams , seldom or never appear upon the surface of the Earth , so that many of them have not so much as names assigned them even by the Mineralists . Now among this multitude and variety of Bodies , that lye buried out of our sight , who can tell but that there may be some , if not many , of a nature very differing from those we are hitherto familiarly acquainted with ; and that , as divers wonderful and peculiar operations of the Loadstone , ( though a Mineral many Ages ago famous among Philosophers and Physitians , ) were not discovered 'till of later Ages , wherein its nobler Virtues have been disclosed ; so there may be other Subterraneous Bodies , that are indowed with considerable powers , which to us are yet unknown , and would , if they were known , be found very differing from those of the Fossiles we are wont to deal with ? I also further consider , that , ( as I have elsewhere endeavoured to make it probable ) the Sun and Planets ( to say nothing of the Fixt Stars ) may have influences here below distinct from their Heat and Light. On which Supposition it seems not absurd to me to suspect , that the Subtil , but Corporeal , Emanations even of these Bodies may ( sometimes at least ) reach to our Air , and mingle with those of our Globe in that great receptacle or rendevouz of Celestial and Terrestrial Effluviums , the Atmosphere . And if this suspition be not groundless , the very small knowledge we have of the structure and constitution of Globes so many thousands or hundred of thousands of miles remote from us , and the great ignorance we must be in of the nature of the particular Bodies that may be presum'd to be contain'd in those Globes , ( as Minerals and other Bodies are in the Earth , ) which in many things appear of kin to those that we inhabit , ( as with excellent Telescopes I have often with attention and pleasure observed , particularly in the Moon , ) this great imperfection , I say , of our knowledge may keep it from being unreasonable to imagine , that some , if not many , of those Bodies and their effluxions may be of a nature quite differing from those we take notice of here about us , and consequently may operate after a very differing and peculiar manner . And though the chief of the Heteroclite Effluviums , that indow the Air with hidden Qualities , may probably proceed from beneath the surface of the Earth , and from the Celestial Bodies ; yet I would not deny but that , especially at some times and in some places , the Air may derive multitudes of efficacious particles from its own operations , acting as a fluid Substance upon that vast number and variety of Bodies that are immediately expos'd to it . For , though by reason of its great thinness , and of its being in its usual state devoid both of tast and smell , it seems wholly unfit to be a Menstruum ; yet I am not sure but it may have a dissolving , or at least a consuming , power on many Bodies , especially such as are peculiarly dispos'd to admit its operations . For I consider , that the Air has a great advantage by the vast Quantity of it , that may come to work in proportion to the Bodies that are expos'd to it : And I have long thought , that , in divers cases , the Quantity of a Menstruum may much more considerably compensate its want of strength , than Chymists are commonly aware of , ( as there may be occasion elsewhere to exemplifie . ) And there are liquors , which pass for insipid , ( and are therefore thought to be altogether unfit to be Solvents , ) which , though they have their active parts too thinly dispersed to be able presently to make sensible Impressions upon our Organs of Tasting , yet are not quite destitute of Corpuscles fit to act as a Solvent ; especially if they have time enough to make with the other parts of the Fluid such numerous and various motions , as must bring , now some of them , and then others , to hit against the Body expos'd to them . Which may be illustrated by the Rust like to Verdigrease , which we have observ'd in Copper that has been long expos'd to the Air , whose saline particles , little by little , do in tract of time fasten themselves in such numbers to the surface of the Metal as to corrode it , and produce that efflorescence colour'd like Verdigrease , which you know is a factitious Body , wont to be made of the same Metal , corroded by the sharp Corpuscles of Vineger , or of the Husks of Grapes : Besides , that by the power , which Mercury has to dissolve Gold and Silver , it appears , that it is not always necessary for the making a Fluid fit to be a Dissolvent , that it should affect the Tast. And as to those Bodies , on which the Aerial Menstruum can , though but slowly , work , the greatest quantity of it may bring it this advantage , that , whereas even the strongest Menstruums , if they bear no great proportion in bulk to the Bodies they are to work on , are easily glutted , and being unable to take up any more , are fain to leave the rest of the Body undissolved , our Aerial Menstruum bears so vast a proportion to the Bodies expos'd to it , that when one portion of it has impregnated it self as much as 't is able , there may still come fresh and fresh to work further on the remaining part of the expos'd Body . Besides the Saline and Sulphureous particles , that , at least in some places , may ( as I have elsewhere shewn ) impregnate the Air , and give it a greater affinity to Chymical Menstruums more strictly so called ; I am not averse from thinking , that the Air , meerly as a fluid Body , that consists of Corpuscles of differing sizes and solidities restlesly and very variously moved , may upon the account of these Corpuscles be still resolving , or preying upon , the particles of the Bodies that are expos'd to their action . For , many of those Aerial Corpuscles , some hitting and some rubbing themselves every minute against those particles of expos'd Bodies that chance to lye in their way , may well , by those numerous occursions and affrictions , strike off and carry along with them now some and then others of those particles ; as you see it happens in water , which , as soft and fluid as it is , wears out such hard and solid Bodies as Stones themselves , if it often enough meet them in its passage , according to the known saying , Gutta cavat Lapidem non vi , sed saepe cadendo . And though the Aerial Corpuscles be very minute , and the Bodies expos'd to them oftentimes large and seemingly solid ; yet this needs not make you reject our supposition , because 't is not upon the whole Body at once , that , according to us , the Aerial Corpuscles endeavour to work , but upon the Superficial particles , which may often be more minute than those Corpuscles ; as you will the more easily believe , if you first observe with a good Microscope , how many extant particles may be met with on the surface of Bodies , that to the naked Eye seem very smooth , and even of those that are polish'd by Art with Tripoly or Puttee ; and then consider , that one of these protuberancies , being yet manifestly visible , may well be presum'd to consist of a multitude of lesser particles , divers of which may very well be as minute as those Aerial Corpuscles , that successively hit against them , and endeavour to carry them along with themselves . And this may be illustrated by a familiar instance . For , if you take a lump of Loaf Sugar , or even of a much solider and harder Body , Sal Gemmae , and cast it into common water , though this liquor be insipid , and the motions of its corpuscles but very languid ; yet these corpuscles are capable to loosen and carry off the superficial particles of Sugar or Salt , that chance to lye in their way , and fresh corpuscles of water still succeeding to work upon the remaining particles of the expos'd Body that stand in their way , the whole lump is by little and little dissolved , and ceases to appear to the Eye a thing distinct from the liquor . Some things that have occurr'd to me have made me suspect , that 't is not impossible , but that some Bodies may receive a disposition to Volatility , and consequently to pass into the Air by the action either of the Sun-beams , in the form of the Sun-beams , or of some substance that once issued out of the Sun and reach'd unto our Air. For , there may be certain Bodies for the most part in the form of liquors , which , though they pass off from some peculiarly dispos'd Bodies , may during their stay or contact produce in them a great and strange aptness to be volatiliz'd . In favour of which conjecture , I might here alledge both the effects , which the Paracelsians and Helmontians ascribe to the Alkahest of volatilizing even fixt and ponderous Bodies barely by being often abstracted from them , and some other things , which I shall now leave unmention'd , because you may find them in my Notes about Volatility and Fixity . But , whatever become of this Conjecture , 't is consonant to Experience , that , either upon the above-recited accounts , or also some others , those parts of the Atmosphere , which , in a stricter sense , may be call'd the Air , are , at least in some places , so intermixt with particles of differing kinds , that among that great number of various sorts of them , 't is very likely that there should be some kinds of an un-common and an unobserved nature . And I could countenance what has been said by the wasting of Odorous Bodies , and especially Camphire , and by representing , that I have observed some solid Bodies actually cold , when their superficial parts were newly taken off , to emit , though invisibly , such copious steams into the Air , as to grow continually and manifestly lighter upon the ballance , so as to suffer a notable decrement of weight in a minute of an hour . But the mention I make of such things in an other paper , disswades me from insisting on them here , where 't will be seasonable to resume the discourse , which the mention of the Dissolving power , that may be guess'd to be in the Air , has for some pages interrupted , and to tell you , that those propounded , before I enter'd upon the digression , are the two main Consideration à priori ( as they speak ) whereon I have grounded my surmize , which being propos'd but as a Suspicion , I presume it will not be expected , that the Arguments à posteriori , which I shall bring to countenance it , should be more than Conjectures , much less that they should be Demonstrations . And therefore I shall venture to lay before you some few Phaenomena , which seem to be at least as probably referable to some latent Quality in the Air , as to any other cause I yet know . Upon which score such Phaenomena may be allowed to be pleaded in favour of our Suspicion , 'till some other certain cause of them shall be satisfactorily assign'd . Having premis'd thus much to keep you from looking for stronger proofs than I think my task obliges me to give ; the first Phaenomenon , I shall propose , shall be the appearing or growth of some Salts in certain Bodies , which we observ'd to afford them either not at all , or at least nothing near in such plenty , or so soon , unless they be expos'd to the Air. Of such a Phaenomenon as this , that is not so much as mention'd by Vulgar Philosophers , and very rarely , if at all , to be met with in the Laboratories of Chymists , you will not , I suppose , wonder , that I do not present you many Examples , and some few I am able to name . For I remember , that suspecting a solid Marchasite , hard as stone , to be fit to be made an instance for my purpose , I caus'd it to be broken , that the internal more shining parts might be expos'd to the Air ; but , though this were done in a room , where a good fire was usually kept , so that the Marchasite was not only shelter'd from the rain , but kept in a dry Air , yet after a while I discover'd upon the glistering parts an efflorescence of a vitriolate nature . And afterwards meeting with a ponderous and dark colour'd Mineral , and which , at the first breaking , discover'd to the Eye no appearance of any Salt , nor so much as any shining Marchasitical particles , we found nevertheless , that a good quantity of these hard and heavy Bodies , being kept expos'd to the Air , even in a room that preserved them from the rain , though probably they had lain many ages intire in the hill , wherein they were found under ground ; yet in not many months , by the operation of the Air upon them , they were , in great part , crumbled to powder exceeding rich in Copperas . Nay , I remember , that having for Curiosities sake , laid up some of these stones in a room , where I constantly kept fire , and in the drawer of a Cabinet , which I did not often take out to give them fresh Air , some , if not most of them , were notwithstanding ●over'd with a copious efflorescence , which by its conspicuous colour between blew and green , by its taste , and by its fitness to make in a trice an inky mixture with infusion of galls , sufficiently manifested it self to be Vitriol ; whose growth by the help of the contact of the Air is the more considerable , because it is not a meer Acid Salt , but abounds in Sulphureous and Combustible parts , which I have divers times been able , by Methods elsewhere mentioned , actually to separate or obtain from common Vitriol without the addition of any combustible body , and sometimes without any additament at all . It was also uncommon , that our blackish Minerals requir'd no longer time , nor no rain , to make them afford their Vitriolate Efflorescences : For I remember , I kept many of those Marchasites , both glittering ones and others , of which they make and sell great quantities of Vitriol at Deptford , without perceiving in them a change that came any thing near to what I have recited . And I observ'd those , whose trade it is to make Vitriol , to be often obliged to let their Vitriol-stones , as they call them , lye half a year , or even eighteen months , or two years exposed , not only to the open Air , but to the Rain and Sun , to be able to obtain from them their Vitriolate parts . That also the Earth or Ore of Allum , being robb'd of its Salt , will in tract of time recover it by being expos'd to the Air , we are assur'd by the experienc'd Agricola , where , having deliver'd the way of making Allum , he subjoins this Advertisement : Terra Aluminosa , quae in castellis diluta , postquam effluxit , superfuit egesta et coacervata quotidie , rursus magis & magis fit aluminosa , non aliter atque terra ex qua halinitrum fuit confectum , suo succo plenior fit ; quare denuo in Castella conjicitur & aquae affusae ea percolantur . I have likewise observ'd , as you also perchance have done , that some kind of Lime in old walls and moist places has gain'd in length of time a copious efflorescence , very much of a Nitrous Nature ; as I was convinc'd by having obtain'd Salt-peter from it by barely dissolving it in common water , and evaporating the filtrated Solution : And that in calcin'd Vitriol , whose saline parts have been driven away by the violence of the fire , particles of fresh Salt may be found after it has lain a competent time in the Air , I shall e're long have occasion to inform you . But in the mean time , ( to deal ingenuously with you , ) I shall freely confess to you , that , though these and the like observations have satisfied Learned men , without having been call'd in question , and consequently have , at least , probability enough to ground our Suspicion upon ; yet I , that am more concern'd for the Discovery of a Truth than the Reputation of a Paradox , propose the Argument drawn from the foregoing Observations , but as a Probationer . For it yet seems to me somewhat doubtful , whether the Salts , that appear in the forementioned cases , are really produc'd by the operation of the Air working as an Agent , or also concurring as an Ingredient ; or whether these saline substances be not the production of some internal thing that is analagous to a Seminal Principle , which makes in these bodies a kind of maturation of some parts , which being once ripen'd , and perhaps assisted by the moisture of the Air , disclose themselves in the form of saline Concretions ; as in the feculent or Tartareous parts of many Wines there will in tract of time be generated or produc'd store of Corpuscles of a saline nature , that produce the acid taste we find in Tartar , especially that of Rhenish wine . It may also be suspected , that the formerly mention'd Salts found in Marchasites , in Nitrous and Aluminous Earths , &c. are made by the saline particles of the like nature , that among multitudes of other kinds swim in the Air , and are attracted by the congenerous particles , that yet remain in the Terrestrial bodies , that are , as it were , the wombs of such Minerals , ( as I have elsewhere shewn , that Spirit of Nitre will , with fixt Nitre and some other Alkalys , compose Salt-peter ; ) or else , that these Aerial Salts , if I may so call them , assisted by the moisture of the Air , do soften and open , and almost corrode or dissolve the more Terrestrial Substance of these wombs , and thereby sollicit out and somewhat extricate the latent Saline particles , and , by their union with them , compose those Emerging bodies that resemble Vitriol , Allum , &c. But not only to suggest these scruples , as if I had a mind they should but trouble you , and keep you irresolute , I shall propound something towards the removal of them ; namely , that a convenient quantity of Nitrous Earth , or that other of those Substances , which you would examine , be kept in a close vessel to which the Air has not access , for at least as long time as has been observed to be sufficient to impregnate the like substance , or rather a portion of the same parcel that was chosen to be included : For , if the body , that was kept close , have either gain'd no Salt at all , or very much less in proportion to its bulk than that which was kept expos'd , we may thence estimate , what is to be ascribed to the Air in the production of Nitre or other saline Concretions . And , because I have observed none of these bodies , that would so soon , and so manifestly , even to the eye , disclose a saline substance , as the blackish Vitriol-Ore , I lately told you I kept in a drawer of my Cabinet ; I judg'd that a very fit subject , wherewith to try , what maturation or time , when the Air was secluded , would perform towards the deciding of our Difficulty : And accordingly having taken some fragments of it , which we had carefully freed from the adhering Vitriolate efflorescence , by whose plenty we were assured that it was very well dispos'd to be wrought on by the Air , we put of these fragments of differing sizes into two conveniently shap'd glasses , which being Hermetically sealed were ordered to be carried away , and kept in fit places ; by which means 't was expected , that , even without opening the glasses , we should be able easily to see by the chang'd colour of the superficial parts , whether any Vitriolate efflorescence were produced ; but , through the negligence or mistake of those , to whom the care was recommended , the experiment was never brought to an issue ; and though I afterwards got more of the Mineral , and made a second tryal of the same , I have not yet been inform'd of the event . But , Sir , though , 'till the success of some such tryal be known , I dare not too confidently pronounce about the Production or Regeneration of Salts in bodies that have been robb'd of them , and ascribe it wholly to the Air ; yet , when I consider the several and great effects of the Air upon divers other bodies , I think it not rash to conjecture in the mean time , that the operations of the Air may have a considerable share in these Phaenomena , and so that there may be latent Qualities in the Air , in the sense I declar'd above , where I told you , that , when I speak of these Qualities , I look upon them in Concreto , ( as they phrase it , ) together with the Substances or ●orporeal effluvia they reside in : And of these Aerial Qualities , taken in this sense , I shall now proceed to mention some other Instances . The Difficulty we find of keeping Flame and Fire alive , though but for a little time , without Air , makes me some times prone to suspect , that there may be dispers'd through the rest of the Atmosphere some odd substance , either of a Solar , or Astral , or some other exotic , nature , on whose account the Air is so necessary to the subsistence of Flame ; which Necessity I have found to be greater , and less dependent upon the manifest Attributes of the Air , than Naturalists seem to have observed . For I have found by tryals purposely made , that a small flame of a Lamp , though fed perhaps with a subtil thin Oyl , would in a large capacious glass-Receiver expire , for want of Air , ●●in a far less time than one would be●eve . And it will not much lessen the difficulty to alledge , that either the gross fuliginous Smoak did in a close Vessel stifle the flame , or that the pressure of the Air is requisite to impel up the aliment into the wieck : For , to obviate these objections , I have in a large Receiver imploy'd a very small wieck with such rectified Spirit of Wine , as would in the free Air burn totally away ; and yet , when a very small Lamp , furnished ( as I was saying ) with a very slender wieck , was made to burn , and , fill'd with this liquor , was put lighted into a large Receiver , that little flame , though it emitted no visible smoak at all , would usually expire within about one minute of an hour , and , not seldom , in a less time ; and this , though the wieck was not so much as sing'd by the flame : Nor indeed is a wieck necessary for the experiment , since highly rectified Spirit of Wine will in the free Air flame away well without it . And indeed it seems to ●●erve our wonder , what that should be in the Air , which inabling it to keep flame alive , does yet , by being consum'd or deprav'd , so suddenly render the Air unfit to make flame subsist . And it seems by the sudden wasting or spoiling of this fine Subject , whatever it be , that the bulk of it is but very small in proportion to the Air it impregnates with its virtue . For after the extinction of the flame , the Air in the Receiver was not visibly alter'd , and , for ought I could perceive by the ways of judging I had then at hand , the Air retain'd either All , or at least far the greatest part of its Elasticity , which I take to be its most genuine and distinguishing property . And this undestroy'd springyness of the Air seems to make the necessity of fresh Air to the Life of hot Animals , ( few of which , as far as I can guess after many tryals , would be able to live two minutes of an hour , if they were totally and all at once deprived of Air , ) suggest a great suspicion of some vital substance , if I may so call it , diffus'd through the Air , whether it be a volatile Nitre , or ( rather ) some yet anonymous substance , Sydereal or Subterraneal , but not improbably of kin to that , which I lately noted to be so necessary to the maintenance of other flames . I know not , whether you will think it pertinent to our present Discourse , that I observe to you , that by keeping putrifying bodies in glasses , which by Hermes his seal were secur'd from the contact of the external Air , I have not been able to produce any Insect or other living Creature , though sometimes I have kept Animal Substances and even Blood so included for many months , and one or two of them for a longer time ; and though also these Substances had a manifest change made in their consistence whilst they remain'd seal'd up . On this occasion I shall add an odd Observation , that I met with in a little Dissertation de admirandis Hungariae aquis , written by an Anonymous , but Ingenious , Nobleman of that Countrey , where , speaking of the native Salt that abounds in their Regions , he says , that in the chief Mine ( by them call'd Desiensis ) of Transylvania , there was , a few years before he writ , a great Oak like a huge beam dug out of the middle of the Salt ; but , though it was so hard , that it would not easily be wrought upon by Iron-tools , yet being expos'd to the Air out of the Mine , it became so rotten , as he expresses it , that in four days it was easie to be broken and crumbled between ones fingers . And of that corruptive or dissolutive Power of the Air near those Mines , the same Author mentions other Instances . Having found an Antimonial Preparation to procure Vomits , in a case where I did not at all expect it , I was afterwards curious to inquire of some Physitians and Chymists , that were of my Acquaintance , whether they had not taken notice , that Antimonium Diaphoreticum , which , as its name imports , is wont to work by sweat or transpiration , would not become vomitive , if 't were not kept from the Air ? To which one Physitian , that was a Learned Man , assur'd me , it would , as he had found by particular tryals : And the like answer has been given me by more than one . And I find , that the experienc'd Zwelfer himself does somewhere give a caution against letting the Air have access to these Antimonial Medicines , lest it should render them , as he says it will , in tract of time , not only Emetic , but dispos'd to produce heart-burnings , ( as they call them , ) faintings , and other bad Symptoms . And I learnt by inquiry from a very Ingenious Doctor of Physic , that , having carefully prepar'd Antimonium Diaphoreticum , he gave many doses of it whilst it was fresh and kept stopt in a glass ( without finding that in any Patient it procur'd so much as one vomit , ) but having kept a parcel of the self same Remedy for a pretty while in a glass only cover'd loosely with a paper , the Medicine , vitiated by the Air , proved emetic ( strongly enough ) to those , who neither by Constitution , or foulness of stomach , or on any other discernable account , were more than others that had taken it disposed to vomit . By which Observations , and from what I formerly told you of the Salt-peter obtainable from Quick-lime , a Man partial to the Air would be made forward to tell you , that this looks , as if either there were in the Air a substance dispos'd to be assimilated by all kinds of bodies , or that the Air is so vast and rich a Rendevouz of innumerable seminal Corpuscles and other Analogous particles , that almost any body long expos'd to it may there meet with particles of kin to it , and fit to repair its wrongs and losses , and restore it to its natural Condition . But without taking any further notice of this odd surmize , I will proceed to mention two or three other Phaenomena of Nature , that seem to favour the Suspicion , that there may be Secret Qualities in the Air in reference to some bodies . The ingenious Monsieur de Rochefort , in the handsom account he gives of the Apple or Fruit of the Tree Iunipa , whose juice is imploy'd by the Indians to black their skins , that they may look the more terrible to their Enemies , observes , that , though the stain , or , as he speaks , the Tincture of this Fruit cannot be wash'd out with Soap , yet within nine or ten days it will vanish of it self ; which would make one suspect , that there may be in the Air some secret powerful substance , that makes it a Menstruum of more efficacy than Soap it self to obliterate stains . I remember , I have seen this Fruit , but not whilst it was succulent enough to have a tryal made with it ; which I was therefore troubled at , because the Author does not clearly express , whether this disappearing of the tincture happens indifferently to the bodies it chances to stain , or only is observed on the skins of Men. For , as in the former Case 't will afford an instance pertinent to our present purpose ; so in the latter I should suspect , that the vanishing of the tincture may be due not so much to the operation of the Air upon it , as to the sweat and exhalations of a human body , which abounding with volatile Salt , may either destroy or carry off with them the colour'd particles they meet with in their passage . I have sometimes , not altogether without wonder , observ'd the excellency of the better sort of Damasco-steel , ( for I speak not of all that goes under that name , ) in comparison of ordinary steel . And , besides what I have elsewhere taken notice of concerning it , there is one Phaenomenon , which though I am not sure it belongs to the latent Qualities of the Air , yet because it may well do so , and I am unwilling it should be lost , I will here tell you , that having inquired of an eminent and experienc'd Artificer , ( whom I long since imployed in some difficult Experiments , ) about the properties of Damasco-steel , this honest and sober Man averr'd to me , that when he made Instruments of it , and gave them the true temper , which is somewhat differing from that of other Steel , he generally observed , that though , when Rasors or other Instruments made of it were newly forged , they would be sometimes no whit better , and sometimes less good , than those made of other Steel ; yet when they had been kept a year or two or three in the Air , though nothing else were done to improve them , they would be found much to surpass other Instruments of the same kind , and what themselves were before ; in so much ; that some of them have been laid aside at first , as no way answering the great expectation conceived of them , which after two or three years were found to surpass it ; of which also I am now making a tryal . I have several times made a substance that consists chiefly of a Metalline body , and is of a texture close enough to lye for many hours undissolv'd in a Corrosive Menstruum ; and yet this substance , that was fixt enough to endure the being melted by the Fire without losing its colour , would , when I had purposely expos'd it to the Air , be discoloured in a very short time , and have its superficial parts turned almost black . And this brings into my mind that very pretty Observation , that has been newly made in Italy by an ingenious Man , who took notice , that , if after the opening of a Vein the blood be kept 'till it be concreted , and have excluded the superficial serum , though the lower part be usually of a dark and blackish colour in comparison of the superficial parts , and therefore be counted far more feculent ; yet , if the lump or clott of blood be broken , and the internal and dark coloured parts of the blood be expos'd to the Air , it will after a time ( for 't is not said how long ) be so wrought on by the contact of the Air , that the superficial part of the blood will appear as florid as the lately mention'd upper part ( suppos'd to be , as it were , the flower of the blood , ) did seem before . And this Observation I found to hold in the blood of some Beasts , whereon I tryed it , in which I found it to succeed in much fewer minutes , than the Virtuoso's Experiment on Human blood would make me expect . On the other side I have often prepar'd a Substance , whose effect appears quite contrary to this . For , though this factitious Concrete , whilst kept to the Fire or very carefully preserved from the Air , be of a red colour almost like the common opacous Bloodstone of the shops ; yet , if I broke it , and left the lumps or fragments of it a little while in the Air , it would in a short time ( sometimes perhaps not amounting to a quarter of an hour ) it would , I say , have its superficial parts turn'd of a very dark colour , very little , and sometimes scarce at all , short of blackness . A very inquisitive Person of my acquaintance , having occasion to make , by Distillation , a Medicine of his own devising , chanc'd to observe this odd property in it , That at that time of the year , if it were kept stopt , it would be coagulated almost like Oyl of Anniseeds in cold weather ; yet , if the stopple were taken out , and so access were for a while given to the Air , it would turn to a liquor , and the vessel being again stopt , it would , though more slowly , recoagulate . The hints , that I guess'd might be given by such a Phaenomenon , making me desirous to know something of it more than barely by Relation , I express'd rather a curiosity than a diffidence about it ; and the Maker of it telling me , he thought , he had in a small Vial about a spoonful of this Medicine left in a neighbouring Chamber , I desired his leave to consider it my self , which Request being presently complied with , I found it , when he brought it into the Room which I stayed in , not liquid but consistent , though of but a slight and soft contexture . And having taken out the Cork , and set the Vial in a window , which ( if I well remember ) was open , though the Season , which was Winter , was cold , yet in a little time that I stayed talking with the Chymist , I found , that the so lately coagulated substance was almost all become fluid . And another time , when the Season was less cold , having occasion to be where the Vial was kept well stopt , and casting my Eyes on it , I perceiv'd the included substance to be coagulated much like Oyl of Anniseeds . And this substance having , as the Maker assur'd me , nothing at all of Mineral in it , nor any Chymical Salt , it consisting only of two simple bodies , the one of a vegetable and the other of an animal substance , distill'd together , I scarce doubt but you will think with me , that these contrary operations of the Air , which seems to have a power in some Circumstances to coagulate such a body , and yet to dissolve and make it fluid when fresh and fresh parts are allow'd access to it , may deserve to be further reflected on , in reference ( among other things ) to the opportune operations , the inspired Air may have on the consistence and motion of the circulating blood , and to the discharge of the fuliginous recrements to be separated from the blood in its passage through the Lungs . There are two other Phaenomena that seem favourable to our Suspicion , That there are Anonymous Substances and Qualities in the Air , which ought not to be altogether praetermitted on this occasion ; though , because to speak fully of them would require far more time than I can now spare , I shall speak of them but succinctly . The latter of these two Phaenomena is the growth or appearing production of Metals or Minerals dug out of the Earth , and expos'd to the Air. And this , though it be the last of the two , I mention first , because it seems expedient , lest it should prove too long an interruption to our Discourse , to postpone the Observations and annex them to the end of this Paper ; only intimating to you now , that the caution I formerly interposed about the Regeneration of Salts in Nitrous and other Earths , may , for greater security , be applied , mutatis mutandis , to that production of Metalline and Mineral bodies we are speaking of . The other of the two Phaenomena , I lately promis'd to mention , is afforded me by those various and odd Diseases , that at some times and in some places happen to invade and destroy numbers of Beasts , sometimes of one particular kind , and sometimes of another . Of this we have many instances in the Books of approved Authors ; both Physitians and others ; and I have my self observ'd some notable Examples of it . But yet I should not mention it as a ground of Suspicion , that there may be , in some times and places , unknown Effluvia and powers in the Air , but that I distinguish these from those Diseases of Animals , that proceed , as the Rot in Sheep often does , from the exorbitancy of the Seasons , the immoderateness of Cold , Heat , or any other manifest Quality in the Air. And you will easily perceive , that some of these Examples probably argue , that the Subterraneal parts do sometimes ( especially after Earthquakes or unusual cleavings of the ground ) send up into the Air peculiar kinds of venomous Exhalations , that produce new and mortal Diseases in Animals of such a species , and not in those of another , and in this or that particular place , and not elsewhere : Of which we have an eminent Instance in that odd Plague or Murrain of the year 1514 , which Fernelius tells us invaded none but Cats . And even in Animals of the same species , sometimes one sort have been incomparably more obnoxious to the Plague than another ; as Dionysius Halicarnaséus mentions a Plague that attack'd none but Maids ; whereas the Pestilence that raged in the time of Gentilis ( a fam'd Physitian ) kill'd few Women , and scarce any but lusty Men. And so Boterus mentions a great Plague , that assaulted almost only the younger sort of persons , few past thirty years of age being attack'd by it : Which last Observation has been also made by several later Physitians . To which may be added , what Learned Men of that Faculty have noted at several times concerning Plagues , that particularly invaded those of this or that Nation , though confusedly mingled with other People ; as Cardan speaks of a Plague at Basil , with which only the Switzers , and not the Italians , French , or Germans , were infected . And Iohannes Utenhovious takes notice of a cruel Plague at Copenhagen , which , though it raged among the Danes , spared both the English , Dutch , and Germans , though they freely enter'd infected houses , and were not careful to shun the sick . In reciting of which Instances I would not be understood , as if I imputed these effects meerly to noxious Subterraneal fumes ; for I am far from denying , that the peculiar Constitutions of Mens Bodies are likely to have a great interest in them : But yet it seems less probable , that the pestilent venom diffused through the Air should owe its enormous and fatal efficacy to the excess of the manifest Qualities of the Air , than to the peculiar nature of the pestilential poison sent up into the Air from under ground , which when it is by dilution or dissipation enervated , or by its progress past beyond the Air we breath in , or render'd ineffectual by subterraneal or other Corpuscles of a contrary Quality , the Plague , which it , as a con-cause , produced , either quite ceases , or degenerates into somewhat else . But I have not time to countenance this Conjecture , much less to consider , whether some of those Diseases , that are wont to be call'd new , which either did begin to appear , or at least to be rise , within these two or three Centuries , as the Sudor Anglicus in the fifteenth Century , the Scurvy , and the Morbus Hungaricus , the Lues Moraviae , Novus Morbus Luneburgensis , and some others , in the last Century of all , may be in part caus'd by the exotic steams this Discourse treats of . But this Consideration I willingly resign to Physitians . And now , if the two forementioned Suspicions , the one about Subterraneal , the other about Sydereal , Effluviums , shall prove to be well grounded , they may lead us to other Suspicions and further thoughts about things of no mean Consequence ; three of which I shall venture to make mention of in this place . I. For we may hence be awakened to consider , whether divers changes of Temperature and Constitution in the Air , not only as to manifest Qualities , but as to the more latent ones , may not sometimes in part , if not chiefly , be derived from the paucity or plenty , and peculiar nature of one or both of these sorts of Esfluviums . And in particular , we find in the most approved Writers such strange Phaenomena to have several times happen'd in great Plagues and contagious Diseases , fomented and communicated , nay ( as many eminent Physitians believed ) begun , by some latent pestiferous , or other malignant , Diathesis or Constitution of the Air , as have obliged many of the Learned'st of them to have recourse to the immediate operation of the Angels , or of the Power and Wrath of God himself , or at least to some unaccountable influence of the Stars ; none of the Solutions of which difficulties seems preferable to what may be gathered from our Conjecture ; since of Physical Agents of which we know nothing so much , as that they are to us invisible and probably of a heteroclite nature , it need be no great wonder , that the operation should also be abstruse , and the effects uncommon . And on this occasion it may be consider'd , that there are clearer inducements to perswade us , that another Quality of the Atmosphere , its Gravity , may be alter'd by unseen Effluviums , ascending from the Subterraneous Regions of our Globe ; and we have often perceived by the Mercurial Baroscope the Weight of the Air to be notably increased , when we could not perceive in the Air nor surface of Earth any cause to which we could ascribe so notable a change . And this gives me a rise to add , that I have sometimes allowed my self to doubt , whether even the Sun it self may not now and then alter the Gravity of the Atmosphere otherwise than by its Beams or Heat . And I remember , I desired some Virtuosi of my acquaintance to assist me in the inquiry , whether any of the Spots , that appear about the Sun , may not , upon their sudden dissolution , have some of their discuss'd and dispers'd matter thrown off , as far as to our Atmosphere , and that copiously enough to produce some sensible alterations in it , at least as to Gravity . II. Another thing , that our two foremention'd Suspicions , if allow'd of , will suggest , is , that it may not seem altogether improbable , that some bodies , we are conversant with , may have a peculiar disposition and fitness to be wrought on by , or to be associated with , some of those exotic Effluvia , that are emitted by unknown bodies lodged under ground , or that proceed from this or that Planet . For what we call Sympathies and Antipathies , depending indeed on the peculiar Textures and other Modifications of the bodies , between whom these friendships and hostilities are said to be exercised , I see not why it should be impossible , that there be a Cognation betwixt a body of a congruous or convenient Texture , ( especially as to the shape and size of its Pores , ) and the Effluviums of any other body , whether Subterraneal or Sydereal . We see , that convex Burning-glasses , by virtue of their figure and the disposition of their pores , are fitted to be pervaded by the beams of Light and to refract them , and thereby to kindle combustible matter ; and the same beams of the Sun will impart a lucidness to the Bolonian stone . And as for Subterraneal bodies , I elsewhere mention two Minerals , which being prepared , ( as I there intimate , ) the steams of the one , ascending without adventitious Heat and wandering through the Air , will not sensibly work on other bodies ; but if they meet with that which we prepared , they will immediately have an operation on it , whose effect will be both manifest and lasting . III. I now pass on to the other thing , that the two formerly mentioned Suspicions may suggest , which is , that if they be granted to be well founded , we may be allow'd to consider , whether among the bodies we are acquainted with here below , there may not be found some , that may be Receptacles , if not also Attractives , of the Sydereal , and other exotic Effluviums that rove up and down in our Air. Some of the Mysterious Writers about the Philosophers-stone , speak great things of the excellency of what they call their Philosophical Magnet , which , they seem to say , attracts and ( in their phrase ) corporifies the Universal Spirit , or ( as some speak ) the Spirit of the World. But these things being abstrusities , which the Writers of them profess'd to be written for , and to be understood only by , the Sons of Art ; I , who freely acknowledge I cannot clearly apprehend them , shall leave them in their own worth as I found them , and only , for brevity sake , make use of the receiv'd word of a Magnet , which I may do in my own sense , without avowing the receiv'd Doctrine of Attraction . For by such a Magnet , as I here purpose to speak of , I mean not a body that can properly attract our foreign Effluviums ; but such an one , as is fitted to detain and join with them , when by virtue of the various motions , that belong to the Air as a Fluid , they happen'd to accost the Magnet . Which may be illustrated by the known way of making Oyl of Tartar ( as the Chymists call it ) per Deliquium . For , though the Spagyrists and others suppose , that the fiery Salt draws to it the Aqueous Vapours , yet indeed it does but arrest , and imbody with , such of those that wander through the Air , as chance in their passage to accost it . And , without receding from the Corpuscularian Principles , we may allow some of the bodies , we speak of , a greater resemblance to Magnets , than what I have been mentioning . For not only such a Magnet may upon the bare account of Adhesion by Iuxta-position or Contact , detain the Effluviums that would glide along it , but these may be the more firmly arrested by a kind of precipitating faculty , that the Magnet may have in reference to such Effluviums ; which , if I had time , I could illustrate by some Instances ; nay I dare not deny it to be possible , but that in some Circumstances of time or place one of our Magnets may , as it were , fetch in such steams as would indeed pass near it , but would not otherwise come to touch it . On which occasion I remember , I have in certain cases been able to make some bodies , not all of them Electrical , attract ( as they speak ) without being excited by rubbing , &c. far less light bodies , than the Effluviums we are speaking of . But this it may suffice to have glanc'd at , it not being here my purpose to meddle with the mystical Theories of the Chymists ; but rather to intimate , that , without adopting or rejecting them , one may discourse like a Naturalist about Magnets of Celestial and other Emanations , that appear not to have been consider'd , not to say , thought of , either by the Scholastic , or even the Mechanical , Philosophers . OF CELESTIAL & AERIAL MAGNETS . IF now , upon what I have granted in the close of the past Discourse , you should urge the question further , and press me to declare , Whether , as I think it no impossible thing , that Nature should make , so I think it no unpracticable or hopeless thing , that Men should find , or Art should prepare , useful Magnets of the exotic Effluviums of the lower region of the Earth , or the upper of the World : It would much distress me to give any other answer , than that I think it extreamly difficult , and not absolutely impossible ; and therefore I would not discourage any curious or industrious Man from attempting to satisfie himself by Experiments , because even a seemingly slight discovery in a thing of this nature may be of no small use in the investigation of the nature of the Air , especially in some particular places , and of the Correspondency , which , by the intervention of the Air , the superficial part of the Terrestrial Globe may have both with the Subterraneal Regions of the Earth , and the Celestial ones of the Universe . Some of the things I have tryed or seen relating to this discovery , I must for certain reasons leave here unmentioned , and only advertise you , that several bodies , which experience has assur'd us do imbibe or retain something from the Air , as some calcin'd Minerals , some Marchasites , some Salts , as well factitious as natural , &c. may be fit to be often exposed to it , and then weighed again , and farther diligently examined , whether that which makes the increment of weight , be a meer imbibed moisture or also somewhat else , and likewise whether it be separable from the body or not , or however have endowed it with any considerably Quality ; and if you chance to meet with a good Magnet , you may then vary Experiments with it , by exposing it long to the Air in Regions differing much in Climat , or Soil , or both , by exposing it by day only , or by night , at several Seasons of the Year , in several Temperatures of the Air , at several considerable Aspects of the Stars and Planets , by making it more or less frequently part with what it has gain'd from the Air ; and in short , by having regard to variety of Circumstances , which your Curiosity and Sagacity may suggest . For , by thus diversifying the Experiment many ways , you may perhaps , by one or other of them , make some unexpected and yet important discovery of what Effluviums the Air , in particular places and times , abounds with , or wants , and perchance too , of some correspondency between the Terrestrial and Etherial Globes of the World. I shall neither be surpriz'd nor quarrel with you , if you tell me , that these are extravagant thoughts ; but if I had been fortunate in preserving all , that Tryal , Observation , or other productions of some Curiosity , I once had for such Inquiries , procur'd me , you would not perhaps think me so very extravagant . But though I must not here make any further mention of them , and shall only take notice of one body , namely VITRIOL , whether crude , or unripe , and ( as Chymists speak ) embrionated , or Spagyrically prepar'd ; yet some Phaenomena of these Vitriolate Substances may for the present , I hope , somewhat moderate your censure for my putting you upon Observations that I fear you your self will judge unpromising , and less favourable persons than you would think phantastical . And to let you see by a pregnant Instance , that the Air may not only have a Notable operation upon Vitriol , and that , after a strong fire could work no farther on it , but that this operation was considerably diversified by Circumstances ; I shall begin what I have to alledge , with what the experienc'd Zwelfer occasionally observ'd , and relates to usher in a caution about a Chymical Preparation of Vitriol : For , having inform'd his Reader , that the Colcothar , that is made by a strong Distillation , is not corrosive , he denies , that , ( to use his own words ) statim à Distillatione Sal ex eodem , affusâ aquâ , elici queat ; sed tum prius , ( continues he ) ubi aliquandiu aeri expositum fuerit ; tunc enim sal praebet quandoque candidum , quandoque purpureum , aspectu pulcherrimum , quod aliquando in copia acquisivi , & penes me asservo , quandoque etiam Nitrosum . Which Testimony of this candid Spagyrist has much the more weight with me , because I find , what he affirms of the Saltlesness of newly and strongly calcin'd Vitriol to be very agreeable to some of my Experiments about Colcothar of blew ( v●nereal ) Vitriol ; which Salt or Mineral ( I mean Vitriol ) is so odd a Concrete , that I have thought fit more than once to recommend the making Experiments about it to several Curious Persons , that had better opportunity to continue them than I , whose residence was not so fixt . And I remember , that one of these , a Person industrious and versed in Chymical Operations , gave me this account , that not only he had differing kinds of Salts from Colcothar expos'd to the Air for many months , and robb'd at convenient times of what it had acquir'd , but that in tract of time he found it so alter'd , that he obtain'd from it a pretty quantity of true running Mercury . And now , to resume and conclude what I was saying about Colcothar , there are two or three things I would propose to be observed by you , or any Virtuoso that would assist me in these tryals about this odd Calcinatum , ( for to call it Terrae damnata , were to injure it . ) The first is , to take notice of ●ome Circumstances that most Observers would overlook ; such as ( besides the Nature of the Soil ) the Temperature of the Air , the Month of the Year , and the Winds , the weight of the Atmosphere , the Spots of the Sun , if any be , the Moons Age , and her Place in the Zodiack , and the principal Aspects of the Planets , and the other chief Stars . For , though it be a boldness to affirm , that any , or perhaps all of these together , will have any interest in the production of the Salt or other Substance , to be made or disclosed in the Colcothar ; yet in things new and exorbitant , it may be sometimes rash and peremptory to deny , even such things as cannot , without rashness , be positively asserted ; and in our case the small trouble of taking notice of Circumstances will be richly paid by the least discovery made in things so abstruse and considerable . And as we cannot yet knowingly pronounce , so much as negatively , whether the Libration of the Moon and the Motion of the Sun ( and perhaps of some of the other Planets ) about their own Centers , and consequently their obverting several parts of their bodies to us , may have an operation upon our Atmosphere ; so , for ought I know , there may be in those vast internal parts of the Earth , whose thin crust only has been here and there dug into by Men , considerable Masses of Matter , that may have periodical Revolutions , or Accensions , or Estuations , or Fermentations , or , in short , some other notable Commotions , whose Effluvia and Effects may have operations , yet unobserved , on the Atmosphere and on some particular bodies expos'd to it ; though these periods may be perhaps either altogether irregular , or have some kind of regularity differing from what one would expect . As we see , that the Sea has those grand Intumescencies , we call Spring-tides , not every day , nor at any constant day of the month or week , but about the Full and New Moon ; and these Spring-tides are most notably heighten'd , not every month , but twice a year , at or about the Vernal and Autumnal Equinoxes ; which Observations have not been near so antient and known , as the daily Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea. The Etestans of the Antients I shall not now insist on , nor the Observations that I think I elsewhere mention'd of the Elder Inhabitants of the Caribe-Islands , who , when the Europeans first resorted thither , were wont to have Hurricanes but once in seven years ; afterwards they were molested with them but once in three years ; and of late they are troubled with them almost every year . And a Physitian that lived there told me , that he had scarce ever observed them to come but within the compass of two months joyning to one another . In which Instances , and divers others that may be noted of what changes happen'd to great Quantities of Matter , Nature seems to affect something of periodical , but not in a way that appears to us , regular . One may add on this occasion that memorable passage related by the Learned Varenius of those Hot Springs in Germany , that he calls Thermae Peperinae , of which he affirms in more than one place , that they have this peculiarity , that they annually begin and cease to flow at certain times ; the former about the third day of May , and the latter near the middle of September , at which time they are wont to rest till the following Spring . But though , for ought I know , our Geographers Observation will hold in hot Springs ; yet it must not be extended to all , at least , if we admit that which is related by the accurate Iohannes de Laet , ( I suppose out of Ximenes , or the famous Conquerour of Mexico , Cortes , ) who tells us , that in the Mexican Province , Xilotepec , Fons celebratur , qui quatuor continuit annis scaturit , deinde quatuor sequentibu● deficit , & rursus ad priorem modum erumpit , & , quod mirabile , pluviis diebus , parciùs , quum sudum est tempus & aridum , copiosiùs , exuberat . But this is not a place to enlarge upon the grounds of my suspecting , there may be some periodical Motions and Commotions within the Terrestrial Globe ; what has been mention'd being only to invite you to take notice of Circumstances in your Observations of Colcothar , some of which may , with the more shew of probability , be kept expos'd for a long time , because that Bars of Windows and other erected Irons I have found to acquire in tract of time from the Effluvia of the Earth a settled Magnetism . The other main thing I would recommend , is , that notice be taken not only of the kind of Vitriol , the Colcothar is made of ; ( for I generally used blew Danzig Vitriol ) as Martial Vitriol , Hungarian Vitriol , Roman Vitriol , &c. to which I have , for Curiosity , added Vitriol made by our selves of the Solution of the more saline parts of Marchasites in water , without the usual additament of Iron , or Copper ; but also , to what degree the calcination is made , and how far the calcin'd Matter is freed from the Salt by water . For these Circumstances , at least in some places , may be of moment , and perhaps may afford us good hints of the Constitution of the Atmosphere in particular parts , as well as of the best preparation of Colcothar for detaining the exotic Effluviums . And I would the rather have Experiments tryed again in other places with Colcothar not calcin'd to the utmost , nor yet so exquisitly edulcorated , but that some saline particles should be left in it for future increase ; because I have more than once purposely tryed in vain , that the Caput Mortuum of blew Vitriol , whereof the Oyl and other parts had been driven off with a violent and lasting fire , would not , when fresh , impart any saltness to the water ; nor do I think , that out of some ounces purposely edulcorated I obtained one grain of Salt. And this saltless Colcothar being expos'd , some by me , and some by a Friend that had conveniency in another place not far off , to the Air , some for many weeks and some for divers months , we did not find it to have manifestly increased in weight , or to have acquired any sensible saltness , which , supposing the Vitriol to have nothing extraordinary , gave me the stronger suspicion of some peculiarity in the Air of that part of London , where the Tryals had been made , at least during those times wherein we made them ; because not only former experience , made here in England , had assur'd me , that some Colcothars will gain no despicable accession of weight by being expos'd to the Air ; but accidentally complaining of my lately mention'd disappointment to an ingenious Traveller , that had , in divers Countries , been curious to examine their Vitriols , he assured me , that , though he usually dulcified his Colcothar very well , yet within four or five weeks he found it considerably impregnated by the Air 't was exposed to . It remains , that I add one intimation more about Vitriol , which is , that I have found it to have so great a correspondency with the Air , that it would not be amiss to try , not only Colcothar of differing Vitriols ( whether barely made the common way , or without any Metalline addition to the Vitriol Stones or Ore , ) but other Preparations of Vitriol too , such as exposing Vitriol , only calcin'd to whiteness by the Sun-beams , or further to an higher colour by a gentle Heat , or throughly calcined , and then impregnated with a little of its own Oyl . For such Vitriolate Substances as these , the Air may work upon , nay even liquid Preparations of Vitriol may be peculiarly affected by the Air , and thereby perhaps be useful to discover the present constitution , or foretel some approaching changes of it . Of the use of which conjecture , namely the peculiar action of the Air on some Vitriolate Liquors , I remember I shew'd some Virtuosi a new Instance in an Experiment , whereof this was the Sum : [ I elsewhere mention a Composition that I devis'd , to make with Sublimate , Copper , and Spirit of Salt , a Liquor of a Green exceeding lovely . But in the description of it I mention'd not ( having no need to do it there ) a circumstance as odd as the liquor it self was grateful . For the Air has so much interest in the production of this green , that when you have made the Solution of the Copper and Mercury with the Spirit of Salt , that Solution will not be green , nor so much as greenish , as long as you keep it stopt in the bolt-head , or such like glass wherein 't is made . But if you pour it out into a Vial , which , by not being stopt , leaves it expos'd to the Air , it will after a while sooner or later attain that delightful green that so much endears it to the Beholders Eye . This appear'd so odd an Experiment to the Virtuosi , to whom I first related it , that those that could not guess by what means I attain'd it , could scarce believe it . But that troubled not me , who , to satisfie my self not only of the Truth of the Experiment , but that 't was not so contingent as many others , repeated it several times , and found the Solution , 'till the Air made it florish , to be of a muddy reddish colour quite differing from green . So that I remember , that having once kept some of the liquor in the same glass-egg , wherein the Solution had been made , it look'd like very dirty water , whilst the other part of the same Solution , having been expos'd to the Air , emulated the colour of an Emerald . In which change 't is remarkable , that to clarifie this liquor and give it a transparent greeness , I perceiv'd not , that any precipitation of foul matter was made to which the alteration could be ascrib'd ; and yet to make it the more probable that this change proceeded not from a subsidence made of some opacating matter effected by some days rest , I kept some of the Solution seal'd up in a fine Vial several months , without finding it at the end of that time other than a dark or muddy liquor , which , in short time , it ceas'd to be , when , the Hermetic Seal being broken off , the Air was permitted to work upon it . And this I further observ'd in our various Experiments on this liquor , that , according to the quality of the matter and other Circumstances , the greeness was not attain'd to but at certain periods of time , now and then disclosing it self within two or three days , and sometimes not before nine or ten . ] With how little Confidence of success Tryals , that have the aimes of these I have been speaking of , are to be attempted , not only consideration but experience have made me sensible . But yet I would not discourage Mens Curiosity from venturing even upon slight probabilities , where the Nobleness of the Subjects and Scope may make even small attainments very desirable . And 'till tryal have been made on occasions of great moment , 't is not easie to be satisfied , that Men have not been wanting to themselves ; which I shall only illustrate by proposing , what , I presume , will not need that I should make an application of it . Those adventurous Navigators , that have made Voyages for Discovery in unknown Seas , when they first discern'd something obscure near the Horizon at a great distance off , have often doubted , whether what they had so imperfect a sight of , were a Cloud , or an Island , or a Mountain : But though sometimes it were more likely to be the former , as that which more frequently occurr'd , than the latter ; yet they judg'd it advisable to steer towards it , 'till they had a clearer prospect of it : For if it were a deluding Meteor , they would not however sustain so great a loss in that of a little labour , as , in case it were a Country , they would in the loss of what might prove a rich Discovery : And if they desisted too soon from their Curiosity , they could not rationally satisfie themselves , whether they slighted a Cloud or neglected a Country . FINIS . OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE GROVVTH OF METALS in their ORE Exposed to the AIR . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE , Fellow of the Royal Society . LONDON , Printed by William Godbid , and are to be Sold by Moses Pitt , at the Angel over against the little North Door of St. Paul's Church . 1674. OBSERVATIONS OF THE GROVVTH OF METALS . IT is altogether unnecessary to my present purpose , to examin , whether Metals and Minerals , as if they were a kind of subterraneal Plants , do properly grow as Vegetables do . For this Inquiry belongs to another place , but not to this , where the reference made in the 39th page of the foregoing Paper does not oblige me to speak of the Growth of Metals in any other than a lax and popular sense , in which a Metal may be said to grow , if a portion of Matter being assign'd , wherein as yet Men can find either no Metal , as Gold or Tin , or but such a quantity of it ; this being expos'd to the Air , will after a time either afford some Metal where there appear'd none before , or a greater proportion of Metal than it had before . Observations of this kind requiring length of time , as well as residence near places abounding with Minerals , I have little or no opportunity to make any of them my self , at least with the wariness , that to me seems due to Observations that I think not easie to be well made . And therefore I must content my self to set down what I have been able to learn by conversing with Mineralists and Travellers , and to add some particulars that I met with in Authors of good Credit . OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE Growth of TIN. AN ancient Owner of Mines , being asked by me , Whether he could , otherwise than upon the Conjectures of vulgar Tradition , prove , that Minerals grow even after the Veins have been dug ? Answer'd affirmatively ; and being desired to let me know his proofs , he gave me these that follow . He told me , that not far from his House there was a Tin-Mine , which the old Diggers affirm'd to have been left off , some said eighty , some an hundred & twenty years ago , because they had by their washing and vanning separated all the Ore from the rest of the Earth , and yet of late years they found it so richly impregnated with Metalline Particles , that it was wrought over again with very good profit , and preferr'd to some other Mines that were actually wrought , and had never been so robb'd . And when I objected , that probably this might proceed from the laziness and unskilfulness of Workmen in those times , who left in the Earth the Tin that was lately separated , and might then have been so ; I was answer'd , that 't was a known thing in the Country , that in those times the Mine-men were more careful and laborious to separate the Metalline part from the rest of the Ore , than now they are . He also affirmed to me , that in his own time some Tenants and Neighbours of his ( imploy'd by him ) having got all the Ore they could out of a great quantity of stuff , dug out of a Tin-Mine , they laid the remains in great heaps expos'd to the Air , and within twenty and thirty years after , found them so richly impregnated , that they wrought them over again with good benefit . And lastly he assured me , that , in a Work of his own , wherein he had exercis'd his skill and experience , ( which is said to be very great ) to separate all the particles of the Tin from the Terrestrial substances , that were dug up with it out of the Vein , he caus'd Dams to be made to stop the Earthy Substance , which the Stream washed away from the Ore , giving passage to the water after it had let fall this Substance , which lying in heaps expos'd to the Air , within ten or twelve years , and sometimes much less , he examin'd this or that heap , and found it to contain such store of Metalline particles , as invited him to work it again and do it with profit . And yet this Gentleman was so dexterous at separating the Metalline from the other parts of Tin-Ore , that I could ( not without wonder ) see what small Corpuscles he would , to satisfie my Curiosity , sever from vast quantities ( in proportion ) of Earthy and other Mineral stuff . Relations agreeable to these , I received from another very ingenious Gentleman that was conversant with Tin-Mines , and lived not far from more than one of them . I was the more solicitous to procure an information about the Growth of this Metal , because the bulk of that , which is us'd in Europe , being found in England , I have met with little or no mention of the Growth of it in Outlandish Writers . OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE Growth of LEAD . AS for the Growth of Lead in the Ore expos'd to the Air , I remember , I enquir'd about it of a Person of Quality , who had a Patent for divers Leaden Mines that were suppos'd to contain Silver , and wrought some of them himself at no small charge , yet not without profit ; and , as I remember , he answer'd me , that the Lead-Ore , that had been wrought and laid in heaps , did , in tract of time , grow impregnated with Metal again , and , as experience manifested , became worth working a second time . And indeed some Mineralists deliver it as a general Observation , that the Growth and Renascence of Metals is more manifest in Lead than in any other of them . Fessularum mons in Hetruria , says Boccatius Certardus , who delivers it as a most approved Truth , Florentiae Civitati imminens , lapiaes plumbarios habet , qui si excidantur brevi temporis spatio novis Incrementis instaurantur . J. Gerhard . in Decade quaestionum , pag. m. 22. Tu subtilius ne quaeras ( says Agricola , speaking of the Growth of Mines in general ) sed tantummodo refer animum ad cuniculos , & considera , eos adeò interdum memoriâ hominum in angustum venisse , ut aliqua sui parte nullum aut admodum difficilem praebeant transitum , cùm eos satis latè agere soleant Fossores , ne transituros impediant . In tales autem angustias sunt adducti propter accretionem materiae ex qua lapis est factus . But whether this increment of Lead is observable in all Mines of that Metal , I was induc'd to doubt by the answer given me by a Gentleman , whose House was seated near several Lead-Mines , and who was himself Owner of one or two , which he yet causes to be wrought : For this Gentleman , though a Chymist , assured me , that in the Country where he lives , which is divided by the Sea from that of the Person above-mention'd , he never observ'd the Lead-Ore to increase , either out of the Veins or in them ; but that in some places , whence Ore had been dug thirty or forty , if not fifty , years before , he perceived not on the sides of the passages , whence the Ore had been dug , that any other had grown in its place , or that the passages , though narrow before , were sensibly straighten'd , much less block'd up . And indeed , if there were no other Arguments in the cafe , the straightning of the ancient passages in process of time would not convince me . For , when I con●ider , that the Soils that abound with Metals do usually also abound with waters , which are commonly imbibed by the neighbouring Earth ; and when I consider too , that water is somewhat expanded by being turned into Ice , and that this expansion is made , ( as I have often tryed ) though slowly , yet with an exceeding great force , by which it often stretches or breaks the Vessels that contain it : When I consider these things , I say , I am apt to suspect , that sometimes the increasing narrowness of the subterraneal passages in Mines may proceed from this , that the Soil that invirons them , if they lye not deep , may have the water , imbibed by them , frozen in sharp Winters . By which glaciation , the moistened portion of the Soil must forcibly endeavour to expand it self , and actually do so in the parts contiguous to the passage , since there it finds no resistance : And though the expansion made in one year or two be but small , and therefore not observed ; yet , in a succession of many Winters , it may by degrees grow to be very considerable . But this suspicion I suggest not , that I would deny the Growth of Minerals , but to recommend this Argument for it to further Consideration . And yet I take this to be a better proof , than what is much relied on by some Writers of Metals , who urge , that in Churches , and other magnificent Buildings , that are Leaded over , the Metalline Roofs , in a long tract of years , grow far more ponderous , in so much that often times there is a necessity to remove them , and exchange them for Brass ones . For though this plausible Argument be urged by several Writers , and among them by the Learned Io. Gerhardus , pag. m. 22 ; yet I fear they proceed upon a Mistake . For having had some occasion to observe and inquire after this kind of Lead , I soon suspected , that the increment of weight , ( which sometimes may indeed be very great ) was no clear proof of the real Growth of the Metal it self . For in that which I had occasion to consider , the additional weight as well as bulk seem'd to proceed from Acetous or other Saline Corpuscles of the Timber of those Buildings , which by degrees exhaling and corroding that side of the Lead which they fasten'd on , turned i● with themselves into a kind of Cerusse : Which suspicion I shall briefly make probable by noting , 1. That I have found by tryal purposely made , that Woods afford an acid , though not meerly acid , liquor , capable of corroding Lead . 2. That 't is known , that Lead turned into Cerusse increases notably in weight , some say , ( for I had not opportunity to try it ) above six or seven in the hundred . 3. That from the Sheets of Lead that have very long cover'd Churches and the like Buildings , there is often obtain'd by scraping a good proportion of white Lead , which I have known much preferr'd by an eminent Artist to common Cerusse , when a white Pigment was to be employed . And , by the way , Mens finding this Cerusse not on that side of the Lead that is expos'd to the outward Air , ( where I scarce ever observed any ) but on the inside that regards the Timber and other woodes work , may disabuse those that fancied this Cerusse to be a part of the Lead calcin'd by the Beams of the Sun , that strike immediately upon the Metal . And if to this it be added , that by Distillation and otherwise I have found cause to suspect , that Alabaster and White Marble may emit Spirituous parts that will invade Lead ; it may be doubted , whether what Galen relates of the great Intumescence of Leaden bands or fastenings , wherewith the Feet of Statues were fasten'd ( to their Pedestals , ) be a sure Argument of the real Growth of that Metal in the Air. But I begin to digress , and seemingly to the prejudice of the particular Scope of this Paper ; but yet not to that of one of the main Scopes of all my Physical Writings , the Disquisition and Advancement of Truth . OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE Growth of IRON . I Did not find in one of our chief Mines of Iron , that there was any notice taken of the Growth of that Metal ; but in another place or two , some that deal in Iron-Ore , informed me , that they believe it grows , and may be regenerated ; and upon that account one of them set up a Work , contiguous to some Land of mine , to melt over again the remainder of Ore that had been already wrought ( at a great distance from that place ) and had for some Ages lain in heaps exposed to the free Air ; but with what success this chargeable Attempt has been made , I am not yet informed . But of the Growth of Iron in the Island of Ilva or Elva , in the Tyrrhene Sea , not far from the Coast of Tuscany , not only ancient Authors , as Pliny and Strabo , take special notice , but modern Mineralists of very good credit , as Falopius and Caesalpinus , particularly attest the same thing ; of whom the latter speaks thus : Vena ferri copiosissima est in Italia ; ob eam nobilitata , Ilva ; Tyrreni Maris Insula , incredibili copiâ etiam nostris temporibus eam gignens : Nam terra ; quae eruitur dum vena effoditur , tota procedente temporè in venam convertitur . And the experienc'd Agricola gives us the like account of a place in his Country , Germany , In Lygiis , says he , ad Sagam oppidum in pratis eruitur ferrum , fossis ad altitudinem bipedaneam actis . Id decennio renatum denuò foditur , non aliter ac Ilvaeferrum . The Learned Iohan. Gerhardus , out of a Book which he calls Conciones Metallica ; I suppose he means the High-Dutch Sermons of Mathesius , ( whose Language I understand not ) has this notable passage to our present purpose : Relatum mihi est a metallico fossore , ad Ferrarias , quae non longè Ambergâ distant , terram inanem cum ferri Minera erutam , quam vocant den Gummer , mixtam cum recrementis ferri , quae appellater der Sinder , congestam in cumulos , instar magni cujusdam valli , solibus pluviisque exponi , & decimo quinto anno denuò excoqui , eliquarique ferrum tantae tenacitatis , ut sola laminae inde procudantur . OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE Growth of SILVER . OF the Growth , as is supposed , of Silver in the form of Trees or Grass or other Vegetables , I have met with some Instances among Mineralists , and I have elswhere mention'd , that an Acquaintance of mine shew'd me a Stone , wherein he affirmed the Silver , I saw in it , to have increased since he had it . But for certain Reasons , none of these Relations seem to me very proper to my present purpose ; in order to which I shall therefore set down only one Instance , which I lately met with in a French Collection of Voyages , publish'd by a Person of great Curiosity and Industry , ( from whose Civility I receiv'd the Book . ) For there , in an account given by a Gentleman of his Country of a late Voyage he made to Peru , wherein he visited the famous Silver-Mines of Potosi , I found a passage which speaks to this sense : Le meilleur Argent , &c. i.e. The best Silver in all the Indies and the purest is that of the Mines of Potosi ; the chief have been found in the Mountain of Aranzasse : And , ( some Lines being interpos'd ) 't is added , that they draw this Metal even from the Mineral Earths that were in times past thrown aside , when the ground was open , and the Groves and Shafts that are in the Mountains were made ; it having been observ'd that in these recrements Metal had been formed afresh since those times , which sufficiently shews the propensity of the Soil to the production of this Metal ; yet 't is true , that these impregnated Earths yield not so much as the ordinary Ore which is found in Veins betwixt the Rocks . OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE Growth of GOLD . AS for the Growth of Gold , the Enquiries I have yet made among Travellers give me no great satisfaction about it , and though I have spoken with several that have been at the Coast of Guiny , and in Congo , and other Parts of Afric , where much Gold is to be had ; yet I could not learn by them , that they , or any Acquaintance of theirs among the Natives , had seen any Mines or Veins of Gold , ( which yet divers Authors affirm to be found in more than one Kingdom in Ethiopia , and in some other African Countries . ) And having afterwards met with a Learned Traveller , that had carefully visited the famous Gold-Mine of Cremnitz in Hungary , he answer'd me , That he did not learn from the Miners , whether or no the Ores of Gold &c. did really grow or were regenerated in tract of time , by being expos'd to the Air , or upon any other account ; but the Grand Over●eer , who was Lord of part of the Soil , told him , that he thought the whole Mountain to abound with particles of Gold , and therefore was wont , when the Diggers had almost exhausted the Vein , to cast in store of Earth , and dig up other neighbouring places , which , being kept there as in a Conservatory , would afterwards afford Gold , as the Mine did before . And , if a late German Professor of Physic do not misinform us , his Country affords us an eminent Instance of the Growth or Regeneration of Gold. Nam Corbachi , says he , quae est Civitas westpha●iae sub ditione Comitis de Isenborg & Waldeck , Au●um excoquitur ex cumulis congestis , ita ut ●●ngulis quadrienni●s iterum elaboretur cumulus unus , semper se restaurante natur● , &c. POSTSCRIPT . SInce the setting down of the foregoing Observations , I casually met with a curious Book of Travels , lately made by the very Ingenious Dr. Edward Brown , and finding in pag. 100. a couple of Relations , that seem pertinently referable , the one , to a passage above-cited out of Agricola , in the Notes about the Growth of Lead , and the other to the present Title about the ) Growth of Gold ; I thought fit to annex them in the Learned Authors own words , viz. 1. Some passages in this Mine cut through the Rock , and long ●isus'd , have grown up again : And I observed the sides of some , which had been formerly wide enough , to carry their Ore through , to approach each other , so as we passed with difficulty . This happens most in moist places ; the passages unite n●t from the top to the bottom , but from one side to another . 2. The common yellow Earth of the Country near Cremnitz , especially of the Hills towards the West , although not esteem'd Ore , affords some Gold : And in one place , I saw a great part of an Hill digg'd away , which hath been cast into the Works , washed and wrought in the same manner as pounded Ore , with considerable profit . THe foregoing Observations about the Growth of Gold and other Metals are not all that I might , perhaps without being blamed for it , have referr'd to that Title . But all my Papers , wherein other Observations of this kind were set down , are not now at hand , and divers other Instances , that I have met with among Writers of the Growth of Metals , ( taking that expression in the sense I formerly declared ) do not seem to me so pertinent in this place , because the improving Ores were not expos'd , nor perchance accessible , to the Air. And even as to the Instances that I have now mention'd , 'till severer Observations have been made , to determin whether it be partly the contact or the operation of the Air , or some internal disposition , analogous to a Metalline Seed or Ferment , that causes this Metalline Increment , I dare not be positive ; though I thought the Interest of the Air in this Effect might make it pardonable , to add on this occasion to the History of Nature some particulars , of which the Cause conjecturally proposed may be probable enough to countenance a Suspicion , 'till further Experience have more clearly instructed us . To what has been said of the Growth of Metals in the Air , I might add some Instances of the Growth of Fossile Salts , and of some other Minerals : But , besides that these belong to the Paper about the Saltnesses of the Air ; what has been already said may suffice for the present occasion . POSTSCRIPT . AFter what I writ in the 23th page of the foregoing Disoourse , having an opportunity to look again upon the Marchasite there mention'd to have been Hermetically seal'd up after its surface had been freed from the grains of Vitriolate Salt that adher'd to it , I perceiv'd , that , notwithstanding the Glass had been so closely stopp'd , yet there plainly appear'd from the outside of the mass some grains of an Efflorescence , whose colour , between blew and green , argued it to be of a Vitriolate nature . If this be seconded with other trials made with the like success , it may suggest new thoughts about the Growth of Metals and Minerals , especially with reference to the Air. FINIS . SOME ADDITIONAL EXPERIMENTS Relating to the SUSPICIONS ABOUT THE HIDDEN QUALITIES of the AIR . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE , Fellow of the Royal Society . LONDON , Printed by William Godbid , and are to be Sold by Moses Pitt , at the Angel over against the little North Door of St. Paul's Church . 1674. SOME ADDITIONAL EXPERIMENTS Relating to the SUSPICIONS ABOUT THE Hidden Qualities of the AIR . THe ESSAY about Suspicions of some hidden Qualities of the Air , having been detain'd somewhat long at the Press , that it might come abroad accompanied with the other Tracts design'd to attend i● , whilst I was rumaging among several Papers to look for some other things , I met now and then with an Experiment or Observation , that seem'd to relate to some of the things deliver'd in that Tract ; and though they be in themselves of no great moment , I am content to annex them to the rest , because , as in that company they may signifie somewhat , so I am unwilling that any matter of fact , relating to such a Subject , should perish to save the labour of transcribing . EXPER. I. Having occasion to dulcifie some Calx of Dantzig-Vitriol , from which the Oil had been a good while before distill'd ; water was put upon two large portions of it , that the liqour might be impregnated with the Vitriolate particles remaining in the Calx ; the water put upon one of these portions was , soon after it was sufficiently impregnated , filtrated and gently abstracted , by which means it afforded many drams of a kind of Salt of Vitriol that seem'd to differ very little from the Vitriol that had been calcin'd : But the water that was put upon the other portion of calcin'd Vitriol , was in a wide-mouth'd vessel left in the Air for a month or six weeks ; after which time , when it came to be abstracted after the manner formerly recited , it afforded many drams of a Salt that did not then , nor long after , look at all like common Vitriol , or like the other , but shot white almost like Salt-petre , or some other untincted Salt. Whether this Experiment will constantly succeed , and at other Seasons of the Year than that 't was made in , which was Summer , I had not the opportunity to make a full trial , though I endeavour'd it . But that the Air may have a great stroke in varying the Salts obtainable from cal●in'd Vitriol , seem'd the more probable , because we had some Colcothar that had lain many months , if not some years , in the Air , but in a place shelter'd from the Rain ; and having caus'd a lixivium to be made of it , to try what sort or plenty of Saline particles it would yield , we found , when the superfluous moisture was exhaled , that they began to shoot into Salt far more white than Vitriol , and very differing from it in its figure and way of Concretion . EXPER. II. We took Colcothar of Venereal Vitriol carefully dulcified , and leaving it in my Study in the Month of Ianuary and February , by weighing it carefully before an ounce of it was expos'd to the Air , and after it had continued there some weeks , we found it to have increas'd in weight four grains and about a quarter , besides some little dust that stuck to the Glass . This sight Experiment is here mention'd , that , being compar'd with the next ensuing Trial , it may appear , that the difference of Airs , Seasons , Calces of Vitriol , or other Circumstances , may produce a notable disparity in the Increment of weight , the exposed Bodies gain in the Air. EXPER. III. We put eight ounces of Outlandish Vitriol , calcin'd to a deep redness , into a somewhat broad and flat Metalline vessel , and set it by upon a shelf , in a Study that was seldom frequented ; and at the same time , that we might observe what increment would be gain'd by exposing to the Air a larger superficies of the powder in reference to the bulk , we put into another Metalline vessel , smaller than the other , only two ounces of Colcothar , and set it on the same shelf with the other , this was done at the Vernal Equinox , ( the Twelfth of March ; ) on the twenty fifth of Iune we weigh'd these powders again , and found the eight ounces to have gained one dram and seventeen grains ; but the two ounces had acquired the same weight within a grain : Then putting them back into their former vessels , we left them in the same place as formerly , 'till the twenty fourth of August ; when we found cause to suppose , that the greater parcel of Colcothar had met with some mischance , either by Mice or otherwise ; but the lesser parcel weigh'd Twenty six grains heavier than it did in Iune , amounting now to two ounces , one dram , forty two grains , having increased , in less than six months , above an hundred grains , and consequently above a tenth part of its first weight . No Trial was made to discover what this acquir'd Substance may be , that we might not disturb the intended prosecution of the Experiment . EXPER. IV. Because in most of the Experiments of Substances expos'd to be impregnated by the Air , or detain its Saline or other exotic particles , we employed Bodies prepar'd and much alter'd by the previous operation of the Fire ; we thought fit to make some Trials with Bodies unchanged by the Fire , and to this purpose we took a Marchasite , which was partly of a shining and partly of a darkish colour , and which seem'd well dispos'd to afford Vitriol ; of this we took several smaller Lumps , that amounted to two ounces ; these were kept in a room , where they were freely accessible to the Air , which , by reason that the House , that was seated in the Country , stood high , was esteemed to be very pure . After the Marchasites had been kept in this room somewhat less than seven weeks , we weigh'd them again in the same Ballance , and found the two ounces to have gained above twelve grains in weight . EXPER. V. The Experiment us'd at the latter end of our Paper , about Celestial and Aerial Magnets , seeming to some Vixtuess very strange , and the way that I employ'd in making that Liquor , that turns green in the Air , being somewhat troublesome , I remember I thought fit to try upon the same ground a way of producing the same Phaenomenon more easie and more expeditious . And though perhap● this way will not succeed so constantly , nor always so well as the other , yet for its easiness and cheapness it will not probably be unwelcome to those that are desirous to see the odd Phaenomenon . We took then , more than once , filings of clean crude Copper , and having put on them a convenient quantity of good Spirit of Salt , we suffer'd the Menstruum in Heat ( which need not be very great ) to work upon the Metal , which it usually does slowly , and not like Aqua-fortis : When the Liquor had by this operation acquir'd a thick and muddy colour , we decanted it into a clean Glass with a wide mouth , which being left for a competent time in the open Air , the exposed Liquor came to be of a fair green , though it did not appear that any thing was precipitated at the bottom , to make it clear . EXPER. VI. Perhaps it may not be impertinent to add , that I once or twice observ'd the fumes of a sharp Liquor to work more quickly or manifestly on a certain Metal sustained in the Air , than did the Menstruum it self that emitted those fumes on those parts of the Metal that it cover'd : And this brings into my mind , that , asking divers Questions of a Chymist that had been in Hungary and other parts , purposely to see the Mines ; he answer'd me , among other things , that ; as to the Ladders and other wooden work imployed in one or more of the deep Hungarian Mines , those that were in the upper part of the Groves any thing near the external Air , would by the fretting Exhalations be render'd unserviceable , in not many months , whereas those Ladders and pieces of Timber , &c. that were imployed in the lower part of the Mine , would hold good for two or three times as long . EXPER. VII . We took about the bigness of a Nutmeg of a certain soft but consistent Body , that we had caus'd to be Chymically prepared , and which in the free Air would continually emit a thick smoak : This being put into a Vial , and placed in a middle sized Receiver in our Engin , continued for some time to afford manifest fumes , whilst the exhaustion was making ; 'till at length , the Air having been more and more pump'd out , the visible ascension of fumes out of the Vial quite ceas'd , and the matter having remain'd some time in this state , the smoaking substance was so alter'd , that it would not emit fumes , not only when the Air was let into the Receiver , but not in a pretty while after the Vial was taken out of it , 'till it had been removed to the window , where the Wind blowing-in fresh and fresh Air , it began to smoak as formerly . The other Phaenomena of this Experiment belong not to this place ; but there are two , which will not be impertinent here , and the latter of them may deserve a serious Reflection . The first of them was , that the Substance hitherto mention'd had been kept in a large Glass , whereinto it had been distill'd at least five or six weeks , and yet would smoak very plentifully upon the contact of the Air , and be kept from smoaking , though the Chymical Receiver were stopp'd but with a piece of paper . The second was , that , when the Vial was put unstopp'd in the Receiver , and the Receiver close luted on , though no exhaustion were made , yet the white fumes did very quickly cease to ascend into the Receiver , as if this Smoak participated of the nature of Flame , and presently glutted the Air , or otherwise made it unfit ( and yet without diminution of its gravity ) to raise the Body that should ascend . FINIS . ANIMADVERSIONS UPON MR. HOBBES'S PROBLEMATA DE VACUO . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE , Fellow of the Royal Society . LONDON , Printed by William Godbid , and are to be Sold by Moses Pitt , at the Angel over against the little North Door of St. Paul's Church . 1674. PREFACE . UPON the coming abroad of Mr. Hobbes's Problemata Physica , finding them in the hands of an Ingenious Person , that intended to write a Censure of them , which several Employments private and publick have , it seems ; hinder'd him to do ; I began , as is usual on such occasions , to turn over the leaves of the Book , to see what particular things it treated of . This I had not long done before I found , by obvious passages in the third Chapter , or Dialogue , as well as by the Title , which was Problemata de Vacuo , that I was particularly concern'd in it ; upon which I desired the Possessor of the Book , who readily consented , to leave me to examin that Dialogue , on which condition I would leave him to deal with all the rest of the Book . Nor did I look upon the Reflections I meant to make as repugnant to the Resolutions I had taken against writing Books of Controversie , since the Explications , Mr. Hobbes gave of his Problems , seem'd to contain but some Variations of , or an Appendix to , his Tract De Natura Aeris , which , being one of the two first pieces that were published against what I had written , was one of those that I had expresly reserv'd my self the liberty to answer . But the Animadversions I first made upon Mr. Hobbes's Problems De Vacuo , having been casually mislaid e're they were finished ; before I had occasion to resume my task , there past time enough to let me perceive , that his Doctrine , which 't will easily be thought that the Vacuists disapproved , was not much relished by most of the Plenists themselves , the modernest Peripateticks and the Cartesians ; each of them maintaining the Fullness of the World , upon their own grounds , which are differing enough from those of our Author , the natural Indisposition I have to Polemical Discourses , easily perswaded me to let alone a Controversie , that did not appear needful : And I had still persisted in my silence , if Mr. Hobbes had not as 't were summon'd me to break it by publishing again his Explications , which in my Examen of his Dialogue De Natura Aeris I had shewn to be erroneous . And I did not grow at all more satisfied , to find him so constant as well as stiff an Adversary to interspers'd Vacuities , by comparing what he maintains in his Dialogue De Vacuo , with some things that he teaches , especially concerning God , the Cause of Motion , and the Imperviousness of Glass , in some other of his Writings that are published in the same Volume with it . For since he asserts that there is a God , and owns Him to be the Creator of the World ; and since on the other side the Penetration of Dimensions is confessed to be impossible , and he denies that there is any Vacuum in the Universe ; it seems difficult to conceive , how in a World that is already perfectly full of Bodie , a Corporeal Deity , such as he maintains in his Append. ad Leviath . cap. 3 , can have that access even to the minute parts of the Mundane Matter , that seems requisite to the Attributes and Operations that belong to the Deity , in reference to the World. But I leave Divines to consider what Influence the conjunction of Mr. Hobbes's two Opinions , the Corporeity of the Deity , and the perfect Plenitude of the World , may have on Theology . And perhaps I should not in a Physical Discourse have taken any notice of the proposed Difficulty , but that , to prevent an Imputation on the Study of Natures Works , ( as if it taught us rather to degrade than admire their Author , ) it seem'd not amiss to hint ( in transitu ) that Mr. Hobbes's gross Conception of a Corporeal God , is not only unwarranted by sound Philosophy , but ill befriended even by his own . My Adversary having propos'd his Problems by way of Dialogue between A. and B ; `twill not , I presume , be wonder'd at , that I have given the same form to my Animadversions ; which come forth no earlier , because I had divers other Treatises , that I was more concern'd for , to publish before them . But because it will probably be demanded , why on a Tract that is but short , my Animadversions should take up so much room ? It will be requisite , that I here give an account of the bulk of this Treatise . And first , having found that there was not any one Problem , in whose Explication , as propos'd by Mr. Hobbes , I saw cause to acquiesce , I was induc'd for the Readers ease , and that I might be sure to do my Adversary no wrong , to transcribe his whole Dialogue , bating some few Transitions , and other Clauses not needful to be transferr'd hither . Next , I was not willing to imitate Mr. Hobbes , who recites in the Dialogue we are considering the same Experiments that he had already mentioned in his Tract De Natura Aeris , without adding as his own ( that I remember ) any new one to them . But my unwillingness to tire the Reader with bare Repetitions of the Arguments I employ'd in my Examen of that Tract , invited me to endeavour to make him some amends for the exercise of his patience by inserting , as occasion was offer'd , five or six new Experiments , that will not perhaps be so easily made by every Reader that will be able ( now that I have perspicuously propos'd them ) to understand them . And lastly , since Mr. Hobbes has not been content to magnifie ●●mself and his way of treating of Physical matters , but has been pleas'd to speak very slightingly of Experimentarian Philosophers ( as he stiles them ) in general , and , which is worse , to disparage the making of elaborate Experiments ; I judg'd the thing , he seem'd to aim at , so prejudicial to true and useful Philosophy , that I thought , it might do some service to the less knowing , and less wary , sort of Readers , if I tryed to make his own Explications enervate his Authority , and by a somewhat particular Examen of the Solutions he has given of the Problems I am concern'd in , shew , that 't is much more easie to undervalue a frequent recourse to Experiments , than truly to explicate the Phaenomena of Nature without them . And since our Author , speaking of his Problemata Physica , ( which is but a small Book ) scruples not to tell His Majesty , to whom he dedicates them , that he has therein comprised ( to speak in his own terms ) the greatest and most probable part of his Physical Meditations ; and since by the alterations , he has made in what he formerly writ about the Phaenomena of my Engine , he seems to have design'd to give it a more advantageous form : I conceive , that by these selected Solutions of his , one may , without doing him the least injustice , make an estimate of his way of discoursing about Natural things . And though I would not interess the credit of Experimentarian Philosophers in no considerabler a Paper than this ; yet if Mr. Hobbes's Explications and mine be attentively compared , it will not , I hope , by them be found , that the way of Philosophising he employs , is much to be preferr'd before that which he undervalues . ANIMADVERSIONS VPON MR. HOBBES'S Problemata de VACUO . A. MAy one , without too bold an inquisitiveness , ask , what Book you are reading so attentively ? B. You will easily believe you may , when I shall have answer'd you , that 't was Mr. Hobbes's lately publish'd Tract of Physical Problems , which I was perusing . A. What progress have you made in it ? B. I was finishing the third Dialogue or Chapter when you came in , and finding my self , though not named , yet particularly concern'd , I was perusing it with that attention which it seems you took notice of . A. Divers of your Experiments are so expresly mention'd there , that one need not be skill'd in decyphering to perceive that you are interessed in that Chapter , and therefore seeing you have heedfully read it over , pray give me leave to ask your Judgment , both of Mr. Hobbes's Opinion , and his Reasonings about Vacuum . B. Concerning his Opinion , I am sorry I cannot now satisfie your Curiosity , having long since taken , and ever since kept , a Resolution to decline , at least until a time that is not yet come , the declaring my self either for or against the Plenists . But as to the other part of your Question , which is about Mr. Hobbes's Arguments for the absolute Plenitude of the World , I shall not scruple readily to answer , that his Ratiocinations seem to me far short of that cogency , which the noise he would make in the world , and the way wherein he treats both ancient and modern Philosophers that dissent from him , may warrant us to expect . A. You will allow me the freedom to tell you , That , to convince me , that your resentment 〈◊〉 his explicating divers of the Phaenomena of your Pneumatic Engine ot●erwise than you have been wont to do , ( and perhaps in terms that might well have been more civil , ) has h 〈…〉 share in dictating this Judgment of yours ; the best way will be , that entering for a while into the party of the Vacuists you answer the Arguments he alledges in this Chapter to confute them . B. Having always , as you know , forborn to declare my self either way in this Controversie , I shall not tye my self strictly to the Principles and Notions of the Vacuists , nor , though but for a while , oppose my self to those of the Plenists : But so far I shall comply with your Commands , as either upon the Doctrine of the Vacuists , or upon other grounds , to consider , whether this Dialogue of Mr. Hobbes have cogently proved his , and the Schools , Assertion , Non dari Vacuum ; and whether he has rightly explain'd some Phaenomena of Nature which he undertakes to give an account of , and especially some produced in our Engin , whereof he takes upon him to render the genuine Causes . And this last inquiry is that which I chiefly design . A. By this I perceive , that if you can make our your own Explications of your Adversaries Problems de Vacuo , and shew them to be preferable to his , you will think you have done your work , and that 't is but your secondary scope to shew , that in Mr. Hobbes his way of solving them , he gives the Vacuists an advantage against Him , though not against the Plenists in general . B. You do not mistake my meaning , and therefore without any further Preamble , let us now proceed to the particular Phaenomena consider'd by Mr. Hobbes ; the first of which is an Experiment proposed by me in the one and thirtieth of the Physico-Mechanical Experiments concerning the Adhesion of two flat and polish'd Marbles , which I endeavour'd to solve by the pressure of the Air. And this Experiment Mr. Hobbes thinks so convincing an one to prove the Plenitude of the World , that , though he tells us he has many cogent Arguments to make it out , yet he mentions but this one , because that , he says , suffices . A. The Confidence he thereby expresses of the great force of this Argument does the less move me , because , I remember , that formerly in his Elements of Philosophy he thought it sufficient to employ one Argument to evince the Plenitude of the World , and for that one he pitch'd upon the Vulgar Experiment of a Gardeners Watering-Pot : But , whether he were wrought upon by the Objections made to his Inference from that Phaenomenon in your Examen of his Dialogue De Natura Aeris , or by some other Considerations , I will not pretend to divine . But I plainly perceive , he now prefers the Experiment of the cohering Marbles . B. Of which it will not be amiss , though the passage be somewhat long ; to read you his whole Discourse out of the Book I have in my hand . A. 'T is fit that you , who for my sake are content to take the pains of answering what he says , should be eased of the trouble of reading it , which I will therefore , with your leave , take upon me . His Discourse then about the Marbles is this : A. Ad probandam Universi Plenitudinem , nullum nostin Argumentum cogens ? B. Imò multa : Unùm autem sufficit ex eo sumptum , Quod duo corpora plana , si se mutuò secundùm amborum planitiem communem tangant , non facile in instante divelli possunt ; successivè verò facillimè . Non dico , impossibile esse duo durissima Marmora ita cohaerentia divellere , sed difficile ; & vim postulare tantam , quanta sufficit ad duritiem lapidis superandam . Siquidem verò majore vi ad separationem opus sit quàm illae , quâ moventur separata , id signum est non dari Vacuum . A. Assertiones illae demonstratione indigent . Primò autem ostende , quomodo ex duorum durissimorum corporum , conjunctorum ad superficies exquisite laeves , diremptione difficili , sequatur Plenitudo Mundi ? B. Si duo plana , dura , polita Corpora ( ut Marmora ) collocentur unum supra alterum , ita ut eorum superficies se mutuò per omnia puncta exactè , quantum fieri potest , contingant , illa sine magna difficultate ita divelli non possunt , ut eodem instante per omnia puncta dirimantur . Veruntamen Marmora eadem , si communis eorum superficies ad Horizontem erigatur , aut non valde inclinetur , alterum ab altero facillimè ( ut scis ) etiam solo pondere dilabentur . Nonne causa hujus rei haec est , Quod labenti Marmori succedit Aer , & relictum locum semper implet ? A. Certissimé . Quid ergo ? B. Quando verò eadem uno instante divellere conaris , nonne multo major vis adhibenda est ; Quam ob causam ? A. Ego , & mecum ( puto ) omnes causam statuunt , Quod spatium totum inter duo illa Marmora divulsa , simul uno instante implere Aer non potest , quantacunque celeritate fiat divulsio . B. An qui spatia in Aere dari vacua contendunt , in illo Aere solo dari negant qui Marmora illa conjuncta circumdat ? A. Minimè , sed ubique interspersa . B. Dum ergo illi , qui Marmor unum ab altero revellentes Aerem comprimunt , & per consequens Vacuum exprimunt , Vacuum faciunt locum per revulsionem relictum ; nulla ergo separationis erit difficultas , saltem non major quàm est difficultas corpora eadem movendi in Aere postquam separata fuerint . Itaque quoniam , concesso Vacuo , difficultas Marmora illa dirimendi nulla est , sequitur per difficultatis experientiam , nullum esse Vacuum . A. Recte quidem illud infers . Mundi autem Plenitudine suppos●ta , quomodo demonstrabis possibile omnino esse ut divellantur ? B. Cogita primo Corpus aliquod ductile , nec nimis durum , ut ceram , in duas partes distrahi , quae tamen partes ●on minus exacte in communi plano se mutuo tangunt quàm laevissima Marmora . Iaem quo pacto distrahatur cera , consideremus . Nonne perpetuo attenuatur donec in filum evadat tenuissimum , & omni dato crasso tenuius , & sic tandem divellitur ? Eodem modo etiam durissima columnae in duas partes distrahetur , si vim tantam adhibeas , quanta sufficit ad resistentiam duritiei superandam . Sicut enim in cera partes primo extimae distrahuntur , in quarum locum succedit Aer ; ita etiam in Corpore quantumlibet duro Aer locum subit partium extimarum , quae primae Vulfionis viribus dirumpuntur . Vis autem quae super at resistentiam partium extimarum Duri , facilè superabit resistentiam reliquarum . Nam resistentia prima est à Toto Duro , reliquarum verò semper à Residuo . A. Ita quidem videtur consideranti , quàm Corpora quaedam , praesertim verò duris●ima , fragilia sint . Does this Ratiocination ●eem to you as cogent , as it did to the Proposer of it ? B. You will quickly think it does not , and perhaps you will think it should not , if you please to consider with me some of the Reflections that the Reading of it suggested to me . And first , without declaring for the Vacuists Opinion , I must profess my self unsatisfied with Mr. Hobbes's way of arguing against them : For , where he says , Dum ergo illi qui Marmor unum ab altero revellentes Aerem comprimunt & per consequens Vacuum exprimunt , Vacuum faciunt locum per revulsionem relictum ; nulla ergo separationis erit difficultas , saltem non major quàm est difficultas corpora eadem movendi in Aere postquam separata fuerint . Itaque quoniam , concesso Vacuo , difficultas Marmora illa dirimendi nulla est , sequitur per difficultatis experientiam , nullum esse Vacuum . Methinks he expresses himself but obscurely , and leaves his Readers to ghess , what the word Dum refers to . But that which seems to be his drift in this passage , is , that , since the Vacuists allow interspersed Vacuities , not only in the Air that surrounds the conjoyned Marbles , but in the rest of the ambient Air , there is no reason , why there should be any difficulty in separating the Marbles , or at least any greater difficulty than in moving the Marbles in that Air after their separation . But , not to consider , whether his Adversaries will not accuse his phrase of squeezing out a Vacuum as if it were a Body , they will easily answer , that notwithstanding the Vacuities they admit in the ambient Air , a manifest reason may be given in their Hypothesis of our finding a difficulty in the Divulsion of the Marbles . For , the Vacuities they admit being but interspers'd , and very small , and the Corpuscles of the Atmosphere being according to them endow'd with Gravity , there leans so many upon the upper surface of the uppermost Marble , that that stone cannot be at once perpendicularly drawn up from the lower Marble contiguous to it , without a force capable to surmount the weight of the Aerial Corpuscles that lean upon it . And this weigh● has already so constipated the neigh●bouring parts of the ambient Air that he , that would perpendicularl● raise the upper Marble from the lower shall need a considerable force to mak● the Revulsion , and compel the al● ready contiguous parts of the incum●bent Air to a subingression into the pores or intervals intercepted be●tween them . For the Conatus of him that endeavo●rs to remove the uppe● Marble , whilst the lower surface o● it is ●enc'd from the pressure of th● Atmosphere by the Contact of th● lower Marble which suffers no Air to come in between them , is not assisted by the weight or pressure of the At●mosphere , which , when the Marble● are once separated , pressing as strong●ly against the undermost surface o● the upper Marble , as the incumben● Atmospherical Pillar does against th● upper surface of the same Marble● the hand that endeavours to raise i● in the free Air has no other resistance than that small one of the Marble own weight to surmount . A. But what say you to the Reason that Mr. Hobbes , and , as he thinks , all others give of the difficulty of the often mention'd Divulsion , namely , Quod spatium totum inter duo illa Marmora divulsa simul uno instante implere Aer non potest , quantacunque celeritate fiat divulsio . B. I say , that , for ought I know , the Plenists may give a more plausible account of this Experiment , than Mr. Hobbes has here done ; and therefore abstracting from the two opposite Hypotheses , I shall further say , That the genuine Cause of the Phaenomenon seems to be that which I have already assign'd ; and that difficulty of raising the upper stone that accompanies the Airs not being able to come in all at once , to possess the space left between the surfaces of the two Marbles upon their separation , proceeds from hence , that , 'till that space be fill'd with the Atmospherical Air , the hand of him that would lift up the superiour Marble cannot be fully assisted by the pressure of the Air against the lower surface of that Marble . A. This is a Paradox , and therefore I shall desire to know on what you ground it ? B. Though I mention it but as a Conjecture propos'd ex abundanti , yet I shall on this occasion countenance it with two things ; the first , that , since I declare not for the Hypothesis of the Plenists as 't is maintain'd by Mr. Hobbes , I am not bound to allow , what the common Explication , adopted by my Adversary , supposes ; namely , that either Nature abhors a Vacuum ( as the Schools would have it , ) or that there could be no Divulsion of the Marbles , unless at the same time the Air were admitted into the room that Divulsion makes for i● . And a Vacuist may tell you , that , provided the strength employ'd to draw up the superiour Marble be great enough to surmount the weight of the Aerial Corpuscles accumulated upon it , the divulsion would ensue , though by Divine Omnipotence no Air or other Body should be permitted to fill the room made for it by the divulsion ; and that the Air 's rushing into that space does not necessarily accompany , but in order of Nature and time follow upon , a separation of the Marbles , the Air that surrounded their contiguous surfaces being by the weight of the collaterally superiour Air impell'd into the room newly made by the divulsion . But I shall rather countenance what you call my Paradox by an Experiment I purposely made in our Pneumatical Receiver , where having accommodated two flat and polish'd Marbles , so that the lower being fixt , the upper might be laid upon it and drawn up again as there should be occasion , I found , that if , when the Receiver was well exhausted , the upper Marble was by a certain contrivance laid flat upon the lower , they would not then cohere as formerly , but be with great ease separated , though it did not by any Phaenomenon appear , that any Air could come to rush in , to possess the place given it by the recess of the upper Marble , whose very easie avulsion is as ●asily explicable by our Hyphothesis , since the pressure of that little Air , that remain'd in the Receiver , being too faint to make any at all con●iderable resistance to the avulsion of the upper Marble , the hand that drew it up had very little more than the single weight of the stone to surmount . A. An Anti-plenist had expected , that you would have observed , that the difficult separation of the Marbles in the open Air does rather prove , that there may be a Vacuum , than that there can be none . For in case the Air can succeed as fast at the sides as the divulsion is made , a Vacuist may demand , whence comes the difficulty of the separation ? And if the Air cannot fill the whole room made for it by the separated Marbles at the fame instant they are forc'd asunder , how is a Vacuum avoided for that time , how small soever , that is necessary for the Air to pass from the edges to the middle of the room newly made ? B. What the Plenists will say to your Argument I leave them to consider● but I presume , they will be able to give a more plausible account of the Phaenomenon we are treating of , than is given by Mr. Hobbes . A. What induces you to dislike his Explication of it ? B. Two things , the one , that I think the Cause he assigns improbable ; and the other , that I think another , that is better , has been as●ign'd already . And first , whereas Mr. Hobbes requires to the Divulsion of the Marbles a force great enough to surmount the hardness of the stone , this is asserted gratis , which it should not be ; since it seems very unlikely , that the weight of so few pounds as will suffice to separate two coherent Marbles of about an Inch , for instance , in Diameter , should be able to surmount the hardness of such solid stones as we usually employ in this Experiment . And though it be generally judg'd more easie to bend , if it may be , or break a broader piece of Marble caeteris paribus , than a much narrower ; yet , whereas neither I , nor any else that I know , nor I believe Mr. Hobbes , ever observ'd any difference in the resistance of Marbles to separation from the greater or lesser thickness of the stones ; I find by constant experience , that , caeteris paribus , the broadness of the coherent Marbles does exceedingly increase the difficulty of disjoyning them : Insomuch that , whereas not many pounds , as I was saying , would separate Marbles of an Inch , or a lesser , Diameter ; when I increased their Diameter to about four Inches , if I misremember not , there were several Men that successively try'd to pull them asunder without being able by their utmost force to effect it . A. But what say you to the Illustration , that Mr. Hobbes , upon the supposition of the Worlds Plenitude , gives of our Phaenomenon by drawing asunder the opposite pa●●s of a piece of Wax ? B. To me it seems an Instance improper enough . For first , the parts that are to be divided in the Wax are of a soft and yielding consistence , and according to him of a ductile , or , if you please , of a tractile nature , and not , as the parts of the coherent Marbles , very solid and hard . Next , the parts of the Wax do not stick together barely by a superficial contact of two smooth Planes , as do the Marbles we are speaking of ; but have their parts implicated , and as it were intangled with one another . And therefore they are far from a disposition to slide off , like the Marbles ; from one another , in how commodious a posture soever you place them . Besides 't is manifest , that the Air has opportunity to succeed in the places successively deserted by the receding parts of the attenuated Wax ; but 't is neither manifest , nor as yet well proved by Mr. Hobbes , that the Air does after the same manner succeed between the two Marbles , which , as I lately noted , are not forced asunder after such a way , but are , as himself speaks , sever'd in all their points at the same instant . A. I know , you forget not what he says of the dividing of a hard Column into two parts by a force sufficient to overcome the resistance of its hardness . B. He does not here either affirm , that he , or any he can trust , has seen the thing done ; nor does he give us any such account of the way wherein the Pillar is to be broken ; whether in an erected , inclined , or horizontal posture ; nor describe the particular circumstances that were fit to be mention'd in order to the solution of the Phaenomenon . Wherefore , 'till I be better inform'd of the matter of fact , I can scarce look upon what Mr. Hobbes says of the Pillar , as other than his Conjecture , which now I shall the rather pass by , not only because the case is differing from that of our polish'd Marbles , which are actually distinct Bodies , and only contiguous in one Commissure ; but also , because I would hasten to the second reason of my dislike of Mr. Hobbes's Explication of our Phaenomenon , which is , that a better has been given already , from the pressure of the Atmosphere upon all the superficial parts of the upper Marble save those that touch the Plane of the lower . A. You would have put fair for convincing Mr. Hobbes himself , at least would have put him to unusual shifts , if you had succeeded in the attempt you made , among other of your Physico-Mechanical Experiments , to disjoyn two coherent Marbles , by suspending them horizontally in your Pneumatical Receiver , and pumping out the Air that inviron'd them ; for , from your failing in that attempt , though you rendred a not improbable Reason of it , Mr. Hobbes took occasion , in his Dialogue De Nat●●a Aeris , to speak in so high a strain as this : Nihil isthic erat quod ageret pondus ; Experimento hoc excogitari contra opinionem eorum qui Vacuum asserunt aliud argumentum fortius aut evidentius non potuit . Nam si duorum cohaerentium alterutrum secundùm eam viam , in quae jacent ipsae contiguae superficies , propulsum ●sset , facile separarentur , Aere praximo in locum relictum successivè semper influente ; sed illa ita divellere , ut simul totum amitterent contactum , impossibile est , mundo pleno . Oporteret enim aut motum fieri ab uno termino ad alium in instante , aut duo corporae eodem tempore in eodem esse loco : Quorum utrumvis dicere , est absurdum . B. You may remember , that where I relate that Experiment , I express'd a hope , that , when I should be better accommodated than I then was , I might attempt the Tryal with prosperous success , and accordingly afterwards , having got a lesser Engine than that I used before , wherewith the Air might be better pumpt out and longer kept out , I cheerfully repeated the Tryal . To shew then , that when two coherent Marbles are sustained horizontally in the Air , the Cause , why they are not to be forc'd asunder , if they have two or three Inches in Diameter , without the help of a considerable weight , is the pressure I was lately mentioning of the ambient Air ; I caused two such coherent Marbles to be suspended in a large Receiver , with a weight at the lowermost , that might help to keep them steddy ; but was very inconsiderable to that which their Cohesion might have su●mounted ; then causing the Air to be pumpt by degrees out of the Receiver , for a good while the Marbles stuck close together , because during that time the Air could not be so far pumpt out , but that there remained enough to sustain the small weight that endeavoured their divulsion : But when the Air was further pumpt out , at length the Spring of the little , but not a little expanded , Air , that remained , being grown too weak to sustain the lower Marble and its small clog , they did , as I expected , drop off . A. This will not agree over-well with the confident and triumphant expressions just now recited . B. I never envied Mr. Hobbes's forwardness to triumph , and am content , his Conjectures be recommended by the confidence that accompanies them , if mine be by the success that follows them . But to confirm the Explication given by me of our Phaenomenon , I shall add , that as the last mention'd Tryal , which I had several times occasion to repeat , shews , that the cohesion of our two contiguous Marbles would cease upon the withdrawing of the pressure of the Atmosphere ; so by another Experiment I made , it appears , that the supervening of that pressure sufficed to cause that Cohesion . For , in prosecution of one of the lately mentioned Tryals , having found , that when the Receiver was well exhausted , two Marbles , though considerably broad , being laid upon one another after the requisite manner , their adhesion was , if any at all , so weak , that the uppermost would be easily drawn up from off the other ; we laid them again one upon the other , and then letting the external Air flow into the Receiver , we found , according to expectation , that the Marbles now cohered well , and we could not raise the uppermost but accompanied with the lowermost . But I am sensible , I have detained you too long upon the single Experiment of the Marbles : And though I hope the stress Mr. Hobbes lays on it will plead my excuse , yet to make your Patience some amends , I shall be the more brief in the other particulars that remain to be consider'd in his Dialogue De Vacuo . And 't will not be difficult for me to keep my promise without injuring my Cause , since almost all these particulars being but the same which he has already alledged in his Dialogue De Natur● Aeris , and I soon after answered in my Examen of that Dialogue , I shall need but to refer you to the passages where you may find these Allegations examin'd , only subjoyning here some Reflections upon those few and slight things , that he has added in his Problems De Vacuo . A. I may then , I suppose , read to you the next passage to that long one , you have hitherto been considering , and it is this : Ad Vacuum nunc revertor : Quas causas sine suppositione Vacui redditurus es illorum effectuum , qui ostenduntur per Machinam illam quae est in Collegio Greshamensi ? B. Machina illa — B. Stop here , I beseech you , a little , that , before we go any further , I may take notice to you of a couple of things that will concern our subsequent Discourse . Whereof the first is , that it appears by Mr. Hobbes's Dialogue about the Air , that the Explications he there gave of some of the Phaenomena of the Machina Boyliana , were directed partly against the Virtuosi , that have since been honour'd with the Title of the Royal Society , and partly against the Author of that Engine , as if the main thing therein design'd were to prove a Vacuum . And since he now repeats the same explications , I think it necessary to say again , that if he either takes the Society or me for profess'd Vacuists , he mistakes , and shoots beside the mark ; for , neither they nor I have ever yet declar'd either for or against a Vacuum . And the other thing I would observe to you , is , that Mr. Hobbes seems not to have rightly understood , or at least not to have sufficiently heeded in what chiefly consists the advantage , which the Vacuists may make of our Engine against him : For , whereas in divers places he is very solicitous to prove , that the cavity of our Pneumatical Receiver is not altogether empty , the Vacuists may tell him , that since he asserts the absolute plenitude of the World , he must , as indeed he does , reject not only great Vacuities , but also those very small and interspers'd ones , that they suppose to be intercepted between the solid corpuscles of other bodies , particularly of the Air : So that it would not confute them to prove , that in our Receiver , when most diligently exhausted , there is not one great and absolute Vacuity , or , as they speak , a Vacuum coacervatum , since smaller and disseminated Vacuities would serve their turn . And therefore they may think their Pretensions highly favour'd , as by several particular effects , so by this general Phaenomenon of our Engine , that it appears by several Circumstances , that the Common or Atmospherical Air , which , before the pump is set a work , possess'd the whole cavity of our Receiver , far the greatest part is by the intervention of the pump made to pass out of the cavity into the open Air , without being able , at least for a little while , to get in again ; and yet it does not appear by any thing alledg'd by Mr. Hobbes , that any other body succeeds to fill adequately the places deserted by such a multitude of Aerial corpuscles . A. If I ghess aright , by those words , ( viz. it appears not by any thing alledg'd by Mr. Hobbes , ) you design to intimate , that you would not in general prejudice the Plenists . B. Your conjecture was well founded : For I think divers of them , and particularly the Cartesians , who suppose a subtile Matter or AEther fine enough to permeate glass , though our common Air cannot do it , have not near so difficult a task to avoid the Arguments the Vacuifts may draw from our Engine , as Mr. Hobbes , who , without having recourse to the porosity of glass , which indeed is impervious to common Air , strives to solve the Phaenomena , and prove our Receiver to be always perfectly full , and therefore as full at any one time as at any other of common or Atmospherical Air , as far as we can judge of his opinion by the tendency or import of his Explications . A. Yet , if I were rightly inform'd of an Experiment of yours , Mr. Hobbes may be thereby reduc'd either to pass over to the Va●uist's , or to acknowledge some AEtherial or other matter more subtil than Air , and capable of passing through the pores of glass ; and therefore , to shew your self impartial between the Vacuists and their Adversaries in this Controversie , I hope you will not refuse to gratifie the Plenists by giving your friends a more particular account of the Experiment . B. I know which you mean , and remember it very well . For , though I long since devis'd it , yet having but the other day had occasion to peruse the Relation I writ down of one of the best Tryals , I think I can repeat it , almost in the very words , which , if I mistake not , were these : There was taken a Bubble of thin white glass , about the bigness of a Nutmeg , with a very slender stem , of about four or five Inches long , and of the bigness of a Crows-quill . The end of the Quill being held in the flame of a Lamp blown with a pair of Bellows , was readily and well seal'd up , and presently the globous part of the glass , being held by the stem , was kept turning in the flame , 'till it was red hot and ready to melt ; then being a little removed from the flame , as the included Air began to lose of its agitation and spring , the external Air manifestly and considerably press'd in one of the sides of the Bubble . But the glass being again , before the cold could crack it , held as before in the flame , the rarified Air distended and plump'd up the Bubble ; which being the second time remov'd from the flame , was the second time compress'd ; and , being the third time brought back to the flame , swell'd as before , and remov'd , was again compress'd , ( either this time or the last by two distinct cavities ; ) 'till at length , having satisfied our selves , that the included Air was capable of being condens'd or dilated without the ingress or egress of Air ( properly so called ) we held the Bubble so long in the flame , strengthen'd by nimble blasts , that not only it had its sides plump'd up , but a hole violently broken in it by the over-rarified Air , which , together with the former watchfulness , we imploy'd from time to time to discern if it were any where crackt or perforated , satisfied us that it was till then intire . A. I confess , I did not readily conceive before , how you could , ( as I was told you had , ) make a solid Vessel , wherein there was no danger of the Aires getting in or out , whose cavity should be still possest with the same Air , and yet the Vessel be made by turns bigger and lesser . And , though I presently thought upon a well stopt bladder , yet I well foresaw , that a distrustful Adversary might make some Objections , which are by your way of proceeding obviated , and the Experiment agrees with your Doctrine in shewing , how impervious we may well think your thick Pneumatick Receivers are to common Air , since a thin glass Bubble , when its pores were open'd or relax'd by flame , would not give passage to the Springy particles of the Air , though violently agitated ; for if those particles could have got out of the pores , they never would have broke the Bubble , as at length a more violent degree of Heat made them do ; nor probably would the Compression , that afterwards insued of the Bubble by the ambient Air , be checkt near so soon , if those Springy Corpuscles had not remained within to make the resistance . Methinks , one may hence draw a new proof of what I remember you elsewhere teach , that the Spring of the Air may be much strengthen'd by Heat . For , in our case , the Spring of the Air was thereby inabled to expand the comprest glass , it was imprison'd in , in spite of the resisting pressure of the external Air ; and yet , that this pressure was considerable , appears by this , that the weight of so small a Column of Atmospherical Air , as could bear upon the Bubble , was able to press in the heated glass , in spite of the resistance of its tenacity and arched figure . B. Yet that which I mainly design'd in this Experiment was , ( if I were able ) to shew and prove at once , by an Instance not lyable to the ordinary exceptions , the true Nature of Rarefaction and Condensation , at least of the Air. For , to say nothing of the Peripatetick Rarefaction and Condensation , strictly so call'd , which I scruple not to declare , I think to be physically inconceptible or impossible ; 't is plain by our Experiment , that , when the Bubble , after the Glass had been first thrust in towards the Center , was expanded again by heat , the included Air possess'd more room than before , and yet it could perfectly fill no more room than formerly , each Aerial Particle taking up , both before and after the heating of the Bubble , a portion of space adequate to its own bulk ; so that in the Cavity of the expanded Bubble we must admit either Vacuities interspers'd between the Corpuscles of the Air , or that some fine Particles of the Flame , or other subtil matter , came in to fill up those Intervals , which matter must have enter'd the Cavity of the Glass at its pores : And afterwards , when the red-hot Bubble was removed from the flame , it is evident , that , since the grosser particles of the Air could not get through the Glass , which they were not able to do , even when vehemently agitated by an ambient Flame , the Compression of the Bubble , and the Condensation of the Air , which was necessarily consequent upon it , could not , supposing the Plenitude of the World , be performed without squeezing out some of the subtil matter contained in the cavity of the Bubble , whence it could not issue but at the pores of the Glass . But I will no longer detain you from Mr. Hobbes his Explications of the Machina Boyliana ; to the first of which you may now , if you please , advan●● . A. The passage I was going to read , when you interrupted me , was this : B. Machina illa eosdem effectus producit , quos produceret in loco non magno magnus inclusus ventus . A. Quomodo ingreditur istuc ventus ? Machinam nosti Cylindrion esse cavum , aeneum , in quem protruditur Cylindrus alius solidus ligneus , coriotectus , ( quem suctorem dicunt ) ita exquisitè congruens , ut ne minimus quidem Aer inter corium & aes intrare ( ut putant ) possit . B. Scio , & quò Suctor facilius intrudi possit , foramen quoddam est in superiori parte Cylindri , per quod Aer ( qui suctoris ingressum alioqui impedire possit ) emittatur . Quod foramen aperire possunt & claudere quoties usus postulat . Est etiam in Cylindri cavi recessu summo datus aditus Aeri in globum concavum Vitreum , quem etiam aditum claviculâ obturare & aperire possunt quoties volunt . Denique in globo vitreo summo relinquitur foramen satis amplum , ( claviculâ item claudendum & recludendum ) ut in illum quae volunt immittere possint , experiendi causâ . B. The imaginary wind to which Mr. Hobbes here ascribes the effects of our Engine , he formerly had recourse to in the 13th page of his Dialogue , and I have sufficiently answer'd that passage of it in the 45th and 46th pages of my Examen , to which I therefore refer you . A. I presume , you did not overlook the comparison Mr. Hobbes annexes to what I last read out of his Problems , since he liked the conceit so well , that we meet with it in this place again , though he had formerly printed it in his Dialogue De Natura Aeris . The words ( as you see ) are these : Tota denique Machina non multum differt , si naturam ejus spectes , à Sclopeto ex Sambuco , quo pueri se delectant , imitantes Sclopetos militum , nisi quòd major sit , & majori arte fabricatus , & pluris constet . B. I could scarce , for the reason you give , avoid taking notice of it . And if Mr. Hobbes intended it for a piece of Ralliery , I willingly let it pass , and could easily forgive him a more considerable attempt than this , to be reveng'd on an Engine that has destroyed several of his opinions : But , if he seriously meant to make a Physical Comparison , I think he made a very improper one . For , not to urge , that one may well doubt how he knows , that in the inclosed cavity of his Pot-gun , there is a very vehement wind , ( since that does not necessarily follow from the compreffion of the included Air : ) In Mr. Hobbes's Instrument , the Air , being forcibly comprest , has an endeavour to expand it self , and when it is able to surmount the resistance of its prison , that part that is first disjoyn'd is forcibly thrown outwards ; whereas in our Engine it appears by the passage lately cited of our Examen , that the Air is not comprest but expanded in our Receiver , and if an intercourse be open'd , or the Vessel be not strong enough , the outward Air violently rushes in : And if the Receiver chance to break , the fragments of the glass are not thrown outwards , but forced inwards . A. So that , whether or no Mr. Hobbes could have pitch'd upon a Comparison more suitable to his Intentions , he might easily have imployed one more suitable to the Phaenomena . B. I presume , you will judge it the less agreeable to the Phaenomena , if I here subjoyn an Experiment , that possibly you will not dislike ; which I devis'd to shew , not only that in our exhausted Receivers there is no such strong endeavour outwards , as most of Mr. Hobbes's Explications of the things that happen in them are built upon , but that the weight of the Atmospherical Air , when 't is not resisted by the counterpressure of any internal Air , is able to perform what a weight of many pounds would not suffice to do . A. I shall the more willingly learn an Experiment to this purpose , because in your Receivers , the rigidity of the glass keeps us from seeing , by any manifest change of its figure , whether , if it could yield without breaking , it would be press'd in , as your Hypothesis requires . B. The desires to obviate that very difficulty , for their satisfaction , that had not yet penetrated the grounds of our Hypothesis , made me think of employing , instead of a Receiver of Glass , one of a stiff and tough , but yet somewhat flexible , Metal . And accordingly having provided a new Pewter Porrenger , and whelm'd it upside down upon an Iron plate fasten'd to ( the upper end of ) our Pneumatical Pump , we carefully fasten'd by Cement the orifice to the plate , and though the inverted Vessel , by reason of its stiffness and thickness and the convexity of its superficies , were strong enough to have supported a great weight without changing its figure ; yet , as soon as by an exsuction or two the remaining part of the included Air was brought to such a degree of expansion , that its weaken'd Spring was able to afford but little assistance to the tenacity and firmness of the Metal , the weight of the pillar of the incumbent Atmosphere ( which by reason of the breadth of the Vessel was considerably wide also ) did presently and notably depress the upper part of the Porringer , both lessening its capacity and changing its figure ; so that instead of the Convex surface , the Receiver had before , it came to a Concave one , which new figure was somewhat , though not much , increased by the further withdrawing of the included and already rarified Air. The Experiment succeeded also with an other common Porringer of the same Metal . But in such kind of Vessels , made purposely of Iron plates , it will sometimes succeed and sometimes not , according to the Diameter of the vessel and the thickness of the plate , which was sometimes strong enough and sometimes too weak to resist the pressure of the incumbent Air. And sometimes I found also , that the vessel would be thrust in , not at the top but side-ways , in case that side were the only part that were made too thin to resist the pressure of the Ambient ; which Phaenomenon I therefore take notice of , that you may see , that that powerful pressure may be exercised laterally as well as perpendicularly . Perhaps this Experiment , and that I lately recited of an Hermetically sealed Bubble , by their fitness to disprove Mr. Hobbes's Doctrine , may do somewhat towards the letting him see , that he might have spar'd that not over-modest and wary expression , where speaking of the Gentlemen that meet at Gresham-College , ( of whom I pretend not to be one of the chief ) he is pleased to say , Experimenta faciant quantum volunt , nisi Principiis utantur meis nihil proficient . But let us , if you please , pass on to what he further alledges to prove , that the space in the exhausted Receiver , which the Vacuists suppose to be partly empty , is full of Air. ( Video ( says A. ) si suctor trudatur usque ad fundum Cylindri AEnei , obturenturque for amina , Secuturum esse , dum suctor retrahitur , locum in Cylindro cavo relictum fore vacuum . Nam ut in locum ejus succedat Aer , est impossible . To which B. answers , Credo equidem , suctorem cum Cylindri cavi superficie satis arctè cohaerere ad excludendum stramen & plumam , non autem Aerem neque Aquam . Cogita enim , quod non ita accuratè congruerent , quin undiquaque interstitium relinqueretur , quantum tenuissimi capilli capax esset . Retracto ergo suctore , tantum impelleretur Aeris , quantum viribus illis conveniret quibus Aer propter suctoris Retractionem reprimitur , idque sine omni difficultate sensibili . Quanto autem interstitium illud minus esset , tantum ingrederetur Aer velocius : Vel si contactus sit , sed non per omnia puncta , etiam tunc intrabit Aer , modò suctor ma●ore vi retrahatur . Postremò , etsi con●actus ubique exactissimus sit , vi tamen ●atis auct● per cochleam ferream , tum ●orium cedet , tum ipsum es ; atque it a quoque ingredietur Aer . Credin ' tu , ●osfibile esse duas superficies it a exactè ●omponere , ut has compositas esse suppo●unt illi ; aut corium it a durum esse , ut Aeri , qui Cochleae ope incutitur , nihi omnino cedat ? Corium quanquam optimum admittit aquam , ut ipse scis , fortè fecisti unquam iter vento & pluvi● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Itaque dubitare no● potes , quin retractus Suctor tantum A● ris in Cylindrum adeoque in ipsum Rec●piens incutiat , quantum sufficit ad locu● semper relictum perfectè implendu● Effectus ergo , qui oritur à Retractio● suctoris , alius non est quàm ventu● ventus ( inquam ) vehementissimus● q● ingreditur undiquaque inter Suctoris s●● perficiem convexan , & Cylindri aen● concavam , proceditque ( versâ clavicul●● in cavitatem globl Vitrei , sive ( u●●●ocatur Recipientis . The Substance of this Ratiocin●●tion having been already propos'd ●● Mr. Hobbes in his Dialogue of th● Air , the 11th page , I long since a●swer'd it in the 30th and some of th● following pages of my Examen ; an● therefore I shall only now take noti●● in transitu of some slight whether a●●ditions or variations , that occur ●● what you have been reading . And first , I see no probability in what he gratis asserts , that so thick a Cylinder of Brass , as made the chief part of the pump of our Engine , should yield to the Sucker , that was mov'd up and down in it , though by the help of an Iron rack ; and whereas he adds , that the leather , that surrounds the more solid part of the Sucker , would yield to such a force ; it seems , that that compression of the leather should by thrusting the solid parts into the pores make the leather rather less than more fit to give passage to the Air ; nor would it however follow , notwithstanding Mr. Hobbes's Example , that , because a Body admits Water , it must be pervious to Air : For I have several times , by ways elsewhere taught , made Water penetrate the pores of Bladders , and yet Bladders resist the passage of the Air so well , that even when Air included in them was sufficiently rarified by Heat , or by our Engine , it was necessary for the Air to break them before it could get out ; which would not have been , if it could have escap'd through their pores . What Mr. Hobbes inculcates here again concerning his ventus vehementissimus , you will find answer'd in the place of my Examen I lately directed you to . A. We may then proceed to Mr. Hobbes's next Explication , which he proposes in these terms : A. Causam video nunc unius ex Machinae mirabilibus , nimirum cur Suctor , postquam est aliquatenus retractus & deinde amissus , subitò recurrit ad Cylindri summitatem . Nam Aer , qui vi magna fuit impulsus , rursus per repercussionem ad externa vi eadem revertitur . B. Atque hoc quidem Argumenti satis est etiam solum , quòd locus à suctore relictus non est Vacuus . Quid enim aut attrahere aut impellere suctorem potuit ad locum illum unde retractus erat , si Cylindrus fuisset vacuus ? Nam ut Aeris pondus aliquod id efficere potuisset , falsum esse satis supra demonstravi ab eo quod Aer in Aere gravitare non potest . Nosti etiam , quod cum è recipiente Aerem omnem ( ut illi loquuntur ) exegerint , possunt tamen trans vitrum id quod intus fit videre , & sonum , si quis ●iat , inde audire . Id quod solum , etsi nullum aliud Argumentum esset ( sunt autem multa , ) ad probandum , nullum esse in Recipiente Vacuum , abundè sufficit . B. Here are several things joyn'd together , which the Author had before separately alledg'd in his often-mention'd Dialogue . The first is , the Cause he assigns of the ascension of the Sucker forcibly deprest to the bottom of the exhausted Cylinder , and then let alone by him that pumpt ; to which might be added ; that this ascension succeeded , when the Sucker was clogg'd with an hundred pound weight . This Explication of Mr. Hobbes you will find examin'd in the 33th and 39th , and some ensuing pages of my Discourse . And as to his denying , that the weight or pressure of the Air could drive up the Sucker in that Phaenomenon , because the Air does not weigh in Air , we may see the contrary largely proved in divers places of my Examen , and more particularly and expresly in the four first pages of the third Chapter . And whereas he says in the last place , that the visibility of Bodies included in our Receivers , and the propagation of Sound , ( which , by the way , is not to be understood of all Sound that may be heard , though made in the exhausted Receiver , ) are alone sufficient Arguments to prove no Vacuum : I have consider'd that passage in the answer I made to the like allegation in the 45th page of the Examen ; and shall only observe here , that , since the Vacuists can prove , that much of the Air is pumpt out of the exhausted Receiver , and will pretend , that , notwithstanding many interspers'd Vacuities , there may be in the Receiver corporeal substance enough to transmit Light and stronger Sounds , Mr. Hobbes has not perform'd what he pretended , if he have but barely proved , that there may be Substances capable of conveying Light and Sound in the cavity of our Receiver , since he triumphantly asserts , Nullum esse in Recipienti Vacuum . But we may leave Mr. Hobbes and his Adversaries to dispute out this point , and go on to the next passage . A. Which follows in these words : Ad illud autem , quod si Vesica aliquatenus inflata in Recipiente includatur , paulo post per exuctionem aeris inflatur vehementius & dirumpitur , quid respondes ? B. Motus partium Aeris undiquaque concurrentium velocissimus & per concursum in spatiis brevissimis numeroque infinitis gyrationis velocissimae vesicam in locis innumerabilibus simul & vi magna , instar totidem terebrarum , penetrat , praesertim si vesica , antequam immittatur , quò magis resistat aliquatenus inflata fit . Postquam autem Aer penetrans semel ingressus est , facile cogitare potes , quo pacto deinceps vesicam tendet , & tandem rumpet . Verùm si antequam rumpatur , versâ claviculâ , Aer externus admittatur , videbis vesicam propter vehementiam motus temperatam diminutâ tensione rugosiorem . Nam id quoque observatum est . Iam si haec , quam dixi , causa minùs tibi vide atur verisimilis , vide an tu aut alius quicunque imaginari potest , quo pacto vesica distendi & rumpi possit à viribus Vacui , id est , Nihili . B. This Explication Mr. Hobbes gave us in the 19th page of his Dialogue De Natura Aeris , and you may find it at large confuted in the latter part of the third Chapter of my Examen . Nor does , what he here says in the close about the Vires Vacui or Nihili , deserve to detain us , since there is no reason at all , that the Vacuists should ascribe to nothing a power of breaking a Bladder , of whose rupture the Spring of the included Air supplies them so easily with a sufficient Cause . After what Mr. Hobbes has said of the breaking of a Bladder , he proceeds to an Experiment which he judges of affinity with it , and his Academian having propos'd this Question : Unde fit ut animalia tam cito , nimirum spatio quatuor minutorum horae , in recipiente interficiantur ? For answer to it our Author says : B. Nonne animalia sic inclusa insugunt in Pulmones Aerem vehementissimè motum ? Quo motu necesse est ut transitus sanguinis ab uno ad alterum cordis ventriculum interceptus , non multò pòst sistatur . Cessatio autem sanguinis , Mors est . Possunt tamen animalia cessante sanguine reviviscere , si Aer externus satis maturè intromittatur , vel ipsa in Aerem temperatum , antequam refrixerit sanguis , extrahantur . This Explication is not probable enough , to oblige me to add any thing about it to what I have said in the 49th and the two following pages of my Examen ; especially the most vehement motion , ascrib'd to the Air in the Receiver , having been before proved to be an Imaginary thing . You may therefore , if you please , take notice of the next Explication . [ Idem Aer ( says he ) in Recipiente Carbones ardentes extinguit , sed & illi , si , dum satis calidi sunt , eximantur , relucebunt . Notissimum est , quòd in fodinis Carbonum terreorum ( cujus rei experimentum ipse vidi ) saepissime è lateribus foveae ventus quidam undiquaque exit , qui fossores interficit ignemque extinguit , qui tamen reviviscunt si satis cito ad Aerem liberum extrahantur . ] This Comparison which Mr. Hobbes here summarily makes , he more fully display'd in his Dialogue De Natura Aeris , and I consider'd , what he there alledg'd , in the 52th page and the two next of my Examen . And , though I will not contradict Mr. Hobbes in what he historically asserts in this passage ; yet I cannot but somewhat doubt , whether he mingles not his conjecture with the bare matter of fact . For , though I have with some curiosity visited Mines in more places than one , and propos'd Questions to Men that have been conversant in other Mines , both elsewhere and in England ( and particularly in Derbysbire where Mr. Hobbes lived long ; ) yet I could never find , that any such odd and vehement wind , as Mr. Hobbes ascribes the Phaenomenon to , had been by them observed to kill the Diggers , and extinguish well-lighted Coals themselves : And indeed , it seems more likely , that the damp , by its tenacity or some peculiarly malign quality , did the mischief , than a wind , of which I found not any notice taken ; especially since we see , what vehement winds Men will be able to endure for a long time , without being near-kill'd by them ; and that it seems very odd , that a wind , that Mr. Hobbes does not observe to have blown away the Coals , that were let down , should be able ( instead of kindling them more fiercely ) to blow them out . A. The last Experiment of your Engine , that your Adversary mentions in these Problems , is deliver'd in this passage : A. Si phialam aqua in Recipiens dimiseris , exucto Aere bullire videbis aquam . Quid ad hoc Respondebis ? B. Credo sanè in tanta Aeris motitatione saltaturam esse aquam , sed ut calefiat nondum audivi . Sed imaginabile non est , Saltationem illam à Vacuo nasci posse . B. This Phaenomenon he likewise took notice of , and attempted to explicate in his above-mention'd Dialogue , which gave me occasion in the 46th and 47th pages of my Examen , to shew how unlikely 't is , that the vehement motion of the Air should be the cause of it ; but he here tells us , that 't is not imaginable , that this dancing of the water ( as he is pleas'd to call it ) proceeds from a vacuum , nor do I know any Man that ever pretended , that a vacuum was the efficient cause of it . But the Vacuists perhaps will tell him , that , though the bubbling of the water be not an effect of a vacuum , it may be a proof of it against him ; for they will tell him , that it has been formerly proved , that a great part of the Atmospherical Air is by pumping remov'd out of our exhausted Receiver , and consequently can no more , as formerly , press upon the surface of the water . Nor does Mr. Hobbes shew what succeeds in the room of it ; and therefore it will be allowable , for them to conclude against him ( though not perhaps against the Cartesians ) that there are a great many interspers'd Vacuities left in the Receiver , which are the occasion , though not the proper efficient cause , of the Phaenomenon . For they will say , that the Springy Particles of the yet included Air , having room to unbend themselves in the spaces deserted by the Air that was pumpt out , the Aerial and Springy Corpuscles , that lay conceal'd in the pores of the water , being now freed from the wonted pressure that kept them coil'd up in the liquor , expanded themselves into numerous bubbles , which , because of their comparative lightness , are extruded by the water , and many of them appear to have risen from the bottom of it . And Mr. Hobbes's vehement wind , to produce the several Circumstances of this Experiment , must be a lasting one . For , after the agitation of the Pump has been quite left off , provided the external Air be kept from getting in , the bubbles will sometimes continue to rise for an hour after . And that which agrees very well with our Explication and very ill with that of Mr Hobbes's , is , that , when by having continued to pump a competent time , the water has been freed from the Aerial particles that lurk'd in it before , though one continue to pump as lustily as he did , yet the water will not at all be cover'd with bubbles as it was , the Air that produc'd them being spent ; though , according to Mr. Hobbes's Explication , the wind in the Receiver continuing , the dance of the water should continue too . A. I easily ghess , by what you have said already , what you may say of that Epiphonema wherewith Mr. Hobbes ( in his 18th page ) concludes the Explications of the Phaenomena of your Engine . [ Spero jam te certum esse , says he , nullum esse Machinae illius Phaenomenon , quo demonstrari potest ullum in Universo locum dari corpore omni vacuum . ] B. If you ghess'd aright , you ghess'd that I would say , that as to the Phaenomena of my Engine , my business was to prove , that he had not substituted good Explications of them in the place of mine , which he was pleased to reject . And as for the proving a Vacuum by the Phaenomena of my Engine , though I declar'd that was not the thing intended , yet I shall not wonder , that the Vacuists should think those Phaenomena give them an advantage against Mr. Hobbes . For , though in the passage recited by you he speak more cautiously than he is wont to do , yet , by what you may have already observ'd in his Argumentations , the way he takes to solve the Phaenomena of our Engine , is by contending , that our Receiver , when we say it is almost exhausted , is as full as ever ( for he will have it perfectly full , ) of common Air ; which is a conceit so contrary to I know not how many Phaenomena , that I do not remember I have met with or heard of any Naturalist , whether Vacuist or Plenist , that having read my Physico-Mechanical Experiments and his Dialogue , has embrac'd his opinion . A. After what you have said , I will not trouble you with what he subjoyns about Vacuum in general , where having made his Academian say , [ Mundum scis finitum esse , & per Consequens vacuum esse oportere totum illud Spatium quod est extra mundum infinitum . Quid impedit quo minus vacuum illud cum Aere mundano permisceatur ? ] He answers : De rebus transmundanis nihil scio . For I know , that it concerns not you to take notice of it . But possibly the Vacuists will think , he fathers upon them an Impropriety they would not be guilty of , making them speak , as if they thought , the ultra-mundan Vacuum were a real Substance that might be brought into this World and mingled with our Air. And since , for ought I know , Mr. Hobbes might have spar'd this passage , if he had not design'd it should introduce the slighting answer he makes to it ; I shall add , that by the account Mr. Hobbes has given of several Phaenomena within the World , 't is possible , that the Vacuists may believe his Profession of knowing nothing of things beyond it . After the Experimenta Boyliana ( as your other Adversary calls them ; ) Mr. Hobbes proceeds to the Torricellian Experiment , of which he thus discourses : A. Quid de experimento senses Torricelliano , probante Vacuum per Argentum vivum hoc modo : est in seq . figura ad A , pelvis sive aliud vas , & in eo Argentum vivum usque ad B ; est autem C D tubus vitreus concavus repletus quoque Argento vivo . Hunc tubum si digito obturaveris erexerisque in vase A , manumque abstuleris , descendet Argentum vivum à C ; verùm non effundetur totum in pelvim , sed sistetur in distantia quadam , puta in D. Nonne ergo necessarium est , ut pars tubi inter C & D sit vacua ? Non enim puto negabis quin superficies tubi concava & Argenti vivi convexa se mutuo exquisitissim● contingant . B. Ego neque nego contactum , nequ● vim Consequentiae intelligo . By which passage it seems that he still persists in the solution of this Experiment , which he gave in his Dialogue De Natura Aeris , and formerly did , for the main , either propose , or adopt , in his Elements of Philosophy . B. This opinion or explication o● Mr. Hobbes I have , as far as concern● me , consider'd in the 36th , and some insuing pages , of my Examen , to which it may well suffice me to refer you . But yet let me take notice of what he now alledges : B. Si quis ( says he ) in Argentum vivum , quod in vase est , vesicam immerserit inflatam , nonne illa amot â man● emerget ? A. Ita certè , etsi esset vesica ferre● vel ex materia quacunque praeter Aurum . B. Vides igitur ab Aere penetran● posse Argentum vivum . A. Etiam , & quidem illâ ipsâ vi quam à pondere accipit Argenti vivi . I confess this Allegation did a little surprize me : It concern'd Mr. Hobbes to prove , that as much Air , as was displac'd by the descending Mercury , did at the orifice of the Tube , immers'd in stagnant Mercury , invisibly ascend to the upper part of the pipe . To prove this he tells us , that a bladder full of Air being depress'd in Quicksilver , will , when the hand that depress'd it is remov'd , be squeez'd up by the very weight of the Mercury , whence it follows , that Air may penetrate Quicksilver . But I know not , who ever deny'd , that Air inviron'd with Quicksilver may thereby be squeez'd upwards ; but , since even very small bubbles of Air may be seen to move in their passage through Mercury , I see not , how this Example will at all help the Proposer of it . For 't is by meer accident , that the Air included in the bladder comes to be buoy'd up , because the bladder it self is so ; and if it were fill'd with Water instead of Air , or with Stone instead of Water , it would nevertheless emerge , as himself confesses it would do , if it were made of Iron , or of any Matter besides Gold , because all other Bodies are lighter in specie than Quicksilver . But since the emersion of the bladder is manifest enough to the sight , I see not how it will serve Mr. Hobbes's turn , who is to prove that the Air gets into the Torricellian Tube invisibly ; since 't is plain , that even heedful observation can make our Eyes discover no such trajection of the Air ; which ( to add that inforcement of our Argument ) must not only pass unseen through the sustained Quicksilver , but must likewise unperceivedly dive , in spite of its comparative lightness , beneath the surface of the ponderous stagnant Mercury , to get in at the orifice of the erected Tube . But let us , if you please , hear the rest of his Discourse about this Experiment . A. Though it be somewhat prolix , yet , according to my custom hitherto , I will give it you verbatim . B. Simul atque Argentum vivum descenderit ad D , altius erit in vase A quàm antè , nimirum plus erit Argenti vivi in vase quàm erat ante descensum , tanto quantum capit pars tubi C , D. Tanto quoque minus erit Aeris extra tubum quàm ante erat . Ille autem Aer qui ab Argento vivo loco suo extrusus est , ( suppositâ universi plenitudine ) quò abire potest nisi ad eum locum , qui in tubo inter C & D à descensu Argenti vivi relinquebatur ? sed quâ , inquies , viâ in illum locum successurus est ? Quà , nisi per ipsum corpus Argenti vivi Aerem urgentis ? Sicut enim omne grave liquidum , sae ipsius pondere , Aerem , quem descendendo premit , ascendere cogit ( si via alia non detur ) per suum ipsius corpus ; ita quoque Aerem quem premit ascendendo , ( si viae alia non detur ) per suum ipsius corpus transire cogit . Manifestum igitur est , suppositâ mundi plenitudine posse Aerem externum ab ipsa gravitate Argenti viv● cogi in locum illum inter C & D. Itaque Phaenomenon illud necessitatem vacui non demonstrat . Quoniam autem corpus Argenti vivi penetrationi , quae fit ab Aere , non nihil resistit , & ascensioni Argenti vivi in vase A resistit Aer ; quando illae duae resistentiae aequales erunt , tunc in tubo sistetur alicubi Argentum vivum ; atque ibi est D. B. In answer to this Explication I have in my Examen propos'd divers things , which you may there meet with : And indeed his Explication has appear'd so improbable to those that have written of this Experiment , that I have not found it embrac'd by any of them , though , when divers of them oppos'd it , the Phaenomena of our Engine were not yet divulg'd . Not then needlesly to repeat what has been said already , I shall on this occasion only add one Experiment , that I afterwards made , and it was this : Having made the Torricellian Experiment ( in a straight Tube ) after the ordinary way , we took a little piece of a fine Bladder , and raising the Pipe a little in the stagnant Mercury , but not so high as the surface of it , the piece of Bladder was dexterously conveyed in the Quicksilver , so as to be applied by ones finger to the immersed orifice of the Pipe , without letting the Air get into the Cavity of it ; then the Bladder was tyed very straight and carefully to the lower end of the Pipe , whose orifice ( as we said ) it cover'd before , and then the Pipe being slowly lifted out of the stagnant Mercury , the impendent Quicksilver appear'd to lean but very lightly upon the Bladder , being so near an exact AEquilibrium with the Atmosperical Air , that , if the Tube were but a very little inclin'd , whereby the gravitation of the Quicksilver , being not so perpendicular , came to be somewhat lessen'd , the Bladder would immediately be driven into the orifice of the Tube , and to the Eye , plac'd without , appear to have acquir'd a concave superficies instead of the convex it had before . And when the Tube was re-erected , the Bladder would no longer appear suck'd in , but be again somewhat protuberant . And if , when the Mercury in the Pipe was made to descend a little below its station into the stagnant Mercury , if , I say , at that nick of time the piece of Bladder were nimbly and dexterously apply'd , as before , to the immers'd orifice , and fasten'd to the sides of the Pipe , upon the lifting the Instrument out of the stagnant Mercury , the Cylinder of that Liquor being now somewhat short of its due height , was no longer able fully to counterpoise the weight of the Atmospherical Air , which consequently , though the Glass were held in an erected posture , would press up the Bladder into the orifice of the Pipe , and both make and maintain there a Cavity sensible both to the Touch and the Eye . A. What did you mainly drive at in this Experiment ? B. To satisfie some Ingenious Men , that were more diffident of , than skilful in , Hydrostaticks , that the pressure of the external Air is capable of sustaining a Cylinder of 29 or 30 Inches of Mercury , and upon a small lessening of the gravitation of that ponderous liquor , to press it up higher into the Tube . But a farther use may be made of it against Mr. Hobbes's pretention . For , when the Tube is again erected , the Mercury will subside as low as at first , and leave as great a space as formerly was left deserted at the top ; into which how the Air should get to fill it , will not appear easie to them , that , like you and me , know by many tryals , that a Bladder will rather be burst by Air than grant it passage . And if it should be pretended , either that some Air from without had yet got through the Bladder , or that the Air , that they may presume to have been just before included between the Bladder and the Mercury , made its way from the lower part of the Instrument to the upper ; 't is obvious to answer , That 't is no way likely , that it should pass all along the Cylinder unseen by us ; since , when there are really any Aerial Bubbles , though smaller than Pins heads , they are easily discernible . And in our case , there is no such resistance of the Air to the ascension of the stagnant Mercury , as Mr. Hobbes pretends in the Torricellian Experiment made the usual way . A. But , whatever becomes of Mr. Hobbes's Explication of the Phaenomenon ; yet may not one still say , that it affords no advantage to the Vacuists against him ? B. Whether or no it do against other Plenists , I shall not now consider ; but I doubt , the Vacuists will tell Mr. Hobbes , that he is fain in two places of the Explication , we have read , to suppose the Plenitude of the World , that is , to beg the thing in question , which 't is not to be presum'd they will allow . A. But may not Mr. Hobbes say , that 't is as lawful for him to suppose a Plenum , as for them to suppose a Vacuum . B. I think he may justly say so ; but 't is like they will reply , that , in their way of explicating the Torricellian Experiment , they do not suppose a Vacuum as to Air , but prove it . For they shew a great space , that having been just before fill'd with Quicksilver , is now deserted by it , though it appeared not , that any Air succeeded in its room ; but rather , that the upper end of the Tube is either totally or near totally so devoid of Air , that the Quicksilver may without resistance , by barely inclining the Tube , be made to fill it to the very top : Whereas Mr. Hobbes is fain to have recourse to that which he knows they deny , the Plenitude of the World , not proving by any sensible Phaenomena , that there did get in through the Quicksilver Air enough to fill the deserted part of the Tube , but only concluding , that so much Air must have got in there , because , the World being full , it could find no room any where else ; which the Vacuists will take for no proof at all , and the Cartesians , though Plenists , who admit an Etherial matter capable of passing through the pores of Glass , will , I doubt , look upon but as an improper Explication . A. I remember on this occasion another Experiment of yours , that seems unfavourable enough to Mr. Hobbes's Explication , and you will perhaps call it to mind when I tell you , that 't was made in a bended Pipe almost fill'd with Quicksilver . B. To see whether we understand one another , I will briefly describe the Instrument I think you mean. We took a Cylindrical Pipe of Glass , clos'd at the upper end , and of that length , that being dexterously bent at some Inches from the bottom , the shorter legg was made as parallel as we could to the longer : In this Glass we found an expedient , ( for 't is not easie to do , ) to make the Torricellian Experiment , the Quicksilver in the shorter legg serving instead of the stagnant Quicksilver in the usual Baroscope , and the Quicksilver in the longer legg reaching above that in the shorter about eight or nine and twenty Inches . Then , by another artifice , the shorter legg , into which the Mercury did not rise within an Inch of the top , was so order'd , that it could in a trice be Hermetically seal'd , without disordering the Quicksilver . And this is the Instrument that I ghess you mean. A. It is so , and I remember , that it is the same with that , which in the Paradox about Suction you call , whilst the shorter legg remains unseal'd , a Travelling Baroscope . But when I saw you make the Experiment , that legg was Hermetically seal'd , an Inch of Air in its natural or usual consistence being left in the upper part of it , to which Air you outwardly applied a pair of heated Tongs . B. Yet that , which I chiefly aim'd at in the Trial , was not the Phaenomenon I perceive you mean ; for , my design was , by breaking the Ice for them , to encourage some , that may have more skill and accommodation than I then had , to make an attempt that I did not find to have been made by any ; namely , to reduce the Expansive force of Heat in every way included Air , if not in some other Bodies also , to some kind of measure , and , if 't were possible , to determin it by weight . And I presumed , that at least the event of my Tryal would much confirm several Explications of mine , by shewing , that Heat is able , as long as it lasts , very considerably to increase the Spring or pressing power of the Air. And in this conjecture I was not mistaken ; for , having shut up , after the manner newly recited , a determinate quantity of uncomprest Air , which , ( in the Experiment you saw , ) was about one Inch ; we warily held a pair of heated Tongs near the outside of the Glass , ( without making it touch the Instrument , for fear of breaking it , ) whereby the Air being agitated was enabled to expand it self to double its former Dimensions , and consequently had its Spring so strengthen'd by Heat , that it was able to raise all the Quicksilver in the longer legg , and keep up or sustain a Mercurial Cylinder of about nine and twenty Inches high , when by its expansion it would , if it had not been for the Heat , have lost half the force of its elasticity . But whatever I design in this Experiment , pray tell me , what use you would make of it against Mr. Hobbes . A. I believe , he will find it very difficult to shew , what keeps the Mercury suspended in the longer legg of the Travelling Baroscope , when the shorter legg is unstopt , at which it may run out ; since this Instrument may , as I have try'd , be carried to distant places , where it cannot with probability be pretended , that any Air has been displac'd by the fall of the Quicksilver in the longer legg , which perhaps fell long before above a mile off . And when the shorter legg is seal'd , it will be very hard for Mr. Hobbes to shew there the odd motions of the Air , to which he ascribes the Torricellian Experiment . For , if you warily incline the Instrument , the Quicksilver will rise to the top of the longer legg , and immediately subside , when the Instrument is again erected , and yet no Air appears to pass through the Quicksilver interpos'd between the ends of the longer and the shorter legg . But that which I would chiefly take notice of in the Experiment , is , that upon the external application of a hot Body to the shorter legg of the Baroscope , when 't was seal'd up , the included Air was expanded from one Inch to two , and so rais'd the whole Cylinder of Mercury in the longer legg , and , whilst the heat continued undiminished , kept it from subsiding again . For , if the Air were able to get unseen through the body of the Quicksilver , why had it not been much more able , when rarified by Heat , to pass through the Quicksilver , than for want of doing so to raise and sustain so weighty a Cylinder of Mercury ? I shall not stay to inquire on this occasion , how Mr. Hobbes will , according to his Hypothesis , explicate the rarefaction of the Air to double its former dimensions , and the condensation of it again ; especially since , asserting that part of the upper legg , that is unfill'd with the Quicksilver , to be perfectly full of Air , he affirms that , which I doubt he cannot prove , and which may very probably be disproved by the Experiment you mention in the Discourse about Suction , where you shew , to another purpose , that in a Travelling Baroscope , whose shorter legg is seal'd , if the end of the longer legg be open'd , whereby it comes indeed to be fill'd with Air , the pressure of that Air will enable the subjacent Mercury notably to compress the Air included in the shorter legg . B. I leave Mr. Hobbes to consider what you have objected against his Explication of the Torricellian Experiment ; to which I shall add nothing , though perhaps I could add much , because I think it may be well spared , and our Conference has lasted long already . A. I will then proceed to the la●● Experiment recited by Mr. Hobbes in his Problemata de Vacuo . A. Si Phialam , collum habent●● longiusculum , ea●démque omni Corpor● praeter Aerem vacuam ore sugas , continuoque Phialae os aquae immergas , videbis aquam aliquousque ascendere in Phialam . Quî fieri hoc potest nisi factum sit Vacuum ab exuctione Aeris , in euj●● locum possit Aqua illa ascendere ? B. Concesso Vacuo , oportet quaeda● l●cae vacua fuisse in illo Aere , etiam qu● erat intra Phialam ante suctionem . C●● ergo non ascendebat Aqua ad ea imple●da absque suctione ? Is qui sagit Phi●lam , neque in ventrem quicquam , neq●● in pulmones , neque in os è Phialu ex●git . Quid ergo agit ? Aerum comm●vet , & in partibus ejus conatum sugen●● efficit per os exeundi , & non admittendo , conaetum redeundi . Ab his conatibus contrariis compo●●tur circumitio in●●● Phialam , & conatus exeundi quaquaversum . Itaque Phialae ore aquae immerso , Aer in subjectam aquam penetrat è Phiala egrediens , & tuntundem aquae in Phialam cogit . Praeterea vis illa magna suctionis facit , ut sugentis labra c●m collo Phialae aliquando arctissimè cohaereant propter contactum exqusitissimum . B. As to the first Clause of Mr. Hobbes's account of our Phaenomenon , the Vacuists will easily answer his Question by acknowledging , that there were indeed interspers'd Vacuities in the Air contain'd in the Vial before the suction ; but they will add , there was no reason , why the Water should ascend to fill them , because , being a heavy body , it cannot rise of it self , but must be raised by some prevalent weight or pressure , which then was wanting . Besides , that there being interspers'd Vacuities as well in the rest of the Air that was very near the Water , as in that contained in the Vial , there was no reason , why the Water should ascend to fill the Vacuities of one portion of Air rather than those of another . But when once by suction a great many of the Aerial Corpuscles were made to pass out of the Vial , the Spring of the remaining Air being weaken'd , whilst the pressure of the ambient Air , which depends upon its constant Gravity , is undiminished , the Spring of the internal becomes unable to resist the weight of the external Air , which is therefore able to impel the interpos'd Water with some violence into the Cavity of the Glass , 'till the Air , remaining in that Cavity , being reduced almost to its usual Density , is able by its Spring , and the weight of the Water got up into the Vial , to hinder any more Water from being impell'd up . For , as to what Mr. Hobbes affirms , that , Is qui sugit Phialam neque in ventrem quicquam , neque in pulmones , neque in as quicquam exugit : How it will agree with what he elsewhere delivers about Suction , I leave him to consider . But I confess , I cannot but wonder at his confidence , that can positively assert a thing so repugnant to the common sentiments of Men of all opinions , without offering any proof for it . But I suppose , they that are by tryal acquainted with Sucking , and have felt the Air come in at their mouths , will prefer their own experience to his authority . And as to what he adds , that the Person that sucks agitates the Air , and turns it within the Vial into a kind of circulating wind , that endeavours every where to get out ; I wish , he had shewn us by what means a Man that sucks makes this odd Commotion of the Air ; especially in such Vials as I use to employ about the Experiment , the orifice of whose neck is sometimes less than a Pins head . A. That there may be really Air extracted by Suction out of a Glass , me thinks you might argue from an Experiment I saw you make with a Receiver which was exhausted by your Pump , and consequently by Suction . For I remember , when you had counterpois'd it with very good Scales , and afterwards by turning a stop-cock , let in the outward Air , there rush'd in as much Air to fill the space that had been deserted by the Air pump● out , as weighed some scruples ( consisting of twenty grains a piece ) though the Receiver were not of the largest size . B. You did well to add that Clause ; for , the Magdeburgic Experiment , mentioned by the industrious Schottus , having been made with a vast Receiver , the readmitted Air amounted to a whole ounce and some drachms . But to return to Mr. Hobbes , I fear not that he will perswade you , that have seen the Experiment he recites , that as soon as the neck of the Vial is unstopt under water , the Air , that whirl'd about before , makes a sally out , and forces in as much water . For , if the orifice be any thing large , you will , instead of feeling an endeavour to thrust away your finger that stopt it , find the pulp of your finger so thrust inward , that a Peripatetick would affirm that he felt it suckt in . And that Intrusion may be the Reason , why the lip of him that sucks is oftentimes strongly fasten'd to the orifice of the Vials neck , which Mr. Hobbes ascribes to a most exquisit contact , but without clearly telling us , how that extraordinary contact is effected . And when your finger is removed , instead of perceiving any Air go out of the Vial through the water , ( which , if any such thing happen , you will easily discover by the bubbles , ) you shall see the water briskly spring up in a slender stream to the top of the Vial , which it could not do , if the Cavity were already full of Air. And to let you see , that , when the Air does really pass in or out of the Vial immers'd under water , 't is very easie to perceive its motions , if you dip the neck of the Vial in water , and then apply to the globulous part of it either your warm hands or any other competent Heat , the internal Air being rarified ; you shall see a portion of it , answerable to the degree of Heat you applied , manifestly pass through the water in successive bubbles , whilst yet you shall not see any water get into the Vial to supply the place deserted by that Air. And if , when you have ( as you may do by the help of sucking ) fill'd the neck and part of the belly of the Vial with water , you immerse the orifice into stagnant water , and apply warm hands to the globulous part as before , you will find the water in the Vial to be driven out , before any bubbles pass out of the Vial into the surrounding water ; which shews , that the Air is not so forward to dive under the water , ( and much less under so ponderous a liquor as Quicksilver , ) as Mr. Hobbes has supposed . A. That 't is the Pressure of the external Air , that ( surmounting the Spring of the internal ) drives up the water into the Vial we have been speaking of , does , I confess , follow upon your Hypothesis : But an Experimentarian Philosopher , as Mr. Hobbes calls you among others , may possibly be furnished with an Experiment to confirm this to the Eye . B. You bring into my mind what I once devised to confirm my Hypothesis about Suction , but found a while since that I had omitted it in my Discourse about that Subject . And therefore I shall now repeat to you the substance at least of the Memorial that was written of that Experiment , by which the great interest of the weight of the Atmospherical Air in Suction will appear , and in which also some things will occur , that will not well agree with Mr. Hobbes's Explication , and prevent some of his Allegations against mine . A. Having not yet met with an Experiment of this nature , such an one as you speak of will be welcome to me . B. We took a Glass Bubble , whose long stem was both very slender and very Cylindrical ; then by applying to the outside of the Ball or globulous part a convenient heat , we expell'd so much of the Air , as that , when the end of the pipe was dipt in water , and the inward Air had time to recover its former coolness , the water ascended either to the top of the pipe or very near it . This done , we gently and warily rarified the Air in the Cavity of the Bubble , 'till by its expansion it had driven out almost all the water that had got up into the stem , that so it might attain as near as could be to that degree of heat and measure of expansion , that it had when the water began to rise in it . And we were careful to leave two or three drops of water unexpell'd at the bottom of the pipe , that we might be sure , that none of the included Air was by this second rarefaction driven out at the orifice of it ; as the depression of the water so low assured us , on the other side , that the included Air wanted nothing considerable of the expansion it had when the water began to ascend into the pipe . Whilst the Air was in this rarified state , we presently removed the little Instrument out of the stagnant water into stagnant Quicksilver , which in a short time began to rise in the pipe . Now , if the ascension of the liquor were the effect of Natures Abhorrence of a Vacuum ; or of some internal principle of Motion ; or of the Compression and propagated Pulsion of the outward Air by that which had been expell'd ; why should not the Mercury haue ascended to the top of the pipe , as the water did before ? But de facto it did not ascend half , or perhaps a quarter so far ; and if the pipe had been long enough , as well as 't was slender enough , I question , whether the Mercury would have ascended ( in proportion to the length of the stem ) half so high as it did . Now of this Experiment , which we tryed more than once , I see not , for the reason lately express'd , how any good account will be given without our Hypothesis , but according to That 't is clear . A. I think I perceive why you say so ; for the Ascension of Liquors being an effect of the prevalency of the external Airs pressure against the resistance it meets with in the Cavity of the Instrument , and the Quicksilver being bulk for bulk many times heavier than water , the same surplusage of pressure that was able to impel up water to the top of the pipe , ought not to be able to impel up the Quicksilver to any thing near that height . And if it be here objected , as it very plausibly may be , that the raised Cylinder of Mercury was much longer than it ought to have been in reference to a Cylinder of Water , the proportion in gravity between those two Liquors ( which is almost that of fourteen to one ) being considered ; I answer , that when the Cylinder of Water reach'd to the pipe , the Air possess'd no more than the Cavity of the globulous part of the Instrument , being very little assisted to dilate it self by so light a Cylinder as that of Water : But when the Quicksilver came to be impell'd into the Instrument by the weight of the external Air , that ponderous Body did not stop its ascent as soon as it came to be equiponderant to the formerly expell'd Cylinder of Water ; because , to attain that height , it reached but a little way into the pipe , and left all the rest of the Cavity of the pipe to be fill'd with part of that Air , which formerly was all s●ut up in the Cavity of the Bubble ; by which means the Air , included in the whole Instrument , must needs be in a state of expansion , and thereby have its Spring weakened , and consequently disabled to resist the pressure of the external Air , as much as the same included Air did before , when it was less rarified ; on which account , the undiminished weight or pressure of the external Air was able to raise the Quicksilver higher and higher , 'till it had obta●ned that height , at which the pressure , compounded of the weight of the Mercurial Cylinder and the Spring of the internal Air ( now less rarified than before , ) was equivalent to the pressure of the Atmosphere or external Air. B. You have given the very Explication I was about to propose ; wherefore I shall only add , that to confirm this Experiment by a kind of Inversion of it , we drove by heat a little Air out of the Bubble , and dipt the open end of the pipe into Quicksilver , which by this means we made to ascend 'till it had fill'd about a fourth part or less of the pipe , when that was held erected . Then carefully removing it without letting fall any Quicksilver , or letting in any Air , we held the orifice of the pipe a little under the surface of a Glass full of Water , and applying a moderate heat to the outside of the Ball , we warily expell'd the Quicksilver , yet leaving a little of it to make it sure that no Air was driven out with it , then suffering the included Air to cool , the external Air was found able to make the Water not only ascend to the very top of the pipe , and thence spread it self a little into the Cavity of the Ball , but to carry up before it the Quicksilver that had remained unexpell'd at the bottom of the stem . And if in making the Experiment we had first raised , as we sometimes did , a greater quantity of Quicksilver , and afterwards drove it out , the quantity of Water , that would be impell'd into the Cavity of the pipe and ball , would be accordingly increased . A. In this Experiment 't is manifest , that something is driven out of the Cavity of the Glass before the Water or Quicksilver begins to ascend in it : And here also we see not , that the Air can pass through the pores of Quicksilver or Water , but that it drives them on before it , without sensibly mixing with them . In this Experiment there appears not at all any Circular Wind , as Mr. Hobbes fancies in the suckt Vial we are disputing of , nor any tendency outwards of the included Air upon the account of such a Wind ; but , instead of these things , that the ascension of the Liquors into the Cavity of the pipe depends upon the external Air , pressing up the Liquors into that Cavity , may be argu'd by this , that the same weight of the Atmosphere impell'd up into the pipe so much more of the lighter Liquor , Water , than of the heavier Liquor , Mercury . B. You have said enough on this Experiment ; but 't is not the only I have to oppose to Mr. Hobbes his Explication : For , that there is no need of the sallying of Air out of a Vial , to make the Atmospherical Air press against a Body that closes the orifice of it , when the pressure of the internal Air is much weakened ; I have had occasion to shew some Virtuosi , by sucking out , with the help of an Instrument , a considerable portion of the Air contained in a Glass ; for having then , instead of unstopping the orifice under water , nimbly applied a flat Body to it , the external Air press'd that Body so forcibly against it , as to keep it fastened and suspended , though 't were clogg'd with a weight of many ounces . A. Another Experiment of yours Mr. Hobbes's Explication brings into my mind , by which it appears , that , if there be such a Circular Wind , as he pretends , produced by Suction in the Cavity of the Vial , it must needs be strangely lasting . For I have seen more than once , that , when you have by an Instrument suckt much of the Air out of a Vial , and afterwards carefully closed it , though you kept the slender neck of it stopt a long time , perhaps for some weeks or months , yet when 't was open'd under water , a considerable quantity of the Liquor would be briskly impell'd up into the neck and belly of the Vial. So that , though I will not be so pleasant with Mr. Hobbes , as to mind you on this occasion of those Writers of Natural Magick , that teach us to shut up Articulate Sounds in a Vessel , which being transported to a distant place and open'd there , will rende● the Words that are committed to it● yet I must needs say , that so lasting a Circular Wind , as , according to Mr. Hobbes , your Experiments exhibited , may well deserve our wonder . B. Your admiration would perchance increase , if I should assure you , that having with the Sun-beams produced smoak in one of those well-stopt Vials , this Circular Wind did not at all appear to blow it about , but suffered it to rise , as it would have done if the included Air had been very calm . And now I shall add but one Experiment more , which will not be liable to some of the things as invalid as they are , which Mr. Hobbes has alledged in his account of the Vial , and which will let you see , that the weight of the Atmospherical Air is a very considerable thing ; and which may also incline you to think , that , whilst Mr. Hobbes does not admit a subtiler Matter than common Air to pass through the Pores of close and solid Bodies , the Air he has recourse to will sometimes come too late to prevent a Vacuum . The Experiment , which was partly accidental , I lately found registred to this sense , if not in these words : [ Having , to make some Discovery of the weight of the Air , and for other purposes , caus'd an AEolipile , very light considering its bulk , to be made by a famous Artist , I had occasion to put it so often into the fire for several Tryals , that at length the Copper scal'd off by degrees , and left the Vessel much thinner than when it first came out of the Artificers hands ; and a good while after , this change in the Instrument being not in my thoughts , I had occasion to imploy it , as formerly , to weigh how many grains it would contain of the Air at such a determinate constitution of the Atmosphere , as was to be met with , where I then chanced to be . For the making this Experiment the more exactly , the Air was by a strong , but warily applied , fire so carefully driven away , that , when clapping a piece of Sealing-wax to the Pin-hole , at which it had been forced out , we hindred any communication betwixt the Cavity of the Instrument and the external Air , we suppos'd the AEolipile to be very well exhausted , and therefore laid it by , that , when it should be grown cold , we might , by opening the orifice with a Pin , again let in the outward Air , and observe the encrease of weight that would thereupon ensue : But the Instrument , that , as I was saying , was grown thin , had been so diligently freed from Air , that the very little that remain'd , and was kept by the War from receiving any assistance from without , being unable by its Spring to assist the AEolipile to support the weight of the ambient Air ; this external fluid did by its weight press against it so strongly , that it compress'd it , and thrust it so considerably inwards , and in more than one place so chang'd its figure , that , when I shew'd it to the Virtuosi that were assembled at Gresham-Colledge , they were pleased to command it of me to be kept in their Repository , where I presume it is still to be seen . FINIS . OF THE CAUSE OF Attraction BY SUCTION . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE , Fellow of the Royal Society . LONDON , Printed by William Godbid , and are to be Sold by Moses Pitt , at the Angel over against the little North Door of St. Paul's Church . 1674. PREFACE . HAving about twelve years ago summarily exprest and publish'd my Opinion of the Cause of Suction , and a while before or after brought to the Royal Society the Glass Instrument I employ'd to make it out ; I desisted for some time to add any thing about a Problem , that I had but occasionally handled : Only , because the Instrument I mention'd in my Examen of Mr. Hobbes's Opinion , and afterwards us'd at Gresham-College , was difficult enough to be well made , and not to be procur'd ready made , I did for the sake of some Virtuosi , that were curious of such things , devise a slight and easily made Instrument , describ'd in the following Tract , Chap. 4th , in which the chief Phaenomena , I shew'd before the Society , were easily producible . But afterwards the mistakes and erroneous Opinions , that , in Print as well as in Discourse , I met with , even among Learned Men , about Suction , and the Curiosity of an Ingenious Person , engaged me to resume that Subject and treat of it , as if I had never before meddled with it , for the reason intimated in the beginning of the insuing Paper . And finding upon the review of my later Animadversions an Mr. Hobbes's Problemata de Vacuo , that some passages of this Tract are referr'd to there ; I saw my self thereby little less than engaged to annex that Discourse to those Animadversions . And this I the rather consented to , because it contains some Experiments , that I have not elsewhere met with , which , together with some other parts of that Essay , may , I hope , prove of some use to illustrate and confirm our Doctrine about the Weight and Spring of the Air , and supply the less experienced than ingenious . Friends to our Hypothesis with more grounds of answering the later Objections of some Learned Men , against whose endeavours I perceive it will be useful to employ variety of Experiments and other Proofs to evince the same Truth ; that some or other of these may meet with those Arguments or evasions with which they strive to elude the force of the rest . The Title of the following Essay may sufficiently keep the Reader from expecting to find any other kind of Attraction discours'd of , than that which is made by Suction . But yet thus much I shall here intimate in general , that I have found by Trials purposely made , that the Examples of Suction are not the only noted ones of Attraction , that may be reduced to Pulsion . OF THE CAUSE OF ATTRACTION BY SUCTION . CHAP. I. I Might , Sir , save my self some trouble in giving you that account you desire of me about Suction , by referring you to a passage in the Examen , I long since writ , of Mr. Hobbes's Dialogus Physicus de Natura Aeris , if I knew , you had those two Books lying by you . But because I suspect , that my Examen may not be in your hands , since 't is a most out of Print , and has not for some years been in my own ; and because I do not so well remember , after so long a time the particulars that I writ there , about Suction , as I do in general , that the Hypothesis I proposed , was very incidentally and briefly discours'd of , upon an occasion ministred by a wrong Explication given of Suction by Mr. Hobbes , I shall here decline referring you to what I there writ● and proposing to you those thoughts about Suction , that I remember I there pointed at , I shall annex some things to illustrate and confirm them ; that would not have been so proper for me to have insisted on in a short and but occasional Excursion . And I should immediately proceed to what you expect from me , but that Suction being generally look'd upon as a kind of Attraction , it will be requisite for me to premise something about Attraction it self . For , besides that the Cause of it , which I here dispute not of , is obscure , the very Nature and Notion of it is wont by Naturalists to be either left untouch'd , or but very darkly deliver'd , and therefore will not be unfit to be here somewhat explain'd . How general and ancient soever the common Opinion may be , that Attraction is a kind of Motion quite differing from Pulsion , if not also opposite to it ; yet I confess , I concur in opinion , though not altogether upon the same grounds , with some modern Naturalists , that think Attraction a Species of Pulsion . And at least among inanimate Bodies I have not yet observed any thing , that convinces me , that Attraction cannot be reduced to Pulsion ; for , these two seem to me to be but extrinsical denominations of the same Local Motion , in which , if a moved Body precede the Movent , or tend to acquire a greater distance from it , we call it Pulsion ; and if , upon the score of the Motion , the same Body follow the Movent or approach to it , we call it Attraction . But this difference may consist but in an accidental respect , which does not Physically alter the nature of the Motion , but is founded upon the respect , which the Line , wherein the Motion is made , happens to have to the situation of the Movent . And that which seems to me to have been the chief cause of mens mistaking Attraction for a motion opposite to Pulsion , is , that they have look'd upon both the moving and moved Bodies , in too popular and superficial a manner ; and consider'd in the Movent rather the situation of the conspicuous and more bulky part of the Animal or other Agent , than the situation of that part of the Animal , or Instrument , that does immediately impress that motion upon the Mobile . For those that attentively heed this , may easily take notice , that some part of that Body , or of the Instrument , which by reason of their conjunction in this operation is to be look'd on but as making one with it , is really placed behind some part of the Body to be drawn , and therefore cannot move outwards it self without thrusting that Body forward . This will be easily understood , if we consider , what happens when a Man draws a Chain after him ; for , though his Body do precede the Chain , yet his finger or some other part of the hand , wherewith he draws it , has some part or other that reaches behind the fore part of the first Link , and the hinder part of this Link comes behind the anteriour part of the second Link ; and so each Link has one of its parts placed behind some part of the Link next after it , 'till you come to the last Link of all . And so , as the finger , that is in the first Link , cannot move forwards but it must thrust on that Link , by this Series of Trusions the whole Chain is moved forwards ; and if any other Body be drawn by that Chain , you may perceive , that some part of the last Link comes behind some part of that Body , or of some intervening Body , which , by its cohesion with it , ought in our present case to be consider'd as part of it . And thus Attraction seems to be but a Species of Pulsion , and usually belongs to that kind of it , which , for distinctions sake , is called Trusion , by which we understand that kind of Pulsion , wherein the Movent goes along with the moved Body without quitting it whilst the progress lasts ; as it happens , when a Gardiner drives his Wheel-barrow before him without letting go his hold of it . But I must not here dissemble a difficulty , that I foresee may be speciously urged against this account of Attraction . For it may be said , that there are Attractions , where it cannot be pretended , that any part of the Attrahent comes behind the Attracted Body ; as in Magnetical and Electrical Attractions , and in that which is made of Water , when 't is drawn up into Springs and Pumps . I need not tell you , that you know so well , as that partly the Cartesians , and partly other Modern Philosophers , have recourse on this occasion either to screwed Particles and other Magnetical Emissions , to explicate Phaenomena of this kind . And , according to such Hypotheses , one may say , that many of these Magnetical and Electrical Effluvia come behind some parts of the attracted Bodies , or at least of the little solid Particles , that are as it were the Walls of their ●ores , or procure some discussion of the Air , that may make it thrust the Moveable towards the Loadstone or Amber , &c. But if there were none of these , nor any other subtil Agents that cause this Motion by a real , though unperceived , Pulsion ; I should make a distinction betwixt other Attractions and these , which I should then stile Attraction by Invisibles . But , whether there be really any such in Nature , and why I scruple to admit things so hard to be conceived , may be elsewhere consider'd . And you will , I presume , the freelier allow me this liberty , if , ( since in this place 't is proper to do it , ) I shew you , that in the last of the instances I formerly objected ( that of the drawing up of Water into the Barrel of a Syringe , ) there is no true Attraction of the Liquor made by the external Air. I say then , that by the ascending Rammer , as a part of which I here consider the obtuse end , Plug , or Sucker , there is no Attraction made of the contiguous and subjacent Water , but only there is room made for it , to rise into , without being expos'd to the pressure of the superiour Air. For , if we suppose the whole Rammer to be by Divine Omnipotence annihilated , and consequently uncapable of exercising any Attraction ; yet , provided the superiour Air were kept off from the Water by any other way as well as 't was by the Rammer , the Liquor would as well ascend into the Cavity of the Barrel ; since , ( as I have elsewhere abundantly proved , ) the surface of the Terraqueous Globe being continually press'd on by the incumbent Air or Atmosphere , the Water must be by that pressure impell'd into any cavity here below , where there is no Air to resist it ; as by our Supposition there is not in the Barrel of our Syringe , when the Rammer , or whatever else was in it , had been annihilated . Which Reasoning may be sufficiently confirm'd by an Experiment , whereby I have more than once shewn some curious persons , that , if the external Air , and consequently its pressure , be withdrawn from about the Syringe , one may pull up the Sucker as much as he pleases , without drawing up after it the subjacent Water . In short , let us suppose , that a Man standing in an inner room does by his utmost resistance keep shut a Door , that is neither lock'd nor latch'd , against another , who with equal force endeavours to thrust it open ? In this case , as if one should forcibly pull away the first Man , it could not be said , that this Man , by his recess from the Door he endeavoured to press outwards , did truely and properly draw in his Antagonist , though upon that recess the coming in of his Antagonist would presently ensue ; so it cannot properly be said , that by the ascent of the Rammer , which displaces the superiour Air , either the Rammer it self , or the expelled Air , does properly attract● the subjacent Water , though the ingress of that Liquor into the Barrel does thereupon necessarily ensue . And that , as the Comparison supposes , there is a pressure of the superiour Air against the upper part of the Sucker , you may easily perceive , if having well stopt the lower orifice of the Syringe with your finger , you forcibly draw up the Sucker to the top of the Barrel . For if then you let go the Rammer , you will find it impell'd downwards by the incumbent Air with a notable force . CHAP. II. HAving thus premis'd something in general about the Nature of Attraction , as far as 't is necessary for my present design ; it will be now seasonable to proceed to the consideration of that kind of Attraction , that is employed to raise Liquors , and is by a distinct Name called Suction . About the Cause of this there is great comention between the New Philosophers ; as they are stiled , and the Peripateticks . For the Followers of Aristotle , and many Learned Men that in other things dissent from him , ascribe the ascension of Liquors upon Suction to Natures abhorrence of a Vacuum . For , say they , when a Man dips one end of a Straw or Reed into stagnant Water , and sucks at the other end , the Air contain'd in the cavity of the Reed passes into that of his Lungs , and consequently the Reed would be left empty , if no other Body succeeded in the place it deserts ; but there are only ( that they take notice of , ) two Bodies that can succeed , the Air and the ( grosser Liquor ) the Water ; and the Air cannot do it , because of the interposition of the Water , that denies it access to the immers'd orifice of th● Reed , and therefore it must be the Water it self , which accordingly does ascend to prevent a Vacuum detested by Nature . But many of the Modern Philosophers , and generally all the Corpusc●larians , look upon this Fuga Vacue as but an imaginary Cause of Suction ; though they do it upon very differing grounds . For , the Atomists ; tha● willingly admit of Vacuities , properly so called , both within and without our World , cannot think that Nature hates or fears a Vacuum , and declines her usual course to prevent it : And the Cartesians , though they do , as well as the Peripateticks , deny that that there is a Vacuum , yet since they affirm not only , that there is none in rerum Natura , but that there can be none , because what others call an empty Space having three Dimensions , hath all that they think belonging to the Essence of a Body , they will not grant Nature to be so indiscreet , as to strain her self to prevent the making of a thing that is impossible to be made . The Peripatetic Opinion about the Cause of Suction , though commonly defended by the Schools , as well Modern as Ancient , supposes in Nature such an abhorrence of a Vacuum , as neither has been well proved , nor does well agree with the lately discover'd Phaenomenon of Suction . For , according to their Hypothesis , Water and other Liquors should ascend upon Suction to any hight to prevent a Vacuum , which yet is not agreeable to experience . For I have carefully tryed , that by pumping with a Pump far more stanch than those that are usually made , and indeed as well clos'd as we could possibly bring it to be , we could not by all our endeavour● raise Water by Suction to above * 36 ½ foot . The T●rricellian Exp t shews , tha● the weight of the Air is able to sustain , and some of our Experim ts shew , 't is able to raise a Mercurial Cylinder equal in weight to as high a Cylinder of Water as we were able to raise by pumping . For Mercury being near ●● times as heavy as Water of the sam● bulk , if the weight of the Air b● equivalent to that of a Mercuri● Cylinder of 29 or 30 Inches , it mu●● be able to counterpoise a Cylinder o● Water near fourteen times as long that is , from thirty four to near thirt● six foot . And very disagreeable t● the common Hypothesis , but consonant to ours , is the Experiment th● I have more than once tryed , and ● think elsewhere deliver'd , namely● That , if you take a Glass Pipe of a●bout three foot long , and , dipping one end of it in Water , suck at the other , the Water will be suddenly made to flow briskly into your mouth : But , if instead of Water you dip the lower end into Quicksilver , though you suck as strongly as ever you can , provided that in this case , as in the former , you hold the Pipe upright , you will never be able to suck up the Quicksilver near so high as your mouth ; so that if the Water ascended upon Suction to the top of the same Pipe , because else there would have been a Vacuum left in the cavity of it , why should not we conclude , that , when we have suckt up the Quicksilver as strongly as we can , as much of the upper part of the Tube as is deserted by the Air , and yet not fill'd by the Mercury , admits , in part at least , a Vacuum , ( as to Air ) of which consequently Nature cannot reasonably be suppos'd to have so great and unlimited an abhorrency , as the Peripateticks and their Adherents presume . Yet I will not determine , whether there be any more than many little Vacuities , or Spaces devoid of Air , in the Cavity ; so called , of the Pipe unfill'd by the Mercury ; ( so that the whole Cavity is not one entire empty Space ; ) it being sufficient for my purpose , that my Experiment affords a good Argument ad hominem against the Peripateticks , and warrants us to seek for some other Cause than the fuga Vacui , why a much stronger Suction than that , which made Water ascend with ease into the Suckers mouth , will not also raise Quicksilver to the same height or near it . Those Modern Philosophers that admit not the fuga Vacui to be the Cause of the raising of Liquors in Suction , do generally enough agree in referring it to the action of the Suckers thorax . For , when a Man endeavours to suck up a Liquor , he does by means of the Muscles enlarge the cavity of his Chest , which he cannot do but at the same time he must thrust away those parts of the ambient Air that were contiguous to his Chest , and the displac'd Air does , according to some Learned Men , ( therein , if I mistake not , Followers of Gassendus , ) compress the contiguous Air , and that the next to it , and so outwards , 'till the pressure , successively passing from one part of the Air to the other , arrive at the surface of the Liquor ; and all other places being as to sense full , the impell'd Air cannot find place but by thrusting the Water into the room made for it in the Pipe by the recess of the Air that pass'd into the Suckers lungs . And they differ'd not much from this Explication , that , without taking in the compression of the ambient Air made by the thorax , refer the Phaenomenon to the propagated motion or impulse , that is imprest on the Air displac'd by the thorax in its dilatation , and yet unable to move in a World perfectly fill'd , as they suppose ours to be , unless the Liquor be impell'd into as much of the cavity of the Pipe , as fast as 't is deserted by the Air that is said to be suck'd up . But though I readily confess this Explication to be ingenious , and such as I wonder not they should acquiess in , who are acquainted but with the long known and obvious Phaenomena of Suction ; and though I am not sure , but that in the most familiar cases the Causes assign'd by them may contribute to the Effect ; yet , preserving for Cartesius and Gassendus the respect I willingly pay such great Philosophers , I must take the liberty to tell you , that I cannot acquiess in their Theory . For I think , that the Cause of Suction , they assign , is in many cases not necessary , in others , not sufficient . And first , as to the Condensation of the Air by the dilatation of the Suckers Chest ; when I consider the extent of the ambient Air , and how small a compression no greater an expansion than that of the Thorax is like to make , I can scarce think , so slight a condensation of the free Air can have so considerable an operation on the surface of the Liquor to be rais'd , as the Hypothesis I examin requires : And that this impulse of the Air by a Suckers dilated Thorax , though it be wont to accompany the ascension of the water procured by Suction , yet is not of absolute necessity to it , will , I presume , be easily granted , if it can be made out , that even a propagated Pulsion , abstracted from any Condensation of Air , is not so necessarily the Cause of it , but that the Effect may be produc'd without it . For suppose , that by Divine Omnipotence so much Air as is displac'd by the Thorax were annihilated ; yet I see not , why the Ascension of the Liquor should not ensue . For , when a Man begins to suck , there is an AEquilibrium , or rather AEquipollency between the pressure , which the Air , contained in the Pipe , ( which is shut up with the pressure of the Atmosphere upon it , ) has , by virtue of its Spring , upon that part of the surface of the water that is environ'd by the sides of the Pipe , and the pressure which the Atmospherical Air has , by virtue of its weight , upon all the rest of the surface of the stagnant water ; so that , when by the dilatation of the Suckers Thorax , the Air within the cavity of the Pipe comes to be rarified , and consequently loose of its Spring , the weight of the external Air continuing in the mean time the same , it must necessarily happen , that the Spring of the internal Air will be too weak to compress any longer the gravitation of the external , and consequently , that part of the surface of the stagnant water , that is included in the Pipe , being less press'd upon , than all the other parts of the same surfaces must necessarily give way , where it can least , resist , and consequently be impell'd up into the Pipe , where the Air , having had its Spring weakened by expansion , is no longer able to resist , as it did before . This may be illustrated by somewhat varying an Instance already given , and conceiving , that within a Chamber three Men thrust all together with their utmost force against a Door , ( which we suppose to have neither Bolt nor Latch ) to keep it shut , at the same time the three other Men have just equal strength , and imploy their force to thrust it open . For though , whilst their opposite endeavours are equal , the Door will continue to be kept shut , yet if one of the three Men within the Room should go away , there will need no new force , nor other accession of strength to the three Men , to make them prevail and thrust open the Door against the resistance of those that endeavour'd to keep it shut , who are now but two . And here ( upon the by ) you may take notice , that , to raise water in Suction , there is no necessity of any rarified and forcibly stretch'd Rope , as 't were , of the Air , to draw up the subjacent water into the Pipe , since the bare debilitation of the Spring of the included Air may very well serve the turn . And though , if we should suppose the Air within the Pipe to be quite annihilated , it could not be pretended ( since it would not have so much as Existence ) that it exercises an attractive Power ; yet in this case the water would ascend into the Pipe , without the assistance of Natures imaginary Abhorrence of a Vacuum , but by a Mechanical Necessity , plainly arising from this , that there would be a pressure of the incumbent Atmosphere upon the rest of the surface of the stagnant water , and no pressure at all upon that part of the surface that is within the Pipe , where consequently there could be no resistance made to the ascension of the water , every where else strongly urg'd by the weight of the incumbent Air. I shall add on this occasion , that , to shew some inquisitive Men , that the weak resistance within a Vessel , that had but one orifice expos'd to the water , may much more contribute to the ascension of that Liquor into the Vessel , than either the compression or the continued or reflected impulse of the external Air ; I thought fit to produce a Phaenomenon , which by the Beholders was without scruple judg'd an Effect of Suction , and yet could not be ascrib'd to the Cause of Suction , assign'd by either of the Sects of Philosophers I dissent from . The Experiment was this : By a way , elsewhere deliver'd , the long neck of a Glass-bubble was seal'd up , and almost all the Air had been by Heat driven out of the whole cavity of the Bubble or Vial , and then the Glass was laid aside for some hours , or as long as we pleas'd ; afterwards the seal'd apex of the neck was broken off under water : I demand now of a Peripatetic , whether the Liquor ought to be suck'd or drawn into the cavity of the Glass , and why ? if he says , as questionless he will , that the water would be attracted to hinder a Vacuum , he would thereby acknowledge , that , 'till the Glass was unstopt under water , there was some empty space in it ; for , 'till the sealed end was broken off , the water could not get in , and therefore , if the fuga vacui had any thing to do in the ascension , the Liquor must rise , not to prevent an empty space , but to fill one that was made before . Nor does our Experiment much more favour the other Philosophers , I dissent from : For in it there is no dilatation made of the sides of the Glass , as in ordinary Suction there is made of the Thorax , but only there is so much Air driven out of the cavity of the Bubble , into whose room since neither common Air nor Water is permitted to succeed , it appears not , how the propagated and returning impulse , or the Circle of Motion , as to common Air and Water , does here take place . And then I demand , what becomes of the Air , that has been by heat driven out , and is by the Hermetical Seal kept out of the cavity of the Bubble ? If it be said , that it diffuses it self into the ambient Air , and mingles with it , that will be granted which I contended for , that so little Air as is usually displac'd in Suction cannot make any considerable compression of the free ambient Air ; for , what can one Cubic Inch of Air , which is sometimes more than one of our Glasses contains , do , to the condensation so much as of all the Air in the Chamber , when the expell'd Corpuscles are evenly distributed among those of the ambient . And how comes this inconsiderable condensation to have so great an effect in every part of the room , as to be able there to impel into the Glass as much water in extent as the whole Air that was driven out of the cavity of it ? But if it be said , that the expell'd Air condens'd only the contiguous or very neighbouring Air , 't is easie to answer , that 't is no way probable , that the expell'd Particles of the Air should not by the differing motions of the ambient Air be quickly made to mingle with it , but should rather wait ( which if it did we sometimes made it do for many hours ) 'till the Vessels whence 't was driven out were unstopp'd again . But , though this could probably be pretended , it cannot truly be asserted . For if you carry the seal'd Glass quite out of the room or house , and unstop it at some other place , though two or three miles distant ; the ascension of the water will , ( as I found by tryal ) nevertheless insue ; in which case I presume , it will not be said , that the Air , that was expell'd out of the Glass , and condens'd the contiguous or near contiguous Air , attended the Bubble in all its motions , and was ready at hand to impel-in the water , as soon as the seal'd apex of the Vial was broken off . But I doubt not , but most of the Embracers of the Opinion I oppose , being Learned and Ingenuous Persons , if they had been acquainted with these and the like Phaenomena , would rather have changed their Opinion about Suction , than have gone about to defend it by such Evasions , which I should not have thought worth proposing , if I had not met with Objections of this nature publickly maintain'd by a Learned Writer , on occasion of the Air 's rushing into the exhausted Magdenburgic Engine . But as in our Experiment these Objections have no place , so in our Hypothesis the Explication is very easie , as will anon be intimated . CHAP. III. HAving thus shewn , that the Ascension of Water upon Suction may be caus'd otherwise than by the Condensation or the propagated Pulsion of Air contiguous to the Suckers Thorax , and thrust out of place by it ; it remains that I shew , ( which was one of the two things I chiefly intended , ) that there may be Cases wherein the Cause , assign'd in the Hypothesis I am examining , will not have place . But this will be better understood , if , before I proceed to the proof of it , I propose to you the thoughts , I had many years since , and do still retain , about the Cause of the Ascension of Liquors in Suction . To clear the way to the right understanding of the ensuing Discourse , it will not be amiss here to premise a summary intimation of some things that are suppos'd in our Hypothesis . We suppose then first , without disputing either the Existence or the nature of Elementary Air , that the Common Air we breath in , and which I often call Atmospherical Air , abounds with Corpuscles not devoid of Weight , and indowed with Elasticity or Springiness , whereby the lower parts , comprest by the weight of the upper , incessantly endeavour to expand themselves , by which expansion , and in proportion to it , the Spring of the Air is weaken'd , ( as other Springs are wont to be ) the more they are permitted to stretch themselves . Next , we suppose , that the Terraqueous Globe , being inviron'd with this gravitating and springy Air , has its surface and the Bodies plac'd on it prest by as much of the Atmosphere as either perpendicularly leans on them , or can otherwise come to bear upon them . And this pressure is by the Torricellian and other Experiments found to be equivalent to a perpendicularly erected Cylinder of about twenty nine or thirty Inches of Quicksilver , ( for the height is differing , as the gravity of the Atmosphere happens to be various . ) Lastly , we suppose , that , Air being contain'd in a Pipe or other hollow Body that has but one orifice open to the free Air , if this orifice be Hermetically seal'd , or otherwise ( as with the mouth of one that sucks ) clos'd , the now included Air , whilst it continues without any farther expansion , will have an elasticity equivalent to the weight of as much of the outward Air as did before press against it . For , if the weight of the Atmosphere , to which it was then expos'd , had been able to compress it further , it would have done so , and then the closing of the orifice , at which the internal and external Air communicated , as it fenc'd the included Air from the pressure of the incumbent , so it hindred the same included Air from expanding it self ; so that , as it was shut up with the pressure of the Atmosphere upon it , that is in a state of as great compression as the weight of the Atmosphere could bring it to , so , being shut up and thereby kept from weakening that pressure by expansion , it must retain a Springiness equipollent to the pressure 't was expos'd to before , which ( as I just now noted ) was as great as the weight ● the incumbent Pillar of the Atmosphere could make it . But if , as was said in the first Supposition , the included Air should come to be dilated or expanded , the Spring being then unbent , its Spring , like that of other elastical Bodies , would be debilitated answerably to that expan●ion . To me then it seems , that , speaking in general , Liquors are upon Suction raised into the cavities of Pipes and other hollow Bodies , when , and so far as , there is a less pressure on the surface of the Liquor in the cavity , than on the surface of the external Liquor that surrounds the Pipe , whether that pressure on those parts of the external Liquor , that are from time to time impell'd up into the orifice of the Pipe , proceed from the weight of the Atmosphere , or the propagated compression or impulse of some parts of the Air , or the Spring of the Air , or some other Cause , as the pressure of some other Body quite distinct from Air. Upon the general view of this Hypothesis , it seems very consonant to the Mechanical Principles . For , if there be on the differing parts of the surface of a fluid Body unequal pressures , 't is plain , as well by the nature of the thing , as by what has been demonstrated by Archimedes , and his Commentators , that the greater force will prevail against the lesser , and that that part of the waters surface must give way , where it is least prest . So that that , wherein the Hypothesis I venture to propose to you , differs from that which I dissent from , is not , that mine is less Mechanical ; but partly in this , that , whereas the Hypothesis , I question , supposes a necessity of the protrusion or impulse of the Air , mine does not require that supposition , but , being more general , reaches to other ways of procuring the Ascension of Liquors , without raising them by the impulse of the Air ; and partly , and indeed chiefly , in that the Hypothesis , I decline , makes the Cause of the Ascension of Liquors to be only the increased pressure of the Air external to the pipe ; and I chiefly make it to depend upon the diminished pressure of the Air within the pipe , on the score of the expansion 't is brought to by Suction . To proceed now to some Experiments that I made in favour of this Hypothesis , I shall begin with that which follows : We took a Glass-pipe bended like a Syphon , but so that the shorter legg was as parallel to the longer as we could get it made , and was Hermetically seal'd at the end : Into this Syphon we made a shift ( for 't is not very easie ) to convey water , so that the crooked part being held downwards , the liquor reach'd to the same height in both the leggs , and yet there was about an Inch and half of uncomprest Air shut up in the shorter legg . This little Instrument ( for 't was but about fifteen Inches long ) being thus prepar'd , 't is plain , that according to the Hypothesis I dissent from , there is no reason , why the water should ascend upon Suction . For , though we should admit , that the external Air were considerably comprest , or received a notable impulse , when the Suckers chest is enlarged ; yet in our case that compression or protrusion will not reach the surface of the water in the shorter legg , because it is there fenc'd from the action of the external Air by the sides of the Glass , and the Hermetical Seal at the top . And yet , if one suck'd strongly at the open orifice in the longer legg , the water in the shorter would be deprest ; and that in the longer ascended at one suck about an Inch and half : Of which the reason is clear in our Hypothesis . For , the Spring of the included Air , together with the weight of the water in the shorter legg , and the pressure of the Atmospherical Air , assisted by the weight of the liquor in the longer legg , counter-ballanced one another before the Suction began : But , when afterwards upon Suction the Air in the longer legg came to be dilated and thereby weaken'd , 't was render'd unable to resist the undiminish'd pressure of the Air included in the shorter legg , which consequently expanding it self by vertue of its Elasticity , deprest the contiguous water , and made it proportionably rise in the opposite legg , 'till by the expansion its Spring being more and more weaken'd , it arrived at an equipollency with the gravitation or pressure of the Atmosphere . Which last clause contains the Reason , why , when the person that suckt had rais'd the water in the longer legg less than three Inches higher by repeated endeavours to suck , and that without once suffering the water to fall back again , he was not able to elevate the water in the longer , so much as three Inches above its first station . And if in the shorter legg there was but an Inch and a quarter of space left for the Air unfill'd by the water , by divers skilfully reiterated acts of Suction he could not raise the liquor in the longer legg above two Inches ; because by that time the Air included in the shorter legg had , by expanding it self further and further , proportionably weaken'd its Spring , 'till at length it became as rarified , as was the Air in the cavity of the longer legg , and consequently was able to thrust away the water with no more force than the Air in the long legg was able to resist . And by the recited tryal it appear'd , that the rarefaction usually made of Air by Suction is not near so great , as one would expect , problably because by the dilatation of the Lungs the Air , being still shut up , is but moderately rarified , and the Air in the longer legg can by them be brought to no greater degree of rarity , than that of the Air within the Chest. For , whereas the included Air in our Instrument was not expanded , by my estimate , at one suck to above the double of its former dimensions , and by divers successive sucks was expanded but from one Inch and an half to less than four Inches and an half , if the Suction could have been conveniently made with a great and stanch Syringe , the rarefaction of the Air would probably have been far greater ; since in our Pneumatick Engin Air may , without heat , and by a kind of Suction , be brought to possess many hundreds of times the space it took up before . From this rarefaction of the Air in both the leggs of our Instrument proceeds another Phaenomenon , readily explicable by our Hypothesis . For if , when the water was impell'd up as high as the Suction could raise it ; the Instrument were taken from th● Suckers mouth , the elevated water would with violence return to its wonted station . For , the Air , in both the leggs of the Instrument , having by the Suction loft much of the Spring , and so of its power of pressing ; when once the orifice of the longer legg was left open , the Atmospherical Air came again to gravitate upon the water in that legg , and the Air , included in the other legg , having its Spring debilitated by the precedent expansion , was not able to hinder the external Air from violently repelling the elevated water , 'till the included Air was thrust into the space it possess'd before the Suction ; in which space it had Density and Elasticity enough to resist the pressure , that the external Air exercis'd against it through the interpos'd water . But our Hypothesis about the Cause of Suction would not need to be solicitously prov'd to you by other ways , if you had seen what I have sometimes been able to do in our Pneumatick Engin. For , there we found by tryals purposely devis'd , and carefully made , that a good Syringe being so conveyed into our Receiver , that the open orifice of the Pipe or lower part was kept under water , if the Engin were exhausted , though the handle of the Syringe were drawn up , the water would not follow it , which yet it would do if the external Air were let in again . The Reason of which is plain in our Hypothesis . For , the Air , that should have prest upon the surface of the stagnant water , having been pumpt out , there was nothing to impell up the water into the deserted cavity of the Syringe , as there was when the Receiver was fill'd with Air. CHAP. IV. BUt because such a conveniency as our Engin , and the apparatus necessary for such Tryals are not easily procurable , I shall endeavour to confirm our Hypothesis about Suction by subjoining some Experiments , that may be tryed without the help of that Engin , for the making out these three things : I. That a Liquor may be rais'd by Suction , when the pressure of the Air , neither as it has Weight nor Elasticity , is the Cause of the Elevation . II. That the weight of the Atmospherical Air is sufficient to raise up Liquors in Suction . III. That in some cases Suction will not be made , as , according to the Hypothesis I dissent from , it should , although there be a dilatation of the Suckers Thorax , and no danger of a Vacuum though the Liquor should ascend . And first , to shew , how much the rising of Liquors in Suction depends upon the weight or pressure of the impellent Body , and how little necessity there is , where that pressure is not wanting , that , in the place deserted by the Liquor that is suck'd , there should succeed Air or some other visible Body , as the Peripatetic Schools would have it ; to ●hew this , I say , I thought on the following Experiments . We took a Glass-pipe fit to have the Torricellian Experiment made with it , but a good deal longer than was necessary for that use : This Pipe being Hermetically seal'd at one end , the other end was so bent as to be reflected upwards , and make as it were the shorter legg of the Syphon as parallel as we could to the longer , so that the Tube now was shap'd like an inverted Syphon with leggs of a very unequal length . This Tube , notwithstanding its inconvenient figure , we made a shift , ( for 't is not easily done ) to fill with Mercury , when 't was in an inclin'd posture , and then erecting it , the Mercury subsided in the longer legg , as in the Torricellian Experiment , and attain'd to between two foot and a quarter and two foot and an half above the surface of the Mercury in the shorter legg , which in this Instrument answers to the stagnant Mercury in an ordinary Barometer , from which to distinguish it I have elswhere call'd this Syphon , furnish'd with Mercury , a Travelling Baroscope , because it may be safely carried from place to place . Out of the shorter legg of this Tube we warily took as much Mercury as was thought convenient for what we had further to do , and this we did by such a way as to hinder any Air from getting into the deserted cavity of the longer legg , by which means the Mercurial Cylinder , ( estimated as I lately mention'd ) retain'd the same height above the stagnant Mercury in the shorter : The upper and clos'd part of this Travelling Baroscope you will easily grant to have been free from Common Air , not only for other Reasons that have been given elsewhere , but particularly for this , that , if you gently incline the Instrument , the Quicksilver will ascend to the top of the Tube ; which you know it could not do , if the place , formerly deserted by it , were possest by the Air , which by its Spring would hinder the ascension of the Mercury , ( as is easie to be tryed . ) The Instrument having been thus fitted , I caus'd one of the by-standers to suck at the shorter legg , whereupon ( as I expected ) there presently ensued an Ascension of four or five Inches of Mercury in that legg , and a proportionable Subsidence of the Mercury in the longer , and yet in this case the raising of the Mercury cannot be pretended to proceed from the pressure of the Air. For , the weight of the Atmosphere is fenc'd off by that , which closes the upper end of the longer Tube , and the Spring of the Air has here nothing to do , since , as we have lately shewn , the space deserted by the Mercury is not possest by the included Air , and the pulsion or condensation of the Air , suppos'd by divers modern Philosophers to be made by the dilatation of the Suckers Chest , and to press upon the surface of the Liquors that are to be suck'd up , this , I say , cannot here be pretended in regard the surface of the Liquor in the longer legg is every way fenc'd from the pressure of the ambient Air. So that it remains , that the Cause , which rais'd the Quicksilver in the shorter legg upon the newly recited Suction , was the weight of the collaterally superiour Quicksilver in the longer legg , which , being ( at the beginning of the Suction ) equivalent to the weight of the Atmosphere , there is a plain reason , why the stagnant Mercury in the shorter legg should be rais'd some Inches by Suction ; as Mercury stagnant in an open Vessel will be rais'd by the weight of the Atmosphere , when the Suction is made in the open Air. For , in both cases there is a Pipe , that reaches to the stagnant Mercury , and a competent weight to impel it into that Pipe ; when the Air in the cavity of the Pipe has its Spring weaken'd by the dilatation that accompanied Suction . The Second point formerly propos'd , which is , That the weight of the Air is sufficient to raise Liquors in Suction ; may not be ill prov'd by Arguments legitimately drawn from the Torricellian Experiment it self , and much more clearly by the first and fifteenth of our Continued Physico-Mechanical Experiments . And therefore I shall only here take notice of a Phaenomenon , that may be exhibited by the Travelling Baroscope , which , though it be much inferiour to the Experiments newly referr'd to , may be of some use on the present occasion . Having then provided an Instrument like the Travelling Baroscope , mention'd under the former Head , but whose leggs were not so unequally long , and having in it made the Torricellian Experiment after the manner lately describ'd ; we order'd the matter so , that there remain'd in the shorter legg the length of divers Inches unfill'd with stagnant Mercury . Then I caus'd one , vers'd in what he was to do , so to raise the Quicksilver by Suction to the open orifice of the shorter legg , that , the orifice being seasonably and dexterously closed , the Mercury continued to fill that legg , as long as we thought fit ; and then having put a mark to the surface of the Mercury in the longer legg , we unstopp'd the orifice of the shorter ; whereupon the Mercury , that before fill'd it , was depress'd , 'till the same Liquor in the longer legg was rais'd five Inches or more above the mark , and continu'd at that height . I said , that the Mercury that had been raised by Suction , was depress'd , rather than that it subsided , because its own weight could not here make it fall , since a Mercurial Cylinder of five Inches was far from being able to raise so tall a Cylinder of Mercury as made a counterpoise in the longer legg ; and therefore the depression we spea●● of , is to be referr'd to the gravitation of the Atmospherical Air upon the surface of the Mercury in the shorter legg : And I see no cause to doubt but that , if we could have procured an Instrument , into whose shorter legg a Mercurial Cylinder of many Inches higher could have been suck'd up , it would by this contrivance have appear'd , that the pressure of the Atmosphere would easily impel up a far taller Cylinder of Mercury than it did in our recited Expe●●ment . That this is no groundless conjecture may appear probable by the Experiment you will presently meet with . For if the gravity of an incumbent Pillar of the Atmosphere be able to compress a parcel of included Air as much as a Mercurial Cylinder , equivalent in weight to between thirty and five and thirty foot of water , is able to condense it , it cannot well be denied that the same Atmospherical Cylinder may be able by its weight to raise and counter-ballance eight or nine and twenty Inches of Quicksilver , or an equivalent pillar of water in Tubes , where the resistance of these two Liquors to be rais'd and sustain'd by the Air , depends only upon their own unassisted gravity . To confirm our Doctrine of the Gravitation of the Atmosphere upon the surface of the Liquors expos'd to it , I will subjoin an Experiment , that I devis'd to shew , that the incumbent Air , in its natural or usual state , would compress other Air not rarified , but in the like natural state , as much as a Cylinder of eight or nine and twenty Inches of Mercury would condense or compress it . In order to the making of this , I must put you in mind of what I have shewn elsewhere at large , and shall further confirm by one of the Experiments that follows the next ; namely , that about twenty nine or thirty Inches of Quicksilver will compress Air , that being in its natural or usual state ( as to rarity and density ) has been shut up in the shorter legg of our Travelling or Syphon-like Baroscope , into half the room that included Air possess'd before . This premis'd , I pass on to my Experiment , which was this : We provided a Travelling Baroscope , wherein the Mercury in the longer legg was kept suspended by the counterpoise of the Air that gravitated on the surface of the Mercury in the shorter legg , which we had so order'd , that it reached not by about two Inches to the top of the shorter legg . Then making a mark at the place where the stagnant Mercury rested , 't was manifest according to our Hypothesis , that the Air. in the upper part of the shorter legg was in its natural state , or of the same degree of density with the outward Air , with which it freely communicated at the open orifice of the shorter legg ; so that this stagnant Air was equally prest upon by the weight of the collaterally superiour Cylinder of Mercury in the longer legg , and the equivalent weight of a directly incumbent pillar of the Atmosphere . Things being in this posture , the upper part of the shorter legg , which had been before purposely drawn out to an almost capillary smallness , was Hermetically seal'd , which , though the Instrument was kept erected , was so nimbly done by reason of the slenderness of the Pipe , that the included Air did not appear to be sensibly heated , though for greater caution we staid a while from proceeding , that , if any rarefaction had been produc'd in the Air , it might have time to lose it again . This done , we open'd the lower end of the longer legg , ( which had been so order'd before , that we could easily do it , and without concussion of the Vessel , ) by which means the Atmospherical Air , gaining access to the Mercury included in the longer legg , did , as I expected , by its gravitation upon it so compress the Air included in the shorter legg , that , according to the estimate we made with the help of a Ruler , ( for by reason of the conical figure of the upper part of the glass we could not take precise measures , ) it was thrust into near half the room it took up before , and consequently , according to what I put you lately in mind of , endur'd a compression like that , which a Mercurial Cylinder of about twenty nine Inches would have given it . This Experiment , as to the main of it , was for greater caution made the second time with much the like success ; and though it had been more easie to measure the Condensation of the Air , if , instead of drawing out and sealing up the shorter legg of the Instrument , we had contented our selves to close it some other way ; yet we rather chose to imploy Hermes's Seal , lest , if any other course had been taken , it might be pretended , that some of the included Air , when it began to be comprest , might escape out at the not perfectly and strongly clos'd orifice of the legg wherein 't was imprison'd . To make it yet further appear , how much the Ascension of Liquors by Suction depends upon Pressure , rather than upon Natures imaginary Abhorrence of a Vacuum , or the propagated Pulsion of the Air ; I will subjoin an Instance , wherein that presum'd Abhorrence cannot be pretended . The Experiment was thus made : A Glass-Syphon , like those lately describ'd , with one legg far longer than the other , was Hermetically seal'd at the shorter legg , and then by degrees there was put in , at the orifice of the longer legg , as much Quicksilver as by its weight suffic'd to compress the Air in the shorter legg into about half the room it possess'd before ; so that , according to the Peripatetick Doctrine , the Air must be in a state of preternatural Condensation , and that to a far greater degree , than ( as I have tryed ) 't is usually brought to by Cold , intense enough to freeze water . Then measuring the heighth of the Quicksilver in the longer Tube above the superficies of that in the shorter , we found it not exceed thirty Inches . Now , if Liquors did rise in Suction ob fugam vacui , there is no reason , why this Quicksilver in the longer part of the Syphon should not easily ascend upon Suction , at least 'till the Air in the shorter legg had regain'd its former Dimensions , since it cannot in this place be pretended , that , if the Mercury should ascend , there would be any danger of a Vacuum in the shorter legg of the Tube , in regard that the contiguous included Air is ready at hand to succeed as fast as the Mercury subsides in the shorter legg of the Syphon . Nor can it be pretended , that , to fill the place deserted by the Quicksilver , the included Air must suffer a preternatural rarefaction or discension ; since 't is plain in our case , that on the contrary , as long as the Air continues in the state whereto the weight of the Quicksilver has reduc'd it , it is kept in a violent state of compression ; since in the shorter legg it was in its natural state , when the Mercury , poured into the longer legg , did by its weight thrust it into about half the room it took up before . And yet , having caus'd several persons , one of them vers'd in sucking , to suck diver's times as strongly as they could , they were neither of them able , not so much as for a minute of an hour , to raise the Mercury in the longer legg , and make it subside in the shorter for more than about an Inch at most . And yet to shew you , that the Experiment was not favourably tryed for me , the height of the Mercurial Cylinder in the longer legg above the surface of that in the shorter legg was , when the Suction was tryed , an Inch or two shorter than thirty Inches , and the comprest Air in the shorter legg was so far from having been by the exsuction expanded beyond its natural and first dimensions , that it did not , when the contiguous Mercury stood as low as we could make it subside , regain so much as one half of the space it had lost by the precedent Compression , and consequently was in a preternatural state of condensation , when it had been freed from that state as far as Suction would do it . Whence it seems evident , that 't was not ob fugam vacui , that the Quicksilver did upon Suction ascend one Inch ; for , upon the same score it ought to have ascended two , or perhaps more Inches , since there was no danger , that by such an ascension any Vacuum should be produc'd or left in the shorter legg of the Syphon ; whereas , according to our Hypothesis , a clear cause of the Phaenomenon is assignable . For , before the Suction was begun , there was an AEquilibrium or equipollency between the weight of the superiour Quicksilver in the longer legg , and a Spring of the comprest Air included in the shorter legg : But when the Experimentor began to suck , his Chest being widen'd , part of the Air included in the upper part of the longer legg pass'd into it , and that which remain'd had by that expansion its pressure so weaken'd , that the Air in the shorter legg , finding no longer the former resistance , was able by its own Spring to expand it self , and consequently to depress the contiguous Mercury in the same shorter legg , and raise it as much in the longer . But here a Hydrostatician , that heedfully marks this Experiment , may discern a difficulty , that may perhaps somewhat perplex him , and seems to overthrow our Explication of the Phaenomenon . For he may object , that if the comprest Air in the shorter legg had a Spring equipollent to the weight of the Mercury in the longer legg , it appears not , why the Mercury should not be suckt up in this Instrument , as well as in the free Air ; since , according to me , the pressure of the included Air upon the subjacent Mercury must be equivalent to the weight of the Atmosphere , and yet experience shews , that the weight of the Atmosphere will , upon Suction , raise Quicksilver to the height of several Inches . To clear this difficulty , and shew , that , though it be considerable , 't is not at all insuperable , be pleased to consider with me , that I make indeed the Spring of the comprest Air to be equipollent to the Weight of the compressing Mercury , and I have a manifest reason to do it ; because , if the Spring of the Air were not equipollent to that Weight , the Mercury must necessarily compress the Air farther , which 't is granted de facto not to do . But then I consider , that in our case there ought to be a great deal of difference between the operation of the Spring of the included Air and the Weight of the Atmosphere , after Suction has been once begun . For , the Weight of the Atmosphere , that impels up Mercury and other Liquors , when the Suction is made in the open Air , continues still the same , but the force or pressure of the included Air is equal to the counterpressure of the Mercury no longer than the first moment of the Suction ; after which , the force of the imprison'd Air still decreases more and more , since this comprest Air , being further and further expanded , must needs have its Spring proportionably weaken'd ; so that it need be no wonder , that the Mercury was not suckt up any more than we have related ; for there was nothing to make it ascend to a greater height , than that , at which the debilitated Spring of the ( included but ) expanded Air was brought to an equipollency with the undiminish'd and indeed somewhat increas'd weight of the Mercurial Cylinder in the longer legg , and the pressure of the Aerial Cylinder in the same legg , lessen'd by the action of him that suck'd . For whereas , when the orifice of this legg stood open , the Mercury was prest on by a Cylinder of the Atmospherical Air , equivalent to about thirty Inches of Quicksilver ; by the mouth and action of him that suck'd the Tube was freed from the external Air , and by the dilatation of his Thorax , the neighbouring Air , that had a free passage through his wind-pipe to it , was proportionably expanded , and had its Spring and pressure weaken'd : By which means , the comprest Air in the shorter legg of the Syphon was inabled to impel up the Mercury , 'till the lately mention'd Equilibrium or equipollency was attain'd . And I must here take notice , that , as the Quicksilver was rais'd by Suction but a little way , so the Cylinder that was rais'd was a very long one ; whereas , when Mercury is suck'd up in the free Air , it is seldom rais'd to half that length ; though , as I noted before , the impellent cause , which is the weight of the Atmosphere , continued still the same , whereas in our Syphon , when the Mercury was suck'd up but an Inch , the comprest Air , possessing double the space it did before , had by this expansion already lost a very considerable part of its former Spring and Pressure . I should here conclude this Discourse , but that I remember a Phaenomenon of our Pneumatic Engin , which to divers Learned Men , especially Aristotelians , seem'd so much to argue , that Suction is made either by a Fuga Vacui , or some internal Principle , that divers years ago I thought fit to set down another account of it , and lately meeting with that account among other papers , I shall subjoin it just as I found it , by way of Appendix to the foregoing Tract . Among the more familiar Phaenomena of the Machina Boyliana , ( as they now call it , ) none leaves so much scruple in the Minds of some sorts of Men , as this , That , when ones finger is laid close upon the orifice of the little Pipe , by which the Air is wont to pass from the Receiver into the exhausted Cylinder , the pulp of the finger is made to enter a good way into the cavity of the Pipe , which doth not happen without a considerable sense of pain in the lower part of the fing●r . For most of tho● that are strangers to Hydrostatic●● especially if they be prepossess'd wi●● the Opinions generally receiv'd bot● in the Peripatetick and other School● perswade themselves , that they f●● the newly mention'd and painful protuberance of the pulp of the finger to be effected not by pressure , as 〈◊〉 would have it , but distinctly by A●●traction . To this we are wont to answer That common Air being a Body 〈◊〉 devoid of weight , the Phenomeno● is clearly explicable by the pressu●● of it : For , when the finger is fir●● laid upon the orifice of the Pipe , no pain nor swelling is produc'd , because the Air which is in the Pipe presse● as well against that part of the finger which covereth the orifice , as the ambient Air doth against the other parts of the same finger . But when by pumping , the Air in the Pipe , or the most part of it , is made to pass out of the Pipe into the exhausted Cylinder , then there is nothing left in the Pipe , whose pressure can any thing near countervail the undiminish'd pressure of the external Air on the other parts of the finger ; and consequently , that Air thrusts the most yielding and fleshy part of the finger , which is the pulp , into that place where its pressure is unresisted , that is , into the cavity of the Pipe , where this forcible intrusion causeth a pain in those tender parts of the finger . To give some visible Illustration of what we have been saying , as well as for other purposes , I thought on the following Experiment . We took a Glass-pipe of a convenient length , and open at both ends , whose cavity was near about an Inch in Diameter , ( such a determinate breadth being convenient , though not necessary : ) To one of the ends of this Pipe we caused to be firmly tyed on a piece of very fine Bladder , that had been ruffled and oyl'd , to make it both very limber and unapt to admit water ; and care was taken , that the piece of Bladder tyed on ●hould be large enough , not only to cover the orifice , but to hang loose somewhat beneath it . This done , we put the cover'd end of the Pipe into a Glass-body ( or Cucurbit ) purposely made more than ordinarily tall , and the Pipe being held in such manner , as that the end of it reach'd almost , but not quite , to the bottom of the Glass-body , we caused water to be poured both into this Vessel and into the Pipe ( at its upper orifice , which was left open ) that the water might ascend equally enough , both without and within the Pipe. And when the Glass-body was full of water , and the same liquor was level to it , or a little higher within the Pipe , the Bladder at the lower orifice was kept plump , because the water within the Pipe did by its weight press as forcibly downwards , as the external water in the large Glass endeavour'd to press it inwards and upwards . All this being done , we caus'd part of the water in the Pipe to be ●aken out of it , ( which may be done either by putting in and drawing out a piece of Spunge or of Linnen , or more expeditiously by sucking up part of the water with a smaller Pipe to be immediately after laid aside ; ) upon which removal of part of the internal water , that which remained in the Pipe being no longer able , by reason of its want of weight , to press against the inside of the Bladder near as forcibly as it did before , the external water , whose weight was not lessen'd , press'd the sides and bottom of the Bladder , whereto it was contiguous , into the cavity of the Pipe , and thrusted it up therein so strongly , that the distended Bladder made a kind of either Thimble or Hemisphere within the Pipe. So that here we have a protuberance , like that above-mentioned of the finger● effected by Pulsion , not Attraction● and in a case where there can be no just pretence of having ●●course to Natures Abhorrance of a Vacuum , since , the upper orifice of the Pipe being left wide open , the Air may pass in and out without resistance . The like swelling of the Bladder in the Pipe we could procure without taking out any of the internal liquor , by thrusting the Pipe deeper into the water ; for then the external liquor , having by reason of its increase of depth a greater pressure on the outside of the Bladder , than the internal liquor had on the inside of it , the Bladder must yield to the stronger pressure , and consequently be impell'd up . If the Bladder lying loofe at the lower end of the Pipe , the upper end were carefully clos'd with ones thumb , that the upper Air might not get out until the Experimentor thought fit , and if the thus clos'd Pipe were thrust almost to the bottom of the water , the Bladder would not be protuberant inwards , as formerly ; because the included Air by virtue of its Spring , resisted from within the pressure of the external water against the outside of the Bladder : But if the thumb , that stopp'd the Pipes upper orifice , were remov'd , the formerly compress'd Air having liberty to expand it self , and its elasticity being weaken'd thereby , the external water would with suddenness and noise enough , not to be unpleasant to the Spectators , drive up the Bladder into the cavity of the Pipe , and keep it there very protuberant . To obviate an Objection , that I foresaw might be brought in by persons not well vers'd in Hydrostaticks , I caus'd the Pipe fore-mention'd , or such another , to be so bent near the lower end , as that the orifice of it stood quite on one side , and the parts of the Pipe made an angle as near to a right one as he that blew it could bring it to . This lower orifice being fitted with a Bladder , and the Pipe with its contained liquor being thrust under water after the former manner , the lateral pressure of the water forc'd the Bladder into the short and horizontal legg , and made it protuberate there , as it had done when the Pipe was straight . Lastly , that the Experiment might appear not to be confin'd to one liquor ; instead of Water we put into the unbent Pipe as much red Wine ( who●e colour would make it conspicuous ) as was requisit to keep the Bladder somewhat swelling outwards , when it was somewhat near the bottom of the water ; and then 't was manifest , that , according as we had foreseen , the superficies of the red liquor in the Pipe was a good deal higher than that of the external water , and if the depth of both liquors were proportionably lessen'd , the difference of height betwixt the two surfaces would indeed , as it ought to happen , decrease , but still the surface of the wine would be the higher of the two , because being lighter in specie than the common water , the AEquilibrium between the pressures of the two liquors upon the Bladder would not be maintain'd , unless a greater height of wine compensated its defect of specifick gravity . And if the Pipe was thrust deeper into the water , then the Bladder would be made protuberant inwards , as when the Pipe had water in it . By which it appears , that these Phaenomena , without recourse to attraction , may be explicated barely by the Laws of the AEquilibrium of Liquors . FINIS . NEW EXPERIMENTS About the PRESERVATION OF BODIES IN VACUO BOYLIANO . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE , Fellow of the Royal Society . LONDON , Printed by William Godbid , and are to be Sold by Moses Pitt , at the Angel over against the little North Door of St. Paul's Church . 1674. PREFACE . MY willingness to make the bulk of the Papers about the Hidden Qualities of the Air less inconsiderable , by things that were of affinity to the Subject , inducing me to tumble over some of my Adversaria , I met among them with divers loose Notes , or short Memorials of some Experiments I made several years ago ( and some of a fresher date ) about the Preservation of Bodies by excluding the Air , wherefore I was easily perswaded to subjoin these to the Additional Experiments last recited . For it seems not yet clear , by what manifest Quality the Exclusion of the Air should so much contribute to keep from putrefaction variety of Bodies , that are usually found very much disposed to it . And therefore 'till the Cause of this Preservation be further p●●●●●ated , it may not be altogether impertinent to mention some Experiments relating to it . And though these be only such as come now to hand , and were most of them set down rather as Notes than Relations , yet being faithfully register'd , and most of them having been made in Vacuo Boyliano ( as they call it ) they will problably be New , and so perhaps not altogether useless to Naturalists , who may vary them , and requite me for them , by trying the same Experiments , I made by the Removal of the Air by the bare Exclusion of adventitious Air. For sometimes through hast I did not , and sometimes for want of conveniency I could not , try , whether the same Phaenomena would appear , if the same Bodies were shut up with Air in them , provided they were diligently kept from all commerce with the Air without them . NEW EXPERIMENTS ABOUT THE Preservation of BODIES IN VACVO BOYLIANO . EXPER. I. A Piece of roasted Rabbet , being exactly clos'd up in an exhausted Receiver the Sixth of November , was two months and some few days after taken out without appearing to be corrupted , or sensibly alter'd in Colour , Tast , or Smell . EXPER. II. A small Glass-Receiver , being half fill'd with pieces of White-bread , ( part Crust and part Crumb ) was exhausted , and secur'd the eleventh of March : The Receiver being open'd the first of April , part of the Bread was shaken out , and appear'd not to have been considerably , if at all sensibly impair'd in that time , save that the outside of some pieces of Crumb seem'd to be a little , and but a little , less soft and white than before . There appear'd no drops or the least Dew on the inside of the Glass . The remaining Bread was again secur'd soon after , The eighteenth of April , the Bread was taken out again , and tasted much as it did the last time , the Crust being also soft , and no drops of water appearing on the inside of the Glass . EXPER. III. This day ( being the ninth of March ) I open'd a small exhausted and secur'd Receiver , wherein , ●bout the ninth of December , that is , about three months ago , we had included some Milk : Upon opening an access to the Air , we found the Milk well colour'd , and turn'd partly into a kind of Whey , and partly into a kind of soft Curd . The tast was not offensive , only a little sowrish like Whey , and the smell was not at all stinking , but somewhat like that of sowrish Milk. EXPER. IV. The Violet-leaves , that were put up , and freed and secur'd from Air the fifth of March , being this day open'd , ( April the seventh ) appear'd not to have chang'd their shape , or colour , or consistence : For , as for their odour , it could not be well judg'd of , because he that included them had , for his own ease , contrary to my express direction , ●rush'd many of them together in thrusting them down ; and by such a violation of their Texture , it 's natural for Violets to lose their fragrancy , and acquire an Earthy smell . EXPER. V. Having carefully placed some Violets in an exhausted Receiver , of a convenient size and bigness , and secur'd it from immediate commerce with the external Air ; the Seventh month after we look'd upon them again , and found they were not putrified or resolved into any mucilaginous substance , but kept their shape intire , some of them retaining their colour , but more of them having so lost it , as to look like white Violets . EXPER. VI. November the fifth , we conveyed into a conveniently shap'd Receiver some ounces of Sheeps-blood , taken from an Animal that had been kill'd that afternoon . And after the exhaustion of the Air , during which , store of bubbles were generated in the Liquor that made it swell notably , the included Blood was kept in a place , ( whose warmth we judg'd equal to that of a digestive Furnace ) for twenty days ; for one or two of the first of which , the Blood seem'd to continue fluid , and of a florid colour , which afterwards degenerated into one that tended more to blackness . On the twenty fifth of November we came to let-in the external , and found it to rush into the Receiver , and the Glass containing the Blood being held in a lightsom place , the most part of the bottom of it seem'd to be thinly overlaid with a coagulated substance of a higher colour than that which swam above it , which yet , though it appeared dark and almost blackish in the Glass whilst it was look'd on in the bulk , yet , if it was shook , those parts of it that fell down along the inside of the Glass , appear'd of a deep but fair colour . But whilst the Blood continued in the Glass , it was suppos'd not to stink , since , even when it was poured out , though its smell seem'd to me ( whose Organs of Smelling are tender ) to have I know not what that was offensive , yet to others it seem'd to smell but as the Blood of a newly kill'd Dog. EXPER. VII . Some Cream being put up and secur'd the seventeenth of March in an exhausted Receiver , did this day appear to be more thick and almost Butter-like at the top ( whose superficies seem'd rugged ) than otherwhere , and afterwards by being well shaken together in the not inconveniently shap'd Glass , was easily enou●● reduc'd to Butter , whose Butter-milk , by the judgment of those who were more us'd to deal in it than I , appear'd not differing from ordinary Butter-milk . And I found it had , like that , a grateful sowrness . The Butter was judg'd to be a little sowrer than ordinary , but was not , as they speak , made . [ In the Entry of this Experiment , Blanks were left for the years ; but the Tenour of the words , and Design of the Experiment , and other Circumstances , assure me , that the Cream continued a year in the vessel . ] EXPER. VIII . February the eighteenth we look'd again upon three Vials , that had been exhausted and secur'd the fifteenth of September last , the one of these had in it some slices of roasted Beef , and the other some shivers of white Bread , and the last some thin pieces of Cheese ; all which seem'd to be free from putrefaction , and look'd much as they did when they were first put up : Wherefore we thought not fi● to let the Air into the Receiver , but left them as they were to lengthen the design'd Trial. EXPER. IX . February the eighteenth , there was a fourth Vial , wherein about six months before , viz. August the twelfth , had been inclos'd and secur'd some Iuly-flowers and a Rose ; and yet these being kept in the same place with the rest , though they seemed a little moist , retained their shape and colour , especially the Rose , which look'd fresh enough to seem to have been gather'd but lately . N. B. That we observed not in any of these four Receivers any great drops , or so much as Dew in the upper parts , viz. those that were situated above the included matter . EXPER. X. Iune the fourth we left some Strawberries in an exhausted Receiver , and coming to look upon them after the beginning of November , we found them to be discolour'd , but not alter'd in shape , nor affording any sign of Corruption by being at all mouldy● Wherefore we thought fit to leave them still in the Receiver for further Trial. EXPER. XI . May the second , 1669 , a piece of roasted Beef , secur'd September the fifteenth , appear'd to be not at all alter'd : As did likewise a piece of Cheese secur'd in another Receiver ; and some pieces of a French Rose the same day ( September the fifteenth ) secur'd in a third . N. B. The Flowers seal'd up August the twelfth , 1668 , being this day look'd upon , appear'd fresh , and consequently did so after having been kept eight months and an half . EXPER. XII . There was taken Beer of eight shillings a Barrel , of a year old , near a Pint of which , Iune the seventeenth , was put into a conveniently shap'd Glass , and it was afterwards exhausted and secur'd from the Air ; the most part of the month of August prov'd extraordinarily hot . Towards the latter end there was at several times great Thunder , which made the Beer in our Cellar , and in most of those of the Neighbourhood , turn soure . The first of September , the Beer was open'd , but did not seem to have degenerated into any soureness . EXPER. XIII . Being desirous to try , whether the Thunder would have such effect upon Ale exactly stopp'd in Glass-vessels , as it often has on that Liquor in the ordinary wooden Casks ; I caus'd some Ale moderately strong to be put into a conveniently shap'd Receiver , and having exhausted the Air and secur'd a Glass-vessel , 't was put into a quiet , but not cool , place : Last week , which was about six weeks after the Liquor had been inclos'd , there happening some very loud Thunder , and our Beer , though the Cask was kept in a good Cellar , being generally noted to have been turn'd soure after this Thunder ; I staid yet a day or two longer , that the operation upon our included Liquor might be the more certain and manifest ; and then permitting an access to the outward Air , we took out the Ale , and found it to be good drink , and not at all soured . Compare this with the Wish made in the Essay of the Great Efficacy of Effluviums , chap. 5. pag. 28. that such an Experiment should be tried . EXPER. XIV . September the twenty first , 1670 , some Blackberries , included in an exhausted Receiver , were open'd Iune the twentieth , 1673 , and were found free from all mouldiness and ill sent , only there was found some Liquor that was soure , which being taken out the Berries were secur'd again . [ At the same time was another 〈◊〉 of the same Berries exactly clos'd up i● a Receiver , whence the Air was 〈◊〉 pump'd , to try what difference in the Event would appear by this variation . But , coming in October the eleventh , 1673 , to look upon the Glass , we found it crack'd , and the Fruit all cover'd over with a thick mould . Nor was this the only Vessel wherein Trials , made to reserve Fruits , without any exhaustion of the Air , miscarried . ] October the eleventh , 1674 , the sam● Berries , being look'd upon , appear'd to have their colour alter'd , and much less black than before , but did not appear putrefied by either loss of shape , or by any stinking smell , nor was the least mouldiness observed to be on them , though they had been kept in the same Receiver above four year . That Fructus Horarii , especially so tender and juicy ones , should without any additament be preserved from putrefaction so many times longer than otherwise they would have lasted , as 't is more than would be expected , so it may give hopes , that both odd add useful things of this kind may be this way performed . POSTSCRIPT . THe foregoing Experiments , as the Memorials themselves declare , were all of them made in Vacu● Boyliano , nor did I intend to set down any other : But meeting among those Memorials with a short account of a couple of Trials made without the help of our Pneumatic Engine , I was induc'd to annex them , because many may make the like , that will not be able to make such as have been hitherto recited . And these two requiring no peculiarly shap'd Vessels , 't is thought , it may prove of some Oeconomical as well as Physical use , if it be shewn by experience , that Liquors Hermetically-seal'd the ordinary way in common Bolt-heads may be kept from souring very much beyond their usual time of lasting . Iune the fourteenth we put a convenient quantity of good Ale into a Bolt-head , and seal'd it up Hermetically ; the next year , on the fifth of Iuly , we broke off the Seal , and found the Liquor very good and without any sensible sowreness . The next day it was seal'd up again and set by for thirteen months , at which time the neck of the Glass being broken , the Ale was found pretty sowre , and therefore the Trial was prosecuted no farther : So that , though this Liquor would not by this way of Preservation be kept from sowring so long as the Wine , to be mention'd in the following Experiment , yet even a small quantity of it was preserved good at the least above a year , which is very much longer than Ale is wont to keep from sowring . Iune the fourteenth , 1670 , in a large Bolt-head was Hermetically seal'd up about a Pint , by guess , o● French Claret-wine , which , when we came to look upon , Iuly the fifth , 1671 , appear'd very clear and high colour'd , and had deposited store of feces at the bottom of the Glass , but fasten'd no Tartar that we could perceive to the sides . Upon the breaking of the seal'd end of the Glass , the By●standers thought , that there was an eruption of included Air or steams , and , above the surface of the Wine , there appear'd , to a pretty height , a certain white smoak almost like a mist , and then gradually vanished : The Wine continued well-tasted , and was a little rough upon the tongue , but not at all sowre . The Bolt-head was seal'd up again Iuly the sixth 1671 , and so set by 'till August the fifth 1672 , at which time it was open'd again , and then the Wine did still tast very well . Iune the twenty sixth 1673 , the Bolt-head with the same Claret-wine was open'd , and was found very good , and was seal'd up again . October the eleventh 1674 , the same Claret-wine was open'd again , and appear'd of a good colour , not sowre , but seem'd somewhat less spirituous than other good Claret-wine , perhaps because of the Cold weather . This , and the foregoing Trial about the Preservation of Ale , were made in Mr. Oldenburg's House and Presence . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A29052-e380 In a Paper aboue Subterraneal Steams . See the Experiment in the Discourse of the Determinate Nature of Effluviums . Notes for div A29052-e2640 Varenius . Lib. 1. Geograph . Vnivers . Therm● omnes forè qu●● novimus fiu● cess●tione f●uunt exceptis Piperini● Germania , &c. Amer. Lib. V. cap. 7. Notes for div A29052-e3630 Lib. III. Cap. 6. Agric. de Vet. & Nov. Met. Lib. II. Cap. 15. J. Gerhard . Professor Tubingensis , Decad. Quaest. Physico chymicarum , pag. m. 18. Voyage du Sicur au Peru , pag. 15. Johan . Gerhardus in Decade Quastion●●● pag. ●● 19. Notes for div A29052-e5060 This was made at Oxford . Notes for div A29052-e5780 Credo , ( says Mr. Hobbes in his Dialogus Physicus : ) Nam motus hic Restitutionis , Hobbii est , & ab illo primo & solo explicatus in Lib. de Corpore , cap. 21. Art. 1. Sine qua Hypothesi , quantuscunque labor , ars , sumptus , ad rerum Naturali● invisibiles causas inveniendas adhibeatur , frustra erit . And speaking of the Gentlemen ( to whom it were not here proper for me to give Epith●tes ) that us'd to meet at Gresham-College , and are known by the Name of the Royal Society , he thus treats them and their way of Inquiring into Nature : Conveniant , studia conserant , Experimenta faciant quantum volunt , nisi & Principiis utantur meis , nihil preficient . A. Fateris ergo nihil hactenus à Collegis tuis promotam esse scientium Causarum Naturalium , nisi quod Unus eorum Machinam ●nvenerit , quâ motus excitari Aeris possit talis , ut partes Sphaerae simul undiquaque tendant ad Centrum , & ut Hypotheses Hobbianae , antè quidem satis probabiles , hinc reddantur probabiliores . B. Nec fateri pudet ; nam est aliquid prodire tenus , si non datur ultra . A. Quid tenus ? quorsum autem tantus apparatus & sumptus Machinarum factu difficilium , ut eatenus tantum prodiretis quantum ante prodierat Hobbius ? Cur n●n inde potiùs incepistis ubi ille defiit ? Cur Principiis ab illo positis non estis usi ? Cumque Aristoteles rectè dixit , ignorato motu ignorari Naturam , &c. — Ad Causas autem , propter quas proficere ne paululum quidem potu●stis , nec poteritis , accedunt etiam aliae , ut odium Hobbii , &c. De Nat. Aeris , p. 13. Notes for div A29052-e14060 * See Cont. of Phys. Mech . Exp. the 15 th Exp. See the Authors Defence of the Doctrine touching the Spring and Weight of the Air , against Fr. Linus , chap. 5. 
A28944	----	Certain physiological essays and other tracts written at distant times, and on several occasions by the honourable Robert Boyle ; wherein some of the tracts are enlarged by experiments and the work is increased by the addition of a discourse about the absolute rest in bodies. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1669 Approx. 607 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 178 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A28944 Wing B3930 ESTC R17579 12547210 ocm 12547210 63094 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A28944) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 63094) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 955:5) Certain physiological essays and other tracts written at distant times, and on several occasions by the honourable Robert Boyle ; wherein some of the tracts are enlarged by experiments and the work is increased by the addition of a discourse about the absolute rest in bodies. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. The second edition. [8], 292, [4], 30 p. Printed for Henry Herringman ..., London : 1669. Reproduction of original in Cambridge University Library. "Two essays, concerning the unsuccessfulness of experiments ... 1668" has special t.p. "Some specimens of an attempt to make chymical experiments ... 1668" has special t.p. Half title: The history of fluidity and firmnesse. Begun by R.B. "Of absolute rest in bodies" has separate t.p. and paging. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. 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Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Science -- Early works to 1800. 2005-02 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-07 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-08 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2005-08 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion CERTAIN PHYSIOLOGICAL ESSAYS And other TRACTS ; Written at distant Times , and on several Occasions . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE . The Second Edition . Wherein some of the Tracts are enlarged by Experiments , and the Work is increased by the Addition of a Discourse about the ABSOLVTE REST IN BODIES . LONDON , Printed for Henry Herringman at the Blew Anchor in the Lower Walk of the New-Exchange , M DC LXIX . PHYSIOLOGICAL ESSAYS . LONDON , Printed for Henry Herringman , MDCLXIX . AN ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER : Prefixed to the First Edition , Put forth A. D. 1661. THE Publisher desires that the Reader should be inform'd , that neither were the following Treatises written near about the same Time ( some of them being divers years elder than some others ) nor yet are they now published in the same Order that they were written in . For the first of these Discourses ( though penned about four years since ) was not only written after the second , third , and fourth , but after divers other Essays which the Author has yet lying by him among his Papers ; it being intended for a kind of Introduction to all those Treatises which under several names , but chiefly that of Physiological Essays , the Author had then compos'd . But having during the late Confusions so disposed of his Papers to secure them , that he could not himself seasonably recover them ; and being engaged by Promise to some friends , to let about half a dozen of his small Tracts come abroad into the world by such a time , he was fain to send the following Treatises to the Press as they came , some at one time , some at another , to his hands . And this his occasions did now and then reduce him to do in such haste , that he could not attend the correcting either the Printers Lapses or his own , and particularly was obliged , partly by haste , and partly by a Distemper in his Eyes , to send away the History of Firmness without so much as reading it over . All which 't is hoped the Equitable Reader will consider in his favour , and bear with what may be imputable to such Circumstances . I should add nothing further , were it not that to save the Reader the trouble of guessing who is meant by that Pyrophilus to whom most of the following Treatises are addressed , I think it requisite to inform him , that the person veil'd under that name , is that hopeful Young Gentleman Mr. Richard Jones , only Son to the Lord Viscount Ranelagh and an Excellent Lady , Sister to the Author . AN ADVERTISEMENT About the Second Edition . FOr the ease of those that had already perused the first Edition of the Physiological Essays , and other Tracts that accompany'd them , the Author took the pains to include the principal things added in the present Edition in Paratheses , that the chief Additions may be found out without the pains of reading over again the whole Book . But finding these Paratheses to have been , by an oversight of the Press , omitted , some amends was thought fit to be endeavoured to be made for that , by intimating that the Experiments that enlarge this New Edition , are , for the most part , to be found in the following Pages of it Page 196.202.222.226.227.241.243.246 . from pag. 252 to 255. p. 257. p. 238 , 239. p. 263. from p. 289 to 291. p. 32 and 33. p. 169 , 170. A PROEMIAL ESSAY , WHEREIN , With some considerations touching EXPERIMENTAL ESSAYS in General , Is interwoven such an Introduction to all those written by the Author , as is necessary to be perus'd for the better understanding of them . I Know not , Pyrohilus , whether what you will meet with in the ensuing Discourses will prove worthy of your taking notice of it : Yet I dare tell you , that if all my Endeavours to serve you were not Duties , I should think I might deserve your Thanks for venturing to write them for your sake . For I am sufficiently sensible both how unlearned I am , and in how learned an Age I presume to write : Nor has the great number of those escap'd my Observation , who finding it a much easier task to censure Experimental Composures than to write such , endeavour to acquire the Title of Judicious , by condemning all things that themselves have not written , or thought on . And indeed , Pyrophilus , I had besides these , so many other discouraging Considerations in my Eye , whilst I was setting down the following Essays , that I should scarce have prosecuted a Design so full of trouble , and so unlikely by its success to make amends for it , if I had thought it free for the securing of my own Quiet and Credit , to suppress Observations which might prove serviceable to you , who having sufficiently convers'd with Books , are now desirous to begin to converse with Things themselves . But I must confess , I look upon Experimental truths as Matters of so great concernment to Mankind , that in spight of the just sense I have of my own Disabilities , I am deterr'd from complying with those Inclinations and Motives that endear silence to me , by considering the Fate of him , who though he had less entrusted to him than any of his Companions , was yet severely punisht for burying his single Talent . And though , Pyrophilus , I could not without such reluctancy resolve to write , yet I found it much more uneasie to resolve to write so soon : For I could not but consider , that being yet but very young , not only in Years , but , what is much worse , in Experience , I have yet much more need to learn , than ability to teach ; and I consider'd too , that after a man is grown somewhat acquainted with things themselves , and has taken some general notice of the Cognations , Differences , and Tendencies of their Properties , he may every day so much improve his Knowledge , that I am apt to think , that if God should be pleas'd to protract my Life a few years longer , I shall at the end of them be able to look upon what I have hitherto written with Pity , if not with Blushes . And I have often observ'd , that it is wont to happen in the productions of the Mind , as in those of the Body . For as those that apply themselves to Procreation too young , and before they have attain'd to their full vigour and strength , do generally both hinder their own growth , and become the Parents but of weak and short-liv'd Children ; so they that too early , and before their Judgment and Experience be fully ripe , addict themselves to write Books , do commonly both hinder their own Proficiency in Knowledge , and write but immature , and therefore seldom lasting Treatises . Nor should I , Pyrophilus , have ever prevail'd with my self to present you so early these Discourses , since by keeping them longer by me , I might easily by second Thoughts , and fresh Experiences be enabled to correct and enrich them , did not the frequent and dangerous distempers to which my very sickly Constitution has of late render'd me obnoxious , make me justly doubt , whether or no , if I should long forbear to write , Death would not sooner come than the expected Maturity of Age and Judgment . And though I had no such Consideration to move me to make hast to tender to you the ensuing Discourses , yet this would suffice to engage me to present them you with all their present defects ; that if I should keep them till I can make them less unworthy of you , I must keep them till you are grown past the need of them . And now that I have told you , Pyrophilus , both why I have written the ensuing Discourses , and why I keep them not by me long enough to present them you with fewer Imperfections , I suppose you will expect that I should next tell you why I have cast them into Essays , rather than into any other form . To satisfie you about this particular , Pyrophilus , I must freely acknowledge to you , that it has long seem'd to me none of the least impediments of the real advancement of true Natural Philosophy , that men have been so forward to write Systems of it , and have thought themselves oblig'd either to be altogether silent , or not to write less than an entire body of Physiology : for from hence seem to have ensu'd not a few Inconveniences . And first , when men by having diligently study'd either Chymistry , Anatomy , Botanicks , or some other particular part of Physiology , or perhaps by having only read Authors on those Subjects , have thought themselves thereby qualify'd to publish compleat Systems of Natural Philosophy , they have found themselves by the nature of their undertaking , and the Laws of Method , engag'd to write of several other things than those wherein they had made themselves Proficients , and thereby have been reduc'd , either idly to repeat what has been already , though perhaps but impertinently enough , written by others on the same Subjects , or else to say any thing on them rather than nothing , lest they should appear not to have said something to every part of the Theme which they had taken upon themselves to write of . In the next place , the specious and promising Titles and comprehensive Method of these Systems have been often found to perswade unwary Readers , that all the parts of Natural Philosophy have been already sufficiently explicated , and that consequently it were needless for them to put themselves to trouble and charges in making further Enquiries into Nature , since others having already sufficiently made it their business to investigate and explicate Physiological Truths , our business needs now be no more than to learn what they have taught , and thankfully to acquiesce in it . Nor has the Systematical way of writing been prejudicial only to the proficiency of some Readers , but also to the reputation of some Writers of Systematical Books . For it not unfrequently happens , that when a Writer , to vent some few peculiar Notions or Discoveries of his own , presumes to write a whole body of Philosophy , what is truly his own , though excellent in its kind , is either lost in the Crowd of the things he has borrow'd from others , and so comes to be over-look'd , or at least not sufficiently taken notice of , by the Reader ; or else the unwelcome , and yet in such Composures scarce evitable , Repetition of many things that others had I know not how often written before , occasions the laying aside of the whole Book , as a Rhapsody of trite and vulgar Notions , scarce worth the perusing : and by this means the Author often loses the Reputation of his peculiar Notions , as well as the Reader the benefit of them ; and that which would have made an excellent and substantial Essay , passes but for a dull and empty Book . But the worst Inconvenience of all is yet to be mention'd , and that is , That whilst this Vanity of thinking men oblig'd to write either Systems or Nothing , is in request , many excellent Notions or Experiments are by sober and modest men suppress'd , because such Persons being forbidden by their Judgment and Integrity to teach more than they understand , or assert more than they can prove , are likewise forbidden by Custome to publish their Thoughts and Observations , unless they were numerous enough to swell into a System . And indeed it may be doubted whether the Systematical Writers have not kept the world from much more useful Composures than they have presented it with . For there are very few men , if any at all , in the world , that are enrich'd with a competent stock of Experiments and Observations to make out clearly and solidly , I say not all the Phaenomena of Nature , but all those that belong to Chymistry , Anatomy , or any such considerable subordinate Doctrine of Physiology . And those very men that are diligent and judicious enough to study prosperously any of those parts of Physiology , are oblig'd to spend so much time in the accurate Prosecution of that , and are wont to be thereby made so wary , and so thorowly acquainted with the difficulty of Physiological Investigations , that they will least of all men be forward to write Systems . And what I say , Pyrophilus , of the inconveniences that have hitherto been observ'd to flow from mens forwardness to write entire bodies of Philosophy ; may be in its degree appli'd to the practice of those that pretend to give us compleat accounts of Chymistry , or almost ( I say almost ) any other considerable and comprehensive part of Natural Philosophy : Though I deny not , that in such attempts which are much less difficult than the former , some Men have done Mankind considerable service , though they have not fully perform'd what the Titles of their Writings seem to promise . Nor am I so rigid as to be unwilling that from time to time some very knowing Writer should publish a System of Physiology , or any part of it , according to the best Authors and Observations of that time : For such a Work may be useful , partly , for the instructing of Youth in Schools and Academies ; and partly , that men may have from time to time an Inventory of what hath been already discover'd , whereby the needless labour of seeking after known things may be prevented , and the progress of Mankind as to Knowledge might the better appear . But then it is to be wish'd that such Writings were not publish'd but by very intelligent Persons , nor till some considerable improvement have been made in Knowledge since the last work of that Nature . Nor would I be thought to disallow such Writings of very Learned Men , as though they may bear very general Titles , yet are not publish'd by their Authors as compleat Bodies or Systems of Physiology , but rather as general Principles ( almost like the Hypotheses of Astronomers ) to assist men to explicate the already-known Phaenomena of Nature . For of such kind of Writings , if their Authors be ( as for the most part they are ) subtle and inquisitive men , there may be very good use , not so much by their gratifying the Intellect with the plausible account of some of Natures Mysteries ; as because on the one side their Writers , to make good their new Opinions , must either bring New Experiments and Observations , or else must consider those that are known already after a new Manner , and thereby make us take notice of something in them unheeded before ; and on the other side , the curiosity of Readers , whether they like or disapprove the Hypothesis propos'd , is wont to be thereby excited to make trial of several things , which seeming to be Consequences of this new Doctrine , may by their proving agreeable or repugnant to Experiment either establish or overthrow it . And that you may know , Pyrophilus , what kind of Writings I mean , I shall name to you the Learned Gassendus his little Syntagma of Epicuru's Philosophy , and that most ingenious Gentleman Mons r Des-Cartes his Principles of Philosophy . For though I purposely refrain'd , though not altogether from transiently consulting about a few Particulars , yet from seriously and orderly reading over those excellent ( though disagreeing ) Books , or so much as Sir Francis Bacon's Novum Organum , that I might not be prepossess'd with any Theory or Principles till I had spent some time in trying what Things themselves would incline me to think ; yet beginning now to allow my self to read those excellent Books , I find by the little I have read in them already , that if I had read them before I began to write , I might have enrich'd the ensuing Essays with divers truths which they now want , and have explicated divers things much better then I fear I have done . But of such Writers the number is yet ( and will I fear always be ) so small , that I shall not need to make many Exceptions when I treat of the usefulness of writing Books of Essays , in comparison of that of writing Systematically : Or at least , Pyrophilus , whilst I presume not to judge of other mens abilities , I hope it may be lawful for me to confess freely to you concerning my self , that I am very sensible of my being far from having such a stock of Experiments and Observations , as I judge requisite to write Systematically ; and I am apt to impute many of the Deficiencies to be met with in the Theories and Reasonings of such great Wits as Aristotle , Campanella , and some other celebrated Philosophers , chiefly to this very thing , that they have too hastily , and either upon a few Observations , or at least without a competent number of Experiments , presum'd to establish Principles , and deliver Axioms . For it very rarely otherwise happens , than that Theories that are grounded but upon few and obvious Experiments are subject to be contradicted by some such Instances as more free and diligent Enquiries into what of Nature is more abstruse , or even into the less obvious Qualities of things , are wont to bring to light . I remember , that being once at Leyden , I was brought to the Top of a Tower , where in a darken'd room ( such as is now used in many places to bring in the Species of external Objects ) a Convex glass , apply'd to the only hole by which light was permitted to enter , did project upon a large white sheet of Paper , held at a just distance from it , a lively representation of divers of the chief Buildings in the Town , all which upon the admission of more light into the room , by opening the Window , did immediately disappear . And methinks , Pyrophilus , that in divers of the Philosophical Theories that have been formerly applauded , something not unlike this may be easily observ'd : for though , whilst they are look'd on with such a weak and determinate degree of light , they may appear very artificial and well-proportion'd Fabricks , yet they appear so but in that twilight , as it were , which is requisite to their conspicuousness . For if but a full light of new Experiments and Observations be freely let in upon them , the Beauty of those ( delightful , but Phantastical ) structures does immediately vanish . And truly , Pyrophilus , if men could be perswaded to mind more the Advancement of Natural Philosophy than that of their own Reputations , 't were not methinks very uneasie to make them sensible , that one of the considerablest services that they could do Mankind , were to set themselves diligently and industriously to make Experiments and collect Observations , without being over-forward to establish Principles and Axioms , believing it uneasie to erect such Theories as are capable to explicate all the Phaenomena of Nature , before they have been able to take notice of the tenth part of those Phaenomena that are to be explicated . Not that I at all disallow the use of Reasoning upon Experiments , or the endeavouring to discern as early as we can the Confederations , and Differences , and Tendencies of things : For such an absolute suspension of the exercise of Reasoning were exceeding troublesome , if not impossible . And as in that Rule of Arithmetick which is commonly called Regula falsi , by proceeding upon a conjecturally-supposed Number , as if it were that which we enquire after , we are wont to come to the knowledge of the true number sought for : so in Physiology it is somtimes conducive to the discovery of truth , to permit the Understanding to make an Hypothesis in order to the Explication of this or that difficulty , that by examining how far the Phaenomena are , or are not , capable of being salv'd by that Hypothesis , the Understanding may even by its own Errors be instructed . For it has been truly observ'd by a great Philosopher , That Truth does more easily emerge out of Error than Confusion . That then that I wish for , as to Systems , is this , That men in the first place would forbear to establish any Theory , till they have consulted with ( though not a fully competent number of Experiments , such as may afford them all the Phaenomena to be explicated by that Theory , yet ) a considerable number of Experiments in proportion to the comprehensiveness of the Theory to be erected on them . And in the next place , I would have such kind of superstructures look'd upon only as temporary ones , which though they may be preferr'd before any others , as being the least imperfect , or , if you please , the best in their kind that we yet have , yet are they not to entirely be acquiesced in , as absolutely perfect , or uncapable of improving Alterations . It were very possible , Pyrophilus , to let you see that all that has been said to recommend to you that form of Writing which ( in imitation of the French ) we call Essayes , is but a part of what may be pertinently said to the same purpose . But because this Introductory Discourse it self is to be but an Essay , not a Book , I dare not long insist upon the Advantages of this sort of Discourses . Only because I think that if I could engage you , Pyrophilus , and such other ingenious Persons , to cast their Physiological Observations and Reflexions into Experimental Essayes , I should thereby do real Learning no trifling service , by bringing so useful a way of writing into the request it deserves ; Upon this consideration , I say , I must beg leave to represent to you this great Conveniency of Essayes , That as in them the Reader needs not be clogg'd with tedious Repetitions of what others have said already , so the Writer , having for the most part the Liberty to leave off when he pleases , is not oblig'd to take upon him to teach others what himself does not understand , nor to write of any thing but of what he thinks he can write well . And if such Essayes be but as they should be competently stock'd with Experiments , 't is the Readers own fault if he be not a Learner by them : for indeed when a Writer acquaints me only with his own Thoughts or Conjectures , without enriching his discourses with any real Experiment or Observation , if he be mistaken in his Ratiocination , I am in some dang●r of erring with him , and at least am like to lose my time , without receiving any valuable Compensation for that great loss : but if a Writer endeavours , by delivering new and real Observations or Experiments , to credit his Opinions , the Case is much otherwise ; for let his Opinions be never so false , his Experiments being true , I am not oblig'd to believe the former , and am left at liberty to benefit my self by the later ; and though we have erroneously superstructed upon his Experiments , yet the foundation being solid , a more wary builder may be very much further'd by it in the erection of more judicious and consistent Fabricks : such a Writer , if I be not wanting to my self , will certainly teach me useful Truths , and if it be not my fault , he can lead me into no errors ; and oftentimes the very Experiments that he delivers , besides that they may be applicable to many other purposes unthought of by him , may be either sufficient or at least helpful to the very discovery of the erroneousness of the Opinions they are alledg'd to countenance : and I make account that a man that gives me , together with his conjectures ( though erroneous ) in matters of Physiology , some noble Experiment or Observation by which he pretends to verifie them , does me no greater injury than Galileo upon his first Invention of the Telescope would have done an Astronomer , if he had told him , that he had discover'd in Heaven those imaginary new Stars which a late Mathematician has fancy'd himself to have descry'd there , and at the same time had made him a Present of an excellent Telescope , with expectation that thereby the Receiver should be made of the Giver's Opinion ; for by the help of his Instrument the Astronomer might not only make divers useful Observations in the Sky , and perhaps detect new Lights there , but discern also his mistake that gave it him . After what has been said , Pyrophilus , of the Usefulness of experimental Essays , we must proceed to say something concerning the Manner of writing them : but because you will also expect to receive some account of the ensuing Discourses , I shall not treat of those two Subj●cts apart , but , in discoursing of the following Essays , shall take occasion to acquaint you with part of my thoughts concerning such kind of Composures in general , the other Considerations belonging to the same Subject being already upon several Occasions dispers'd among , and to be met with in , the ensuing Discourses themselves . And first , as for the style of our experimental Essays , I suppose you will readily find that I have endeavour'd to write rather in a Philosophical than a Rhetorical strain , as desiring that my expressions should be rather clear and significant , than curiously adorn'd : For , to a subject of the serious and important Nature of Physiology , that saying may unquestionably be appli'd , Ornari res ipsa negat , contenta doceri . And certainly in these Discourses , where our design is only to inform Readers , not to delight or perswade them , Perspicuity ought to be esteem'd at least one of the best Qualifications of a style , and to affect needless Rhetorical Ornaments in setting down an Experiment , or explicating something abstruse in Nature , were little less improper than it were ( for him that designs not to look directly upon the Sun it self ) to paint the Eye-glasses of a Telescope , whose clearness is their Commendation , and in which even the most delightful Colours cannot so much please the eye as they would hinder the sight . And that it may not be suspected , that those that would not have it requisite to imploy a florid style in treating of Philosophical Subjects , do but in their own excuse deny the necessity of such Rhetorical Embellishments as they are not able to afford their Composures , give me leave to subjoyn , that it was not an unpolish'd Naturalist , but that Prince of Orators , Cicero himself , who made this studious Declaration , Omne ( says he ) quod de re bona dilucidè dicitur , praeclarè mihi dici videtur : istiusmodi autem res velle ornatè dicere , puerile est ; planè autem & perspicuè expedire posse , docti & intelligentis Viri . But I must not suffer my self to slip unawares into the Common place of the unfitness of too spruce a style for serious and weighty matters ; and yet I approve not that dull and insipid way of writing which is practis'd by many Chymists , even when they digress from Physiological Subjects : for though a Philosopher need not be sollicitous that his style should delight its Reader with his Floridnesse , yet I think he may very well be allow'd to take a Care that it disgust not his Reader by its Flatness , especially when he does not so much deliver Experiments or explicate them , as make Reflections or Discourses on them ; for on such Occasions he may be allow'd the liberty of recreating his Reader and himself , and manifesting that he declin'd the Ornaments of Language , not ou● of Necessity , but Discretion , which forbids them to be us'd where they may darken as well as adorn the Subject they are appli'd to . Thus ( to resume our former Comparison ) though it were foolish to colour or enamel upon the glasses of Telescopes , yet to gild or otherwise embellish the Tubes of them , may render them more acceptable to the Users , without at all lessening the Clearness of the Object to be look'd at through them . And as for Exotick Words and Terms borowed from other Languages , though I expect that Persons not conversant in the Philosophical Composures written ( especially of late ) in our Language will be apt to suspect me for the willing Author of divers new Words and Expressions , yet as for you , Pyrophilus , who peruse other then Moral , Theological , and Historical Books in English , and find how much use is made in them of Exotick Terms , I hope you will find that I have not at all affected them , but have rather studiously declin'd the use of those which Custom has not render'd familiar , unlesse it be to avoid the frequent and unwelcome Repetition of the same word , ( so troublesome to the Ear , and so much forbidden by Orators ) or for some peculiar significancy of some such Word , whose Energy cannot be well express'd in our Language , at least without a tedious Circumlocutioo . And in such cases , Pyrophilus , I suppose a Writer may be allow'd to use Exotick Terms , especially when Custom ha● not only Denizon'd them , but brought them into request . For as in the Fashions of Clothes , though perhaps Fools begin them , yet Wise men , when they are once generolly receiv'd , scruple not to follow them , because then obstinately to decline them would be as ridiculously singular as at first it would have been to begin them : so in Exotick Words , when Custom has once made them familiar and esteem'd , scrupulous●y to decline the use of them may be as well a fault , as needlesly to imploy them : For it is not the Use but the Affectation of them that is unworthy a Philosopher . And from the latter of those I hope I have kept my self far enough : For I should think my self guilty of a very Childish vanity , if the use I made of Languages were so to write as to be the less understood . But besides the unintentional deficiencies of my style , I have knowingly and purposely transgress'd the Laws of Oratory in one particular , namely , in making sometimes my Periods or Parentheses over-long : for when I could not within the Compass of a regular Period comprise what I thought requisite to be delivered at once , I chose rather to neglect the Precepts of Rhetoricians , than the mention of those things which I thought pertinent to my Subject , & useful to you , my Reader . And for this fault , Pyrophilus , since I have made my self guilty of it but for your sake , I think I ought to obtain your pardon at least as easily as my own , since barely to keep you from losing any thing that I conceiv'd might be serviceable to you , I knowingly expose my style to be censur'd as disproportionate to it self . The next thing , Pyrophilus , of which I am to give you an account , is , why I have in the ensuing Essays deliver'd many Experiments and Observations , which may seem slight and easie , and some of them obvious also , or else perhaps mention'd by others already . To satisfie you about this , I must inform you that many of the Particulars which we are now considering , were in my first Design collected in order to a Continuation of the Lord Verulam's Sylva Sylvarum , or Natural History . And that my intended Centuries might resemble his , to which they were to be annex'd , it was exquisite that such kind of Experiments and Observations as we have been newly speaking of , should make up a considerable part of them . And indeed it were to be wish'd , that such inquisitive Persons as cannot be at the Charge , or have not the opportunity , of making new Experiments , would busie themselves , as they have opportunity , in industriously collecting and carefully setting down the Phaenomena to be met with without the Assistance of new Experiments , especially such particulars as seem either to be of moment in order to the hinting or Confirmation of some Considerable Truth , or to the Detection of some Applauded Error , or else to have bin , though obvious enough , yet little taken notice of . For I am confident that very much may be done towards the Improvement of Physiology by a due Consideration of and reflexion on the obvious Phaenomena of Nature , and those things which are almost in every bodies power to know , if he please but seriously to heed them ; and I make account that attention alone might quickly furnish us with one half of the History of Nature , as well as industry is requisite , by new Experiments , to enrich us with the other . And therefore I confess I think my self beholding to him that first makes me take notice of what I might easily have known , but heeded not before ; it not seldom happening , that we are prejudic'd by , though we do not complain of that ignorance from which we might relieve our selves , if we did but diligently turn our eyes to the Observations wherewith even neighbouring and familiar Objects would , if duly consulted , present us . But I digress , and therefore must step back into the way , and tell you , that the reasons why I first design'd the Narrative of what I had try'd and observ'd for a Continuation of Sir Francis Bacons Natural History , you will meet with in my Preface to that specimen of the intended Continuation , which I have given in those of my Essays that treat Of Promiscuous Experiments : and the reason why I have since declin'd that succinct way of Writing , is , for the sake of Pyrophilus , that I might have , in a more free and uncircumscribed way of discoursing , a greater Liberty to insist on and manifesf the Reasonableness of such Animadversions as I thought seasonable for a Person , who , though a great Proficient in the other parts of Philosophy , is but a Beginner in Experimental Learning . And the second Reason why I have often made use of seemingly slight Experiments , is , because such are more easily and cheaply try'd , and they being alledg'd for the most part to prove some Assertion , or credit some Admonition , I thought their Easiness or Obviousness fitter to recommend them , than depretiate them ; and I judg'd it somewhat unkind , or at least indiscreet , to refer you most commonly for proof of what I deliver'd , to such tedious , such difficult , or such intricate Processes , as either You can scarce well make , unless You be already what I desire my Experiments should help to make You , a skilful Chymist ; or else are as difficult to be well judg'd , as the truth they should discover is to be discern'd . I was also hopeful that the Easiness of divers things inviting you to make tryal of them , and keeping You from being disappointed in Your Expectations , the success of Your first attempts would incourage You to make tryal also of more nice and difficult Experiments . And till You have try'd them , do me the right to think that I deal not unsincerely with You. The Reasons of my having divers times recorded Experiments which You may have formerly met with , and perchance ev'n in Printed Books , I have elsewhere deduc'd in a peculiar Discourse on that Subject : and therefore shall now only add , that by reason of my being as yet a stranger to the German Tongue , wherein the most and best Chymical Books are said to be written , I may have set down divers Chymical Experiments and Observations that are extant already in that Hermetical Language , ( if I may so call it ) without having had them from their Dutch Publishers , or so much as dream'd of their having been divulg'd by any man. I have likewise in my Preface to the Essays that you will meet with under the Title of Promiscuous Experiments , given You an account why I have not refrain'd from mentioning divers things which may seem very slight , because very obvious : And I have long had thoughts to inform You in an intire Discourse to be written on purpose , why I think that ev'n the trivial , and therefore slighted , truths of Physiology ought not to be despis'd . And for my own part , I shall not scruple to confess to You , that I disdain not to take Notice ev'n of Ludicrous Experiments , and think that the Plays of Boys may sometimes deserve to be the Study of Philosophers : For as when we go a Hunting , though the flight of the Hare and the pursute of the Dogs be to us but sport and recreation , yet the Beasts themselves are extreamly earnest , the one to save his threatn'd life by flight , and the other to overtake his desired Prey ; so Nature acts very seriously in all the other things that we make sports with , and is in very good earnest , whether we Men be so or no. Perhaps you will wonder , Pyrophilus , that in almost every one of the following Essays I should speak so doubtingly , and use so often , Perhaps , It seems , 'T is not improbable , and such other expressions as argue a diffidence of the truth of the Opinions I incline to , and that I should be so shy of laying down Principles , and sometimes of so much as venturing at Explications . But I must freely confess to you , Pyrophilus , that having met with many things of which I could give my self no one probable cause , and some things of which several Causes may be assign'd so differing , as not to agree in any thing unless in their being all of them probable enough , I have often found such Difficulties in searching into the Causes and Manner of things : and I am so sensible of my own Disability to surmount those Difficulties , that I dare speak confidently and positively of very few things , except of Matters of fact . And when I venture to deliver any thing by way of Opinion , I should , if it were not for meer shame , speak yet more diffidently than I have been wont to do . 'T is not that I at all condemn the Practice of those Inquisitive Wits that take upon them to explicate to us ev'n the abstrusest Phaenomena of Nature : For I am so far from censuring them , that I admire them when their Endeavours succeed , and applaud them ev'n where they do but fairly attempt . But I think 't is fit for a man to know his own Abilities and Weaknesses , and not to think himself oblig'd to imitate all that he thinks fit to praise . I know also that the way to get Reputation , is , to venture to explicate things , and promote Opinions : For by that course a Writer shall be sure to be applauded by one sort of men , and be mention'd by many others ; whereas by the way of Writing to which I have condemn'd my self , I can hope for little better among the more daring and less considerate sort of men , should you shew them these Papers , than to pass for a Drudge of greater Industry than Reason , and fit for little more than to collect Experiments for more rational and Philosophical heads to explicate and make use of . But I am content , provided Experimental Learning be ●eally promoted , to contribute ev'n in the least plausible Way to the Advancement of it , and had rather not only be an Underbuilder , but ev'n dig in the Quarries for Materials towards so useful a Structure , as a solid body of Natural Philosophy , than not do something towards the Erection of it . Nor have my thoughts been altogether idle and wanting to themselves , in framing Notions , and attempting to devise Hypotheses , which might avoid the deficiencies observ'd in other mens Theories and Explications : but I have hitherto , though not always , yet not unfrequently , found that what pleas'd me for a while , as fairly comporting with the Observations on which such Notions were grounded , was soon after disgrac'd by some further or new Experiment , which at the time of the framing of those Notions was unknown to me , or not consulted with . And indeed I have the less envy'd Many ( for I say not All ) of those Writers who have taken upon them to deliver the Causes of things , and explicate the Mysteries of Nature , since I have had opportunity to observe how many of their Doctrines , after having been for a while applauded and even admir'd , have afterwards been confuted by the discovery of some new Phaenomenon in Nature , which was either unknown to such Writers , or not sufficiently consider'd by them . For I have found it happen as well to many others ( that have publisht their Opinions ) as to me ( who have been more private in my Guesses ) in our Theories built on either too obvious or too few Experiments , what is wont to happen to the Falsifiers of Coyn : for as Counterfeit pieces of Money will endure some of them One Proof , as the Touch-stone , others Another , as Aqua fortis , some a third , as the Hammer or the Scales , but none of them will endure All proofs ; so the Notions I mention ( in which sort I fear too great a part of those hitherto extant may be compriz'd ) may agree very fairly with this or that or the other Experiment , but being made too hastily , and without Consulting a competent number of them , 't is to be fear'd that there may still after a while be found one or other , ( if not many ) their Inconsistency with which will betray and discredit them . I have notwithstanding all this on some occasions adventur'd to deliver my Opinion , not that I am very confident of being less subject to erre in those particulars than in any of the others wherein I have refrain'd from interposing any Conjecture , but because I would manifest to You , that I scruple not to run the same venture with those incomparably better Naturalists , that have thought it no disgrace in difficult matters rather to hazard the being sometimes mistaken , than not to afford Inquisitive Persons their best Assistance towards the Discovery of Truth . And because , Pyrophilus , in the Reasons and Explications I offer of Natural Effects , I have not for the most part an immediate recourse to the Magnitude , Figure , and Motion of Atoms , or of the least Particles of Bodies , I hold it not unfit to give You here some account of this Practice , not so much for the sake of those few Passages in my Essays that may be concern'd in it , as for that of many Learned men , especially Physitians , whose useful Writings begin to be undervalu'd , and are in danger to be despis'd , by an Opinion taken up from the mis-understood Doctrine of some eminent Atomists , as if no speculations in Natural Philosophy could be rational , wherein any other causes of things are assign'd than Atoms and their Properties . I consider then , that generally speaking , to render a reason of an Effect or Phaenomenon , is to deduce it from somthing else in Nature more known than it self , and that consequently there may be divers kinds of Degrees of Explication of the same thing . For although such Explications be the most satisfactory to the Understanding , wherein 't is shewn how the effect is produc'd by the more primitive and Catholick Affection of Matter , namely , bulk , shape and motion , yet are not these Explications to be despis'd , wherein particular effects are deduc'd from the more obvious and familiar Qualities or states of Bodies , such as Heat , Cold , Weight , Fluidity , Hardness , Fermentation , &c. Though these themselves do probably depend upon those three universal ones formerly nam'd . For in the search after Natural Causes , every new measure of Discovery does both instruct and gratifie the Understanding , though I readily confess , that the nearer the discover'd Causes are to those that are highest in the scale or series of Causes , the more is the Intellect both gratify'd and instructed . I think it therefore very fit and highly useful , that some speculative Wits well vers'd in Mathematical Principles and Mechanical Contrivances , should employ themselves in deducing the chiefest Modes or Qualities of Matter , such as are Heat , Cold , &c. and the States or conditions of it , ( if we think fit to distinguish these from its Qualities ) as fluid , firm , brittle , flexible , and the like , from the above-mention'd most primitive and simple Affections thereof . And I think the Common-wealth of Learning exceedingly beholden to those Heroick Wits that do so much as plausibly perform something in this kind . But I think too , we are not to despise all those Accounts of particular Effects which are not immediately deduc'd from those primitive Affections of either Atoms or the insensible Particles of Matter , but from the familiar , though not so universal , Qualities of things , as cold , heat , weight , hardness , and the like . And perhaps it would be none of the least advantages which would accrue to Naturalists from a satisfactory explication of such Qualities by the most primitive and simple ones , that it would much shorten the explication of particular Phaenomena : For though there be many things in Nature that may be readily enough made out by the Size , Motion , & Figure of the small Parts of Matter , yet there are many more that cannot be well explain'd without a great deal of Discourse , and divers successive Deductions of one thing from another , if the purpos'd effect must be deduc'd from such primary and Universal Causes ; whereas if we be allow'd to take the Notions of Cold , Heat , and the like Qualities for granted , the explications and proofs may be much more compendiously made . He gives some Reason why Stones and Iron and all other heavy Bodies will swim in Quick-silver , except Gold , which will sink in it , that teaches , that all those other Bodies are in specie ( as they speak ) or bulk for bulk , lighter than Quick-silver , whereas Gold is heavier . He , I say , may be allow'd to have render'd a Reason of the thing propos'd , that thus refers the Phaenomenon to that known Affection of almost all Bodies here below , which we call Gravity , though he do not deduce the Phaenomenon from Atoms , nor give us the cause of Gravity , as indeed scarce any Philosopher has yet given us a satisfactory Account of it . So if it be demanded , why , if the sides of a blown Bladder be somewhat squeez'd betwixt ones hands , they will , upon the removal of that which compress'd them , fly out again , and restore the Bladder to its former figure and dimensions , it is not saying nothing to the purpose , to say that this happens from the spring of those Aerial Particles wherewith the Bladder is fill'd , though he that says this be not perhaps able to declare whence proceeds the Motion of Restitution , either in a Particle of compress'd Air , or any other bent spring . And as for the Reasons of things assign'd by Physitians , they must be most of them despis'd , unless we will allow of such explications as deduce not things from Atoms or their Affections , but only either from secondary Qualities , or from the more particular Properties of Mixt Bodies . If a Physitian be ask'd why Rhubarb does commonly cure Loosenesses , he will probably tell you as a Reason , that Rhubarb is available in such Diseases , because it hath both a Laxative vertue , whereby it evacuates Choler , and such other bad humours as are wont in such cases to be the peccant Matter , and an astringent Quality , whereby it afterwards arrests the Flux : But if you further ask him the Reason why Rhubarb purges , and why it purges Choler more than any other humour , 't is ten to one he will not be able to give you a satisfactory answer . And indeed , not only the manner whereby Purgative Medicines Work , but those other Properties whereby some Bodies are Diuretick , others Sudorifick , others Sarcotick , &c. are not I fear so easie to be intelligibly made out as men imagine , and yet a skilful Physitian would justly think himself wrong'd , if the Reasons he renders of things in his own Profession were deny'd the Name of Reasons , because made without recourse to Atomical Principles . And indeed , there are oftentimes so many subordinate Causes between particular Effects and the most General Causes of things , that there is left a large field wherein to exercise Mens Industry and Reason , if they will but solidly enough deduce the Properties of things from more general and familiar Qualities , and also intermediate Causes ( if I may so call them ) from one another . And I am the more backward to despise such kind of Reasons , because I elsewhere declare , that there are Some ( for I do not say , Many ) things , as particularly the Origine of Local Motion , of which ev'n by the Atomical Doctrine no Physical Cause can well be render'd ; since either such things must be ascrib'd to God , who is indeed the true , but the supernatural Cause of them , or else it must be said , ( as it was by the old Epicureans ) that they did ever belong to Matter , which , considering that the Notion of Matter may be compleat without them , is not to give a Physical efficient cause of the things in Question , but in effect to confess that they have no such Causes . But of this elsewhere more . In the mean time , that you may not be drawn away to undervalue such Writers as I have been pleading for , nor think you ought to refrain from writing what occurs to you , though true and useful , unless you deduce it , or at least can do so , from the Epicurean Notions , I shall here briefly represent to you , ( what perhaps you will not hereafter think a despicable suggestion ) that there are two very distinct Ends that Men may propound to themselves in studying Natural Philosophy . For some Men care only to Know Nature , others desire to Command Her : or to express it otherwise , some there are who desire but to Please themselves by the Discovery of the Causes of the known Phaenomena , and others would be able to produce new ones , and bring Nature to be serviceable to their particular Ends , whether of Health , or Riches , or sensual Delight . Now as I shall not deny but that the Atomical , the Cartesian , or some such Principles , are likely to afford the most of satisfaction to those speculative Wits that aim but at the knowledge of Causes ; so I think that the other sort of men may very delightfully & successfully prosecute their ends , by collecting and making Variety of Experiments and Observations , since thereby learning the Qualities and Properties of those particular Bodies they desire to make use of , and observing the power that divers Chymical Operations , and other ways of handling Matter , have of altering such Bodies , and varying their effects upon one another , they may by the help of Attention and Industry be able to do many Things , some of them very Strange , and more of them very Useful in humane life . When a Gunner or a Souldier employs Gun-powder , it is not necessary that he should consider , or so much as know , of what and of how many Ingredients ( much less of what kind of Atoms ) it is made , and the proportion and manner wherein they are mingled ; but the Notice Experience gives him of the power of that admirable Concrete , as it is made up and brought to his hands , suffices to enable him to perform things with it , that nothing but their being common and unheeded can keep from being admir'd . The Physitian that has observ'd the Medicinal vertues of Treacle , without knowing so much of the names , much less the Nature of each of the sixty and odd Ingredients whereof it is compounded , may cure many Patients with it . And though it must not be deny'd , that it is an advantage as well as a satisfaction , to know in general how the Qualities of things are deducible from the primitive Affections of the smallest parts of Matter , yet whether we know that or no , if we know the Qualities of this or that Body they compose , and how 't is dispos'd to work upon other Bodies , or be brought on by them , we may , without ascending to the Top in the series of Causes , perform things of great Moment , and such as without the diligent Examination of particular Bodies would , I fear , never have been found out à priori ev'n by the most profound Contemplators . We see that the Artificers that never dream'd of the Epicurean Philosophy , have accommodated Mankind with a Multitude of useful Inventions , And Paracelsus , who ( besides that he seems none of the most piercing and speculative Wits ) sure had little recourse to Atomical Notions , if he ever so much as heard of them , was able to perform some things that were truly admirable , besides those he vainly boasted of ; as may appear not only by what I elsewhere represent , but by what Oporinus himself ( as severely as he otherwise writes against his deserted Master ) confesses he saw of the stupendous cures which Paracelsus wrought with his famous Laudanum , ( whatever he made it of . ) But we need not go far to find a noble Example to our present purpose , since we see that the bare making of tryals with the Load-stone , and Irons touch'd by it , though the Experimentors were ignorant ( as some fear we yet are ) of the true and first Causes of Magnetical Phaenomena , have produc'd Inventions of greater use to Mankind , than were ever made by Leucippus , or Epicurus , or Aristotle , or Telesius , or Campanella , or perhaps any of the speculative Devisers of new Hypotheses , whole Contemplations aiming for the most part but at the solving , not the encreasing or applying , of the Phaenomena of Nature , it is no wonder they have been more ingenious than fruitful , and have Hitherto more delighted than otherwise benefitted Mankind : I say Hitherto , because though Experience warrants me so to speak now , yet I am not unwilling to think that Hereafter , and perhaps in no long time , when Physiological Theories shall be better establish'd , and built upon a more competent number of Particulars , the Deductions that may be made from them may free them from all Imputation of Barrenness . But of these things I otherwhere ( though not as I remember in any of the following Essays ) more fully discourse . And therefore I shall now resume the Subject that occasion'd this long Excursion , and add to what I said in excuse of my venturing sometimes to deliver something as my Opinion in difficult or controverted cases , that I must declare to you , Pyrophilus , that as I desire not my Opinions should have more Weight with you than the Proofs brought to countenance them will give them , so you must not expect that I should think my self oblig'd to adhere to them any longer than those Considerations that first made me embrace them shall seem of greater Moment than any that I can meet with in opposition to them . For Aristotle spoke like a Philosopher , when to justifie his Dissent from his Master Plato , he said among other things , That for the sake of Truth , men ( especially being Philosophers ) ought to overthrow ev'n their own Tenents ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ) And though for a man to change his opinions , without seeing more reason to forsake them than he had to assent to them , be a Censurable Levity and Inconstancy of mind ; yet to adhere to whatever he once took for truth , though by Accession of more light he discover it to be erroneous , is but a proud Obstinacy very injurious to Truth , and very ill becoming the sense we ought to have of humane frailties . And it ought to be esteem'd much less disgraceful to quit an Error for a Truth , than to be guilty of the Vanity and Perverseness of believing a thing still , because we once believ'd it . And certainly , till a Man is sure he is infallible , it is not fit for him to be unalterable . You will easily discern , Pyrophilus , that I have purposely in the ensuing Essays refrain'd from swelling my Discourses with solemn and elaborate Confutations of other mens Opinions , unless it be in some very few Cases , where I judg'd that they might prove great impediments to the Advancement of Experimental Learning ; and even such Opinions I have been wary of medling with , unless I suppos'd I could bring Experimental Objections against them . For 't is none of my Design to engage my self with or against any one Sect of Naturalists , but barely to invite you to embrace or refuse Opinions as they are consonant to Experiments , or clear Reasons deduced thence , or at least analogous thereunto , without thinking it yet seasonable to contend very earnestly for those other Opinions which seem not yet determinable by such Experiments or Reasons . And indeed , to allude to our former Comparison , I would endeavour to destroy those curious but groundless structures that men have built up of Opinions alone , by the same way ( and with as little Noise ) by which such fantastical structures as those I mention'd to have seen at Leyden may be demolish'd . To destroy which 't were needless to bring battering Engines , since nothing is requisite to that effect but an encrease of Light. And Experience has shown us , that divers very plausible and radicated Opinions , such as that of the Unhabitableness of the Torrid Zone , of the Solidity of the Celestial part of the World , of the Blood 's being convey'd from the Heart by the Veins ( not the Arteries ) to the outward parts of the body , are generally grown out of request , upon the appearing of those new Discoveries with which they are inconsistent , and would have been abandon'd by the Generality of Judicious Persons , though no man had made it his business purposely to write Confutations of them : so true is that Vulgar saying , that Rectum est Index sui & Obliqui . But when at any time , Pyrophilus , I have been induc'd to oppose others , as I have not deny'd my self the freedom that is requisite unto Loyalty to Truth , so I have endeavour'd to use that Moderation and Civility that is due to the persons of deserving Men. And therefore you shall find me not only in one Essay oppose an Author whom in another I applaude , but sometimes you may find me commending a Writer in the very same Page , perhaps , where I am endeavouring to disprove his Opinions : For I love to speak of Persons with Civility , though of Things with Freedom . Nor do I think it reasonable , either that any mans Reputation should protect his Errors , or that the Truth should fare the worse for his sake that delivers it . And as for the ( very much too common ) Practice of many , who write , as if they thought , railing at a mans Person , or wrangling about his Words , necessary to the Confutation of his Opinions ; besides that I think such a quarrelsome and injurious way of writing does very much misbecome both a Philosopher and a Christian , methinks it is as unwise , as it is provoking . For if I civilly endeavour to reason a man out of his Opinions , I make my self but one work to do , namely , to convince his Understanding : but if in a bitter or exasperating way I oppose his Errors , I encrease the Difficulties I would surmount , and have as well his Affections against me as his Judgment : and it is very uneasie to make a Proselyte of him that is not only a Dissenter from us , but an Enemy to us . And that which makes me the more dislike the bitter way of disputing which I am reprehending , is , that I have often observ'd , that though one of the Disputants alone be at first in the fault , yet the other is most commonly drawn to share in the Guilt , though to contract it he must imitate his Adversary . For as a mad Dog by biting others is wont to make those he bites run mad like himself , and do promiscuous Mischief ; so these so provoking Writers are wont to enrage those they offend , and infect them also with their own virulent distemper . But , Pyrophilus , when I 〈◊〉 of dealing respectfully with those I dissent from , I 〈◊〉 be understood of such as have well deserved of Expe●●mental Learning , or at least been candid and sober 〈◊〉 quirers after Truth . For , as I think that it would muc● discourage any prudent Person from venturing to communicate what he thinks he knows to the World , to find that an Error proceeding from humane Weakness , or the Darkness and Abstrusity of things , seldom escapes being detected without being made matter of disgrace or reproach to the Author : so on the other side , when vain Writers , to get themselves a name , have presum'd to obtrude upon the credulous World such things , under the Notion of Experimental Truths , or even great Mysteries , as neither themselves ever took the pains to make tryal of , nor receiv'd from any credible Persons that profess'd themselves to have try'd them ; in such cases , I see not how we are oblig'd to treat Writers that took no pains to keep themselves from mistaking or deceiving , nay , that car'd not how they abuse us to win themselves a name , with the same respect that we owe to those , who though they have miss'd of the Truth , believ'd they had found it , and both intended to deliver It , and took some ( though not prosperous ) pains that they might convey nothing else to us . I fear it will be requisite , Pyrophilus , to tell you why in some of the following Essays you will meet with many Passages transcrib'd out of other Authors , and in some very few or none at all . And therefore to give you first a short Account of the Particular mention'd last , I must mind you , that 't was most suitable both to my Humor and Design to deliver only those things wherewith my own Observations , or Tryals , or Thoughts , had furnish'd me , without troubling you with the Repetition of those things which had been deliver'd by others already ; those kind of Repetitions , unless they be made upon some such grounds as we shall presently mention , seeming to me to be as vainly as ambitiously affected by many Writers , and being deservedly troublesome to Judicioas Readers , who can easily discern that they add much more to the bulk of Books than of Knowledge . But this notwithstanding , Pyrophilus , I thought my self oblig'd on some occasions , for your sake , to overcome my Natural Averseness to stuff any Writings of mine with Passages transcrib'd from those of others , partly for the Reasons elsewhere insisted on , and partly for divers others . As First , because some Particulars are of that Strangeness , and of that Moment , that they need and deserve to be verify'd by more than a single Attestation . Next , because according to the Greek Proverb , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is not properly to say over the same thing again , when the Observation , Experiment , or other Passage of an Author , is either illustrated or otherwise improv'd by the Repetition , or else apply'd to some purpose differing from that to which the Author brought it : That being applicable to many a single Experiment or Observation which Seneca somewhere says , Nulla Res consummata est dum incipit ; And , Etiamsi omnia à Veteribus inventa sunt , hoc semper novum erit , Vsus , & Inventorum ab aliis Scientia & Dispositio . And thirdly , because as the Planets and other Stars have ( according to Astrologers ) in their great Synods or Conjunctions , much more powerful , and sometimes other Influences on the Air and some other sublunary Parts of the World , than are ascrib'd to one or two of them out of that Aspect ; so divers Particulars , which whilst they lay single and scatter'd among the Writings of several Authors were inconsiderable , when they come to be laid together in order to the same Design , may oftentimes prove highly useful to Physiology in their Conjunction , wherein one of them may serve to prove one part or circumstance of an important Truth , and another to explicate another , and so all of them may conspire together to verifie that Saying , Et quae non prosunt singula , multa juvant . It may then I hope suffice to justifie me on this occasion , that not appealing to other Writers as to Judges , but as to Witnesses , nor employing what I have found already publish'd by them barely as Ornaments to imbellish my Writings , and much less as Oracles by their Authority to demonstrate my Opinions , but as Certificates to attest Matters of fact , I may hope that their Testimonies will as well be illustrated by mine , as mine by their's , and that all of them may contribute to your better Information . And if , Pyrophilus , you grant that upon these Considerations I have not done amiss to apply to my purpose divers of those things which I found deliver'd pertinently to them by those Writers which I chanc'd to cast mine Eyes on , I suppose you will not think I need to make you an Apology for my having made most use of the Passages of those Writers which I suppose will be most difficult to be met with ( such as are many Books of Navigations and other Voyages ) and especially of French Books not yet translated into English or Latin. And I think I shall less need to make an Excuse for my having for the most part set down the Passages I recited in the Authors own Words , that being one of the readiest ways I know to satisfie the Reader , and avoid injuring the Writer . And indeed , I have met with abundance of Quotations wherein the Transcriber doth so mistake , or so mis-represent the cited Authors Meaning , sometimes out of Inadvertence , but sometimes too I fear out of Indulgence to his own Hypothesis , that if ever I should be tempted to trouble the World with any of my thoughts , I would beseech my Readers , not to look upon any thing as my Opinion or Assertion that is not deliver'd in the entire Series of my own Words ; lest a Transcriber should make me deliver those things resolutely and dogmatically , which I deliver but haesitantly and conjecturally ; and lest I should seem to set down those things Positively as Processes for whose success I undertake , which I record but by way of Narrative . For my so frequently mentioning what I have borrow'd from other Writers , or receiv'd from my friends , I expect to be excus'd by that of Pliny , Benignum est ( ut arbitror ) & plenum ingenui Pudoris , confiteri per quos profeceris . Though I have seen divers Modern Writers that so boldly usurp the Observations and Experiments of others , that I might justly apply to them what the same Pliny annexes ; Scito enim , conferentem Authores me deprehendisse à juratissimis & proximis Veteres transcriptos ad Verbum , neque nominatos &c. If other Writers should not prove more equitable ( for I will not say more thankful ) than such as these , they would quickly discourage those whose aims are not very noble and sincere , from gratifying the Publick with Inventions , whose Praise and Thanks would be usurp'd by such as will not name them . But perhaps they would be more just if they reflected on what our Author further adds , Obnoxii profectò animi & infelicis ingenii est , deprehendi in furto malle quam mutuum reddere , cum praesertim sors fiet ex Vsura . And now I have said this concerning the Passages I have borrow'd from other Authors , it will not be improper to add something about those I have declin'd to borrow . For you may possibly marvel , that in divers of the Historical parts of my Writings I have omitted such Testimonies either of Pliny , Solinus , Aristotle , Theophrastus , Aelian , or perchance some of the ancient Physitians themselves ( who yet , as more conversant with things , are usually more credible ) as seems very pertinent to my Discourse , and fit to prove what I design . But when I shall come to entertain you about Natural History , I doubt not but to satisfie you with the Reasons I shall offer you of this Practice . In the mean time , I shall only tell you in short , that though I have a just respect for those Great Names I have mention'd ; yet the sense I have of the difficulties I have found to make and relate an Observation accurately and faithfully enough for a Naturalist to rely on ; and the occasions I have had of looking into divers matters of fact deliver'd in their Writings , with a bold and an impartial Curiosity ; have made me conclude so many of those Traditions to be either certainly false , or not certainly true , that except what they deliver upon their own particular Knowledge , or with peculiar Circumstances that may recommend them to my belief , I am very shy of building any thing of moment upon foundations that I esteem so unsure , and much less upon the suspected Passages that Wecker , Paracelsus , Porta , &c. abound with . And therefore ( though I well enough know how much I impoverish my Discourse by this Niceness ) yet I do not think it fair to imploy that as an Argument to convince you that has not that operation upon me my self . And I the rather take notice of my forbearing to make use of the Historical Traditions and Chymical or Magical Secrets that I meet in the above-mention'd Authors , or any other makers of Collections , unless the Narrative be ( as I was saying ) expresly enough deliver'd upon the Writer's Personal Knowledge , or that of some other credible Witness ; not only because I would give you an account why several of my Writings are unfurnish'd with what most Readers look on as the richest Ornaments of other mens , but because if this wariness could be introduc'd , t' would be the most effectual way of perswading men to write those kind of Tracts I would recommend , Physiological Essays . For he that will confine himself so strictly , will scarce be often tempted on Physical Subjects , to write either Systems or Volumns . Another things , Pyrophilus , I must needs advertise you of in reference to the ensuing Discourses , which is , That besides those Deficiencies in point of Ratiocination which are due to my personal Disabilities , I have purposely let pass some Few ( and but very Few ) Inferences which I discern'd well enough not to be cogent , because I was willing to acquaint you upon some particular Occasions with all the Experiments then occurring to me , which I thought might contribute to the Illustration of the Subject in hand , though each of them apart did not irrefragably , nor indeed so much as strongly infer the Conclusion in order to which they seem'd to have been mention'd as Premisses . And this Practice I made the less scruple of , because I was willing to exercise thereby your Reasoning Faculty , and try how far you would discern the Tendency of several things , all of them pertinent enough to the Subject in hand , but not all of them concluding to the main design in order whereunto they were alledg'd . And I supposed that the things by me mention'd , though not conclusive , being yet Experimental , the mention of them , which in a strictly Logical way of reasoning must have been forborn , might well make you amends for the Exercise to which I intended they should put your Reason . There remains yet one thing , Pyrophilus , of which I suppose you will expect I should give you an Account ; and that is , why in the ensuing Essays I have mention'd divers Experiments which I have not plainly and circumstantially enough delivered . To satisfie you concerning which , I must represent to you , First , That though for your sake I have oftentimes , contrary to my Reason and Genius , deliver'd things , to make them more clear , in such a Multitude of words , that I now seem even to my self to have in divers places been guilty of Verbosity ; yet in some other passages , treating of things which Use had render'd very familiar to me , I may have , to shun Prolixity , unawares slipt into the Contrary Extream . Secondly , There are some Mechanical Experiments wherein I have purposely omitted some manual Circumstances , because I was unwilling to prejudice some ingenious Trades-men , who make either a Livelyhood , or at least a gain , by the sale of the productions of such Experiments . And I made the less scruple to conceal such Mechanical Circumstances , ( if I may so call them ) because they were not necessary to the Physiological Knowledge of the Experiments : in naming of which my intention was to teach you rather Philosophy than Trades . Thirdly , I mention'd some things but darkly , either because I receiv'd them upon Condition of secrecy , or because some ingenious persons that communicated them to me , or others to whom I imparted them , do yet make , and need to make , a pecuniary advantage of them . Fourthly , And some things that , either having been the fruits of my own Labours , or obtain'd in Exchange of such , are freely at my own disposal , I have not yet thought fit so plainly to reveal , not out of an envious design of having them bury'd with me , but that I may be always provided with some Rarity to barter with those Secretists that will not part with one Secret but in Exchange for another , and think nothing worth their desiring that is known already to above one or two Persons . And I think it very lawful to reserve always some conceal'd Experiments by me , wherewith to obtain the secrets of others , which being thereby gained , the other ( as being no longer necessary to the former end ) may freely be communicated . And think not , Pyrophilus , that the bare mention of an Experiment as having been performed , though the way of making it be conceal'd , is of no use , if the Relator of the Experiment be a Person that may safely be credited : For it is something to be assur'd that such and such things have been really perform'd , and consequently are possible to be done , though we be not yet particularly acquainted with the means of performing them . And he tells you something , that tells you upon his own Knowledge , that in such or such Bodies , or Ways of operating on them , considerable things of such or such a Nature are to be met with . And for my part , when I go a Hawking or Setting , I think my self beholden to him that assures me that in such a field there is a Covey of Partridges , though he does no more towards the giving me them . And it is obvious how much Europe is beholden to Columbus for the Detection of many Countries in America which were not discover'd by him , nor perhaps till long after his Death , because he first inform'd us Knowingly that there were unknown Regions beyond that vast Ocean which severs the Old World from the New. But I begin to digress , and therefore shall proceed to tell you , That I am the less troubled at my Omission of the circumstantial parts of some Experiments , because I think it will be much for your Advantage to try them over again your self . And as I have taken care by the truth of the Experiments I have deliver'd to secure your success , in case you try them aright ; so I cannot be very sorry that you should in some Particulars have a kind of Necessity laid on you to exercise your own industry , and thereby encrease your Experience . But besides all that has been said , Pyrophilus , I must freely confess to you , that there is one thing particularly relating to your self , which has made me refrain from delivering in the ensuing Essays some of the chief Chymical processes wherewith they might have been enrich'd . For not yet knowing with what seriousness you will addict your self to promote experimental Philosophy , nor what use you will make of what has been unveiledly communicated to you , I was somewhat unwilling that some things which had cost me a great deal of pains should yet fall into any man's hands that scorns to purchase Knowledge with some pains , and I was desirous , in case you shall prove as industrious as I hope you will , to have something by me to encourage and cherish your industry , which may be more suitable to your improved Knowledge . For I must confess to you , that in reference to the Chymical processes extant in the following Discourses , I look upon most of them but as trifles , not only in comparison of those things which a knowing Chymist might have deliver'd on the same subjects , but even in regard of divers processes ( not impertinent to those discourses ) wherewith I my self , ( as little as I am a Pretender in these Matters ) am not unacquainted : and perhaps I would have given to the following Treatises the Title of Trifles , instead of that of Essays , if I had not been afraid of discouraging you thereby , and if the Chymical part of them had been the chief thing wherewith I intended to acquaint you in them . But if the reception you give to what we have already writt●n , prove such as may encourage us to proceed , we may p●rhaps , if God be pleas'd to vouchsafe us Life and Opportunity , be invited to impart to you those more con●●●erable Chymical Experiments , which either the Comm●nication of our friends or our own Labours have 〈◊〉 us . For it will be much in the power of the Enter●●●●ment which these Papers shall meet with , to make them either the Beginning of our Labours of this nature , or ●he End. And in the mean time , I think I may venture to tell you , that , as inconsiderable as I have confess'd div●rs of the Chymical Processes mention'd in these Essays to be , yet if ever you take the pains ( as I hope you will ) to 〈◊〉 Experimental Essays , and confine your self to take as little upon trust as I have done , you will perhaps be ready to believe , that sometimes a short Essay of this nature , not to say some one single Experiment , may have cost me more than a whole Treatise written on such a Subject , whereon to be able without Discredit to write Books , it is almost sufficient to have read many . And give me leave to add , that as in such kind of Composures , oftentimes the enabling himself to give a considerable Advertisement , or even Hint , may cost the Writer more than the making of several Experiments ; so it may be also more beneficial to the Reader than the Knowledge of them . For we must not always measure the Considerableness of things by their most obvious and immediate usefulness , but by their fitness to make or contribute to the discovery of things highly useful . As , if it be true , what is reported by good Authors of the hazel Wand , or Virgula divinatoria , though the hazel Tree be much less considerable in reference to its fruit , or immediate productions , than a Peach-Tree , an Orange-Tree , or even an Apple-Tree ; yet may it be made much more valuable than any of them , because whereas they only present us with fruits , this may assist us to discover in latent Mines inestimable Treasures . I had almost forgot to advertise you , Pyrophilus , That whereas I have not been so sollicitous as most Writers are wont to be , to swell the ensuing Essays with the Enumeration of the various Opinions and Arguments of Authors about the Subjects I treat of , or to adorn them with acute Sentences , fine Expressions , or other Embellishments borrow'd from eminent Writers ; it has not been , because I utterly dislike the making use of those passages in Classick or other Authors , that may either give ( among the Admirers of those Writers ) some Authority to our thoughts , or very handsomely and Emphatically express them . For I remember , I have known it reprehended by Learned Men in Epicurus , That though he writ very much himse●f , he would not vouchsafe in his Writings to quote those of other Men. And that I have not refrain'd from making use , now and th●n , of those Philological Ornaments of Discourse , when they readily occur'd to me , and appear'd neither impertinent nor prolix , may I hope suffice to keep me from being suspected of the Vanity of thinking my self above other mens assistance . But the reasons of my so much declining to make use of other mens Authority , or Expressions , were chiefly these . First , That the Weakness of my Eyes has this long time kept me from reading almost any Books , save the Scripture , with some Critical Expositions of it , and here and there some Portions of the Writings of those that pretend to teach their Readers Experimental Matters : And the unfaithfulness of my Memory as to things of no great Moment , has made me forget almost all the little Philological and florid Learning I was formerly acquainted with . And really , Pyrophilus , as for the Books that treat of Natural Philosophy , I am so sensible of the smalness of the Advantage which my Disabilities have suffer'd me to make of them , that instead of being ambitious to appear a great Reader , I could be very well content to be thought to have scarce look'd upon any other Book than that of Nature . And in the next place , Pyrophilus , though I ignore not that by this plain and unadorn'd way of Writing , I unkindly deny my Essays many Embellishments which I might give them , and which perhaps you will think they do abundantly need ; yet my frequent Distempers , Journeys , and other Avocations , not allowing me so much time as I desir'd , to entertain you on Philosophical subjects , I thought it more requisite to spend those confin'd hours in acquainting you with my own thoughts , such as they are , than with those of other Men ; unless ( as I formerly intimated ) I can some way or other more than barely recite what I recite of theirs . And you will easily pardon me the injury which for your sake I do my own Reputation by this naked way of writing , if you , as well as I , think those the profitablest Writers , or at least the kindest to their Perusers , who take not so much Care to appear Knowing Men themselves , as to make their Readers such . TWO ESSAYS , Concerning the Unsuccessfulness OF EXPERIMENTS , CONTAINING Divers Admonitions and Observations ( chiefly Chymical ) touching that SVBJECT . LONDON , Printed for Henry Herringman , Anno 1668. Advertisement about the two following Essays . THe Author of these Discourses had inlarged them in this second Edition with divers Observations and Experiments , but that he has made use of them already in other Papers belonging to his Sceptical or Doubting Naturalist . THE FIRST ESSAY , Of the Unsuccessfulness of EXPERIMENTS . I Am very sorry , Pyrophilus , that to the many ( elsewhere enumerated ) difficulties which you may meet with , and must therefore surmount , in the serious and effectual prosecution of Experimental Philosophy , I must add one discouragement more , which will perhaps as much surprize you as dishearten you ; and it is , That besides that you will find ( as we elsewhere mention ) many of the Experiments publish'd by Authors , or related to you by the persons you converse with , false or unsuccessful , ( besides this , I say ) you will meet with several Observations and Experiments , which though communicated for true by Candid Authors or undistrusted Eye-witn●sses , or perhaps recommended to you by your own ●xperience , may upon further tryal disappoint your expectation , either not at all succeeding constantly , or at least varying much from what you expected . This Advertisement may seem of so discouraging a nature , that I should much scruple the giving it you , but that I suppose the trouble at that unsuccessfulness which you may meet with in Experiments , may be somewhat lessened , by your being forewarned of such contingencies : And that if you should have the luck to make an Experiment once , without being able to perform the same thing again , you might be apt to look upon such disappointments as the effects of an unfriendliness in Nature or Fortune to your particular attempts , as proceed but from a secret contingency incident to some experiments , by whomsoever they be tryed . But because Pyrophilus , the Advertisement which I am about to give you may seem , as Paradoxical , so discouraging ; it will be but reasonable that I present you with some instances of the requisiteness of it : which I shall the more willingly do , because thereby I may not only evince the truth of it , but somewhat lessen the despondency it is apt to produce , by letting you see , that though some of your Experiments should not always prove constant , you have divers Partners in that infelicity , who have not been discouraged by it . To make nice and curious distinctions of the several grounds and occasions of the Unsuccessfulness of Experiments , would perhaps prove a work of greater difficulty than use , and therefore I shall content my self grosly to distinguish the causes of that unsuccessfulness , into the particular or mistaken properties of the Materials imploy'd about them , and some such error committed in the handling of these Materials , as though it hinder the success of the Experiment , is not easie to be discerned . Which therefore I mention , that I may distinguish these kind of Errors that I am now to consider from those more obvious ones , which proceeding barely from the unskilfulness of the Tryers of the Experiments , may be easily enough discerned , and either rectifi'd or avoided by a knowing Artist , or a person well vers'd and expert in making those particular Experiments , which through through that unskilfulness may have miscarried . The Materials to be imploy'd about the Experiments we are considering may also admit of several distinctions ; as into Natural and Factitious , Sincere and Adulterate , Simple and Compound , &c. But we shall likewise purposely forbear the insisting on any of these , and content our selves to cast what we have to say on this part of our Theme , into a few and comprehensive Observations . And in the first place we will observe , that divers Experiments succeed not , because they were at one time tryed with Genuine Materials , and at another time with Sophisticated ones : and in this case it may be all one , as to the Event of the Experiment , whether the Materials wherewith it was successfully try'd were sophisticated or not , if those made use of in the latter ●ryal were of differing Qualities from those employ'd in the former ; because it may very well happen , that sophisticated Bodies ( as we may have occasion to shew hereafter ) by the addition of those things , or by that decei●ful way of preparation , whereby they have been sophisticated , may acquire an aptitude to produce such effects , as had they not been adulterated , they would not have been fit to do . Now it is scarcely imaginable to him that has not been very conversant with the Drugs and Simples sold in Shops , how generally they are adulterated by the fraudulent avarice of the Sellers , especially if they be such whose preciousness may make their Sophistication very beneficial to them that practise it . It has been lately much complained of by some of the Cultivators of Clover-grass , that of a great quan●ity of the Seed not any Grass sprung up ; which not being imputable to the Soyl , nor the Sower , proceeds , as some Analogical observations make me suppose , from the effeteness ( if I may so speak ) of the superannuated Seed sometimes sold in the Shops . And upon this Subject I cannot conceal from you what was lately affirm'd to me by one of the eminentest and soberest Chymists of Amsterdam , who was also an Indian Merchant , who assur'd me , that most of the Cinnamon and Cloves that is brought into these Western Regions , is defrauded in the Indies of much of the finest and subtilest Aromatical parts before it be sent into Europe . And to give a more familiar Instance to our present purpose , you may be pleased to remember , Pyrophilus , that in one of the first of these Essays , we have made mention to you of great store of living Creatures which we had observed in Vinegar ; of the truth of which Observation we can produce divers learned and severe Witnesses , who were not to be convinced of it till we had fully satisfi'd them by ocular demonstration : and yet , Pyrophilus , there are divers parcels of excellent Vinegar , wherein you may in vain seek for these living Creatures : and we are now distilling some of that Liquor ( which if we did not think to be of the strongest and best sort , we should scarce think worth the being distill'd for Spirit ) wherein nevertheless we can neither by Candle-light nor by day-light discern Any of those li●tle Creatures of which we have often seen Swarms in other Vinegars . Of such fraudulent tricks as those lately mention'd , I could easily give you divers Instances , if I were not afraid of teaching Fallacies by discovering them . But some are so notorious , or otherwise of such a nature , as that it may be more useful than dangerous to mention them . It is commonly known , that Sublimate is wont to be sophisticated with Arsnick : and how differing the effects of such Sublimate may be from those of that which is faithfully prepar'd , not only upon Metal● , but ( when Mercurius Dulcis and other Preparations are made of it ) upon humane Bodies , they , and scarce any but they , who are acquainted wi●h the noxious qualities of Arsnick , both to Metals and Men , can readily imagine . And indeed as for Chymical Preparations Helmont was not much in the wrong , when he affirm'd , There were scarce any , vulgarly sold in shops , to be rely'd on as faithfully prepar'd . And for my part , I have so often met with Chymical Preparations which I have found unsincere , that I dare scarce trust any , either in the administration of Physick , or so much as in the tryal of considerable Expe●iments , which either my own Furnaces do not afford me , or wherewith I am not supply'd by some person of whose skill and faithfulness I have a good opinion . The other day , having occasion to use some Spirit of Salt , whereof I was not then provided , I sent for some to a Chymist , who making it himself , was the likelier to afford that which was wall made : but though I gave him his own rate for it , at the first Rectification even in a Retort , a single pound afforded us no less than six ounces of phlegm ; and afterwards being further rectifi'd in a high body and gentle heat , the remaining Spirit parted with a scarce credible quantity of the like nauseous liquor , and after all these sequestrations of phlegm was not pure enough to pe●form what we expected from it . Of which complaining to an excellent Chymist of my acquaintance , he sent for ●pirit of Salt to a very eminent Distiller of it , who gets much by his profession , and passeth for a very honest man : but this Spirit , besides its weakness , discover'd it self to be sophis●icated with either Spirit of Nitre , or Aqua fortis , which betray'd it self by its peculiar and odious smell ; whereas Spirit of Salt skilfully and sincerely drawn , is commonly of a greenish colour , bordering upon yellow , and hath usually a Peculiar , and sometimes ( as I can exemplifie to you in some of mine ) a not Unpleasing smell . And let me on this occasion advertise you , Pyrophilus , that in divers cases 't is not enough to separate the aqueous parts by Dephlegmation , as many Chymists content themselves to do , but some Liquors contain also an unsuspected quantity of small corpuscules of somewhat an earthy nature , which being associated with the saline ones , do clog or blunt them , and thereby weaken their activity : And therefore such Liquors to be well depurated require the being distill'd off , and that with a slow fire , that the dry faeces may be left behind in the bottom of the Glass . To satisfie some persons that this Observation is not groundless , we have sometimes taken of the better sort of Spirit of Salt , and having carefully dephlegm'd it , remov'd it into lower Glasses , ( that the less heat will suffice to make the Liquor ascend ) and having gently abstracted the whole Spirit , there remain'd in the bottom and the neck of the Retort whence 't was distill'd , so great a quantity of a certain dry and stiptical substance , for the most part of a yellowish colour , that it seem'd strange to the beholders , that so clear a Spirit should conceal so much of it : and we our selves should have wonder'd at it too , had we not remember'd , that in what the Chymists are wont to call the Oyl or Rectifi'd Butter of Antimony made with Sublimate , the Liquor , though distill'd and very limpid , almost like fair water , consists in great part of the very body of the Antimony : which we would here manifest , but that we elsewhere do it , and therefore chuse rather in this place to take notice , that the Spirit of Salt after this second depuration was so chang'd , that it seem'd to be a much nobler , and almost another Liquor than it was before . But to return to our sophisticated Spirit : what differing effects would be produc'd by true Spirit of Salt , and that which is mixt with the Spirit of Nitre , he that knows the great disparity in the operations of those two Liquors , whereof ( to mention now no other Instances ) the former will precipitate Silver , when the latter has dissolv'd it , may easily inform you . Which Instances I mention not as the considerablest which may be produc'd on this Subject , but as the freshest in my memory . In the next place , Pyrophilus , I observe , that even when the Materials imploy'd about Experiments are no way sophisticated , but genuine , and such as Nature has produc'd them , or Art ought to prepare them , even then , I say , there may be a very considerable Disparity betwixt Concretions of the same kind and name , and which pass without suspicion for bodies of perfectly the same nature . This may , to you , Pyrophilus , seem a great Paradox ; but perhaps upon examination it will appear a great Truth : which because I am perchance the first , or one of the first , that has solemnly asserted , I hope I shall obtain your pardon if I insist somewhat the longer upon the making it out . For though Antimony ( and the like is to be understood of Quick-silver , Gold , Copper , Tin , &c. ) is wont by almost all men without hesitancy to be look'd upon as being all of it of the same nature as well as denomination ; yet he that will take the liberty to suspect that they may be deceiv'd in that opinion , and then heedfully observe the differing progress and event of Experiments , may very well discern , that there is as well a difference in Minerals of the same kind , as there is in Vegetables and Animals of the same species . And as the White-rose , the Red-rose , and the Damask-rose differ much from one another , though all three be Roses ; and as the sowre and sweet Orange are very differing betwixt themselves , and both of them from the China Orange , though all be Oranges ; and as the Hound , the Grey-hound , the Spaniel , the Tumbler , the Mastiff , and the Water dog , &c. are very dive●sly qualifi'd , though all of them be Dogs : so neither are all the parcels of Antimony to be met with in Mines or Shops of altogether the s●me Qualities , though all of them be Antimonial Concretes . There is indeed this difference betwixt the variety to be observed in Vegetables and Animals , and that which is to be found in Minerals , That the former is wont to be more obvious to the Eye , and betray it self by some difference to be observed , either in the size of the Creatures of the same kind , or in some peculiar shape or colour , by which 't is easie for Nature conspicuously to discriminate bodies that consist of many discernably distinct parts ; whereas Minerals appearing to the eye either to be perfectly similar , as Metals , or at least to consist but of two or three distinct ingredients , as Cinnaber , and some other Mineral Concretions , the diversity to be found betwixt Minerals of the same Denomination is hardly to be discerned , before Experience have discover'd it . And on this Subject I consider , that the womb ( if I may so speak ) of a Mineral body is not always like that of an Animal , a place by a competent and peculiar involving fence secur'd from the intrusion of all bodies not of kin to that included in it : But a Mineral being generated in the bowels of the Earth , its womb is oftentimes accessible and open to other Mineral Juyces or Steams that pass that way , though of never so differing natures from that of the more copious Mineral . Insomuch that not only I have had the opportunity to observe ( not without some wonder ) Minerals of differing kinds , as Marchasites and Metals , Marchasites and Stones , ( I mean Stones properly so call'd ) Salt and Sulphur , and the like , blended in the same small lump of matter ; but I have sometimes found in a great mass of one sort of Mineral , small parcels of a Mineral of a quit differing kind perfectly inclos'd in the substance of the other . But to resume what we were saying before , these intruding bodies ( if I may so speak ) being coagulated , and perhaps ripened together with the former by length of time , are not easily either separable , or so much as distinguishable at their first digging out of the ground , and much less after their Colliquation . For the ignorant or heedless Mine-man aiming only at the obtaining a quantity of such a Metal , or other Mineral , as may be vendible under such a determinate name , has neither the design , nor perhaps the skill , to make nice separations of the Heterogeneous bodies to be met with in his Oar , but melts so much of them as he can promiscuously together , and then sells them , not only to the Merchant , but the Chymist , for that Metal or Mineral whose outward form and properties ( as colour , consistence , weight , sound , &c. ) it has ; though that Metal under whose name it passes , be indeed but the predominant Ingredient of the Lump , wherein divers other Minerals may in small quantities lye concealed , and yet upon occasion be discovered by exquisite separations , or discover themselves by unexpected operations , when they meet with bodies fit to act on them , or dispos'd to receive impressions from them . I was lately visited by an ingenuous Goldsmith of my acquaintance , who complain'd to me , that being wont to buy parcels of Gold brought in small pieces , and as it were sandy corpuscles , from Guinea , or some Country of that Coast , though he found it upon all tryals very right Gold , yet was it so very pale , that few but expert Goldsmiths would meddle with it , as fearing it had been some sophisticated Metal ; adding , that this exceeding paleness of it sometimes reduc'd him to melt it with very high-colour'd Gold , or to heighten its tincture with that of Copper , to bring it to the colour of ordinary Gold. The probability of this may be prov'd by what is related by Monsieur Flacourt , Governor of the French Plantation in Madagascar , who in his newly publish'd History of that Island , speaking of the Metals of it , says , Il y a bien , &c. that is , There is certainly Gold among the Inhabitants of Madagascar , which has not been brought thither by Foreign Ships : for 't is not possible that such Ships should have left them so much of that Metal as they have ; and besides , it is of a differing nature from that of Europe , which they call in this Country Voulamene Voutroüa . He adds , that this Gold , which they call Gold of Malacasse , is pale , and is not worth above 10 Crowns , ( or about 50 shillings ) an ounce ; also , that the Negroes affirm , that there are many Mines of it in the Country where it was formerly digg'd ; that there is three sorts of it differing in fineness from each other , and discriminated by the Natives by three peculiar names . But that which he adds as most considerable , is , That Malacassean Gold is of so very easie a fusion , that it is almost as easily melted as Lead ; whereas we here find the Gold we deal with to require considerably strong fires , and are wont to cast in Borax to facilitate the fusion . Having upon occasion had the Curiosity not long since to visit some Mines of Lead , and other Metals , I find , that there is a great difference , and discernable even to the eye , betwixt the several Oars ; for instance , of Lead , some of which I can shew you so like Steel , and so unlike common Lead-Oar , that the workmen upon that account are pleased to call it Steel-Oar , which being of more difficult fusion than ordinary , they are wont to mix it with other Oar , which they call Firm-Oar , to facilitate the melting of it . And I likewise took notice of an Oar , which for its aptness to Vitrifie and serve the Potters to glaze their earthen Vessels , the Miners call Pottern-Oar , and sell it ( at least where I saw it digg'd up ) dearer than other Oar , from which it differs both visibly enough , and as the workmen affirm , in divers other ( and those less obvious ) Qualities ; and yet all these Oars after fusion do pass indiscriminately under the name and notion of Lead . In which therefore it is no wonder that severer Inquirers find a great deal of disparity . I remember I did not long since cause some Lead-Oar to be try'd , which being the most promising that ever I saw , made me suppose it might contain some considerable quantity of Silver : but though it prov'd so rich in Lead as to yield after the rate of seventy pound in the hundred , yet one of the most expert Artists in Europe could not extract one grain of Silver out of it ; whereas the Lead of very many Mines , being skilfully examin'd , will leave behind it upon the Test a proportion of pure Silver . And though this quantity of Silver be not considerable enough to make such Mines as yield it pass for Silver-Mines , ( or , as we are wont to call them , Mines-Royal ) because the Sliver will not quit the cost of extracting it ; yet such Mines , though they pass but for Lead-Mines with the Metallist , may appear to be mixt Mines to the Naturalist , who may meet with divers Experiments , wherein the little Silver that is in them may make their Lead operate differently from that of those Oars which are wholly destitute of Silver . And as this disparity is discernable in Lead-Oars , so it may well be supposed that the like would be discovered in the Oars of other Metals , if they were but purposely and skilfully examin'd . On which Subject I remember , that a very experienc'd person in these affairs , and otherwise very candid and sober , was lately very desirous I should procure , him some Tin-Oar , alledging , that he had met with a sort of it , which after a long digestion in Lixiviate Liquors , afforded him a very considerable proportion of the richer Metals , insomuch that having a large quantity of that Oar , and finding the Experiment on it to succeed constantly , he promised to himself a vast Income by it : But when that stock of Oar was spent , the next that he procured , though with great carefulness manag'd as the former , would by no means be brought to afford either so considerable a benefit , or so much as any at all . Which brings into my mind , that having once bought a parcel of block Tin , ( as the Trades-men call that which is of the most pure or unmixt , and as yet unwrought ) I was desirous to try if I could not make a Menstruum to dissolve it in such manner as Aqua fortis dissolves Silver , and Aqua Regis Gold ; because Chymists are wont to complain , that though they have a Menstruum or two that will dissolve crude Tin , yet they want one that will keep it dissolv'd , and will not , which Aqua fortis will , let it fall into a Calx . Having therefore ( by a way that I elsewhere teach ) prepar'd such a Liquor as was desir'd , I evaporated a Solution of the fore-mentioned Tin , and setting it to shoot , found , somewhat to my wonder , that the Crystals it afforded were not at all like any kind Of Vitriol , but broad , flat , and exceeding thin , just like those of Silver . Whereupon for further tryal having examin'd this Salt by the Tongue , we found not that it had any such taste as the skilfully made Calx of Tin in Spirit of Vinegar , ( wherein 't is not Every Calx of Jupiter that is soluble ) which ( the last time we try'd ) seem'd to us to have , as it were , a chalybeate taste , but such an excessive bitterness as may be met with in the Crystals of Silver made with Aqua fortis : Finding also this further resemblance betwixt the Salts of these two Metals , that they did both of them presently dye upon the nails and skin a blackness that could not in a short time be wash'd off : we should have suspected , that the Menstruum had exalted the Metal dissolv'd in it to a greater cognation to Silver ; but having afterwards prosecuted the same Tryal with the same Menstruum , and another parcel of block Tin , ( the former being casually lost ) this Metal , though bought very soon after the other , and , as I remember , at the same place , made us conclude , that the event of our tryals proceeded from our having lighted upon a lump of Tin that was of a peculiar Nature . I remember also that a while since a learned and inquisitive friend of mine found in his Land a parcel of Oar , part of which he shewed me , and some of which I can shew you , but have not yet made tryal of it , which seem'd to me , among others that look'd upon it , to be Copper-Oar , and which did indeed after fusion yield very good Copper ; but the persons to whom he committed the examination of the Mine , being very inquisitive , and extraordinarily skilful , they did ( as one of themselves immediately after confess'd to me ) find in that Oar , besides the Copper , no inconsiderable quantity of Silver ; and in that Silver ( having dissolv'd it in Aqua fortis ) a considerable proportion of Gold. But to detain you no longer on this Subject , give me only leave to strengthen the Paradox I have proposed by the authority of that great and candid Chymist Basilius Valentinus , who speaking of Antimony , after he hath told us that there are several kinds of it , and especially two , the one more Mercurial , and of a Golden property , witnessed by the shining streaks or beams it abounds with , the other more full of Sulphur , but destitute of the golden nature that inriches the former , adds , that there is such a different goodness betwixt the several sorts of Antimony , as there is betwixt the several sorts of Flesh or Fish , which , though agreeing in name and , if you please , in nature , do exceedingly differ in point of goodness . Which brings into my mind the great difference which I have found , even visible to the eye , betwixt the several sorts of Antimony ; and makes me also remember , that the other day being by an excellent Chymist shew'd a parcel of Antimony as a rarity , upon the score of the variously-colour'd Sulphur wherewith it was conspicuously inrich'd , the possessor of it soon after imploy'd it to make Butter of Antimony : but though he were very expert in that kind of distillation , yet instead of the Liquor he expected , upon the approach of a gentle fire , he found the neck and body of his Retort lin'd with an Antimonial Cinnaber , ( or at least a red substance , by him concluded to be Sulphur ) at which being surprized , he was pleased to withdraw his fire till he had acquainted me with this accident , and in the yet unbroken Retort shew'd me the Cinnaber , which is not wont ( as you know ) to arise till after the Butter of Antimony is come over , and the remaining matter be urg'd with a vehement fire . And 't is perhaps to the undiscern'd difference of Antimonies that we may sometimes ascribe that contingency , which we have divers times had occasion to take notice of in the making of Antimonial Cinnaber : for though in our Furnaces it hath been very successfully made , yet not only we have afterwards fail'd of making it , but we have seen much more expert Chymists , and who because of the high value they do ( not undeservedly ) place upon that Medicine , imploy themselves oftner than we in making it , divers times unsuccessfully attempt the preparing it . And it may be perhaps also from some diversity either in Antimonies or Irons , that eminent Chymists have ( as we have observed ) often failed in their endeavours to make the Starry Regulus of Mars and Antimony . Insomuch that divers Artists fondly believe and teach ( what our Experience will not permit us to allow ) that there is a certain respect to Times and Constellations requisite to the producing of this ( I confess admirable ) body . Upon which Subject I must not omit to tell you , that a while since an industrious acquaintance of ours was working on an Antimony , which unawares to him was , as we then suppos'd , of so peculiar a nature , that making a Regulus of it alone ( without Iron ) the common way , ( for his manner of operation I enquir'd of him ) he found , to his wonder , and shew'd me his Regulus adorned with a more conspicuous Star than I have seen in several Stellate Regulusses of both Antimony and Mars . Yet I dare not be too confident that this depended only upon the peculiar nature of that Antimony , because since that , my own Laboratory has afforded me divers such parcels of Regulus without Mars ( some of which I have yet by me very fairly stellated ) which though made of Antimony that seem'd ( by its various colours ) to be more rich than ordinary in Sulphur ; yet in regard the Antimony did not constantly afford a Starry Regulus , though by the same person order'd as near as could be after the same manner , it did not so clearly appear to me , whether the differing event of the several Tryals proceeded from the peculiar nature of this or that parcel of Antimony , or from some odd and scarce discoverable circumstance in the management of the operation . But in either case , the mention of these uncertain Events will properly enough belong to our present Discourse . As in Antimony , so ( as I intimated above ) in divers other Minerals a considerable diversity may be observed : & I remember I was lately presented with a piece of a Mineral , which to me , as well as to the rest who look'd on it , seem'd to be an ordinary and worthless Marchasite ; and yet a Dutch Merchant ( a skilful Mineralist ) who was the possessor of it , was very industrious to procure a greater quantity thereof , having in some of it , on which he had made Tryals , found a rich proportion of pure Gold. And the same Gentleman whose Copper-Oar I formerly mention'd , digging for more of that Oar , found lately a quantity of red Earth , which by knowing Mineralists was guest to be but Bolus , and indeed looked very like it ; but being melted with Regulus Martis Stellatus by a skilful Tryer of Metals , it divers times richly re●ompenced the Examiners curiosity , by affording him many grains of fine Gold : and though I doubt whether this Gold proceeded from the Bolus , or the Regulus melted with it , yet however it may serve for an instance to shew that some Mineral bodies , which pass without dispute for Minerals of such and such a precise nature , may have lurking in them Minerals of a quite other nature , which may manifest themselves in some particular Experiments , ( wherein they meet with proportionate Agents or Patients ) though not in others . That the Talck which is wont to be employ'd about Cosmeticks is of very difficult Calcination , is so known a thing to those that have tryed to calcine it , that I have met with good Chymists that have looked on all the Calces of Talcks but as Impostures . Nor indeed have we calcin'd Venetian Talck without some length of time , and much violence of heat . But among many sorts of Talck we have here in England , there is one which a moderate fire will in less than an hour reduce into a snow-white Calx , of which I had lately a parcel by me ; and some days since I met with another sort of English Talck which I could suddenly calcine even with the flame of a candle . And my experienc'd friend Dr. K. assures me , that out of a German Talck he met with , he did by digesting it in a strong Solution of Alcalizate Salts separate pretty store of good Gold , and might have made it a very gainful Experiment , if all the Talck growing in the same place had been of the same richness . The like almost has been affirmed to me by a Gentleman of Eminency , who told me , That from a certain Talck he had out of Norway , he had once drawn a pretty quantity of very good Gold : and it seems indeed , that though some have been pleased to laugh at all attempts of sequestring any thing from any kind of Talck ; yet some parcels of that Mineral afford good store of a Tincture , which may for ought I know be of a golden nature . For I remember I have met with a kind of darkish-colour'd Talck ( whereof I can yet shew you a piece ) which when I cast but into Aqua Regis , the Menstruum manifestly work'd upon it , and dissolv'd its colour'd parts in such plenty , that the filtrated Solution pass'd without suspicion among divers knowing Naturalists to whom I shew'd it , for a fair Solution of Gold. Paracelsus himself reckons four kinds of Talck , Red , White , Black , and of that colour which his Interpreter translates Luteous : and perhaps each of these colours comprises several kinds of that Mineral . And therefore that Mineralist did not amiss when he added in the same Discourse , after he had mention'd great variety of Marchasites , Stones , and other Minerals , Sed & hoc verum est , in terra multa adhuc condi , quae mihi incognita sunt , sed eadem nec alii norunt . Certum siquidem est , progressu temporis tot tamque varia à Deo adhuc proditum iri , de quibus nemo nostrûm nedum unquam somniavit . 'T is vulgarly known , that there is a great difference between Vitriols that are reputed to be meerly of the same Metal . And not to mention those Vitriols that I have either made or seen , of less usual colours ; nor to take notice of the Veins , Slate , and even loose Earth , impregnated with Coperas that I have had : to pass by all this ( I say ) as for those Vitriol Stones whereof we in England are wont to make our Vitriol , I have seen at the chief work where Coperas is made so great a variety of them , ( divers of which I have yet lying by me ) that I could scarcely believe the workmen when they affirmed them to be all Coperas Stones , and cannot but think it both very likely , that some of them contain other Mineral substances besides Vitriol , and very possible that the saline parts of those stones upon their solution by the Rain , may work upon those other substances formerly concoagulated with them , and thereby imbue some parcels of the Vitriol made of them with qualities other than are essential to the nature of Vitriol , or belong ordinarily to it . That there is also a difference betwixt those bodies that pass under the general name of common Salt , cannot but be obvious to any Chymist that hath occasion to make accurate tryals on that Subject . And as for those Concretes that pass under the name of Salt-peter , there is probably no small disparity among them : for besides the difference which we have observed and which is obvious enough betwixt good English Nitre , and that which is brought us over from Barbary , ( which before it is much refin'd abounds very much with an adventitious Salt that tastes much like Sea-salt ) besides this I say , those that do use both good European & good East-Indian Salt-peter assure me , they find much difference betwixt them , and give the preference to the latter : and indeed I have often thought I discern'd a considerable difference in the operations of several kinds of Salt-peter even after purification : and probably that sort of Salt-peter which near London an ingenious man of my acquaintance does sometimes ( but cannot always ) make , chiefly out of Sea-salt , hath some differing qualities from that which is drawn the common way out of the Earth . And indeed Salt-peter being but a kind of Sal terrae , generated in very differingly-qualifi'd parcels of Earth , may probably receive divers qualities from the particular soyl wherein it grows , though these qualities lye concealed and unsuspected under the wonted exterior appearance of Nitre . Which consideration brings into my mind what was lately told me by a very ingenious Gentleman concerning one of the eminentest of our London Physitians , who was wont , as this Confident of his assured me , as an excellent secret , to imploy in some of his choice Remedies that peculiar Salt-peter which he had drawn out of the Earth digg'd up in Church-yards . And such kind of differences would probably in other Mineral bodies be taken notice of , if mens prepossessions did not make them ascribe the variations they meet with in their Experiments , rather to any other cause than the unsuspected difference of the Materials imploy'd about them . Nor is it only , Pyrophilus , among Mineral Bodies of the same name that such a diversity is to be found , but if narrowly look'd into , 't is very probable that a greater disparity may be discovered both among Vegetables and Animals , reputed of the same nature , than hath been yet taken notice of . Herbarists indeed have exercis'd a commendable curiosity in subdividing Plants of the same denomination , and few Naturalists ignore that there are ( for instance ) many sorts of Roses , and of Apples , which differ widely betwixt thems●lves , as we see the difference betwixt the Red-rose and the White , betwixt the Crab , the Pippin , and the Pea●-main . But besides these differences which are obvious enough to be Registred by Botanick Authors , there may be more undiscern'd ones ( which yet may be considerable ones ) betwixt the Individuals of the same ultimate subdivision of Plants , arising partly from the temperature of the air , which makes ( for example ) Senna growing in England to differ much from that which is denominated from Alexandria ; partly from the nature of the soyl , as is obvious in the change produced in wild Simples transplanted into Gardens ; and partly from many other causes which we have not now leisure to insist upon . But we see oftentimes , that one Rose much differs from another of the same kind , and one Pear-main from another Pear-main . To which we may add , that the upper crust or surface of the Earth being impregnated with subterraneal exhalations of several sorts , and tempered with variety of Juyces , it may very possibly be , that some particular Plant may attract some such Juyce out of a determinate spot of ground , as may give it Exotick qualities , and make it differ even from the neighbouring Plants of the same kind . To which purpose I remember , that travelling divers years since from Geneva towards Italy , I was in my passage through Switzerland by a Gentleman of those parts ( whose brother had been formerly my Domestick ) invited to his Castle , and entertained among other things with a sort of Wine which was very heady , but otherwise seem'd to be Sack ; and having never met with any such Liquor during my long stay in those parts , I was inquisitive to know whence it was brought : and being answered that it grew amongst those Mountains , I could not believe it , till they assur'd me , that growing on a little spot of ground whose entrails abounded with Sulphur , it had from the soyl acquired its inebriating property , and those other qualities which made it so differing from the Wine of the rest of the Vineyards of that Country . And now I mention Wine , give me leave , Pyrophilus , to put you in mind of taking notice what a great change is made in that Liquor , when upon the recess of the spirits and more volatile sulphureous parts , or else the new texture they make with the others , it degenerates into Vinegar , and yet how little either diminution of quantity or any other alteration doth appear upon this change to the beholders eye . And though no body is like to lose an Experiment by mistaking Vinegar for Wine , because both those Liquors and the changes of them are so familiar unto us , and because we are wont to taste each of them before we imploy it ; yet who knows what changes there may be in other Bodies with whose alterations we are unacquainted , though the Eye , which is oftentimes the only Sense employ'd about judging of them , discern no change in them ? as may daily be observed in the superannuated seeds of Plants , which after their having been kept long beyond their due time , lose all their germinating power without losing any of their obvious qualities . And here let me further observe to you , that Urine is made much use of , not only by Dyers , but ●everal other Trades-men in divers operations ( some of which we may elsewhere have occasion to treat of ) belonging to their professions . Now these men being wont indiscriminately to employ Urine , without examining whether it be rich in Salt or not , and how long it hath been kept , it may not be impertinent to take notice that Chymists , who have occasion to distil it often in great quantities , assure me that they find a notable disparity betwixt Urines , that of healthy and young men abounding much more with volatile Salt than that of sickly or aged persons ; and that of such as drink Wine freely being much fuller of spiritous and active parts than that of those whose drink is but Beer or Water . But because the differing strength of Urines , though it be very probable , is not so easily to be satisfactorily made out , we shall rather insist on this other Observation confirmed to us by Experience , which is , that though Trades-men are often wont to boil such and such things indifferently in any Urine , as if it were all one how new or stale it is , they may sometimes thereby commit considerable errors . For recent Urine , wherein the saline parts are yet intangled among the rest , will suffer it self to be boil'd above one half or two thirds away , without the avolation of its volatile salt and spirits . Whereas Urine that has been divers weeks kept is liable to a Putrefaction , whereby the Cement ( if I may so speak ) of the Ingredients that it consists of , perishing , or some change of texture occasioning their disjunction ( if not also concurring to produce them ) the component parts fall asunder , and the saline Particles extricating themselves from the rest , will even upon a very gentle heat ( as tryal made on purpose has inform'd us ) flye away , and leave a phlegmatick and unactive Liquor behind them . In confirmation whereof I must acquaint you , Pyrophilus , with what lately befel me in reference to the distillation of Urine : for having caused some of it to be buryed in earthen Vessels in a dunghil to be there putrifi'd , for five or six weeks , I was by divers occasional Journeys kept from employing it , till it had layn there between four and five months ; and observing , when I caus'd it to be taken out , that the covers of the vessels had not been , by him I employ'd to put them in , well luted on , and besides were in some places crackt , I suspected that the Heat of the Dunghil had not only loosened the saline parts of the Liquor , but driven them away : and accordingly by distilling it in a very gentle heat , and in a very high Cucurbit , we obtain'd instead of an active and saline spirit , a languid and nauseous phlegm . And how great odds there may be betwixt some Experiments made with recent and putrifi'd Urine , may be easily conceiv'd by him who knows what operations Salts have in the business of Colours , and is acquainted with their efficacy in those other Mechanical Experiments wherein Urine is wont to be employ'd . But I fear I have dwelt too long upon this Theme , and therefore I shall proceed to the next . And in the third place , Pyrophilus , I shall observe to you , that there is a great difference to be found among many things prepar'd by Art , that pass under the same general name : which difference may proceed partly from that which we have already observ'd to be found in the Materials of which such factitious Bodies are made , and partly from the way us'd in preparing them . To these heads many particulars may be reduc'd : But we shall at present restrain our selves to the mention of two sorts of prepar'd bodies , namely , of such as are not putrifi'd and exalted enough , and of such as are so too much . And to begin with the first of these ; it is very certain , that divers Chymical Experiments delivered by sober Authors have been believed false , only because the Menstruums or other Materials emyloy'd in the unsuccessful tryals of them were not as highly rectifi'd , or otherwise as exquisitely depurated , as those that were us'd by the Deliverers of those Experiments ; so that oftentimes the fault of a bad Menstruum is injuriously imputed to a good Artist . That experienc'd Chymist Van Helmont , in his Paradoxical Treatise of the Stone , endeavors ( as we have elsewhere mention'd ) to explicate the manner of its being generated by the Coagulation immediately ensuing upon the mixture of the two volatile Spirits of Urine and of Wine . This noble Experiment has been by many unsuccessfully try'd , and has been therefore by them discredited as a Chymical fiction : and indeed the first , and I think the second time we attempted to make that Coagulum , we found nothing at all of any such thing as we expected upon the confusion of the two fore-mentioned Liquors , which though never so much shaken , and afterwards permitted to rest , did never in the least measure coagulate , which made us long suspect the Experiment ; till at length our favourable thoughts of that expert Chymist , making us think it possible that the Spirits we employ'd had not been sufficiently exalted , we dephlegmated some by more frequent , and indeed tedious Rectifications ( which yet prov'd but necessary ) and then were satisfied by more accurate tryals , that Helmont had not mis-inform'd us . So likewise the same Author in his Treatise de Peste much extolling , as a friend to the Stomach , the Entrails , the nervous parts , and even the Head , the Tincture or Solution of Amber made with spirit of Wine ( which Medicine is indeed no ignoble one when administred to Constitutions that can well bear the heat of it ) divers Physitians and Chymists have attempted the preparing of this Tincture with such bad success , that they have given out , that either Helmont delivered what was not true , or conceal'd some considerable Circumstance of the Process . Whereas having digested sufficiently dephlegm'd spirit of Wine upon very finely powder'd Amber , ( which if it be the higher-colour'd yields the deeper Tincture ) in a very gentle heat , ( for the neglect of which Caution even expert Artists have often lost their pains and glasses ) we have several times had a good yellow Tinctur● of Amber , which was discernable in the Menstruum both by the smell and taste ; and to satisfie some that suspected the Tincture to proceed but from the exaltation of the Menstruum it self by Digestion , and to manifest that it was a real Solution of the subtiler parts of ●he Amber , we poured some drops of it into Beer , or Water , into which the spirit of Wine suddenly diffusing it self , the dissolved Amber was plainly discernable swimming like a thin film upon the surface of the Liquor , whence little by little it steamed away into the air . There is likewise , as we have try'd , to be drawn with spirit of Wine from pure Salt of Tartar a pretty high Tincture , and of a taste which I thought not unworthy the taking notice of : but having a while since try'd to draw this Tincture with spirit of Wine which ( unknown to me ) was much too weak for that purpose , after I had kept the Glass a while in Digestion , coming to look whether or no the Spirit was ting'd , I found that the Salt of Tartar had drawn to it self and imbib'd the aqueous particles of the Spirit of Wine , and being thereby ( for a great part of it ) dissolv'd into a Liquor like that which is commonly called Oyl of Tartar per Deliquium , the subsiding Salt was by the interposition of that saline Liquor protected from the action of the spirit of Wine , which being by this new way dephlegm'd would not mix with the saline Liquor , but swam entirely above it . To which I shall only add in general , that the German Chymists are divers of them so accurate in the Rectification of their Spirit of Wine , that in England , where we are wont to be less careful about that Particular , it is usual enough for those Experiments of theirs to be unsuccessfully try'd wherein the Alcohol of Wine ( as they call it ) is requisite . And as Spirit of Wine , so many other Menstruums are made unfit for the perfecting of divers real Experiments , barely by their not being sufficiently freed from their weakning Aquosity . Nor is it only , Pyrophilus , in Menstruums , but in divers other Bodies , that the want of an exquisite Depuration may produce in Experiments variety of Events . As for instance , It has been complain'd of by sober men , that their Preparations of Silver , though never so carefully made , have been apt to produce violent Vomits ; whereas we have not observ'd a well-prepar'd Medicine of duly refin'd Silver to work Emetically even in Women and Girls , but by Seige or Urine . But we cannot wonder at the violent operation of Medicines made of ordinary Silver : for not only that which is coyned is wont , as the Mint-masters themselves have confess'd to me , to be allay'd with sometimes about a twelfth part , sometimes a smaller or greater proportion of Copper , for the greater conveniency of the Coyn , but even that Silver which is commonly at great rates sold for refin'd Silver , is not wont to be sufficiently freed from its Copper . Which I not long since manifested in the presence of one of our richest and eminentest Refiners , by dissolving some of his purest Silver in his own Aqua fortis ; for the greenness of the Solution quickly betray'd the adherency of Venus to the Silver . And no wonder ; for I have seldom seen our chiefest Refiners blow off from their Silver upon the Test above half its weight of Lead , whereas we think not our Silver sufficiently refin'd for some purposes , till it have been freed from five or six times its weight of Saturn , and then it has sometimes afforded a Solution almost as clear as water , with only now and then a light touch of Sky-colour , but nothing near so high as the Ceruleous ( Liquor that is supposed to be a true ) Tincture of Silver , artificially separated from the rest of the Body . Now that ill effects by the mixture of Copper may be produc'd in such Medicines as ought to be of pure Silver , he that is acquainted with the violent Emetick qualities of Venus can scarcely doubt . And as in men's bodies , so in other subjects , those Experiments may easily deceive the Artists expectation , when he hopes to perform with Silver and Copper together those things which suppose and require Silver without Copper , or any adventitious Metal . And as Silver , so Gold is very often employ'd for pure , when it is not so : for even the foliated Gold which is commonly sold here in England , how fine soever 't is reputed , is not altogether free from the pollutions of other Metals : for our Gold-beaters , though for their own profit sake they are wont to use the finest coyned Gold they can get ( as that which is capable of the greatest extension under the Hammer ) yet they scruple not to employ coyned Gold , and that the Mint-masters ( as themselves inform me ) are wont to allay with Copper or Silver , to make the Coyn more stiff , and less subject to be wasted by attrition . And as for those many Gold-smiths and Chymists who think their Gold most requisitely refined when they have blown from it on the Test a due proportion of Lead , they may be therein sometimes mistaken : for though Saturn may carry away with him all the Copper that did imbase the Gold , yet he does not likewise free it from the Silver ( for which purpose Aqua fortis is therefore wont to be us'd ) nay , the skilfullest Refiner that I ever yet knew , hath several times affirmed to me , that coupleing fine Gold with Lead , the Gold has after retained and protected from the fire a proportion of Silver that lay lurking in the Lead , and was afterwards separated from the Gold by Aqua fortis , but in so small quantity , that the Experiment ( the cost and pains considered ) was not lucriferous . And of this sort of Instances , Pyrophilus , more might be presented , if we did not think Prolixity might be unwelcome to you . But as many Experiments succeed not according to expectation , because the Menstruums employ'd about them were not pure enough , so some miscarry because such Menstruums are but too exactly depurated : for it is not so much the purity of Liquors in their kind , as their fitness for the particular purpose to which they are design'd , that is in Experiments to be principally regarded . For instance , we have sometimes for recreation sake , and to affright and amaze Ladies , made pieces of white paper and linnen appear all on a flame , without either burning , findging , or as much as discolouring them . This is performed by plunging the paper very throughly in weak Spirit of Wine , and then approaching it to the flame of a candle , by which the spiritous parts of the Liquor will be fired , and burn a pretty while without harming the paper . But if this Experiment be tryed with exquisitely rectifi'd Spirit of Wine , it will not succeed . Of this Phaenomenon this plausible reason has been assign'd , that the flame of the Spirit of Wine is so pure and subtile , that like an Ignis lambens , it will not fasten upon the paper . But Experience has inform'd us , that this Conjecture is but a mistake , for the flame of Spirit of Wine is so hot , that I have in Lamp-furnaces employ'd Spirit of Wine instead of Oyl , and with the same flame I have not only lighted paper , but candles , and even melted foliated gold . The true reason therefore why that paper is not burned by the flame that plays about it , seems to be , that the aqueous part of the spirit of wine being imbibed by the paper keeps it so moist , that the flame of the sulphureous parts of the same spirit cannot fasten on it . And therefore when the deflagration is over , you shall always find the paper moist ; and sometimes we have found it so moist , that the flame of a candle would not readily light it . And on the other side , having purposely made tryals of plunging paper into sufficiently dephlegmated spirit of wine , the paper not having aqueous moisture to defend it , was very readily kindled and burned by the flaming spirit . And one of our best ways to try the pureness of spirit of wine is grounded on this very supposition : For dipping it in a Cotton-wiek like that of a candle , and setting it on fire , if the flame fasten on the wiek , it is a sign of the goodness of the spirit ; but if it do not , we conclude it to be weak , and not sufficiently dephlegm'd . It hath been likewise observ'd , that Aqua fortis will work more readily on Lead if it be allay'd with water , than if it be purely rectifi'd . I other-where also mention an Aqua fortis I have us'd , which was so strong , that it would not well dissolve silver it self unless I first diluted it with fair water . And within this very week wherein I write these things , I have had an unwelcome proof that Liquors may by too exquisite a Depuration be made unfit for our purposes . For having , to gratifie some ingenious friends , made a certain Menstruum , wherewith we had formerly done some things upon Gold which were ( not altogether without cause ) thought strange enough , we took care at this time to separate it from whatever was either of an aqueous or an earthy nature more exactly than ever we had formerly done . But coming to make use of this sort of Menstruum , we found to our trouble and loss , that instead of performing its wonted operations upon Gold better than before , we could do nothing at all with it : For it will not now by heat it self be brought to touch gold , though that Metal were wont to be dissoluble in it even in frigido . And to satisfie you , that 't was the too-exquisite depuration of this Liquor , especially from its terrestrial parts , that thus unfitted it to touch a Metal which is otherwise wont to melt as it were naturally in it without Ebullition ( almost like Ice in luke-warm water ) we will subjoyn , that not only we in vain try'd to make it serviceable by weakning it with fair water ; but having , for tryal sake , taken a little of this numerical parcel of Liquor before it was so carefully rectifi'd , we found that it dissolv'd crude gold as well as we had reason to expect . And it would be consider'd whether or no in the Extraction of the Tinctures of several Bodies , Chymists do not only put themselves to a needless , but to a prejudicial trouble , when they refuse to employ any other spirit of wine than that which is highly rectifi'd . For , though in many Bodies the parts desir'd by the Artists being the Sulphureous ones , the Menstruum is the better for an exquisite Dephlegmation ; yet in divers other Concretes the useful and efficacious parts have in them something of Saline , which makes them more free to impregnate copiously such Liquors as have some Aqueous mixed with their Sulphureous parts . But because there is nothing more easie than by diluting spirit of wine , though never so strong , to make it as weak as one pleases ; and because pure spirit of wine is that of all other Menstruums that Chymists generally make most use of , and which costs them most of charge and trouble , ( insomuch that here in London that which is perfectly dephlegm'd is valu'd , in their shops that sell both , at ten times the price of common spirit of wine ; ) I presume you will not take it ill , that without being oblig'd to it by the Title of this Discourse , I take this occasion to acquaint you with the way I employ to obtain dephlegm'd spirit of wine : Especially since the practice of the common way of frequent Rectifications is ( not to mention other Inconveniences ) wont to prove either exceeding tedious , or insufficient . Put then about an inch thick of Tartar calcin'd to whiteness ( for I find it not necessary to reduce it to a Salt ) and very dry into the bottom of a tall and slender Glass body , and pour on it as much spirit of wine that has been but once rectifi'd , as will , when they have be●n shak'd together , swim above the Tartar a fingers breadth ( more or less in proportion to the Tartar you put in ) and then the Head and Receiver being carefully fasten'd on again , in a gentle heat draw off the spirit of wine , shifting if you please the Receiver when about half is come over , and if need be , rectifying once more all that you distil upon dry Calx of Tartar as before . Whether or no you may meet with this Method in some Chymical Books , I know not : But it seems that either it has not been clearly taught , or has been propos'd by suspected Authors , or else among other Processes , by being found in whose company it has been discredited . For the most ancient and experienc'd Distillers I have met with , have either contented themselves to follow the common way of repeated Rectifications , though thereby they lose much time , and much spirit of wine ; or else have had recourse to peculiar Vessels of such a height , as besides that they are neither easily nor cheaply to be procur'd , do not , as far as I have hitherto seen , excuse the need of reiterated Rectifications . Whereas , when we consider'd that the fix'd Salt of Tartar readily imbibes Aqueous bodies , and that yet it will not at all mix with pure spirit of wine , it was easie to conclude , that the Phlegmatick part of the spirit of wine would be soak'd up by the Alcalizate Salt , whereby the inflammable part would be freed from it . And accordingly when we proceeded after the manner above prescrib'd , we found that the Liquor that was produc'd upon the first Rectification from the Salt , being fir'd in a warm Silver-spoon , did not leave behind it one drop of Phlegm , or so much as the least moisture upon the spoon , nay , and indeed did indure a severer Examen , to which for curiositie's sake we thought fit to put it . And when the Distillation was carefully made , we found by frequently ( for tryal sake ) shifting the Receiver , that all the Spirit that ascended was ( to sense ) equally pure , since that which came up last of all , even till the Calx seem'd to begin to grow dry , by beginning to cleave at the top , did burn all away , as well as that which came over first . And having for further tryal taken out the calcin'd Tartar , and distill'd it with a good fire , it yielded us pretty store of a nauseous and strongly-scented Liquor , which seem'd to be but Phlegm , both to the taste , and by it s not being at all inflammable though carefully try'd . The same Calx of Tartar being kept in some earthen Vessel upon the fire till it be well dry'd , which will require a good heat , may be employ'd more than once in this operation . And 't was not needlesly that we prescrib'd Bodies tall and slender : For we found not the Experiment to succeed in large and low ones , and much less in Retorts , in which the Phlegm is wont to rise together with the Spirit ; yet we found , that provided the distillation were made with a sufficiently mild heat , a Glass , though very broad , and but moderately high , would serve the turn so far , as that the first half that ascended ( the other being very weak ) prov'd a Spirit that in a silver-spoon would burn perfectly all away . And because white Calx of Tartar is sometimes not so easie to be procur'd , we will add , that we have for tryal sake sometimes substituted Quick-lime , or Salt of Pot-ashes , ( made by a single Solution , Filtration , and Coagulation ) with no bad success , especially in case of removing the Receiver before the Ascension of the last part of the Liquor , though even that it self has sometimes from Quick-lime come up inflammable enough . And therefore this Alcohol of wine we peculiarly call the Alcalizate Spirit of Wine ; and the rather , because Spiritus vini Tartarizatus , which perhaps may be thought the properest name for it , is employed by eminent Chymical Writers to signifie a different thing . And a practicable way of making such an Alcaliz'd and pure Spirit of Wine , we thought not unfit to teach you here once for all , in regard the Menstruum is so highly useful , not only for Tinctures , Extracts , and many other Chymical operations , but in the making of divers Philosophical Experiments , and particularly some of those which you may meet with in our Writings . And an eminently ingenious person ( but to me a stranger ) chancing to get a sight of this Essay , was pleased to give me thanks for this last part of it , because , though he had very often made use of Salt of Tartar to improve Spirit of Wine ; yet he did it before , not to dephlegm the weaker Liquor , but to acuate the strong with the Alcali : Which though I deny not to be a thing feasible , yet ( as I told him ) unless it be skilfully attempted , the highly rectifi'd Liquor that is poured on , will rather leave some of its most spiritous parts behind , than carry up so fixt a Salt. THE SECOND ESSAY , Of Un-succeeding EXPERIMENTS . WHAT has been already said , Pyrophilus , may , I hope , suffice to shew you , how Experiments may miscarry upon the account of the Materials employ'd in trying them . And therefore we shall now pass on to consider the Contingencies to which Experiments are obnoxious upon the account of Circumstances , which either are constantly unobvious , or at least are scarce discernable till the Tryal be past . And because these Circumstances can hardly be discours'd of in an accurate Method , ( which their nature will scarce admit of ) I shall not tye my self to any other order in setting down the Instances which occur to me on this occasion , than that wherein they offer themselves to my memory . And first I must acquaint you with what was not long since seriously related to me by Doctor K. a person exceeding far both from the Custom , and in this particular from the Temptation of telling untruths . He then assur'd me , that lending his Laboratory in Holland to a friend of his during his own absence , and leaving in that Laboratory among other things great store of Aqua fortis of several compositions which he had made , to employ about his famous Scarlet Dye , this friend of his sent him word a while after his departure , that by digesting Gold with an Aqua fortis , he had separated the Tincture or yellow Sulphur from it , and made it volatile , ( the remaining body growing white ) and that with this golden Tincture he had , not without gain , turn'd Silver ( as to part of it ) into very perfect Gold. Upon which advertisement the Doctor speedily returning to his Laboratory , did himself with the same Aqua fortis divers times draw a volatile Tincture of Gold , which did turn Silver into true Gold : and ( that I may add That upon the by , to gratifie your curiosity ) when I demanded whether or no the Tincture was capable to transmute or graduate as much Silver as equall'd in weight that Gold from whence the Tincture was drawn , he assur'd me , that out of an ounce of Gold he drew as much Sulphur or Tincture as sufficed to turn an ounce and a half of Silver into that noblest Metal . Which I am the more disposed to believe , partly because my Tryals permit me not to doubt of the separableness of a yellow Substance or Tincture from Gold , and partly because I am tempted to think , that Silver may have in it a Sulphur ( to speak in the Chymists Language ) which Maturation is capable to graduate into a Golden one , by having been certifi'd by the observations of men very experienced in Metalline Affairs , ( and perhaps too by my own ) that sometimes by corrosive Liquors ( which Sir Francis Bacon also , if I mistake not , somewhere observes ) and sometimes by the operation of common Sulphur ( especially well open'd and associated with fit Salts ) Silver has afforded some grains of very pure Gold. But our Doctor found himself much mistaken in the hopes of growing rich by this Experiment : For a while after endeavouring to make it again , his hopes were frustrated , which he ascribes to the Aqua fortis , and therefore has attempted the same work afresh . But since all his Tryals have been hitherto fruitless , 't is not improbable that the disappointment proceeded from some other more abstruse cause ; for we find such Adventures to have sometimes befallen Artists irreparably . And Glauber alone , if you will therein credit him , tells us of several ways by which he made Gold once , and could not do it again . Upon which Subject I must not omit those very illustrious Testimonies and Instances of this nature , that I find recorded by that Ornament of his Age and Quality , the Prince of Mirandula , in his Treatise de Auro . Novi ( says he ) qui mihi asseruerit semel se ex mobili argento quod vivum dicitur stabile verumque argentum confecisse succis & foliis herbarum , idque vendidisse peritis explorandae Metallicae veritatis ; eisdem mox usum se foliis frustra , & quod semel perfecerat , nunquam alias , quanquam id saepe tentaverit , perficere potuisse . Alium novi ( says he further ) qui adhuc apud vivos moratur , cui cum aurum & argentum circiter Quindecies per artem effectum esset , amisit artem eam , accepitque oraculo socii per quietem habito , id ingratae mentis vitio contigisse . Vt hinc etiam veritatem Apostolici dicti condiscamus , Neque qui plantat , neque qui rigat est aliquid , sed incrementum dat Deus . And to both these Narratives our learned Prince does in the same Book add divers others . Retulit quidam mihi ( subjoyns he ) sese Aurum ex argento fecisse semel magnâ copiâ ; secundo se usum eisdem rebus , fecisse quidem , sed minimâ semper Quantitate , sic ut detrimentum lucro majus esse supputaverit . Venisse in mentem uti detrimentum effugere possit , si non ex argento , sed ex aere melioris conditione metalli , sese consequi experiretur , idque se conjecturis firmis nixum tentavisse : cumque in eo fuisset ut rem sese adepturum speraret , miris modis evenisse , ut nihil omnino consequeretur . Idem ( continues the Prince ) affirmavit ab amico qui expertus hoc ipsum fuerat accepisse , qui cum ex Cinnabari argentum fecisset optimum , saepenumero sese postea insistentem operi majore cum diligentia semper eventu rei fuisse frustratum . And to these Relations of this famous Prince I could add others of some Acquaintances of mine , who having either once or twice made Luna sixa ( as Artists call that Silver , which wanting but the tincture of Gold abides the tryal of Aqua fortis , &c. ) or some other Lucriferous Experiment , have since in vain attempted to do the like again , and yet have their eyes so dazel'd by the Gold and Silver they have ( either separated or ) made , that they are not to be prevailed with to desist from prosecuting their uncertain hopes . That diverse Experiments succeed when try'd in small quantities of matter which hold not in the great , it may save you something to be advertised of ; diverse Projectors , especially Chymists , having already very dearly bought the knowledge of that truth . For oftentimes a greater and unwieldy Quantity of matter cannot be exposed in all its parts to a just degree of fire , or otherwise so well manag'd as a less Quantity of matter may be order'd . But this is so manifest a truth to those that have dealt much in Experiments , that whereas many Chymists would be vastly rich , if they could still do in great Quantities what they have sometimes done in little ones , many have undone themselves by obstinately attempting to make even real Experiments more gainful . I have not been very sollicitous to subjoyn Particulars to the foregoing Observations , because that by reason of the Contingency of such Experiments as would be the most for my present purpose , you might possibly be tempted to lose toyl and charges upon tryals very likely not only to delude your hopes , but perhaps to make you distrust the fidelity of our relations . Yet for Illustration sake of what we have delivered , I am willing to mention some few contingent Experiments that occur to my thoughts . And first , it is delivered by the Lord Verulam himself , as I remember , and other Naturalists , that if a Rose-bush be carefully cut as soon as it has done bearing , it will again bear Roses in the Autumn . Of this many have made unsuccessful tryals , and thereupon report the Affirmation to be false ; and yet I am very apt to think , that the Lord Verulam was embolden'd by Experience to write as he did . To clear up which difficulty , let me tell you , that having been particularly sollicitous about the Experiment , I find by the relation both of my own and other experienc'd Gardeners , that this way of procuring Autumnal Roses will in most Rose-bushes most commonly fail , but in some that are good bearers it will succeed ; and accordingly having this Summer made tryal of it , I find , that of many bushes that were cut in June in the same Row , the greater number by far promise no Autumnal Roses , but one that hath manifested it self to be of a vigorous and prolifick nature , is at this present indifferently well stor'd with Damask-roses . And there may be also a mistake in the kind of Roses : for experienc'd Gardeners inform me , that the Musk-rose will , if it be a lusty Plant , bear flowers in Autumn without the help of cutting . And therefore that may be misascrib'd to Art , which is the bare production of Nature . And Cinnamon Rose-bushes do so much better thrive by cutting than several other sorts , that I remember , this last Spring my Gardener having ( as he told me ) about mid - April ( which was as soon as that kind of Rose-bush had done bearing ) cut many of them in my Garden , I saw about the middle of June store of the same bushes plentifully adorn'd both with Buds and with blown Flowers . An uncertainty not unlike that which we have newly taken notice of in the Experiment of producing Autumnal Roses , has been likewise observed in the attempts that have been made to make diverse sorts of Fruit grow upon the same Tree . And as for differing sorts of Fruits of the same denomination , as Apples , Pears , &c. though some severe Naturalists are unwilling to believe that they can be made to grow upon the same Tree ; yet we dare not imitate their severity , having lately seen various sorts of Pears fed by the same Tree , and elsewhere three and twenty sorts of Apple-Grafts flourishing upon the same old Plant , and most of them adorn'd with Fruit. Nay , and though the Fruits be not of the same denomination , yet if they be of kin in nature , they may very possibly be brought to grow on the same Tree : for we lately gathered ripe Apricocks and ripe Plums upon one Tree , from which we like-wise expect some other sorts of stone-fruit . But to make fruits of very differing natures be nourished prosperously by the same stock , is so difficult a thing , that we can at most but reckon it among contingent Experiments : for though Pliny and Baptista Porta relate their having seen each of them an example of the possibility of producing on one Tree great variety of differing fruits ; and though such a person as the deservedly-famous Astronomer Dr. Ward assures me , that he has particularly taken notice of Pears growing upon an Apple-tree ; and I elsewhere add a resembling Observation of ours ; yet certainly this Experiment has been for the most part but very improsperously attempted , nor have I yet ever seen it succeed above once , though try'd with very much care and industry . And I remember that this very year , in the same Garden where I gather'd the Apricocks and Plums above mention'd , I saw the Ciens of a Pear-tree so skilfully grafted upon an Apple-stock , that it flourish'd very much with blossoms in the Spring , and gave me great hopes that it would bear fruit this newly-past Summer , but has deceived my expectation , as divers other Plants so grafted in the same Garden have for many years deluded the hopes of the skilful Master of it , who assures me , that though divers of them did for some years successively afford promising blossoms , yet they all decay'd away without bearing any of them any fruit . Which yet may seem somewhat strange , since not only we have this Summer gather'd Pears upon a graft which a Divine , to whom the Garden belongs , affirmed to have been grafted upon a Quince-tree ; and the industrious Kircher tells us , that Ex-perientia docet Persicum Moro insitum fructus proferre , &c. de quo nullum est dubium utpote vulgare penè : but experience tells us , that as little as a White-thorn and a Pear-tree seem of kin , a Ciens of the latter will sometimes prosper well being grafted upon a stock of the former . To contingent Experiments , Pyrophilus , you may if you please refer what is delivered by those learned Writers , who affirm , That if a Lixivium made of the Ashes or fixt Salt of a burn'd Plant be frozen , there will appear in the Ice the Idea of the same Plant : For we have divers times purposely made trial of this Experiment without the promised success : and I remember that in the last cold season , proper for such trials , I purposely made a Lixivium of fair Water and Salt of Wormwood , and having frozen it with Snow and Salt after the manner of Congelation else-where declar'd , I could not discern in the Ice any thing more like to Wormwood than to several other Plants ; and having about the same time , and after the same manner , expos'd to congelation a thin Vial full of a strong Decoction of Wormwood , ( from which an Idea of the Plant may be more probably expected ) thole to whom I shew'd it after it was frozen could discern as little like Wormwood in it as my self . 'T is true , that in both these Vials the Ice seem'd somewhat odly figur'd ; but it is true also not only that we have observed that Water wherein a saline body , as Salt-peter , or Sea-salt , or Sugar , &c. has been dissolv'd , has afforded us Ice which seem'd to shoot into several figures , but even in ordinary water congealed we have often seen Ice figur'd , as if the water had been no Elementary body ; which needs not be admir'd , since ( to omit other causes which may concur to the production of this effect ) many Waters gliding through Earths abounding in saline particles of this or that nature , may be easily , in their passage , impregnated with them ; whence perhaps it comes to pass , that Dyers find some Waters very fit , and others very unfit for the dying of Scarlet and some other Colours . And therefore we cannot but think that the figures that are oftentimes to be met with in the frozen Lixivium or Decoction of a Plant , will afford but uncertain proofs that the Idea of each , or so much as of any determinate Plant , displays it self constantly in that frozen Liquor . And I much fear , that most of those that tell us that they have seen such Plants in Ice , have in that discovery made as well use of their Imagination as of their Eyes . And 't is strange to observe what things some men will fancy , rather than be thought to discern less than other men pretend to see . As I remember Mr. R. the justly famous maker of Dioptrical Glasses , for merriment telling one that came to look upon a great Tube of his of 30 foot long , that he saw through it in a Mill six miles off a great Spider in the midst of her Web ; the credulous man , though at first he said he discern'd no such thing , at length confessed he saw it very plainly , and wonder'd he had discover'd her no sooner . But yet , Pyrophilus , because two or three sober Writers do seriously relate some stories of that nature upon their own observation , I am content for their sakes to reckon their Experiments rather among the Contingent than the absolutely false ones : for it is not impossible but that among the many figures which frozen Liquors do sometimes put on , there may appear something so like this or that Plant , that being look'd upon with the favourable eye of a prepossess'd beholder , it may seem to exhibit the Picture of the calcin'd Vegetable : and we our selves not very long since , setting to freeze in Snow and Salt a fine green Solution of good Verdegrease , ( which contains much of the Saline parts of the Grapes coagulated upon the Copper by them corroded ) obtain'd an Ice of the same colour , wherein appear'd divers little figures , which were indeed so like to Vines , that we were somewhat surpriz'd at the Experiment ; and that which encreas'd our wonder was , that another part of the same Solution being frozen in another Vial by the bare cold of the air , afforded us an Ice angularly figur'd , ( as we have observ'd the Ice of saline Liquors oftentimes to be ) but not at all like that made by the application of Snow and Salt. And having for further trial sake suffered that Ice wherein the Vines appear'd to thaw of it self , and having then frozen the Liquor a second time in the same Vial , and after the same manner as formerly , we could not discern in the second Ice any thing like that which we had admir'd in the first . And in Wine and Vinegar , as much as those Liquors partake of the nature of the Vine , we have not after Congelation observed any peculiar resemblance of it in figure . The mention we have been making of Ice brings into my memory another Experiment , which may perhaps be reckon'd likewise among Contingent ones , and that is the Experiment of burning with Ice as with a Glass Lens ; which though some eminent Modern Writers prescribe to be done without taking notice of any difficulty in it , yet both we and others that have industriously enough try'd it , have met with such defeating circumstances in it , especially from the ununiform Texture wont to be met with in most Ice , that the making of such burning-Glasses may be well enough referr'd to those Experiments whose constant success is not to be rely'd on , as we else-where more particularly declare . In the Trade of Dying there is scarce any tinging Ingredient that is of so great and general use amongst us as Woad or Glastum ; for though of it self it Dye but a Blew , yet it is us'd to prepare the cloath for Green and many other of the sadder Colours , when the Dyers have a mind to make them permanent and last without fading : but yet in the decocting of Woad to make it yield or strike its colour , there are some critical times and other circumstances to be observed ; the easie mistake of which oftentimes defeats the Dyers expectation to his very great loss , which sometimes he knows not to what to impute , of which I have heard several of them complain . And therefore divers of our less-expert Dyers , to avoid those hazards , leave off the use of Woad , though growing plentifully enough here in England , and instead of it employ Indico , though it cost them dearer , as being brought hither sometimes from Spain , sometimes from the Barbadoes , and oftentimes even from the East-Indies . Our London Refiners , when to part Silver and Copper they dissolve those mixed Metals in Aqua fortis , are wont afterwards to dilute the glutted Menstruum with store of fair water , and then with Copper Plates to strike down the dissolv'd Silver . But because by ●his manner of proceeding much Copper is wont after the separation of the Silver to remain in the Menstruum , as may appear by its high tincture , that this thus impregnated Liquor may be impov'd to the best advantage , they are wont to pour it upon what they call Whiting ( which is said to be a white Chalk or Clay finely powder'd , cleans'd , and made up into Balls ) wherewith the tincted parts incorporating themselves , will in some hours constitute one sort of Verditer fit for the use of Painters , and such other Artificers as deal in Colours , leaving the remaining part of the Menstruum an indifferently-clear Liquor , whence they afterward by boiling reduce a kind of Salt-peter fit with the addition of Vitriol ( and some fresh Niter ) to yield them a new Aqua fortis . And these things I mention , Pyrophilus , that you may know what I mean when I tell you , that sometimes the Refiners cannot make this Verditer for a great while together , and yet cannot tell whence their disability to make it proceeds . Of which Contingency I remember I lately heard one of the eminentest and richest of them sadly complain , affirming , that neither he , nor divers others of his Profession , were able , not long since , to make Verditer for divers months together ; and that several others were yet at a loss in reference to that particular : though for his part he had , without knowing the Cause of this Contingency , found a Remedy for it , namely , to warm the Menstruum well before it be poured on the Whiting , on which , when the Liquor was warm , the tincted parts would fasten , though they would not , whilst ( according to the custom of Refiners ) it was poured on cold . Making likewise the other day a visit , to the chief Copperas work we have in England , one of the Overseers of it , who went along with me to shew me the contrivance of it , assured me , that divers times , by the mistake or neglect of a circumstance in point of time , they had lost , and are yet subject to lose , some thousands of pounds of Vitriol at a time , which in spight of their wonted , but not sufficiently-attentive and skilful care , would degenerate into an Unctuous Substance , not to be reduc'd into good Vitriol again ; unless by the tedious way of throwing it abroad , and exposing it with the unprepared stones , from which they draw their Vitriol , to the Rain and Sun to be open'd anew , and fitted for the yielding of Vitriol after the same manner with those crude Minerals . Upon this occasion I must not omit , because much conducing to the scope of our present Discourse , a memorable Relation that I have met with in the Indian History of the learned Josephus Acosta , who diligently survey'd the famous and almost inestimable Mines of Peru , and ( for one that was not a Chymist ) has delivered divers considerable and judicious Observations about them . That which I am now to mention is in that Chapter where he treats of the Silver of the Indies , set down in these words : It is strange to see not only the difference betwixt the refining of Metal by Fire , and without it by Quick-silver , but also that some of these Metals which are refined by the fire , cannot well be molten with any Artificial Wind , as with Bellows , but when it is kindled and blown with the Natural Air or Natural Wind. The Metal of the Mines of Porco is easily refined with Bellows ; and that of the Mines of Potozi cannot be molten with Bellows , but only by the breath of their Guayars , which are small furnaces upon the sides of the Mountains , built expresly where the Wind lies , within the which they melt this Metal : and though it be hard to yield a reason of this difference , yet it is most certain and approv'd by long Experience . If there be any Trade that obliges the Artificers to be assiduously conversant with the Materials they employ , it is that of the Glass-men ; and yet even to them , and in their most ordinary operations , there happen now and then little accidents , which though they know not well to what to ascribe , are yet capable of hindring them from doing sometimes what they have done a thousand times . And I remember that among the last times that I have been at a Glass-house , an eminently-skilful Workman , whom I had purposely engag'd to make some Vessels for me that required more than ordinary dexterity , was not able when I came thither to make Metal ( as they call that colliquated mixture of Sand and fixt Salt whereof they blow their Glasses ) tolerably fit to be employ'd : Wherefore he desired me to take the pains to come again another day , and he would try to repair his unluckiness . But the next time I came , though it were upon appointment , his Metal prov'd again unserviceable , and instead of being colourless when it was cold , look'd as if it had been stain'd with Blew and Yellow , and was besides britler than it ought to have been . So that it need be no such wonder , if Philosophers and Chymists do sometimes miss of the expected Event of an Experiment but once , or at least but seldom try'd , since we see Tradesmen themselves cannot do always , what , if they were not able to do ordinarily , they could not earn their bread . It is affirmed by Helmont and others that treat of the Lapides Cancrorum , that they grow within the skulls of those Craw-fishes from whence they have their name : but I have known good Anatomists complain , that they have sought them in vain in the heads of those fishes , which may well make them distrust the veracity of those that ascribe them to that sort of Animals ; yet we have often taken those stony Concretions out of the heads of Craw-fishes . But passing lately through Hungerford , a Town famous for the plenty of such kind of fish , we made diligent enquiry concerning their Nature , and were there informed by those that looked to them , that the Concretions above mention'd are to be found in their heads but about that season of the year wherein they shift their shells , and that at other times of the year , several persons had in vain endeavoured to store themselves with Crabs eyes at Hungerford . And indeed , having at the last time of my being there ( which was about the latter end of June ) caus'd divers large ones to be taken out of the water , we found these little stones in the head but of one of them ; whereas about a fortnight before , which was near the Summer Solstice , passing by that place , we found in the wonted parts of the heads several such Concretions as to bigness and shape , but so soft , that we could easily crush and discind them betwixt our fingers . And certainly , the mistake of the circumstance of time has much prejudic'd the reputation of many truths : and I remember that Asellius , to whose Anatomical fortune the world is so much beholden , ingenuously acknowledges , that he had like to have lost the discovery of the milky veins , because having at first suspected those unlooked for white Vessels , which he took notice of in the Mesentery of a Dog dissected alive , to be some irregular ramifications of Nerves , he was much confirmed in his conjecture by the next Dog he open'd ; for having diffected him at an inconvenient distance of time from the Dogs repast , the slender Vessels he looked for being destitute of the Chyle , which is it that makes them conspicuous , did not appear : So that he had lost the benefit of his first lucky observation , had not his Sagacity inclin'd him to suspect , that if a Dog were plentifully fed at a convenient distance of time before his being dissected , the Vessel swell'd with alimental juices would be the better discernable ; whereupon having feasted another Dog some hours before he opened him , he manifestly detected those milky Vessels , whose discovery has since set Anatomists so usefully on work . But , Pyrophilus , not to exceed the limits of an Essay , I must not multiply Instances of the Contingencies of Experiments , but content my self to tell you in general , that in divers Cases such circumstances as are very difficult to be observed , or seem to be of no concernment to an Experiment , may yet have a great influence on the Event of it . If on either of the Extremes or Poles of a good armed Load-stone , you leisurely enough , or divers times , draw the back of a Knife , which has not before receiv'd any Magnetick influence , you may observe , that if the point of the blade have in this affriction been drawn from the middle or Aequator of the Load-stone towards the Pole of it , it will attract one of the Extremes of an equilibrated Magnetick Needle ; but if you take another Knife that has not yet been invigorated , and upon the self-same Extremity or Pole of the Load-stone , thrust the back of the Knife from the Pole towards the Aequator or middle of the Load-stone , you shall find , that the point of the Knife has , by this bare difference of Position in the blade whilst it past upon the Extreme of the Load-stone , acquired so different a Magnetick property , or Polarity , from that which was given to the former Knife by the same Pole of the Load-stone , that it will not attract , but rather seem to repel or drive away that end of the Magnetick Needle which was drawn by the point of the other Knife . And this improbable Experiment not only we have made trial of , by passing slender Irons upon the Extremities of armed Load-stones , the breadth of whose Steel-caps may make the Experiment somewhat less strange , but we have likewise try'd it by affrictions of such Irons upon the Pole of a naked terella , and we found it to succeed there likewise . How strange soever it may seem , that the same point or part of the Load-stone should imbue Iron with contrary Properties , barely as they are , during their passing over it , drawn from the Aequator of the Load-stone , or thrust towards it . But whether , and how far this Observation insinuates the operations of the Loadstone to be chiefly performed by streams of small particles , which perpetually issuing out of one of its Poles , do wheel about and re-enter at the other ; We shall not now examine ( though this seem one of the most likely Phaenomena we have met with , to hint a probable Magnetical Hypothesis ) contenting our selves to have manifested by what plainly appears , how much influence a circumstance , which none but a Magnetick Philosopher would take notice of , may have on an Experiment . We have also with pleasure observ'd , how Artificers in the tempering of Steel , by holding it but a minute or two longer or l●sser in the flame , ( or other competent Heat ) do give it very differing tempers , as to brittleness or toughness , hardness or softness ; for as when it is taken out of the flame to be extinguished , it looks either red , yellow , or blew , so they esteem and find it fit to make Knives , Engraving Tools , or Springs for Watches , &c. and yet it passes from one colour to another so swiftly , that none but an Artist expert in tempering of Iron would suspect , that so small a difference oft-time of its stay in the flame could produce so great a difference in its tempers . On which occasion , Pyrophilus , I call to mind , that making a while since some tryals concerning Gravers in the Shop of a famous Artificer , he presented me , as a great rarity , a Graver ( which I yet keep ) that would make the usual Experiments about tempering of Gravers appear false to him that should never try them but upon it ; for with all the care wherewith I try'd upon it the known ways of softning Gravers , I could not soften this : which men eminently skilled in these matters ( together with the person that made it ) affirmed to have been made of Damasco-Steel , the strength whereof in cutting Iron I have ( not without some wonder ) made trial of . But whether this singularity which we have mention'd in this Graver proceed from the nature of the Steel , or from the temper that it had afterward given it , is not yet agreed upon by those skilful men to whom I have shew'd it : but one of them , who by making lnstruments for Navigators , has had the opportunity of making more than ordinary enquiry into matters of this nature , assures me , that he can easily soften this kind of Steel , by only taking it off the Fire at a certain nick of time , differing from that which is wont to be observed in order to the softning of common Gravers . And who knows but that in many other Experiments , seemingly despicable and unheeded Circumstances may be of great concernment , though by reason of the want of such particular Observations as the frequent dealing with the same body has given Magnetick Philosophers and Artificers occasion to make , men have not yet taken notice of their importance . To give you one Instance to this purpose , Pyrophilus , let me take notice to you , that divers Planters of Fruit-trees have with wonder observ'd , that some Grafts of Cherry-trees , for example , have born fruit the same year that they were grafted , ( nay I have observ'd some Plants to bear fruit the same quarter of the year ) and others not till the year after their insition , though neither in the goodness of the Graft , nor in that of the Stock , they had observed any disparity to which the difference above mentioned could be ascrib'd ; and therefore the bearing or not bearing of the Ciens of a Cherry-tree the first year of its Insition is by many Gardiners look'd upon as a thing meerly Contingent . And yet indeed it scarce deserves to be reckon'd among such contingent Experiments as we have been hitherto treating of ; for I am inform'd by the trials of more than one of the most skilful and experienc'd Grafters of these parts , that a man shall seldom fail of having Cherries born by his Graft the same year in which the Insition is made , if he take care that his Graft , which must be of a good kind , have blossom-buds , as they are wont to be call'd , upon it : Whereas if it were only leaf-buds , as they may be term'd , it will not bear fruit till the second season ; and this not being taken notice of by vulgar Gardiners , makes them , as we have said , impute a needless Contingency to the fruitfulness of such kind of Grafts . Now to discern such buds as are fit to produce blossoms from such as will display themselves but in leaves , is no difficult matter , the former sort being more full , and big , and round than the latter , which are wont also to lye more flat and close to the Graft . And 't was , Phyrophilus , such observations as this that induc'd us after the beginning of the former Essays , to discriminate from such contingent Experiments as those wherein the cause of the Contingency is very abstruse and difficult to be discern'd , such other Experiments whose seeming Contingency proceeds from more easily discoverable causes ; for such by diligent observation of circumstances may be reduc'd to a greater certainty than the others seem capable of . Though I dare not deny that even divers of those contingent Experiments , which to us yet seem to belong to the first sort , by mens future skill and diligence in observation may be made fit to be reduc'd to the second sort . Before I leave this Subject , Pyrophilus , I dare not omit to say something to you of the Virgula Divina , or rather Divinatoria , by which many Mineralists pretend to discover the latent veins of Metals . Some use a forked hazel , whose horns they hold by the ends one in each hand ; and others content themselves to chuse a hazel rod ( which some will have to be all of the same years shoot ) and this they bind on to another streight stick of any other wood , and walking softly with it over those places where they suspect the bowels of the earth to be enriched with Metals , they say , that if they pass over a Metalline vein , the Wand will by bowing towards it discover it . And some Dealers in Metals I know who affirm , that by holding the Metals successively in that hand wherein a man holds the rod , he may discover what determinate Metal is predominant in the Vein : for when he puts into his hand that Metal wherewith the Mine chiefly abounds , the Wand will manifestly bow more strongly than when 't is held in the hand with any other Metal . What to determine concerning the truth of this perplexing Experiment , I confess I know not . For Agricola himself , after a long debate concerning it , gives us this account of his sense , Metallicus igitur ( says he ) quia eum virum bonum & gravem esse volumus , virgulâ incantatâ non utetur , quiarerum naturae peritum & prudentem , furcatam sibi usui non esse , sed , ut supra dixi , habet naturalia venarum signa quae observat . The diligent Kiroherus informs us in his Arte magneticâ , that having exactly try'd the Experiment with Metals , for he mentions not his having try'd it with Mines , he could not find it in any measure succeed ; and we our selves having several times made trial of it in the presence of the considentest assertors of the truth of it , could not satisfie our selves that the Wand did really stand either to the Metals when placed under it , or to the Metalline Veins , when we carried it over Mines whence Metalline Oar was at that very time digging out . But on the other side diverse good Authors , and even our diligent Country-man Gabriel Plat , though wont to be somewhat too severe to Chymists , does ascribe very much to this detecting Wand , and diverse persons , in other things very far from credulous , have as Eye-witnesses with great asseverations asserted the truth of the Experiment before us ; and one Gentleman who lives near the Lead-Mines in Somersetshire , leading me over those parts of the Mines where we knew that Metalline Veins did run , made me take notice of the stooping of the Wand when he passed over a Vein of Oar , and protested , that the motion of his hand did not at all contribute to the inclination of the Rod , but that sometimes when he held it very fast , it would bend so strongly as to break in his hand . And to convince me that he believed himself , he did upon the promises made him by his stooping Wand put himself to the great charge of digging in untry'd places for Mines , ( but with what success he has not yet inform'd me . ) Among the Miners themselves I found some made use of this Wand , and others laughed at it . And this I must take notice of as peculiar to this Experiment , that the most knowing Patrons of it confess , that in some mens hands it will not at all succeed , some hidden property in him that uses the Wand being able , as they say , to over-power and hinder its inclinatory virtue . To which I must add what a very famous Chymist , who affirms himself to have try'd many other things with it besides those that are commonly known , very solemnly professed to me upon his own knowledge , namely , that in the hands of those very persons , in whose hands the Rod will ( as they speak ) work , there are certain unlucky Hours , govern'd by such Planets and Constellations , ( which I confess I believ'd not enough to remember their names ) during which it will not work , even in those hands wherein at other times it manifestly will. But of this Experiment I must content my self to say , what I am wont to do when my opinion is ask'd of those things which I dare not peremptorily reject , and yet am not convinc'd of ; namely , that they that have seen them can much more reasonably believe them than they that have not . Nor is it only in Experiments , Pyrophilus , but in Observations also , that mu●h of Contingency may be , witness the great variety in the number , magnitude , position , figure , &c. of the parts taken notice of by Anatomical Writers in their dissections of that one Subject the humane body , about which many errors would have been delivered by Anatomists , if the frequency of dissections had not enabled them to discern betwixt those things that are generally and uniformly found in dissected bodies , and those which are but rarely , and ( if I may so speak ) through some wantonness or other deviation of Nature , to be met with . I remember that a while since being present at the dissection of a lusty young Thief , we had opportunity to observe among other things , that the interval betwixt two of his ribs was near the back-bone fill'd up with a thick bony substance , which seem'd to be but an expansion of the ribs , and appeared not to have grown there upon occasion of any fracture , or other mischance . About the same time being at a private dissection of a large and young humane Body with some learned men , an ingenious Person Professor of Anatomy there present , chancing to cut a great Nerve , spy'd in the substance of it a little of a very red Liquor , which he immediately shew'd me , as wondring what it might be : but I concluding it to be Blood , presently suspected that it might have proceeded from some small unheeded drop of blood wip'd off by the brushy substance of the Nerve from the Knife wherewith it was cut . Wherefore carefully wiping a Dissecting Knife , I did in another place cut the Nerve asunder , and found another very little drop of pure blood in the substance of it as before . This I did again elsewhere with like success , shewing it to the by-standers , who admir'd to see a Vessel carrying blood ( for such they concluded it to be ) in the body of a Nerve , in regard they remember'd not to have ever met with such an accident ; though I the less admire it , because I have in an Oxes Eye or two observ'd in that coat which the Moderns commonly call the Retina , and which seems to be but an expansion of the Pith of the Optick Nerve , little turgent veins manifestly full of blood . We further observ'd in that lately-mention'd body , in which we took notice of the irregular conjunction of two Ribs , that the Lungs which were very sound had a supernumerary lobe on one side , which did so little differ from its companions , that we did not , till we had display'd the Lungs , take notice of it . And I remember that a while before , being invited by a company of Physitians to a private Dissection , and the Lungs , which otherwise seemed not unsound , appearing in divers places fastned to the ribs , two ingenious Anatomists that were there present , did so little agree in thei● Observations concerning such cases , that the one affirmed , that he had never seen any Lungs ( which had not been excessively morbid ) tied to the Thorax ; and the other protested , that he had scarce ever opened a diseased body wherein the Lungs did not so adhere . But if it were not improper to mind a young Gentleman of Venereal Observations , I could easily give you an eminent proof of the disagreement of Anatomical Observators , by insisting on the Controversie betwixt the famous Writers on that Subject , concerning the Anatomical notes or tokens of Virginity , many eminent Authors affirming , that they have seldom fail'd of finding them in one amongst very many dissected Maids ; and many other Artists , both conspicuous and experienced , peremptorily professing , that they have seldom or never met with the pretended marks in persons even of the most undoubted Virginity : and certainly it is very strange , that about a matter which seems so easily determinable by Sense , accurate and sober men should so widely disagree , as that the one should profess he has very rarely , if ever , met with in a humane body what another affirmeth himself to have as seldom , if ever , miss'd . But because , Pyrophilus , this subject is perhaps somewhat improper to be insisted on either to , or by , a yong man , I shall pass on to tell you , that amongst the accuratest of our modern Writers , I suppose you will readily allow me to reckon D. Harvey and D. Highmore , and that that though in their excellent Treatises of Generation they both insist on the production and changes observable in Hens Eggs , as the Patterns whereunto the Generation of other Animals may be referred ; yet have we diverse times in the progress of Nature in her formation of a Chick , observed considerable variations in point of time and other circumstances ( though in the main our Observations commonly agreed ) from what is by them delivered : which diversity may easily proceed from the differing constitutions of Hens , their differing assiduity in sitting on their Eggs , the differing qualifications of the Eggs themselves , and several other particulars of like nature . And I remember , that the other day taking notice of this to my learned friend Dr. Highmore , he readily acknowledged to me , that he himself had likewise observ'd diverse circumstances in Eggs whilst they were hatching , which varied from those set down by him in his Book , though he had there accurately express'd the changes he discerned in those Eggs which at that time afforded him his Observations . And indeed there are certain things of such a nature , that scarce any single mans accurateness in making a single Observation about them , can secure him from appearing unskilful or unfaithful in his Observations , unless those that shall afterwards examine them chance to be endowed with a somewhat more than ordinary either equity , or sagacity , or both . For instance , he that first affirmed that a Needle animated by a Loadstone did constantly convert its extreams to the opposite Poles of the Earth , could scarce suspect himself of having delivered any thing which he had not carefully try'd . And yet of those excellent Pilots , Gonzales Oviedo and Sebastian Cabot , ( who are said to have in America first taken notice of the Declination of the Mariners Needle ) he that did first in those far distant parts of the world compare the Meridian Line afforded by Magnetical Needles with one Mathematically drawn ( which may be readily found by accurate Sun-dials ) and thereby observe the variation of the Needle , or its declination from the true Meridian Line , might easily conclude the Observer formerly mention'd to have been faulty , by reason of his finding the Needles variation differing ( perhaps by divers degrees ) from that delivered by the first Observer . And this second mans Observation might appear to have been as carelesly made to a hundred other Observers , if the Observations of Navigators had not made it apparent , that the Declination of the Needle is far from being the same in all places : for though Cardan ( as Kircher and Fracastorius , as another informs us ) be pleased to affirm , that the Load-stone declines as many degrees as the Pole star is distant from the Pole of the world ; yet besides divers reasons , common Experience sufficiently manifests the inconsiderableness ( not to speak more harshly ) of that assertion . For about the Islands of the Azores , especially that of Corvo , over which the first Meridian is by many supposed to pass , the Magnetick Needle hath bin observed directly to respect the Poles , without any sensible declination from them ; but in other places it is wont to vary sometimes Eastward , sometimes Westward , more or less . Insomuch that not only our venturous Country-man Captain Thomas James observed it in 63 degrees North-Latitude to be no less than 27 Degrees , 48 Minutes ; but a learned Mathematical Writer that is lately come forth , makes the Declination at the Fretum Davis to amount to what is almost incredible , 50 Degrees . And this Deflexion of the Needle sometimes to one side of the Meridian , sometimes to the other , happens with so much seeming irregularity , as has made both the diligent Kircher himself , and divers other Magnetick Writers , almost despair of reducing these kind of Observations to any general Hypothesis . To which we may add , that perhaps very few even of the exactest Observations of this nature made an Age since , would now appear accurate to them that should try them in the self-same places wherein , and the self-same manner after which they were formerly made . So that the diligentest of those Observers would appear to us to have been negligent , if the sagacity of some of their succeeders had not prompted them to suspect , that even in the same place the Needles variation may vary . And I remember , that having not long since enquired of an English Contriver of Mathematical Instruments for the use of Sea-men , what he had observed concerning this alteration of the Needles variation , he told me , that by comparing of ancient and modern Observations made by himself and other accurate Mathematicians at London , he had found the Declination constantly to decrease , and , as he conjectured , about 12 or 13 Minutes ( though that methinks be much ) in a year . And it will be yet more difficult to set down any Observation of this nature which will appear exact to posterity , if that strange thing be true ( as it may well be ) which was related to Kircher by a friend of his , who affirms himself to have observ'd a notable change of the Needles Variation at Naples , after a great Incendium of the neighbouring Mountain Vesuvius ; which alteration he not absurdly suspects to have proceeded from the very great change made in the neighbouring subterraneal parts by that great conflagration . And it seems the same Observation has been taken notice of by Mathematicians elsewhere . For the learned Jesuit Fournier in his French Hydrography tells us in more general terms , that since the Incendiums of Vesuvius the Declination ( of the Needle ) has notably chang'd in the Kingdom of Naples . The same Author somewhere delivers what ( if it be true ) is remarkable to our present purpose , in these words . There are persons who have observ'd , that the same Needle that declin'd 5 degrees upon the surface of the Earth , being carried down very low into certain Caves , declin'd quite otherwise . I added those words , if it be true , not to question the veracity of the Author , but because 't is very possible the makers of the observation ( though learned men ) may have been mistaken in it without suspecting themselves in danger of being so . For I should scarce have imagin'd , unless my own particular observation had inform'd me , in how great a variety of Stones and other Fossiles the Oar of Iron may lurk disguis'd : so that 't is no way incredible , that knowing Chymists themselves , and much more Mathematicians and others , not being aware of the Observation of what I have newly delivered , may presume , because they saw not in the deep Caves above mentioned any Minerals like the vulgar Iron Oar , that there is nothing of that Metal there , when indeed there may be enough to occasion that Deflexion of the Needle ; which ( especially if it be strongly excited ) may be often drawn aside by Iron or other Magnetick Bodies , at a greater distance than those that have not try'd will be apt to suspect : which may perhaps be the reason why in the little Island of Ilva ( upon the coast of Italy ) where they dig up Iron and store of Loadstones , of which I have seen in Toscany of a prodigious bigness , there is in different , but neighbouring places , such a strange disparity of the Needles variation as curious men have recorded . Nor are Magnetical and Anatomical Observations the only ones which are subject to disagree now and then , without the negligence of those that make them : but I want time , and I fear you would want patience , to consider at present as many of them as might be easily enumerated to you . I suppose , Pyrophilus , you may have observed , how I in the past Discourse have forborn to insist on Medicinal Experiments , which I have purposely done , because they are so many , and almost all of them subject to such uncertainties , that to insist on them would require much more time than my occasions will allow me to spend upon this Essay . And indeed in Physick it is much more difficult than most men can imagine , to make an accurate Experiment : for oftentimes the same disease proceeding in several persons from quite differing causes , will be increased in one by the same remedy by which it has been cur'd in another . And not only the constitutions of Patients may as much alter the effects of remedies , as the causes of diseases , but even in the same Patient and the same disease , the single circumstance of Time may have almost as great an operation upon the success of a Medicine as either of the two former particulars , as we may elsewhere have occasion by sundry Instances to manifest . But besides the general uncertainty to which most remedies are subject , there are some few that seem obnoxious to Contingencies of a peculiar nature : such is the Sympathetick Powder , of which not only divers Physitians and other sober persons have assur'd me they had successfully made tryal , but we our selves have thought that we were Eye-witnesses of the operation of it ; and yet not o●ly many that have try'd it have not found it answer ●●●ectation , but we our selves trying some of our own p●●●●ring on our selves , have found it ineffectual , and u●●bl●●o stop so much as a bleeding at the Nose , though upon Application of it a little before we had seen such a bleeding , though violent , suddenly stopt in a person , who was so far from contributing by his Imagination to the effect of the Powder , that he derided those that he saw apply it to some of the drops of his blood . Wherefore that the Sympathetick Powder & the Weapon-salve are never of any efficacy at all , I dare not affirm ; but that they constantly perform what is promised of them I must leave others to believe . But making mention of remedies of this nature , though I am willing , Pyrophilus , to put a Period both to your trouble and my own , yet I must not omit to tell you , that whereas the Paeony-root has been much commended both by ancient and modern Physitians of no mean account , as an Amulet against the Falling-sickness , and yet has been by many found ineffectual , we have been apt to suspect , that its inefficacy , if it be but infrequent , might possibly proceed from its having been unseasonably gather'd ; and when I was last in the West of Ireland , acquainting the eminentest of the Galenists there with my Conjecture , he confirm'd me in it , by assuring me that he had often ●ry'd the Paeony-root unseasonably gather'd without success , but having lately gather'd it under its proper Constellation , as they speak , ( which is when the decreasing Moon passes under Aries ) and ty'd the slit Root about the Necks and Arms of his Patients , he had freed more than one , whom he nam'd to me , from Epileptical fits . Agreeable whereunto I find , that a famous Physitian of Grenoble , Monsieur des Grands Prez , in the last of his Observations communicated to the famous Practical Physitian Riverius , solemnly professes his having divers times freed his Patients from the Falling-sickness by the single outward application of Paeony-roots , collected and apply'd as is above-mention'd . But though he thence infers the usefulness of observing the Stars in the practice of Physick , yet before much weight be laid upon such improbable Notions as most of those of judiciary Astrologers , the Influence of Constellations upon Simples , &c. ought by severe and competent Experiments to be better made out than hitherto it has been . But to say no more of the contingent Observations to be taken notice of in tryals Medical , I could tell you that I have observed even Mathematical Writers themselves to deliver such Observations as do not regularly hold true . For though it hath been look'd upon as their priviledge and glory to affirm nothing but what they can prove by no less than Demonstration ; and though they use to be more attentive and exact than most other men in making almost any kind of Philosophical Observation ; yet the certainty and accurateness which is attributed to what they deliver , must be restrain'd to what they teach concerning those purely-Mathematical Disciplines , Arithmetick and Geometry , where the affections of Quantity are abstractedly consider'd : but we must not expect from Mathematicians the same accurateness when they deliver Observations concerning such things wherein 't is not only Quantity and Figure , but Matter , and its other Affections , that must be consider'd . And yet , less must this be expected when they deliver such observations as , being made by the help of material Instruments fram'd by the hands and tools of men , cannot but in divers cases be subject to some if not many Imperfections upon their account . Divers of the modern Astronomers have so written of the spots and more shining parts or ( as they call them ) Faculae , that appear upon or about the surface of the Sun , as to make their Readers presume , that at least some of them are almost always to be seen there . And I am willing to think , that it was their having so often met with such Phaenomena in the Sun that made them write as they did . And yet when I first apply'd my self to the contemplation of these late discoveries , though I wanted neither good Telescopes , nor a dark room to bring the species of the Sun into , yet it was not till after a great while , and a multitude of fruitless Observations made at several times , that I could detect any of these Solary spots , which have during many months at least appear'd so much seldomer than it seems they did before , that I remember a most ingenious Professor of Astronomy , excellently well furnish'd with Dioptrical Glasses , did about that time complain to me , that for I know not how long he had not been able to see the Sun spotted . And as for the Faculae that are written of as such ordinary Phaenomena , I must profess to you , Pyrophilus , that a multitude of Observations made with good Telescopes at several places and times whilst the Sun was spotted , has scarce made me see above once any of the look'd for Brightnesses . And as the nature of the Material Object wherewith the Mathematician is conversant , may thus deceive the Expectations grounded on what he delivers ; so may the like happen by reason of the Imperfection of the Instruments which he must make use of in the sensible observations whereon the mixt Mathematicks ( as Astronomy , Geography , Opticks , &c. ) are in great part built . This is but too manifest in the disagreeing Supputations that famous Writers , as well Modern as Ancient , have given us of the circuit of the Terrestrial Globe , of the distance and bigness of the fix'd Stars and some of the Planets , nay , and of the height of Mountains : which Disagreement , as it may oftentimes proceed from the differing Method and unequal skill of the several Observers , so it may in divers cases be imputed to the greater or less exactness and manageableness of the Instruments employ'd by them . And on this occasion I cannot omit that sober Confession and Advertisement that I met with in the noble Tycho , who having laid out besides his time and industry much greater sums of money on Instruments than any man we have heard of in latter times , deserves to be listen'd to on this Theme , concerning which he has ( among other things ) the following passage : Facile ( says he ) lapsus aliquis penè insensibilis in Instrumentis etiam majoribus conficiendis subrepit , qui inter observandum aliquot scrùpulorum primorum jacturam faciat ; insuper si ipse situs & tractandi modus non tamabsoluta norma perficiatur ut nihil prorsus desideretur , intolerabilis nec facile animadvertenda deviatio sese insinuat . Adde quod instrumenta usu & aetate à prima perfectione degenerent . Nihil enim quod hominum manibus paratur ab omni mutatione undiquaque existit . Organa enim ejuscemodi nisi è solido metallo affabre elaborentur , mutationi aereae obnoxia sunt ; & si id quoque detur ut è metallica materia constent , nisi ingentia fuerint , divisiones minutissimas graduum non sufficienter exhibent , dumque hoc praestant , sua magnitudine & pondere seipsa ita aggravant , ut facile tum extra planum debitum aut figuram competentem dum circumducuntur declinent , tum etiam sua mole intractabilia redduntur . Quare magis requiritur in Instrumentis Astronomicis quae omni vitio careant construendis , artificium pari judicio conjunctum , quam hactenus à quamplurimis animadversum est . Id quod nos ipse usus longaque docuit Experientia non parvo labore nec mediocribus sumptibus comparata . Hitherto our noble Author . And as for the observations made at Sea , the diligent Fournier advertises , that however many Sea-captains and others may brag of their Mathematical Observations made on Ship-board , yet he , upon tryal of many Instruments both at Sea and ashore , makes bold to affirm , that no Astronomer in the world can be sure to make his Observation at Sea within ten Minutes of the precise truth , no not ( says he ) upon the Sand it self within one Minute of it . But instead of acquainting you with what may be drawn from the writings of our Hydrographer , to prove that his Assertion is rather modest than too bold , I shall observe , that the Observations even of skilful Mathematicians may hold so little , or disagree so much , when they pretend to give us the determinate measures of things , that I remember of three very eminent modern Mathematicians , who have taken upon them by their Experiments to determine the proportion betwixt Air and Water , the one makes not the weight of Water to exceed above a 150 times that of Air , the other reckons Water to be between 13 and 14 hundred times , and the third no less than 10000 times the heavier . Not to mention a modern and famous Writer or two , who have been so mistaken as to think , that the weight of the Water in comparison of the Air is I know not how much under-reckon'd even by this last ( over-bold ) Estimate . And if I had leisure I could annex an Experiment partly statical , and relating to the weight of the Air , which though we made divers times in an hour , yet we miss'd of the like success twice as often in the same hour , without being able to know before-hand whether the Experiment would succeed within some pounds weight . But of this more perhaps elsewhere . The Ends , Pyrophilus , which we have proposed to our selves in setting down the things by us deliver'd in this and the former Essay , are principally two . And first , we desire that the Instances we have given you of the Contingency of Experiments may make you think your self oblig'd to try those Experiments very carefully , and more than once , upon which you mean to build considerable Superstructures either theorical or practical , and to think it unsafe to rely too much upon single Experiments , especially when you have to deal in Minerals : for many to their ruine have found , that what they at first look'd upon as a happy Mineral Experiment has prov'd in the issue the most unfortunate they ever made . And I remember that the most experienc'd Mineralist I have hitherto been acquainted with , though his skill has been rather gainful then prejudicial to him , has very seriously told me , that he could quickly grow an extraordinary rich man , if he could but do constantly whatsoever he has done , not only two or three , but many times . The other End , Pyrophilus , to which I had an Eye in writing the past Discourses , was , that they may serve for a kind of Apology for Sober and Experimental Writers , in case you should not always upon tryal find the Experiments or Observations by them deliver'd answer your expectations . And indeed it would prove a great discouragement to wary and considerate Naturalists from enriching the World with their Observations , if they should find , that their faithfulness in setting down what they observed is not able to protect them from blasting imputations of falshood , but that by publishing any thing for the good of others , they must expose their reputation to all the uncertainties to which any of their Experiments may chance to prove obnoxious . 'T is true indeed , that if a Writer be wont to be fabulous or transcriptive , and to deliver things confidently by hear-say without telling his Readers when he does so , if his Experiments upon tryal succeed not , we may be allowed to impute their unsuccessfulness rather to him than to our selves or to chance , and need not think our selves obliged to have so much a greater care of his reputation than he had of his own , as for his sake to try more than once what he for our sakes never try'd so much as once . But if an Author that is wont to deliver things upon his own knowledge , and shews himself careful not to be deceived , and unwilling to deceive his Readers , shall deliver any thing as having try'd or seen it , which yet agrees not with our tryals of it ; I think it but a piece of Equity , becoming both a Christian and a Philosopher , to think ( unless we have some manifest reason to the contrary ) that he set down his Experiment or Observation as he made it , though for some latent reason it does not constantly hold ; and that therefore though his Experiment be not to be rely'd upon , yet his sincerity is not to be rejected . Nay , if the Author be such an one as has intentionally and really deserved well of Mankind , for my part I can be so grateful to him , as not only to forbear to distrust his Veracity , as if he had not done or seen what he says he did or saw , but to forbear to reject his Experiments , till I have tryed whether or no by some change of Circumstances they may not be brought to succeed . Thus a while since finding in Sir Francis Bacon , that he delivers as a somewhat unlikely truth , that Spirit of Wine will swim upon Oyl ( of Almonds ) we forthwith made tryal of it , but found the Oyl swim upon the Spirit of Wine , and this upon several tryals before Witnesses : but our tenderness of the reputation of so great and so candid a Philosopher made us to bethink our selves , that ( though he mentions it not , nor perhaps thought of any such thing , yet ) possibly he may have used Spirit of Wine more pure than ordinary ; and thereupon having provided some that was well rectifi'd , we found that the Oyl that was wont to swim upon Spirit of Wine , not freed from its aqueous parts , did readily sink , and quietly lye in the bottom of that which was carefully dephlegm'd . And so having been inform'd that the learned Dr. Brown somewhere delivers , that Aqua fortis will quickly coagulate common Oyl , we pour'd some of those Liquors together , and let them stand for a considerable space of time in an open Vessel , without finding in the Oyl the change by him promised , ( though we have more than once with another Liquor presently thickned common Oyl . ) Whereupon being unwilling that so faithful and candid a Naturalist should appear fit to be distrusted , we did again make the tryal with fresh Oyl and Aqua fortis in a long-neck'd Vial left open at the top , which we kept both in a cool place , and after in a digesting Fornace ; but after some weeks we found no other alteration in the Oyl than that it had acquir'd a high and lovely tincture : notwithstanding which being still concern'd for the reputation of a person that so well deserves a good one , the like Contingencies we have formerly met with in other Experiments , made us willing to try whether or no the unsuccessfulness we have related might not proceed from some peculiar though latent Quality , either in the Aqua fortis or the Oyl by us formerly employ'd ; whereupon changing those Liquors , and repeating the Experiment , we found after some hours the Oyl coagulated almost into the form of a whitish Butter . Nor dare I allow my self to be confident , that I shall not need to be dealt with by you upon some occasions with the like equity that I have been careful to express towards others . And since the writing of thus much of this very Essay , having desir'd a very skilful and candid Chymist to do me the favour to provide me some of the purest and strongest Spirit of Salt that could be made ; he kept some Salt in a vehement fire for divers days and nights together , and freed the extracted Liquor so carefully and so skilfully both from its phlegm and its terrestrial faeces , that after all I have written in the former Essay concerning that Menstruum , I must freely confess to you , that I am now satisfi'd , that a Spirit of Sea-salt may without any unsincerity be so prepar'd as to dissolve the body of crude Gold , though I could not find that the Solutions I made of that Metal were red , but rather of a yellow or golden colour , much like those made with common Aqua Regis . But neither this Artist nor I have been since able to make another Spirit of Salt capable of dissolving Gold , notwithstanding all the industry we have employ'd about it , which makes me refer this to Contingent Experiments ; unless the prosperous event of our former tryal may be ascrib'd to the quality of the Salt that was distill'd , which was brought from the Island of Mayo , where the scorching Sun makes out of the Sea-water a Salt that is accounted much stronger and more spiritous than that which is wont to be made in France and other more temperate Climats . And let me , Pyrophilus , take this opportunity to add , that if I had not very cautiously set down the Observation I related in another Essay * concerning the little Fishes or Worms I there teach you to discover in Vinegar , I should perhaps need much of your equity to keep me from being thought to have impos'd upon you in what I there delivered . For I have since met with divers parcels of Vinegar wherein the Observation could not be made , for one wherein it held ; so that I am glad to keep by me some Vinegar stock'd with those scarce visible Animals to satisfie ingenious men , among whom some have been fain , after their own fruitless tryals , to come to me to show them the things delivered in that Observation . What I mention'd a little above to have been try'd upon Sallet-oyl , puts me in mind of telling you , that among our Experiments concerning the changes of colours , we were about to acquaint you with one which we had formerly made upon common Oyl-Olive , it seeming to us a not inconsiderable one , since it was a way that we devis'd of instantly changing the colour of the Oyl from a pale Yellow to a deep Red , with a few drops of a Liquor that was not red but almost colourless . This Experiment , as we were saying , Pyrophilus , we were about to set down among others concerning Colours , but because we do not willingly rely on a single tryal of such things as we know not to have been ever try'd before , we thought it not amiss for greater security to make the Experiment the second time , but could not then find it to succeed , nor even since upon a new Trial ( probably by reason of some peculiar quality in that particular parcel of Liquor we first made use of ) which made us think fit to omit the intended mention of it ; but if I had upon my first trial acquainted you with it without any further scruple , you might upon trial have suspected , if not concluded , that I had misinform'd you , though I had really deliver'd nothing but what I had try'd . And indeed , Pyrophilus , though I have not the vanity to pretend to have deserv'd so much of you as such Naturalists as Sir Francis Bacon have deserv'd from every ingenious Reader of their Books ; yet perhaps you will do me but Right to believe , that though some of the Experiments I have deliver'd may prove Contingent , yet I have not deliver'd them unfaithfully in reference to what I thought I observed in them and remembred of them . And though I desire you should so read my writings as to give no farther assent to my Opinions than the reasons or Experiments produc'd on their behalf require , yet in matters of fact which I deliver as having try'd or seen them , I am very willing you should think , that I may have had the weakness to be mistaken , but not an intention to deceive you . There is yet one thing more that I shall venture to acquaint you with before I conclude this Essay , though you may think it relishes of a Paradox , and it is this : That when I am satisfi'd of the Abilities and Circumspection of a Writer , delivering a matter of fact as upon his own knowledge ; I do not presently reject his Observation as untrue , much less condemn the Person himself as a Lyer , whensoever I find that it seems to be contradicted by a contrary and more undoubted Observation , or to contradict a receiv'd and plausible either Hypothesis or Tradition : but rather try if by fit Distinction or Limitation I can reconcile them ; unless I can imagine something or other which might probably lead him to mistake . And of this indulgence to an intelligent Writer I have this reason to give , That sometimes there happen irregularities contrary to the usual course of things , as is evident in Monsters ; and sometimes the received Hypothesis , though perhaps not to be rejected as to the main , will not hold so universally as men presume ; and sometimes too the contradiction be twixt the Observations may be but seeming ( by reason of the want of some unheeded Circumstance necessary to make them inconsistent ) and so they may both be true . We might dilucidate and confirm what we have newly delivered by several Instances , were it not that this Essay is already but too prolix . Wherefore we shall only recommend to your Consideration these few Particulars . That the Irish Spiders ( of which , whatever is vulgarly believ'd to the contrary , my self have in Ireland seen divers ) are not poisonous is not doubted by the Inhabitants , who have had many Ages experience of their harmlesness : and yet I dare not deny what the learned Scaliger somewhere affirms , that in ( his Country if I mis-remember not ) Gascony their venom is so pernicious , that they sometimes poison those that tread upon them through the very soles of their shoos . And that even here in England ( though a Country so near to Ireland ) some Spiders ( at least ) are venomous even without biting , I may elsewhere have occasion to give you an experimental proof . It is so much taken for granted by divers Authors , who pretend likewise to give reasons of it , and by the generality of their Readers , that under the same Meridian the magnetick Needle keeps every where the same variation without changing it by being carried Northwards or Southwards , that 't is like if many Persons better acquainted with Magnetick Speculations than Trials , should read in the relations of the Hollanders , that under the Meridian that passes by the Island of Corvo , where the Needle points directly at the Poles , and which is therefore wont to be reckon'd the first Meridian , they found at two places , the one about 46 , the other about 55 Degrees of Northern Latitude , a Declination in the former of those Elevations of no less than 7 or 8 Degrees , and in the latter of a far greater number ; and also that they found under the 20. Parallel of Southern Latitude under the same Meridian of the Azores 10 or 11 Degrees of Declination ; many , I say , if they should meet with these particulars , probably would suppose the Dutch to have been very bad Observers , because these Observations do not ( as we intimated above ) agree with the Theory of the Needles Declination . And yet if we confer these Observations with others of the like nature made by good Navigators and other skilful men along other Meridians , we may , I suppose , find cause rather to rectifie the general opinion than reject the Dutch Observations for their disagreeing with it , especially if we take into consideration what is affirmed by the Jesuite Jules Alenis ( whom Fournier , amply treating of Longitudes , extols for the accuratest Observer of the Needles variation that ever was ) sailing into China in a great Portugal Carraque , and accompanied by the famous Pilot Vincent Rodrique , who had then made 28 Voyages to the Indies . For out of one of this Fathers Letters Fournier has preserved this memorable passage , You must ( says he ) take notice of one thing very considerable , namely , that the further you go from the Aequator in the same Meridian , the greater you will find the Magnetical variation . There are some eminent modern Naturalists who affirm , that they have assuredly try'd by Weather-glasses , that Cellars and other Subterraneal places are colder in Winter than in Summer : and yet not to oppose to this Experiment the common Tradition to the contrary , I remember , that the bold and industrious Captain James ( formerly mention'd ) in the relation of his strange Voyage published by his late Majesties command , has this notable Observation , where he relates the excessive coldness of the water they met with in Summer in that Icy Region where they were forced to Winter in the Year 1632. Moreover our Well ( says he ) out of which we had water in December , had none in July . Lastly , though in the Western parts it have been observed , that generally the inside or heart as they call it of Trees , is harder tha● the outward parts , yet an Author very well vers'd in such matters treating of the building of Ships , gives it us for a very important Advertisement touching that matter , that they have observed at Marseilles , and all along the Levantine shores , that that part of the Wood that is next the Bark is stronger than that which makes the heart of the Tree . But to draw at length to a conclusion of this already too tedious Essay ; The Ends above mention'd , Pyrophilus , being those which I propos'd to my self in writing the past Discourse , you will make an use of it , which I was very far from intending you should , if you suffer it to discourage you from the vigorous prosecution of your Enquiries into Experimental Knowledge : nor indeed is any thing that hath been said fit to perswade you to other than Watchfulness in observing Experiments , and Wariness in relying on them , but not at all to such a despondency of mind as may make you forbear the prosecution of them : for neither doth the Physician renounce his Profession , because divers of the Patients he strives to cure are not freed from their diseases by his Medicines , but by death ; nor doth the painful Husbandman forsake his Cultivating of the ground , though sometimes an unseasonable storm or flood spoils his Harvest , and deprives him of the expected fruit of his long toils . For as in Physick and Husbandry , those that exercise them are kept from deserting their professions , by finding , that though they sometimes miss of their Ends , yet they oftentimes attain them , and are by their Successes requited not only for those Endeavours that succeed , but for those that were lost : so ought we not by the Contingencies incident to Experimental attempts to be deterr'd from making them , because not only there are many Experiments scarce ever obnoxious to casualties , but even among those whose event is not so certain , you may very probably make an Experiment very often without meeting with any of those unlucky accidents which have the power to make such Experiments miscarry ; and sure the prosperous success of many succeeding attempts is well able to make amends for the fruitless pains employ'd on those few that succceed not ; especially since in Experiments it not unfrequently happens , that even when we find not what we seek , we find something as well worth seeking as what we mist. Of this last-mention'd truth we may else-where have occasion to discourse more largely , and therefore shall now conclude with barely minding you , that even Merchants themselves are not wont to quit their profession , because now and then they lose a Vessel at Sea , and oft-times their Ships are by contrary winds and other accidents forc'd to put in at other Ports than those they were bound for . Which example● the rather make use of , because that as the American Navigators employ'd by the European Merchants having been by storms forc'd from their intended course , have been sometimes times thereby driven upon unknown Coasts , and have made discovery of new Regions much more advantagious to them than the fairest and constantest winds and weather could have been ; so in Philosophical Trials , those unexpected accidents that defeat our endeavours do sometimes cast us upon new discoveries , of much greater advantage than the wonted and expected success of the attempted Experiment would have proved to us . SOME SPECIMENS OF AN ATTEMPT To make CHYMICAL EXPERIMENTS Useful to Illustrate the Notions of the CORPVSCVLAR PHILOSOPHY . LONDON , Printed for Henry Herringman , Anno 1668. THE PREFACE , Giving an account of the two following Treatises , and Proposing the Desirableness of a good Intelligence betwixt the Corpuscularian Philosophers and the Chymists . THere are many Learned Men , who being acquainted with Chymistry but by report , have from the Illiterateness , the Arrogance and the Impostures of too many of those that pretend skill in it , taken occasion to entertain so ill an opinion as well of the Art as of those that profess it , that they are apt to repine when they see any Person capable of succeeding in the study of solid Philosophy , addict himself to an Art they judge so much below a Philosopher , and so unserviceable to him : Nay , there are some that are troubled when they see a Man acquainted with other Learning countenance by his Example sooty Empiricks , and a study which they scarce think fit for any but such as are unfit for the rational and useful parts of Physiology . I now take notice of these things , because they gave occasion to the two following Treatises . For perceiving divers years ago , that some Learned Men of the temper above describ'd thought it strange ( if not amiss also ) that one of whose studies they were pleas'd to have too favourable an Expectation , should spend upon Chymical tryals ( to which I then happen'd to be invited by the opportunity of some Furnaces and some leisure ) much of those Endeavours which they seem'd to think might be far more usefully employ'd than upon such an empty and deceitful study ; perceiving this , I say , I thought it not amiss to endeavour to manifest , that without seeking after the Elixir that Alchymists generally hope and toyl for , ( but which they that knew me knew to be not at all in my aim ) I did not in the Prosecution of Chymical tryals do any thing either without an end , or unsuitable to the Design I had of attempting to promote Mens Knowledge of the works of Nature , as well as their Power over them . In order to this , I did not think it enough to shew , that by an Insight into Chymistry one may be enabl'd to make some Meliorations ( I speak not of Transmutations ) of Mineral and Metalline Bodies , and many excellent Medicines for the Health of Men , besides divers other Preparations of good use in particular Trades , and in several Occurren●es of Humane Life ; I did not , I say , think it enough to do this , because that though this might suffice to evince that a rational man might without losing his time employ some of it to understand and promote Chymistry ; yet this would scarce suffice to manifest it to be useful to Philosophy . And therefore there seem'd requisite some specimens , which might shew that Chymical Experiments might be very assistant even to the speculative Naturalist in his Contemplations and Enquiries . But against my attempting any thing of this Nature , three Difficulties oppos'd themselves . The first was the want of Leisure , in regard I was already pre-engag'd to write of other Subjects , and to prosecute some Experiments , whose event I was concern'd to know . Another Impediment was , that for other Reasons elsewhere mention'd , and chiefly to keep my Judgment as unprepossess'd as might be with any of the Modern Theories of Philosophy , till I were provided of Experiments to help me to judge of them , I had purposely refrain'd from acquainting my self throughly with the intire System of either the Atomical , or the Cartesian , or any other whether New or Reviv'd Philosophy ; and therefore I could scarce be fit to shew how Chymical Experiments might illustrate their Doctrines . And thirdly , some of those Learned Men for whom I was to write , more favouring the Epicurean , and others ( though but a few ) being more inclinable to the Cartesian opinions , it seem'd very difficult to gratifie by the same Composures Persons of differing Perswasions . But as to the first of these Discouragements , since my Pre-engagements to other Themes were not unknown to those for whom I was to write , it might reasonably be presum'd they would over-look such unaccurateness as should appear imputable to haste : And besides , some such Subject might be chosen to write of , as would conveniently admit Enlargements and Additions , according as my leisure should afterwards serve me to annex them On occasion of the second Impediment , I remember'd , that having divers years before read the Lives of the Atomical , among other Philosophers , in Diogenes Laertius , and having sometimes occasionally heard mention made of divers Epicurean and Cartesian Notions , and having hence fram'd to my self some general , though but imperfect , Idea of the way of Philosophizing my friends esteem'd ; I thought I might without a more particular and explicit Enquiry into it , say something to illustrate some Notions of it , by making choice of such as , being of the more simple and obvious , did not require skill in the more mysterious points of the Hypothesis they belong'd to . And as for the last of the three Discouragements above mention'd , I consider'd , that the Atomical & Cartesian Hypotheses , though they differ'd in some material points from one another , yet in opposition to the Peripatetick and other vulgar Doctrines they might be look'd upon as one Philosophy : For they agree with one another , and differ from the Schools in this grand & fundamental point , that not only they take care to explicate things intelligibly ; but that whereas those other Philosophers give only a general and superficial account of the Phaenomena of Nature from certain substantial Forms , which the most ingenious among themselves confess to be Incomprehensible , and certain real Qualities , which knowing men of other Perswasions think to be likewise Vnintelligible ; both the Cartesians and the Atomists explicate the same Phaenomena by little Bodies variously figur'd and mov'd . I know that these two Sects of Modern Naturalists disagree about the Notion of Body in general , and consequently about the Possibility of a true Vacuum , as also about the Origine of Motion , the indefinite Divisibleness of Matter , and some other points of less Importance than these : But in regard that some of them seem to be rather Metaphysical than Physiological Notions , and that some others seem rather to be requisite to the Explication of the first Origine of the Vniverse , than of the Phaenomena of it in the state wherein we now find it ; in regard of these , I say , and some other Considerations , and especially for this Reason , That both parties agree in deducing all the Phaenomena of Nature from Matter and local Motion ; I esteem'd that notwithstanding these things wherein the Atomists and the Cartesians differ'd , they might be thought to agree in the main , and their Hypotheses might by a Person of a reconciling Disposition be look'd on as , upon the matter , one Philosophy . Which because it explicates things by Corpuscles , or minute Bodie● may ( not very unfitly ) be call'd Corpuscular ; though I sometimes style it the Phoenician Philosophy , because some ancient Writers inform us , that not only before Epicurus and Democritus , but ev'n before Leucippus taught in Greece , a Phoenician Naturalist was wont to give an account of the Phaenomena of Nature by the Motion and other Affections of the minute Particles of Matter . Which because they are obvious and very powerful in Mechanical Engines , I sometimes also term it the Mechanical Hypothesis or Philosophy . By such considerations then , and by this occasion , I was invited to try whether without pretending to determine the above-mention'd controverted points , I could by the help of the Corpuscular Philosophy , in the sense newly given of that Appellation , associated with Chymical Experiments , explicate some particular Subjects more intelligibly than they are wont to be accounted for , either by the Schools or the Chymists . And how●ver since the vulgar Philosophy is yet so vulgar , that it is still in great request with the Generality of Scholars ; and since the Mechanical Philosophers have brought so few Experiments to verifie their Assertions , and the Chymists are thought to have brought so many on the behalf of theirs , that of those that have quitted the unsatisfactory Philosophy of the Schools , the greater Number dazl'd as it were by the Experiments of Spagyrists , have imbrac'd their Doctrines instead of those they deserted ; For these Reasons , I say , I hop'd I might at least do no unseasonable piece of service to the Corpuscular Philosophers , by illustrating some of their Notions with sensible Experiments , and manifesting that the things by me treated of , may be at least plausibly explicated without having recourse to inexplicable forms , real Qualities , the four Peripatetick Elements , or so much as the three Chymical Principles . Being once resolv'd to write some such Specimina as I formerly judg'd requisite , I soon bethought my self of the Experiment hereafter deliver'd concerning Salt-Petre , divers of whose Phaenomena I did also , as time would permit , cast into one of the Essays I was then engag'd to write to a Friend . And having dispatch'd that little Treatise , it found so favourable a Reception among those Learned Men into whose hands it came , that I was much encourag'd to illustrate some more of the Doctrines of the Corpuscular Philsosophy , by some of the Experiments wherewith my Furnaces had suppli●d me ; which also as occasion serv'd I did , partly by writing some Physico-Chymical Treatises , and partly by making such large Notes on the Essay concerning Salt-Petre , as might plentifully contribute to the History of Qualities , of which I had sometimes thoughts . And this continu'd , till in the year before the last , the publick Confusions in this ( then unhappy ) Kingdom reducing me to quit my former Design , together with the place where my Furnaces , my Books , and my other Accommodations were , I fell afterwards upon the making of Pneumatical tryals , whereof I lately ventur'd to give the Publick an account in a Book of New Experiments Physo-mechanical about the Air. I should not trouble the Reader with so prolix a Preface to such small Treatises as those whereto this is prefix'd , but for these two Reasons . The one , that I hope the fore-going Narrative will make me be the more favourably judg'd by the Philosophers I desire to serve , if sometimes I write less skilfully of their Opinions than perhaps I should have done had I allow'd my self to search into them : And the other , that I am earnestly sollicited to publish some other Tracts , tending to the same purpose that these do ; to which also should I ever be induc'd , by the Reception these may meet with , to trouble the World with them , the same Preface as it is now penn'd may serve for an Introduction . I had almost forgot to take notice , That whereas at the end of the Essay concerning Salt-Petre I mention'd a then newly-publish'd Treatise of the laborious Glauber's , which I had not then perus'd , I found it to contain some Observations concerning the History of Salt-Petre , which , if they be true , are considerable enough : I must again recōmend the examination of them to the Readers Curiosity , having been hinder'd by divers Avocations from saving him that labour my self . And whereas also some years after I was inform'd of another little Book he had put out since the former , wherein he teaches us a way of purifying Salt-Petre , to make a Conjunction of the spirituous and fixter parts of it , and then to suffer the Mixture to evaporate and so crystallize into Nitre ; This would I confess have made me apprehensive of passing for a Plagiary with those that did not know me , but that it was easie for me to clear my self by the Testimony of very Learned Men , who had some years before perus'd my Treatise , and especially of one person , ( well known by his Writings ) who was pleas'd to like it so well , as to desire he might translate it , and had accordingly long before turn'd it into very elegant Latin. I might perhaps venture to adde , that though I could not justifie my self by so convincing a proof of my Innocence , yet he that shall take the pains to consider that I could not borrow of Glauber the various Phaenomena I have particularly set down , and much less the Reflections on them , & shall compare in what differing manners , and to what differing purposes , we two propose the making of Salt-Petre out of its own Spirit , and fixt Salt ( He but prescribing as a bare Chymical Purification of Nitre , what I teach as a Philosophical Redintegration of it ; ) He , I say , who shall compare these things together , will perchance think , that I was as likely to find this last nam'd Experiment as another . Which things I say not , as if I scrupl'd to make use of the industrious Glauber's or any other mans Experiments , especially when I borrow not with them any of the Doctrines I build on them ; but because since I neither did nor could take any notice of Glauber's Book in mine , I judg'd it requisite to say something to prevent my being thought to have unthankfully taken one of the chief Passages of my Discourse from a Book to which I was utterly a stranger . The Reasons of my thus consenting to publish the following History of Fluidity and Firmness , without the rest of those Annotations which I writ upon the same Essay touching Salt-Petre , are partly , that these are my recentest Composures of this Nature , ( having been writen but the last year save one ) and were set down when I allow'd my self to be less unacquainted with Writers addicted to the modern Philosophy ; partly also , because the considerableness of the Subject invited me to make these Annotations much more copious , and somewhat less unaccurate , than my Notes upon almost any other part of the Essay ; & partly , ( and indeed principally ) because mention being sometimes made of this History in my freshly publish'd Physico-Mechanical Experiments , both the Printer , and some Learned Gentlemen who were pleas'd to think that Book not unworthy the Translating , have sollicited me to let this Treatise be annexed to the several Versions they are about of that Pneumatical piece , and to the English Edition of the three fore-going Discourses , which the Printer fears would , without the company of these or some others , make but too thin a Book . And I thought fit to premise to this History , the Essay concerning Salt-Petre , not only because it might appear very improper to publish Annotations without the Text it self whereunto they relate ; but indeed because I find that there are still many Learned Men , of the same disposition with those I have mention'd in the beginning of this Preface ; whence I am invited to divulge this Essay by the same Considerations that at first induc'd me to write it . Especially since I remember not that among the new Philosophers I have met with any one Experiment that does so fairly and sensibly accommodate so many of their Opinions . And indeed I freely confess , that I shall think my self to have done no useless service to the Common-wealth of Learning , if I prove so fortunate , as by these , or any other Writings of mine to the like purpose , to beget a good understanding betwixt the Chymists and the Mechanical Philosophers , who have hitherto been too little acquainted with one anothers Learning : There being to this very day a great and almost general Mis-understanding betwixt the Corpuscular Philosophers and the Chymists ; most of Those ( on the one hand ) looking upon the Spagyrists as a company of meer and irrational Operators , whose Experiments may indeed be serviceable to Apothecaries , and perhaps to Physicians , but are useless to a Philosopher that aims at curing no disease but that of Ignorance ; and most of the Spagyrists ( on the other hand ) looking upon the Corpuscularians ( if I may so call them ) as a sort of empty and extravagant Speculators , who pretend to explicate the great Book of Nature , without having so much as look'd upon the chiefest and the difficultest part of it , namely the Phaenomena that Their Art has added to the former Edition of this vast and obscure Volume . But that some of the principal of the Hermetick Opinions may be more handsomely accommodated by the notions of the Phoenician Hypotheses , than by the common Philosophy of Elements of substantial forms , ( which yet their Writers so frequently allude to and otherwise employ ) may appear from hence , that whereas the Schools generally declare the transmutation of one Species into another , and particularly that of baser metals into Gold , to be against Nature , and Physically impossible ; the Corpuscular Doctrine rejecting the substantial forms of the Schools , and making Bodies to differ but in the Magnitude , Figure , Motion or Rest , and Situation of their component particles , which may be almost infinitely varied , seems much more favourable to the Chymical Doctrine of the possibility of working wonderful changes , and even transmutations in mixt Bodies . And on the other side , there are scarce any Experiments that may better accommodate the Phoenician principles , than those that may be borrowed from the Laboratories of Chymists . For first , Chymistry enabling us to depurate Bodies , and in some measure to analyse them , and take asunder their Heterogeneous parts , in many Chymical Experiments we may better than in others know what manner of Bodies we employ , Art having made them more simple or uncompounded than Nature alone is wont to present them us . And next , many Chymical operations being performed in close , and yet in transparent vessels , we may better know what concurs to the effects produced , because adventitious Bodies ( or at least all grosser ones ) are kept from intruding upon those whose Operations we have a mind to consider . And lastly , the Bodies employ'd by the Chymists being for the most part active ones , the progress of Nature in an Experiment , and the series of successive alterations through which the matter passes from first to last , is wont to be made more nimbly , and consequently becomes the more easie to be taken notice of and comprehended . So that all this considered , I hope it may conduce to the Advancement of Natural Philosophy , if , as I said , I be so happy as , by any endeavours of mine , to possess both Chymists and Corpuscularians of the advantages that may redound to each Party by the Confederacy I am mediating between them , and excite them both to enquire more into one anothers Philosophy , by manifesting , that as many Chymical Experiments may be happily explicated by Corpuscularian Notions , so many of the Corpuscularian Notions may be commodiously either illustrated or confirmed by Chymical Experiments . A PHYSICO-CHYMICAL ESSAY , CONTAINING An Experiment with some Considerarations touching the differing Parts and Redintegration of SALT-PETRE . SECTION I. SALT-PETRE , Pyrophilus , though in that form wherein it is sold in Shops , it be no very obvious Concrete ; yet either in its rudiments , or under several disguises , it is to be found in so great a number of Compound Bodies , Vegetable , Animal , and even Mineral , that it seems to us to be not only one of the most Catholick of Salts , but so considerable an Ingredient of many sublunary Concretes , that we may justly suppose it may well deserve our serious enquiries , since the knowledge of it may be very conducive to the discovery of the Nature of several other Bodies , and to the improvement of divers parts of Natural Philosophy . SECT . II. But not having at present much leisure allow'd me by several avocations to make accurate Enquiries into the nature of Salt-Petre in general ; and , which is more considerable , being not yet furnish'd wi●h a competent number of Experiments requisite to such a purpose ; I must content my self for this time to tender you some assistance towards the discovery of how differing Substances may be obtain'd from Nitre , and compound it again , by presenting you some Reflections on an Experiment , which my desire to hasten to another Subject obliges me to set down nakedly , as I first try'd it by way of Narrative . SECT . III. We took then common Nitre ( as we bought it at the Druggists ) and having by the usual way of Solution , Filtration , and Coagulation , reduc'd it into Crystals , we put four ounces of this purifi'd Nitre into a strong new Crucible * in which ( the Vessel being first well neal'd to prevent cracking , and cover'd to prevent the falling in of any thing that might unseasonably kindle the Petre ) we melted it into a limpid Liquor , and whilst it was in fusion , cast into it a small live Coal , which presently kindled it , and made it boil and hiss , and flash for a pretty while : after which we cast in another glowing Coal , which made it fulminate af●esh ; and after that we cast in a third and a fourth , and so continu'd the operation till the Nitre would neither fulminate nor be kindled any more : after which we continu'd to keep it in a strong fire for above a quarter of an hour , that if any volatile part should yet remain , it might be forced off . SECT . IV. Then taking out the Crucible , and breaking it whilst it was hot , we took out , as carefully as we could , the remaining fix'd Nitre before it had imbib'd much of the moisture of the air , and dividing it into two equal parts , we dissolved one of those portions in as much fair water as would just suffice for the solution of it , and then drop'd on it Spirit of Salt-petre till the ebullition occasion'd by the mutual action of those contrary Liquors did perfectly cease ; and forthwith Filtrating this mixture , we expos'd it in a new open Vial to the air in a window ; and returning to the other portion of fix'd Nitre , which we had set apart and not dissolv'd , we drop'd on that likewise of the same Spirit till the hissing and ebullition were altogether ceas'd , and then we expos'd this mixture also in an open glass Jar to the air in the same window with the former . SECT . V. The event of these Trials was , that the mixture wherein fair water was employ'd , did in a few hours fasten to the lower part of the sides of the Glass wherein it was put , some saline particles , which seem'd by their form ( and partly too by their shooting about the lower parts of the Vessel ) to be Salt-petre ; amongst whose little Crystals nevertheless there appear'd to swim very little grains ( much smaller than Mustard-seeds ) of some other kind of Salt , environ'd with a downy matter , not unlike that which is oftentimes to be observ'd in Rose-water , and several other distill'd Waters when they begin to decay . The Crystals were the next day taken out , being by that time grown somewhat greater , and more numerous , and disclos'd themselves , upon tryal , to be indeed Nitrous , as well by their manner of burning , as their shape . Concerning the latter of which , since learned Modern Writers have mis-represented it , some making Nitre to be Cylindrical , and others of a figure less approaching to the true one ; I think my self oblig'd in this place to observe to you by the way , that having purposely consider'd some large Crystals of refin'd and unanalyz'd Nitre , the figure being in such best discern'd , they appear'd to have each of them six flat sides ( not always of equal breadth in respect of one another ) whereof any two that were opposite were commonly parallel . But to return to our augmented Crystals of Nitre : what the other matter that adher'd to them was , there was so very little of it , that we could not well discern , though we then suspected it to proceed from the want of a just or exact proportion betwixt the Volatile and fix'd parts of the Nitre that were to be re-united . SECT . VI. The remaining Liquor being pour'd into an open glass Jar , and left in the same window , continued five or six days without manifesting any considerable alteration ; but at the end of that time there began to appear in it very fine crystalline styriae of Petre , which grew more and more numerous during a fortnight longer ; at which time , being wearied with attending the so slow consumption of the Liquor , we pour'd it from the Crystals , and set it in a digesting Furnace to evaporate more nimbly . SECT . VII . The other mixture wherein no water was employ'd did presently , for a great part of it , subside in the form of Salt ; over which there swam a little liquor which also seem'd to keep the subsiding particles of Salt from congealing into one coherent mass , or so much as greater lumps : and a part of this drenched Salt being taken out and permitted to dry in the Air , did not appear very regularly figur'd , but yet seem'd here and there to recede very little from the shape of Salt-Petre , and being cast on a quick coal it burned partly after a manner not peculiar ( that we have observ'd ) to any distinct kind of Salt ; and yet it partly seem'd to imitate the flashing way of deflagration proper to Nitre . The remaining part of this Salt , together with the Liquor swimming upon it , we kept for about a month in the open air , without discerning any observable change in the Liquor till towards the latter end of that time , and then we found it partly coagulated into small saline masses , whose figure we were not able to discern ; and therefore dissolving the whole mixture in a little fair water , and filtrating it , we found ( after evaporation in a digesting Furnace ) about one half of the Salt shot into fine small Iceicles of the shape of Crystals of Petre , but somewhat differing from them in taste upon their first being put upon the Tongue ; but upon a live coal they burned not unlike Petre. And the remaining half of this dissolution , being somewhat hastily pressed to exhale , let fall its Salt in a figure which we could not reduce either to that of Salt-Petre , or of any other determinate kind of Salt. For the clear comprehending of this Experiment , you may be pleas'd , Pyrophilus , to take notice , SECT . VIII . 1. That a new coal is not to be cast on the Nitre till the detonation occasion'd by the former be either quite or almost al●ogether ended ; unless it chance that the pussing 〈…〉 the coal too soon out of the Crucible , 〈…〉 towards the end of the operation : ) which seems to happen chiefly because the first part of the Nitre growing to be predominant , the inflamable and halituous particles cannot break through the matter , now grown more stiff , but by such impetuous eruptions as make them oftentimes tosse back the coals as soon as ever they are cast into the Crucible : and in this way of proceeding we have been forced to spend much more time , than the opinion of the ready deflagrability ( if I may so speak ) of Salt-Petre did beforehand permit us to imagine . SECT . IX . 2. That we discern'd by our Scales , that the weight of the Spirit of Nitre requisite to be drop'd on , till all the ebullition made betwixt that Liquor and the Solution of fix'd Nitre were ceas'd , did not amount to so great a weight as the Salt-Petre lost in its detonation , and yet fell not much short of it . SECT . X. 3. That the fix'd Nitre this way made , differ'd but very little from vulgar Salt of Tartar in its lixiviate taste , in its aptnesse to attract the air , or to relent by the moisture of it , and in its other more obvious qualities ; onely whereas Salt of Tartar is wont to be white ( which nevertheless being flux'd has been by others , as us , observ'd to become of a kind of sky-colour ) this fix'd Nitre was of a deep colour betwixt blew and green : which colour upon the affusion of the Spirit of Nitre vanish'd ; whereas otherwise ( to observe that to you upon the by ) some sort of calcin'd Nitre will so obstinately retain that colour , that I keep by me a blewish green Liquor made of fix'd Petre , I know not how oftentimes successively resolv'd per deliquium and coagulated again , till it would no longer be reduc'd to a dry Salt , but to an unctuous body easily flowing in heat like Wax : my design in which trial it were here somewhat improper to insist on . That our friends might not be obliged to wait so long for the Redintegration of Nitre , but might see the Experiment made in as little time as is possi●le , we devis'd a more expeditious way of uniting the divorc'd parts of our 〈◊〉 , and it was only by suffering such fix'd Nitre as is mention'd by our Author to run per Deliquium into a Liquor , which being separated from its faeces by filtration through cap-paper was very clear and limpid : For , when we had a mind to shew the Experiment , we did onely upon this Liquor drop some Spirit of Nitre , and that , after such a noise , sparkling and effervescence , as our Author speaks of , ( all which hastily vanished ) did immediately associate it self with a competent proportion of the fix'd Salt swimming in the Solution , and therewith fall down in little Ice-icles of a Nitrous shape and nature ; and when we pleased to continue the affusion of the acid Spirit , this emergency of Salt-Petre would be observable from time to time , till either all , or almost all the fix'd Salt had united it self with the other . And these litle Ice-icles being dried in lumps , did as well upon the tongue and upon a quick coal , as they had done to the Eye , disclose themselves to be so truly Nitrous , that our friends were not wont without some wonder , as well as much pleasure , to behold Salt-Petre thus suddenly generated in lesse than a minute of an hour . These small Ice-icles being in sufficient plenty dissolv'd in fair water , we did for trials sake reduce by Congelation to fairer Cyrstals . But though this be the perfectest and readiest way of reproducing Nitre , yet because it often requires , especially in dry weather , a long time to reduce fix'd Nitre per Deliquium into a Liquor , we have sometimes substituted the following way . We dissolv'd in fair water as much fix'd Nitre as we could , and filtrating the Solution through Cap-paper we satiated it with Spirit of Nitre , after the manner above describ'd , and then setting it to evaporate very slowly , and afterwards suffering it to cool , we obtain'd within some hours after the first mixture of the Liquors , store of fine little Crystalls of Petre , which shot in the Liquor ; the remaining part of which being evaporated afforded more of them . And though the evaporation and Crystallization cost us divers hours , yet it seem'd that the Salt-Petre was produc'd presently upon the ceasing of the conflict betwixt the two Liquors . For the mixture before evaporation tasted very like a Solution of common Nitre , and the little drops that upon the effervescence skip'd out of the Glasse , and fell back upon the sides of it , did there many of them presently coagulate into little grains of Nitrous Salt. SECT . XI . And because , Pyrophilus , it may be suspected , that the Salt-Petre mention'd to have been produc'd by the re-union of the volatile and fix'd part of that Concrete , may have been onely some associated particles of Salt-Petre , that by lurking undiscernedly in the fix'd Nitre had escap'd the analizing violence of the fire , and by the affusion of fair water were set at liberty to assemble toge●her , and thereby disclose themselves in their true shape . To remove this scruple , and to let you see that much the ensuing Discourse will not need your supposing , that the Experiment of the Redintegration of Petre was accurately made , and did accordingly succeed ; I must here annex , that though by divers other Chymical Experiments which I have had occasion to make with Salt-Petre , I somtimes discove●'d , that now and then some undiscern'd particles of the Salt-Petre may possibly escape our diligence when we make fix'd Nitre ; yet those particles are too few to amount to such Crystals of Petre , as the assusion of the acid Spirit upon the lixiviate Salt are capable of affording : And that we have , to satisfie our selves farther in this particular , purposely satiated , according to the former manner , a Solution of common Pot-ashes , bought of them that are wont to sell it in Shops , ( who are not so foolishly knavish as to adulterate them with Salt-petre , which is much dearer than pot-ashes ) and filtrating the Solution from its copious faeces , found after evaporation , in the remaining Liquor , within about two or three days , and sometimes much sooner , pretty store of Crystalline Salt in a Nitrous figure , which though at first it tasted somewhat corrosively , ( perhaps because the proportion betwixt the Nitrous Spirit and the Pot-ashes was not duely observ'd ) yet after it had a while remain'd upon the tongue , the taste of it much emulated that of Salt-Petre ; and part of it being cast upon a live coal , did by its blew and halituous flame discover it self to be of the nature of that Salt. To which we may add , that we likewise tried the experiment with Aqua fortis and Salt of Tartar , and thereby produc'd Salt-Petre , though but in small quantity , and a long time . And those two additional Experiments I the rather mention , because many of the ensuing Reflections may be justifi'd by them , although the main Experiment made on Salt-petre alone should in divers pariculars be suppos'd ( for we have us'd our endeavours that it may not be found , ) to have been mistaken . SECT . XII . The Reflections which may be made on this Experiment are more than I have either the skill or leisure to prosecute , and therefore I shall content my self to present you very succinctly with a few of those that do the most readily occur to my present thoughts . And first , this Experiment seems to afford us an instance ▪ by which we may discern that Motion , Figure , and Disposition of parts , and such like primary and mechanical Affections ( if I may so call them ) of Matter , may suffice to produce those more secondary Affections of Bodies which are wont to be called Sensible Qualities . SECT . XIII . And to begin with the Tangible Qualities , as Heat and Cold ; it is commonly held , that Salt-Petre is in operation a Cold Body , if not one of the coldest in the world ; and accordingly Physicians and Chymists are wont to give it in Fevers to allay the inward exaestuations of the blood and humors : and that profound Naturalist the Lord Verulam highly commends a little of it , and did for many years himself make use of it , to condense the Spirits . But what-ever it be in inward operation , certainly to the outward sense it appears very cold : And yet the parts of this so cold Body ( its Spirit and Alkali , by the latter of which Chymists are wont to mean any fix'd Salt produced by burning ) put together , do immediately agitate each other with great vehemency ; and did in our Experiment produce such an heat , that I could scarcely endure to hold in my hand the Vial , wherein much lesse than an ounce of each was mix'd , though but leisurely and almost by drops : as if Heat were nothing but a various and nimble motion of the minute particles of Bodies . For in our Experiment , as long as that confus'd agitation lasted , so long the heat endur'd , and with that agitation it encreas'd and abated ; and at length when the motion ceas'd , the heat also vanish'd . SECT . XIV . Upon the mixture of the two fore-mention'd Liquors there was also produc'd a very audible sound , not unlike the hissing produc'd by the quenching of a live coal in water ; and this hissing was , as that other is wont to be accompanied with an effervescence and boyling up of the Liquor , with store of bubbles , till it was ready to run over the Vessel . This sound seem'd to proced from the nimble and smart percussions of the ambient air , made by the swift and irregular motions of the particles of the Liquors : And such a kind of sound , but much lowder , was produc'd by the impetuous eruptions of the halituous flames of the Salt-Petre upon the casting of a live coal upon it . What interest such a smartnesse in striking the air hath in the production of Sound , may in some measure appear by the motion of the bullet , and that of a switch or orher wand , which produce no sound if they do but slowly passe through the air ; whereas if the one do smartly strike the air , and the other be shot out of a Gun , the celerity of their percussions on the air puts it into an undulating motion , which reaching the Ear , produces an audible noise even at a good distance from the body , whose swift passage causes those nimble vibrations in the air , as we may elsewhere have occasion to declare . And that in the sound observable in our Experiment , the contiguous air receives many strokes from the particles of the Liquor , seems probable , by the sudden and eager tumultuation of the parts of the Liquors : and by this , that the noise encreas'd and decay'd proportionably to the ebullition of the Liquors , and ceas'd altogether as soon as the saline particles floating in them had by their conflict tir'd themselves into quietnesse . And it is to be observ'd , that the noise ended long before the heat . To the latter of which such an intestine tumult of the parts of many bodies is sufficient , as is yet uncapable to produce a sound . As we see in Amber or good hard Wax heated by rubbing ; and in many Liquors which retain a considerable degree of heat a good while after the expiration of the noise the noise they made in boyling . SECT . XV. We mention'd also , that our fix'd Petre was of a blewish green colour , which upon the affusion of the acid Spirit suddenly vanish'd . That disposition of parts , whereby the light reflected to the eye , was so modify'd as to produce that colour being now alter'd . And the like change we have sometimes observ'd to be producible in fix'd Nitre , by the bare leaving it a while in the moist air . To which I must add , that in some such kind of Experiments I have observ'd the copious fumes , arising from the mixture , to make the unfill'd part of the Glasse look of a reddish colour ; which is not more odd than that which we have lately had opportunity to observe in Soot , which though it be so black it self , and result from the coalition of dark exhalations , yet pres'd with a strong fire , has fill'd our Receivers with fumes white enough to make them look as if they were replenish'd with milk . And we have sometimes also taken great pleasure to behold the variety of Colours which may be now and then discern'd in the sublimate , made by gradually subliming in an Urinal a mixture of equal parts of only white Sal-Armoniack and black Antimony . But to wander no longer far from our present Experiment , give me leave to inform you , that a while since attempting to make Salt of Tartar , resolv'd in a little fair water , an ingredient of Salt-Petre by the addition of good Aqua fortis , the union of these two Liquors produced a deep green colour , which not only was diffus'd quite through the mixture , but also appear'd to reside peculiarly in certain particles of it . For having for trial sake filtred it through Cap-paper , there remained in the Fil●●e a powder of a very deep and lovely colour , but in so little quantity , that we could not attempt any Experiment upon it to make it confess its nature . But this circumstance is not to be omitted , that the Salt of Tartar that was then employ'd was extraordinay pure , having been by a peculiar art ( elsewhere to be taught you ) brought , without any addition , into fair-figur'd Crystals almost like lumps of white Sugar-candy . To which I must add , that the same Aqua fortis with a Solution of other pure Salt of Tartar , did likewise produce a colour much resembling the former , but much fainter . And it is farther to be taken notice of on this Subject , partly , that Nitre it self , although it seem to have nothing of kin to Rednesse , doth in distillation yield blood-red fumes ( fondly call'd by some Chymists the blood of the Salamander ) which fall again into a Liquor that has nothing of red in it ; and partly , that the fix'd Nitre , that did before appear opacous , by a new disposition of its parts conjoyn'd with those of its reimbib'd Spirit , becomes again somewhat Diaphanous and Crystalline as it was at first . SECT . XVI . Upon the mixture of these two Liquors there also obtrudes it self upon the Sense a very strong and offensive smell , proceeding from the Spirit of Petre ; which perhaps occasion'd some Chymists to call a Menstruum ( wherein that Nitrous spirit and smell is predominant ) the Stygian water . But though the Nitrous Spirit have a very strong and unwelcome odour of it self , yet is it made much more offensive by being pour'd on its own fix'd Salt ; for upon their conflict , the matter , being vehemently agitated , doth more copiously emit such stinking exhalations than before , and sendeth forth fumes manifestly discernable as well to the Eye as Nostrils . The odour of the fix'd Nitre is very languid ; but that which it discovers being dissolv'd in a little hot water is altogether differing from the stink of the other , being of kin to that of other alkalizate Salts . And yet the Salt-Petre from which such differingly-sented bodies spring , and which may again emerge from the coalition of them , has not been observ'd , as I remember , to have any smell at all . SECT . XVII . The tastes of these two bodies are as differing as any of their other qualities : for the Spirit is exceedingly acid , and may be call'd a strong and sour Acetum Minerale ; whereas the fixt Nitre has as strong a taste of Salt of Tartar as the Spirit has of distill'd Vinegar : and yet these two bodies , whose sapours are so pungent , and so differing , do both spring from and unite into Salt-Petre , which betrays upon the tongue no heat nor corrosivenesse at all , but coldnesse mixt with a somewhat languid relish retaining to bitternesse . And though we must not conceal from you , that in our trial the redintegrated Salt-Petre had upon its first impression upon the tongue a taste more sharp and perforating ( if I may so speak ) than ordinary Nitre ; yet that pungency may not improbably be supposed to have proceeded from some Acid particles of the Spirit that were not yet duly incorporated with , but onely loosely adherent to , the more perfectly Nitrous parts , which afterwards discover'd it self upon the tongue . And however , the difference betwixt the taste of this new Salt , and those of the Acid and Alkalizate Salts whereof it consisted , and ( unquestionably ) the taste of these compared with that of the crude Petre which was dissipated into them , were sufficient to warrant this Reflection . SECT . XVIII . Of the other Observables presented us by our Experiment , we must , Pyrophilus , content our selves to mention but a few ; our haste being such that it will not permit us either to enumerate them all , or to insist long on any of them . SECT . XIX . Secondly then , the proposed Experiment seems to make it some what questionable , whether or no Inflammability doth strictly in all mixt bodies require a distinct Sulphureous ingredient ; and whether or no in some Concretes it may not result from such a contrivance of parts , as that thereby the particles of the Concrete are dispos'd to be set a moving by the adventitious whether Fiery or Calorisick Corpuscles of another body , in such numbers , and with such celerity , as may put them into that Scheme of matter which we call Flame . How violent an heat may be produc'd upon such an account as this , may in some measure appear by an Experiment wherein our present Theme Salt-petre is the main Agent . For if into a Vial fill'd with good Spirit of Nitre you cast a piece of Iron , you may perceive that the Liquor , whose parts mov'd placidly and uniformly before , manifested no heat to the touch , meeting with pores and particles in the Iron capable of very much altering the motion of its parts , ( and perhaps also that of some very subtile Intercurrent matter , ) those active parts do presently begin to penetrate , sever , and scatter abroad the particles of the Iron ( almost as Gun-powder doth the pieces of breaking Granadoes ) with such rapidity , and in such plenty and throngs , that being themselves also put into a very swift and irregular motion ( whence soever it proceeds ) there is hereby produc'd a heat capable ( if the quantity of the Liquor and Metall be great enough ) to burn his hand that holds the Vessel , and perhaps break the Vessel ( if it be not very open ) all to pieces ; whereas by casting into the same Spirit of Nitre little lumps of Camphire , whose particles were indispos'd to occasion the like disturbance and agitation in the Nitrous Spirit , we observ'd the agitation made of the particles of the white Gum to change it onely into a yellowish and fluid seeming Oyl . SECT . XX. But not to wander any further , our own experiment informs us , that Salt-Petre ( which not onely is inflammable , but burns very fiercely and violently ) may be produc'd by the coalition of two bodies , which are neither of them inflammable ; the one being a fix'd Salt , that to become such has already suffer'd the loss of all that the fire could deprive it of , and the other being a Spirit abounding with acid particles , which kind of Salts have been observ'd to be more apt to quench than foment fire . SECT . XXI . And because we may else-where , God assisting , treat more particularly of the Inflammableness of Bodies , we will now add but a few lines concerning that of Nitre , that this circumstance of it might not escape our observation , namely , that upon casting Salt-Petre on a glowing coal , or upon the casting of a glowing coal into melted Salt-Petre , the Nitre will immediately take fire and flash out into blewish and halituous flames ; whereas if the same Nitre be plac'd in a Crucible , though that Crucible be by degreees made glowing hot , and do immediatly with its concave surface in innumerable places touch the particles of Nitre , yet the strange Salt will be thereby melted , but not kindled . The Reason of which Phaenomenon I must not now ( but may on another Occasion ) spend time to enquire after . SECT . XXII . It may also , Pyrophi . deserve the Enquiry , whence it proceeds that whereas the body of Salt-Petre when committed to Distillation is oftentimes very well dry'd , and consists of Saline parts which are generally accounted to be of a very dry nature , yet the spirits of Petre forc'd by the fire into the Receiver should not , like Sal-Armoniack , and some other bodies distill'd with the like he●t and vessels , adhere in the form of Sublimate to the Receiver , but fall into a liquor , which does not , for ought we have seen or heard of , either totally or in part coagulate again in the cold , as we have seen Spirit of Urine and other volatile liquors ( afforded by Animal substances ) often do ; and as we have observ'd , though rarely , ev'n in the corrosive liquor that is wont to be call'd Butter of Antimony . And the like Enquiry may be made concerning the liquidnesse of the distilled Spirits of decrepitated Salt , calcin'd Vitriol , and divers other bodies , which seem to have been destitute of moisture , when committed to Distillation . SECT . XXIII . But this not being precisely a Phaenomenon of our Experiment , we shall not here prosecute it , ( though perhaps we else where may ) but rather observe to you , Pyrophilus , that whereas good Spirit of Nitre being left in an open vessel , is wont to smoke and waste it self in an Exhalation sensible , especially if it be excited by a little heat , not only in the Nose but to the Eye ; this Fugitive Spirit when it is once re-united to its own fix'd Salt , emits no such steam , though kept a good while near a considerable fire : which Instance may somewhat assist us to make out , that the most fugitive parts of Concretes may in spight of their natural Mobility be detain'd in bodies by their Union and texture with the more sluggish parts of them , among which those lighter and more active Ingredients may be so entangled as to be restrain'd from Avolation . SECT . XXIV . Another thing worth considering in our Experiment is this , that upon the dropping of the acid spirit into the Alkalizate liquor , if you place the open-mouthed glasse wherein the Experiment is perform'd betwixt the light and your eye , you may plainly discern , that the Saline particles of these liquors tosse one another ( or are tossed by some brisk invisible substance ) to the height of divers fingers breadth up into the air , whence most of them fall back into the Vessel like a thick shower of little drops of rain : And it were worth enquiring , whence this sparkling of the parts of these mixt liquors arises ; and whether the Saline Corpuscles may be conceiv'd rapidly to move differing ways , and so , thwarting each other in their courses , and rudely justling at their Occursions , some of them are forc'd to bound or fly upwards , ( almost like Ivory balls meeting each other on a Billyard-Table . ) And to assist you in this Enquiry , give me leave to inform you , that the particles thus thrown into the air appear to be most of them Saline by this Observation ; that soon after the fall of the fore-mention'd showers , you shall find the sides of the glasse wherein the affusion of the Nitrous spirit has been made , all embroidered with little grains of Salt , left there by those wandring drops that fell besides the liquor . SECT . XXV . And let me farther observe to you , that there seems to be a very nimble agitation in the particles of the Spirit of Nitre , by this , That upon the pouring of Aqua fortis ( whose Active part is little else than Spirt of Nitre ) upon a Solution of Salt of Tartar in fair water , in which divers small lumps of the Salt remain'd yet undissolv'd , we have observ'd the acid spirit to sever the particles of the Salt with such impetuosity , that the numberlesse little Bubbles produc'd upon their Conflict , and hastily ascending in swarms from some of the little , lumps , made them emulate so many little , but rapidly rising , Springs . And to make it yet appear more probable , that there may be such crossing motions in the parts of these liquors , we observ'd , that after the two contrary Salts had by their mutual conflict tir'd each other , ( or rather had been upon their occursions fastned to one another ) there would follow no farther ebullition or skipping up and down of little drops of the liquors , upon the putting in of more Spirit of Nitre , unlesse there were added likewise more of the Alkalizate liquor . SECT . XXVI . And , before we passe on from this Reflection , it may not be uselesse to take notice of the difference that there may be betwixt those active parts of a body which are of differing Natures , when they are as it were Sheath'd up , or Wedg'd in amongst others in the texture of a Concrete ; and the same particles , when ( extricated from these Impediments ) they are set at liberty to flock together , and by the exercise of their nimble motions display their proper , but formerly clogg'd activity , or acquire a Disposition to be briskly agitated by some fine interfluent matter . For though in the entire body of Salt-Petre the Ingredients it consists of , or the differing substances into which the fire dissipates it , do so mutually implicate and hinder each other , that the Concrete , whilst such , acts but very languidly ; yet when the parts come to be dislocated , and the halituous and Alkalizate particles are enabled or made to disband from the Concrete , and associate themselves with those of their own nature , we see with how great an activity both the acid Spirit and the fix'd Salt are endow'd . SECT . XXVII . And we may yet farther observe , that it is not barely an indefinite nimblenesse of motion , and activity of the particles of Saline liquors , that enables them to perform each of their particular effects : for to the production of some of these there seems requisite , besides perhaps a Modification of their Motion , a determinate Figure of the corpuscles , answerable to that of the pores of the body by them to be dissolv'd ; as Spirit of Nitre corrodes Silver , but not Gold ; which neverthelesse , its particles associated with those of Sal-Armoniack , and thereby acquiring a new Figure , and perhaps a differing Motion , will readily dissolve : and the liquor of fix'd Nitre will for the same reason , dissolve such Sulphureous and unctuous bodies as the acid spirit will not corrode ; nay , and I have carefully observ'd , that there may be liquors that will not dissolve some bodies , unlesse the motion or activity of their particles be allay'd or modify'd by the mixture of fair water , or such unactive vehicles . SECT . XXVIII . Another particular which in our Experiment we may take notice of , is , the unwarinesse of those vulgar Chymists who presume confidently ( and indiscriminately enough ) to ascribe to each of the heterogeneous Ingredients , or ( in their language ) Principles of a Concrete analys'd by the fire , the virtues and properties ( perhaps too in an exalted degree ) of the entire body . But though this be an errour of very ill consequence in reference to divers Chymical preparations of Medicines ; yet having else-where discours'd purposely of it , we shall here content our selves to allege against it the instances afforded us by the Experiment under consideration : for in that we may observe , that when Salt-Petre is distill'd , the volatile liquor and fix'd Salt into which it is reduc'd by the fire , are endowed with properties exceeding different both from each other , and from those of the undissipated Concrete : for the Spirit of Nitre is ( as we formerly have observ'd ) a kind of Acetum Minerale , and possesses the Common qualities to be met with in acid spirits as such ; whereas the fix'd Nitre is of an Alkalizate nature , and participates the qualities belonging generally to lixiviate Salts ; and Salt-petre it self is a peculiar sort of Salt , discriminated by distinct properties both from those Salts that are eminently acid , as Allum , Vitriol , Sal-gemmae , &c. and from those that are properly Alkalizate , as Salt of Tartar and Pot-ashes ; and accordingly , we may easily observe a vast disparity in the effects and operations of these three bodies . For several , if not all of those mineral Ones which Aqua fortis will by corroding dissolve , the Solution of fix'd Nitre will precipitate ; and divers , if not all of those Sulphureous and unctuous bodies which the Solution of fixt Nitre will dissolve , the acid spirit of Petre will precipitate . And we have in a trice re-dissolved with the Spirit a Solution of Sublimate precipitated with the other liquor : Thus , if into a Scarlet tincture made by an Infusion of Brasil in fair water , we pour a little Spirit of Nitre , the shaken liquor will in a moment change its Rednesse for a kind of Yellow , which by pouring on it a little of the Solution of fix'd Nitre , may be again graduated into a somewhat Sanguine colour , sometimes paler , and somtimes perhaps deeper than the first ; whereas a Solution of Selt-petre it self pour'd on either of the former tinctures , the Red or the Yellow , has not been by us discern'd to have produc'd any sensible alteration . And whereas Salt-Petre it self is partly fix'd , and partly volatile , the acid Ingredients of it are altogether volatile , the Alkalizate fix'd . But having elsewhere occasion to speak to this subject , we shall now proceed to tell you , that SECT . XXIX . It may passe for another Observable presented us by our Experiment , that it gives us occasion to enquire whether the Air doth not contribute something to the artificial production of Salt-Petre , or at least to the figuration of it according to the perfecter shape belonging to that kind of Salt : for we formerly observ'd , that the Salt which was leisurely permitted to shoot of it self in the liquor expos'd to the open air , did shoot into more fair and large Crystalline Stiriae , than those that were gain'd out of the remaining part of the same liquor by a more hasty evaporation , though made but in a digesting Furnace . And we have also observ'd , that when once we pour'd Aqua fortis on a strong Solution of Salt of Tartar , till no further effervescence was discernable betwixt them , though the mixture by a somewhat quick heat afforded a Salt that seem'd to be very Nitrous , yet it would not be brought to shoot in so fair and conspicuously-figur'd Crystals of Petre , till it had been a good while expos'd to the open air : but whether the air its self impregnated with the promiscuous streams of most of the bodies of the terrestrial globe , ( and perhaps with seminal effluvia from some of them ) do really contribute any thing either to the Production or Figuration of Salt-petre in our Experiment , I dare not yet determine , for two chief Reasons . SECT . XXX . Whereof the first is because the Figuration seems not improbably ascribable , not so much to the proper efficiency of the air , as to the conveniency which by quietnesse , and a competent vehicle to move in , was afforded to the Saline particles , to conform themselves ( or be conform'd by a Concourse of Agents and Circumstances ) to that figure which is most natural to them . For we have observ'd already , that the fix'd Nitre which was not dissolv'd in water , before the affusion of the acid spirit , did not shoot into the wonted form of Cristalls of Petre , but remain'd a kind of Nitrous powder , the acid and Alkalizate Saline particles not having a convenient vehicle to expand themselves in ; but being necessitated , for want of room , to make an unseasonable and over-hasty coalition , upon which their own weight made them subside in the figures resulting from their casual concourse , and therefore probably differing from those into which the Saline corpuscles would have been dispos'd , had they been allowed a competency of vehicle and time . SECT . XXXI . The other reason of my hesitancy about the use of the Air in our experiment , is , that I inconsiderately forgot to try whether part of that Liquor which shot into Crystals in an open-mouth'd glass expos'd to the air , would not have done the like , if it had been left quiet as long as the other was , though in a vessel accurately stopp'd : * but whatever the Air hath to do in this experiment , I dare invite you to believe , that it is so enrich'd with variety of steams from Terrestrial ( not here to determine whether it receive not some also from Coelestial ) bodies , that the enquiring into the further uses of it ( for I mean not it's known uses in Respiration , Sayling , Pneumatical Engines , &c. ) may very well deserve your curiosity . To encourage which , I dare at present only tell you , that though I cannot yet pretend to much experience in this particular , yet we have known such changes ( seemingly Chymical ) made in some Saline Concretes , by the help chiefly of the volatilizing operations of the open air , as very few , save those that have attentively consider'd what Helmont , and one or two other Artists , have hinted on that subject , or have made tryals of that nature themselves , will be apt to imagine . SECT . XXXII . And if upon further and exacter tryal it appears that the whole body of the Salt-Petre , after it's having been sever'd into very differing parts by distillation , may be adequately re-united into Salt-Petre equiponderant to it's first self ; this Experiment will afford us a noble and ( for ought we have hitherto met with ) single instance to make it probable that that which is c●mmonly called the Form of a Concrete , which gives it it's being and denomination , and from whence all it's qualities are in the vulgar Philosophy , by I know not what inexplicable wayes , supposed to flow , may be in some bodies but a Modification of the matter they consist of , whose parts by being so and so disposed in relation to each other , constitute such a determinate kind of body , endowed with such and such properties ; whereas if the same parts were otherwise disposed , they would constitute other bodies of very differing natures from that of the Concrete whose parts they formerly were , and which may again result or be produc'd after it's dissipation and seeming destruction , by the re-union of the same component particles , associated according to their former disposition . SECT . XXXIII . The Redintegration ( or Reproduction ) of an analyz'd body , if it can be accurately and really perform'd , may give much light to many particulars in Philosophy , and would certainly be very welcome both to the embracers of the Atomical Hypothesis , and generally to those other Modern Naturalists , who aspire to such Explications of Nature's Phaenomena as may at least be understood : all whom I wish , that though men cannot perhaps in all things , yet at least as far as they can , they would accustom themselves to speak and think as Nature does really and sensibly appear to work ; and not to acquiesce in Notions and Explications of things which , strictly examin'd , are not in●elligible . Wherefore I am about to attempt a Reproduction in Vitriol , Turpentine , and some other Concretes , in which it seems not unlikely to be performable : and perhaps you may see cause to think that the Experiment of Salt-Petre , even as we have already made and proposed it , though it be not an exact and adequate Redintegration , is yet not far from being a real one ; the dissipated parts of the Concrete truly re-uniting into a body of the same nature with the former , though not altogether of the same bulk . SECT . XXXIV . And yet I think it requisite to represent to you , Pyrophilus , that Salt-Petre is a body whose parts are not Organical , and which is not so much as very compounded ; and that therefore bodies that consist of more numerous Ingredients , and much more those whose Organical parts require a much more artificial and elaborate disposition or contrivance of their component particles , cannot be safely judg'd of , by what is possible to be perform'd on a body of so simple and slight a contexture as is Salt-Petre : for we see that even wine , though no organical body , nor so much as the most compounded of inanimate . Concretes , when it 's spirit is , though by the gentlest distillation , drawn from it , will not , by the re-union of it's constituent Liquors , be reduc'd to it's pristine Nature ; because the workmanship of Nature in the disposition of the parts was too elaborate to be imitable , or repairable by the bare and inartificial apposition of those divided parts to each other : besides that in the dissociating action , even of the gentlest fire , upon a Concrete , there does perhaps vanish , though undiscernedly , some active and fugitive particles , whose presence was requisite to contain the Concrete under such a determinate form ; as we see in Wine degenerating into Vinegar , where the change seems to proceed from this , that upon the Avolation or ( if I may so speak ) Depression ) of some subtle sulphureous spirits , whose Recesse or degeneration is not to be perceiv'd by any sensible diminution of bulk in the Liquor , the remaining parts fall into new leagues or dispositions , and constitute an acid Liquor somewhat fix'd and Corrosive , and consequently of qualities very differing from those of the Wine , whose souring produc'd it : as we more fully declare in our Experiments relating to Fermentation . SECT . XXXV . And certainly there is , as we formerly said , so artificial a contrivance of particles requisite to the constitution of the Organical parts of living bodies , that it will be scarce possible for humane Art or Industry to imitate so as to equal those exquisite productions of Nature : And therefore I wonder not that the story of the Phoenix's resurrection out of her own ashes should by the best Naturalists be thought a meer fiction . And if that relation , mention'd by the inquisitive Kircherus as an eye-witness of the Reproduction ( if I may so call it ) of Shell-fishes near the brink of a Lake in the Sicilian Promontorie Peloro , by the watering of their broken bodies with Salt water in the Spring , be strictly true , it seems much more improbable that such changes and vicissitudes should be bare Redintegrations of the dissociated parts of such restored bodies ; than that * , ( according to what we elsewhere teach , ) they should be New Productions made by some seminal particles undiscernedly lurking in some part of the destroyed body , and afterwards excited and assisted by a Genial and cherishing heat so to act upon the fit and obsequious matter wherein 't was harbor'd , as to organize and fashion that disposed matter according to the exigencies of it's own Nature . For that in some bodies the Seminal particles may a while survive the seeming destruction of life , is not altogether without example , as we elsewhere professedly manifest . And in Kircher's story it is to be observ'd , that the restor'd Animals were but Shell-fish ; in whose slimy and viscous substance the Spirits and Prolifick parts are probably both more diffused and kept from being easily dissipable ; to which I know not whether it will be worth while to subjoyn , that in such Fishes the Mechanical contrivance is but very plain , and as it were slight and obvious , in comparison of the exquisitely elaborated parts of more perfect Animals . SECT . XXXVI . The last observable , Pyrophilus , that we shall at present take notice of in our Experiment , shall be this , That it may thereby seem probable that some Chymical remedies may be too rashly rejected by Physicians , because Oyl or Spirit of Vitriol , Aqua Regis , or other Corrosive Liquors , have been employ'd in their preparation : For it is confidently affirm'd by many Physicians , and but faintly denied by some Chymists , that the Corrosive Menstruums made use of in the preparation of remedies , can never be so exquisitely wash'd off from them , but that some of the Salts will adhere to the Medicines , and perniciously display their Corrosive Nature in the body of him that takes them . And it is not to be denied , but that many ignorant and venturous Chymists do unskilfully ( and therefore dangerously enough ) imploy Corrosives sometimes without any necessity or real advantage to invite them to it , and sometimes withou● sufficiently freeing their Medicines from the corroding Salts , by whose assistance they were prepar'd ; for 't is not always the frequency of ablutions , though with warm water , that will suffice to carry off the Salts from some bodies ; and therefore those great Artists , Helmont and Paracelsus , prescribe some things to be dulcifi'd by the abstraction of the water of whites of Egges , ( which though it seem insipid , hath been found a great disarmer of corrosive Salts ) and others by the frequent distillation of Spirit of Wine , which indeed ( not to mention the Balsamick parts it may leave behind ) we have observ'd to have a faculty of carrying up with it the Saline Particles of Spirit of Vinegar adhering to some Chymical remedies . But all this notwithstanding , Pyrophilus , there may be several bodies ( and perhaps more than are commonly taken notice of ) which quite alter the nature of the acid Salts employ'd to prepare them , by occasioning those Salts to degenera●e into another nature , upon the very act of corroding , or else by so associating their own Salts with those of the dissolving Menstruum , that from the Coalition of both , there emerges a third body differing in qualities from either . As in our experiment we find that the Spirit of Petre , which is much more sharp and corrosive than the strongest distill'd Vinegar , and the fix'd Nitre which is Caustick like Salt of Tartar , and may , I suppose , well serve for a Potential Cautery , ( as Surgeons speak ) do by their mutual action work themselves into Salt-Petre , which is far enough from having any eminently fretting Quality , and may be safely taken inwardly in a much greater Dose than either of its Ingredients . SECT . XXXVII . How much corrosive Salts may dulcifie themselves by corroding some bodies , you may easily try by pouring distill'd Vinegar or moderate Spirit of Vitriol upon a competent proportion of Corals , or Crabs Eyes , or Pearls , ( or , as I suppose , almost any testaceous body . ) And for my part , though I am very shy of imploying corrosive Liquors in the Preparation of Medicines ; yet I have lately given a Preparation of refin'd Silver made with Aqua fortis it self , or Spirit of Nitre , not onely innocently , but with such success , that a couple of Experienc'd Physicians themselves , that were troubled with a superfluity of serous humors , sent to request it of me for their own use . SECT . XXXVIII . It were therefore worth while , in every Preparation where Corrosive Liquors are wont to be imploy'd , or may seem requisite to be so , to consider the distinct nature of the particular bodies to be wrought upon , or consult Experience whether or no the acid Menstruum do communicate to the Concrete any Particles capable of retaining their fretting Quality after the end of the Operation ; or whether or no the Salts do not so spend and tire themselves in the act of corroding , that being as it were sheath'd , they become unable to corrode any further ; or whether or no the Menstruum do not in the body to be corroded meet with some such Saline particles , as may with it constitute a new and inoffensive substance , as when Spirit of Vinegar , by corroding calcin'd Lead , is turn'd with it into a Salt , not of an acid , but a Saccharine taste , such as invited Chymists to give it the name of Sugar of Saturn . In the former of these cases the Medicine may be dangerous , unless it be after the Solution or Corrosion ended exquisitely dulcifi'd from all remainder of the Corrosive Salts . But in the two latter cases the remedies may in spight of the Corrosiveness of the Menstruums employ'd about them , be safe and innocent enough ; for it matters not much how sharp and fretting the sever'd Ingredients of a remedy were , provided the remedy it self resulting from them be not so . And whereas it is objected , that in divers of these remedies the Corrosive Salts are not really destroy'd , but onely disguis'd , because by distillation it is possible to separate from them the Liquors us'd about them as Corrosive as ever : it may easily be reply'd , that besides that in several Medicines , the Matter of Fact will not hold in divers others ; the Objection built on it is much more specious than solid , for it very little concerns us to be sure that out of the Medicines we take or give the violence of fire cannot separate Corrosive Salts ; provided we be duely satisfi'd , that no such separation can be made by the heat or Juices of a humane body . And therefore , though it have been affirmed , that Tartarum Vitriolatum would upon the urgent solicitation of a strong fire , part with much of ( that most fretting liquor upon animal substances ) the Oil of Vitriol , that concurr'd to its Production ; yet our best and wariest Physicians , not onely Chymists but Methodists , scruple not to give it inwardly in several constitutions , and distempers . And to end this discourse with the Experiment that began it , we clearly see that Salt-Petre is frequently and innoxiously given inwardly , though the Salt , that makes even Aqua fortis so Corrosive , be the principal Ingredient of it , and may by distillation be driven from it . SECT . XXXIX . It would not have been very uneasie for me , Pyrophilus , to have added to divers particulars of the past Discourse , Experiments and considerations tending to countenance or illustrate the Reflections therein set down : but in the first place , I wanted leisure to expatiate ; in the second place , I was unwilling to anticipate what I have to say to you in other Essays , especially expecting to have elsewhere occasion to make mention of Salt-Petre . And besides all this , I am ( to tell you the truth ) desirous to impose on you a kind of necessity of prosecuting this Experiment , further than when I made it I had opportunity to do . For as I am apt to think it may prove a noble one : so I am sufficiently sensible of my having not yet been able to look into the bottom of it ; and that very sense of my own ignorance , help'd to keep me from lengthening your trouble in this Essay , lest by solemnly endeavouring to countenance my Conjectures , I might be thought Dogmatical in a hasty Scrible , wherein 't is much more my design to awaken and engage your Curiosity , than acquaint you with my opinions . And yet I thought it not amiss to mention the past considerations , such as they are , partly because this one instance seems so fai●ly to accommodate more than one Notion of the intelligible Philosophy , which seems hitherto not to have so much as employ'd , much less produc'd , any store of Experiments ; and partly , because I would have you take notice , that more Observables than one may sometimes be very reasonably sought for in a single Experiment . And perhaps too , I was willing by my spending a whole Essay upon one Experiment , without allowing my self to wander often from it , to invite you to think with me , That Experiments ought to be estimated by their value , not their number ; and that a single Experiment , I say not such as that the last Essay treats of , but in general , such as , it may be , may as well deserve an entire Treatise , as a great many less considerable ones . As one of those large and orient Pearls that are fit to adorn a Monarchs Crown , may outvalue a very great number of those little ( though true ) Pearls that are to be bought by the ounce in Goldsmiths and Apothecaries shops . SECT . XL. Having newly met , Pyrophilus , with some small Treatises freshly publish'd by Glauberus , and not having now the leisure to consider , or indeed so much as to peruse , much less the opportunity to make tryal of divers Particulars , which by turning over the leaves of the book , I find mention'd by him in relation to Salt-Petre , I must recommend to you the care of examining the Particulars he delivers ; and trying how far some of them may serve to correct , or to confirm , and how far others may be corrected by what has been in the past discourse set down concerning Salt-Petre upon Experiments , some of whose fruits I can yet shew you , which were made upon the account of the divisiblenesse of Nitre into fix'd and volatile parts , long before the Publication of Glauber's Treatises . THE HISTORY OF FLUIDITY AND FIRMNESSE . Begun by R. B. ADVERTISEMENTS Concerning the following TREATISE . THAT the Author in those Animadversions upon the Essay touching Salt-Petre , whereof the ensuing Treatise makes a part , might with the more freedom and conveniency adde , alter , and ev'n retract as he should see cause , he thought fit to write them as if they were made on the Work of another . The Author hopes , That the Equitable Reader considering that the following Particulars touching Fluidity and Firmness were first written but by way of Annotations upon the beginning of the above-mentioned Essay , will excuse the unaccurateness of the Method , as a fault scarce evitable on that occasion . It is also hop'd , that if the Reader will remember , that he was told in the Preface to the newly-mention'd Essay , that most of those whom to gratifie , That Treatise and the ensuing Notes on it were written , were addicted to the Epicurean Philosophy ; The Authors Explicating things chiefly according to the Atomical Principles will not be thought strange , nor be lookt upon as a sure Argument of his being wedded to the particular opinions wherein the Atomists differ from other modern Naturalists ; especially ▪ since he has on some occasions plainly enough intimated the contrary , by proposing , together with the Atomical ways of resolving a thing , another Explication more agreeable to the Cartesian , or some other modern Hypothesis . The following Tract was entitl'd a History of Fluidity and Firmness , because indeed the having set down Experiments and other matters of fact relating to the Subjects treated of , is the Main , though not the Only thing the Author dares pretend to have done in it . And he stiles the History as it now comes abroad , Begun : Partly , because he would invite abler Pens to contribute their Observations towards the compleating of what he is sensible he has but begun ; and partly because he may hereafter , if God permit , do something of that kind himself . And lastly , the Author , though troubl'd that he can do it , dares not but Advertise the Reader , That some Pages partly a little after the beginning , and partly about the middle of the following Treatise , having been lost through the negligence or mistake of him to whose Care the sheets whereon it was written were committed ; he fears he has not been able , otherwise than very lamely and imperfectly , to repair that loss out of his Memory . THE HISTORY OF Fluidity and Firmness . The First Part. Of FLUIDITY . SECT . I. WHether Philosophers might not have done better in making Fluidity and Firmness rather States then Qualities of Bodies , we will not now examine . But under which soever of the two Notions we look upon them , 't is manifest enough , that they are to be reckon'd amongst the most general Affections of the Conventions or Associations of several particles of matter into Bodies of any certain denomination , there being scarce any distinct portion of matter in the World that is not either Fluid , or else Stable or Consistent . And therefore , I presume , it may be well worth while to consider what may be the general causes of these two States , Qualities , or Affections of Matter ; and to Try whether by associating Chymical Experiments to Philosophical Notions , there may not be given at least a more Intelligible and more Practical of both these Subjects , than has been hitherto afforded us by the Doctrine of the Schools , which is wont to appear very unsatisfactory to discerning Men ; many of whom look upon what is wont to be taught by the Peripateticks , concerning Fluidity and Firmness , as well as other Qualities , to be partly too general to teach us much , and partly too obscure to be understood . And that which at present invites us to this Enquiry is , chiefly , that some Circumstances of our Authors Experiment , touching Salt-Petre , may afford us some useful assistance in our designed search . For though the chief Phaenomena and Circumstances of the Experiment may be thought principally to respect Fluidity ; yet since that and Firmness are contrary Qualities , and since it is truly , as well as commonly , said , That contraries survey'd together serve to illustrate each other , it may reasonably be hop'd , That the Light which the circumstances just now related to may give to the Nature of Fluidity , may facilitate the knowledge of that of Compactness : nevertheless , we shall often be oblig'd to treat of these two qualities together , because the Experiments we are to produce do many of them relate to both . SECT . II. A Body then seems to be Fluid , chiefly upon this account , That it consists of Corpuscles that touching one another in some parts only of their Surfaces ( and so being incontiguous in the rest ) and separately Agitated to and fro , can by reason of the numerous pores or spaces necessarily left betwixt their incontiguous parts , easily glide along each others superficies , and by reason of their motion diffuse themselves , till they meet with some hard or resisting Body ; to whose internal surface , by virtue of that Motion , their Smallness , and either their Gravity , or something Analogous or Equivalent to it , they exquisitely , as to sense , accommodate themselves . SECT . III. What notion Epicurus , and the Antient Atomists his followers , had of fluid Bodies , may be learn'd from these Verses of his Paraphrast Lucretius : Illa autem debent ex laevibus atque rotundis Esse magis , fluido quae corpore liquida constant . Nec retinentur enim inter se glomeramina quaeque , Et procursus item in proclive volubilis extat . And indeed , it is probable enough that in divers Liquors the little surfaces of the component particles are smooth and slippery , and that their being so does much facilitate the gliding of the Corpuscles among themselves ; and consequently , the Fluidity of the Body they compose . Nor is it to be deny'd , that the Spherical figure of such Corpuscles may also conduce to their easie rouling upon one another : but there are divers other figures which may make the little Bodies indow'd with them voluble enough to constitute a fluid substance . And the other qualities to be met with in divers liquid substances , and even in water it self , and Oyl , seem to argue their parts to be otherwise shap'd , and those fluid Bodies which are not Liquors , as Air and Fire , seem to be compos'd of particles not all or most of them round , but of very various , and sometimes of very irregular figures , and yet that such Bodies deserve to be call'd fluid ones , will be manifest anon : And that they make a much more considerable part of the Universe than those that are wont to be call'd Liquors , may be argu'd from hence , that except the Earth , the Planets , and perhaps too the fixt Stars , the rest of the World , as vast as it is , seems to consist chiefly , if not only , of an Aetherial , thin , and fluid substance , as may appear ( to omit other arguments ) by what latter Astronomers have observ'd concerning the free and unresisted motion of such Comets as have by a Trajection through the Aether , for a long time wander'd through the Celestial or Interstellar part of the Universe . SECT . IV. And here let us observe , that 't is not necessary to the Fluidity of a Body , nay , nor to its appearing fluid to the Eye it self , That the Corpuscles it consists of be crowded as close together as they are wont to be in water , and other bodies that are commonly lookt upon as the only Liquors . For though a parcel of matter no bigger than a grain of Corn , being rarify'd into smoak , will possess an incomparably greater space than it did before ; and though , if a Body be further rarify'd into flame , its expansion will be yet much greater : yet both smoak and flame may be so order'd , as to appear like Liquors . We have practis'd divers ways , to make the fumes of Bodies acquire a visibly-level superficies like water ; but the easiest , though not perhaps the best , is this , ( part of which I remember I have seen perform'd as a kind of trick by a very ingenious Person . ) The mouth being fill'd with the smoak of Rosemary ( that happening to be at hand when I made the Experiment ) if this smoak be plentifully blown into a glass Pipe of an indifferent size , and open at both ends ; and if when 't is well fill'd with smoak , the lower end be presently stopt , and the glass be kept still a while in an erected posture , the fumes will settle by degrees to a level superficies like water : so that , though you gently incline the Pipe any way , the upper surface of the smoak will neverthelesse quickly grow parallel to the Horizon . And if the glasse be further ( but slowly ) made to stoop , the smoak will seem to run down in a Body like water , whilst it continues in the Pipe , though when it is come to the lower end of it , instead of dropping down like water , it will commonly rather flye upwards and disperse it self into the Aire . And as for flame , I fore-see I shall ere long have occasion to mention an Experiment , whereby I have sometimes endeavour'd to shew , that ev'n two contiguous flames , as expanded Bodies as they are , and as open as their Texture is , may like visible Fluids of a differing kind retain distinct surfaces . SECT . V. But instead of Examining any further , how many Bodies are or may be made visibly to appear fluid ones ; let us now resume the Consideration of what it is that make Bodies fluid ; especially , since having intimated some of the Reasons , why we are unwilling to Confine our selves to the Epicurean notion , we hope it will the lesse be dislik'd , that we thought fit to make such a description of a fluid substance , as may intimate , that we conceive the conditions of it to be Chiefly these Three . The first is the Littlenesse of the Bodies that compose it : For in big parcels of matter , besides the greater inequalities or roughnesses that are usual upon their surfaces , and may hinder the easie sliding of those Bodies along one another ; and besides that diverse other Affections of a fluid Body cannot well belong to an aggregate of grosse Lumps of matter ; besides these things , I say , the bulk it self is apt to make them so heavy , that they cannot be agitated by the power of those causes ( whatever they be ) that make the minute parts of fluid Bodies move so freely up and down among themselves : whereas it would scarce be believ'd , how much the smallnesse of parts may facilitate their being easily put into motion , and kept in it , if we were not able to confirme it by Chymical Experiments . But we see that Lead , Q●ick-silver , and ev'n Gold it self , though whilst they are of a sensible bulk , they will readily sink to the bottom of Aqua Regis , or any other such Liquor ; yet when the Menstruum has corroded them , or fretted them asunder into very minute parts , those minute Corpuscles grow then so much more capable of agitation than before , that quitting the bottom of the Liquor , they are carri'd freely every way , and to the top , with the associated parts of the Liquor , without falling back again to the bottom . Nay , we see that ponderous and mineral Bodies divided into corpuscles small enough , may be made so light and voluble , as to become Ingredients ev'n of distill'd Liquors ; as we may learn by what some Chymists call the Butter , others ( simply ) the Oyle , and others the Oleum Glaciale of Antimony , which though it be after Rectification a very limpid Liquor , yet does in great part consist of the very Body of the Antimony , as may appear ( not to mention its weight ) by this , that 't is most easie to precipitate out of it with fair water store of a ponderous white calx , reducible by Art to an Antimonial glasse . Nay , we make a Menstruum , with which we can easily at the first or second Distillation bring over Gold enough to make the distill'd Liquor appear and continue ennobled with a Golden Colour . And to show yet more particularly , that great Bodies are too unwieldy to constitute fluid ones ; We may further observe , how as well Nature as Art , when either of them makes Bodies of considerable bulk fluid , is wont in order thereunto , to make a Comminution of them , as we may observe in divers Examples . SECT . VI. Thus we see that in the stomacks of Dogs , Nature , to reduce Bones into those fluid Bodies , Chyle and Blood , does by some powerful and appropriated juice , ( whether belonging to the Stomack it self , or thrown out of the Arteries in the passage of the circulating Blood ) dissolve them into parts so minute , that the acutest Eye would not tempt a man to suspect , that such a Liquor had ever been a Bone. And that it may not be objected that this dissolution is chiefly performed , or at least must always be assisted by the Liquor which Animals take into their Stomachs by drinking ; I shall represent not only that we find by experience how little , common water the only usual drink of Dogs , Wolves , &c. is able to dissolve bones though they be very long not macerated but boil'd in it ; but that ( if we may believe Natural Historians and credible Travellers ) there are some sorts of Animals , as particularly Camels , that may be brought not to drink once in many days , ev'n when they travel in hot Climates . And to make you think this the less improbable , I shall adde , that I am familiarly acquainted with an Ingenious Gentleman , who , as himself and an ancient Virtuoso , in whose house he lives , have inform'd me , does usually drink but once in several days , and then no excessive draught neither . And when I askt him how long he had actually abstain'd not barely from drink , but from thirsting after it ? He answer'd , that he had once ( some few years before ) continued about nine days without either taking or needing any drink ; and he doubted not but that he might have continued much longer in that state , if by distempering himself one night with long and hard study he had not had some light inclination to take a small draught , which serv'd him for about four days longer . And when I askt him whether in that hot Summers day that preceded the evening wherein he happen'd to tell me this , he had not drunk at all ? he answer'd Negatively . And it adds to the strangeness of this Peculiarity , that this Gentleman is in the flower of his Youth , being but about twenty two years of Age , and of a Sanguine and Florid Complexion . And ( to annex that also upon the By ) I learned by enquiry from him , that he sweats freely enough , as I remember I saw him do , that his Diet is the same with other mens , without restraining him from the free use of Salt Meats , and that his Urine is in Quantity much like that of ordinary Men of his Age and temperament . But to return to what I was saying more generally of the Stomachical Menstruum of Animals ; I shall adde on this occasion , that to make some kind of Imitation of it , I prepar'd , and do elsewhere mention and teach a certain Liquor , that I use , whereby I have in a short time , and without fire , dissociated the parts of rosted or boil'd flesh , bread , fruit : &c. and pull'd them asunder into very minute Bodies , whereby I have reduc'd sometimes one , sometimes another of them , together with the Menstruum , ( which needs not much exceed them in Bulk ) to the consistence of a fluid Body . We see likewise , that Fusion makes metalls fluid , and in Fusion there is manifestly a comminution of the melted Body , the Heat alone of Gold , Silver , or Iron , though encreas'd even to Ignition , being not able to make those metalls become fluid , whilst they continue in masses of any sensible bulk . To which I shall adde anon , that even melted Metalls may have their Fluidity encreas'd by a yet further Comminution of their parts . SECT . VII . And to resume here the Consideration of that very difficult Question , which we have elsewhere men●ion'd , it seems well worth Enquiry , whence it happens that in the distillation of common Salt and other saline Bodies , which not only are not fluid , but are hard ev'n to brittleness , there will yet be obtain'd a perfect and permanent Liquor , and from some of them a very considerable proportion of it . In answer to this Question it may indeed be said , That in diverse dry Bodies , such as Harts-horn , Wood and Bones , committed to distillation , the fire does no more than separate the aqueous or other liquid parts from the others , wherewith they were blended in the Concrete , and bring them together into the Receiver , where they convene into a Liquor . But besides that this it self is perhaps more easily said than prov'd , it does not reach the propounded Difficulty : For with what probability can it be affirm'd of Bodies that have been already calcin'd or melted ? such as are the red Calx of Vitriol , and flux'd Sea Salt , &c. which yet afford Liquors , though their aqueous and other looser parts have been already driven away by a strong fire before their being expos'd to distillation . I have sometimes then consider'd , whether it may not seem less improbable to conjecture , that the vehement agitation produc'd in such Bodies by the violence of Heat , does both divide them into minute Corpuscles , and drive over swarms of them into the cold Receiver , where loosing their former vehemence of agitation , they are reduc'd into a Liquor , chiefly , ( for I would not exclude concurrent causes ) by reason that the fire happen'd to rend the Concrete into parts , by their extreme littleness , or their shape , or both , so easie to be tumbled up and down , that the wonted agitation of the Air , propagated by the interpos'd Bodies or Medium ; or else that the same cause , whatever it be , that gives the Air its wonted agitation , is able to give such minute Corpuscles enough of it to keep them fluid . SECT . VIII . That there is constantly in the Air a various motion of the small parts , will be anon declared . That also some Bodies will be kept fluid by a much less measure of agitation than is requisite to others , seems probable from hence , That Wine will continue a Liquor in such a languid warmth of the Air , as will not keep the parts of water moving , but permit them to rest in the form of Ice . And in cold Countries , where Wine it self would congeal , ( as I have by Art made it do here in England ) 't is observ'd , that though the more aqueous parts will by the loss of their motion be turn'd into Ice , yet the more subtil and spirituous parts remain unfrozen ; and so do diverse other Liquors , ( especially Chymical ) of very subtil and voluble parts . And the Corpuscles that chiefly compose that Body which is properly call'd the Air , though it appears by weather-glasses that Cold may very much contribute to condense it , ( that is , to occasion the approach of its parts to one another , or , reduce them to a closer order ) have not been observ'd to be frozen by any degree of cold whatsoever ; which seems to proceed from hence , that by reason of their extream littleness , ( not excluding their figure ) there cannot be so little of agitation about the Earth , as not to be sufficient ●o continue a various motion in such very minute Bodies , and consequently to keep them fluid . Now , That likewise it is possible that a saline Spirit should consist at least in great part of very minute grains of Salt , we elsewhere declare , where 't is taught , that a Sal-Armoniack may be made by Spirit of Urine and Spirit of Salt , as the common Sal-Armoniack is made with crude Salt : and there a way is also shewn , how these two Salts , ( the Urinous and the other ) as strictly as they are united in the compound , may be readily divorc'd . And agreeably to this I observe , that as ( according to what I elsewhere note ) a common Aqua fortis may be enabl'd to dissolve Gold , ( on which of it self it will not fasten ) by the addition of Spirit of Salt ; so I find that common crude Salt barely dissolv'd in it , will give it the like power of working upon Gold. Nay , I have try'd that crude Nitre dissolv'd in good Spirit of Salt , may make it serve for an Aqua Regis . And I remember on this occasion , that having enquir'd of the most noted Person in Holland for the distilling of corrosive waters , what was the greatest proportion of distill'd Liquors that ever he was able to obtain from Sea Salt ; he ( though a man not given so much as to boasting ) affirmed to me , that by using instead of the ordinary Caput mortuum , as Brick-dust , Sand , &c. ( that Chymists are wont to mingle with Salt before they distil it ) a certain whitish clay , he had sometimes brought over almost the whole body of Salt into a Liquor ; insomuch that from a pound of Salt he could draw , and that without any extraordinary trouble or degree of fire , fourteen Ounces of Liquor . And when , because I suspected that much of this might be water forc'd from the clay mingled with the Salt , I enquired whether he had ever dephlegmed this Liquor ; He answered me , that he had purposely done it ; and sometimes found no less than about twelve ounces of it to be strong rectify'd Spirit : which brought into my mind that almost incredible passage of Beguinus , who somewhere teaching the Distillation of another Salt , addes to the end of his Directions , That if you have wrought well , you shall get from a pound of the matter a pound of Spirit . But because from all these Liquors distill'd from such kind of Salts , 't is possible either by Rectification or some more Philosophical way to obtain a portion of phlegm or water , I leave it to further Enquiry , whether or no the Fluidity of these distill'd Liquors may not in diverse cases be in part further'd by the mixture of some particle● of an aqueous nature , ( such being fit to make Dissolvers and vehicles for Salts ) which may not absurdly be suspected to have been produc'd by the action of the fire upon the Concrete committed to distillation ; if we allow with that famous Chymist Helmont , That by the Alchahest all gross Bodies may be totally , and that without it , ev'n Oyle and Salt may in great part , ( and that without Additaments ) be reduc'd into insipid water . SECT . IX . We shall anon , ( when we come to treat of Firmness ) mention our having made a certain substance so dispos'd to Fluidity , that it may be made to change the stable consistence for a liquid one , by so small an Agitation , as only the Surplusage of that which the ambient Air is wont to have about the middle even of a Winters day , above what it hath in the first or latter part of it . Nay , we have made ev'n a Metalline Salt or Vitriol , capable of this proclivity to liquefaction , of which we have unquestionable witnesses . And therefore , it need not appear incredible , that other heaps or aggregates of Corpuscles much lighter than these , though heavier than those of the Air , may have all their parts so minute and fitted for motion , that the wonted agitation of the Air may not only about noon , but at all other times of the day keep them in motion , and thereby in the state of Fluidity . SECT . X. And here I must adde , that 't was not altogether without cause that I lately took notice of the shapes as well as the sizes of Bodies , in reference to their fitness to constitute fluid ones . For though I be not sure but that in those Bodies , as Sal-Armoniack , Antimony , &c. which are by the fire sublim'd into flowers rather than distill'd into Liquors , the magnitude of the component Corpuscles may not be a hinderance to the Fluidity of the Body they constitute : yet this seems as probably referable to their figure , unapt for the requisite motion , as to their bulk . And I have sometimes made to this purpose this Experiment . That by slowly distilling Oyl-Olive per se in a glass Retort , ( plac'd in Sand ) I found , as I expected , that about the third part of the Oyle , which was driven over into the Receiver , did there coagulate into a whitish Body almost like Butter . So that although it seem'd manifest by the strong smell and very piercing taste of this white substance , that the Oyle which afforded it had its particles , as it were , torn in pieces ; and though distillation be wont to obtain Liquors ev'n from consistent . Bodies ; yet in our Experiment of a concrete that is naturally fluid , the distill'd Liquor it self proves not to be so : of which no cause seems more obvious , than that the newly-acquired shape of the dissipated parts of the Oyly Corpuscles makes them unfit for motion ; either Absolutely speaking , or at least in Respect of one another , by making them less pliant than formerly , or giving them a figure more easie to be entangl'd with the neighbouring Corpuscles , or else by making their surfaces less smooth and slippery than before . SECT . XI . But to return thither whence we have digress'd , and mention some more familiar Examples of the Conduciveness of the smallness of a Bodies disjoyned parts to its Fluidity , we may take notice , that of Bodies that consist of incoherent parts , and are made up , as it were by Aggregation , those de caeteris partibus , in their being pour'd out most resemble Liquors , that are the smallest ; as would appear upon the emptying of several Sacks , the one of Apples , the other of Walnuts , the third of Filberts , the fourth of Corn , the fifth of Sand , and the sixth of Flowre . Confectioners also , Cooks , and others that make much use of whites of Eggs , will easily reduce those clammy and viscous Bodies into a thin and fluid substance , to which for its affinity with water many give the same name : and yet this difference of Fluidity being effected only by long and skilfully beating the mass with a whisk , or even with a spoon , seems to be produc'd but by pulling asunder the parts , ( which perhaps before were long and somewhat twin'd ) and breaking them into shorter or lesser , and consequently more voluble ones . And I remember , I have seen a good quantity of that jelly that is sometimes found on the ground , and by the Vulgar call'd a Star-shoot , as if it remain'd upon the extinction of a falling Star , which being brought to an eminent Physician of my acquaintance , he lightly digested it in a well-stopt glass for a long time , and by that alone resolv'd it into a permanent Liquor , which he extols as a specifick to be outwardly apply'd against Wens . SECT . XII . And here we will subjoin an Observation afforded us by the Art of Casting , which has sometimes yielded us a not unpleasant Diversion . 'T is observ'd then by Gold-smiths well ve●s'd in that Art , ( and has been recommended to me by an Artificer eminently skilful in it ) as one of the chief Remarques belonging to it ; that when any such curious work of Silver is to be cast , as requires that the impression of hairs or very slender Lines be taken off by the Metal , it is not enough that the Silver be barely melted , but it must be kept a considerable while in a strong fusion : For if it be too soon pour'd out , the figure it will make will be but blunt ; whereas if it be kept a competent time in Fusion , the matter becoming thereby more Liquid as well as hotter , will be thin enough to run into the smallest cavities of the Mould , and so receive a figuration ev'n from the delicatest of them . Whence it may probably be deduc'd , that some Bodies already fluid may by a further comminution of their parts be made yet more fluid . The like increase of Fluidity may be observ'd in some other fluid Bodies , especially unctuous ones , as Turpentine , Oyle , &c. when heat begins to break as well as agitate their parts . I may elsewhere have occasion to mention , how by the operation of the fire the Crystalline Salt of Urine may be reduc'd without Additaments to a strong and ponderous Liquor : though in this , as perhaps also in some of the former Instances , 't is not unlikely that ( as we may hereafter more particularly declare ) there may concurre to the pr●duc'd change of consistence some alteration in the figure of the Corpuscles whereof the firm Body consisted . And if that be true which Helmont in several places affirms of his prodigious Liquor , Alkahest , it is possible to turn Plants , Animals , Stones , Minerals , Metals , or whatever kind you please of consistent Body here below , into a Liquor equiponderant to the resolv'd Concrete : which ( if granted ) seems to argue , That the most solid Body by being divided into parts small enough to be put into motion by the causes that keep those of water and other Liquors in agitation , may become fluid Bodies . And this Intimation I shall adde for the sake of Philosophers , that barely by long Digestions , ( and much more if they be help'd by seasonably-repeated Distillations ) in exactly stopt Vessels , and a due degree of heat , there may be made in the parts of many Bodies , both Vegetable and Animal , so great a change from the state of consistence to that of Fluidity , as those that contenting themselves with ordinary courses of Chymistry , have not had a peculiar curiosity for tryals of this nature , will not be forward to expect . SECT . XIII . The Second of the above-mention'd three Conditions is , That there be store of vacant spaces intercepted betwixt the component particles of the fluid Body , or at least about those of the● that are superficial : for without this there will not b● room for each of the Corpuscles to continue its agitation upon the surfaces of the neighbouring ones ; and there would be no Cession of any , because there would be no place unpossest for the impell'd Corpuscle to be received in . But when I speak of vacant spaces , ordinarily , ( if not always ) requisite to be intercepted betwixt the particles of fluid Bodies ; I intend not to determine whether or no such spaces should or may be vacuities properly so call'd ; it being commonly sufficient to this second Condition of a fluid Body , that in the little spaces intercepted between those that either are , or at least are consider'd as solid parts , there be none but such as will easily yield to them , and cannot considerably resist the freedom of their motions . Which being premis'd to keep this Condition from being mistaken , we may in confirmation of it take notice how Snow , which at its first falling is of a loose and open texture , does easily yield to the impressions of the hand : But when by being strongly compress'd and form'd into Balls , the little Icy bodies it consists of are brought into a closer order , and many of them thrust into the little spaces formerly possest only by the yielding Air , they become unable to give way to the motions of our hand as before , but compose a hard and resisting Body . We see also , that when water is strongly forced into and kept compressed in a Bladder , so that its exteriour particles have not about them as before the yielding Air to give way to them , when they should according to their wont swell about the sides of the Bodies that endeavour to press it inwards , it emulates a hard body , and resists such motions as otherwise it would readily yield to ; unless a more easie Cession be occasion'd by the Retching of the moisten'd Bladder it self . And I chuse to instance in a Bladder distended with water , rather than in one full of Air , because , though this latter will also emulate a hard Body , yet in this case the tention of the Bladder would perhaps be ascrib'd to a kind of Spring , which diverse Experiments have taught us to belong to the Air : whence it might be said , that since the enclos'd Air will suffer it self to be thrust inward a good way , though it will quickly when permitted flye out again ; the hardness of a well-blown Bladder proceeds not from want of the rooms requisite to the Cession of the aerial Corpuscles , but to the motion of Restitution natural to them , when like an innumerable company of little Bow or Springs , being bent by the force that compresses the sides of the Bladder , they do as soon as it is taken off stretch themselves out again ( some one way , some another ) as far as is permitted them by the imprisoning bladder , which they thus every way keep strongly distended . But this having of vacant spaces or some yielding matter about the Corpuscles of a fluid Body , seems requisite to its being so , but as what in a School-term one may call a Removens prohibens , I mean , only as it obviates that impediment to their motion , which exquisite fulness may be conceiv'd to give to the various glidings amongst themselves of the parts of a Body suppos'd to be perfectly of the same hardness or softness , or , if you please , altogether equally dispos'd or indispos'd to yield to one another . And although in such Bodies , as Water , Wine , Oyle , Quick-silver , and the like , that are generally agreed upon to be fluid Liquors , it will I presume be granted , that this second Condition we have been speaking of may take place ; yet I will not say that 't were altogether absurd to question , whether there may not be a portion of matter consisting of parts so minute , and so agitated , and consequently so easie to be either crumbl'd into yet smaller parts , or squeez'd into any figure as occasion requires , that they may incessantly change places among themselves , and thereby constitute a most fluid Body , without any vacuities , receptacles , or yielding matter about them , unless perhaps it be about the exteriour parts of those of them that from time to time happen to be the superficial Corpuscles of this thinnest Liquor . But though we have said , that this may be question'd without absurdity , yet it will not so much concern us in this place to examine whether the affirmative may be rationally maintain'd , as to proceed to consider what is farther requisite to that state of matter we are now treating of , especially the Qualification yet unmention'd seeming to be the principal of all . SECT . XIV . For the Third and Chief Condition of a fluid Body is , that the particles it consists of be Agitated Variously and Apart , whether by their own innate and inherent motion , or by some thinner substance that tumbles them about in its passage through them . For this seems to be the main difference betwixt solid Ice and fluid Water , that in the one the parts ( whether by any newly acquir'd texture , or for want of sufficient heat to keep them in motion ) being at rest against one another , resist those endeavours of our fingers to displace them , to which in the other the parts being already in motion easily give way . For whereas in the Ice , every part actually at rest must by the Law of Nature continue so , till it be put out of it by an external force capable to surmount its resistance to a change of its present state ; in Water each Corpuscle being actually ( though but slowly ) mov'd , we need not begin or produce a new motion in it , but only byass or direct that which it has already , which many familiar Instances manifest to be a much easier task . From this Agitation of the small parts of Liquors it comes to pass , that these little Bodies , to continue their motion , do almost incessantly change places , and glide sometimes over , sometimes under , and sometimes by the sides of one another . Hence also may be render'd a reason of the softness of fluid Bodies , that is , their yielding to the touch ; for the particles that compose them being small , incoherent , and variously mov'd , it can be no difficult matter ( as we lately intimated ) to thrust them out of those places , which being already in motion they were dispos'd to quit , especially there being vacant rooms at hand , ready to admit them as soon as they are displac'd . And hence it likewise happens , that these little Bodies must be very easily moveable any way upon the motion of the mass or Liquor which they compose ; and that being very small , and moving so many ways , they cannot but ( according to Aristotle's Definition of things fluid ) be very unfit to bound themselves , but very easie to be bounded by any other firm Body ; for that hinders them from spreading any further : and yet to continue ●heir various and diffusive motion as much as they can , ( especially their gravity , at least here about the Earth , equally depressing and thereby levelling as to sense their uppermost superficies ) they must necessarily move to and fro , till their progress be stopt by the internal surface of the Vessel , which by terminating their Progress ( or Motion toward the same part ) does consequently necessitate the Liquor those little Bodies compose , to accommodate it self exactly ( for ought the Eye is able to discern to the contrary ) to its own figure . SECT . XV. This short and general Account of Fluidity may we hope be as well further explicated and illustrated , as confirmed , by the following Instances and Experiments , and therefore we shall forthwith proceed to Them. And it will be fit to mention in the first place those that are afforded us by the Body our Author treats of , Salt-Petre , they having occasioned our writing about this Subject . Salt-Petre then may be made fluid two several wayes , either by , or without a Liquor . By the intervention of a Liquor it puts on the form of a fluid Body , when being dissolv'd in water or aqueous juices , it is not by the Eye distinguishable from the solvent Body , and appears as fluid as it ; which seems to proceed from hence , that the agitated particles of the water piercing into the joints or commissures of the Corpuscles of the Salt , do disjoyn them , and thereby divide the Nitre into parts so small , that it is easie for those of the water , wherewith they are associated , not only to support them , but move them to and fro : whence it comes to pass , that these Particles being so small , and swimming some one way , some another in the yielding body of water , make no such resist●nce against the motion either of a mans hand or other external Body that strives to displace them , as they did in their saline form . But that with much less Liquor a Nitrous body may be rendred fluid , may appear to him that shall expose such fix'd Nitre as our Author teaches to make , to the moist Air of a Cellar : For there it will run per deliquium , ( as Chymists speak ) into a Liquor , which consists of no more aqueous Particles than are necessary to keep the saline ones ( which seem to be much smaller than those of unanalyz'd Nitre ) in the agitation requisite to Fluidity . SECT . XVI . And hence we may proceed to consider , what Fluidity Salt-Petre is capable of without the intercurrence of a Liquor : and this may be two-fold . For first , if it be beaten into an impalpable powder , this powder , when it is pour'd out , will emulate a Liquor , by reason that the smallness and incoherence of the parts do both make them easie to be put into motion , and make the pores they intercept so small , that they seem not at a distance to interrupt the unity or continuity of the Mass or Body . But this is but an imperfect Fluidity , both because the little grains or Corpuscles of Salt , though easily enough moveable , are not alwaies in actual motion ; and because they continue yet so big , that both they and the spaces intercepted betwixt them are , near at hand , perceivable by sense . But if with a strong fire you melt this powder'd Nitre , then each of the saline Corpuscles being sub-divided into I know not how many others , and these insensible parts being variously agitated by the same heat , ( both which may appear by their oftentimes piercing the Crucible after fusion , wherein they lay very quietly before it ) the whole body will appear a perfect Liquor , and be thought such by any Beholder that shall judge of it but by the Eye : and such also is the Fluidity of melted metals , in which , when they are brought to fusion in vast quantities , I have seen the surface wav'd like that of boyling water , and sometimes parcels of Liquor thrown up a pretty way into the Air. And not only Fire and other actually and manifestly hot . Bodies are able to make some hard ones fluid , but it seems also that some bodies may be brought to Fluidity by others which to the touch appear cold , if they be but fitted to change the texture of the hard body , and put its inflected parts into a convenient motion ; as may be seen in the Chymical Experiment of turning the brittle body of Camphire into an Oyl for the time , by letting it lye upon Aqua fortis , which perhaps bends and complicates the formerly rigid particles , and puts them into such a motion , that they do as well glide along as somewhat twine about each other . And I further try'd , ( not having found it mention'd by the Chymists ) that Camphire may by a dexterous application of heat be brought in close glasses both to flow and to boyl almost like Oyl . 'T is true , that these Liquors taken from the fire quickly lose that name , and grow solid again . But the duration of a thing is not always necessary to denominate it such ; for the Leaf of a Tree , for instance , whilst it flourishes , may be as truly green as an Emerald , though the leaf will after a while wither and turn yellow , which the stone will never do ; and in cold Climates , where Lakes , &c. at other times navigable , are sometimes frozen so hard , that Carts and ev'n great Ordnance may safely be drawn over them , Ice and water are the one a stable , and the other a liquid Body , notwithstanding that the same portion of matter which at one time is frozen into a hard and solid substance , was a little before a fluid Body , and ( now and then in a very short time ) will be thaw'd into a Liquor again . SECT . XVII . I know not whether it be requisite to take notice , that the Fluidity which Salt-Petre acquires upon fusion by fire seems very much of kin to that which is acquir'd by solution in water . But if fusion be made rather by the Ingress and transcursions of the atoms of fire themselves , than by the bare propagation of that motion with which the agitated particles that compose fire beat upon the out-side of the vessels that contain the matter to be melted ; in such case , I say , both those kinds or manners of Fluidity newly ascrib'd to Salt-Petre will appear to be caus'd by the pervasion of a foreign body : Only in dissolution the fluid body is a Visible and Palpable Liquor , and consequently more gross , whereas in fusion the fluid substance that permeates it is more thin and subtil , and divides it into much smaller parts , and so adds very little to its bulk . SECT . XVIII . But because some scruple may possibly arise about this matter from hence , that the powder of Nitre , how fine soever , seems fluid but just whilst it is pouring out , and ev'n then is but very imperfectly so ; and that as for fusion , that is wont to reduce the melted body to a new and permanent state , as the formerly-mention'd powder of Salt-Petre , which before fusion was but a heap of incoherent particles , is by it made a solid and considerably hard Body : to prevent , I say , or remove such scruples , we will set down one Experiment that we long since met with , as to the main , in the shops of Stone-Cutters , which though unregarded by them , will excellently serve to make out what we mention it for . Take then good Alabaster , or in defect of this , of that white stone which is well known to our Masons by the name of Plaster of Paris , beat it very small , and put as many pounds as you please of the finely-searc'd powder into any flat-bottom'd ( and first well heated ) vessel of Brass or Iron ( bigger or lesser according to the quantity you intend to burn : ) Encrease the fire by degrees till it grow to be strong , and when the calorifick Atoms shall have in sufficient numbers pervaded the heap of powder , or , if you please , when the igneous Corpuscles have by their numerous and brisk strokes upon the vessel communicated by its means their agitation to the enclosed powder , and when by either of these ways , or both , the fire ( which may also resolve some of the more spirituous and exhalable parts ( whereof Distillation has shewn me that Alabaster is not destitute ) into Vapours ) shall have put the little bodies it consists of into actual motion ( which will be quickly done ) you shall see it assume the form of a Liquor , and boil with numerous great and confus'd waves just like a seething-pot : and if , whilst it continues in this state , you stir it with a stick , it will not like a heap of sand , or as it self would do at another time , resist the motion thereof , but yield thereto like a Liquor , and , like it , will seem to have something of the Nature of a coherent body ; for by stirring it any thing strongly near one side of the Vessel , you may make the waves beat very manifesty against the opposite part of it . And besides all this , you may observe this further resemblance betwixt this boiling matter and a Liquor , that there will flye up out of the Pot great store of steams like smoak , but that they are white , which will sometimes like smoak ascend , for ought can be discern'd , to the very top of the Chimney , and leave its colour upon the places by which plenty of it hath past . Besides , those that make this Experiment often , as we have taken pleasure to do , may have the opportunity to observe , that when the Vessel has continued so long over the fire that the contained Alabaster relapses into the form of a heavy moveless powder , by keeping it a while longer in the heat , it will for once at least resume the form of a fluid body , and boil again as before , the spirituous steams whose avolation promoted the Ebullition , being not yet quite spent . And lastly , if when it seems most a Liquor , you take up a little of it , and as nimbly as you can cast it upon a sheet of white Paper , it will not at all wet it , but immediately discover it self to be a moveless incoherent powder , as it was before its being set over the fire ; whereby it ( I hope ) appears , that a heap or aggregate of such little bodies as are neither Spherical nor otherwise regularly shap'd , nor small enough to be below the discernment of the Eye , may , without either fusion or being pour'd out , be made fluid barely by a sufficiently strong and various agitation ( from what cause soever that proceed ) of the particles that make it up , and lose its fluidity immediately upon the ceasing of it . Thus have we seen how very much it conduces to the making of a Body fluid , that its smal parts be actually mov'd . But whence this motion proceeds , we shall not at present venture to determine . For though in the Examples newly mention'd , and some others , most men will be forward to ascribe the motion produc'd in the parts of the fluid Bodies there mention'd , to the action of the fire whereunto they were expos'd ; yet what it is that puts the parts of fluid Bodies in general into the motion requisite to make them such , is a Question of which the true Resolution indeed were very desirable . But the full debate of it will not , I hope , be here expected from me , whilst I am writing but Notes , since it would engage me to discuss two or three of the difficultest as well as the importantest Controversies belonging to Natural Philosophy . For first , I should be oblig'd to consider whether Motion , or a propensity to it , be an inherent Quality belonging to Atoms in general , and not losable by them ; or whether all Motion is communicated by impulse from one Body to another . And since those that of late have taught that all visible Liquors , as Water , Oyl , Quick-silver , &c. owe their fluidity chiefly to the agitation of some thin and restless matter which incessantly permeates them , do deduce the necessity of such an Ethereal substance principally from the impossibility that there can be any Vacuum properly so call'd in the Universe , wherein yet are very many spaces unpossest by either Air or grosser Bodies than it : the Examination of this subtil matter would draw on the Consideration of the nice Controversies that perplex Philosophers concerning Emptiness , which 't were more difficult for us to examine in few words , than it is necessary for us to meddle with them in this place ; since not writing of the first Principles of Physiology , but of Fluidity , which is but a secondary or derivative quality ( if I may so call it ) it seems sufficient to give a notion of it , that we deduce it not from the unintelligible substantial form of the fluid Bodies , but from those simple and general Affections of Matter , the Figure , Situation , and Motion of its small parts . SECT . XIX . Wherefore declining to adde any thing in this place to what we have otherwhere discoursed concerning the Origine of Motion , and the possibility or impossibility of a Vacuum ; we will proceed to take notice that there is one thing more which we may learn from Salt-Petre touching the Nature of Fluidity , and that is the distinction betwixt a fluid Body and a wetting Liquor , which are wont , because they agree in many things , to be confounded , but inconsiderately enough : for though every wetting Liquor be fluid , yet every fluid Body does not wet . The Air , the Aether , and ev'n flame it self may be properly call'd Fluid Bodies according to the notion of Fluidity hitherto made out , and yet will scarce by any man be call'd Moist Liquors ; and Salt-Petre , whilst in fusion , is really a Liquor , and so is every melted Metal , and yet these wet not the bodies they touch , as do Water and other wetting Liquors , which are fluid bodies with this peculiar qualification , that they stick to and moisten the dry bodies which they touch ( or at least abound with some parts , which being separated from the rest and reduced to a Liquor , will do so . ) And according to this notion , methinks , it may be conceiv'd , that the humidity of a body is but a relative thing , and depends chiefly upon the congruity or incongruence of the component Particles of the Liquor in reference to the pores of those particular bodies that it touches : for , sometimes the little eminencies and pores of the surface of the dry body on or against which the Liquor flows , are of such magnitudes and figure , that the particles of the Liquor find admittance into those pores , and are detain'd there ( by which means they usually soften it ; ) and sometimes the pores and asperities of the dry bodies surface are so incommensurate in bigness & figure to the particles of the Liquor , that they glide over the surface without sticking or adhering firmly to any part of it . This may be exemplifi'd in Quick-silver , which cannot be said to be a humid body in respect of our hands or cloaths , or of almost all other bodies of the World , upon whose surfaces it will roul without leaving any of its particles lodg'd in their pores , or fastn'd to their little eminencies , whence it is called by vulgar Chymists , the water that wets not the Hands : but in reference to divers Metals , especially Gold and Tin , Quick-silver may be said to be a humid Liquor , for it insinuates it self into their pores , and thereby mollifies their bodies , as other Liquors do those that are moistned by them . And even water , that wets almost all other Animal and Vegetable , and many mineral bodies , besides that it is commonly enough observ'd to stand in almost globular drops upon Cabbage-leaves , seems not a humid Liquor in relation to the feathers of Ducks , Swans , and other water-fowl , whom Nature having design'd to flye sometime in the Air , and live sometimes in the water , she providently makes their feathers of such a texture , that they do not , like the feathers of divers other birds , admit the water , which imbib'd would make them unfit for the use of flying . And 't is observable , that upon the change of texture in a Liquor , it may be brought to stick to the surface of a body to which before it would not adhere ; as may appear by this , that though Quick-silver alone will not stick to glass , yet if there be mixt with it a due proportion of Lead , Tin , and Tin-glass , though neither of them will adhere to glass , yet their liquid mixture ( as we have often tryed and elsewhere * taught ) readily will , even without the assistance of heat . SECT . XX. If it be objected , that this various agitation of the insensible parts of water and resembling bodies wherein we make the Nature of Fluidity chiefly to consist , is but an imaginary thing , and but precariously asserted , since by our own Confession they are so small , that the particles themselves , and more , the diversity of their motions are imperceptible by sense , which represents water , for Example , to us as one continu'd body , whose parts are at perfect rest ; If this , I say , be urged against our Doctrine , we shall not deny the Objection to be plausible , but must not acknowledge it to be unaswerable . For of the seeming continuity of Water and other Liquors this may be the Reason , That the particles whereof the Liquor consists , being too small to be visible , and being not only voluble , but in actual motion , the pores or vacant spaces intercepted between them , must also be too little to be discern'd by the Eye , and consequently the body must appear an uninterrupted or continu'd one : not to mention , that , were the parts of the Liquor less minute , their shifting of places would hardly be perceiv'd by the Eye , each displac'd Corpuscle being immediately succeeded by another like it . 'T is true , that a heap of grains of Nitre , though upon its effusion out of the Vessel it somewhat emulates a fluid body , does yet when it rests in the Vessel appear to be but an aggregate of many little incoherent bodies heap'd up together ; because the intervals or holes left between them are great enough to affect the sense : But if the same Salt be reduc'd into an Alchoole ( as the Chymists speak ) or impalpable powder , the particles and intercepted spaces b●ing then extreamly lessen'd , the body they make up will much more resemble an intire mass , though it be look'd upon from a nearer distance ; and so when this powder is by the fire further broken into parts incomparably smaller than those of the powder , and which consequently intercept such extreamly little pores , that not only Salt-Petre , but some Metals , and ev'n Gold it self , ( from which it will not be suppos'd that any thing exhales to lessen it ) are by some affirm'd ( for I have not my self diligently enough observ'd it , and do yet doubt it ) to take up rather less than more room melted than cold , why should we not grant that these pores may be little enough , not any where to discontinue the body as to sense ? SECT . XXI . And that the incoherent parts of fluid bodies are also diversly agitated , some this way , and some that way , though the sense cannot discern it , may be prov'd by their sensible operations . [* For without such local motion , how could the particles of water pierce into the recesses of Bodies , and occasion those putrefactive alterations that are wont to be imputed to superfluous moisture ? And how comes it else to pass , that aqueous Liquors so readily diffuse themselves into , and so exquisitely mingle with one another ? as we see when red and white Wine are in a trice confounded into Claret : and without this various agitation of the parts of water , how could it be that lumps of Sugar or Salt cast into it , should quickly be so perfectly dissolv'd in it , that the lumps themselves totally disappear , and the dissociated parts are carried about every way by those of the water , even from the bottom to the very top ? as is evident particularly in Sea-salt , which when the superfluous Liquor is sufficiently exhal'd , begins visibly to coagulate , not at the bottom , but upon the surface of the water ; and not only Salt , but even Gold it self , though the heaviest of bodies , may have its parts so scatter'd by the agitation of those waters , as Experience has taught us , and as you may easily try by putting a little of the Solution of Gold made in Aqua Regis into 15 or 20 times as much fair water , which will all thereby be immediately enobled with a Golden Colour . That the little bodies whereof flame consists are fiercely agitated , appears oftentimes even to the Eye , and will scarce be denied by him that considers the operations of it , and the vivid beams it darts round about it against the neighbouring bodies . And that the particles that compose our common air are also very diversly agitated , we may be induc'd to believe by sundry particulars . As first , by those little moats that from a shady place we see swimming up and down in the Sun-beams , and by the tremulous motion which that of swarms of little bodies in the air seems to impart to distant objects look'd on after Sun-rise through a good Telescope , ( and which by the bare Eye in hot weather may be often discover'd by certain very dilute shades , which seem to tremble upon the walls of high-roof'd Halls and Churches , and other spacious Buildings . ) Next , ( and more easily ) by this , That if you take Salt of Tartar , first brought to fusion , and place it in a Cellar , or ev'n in an ordinary Room , it will in a short time ( now and then in a few minutes ) begin to relent and have its surface softn'd by the imbib'd moisture of the air , wherein if it be left long enough , it will totally be dissolved into clear Liquor ; which would not be , if the moist vapours that help to constitute the air did not move to and fro every way , and were not thereby brought to the Salt , and enabled to insinuate themselves into its pores , and by that means dissolve it , and reduce it with themselves into a Liquor . And even in Summer , when the air is wont to be much dryer than at other Seasons of the year , one may quickly discover that there are in the air store of aqueous Corpuscles , mov'd some one way and some another , by the Experiment of putting into a Drinking-glass , for want of Ice and Snow , some Beer or Wine actually very cold : for thereby , after a while , the outside will appear all bedew'd with little drops of Liquor ; which seems plainly to be no other than the aqueous steams that swimming up and down in great multitudes in the air , are by its agitation towards all parts carried , as every other way , so to the sides of the Glass , and being there condens'd by the coldness of that smooth Body , turn into visible and palpable water . And , if I much mis-remember not , it was one of the circumstances of the last Experiment of this kind we have had occasion to take notice of , That the drops that fastn'd themselves to the outside of the Glass , purposely left in part unfill'd , reach'd either not at all , or very little further than the surface of the Liquor within the Glass , whose coldness as it seems did not infrigidate those upper parts of the Glass , to whose level the Liquor it self did not reach . To which I could easily adde Arguments to prove , that the drops we have been speaking of proceeded not from the transudation of the Liquor within the Glass , if I thought it worth while to disprove so unlikely a Conjecture . But instead of that I shall only intimate , that from this Experiment useful hints may be taken both Theorical and Practical , and particularly that a Reason may perchance be given of a strange way of catching a Salt and Liquor out of air , barely by glass-vessels of a peculiar and skilful contrivance . Much of what we have lately said will , I presume , be the less wonder'd at , if we subjoyn what Experience has taught us , That 't is not difficult by the help of a convenient Furnace and fit Vessels to make that ponderous Metal , Lead , ascend to a good height in the open air , in the form of a copious smoak : such a smoak we discern'd after a while to be carried so many ways by the aerial Corpuscles that it met with in actual motion , that it was soon dispers'd so far as to disappear : which perhaps will be thought some confirmation of what we formerly deliver'd , when we taught how much the being divided into very minute parts may conduce to the Fluidity even of ponderous Bodies . SECT . XXII . And though Quick-silver be , excepting Gold , the heaviest known body in the world , yet when it is reduc'd into vapour , it seems to be carried to and fro like the other terrestrial particles that swim up and down in our air : for I remember , that an expert Gilder not long since complain'd to me , that if when he evaporated Quick-silver , he forgot to take off his Rings from his hand , though they touch'd not the Quick-silver whilst it was in a body , the roving fumes would oftentimes fasten upon the Gold in such plenty as would put him to much trouble to get them off from his Rings ; one of which he shew'd me that he had lately thus whitened , and as it were silver'd over with Mercurial fumes , and was then to restore to its native Yellow . SECT . XXIII . But let us return to visible Liquors , and endeavour to prove almost ad Oculum , as they speak , that their ins●nsible parts may be every way agitated , though their motion be but seldom visible to us . Take then what quantity you please of Aqua fortis , and dissolve in it as much as you please of ordinary coyn'd Silver , ( it not being necessary for this Experiment that it be refin'd ) and pour the coloured solution into 12 or 15 times as much fair water , and then decant or filtrate the mixture , that it may be very clear . If you look upon this Liquor , the parts of it will seem to be all of them as perfectly at rest as those of common water ; nor will your Eye be able to distinguish any Corpuscles of Silver swimming in the Liquor : and yet that there are such metalline Corpuscles agitated to and fro with and by those of the water will quickly appear , if you immerse into it a flatted piece of clean Copper , for by that time you have held it two or three minutes of an hour ( perhaps not so long ) in the Liquor , you shall see the particles of Silver that were roving up and down the Liquor , fasten themselves in such swarms to the Copper-plate , that they will appear in their native hue , and cover it , as it were , with a loose case of Silver , which may be easily shaken off in the form of a metalline powder : and if several such Plates be left all night , or for a competent number of hours , in the bottom of the Vessel , you may the next day find all the particles of Silver that were dispers'd through the whole body of the Liquor , setled upon or about them ; the deep blewish green tincture you will discover in the water proceeding only from some little parts of the Copper-plates , and of the Alloy of the Coyn , dissolv'd by the saline particles of the Aqua fortis . And I remember , that to compleat the Experiment , I have sometimes made even these fall to the bottom of the Vessel , by leaving a lump or two of Spelter there for two or three days : for , not only those metalline Corpuscles that were just over or near to the determinate place where I put the Spelter , but also all the rest , into how remote parts soever of the Liquor they were diffus'd , did setle upon the Spelter , as appear'd both by its increase of bulk , and by their leaving the water clear and colourless ; which plainly seems to have proceeded from hence , that the particles of the water were restlesly and every way agitated , and so by frequently gliding along the surface of the Spelter they must carry thither of the Corpuscles of Copper mingled with them , some at one time and some at another , till at length all were brought to it and detain'd there . SECT . XXIV . That of the particles of Spirit of Wine , and such like inflammable Liquors drawn from fermented Juyces , though they seem to the Eye to be at rest , a good many do yet move confusedly and very nimbly , I remember I have long since manifested by an easie and ocular proof which I devis'd about 10 or 12 years ago , when ( being yet scarce more than a Boy ) I first began to consider what Fluidity might be . The Experiment as I writ it down , with all the Circumstances and Observations relating to it , I have not now by me ; but having divers times been desir'd to shew it to Learned men ( Physitians , Mathematicians , and others ) I cannot have forgotten those Phaenomena of it that are the most pertinent to our present Subject . Supposing then that in pure Spirit of Wine , beside the aqueous parts that glide softly along each other , there are store of volatile and Spirituous Corpuscles , whose agitation is stronger , I let fall ( from a pretty height , that it might be broken into small drops by its fall ) into any wide-mouth'd glass fill'd with this Liquor , ( which must not be ov●r dephlegm'd , lest the Oyl sink in it ) a little common Oy● or Spirit of Turpentine , which I therefore made choice of , because its tenacity , greater than that of the Chymical Oyls of Spices , makes it that it will neither mingle with Spirit of Wine , nor spread it self , as divers other distill'd Oyls will , upon the surface of it , but keep it self in the form of round drops , whose shape facilitates their motion . The Oyly drops then swimming at the top of the Spirit of Wine , will be , by the disorderly rovings of the agile parts of it ( which hit against them little Globes , as the vivous Spirits ascend to exhale ) made to move restl●sly to and fro in an irregular manner , the drops sometimes bearing up to one another , as if all or most of them were presently to unite into one body , and then suddenly falling off , and continuing to shift places with one another , after a manner pleasant and strange enough to them that never before saw the Experiment : and this dance will continue for half an hour or an hour , ( or a shorter or much longer time , according to the quantity and strength of the Liquor ) till the spirituous parts being flown away , the drops being no longer impell'd lye at rest upon the disspirited Liquor , as they would upon common water . And whereas the nimble motion of the drops might be suspected to proceed from some secret contrariety in Nature betwixt the Oyl of Turpentine and Spirit of Wine ; besides that I could easily shew that those two Liquors have no Antipathy , I not only try'd the Experiment with another inflammable Liquor than Spirit of Wine , but ( if I much misremember not ) sound , as I expected , that little pieces of chop'd straw ( such both being light and not easily imbibing moisture ) being gently let fall upon the Spirit of Wine , were in a tumultuous manner carried to & fro upon the surface of it ; though I am not sure but that the motion of the Oyly drops may be in part due to some partial solution made of them by the vivous Spirit , which during that ●ction may tumble them to and fro ; not to add that I have by some tryals , been tempted to suspect the air may have some interest in the motion of the drops . However , I have mention'd the recited Experiment , not as if I thought that either it or fugitive Spirit of Wine were fit to teach us the nature of fluid Bodies in general , but to shew by an ocular example that there may be a quick and intestine motion in some parts of a Liquor , notwithstanding that the unassisted Eye can discern no such matter . I shall not here relate , how having caus'd to be Hermetically seal'd up some of these Liquors in a glass , to try how long the extravagant dance of the drops would last , when the more spirituous parts of the vinous Liquor could not exhale , my vessel was soon broken without any discernable violence . Nor shall I now take notice of any of the other Phaenomena of our Experiment , partly , because I have elsewhere mention'd most of them ; and partly , because I think it more pertinent to our present Theme , to observe that this unseen agitation of the minute parts will not only hold in light and spirituous Liquors : For , that the insensible parts even of the heaviest Liquors themselves are also in actual motion , though many may think it unfit to be believed , will follow from what has been already delivered concerning the nature of fluid bodies , as such ; and may be confirm'd by this , that whereas three of the heaviest Liquors we yet know of , are Quick-silver , Oyl of Tartar per Deliquium , and Oyl of Vitriol , that first-nam'd will even in the cold penetrate into the pores of foliated Gold , and destroy the texture of that closest of Metals ; the Liquor also of Salt of Tartar will in the cold draw tinctures from several bodies , and we have endeavour'd to evince the agitation of the parts of Oyl of Vitriol , not only by shewing how in the cold it would corrode divers Metals , but by casting little pieces of Camphire into it , which without the assistance of the sire were made liquid by it , and appeared like so many drops of Oyl . And he that yet doubts , whether the parts of these two Oyls ( as Chymists abusively call them ) how ponderous soever they be , are fiercely agitated or no , may probably be soon satisfied by shaking an ounce or two of each of them together , and observing the heat , hissing , ebullition , and sparkling , that will suddenly ensue upon their being blended . SECT . XXV . But here we must take notice , that though it belong to the Nature of fluid Bodies , that their par●s do easily shift places ; yet that is to be understood only as to th● parts of the same fluid Bodies , as water , or of such differing fluid Bodies as are dispos'd readily to admit each others particles , and mingle together , as we see in Water and Wine . For otherwise , fluid Bodies may be of such differing natures , that when two or more of them are put together , they will not mix , but each retain its own distinct surface ; so that in regard of one another , the contiguous Bodies do in some degree emulate each of them the Nature of a consistent Body : for though it cannot be look'd upon as a hard body but a soft , because of the easie Cession of its superficies , yet it does like a compact or consistent body deny to mingle permanently with the contiguous Liquor or other fluid substance . And I somewhat wonder , that Lucretius and other Atomists should ( at least for ought I remember ) over-see this Observation , since it is obvious enough in Oyl , which will not mix with water , but float upon its surface : Not to mention , that Quick-silver will not incorporate with any of the familiar Liquors known to the Ancients . I had almost forgot , that I promis'd at the beginning of this Discourse an Instance concerning Flame , which I will therefore now recite . And it is , That having by an easie preparation of Copper , by the intervention of a little Sal Armoniack , ( which I have already taught in another Treatise * ) so open'd the Body of that Metal , as to make it inflammable ; I took some small grains of this prepar'd Mineral , and put them under the wieck of a strong and actually burning Candle , whereby ( as I expected ) they were with the melted tallow soon carried up to the bottom of the flame , and by it so kindl'd , that the green ( not blew ) flame of the cupreous Body did ( somewhat to the wonder of the Spectators ) burn for a good while ( this combustible matter being marvellously lasting ) distinct from the yellow flame of the Candle , as if there had been some invisible partition between them . But to return to the unminglable Liquors we were formerly speaking of ; the cause why these retain their distinct surfaces , my present task does not oblige me to enquire into : but this I shall observe in general , that it seems to depend very much upon the texture of the particular Liquors , and perhaps too upon the peculiar motions of their minute parts . For I have observ'd , that though pure Spirit of Wine and Salt of Tartar , resolv'd into a Liquor by the moisture of the Air , will , when put together , retain distinct surfaces , or presently regain them if you shake the Liquors never so strongly together ; yet by adding a little fair water to either of them , the texture being thereby alter'd , it will easily incorporate with the other . And thus although that ( as I noted already ) common Spirit or Oyl of Turpentine will not mingle with Spirit of Wine , yet having had the curiosity to make a tryal with Oyl of Turpentine abstracted skilfully , and with a very gentle fire , ( for otherwise the Experiment may easily miscarry ) from melted or at least well decrepitated Sea-Salt , we found , according to expectation , that though there appeared no visible alteration in the Oyl , yet we could easily by shaking confound it with pure Spirit of Wine . Moreover , though lixiviate Liquors and Oyls will not by an ordinary Agitation be permanently joyn'd , yet I have try'd , that by digesting a good while a solution of Salt of Tartar with Oyl of Almonds , I could reduce them to a soft Saponary substance : which Experiment makes somewhat more to my present purpose , than the common practice of Sope-Boylers , because I did not , as they , boyl away the water wherein the lixiviate Salt is dissolv'd . I might adde also , that if you put one part of Quick-silver into about four parts of Oyl of Vitriol , you will find ( at least if the Experiment proceed always after the same manner as it has done with me ) that the two Liquors will remain distinct whilst you keep them in the cold , but if by degrees of heat you bring the Oyl of Vitriol to boyl , it will pierce the surface of the Quick-silver , and by partly incorporating with it , reduce it to a substance very differing from what it was . But because these two last Experiments may be with less improbability than the two that preceded them refer'd to other causes , I shall no farther insist on them , but take notice of one thing more concerning the difference of fluid Bodies . And it is this . SECT . XXVI . I observe , that some of them do not only not mingle with others that are contiguous to them , but fashion the surfaces of those others , and reduce them to determinate shapes . This I have taken pleasure to consider in some Chymical Liquors , which I have purposely put together ; for Instance , having pour'd Spirit of Wine upon Oyl of Tartar per Deliquium , ( as Chymists call it ) I found that the superficies wherein they touch'd each other was flat , or ( as to sense ) parallel to the Horizon . But if this were done in a very slender or narrow glass , with the mouth unstop'd , though the lower surface of the Spirit of Wine which touch'd the other Liquor appear'd very level ; yet the upper superficies , which was contiguous to the Air , was manifestly very concave . And if to these two Liquors I did in a broader glass pour Oyl of Almonds , that Oyl would sink to the bottom of the Spirit of Wine , ( that being well rectifi'd ) and floating upon the Oyl of Tartar , would separate the two Liquors , and both above and below retain a flat or level surface . But if instead of Oyl of Almonds , or another express'd Oyl , I dropt into pure Spirit of Wine , swimming upon Oyl of Tartar , some common Oyl of Turpentine ; the Oyl would gather into parcels , ( some of the bigness of hail-shot , some as big as small Pistol-bullets , and some of other sizes ) which in case they did swim in the Spirit of Wine , and touch'd neither of its surfaces , seem'd globulous , and continu'd so ( the glasses being stop'd ) for many hours : But in case they emerg'd to the upper part of the Spirit of Wine , as much of them as lay immers'd in the Spirit ( which was by far the greatest part of them ) appear'd round , and continu'd so long as I pleas'd ; the upper parts only of th●se little globes appearing to have the same surface with the Spirit of Wine . And I further observ'd , that some small drops would as it were rest constantly upon the superficies of the Oyl of Tartar , touching it but as it were in a point , and continuing to the Eye Spherical ; though the surface of the Liquor were purposely now and then somewhat shaken . But that which I took special notice of was , that having ( upon design ) into pure Spirit of Wine ( for upon common Spirit Oyl will swim ) let fall some great drops of Oyl of Turpentine , they did at first sink to the bottom of it , and lie upon the surface of the Oyl of Tartar almost like Hemispheres , whose convex part was all above the Oyl of Tartar ; but after a while they were , as I ●xpected , press'd on all sides and fashion'd into round Bodies ( yet a little more protuberant at the sides than the top ) which seem'd scarce to touch the surface of the Oyl of Tartar on which they lean'd . Diverse other Observations of this kind were afforded me by some peculiar mixtures that I made of Chymical Liquors : But not having the leisure to set them down , much less to enquire into their causes , I should scarce have mention'd what I have already deliver'd ( especially since we found that a light variation of Circumstances would often alter the event of such tryals , which we have therefore set down barely historically ) but that finding that drops of Water , Quick-silver , and other fluid Bodies , seem'd to be fashion'd into a round figure by that every way almost equal pressure of the ambient Air ; and having likewise try'd , that Quick-silver suspended in the Air ( as it may easily be , if the Torricellian Experiment being made in a tube exceeding slender , some Air be afterwards dexterously let into divide the long Mercurial Cylinder into diverse short ones ) has both at the top and bottom , where it is expos'd to the Action of the Air , a very protuberant surface ; finding , I say , these Effects of fluid Bodies upon one another , I thought it not amiss to intimate , how some Experiments might be made that may possibly facilitate the giving an Account of the figuration of some of the more considerable fluid Bodies , which , as we noted already , make up much the greater part of the Universe : especially , since I could easily enough make it probable , that such steams of the terrestrial Globe as may well be suppos'd to be the chief Ingredients of our Atmosphere , may like a Liquor retain a superficies distinct from that of the ambient and contiguous Body . And since we are speaking of the distinct surface of fluids , the occasion invites me to add an Experiment , which , though apt to miscarry upon the account of unheeded Circumstances , has yet , when all things were rightly order'd , succeeded very well : I will , I say , subjoin it here , because it shews a way of dividing in a trice , a Liquor Transparent , and , as to sense , Homogeneous into two very differing Liquors , the one Diaphanous , and the other Opacous , which will not mingle . The Experiment is this ; Dissolve one Ounce of clean common Quick-silver in about two Ounces of pure Aqua fortis , so that the Solution be clear and total , then whilst it is yet warm , pour into it by degrees , lest they boyl over , half an Ounce or one Ounce of Filings of Lead , and if no Error , nor ill Accident have interven'd , the Lead will be in a trice praecipitated into a white Powder , and the Mercury reduc'd into a Mass ( if I may so speak ) of running Quick-silver , over which the remaining part of the Aqua fortis will swim , whereby we may see that Liquors being reduc'd into very minute parts , may mingle very well , the Corpuscles of the one supporting in that state those of the other , though in greater Bulk , especially the Texture of one being somewhat varied , they will retain distinct Surfaces . N.B. Note , that when the Operation succeeds not well , the Mercury need not , for all that , be lost , but may ( in great part at least ) be recover'd by freeing the Praecipitated matter from the rest by filtration , and then diligently grinding the white Praecipitate with Water , by which means , the Mercury will little by little be ga●hered into drops . And though this be far from being the true Mercury of Lead , as I may elsewhere shew you ; yet some Inducements , not here to be named , incline me to look upon it , as somewhat differing from common Mercury , and fitter than it for certain Chymical uses . SECT . XXVII . And here I should pass on to the Consideration of Firmness ; but that when a while ago I discours'd of the Agitation of the Corpuscles that compose Oyl of Tartar and Oyl of Vitriol , I forgot to add , that not only in fluid bodies , but in some also of those that are consistent , there may perhaps be more motion in the insensible parts than our senses discern , or we are wont to imagine : especially in those bodies , which having been once endowed with life , are , though not fluid , yet either soft , or at least not perfectly hard . I have more than once taken pleasure to look upon an heap of swarming Bees , for though they make not up a liquid but coherent body , which may be turn'd upside down without losing its coherence , and which being beheld at a distance , seems to be one entire mass or body ; yet it is evident to him that looks at them near enough , that the particular Bees that swarm have most of them their distinct and peculiar motions , and that yet these motions of the particular Bees destroy not the coherency of the heap ; because that when one of the more innermost Bees removes , as she lets go her hold from those that she rested on before , and goes away from those that rested on her , so she meets with others on which she may set her feet , and comes under others that in like manner set their feet on her , and so by this vicissitude of mutual supports their coherence and their removes are made compatible ; and if instead of Bees , the swarm consisted of extreamly little flies , their particular motions would perhaps be inconspicuous . And that some such thing may happen in the consistent bodies we have been speaking of , seems probable from hence , that in wainscot and other hard wood , we often see little heaps of dust produc'd in them by putrefaction ; and not only in Cheese we many times see multitudes of mites start up , but in Apples and other Fruits we oftentimes find Magots , though the skin be whole , ( which could not be unless the parts of the matter were variously transpos'd , ( that is , put into a local motion ) and connected after a manner suitable to the Nature of the infect to be produc'd : ) And by the growth of bones in the bodies of perfecter Animals , as well in respect of the internal cavity , where the marrow lodges , as of the external surface , as also by the growth of the shells of Oysters and Snails , ( though cold Animals ) from a size inconsiderable at first , in regard of what is afterwards attain'd to , and by some other resembling particulars , it seems that the small particles that constitute even the solid parts of Animals are not , whilst the Creature lives , ( or at least whilst it grows ) altogether exempt from some ( though slow and insensible ) local motion . And I remember , that it has by a very diligent observer been affirmed to me , that he saw several pieces of Gum swet out of an old wainscot of above twenty years standing . Which I the less wonder at , because I have several times seen viscous Exsudations disclose themselves like drops of Turpentine upon Deal-boards , which had been made use of about Buildings . ( But of this subject more ( perhaps ) elsewhere . ) SECT . XXVIII . After we have hitherto discours'd of Fluidity as consider'd in distinct Bodies , we might properly enough say here something of what furtherance or hinderance in respect of Fluidity one Body may receive by being mingl'd with another . But the consideration of those changes of Consistence which may be produc'd by Mixture , is a Subject that we shall have such frequent occasions to treat of in what we are to deliver about Firmness , that we shall now only give this general Admonition , That 't is not so safe as one would think , to fore-tell the consistence of a mixture of two or more Bodies , from the bare consideration of the consistence of those Bodies whereof it is to be compounded . And that we might at once both manifest this , and insinuate what Judgment should be made of what is said by so many Chymists and others , who without Limitation teach , That the Addition of Salts to metalline and mineral Bodies does much facilitate their fusion , I remember I purposely made and employ'd this Experiment . We dissolv'd crude Copper in a due quantity of Spirit of Nitre , and by Evaporation reduc'd the Solution to a kind of Vitriol of a lovely colour . We also corroded with two parts of Spirit of Nitre one of good Tin , and suffer'd the mixture to reduce it self ( as it easily did ) to a substance almost like Meal . Of this mixture we put a parcel into a Crucible , and suffer'd it to grow ( and for a pretty while to continue ) red hot : Nay , we put some of it upon a quick coal , and excited the heat by frequently blowing the fire , without finding that this metalline meal did at all melt , though Salt-Petre be a fusible Salt , and Tin it self be of exceeding easie fusion . Whereas , although Copper be a metal which is much harder to melt , not only than Tin and Lead , but even than Silver , ( as those well know that mix Silver with Copper to make a fusible mixture to sod●r upon Copper and Brass ) yet was this metal , that will end●re a long and strong Ignition by being joyn'd per Minima with the same kind of Nitrous Corpuscles , that had so contrary an effect upon the Tin , so strangely dispos'd to fusion , that the Vitriol would melt with as small a heat as that of ones hand . Nay , we have made such a Vitriol either with Spirit of Nitre or with ( what differ'd little from it ) a certain Aqua fortis as would even in Winter be made to stand melted for divers hours together , by the languid warmth of the Sun , though shining on it but through a window , where it also stood but in an unstop'd Glass . So fit it is that we consider as well the new Texture that mingl'd Bodies obtain by the association of their particles , ( whose size and shape , and perhaps motion may be thereby much alter'd ) as the consistence of the particular Bodies before their being mixt . THE HISTORY OF Fluidity and Firmnesse . The Second Part. Of FIRMNESSE . IT is sufficiently known that the Chymists ascribe the Firmness and Hardness of Bodies to Salt , and teach that the Saline Ingredient of them is the Principle of Coagulation in them , and the cause of their Compactness and Solidity . But though this opinion of the Chymists be embra'cd by so many modern Philosophers and Physitians , that some may think it superfluous to make enquiry after other Causes , yet others ( to whom the Explications of Chymists seem not always so much as Intelligible ) will upon the very account of the Receivedness of the propos'd Opinion , think it rather worthy to be examined than to be acquiesc'd in . However , without making it our business , either to side with , or oppose any Sect of Naturalists , we will apply our selves a while to consider the thing it self in prosecution of the Design already begun . And having in the fore-going Part of our little History taken a general view of Fluidity ; we will now proceed to try what Light it will afford us to discover the nature of Firmness or Compactness . And since fluidness and stability being contrary qualities , are to be apprehended under contrary notions , we may conceive that the firmness or stability of a body consists principally in this , that the particles that compose it , besides that they are most commonly somewhat Gross , either do so rest or are so intangled between themselves , that there is among them a mutual cohesion whereby they are rendred unapt to flow or diffuse themselves every way , and consequently to be , without violence , bounded and figur'd by other surfaces than those which their connexion makes themselves constitute . In this rude Description of Firmness we have intimated Three principal causes of it , namely the Grossness , the quiet Contact , and the Implication of the component parts . The first is Grossness of Parts , of which we have in effect almost sufficiently discours'd already : for since treating of Fluidity , we manifested at large how conducive smalness of Parts was to that Quality ; 't is easie to deduce that Grossness of parts in a Body must commonly be a great disposition to its being Firm. And bigger Corpuscles being caeteris paribus more difficult than lesser to be put into motion , when they are on●e at rest , it is obvious that a Body consisting of such Particles is less dispos'd to become fluid , and consequently more apt to continue firm , than if its component parts were smaller , and thereby more easie to be displac'd . But when I speak of the Grossness of Corpuscles , I pretend not to determine whether or no Body or Matter be so perpetually divisible , that there is no assignable portion of matter so minute that it may not at least Mentally ( to borrow a School term ) be further divided into still lesser and lesser parts : For allowing this indefinite Divisibility of corporeal substance , 't is plain that it may in some sense be averr'd , that there are no firm Bodies whose Parts are not extreamly minute . But I understand by the gross parts I here speak of , such Corpuscles as actually convening to constitute a Body , are scarce dissipable or divisible into lesser by the Agitation of the ambient Air or Aether , or by the other causes of the Fluidity of Bodies . It is also to be noted , that when I spake of the fitness of grosser Corpuscles to make a firm Body , I added , Caeteris paribus , because it may happen that the breaking of the small parts of a Body into minute Particles may make them but the fitter to contribute to the Firmness of the Body they belong to : For the parts of the divided Corpuscles may by their comminution acquire a new , and perhaps a more irregular shape than before , upon whose account they may be more dispos'd to be entangled among the neighbouring Particles , or may be better fitted to get into and fill the pores of some kind of Bodies . And in in such little Particles , not only the minuteness may make them lie closer together , and consequently the better exclude the Air : but the greatness of the surface in proportion to the bulk of the matter may perhaps in some Cases occasion a fuller contact , and so facilitate the constitution of a very firm Body , in case these minute parts ( whose intervals ( if they intercept any ) need not be other than very small ) shall be placed and disposed to the best advantage for a full contact of one another . But as I said a while before , from what we have already delivered ( concerning the size of parts , when we treated of Fluidity ) it may easily be understood how much the magnitude of them may conduce to Firmness ; and therefore we will presently pass on to the mention of the two other things to be considered in reference to consistent Bodies . Whereof of the one is the bare Rest of the small and contiguous parts that make up the firm Body ; and the other the intricate Texture of such parts in the body they make up . And either of these two seems alone sufficient to render a body stable : though Nature do perhaps oftentimes make some ( though not equal ) use of both , to fasten the parts of the same body more firmly together . Of the former of these Causes , I am inform'd that the justly famous Monsi●ur Des Cartes has also taken notice , but without adding proof from Experiments , or Observations . But it seems to have been either over-look'd , or , ( as incongruous to their Hypothesis of the innate motion of Atoms ) rejected by the old Atomists , and by Lucretius , who takes notice ( that I remember ) only of the latter : for though they did of old make mention of the sudden divulsion of two flat and solid Bodies , yet they employ that Observation but to prove a Vacuum , ( without otherwise taking notice , that I have met with , of those things that are most material in such Observations to our present purpose , and without deducing thence what we shall endeavour to do in order to the explication of the causes of Firmness . ) Upon what account then soever the Atomists have omitted to reckon for a cause of Firmness that which we have newly been speaking of ; yet ( as we observed above ) If two bodies be once at rest against one another , it seems consonant to the Catholick Laws of Nature , that they should continue in that state of rest , till some force capable to over-power their resistance puts them out of it . And whatever may be said of the unloosable mobility of Atoms strictly so taken , yet that diverse parts of Matter may compose bodies that need no other Cement to unite them than the juxta-position which we here presuppose , and the resting together of their parts , whereby the Air and other fluid Bodies that might dissociate them are excluded , I have been inclined to think by what I have observed in grinding of Glasses : for sometimes the convex surface of one body being ground upon the concave surface of another , the two surfaces will happen to be so closely and exactly fitted to one another , ( their immediate contact in all their parts , or at least in innumerable of them , hindering the intercurrence of the Air ) that a man is not able without breaking one or both of them to pull them directly asunder ; but if you will sever them , you must be fain to make one of them to slip along the surface of the other : which makes the Glass-Grinders often complain of the trouble they meet with in separating such bodies . Nay , if you lay two flat Glasses ground very true and well polished upon one another , so that their surfaces may almost every where touch each other , ( to which it will be requisite to rub them a little one upon another , for the better exclusion of the Air ) you may by lifting up the uppermost , lift up the lowermost ( though perhaps , as we have often try'd , two or three times bigger ) with it , as if the two Plates of Glass made but one body . Nay , we have divers times taken up four or five pieces of Glass at once , laid and prest thus one upon another , and might perchance have taken up a greater number , if we had had more of them at hand . And tryal has also informed us , that if you hold a Looking-Glass very level with the unfoliated side downward , and rub a little against it a piece of other very flat and very smooth Glass , you may easily by that way only , fasten them to one another ; so that the lowermost Glass , though large , will hang between the uppermost and the ground , to the wonder of those that behold it , and can discern nor imagine nothing capable to keep it from falling : and by the same way ( as we shall recite anon ) we have often made one considerably thick piece of Marble take and hold up another , having purposely caused their flat surfaces to be carefully ground and polished , without which the Experiment will not succeed . Nor is it requisite that the glasses be flat to make them adhere very closely together , provided their immediate contact be made according to a large surface : for to what we have already mention'd concerning the cohering of convex and concave Bodies , we may adde , that having purposely appli'd a long glass-stopple of an almost conical figure , and well ground , to the mouth of a thick quart Bottle , whose neck was made long and of a figure convenient to receive the stopple , and ground within fit for it , we found that these two glass bodies touching one another in a multitude of parts , did adhere together so closely , that when the stopple was carefully put in , we could easily , and divers times one after another , lift up the bottle , though there was by our guess above a pound of Liquor in it . Unless we suppose , without much probability , that because 't is found , that moving them to and fro upon one another , and pressing down the stopple , promotes their sticking , their adhesion may be in part ascrib'd either to some Elastical motion in the parts of the pressed glass , or to the exquisite adaptation of the almost numberless , though very small , asperities of the one , to the as numerous little cavities of the other ; whereby the surfaces do lock in with one another , or are as it were clasp'd together . For as polish'd as the surfaces may appear to sense , we must not deny that there may be such inequalities in them , since being wont to be polish'd with Putty or some such powder , or heap of grating and irregularly shap'd Corpuscles , they must needs make store of little furrows , and ridges , and other Asperities on them . But to insist on these Conjectures were to digress . Yet here we must not decline taking notice , that , at least here below , the sticking together of such bodies as are of sensible Bulk , and whose smooth surfaces immediately touch one another , may possibly not so much proceed from this , that their parts , as we formerly observ'd , are at rest among themselves , and by their immediate contact do make up as it were but one body ; as from the pressure of the Atmosphere , proceeding partly from the weight of the ambient Air , ( mixt with the Effluviums of the terrestrial Globe ) and partly from a kind of Spring , by vertue of which the Air continually presses upon the bodies contiguous to it , though through accustomance & negligence , & perhaps some other causes not here to be insisted on , we neither feel it in our own bodies , nor take notice of it in others . Now this pressure of the Air every way being suppos'd , I think the adhering of the smooth bodies we speak of ( for we suppose them far greater than the particles of the Air ) to one another may probably enough be ascrib'd to this , That when , for instance , the smooth surfaces of two pieces of Glass do so exquisitely touch one another , that none of the ambient Air is ei●her intercepted or admitted between them , then the undermost glass will suffer no pressure on that side which touches the uppermost ; the parts of the uppermost glass having no sensible spring in them ( so that they can only Resist , but not Repell the other : ) but that side of the undermost Glass which is expos'd to the Air will be press'd upon thereby ; and there being , as we said , no Elastical pressure on the other side of the glass to balance this , it is not to be wonder'd at that the inferiour glass should not fall off from the other , in regard the weight that would carry it downwards is much too small to overcome that force of the Air that thrusts it against the uppermost glass : As if one should with his hand thrust a plate of Iron broad-wise against the flat cieling of his Chamber , the Iron would not fall as long as the force of the hand perseveres to press against it . Nor is it material , that in our Case the pressure of the Atmosphere is suppos'd to force the lowermost glass upwards : For if we suppose the Air to consist of innumerable little springs ( as it were ) bearing upon and supporting one another , and whereof the lowermost are bent by the Weight of all that are incumbent on them , it will be easie to conceive that neer the surface of the Earth , ( about which the Air must diffuse it self by reason of the Gravity of its small parts , and the Resistance of the Earth against their Descent ) it may press almost equally every way , and by a kind of Recoyl ( though not properly so call'd ) from the Terrestrial Globe upwards , may strongly press any body upon which it can bear , against any other which has no such Elastical power to repel from it a body so press'd against it . This Difficulty being thus dispatch'd , we shall proceed by two or three particulars to confirm our Conjecture at the Cause why smooth Bodies stick ●ogether upon bare juxta-position or contact . And firs●● observe , that if a piece of flat glass be , as we formerl● mention'd , appended to a Looking-glass held with the unfoliated side downwards , parallel to the Horizon , though the adhering glass will not drop down , yet it will v●ry easily be mov'd any way along the level surface ; and if by inclining the Looking-glass any way , you deprive it of its former Level , the smaller glass will easily slide downwards upon the surface of the greater . Of which the Reason seems to be , partly that the Gravity as such of the lower glass does not considerably resist the horizontal motion of it , but only the motion upwards , whereby it must recede from the Centre of heavy Bodies , as might , if need were , be probably deduc'd from divers Instances obvious enough ; and partly , or rather chiefly , that to the edges of the glass the Ambient Air is contiguous as well on the one side as on the other , and so the pressure of the Air being equal on every part of the edges , the gravity of the smaller glass is not hinder'd by the Air ( which can as fast succeed on one side , as 't is displaced on the other ) from making it slide down the shelving surface of the greater Glass , whereas of the broad and flat sides of the lowermost glass the one is , as we said , press'd by the spring of the Air , whilst the other suffers no such pressure from the Looking-glass , to which it was apply'd . And so , if you take a small open-mouth'd glass , and plunge it into a Vessel full of Quick-silver with the mouth upward , that the Quick-silver may fill it without leaving any Air in it , and if then , whilst it is under the Quick-silver , you turn the mouth downwards , and so keeping it upright , lift it up till the mouth be almost come to the top of the Mercury ; you shall perceive that the glass will remain almost full of Quick-silver in the Vessel : And this will continue so , though you incline the glass this way or that way , provided you keep the mouth of it within the Mercury . And this Experiment , though more noble when try'd with Quick-silver , will succeed also when tryed , as it may more easily be , with water . Of which the Reason seems to be , that the glass hinders the Quick-silver in it from the pressure of the incumbent air , whereas the Quicksilver in the Vessel being expos'd to it , must by it necessarily be forced up against the surface of the inverted bottom of the glass , where it meets no Elastical power to repell it downwards . For , that it is not Natures Abhorrency of a Vacuum , that keeps the Quick-silver from descending till some air can come to succeed in its room , the famous Experiment invented by Torricellius , and found true by many others , and our selves , touching the descent of Quick-silver in any Tube of above two foot and a half long , seems clearly to evince . And to confirm what we have said , and shew withall , that it is not so much the Contact of Bodies according to a large surface , as that Contact is considered in it self , as by reason of its being ordinarily requisite to the exclusion of Air , that at least here below keeps bodies from falling asunder ; I shall relate , that having by a certain Artifice out of a large glass ( with a narrow mouth ) caus'd a certain quantity of air to be suck'd , we found that by immediately applying a Book ( which then chanc'd to lie at hand ) to the Orifice of the Vessel , the Book was readily lifted up and sustein'd in the air as long as we pleas'd , though the surface of the suspended Body could be touch'd , as is evident , but by the Ring which incircl'd the Orifice of the Vessel , and though the weight taken up ( besides that it was inconveniently shap'd for such a trial , which would probably have succeeded as well with a much greater weight , if we had had one fitly shap'd at hand ) exceeded twenty Ounces * . Of which event the Cause seems plainly to be this , that by reason of the Exsuction of some air out of the glass , the Elastical power of the remaining Air was very much debilitated in comparison of the unweaken'd Pressure of the External air , which being able to press the Book against the Orifice of the Vessel with greater strength than the internal air can resist , thereby it comes to pass , that the whole Orifice of the Vessel , though there be but part of it of solid body , does yet on this occasion perform in some measure the part of an entire surface exactly smooth . It may be consider'd also ( to adde that upon the by ) whether upon the Principle lately explicated may not in some measure depend the solidity of glass . For though its parts seem very little or not at all branched or interwoven one within another , and appear very smooth and slippery , yet since the fire that brought them to fusion , and consequently to be fluid , may well be supposd to have sub-divided and reduc'd them into very small Particles , and to have thereby assisted them to exclude the air from b●twixt them , it may seem that it needs not much be wonder'd at , if the immediate contact of such small and smooth Corpuscles suffice to make them hold together ; for that their union is strict enough to keep out the air , may appear from this , that those that blow glasses , and those that distill in them , find not the air can traverse the pores even of heated glass ; and as for any more subtil matter , we see by the free passage of Light and Heat , or , to speak more warily , of magnetical Effluvia through glass , without injuring its texture , that such matter but moderately mov'd will not hinder the little solid parts from cleaving together . And on this occasion it might be consider'd , how much the juxta-position of their Corpuscles crowded together by fusion may contribute to the consistence and brittleness of Salt-Petre , and diverse other bodies , which may from an incoherent powder be readily turn'd into one Mass ; as also how far the sticking together ( for I speak not of the figures compos'd by them ) of the small parts of hanging drops of water , and such other Liquors as are not thought to consist of Corpuscles hooked or branch'd , may be ascrib'd to the contact of their small parts , and the exclusion of air . These , I say , and some other such things might be here consider'd , but that we are forbidden to examine them particularly , and especially what has been represented touching the solidity of glass , ( which we suspect another cause may have a great Interest in ) by our haste , which calls us to the remaining part of our Discourse . Though then it be hence ( to omit other proofs elsewhere mention'd ) sufficiently manifest , that the Air has a spring , and that a strong one , yet there appears no great necessity of having recourse to it for the giving an Account why the two smooth glasses above mention'd were able to adhere so closely to each other : For a probable Reason of the same Phaenomenon may be rende●'d by the pressure of the Air consider'd as a weight . And fi●st , we must recall to mind what we ( a little above ) said of the Recoyling , ( or Rebounding of the Pressure ) of a Cylinder of Air from the Earth , to the suspended piece of glass , proceeding from this , that the fluid Air , which is not without some Gravity , being hinder'd by the resisting surface of the terrestrial Globe to fall lower , must diffuse it self , and consequently press as well upwards as any other way . Next , we may consider , that when the surfaces of two flat Bodies of any notable ( and for example of equal ) breadth do immediately touch each other , and lye both of them level with the Horizon , and one of them directly over the other ; in this case , I say , since the Air cannot move in an instant from the edges to the middle of the two surfaces that lye upon each other , the lowermost cannot be drawn away downwards in a perpendicular line from the uppermost , but that by reason of the stiffness and contact of the two Bodies , it must necessarily happen that at the instant of their separation , should it be effected , the lowermost glass will be press'd upon by the whole ( Crooked ) Pillar of Air , suppos'd to reach from the top of the Atmosphere , and to have for Basis the superficies of the undermost glass . For at that instant , the Air having not time to get in between the two glasses , there is nothing between them during that instant to resist the pressure of that Air which bears against the lower superficies of that undermost glass , and consequently such a revulsion of the lower glass cannot be effected but by a weight or force capable to surmount the power of the weight of the abovemention'd Cylinder of the Atmosphere ; and this , as I said , because that by reason of the sudden separation , the upper surface of the glass has not any air contiguous to it , which , were it there , would ( according to the nature of Fluid and springy Bodies ) press as much against the upper surface of the glass , as the Pillar of the Atmosphere against the lower , and consequently sustain that Endeavour of the Air against the lower side of the glass , which in our propos'd case must be surmounted by the weight or force employ'd to draw down the lower glass . And hence we may understand ( to adde that upon the by ) That it is not necessary that the contiguous surfaces of the two flat glasses we have been treating of , be parallel'd to the Horizon : For if you should hold them perpendicular to it , their divulsion would not cease to be difficult , provided it were attempted to be made by suddenly pulling one of the broad surfaces from the other in a level line , and not by making one of the surfaces slide upon the other ; for in the former case , the separation of the contiguous Bodies will be hinder'd by the weight or pressure of the lateral Air ( if I may so speak ) that bears against the broad sides of the glasses contiguous to it . But whereas in these cases we suppose the superficies of the two glasses to be so exactly flat and smooth , that no Air at all can come between them ; Experience has inform'd us , that it is extreamly difficult , if at all possible , to procure from our ordinary Tradesmen either Glasses or Marbles , so much as approaching such an Exquisiteness : For we could very hardly get either experienc'd Stone-cutters , or Persons skill'd at grinding of glasses , to make us a pair of round Marbles , though of an inch or two only in Diameter , that would for so much as two or three minutes hold up one another in the Air by contact , though they would easily enough take up each other , if the uppermost were drawn up nimbly , before the Air could have leisure to insinuate it self betwixt them . But this notwithstanding , we endeavour'd by the following Expedient , not only to manifest that the Power or Pressure of the Air is in these Experiments very great , but also to make some Estimate ( though but an imperfect one ) how great that Power is . Having then provided a pair of Marbles of an inch and half in Diameter , and as flat and smooth as we could get , and having consider'd , that as 't was the getting in of the Air between them that ( for the reason above declar'd ) hinder'd them from sticking strongly together ; so the Access afforded to the Air was for the most part due to that scarcely evitable roughness or inequality of their surfaces that remain'd in spight of the Polish : considering these things , I say , we suppos'd that the intrusion of the Air might be for some while prevented by wetting the surfaces to be joyn'd with pure Spirit of Wine ; and that yet this Liquor , that seems the freest that we know of from tenacity , would not otherwise than by keeping out the air prove a Cement to fasten the stones together . But because the easie separation of such smooth Bodies as adhere but by contact does in great part ( as we formerly noted ) proceed from this , That whereas it is very difficult to hold such Bodies exactly level for any considerable space of time , and yet the least Inclination any way gives the lower Body opportunity to slide off ; because of this , I say , we resolv'd in the first place to see what could be done by fastening to the upper Marble certain Wires and a Button , in such manner as that the lower Marble , when it was joyn'd , might freely fall directly down , but no● slip much aside , being hinder'd by the Wire . And in pursuit of this we found , that not only the dry Marbles could be made to take up and hold up one another , but that once by drawing up the upper Marble nimbly , we could take up ( but not keep up for any time ) together with the lower Marble , a Scale , and in it a pound weight of 16 Ounces Troy. After this we moisten'd the surfaces of the Marbles with such pure Alkalizate Spirit of Wine as we elsewhere teach to make , which was so thin and subtil , that not only we burn'd some of it before we would employ it about this Experiment in a Silver Spoon , without leaving so much as any sign of Phlegm behind ; but it would ( in the open air ) almost in a moment fly away from the surface of the Marble anointed with it , and leave it dry and glossy . The Marbles being skilfully wetted , and kept by the above-mention'd wires from slipping aside , we cast into a Scale fasten'd to the lower of them diverse weights at several times , and by nimbly pulling up the higher stone , try'd many times how much we could draw up with the lower , and did sometimes take up above an hundred Ounces , and once an hundred thirty two Ounces Troy , besides the Scale that contain'd them , and the Marble it self , the Diameter of whose smooth surface was by measure but about an inch and two thirds . But here I must take notice , both in relation to this and the following Experiments to be set down concerning smooth Marbles , that we never yet found any sort of Experiments , wherein such slight variations of circumstances could so much defeat our Endeavours ; which we therefore mention , that in case such Experiments be try'd again , it may be thought the less strange , if others be not able to do as much at the first and second , or perhaps the tenth or twentieth tryal , as we did after much Practice had made us expert in this nice Experiment , and suggested to us divers facilitating Circumstances , which could not here in few words be particularly set down . And now , because we perceiv'd that the Spirit of Wine was too fugitive and subtil a Liquor for our purpose , we suppos'd that Oyl , as it would better fill up the little cavities of the Stones , so it would more exactly keep ●ut the air , and less easily v●nish into it . And accordingly , having moisten'd the surfaces with a due Proportion of good express'd Oyl of sweet Almonds , and having carefully observ'd the other requisite Circumstances , we to●k up some drams above four hundred Ounces Troy hanging at the lower Marble . And that you may not suspect that it was by glewing the Marbles together , that the Oyl did enable them to make so much greater resistance against separation than the Spirit of Wine did ; I shall adde , That in case the flat surfaces of the joyn'd Stones were held not parallel , but perpendicular to the Horizon , that so the air might ( as we formerly also observ'd ) immediately succeed as the looser Marble should slide off , the weight of some Ounces was now and then requisite to draw down the Marbles when they had nothing but Spirit of Wine between them , whereas they would easily enough slide off from one another when they were cemented together with Oyl : perhaps because that the Spirit of Wine by reason of the smallness and penetrancy of its parts , and because of its fugitive nature , did not so well fill up the little pores and furrows of the surfaces of the Marbles ; whereby the little protuberances getting into those little cavities , might more resist the sliding of the Marbles upon one anothers surfaces , whose texture is better fitted to make ●heir surfaces smooth and slippery . And to shew that the resistance of such contiguous Marbles to a violent separation is greater in those which being broader are press'd against or resisted by a proportionably bigger ( though not a longer ) Pillar of the Atmosphere ; We caused two Marbles to be made , whose Diameter was three inches or a very little more : and having after the abovemention'd manner employ'd Spirit of Wine to keep out the air from between them , we did after some tryals , with the uppermost of them take up the lowermost , and with it four hundred sixty eight , or four hundred and seventy Ounces . But making use of Oyl of Almonds instead of Spirit of Wine , we did with our own hands draw up twice , one time after another , with the undermost Stone , a much greater weight , namely , eighty four pound or 1344 Ounces ( Troy weight ) notwithstanding which weight we manifestly perceiv'd the Marble at which it hung to stick strongly to the other . And here again we will take notice , that the interpos'd Oyl was so far from being able as a Cement , rather than by keeping out the air , to make these Marbles stick so close together , that , whereas Bodies glew'd or cemented together are wont to make an almost equal resistance to their being separated , in what Posture soever you place them , I made our Marbles , even when we try'd this last Experiment , very freely slide upon one another , by impelling the upppermost to the right hand or to the left , with my Finger or my Thumb : ( whereof the reason is intimated above , where we mention'd almost the like case in Glasses ) and having sometime before taken up a weight which we conjectur'd to be not much inferiour to that last named , we presently for tryal sake held the Marbles with their edges downwards , and found that those that in an Horizontal Position could not be drawn asunder by so great a weight , did in another posture presently fall asunder by their own weight , which made one readily slide off from the other to the ground . Now although we have confess'd , that this way of measuring the force of the Air is not Accurate ; yet we hope it will not be thought Useless , since ( not to mention that by thus breaking the Ice , we may make way for the happier Enquiries of others ) it not only shows us that this pressing or sustaining force of the air , as unheeded as it is wont to be , is very Great , but it may also assist us to conjecture how Great it is , which though we cannot hereby determine precisely and with certainty , yet we may estimate it with much less uncertainty than otherwise we could . I know that the Peripateticks , and the generality of the School Philosophers , will confidently ascribe the sticking of the Marbles , not to the cause we have assign'd , but to Natures Abhorrency and fear of a Vacuum . But not to engage our selves now in a Disquisition that when we discours'd of Fluidity we did ( for the Reasons there express'd ) decline to meddle with ; We will , without disputing whether or no Nature either can at all admit , or do abhorre a Vacuum , content our selves to confirm the Explication given of this Phaenomenon by these two Considerations . The one , That if Nature did so violently oppose a Vacuum as is pretended , it is not likely that any force whatsoever that we could employ would be capable to produce one ; whereas in our case we find , that a little more weight added to the lower of the Marbles , is able to surmount their Reluctancy to separation , notwithstanding the suppos'd danger of thereby introducing a Vacuum . And my next Consideration is , that ( according to what we have hitherto deliver'd ) without having recourse to any such disputable Principle , a fair account may be given of the propos'd Phaenomenon , by the pressure or weight of the Air. And that what we have said concerning the latter of these may be entertain'd with the less difficulty , let us suppose , that when the Marbles stick well together , the lowermost of them , or the appendant weight were fasten'd to the ground : For in this case there appears no reason to believe that their power to resist separation would be less than it was before . And yet it seems evident , that the uppermost Marble would not be perpendicularly pull'd up but by such a force as were at least ( I say at least ) able to lift up a weight equal to that of the last mention'd Marble , and of a Pillar of Air having the Stone for its Base , and reaching to the top of the Atmosphere ; since at the instant of Revulsion , before the Air can get in , and spread it self between the Stones , there is not for ought appears any such Body under the upper Marble , as can help the hand to sustain the weight both of that Marble and the incumbent Cylinder of the Atmosphere , which then gravitates upon it , and consequently upon the hand ; bec●use there is no Air , nor other equivalent Body underneath it , to sustain its part of the weight , as the lower Air is wont to do in reference to the heavy Bodies that lean on it , and to the weight of the incumbent Air. And therefore we need not much marvel , if when only a less weight than that of the foremention'd Pillar of the Atmosphere hangs at the lower Marble , it should be capable of being drawn up by the uppermost , rather than suffer a divulsion from it . As we see that when two Bodies being fasten'd together , are endeavour'd to be drawn asunder by forces or weights not able to separate them , they will usually both of them move that way , towards which either of them is the most strongly drawn . On which occasion , I remember what I have sometimes observ'd in one of the wayes of trying the strength of Load-stones : For if the Load-stone be able to take up more than its own weight , you may as well lift up the Load-stone by a Knife , as the Knife by the Load-stone . And though one accustom'd to judge only by his Eyes , would have imagin'd , that when I held the great weights formerly mention'd suspended in the Air , there was no strong endeavour to pull up the upper Marble from the lower , because my hand being for a while held steddy , seem'd to be at rest ; yet he will easily be invited to suspect that in such a thought there may be a great mistake , who shall consider , that neither did the weight sensibly appear to pull the lower Marble downwards , though my hand assur'd me that the weight had not lost its Gravitation . And if I shall adde , that once , when the weight after having been lifted up into the Air , was casually so loosen'd from the upper Marble , as suddenly to drop down , my hand , unawares to me , was by the force of that Endeavour it just before employ'd to sustain the fallen weight , carried up with such violence , that I very sensibly bruis'd it by the stroak it gave against the face of a By-stander , who chanc'd out of curiosity to hold his Head over the Marbles . And here it will not be impertinent to bring in an Experiment that I once devis'd , not only for other uses , but to illustrate the subject we have been hitherto treating of . The Tryal I lately found registred among my Adversaria , in these Termes . A Brass Valve of about an Inch Diameter was with Cement well fastned to the shorter Leg ( which was but of very few Inches in Length ) of a long Glass Syphon left open at the end of the other Leg. This Valve being let down to the Bottom of a tall Glass Body full of water , so that 't was ( if I much mis-remember not ) between a Foot and half a yard beneath the surface of the water , when there was let in as much water into the Pipe , as reach'd in that as high as the surface of the External Water in the Tall Cucurbite : Then about an Ounce weight was put into the opposite Scale of a Ballance , to the neighbouring Scale whereof one end of a string was tyed , whose other end was fastned to the said Valve , whose parts would be thereby drawn asunder . But when the water was empty'd out of the Pipe , and the Valve was let down to the former depth , there was requisite about 5 Ounces , that is 4 Ounces more than formerly , to disjoin the parts of the Valve , and let the water get in between : And when ( the Syphon being freed from water ) the Valve was listed higher and higher , together with the Pipe , there needed less and less weight to make a Disjunction ; two Ounces of Additional weight ( to the one Ounce requisite to counterpoize the Cover of the Valve it self ) on the water sufficing to lift up the Cover , when the Valve was held about half way , between its Lower station , and the Top of the water ; a single Ounce sufficing afterwards , and half an Ounce of Additional weight proving enough to disjoin the parts when the Valve was held but a little beneath the surface of the Liquor . This relation of an Experiment which I afterwards show'd to many Virtuosi , will perhaps seem somewhat dark to you without a Scheme ; but if you consider it attentively enough to apprehend it throughly , I presume it will show you , that whether or no there be upon any other score a repugnancy to the separation of smooth Bodies join'd by immediate contact ; yet certainly there may be a great Repugnancy upon the bare Account of the Gravity of the medium , wherein the Divulsion is attempted . For in our case the Fuga Vacui , if there be any , ought to resist the separation of the Parts of a Valve still kept under water , as much near the Top of the water , as at the Bottom . And therefore the great difference found in that resistance at those different places , may be attributed to the Pressure of the Ambient water , that thrust them together . And though it be true that Air is an Exceeding Light Body in comparison of water ; yet in divers Tryals I have found the Disproportion in Gravity of those two Fluids not to exceed that of a 1000. to 1. So that considering how many miles , not to say scores of miles , the Air may reach upwards , there seems no absurdity at all to suppose that the bare Pressure of it against the Marbles formerly mention'd , may keep them as coherent as we found them to be . But since this I have been able to make an Experiment , that does sufficiently confirm the former Doctrine . For having suspended the two coherent Marbles in a Capacious Glass , whence by a certain contrivance , the Air could little by little be drawn out , we found as we expected , that whilst there remain'd any considerable quantity of Air in the Glass , the lower Marble continued to stick to the other , the Pressure of the remaining Air , though but weak , being yet sufficient for the sustentation of the lower Marble , which it was not after the Air was further withdrawn . And if when the Disjunction was made , the upper Marble were by another contrivance let down upon the lower , so as to touch it as before ; though whilst the External Air was kept out of the Glass , the upper Marble might easily be rais'd without taking up the lower with it ; yet when the outward Air was let in , the Marbles were press'd together , and became again strongly coherent . But it is now high time to look back to that part of our Discourse , which the consideration of our Marbles has so long intic'd us from directly prosecuting . Although then it may from the past Discourse be conceiv'd , that in Bodies of sensible bulk , whose smooth surfaces touch one another , the force of the Air does mainly make them cohere ; yet it seems that generally in Bodies ( whether greater or smaller ) it is a sufficient cause of Cohesion that the parts of the Body are at rest by one another , though perhaps the entire Concretion be remov'd from place to place . For Bodies of sensible bulk being either fluid or consistent , and it being ( as above we have taught ) the chief requisite of a fluid Body that its small parts be in motion , there seems not any thing necessary to keep a Body from being fluid , and consequently to keep it a firm Body , but that its contiguous parts be in a state of rest . I know that almost all Philosophers both ancient and modern , require something else than the Rest of the parts ( of which scarce any of them takes the least notice as of a thing conducive to Firmness ) to the keeping together the parts of a dry and stable Body . But although to engage very far in such a Metaphysical and nice Speculation were unfit for me , ( at least at present , when I am but to endeavour to explicate Fluidity and Firmness in the sensible Bodies we converse with ; ) yet we dare not quite skip it over , lest we be accus'd of Overseeing it . The greater number of Contemplators ascribe the effect under Consideration to a certain substantial form , to which they assign , among other Offices , that of keeping all the parts united into one Body . But what this form is , and by what means it unites the parts so strongly in a Diamond or a Ruby , &c. and so loosely in Tallow , Camphire , or the like slight concretions , and how the substantial form continuing the same in Water and Ice , the same matter may easily and frequently become by turns a hard and a fluid Body ; how these , I say , and diverse others things are effected by the forms of solid Bodies , is to me , I confess , at least as difficult to conceive , as to imagine without it a cause of Cohesion in the parts of a dry Body . Other Learned Men there are among the modern Naturalists who have recourse some of them to a Spirit , which penetrating and fastening to each other all substances corporeal , unites them into one World ; but others fancy rather a certain Cement or Glue , whereby they conceive the parts of Bodies to be made as it were to stick to each other . But as for this last Hypothesis , it would be consider'd , that though Glue is made use of to joyn together Bodies of sensible bulk , yet Glue it self being a Body that is so too , it must also it self consist of lesser parts sticking to one another ; which allows me to demand the cause of the mutual Coherence of those parts . And if it be answer'd , that they likewise stick together by the Intervention of some more subtil Glue , I shall again represent that this Glue also must consist of corporeal parts ; and therefore I shall further demand how these also stick together : and if the like Answer be again made me , I shall still renew the like Demand , till at length the Answerer be reduc'd to confess , that parts of Matter so very small cannot be reasonably suppos'd to be kept together by a Cement . And if the Corpuscles that make up the finest Glue imaginable are not kept together by a Cement , we may be allow'd to ascribe their Adhesion to the immediate Contact and Rest of the component parts , ( which is a cause intelligible , and at least probable ) till some other sufficient cause be assign'd , which I do not take that to be which is taught by the Patrons of the first Hypothesis lately mention'd , concerning a Spirit diffus'd through the mass of matter . For not to mention that the Agility of a Spirit seems not so proper a Qualification for that which is to fasten Bodies together , we may consider , that this substance which is called a Spirit is indeed but a subtil Body . And why therefore may not the minute parts of other Bodies , if they be conveniently shap'd for Adhesion , stick to one another , as well as stick to this Spirit ? And I should here also demand , how the parts of this Spirit are kept fast to one another . If any should answer , That this Spirit consists of parts which are inseparable , and yet perhaps of a hooked shape , which fits them to fasten themselves to the Bodies they take hold of , and thereby those to one another ; this would be to propose such a new Notion of the diffus'd Spirit , as I know not whether those whose Opinion I have been examining did ever dream of , or would be content to adopt : and sure according to this Hypothesis there must be a wonderful plenty of these little Spirits in the grossest Bodies ; and Ice for example , which is thought so destitute of Spirits , must be well-nigh half made up of them : For these little spirituous parts can fasten no parts of other Bodies together but those they touch , since otherwise the parts of other sorts of matter , if but contiguous , might cohere without these , which is against the Hypothesis . And since each of these small spirituous Corpuscles , if I may so call them , being really a natural Body , and by consequent necessarily divisible , at least by Thought , into parts , I shall ask the Proposers of this new Notion of Spirit , upon what Account this Corpuscle can be indivisible ; I mean , what it is , if it be not Rest and immediate Contact , that hinders but that the parts ( or designable parcel of corporeal substance ) which are divisible by thought , should be alwayes kept together , and never be actually divided . I am not averse indeed from granting , that they may almost alwayes escape Dissolution : but I am apt to suspect that may be , because that by reason of the extreme smallness , and the Rest and strict Contact of their parts , they can scarce ever meet with an Agent minute and swiftly enough mov'd , to be able to shatter them or dissociate the combin'd parts . For to say , that 't is the Nature of every such Corpuscle to be indivisible , is but to give me cause to demand how that appears : For so important an Assertion needs more than a bare Affirmation for proof . And if two of these Corpuscles that are presum'd to be indivisible should , being smooth and of the same figure , ( as for Example Cubical ) happen to lye upon one another , and a third should likewise chance to be fitly plac'd upon the uppermost of the two , what should hinder but that this Aggregate may by the violent knock of some other Corpuscles be broken in the midst of the whole Concretion , and consequently in the middlemost body ? For suppose them as Adamantine as you please , yet since Corpuscles as hard as they are , can be made very violently to knock against them ; why may not these grate or break the middlemost Corpuscles , or any of the others ? as we see that Diamonds themselves may be reduc'd to powder by other Diamonds , though not ( as Artificers vers'd in the Trade inform me ) by Attrition with any other stone . To prove that the Cohesion of the middlemost of the three lately-mention'd small Deyes with the other two , the one above it , the other below , is not so strong as that of the parts of that middlemost Corpuscle , notwithstanding that the contact between each two adjoyning Bodies is suppos'd to be full , ( for so it must be in such Bodies , though not alwayes in others visibly greater , in which some subtiler substance may be suppos'd to come in part between them ; ) to prove this , I say , there must be assign'd some better cause of the Cohesion of the matter in one part of the propos'd Body than in the other . And it cannot with probability be pretended , that a Corpuscle presum'd uncapable to be divided should consist of hooked parts : and if that should be pretended , yet ev'n these hooks also ●eing true Bodies , the Question would recur concerning Them and be still renewable in infinitum . If it should be said that these minute Bodies are indissoluble , because it is ●heir nature to be so ; that would not be to render a Reason of the thing propos'd , but in effect to decline rendring any . And though I know that in every Hypothesis about the principles of things , something is allow'd to be assum'd , as not being to be explain'd or prov'd by any thing more primary than it self ; yet I know not whether this excuse be proper in our Case , wherein it seems that the entireness and permanency of any parcel of matter , how minute soever , may be probably enough deduc'd from the immediate Contact , the Rest and the extreme littleness of its designable parts . And if for a last refuge it should be said , that the designable parts of these Corpuscles are therefore unseparable , because there is no vacuity at all intercepted between them ; besides that this is contrary to the supposition formerly made ; for such extremely minute Deyes as we imagin'd to be one upon another , having their surfaces according to our Postulatum , flat , smooth , and exquisitely congruous , could no more than the parts of either of the three Corpuscles have any vacuity intercepted between them : besides this , I say , this is both to suppose a Vacuum in all divisible Bodies , and that too as the cause of their being such , and to decline the former Hypothesis touching the use of this Spirit , and take Sanctuary among the Atomists , to whose opinion about the account upon which those Bodies they call Atoms are not dissipated , although some of the Considerations we have alledg'd against the newly examin'd opinion may in part be appli'd ; yet diverse of their other opinions do so fairly comport with the generality of our Experiments in these Notes touching Fluidity and Firmness , that I am willing to decline clashing with them , by not pursuing now any further a Disquisition , which , as I said a while ago , is not necessary to my present design : especially , since the dim and bounded Intellect of man seldom prosperously adventures to be Dogmatical about things that approach to Infinite , whether in vastness or littleness . Nor indeed would I have that look'd upon as a resolute Declaration of what I think of so abstruse a Subject , which I have rather propos'd to avoid saying nothing , where I suppos'd it expected I should say something . The other thing then , which in our Description of a firm Body we mention'd as capable to make it so , is the texture of the parts ( whether homogeneous or not ) that constitute it ; and though the Juxta-position and Rest of these parts may possibly alone suffice to make the Body stable ; yet this Texture seems to be the most usual cause of stability , and sometimes also it may superadde a degree of that quality to that which bodies may have upon the former account only . For , though whilst the parts of the Body are actually at rest it cannot be fluid , yet those parts , if they cohere to one another but by rest only , may Caeteris paribus be much more easily dissociated and put into motion by any external Body actually mov'd , than they could be if they were by little hooks and eyes , or other kind of fastenings intangl'd in one another ; it being often necessary in this case violently to break off these fastenings before the little bodies fasten'd together by them can be disjoyn'd , and put into such a separate motion as is requisite to the constituting of a fluid Body . We formerly made use of that familiar substance , the white of an Egge , to illustrate the nature of Fluidity : Let us now try whether it will also assist us in our enquiry after the causes of stability . When an Egge is made hard by boyling , since whether we suppose this Induration to be effected by bare motion or impulse , or else by the insinuation of fiery Corpuscles , since I say there is nothing that appears to get in at the shell , unless perhaps some calorifick Atoms , and perchance too some little particles of the fluid water it is boyled in , 't is not easie to discover from whence else this change of consistency proceeds , than from a change made in the texture of the parts whereby they are connected and dispos'd after a new manner , fit to make them reciprocally hinder the freedom of each others motions . But if instead of hardning the whites of Eggs by the heat of the fire , you beat them very well into froth , you may perceive that froth to emulate the nature of a stable Body : for not only you may raise it up to a pretty height , and make it retain a sharp top almost like a Pyramide ; but I remember I have for curiosity sake made with a little care a long and proportionably thick Body of these bubbles hang down from my finger without falling , like an ice-icle from one of the Reeds of a thatch'd House , and yet in this there appears not any alteration to be made in the fluid Body , save a meer Mechanical change of the disposition of its parts : which may be confirmed by water beaten into froth , for there the heaped bubbles will quickly subside and fall back into water of the very same consistence it was of before . Now there may be several things whereby a body may be put into such a texture as is convenient to make it firm or stable . And of these , before we consider of them particularly , it will be fit to take notice in general , that for the most part 't is not from any of them Single , but from two or more of them Concurring , that the Stability of Concretions proceeds . The first and chiefest of these seems to be the fitness of the shapes of the component particles to fasten to each other ; as if some were figur'd like the handles of Buckets , and others like the hooks , that are wont to be employ'd to draw them up out of the Well , or some like buttons , others like loops , some like male , others like female screws ( as Mechanicians speak ) or as if many together were so variously branch'd , that their parts may be so interwoven one within another , as not to be easily separable ( as we often see in a well-made dry hedge , of which if a man go to pull away one bough , he shall often be unable to do it without pulling away with it diverse others whose slender twigs will be intangled with it . ) An eminent example of the power of the bare Texture of many small Bodies ( even such as each of them apart is not perhaps extraordinarily shap'd for such a purpose ) to make a stable one , is afforded us by Ropes and Cables ; where only by twisting together and wreathing the slender and flexible threds the Cable is made up of , they are so well as it were wedg'd in between and fasten'd to one another , that they constitute a Body not to be broken by the weight of an Iron Anchor , nor perhaps by the force of a Ship violently driven on by the fury of the Winds and Waves . This figuration of the Corpuscles that make up consistent Bodies , seems to have been the chief if not only cause of their consistence in the Judgment of the antient Atomists , this being the account that is given of it by Lucretius . Denique quae nobis durata ac spissa videntur , Haec magis hamatis inter sese esse necess ' est , Et quasi ramosis alte compacta teneri . In quo jam genere imprimis adamantina saxa , Prima acie constant , ictus contemnere sueta , Et validi salices , ac duri robora ferri , Aeraque quae claustris restantia vociferantur . And indeed , so innumerable may be the correspondent figures which are fit to fasten bodies to one another , that it is very possible that two bodies , whereof each a part is fluid , may upon their Conjunction immediately intangle their parts in one another , and thereupon acquire such a new texture , that their parts cannot as formerly dissociate themselves at pleasure , and move along one anothers surfaces , nor consequently flow after the manner of Liquors , but are so connected or intangled , that the motion of one of them will be resisted by many , and so the whole Body will become firm or stable . Something like this may be seen in the Experiment mention'd by our Author , where he teaches that the distill'd Liquor of Nitre , and that made per Deliquium out of fix'd Nitre , will presently upon their mixture in part concoagulate into saline and consequently stable Bodies : but this seeming only a re-union of the saline particles that did , though invisibly , swim up and down in the aqueous parts of the mingled Liquor , which after this separation remains both more copious than the saline parts , and as fluid as before , we will adde a noble instance ( mention'd to another Purpose by Lully and Hartman ) to declare how much the firmness of bodies depends upon their t●xture . If you take then the Alchool or highly-rectify'd Spirit of Wine , and exquisitely deflegm'd Spirit of Urine , and mix them in a due proportion ( as I remember the last time I made the Experiment I took about equal parts by guess , though two of the former to but one of the latter , if This be excellent , be a better Proportion ; ) you may in and about a minute of an hour turn these two fluid Liquors into a constant Body ; and ● confess it was not without pleasure , that I have immediately upon the shaking of these two Liquors seen them shoot into the likeness of Snow , and acquire such a consistence , that I could without spilling the mixture turn the vessel that contain'd it upside down . But I dare not expect to have this Experiment believ'd ev'n by most of them that shall try it , Experience having taught me , that it will not succeed , unless the Spirits of Urine and of Wine be both of them more exactly deflegm'd than is usual even among Chymists . Yet so much more does this coagulation seem to depend upon the Salt of U●ine as of such a texture , than barely as U●inous , that we will add that , As the spirit of fermented Urine is not ( whatsoever some eminent Chymists may think or say ) so indispensably requisite , but that my curiosity leading me to try whether other Liquors , which I suppos'd to be of a resembling nature , might not serve the turn , I found that sufficiently-rectifyed Spirit of Harts-horn ( to mention that alone here ) may be made to supply its place : So I endeavour'd to make it probable by this , That having try'd a certain method ( though that may seem strange to most Chymists ) of so ordering Urine , that without staying at all to ferment or putrifie it either forty days or half so many hours , I can make the volatile or saline Spirit ascend first in distillation though I use but some such gentle heat as that of a Bath : Having , I say , by this means distill'd a very strong Spirit of unfermented Urine , and rectify'd it too , I found , as I expected , that I could not by any means make it coagulate with Spirit of Wine , which seem'd to proceed from the differing texture of this Spirit from that of Fermented , or rather Putrify'd , Urine , since I had added nothing to the fresh Urine I distill'd , but what was extreamly fix'd and belonging ( as Chymists speak ) to the mineral Kingdom . Wher●upon having had the curiosity to enquire of some of my Chymical acquaintances , I found that they complain'd that they had not been able to coagulate Spirit of Wine with the saline Spirit made of meer Urine , without any addition at all , when they distill'd that Urine without a previous putrefaction ( which is not wont to be perf●cted under six weeks or thereabouts . ) But to return to our Coagulum we will annex , That this is further remarkable in this Experiment , that this whi●e coagulated substance being put into a glass vessel exactly stopt and kept in a gentle heat ( which yet it self is not pe●haps necessary , though expedient ) for some weeks or months , will at least for the gr●atest part by much ( for I have not yet totally seen it do so ) resume the fo●m of a limpid Liquor ; as if eith●r all the c●ooked particl●s that conn●cted the small coalitions of the Vinous and Urinous Corpuscles to one another , were by the motion they were put into by the external heat one after another broken off , or else the same little concretions ( for the Menstruum seems to consist chiefly of them , being able to perform other matters than either of the single Liquors whereof 't is constituted ) either afflicted by outward warmth , or inab●ed thereto by some other cause of mobility , did after many and various attempts to clear themselves of each other , little by little so unbend or break off the crooked particles that intangled them , as at length to extricate themselves , and become capable of freely shifting places among themselves , and so of the form of a Liquor . And here I shall adde a couple of Experiments for the sake of their affinity with some parts of the newly recited Experiments about the Vino-Urinous Coagulate . And first it seem'd to me worth trying , whether some Acid Salts being duly order'd would not concoagulate with Spirit of Wine , as well as with Urinous Salts ; and having for a while digested together in a convenient proportion pure Saccharum Saturni , made with Spirit of Vinegar , and rectify'd Spirit of Wine , I found the mixtures so chang'd in point of Consistence , that upon inclining the Glass which contained it , none of it would run down the Sides . But this Experiment did not afterwards seem to me either easie or consistent , nor is it more then one of the ways , and I doubt none of the best , of attempting what we have propos'd . The other Experiment I promis'd you , relates to the resolution of the Coagulum of Spirit of Wine ( which to be performed by digestion requires a very long time ) And I wish I had not some reasons to hinder me from communicating to you the way of making of it at present ; it being an Experiment that seems somewhat strange in its kind ; but that part of it which is directly pertinent to our present Argument , you will , I trust , believe upon my Relation , which is , that by the addition of nothing but of a very fixt and very dry Body ( insomuch that 't will not yield any thing by the common way of distillation even in a naked fire ) by the sole addition , I say , of this dry Body , the newly mention'd Coagulum , which is also a consistent Body , may in a few hours be brought into a permanent Liquor ( quite distinct from the dry Body ) which when Experience first recommended this way to me , was of too subtle and penetrating a Nature , not to make me expect from it considerable Effects , both in Chymistry and Physick , of which imitation you may be pleas'd to take notice . But to return to what I was about to subjoyn after the mention of our Coagulum , as that is an Example of firmness produced by Texture ; I will here , because it is not easie to procure Spirits pure enough to make such a Concretion as that . I will here , I say , set down another way of speedily hardning one fluid Body by another ; for if you take the white of an Egge , and beat it till it become thin , and then shake well into it about half its quantity ( perhap● much less might serve the turn ) of right Spirit of Salt , you shall have in a few minutes the mixture so coagulated , that I remember when we turn'd the glass wherein we made it upside down , not a drop of Liquor did run out , though some hours after we obtain'd a little by breaking the crudled matter . And another Experiment much of the nature of this is said to be delivered by Sir Francis Bacon , who teaches to coagulate whites of Eggs with Spirit of Wine : and indeed , if you observe a circumstance ( unmention'd , that I hear of , by him ) which is the shaking of the two Bodies well together , and if your Spirit of Wine be good , the Experiment will succeed very well , insomuch that I remember I have made this way a Coagulum , from which no Liquor would drop down in about a minute of an hour . But whereas this great Naturalist conceives this hardning of the Egg 's white to be perform'd by the heat of the Spirit of Wine , I shall willingly confess he has assign'd the cause ingeniously , but must doubt whether he have done it truly : for there are diverse things that seem to argue Spirit of Wine , as inflammable as it is , to abound with a piercing Salt , and that such saline Corpuscles may suffice to crudle whites of Eggs , our freshly-mention'd Experiment of crudling the white of an Egge with Spirit of Salt does sufficiently declare ; and not only we have perform'd the like effect with some other Acid Spirits , and particularly that call'd Oyl of Vitriol , but it may be produc'd , though more slowly , ev'n by a crude Salt ; for by long beating the white of an Egge with a lump of Allum , you may bring it for the most part into white cruds . So that if we will allow the coagulation we treat of to be performed by the Spirit of Wine as hot , it seems that that heat must be only such as may be ascrib'd to the active particles of saline bodies , which yet are commonly accounted rather cold than hot . But because I somewhat doubt how justly they are reputed so , I will adde , that I did purposely for tryals sake , take the Serum or Whey that is wont to swim upon mans Blood after it is cold and setled , and indeavour'd in vain to coagulate it with such Spirit of Wine as would coagulate Eggs , and yet this whey will at least as soon as ( if not much sooner than ) whites of Eggs coagulate over a gentle heat of Embers ; which makes it doubtful , whether the effect proceed not from the greater correspondency in texture of the Spirit of Wine with one of the Liquors than with the other , rather than from the heat ascrib'd to it , which did not at all coagulate the whey . But although we have mention'd some Examples to shew that two fluid Bodies may be associated into a consistent one ; yet we want not an Experiment to make it appear , that likewise by the change of Texture a fluid Body may be divided into two consistent ones . This Experiment which we have partly taken notice of before ( treating of Fluidity ) is , that having for tryals sake by convenient degrees of fire distill'd over a due proportion of the more volatile parts of f●llet Oyl , neither the Liquor that came over , nor the substance that remain'd behind in the Retort was fluid , though the Oyl that yielded them had been so . But when I put to the Oyl before Distillation a convenient quantity of common Salt , and one or two other things , that were fit to change the Texture of the branch'd or hookt Corpuscles whereof it consisted ; I could then obtain an Oyl of common Oyl , that both dropt into the Receiver in the form of a Liquor , and continued a Fluid Body ; which may probably be of good use to Surgeons , Varnishers , and Men of some other Professions . And to make it the more likely , that by Additaments of some such nature as that newly mention'd , some g●●sser and cloggy parts are retain'd , or else much subtiliz'd ●nd otherwise altered . I shall adde that pros●cuting 〈◊〉 I happen'd to meet with in the discourse of a 〈…〉 Chymist , I practis'd a way so to desecate the 〈…〉 muddy Oyl of Am●er drawn per se , that a pretty 〈◊〉 of it would come over so transparent and 〈◊〉 lour'd , that the Experiment did not a little please 〈◊〉 shew'd it to . And if it do not appear upon tryal , 〈◊〉 this way of preparing Oyl of Amber does by detaini●● some parts , which though more gross then the rest , may yet be no useless one ; impair the Remedy , and that it does not , upon some other score infringe the medicinal vertue of the Oyl , the Experiment will not be unuseful . For the Liquor that is thus prepared is not only very diaphanous and well colour'd , but so pure and subtle that 't will swim , not only upon Water , but upon Spirit of Wine it self . And 't will be no despicable thing , it by extending or further applying this Experiment to other indispos'd Bodys , many Empyreumatical Oyls distill'd by strong fires in Retorts , can be brought to emulate essential Oyls ( as Chymists call them ) drawn in Limbicks , as to clearness and lightness . The additament I last thought fit to make use of for purifying Oyl of Amber was briefly this . ℞ . Two Pound or somewhat less of good Brandy , One Pound of good Sea-Salt , and half a Pound of the Oyl to be subtiliz'd , mix and distil them together . Upon the mention I made above of the white Coagulum of the Spirits of Wine and Urine , I remember what I have sometimes observ'd in the essential Oyl of Anniseeds ( as Chymists speak ) distill'd with store of water in a Limbick and Refrigeratory , nam●ly , that in the heat of Summer it would remain a perf●ct Liquor like other Chymical Oyls ; but during ●he cold of the Winter , though they , notwithstanding that season , continued fluid as before , the Oyl of Anniseeds would coagulate into a Body , though not of an uniform Texture to the Eye like Butter ( but rather almost like Camphire ) yet like it white and consistent , not without some kind or degree of Brittleness . And on this occasion I will here insert an Experiment which should have been set down in that part of the former History of Fluidity , where I mention , that the small parts of a Body may be sufficiently agitated to constitute a Liquor by the Air or other Agents not se●sibly hot themselves . The Experiment take ●hus . Casting by chance my Eyes in the Winter time upon a glass of Oyl of Anniseeds which stood coagulated by the cold of the season , I presently bethought my self of making a Liquor ( whose process belongs to another Treatise ) of which as soon as I had prepar'd it I made this Tryal . I melted with a gentle heat the congeled Oyl of Anniseeds to make it flow , and then cover'd par● of it in another glass wi●h a Mix●ure I had provided : and h●ving let th●m both rest in the window , I found , that the meer Oyl being fully refrigerated again , coagulated as before ; but that which was cover'd with the other Liquor continu'd fluid both day and night , and in several changes of weather , and does still remain at the bottom of the Menstruum a clear Oyl distinct from it , though I have purposely shaken them together to confound them . And because , Pyrophilus , I have not discover'd to you the Menstruum I made use of , I will here present you with a Succedaneous Experiment made with a common Liquor . I took then good clear Venetian Turpentine , and having slowly evaporated about a fourth or fifth part of it , till the remaining substance being suffer'd to cool would afford me a coherent Body , ( or a fine Colophony ) I caus'd some of this transparent and very brittle Gum ( of which I have elsewhere taught you some uses ) to be reduc'd to fine powder : of which I put into pure Spirit of Wine a greater proportion , then I judg'd the Liquor was capable of dissolving , to the end that when the Spirit had taken up as much of the Powder as it could , there might remain at the bottom a pretty quantity of our Colophony . On which , though the Menstruum ( being already glutted ) could not act powerfully enough to dissolve it , yet it might give the matter ( which it had already so far softened , as to reduce it into a coherent mass ) agitation enough to emulate a fluid ( though somewhat viscous ) Body . And accordingly I obtain'd a sluggish Liquor , which continued fluid , as long as I pleas'd to continue the Menstruum upon it . The like Experiment I try'd with clarify'd Rosin , and with fine Colophony , though but bought at the Shops ; and although the Tryal sometimes succeeded not ill , yet I found not the success constant and uniform , whether because the Bodys to be dissolv'd were not defecated and pure enough , or that I did not hit upon the best proportion between the Solvent and them . But this circumstance I shall not omit , that when the glutinous Liquor was separated from the Menstruum , it would by degrees , though but slowly , harden in the Air. The Application of which property , for the preservation of small and very tender Bodies , I shall not here more expresly hint then by having barely nam'd it . I had forgot to adde , that whilst the substance continu'd fluid , I could shake it , ( as I lately told you ● could the Oyl of Anniseeds ) with the supernatant Menstruum , without making between them any true or lasting Union . Which last circumstance brings into my mind another Experiment that I likewise forg●t to adde to that part of the former History of Fluidity , where I take notice , that the particular Textures of fluid Bodies may be reckon'd among the chief causes of their being dispos'd , or indispos'd to mingle with one another . For partly to confirm this Conjecture , and partly to manifest that 't is not universally true which Chymists are wont to think , that Acid Salts and Oyls will not incorporate or mingle ; I took an arbitrary quantity ( and , as I remember equal weight ) of common Oyl of Vitriol and common Oyl of Turpentine , as I bought them at the Druggists : these I put together very slowly , ( for that circumstance should not be omitted ) and obtain'd according to my desire an opacous and very deep-colour'd mixture , whose almost Balsam-like consistence was much thicker than either of the Liqu●rs that compos'd it . ( The like Experiment also succesfully try'd with some other Chymical Oyls , but found none preferable for this purpose to Oyl of Turpentine . ) And to make it probable that the disposition of these Liquors to mingle thus presently together depended much on their Texture , we made the mixture be war●ly ●●s●ill'd over , ( for else the Experiment will searce suc●eed ) a●d thereby obtain'd , ( as we elsewhere men●ion to another pu●pose ) a certain gross substance , which was that which seem'd to mediate the former union betwixt the two Liquors . For this substance being separated , and thereby the Texture of one of the Liquors ( or perhaps both ) being chang'd , the Liquors ( which came over very clear into the Receiver ) swome upon one another ; nor have I since been able by shaking them together to confound them for any considerable time , but they presently part again , and do to this day remain distinct as well as transparent . But af●er having forgot to set down these things in their proper place , I must not forget also , that to employ here more words about them were to digress . To this then annex we , that the Liquor we elsewhere mention our selves to have distill'd from Benzoin , has been and is still subject to much more frequent vicissitudes of Fluidity and Firmness ; for part of it all the year long continues in the form of a blackish Oyl , and the rest according as the season of the year or of the day makes the weather cold or hot , frequently changes its Texture , sometimes appearing perfectly the same with the newly-mention'd Oyl , and sometimes shooting into clear and variously-shap'd Crystals , which fasten themselves to the bottom and sides of the Vessel , till a warmer part of the day or of the Season resolves them again into a Liquor . And these two last Observations may also serve to confirm what we formerly taught , that the Fluidity of some bodies depended almost wholly upon the various agitation of their parts : for in there instances the parts of the Anniseeds and those of the B●nzoin , upon the operation or absen●e of the languid heat of the ambient air , sometimes agitating them , and sometim●s suffering them to rest , did constitute a fluid or a consistent Body . An● h●ving thus taken no●ice of this upon the by , we will 〈◊〉 the other Examples mention'd under this second head , that which it a●forded as to ou● presen● purpose by Salt-P●tre , which being ●issolv'd 〈◊〉 ●●fficient quantity of common water , will seem to be lost in it , and to constitute with it one uniform fluid substance ; but if a competent quantity of that water be boil'd ( or permitted to exhale ) away , and the remaining liquor be suffered to rest a while , especially in a cool place , the saline particles will be re-uniting themselves and by the exclusion of the aqueous parts , constitute stable and determinately-figur'd Ice-icles or Crystals . The consideration of this may suggest to us another way , that seems quite contrary to the former , whereby some bodies may become firm and solid , and that is by the intermingling of a due proportion of water or some other Liquor . For , though the small parts of such fluid Bodies , being themselves in motion , are apt to give those of others such an agitation as we have formerly taught that Fluidity principally depends on ; it seems that the admission of any Liquor must rather conduce to the making of a body fluid than consistent ; yet if we consult Experience , it will instruct us otherwise ; for when I have taken either an equal or a double weight of Oyl of Vitriol and distill'd it warily from running Mercury ; very much the greater part of the Liquor would come over , and leave behind it a very white Powder considerably fixt . And if we examine that familiar Production of Chymistry , Mercurius dulcis ( which they now use to make by subliming of together two parts of crude Mercury , with but one of Sublimate , which consists chiefly of Mercury already ) we may find that in That which is counted the best , the fluid Body of Quick-silver is so contex'd with the Salts it carries up in Sublimation , that the dry and brittle Body they compose may contain far more ( perhaps twice more ) Quick-silver than Salt. And other Experiments may perswade us , that the mixture of a convenient Liquor may cement bodies into one hard Concretion , which would scarce be compacted together otherwise . Nor is it against reason that it should be so ; for there may be differing qualifications required to a body whilst it is constituting , and when it is constituted , and though the motion of the parts that make it up , oppose the firmness of a formed body , yet it may conduce to the making of a firm body : for when a great many hard Corpuscles lye together loose and incoherent , they do , as we formerly noted , emulate a fluid body ; whereas by the mixture of a Liquor , those loose Corpuscles being for a while dissociated and put into motion , they may after many Evolutions apply themselves to one another after that manner that is most requisite to make them touch one another closely , and according to a greater surface . Whereupon it often follows , that the Liquor in which they did formerly swim is either squeez'd out upon their closing , or else so dispers'd in small particles , and dispos'd of among those of the harder Corpuscles , that they are unable to agitate them , or prejudice their mutual cohesion . And here to dilucidate the subject under consideration by an instance that seems very pertinent to it , we will make a further use of the Experiment formerly mention'd touching the burning of Alabaster : For if the powder , after it has done boyling and has been sufficiently burnt , and kept some hours ( the most experienced Artificers observing that it is not so convenient to employ it presently after it is taken off the fire ) be well beaten and tempered up with fair water almost to the consistence of thin pap , if the powder have been rightly prepar'd and skilfully temper'd , you shall see that fluid substance in a few minutes of an hour b●gin to set ( as the Trades-men speak ) that is to exchange its Fluidity for Firmness , so that if it were b●●ore cast into a mould , it will perfectly retain the figure of the internal surface thereof . Now that in our mixture there is for a while such an agitati●n of the hard parts produc'd upon the aff●sion of ●he wate● , and a●t●rwards an ●xc●usion of the s●perfl●●us water , we may confirm partly by this , That when any considerable quantity of burnt Alabaster is temper'd up with water , the mixture after a little time grows sensibly hot , and sometimes continues so for a pretty while : and partly also by this , That having purposely for tryals sake fill'd a new and good Glass-Vial , containing about half a pint , or pound , with the mixture we speak of , and when it was top full , stop'd it up very close , the liquid mixture within less than half an hour crack'd the Vial ( though standing in a window ) in several places , and at those crevises discharg'd it self of about a spoonful of clear water , the remaining mixture retaining perfectly the figure and dimensions of the Vial , and growing as hard as Chalk or somewhat harder , insomuch that we were fain to imploy several strokes with a strong Iron to divide the mass . And let me here adde , that some other substances may this way afford much solider Bodies than burnt Alabaster does : and therefore it may be a thing of good use to enquire out and try what other Bodies , easily to be procur'd , may be thus brought to a new and lasting Solidity . For the Learned Hydrographer , Fournier , speaking of those Damms or Digues ( as he calls them in his Language ) which are sometimes made in the Sea to secure Shipping , ( as I have seen at the Port of Genoa and elsewhere ) after having told us that the Romans made the fairest Harbours in the World by the help of a certain Sand to be met with at Cuma and Puteoli in the Kingdome of Naples , which Sand mingl'd with a third part of Quick-lime acquires in the water a flint-like hardness ; , subjoyns this Observation of his own , J'ay veu , &c. that is , I have seen ( sayes he ) in Flanders near Tournay a certain sort of ashes of Lime made of Marble , which was excellent for any kind of work made in the water . For having made a Bed of great stones , they cast upon them whole Baggs full of such ashes instead of Mortar , and the water betwixt the stones having temper'd up these ashes , petrify'd them to that degree , that in a short time they became as hard as Marble . Thus far He. But to pursue our former Discourse . That also which we intimated of the conduciveness of the various tumblings to and fro of the hard particles to their uniting into one firm concretion , seems confirmable by what we have observ'd in some saline Liquors , especially certain parcels of Spirit of Harts-horn , which whatever were the constitution of the ambient air , rem●ind fluid some of them for many months , after which the saline Corpuscles began to shoot at the bottom of the remaining Liquor into exquisitely-figur'd Crystals , which at length grew copious enough . For this spontaneous coagulation of the little saline Bodies happening so late , it seemed that it was preceded by almost innumerable evolutions , which were so many and so various , that at length the little bodies came to obvert to each other those parts of themselves by which they might be best fasten'd toget●●● and consti●ute a firm body . Which conjecture seem'd t●● less improbable , because we could not well imagine th●● this coagul●tion proceeded ( as that of dissolv'd Allum and other Sal●s is wont to do ) from the evaporation of the superfluous Liquor ; for the Glasses wherein what we have mentioned happen'd being carefully stop'd , there was no danger of such an avolation , and if any thing could get away , it must have been the subtil peircing and fugitive Spirit , ( which indeed , as my Nose had inform'd me , does oftentimes penetrate ordinary stopples ) for the flying away of those volatile parts would only have left the remaining Liquor more aqueous . And 't is well known to those that deal with such kind of Liquors , that the more aqueous they are , the l●ss apt they are to Crystallize . And however it will serve our turn , that there was but an insensible diminution of the Liquor upon the recesse of whatever it was that got through the Cork . To the same purpose I remember also , that having in a Crystal Vial carefully kept a pretty quantity of well-colour'd Tincture of Amber , made with pure Spirit of Wine , it remain'd fluid for a year or two , and during that time presented us with a strange Phaenomenon that belongs to other papers . * But having been absent for two or three years from the place where we lock'd it up , we found , when we came again to look upon it , that that though it had formerly remain'd fluid so long , yet several yellow lumps of Amber , almost like Beads , with one side flat , had here and there fasten'd themselves partly to the bottom , and partly to the sides of the Glass : the rest of whose internal surface continues yet transparent . Another thing whereby bodies become stable is , the admission of adventitious Corpuscles into their Pores and recesses . And of the wayes by which these foreign Corpuscles may bring the substance they invade to be compact , these four appear the chief . First then , the adventitious Corpuscles we speak of may produce stability in the matter they pervade , by expelling thence those voluble particles which , whilst they continu'd in it , did by their shape unfit for cohesion , or by their motion oppose the coalition , or disturb the Rest of the other particles whereof the Body consisted . But of this having already discoursed , proceed we to what is to follow . In the next place then , foreign Bodies may contribute to the stability of a substance they get into , by hindering the motion of the little Bodies that constitute it . And thirdly , such advenient Bodies , especially if they be not of the smallest size , may produce a firmness in the substance which they get into , by constituting with the particles it consists of , Corpuscles more unapt for motion , and fitted for mutual cohesion . These two we mention together , because that very often Nature imploys them together for the introducing of stability into Matter . To these seems to be reducible the way of turning the fluid body of milk into cruds by the mixture of a little Runnet , whose saline particles pervading the body of the milk , do not only make a commotion in the parts of it , but fasten the branched particles of it to one another , and with them constitute a body of another texture than was the milk ; and the weight of these crudled bodies reducing them by degrees into a closer order , does , whilst it presses them together , squeeze out the thinner and more serous Liquor , which the Runnet was unable to coagulate , and which being thus sever'd from the grosser parts of the milk , may well be more fluid than milk it self is wont to be . And that there is some coalition of the particles of the Runnet with the coagulated ones of the milk , may appear by the complaints that Houswives sometimes make of their Dairy-maids , that the Cheeses tast too strong of the Runnet , when too great a proportion of it has been mingled with the milk . And though we ascrib'd the crudling of the milk to the saline particles of the Runnet , we ignore not that not only common Runnet , but also diverse juices of herbs will crudle milk , as is well known in thole parts of Italy where Cheese is made without Runnet . But we made especial mention of the saline Corpuscles of the Runnet , because really Houswives are wont to salt it , and because saline Liquors do manifestly and powerfully operate in the coagulation of milk , which may be crudled by juice of Limons , and I know not how many other Acid Salts . And to manifest yet further the coagulative power of them , we have sometimes in about a minute of an hour arrested the Fluidity of new milk , and turn'd it into a crudle substance , only by dexterously mingling with it a few drops of good Oyl of Vitriol . But of the effects of various Salts upon milk we elsewhere may , and therefore shall not now , discourse . Between this last recited Exp●riment , and the two following ones , 't will not be improper to insert the immediately ensuing one , for the Affinity which it seems ( in different respects ) to have with both . I remember ( then ) that I divers years ago prepar'd a Salt , which either was , or at least answer'd well to the qualities ascrib'd to that which is now called Glauberus's Sal Mirabilis , which seem'd to have in it a coagulative power , in reference to common Wa●er . For whereas Salt of Tartar , Common Salt , Ni●re , &c. being dissolv'd in Water , do upon evaporation of a sufficient quantity of ●hat Water , recover indeed their pristine Saline Forms , yet they do but coagulate themselves , without concoagulating with them , either any Water , or at least so much , as Chymists have thought worth the taki●g no●ice of : Whereas this Salt we speak of , being p●epar'd for the purpose , and dissolv'd in a convenient quantity of Water , does upon its recoagulation so dispose of the aqueous Particles , among its own Saline ones , that if the Experiment be well and carefully made , almost the whole mixture will shoot together into fine Chrystals that seem to be of an uniform Substance , and are consistent enough to be even brittle , and to endure to be pulveriz'd , si●ted , &c. though the Concretion may have such a Proportion of Water in it , that ( as I remember ) when the Experiment succeeded well , from three parts of Water and but one of Salt , I had about four parts of Crystals . I need not tell you that this Salt s●ems to have a somewhat more then ordi●ary Res●mblance of a ●rue Coagulum , since it reduces so much water into a stable consi●tence ; yet it does in no contemptible proportion materially concur to the Body produc'd . But I may hereafter ( which I must not do now ) entertain you about a Salt of a differing kind from this ; and which put me upon considering , whether there may not be a Coagulum more properly so call'd of Common Water , which may in a very small proportion operate upon a great quantity of that Liquor , as Runnet does on Milk. I have not yet examined whether it will be sufficient to refer meerly to the second and third ways lately mention'd of making Bodies become stable in the Phaenomena I am about to speak of , or whether it may be reasonably suppos'd ( and added as a fifth way ) that the Bodies to be coagulated may ( in great part ) be brought to be so ; by so acting upon the Bodies to which they are put , that the Agent Liquor ( if I may so speak ) does by its action com●unicate to the subject it works on , or lose upon some other account some sub●le parts whose absence fits the dispos'd remaining Fluid for such a Cohesion , as may suffice to make a Body be ( though very soft , yet ) consistent . But however 't will not be amiss to take some notice of Effects , which , what e're the cause be , belong to the History of Fluidity and Firmness . I some years since prepar'd a Substance of a whitish colour , which would not only destroy the Fluidity of some other Liquors , but would give a consistency to a notable proportion of Oyl of Vitriol it self , though the par●s of this Liquor be presum'd , upon the score of its corrosi●eness , and i●s aptness to grow very hot with many other Bodies and make them smoke , to be very vehemently agita●ed . And I remember that I sometimes shew'd the curious a Glass Vial well stopt , upon th● bottom of which lay a little of this newly mention'd whi●ish powder ; ov●r which the●e was a considerable propo●●ion of Oyl of V●●ri●l ▪ in a consistent Form without seeming to have any thing to do with the Powder , as indeed it had been only pour'd upon it , and suffer'd to stand in the cold for some time ( which if I mistake not was a day or two ) at the end of which the above mention'd change was wrought on the Liquor by the powder which did not appear to be dissolv'd thereby . Which Phaenomenon seem'd indeed to argue , that there happen'd in this Experiment ( that was not the only one of the kind I then made ) something like the coagulation formerly mention'd of Quicksilver by the Vapour of Lead , some subtle parts of the Coagulator , if I may so call it , invisibly pervading the Liquor whose Fluidity was to be suspended , though it seem not improbable to me , that the effect produc'd might depend upon both causes , this newly express'd , and the other a little abovemention'd ; where I guess'd that a change of Texture , and thereby of Consistence in the Menstruum , might be the result of the Operation of the Menstruum , and the Body it acts upon . And because this powder is not so easie to be prepar'd , I shall adde that you may ( though not so well as by the newly mention'd way ) see the Coagulation of a Menstruum upon a firm Body which it does not seem to dissolve by the ensuing Experiment , Take Crystals of Salt-Petre very well dryed , but not powde●'d , and gently pouring on it in a Glass Vial some good Oyl of Vitriol till it swim about half an Inch , or perhaps more above the Salt , leave the Vial clos'd with a cover of Paper in a cool quiet place , where it may not be shaken ; and if the Tryal succeed with you as did it with me , the Liquor will , though slowly , so settle it self about the Nitre , that though you incline the Vial to any side ( or perhaps turn it upside down ) it will not run out ; and I have sometimes taken notice of little Saline Bodies , and as it were Fibres , that seem'd to keep the parts of the mixture united together . I made also some other Tryals to coagulate unflegmatick A. F. upon Nitre and some other Bodies , the Phaenomena of which Tryals , did not oblige me to renounce the lately mention'd Conjectures about the causes of such changes of consistency in Liquors , as I have been speaking of : For I still think it highly probable that the best Coagulator I have met with acts but as a finer sort of Runnet , which in an inconsiderable quantity really disperses material parts of it self through the Liquor to be wrought on , though these when the Coagulator is a consistent Body , be perchance so few or subtle as not to make any Visible diminution of the Body it parts with . A more eminent Example to our present purpose may be afforded us Sometimes ( for I am sure the Experiment will not Always succeed ) by the notable way of coagulating Quick-silver , and thereby turning it from a fluid into a firm body by the vapour of melted Lead , in which when it is taken off the fire ( but before it be quite grown hard again ) a little cavity must be made with a pebble or a stick , that the Quicksilver tied up in a rag may be nimbly put into that hole , and be congeal'd by the permeating stream of the cooling lead . Which Effect may be less hopefully expected by the way wont to be prescrib'd by Authors ( most of whom I doubt never made tryal of it ) then by another that I have practis'd and may on another occasion shew you . And that some metalline steam does really invade the Quicksilver , seems probable by the wasting of Lead by fusion , and by the operations ascrib'd by Chymists to the fume of Lead upon Gold , about which I may elsewhere tell you what is come to my Knowledge . And I remember that not long since , an ingenious Physician of my acquaintance keeping some Lead long in fusion to reduce it per se into a Calx , and holding his head often over rhe melting pot to observe the alterations of the metal , was suddenly purg'd diverse times both upwards and downwards , which both he and I ascrib'd to the Saturnine exhalations . And though I suspected the Congelation formerly-mention'd might proceed from the egress of some subtil substance that formerly agitated , but after deserted , the Mercuria● Corpuscles ; yet that the Concretion of the Quick-silver might be effected by some benumbing vapour of the Lead , seems confirmable by a notable accident that befel that famous Geometrician Doctor Wallis , who related it to me as a Phaenomenon he knew not well what to make of ; namely , That he and other Learned Men at Oxford being minded to make the Experiment under consideration , they found that upon the first fusion of the Lead the immersed Quick-silver was very well coagulated by it ; but when they came to melt it the second time , and put new Qui●ksilver into it , the Experiment would not succeed , at which they wonder'd , finding by Tryals that the Lead might be so easily deprived of its power of hardning Quick-silver . That this Observation will always hold true , I am not apt to believe ; but that such Learned and Candid Naturalists should either be mistaken in making it , or mis-relate it , 't were injurious to susp●ct : wherefore supposing that to have then at least happen'd which one of them registred in writing , and more then one of them told me ; it seems to countenance what we have deliver'd , and looks as if according to our Doctrine there were in Lead a coagulative steam or Spirit , and yet ( at least in that parcel of metal ) in so small a proportion . as that it almost totally dislodges or spends it self upon the first opportunity it meets with of passing into Quicksilver . We have elsewhere to another purpose mention'd our having sometimes ( for , as we there advertise , it will not always succeed ) made an Experiment which seems of kin to the former , and may give much light to the matter under consideration , and it was this ; We pour'd upon Aqua fortis common Sallet Oyl , which floted together at the top of it , but after some hours had its texture so changed by the ascending steams or other subtle insinuating particles of the saline Liquor , that it was turn'd into a white consistent ( and sometimes a brittle ) body like Butter , remaining all in one Cake on the top of the Menstruum . And the like Experiment ( but in a longer time ) we have perform'd with express'd Oyl of sweet Almonds instead of common Oyl . And to shew further , how much the operation of the same visible Agent may be diversified as to the Production of Fluidity or Firmness , according to the differing dispositions of the Bodies it acts on . I have sometimes ( I remember ) taken the same Aqua Fortis , or Spirit of Nitre wherewith I had coagulated express'd Oyl of Olives , and having pour'd it off from the Butter-like Substance : I cast into it some good Camphire , which without heat was thereby reduc'd into an Oyl , that retain'd a distinct Superficies from the Menstruum which it swam upon , and would not incorporate with , so that the same numerical Menstruum without the help of any degree of fire , turn'd a brittle Body into a Liquor , and the Liquor into a brittle Body ( for such is the Substance that may be made of common Oyl , if it be suffer'd to float long enough upon the coagulating Liquor ) which brittle Substance ( to adde that upon the by ) seem'd to have receiv'd a more durable alteration from the steams of the Menstruum then was expected . For not only when melted with fire , it would upon refrigeration recover its consistence without becoming again fluid , as when 't was in the form of Oyl ; but I made a Tryal or two without success to reduce it to a Liquor by mixing it with Oyl of Tartar per Deliquium , which , you know , has a great Faculty to find out and mortifie Acid Spirits , such as those of the Nitre or Aqua Fortis that had ( whether as meer Acids I now examine not ) coagulated our Oyl . The fourth and last way whereby Corpuscles entring from without into a Body may give it a stable consistence , is by making such a commotion in the parts of it , as may make them apply themselves one to another according to a greater surface , or otherwise complicate and dispose them after the manner requisite to make them stick together . This way of making Bodies become consistent , is seldom or never employ'd by Nature without the concurrence of some of the other ways already mention'd : but we have distinguish'd it from the two last recited , because in them we suppose that some of the adventitious Corpuscles are stop'd in the body to whose firmness they conduce , and ( though perhaps but in a very considerable proportion ) do concur to make it up ; whereas here we suppose that without materially concurring to constitute the body they work upon , they do only agitate and variously move the particles it consists of , perhaps breaking some , bending and twisting others , and in a word so altering the Texture , that the parts that did formerly either move separately , or adhere together but loosly , are now reduced to a closer order , or a more implicated Texture , and thereby more firmly connected to one another . That the bare disposition of the parts of a body in reference to each other , without any addition of forein matter , may do much towards stability , we may see both in some examples formerly mention'd , and in Osier wands , which when lying loosly in an heap together may each of them very easily be dissociated from the rest ; but when they are breaded into a Basket , they cohere so strongly , that when you take up any one of them , your shall take up all the rest . To which may be added those many obvious though perhaps unheeded Instances wherein by the bare Texture of the slender hair or filaments whereof Wool or Silk consists , Cloth , Silk-stockins , and many other durable Garments are made by illiterate Tradesmen . We may also observe the force of bare motion in altering the texture , and thereby the consistence of bodies by the common way of Churning , for there the external impulse of the Churn makes a great commotion in the parts of the Cream , and tumbles and shuffles them perpetually to and fro among themselves , whereupon it happens , that the more branched Corpuscles meeting with one another are intangled , and thereby separated from the rest , and after many occursions all these parts are at length fasten'd to one another , and excluding those of the Butter-milk , which seem not so conveniently shap'd for mutual cohesion , do constitute Butter ; which is wont to be made yet more consistent , or rather more compact , by being beaten or otherwise compress'd , as the parts thereby reduced into a closer order squeeze out the fluid Butter-milk that was intercepted among them . It will perhaps be thought more strange that a fluid Body , nay a distill'd Liquor which is very volatile and passes for simple and Homogeneous , and is at least far less compounded than milk , should by motion , without the mixture of any new matter , be made coherent : and therefore I hope that it will not only second the Example newly alleg'd , but likewise confirm some main points of our Doctrine touching Firmness , if we observe that ev'n the Chymical Oyl of Turpentine , which passes for one of the Principles or Elements of that Body , may be in great part , if not wholly , coagulated without addition . And yet ( not to anticipate what I may have occasion to deliver elsewhere concerning this Experiment ) I shall now only relate , That enquiring a while since of a very expert Chymist , whether he had not sometimes observ'd ( which I have often done , as I elsewhere declare ) Oyl of Turpentine to begin to coagulate if it were often distill'd ; he went with me to his Laboratory , and there let me see in a Receiver some Oyl of Turpentine which he had often disti●l'd over per se , in good part coagulated into a whitish and consistent Body : affirming also to me , that he had sometimes by frequent Distillations , without Addition , obtain'd from clear Oyl of Turpentine a far greater proportion of such a stable substance . Whose consistence , whether it should be ascrib'd to the fires breaking the Oyly Corpuscles into parts more fit for mutual cohesion , or whether it proceed from a new texture of the same Corpuscles , only chancing by those various Evolutions to be dispos'd after such another manner as to complicate or otherwise connect them , I need not now spend time to enquire ; since 't is enough for my present purpose , that in this example we have one that declares , how much ev'n motion without the Addition of any sensible substance may in some cases conduce to Firmness . And here to illustrate our Doctrine about this Quality and Fluidity , by shewing what the intestine motion of the parts , even without the assistance of adventitious heat , may do , to make a Body change its consistence according to the previous disposition of the matter , and become of firm , fluid : as we lately saw Oyl of Turpentine made of fluid , firm . I will adde on this occasion what I observed of Oyl of Wax distilled in a Retort with an Additament of the like nature with that I formery mentioned , when I spoke of the fluid Oyl drawn from Oyl of Olives . For this Oyl of Wax , though at first it came over for the most part , if not totally , in the form of a Butter ; yet by standing on a shelf ( and that not in a hot place , as a Stove or Laboratory ) I observed it little by little to resolve into a transparent Oyl , and purposely enquiring of him that lookt after it , whether or no this effect might not be ascribed to the increased warmth of the Weather , he assured me of the contrary , having taken notice what effects the changes of Weather had upon it . But what if we should say , that fluidness and stability depends so much upon the texture of the parts , that by the change of that texture the same parts may be made to constitute either a fluid or a dry body , and that permanently too ? These last words I adde , because of what may be said to this purpose concerning the change of water into Ice , and Ice into water , and of metals into fluid or hard bodies , by fusion and refrigeration : for in these examples the acquired hardness of water and fluidity of metals may be presently lost upon the bare removal of those bodies into a temperate air ; whereas in the instance we are to give , the acquired texture is so durable , that without an extream external violence , such as would destroy most other stable bodies , it is not to be destroyed . And this instance is afforded us by that admirable Repository of Natures wonders , Quick-silver : for if some Ounces of this fluid mineral be put into a convenient glass vessel , and that vessel be first exactly stop'd and kept for 6 , 8 , or 10 weeks ( or longer , if need be ) in a sand Furnace whose heat may be strong and constant , the Corpuscles that constitute the Quick-silver will , after innumerable revolutions , and perhaps bendings , twistings , and other changes , be so connected to one another , that instead of a fluid Body , they will appear in the form of a red powder , that Chymists Precipitate per se : which change is so unexampl'd , that though among the more curious Spagyrists it be very well known , yet many Naturalists cannot easily be brought to believe it ; whom to convince of the possibility of it by a much less tedious preparation , I take half a pound or a pound of Quick-silver , and with a strong fire distil it out of a glass Retort , and for the most part there will remain in the bottom and about the sides of the vessel a little red powder , which seems to be nothing but part of the fluid body ( most exposed to the action of the fire ) turned into a dry one eight or ten hours space . After what manner the fire produces so odde a change in the Quick-silver , I do not presume to know . 'T is true , that though the parts of Liquors do , as we have formerly taught , touch one another but in part of their superficies , yet they all of them seem to have some degree of viscofity , or some slight and loose complication or other kind of Adhesion of parts , as appears by their being so easily contexed into those thin membranes or films we call bubbles , insomuch that not only Spirit of Wine , that seems the most light , and most fluid of Liquors : will afford bubbles , but ( what may seem strange ) we have divers times purposely observ'd , that Quick-silver it self , as ponderous as it is , especially being suffer'd to fall in a slender stream into a vessel almost full of the same mineral , will afford bubbles numerous and large enough , although ( as those also of the Spirit of Wine ) quickly vanishing . And hence it might be imagin'd , that in the operation we are treating of some such change is made in the Quick-silver , as we formerly observ'd to be made in the white of a Egg , when by a new disposition of its parts , either heat or beating it makes it a kind of stable body , or else it might be pretended , that there is a variety of parts argu'd to be in Quick-silver by the great variety of its effects upon other bodies , and that by the frequent evolutions which the fire makes of those parts among themselves , they come at length to be so appli'd to one another , that either they lock into each other as it were , or slip upon one anothers surface in such a manner as that as much of their surfaces immediately touch one another as is requisite to make them cohere , as we formerly mention'd of several very smooth pieces of glass mutually adhering without any other Cement than the congruity and immediate contact of their surfaces . But though these Conjectures and divers others might be propos'd , yet I fear all of them would prove but meer Conjectures . Nor were we much assisted to make better by looking upon our Mercurial precipitate in one of the best Magnifying Glasses in the World ; for what we there discover'd was only , that the red powder had in it many Corpuscles of sundry other colours , and that the little grains of powder seem'd to be of no determinate shape , but look'd like slender fragments of Red Coral : and having but some small dust of a shining precipitate of Gold and Mercury into the same Augmenting Glass , all we could discern was , that the little grains of this precipitate differ'd from those of that made of Mercury alone , in that these ( which a Chymist would take notice of ) were so transparent throughout , that one would verily think he beheld the best sort of those precious Stones-Gold-smiths call Granats . But though we pretend not to make out how the new Texture is produc'd in the Quicksilver , yet to make it still more evident that its change of consistence proceeds from its change of Texture , we will adde , that having a great curiosity to try whether our powder could not be made fluid again , I procur'd some precipitate per se of a Person who formerly lived with me , and was expert in many Mercuri●l operations , and presented me some of his own making : this being weigh'd and put into a convenient glass was carefully press'd with a naked fire ( which should be stronger than that wherewith it was precipitated ) and at length it rose by degrees in fumes , which settl'd in the neck of the Glass in many drops of reviv'd running Mercury ; all which being collected into one , we found that there wanted but about a sixth or seventh part of what we had put in , and we suppos'd we should not have wanted that neither , but that the vehemence of the fire had melted the glass , which swallow'd up a part of the powder that made a great shew through it , after what was colliquated had been remov'd from the fire . This Experiment brings into my mind another that was judg'd uncommon enough , and it was This : Being not long since master of about half an ounce of a certain Mercury , which some ways of examining it that I had employ'd , induc'd me to think Mercury of Saturn ; I imagin'd ( for some reasons ) that it might be made very serviceable to confirm our Doctrine touching Fluidity and Firmness . And accordingly I found upon Tryal , that I could , barely by shaking it long , reduce it to a black powder : in which form it would continue as long as I please to let it do so . And when to the By-standers there appear'd nothing in it that gave suspition of a fluid Body , I could in a Trice , only by dexterously rubbing it in a small Marble Mortar , reduce it little by little into running Mercury , as it had been before . Which quick passage from one quality to another , being made , not only without the help of Fire , but without adding or taking away any visible Substance , prov'd no ignoble Instance , how much Motion and Rest , and the thence easily resulting Texture of the Component Corpuscles of a Portion of Matter , may contribute to its Fluidity or Firmness . From the Experiment of precipitating Quick-silver per se , and from some other things , partly deliver'd already , and partly to be deliver'd by and by , we may learn what to think of the opinion of some Eminent Modern Philosophers who teach , that a fluid body is always divisible into bodies equally fluid , as Quantity into quantities , as if the particles of fluid Bodies must also be fluid themselves : for by them it seems to appear , that Quicksilver , and some other other actually fluid Bodies consist very much of hard Corpuscles , since by the change of their Texture they may be deprived of their Fluidity and become stable . We see also that the stiff and solid particles of Salts dissolv'd in common water , and of Silver dissolv'd in Aqua fortis , being by those Liquors sufficiently dissociated and separately agitated , do with them constitute fluid Bodies . And we have elsewhere mention'd to another purpose an Experiment which may not impertinently be repeated here , namely , that by putting together in●o a glass Retort one part of Quicksilver and four of common Oyl of Vitriol , and distilling them in a sand furna●●● wi●h a strong fire , there remain'd in the bottom of 〈◊〉 V●ss●l a ponderous Calx or Powder , so far from bei●g f●uid ▪ that it was but in par● dissoluble in water : and that which seems to prove that in the very liquid Oyl of Vitriol , though a distill'd Liquor , the saline Corpuscles that chiefly compose it , do retain their stiffn●ss ( generally to be found in undistill'd Salts ) is , that by steeping our Calx in fair water , we could separate from it a considerable quantity of particles , which upon the evaporation of the water coagulated into store of saline and bri●tl● bodies . And that these proceeded rather from the M●nstruum than the metal , we were induc'd to think , b● 〈◊〉 serving the dry Calx , before any water was pour'd on 〈◊〉 : for though the saline part of the Mixture did not weigh ( perhaps any thing near ) so much as the Mercurial distinctly did , yet the Aggregate or Mixture did weigh a great deal more than the Quicksilver did when it was put in ; and the Oyl of Vitriol that was abstracted , a great deal less than it did before it was committed to distillation . Nay , I once or twice observ'd in a glass , where I kept a quantity of Oyl of Vitriol , that there did spontaneously fasten themselves to the sides little saline Crystals , which when I took out , I found hard and brittle ; but when I had for tryal sake expos'd them to the air , they presently resum'd a fluid form , and appea●'d to be Oyl of Vitriol . In the Observation also lately mention'd concerning the spontaneous coagulation of Spirit of Harts-horn , it seems evident , that Bodies which are all or most of them hard , and appear so when they are commodiously connected to each other , may yet constitute a fluid body when they are reduc'd to sufficient smallness , and put into a convenient motion . And indeed , if the least particles of fluid bodies were not ( many of them at least ) indowed with their determinate bigness and shapes , but that such fluid bodies could be always divided into particles fluid also , how comes it to pass that some Liquors cannot pie●ce into or moisten some bodies which are easily pervious to other Liquors ? for if the particles of the excluded Liquor were of necessity always divisible into fluid ones , there seems no reason why they should not be sub-divided into so very small ones , as that no pores can be suppos'd lit●le or odly figur'd enough to keep them out . 'T is true indeed , that as it is hard to demonstrate , so it is not easie to disprove , that the matter whereof fluid bodies consist is capable of b●ing indefinitely divided : and it may be granted too , that by how much the smaller parts a body is divided into , by so much the more easily , Caeteris paribus , are the parts of that body to be put into motion . But this divisibility of a fluid body into perpetually lesser and lesser parts belongs not to it properly as it is Fluid , but as it is a Body ; such divisibility , if suppos'd true , being a primary affection of matter it self , and belonging as well to those portions of it that are hard as to those that are fluid . And though it were admitted , that such an endless division as is presum'd might be made Mentally ( as they speak in the Schools ) that is by the thought or operation of the mind , yet it would remain a great question whether o● no N●ture does actually so far mince and sub-divide Bodi●s : as may appear by what has been freshly noted . And ●owever , it is not only requisite to the constitution of a fluid body that the parts of it be small enough , but that they be also actually mov'd . For we observ'd not long since , that the dust of Alabastar put into motion did ( though its Corpuscles were not insensible ) emulate a fluid Body , and immediately ceas'd to be fluid when they ceas'd to be agitated : whereas the particles of water , as minute and apt as they are to constitute a fluid substance , do yet make that hard and brittle body we call Ice , when those little particles upon what account soever are reduced to be at rest . By what has been hitherto discours'd , we may also be assisted to judge of the Doctrine of the Chymists , who teach that in all Bodies , Coagulation , Stability , Hardness and Brittleness depend upon Salt : for though what above has been said of Crudling of milk by saline Liquors , and the hardness and brittleness obvious in Salts themselves , may keep us from denying that the saline principle is very powerful in the coagulation of some bodies , and does produce much firmness or even brittleness in many or most of the concretes wherein it is predominant ; yet this hardning power of Salt seems not to proceed from any peculiar and inexplicable property it has to coagulate other bodies or make them compact , but from the shape and motion of its Corpuscles , which it seems are more fitted by Nature than those of many other Concretes to insinuate themselves into the pores of other bodies , and fasten their particles to themselves , and to one another , either by wedging their Corpuscles together , or by their stiff and slender parts , or their sharp angles or edges piercing diverse of them together ; as when many Pieces of Paper are kept from scattering by a Wire that runs through them , or as when a Knife takes up at once diverse pieces of Bread and Meat by being stuck into them all . But whensoever there is in the constituent parts of the body a sufficient fitness and disposition to adhere firmly to one another , Nature may of those parts compose a stable body , whether they abound in Salt or no , it not being so much upon Chymical Principles , or ev'n upon the Predominancy or Plenty of any one Ingredient , as upon the shape and motion of the component parts of bodies , that their Fluidity and Firmness depend . I will not here urge that Salts are generally reducible by an easie mixtu●e with water into the form of Liquors ; nor that Sea-salt , Salt of Tartar , and diverse other sorts of Salts , will of themselves , ev'n in the Air , if not very dry , assume the form of fluid Bodies ; nor yet will I press the shortly to be mention'd Example of Coral , which is confidently affirmed to be soft whilst it remains in the Salt water , and to grow hard when taken out of it . I will not here , I say , press these and the like Arguments , but content my self to have hinted them , because they are such as I cannot well in few words make out and vindicate . Wherefore I shall rather demand , what Salt can be made appear to pass out of the body of melted Lead into that of Quicksilver , to perform in it the coagulation abovemention'd ? What accession of Salt is there to be observ'd , when running Mercury is precipitated per se into a powder ? and how will it be prov'd , that when in a well-stop'd glass the whole body of water is in frosty nights turned into firm Ice by the cold of the ambient air , that coagulation is perform'd by Salt , it having not yet been made appear by Chymists , that either Salts or even the distill'd Spirits of them can penetrate , without a kind of Prodigy , the narrow pores of unheated glass ? It is usually observ'd in Eggs , that though at their first coming out of the Hens belly , the shells are soft , yet soon after they grow hard and brittle ; and yet it appears not how the saline Ingredient is encreas'd to effect this speedy induration : and ( to subjoyn that by the by ) albeit I am not averse from thinking that the coldness of the outward Air , and its imbibing some of the loosest of the moist parts of the soft Egge-shell , may concur to this effect ; yet there are many Observations of Egge-shells that have been found hard in the womb of the Hen. And I well remember I have taken notice , that diverse Eggs not yet laid , but found at one time in the body of the same Hen , were each of them furnish'd with a compleat and brittle Shell . But I think I can draw a much stronger Argument against the Chymical opinion from the consideration of an Egg : for I demand what plenty of Salt can be made appear to pierce the hard shell , and more close-wrought membrane that both lines it and involves the Egg , especially since 't is certain , that in Egypt and diverse other places Eggs may be hatch'd by a temperate external heat without the Hen. And yet we may here observe , that the same internal substance of the Egg which at first was fluid , the yolk and white that compos'd it being so , is upon the exclusion of the Chick turn'd almost all of it into consistent Bodies , some of them tough , as the membranes and gristles of the Bird , and some of them harder and almost brittle , as his bones and beak ; and all this as we said without accession of new Salt. It would be hard for Chymists to prove , that Diamonds and Rubies , which are counted the hardest Bodies we know , ( and at particular tryals of whose hardness I have sometimes wonder'd ) do abound in Salt ; at least it will not be unreasonable for us to think so , till Chymists have taught us intelligible and practicable wayes of separating ( at least some ) true Salt from either of those Jewels . And it may be also doubted whether the blood of Animals when it is freest from Serum , do not ( though a Liquor ) as much abound with Salt as their skins or their flesh . And since 't is with Chymists that I am now Reasoning , I presume I may be allow'd to press them with Arguments drawn from some of the Eminentest Writers of their Sect. For the generality of Chymists , and ev●n those that are by the rest , and themselves too , call'd Philosophers , not only granting , but asserting and maintaining the Transmutation of great quantities of Quick-silver and the other ignobler metals into Silver or Gold by means of the white or red Elixir , I shall demand of them whence it happens , that one grain of the powder of Projection can turn a whole pound of Mercury into true Gold or Silver , and consequently change a very fluid Body into a very firm one , though the proportion of Salt employ'd to coagulate the whole Mass of Quick-silver would not amount to the six thousandth or seven thousandth part of the Liquor ; though we should grant that the powder employ'd to work this marvellous change were all of it Salt , to which yet Chymical Writers seem to ascribe much more of the sulphurous Nature . And to this I shall adde , what the famous and acute Helmont does to another purpose relate upon the Experience of Raymund Lully and his own , concerning his prodigious Liquor , Alkahest ; namely , that being abstracted from common Quick-silver , it does in a quarter of an hour coagulate it : and yet in this coagulation he points at this as a singular Phaenomenon , that this Liquor which is as well immortal as exceeding saline , leaves nothing of it self with the Mercury on which it works , and yet so coagulates it , that he prescribes the making it into a subtil powder . I remember also to our present purpose , that a Physitian of much veracity in what he relates , discoursing with me the other day about an odde preparation that he saw at the present Duke of Holstein's , ( that Learned Prince and great Chymist ) assur'd me that among other things he there took notice of a glass of Spirit of Urine , which in warm weather remain'd in the form of a L●quor , but in cold weather did totally coagulate into Cry●talline salt : and being ask'd by me if he knew how this Urinous body had been prepar'd ? he answer'd me , that the Duke caus'd Spirit of Urine exceeding rich in volatile Salt to be distill'd very many times ; after every Distillation re-conjoyning all that came over in a Liquid with that which remain'd in a saline form , till by very frequent cohobations all the parts of the Urinous substance were brought to the union or coalition above-mention'd . What we may propose concerning the various consistence of the saline part of Urine upon our own knowledge , we shall for certain Reasons reserve for another place . And on this occasion we will annex a few particulars , which may tend not only to the making of the Chymical Hypothesis about the coagulation of bodies doubtful , but to the confirmation of much of the Doctrine by us propos'd . The first shall be an Observation afforded us by the Art of making Sugar , wherein very great care is taken , that nothing acid ( and especially juice of Limons ) fall into the Caldrons or other Vessels wherein the juice of the Sugar-Cane is to coagulate into Sugar : for though acidity be generally by the Chymists ascrib'd to Salt , yet here the saline bodies are so far from promoting the coagulation of the saccharine sirrup , that they would quite hinder it . And because that through the want of Sugar-Canes in these parts , we are reduced to take this Observation upon the credit of others , and because also in it self it seems somewhat strange , we will vouch for it two eminent Authors in whose Writings we met with it . The one is the ingenious French Publisher of the natural and moral History of those American Islands , commonly call'd by the French Les Isles Antilles , and by us the Caribe Islands , who describing particularly how his Country-men make Sugar in those parts , gives this caution towards the latter end ; Sur tout , &c. that is , Above all , great heed must be taken to let no juice of Citrons ( or Limons ) fall into the Caldrons , for that would absolutely hinder the formation of the Sugar . The other is the diligent Gulielmus Piso , who having given us a particular account both by words and pictures of the way of making Sugar , tells us that , Si momentum succi Limonis vel acidi quid injiciatur , sacchari consistentiam nunquam acquiret , sed in totum perditur . To which I shall adde , that having purposely inquir'd concerning this Observation , it has been confirmed unto me by Persons that pretend more than ordinary knowledge of the Art of ordering Sugar : which likewise affords us another Observation not impertinent to the Theme we treat of ; for the best Authors that write hereof inform us , that the juice squeez'd out of the Sugar-Canes is wont first to be boild and depurated in vast Vessels of Copper or Brass , whence it afterwards is convey'd to be further purifi'd and coagulated into smaller ones ; and that whilst it is in the former , they use to pour upon it some very strong Lee to facilitate the separation of its feculencies , as in the smaller ones 't is usual to pour a little Oyl or Butter upon the boyling juice , to keep the sirrup from boyling over . Now that which they further observe to our purpose , is related almost after the same manner both by our French Author and by Piso , and by the latter of them in these words , Observatu dignum ( sayes he ) si oleum majoribus inderetur ahenis in quibus Liquor primus , Caldo dictus , purificatur , saccharo conficiendo plane foret ineptus : vicissim si minoribus lixivium sicut majoribus infundatur , aequè impossibile saccharum conficere . So much the Fluidity and Firmness of bodies depend upon their texture , how much soever Chymists would have them depend upon Salt. But to this borrow'd Observation , though borrow'd of Authors not to be distrusted , we will adde two or three Experiments of our own , which we hope may the more confirm the Doctrine by us propos'd touching Stability in Bodies , because it was our aim in them to bring light by them to the matters we treat of . First then , we prepar'd a Liquor elsewhere to be describ'd , which is almost if not altogether as saline as Aqua fortis it self , or any other acid Spirit that is commonly known : and yet when in this Liquor we laid fragments of solid Harts-horn of several sizes to steep , ev'n in a cold place , the Menstruum was so far from hardning them , that it would ( without dissolving them as corrosive Liquors do metals ) gently pierce into them and soften them , so that in about two or three dayes it would reduce them to a kind of white slime or mucilaginous substance at the bottom of the Liquor . We took also good salt of Tartar , and on it pour'd good Spirit of Vineger , as long as the affusion of it would produce any ebullition : Then we distill'd off the Liquor , which came over almost insipid , the saline parts that make Spirit of Vineger so sharp , being retain'd by the Salt of Tartar : Upon the remaining dry mixture we pour'd fresh Spirit of Vineger as long as any hissing ensu'd thereupon , and afterwards abstracted the aqueous parts of this parcel of Liquor also , and so we proceeded , till having sufficiently impregnated the fix'd Salt with the saline parts of the distill'd Vineger , we obtain'd according to our desire a mixture which ( though it were all made up of Salts , and such Salts too as being made by the Chymical Analysis of the Bodies whence they were drawn , may according to the Chymical Doctrine be look'd upon as pure and Elementary ) was yet so neer Fluidity , that it requir'd not the heat of the fire to turn it presently into a Liquor , which shape it assum'd with a gentler warmth than one would expect from a saline Body . Lastly , we took common Oyl of Vitriol , and cast into it diverse little pieces of Camphire , which floating upon it were by degrees and after some hours wholly reduc'd into a reddish Oyl , that was to be seen altogether upon the top of the other Liquor . Then having fo●merly try'd that Oyl of Vitriol would easily mix with common Oyl , we try'd also by shaking the saline and Camphorate Liquors together to unite them , and easily confounded them into one high-colour'd Liquor , which seem'd very uniform , and continu'd so ( at least as to sense ) for many hours . Then we added to this mix●ure three or four times as much fair water , and ( as we expect●d ) the Camphire immediately recover'd a white consistent Body , and by degrees setled at the top of the L●quo● : where we m●y observe , that the Camphire is no● made hard bu● fluid by its mixture with the saline Corpuscles of Oyl of Vitriol , and exchanges its Fluidity for Firmness upon the affusion of Saltless water . And thus much it may suffice to have said touching the Chymists deriving the stability of Bodies from their abounding in Salt. And as for the hardness and brittleness they ascribe to the same principle , how much they may be increas'd or diminished in a body without the acc●ssion or decrement of the saline principle or ingredient , may appear by that Experiment mention'd by us to several purposes , of tempering a slender piece of Steel ; for when it has been sufficiently heated , by plunging it red hot into fair water , which is more likely to dissolve than increase its Salt , you may make it not very hard alone but very brittle , whereas by only suffering it to cool leisurely in the air , it will be both much less hard and more tough , and if after having quench'd it in cold water you again heat it till it have attain'd a deep blew , it will become ( comparatively ) soft and very flexible , and that not from any wasting of the saline ingredient by the fire , for if this softn'd steel be again heated red hot and suddenly refrigerated , whether in water or otherwise , as before , it will re-acquire both hardness and brittleness . Now that by these operations a real change is made in the disposition of the small parts of the steel , we have elsewhere evinc'd ev'n by a sensible proof . And that by procuring a closer order & more immediate contact of the parts of a body , a man may without encreasing the Salt encrease the hardness of it , is , as we formerly also no●ed , obvious in Snow , which whilst it lies in flakes as it falls upon the ground , composes but a soft and yielding body : But when the same snow is by being strongly press'd every way betwixt the hands formed into Balls , the little whether Iceicles or frozen bubbles it consists of are so approach'd to one another , and forced into an order which allows so little wast of room , that the formerly-intercepted spaces being most of them fill'd up with little bodies , the Iceicles can no longer yield as they did before to the pressure of a mans fingers , but constitute a mass considerably hard , which yet may be made harder being melted into water , and afterwards frozen into Ice ; for this having been a fluid Body , ( and in such , Room is wont to be better husbanded than in others ) the bubbles intercepted in it cannot keep it from being of so close a texture as to be considerably hard . I know that not only profest Chymists , but other persons who are deservedly rank'd amongst the modern Philosophers , do with much confidence entirely ascribe the induration , and especially the Lapidescence of bodies to a certain secret internal principle , by some of them call'd a form , and by others a petrifying Spirit , lurking for the most part in some liquid vehicle . And for my part , having had the opportunity to be in a place where I could in a dry mould and a very elevated piece of ground cause to be digg'd out several Crystalline bodies , whose smooth sides and Angles were as exquisitely figur'd as if they had been wrought by a skilful Artist at cutting of pretious Stones , and having also had the opportunity to consider divers other exactly or regularly shap'd Stones and other Minerals , some digg'd out of the Earth by my friends , and some yet growing upon stones newly torn from the Rock , I am very forward to grant , that ( as I elsewhere intimate ) it is a plastick Principle implanted by the most wise Creator in certain parcels of matter , that does produce in such concretions as well the hard consistence as the determinate figure . We deny not then , that these effects depend most commonly upon an internal principle , but the difficulty consists in conceiving how that internal principle produces its effects , which these Writers not pretending to explicate intelligibly , we thought it not amiss briefly to survey some of the principal ways by which it seems that Nature makes bodies firm and stable , whereby we may be assisted to judge whether it be as necessary to have recourse to a plastick Principle or a Gorgonick spirit in all other quick and notable Indurations of Bodies in the cold , as in the hardning of such Bodies whose curious and determinate either internal Textures or outward shapes ( common to several Concretions of one kind ) argue their having been fram'd by some one formative power , or by diverse seminal Principles conven'd together . But this we will do without affirming either that she cannot by some other yet unobserv'd way make consistent bodies , or that of the ways by us discours'd of , she is wont so to confine her self to any one , tha● she does not frequently make use of two or more of them to produce the same effect . And because Hardness is a high degree of Firmness , I suppose it will not be impertinent to shew by some examples how small an external operation may without any appearing adventitious Salt make a soft body hard , and even brittle , when there appears not any other change to be made than that of the Texture or disposition of its component particles . It is a Tradition amongst Naturalists , that Coral grows soft at the bottom of the Sea , but when it is brought up into the open Air , though it retains its bulk and figure , it hardens into a stony Concretion , according to that of Ovid. Ovid. 15. Metamorph. Sic & coralium quo primum contigit auras Tempore durescit , mollis suit herba sub undis . Whether or no this Tradition is strictly true , we had no● opportunity when we staid at Marseilles ( whose neighbouring Sea is the chiefest in Europe where Coral is wont to be fish'd ) to give our selves an ocular satisfaction . But whatever some say to dis●redit the tradition , nay , how confidently soever Beguinus ( who seems to have the most strongly argu'd against i● ) hath rejected it , it must not be denyed to be , sometimes at least true , ( and that 's enough to serve our present turn . ) For the Learned Gassendus in the Life of Piereskius , relating how that incomparable Gentleman had the curiosity to fish for Coral near Toulon , ( a noble Port not far from Marseilles ) has among other things this passage , ( viz. ) The plants which were pluckt up and drawn out were neither red nor handsome till their Bark was pull'd off ; in some parts they were soft , and would give way to the hand , as towards the tops , which being broken and squeez'd they sent forth milk , like that of Figs. I remember likewise , that the Learned Jesuite Fournier , who being also a French Hydrographer , and one that writes of Marseilles and Toulon as places very well known unto him , may be safely credited on this occasion , after he has particularly describ'd the way of fishing Corals near Toulon , he adds , These plants are neither red nor polish'd when they are drawn out of the water , till their Rind have been taken off , nay , they are soft , and being brok●n or else squeez'd betwixt the fingers , they throw out a kind of milk resembling that of Figs ; and when one leaves off pressing them , he may see the small holes or pores that harbour'd the milk that was squeez'd out . Thus far He. The credibleness of a good part of these narratives has been confirmed to me by a practiser of Physick in the East-Indies , who having made some stay at his return on the Island of Mehila , ( near that of Madagascar ) where store of white Coral is reported to grow , I enquired of him whether he had gathered any , and whether he found it soft whilst it was growing ? and he an●wer'd me , that he had of late years diverse times gather'd Coral upon the Sands of that Island , and found it , when he gather'd it , exceeding white , and ( to use his expression ) as soft as an Onion , adding , that though it would in a very short time grow hard in the air , ( which he ascrib'd , how justly I know not , to the external heat of the Sun ) yet it is very well known to the Sea-men that deal in that ware , that if it be not gather'd at a seasonable time of the the year it will not keep long , but either crumble away or otherwise decay , which disagrees not with the experienc'd Piso , who in his natural History of Brasil , speaking of some places of the Brasilian Coast , where diverse stony plants , some like little Trees , some otherwise fram'd , may be seen in clear weather growing in the bottom of the Sea , tells us , that , è fundo erutae mox durissimae , sí insolentur in littore , siccae niveique coloris fiunt . As remarkable a change is that I meet with in Scaliger , who tells us as upon his own knowledge of some , who at the Urinary passages voided a slimy matter , which in the Air coagulated into a firm substance ; the story being memorable , take it in his own words thus : Ex bovillis oppidanus nostris adjutus medicamentis eminxit vitrum sane ex illa nobili Paxagorae pituita , dum mingeretur albuminis mollitie emissum vitri duritie ac splendore , Senatoris filius ejecit , pultis modo multos , & maximos : qui aeris contactu postea in gypseam tum speciem tum firmitatem concrevere ; hic quoque nunc rectè valet . Having likewise had the acquaintance of an inquisitive Merchant of Dantzik , and also of an ingenious Chymist , that spent some time in that City and the neighbouring Country , along whose coast our European Amber is wont to be dragg'd out of the Sea , I enquir'd of them , whether they had never observ'd in Amber a property like that which is reported of Coral : and one of them , as I remember the other also , hath assured me upon his own particular Observation , that lumps of Amber are sometimes taken soft out of the Sea , and grow hard in the Air ; which is the more credible to me , because I have at a Polonian noble-mans seen ( besides other intercepted things ) a whole Spider , and that none of the least , perfectly inclosed in a piece of hard and transparent yellow Amber . And elsewhere I have seen ten or twelve ( if I mis-remember not the number ) pi●ces of such Amber , which contain'd , one a Fly ; another a Spider , a third a Straw , and each of the rest some such other thing . And it seems not impossible , that the contract of the external air may put the parts of such small Bodies into a new motion , whereby some voluble Corpuscles that hinder their reciprocal adhesion may be excluded , and the particles themselves prest or otherwise dispos'd into a closer order ; and we find that some Oyl-colours , after they are brought to their due temper , may be preserv'd very long in the same degree of softness , if they and the shells that contain them be kept all the while under water , whereas in the air they would quickly change their Texture , and become dry and h●rd . But though in this last mention'd Example , and some others the removal of the body out of the water into the air seem manifestly to contribute to its growing hard , yet it seems not to us so easie to determine what share the air has in effecting such indurations : for Gassendus relates of Piereskius , that he being wont in the Summer time to wash himself in one of the lesser streams of the River of Rhosne , he there made the following Observation . Once upon a time he felt the ground , which he had wont to find even and soft , to be grown hard with little round balls or bunches , like hard boiled Eggs when the shell is peel'd off ; at which wondring , he took some of them up , and carried them home , that he might shew them to his Master , and demand of him the Reason . But the miracle was increas'd when a few days after returning to the River , he found those little balls or lumps turned into perfect pebble stones , which he observ'd likewise to befal those which he had carried and laid up at home . But how far this story will prove that such coagulations must be effected by a substantial form or a petrifying Liquor , we define not , especially since , not to repeat what we deliver'd already touching calcin'd Marble out of Fournier , we have elsewhere deliver'd upon our own Observation , that two or three spoonfuls of such pap of burnt Alabaster as we have lately been speaking of , ( and instead of which Artificers use another stone call'd by them Plaster of Paris , burnt and and temper'd up with fair water ) did in the bottom of a vessel-full of water into which we pour'd it in a short time coagulate into a hard lump , notwithstanding the water that surrounded it ; which , it seems by the Texture of the mass , was kept out of its pores , as it is out of those of the Oyls of Cinnamon and Cloves , which though fluid bodies , and sinking in water , suffer not its particles to insinuate themselves into theirs : and Artificers observe , that the coagulating , property of burnt Alabaster will be very much impair'd , if not lost , if the powde● be kept too long , especially in the open Air , before it be made use of ; and when it has been once temper'd with water and suffer'd to grow hard , they tell me they cannot by any burning or powdering of it again make it near so se●vic●able for their purpose as before ; so much doth the co●gulation of these powders mixt with water seem to depend upon their Texture and other Mechanical qualities . I remember also , that though the bones found in the Hearts of Deer , and so magnified by Physicians , do in the air acquire a hard and bony consistence ; yet having had the curiosity to consider one of them in the Heart of a Deer newly kill'd , I found it there of a cartilaginous softness and flexibility . And here I will adventure further to confess , that I have oftentimes doubted whether or no not only consistent Bodies but some of the most solid ones in the World may not have been fluid in the form either of Steams or Liquors , before their coalition and their concretion either into stones or other mineral Bodies . I know there are many who think that Stones , Marchasites , and other such solid and durable Bodies , were made together at the Creation or other beginning of the Universe , and who will not admit that such concretions can be now generated . But not here to debate that famous Controversie , whether stones may be said to grow and to be nourish'd , in the strict sense of those Expressions , I think it not difficult to shew that such parcels of matter are now to be me● with in the form of stones as did not before appear 〈◊〉 ●hat form , but whilst it was divided into minute 〈…〉 was it self some fluid Body or other , or at 〈…〉 as a material part concur to the constituting 〈◊〉 that was so . Of this , besides what we elsewhere 〈◊〉 concerning it , we shall anon have occasion to 〈◊〉 some proofs ; and therefore we shall now o●ly mention ●wo or three instances . The first whereof shall be , that we saw , among the Rarities of a Person exceedingly curious of them , a stone fl●t on the outsides , on one of whose internal Surfaces was most lively engraven the Figure of a small Fish , with all the Finns , Scales , &c. which was affirmed to have been enclosed in the Body of that stone , and to have been accidentally discover'd , when the stone chancing to receive a rude knock upon its edge , split asunder . I remember also that a while since a House-keeper of mine in the Country inform●d me , that whilst a little before he caus'd in my absence one of my Walls to be repair'd , the Mason I was wont to employ casually breaking a stone to make use of it about the Building , found in it ( to his wonder ) a piece of Wood that seem'd part of the branch of some Tree , and consequently was afterwards enclos'd with that solid case wherein he found it . This cavity in the body of the stone and , as I remember , the stick it self he took out of it , he forthwith brought my House keeper , to whom I have given di●ections to send them me . For this example seems to me a more cogent proof of the increase of stones , than some others that eminent Naturalists much rely on , for Reasons discours'd of in another place : where we also make particular mention of that Ghur or Metalline juice , which though the Latin Writers of Chymical and ev'n of Metalline matters have not , that I remember , given us any account of , yet I find a German or two , that were very conversant in the Mines themselves , to have in Books written in their own Language taken a special notice of it . Besides , I have at present something to deliver upon my own Observation , which unless we will suppose ( what seems not probable ) that there were from the beginning made together with and in the midst of great Masses of one kind of Mineral little parcels of another of a quite differing sort , seems manifestly enough to argue , that either whole quarries of stone , or heavy and shining Minerals , or both , may have been fluid Bodies . The Observation whereon I ground this Conjecture is , not only that we have met with in Lead-oar and also in Minera Antimonii parcels of a white stone or spar environ'd with a Metalline body , though I think I have yet by me such lumps of Oar ; but chiefly that I have with my own hands taken a hard and ponderous shining Mineral , which I keep for a Rarity , like a Marchasite , of the shape of a Pear , and of about the bigness of a Walnut , out of the very Body of a stone wherein I suspected it to be enclos'd , and which environ'd it on all sides : and this I took not out of a small and loose stone , but a large stone digg'd out to make Statues of . And I remember that one of those that wrought upon it told me , that in fashioning it into Satues they found some more Minerals in the same parcel of stone , which were also presented me . To which I shall adde , that an ingenious Statuary having in another place taken much pains to saw asunder a very large stone , when he came to the midst of it , found he could saw on no further , and the stone being afterwards broken , he perceiv'd that that which so obstinately resisted his Saws was a round Marchasite , which he brought to me , as a Lover of such Curiosities . But I made him for my further satisfaction bring me also that part of the stone wherein the Marchasite stuck , and by comparing them together discern'd that as much of the stone as was contiguous to the Marchasite had a kind of rust about it , and fitted the Marchasite so close , as if either the Marchasite had been formerly liquid , and had afterwards been as it were moulded in that Receptacle , or the stone had been formerly of some soft or fluid matter , which did exactly accommodate it self to the shape of the other Body ; or else , as if both the matter of the stone and that of the Marchasite had been at once fluid Bodies , but had each of them preserv'd its own surface distinct ( according to what we formerly noted of differing fluids ) till one of them ( probably the Marchasite ) first growing hard , the other , as being yet of a more yielding consistence , accommodated it self to the harder's figure . But the most eminent Instances to declare how much the Fluidity and Firmness of Bodies depend upon the contrivance and Texture of their parts , are afforded us by those waters which being permitted to rest a while do spontaneously cease to be fluid and coagulate into stone it self . There was lately an Ingenious Man , who going to visit some Leaden Mines wherein he had a share , found in the Mountain in whose Entrals they were hid a Cave , from whose arched Roof there drop'd down a petrescent Liquor , which oft-times before it could fall to the ground congeal'd , and by apposition of like matter increas'd so much that they hung from the Roof like Ice-icles in a frosty night from the sides of a House ; and of these he gather'd and brought me diverse , which are perfect stones hard and brittle , and of eight or ten inches long , and proportionably thick . Another ingenious friend of mine being lately in France in the C●ve so famous for petrifying Liquor to be there seen , observing some drops of water to congeal into stone whilst he stood by , took them away with him , and sent them me in a Letter . Nay , we shall scarce deny that an external agent of almost insensible bulk may turn animal Bodies into stony ones , by introducing a new texture into their parts , if we will with some modern Writers believe Aventinus , who in his Bavarian History has recorded , that at a time and place by him specified , above forty Country-men , as also some Milk-maids with their Cows kill'd upon an Earthquake , had their Bodies by a terrene Spirit turned into statues , which he sayes were seen by the Chancellour of Austria and himself . And some relations of this Nature we meet with in other Authors , which , if they be allowed of , seem much to confirm our Doctrine ; for in these strange petrifications , the hardning of the Bodies seems to be effected principally , if not only , as in the induration of the fluid substances of an Egg into a Chick , by altering the disposition of their parts , since the petrifying wind or steam cannot be suppos'd to have any such considerable ( perhaps not any sensible ) propo●tion as to bulk to the body chang'd by it , as to be thought to effect this change principally as an Ingredient . Adde we to all these things , that Pamphilio Piacentino is by an other Author quoted for writing an unparrel'd Story , which because written in Italian , I sh●ll English the substance of it , which is this : That a Woman in Venice , after having eaten an Apple , was t●ken with hideous tortures , and in the space of twenty four hours dying , was turned into exceeding hard stone , and this was judged to be the effect of the poyson'd Apple she had eaten . Which narrative , if we may believe it as confidently as the famous Alleger of it Pamphilio appears to do , would seem to argue , that even to the wonderful induration of Bodies there is sometimes no other principle requisite than what may result from the lucky mixture of the parts of several Bodies . And lest we should seem to build altogether upon the Observations of others , which cannot by us be now brought to strict examination , we will have recourse to a pr●cticable Experiment of our own trying , which though we have elsewhere mention'd , we shall not scruple here to repeat , because we there omitted to speak of that Circumstance of it , which is the most pertinent to our present design . Take then two Ounces of Quick-silver , two Ounces and a half of the best Verdigreese , about half an Ounce or an Ounce of common Salt , a pint or pound of White-wine-Vinegar , and as much fair water , mingle the Verdigreese , Quick-silver , and the Salt very well , and put the mixture with a little of the Vinegar and water into a new Frying-Pan , ( I try'd it in a new Earthen Vessel , but without good success ) in which fry it over the fire for diverse hours , keeping it continually stir'd , and putting in more Vinegar and water from time to time , as that already put in consumes away ; then take out the mixture , and in several clean waters wash it carefully from the adhering Salts ; then dry away all the Aqueous moisture with a clean linnen Clo●h , and you shall have a bright Amalgama almost like Quick-silver . Now that which is remarkable and to our present purpose in this Experiment is , that though this dry'd mixture be a good while after it is perfectly cold not only so●t , but so neer to fluid , that I have cast it into moulds and mad● imbost Images of it , ( when it has been dexterously made , but scarce otherwise ; ) I have found , that by laying i● 〈◊〉 hours in the air , which seem'd less cold than it self , it has acquir'd such a hardness , that being thrown against the floor it would rebound , and was brittle like over-harden'd Steel . And yet in this Example the induration of the Amalgam appears not to proceed from an innate and inward principle , but from the new Texture resulting from the coalition of the mingled Ingredients that make up the Amalgam , whose parts being variously moved , partly by the fire ( and perhaps too by the Salts ) and partly by the native propensity to motion of the Mercurial Corpuscles , were by little and little , or by degrees , so dispos'd , that whereas before touching one another but loosly , it was easie to thrust some of them towards the middle of the body without stirring much of the Mass ( as to sense ) by this change of Texture the particles are brought to touch one another more closely and in greater portions of their surfaces , and to be so complicated , intangled , or otherwise connected among themselves , that you cannot endeavour to thrust one of them out of its place , but that its motion shall be resisted by many others , to whom it is so fasten'd , that you cannot move one part of the Mass without either moving the whole with it , or manifestly breaking it off from the whole , and thereby destroying the continuity and unity of the Body . Now whereas in setting down this Experiment , we spoke as if several Ingredients did concur to constitute the soft Mass , which afterwards grew so hard , we might very safely do so , since the Quicksilver was not so barely chang'd in Texture as that formerly said to have been coagulated by the meer fume of Lead , but conceal'd in its self a great number of metalline Corpuscles besides others , as we made appear by separating from the Amalgam , meerly by the force of fire , a pretty quantity of true and perfect Copper . That the Salts also both were Ingredients ( though in small proportion ) of the Mass , and might have some operation upon the other particles , we may render probable by this , that having purposely expos'd some of this Mass for a pretty while to a moist Air , we found , as we look'd for , that the formerly invisible particles of Salt , that had so insinuated themselves into the Amalgam , that all the water wherein it was wash'd did not separate them from it , had so wrought upon the metalline particles that were most outward , that they had in many parts of the surface of the Mass turned themselves with it into a kind of Verdigreese , which seemed almost to hide the surface of the Concretion . And that in the more inward parts of a much harder Body than our yielding Amalgam , where Cuprious particles abound , saline Corpuscles may have a great operation , may appear by certain sorts of Minerals to be found in some parts of England and elsewhere under the form of stones , of which they make Vitriol ; for these abounding with vitriolate , that is , both saline and metalline particles , will , after they are taken out of the ground and laid in the open air , by the working of the inward Salt , some sooner and some later , swell and burst asunder , which could hardly come to pass without a great change made in the internal disposition of the parts , of such stony Concretions . And I remember , that having l●id a mineral of Kin to these stones a while in the air , though but in a Chamber , I found its surface powder'd with little grains of Vitriol , as both their Colour and their Taste inform'd me . Now whether or no we suppose that the fire did put the parts of the Amalgama into any lasting Agitation , yet the Mass being almost fluid after it was taken from the fire , its parts may according to our notion of Fluidity be well suppos'd to have some kind of motion among themselves ; and it will not be deni'd , that the fire might concur with oth●r things to make that motion convenient to cause the parts to fasten themselves to one another : For that ●he motion wherein a soft and almost fluid Body is once put may possibly tend to harden it long after that motion seems to be extinct , may be made probable by what has been affirm'd to me by eminent and experienced Masons , namely that the best sort of Lime made into Mortar will not have attain'd its utmost compactness till twenty five or thirty years ( perhaps not till three or fourscore ) after it has been imploy'd in Building ; and this is given me as one of the Reasons , why in the demolishing of antient Fabricks , it is sometimes more easie to break the stone than the Mortar . And lastly , that we also made mention of the Texture resulting from the mingled Ingredients of our Amalgam , we might justifie by saying , that having changed the proportion of the Quick-silver to the Verdigreese , we found that the Amalgam coagulated much more slowly , and when it was coagulated , was much less hard than when one used the quantities above specify'd . Here I should put a period for the present to this Discourse , but that having in a late Writer met with a notable Observation of the natural Induration of a soft Body , I think it worthy to be here annex'd , partly , because the French Book is not common , no more than the Observation ; and partly , that by conferring together this natural Induration with that Artificial one freshly mention'd , it may the better appear how Nature and Art have sometimes resembling operations in rendring Bodies solid . My Author then ( by name Pierre Pelleprat ) being not long since sent with some other Jesuites upon the laudable errand of Preaching the Gospel to the Indians of the Southern America , has among other things this passage in the short Relation he makes of the American Continent . There is ( says he ) one thing worthy of Observation neer the mouth of this great river ( he speaks of that of the Amazons ) which is , That men find there a kind of green Clay that is soft as long as 't is in the water , so that one may print on it all kind of Figures , and give it what shape one pleases ; but when it is expos'd to the Air , it hardens to that degree that Diamonds are not much harder than the stones it affords — I have ( adds he ) seen Hatchets made of this Clay , which the Savages employ'd to cut Wood with , when they had not the use of ours , &c. And now at last , I see 't is time to put a period to a discourse , that has been unawares lengthned far too much already : But yet I think you will easily pardon me , if I conclude it not abruptly ; but with the recital of an Experiment , which having had the honour to be seen , as to the main part of it , by an illustrious meeting of Curious Men ; their having been pleas'd to speak very advantagiously of it to others , excited a curiosity among them , to know by what artifice , effects that were so uncommon , had been produc'd . The Scope therefore , and the manner of making the Experiment , were in short as follows . Being desirous to shew how much Fluidity and Firmness may depend upon the Texture and upon the Motion or Rest of the insensible parts of Bodies , I first make with good Spirit of Vinegar , a Solution of Coral so strong , that when 't is filtrated and cool'd , it will commonly , after some time , begin to have a kind of Sediment at the bottom ; the clear Liquor I gently pour off , when the Experiment is to be made , and to this I put a convenient proportion of very well dephlegm'd Spirit of Wine , which if it be pour'd on very slowly and warily , may be made for a pretty while to swim upon it in the form of a distinct Liquor : but if by a few shakes I mingle them together , they will presently unite into a Concretion , of which when the Experiment succeed very well ( as it did when I shew'd it to the above-mention'd Assembly ) not one drop will fall to the ground , upon turning up the wide mouth Glass it should be made in , and holding it with the mouth directly downwards . And this so hastily produc'd consistence may be durable enough , if it be carefully lookt to : But to dispatch the whole Experiment in a short time , I take a little strong Spirit of Nitre ( which perhaps is not needful if good Aqua Fortis be at hand ) and putting about an equal , or other convenient quantity of it to this Mixture , I nimbly stir it and the Spirit together : whereupon the Whole is reduc'd in a very few minutes to a transparent Liquor . N. B. Though I have divers times made and shewn this Experiment , yet there are so many Circumstances requisite to make the first part of it succeed very well ( for to make it succeed in some measure is not so difficult ) that the event has sometimes deceiv'd me , in spite of the several Tryals I have made . Wherefore 't will not be amiss to intimate . First , That one of the first times , if not the first , I made such an odd Concretion , was , with the Solution not made with Spirit of Vinegar , but with Spirit of Verdigrease : ( which I commonly distil without additament ) though afterwards I was invited to prefer strong Spirit of Vinegar , which was the Liquor wherewith the recited Experiment was exhibited . Secondly , That it often happens that if the Solution of Coral ( which is not the only body wherewith I have made such Tryals with indifferent good success ) be not sufficiently strong and impregnated ) with Saline parts , or the Spirit of Wine be not sufficiently rectify'd , the shaking of the two Liquors will not change the consistence of the whole mixture , but leaves some part of it fluid , or else the Concretion will not begin presently to be made , but require to be waited for a while . Thirdly , That I once at least ( if not oftner ) observ'd , that when by mingling the two Liquors and shaking them in a narrow mouth'd Glass whose Orifice was stopt , they would not concoagulate ( as it was confidently expected they should ) yet by trying the Experiment in a wide mouth Glass to which the Air had free access , it succeeded to my content . Fourthly , That in the Reduction of the Concretion to a fluid Body , 't is not proper to employ in stirring it a Knife or any other Metalline Body except it be of Gold ; but rather some Stick of Glass , or at least some clean Stick of Wood , lest the Menstruum should corrode it , and thereby spoil , or at least blemish the Experiment . Fifthly , That the proportion betwixt the Coralline Solution and the Spirit of Wine depends so much upon the strength of the former Liquor , and the dephlegmedness of the latter , that 't is scarce possible to determine generally and exactly what quantity of each ought to be taken ; and therefore a Tryal or two made with a little of the particular Solution you intend to employ ( for some Solutions require more , others less Spirit of Wine to concoagulate adequately with them ) will better direct you what proportion of Spirit will sute that particular parcel of Liquor then any general Rule I can propose . I know I might here , and perhaps it may be expected that I should , take an occasion to treat also of Hardness , Softness , Brittleness , Toughness , Stiffness , and those other qualities that are of kin to Fluidity and Firmness ; but though I confess , I once had thoughts of writing a kind of History of more Qualities than those , yet remembring that wise Counsel given us by one of the Antients , Noscenda est mensura sui , I am now very well content , after having already tir'd my self and I fear you , to recommend so useful but difficult a work to Persons more able and more at leisure than I find my self to go through with so great an undertaking ; contenting my self at present , to have attempted in what has been delivered concerning a couple qualities of such extent , that every sensibly big Body in the Universe seems indow'd with one or other of them ( I mean concerning Fluidity and Firmness ) the explicating of Qualities somewhat more intelligibly than is wont to be done in the Peripatetick Schools , and to have open'd a way ( which I hope many will tread ) of applying Chymical Observations and Experiments to the deduction of those effects of Qualities from such general and obvious affections of matter ; as Bigness , Motion , and Figure , which even the Hermetical Writers have hitherto contented themselves to refer to Salt , Sulphur , Mercury , and the like : the Chymical notion of which ( three Principles ) though of very good use in some other ( especially of the more practical ) parts of Physiology , seems not as yet to have brought any great light to such matters as we have been treating of , having been hitherto directed not so much to the indagation of Causes , as to the production of Effects . The End of the Notes touching Fluidity and Firmness . FINIS . OF Absolute Rest IN BODIES . LONDON , Printed for Henry Herringman at the Blew Anchor in the Lower Walk of the New-Exchange , MDCLXIX . AN ADVERTISEMENT . SInce it hath not been thought amiss that something should be intimated to the Reader about the Occasion of the ensuing Tract , I shall acquaint him with it as briefly as I can , by telling him that it was This. Some very ingenious Gentlemen hapning to meet as Visitants at the Author's Lodgings , fell accidentally into a Discourse about the Absolute Rest supposed to be in many Bodies , that seem'd to have its Rise from a mistake of the true meaning of a passage or two in the History of Fluidity and Firmness , ( that was then re-printing . ) But the Conference chancing to have a period to it , whilst several things pertinent to the Author's purpose remained yet unsaid : the Curiousness of the Subject invited him to draw up ( hastily enough ) the Sum of what he had said , and might further have said if opportunity had serv'd , about the Point in debate , for the further satisfaction of an inquisitive Virtuoso that was present at it . And this was the Rise of the following Discourse , which being written on an Occasion administred by the History of Fluidity and Firmness , whereof a New Edition was ready to come abroad ; 't was thought not improper that this Tract should attend it , as a kind of Appendix , without the First and Last part of a Letter , whereof the Body only is necessary to the Design of it . AN ESSAY Of the INTESTINE MOTIONS Of the PARTICLES OF QUIESCENT SOLIDS . Where the Absolute Rest of Bodies is called in Question . SECT . I. TO remove the Doubt or Scruple that began to be discoursed of just before we last parted , I shall need to do little more than enlarge the Particulars , which ( you know ) I had then time but briefly to make mention of . For the state of the Question was , ( as you may remember ) this , Whether there be among Bodies any absolute Rest ? On which occasion I answered , That Rest being a word that to me seem'd somewhat ambiguous , I thought 't was requisite to clear the sense of the Question before I offer'd at answering it . For the word Rest , when we speak of distinct Masses of Matter , lookt upon as quiescent , does in the vulgar acception of the Term signifie , such a state of a visible and entire Body , or ( rather ) of the Corpuscles it consists of , that they are actually Vnmoved as to sight ; the Eye ( and perhaps not the Touch ) being not able to discern any local Motion in them . Consonantly to this first Member of the distinction of the word Rest , I briefly intimated to the Company , that in this sense of a Corpuscles being at Rest , I thought it manifest , that there is such a thing in Rerum Natura : Since without granting such a Rest in the component Particles of some kind of Bodies , as Diamonds , Iron , Porphiry , &c. 't will be ( I conceive ) very hard to explain , how there can be such solid Masses ( as those Minerals are ) made up of small and separable Particles . Which being said , I added , that I saw no reason why such a kind of firmness , where the inward motion of the insensible Particles is almost infinitely slow , may not suffice to give an account of as great a firmness as we use really to find among consistent Bodies . But whereas I had intimated to the Company , by the lately begun Distinction , that besides this popular sense of the word Rest , there was a second , more rigid and Philosophical Notion , or kind of Rest , which for distinction sake may be called Absolute or Perfect Rest ; which imports a continuance of a Body in the same place precisely , and includes an absolute Negation of all local Motion , though never so slow or imperceptible ; I told them that in this rigid sense of the word Rest , I durst not affirm , that there are any Bodies at Rest in the Universe ( at least for any long time ) but willingly allowed it to be made a Problem , whether there be any or no : adding , that perhaps I enclin'd to the Negative part of the Question . Having thus historically summ'd up what pass'd betwixt us about the state of the Controversie , I need not tell you , that the Doubt I express'd was thought to relish too much of a Paradox ; and therefore since the company 's quick separation allow'd me then no opportunity of enlarging , and since I promis'd no better Arguments than might be expected in a point that I propos'd but as Problematical ; I shall now endeavour to shew you that the side of the Problem I was judg'd enclin'd to , is ( at least ) not so improbable as some thought it . To prove Negatives directly , being wont ( as you well know ) to be no easie Task , and especially in such cases as this ; you will not , I presume , expect that I should attempt the proving of my Conjecture otherwise than by shewing positively , that some of those Bodies which we think to have their parts most at Rest , are not exempted from having Intestine Motions in them ; since 't will be consequent to such a proof , that it must be probable , that in other Bodies whose Solidity is confessed to be inferiour , the component Particles are not in a state of Perfect Rest. SECT . II. If it were necessary and expedient , I should begin my Arguments by saying something against Absolute Rest , in favour of the contrary Opinion , by arguing , agrave ; Priori , as they speak , from the constitution of the World , whether we consider it according to the Epicurean or the Cartesian Hypothesis of the Origine of things . For the Epicureans supposing this World to be produced by the casual concourse of Atoms , and ascribing to every particular Atom an innate , and unlooseable mobility , or rather , an actual motion , or a restless endeavour after it ; 't is consonant to think , that though in Concretions , they so entangle one another , that they cannot in a short time , or a visible manner clear themselves from one another , yet they do incessantly strive to dis-entangle themselves and get away : by which means there is always in the Atoms even of Solid Bodies , actual endeavours of each of the distinct Atoms to extricate it self from the rest : ( which endeavours usually at last succeed , whence comes the decay and destruction of Bodies ) and in the mean while these perpetual and contrary endeavours produce intestine Commotions in the internal parts of the Body wherein these Atoms were imprison'd . On the other side according to the Cartesian Doctrine , the Materia Subtilis , that constantly passes like a stream through the Pores even of the solidest Bodies , may well be suppos'd in its passage to be continually shaking or otherwise agitating the insensible Particles that make up the body that seems to be at Rest , without discovering their Motion to the Eye : As when in Summer time ( to explain my self by a Comparison ) a gentle breath of Wind passes through a Grove removed a pretty way off from the Spectator , though his Eye discern no change in the Grove he looks on , yet the Wind as it blows through the Trees will shake some of the Branches as well as the flexible Twigs ; and not only blow the Leaves into various postures , but blow some of them quite away . I might easily enlarge on this Subject , but having elsewhere done it on another occasion , I think it may be now more proper to satisfie some of the Company , who are yet entangled with the same prejudice with many other very Learned men , who look upon it as a Precarious and Chimaerical Fancy of the Atomists , to imagine , that in Solid , and as to sense , Quiescent Bodies , there should be any intestine Motion of the component Particles , neither the Motions nor the Corpuscles themselves being to be seen , and both of them being therefore as well incredible as invisible . A solemn Debate of the whole Question about the Minuteness of Atoms belongs not to this place , where it may suffice to answer the Objection . SECT . III. And first , As I have elsewhere hinted , it may appear by divers of the Phaenomena above-cited ( in the History of Fluidity ) that when Water and several other Liquors seem to be continued Masses of Matter , and to be as much at rest , as the very Glasses that contain them ; their constituent Corpuscles are in an actual and various though slow and unperceived Motion . Next , That there may be likewise such a Motion in the minute parts of Silver and Iron themselves , may be easily argued , by heating those Metals till they come to be almost red hot : for then though the eye can discern no motion of the Corpuscles those Metals consist of , yet their being able to burn those that hold them in their naked hands , shews that their brisk Motions may be discovered by the help of the Touch ; and if you spit upon them the Liquor will boil , as if it were over the fire . And lest it should be objected , that so anomalous and violent an Agent as the Fire , is necessary to these Tryals , I shall add , that , provided the minute parts be sufficiently agitated , it matters not whether the Motion be produced by Fire or no ; for by the nimbly hammering of Iron or Silver , you may put the minute parts into such a Motion , as will make the Metal very ho● to the Touch , and being communicated to Spittle or Water , will excite Bubbles , and scatter the dissipated parts of that Liquor into the Air , in the form of Smoke or Vapours ; nay I elsewhere shew how I have easily excited a very sensible , though not a visible agitation , and heat in the internal parts of a Metal , barely by my naked hands , without any external instrument whatsoever . And whereas it may be objected , that though the Motion already generated is unseen , yet we may discern a change of the component Corpuscles of a Body which are in the Act of altering its Texture , and introducing a new alteration or quality in the Body to be wrought on , or destroying some pre-existent quality : I briefly answer ( for I would not here repeat what I have elsewhere said of this point ) by this clear Experiment , that though your Eye can discern no change in the outward and visible , much less in the more latent and internal Corpuscles of Iron : a vigorous Loadstone by passing along its Axis from one Pole of the Stone to the other , and back again , yet the Texture of the Iron is by that action of the Load-stone so changed , that it acquires , and then loses those admirable Qualities we call the Attractive and Directive virtue or faculty peculiar to Magnetical Bodies . And to shew you that the invisible Motions even of Metalline Bodies may be quick and brisk enough , and may be sensible , though not visible ; We shall need to consider but the state of a good Bell so long after the Clapper has struck it , that no shaking or other Motion is to be seen in the body of the Bell it self , and yet it causes in the Air an odd kind of ringing , or if I may so call it , undulating Sound or Motion , which will sometimes last a considerable while ; and if the Bell be fitted for sharp notes , 't will not be without a shrilness : for if sounds proceed , as is elsewhere made probable , from the nimble percussions of the Air put into a quick and waving motion by sonorous Bodies ; this acuteness of sound will shew , that whilst to the Eye the Bell seems to be at Rest , yet the minute parts of it continue in a very brisk motion , without which they could not strike the air strongly and fast enough to make it produce so shrill a noise in the Ear. But , I confess to you , that my thoughts present me a Difficulty , which though un-mention'd at our meeting , may afford an Objection , perhaps more difficult than any of ( not to say all ) the foregoing , namely , That 't is scarce imaginable , how such solid and hard Bodies should have their internal parts wrought upon by such slight Agents as the air , and perhaps some yet minuter matter that is dispersed in it ; and how it is possible , that where there is an actual Motion it should be so slow , that a Corpuscle of Iron , for instance , seated in the internal Part of a Magnetick Needle , should spend so long time as our conjecture requires in travelling so little a space as from thence to the next Superficies of the Needle . But to this double Objection , though some instances which you will meet with in the following part of this Paper , may be properly applyed to solve it : yet not to make your curiosity wait , I will here speak a word or two to each of the members of the Objection . SECT . IV. And to the first , I say , That these Intestine Motions of the Corpuscles of hard Bodies , need not be solely , nor perhaps principally ascribed to those obvious external Agents , to which we are wont to refer them , since these may but excite or assist the more principal or internal Causes of the Motions we speak of , as you may gather from what was but lately mention'd of the connate and unlooseable mobility of the Atoms , according to Epicurus , and the permeation of the most Solid Bodies by the Cartesian Materia Subtilis ; and we may see by the sudden effects of the Load-stone , in endowing Steel wi●h Magnetick Qualities , and depriving it of them again ( both which suppose the intervention of a change of Texture , and this a production of Local Motion in the Metal ) that very minute and insensible Corpuscles of matter are not uncapable of effecting durable changes in the solidest Bodies . And as for the other member of the Objection , I confess it is not easie for us who are wont ( perhaps too much ) to follow our Eyes for Guides in judging of things corporeal , and to deny existence to most things , to most things whereto Nature has deny'd a visible bulk : 't is not easie , I say , for us to imagine so great a slowness as 't is very possible for Nature to make use of in her Operations , though our not being able to discern the motion of a shadow of a Dial-plate , or that of the Index upon a Clock or Watch ought to make us sensible of the incompetency of our eyes to discern some motions of natural Bodies , which reason , tells us ought to be incomparably slower than these . But not now to dispute about the existence and Attributes of infinite slowness , or at least a slowness in the next possible degree to infinite : I consider that it has not that I know of been demonstrated , nor attempted to be so , that the motion of the Corpuscle , for example of the Needle above mention'd , must be made in a direct line from the place where 't was first supposed to be to the Superficies of the Needle ; for it seems more rational , and to agree better with the Phaenomena , to suppose , that the way of this Corpuscle in the Body 't would quit , is extreamly crooked and intricate ( almost like that of a Squib in the air , or on the ground ) for it being on the one hand urg'd on by the Causes whatever they be that make it strive to fly away , and on the other hand hindred by the Corpuscles whereto 't is connected , and by the occursions of other Corpuscles whose motions may be opposite to , or disagreeing with those of our design'd Corpuscle ; it may probably , before it can extricate it self , be reduc'd to encounter and wrestle , as it were , with many other Corpuscles , and be by them sometimes thrust or impell'd to the right hand and to the left , and sometimes also repell'd inwards , even after it is come to the superficial part of the Needle ; whence it may not presently have the liberty to fly away , but may be drawn back by some other Corpuscle , wherewith it is yet connected , and which happening to be it self thrust inward may draw after it , and so entangle again our almost disbanded Corpuscle : besides that , the gravity of the component Particles of a Body is oftentimes such , that 't is easier for the Agent that puts them in motion , to continue them in that slow motion among themselves , than drive them up into so light a medium as the air , as experience shews in those Bodies that are called Fixt , as Gold , and Glass , though in actual fusion . But , I forget that I promis'd you to decline Speculations , and therefore I shall only name to you a couple of Instances which will serve to confirm both what I was lately saying , and what I am now in proving . SECT . V. The first of these I shall take from what is usually granted as matter of Fact , namely , that if a Spring , though made of so hard a Body as Steel , be forcibly bent , and kept but a moderate while in that posture , as soon as the force that kept it bent is removed , it will again return to its former Figure ; but if it be kept too long in that forc't position , it will by degrees lose that which they call the motion of Restitution , and retain its new crooked Figure , though the force that bent ●t be removed ; which shews both the power of some of the more familiar Agents in Nature , and ( which is that the shewing whereof I here chiefly aim at ) that where there is a continued endeavour of the parts of a Body , to put themselves into another state , yet the motion , or rather the progress may be much more slow than men seem as yet to have taken notice of , since 't was a great while before ●he Texture of the Corpuscles of the Steel were so alter'd as to make them lose their former springiness . But I will second this with a more illustrious Experiment , which will at once confirm what I have just now said , and shew that the Air or the invisible Corpuscles harbour'd in it may have no inconsiderable power to act upon , and effect changes in the solidest Bodies . To this purpose I shall only observe to you , that though if a Bar of Iron having one of its ends held perpendicularly , and at a fit distance , to the Lilly or North-Point of the Mariners Compass ( I mean that which points towards the North ) it will , as I elsewhere mention , drive it away towards the East or West : and if this same lower end of the Bar of Iron be put into a contrary posture , it will presently lose its temporary magnetism , as I elsewhere declare . Yet if this Bar be very long kept upright in a Window or other convenient place , then , as some late Magnetical Writers will tell you , it will have acquired a constant and durable magnetick power . Which is a Phaenomenon that makes exceedingly for our present pu●pose , since it hence appears both that the Air together with the magnetical Effluvia of the Earth that it receives in its Pores , is able without outward force to work durable changes in so solid a Body as Iron , and that the motions of the internal Parts , for these are requisite to the change of the Metal 's Texture , are performed with a wonderful slowness , since the Bar must be very long exposed to the air , perhaps before it acquires any durable magnetism at all , but at least before it acquires so vigorous and fixt a magnetism as by this means it may attain to . But , because most of the Instances to be propos'd in the following part of this Essay , may serve for Confirmations of what we have been discoursing ; I shall proceed to them , yet not 'till I have advertis'd you , That I purposely decline to mention divers Phaenomena that may even by Learned men be thought fit examples on this occasion , ( such as the Nutrition , Growth , and Wasting of Animals and Vegetables ) because such Bodies receiving constant supplies of Corpuscles , of several , and often unknown , Natures , there may be difficulties suggested about them , not easie to be cleared without longer Discourses than I can allow this Essay . SECT . VI. The first Instance then that I shall mention about Vegetable substances , shall be taken from Lignum Vitae , or Guaiacum ( for many Artificers give them the same name , and use them promiscuously for the same purposes ; ) of which , though it seem to be the solidest wood we know ( insomuch that I as wel as some others have ordinarily us'd it to pound solid Bodies in ) yet the skilfullest Tradesmen I have met with , have upon my inquiry informed me , that if it be wrought before it be well season'd by length of time , it will shew it self very frangible ; which an eminent Turner told me he had often found to his loss : For having turn'd divers fine pieces of Work of Lignum Vitae , before 't was duly season'd , he found almost all of them by the heat of the Sun ( which the uses of many of them requir'd they should sometimes be expos'd to ) crack , and cleave asunder , into I know not how many parts ; whereby those fine pieces of workmanship were quite spoil'd . And I remember , that having enquir'd of an old experienced Tradesman , of whom I bought an excellent Mortar of Lignum Vitae , how long he had kept the Wood in seasoning before I had the Mortar , he answered me ( if I much mis-remember not ) 20 years , under which time it is not fully season'd for some purposes ; of which opinion of his , having occasionally spoken to the lately mention'd Turner , this experienced Workman much confirmed me in it ; as he likewise did in an Observation I not long since made about the slow and unperceived motion that may be , not only in the more loose and fugitive Aqueous parts of Lignum Vitae , but in far more unlikely ones . For he told me that he had often found , in Turning that Wood , Cavities of several sizes in the very inward and solid part of the Wood ( which every way encompass'd them ) and in those Cavities considerable quantities of a certain Gum , much cryed up by some for an Anti-Venereal Medicine . The use I would make of these Examples is this , That since so solid a Body as a Trunk of Lignum Vitae is , when the Tree is newly fell'd , may require so long a time as 20. years , or upwards , to be seasoned ( i.e. ) brought to its full compactness and toughness ; and 〈…〉 account upon which time seasons Wood seems to be this , That by degrees the looser Aqueous , and more fugitive parts exhale into the air , whereby the remaining solid ones are brought into a closer order , and have leisure to be so placed among themselves , as is most convenient to make their Texture firm and durable : it will follow , that even in the internal parts of this solid Wood there must be , not only in the looser and lighter Corpuscles , that extricate themselves , and exhale away , a true local motion , though much too slow to fall immediately under the discernment of our senses . And , if the lately mentioned Gum be either totally , or so much as in part generated , as to sense , after the felling of the Tree , as some Analogous Instances that I have elsewhere taken notice of , make it probable ; then the Example will further be considerable to our present purpose , by shewing that a substance so gross , and so little volatile in comparison of the Aqueous parts , as is the brittle Gum I speak of , may permeate to a great thickness , a very solid and inanimate substance ; which cannot be done without an intestine , though insensible motion among the parts of the Wood , and probably a marvellously slow motion of those of the Gum. SECT . VII . But it will possibly seem more strange , that very thin pieces of Wood , and those saw'd off from a Tree of a much looser Texture , should be much longer in seasoning than that solid and ponderous Wood we have been speaking of . And indeed this discovery is not to be made , as in Lignum Vitae , by the brittleness , or other obvious qualities in the Wood , but by a subtler way ; and accordingly having purposely consulted with the Makers of Musical Instruments , and with some ancient Musitians , I was much con●irmed by them in my opinion : And I remember , the last Maker of Viols , Lutes , &c. of whom I enquired of what Age he thought such Instruments , especially Lu●es , ought to be to attain their full and best seasoning for sonorousness ; he reply'd , that in some of them 20 years would be requisite , in others 40 , according to the nature and thickness of the Wood , and other circumstances . But an Ancient Musician that was present at what was said , inform'd me that there were some famous Lutes , one or two of which he nam'd to me , that attained not their full seasoning and best resonance till they were about fourscore year old . And thus much for inanimate Vegetable substances . SECT . VIII . As for calcin'd Stones made up into Lime , and sorts of raw stones , I have already observed from the credible relations of Masons and others , that the Walls in some Buildings attain not their hardness and solidity till they are 40 years old , or perhaps much ancienter ; and since in gradually proceeding to this degree of solidity , these Walls resemble the seasoning of Lignum Vitae forme●ly explicated , the motion of the internal parts may be argued from the change of Texture as well in these as in that . And , if I would rob other Tracts ( to which they more properly belong ) I could here easily adde some such Instances of the hardening and softning of Stones by time , as would much confirm what I have now been delivering ; but I shall rather chuse to confine my self here to the two Examples following , not taken notice of in Quarrys or by Masons . The first is , That there are Marchasites , consisting as well of a stony as of a metalline substance , which , though harder than many other sorts of Stones , and even than Marble , have yet so great a motion in their internal parts , that if they be expos'd to the air , not only they will have a Vitriolate Efflorescence , if I may so speak , on their superficies ( as I have observ'd in divers other Marchasites ) but they will in Tract of time burst the Stone in Pieces ; of which sort I had sometime since , and I hope I have yet a bulky Marchasite that I procur'd from a Virtuoso that lives just by a Vitriol-work , whither these among other Vitriol-Stones are brought , and where this Stone being chosen for its largeness , was taken up and carefully kept by that ingenious person till it burst of it self , and till I sent for it . And to satisfie my self a little further , that the internal parts of Marchasites may be as well dispos'd to be vitriolated as the external ; I remember I broke a hard Marchasite that I had from another place , and laying it some short time in a Chamber-Window , I found the new superficies made by the Tracture about the middle of the Stone to have acquired an Efflorescence of a vitriolate Nature . The other instance , which is very odd , and much talked of , is this : An ingenious Gentleman of my acquaintance , casually meeting me one day , told me that he had a Turquois-stone , which if he were not mistaken had a wonderful property , for there being in it several spots of Colours differing from the rest of the Gem , these spots seem'd , though very slowly , to move from one part of the stone to the other . And this he thought himself to have taken notice of for very many Months ( perhaps a couple of years ) . This Relation seem'd so strange that the Relator was not at all surpriz'd , when to ascertain my self of the truth of it , I desired to have the Ring this stone was set in , for a while in my own keeping , to which he readily assenting ; besides that I took very heedful notice of the scituation of the spots , I employ'd a very ingenious youth that then lived with me , and was skill'd in drawing , to make the Picture of the stone with the spots as they were then placed , and afterwards to have a watchful eye upon it , and from time to time ( as once perhaps in two or three weeks ) to draw a new Picture of them ; by comparing several of which Pictures , it was unanimously concluded that the spots did shift places in the Turquois , as if the matter they consisted of made its way through the substance of the stone : As we lately noted that the Gum of Lignum Vitae seem'd to do through the substance of the Wood : And as far as we observ'd , the motion of these spots was exceeding slow and irregular , though perhaps it might have been reduc'd to a somewhat less uncertainty , were it not that by an unwelcome accident we were deprived of the opportunity of continu●ng our Observations long enough . And this brings into my mind , that the Turquois being a stone , of which ● had met strange stories in good Authors , I once ask●d several questions about it , of a noted Jeweller ; and enquiring among other particulars , whether he had not observ'd some changes that seem'd spontaneous in the substance or colour of the stone ? he reply'd that in some few Turquois's he had observ'd two differing Blews in differing parts of the same stone , and that one of those Colours would by slow and unperceived degrees invade , and at length overspread that part of the stone , which the other Colour possessed before . I shall here add , that the same Gentleman that lent me the spotted Turquois , shew'd me afterward an Agate Haft of a Knife , where was a certain Cloud , which he told me an ingenious Person had for some years observ'd to remove to and fro in the stone , and had a while since to convince the Relator lent him the Agate , of whose Phaenomena he promis'd me an account , when he shall have had the stone in his custody for a competent time , till the expiration of which , it may suffice to have said of this Agate what I have now related . SECT . IX . But because that Diamonds and Glass are generally looked upon , especially by Chymists , as Bodies of the closest and firmest Texture that Nature and Art afford , if we could shew an intestine motion even in the parts of these ; fitter Instances for our purpose could not in reason be desired : I shall venture to say something of each of them , though what I have to say about Diamonds , is propos'd rather to ground a suspition of what may be , than a demonstration that it must be . In the first place then , to remove that prejudice that may be entertain'd from the incomparable hardness of Diamonds ●which I confess experience has made me admire ) as if Bodies so hard and solid could not have their parts put into motion but by some extraordinary , not to say , prodigious force ; I shall only repeat here what I have elsewhere shewn , that Diamonds are Bodies that easily enough become actually Electrical , and that some Diamonds ( of which sort I have a small one by me ) will by rubbing upon a cloath be brought to shine in the dark , the Quist of both which transient Qualities requiring a change of Texture even in the internal parts ; and the Friction that produces that change , doing it immediately by putting the parts of the stone into local-motion , it may be thence argued , that a very moderate force may suffice to beget an internal motion in the inward Particles of Diamonds themselves . And I am not sure but that more hidden Agents may make impressions upon these hardest Bodies . For in a Ring that I am wont to wear on my little Finger , which has no Diamond , save one more than that shining one I lately mention'd , I have I know not how often seem'd to my self to observe a manifestly greater clearness and sparklingness at some times than at others , though I could not refer it to the clearness or dulness of the weather , the moisture or driness of th● air , the superficial clearness or foulness of the stone , or any other manifest cause I could think of . And in this I was the more enclin'd to think I might not be mistaken , because , besides that the notice I took of it , was frequent , I have by me a rough Diamond just as it came from the Rock , in whose Electrical faculty I have taken notice of changes as to the degree of strength wherewith it attracted , and that within the compass of a very little time , though I could not find any cause whereto I could refer so surprizing a Phaenomenon . And I must not here omit , that chancing one day to shew the newly mention'd Diamond Ring to a very ingenious Lady that used to wear in Rings and Bracelets store of those Gems , and telling her what changes I had taken notice of in the Diamonds ; she who had observ'd more about Gems than any Lady I had yet met with , appeared but little surprized at what I told her , and affirm'd to me that she had divers times observed the like alterations in some Diamonds of hers , which sometimes would look more sparklingly than they were wont , and sometimes far more dull than ordinary . And when I objected , that possibly that dulness might be imputed to the weather , or some casual foulness of the surface of the stone , she reply'd that she had been aware of those circumstances , rubbing the stones clean , and otherwise taking care to secure an Observation , which she had made too often to have deceiv'd her self in it . If I remember aright , I have elsewhere mention'd how I saw a considerable , but Cloudy , Hungarian Diamond , which the Owner would have presented me , made clearer by lying for some time in a cold Liquor , wherein he affirmed that upon his keeping it longer the stone would lose more and more of its cloudiness ; and what I my self saw suffic'd me to argue , that changes may be produc'd even in the inward parts of such Diamonds by Agents that act without any appearing Violence . SECT . X. And if it be true that Diamonds , as I elsewhere observe about many other stones , may be generated from time to time in the bowels of the Earth , it may not perhaps be absurd to imagine , that even true Diamonds , that seem perfect , and are fit for Rings , may long continue to have an insensible motion through the whole stone , whereby the Corpuscles it consists of are dispos'd into a more convenient Texture for the constituting of an extreamly hard body . For though it be taken for granted , that Adamantine Bodies , because they are generally exceeding hard , are equally so , yet that supposition is not favoured by Experience . And I remember , that to satisfie my self further about such matters , I repair'd to an ancient Artificer eminent in his Trade , which was the cutting and setting of Diamonds , and that having demanded of him whether he found that all Diamonds were of equal hardness ; he answered me , that having dealt in these Gems near 20 years in Amsterdam , and divers years in England , he perceived that there are of later years brought over worse and worse sorts of Diamonds , and that he finds several of the recent Diamonds so soft and brittle in comparison of those he was anciently wont to set ( and which he with other Jewellers called Diamonds of the old Rock ) that he is often afraid , and unwilling to meddle with them , when they are brought to him , left he should spoil them in the cutting , or polishing . But this I only repeat historically , till further observation shall discover whether these are Diamonds not yet fully ripe , and capable of growing harder by further maturation , or whether they be of a peculiar sort of Diamonds whose nature it is to be always softer than those of the old Rock . SECT . XI . This brings into my mind a confirmation of the unequal hardness of Diamonds , whatever be the cause of it , which I met with in a little Book lately Published in his own Language by a Frenchman , who giving his Reader an Account of the Eastern Diamond-Mines from the Relation , as he affirms , of a late Eye-witness , speaks thus of the third and last Mine called Gazerpoli , They are very clear , and of a good Water , but they cannot be ground by mutual Attrition ( if I understand the Term he uses ) but with stones of the same Mine ; for if one should employ for that purpose the stones of another Mine , those of Gazerpoli would be broken in pieces : They do also easily break upon the Wheel , and those that are not vers'd in the knowledge of stones may easily be deceived ( in them . ) Of which our Author addes the Example of a Portuguais , who refusing 1200 Crowns for one of them at Ligorn , when he went to have it cut at Venice , it broke upon the Wheel into fifteen or twenty pieces . Another Example that seems to make more for our present purpose is afforded by the same Author , speaking of the second Mine , which breeds the greatest stones called Gane or Colonor ; for he says , that sur●la plus part , i. e. upon the most of these stones after they are cut , there appears always as it were a kind of greasiness or unctuosity , which invites you ever and anon to have recourse to your Handkerchief to wipe it off , which one would guess to proceed from some insensible Effluvium , that exhaling out of the stone comes to be check'd and condens'd by the air on the superficies of it , as it happens to sweat on the skins of Animals : the truth of which conjecture I would examine by very nice scales , if I could procure such Diamonds . SECT . XII . And because Rubies , though inferior in hardness to Diamonds , are yet harder than most other Gems , and much more than Marble and the like courser stones , I will not omit on this occasion , what was more than once affirmed to me by an observing Lady , whom , if she were not too nearly related to me , I could scarce mention without an Elogy . For casually casting my eye upon a fair Ruby she wore upon her finger , and desiring to consider it more attentively , she pull'd off the rich Ring 't was set in , and reaching it me , told me 't was worth my curiosity to consider it . For besides that 't was so fine a stone , that 't was thought worth being left her as a Legacy by a great Lady ( her dear friend ) that was famous , as I knew , for the variety of the rich Jewels she was Mistress of ; this Ruby would not unfrequently vary the degrees of its lustre she knew not why . For sometimes it seem'd to be ennobled by a more vivid fire than ordinary , and at other times it would be manifestly more dull and cloudy than 't is wont to be : and this not imputable , as she expresly assur'd me upon repeated Observations , to the Cloudiness of the Weath●r , or any superficial foulness of the stone . And that I might be convinc'd as well as she her self was , she desir'd me to rub it very clean , and then take notice of the present lustre of it , of which e're long she presum'd she could shew me a manifest alteration ( for I was then come to visit her and pass some weeks with her in her house ) but my occasions calling me away within a few days after , I had not time to wait for the event of her promise . How for what has been said concerning Diamonds may be allowed to be Argumentative towards the scope of this Discourse , I shall willingly leave to the discovery of time , and further Observation ; the mention I have made of the foregoing particulars , having been invited partly by the nobleness of the subject , which made me willing to adde these Relations to what I have elsewhere written about them ; and partly because thus much at least seems probably deducible from what I noted about the exciting of Diamonds by rubbing , both to attract , and to shine , that notwithstanding their incomparable hardness , an intestine motion of their minute parts may be without any considerable violence quickly produc'd . SECT . XIII . And now 't will be time to consider the other Body I promis'd to take notice of , namely Glass . For this being thought so compact and firm a Body , that 't is indistructible by Art or Nature , and being also of so close a Texture , that the subtlest Chymical Spirits ( that are yet known ) cannot pervade it , and lastly having given such proofs of the fixedness of its parts , as to have long endur'd the violence even of a Glass-house-fire , we can scarce imagine a Body more unlikely to have any motion amongst its component Particles : and yet that they may not be always at perfect Rest among themselves , I have been induced to think by the following , and the like Observations . First , having enquired of a famous and experienced Maker of Telescopes , as well as of those that use such Instruments , whether he did not observe that the Venice-Glasses he employed would sometimes crack of themselves whilst they were yet in Plates , and sometimes do the like after they were ground into Convexes , and polished up ; he answered affirmatively . And though it seem'd improbable that Glasses brought so far off as ●rom Venice , and many of them kept a good while here in England before there be occasion to grind them : and perhaps longer after their having been ground before they crack , should after all this time retain an internal motion among their component Particles : yet I have been induc'd to conjecture that some saline Corpuscles more numerous than the Nature of the Glass requir'd , may , by degrees though slow and unperceiv'd , so tend towards the superficies of the Glass , as either to get out of the Pores of it , or crack , or burst the Glass in endeavouring to force their passage outward . For having purposely enquired of the above-nam'd Artificer , and some other observing men that deal in Optical Glasses , whether it had not been taken notice of , That there would sometimes be , especially in Winter and very moist Weather , a kind of Efflorescence of a saltish taste manifestly discernable upon the surfaces of their Glasses ; I was answered in the Affirmative , especially by the above-mention'd Artificer , who having more occasion and opportunity to take notice of such things , told me that he had by tasting found these Exsudations sensibly saltish . SECT . XIV . And I was the more apt to entertain the lately propos'd Conjecture , because of a thick Glass Cup that I have yet by me , in the making of which , to render it the more Diaphanous , I suppos'd an over great proportion of Salt had been employed . For this Cup though for a while it continued clear and entire , yet before the ensuing Winter was ended , though it did not so crack as to fall to pieces , but still retains its former shape , yet it was flaw'd with such a multitude of little cracks , that at a distance it looks like a Whi●e , not like a Christalline Cup. SECT . XV. I remember also that I have sometimes , though not often , had Vessels and other Bodies of Glass of a considerable thickness , which have of their own accord broken suddenly asunder , with noise enough to make me take notice of it . And that this did not always happen for want of the Glass's being gradually or slowly coo●'d , or , in the Workmens Language , neal'd , I was perswaded not only by the spontaneous cracking , not without a loud noise of a thick and empty Glass Vessel , that had for I know not how many Months been kept locked up in my Study ; but by the like Accidents , which I after found had happened unto others . For enquiring of some that made great store of Glass Vessels , as well as of others that sold them ; I learned from both , that they had sometimes by their losses been made to take notice that Glasses that had been long made , and kept unemployed would break of themselves , when there was no visible outward Agent near enough to be suspected of the having broken them . And since this very Page began to be written , I had a fair Christal Vial , not too well stopt , which crackt at the thick bottom , in a Glass-Cabinet ( that was fixed to a Wall ) where I kept that with other choice Vials under Lock and Key ; no other of the included Glasses ( full nor empty ) nor yet of the external Glasses appearing any way crackt or injured . Nay even great and strong Looking-Glasses are not quite exempted from these accidents . For I remember that having purposely enquired of an honest man that furnished the greatest part of London with large Looking-Glasses , whether he did not sometimes find them crack , and that with noise ; he show'd me divers large Plates of excellent Glass , and assured me , that sometimes after they had been a good while in his Shop , some of them would of themselves , not only crack with a loud noise , but now and then also ( though rarely ) fly asunder with that violence as to break some of the neighbouring Plates though thick and strong . SECT . XVI . And having also a mind to enquire further , whether this disposition to break in some sorts of Glass , might not continue much longer than I had opportunity to observe , I addressed my self to an ingenious Master of a Glass-house , and demanded of him how long he had taken notice of Glass to continue sound and whole , and yet afterwards to break of it self . He replyed that he had once a great parcel of Glasses packed up , which not having the occasion he expected to vend and make use of , lay by him for a great while ; and yet when afterwards he had unpack'd them , and rang'd them , in a short time a great many of them , amounting to about a fourth or third part of the whole number , cracked of themselves ; and when I asked how long the Parcels had lain by before they were opened , he replyed , that 't was as he remembred between four and five years . SECT . XVII . These Instances ( to which I could adde divers others ) I have therefore mention'd because either of the two Hypotheses in congruity whereunto they seem likeliest to be intelligibly explicable , will favour the Doctrine hitherto patronized . For according to the Atomical Theory , it may be conceived that there is a constant intestine Motion of the small parts of the Glass upon the score of their constituent Atoms , which endeavour or tend to extricate themselves and get away , which at last they do , by breaking the Glass in some brittle , or other fit place ; where ( after a multitude of encounters and evolutions ) a competent number of them may happen to be got together , and find their Motion ( outwards ) withstood : whence may ensue so unequal an agitation there , of the formerly coherent parts of the Glass , as to make the more agitated ones part from them that are less so ; and consequently crack the Glass . To which agrees what I have often observ'd in Chymical and Mechanical Tryals made with Glass-Vessels , That if there be any grain of Sand or Gravel , or any little Lump of the Alkalizate matter Glass is made of , conspicuously inclos'd in the substance of the Vessel , 't will both be much the more apt to break , and if it do , will almost always begin to crack at that place , ( whence usually as from a Center several cracks go several ways ) the part of the Glass where the blemish is , being commonly of a differing Texture from the rest ( as is often manifest to the very eye ) and being by that incongruous Texture disposed to be put into a motion differing from , and perhaps very disproportionate to that of the neighbouring Parts . SECT . XVIII . I must not here stay to examine , whether or no this motion of the internal parts may not ( in divers cases be made more efficacious by the penetration of some subtle and moist matter into the Glasses Pores , ( especially the more superficial ones of some Glass of a looser sort ) and so by degrees vitiate the Texture of the Body , and promoting the Agitation and swelling of the saline Corpuscles , enable them to burst the Glass , after some such manner as the Marchasites I lately mentioned , came to have a vitriolate Efflorescence , and even to be burst by the operation of the Air ; this , I say , I must not now stay to examine , because I would hasten to propose the second Hypothesis , and tell you that ( else ) we may , congruously to what we elsewhere discourse , imagine , That in tract of time , there is produced in some parts of a Glass a Texture that makes it resist more than it did formerly ●he free passage of the Ae●her , or some other subtle matter , that was accustomed ( perhaps stream-like ) to permea●e it before ; which transient matter now finding its passage obstructed ( and perchance almost quite hindered ) by the vitiating of the Pores of the Glass , or some other ( inconvenient ) change of Texture in it , and endeavouring to con●inue its wonted motion through it , does so stretch the Pores , or otherwise offer violence to the Texture of the Body , that it causes a divulsion in the parts , which according as it is more or less forcibly or suddenly made , does either barely crack the Glass , or make it flye asunder . To the precedent Doctrine these two things agree not ill : The First , That Glass is a Body easily made Electrical by rubbing , which makes it probable that its Particles may easily be put into motion . And the Second , That such a Divulsion may be made in Glass by but an inequal motion between the neighbouring parts ; as may appear by the Chymical practice of cracking Glasses , which they often think fit to do , only by applying a red hot Iron to the place till it be sufficiently heated , and whilst it is very hot , moistening it with cold water ( or even Spittle ) which by cooling the part that it touched , and consequently checking the Agitation of the Corpuscles it meets there , whilst the contiguous parts retain their former vehement Agitation , occasions a discontinuity or divulsion in the Glass , some of whose parts are in so swift , and others are in so slow a motion . SECT . XIX . And on this occasion I shall adde chiefly , because I would not pretermit so considerable a Phaenomenon , That even when Glass seems to have lost the degree of heat that one would think necessary to have its shape or bigness sensibly alter'd , there may remain yet so much agitation in the minute parts , as , when they are modify'd by the Air , by the Cold , or by some other invisible Agent , to make them alter the bulk or shape of the whole Vessel they compose ; and that ( which one would not expect ) by enlarging the Vessel , at least if we allow not in the case any change of Figure : For it has often been observed in those Glass-houses where they work White Glasses , as they call those that are pure and clear , that when they have blown Glasses into a mold , to give them more exactly the desired shape and size , these Glasses when they are cold cannot well be put again into the same mold they were blown in , and require that the Cells of Garde Vials that are to receive them be made a little larger : which Observation an eminent Artificer of my acquaintance that gets considerably by fitting fine Glasses to Cases ; has much confirm'd to me by his complaints of the inconvenience , easie to be incurr'd , by the not knowing , or not remembring so unlikely an Effect of the cooling of Glass . But I must not prosecute the consideration of these , and the like Phaenomena , nor examine which of the preceding Explications is preferrable , having mention'd them , as I was saying , chiefly to shew , that which of them soever we pitch upon , it will argue an intestine motion in the Corpuscles of the Glass , which motion we shall think may be very slow , if we consider how long a time it is on some Occasions in producing its effects before it brings them to be discernable to our senses . SECT . XX. Having thus made it probable , that among the parts of such solid Bodies , as I have hitherto instanced in , there may not be such a perfect Rest , as is generally believed ; it will I suppose be expected that I should now draw this consequence from what has been said , That there is no such thing as absolute Rest in Nature . But since at my first men●ioning this Paradox to you , I proposed it but as Problematical , and since I consider that we are not yet sure , but that though many of the parts of solid Bodies may not be always moveless , yet some others of them may sometimes for a while at least be at perfect Rest : I shall conclude as I began , and without resolutely denying that there can be any such thing in rerum naturâ , as absolute Rest , I shall content my self to say , That 't is not either absurd to doubt whether there be or no ; nor improbable to think that there is not , since we have not found it in those very Bodies , where with the greatest likelihood it might have been expected . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A28944-e310 Ethic. Nicom . lib. 1. cap. 6. Quaestion . Natural . lib. 6. cap. 5. Epistola 64. Notes for div A28944-e1680 Accipe pulverem Johannis de ● Vigo propria manu paratam , uam alioquin admistus Minio est adulteratus , prout qualecunque Medicamen Chymicum quod venale exstat fraude plenum est . Helmon . de Febr. c. 14. Sunt nempe olea essentialia venalia , quaeque magno aere penduntur , adulterata omnia atque singula , &c. Idem de Feb. c. 15. Histoire de Madagascar . c. 37. Paracel . de Mineral , Tract .. 1. Paracel . ibidem . Notes for div A28944-e3150 Lib. 3. cap. 6. Josephus Acosta lib. 4. cap. 5. De re Metallicâ lib. 20. p. 28. Lib. 3. part . 5 cap. 3. Fournier Hydr. l. 11. c. 11. In the Table annex'd to his Voyage . Livie 11. chap. 10. Tycho Brahe lib. 2. de Cometa An. 1577. p. 133. * This is one of those that make up the Book of the Usefulness of Experimental Philosophy . De la Longitude chap. xxxiv . Fourn . Architecture Navale chap. 22. Notes for div A28944-e5570 See the Essay of the Vsefulness of Chymistry in the II. Sect. of the I. Part Of the Vsefulness of E. P. Viz. A. D. 1659. Notes for div A28944-e5990 * If it be here demanded , Why the Experiment was not made with a greater quantity of Salt peter ? we may answer , That the mention'd Quantity was most proportionate to the best Crucible we then had . And if it be further ask'd , Whether it were not the better way of obtaining the several substances separable from Nit●e ; to distil it in close Vessels without addition of any foreign Body ? we shall reply only by representing , That the propos'd way is not so practicable as one would imagine : for a● acqui●seing in the common practice of Chymists , who are wont to mingle with the Salt-Petre they distil three or four times its weight of Brick , Earth , or some other Additament , which ( esp●cially in so great a proportion ) may much alter the Nature of the fix'd Salt remaining behind with it ; we have had the curiosity to try more than once , whether we could distil Salt-Petre per se in glass Retorts , and found , that though to avoid giving too strong a fire , we once ( at least ) plac'd the Retort only in a pan ful of Sand ; yet when the heat was grown strong enough to melt the Salt , it crack'd the Retort , and did partly run out at the crack ; only we obtain'd some small quantity of a Liquor , which by its sowreness and operation taught us what we might have expected of the rest of the volatile part of the Ni●re , in case the Vessel would have held till it had passed over into the Receiver . Notes for div A28944-e7230 * Whether the Air have any great interest in the Figuration or in the Reproduction of Nitre , the Author hath since examin'd by particular Tryals ; but in Vessels and by ways not to be easily describ'd in few words , and therefore the further mention of them is reserv'd for another Discourse . Notes for div A28944-e7400 Lib. 3. de Arte Magnet . Par. 5. Cap. 3. * In some Papers about the origine of Living Creatures suppos'd to spring of themselves . Notes for div A28944-e7990 * The Writing here referred to , is the Second Tome of the Vsefulness of Experiment . Philosophy , which should have appeared before these Specimens . [* The Author now finding that something concerning the various motion of the parts of fluid Bodies , which he has but touch'd upon , has been , though but briefly and without Experiments , yet excellently explain'd in a mathematical way by Monsieur des Cartes in the 56th and 57th Articles of the second Part of his Principles , thinks fit to refer the inquisitive Reader thither for fuller satisfaction about tha● Particular . ] * An Historical Dialogue about Flame . Notes for div A28944-e9790 * Much more considerable Instances of this nature may be met with in the Author 's New Physico Mechanical Experiments . This Way the Author afterwards Pub●ished in another Book . Hydrograph . Du P. G. Fournier , Lib. 2. Cap. 6. * This Phaenomenon is partly describ'd at large in one of the Authors Physico-Mechanical Experiments . Helmont de Febr. cap. 14. Hist. Moral . Cap. 5. Histo. Nat. & Med. Brasil . l. 4. c. 1. Gulielm . Piso , & Author Gallic . ubi supra . Beguin . Tyrocin . Chym. Lib. 2 do Cap. 10. Lib. 4o. Anno Domini , 1624. Hydrograph . de P. Fournier . Lib. 4. Cap. 27. Lib. 4. Cap. 68. Gassend . in vita Piereskii , lib. 1. In some of the Authors Papers about the Origine of Minerals . Relation des Messions des P.P.J.J. secon . part , cap. 1. Notes for div A28944-e13860 Egrezes , pag. m. 17.18 . 
A28980	----	Experiments, notes, &c. about the mechanical origine or production of divers particular qualities among which is inferred a discourse of the imperfection of the chymist's doctrine of qualities : together with some reflections upon the hypothesis of alcali and acidum / by the Honourable Robert Boyle ... Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1676 Approx. 498 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 291 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A28980 Wing B3977 ESTC R14290 18047643 ocm 18047643 60282 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A28980) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 60282) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 836:20a) Experiments, notes, &c. about the mechanical origine or production of divers particular qualities among which is inferred a discourse of the imperfection of the chymist's doctrine of qualities : together with some reflections upon the hypothesis of alcali and acidum / by the Honourable Robert Boyle ... Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. [576] p. Printed by E. Flesher for R. Davis ..., London : 1676. Reproduction of originals in the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery. Item at 836:20a bound and filmed with: Of the mechanical origine of heat and cold / by the Honourable Robert Boyle. London : Printed by E. Flesher for R. Davis, 1675 -- Experiments and observations about the mechanical production of tasts / by the Honourable Robert Boyle. London : Printed by E. Flesher for R. Davis, 1675 -- Experiments and observations about the mechanical production of odours / by the Honourable Robert Boyle. London : Printed by E. Flesher for R. Davis, 1675 -- Of the imperfection of the chymist's doctrine of qualities / by the Honourable Robert Boyle. London : Printed by E. Flesher for R. Davis, 1675 -- Reflections upon the hypothesis of alcali and acidum / by the honourable Robert Boyle. London : Printed by E. Flesher for R. Davis, 1675 -- Experiments and notes about the mechanical origine and production of volatility / by the Honourable Robert Boyle. London : Printed by E. Flesher for R. Davis, 1675 -- Experimental notes of the mechanical origine or production of fixtness. London : Printed by E. Flesher for R. Davis, 1675 -- Experiments and notes about the mechanical origine or production of corrosiveness and corrosibility / by the Honourable Robert Boyle. London : Printed by E. Flesher for R. Davis, 1675 -- Of the mechanical causes of chymical precipitation / by the honourable Robert Boyle. London : Printed by E. Flesher for R. Davis, 1675 -- Experiments and notes about the mechanical production of magnetism / by the Honourable Robert Boyle. London : Printed by E. Flesher for R. Davis, 1676. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). 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Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Science -- Early works to 1800. 2005-02 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-03 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-04 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2005-04 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Experiments , Notes , &c. ABOUT THE Mechanical Origine or Production Of divers particular QUALITIES : Among which is inserted a Discourse of the IMPERFECTION OF THE CHYMIST's Doctrine OF QUALITIES ; Together with some Reflections upon the HYPOTHESIS OF ALCALI and ACIDUM . By the Honourable Robert Boyle , Esq Fellow of the R. Society . LONDON , Printed by E. Flesher , for R. Davis Bookseller in Oxford . 1676. THE PUBLISHER TO THE Reader . TO keep the Reader from being at all surpriz'd at the Date of the Title-Page , I must inform him , that a good part of the ensuing Tracts were Printed off , and in my custody , the last year ; and the rest had come out with them divers moneths ago , if the Noble Author had not been hinder'd from committing them to the Press by the desire and hope of being able in a short time to send them abroad more numerous , and by his being hinder'd to do so partly by Remove , partly by the want of some Papers that were odly lost or spoil'd , and partly by the sickness of himself , and divers of his near Relations . And some of these Impediments do yet suppress what the Author intended should have made a part of the Book , which now he suffers to be publish'd without them , though divers of his Papers about some other particular Qualities have been written so long ago , as to have lain for many years neglected among other of his old Writings : Which that he may have both leasure and health to review , and fit for publication , is the ardent wish of the sincere Lovers of Real Knowledge , who have reason to look on it as no mean proof of his constant kindness to Experimental Philosophy , that in these Tracts he perseveres in his course of freely and candidly communicating his Experiments and Observations to the publick , notwithstanding the liberty that hath been too boldly taken to mention them as their own by some later Writers ; as particularly by the Compiler of the Treatise , entitul'd Polygraphice , who in two Chapters hath allow'd himself to present his Reader with alove Fifty Experiments , taken out of our Authors Book of Colours , without owning any one of them to Him , or so much as naming him or his Book in either of those Chapters , nor , that I remember , in any of the others . Nor did I think this practice justified by the confession made in the Preface , importing , that the Compiler had taken the particulars he deliver'd from the Writings of others . For , this general and perfunctory acknowledgment neither doth right to particular Authors , nor , by naming them , enables the Reader to know , whether the things deliver'd come from persons fit to be credited or not : And therefore , since 't is but too likely , that such Concealment of the Names , if not Usurpation of the Labours of the Benefactors to Philosophy , will prove much more forbidding to many others to impart their Experiments , than as yet they have to our generous Author ; it seems to be the Interest of the Commonwealth of Learning openly to discountenance so discouraging a practice , and to shew , that they do not think it fit that Possessors of useful pieces of knowledge should be strongly tempted to envy them to the Publick , to the end onely that a few Compilers should not be put upon so reasonable and easie a work , as by a few words or names to shew themselves just , if not grateful . But not to keep the Reader any longer from the perusal of these Tracts themselves , I shall conclude with intimating onely , that what our Author saith in one of them concerning the Insufficiency of the Chymical Hypothesis for explaining the Effects of Nature , is not at all intended by him to derogate from the sober Professors of Chymistry , or to discourage them from useful Chymical Operations ; forasmuch as I had the satisfaction , some years since , to see in the Authors hands a Discourse of his about the Usefulness of Chymistry for the Advancement of Natural Philosophy ; with which also 't is hoped he will e're long gratifie the Publick . ADVERTISEMENTS Relating to the following TREATISE . TO obviate some misapprehensions that may arise concerning the ensuing Notes about Particular Qualities , it may not be improper to adde something in this place to what has been said in another † Paper in reference to those Notes , and consequently to premise to the particular Experiments some few general Advertisements about them . And I. we may consider , that there may be three differing ways of treating Historically of Particular Qualities . For either one may in a full and methodical History prosecute the Phaenomena ; or one may make a Collection of various Experiments and Observations whence may be gathered divers Phaenomena to illustrate several , but not all of the Heads or Parts of such an ample or methodical History ; or ( in the third place ) one may in a more confin'd way content ones self to deliver such Experiments and Observations of the Production , or the Destruction or Change of this or that Quality , as , being duly reason'd on , may suffice to shew wherein the nature of that Quality doth consist , especially in opposition to those erroneous conceits that have been entertained about it . Of the First of these three ways of treating of a Quality I pretend not to have given any compleat example ; but you will find , that I have begun such Histories in my . Specimens about Fluidity and Firmness , and in the Experiments , Observations , &c. that I have put together about Cold. The Second sort of Historical Writings I have given an Instance of in my Experiments about Colours ; but in these ensuing Notes , the occasion I had to make them having obliged me chiefly to have an eye to the disproval of the errours of the Peripateticks and the Chymists about them , I hope I shall not be thought to have fallen very short in my Attempt , if I have ( here and there ) perform'd what may be required in the Third way of writing Historically of a Quality ; my present Design being chiefly to give an Intelligent and Historical Account of the Possible Mechanical Origination , not of the various Phaenomena of the particular Qualities succinctly mentioned in these Notes ; though , my secondary end being to become a Benefactor to the History of Qualities by providing Materials for my self or better Architects , I have not scrupled to adde to those , that tend more directly to discover the Nature or Essence of the Quality treated of , and to derive it from Mechanical Principles , some others ( which happen'd to come in my way ) that acquaint us but with some of the less luciferous Phaenomena . II. That you may not mistake what is driven at in many of the Experiments and Reasonings deliver'd or propos'd in the ensuing Notes about Particular Qualities , I must desire you to take notice with me , what it is that I pretend to offer you some proofs of . For , if I took upon me to demonstrate , that the Qualities of bodies cannot proceed from ( what the Schools call ) Substantial Forms , or from any other Causes but Mechanical , it might be reasonably enough expected , that my Argument should directly exclude them all . But since , in my Explications of Qualities , I pretend only , that they may be explicated by Mechanical Principles , without enquiring , whether they are explicable by any other , that which I need to prove , is , not that Mechanical Principles are the necessary and onely things whereby Qualities may be explained , but that probably they will be found sufficient for their explication . And since these are confessedly more manifest and more intelligible than substantial Form● and other Scholastic Entities ( if I may so call them ) 't is obvious , what the consequence will be of our not being oblig'd to have recourse to things , whose existence is very disputable , and their nature ve●y obscure . There are several ways that may be employed , some on one occasion and some on another , either more directly to reduce Qualities ( as well as divers other things in nature ) to Mechanical Principles ; or , by shewing the insufficiency of the Peripatetic and Chymical Theories of Qualities , to recommend the Corpuscularian Doctrine of them . For further Illustration of this Point , I shall adde on this occasion , that there are three distinct sorts of Experiments ( besides other proofs ) that may be reasonably employ'd , ( though they be not equally effi●acious ) when we treat of the Origine of Qualities . For some Instances may be brought to shew , that the propos'd Quality may be Mechanically introduc'd into a portion of matter , where it was not before . Other Instances there may be to shew , that by the same means the Quality may be notably varied as to degrees , or other not essential Attributes . And by some Instances also it may appear , that the Quality is Mechanically expell'd from , or abolish'd in , a portion of matter that was endow'd with it before . Sometimes also by the same Operation the former quality is destroyed , and a new one is produc'd . And each of these kinds of Instances may be usefully employ'd in our Notes about Particular Qualities . For , as to the first of them , there will be scarce any difficulty . And as to the second , since the permanent Degrees as well as other Attributes of Qualities are said to flow from ( and do indeed depend upon ) the same Principles that the Quality it self does ; if , especially in bodies inanimate , a change barely Mechanical does notably and permanently alter the degree or other considerable attribute ; it will afford , though not a clear proof , yet a probable presumption , that the Principles whereon the Quality it self depends are Mechanical . And lastly , if , by a bare Mechanical change of the internal Disposition and structure of a body , a permanent Quality , confess'd to flow from its substantial Form or inward Principle , be abolish'd , and perhaps also immediately succeeded by a new Quality Mechanically producible ; if , I say , this come to pass in a body Inanimate , especially if it be also , as to sense similar , such a Phaenomenon will not a little favour that Hypothesis which teaches , that these Qualities depend upon certain contextures and other Mechanical Affections of the small parts of the bodies , that are indowed with them , and consequently may be abolish'd when that necessary Modification is destroyed . This is thus briefly premis'd to shew the pertinency of alledging differing kinds of Experiments and Phaenomena in favour of the Corpuscular Hypothesis about Qualities . What has been thus laid down , may , I hope , facilitate and shorten most of the remaining work of this Preamble , which is to sh●w , though but very briefly , that there may be several ways , not impertinently employable to recommend the Corpuscularian Doctrine of Qualities . For first , it may sometimes be shewn , that a Substantial Form cannot be pretended to be the necessary Principle of this or that Quality ; as w●ll ( for instance ) hereafter be made manifest in the Asperity and Smoothness of bodies , and in the Magnetical Vertue residing in a piece of Iron that has been impregnated by a Load-stone . 'T is true , that the force of such Instances is indirect , and that they do not expresly prove the Hypothesis in whose favour they are alledged , but yet they may do it good service by disproving the Grounds and Conclusions of the Adversaries , and so ( by removing Prejudices ) making way for the better entertainment of the truth . Secondly , we may sometimes obtain the same or the like Quality by Artificial and sometimes even temporary Compositions , which , being but factitious bodies , are by Leerned Adversaries confess'd not to have Substantial Forms , and can indeed reasonably be presum'd to have but resulting Temperaments : As will be hereafter exemplifi'd in the production of Green by compounding Blew and Yellow , and in the Electrical Faculty of Glass ; and in the temporary whiteness produc'd by beating clear Oyl and fair Water into an Ointment , and by beating water into a froth , and , more permanently , in making Coral white by flawing it with heat , and in divers other Particulars , that will more properly be elsewhere mention'd . Thirdly then , in some cases the Quality propos'd may be either introduced , or vary'd , or destroy'd in an inanimate body , when no change appears to be made in the body , except what is Mechanical , and what might be produc'd in it , supposing such a parcel of matter were artificially fram'd and constituted as the body is , though without any Substantial Form , or other such like internal Principle . So when a piece of Glass , or of clarify'd Rosin , is , by being beaten to powder , deprived of its Transparency , and made white , there appears no change to be made in the pulveriz'd body , but a comminution of it into a multitude of Corpuscles , that by their number and the various scituations of their surfaces are fitted copiously to reflect the sincere Light several ways , or give some peculiar Modification to its Rayes ; and hinder that free passage of the beams of Light , that is requisite to Transparency . Fourthly , as in the cases belonging to the foregoing number there appears not to intervene in the Patient or Subject of the change , any thing but a Mechanical alteration of the Mechanical Structure or Constitution ; so in some other cases it appears not , that the Agent , whether natural or factitious , operates on the Patient otherwise than Mechanically , employing onely such a way of acting as may proceed from the Mechanisme of the matter , which it self consists of , and that of the body it acts upon . As when Goldsmiths burnish a Plate or Vessel of Silver , that having been lately boil'd lookt white before , though they deprive it of the greatest part of its colour , and give it a new power of reflecting the beams of Light and visible Objects , in the manner proper to specular bodies ; yet all this is done by the intervention of a burnishing Tool , which often is but a piece of Steel or Iron conveniently shap'd ; and all that this Burnisher does , is but to depress ●●●●●tle prominencies of the Silver , and reduce them , and the little cavites of it , to one physically level or plain Superficies . And so when a Hammer striking often on a Nail , makes the head of it grow hot , the Hammer is but a purely Mechanical Agent , and works by local motion . And when by striking a lump of Glass , it breaks it into a multitude of small parts that compose a white powder , it acts as Mechanically in the production of that Whiteness as it does in driving in a Nail to the head . And so likewise , when the powder'd Glass or Colophony lately mention'd is , by the fire , from a white and opacous body , reduc'd into a colourless ( or a reddish ) and transparent one , it appears not , that the fire , though a natural Agent , need work otherwise than Machanically , by colliquating the incoherent grains of powder into one mass ; wherein , the ranks of pores not being broken and interrupted as before , the incident beams of Light are allow'd every way a free passage through them . Fifthly , the like Phaenomena to those of a Quality to be explicated , or at least as difficult in the same kind , may be produc'd in bodies and cases , wherein 't is plain we need not recurre to Substantial Forms . Thus a varying Colour , life that which is admired in a Pigeons Neck , may be produc'd in changeable Taffety , by a particular way of ranging and connecting Silk of several Colours into one piece of Stuff . Thus we have known Opals casually imitated and almost excell'd by Glass , which luckily degenerated in the Furnace . And somewhat the life changeable and very delightful Colour I remember to have introduced into common Glass with Silver or with Gold and Mercury . So likewise meerly by blowing fine Crystal-Glass at the flame of a Lamp to a very extraordinary thinness , we have made it to exhibit , and that vividly , all the Colours ( as they speak ) of the Rainbow ; and this power of pleasing by diverfiyying the Light , the Glass , if well preserved , may keep for a long time . Thus also by barely beating Gold into such thin leaves as Artificers and Apothecaries are wont to employ , it will be brought to exhibite a green Colour , when you hold it against the Light , whether of the day , or of a good Candle ; and this kind of Greenness as 't is permanent in the foliated Gold , so I have found by trial , that if the Sun-beams , somewhat united by a Burning-glass , be trajected through the expanded Leaf , and cast upon a piece of white paper , they will appear there as if they had been tinged in their passage . Nay , and sometimes a slight and almost momentany Mechanical change will seem to over rule Nature , and introduce into a body the quite opposite Quality to that she had given it : As when a piece of black Horn is , onely by being thinly scraped with the edge of a knife or a piece of glass , reduced to permanently white Shavings . And to these Instances of Colours , some Emphatical and some Permanent , might be added divers belonging to other Qualities , but that I ought not to anticipate what you will elsewhere meet with . There is yet another way of arguing in favour of the Corpuscularian Doctrine of Qualities , which , though it do not afford direct proofs of its being the best Hypothesis , yet it may much strengthen the Arguments drawn from other Topicks , and thereby serve to recommend the Doctrine it self . For , the use of an Hypothesis being to render an intelligible account of the Causes of the Effects or Phaenomena propos'd , without crossing the Laws of Nature or other Phaenomena , the more numerous and the more various the Particulars are , whereof some are explicable by the assign'd Hypothesis , and some are agreeable to it , or at least are not dissonant from it , the more valuable is the Hypothesis , and the more likely to be true . For 't is much more difficult , to finde an Hypothesis that is not true which will suit with many Phaenomena , especially if they be of various kinds , than but with few . And for this Reason I have set down among the Instances belonging to particular Qualities some such Experiments and Observations , as we are now speaking of , since , although they be not direct proofs of the preferrablennss of our Doctrine , yet they may serve for Confirmation of it ; though this be not the only or perhaps the chief Reason of their being mention'd . For whatever they may be as Arguments , since they are matters of fact , I thought it not amiss to take this occasion of preserving them from being lost ; since , whether or no they contribute much to the establishment of the Mechanical Doctrine about Qualities , they will at least contribute to the Natural History of them . III. I shall not trouble the Reader with a Recital of those unlucky Accidents , that have hinder'd the Subjects of the following Book from being more numerous , and I hope he will the more easily excuse their paucity , if he be advertised , that although the particular Qualities , about which some Experiments and Notes , by way of Specimens , are here presented , be not near half so many as were intended to be treated of ; yet I was careful to chuse them such as might comprehend in a small number a great variety ; there being scarce one sort of Qualities , of which there is not an Instance given in this small Book , since therein Experiments and thoughts are deliver'd about Heat and Cold , which are the chief of the four FIRST QUALITIES ; about Tasts and Odours , which are of those , that , being the immediate objects of Sense , are wont to be call'd SENSIBLE QUALITIES ; about Volatility and Fixity , Corrosiveness and Corrosibility , which , as they are found in bodies purely natural , are referrable to those Qualities , that many Physical Writers call SECOND QUALITIES , and which yet , as they may be produced and destroyed by the Chymists Art , may be stiled Chymical Qualities , and the Spagyrical ways of introducing or expelling them may be referr'd to Chymical Operations , of which there is given a more ample Specimen in the Mechanical account of Chymical Precipitations . And lastly , some Notes are added about Magnetism and Electricity , which are known to belong to the Tribe of Occult Qualities . IV. If a want of apt Coherence and exact Method be discover'd in the following Essays , 't is hop'd , that defect will be easily excus'd by those that remember and consider , that these Papers were originally little better than a kind of Rapsody of Experiments , Thaughts , and Observations , occasionally thrown together by way of Annotations upon some Passages of a Discourse , ( about the differing Parts and Redintegration of Nitre ) wherein some things were pointed at relating to the particular Qualities that are here more largely treated of . And though the Particulars that concern some of these Qualities , were afterwards ( to supply the place of those borrow'd by other Papers whilst these lay by me ) increas'd in number ; yet it was not to be expected , that their Accession should as well correct the Form as augment the Matter of our Annotations . And as for the two Tracts , that are inserted among these Essays about Qualities ; I mean the Discourse of the Imperfection of the Chymical Doctrine of them , and the Reflections on the Hypothesis of Acidum and Alcali , the occasion of their being made parts of this Book is so far express'd in the Tracts themselves , that I need not here trouble the Reader with a particular Account of it . V. I do not undertake , that all the following Accounts of Particular Qualities would prove to be the very true ones , nor every Explication the best that can be devis'd . For besides that the difficulty of the Subject , and Incompleatness of the History we yet have of Qualities , may well deterre a man , less diffident of his own abilities than I justly am , from assuming so much to himself , it is not absolutely necessary to my present Design . For , Mechanical Explications of natural Phaenomena do give so much more satisfaction to ingenious minds , than those that must employ Substantial Forms , Sympathy , Antipathy , &c. that the more judicious of the vulgar Philosophers themselves prefer them before all others , when they can be had ; ( as is elsewhere shewn at large , ) but then they look upon them either as confined to Mechanical Engines , or at least but as reaching to very few of Nature's Phaenomena , and , for that reason , unfit to be received as Physical Principles . To remove therefore this grand Prejudice and Objection , which seems to be the chief thing that has kept off Rational Inquirers from closing with the Mechanical Philosophy , it may be very conducive , if not sufficient , to propose such Mechanical accounts of Particular Qualities themselves , as are intelligible and possible , and are agreeable to the Phaenomena whereto they are applied . And to this it is no more necessary that the account propos'd should be the truest and best that can possibly be given , than it is to the proving that a Clock is not acted by a vital Principle , ( as those Chineses thought , who took the first , that was brought them out of Europe , for an Animal , ) but acts as an Engine , to do more than assign a Mechanical Structure made up of Wheels , a Spring , a Hammer , and other Mechanical pieces , that will regularly shew and strike the hour , whether this Contrivance be or be not the very same with that of the Particular Clock propos'd ; which may indeed be made to move either with Springs or Weights , and may consist of a greater or lesser number of Wheels , and those differingly scituated and connected ; but for all this variety 't will still be but an Engine . I intend not therefore by proposing the Theories and Conjectures ventur'd at in the following Papers , to debar my self of the Liberty either of altering them , or of substituting others in their places , in case a further progress in the History of Qualities shall suggest better Hypotheses or Explications . And 't was but agreeable to this Intention of mine , that I should , as I have done , on divers occasions in the following Notes , imploy the word Or , and express my self somewhat doubtingly , mentioning more than one Cause of a Phaenomenon , or Reason of an opinion , without dogmatically declaring for either ; since my purpose in these Notes was rather to shew , it was not necessary to betake our selves to the Scholastick or Chymical Doctrine about Qualities , than to act the Umpire between the differing Hypotheses of the Corpuscularians ; and , provided I kept my self within the bounds of Mechanical Philosophy , my design allowed me a great latitude in making explications of the Phaenomena , I had occasion to take notice of . FINIS . Directions for the Book-binder ; to be put immediately after the general Title Page . THE several Tracts of this Book are to be bound in the order following , viz. After the Preface of the Publisher to the Reader , and the Advertisements relating to the whole Treatise , is to follow , 1. The Tract of Heat and Cold. 2. Of Tasts . 3. Of Odours . 4. Of the imperfection of the Chymists Doctrine of Qualities . 5. Reflexions upon the Hypothesis of Alcali and Acidum . 6. Advertisements relating to Chymical Qualities , to be bound next after the Title Page to Volatility . 7. Of Volatility . 8. Of Fixtness . 9. Of Corrosiveness & Corrosibility . 10. Of Chymical Precipitation . 11. Of Magnetism . 12. Of Electricity . ERRATA . IN the Tract of Heat and Cold , p. 28. at the end of the page dele Finis , and go on to Exp. IX . p. 40. l. 21. r. degree of rapidness . p. 102. l. 15. put a comma after the word before . In the Tract of Corrosiveness and Corrosibility read in the current Title on the top of p. 2. and 3. & seqq . Corrosiveness and Corrosibility , not or . OF THE MECHANICAL ORIGINE OF HEAT and COLD . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esq Fellow of the R. Society . LONDON , Printed by E. Flesher , for R. Davis Bookseller in Oxford . 1675. Experiments and Notes ABOUT THE MECHANICAL ORIGINE OR PRODUCTION OF HEAT and COLD . SECT . I. About the Mechanical Production of Cold. HEAT & COLD being generally lookt upon as the most active among Qualities , from which many other Qualities are deducible , and by which many of Nature's Phaenomena , especially among the Peripateticks , are attempted to be explicated ; I suppose it will be very proper to begin with Instances of them to shew , that Qualities may be Mechanically produced or destroyed . A not useless Paraphrase of which expression may be this , That a portion of matter may come to be endowed with a Quality , which it had not before , or to be deprived of one that it had , or ( sometimes ) to acquire or lose a degree of that Quality ; though on the part of the Matter ( or , as some would speak , of the Patient ) there do not appear to intervene any more than a change of Texture , or some other Mechanical Alteration ; and though the Agents ( on their part ) do not appear to act upon it otherwise , than after a Mechanical manner , that is , by their bigness , shape , motion , and those other Attributes by vertue whereof Mechanical Powers and Engines perform their operations ; and this without having recourse to the Peripatetic Substantial Forms and Elements , or to the Hypostatical Principles of the Chymists . And having here ( as in a proper place ) to avoid ambiguity , premised once for all , this * Summary Declaration of the sense , agreeably whereunto I would have these Terms understood in the following Notes about the Origine of Particular Qualities ; I proceed now to set down some few examples of the Mechanical Production of Cold & Heat , beginning with those that relate to the former , because by reason of their Paucity they will be quickly dispatcht . And I hope I shall not need to make an Apology for mentioning no greater number ; since I scarce remember to have met with any Instances of this kind in any of the Classick Writers of Natural Philosophy . EXPER. I. MY first Experiment is afforded me by the Dissolution of Sal Armoniac , which I have somewhat wonder'd , that Chymists having often occasion to purifie that Salt by the help of Water , should not have , long since , and publickly , taken notice of . For if you put into three or four times its weight of Water a pound or but half a pound ( or even less ) of powder'd Sal Armoniack , and stir it about to hasten the dissolution , there will be produc'd in the mixture a very intense degree of Coldness , such as will not be onely very sensible to his hand that holds the Glass whilst the Dissolution is making , but will very manifestly discover it self by its Operation upon a Thermoscope . Nay , I have more than once by wetting the outside of the Glass , where the dissolution was making , and nimbly stirring the Mixture , turn'd that externally adhering water into real Ice , ( that was scrap'd off with a knife ) in less than a minute of an hour . And this thus generated Cold continued considerably intense , whilst the action of dissolution lasted ; but afterwards by degrees abated , and within a very few hours ceas'd . The particular Phaenomena I have noted in the Experiment , and the practical uses that may be made of it I reserve for another place * , the knowledge of them being not necessary in this , where what I have already related , may suffice for my present Argument . And to shew , that not onely a far more intense degree of Cold may emerge in this Mixture , than was to be found in either of the Ingredients before they were mingled , but a considerable Coldness may be begun to be produc'd between Bodies that were neither of them actually Cold before they were put together , I will subjoin a Transcript of what I find to this purpose among my Adversaria . EXPER. II. [ I Remember that once I had a mind to try , Whether the Coldness produced upon the Solution of beaten Sal Armoniac in water , might not be more probably referr'd to some change of Texture or Motion resulting from the action of the Liquor upon the Salt , than to any Infrigidation of the water made by the suddain dispersion of so many Saline grains of powder , which by reason of their Solidity may be suspected to be actually more cold than the Water they are put into ; I therefore provided a Glass full of that Liquor , and having brought it to such a Temper , that its warmth made the Spirit of Wine in the seal'd Weather-glass manifestly , though not nimbly , ascend ; I took out the Thermoscope , and laid it in powder'd Sal Armoniac , warm'd beforehand ; so that the tincted Liquor was made to ascend much nimblier by the Salt than just before by the Water ; and having presently remov'd the Instrument into that Liquor again , and poured the somewhat warm Sal Armoniac into the same , I found , as I imagin'd , that within a space of time which I guess'd to be about half a minute or less , the Spirit of Wine began hastily to subside , and within a few minutes fell above a whole division and a quarter below the mark at which it stood in the water , before that Liquor or the Salt were warm'd . Nor did the Spirit in a great while reascend to the height which it had when the water was cold . The same Experiment , being at another time reiterated , was tried with the like success ; which second may therefore serve for a Confirmation of the first . ] EXPER. III. HAving a mind likewise to shew some Ingenious men , how much the production of Heat and Cold depends upon Texture and other Mechanical Affections , I thought fit to make again a Sal Armoniac by a way I formerly publish'd , that I might be sure to know what Ingredients I employ'd , and shew their effects as well before conjunction as after it . I took then Spirit of Salt , and Spirit of fermented or rather putrified Urine ; and having put a seal'd Weather-glass into an open Vessel , where one of them was pour'd in , I put the other by degrees to it , and observ'd , that , as upon their mingling they made a great noise with many bubbles , so in this conflict they lost their former coldness , and impell'd up the Spirit of Wine in the seal'd Thermoscope : Then slowly evaporating the superfluous moisture , I obtained a fine sort of Sal Armoniac for the most part figur'd not unlike the other , when being dissolv'd and filtrated , it is warily coagulated . This new Salt being gently dry'd I put into a wide Glass of water , wherein I had before plac'd a seal'd Weather-glass , that the included Spirit might acquire the temper of the ambient Liquor , and having stirr'd this Salt in the water , though I took it then off the mantle-tree of a Chimney that had had fire in it divers hours before , it did , as I expected , make the tincted Spirit hastily subside and fall considerably low . EXPER. IV. SInce if two bodies upon their mixture acquire a greater degree of Cold than either of them had before there is a production of this additional degree of that Quality , it will be proper to add on this occasion the ensuing Experiment . We took a competent quantity of acid spirit distill'd from Roch-allom , ( that , though rectifi'd , was but weak , ) which , in the spirit of that salt , is not strange . Of this we put into a wide mouth'd Glass ( that was not great ) more than was sufficient to cover the globulous part of a good seal'd Thermoscope , and then suffering the instrument to stay a pretty while in the liquor , that the Spirit of wine might be cool'd as much as the ambient was , we put in little by little some volatile salt sublimed from Sal Armoniac and a fixt Alcali , and notwithstanding the very numerous ( but not great ) bubbles , and the noise and froath that were produced , as is usual upon the reaction of Acids and Alcalys , the tincted spirit in the Weather-glass , after having continued a good while at a stand , began a little to descend , and continued ( though but very slowly ) to do so , till the spirit of Allom was glutted with the volatile salt ; and this descent of the tincted liquor in the Instrument being measur'd , appear'd to be about an inch ( for it manifestly exceeded seven eighths . ) By comparing this Experiment with the first part of the foregoing , we may gather , that when Volatile and Urinous Salts or Spirits ( for the saline particles appear sometimes in a dry and sometimes in a liquid form ) tumultuate upon their being mixt with Acids , neither the Heat nor the Cold that ensues is produc'd by a Conflict with the Acids precisely as it is Acid , since we have seen that an urinous spirit produc'd an actual Heat with spirit of Salt , and the distill'd Salt of Sal Armoniac , which is also Urinous , with the acid spirit of Roch-Allom produces not a true effervescence , but a manifest Coldness : As the same Salt also did in a Trial of another sort , which was this . EXPER. V. WE took one part of Oyl of Vitriol , and shaking it into twelve parts of water we made a mixture , that at first was sensibly warm ; then suffering this to cool , we put a sufficient quantity of it into a wide mouth'd glass , and then we put a good Thermoscope Hermetically seal'd , above whose Ball the compounded liquor reached a pretty way . After some time had been allowed that the liquor in the Thermometer might acquire the temper of the ambient ; we put in by degrees as much volatile Salt of Sal Armoniac as would serve to satiate the acid spirits of the mixture : for , though these two made a notable conflict with tumult , noise , and froth , yet 't was but a cold ebullition ( if I may so stile it , ) for the spirit in the Thermoscope descended about an inch beneath the mark it rested at , when the seeming effervescence began . EXPER. VI. 'T Is known that Salt-peter being put into common water produces a sensible Coldness in it , as it also does in many other Liquors : But that the same Salt put into a Liquor of another Constitution may have a quite differing effect , I have convinc'd some inquisitive persons by mingling eight ounces of fine Salt-peter powder'd with six ounces of Oyl of Vitriol : For by that commixture with a Salt that was not only actually , but , as to many other bodies , potentially cold , the Oyl of Vitriol , that was sensibly cold before , quickly conceived a considerable degree of Heat , whose Effects also became visible in the copious Fumes that were emitted by the incalescent Mixture . EXPER. VII . THis brings into my mind , that though Gunpowder seems to be of so igneous a nature , that , when 't is put upon a Coal , it is turn'd presently into flame capable of promoting the deflagration of the Charcoal , and kindling divers bodies it meets with in its way ; yet if some ounces of Gunpowder reduced to powder be thrown into four or five times as much water , it will very manifestly impart a Coldness to it , as experience made with , as well as without , a seal'd Thermoscope has assured me . This and the foregoing Experiment do readily suggest an Inquiry into the nature of the Coldness , which Philosophers are wont to oppose to that which immediately and upon the first contact affect the organs of sense , and which therefore they call Actual or Formal . The success of this Experiment upon a second trial serv'd to confirm it , which is the more strange , because I have found , that a small quantity of Oyl of Vitriol , not beforehand mingled with water , would produce a notable heat in its conflict with a small portion of just such Salt as I employed before ( both the parcels having been , if I well remember , taken out of the same Glass . ) And this heat did upon trial , made with the former Thermoscope , make the tincted Spirit ascend much further than the lately recited Experiment made it subside . A DIGRESSION ABOUT POTENTIAL COLDNESS . POtential Coldness has been generally lookt upon , and that partly perhaps upon the score of its very name , as so abstruse a Quality , that 't is not onely rational but necessary to derive it from the substantial Forms of bodies . But I confess I see no necessity of believing it not to be referrable to Mechanical Principles . For as to the chief Instances of Potential Coldness , which are taken from the effects of some Medicines and aliments in the bodies of men , it may be said without improbability , that the produced Refrigeration proceeds chiefly from this , that the potentially cold body is made up of Corpuscles of such size , shape , &c. that being resolved and disjoined by the Menstruum of the stomach , or the fluids it may elsewhere meet with , they do so associate themselves with the small parts of the blood and other liquors , as , by clogging them or otherwise , to lessen their wonted agitation , and perhaps make them act in a peculiar way as well as less briskly on the nervous and fibrous parts ; and the perception of this Imminution ( and perhaps change ) of motion in the organs of feeling is that , which , being referr'd to the body that produces it , we call its Potential Coldness . Which Quality appears by this account to be , as I was saying before , but a Relative thing , and is wont to require the diffusion or dispersion of the small parts of the Corpuscles of the Agent , and their mingling themselves with the liquors or the small parts of the body they are to refrigerate . And therefore , if it be granted , that in Agues there is some morbifick matter of a viscous or not easily dissipable texture , that is harbor'd in some part of the body , and requires such a time to be made fluid and resolvable ; the Cold Fits of Agues need not be so much admired as they usually are ; since , though just before the Fit the same parcel of matter that is to produce it were actually in the body , yet it was not by reason of its clamminess actually resolved into small parts , and mingled with those of the bloud , and consequently could not make such a change in the motion of that liquor as is felt in the Cold Fit of an Ague ; ( for , of the further Change that occasions the Hot Fit , I am not here to speak ) And in some other Diseases a small quantity of matter , being resolved into minute parts , may be able to produce a great sense of Coldness in some part of a body , which by reason of the structure of that part may be peculiarly disposed to be affected thereby ; as I have known Hypochondriack and Hysterical women complain of great Degrees of Coldness , that would suddenly invade some particular part , chiefly of the Head or Back , and be for a good while troublesome there . And that , if a frigorific vapour or matter be exceeding subtile , an inconsiderable Quantity of it being dispersed through the bloud may suffice to produce a notable Refrigeration , I have learnt by Inquiry into the Effects of some Poysons ; and 't is not very material , whether the Poyson , generally speaking , be cold or hot , if it meet with a body dispos'd to have those affections that pass for cold ones produced in it . For I have made a Chymical Liquor , that was penetrant and fiery enough to the Taste , and had acquired a Subtlety and briskness from Distillation , with which I could almost in a trice , giving it but in the quantity of about a drop , cast an Animal into that which appear'd a sleep , and the like Liquor , in a not much greater quantity , being , by I know not whose mistake , apply'd to the aking Tooth of a very Ingenious Person , did presently , as he soon after told me , give him an universal Refrigeration , and trembling , worse than the cold Paroxisme of a Quartane . And though Scorpions do sometimes cause , by their sting , violent Heats in the parts they hurt , yet sometimes also the quite contrary happens , and their Poyson proves , in a high degree , potentially cold ; as may be learnt from the two following Observations recorded by eminent Physicians . * Famulum habui , ( saith Benivenius ) qui à Scorpione ictus , tam subito ac tam frigido sudore toto corpore perfusus est , ut algentissimâ nive atque glacie sese opprimi quereretur . Verùm cùm algenti illi solam Theriacam ex vino potentiore exhibuissem , illicò curatus est : Thus far he : To whose Narrative I adde this of Amatus Lusitanus . Vir qui à Scorpione in manus digito punctus fuit , multum dolebat , & refrigeratus totus eontremebat , & per corpus dolores , cute totâ quasi acu punctâ , formicantes patiebatur , &c. I cannot now stay to enquire , Whether there may not be in these great Refrigerations , made by so small a quantity of Poyson , some small Concretions or Coagulations made of the minute particles of the bloud into little clots , less agile and more unwieldy than they were when they moved separately : which may be illustrated by the little Curdlings that may be made of the parts of Milk by a very small proportion of Runnet or some acid liquor , and the little coagulations made of the Spirit of Wine by that of Urine : Nor will I now enquire , whether , besides the retardment of the motion of the bloud , some poysons and other analogous Agents may not give the motion of it a new modification , ( as if some Corpuscles that usually are more whirl'd or brandish'd be put into a more direct Motion ) that may give it a peculiar kind of grating or other action upon the nervous and fibrous parts of the body . These , I say , and other suspicious that have sometimes come into my thoughts , I must not stay to examine ; but shall now rather offer to Consideration , Whether , since some parts of the humane body are very differing from others in their structure and internal Constitution ; and since also some Agents may abound in Corpuscles of differing shapes , bulks , and motions , the same Medicine may not in reference to the same humane body be potentially cold or potentially hot , according as 't is applied ; or perhaps may , upon one or both of the accounts newly mentioned , be cold in reference to one part of the body , and hot in reference to the other . And these effects need not be always ascrib'd to the meer and immediate action of the Corpuscles of the Medicine , but sometimes to the new Quality they acquire in their Passage by associating themselves with the bloud or other fluids of the body , or to the expulsion of some calorific or frigorific Corpuscles , or to the Disposition they give the part on which they operate , to be more or less permeated and agitated than before by some subtile aethereal matter , or other Efficients of Heat or Cold. Some of these Conjectures about the Relative Nature of Potentially cold bodies , may be either confirmed or illustrated by such Instances as these ; that Spirit of Wine being inwardly taken is potentially very hot , and yet being outwardly applied to some Burns and some hot Tumours does notably abate the Heat of the inflamed parts , though the same Spirit applied even outwardly to a tender eye will cause a great and dolorous agitation in it . And Camphire , which in the Dose of less than a half or perhaps a quarter of a Scruple , has been observed to diffuse a Heat through the body , is with success externally applied by Physicians and Chirurgeons in refrigerating Medicines . But I leave the further Inquiry into the Operations of Medicines to Physicians , who may possibly , by what has been said , be assisted to compose the differences between some famous Writers about the temperament of some Medicines , as Mercury , Camphire , &c. which some will have to be cold , and others maintain to be hot ; and shall onely offer by way of confirming , in general , that Potential Coldness is onely a Relative Quality , a few Particulars ; the first whereof is afforded by comparing together the VI. and the VII . Experiment before going , ( which have oceasion'd this Digression about Potential Coldness ; ) since by them it seems probable , that the same thing may have it in reference to one body , and not to another , according to the disposition of the body it operates upon , or that operates upon it . And the Fumes of Lead have been observed sometimes ( for I have not found the Effect to succeed always ) to arrest the fluidity of Mercury , which change is supposed to be the effect of a Potential Coldness belonging to the Chymists Saturn in reference to fluid Mercury , though it have not that operation on any other liquor that we know of . And lastly , ( for I would not be too prolix ) though Nitre and Sal Armoniac be both apart and joyntly Cold in reference to Water , and though , however Nitre be throughly melted in a Crucible , it will not take fire of it self , yet if , whilst it is in Fusion , you shall by degrees cast on it some powder'd Sal Armoniac , it will take fire and flash vehemently , almost as if Sulphur had been injected . But our Excursion has , I fear , lasted too long , and therefore I shall presently re-enter into the way , and proceed to set down some Trials about Cold. EXPER. VIII . IN the first Experiment we observed , that upon the pouring of water upon Sal Armoniac there ensued an intense degree of Cold , and we have elsewhere recited , that the like effect was produc'd by putting , instead of common water , Oyl of Vitriol to Sal Armoniac ; but now , to shew further , what influence Motion and Texture may have upon such Trials , it may not be amiss to adde the following Experiment : To twelve ounces of Sal Armoniac we put by degrees an equal weight of water , and whilst the Liquor was dissolving the Salt , and by that action producing a great Coldness , we warily pour'd in twelve ounces also of good Oyl of Vitriol ; of which new mixture the event was , that a notable degree of Heat was quickly produced in the Glass wherein the Ingredients were confounded , as unlikely as it seemed , that , whereas each of the two Liquors is wont with Sal Armoniac to produce an intense Cold , both of them acting on it together should produce the contrary Quality . But the reason I had to expect the success , I met with , was this , that 't was probable the Heat arising from the mixture of the two Liquors would overpower the Coldness produceable by the operation of either , or both , of them upon the Salt. FINIS . EXPER. IX . IN most of the Experiments that we have hitherto proposed , Cold is wont to be regularly produc'd in a Mechanical way ; but I shall now adde , that in some sort of Trials I found that the Event was varied by unobserv'd Circumstances ; so that sometimes manifest Coldness would be produced by mixing two Bodies together , which at another time would upon their Congress disclose a manifest Heat , and sometimes again , though more rarely , would have but a very faint and remiss degree of either . Of this sort of Experiments , whose Events I could not confidently undertake for , I found to be , the dissolution of Salt of Tartar in Spirit of Vinegar , and of some other Salts , that were not acid , in the same Menstruum , and even Spirit of Verdigrease ( made per se ) though a more potent Menstruum than common Spirit of Vinegar , would not constantly produce near such a heat at the beginning of its operation , as the greatness of the seeming Effervescence , then excited , would make one expect , as may appear by the following Observation transcrib'd verbatim out of one of my Adversaria . [ Into eight ounces of Spirit of Verdigrease ( into which we had put a while before a standard-Thermoscope to acquire the like temper with the Liquor ) we put in a wide-mouthed Glass two ounces of Salt of Tartar , as fast as we durst for fear of making the matter boil over ; and though there were a great commotion excited by the action and reaction of the Ingredients , which was attended with a copious froth and a hissing noise ; yet 't was a pretty while e're the Glass was sensibly warm on the outside ; but by that time the salt was all dissolv'd , the Liquor in the Thermoscope appear'd to be impell'd up about three inches and an half . ] And yet , if my memory do not much deceive me , I have found , that by mixing Salt of Tartar with another Salt , the Texture of the fixt Alkali was so alter'd , that upon the affusion of spirit of Verdigrease , ( made without spirit of Vinegar and spirit of Wine , ) though there ensued a great conflict with noise and bubbles , yet , instead of an Incalescence , a considerable degree of Coldness was produced . EXPER. X. T Is very probable that further Trials will furnish us with more Instances to shew how the Production of Cold may in some cases be effected , varied , or hinder'd by Mechanical Circumstances that are easily and usually overlook'd . I remember , on this occasion , that though in the Experiment above recited we observ'd , that Oyl of Vitriol and water being first shaken together , the volatil salt of Sal Armoniac being afterwards put to them , produced a sensible Coldness ; yet I found , that if a little Oyl of Vitriol and of the volatile Salt were first put together , though soon after a considerable proportion of water were added , there would be produc'd not a Coldness , but a manifest degree of Heat , which would impell up the liquor in the Thermoscope to the height of some inches . And I remember too , that though Salt of Tartar will , as we shall see e're long , grow hot in the water , yet having distill'd some Salt of Tartar and Cinaber in a strong fire , and put the whole Caput mortuum into distill'd or Rain-water , it made indeed a hissing there as if it had been Quick-lime , but produced no Heat , that I could by feeling perceive . I shall adde , that not onely , as we have seen already , some unheeded Circumstances may promote or hinder the artificial Production of Cold by particular Agents , but , which will seem more strange , some unobserv'd , and perhaps hardly observable , Indisposition in the Patient may promote or hinder the effects of the grand and Catholick Efficients of Cold , whatever those be . This suspicion I represent as a thing that further experience may possibly countenance , because I have sometimes found , that the degree of the Operation of Cold has been much varied by latent Circumstances , some bodies being more wrought upon , and others less , than was upon very probable grounds expected . And particularly I remember , that though Oyl of Vitriol be one of the firiest liquors that is yet known , and does perform some of the Operations of fire it self , ( as we shall elsewhere have occasion to shew ) and will thaw Ice sooner than Spirit of Wine or any other liquor , as I have tried ; yet having put about a pound or more , by our estimate , of choice rectified Oyl of Vitriol into a strong Glass-Vial proportionable to it , we found , that , except a little that was fluid at the top , it was all congeal'd or coagulated into a mass like Ice , though the Glass stood in a Laboratory where a fire was constantly kept not far from it , and where Oyl of Vitriol very seldom or never has before or since been observ'd to congeal or coagulate so much as in part . And the odness of our Phaenomenon was increas'd by this Circumstance , that the Mass continued solid a good while after the weather was grown too mild to have such Operations upon Liquors far less indispos'd to lose their fluidity by Cold , than even common Oyl of Vitriol is . On the other side I remember , that about two years ago , I expos'd some Oyl of sweet Almonds hermetically seal'd up in a Glass-bubble , to observe what Condensation an intense cold could make of it , ( for though Cold expands water , it condenses common oyl ; ) but the next day I found to my wonder , that not onely the oyl remain'd unfrozen by the sharp frost it had been expos'd to , but that it had not its transparency troubled , though 't is known , that oyl will be brought to concrete and turn opacous by a far less degree of Cold than is requisite to freeze water ; notwithstanding which this liquor , which was lodged in a glass so thin , that 't was blown at the flame of a Lamp , continued fluid and diaphanous in very frosty weather , so long till I lost the expectation of seeing it congeal'd or concreted . And this brings into my mind , that though Camphire be , as I formerly noted , reckon'd by many potentially cold , yet we kept some oyl of it , of our making , wherein the whole body of the Camphire remain'd , being onely by some Nitrous Spirits reduc'd to the form of an Oyl ; we kept it , I say , in such intense degrees of Cold , that would have easily frozen water , without finding it to lose its Transparency or its Fluidity . And here I shall put an end to the first Section , ( containing our Notes about Cold ) the design of which may be not a little promoted by comparing with them the beginning of the ensuing Section . For if it be true , that ( as we there shew ) the nature of Heat consists either onely or chiefly in the local motion of the small parts of a body Mechanically modified by certain conditions , of which the principal is the vehemency of the various agitations of those insensible parts ; and if it be also true , as Experience witnesses it to be , that , when the minute parts of a body are in or arrive at such a state , that they are more slowly or faintly agitated than those of our fingers or other organs of feeling , we judge them cold : These two things laid together seem plainly enough to argue , that a Privation or Negation of that Local Motion that is requisite to constitute Heat , may suffice for the denominating a body Cold , as Coldness is a quality of the Object , ( which as 't is perceiv'd by the mind , is also an affection of the Sentient : ) And therefore an Imminution of such a degree of former motion as is necessary to make a body Hot as to sense , and which is sufficient to the Production of sensible Coldness , may be Mechanically made , since Slowness as well as Swiftness being a Mode of Local motion is a Mechanical thing : And though its effect , which is Coldness , seem a Privation or Negation ; yet the Cause of it may be a positive Agent acting Mechanically , by clogging the Agile Calorific Particles , or deadning their motion , or perverting their determination , or by some other intelligible way bringing them to a state of Coldness as to sense : I say Coldness as to sense ; because as 't is a Tactile Quality , in the popular acception of it , 't is relative to our Organs of Feeling ; as we see that the same luke-warm water will appear hot and cold to the same mans hands , if , when both are plung'd into it , one of them shall have been newly held to the fire , and the other be benummed with frost . And indeed the custom of speaking has introduced an ambiguity into the word Cold , which often occasions mistakes , not easily without much attention and sometimes circumlocution also to be avoided ; since usually by Cold is meant that which immediately affects the sensory of him that pronounces a body Cold , whereas sometimes 't is taken in a more general notion for such a Negation or Imminution of motion , as though it operates not perceivably on our senses , does yet upon other bodies ; and sometimes also it is taken ( which is perhaps the more Philosophical sense ) for a perception , made in and by the mind , of the alteration produced in the Corporeal Organs by the operation of that , whatever it be , on whose account a body is found to be cold . But the Discussion of these Points is here purposely omitted , as for other Reasons , so principally because they may be found expresly handled in a fitter place . SECT . II. Of the Mechanicall Origine or Production of HEAT . AFter having dispatched the Instances I had to offer of the Production of Cold , it remains that I also propose some Experiments of Heat , which Quality will appear the more likely to be Mechanically producible , if we consider the nature of it , which seems to consist mainly , if not onely , in that Mechanical affection of matter we call Local motion mechanically modified , which modification , as far as I have observed , is made up of three Conditions . The first of these is , that the agitation of the parts be vehement , by which degree or rapidness , the motion proper to bodies that are hot distinguishes them from bodies that are barely fluid . For these , as such , require not near so brisk an agitation , as is wont to be necessary to make bodies deserve the name of hot . Thus we see that the particles of water in its natural ( or usual ) state , move so calmly , that we do not feel it at all warm , though it could not be a liquor unless they were in a restless motion ; but when water comes to be actually hot , the motion does manifestly and proportionably appear more vehement , since it does not onely briskly strike our organs of feeling , but ordinarily produces store of very small bubbles , and will melt butter or coagulated oyl , cast upon it , and will afford vapours , that , by the agitation they suffer , will be made to ascend into the air . And if the degree of Heat be such as to make the water boil , then the agitation becomes much more manifest by the confus'd motions , and waves , and noise , and bubbles , that are excited , and by other obvious effects and Phaenomena of the vehement and tumultuous motion , which is able to throw up visibly into the air great store of Corpuscles , in the form of vapours or smoak . Thus in a heated Iron the vehement agitation of the parts may be easily inferr'd from the motion and hissing noise it imparts to drops of water or spittle that fall upon it . For it makes them hiss and boil , and quickly forces their particles to quit the form of a liquor , and flye into the air in the form of steams . And lastly , Fire , which is the hottest body we know , consists of parts so vehemently agitated , that they perpetually and swiftly flye abroad in swarms , and dissipate or shatter all the combustible bodies they meet with in their way ; fire making so fierce a dissolution , and great a dispersion of its own fuel , that we may see whole piles of solid wood ( weighing perhaps many hundred pounds ) so dissipated in very few hours into flame and smoak , that oftentimes there will not be one pound of Ashes remaining . And this is the first Condition required to Heat . The second is this , that the determinations be very various , some particles moving towards the right , some to the left , hand , some directly upwards , some downwards , and some obliquely , &c. This variety of determinations appears to be in hot bodies both by some of the Instances newly mention'd , and especially that of flame , which is a body ; and by the diffusion that metals acquire , when they are melted , and by the operations of Heat that are exercis'd by hot bodies upon others , in what posture or scituation soever the body to be heated be applied to them . As a thoroughly ignited Coal will appear every way red , and will melt wax , and kindle brimstone , whether the body be apply'd to the upper or to the lower , or to any other part of the burning Coal . And congruously to this Notion , though air and water be mov'd never so vehemently , as in high Winds and Cataracts , yet we are not to expect that they should be manifestly hot , because the vehemency belongs to the progressive motion of the whole body ; notwithstanding which , the parts it consists of may not be near so much quickned in their motions made according to other determinations , as to become sensibly hot . And this Consideration may keep it from seeming strange , that in some cases , where the whole body , though rapidly moved , tends but one way , 't is not by that swift motion perceived to be made Hot. Nay , though the agitation be very various as well as vehement , there is yet a third Condition required to make it Calorific , namely , that the agitated particles , or at least the greatest number of them , be so minute as to be singly insensible . For though a heap of sand or dust it self were vehemently and confusedly agitated by a whirlwind , the bulk of the grains or Corpuscles , would keep their agitation from being properly Heat , though by their numerous strokes upon a man's face , and the brisk commotion of the spirits and other small particles that may thence ensue , they may perchance occasion the production of that Quality . If some attention be employ'd in considering the formerly propos'd Notion of the nature of Heat , it may not be difficult to discern , that the Mechanical production of it may be divers ways effected . For , excepting in some few Anomalous cases , ( wherein the regular course of things happens to be over-rul'd , ) by whatever ways the Insensible parts of a body are put into a very confus'd and vehement agitation , by the same ways Heat may be introduc'd into that body : agreeably to which Doctrine , as there are several Agents and Operations by which this Calorific Motion ( if I may so call it ) may be excited , so there may be several ways of Mechanically producing Heat , and many Experiments may be reduc'd to almost each of them , chance it self having in the Laboratories of Chymists afforded divers Phaenomena referrable to one or other of those Heads . Many of the more familiar Instances , applicable to our present purpose , have been long since collected by our justly famous Verulam in his short , but excellent , Paper de forma calidi , wherein ( though I do not acquiesce in every thing I meet with there ) he seems to have been , at least among the Moderns , the Person that has first handled the Doctrine of Heat like an Experimentall Philosopher . I shall therefore decline accumulating a multitude of Instances of the Production of Heat , and I shall also forbear to insist on such known things , as the Incalescence observable upon the pouring either of Oyl of Vitriol upon Salt of Tartar , ( in the making of Tartarum Vitriolatum ) or of Aqua fortis upon Silver or Quick silver , ( in the dissolution of these Metals ) but shall rather chuse to mention some few Instances not so notorious as the former , but not unfit by their variety to exemplifie several of the differing ways of exciting Heat . And yet I shall not decline the mention of the most obvious and familiar Instance of all , namely the Heat observed in Quick-lime upon the affusion of cold water , because among learned men , and especially Peripateticks , I find causes to be assign'd that are either justly questionable or manifestly erroneous . For as to what is inculcated by the Schools about the Incalescence of a mixture of Quick-lime and water by vertue of a supposed antiperistasis or Invigoration of the internal Heat of the Lime by its being invironed by cold water , I have elsewhere shewn , that this is but an Imaginary Cause , by delivering upon Experiment ( which any man may easily make ) that , if instead of cold water the liquor be poured on very hot , the ebullition of the Lime will not be the less , but rather the greater : And Oyl of Turpentine , which is a lighter , and is lookt upon as a subtiler liquor than water , though it be poured quite cold on Quick-lime , will not , that I have observed , grow so much as sensibly hot with it . And now I have mentioned the Incalescence of Lime , which , though an abvious Phaenomenon , has exercised the wits of divers Philosophers and Chymists , I will adde two or three Observations in order to an Inquiry that may be some other time made into the genuine Causes of it ; which are not so easie to be found as many learned men may at first sight imagine . The acute Helmont indeed and his followers have ingeniously enough attempted to derive the Heat under consideration from the conflict of some Alealizate and Acid salts ; that are to be found in Quick-lime , and are dissolved , and so set at liberty to fight with one another by the water that slakes the Lime . But though we have some manifest marks of an Alcalizate Salt in Lime , yet that it contains also an Acid Salt , has not , that I remember , been proved ▪ and if the emerging of Heat be a sufficient reason to prove a latent acid Salt in Lime , I know not , why I may not inferr , that the like Salt lies conceal'd in other bodies , which the Chymists take to be of the purest or meerest sort of Alcalys . For I have purposely tried , that by putting a pretty quantity of dry Salt of Tartar in the palm of my hand , and wetting it well in cold water , there has been a very sensible Heat produced in the mixture ; and when I have made the trial with a more considerable quantity of salt and water in a Viol , the heat proved troublesomely intense , and continued to be at least sensible a good while after . This Experiment seems to favour the opinion , that the Heat produced in Lime whilst 't is quenching , proceeds from the Empyreuma , as the Chymists call it , or impression left by the violent fire , that was employ'd to reduce the stone to Lime . But if by Empyreuma be meant a bare impression made by the fire , 't will be more requisite than easie , to declare intelligibly , in what that impression consists , and how it operates to produce such considerable effects . And if the effect be ascribed to swarms of Atomes of fire , that remain adherent to the substance of the Lime , and are set at liberty to flye away by the liquor , which seems to be argued by the slaking of Lime without water , if it be for some time left in the air , whereby the Atomes of fire get opportunity to flye away by little and little : If this , I say , be alledged , I will not deny but there may be a sense , ( which I cannot explicate in few words ) wherein the Cooperation of a substantial Effluvium , for so I call it , of the fire , may be admitted in giving an account of our Phaenomenon . But the Cause formerly assigned , as 't is crudely proposed , leaves in my mind some Scruples . For 't is not so easie to apprehend , that such light and minute bodies as those of fire are supposed , should be so long detained as by this Hypothesis they must be allowed to be , in Quick-lime , kept in well-stopt vessels , from getting out of so laxe and porous a body as Lime , especially since we see not a great Incalescence or Ebullition ensue upon the pouring of water upon Minium , or Crocus Martis per se , though they have been calcined by violent and lasting fires , whose Effluviums or Emanations appear to adhere to them by the increase of weight , that Lead , if not also Mars , does manifestly receive from the Operation of the Fire . To which I shall adde , that , whereas one would think that the igneous Atoms should either flye away , or be extinguished by the supervening of water , I know , and elsewhere give account , of an Experiment , in which two Liquors , whereof one was furnished me by Nature , did by being several times separated and reconjoyned without additament , at each congress produce a sensible Heat . And an Instance of this kind , though not so odd , I purposely sought and found in Salt of Tartar , from which , after it had been once heated by the affusion of water , we abstracted or evaporated the Liquor without violence of fire , till the Salt was again dry ; and then putting on water a second time , the same Salt grew hot again in the Vial , and , if I misremember not , it produced this Incalescence the third time , if not the fourth ; and might probably have done it oftner , if I had had occasion to prosecute the Experiment . Which seems at least to argue , that the great violence of fire is not necessary to impress what passes for an Empyreum upon all calcined bodies that will heat with water . And on this occasion I shall venture to adde , that I have sometimes doubted , whether the Incalescence may not much depend upon the particular Disposition of the calcined body , which being deprived of its former moisture , and made more porous by the fire , doth by the help of those igneous Effluviums , for the most part of a saline nature , that are dispersed through it , and adhere to it , acquire such a Texture , that the water impell'd by its own weight , and the pressure of the Atmosphere , is able to get into a multitude of its pores at once , and suddenly dissolve the Igneous and Alcalizate Salt it every where meets with there , and briskly disjoyn the earthy and solid particles , that were blended with them ; which being exceeding numerous , though each of them perhaps be very minute , and moves but a very little way , yet their multitude makes the confused agitation of the whole aggregate of them , and of the particles of the water and salt vehement enough to produce a sensible Heat ; especially if we admit , that there is such a change made in the Pores , as occasions a great increase of this agitation , by the ingress and action of some subtile ethereal matter , from which alone Monsieur des Cartes ingeniously attempts to derive the Incalescence of Lime and water , as well as that of metals dissolved in corrosive Liquors ; though as to the Phaenomena we have been considering , there seems at least to concur a peculiar disposition of body , wherein Heat is to be produced to do one or both of these two things , namely , to retain good store of the igneous Effluvia , and to be , by their adhesion or some other operation of the fire , reduced to such a Texture of its component Particles , as to be fit to have them easily penetrated , and briskly as well as copiously dissipated , by invading water . And this Conjecture ( for I propose it as no other ) seems favour'd by divers Phaenomena , some whereof I shall now annex . For here it may be observed , that both the dissolved Salt of Tartar lately mentioned , and the artificial Liquor that grows hot with the natural , reacquires that Disposition to Incalescence upon a bare Constipation or closer Texture of the parts from the superfluous moisture they were drowned in before : The Heat that brought them to this Texture having been so gentle , that 't is no way likely that the igneous Exhalations could themselves produce such a Heat , or at least that they should adhere in such numbers as must be requisite to such an effect , unless the Texture of the Salt of Tartar ( or other body ) did peculiarly dispose it to detain them ; since I have found by Trial , that Sal Armoniac dissolv'd in water , though boiled up with a brisker fire to a dry salt , would , upon its being again dissolved in water , not produce any Heat , but a very considerable degree of Cold. I shall adde , that though one would expect a great Cognation between the particles of Fire adhering to Quick-Lime , and those of high rectified Spirit of Wine , which is of so igneous a nature , as to be totally inflammable ; yet I have not found , that the affusion of Alkaol of Wine upon Quick-Lime , would produce any sensible Incalescence , or any visible dissolution or dissipation of the Lime , as common water would have done , though it seemed to be greedily enough soaked in by the lumps of Lime . And I further tried , that , if on this Lime so drenched I poured cold water , there insued no manifest Heat , nor did I so much as find the lump swelled , and thereby broken , till some hours after ; which seems to argue , that the Texture of the Lime was such , as to admit the particles of the Spirit of Wine into some of its pores , which were either larger or more congruous , without admitting it into the most numerous ones , whereinto the Liquor must be received , to be able suddenly to dissipate the Corpuscles of Lime into their minuter particles , into which ( Corpuscles ) it seems that the change that the aqueous particles received by associating with the spirituous ones , made them far less fit to penetrate and move briskly there , than if they had enter'd alone . I made also an Experiment that seems to favour our Conjecture , by shewing how much the Disposition of Lime to Incalesoence may depend upon an idoneous Texture , and the Experiment , as I find it registred in one of my Memorials , is this . EXPER. V. [ UPon Quick-lime we put in a Retort as much moderately strong Spirit of Wine as would drench it , and swim a pretty way above it ; and then distilling with a gentle fire , we drew off some Spirit of Wine much stronger than that which had been put on , and then the Phlegm following it , the fire was increas'd , which brought over a good deal of phlegmatic strengthless Liquor ; by which one would have thought that the Quick-lime had been slaked ; but when the remaining matter had been taken out of the Retort , and suffer'd to cool , it appear'd to have a fiery disposition that it had not before . For if any lump of it as big as a Nutmeg or an Almond was cast into the water , it would hiss as if a coal of fire had been plunged into the Liquor , which was soon thereby sensibly heated . Nay , having kept divers lumps of this prepared Calx well cover'd from the air for divers weeks , to try whether it would retain this property , I found , as I expected , that the Calx operated after the same manner , if not more powerfully . For sometimes , especially when 't was reduced to small pieces , it would upon its coming into the water make such a brisk noise , as might almost pass for a kind of Explosion . ] These Phaenomena seem to argue , that the Disposition that Lime has to grow hot with water , depends much on some peculiar Texture , since the aqueous parts , that one would think capable of quenching all or most of the Atomes of Fire that are supposed to adhere to Quick-lime , did not near so much weaken the disposition of it to Incalescence , as the accession of the spirituous Corpuscles and their Contexture , with those of the Lime , increased that igneous Disposition . And that there might intervene such an association , seems to me the more probable , not onely because much of the distill'd Liquor was as phlegmatick , as if it had been robb'd of its more active parts , but because I have sometimes had Spirit of Wine come over with Quick-lime not in unobserved steams , but white fumes . To which I shall adde , that , besides that the Taste , and perhaps Odour of the Spirit of Wine , is often manifestly changed by a well-made Distillation from Quick-lime ; I have sometimes found that Liquor to give the Lime a kind of Alcalizat penetrancy , not to say fieriness of Taste , that was very brisk and remarkable . But I will not undertake , that every Experimenter , nor I my self , shall always make trials of this kind with the same success that I had in those above recited , in regard that I have found Quick-limes to differ much , not onely according to the degree of their Calcination , and to their Recentness , but also , and that especially , according to the differing natures of the stones and other bodies calcined . Which Observation engages me the more to propose what hath been hitherto deliver'd about Quick-lime , as onely Narratives and a Conjecture ; which I now perceive has detain'd us so long , that I am oblig'd to hasten to the remaining Experiments , and to be the more succinct in delivering them . EXPER. VI. ANd it will be convenient to begin with an instance or two of the Production of Heat , wherein there appears not to intervene any thing in the part of the Agent or Patient but Local Motion , and the natural Effects of it . And as to this sort of Experiments , a little attention and reflection may make some familiar Phaenomenon apposite to our present purpose . When , for example , a Smith does hastily hammer a Nall or such like piece of iron , the hammer'd metal will grow exceeding hot , and yet there appears not any thing to make it so , save the forcible motion of the hammer which impresses a vehement and variously determin'd agitation of the small parts of the Iron ; which being a cold body before , by that superinduc'd commotion of its small parts , becomes in divers senses hot ; first in a more lax acceptation of the word in reference to some other bodies , in respect of whom 't was cold before , and then sensibly hot ; because this newly gain'd agitation surpasses that of the parts of our fingers . And in this Instance 't is not to be overlookt , that oftentimes neither the hammer , by which , nor the anvil , on which a cold piece of Iron is forged , ( for all iron does not require precedent ignition to make it obey the hammer ) continue cold , after the operation is ended ; which shews , that the Heat acquir'd by the forged piece of iron was not communicated by the Hammer or Anvil as Heat , but produc'd in it by motion , which was great enough to put so small a body as the piece of iron into a strong and confus'd motion of its parts without being able to have the like operation upon so much greater masses of metal , as the Hammer and the Anvil ; though if the percussions were often and nimbly renewed , and the Hammer were but small , this also might be heated , ( though not so soon nor so much as the iron ; ) by which one may also take notice , that 't is not necessary , a body should be it self hot , to be calorific . And now I speak of striking an iron with a Hammer , I am put in mind of an Observation that seems to contradict , but does indeed confirm , our Theory : Namely , that , if a somewhat large nail be driven by a hammer into a plank or piece of wood , it will receive divers strokes on the head before it grow hot ; but when 't is driven to the head , so that it can go no further , a few strokes will suffice to give it a considerable Heat ; for whilst , at every blow of the hammer , the nail enters further and further into the wood , the motion that is produc'd is chiefly progressive , and is of the whole nail tending one way ; whereas , when that motion is stopt , then the impulse given by the stroke being unable either to drive the nail further on , or destroy its intireness , must be spent in making a various vehement and intestine commotion of the parts among themselves , and in such an one we formerly observ'd the nature of Heat to consist . EXPER. VII . IN the foregoing Experiment the brisk agitation of the parts of a heated iron was made sensible to the touch ; I shall now adde one of the attempts , that I remember I made to render it discoverable to the eye it self . In order to this , and that I might also shew , that not onely a sensible but an intense degree of heat may be produc'd in a piece of cold iron by Local Motion , I caus'd a bar of that metal to be nimbly hammer'd by two or three lusty men accustom'd to manage that Instrument ; and these striking with as much force , and as little intermission as they could upon the iron , soon brought it to that degree of Heat , that not onely 't was a great deal too hot to be safely touched , but probably would , according to my design , have kindled Gunpowder , if that which I was fain to make use of had been of the best sort : For , to the wonder of the by-standers , the iron kindled the Sulphur of many of the grains of the corns of powder , and made them turn blue , though I do not well remember , that it made any of them go off . EXPER. VIII . BEsides the effects of manifest and violent Percussions , such as those we have been taking notice of to be made with a hammer , there are among Phaenomena obvious enough , some that shew the Producibleness of Heat even in cold iron , by causing an intestine commotion of its parts : For we find , that , if a piece of iron of a convenient shape and bulk be nimbly filed with a large rough File , a considerable degree of Heat will be quickly excited in those parts of the iron where the File passes to and fro , the many prominent parts of the Instrument giving a multitude of strokes or pushes to the parts of the iron that happen to stand in their way , and thereby making them put the neighbouring parts into a brisk and confus'd motion , and so into a state of Heat . Nor can it be well objected , that upon this account the File it self ought to grow as hot as the iron , which yet it will not do ; since , to omit other answers , the whole body of the File being moved to and fro , the same parts , that touch the iron this moment , pass off the next , and besides have leasure to cool themselves by communicating their newly received Agitation to the air before they are brought to grate again upon the iron , which , being supposed to be held immoveable , receives almost perpetual shakes in the same place . We find also , that Attrition , if it be any thing vehement , is wont to produce Heat in the solidest bodies ; as when the blade of a Knife being nimbly whetted grows presently hot . And if having taken a brass Nail , and driven it as far as you can to the end of the stick , to keep it fast and gain a handle , you then strongly rub the head to and fro against the floor or a plank of wood , you may quickly find it to have acquired a Heat intense enough to offend , if not burn ones fingers . And I remember , that going once in exceeding hot weather in a Coach , which for certain reasons we caus'd to be driven very fast , the attrition of the Nave of the Wheel against the Axel-tree was so vehement as oblig'd us to light out of the Coach to seek for water , to cool the over-chased parts , and stop the growing mischief the excessive Heat had begun to do . The vulgar Experiment of strikeing fire with a Flint and Steel sufficiently declares , what a heat in a trice may be produc'd in cold bodies by Percussion , or Collision ; the later of which seems but mutual Percussion . But Instances of the same sort with the rest mention'd in this VI. Experiment being obvious enough , I shall forbear to multiply and insist on them . EXPER. IX . FOr the sake of those that think the Attrition of contiguous air is necessary to the Production of manifest Heat , I thought among other things of the following Experiment , and made Trial of it . We took some hard black Pitch , and having in a Bason , Poringer , or some such Vessel , placed it a convenient distance under water , we cast on it with a good Burning-glass the Sun-beams in such a manner , that notwithstanding the Refraction that they suffer'd in the passage through the interposed water , the Focus fell upon the Pitch , wherein it would produce sometimes bubbles , sometimes smoak , and quickly communicated a degree of Heat capable to make Pitch melt , if not also to boil . EXPER. X. THough the first and second Experiments of Section I. shew , that a considerable degree of Cold is produc'd by the dissolution of Sal Armoniac in common water ; yet by an additament , though but single , the Texture of it may be so alter'd , that , instead of Cold , a notable degree of Heat will be produced , if it be dissolved in that Liquor . For the manifestation of which we devis'd the following Experiment . We took Quick-lime , and slaked it in common cold water , that all the igneous or other particles , to which its power of heating that Liquor is ascrib'd , might be extracted and imbib'd , and so the Calx freed from them ; then on the remaining powder fresh water was often poured , that all adhering reliques of Salt might be wash'd off . After this , the thus dulcified Calx , being again well dried , was mingled with an equal weight of powder'd Sal Armoniac , and having with a strong fire melted the mass , the mixture was poured out ; and being afterwards beaten to powder , having given it a competent time to grow cold , we put two or three ounces of it into a wide-mouthed Glass , and pouring water upon it , within about a minute of an hour the mixture grew warm , and quickly attain'd so intense a Heat , that I could not hold the Glass in my hand . And though this Heat did not long last at the same height , it continued to be very sensible for a considerable time after . EXPER. XI . TO confirm this Experiment by a notable variation ; we took finely powder'd Sal Armoniac , and filings or scales of Steel , and when they were very diligently mixt ( for that Circumstance ought to be observ'd ) we caus'd them to be gradually sublim'd in a glass vessel , giving a smart fire towards the latter end . By this Operation so little of the mixture ascended , that , as we desired , far the greatest part of the Sal Armoniac staid at the bottom with the metal ; then taking out the Caput mortuum , I gave it time throughly to cool , but in a Glass well stopt , that it might not imbibe the moisture of the Air , ( as it is very apt to do . ) And lastly , though the Filings of Steel , as well as the Sal Armoniac , were bodies actually cold , and so might be thought likely to increase , not check , the coldness wont to be produced in water by that Salt ; yet putting the mixture into common water , there ensued , as we expected , an intense degree of Heat . And I remember , that having sublim'd the forementioned Salt in distinct Vessels , with the Filings of Steel , and with Filings of Copper , and for curiosities sake kept one of the Caput mortuums ( for I cannot certainly call to mind which of the two it was , ) divers moneths , ( if I mistake not , eight or nine , ) we at length took it out of the Vessel , wherein it had been kept carefully stopt , and , upon trial , were not deceiv'd in having expected , that all that while the disposition to give cold water a notable degree of Heat was preserved in it . EXPER. XII . IF Experiments were made after the above recited manner with Sal Armoniac and other mineral bodies than Iron and Copper , 't is not improbable , that some of the emerging Phaenomena would be found to confirm what has been said of the Interest of Texture , ( and some few other Mechanical Affections ) in the Production of Heat and Cold. Which Conjecture is somewhat favoured by the following Trial. Three ounces of Antimony , and an equal weight of Sal Armoniac being diligently powder'd and mixt , were by degrees of fire sublimed in a Glass-vessel , by which Operation we obtain'd three differing Substances , which we caused to be separately powder'd , when they were taken out of the Subliming Glass , lest the air or time should make any change in them ; and having before put the ball of a good seal'd Weather-glass for a while into water , that the Spirit of Wine might be brought to the temper of the external Liquor , we put on a convenient quantity of the powder'd Caput mortuum , which amounted to two ounces , and seemed to be little other than Antimony , which accordingly did scarce sensibly raise the Spirit of Wine in the Thermoscope , though that were a tender one . Then laying aside that water , and putting the Instrument into fresh , of the same temper , we put to it a very yellow Sublimate , that ascended higher than the other parts , and seemed to consist of the more sulphureous flowers of the Antimony , with a mixture of the more volatile parts of the Sal Armoniac . And this Substance made the tincted Spirit in the Thermoscope descend very slowly about a quarter of an inch ; but when the Instrument was put into fresh water of the same temper , and we had put in some of the powder of the lower sort of Sublimate , which was dark coloured , though both the Antimony and Sal Armoniac , it consisted of , had been long exposed to the action of a Subliming Heat ; yet the water was thereby speedily and notably cooled , insomuch , that the Spirit of Wine in the Weather-glass hastily descended , and continued to sink , till by our guess it had fallen not much short of three inches . Of these Phaenomena the Etiology , as some Moderns call the Theory , which proposes the Causes of things , is more easie to be found by a little consideration , than to be made out in few words . We made also an Experiment like that above recited , by subliming three ounces a piece of Minimum and Sal Armoniac ; in which Trial we found , that though in the Caput mortuum , the Salt had notably wrought upon the Calx of Lead , and was in part associated with it , as appear'd by the whiteness of the said Caput mortuum , by its sweetish Taste , and by the weight ( which exceeded four drams that of all the Minium ; ) yet a convenient quantity of this powder'd mixture being put into water , wherein the former Weather-glass had been kept a while , the tincted Spirit of Wine was not manifestly either raised or deprest . And when in another Glass we prosecuted the Trial with the Sal Armoniac that had been sublimed from the Minium , it did indeed make the Spirit of Wine descend , but scarce a quarter so much as it had been made to fall by the lately mention'd Sublimate of Sal Armoniac and Antimony . EXPER. XIII . 'T Is known that many learned men , besides several Chymical Writers , ascribe the Incalescences , that are met with in the dissolution of Metals , to a conflict arising from a certain Antipathy or Hostility , which they suppose between the conflicting bodies , and particularly between the Acid Salt of the one , and the Alcalizate Salt , whether fixt or volatile , of the other . But since this Doctrine supposes a hatred between Inanimate bodies , in which 't is hard to conceive , how there can be any true passions , and does not intelligibly declare , by what means their suppos'd Hostility produces Heat ; 't is not likely , that , for these and some other Reasons , Inquisitive Naturalists will easily acquiesce in it . And on the other side it may be consider'd , whether it be not more probable , that Heats , suddenly produced in mixtures , proceed either from a very quick and copious diffusion of the parts of one body through those of another , whereby both are confusedly tumbled and put into a calorific motion ; or from this , that the parts of the dissolved body come to be every way in great numbers violently scatter'd ; or from the fierce and confused shocks or justlings of the Corpuscles of the conflicting bodies , or masses which may be suppos'd to have the motions of their parts differingly modified according to their respective Natures : Or from this , that by the plentiful ingress of the Corpuscles of the one into the almost commensurate parts of the other , the motion of some etherial matter that was wont before swiftly to permeate the distinct bodies , comes to be check'd and disturbed , and forced to either brandish or whirl about the parts in a confus'd manner , till it have settled it self a free passage through the new mixture , almost as the Light does thorow divers troubled liquors and vitrified bodies , which at length it makes transparent . But without here engaging in a solemn examination of the Hypothesis of Alcali and Acidum , and without determining whether any one , or more of the newly mention'd Mechanical Causes , or whether some other , that I have not yet named , is to be entitled to the effect ; it will not be impertinent to propose divers Instances of the Production of Heat by the Operation of one Agent , Oyl of Vitriol , that it may be consider'd whether it be likely , that this single Agent should upon the score of Antipathy , or that of its being an Acid Menstruum , be able to produce an intense Heat in many bodies of so differing natures as are some of those that we shall have occasion to name . And now I proceed to the Experiments themselves . Take some ounces of strong Oyl of Vitriol , and shaking it with three or four times its weight of common water , though both the liquors were cold when they were put together , yet their mixture will in a trice grow intensely hot , and continue considerably so for a good while . In this case it cannot probably be pretended by the Chymists , that the Heat arises from the conflict of the Acid and Alcalizate Salts abounding in the two liquors , since the common water is suppos'd an elementary body devoid of all salts ; and at least , being an insipid liquor , 't will scarce be thought to have Alcali enough to produce by its Reaction so intense a Heat . That the Heat emergent upon such a mixture may be very great , when the Quantities of the mingled liquors are considerably so , may be easily concluded from one of my Memorials , wherein I find that no more than two ounces of Oyl of Vitriol being poured ( but not all at once ) into four ounces onely of distilled Rain-water , made and kept it manifestly warm for a pretty deal above an hour , and during no small part of that time , kept it so hot , that 't was troublesome to be handled . EXPER. XIV . THe former Experiment brings into my mind one that I mention without teaching it in the History of Cold , and it appear'd very surprizing to those that knew not the ground of it . For having sometimes merrily propos'd to heat cold liquors with Ice , the undertaking seem'd extravagant if not impossible , but was easily perform'd by taking out of a bason of cold water , wherein divers fragments of Ice were swimming , one or two pieces that I perceived were well drenched with the liquor , and immersing them suddenly into a wide-mouth'd Glass wherein strong Oyl of Vitriol had been put ; for this Menstruum , presently mingling with the water that adher'd to the ice , produc'd in it a brisk heat , and that sometimes with a manifest smoke , which nimbly dissolved the contiguous parts of Ice , and those the next , and so the whole Ice being speedily reduced to water , and the corrosive Menstruum being by two or three shakes well dispersed through it , and mingled with it , the whole mixture would grow in a trice so hot , that sometimes the Vial that contain'd it , was not to be endured in ones hand . EXPER. XV. NOtwithstanding the vast difference betwixt common water and high rectified Spirit of Wine , whereof men generally take the former for the most contrary body to fire , and whereof the Chymists take the later to be but a kind of liquid Sulphur , since it may presently be all reduc'd into flame ; yet , as I expected , I found upon trial , that Oyl of Vitriol being mingled with pure Spirit of Wine , would as well grow hot , as with common water . Nor does this Experiment always require great quantities of the liquors . For when I took but one ounce of strong Oyl of Vitriol , though I put to it less than half an ounce of choice Spirit of Wine , yet those two being lightly shaken together , did in a trice conceive so brisk a Heat , that they almost fill'd the vial with fumes , and made it so hot , thar I had unawares like to have burnt my hand with it before I could lay it aside . I made the like Trial with the same Corrosive Menstruum , and common Aqua vitae bought at a Strong-water-shop , by the mixture of which Liquors , Heat was produc'd in the Vial that I could not well endure . The like success I had in an Experiment wherein Oyl of Vitriol was mixt with common Brandy ; save that in this the Heat produced seem'd not so intense as in the former Trial , which it self afforded not so fierce a Heat as that which was made with rectified Spirit of Wine . EXPER. XVI . THose Chymists , who conceive that all the Incalescencies of bodies upon their being mixt , proceed from their antipathy or hostility , will not perhaps expect , that the parts of the same body , ( either numerically , or in specie , as the Schools phrase it , ) should , and that without manifest conflict , grow very hot together . And yet having for trials sake put two ounces of Colcothar so strongly calcin'd , that it was burnt almost to blackness , into a Retort , we poured upon it two ounces of strong Oyl of English Vitriol , and found , that after about a minute of an hour they began to grow so hot , that I could not endure to hold my hand to the bottom of the Vessel , to which the mixture gave a heat , that continued sensible on the outside for between twenty and thirty minutes . EXPER. XVII . THough I have not observ'd any Liquor to equal Oyl of Vitriol in the number of Liquors with which it will grow hot ; yet I have not met with any Liquor wherewith it came to a greater Incalescence than it frequently enough did with common Oyl of Turpentine . For when we caused divers ounces of each to be well shaken together in a strong vessel , fasten'd , to prevent mischief , to the end of a pole or staff ; the Ebullition was great and fierce enough to be not underservedly admired by the Spectators . And this brings into my mind a pleasant adventure afforded by these Liquors , of each of which , having for the Production of Heat and other purposes , caus'd a good bottle full to be put up with other things into a box , and sent down into the Countrey with a great charge , that care should be had of the Glasses ; the Wagon , in which the box was carried , happen'd by a great jolt , that had almost overturn'd it , to be so rudely shaken , that these Glasses were both broken , and the Liquors , mingling in the box , made such a noise and stink , and sent forth such quantities of smoke by the vents , which the fumes had open'd to themselves , that the Passengers with great outcries and much haste threw themselves out of the Wagon , for fear of being burnt in it . The Trials we made with Oyl of Turpentine , when strong Spirit of Nitre was substituted in the stead of Oyl of Vitriol , belong not to this place . EXPER. XVIII . BUt though Petroleum , especially when rectified , be , as I have elsewhere noted , a most subtile Liquor , and the lightest I have yet had occasion to try ; yet to shew you how much the Incalescence of Liquors may depend upon their Texture , I shall adde , that having mixt by degrees one ounce of rectified Petroleum , with an equal weight of strong Oyl of Vitriol , the former Liquor seemed to work upon the Surface of this last named , almost like a Menstruum , upon a metal , innumeious and small bubbles continually ascending for a while into the Oleum Petrae , which had its colour manifestly alter'd and deepen'd by the operation of the spirituous parts . But by all the action and re-action of these Liquors , there was produced no such smoaking and boiling , or intense heat , as if Oyl of Turpentine had been employed instead of Oyl of Vitriol ; the change which was produc'd as to Qualities being but a kind of Tepidness discoverable by the Touch. Almost the like success we had in the Conjunction of Petroleum , and Spirit of Nitre , a more full account whereof may be elsewhere met with . In this and the late Trials I did not care to make use of Spirit of Salt , because , at least , if it be but ordinarily strong , I found its operation on the Liquors above mention'd inconsiderable , ( and sometimes perhaps scarce sensible ) in comparison of those of Oyl of Vitriol , and in some cases of dephlegm'd Spirit of Nitre . EXPER. XIX . EXperienced Chymists will easily believe , that 't were not difficult to multiply Instances of Heat producible by Oyl of Vitriol upon solid bodies , especially Mineral ones . For 't is known , that in the usual preparation of Vitriolum Martis , there is a great effervescence excited upon the affusion of the Oyl of Vitriol upon Filings of Steel , especially if they be well drench'd in common water . And it will scarce be doubted , but that , as Oyl of Vitriol will ( at least partly ) dissolve a great many both calcin'd and testaceous bodies , as I have try'd with Lime , Oyster-shells , &c. so it will , during the dissolution , grow sensibly , if not intensely hot with them , as I found it to do both with those newly named , and others , as Chalk , Lapis Calaminaris , &c. with the last of which , if the Liquor be strong , it will heat exceedingly . EXPER. XX. WHerefore I will rather take notice of its Operation upon Vegetables , as bodies which corrosive Menstruums have scarce been thought fit to dissolve and grow hot with . To omit then Cherries , and divers Fruits abounding in watery juices , with which , perhaps on that very account , Oyl of Vitriol will grow hot ; I shall here take notice , that for trial sake , having mixt a convenient quantity of that Liquor with Raisins of the Sun beaten in a Mortar , the Raisins grew so hot , that , if I misremember not , the Glass that contain'd it had almost burnt my hand . These kind of Heats may be also produc'd by the mixture of Oyl of Vitriol with divers other Vegetable Substances ; but , as far as I have observed , scarce so eminently with any dry body , as with the crumbs of white bread , ( or even of brown ) with a little of which we have sometimes produced a surprising degree of Heat with strong or well-dephlegm'd Oyl of Vitriol , which is to be suppos'd to have been employed in the foregoing Experiments , and all others mention'd to be made by the help of that Menstruum in our Papers about Qualities , unless it be in any particular case otherwise declared . EXPER. XXI . 'T Is as little observed that Corrosive Menstruums are able to work , as such , on the soft parts of dead Animals , as on those of Vegetables , and yet I have more than once produced a notable Heat by mixing Oyl of Vitriol with minced flesh whether roasted or raw . EXPER. XXII . THough common Sea-salt does usually impart some degree , though not an intense one , of Coldness unto common water , during the act of Dissolution ; yet some Trials have informed me , that if it were cast into a competent quantity of Oyl of Vitriol , there would for the most part insue an Incalescence , which yet did not appear to succeed so regularly , as in most of the foregoing Experiments . But that Heat should be produc'd usually , though not perhaps constantly , by the above-named Menstruum and Salt , seems therefore worthy of our notice , because 't is known to Chymists , that common Salt is one main Ingredient of the few that make up common factitious Sal Armoniac , that is wont to be sold in the Shops . And I have been inform'd , that the excellent Academians of Florence have observed , that Oyl of Vitriol would not grow hot but cold by being put upon Sal Armoniac : Something like which I took notice of in rectified Spirit of Sulphur made per Campanam , but found the effect much more considerable , when , according to the Ingenious Florentine Experiment , I made the Trial with Oyl of Vitriol ; which Liquor having already furnished us with as many Phaenomena for our present purpose as could be well expected from one Agent , I shall scarce in this Paper about Heat make any farther use of it , but proceed to some other Experiments , wherein it does not intervene . EXPER. XXIII . WE took a good lump of common Sulphur of a convenient shape , and having rub'd or chas'd it well , we found , as we expected , that by this attrition it grew sensibly warm ; and , That there was an intestine agitation , which you know is Local Motion , made by this attrition , did appear not onely by the newly mention'd Heat , whose nature consists in motion , and by the antecedent pressure , which was fit to put the parts into a disorderly vibration , but also by the sulphureous steams , which 't was easie to smell by holding the Sulphur to ones nose , as soon as it had been rub'd . Which Experiment , though it may seem trivial in it self , may be worth the consideration of those Chymists , who would derive all the Fire and Heat we meet with in sublunary bodies from Sulphur . For in our case a mass of Sulphur , before its parts were put into a new and brisk motion , was sensibly cold , and as soon as its parts were put into a greater agitation than those of a mans fingers , it grew sensibly hot ; which argues , that 't was not by its bare presence , or any emanative action , ( as the Schools speak ) that the Sulphur communicated any Heat to my hand ; and also that , when 't was briskly moved , it did impress that Quality , was no more than another solid body , though incombustible as common Glass , would have done , if its parts had been likewise put into an agitation surpassing that of my organs of feeling ; so that in our Experiment , Sulphur it self was beholden , for its actual Heat , to Local Motion , produced by external agents in its parts . EXPER. XXIV . WE thought it not amiss to try , whether when Sal Armoniac , that much infrigidates water , and Quick-lime , which is known to heat it , were by the fire exquisitely mingled , the mixture would impart to the Liquor a moderate or an intense degree of either of those Qualities . In prosecution of which Inquiry we took equal parts of Sal Armoniac and Quick-lime , which we fluxed together , and putting an ounce , by ghess , of the powder'd mixture into a Vial with a convenient quantity of cold water , we found , that the colliquated mass did , in about a minute , strike so great a heat through the Glass upon my hand , that I was glad to remove it hastily for fear of being scorched . EXPER. XXV . WE have given several , and might have given many more , Instances of the Incalescence of Mixtures , wherein both the Ingredients were Liquors , or at least one of them was a fluid body . But sometimes Heat may also be produc'd by the mixture of two powders ; since it has been observed in the preparation of the Butter or Oyl of Antimony , that , if a sufficient quantity of beaten Sublimate be very well mingled with powder'd Antimony , the mixture , after it has for a competent time ( which varies much according to circumstances , as the weather , vessel , place , &c. wherein the Experiment is made ) stood in the air , would sometimes grow manifestly hot , and now and then so intensely so , as to send forth copious and fetid sumes almost as if it would take fire . There is another Experiment made by the help of Antimony , and a pulveriz'd body , wherein the mixture , after it had been for divers hours expos'd to the air , visibly afforded us mineral Fumes . And to these I could adde more considerable , and perhaps scarce credible , Instances of bodies growing hot without Liquors , if Philanthropy did not forbid me . But to return to our Butter of Antimony , it seems not unfit to be enquired , whether there do not unobservedly intervene an aqueous moisture , which ( capable of relaxing the salts , and setting them a work ) I therefore suspected might be attracted ( as men commonly speak ) from the air , since the mixture of the Antimony and the Sublimate is prescribed to be placed in Cellars ; and in such we find , that Sublimate , or at least the saline part of it , is resolved per deliquium , ( as they call it ) which is nothing but a solution made by the watery steams wandering in the Air. EXPER. XXVI . I Have formerly deliver'd some Instances of the Incalescence produc'd by water in bodies that are readily dissolv'd in it , as Salt of Tartar and Quick-lime . But one would not lightly expect , that meer water should produce an Incalescence in solid bodies that are generally granted to be insoluble in it ; and are not wont to be , at least without length of time , visibly wrought on by it ; and yet trial has assured me , that a notable Incalescence may be produc'd by common water in flower or fine powder of Sulphur , and Filings of Steel or Iron . For when , in Summer time , I caus'd to be mingled a good quantity , ( as half a pound or rather a pound of each of the Ingredients ) and caus'd them to be throughly drenched with common water , in a convenient quantity whereof they were very well stirred up and down , and carefully mingled , the mixture would in a short time , perhaps less than an hour , grow so hot , that the Vessel that contain'd it could not be suffer'd in ones hand ; and the Heat was manifested to other Senses than the Touch , by the strong sulphureous stink that invaded the nose , and the thick smoak that ascended out of the mixture , especially when it was stirr'd with a stick or spattle . Whether the success will be the same at all times of the year , I do not know , and somewhat doubt , since I remember not , that I had occasion to try it in other Seasons than in Summer , or in Autumn . EXPER. XXVII . IN the Instances that Chymistry is wont to afford us of the Heat produc'd by the action of Menstruums upon other bodies , there intervenes some liquor , properly so call'd , that wets the hands of those that touch it ; and there are divers of the more judicious Chymists , that joyn with the generality of the Naturalists in denying , that Quicksilver , which is indeed a fluid body , but not a moist and wetting one in reference to us , will produce Heat by its immediate action on any other body , and particularly on Gold. But though I was long inclinable to their opinion , yet I cannot now be of it , several Trials having assur'd me , that a Mercury , whether afforded by Metals and Minerals , or impregnated by them , may by its preparation be enabled to insinuate it self nimbly into the body of Gold , whether calcin'd or crude , and become manifestly incalescent with it in less than two or three minutes of an hour . EXPER. XXVIII . SInce we know that some natural Salts , and especially Salt-peter , can produce a Coldness in the water they are dissolved in , I thought it might not be impertient to our enquiry into Heat and Cold , and might perhaps also contribute somewhat to the discovery of the Structure of Metals , and the salts that corrode them , if Solutions were made of some Saliform'd bodies , as Chymists call them , that are made up of metalline and saline parts , and do so abound with the latter , that the whole Concretions are on their account dissoluble in common water . Other Experiments of this sort belonging less to this place than to another , I shall here onely for example sake take notice of one that we made upon Quicksilver , which is esteem'd the coldest of Metals . For having by distilling from it four times its weight of Oyl of Vitriol , reduc'd it to a powder , which on the account of the adhering Salts of the Menstruum that it detain'd , was white and glistering , we put this powder into a wide-mouth'd Glass of water , wherein a seal'd Weather-glass had been left before it began manifestly to heat the water , as appear'd by the quick and considerable ascent of the tincted Spirit of Wine , that continued to rise upon putting in more of the Magistery ; which warm event is the more remarkable , because of the observation of Helmont , that the Salt adhering to the Mercury , corroded in good quantity by Oyl of Vitriol , if it be washed off and coagulated , becomes a kind of Alom . The event of the former Trial deserves the more notice , because having after the same manner and with the same Weather-glass made an Experiment with common water , and the powder of Vitriolum Martis , made with Oyl of Vitriol and the Filings of Steel , the tincted Spirit of Wine was not at all impell'd up as before , but rather , after a while , began to subside , and fell , though very slowly , about a quarter of an inch . The like Experiment being tried with powder'd Sublimate in common water , the liquor in the Thermoscope was scarce at all sensibly either rais'd or deprest , which argued the alteration as to Heat or Cold , to have been either none or very inconsiderable . Having given warning at the beginning of this Section , that in it I aimed rather at offering various than numerous Experiments about the Production of Heat , I think what has been already deliver'd may allow me to take leave of this Subject without mentioning divers Instances that I could easily adde , but think it fitter at present to omit . For those afforded me by Trials about Antiperistasis belong to a Paper on that Subject . Those that might be offer'd about Potential Heat in humane bodies , would perchance be thought but unnecessary after what has been said of Potential Coldness ; from which an attentive Considerer may easily gather , what according to our Doctrine is to be said of the contrary Quality . And divers Phaenomena , which would have been of the most considerable I could have mentioned of the Production of Heat , since in them that Quality is the most exalted , I reserve for the Title of Combustibleness and Incombustibility , having already suffer'd this Collection ( or rather Chaos ) of Particulars about the Production of Heat to swell to too great a bulk . FINIS . EXPERIMENTS , AND OBSERVATIONS , About the Mechanical Production OF TASTS . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esq Fellow of the R. Society . LONDON , Printed by E. Flesher , for R. Davis Bookseller in Oxford . 1675. EXPERIMENTS , AND OBSERVATIONS , About the Mechanical Production OF TASTS . TO make out the Mechanical Origine or Production of Sapors , as far as is necessary for my present purpose , 't will be expedient to premise in general , that , according to our notion of Tasts , they may depend upon the bigness , figure and motion of the saporifick corpuscles , considered separately , and as the affections of single and very minute particles of matter ; or else in a state of conjunction , as two or more of these affections , and the particles they belong to , may be combined or associated , either among themselves , or with other particles , that were not saporous before . And as these Coalitions and other Associations come to be diversified ; so the Tasts , resulting from them , will be altered or destroyed . But , to handle these distinctly and fully , were a task not onely too difficult and long , but improper in this place , where I pretend to deliver not Speculations , but matters of Fact : in setting down whereof nevertheless , to avoid too much confusion , I am content , where I can doe it readily and conveniently , in some of my Trials , to couch such references as may best point at those Heads , whence the Mechanical explications may be derived , and consequently our Doctrine confirmed . By Tast considered as belonging to the Object , ( under which Notion I here treatof it , ) I mean that quality , or whatever else it be , which enables a body by its operation , to produce in us that sensation , which we feel or perceive when we say we tast . That this something , whether you will call it a quality , or whatever else it be that makes or denominates an object saporous , or rather ( if I may be allowed a barbarous term ) saporifick , may so depend upon the shape , size , motion , and other Mechanical affections of the small parts of the tasted body , and result from the association of two or more of them , not excluding their congruity or incongruity to the organs of Tasting , may be made probable by the following Instances . EXPER. I. To divide a Body , almost insipid , into two Bodies of very strong and very differing Tasts . 'T IS observed , that Salt-peter refined , and by that purification freed from the Sea-salt that is wont to be mingled with it , does rather cool the tongue , than make any great saporifick impressions on it . And though I will not say , that it is , as some have thought , an insipid body ; yet the bitterishness , which seems to be its proper tast , is but very faint and languid . And yet this almost insipid body , being distilled by the way of Inflammation , ( which I elsewhere teach , ) or even by the help of an additament of such clay as is it self a tastless body , will afford a Nitrous spirit , that is extreamly sharp or corrosive upon the tongue , and will dissolve several Metals themselves , and a fixt salt , that is likewise very strongly tasted , but of a tast altogether different from that of the Spirit , that is extreamly sharp or corrosive upon the tongue ; and accordingly , this salt will dissolve divers compact bodies that the other will not work on , and will precipitate divers metals and other concretes out of those solutions , that have been made of them by the Spirit . EXPER. II. Of two Bodies , the one highly Acid and corrosive , and the other Alkalizat and fiery , to produce a Body almost insipid . THis may be performed by the way I have elsewhere mentioned of composing Salt-peter . For if upon a liquour of fixt Nitre , made per Deliquium , you warily drop good Spirit of Nitre , till it be just enough to satiate the Alkaly , ( for if there be too much or too little , the Experiment may miscarry , ) we may by a gentle evaporation , and sometimes without it , and that in a few minutes , obtain Crystals , which , being dried after they have been , if it be needfull , freed from any adhering particles , ( not of their own nature , ) will have upon the tongue neither a sharp nor an alkalizate tast , but that faint and scarce sensible bitterness that belongs to Salt-peter , if it be pure Salt-peter ; for the impure may perhaps strongly relish of the common Salt that is usually contained in it . The like production of Salt-peter we have sometimes made in far less time , and sometimes indeed in a trice , by substituting , in stead of the fixed Salt of Nitre , the saline parts of good Pot-ashes , carefully freed by solution and filtration from the earthy and feculent ones . I have sometimes considered , whether the Phaenomena of these two Experiments may not be explicated by supposing them to arise from the new magnitudes and figures of the particles , which the fire , by breaking them , or forcibly rubbing them one against the other , or also against the Corpuscles of the additament , may be presumed to give them ; as if , for example , since we find the larger and best formed Crystals of Nitre to be of a prismatical shape with six sides , we should suppose the corpuscles of Nitre to be little prisms , whose angles and ends are too obtuse or blunt to make vigorous and deep impressions on the tongue ; and yet , if these little prisms be by a violent heat split , or otherwise broken , or forcibly made as it were to grind one another , they may come to have parts so much smaller than before , and endowed with such sharp sides and angles , that , being dissolved and agitated by the spittle that usually moistens the tongue , their smalness may give them great access to the pores of that organ , and the sharpness of their sides and points may fit them to stab and cut , and perhaps sear the nervous and membranous parts of the organ of Tast , and that variously , according to the grand diversities , as to shape and bulk , of the saporifick particles themselves . And this being granted , it seemed further conceivable , that when the Alkalizate and Acid particles come to be put together in the fluid mixture , wherein they swam , many of them might , after a multitude of various justlings and occursions , meet with one another so luckily and opportunely , as to recompose little prisms , or convene into other bodies , almost like those that made up the Crystals of Nitre , before 't was exposed to the fire . To illustrate which , we may conceive , that , though a prism of iron may be so shaped , that it will be wholly unfit to pierce the skin ; yet it may be so cut by transverse planes reaching to the opposite bases or ends , as to afford wedges , which , by the sharpness of their edges , may be fit both to cleave wood , and cut the skin ; and these wedges , being again put together after a requisite manner , may recompose a prism , whose extreams shall be too blunt to be fit for the former use . This may be also illustrated by the breaking of a dry stick circularly cut off at the ends , which though it is unapt , whilst intire and of that bulk , to prick the hand ; yet if it be violently broken , the ragged ends of it and the splinters may prove stiff , slender , and sharp enough to pierce and run into the hand : To which divers other such Mechanical Illustrations might be added . But , since I fear you think , as well as I , the main conjecture may not be worthy any farther prosecution , I shall not insist any longer on it . And because the historical part of these Experiments was for the main delivered by me already in the Essay about the Analysis and Redintegration of Nitre , I shall now proceed to other Trials . EXPER. III. Of two Bodies , the one extreamly bitter , and the other exceeding salt , to make an insipid mixture . TO make this Experiment , we must very warily pour upon Crystals made of Silver , dissolved in good Aqua fortis or Spirit of Nitre , strong brine made of common salt and water . For the mixture of these two being dried , and afterwards brought to fusion in a Crucible , and kept a competent while in that state , will afford a tough mass , the Chymists call Luna Cornea , which you may lick divers times , and scarce judge it other than insipid ; nor will it easily be brought to dissolve in much more piercing Menstruums than our spittle , as I have elsewhere shewn . EXPER. IV. Of two Bodies , the one extreamly sweet , and the other salter than the strongest Brine , to make an insipid mixture . THE doing of this requires some skill and much wariness in the Experimenter , who , to perform it well , must take a strong solution of Minium , made with an appropriated Menstruum , as good Spirit of Vinegar , or else Saccharum Saturni it self , dissolved in a convenient Vehicle ; and then must have great care and caution to put to it , by degrees , a just proportion of strong Spirit of Sal Armoniac , or the like Urinous Spirit , till the whole be precipitated ; and if the two former tasts are not sufficiently destroyed in the mixture , it may be dried and fluxed , as was above directed about Luna Cornea . EXPER. V. Of an insipid Body and a sour one , to make a Substance more bitter than Gall or Aloes . THis is easily performed by dissolving in strong Spirit of Nitre or good Aqua fortis as much pure Silver as the Menstruum will take up ; for , this solution being filtrated , has been often esteemed more bitter than so much Gall or Wormwood , or any other of those simples that have been famous for that quality : And if the superfluous moisture be abstracted , you may by coagulation obtain Crystals of Luna , that have been judged more strongly bitter than the solution it self . And that the corpuscles of these Crystals should leave a far more lasting tast of themselves , than the above-mentioned bitter bodies are wont to doe , will not seem so marvellous , as I remember some that tried have complained ; if we take notice , how deep the particles of these Crystals may pierce into the spungy organs of Tast , since , if one does but touch the pulp or nail of ones finger , ( first a little wetted with spittle or otherwise , ) with the powder of these Crystals , they will so penetrate the skin or nail , and stick so fast there , that you cannot in a reasonable time wash the stain off of the skin , and much less off of the nail , but it will continue to appear many hours on the former , and many days on the other . EXPER. VI. Of an insipid Body and a highly corrosive one , to make a Substance as sweet as Sugar . THis is easily done , by putting upon good Minium purified Aqua fortis or Spirit of Nitre , and letting them work upon one another in a gentle heat , till the liquour have dissolved its full proportion of the metal . For then , if the ingredients were good , and the operation rightly performed , the Menstruum would have a sweetness like that of ordinary Saccharum Saturni . But 't was not for nothing that I intimated , the ingredients should be also pure and good in their kind ; for , if the Minium be adulterated , as often it is , or the Spirit of Nitre or Aqua fortis be mingled , as it is usual before it be purged with Spirit of common Salt or other unfit ingredients , the operation may be successless , as I have more than once observed . EXPER. VII . Of obtaining without addition from the sweetest Bodies , Liquours corrosive enough to dissolve Metals . IF Sugar be put into a sufficiently capacious Retort , and warily distilled , ( for otherwise it will be apt to break the Vessel ) it will afford , among other things , a copious red Spirit , which , being slowly rectified , will lose its colour , and come over clear . The Caput Mortuum of the Sugar , which I have more than once had of an odd Contexture , may be found either almost or altogether insipid . And though the Spirit will be of a very penetrant tast , yet it will be very far from any kind of sweetness ; and though that liquour be thought to be homogeneous , and to be one of the Principles of the analized Sugar , yet ( as I have elsewhere shewn ) I found it to be a mixture of two Spirits ; with the one of which , besides bodies of a less close Texture , I dissolved ( even in the cold ) crude Copper , as was easie to be seen by the deep and lovely colour of the solution . And to these sour Spirits , afforded by Sugar it self , we have restored a kind of Saccharine sweetness , by compounding them with the particles of so insipid a body as Minium ; part of which they will in digestion dissolve . A like Spirit to that distilled from Sugar may be obtained from Honey ; but in regard of its aptness to swell exceedingly , Chymists are not wont to distill it without Sand , Brick , or some other additament . EXPER. VIII . To divide a Body , bitter in the highest degree , into two Substances , the one extreamly sour , and the other perfectly insipid . THis is easily done by putting some fine Crystals of Luna into a good Retort , and then distilling them in a Sand-furnace , capable of giving them so strong a fire , as to drive away all the spirits from the Silver . For , this remaining behind , according to its metalline nature , will be insipid , and the spirits , that are driven away from it , will unite in the Receiver into an acid and corrosive Menstruum . EXPER. IX . To produce variety of Tasts in one insipid Body , by associating it with divers Menstruums . AS this operation may , upon the account I elsewhere mention , be serviceable to investigate the figures of the particles of dissolved metals and other bodies ; so 't is very fit to manifest , what we would here have it shew , how much Tast may be diversified by , and consequently depend upon , Texture ; since a body that has no tast , may , in conjunction with sapid bodies , give them strong tasts all differing from one another , and each of them from that which the saporous bodies had before . I could propose divers ways of bringing this to trial , there being several insipid bodies , which I have found this way diversifiable . But because I remember not , that I have met with any mineral , that is dissoluble by near so many saline Menstruums , as Zinke , I look on that as the most fertile Subject to afford Instances to our present purpose . For I have found , that it will be dissolved not onely by Aqua fortis , Aqua Regis , Oil of Vitriol , Spirit of Nitre , Spirit of Salt , and other mineral Menstruums , but also by Vegetable Spirits , as distilled Vinegar , and by Animal ones too , as Spirit of Sal Armoniac ; though the one be Acid , and the other Urinous . And if the several Solutions , which may be made of this mineral , by so many differing liquours , be compared , the number of their differing tasts will suffice to make good the Title of the Experiment . EXPER. X. To produce variety of Tasts with one Menstruum , by associating it with insipid Bodies . THis Proposition a Mathematician would go near to call the Converse of the foregoing ; and as it may serve as well as that to discover the structure of the minute parts of divers metalline and mineral bodies ; so it may not onely as well , but better than that , serve us to illustrate the Corpuscularian Doctrine of Tasts , by shewing us , that a single , and , as far as Chymistry teaches us , a simple body , endowed with a peculiar tast , may , by being compounded with others , each of them insipid of it self , produce a considerable number of differing tasts . There may be more Instruments than one made use of in this Trial ; but of those that are known , and we may easily obtain , the most proper are Spirit of Nitre , and good Aqua fortis : For that , with refined Silver , will make a Solution bitter as Gall ; with Lead , 't will be of a Saccharine sweetness ; with that part of Tin , which it will keep dissolved , ( for the greatest 't is wont but to corrode and praecipitate ) it produces a tast very distant from both the former , but not odious ; with Copper , it affords an abominable tast ; with Mercury and Iron , it affords other kinds of bad Tasts . Nor are Metals the onely mineral bodies it will work upon : For , 't will dissolve Tin-glass , Antimony , Brass ; to which I could add Emery , Zinke , and other bodies whereon I have tried it . All which together will make up no despicable number of differing Tasts . EXPER. XI . Of two Liquours , the one highly corrosive , and the other very pungent and not pleasant , to compose a Body of a pleasant and Aromatick Tast. THis Experiment , which I elsewhere mention to other purposes , does in some regards better suit our present design , than most of the foregoing ; since here the Corrosive Menstruum is neither mortified by fixt nor urinous Salts , supposed to be of a contrary nature to it ; nor yet , as 't were , tired out nor disarm'd by corroding of metals or other solid bodies . The Experiment being somewhat dangerous to make at first in great , it may suffice for our present turn , to make it in the less quantity , as follows . Take one ounce of strong Spirit of Nitre , or of very good Aqua fortis it self , and put to it by little and little , ( which caution if you neglect , you may soon repent it , ) and another ounce of such rectified Spirit of Wine , as , being kindled in a Spoon , will flame all away : When these two liquours are well mixt , and grown cold again , you may , after some digestion , or , if hast require , without it , distill them totally over together , to unite them exquisitly into one liquour , in which , if the operation have been well performed , the corrosive particles of the Salts will not onely loose all their cutting acidity , wherewith they wounded the palat ; but by their new composition with the Vinous Spirits , the liquour acquires a Vinous tast , that is not onely not acid or offensive , but very pleasing , as if it belonged to some new or unknown Spice . EXPER. XII . To imitate by Art , and sometimes even in Minerals , the peculiar Tasts of natural Bodies , and even Vegetables . THis is not a fit place to declare , in what sense I do or do not admit of Souls in Vegetables , nor what I allow or deny to the Seminal or Plastick principle ascribed to Plants : But perhaps it will not be erroneous to conceive , that , whatever be the Agent in reference to those Tasts , that are said to be specifick to this or that Plant , that , on whose immediate account it is or becomes of this or that nature , is a complication of Mechanical Affections , as shape , size , &c. in the particles of that matter which is said to be endowed with such a specifick tast . To illustrate this , I thought it expedient , to endeavour to imitate the tast of some Natural bodies by Artificial Compositions or Preparations , but found it not easie , beforehand to be assured of the success of such Trials : And therefore I shall content my self here to mention three or four Instances , that , except the first , are rather Observations than such Experiments as we are speaking of . I remember then , that , making some Trials to alter the sensible Qualities of Smell , Tast , &c. of Oil of Vitriol , and Spirit of Wine , I obtained from them , among other things that suited with my design , a certain Liquour , which , though at first pleasant , would , at a certain nick of time , make one that had it in his mouth think it had been imbued with Garlick . And this brings into my mind , that a skilful person , famous for making good Sider , coming one day to advise with me , what he should doe to heighten the tast of it , and make it keep the longer , complained to me , that having , among other trials , put into a good Vessel full of juice of Apples a certain proportion of Mustard-seed , with hopes it would make the Sider more spirituous and pickant , he found , to his wonder and loss , that , when he came to draw it , it stank of Garlick so rank , that every body rejected it . I remember also , that , by fermenting a certain proportion ( for that we found requisite ) of semen Dauci with Beer or Ale , the Liquour had a very pleasant Relish of Limon-pills . But that seems much more considerable , which I shall now add ; That , with an insipid Metal and a very corrosive Menstruum , one may compound a tast , that I have several times observed to be so like a Vegetable , that I presume it may deceive many . This may be done by dissolving Gold , without any gross Salt , in the mixture of Aqua fortis and the Spirit of Salt , or even in common Aqua Regis , made by dissolving Sal Armoniac in Aqua fortis . For if the Experiment be happily made , one may obtain either a Solution or a Salt , whose austere tast will very much resemble that of Sloes , or of unripe Bullace . And this tast , with some little variety , I found in Gold dissolved without any distilled Liquour at all ; and also , if I much forget not , in Gold that by a peculiar Menstruum I had volatilized . The last Instance I shall give of the imitation of Tasts , I found to have been , for the main , known to some ingenious Ladies . But to make the Experiment succeed very well , a due proportion is the principal Circumstance , which is wont to be neglected . I cannot readily call to mind that which I found to succeed best ; but the Trial may be indifferently well made after such a manner as this : Take a pint or a pound of Malaga or Canary Sack , ( for though French and the like Wines may serve the turn , yet they are not so proper ; ) and put into it a drachm or two of good odoriferous Orrice Roots , cut into thin slices , and let them infuse in the Liquour a convenient time , 'till you perceive that they have given it a desired tast and smell ; then keep the thus perfumed Wine exactly stopped in a cool place : According to which way , I remember , that ( when I hit on the right proportion of Ingredients , and kept them a due time in infusion ) I had many years ago a Wine , which , being coloured with Cocheneele , or some such tingeing ingredient , was taken for good Rasberry-Wine , not onely by ordinary persons , but , among others , by a couple of eminent Physicians , one of whom pretended to an extraordinary criticalness of palate on such occasions ; both of them wondering , how at such an unlikely time of the year , as I chose to present them that Liquour among others , I could have such excellent Rasberry-Wine : Some of which ( to add that by the by ) I found to preserve the specifick tast two or three years after it was made . A Short EXCURSION About some Changes made OF TASTS BY MATURATION . IT will not perhaps be thought impertinent , but rather necessary , to add a word or two on this occasion for their sakes , that think the Maturation of Fruits , and the changes of Tasts , by which 't is usually known , must needs be the effect of the Vegetable Soul of the Plant. For , after the Fruit is gathered , and so , by being no longer a part of the Tree , does , according to the most common opinion , cease to be a part of the living Plant , as a Hand or a Foot cut off is no more reckoned among the Lims of the man it belonged to ; yet 't is very possible that some Fruits may receive maturation , after they have been severed from the Plants that bore them . For , not to mention , that Apples , gathered somewhat before the time , by lying in heaps , do usually obtain a mellowness , which seems to be a kind or degree of Maturation ; or that Medlars , gathered whilst they are hard and harsh , do become afterwards in process of time soft and better tasted ; in which state though some say they are rotten , yet others think that supposed rottenness is the proper Maturity of that kind of Fruit : Not to mention these , I say , or the like Instances , 't is a famous Assertion of several Writers of the Indian affairs , that the Fruit they call Bananas is usually gathered green , and hung up in bunches or clusters in the house , where they ripen by degrees , and have an advantageous change made both of their colour and of their tast . And this an ancient acquaintance of mine , a literate and observing person , of whom I inquired about it , assured me , he had himself lately tried and found to be true in America . And indeed I see not , why a convenient degree of warmth , whether external from the Sun and Fire , or internal from some degree of fermentation or analogous intestine Commotion , may not ( whether the Fruit be united to the Plant or no ) put the saporifick Corpuscles into motion , and make them , by various and insensible transcursions , rub against each other , and thereby make the little bodies more slender or thin , and less rigid , or cutting and harsh , than they were before , and by various motions bring the Fruit they compose to a state wherein it is more soft in point of consistence , and abound in Corpuscles less harsh and more pliable , than they were before , and more congruous to the pores of the organ of Tast : And , in a word , make such a change in the constitution of the Fruit , as men are wont to express by the name of Maturity . And that such Mechanical changes of Texture may much alter the Qualities , and among them the Tast of a Fruit , is obvious in bruised Cherries and Apples , which in the bruised parts soon come to look and tast otherwise than they did before . The possibility of this is also obvious by Wardens , when slowly roasted in embers with so gentle a fire , as not to burn off the paper they are wont to be wrapt in , to be kept clean from the ashes . And I have seen , in the bordering Country betwixt France and Savoy , a sort of Pears , ( whose name I now remember not , ) which being kept for some hours in a moderate heat , in a Vessel exactly closed , with embers and ashes above and beneath them , will be reduced to a juicy Substance of a lovely red colour , and very sweet and lushious to the tast . Many other sorts of Fruit in other Countries , if they were handled after the same way , or otherwise skilfully wrought on by a moderate heat , would admit as great alterations in point of tast . Neither is that sort of Pear to be here omitted , which by meer Compression , duly ordered , without external heat , will in a few minutes be brought to exchange its former hardness and harshness for so yielding a Contexture and pleasant a tast , as I could not but think very remarkable . And that even more solid and stubborn Salts than those of Vegetables , may have the sharpness and piercingness of their tasts very much taken off by the bare internal action of one part upon the other , without the addition of any sweetning body , I have been induced to think by having found , upon trial , that , by the help of insipid Water , we may , without any violence of Fire , reduce Sea-salt into a Brine of so mild and peculiar ( I had almost said ) pleasant a tast , that one would scarce suspect what it had been , or believe that so great a change of a Mineral body could be effected by so slight an intestine Commotion as indeed produced it ; especially , since the alteration of tasts was not the most considerable that was produced by this Operation . As to Liquours that come from Vegetables , the emerging of new Sapors upon the intestine Commotion of the saporifick parts , as Consequences of such Commotions , is more obvious than is commonly considered in the juice of Grapes , which , from a sweet and spiritless Liquour , do by that internal motion we call Fermentation , acquire that pleasing pungency and briskness of tast that belongs to Wine , and afterwards degenerates into that acid and cutting tast that is proper to Vinegar ; and all this , by a change of Constitution made by the action of the parts themselves on one another , without the help of any external additament . FINIS . EXPERIMENTS , AND OBSERVATIONS , About the Mechanical Production OF ODOURS . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esq Fellow of the R. Society . LONDON , Printed by E. Flesher , for R. Davis Bookseller in Oxford . 1675. EXPERIMENTS , AND OBSERVATIONS , About the Mechanical Production OF ODOURS . SInce Tasts and Odours ( perhaps by reason of the nearness of the Organs they affect ) are wont , by Physical Writers , to be treated of next to one another , I also shall imitate them in handling those two Qualities , not onely for the intimated Reason , but because , what I have premised in general , and some other things that I have said already under the Title of Tasts , being applicable to Odours also , 't will not be necessary , and therefore 't would be tedious , to repeat them here . EXPER. I. With two Bodies , neither of them odorous , to produce immediately a strong Urinous smell . TAke good Quick-lime and Sal Armoniac , and rub or grind them well together , and holding your Nose to the mixture , you will be saluted with an Urinous smell produced by the particles of the volatil Salt , united by this operation , which will also invade your Eyes , and make them to water . EXPER. II. By the bare addition of common Water , to produce immediately a very strong smell in a Body that had no such smell before . THis is one of the Phaenomena of an Experiment made with Camphire and Oil of Vitriol , which I have elsewhere mentioned to another purpose . For , if in that corrosive Menstruum you dissolve a good proportion , but not too much , of the strongly sented Gum , the odour of the Camphire will be quite concealed in the mixture ; but if you pour this mixture into a good quantity of fair Water , the dissolved Gum will immediately recover out of the Menstruum , and smell as strong as before , if not ( by reason of the warmth produced in the Operation ) more strongly . EXPER. III. Of producing some Odours , each of them quite differing from that of any of the Ingredients . HAving taken two ounces ( or parts ) of clear Oil of Turpentine , and mixt it with one ounce ( or part ) of Oil of Vitriol , ( which must be done by degrees , for otherwise the Vessel will be endangered , ) the clear Liquour that came over , upon the distillation of the mixture in a Sand-furnace , in stead of the odour of Turpentine , ( for the Oil of Vitriol alone is wont to be inodorous , ) smelt very strong of Sulphur ; insomuch that once , when I shewed this Experiment , approaching my Nose very boldly and hastily to the Receiver newly severed from the Retort , the sulphureous stink proved so strong , that it had almost ( to speak with the vulgar ) taken away my breath . And to illustrate yet farther the possible emergency of such odours upon the mixture of Ingredients , as neither of them was apart endowed with , we caused the substance that remained behind in the Retort ( in the form of a thin extract ) after one of the newly mentioned Distillations to be farther pressed by a stronger fire , which forced most of it over , partly in the form of a thick Oil , and partly in that of Butter ; both which we keep together in the same Vial , because their odour is neither that of Oil of Turpentine , nor that of Brimstone , but they smell exceedingly like the distilled Oil of Bees-wax . EXPER. IV. About the production of some Odours by Local motion . I Shall not now examine , whether the Local motion of an external Agent may not , without materially concurring to the operation , produce , by agitating and shuffling the parts , odorous corpuscles : But that the celerity and other modifications of the Local motion of the effluvia of Bodies may not onely serve to diversifie their odours , but so far produce them , as to make them perceptible by the sense , which otherwise would not be so , may be gathered from some observations , which , being obvious , are not so proper for this place . Wherefore I shall rather take notice , that I know several Bodies that are not onely inodorous when cold , but when considerably hot , and are fixt in the fire , and yet , by having their parts put into a peculiar kind of agitation , will presently grow plainly odorous . On this occasion I shall add , that , as there are some very hard Woods , that acquire a strong smell by the motion they may be exposed to in a Turner's Lath , ( as I have observed by trialls particularly made with the hard and ponderous Lignum Vitae , ) so some afford , whilst the operation lasts , an unexpected odour . And having inquired about this matter of two eminent Artists , ( whom I often employ , ) concerning the odour of Beech-wood whilst it is turning , they both agreed , that it would emit well-sented effluviums . And one of them affirmed to me farther , that , having bought a great block of that Wood , to make divers pieces of workmanship with it , when he came to turn it , there would issue out not onely a copious odour , but of such a peculiar fragrancy , that one that knew not whence it proceeded would have concluded he was smelling Roses . EXPER. V. By mixing a good proportion of a very strongly sented Body with an almost inodorous one , to deprive it speedily of all its smell . TAke Salt of Tartar , and drop upon it either Spirit of Nitre or Aqua fortis not too much dephlegmed , till all the effervescence cease , and the Liquour will no longer work upon the Alkali . These , by a slow Evaporation of the superfluous moisture , may be made to shoot into Crystalls like those of Nitre , which , after you have ( if need be ) by rubbing them with a dried cloath , freed them from loose adhering Corpuscles , will emulate Salt-peter , as in other Qualities , so in it s not being odorous ; though , if you distill them , or burn them on kindled coals , their fumes will quickly make you sensible , that they abounded with the stinking Spirits , that make Aqua fortis so offensive to the smell . EXPER. VI. By putting a very strongly stinking Body to another of a not sweet smell , to produce a mixture of a pleasant and strongly Aromatick odour . WHat is here proposed is performed at the same time that the Eleventh of the foregoing Experiments of Tasts is made . For the Liquour thereby produced , if it be well prepared , has not onely a spicy tast , but also a kind of Aromatick and pleasant smell ; and I have some now by me , that , though kept not over-carefully , does , after some years , retain much of its former odour , though not so much as of its tast . EXPER. VII . By digesting two Bodies , neither of them well sented , to produce Bodies of a very subtile and strongly fragrant odour . WE took a pound ( for instance ) of Spanish Wine , and put to it some ounces of Oil of Vitriol ; then , keeping them for a reasonable time in digestion , we obtained , as we expected , a mixture odoriferous enough . But this Triall you will find improved by that which insues . EXPER. VIII . By the bare addition of a Body almost inodorous , and not well sented , to give a pleasant and Aromatick smell to Spirit of Wine . THis we have several times done , by the ways elsewhere related for another scope , the summ of which , as far as it needs be mentioned in this place , is this . We took good Oil of blew Vitriol ( that was brought from Dantzick , ) though the very common will serve well , and having put to it , by degrees , an equal weight of Spirit of Wine totally inflammable , we digested them together , for two , three , or four weeks , ( sometimes much longer , and then with better success ; ) from which , when we came to distill the mixture , we had a very fragrant Spirit , which was sometimes so subtile , that , though distilled in a tall Glass with a gentle Heat , it would ( in spite of our care to secure the closeness of the Vessels at the junctures ) pierce through , and fill the Laboratory with a perfume , which , though men could not guess what body afforded it , yet they could not but wonder at it . Whence we may learn , both how much those spirituous and inflammable particles , the Chymists call the vegetable Sulphur of Wine , may work on and ennoble a mineral Sulphur ; ( for , that such an one there is in Oil of Vitriol , I have elsewhere proved by experience ; ) and how much the new Commistions and Contextures made by digestion may alter the odours of Bodies , whether Vegetable or Mineral . That also another Constitution of the same matter , without any manifest addition or recess of particles , may proceed to exhibit a very differing smell , will appear by the following Triall . EXPER. IX . To make the forementioned fragrant Body , without addition or fire , degenerate into the rank smell of Garlick . TO make out this , I need onely relate , that I have more than once put the above mentioned fragrant Liquour in stopt Glasses , whereof the one , and not the other , stood in a warm place , till in process of time I found that odoriferous Liquour so to degenerate in point of sent , that one would have thought it to have been strongly infected with Garlick . And the like unpleasant Smell I observed in a certain Oil made of Vegetable and Mineral Substances distilled together . And on this occasion I will add , ( though not as an Argument , ) this Observation , which though I shall not undertake it will always succeed , I think may not impertinently be set down in this place , partly because of the likeness of the odour produced , to that which was the effect of the last named Triall ; and partly ( or rather chiefly ) because it may shew us , that a Body , which it self is not onely inodorous , but very fixt , may yet , in some cases , have a great stroke in the Phaenomena of Odours ; whether by being wrought on by , and sometimes mingled with , the parts of the odorous body , and thereby giving it a new modification , I shall not now stay to enquire . We took then good Salt of Tartar , and put to it several times its weight of the expressed juice of Onions ; we kept them in a light digestion for a day or two , and then unstopping the Vial , we found the former smell of the Onions quite degenerated into a rank smell of Garlick , as was judged , even when fresh juice of Garlick was procured to compare them . To vary this Experiment , we made with fixt Salts , and some other strongly sented Juices , Trialls , whose events 't would perhaps be tedious here to relate . EXPER. X. With an inodorous Body , and another not well-sented , to produce a muskie smell . THis we have sometimes done by casting into Spirit ( not Oil ) of Vitriol a large proportion of small Pearls unbroken . For the action of the acid Menstruum upon these being moderated , partly by the weakness of the Menstruum , and partly by the intireness of the Pearls , the dissolution would sometimes last many hours . Holding from time to time my nose to the open orifice of the Glass , 't was easie to perceive a pleasant muskie smell , which also others , to whom I mentioned it , took notice of as well as I. And , if I misremember not , I took notice of the like smell , upon Pearls not onely dissolved in Spirit of Vinegar , but in another Liquour that had but a bad sent of its own . The foregoing Experiment calls to my mind that which follows . EXPER. XI . With fixt Metals , and Bodies either inodorous or stinking , to produce strong and pleasant smells , like those of some Vegetables and Minerals . THat Gold is too fixt a body to emit any odour , and that Aqua Regis has an odour that is very strong and offensive , I think will be easily granted . But yet Aurum fulminans being made ( as 't is known ) by precipitating with the inodorous Oil of Tartar the Solution made of the former in the latter , and this Precipitate being to be farther proceeded with in order to another Experiment ; we fulminated it per se in a Silver Vessel like that , but better contrived , that is ( if I misremember not ) somewhere described by Glauberus . And among other Phaenomena of this operation , that belong not to this place , we observed with pleasure , that , when the fulmination was recently made , the steams , which were afforded by the metal that had been fired , were endowed with a delightful smell , not unlike that of musk . From which Experiment and the foregoing we may learn , that Art , by lucky Contextures , may imitate the odours that are presumed to be natural and specifick ; and that Mineral and Vegetable Substances may compound a smell that is thought to be peculiar to Animals . And as Art sometimes imitates Nature in the production of Odours , as may be confirmed by what is above related concerning counterfeit Rasberry-Wine , wherein those that drank it believed they did not onely tast , but smell the Rasberry ; so sometimes Nature seems to imitate her self , in giving like odours to bodies extreamly differing . For , not yet to dismiss the smell of Musk , there is a certain Seed , which , for the affinity of its odour to that perfume , they call the Musk-seed ; and indeed , having some of it presented me by a Gentleman , that had newly brought it from the West-Indies , I found it , whilst 't was fresh , to have a fragrancy suitable to the name that was given it . There is also a sort of Rats in Muscovy , whose skins , whereof I have seen several , have a smell that has procured them the name of Musk-Rats . To which I know not , whether we may not add the mention of a certain sort of Ducks , which some call Musk-Ducks , because at a certain season of the year , if they be chaf'd by violent motion , they will under the wing emit a musky in stead of a sweaty sent ; which upon trial I perceived to be true . On the other side , I have known a certain Wood growing in the Indies , which , especially when the sent is excited by rubbing , stinks so rankly and so like Paracelsus's Zibetum Occidentale , ( stercus Humanum , ) that one would swear it were held under his Nose . And since I have been speaking of good sents produced by unlikely means , I shall not pretermit this Observation , that , though generally the fire impresses a strong offensive smell , which Chymists therefore call Empyreumatical , upon the odorous bodies that it works strongly on ; yet the constitution of a body may be such , that the new Contexture that is made of its parts , even by the violence of the fire , shall be fit to afford Effluviums rather agreeable to the organs of smelling , than any way offensive . For I remember , that , having for a certain purpose distilled Saccharum Saturni in a Retort with a strong fire , I then obtained , ( for I dare not undertake for the like success to every Experimenter , ) besides a piercing and Empyreumatical Liquour that was driven over into the Receiver , a good Lump of a Caput Mortuum of a grayish colour , which , notwithstanding the strong impression it had received from the fire , was so far from having any Empyreumatical sent , that it had a pleasing one , and when 't was broken , smelt almost like a fine Cake new baked , and broken whilst yet warm . And as the fire , notwithstanding the Empyreuma it is wont to give to almost all the bodies it burns , may yet be reduced to confer a good smell on some of them , if they be fitted upon such a contexture of their parts to emit steams of such a nature , ( whatever were the efficient cause of such a contexture ; ) so we observe in the Musk animal , that Nature in that Cat , or rather Deer , ( though it properly belong to neither kind , ) produces Musk by such a change , as is wont in other Animals to produce a putrefactive stink . So that , provided a due constitution of parts be introduced into a portion of matter , it may on that account be endowed with noble and desirable Sents , or other Qualities , though that Constitution were introduced by such unlikely means , as Combustion and Putrefaction themselves . In Confirmation of which , I shall subjoyn in the insuing account a notable , though casual , Phaenomenon , that occurr'd to a couple of Virtuosi of my Acquaintance . An eminent Professor of Mathematicks affirmed to me , that , chancing one day in the heat of Summer with another Mathematician ( who I remember was present when this was told ) to pass by a large Dunghil that was then in Lincolns-Inn-fields , when they came to a certain distance from it , they were both of them surprized to meet with a very strong smell of Musk , ( occasioned , probably , by a certain degree or a peculiar kind of Putrefaction , ) which each was for a while shy of taking notice of , for fear his Companion should have laughed at him for it ; but , when they came much nearer the Dunghill , that pleasing smell was succeeded by a stink proper to such a heap of Excrements . This puts me in mind of adding , that , though the excrements of Animals , and particularly their sweat , are usually foetid ; yet , that 't is not the nature of an excrement , but the constitutions , that usually belong to them , make them so , hath seemed probable to me upon some Observations . For , not to mention , what is related of Alexander the Great , I knew a Gentleman of a very happy Temperature of body , whose sweat , upon a critical examination , wherein I made use also of a surprize , I found to be fragrant ; which was confirmed also by some Learned men of my acquaintance , and particularly a Physician that lay with him . Though Civet usually passes for a Perfume , and as such is wont to be bought at a great rate ; yet it seems to be but a clammy excrement of the Animal that affords it , which is secreted into Bags provided by Nature to receive it . And I the rather mention Civet , because it usually affords a Phaenomenon that agrees very well with the Mechanical Doctrine concerning Odours , though it do not demonstrate it . For , when I have had the curiosity to visit divers of those Civet ▪ Cats , ( as they call them ) though they have heads liker Foxes than Cats ; I observed , that a certain degree of Laxity ( if I may so style it ) of the odorous Atmosphere was requisite to make the smell fragrant . For , when I was near the Cages , where many of them were kept together , or any great Vessel full of Civet , the smell ( probably by the plenty , and perhaps the over-brisk motion of the effluvia , ) was rather rank and offensive than agreeable ; whereas , when I removed into the next room , or to some other convenient distance , the steams ( being less crowded , and farther from their fountain , ) presented themselves to my Nostrills under the notion of a Perfume . And , not to dismiss this our Eleventh Experiment without touching once more upon Musk , I shall add , that an Ingenious Lady , to whom I am nearly related , shewed me an odd Monkey , that had been presented her as a rarity by the then Admiral of England , and told me , among other things , that she had observed in it , that , being sick , he would seek for Spiders as his proper remedies , for some of which he then seemed to be looking , and thereby gave her occasion to tell me this ; which when he had eaten , the alteration it made in him would sometimes fill the room with a musky sent : But he had not the good luck to light on any whilst my visit lasted . EXPER. XII . To heighten good smells by Composition . 'T IS well known to Perfumers , and is easie to be observed , that Amber-greece alone , though esteemed the best and richest perfume that is yet known in the world , has but a very faint and scarce a pleasant sent . And I remember , that I have seen some hundreds of ounces together newly brought from the East-Indies ; but if I had not been before acquainted with the smell of Amber-greece alone , and had had onely the vulgar conceit of it , that 't is the best and strongest of perfumes , my Nostrills would scarce have made me suspect those lumps to have been any thing a-kin to Amber-greece . But if a due proportion of Musk , or even Civet , be dexterously mixt with Amber , the latent fragrancy , though it be thereby somewhat compounded , will quickly be called forth , and exceedingly heightned . And indeed 't is not , as 't is commonly presumed , the plenty of the richest Ingredients , as Amber-greece and Musk , but the just proportion and skilful mixture of them , that makes the noblest and most lasting perfume , of which I have had sufficient experience ; so that with a far less quantity of Musk and Amber , than not onely ordinary persons , but Perfumers themselves are wont to imploy , we have had several Perfumes , that for fragrancy were much preferred to those where Musk and Amber-greece are so plentifully imployed . The proportions and ways of mixture we best approved of , would be too long , and are not necessary , to be here set down ; but you will not much erre in making use of such a proportion as this , viz. eight parts of Amber-greece , two of Musk , and one of Civet : which quantities of Ingredients if they be skilfully and exactly mingled , you will not miss of a good Composition , with which you may innoble other materials , as Benzoin , Storax , sweet Flowers , &c. fit to make Pastills , Ointments for Leather , Pomander , &c. And we may here add , that , upon the score of the new Texture acquired by Composition , some things , that are not fragrant themselves , may yet much heighten the fragrancy of Odoriferous bodies . And of liquid perfumes I remember , 't was the secret of some Court-Ladies , noted for Curiosity about perfumes , to mingle always a due proportion of Wine-vinegar with the odoriferous Ingredients . And on this occasion , to shew the power of mixtures in improving Odours , I shall add something about a Liquour of mine , that has had the good fortune to be very favourably spoken of by persons of Quality accustomed to choice Perfumes . This Liquour , though thought an elaborate preparation , as well for another reason , as to recommend it to some , whose Critical palates can tast the very titles of things , I called it Essence of Musk , is indeed a very plain simple preparation , which I thus make . I take an arbitrary Quantity of choice Musk without finely powdering it , and pour upon it about a finger's breadth of pure Spirit of Wine ; these in a Glass closely stopt I set in a quiet place to digest , without the help of any Furnace , and after some days , or a few weeks , ( according as Circumstances determined , ) the Spirit , which is somewhat odd , will in the cold have made a solution of the finest parts of the Musk , and will be thereby much tinged , but not of a red colour . This Liquour being decanted , I keep by it self as the richest of all ; and pour a like quantity of Spirit on the remaining Musk , which usually will in the cold , though more slowly , draw a tincture , but fainter than the former , which being poured off , the remaining Musk may be imployed for inferiour uses . Now that which made me mention this Preparation as pertinent to our present Subject , is this Phaenomenon of it , that the first essence , or rather tincture , being smelt to by it self , has but a faint , and not very pleasing , odour of Musk , so that every body would not discover that there was Musk in it ; but if a single drop , or two drops at most , were mixt with a pint , or perhaps a quart , of good Sack , the whole body of the Wine would presently acquire a considerably musky sent , and be so richly perfumed both as to tast and smell , as seemed strange enough to those that knew the vast disproportion of the Ingredients . FINIS . OF THE IMPERFECTION OF THE Chymist's DOCTRINE OF QUALITIES . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esq Fellow of the R. Society . LONDON , Printed by E. Flesher , for R. Davis Bookseller in Oxford . 1675. OF THE IMPERFCTION OF The Chymist's Doctrine OF QUALITIES . CHAP. I. SInce a great part of those Learned Men , especially Physicians , who have discerned the defects of the vulgar Philosophy , but are not yet come to understand and relish the Corpuscularian , have slid into the Doctrine of the Chymists ; and since the Spagyrists are wont to pretend to make out all the Qualities of bodies from the Predominancy of some one of their three Hypostatical Principles , I suppose it may both keep my opinion from appearing too presumptuous , and ( which is far more considerable ) may make way for the fairer Reception of the Mechanical Hypothesis about Qualities , if I here intimate ( though but briefly and in general ) some of those defects , that I have observed in Chymists Explications of Qualities . And I might begin with taking notice of the Obscurity of those Principles , which is no small defect in Notions whose proper office it should be to conduce to the illustration of others . For , how can that facilitate the understanding of an obscure Quality or Phaenomenon which is it self scarcely intelligible , or at least needs almost as much explanation as the thing 't is designed & pretended to explicate ? Now a man need not be very conversant in the writings of Chymists to observe , in how Laxe , Indefinite , and almost Arbitrary Senses they employ the Terms of Salt , Sulphur and Mercury ; of which I could never find that they were agreed upon any certain Definitions or setled Notions ; not onely differing Authors , but not unfrequently one and the same , and perhaps in the same Brook , employing them in very differing senses . But I will not give the Chymists any rise to pretend , that the chief fault that I find with their Hypothesis is but verbal ; though that it self may not a little blemish any Hypothesis , one of the first of whose Requisites ought to be Clearness ; and therefore I shall now advance and take notice of defects that are manifestly of another kind . And first the Doctrine that all their Theory is grounded on , seems to me Inevident and undemonstrated , not to say precarious . It is somewhat strange to me , that neither the Spagyrists themselves , nor yet their Adversaries , should have taken notice , that Chymists have rather supposed than evinced , that the Analysis of bodies by fire , or even that at least some Analysis is the onely instrument of investigating what Ingredients mixt bodies are made up of , since in divers cases That may be discovered by Composition as well as by Resolution ; as it may appear , that Vitriol consists of metalline parts ( whether Martial , or Venereal , or both ) associated by Coagulation with acid ones , one may , I say , discover this as well by making true Vitriol with Spirit ( improperly called Oil ) of Sulphur , or that of Salt , as by distilling or Resolving Vitriol by the fire . But I will not here enlarge on this subject , nor yet will I trouble you with what I have largely discoursed in the Sceptical Chymist , to call in question the grounds on which Chymists assert , that all mixt bodies are compounded of Salt , Sulphur , and Mercury . For it may suffice me now to tell you , that , whatsoever they may be able to obtain from other bodies , it does not appear by Experience , which is the grand , if not the onely , Argument they rely on , that all mixt bodies that have Qualities , consist of their tria prima , since they have not been able , that we know , truly , and without new Compositions , to resolve into those three , either Gold , or Silver , or Crystal , or Venetian Talck , or some other bodies , that I elsewhere name ; & yet these bodies are endowed with divers Qualities , as the two former with Fusibleness and Malleability , and all of them with Weight and Fixity ; so that in these and the like bodies , whence Chymists have not made it yet appear , that their Salt , Sulphur and Mercury , can be truly and adequately separated , 't will scarce be other than precarious , to derive the malleableness , colour , and other Qualities of such bodies from those Principles . Under this Head I consider also , that a great part of the Chymical Doctrine of Qualities is bottom'd on , or supposes , besides their newly questioned Analysis by fire , some other things , which , as far as I know , have not yet been well proved , and I question whether they ever will be . One of their main Suppositions is , that this or that Quality must have its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Sennertus , the Learnedst Champion of this opinion , calls it , or some particular material Principle , to the participation of which , as of the primary native and genuine subject , all other bodies must owe it : But upon this point having purposely discoursed elsewhere , I shall now onely observe , that , not to mention Local motion and Figure , I think 't will be hard to shew , what is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Gravity , Volatility , Heat , Sonorousness , Transparency and Opacity , which are Qualities to be indifferently met with in bodies whether simple or mixt . And whereas the Spagyrists are wont to argue , that , because this or that Quality is not to be derived truly from this or that particular Principle , as Salt , for instance , and Mercury ; therefore it must needs be derivable from the third , as Sulphur . This way of arguing involves a farther Supposition than that newly examined . For it implies , that every Quality in a compounded body must arise from some one of the tria prima , whereas experience assures us , that bodies may , by Composition , obtain Qualities , that were not to be found in any of the separate Ingredients . As we see in painting , that though blew and yellow be neither of them green , yet their mixture will be so . And though no single Sound will make an octave or diapason ; yet two sounds , whose proportion is double , will have an eighth . And Tinn and Copper melted and mingled together in a due proportion , will make a bell-metal far more sonorous than either of them was before . 'T is obvious enough for Chymists themselves to observe , that , though Lead be an insipid body , and Spirit of Vinegar a very sharp one , yet Saccharum Saturni , that is compounded out of these two , has a sweetness that makes it not ill deserve its name . But this ill-grounded Supposition of the Chymists , is extended farther in an usual Topic of theirs , according to which they conclude , That I know not how many Qualities , as well manifest as occult , must be explicated by their tria prima , because they are not explicable by the four elements of the Peripateticks . To make which argumentation valid , it must be proved , ( which I fear it will never be ) that there are no other wayes , by which those Qualities may be explicated , but by a determinate number of Material Principles , whether four or three : Besides that , till they have shewn that such Qualities may be intelligibly explicated by their Principles , the objection will lye as strong for the Aristotelians against them , as for them against the Aristotelians . CHAP. II. NExt I consider , that there are divers Qualities even in mixt bodies , wherein it does not appear , that the use of the Chymical Doctrine is Necessary . As , for instance , when pure Gold is by Heat onely brought to fusion , and consequently to the state of fluidity , and upon the remission of that heat , grows a solid and consistent body again , what addition or expulsion or change of any of the tria prima does appear to be the cause of this change of consistence ? Which is easie to be accounted for according to the Mechanical way , by the vehement agitation that the fire makes of the minute parts of the Gold to bring it to fusion ; and the cohesion of those parts , by vertue of their gravity and fitness to adhere to one another , when that agitation ceases . When Venice Glass is meerly by being beaten to pouder deprived of its Transparency and turned into a body opacous and white , what need or use of the tria prima have we in the explication of this Phaenomenon ? Or of that other which occurs , when by barely melting down this white and opacous body it is deprived of its opacity and colour , and becomes diaphanous ? And of this sort of Instances you will meet with divers in the following Notes about particular Qualities ; for which reason I shall forbear the mention of them here . CHAP. III. I Observe too , that the Spagyrical Doctrine of Qualities is Insufficient and too narrow to reach to all the Phaenomena or even to all the notable ones , that ought to be explicable by them . And this Insufficiency I find to be two-fold ; for , first , there are divers Qualities , of which Chymists will not so much as attempt to give us explications , and of other particular Qualities the explications , such as they are that they give us , are often very deficient and unsatisfactory ; and do not sometimes so much as take notice of divers considerable Phaenomena that belong to the Qualities whereof they pretend to give an account ; of which you will meet with divers Instances in the insuing Notes . And therefore I shall onely , ( to declare my meaning the better , ) invite you to observe with me , that though Gold be the body they affect to be most conversant with ; yet it will be very hard to shew , how the specific weight of Gold can be deduced from any or all of the three Principles , since Mercury it self , that is of bodies , known to us , the heaviest next to Gold , is so much lighter than Gold , that , whereas I have usually found Mercury to be to an equal weight of water , somewhat , though little , less than fourteen to one , I find pure Gold to be about nineteen times as heavy as so much water . Which will make it very difficult , not to say impossible for them to explain , how Gold should barely by participating of Mercury , which is a body much lighter than it self , obtain that great specific gravity we find it to have ; for the two other Hypostatical Principles , we know , are far lighter than Mercury . And I think it would much puzzle the Chymists , to give us any examples of a compounded body , that is specifically heavier than the heaviest of the Ingredients that it is made up of . And this is the first kind of Insufficiency I was taking notice of in the Chymical Doctrine of Qualities . The other is , That there are several bodies which the most Learned among themselves confess not to consist of their tria prima , and yet are indowed with Qualities , which consequently are not in those subjects to be explicated by the tria prima which are granted not to be found in them . Thus elementary Water , though never so pure , ( as distilled Rain-water , ) has fluidity and coldness and humidity and transparency and volatility , without having any of the tria prima . And the purest Earth , as Ashes carefully freed from the fixt salt , has gravity and consistence and dryness and colour and fixity , without owing them either to Salt , Sulphur , or Mercury ; not to mention , that there are Celestial bodies which do not appear , nor are wont to be pretended , to consist of the tria prima , that yet are indowed with Qualities . As the Sun has Light , and as many Philosophers think , Heat , and Colour ; and the Moon has a determinate consistence and figuration , ( as appears by her mountains ) and Astronomers observe , that the higher Planets and even the Fixt stars appear to be differingly coloured . But I shall not multiply Instances of this kind , because what I have said , may not onely serve for my present purpose , but bring a great Confirmation to what I lately said , when I noted , that the Chymical Principles were in many cases not necessary to explicate Qualities : For since in Earth , Water , &c. such diffused Qualities , as gravity , sixtness , colour , transparency and fluidity , must be acknowledged not to be derived from the tria prima ; 't is plain , that portions of matter may be endowed with such Qualities by other causes and agents than Salt , Sulphur and Mercury . And then why should we deny , that also in compounded bodies those Qualities may be ( sometimes at least ) produced by the same or the like Causes ? As we see , that the reduction of a diaphanous Solid to pouder , produces whiteness , whether the comminution happens to Rock-crystal or to Venice-glass , or to Ice : The first of which is acknowledged to be a natural and perfectly mixt body ; the second a factitious and not onely mixt but decompounded body ; and the last , for ought appears , an elementary body , or at most very slightly and imperfectly mixt . And so by mingling Air in small portions with a diaphanous Liquor , as we do when we beat such a Liquor into foam , a whiteness is produced , as well in pure Water , which is acknowledged to be a simple body , as in white Wine , which is reckoned among perfectly mixt bodies . CHAP. IV. I Further observe , that the Chymists Explications do not reach deep and far enough . For first , most of them are not sufficiently distinct and full , so as to come home to the particular Phaenomena , nor often times so much as to all the grand ones , that belong to the History of the Qualities they pretend to explicate . You will readily believe , that a Chymist will not easily make out by his Salt , Sulphur , and Mercury , why a Load-stone capp'd with steel may be made to take up a great deal more Iron , sometimes more than eight or ten times as much , than if it be immediatly applied to the iron ; or why , if one end of the Magnetic Needle is dispos'd to be attracted by the North-pole , for instance , of the Load-stone , the other Pole of the Load-stone will not attract it but drive it away : or , why a bar or rod of iron , being heated red-hot and cooled perpendicularly , will with its lower end drive away the flower de Luce , or the North-end of a Marriners Needle , which the upper end of the same barr or rod will not repell but draw to it . In short , of above threescore Properties or notable Phaenomena of Magnetic Bodies , that some Writers have reckon'd up , I do not remember that any three have been by Chymists so much as attempted to be solved by their three Principles . And even in those Qualities , in whose explications these Principles may more probably than elsewhere pretend to have a place , the Spagyrists accounts are wont to fall so short of being distinct and particular enough , that they use to leave divers considerable Phaenomena untouch'd , and do but very lamely or slightly explicate the more obvious or familiar . And I have so good an opinion of divers of the embracers of the Spagyrical Theory of Qualities ( among whom I have met with very Learned and worthy men ) that I think , that if a Quality being pos'd to them , they were at the same time presented with a good Catalogue of the Phaenomena , that they may take , in the History of it , as it were with one view , they would plainly perceive that there are more particulars to be accounted for , than at first they were aware of ; and divers of them such , as may quite discourage considering men from taking upon them to explain them all by the Tria prima , and oblige them to have recourse to more Catholic and comprehensive Principles . I know not , whether I may not add on this occasion , that , methinks , a Chymist , who by the help of his Tria Prima , takes upon him to interpret that Book of Nature of which the Qualities of bodies make a great part , acts at but a little better rate than he , that seeing a great book written in a Cypher , whereof he were acquainted but with three Letters , should undertake to decypher the whole piece . For though 't is like , he would in many words find one of the Letters of his short key , and in divers words two of them , and perhaps in some all three ; yet , besides that in most of the words wherein the known Letter or Letters may be met with , they may be so blended with other unknown Letters as to keep him from decyphering a good part of those very words , 't is more than probable , that a great part of the book would consist of words wherein none of his three Letters were to be found . CHAP. V. AND this is the first account , on which I observe that the Chymical Theory of Qualities does not reach far enough : But there is another branch of its deficiency . For even , when the explications seem to come home to the Phaenomena , they are not primary , and , if I may so speak , Fontal enough . To make this appear , I shall at present imploy but these two Considerations . The first is , that those substances themselves , that Chymists call their Principles , are each of them indowed with several Qualities . Thus Salt is a consistent , not a fluid , body ; it has its weight , 't is dissoluble in water , is either diaphanous or opacous , fixt or volatile , sapid or insipid ; ( I speak thus disjunctively , because Chymists are not all agreed about these things ; and it concerns not my Argument , which of the disputable Qualities be resolved upon . ) And Sulphur , according to them , is a body fusible , inflammable , &c. and , according to Experience , is consistent , heavy , &c. So that 't is by the help of more primary and general Principles , that we must explicate some of those Qualities , which being found in bodies , supposed to be perfectly similar or homogeneous , cannot be pretended to be derived in one of them from the other . And to say , that 't is the nature of a Principle to have this or that Quality , as , for instance , of Sulphur to be fusible , and therefore we are not to exact a Reason why it is so ; though I could say much by way of answer , I shall now only observe , that this Argument is grounded but upon a supposition , and will be of no force , if from the primary affections of bodies one may deduce any good Mechanical Explication of Fusibility in the general , without necessarily supposing such a Primigeneal Sulphur , as the Chymists fancy , or deriving it from thence in other bodies . And indeed , since not only Salt-peter , Sea salt , Vitriol and Allum , but Salt of Tartar , and the Volatile Salt of Urine are all of them fusible ; I do not well see , how Chymists can derive the fusibleness even of Salts obtained by their own analysis ( such as Salt of Tartar and of Urine ) from the participation of the Sulphureous Ingredient ; especially since , if such an attempt should be made , it would overthrow the Hypothesis of three Simple bodies , whereof they will have all mixt ones to be compounded ; and still 't would remain to be explicated , upon what account the Principle , that is said to endow the other with such a Quality , comes to be endowed therewith it self . For 't is plain , that a mass of Sulphur is not an Atomical or Adamantine body ; but consists of a multitude of Corpuscles of determinate Figures , and connected after a determinate manner : so that it may be reasonably demanded , why such a Convention of particles , rather than many another that does not , constitutes a fusible body . CHAP. VI. AND this leads me to a further Consideration , which makes me look upon the Chymists explications as not deep and radical enough ; and it is this , that , when they tell us , for instance , that the fusibleness of bodies proceeds from Sulphur , in case they say true , they do but tell us what material Ingredient 't is that being mingled with and dispers'd through the other parts of a body , makes it apt to melt : But this does not intelligibly declare , what it is that makes a portion of matter fusible , and how the sulphureous Ingredient introduces that disposition into the rest of the mass , wherewith 't is commixt or united . And yet 't is such explications as these , that an inquisitive Naturalist chiefly looks after , and which I therefore call Philosophical . And to shew , that there may be more Fontal explications , I shall only observe , that , not to wander from our present instance , Sulphur it self is fusible . And therefore , as I lately intimated , Fusibility , which is not the Quality of one Atome , or Particle , but of an Aggregate of Particles , ought it self to be accounted for in that Principle , before the Fusibleness of all other bodies be derived from it . And 't will in the following notes appear , that in Sulphur it self that Quality may be probably deduced from the convention of Corpuscles of determinate shapes and sizes , contexed or connected after a convenient manner . And if either nature , or art , or chance , should bring together particles endowed with the like Mechanical Affections , and associate them after the like manner , the resulting body would be fusible , though the component particles had never been parts of the Chymists primordial sulphur : And such particles so convening might perhaps have made Sulphur it self , though before there had been no such body in the world . And what I say to those Chymists , that make the sulphureous Ingredient the cause of fusibility , may easily , mutatis mutandis , be applied to their Hypothesis , that rather ascribe that quality to the Mercurial or the Saline Principle , and consequently cannot give a rational account of the fusibility of Sulphur . And therefore though I readily allow ( as I shall have afterwards occasion to declare ) that Sulphur , or an other of the tria prima , may be met with , and even abound in several bodies endowed with the quality that is attributed to their participation of that Principle ; yet that this may be no certain sign that the propos'd Quality must flow from that Ingredient , you may perhaps be assisted to discern by this illustration , That if Tin be duly mixt with Copper or Gold , or , as I have tried , with Silver or Iron , it will make them very brittle ; and it is also an Ingredient of divers other bodies that are likewise brittle , as blew , green , white , and otherwise colour'd , Amels , which are usually made of calcin'd Tin ( which the Tradesmen call Puttee , ) colliquated with the Ingredients of Crystal-glass and some small portion of Mineral pigment . But though in all the above-named brittle bodies , Tin be a considerable Ingredient ; yet 't were very unadvised to affirm , that Brittleness in general proceeds from Tin. For provided the solid parts of consistent bodies touch one another but according to small portions of their surfaces , and be not implicated by their contexture , the Metalline or other Composition may be brittle , though there be no Tin at all in it . And in effect , the materials of glass being brought to fusion will compose a brittle body , as well when there is no Puttee colliquated with them , as when there is . Calcin'd Lead by the action of the fire may be melted into a brittle mass , and even into transparent Glass , without the help of Tin or any other additament . And I need not add , that there are a multitude of other bodies , that cannot be pretended to owe their brittleness to any participation of Tin , of which they have no need , if the matter they consist of wants not the requisite Mechanical Dispositions . And here I shall venture to add , that the way employed by the Chymists , as well as the Peripateticks , of accounting for things by the Ingredients , whether Elements , Principles , or other bodies , that they suppose them to consist of , will often frustrate the Naturalists expectation of events , which may frequently prove differing from what he promis'd himself , upon the Consideration of the Qualities of each Ingredient . For the ensuing Notes contain divers Instances , wherein there emerges a new Quality differing from , or even contrary to , any that is conspicuous in the Ingredients ; as two transparent bodies may make an opacous mixture , a yellow body and a blew , one that is green , two malleable bodies , a brittle one , two actually cold bodies , a hot one , two fluid bodies , a consistent one , &c. And as this way of judging by material Principles hinders the foreknowledg of Events from being certain ; so it much more hinders the assignation of Causes from being satisfactory ; so that perhaps some would not think it very rash to say , that those who judg of all mixt bodies as Apothecaries do of Medicines , barely by the Qualities and Proportions of the Ingredients ( such as among the Aristotelians are the four Elements , and among the Chymists the tria prima , ) do , as if one should pretend to give an account of the Phaenomena and operations of Clocks and Watches , and their Diversities by this , That some are made of brass wheels , some of iron , some have plain ungilt wheels , others of wheels overlaid with Gold , some furnished with gut-strings , others with little chains , &c. and that therefore the Qualities and Predominancies of these metalls that make parts of the Watch , ought to have ascribed to them , what indeed flows from their Coordination and Contrivance . CHAP. VII . THE last defect I observe in the Chymical Doctrine of Qualities , is , that in many cases it agrees not well with the Phaenomena of Nature , and that by one or both of these ways . First , there are divers changes of Qualities , wherein one may well expect , that a Chymical Principle should have a great stroak , and yet it does not at all appear to have so . He that considers , what great operations divers of the Hermeticks ascribe to this or that Hypostatical Principle , and how many Qualities according to them must from it be derived , can scarce do other than expect , that a great change as to those Qualities happening in a mixt body , should at least be accompany'd with some notable action of , or alteration in the Principle . And yet I have met with many instances , wherein Qualities are produced , or abolished , or very much altered , without any manifest introduction , expulsion , or considerable change of the Principle , whereon that Quality is said to depend , or perhaps of either of the two others : As when a piece of fine silver , that having been neald in the fire , and suffer'd to cool leisurely , is very flexible , is made stiff and hard to bend , barely by a few stroaks of a hammer . And a string of a Lute acquires or loses a sympathy , as they call it , with another string of the same or another Instrument , barely by being either stretched so as to make an Unison with it , or screw'd up or let down beyond or beneath that degree of Tension . To multiply instances of this kind would be to anticipate those , you will hereafter meet with in their due places . And therefore I shall pass on from the first sort of Phaenomena , that favour not the Chymical Hypothesis about Qualities , to the other which consists of those , wherein either that does not happen which according to their Hypothesis ought to happen , or the contrary happens to what according to their Hypothesis may justly be expected . Of this you will meet with instances hereafter ; I shall now trouble you but with one , the better to declare my meaning . 'T is not unknown to those Chymists , that work much in Silver and in Copper , that the former will endure Ignition and become red-hot in the fire , before it will be brought to fusion ; and the latter is yet far more difficult to be melted down than the other ; yet if you separately dissolve those two metalls in Aqua fortis , and by evaporation reduce them to Crystalls , these will be brought to fusion in a very little time , and with a very moderate Heat , without breaking the glasses that contain them . If you ask a vulgar Chymist the cause of this facility of fusion , he will probably tell you without scruple , that 't is from the saline parts of the Aqua fortis , which , being imbodied in the metals and of a very fusible nature , impart that easiness of fusion to the metals they are mixt with . According to which plausible explication one might well expect , that , if the saline Corpuscles were exquisitly mingled with Tin , they would make it far more fusible than of it self it is . And yet , as I have elsewhere noted , when I put Tin into a convenient quantity of Aqua fortis , the metal being corroded , subsided , as is usual , in the form of whites of eggs , which being well dried , the Tinn was so far from being grown more fusible by the addition of the saline particles of the Menstruum , that , whereas 't is known that simple Tin will melt long before it come to be red-hot , this prepar'd Tin would endure for a good while not only a thorow ignition , but the blast of a pair of double bellows , ( which we usually imploy'd to melt Silver and Copper it self , ) without being at all brought to fusion . And as for those Spagyrists that admit , as most of them are granted to do , that all kinds of metals may be turned into Gold by a very small proportion of what they call the Philosophers Elixir , one may I think shew them from their own concessions , that divers Qualities may be changed even in such constant bodies as Metals , without the addition of any considerable proportion of the simple Ingredients , to which they are wont to ascribe those Qualities ; provided the Agent , ( as an efficient rather than as a material Cause , ) be able to make a great change in the Mechanical affections of the parts whereof the metal it acts on is made up . Thus if we suppose a pound of Silver , a pound of Lead , and a pound of Iron to be transmuted into Gold , each by a grain of the powder of projection , this tinging powder , as a material Cause is inconsiderable , by reason of the smaliness of its bulk , and as an efficient cause it works differing and even contrary effects , according to the disposition , wherein it finds the metal to be transmuted , and the changes it produces in the constituent Texture of it . Thus it brings Quick-silver to be fixt , which it was not before , and deprives it of the Fluidity which it had before ; it brings Silver to be indissolvable in Aqua fortis , which readily dissolved it before , and dissoluble in Aqua Regis , which before would not touch it ; and which is very considerable to our present purpose , whereas it makes Iron much more susible than Mars , it makes Lead much less fusible than whilest it retained its pristine form , since Saturn melts ere it come to ignition , which Gold requires to bring it to fusion . But this is proposed only as an Argument ad hominem , till the Truth of the transmutation of metals into Gold , by way of projection , be sufficiently proved , and the circumstances and phaenomena of it particularly declared . I must not forget to take notice , that some learned modern Chymists would be thought to explicate divers of the Changes that happen to Bodies in point of Odours , Colours , &c. by saying that in such alterations the Sulphur or other Hypostatical Principle is intraverted or extraverted , or , as others speak , inverted . But I confess , to me these seem to be rather new terms then real explications . For , to omit divers of the Arguments mentioned in this present Treatise , that may be applied to this way of solving the Phaenomena of Qualities , one may justly object , that the supposed Extraversion or Intraversion of Sulphur can by no means reach to give an account of so great a variety of Odours , Colours , and other Qualities as may be found in the changed portions of matter we are speaking of . And which is more , what they call by these and the like names , cannot be done without Local motion transposing the particles of the matter , and consequently producing in it a change of Texture , which is the very thing we would infer , and which being supposed , we may grant Sulphur to be oftentimes actually present in the altered Bodies , without allowing it to be always necessary to produce the alterations in them , since Corpuscles so condition'd and contex'd would perform such Effects , whether Sulphur , as such , did , or did not , make up the subject-matter of the Change. And now I shall conclude , and partly recapitulate what has been delivered in this and the two foregoing Chapters , with this summary consideration , That the Chymist's Salt , Sulphur and Mercury themselves are not the first and most simple Principles of Bodies , but rather primary Concretions of Corpuscles or Particles more simple than they , as being endowed only with the first , or most radical ( if I may so speak ) and most Catholick Affections of simple Bodies , namely Bulk , Shape , and Motion , or Rest ; by the different Conventions or Coalitions of which minutest portions of matter are made those differing Concretions that Chymists name Salt , Sulphur and Mercury . And to this Doctrine it will be consonant , that several Effects of this or that Spagyrical Principle need not be derived from Salt , for instance , or Sulphur as such , but may be explained by the help of some of those Corpuscles that I have lately call'd more Simple and Radical ; and such Explications being more simple and Mechanical , may be thought upon that score more fundamental and satisfactory . CHAP. VIII . I Know it may be objected in favour of the Chymists , that as their Hypostatical Principles , Salt , Sulphur and Mercury , are but three , so the Corpuscularian Principles are but very few ; and the chief of them Bulk , Size , and Motion , are but three neither ; so that it appears not why the Chymical Principles should be more barren than the Mechanical . To which allegation I answer , that , besides that these last nam'd Principles are more numerous , as taking in the Posture , Order , and Scituation , the Rest , and , above all , the almost infinitely diversifiable Contextures of the small parts , and the thence resulting structures of particular bodies , and fabrick of the world : Besides this , I say , each of the three Mechanical Principles , specified in the objection , though but one in name , is equivalent to many in effect ; as Figure , for instance , comprehends not only Triangles , Squares , Rhombusses , Rhomboids , Trapezions , and a multitude of Polygons , whether ordinate or irregular ; but , besides Cubes , Prismes , Cones , Spheres , Cylinders , Pyramids , and other Solids of known Denominations , a scarce numerable multitude of hooked , branched , Eel-like , screw-like , and other irregular bodies ; whereof though these , and some others , have distinct appellations , yet the greatest part are nameless ; so that it need be no wonder , that I should make the Mechanical Principles so much more fertile , that is , applicable to the production and explication of a far greater number of Phaenomena , than the Chymical ; which , whilest they are considered but as similar bodies , that are Ingredients of mixt and compounded ones , are chiefly variable but by the greater or lesser quantity that is employed by Nature or Art to make up the mixt body . And Painters observe , that Black and White , though mixt in differing Proportions , will still make but lighter and darker grays . And if it be said , that these Ingredients , by the Texture resulting from their mixtures , may acquire Qualities that neither of them had before ; I shall answer , that , to alledge this , is in effect to confess , that they must take in the Mechanical Principles , ( for to them belongs the Texture or Structure of bodies ) to assist the Chymical ones . And on this occasion , to borrow an illustration from our unpublished Dialogue of the Requisites of a good Hypothesis , I shall add , that a Chymist that should pretend , that because his three Principles are as many as those of the Corpuscularians , they are as sufficient as these to give an account of the Book of Nature , methinks , I say , he would do like a man that should pretend , that with four and twenty words he would make up a language as well as others can with the four and twenty Letters of the Alphabet , because he had as many words already formed , as they had of bare Letters ; not considering that instead of the small number of variations that can be made of his words by Prepositions and Terminations , the Letters of the Alphabet being variously combined , placed and reiterated , can be easily made to compose not only his four and twenty words , with their variations , but as many others as a whole language contains . CHAP. IX . NOtwithstanding all that I have been obliged to say to the Disadvantage of the Chymical Principles , in reference to the Explication of Qualities , I would not be thought to grant , that the Peripateticks have reason to triumph , as if their four Elements afforded a better Theory of Qualities . For , if I had , together with leisure enough to perform such a Task , any obligation to undertake it , I presume , it would not be difficult to shew , that the Aristotelian Doctrine about particular Qualities is liable to some of the same Objections with the Chymical , and to some others no less considerable ; and that , to derive all the Phaenomena their Doctrine ought to solve from Substantial Forms and real Qualities Elementary , is to impose on us a Theory more barren and precarious than that of the Spagyrists . That to derive the particular Qualities of bodies from those Substantial Forms , whence the Schools would have them to flow , is but an insufficient and unfit way of accounting for them , may appear by this , that Substantial Forms themselves are things , whose existence many Learned Philosophers deny , whose Theory many of them think Incomprehensible , and the most Candid and Judicious of the Peripateticks themselves confess it to be very abstruse ; so that from such doubtful and obscure Principles we can hardly expect clear Explications of the nature and Phaenomena of Qualities ; not to urge , that the Aristotelian Definitions , both of Qualities in general , and of divers of the more familiar Qualities in particular , as Heat , Cold , Moisture , Diaphaneity , &c. are far enough from being clear and well framed , as we elsewhere have occasion to shew . Another thing , which makes the Scholastic Doctrine of Qualities unsatisfactory , is , that it seldom so much as attempts to teach the Manner how the Qualities themselves and their Effects or Operations are produced . Of this you may elsewhere find an Instance given in the Quality that is wont to be first in the list , viz that of Heat , which though it may intelligibly and probably be explicated by the Corpuscular Hypothesis , yet in the Peripatetic account that is given of it , is both too questionable and too superficial to give much Content to a Rational Inquirer . And indeed to say , that a Substantial Form ( as that of the Fire ) acts by a Quality ( call'd Heat ) whose Nature 't is to produce such an effect ( as to soften Wax or harden Clay ) seems to be no other in substance , than to say , that it produces such an effect by some power it has to produce it . But what that power is , and how it operates , is that , which , though we most desire to know , we are left to seek . But to prosecute the Imperfections of the Peripatetick Hypothesis , were to intrench upon another discourse , where they are more fully laid open . And therefore I shall now but lightly glance upon a couple of imperfections , that more particularly relate to the Doctrine of Qualities . And first I do not think it a Convincing Argument that is wont to be imployed by the Aristotelians for their Elements , as well as by the Chymists for their Principles , that , because this or that Quality , which they ascribe to an Element or a Principle , is found in this or that body , which they call mixt , therefore it must owe that Quality to the participation of that Principle or Element . For , the same Texture of parts or other modification of matter may produce the like Quality in the more simple and the more compounded body , and they may both separately derive it from the same Cause , and not one from the Participation of the other . So Water and Earth and Metals and Stones , &c. are heavy upon the account of the common Cause of Gravity , and not because the rest partake of the Earth ; as may appear in Elementary water , which is as simple a body as it , and yet is heavy : So water and oil , and exactly deflegm'd Spirit of Wine , and Mercury , and also Metals and Glass of Antimony , and Minium or calcin'd Lead , whilest these three are in fusion are fluid , being made so by the variously determined motions of their minute parts and other Causes of Fluidity , and not by the participation of water , since the arid Calces of Lead and Antimony are not like to have retained in the fire so volatile a liquor as water , and since Fluidity is a Quality that Mercury enjoys in a more durable manner than Water it self : For that metalline liquor , as also Spirit of Wine well Rectified , will not be brought to freeze with the highest degree of Cold of our sharpest winters , though a far less degree of Cold would make water cease to be fluid and turn it into Ice . To this I shall only add ( in the second place , ) that 't is not unpleasant to see , how arbitrarily the Peripateticks derive the Qualities of bodies from their four Elements , as if , to give an instance in the lately named Quality , Liquidity , you shew them exactly deflegmed Spirit of Wine , and ask them , whence it has its great Fluidness , they will tell you from water , which yet is far less fluid than it , and this spirit of wine it self is much less so than the flame into which the spirit of wine is easily resoluble . But if you ask , whence it becomes totally inflammable , they must tell you , from the fire ; and yet the whole body , at least as far as sense can discover , is fluid , and the whole body becomes flame , ( and then is most fluid of all ; ) so that fire and water as contrary as they make them , must both be by vast odds predominant in the same body . This spirit of wine also , being a liquor whose least parts that are sensible are actually heavy , and compose a Liquor which is seven or eight hundred times as heavy as Air of the same bulk , which yet experience shews not to be devoid of weight , must be supposed to abound with Earthy particles , and yet this spirituous liquor may in a trice become Flame , which they would have to be the lightest body in the world . But , to enlarge on this subject , would be to forget , that the design of this Tract engages me to deal not with the Peripatetic School , but the Spagyrical . To which I shall therefore return , and give you this advertisement about it , that what I have hitherto objected is meant against the more common and received Doctrine about the Material Principles of bodies reputed mixt , as 't is wont by vulgar Chymists to be applied to the rendring an account of the Qualities of substances Corporeal ; and therefore I pretend not , that the past objections should conclude against other Chymical Theories than that which I was concerned to question . And if adept Philosophers , ( supposing there be such ) or any other more than ordinarily Intelligent Spagyrists , shall propose any particular Hypotheses , differing from those that I have questioned , as their Doctrine and Reasons are not yet known to me ; so I pretend not that the past Arguments should conclude against them , and am willing to think , that Persons advantaged with such peculiar opportunities to dive into the Mysteries of Nature , will be able to give us , if they shall please , a far better account of the Qualities of bodies than what is wont to be proposed by the generality of Chymists . Thus , dear Pyrophilus , I have laid before you some of the chief Imperfections I have observed in the vulgar Chymists Doctrine of Qualities , and consequently I have given you some of the chief Reasons that hinder me from acquiescing in it . And as my objections are not taken from the Scholastical subtleties nor the doubtful speculations of the Peripateticks or other Adversaries of the Hermetick Philosophy , but from the nature of things and from Chymical experiments themselves ; so I hope , if any of your Spagyrical friends have a minde to convince me , he will attempt to doe it by the most proper way , which is , by actually giving us clear and particular explications , at least of the grand Phaenomena of Qualities ; which , if he shall do , he will find me very ready to acquiesce in a Truth that comes usher'd in , and endear'd by so acceptable and useful a thing , as a Philosophical Theory of Qualities . FINIS . REFLECTIONS UPON THE Hypothesis OF ALCALI and ACIDUM . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esq Fellow of the R. Society . LONDON , Printed by E. Flesher , for R. Davis Bookseller in Oxford . 1675. THough the following Discourse was at first written by way of Appendix to the Treatise of the Imperfection of the Chymical Doctrine of Qualities ; yet the bulk of it , swelling beyond what was foreseen , made it seem expedient to publish it as a Tract by it self . REFLECTIONS UPON THE Hypothesis OF Alcali and Acidum . CHAP. I. I Presume , it will not be difficult to discern , that much of what has been said about the Imperfection of the vulgar Chymical Doctrine concerning Qualities , may with easie variations be applied to some other Hypotheses that are of kin to that Doctrine , and particularly to their Theory , that would derive both the Qualities of Bodies and the rest of the Phaenomena of Nature from what they call Acidum and Alcali . For though these two differences may be met with in a great number and variety of bodies , and consequently the Consideration of them may frequently enough be of good use , ( especially to Spagyrists , and Physitians , when they are conversant about the secondary and ( if I may so call them ) Chymical Causes and Operations of divers mixt bodies ; ) yet I confess I cannot acquiesce in this Hypothesis of Alkali and Acidum , in the latitude , wherein I find it urged and applied by the Admirers of it , as if it could be usefully substituted in the place of Matter and Motion . The Hypothesis , being in a sort subordinate to that of the tria prima , in ascribing to two contrary saline Principles what vulgar Chymists do to their Salt , Sulphur , and Mercury ; most of the objections we have made against the vulgar Chymical Doctrine , may , as I lately intimated , be applied , by a little variation , to this , and therefore I shall need but to touch upon the main things that keep me from acquiescing in this Hypothesis . CHAP. II. AND first , it seems precarious to affirm , that in all bodies , or even in all the sensible parts of mixts , Acid and Alcalizate parts are found ; there not having been , that I know , any Experimental Induction made of particulars any thing near numerous enough to make out so great an assertion , and in divers bodies , wherein Experience is vouch'd for the inexistence of these Principles , that Inexistence is indeed proved not by direct and clear experience , but upon a supposition , that such and such effects flow from the operations of the assumed Principles . Some Spagyrists , when they see Aqua fortis dissolve Filings of Copper , conclude from thence , that the Acid spirits of the Menstruum meet in the metal with an Alcali upon which they work ; which is but an unsafe way of arguing , since good Spirit of Urin , which they take to be a volatile Alcali , and which will make a great Conflict with Aqua fortis , will , as I have elsewhere noted , dissolve filings of Copper both readily enough and more genuinly than the Acid liquor is wont to do . So when they see the Magistery of Pearl or Coral , made by dropping oil of Tartar into the solutions of those bodies made with spirit of Vinegar , they ascribe the Precipitation to the fixt Alcali of the Tartar , that mortifies the Acidity of the spirit of Vinegar ; whereas the Precipitation would no less insue , if , instead of Alcalizat oil of Tartar , we imploy that highly acid liquor which they call Oleum Sulphuris per Campanam . I think also it may be doubted , whether those , I reason with , are so certain as they suppose , that at least when they can manifestly discover an Acid , for instance , in a body , the operation of that body upon another , which they judge to abound with an Alcali , must be the effect of a Conflict between those two jarring Principles , or , if I may so call them , Duellists . For an Acid body may do many things , not simply as an acid , but on the score of a Texture or modification , which endows it with other Qualities as well as Acidity , whose being associated with those other Qualities in some cases may be but accidental to the effect to be produced ; since by one or more of these other Qualities the body may act in cases , where Prejudice may make a Chymist consider nothing but Acidity . Thus when some Chymists see an acid Menstruum , as Aqua fortis , spirit of Salt , oil of Vitriol , &c. dissolve Iron , they presently ascribe the effect to an Acidity of the liquors , whereas well dephlegmed Urinous Spirits , which they hold to have a great Antipathy to Acids , will , as I have tried in some of them , readily enough dissolve crude Iron even in the Cold. And on the other side , Mercury will not work on the filings of Iron , though this be so open a metal that even weak liquors will do it ; and yet if one should urge , that Quicksilver readily dissolves Gold in Amalgamation , he may expect to be told , according to their Doctrine , that Mercury has in it an occult acid , by which it performs the solution ; whereas it seems much more probable , that Mercury has Corpuscles of such a shape and size as fit them to insinuate themselves into the Commensurate Pores they meet with in Gold , but make them unfit to enter readily the Pores of Iron , to which Nature has not made them congruous ; as on the other side the saline Corpuscles of Aqua fortis will easily find admission into the Pores of Iron , but not into those of Gold , to which they do not correspond as they do to the others . And when a knife , whose blade is touched with a Load-stone , cuts bread and takes up filings of Iron , it does neither of them upon the score of Alcali and Acidum , but the one upon the visible shape and the stiffness of the blade , and the other upon the latent Contrivance or change of Texture produced by the operation of the Load-stone in the particles that compose the Steel . This may perhaps be farther illustrated by adding , that when blew Vitriol , being beaten and finely searced , makes a white pouder , that whiteness is a quality which the pouder has not as being of a Vitriolate Nature . For Rock-Crystal or Venice-glass being finely beaten will have the same operation on the Eye , but it proceeds from the transparency of the body and the minuteness , multitude and confus'd scituation of the Corpuscles that make up the Pouder . And therefore , if other bodies be brought by Comminution into parts endow'd with such Mechanical affections , as we have named ; these aggregates will act upon the organs of Sight as white bodies . CHAP. III. AND this leads me to another Exception against the Hypothesis of the Duellists , which is , that the Framers of it seem arbitrarily to have assigned Provinces or Offices to each of their two Principles , as the Chymists do to each of their tria prima , and the Peripateticks to each of their Four Elements . For 't is not enough to Say , that an Acid , for instance , as such , performs these things , and an Alkali so many others , that they divide the Operations and Phaenomena of nature , or at least ( as some , more cautious , are content to say ) of mixt bodies between them ; since Assertions of such great moment ought not to be advanc'd or received without sufficient Proof . And perhaps the very distribution of Salts into Acids and Alcalies hath somewhat of arbitrary in it , since others may , without assuming much more , take the freedom to distribute them otherwise , there being not only several things wherein Acids and Alcalies agree , but also several things wherein Salts of the same denomination widely differ . As , for Instance , some Alkalies , according to those I reason with , are , like salt of Tartar , fixt , and will endure the violence of the fire ; others , like salt of Urin or Harts-horn , are exceedingly fugitive , and will be driven up with a scarce sensible degree of Heat ; some , as salt of Tartar , will precipitate the solution of Sublimate into an Orange-tawny ; others , as spirit of Blood and Harts-horn , precipitate such a solution into a milky substance . Oil of Tartar will very slowly operate upon filings of Copper , which Spirit of Urin and Harts-horn will readily dissolve in the Fire . And among Acids themselves the difference is no less if not much greater . Some of them will dissolve bodies that others will not , as Aqua fortis will dissolve Silver and Mercury , but leave Gold untouched ; or as Aqua Regis , though made without Sal Armoniac that dissolves Gold readily , will dissolve Mercury but scurvily , and Silver not at all . And this may happen , when the Menstruum that will not dissolve the body is reputed much stronger than that which does ; as dephlegm'd spirit of Vinegar will dissolve Lead , reduc'd to minute parts in the cold ; which is an effect that Chymists are not wont to expect from Spirit of Salt. Nay , which is more , one Acid will precipitate what another has dissolved , and contrarily ; as spirit of Salt will precipitate Silver out of spirit of Nitre . And I found oil of Vitriol to precipitate bodies of divers kinds , Minerals and others , out of some acid Menstruums , particularly spirit of Vinegar . To this might be added the Properties , peculiar to some particular Acids , as that Spirit of Nitre or Aqua fortis will dissolve Camphire into an Oil , and coagulate common oil into a consistent and brittle substance like Tallow ; and , though it will both corrode Silver , Copper , Lead , and Mercury , and keep them dissolved , it will quickly let fall almost the whole body of Tin , very soon after it has corroded as much as it can of it . By all which , and some other like Instances , I am induc'd to question , whether the Acidum and Alkali , we are speaking of , have the simplicity that Philosophy requires in Principles ; and shall be kept from wondering , if others shall think it as free for them to constitute other Principles , as 't is for the Learned men I reason with , to pitch upon Acidum and Alkali . And some perhaps will be bold to say , that , since the former of those Principles comprehend such a number of bodies , that are , many of them , very differing , and some of them directly contrary in their operations , it seems a slight and not Philosophical Account of their Nature , to define an Acid by its Hostility to an Alcali , which ( they will say ) is almost as if one should define a Man by saying , that he is an Animal that is at enmity with the Serpent ; or a Lyon , that he is a fourfooted beast that flies from a Crowing Cock. CHAP. IV. BUT although one of the chiefest Conditions that Philosophers may justly require in Principles , is , that , being to explain other things , they should be very clear themselves ; yet I do not much wonder , that the Definitions given us of Acidum and Alcali should be but unaccurate and superficial , since I find not , that they have themselves any clear and determinate Notion or sure marks , whereby to know them distinctly , without which Chymists will scarce be able to form clear and setled Notions of them . For to infer , as is usual , that , because a body dissolves another , which is dissoluble by this or that known acid , the Solvent must also be acid ; or to conclude , that , if a body precipitates a dissolved metal out of a confessedly acid Menstruum , the Precipitant must be an Alcali , to argue thus , I say , 't is unsecure ; since , not to repeat what I said lately of Copper , I found , that filings of Spelter will be dissolved as well by some Alcalies , ( as spirit of Sal Armoniac ) as by Acids . And bodies may be precipitated out of acid Menstruums , both by other Acids , and by liquors , where there appears not the least Alcali : As I have found , that a solution of Tin-glass , made in Aqua fortis , would be precipitated both by Spirit of Salt and by common or rain water . And as for the other grand way that Chymists employ , to distinguish Acids and Alcalies , namely by the Heat , Commotion , and bubbles that are excited , upon their being put together , that may be no such certain sign as they presume , they having indeed a dependance upon particular Contextures and other Mechanical affections , that Chymists are not wont to take any notice of . For almost any thing that is fitted variously and vehemently to agitate the minute parts of a body , will produce Heat in it ; and so , though water be neither an Acid nor an Alcalizate liquor , yet it would quickly grow very hot , not only with the highly acid Oil of Vitriol , but ( as I have more than once purposely tried and found ) with the fiery Alcalizat Salt of Tartar. And 't is to be noted , that neither in the one nor the other of these Incalescent mixtures , there is produced any such visible or audible conflict , as , according to the Doctrine of the Chymists I reason with , one would expect . And as for the production of bubbles , especially if accompanied with a hissing noise , neither is that such a certain sign as Chymists imagine : For the production of bubbles is not a necessary effect or concomitant of Heat excited by Conflicts , but depends very much upon the peculiar Disposition of Bodies put together to extricate , produce , or intercept particles of Air , ( or Steams , for the time equivalent to them ; ) and therefore as Oil of Vitriol , mixt in a due proportion with fair water , may be brought to make the water too hot to be held in ones hand , without exciting bubbles ; so I have found by trials purposely made , that Alcalizat Spirit of Urine drawn from some kinds of Quick-lime , being mixt with Oil of Vitriol moderately strong , would produce an intense Heat , whilest it produced either no manifest bubbles at all , or scarce any , though the Urinous Spirit was strong , and in other Trials operated like an Alcali ; and although also with Spirit of Urin , made per se the common way , the oil of Vitriol will produce a great hissing and a multitude of conspicuous bubbles . On the other side I have sometimes , though not so constantly , found , that some Acid Spirits , especially that of Verdigrease made per se , would , when poured upon Salt of Tartar , make a Conflict with it , and produce a copious froth , though we observed it not to be accompanied with any manifest Heat . And I elsewhere mention two bodies , upon whose putting together numerous bubbles would , for a long time , and not without noise , be generated , and succeed one another , though I could perceive no Heat at all to accompany this Tumult . As for the Tast , which by many is made a great Touchstone , whereby to know Acids and Alcalies , I consider that there is a multitude of mixt bodies , wherein we can so little discern by the Tast , which of the Principles is Predominant , that this Sense would not oblige one to suspect , much less to conclude , there were one grain of either of them to be found there ; such bodies are Diamonds and Rubies , and most Gems , besides many ignobler Stones , and Gold and Silver and Mercury , and I know not how many other bodies . On the other side , there are bodies that abound with Acid or Alcalizat Salts , which either have no Tast , or a quite differing one from that of the Chymical Principle . As though Venice-glass be in great part composed of a fixt Alcali ; yet to the Tongue it is insipid , and Crystalls of Lune and of Lead made with Aqua fortis , and containing great store of the Acid particles of the Menstruum , have nothing of Acidity in the mouth , the latter having a saccharine sweetness , and the former an extream bitterness . And even in Vegetable substances that have a manifest Tast , 't is not so easie to know by that , whether it be the Acid or the Alcalizat Principle that is predominant in them ; as in the Essential oils of Spices and other Vegetables . And in the gross Empereumatical Oils of Woods , and even in high Rectified Spirit of Wine , which therefore some will have to be an Alcalizat liquor , and others list it among Acids , though I did not find it neither to be destroyed or much altered by being put upon Coral or salt of Tartar , as would happen to an acid Menstruum , nor yet by being digested with and distilled from sea Salt , as might be probably expected from an Alcalizat one : A and among those very bodies which their Tasts perswade Chymists to reckon amongst Acids , one may ( according to what I formerly noted ) observe so great a difference and variety of relishes , that , perhaps without being too severe , I may say , that if I were to allow Acids to be One Principle , it should be only in some such Metaphysical sense , as that wherein Air is said to be One Body , though it consist of the associated effluviums of a multitude of Corpuscles of very differing Natures , that agree in very little save in their being minute enough to concur to the Composition of a fluid aggregate , consisting of flying parts . But having dwelt longer than I intended on One Objection , 't is time that I proceed to those that remain . CHAP. V. ANother particular , I am unsatisfied with in the Hypothesis of Alcali and Acidum , is , that 't is in divers cases either needless or useless to explain the Phaenomena of Qualities , there being several of these produced , destroyed , or altered , where there does not appear any accession , recess , or change of either of those two Principles ; as when fluid water by hard beating is turn'd into consistent froth , and when transparent red Coral is , barely by being beaten and sifted finely , changed into a white and opacous powder ; and as when a very flexible piece of fine silver being hammer'd is brought to have a brisk spring , and after a while will , instead of continuing malleable , crack or cleave under the hammer ; and as when ( to dispatch and omit other instances ) a sufficiently thin leaf of Gold , held between the Light and the Eye , appears green . Another thing ( of kin to the former , ) that I like not in the Doctrine of Acidum and Alcali , is , that though the Patrons of it , whilest they would seem to constitute but two Principles , are fain ( as I lately intimated ) to make I know not how many differing sorts of Acids , besides some variety of Alcalies ; yet their Principles are too few and narrow to afford any satisfactory explication of the Phaenomena . For I fear , 't will be very difficult for them to give a Rational Account of Gravity , Springiness , Light , and Emphatical Colours , Sounds , and some other Qualities that are wont to be called manifest ; and much more of several that are confest to be occult , as Electricity , and Magnetism ; in which last I see not , how the affirming that there is in the Magnet an Acid and an Alcali , and that these two are of contrary Natures , will help to explain , how a Load-stone does , as they speak , attract the same end of a poised needle with one of its Poles , which 't will drive away with the other , and determine that needle when freely placed , to point North and South , and enable it to communicate by its bare touch the same Properties , and abundance of other strange ones , to another piece of Steel . But I forbear to alledge particular Examples referrable to the several Qualities above-mentioned , whether manifest or hidden , because that in great part is already done in our Notes about particular Qualities , in which 't will appear how little able the employing of Alcali and Acidum will be to afford us an account of many things . And though I enlarge not here on this objection , yet I take it to be of that importance ; that , though there were no other , this were enough to shew that the Hypothesis that is liable to it , is Insufficient for the explication of Qualities ; and therefore 't will not I presume be thought strange that I add , that , as for those that would extend this narrow Chymical Doctrine to the whole object of Natural Philosophy , they must do more than I expect they will be able before they can make me their Proselyte , there being a multitude of Phaenomena in nature ( divers whereof I elsewhere take notice of in reference to the Chymists Philosophy ) in which what Acidum and Alcali have to do , I confess I do not understand . CHAP. VI. THE last thing ( which comprizes several others ) that seems to me a defect in the Doctrine of Alcali and Acidum , is , that divers if not most of those very things that are pretended to be explicated by them , are not satisfactorily explicated , some things being taken into the explications that are either not fundamental enough or not clearly intelligible , or are chargeable with both those Imperfections . And first I am dissatisfied with the very fundamental Notion of this Doctrine , namely a supposed Hostility between the tribe of Acids and that of Alkalies , accompanied , if you will have it so , with a friendship or sympathy with bodies belonging to the same tribe or Family . For I look upon Amity and Enmity as Affections of Intelligent Beings , and I have not yet found it explained by any , how those Appetites can be placed in Bodies Inanimate and devoid of knowledge , or of so much as Sense . And I elsewhere endeavour to shew , that what is called Sympathy and Antipathy between such bodies does in great part depend upon the actings of our own Intellect , which , supposing in every body an innate appetite to preserve it self both in a defensive and an offensive way , inclines us to conclude , that that body , which , though designlesly destroys or impairs the state or texture of another body , has an Enmity to it , though perhaps a slight Mechanical change may make bodys , that seem extreamly hostile , seem to agree very well and cooperate to the production of the same effects . As if the acid spirit of Salt and the volatile Alkali ( as they will have it ) that is commonly called Spirit of Urine be put together , they will , after a short though fierce conflict , upon a new contexture unite together into a Salt , little , if at all , differing from Sal Armoniac , in which the two reconciled Principles will amicably join in cooling of water , dissolving some metalline bodys , and producing divers other effects . And so , if upon a strong solution of Salt of Pot-ashes or of Salt of Tartar , good Spirit of Nitre be dropt in a due proportion , after the Heat and Tumult and Ebullition are over , the Acid and the Alkalizat Salts will convene into such a Concretion as Salt-peter , which is taken to be a natural body , either homogeneous , or at least consisting of parts that agree very friendly together , and conspire to constitute the particular kind of Salt that Chymists call Nitre . But the Sympathy and Antipathy that is said to be betwixt Inanimate bodys , I elsewhere more particularly consider , and therefore I shall now add in the second place , That the Explications made of Phaenomena according to the Doctrine of Alcali and Acidum do not , in my apprehension , perform what may be justly expected from Philosophical Explications . 'T is said indeed , that the Acidum working on the Alcali , or this upon that , produces the effect proposed ; but that is only to tell us , what is the Agent that operates , and not the Manner of the operation , or the means and process whereby it produces the effect proposed , and 't is this modus that Inquisitive Naturalists chiefly desire to learn. And if it be said , that it is by the mutual hostility of the Principles that the effect is produced , it may be answered , that besides , that that hostility it self is not , as we have just now observed , a thing clear , if so mucha s Intelligible ; this is so general and indeterminate a way of explicating things , as can afford little or no satisfaction to a searching and cautious Naturalist , that considers how very numerous and very various the Phaenomena of Qualities are . CHAP. VII . TO clear up and to countenance what I have been now saying , I shall only take notice of some few obvious Phaenomena of one of the most familiar Operations wherein Acidum and Alcali are supposed to be the grand Agents . 'T is known to the very Boys of Chymists , that Aqua Regis will dissolve Gold , Copper , and Mercury , and that with these metals , especially with the second , it will produce an intense degree of heat . If now the Cause of this Heat be demanded , it may be expected , that the Patrons of the Duellists will answer , that 't is from the action of the Acid salts of the Menstruum upon the Alcali they meet with in the Metalls . But not to mention how many things are here presumed , not proved ; nor that I know some Acid Menstruums , and some much more evidently Alcalizate Bodys than these Metals are , which yet do not upon their mixtures produce any sensible heat ; not , I say , to mention these , it is easie to discern , that this answer names indeed two supposed efficients of Heat , but does not explicate or declare how these Agents produce that Quality , which depends upon a certain vehement and various agitation of the singly insensible parts of Bodys , whether the Duellists , or any other , though very differing , Causes put them into a motion so modified . And therefore Gold and Copper by bare Concussion may be brought to an intense degree of heat without the accession of any acid parts to work upon them . But then further , when we are told , that Aqua Regis by its Acidity working on the Metalline Alcali makes a dissolution of the Metal ; I am told indeed what they think to be the Agent in this change , but not at all satisfied how this Agent effects it ; for , Copper being a very hard metal , and Gold generally esteemed by Chymists the closest and compactest Body in nature , I would gladly know , by what power and way such weak and probably either brittle or flexible bodys as acid Salts , are enabled with that force to disjoin such solid and closely coherent Corpuscles as make up the visible masses of Copper and Gold , nay , and scatter them with that violence as perhaps to toss up multitudes of them into the air . And since in the dissolution of these Metals there is another Phaenomenon to be accounted for , as well as the forcing of the parts asunder , namely the sustentation of the Metal in the Menstruum , the Chymists would have much informed me , if they had well explained , how their Acidum and Alcali is able to sustain and give fluidity to the Corpuscles of the dissolved Metal , which though it be but Copper , is nine times as heavy as a bulk of water equal to it , and if it be Gold , is nineteen times heavier than the Liquor that must keep it from sinking ; and at least divers times heavier in specie than the Salts , that are mingled with the aqueous parts , can make the Menstruum composed of them both . Whereas Trial has assured me , that , if a piece of Wax or any other such matter be made by less than the hundredth part heavier than an equal bulk of Water , it will , when thoroughly immersed , fall to the bottom and rest there . I might also ask a further Question about these Dissolutions , as why , whereas Aqua Regis dissolves Mercury without being much changed in colour by it , Gold retains its own Citrinity or yellowness in the solvent , and the solution of Copper is of a colour , which being greenish-blew is quite differing from that of the metal that affords it , as well as from that of the solvent ? And I might recruit these with other Queries not impertinent , but that these may suffice ( for a sample ) on this Occasion , and allow me to conclude this Chapter , by representing One thing which I would gladly recommend and inculcate to you , namely , that Those Hypotheses do not a little hinder the progress of Humane knowledge that introduce Morals and Politicks into the Explications of Corporeal Nature , where all things are indeed transacted according to Laws Mechanical . CHAP. VIII . I Might easily have been more copious in the Instances annext to the foregoing Animadversions , but that , being desirous to be short as well as clear , I purposely declined to make use of divers others , that seemed proper to be employed , and indeed might safely enough have been so , because those I have mentioned , and especially those , ( which make a great part of them ) that are Mechanical , are not liable to the same exceptions , that I foresaw might be made to elude the force of the Examples I passed by . And though I think I could very well make those foreseen Objections appear groundless or unsatisfactory ; yet that could scarce be done without engaging in Controversies that would prove more tedious than I judged them necessary . And yet , although what I have said in this Excursion be but a part of what I could say , I would not be thought to have forgot what I intimated at the beginning of it . For though the Reasons I alledged keep me from acquiescing in the Doctrine of Alcali and Acidum , as 't is proposed under the notion of a Philosophical Hypothesis , such as the Cartesian or Epicurean , which are each of them alledged by their embracers to be Mechanical , and of a very Catholick extent ; yet I deny not , that the Consideration of the Duellists ( or the two jarring Principles of Alcali and Acidum ) may be of good use to Spagyrists and Physitians , as I elsewhere further declare . Nor do I pretend by the past discourse that questions one Doctrine of the Chymists , to beget a general contempt of their Notions , and much less of their Experiments . For the operations of Chymistry may be misapplied by the erroneous Reasonings of the Artists without ceasing to be themselves things of great use , as being applicable as well to the Discovery or Confirmation of solid Theories , as the production of new Phaenomena , and beneficial effects . And though I think , that many Notions of Paracelsus and Helmont and some other Eminent Spagyrists are unsolid , and not worthy the veneration that their Admirers cherish for them ; yet divers of the Experiments , which either are alledged to favour these notions , or on other accounts are to be met with among the followers of these men , deserve the curiosity if not the esteem of the Industrious Inquirers into Natures Mysteries . And looking upon Chymistry in gross as a Discipline subordinate to Physiques , even Mechanical Philosophers may justly , in my opinion , think favourably of it , since , whatever Imperfections , or , if they please , Extravagancies there may be in the Principles and Explications of Paracelsus or other Leading Artists , these faults of the Theorical part may be sufficiently compensated by the Utilities that may be derived from the Practical part . And this I am the rather induced to say , because the Experiments , that Chymistry furnishes , may much assist a Naturalist to rectifie the Erroneous Theories that oftentimes accompany Them , and even those ( Mistakes ) that are endeavour'd to be evinced by them . And ( to conclude ) Chymistry seems to deal with men in reference to Notions , as it does in reference to Metals , assisting wary men to detect the Errors , unto which it may have missed the unwary : For the same Art that has taught some to impose on others , ( and perhaps themselves first ) by blanching Copper , imitating Gold , &c. does also supply Say-masters and Refiners , with the Means , by the Cupel , Cements , Aqua fortis , &c. to examine , whether Coins be true or false , and discover Adulterate Gold and Silver to be Counterfeit . FINIS . EXPERIMENTS , AND NOTES , About The Mechanical Origine AND PRODUCTION OF VOLATILITY . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esq Fellow of the R. Society . LONDON , Printed by E. Flesher , for R. Davis Bookseller in Oxford . 1675. EXPERIMENTS , AND NOTES , About The Mechanical Origine AND PRODUCTION OF VOLATILITY . CHAP. I. AS far as I have yet observed , the Qualifications or Attributes , on whose account a portion of matter is found to be Volatile , are chiefly four ; whereof the three former most regard the single Corpuscles as such ; and the last , the manner of their Union in the aggregate or body they make up . But before I enter upon particulars , give me leave to advertise you here once for all , That in the following Notes about Volatility and Fixtness , when I speak of the Corpuscles or minute parts of a body , I doe not mean strictly either the Elementary parts , such as Earth and Water , or the Hypostatical Principles , such as Salt , Sulphur , or Mercury ; for these things come not here into consideration : But onely such Corpuscles , whether of a simple , compounded or decompounded Nature , as have the particles they consist of so firmly united , that they will not be totally disjoyned or dissipated by that degree of Fire or Heat , wherein the matter is said to be volatile or to be fixt . But these combined particles will in their aggregate either aseend , or continue unraised per modum Unius ( as they speak ) or as one intire Corpusole . As in a Corpuscle of Sal Armoniac , whether it be a natural or factitious thing , or whether it be perfectly similar , or compounded of differing parts , I look upon the intire Corpuscle as a volatile portion of matter ; and so I doe on a Corpuscle of Sulphur , though experience shews when 't is kindled , that it has great store of acid Salt in it , but which is not extricated by bare sublimation : And so Colcothar of Vitriol falls under our consideration as a fixt body , without inquiring what cupreous or other mineral and not totally fixt parts may be united with the Earthly ones ; since the fires , we expose it to , do not separate them . And this being premised in the general , I now proceed to some particulars . And first to make a volatile body , the parts should be very small . For , coeteris paribus , those that are so , are more easily put into motion by the action of the fire and other Agents , and consequently more apt to be elevated , when , by the determination of the movent , the situation of the neighbouring bodies , or other Mechanical Circumstances , the agitated Corpuscles can continue their motion with less resistance upwards than any other way , ( as either downwards or horizontally . ) And if , as 't is highly probable , that which in light bodies , or at least in most of them , is wont to pass for positive Levity , be but a less degree of gravity than that of those contiguous bodies that raise them ; it will happen , that in very many cases , ( for I say not in all ) the great proportion of the surface of a Corpuscle to its bulk , ( which is usually greater in the lesser particles ) by making it more apt to be wrought on , either by the air agitated by the fire , or by the effluvia of kindled fuell , or by the impulse of the shaken Corpuscles of the body it self , will much facilitate the elevation of such a minute particle , by exposing a greater portion of it to the action of the agent , as it will oftentimes also facilitate the renewed sustentation of such a small body in the air , which resists more the descent of particles whose surfaces are large , than of others of the same gravity and bulk : As a leaf of paper displayed will much longer hover in the Air , than if it were reduced into a ball or pellet . That this minuteness of particles may dispose them to be carried upwards , by the impulse of other bodies and that of the agitated Air , is very obvious to be observed : As we see , that Horses in a high-way , though they be not able with the strokes of their feet to make stones , or gravel , or clods of Earth fly up , yet they will easily raise clouds of dust oftentimes mingled with the smaller grains of sand . And where Timber is sawing , the same wind that will not in the least move the beams , and scarce at all move the chips , will easily carry up the Saw-dust into the Air. And we see in our Chimneys , that the smoak readily ascends , whilst even small clods of soot , which is but an aggregate of the particles of smoak , fall headlong down . CHAP. II. THE next qualification requisite in the corpuscles of Volatile bodies is , that they be not too solid or heavy . For if they be so , though their bulk be very small , yet , unless other Circumstances do much compensate their weight , 't will be very difficult to elevate them , because of the great disproportion of their specific gravity to that of the Air , ( which contributes to sustain and even raise many sorts of volatile parts ) and to the strength of the igneous effluvia or other agents that would carry them up . Thus we see , that filings of Lead or Iron , and even Minium ( which is the calx of Lead ) though the grains they consist of be very small , will not easily be blown up like common dust , or meal , or other powders made of less ponderous materials . A third Qualification to be desired in the corpuscles that should make up a Volatile body is , that they be conveniently shaped for motion . For if they be of branched , hook'd , or other very irregular or inconvenient figures , they will be apt to be stopt and detained by other bodies , or entangled among themselves , and consequently very difficult to be carried upwards , in regard that , whilst they are thus fastened either to one another , or to any stable body , each single Corpuscle is not onely to be considered , as having its own peculiar bulk , since its cohesion with the other corpuscle or body that detains it , makes them fit to be look'd upon per modum Unius ; that degree of heat they are exposed to being presumed uncapable of disjoyning them . And this may be one Reason , why Water , though it be specifically heavier than Oil , yet is much more easily brought to exhale in the form of vapours than is Oil , whose corpuscles by the lasting stains they leave on cloath , wood , wool , &c. ( which water will but transiently moisten , not stain ) seems to be of very intangling figures . The fourth and last qualification requisite in a Volatile body is , that the parts do loosely adhere , or at least be united in such a manner , as does not much indispose them to be separated by the fire in the form of fumes or vapours . For he that considers the matter , will easily grant , that , if the contexture of the corpuscles , whereof a body consists , be intricate , or their cohesion strong , their mutual implication , or their adherence to each other , will make one part hinder another from flying separately away , and their conjunction will make them too heavy or unweildy to be elevated together , as intire though compounded parts . Thus we see , that in Spring , or the beginning of Summer , a wind , though not faint , is unable to carry off the lightest leaves of trees , because they stick fast to the bows and twigs on which they grow , but in Autumn , when that adhesion ceases , and the leaves sit but loosely on , a wind no stronger than that they resisted before , will with ease blow them off , and perhaps carry them up a good way into the Air. But here note , that it was not without some cause , that I added above , that in a fluid body , the parts should at least be united in such a manner , as does not much indispose them to be separated . For 't is not impossible , that the parts of a body may , by the figures and smoothness of the surfaces , be sufficiently apt to be put into motion , and yet be indisposed to admit such a motion as would totally separate them and make them fly up into the Air. As , if you take two pieces of very flat and well-polished marble or glass , and lay them one upon the other , you easily make them slide along each others surfaces , but not easily pull up one of them , whilest the other continues its station . And when Glass is in the state of fusion , the parts of it will easily slide along each other , ( as is usual in those of other fluids ) and consequently change places , and yet the continuity of the whole is not intirely broken , but every corpuscle does somewhere touch some other corpuscle , and thereby maintain the cohesion that indisposes it for that intire separation accompanied with a motion upwards that we call avolation . And so , when Salt-peter alone , is in a Crucible exposed to the fire , though a very moderate degree of it will suffice to bring the Salt to a state of fusion , and consequently to put the corpuscles that compose it into a restless motion ; yet a greater degree of heat , than is necessary to melt it , will not extricate so much as the Spirits , and make them fly away . CHAP. III. THE foregoing Doctrine of the Volatility of bodies may be as well illustrated as applied , if we proceed to deduce from it the generall ways of Volatilization of bodies , or of introducing volatility into an assigned portion of matter . For these wayes seem not inconveniently reducible to five , which I shall severally mention , though Nature and Art do usually imploy two or more of them in conjunction . For which Reason I would not , when I speak of one of these wayes , be understood as if , excluding the rest , I meant that no other concurred with it . The first of the five ways or means of Volatilizing a body is , to reduce it into minute parts , and , caeteris paribus , the more minute they are the better . That the bringing a body into very minute parts may much conduce to the volatilizing of it , may be gathered from the vulgar practice of the Chymists , who when they would sublime or distill Antimony , Sal Armoniac , Sea-salt , Nitre , &c. are wont to beat them to powders to facilitate their receiving a further comminution by the action of the fire . And here I observe , that in some bodies this comminution ought not to be made onely at first , but to be continued afterwards . For Chymists find by experience , though perhaps without considering the reason of it , that Sea-salt and Nitre , will very hardly afford their Spirits in Distillations , without they be mingled with powdered clay or bole , or some such other additament , which usually twice or thrice exceeds the weight of the Salt it self : Although these additaments , being themselves fixt , seem unlikely to promote the volatilization of the bodies mixt with them , yet by hindering the small grains of Salt to melt together into one lump or masse , and consequently by keeping them in the state of Comminution , they much conduce to the driving up of the Spirits or the finer parts of the Salts by the operation of the fire . But to prosecute a little what I was saying of the Conduciveness of bringing a body into small parts to the volatilization of it , I shall add , that in some cases the Comminution may be much promoted by employing Physical , after Mechanical , ways ; and that when the parts are brought to such a pitch of exiguity , they may be elevated much better than before . Thus , if you take filings of Mars , and mix them with Sal Armoniack , some few parts may be sublimed ; but if , as I have done , you dissolve those filings in good Spirit of Salt instead of Oil of Vitriol , and having coagulated the solution , you calcine the greenish Crystalls or vitriolum Martis that will be afforded , you may with ease , and in no long time , obtain a Crocus Martis of very fine parts ; so that I remember , when we exquisitely mingled this very fixt powder with a convenient proportion of Sal Armoniac , and gradually press'd it with a competent fire , we were able to elevate at the first Sublimation a considerable part of it ; and adding a like , or somewhat inferiour , proportion of fresh Sal Armoniac to the Caput Mortuum , we could raise so considerable a part of that also , and in it of the Crocus , that we thought , if we had had Conveniency to pursue the operation , we should , by not many repeated Sublimations , have elevated the whole Crocus , which ( to hint that upon the by , ) afforded a Sublimat of so very astringent a Tast , as may make the trial of it in stanching of blood , stopping of fluxes , and other cases , where potent astriction is desired , worthy of a Physicians Curiosity . CHAP. IV. THE second means to volatilize bodies is , to rub , grind , or otherwise reduce their corpuscles to be either smooth , or otherwise fitly shaped to clear themselves , or be disintangled from each other . By reason of the minuteness of the corpuscles , which keeps them from being separately discernible by the Eye , 't is not to be expected , that immediate and ocular Instances should be given on this occasion ; but that such a change is to be admitted in the small parts of many bodies , brought to be volatile , seems highly probable from the account formerly given of the requisites or conditions of Volatility , whose introduction into a portion of matter will scarce be explicated without the intervention of such a change . To this second Instrument of Volatilization , in concurrence with the first , may probably be referred the following Phaenomena : In the two first-of which there is imployed no additional volatile Ingredient ; and in the fourth , a fixt body is disposed to volatility by the operation of a Liquour , though this be carefully abstracted from it . 1. If Urine freshly made be put to distill , the Phlegm will first ascend , and the Volatile salt will not rise 'till that be almost totally driven away , and then requires a not inconsiderable degree of fire to elevate it . But , if you putrefie or digest Urine , though in a well-closed Glass-Vessel , for seven or eight weeks , that gentle warmth will make the small parts so rub against , or otherwise act upon , one another , that the finer ones of the Salt will perhaps be made more slender and light , and however will be made to extricate themselves so far as to become volatile , and , ascending in a very gentle heat , leave the greatest part of the phlegm behind them . 2. So , if Must , or the sweet juice of Grapes , be distilled before it have been fermented , 't is observed by Chymists , and we have tried the like in artificial Wine made of Raisins , that the phlegm , but no ardent Spirit , will ascend . But when this Liquour is reduced to Wine by fermentation , which is accompanied with a great and intestine commotion of the justling parts , hitting and rubbing against one another , whereby some probably come to be broken , others to be variously ground and subtilized , the more subtile parts of the Liquour being extricated , or some of the parts being , by these operations , brought to be subtile , they are qualified to be raised by a very gentle heat before the phlegm , and convene into that fugitive Liquour , that Chymists , for its activity , call Spirit of Wine . Nor is it onely in the slighter Instances afforded by Animals and Vegetables , that Volatility may be effected by the means lately mentioned : For experience hath assured me , that 't is possible , by an artificial and long digestion , wherein the parts have leisure for frequent justlings and attritions , so to subtilize and dispose the corpuscles even of common Salt for Volatility , that we could make them ascend in a moderate fire of Sand without the help of Bole , Oil of Vitriol , or any Volatilizing additament ; and , which is more considerable , the Spirit would in rising precede the Phlegm , and leave the greatest part thereof behind it . This intestine commotion of parts capable of producing Volatility in the more disposed portions of a body , though it be much more easie to be found in Liquours , or in moist and soft bodies , yet I have sometimes , though rarely , met with it in dry ones . And particularly I remember , that some years ago having , for trial sake , taken Mustard-seed , which is a body pregnant with subtile parts , and caused it to be distilled per se in a Retort , I had , as I hoped , ( without any more ado , ) a great many grains of a clear and figured Volatile salt at the very first distillation : which Experiment having , for the greater security , made a second time with the like success , I mentioned it to some Lovers of Chymistry , as what I justly supposed they had not heard of . I leave it to farther Inquiry , whether , in a body so full of Spirits as Mustard-seed , the action and re-action of the parts among themselves , perhaps promoted by just degrees of fire , might not suffice to make in them a change equivalent in order to Volatilization , and the yielding a Volatile Salt , to that which we have observed Fermentation and Putrefaction to have made in the juice of Grapes , Urine , and some other bodies . How far the like success may be expected in other Trialls , I cannot tell ; especially not having by me any Notes of the events of some Attempts which that Inquiry put me upon : Onely I remember in general , that , as some trials , I made with other Seeds , and even with Aromatick ones , did not afford me any Volatile Salt ; so the success of other trials made me now and then think , that some subjects of the Vegetable kingdom , whence we are wont to drive over acid Spirits , but no dry Salt , may be distilled with so luckily regulated a heat , as to afford something , though but little , of Volatile Salt ; and that perhaps more bodies would be found to doe so , were they not too hastily or violently prest by the fire , whereby such saline schematisms of the desired parts of the matter are ( by being dissipated or confounded ) destroyed or vitiated , as in a slow , dextrous , or fortunate way of management would come forth , not in a liquid , but a saline form . Of which Observation we may elsewhere mention some Instances , and shall before the close of this Paper name one , afforded us by crude Tartar. 3. Though Silver be one of the fixedst bodies that we know of , yet that 't is not impossible but that , chiefly by a change of Texture , it may strangely be disposed to Volatility , I was induced to think by what I remember once happened to me . A Gentleman of my acquaintance , studious of Chymical Arcana , having lighted on a strange Menstruum , which he affirmed , and I had some cause to believe , not to be corrosive , he abstracted it from several metalls , ( for the same Liquour would serve again and again , ) and brought me the Remainders , with a desire that I would endeavour to reduce those of Lead and Silver into the pristine metals again , which he had in vain attempted to doe : whereupon , though I found the white Calx of Lead reducible , yet when I came to the Calx of Silver , I was not able to bring it into a body ; and having at length melted some Lead in a gentle fire , to try whether I could make it swallow up the Calx , in order to a farther operation , I was not a little surprized to find , that this mild heat made the Calx of Silver presently fly away and sublime in the form of a farina volatilis , which whitened the neighbouring part of the Chimney , as well as the upper part of the Crucible . 4. From that which Chymists themselves tell us , I think we may draw a good Argument ad hominem , to prove , that Volatility depends much upon the texture and other Mechanical affections of a body . For divers of those Hermetick Philosophers ( as they are called ) that write of the Elixir , tell us , that when their Philosophick Mercury or grand Solvent , being sealed up together with a third or fourth part of Gold in a glass-Egg , is kept in convenient degrees of fire , the whole matter , and consequently the Gold , will , by the mutual operation of the included Substances , be so changed , that not onely 't will circulate up and down in the glass , but , in case the digestion or decoction should be broken off at a certain inconvenient time , the Gold would be quite spoil'd , being , by the past and untimely-ended operation , made too Volatile to be reducible again into Gold : whereas , if the decoction be duly continued unto the end , not onely the Gold , but all the Philosophical Mercury or Menstruum will be turned into a Sulphur or powder of a wonderfully fixt nature . I know , there are several Chrysopaeans , that speak much otherwise of this Operation , and tell us , that the Gold imployed about it must be Philosophick Gold : But I know too , that there are divers others ( and those too none of the least candid or rational ) that speak of it as I have done ; and That is sufficient to ground an Argument on towards all those that embrace Their doctrine . And in this case 't is considerable , that 't is not by any superadded additament , that the most fixt body of Gold is made volatile , but the same massy matter , consisting of Gold and Philosophick Mercury , is , by the change of texture produced or occasioned by the various degrees and operations of fire upon it , brought to be first Volatile , and then extreamly fixt . And having said this in reference to one tribe of the Modern Spagyrists ; to another of them , the Helmontians , I think I can offer a good Argument ad hominem from the Testimony and Experiments of the Founder of their Sect. 5. The acute Helmont , among other prodigious powers that he ascribes to the Alkahest , affirms , that , by abstracting it frequently enough , it would so change all tangible bodies , and consequently stones and metals , that they might be distilled over into Liquours equiponderant to the respective bodies that afforded them , and having all the Qualities of Rain-water ; which if they have , I need not tell you that they must be very Volatile . And I see not how those that admit the Truth of this strange Alkahestical operation , can well deny , that Volatility depends upon the Mechanical affections of matter , since it appears not , that the Alkahest does , at least in our case , work upon bodies otherwise than Mechanically . And it must be confest , that the same material parts of a portion of corporeal substance , which , when they were associated and contexed ( whether by an Archeus , seed , form , or what else you please , ) after such a determinate manner , constituted a solid and fixt body , as a Flint or a lump of Gold ; by having their Texture dissolved , and ( perhaps after being subtilized ) by being freed from their former implications or firm cohesions , may become the parts of a fluid body totally Volatile . CHAP. V. THE fourth means of making a body Volatile is , by associating the particles to be raised with such as are more Volatile than themselves , and of a figure fit to be fastened to them , or are at least apt , by being added to them , to make up with them corpuscles more disposed than they to Volatility . This being the grand Instrument of Volatilization , I shall spend somewhat the more time about it : But I shall first here a little explain the last clause , ( that I may not be obliged to resume it elsewhere , ) by intimating , that 't is not impossible , that the particles of an additament , though not more volatile than those of the body 't is mixt with , and perhaps though not volatile at all , will yet conduce to volatilize the body wherewith 't is mingled . For the particles of the additament may be of such figures , and so associated with those of the body to be elevated , as in this to enlarge the former pores , or produce new ones , by intercepting little cavities ( for they must not be great ones ) between the particles of a body to be raised , and those of the additament . For , by these and other such ways of association , the corpuscles , resulting from the combination or coalition of two or more of these differing particles , may , without becoming too big and unwieldy , become more conveniently shaped , or more light in proportion to their bulk , and so more easily buoyed up and sustained in the air , ( as when the Lid of a Copper-box being put on , makes the whole box emerge and swim in water , because of the intercepted cavity , though neither of the parts of the box would doe so , ) or otherwise more fitted for avolation than the particles themselves were before their being joined to those of the additament . By two things chiefly the corpuscles of the additament may contribute to the elevation of a body . For first , the parts of the former may be much more disposed for avolation than is necessary to their own Volatility . As when in the making of Sal Armoniac , the saline particles of Urine and of Soot are more fugitive than they need be to be themselves sublimed , and thereby are advantaged to carry up with them the more sluggish corpuscles whereof Sea-salt consists . And next , they may be of figures so proper to fasten them well to the body to be elevated , that the more fugitive will not be driven away or disjoyned from the more fixt by such a degree of Heat as is sufficient to raise them both together : To which effect the congruity or figuration is as well required , as the lightness or volatility of the particles of the additament . And therefore some of the fugitivest bodies that we know , as Spirit of Wine , Camphire , &c. will not volatilize many bodies which will be elevated by far less fugitive additaments ; because the corpuscles of Spirit of Wine stick not to those of the body they are mingled with , but , easily flying up themselves , leave those behind them , which they did rather barely touch than firmly adhere to : Whereas far less fugacious Liquours , if they be indowed with figures that fit them for a competently firm cohesion with the body they are mingled with , will be able to volatilize it . Of which I shall now give you some Instances in bodies that are very ponderous , or very fixt , or both . And I shall begin with Colcothar , though it being a vitriolate calx , made by a lasting and vehement fire , 't is ( consequently ) capable of resisting such a one . This being exquisitely ground with an equal weight of Sal Armoniac , which is it self a Salt but moderately volatile , will be in good part sublimed into those yellow Flowers , which we have elsewhere more particularly taught to prepare , under the name of Ens primum Veneris ; in which , that many vitriolate corpuscles of the Colcothar are really elevated , you may easily find by putting a grain or two of that reddish Substance into a strong infusion of Galls , which will thereby immediately acquire an inky colour . Steel also , which , to deserve that name , must have endured extraordinary violences of the fire , and greater than is needfull to obtain other metalls from their Mother Earth ; Steel it self , I say , being reduced to filings , and diligently ground with about an equal weight of Sal Armoniac , will , if degrees of fire be skilfully administred , ( for 't is easie to err in that point , ) without any previous calcination or reduction to a Crocus , suffer so much of the metall to be carried up , as will give the Sal Armoniac a notable colour , and an ironish tast . And here it will be proper to observe , for the sake of practical Chymists , that the Quantity or Proportion of the Volatile additament is to be regarded ; though not so much as its Nature , yet more than it is wont to be : And divers bodies , that are thought either altogether unfit for Sublimation , or at least uncapable to have any considerable portion of them elevated , may be copiously enough sublimed , if a greater proportion of the additament , than we usually content our selves with , be skilfully imployed . And in the newly-mentioned Instance of Filings of Steel , if , in stead of an equal weight of Sal Armoniac , the treble weight be taken , and the operation be duly managed , a far greater quantity of the metall may be raised , especially if fresh Sal Armoniac be carefully ground with the Caput Mortuum . And Sal Armoniac may perhaps be compounded with such other bodies , heavier than it self , as may qualifie it , when it is thus clogged , to elevate some congruous bodies better than it would of it self alone . And I shall venture to add this farther Advertisement , That if , besides the plenty of the additament , there be a sufficient fitness of its particles to lay hold on those of the body to be wrought on , Mineral bodies , and those ponderous enough , may be employed to volatilize other heavy bodies . And I am apt to think , that almost , if not more than almost , all Metalls themselves may by copious additaments and frequent Cohobations be brought to pass through the neck of the Retort in distillation ; and perhaps , if you melt them not with equal parts , but with many parts of Regulus of Antimony , and then proceed as the hints now given will direct you , you will not find cause to despise what I have been saying . You know what endeavours have been , and are still fruitlessly , imployed by Chymists to elevate so fixt a body as Salt of Tartar by additaments . I shall not now speak much of the enterprize in generall , designing chiefly to tell you on this occasion , that , whereas frequent experience shews , that Sal Armoniac being abstracted from Salt of Tartar , not onely the Salt of Tartar is left at the bottom , but a good part of the Sal Armoniac is left behind with it ; I suspected the cause might be , that Sal Armoniac , by the operation of the Alkaly of Tartar , is reduced into Sea-salt , and Urinous or fuliginous Salt , as 't was at first composed of those differing Ingredients ; and that by this means the volatil Salt being loosened or disintangled from the rest , and being of a very fugacious Nature , flyes easily away it self , without staying long enough to take up any other Salt with it . And therefore , if this Analysis of the Sal Armoniac could be prevented , it seemed not impossible to me , that some part of the Salt of Tartar , as well as of Colcothar and Steel , might be carried up by it : And accordingly having caused the Ingredients to be exceedingly well dryed , and both nimbly and carefully mixt , and speedily exposed to the fire , I have sometimes had a portion of Salt of Tartar carried up with the Sal Armoniac : but this happened so very rarely , that I suspected some peculiar fitness for this work in some parcels of Sal Armoniac , that are scarce but by the effect to be discerned from others . But however , what has happened to us may argue the Possibility of the thing , and may serve to shew the volatilizing efficacy of Sal Armoniac ; which is a Compound , that I elsewhere recommend , and doe it now again , as one of the usefullest Productions of vulgar Chymistry . And since I have mentioned the Volatilization of Salt of Tartar , presuming your Curiosity will make you desire my Opinion about the Possibility of it , I shall propose to you a distinction , that perhaps you doe not expect , by saying , that I think there is a great deal of difference between the making a Volatile Salt of Tartar , and the making Salt of Tartar Volatile . For , though this seem to be but a Nicety , yet really it is none ; and it is very possible , that a man may from Tartar obtain a Volatile salt , and yet be no wise able to volatilize that Tartareous Salt , that has been once by the incineration of the Tartar brought to fixt Alkaly . I have in the Sceptical Chymist summarily delivered a way , by which both I , and some Spagyrists that learned it of me , obtained from a mixture of Antimony , Nitre , and crude Tartar , a Volatil salt , which in probability comes from the last named of those three bodies ; but experience carefully made has assured me , that without any additament , by a distillation warily and very slowly made , ( insomuch that I have spent near a week in distilling one pound of matter ) very clean Tartar , or at least the Crystalls of Tartar , may , in conveniently shaped Vessels , be brought to afford a Substance that in Rectification will ascend to the upper part of the Vessel , in the form of a Volatil Salt , as if it were of Urine or of Harts-horne ; of which ( Tartareous ) Salt , I keep some by me : But this operation requires not onely a dexterous , but a patient distiller . But now as to the making a fixt Alkaly of Tartar become Volatil , I take it to be another , and have found it to be a far more difficult , work ; the common Processes of performing it being wont to promise much more than they can make good ; which I may justly say of some other , that private men have vaunted for great Arcana , but upon triall have satisfied me so little , that I have divers times offered pretenders to make Salt of Tartar Volatil , that without at all inquiring into their Processes , I would lay good wagers , that they could not doe what they pretended ; not onely as divers Philosophical Spagyrists require , without any visible additament , but by any additament whatever ; provided I were allowed to bring the Salt of Tartar my self , and to examine the Success , not by what may appear in the Alembic and Receiver , but by the weight of what would remain in the bottom . For I have convinced some of the more Ingenuous Artists , that the Salt that sublimed was not indeed the Alkaly of Tartar , but somewhat that was by the operation produced , or rather extricated out of the additaments . But yet I would not be thought to affirm , that 't is not possible to elevate the fixt Salt of Tartar. For sometimes I have been able to doe it , even at the first Distillation , by an artificial additament perhaps more fixt than it self ; but , though the operation was very gratefull to me , as it shewed the Possibility of the thing , yet the paucity of the Salt sublimed and other Circumstances , kept me from much valuing it upon any other account . And there are other wayes , whereby Experience has assured me , that Salt of Tartar may be raised . And if one of them were not so uncertain , that I can never promise before hand that it will at all succeed , and the other so laborious , difficult and costly , that few would attempt or be able to practice it , I should think them very valuable things ; since by the former way most part of the Salt of Tartar was quickly brought over in the form of a Liquor , whose piercing smell was scarce tolerable ; and by the latter way some Salt of Tartar of my own , being put into a Retort , and urged but with such a fire as could be given in a portable Sand-furnace , there remained not at the bottom near one half of the first weight , the additament having carried up the rest , partly in the form of a Liquor , but chiefly in that of a white Sublimate , which was neither ill-sented , nor in tast corrosive , or alcalizat , but very mild , and somewhat sweetish . And I doe not much doubt , but that by other wayes the fixt Alkaly of Tartar may be elevated , especially if , before it be exposed to the last operation of the fire , it be dextrously freed from the most of those Earthy and Viscous parts , that I think may be justly suspected to clog and bind the truly saline ones . But I have too long digrest , and therefore shall intimate onely upon the by , that even the spurious Sal Tartari volatilized that is made with Spirit of Vinegar , may , if it be well prepared , make amends for its Empyreumatical smell and tast , and may , notwithstanding them , in divers cases be of no despicable use , both as a Medicine , and a Menstruum . CHAP. VI. BEfore I draw towards a Conclusion of these Notes about Volatility , perhaps it will not be amiss , to take notice of a Phaenomenon , which may much surprise , and sometimes disappoint those that deal in Sublimations , unless they be forewarned of it . For though it be taken for granted , and for the most part may justly be so , that by carefully mingling what is sublimed with what remains , and re-subliming the mixture , a greater quantity of the body to be sublimed may be elevated the second time than was the first , and the third time than the second , and so onwards ; yet I have not found this Rule alwayes to hold , but in some Bodies , as particularly in some kinds of dulcified Colcothar , the Sal Armoniac , would at the first Sublimation carry up more of the fixed powder , than at the second or third . So that I was by several Tryalls perswaded , when I found a very well and highly coloured powder elevated , to lay it by for use , and thereby save my self the labour of a prosecution , that would not onely have proved useless , but prejudicial . And if I misremember not , by often repeated Cohobations , ( if I may so call them ) of Sal Armoniac upon crude o● Mineral Antimony , though the Sublimate that was obtained by the first Operation , was much of it variously , and in some places richly , coloured ; yet afterwards , the Salt ascended from time to time paler and paler , leaving the Antimony behind it . Which way of making some Minerals more fixt and fusible I conceive may be of great use in some Medicinal Preparations , though I think it not fit to particularize them in this place : Where my chief intent was , to mention the Phaenomenon it self , and invite you to consider , whether it may be ascribed to this , that by the reiterated action of the fire , and grinding together of the body to be raised , either the corpuscles of the Sal Armoniac , or those of the other body , may have those little hooked or equivalent particles , whereby they take hold of one another , broken or worn off ; and whether the indisposedness of the Colcotharine or Antimonial parts to ascend , may not in some cases be promoted by their having , by frequent attri●●o●s , so smoothed their Surfaces that divers of them may closely adhere , like pieces of polished Glass , and so make up Clusters too unweildy to be so raised , as the single corpuscles they consist of , were . Which change may dispose them to be at once less Volatil and more Fusible . Which Conjectures I mention to excite you to frame better , or at least to make amends for my omission of examining these , by trying whether the Sal Armoniac grown white again will be as fit as it was at first to carry up fresh bodies ; and also by observing the weight of the unelevated part , and employing those other wayes of examen , which I should have done , if I had not then made Sublimations for another end , than to clear up the Doctrine of Volatility . And here it may be profitable to some Chymists , though not necessary to my Subject , to intimate , that Sublimations may be useful to make very fine Comminutions of divers bodies . That those that are elevated are reduced to a great fineness of parts , is obvious to be observed in many Examples , whence it has been anciently , not absurdly , said , that Sublimations are the Chymists Pestles , since ( as in Flowers of Sulphur and Antimony ) they do really resolve the elevated bodies into exceeding fine Flower , and much finer than Pestles and Mortars are wont to bring them to . But that which I intend in this Paragraph is not a thing so obvious , since 't is to observe , that sometimes even bodies so fixt as not at all to ascend in Sublimation , may yet be reduced by that operation into powders extreamly fine . For exemplifying of which , I shall put you in mind , that though Spagyrists complain much of the Difficulty of making a good Clax of Gold , and of the Imperfection of the few ordinary processes prescribed to make it , ( which would be more complained of , but that Chymical Physicians seldom attempt to prepare it , ) yet we are informed by triall , that by exactly grinding a thick amalgam of Gold and Mercury with a competent weight , ( at least equal to its own ) of finely powdered Sulphur , we may , by putting the mixture to sublime in a conveniently shaped Glass , by degrees of fire obtain a Cinaber that will leave behind it a finer Clax of Gold than will be had by some far more difficult processes . But 't is now time to draw towards a Conclusion of our Notes about Volatility ; which Quality depends so much upon the contexture of the corpuscles that are to be raised together , that even very ponderous bodies may serve for volatilizing additaments , if they be disposed to fasten themselves sufficiently to the bodies they are to carry up along with them . For , though Lead be , save one , the heaviest solid we know of , and though Quick-silver be the heaviest body in the world , except Gold ; yet trialls have assured us , that Quick-silver it self being united by Amalgamation with a small proportion of Lead , will by a fire that is none of the violentest , and in close Vessels , be made to carry over with it some of the Lead . As we clearly found by the increased weight of the Quick-silver that passed into the Receiver ; which , by the way , may make us cautious how we conclude Quick-silver to be pure , meerly from its having been distilled over . There remains but one body more heavy than those I come from naming , and that is Gold ; which , being also of a fixity so great that 't is indeed admirable , I doe not wonder that not onely the more wary Naturalists , but the more severe among the Chymists themselves should think it incapable of being volatilized . But yet , if we consider , how very minute parts Gold may be rationally supposed to consist of , and to be divisible into , me thinks it should not seem impossible , that , if men could light on Volatil Salts endowed with figures fit to stick fast to the corpuscles of the Gold , they would carry up with them bodies , whose solidity can scarce be more extraordinary than their minuteness is : And in effect , we have made more than one Menstruum , with which some particles of Gold may be carried up . But when I employed that which I recommended to you formerly under the name of Menstruum peracutum ( which consists mainly , and sometimes onely , of Spirit of Nitre , several times drawn from Butter of Antimony , ) I was able , without a very violent fire , in a few hours to elevate so much crude Gold , as , in the neck of the Retort , afforded me a considerable Quantity of Sublimate , which I have had red as blood , and whose consisting partly of Gold manifestly appeared by this , that I was able with ease to reduce that metall out of it . In reckoning up the Instruments of Volatilization , we must not quite leave out the mention of the Air , which I have often observed to facilitate the elevation of some bodies even in close Vessels ; wherein , though to fill them too full be judged by many a Compendious practise , because the steams have a less way to ascend , yet Experience has several times informed me , that , at least in some cases , they take wrong measures , and that ( to pass by another Cause of their disappointment ) a large proportion of Air , purposely left in the Vessels , may more than compensate the greater space that is to be ascended by the vapours or exhalations of the matter that is to be distilled or sublimed . And if , in close Vessels , the presence of the Air may promote the ascension of bodies , it may well be expected , that the elevation of divers of them may be furthered by being attempted in open Vessels , to which the Air has free access . And if we may give any credit to the probable Relations of some Chymists , the Air does much contribute to the volatilization of some bodies that are barely , though indeed for no short time , exposed to it . But the account on which the Air by its bare presence or peculiar operations conduces to the Volatilization of some bodies , is a thing very difficult to be determined , without having recourse to some Notions about Gravity and Levity , and of the Constitution of the corpuscles that compose the Air ; which I take to be both very numerous and no less various . And therefore I must not in these occasional Notes lanch out into such a Subject , though , for fear I should be blamed for too much slighting my old acquaintance the Air , I durst not quite omit the power it has to dispose some bodies to Volatility . A moderate attention may suffice to make it be discerned , that in what hath been hitherto delivered , I have for the most part considered the small portions of matter , to be elevated in Volatilization , as intire Corpuscles : And therefore it may be now pertinent , to intimate in a Line or two , that there may be also Cases , wherein a kind of Volatilization , improperly so called , may be effected , by making use of such additaments as break off or otherwise divide the particles of the corpuscles to be elevated , and by adhering to , and so clogging , one of the particles to which it proves more congruous , inable the other , which is now brought to be more light or disingaged , to ascend . This may be illustrated by what happens , when Sal Armoniac is well ground with Lapis Calaminaris or with some fix'd Alkali , and then committed to distillation : For the Sea-salt , that enters the Composition of the Sal Armoniac , being detained by the stone or the Alkali , there is a divorce made between the common Salt and the urinous and fuliginous Salts , that were incorporated with it , and being now disingaged from it , are easily elevated . I elsewhere mention , that I have observed in Man's Urine a kind of native Sal Armoniac , much less Volatile than the fugitive that is sublim'd from Man's Blood , Harts-horn , &c. and therefore supposing , that a separation of parts may be made by an Alkali , as well in this Salt as in the common factitious Sal Armoniac , I put to fresh Urine a convenient proportion ( which was a plentifull one ) of Salt of Pot-ashes ( that being then at hand ) and distilling the Liquor , it yielded , according to expectation , a Spirit more Volatile than the Phlegm , and of a very piercing tast ; which way of obtaining a Spirit without any violence of fire , and without either previously abstracting the Phlegm , ( as we are fain to do in fresh Urine ) or tediously waiting for the fermentation of stale Urine , I taught some Chymists , because of the usefulness of Spirit of Urine ; which being obtained this innocent way , would probably be employed with much less suspicion of corrosiveness , than if in the operation I had made use of Quick-lime . Another Illustration of what I was not long since saying , may be fetch'd from the Experiment of making Spirit of Nitre by mixing Salt-peter with Oil of Vitriol , and distilling them together : For the Oil does so divide or break the corpuscles of the Nitre , that the now-disposed particles of that Salt , which amount to a great portion of the whole , will be made easily enough to ascend even with a moderate fire of Sand , and sometimes without any fire at all , in the form of Spirits , exceeding unquiet , subtle , and apt to moak away . To which Instances of this imperfect kind of Volatilization more might be added , but that you may well think , I have detain'd you but too long already with indigested Notes about one Quality . CHAP. VII . THe last means of Volatilizing bodies is , the operation of the Fire or some other actual Heat : But of this , which is obvious , it would be superfluous to discourse . Onely this I shall intimate , that there may be bodies , which , in such degrees of fire as are wont to be given in the vulgar operations of Chymists , will not be elevated , which yet may be forced up by such violent and lasting fires , as are employed by the Melters of Ores , and Founders of Guns , and sometimes by Glass-makers . And on this Consideration I shall here observe to you , since I did not doe it at my entrance on these Notes , that Chymists are wont to speak , and I have accordingly been led to treat , of Volatility and Fixity in a popular sense of those Terms . For if we would consider the matter more strictly , I presume we should find that Volatility and Fixity are but relative Qualities , which are to be estimated , especially the former of them , by the degree of fire to which the body , whereto we ascribe one or other of those Qualities , is exposed ; and therefore it is much more difficult than men are aware of , to determine accurately , when a body ought to be accounted Volatile and when not ; since there is no determinate degree of Heat agreed on , nor indeed easie to be devised , that may be as a standard , whereby to measure Volatility and Fixtness : And 't is obvious , that a body , that remains fixt in one degree of fire , may be forced up by another . To which may be added , agreeably to what I lately began to observe , that a body may pass for absolutely fixt among the generality of Chymists , and yet be unable to persevere in the fires of Founders and Glass-makers : Which brings into my mind , that not having observed , that Chymists have examined the Fixity of other bodies than metalline ones by the Cupel , I had the Curiosity to put dry Salt of Tartar upon it , and found , as I expected , that in no long time it manifestly wasted in so vehement a heat , wherein also the Air came freely at it , ( though Quick-lime , handled after the same way , lost not of its weight , ) and having well mixed one ounce of good Salt of Tartar with treble its weight of Tobacco-pipe Clay , we kept them but for two , or at most three hours , in a strong fire ; yet the Crucible being purposely left uncovered , we found the Salt of Tartar so wasted , that the remaining mixture ( which was not flux'd ) afforded us not near a quarter of an ounce of Salt. And indeed I scarce doubt , but that in strictness divers of those bodies that pass for absolutely fixt , are but semi-fixt , or at least but comparatively and relatively fix'd , that is , in reference to such degrees of fire , as they are wont to be exposed to in the Distillations , Sublimations , &c. of Chymists ; not such as are given in the raging fires of Founders , and Glass-makers . And perhaps even the fires of Glass-makers and Say-masters themselves are not the most intense that may possibly be made in a short time , provided there be but small portions of matter to be wrought on by them . And in effect , I know very few bodies , besides Gold , that will persevere totally fixt in the vehementest degrees of fire that Trials have made me acquainted with . And I elsewhere tell you , that , though Tin , in our Chymical Reverberatories themselves , is wont to be reduced but into a Calx that is reputed very fixt ; yet in those intense fires , that a Virtuoso of my acquaintance uses in his Tin-Mines , there is not seldom found quantities of Tin carried up to a notable height in the form of a whitish powder , which , being in good masses forced off from the places to which it had fastened it self , does by a skillful reduction yield many a pound weight of good malleable metal , which seemed to me to be rather more , than less , fine than ordinary Tin. Postscript , Relating to Page 15. of this Tract ; and here annext for their sakes , who have a mind to repeat the Experiment there delivered , that so they may know the quantities employed in it . WIth two parts of this Crocus we ground very well three parts of Sal Armoniac , and having sublimed them in a strong fire , we took off the high coloured Sublimat , and put in either an equal weight , or a weight exceeding it by half , to the Caput Mortuum , we found after the second Sublimation , which was also high coloured , that of an ounce of Crocus we had raised six drams , that is , three quarters of the whole weight . FINIS . EXPERIMENTAL NOTES OF The Mechanical Origine OR PRODUCTION OF FIXTNESS . LONDON , Printed by E. Flesher , for R. Davis Bookseller in Oxford . 1675. OF The Mechanical Origine OR PRODUCTION OF FIXTNESS . CHAP. I. FIXITY being the opposite Quality to Volatility , what we have discoursed about the latter , will make the nature of the former more easily understood , and upon that account allow me to make somewhat the quicker dispatch of what I have to say of it . The Qualifications that conduce most to the Fixity of a portion of matter , seem to be these . First , the grossness or the bulk of the corpuscles it consists of . For if these be too big , they will be too unwieldy and unapt to be carried up into the Air by the action of such minute particles as those of the Fire , and will also be unfit to be buoyed up by the weight of the Air ; as we see , that Vapours , whilst they are such , are small enough to swim in the Air , but can no longer be sustained by it , when they convene into drops of rain or flakes of snow . But here it is to be observed , that when I speak of the corpuscles that a fixt body consists of , I mean not either its Elementary or its Hypostatical Principles , as such , but onely those very little masses or clusters of particles , of what kind soever they be , that stick so firmly to one another , as not to be divisible and dissipable by that degree of fire in which the body is said to be fixt ; so that each of those little Concretions , though it may it self be made up of two , three , or more particles of a simpler nature , is considered here per modum Unius , or as one intire corpuscle . And this is one Qualification conducive to the Fixtness of a body . The next is the ponderousness or solidity of the corpuscles it is made up of . For if these be very solid , and ( which solid and compact bodies usually are ) of a considerable specifick gravity , they will be too heavy to be carried up by the effluvia or the action of the fire , and their ponderousness will make them as unwieldy , and indisposed to be elevated by such Agents , as the grossness of their bulk would make bigger corpuscles , but of a proportionably inferiour specifick weight . On which account the calces of some metals and minerals , as Gold , Silver , &c. though , by the operation of Solvents , or of the fire , or of both , reduced to powders exceedingly subtile , will resist such vehement fires , as will easily drive up bigger , but less heavy and compact , corpuscles , than those calces consist of . The third Qualification that conduces to the Fixity of a body , belongs to its Integral parts , not barely as they are several parts of it , but as they are aggregated or contexed into one body . For , the Qualification , I mean , is the ineptitude of the component corpuscles for avolation , by reason of their branchedness , irregular figures , crookedness , or other inconvenient shape , which intangles the particles among one another , and makes them difficult to be extricated ; by which means , if one of them do ascend , others , wherewith 't is complicated , must ascend with it ; and , whatever be the account on which divers particles stick firmly together , the aggregate will be too heavy or unwieldy to be raised . Which I therefore take notice of , because that , though usually 't is on the roughness and irregularity of corpuscles , that their cohesion depends ; yet it sometimes happens , that the smoothness and flatness of their surfaces makes them so stick together , as to resist a total divulsion ; as may be illustrated by what I have said of the cohesion of polished marbles and the plates of glass , and by the fixity of glass it self in the fire . From this account of the Causes or Requisites of Fixity , may be deduced the following means of giving or adding Fixation to a body , that was before either Volatile , or less fixt . These means may be reduced to two general Heads ; First , the action of the Fire , as the parts of the body , exposed to it , are thereby made to operate variously on one another . And next , the association of the particles of a volatile body with those of some proper additament : Which term , [ of proper ] I rather imploy than that , one would expect , [ of fixt ; ] because 't will ere long appear , that , in certain cases , some volatile bodies may more conduce to the fixation of other volatile bodies , than some fixt ones doe . But these two Instruments of Fixation being but general , I shall propose four or five more particular ones . CHAP. II. AND first , in some cases it may conduce to Fixation , that , either by an additament , or by the operation of the fire , the parts of a body be brought to touch each other in large portions of their surfaces . For , that from such a contact there will follow such a mutual cohesion , as will at least indispose the touching corpuscles to suffer a total divulsion , may appear probable from what we lately noted of the cohesion of pieces of marble and glass , and from some other Phaenomena belonging to the History of Firmness , from which we may properly enough borrow some instances , at least for illustration , in the Doctrine of Fixtness , in regard that usually , though not always , the same things that make a body Firm , give it some degree of Fixity , by keeping it from being dissipated by the wonted degrees of Heat , and Agitation it meets with in the Air. But to return to the contact we were speaking of , I think it not impossible , ( though you may perhaps think it strange , ) that the bare operation of the Fire may , in some cases , procure a Cohesion among the particles , ( and consequently make them more Fixt , ) as well as in others disjoyn them , and thereby make them more Volatile . For , as in some bodies , the figures and sizes of the corpuscles may be such , that the action of the fire may rub or tear off the little beards or hooks , or other particles that intangle them , and by that means make it more easie for the corpuscles to be disingaged and fly upwards ; so in other bodies , the size and shape of the corpuscles may be such , that the agitation , caused by the fire , may rub them one against the other , so as by mutual attrition to grind , as 't were , their surfaces , and make them so broad and smooth , if not also so flat , as that the contact of the corpuscles shall come to be made according to a large portion of their superficies , from whence will naturally follow a firm Cohesion . Which I shall illustrate by what we may observe among those that grind glasses for Telescopes and Microscopes . For , these Artificers , by long rubbing a piece of glass against a metalline Dish or concave Vessel , do by this attrition at length bring the two bodies to touch one another in so many parts of their congruous surfaces , that they will stick firmly to one another , so as sometimes to oblige the Work-man to use violence to disjoyn them . And this instance ( which is not the sole I could alleage ) may suffice to shew , how a Cohesion of corpuscles may be produced by the mutual adaptation of their congruous surfaces . And if two grosser corpuscles , or a greater number of smaller , be thus brought to stick together , you will easily believe , their Aggregate will prove too heavy or unwieldy for avolation . And to shew , that the fire may effect a laevigation in the surfaces of some corpuscles , I have sometimes caused Minium , and some other calces , that I judged convenient , to be melted for a competent time , in a vehement fire conveniently administred ; whereby , according to expectation , that which was before a dull and incoherent powder , was reduced into much grosser corpuscles , multitudes of whose grains appeared smooth , glittering , and almost specular , like those of fine litharge of gold ; and the masses that these grains composed , were usually solid enough and of difficult fusion . And when we make glass of Lead per se , ( which I elsewhere teach you how to doe , ) 't is plain , that the particles of the Lead are reduced to a great smoothness ; since , wheresoever you break the glass , the surfaces , produced at the crack , will not be jagged , but smooth , and considerably specular . Nor do I think it impossible , that , even when the fire does not make any great attrition of the Corpuscles of the body to be fixt , it may yet occasion their sticking together , because by long tumbling them up and down in various manners , it may at length , after multitudes of revolutions and differing occursions , bring those of their surfaces together , which , by reason of their breadth , smoothness , or congruity of figure , are fit for mutual cohesion ; and when once they come to stick , there is no necessity , that the same causes , that were able to make them pass by one another , when their contact was but according to an inconsiderable part of their surfaces , should have the same effect now , when their contact is full ; though perhaps , if the degree of fire were much increased , a more vehement agitation would surmount this cohesion , and dissipate again these clusters of coalescent corpuscles . These conjectures will perhaps appear less extravagant , if you consider what happens in the preparation of Quick-silver praecipitated per se. For there , running Mercury , being put into a conveniently shaped Glass , is exposed to a moderate fire for a considerable time : ( For I have sometimes found six or seven weeks to be too short a one . ) In this degree of fire the parts are variously tumbled , and made many of them to ascend , till convening into drops on the sides of the glass , their weight carries them down again ; but at length , after many mutual occursions , if not also attritions , some of the parts begin to stick together in the form of a red powder , and then more and more Mercurial particles are fastened to it , till at length all , or by much the greater part of the Mercury , is reduced into the like Praecipitate , which , by this cohesion of the parts , being grown more fixt , will not with the same degree of Heat be made to rise and circulate , as the Mercury would before ; and yet , as I ellewhere note , I have found by trial , that , with a greater and competent degree of heat , this Praecipitate per se , would , without the help of any volatilizing additament , be easily reduced into running Mercury again . Chymist's and Physicians , who agree in supposing this Praecipitate to be made without any additament , will perchance scarce be able to give a more likely account of the consistency and degree of Fixity that is obtained in the Mercury ; in which , since no body is added to it , there appears not to be wrought any but a Mechanical change . And though , I confess , I have not been without suspicions , that in Philosophical strictness this Praecipitate may not be made per se , but that some penetrating igneous particles , especially saline , may have associated themselves with the Mercurial Corpuscles ; yet even upon this supposition it may be said , that these particles contribute to the effect that is produced , but by facilitating or procuring , by their opportune Interposition , the mutual Cohesion of Corpuscles that would not otherwise stick to one another . Perhaps it will not be altogether impertinent to add , on this occasion , that , as for the generality of Chymists , as well others as Helmontians , that assert the Transmutation of all metalls into Gold by the Philosopher's Stone , me thinks , they may grant it to be probable , that a new and fit Contexture of the parts of a volatile body may , especially by procuring a full contact among them , very much contribute to make it highly fixt . For , to omit what is related by less credible Authours , 't is averred , upon his own trial , by Helmont , who pretended not to the Elixir , that a grain of the powder , that was given him , transmuted a pound ( if I mis-remember not ) of running Mercury ; where the proportion of the Elixir to the Mercury was so inconsiderable , that it cannot reasonably be supposed , that every Corpuscle of the Quick-silver , that before was volatile , was made extreamly fixt meerly by its Coalition with a particle of the powder , since , to make one grain suffice for this Coalition , the parts it must be divided into must be scarce conceivably minute , and therefore each single part not likely to be fixt it self , or at least more likely to be carried up by the vehemently agitated Mercury , than to restrain that from avolation ; whereas , if we suppose the Elixir to have made such a commotion among the corpuscles of the Mercury , as ( having made them perhaps somewhat change their figure , and expelled some inconvenient particles , ) to bring them to stick to one another , according to very great portions of their surfaces , and intangle one another , it will not be disagreeable to the Mechanical Doctrine of Fixity , that the Mercury should endure the fire as well as Gold , on the score of its new Texture , which , supposing the story true , appears to have been introduced , by the new colour , specifick gravity , Indissolubleness in Aqua fortis , and other Qualities wherein Gold differs from Mercury , especially Malleableness , which , according to our Notes about that Quality , usually requires that the parts , from whose union it results , be either hooked , branched , or otherwise adapted and fitted to make them take fast hold of one another , or stick close to one another . And since , in the whole mass of the factitious Gold , all save one grain must be materially the same body , which , before the projection was made , was Quick-silver , we may see how great a proportion of volatile matter may , by an inconsiderable quantity of fixing additament , acquire such a new Disposition of its parts , as to become most fixt . And however , this Instance will agree much better with the Mechanical Doctrine about Fixity , than with that vulgar Opinion of the Chymists , ( wherewith 't will not at all comply , ) That if , in a mixture , the volatile part do much exceed the fixt , it will carry up that , or at least a good portion thereof , with it ; and on the contrary . But though this Rule holds in many cases , where there is no peculiar indisposition to the effect that is aimed at ; yet if the Mechanical affections of the bodies be ill suited to such a purpose , our Philosophical Experiment manifestly proves , that the Rule will not hold , since so great a multitude of grains of Mercury , in stead of carrying up with them one grain of the Elixir , are detained by it in the strongest fire . And thus much for the first way of fixing Volatile Bodies . CHAP. III. THE second way of producing Fixity , is by expelling , breaking , or otherwise disabling those volatile Corpuscles that are too indisposed to be fixt themselves , or are fitted to carry up with them such particles as would not , without their help , ascend . That the Expulsion of such parts is a proper means to make the aggregate of those that remain more fixt , I presume you will not put me solicitously to prove ; and we have a manifest instance of it in Soot , where , though many active parts were by the violence of the fire and current of the air carried up together by the more volatile parts ; yet , when Soot is well distilled in a Retort , a competent time being given for the extricating and avolation of the other parts , there will at the bottom remain a substance that will not now fly away , as it formerly did . And here let me observe , that the recesse of the fugitive corpuscles may contribute to the fixation of a body , not barely because the remaining matter is freed from so many unfixt , if not also volatilizing , parts ; but , as it may often happen , that upon their recesse the pores or intervals , they left behind them , are filled up with more solid or heavy matter , and the body becomes , as more homogeneous , so more close and compact . And whereas I intimated , that , besides the expulsion of unfit corpuscles , they may be otherwise disabled from hindering the fixation of the masse they belong to , I did it , because it seems very possible , that in some cases they may , by the action of the fire , be so broken , as with their fragments to fill up the pores or intervals of the body they appertained to ; or may make such coalitions with the particles of a convenient additament , as to be no impediment to the Fixity of the whole masse , though they remain in it . Which possibly you will think may well happen , when you shall have perused the Instances annext to the fourth way of fixing bodies . The third means of fixing , or lessening the Volatility of , bodies , is by preserving that rest among the parts , whose contrary is necessary to their Volatilization . And this may be done by preventing or checking that Heat , or other motion , which external Agents strive to introduce into the parts of the proposed body . But this means tending rather to hinder the actual avolation of a portion of matter , or , at most , procure a temporary abatement of its volatility , than to give it a stable fixity , I shall not any longer insist on it . The fourth way of producing Fixity in a body , is by putting to it such an appropriated Additament , whether fixt or volatile , that the Corpuscles of the body may be put among themselves , or with those of the additament , into a complicated state , or intangled contexture . This being the usual and principal way of producing Fixity , we shall dwell somewhat the longer upon it , and give Instances of several degrees of Fixation . For , though they do not produce that quality in the strictest acceptation of the word , Fixity ; yet 't is usefull in our present inquiry , to take notice , by what means that volatility comes to be gradually abated , since that may facilitate our understanding , how the Volatility of a body comes to be totally abated , and consequently the body to be fixt . CHAP. IV. AND first we find , that a fixt additament , if its parts be conveniently shaped , may easily give a degree of fixity to a very volatile body . Thus Spirit of Nitre , that will of it self easily enough fly away in the Air , having its saline particles associated with those of fixt Nitre , or salt of Tartar , will with the Alkaly compose a salt of a Nitrous nature , which will endure to be melted in a Crucible without being deprived even of its Spirits . And I have found , that the spirits of Nitre , that abound in Aqua fortis , being concoagulated with the Silver they corrode , though one would not expect that such subtile Corpuscles should stick fast to so compact and solid a body as Silver ; yet Crystalls , produced by their Coalition , being put into a Retort , may be kept a pretty while in fusion , before the metal will let go the Nitrous spirits . When we poured Oil of Vitriol upon the Calx of Vitriol , though many Phlegmatick and other Sulphureous particles were driven away by the excited Heat ; yet the saline parts , that combined with the fixt ones of the Colcothar , stuck fast enough to them , not to be easily driven away . And if Oil of Vitriol be in a due proportion dropt upon Salt of Tartar , there results a Tartarum vitriolatum , wherein the acid and alkalizate parts cohere so strongly , that 't is not an ordinary degree of fire will be able to disjoyn them . Insomuch that divers Chymists have ( though very erroniously ) thought this compounded Salt to be indestructible . But a less heavy liquour than the ponderous Oil of Vitriol may by an Alkaly be more strongly detained than that Oil it self ; experience having assured me , that Spirit of Salt being dropt to satiety upon a fixt Alkaly , ( I used either that of Nitre or of Tartar , ) there would be made so strict an union , that , having , without additaments , distilled the resulting salt with a strong and lasting fire , it appeared not at all considerably to be wrought upon , and was not so much as melted . But 't is not the bare Mixture or Commistion of Volatile particles with Fixt ones , ( yea though the former be predominant in quantity , ) that will suffice to elevate the latter . For , unlesse the figures of the latter be congruous and fitted to fasten to the other , the volatile parts will fly away in the Heat , and leave the rest as fixt as before : as when sand or ashes are wetted or drenched with water , they quickly part with that water , without parting with any degree of their Fixity . But on the other side , it is not always necessary , that the body , which is fitted to destroy , or much abate , the volatility of another substance , should be it self fixt . For , if there be a skilful or lucky coaptation of the figures of the particles of both the bodies , these particles may take such hold of one another , as to compose corpuscles , that will neither by reason of their strict union be divided by Heat ; nor by reason of their resulting grossness be elevated even by a strong fire , or at least by such a degree of Heat as would have sufficed to raise more indisposed bodies than either of the separate Ingredients of the mixture . This observation , if duly made out , does so much favour our Doctrine about the Mechanical Origine of Fixation , and may be of such use , not onely to Chymists , in some of their operations , but to Philosophers , in assigning the causes of divers Phaenomena of Nature , that it may be worth while to exemplifie it by some Instances . The first whereof I shall take from an usual practice of the Chymists themselves : which I the rather doe , to let you see , that such known Experiments are too often over-looked by them that make them , but yet may hint or confirm Theories to those that reflect on them . The Instance , I here speak of , is that which is afforded by the vulgar Preparation of Bezoardicum Minerale . For , though the rectified Butter or Oil of Antimony and the Spirit of Nitre , that are put together to make this white Praecipitate , are both of them distilled liquours ; yet the copious powder , that results from their Union , is , by that Union of volatile parts , so far fixt , that , after they have edulcorated it with water , they prescribe the calcining of it in a Crucible for five or six hours : which operation it could not bear , unless it had attained to a considerable fixation . This discourse supposes with the generality of Chymists , that the addition of a due quantity of spirit of Nitre , is necessary to be employed in making the Bezoardicum Minerale . But if it be a true Observation , which is attributed to the Learned Guntherus Billichius , ( but which I had no Furnace at hand to examine when I heard of it , ) if , I say , it be true , that a Bezoardicum Minerale may be obtained , without spirit of Nitre , barely by a slow evaporation , made in a Glasse-dish , of the more fugitive parts of the Oil of Antimony ; this Instance will not indeed be proper in this place , but yet will belong to the second of the foregoing ways of introducing Fixity . I proceed now to alleage other particulars in favour of the above-mentioned Observation . If you take strong Spirit of Salt , that , when the Glass is unstopt , will smoak of it self in the cold air , and satiate it with the volatile Spirit of Urine , the superfluous moisture being abstracted , you will obtain by this preparation ( which , you may remember , I long since communicated to you , and divers other Virtusi , ) a compounded Salt , scarce , if at all , distinguishable from Sal Armoniac , and which will not , as the Salts it consists of will doe , before their coalition , easily fly up of it self into the air , but will require a not despicable degree of fire to sublime it . Of these semivolatile Compositions of Salt I have made , and elsewhere mentioned , others , which I shall not here repeat , but passe on to other Instances pertinent to our present design . I lately mentioned , that the Volatility of the spirits of Nitre may be very much abated , by bringing them to coagulate into Crystalls with particles of corroded Silver ; but I shall now add , that I guessed , and by trial found , that these Nitrous spirits may be made much more fixt by the addition of the Spirit of Salt , which , if it be good , will of it self smoak in the Air. For , having dissolved a convenient quantity of Crystalls of Silver in distilled water , and precipitated them , not with a Solution of Salt , but the Spirit of Salt ; the phlegm being abstracted , and some few of the looser saline particles ; though the remaining masse were prest with a violent fire that kept the Retort red-hot for a good while ; yet the Nitrous and Saline spirits would by no means be driven away from the Silver , but continued in fusion with it ; and when the masse was taken out , these Spirits did so abound in it , that it had no appearance of a Metal , but looked rather like a thick piece of Horn. The next Instance I shall name is afforded us by that kind of Turbith , which may be made by Oil of Vitriol , in stead of the Aqua fortis imployed in the common Turpethum Minerale . For , though Oil of Vitriol be a distilled liquour , and Mercury a body volatile enough ; yet , when we abstracted four or five parts of Oil of Vitriol from one of Quick-silver , ( especially if the operation were repeated , ) and then washed off as much as we could of the saline particles of the Oil of Vitriol ; yet those that remained adhering to the Mercury made it far more fixt , than either of the liquours had been before , and inabled it even in a Crucible to endure such a degree of fire , before it could be driven away , as , I confess , I somewhat wondered at . The like Turbith may be made with Oil of Sulphur per Campanam . But this is nothing to what Helmont tells us of the operation of his Alkahest , where he affirms , that that Menstruum , which is volatile enough , being abstracted from running Mercury , not onely coagulates it , but leaves it fixt , so that it will endure the brunt of fires acuated by Bellows , ( omnem follium ignem . ) If this be certain , it will not be a slender proof , that Fixity may be Mechanically produced ; and however , the Argument will be good in reference to the Helmontian Spagyrists . For if , as one would expect , there do remain some particles of the Menstruum with those of the metal , it will not be denied , that two volatile substances may perfectly fix one another . And if , as Helmont seems to think , the Menstruum be totally abstracted , this supposition will the more favour our Doctrine about Fixity ; since , if there be no material additament left with the Quick-silver , the Fixation cannot so reasonably be ascribed to any thing , as to some new Mechanical modification , and particularly to some change of Texture introduced into the Mercury it self . And that you may think this the less improbable , I will now proceed to some Instances , whereof the first shall be this ; That , having put a mixture made of a certain proportion of two dry , as well as volatile , bodies , ( viz. Sal Armoniac , and Flower or very fine powder of Sulphur , ) to half its weight of common running Mercury , and elevated this mixture three or four times from it , ( in a conveniently shaped , and not over-wide , glass ) the Mercury , that lay in the bottom in the form of a ponderous and somewhat purplish powder , was , by this operation , so fixt , that it long endured a strong fire , which at length was made so strong , that it melted the Glass , and kept it melted , without being strong enough to force up the Mercury : which , by some trials , not so proper to be here mentioned , seemed to have its salivating and emetick powers extraordinarily infringed , and sometimes quite suppressed . But this onely upon the bye . In all the other Instances , ( wherewith I shall conclude these Notes , ) I shall employ one Menstruum , Oil of Vitriol , and shew you the efficacy of it in fixing some parts of volatile bodies with some parts of it self ; by which examples it may appear , that a Volatile body may not onely lessen the volatility of another body , as in the lately mentioned case of our spirituous Sal Armoniac ; but that two Substances , that apart were volatile , may compose a third , that will not onely be less volatile , but considerably ( if not altogether ) fixt . We mixed then , by degrees , about equal parts of Oil of Vitriol and Oil of Turpentine : and though each of them single , especially the latter , will ascend with a moderate fire in a Sand-furnace ; yet , after the Distillation was ended , we had a considerable quantity , sometimes ( if I mis-remember not ) a fifth or sixth part , of a Caput Mortuum black as a Coal , and whereof a great part was of a scarce to be expected fixtness in the fire . To give a higher proof of the disposition , that Oil of Vitriol has to let some of its parts grow fixt by combination with those of an exceeding volatile additament , I mixed this liquour with an equal or double weight of highly rectified Spirit of Wine , and not onely after , but sometimes without , previous digestion , I found , that the fluid parts of the mixture being totally abstracted , there would remain a pretty quantity of a black Substance so fixt as to afford just cause of wonder . And because Camphire is esteemed the most fugitive of consistent bodies , in regard that , being but laid in the free air , without any help of the fire , it will fly all away ; I tried , what Oil of Vitriol abstracted from Camphire would doe ; and found at the bottom of the Retort a greater quantity than one would expect of a Substance as black as pitch , and almost as far from the volatility as from the colour of Camphire , though it appeared not , that any of the Gum had sublim'd into the neck of the Retort . From all which Instances it seems manifestly enough to follow , that in many cases there needs nothing to make associated particles , whether volatile or not , become fixt , but either to implicate or intangle them among themselves , or bring them to touch one another according to large portions of their surfaces , or by both these ways conjoyntly , or by some others , to procure the firm Cohaesion of so many particles , that the resulting Corpuscles be too big or heavy to be , by the degree of fire wherein they are said to be fixt , driven up into the Air. FINIS . Experiments and Notes ABOUT THE MECHANICAL ORIGINE OR PRODUCTION OF CORROSIVENESS AND CORROSIBILITY . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esq Fellow of the R. Society . LONDON , Printed by E. Flesher , for R. Davis Bookseller in Oxford . 1675. Experiments and Notes ABOUT THE MECHANICAL PRODUCTION OF CORROSIVENESS AND CORROSIBILITY . SECT . I. About the Mechanical Origine of Corrosiveness . I Do not in the following Notes treat of Corrosiveness in their strict sense of the word , who ascribe this Quality only to Liquors , that are notably acid or sowre , such as Aqua fortis , Spirit of Salt , Vinegar , Juice of Lemons , &c. but , that I may not be oblig'd to overlook Unnous , Oleous , and divers other Solvents , or to coin new names for their differing Solutive Powers , I presume to employ the word Corrosiveness in a greater lautude , so as to make it almost equivalent to the Solutive power of Liquors , referring other Menstruums to those that are Corrosive or fretting , ( though not always as to the most proper , yet ) as to the principal and best known species ; which I the less scruple here to do , because I have * elsewhere more distinctly enumerated and sorted the Solvents of bodies . The Attributes that seem the most proper to qualifie a Liquor to be Corrosive , are all of them Mechanical , being such as are these that follow : First , That the Menstruum consist of , or abound with , Corpuscles not too big to get in at the Pores or Commissures of the body to be dissolved ; nor yet be so very minute as to pass through them , as the beams of Light do through Glass ; or to be unable by reason of their great slenderness and flexibility to disjoyn the parts they invade . Secondly , That these Corpuscles be of a shape ●itting them to insinuate themselves more or less into the Pores or Commissures above-mentioned , in order to the dissociating of the solid parts . Thirdly , That they have a competent degree of solidity to disjoyn the Particles of the body to be dissolved ; which Solidity of Solvent corpuscles is somewhat distinct from their bulk , mention'd in the first Qualification ; as may appear by comparing a stalk of Wheat and a metalline Wire of the same Diameter , or a flexible wand of Osier of the bigness of ones little finger , with a rigid rod of Iron of the same length and thickness . Fourthly , That the Corpuscles of the Menstruum be agile and advantaged for motion , ( such as is fit to disjoyn the parts of the invaded body ) either by their shape , or their minuteness , or their fitness to have their action befriended by adjuvant Causes ; such as may be ( first ) the pressure of the Atmosphere , which may impell them into the Pores of bodies not fill'd with a Substance so resisting as common Air : As we see , that water will by the prevalent pressure of the Ambient , whether Air or Water , be raised to the height of some inches in capillary Glasses , and in the pores of Spunges , whose consistent parts being of easier cession than the sides of Glass-pipes , those Pores will be enlarged , and consequently those sides disjoyn'd , as appears by the dilatation and swelling of the Spunge : And ( secondly ) the agitation , that the intruding Corpuscles may be fitted to receive in those Pores or Commissures by the transcursion of some subtile ethereal matter ; or by the numerous knocks and other pulses of the swimming or tumbled Corpuscles of the Menstruum it self , ( which being a fluid body , must have its small parts perpetually and variously moved ) whereby the engaged Corpuscles , like so many little Wedges and Leavers , may be enabled to wrench open , or force asunder the little parts between which they have insinuated themselves . But I shall not here prosecute this Theory , ( which , to be handled fully , would require a discourse apart ) since these Conjectures are propos'd but to make it probable in the general , That the Corrosiveness of bodies may be deduced from Mechanical Principles : But whether best from the newly propos'd ones , or any other , need not be anxiously consider'd in these Notes , where the things mainly intended and rely'd on , are the Experiments and Phaenomena themselves . EXPER. I. 'T Is obvious , that , though the recently exprest Juice of Grapes be sweet , whilst it retains the Texture that belongs to it as 't is new , ( especially if it be made of some sorts of Grapes that grow in hot Regions , ) yet after fermentation , 't will , in tract of time , as 't were spontaneously , degenerate into Vinegar . In which Liquor , to a multitude of the more solid Corpuscles of the Must , their frequent and mutual Attritions may be supposed to have given edges like those of the blades of swords or knives ; and in which , perhaps , the confused agitation that preceded , extricated , or , as it were , unsheathed some acid particles , that ( deriv'd from the sap of the Vine , or , perchance more originally , from the juice of the Earth ) were at first in the Must , but lay conceal'd , and as it were sheathed , among the other particles wherewith they were associated , when they were prest out of the Grapes . Now this Liquor , that by the forementioned ( or other like ) Mechanical Changes is become Vinegar , does so abound with Corpuscles , which , on the account of their edges , or their otherwise sharp and penetrative shape , are Acid and Corrosive , that the better sort of it will , without any preparation , dissolve Coral , Crabs-eyes , and even some Stones , Lapis stellaris in particular , as also Minium , ( or the Calx of Lead ) and even crude Copper , as we have often tried . And not onely the distill'd Spirit of it will do those things more powerfully , and perform some other things that meer Vinegar cannot ; but the saline particles , wont to remain after Distillation , may , by being distill'd and cohobated per se , or by being skilfully united with the foregoing Spirit , be brought to a Menstruum of no small efficacy in the dissolution , and other preparations of metalline bodies , too compact for the meer Spirit it self to work upon . From divers other sweet things also may Vinegar be made ; and even of Honey , skilfully fermented with a small proportion of common water , may be made a Vinegar stronger than many of the common Wine-vinegars ; as has been affirmed to me by a very candid Physician , who had occasion to deal much in Liquors . EXPER. II. NOt onely several dry Woods , and other Bodies that most of them pass for insipid , but Honey and Sugar themselves afford by Distillation Acid Spirits that will dissolve Coral , Pearls , &c. and will also corrode some Metals and metalline Bodies themselves ; as I have often found by Trial. So that the violent Operation of the fire , that destroys what they call the Form of the distill'd body , and works as a Mechanical Agent by agitating , breaking , dissipating , and under a new constitution reassembling the parts , procures for the Distiller an Acid Corrosive Menstruum ; which whether it be brought to pass by making the Corpuscles rub one another into the figure of little sharp blades , or by splitting some solid parts into sharp or cutting Corpuscles , or by unsheathing , as it were , some parts , that , during the former Texture of the body , did not appear to be acid ; or whether it be rather effected by some other Mechanical way , may in due time be further considered . EXPER. III. 'T Is observ'd by Refiners , Goldsmiths and Chymists , that Aqua Fortis and Aqua Regia , which are Corrosive Menstruums , dissolve Metals , the former of them Silver , and the latter Gold , much more speedily and copiously when an external heat gives their intestine motions a new degree of Vehemency or Velocity , which is but a mechanical thing ; and yet this superadded measure of Agitation is not onely in the abovemention'd Instances a powerfully assistant Cause in the Solutions made by the lately mention'd Corrosive Liquors , but is that without which some Menstruums are not wont sensibly to corrode some bodies at all , as we have tried in keeping Quick-silver in three or four times its weight of Oyl of Vitriol ; since in this Menstruum I found not the Mercury to be dissolved or corroded , though I kept it a long time in the Cold : Whereas , when the Oyl of Vitriol was excited by a convenient heat , ( which was not faint ) it corroded the Mercury into a fine white Calx or powder , which , by the affusion of fair water , would be presently turn'd into a yellowish Calx of the colour and nature of a Turbith . I remember also , that having for trials sake dissolv'd in a weak Spirit of Salt , a fourth part of its weight of fine Crystals of Nitre , we found , that it would not in the cold ( at least during a good while that we waited for its operation ) dissolve Leaf-gold ; but when the Menstruum was a little heated at the fire , the Solution proceeded readily enough . And in some cases , though the external heat be but small , yet there may intervene a brisk heat , and much cooperate in the dissolution of a Body ; as , for instance , of Quick-silver in Aqua Fortis . For it is no prodigy to find , that when a full proportion of that fluid Metal has been taken , the Solution , though at first altogether liquid , and as to sense uniform , comes to have after a while a good quantity of coagulated or crystalliz'd matter at the bottom , of which the cause may be , that in the very act of Corrosion there is excited an intense degree of heat , which conferring a new degree of agitation to the Menstruum , makes it dissolve a good deal more , than afterwards , when the Conflict is over , it is able to keep up . EXPER. IV. WE have observed also , that Agitation does in some cases so much promote the Dissolutive power of Saline bodies , that though they be not reduc'd to that subrilty of parts , to which a strong Distillation brings them ; yet they may in their grosser and cruder form have the power to work on Metals ; as I elsewhere shew , that by barely boiling some Solutions of Salts of a convenient structure , as Nitre , Sal Armoniac , &c. with foliated Gold , Silver , &c. we have corroded these Metals , and can dissolve some others . And by boiling crude Copper ( in Filings ) with Sublimate and common water , we were able , in no long time , to make a Solution of the Metal . EXPER. V. SOmetimes also , so languid an Agitation , as that which seems but sufficient to keep a Liquor in the state of fluidity , may suffice to give some dry bodies a corroding power , which they could not otherwise exercise ; as in the way of writing ones name ( or a Motto ) upon the blade of a knife with common Sublimate : For , if having very thinly overlaid which side you please with Bees-wax , you write with a bodkin or some pointed thing upon it ; the Wax being thereby removed from the strokes made by the sharp body , 't is easie to etch with Sublimate ; since you need but strew the powder of it upon the place bared of the Wax , and wet it well with meer common water ; for strong Vinegar is not necessary . For after a while all the parts of the blade that should not be fretted , being protected by the Case or Film of Wax , the Sublimate will corrode onely where way has been made for it by the bodkin , and the Letters will be more or less deeply ingraven ( or rather etch'd ) according to the time the Sublimate is suffer'd to lye on . And if you aim onely at a legible impression , a few minutes of an hour ( as four or five ) may serve the turn . EXPER. VI. THis brings into my mind an Observation I have sometimes had occasion to make , that I found more useful than common , and it is , That divers Bodies , whether distill'd or not distill'd , that are not thought capable of dissolving other Bodies , because in moderate degrees of heat they will not work on them , may yet by intense degrees of heat be brought to be fit Solvents for them . To which purpose I remember , that having a distill'd Liquor , which was rather sweet to the taste , than either acid , lixiviate or urinous , though for that reason it seem'd unfit to work on Pearls , and accordingly did not dissolve them in a considerable time , wherein they were kept with it in a more than ordinarily warm digestion ; yet the Glass being for many hours ( amounting perhaps to some days ) kept in such an heat of sand as made the Liquor boil , we had a Dissolution of Pearls , that uniting with the Menstruum made it a very valuable Liquor . And though the Solvents of crude Gold , wont to be employed by Chymists , are generally distill'd Liquors that are acid , and in the lately mention'd Solvent , made of crude Salts and common water , Acidity seem'd to be the predominant quality ( which makes the use of Solutions made in Aqua Regia , &c. suspected by many Physicians and Chymists ; ) yet fitly chosen Alcalizate Bodies themselves , as repugnant as they use to be to Acids , without the help of any Liquor will be enabled by a melting Fire in no long time to penetrate and tear asunder the parts even of crude Gold ; so that it may afterwards be easily taken up in Liquors that are not acid , or even by water it self . EXPER. VII . THe Tract about Salt-peter , that gave occasion to these Annotations , may furnish us with an eminent Instance of the Production of Solvents . For , though pure Salt-peter it self , when dissolv'd in water , is not observ'd to be a Menstruum for the Solution of the Metals hereafter to be named , or so much as of Coral it self ; yet , when by a convenient Distillation its parts are split , if I may so speak , and by Attrition , or other Mechanical ways of working on them , reduc'd to the shapes of Acid and Alcalizate Salts , it then affords two sorts of Menstruums of very differing natures , which betwixt them dissolve or corrode a great number and variety of Bodies ; as the Spirit of Nitre without addition is a Solvent for most Metals , as Silver , Mercury , Copper , Lead , &c. and also divers Mineral Bodies , as Tin glass , Spelter , Lapis Calaminaris , &c. and the fixed Salt of Nitre operates upon Sulphureous Minerals , as common Sulphur , Antimony , and divers other Bodies , of which I elsewhere make mention . EXPER. VIII . BY the former Trials it has appear'd , that the increase of Motion in the more penetrating Corpusoles of a Liquor , contributes much to its Solutive power ; and I shall now adde , that the Shape and Size , which are Mechanical Affections , and sometimes also the Solidity of the same Corpuscles does eminently concur to qualifie a Liquor to dissolve this or that particular body . Of this , even some of the more familiar practices of Chymists may supply us with Instances . For there is no account so probable as may be given upon this supposition , why Aqua Fortis , which will dissolve Silver , without medling with Gold , should , by the addition of a fourth part of its weight of Sal Armoniac , be turn'd into Aqua Regia , which , without medling with Silver , will dissolve Gold. But there is no necessity of having recourse to so gross and compounded a Body as Sal Armoniac to enable Aqua Fortis to dissolve Gold : For , the Spirit of common Salt alone being mingled in a due proportion , will suffice for that purpose . Which ( by the way ) shews , that the Volatile Salt of Urine and Soot , that concur to the making up of Sal Armoniac , are not necessary to the dissolution of Gold , for which a Solvent may be made with Aqua Fortis and crude Sea-salt . I might adde , that the Mechanical affections of a Menstruum may have such an interest in its dissolutive power , that even Mineral or Metalline Corpuscles may become useful Ingredients of it , though perhaps it be a distill'd Liquor ; as might be illustrated by the Operations of some compounded Solvents , such as is the Oyl of Antimony made by repeated Rectifications of what Chymists call its Butter , which , whatever some say to the contrary , does much abound in Antimonial Substance . EXPER. IX . BUt I shall return to our Aqua Regia , because the mention I had occasion to make of that Solvent brought into my mind what I devis'd , to make it probable , that a smaller change , than one would lightly imagine , of the bulk , shape , or solidity of the Corpuscles of a Menstruum may make it fit to dissolve a Body it would not work on before . And this I the rather attempted , because the warier sort of Chymists themselves are very shye of the inward use or preparations made of Gold by the help of Aqua Fortis , because of the odious stink they find , and the venenosity they suspect in that corrosive Menstruum : Whereas Spirit of Salt we look upon as a much more innocent Liquor , whereof , if it be but diluted with fair water or any ordinary drink , a good Dose may be safely given inwardly , though it have not wrought upon Gold or any other body , to take off its acrimony . But , whether or no this prove of any great use in Physick , wherein perhaps , if any quantity of Gold be to be dissolved , a greater proportion of Spirit of Nitre would be needed ; the success will not be unfit to be mention'd in reference to what we were saying of Solvents . For , whereas we find not that our Spirit of Salt here in England will at all dissolve crude Gold , we found , that by putting some Leaf-gold into a convenient quantity of good Spirit of Salt , when we had dropt-in Spirit of Nitre ( shaking the Glass at each drop , ) till we perceived , that the mixture was just able in a moderate heat to dissolve the Gold , we found , that we had been oblig'd to employ but after the rate of twelve drops of the latter Liquor to an ounce of the former ; so that , supposing each of these drops to weigh a grain , the fortieth part of Spirit of Nitre being added , served to turn the Spirit of Salt into a kind of Aqua Regia . But to know the proportion otherwise than by ghess , we weigh'd six other drops of the same Spirit of Salt , and found them to amount not fully to three grains and an half : Whence it appeared , that we added but about a seventieth part of the Nitrous Spirit to that of Salt. The Experiments that have been hitherto recited , relate chiefly to the Production of Corrosive Menstruums ; and therefore I shall now adde an account of a couple of Trials , that I made manifestly to lessen or quite to destroy Corrosiveness in Liquors very conspicuous for that quality . EXPER. X. WHereas one of the most corrosive Menstruums , that is yet known , is Oyl of Vitriol , which will fret in pieces both divers Metals and Minerals , and a great number and variety of animal and vegetable bodies ; yet if you digest with it for a while onely an equal weight of highly rectified Spirit of Wine , and afterwards distill the mixture very warily , ( for else the Experiment may very easily miscarry , ) you may obtain a pretty deal of Liquor not corrosive at all , and the remaining substance will be reduc'd partly into a Liquor , which , though acid , is not more so than one part of good Oyl of Vitriol will make ten times as much common water , by being well mingled with it ; and partly into a dry substance that has scarce any taste at all , much less a corrosive one . EXPER. XI . ANd though good Aqua Fortis be the most generally employed of corrosive Menstruums , as being capable of dissolving or corroding , not onely many Minerals , as Tin-glass , Antimony , Zinke , &c. but all Metals except Gold , ( for , though it make not a permanent Solution of crude Tin , it quickly frets the parts asunder , and reduces it to an immalleable substance ; ) yet to shew , how much the power of corroding may be taken away by changing the Mechanical Texture of a Menstruum , even without seeming to destroy the fretting Salts , I practis'd ( and communicated to divers Virtuosi ) the following Experiment , elsewhere mentioned to other purposes . We took equal parts of good Aqua Fortis , and highly dephlegm'd Spirit of Wine , and having mingled them warily and by degrees , ( without which caution the Operation may prove dangerous , ) we united them by two or three Distillations of the whole mixture ; which afterwards we found not to have the least fretting taste , and to be so deprived of its corrosive nature , that it would not work upon Silver , though by Precipitation or otherwise reduc'd to very small parts ; nay , it would scarce sensibly work in a good while on Filings of Copper , or upon other bodies , which meer Vinegar , or perhaps Rhenish wine will corrode . Nay , I remember , that with another Spirit , ( that was not Urinous ) and afterwards with Alkool of Wine we shew'd a more surprizing Specimen of the power of either destroying or debilitating the Corrosiveness of a Menstruum , and checking its Operation . For , having caused a piece of Copper plate to be put into one ounce of Aqua Fortis , when this Liquor was eagerly working upon the Metal , I caus'd an ounce of the Alkool of Wine , or the other Spirit to be poured , ( which it should warily be ) upon the agitated mixture ; whose effervescence , at the first instant , seemed to be much increased , but presently after was checked , and the Corrosiveness of the Menstruum being speedily disabled or corrected , the remaining Copper was left undissolved at the bottom . Nor are these the onely acid Menstruums that I have many years since been able to correct by such a way : For I applied it to others , as Spirit of Nitre , and even Aqua Regis it self ; but it has not an equal operation upon all , and least of all ( as far as I can remember ) upon Spirit of Salt ; as on the other side strong Spirit of Nitre was the Menstruum upon which its effects were the most satisfactory . Most of the Chymists pretend , that the Solutions of bodies are perform'd by a certain Cognation and Sympathy between the Menstruum and the body it is to work upon . And it is not to be denied , that in divers Instances there is , as it were , a Consanguinity between the Menstruum and the body to be dissolved ; as when Sulphur is dissolved by Oyls whether exprest or distill'd : But yet , as the opinion is generally proposed , I cannot acquiesce in it , partly because there are divers Solutions and other Phaenomena , where it will not take place , and partly because even in those instances wherein 't is thought most applicable , the effect seems to depend upon Mechanical Principles . EXPER. XII . ANd first , 't will be difficult to shew , what Consanguinity there is between Sal Gem , and. Antimony , and Iron , and Zinke , and Bread , and Camphire , and Lapis Calaminaris , and flesh of divers kinds , and Oistershels , and Harts-horn , and Chalk , and Quick-lime ; some of which beong to the Vegetable , some to the Mineral , and some to the Animal Kingdom ; and yet all of them and divers others ( as I have tried ) may , even without the assistance of external Heat , be dissolved or corroded by one single Mineral Menstruum , Oyl of Vitriol . And which is not to be neglected on this occasion , some of them may be bodies , supposed by Chymists to have an Antipathy to each other in point of Corrosion or Dissolution . EXPER. XIII . I Observe also , that a Dissolution may be made of the same body by Menstruums , to which the Chymists attribute ( as I just now observed they did to some Bodies ) a mutual Antipathy , and which therefore are not like to have a Sympathy with the same third body ; as I found by trial , that both Aqua Fortis , and Spirit of Urine , upon whose mixture there insues a conflict with a great effervescence , will each of them apart readily dissolve crude Zinke , and so each of them will , the Filings of Copper . Not to mention , that pure Spirit of Wine and Oyl of Vitriol , as great a difference as there is between them , in I know not how many respects , and as notable a heat as will insue upon their Commixture , will each of them dissolve Camphire ; to which may be added other instances of the like nature . As for what is commonly said , that Oyls dissolve Sulphur , and Saline Menstruums Metals , because ( as they speak ) Simile simili gaudet : I answer , That where there is any such similitude , it may be very probably ascribed , not so much , with the Chymists that favour Aristotle , to the essential forms of the bodies that are to work on each other , nor , with the meer Chymists , to their Salt , or Sulphur , or Mercury , as such ; but to the congruity between the pores and figures of the Menstruum , and the body dissolved by it , and to some other Mechanical Affections of them . EXPER. XIV . FOr Silver , for example , not onely will be dissolved by Nitre which they reckon a Salt , but be amalgam'd with , and consequently dissolved by , Quicksilver , and also by the operation of Brimstone , be easily incorporated with that Mineral which Chymists are wont to account of so oleaginous a nature , and insoluble in Aqua Fortis . EXPER. XV. ANd as for those Dissolutions that are made with Oylie and inflammable Menstruums , of common Sulphur and other inflammable bodies , the Dissolution does not make for them so clearly as they imagine . For if such Menstruums operate , as is alledged , upon the account of their being , as well as the bodies they work upon , of a sulphureous nature , whence is it that highly rectified Spirit of Wine , which according to them must be of a most Sulphureous nature , since being set on fire 't will flame all away without leaving one drop behind it , will not ( unless perhaps after a tedious while ) dissolve even Flowers of Brimstone , which essential as well as express'd Oyls will easily take up ; as Spirit of Wine it self also will do almost in a trice , if ( as we shall see anon ) by the help of an Alcali the Texture of the Brimstone be alter'd , though the onely thing that is added to the Sulphur being an incombustible substance , is nothing near of so sulphureous a nature as the Flowers , and need have no Consanguinity upon the score of its Origine with Spirit of Wine , as 't is alledged that Salt of Tartar has ; since I have tried , That fixt Nitre , employ'd instead of it , will do the same . EXPER. XVI . THe mention of Nitre brings into my mind , that the Salt peter being wont to be lookt upon by Chymists as a very inflammable body , ought , according to them , to be of a very sulphureous nature ; yet we find not that 't is in Chymical Oyls , but in water , readily dissolved . And whereas Chymists tell us , that the Solutions of Alcaly's , such as Salt of Tartar , or of Pot-ashes in common Oyls , proceed from the great cognation between them , I demand , whence it happens , that Salt of Tartar will by boiling be dissolved in the exprest Oyl of Almonds , or of Olives , and be reduc'd with it to a soapy body , and that yet with the essential Oyl of Juniper or Aniseeds , &c. where what they call the Sulphur is made pure and penetrant , being freed from the earthy , aqueous and feculent parts , which Distillation discovers to be in the exprest Oyls , you may boil Salt of Tartar twenty times as long without making any Soap of them , or perhaps any sensible Solution of the Alkaly . And Chymists know , how difficult it is , and how unsuccessfully 't is wont to be attempted to dissolve pure Salt of Tartar in pure Spirit of Wine , by digesting the not peculiarly prepar'd Salt in the cognate Menstruum . I will not urge , that , though the most conspicuous mark of Sulphur be inflammability , and is in an eminent degree to be found in Oyl as well as Sulphur ; yet an Alkaly and water which are neither singly , nor united inflammable , will dissolve common Sulphur . EXPER. XVII . BUt to make it probable against the Chymists , ( for I propose it but as an argument ad hominem ) that the Solution of Sulphur in exprest Oyls depends upon somewhat else besides the abundance of the second Principle in both the bodies ; I will adde to what I said before , an affirmation of divers Chymical Writers themselves , who reckon Aqua Regis , which is plainly a Saline Menstruum , and dissolves Copper , Iron , Coral , &c. like Acid Liquors , among the Solvents of Sulphur , and by that power among other things distinguish it from Aqua Fortis . And on the other side if , there be a Congruity betwixt an exprest Oyl and another body , though it be such as , by its easie Dissolubleness in Acid Salts , Chymists should pronounce to be of a saline nature , an exprest Oyl will readily enough work upon it ; as I have tried by digesting even crude Copper in Filings with Oyl of sweet Almonds , which took up so much of the metal as to be deeply coloured thereby , as if it had been a Corrosive Liquor : Nay , I shall adde , that even with Milk , as mild a Liquor as 't is , I have found by Trial , that without the help of fire a kind of Dissolution may , though not in few hours , be made of crude Copper , as appear'd by the greenish blew colour the Filings acquired , when they had been well drenched in the Liquor , and left for a certain time in the Vessel , where the air had very free access to them . EXPER. XVIII . BEsides the Argument ad hominem , newly drawn from Aqua Regia , it may be proper enough to urge another of the same kind upon the generality of the Helmontians and Paracelsians , who admit what the Heads of their Sects deliver concerning the Operations of the Alkahest . For whereas 't is affirm'd , that this irresistible Menstruum will dissolve all tangible bodies here below , so as they may be reduc'd into insipid water ; as on the one side 't will be very hard to conceive how a specificated Menstruum that is determin'd to be either Acid , or Lixiviate , or Urinous , &c. should be able to dissolve so great a variety of Bodies of differing and perhaps contrary natures , in some whereof Acids , in other Lixiviate Salts , and in others Urinous are predominant ; so on the other side , if the Alkahest be not a specificated Menstruum , 't will very much disfavour the Opinion of the Chymists , that will have some Bodies dissoluble onely by Acids as such , others by fixt Alkalys , and others again by Volatile Salts ; since a Menstruum , that is neither Acid , Lixiviate , nor Urinous , is able to dissolve bodies , in some of which one , and in others another of those Principles is predominant : So that , if a Liquor be conveniently qualified , it is not necessary that it should be either Acid to dissolve Pearl or Coral , or Alkalizate to dissolve Sulphur . But upon what Mechanical account an analyzing Menstruum may operate , is not necessary to be here determin'd . And I elsewhere offer some thoughts of mine about it . EXPER. XIX . IF we duly reflect upon the known process that Chymists are wont to employ in making Mercurius dulcis , we shall find it very favourable to our Hypothesis . For though we have already shewn in the V. Experiment , and 't is generally confest , that common Sublimate made of Mercury is a highly corrosive body ; yet , if it be well ground with near an equal weight of Quicksilver , and be a few times sublimed , ( to mix them the more exactly ) it will become so mild , that 't will not so much as taste sharp upon the tongue ; so that Chymists are wont to call it Mercurius dulcis : And yet this Dulcification seems to be performed in a Mechanical way . For most part of the Salts , that made the Sublimate so Corrosive , abide in the Mercurius duleis ; but by being compounded with more Quicksilver , they are diluted by it , and ( which is more considerable ) acquire a new Texture , which renders them unfit to operate , as they did before , when the fretting Salts were not joyn'd with a sufficient quantity of the Mercury to inhibit their corrosive activity . It may perhaps somewhat help us to conceive , how this change may be made , if we imagine , that a company of meer Knife-blades be first fitted with Hafts , which will in some regard lessen their wounding power by covering or casing them at that end which is design'd for the handle ; ( though their insertion into those Hafts , turning them into Knives , makes them otherwise the fitter to cut and pierce ) and that each of them be afterwards sheathed , ( which is , as it were , a hafting of the Blades too ; ) for then they become unfit to cut or stab , as before , though the Blades be not destroyed : Or else we may conceive these Blades without Hafts or Sheaths to be tied up in bundles , or as it were in little faggots with pieces of wood , somewhat longer than themselves , opportunely placed between them . For neither in this new Constitution would they be fit to cut and stab as before . And by conceiving the edges of more or fewer of the Blades to be turn'd inwards , and those that are not , to have more or less of their points and edges to be sheath'd , or otherwise cover'd by interpos'd bodies , one may be help'd to imagine , how the genuine effects of the Blades may be variously lessen'd or diversifi'd . But , whether these or any other like changes of Disposition be fancy'd , it may be Mechanical Illustrations become intelligible , how the Corrosive Salts of common Sublimate may lose their efficacy , when they are united with a sufficient quantity of Quicksilver in Mercurius dulcis : In which new state the Salts may indeed in a Chymical phrase be said to be satiated ; but this Chymical phrase does not explicate how this Saturation takes away the Corrosiveness from Salts that are still actually present in the sweet Mercury . And by Analogy to some such Explications as the above propos'd , a possible Account may be render'd , why fretting Salts do either quite lose their sharpness , as Alkalies , whilst they are imbodied with Sand in common Glass ; or lose much of their Corrosive Acidity , as Oyl of Vitriol does when with Steel it composes Vitriolum Matris ; or else are transmuted or disguis'd by conjunction with some corroded bodies of a peculiar Texture , as when Aqua Fortis does with Silver make an extreamly bitter Salt or Vitriol , and with Lead one that is positively sweet almost like common Saccharum Saturni . EXPER. XX. TO shew , how much the Efficacy of a Menstruum may depend even upon such seemingly slight Mechanical Circumstances as one would not easily suspect any necessity of , I shall employ an Experiment , which though the unpractis'd may easily fail of making well , yet , when I tried it after the best manner , I did it with good success . I put then upon Lead a good quantity of well rectified Aqua Fortis , in which the Metal , as I expected , continued undissolved ; though , if the Chymists say truly that the dissolving power of the Menstruum consists onely in the acid Salts that it abounds with , it seems naturally to follow , that the more abundance of them there is in a determinate quantity of the Liquor , it should be the more powerfully able to dissolve Metalline and Mineral bodies . And in effect we see , that , if Corrosive Menstruums be not sufficiently dephlegmed , they will not work on divers of them . But , notwithstanding this plausible Doctrine of the Chymists , conjecturing that the Saline Particles that swam in our Aqua Fortis might be more throng'd together , than was convenient for a body of such a Texture of Saline parts , and such intervals between them , I diluted the Menstruum by adding to it what I thought fit of fair water , and then found , that the desired Congruity betwixt the Agent and the Patient emerged , and the Liquor quickly began to fall upon the Metal and dissolve it . And if you would try an Experiment to the same purpose , that needs much less circumspection to make it succeed , you may , instead of employing Lead , reiterate what I elsewhere mention my self to have tried with Silver , which would not dissolve in too strong Aqua fortis , but would be readily fallen upon by that Liquor , when I had weaken'd it with common water . And this it may suffice to have said at present of the power or faculty that is found in some bodies of Corroding or Dissolving others . Whereof I have not found among the Aristotelians , I have met with , so much as an Offer at an Intelligible account . And I the less expect the vulgar Chymists will from their Hypostatical Principles afford us a Satisfactory one , when , besides the Particulars that from the nature of the things and Helmont's Writings have been lately alledg'd against their Hypothesis , I consider , how slight accounts they are wont to give us even of the familiar Phaenomena of Corrosive Liquors . For if , for example , you ask a vulgar Chymist why Aqua fortis dissolves Silver and Copper , 't is great odds but he will tell you , 't is because of the abundance of fretting Salt that is in it , and has a cognation with the Salts of the Metal . And if you ask him , why Spirit of Salt dissolves Copper , he will tell you 't is for the same reason ; and yet , if you put Spirit of Salt , though very strong , to Aqua fortis , this Liquor will not dissolve Silver , because upon the mixture , the Liquors acquire a new Gonstitution as to the Saline Particles , by vertue of which the mixture will dissolve , instead of Silver , Gold. Whence we may argue against the Chymists , that the Inability of this compounded Liquor to work on Silver does not proceed from its being weaken'd by the Spirit of Salt ; as well because , according to them , Gold is far the more compact metal of the two , and requires a more potent Menstruum to work upon it , as because this same compounded Liquor will readily dissolve Copper . And to the same purpose with this Experiment I should alledge divers others , if I thought this the fittest place wherein I could propose them . SECT . II. About the Mechanicall Origine of CORROSIBILITY . COrrosibility being the quality that answers Corrosiveness , he that has taken notice of the Advertisement I formerly gave about my use of the Term Corrosiveness in these Notes , may easily judge , in what sense I employ the name of the other Quality ; which ( whether you will stile it Opposite or Conjugate ) for want of a better word , I call Corrosibility . This Corrosibility of Bodies is as well as their Corrosiveness a Relative thing ; as we see , that Gold , for instance , will not be dissolved by Aqua fortis , but will by Aqua Regis ; whereas Silver is not soluble by the latter of these Menstruums , but is by the former . And this relative Affection , on whose account a Body comes to be corrodible by a Menstruum , seems to consist chiefly in three things , which all of them depend upon Mechanical Principles . Of these Qualifications the first is , that the Body to be corroded be furnish'd with Pores of such a bigness and figure , that the Corpuscles of the Solvent may enter them , and yet not be much agitated in them without giving brisk knocks or shakes to the solid parts that make up the walls , if I may so call them , of the Pores . And 't is for want of this condition , that Glass is penetrated in a multitude of places , but not dissipated or dissolv'd by the incident beams of Light , which permeate its Pores without any considerable resistance ; and though the Pores and Commissures of a Body were less minute , and capable of letting in some grosser Corpuscles , yet if these were , for want of solidity or rigidness , too flexible , or were of a figure incongruous to that of the Pores they should enter , the Dissolution would not insue ; as it happens when pure Spirit of Wine is in the cold put upon Salt of Tartar , or when Aqua fortis is put upon powder of Sulphur . The second Qualification of a Corrodible Body is , that its consistent Corpuscles be of such a Bulk and Solidity , as does not render them uncapable of being disjoyn'd by the action of the insinuating corpuscles of the Menstruum . Agreeable to this and the former Observation is the practice of Chymists , who oftentimes , when they would have a Body to be wrought on by a Menstruum otherwise too weak for it in its crude estate , dispose it to receive the action of the Menstruum by previously opening it , ( as they speak ) that is , by enlarging the Pores , making a comminution of the Corpuscles , or weakening their Cohesion . And we see , that divers Bodies are brought by fit preparations to be resoluble in Liquors that would not work on them before . Thus , as was lately noted , Lime-stone by Calcination becomes ( in part ) dissoluble in water ; and some Metalline Calces will be so wrought on by Solvents , as they would not be by the same Agents , if the preparation of the Metalline or other Body had not given them a new Disposition . Thus , though crude Tartar , especially in lumps , is very slowly and difficultly dissoluble in cold water , yet when 't is burnt it may be presently dissolved in that Liquor ; and thus , though the Filings and the Calx of Silver will not be at all dissolv'd by common water or Spirit of Wine ; yet if by the interposition of the Saline Particles of Aqua Fortis , the Lunar Corpuscles be so disjoyn'd , and suffer such a comminution as they do in Crystals of Lune , the Metal thus prepared and brought with its Saline Additament into a new Texture will easily enough dissolve , not onely in water , but , as I have tried , in well rectified Spirit of Wine . And the like Solubility I have found in the Crystals of Lead made with Spirit of Verdigrease , or good distill'd Vinegar , and in those of Copper made with Aqua Fortis . The last Disposition to Corrosibility consists in such a cohesion of the parts , whereof a Body is made up , as is not too strict to be superable by the action of the Menstruum . This Condition , though of kin to the former , is yet somewhat differing from it , since a body may consist of parts either bulky or solid , which yet may touch one another in such small portions of their Surfaces , as to be much more easily dissociable than the minute or less solid parts of another Body , whose contact is more full and close , and so their Cohesion more strict . By what has been said it may seem probable , that , as I formerly intimated , the Corrosibility of Bodies is but a Mechanical Relation , resulting from the Mechanical Affectious and Contexture of its parts , as they intercept Pores of such sizes and figures as make them congruous to those of the Corpuscles of the Menstruum , that are to pierce between them , and disjoyn them . That the Quality , that disposes the body it affects to be dissolv'd by Corrosive and other Menstruums , does ( as hath been declared ) in many cases depend upon the Mechanical Texture and Affections of the body in reference to the Menstruum that is to work upon it , may be made very probable by what we are in due place to deliver concerning the Pores of Bodies and Figures of Corpuscles . But yet in compliance with the design of these Notes , and agreeably to my custom on other Subjects , I shall subjoyn a few Experiments on this occasion also . EXPER. I. IF we put highly rectified Spirit of Wine upon crude Sulphur , or even Flowers of Sulphur , the Liquor will lie quietly thereon , especially in the cold , for many hours and days without making any visible Solution of it ; and if such exactly dephlegmed Spirit were put on very dry Salt of Tartar , the Salt would lie in an undissolved powder at the bottom : and yet , if before any Liquor be employed , the Sulphur be gently melted , and then the Alkali of Tartar be by degrees put to it , and incorporated with it ; as there will result a new Texture discoverable to the eye by the new colour of the Composition , so there will emerge a disposition that was not before in either of the Ingredients , to be dissolved by Spirit of Wine ; insomuch , that though the mixture be kept till it be quite cold , or long after too , provided it be carefully secur'd from the access of the air , the Spirit of Wine being put to it , and shaken with it , will , if you have gone to work aright , acquire a yellow Tincture in a minute of an hour ; and perhaps in less than half a quarter of an hour a red one , being richly impregnated with sulphureous Particles discoverable by the Smell , Taste , and divers Operations . EXPER. II. [ 'T Is known to several Chymists , that Spirit of Salt does not dissolve crude Mercury in the cold ; and I remember , I kept them for a considerable time in no contemptible heat without finding any Solution following . But I suppose , many of them will be gratified by an Experiment once mention'd to me by an Ingenious German Gentleman , namely . That if Mercury be precipitated per se , that is , reduc'd to a red powder without additament , by the meer operation of the fire , the Texture will be so chang'd , that the above-mention'd Spirit will readily dissolve it ; for I found it upon Trial to do so ; nay , sometimes so readily , that I scarce remember that I ever saw any Menstruum so nimbly dissolve any Metalline body whatsoever . ] EXPER. III. THe former Experiment is the more remarkable , because , that though Oyl of Vitriol will in a good heat corrode Quicksilver , ( as we have already related in the first Section , ) yet I remember I kept a Precipitate per se for divers hours in a considerable degree of Heat , without finding it to be dissolved or corroded by the Menstruum . And yet having , for trials sake , put another parcel of the same Mercurial powder into some Aqua fortis , or Spirit of Nitre , there insued a speedy Dissolution even in the cold . And that this Disposition to be dissolved by Spirit of Salt , that Mercury acquires by being turned into Precipitate per se , that is , by being calcin'd , is not meerly the effect of the operation of the fire upon it , but of some change of Texture produced by that Operation ; may be probably argued from hence , that , whereas Spirit of Salt is a very proper Menstruum , as I have often tried , for the dissolving of Iron or Steel ; yet , when that Metal is reduced by the action of the fire ( especially if a kind of Vitrification , and an irroration with distill'd Vinegar have preceded ) to Crocus Martis , though it be thereby brought to a very fine powder , yet I found not , that , as Spirit of Salt will readily and with heat and noise dissolve Filings of Mars , so it would have the same or any thing near such an Operation upon the Crocus : but rather , after a good while , it would leave in the bottom of the Glass a considerable , if not the greatest , part of it scarce , if at all , sensibly alter'd . And the Menstruum seem'd rather to have extracted a Tincture , than made an ordinary Solution ; since the colour of it was a high yellow or reddish , whereas Mars , dissolved in Spirit of Salt , affords a green Solution . Whether by repeated Operations with fresh Menstruum further Dissolutions might in time be made , I had not occasion to try , and it may suffice for our present purpose , that Mars by the operation of the fire did evidently acquire , not , as Mercury had done , a manifest facility , but on the contrary , a great indisposition to be dissolved by Spirit of Salt. To second this Experiment , we vary'd it , by employing , instead of Spirit of Salt , strong Oyl of Vitriol , which being pour'd on a little Crocus Martis made per se , did not , as that Menstruum is wont to do upon Filings of crude Mars , readily and manifestly fall upon the powder with froth and noise , but ( on the contrary ) rested for divers hours calmly upon it , without so much as producing with it any sensible warmth . EXPER. IV. IT agrees very well with our Doctrine about the dependance of the Corrosibility of Bodies upon their Texture , that from divers Bodies , whilst they are in conjunction with others , there result masses , and those homogeneous as to sense , that are easily dissoluble in Liquors , in which a great part of the matter , if it were separated from the rest , would not be at all dissolved . Thus we see , that common Vitriol is easily dissolved in meer water ; whereas if it be skilfully calcin'd , it will yield sometimes near half its first weight of insipid Colcothar , which not onely is not soluble in water but which neither Aqua Fortis no Aqua Regis , though sometimes they will colour themselves upon it , are able ( as far as I have tried ) to make Solutions of . We see likewise , that simple water will , being boil'd for a competent time with Harts-horn , dissolve it and make a Jelly of it : And yet , when we have taken Harts-horn throughly calcin'd to whiteness , not onely we found that common water was no longer a fit Solvent for it , but we observed , that when we put Oyl of Vitriol it self upon it , a good part of the white powder was even by that Corrosive Menstruum left undissolved . EXPER. V. IN the Fifteenth of the foregoing Experiments I refer to a way of making the Flower or Powder of common Sulphur become easily dissoluble , which otherwise 't is far from being , in highly rectified Spirit of Wine . Wherefore I shall now adde , that 't is quickly perform'd by gently melting the Sulphur , and incorporating with it by degrees an equal or a greater weight of sinely powder'd Salt of Tartar , or of fixt Nitre . For if the mixture be put warm into a Mortar that is so too ; and as soon as 't is reduc'd to powder , be put into a Glass , and well shaken with pure Spirit of Wine , it will , ( as perhaps I may have elsewhere observed , ) in a few minutes acquire a yellow colour , which afterwards will grow deeper , and manifest it self by the smell and effects to be a real Solution of Sulphur ; and yet this Solubleness in Spirit of Wine seems procur'd by the change of Texture , resulting from the Commixtion of meer Salt of Tartar , which Chymists know , to their trouble , to be it self a body almost as difficult as Sulphur to be dissolved in phlegmless Spirit of Wine , unless the Constitution of it be first alter'd by some convenient additament . Which last words I adde , because , though Spirit of Verdigrease be a Menstruum that uses to come off in Distillation much more intirely than other acid Menstruums from the bodies it has dissolved ; yet it will serve well for an additament to open ( as the Chymists speak ) the body of the Salt of Tartar. For this purpose I employ Spirit of Verdigrease , not made first with Spirit of Vinegar , and then of Wine , after the long and laborious way prescribed by Basilius and Zwelfer , but easily and expeditiously by a simple Distillation of crude Verdigrease of the better sort . For when you have with this Liquor ( being , if there be need , once rectified ) dissolv'd as much good Salt of Tartar , as 't will take up in the cold , if you draw off the Menstruum ad siccitatem , the remaining dry Salt will be manifestly alter'd in Texture even to the eye , and will readily enough in high rectified Spirit of Wine afford a Solution , which I have found considerable in order to divers uses that concern not our present Discourse . EXPER. VI. TO the Consideration of the Followers of Helmont I shall recommend an Experiment of that famous Chymist's , which seems to sute exceeding well with the Doctrine propos'd in this Section . For he tells us , that , if by a subtle Menstruum to which he ascribes that power , Quicksilver be devested ( or depriv'd ) of its external Sulphur , as he terms it , all the rest of the fluid Metal , which he wittily enough stiles , the Kernel of Mercury , will be no longer corrosible by it . So that upon this Supposition , though common Quicksilver be observ'd to be so obnoxious to Aqua Fortis , that the same quantity of that Liquor will dissolve more of it , than of any other Metal ; yet , if by the deprivation of some portion of it the latent Texture of the Metal be alter'd , though not ( that I remember ) the visible appearance of it ; the Body that was before so easily dissolved by Aqua Fortis , ceases to be at all dissoluble by it . EXPER. VII . AS for those Chymists of differing Sects , that agree in giving credit to the strange things that are affirm'd of the Operations of the Alkahest , we may in favour of our Doctrine urge them with what is deliver'd by Helmont , where he asserts , that all solid Bodies , as Stones , Minerals , and Metals themselves , by having this Liquor duly abstracted or distill'd off from them , may be changed into Salt , equiponderant to the respective bodies whereon the Menstruum was put . So that supposing the Alkahest to be totally abstracted , ( as it seems very probable to be , since the weight of the body whence 't was drawn off is not alter'd ; ) what other change than of Texture can be reasonably imagin'd to have been made in the transmuted bodies ? and yet divers of them , as Flints , Rubies , Saphyrs , Gold , Silver , &c. that were insoluble before , some of them in any known Menstruums , and others in any but Corrosive Liquors , come to be capable of being dissolv'd in common water . EXPER. VIII . 'T Is a remarkable Phaenomenon , that suits very well with our opinion about the interest of Mechanical Principles in the Corrosive Power of Menstruums , and the Corrosibility of bodies , that we produc'd by the following Experiment : This we purposely made to shew , after how differing manners the same body may be dissolv'd by two Menstruums , whose minute parts are very differingly constituted and agitated . For whereas 't is known , that if we put large grains of Sea-salt into common water , they will be dissolved therein calmly and silently without any appearance of conflict ; If we put such grains of Salt into good Oyl of Vitriol , that Liquor will fall suriously upon them , and produce for a good while a hissing noise with fumes , and a great store of bubbles , as if a potent Menstruum were corroding some stubborn metal or mineral . And this Experiment I the rather mention , because it may be of use to us on divers other occasions . For else 't is not the onely , though it be the remarkablest , that I made to the same purpose . EXPER. IX . FOr , whereas Aqua Fortis or Aqua Regis , being pour'd upon Filings of Copper , will work upon them with much noise and ebullition , I have tried , that good Spirit of Sal Armoniac or Urine , being put upon the like Filings , and left there without stopping the Glass , will quickly begin to work on them , and quietly dissolve them almost as water dissolves Sugar . To which may be added , that even with Oyl of Turpentine I have , though but slowly , dissolved crude Copper ; and the Experiment seemed to favour our Conjecture the more , because having tried it several times , it appear'd , that common unrectified Oyl would perform the Solution much quicker than that which was purified and subtiliz'd by rectification ; which though more subtle and penetrant , yet was , it seems , on that account less fit to dissolve the Metal , than the grosser Oyl whose particles might be more solid or more advantageously shap'd , or on some other Mechanical account better qualified for the purpose . EXPER. X. TAke good Silver , and , having dissolv'd it in Aqua Fortis , precipitate it with a sufficient quantity of good Spirit of Salt ; then having wash'd the Calx , which will be very white , with common water , and dried it well , melt it with a moderate fire into a fusible Mass , which will be very much of the nature of what Chymists call Cornu Lunae , and which they make by precipitating dissolv'd Silver with a bare Solution of common Salt made in common water . And whereas both Spirit of Salt and Silver dissolv'd in Aqua Fortis will each of them apart readily dissolve in simple water , our Luna Cornea not onely will not do so , but is so indispos'd to Dissolution , that I remember I have kept it in Digestion , some in Aqua fortis , and some in Aqua Regia , and that for a good while , and in no very faint degree of heat , without being able to dissolve it like a Metal , the Menstruums having indeed ting'd themselves upon it , but left the Composition undissolv'd at the bottom . With this Instance ( of which sort more might be afforded by Chymical Precipitations ) I shall conclude what I design'd to offer at present about the Corrosibility of Bodies , as it may be consider'd in a more general way . For as to the Disposition that Particular Bodies have of being dissolved in , or of resisting , Determinate Liquors , it were much easier for me to enlarge upon that Subject , than it was to provide the Instances above recited . And these are not so few , but that 't is hop'd they may suffice to make it probable , that in the Relation betwixt a Solvent and the Body it is to work upon , that which depends upon the Mechanical affections of one or both , is much to be consider'd , and has a great interest in the operations of one of the bodies upon the other . FINIS . OF THE MECHANICAL CAUSES OF CHYMICAL PRECIPITATION . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esq Fellow of the R. Society . LONDON , Printed by E. Flesher , for R. Davis Bookseller in Oxford . 1675. Advertisement THough I shall not deny , that , in Grammatical strictness , Precipitation should be reckoned among Chymical Operations , not Qualities , yet I did not much scruple to insert the following Discourse among the Notes about Particular Qualities , because many , if not most , of the Phaenomena , mentioned in the ensuing Essay , may be considered as depending , some of them upon a power , that certain bodies have to cause Precipitation , and some upon such a Disposition to be struck down by others , as may , if men please , be called Precipitability . And so these differing Affections may with ( at least ) tolerable Congruity be referred to those that we have elsewhere stiled Chymical Qualities . But though I hope , I may in these few Lines have said enough concerning the name given to these Attributes , yet perhaps it will be found in time , that the things themselves may deserve a larger Discourse than my little leasure would allow them . For that is not a causeless Intimation of the Importance of the subject , wherewith I conclude the following Tract , since besides that many more Instances might have been particularly referred to the Heads treated of in the Insuing Essay , there are improper kinds of Precipitation ( besides those mentioned in the former part of the Discourse ) to which one may not incongruously refer divers of the Phaenomena of Nature , as well in the greater as in the lesser world , whereof either no Causes at all , or but improper ones are wont to be given . And besides the simple Spirits and Salts usually employed by Chymists , there are many compounded and decompounded bodies not only factitious but natural , ( and some such as one would scarce suspect ) that may in congruous subjects produce such Precipitations , as I speak of . And the Phaenomena and Consequents of such operations may in divers cases prove conducive both to the Discovery of Physical Causes , and the Production of useful effects ; though the particularizing of such Phaenomena do rather belong to a History of Precipitations , than to such a Discourse as that which follows , wherein I proposed not so much to deliver the latent Mysteries , as to investigate the Mechanical Causes of Precipitation . OF THE MECHANICAL CAUSES OF CHYMICAL PRECIPITATION . CHAP. I. BY Precipitation is here meant such an agitation or motion of a heterogeneous liquor , as in no long time makes the parts of it subside , and that usually in the form of a powder or other consistent body . As , on many occasions , Chymists call the substance that is made to fall to the bottom of the liquor , the Precipitate ; so for brevity sake we shall call the body that is put into the liquor to procure that subsiding , the Precipitant ; as also that which is to be struck down , the Precipitable substance or matter , and the liquor wherein it swims before the separation , the Menstruum or Solvent . When a hasty fall of a heterogeneous body is procured by a Precipitant , the Operation is called Precipitation in the proper or strict sense : But when the separation is made without any such addition , or the substance , separated from the fluid part of the liquor , instead of subsiding emerges , then the word is used in a more comprehensive , but less proper , acceptation . As for the Causes of Precipitation the very name it self in its Chymical sense having been scarce heard of in the Peripatetic Schools , it is not to be expected , that they should have given an account of the Reasons of the thing . And 't is like , that those few Aristotelians , that have , by their converse with the laboratories or writings of Chymists , taken notice of this Operation , would , according to their custom on such occasions , have recourse for the explication of it to some secret sympathy or antipathy between the bodies whose action and reaction intervenes in this Operation . But if this be the way proposed , of accounting for it , I shall quickly have occasion to say somewhat to it in considering the ways proposed by the Chymists , who were wont to refer Precipitation , either , as is most usual , to a sympathy betwixt the Precipitating body and the Menstruum which makes the Solvent run to the embraces of the Precipitant , and so let fall the particles of the body sustained before ; or ( with others ) to a great antipathy or contrariety between the acid salt of the Menstruum and the fixed salt of the Oil , or solution of calcined Tartar , which is the most general and usual Precipitant they imploy . But I see not , how either of these causes will either reach to all the Phaenomena that have been exhibited , or give a true account even of some of those , to which it seems applicable . For first , in Precipitations , wherein what they call a sympathy between the liquors , is supposed to produce the effect , this admired sympathy does not ( in my apprehension ) evince such a mysterious occult Quality as is presumed , but rather consists in a greater congruity as to bigness , shape , motion and pores of the minute parts between the Menstruum and the Precipitant , than between the same Solvent and the body it kept before dissolved . And though this sympathy rightly explained may be allowed to have an interest in some such Precipitations as let fall the dissolved body in its pristine nature and form , and only reduced into minute powder ; yet I find not , that in the generality of Precipitations this Doctrine will hold ; For in some that we have made of Gold and Silver in proper Menstruums , after the subsiding matter had been well washed and dried , several Precipitates of Gold made , some with oil of Tartar , which abounds with a fixed salt , and is the usual Precipitant , and some with an Urinous Spirit , which works by Vertue of a salt highly fugitive or Volatile , I found the powder to exceed the weight of the Gold and Silver I had put to dissolve ; and the Eye it self sufficiently discovers such Precipitates not to be meer metalline powders , but Compositions , whose consisting , not ( as hath been by some body suspected ) of the combined Salts alone , but of the metalline parts also , may be strongly concluded not only from the ponderousness of divers of them in reference to their bulk , but also manifestly from the reduction of true malleable metals from several of them . CHAP. II. THE other Chymical way of explicating Precipitations may , in a right sence , be made use of by a Naturalist on some particular occasions . But I think it much too narrow and defective , as 't is in a general way proposed , to be fit to be acquiesced in . For first 't is plain , that 't is not only Salt of Tartar and other fixed Alcalies that precipitate most bodies that are dissolved in acid Menstruums ; as in making of Aurum fulminans , oil of Tartar precipitates the Gold out of Aqua Regis : But acid liquors themselves do on many occasions no less powerfully precipitate metals and other bodies out of one another . Thus spirit of Salt , ( as I have often tried ) precipitates Silver out of Aqua fortis : The corrosive Spirit of Nitre copiously precipitates that white powder whereof they make Bezoardicum Minerale : Spirit or oil of Sulphur made by a glass-bell precipitates Corals , Pearls , &c. dissolved in Spirit of Vinegar , as is known to many Chymists , who now use this Oleum Sulphuris per Campanam , to make the Magistery of Pearls , &c. for which vulgar Chymists imploy Oleum Tartari per deliquium . I have sometimes made a Menstruum , wherein though there were both Acid and Alcalizate Salts ; yet I did not find , that either acid Spirits or oil of Tartar , or even Spirit of Urine would precipitate the dissolved substances . And I have observed , both that Salts of a contrary nature will precipitate bodies out of the same Menstruum , as not only Salt of Tartar , but Sea-salt being dissolved , will precipitate each other , and each of them apart will precipitate Silver out of Aqua fortis ; and that even , where there is a confessed contrariety betwixt two liquors , it may be so ordered , that neither of them shall precipitate what is dissolved by the other ; of which I shall have occasion to give ere long a remarkable instance . But it will best appear , that the abovementioned Theories of the Peripateticks and Chymists are at least insufficient to solve the Phaenomena ( many of which were probably not known to most of them , and perhaps not weigh'd by any , ) if we proceed to observe the Mechanical ways , by which Precipitations may be accounted for ; whereof I shall at present propose some Number , and say somewhat of each of them apart ; not that I think all of them to be equally important and comprehensive , or that I absolutely deny , that any one of them may be reduced to some of the other ; but that I think , it may better elucidate the subject , to treat of them severally , when I shall have premised , that I wouldnot thence infer , that though , for the most part , Nature does principally effect Precipitations by one or other of these ways , yet in divers cases she may not imploy two or more of them about performing the operation . To precipitate the Corpuscles of a metal out of a Menstruum , wherein being once throughly dissolved it would of it self continue in that state , the two general ways that the nature of the thing seems to suggest to him that considers it , are , either to add to the weight or bulk of the dissolved Corpuscles , and thereby render them unfit to accompany the particles of the Menstruum in their motions ; or to weaken the sustaining power of the Menstruum , and thereby disable it to keep the metalline particles swimming any longer : which falling of the deserted parts of the metal or other bodie , does oftentimes the more easily insue , because in many cases , when the sustaining particles of the Menstruum come to be too much weakned , that proves an occasion to the metalline Corpuscles , disturbed in the former motion that kept them separate , to make occursions and coalitions among themselves , and their fall becomes the effect , though not equally so , of both ways of Precipitation ; as on the other side , there are several occasions on which the same Precipitant , that brings the swimming particles of the metal to stick to one another , does likewise , by mortifying or disabling the saline Spirits or other parts of the solvent , weaken the sustaining power of that liquor . CHAP. III. TO descend now to the distinct Considerations about these two ways : The first of the most genera Causes of Precipitation is such a Cohaesion procured by the Precipitant in the solution , as makes the compounded corpuscles , or at least the associated particles of the dissolved body , too heavy to be sustained , or too bulky to be kept in a state of fluidity by the liquor . That in many Precipitations there is made a coalition betwixt the small parts of the Precipitant and those of the dissolved metal , or other body , and frequently also with the saline spirits of the Menstruum , may be easily shewn by the weight of the Precipitate , which though carefully washed and dryed , often surpasses , and sometimes very considerably , that of your crude metal that was dissolved ; of which we lately gave an instance in Aurum fulminans and precipitated Silver ; & we may yet give a more conspicuous one , in that which Chymists call Luna Cornea : For , if having dissolved Silver in good Aqua fortis , you Precipitate it with the solution of Sea-salt in fair water , and from the very white Precipitate wash the loose adhering salts , the remaining powder , being dryed and slowly melted , will look much less like a metalline body than like a piece of horn , whence also it takes its name ; so considerable is the additament of the saline to the metalline particles . And that part of such additaments is , retained , may not only be found by weighing , but in divers cases may be argued from what is obvious to the Eye : as if you dissolve Mercury in Aqua fortis , and into the philtrated solution drop spirit of Salt , or salt-water , or an urinous spirit , as of Sal Armoniac , you will have a very white Precipitate ; but if instead of any of these , you drop-in deliquated salt of Tartar , your Precipitate will be of a brick or orange colour . From which experiment and some others I would gladly take a rise to perswade Chymists and Physitians , that 't is not so indifferent , as those seem to think who look on Precipitation butas a kind of Comminution , by what means the precipitation is performed . For by reason of the strict adhesion of divers saline particles of the precipitant and the solvent , the precipitated body , notwithstanding all the wonted ablutions , may have its qualities much diversified by those of the particles of the liquors , when these are fitted to stick very fast to it . Which last words I add , because , though that sometimes happens , yet it does not always , there being a geater difference than every body takes notice of between Precipitations ; as you will be induced to think , if you precipitate the solution of Silver with Copper , with spirit of Sal Armoniac , with salt water , with oil of Tartar , with quick-silver , with crude Tartar and with Zink . And in the lately proposed Example , you will think it probable , that 't is not all one , whether to dissolved Mercury or Silver , you imploy the subtile distilled Spirits of Salt , or the gross body , whether in a dry form , or barely dissolved in common water . And thus much of the Conduciveness of weight to the striking down the Corpuscles of a dissolved Body . That also the Bulk of a body may very much contribute to make it sink or swim in a liquor , appears by obvious instances . Thus Salt or Sugar , being put into water either in lumps or even in powder that is but gross , falls at first to the bottom , and lies there , notwithstanding the Air that may be intercepted between its parts or externally adhere to it . But when by the infinuating action of the water it is dissolved into minute particles , these are carried up and down with those of the liquor and subside not . The like happens , when a piece of silver is cast into Aqua fortis , and in many other cases . On the other side I have several times observed , that some bodies that had long swam in a Menstruum , whilst their minute parts were kept from convening in it , did afterwards by the coalition of many of those particles into bodies of a visible bulk coagulate and subside , ( though sometimes , to hinder the evaporation of the Menstruum , the vessels were kept stopt . ) Of this I elsewhere mention divers examples ; and particularly in urinous and animal spirits , well dephlegm'd , I have found , that after all had for a considerable time continued in the form of a perfect liquor , and as to sense homogeneous , store of solid corpuscles , convening together , setled at the bottom of the glasses in the form of saline Crystals . Having also long kept a very red solution of Sulphur first unlock'd , ( as they speak ) made with highly rectified spirit of urine , I observed , that at length the Sulphureous particles , making little concretions between themselves , totally subsided and left the liquor almost devoid of tincture . By which you may see , that 't was not impertinent to mention ( as I lately did ) among the subordinate causes of Precipitation , the associating of the particles of a dissolved body with one another . Of which I elsewhere give a notable Example in the shining powder that I obtained from Gold dissolved in a peculiar Menstruum , without any Precipitant , by the coalition of the metalline particles , to which a tract of time gave opportunity to meet and adhere in a convenient manner . If in what the Chymists call Presipitate per se , the Mercury be indeed brought to lose its fluidity , and become a powder without being compounded with any additional body , ( which doubt I elsewhere state and discourse of ) it will afford us a notable instance to prove , that the coalitions of particles into clusters of the self same matter will render them unfit for the motion requisite to fluidity . For in this odd precipitation by fire , wherein the same Menstruum is both the Liquor and the Precipitate , being not all made at once , the Corpuscles that first disclose themselves by their redness , are rejected by those of the Mercury that yet remains fluid , as unable to accompany them in the motions that belong to Mercury as such . CHAP. IV. BEfore I dismiss that way of Precipitating , that depends upon the unwieldiness which the Precipitant gives to the body it is to strike down , it may not be impertinent , especially in reference to the foregoing part of this Paper , to consider , that perhaps in divers cases the Corpuscles of a dissolved body may be made unfit to be any longer sustained in the Menstruum , though the Precipitant adds very little to their bulk , or at least much more to their specific weight than to it . For I have elsewere shewn , that in divers solutions made of bodys by acid Menstruums , there are either generated or extricated many small Aerial particles ; and it will be easily granted , that these may be small enough to be detained in the pores of the liquor and be invisible there , if we consider , what a multitude of aerial and formerly imperceptible bubbles is afforded by common water in our Pneumatical Receivers , when the incumbent air that before pressed the liquor , is pumpt out . And if the Corpuscles of the dissolved body have any little Cavities or pores fit to lodge Aerial particles , or have asperous surfaces , between whose prominent parts the generated air may conveniently lie ; in such cases , I say , these Invisible bubbles may be lookt upon , as making with the solid Corpuscles they adhered to , little aggregates much lighter in specie than the Corpuscles themselves would be ; and consequently if the Precipitant consist of particles of such a size and shape as are fit to expel these little bubbles , and lodge themselves in the cavities possessed by them before , there will be produced new aggregates composed of the Corpuscles of the dissolved body and the particles of the Precipitant ; which aggregates though they do take up very little or perhaps not at all more room ( takeing that word in a popular sense ) than those , whereof the Aerial bubbles made a part , will yet be Specifically heavier than the former Aggregates were , and may thereby overcome the sustaining power of the Menstruum . One thing more may be fit to be taken notice of before we pass on further , namely , that 't is upon the score of the Specific gravity of a body , and not barely upon the action of the Precipitant , that an aggregate or a Convention of particles does rather fall to the bottom than rise to the top . For , though the Agents that procured the Coalition , make the cluster of particles become of a bulk too unwieldy to continue in the liquor as parts of it ; yet if each of them be lighter in specie than an equal bulk of the Menstruum , or if they so convene as to intercept a sufficient number of little bubbles or aerial Corpuscles between them , and so become lighter than as much of the Menstruum as they take up the room of , they will not be precipitated but emerge ; as may be seen in the Preparation of those Magisteries of Vegetables , I elswhere mention ; where some deeply colour'd plants being made to tinge plentifully the Lixivium they are boyled in , are afterwards by the addition of Alum made to curdle , as it were , into coloured Concretions , which being ( totally or in part ) too big to swim as they did before they conven'd , and too light in comparison of the Menstruum to subfide , emerge to the top and float there . An easier and neater Example to the same purpose I remember I shewed by dissolving Camphire in highly rectified spirit of Wine , 'till the solution was very strong . For though the Camphire , when put in Lumps into the spirit , sunk to the bottom of it ; yet , when good store of water , ( a liquor somewhat heavier in Specie than Camphire , ) was poured upon the solution , the Camphire quickly concreted and returned to its own nature , and within a while emerged to the top of the mingled liquors and floated there . These particulars I was willing to mention here , that I might give an instance or two of those precipitations , that I formerly spake of as improperly so called . And here I must not decline taking notice of a Phaenomenon , that sometimes occurs in Precipitations , and at first sight may seem contrary to our Doctrine about them . For now and then it happens , that after some drops of the Precipitant have begun a Precipitation at the top or bottom of the Solvent , one shakes the vessel , that the Precipitant may be the sooner diffused through the other liquor , but then they are quickly surprized to find , that instead of hastning the compleat Precipitation , the matter already precipitated disappears , and the solvent returns to be clear , or , as to sense , as uniform , as it was before the Precipitant was put into it . Bu this Phaenomenon does not at all cross our Theory . For , when this happens , though that part of the Solvent , to which the Precipitant reaches , is disabled for Reasons mentioned in this Discourse to support the dissolved body , yet this quantity of the Precipitant is but small in proportion to the whole bulk of the solvent . And therefore , when the agitation of the vessel disperses the clusters of loosly concreted particles through the whole liquor , ( which is seldom so exactly proportioned to the body it was to work on , as to be but just strong enough to dissolve it ) that greater part of the Liquor , to which before the shaking of the vessel the Precipitant did not reach , may well be lookt upon as a fresh Menstruum , which is able to mortifie or overpower the small quantity of the Precipitant that is mingled with it , and so to destroy its late operation on the body dissolved , by which means the solution returns , as to sense , to its former state . Which may be illustrated by a not unpleasant Experiment , I remember I have long since made by precipitating a brick-coloured powder out of a strong solution of Sublimate made in fair water . For this subsiding matter , being laid to dry in the Philter , by which 't was separated from the water , would retain a deep but somewhat dirty colour ; and if then , putting it into the bottom of a wine glass , I poured upon it , either clear oil of Vitriol , or some other strong acid Menstruum , the Alcalizat particles being disabled and swallowed up by some of the acid ones of the Menstruum , the other acid ones would so readily dissolve the residue of the powder , that in a trice the colour of it would disappear and the whole mixture be reduced into a clear Liquor , without any sediment at the bottom . Thus much may suffice at present about the first general way of Precipitating Bodies out of the Liquors they swam in . CHAP. V. THE other of the two principal ways , by which Precipitations may be effected , is the disabling of the Solvent to sustain the dissolved body . There may be many instances , wherein this second way of effecting Precipitations may be associated by Nature with the first way formerly proposed ; but notwithstanding the cases , wherein Nature may ( as I formerly noted ) imploy both the ways therein , yet in most cases they sufficiently differ , in regard that in the former way the subsiding of the dissolved body is chiefly , if not only , caused by the additional weight as well as action of the external Precipitant ; whereas in most of the instances of the later way , the effect is produced either without salt of Tartar , or any such Precipitant , or by some other quality of the Precipitant more than by its weight , or at least besides the weight it adds : Though I forget not , that I lately gave an example of a shining powder of Gold , that fell to the bottom of a Menstruum without the help of an External Precipitant : But that was done so slowly , that it may be disputed , whether it were a true Precipitation ; and I alledged it not as such , but to shew , that the increased bulk of Particles may make them unfit to swim in Menstruums , wherein they swam whilst they were more minute . And the like answer may be accommodated to the Precipitate per se newly mentioned . This premised , I proceed now to observe , that the general way , I last proposed , contains in it several subordinate wayes , that are more particular ; of which I shall now mention the chief that occur to me , and though but briefly , illustrate each of them by examples . And first a Precipitation may be made , if the saline or other dissolving particles of the Menstruum are mortified or rendred unfit for their former function , by particles of a Precipitant that are of a contrary nature . Thus Gold and some other minerals , being dissolved in Aqua Regis , will be precipitated with spirit of urine and other such liquors abounding with volatile and salino-sulphureous Corpuscles , upon whose account it is that they act ; whence these salts themselves , though cast into a Menstruum in a dry form , will serve to make the like Precipitations . And I the rather on this occasion mention Urinous spirits than Salt of Tartar , because those volatile particles add much less of weight to the little Concretions , which compose the Precipitated powder . Upon instances of this kind , many of the modern Chymists have built that Antipathy betwixt the Salts of the solvent and those of the Menstruum , to which they ascribe almost all Precipitations . But against this I have represented something already , and shall partly now , and partly in the sequel of this discourse add some farther reasons of my not being satisfied with this Doctrine . For , besides that 't is insufficient to reach many of the Phaenomena of Precipitations , ( as will ere long be shown , ) and besides that 't is not easie to make out , that there is any real antipathy betwixt inanimate bodies ; I consider , 1. That some of those Menstruums , to which this Antipathy is attributed , do after a short commotion ( whereby they are disposed to make convenient occursions and coalitions ) amicably unite into concretions participating of both the Ingredients ; as I have somewhere shewn by an Example purposely devis'd to make this out ; to do which I dropped a clear solution of fixed Nitre , instead of the usual one of common salt , upon a solution of silver , in Aqua-fortis : For the saline particles of the Solvent and those of the Precipitant , will , as I have elsewhere recirecited , for the most part friendly unite into such Crystals of Nitre for the main , as they were obtained from : And though this notion of the Chymists , if well explained , be applicable to far more instances than the proposers of it seemed to have thought on , and may be made good use of in Practice ; yet I take it to be such as is not true Universally , and , where it is true , ought to be explicated according to Mechanical Principles . For , if the particles of the Menstruum and those of the Precipitant be so framed , that upon the action of the one upon the other , there will be produced Corpuscles too big and unwieldy to continue in the state of fludity , there will insue a Precipitation : But if the constitution of the corpuscles of the Precipitating and of the Dissolved body be such , that the Precipitant also it self is fit to be a Menstruum to dissolve that body in ; then , though there be an union of the Salts of the Precipitant and the metal ( or other Solutum ) and perhaps of the solvent too , yet a Precipitation will not necessarily follow , though the saline particles of the two liquors seemed , by the heat and ebullition excited between them upon their meeting , to exercise a great and mutual antipathy . To satisfie some Ingenious men about this particular , I dissolved Zink or Speltar in a certain urinous spirit ; ( for , there are more than one that may serve the turn ; ) and then put to it a convenient quantity of a proper acid spirit ; but though there would be a manifest conflict thereby occasioned betwixt the two liquors ; yet the speltar remained dissolved in the mixture . And I remember , that for the same purpose I devised another Experiment , which is somewhat more easie and more clear . I dissolved Copper calcined perse , or even crude , in strong spirit of salt ; ( for unless it be such , it will not be so proper , ) and having put to it by degrees a good quantity of spirit of Sal-Armoniac or fermented Urine , though there would be a great commotion with hissing and bubbles produced , the Copper would not be precipitated , because this Urinous spirit will as well as the Salt , ( and much more readily ) dissolve the same metal , and it would be kept dissolved notwithstanding their operation on one another ; the intervening of which , and their action upon the metalline corpuscles , may be gathered from hence , that the green solution , made with spirit of salt alone , will by the supervening urinous spirits be changed either into a blewish green , or , if the proportion of this spirit be very great , into a rich blew almost like ultramarine . And from these two Experiments we may probably argue , that when the Precipitation of a metal &c. insues , it is not barely on the account of the supposed Antipathy betwixt the Salts , but because the causes of that seeming Antipathy do likewise upon a Mechanical account dispose the Corpuscles of the confounded liquors so to cohere , as to be too unwieldy for the fluid part . CHAP. VI. ANother way , whereby the dissolving particles of a Menstruum may be rendred unfit to sustain the dissolved body , is to present them another that they can more easily work on . A notable Experiment of this you have in the common practice of Refiners , who , to recover the Silver out of Lace and other such mixtures wherein it abounds , use to dissolve it in Aqua fortis , and then in the solution leave Copper plates for a whole night ( or many hours . ) But if you have a mind to see the Experiment without waiting so long , you may imploy the way , whereby I have often quickly dispatched it . As soon then as I have dissolved a convenient quantity , which needs not be a great one , of Silver in cleansed Aqua fortis , I add twenty or twenty five times as much of either distilled water or rain water ; ( for though common water will sometimes do well , yet it seldome does so well ; ) and then into the clear solution I hang by a string a clean piece of Copper , which will be presently covered with little shining plates almost like scales of fish , which one may easily shake off and make room for more . And this may illustrate what we formerly mentioned about the subsiding of metalline corpuscles , when they convene in liquors , wherein , whilst they were dispersed in very minute parts , they swam freely . For in this operation the little scales of Silver seemed to be purely metalline , and there is no saline Precipitant , as Salt of Tartar or of Urine , imployed to make them subside . Upon the same ground , Gold and Silver dissolved in their proper Menstruums may be precipitated with running Mercury ; and if a Solution of blew Vitriol ( such as the Roman , East-Indian , or other of the like colours ) be made in water , a clean plate of Steel or Iron being immersed in it , will presently be overlaid with a very thin case of Copper-which after a while will grow thick , er ; but does not adhere to the iron so loosely as to be shaken off , as the Precipitated silver newly mentioned may be from the Copper-plates whereto it adheres . And that in these operations the saline particles may really quit the dissolved body , and work upon the Precipitant , may appear by the lately mentioned practice of Refiners , where the Aqua-fortis , that forsakes the particles of the silver , falls a working upon the copper-plates imployed about the Precipitation , and dissolves so much of them as to acquire the greenish blew colour of a good solution of that metal . And the Copper we can easily again without salts obtain by Precipitation out of that liquor with iron , and that too , remaining dissolved in its place , we can precipitate with the tastless powder of another Mineral . Besides these two ways of weakning the Menstruum , namely , by mortifying its saline particles or seducing them to work on other bodies , and to forsake those they first dissolved , there are some other ways of weakning the Menstruum . A Third way of effecting this , is by lessening or disturbing the agitation of the solvent . And indeed since we find by experience , that some liquors when they are heated , will either dissolve some bodies they would not dissolve at all when they were cold , or dissolve them more powerfully or copiously when hot than cold ; 't is not unreasonable to suppose , that what considerably lessens that agitation of the parts of the Menstruum that is necessary to the keeping the dissolved body in the state of fluidity , should occasion the falling of it again to the bottom . In slow operations I could give divers examples of the precipitating power of Cold ; there being divers solutions and particularly that of Amber-greece , that I had kept fluid all the Summer , which in the Winter would subside . And the like may be sometimes observed in far less time in the solutions of Brimstone made in certain oleaginous Menstruums ; and I have now & then had some solutions , and particularly one of Benzoin made in spirit of wine , that would surprize me with the turbidness ( which begins the state of Precipitation ) it would acquire upon a sudden change of the weather towards Cold , though it were not in the winter season . Another way of weakening the Menstruum and so causing the Precipitation of a body dissolved in it , is the diluting or lessening the tenacity of it , whether that tenacity proceed from viscosity or the competent number and constipation of the parts . Of this we have aninstance in the Magisteries ( as many Chymists are pleased to call them ) of Jalap , Benzion , and of divers others , Resinous and Gummous bodies dissolved in spirit of wine . For by the affusion of common water , the Menstruum being too much diluted is not able to keep those particles in the state of fluidity , but must suffer them to subside , ( as they usually do in the form of white powder , ) or , ( as it may happen sometimes , ) make some parts emerge . Examples also of this kind are afforded us by the common preparations of Mercurius Vitae . For though in oil of Antimony , made by the Rectification of the butter , the saline particles are so numerous and keep so close to one another , that they are able to sustain the Antimonial Corpuscles they carried over with them in Distillation , and keep them together with themselves in the form of a liquor ; yet when by the copious affusion of the water , those sustaining particles are separated and removed to a distance from each other , the Antimonial Corpuscles and the Mercurial ( if any such there were , ) being of a ponderous nature , will easily subside into that Emetic powder , which , ( when well washed ) the Chymists flatteringly enough call Mercurius Vitae . But here I must interpose an advertisement , which will help to shew us , how much Precipitations depend upon the Mechanical contextures of bodies . For , though not only in the newly recited examples , but in divers others , the affusion of water , by diluting the salts and weakenning the Menstruum , makes the metall or other dissolved body fall precipitately to the bottom ; yet if the saline particles of the solvent , and those of the body be fitted for so strict an union , that the Corpuscles resulting from their Coalitions will not so easily be separated by the particles of water , as suffer themselves to be carried up and down with them , whether because of the minuteness of these compounded Corpuscles , or because of some congruity betwixt them and those of the water ; they will not be precipitated out of the weakened solution , but still continue a part of it ; as I have tryed partly with some solution of Silver and Gold , made in acid Menstruums , but much more satisfactorily in solutions of Copper , made in the urinous spirit of Sal Armoniac . For , though that blew solution were diluted with many thousand times as much distilled water as the dissolved metal weighed ; yet its swimming Corpuscles did by their colour manifestly appear to be dispersed through the whole liquor . CHAP. VII . BUT , to prosecute our former discourse , which we broke off after the mention of Mercurius Vitae , 't will now be seasonable to add , that we have made divers other Precipitations , by the bare affusion of water , out of solutions , and sometimes out of distilled liquors ; which , for brevity sake , I here omit , that I may hasten to the last way I shall now stay to mention . Another way then , whereby Precipitations of bodies may be produced by debilitating the Menstruum they swim in , is by lessening the proportion of the Solvent to the Solutum , without any evaporation of the liquor . These last words I add , because that , when there is an obstruction or any other expulsion of the Menstruum by heat , if it be total , 't is called Exsiccation , as when dry salt of Tartar is obtained from the filtrated Lixivium of the calcined Tartar ; and though the evaporation be not total , yet the effects of it are not wont to be reckoned amongst Precipitations . And although the way , I am about to propose , if it be attentively considered , has much affinity with the foregoing , and the Phaenomena may perhaps in some sort be reduced to them ; yet the instances that I shall name , having not , that I know , been thought of by others , and being such as every one would not deduce from what I have been mentioning , I shall add a word of the inducements I had to make the tryals , as well as of the success of them . Considering then , that Water will not dissolve Salts indefinitely , but when it has received its due proportion , 't will then dissolve no more , but , if they be put into it , let them fall to the ground and continue undissolved ; and that if when water is satiated , any of the liquor be evaporated or otherwise wasted , it will in proportion let fall the salt it had already taken up ; I concluded , that if I could mingle with water any liquor , with which its particles would more readily associate than with those of Salt , the depriving the solution of so many of its aqueous particles would be equivalent to the evaporation of as much water or thereabouts , as they , by being united , could compose . Wherefore making a lixivium of distilled water or clean rain-water , and of Salt of Tartar so strong , that if a grain more were cast in it , it would lie undissolved at the bottom ; I put a quantity of this fiery Lixivium into a slender cylindrical vessel , till it had therein reached such a height as I thought fit ; then taking as much as I thought sufficient of strong spirit of wine , that would burn every drop away , that so it might have no flegm nor water of its own , I poured this upon the saline solution , and shaking the liquors pretty well together to bring them to mix as well as I could , I laid the tube in a quiet place , and afterwards found , as I expected , that there was a pretty quantity of white salt of Tartar fallen to the bottom of the vessel , which salt had been meerly forsaken by the aqueous particles that sustained it before , but forsook it to pass into the spirit of wine , wherewith they were more disposed to associate themselves ; which I concluded , because having , before I poured on this last named liquor , made a mark on the glass to shew how far the lixivium reached , I found ( what I looked for ) that after the Precipitation , the Lixivium , that remained yet strong enough to continue unmixed with the incumbent spirit , had its surface not where the mark shewed it had been before , but a considerable distance beneath it , the spirit of wine having gained in extent what it lost in strength by receiving so many aqueous particles into it . I chose to make this tryal rather with a Lixivium of Salt of Tartar than with oyl of Tartar per Deliquium , because in this last named liquor the aqueous and saline particles are more closely combined and therefore more difficult to be separated than I thought they would be in a Lixivium hastily made , though very strong . And though by much agitation I have sometimes obtained some salt of Tartar from the above-mentioned oil ; yet the experiment succeeded nothing near so well with that liquor as with a Lixivium . I made also the like tryal with exceedingly dephlegmed spirit of wine , and as strong a Brine as I could make of common salt dissolved without heat in common water ; and I thereby obtained no despicable proportion of finely figured salt , that was let fall to the bottom . But this experiment , to be succesful , requires greater care in him that makes it , than the former needs . To confirm , and somewhat to vary this way of Precipitation , I shall add , that having made a clear solution of choice Gum Arabic in common water , and poured upon it a little high rectified spirit of wine , on this occasion there was also made , and that in a trice , a copious precipitation of a light and purely white substance not unpleasant to behold . And for further Confirmation I dissolved a full proportion of Myrrhe in fair water , and into the filtrated solution , which was transparent , but of a high brown colour , I dropt a large proportion ( which Circumstance is not to be omitted ) of carefully dephlegm'd spirit of wine , which according to expectation made a copious Precipitate of the Gum. And these instances I the rather set down in this place , because they seem to show , that simple water is a real Menstruum , which may have its dissolving and sustaining virtue weakened by the accession of Liquors , that are not doubted to be much stronger than it . By specifying the hitherto mentioned wayes , whereby Precipitations may be Mechanically performed and accounted for , I would by no means be thought to deny , that there may be some omitted here , which either others that shall consider the matter with more attention , or I my self , if I shall have leisure to do it , may think on . For I propose these but as the chief that occurr to my present thoughts ; and I forbear to add more instances to exemplifie them , because I would not injure some of my other papers , that have a greater right to those Instances . Only this I shall note in general , that the Doctrine and History of Precipitations , if well delivered , will be a thing of more extent and moment than seems hitherto to have been imagined ; since not only several of the changes in the blood and other liquors and juices of the humane body may thereby be the better understood ; and they prevented , or their ill consequences remedied ; but in the practical part of Mineralogy divers usefull things may probably be performed by the assistance of such a Doctrine and History . To keep which conjecture from seeming extravagant , I shall only here intimate , that 't is not alone in bodies that are naturally or permanently liquid , but in those solid and ponderous bodies , that are for a short time made so by the violence of the fire , that many of the things suggested by this Doctrine may have place . For whilst divers of those Bodies are in fusion , they may be treated as liquors ; and metalls , and perhaps other heterogeneous bodies may be obtained from them by fit though dry Precipitants , as in some other writings I partly did , and may elsewhere yet further , declare . FINIS . Experiments and Notes ABOUT THE MECHANICAL PRODUCTION OF Magnetism . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esq Fellow of the R. Society . LONDON , Printed by E. Flesher , for R. Davis Bookseller in Oxford . 1676. ADVERTISEMENT Concerning the following NOTES About OCCULT QUALITIES . THE following Papers ( about Magnetism and Electricity ) would appear with less disadvantage , if the Author's willingness and Promise , that this Tome should be furnished with notes about some Occult Qualities as well as about divers sorts of those that are presumed to be Manifest , did not prevail with him to let the ensuing Notes appear without those about the Pores of Bodies and Figures of Corpuscles , that should have preceded them , and some others that should have accompanied them . But the Author chose rather to venture these Papers abroad in the Condition , such as 't is , they now appear in , than make those already printed about manifest Qualities stay longer for Accessions , which some troublesome Accidents will not suffer him to hasten to the press ; and without which , he now fears this Tome may swell to a more than competent Bulk . Experiments and Notes ABOUT THE Mechanical Production OF MAGNETICAL QUALITIES . THough the vertues of the Loadstone be none of the least famous of Occult Qualities , and are perhaps the most justly admired ; yet I shall venture to offer something to make it probable , that some , even of these , may be introduced into bodies by the production of Mechanical changes in them . To make way for what I am to deliver to this purpose , it will be expedient to remove that general and settled prejudice , that has kept men from so much as thinking of any Mechanical account of Magnetisms , which is a belief , that these Qualities do immediately ▪ flow from the Substantial Form of the Loadstone , whose abstruse nature is disproportionate to our understandings . But for my part , I confess , I see no necessity of admitting this supposition , for I see , that a piece of Steel fitly shaped and well excited , will , like a Loadstone , have its determinate Poles , and with them point at the North and South ; it will draw other pieces of Iron and Steel to it , and which is more , communicate to them the same kind , though not degree , of attractive and directive vertue it had it self , and will possess these faculties not as light and transient impressions , but as such setled and durable Powers that it may retain them for many years , if the Loadstone , to which it has been duly applied , were vigorous enough : Of which sort I remember I have seen one ( and made some tryals with it ) that yielded an income to the owner , who received money from Navigators and others for suffering them to touch their needles , swords , knives &c. at his excellent Magnet . Now , in a piece of steel or iron thus excited , 't is plain , that the Magnetic operations may be regularly performed for whole years by a body , to which the form of a Loadstone does not belong , since , as it had its own form before , so it retains the same still , continuing as malleable , fusible &c. as an ordinary piece of the same metal unexcited : so that , if there be introduced a fit disposition into the internal parts of the metal by the action of the Load-stone , the metal , continuing of the same Species it was before , will need nothing save the continuance of that acquired disposition to be cap●ble of performing Magnetical Operations ; and if this disposition or internal constitution of the excited iron be destroyed , though the form of the metal be not at all injured , yet the former power of Attraction shall be abolished , as appears when an excited iron is made red hot in the fire , and suffered to cool again . And here give me leave to take notice of what I have elsewhere related to another purpose , namely that a Loadstone may ( as I have more than once tryed ) be easily deprived by ignition of its Power of sensibly attracting Martial bodies , and yet be scarce , if at all , visibly changed , but continue a true Loadstone in other capacities , which , according to the vulgar Philosophy ought to depend upon its Substantial Form , and the Loadstone thus spoiled may , notwithstanding this Form , have its Poles altered at pleasure like a piece of Iron ; as I have elsewhere particularly declared . And I will confirm what I have been saying with an experiment that you do not perhaps expect ; namely , that though it be generally taken for granted ( without being contradicted that I know of by any man ) that , in a sound Loadstone , that has never been injured by the fire , not only the attractive Power , but the particular Vertue that it has to point constantly , when left to it self , with one of its determinate extreams to one determinate pole , flowes immediately from the substantial or at least essential Form ; yet this Form remaining undestroyed by Fire , the Poles may be changed , and that with ease and speed . For among my notes about Magnetical Experiments , whence I borrow some passages of this paper , I find the following Account . EXPER. IV. TO shew that the virtue that a Loadstone hath by this determinate Pole or Extream to attract , for example , the South-end of a poised needle , and with the opposite extream or Pole the North-end of the same needle , I made among other tryals the following Experiment . Taking a very small fragment of a Loadstone , I found , agreeably to my conjecture , that by applying sometimes one Pole , sometimes the other , to that pole of ( a small but ) a very vigorous Loadstone that was fit for my purpose , I could at pleasure , in a few minutes , change the Poles of the little fragment , as I tryed by its operations upon a needle freely poised ; though by applying a fragment a pretty deal bigger , ( for in it self it appeared very small , ) I was not able in far more hours than I employed minutes before , to make any sensible change of the Poles . This short Memorial being added to the preceding part of this discourse , will , I hope , satisfie you , that how unanimously so ever men have deduced all magnetick operations from the form of the Loadstone ; yet some internal change of pores or some other Mechanical alterations or inward disposition , either of the excited Iron or of the Load-stone it self , may suffice to make a body capable or uncapable of exercising some determinate magnetical operations ; which may invite you to cast a more unprejudiced eye upon those few particulars , I shall now subjoin to make it probable , that even Magnetical Qualities may be Mechanically produced or altered . EXPER. V. I Have often observed in the shops of Artificers , as Smiths , Turners of metals &c. that , when hardened and well tempered tools are well heated by Attrition , if whilest they are thus warmed you apply them to filings or chips , as they call them , or thin fragments of Steel or Iron , they will take them up , as if the instruments were touched with a Loadstone : but as they will not do so , unless they be thus excited by rubbing till they be warmed , by which means a greater commotion is made in the inner parts of he Steel so neither would they retain so vigorous a Magnetism as to support the little fragments of Steel that stuck to them after they were grown cold again . Which may be confirmed by what , if I much misremember not , I shewed some Acquaintances of yours ; which was , that , by barely rubbing a conveniently shaped piece of Steel against the floor till it had gained a sufficient heat , it would whilest it continued so , discover a manifest , though but faint attractive power , which vanished together with the adventitious Heat . EXPER. VII . WE elsewhere observe , which perhaps you also may have done , that the Iron bars of windows , by having stood very long in an erected posture , may at length grow Magnetical , so that , if you apply the North point of a poised and excited Needle to the bottom of the Bar , it will drive it away , & attract the Southern ; and if you raise the magnetick needle to the upper part of the Bar , and apply it as before , this will draw the Northern extream , which the other end of the bar expelled ; probably because , as 't is elsewhere declared , the bar is in tract of time , by the continual action of the Magnetical effluvia of the Tarraqueous Globe , turned into a kind of Magnet , whose lower end becomes the North-pole of it , and the other the Southern . Therefore according to the Magnetical Laws , the former must expel the Northern extream of the Needle , and the later draw it . EXPER. VIII . I Have found indeed , and I question not but other observers may have done so too , that , if a bar of Iron , that has not stood long in an erected posture , be but held perpendicular , the forementioned experiment will succeed , ( probably upon such an account as that I have lately intimated : ) But then this virtue , displayed by the extreams of the bar of Iron , will not be at all permanent , but so transient , that , if the bar be but inverted and held again upright , that end which just before was the uppermost , and drew the north-end of the needle , will now , being lowermost , drive it away , which , as was lately observed , w●ll not happen to a bar which has been some years or other competent time kept in the same Position . So that , since length of time is requisite to make the verticity of a bar of Iron so durable & constant , that the same extream will have the same virtues in reference to the Magnetical needle , whether you make it the upper end or the lower end of the bar , it seems not improbable to me , that by length of time the whole Magnetick virtue of this Iron may be increased , and consequently some degree of attraction acquired . And by this Consideration I shall endeavour to explicate that strange thing , that is reported by some Moderns to have happened in Italy , where a bar of Iron is affirmed to have been converted into a Load-stone , whereof a piece was kept among other rarities in the curious Aldrovandus his Musaeum Metallicum . For considering the greatness of its Specific Gravity , the malleableness and other properties , wherein Iron differs from Loadstone , I cannot easily believe , that , by such a way as is mentioned , a metal should be turned into a stone . And therefore , having consulted the book it self , whence this Relation was borrowed , I found the story imperfectly enough delivered : The chiefest and clearest thing in it being , that at the top of the Church of Arimini a great iron-bar , that was placed there to support a Cross of an hundred pound weight , was at length turned into a Load-stone . But whether the reality of this transmutation was examined , and how it appeared that the fragment of the Loadstone presented to Aldrovandus was taken from that bar of Iron , I am not fully satisfied by that Narrative . Therefore , when I remember the great resemblance I have sometimes seen in colour , besides other manifest Qualities , betwixt some Loadstones and some course or almost rusty Iron , I am tempted to Conjecture , that those that observed this Iron-bar when broken to have acquired a strong Magnetical virtue , which they dreamed not that tract of time might communicate to it , might easily be perswaded , by this virtue and the resemblance of colour , that the Iron was turned into Loadstone : especially they being prepossess'd with that Aristotelian Maxim , whence our Author would explain this strange Phaenomenon , that inter Symbolum habentia facilis est transmutatio . But , leaving this as a bare conjecture , we may take notice , that what virtue an oblong piece of Iron may need a long tract of time to acquire , by the help onely of its position , may be imparted to it in a very short time , by the intervention of such a nimble agent , as the fire . As may be often , though not always , observed in Tongs , and such like Iron Utensils , that , having been ignited , have been set to cool , leaning against some wall or other prop , that kept them in an erected posture , which makes it probable that the great commotion of the parts , made by the vehement heat of the fire , disposed the Iron , whilst it was yet soft , and had its pores more lax , and parts more pliable , disposed it , I say , to receive much quicker impressions from the Magnetical effluvia of the Earth , than it would have done , if it had still been cold . And 't is very observable to our present purpose , what differing effects are produced by the operation of the fire , upon two Magnetick bodies according to their respective constitutions . For , by keeping a Loadstone red-hot , though you cool it afterwards in a perpendicular posture , you may deprive it of its former power of manifestly attracting : But a bar of Iron being ignited , and set to cool perpendicularly , does thereby acquire a manifest verticity . Of which differing events I must not now stay to inquire , whether or no the true reason be , That the peculiar Texture or internal constitution that makes a Loadstone somewhat more than an ordinary Ore of Iron , ( which metal , as far as I have tried , is the usual ingredient of Loadstones ) being spoiled by the violence of the fire , this rude Agent leaves it in the condition of common Iron , or perhaps of ignited Iron-ore : whereas the fire does soften the Iron it self ( which is a metal not an Ore ) agitating its parts , and making them the more flexible , and by relaxing its pores , disposes it to be easily and plentifully pervaded by the Magnetical steams of the Earth , from which it may not improbably be thought to receive the verticity it acquires ; and this the rather , because , as I have often tryed , and elsewhere mentioned , if an oblong Loadstone , once spoil'd by the fire , be thorowly ignited and cooled either perpendicularly , or lying horizontally North and South , it will , as well as a piece of Iron handled after the same manner , be made to acquire new poles , or change the old ones , as the skilful experimenter pleases . But whatever be the true cause of the disparity of the fires operation upon a sound Loadstone and a bar of Iron , the effect seems to strengthen our conjecture , That Magnetical operations may much depend upon Mechanical Principles . And I hope you will find further probability added to it , by some Phaenomena recited in another paper , to which I once committed some promiscuous Experiments and Observations Magnetical . EXPER. XII . IF I may be allowed to borrow an Experiment from a little Tract * that yet lyes by me , and has been seen but by two or three friends , it may be added to the instances already given about the production of Magnetism . For in that Experiment I have shewn , how having brought a good piece of a certain kind of English Oker , which yet perhaps was no fitter than other , to a convenient shape , though , till it was altered by the fire , it discovered no Magnetical Quality ; yet after it had been kept red-hot in the fire and was suffered to cool in a convenient posture , it was enabled to exercise Magnetical operations upon a po●s'd Needle . EXPER. XIII . AS for the Abolition of the Magnetical vertue in a body endow'd with it , it may be made without destroying the Substantial or the Essential Form of the body , and without sensibly adding , diminishing , or altering any thing in reference to the Salt , Sulphur and Mercury , which Chymists presume Iron and Steel , as well as other mixt bodies , to be composed of . For it has been sometimes observed , that the bare continuance of a Loadstone it self in a contrary position to that , which , when freely placed , it seems to effect , has either corrupted or sensibly lessened the vertue of it . What I formerly observed to this purpose , I elsewhere relate , and since that having a Loadstone , whose vigor was look'd upon by skilful persons as very extraordinary , and which , whilst it was in an Artificers hand , was therefore held at a high rate , I was careful , being by some occasions call'd out of London , to lock it up , with some other rarities , in a Cabinet , whereof I took the key along with me , and still kept it in my own Pocket . But my stay abroad proving much longer than I expected , when , being returned to London , I had occasion to make use of this Loadstone for an Experiment , I found it indeed where I left it , but so exceedingly decayed , as to its attractive power , which I had formerly examin'd by weight , by having lain almost a year in an inconvenient posture , that if it had not been for the circumstances newly related , I should have concluded that some body had purposely got it out in my absence , and spoiled it by help of the fire , the vertue being so much impaired , that I cared little to employ it any more about considerable Experiments . And this corruption of the Magnetical vertue , which may in tract of time be made in a Loadstone it self , may in a trice be made by the help of that Stone in an excited Needle . For 't is observ'd by Magnetical Writers , and my own Trials purposely made have assured me of it , that a well pois'd Needle , being by the touch of a good Loadstone , excited and brought to turn one of its ends to the North and the other to the South , it may by a contrary touch of the same Loadstone be deprived of the faculty it had of directing its determinate extreams to determinate Poles . Nay , by another touch ( or the same , and even without immediate Contact , if the Magnet be vigorous enough ) the Needle may presently have its direction so changed , that the end , which formerly pointed to the North pole , shall now regard the South , and the other end shall instead of the Southern , respect the Northen pole . EXPER. XV. AND to make it the more probable , that the change of the Magnetism communicated to Iron may be produc'd at least in good part by Mechanical operations , procuring some change of texture in the Iron ; I shall subjoyn a notable Experiment of the ingenious Doctor Power , which when I heard of , I tryed as well as I could ; and though , perhaps for want of conveniency , I could not make it fully answer what it promised , yet the success of the trial was considerable enough to make it pertinent in this place , and to induce me to think , it might yet better succeed with him , whose Experiment , as far as it concerns my present purpose , imports , that if a Puncheon , as Smiths call it , or a Rod of Iron , be , by being ignited and suffered to cool North and South , and hammered at the ends , very manifestly endow'd with Magnetical vertue , this vertue will in a trice be destroyed , by two or three smart blows of a strong hammer upon the middle of the oblong piece of Iron . But Magnetism is so fertile a Subject , that if I had now the leisure and conveniency to range among Magnetical Writers , I should scarce doubt of finding , among their many Experiments and Observations , divers that might be added to those above delivered , as being easily applicable to my present Argument . And I hope you will find farther probability added to what has been said , to shew , that Magnetical operations may much depend upon Mechanical Principles , by some Phaenomena recited in another Paper , to which I once committed some promiscuous Experiments and Observations Magnetical . FINIS . Experiments and Notes ABOUT THE MECHANICAL ORIGINE OR PRODUCTION OF Electricity . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esq Fellow of the R. Society . LONDON , Printed by E. Flesher , for R. Davis Bookseller in Oxford . 1675. Experiments and Notes ABOUT THE MECHANICAL ORIGINE OR PRODUCTION OF Electricity . THat 't is not necessary to believe Electrical Attraction ( which you know is generally listed among Occult Qualities ) to be the effect of a naked and solitary Quality flowing immediately from a Substantial Form ; but that it may rather be the effect of a Material Effluvium , issuing from , and returning to , the Electrical Body ( and perhaps in some cases assisted in its Operation by the external air ) seems agreable to divers things that may be observ'd in such Bodies and their manner of acting . There are differing Hypotheses ( and all of them Mechanical , propos'd by the Moderns ) to solve the Phaenomena of Electrical Attraction . Of these Opinions the First is that of the learned Jesuite Cabaeus , who , though a Peripatetick and Commentator on Aristotle , thinks the drawing of light Bodies by Jet , Amber , &c. may be accounted for , by supposing , that the steams that issue , or , if I may so speak , sally , out of Amber , when heated by rubbing , discuss and expell the neighbouring air ; which after it has deen driven off a little way , makes as it were a small whirlwind , because of the resistance it finds from the remoter air , which has not been wrought on by the Electrical Steams ; and that these , shrinking back swiftly enough to the Amber , do in their returns bring along with them such light bodies as they meet with in their way . On occasion of which Hypothesis I shall offer it to be consider'd , Whether by the gravity of the Atmospherical Air , surmounting the Specifick Gravity of the little and rarifi'd Atmosphere , made about the Amber by its emissions , and comprising the light Body fasten'd on by them , the Attraction may not in divers cases be either caused or promoted . Another Hypothesis is that proposed by that Ingenious Gentleman Sir Kenelm Digby , and embraced by the very Learned Dr. Browne , ( who seems to make our Gilbert himself to have been of it ) and divers other sagacious men . And according to this Hypothesis , the Amber , or other Electrick , being chas'd or heated , is made to emit certain Rayes or Files of unctuous Steams , which , when they come to be a little cool'd by the external air , are somewhat condens'd , and having lost of their former agitation , shrink back to the body whence they sallied out , and carry with them those light bodies , that their further ends happen to adhere to , at the time of their Retraction : As when a drop of Oyl or Syrup hangs from the end of a small stick , if that be dextrously and cauriously struck , the viscous substance will , by that impulse , be stretch'd out , and presently retreating , will bring along with it the dust or other light bodies that chanced to stick to the remoter parts of it . And this way of explaining Electrical Attractions is employ'd also by the Learned Gassendus , who addes to it , that these Electrical Rays ( if they may be so call'd ) being emitted several ways , and consequently crossing one another , get into the pores of the Straw , or other light body to be attracted , and by means of their Decussation take the faster hold of it , and have the greater force to carry it along with them , when they shrink back to the Amber whence they were emitted . A third Hypothesis there is , which was devised by the Acute Cartesius , who dislikes the Explications of others , chiefly because he thinks them not applicable to Glass , which he supposes unfit to send forth Effluvia , and which is yet an Electrical body ; and therefore attempts to account for Electrical Attractions by the intervention of certain particles , shap'd almost like small pieces of Ribbond , which he supposes to be form'd of this subtile matter harbour'd in the pores or crevises of Glass . But this Hypothesis , though ingenious in it self , yet depending upon the knowledge of divers of his peculiar Principles , I cannot intelligibly propose it in few words , and therefore shall refer you to himself for an account of it : which I the less scruple to do , because though it be not unworthy of the wonted Acureness of the Authour , yet he seems himself to doubt , whether it will reach all Electrical Bodies ; and it seems to me , that the reason why he rejects the way of explicating Attraction by the Emission of the finer parts of the attrahent ( to which Hypothesis , if it be rightly proposed , I confess my self very inclinable ) is grounded upon a mistake , which , though a Philosopher may , for want of Experience in that Particular , without disparagement fall into , is nevertheless a mistake . For whereas our excellent Author says , that Electrical Effluvia , such as are supposed to be emitted by Amber , Wax , &c. cannot be imagin'd to proceed from Glass , I grant the Supposition to be plausible , but cannot allow it to be true . For as solid a body as Glass is , yet if you but dextrously rub for two or three minutes a couple of pieces of Glass against one another , you will find that Glass is not onely capable of emitting Effluvia , but such ones as to be odorous , and sometimes to be rankly stinking . But it is not necessary , that in this Paper , where I pretend not to write Discourses but Notes , I should consider all that has been , or I think may be , said for and against each of the above-mentioned Hypotheses ; since they all agree in what is sufficient for my present purpose , namely , that Electrical Attractions are not the Effects of a meer Quality , but of a Substantial Emanation from the attracting Body : And 't is plain , that they all endeavour to solve the Phaenomena in a Mechanical way , without recurring to Substantial Forms , and inexplicable Qualities , or so much as taking notice of the Hypostatical Principles of the Chymists . Wherefore it may suffice in this place , that I mention some Phaenomena that in general make it probable , that Amber , &c. draws such light Bodies , as pieces of Straw , Hair , and the like , by vertue of some Mechanical Affections either of the attracting or of the attracted Bodies , or of both the one and the other . 1. The first and most general Observation is , That Electrical Bodies draw not unless they be warm'd ; which Rule though I have now and then found to admit of an Exception , ( whereof I elsewhere offer an account , ) yet , as to the generality of common Electricks , it holds well enough to give much countenance to our Doctrine , which teaches the effects of Electrical Bodies to be perform'd by Corporeal Emanations . For 't is known , that Heat , by agitating the parts of a fit Body , solicites it as it were to send forth its Effluvia , as is obvious in odoriferous Gums and Perfumes , which , being heated , send forth their fragrant steams , both further and more copiously than otherwise they would . 2. Next , it has been observ'd , that Amber , &c. warm'd by the fire , does not attract so vigorously , as if it acquire an equal degree of heat by being chaf'd or rub'd : So that the modification of motion in the internal parts , and in the Emanations of the Amber , may , as well as the degree of it , contribute to the Attraction . And my particular Observations incline me to adde , that the effect may oftentimes be much promoted , by employing both these ways successively ; as I thought I manifestly found when I first warm'd the Amber at the fire , and presently after chaf'd it a little upon a piece of cloth . For then a very few rubbings seem'd to excite it more than many more would otherwise have done : As if the heat of the fire had put the parts into a general , but confus'd , agitation ; to which 't was easie for the subsequent Attrition ( or Reciprocation of Pressure ) to give a convenient modification in a Body whose Texture disposes it to become vigorously Electrical . 3. Another Observation that is made about these Bodies , is , That they require Tersion as well as Attrition ; and though I doubt whether the Rule be infallible , yet I deny not but that weaker Electricks require to be as well wip'd as chaf'd ; and even good ones will have their Operation promoted by the same means . And this is very agreeable to our Doctrine , since Tersion , besides that it is , as I have sometimes manifestly known it , a kind or degree of Attrition , frees the Surface from those adherences that might choak the pores of the Amber , or at least hinder the emanation of the steams to be so free and copious as otherwise it would be . 4. 'T is likewise observ'd , That whereas the Magnetical Steams are so subtile , that they penetrate and perform their Operation through all kind of Mediums hitherto known to us ; Electrical Steams are like those of some odoriferous Bodies , easily check'd in their progress , since 't is affirm'd by Learned Writers , who say they speak upon particular Trial , that the interposition of the finest Linnen or Sarsnet is sufficient to hinder all the Operation of excited Amber upon a Straw or Feather plac'd never so little beyond it . 5. It has been also observed , that the effects of Electrical Attraction are weaken'd if the air be thick and cloudy ; and especially if the South-wind blows : And that Electricks display their vertue more faintly by night than by day , and more vigorously in clear weather , and when the winds are Northerly . All which the Learned Kircherus asserts himself to have found true by experience ; insomuch that those bodies that are but faintly drawn when the weather is clear , will not , when 't is thick and cloudy , be at all moved . 6. We have also observed , That divers Concretes , that are notably Electrical , do abound in an effluviable matter ( if I may so call it ) which is capable of being manifestly evaporated by heat and rubbing . Thus we see , that most Resinous Gums , that draw light bodies , do also , being moderately solicited by heat , ( whether this be excited by the fire , or by Attrition or Contusion ) emit steams . And in pieces of Sulphur conveniently shaped , I found upon due Attrition a Sulphureous stink . And that piece of Amber which I most employ , being somewhat large and very well polish'd , will , being rub'd upon a piece of woollen cloth , emit steams , which the nostrils themselves may perceive ; and they sometimes seem to me not unlike those that I took notice of , when I kept in my mouth a drop or two of the diluted Tincture ( or Solution of the finer parts ) of Amber made with Spirit of Wine , or of Sal Armoniac . 7. It agrees very well with what has been said of the corporeal Emanations of Amber , that its attractive power will continue some time after it has been once excited . For the Attrition having caus'd an intestine commotion in the parts of the Concrete , the heat or warmth that is thereby excited ought not to cease , as soon as ever the rubbing is over , but to continue capable of emitting Effluvia for some time afterwards , which will be longer or shorter according to the goodness of the Electric , and the degree of the Antecedent commotion : which joyn'd together may sometimes make the effect considerable , insomuch that in a warm day , about noon , I did with a certain body , not much , if at all , bigger than a Pea , but very vigorously attractive , move to and fro a Steel Needle freely poysed , about three minutes ( or the twentieth part of an hour ) after I had left off rubbing the Attrahent . 8. That it may not seem impossible , that Electrical Effluvia should be able to insinuate themselves into the pores of many other bodies , I shall adde , that I found them subtile enough to attract not onely Spirit of Wine , but that fluid aggregate of Corpuscles we call Smoak . For having well lighted a Wax-taper , which I preferr'd to a common Candle to avoid the stink of the snuff , I blew out the flame ; and , when the smoak ascended in a slender stream , held , at a convenient distance from it , an excited piece of Amber or a chafed Diamond , which would manifestly make the ascending smoak deviate from its former line , and turn aside , to beat , as it were , against the Electric , which , if it were vigorous , would act at a considerable distance , and seemed to smoak for a pretty while together . 9. That 't is not in any peculiar Sympathy between an Electric and a body whereon it operates , that Electrical Attraction depends , seems the more probale , because Amber , for instance , does not attract onely one determinate sort of bodies , as the Loadstone does Iron , and those bodies wherein it abounds ; but as far as I have yet tried , it draws indifferently all bodies whatsoever , being plac'd within a due distance from it , ( as my choicest piece of Amber draws not onely Sand and Mineral Powders , but Filings of Steel and Copper , and beaten Gold it self ) provided they be minute or light enough , except perhaps it be fire : I employ the word perhaps , because I am not yet so clear in this point . For having applied a strong Electric at a convenient distance to small fragments of ignited matter , they were readily enough attracted , and shin'd , whilst they were sticking to the body that had drawn them : But when I look'd attentively upon them , I found the shining sparks to be , as it were , cloath'd with light ashes , which , in spite of my diligence , had been already form'd about the attracted Corpuscles , upon the expiring of a good part of the fire ; so that it remain'd somewhat doubtful to me , whether the ignited Corpuscles , whilst they were totally such , were attracted ; or whether the immediate objects of the Attraction were not the new form'd ashes , which carried up with them those yet unextinguished parts of fire , that chanc'd to be lodg'd in them . But , as for flame , our Countrey man Gilbert delivers as his Experiment , That an Electric , though duly excited and applied , will not move the flame of the slenderest Candle . Which some will think not so easie to be well tried with common Electricks , as Amber , hard Wax , Sulphur , and the like unctuous Concretes , that very easily take fire : Therefore I chose to make my Trial with a rough Diamond extraordinarily attractive , which I could , without injuring it , hold as near as I pleas'd to the flame of a Candle or Taper ; and though I was not satisfi'd that it did either attract the flame , as it visibly did the smoak , or manifestly agitate it ; yet granting that Gilbert's Assertion will constantly hold true , and so , that flame is to be excepted from the general Rule , yet this exception may well comport with the Hypothesis hitherto countenanc'd , since it may be said , as 't is , if I mistake not , by Kirkerus , that the heat of the flame dissipates the Effiuvia , by whose means the Attraction should be perform'd . To which I shall adde , that possibly the Celerity of the motion of the Flame upwards , may render it very difficult for the Electrical Emanations to divert the Flame from its Course . 10. We have found by Experiment , That a vigorous and well excited piece of Amber will draw , not onely the powder of Amber , but less minute fragments of it . And as in many cases one contrary directs to another , so this Trial suggested a further , which , in case of good success , would probably argue , that in Electrical Attraction not onely Effluvia are emitted by the Electrical body , but these Effluvia fasten upon the body to be drawn , and that in such a way , that the intervening viscous strings , which may be supposed to be made up of those cohering Effluvia , are , when their agitation ceases , contracted or made to shrink inwards towards both ends , almost as a highly stretch'd Lute-string does when 't is permitted to retreat into shorter Dimensions . But the Conjecture it self was much more easie to be made than the Experiment requisite to examine it . For we found it no easie matter to suspend an Electric , great and vigorous enough , in such a manner , that it might , whilst suspended , be excited , and be so nicely poised , that so faint a force as that wherewith it attracts light bodies should be able to procure a Lccal Motion to the whole Body it self . But after some fruitless attempts with other Electricks , I had recourse to the very vigorous piece of polish'd Amber , formerly mention'd , and when we had with the help of a little Wax suspended it by a silken thread , we chafed very well one of the blunt edges of it upon a kind of large Pin-cushion cover'd with a course and black woollen stuff , and then brought the Electric , as soon as we could , to settle notwithstanding its hanging freely at the bottom of the string . This course of rubbing on the edge of the Amber we pitch'd upon for more than one reason ; for if we had chafed the flat side , the Amber could not have approached the body it had been rub'd on without making a change of place in the whole Electric , and , which is worse , without making it move ( contrary to the nature of heavy bodies ) somewhat upwards ; whereas the Amber having , by reason of its suspension , its parts counterpoised by one another ; to make the excited edge approach to another body , that edge needed not at all ascend , but onely be moved horizontally , to which way of moving the gravity of the Electric ( which the string kept from moving downwards ) could be but little or no hinderance . And agreeably to this we found , that if , as soon as the suspended and well rubb'd Electric was brought to settle freely , we applied to the chafed edge , but without touching it , the lately mention'd Cushion , which , by reason of its rough Superficies and porosity , was fit for the Electrical Effluvia to fasten upon , the edge would manifestly be drawn aside by the Cushion steadily held , and if this were slowly removed , would follow it a good way ; and when this body no longer detain'd it , would return to the posture wherein it had settled before . And this power of approaching the Cushion by vertue of the operation of its own steams , was so durable in our vigorous piece of Amber , that by once chafing it , I was able to make it follow the Cushion no less than ten or eleven times . Whether from such Experiments one may argue , that 't is but , as 't were , by accident that Amber attracts another body , and not this the Amber ; and whether these ought to make us question , if Electricks may with so much propriety , as has been hitherto generally supposed , be said to Attract , are doubts that my Design does not here oblige me to examine . Some other Phaenomena might be added of the same Tendency with those already mention'd , ( as the advantage that Electrical Bodies usually get by having well polish'd or at least smooth Surfaces , ) but the Title of this Paper promising some Experiments about the Production of Electricity , I must not omit to recite , how I have been sometimes able to produce or destroy this Quality in certain bodies , by means of alterations , that appear'd not to be other than Mechanical . EXPER. I. ANd first , having with a very mild heat slowly evaporated about a fourth part of good Turpentine , I found , that the remaining body would not , when cold , continue a Liquor , but harden'd into a transparent Gum almost like Amber , which , as I look'd for , proved Electrical . EXPER. II. SEcondly , by mixing two such liquid Bodies as Petroleum and strong Spirit of Nitre in a certain proportion , and then distilling them till there remained a dry mass , I obtain'd a brittle substance as black as Jet ; and whose Superficies ( where it was contiguous to the Retort ) was glossie like that Mineral when polished ; and as I expected I found it also to resemble Jet , in being endowed with an Electrical Faculty . EXPER. III. THirdly , Having burnt Antimony to ashes , and of those ashes , without any addition , made a transparent Glass , I found , that , when rubb'd , as Electrical Bodies ought to be to excite them , it answer'd my expectation , by manifesting a not inconsiderable Electricity . And this is the worthier of notice , because , that as a Vitrum Antimonii , that is said to be purer than ordinary , may be made of the Regulus of the same Mineral , in whose preparation you know a great part of the Antimonial Sulphur is separated and left among the Scoriae ; so Glass of Antimony made without additament , may easily , as experience has inform'd us , be in part reduc'd to a Regulus , ( a Body not reckon'd amongst Electrical ones . ) And that you may not think , that 't is onely some peculiar and fixt part of the Antimony that is capable of Vitrification , let me assure you , that even with the other part that is wont to flye away , ( namely the Flowers ) an Antimonial Glass may without an addition of other Ingredients be made . EXPER. IV. FOurthly , The mention of a Vitrified Body brings into my mind , that I more than once made some Glass of Lead per se , ( which I found no very easie work ) that also was not wholly destitute of an Electrical Vertue , though it had but a very languid one . And it is not here to be overlook'd , that this Glass might easily be brought to afford again malleable Lead , which was never reckon'd , that I know of , among Electrical Bodies . EXPER. V. FIsthly , Having taken some Amber , and warily distill'd it , not with Sand or powder'd Brick , or some such additament as Chymists are wont to use , for fear it should boylover or break their Vessels ; but by its self , that I might have an unmixed Caput mortuum ; Having made this Distillation , I say , and continued it till it had afforded a good proportion of phlegm , Spirit , Volatile Salt , and Oyl , the Retort was warily broken , and the remaining matter was taken out in a lump , which , though it had quite lost its colour being burnt quite black , and though it were grown strangely brittle in comparison of Amber , so that they who believe the vertue of attracting light Bodies to flow from the substantial form of Amber , would not expect it in a Body so changed and deprived of its noblest parts : Yet this Caput mortuum was so far from having lost its Electrical Faculty , that it seemed to attract more vigorously than Amber it self is wont to do before it be committed to Distillation . And from the foregoing Instances afforded us by the Glass of Antimony , we may learn , that when the form of a Body seems to be destroyed by a fiery Analysis that dissipates the parts of it , the remaining substance may yet be endowed with Electricity , as the Caput mortuum of Amber may acquire it ; as in the case of the Glass of Antimony made of the Calx and of the Flowers . And from the second Example above-mentioned , and from common Glass which is Electrical , we may also learn , that Bodies that are neither of them apart observed to be endowed with Electricity , may have that Vertue result in the compounded substance that they constitute , though it be but a factitious Body . To the foregoing Experiments , whose Success is wont to be uniform enough , I shall adde the Recital of a surprising Phaenomenon , which , though not constant , may help to make it probable , that Electrical Attractions need not be suppos'd still to proceed from the substantial , or even from the essential Form of the Attrahent ; but may be the effects of unheeded , and , as it were , fortuitous Causes . And however , I dare not suppress so strange an Observation , and therefore shall relate that which I had the luck to make of an odd sort of Electrical Attraction ( as it seem'd , ) not taken notice of ( that I know of ) by any either Naturalist or other Writer , and it is this . EXPER. VI. THat false Locks ( as they call them ) of some Hair , being by curling or otherwise brought to a certain degree of driness , or of stiffness , will be attracted by the flesh of some persons , or seem to apply themselves to it , as Hair is wont to do to Amber or Jet excited by rubbing . Of this I had a Proof in such Locks worn by two very Fair Ladies that you know . For at some times I observed , that they could not keep their Locks from flying to their Cheeks , and ( though neither of them made any use , or had any need of Painting ) from sticking there . When one of these Beauties first shew'd me this Experiment , I turn'd it into a Complemental Raillery , as suspecting there might be some trick in it , though I after saw the same thing happen to the others Locks too . But as she is no ordinary Virtuosa , she very ingeniously remov'd my suspicions , and ( as I requested ) gave me leave to satisfie my self further , by desiring her to hold her warm hand at a convenient distance from one of those Locks taken off and held in the air . For as soon as she did this , the lower end of the Lock , which was free , applied it self presently to her hand : which seem'd the more strange , because so great a multitude of Hair would not have been easily attracted by an ordinary Electrical Body , that had not been considerably large , or extraordinarily vigorous . This repeated Observation put me upon inquiring among some other young Ladies , whether they had observed any such like thing , but I found little satisfaction to my Question , except from one of them eminent for being ingenious , who told me , that sometimes she had met with these troublesome Locks ; but that all she could tell me of the Circumstances , which I would have been inform'd about , was , that they seem'd to her to flye most to her Cheeks when they had been put into a somewhat stiff Curle , and when the Weather was frosty * You will probably be the less dispos'd to believe , That Electrical Attractions must proceed from the Substantial Forms of the Attrahents , or rom the Predominancy of this or that Chymical Principle in them , if I acquaint you with some odd Trials wherein the Attraction of light Bodies seem'd to depend upon very small circumstances . And though forbearing at present , to offer you my thoughts about the cause of these surprising Phaenomena , I propose it onely as a Probleme to your self and your curious Friends , yet the main circumstances seeming to be of a Mechanical Nature , the recital of my Trials will not be impertinent to the Design and Subject of this Paper . EXPER. VII . I Took then a large and vigorous piece of Amber conveniently shaped for my purpose , and a downy feather , such as grows upon the Bodies , not Wings or Tails of a somewhat large Chicken : Then having moderately excited the Electrick , I held the Amber so near it , that the neighbouring part of the feather was drawn by it and stuck fast to it ; but the remoter parts continued in their former posture . This done , I applyed my fore-finger to these erected downy feathers , and immediately , as I expected , they left their preceeding posture , and applied themselves to it as if it had been an Electrical Body . And whether I offered to them my nail , or the pulpy part of my finger , or held my finger towards the right hand or the left , or directly over , these downy feathers that were near the little Quill did nimbly , and , for ought appear'd , equally turn themselves towards it , and fasten themselves to it . And to shew that the steams that issued out of so warm a Body as my finger were not necessary to attract ( as men speak ) the abovementioned feathers , instead of my finger , I applied to them , after the same manner , a little Cylindrical Instrument of Silver , to which they bowed and fastened themselves as they had done to my finger , though the tip of this Instrument were presented to them in several postures . The like success I had with the end of an Iron Key , and the like also with a cold piece of polish'd black Marble ; and sometimes the feathers did so readily and strongly fasten themselves to these extraneous and unexcited Bodies , that I have been able ( though not easily ) to make one of them draw the feather from the Amber it self . But it is diligently to be observ'd , that this unusual attraction happened onely whilst the electrical operation of the excited Amber continued strong enough to sustain the feathers . For after wards , neither the approach of my finger , nor that of the other bodies , would make the downy feathers change their posture . Yet as soon as ever the Amber was by a light affriction excited again , the feather would be disposed to apply it self again to the abovementioned Bodies . And lest there should be any peculiarity in that particular feather , I made the Trials with others ( provided they were not long enough to exceed the sphere of activity of the Amber ) and found the Experiment to answer my expectation . I made the Experiment also at differing times , and with some months , if not rather years , of interval , but with the like success . And left you should think these Phaenomena proceed from some peculiarity in the piece of Amber I employed , I shall add , that I found uniformity enough in the success , when , in the place of Amber , I substituted another Electrick , and particularly a smooth mass of melted Brimstone . These are the Phaenomena I thought fit to mention at present of this unusual way of drawing light bodies , and with this Experiment I should conclude my Notes about Electricity , but that I think it will not be a miss before I take leave of this Subject , to give this Advertisement , That the event of Electrical Experiments is not always so certain as that of many others , being sometimes much varied by seemingly slight circumstances , and now and then by some that are altogether over-lock'd . This Observation may receive credit from some of the particulars above recited ( especially concerning the interest of the weather , &c. in Electrical Phaenomena . ) But now I shall add , that , not onely there may happen some variations in the success of Trials made with Electrical Bodies , but that it is not so certain as many think , whether some particular Bodies be or be not Electrical . For the inquisitive Kircherus reckons Crystall among those Gems to whom Nature has denyed the attractive power we are speaking of ; and yet I remember not , that , among all the trials I have made with native Crystall , I have found any that was destitute of the power he refuses them . Also a late most learned Writer reciting the Electricks , reckon'd up by our industrious Countryman Gilbert , and increasing their number by some observed by himself , ( to which I shall now add , besides white Saphyrs , and white English Amethysts , the almost Diaphanous spar of Lead Ore ) denies Electricity to a couple of transparent Gems , the Cornelion and the Emraid . And I do the less wonder he should do so to the former , because I have my self in vain tried to make any attraction with a piece of Cornelion so large and fair , that 't was kept for a rarity ; and yet with divers other fine Cornelions I have been able to attract some light bodies very manifestly , if not briskly ; and I usually wear a Cornelian Ring , that is richly enough endowed with Electricity . But as for Emralds , as I thought it strange that Nature should have denied them a Quality she has granted to so many other Diaphanous Gems , and even to Crystal , so I thought the assertion deserved an Examen , upon which I concluded , that at least it does not universally and constantly hold true . I had indeed seen in a Ring a Stone of price and great lustre , which , though green , I found to be , ( as I guess'd it would prove ) vigorously enough Electrical . But this Experiment , though seemingly conclusive , I did not look upon as a fair trial , because the Stone was not a true Emrald , but , which is rare , a green Saphir . And I learned by inquiry of the skillful Jeweller that cut it , that it was so far from having the softness of an Emrald , that he found it harder than blew Saphyrs themselves , which yet are Gems of great hardness , and by some reputed second to none , but Diamonds . Without therefore concluding any thing from this Experiment , save that , if the assertion I was to examin were true , the want of an Electrical faculty might be thought a Concomitant rather of the peculiar Texture of the Emrald than of its green colour , I proceeded to make trial with three or four Emralds , whose being true was not doubted , and found them all somewhat , though not equally , endow'd with Electricity , which I found to be yet more considerable in an Emrald of my own , whose colour was so excellent , that by skilful persons 't was look'd on as a rarity . And though , by this success of my inquiry , I perceived I could not , as else I might have done , shew the Curious a new way of judging of true and false Emralds , yet the like way may be , though not always certain , yet oftentimes of use , in the estimating whether Diamonds be true or counterfeit , especially , if , being set in Rings , the surest way of trying them cannot conveniently be employed . For whereas Glass , though it have some Electricity , seems , as far as I have observed , to have but a faint one , there are often found Diamonds that have a very vigorous one . And I do not remember I met with any Electrick of the same bulk , that was more vigorous than a rough Diamond I have , which is the same that I formerly mentioned to have moved a Needle above three minutes after I had ceased to chase it . And this brings into my mind , that it has been observed , that Diamonds draw better whilst rough , than they do after they are cut and polish'd ; which seeming to contradict what has been observed by others and by us also , that Amber , for instance , attracts more vigorously if the surface be made very smooth than otherwise , it induces me to conjecture , that , if this Observation about Diamonds be true , as some of my trials have now and then inclined me to think it , and if it do not in some cases considerably depend upon the loss of the ( Electrical ) Substance of the Stone , by its being cut and ground , the Reason may possibly be , that the great rapidness with which the Wheels that serve to cut and polish Diamonds must be mov'd , does excite a great degree of heat , ( which the senses may easily discover ) in the Stone , and by that and the strong concussion it makes of its parts , may force it to spend its effluviable matter , if I may so call it , so plentifully , that the Stone may be impoverish'd , and perhaps also , on the account of some little change in its Texture , be rendred lesse disposed to emit those effluvia that are Instruments of Electrical Attraction . But as I willingly leave the matter of Fact to further Trial , so I do the Cause of it , in case it prove true , to farther Inquiry . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A28980-e280 † See Tracts about Cosmical Qualities , &c. to which is prefixt an Introduction to the History of Particular Qualities ; Printed at Oxford 1●●1 . Notes for div A28980-e2220 * * See more of this in the Preamble . * * Divers of the Phaenomena , &c. of this Experiment were afterwards printed Numb . 15. of the Ph. Transact . * * Beniven . cap. 56. Abditorum apud Schenk . Lib. 7. de venen . Observ. 24. Cent. 6. Observ. Notes for div A28980-e3220 EXPER. I. EXPER. II. EXPER. III. EXPER. IV. Notes for div A28980-e6760 See in the Paper of Tasts , Exper. XII . Notes for div A28980-e14910 * * This refers to an Essay of the Authors about the Usefulness of Chymistry to , &c. Notes for div A28980-e16700 See the beginning of the first Section . Notes for div A28980-e19620 EXPER. I. EXPER. II. EXPER. III. EXPER. VI. EXPER. IX . EXPER. X. EXPER. XI . * * Relating to the Magnetism of the Earth . EXPER. XIV . Notes for div A28980-e20490 Princip . part 4. Art. 184. * * Some years after the making the Experiments about the Production of Electricity , having a desire to try , whether in the Attractions made by Amber , the motions excited by the air had a considerable Interest , or whether the Effect were not due rather to the Emission and Retraction of Effluvia , which being of a viscous nature may consist of Particles either branch'd or hookt , or otherwise fit for some kind of Cohesion , and capable of being stretch'd , and of shrinking again , as Leather Thongs are : To examine this , I say , I thought the fittest way , if 't were practicable , would be , to try , whether Amber would draw a light Body in a Glass whence the air was pumpt out . And though the Trial of this seem'd very difficult to make , and we were somewhat discouraged by our first attempt , wherein the weight of the ambient air broke our Receiver , which chanced to prove too weak , when the internal air had been with extraordinary diligence pumpt out ; yet having a vigorous piece of Amber , which I had caus'd to be purposely turn'd and polish'd . for Electrical Experiments , I afterwards repeated the Trial , and found , that in warm Weather it would retain a manifest power of attracting for several minutes ( for it stirred a pois'd Needle after above ¼ of an hour ) after we had done rubbing it . Upon which encouragement we suspended it , being first well chafed , in a Glass Receiver that was not great , just over a light Body ; and making haste with our Air-Pump to exhaust the Glass , when the Air was withdrawn , we did by a Contrivance let down the suspended Amber till it came very near the Straw or Feather , and perceived , as we expected , that in some Trials , upon the least Contact it would lift it up ; and in others , for we repeated the Experiment , the Amber would raise it without touching it , that is , would attract it . 
A29017	----	The origine of formes and qualities, (according to the corpuscular philosophy) illustrated by considerations and experiments (written formerly by way of notes upon an essay about nitre) by ... Robert Boyle ... Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1666 Approx. 458 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 232 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2008-09 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A29017 Wing B4014 ESTC R18303 12868950 ocm 12868950 94784 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A29017) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 94784) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 731:11) The origine of formes and qualities, (according to the corpuscular philosophy) illustrated by considerations and experiments (written formerly by way of notes upon an essay about nitre) by ... Robert Boyle ... Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. [24], 269, [5], 271-433, [1] p. Printed by H. Hall ..., for Ric. Davis, Oxford [Oxfordshire] : 1666. Errata: p. [1] at end. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Matter -- Constitution -- Early works to 1800. Light, Corpuscular theory of -- Early works to 1800. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-12 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2007-05 Robyn Anspach Sampled and proofread 2007-05 Robyn Anspach Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE ORIGINE OF FORMES and QUALITIES , ( According to the Corpuscular Philosophy , ) Illustrated by Considerations and EXPERIMENTS , ( Written formerly by way of Notes upon an Essay about NITRE ) By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE , Fellow of the Royal Society . Audendum est , & Veritas investiganda ; quam etiamsi non assequamur , omnino tamen propiùs , quàm nunc sumus , ad eam perveniemus . Galen . OXFORD , Printed by H. HALL Printer to the University , for RIC : DAVIS . An. Dom. MDCLXVI . Novemb. 2. 1665. Imprimatur ROBERTVS SAY , VICECANCELLARIUS OXON . The Publisher to the Ingenious Reader . IN this curious and inquisitive Age , when men , altogether dissatisfied and wearied out with the wranglings and idle speculations of the Schools , are with equal zeal and industry so earnest in their quest and pursuit of a more solid , rational , and useful Philosophy , it may prove a work very obliging and meritorious to help and guide them in their studies and researches , and to hang out a Light to them , ( as the Aegyptians used to do from their highly celebrated Pharos , for direction to the Mariners , that sailed in those dangerous Seas n●er Alexandria ▪ ) whereby they may , with better success , steer their course through the vast Ocean of Learning , and make more full and perfect Discoveries of hitherto unknown Philosophical verities : which has been the chief Design of this Gentleman of Honour , the most excellent and Incomparable Author in this Treatise now presented to your view , wherein Principles are not ( as was the mode and guize of former times ) obtruded on the World upon the account of a Great Name , or involved in cloudy and mystical Notions , which put the Vnderstanding upon the Wrack , and yet when with all this labour and toile of the Brain they are at last known , prove impertinent and uselesse to the making out with satisfaction , or so much as tolerably , the ordinary Phaenomena , which Nature every day presents the world with , but such as are built upon the firme and immoveable foundation of Reason , Sense , and Experience , plain and obvious as well to the Eye as the Vnderstanding , and no less accurate and certain in their Application . And though the most noble Author hath herein , for the main , espoused the Atomical Philosophy ( corrected and purged from the wild fancies and extravagancies of the first Inventours of it , as to the Origine of the Universe , and still ●mbraced with so much kindness and tenderness by some Pretenders , against which He hath so Learnedly disputed in his first part Of the Usefulness of Experimental Philosophy , p. 74. &c. ) in explicating the Appearances ; yet considering the several Alterations and Additions ( the happy product of his penetrating judgment ) made therein , I may not scruple to call it a New Hypothesis , peculiar to the Author , made out by daily Observations , familiar Proofs and Experiments , and by exact and easily practicable Chymical processes , whereby one of the most abstruse● parts of Natural Philosophy , the Origine of Forms and Qualities , which so much vexed and puzzled the Antients , and which , I would sp●ak with the leave of the Cartesians , their Ingenious Master durst scarce venture upon , or at least was unwilling to handle at large , is now fully cleared , and become manifest : so that from this very Essay we may well take hope , and joyfully expect to see the noble Project of the famous ●ERULAM ( hitherto reckond among the Desiderata ) receive its full and perfect Accomplishment , I mean , a real , useful , and experimental Physiology established and bottomed upon easie , true , and generally received Principles . But I shall not forestall thy judgment either about the Excell nay of the Author , or his Subject , who hath so freely communicated to the World those treasures of Learning , wherewith his Mind is enriched , but shall soon refer you to the Work it self , after I have given you these few Advertisements . The following Discourse ( as is easily perceivable by divers Passages thereof ) being written , several years since , whole and entire , as now it is , I know not whether it will be worth while to intimate , that the Author , casually turning over of late a very recent Chymical Writer , found in one of his Treatises ( divers of which he never to this day read over ) a part of the Fifth Experiment of the second Section ; but , as He professes , ( and sure is like to be believed , she did not dream that That Chymist , or any other Author whatsoever had lighted on that part of the Experiment till a good while after he had made and examined That , among many others , concerning Salts , as may be easily guess'd by the peculiar uses and applications He made of it . And though He had met with so unlikely an Experiment in a Writer , who , whether he deserve it or no , has the ill fortune to be much accus'd of Insincerity , and some of whose more easie processes our Author ( who yet is willing to spare his Name , and seems to think his works not useless ) could not find to succeed , He should not have taken it upon his Authority , no more then he is wont to take other Processes , divers of which He yet in the general supposes may be true upon the relation of other Chymists ; who by blemishing their Books by things untrue and justly suspicious , are not to be relyed on , nor much thanked by wary men . But t will probably appear lesse pertinent to adde any thing further on this subject , then to take notice , that when the Author had once consented to the Publication of the following Papers , He several times wishd for an Opportunity to make the Experiments and Observations , He now presents to the Publick , more full and compleat , then they were when address'd to a private Friend . But the Contagion , that drove him from the Places , where his Accommodations for repeating Experiments were , oblig'd Him to apply Himself to other Studies and Employments . And upon the same account , though he afterwards found many of his Notes upon other parts of the Essay of Salt-petre , and have lying by him divers Papers concerning Sensible Qualities , and Sensation in general , and the Production of Second Qualities , together with a collection of Notes about Occult Qualities , and some other Subjects of kin to those of this Book ; yet having , upon the freshly intimated Occasion , diverted his Thoughts to other Subjects , He will not engage himself to put together and communicate his Collections on these Subjects by any Publick promise . Onely thus much perchance I may undertake for , if a fair Opportunity offer it self , that the Author may be induc'd to adde ere long , for the completion of this present Work , a Discourse of Subordinate ●orms , wherein He , not finding that they have been by any one attempted to be explicated by the Corpuscularian Hypothesis , hath proposed an Account of them agreeable thereunto . Furthermore , as the Author has in the following Disquisitions aim'd not at the raising or abetting a Faction in Philosophy , but at the Discovery of the Truth ; so he is not so sollicitous what every sort of Read●r will think of his Attempts , ( which t is easie to foresee are not like to be overwelcome to the Votaries of the School Philosophy ) as to refuse a Compliance with the desires of his Friends , who have been long since very earnest with him not to spend that time in Replies to particular Persons , which might be more usefully imploy'd in pursuing further Discoveries of Nature by Experiments . If he meet with any cogent and material Objections against any of his chief Opinions , He is enough a Lover of Truth , to be dispos'd to think himself oblig'd by those that shall shew him his Mistakes , and to take occasion to reforme them . But if nothing new or weighty be urg d , He considers , that he lives in an Age , wherein he has observ'd ( even in his Own case ) that Truths , if recommended by real Experiments , will in time make their own way , and wherein livestore of Ingenious Men , who , for the main , approve the Opinions , and probably will not dislike the Arguments he has propos'd , and who being more at leisure then He to write Polemical Books , will not silently suffer what they judge Truth , to be triumph'd over , or oppressd by those , who , imploying usually but Scholastical Arguments , may be confuted by Answers of the like nature . And th●refore He doubts not , but that s●me Learned Favourers of the Corpuscularian Philosophy ( of which he hath endeavour'd to make out those parts , wherein they almost all agree will be both able and willing to defend those Discoveries by rational Di●putations , that th●y have not Opportunity to increase by New Experiments . In the mean while I have no Temptation to doubt in the last , but that this curious and excellent Piece will be entertained and received by all that have any regard to the great concerns of Learning with that gust , delight , respect , and aestimation which it so highly m●rits . The following Treatise being printed in the absence of the Honourable Author , th●re has hapned ( through the misplacing of the several Bundles w●t apart fairly for the Press ) ● Dislocation at the 107. page , ( as is there also intimated ) where the first Section of the Historical part is placed , which should not have come in till p. 269. after the discourse of FORMS . The Praeface . THe Origine ( Pyrophilus ) and Nature of the Qualities of Bodies , is a Subject , that I have long lookt upon , as one of the most Important and Usefull that the Naturalist can pitch upon for his Contemplation . For the Knowledge we have of the Bodies without Us , being for the Most part fetched from the Informations the Mind receives by the Senses , we scarce know any thing else in Bodies , upon whose account they can worke upon our Senses save their Qualities : For as to the Substantial Formes , which some Imagine to be in all Naturall Bodies , it is not halfe so Evident , that there are such , as it is , that the wisest of those that do admit them , Confesse , that they do not well Know them . * And as t is by their Qualities , that Bodies act Immediately upon our Senses , so 't is by vertue of those Attributes likewise , that they act upon Other bodies , & by that action produce in Them , & oftentimes in Themselves those Changes , that sometimes we call Alterations , and sometimes Generation , or Corruption . And 't is chiefly by the Knowledge , such as it is , that Experience , ( not Art ) hath taught Us , of these differing Qualities of Bodies , that we are enabled , by a due application of Agents to Patients , to exercise the little Empire , that we have either Acquir'd or Regain'd over the Creatures . But I think not the contemplation of Qualities more Noble & Useful , then I find it Difficult ; For what is wont to be taught us of Qualities in the Schools , is so Slight and ill grounded , that it may be doubted , whether they have not rather Obscured , then Illustrated the things they should have explain'd . And I was quickly discouraged from expecting to learne much from them , of the Nature ● divers Particular Qualities , when I found that except some few , which they tell You i● General may be deduced , ( by wayes they leave those to guesse at that can , ) from those foure Qualities , they are pleas'd to call the First ; they confesse , that the rest spring from those Forms of Bodies , whose particular Natures , the judiciousest of them acknowledge , they cannot comprehend . And Aristotle himself not only doth ( as we shall see anon ) give us of Qualitie in Generall , ( which yet seems far more easily defineable , then many a Particular Quality , ) no other then such a definition , as is as Obscure , as the thing to be declared by it ; but I Observe not without some wonder , that in his eight Books of Physicks , where he professedly treats of the Generall Affections of Naturall things , he leaves out the Doctrine of Qualities ; as after him Magirus , and divers other Writers of the Peripatetick Physiologie have done : which ( by the way ) I cannot but look upon as an Omission , since Qualities doe as well seem to belong to Naturall Bodies Generally consider'd , as Place , Time , Motion , and those other things , which upon that account are wont to be Treated of in the Generall part of Natural Philosophy . The most Ingenious Des Cartes has something concerning some Qualities ; but though for Reasons elsewhere express●d , I have purposely Forborn to peruse his Systeme of Philosophy ; yet I find by Turning over the Leaves that he has Left most of the other Qualities Vntreated of , & of Those , that are more properly call'd Sensible , he Speaks but very Briefly & Generally ; rather considering what they do upon the Organs of Sense , then what Changes happen in the Objects themselves , to make them Cause in us a Perception sometimes of one Quality , and sometimes of Another . Besides , that his Explications , do many of them so depend upon His peculiar Notions , ( of a Materia Subtilis , Globuli Secundi Elementi , and the like ) and These as it became so Great a Person , he has so Interwoven with the rest of his Hypothesis , that They can seldome be made Vse of without Adopting his whole Philosophy Epicurus indeed , and his Scholiast Lucretius , have Given some good Hints concerning the Nature of some few Qualities . But beside , that even these Explications are divers of them either Doubtfull or Imperfect , or both , there are many other Qualities , which are left for Others to Treat of . And this is the Second and Maine Difficulty , which I find in investigating the Nature of Qualities , Namely , that Whatever be to be thought of the Generall Theoryes of Aristotle , or other Philosophers , concerning Qualities ; we evidently Want That , upon which a Theory , to be Solid and Vsefull , must be Built ; I mean an Experimentall History of them . And this we so Want , that except perhaps what Mathematicians have done concerning Sounds , and the Observations ( rather then Experiments ) that our Illustrious Verulam hath ( in some few Pages ) say'd of Heat , in his short Essay , De Formâ Calidi ; I know not Any one Quality , of which any Author has yet Given us an any thing competent History . These things I mention to You , Pyrophilus , not at all to derogate from those Great Men ; whose design seems rather to have been to deliver Principles and Summaries of Philosophy , then to insist upon Particulars ; but for this purpose , that since the Nature of Qualities is so beneficiall a speculation , my labours may not be look'd upon as wholly Uselesse , though I can contribute but a little to the clearing of it : and that since 't is so abstruse a subject , I may be pardon'd , if I sometimes misse the marke , and leave diverse things uncompleated ; That being but what such great Philosophers have done before mee . But , Pyrophylus , before I proceed to give You my Notes upon this part of our Author's Essay , that you may rightly understand my Intention in them , it will be requisite to give you three or foure Advertisements . And first , when ever I shall speake indefinitely of Substantiall forms , I would alwayes be understood to except the Reasonable Soule , that is said to inform the humane Body ; which Declaration I here desire may be taken notice of , once for all . Secondly , Nor am I willing to treat of the Origine of Qualities in beasts ; partly because I would not be engaged to examine , of what Nature their Soules are , and partly because it is difficult in most cases , ( at least for one , that is compassionate enough , ) either to make experiments upon Living animals , or to judg what influence their Life may have , upon the change of Qualities , produc'd by such Experiments . Thirdly , The occasion of the following Reflections , being onely this ; that our Author in that part of his Essay concerning Salt-peter , whereto these Notes referre , does briefly Intimate some Notions about the Nature and Origine of Qualities ; You must not exspect , that I , whose Method leads me but to Write some Notes upon this , and some other parts of this Essay , should make Solemne or Elaborate discourses concerning the Nature of particular Qualities , and that I should fully deliver my own apprehensions concerning those Subjects . For as I elsewhere sufficiently Intimate , that in these first Notes I Write as a Corpuscularian , & set down those Things onely , that seem to have a tendency to Illustrate or Countenance the Notions or Fancies imply'd in our Author's Essay : So I must here Tell you , that I neither have now the Leasure , nor Pretend to the Skill , to deliver Fully the History or to Explicate Particularly the Nature of Each several Quality . Fourthly , But I consider , that the Schools have of late much Amus'd the World , with a way they have got , of Referring all Naturall Effects to certain Entities , that they call Reall Qualities , and accordingly Attribute to them a Nature distinct from the Modification of the Matter they belong to , & in some cases Separable from all Matter whatsoever , by which Meanes they have , as farre forth as their Doctrine is Acquiesc'd in , made it thought Needlesse or Hopeless for men to Employ their Industry , in searching into the Nature of Particular Qualities , & their Effects . As if , ( for Instance ) it be Demanded , how Snow comes to dazle the Eyes , they will answer , that 't is by a Quality of Whiteness that is in It ; which makes all very white Bodies produce the same Effect ; And if You , ask what this Whiteness is , They will tell you no more in substance , then that t is a reall Entity , which denominates the Parcel of Matter , to which it is Joyn'd , White ; & if You further Enquire , what this real Entity , which They call a Quality , is , You will find , as Wee shall see anon , that They either Speak of it much after the same rate , that They do of their Substantiall Forms ; ( as indeed some of the Modern'st teach , That a Quality affects the Matter it belongs to , per modum formae secundariae , as they speak ) or at least they will not Explicate it more Intelligibly . And accordingly if you further Ask them , how white Bodies in Generall do rather Produce this effect of dazling the Eyes , then Green or Blew ones , instead of being told , that the former sort of Bodies reflect Outwards , and so to the Eye farre more of the Incident Light , then the Latter ; You shall perchance be told , that 't is their respective Natures so to act , by which way of dispatching difficulties , they make it very easy to solve All the Phoenomena of Nature in Generall , but make men think it impossible to explicate almost Any of them in Particular . And though the Unsatisfactorisness and Barrennesse of the School . Philosophy have perswaded a great many Learned Men , especially Physicians , to substitute the Chymists Three principles , instead of those of the Schools ; and though I have a very good opinion of Chymistry it self , as 't is a Practical Art ; yet as 't is by Chymists pretended to containe a Systeme of Theoricall Principles of Philosophy , I fear it will afford but very little satisfaction to a severe enquirer , into the Nature of Qualities . For besides that , as we shall more particularly see anon , there are Many Qualities , which cannot with any probability be deduc'd from Any of the three Principles ; those that are ascrib'd to One , or other of them , cannot Intelligibly be explicated , without recourse to the more Comprehensive Principles of the Corpuscularian Philosophy . To tell us , for instance , that all Solidity proceeds from Salt , onely informing us , ( where it can plausibly be pretended ) in what materiall principle or ingredient that Quality resides , not how it is produced ; for this doth not teach us , ( for example ) how Water even in exactly clos'd vessels comes to be frozen into Ice ; that is , turn'd from a fluid to a Solid Body , without the accession of a saline ingredient ( which I have not yet found pretended , especially Glasse being held Impervious to Salts . ) Wherefore , Pyrophilus , I thought it might much conduce to the understanding the Nature of Qualities , To shew how they are Generated ; and by the same way , I hop'd it might remove in some measure the obstacle , that these Dark and Narrow Theories of the Peripateticks and Chymists may prove to the Advancement of solid and usefull Philosophy . That then , which I chiefly aime at , is to make it Probable to you by Experiments , ( which I Think hath not yet beene done : ) That allmost all sorts of Qualities , most of which have been by the Schooles either left Unexplicated , or Generally referr'd , to I know not what Incomprehensible Substantiall Formes ; may be produced Mechanically , I mean by such Corporeall Agents , as do not appear , either to Work otherwise , then by vertue of the Motion , Size , Figure , and Contrivance of their own Parts , ( which Attributes I call the Mechanicall Affections of Matter , because to Them men willingly Referre the various Operations of Mechanical Engines : ) or to Produce the new Qualities exhibited by those Bodies their Action changes , by any other way , then by changing the Texture , or Motion , or some other Mechanical Affection of the Body wrought upon . And this if I can in any Passable measure do , though but in a generall way , in some or other of each of these Three Sorts , into which the Peripateticks are wont to Divide the Qualities of Bodies , I hope I shall have done no uselesse Piece of Service to Natural Philosophy , Partly by exciting You , and Your Learned Friends , to Enquire after more Intelligible and Satisfactory wayes of explicating Qualities , and Partly by Beginning such a Collection of Materials towards the History of those Qualities , that I shall the most largely Insist on , as Heat , Colours , Fluidity and Firmnesse , as may invite You , and other Ingenious ●en , to contribute also their Experiments , and Observations to so Usefull a VVork , and thereby lay a foundation , whereon You , and perhaps I , may superstruct a more Distinct and Explicite Theory of Qualities , then I shall at present adventure at . And though I Know , that some of the things my Experiments tend to Manifest , may likewise be Confirm'd by the more obvious Phaenomena of Nature , yet I Praesume You will not dislike my Chosing to entertaine You with the Former , ( though without at all Despising , or so much as strictly forbearing to Employ the Latter , ) because the Changes of Qualities made by Our Experiments will for the most part be more Quick & Conspicuous , and the agents made use of to produce them , being of our own Applying , and oftentimes of our own Praeparation , we may be thereby assisted the better to judge of what they Are , and to make an aestimate of what 't is they Do. CONSIDERATIONS , AND EXPERIMENTS touching the Origine of Qualities , and Forms . The Theoricall Part. THat before I descend to Particulars , I may ( Pyrophilus ) furnish you with some General Apprehension of the Doctrine ( or rather the Hypothesis , ) which is to be Collated with , and to be either Confirmed , or Disproved by , the Historicall Truths , that will be deliver'd concerning Particular Qualities , ( & Forms ; ) I will assume the person of a Corpuscularian , and here , at the Entrance , give you ( in a general way ) a brief Account of the Hypothesis it selfe , as it concernes the Origine of Qualities ( and Forms : ) and for Distinctions sake , I shall comprize it in the Eight following Particulars , which , that the whole Scheme may be the better Comprehended , and as it were Survey'd under one Prospect , I shall do little more then Barely propose Them , that either seem evident enough by their owne Light , or may without Praejudice have diverse of their Proofes reserv'd for proper places in the following part of this Treatise : and though there be some Other Particulars , to which the Importance of the Subjects , and the Greatnesse of the ( almost Universall ) Prejudices , that lye against them , vvill oblige mee Immediately to annexe ( for the seasonable Clearing , and Justifying of them ) some Annotations : yet that they may , as Little as I can , Obscure the Cohaerence of the vvhole Discourse , as much of them as conveniently may be , shall be included in [ ] Paratheses . I. I agree with the generality of Philosophers so far , as to allow , that there is one Catholick or Universal Matter common to all Bodies , by which I mean a Substance extended , divisible and impenetrable . II. But because this Matter being in its own Nature but one , the diversity we see in Bodies must necessarily arise from somewhat else , then the Matter they consist of . And since we see not , how there could be any change in Matter , if all its ( actual or designable ) parts were perpetually at rest among themselves , it will follow , that to discriminate the Catholick Matter into variety of Natural Bodies , it must have Motion in some or all its designable Parts : and that Motion must have various tendencies , that which is in this part of the Matter tending one way , and that which is in that part tending another ; as we plainly see in the Universe or general Mass of Matter there is really a great quantity of Motion , and that variously determin'd , and that yet diverse portions of Matter are at rest . That there is Local Motion in many parts of Matter is manifest to sense , but how Matter came by this Motion was of Old , and is still hotly disputed of : for the antient Corpuscularian Philosophers , ( whose doctrine in most other points , though not in all , we are the most inclinable to , ) not acknowledging an Author of the Universe , were thereby reduc'd to make Motion congenite to Matter , and consequently coëval with it ; but since Local Motion , or an Endeavour at it , is not included in the nature of Matter , which is as much Matter , when it rests , as when it moves ; and since we see , that the same portion of Matter may from Motion be reduc'd to Rest , and after it hath continu'd at Rest , as long as other Bodies doe not put it out of that state , may by external Agents be set a moving again ; I , who am not wont to think a man the worse Naturalist for not being an Atheist , shall not scruple to say with an Eminent Philosopher of Old , whom I find to have propos'd among the Greeks that Opinion ( for the main ) that the Excellent Des Cartes hath revived amongst Us , That the Origine of Motion in Matter is from God ; and not onely so , but that thinking it very unfit to be believ'd , that Matter barely put into Motion , and then left to it self , should Casually constitute this beautiful and orderly World : I think also further , that the wise Author of Things did by establishing the laws of Motion among Bodies , and by guiding the first Motions of the small parts of Matter , bring them to convene after the manner requisite to compose the World , and especially did contrive those curious and elaborate Engines , the bodies of living Creatures , endowing most of them with a power of propagating their Species . But though these things are my Perswasions , yet because they are not necessary to be suppos'd here , where I doe not pretend to deliver any compleat Discourse of the Principles of Natural Philophy , but onely to touch upon such Notions , as are requisite to explicate the Origine of Qualities and Forms , I shall pass on to what remains , as soon as I have taken notice , that Local Motion seems to be indeed the Principl amongst Second Causes , and the Grand Agent of all that happens in Nature : For though Bulk , Figure , Rest , Situation , and Texture do concurre to the Phaenomena of Nature , yet in comparison of Motion they seem to be in many Cases , Effects , and in many others , little better then Conditions , or Requisites , or Causes sine quibus non , which modifie the operation , that one part of Matter by vertue of its Motion hath upon another : as in a Watch , the number , the figure , and coaptation of the Wheels and other parts is requisite to the shewing the hour , and doing the other things that may be perform'd by the Watch ; but till these parts be actually put into Motion , all their other affections remaine inefficacious : and so in a Key , though if it were too big , or too little , or if its Shape were incongruous to that of the cavity of the Lock , it would be unfit to be us'd as a Key , though it were put into Motion ; yet let its bigness and figure be never so fit , unless actual Motion intervene , it will never lock or unlock any thing , as without the like actual Motion , neither a Knife nor Rasor will actually cut , how much soever their shape & other Qualities may ●it them to do so . And so Brimstone , what disposition of Parts soever it have to be turn'd into Flame , would never be kindled , unless some actual fire , or other parcel of vehemently and variously agitated Matter should put the Sulphureous Corpuscles into a very brisk motion . III. These two grand and most Catholick Principles of Bodies , Matter , and Motion , being thus establish'd , it will follow both , that Matter must be actually divided into Parts , that being the genuine Effect of variously determin'd Motion , and that each of the primitive Fragments , or other distinct and entire Masses of Matter must have two Attributes , it s own Magnitude , or rather Size , and its own Figure or Shape . And since Experience shews us ( especially that which is afforded us by Chymical Operations , in many of which Matter is divided into Parts , too small to be singly sensible , ) that this division of Matter is frequently made into insensible Corpuscles or Particles , we may conclude , that the minutest fragments , as well as the biggest Masses of the Universal Matter are likewise endowed each with its peculiar Bulk and Shape . For being a finite Body , its Dimensions must be terminated and measurable : and though it may change its Figure , yet for the same reason it must necessarily have some Figure or other . So that now we have found out , and must admit three Essential Properties of each entire or undivided , though insensible part of Matter , namely , Magnitude , ( by which I mean not quantity in general , but a determin'd quantity , which we in English oftentimes call the Size of a bodie , ) Shape , and either Motion or Rest , ( for betwixt them two there is no mean : ) the two first of which may be called inseparable Accidents of each distinct part of Matter : inseparable , because being extended , and yet finite , it is Physically impossible , that it should be devoid of some Bulk or other , and som determinate Shape or other ; and yet Accidents , because that whether or no the Shape can by Physical Agents be alter'd or the Body subdivided , yet mentally both the one and the other may be done , the whole essence of Matter remaining undestroy'd . Whether these Accidents may not conveniently enough be call'd the Moods or primary affections of Bodies , to distinguish them from those lesse simple Qualities , ( as Colours , Tastes , and Odours , ) that belong to Bodies upon their account , or whether with the Epicureans they may not be called the Conjuncts of the smallest parts of Matter , I shall not now stay to consider , but one thing the Modern Schools are wont to teach concerning Accidents , which is too repugnant to our present Doctrine , to be in this place quite omitted , namely that there are in Natural Bodies store of real Qualities , and other real Accidents , which not onely are no Moods of Matter , but are real Entities distinct from it , and according to the doctrine of many modern Schoolmen may exist separate from all Matter whatsoever . To clear this point a little , we must take notice , that Accident is among Logicians and Philosophers us'd in two several senses , for sometimes it is oppos'd to the 4th Praedicable , ( Property , ) and is then defin'd , " that which may be present or absent , without the destruction of the subject ; as a Man may be sick or well , and a Wall white or not white , and yet the one be still a Man , the other a Wall ; and this is call'd in the Schools Accidens praedicabile , to distinguish it from what they call Accidens praedicamentale , which is oppos'd to Substance : for when things are divided by Logicians into 10 Praedicaments , or highest genus●es of things , Substance making one of them , all the nine other are of Accidents . And as Substance is commonly defin'd to be a thing that subsists of it self , and is the subject of Accidents , ( or more plainly , a real Entity or thing , that needs not any ( created ) Being , that it may exist : ) so an Accident is said commonly to be id cujus esse est inesse , and therefore Aristotle , who usually calls Substances simply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Entities , most commonly calls Accidents 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Entities of Entities . These needing the existence of some substance or other , in which they may be , as in their subject of Inhaesion . And because Logicians make it the discriminating note of Substance , and Accident , that the former is a thing that cannot be in another , as in its subject of Inhaesion , t is requisite to know , that according to them , That is said to Be in a Subject , which hath these three conditions , That however it ( 1 ) be in another thing , ( 2 ) is not in it as a part , and ( 3 ) cannot exist separately from the thing or subject , wherein it is : as a white Wall is the subject of Inhaesion of the Whiteness we see in it , which self-same whiteness though it be not in the wall as a part of it , yet cannot the self-same whiteness according to our Logicians exist any where out of the wall , though many other Bodies may have the like degree of whiteness . This premis'd , t will not be hard to discover the falsity of the lately mentioned Scholastick opinion touching real Qualities and Accidents , their doctrine about which does , I confess , appear to me to be either unintelligible , or manifestly contradictious : for speaking in a Physical sense , if they will not allow these Accidents to be Modes of Matter , but Entities really distinct from it , and in some cases separable from all Matter , they make them indeed Accidents in name , but represent them under such a notion as belongs onely to Substances ; the nature of a Substance consisting in this , That it can subsist of it selfe , without being in any thing else , as in a subject of Inhaesion : so that to tell us , that a Quality , or other Accident may subsist without a subject , is indeed , whatever they please to call it , to allow it the true Nature of Substance , nor will their Groundlesse Distinctions do any more then keep them from seeming to contradict themselves in words , whilst Unprepossess'd persons see that they do it in effect . Nor could I ever find it intelligibly made out , what these real Qualities may be , that they deny to be either Matter or modes of Matter , or immaterial Substances . When a Bowl runs along or lies still , that Motion or Rest , or Globous figure of the Bowl , is not Nothing , and yet it is not any part of the Bowl ; whose whole Substance would remain , though it wanted which you please of these Accidents : and to make them real and physical Entities , ( for we have not here to do either with Logical or Metaphysical ones ) is , as if , because we may consider the same Man sitting , standing , running , thirsty , hungrie , wearie , &c. we should make each of these a distinct Entitie , as we do give some of them ( as hunger , weariness , &c. ) distinct names . Whereas the subject of all these Qualities is but the same Man as he is considered with Circumstances , that make him appear different in one case from what he appears in another : And it may be very useful to our present Scope to observe , that not onely diversity of Names , but even diversity of Definitions , doth not alwaies infer a diversity of Physical Entities in the Subject , whereunto they are attributed . For it happens in many of the Physical Attributes of a Body , as in those Other cases , wherein a Man that is a Father , a Husband , a Master , a Prince , &c. may have a Peculiar Definition ( such as the Nature of the thing will bear ) belong unto him in each of these Capacities , and yet the Man in himself considered is but the same Man , who in respect of differing Capacities or Relations to other things is call'd by differing Names , and describ'd by various Definitions , which yet ( as I was saying ) conclude not so many real and distinct Entities in the person so variously denominated . An EXCVRSION about the Relative Nature of Physical Qualities . BUt because I take this Notion to be of no Small Importance towards the Avoiding of the Grand Mistake , that hath hitherto obtain'd about the Nature of Qualities , it will be worth while to Illustrate it a little farther . We may consider then , that when Tubal-Cain , or whoever else were the Smith , that Invented Locks and Keyes , had made his first Lock , ( for we may Reasonably suppose him to have made that before the Key , though the Comparison may be made use of without that Supposition , ) That was onely a Piece of Iron , contriv'd into such a Shape ; and when afterwards he made a Key to that Lock , That also in it self Consider'd , was nothing but a Piece of Iron of such a Determinate Figure : but in Regard that these two Pieces of Iron might now be Applied to one another after a Certain manner , and that there was a Congruitie betwixt the Wards of the Lock and those of the Key , the Lock and the Key did each of them now Obtain a new Capacity and it became a Main part of the Notion and Description of a Lock , that it was capable of being made to Lock or Unlock by that other Piece of Iron we call a Key , and it was Lookd upon as a Peculiar Faculty and Power in the Key , that it was Fitted to Open and Shut the Lock , and yet by these new Attributes there was not added any Real or Physical Entity , either to the Lock , or to the Key , each of them remaining indeed nothing , but the same Piece of Iron , just so Shap'd as it was before . And when our Smith made other Keyes of differing Bignesses , or with Differing Wards , though the first Lock was not to be open'd by any of those Keyes , yet that Indisposition , however it might be Consider'd as a peculiar Power of Resisisting this or that Key , and might serve to Discriminate it sufficiently from the Locks those Keyes belong'd to , was nothing new in the Lock , or distinct from the Figure it had before those Keyes were made . To carrie this Comparison a little Further , let me adde , that though one that would have Defin'd the First Lock , and the First Key , would have Given them distinct Definitions with Reference to each other ; and yet ( as I was saying ) these Definitions being given but upon the Score o● Certain Respects , which the Defin'd Bodies had One to Another , would no● infer , that these two Iron Instruments did Physically differ otherwise then in the Figure , Size , or Contrivement of the Iron , whereof each of them consisted . And proportionably hereunto I do not see , why we may not conceive , That as to those Qualities ( for Instance ) which we call Sensible , though by virtue of a certain Congruity or Incongruity in point of Figure or Texture , ( or other Mechanical Attributes , ) to our Sensories , the Portions of Matter they Modifie are enabled to produce various Effects , upon whose account we make Bodies to be Endow'd with Qualities ; yet They are not in the Bodies that are Endow'd with them any Real or Distinct Entities , or differing from the Matter its self , furnish'd with such a Determinate Bigness , Shape , or other Mechanical Modifications . Thus though the modern Gold-Smiths and Refiners reckon amongst the most distinguishing Qualities of Gold , by which men may be certain of its being True and not Sophisticated , that is easily dissoluble in Aqua Regis , and that Aqua Fortis will not work upon it ; yet these Attributes are not in the Gold any thing distinct from its peculiar Texture , not is the Gold we have now of any other Nature , then it was in Pliny's time , when Aqua Fortis and Aqua Regis had not been Found out , ( at least in these parts of the World , ) and were utterly unknown to the Roman Gold-Smiths And this Example I have the rather pitch'd upon , because it affords me an Opportunity to represent , that , unless we admit the Doctrine I have been Proposing , we must Admit , that a Body may have an almost Infinite Number o● New Real Entities accruing to it , without the Intervention of any Physic● Change in the Body its self . As for Example , Gold was the same Natur● Body immediately before Aqua Regi● and Aqua Fortis were first made , as it was immediately after , and yet now 't is reckon'd amongst its Principal Properties , that it is dissoluble by the Former of those two Menstruums , and that it is not like other Mettals Dissoluble or Corrodible by the Latter . And if one should Invent another Menstruum , ( as possibly I may Think my self Master of such a one ) that will but in part dissolve pure Gold , and change some part of it into another Metalline Body , there will then arise another new Property ; whereby to distinguish That from other Mettals ; and yet the Nature of Gold is not a whit other now , then it was before this last Menstruum was first made . There are some Bodies not Cathartick , nor Sudorifick , with some of which Gold being joyn'd acquires a Purgative Vertue , and with others a power to procure Sweat ; and in a word , Nature her self doth , sometimes otherwise , and sometimes by Chance , produce so many things , that have new Relations unto others : And Art , especially assisted by Chymistry , may , by variously dissipating Natural Bodies , or Compounding either them , or their Constituent Parts with one another , make such an Innumerable Company of new Productions , that will each of Them have new operations , either immediately upon our Sensories , or upon other Bodies , whose Changes we are able to perceive , that no man can know , but that the most Familiar Bodies may have Multitudes of Qualities , that he dreams not of , and a Considering man will hardly imagine , that so numerous a Croud of real Physical Entities can accrue to a Body , whilst in the Judgment of all our Senses it remains Unchang'd , and the Same that 't was before . To clear this a little farther , we may adde , that beaten Glass is commonly reckon'd among Poisons ; and ( to skip what is mention'd out of Sanctorius , of the Dysentery procur'd by the Fragments of it ) I remember * Cardan hath a story , That in a Cloister , where he had a Patient then like to die of torments in the Stomach , two other Nuns had been already kill'd by a distracted Woman , that having Casually got Free , had mixt beaten Glass with Pease , that were eaten by these three , and diverse others of the Sisters ( who yet escap'd unharm'd . ) Now though the powers of Poisons be not onely look'd upon as real Qualities , but are reckoned among the Abstrusest ones : yet this Deleterious Faculty , which is suppos'd to be a Peculiar and Superadded Entitie in the beaten Glasse , is really nothing distinct from the Glass its self , ( which though a Concrete made up of those Innocent Ingredients , Salt and Ashes , is yet a hard and stiffe Body , ) as it is furnish'd with that determinate Bigness , and Figure of Parts , which have been acquir'd by Comminution . For these Glassy Fragments being many , and Rigid , and somewhat Small , ( without yet being so small as Dust , ) and endow'd with sharp Points and cutting Edges , are enabled by these Mechanical Affections to Pierce or Wound the tender Membranes of the Stomach and Guts , and cut the slender Vessels that they meet with there , whereby naturally ensue great Gripings and Contorsions of the injur'd Parts , and oftentimes Bloudy Fluxes occasion'd by the perforation of the Capillary Arteries , and the great irritation of the Expulsive Faculty , and sometimes also not onely horrid Convulsions by Consent of the Brain and Cerebellum , with some of the Nervous or Membranous parts that happen to be hurt , but also Dropsies occasioned by the great loss of Bloud we were just now speaking of . And it agrees very well with this Conjecture , that beaten Glass hath diverse times been observ'd to have done no Mischief to Animals that have swallowed it : For there is no Reason it should , in case the Corpuscles of the Powder either chance to be so small , as not to be fit to wound the Guts , which are usually lin'd with a slimy substance , wherein very minute Powders may be as it vvere sheath'd , and by that means hinder'd from hurting the Guts , ( insomuch that a fragment of Glass vvith three very sharp corners , hath been observ'd to have for above eighteen Months lain * inoffensive even in a nervous and very sensible part of the body , ) out of vvhich they may with the grosser Excrements of the Lower Belly be harmelesly Excluded , especially in some Individuals , whose Guts and Stomach too may be of a much stronger Texture , and better Lin'd or Stuff'd with Gross and Slimy Matter , then those of others . And accordingly we see , that the Fragments of Saphires , Christals , and ev'n Rubies , which are much harder then Glass , are innocently , though perhaps not very effectually us'd by Physicians , ( and I have several times taken That without Inconvenience ) in Cordial Compositions , because of their being by Grinding reduc'd to a Powder too Subtle to Excoriate , or Grate upon the Stomach , or Guts ; and probably 't was upon some such Account , that That happen'd which is related by Cardan in the same place , namely , That though the three Nuns we have been speaking of were Poison'd by the Glass , yet many others who eat of the other Portions of the same mingled Pease , receiv'd no mischief thereby . ( But of this subject more † elsewhere . ) And this puts me in mind to adde , That the Multiplicity of Qualities , that are sometimes to be met with in the same Natural Bodies , needs not make men reject the Opinion we have been proposing , by perswading them , that so many Differing Attributes , as may be sometimes found in one and the same Natural Body , cannot proceed from the bare Texture , and other Mechanical Affections of its Matter . For we must consider each Body , not barely as it is in it self an entire and distinct portion of Matter , but as it is a Part of the Universe , and consequently plac'd among a great Number and Variety of other Bodies , upon which it may Act , and by which it may be acted on , in many waies , ( or upon many Accounts , ) each of which Men are wont to Fancy , as a distinct Power or Quality in the Body , by which those Actions , or in which those Passions are produc'd . For if we thus consider Things , we shall not much wonder , that a Portion of Matter , that is indeed endow'd but with a very few Mechanical Affections , as such a determinate Texture and Motion , but is plac'd among a multitude of other Bodies , that differ in those Attributes from it , and one another , should be capable of having a great Number and Variety of Relations to those other Bodies , and consequently should be thought to have many Distinct Inhaerent Qualities , by such as look upon those several Relations or Respects it may have to Bodies without it , as Real and Distinct Entities implanted in the Body it self . When a Curious Watch is going , though the Spring be that which puts all the Parts into Motion , yet we do not Fancie ( as an Indian o● Chinois would perchance do ) in this Spring one Faculty to move the Index uniformely round the Dial-plate , another to strike the Hour , and perhaps a Third to give an Alarme , or shew the Age of the Moon , or the Tides ; all the action of the Spring , ( which is but a flexible piece of Steel , forcibly coil'd together , ) being but an Endeavour to dilate or unbind its self , and the rest being perform'd by the various Respects it hath to the several Bodies ( that compose the Watch ) among which it is plac'd , and which they have One to another . We all know , that the Sun hath a power to Harden Clay , and Soften Wax , and Melt Butter , and Thaw Ice , and turn Water into Vapours , and make Air expand it self in Weather-Glasses , and contribute to Blanch Linnen , and make the White skin of the Face Swarthy , and Mowed Grass Yellow , and ripen Fruit , hatch the Eggs of Silk-worms , Caterpillars , and the like Insects , and perform I know not how many other things , divers of which seen contrary Effects , and yet these are not distinct Powers or Faculties in the Sun but onely the Productions of its Heat ▪ ( which it self is but the brisk , and confus'd Local Motion of the Minute parts of a Body , ) diversify'd by the differing Textures of the Body that it chances to work upon , and the Condition of the other Bodies that are concern'd in the Operation . And therefore whether the Sun in some cases have any Influence at all distinct from its Light and Heat , we see , that all those Phaenomen● we have thought fit to name are producible by the heat of the common Culinary Fire duly apply'd and regulated . And so , to give an Instance of another Kind , when some years since , to Try some Experiments about the Propagation of Motion , with Bodies less capable of being batter'd by one another , then those that have been formerly imploy'd ; I caus'd some solid Bals of Iron skilfully harden'd , and exquisitely shap'd and glaz'd , to be purposely made ; each of these polished Balls was a Sphaerical Looking-Glass , which plac'd in the mid'st of a Room , would exhibit the Images of the Objects round about it , in a very regular and pleasing Perspective . It would Contract the Image , and Reflect the Beams of the Sun , after a manner differing from Flat and from Convex Looking Glasses . It would in a neat Perspective lessen the Image of him that look'd upon it ; and bend it , and it would shew that Image , as if it were behind the Surface , and within the solid substance of the Sphaere , and in some it had all those Distinct , and some of them wonderful Properties , which either Antient or Modern Writers of Catoptricks have demonstrated to belong to Sphaerical Specula , as such : and yet the Globe furnish'd with all these Properties and Affections , was but the Iron it self reduc'd by the Artificer to a Sphaerical Figure , ( for the Glass , that made it Specular , was not distinct from the Superficial parts of the Iron , reduc'd all of them to a Physically equal distance from the Center . ) And of Specula , Sphaerical enough as to sense , you may make store in a trice , by breaking a large Drop of Quick-silver into several little ones , each of which will serve for Objects plac'd pretty near it , and the smaller of which ( being the least depress'd in the middle by the● own weight , and consequently more perfectly Globous , ) may with a goo● Microscope plac'd in a Window affor● you no unpleasant prospect of the neighbouring Objects , and yet to reduce parcel of Stagnant Quicksilver , which will much aemulate a Flat Looking Glass , into many of these little Sphaerical Specula , whose Properties are so differing from those of Plain ones , the● intervenes nothing but a sleight Loc● Motion , which in the twinckling of ● Eye changeth the Figure of the self same Matter . I have said thus much ( Pyrophilus ) to remove the Mistake , That every thing men are wont to call a Quality , must needs be a Real and Physical Entity , because of the Importance of the Subject ; and yet I have omitted some things that might have been pertinently added , partly because I may hereafter have Opportunity to take them in , and partly because I would not any farther lengthen this Excursion , which yet I must not Conclude , till I have added this short Advertisement . That I have chosen to Declare what I mean by Qualities , rather by Examples , then Definitions , partly because being immediately or reductively the Objects of sense , Men generally understand pretty well what one another mean , when they are spoken of : ( As to say , that the Tast of such a thing is Saline or Sowr , or that such a Sound is Melodious , Shrill , or Jarring , ( especially if when we speak of Sensible Qualities , we adde some Enumeration of particular Subjects , wherein they do the most Eminently reside , ) will make a Man as soon understood , as if he should go about to give Logical Definitions of those Qualities : ) and partly because the Notions of things are not yet so well stated , and agreed on , but that it is many times difficult to Assign their true Genus's : and Aristotle himself doth not onely define Accidents without setting down their Genus , but when he comes to define Qualities , he tels us , that Quality is that by which a thing is said to be Qualis , where I would have you take notice both , that in his Definition he omits the Genus , and that 't is no such easy Thing to give a very good Definition of Qualities , since he that is repute● the great Master of Logick , where he pretends to give us one , doth but upo● the matter define the thing by the same thing ; for 't is suppos'd to be as little known what Qualis is , as what Qualitas is , and me thinks he does just as if I should define Whiteness to be that , for which a thing is called White , or Vertue , that for which a Man is said to be Vertuous † . Besides that , I much doubt , whether his Definition be not Untrue as well as Obscure , for to the Question , Qualis res est ? Answer may be return'd out of some , if not all of the other Praedicaments of Accidents : which some of the Modern Logicians being aware of , they have endeavoured to salve the matter with certain Cautions and Limitations , which however they may argue the Devisors to be ingenious , do , for ought I can discern , leave us still to seek for a right and intelligible Definition of Quality in general , though to give such a one be probably a much easier Task , then to define many Qualities , that may be nam'd in particular , as Saltness , Sowrness , Green , Blew , and many others , which when we hear nam'd , every man knows what is meant by them , though no man ( th● I know of ) hath been able to give accurate Definitions of them . IV. And if we should conceive , th● all the rest of the Universe were annihilated , except any of these entire and undivided Corpuscles , ( treated of in the 3d Particular foregoing , ) it is hard to say what could be attributed to it , besides Matter , Motion ( or Rest , ) Bulk , and Shape , ( whence by the way you may take notice , that Bulk , though usually taken in a Comparative sense , is in our sense an absolute Thing , since a Body would have it , though there were no other in the World. ) But now there being actually in the Universe great Multitudes of Corpuscles mingled among themselves , there arise in any distinct portion of Matter , which a number of them make up , two new Accidents or Events : the one doth more relate to each particular Corpuscle in reference to the ( really or supposedly ) stable Bodies about it , namely its Posture ; ( whether Erected , Inclin'd , or Horizontal : ) And , when two or more of such Bodies are plac'd one by anorher , the manner of their being so plac'd , as one besides another , or one behind another , may be call'd their Order ; as I remember , Aristotle in his Metaphysicks , lib. 1. cap. 4. recites this Example out of the antient Corpuscularians , That A and N differ in Figure , and A N and N A in Order , Z and N in Scituation : and indeed Posture and Order seem both of them reducible to Scituation . And when many Corpuscles do so convene together as to compose any distinct Body , as a Stone , or a Mettal , then from their other Accidents ( or Modes , ) and from these two last mention'd , there doth emerge a certain Disposition or Contrivance of Parts in the whole , which we may call the Texture of it . V. And if we should conceive all the rest of the Universe to be annihilated , save one such Body , suppose a Mettal or a Stone , it were hard to shew , tha● there is Physically any thing more in it then Matter , and the Accidents we have already named . But now we are to consider , that there are de facto in the world certain sensible and rational Beings , that we call Men , and the body of Man having several of its external parts , as the Eye , the Ear , &c. each of a distinct and peculiar Texture , whereby it is capable to receive Impressions from the Bodies about it , and upon that account it is call'd an Organ of Sense , we must consider , I say , that these Sensories may be wrought upon by the Figure , Shape , Motion , and Texture of Bodies without them , after several waies , some of those External Bodies being fitted to affect the Eye , others the Ear , others the Nostrils , &c. And to these Operations of the Objects on the Sensories , the Mind of Man , which upon the account of its Union with the Body perceives them , giveth distinct Names , calling the one Light or Colour , the other Sound , the other Odour , &c. And because also each Organ of Sense , as the Eye , or the Palat , may be it self differingly affected by External Objects , the Mind likewise gives the Objects of the same Sense distinct Appellations , calling one colour Green , the other Blew , and one tast Sweet , and another Bitter , &c. Whence Men have been induc'd to frame a long Catalogue of such Things as , for their relating to our Senses , we call Sensible Qualities ; and because we have been conversant with them , before we had the use of Reason , and the Mind of Man is prone to conceive almost every Thing ( nay even Privations , as Blindness , Death , &c. ) under the notion of a true Entitie or Substance as it self is , we have been from our Infancy apt to imagine , that these Sensible Qualities are Real Beings , in the Objects they denominate , and have the faculty or power to work such and such things ; as Gravity hath a power to stop the motion of a Bullet shot upwards , and carry that solid Globe of Matter toward the Center of the Earth , whereas indeed ( according to what we have largely shewn above ) there is in the Body , to which these Sensible Qualities are attributed , nothing of Real and Physical , but the Size , Shape , and Motion , or Rest of its component Particles , together with that Texture of the whole , which results from their being so contriv'd as they are ; nor is it necessary they should have in them any thing more , like to the Ideas they occasion in us , those Ideas being either the Effects of our Praejudices , or Inconsiderateness , or else to be fetcht from the Relation , that happens to be betwixt those Primary Accidents of the Sensible Object , and the peculiar Texture of the Organ it affects ; as when a Pin , being run into my Finger , causeth pain , there is no distinct Quality in the Pin answerable to what I am apt to fancie Pain to be , but the Pin in it self is onely slender , stiff , and sharp , and by those qualities happens to make a Solution of Continuity in my Organ of Touching , upon which , by reason of the Fabrick of the Body , and the intimate Union of the Soul with it , there ariseth that troublesome kind of Perception which we call Pain , and I shall anon more particularly shew , how much that depends upon the peculiar fabrick of the Body . VI. But here I foresee a Difficulty , which being perhaps the chiefest , that we shall meet with against the Corpuscular Hypothesis , it will deserve to be , before we proceed any farther , taken notice of . And it is this , that , whereas we explicate Colours , Odours , and the like sensible Qualities by a relation to our Senses , it seems evident , that they have an absolute Being irrelative to Us ; for , Snow ( for instance ) would be white , and a glowing Coal would be hot , though there were no Man or any other Animal in the World : and 't is plain , that Bodies do not onely by their Qualities work upon Our senses , but upon other , and those , Inanimate Bodies ; as the Coal will not onely heat or burn a Man's hand if he touch it , but would likewise heat Wax , ( even so much as to melt it , and make it slow , ) and thaw Ice into Water , though all the Men , and sensitive Beings in the World were annihilated . To clear this Difficulty , I have several things to represent , and , 1. I say not , that there are no other Accidents in Bodies then Colours , Odours , and the like ; for I have already taught , that there are simpler and more Primitive Affections of Matter , from which these Secondary Qualities , if I may so call them , do depend : and that the Operations of Bodies upon one another spring from the same , we shall see by and by . 2. Nor do I say , that all Qualities of Bodies are directly Sensible ; but I observe , that when one Body works upon another , the knowledg we have of their Operation , proceeds , either from some sensible Quality , or some more Catholick affection of Matter , as Motion , Rest , or Texture , generated or destroy'd in one of them ; for else it is hard to conceive , how we should come to discover what passes betwixt them . 3. We must not look upon every distinct Body , that works upon our Senses , as a bare lump of Matter of that bigness and outward shape , that it appears of ; many of them having their parts curiously contriv'd , and most of them perhaps in motion too . No● must we look upon the Universe that surrounds us , as upon a moveless and undistinguish'd Heap of Matter , but as upon a great Engine , which , having either no Vacuity , or none that is considerable , betwixt its parts ( known to us , ) the actions of particular Bodies upon one another must not be barely aestimated , as if two Portions of Matter of their Bulk and Figure were plac'd in some imaginary Space beyond the World , but as being scituated in the World , constituted as it now is , and consequently as having their action upon each other liable to be promoted , or hindred , or modify'd by the Actions of other Bodies besides them : as in a Clock , a small force apply'd to move the Index to the Figure of 12 , will make the Haromer strike often and forcibly against the Bell , and will make a far greater Commotion among the Wheels and Weights , then a far greater force would do , if the Texture and Contrivance of the Clock did not abundantly contribute to the Production of so great an Effect . And in agitating Water into Froth , the Whiteness would never be produc'd by that Motion , were it not that the Sun , or other Lucid Body , shining upon that Aggregate of small Bubbles , enables them to reflect confusedly great store of little , and as it were contiguous lucid images to the Eye . And so the giving to a large Metalline Speculum a Concave figure , would never enable it to set Wood on fire , and even to melt down Mettals readily , if the Sun beams , that in Cloudless dayes do , as to sense , fill the Air , were not by the help of that Concavity , thrown together to a Point . And to shew You by an eminent Instance , how various and how differing Effects the Same action of a Natural Agent may produce , according to the several Dispositions of the Bodies it works upon , do but consider , that in two Eggs , the one Prolifick , the othe● Barren , the sense can perhaps distinguish before Incubation no difference at all ▪ and yet these Bodies , outwardly so like , do so differ in the internal disposition of their parts , that if they be both expos'd to the same degree of Heat , ( whether of a Hen , or an Artificial Oven , ) that Heat will change the one into a putrid and stinking Substance , and the other into a Chick , furnish'd with great variety of Organical parts of very differing consistences , and curious as well as differing Textures . 4. I do not deny , but that Bodies may be said , in a very favourable sense , to have those Qualities we call Sensible , though there were no Animals in the World : for a Body in that case may differ from those Bodies , which now are quite devoid of Quality , in its having such a disposition of its Constituent Corpuscles , that in case it were duely apply'd to the Sensory of an Animal , it would produce such a sensible Quality , which a Body of another Texture would not ; as though if there were no Animals , there would be no such thing as Pain , yet a Pin may upon the account of its Figure be fitted to cause pain , in case it were mov'd against a Man's finger ; whereas a Bullet , or other blunt Body mov'd against it with no greater force , will not cause any such perception of pain . And thus Snow , though if there were no Lucid Body nor Organ of Sight in the World , it would exhibit no Colour at all , ( for I could not find it had any in places exactly darkned , ) yet it hath a greater disposition then a Coal or Soot to reflect store of Light outwards , when the Sun shines upon them all three . And so we say , that a Lute is in tune , whether it be actually plaid upon or no , if the Strings be all so duly stretcht , as that it would appear to be in Tune , if it were play'd upon . But as if You should thrust a Pin into a man's Finger , both a while before and after his Death , though the Pin be as sharp at one time as at another , and maketh in both cases alike a Solution of Continuity ; yet in the former case , the Action of the Pin will produce Pain , and not in the latter , because in this the prick'd Body wants the Soule , and consequently the Perceptive Faculty : so if there were no Sensitive Beings , those Bodies that are now the Objects of our Senses , would be but dispositively , if I may so speak , endow'd with Colours , Tasts , and the like ; and actually but onely with those more Catholick Affections of Bodies , Figure , Motion , Texture , &c. To illustrate this yet a little farther , suppose a Man should beat a Drum at some distance from the mouth of a Cave , conveniently scituated to return the Noise he makes ; although Men will presently conclude , that That Cave hath an Echo , and will be apt to fancy upon that account some Real Property in the place , to which the Echo is said to belong , and although indeed the same Noise made in many other of the neighbouring places , would not be reflected to the Eare , and consequently would manifest those places to have no Echos ; yet to speak Physically of things , this Peculiar Quality or Property we fancy in the Cave , is in It nothing else but the Hollowness of its Figure , whereby 't is so dispos'd , as when the Air beats against it , to reflect the Motion towards the place whence that Motion began ; and that which passeth on this occasion is indeed but this , That the Drum stick falling upon the Drum , makes a Percussion of the Air , and puts that Fluid Body into an Undulating Motion , and the Aery Waves thrusting on one another , 'till they arrive at the hollow Superficies of the Cave , have by reason of its resistance and figure , their Motion determin'd the contrary way , namely backwards towards that part where the Drum was , vvhen it vvas struck ; so that in That , vvhich here happens , there intervenes nothing but the Figure of one Body , and the Motion of another , though if a Man's Ear chance to be in the way of these Motions of the Air forwards and backvvards , it gives him a Perception of them , which he calls Sounds ; and because these Perceptions , which are suppos'd to proceed from the same percussion of the Drum , and thereby of the Air , are made at distinct times one after another , That hollow Body , from whence the Last Sound is conceiv'd to come to the Air , is imagin'd to have a peculiar Faculty , upon whose account Men are wont to say , that such a place hath an Echo . 5. And whereas one Body doth often seem to produce in another divers such Qualities , as we call Sensible , which Qualities therefore seem not to need any reference to our Senses , I consider , that when one Inanimate Body works upon another , there is nothing really produc'd by the Agent in the Patient , save some Local Motion of its Parts , or some Change of Texture consequent upon that Motion ; and so , if the Patient come to have any sensible Quality , that it had not before , it acquires it upon the same account , upon which other Bodies have it , and it is but a consequent to this Mechanical Change of Texture , that by means of its Effects upon our Organs of Sense , we are induc'd to attribute this or that sensible Quality to it . As in case a Pin should chance by some inanimate Body to be driven against a Man's Finger , that which the Agent doth , is but to put a sharp and slende● Body into such a kind of Motion , an● that which the Pin doth , is to pierce into a Body that it meets with , not ha●● enough to resist its Motion , and so tha● upon this there should ensue such a thing as Pain , is but a Consequent , tha● superadds nothing of Real to the P●● that occasions that Pain . So if a piece of Transparent Ice be , by the falling o● some heavy and hard Body upon it , broken into a Gross Powder that look Whitish , the falling Body doth nothing to the Ice but break it into very sma● Fragments , lying confusedly upon on● another ; though by reason of the Fabrick of the World , and of our Eyes , there doth in the day time upon this Comminution , ensue such a kind of copious Reflection of the incident Light to our Eyes , as we call Whitenesse : and when the Sun , by thawing this broken Ice , destroyes the Whiteness of that portion of Matter , and makes it become Diaphanous , which it was not before , it doth no more then alter the Texture of the Component parts , by putting them into Motion , and thereby into a new Order ; in which , by reason of the disposition of the Pores intercepted betwixt them , they reflect but few of the incident beams of Light , and transmit most of them . Thus when with a Burnisher You polish a rough piece of Silver , that which is really done , is but the Depression of the little Protuberant parts into one Level with the rest of the Superficies ; though upon this Mechanical change of the Texture of the Superficial parts , we Men say , that it hath lost the Quality of Roughness , and acquir'd that of Smoothness , because that whereas before , the little Exstancies by their Figure resisted a little the Motion of our Finger , and grated upon them a little , our Fingers now meet with no such offensive Resistance . 'T is true that the Fire doth thaw Ice , and also both make Wax slow , and enable it to burn a Man's hand , and yet this doth not necessarily argue in it any Inhaerent Quality of Heat , distinct from the Power it hath of putting the smal● parts of the Wax into such a Motion as that their Agitation surmounts their Cohaesion ; which Motion , together with their Gravity , is enough to make them pro tempore constitute a Fluid Body : and Aqua Fortis , without any ( sensible ) Heat , will make Camphire , cas● on it , assume the form of a Liquor distinct from it ; as I have try'd , that ● strong Fire will also make Camphi● fluid : not to adde , that I know a Liquor , into which certain Bodies being put , when both it Self , ( as well as They , ) is actually cold , ( and consequently when You would not suspect it of an Actual Inhaerent Heat ) will not onely speedily dissipate many of their parts into Smoak , but leave the rest Black , and burnt almost like a Coal . So that though we suppose the Fire to do no more then variously and briskly to agitate the Insensible parts of the Wax , That may suffice to make us think the Wax endow'd with a Quality of Heat : because if such an Agitation be greater then that of the Spirit , and other parts of our Organs of Touching , That is enough to produce in us that Sensation we call Heat ; which is so much a Relative to the Sensory which apprehends it , that vve see , that the same Lukevvarm Water , that is , vvhose Corpuscles are moderately agitated by the Fire , will appear hot to one of a Man's hands , if That be very cold ; and cold to the other , in case it be very hot , though both of them be the same Man's hands . To be short , if we fancy any two of the Bodies about us , as a Stone , a Mettal , &c. to have nothing at all to do with any other Body in the Universe , 't is not easy to conceive , either how one can act upon the other , but by Local Motion ( of the whole Body , or its Corporeal Effluvia ; ) or how by Motion it can do any more , then put the Parts of the other Body into Motion too , and thereby produce in them a Change of Scituation and Texture , or of some other of its Mechanical Affections : though this ( Passive ) Body being plac'd among other Bodies in a World constituted as ours now is , and being brought to act upon the most curiously contriv'd Sensories of Animals , may upon both these accounts exhibit many differing sensible Phaenomena ; which however we look upon them as distinct Qualities , are consequently but the Effects of the often mention'd Catholick affections of Matter , and deducible from the Size , Shape , Motion ( or Rest , ) Posture , Order , and the resulting Texture of the Insensible parts of Bodies . And therefore though , for shortness of speech , I shall not scruple to make use of the word Qualities , since it is already so generally receiv'd , yet I would be understood to mean them in a sense suitable to the Doctrine above deliver'd . As if I should say , that Roughnesse is apt to grate and offend the Skin , I should mean , that a File or other Body , by having upon its Surface a multitude of little hard and exstant Parts , and of an Angular or sharp Figure , is qualify'd to work the mention'd Effect : and so if I should say , that Heat melts Mettals , I should mean , that this Fusion is effected by Fire , or some other Body , which by the various and vehement Motion of its insensible parts , does to us appear Hot. And hence , ( by the way , ) I presume You will easily guess at what I think of the Controversy so hotly disputed of late betwixt two parties of Learned Men , whereof the One would have all Accidents to worke onely in virtue of the Matter they reside in , and the Other would have the Matter to act onely in virtue of its Accidents : for considering , that on the one side , the Qualities , we here speak of , do so depend upon Matter , that they cannot so much as have a Being but in , and by it ; and on the other side , if all Matter were but quite devoid of Motion , ( to name now no other Accidents , ) I do not readily conceive , how it could operate at all , I think it is safest to conclude , That neither Matter , nor Qualities apart , but both or them conjointly do perform , what we see done by Bodies to one another , according to the Doctrine of Qualities just now deliver'd . ( Of the Nature of a Forme . ) VII . WE may now advance somewhat farther , and consider , that Men having taken notice , that certain conspicuous Accidents were to be found associated in some Bodies , and other Conventions of Accidents in other Bodies , they did for conveniency , and for the more expeditious Expression of their Conceptions agree to distinguish them into several Sorts , which they call Genders or Species , according as they referr'd them either upwards to a more Comprehensive sort of Bodies , or downward to a narrower Species , or to Individuals : As , observing many Bodies to agree in being Fusible , Malleable , Heavy , and the like , they gave to that sort of Body the name of Mettal , which is a Genus in reference to Gold , Silver , Lead , and but a Species in reference to that sort of mixt Bodies they call Fossilia . This superior Genus comprehending both Mettals , Stones , and diverse other Concretions , though it self be but a Species in respect of Mixt Bodies . Now when any Body is referr'd to any particular Species , ( as of a Mettal , a Stone , or the like , ) because Men have for their Convenience agreed to signifie all the Essentials requisite to constitute such a Body by one Name , most of the Writers of Physicks have been apt to think , that besides the common Matter of all Bodies , there is but One thing that discriminates it from other Kinds , and makes it what it is , and this for brevities sake they call a Forme ; which , because all the Qualities and other Accidents of the Body must depend on it , they also imagine to be a very Substance , and indeed a kind of Soule , which united to the gross Matter composes with it a Natural Body , and acts in it by the several Qualities to be found therein , which Men are wont to ascribe to the Creature so compos'd . But as to this affair , I observe , that if ( for Instance ) You ask a Man , what Gold is , if he cannot shew you a piece of Gold , and tell You , This is Gold , he will describe it to You as a Body , that is extremely Ponderous , very Malleable and Ductile , Fusible and yet Fixt in the Fire , and of a Yellowish colour : and if You offer to put off to him a piece of Brass for a piece of Gold , he will presently refuse it , and ( if he understand Mettals ) tell You , that though Your Brass be coloured like it , 't is not so heavy , nor so malleable , neither will it like Gold resist the utmost brunt of the Fire , or resist Aqua Fortis : and if You ask Men what they mean by a Ruby , or Niter , or a Pearl , they will still make You such Answers , that You may clearly perceive , that whatever Men talk in Theory of Substantial Forms , yet That , upon whose account they really distinguish any one Body from others , and refer it to this or th● Species of Bodies , is nothing but a Aggregate or Convention of such Accidents , as most men do by a kind of Agreement ( for the Thing is more A●bitrary then we are aware of ) think necessary or sufficient to make a Portio● of the Universal Matter belong to th● or that Determinate Genus or Specie● of Natural Bodies . And therefore no● onely the Generality of Chymists , be diverse Philosophers , and , what is more some Schoolmen themselves , maintai● it to be possible to Transmute the ign●bler Mettals into Gold ; which argues that if a Man could bring any Parcel o● Matter to be Yellow , and Malleable and Ponderous , and Fixt in the Fire , an● upon the Test , and Indissoluble in Aqu● Fortis , and in some to have a concurrence of all those Accidents , by which Men try True Gold from False , the● would take it for True Gold without scruple . And in this case the general●ty of Mankind would leave the School-Doctors to dispute , whether being a Factitious Body , ( as made by the Chymists art , ) it have the Substantial Form of Gold , and would upon the account of the Convention of the freshly mention'd Accidents let it pass Current amongst them , notwithstanding most Mens greater care , not to be deceived in a matter of this nature then in any other . And indeed , since to every Determinate Species of Bodies , there doth belong more then One Quality , and for the most part a concurrence of Many is so Essential to That sort of Bodies , that the want of any of them is sufficient to exclude it from belonging to that Species : there needs no more to discriminate sufficiently any One kind of Bodies from all the Bodies in the World , that are not of that kind ; as the Chymists Luna ●ixa , which they tell us wants not the Weight , the Malleablenesse , nor the Fixtness , nor any other property of Gold , except the Yellownesse , ( which makes them call it White Gold , ) would by reason of that want of Colour be easily known from true Gold. And you will not wonder at this , if you consider , that those Sphaeres and Parallelopipedons differ but in Shape , yet this difference alone is the ground of so many others , that Euclid and other Geometricians have demonstrated , I know not how many Properties of the one , which do no way belong to the other , and † Aristotle himself somewhere tels us , That a Sphaere is compos'd of Brass and Roundness . And I suppose it would be thought a Man 's own fault , if he could not distinguish a Needle from a File , or a Key from a pair of Scissors , though these being all made of Iron , and differing but in Bignesse and Shape , are less remarkably diverse then Natural Bodies , the most part of which differ from each other in far more Accidents then Two. Nor need we think that Qualities being but Accidents , they cannot be essential to a Natural Body ; for Accident , as I formerly noted , is sometimes oppos'd to Substance , and sometimes to Essence : and though an Accident can be but accidental to Matter , as it is a Substantial thing , yet it may be essential to this or that particular Body ; as in Aristotle's newly mention'd Example , though Roundness is but Accidental to Brass , yet 't is Essential to a Brasen Sphaere ; because , though the Brasse were devoid of Roundnesse , ( as if it were Cubical , or of any other figure , ) it would still be a Corporeal Substance , yet without that Roundness it could not be a Sphaere : wherefore since an Aggregate or Convention of Qualities is enough to make the portion of Matter 't is found in , what it is , and denominate it of this or that Determinate sort of Bodies ; and since those Qualities , as we have seen already , do themselves proceed from those more Primary and Catholick affections of Matter , Bulk , Shape , Motion or Rest , and the Texture thence resulting , why may we not say , that the Form of a Body being made up of those Qualities united in one Subject , doth likewise consist in such a Convention of those newly nam'd Mechanical Affections of Matter , as is necessary to constitute a Body of that Determinate kind . And so , though I shall for brevities sake retain the word Forme , yet I would be understood to mean by it , not a Real Substance distinct from Matter , but onely the Matter it self of a Natural Body , consider'd with its peculiar manner of Existence , which I think may not inconveniently be call'd either its Specifical or its Denominating State , or its Essential Modification , or , if you would have me express it in one word , its Stamp : for such a Convention of Accidents is sufficient to perform the Offices that are necessarily requir'd in what Men call a Forme , since it makes the Body such as it is , making it appertain to this or that Determinate Species of Bodies , and discriminating it from all other Species of Bodies whatsoever : as for Instance , Ponderousness , Ductility , Fixtnesse , Yellowness , and some other Qualities , concurring in a portion of Matter , do with it constitute Gold , and making it belong to that Species we call Mettals , and to that sort of Mettals we call Gold , do both denominate and discriminate it from Stones , Salts , Marchasites , and all other sorts of Bodies that are not Mettals , and from Silver , Brass , Copper , and all Mettals except Gold. And whereas 't is said by some , that the Forme also of a Body ought to be the Principle of its Operations , we shall hereafter consider in what sense That is to be admitted or rejected , in the mean time it may suffice us , that even in the Vulgar Philosophy 't is acknowledg'd , that Natural Things for the most part operate by their Qualities , as Snow dazles the Eyes by its Whiteness , and Water scatter'd into drops of Rain falls from the Clouds upon the account of its Gravity . To which I shall adde , that how great the power may be , which a Body may exercise by virtue of a single Quality , may appear by the Various and oftentimes Prodigious Effects , which Fire produces by its Heat , when thereby it melts Mettals , calcines Stones , destroyes whole Woods and Cities &c. And if several Active Qualities conven● in one Body , ( as that which in our Hypothesis is meant by Forme , usually comprises several of them , ) what great things may be thereby perform'd , may be somewhat guess'd at by the strange things we see done by some Engines which , being , as Engins , undoubtedly devoid of Substantial Forms , must d● those strange things they are admir'd for , by virtue of those Accidents , the Shape , Size , Motion , and Contrivance , of their parts . Not to mention , that in our Hypothesis , besides those Operations that proceed from the Essential Modification of the Matter , as the Body ( compos'd of Matter and necessary Accidents ) is consider'd per modum unius , as one Entire Corporeal Agent , it may in diverse cases have other Operations , upon the account of those particular Corpuscles , which though they concurre to compose it , and are in reference to the whole consider'd but as its parts , may yet retain their own particular Nature , and diverse of the peculiar Qualities : as in a Watch , besides those things which the Watch performs as such , the several parts whereof it consists , as the Spring , the Wheels , the String , the Pins , &c. may have each of them its peculiar Bulk , Shape , and other Attributes , upon the account of one or more of which , the Wheel or Spring &c. may do other things then what it doth , as meerly a Constituent part of the Watch. And so in the Milk of a Nurse , that hath some hours before taken a Potion , though the Corpuscles of the purging Medicine appear not to sense distinct from the other parts of the Milk , which in far greater numbers concurre with them , to constitute that white Liquor , yet these Purgative Particles , that seem but to be part of the Matter whereof the Milk consists , do yet so retain their own Nature and Qualities , that being suck'd in with the rest by the Infant , they quickly discriminate and discover themselves by purging him . But of this Subject more hereafter . ( Of Generation , Corruption , and Alteration . ) VIII . IT now remains that we declare , what , according to the Tenour of our Hypothesis , is to be meant by Generation , Corruption , and Alteration ; ( Three Names , that have very much puzled and divided Philosophers . ) In order hereunto we may consider , 1. That there are in the World great store of Particles of Matter , each of which is too small to be , whilst single , Sensible ; and being Entire , or Undivided , must needs both have its Determinate Shape , and be very Solid . Insomuch , that though it be mentally , and by Divine Omnipotence divisible , yet by reason of its Smalness and Solidity , Nature doth scarce ever actually divide it ; and these may in this sense be call'd Minima or Prima Naturalia . 2. That there are also Multitudes of Corpuscles , which are made up of the Coalition of several of the former Minima Naturalia ; and whose Bulk is so small , and their Adhaesion so close and strict , that each of these little Primitive Concretions or Clusters ( if I may so call them ) of Particles is singly below the discernment of Sense , and though not absolutely indivisible by Nature into the Prima Naturalia that compos'd it , or perhaps into other little Fragments , yet , for the reasons freshly intimated , they very rarely happen to be actually dissolv'd or broken , but remain entire in great variety of sensible Bodies , and under various forms or disguises . As , not to repeat , what we lately mention'd of the undestroy'd purging Corpuscles of Milk ; we see , that even Grosser and more compounded Corpuscles may have such a permanent Texture : For Quicksilver , for instance , may be turn'd into a red Powder for a Fusible and Malleable Body , or a Fugitive Smoak , and disguis'd I know not how many other wayes , and yet remain true and recoverable Mercury . And these are as it were the Seeds , or immediate Principles of many sorts of Natural Bodies , as Earth , Water , Salt , &c. and those singly insensible , become capable , when united , to affect the Sense : as I have try'd , that if good Camphire be kept a while in pure Spirit of Wine , it will thereby be reduc'd into such Little parts , as totally to disappear in the Liquor , without making it look less clear then fair Water , and yet , if into this Mixture you pour a competent quantity of Water , in a moment the scatter'd Corpuscles of the Camphire will , by reuniting themselves , become White , and consequently Visible , as before their Dispersion . 3. That as well each of the Minima Naturalia , as each of the Primary Clusters above mention'd , having its own Determinate Bulk & Shape , when these come to adhere to one another , it must alwaies happen , that the Size , and often , that the Figure of the Corpuscle compos'd by their Juxta-position and Cohaesion , will be chang'd : and not seldome too , the Motion either of the one , or the other , or both , will receive a new Tendency , or be alter'd as to its Velocity , or otherwise . And the like will happen , when the Corpuscles , that compose a Cluster of Particles , are disjoyn'd , or any thing of the little Mass is broken off . And whether any thing of Matter be added to a Corpuscle , or taken from it in either case , ( as we just now intimated , ) the Size of it must necessarily be alter'd , and for the most part the Figure will be so too , whereby it will both acquire a Congruity to the Pores of some Bodies , ( and perhaps some of our Sensories , ) and become Incongruous to those of others , and consequently be qualify'd , as I shall more fully shew you hereafter , to operate on diverse occasions , much otherwise then it was fitted to do before . 4. That when many of these insensible Corpuscles come to be associated into one visible Body , if many or most of them be put into Motion , from what cause soever the Motion proceeds , That it self may produce great Changes , and new Qualities in the Body they compose ; for not onely Motion may perform much , even when it makes not any visible Alteration in it , as Air put into swift Motion , ( as when it is blown out of Bellows ) acquires a new Name , and is call'd Wind , and to the Touch appears far colder then the same Air not so form'd into a Stream ; and Iron , by being briskly rubb'd against Wood or other Iron , hath its small parts so agitated , as to appear hot to our Sense : but this Motion oftentimes makes visible Alterations in the Texture of the Body into which it is receiv'd , for alwaies the Moved parts strive to communicate their Motion , or somewhat of the degree of it , to some parts that were before either at Rest , or otherwise mov'd , and oftentimes the same Mov'd parts do thereby either disjoyn , or break some of the Corpuscles they hit against , and thereby change their Bulk , or Shape , or both , and either drive some of them quite out of the Body , and perhaps lodge themselves in their places , or else associate them anew with others . Whence it usually follows , that the Texture , is for a while at least , and , unlesse it be very stable and permanent , for good and all , very much alter'd , and especially , in that the Pores or little Intervals intercepted betwixt the component Particles , will be chang'd as to Bigness , or Figure , or both , and so will cease to be commensurate to the Corpuscles that were fit for them before , and become commensurate to such Corpuscles of other Sizes and Shapes , as till then were incongruous to them Thus we see that Water , by loosing the wonted agitation of its parts , may acquire the Firmnesse and Brittlenesse we find in Ice , and loose much of the Transparency it had whilst it was a Liquor . Thus also by very hard rubbing two pieces of Resinous Wood against one another , we may make them throw out diverse of their looser parts into Steams and visible Smoak , and may , if the Attrition be duely continued , make that commotion of the parts so change the Texture of the whole , as afterwards to turn the superficial parts into a kind of Coal . And thus Milk , especially in hot weather , will by the intestine , though languid , Motions of its parts , be in a short time turn'd into a thinner sort of liquor then Milk , and into Cream , and this ( last nam'd ) will by being barely agitated in a Churn , be turn'd in a shorter time into that Unctuous and consistent Body we call Butter , and into thin , fluid , and sower Butter-milk . And thus ( to dispatch ) by the bruising of Fruit , the Texture is commonly so chang'd , that as we see particularly in Apples , that the Bruis'd part soon comes to be of another nature then the Sound part , the one differing from the other both in Colour , Tast , Smell , and Consistence . So that ( as we have already inculcated ) Local Motion hath , of all other affections of Matter , the greatest Interest i● the Altering and Modifying of it , since it is not onely the Grand Agent or Efficient among Second Causes , but is also oftentimes one of the principal things that constitutes the Forme of Bodies : as when two Sticks are set on fire by long and vehement Attrition , Local Motion is not onely that which kindles the Wood , and so as an Efficient produces the Fire , but is That which principally concurrs to give the produced Stream of shining Matter , the name and nature of Flame : and so it concurrs also to constitute all Fluid Bodies . 5. And that since we have formerly seen , that 't is from the Size , Shape , and Motion of the small parts of Matter , and the Texture that results from the manner of their being dispos'd in any one Body , that the Colour , Odour , Tast , and other qualities of that Body are to be deriv'd , it will be easie for us to recollect , That such Changes cannot happen in a portion of Matter , without so much varying the Nature of it , that we need not deride the antient Atomists , for attempting to deduce the Generation and Corruption of Bodies from the fam'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Convention and Dissolution , and the Alterations of them , from the transposition of their ( suppos'd ) Atoms : For though indeed Nature is wont in the Changes she makes among things Corporeal , to imploy all the three wayes , as well in Alterations , as Generations and Corruptions ; yet if they onely meant , as probably enough they did , That of the three waies propos'd , the First was wont to be the Principal in the Generation of Bodies , the second in the Corruption , & the third in their Alterations , I shall not much oppose this Doctrine : though I take the Local Motion or Transposition of Parts , in the same portion of Matter , to bear a great stroak as well in reference to Generation and Corruption , as to Alteration : as we see when Milk , or Flesh or Fruit , without any remarkable addition or loss of parts turns into Maggots , or other Insects ; and as we may more conspicuously observe in the Praecipitation of Mercury without addition , in the Vitrification of Mettals , and other Chymical Experiments to be hereafter mention'd . These things premis'd , it will not now be difficult to comprise in few words such a Doctrine , touching the Generation , Corruption , and Alteration of Bodies , as is suitable to our Hypothesis , and the former Discourse . For if in a parcel of Matter there happen to be produc'd ( it imports not much how ) a Concurrence of all those Accidents , ( whether those onely , or more ) that Men by tacite agreement have thought necessary and sufficient to constitute any one Determinate Species of things corporeal , then we say , That a Body belonging to that Species , as suppose a Stone , or a Mettal , is Generated , or produc'd de novo . Not that there is really any thing of Substantial produc'd , but that those parts of Matter , that did indeed before praeexist , but were either scatter'd and shar'd among other Bodies , or at least otherwise dispos'd of , are now brought together , and dispos'd of after the manner requisite , to entitle the Body that results from them to a new Denomination , and make it appertain to such a Determinate Species of Natural Bodies , so that no new Substance is in Generation produc'd , but onely That , which was praeexistent , obteins a new Modification , or manner of Existence . Thus when the Spring , and Wheels , and String , and Balance , and Index &c. necessary to a Watch , which lay before scatter'd , some in one part , some in another of the Artificer's Shop , are first set together in the Order requisite to make such an Engine , to shew how the time passes , a watch is said to be made : not that any of the mention'd Material parts is produc'd de novo , but that till then the divided Matter was not so contriv'd and put together , as was requisite to constitute such a thing , as we call a Watch. And so when Sand and Ashes are well melted together , and suffer'd to cool , there is Generated by the Colliquation that sort of Concretion we call Glass , though it be evident , that its Ingredients were both praeexistent , and do but by their Association obtain a New manner of existing together . And so when by the Churning of Creame , Butter and Butter-milk are generated , we find not any thing Substantial Produc'd de novo in either of them , but onely that the Serum , and the fat Corpuscles , being put into Local Motion , do by their frequent Occursions extricate themselves from each other , and associate themselves in the new manner , requisite to constitute the Bodies , whose names are given them . And as a Body is said to be generated , when it first appears clothed with all those Qualities , upon whose Account Men have been pleas'd to call some Bodies Stones ; others , Mettals ; others , Salts , &c. so when a Body comes to loose all or any of those Accidents that are Essential , and necessary to the constituting of such a Body , it is then said to be corrupted or destroy'd , and is no more a Body of that Kind , but looses its Title to its former Denomination . Not that any thing Corporeal or Substantial perishes in this Change , but onely that the Essential Modification of the Matter is destroy'd : and though the Body be still a Body , ( no Natural Agent being able to annihilate Matter , ) yet 't is no longer such a Body , as 't was before , but perisheth in the capacity of a Body of that Kind . Thus if a Stone , falling upon a Watch , break it to pieces ; as , when the Watch was made there was no new Substance produc'd , all the Material parts ( as the Steel , Brass , String , &c. ) being praeexistent some where or other , ( as in Iron , and Copper Mines , in the Bellies of those Animals of whose Guts Men use to make Strings ; ) so not the least part of the Substance of the Watch is lost , be onely displac'd and scatter'd ; and yea that Portion of Matter ceases to be a VVatch as it was before . And so ( ● resume our late Example ) when Cream● is by Churning turn'd into But●er , and a Serous Liquor , the parts of the Mil● remain associated into those two Bodies but the White Liquor perisheth in the capacity of Milk. And so when Ice comes to be thaw'd in exactly close Vessels , though the Corruption be produc'd onely ( for ought appears ) by introducing a new Motion and Disposition into the parts of the Frozen Water yet it thereupon ceases to be Ice , however it be as much VVater , and consequently as much a Body , as before it was frozen or thaw'd . These and the like Examples may teach us rightly to understand that common Axiom of Naturalists , Corruptio unius est generatio alterius ; & è contrà : for since it is acknowledged on all hands , that Matter cannot be annihilated , and since it appears by what we have said above , that there are some Properties , namely Size , Shape , Motion , ( or in its absence , Rest , ) that are inseparable from the actual parts of Matter ; and since also the Coalition of any competent number of these parts is sufficient to constitute a Natural Body , endow'd with diverse sensible Qualities ; it can scarce be otherwise , but that the same Agents , that shatter the Frame , or destroy the Texture of one Body , will by shuffling them together , and disposing them after a New manner , bring them to constitute some new sort of Bodies : As the same thing , that by burning destroyes Wood , turns it into Flame , Soot , and Ashes . Onely I doubt whether the Axiome do generally hol● true , if it be meant , That every Corruption must end in the Generation of a Body belonging to some particular Species ● things , unlesse we take Powders an● fluid Bodies indefinitely for Species● Natural Bodies ; since it is plain , the● are multitudes of Vegetables , and other Concretions , which , when they rot , d● not , as some others do , turn in●● Worms , but either into some slimy o● watery Substance , or else ( which is th● most usuall ) they crumble into a kin● of Dust or Powder , which , thoug● look'd upon as being the Earth , in● which rotten Bodies are at length resolv'd , is very far from being of an Elementary nature , but as yet a Compounded Body , retaining some , if not many Qualities , which often makes the D● of one sort of Plant or Animal diff● much from that of another . And Th● will supply me with this Argument Ad hominem , viz. That since in those violent Corruptions of Bodies , that are made by Outward Agents , shattering them into pieces , if the Axiome hold true , the New Bodies emergent upon the Dissolution of the Former , must be really Natural Bodies , as ( indeed divers of the Moderns hold them to be , ) and Generated according to the course of Nature ; as when Wood is destroy'd by Fire , and turn'd partly into Flame , partly into Soot , partly into Coals , and partly into Ashes ; I hope we may be allow'd to conclude , That those Chymical Productions , which so many would have to be but Factitious Bodies , are Natural ones , and regularly Generated . For it being the same Agent , the Fire , that operates upon Bodies , whether they be expos'd to it in close Glasses , or in Chimnies , I see no sufficient reason , why the Chymical Oyls , and Volatile Salts , and other things which Spagirites obtain from mixt Bodies , should not be accounted Natural Bodies , as well as the Soot , and Ashes , an● Charcoal , that by the same fire are obtain'd from Kindled Wood. But before we passe away from the mention of the Corruption of Bodies , must take some notice of what is call'd their Putrefaction . This is but a Peculiar kind of Corruption , wrought slowly ( whereby it may be distinguish'd from Destruction by Fire , and othe● nimble Agents ) in Bodies : it happens to them for the most part by means o● the Air , or some other Ambient Fluid , which by penetrating into the Pores o● the Body , and by its agitation in them , doth usually call out some of the more Agile and lesse entangled parts of the Body , and doth almost ever loosen and dislocate the parts in general , and thereby so change the Texture , and perhaps too the Figure , of the Corpuscles , that compose it , that the Body , thus chang'd , acquires Qualities unsuitable to its Former Nature , and for the most part offensive to Our Senses , especially of Smelling and Tasting : which last clause I therefore adde , not onely because the Vulgar look not upon the Change of an Egge into a Chick as a Corruption , but as a Perfection of the Egge ; but because also I think it not improbable , that if by such slow Changes of Bodies , as make them loose their former Nature , and might otherwise passe for Putrefaction , many Bodies should acquire better Sents or Tasts then before ; or if Nature , Custom , or any other cause should much alter the Texture of our Organs of Tasting and Smelling , it would not perhaps be so well agreed on what should be call'd Putrefaction , as that imports an impairing Alteration , but Men would find some favourabler Notion for such Changes . For I observe , that Medlars , though they acquire in length of time such a Colour and Softness as rotten Apples , and other putrify'd Fruits do , yet , because their Tast is not then harsh as before , we call that Ripeness in them , which otherwise we should call Rottenness . And though upon the Death of a fourfooted Beast , we generally call that Change , which happens to the Flesh or Bloud , Putrefaction , yet we passe a more favourable judgment upon That , which happens to the Flesh and other softer parts of that Animal , ( whether it be a kind of large Rabbets , or very small and hornlesse Deer , ) of which in China , and in the Levant they make Musk ; because by the Change , that ensues the Animals death , the Flesh acquires not an odious , but a grateful Smell . And we see , that some Men , whose Appetites are gratified by Rotten Cheese , think it Then not to have degenerated , but to have attain'd its best State , when having lost its former Colour , Smell , and Tast , and , which is more , being in great part turn'd into those Insects call'd Mites , 't is both in a Philosophical sense corrupted , and in the aestimate of the generality of Men grown Putrid . But because it very seldom happens , that a Body by Generation acquires no other Qualities , then just those that are absolutely necessary , to make it belong to the Species that Denominates it ; therefore in most Bodies there are diverse other Qualities that may be there , or may be missing , without Essentially changing the Subject : as Water may be clear or muddy , odorous or stinking , and still remain Water ; and Butter may be white or yellow , sweet or rancid , consistent or melted , and still be call'd Butter . Now therefore whensoever a Parc●l of Matter does acquire or loose a Quality , that is not Essential to it , That Acquisition or Losse is distinctly call'd Alteration , ( or by some , Mutation : ) the Acquist onely of the Qualities that are absolutely necessary to constitute its Essential and Specifical difference , or the Loss of any of those Qualities , being such a Change as must not be call'd meer Alteration , but have the particular name of Generation or Corruption ; both which according to this Doctrine appear to be but several Kinds of Alteration , taken in a large sense , though they are distinguish'd from it in a more strict and Limited acception of that Terme . And here we have a fair Occasion to take notice of the Fruitfulnesse and Extent of our Mechanical Hypothesis : For since according to our Doctrine , the World we live in is not a Movelesse or Indigested Mass of Matter , but an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or Self moving Engine , wherein the greatest part of the common Matter of all Bodies is alwaies ( though not still the same parts of it ) in Motion ; & wherein Bodies are so close set by one another , that ( unlesse in some very few and extraordinary , and as it were Praeternatural cases ) they have either no Vacuities betwixt them , or onely here and there interpos'd , and very small ones . And since , according to us , the various manner of the Coalition of several Corpuscles into one visible Body is enough to give them a peculiar Texture , and thereby fitt them to exhibit divers sensible Qualities , and to become a Body , sometimes of one Denomination , and sometimes of another ; it will very naturally follow , that from the various Occursions of those innumerable swarms of little Bodies , that are mov'd to and fro in the World , there will be many fitted to stick to one another , and so compose Concretions ; and many ( though not in the self same place ) disjoyn'd from one another , and agitated apart ; and multitudes also that will be driven to associate themselves , now with one Body , and presently with another . And if we also consider on the one side , that the Sizes of the small Particles of Matter may be very various , their Figures almost innumerable , and that if a parcel of Matter do but happen to stick to one Body , it may chance to give it a new Quality , and if it adhere to another , or hit against some of its Parts , it may constitute a Body of another Kind ; or if a parcel of Matter be knockt off from another , it may barely by That , leave It , and become it self of another Nature then before . If , I say , we consider these things on the one side ; and on the other side , that ( to use Lucretius his Comparison ) all that innumerable multitude of Words , that are contain'd in all the Languages of the World , are made of the various Combinations of some of the 24 Letters of the Alphabet ; 't will not be hard to conceive , that there may be an incomprehensible variety of Associations and Textures of the Minute parts of Bodies , and consequently a vast Multitude of Portions of Matter endow'd with store enough of differing Qualities , to deserve distinct Appellations ; though for want of heedfulnesse and fit Words , Men have not yet taken so much notice of their lesse obvious Varieties , as to sort them as they deserve , and give them distinct and proper Names . So that though I would not say , that Any thing can immediately be made of Every thing , as a Gold Ring of a VVedge of Gold , or Oyl , or Fire of Water ; yet since Bodies , having but one common Matter , can be differenc'd but by Accidents , which seem all of them to be the Effects and Consequents of Local Motion , I see not , why it should be absurd to think , that ( at least among Inanimate Bodies ) by the Intervention of some very small Addition or Substraction of Matter , ( which yet in most cases will scarce be needed , ) and of an orderly Series of Alterations , disposing by degrees the Matter to be transmuted , almost of any thing , may at length be made Any thing : as , though out of a wedge of Gold one cannot immediately make a Ring , yet by either Wyre-drawing that Wedge by degrees , or by melting it , and casting a little of it into a Mould , That thing may easily be effected . And so though Water cannot immediately be transmuted into Oyl , and much less into Fire , yet if you nourish certain Plants with Water alone , ( as I have done , ) 'till they have assimilated a great quantity of Water into their own Nature , You may , by committing this Transmuted Water ( which you may distinguish and separate from that part of the Vegetable you first put in ) to Distillation in convenient Glasses , obtain , besides other things , a true Oyl ▪ and a black combustible Coal , ( and consequently Fire , ) both of which may be so copious , as to leave no just cause to suspect , that they could be any thing neer afforded by any little Spirituous parts , which may be praesum'd to have been communicated by that part of the Vegetable , that is first put into the water , to that far greater part of it , which was committed to Distillation . But , Pyrophilus , I perceive the Difficulty and Fruitfulnesse of my Subject , have made me so much more prolix then I intended , that it will not now be amiss to Contract the Summary of our Hypothesis , and give you the Main Points of it with little or no Illustration , and without particular Proofs in a few words . We teach then ( but without peremptorily asserting it , ) First , That the Matter of all Natural Bodies is the Same , namely a Substance extended and impenetrable . 2. That all Bodies thus agreeing in the same common Matter , their Distinction is to be taken from those Accidents that do diversity it . 3. That Motion , not belonging to the Essence of Matter , ( which retains its whole Nature , when 't is at Rest , ) and not being Originally producible by other Accidents , as They are from It , may be look'd upon as the First and chief Mood or Affection of Matter . 4. That Motion , variously determin'd , doth naturally divide the Matter it belongs to , into actual Fragments or Parts ; and this Division obvious Experience , ( and more eminently , Chymical Operations ) manifest to have been made into parts exceedingly minute , and very often , too minute to be singly perceiveable by our Senses . 5. Whence it must necessarily follow , that each of these Minute Parts , or minima Naturalia ( as well as every particular Body , made up by the Coalition of any number of them , ) must have its Determinate Bignesse or Size , and its own Shape . And these three , namely Bulk , Figure , and either Motion or Rest , ( there being no Mean between these two ) are the three Primary and most Catholick Moods or Affections of the insensible parts of Matter , consider'd each of them apart . 6. That when diverse of them are consider'd together , there will necessarily follow here Below both a certain Position or Posture in reference to the Horizon ( as Erected , Inclining , or Level ) of each of them , and a certain Order , or placing before , or behind , or besides one another ; ( as when in a company of Souldiers , one stands upright , the other stoops , the other lyes along upon the Ground , they have various Postures ; and their being plac'd besides one another in Ranks , and behind one another in Files , are Varieties of their Order : ) and when many of these small parts are brought to Convene into one Body from their primary Affections , and their Disposition , or Contrivance as to Posture and Order , there results That , which by one Comprehensive Name we call the Texture of that Body . And indeed these several Kinds of Location , to borrow a Scholastical Terme , ) attributed ( in this 6th number ) to the Minute Particles of Bodies , are so neer of Kinne , that they seem all of them referrable to ( that One Event of their Convening , ) Scituation , or Position . And these are the Affections that belong to a Body , as it is consider'd in it self , without relation to sensitive Beings , or to other Natural Bodies . 7. That yet , there being Men in the World , whose Organs of Sense are contriv'd in such differing wayes , that one Sensory is fitted to receive Impressions from some , and another from other sorts of External Objects , or Bodies without them , ( whether these act as Entire Bodies , or by Emission of their Corpuscles , or by propagating some Motion to the Sensory , ) the Perceptions of these Impressions are by me● call'd by several Names , as Heat , Colour , Sound , Odour ; and are commonly imagin'd to proceed from certain distinct and peculiar Qualities in the External Object , which have some resemblance to the Ideas , their action upon the Senses excites in the Mind ; though indeed all these Sensible Qualities , and the rest that are to be met with in the Bodies without us , are but the Effects or Consequents of the above mentioned primary Affections of Matter , whose Operations are diversify'd according to the nature of the Sensories , or other Bodies they work upon . 8. That when a Portion of Matter , either by the accession or Recesse of Corpuscles , or by the transposition of those it consisted of before , or by any two or all of these waies , happens to obtain a concurrence of all those Qualities , which Men commonly agree to be necessary and sufficient to Denominate the Body , which hath them , either a Mettal , or a Stone , or the like , and to rank it in any peculiar and determinate Species of Bodies , Then a Body of that Denomination is said to be Generated . 9. This Convention of Essential Accidents being taken ( not any of the● Apart , but all ) together for the Specif●cal Difference that constitutes the Body and discriminates it from all other sort of Bodies , is by one Name , because conside●'d as one collective Thing call'd its Forme , ( as Beauty , which i● made up both of Symmetry of Parts and Agreeablenesse of Colours , ) whic● is consequently but a certain Character ▪ ( as I sometimes call it , ) or a peculi● state of Matter , or , if I may so name it an Essential Modification : a Modification , because 't is indeed but a Determinate manner of Existence of the Matter and yet an Essential Modification , because that though the concurrent Qualities be but Accidental to Matter ( which with others in stead of Them would be Matter still , ) yet they are essentially necessary to the Particular Body which without those Accidents woul● not be a Body of that Denomination , as a Mettal or a Stone , but of some other . 10. Now a Body being capable of many other Qualities , besides those , whose Convention is necessary to make up its Form ; the acquisition or lesse of any such Quality is , by Naturalists in the more strict sense of that Terme , nam'd Alteration : as when Oyl comes to be frozen , or to change colour , or to grow rancid ; but if all , or any of the Qualities , that are reputed essential to such a Body , come to be lost or destroy'd , that notable Change is call'd Corruption ; as when Oyl being boyl'd takes fire , the Oyl is not said to be alter'd in the former sense , but corrupted or destroy'd , and the emergent Fire generated ; and when it so happens , that the Body is slowly corrupted , and thereby also acquires Qualities offensive to our Senses , especially of Smell and Tast , ( as when Flesh ▪ or Fruit grows rotten , ) that kind of Corruption is by a more particular Name call'd Putrefaction . But neither in this , nor in any other kind of Corruption is there any thing substantial destroy'd , ( no such thing having been produc'd in Generation , and Matter it self being on all hands acknowledged incorruptible , ) but onely that special connexion of the Parts , or manner of their Coexistence , upon whose account the Matter , whilst it was in its former state , was , and was call'd a Stone , or a Mettal , or did belong to any other Determinate Species of Bodies . CONSIDERATIONS and EXPERIMENTS , Touching the Origine of QUALITIES and FORMS . THE HISTORICAL PART . The I. SECTION . The I. SECTION , Containing the Observations . IN the foregoing Notes I have endeavoured with as much Clearness , as the Difficulty of the Subject , and the Brevity I was confined to , permitted to give a Scheme or Summary of the Principles of the Corpuscularian Philosophy , as I apprehended them , by way of a short Introduction to it , at least as far as I judged necessary for the better understanding of what is contain'd in our Notes and Experiments concerning the Productions and Changes of particular Qualities . But though , I hope , I have not so affected Brevity , as to fall into Obscurity ; yet since these Principles are built upon the Phaenomena of Nature , and devis'd in order to the Explication of them , I know not what I can do more proper to recommend them , then to subjoyn some such Natural Phaenomena , as either induce me to take up such Notions , or which I was directed to find out by the Notions I had imbrac'd . And since I appeale to the Testimony of Nature to verifie the Doctrine I have been proposing , about the Origine and Production of Qualities , ( for that of Formes will require a distinct Discourse , ) I think it very proper to set down some Observations of what Nature does , without being over-rul'd by the Power and Skill of Man , as well as some Experiments wherein Nature is guided , and as it were Master'd by Art , that so she may be made to attest the Truth of our Doctrine , as well , when she discloses her Self freely , and , if I may so speak , of her Own accord , as when she is as it were Cited to make her Depositions by the Industry of Man. The Observations will be but the more suitable to our Design for being Common and Familiar , as to the Phaenomena , though perhaps New enough as to the Application to our Purpose . And as for the Experiments , because those that belong more immediately to this or that particular Quality , may be met with in the Notes that treat of It , I thought it not amisse that the Experiments should be both Few in number , and yet so Pregnant , that every one of them should afford such differing Phaenomena , as may make it applicable to more then One Quality . I. The Observation I will begin with shall be fetch'd from what happens in the Hatching of an Egge . For as familiar and obvious a thing as it is , ( especially after what the Learned Fabricius ab Aqua pendente , and a recenter Anatomist have delivered about them , ) that there is a great Change made in the substance of the Egge , when 't is by Incubation turn'd into a Chick : yet , as far as I know , this Change hath not been taken notice of , for the same purpose , to which I am about to apply it . I consider then , that in a Prolifick Egge , ( for Instance that of a Hen , ) as well the Liquor of the Yolk , as that of the White , is a Substance , as to sense , Similar . For upon the same account that Anatomists and Physicians call several parts of the humane Body , as Bones , Membranes , &c. Similar , that is , such , as that every Sensible part of it hath the same Nature or Denomination with the whole , as every Splinter of Bone is Bone , as every Shred of Skin is Skin . And though I find by distilling the Yolks and Whites , they seem to be Dissimilar Bodies , in regard that the White of an Egge ( for Example ) will afford Substances of a very differing Nature , as Flegme , Salt , Oyl , and Earth , yet ( not now to examine whether , or how far these may be esteem'd Productions of the Fire , that are rather obtain'd from the White of the Egge , then were praeexistent in it ; not to mention this I say , ) it doth not appear by Distillation , that the White of an Egg , is other then a Similar Body in the sense above deliver'd . For it would be hard to prove , that one part of the White of an Egg will not be made to yield the same differing Substances by Distillation , that any other part does ; and Bones themselves , and other hard parts of a humane Body , that are confessedly Similar , may by Distillation be made to afford Salt , and Phlegme , and Spirit , and Oyl , and Earth , as well as the White of an Egg. This being thus setled in the First place , we may in the Next consider , that by beating the White of an Egge well with a Whisk , you may reduce it from a somewhat Tenacious into a Fluid Body , though this Production of a Liquor be , as we elsewhere noted , effected by a Divulsion , Agitation &c. of the parts , that is in a word , by a Mechanical change of the Texture of the Body . In the Third place I consider , that according to the exactest Observations of Modern Anatomists , which our own Observations do not contradict , the Rudiments of the Chick , lodg'd in the Cicatricula , or white Speck upon the Coat of the Yolk , is nourish'd , 'till it have obtain'd to be a great Chick , onely by the White of the Egg ; the Yolk being by the Providence of Nature reserv'd as a more strong and solid Aliment , till the Chick have absum'd the White , and be thereby grown great and strong enough to digest the Yolk ; and in effect you may see the Chick furnish'd not onely with all the necessary , but divers other parts , as Head , Wings , Legs , and Beak , and Claws , whilst the Yolk seems yet as it were untouch'd . But whether this Observation about the Entireness of the Yolk be precisely true , is not much material to our present purpose , nor would I be thought to build much upon it ; since the Yolk it self , especially at that time , is wont to be fluid enough , and to be a Liquor perhaps no less so then the White was , and That is enough for my present purpose . For in the Last place I consider , that the Nutritive Liquor of an Egg , which is in it self a Body so very soft , that by a little Agitation it may be made Fluid , and is readily enough dissolvable in common cold water , this very Substance , I say , being brooded on by the Hen , will within two or three weeks be transmuted into a Chick , furnish'd with Organical parts , as Eyes , Ears , Wings , Legs , &c. of a very differing Fabrick , and with a good number of Similar ones , as Bones , Cartilages , Ligaments , Tendons , Membranes , &c. which differ very much in Texture from one another ; besides the Liquors , as Blood , Chyle , Gall , &c. contain'd in the solid parts : So that here we have out of the White of an Egg , which is a Substance Similar , Insipid , Soft , ( not to call it Fluid , ) Diaphanous , Colourlesse , and readily dissoluble in cold water , out of this Substance I say , we have by the new and various Contrivement of the small parts it consisted of , an Animal , some of whose parts are not Transparent but Opacous ; some of them Red , as the Bloud ; some Yellow or Greenish , as the Gall ; some White , as the Brain ; some Fluid , as the Bloud , and other Juices ; some Consistent , as the Bones , Flesh , and other stable parts of the Body ; some Solid and Frangible , as the Bones , others Tough and Flexible , as the Ligaments , others Soft and loosly Cohaerent , as the Marrow ; some without Springs , as many of the parts ▪ some with Springs , as the Feathers , some apt to mingle readily with cold water , as the Bloud , the Gall ; some not to be so dissolv'd in it , as the Bones , the Claws , and the Feathers ; some well tasted , as the Flesh and Bloud ; some very ill tasted , as the Gall , ( for That I have purposely and particularly observ'd . ) In a word , we have here produc'd out of such an uniforme Matter as the White of an Egg , First , new kind of Qualities , as ( besides Opacity ) Colours , ( whereof a single Feather will sometimes afford us Variety , ) Odours , Tasts , and Heat in the Heart and Bloud of the Chick ; Hardness , Smoothness , Roughness , &c. Secondly , diverse other Qualities , that are wont to be distinguish'd from Sensible ones , as Fluidity ( in the Bloud and aqueous humor of the Eye , ) Consistency in the Grisles , Flesh , &c. Hardnesse , Flexibility , Springynesse , Toughness , unfitnesse to be dissolv'd in cold water , and several others . To which may probably be added Thirdly , some Occult Properties as Physicians observe , that some Birds , as young Swallows , young Magpies afford Specifick , or at least Noble Medicines , in the Falling sickness , Hysterical Fits , and divers other Distempers . Fourthly , I very well foresee it may be objected , that the Chick with all its parts is not a Mechanically contriv'd Engine , but fashion'd out of Matter by the Soul of the Bird , lodg'd chiefly in the Cicatricula , which by its Plastick power fashions the obsequious Matter , and becomes the Architect of its own Mansion . But not here to examine , whether any Animal , except Man , be other then a Curious Engine , I answer , that this Objection invalidates not what I intend to prove from the alledg'd Example . For let the Plastick Principle be what it will , yet still , being a Physical Agent , it must act after a Physical manner , and having no other Matter to work upon but the White of the Egg , it can work upon that Matter but as Physical Agents , and consequently can but divide the Matter into minute parts of several Sizes and Shapes , and by Local Motion variously context them , according to the Exigency of the Animal to be produc'd , though from so many various Textures of the produc'd parts there must naturally emerge such differences of Colours , Tasts , and Consistencies , and other Qualities as we have been taking notice of . That which we are here to consider , is not what is the Agent or Efficient in these Productions , but what is done to the Matter to effect them . And though some Birds by an inbred Skill do very Artificially build their Curious Nests , yet cannot Nature ▪ that teaches them , enable them to do ●ny more then select the Materials of t●eir Nests , and by Local Motion div●de , transport , and connect them after Certain manner . And when Man himself , who is undoubtedly an Intelligent Agent , is to frame a Building o● an Engine , he may indeed by the help of Reason and Art , contrive his Materials curiously and skilfully , but still ● he can do , is but to move , divide , tranpose , and context the several parts , in●● which he is able to reduce the Matte● assign'd him . Nor need we imagine , that the So● of that Hen , which having first produc'd the Egg , does after a while sit on it hath any peculiar Efficiency in hatching of a Chick : for the Egg will be we● hatch'd by another Hen , though Th● which laid it be dead ; and , which is more , we are assur'd by the Testimony of very good Authors , as well as of recent Travellers , that in some places especially in Aegypt , there needs ● Bird at all to the Production of a Chick out of an Egg , since they hatch multitudes of Eggs by the regulated heat o● Ovens , or Dunghils . And indeed , that there is a Motion or Agitation of the parts of the Egg by the external heat , whereby it is hatch'd , is evident of its self , and not ( as far as I know ) deny'd by any , and that also the white Substance is absumed and contexted , or contriv'd into the Body of the Chick , and its several parts , is manifest to sense ; especially if one hath the Curiosity to observe the progress of the Chicks Formation and Increment . But as 't is evident , that as these two things , the Substance of the White , and the Local Motion , wherein the External Heat necessary to Incubation puts its parts , do eminently concurr to the Production of the Chick ; so that the Formative Power ( whatever that be ) doth any more then guide these Motions , and thereby associate the ●itted Particles of Matter after the manner requisite to constitute a Chick , is that which I think will not easily be evinc'd . And I might to what I said of the Egg , adde several things touching the Generation of Viviparous Animals , which the Learned Fabricius ab Aqua pendente , as well as some of the Antient Philosophers would have to be generated from a● Imperfect kind of Eggs : but I take the Eggs of Birds to be much fitter to instance in , because they are things tha● we have more at command , and where with we can conveniently make mo● Trials and Observations ; and especiall● because in perfect Eggs the Matter t● be transmuted is more closely lock'd up , and being kept from any visib●e supply of Matter , confin'd to be wrought upon by the External Heat and by its own Vital Principle within . II. Water being generally esteem'd ● Elementary Body , and being at leas● far more Homogeneous then Both here below are wont to be ; it may mk● very much for our present purpose 〈◊〉 shew , that Water it self , that is Flu●● , Tastless , Inodorous , Diaphanous , Colourless , Volatile , &c. may , by a differing Texture of its Parts , be brought to constitute Bodies of Attributes very distant from these . This I thought might be done , by nourishing Vegetables with simple water . For in case I could do so , all , or the greatest part of that which would accrue to the Vegetable thus nourish'd , would appear to have been materially but Water , with what Exotick Quality soever it may afterwards , when transmuted , be endow'd . The Ingenious Helmont indeed mentions an Experiment somewhat of this nature , though not to the same purpose , which he made by planting a Branch of Willow into a Pot full of Earth , and observing the increase of Weight he obtain'd after divers years , though he fed the Plant but with Rain water . And some Learned Modern Naturalists have conjectur'd at the easy Transmutablenesse of Water , by what happens in Gardens and Orchards , where the same Showers or Rain after a long Drought makes a great number of differing Plants to flourish . But though these things be worthy of their Authors , yet I thought they would not be so fit for my purpose , because it may be speciously enough objected , That the Rain water does not make these Plants thrive and flourish , by immediately affording them the Aliments they assimilate into their own Substance , but by proving a Vehicle , that dissolves the Saline , and other Alimental Substances of the Earth , and dilutes both them and the nutritive Juice , which , in a part of the Plant its self , it may find too much thickned by the Drought or Heat of the ambient Air , and by this means it contributes to the nourishment of the Plant , though it self be insensibly afterwards exhal'd into vapours . And indeed Experience shews us , that several Plants , that thrive not well without Rain water , are not yet nourish'd by it alone , since when Corn in the Field , and Fruit-trees in Orchards have consum'd the Saline and Sulphureous Juices of the Earth , they will not prosper there , how much Rain soever falls upon the Land , till the Ground by Dung or otherwise be supply'd again with such assimilable Juices . Wherefore I rather chose to attempt the making of Plants grow in Viols fill'd with Water , not onely to prevent the forementioned Objection , and also to make the Experiment lesse tedious , but that I might have the pleasure of seeing the progress of Nature in the Transmutation of Water ; and my Observations of this kind as Novelties , unmention'd by any other Writer , I shew'd divers Ingenious Freinds , who having better Opportunities then I of staying in one place , have attempted the like , and made succesful Trials , which , I suppose , will not be conceal'd from the publick . Of my Observations about things of this kind , I can at present find but few among my Adversaria ; but in Them I find enough for my present turn . For They and my Memory inform me , that Vinca per Vinca , Raphanus Aquaticus , Spearemint , and even Ranunculus it self , did grow and prosper very well in Viols filld with fair water , by whose Necks the Leaves were supported , and the Plant kept from sinking : some of these were onely Cuttings without Roots , divers of them were left in the water all the Autumn , and great part of the Winter , and at the latter end of January were taken out verdant , and with fair Roots , which they had shot in the water . And besides I find , that particularly a Branch or Sprig of Raphanus Aquaticus was kept full nine Months , and during that time wither'd not the whole Winter , and was taken out of the water with many fibrous Roots , and some green Buds , and an increase of Weight , and that a Stump of Ranunculus did so prosper in the water , that in a Months time it had attain'd to a pretty deale more then double the weight it had , when it was put in . And the next Note , which I find concerning these Plants , informes me , that the above mention'd Crowsfoot being taken out agen at six Months after it was put in , weigh'd a Drachm and a half wanting a Grain and a half , that is , somewhat above Thrice as much as it did at first . This last Circumstance ( of the increase of Weight ) I therefore thought fit particularly to make Trial of , and set down upon this account among others , That having doubted the Roots and Leaves , that seem'd produc'd out of the Water , might really be so , by an Oblongation and an Expansion of the Plants , ( as I have purposely try'd , that an Onion weigh'd and laid up in the Spring , though after some weeks keeping in the Air it shot Blades , whereof one was five Inches long , in stead of incorporating the Air or terrestrial Effluviums with it self , and consequently thereby growing heavier , had lost nine Grains of its former weight , ) it might by this Circumstance appear , that there may be a real Assimilation and Transmutation of Water into the Substance of the Vegetable , as I elsewhere also shew by other proofs . For this being made out , from thence I infer , That the same Corpuscles , which , convening together after one manner , compose that fluid , Inodorous , colourless , and insipid Body of Water being contexted after other manners , may constitute differing Concretes , which may have Firmeness , Opacity , Odours , Smels , Tasts , Colours , and several other manifest Qualities , and that too very different from one another . And besides all this , these distinct Portions of Transmuted Water may have many other Qualities , without excepting those that are wont to be call'd Specifick , or Occult , witness the several Medicinal Virtues attributed by Authors to Spearmint , and to Periwinckle , to Majorane , and to Raphanus Aquaticus . And as for Ranunculus , that Plant being reckoned among Poisonous ones , and among those that raise Blisters , 't will be easily granted , that it hath , as other Poisons , an Occult Deleterial faculty ; and indeed it somewhat deserves our wonder , that so insipid and innocent a thing as fair Water , should be capable to be turn'd into a Substance of such a piercing and caustick Nature , as by Contact to raise Blisters on an humane Body . And yet perhaps that is no lesse strange , which we elsewhere relate , That a Plant , consisting chiefly of Transmuted Water , did by Distillation afford us a true Oyl , that would not mingle with Water , and consequently was easily convertible into Fire . But whether or no this Experiment , or any such like , prove , that almost All things may be made of All things , not immediately , but by intervention of successive Changes and Dispositions , is a Question to which we elsewhere say something , but are not willing in this place to say any thing . And if it be here objected , That the solid Substance , that accrues to a Plant rooted in Water , procceds not at all from the water it self , but from the Nitrous , fat , and earthy Substances , that may be presum'd to abound even in common Water , not here to repeat what I elsewhere say about this Objection , I shall at present reply , That though as to divers Plants , that flourish after Raine , I am apt to think , as I intimated above , that they may in part be nourish'd as well by the Saline and Earthy Substances , to which the Rain usually prooves a Vehicle , as by the Rain it self ; yet as to what the Objection holds forth about the Plants , that grow not in the Ground , but in Glasses fill'd with Water , it should not be barely said but prov'd , which he will not perhaps think easie to be done , that considers how vast a quantity of fair Water is requisite to be exhal'd away , to obtain as much as one Ounce of dry Residents , whether Saline or Earthy . III. That a Plant , growing in the Earth , doth by the faculties of its Vegetative Soul attract the Juices of the Earth , that are within its reach , and selecting those parts that are congruous to its Nature , refuse the rest , is the general Opinion of Philosophers , and Physicians : and therefore many Naturalists are not wont much to marvail , when they see a Tree bear a Fruit that is sowr or bitter , because they presume , that Nature hath in the Root of the Tree cull'd out such parts of the Alimental Juice of the Earth , as being made to convene into one Fruit , are fit to make it of such a Quality . But 't is worth observing for our present purpose what happens both in ordinary Graftings , and especially in that kind of Insition ( taking the word in a large sense ) which is commonly call'd Inoculation . For though we may presume , that the Root of a white Thorne ( for Instance ) may electively attract its Aliment from the Earth , and choose that which is fittest to produce the Ignoble fruit , that is proper for that Plant : yet we cannot reasonably suppose , that it should in its attraction of Aliment have any Designe of providing an Appropriate Nutriment for a Pore , and yet the known Experience of Gardiners , and our own Observations manifest , that the Cyons of a Pear tree will take very well upon a White thornstock , and bring forth a well tasted fruit , very differing in many qualities from that of the White thorn . I have also learn'd from those that are expert , That though Apples and Pears , being but Vulgar Fruit , are seldome propagated but by Grafting ; yet they may be propagated likewise by Inoculation , ( which seems to be but a kind of Grafting with a Bud. ) Now in the Inoculations , that are made upon Fruit trees , t is very observable , and may much countenance what we are endeavouring to prove , that a little Vegetable Bud , ( that is no Seed , properly so call'd , ) not so big oftentimes as a Pea , should be able so to transmute all the Sap that arrives at it , that though this Sap be already in the Root , and in its passage upwards determin'd by Natures Intention , as Men are wont to speak , to the production of the Fruit that is natural to the Stock ; yet this Sap should by so small a Vegetable Substance as a Bud , ( whether by the help of some peculiar kind of Strainer , or by the Operation of some powerful Ferment lodged in it , or by both these , or some other cause , ) be so far chang'd and overrul'd , as to constitute a Fruit quite otherwise qualify'd , then that which is the Genuine production of the Tree , and which is actually produc'd by those other portions of the like Sap , which happen'd to nourish the prolific'd Buds that are the Genuine Of-spring of the Stock ; so that the same Sap , that in one part of a Branch constitutes ( for instance ) a Cluster of Haws , in another part of the same Branch may constitute a Pear . And that which is further remarkable to our present purpose , is , That not onely the Fruites made of the same Sap do often differ from one another in Shape , Bigness , Colour , Odour , Tast , and other obvious Qualities , as well as Occult ones : but that though the Sap it self be ( oftentimes ) a Waterish and almost Insipid Liquor , that appears to sense Homogeneous enough , and even by Distillation affords very little besides Flegme ; yet this Sap is not onely convertible by Buds of several Natures into differing Fruits , but in one and the same Fruit the transmuted Sap shall by differing Textures be made to exhibit very differing , and sometimes contrary Qualities . As when ( for instance ) a Peach bud does not onely change the Sap that comes to it into a Fruit , very differing from that which the Stock naturally produceth , but in the Skin of the Peach it must be red , in the Kernel white , and in other parts of other Colours ; the Flesh of it must be fragrant , the Stone inodorous , the Flesh soft and yielding , the Stone very hard and brittle , the Meat pleasantly tasted , the Kernel bitter ; not to mention , that Peach Blossoms , though produc'd also by the Bud , are of a Colour and Texture very differing from that of the Fruit , and are enobled with an Occult Quality , which the Fruit hath not , I mean a Purgative Virtue : So that from Inoculations we may learn , That a stegmatick Liquor , that seems Homogeneous enough , & but very slenderly provided with other manifest Qualities then common water , may , by being variously contexted by the Buds of Trees , be transmuted into Bodies endow'd with new , and various , and considerable Sents , Colours , Tasts , Solidity , Medicinal vertues , and divers other Qualities manifest , and occult . If it be here said , that these Qualities are the productions of the Plastick Power residing in prolifick Buds , which indeed ( to me ) seem to be but very minute Boughs ; I shall return the same Answer that I did to the like Objection , when 't was propos'd in the First Observation . Hitherto I have onely argued from vulgar Inoculations , but there may be others , as well more considerable , as lesse ordinary ; and I remember I have seen a Tree , whereof , though the Stock was of one sort of good Fruit , there were three more and differing kinds of Stone-fruit , that had been made to take by Inoculation ; and two of those inoculated Boughs had actually Fruit on them , and the third , though it had as yet no Fruit , because the Season for that sort of Plants to bear it was not yet come , yet the Shoot was so flourishing , that we concluded , that the Blossoms would in due time be succeeded by fruit . And since I have been speaking of the differing Qualities of the parts of the same Fruit , I am content to adde two things : the one that Garcias ab Horto , a Classick Author , ( and Physician to the Indian Viceroy ) affirmes * with some solemnity , ( as wondering that a Learned man should write otherwise , ) that though the fruit we call Cassia fistula be very commonly us'd , both here and in the Indies as a Purging Medicine , yet the Seeds of this Solutive Cassia are Astringent . The other : That of late years there have been often brought into England from the Carybbe Islands , certain Kernels of a fruit , which those that have seen it grow , liken to a white Pear-plumme ; these are so strongly Purgative , and also Emetick , that the Ingenious Mr. Lygon * tells us , th● five of them wrought with him a Dozen times upwards , and above Twenty downwards , and yet the same Author assures us , ( which is likewise here a receiv'd Tradition among them that are curious of this fruit , ) That in the Kernel , in the parting of it into halfes , ( ● when our Hazle Nuts in England p●● in the middle longwise ) you shall find thin Filme , which looks of a faint Ca●nation , ( which colour is easily enoug● discerned , the rest of the Kernel being perfectly white , ) and that taking o● the Filme you may eat the Nut safely without feeling any Operation at all and 't is as sweet as a Jordan Almon● [ A Learned Man , that practis'd Physick in America , being inquir'd of by m● concerning the Truth of this Relation answer'd , That though he had divers times given those Nuts as Cathartick Remedies , yet he had not that Curiosity to take out the Filmes , finding it the Universal belief , that the Purgative faculty consisted therein . ] And I remember , that the famous * Monardes doth somewhat countenance this Tradition , where speaking of another Purging fruit , that also comes from America , ( from Cartagena , and Nombre de Dios , ) he takes notice , that these purging Beans ( which are like ours , but smaller ) have a thin Skin , that divides them through the middle , which must ( together with the external Rind ) be cast away , else they will work so violently both upwards and downwards , as to bring the Taker into hazard of his Life : whereas he commends these Beans rightly prepar'd , not onely as a pleasant Medicine , that doth without trouble purge both Choler , Flegme , and gross Humors , for which it is celebrated among the Indians . To these stories of our Countrymen , and Monardes , I shall subjoin another , which I find related by that great Rambler about the World , Vincent le Blanck , who giving us an Account of a publick Garden , which he visited in Africa , in the Territories of the Lord of Casima , not far from the Borders of Nubia , which he represents as the curiosest Garden he saw in all the East , he mentions this among other Rarities , " There were ( sayes he ) other sorts of Fruit , which I never saw but there , and one among the rest leav'd like a Sycamore , with fruit like the Golden Apple , but no Gall more bitter , and within five Kernels , as big as Almonds , the Juice whereof is sweet as Sugar , betwixt the Shell and the Nut there grows a thick Skin of a Carnation colour , which ⁁ taken before they be throughly ripe , they preserve with Date Vinegar , and make an excellent Sweetmeat , which they present to the King as a great Curiosity . IV. The Fourth and last Observation I shall at present mention , is afforded me by the consideration of Rotten Cheese . For if we take notice of the difference betwixt two parts of the same Cheese , whereof the one continues sound by preserving its Texture , and the other hath suffer'd that Impairing Alteration of Texture we call Rottenness , we may often see a manifest and notable Change in the several portions of a Body , that was before Similar . For the Rotten part will differ from the Sound in its Colour , which will be sometimes Livid , but most commonly betwixt Green and Blew ; and its Odour , which will be both strong and offensive ; and its Tast , which will be very Picquant , and to some men much more pleasant then before , but to most men odious ; and in divers other Qualities , as particularly its Consistence , it will be much lesse Solid and more Friable then before ; and if with a good Microscope we look upon the moulded parts of many Cheeses , we shall quickly discover therein some Swarms of little Animals , ( the Mites , ) furnish'd with variety of Parts of differing Sizes , Shapes , Textures , &c. and discry a yet greater diversity , both as to manifest Qualities ( nor probably is it inferior as to Occult ones ) betwixt the Mouldy part of the Cheese and the Untainted , then the unassisted Eye could otherwise have discovered . * OF THE ORIGINE OF FORMS . THe Origine of Forms , Pyrophilus , as it is thought the Noblest , so , if I mistake not , it hath been found one of the most perplex'd Enquiries , that belong to Natural Philosophy : and , I confesse , it is one of the things that has invited me to look about for some more satisfactory Account , then the Schools usually give of this matter , that I have observ'd , that the wisest that have busied themselves in explicating Forms according to the Peripatetick Notions of them , have either knowingly Confess'd themselves unable to explain them , or unwittingly Prov'd themselves to be so , by giving but unsatisfactory Explications of them . It will not ( I presume ) be expected , that I , who now write but Notes , should enumerate , much lesse examine all the various Opinions touching the Origine and Nature of Forms ; it being enough for our purpose , if , having already intimated in our Hypothesis , what , according to that , may be thought of this Subject ; we now briefly consider the general Opinion of our Modern Aristotelians and the Schools concerning it . I say , the Modern Aristotelians , because diverse of the Antient , especially Greek Commentators of Aristotle , seem to have understood their Masters Doctrine of Forms much otherwise , and lesse incongruously , then his Latin followers , the Schoolmen and others , have since done . Nor do I expresly mention Aristotle himself among the Champions of substantial Forms , because though he seem in a place or two expresly enough to reckon Formes among Substances , yet elsewhere the Examples he imploies to set forth the Forms of Natural things by , being taken from the Figures of artificial things , ( as of a Statue , &c. ) which are confessedly but Accidents , and making very little use , if any , of Substantial Forms to explain the Phaenomena of Nature , He seems to me upon the whole matter , either to have been irresolv'd , whether there were any such Substances , or no , or to speak ambiguously and obscurely enough of them , to make it questionable , what his Opinions of them were . But the summe of the Controversy betwixt Us and the Schools is this , whether or no the Forms of Natural things , ( the Souls of Men alwaies excepted ) be in Generation educed , as they speak , out of the power of the Matter , and whether these Forms be true substantial Entities , distinct from the other substantial Principle of Natural Bodies , namely Matter . The Reasons that move me to embrace the Negative , are principally these three . First , That I see no necessity of admitting in Natural things any such substantial Forms , Matter and the Accidents of Matter being sufficient to explicate as much of the Phaenomena of Nature , as we either do or are like to understand . The next , That I see not what use this puzling Doctrine of substantial Forms is of in Natural Philosophy ; the Acute Scaliger , and those that have most busied themselves in the Indagation of them , having freely acknowledg'd , ( as the more Candid of the Peripateticks generally do , ) That the true Knowledg of Forms is too difficult and abstruse to be attain'd by them . And how like it is , that particular Phaenomena will be explain'd by a Principal , whose Nature is confessedly ignor'd , I leave you to judg : but because to these considerations I often have had , and shall have here and there occasion to say something in the body of these Notes , I shall at present insist upon the third , which is , That I cannot conceive , neither how Forms can be generated , as the Peripateticks would have it , nor how the things , they ascribe to them , are consistent with the Principles of true Philosophy , or even with what themselves otherwise teach . The Manner how Forms are educed out of the Power of the Matter , according to that part of the Doctrine of Forms , wherein the Schools generally enough agree , is a thing so Inexplicable , that I wonder not it hath put Acute men upon several Hypotheses to make it out . And indeed the number of These is of late grown too great to be fit to be here recited , especially since I find them all so very unsatisfactory , that I cannot but think , the acute Sticklers for any of them are rather driven to embrace it by the palpable inconveniences of the wayes they reject , then by any thing they find to satisfy them , in that which they make choice of : and for my part I confess , I find so much Reason in what each Party sayes against the Explications of the rest , that I think they all Confute well , and none does well Establish . But my present way of Writing forbidding me to insist on many Arguments against the Doctrine , where they most agree , I shall onely urge ▪ That which I confess chiefly sticks with me , namely that I find it not Comprehensible . I know the Modern Schoolmen fly here to their wonted Refuge of an Obscure Distinction , and tell us , that the Power of Matter in reference to Forms is partly Eductive , as the Agent ca● make the Form out of it , and partly Receptive , whereby it can receive the For● so made ; but since those that say this , will not allow , that the Form of a generated Body was actually praeexisten● in its Matter , or indeed any where else , 't is hard to conceive , how a Substance can be educ'd out of another Substance totally distinct in Nature from it , without being , before such Eduction , actually existent in it . And as for the Receptive Power of the Matter , That but fitting it to receive or lodge a Form , when brought to be United with it , how can it be intelligibly made out to contribute to the Production of a new Substance , of a quite differing Nature from that Matter , though it harbours it when produc'd ? And 't is plain , that the Humane Body hath a receptive Power in reference to the Humane Soule , which yet themselves confess both to be a substantial Form , and not to be educ'd out of the Power of Matter . Indeed if they would admit the Form of a Natural Body to be but a more fine and subtle part of the Matter , as Spirit of Wine is of Wine , which upon its recess remains no longer Wine , but Flegm or Vinegar , then the Eductive Power of Matter might signifie something ; and so it might , if with us they would allow the Form to be but a Modification of the Mattter ; for then it would import b● that the Matter may be so order'd ●● dispos'd by fit Agents , as to constitut● a Body of such a sort and Denomination : and so ( to resume that Example the Form of a Sphaere may be said 〈◊〉 lurk potentially in a piece of Brass , in a● much as that Brass may by casting , tu●ning , or otherwise , be so figur'd as ● become a Sphaere . But this they w● not admit , least they should make Form to be but Accidents , though it is ●o ought I know as little intelligible , ho● what is educ'd out of any Matter , without being either praeexistent , or being any part of the Matter , can be a tr● Substance , as how that Roundness , tha● makes a piece of Brass become a Sphere can be a new Substance in it . Nor ca● they admit the other way of educing 〈◊〉 Form out of Matter , as Spirit is out o● Wine , because then not onely Matter will be corruptible against their grounds , but Matter and Form would not be two differing and substantial Principles , but one and the same , though diversify'd by firmness , and grosseness , &c. which are but Accidental differences . I know they speak much of the efficacy of the Agent upon the Matter , in the Generation of Natural Bodies , and tell us strange things of his manner of working . But not to spend time in examining those obscure niceties , I answer in short ; That since the Agent , be he what he will , is but a Physical and finite Agent , and since what way soever he works , he can do nothing repugnant to the nature of things , the difficulty , that sticks with me , will still remain . For if the Form produc'd in Generation , be , as they would have it , a Substance , that was not before to be found any where out of that portion of Matter , wherewith it constitutes the Generated Body ; I say that either it must be produc'd , by refining or subtiliating some parts of the Matter into Form , or else it must b● produc'd out of nothing , that is , Cre●ted , ( for I see no Third way , how a Substance can be produc'd de novo . ) If they allow the First , then will the Form b● indeed a Substance , but not , as they hol● it is , distinct from Matter ; since Matter however subtiliated , is Matter still , ● the finest Spirit of Wine is as truly Body , as was the Wine it self , that ye●ded it , or as is the Grosser Flegm , from which it was extracted : besides that , the Peripateticks teach , that the Form is no● made of any thing of the Matter ; n●● indeed is it conceivable , how a Physica● Agent can turn a Material into an Immaterial Substance , especially Matte● being , as they themselves confesse , a● well incorruptible as ingenerable . B● if they will not allow , as indeed they do not , that the substantial Form is made of any thing that is Material , they must give me leave to believe , that t is produc'd out of Nothing , till they shew me , how a Substance can be produc'd otherwise , that existed no where before . And at this rate every Natural Body of a special Denomination , as Gold , Marble , Nitre , &c. must not be produc'd barely by Generation , but partly by Generation , and partly by Creation . And since t is confess'd on all sides , that no Natural Agent can produce the least Atome of Matter , t is strange they should in Generation allow every Physical Agent the power of producing a Form , which , according to them , is not onely a Substance , but a far nobler one then Matter , and thereby attribute to the meanest Creatures that power of creating Substances , which the Antient Naturalists thought too great to be ascrib'd to God himself , and which indeed is too great to be ascrib'd to any other then Him , and therefore some Schoolmen and Philosophers have deriv'd Forms immediately from God ; but this is not onely to desert Aristotle and the Peripatetick Philosophy they would seem to maintain , but to put Omnipotence upon working I know not how many thousand Miracles every hour , to performe that ( I mean the Generation of Bodies of new Denominations ) in a supernatural way , which seems the most familiar effect of Nature in her ordinary course . And as the Production of Forms out of the Power of Matter is for these Reasons incomprehensible to me , so those things , which the Peripateticks ascribe to their substantial Forms , are some of them such , as , I confesse , I cannot reconcile my Reason to : for they tell us positively , that these Forms are Substances , and yet at the same time they teach , that they depend upon Matter , both in fieri and in esse , as they speak , so that out of the Matter , that supports them , they cannot so much as exist , ( whence they are usually call'd Material Forms , ) which is to make them Substances in name , and but Accidents in truth : for not to ask how ( among Physical things ) one Substance can be said to depend upon another in fieri , that is not made of any part of it , that very notion of a Substance is to be a self-subsisting Entity , or that which needs no other Created Being to support it , or to make it exist . Besides that , there being but two sorts of Substances , Material , and Immaterial , a substantial Form must appertain to one of the two , and yet they ascribe things to it , that make it very unfit to be referr'd to either . To all this I adde , that these imaginary Material Forms do almost as much trouble the Doctrine of Corruption , as that of Generation : for if a Form be a true Substance really distinct from Matter , it must , as I lately noted , be able to exist of it self , without any other Substance to support it ; as those I reason with confess , that the Soul of Man survives the Body , it did before Death inform : whereas they will have it , that in Corruption the Form is quite abolish'd , and utterly perishes , as not being capable of existing , separated from the Matter , whereunto it was united : so that here again , what they call a Substance they make indeed an Accident , and besides contradict their own vulgar Doctrine , That Natural things are upon their Corruption resolv'd into the first Matter , since at this rate they should say , that such things are but partly resolv'd into the first Matter , and partly either into Nothing , or into Forms , which being as well immaterial as the Souls of Men , must , for ought appears , be also , like them , accounted immortal . I should now examine those Arguments , that are wont to be imploy'd by the Schools to evince their substantial Forms , but , besides that the nature and scope of my present Work injoynes me Brevity , I confesse that , one or two excepted , the Arguments I have found mention'd , as the chief , are rather Metaphysical , or Logical , then grounded upon the Principles and Phaenomena of Nature , and respect rather Words then Things , and therefore I , who have neither inclination , nor leasure , to wrangle about Terms , shall content my self to propose , and very briefly answer two or three of those that are thought the plausiblest . First then they thus argue . Omne Compositum substantiale ( for it is hard to English well such Uncouth Terms ) requirit materiam & formam substantialem , ex quibus componatur . Omne corpus naturale est compositū substantiale . Ergo &c. In this Syllogisme some do plausibly enough deny the Consequence , but for brevities sake , I shall rather choose to deny the Minor , and desire the Proposers to prove it . For I know not any thing in Nature that is compos'd of Matter , and a Substance distinct from Matter , except Man , who alone is made up of an immaterial Form , and a humane Body ; and if it be urg'd , that then other Bodies cannot be properly said to be Composita substantialia : I shall , rather then wrangle with them , give them leave to find out some other name for other Natural things . But then they argue in the next place , that , if there were no substantial Forms , all Bodies would be but Entia per accidens , as they speak , which is absurd . To which I answer , That in the Notion , that divers Learned men have of an Ens per Accidens , namely , that t is That which consists of those things , quae non ordinantur ad unum , it may be said , That though we do not admit substantial Forms , yet we need not admit Natural Bodies to be Entia per accidens ; because in them the several things that concur to constitute the Body , as Matter , Shape , Scituation , and Motion , ordinantur per se & intrinsecè to constitute one Natural Body . But , if this Answer satisfie not , I shall adde , that for my part , That which I am sollicitous about , is , what Nature hath made things to be in themselves , not what a Logician or Metaphysician will call them in the Terms of his Art ; it being much fitter in my judgment to alter Words , that they may better fit the Nature of Things , then to affix a wrong Nature to Things , that they may be accommodated to forms of Words , that were probably devis'd , when the things themselves were not known or vvell understood , if at all thought on . Wherefore I shall but adde one Argument more of this sort , and That is , that , if there vvere no substantial Forms , neither could there be any substantial Definitions , but the Consequent is absurd , and therefore so is the Antecedent . To vvhich I reply , that since the Peripateticks themselves confess the Forms of Bodies to be of themselves unknown , all that this Argument seems to me to conclude , is but this , That if we do not admit somethings , that are not in rerum natura , we cannot build our Definitions upon them : nor indeed could we , if we should admit substantial Forms , give substantial Definitions of Natural things , unlesse we could also define Natural Bodies by things that we know not ; for such * the substantial Forms are ( as we have seen already ) confess'd to be , by the wisest Peripateticks , who pretend not to give the substantial Definition of any Natural Compositum , except Man. But it may suffice Us to have , instead of substantial , essential Definitions of things ; I mean such as are taken from the Essential Differences of things , which constitute them in such a sort of Natural Bodies , and discriminate them from all those of any other sort . These three Arguments , Pyrophilus , for substantial Forms , You may possibly , as well as I , find variously propos'd , and perhaps with some light alterations multiply'd in the writings of the Peripateticks and Schoolmen ; but all the Arguments of this kind that I have met with , may , if I mistake not , be sufficiently solv'd by the Answers we have given to these ▪ or at least by the grounds upon which those Answers are built ; those seemingly various Arguments agreeing in this , That either they respect rather Words then Things , or that they are grounded upon precarious Suppositions ; or lastly that they urge That as an Absurdity , which , whether it be one or not in those , that admit the Peripatetick Philosophy , to me , that do as little acquiesce in many of their other Principles , as I do in their substantial Forms , doth not appear any Absurdity at all . And t is perhaps for fear that Arguments of this sort should not much prevaile with Naturalists , that some of the Modern assertors of the Forms we question , have thought it requisite to adde some more Physical Arguments , which ( though I have not found them all in the same Writers , yet ) being in all but few , I shall here briefly consider them . First then among the Physical Arguments , that are brought to prove substantial Forms , I find That the most confidently insisted on , which is taken from the spontaneous return of heated Water to Coldness , which Effects , say they , must necessarily be ascrib'd to the Action of the substantial Form , whose office it is to preserve the Body in its Natural state , and , when there is occasion , to reduce it thereunto : and the Argument indeed might be plausible , if we were sure , that heated Water would grow cold again ( without the Avolation of any Parts more agitated then the rest , ) supposing it to be remov'd into some of the imaginary spaces beyond the World ; but as the case is , I see no necessity of slying to a substantial Form , the Matter seeming to be easily explicable otherwise . The Water we heat is surrounded with our Air , or with some Vessel , or other Body contiguous to the Air , and both the Air and the Water in these Climates are most commonly lesse agitated , then the Juices in our hands , or other Organs of Touching , which makes us esteem and call those Fluids , cold . Now when the Water is expos'd to the fire , it is thereby put into a new Agitation , more vehement then that of the parts of our Sensory , which you will easily grant , if you consider , that when the Heat is intense , it makes the Water boyl and smoak , and oftentimes run over the Vessel ; but when the Liquor is remov'd from the fire , this acquir'd Agitation must needs by degrees be lost , either by the avolation of such fiery Corpuscles as the Epicureans imagine to be got into heated Water , or by the Water 's communicating the Agitation of its Parts to the contiguous Air , or to the Vesse● that contains it , till it have lost its surplusage of Motion , or by the ingress o● those frigorifick Atoms , wherewith ( i● any such be to be granted ) the Air i● these Climates is wont to abound , and so be reduc'd into its former Temperature : which may as well be done without a substantial Form , as if a Shi● swimming slowly down a River , should by a sudden gust of Wind , blowing the same way the Stream runs , be driven o● much faster then before , the Vessel upo● the ceasing of the Wind may , without any such internal principle , return after a while to its former slowness of Motion . So that in this Phaenomenon , we need not have recourse to an internal principle , the Temperature of the extern●● Air being sufficient to give an acco● of it . And if Water be kept , ( as is usual in poor mens houses that want Cellars , ) in the upper Rooms of the house , in case the Climate be hot , the Water will , in spight of the Form , continue far lesse cold , then , accord●ng to the Peripateticks , its nature requires , all the Summer long . And let me here represent to the Champions of Forms , that , according to their Doctrine , the Fluidity of Water , must at least as much proceed from its Form as the Coldnesse , and yet this does so much depend upon the Temperature of the Air , that in Nova Zembla vast quantities of Water are kept in the hard and solid Form of Ice all the year long , by the sharp Cold of the ambient Air , notwithstanding all the pretended Office and Power of the substantial Form to keep it fluid , which it will never be reduc'd to be , unlesse by such a thawing Temperature of the Air , as would it self , for ought appears , make it flow again , although there were no substantial Form in rerum naturâ . There is another Argument much urg'd of late by some Learned Men , the substance whereof is this ; That Matte● being indifferent to one sort of Accidents as well as to another , it is necessary there should be a substantial Form to keep those Accidents , which are said to constitute it , united to the Matter they belong to , and preserve both then and the Body in their Natural state ; so since t is confess'd , that Matter hath o● appetite to these Accidents , more th●● to any others , they demand , how without a substantial Form these Acciden● can be contain'd and preserv'd ? T● this I might represent , that I am not ● well satisfy'd with the Notion wont i● be taken for granted , not onely by the vulgar , but by Philosophers , of the Natural state of Bodies ; as if it were undeniable , that every Natural Body , ( for a to some , I shall not now question it , ) has a certain state , wherein Nature endeavours to preserve it , and out of which it cannot be put , but by being put into a Praeternatural state . For the World being once constituted by the great Author of Things , as it now is , I look upon the Phaenomena of Nature to be caus'd by the Local Motion of one part of Matter hitting against another , and am not so fully convinc'd , that there is such a thing , as Natures designing to keep such a parcel of Matter in such a state , that is cloth'd with just such Accidents , rather then with any other . But I look upon many Bodies , especially fluid ones , as frequently changing their state , according as they happen to be more or lesse agitated , or otherwise wrought upon by the Sun , and other considerable Agents in Nature . As the Air , Water , and other Fluids , if the temperature as to Cold or Heat , and Rarefaction or Condensation , which they are in at the beginning of the Spring here at London , be pitcht upon as their Natural state , then not onely in the torrid and frozen Zones they must have other and very differing Natural states , but here it self they will , almost all the Summer and all the Winter , as our Weather Glasses inform us , be in a varying Praeternatural state , because they will be in those seasons either more hot and rarify'd , or more cold and condens'd , then in the beginning of the Spring . And in more stable and constant Bodies I take , in many cases , the Natural state to be but either the most usual state , or That , wherein that , which produces a notable Change in them , finds them . As when a slender piece of Silver , that is most commonly flexible , and will stand bent every way , comes to be well hammer'd , I count that Flexibility to be the Natural state of that Mettal , because most commonly Silver is found to be flexible , and because it was so before it was hammer'd ; but the Springinesse it acquires by hammering is a state , which is properly no more unnatural to the Silver then the other , and would continue with the Mettal as long as It , if both pieces of Silver , the one flexible , the other springy , were let alone , and kept from outward violence : And as the Silver , to be depriv'd of its flexibleness , needed the violent Motion of the Hammer , so to deprive it of its Spring , it needs the violent Agitation of a nealing fire . These things , and much more , I might here represent , but to come close to the Objection , I Answer , That the Accidents spoken of are introduced into the Matter by the Agents or Efficient Causes , whatever they be , that produce in it what , in the sense formerly explain'd , we call an essential ( though not a substantial ) Form. And these Accidents being once thus introduc'd into the Matter , we need not seek for a new substantial Principle to preserve them there , since by the general law , or common course of Nature , the Matter qualify'd by them , must continue in the state such Accidents have put it into , till , by some Agent or other , it be forcibly put out of it , and so divested of those Accidents ; as in the formerly mention'd Example , borrow'd from Aristotle , of a Brazen Sphaere , when once the Motion of Tools , impell'd and guided by the Artificer , have turn'd a piece of Brass into a Sphaere , there needs no new Substance to preserve that round figure , since the Brasse must retain it , till it be destroy'd by the Artificer himself , or some other Agent able to overcome the resistance of the Matter , to be put into another figure . And on this occasion let me confirme this ad hominem , by representing , That there is not an inconsiderable Party among the Peripateticks themselves , who maintain , That in the Elements the First Qualities ( as they call them ) are instead of Forms , and that the Fire ( for instance ) hath no other Form then Heat and Drynesse , and the Water then Coldnesse and Moisture . Now if these Bodies , that are the vastest and the most important of the Sublunary World , consist but of the Universal Matter , and the few Accidents ; and if in these there needs no substantial Form to keep the Qualities of the Matter united to it , and conjoyn'd among themselves , and preserve them in that state , as long as the Law of Nature requires , though besides the four Qualities that are call'd First , the Elements have divers others , as Gravity and Levity , Firmnesse and Fluidity , Opacousnesse and Transparency , &c. why should the favourers of this Opinion deny , That , in other Bodies besides the Elements , Qualities may be preserv'd and kept united to the Matter they belong to , without the Band or Support of a substantial Form ? And as , when there is no competent destructive Cause , the Accidents of a Body will by the Law of Nature remain such as they were , so if there be , it cannot with reason be pretended , that the substantial Form is able to preserve all those Accidents of a Body , that are said to slow from it , and to be as it were under its care and tuition ; for if , for instance , you expose a Sphaere or Bullet of Lead to a strong fire , it will quickly loose ( not to mention its Figure ) both its Coldness , its Consistence , its Malleableness , its Colour , ( for 't will appear of the colour of fire , ) its Flexibility , and some other Qualities , and all this in spight of the imaginary substantial Form , which , according to the Peripatetical Principles , in this case must still remain in it without being able to help it . And though upon the taking the Lead from off the fire , it is wont to be reduc'd to most of its former Qualities , ( for it will not of it self recover its Sphaericity , ) yet That may well be ascrib'd partly to its peculiar Texture , and partly to the Coldness of the ambient Air , according to what we lately discours'd touching heated and refrigerated Water , which Temperature of the Air is an extrinsecal thing to the Lead , and indeed it is but Accidental , that the Lead upon refrigeration regains its former Qualities ; for in case the Lead have been expos'd long enough to a sufficiently intense fire , it will ( as we have purposely try'd ) be turn'd into Glasse , and loose its colour , its opacity , its malleableness , and ( former degree of ) flexiblenesse , and acquire a Reddishness , a degree of Transparency , a Brittlenesse , and some other Qualities , that it had not before : and let the supposed substantial Form do what it can , even when the Vessel is remov'd from the fire , to reduce or restore the Body to its Natural state and Accidents , yet the former Qualities will remain lost , as long as these Praeternatural ones , introduc'd by the fire , continue in the Matter ; and neither the one will be restor'd , nor the other destroy'd , till some sufficiently powerful extrinsick Agent effect the Change. And on the other side I consider , that the Fruit , when sever'd from the Tree it grew on , is confess'd to be no longer animated ( at least the Kernels or Seeds excepted ) by the Vegetative Soul , or substantial Form of the Plant ; yet in an Orange or Lemmon ( for instance ) pluckt from the Tree , we see , that the same Colour , the same Odour , the same Tast , the same Figure , the same Consistence , and , for ought we know , the same other Qualities , whether sensible , or even occult , as are its Antidotal and Antiscorbutical virtues , that must before be said to have flow'd from the Soul of the Tree , will continue , many months , perhaps some years , after the fruit has ceas'd to have any commerce with the Tree , ( nay though the Tree , whereon it grew , be perhaps in the mean time hewn down or burnt , and though consequently its Vegetative Soul or Form be destroy'd , ) as when it grew thereon , and made up one Plant with it . And we find , that Tamarinds , Rhubarb , Senna , and many other Simples will for divers years , after they have been depriv'd of their former Vegetative Soul , retain their Purgative and other Specifick properties . I find it likewise urg'd , that there can be no Reason , why Whiteness should be separable from a Wall , and not from Snow or Milk ; unlesse we have recourse to substantial Forms . But in case men have agreed to call a thing by such a name , because it has such a particular Quality , that differences it from others , we need go no farther to find a Reason , why one Quality is essential to one thing , and not to another . As in our former example of a Brass Sphaere , the Figure is that , for which we give it that Name , and therefore , though you may alter the figure of the Matter , yet by that very alteration the Body perishes in the capacity of a Sphaere , whereas its Coldness may be exchang'd for Heat , without the making it the less a Sphaere , because t is not for any such Quality , but for Roundness , that a Body is said to be a Sphaere . And so Firmness is an inseparable Quality of Ice , though this or that particular Figure be not , because that t is for want of fluidity , that any thing , that was immediately before a Liquor , is call'd Ice , and congruously hereunto , though Whiteness were inseparable from Snow and Milk , yet that would not necessarily infer , that there must be a substantial Form to make it so : for the Firmness of the Corpuscles , that compose Snow , is as inseparable from it , as the Whitenesse ; and yet is not pretended to be the effect of the substantial Form of the Water , but of the excesse of the Coldnesse of the Air , which ( to use vulgar , though perhaps unaccurate , expressions , ) puts the Water out of its Natural state of Fluidity , and into a Praeternatural one Firmness and Brittleness . And the reason , why Snow seldome looses its whiteness but with its nature , seems to be , that its component Particles are so dispos'd , that the same heat of the ambient Air , that is sit to turn it into a transparent Body , is also fit to make it a fluid one , which when it is become , we no longer call it Snow , but Water ; so that the Water looses its whiteness , though the Snow do not . But if there be a cause proper to make a convenient alteration of Texture in the Snow , without melting or resolving it into water , it may then exchange its Whiteness for Yellownesse , without loosing its right to be call'd Snow ; as , I remember , I have read in an eminent Writer , that de facto in the Northern Regions towards the Pole , those parcels of Snow , that have lain very long on the ground , degenerate in time into a Yellowish colour , very differing from that pure Whiteness to be observ'd in the neighbouring Snow lately fallen . But there yet remains an Argument for substantial Forms , which though ( perhaps because Physical ) wont to be overlook'd , or slightly answer'd by their Opposers , will for the same reason deserve to be taken notice of here ; and it is , That there seems to be a necessity of admitting substantial Forms in Bodies , that from thence we may derive all the various changes , to which they are subject , and the differing Effects they produce , [ the Preservation and Restitution of the State requisite to each particular Body , ] as also the keeping of its several parts united into one Totum . To the answering of this Argument , so many things will be found applicable , both in the past and subsequent parts of these Notes , that I shall at present but point the chief particulars , on which the Solution is grounded . I consider then first , that many and great Alterations may happen to Bodies , which seem manifestly to proceed from their peculiar Texture , and the Action of outward Agents upon them , and of which it cannot be shewn , that they would happen otherwise , though there were no substantial Forms in rerum natura : as we see that Tallow ( for instance ) being melted by the fire looses its Coldness , Firmness , and its Whiteness , and acquires Heat , Fluidity , and some Transparency , all which , being suffer'd to cool , it presently exchanges for the three first nam'd Qualities . And yet divers of these Changes are plainly enough the effects partly of the Fire , partly of the ambient Air , and not of I know not what substantial Form : and it is both evident and remarkable , what great variety of changes in Qualities , and Productions of new ones , the Fire ( that is , a Body consisting of insensible parts , that are variously and vehemently mov'd ) doth effect by its Heat , that is , by a modify'd Local Motion . I consider further , that various Operations of a Body may be deriv'd from the peculiar Texture of the Whole , and the Mechanical Affections of the particular Corpuscles or other parts that compose it , as we have often occasion to declare here and there in this Treatise ; and particularly by an Instance , ere long to be further insisted on , namely , that though Vitriol , made of Iron with a Corrosive liquor , be but a factitious Body , made by a convenient apposition of the small parts of the saline Menstruum to those of the Mettal , yet this Vitriol will do most , if not all , of the same things , that Vitriol , made by Nature in the bowels of the Earth , and digg'd out thence , will perform ; and each of these Bodies may be endow'd with variety of differing Qualities , which I see not , why they must flow , in the native Vitriol , from a substantial Form , since in the factitious Vitriol , the same Qualities belong to a Form , that does plainly emerge from the coalition of Metalline and Saline Corpuscles , associated together and dispos'd of after a certain manner . And lastly , as to what is very confidently , as well as plausibly , pretended , That a substantial Form is requisite to keep the parts of a Body united , without which it would not be one Body . I answer , That the contrivance of conveniently figur'd parts , and in some cases their juxta-position , may without the assistance of a substantial Form be sufficient for this matter ; for not to repeat what I just now mention'd concerning Vitriol made by Art , whose Parts are as well united and kept together , as those of the Native Vitriol , I observe ▪ that a Pear grafted upon a Thorn , or a Plum inoculated upon an Apricock , will bear good fruit , and grow up with the Stock , as though they both made but one Tree , and were animated but by the same common Form ; whereas indeed both the Stock and the inoculated or grafted Plant have each of them its o● Form , as may appear by the differing leaves , and fruits , and seeds they be● ▪ And that which makes to our presen● purpose is , that even Vegetation and the Distribution of Aliments are in such cases well made , though the nourish'd parts of the Total Plant , if I may so ca● it , have not one common Soul or Form which is yet more remarkable in the Misletoes , that I have seen growing upon old Hazletrees , Crab-trees , Apple-trees , and other plants , in which the Misletoe often differs very widely from that kind of Plant on which it grow and prospers . And for the durableness● of the Union betwixt Bodies that a substantial Form is not requisite to procure it , I have been induc'd to think by considering , that Silver and Gold , being barely mingl'd by Infusion , will ha● their minute parts more closely united then those of any Plant or Animal tha● we know of . And there is scarce any Natural Body , wherein the Form makes so strict , durable , and indissoluble an Union of the parts it consists of , as that , which , in that Factitious Concrete we call Glass , arises from the bare commistion of the Corpuscles of Sand with those Saline ones , wherewith they are colliquated by the violence of the fire : and the like may be said of the Union of the proper Accidents of Glasse with the Matter of it , and betwixt one another . To draw towards a Conclusion , I know t is alledg'd as a main Consideration on the behalf of substantial Forms , that these being in Natural Bodies the true principles of their Properties , and consequently of their Operations , their Natural Philosophy must needs be very imperfect and defective , who will not take in such Forms : but for my part I confess , that this very consideration does rather indispose then incline me to admit them . For if indeed there were in every Natural Body such a thing as a substantial Form , from which all its Properties and Qualities immediately flow , since we see that the Actions o● Bodies upon one another are for the most part ( if not all ) immediately perform'd by their Qualities or Accidents , it would scarce be possible to explicate very many of the explicable Phaenomen● of Nature , without having recourse to Them ; and it would be strange , if many of the abstruser Phaenomena were not explicable by them onely . Whereas indee● almost all the rational Accounts to be met with of difficult Phaenomena , are given by such as either do not acknowledge , or at least do not take notice of substantial Forms . And t is evident by the clear Solutions ( untouch'd by many vulgar Philosophers , ) we meet with of many Phaenomena in the Staticks , and other parts of the Mechanicks , and especially in the Hydrostaticks , and Pneumaticks , how clearly many Phaenomena may be solv'd , without imploying a substantial Form. And on the other side , I do not remember , that either Aristotle himself , ( who perhaps scarce ever attempted it , ) or any of his Followers , has given a solid and intelligible solution of any one Phaenomenon of Nature by the help of substantial Forms ; which you need not think it strange I should say , since the greatest Patrons of Forms acknowledg their Nature to be * unknown to Us , to explain any Effect by a substantial Form , must be to declare ( as they speak ) ignotum per ignotius , or at least per aquè ignotum . And indeed to explicate a Phaenomenon , being to deduce it from something else in Nature more known to Us , then the thing to be explain'd by It , how can the imploying of Incomprehensible ( or at least Uncomprehended ) substantial Forms help Us to explain intelligibly This or That particular Phaenomenon ? For to say , that such an Effect proceeds not from this or that Quality of the Agent , but from its substantial Form , is to take an easie way to resolve all difficulties in general , without rightly resolving any one in particular ; and would make a rare Philosophy , if it were not far more easie then satisfactory : for if it be demanded , why Jet attracts Straws , Rhubarb purges Choller , Snow dazles the Eyes rather then Grasse , &c. to say , that these and the like Effects are perform'd by the substantial Forms of the respective Bodies , is at best but to tell me , what is the Agent , not how the Effect is wrought ; and seems to be but such a kind of general way of answering , as leaves the curious Enquirer as much to seek for the causes and manner of particular Things , as Men commonly are for the particular causes of the several strang Things perform'd by Witchcraft , though they be told , that t is some Divel that does them all . Wherefore I do not think , but that Natural Philosophy , without being for That the more Defective , may well enough spare the Doctrine of Substantial Forms as an useless Theory ; not that Men are yet arriv'd to be able to explicate all the Phaenomena of Nature without them , but because , whatever we cannot explicate without them , we cannot neither intelligibly explicate by them . And thus , Pyrophilus , I have offer'd You some of those many things , that indispos'd me to acquiesce in the receiv'd Doctrine of Substantial Forms ; but in case any more piercing Enquirer shall perswade himself , that he understands it throughly , and can explicate it clearly , I shall congratulate him for such happy Intellectuals , and be very ready to be inform'd by him . But since what the Schools are wont to teach of the Origine and Attributes of substantial Forms , is that , which , I confess , I cannot yet comprehend ; and since I have some of the eminentest Persons among the Modern Philosophers to joine with me , though perhaps not for the same Considerations , in the like confession , that t is not necessary the Reason of my not finding this Doctrine conceivable , must be rather a Defectiveness in my Understanding , then the unconceivable nature of the thing it self : I , who love not ( in matters purely Philosophical ) to acquiesce in what I do not understand , nor to go about to explicate things to others , by what appears to me it self inexplicable , shall , I hope , be excus'd , if , leaving those that contend for them , the liberty of making what use they can of substantial Forms , I do , till I be better satisfied , decline imploying them my self , and endeavour to solve those Phaenomena , I attempt to give an account of , without them , as not scrupling to confess , that those that I cannot explicate , at least in a general way , by intelligible principles , I am not yet arriv'd to the distinct and particular knowledg of . Now for our Doctrine touching the Origine of Forms , it will not be difficult to collect it from what we formerly discours'd about Qualities and Forms together : for the Form of a Natural Body , being according to us , but an Essential Modification , and , as it were , the Stamp of its Matter , or such a convention of the Bigness , Shape , Motion ( or Rest , ) Scituation and Contexture , ( together with the thence resulting Qualities ) of the small parts that compose the Body , as is necessary to constitute and denominate such a particular Body ; and all these Accidents being producible in Matter by Local Motion , 't is agreeable to our Hypothesis to say , That the first and Universal , though not immediate cause of Forms is none other but God , who put Matter into Motion , ( which belongs not to its Essence , ) and Establish'd the Laws of Motion amongst Bodies , and also , according to my Opinion , guided it in divers cases at the beginning of Things ; and that , among Second Causes , the Grand Efficient of Forms is Local Motion , which by variously dividing , sequestring , transposing , and so connecting the parts of Matter , produces in them those Accidents and Qualities , upon whose account the portion of Matter they diversifie comes to belong to this or that determinate species of Natural Bodies , which yet is not so to be understood , as if Motion were onely an Efficient cause in the Generation of Bodies , but very often ( as in , water , fire , &c. ) t is also one of the chiefe Accidents , that concurre to make up the Form. But in this last Summary Account of the Origine of Forms , I think my self oblig'd to declare to you a little more distinctly , what I just now intimated to be my own Opinion . And this I shall do , by advertising you , that though I agree with our Epicureans , in thinking it probable , that the World is made up of an innumerable multitude of singly insensible Corpuscles , endow'd with their own Sizes , Shapes , and Motions ; and though I agree with the Cartesians , in believing ( as I find that * Anaxagoras did of Old , ) that Matter hath not its Motion from its self , but Originally from God ; yet in This I differ both from Epicurus and Des Cartes , that , whereas the former of them plainly denies , that the World was made by any Deity , ( for Deities he own'd , ) and the Latter of them , for ought I can find in his Writings , or those of some of his Eminentest Disciples , thought , that God , having once put Matter into Motion , and establish'd the Laws of that Motion , needed not more particularly interpose for the Production of Things Corporeal , nor even of Plants or Animals , which according to him are but Engines : I do not at all believe , that either these Cartesian Laws of Motion , or the Epicurean casual Concourse of Atoms , could bring meer Matter into so orderly and well contriv'd a Fabrick as This World ; and therefore I think , that the wise Author of Nature did not onely put Matter into Motion , but when he resolv'd to make the World , did so regulate and guide the Motions of the small parts of the Universal Matter , as to reduce the greater Systems of them into the Order they were to continue in ; and did more particularly contrive some portions of that Matter into Seminal Rudiments or Principles , lodg'd in convenient Receptacles , ( and as it were Wombs , ) and others into the Bodies of Plants and Animals : one main part of whose Contrivance , did , as I apprehend , consist in this , That some of their Organs were so fram'd , that , supposing the Fabrick of the greater Bodies of the Universe , and the Laws he had establish'd in Nature , some Juicy and Spirituous parts of these living Creatures must be fit to be turn'd into Prolifick Seeds , whereby they may have a power , by generating their like , to propagate their Species . So that according to my apprehension , it was at the beginning necessary , that an Intelligent and Wise Agent should contrive the Universal Matter into the World , ( and especially some Portions of it into Seminal Organs and Principles , ) and settle the Laws , according to which the Motions and Actions of its parts upon one another should be regulated : without which interposition of the Worlds Architect , however moving Matter may with some probability ( for I see not in the Notion any Certainty ) be conceiv'd to be able , after numberless Occursions of its insensible parts , to cast it self into such grand Conventions and Convolutions , as the Cartesians call Vortices , and as , I remember ; * Epicurus speaks of under the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; yet I think it utterly improbable , that brute and unguided , though moving , Matter , should ever convene into such admirable Structures , as the Bodies of perfect Animals . But the World being once fram'd , and the course of Nature establish'd , the Naturalist , ( except in some few cases , where God , or Incorporeal Agents interpose , ) has recourse to the first Cause but for its general and ordinary Support and Influence , whereby it preserves Matter and Motion from Annihilation or Desition ; and in explicating particular Phaenomena , considers onely the Size , Shape , Motion , ( or want of it ) Texture , and the resulting Qualities and Attributes of the small particles of Matter . And thus in this great Automaton the World , ( as in a Watch or Clock , ) the Materials it consists of , being left to themselves , could never at the first convene into so curious an Engine : and yet , when the skilful Artist has once made and set it a going , the Phaenomena it exhibits are to be accounted for by the number , bignesse , proportion , shape , motion , ( or endeavour , ) rest , coapration , and other Mechanical Affections of the Spring , Wheels , Pillars , and other parts it is made up of : and those effects of such a Watch , that cannot this way be explicated , must , for ought I yet know , be confess'd , not to be sufficiently understood . But to return thither , whence my Duty to the Author of Nature oblig'd me , to make this short Digression . The hitherto propos'd Hypothesis , touching the Origination of Forms , hath , I hope , been rendred probable by divers particulars in the past Discourses , and will be both exemplify'd and confirm'd by some of the Experiments , that make the Latter part of this present Treatise , ( especially the Fifth and 7th of them , ) which , containing Experiments of the Changing the Form of a Salt and a Mettal , do chiefly belong to the Historical or Experimental part of what we deliver touching the Origine of Forms . And indeed , besides the two kinds of Experiments presently to be mention'd , we might here present you a Third sort , consisting partly of divers Relations of Metalline Transmutations , deliver'd upon their own Credit by Credible men , that are not Alchymists ; and partly of some Experiments ( some made , some directed by us ) of Changing both Bodies , totally inflammable , almost totally into Water , and a good part ev'n of distill'd Rain water without Additament into Earth ; and distill'd Liquors , readily and totally mingleable with Water , pro parte into a true Oyle , that will not mix with it , This sort of Experiments , I say , I might here annex , if I thought fit , in this place , either to lay any stresse upon those , that I cannot my self make out , or to transfer hither those Experiments of Changes amongst Bodies not Metalline , that belong to another * Treatise . But over and above , what the past Notes and the Experiments , that are to follow them , contain towards the making of what we teach concerning Forms , we will here , for further Confirmation , proceed to adde two sorts of Experiments , ( besides the Third already mention'd . ) The one , wherein it appears , that Bodies of very differing Natures , being put together , like the Wheels , and other peices of a Watch , and by their connection acquiring a new Texture , and so new Qualities , may , without having recourse to a substantial Form , compose such a new Concrete , as may as well deserve to have a substantial Form attributed to it , by virtue of that new Disposition of its parts , as other Bodies that are said to be endow'd therewith . And the other , that a Natural Body being dissipated , and as it were taken in peices , like a Watch , may have its parts so associated , as to constitute New Bodies , of Natures very differing from its own , and from each other ; and yet these dissipated and scatter'd parts , by being recollected and put together again , like the pieces of a Watch , in the like order as before , may recompose ( almost , if not more then almost ) such another Body , as that they made up , before they were taken asunder . I. EXPERIMENTS , and THOUGHTS , about the Production and Reproduction of FORMS . IT was not at randome , that I spoke , when , in the foregoing Notes about the Origine of Qualities , I intimated , That 't was very much by a kind of tacit agreement , that Men had distinguish'd the Species of Bodies , and that those Distinctions were more Arbitrary then we are wont to be aware of . For I confesse , that I have not yet , either in Aristotle , or any other Writer , met with any genuine and sufficient Diagnostick and Boundary , for the Discriminating and limiting the Species of Things , or to speak more plainly , I have not found , that any Naturalist has laid down a determinate Number and sort of Qualities , or other Attributes , which is sufficient and necessary to constitute all portions of Matter , endow'd with them , distinct Kinds of Natural Bodies . And therefore I observe , that most commonly Men look upon these as Distinct Species of Bodies , that have had the luck to have distinct Names found out for them ; though perhaps diverse of them differ much lesse from one another , then other Bodies , which ( because they have been hudled up under one Name , ) have been look'd upon , as but one sort of Bodies . But not to lay any weight on this Intimation about Names , I found , that for want of a true Characteristick , or discriminating notes , it hath been , and is still , both very uncertain as to divers Bodies , whether they are of different Species or of the same , and very difficult to give a sufficient reason , why divers Bodies , wherein Nature is assisted by Art , should not as well pass for distinct kinds of Bodies , as others , that are generally reckon'd to be so . Whether ( for instance ) Water and Ice be not to be esteem'd distinct kinds of Bodies , is so little evident , that some , that pretend to be very well vers'd in Aristotle's Writings and Opinions , affirme him to teach , that Water looses not its own nature by being turn'd into Ice ; and indeed I remember I have read a * Text of his , that seems express enough to this purpose , and the thing it self is made plausible by the reduciblenesse of ice back again into Water . And yet I remember , Galen is affirm'd to make these two , distinct Species of Bodies ; which Doctrine is favour'd by the differing Qualities of Ice and Water , for not onely the one is fluid , and the other solid , and even brittle , but Ice is also commonly more or less opacous in comparison of Water , being also lighter then it in specie , since it swims upon it . To which may be added , that Ice , beaten with common Salt , will freez other Bodies , when Water mingled with Salt will not . And on this occasion , I would propose to be resolv'd , whether Must , Wine , Spirit of Wine , Vinegar , Tartar , and Vappa , be Specifically distinct Bodies ? and the like question I would ask concerning a Hens Egg , and the Chick that is afterwards hatch'd out of it : As also concerning Wood , Ashes , Soot , and likewise the Eggs of Silkworms , which are first small Caterpillars , or ( as some think them ) but Worms , when they are newly hatch'd , and then Aurelia's , ( or husked Maggots , ) and then Butterflies , which I have observ'd with pleasure to be the successive Production of the Prolifick Seed of Silkworms . And whether the Answer to these Quaeries be Affirmative or Negative , I doubt the reason , that will be given for either of the two , will not hold in divers cases , whereto I might apply it . And a more puzling Question it may be to some , whether a Charcoal , being throughly kindled , do specifically differ from another Charcoal ? for , according to those I argue with , the fire has penetrated it quite through ; and therefore some of the recent Aristotelians are so convinc'd of its being transmuted , that all the satisfaction I could find from a very subtle modern Schoolman to the Objection , That if the glowing Coal were plung'd into Water , it would be a black Coal agen , was , That notwithstanding That reduction , the Form of a Charcoal had been once abolish'd by the fire , and was reproduc'd by God , upon the regain'd Disposition of the Matter to receive it . Nor is it very easie to determine , whether Clouds , and Rain , and Ha●l , and Snow , be bodies specifically distinc● from Water , and from each other , and the writers of Meteors are wont to handle them as distinct . And since if such slight differences as those , that discriminate these Bodies , or that which distinguishes Wind from Exhalations , whose Course makes it , be sufficient to constitute differing kinds of Bodies , 't will be hard to give a satisfactory Reason , why other Bodies , that differ in more or more considerable particulars , should not enjoy the same Priviledge . And I presume , that Snow differs less from Rain , then Paper doth from Rags , or Glass made of Wood-ashes does from Wood. And indeed , Men having , by tacit consent , agreed to look upon Paper , and Glass , and Soape , and Sugar , and Brass , and Ink , and Pewter , and Gunpowder , and I know not how many others , to be distinct sorts of Bodies , I see not , why they may not be thought to have done it , on as good grounds , as those , upon which divers other d●ffering Species of Bodies have been constituted . Nor will it suffice to object , that these Bodies are factitious ; for 't is the present nature of Bodies , that ought to be consider'd in referring them to Species , which way soever they came by that Nature : for Salt , that is , in many Countries , made by boiling Sea water in Cauldrons , and other vessels , is as well true Sea-salt , as that which is made in the Isle of Man , ( as Navigators call it , ) without any cooperation of Man , by the bare action of the Sun upon those parts of the Sea water , which chance to be left behind in hollow places , after a high Spring-tide . And Silk worms , which will hatch by the heat of humane Bodies , and Chickens , that are hatch'd in Aegypt by the heat of Ovens or Dunghils , are no less true Silk-worms or Chickens , then those that are hatch'd by the Sun , or by Hens . As for what may be objected , that we must distinguish betwixt Factitious Bodies and Natural , I will not now stay to examine , how far that Distinction may be allow'd : for it may suffice for our present purpose to represent , that whatever may be said of Factitious Bodies , where Man does , by Instruments of his own providing , onely give Figure , or also Contexture to the sensible ( not insensible ) parts of the Matter he works upon ; as when a Joyner makes a Stool , or a Statuary makes an Image , or a Turner a Bowl : yet the case may be very differing in those other factitious Productions , wherein the insensible parts of Matter are alter'd by Natural Agents , who perform the greatest part of the work among themselves , though the Artificer be an Assistant , by putting Them together after a due manner . And therefore I know not , why all the Productions of the Fire made by Chymists should be look'd upon , as not Natural , but Artificial Bodies : since the Fire , which is the grand Agent in these Changes , doth not , by being imploy'd by the Chymist , cease to be , and to work as , a Natural Agent . And since Nature her self doth , by the help of the fire , sometimes afford us the like Productions that the Alchymists art presents us : as in Aetna , Vesuvius , and other burning Mountains , ( some of whose Productions I can shew you , ) Stones are sometimes turn'd into Lime , ( and so an Alcalizate Salt is produc'd , ) and sometimes , if they be more dispos'd to be flux'd , then calcin'd , brought to vitrification ; Metalline and Mineral Bodies are by the violence of the fire colliquated into Masses of very strange and compounded Natures . Ashes and Metalline flowers of divers kinds are scatter'd about the neighbouring places , and copious flowers of Sulphur , sublim'd by the internal fire , have been several times found about the Vents , at which the Fumes are discharg'd into the Air : ( As I have been assur'd by Ingenious Visiters of such Places , whom I purposely inquir'd of , touching these stores ; for of these Travellers more then one answer'd me , they had themselves gather'd , and had brought some very good . ) Not to adde , that I have sometimes suspected , upon no absurd grounds , that divers of the Minerals and other Bodies , we meet with in the lower parts of the Earth , and think to have been formed and lodg'd there ever since the beginning of Things , have been since produc'd there by the help of subterraneal fires , or other heats , which may either by their immediate action , and exceedingly long application , very much alter some Bodies by changing their Texture ; as when Lead is turn'd into Minium , and Tin into Putty by the operation of the fire in a few hours , or by elevating , in the form of Exhalations or Vapours , divers Saline and Sulphureous Corpuscles or Particles of unripe ( or to use a Chymical Term of Art ) Embrionated Minerals , and perhaps Mettals , which may very much alter the Nature , and thereby vary the Kind of other subterraneal Bodies , which they pervade , and in which they often come to be incorporated ; or else may , by convening among themselves , constitute particular Concretions , as wee see that the fumes of Sulphur and those of Mercury unite into that Lovely red Mass , which in the Shops they call Vermilion , and which is so like to the Mineral , whence we usually obtain Mercury , that the Latines give them both the same Name Cinnabaris , and in that are imitated by the French and Italians ; in whose favour I shall adde , That if we suppose this Mineral to consist of a stony Concretion , penetrated by such Mineral fumes as I have been speaking of , the Appellation may be better excus'd then perhaps you imagine , since from Cinnabaris nativa not onely I obtain'd a considerable quantity of good running Mercury , ( which is That , Men are wont to seek for from it , ) but to gratifie my Curiosity somewhat further , I try'd an easie way , that came into my mind , whereby the Caput mortuum afforded me no despicable Quantity of good combustible Sulphur . But this upon the By , being not oblig'd to set down here the grounds of my Paradoxical Conjecture about the Effects of subterraneal Fires and Heats , since I here lay no stress upon it , but return to what I was saying about Aetna , and other Volcans . Since then these Productions of the Fire , being of Nature's own makeing , cannot be deny'd to be Natural Bodies , I see not why the like Productions of the Fire should be thought unworthy that Name , onely because the Fire , that made the former , was kindled by chance in a Hill , and that which produc'd the latter was kindled by a Man in a Furnace . And if flower of Sulphur , Lime , Glass , and colliquated mixtures of Metals and Minerals are to be reckon'd among Natural Bodies , it seems to be but reasonable , that , upon the same grounds , we should admit flower of Antimony , Lime , and Glass , and Pewter , and Brass , and many other Chymical Concretes , ( if I may so call them ) to be taken into the same number ; and then 't will be evident , that to distinguish the species of Natural Bodies , a Concourse of Accidents will , without considering any Substantial Form , be sufficient . But because I need not , on this occasion , have recourse to instances of a disputable nature , I will pitch , for the illustration of the Mechanical Production of Forms , upon Vitriol . For since Nature her self , without the help of Art , does oftentimes produce that Concrete , ( as I have elsewhere shewn by Experience , ) there is no reason why Vitriol , produc'd by easie Chymical Operations , should not be look'd upon as a Body of the same Nature and Kind . And in Factitious Vitriol , our knowing what Ingredients we make use of , and how we put them together , inables us to judge very well , how Vitriol is produc'd . But because it is wont to be reckon'd with Salt-petre , Sea-salt , and Sal Gem among true Salts , I think it requisite to take notice in the first place , that Vitriol is not a meer Salt , but That , which Paracelsus somewhere , and after him divers other Spagyrists , call a Magistery , which in their sense ( for there are that use it in another , ) commonly signifies a Preparation , wherein the Body to be prepar'd has no● its Principles separated , as in Distillation , Incineration , &c. but wherein the whole Body is brought into another form , by the addition of some Salt or Menstruum , that is united per minima with it . And agreeably to this Notion we find , that from common Vitriol , whether native or factitious , may be obtain'd ( by Distillation and Reduction ) an acid Saline Spirit , and a Metalline Substance , as I elsewhere mention , that from blew Vitriol , Copper may be ( by more then one way ) separated . And I the rather give this Advertisement , because that as there is a Vitriol of Iron , which is usually green ; and another of Copper , which is wont to be blew ; and also a white Vitriol , about which it is disputed what it holds , ( though that it holds some Copper I have found ; ) and yet all of these are without scruple reputed true Vitriols , notwithstanding that they differ so much in Colour , and ( as I have discover'd ) in several other Qualities ; so I see no reason , why the other Minerals , being reduc'd by their proper Menstruums into Salt like Magisteries , may not pass for the Vitriols of those Metals , and consequently for Natural Bodies ▪ which , if granted , will adde some confirmation to our Doctrine , though its being granted is not necessary to make it out . For , to confine our selves to Vitriol , 't is known among Chymists , that if upon the filings of Mars one put a convenient quantity of that acid distill'd Liquor , which is ( abusively ) wont to be call'd Oyl of Vitriol , diluting the mixture with Rain , or with common Water , 't is easie by Filtrating the Solution , by Evaporating the Aqueous superfluity of it , and by leaving the rest for a competent while in a Cellar , ( or other cold place ) to Christallize , 't is easie , I say , by this means to obtain a Vitriol of Iron ; which agrees with the other Vitriol of Vitriol-stones or Marchasites , presented us , by Nature , without the help of any other Menstruum , then the Rain that falls upon them from the Clouds , in I know not how many Qualities , part Obvious , and part of them Occult : As , ( of the first sort ) in Colour , Transparency , Brittlenesse , easiness of Fusion , Styptical Tast , reducibleness to a Red Powder by Calcination , and other Qualities more obvious to be taken notice of ; to which may be annex'd divers Qualities of the second sort , ( I mean the more abstruse ones , ) as the power to turn in a trice an Infusion of Galls , made in ordinary water , ( as also to turn a certain clear Mineral Solution , elsewhere mention'd , ) into an Inckly colour , to which , in all probability , we may adde a faculty of causing Vomits even in a small Dose , when taken into the Stomach of a Man , and that remarkable property of being endow'd with as exact and curious a shape or figure , as Those , for which Salts have been , by modern Philosophers especially , so much admir'd . But , that no scruple might arise from hence , that in the Vitriolum Martis , wont to be made by Chymists , the Menstruum , that is imploy'd , is the Oyl of common Vitriol , which may be suspected to have retain'd the nature of the Concrete whence it proceeded , and so this Factitious Vitriol may not be barely a new Production , but partly a Recorporification , as they speak , of the Vitriolate Corpuscles contain'd in the Menstruum : To prevent this Scruple I say , ( which yet perhaps would not much trouble a Considering Chymist , ) I thought fit to imploy a quite other Menstruum , that would not be suspected to have any thing of Vitriol in it . And though Aqua fortis , and Spirit of Nitre , however they corrode Mars , are unfit for such a work , yet having pitch'd upon Spirit of Salt instead of Oyl of Vitriol , and proceeding the same way that has been already set down , it answer'd our Expectation , and afforded us a good green Vitriol . Nor will the great disposition , I have observ'd in this our Vitriol , to resolve , by the moisture of the Air , into a Liquor , make it essentially differing from other Vitriols , since it has been observ'd , and particularly by Guntherus Belichius more then once , that even the common Vitriol he us'd in Germany , will also , though not so easily as other Salts , run ( as the Chymists phrase it ) per deliquium . And to make the Experiment more compleat , though we did not find either Oyl of Vitriol , or Spirit of Salt , good Menstruums to make a blew Venereal Vitriol out of Copper , ( however fil'd , or thinly laminated , ) and though upon more Tryals then one , it appear'd , that Aqua fortis , & Spirit of Nitre , which we thought fit to substitute to the above mention'd Liquors , did indeed make a Solution of Copper , but so unctuous a one , that t was very hard to bring any part of it to drynesse , without spoyling the Colour and Shape of the desir'd Body : yet repeating the Experiment with care and watchfulness , we , this way , obtain'd one of the loveliest Vitriols that hath perhaps been seen , and of which you your self may be the judg by a parcel of it I keep by me for a Rarity . To apply now these Experiments , especially That , wherein Spirit of Salt is imploy'd , to the purpose , for which I have mention'd them , let us briefly consider these two things ; the one , that our Factitious Vitriol is a Body , that , as well as the Natural , is endow'd with many Qualities , ( manifest , and occult , ) not onely such as are common to it with other Salts , as Transparency , Brittleness , Solublenesse in Water , &c. but such as are Properties peculiar to it , as Greenness , easiness of Fusion , Stypticity of Tast , a peculiar Shape , a power to strike a Black with infusion of Galls , an Emetick faculty , &c. The other thing we are to consider is , that though these Qualities are in common Vitriol believ'd to flow from the substantial Form of the Concrete , and may , as justly as the Qualities , whether manifest or occult , of other Inanimate Bodies , be imploy'd as Arguments to evince such a Form : yet in our Vitriol , made with Spirit of Salt , the same Qualities and Properties were produc'd by the associating and juxtaposition of the two Ingredients , of which the Vitriol was compounded , the Mystery being no more but this , That the Steel being dissolv'd in the Spirit , the Saline Particles of the former , and the Metalline ones of the latter , having each their Determinate Shapes , did by their Association compose divers Corpuscles of a mix'd or compounded Nature , from the Convention of many whereof , there resulted a new Body , of such a Texture , as qualify'd it to affect our Sensories , and work upon other Bodies , after such a manner as common Vitriol is wont to do . And indeed in our case , not onely it cannot be made appear , that there is any substantial Form generated anew , but that there is not so much as an exquisite mixture , according to the common Notion the Schools have of such a Mixture . For Both the Ingredients retain their Nature , ( though perhaps somewhat alter'd , ) so that there is , as we were saying , but a Juxta-position of the Metalline and Saline Corpuscles ; onely they are associated so , as by the mannner of their Coalition to acquire that new Texture , which Denominates the Magistery they compose , Vitriol . For 't is evident , that the Saline Ingredient may either totally , or for much the greatest part be separated by Distillation , the Metalline remaining behind . Nay some of the Qualities , we have been ascribing to our Vitriol , do so much depend upon Texture , that the very Beams of the Sun ( converg'd ) will , as I have purposely try'd , very easily alter its Colour , as well as spoyl its Transparency , turning it at first from Green to White , and , if they be concenter'd by a good Burning glass , makeing it change that Livery for a deep Red. Doubts and Experiments , touching the Curious Figures of SALTS . ANd here let me take notice , that though the exact and curious Figures , in which Vitriol and other Salts are wont to shoot , be made Arguments of the Presence , and great Instances of the Plastick skill of substantial Forms and Seminal Powers , yet , I confess , I am not so fully satisfied in this matter , as even the Modern Philosophers appear to be . T is not that I deny , that Plato's excellent Saying , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , may be apply'd to these exquisite Productions of Nature . For though God has thought fit to make things Corporeal after a much more facile and intelligible way , then by the intervention of substantial Forms ; and though the Plastick power of Seeds , which in Plants and Animals I willingly admit , seem not in our case to be needful ; yet is the Divine Architect's Geometry ( if I may so call it ) neverthelesse to be acknowledg'd and admir'd ; for having been pleas'd to make the primary and insensible Corpuscles of Salts and Metals of such determinate , curious , and exact Shapes that , as they happen to be associated together , they should naturally produce Concretions , which , though differingly figur'd according to the respective Natures of their Ingredients , and the various manners of their Convening should yet be all of them very curious and seem elaborate in their Kinds . How little I think it fit to be allow'd , that the Bodies of Animals , which consist of so many curiously fram'd and wonderfully adapted Organical parts , ( and whose Structure is a thousand times more Artificial then that of Salts , and Stones , and other Minerals , ) can be reasonably suppos'd to have been produc'd by Chance , or without the Guidance of an Intelligent Author of Things , I have elsewhere largely declar'd . But I confess , I look upon these Figures we admire in Salts , and in some kinds of Stones , ( which I have not been Incurious to collect , ) as Textures so simple and slight in comparison of the Bodies of Animals , & oftentimes in comparison of some one Organical part , that I think it cannot be in the least inferr'd , that because such slight Figurations need not be ascrib'd to the Plastick power of Seeds , it is not necessary , that the stupendious and incomparably more elaborate Fabrick and structure of Animals themselves should be so . And this premis'd , I shall adde , that I have been inclin'd to the Conjecture about the shapes of Salts , that I lately propos'd , by these Considerations . First , That by a bare Association of Metalline and Saline Corpuscles , a Concrete , as finely figur'd as other Vitriols , may be produc'd , as we have lately seen Secondly , because that the Figures of these Salts are not constantly in all respects the same , but may in diverse manners be somewhat varied , as they happen to be made to shoot more hastily , or more leisurely , and as they shoot in a scanter , or in a fuller proportion of Liquor . This may be easily observ'd by any , that will but with a little Attention consider the difference that may be found in Vitriolate Christals or Grains , when quantities of them were taken out of the great Coolers , as they call them , wherein that Salt , at the Works where t is boyl'd , is wont to be set to shoot . And accordingly , where the Experienc'd Mineralist Agricola , describes the several wayes of making Vitriol in great Quantities , he does not onely more then once call the great Grains or Christals , into which it coagulates , Cubes ; but speaking of the manner of their Concretion about the Cords or Ropes , that are wont ( in Germany ) to be hang'd from certain cross Bars into the Vitriolate Water or Solution for the Vitriol to fasten its self to ; he compares the Concretions indifferently to Cubes or Clusters of Grapes : Ex his ( sayes he , speaking of the cross Bars , ) pendent restes lapillis extentae , ad quos humor spissus adhaerescens densatur in translucentes atramenti sutorii vel Cubos , vel Acinos , qui uvae speciem gerunt . I remember also , that having many years since a suspicion , that the Reason why Alkalys , such as Salt of Tartar and Pot-ashes are wont to be obtain'd in the form of white Powders or Calces , might be the way , wherein the Water , or the Lixiviums , that contain them , is wont to be drawn off , I fancied , that by leaving the Saline Corpuscles a competent quanti - of Water to swimme in , and allowing them leasure for such a multitude of * Occursions , as might suffice to make them hit upon more congruous Coalitions then is usual , I might obtain Christals of Them , as well as of other Salts : conjecturing this , I say , I caus'd some well purify'd Alkalys , dissolv'd in clear water , to be slowly evaporated , till the Top was cover'd with a thin Ice-like Crust , then taking care not to break That , least they should ( as in the ordinary way , where the Water is all forc'd off , ) want a sufficient stock of Liquor , I kept them in a very gentle heat for a good while ; and then breaking the above mentioned Ice like Cake , I had , as I wish'd , divers figured Lumps of Christalline Salt shot in the Water , and transparent almost like white Sugar Candy . I likewise remember , that having , on several occasions , distill'd a certain quantity of Oyl of Vitriol , with a strong Solution of Sea-salt , till the remaining Matter was left dry , that Saline Residue being dissolv'd in fair water , filter'd , and gently evaporated , would shoot into Christals , sometimes of one figure , sometimes of another , according as the quantity or strength of the Oyl of Vitriol and other Substances determin'd . And yet these Christals , though sometimes they would shoot into Prisme-like Figures , as Roch'd Petre ; and sometimes into shapes more like to Allome or Vitriol ; nay though oftentimes the same Caput mortuum dissolv'd , would in the same Glass shoot into Christals , whereof some would be of one shape , some of another , yet would these differing Grains or Christals appear for the most part more exquisitely figur'd , then oftentimes Vitriol does . From Spirit of Urine and Spirit of Nitre , when I have suffer'd them to remain long together before Coagulation , and free'd the mixture from the superfluous moisture very slowly , I have sometimes obtain'd fine long Christals , ( some of which I can shew you ) so shap'd , that most Beholders would take them for Christals of Salt-petre . And I have likewise tryed , that whereas Silver is wont to shoot into Plates exceeding thin , almost like those of Moscovis glass , when I have dissolv'd a pretty quantity of it in Aqua fortis , or spirit of Nitre , and suffer'd it to shoot very leisurely , I have obtain'd Lunar Christals , ( several of which I have yet by me , ) whose Figure , though so pretty as to have given some wonder even to an Excellent Geometrician , is differing enough from that o●●●e thin Plates formerly mention'd ; each Christal being compos'd of many small and finely shap'd Solids , that stick so congruously to one another , as to have one surface , that appear'd Plain enough , common to the● all . Thirdly , that insensible Corpuscles of different , but all of them exquisite , shapes , and endowed with plain as well as smooth sides , will constitute Bodies variously , but all very finely figur'd , I have made use of several waies to manifest . And first , though Harts-horn , Bloud , and Urine , being resolv'd , and ( as the Chymists speak ) Analiz'd by Distillation , may well be suppos'd to have their substantial Forms ( if they had any ) destroy'd by the action of the Fire : yet in regard the Saline Particles , they contain , are endow'd with such figures as we have been speaking of , when in the Liquor , that abounds with either of these volatile Salts , the dissolv'd Particles do leisurely shoot into Christals , I have divers times observ'd , in these , many Masses , ( some bigger , and some less , ) whose surfaces had Plains , some of Figures , as to sense exactly Geometrical , and others very curious and pleasant . And of these finely shap'd Christals of various sizes , I have pretty store by me . And because ( as it may be probably gather'd from the Event ) the Saline Corpuscles of Stillatitio●s acid liquors , and those of many of the Bodies , they are fitted to dissolve , have such kind of Figures as we have been speaking of , when the solutions of these Bodies , upon the recess of the superfluous moisture , shoot into Christals ; these , though they will sometimes be differing enough , according to the particular natures of the dissolv'd Bodies and the Menstruum , yet either the Christals themselves , or their Surfaces , or both , will oftentimes have fine and exquisite Figures ; as I have try'd by a Menstruum , wherewith I was able to dissolve some Gems ; as also with a solution of Coral , made with Spirit of Verdigreese , to omit other Examples . And for the same reason , when I try'd whether the Particles of Silver , dissolv'd in Aqu● fortis , would not , without Concoagulating with the Salts , convene , upon the Account of their own shapes , into little Concretions of smooth and flat surfaces , I found , that having ( to afford the Metalline Corpuscles scope to move in ) diluted one part of the Solution with a great many parts of distill'd Rain water , ( for common water will oftentimes make such Solutions become white or turbid , ) a Plate of Copper being suspended in the Liquor , and suffer'd to lie quiet there a while , ( for it need not be long ) there would settle , all about it , swarms of little Metalline and Undiaphanbus Bodies , shining in the water like the scales of small Fishes , but form'd into little Plates extremely thin , with surfaces not onely flat , but exceeding glossy : and among those , divers of the larger were prettily figur'd at the Edges . And as for Gold , its Corpuscles are sufficiently dispos'd to convene with those of fit or congruous Salts into Concretions of determinate Shapes , as I have found in the Christals I obtain'd from Gold dissolv'd in Aqua Regis , and after having been suffer'd to loose its superfluous moisture , kept in a cold place : and not onely so , but also when by a more powerful Menstruū I had subdivided the Body of Gold into such minute Particles , that they were sublimable , ( for That , I can assure you , is possible , ) these volatile Particles of Gold , with the Salts , wherewith they were elevated , afforded me ( sometimes ) store of Christals , which , though not all of the● near of the same Bigness , resembled one another in their shape , which wa● regular enough , and a very pretty one . But of this more elsewhere . § . I remember I have also long since taken pleasure to dissolve two or more of those saline Bodies , whose shapes we know already , in fair Water , that by a very gent●● Evaporation I might obtain Concretions , whose Shapes should be , thoug● curious , yet differing from the Figu●● of either of the Ingredients . But we must not expect , that , in all cases , the Salts dissolv'd together should be totaly compounded : for oftentimes they are of such different Natures , that one will shoot much sooner then another , and then it frequently happens , that a good Proportion of that will be first Christalliz'd in its own shape : as is conspicuously to be observ'd in the refining of that impure Pet●e , ( which , from the Country that affords it , the Purifiers call Barbary Nitre , ) from the common Salt it abounds with : and ( also ) as Agricola observes , * that in some cases , where a Vitriolate Matter is mingled with that , which yields Allom , those two kinds of Salts will shoot separately in the same large vessel , ( which the Tryals , I have made with the compounded Solutions of those two Salts , do not discountenance . ) Now in such cases , all that can be expected , or needs be desir'd , is , that the remaining part of the mixture , or some portion of it , afford Christals , or Grains of compounded solid figures . Though the Venetian Borax , wont to be sold in shops , be known to be a factitious Body , compounded of several Salts , that I shall not now stay to enumerate ; and though , when we buy it , we usually find it to consist of Lumps and Grains mishapen enough , yet when I dissolv'd some of it in a good quantity of fair water , and made it coagulate very leisurely , I had Chrystals ▪ upon whose surfaces I could perceive very exquisite and , as to sense , regular Geometrical figures . And one thing I must not here by any means praetermit , which is , that though the Caput mortuum of common Aqua fortis consists of Bodies of very differing Natures , ( for such are Nitre and Vitriol , ) and has been expos'd to a great violence of the Fire , yet I have sometimes admir'd the curiousness of those figures , that might be obtain'd barely by frequent Solutions and Coagulations of the Saline Particles of this Caput mortuum in fair water . But because the Glasses , wherein my Concretions were made , were too little to afford great Christals , and they ought to shoot very slowly ; I choose rather to shew the Curious some large Christals , which I took out of the Laboratory of an Ingenious Person , who , without minding the Figures , had upon my Recommendation made great quantity of that Salt , in large vessels , for a Medicine : ( it being the Panacea duplicata , so famous in Holstein . ) For divers of these Christals have not onely Triangles , Hexagons , and Rhomboids , and other Figures exquisitely Cut on their smooth & specular surfaces ; and others , Bodies of Prismatical shapes : But some of them are no less accurately figur'd then the finest Nitre or Vitriol I remember my self to have observ'd , and some also terminate in Bodies almost like Pyramids , consisting of divers Triangles , that meet in one Vertical point , and are no less admirably shap'd then the fairer sort of Cornish Diamonds , that have been brought me for Rarities . Besides , the producing of Salts of new shapes , by compounding of Saline Bodies , I have found it to be practicable not onely i● some Gross , or , as they speak , Corporal Salts , such as Sea-salt , Salt-petre , but also in some . Natural and some Chymical Salts dissolv'd together ; and , which perhaps you will think more considerable in saline Spirits , made by distillation : Not that all of them are fit for this purpose , but that I have found divers of those , that work upon one another with Ebullition , to be so . For i● that Conflict the Saline Corpuscles come to be associated to one another , and thereby , or by their newly acquir'd figure , whilst their Coalition lasts , to loose much of their former Volatility : so that , upon Evaporation of the superfluous Liquor , they will not fly , as otherwise they might ; but concoagulate into finely shap'd Christals , as I have try'd among other Saline Liquors , with Spirit of Urine , and Spirit of Nitre , and with Oyl of Vitriol , and Spirit of fermented Urine with Spirit of Sheeps bloud , and spirit of Salt , and also with the Spirits of Salt and of Urine ; which Last Experiment I the rather mention , because it shews , by the difference of the Christals , afforded by those two Liquors , from the Christals resulting from one of them , namely the spirit of Urine , ( or if you please , the Volatile Salt , wherewith it abounds , ) concoagulated with a fit Dose of Oyl of Vitriol , how much those compounded emergent figures depend upon the more simple figures of the saline Corpuscles , that happen to convene into those new Concretes . For the spirit of Urine , satiated with spirit of Salt , and both very gently , and not too far , Evaporated , often afforded me Christals , that differ'd exceedingly in shape from those , which I obtain'd from the same spirit of Urine , satiated , either with Oyl of Vitriol , or with spirit of Nitre . For , ( to adde That upon the By , ) that Salt , compounded of the two Spirits of Urine ▪ and of common Salt , is wont to be very prettily figur'd , consisting of one long Beam as it were , whence on both sides issue out far shorter Christals , sometimes perpendicular to that , and parallel to one another like the Teeth in a Combe , and sometimes so inclining , as to make the Whole appear almost like a Feather ; which is the more remarkable , because I have ( many years ago ) observ'd , that common Sal Armoniack , that is made of Urine and common Salt , both crude , with a Proportion of Soot , will , if warily dissolv'd , and coagulated , shoot into Christals of the like shape . How far the unknown Figure of a Salt may Possibly ( for I fear it will not Easily ) be ghess'd at , by that of the Figure , which it makes with some other Salt , whose Figure is already known , I leave to Geometricians to consider ; having , I fear , insisted too long on this subject already . But yet I must adde one particular more , which will , as well illustrate and confirme much of what has been said above touching the Origination of Vitriol , as shew , that the Shape of Vitriol depends upon the Textures of the Bodies , whereof it is compos'd . Fourthly then , when I consider'd , that ( as I formerly noted ) Vitriol being but a Magistery , made by the concoagulation of the Corpuscles of a dissolv'd Metal , with those of the Menstruum , the Magisteries of other Metals might , without inconvenience , be added , as other Vitriolate Concretes to the green , the blew , and white Vitriol , that are without scruple referr'd to the same species : and when I consider'd , that Oyl of Vitriol was not a fit Menstruum to dissolve divers of the Metals , nor even all those , that it will corrode ; and that the like unfitness also is to be found in common spirit of Salt , I pitch'd upon Aqua fortis or spirit of Nitre , as that Menstruum , which was likeliest to afford variety of Vitriols : and accordingly I found , that besides the Lovely Vitriol of Copper formerly mention'd , that Liquor would with Quicksilver afford one sort of Christals , with Silver another , and with Lead a third ; all which Christals of Vitriol , as they differ'd from each other in other Qualities , ( upon which score you will find this Experiment elsewhere mention'd , ) so they did very manifestly and considerably differ in Shape : the Christals of Silver shooting in exceeding thin Plates , and those of Lead and Quick-silver obtaining figures , though differing enough from each other , yet of a far greater depth and thickness , and lesse remote from the figure of common Vitriol or Sea salt : and yet all these Vitriols , especially That of crude Lead , when it was happily made , had Shapes curious and elaborate , as well as those , we admire in common Vitriol or Sea-salt . IF then these Curious shapes , which are believed to be of the admirablest Effects , and of the strongest Proofs of substantial Forms , may be the Results of Texture ; and if Art can produce Vitriol its self , as well as Nature ; why may we not think , that in ordinary Phaenomena , that have much less of wonder , recourse is wont to be had to substantial Forms without any Necessity ? ( Matter , and a Convention of Accidents being able to serve the turn without them ; ) and why should we wilfully exclude those Productions of the Fire , wherein the Chymist is but a Servant to Nature , from the number of Natural Bodies ? And indeed , since there is no certain Diagnostick agreed on , whereby to discriminate Natural and Factitious Bodies , and constitute the species of both ; I see not , why we may not draw Arguments from the Qualities and Operations of several of those , that are call'd Factitious , to shew how much may be ascrib'd to , and perform'd by , the Mechanical Characterization or Stamp of Matter : Of which we have a noble Instance in Gunpowder , wherein by a bare comminution and blending the Ingredients , Nitre , Charcoal , and Brimstone , which have onely a new , and That an exceeding slight Contexture , each retaining its own Nature in the Mixture ; so that there is no colour afforded to the pretence of a substantial Form , there is produc'd a new Body , whose Operations are more powerful and prodigious , then those of almost any Body of Natures own compounding . And though Glass be but an Artificial Concrete , yet , besides that 't is a very noble and useful one , Nature her self has produc'd very few , if enough , to make up a Number more lasting and more unalterable . And indeed divers of those factitious Bodies that Chymistry is able to afford us , are endow'd with more various and more noble Qualities , then many of those , that are unquestionably Natural . And if we admit these Productions into the number of Natural Bodies , they will afford us a multitude of Instances , to shew , that Bodies may acquire many and Noble Qualities , barely by having Mechanical Affections , introduc'd by outward Agents into the Matter , or destroy'd there . As though Glass be such a Noble Body , as we have lately taken notice of , yet since t is Fusibility , Transparency , and Brittleness , that are its onely Constituent Attributes , we can in less then an hour , ( or , perhaps halfe that time , ) turn an Opacous Body into Transparent Glass , without the Addition of any other Visible Body , by a change of Texture , made in the same Matter , and by another change of Texture , made without Addition , as formerly , we can , in a trice , reduce Glass into , or obtain from it a Body , not Glassy , but Opacous , and otherwise of a very differing Nature , as it had been before . And here let me adde what may not a little conduce to our present Design , That even those , that imbrace Aristotle's principles , do unawares confesse , that a slight change of Texture , without the introduction of a substantial Form , may not onely make a Specifical difference betwixt Bodies , but so vast a one , that they shall have differing Genus'es , and may ( as the Chymists speak ) belong to differing Kingdoms . For Coral , to pass by all other Plants of that kind , that may be mention'd to the same purpose , whilst it grows in the Bottom of the Sea , is a real Plant , and several times ( which suffices for my present scope ) hath been there found by an Acquaintance of mine , as well as by other Inquirers , soft and tender like another Plant. Nay , I elsewhere * bring very good and recent Authority to prove , that it is oftentimes found very succu●ent , and does propagate its species , as well as other Shrubs ; and yet Coral , being gather'd and remov'd into the Air , by the recess of its Soul , no new Lapidifick Form being so much as pre●ended to , turns into a Concretion , that ●s , by many Eminent Writers and others , ●eckon'd among Lapideous ones : as in●eed Coral does not burn like Wood , ●or obey Distillation like it ; and not onely its Calx is very differing from the Ashes of Vegetables , and is totally so●●ble in divers acid Liquors , and even ●pirit of Vinegar , but the uncalcin'd Coral its self will be easily corroded ●y good Vinegar , after the same man●er as I have seen Lapis stellaris , and o●●er unquestionably Mineral stones dis●olv'd , some by that Liquor , and some ●y the Spirit of it . A much stranger ●ing may be seen in the East-India ●sland of Sombrero , not very far from Sumatra , if we may believe our Countryman Sr James Lancester , who relates it as an Eye witnesse , for which reason , and for the strangeness of the thing , I shall adde the story in his own word Here ( * sayes he , speaking of the Co● of Sombrero ) we found upon the sand 〈◊〉 the Sea side , a small Twigge growing 〈◊〉 to a young Tree , and offering to pluck● the same , it shrunk down into the gro●● & sinketh , unless you hold very hard . A● being pluck'd up , a great Worme is the 〈◊〉 of it : and look how the Tree groweth ● greatnes , the VVorme diminisheth N●● soon as the VVorm is wholly turn'd i● the Tree , it rooteth in the ground , 〈◊〉 so groweth to be great . This Transfo●mation was one of the greatest wo●● I saw in all my Travels . This 〈◊〉 being plucked up a little , the Leaves straped off and the Pill , by that time it i● dry turned into a hard Stone , much 〈◊〉 to white Coral . So that ( concludes 〈◊〉 this worme was twice transformed into different natures : of these we gather'd and brought home many . The Industrious Pis● , in his Excellent History of Brasil , vouches a multitude of Witnesses ( not having Opportunity to be one himself ) for the ordinary Transformation of a sort of Animals not much unlike Grass-hoppers ) into Vegetables , at a certain season of the * year . But since I sate down this Relation of Sr John Lancester , I have met with another , whose strangeness may much countenance it , in a small Tract newly publish'd by a Jesuite , F. Michael Boym , whom a good Critick much commended to me . For this Author doth , as an Eyewitnesse , affirme that , which is little lesse to my present Purpose . * Ie vis , i.e. I saw in a small fresh water , and shallow Lake of the Island Hainan , ( which belongs to China ) Crabs , or Crawfishes , which , as soon as they were drawn out of the water , did in a moment loose both Life and Motion , and became petrify'd , though nothing appear'd to be chang'd either to the External or Internal figure of ther● Bodies . What he further addes of these Fishes , is but of their Virtues in Physick , which , not concerning our subject ▪ I shall ( Pyrophilus ) willingly praeterm● it ; and even , as to our Country-man'● relation , hoping , by means of an Ingenious Correspondent in the East-Indies , to receive a further Information about the strange Plant he mentions , 〈◊〉 shall , at present , urge onely what ha● been taken notice of concerning Coral , to countenance the Observation for whose sake these Narratives have been alleadg'd . And so likewise , as to what I was saying of Glass , and Gu●-powder , our receiving of those and the generality of Factitious Bodies into the Catalogue of Natural Bodies , is not ( which I formerly also intimated ) necessary to my present Argument : whereto it is sufficient , that Vitriol is granted on all hands to be a Natural Body , though it be also producible by Art. And also to the Argument it affords us , we might adde that memorable Experiment deliver'd by Helmont , of turning Oyl of Vitriol into Allom , by the Odour ( as he calls it ) of Mercury , if , however it be not despicable , we had found it fit to be rely'd on . But reserving an Account of that for another place , we shall substitute the Instance , presented us by our Author , about the Production of Salt-petre : for if , having dissolv'd Pot-ashes in fair water , you coagulate the filtrated Solution into a white Salt , and on that pour Spirit of Nitre , till they will not hiss any longer together , there will shoot , when the superfluous water is Evaporated , Christals , that proclaim their Nitrous Nature by their Prismatical , ( or at least Prisme-like ) Shape , their easie Fusion , their Accension , and Deflagration , and other Qualities , partly mention'd by our Author , and partly discoverable by a little Curiosity in making Tryals . II. Experimental Attempts about the Redintegration of Bodies . THe former of those two Arguments , ( Pyrophilus ) by which I propos'd to confirme the Origine o● Forms , was , as you may remember , grounded upon the Manner , by which such a Convention of Accidents , as deserves to passe for a Form , may be produc'd : and That having been hitherto prosecuted , it now remains , that we proceed to the Second Argument , drawn , not ( as the former ) from the first Production , but from the Reproduction of a Physical Body . And though both these Arguments are valid ; yet if this Latter could , in spight of the Difficulties intervening in making of the Experiments that belong to it , be as clearly made out as the former , you would , I suppose , like it much the better of the two . For if we could Reproduce a Body , which has been depriv'd of its substantial Form , you would , I presume , think it highly probable , if not more then probable , that ( to borrow our Author's Expression ) That which is commonly call'd the Form of a Concrete , which gives it its Being and Denomination , and from whence all its Qualities are in the Vulgar Philosophy , by I know not what inexplicable waies , suppos'd to flow ; may be in some Bodies but a Characterization or Modification of the Matter they consist of ; whose parts , by being so and so dispos'd in relation to each other , constitute such a determinate kind of Body , endow'd with such and such Properties ; whereas , if the same parts were otherwise disposd , they would constitute other Bodies , of very differing Natures from that of the Concrete , whose parts they formerly were , and which may again result or be produc'd , after its dissipation , and seeming destruction , by the Re-union of the same component Particles , associated according to their former Disposition . But though it were not Impossible to make an adaequate Redintegration of a Chymically Analiz'd Body , because some of the dissipated parts will either escape through the Junctures of the Vessels , ( though diligently clos'd , ) or , if they be very subtle , will fly away upon the disjoyning of the Vessels ; or , will irrecoverably stick to the inside of them : yet I see not , why such a Reproduction , as is very possible to be effected , may not suffice to manifest what we intend to make out by it . For , even in such Experiments , it appears , that when the Form of a Natural Body is abolish'd , and its parts violently scatter'd ; by the bare Reunion of some parts after the former manner , the very same Matter , the destroy'd Body was before made of , may , without Addition of other Bodies , be brought again to constitute a Body of the like Nature with the former , though not of equal Bulk . And indeed , the Experiment , recorded by our Author , about the Reproduction of Salt Petre , as it is the best and successesfullest I have ever been able to make upon Bodies , that require a strong Heat to dissipate them ; so I hope it will suffice to give you those thoughts about this matter , that the Author design'd in alledging it ; and therefore , though having premis'd thus much , I shall proceed to acquaint you with the success of some Attempts he intimates ( in that Essay ) his Intention of making , for the Redintegration of some Bodies ; yet doing it onely out of some Historical Notes I find among my loose Papers , That , which I at present pretend to , is , but partly to shew you the difficulty of such Attempts , which , since our Author's Essay was communicated , have been represented ( I fear by Conjecture onely ) as very easie to be accurately enough done ; and partly , because our Author does not , without reason , intimate the usefulness of Redintegrations , in case they can be effected ; and does , not causelesly , intimate , that such Attempts , though they should not Perfectly succeed , may increase the Number of Noble and Active Bodies , and consequently , the Inventory of Mankind's Goods . Upon such Considerations we attempted the Dissipation and Reunion of the parts of common Amber ; and though Chymists , for fear of breaking their Vessels , are wont , when they commit it to distillation , to adde to it a caput mortuum ( as they speak ) of Sand , Brick , &c. ( in whose room we sometimes choose to substitute beaten Glass ; ) which hinders them to judge of and employ the Remanence of the Amber , after the Distillation is finish'd : yet we suppos'd , and found , that if the Retort were not too much fill'd , and if the Fire were slowly and warily enough administer'd , the Addition of any other Body would be needless . Wherefore having put into a Glass Retort four or five Ounces of Amber , and administred a gentle and gradual heat , we observ'd the Amber to melt and bubble , ( which we therefore mention , because ingenious men have lately questioned , whether it can be melted , ) and having ended the Operation , & sever'd the vessels , we found , that there was come over in the form , partly of Oyl , partly of Spirit & Flegm , and partly of volatile Salt , near half the weight of the Concrete : and having broken the Retort , we found , in the bottom of it , a Cake of coal-black Matter , then whose upper surface I scarce remember to have seen in my whole life any thing more exquisitely polish'd ; in so much , that , notwithstanding the Colour , as long as I kept it , it was fit to serve for a Looking Glass : and this smooth Mass being broken , ( for it was exceeding brittle , ) the larger fragments of it appear'd adorn'd with an excellent lustre . All those parts of the Amber , being put together into a Glass Body , with a blind head luted to it , were placed in Sand , to be incorporated by a gentle heat : but whilst I stept aside to receive a Visit , the Fire having been increas'd without my knowledge , the Fumes ascended so copiously , that they lifted up the Vessel out of the Sand , whereupon falling against the side of the Furnace , it broke at the top , but , being seasonably call'd , we sav'd all but the Fumes ; and the remaining Matter looks not unlike Tarre , and with the least heat may be powr'd out like a Liquor , sticking even when it is cold to the fingers . Yet this open'd Body doth not easily communicate so much as a Tincture to spirit of Wine , ( which therefore seems somewhat strange , because another time presumeing , that this would be a good way to obtain a Solution of some of the resinous parts of Amber , we did , by pouring spirit of Wine , that ( though rectify'd ) was not of the very best , upon the reunited parts of Amber , lightly digested into a Mass , easily obtain a clear Yellow Solution , very differing from the Tincture of Amber , and abounding ( as I found by Tryal ) in the dissolv'd substance of the Amber : ) but in Oyl of Turpentine we have , in a short time , dissolv'd it into a bloud red Balsome , which may be of good use ( at least ) to Chirurgions . And having agen made the former Experiment with more wariness then before , we had the like success in our Distillation , but , the reunited parts of the Amber being set to digest in a large Bolt head , the Liquor that was drawn off , did , in a few hours , from its own Caput mortuum extract a bloud red Tincture , or else made a Solution of some part of it , whereby it obtain'd a very deep Red ; but having been , by intervening Accidents , hindred from finishing the Experiment , we mist the Satisfaction of knowing to what it may be brought at last . And as for what our Author tels us of this design to attempt the Redintegration of Vitriol , Turpentine , and some other Concretes , wherein it seem'd not unpracticable , he found in it more difficulty then every one would expect . For the Bodies , on which such Experiments are likeliest to succeed , seem to be Allom , Sea salt , and Vitriol . And as for Allom , he found it a troublesome work to take ( as a Spagirist would speak ) the Principles of it asunder , in regard , that it is inconvenient to distill it with a Caput mortuum , ( as Chymists call any fix'd Additament , ) least that should hinder the desir'd Redintegration of the dissipated parts : And when he distill'd it by its self , without any such Additament , he found , that , with a moderate heat , the Allom would scarce part with any thing but its Phlegm , and if he urg'd it with a strong fire , he found , it would so swell , as to endanger the breaking of the Retort , or threaten the boyling over into the Receiver . ( Yet having once been able very warily to abstract as much Flegm and Spirit , as I conveniently could , from a parcel of Roch Allom , and having powr'd it back upon that pulveriz'd caput mortuum , and left the vessel long in a quiet place , I found , that the Corpuscles of the Liquor , having had time , after a multitude of Occursions , to accommodate and reunite themselves to the more fix'd parts of the Concrete , did by that Association ( or Dissolution ) recompose , at the top of the Powder , many Christalline Grains of finely figur'd Salt , which increasing with time , made me hope , that , at the length , the whole or the greatest part would be reduc'd into Allom , which yet a Mischance , that robb'd me of the Glass , hindred me to see . ) So likewise of Sea salt , if it be distill'd , as it is usual , with thrice its weight of burn'd Clay , or beaten Brick , t will prove inconvenient in reference to its Redintegration ; and if it be distill'd alone , it is apt to be fluxt by the heat of the fire , and , whilst it remains in Fusion , will scarce yield any Spirit at all . And as for Vitriol , though the Redintegration of it might seem to be less hopeful , then that of the other Salts , in regard that it consists not onely of a Saline , but of a Metalline Body , whence it may be suppos'd to be of a more intricate and elaborate Texture yet because there needs no caput mortuum in the Distillation of it , we did , to pursue our Author 's intimated designs , make two or three Attempts upon it , and seem'd to miss of our Aime , rather upon the Account of accidental hinderances , then of any insuperable difficulty in the thing it self . For once , we with a strong fire , drew off from a parcel of common blew Vitriol , the Phlegm and Spirit , and some quantity of the heavy Oyl , ( as Chymists abusively call it : ) These Liquors , as they came over without Separation , we divided into several parts , and the remaining very red Caput mortuum into as many . One of these parcels of Liquor we poured over night upon its correspondent portion of the newly mentioned red Powder . But having left it in a Window , and the Night proving very bitter , in the morning I found the Glass crack'd in many places by the violence of the Frost , and the Liquor seem'd to have been soak'd up by the Powder , and to have very much swelled it . This mixture then I took out , and placing it in an open mouth'd Glass in a Window , I found , after a while , divers Grains of pure Vitriol upon the other Matter , and some little Swellings , not unlike those we shall presently have Occasion to speak of . I took likewise a much larger parcel of the forementioned Liquor , and its correspondent proportion of Caput mortuum ; and having leisurely mixt them in a large Glass Bason , I obtain'd divers Phaenomena , that belong not to this place , but may be met with , where they will more properly fall in . In this Bason ( which I lay'd in the Window , and kept from Agitation , ) I perceived , after a while , the Liquor to acquire a blewish Tincture , and after ten or twelve weeks , I found the mixture dry , ( for , it seems , it was too much exposed to the Air : ) but the Surface of it adorn'd in divers places with Grains of Vitriol very curiously figur'd . And besides these , there were store of Protuberances , which consisted of aboundance of small vitriolate particles , which seem'd in the way to a Coalition ; for having let the Bason alone for four or five months longer , the Matter appear'd crusted over , partly with very elevated Saline protuberances , partly with lesser parcels , and partly also with considerably broad Cakes of Vitriol , some of above half an Inch in breadth , and proportionably long ; and indeed the whole surface was so odly diversifi'd , that I cannot count the trouble , these Tryals have put me to , mispent . Another time in a more slender and narrow mouth'd Glass I pour'd back upon the Caput mortuum of Vitriol the Liquors , I had by violence of the fire forc'd from it ; so that the Liquid part did swim a pretty height above the red Calx , and remain'd a while limpid and colourless : but the vessel having stood , for some time , unstop'd in a Window , the Liquor after a while , acquir'd by degrees a very deep vitriolate colour , and not long after , there appear'd , at the bottom and on the top of the Calx , many fair and exquisitely figur'd Grains of Vitriol , which cover'd the surface of the Calx ; and the longer the ves●el continu'd in the Window , the deeper did this Change , made upon the upper part of the Powder , seem to penetrate : so that I began to hope , that , in process of time , almost ( if not more then almost ) the whole mixture would be reduc'd to perfect Vitriol . But an Accident robb'd me of my Glass , before I could see the utmost of the Event . And , on this Occasion , I must not praetermit an odd Experiment I lately made , though I dare not undertake to make it agen . I elsewhere relate , how I digested , for divers weeks , a Quantity of powder'd Antimony , with a greater weight by half of Oyl of Vitriol , and how having at length committed this mixture to Distillation , and thereby obtained , besides a little Liquor , a pretty quantity of combustible Antimonial or Antimonio Virriolate Sulphur ; there remained , in the bottom of the Retort , a somewhat light and very friable Caput mortuum , all the upper part of which was at least as white as common Wood-ashes , and the rest look'd like a Cinder . And now I must tell you what became of this Caput mortuum , whereof I there make no further mention . We could not well foresee what could be made of it , but very probable it was , that it would afford us some new Discovery , by being exposed to the fire , in regard of the copious Sulphur , whereof it seem'd to have been deprived : provided it were urg'd in close Vessels , where nothing could be lost . Whereupon committing it to a naked fire in a small glass Retort , well Coated , and accommodated with a Receiver , we kept it there many hours , and at length severing the Vessels , we found ( which need not be wonder'd at ) no Antimonial Quick-silver , and much less of Sulphur sublim'd then we expected : wherefore greedily hastning to the Caput mortuum , we found it flux'd into a Mass , covered with a thin Cake of Glass , whose fragments being held against the light , were not at all coloured , as Antimonial Glass is wont to be , but were as colourlesse as common white Glass . The Lump above mentioned being broken , was found , somewhat to our wonder , to be perfect black Antimony , adorn'd with long shining streaks , as common Antimony is wont to be : onely this Antimony seem'd to have been a little refin'd by the sequestration of its unnecessary Sulphur ; which Ingredient seems by this Experiment , as well as by some other Observations of ours , to be more copious in some particular Parcels of that Mineral , then is absolutely requisite to the constitution of Antimony . Though in our case it may be suspected , that the reduction of part of the Mass to a colourless Glass , was an effect of the Absence of so much of the Sulphur , and might in part make the remaining Masse some amends for it . What we further did with this new or reproduced Concrete , is not proper to be here told you : onely , for your satisfaction , we have kept a Lump of it , that you may , with us , take notice of what some Philosophers would call the Mindfulness of Nature , which , when a Body was deprived of a not inconsiderable portion of its chiefe Ingredient , and had all its other parts dissipated , and shuffled , and discolour'd , so as not to be knowable , was able to rally those scatter'd and disguised parts , and Marshal or dispose them into a Body of the former Consistence , Colour , &c. though ( which is not here to be overlook'd ) the Contexture of Antimony , by reason of the copious shining Styriae , that enoble the darker Body , be much more elaborate , and therefore more uneasie to be restored , then that of many other Concretes . But among all my Tryals about the Redintegration of Bodies , That which seem'd to succeed best , was made upon Turpentine : for having taken some Ounces of this , very pure , and good , and put it into a Glass Retort , I distill'd so long with a very gentle fire , till I had separated it into a good quantity of very clear Liquor , and a Caput mortuum very dry and brittle : then breaking the Retort , I powder'd the Caput mortuum , which , when it was taken out , was exceeding sleek , and transparent enough , and very Red ; but being powder'd , appear'd of a pure Yellow colour . This Powder I carefully mixt vvith the Liquor , that had been distill'd from it , vvhich immediately dissolv'd part of it into a deep red Balsam ; but by further Digestion in a large Glass exquisitely stopt , that Colour began to grovv fainter , though the remaining part of the Povvder , ( except a very little proportionable to so much of the Liquor , as may be suppos'd to have been vvasted by Evaporation , and Transfusion out of one Vessel into another , ) be perfectly dissolv'd , and so well reunited to the more fugitive parts of the Concrete , that there is scarce any , that by the smell , or tast , or consistence vvould take it for other then good and laudable Turpentine . The I. Section of the Historical Part ( containing the Observations , and beginning at pag , 107. ) is misplac'd , and ought to have come in here , and have immediately preceded this II. Section containing the Experiments . ADVERTISEMENTS about the ensuing II. SECTION . THe Author would not have the Reader think , that the following Experiments , are the sole ones that he could have set down to the same purpose with them . For they are not the onely that he had actually laid aside for this occasion , till judging the ensuing ones sufficient for his present scope , he thought it fitter to reserve Others for those Notes about the Production of particular Qualities , to which they seem'd properly to belong . Perhaps also it will be requisite for me ( because some Readers may think the Omission a little strange ) to excuse my having left divers particulars unmentioned in more then One of the ensuing Experiments . And I confesse that I might easily enough both have taken notice of more Circumstances in them , and made far more Reflections on them , if I would have expatiated on the several Experiments according to the Directions deliver'd in other * Papers . But though there , where t was my Design to give imployment to the Curiosity and Diligence of as many Votaries to Nature , as ( for want of letter instructions ) had a mind to be so set on work , it was fit the proposed Method should be suitable ; yet here , where I deliver Experiments , not so much as parts of Natural History , as instances to confirm the Hypotheses , and Discourses they are annexed to ; it seemed needlesse , and improper , ( if not impertinent , ) to set down Circumstances , Cautions , Inferences , Hints , Applications , and other Particulars , that had no tendency to the scope , for which the Experiments were alledged . ☞ And as for the kind of Experiments , here made choice of , I have the less scrupled to pitch upon Chymical Experiments , rather then Others on this occasion ; not onely because of those Advantages which I have ascrib'd to such Experiments in the latter part of the Preface * to my Specimens , but because I have been Encouraged by the success of the Attempt made in those Discourses . For as new as it was when I made it four or five years ago , and as unsual : Thing as it could seem to divers Atomists and Cartesians , That I should take upon me to Confirm and Illustrate the Notions of the Particularian Philosophy ( if I may so call it ) by the help of an Art , whi●h many were pleas'd to th●ck cultivated but by Illiterate O●erators , or it h●msical Ph●naticks in Philosophy , and useful onely to ma●e Medicines , or Disguize Metals : yet these Endeavours of ours met with much lesse opposition , then new Attempts are most commonly fain to struggle with . And in so short a time I have had the happiness to engage both divers Chymist●● learn and relish the Notions of the Corpuscular Philoso●hy , and divers eminent Embracers of That , to endeavour to illustrate and promote the New Philosophy , by addicting themselves to the Experiments , and perusing the Books : Chymists . And I acknowledge , it is not unwelcome to ●● to have been ( in some ●●ttle measure ) instrumental to m●●● the Corpuscularian Philosophy , assisted by Chymistry , preferred to that which has so long obtained in the Sch●●● . For ( not here to consider , which ● elsewhere do , how gi●● an Advantage . That Philosophy by hath of This , by having a● advantage of it in point of clearness , ) though divers l●●●ned and worthy m●n , that knew no better Principles , h●● in cultivating the Peri●ate●ick Ones , abundantly exercised and displaid their own Wit : yet I fear they have very 〈◊〉 , if at all , improved their Readers Intellect , or enricht it with any true or useful Knowledg of Nature ; but have rather taught him to Admire Their Subtlety , then Understand Hers. For to ascribe all particular Phaenomena , that seem any thing Difficult , ( for abundance are not thought so , that are so , ) to substantial Forms , and , but nominally understood , Qualities , is so general and easie a way of resolving Difficulties , that it allows Naturalists , without Disparagement , to be very Careless and Lazy , if it do not make th●m so : as in effect we may s●e , that in about 2000 years since Aristotles time , the Adorers of his Physicks , at least by vertue of H●s peculiar Principles , seem to have done little more more then Wrangle , without clearing up ( that I know of ) any mystery of Nature , or producing any useful or noble Experiments : whereas the Cultivators of the Particularian Ph●losophy , being obliged by the nature of their Hypothesis , and their way of Reasoning , to give the particular Accounts and Explications of particular Phaenomena of Nature , are also obliged , not onely to know the general Laws and Course of Nature , but to enquire into the particular Structure of the Bodies they are conversant with , as that wher●in , for the most part , their Power of acting , and Disposition to be acted on , does depend . And in order to this , such Enquiries must take notice of Abundance of Minute Circumstances ; and to avoid mistaking the Causes of some of them , must often Make and Vary Experiments ; by which means Nature comes to be much more diligently and in ●ustriously Studied , and innumerable Particulars are discover'd and observed , which in the Lazy Aristorelian way of Philosophizing would not be Heeded . But to return to that Decad of Instances , to which these Advertisements are premised ; I hope I need not make an Apology for making choice rather of Chymical Experiments , then others , in the second and concluding Section of the Historical Part of the present Treatise . 〈◊〉 though I prefer that Kind of Instances , yet I would not be thought to overvalue Them in their kind , or to deny , the some Artists may ( for ought I know ) be found , to whose Chymical Arcana , these Experiments may be little better the● Trifles . Nor perhaps are these the considerablest , that I my self could easily have communicated ; ( though these themselves would not be now Divulged , if I would have been ruled by the Disswasions of such as would have nothing of Chymical made Common , which they think Considerable . ) But things of greater Value in themselves , and of Noble Vse in Physick , may be less Fit for our present purpose , ( which is not to impart Medicinal , or Alchymistical Processes , but illustrate Philosophical Notions , ) then such Experiments as these ; which , besides that they containe Variety of Phaenomena , do not ( for the most part ) require either much Time , or much Charge , or much Skill . The II. SECTION , containing the EXPERIMENTS . Experiment I. TAke good and clear Oyl of Vitriol , and cast into it a convenient quantity of good Camphire grosly beaten ; let it float there a while , and , without the help of external hear , it will insenslibly be resolv'd into a Liquor , which , from time to time , as it comes to be produc'd , you may , by shaking the Glass , mingle with the Oyl of Vitriol , whereunto you may , by this means , impart first a fine Yellow , and then a colour , which though it be not a true Red , will be of kin to it , and so very deep , as to make the mixture almost quite Opacous . When all the Camphire is perfectly dissolv'd by incorporating with the Menstruum , if you hit upon good Ingredients , and upon a right Proportion , ( for a slight Mistake in either of them , may make this part of the Experiment miscarry , ) you may probably obtain such a mixture , as I have more then once had , namely , such a one , as not onely to me , whose sense of Smelling is none of the Dullest , but also to others , that knew not of the Experiment , seem'd not at all to have an Odour of the Camphire . But if into this Liquor you pour a due quantity of fair Water , you will see ( perhaps not without delight ) that , in a trice , the Liquor will become pale , almost as at the first , and the Camphire , that lay conceal'd in the pores of the Menstruum , will immediately disclose it self , and emerge , in its own nature and pristine form of white floating and combustible Camphire , which will fill not the Viol onely , but the neighbouring part of the Air with its strong and Diffusive Odour . Now the Phaenomena of this Experiment may , besides the uses we elsewhere make of it , afford us several particulars pertinent to our present purpose . I. For ( first ) we see a lighter and consistent Body brought , by a Comminution , into Particles of a certain figure , to be kept swimming , and mixed with a Liquor , on which it floated before , and which is , by great odds , heavier then it self : so that as by the Solution of Gold in Aqua regis , it appears , that the ponperousest of Bodies , if it be reduc'd to parts minute enough , may be kept from sinking in a Liquor much lighter then it self : So this Experiment of Ours manifests what I know not whether hitherto Men have prov'd , That the Corpuscles of Lighter Bodies may be kept from emerging to the Top of a much heavier Liquor : which Instance being added to that of the Gold , may teach us , that , when Bodies are reduc'd to very minute parts , we must as well consider their particular Texture , as the receiv'd Rules of the Hydrostaticks , in determining whether they will sink , or float ▪ or swim . II. This Experiment also shews , that several Colours , and even a very deep one , may soon be produc'd by a White Body , and a clear Liquor , and that without the intervention of fire , or any external heat . III. And that yet this Colour may , almost in the twinckling of an Eye , be destroy'd , and as it were annihilated , and the Latitant Whiteness , as many would call it , may be as suddainly restor'd by the Addition of nothing but fair Water , vvhich has no Colour of its ovvn , upon vvhose account it might be surmis'd to be contrary to the perishing colour , or to heighten the other into a Praedominancy : nor does the Water take into its self , either the Colour it destroy'd , or That it restores . For IV. The more then semi-opacity of the Solution of Camphire and Oyl of Vitriol does presently vanish ; and that Menstruum , with the Water , make up ( as soon as the Camphorate Corpuscles come to be a float ) one transparent and colourless Liquor . V. And t is worth noting , that upon the mixture of a Liquor , which makes the Fluid much Lighter , ( for so Water is in respect of Vitriol , ) a Body is made to emerge , that did not so , when the Fluid was much heavier . This Experiment may serve to countenance what we elsewhere argue against the Schools , touching the Controversie about Mistion . For whereas though some of them dissent , yet most of them maintain , that the Elements alwaies loose their Forms in the mix'd Bodies they constitute ; and though if they had dexterously propos'd their Opinion , and limited their Assertions to some cases , perhaps the Doctrine might be tolerated : yet since they are wont to propose it crudely and universally , I cannot but take notice , how little t is favour'd by this Experiment ; wherein even a mix'd Body ( for such is Camphire ) doth , in a further mistion , retain its Form and Nature , and may be immediately so divorced from the Body , to which it was united , as to turn , in a trice , to the manifest Exercise of its former Qualities . And this Experiment being the easiest Instance , I have devis'd , of the preservation of a Body , when it seems to be destroy'd , and of the Recovery of a Body to its former Conditions ; I desire it may be take● notice of , as an instance I shall after have Occasion to have recourse to , and make use of . VI. But the notablest thing in the Experiment is , that Odours should depend so much upon Texture ; that one of the subtlest and strongest sented Drugs , that the East it self or indeed the World affords us , should so soon quite loose its Odour , by being mix'd with a Body that has scarce , if at all , any sensible Odour of its own , and This , while the Camphorate Corpuscles survive undestroy'd , in a Liquor , from whence one would think , that lesse subtle and fugitive Bodies , then they , should easily exhale . VII . Nor is it much lesse considerable , that so strong and piercing a Sent as that of Camphire , should be , in a moment , produc'd in a Mixture , wherein none of it could be perceiv'd before , by such a Liquor as Water , that is quite devoid of any Odour of its own : which so easie and suddain restauration of the Camphire to its Native Sent , as well as other Qualities , by so languid a Liquor as common Water , doth likewise argue , that the Union or Texture of the two Ingredients , the Camphire and the Oyl of Vitriol , was but very slight , upon which neverthelesse a great alteration in point of Qualities depended . And to confirme , that divers of the praeceding Phaenomena depend upon the particular Texture of the Liquors , imploy'd to exhibit them , I shall add , that if , instead of oyl of Vitriol , you cast the Concrete into well deflegm'd Spirit of Nitre , you will obtain no red , nor dark , but a Transparent and Colourless Solution . And when to the above mention'd red Mixture I put , instead of fair Water , about 2 or 3 parts of duely rectifi'd Spirit of Wine , there would ensue no such changes , as those formerly recited ; but the Spirit of Wine , that dissolv'd the Concrete , when it was by it self , without loosing its Diaphaneity , or acquiring any Colour , did , when it dissolv'd the Mixture , dissolve it with its new adventitious Colour , looking like a gross red Wine , somewhat turbid , or not yet well freed from its Lees : so that this Colour appear'd to reside in the Mixture as such , since neither of the two Ingredients dissolv'd in , or mingled vvith the Spirit of Wine , would have afforded that Colour , or indeed any other . But if to this Liquor , that look'd like troubled Wine , we poured a large Proportion of fair Water , the Redness would immediately vanish , and the Whole would , as to sense , become White throughout ; I say , as to sense , because the Whitenesse did not indeed appertain properly to the whole Mixture , but to a huge multitude of little Corpuscles of the reviv'd Concrete , whereof some or other , which at first swamme confusedly to and fro , left no sensible Portion of the Liquor unfurnish'd with some of them ; whereas when the Camphorate Corpuscles had leisure to emerge , as they soon did , they floated in the forme of a White Powder or Froth at the top of the Liquor , leaving all the rest as clear and colourlesse as the common Water . But we have not yet mention'd all the use , we design'd to make of our Mixture , for by prosecuting the Experiment a little further , we made it afford us some new Phaenomena . VIII . For having kept the Mixture in a moderately warme place , ( which circumstance had perhaps no influence on the Successe , ) and having distill'd it out of a Glass Retort , the Event answer'd our Expectation , and the Liquor , that came over , had a Sent ; which , though very strong , was quite differing both from that of the Mixture , and that of the Camphire ; and in the remaining Body , though the Liquor and the Camphire it consisted of , were either both transparent , or the one transparent as a Liquor , and the other white , as transparent and colourlesse Bodies are wont to be made by Contusion : yet the remaining Mass , which amounted to a good part of the Mixture , was not onely Opacous , but as black as Coal , is some places looking just like polished Jet ; which is the more considerable , because that though Vegetable Substances , that are not fluid , are wont to acquire a Blackness from the fire , yet neither do Liquors , that have already been distill'd , obtain that Colour upon Redistillation , neither have we , upon Tryal purposely made , found , that Camphire , expos'd to fire in a Retort , fitted with a Receiver , ( which was the case of the present Experiment , ) would at all acquire a Jetty Colour , but would either totally ascend White , or afford Flores , and a Caput mortuum ( as a vulgar Chymist would call the Remaines ) of the same Colour , both in respect of one another , and in respect of the Camphire . IX . And our Experiment afforded this notable Phaenomenon , That though Oyl of Vitriol be a distill'd Liquor , and though Camphire be so very fugitive a Substance , that being left in the Air , it will , of it self , fly all away ; and therefore Physicians and Druggists prescribe the keeping it in Linseeds or Millium , or other convenient Bodies , to hinder its Avolation ; yet , by our Experiment , its Fugacity is so restrain'd , that not onely the Caput mortuum newly mention'd , endured a good fire in the Retort , before it was reduc'd to that pitchy Substance vve vvere lately mentioning , but having taken some of that substance out of the Retort , & order'd it , by a careful Workman , to be kept in a closely cover'd Crucible during some time in the fire ; when it vvas brought me back , after the Pot had been kept red hot above half an hour , there remain'd a good quantity of the Matter , brittle , vvithout any smell of Camphire , and as black as ordinary Charcoal ; so much do the Fixity and Volatility of Bodies depend upon Texture . Experiment II. AMong those other Experiments of mine , ( Pyrophilus ) which tend to manifest , that new Qualities may be produc'd in Bodies , as the Effects of new Textures ; I remember , some years ago , I writ for a Friend a whole Set of Tryals , that I had made about the Changes I could produce in Metals and Minerals , by the Intervention of Sublimate . But though the whole Tract , wherein they are recited , might be pertinent enough to our present Subject ; yet reserving other passages of it for other places , ( especially for our Notes upon those particular Qualities , which they are most proper to illustrate , ) it may at this time suffice me to send you a Transcript of what that Account contains , relating to Copper and Silver , the one a mean and fugitive , and the other a noble and fix'd Metal . For those changes Colour , Consistence , Fusiblenesse , and other Qualities , which you will meet with in these Experiments , will afford us divers Phaenomena , to shew what great Changes may be made , even in Bodies scarce corruptible , by one or more of those three Catholick wayes of Natures working according to the Corpuscular Principles , namely , the Access , the Recess , and the Transposition of the minute Particles of Matter . As for my Method of changing the Texture of Copper , I confess it hath oftentimes seem'd strange to me , that Chymists , plainly seeing the notable Effect , that Sublimate , distill'd from Antimony , has upon that Mineral , by opening it , and volatilizing it , ( as we see it do in the making of what they are pleas'd to call Mercurius vitae , ) should not have the Curiosity to try , whether or no Sublimate might not likewise produce , if nor the same , yet a considerable Change in other Mineral Bodies , there appearing no reason , or at least there having been none given , that I know of , why the Reserating Operation ( if I may so speak ) of Sublimate , should be confin'd to Antimony . Upon these Considerations , we were invited to endeavour to supply the Neglect we had observ'd in Chymists , of improving the Experiment of Butyrum Antimonii : and though an Indisposition in point of Health , which befell us before we had made any great progress in our Enquiries , made us so shy of the Fumes of Sublimate and Minerals , that we neither did make all our Tryals so accurately , nor prosecute them so far as we would have done , had we been to deal with more innocent Materials : Yet we suppose , it will not be unwelcome to You , to receive from us a naked , but faithful , Narrative of our Proceedings ; being apt to think , that you will therein find Inducements to carry on this Experiment further then we have done , and to compleat what we have but begun . First then , we took half a pound of Copper plates , of about an Inch broad , and the thickness of a Grain of Wheat , ( which we after found was too great , ) and of an arbitrary length ; then casting a Pound of grosly beaten Venetian Sublimate into the bottom of a somewhat deep Glass Retort , we cast in the Copper plates upon it , that the Fumes of the Sublimate might , in their Ascension , be compell'd to act upon the incumbent Metal , and then placing this Retort , as deep as we well could , in a Sand Furnace , and adapting to it a small Receiver , we administer'd a Gradual fire seaven or eight hours , and at length for a while increas'd the heat , as much as we well could do in such a Furnace . The success of this Operation was as follows . 1. There came little or no Liquor at all over into the Receiver , but the Neck & upper part of the Retort were Candied on the inside , by reason of the copious Sublimate adhaering to them , which Sublimate weigh'd above Ten Ounces ; in the Retort we found about two Ounces and a quarter of running Mercury , which had been suffer'd to revive by the acid Salts , which corroding the Copper , forsook the Quicksilver , whereto they had been in the Sublimate united . 2. Upon the increase of the fire , there was plainly heard a Noise , made by the melting Matter in the Retort , not unlike that of a boyling Pot , or of Vitriol , when being committed to a Calcining fire , it is first brought to flow . And this Noise we found to be a more constant Circumstance of this Experiment , then the revification of part of the Mercury contain'd in the Sublimate ; for upon another Tryal , made with the former proportion of Copper plates and Sublimate , we observ'd , during a very long while , such a Noise as hath been already mention'd , but the Operation being finish'd , we scarce found so much as a few Grains of running Mercury , either in the Retort or Receiver . 3. We found the Metalline Lump , in the bottom of the Retort , to have been increas'd in weight somewhat more then ( though not half an Ounce above ) two Ounces ; some of the Copper plates , lying at the bottom of the Mass , retain'd yet their Figure and Malleablenesse , which we ascrib'd to their not having been thin enough to be sufficiently wrought upon by the Sublimate : the Others , which were much the greater number , had wholly lost their Metalline form , and were melted into a very brittle Lump , which I can compare to nothing more fitly , then a lump of good Benjamin ; for this Mass , though ponderous , was no less brittle , and being broken , appear'd of divers Colours , which seem'd to be almost transparent , in some places it was red , in others of a high and pleasant Amber Colour , and in other parts of it , Colours more darkish and mix'd might be discern'd . 4. But this strange Mass being broken into smaller Lumps , and laid upon a Sheet of White Paper in a Window , was , by the next morning , where ever the Air came at it , all cover'd with a lovely greenish Blew , or rather , blewish Green , almost like that of the best Verdegreese , and the longer it lay in the air , the more of the internal parts of the Fragments did pass into the same Colour : but the vvhite Paper , which in some places they stain'd , seem Dy'd of a Green colour inclining unto Yellow . And here we had Occasion to take notice of the insinuating subtlety of the Air ; for having put some pieces of this Cupreous Gum ( if I may so call it ) into a little Box , to shut out the Air , which vve have found it possible to exclude by other means , vve found , that notwithstanding our care , those included Fragments were , as well as the rest already mention'd , covered with the powder , as it were of viride Aeris . 5. We must not , on this Occasion , omit to tell you , that , having , the last year , made some Tryals in reference to this Experiment , we observ'd in one of them , that some little Copper plates , from which Sublimate had been drawn off , retain'd their pristine shape , and Metalline nature , but were Whitened over like Silver , and continu'd so for divers Months , ( though we cannot precisely tell you hovv long , having at length accidentally lost them . ) And to try vvhether this Whiteness vvere onely superficial , vve purposely broke some of these flexible Plates , and found , that this Silver colour had penetrated them throughout , and vvas more glorious in the very Body of the Metal , then on its Surface , vvhich made us suspect , that the Sublimate , by us imploy'd , had been adulterated vvith Arsenick , ( vvherewith the Sophisticators of Metals are wont to make Blanchers for Copper , but not to mention , that rhe Malleablenesse continu'd , which Arsenick is wont to destroy , ) we discover'd not by Tryal , that the Sublimate was other then sincere . 6. In this Metalline Gum the Body of the Copper appear'd so chang'd and open'd , that we were invited to look upon such a Change as no ignoble Experiment , considering the Difficulty , which the best Artists tell us there is , and which those , that have attempted it , have found , I say not , to unlock the Sulphur of Venus , but to effect lesse Changes in its Texture , then was hereby made . For this Gum , cast upon a quick Coal , and a little blown , will partly melt and flow like Rosin , and partly flame , and burn like a Sulphur , and with a flame so lasting , if it be rekindled as often as it leaves off burning , that we observ'd it , not without some Wonder ; and so inflammable is this opened Copper , that , being held to the flame of a Candle , or a piece of lighted Paper , it would almost in a moment take fire , and send forth a flame like common Sulphur , but onely that it seem'd to us to incline much more to a greenish colour , then the blewer flame of Brimstone is wont to do . To these Phaenomena of our Experiment , as it was made with Copper , my Notes inable me to subjoyn some others , exhibited when we made it with Sublimate and Silver . There were taken of the purest sort of Coined Silver we could get , half a scort thin Plates , on which vvas cast double the vveight of Sublimate in a small and strongly coated Retort . This Matter being sublim'd in a naked fire , vve found , ( having broken the Vessel , ) that the Sublimate vvas almost totally ascended to the top and neck of the Retort , in the latter of vvhich appear'd in many places some reviv'd Mercury , in the bottom of the Retort we found a little fluxed Lump of Matter , which 't was scarce possible to separate from the Glass , but having , with much adoe ●ivorc'd them , we found this Mass to be brittle , of a pale yellowish colour , of ●eer about the weight of the Metal , on which the Sublimate had been cast . And in the thicker part of this Lump there appear'd , when it was broken , some part of the Silver plates , vvhich , though brittle , seem'd not to have been perfectly dissolv'd . This Resin of Silver did , like that of Copper , but more slowly , im●ibe the Moisture of the Air , and vvith●n about 24. hours , vvas cover'd vvith a somevvhat greenish Dust , concerning vvhich vve durst not determine , vvhether it proceeded from that mixture of Copper , vvhich is generally to be me● vvith in coyned Silver , or from the compounded Metal . For the more curious sort of Painters do , as they inform us , by corroding coined Silve● vvith the fretting steams of saline Bodies , or vvith corrosive Bodies themselves , turn it into a fine kind of Azu●● as we may elsevvhere have opportuni●● more particularly to declare . I sh●● novv onely adde , that some small fragments of our Resin , being cast upon r●● hot Coals , did there vvast themselv● in a flame not very differing in colo● from that of the former mention'd R●sin of Copper , but much more durab●● then vvould have easily been expect● from so small a● quantity of Matter . This is all the Account I can give yo● of our first Tryal , but suspecting , th● the Copper , vvont to be mixt as a● Alloy-vvith our coyned Silver , migh● have too much Influence on the reci● Event ; coming aftervvards into a pla●● vvhere vve could procure Refin'd S●●ver , vve took an Ounce of That , a● having Laminated it , vve cast it up● tvvice its Weight of beaten Sublim●● ●hich being driven away from it with a somewhat strong fire , we took , out of ●he bottom of the Glass Retort , a Lump of Matter , which in some places , where it lay next the Glasse , was as it were silver'd over very finely , but so very ●hinly , that the Thicknesse of the Silver ●carce equall'd that of fine white Paper ; the rest of the Metal ( except a little that lay undissolv'd almost in the middle of the Masse , because , as we suppos'd , the Plates had not been beaten , till they were sufficiently and equally thin , ) having been , by the saline part of the Sublimate , that stuck to it , colliqua●ed into a Mass , that look'd not at all like Silver , or so much as any other Metal or Mineral . And t is remarkable , that though Silver be a fixt Metal , and accounted indestructible ; yet it should by so slight an Operation , and by but about a quarter of its vveight of Additament , ( as appear'd by weighing the whole Lump , ) be so strangely disguized , and have its Qualities so alter'd . For ( first ) though an eminent Whitenesse be accounted the colour , which belongs to pure Silver , and though beate● Sublimate be also eminently White yet the Mass , we are speaking of , w●● partly of a Lemmon or Amber colour or a deep Amethystinine colour , a● partly of so dark a one , as it seem'd black : and it was pretty , that sometime in a fragment , that seem'd to be one continued and entire piece , the upper par● would be of a light Yellow , vvhich abruptly ending , the lower vvas of a colour so obscure , as scarce to challenge any name distinct from Black. Next whereas Silver is one of the most Opacous Bodies in Nature , and Sublimate a White one , the produc'd Mass was in great part Transparent , though not like Glass , yet like good Amber . Thirdly , the Texture of the Silver was exceedingly alter'd : for our Mass , instead of being Malleable and Flexible , as that Metal is very much , appear'd , if you went about to cut it with a Knife , like Horn , yet otherwise easily apt to crack and break , though not at all to bend . Fourthly , whereas Silver will indure Ignition for a good while before it be brought to Fusion , our Mixture will easily melt , not onely upon quick coals , but in the flame of a Candle ; but this Resin , or Gum ( if I may so call it ) of our fix'd Metal did not , like that , we formerly describ'd , of Copper , tinge the flame of a Candle , or produce with the glowing coals , on which t is laid , either a green or blewish colour . And ( Pyrophilus ) to discover how much these Operations of the Sublimate upon Copper and Silver depend upon the particular Textures of these Bodies , I took two parcels of Gold , the one common Gold thinly laminated , and the other very well refin'd , and having cast each of these in a distinct Urinal , upon no less then thrice its weight of grosly beaten Sublimate , I caus'd this last nam'd substance to be , in a Sand furnace , elevated from the Gold , b●● found not , that either of the two Parcels of that Metal was manifestly alter'd thereby : whether in case the Gold had been reduc'd to very minute particles , some kind of change ( perhaps , if any differing enough from those lately recited to have been made in the Copper and the Silver ) might have been made in it , I am not so absolutely certain ; but I am confident , that by what I reserve to tell you hereafter of Sublimates Operation upon some other Minerals , especially Tin , it will appear , that That Operation depends very much upon the particular Texture of the Body , from whence that Sublimate is Elevated . Before I dismiss this subject , Pyrophilus , I must not conceale from you , that in the Papers , whence these Experiments made with Sublimate have been transcribed , I annex'd to the whole Discourse a few Advertisements , whereof the first was , That I was reduc'd , in those Experiments , to imploy , for want of a better , a Sand Furnace , wherein I could not give so strong a fire as I desir'd , which circumstance may have had some Influence upon the recited Phaenomena ; and among other Advertisements there being one , that will not be impertinent to my present Design , and may possibly afford a not unsuccesful Hint , I shall subjoin it in the words , wherein I find it deliver'd . The next thing , of which I am to advertise you , is this , That this Experiment may probably be further improv'd , by imploying about it various and new kinds of Sublimate , and that several other things may be sublim'd up together either with crude Mercury , or with common Sublimate , he that considers the way of making vulgar Sublimate , will not , I suppose , deny . To give you onely one Instance , I shall inform you , that , having caus'd about equal parts of common Sublimate and Sal Armoniack to be well powder'd and incorporated , by subliming the Mixture in strong and large Urinals plac'd in a Sand Furnace , we obtain'd a new kind of Sublimate , differing from the former , which we manifested ad Oculum , by dissolving a little of it and a little of common Sublimate severally in fair water ; for dropping a little resolv'd salt of Tartar upon the solution of common Sublimate , it immediately turn'd of an Orange tawny colour , but dropping the same Liquor upon the solution of the Ammoniack Sublimate , if I may so call it , it presently turn'd into a Liquor in Whitenesse resembling Milk : And having from 4 ounces of Copper plates drawn 6 ounces of this new Sublimate after the already often recited manner , we had indeed in the bottom of the Retort a Cupreous Resin , not much unlike That , made by Copper and common Sublimate ; and this Resin did , like the other , in the moist Air , soon begin to degenerate into a kind of Verdigreese . But that which was singular in this Operation was , that not onely some of the Sublimate had carried up , to a good height , enough of the Copper to be manifestly colour'd by it of a fine blewish Green , but into the Receiver there was pass'd neer an Ounce of Liquor , that smelt almost like spirit of Sal Armoniack , and was tincted like the Sublimate , so that we suppos'd the Body of the Venus to have been better wrought upon by this , then by the former Sublimate . And yet I judg'd not this way to be the most effectual way of improving common Sublimate , being apt to think , upon grounds not now to be mention'd , that it may , by convenient Liquors , be so far enrich'd and advanc'd , as to be made capable of opening the Compact Body of Gold it self , and of producing in it such Changes , ( which yet perhaps will enrich but mens Understandings , ) as Chymists are wont very fruitlesly to attempt to make in that almost Indestructible Metal . But of This , having now given you a Hint , I dare here say no more . Experiment III. THere is ( Pyrophilus ) another Experiment , which many wil find more easie to be put in practice , and which yet may , as to Silver , be made a kind of Succedaneum to the former , and consequently may serve to shew , how the like Qualities in Bodies may be effected by differing Wayes , provided a like Change of Texture be produc'd by them . Of This I shall give you an Example in that Preparation of Silver , that some Chymists have call'd Luna Cornea , which I shall not scruple to mention particularly , and apply to my present purpose ; because though the name of Luna Cornea be already to be met with in the Writings of some Alchymists , yet the thing it self , being not us'd in Physick , is not wont to be known by those that learn Chymistry in order to Physick ; and the way that I use in making it is differing from that of Alchymists , being purposely design'd to shew some notable Phaenomena , not to be met with in their way of proceeding . We take then refined Silver , and having beaten it into thin Plates , and dissolv'd it in about twice its Weight of good Aqua fortis , we Filtrate it carefully to obtain a clear solution , ( which sometimes we Evaporate further , till it shoot into Chrystals , which we afterwards dry upon brown Paper with a moderate heat . ) Upon the abovemention'd solution we drop good spirit of Salt , till we find , that it will no more curdle the Liquor it falls into , ( which will not happen so soon , as you will be apt at first to imagine , ) then we put the whole Mixture in a Glass Funnel lin'd with Cap-paper , and letting the moisture drain through , we dry , with a gentle heat , the substance , that remains in the Filtre , first washing it ( if need be ) from the loosly adhaering Salts , by letting fair Water run through it several times , whilst it yet continues in the Filtre . This substance being well dry'd , we put it into a Glass Viol , which being put upon quick coals , first cover'd with Ashes , and then freed from them , we melt the contain'd substance into a Mass , which , being kept a while in Fusion , gives us the Luna Cornea we are now to consider . If to make this Factitious Concrete , we first reduce the Silver into Chrystals , and afterwards proceed with spirit of Salt , as we have just now taught you to do with the solution ; we have the exceedingly Opacous , Malleable , and hardly Fusible Body of Silver , by the convenient interposition of some saline Particles , not amounting to the third part of the Weight of the Metal , reduc'd into Chrystals , that both shoot in a peculiar and determinate figure , differing from those of other Metals , and also are diaphanous and brittle , and by great odds more easily fusible then Silver it self ; besides other Qualities , wherein having elsewhere taken notice , that these Chrystals differ both from Silver and from Aqua fortis , we shall not now insist on them , but pass to the Qualities , that do more properly belong to the change of the Solution of Silver into Luna Cornea . First then we may observe , that though spirit of Salt be an highly acid Liquor , and though acid Liquors and Alkalys are wont to have quite contrary Operations , the one praecipitating what the other would dissolve , & dissolving what the other would praecipitate : yet in our case , as neither Oyl of Tartar per deliquium , nor spirit of Salt will dissolve Silver , so both the one and the other will praecipitate it ; which I desire may be taken notice of against the Doctrine of the Vulgar Chymists , and as a Proof , that the Praecipitation of Bodies depends not upon acid or Alkalizate Liquors as such , but upon the Texture of the Bodies , that happen to be confounded . 2. We may here observe , that Whiteness and Opacity may be immediately produc'd by Liquors , both of them Diaphanous and colourless . 3. That on the other side , a White Powder , though its minute parts appear not transparent , like those of beaten Glass , Rosin , &c. which , by comminution , are made to seem White , may yet , by a gentle heat , be presently reduc'd into a Mass indifferently Transparent , and not at all White , but of a fair Yellow . 4. We may observe too , that though Silver require so strong a fire to melt it , and may be long kept red hot , without being brought to Fusion ; yet by the association of some saline particles , conveniently mingled with it , it may be made so fusible , as to be easily and quickly melted , either in a thin Viol , or at the flame of a Candle , where it will flow almost like Wax . 5. It may also be noted , that though the Lunar solution and the spirit of Salt would , either of them apart , have readily dissolv'd in Water ; yet when they are mingled , they do , for the most part , concoagulate into a substance , th●t will lie undissolv'd in Water , and is scarce , if at all , soluble either in Aqua fortis , or in spirit of Salt. 6. And remarkable it is , that the Body of Silver being very flexible and malleable , ( especially if the Metal be , as ours was , refin'd ) it should yet , by the Addition of so small a proportion of Salt , ( a Body rigid and brittle , ) as is associated to it in our Experiment , be made of a Texture so differing from what either of its Ingredients was before , being wholly unlike either a Salt or a Metal , and very like in Texture to a piece of Horn. And to satisfie my self , how much the Toughness of this Metalline Horn depended upon the Texture of the Compositum , resulting from the respective Textures of the several Ingredients , I praecipitated a solution of Silver with the distill'd saline Liquor commonly call'd Oyl of Vitriol , instead of spirit of salt , and having wash'd the Praecipitate with common Water , I found agreeably to my conjecture , that this Praecipitate , being flux'd in a moderate heat , afforded a Mass , that look'd like enough to the Concrete we have been discoursing of , but had not its Toughness , being brittle enough to be easily broken in pieces . But the tw● considerablest Phaenomena of our ExExperiment do yet remain unmentiond . For 7thly . 'T is odd , that whereas a solution of Silver is , as we have often occasion to note , the bitterest Liquor we have ever met with , and the spirit of Salt far sowrer then either the sharpest Vinegar , or even the spirit of it , these two so strongly and offensively tasted Liquors should be so easily and speedily , without any other thing to correct them , be reduc'd into an insipid substance , ( at least so far insipid , that I have lick'd it several times with my Tongue , without finding it otherwise , though perhaps , with much rowling it to and fro in the mouth , it may at length afford some unpleasant Tast , but exceedingly different from that of either of the Liquors that compos'd it : ) and This , though the Salts , that made both the Silver , and the praecipitating spirit so strongly tasted , remaine associated with the Silver . 8. And Lastly , it is very strange , that though the saline Corpuscles , that give the efficacy both to good Aqua fortis , and the like spirit of Salt , be not onely so volatile , that they will easily be distill'd with a moderate fire , but so fugitive , that they will in part fly away of themselves in the cold Air , ( as our Noses can witness to our trouble , when the Viols , that contain such Liquors , are unstopt ; ) yet by vertue of the new Texture they acquire , by associating themselves with the Corpuscles of the Silver and with one another , these minute particles of salt loose so much of their former Lightness , and acquire such a degree of Fixednesse , that they will endure melting with the Metal they adhere to , rather then suffer themselves to be driven away from it . Nor do I remember , that when I melted this Mass in a thin Viol , I could perceive any sensible Evaporation of the Matter : nay having afterwards put a parcel of it upon a quick Coal , though that were blows to intend the heat ; yet it suffer'd Fusion , and so ran off from the Coal , without appearing , when it was taken up again , to be other then Luna Cornea , as it was before . Experiment IV. I Am now ( Pyrophilus ) about to do a Thing , contrary enough both to my Custome and Inclination , that is , To discourse upon the Phaenomena of an Experiment , which I do not teach you to make . But since I cannot as yet , without some breach of promise , plainly disclose to you what I must now conceal your Equity assures me of your Pardon . And as , because the Qualities of the Salt , I am to speak of , are very remarkable , and pertinent to my present design , I am unwilling to pass them by unmention'd ; so I hope , that notwithstanding their being strange , I may be allow'd to discourse upon them to you , who , I presume , know me too well to suspect I would impose upon you in matters of fact , and to whom I am willing ( if you desire it ) to shew the Anomalous Salt it self , and Ocular proofs of the chief properties I ascribe to it . I shall not then scruple to tell you , that Discoursing one day with a very Ingenious Traveller and Chymist , who had had extraordinary Opportunities to acquire Secrets , of a certain odd Salt I had thought upon and made , which was of so differing a kind from other Salts , that though I did not yet know what Feats I should be able to do with it , yet I was confident , it must have Noble and unusual Operations . This Gentleman , to requi●e my Franckness , told me , that I had lighted on a greater Jewel , then perhaps I was aware of ; and that if I would follow his Advice , by adding something that he nam'd to me , and prosecuting the Preparation a little further , I should obtain a Salt exceedingly noble . I thank'd him , as I had cause , for his Advice , and , when I had Opportunity , follow'd it . And though I found the vvay of making this Salt so nice and intricate a thing , that if I vvould , I could scarce easily describe it , so as to enable most men to practice it ; yet having once made it , I found , that , besides some of the things I had been told it would perform , I could do divers other things vvith it , vvhich I had good cause to believe the Gentleman , of whom I was speaking , did not think of ; and I doubt not , but I should have done much more with it , if I had not unfortunately lost it soon after I had prepar'd it . Several of the Phaenomena , I try'd to produce with it , which are not so proper for this place , are reserv'd for another , but here I shall mention a few , that best fit my present purpose . First then , though the several ingredients , that compos'd this Salt , were all of them such , as Vulgar Chymists must according to their Principles , look upon as purely Saline , and were each of them far more salt then Brine , or more sowr then the strongest Vinegar , or more strongly tasted then either of those two Liquors ; yet the Compound , made up of onely such Bodies , is so far from being eminently salt , or sowr , or insipid , that a Stranger being ask'd , what Tast it had , vvould not scruple to judge it rather sweet , then of any other Tast ▪ though its Sweetness be of a peculiar kind , as there is a difference even among Bodies sweet by Nature ; the sweetness of Sugar being divers from that of Honey , and both of them differing from that of the sweet Vitriol of Lead . And this is the onely instance , I remember , I have hitherto met vvith of Salts , that , vvithout the mixture of insipid Bodies , compose a substance really sweet . I say really sweet , because Chymists oftentimes terme the Calces of Metals and other Bodies dulcifi'd , if they be freed from all corrosive salts and sharpness of Tast , sweet , though they have nothing at all of positive sweetness in them ; and by that licence of speaking do often enough impose upon the Unskilful . Another thing considerable in our Anomalous Salt is , That though its Odour be not either strong or offensive , ( both which that of Volatile Salts is wont to be , ) yet if it be a little urg'd with heat , so as to be forc'd to evaporate hastily and copiously , I have known some , that have been us'd to the powerful stink of Aqua fortis , distill'd Urine , and even spirit of Sal Armoniack its self , that have complain'd of this smell , as more strong , and upon that account more unsupportable then these themselves : and yet when these Fumes settle again into a Salt , their Odour will again prove mild and inoffensive , if not pleasant . Thirdly , whereas all the Volatile , and Acid , and Lixiviate Salts , that we know of , are of so determinate and specificated a Nature , ( if I may so speak , ) that there is no one sort of the three , but may be destroy'd by some one or other of the other two Salts , if not by both , as spirit of Urine , which is a volatile Salt , being mingled with spirit of Salt , or Aqua fortis , or almost any other strong and acid spirit , will make a great Ebullition , and loose its peculiar Tast , and several of its other Qualities ; and on the otherside , Salt of Tartar , and other Alkalys , ( that is , Salts produc'd by Incineration of mix'd Bodies , ) will be destroy'd with Ebullition by Aqua fortis , spirit of Salt , or almost any other strong spirit of that Family . And spirit of Salt , Aqua fortis , &c. will be ( as they speak ) destroy'd both by Animal volatile Salts , and by the fix'd Salts of Vegetables ; that is , will make an Effervescence with either sort of Salts , and compose with them a new Liquor or Salt , differing from either of the ingredients , and , as to tast , smell , odour , and divers other Qualities , more languid and degenerous : whereas , I say , each of these three Families of Salts may be easily destroy'd by the other two , our Anomalous Salt seems to be above the being thus wrought upon by any of all the three , and i● the onely Body I know : ( which is no small priviledge , or rather prerogative , ) for I did not find , that a Solution of it , made with as little Water as I could , which is the vvay whereby we usually make it fluid , would make any Ebullition , either with Oyl of Tartar per Deliquium , or spirit of Sal Armoniack , or strong spirit of Salt , or even Oyl of Vitriol , but would calmely and silently mix vvith these differing Liquors , and continue as long as I had patience to look upon them , without being praecipitated by them . But this is not the onely way I imploy'd to examine , whether our Salt belong'd to any of the three above mention'd comprehensive families of Salts . For I found not , that the strongest solution of it would turn Syrup of Violets either red , as acid spirits do , or green , as both fix'd and volatile Salts will do . Nor would our Solution turn a clear one of Sublimate made in common Water , either white , as spirit of Urine , Sal Armoniack , or others of the same family , or into an Orange Tawny , like salt of Tartar , and other Alkalys : but left the solution of Sublimate transparent , without giving it any of these colours , mingling it self very kindly with it , as it had done with the four lately mention'd Liquors . And to satisfy my self a little further , I not onely try'd , that an undiscolour'd mixture of syrup of Violets and our solution , would immediately be turn'd red by 2 or 3 drops of spirit of Salt , or green by as much Oyl of Tartar : but , to prosecute the Experiment , I let fall a drop or two of a mixture made of our Anomalous solution , and spirit of Salt well shaken together , upon some syrup of Violets , which was thereby immediately turn'd red , and a little of the same Anomalous solution , being shaken together with Oyl of Tartar per Deliquium , turn'd another parcel of the same syrup of Violets into a delightful green ; which , hapning as I expected , seem'd to argue , that our Solution , though as to sense it were exquisitely mingled in the several mixtures , to which I had put it , did , as it left them their undestroy'd respective Natures , retain its own ; and yet this Salt is so far from being a languid or an insignificant thing , that Aqua fortis , and Oyl of Vitriol themselves , as operative and as furious Liquors as they are , are unable in divers cases to make such Solutions , and perform such other things , as our calme , but powerful , Menstruum can , though but slowly , effect . Fourthly : Though this Salt be a volatile one , and requires no strong heat to make it sublime into finely figur'd Chrystals without a remanence at the Bottom ; yet being dissolv'd in Liquors , you may make the Solution , if need be , to boile , without making any of the Salt sublime up , before the Liquor be totally or almost totally drawn off , whereas the volatile salt of Urine , Bloud , Harts-horn , &c. are wont to ascend before almost any part of the Liquor , they are dissolv'd in , which is in many cases very inconvenient . And though this be a Volatile salt , yet I remember not , that I have observ'd any fix'd salt , ( without excepting salt of Tartar it self , ) that runs near so soon per Deliquium , as this will do ; but by abstraction of the adventitious moisture t is easily restor'd to its former saline form : and yet differs from salt of Tartar , not onely in Fixednesse and Tast , and divers other qualities , but also in this , That , whereas salt of Tartar requires a vehement fire to flux it , a gentlier heat , then one would easily imagine , will melt our Salt into a Limpid Liquor . And whereas spirit of Wine will dissolve some Bodies , as Sanderick , Mastick , Gum-Lac , &c. and Water , on the other side , dissolves many that spirit of Wine cannot , and Oyls will dissolve some , for which neither of the other Liquors are good solvents ; our salt will readily dissolve both in fair Water , in the highest rectifi'd spirit of Wine , ( and That so little , as not to weigh more then the salt , ) and in Chymical Oyls themselves , with which it will as●ociate its self very strictly , and perhaps more too , then I have yet found any other consistent salt to do . Experiment V. THe Experiment I am ( Pyrophilus ) now about to deliver , though I have not yet had Opportunity to perfect what I design'd , when some Notions , that I have about Fire and Salt , suggested it to me , is yet such as may far more clearly , then almost any of the Experiments commonly known to Chymists , serve to shew us , how near to a real Transmutation those Changes may prove , that may be effected even in inanimate , and , which is more , scarce corruptible Bodies , by the recess of some Particles , and the access of some others , and the new Texture of the residue . The Experiment I have made several wayes , but one of the latest and best I have us'd is this : Take one part of good Sea-salt well dry'd and powder'd , and put to it double its weight of good Aqua fortis , or spirit of Nitre , then haveing kept it ( if you have time ) for some while in a previous digestion , distill it over with a slow fire in a Retort or a low Body , till the the remaining Matter be quite dry , and no more ; for this substance , that will remain in the bottom of the Glass , is the thing that is sought for . This Operation being performable in a moderate fire , and the Bodies themselves being almost of an incorruptible nature , one would scarce think , that so slight a matter should produce any Change in them ; but yet I found , as I expected , these notable Mutations of Qualities effected by so unpromising a way . For in the first place , we may take notice , that the Liquor , that came over , was no longer an Aqua fortis , or spirit of Nitre , but an Aqua Regis , that was able to dissolve Gold , which Aqua fortis will not meddle with , and will not dissolve Silver , as it would have done before , but will rather , as I have purposely try'd , praecipitate it out of Aqua fortis , if that Menstruum have already dissolv'd it : But this Change belonging not so properly to the substance it self I was about to consider , I shall not here insist on it . 2. Then , the Tast of this Substance comes by this Operation to be very much alter'd . For it hath not that strong saltness that it had before , but tasts far milder , and , though it rellish of both , affects the Palate much more like Salt-petre , then like common salt . 3. Next , whereas this last nam'd Body is of very difficult Fusion , our factitious salt imitates salt-petre in being very fusible , and it will , like Nitre , soon melt , by being held in the flame of a Candle . 4. But to proceed to a more considerable Phaenomenon , t is known , that Sea-salt is a Body , that doth very much resist the fire , when once by being brought to Fusion , it hath been forc'd to let go that windy substance , that makes unbeaten salt crackle in the fire , and so by blowing it accidentally increase it . T is also known , that acid spirits , as those of Salt , Vitriol , Nitre , Vinegar , &c. are not onely not inflammable themselves , but hinderers of inflammation in other Bodies ; and yet my Conjecture leading me to expect , that , by this Operation , I should be able to produce , out of two inflammable Bodies , a third , that would be easily inflammable . I found , upon Tryal , not onely that small Lumps of this substance , cast upon quick and well blown coals , though they did not give so blew a flame as Nitre , did yet , like it , burn away with a copious and vehement flame . And , for further Tryal , having melted a pretty quantity of this transmuted Sea salt in a Crucible , by casting upon it little fragments of well kindled Charcoal , it would , like Nitre , presently be kindled , and afford a flame so vehement and so dazling , that one that had better Eyes then I , and knew not what it was , complain'd , that he was not able to support the splendor of it . Nor were all its inflammable parts consum'd at one deflagration : for by casting in more fragments of well kindled Coal , the Matter would fall a puffing , and flame afresh for several times consecutively , according to the quantity that had been put into the Crucible . 5. But this it self was not the chief discovery I design'd by this Experiment . For I pretended hereby to devise a way of turning an acid salt into an Alkaly , which seems to be one of the greatest and difficultest Changes , that is rationally to be attempted among durable and inanimate Bodies . For t is not unknown to such Chymists as are any thing inquisitive and heedful , how vast a difference there is between acid Salts , and those , that are made by the combustion of Bodies , and are sometimes call'd Fix'd , sometimes Alkalizate . For whereas strong Lixiviums ( which are but strong solutions of Alkalys ) will readily enough dissolve common Sulphur , and divers other Bodies abounding with Sulphur ; even those highly acid Liquors , Aqua fortis , and Aqua Regis , though so corrosive , that one will dissolve Silver , and the other Gold it self , will let Brimstone lye in them undissolv'd I know not how long ; though some say , that in process of time , there may be some Tincture drawn by the Menstruum from it , which yet I have not seen try'd ; and though it were true , would yet sufficiently argue a great disparity betwixt those acid spirits , and strong Alkalizate solutions , which will speedily dissolve the very masse of common Sulphur . Besides , t is observ'd by the inquisitive Chymists , nor does my Experience contradict it , that the Bodies , that are dissolv'd by an acid Menstruum , may be praecipitated by an Alkalizate ; and on the contrary , solutions , made by the latter , may be praecipitated by the former . Moreover , as Litharge , dissolv'd in spirit of Vinegar , will be praecipitated by the Oyl of Tartar per Deliquium , or the solution of its Salt ; and , on the contrary , Sulphur or Antimony , dissolv'd in such a solution , will be praecipitated out of it by the spirit of Vinegar , or even common Vinegar . Moreover , Acids and Alkalizates do also differ exceedingly in tast , and in this greater disparity , that the one is volatile , and the other fix'd , besides other particulars not necessary here to be insisted on . And indeed , if that were true , which is taught in the Schools , that there is a natural enmity , as well as disparity betwixt some Bodies , as between Oyly and waterish ones , the Chymists may very speciously teach , ( as some of them do ) That there is a strange contrariety betwixt Acid and Alkalizate Salts ; as when there is made an Affusion of oyl of Tartar upon Aqua Regis , or Aqua fortis , to praecipitate Gold out of the one , and Silver out of the other , their mutual Hostility seems manifestly to shew it self , not onely by the noise , and hear , and fume , that are immediately excited by their conflict , but by this most of all , that afterwards the two contending Bodies will appear to have mutually destroy'd one another , both the sowr Spirit and the fixt Salt having each lost its former Nature in the scuffle , and degenerated with its Adversary into a certain Third substance , that wants several of the Properties both of the sowr Spirit and the Alkaly . Now to apply all this to the Occasion , on which I mention'd it , how distant and contrary soever the more inquisitive of the latter Chymists take Acid and Fixed Salts to be ; yet I scarce doubted , but that , by our Experiment , I should , from acid salts , obtain an Alkaly , and accordingly having , by casting in several bits of well kindled coal , excited , in the melted Mass of our transmuted Salt , as many Deflagrations as I could , and then giving it a pretty strong fire to drive away the rest of the more fugitive parts , I judg'd , that the remaining Masse would be ( like the fix'd Nitre I have elsewhere mention'd ) of an Alkalizate nature , and accordingly having taken it out , I found it to tast , not like Sea-salt , but fiery enough upon the Tongue , and to have a Lixiviate relish . I found too , that it would turn Syrup of Violets into a greenish colour , that it would praecipitate a Limpid solution of Sublimate , made in fair water , into an Orange tawny Powder . I found , that it would , like other fix'd salts , produce an Ebullition with acid spirits , and even with spirit of salt it self , and concoagulate with them . Nor are these themselves all the wayes I took to manifest the Alkalizate Nature of our transmuted Sea salt . I did indeed consider at first , that it might be suspected , that this new Alkalizatenesse might proceed from the Ashes of the injected Coals , the Ashes of Vegetables generally containing in them more or lesse of a fix'd Salt. But when I consider'd too , that a pound of Charcoal , burn'd to Ashes , is wont to yield so very little Salt , that the injected fragments of Coal , ( though they had been , which they were not ) quite burn'd out in this Operation , would scarce have afforded two or three grains of salt , ( perhaps not half so much , ) I saw no reason at all to believe , that in the whole Mass I had obtain'd ( and which was all , that was left me of the Sea-salt , I had at first imploy'd , ) it was nothing but so inconsiderable a proportion of Ashes , that exhibited all the Phaenomena of an Alkaly . And for further confirmation both of This , and what I said a little before , I shall adde , that to satisfie my self yet more , I pour'd , upon a pretty quantity of this Lixiviate salt , a due proportion of Aqua fortis , till the hissing and ebullition ceased , and then leaving the fluid Mixture for a good while to coagulate , ( which it did very slowly , ) I found it at length to shoot into saline Chrystals , which though they were not of the figure of Nitre , did yet , by their inflammability and their bigness , sufficiently argue , that there had been a Conjunction made betwixt the Nitrous spirit , and a considerable proportion of Alkaly . I consider'd also , that it might be suspected , that in our Experiment t was the Nitrous Corpuscles of the Aqua fortis , that , lodging themselves in the little rooms deserted by the saline Corpuscles of the Sea-salt , that pass'd over into the Receiver , had afforded this Alkaly ; as common Salt-petre , being handled after such a manner , would leave in the Crucible a fix'd or Alkalizate Salt. But to this I answer , that as the Sea-salt , which was not driven over by so mild a Distillation , and seem'd much a greater part then that which had pass'd over , was far from being of an Alkalizate nature : so the Nitrous Corpuscles , that are presum'd to have stay'd behind , were whilst they compos'd the spirit of Nitre , of an highly volatile and acid Nature , and consequently of a nature directly opposite to that of Alkalys ; and if by the addition of any other substance , that were no more Alkalizate then Sea-salt , an Alkaly could be obtain'd out of spirit of Nitre or Aqua fortis , the Producibleness of an Alkaly out of Bodies of another nature might be rightly thence inferr'd : so that however , it appears , that by the intervention of our Experiment , two Substances , that were formerly acid , are turn'd into one , that is manifestly of an Alkalizate Nature , which is That we would here evince . Perhaps it may ( Pyrophilus ) be worth while to subjoyn ; That to prosecute the Experiment by inverting it , we drew two parts of strong spirit of Salt from one of purifi'd Nitre ; but did not observ● the remaining Body to be any thing neer so considerably chang'd as the Sea-salt , from which we had drawn the spirit of Nitre ; since though the spirit of Salt , that came over , did ( as we expected ) bring over so many of the Corpuscles of the Nitre , that , being heated , it would readily enough dissolve foliated Gold ; yet the Salt , that remain'd in the Retort , being put upon quick Coals , did flash away with a vehement and halituous flame , very like that of common Nitre . Experiment VI. I Come now ( Pyrophilus ) to an Experiment , which , though in some things it be of kin to that which I have already taught you , concerning the changing of Sea-salt by Aqua fortis , will yet afford us divers other instances , to shew , how upon the change of Texture in Bodies , there may arise divers new Qualities , especially of that sort , which , because they are chiefly produc'd by Chymistry , and are wont to be consider'd by Chymists , if not by Them onely , may in some sense be call'd Chymical . The Body , which , partly whilst we were preparing it , and partly when we had prepar'd it , afforded us these various Phaenomena , either is the same that Glauberus means by his Sal Mirabilis , or at least seems to be very like it : and whether it be the same or no , it s various and uncommon Properties make it very fit to have a place allow'd it in this Treatise . Though of the many Tryals I made with it , I can at present find no more among my loose Papers , then that following part of it , that I wrot some years ago to an Ingenious Friend , who I know will not be displeas'd , if , to save my self some time , and the trouble of Examining my Memory , I annex the following Transcript of it . [ To give you a more particular account of what I writ to you from Oxford of my Tryals about Glauber's Salt , though I dare not say , that I have made the self same Thing , which he cals his Sal Mirabilis , because he has describ'd it so darkly and ambiguously , that t is not easie to know with any certainty what he means ; yet whether or no I have not made Salt , that , as far as I have yet try'd it , agrees well enough with what he delivers of His , and therefore is like to prove either his Sal mirabilis , or almost as good a one , I shall leave you to judge by this short Narrative . The strange things that the Industrious Glauber's Writings have invited Men to expect from his Sal mirabilis , in case he be indeed possess'd of such a thing , and the Enquiries of divers Eminent Men , who would fain learn of me , what I thought of its Reality and Nature , invited me , the next Opportunity I got , to take into my hands his Pars altera Miraculi Mundi , whose Title you know promises a Description of this Sal Artis mirificum , as he is pleas'd to call it . But , I confess , I did not read it near all over , because a great part of it is but a Transcription of several entire Chapters out of Paracelsus , and I perceiv'd , that much of the rest did , according to the custome or Chymical Writings , more concern the Author , then the subject ; wherefore looking upon his process of making his sal mirabilis , I soon perceiv'd he had no mind to make it common , since he onely bids us upon two parts of common Salt dissolv'd in common Water , to pour A , without telling us what that A is , wherefore reading on in the same processe , and finding that he tels us , that with B ( which he likewise explaines not at all , nor determines the quantity of it ) one may make an Aqua fortis , it presently call'd into my mind , That some Years before , having had Occasion to make many Tryals , mention'd in other Tracts of mine , with Oyl of Vitriol and Salt petre , I did , among other things , make a red spirit of Nitre , by the help onely of Oyl of Vitriol ; remembring This ( I say ) I resorted to one of my Carneades's Dialogues , * and reviewing that Experiment , as I have set it down , I concluded , That though I had not dissolv'd the Salt petre in Water , as Glauber doth his common Salt ; yet since , on the other side , I made use of external fire , 't was probable I might this way also get a Nitrous spirit , though not so strong . And though by calling the Liquor , that must make an Aqua fortis B , whereas he had call'd that , which is to make his spirit of Salt and sal mirabilis , A , he seem'd plainly to make them differing things , yet relying on the Experiment I had made , and putting to a solution of Nitre as much of the Oyl of Vitriol as I had taken last , though That be double the quantity he prescribes for the making of his Sal mirabilis , I obtain'd , out of a low glasse Body and Head plac'd in Sand , an indifferent good Spiritus Nitri , that even before Rectification would readily enough dissolve Silver , though it were diluted with as much of the common Water , wherein Salt-petre had been dissolv'd , as amounted at least to double or treble the weight of the Nitrous parts ; the remaining Matter , being kept in the fire till it was dry , afforded us a Salt easily reducible ( by Solution in fair Water and Coagulation ) into Chrystalline Grains , of a nature very differing both from crude Nitre , and from fixt Nitre , and from Oyl of Vitriol . For it coagulated into pretty big and well shap'd Grains , which , you know , fix'd Nitre and other Alkalizate Salts are not wont to do ; and these Graines were not like the Chrystals of Salt-petre it self , long and Hexaedrical , but of another figure , not easie nor necessary to be here described . Besides , this Vitriolate Nitre ( if I may so call it ) would not easily , if at all , flow in the Air , as fixt Nitre is wont to do . Moreover , it was easily enough fusible by heat , vvhereas fix'd Nitre doth usually exact a vehement Fire for its Fusion ; and though crude Salt-petre also melts easily , yet to satisfie you how differing a substance this of ours was from That , vve cast quick Coals into the Crucible , without being at all able to kindle it . Nay , and vvhen , for further Tryal , vve threw in some Sulphur also , though it did flame away it self , yet did it not seem to kindle the Salt , that was hot enough to kindle It ; much less did it flash , as Sulphur is wont on such occasions to make Salt-petre do . Add to all this , That a parcel of this white substance , being , vvithout Brimstone , made to flow for a vvhile in a Crucible , with a bit of Charcoal for it to vvork upon , grew manifestly and strongly sented of Sulphur , and acquir'd an Alkalizate Tast , so that it seem'd almost a Coal of fire upon the Tongue , if it were lick'd before it imbib'd any of the Aires moisture , and ( which many perhaps will , though I do not , think stranger ) obtain'd also a very red colour ; which recall'd to my mind , that Glauber mentions such a Change observable in his Salt , made of common Salt , upon whose Account he is pleas'd to call such a substance his Carbunculus . Being invited by this success to try , whether I could make his Sal mirabilis , notwithstanding his intimating , as I lately told you , that it is done with a differing Menstruum from that , wherewith the Salt-petre is to be wrought upon ; I observ'd , that where he points at a way of making his Salt in quantity without breaking the Vessels , he prescribes , that the Materials be distill'd in Vessels of pure Silver ; vvhence I conjectur'd , that 't was not Aqua fortis , or spirit of Nitre , that he imploy'd to open his Sea-salt : and that consequently , since common spirit of Salt was too weak to effect so great a Change , as the Experiment requires , 't was very probable , that he imploy'd Oyl of Sulphur , or of Vitriol , vvhich vvill scarce at all fret unalloy'd Silver . And however I concluded , that whatsoever the Event should prove , it could not but be worth the While to try , vvhat Operation such a Menstruum vvould have upon Sea-salt , as I vvas sure had such a notable one upon salt-petre . And I remember , that formerly making some Experiments about the differing manners of Dissolution of the same Concrete by several Liquors , I found , that Oyl of Vitriol dissolves Sea-salt in a very odd way , ( vvhich you vvill find mention'd among my promiscuous Experiments , ) vvherefore pouring , upon a solution of Bay-salt , made in but a moderate proportion of Water , Oyl of Vitriol to the full Weight of the dry Salt , and abstracting the Liquor in a Glass Cucurbite plac'd in Sand , I obtain'd , without stress of fire , besides flegme , good store of a Liquor , vvhich , by the Smel and Tast , seem'd to be spirit of Salt. And to satisfie my self the better , mingling a little of it vvith some of the spirit of Nitre lately mention'd , I found the mixture , even without the Assistance of Heat , to dissolve crude Gold. And having , for further Tryals sake , pour'd some of it upon spirit of fermented Urine , till the Affusion ceas'd to produce any Conflict , and having afterwards gently evaporated away the superfluous moisture , there did , as I expected , shoot , in the remaining Liquor , a Salt figur'd like Combs and Feathers , thereby disclosing it self to be much of the nature of Sal Armoniack , such as I elsewhere relate my having made , by mingling spirit of Urine vvith spirit of common Salt , made the ordinary way . ] This ( Pyrophilus ) is all I can find at present of that Account , of vvhich I hop'd to have found much more ; but you will be the more unconcern'd , for my not adding divers other things , that , I remember , I try'd , as vvell before and after the vvriting the above transscrib'd Paper , ( as particularly , that I found the Experiment sometimes to succeed not ill , when I distill'd the Oyl of Vitriol and Sea-salt together , without the intervention of Water , ( whereby much time was sav'd , ) and also when I imploy'd Oyl of Sulphur , made with a Glass Bell , in stead of Oyl of Vitriol , ) if I inform You , that afterwards I found , that Glauber himself , in some of his subsequent pieces , had deliver'd more intelligibly the Way of making what he , without altogether so great a Brag , as most think , calls his Sal mirabilis , ( which yet some very ingenious Readers of his Writings have come to Us to teach them , ) and that those Experiments of his about it , which I vvas able to make succeed , ( for some I was not , and some I did not think fit to try ) you will find , together with those of my Own , in more proper places of other Papers . Onely , to apply what hath been above related to my present purpose , I must not here pretermit a couple of Observations . And first we may take notice of the power , that Mixtures , though they seem but very slight , & consist of the smallest number of ingredients , may , if they make great changes of Texture , have , in altering the Nature and Qualities of the compounding Bodies . For in our ( above recited ) case , though Sea-salt be a Body considerably fix'd , requires a naked Fire to be elevated even by the help of copious additaments of beaten Bricks , or Clay , &c. to keep it from Fusion , yet the saline Corpuscles are distill'd over in a moderate Fire of Sand , whilst the Oyl of Vitriol , by whose intervention they acquire this volatility , though it be not ( like the other ) a Grosse or ( as the same Chymist speaks ) corporeal salt , but a Liquor , that has been already distill'd , is yet , by the same operation , so fix'd , as to stay behind , not onely in the Retort , but , as I have sometimes purposely try'd , in much considerabler heats then That needs in this Experiment be expos'd to . Nor onely is the oyl of Vitriol made thus far fix'd , but it is otherwise also no less chang'd . For when the remaining Salt has been expos'd to a competent heat , that it may be very drie and white , to be sure of which , I several times do , when the Distillation is ended , keep the remaining Masse ( taken out of the Retort and beaten ) in a Crucible among quick coals , you shall have a considerable quantity ( perhaps near as much as the Sea-salt You first imploy'd ) of a Substance , which , though not insipid , has not at all the tast of Sea-salt , or any other pungent one , and much lesse the highly corrosive acidity of Oyl of Vitriol . And the mention of this substance leads me to the second particular I intended to take notice of , which is a Phaenomenon to confirme what I formerly intimated , That notwithstanding the regular and exquisite figures of some Salts , they may , by the addition of other Bodies , be brought to constitute Chrystals of very differing , and yet of curious , shapes . For if You dissolve the hitherto mention'd Caput mortuum of Sea salt ( after You have made it very dry , and freed it from all pungency of Tast ) in a sufficient quantity of fair water , and , having filtrated the solution , suffer the dissolv'd Body leisurely to coagulate , You will probably obtain , as I have often done , Chrystals of a far greater Transparency , then the Cubes wherein Sea salt is wont to shoot , and of a shape far differing from theirs , though oftentimes no lesse Curious then that of those Cubes ; and , which makes mainely for my present purpose , I have often observ'd those finely figur'd Chrystals to differ as much in shape from one another , as from the Graines of common Salt. And indeed I must not , on this occasion , conceal from You , that whether it be to be imputed to the peculiar Nature of Sea salt , or ( which I judge much more probable ) to the great disparities to be met with in Liquors , that do all of them pass for Oyl of Vitriol , whether ( I say ) it be to this , or to some other cause , that the Effect is to be imputed , I have found my Attempts , to make the best sort of Sal mirabilis , subject to so much incertainty , that though I have divers times succeeded in them , I have found so little Uniformity in the success , as made me reckon this Experiment amongst Contingent ones , and almost weary of medling with it . Experiment VII. * I Remember ( Pyrophilus ) I once made an Experiment , which , if I had had the Opportunity to repeat , and had done so with the like success , I should be tempted to look upon it , though not as a Lucriferous Experiment , ( for t is the quite contrary , ) yet as so Luciferous a one , as , how much soever it may serve to recommend Chymistry it self , may no lesse displease Envious Chymists , who will be troubled , both that one , who admits not their Principles , should devise such a thing , and that having found it , he should not ( Chymist like ) keep it secret . But to give you a plain and naked Account of this matter , that you may be able the better to judge of it , and , if You please , to repeat it , I will freely tell You , That supposing all Metals , as well as other Bodies , to be made of one Catholick Matter common to them all , and to differ but in the shape , size , motion or rest , and texture of the small parts they consist of , from which Affections of Matter , the Qualities , that difference particular Bodies , result , I could not see any impossibility in the Nature of the Thing , that one kind of Metal should be transmuted into another ; ( that being in effect no more , then that one Parcel of the Universal Matter , wherein all Bodies agree , may have a Texture produc'd in it , like the Texture of some other Parcel of the Matter common to them both . ) And having first suppos'd this , I further consider'd , That in a certain Menstruum , which , according to the vulgar Chymists doctrine , must be a worthless Liquor , according to my apprehension there must be an extraordinary efficacy in reference to Gold , not onely to dissolve , and otherwise alter it , but to injure the very Texture of that supposedly immutable Metal . The Menstruum then I chose to try whether I could not dissolve Gold with , is made by pouring on the rectifi'd oyl of the Butter of Antimony as much strong spirit of Nitre , as would serve to praecipitate out of it all the Bezoarticum Minerale , and then with a good smart Fire distilling off all the Liquor , that would come over , and ( if need be ) Cohobating it upon the Antimonial powder . For though divers Chymists , that make this Liquor , throw it away , upon Presumption , that , because of the Ebullition , that is made by the Affusion of the spirit to the Oyl , and the consequent precipitation of a copious Powder , the Liquors have mutually destroy'd or disarm'd each other ; yet my Notions and Experience of the Nature of some such Mixtures invites me to prize this , and give it the name of Menstruum per acutum . Having then provided a sufficient quantity of this Liquor , ( for I have observ'd that Gold ordinarily requires a far more copious Solvent then Silver , ) we took a quantity of the best Gold we could get , and melted it with 3 or 4 times its weight of Copper , which Metal we choose rather then that which is more usual among the Refiners , Silver , that there may be the lesse suspicion , that there remain'd any Silver with the Gold , after their separation ; this Mixture we put into good Aqua fortis , or spirit of Nitre , that all the Copper being dissolv'd , the Gold might be left pure and finely powder'd at the bottom ; this Operation with Aqua fortis being accounted the best way of refining Gold that is yet known , and not subject , like Lead , to leave any Silver with it , since the Aqua fortis takes up that Metal . And for greater security , we gave the Powder to an Ancient Chymist , to boile some more of the Menstruum upon it , without communicating to him our Design . This highly refin'd Gold being , by a competent degree of heat , brought , as is usual , to its Native Colour and Lustre , we put to it a large Proportion of the Menstruum peracutum , ( to which we have sometimes found cause to adde a little spirit of Salt , to promote the Solution , ) wherein it dissolves slowly and quietly enough ; and there remain'd at the bottom of the Glasse a pretty quantity ( in shew , though not in weight ) of white Powder , that the Menstruum would not touch , and , if I much misremember not , we found it as indissoluble in Aqua Regis too . The Solution of Gold being abstracted , and the Gold again reduc'd into a Body , did , upon a second Solution , yield more of the white Powder , but not ( if I remember aright ) so much as at the first ; now having some little quantity of this Powder , t was easie with Borax or some other convenient Flux , to melt it down into a Metal , which Metal we found to be white like Silver , and yielding to the Hammer , if not to a less pressure , and some of it , being dissolv'd in Aqua fortis or spirit of Nitre , did , by the odious Bitterness it produc'd , sufficiently confirm us in our Expectation , to find it true Silver . I doubt not , but you will demand ( Pyrophilus ) why I did not make other Tryals with this Factitious Metal , to see in how many other Qualities I could verifie it to be Silver , but the quantity I recover'd after Fusion was so small , some of it perhaps being left either in the Flux , or in the Crucible , that I had not wherewithall to make many Tryals , and being well enough satisfied by the visible Properties , and the Tast peculiar to Silver , both that it was a Metal , and rather Silver then any other , I was willing to keep the rest of it for a while , as a Rarity , before I made further Tryals with it ; but was so unfortunate , as with it to loose it in a little Silver Box , where I had something of more Value , and possibly of more Curiosity . You will also ask , why I repeated not the Experiment ? to which I shall answer , that , besides that one may easily enough faile in making the Menstruum fit for my purpose , I did , when I had another Opportunity , ( for I was long without it , ) make a Second Attempt ; and having , according to the above mention'd Method , brought it so far , that there remain'd nothing but the melting of the White Powder into Silver , when having wash'd it , I had layd it upon a piece of white Paper by the fires side to dry , being suddenly call'd out of my Chamber , an ignorant Maid , that in the mean time came to dress it up , unluckily swept this Paper , as a foul one , into the fire : which Discouragement , together with multiplicity of Occasions , have made me suspend the Pursuit of this Experiment , till another Opportunity . But in the mean time I was confirm'd in some part of my Conjecture by these Things . The first , by finding , that with some other Menstruums which I try'd , and even with good Aqua Regis it self , I could obtain from the very best Gold , I dissolv'd in them , some little quantity of such a White Powder , as I was speaking of ; but in so very small a proportion to the dissolv'd Gold , that I had never enough of it at once , to think it worth prosecuting Tryals with . The other was this . That a very Experienc'd Mineralist , whom I had acquainted with part of what I had done , assur'd me , that an eminently Learned and Judicious person , that he nam'd to me , had , by dissolving Gold in a certain kind of Aqua Regis , and after by reduction of it into a Body , redissolving it again , and repeating this Operation very often , reduc'd a very great , if not much the greater , part of an Ounce of Gold into such a White Powder . And the Third thing , that confirm'd me , was , the Proof given me by some Tryals that I purposely made ; That the Menstruum peracutum I imploy'd , had a notable Operation upon Gold , and would perform some things ( one of which we shall by and by mention , ) which Judicious Men , that play the great Criticks in Chymistry , do not think feasible : so that there seems no greater cause to doubt , that the above mention'd Silver was really obtain'd out of the pure Gold , then onely this , That Men have hitherto so often in vain attempted to make a real Transmutation of Metals , ( for the better or for the worse , ) and to destroy the most fix'd and compacted Body of Gold , that the one is look'd upon as an Unpracticable Thing , and the other as an Indestructible Metal . To reflect then a little upon what we have been relating , if we did not mistake nor impose upon our selves , ( I say , upon our Selves , the Project being our own , and pursued without acquainting any body with our Aime , ) it may afford us very considerable Consequences of great moment And in the First place , it seems probably reducible from hence , that however the Chymists are wont to talke irrationally enough of what they call Tinctura Auri , and Anima Auri ; yet , in a sober sense , some such thing may be admitted , I say , some such thing , because as on the one hand , I would not countenance their wild Fancies about their matters , some of them being as unintelligible , as the Peripateticks substantial Forms , so , on the other hand , I would not readily deny , but that there may be some more noble and subtle Corpuscles , being duely conjoyn'd with the rest of the Matter , whereof Gold consists , may qualifie that Matter to look Yellow , to resist Aqua fortis , and to exhibit those other peculiar Phaenomena , that discriminate Gold from Silver , and yet these Noble parts may either have their Texture destroy'd by a very piercing Menstruum , or by a greater congruity with its Corpuscles , then with those of the remaining part of the Gold , may stick more closer to the former , and by their means be extricated and drawn away from the latter . As when ( to explain my meaning by a gross Example ) the Corpuscles of Sulphur and Mercury do , by a strict Coalition , associate themselves into the Body we call Vermilion , though these will rise together in Sublimatory Vessels , without being divorc'd by the fire , and will act , in many cases , as one Physical Body : yet t is known enough among Chymists , That if You exquisitely mix with it a due proportion of Salt of Tartar , the parts of the Alkaly will associate themselves more strictly with those of the Sulphur , then these were before associated with those of the Mercury , whereby You shall obtain out of the Cinnabar , which seem'd intensely red , a real Mercury , that will look like fluid Silver . And this Example prompts me to mind You , ( Pyrophilus ) That , at the beginning of this Paragraph , I said no more , then that the Consequence , I have been deducing , might probably be inferr'd from the Premises . For as t is not absurd to think , that our Menstruum may have a particular Operation upon some Noble , and ( if I may so call them ) some Tinging parts of the Gold , so it is not impossible , but that the Yellowishness of that rich Metal may proceed not from any particular Corpuscles of that Colour , but from the Texture of the Metal ; as in our lately mention'd Example , the Cinnabar was highly Red , though the Mercury , it consisted of , were Silver-coloured , and the Sulphur but a pale Yellow ; and consequently , the Whiteness , and other Changes , produc'd in the new Metal we obtain'd , may be attributed not to the Extraction of any tinging Particles , but to a Change of Texture , whereon the Colour , as well as other Properties of the Gold did depend . But That , which made me unwilling to reject the way , I first proposed , of explicating this Change of Colour , was , That a Mineralist of great Veracity hath several times assur'd me , that a known Person in the Relators Country , the Netherlands , got a great deal of Money by the way of Extracting a Blew Tincture out of Copper , so as to leave the Body White ; adding , that he himself , having procur'd from a friend ( to satisfie his Curiosity ) a little of the Menstruum , ( whose chiefe Ingredients his friend communicated to him , and he to me , ) he did , as he was directed , dissolve Copper in common Aqua fortis , to reduce it into small parts , and then having kept the Calx of the Powder of this Copper for some hours in this Menstruum , he perceiv'd , that the clear Liquor , which was weak in Tast , did not dissolve the Body of the Metal , but onely extract a blew Tincture , leaving behind a very White Powder , which he quickly reduc'd by Fusion into a Metal of the same Colour , which he found as Malleable as before . Which I the lesse wonder at , because the Experienc'd Chymist Johannes Agricola , in his Dutch Annotations upon Poppius , mentions the making of a White and Malleable Copper in good quantities upon his own knowledge ; and that of such a kind of Copper , I have with pleasure made Tryal , I elsewhere relate . But of these matters we may possibly say more in a convenient place . The Second thing , that seems deducible from our former Narrative , is , That however most ( for I say not all ) of the Judiciousest among the Chymists themselves , as well as among their Adversaries , believe Gold too fix'd and permanent a Body to be changeable by Art , insomuch that t is a receiv'd Axiom amongst many Eminent Spagyrists , that facilius est aurum construere , quàm destruere ; yet Gold it self is not absolutely indestructible by Art , since Gold being acknowledg'd to be an Homogeneous Metal , a part of it was , by our Experiment , really chang'd into a Body , that was either true Silver , or at least a new kind of Metal very differing from Gold. And since t is generally confess'd , that among all the Bodies we are allow'd to observe near enough , and to try our skill upon , there is not any , whose Form is more strictly united to its Matter then that of Gold , and since also the Operation , by which the White Powder was produc'd , was made onely by a corrosive Liquor , without violence of Fire , it seems at least a very probable Inference , That there is not any Body of so constant and durable a Nature , but that , notwithstanding its persisting inviolated in the midst of divers sensible Disguises , its Texture , and consequently its Nature may be really destroy'd , in case this more powerful and appropriated Agent be brought by a due manner of Application to work upon the Body , whose Texture is to be destroy'd . But this Matter we elsewhere handle , and therefore shall now proceed to the Last and chief Consectaries of our Experiment . Thirdly then , it seems deducible from what we have deliver'd , that there may be a real Transmutation of one Metal into another , even among the perfectest and noblest Metals , and that effected by Factitious Agents in a short time , and , if I may so speak , after a Mechanical manner . I speak not here of Projection , whereby one part of an Aurisick Powder is said to turn I know not how many 100 or 1000 parts of an ignobler Metal into Silver or Gold , not onely because , though Projection includes Transmutation , yet Transmutation is not all one with Projection , but far easier then it : but chiefly because t is not in this Discourse you are to expect what I can say , and do think , concerning what Men call the Philosophers Stone . To restrain my self then to the Experiment we are considering , that seems to teach us , that , at least among inanimate Bodies , the noblest and constantest sort of Forms are but peculiar Contrivances of the Matter , and may , by Agents , that work but Mechanically , that is , by locally moving the parts , and changing their Sizes , Shape , or Texture , be generated and destroy'd ; since we see , that in the same parcel of Metalline Matter , which a little before was true and pure Gold , by having some few of its parts withdrawn , and the rest transpos'd , or otherwise alter'd in their structure , ( for there appears no token , that the Menstruum added any thing to the Matter of the produc'd Silver , ) or by both these wayes together , the Form of Gold , or that peculiar Modification which made it Yellow , indissoluble in Aqua fortis , &c. is abolish'd , and from the new Texture of the same Matter , there arises that new Forme , or Convention of Accidents , from which we call a Metal Silver ; and since Ours was not onely dissoluble in Aqua fortis , but exhibited that excessively bitter Tast , which is peculiar to Silver , there seems no necessity to think , that there needs a distinct Agent , or a particular Action of a Substantial Form , to produce in a Natural Body the most peculiar and discriminating Properties . For t was but the same Menstruum , devoid of Bitterness , that , by destroying the Texture of Gold , chang'd it into another , upon whose account it acquir'd at once both Whiteness in colour , Dissolublenesse in Aqua fortis , and aptnesse to compose a bitter Body with it , and I know not how many other new Qualities are attributed . I know t is obvious to object , that t is no very thrifty way of Transmutation , instead of Exalting Silver to the condition of Gold , to degrade Gold to the condition of Silver . But a Transmutation is neverthelesse more or lesse real , for being or not being Lucriferous , and since That may inrich a Brain , that may impoverish a Purse , I must look upon your humour as that of an Alchymist , rather then of a Philosopher , if I durst not expect that the Instructiveness in such an Experiment will suffice to recommend it to You. And if I could have satisfied my self , that good Authors are not mistaken about what they affirm of the Transmutation of Iron into Copper , though , the Charge and Pains consider'd , it be a matter of no Gain , yet I should have thought it an Experiment of great Worth , as well as the Transmutation of Silver into Gold. For t is no small matter to remove the Bounds , that Nature seems very industriously to have set to the Alterations of Bodies ; especially among those Durable and almost Immortal Kinds , in whose Constancy to their first Forms , Nature seems to have design'd the shewing her self invincible by Art. I should here ( Pyrophilus ) conclude what I have to say of the Experiment , that hath already so long entertain'd us , by recommending to You the repetition of what I had not the Opportunity to try above once from end to end , were it not , that I remember something I said about the Menstruum peracutum , may seem to import a Promise of communicating to You something of the Efficacy of that Liquor upon Gold. And therefore partly for that reason , and partly to make sure , that the present Discourse shall not be uninstructive to You , I would adde , That though not onely the generality of Refiners and Mineralists , but divers of the most Judicious Cultivators of Chymistry it self , hold Gold to be so fix'd a Body , that it can as little be Volatiliz'd as Destroy'd , and that upon This ground , that the processes of subliming or distilling Gold to be met with in divers Chymical Books , are either mystical , or unpracticable , or fallacious , ( in which Opinion I think them not much mistaken ; ) though This , I say , be the perswasion even of some critical Chymists , yet , upon the just Expectation I had to find my Menstruum very operative upon Gold , I attempted and found a way to Elevate it to a considerable height , but far less proportion of Additament , then one that were not fully perswaded of the possibility of Elevating Gold ; and though I have indeed found , by two or three several Liquors , ( especially the Aqua pugilum , aenigmatically describ'd by Basilius , ) that the Fixedness of Gold is not altogether invincible , yet I found the Effect of these much inferior to that of our Mixture , touching which I shall relate to You the easiest and shortest , though not perhaps the very best , manner of imploying it . We take then the finest Gold we can procure , and having either Granulated it , or Laminated it , we dissolve it in a moderate heat , with a sufficient quantity of the Menstruum peracutum , and having carefully decanted the Solution into a conveniently siz'd Retort , we very gently in a Sand-Furnace distill off the Menstruum , and if we have a mind to elevate the more Gold , we either pour back upon the remaining substance the same Menstruum , or , which is better , redissolve it with fresh ; the Liquor being abstracted , we urge the remaining Matter by degrees of Fire , and in no stronger a one , then what may easily be given in a Sand Furnace , a considerable quantity of the Gold will be Elevated to the upper part of the Retort , and either fall down in a Golden colour'd Liquor into the Receiver , or , which is more usual , fasten it self to the Top and Neck in the form of a Yellow or Reddish Sublimate , and sometimes we have had the Neck of the Retort inrich'd with good store of large thin Chrystals , not Yellow but Red , and most like Rubies , very glorious to behold ; ( though even these being taken out , and suffer'd to lie a due time in the open Air would loose their saline Form , and run per Deliquium into a Liquor . ) Nor see I any cause to doubt , but that by the Reaffusions of fresh Menstruum upon the dry Calx of Gold , that stayes behind , the whole Body of the Metal may be easily enough made to pass through the Retort , though , for a certain reason , I forbore to prosecute the Experiment so far . But here ( Pyrophilus ) I think my self oblig'd to interpose a Caution , as well as to give you a further Information about our present Experiment . For first I must tell You , that though even Learned Chymists think it a sufficient proof of a true Tincture , that not onely the colour of the Concrete will not be separated by Distillation , but the extracting Liquor will pass over tincted into the Receiver ; yet this supposition , though it be not unworthy of able men , may , in some cases , deceive them . And next I must tell You , that whereas I scruple not , in several Writings of mine , to teach , That the Particles of solid and consistent Bodies are not alwaies unfit to help to make up Fluid ones , I shall now venture to say further , That even a Liquor , made by Distillation , how volatile soever such Liquors may be thought , may in part consist of Corpuscles of the most compact and ponderous Bodies in the World. Now to manifest Both these things , and to shew You withall the Truth of what I elsewhere teach , That some Bodies are of so durable a Texture , that their Minute parts will retain their own Nature , notwithstanding variety of Disguizes , which may impose , not onely upon other men , but upon Chymists themselves ; I will adde , that to prosecute the Experiment , I dropp'd into the Yellow Liquor afforded me by the Elevated Gold , a convenient quantity of clean running Mercury , which was immediately colour'd with a Golden colour'd Filme , and shaking it to and fro , till the Menstruum would guild no more , when I suppos'd the Gold to be all praecipitated upon the Mercury , I decanted the clarifi'd Liquor , and mixing the remaining Amalgam ( if I may so call it ) of Gold and Mercury , with several times its Weight of Borax , I did , as I expected , by melting them in a small Crucible , easily recover the scatter'd Particles of the Elevated Metal , reduc'd into one little Mass or Bead of Corporal or Yellow ( though perhaps somewhat palish ) Gold. But yet whether the Gold , that tinged the Menstruum , might not , before the Metal was reduc'd or praecipitated out of it , have been more succesfully apply'd to some considerable purposes , then a bare Solution of Gold , that hath never been Elevated , may be a Question , which I must not in this place determine , and some other things that I have try'd about our Elevated Gold , I have elsewhere taken notice of ; Onely this further Use I shall here make of this Experiment , that , whereas I speak in other Papers , as if there may be a volatile Gold in some Oars , and other Minerals , where the Mine-men do not find any thing of that Metal , I mention such a thing upon the Account of the past Experiment and some Analogies . And therefore as I would not be understood to adopt what every Chymical Writer is pleas'd to fancie concerning Volatile Gold ; so I think Judicious men , that are not so well acquainted with Chymical Operations , are sometimes too forward to condemn the Chymists Observations ; not because their Opinions have nothing of Truth , but because they have had the ill Luck not to be warily enough propos'd . And to give an instance in the Opinion , that some Minerals have a Volatile Gold , ( and the like may be said of Silver , ) I think I may give an Account , rational enough , of my admitting such a thing , by explicating it thus : That as in our Experiment , though after the almost total abstraction of the Menstruum , the remaining Body being true Gold , and consequently , in its own Nature , fix'd , yet it is so strictly associated with some volatile saline Particles , that these , being press'd by the fire , carry up along with them the Corpuscles of the Gold , which may be reduc'd into a Mass by the admistion of Borax , or some other Body fitted to divorce the Corpuscles of the Metal from those , that would Elevate them , and to unite them into Grains , too big and ponderous to be sublim'd ; so in some Mineral Bodies there may be pretty store of Corpuscles of Gold , so minute , and so blended with the unfix'd Particles , that they will be carried up together with them by so vehement a heat , as is wont to be imploy'd to bring Oars , and even Metalline masses to Fusion . And yet t is not impossible , but that these Corpuscles of Gold , that in ordinary Fusions fly away , may be detain'd and recover'd by some such proper additament , as may either work upon , and ( to use a Chymical Term ) mortifie the other parts of the Mass , without doing so upon the Gold ; or by associating with the Volatile and ignobler Minerals , some way or other disable them to carry away the Gold with them , as they otherwise may do ; or by its Fixedness and Cognation of Nature make the dispers'd Gold imbody with it . On which Occasion I remember , that a very Ingenious Man , desiring my Thoughts upon an Experiment , which he and some others , that were present at it , look'd upon as very strange , namely , that some good Gold , having , for a certain Tryal , been cuppell'd with a great deal of Lead , instead of being advanc'd in Colour , as in Goodness , was grown manifestly paler then before ; my Conjecture being , That so great a Proportion of Lead might contain divers particles of volatile Silver , which , meeting with the fix'd Body of the Gold , by incorporating therewith , was detain'd , was much confirm'd by finding , upon Enquiry , that the Gold , instead of loosing its Weight , had it considerably increas'd ; which did much better answer my Ghess , then it did their Expectation , that made the Experiment , and were much surpriz'd at the Event . But this is no fit place to prosecute the consideration of the Additaments , that may be us'd to unite and fix the Particles of the nobler Metals , blended with volatile Bodies ; though perhaps what hath been said may afford some Hint about the matter , as well as some Apology for the Chymical Term , Volatile Gold : the possibility of which , I presume , we have evinc'd by the latter part of this Experiment , ( in which I am sorry I cannot remember the proportion of the remaining Salts , that were able to Elevate the Gold ; ) for That I have several times made , and therefore dare much more confidently rely on it , then I can press You to do on the former part , ( about the Transmutation , or at least Destruction of Gold , ) till You or I shall have Opportunity to repeat that Tryal . Experiment VIII . THough ( Pyrophilus ) the Experiment , I am about to subjoin , may , at the first glance , seem onely to concern the production of Tasts , and be indeed one of the principal , that I devis'd concerning that subject , and that belongs to the Notes I have made about those Qualities : yet if You do not of your self take notice of it , I may hereafter have Occasion to shew You , that there are some particulars in this Experiment , that are applicable to more then Tasts . And since I had once thoughts ( however since discouraged by the difficulties of the Attempt ) to make my Notes extend even to divers Qualities , which the operations of Chymists , and the practice of Physicians have made men take notice of ; ( such as the powers of corroding , praecipitating , fixing , purging , blistering , stupifying , & c - ) I presume You will not dislike , that one , who had thoughts to say something even of Chymical and of Medical Qualities , if I may so call them , should give You here an Experiment or two about more obvious , though particular , Affections of Bodies , when there are several things in the Experiment , that may be of a general import to the Doctrine of the Origine of Qualities and Forms . We took then an Ounce of refined Silver , and having dissolv'd it in Aqua fortis , wee suffer'd it to shoot into Chrystals , which being dried , we found to exceed the weight of the Silver by several Drachms , which accrued upon the con-coagulation of the acid Salts , that had dissolv'd , and were united to the Metal . These Chrystals we put into a Retort , and distill'd them in Sand , with almost as great a heat as we could give in a hammer'd Iron Furnace , wherein the Operation was made ; but there came over onely a very little sowrish Flegm with an ill sent , wherefore the same Retort being suffer'd to cool , and then coated , it was remov'd to another Furnace , capable of giving a far higher degree of Heat , namely , that of a naked fire , and in this Furnace the Distillation was pursued by the several degrees of heat , till at length the Retort came to be red hot , and kept so for a good while ; but though even by this Operation there was very little driven over , yet That sufficiently manifested what we aimed at , shewing ( namely ) that a Body extreamly Bitter might afford , as well as it consisted of , good store of parts that are not at all bitter , but ( which is a very differing tast ) eminently Sowr . For our Receiver being taken off even when it was cold , the contain'd spirit smoak'd out like rectify'd Aqua fortis , and not onely smelt and tasted like Aqua fortis , to the Annoyance of the Nose and Tongue , but being pour'd upon Filings of crude Copper , it fell immediately to corrode them with violence , making much hissing , and sending up thick fumes , and in a trice produc'd , with the corroded Copper , a blewish colour , like That , which that Metal is wont to give in good Aqua fortis . Afterwards we took Minium and Aqua fortis , and made a Solution , which being filtred and evaporated , left us a Saccharum Saturni , much like the common made with spirit of Vinegar , then taking this sweet Vitriol of Lead , ( as we elsewhere call it ) we endeavour'd in the formerly mention'd Sand Furnace to drive it over in a Retort ; but finding That degree of fire incompetent to force over any thing save a little flegmatick Liquor , we caus'd the Retort to be coated , and transferr'd to the other Furnace , where being urg'd with a naked Fire , it afforded at length a spirit somewhat more copious then the Silver had done . This Spirit smoak'd in the cold Receiver as the other had , and did , like it , rankly smell of Aqua fortis , and was so far from retaining any of the sweetness of the Concrete that had yielded it , that it was offensively acid , and being pour'd upon Minium , it did with noise and Bubbles fall upon it , and quickly afforded us a Liquor , which being filtred , did , by its Sweetness as well as other proofs , assure us , that there would have needed but a gentle Evaporation ( if We had leisure to make it ) to obtain from it a true Sugar of Lead ; and t is remarkable , that the Concrete , which appear'd White before Distillation , remain'd , for the most part , behind in the Retort in the form of a black Caput mortuum , ( sometimes We have had it in a Yellowish Lump , ) which was neither at all sweet , as the Vitriol of Lead it self had eminently been , nor at all sowr , as the Liquor , distill'd from it , was in a high degree , but seem'd rather insipid , and was indeed but a Calx of Lead , which the heat of the fire had in part reduc'd into true and manifest Lead in the Retort it self , as appear'd by many Grains of several Sizes , that We met with in the Caput mortuum , ( the rest of which is easily enough reducible by fusion with a convenient flux into malleable Lead it self . ) There are some Phaenomena of this Experiment , that We may elsewhere have Occasion to take notice of ; as particularly , That , notwithstanding Silver be a Body so fix'd in the fire , that it will ( as t is generally known ) endure the Cuppel it self , and though in the dry'd Chrystals of Silver , the Salt , that adheres to the Silver , increases the weight of the Metal but about a 4 h or a 3d part ; yet this small proportion of saline Corpuscles was able to carry up so much of that almost fixedst of Bodies , that , more then once , We have had the inside of the Retort , to a great height , so cover'd over with the Metalline Corpuscles , that the Glass seem'd to be Silver'd over , and could hardly , by long scraping , be freed from the copious and closely adhering Sublimate . But the Phaenomenon , that I chiefly desire to take notice of at present , is this , That not onely Aqua fortis , being concoagulated with differing Bodies , may produce very differing Concretes , but the same numerical Saline Corpuscles , that , being associated with those of one Metal , had already produc'd a Body eminent in one . Tast , may afterwards , being freed from that Body , compose a Liquor eminent for a very differing Tast ; and after That too , being combin'd with the particles of another Metal , would with them constitute a Body of a very eminent Tast , as opposite as any one can be to both the other Tasts ; and yet these Saline Corpuscles , if , instead of this second Metal , they should be associated with such a one as That , they are driven from , would therewith exhibit agen the first of the three mention'd Tasts . To prove all this , We took Chrystals of refined Silver made with Aqua fortis , and though these Chrystals be , as We often note , superlatively bitter ; yet having , by a naked fire , extorted from them what Spirit we could , and found That , as we expected , extremely Acid , we put one part of it upon a few Filings of Silver , of which it readily made a Solution more bitter then Gall , and the other part of the distill'd Liquor We poured upon Minium : and though , whilst it had been an Ingredient of the Chrystals of Silver committed to Distillation , it did with that Metal compose an excessively bitter substance , yet the same Particles , being loosned from that Metal , and associated with those of the Lead , did with them constitute a Solution , which by Evaporation afforded us a Saccharum Saturni , or a Vitriol sweet as Sugar . And for further confirmation , We varied the Experiment , having , in a naked Fire , distilled some dry'd Saccharum Saturni made with Aqua fortis , the little Liquor that came over , in proportion to the Body , that afforded it , was so strong a spirit of Nitre , that for several hours the Receiver was fill'd with red Fumes ; and though the smoaking Liquor were hugely sharp , yet part of it , being pour'd upon a piece of its own Caput mortuum , ( in vvhich We perceiv'd not any Tast ) did at length ( for it vvrought but very slowly ) exhibit some little Grains of a Saccharine Vitriol , but the other part , being put upon Filings of Silver , fell upon it immediately vvith noise and store of smoak , and a while after concoagulated vvith part of it ( vvhich it had dissolv'd ) into a Salt excessively bitter . Experiment IX . THe Artificial Transmutation of Bodies , being as the rarest and difficultest Production , so one of the noblest and usefullest Effects of Humane skill and power , not onely the clear Instances of it are to be diligently sought for and priz'd , but even the Probabilities of effecting such an extraordinary Change of Bodies are not to be neglected ; especially , if the Version , hop'd for , be to be made betwixt Bodies of Primordial Textures , ( if I may so call them , ) and such Bodies , as by the greatnesse of their Bulk , and by their being to be found in most of the mix'd Bodies here below , make a considerable part of those , that we Men have the most immediately to do with . Invited by these considerations , Pyrophilus , I shall venture to give you the Account of some Observations , and Tryals , about the Transmuting of Water into Earth , though it be not so perfect as I Wish , and as I Hope , by Gods blessing , to make it . The first Occasion , afforded me to do any thing about this matter , was my being consulted by a Gentleman , ( an antient Chymist , but not at all a Philosopher , ) who relating to me how much he had ( with the wonted success of such Attempts ) labour'd after the Grand Arcana , complain'd to me among other things , that , having Occasion to imploy great quantity of purifi'd Rain-water , he obtain'd from it much less then he wish'd of the substance that he look'd for , but a great deal of a certain whitish excrementitious Matter , which he knew not what to make of . This gave me the Curiosity first to desire a sight of it , in case he had not thrown it away , ( which by good fortune he had not , ) and then , taking notice of the unexpected plenty , and some of the Qualities of it , to ask him some Questions which were requisite and sufficient to perswade me , that this Residenee came not from accidental foulness of the Water , nor of the Vessels t was receiv'd in . This I afterwards often thought of , and indeed it might justly enough awaken some suspicions , that the little Motes , that have been sometimes observ'd to appear numerous enough , in pure Rain water whilst it is distilling , might not be meerly accidental , but really produc'd , as well as exhibited by the action of the Fire . I thought it then worth while to prosecute this matter a little farther : And having put a pretty quantity of distill'd Rainwater in a clean Glass Body , and fitted it with a Head and a Receiver , I suffer'd it to stand in a Digestive Furnace , till , by the gentle heat thereof , the Water was totally abstracted , and the Vessel left dry : which being taken out of the Sand , I found the bottom of the Glass all cover'd over with a white ( but not so very white ) substance ; which , being scrap'd off vvith a Knife , appear'd to be a fine Earth , in vvhich I perceiv'd no manifest Tast , and vvhich , in a vvord , by several Qualities seem'd to be Earth . This incourag'd me to redistill the Rain-water in the same Glass Body , vvhose Bottom , vvhen the Water vvas all drawn off , afforded me more of the like Earth : but though the Repetition of the Experiment , and my having , for greater caution , try'd it all the while in a new Glass , that had not been imploy'd before to other uses , confirm'd me much in my conjecture , That unless it could be prov'd , which I think will scarce be pretended , that so insipid a Liquor as Rain-water should , in so gentle a heat , dissolve the most close and almost Indestructible Body of Glass it self , ( which such corrosive Menstruums as Aqua fortis , and Aqua Regis are wont to leave unharm'd , ) the Earthy powder , I obtain'd from already distill'd Rain water , might be a Transmutation of some parts of the Water into that substance , yet having unhappily lost part of my Powder , and consum'd almost all the rest , ( for I kept a little by me , which you may yet see , ) I should , till I had more frequently reiterated my Experiments , ( which then I had not Opportunity to do , though I had thoughts of doing it also with Snow-water , that I had put into Chymical Glasses for that purpose , and with liquor of melted Hail , which I had likewise provided , ) and thereby also obtain'd some more of this Virgin Earth ( as divers Chymists would call it ) to make farther Tryals with , have retain'd greater suspicions , if I had not afterwards accidentally fall'n into discourse of this matter with a learned Physician , vvho had dealt much in Rain-vvater , but he much confirmed me in my conjecture , by assuring me , that he had frequently found such a White Earth , as I mention'd , in distill'd Rain Water , after he had distill'd the same Numerical Liquor ( carefully gather'd at first ) I know not how many times one after another , adding , that he did not find ( any more then I had done ) any cause to suspect , that if he had continu'd to redistill the same portion of Water , it would have yielded him more Earth . But the Odness of the Experiment still keeping me in suspence , it was not without much delight , that afterwards mentioning it to a very Ingenious Person , whom , without his leave , I think not fit to name , well vers'd in Chymical matters , and whom I suspected to have , in order to some Medicines , long wrought upon Rain vvater , he readily gave me such an Account of his proceedings , as seem'd to leave little scruple about the Transmutation we have been mentioning : for he solemnly affirm'd to me , that having observ'd , as I had done , that Rain-vvater would , even after a Distillation or two , afford a Terrestrial substance , which may sometimes be seen swimming up and down in the Limpid Liquor , he had the Curiosity , being settled and at leisure , to try how long he could obtain this substance from the Water . And accordingly having freed Rain Water , carefully collected , from its accidental , and as it vvere faeculent Earthiness , vvhich it vvill deposite at the first slovv Distillation , ( and vvhich is oftentimes colour'd , vvhereby it may be distinguish'd from the White Earth made by Transmutation , ) he redistill'd it in very clean Glasses , not onely 8 or 10 times , but neer 200 , vvithout finding that his Liquor grevv weary of affording him the White Earth , but rather that the Corpuscles of it did appear far more numerous , or at least more conspicuous in the latter Distillation , then in the former . And vvhen I expressed my Curiosity to see this Earth , he readily shevv'd me a pretty quantity of it , and presented me vvith some , vvhich comparing vvith vvhat I had remaining of mine , I found to be exceeding like it , save that it vvas more purely White , as having been , for the main , afforded by Rain Water , that had been more frequently rectify'd . And to compare this welcome Powder with That I made my self , I try'd with This divers things , which I had before try'd with my own , and ( because the quantity presented me was less inconsiderable ) some others too . For I observ'd in this new Powder , as I had done with my Own , that being put into an excellent Microscope , and plac'd where the Sun beams might fall upon it , it appear'd a White Meal , or heap of Corpuscles so exceeding , not to say unimaginably , small , that , in two or three choice Microscopes , both I and others had occasion to admire it ; and their extreme Littleness was much more sensibly discern'd , by mingling some few Grains of Sand amongst them , which made a Mixture that look'd like that of Pibble stones , and of the finest Flower . For our Earth , even in the Microscope , appear'd to consist of as small Particles , as the finest Hair-powder to the naked Eye . Nor could We discern this Dust to be transparent , though , when the Sun shin'd upon it , it appear'd in the Microscope to have some Particles a little glistering , which yet , appearing but in a glaring light , we were not sure to be no deceptio visûs . 2. I found , that our White Powder , being cast into Water , would indeed for a while discolour it by somewhat Whitening it , which is no more then Spaud will do , and the fine dust of white Marble , and other stones , whose Corpuscles , by reason of their Minuteness , swimme easily for a while in the Water , but when it was once setled at the bottom , it continu'd there undissolv'd ( for ought I could perceive ) for some dayes and nights , as Earth would have done . 3. Having weigh'd a quantity of it , and put it into a new clean Crucible , with another inverted over it for a Cover , I plac'd it among quick Coals , and there kept the Crucible red hot for a pretty while , causing the Fire afterward to be acuated with a blast of a Bellows , but taking out the Powder , I neither found it melted , nor clotted into lumps , nor , when I weigh'd it again , did I see cause to conclude that there was much of it wasted , besides what stuck to the sides of the Crucible , and to a little Clay , vvherewith I had luted on the Cover , and which ( to shew you , that the Heat had not been inconsiderable ) was in several places burnt red by the vehemence of the fire ; and when I afterwards kept this Powder in an open Crucible among glowing coals , neither I , nor one that I imploy'd to assist me , perceiv'd it all to smoak ; and having put a little upon a quick Coal , and blown That too , I found that which I had not blown away , to remain fix'd ( which some Bodies will not do ) upon quick Coals , that will endure the fire in a red hot Crucible . 4. I found this powder to be much heavier in specie then VVater . For imploying a nice pair of Gold Scales , and a Method that would be too long here to describe , I found that this Powder weigh'd somevvhat ( though not much ) more then twice so much common VVater , as vvas equal to it in Bulk . And least some Corollaries , that seem obviously contain'd in the common , but groundless , conceipts of the Peripateticks , about the Proportions of the Elements in Density &c. should make you expect , that this povvder ought to have been much more ponderous , I shall adde , that having had the Curiosity , vvhich I wonder no body should have before me , to examine the Gravity of the Earth , which seems the most Elementary of any we have , I took some sifted Wood-ashes , which I had caus'd to be three or four times boyl'd in a plentiful proportion of Water , to free them from Salt , and having put them very dry into common Water , I found them but little heavier then our newly mention'd Powder , surpassing in weight Water of the same Bulk but twice , and a little more then a 6th part , ( Water and It being very little more then as 1 to 2 1 / 6. ) And that you may the less doubt of this , I will yet subjoyn , that , examining the Specifick Gravity of ( white ) Glass it self , I found that compact Body to be very little , if at all more then 2 times and a half as heavy as Water of equal Bigness to it . So that the Gravity of that Powder , which , borrowing a Chymical term , we have been calling Virgin-Earth , being added to its Fixtness , and other Qualities , it may seem no great impropriety of Speech to name it Earth , at least , if by Earth we mean not the pure Elementary Earth of the Schools , which many of themselves confesse not to be found actually separate , but a Body dry , cold , ponderous , induring the fire , and , which is the main , irresoluble by Water and Fire into other Bodies specifically different . [ But to return to the Guise of the Powder , when I ask'd this Learned man , whether he observ'd the Glass he distill'd in to have been fretted by the Liquor , and whether This lost of its Substance , according as it deposited more Powder , He answer'd me , ( and he is a Person of unsuspected Credit , ) that he found not his Glass to have been injur'd by the Liquor , and that the Water wasted ( though he were carefull it should not do so by Evaporation and Transfusions ) by degrees so much , that there remain'd , by his aestimate , but about an 8th part of the first quantity : and though , for certain reasons , he kept by him the Liquor last distill'd , yet he doubted not , but that it might be very nigh totally brought into Earth , since out of an Ounce of distill'd Rain-water he had already obtain'd near 3 quarters of an Ounce , if not more , of the often mention'd Earth . ] These several Relations will , I suppose , perswade You , Pyrophilus , that this Experiment is hopeful enough to be well worth your pursuing , if not that perhaps none but such a scrupulous Person as I , would think the prosecution of it other then superfluous . And if You do acquiesce in what hath been already done , you will , I presume , think it no mean confirmation of the Corpuscularian Principles , and Hypotheses . For if , contrary to the Opinion that is so much in request among the generality of modern Physicians and other Learned Men , that the Elements themselves are transmuted into one another , and those simple and Primitive Bodies , which Nature is presum'd to have intended to be the stable and permanent ingredients of the Bodies she compounds here below , may be artificially destroy'd , and ( without the intervention of a Seminal and Plastick power ) generated or produc'd : if , I say , this may be done , and that by such slight means , why may We not think , that the Changes and Metamorphoses , that happen in other Bodies , which are acknowledg'd by the Moderns to be far more lyable to Alterations , may proceed from the Local Motion of the minute or insensible parts of Matter , and the Changes of Texture that may be consequent thereunto ? Some bold Atomists would here be determining , by what particular Wayes this strange Transmutation of Water into Earth may be perform'd , and would perchance particularly tell you , how the continually , but slowly , agitated parts of the Water , by their innumerable occursions , may by degrees rub , and as it were grind themselves into such Surfaces , as either to stick very close to one another by immediate contact , ( as I elsewhere observe polish'd pieces of Glass to do , ) or implicate , and intangle themselves together so , as to make , as it were , little knots ; which knots ( he would add , ) or the newly mention'd clusters of coherent Particles , being then grown too great and heavy to be supported by the Water , must subside to the bottom in the form of a Powder , which , by reason of the same Gravity of these Moleculae , and the strict Union of the les●er particles that compose them , obtain an indisposition to dissolve in water , and to be elevated or dissipated by the fire ; as their Insipidness may be accounted for by its being but the same with that of the Liquor , whence they were made , and their Transparency by that of the Water they were made of , and by the multitude of the little Surfaces that belong to so fine a Powder . But though in favour of such conjectures , I could somewhat illustrate them , partly by applying to this Occasion what I elsewhere observe of the reducing of the fluid Body of Quicksilver by a bare Circulation , ( which is but a repeated Distillation ) with a proportionable heat , into a real Powder , vvhich also vvill not so easily be rais'd by the fire , as the fluid Body , vvhence by change of Texture it was made ; and partly by subjoining , among other things , how by the conjunction of two distill'd Liquors digested together , I have obtain'd good store of an insipid Substance , that would not dissolve in Water , and that would long enough indure no inconsiderable degree of Fire ; though , I say , by these and other such particulars , I could make our Atomists conjectures lesse improbable , yet the full disquisition of so difficult a Subject is too long and intricate to be proper for this place . * And therefore , without here examining our Atomists explication of this Metamorphosis , we will give him leave for a vvhile to suppose the Transmutation it self to be real , and thereupon to consider , whether the Historical part of it do not much disfavour some of the chief Doctrines of the Chymists , and a fundamental one of Helmonts . For if the purest Water may be turn'd into Earth , it will not be easie to make it improbable , that the other Ingredients of mixt Bodies , which the Chymists call their Hypostatical Principles , are capable of being transmuted into one another , which would overthrow one of the main Foundations of their whole Philosophy ; and besides , if out of the simplest Water it self , a moderate fire can produce a large proportion of Earth , that was not formally praeexistent in it , how shall We be sure , that in all the Analyses , which the Fire makes of mixt Bodies , the Substances thereby exhibited are obtain'd by Separation onely , without any Transmutation ? As for Helmont , t is well enough known , that he makes Water to be the Material Principle of all Bodies here below , which he vvould have to be either Water it self , or but Water disguis'd by those Forms , vvhich the Seeds of things have given it . I will not here examine , whether this Opinion , if he had restrain'd it to Animals and Vegetables , might not , with some restriction and explanations , be kept from appearing absurd , since my Eleutherius hath ( though without absolutely adopting it ) elsevvhere pleaded for its not being so extravagant , as it hath been thought . But whereas Helmont's Grand Argument from Experience is grounded on this , That the Alkahest doth , as he affirms , by being digested with , and distill'd from other tangible Bodies , reduce them all at last into a Liquor , no way differing from Rain Water , though we should grant the matter of fact , yet the Experiment of our Powder will warrant me to question their Ratiocination . For if all mix'd Bodies be therefore concluded to be materially from Water , because they are , by the Operation of the Fire , and a Menstruum , after having pass'd through divers praevious Changes , reduc'd at length into insipid Water ; by the same way of arguing ( and with greater cogency ) I might conclude , that all those Bodies are materially but disguis'd Earth , since without intervention of a Seminal Principle , ( for Helmont will not allow that Title to Fire , which he stiles the Artificial Death of Things ) Water it self may be turn'd into Earth . Indeed if that acute Chymist were now alive , and had such an immortal Liquor , as he describes his Alkahest to be , I would gladly put him upon trying whether that Menstruum would reduce our White Earth into Water . But there being no more probability of that , then that such reproduc'd Water , being just what it vvas before , might be turn'd into Earth again ; it may be probably said , that since these Bodies are mutually convertible into one another , ( and , as to the version of Water into Earth , by a seemingly slight Operation , ) they are not either of them ingenerable and incorruptible Elements , much less the sole matter of all tangible Bodies , but onely two of the Primordial , and of the most obvious Schematisms of that , which is indeed the universal Matter , vvhich , as it comes to have its minute Particles associated after this or that manner may , by a change of their Texture and Motion , constitute , with the same Corpuscles , sometimes Water , and sometimes Earth . But ( Pyrophilus ) to leave these Reflexions , to return to the bold Conjectures that they are grounded on ; though if I had leisure and indulgence enough , I could , I confess add many things in favour of some of those Thoughts : * yet I would not have you wonder , that , whilst I vvas mentioning the many particulars , that seem to evince the change of Water into Earth , I should let fall some Words , that intimate a Diffidence about it . For , to disguize nothing unto You , I must confess , that having , in spight of an unusual care , unluckily lost a whole paper of the Powder I had made my self , and having unexpectedly been oblig'd to remove from my Furnaces , before I had made half the Tryals I judg'd requisite in so nice a case , I have not yet laid aside all my Scruples . For 1. I would gladly know , whether the untransmuted Rain water , by the deposition of so much Terrestrial Matter , were grown lighter in specie then before , or sharp in tast . Next , I would be throughly satisfied , ( which I confess I am not yet , notwithstanding all that the followers of Angelus Sala have confidently enough written , ) whether and hovv far insipid Liquors ( as Rain Water is ) may , or may not work as Menstruums upon Stones or Earthy Bodies : not to question , vvhether the Particles of Rain Water may not , by their mutual Attrition , or some other action upon one another , be reduc'd into Shapes and Sizes fit to compose such a Menstruum , as the Liquor was not before ; as in divers Plants , that seem to be nourish'd onely with Water , the Sap is endow'd with a sharp Tast , and great penetrancy , and activity of parts . 2. It were also fit to know , whether the Glass Body , wherein all the Distillations are made , do loose of its VVeight any thing neer so much , as the obtained Powder amounts to , over and above the Decrement of VVeight , which may be imputed to the action of the Heat upon the substance of the Glass , in case it appear by another Glass , kept empty in an equal heat , and for the same time that the Glass looses by such Operations any thing worth reckoning . And it vvere also not impertinent to try , whether the Gravity of the obtain'd a Powder be the same in specie with that of the Glass , vvherein the Distillations were made : ( for that is differ'd but about a 5th part from the weight of Chrystalline Glass I lately mention'd . ) Which Scrup●e , and some of the former , I might have prevented , if I had had convenient Metalline Vessels , wherein to make the Distillations instead of Glass ones . 3. I could wish likewise that it were more demonstrably determin'd , what is on all hands taken for granted , ( as it appears indeed highly probable , ) that distill'd Rain Water is a perfectly Homogeneous Body , vvhich if it be not , divers suspicions might be suggested about its Transmutation into Earth , and if it be , 't will be as a very strange thing , so a matter of very great difficulty to conceive , hovv a perfectly and exquisitely Homogeneous Matter should , without any Addition , or any Seminal and Plastick Principle , be brought to afford great store of a Matter of much more Specifick Gravity then it self , since we see , that no Aggregate we can make of Bodies but aequiponderant in specie with water , doth , by vertue of their Convention , grow specifically heavier then it . 4. Having had the Curiosity to try , whether Corrosive Liquors would work upon our white Powder , I found , that not onely good Oyl of Vitriol would corrode it , but strong and deflegm'd Spirit of Salt did readily work upon part of it , and that without the assistance of heat , though not without hissing , and exciting great store of bubbles , as I have known such Menstruums do , when put upon Lapis Stellaris , or Ossifragus , or some such soft Stone ; as if that so much defaecated Rain water , actuated by heat , had resolv'd some of the looser Corpuscles of the Sand or Stone , that , together with some Salts , compose common Glass , as I have observ'd in some Petrifying VVater , that some of the Bodies I took up , and which were presum'd to be petrify'd , were but crusted over with Stone , that seem'd generated but by the successive apposition of Stony Particles , that , lying invisibly mingled with the running VVater , stuck in their passage to the conveniently dispos'd Bodies that lay in the Streams way . But yet I must not omit , that , when I suffer'd this Mixture to settle , as much of the Powder , as seem'd to be a very great part of it , remain'd in the lower part of the Liquor , as if that had rather fretted then dissolv'd i● , and that not because the Menstruum was overcharg'd or glutted , as I found by putting in afterwards several fresh parcels of Powder , which it readily fell upon , not without noise and froth . Nor must I forget , that sometimes I have excited such an Ebullition , by powring the same Liquors upon the Earthy part of Wood-ashes , several times wash'd in boyling water , ( though , I confess , I afterwards somewhat suspected there might remain some little adhering Alkaly , which might occasion those Bubbles , notwithstanding that both I and another , whom I also invited to tast it , took the Earth to be quite Saltlesse . ) I might ( Pyrophilus ) adde , that sometimes also me thought I found this Powder ( which yet likewise sometimes hapned to me with the lately mention'd Earth of Wood-ashes ) somewhat gritty between my Teeth , and subjoin divers other particulars , if it were not too tedious to mention to You all the doubts and considerations that have occurr'd to me about the recited Change of Water into Earth : which yet are not such as ought to hinder me from giving You the Historical account I have set down , since to some of my Scruples I could here give plausible Answers , but that I cannot do it in few words . And if any part of our white Powder prove to be true Earth , no body perhaps yet knows to what the Experiment may lead sagacious Men : and whether in a strict sense it be true Earth or no , yet the Phaenomena , that are exhibited in the production of it , are sufficient to give this 9th Experiment a place among the others ( of the same Decad ) with which t is associated . For since out of a substance that is universally acknowledg'd to be Elementary and Homogeneous , and which manifestly is fluid , transparent , much lighter in specie then Earth , moist and fugitive , there is artificially generated or obtain'd a Substance consistent , vvhite , and consequently opacous , comparatively ponderous , dry , and not at all fugitive ; the Alteration is so great , and effected in so simple a way , that it cannot but afford us a considerable Instance of what the varied Texture of the minute parts may perform in a Matter confessedly similar . And if frequently distill'd Rain Water should not be allow'd Homogeneous , our Experiment will at least shew as , better then perhaps any hath yet done , how little we are bound to believe what the Chymists , and others tell us , when they pretend manifestly to exhibit to us Homogeneous Principles , and Elementary Bodies , and how difficult it is to be certain when a Body is absolutely iiresoluble into specifically differing substances , and consequently what is the determinate number of the perfectly simple Ingredients of Bodies : ( supposing that such there are . ) Though I must confess , that my onely aime is not to Relate what hath been done , but to Procure the prosecution of it . For if the obtain'd Substance be , by the Rain Water , dissolv'd out of the Glasse , this will both prove a noble and surprizing Instance of what may be one by insipid Menstruums , even upon Bodies that are justly reckon'd among the compactest and most indissoluble that we know of , and may afford us many other considerable hints , that have been partly intimated already : and if on the other side , this Powder , whether it be true Elementary Earth or not , be found to be really produc'd out of the Water it self , it may prove a Magnale in Nature , and of greater consequence then will be presently foreseen , and may make the Alchymists hopes of turning other Metals into Gold , appear less wild , since that by Experimentally evincing , that two such difficult Qualities to be introduc'd into a Body , is considerable degrees of Fixity & Weight , ( whose requisitenesse to the making of Gold are two of the Principal things , that have kept me from easily expecting to find the Attempts of Alchymists successeful , ) may , without the mixture of a Homogeneous Matter , be generated in it , by varying the Texture of its parts . I will not now adventure to adde any thing of what I have been attempting about the transmuting ( without additaments ) of pure Alkalizate Salts into Earth , because I do not yet know , whether the Tryals will answer my Hopes : ( for I do not yet call them my Expectations . ) But upon this subject of Transmutations , I could , if it did not properly belong to another Treatise , tell you something about the Changes , that may be wrought upon highly rectify'd Spirit of Wine , vvhich vvould perchance make You think of other things of the like kind lesse infeasible . For vvhereas t is a known thing , that That spirituous Liquor being kindled , ( and that , if you please , by other Spirit of Wine actually fir'd ) will , for ought appears , burn all away , that is , be totally turn'd into flame ; if I durst rely , in so important a case , on a couple of Tryals , whilst I hope for an Opportunity of making farther ones , I would tell You , that by a way unthought on ( that I know of ) by any Body , I have , vvithout any addition , obtain'd , from such Spirit of Wine , as , being kindled in a Spoon , would flame all away , without leaving the least drop behind it , a considerable quantity of downright incombustible Flegm . And by another way ( mention'd indeed by Helmont , but not taught to almost any of his Readers ) some Ingenious Persons , that you know and esteem , vvorking by my directions , ( but vvithout knowing vvhat each other vvas doing ) did both of them reduce considerable quantities of high rectify'd Spirit of Wine ( that vvould before have burnt all away ) into a Liquor , that was for the most part flegm , as I vvas inform'd as well by my own tast , as by the Tryals I order'd to be made : ( being forc'd my self to be most commonly absent . ) From which change of the greatest part of that at first liquid Splrit into Flegm , it seems deducible , that the same portion of Matter , vvhich , by being kindled , may be turn'd all into Fire , may be , by another vvay of handling , turn'd into Flegm or Water , and this vvithout the addition of any thing , and vvithout being vvrought upon by any visible Body , but one so extremely dry as duely prepar'd Salt of Tartar ; and that it self is not so indispensably necessary to the obtaining of flegm out of totally inflammable Spirit of Wine , but that , as I was saying , I did , by another way , obtain that dull Liquor vvithout imploying the Salt , or any other visible Body vvhatsoever . But I make a scruple to entertain you any longer with Extravagances of this Nature , and yet , if I were sure You vvould contain your smiles , I would adde for conclusion , That , if I had had time and Opportunity to furnish my self with any quantity of that Water , I had it in my thoughts to try , vvhether that vvould have afforded me such a Terrestrial substance , as Rain Water had done , and thereby have undergone a new and further Metamorphosis . The X. Experiment . THere is one Experiment more , two of the chief Phaenomena of vvhich belong to another Discourse ; ( vvhere I particularly mention Them , ) and yet I shall conclude this little Treatise vvith the recitation of the Experiment it self , not onely because divers of the Phaenomena do eminently belong to our present subject , but because I have scarce met vvith any Experiments more suitable to the Design I have of shevving , before I conclude this Discourse , vvhat great and sudden Productions and Destructions of Qualities may be effected by the composition of the smallest Number of Ingredients , even among Liquors themselves , and such too as are believ'd to be both of Them simple and Homogeneous , and incapable of Putrefaction , that so it may appear , what notable Alterations of Qualities even seemingly slight and easie mixtures can perform among Bodies , both of them fluid , as well as among those that were either both of them stable , or one of them stable , and the other consistent . Take then of good Oyl of Vitriol , and of Spirit of Wine , that will burn all away , equal parts , not in quantity , but in Weight ; put them together by little and little , and having plac'd the Mixture in a Bolt-head , or Glass Egg with a long neck , and carefully stopp'd it with a Cork and hard Wax , set the Vessel in a moderate heat to digest for a competent while ; ( two or three weeks may do well , ) then pour out the Mixture into a tall Glass Cucurbite , to which lute on a Head and a Receiver with extraordinary care , to prevent the Avolation of the Spirits , which will be very subtle : then with a very gentle fire abstract the spirit of Wine , that will first ascend , and when the Drops begin to come over sowrish , shift the Receiver , and continue the Distillation with great care , that the Matter boyl not over , and when you judge that about half the acid Liquor is come over , it will not be amiss , though it be not necessary , to change the Receiver once more ; but whether you do this or no , your Distillation must be continued , increasing the fire towards the latter end , till you have brought over all you can , and what remains in the bottom of the Cucurbite must be put into a Glass well stopp'd , to keep it from the Air. N B. 1. That to the Production of most , if not of all the Phaenomena of this Experiment , it is not absolutely necessary , that so long a Digestion , ( not to say , not any , ) be premis'd ; though if the time above prescrib'd be allow'd , the Experiment will succeed the better . 2. That , I remember , I have sometimes made use of Oyl of Sulphur per Campanam ( as they call it ) instead of Oyl of Vitriol , to produce the recited Phaenomena ; and though the Attempt succeeded not ill , as to divers particulars , yet I afterwards chose rather to imploy oyl of Vitriol , both because it did , in some points , better answer my Expectation then the other Liquor , and because I would not give occasion to suspect , that the Odours , hereafter to be mention'd as Phaenomena of our Experiment , were due to the common Sulphur , whence the unctuous Liquor , made per Campanam , was obtain'd , as such , and did no way proceed from the acid Vitriolate Salt , which that Oyl ( as t is improperly call'd ) doth abound with . 3. That I had likewise the Curiosity to digest Oyl of Vitriol with Spanish Wine , instead of Spirit of Wine , by which means I obtain'd an odd Spirit , and residence , and some other Phaenomena , which I content my self to have in this place given hint of , in regard that Wine being a Liquor of a much less simple nature then its Spirit , the Phaenomena , afforded me by This , are much fitter for my present purpose . 4. That great care must be had in regulating the fire , when once a good part of the Acid spirit , mention'd in the process , is come over . For if the Fire be not increas'd , the rest will scarce ascend , and if it be increas'd but a little too much , the Matter will be more apt , then one would suspect , to swell exceedingly in the Cucurbite , and perhaps run over into the Receiver , and spoil what it finds there , as it hath more then once hapned to me , when I was fain to commit the management of the Fire to others . Now the oyl of Vitriol , and the spirit of Wine , being both of them distill'd Liquors , and the Latter of them several times redistill'd , and one of them being drawn from so simple and familiar a substance as Wine , and the other from a Concrete not more compounded , then what Nature her self ( which , as I elsewere shew , can , without the help of Art , produce Vitriol ) doth divers times present us with ; these Liquors , I say , being both or them distill'd , and consequently volatile , one would expect , that by distilling them , they should be brought over united , as I have tryed , that the spirit of Wine , and of Nitre , or also of common Salt may be ; and as the spirits of differing Vegetables are wont to be ; or that , at least , the Distillation should not much alter them , from what it found them , after they had been well mingled together . But this notwithstanding , these two Liquors being of very odd Textures in reference to each other , their conjunction and distillation will make them exhibit divers considerable and perhaps surprizing Phaenomena . For First , whereas spirit of Wine has no great Sent , nor no good one , and moderately deflegm'd Oyl of Vitriol is wont to be inodorous ; the Spirit , that first comes over from our mixture , hath a Sent not onely very differing from spirit of Wine but from all things else , that . I remember , I ever smelt . And as this new Odour doth to almost all those , whose Opinions I have asked about it , seem very fragrant and pleasant , so I have sometimes had it so exceeding subtle , that , in spight of the care that was taken to lute the Glasses exactly together , it would perfume the neighbouring parts of the Laboratory , and would not afterwards be kept in by a close Cork , cover'd with two or three several Bladders , but smell strongly at some distance from the Viol wherein it was put , I did not think it unlikely , that so noble and piercing a Liquor might be of no mean efficacy in Physick ; and though I miss'd of receiving an account of its Effects from some ingenious Physicians , into whose Hands I put it to have Tryals made of it , yet I cannot despair of finding it a considerable Medicine , when I remember , partly what hath been done by some acquaintances of mine with bare flegme of Vitriol , upon the account ( as is suppos'd ) of that little Sulphur of Vitriol , that , though but sparingly , doth inrich that Liquor ; and partly , what the Masters of Chymical Arcana tell us of the wonderful vertues of the Volatile Sulphur of Vitriol , and what I have observ'd my self , that may invite me to have a good Opinion of Remedies of that nature . 2. But to shevv how much the Odours of Bodies depend upon their Texture , I shall now adde , That after this volatile and odoriferous Spirit is come over , and has been followed by an Acid Spirit , it will usually , towards the latter end of the Distillation , be succeeded by a Liquor , that is not onely not fragrant , but stinks so strongly of Brimstone , that I have sometimes known it almost take away the Breath ( as they speak ) of those , who , when I had the Receiver , newly taken off , in my hand , did ( either because to make sport I gave them no vvarning , or because they would not take it , as thinking what I told them impossible , ) too boldly adventure their Noses in the Tryal . 3. There is in this Operation produc'd a Liquor , that will not mingle either with the fragrant , or with the foetid Spirit hitherto describ'd , but is very differing from both of them , and is so very pleasant , subtle , and Aromatical , that it is no less differing as well from Spirit of Wine , as Oyl of Vitriol . But of this Liquor I give a further Account in a more convenient place . 4. When the Distillation is carried on far enough , You will find at the bottom , that the two above mention'd Diaphanous Spirits ( for Oyl of Vitriol is indeed rather a Saline Spirit , then an Oyl ) have produc'd a pretty Quantity of a Substance , not onely very opacous , but black almost like Pitch or Jet . 5. And this Substance , though produc'd by two Bodies , that were not onely fluid , but distill'd , will not alone be consistent , but ( if the Distillation have been urg'd far enough ) brittle . 6. And though Spirit of Wine be reputed the most inflammable , and Oyl of Vitriol the most corrosive Liquor that is known , yet I could not find , that this black Substance would easily , if at all , be brought , I say not to flame , but to burn ; nor that it had any discernible Tast , though both the Liquors , from whose mixture it was obtain'd , have exceeeding strong and pungent Tasts . 7. And whereas both Oyl of Vitriol and Spirit of Wine will each of them more readily , then most Liquors that are yet known , mingle with common Water , and diffuse it self therein , I observ'd , that this pitchy Mass , if the Distillation had been continued till it was perfectly dry , would not , that I could perceive , dissolve in common water for very many hours , and , if I much misremember not , for some dayes . 8. And Lastly , whereas the Oyl of Vitriol , and the Spirit of Wine , were both of them distill'd Liquors , and one of them exceeding volatile and fugitive ; yet the black Mass , produc'd by them , was so far fix'd , that I could not make it rise by a considerably strong and lasting fire , that would have rais'd a much more sluggish Body , then the heaviest of those that concurr'd to produce it . The remaining particulars , that I have observ'd in this Experiment , belong to another Treatise , and therefore I shall forbear to mention them in this : nor shall I at present adde any new Phaenomena to those I have already recited ; those freshly mention'd Experiments , and those that preceded it , being , even without the assistance of the four Observations I have delivered before them , sufficient to manifest the Truth I have been endeavouring to make out , For in the Experiments we are speaking of , it cannot well be pretended , or at least not well prov'd , that any Substantial Forms are the Causes of the Effects I have recited . For in most of the ( above mention'd ) cases , besides that , in the Bodies we imploy'd , the Seminal Vertues , if they had any before , may be suppos'd to have been destroy'd by the fire , they were such , as those I argue with would account to be Factitious Bodies , artificially produc'd by Chymical Operations . And t is not more manifest , that , in the production of these Effects , there intervenes a Local Motion , and change of Texture by these Operations , then t is inevident and precarious , that they are the Effects of such things , as the Schools fancy Substantial Forms to be : since t is , in these new Experiments , by the Addition of some new particles of Matter , or the Recess , or Expulsion of some praeexistent ones , or , which is the most frequent way , by the Transposition of Minute parts , yet without quite excluding the other two , that no more skilful a Chymist then I have been able to produce by Art a not inconsiderable number of such changes of Qualities ; that more notable ones are not ordinarily presented us by Nature , where she is presumed to work by the help of Substantial Forms ; I see not , why it may not be thought probable , that the same Catholick and fertile Principles , Motion , Bulk , Shape , and Texture of the Minute parts of Matter , may , under the Guidance of Nature , ( whose Laws the modern Peripateticks acknowledge to be establish'd by the all-wise God , ) suffice likewise to produce those other Qualities of Natural Bodies , of which we have not given particular Instances . FINIS . ERRATA . Praef. p. 11. l. ult . read aime . praef . p. 13. l. 13. r. perhaps . p. 68. l. 13. r. destroyes . p. 130 l. 14. r. Peare . p. 146. l. 20. r. Principle . p. 247. l. 25. r. Fleurs . p. 231. l. 15. r. it . p. 325. l. 6. a Comma at inflammable . p. 337. l. 7. r. of . p. 411. l. 7. r. former . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A29017-e1040 * Nego tibi ullam esse formam robis notam ple●è & planè : nostrámque scientiam esse umbram in sole . Scal●ger : ( ●f whose confession to the same purpose , more are cited hereafter . ) Notes for div A29017-e1600 * Cardan : Contradict . 9. lib. 2. Tract . 5. a pud Schenckium . * This memorable Accident happen'd to a Senator of B●rne , who was cur'd by the Experienc'd Fabricius Hildanus , that gives a long Account of it to the Learned Horstius , among whose Observat●ons t is extant ; ( Lib. 2. observ . 35. ) who ascribes the Indolence of the Part , whilst uncompress'd , to some slimy Juice , ( familiar enough to those Tendinous parts , ) wherein the Glassy fragment was as it were Bedded . † In those Notes about Occult Qualitles , where the Deleterious Faculty attributed to Diamonds is considered . † Since the writing of this , the Author found , that some of the Eminentest of the modern Schoolmen themselves , have been , as well as he , unsatisfied with the Aristotelian Definition of Quality : concerning which ( not to mention Revius , a Learned Protestant . Annotato● upon Sua●ez . ) Ariaga sayes ( disp . 5. sect . 2. subs . 1. ) Per haec n●hil explicatur ; nam de hoc quaerimus , quid sit esse qual , dices habere qualitatem ; bonus Circulus : qualitas est id quo quis sit qualis , & esse qualem est habere Qualitatem . And even the famous Jesuit Suarez , though he endeavours to excuse it , yet confesseth , that it leaves the proper Notion of Quality as obscure to us as before : ( Quae d●finitio , saith he , licèt ●a ration● essent●alis videatur , quod detur per habitudinem ad effectum formalem , quem omnis Fo●ma ess●●tialiter respicit , tamen quod ad nos spectat , aquè obscura nobis manet propria ratio Qualitatis . ) Suarez Disputat . Metaphysic . 42. But Hurtadus ( ●n his Metaphysical Disputations ) speaks mo●e boldly , telling us roundly , that it is Non tam Definitio , quàm inanis quaedam Nugatio , which makes me the mo●e wonder , that a famous Cartesian ( whom I forbear to name ) should content himself to give us such an Insignificant , or ●t least Superficial Definition of Quality . † Anst . Metaph. lib. 7. cap. 8. Notes for div A29017-e6250 * Aromat . Hist . lib. 1. cap. 29. de Cassia solutiva . * Ligon's History of Barbados . pag. 67.68 . * See Nicholaus Monardes , under the Title , Fabae Purgatrices . ⁁ Vincent le Blanck's Survey of the World : Part. 2. p. 260. * The following Discourse ( Of the Origine of Form● ) ought to have been placed before this foregoing Sectio● the Historical Part. Formarum cognitio est rudis , con●usa , nec nisi per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; neque verum est , formae substantialis speciem recipi in intellectum , non enim in sensu usquam fuit . J.C. Scalig. Formae substantiales sunt incognitae nobis , quia insensiles : ideo per qualitates , quae sunt principia immediatae Transmutationis , exprimuntur . Aquinas ad 1. de generat . & corrupt . In hac humanae mentis caligine aequè forma Ignis ac Magnetis nobis igno●a est . Sennertus . * Nego tibi uil●m esse formam nobis notam plenè & planè , nostramque scientiam esse umbram in Sole . Scalig. * Nomina tu lapidis , q●i quo●idie tuis oculis observatur , formam , & Phyllida solus habeto . Seal . contra Card. * Aristotle speaking of Anaxagoras in the first Ch. of the last Book of his Physicks , hath this passage : Dicit ( Anaxagoras ) cùm omnia simul essent , atque qu●escere●t tempore infinito , Mentem movisse , a● segregasse . * Epicurus in his Epistle to Pythocles . * The Sceptical Chymist . * See Lib. 1. de Gen. & Cor. t. 80. Idem Corpus ( sayes he there ) qua●quam continuum , aliàs liquidum , aliàs concretum videmus , non divisione aut compositione hoc passum , aut conversione , aut attactu , sicuti Democritus asserit : nam neque transpositione , neque Naturae demutatione ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) ex liquido concretum evadere solet . * Georg : Agricola de re metall . lib. 12. p. 462. * G. Agricola de re Metallica . lib. 12. * In the Essays about things supposed to be spontaneously generated . * Parchas . Pilgr . part . the first . p. 152. * The passage , which is long , I do not here transcribe , having had occasion to do it elsewhere . It is extant Lib. 5. C●p. 21. and at the close of his Narrative he subjoynes , Non est , quod quisquam de veritate dubitet , cum infinitos ●estes habeat Brasilta , &c. * Flo●a Sinensis o● Traite des Flerus &c. under the title Lozmeoques . * Containing some Advices and Directions for the writing of an Experimental Natural History . ☞ These two Leaves are to be placed immediately before the 271 page . * The Preface , here mentioned , is that premissed to the Tract intituled — S●me Specimens of an Attempt to make ●●mical Experiments useful to illustrate the Notions of the Corposcula● Philosophy . * See the Sceptical Chymist . * Though this VII . Experiment , being considerable and very pertinent , the Author thought fit to mention it , such as it is here delivered , when he writ but to a private friend ; yet , after he was induc'd to publish these Papers , t was the ( now raging ) Plague , which drove him from the Accommodations requisite to his purpose , that frustrated the Designe he had of first repeating that part of the Experiment , which treats of the Destruction of Gold : for as for that part , which teaches the Volatilization of it , he had tryed That often enough before . * What is here delivered may be , for the main , verify'd by what the Reader will meet with in the ( following ) Xth. Experiment , though That be not It which the Author meant . * Of the possible wayes of turning Liquors into consistent Bodies , by bending , breaking , twisting , and by otherwise changing the Texture of the Liquor , see more particularly the History of Fluidity and Firmnesse , publishd by the Author . 
A29010	----	Occasional reflections upon several subiects, whereto is premis'd a discourse about such kind of thoughts Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1665 Approx. 591 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 231 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A29010 Wing B4005 ESTC R17345 12108854 ocm 12108854 54159 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A29010) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 54159) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 590:3) Occasional reflections upon several subiects, whereto is premis'd a discourse about such kind of thoughts Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. [39], 80, 161-264, 229, [9] p. Printed by W. Wilson for Henry Herringman ..., London : 1665. Marginal notes. Dedication signed: R. Boyle. Reproduction of original in Union Theological Seminary Library, New York. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-05 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-06 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2006-06 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion IMPRIMATUR Liber , qui inscribitur Occasional Reflecti●ns , &c. quem Censeo reliquis ab eodem Cl. Autore Scriptis ( neque enim quicquam ●ajus de eo dicere possum , nec minus ●ebeo ) nequaquam cedere . ●…dib . Lambetha●…s . Feb. ● . 1664 Tho. Cook , Reverend . in Christo Patri ac Dom. Dom. Gilberto Cant. Archiepisc . Sacellanus Domesticus . OCCASIONAL Reflections UPON SEVERAL SVBIECTS . Whereto is premis'd A Discourse About such kind of Thoughts . Omnibus Rebus , omnibusque Sermonibus , aliquid Salutare miscendum est . Cum imus per occulta Naturae , cum divina tractamus , vindicandus est à malis suis animus , ac subinde firmandus . Sen. Natural . Quaest . Lib. 2. cap. 5 9. LONDON , Printed by W. Wilson for Henry Herringman , and are to be sold at his Shop at the Anchor in the Lower-walk in the New Exchange . Anno Dom. MDCLXV . TO * SOPHRONIA . My Dearest Sister , YOu receive in this Effect of my Obedience , one of the highest Proofs I can give You of its Greatness . For when You Command but things that tend to Your Service , the Performance is wont to be accompanied with a Satisfaction , that suffers me not to find it Vneasy . But I confess it was not without Reluctancy , that I was prevailed with to venture abroad Composures , wherein , even when I publish Them , I decline Owning them , and which , ( if our Names be discover'd ) may I fear , not only hazzard the Reputation ( if it have any ) of my Pen ; but , ( where You are less known ) bring into Question that of Your Judgment . 'T was easie for me to represent to You how unfinished and unpolished the Trifles you called for , were , especially considering that the Immatureness of some of them would not probably be the Chief thing that would make many think they come forth Vnseasonably , since they avowedly Aim at the Persuading and Teaching men to Improve their Thoughts , as well as Husband their Time , at a season , when both those Pretious Things are so Neglected , or so Mis-imploy'd , that the chief use , which too many make of the Former , is to devise wayes to get ridd of the Later . But though to my Vnreadiness to Publish these very long neglected Papers , at the same time when a Prae-engagement oblig'd me to Dispatch another Treatise of a quite different Nature , I added all those other dissuading Considerations that I have mentioned in the Preface to the Reader ; yet what I represented proved as Vnavailable , as what I had written was In-compleat . For , whilst You fancied that the following Reflections ( such as they are ) had Fewer Faults , and were like to do More Good , than I can presume ; Your Charity for others , and Partiality for me , made you so resolute and pressing to have me run a Venture , which you are pleas'd to think but a very Small One ; that I judged it more excusable to present you Green Fruit , than , by obstinately Refusing what you seemed almost to Long for , lose an opportunity of Evincing , That Your Commands can Prevail , both where those of Others would have been wholly Ineffectual , and when they required me to present You ( some , if not many , ) things that are so little worthy of You , that perhaps they are scarcely so , ev'n of me . Wonder not , Dear Sophronia , that I appear so Sollicitous to manifest the Greatness of my Obedience ; since That implyes an Vrgency in your Commands , that it highly concerns me to have taken notice of . For those that , having the Happiness to converse with You , shall chance to cast their Eyes upon the following Papers , will probably think that I shew as little Discretion in the Address , as I have shewn Skill in the writing , of these Reflections ; when I expose such Censurable Things to the Judgment of a Person that has so piercing a One , and present Trifles to one , that deserves the Noblest Productions of ( what she is so great a Mistress of ) Wit , and Eloquence . Vpon whose Account she is wont to persuade Piety as Handsomly in her Discourses , as she expresses it Exemplarily in her Actions ; and might , if her Modesty did less confine her Pen to Excellent Letters , both make the Wits of our Sex envy a Writer of Hers ; and keep Our Age from envying Antiquity , for those Celebrated Ladies , who , by their Triumphant Eloquence , Ennobled the People of Rome , and taught their Children to Sway those Rulers of the World. But when I can plead , that not only Your Commands , but even Your Importunity ingaged me ( though not to the Address , yet ) to the Publication of these Papers ; I may reasonably hope , that among those many considerable Persons to whom Your Attainments are not unknown , not only my Dedication will be Excused , but even my Book will not be so hastily Condemned . But I dare not prosecute so Fruitfull a Subject , for fear of offending Your Modesty ; since that predominant Virtue gives You so great an Vndervaluation for all Your other Qualities , that it is as much Your Custome to look ev'n upon Smal Praises as Flatteries , as it is Your Prerogative to keep Great ones from being so . And I should therefore have omitted that little it self which I have said , if , on This occasion , my Interest did not as well Oblige me , as the known Truth Warrant me , so to Consider Your Modesty , as not to be altogether Injurious to Your other Excellencies ; since the Reader 's knowledge of These ( if he be not a strnager to You ) will promise me this Advantage , that divers of the Criticks themselves will chuse rather to Absolve my Writings , than Condemn Your Judgment : and that at least , the Devout , to whom Your Practice has afforded so many other Examples , will be scrupulous to be more Severe to these Papers , than a Person in whom , upon the score of her own Style , Severity were more justifiable than in most Readers ( without excepting the Eloquent Ones ) and will imitate Her , in Considering , that this Book pretends to present them Thoughts , rather than Words , and in Supporting , for the sake of the Design , the Manner in which it is prosecuted . And certainly , my Lady R's . Approbation , is a Happiness which divers sorts of Considerations may render as Advantageous as Welcome to me . For if any of these Thoughts , do ( which yet I can scarce hope ) derive it from Your Justice , that great measure of Esteem You do not only Merit , but Possess , may both Assure them of a General One , and much contribute to Procure it them . But if all of them owe your Approbation ( as I fear they do ) to your Partiality ; since that must not be ▪ Small to be able to pervert such a Judgment , This it self will prove an Evidence of the Blessing of Your Affection ; which is a Felicity , that I know You enough to value above all the Praises I can miss of : since Applause can make me happy but in other Mens Opinion , but Your Friendship can make me so in my own . Yet , apprehend not , Sister , That I should here endeavor , by a solemn Character of You , to justifie what I have been saying : For , though to write a Dedicatory Epistle , without a Panegyrick , be grown of late very Vnfashionable ; yet since 't is as much so , to take the Praises wont to be profusely given in such Letters for Measures of any thing but the Writers Wit , I must rather reserve the Acknowledgments I ow Your Merit and Your Favors to some Occasion , where they may not be lyable to pass for a Tribute paid to Custome , not a Debt due to You ; than draw a needless Suspition upon the Sincerity of our Friendship , by endeavouring to express my Affection and Esteem in a Dedicatory Letter ; and by chusing to Profess , upon an Occasion where Custom allows men to Say what they do not Think , so Great and Real a Truth , as that of my being , far more upon the Account of Esteem and Gratitude , than of Nature it self , My Dearest Sister , Your most Affectionate , and most Faithfull Servant . R. Boyle ▪ AN INTRODUCTORY PREFACE . WHen I consider the Disadvantages , with which the following Trifles come abroad , in an Age , that is not only so Censorious , but so Intelligent , as this of ours ; neither the Partiality of my Friends , nor the favourable Reception that the publick has hitherto vouchsafed to what hath been presented it , of mine , is able to give me a Confidence , ( though they almost create a Hope ) That these Papers will meet with as kind an Entertainment , as those of the samehand that have preceded them . And yet , without being wanting to my self , I canot but ad , that by the help of Their suggestions , who have urg'd the Publication of these Thoughts , I am not unfurnish'd with ( at least ) Tollerable Excuses for the things that seem likely to stand in need of any . I shall not much wonder to find it said , That the Book is , in general , far short of being an Exact and Finish'd Piece . For perhaps few Readers will be more of that mind , than the Author is . But by way of Apology , it may be represented , That most of the following Papers , being written for my own private Amusement , a good deal of Negligence in them may appear as pardonable , as a Careless Dress , when a man intends not , nor expects , to go out of his study , or let himself be seen . And that which I now publish being design'd , not to satisfie the Criticks , but to gratifie the Devout , I hope it will be thought a Venial Crime , if in some of these Meditations I have not aim'd to express Eloquence , but only to cherish Piety . I say , in some , because there may be others ( where a different style was thought fitter ) in whose Favour I would produce such Suffrages , as would not be slighted , if I were concern'd to do any more for those Papers , than Excuse them . And perhaps they that shall take the pains to try their skill in making Meditations , Indifferently upon the Occurrences that shall happen , and wander no further from the Circumstances of their Themes , nor lard them any more with Sentences & other Passages borrow'd from the Fathers , or the Poets , than in most of the following Papers , I have done : will not find the Task so easie , but that they will think it reasonable to be Mild in their Censures , and will discern , that in such Composures , some Unaccurateness is so hard to be Avoided , that it should not be hard to be Forgiven . I know the want of Uniformity in the style of the ensuing Reflections , may speciously enough be censured . For , not to mention that some of them are very long , and others very short ; it will be said , that some are written in a very Neglected , and others ev'n in a Luxuriant strain ; & there may ( perchance ) appear betwixt some of them , as great an Inequality as can easily be found , betwixt Composures that are none of them Excellent . Besides , that the Incoherence of the Subjects , together with the differing Ways wherein they are handled , may make them look so little of kin to one another , as scarce to appear the Productions of the same Pen. But this Uneven way of writing will possibly be rather pardon'd than wondred at , by those that shall be informed . That the nature of this kind of Composures requires not any other than a loose and Desultory way of writing . That these Reflections are very far from coming abroad in the Order of Time wherein they were set down : but in that Casual order , wherein , when I was engag'd to tack them together , I was able to light on them among my loose and forgotten Papers . Many of which being discovered to have been lost when some of the rest were to be at the Press ; I was fain , for the compleating of the number , to insert here and there some of a much fresher date , among those that were made ( as some know who then read them ) sixteen or seventeen years ago ; when my Style could hardly be other than differing enough from what it now is . And lastly , That the differing Natures of several Subjects required , that the Reflections on some of them should be far Longer than on others ; and As my want of Leisure , and sometimes of Dispos'dness to write , induc'd me to make some of my Considerations but short : So I thought fit to let them pass for Their sakes , to whom , for want of Time or Skill , the Brevity of those , may make them the fitter , and the more recommend them . Besides , what has been alledged against the Style ' I know it may be objected , That in some of the Meditations , the Subjects are very Mean , and Trivial , and that such I hemes are not Worthy the being descanted on . And indeed , if I aim'd at the Writer's advantage , more than the Reader 's , I could easily have left them out , and have substituted in their places some others that lye by me , less liable to Contempt . But I confess , I did not think my self oblig'd , to publish no Meditations , but the least Censurable ones that I had made ; and divers of those intimated in the objection , were purposely inserted , when I was prevail'd with to bundle up these loose sticks into Faggots . For Then , designing this Treatise for the Benefit of the Generality of Devout Readers , I thought it not amiss , amongst divers Reflections ( such as most of the II d and of the IV th Sections ) more suited to those Perusers that are either of the more intelligent sort , or good Proficients already ; to insert some few Meditations , of more familiar sort , & easier to be lighted on ; to 〈…〉 from being discourag'd , from trying to ma●● Occasional Reflections , who may chance to have either Barrenner Fancy's , or more unpractis'd Pens , than even I had then : And those ( perhaps ) who , without such easily imitable Examples would not be invited to make Occasional Meditations , may , by the Practice of composing them , grow such Proficients in the Art , as to surpass some that despise such humble Beginnings . But as I send abroad these Papers without the Authors name , that I may have the greater Opportunity to hear other mens Opinions of them , and the less Temptation to wave the complying with those that shall seem Reasonable : so if I shall find , That such Readers as I esteem competent Judges in an Affair of this Nature , shall think that those Reflections wherein I have comply'd with the weaker sort of Perusers , may be better Spar'd , than Inserted : I can sily repair that fault in the next Edition ( if these Trifles shall be thought worthy of another ) . In the mean time , I presume that those devout Readers who may be concern'd in this matter , will take it kindly that I have for their sakes adventur'd to treat of Subjects too mean and barren to furnish me with almost any thing considerable ; save the Opportunity 's of manifesting , how low I can stoop to gratifie such Persons . I know it is a new thing , That I have ventured to put some Occasional Reflections into Dialogues . But the Reader will be less startled at my deviating in this , and other things , from Bishop Hall's way of writing Occasional Meditations , if I acknowledge that not to Prepossess or Byass my Fancy , I purposely ( till of late ) forbad my self , the perusing of that Eloquent Praelates devout Reflections . Which Intimation being premis'd , I shall subjoyn , That when I wrote for my own Divertisement , I sometimes took Pleasure to imagine two or three of my Friends to be present with me at the Occasion , that set my thoughts on work , and to make them Discourse as I fancy'd Persons , of their Breeding and tempers , would talk to one another on such an Occasion . And one of these , whom I call Eusebius , being a Dr. of Divinity ; two others ( Eugenius and Genorio ) being Travellers and fine Gentlemen ; and the fourth , ( whom I name Lindamor ) being a Learned Youth , both well Born and well Bred ; I was apt to think , that some of their Conferences , might be allow'd to pass among the other Papers ; both because Novelty , and Variety , are wont to be not unwelcome things , and because this way of writing allows a Scope for diversity of Opinions , for Debates , and for Replies , which mostcommonly would be Improper , where only a single speaker is introduc'd : Not to add , that possibly if this way of writing shall be Lik'd & Practis'd , by some Fam'd & happier Pen , that were able to Credit and improve it ; it may afford useful Patterns of an Instructive and not unpleasant Conversation ; and such Reflections , being of the nature of short and Occasional Essays , may afford men the opportunitys , of saying the Hansomest things they know , on several Subjects , without saying any thing Else of them , or filling above a Sheet , or perhaps a Side of Paper at a Time. And the Liberty that this way of introducing Speakers , allows , brings with it a Conveniency , which 't is more Easie for an Intelligent Reader to conjecture at , than 't were Discreet for the Writer to mention expressly . Another Novelty will probably be taken notice of , in the following Papers , where the second and fourth Sections , though by far the longest in the whole Book , are intirely taken up , the Former only by Meditations on Accidents relating to an Ague that once afflicted me , and the Latter by those that occurr'd to some Anglers by the River side . But for this Matter , I presume , it will not be difficult to Apologize . For having observed Men to be inclinable , either openly to Object , or at least tacitly to Suspect , That in Occasional Meditations , that may hold true , which is ( perchance not altogether undeservedly ) said of Epigrams , That in most of them the Conceits were not Suggested by the Subjects , but Subjects were Pretended , to which the Conceits might be Accommodated ; I thought , that to manif●st , that ( at least , some ) Writers of this kind of Composures need not have recourse to the suspected Artifice ; the fittest way I could take was , By putting together what the Accidents of my Ague , and of my Angling Journy , had suggested to me , to shew , that 't is very Possible for a person , that pretends not to a very pregnant Fancy , to Discourse by way of Reflection upon the several Circumstances that shall happen to occurr to his Consideration , though one Subject should require above fifteen differing Meditations ; and the other above twenty . Not to add , That 't was rather Weariness and Design , then want of Thoughts upon other passages relating to the same Subjects , that kept me from increasing the Number of those Reflections . As for the Similitudes , though some would make me hope that they will be at least excus'd ; and though it were perhaps no great Vanity , for one that do's assiduously enough converse with the Works of Nature and the Productions of Art , to think he has the means of furnishing himself with pretty store and variety of Comparisons ; yet for all this , I am not willing to quit my Pretensions to a share in the wonted Effects of that common Equity which forbids to exact too accurate a likeness in the making of Comparisons , which Orators confess ought to be judg'd with Indulgence , and without exacting a Conformity in Other Attributes betwixt the things compar'd , provided there be a competent Likeness in reference to the Particular wherein the Collation or Parallel is made . And if I have , on some occasions , prosecuted the Resemblance through all the particularities wherein the Parallel could be made to hold , more fully and nicely than is usual in ordinary Comparisons ; and if in so doing I may have at any time a little Strain'd the Similitude , the better to accommodate it to my present Theme , and Design ; I have this to represent , That to Display Resemblances to the full , and Insist on their particular Circumstances , is oftentimes no more than the Nature of these Composures do's allow , if not require ; and that , on such occasions , to stretch the Parallel as far as it can well be made to reach , is but a venial fault , which many Readers are dispos'd not only to Pardon , but to Like . As if , in some Cases , it far'd with Similitudes as with Bows , which though they may be bent so forcibly as to be thereby broken or spoil'd ; yet by being strain'd somewhat more than ordinarily , they acquire a greater strength , and enable the Arrow to Pierce farther , and to make a smarter Impression , than else it would . The Protasis ( as Rhetoricians call the first part of a Comparison ) may in some of the following Reflections appear to be too much amplified , and needlessly to lengthen the Meditation . But not to urge , that sometimes the more conspicuous Adjuncts of the Subject were so mean and barren , that there was a kind of necessity to Exaggerate , or to Exspatiate upon little Circumstances to invite Attention ; The Protasis , wherein we display and consider the minute particularities of the Theme , being the Ground-work of all the rest , and it being far more easie to say Little , than Much , with equal pertinency upon a Subject ; I thought it not amiss , to afford unpractis'd Readers , the most assistance of Examples in such Cases , wherein 't is probable they will most need it ; especially since he that has accustom'd himself to write Copiously , may easily Contract his Discourse when he will , by Omitting as many passages as he pleases ; and 't is far more difficult for a Beginner to supply Barrenness , than retrench Superfluities . Which are not always such Faults , but that I remember some great Masters in the Art of Oratory , have pronounc'd Redundancy to be a good Sign in a Young Writer , as taking it for a mark of a fruitful and exuberant Phansy , that , in it's Productions , there is somthing to be cut off . So that if there should be found any Luxuriant Expressions in some of those Thoughts that were written down , when I had not yet attain'd my 19 th or 20 th year , when I might be allow'd to write not always to imploy , but somtimes to amuse my self ; I may hope , that the same Youth that was my Temptation to write them , may prove my excuse for having written them ; as it may for leaving them Unexpung'd ; That as I desire to invite as well young Gentlemen as other Readers , to pen Occasional Meditations ; So I find that some of the Readers I am willing to pleasure , do as little dislike that Luxuriant way of writing Now , as I did Then : as Youths and Ladies oftentimes better relish Must than Wine . I know too , that there may be found in some of those Protases , divers passages , and particularly some Descriptions ( that often make a great part of them ) which to some Readers will not seem Noble and Gawdy enough . But to such Perusers it may be represented , that a sutableness to the Theme , how mean soever it be , may very well , as a piece of Decorum , be allow'd to a Writer , and in few Cases more than in point of Descriptions ; and that These being but Pictures drawn ( with Words instead of Colours ) for the Imagination , the skilfull will approve those most , that produce in the mind , not the Finest Idaeas , but the Likest : as a Critick in Limning will more prize the Picture of an old meagre Sibill , where the Wrinkles , and the sallow skin are drawn exactly to the Life , than a dozen ordinary Pictures of the Spring , ( which yet are wont to charm Vulgar eyes ) though the Youthfull face which represents that Florid season , have as Gawdy Colours upon the Cheeks and Lips , as imbellish the Roses and Lillies , which compose the Chaplet that adorns the Head. And possibly there will be found other Readers ( and those too , skil'd in Rhetorick ) that will accuse some other of our Meditations , as being too Elaborate , or too Pompous , for the Themes whereunto they are accommodated . But having laid by a competent number of those lately mentioned Reflections , wherein I aim'd chiefly at inviting and assisting Readers of meaner Capacity : I confess , that in the Other Meditations , aiming either at my own Divertisement , or the gratifying Another sort of Persons , I allow'd my self to make choice of such applications of the objects I consider'd , as I thought every body would not so easily light on . And , provided the Reflections were not strain'd , nor too far fetch'd , I thought it not amiss they should be somewhat surprising : that I might , by the way of Handling the Subjects I was to treat of , ingage an Attention , which otherwise I could scarce expect for such unpromising Themes . I know that if the Judgement of some severe Criticks , were as Infallible as themselves think it , the style of some of the following Reflections would seem disproportionate to such mean and trifling Subjects . I do not perhaps ignore what Rhetoricians are wont to teach of what they call , the three differing Characters of Writing ; I have read those Discourses that Cornificius proposes as the Patterns of the Sublime , the moderate , and the humble way of expressing ones self on differing Occasions ; and I have been taught , and willingly acknowledge , that all Themes are not so well capable of that Character which they call Sublime ; and that according to the Nature and Dignity of the Subjects that one treats of , the Manner of handling them ought to be varied . But if I were much concern'd in this matter , I might reply , that notwithstanding all this , I know , That ev'n the Artists themselves do not so perfectly agree about the defining of these matters , and the grand Rule about these Characters being only , That the Laws of Decorum ( or , as the French call it Bien-seance ) be not violated , in the Estimate of that Decorum , I see no great Reason to confine my self to the Magisterial Dictates of either Antient or Scholastick Writers . For , living in this Age , and in This part of the World , where we are not like to have those for Readers that dy'd before we were born , I see not why one may not judge of Decorum by the Examples and Practices of those Authors of our own Times and Countries , whose Writings are generally esteemed by Judicious Men. And certainly , in the judging of what is Decent on particular Occasions , we must as well consider , Who it is that is introduc'd as the Speaker , as what it is he speaks of . And though it be Improper to do what those have done , that have unadvisedly made Shepherds and Nymphs discourse like Philosophers or Doctors of Divinity ; yet when the Writer either speaks Himself , or introduces any whom he represents as intelligent Persons ; they may be allow'd , ev'n about things Ordinary and Mean , to talk like themselves , and employ Expressions that are neither mean , nor ordinary . As Virgil , in his admir'd Georgicks , does in some passages , where he treats of contemptible Insects , speak of them in so noble & lofty a strain , That when he mentions Multitudes of Ants , one would think he were speaking of an Army of Moors : and when he gives an Account of Bees , his Expressions about their Common Wealth would scarce mis-becom the Majesty of that of Rome . Such passages do , notwithstanding the great disparity of Themes , make the Style of his Georgicks , as well Noble ( if not strictly Heroick ) as that of his Aeneids ; and when he writes of Ants and Flies , he does it in a Strain worthy of the same Pen , that so loftily describes the Destruction of Troy , and the Adventures of that Hero whom he would have to be ( though not immediately ) the Founder of Rome . I will not say , that since there is a Mode in Language as well as in Cloaths , I see not why the fashion , that now a-dayes allows our Gallants to wear fine Laces upon Canvass and Buckram , might not warrant the tricking up of slight subjects , with the richer Ornaments of Language : nor will I examin whether Men may not Except against the Authority of some Jejune Writers , that taking upon them to prescribe the Laws of Styles , make so many of their Precepts Negative , that one may suspect them indited not so much by Skill , as Envy , which makes such assuming Law-givers mistake the Impotence of a Barren Fancy for the Skilfulness of a Criticall Judgment , and ( Valuing only the Idaeas they think they can Reach ) Condemn whatever they despair to Imitate . And , from those that would be thought to censure the Moderns , but out of a Veneration for the Antients , one might methinks reasonably expect but Light Censures for imploying upon occasion , that noble Figure of Rhetoriok call'd Hyperbole ; since I should be loath to use it Often , with no more Reserve than those great Orators Tully and Isocrates have Sometimes done before me . But a just debate of the Rules of Estimating Decency , would take up so much room as must make it improper for this place , where all I contend for , is , That though when one treats of Various Subjects , somewhat Differing Styles are indeed to be accommodated to them ; yet this is to be so done as still to preserve a certain Dignity in Expressions : So that a Writer may be sometimes engaged by his Subject to use a Lofty Style , but without ever being obliged to employ an Abject one ; though indeed in some cases he may be allowed to stoop below what he is bound to , and forbear Soaring , as well as avoid Creeping . Nor am I , for my own part much concerned to Insisthere on the Subject I just now declin'd to Debate . For if I mis-remember not , Cicero himself , as well as some succeeding Orators , allow in divers cases to Shift Characters , even in the same Discourse , according to the differing Particulars that happen to fall under consideration : and some of them add this reason , That hence there will arise variety , which is wont to be a welcome thing . And to apply this to the Occasional Reflections that may be concern'd in this Debate , I must desire the Reader to take notice of these two things . The one , that though the Thing it self , which sets a mans thoughts a-work may be but Mean in Other regards , yet that which the Reflector pitches upon to consider , may be of another Nature ; as though the Glo-worm , which afforded me the I. V th Reflection of the V th Section , be but a small and contemptible Insect , yet the Light which shines in his Tail , and which makes the chief Theme of the Meditation , is a noble and heavenly Quality , and might have justified the having many things said of it , for which the Sublime Character would have been the most proper . The other particular I meant to point at , is , That oftentimes , when the Protasis , or former part of a Reflection , is spent upon considering some mean and Trivial subject ; the Apodosis , or Reddition , contains such an Application of what one was taking notice of in the Subject , that the thing Pointed at , may be some important Moral Instruction , or perhaps some Theological Mystery ; and consequently may Require and Justifie , Another then the former humble Style , and admit all the Quickness of Expression and the richest Ornaments , that belong to those two higher Characters which Rhetoricians call the Subtil , and the Magnificent . But if I should now and then deviate from Bounds , which , not being Conspicuous , 't is difficult Never to swerve from ; I have this Peculiar Apology to make for such Aberrations ; That writing for the most part of Themes wholly New , and untreated of by others , I must needs want the assistance of Examples to Regulate or Authorize my Expressions : about which I need not yet be very Sollicitous , if I may trust a Learned and applauded Writer ( whose censure I desir'd ) that is both able to judge skilfully , and wont to judge freely . These things I have the more carefully Insisted on , because I would not have those Ingenious Persons , that may chance to cast their Eyes on these Papers , to be tempted by any imperfections of mine , to think otherwise of Occasional Meditations , than that though there be some , yet there are not very many , of their Themes so Low and Contemptible , but they are capable of affording Reflections of Another nature to Them , that are dexterous in making Applications of things . And I would not have such discourag'd from hoping to find in many Themes , that seem despicable at first sight , some Hint or other that may give those that have Wit or Eloquence , Opportunity enough to display those Qualities . For as there is a great difference betwixt Such Writers , and Common ones , so 't is very material by what Pens the Subject is treated of ; and Extraordinary persons , in Estimating what they are like to perform , must not only consider the unpromising Nature of their Subject , but the Activity of their own Fancy , and the Pregnancy of their own Wit. For though the Starrs cannot , the Luminaries can , cloath the light and wandring vapours of the Ayr , with the colour of Gold , and of Roses ; And the Sun , by his piercing and improving Beams , cannot only make Diamonde sparkle , and Rubies flame , but by his action upon an obscure Cloud can make even That exhibite all those Glorious and charming Colours , for which we admire the Rain-Bow . And , that the following Papers may prove to such Persons the lesser Temptations to undervalue and mis-judge of this kind of Composures ; I am first to advertise the Reader , that they are capable of so much greater Variety , than the following Treatise presents , that besides the vast multitudes of particulars unmentioned in it , that may be added under those Heads to which the ensuing Meditations are referr'd , there are several distinct sorts or kinds of Occasional Thoughts ( such as those that are Made upon Texts of Scripture , or Relate to less familiar points of Divinity , or other Learning , or contain Historical Applications , &c. ) upon which I have , out of hast , and other Reasons , purposely forborn ( though not to write , yet ) to publish Reflections . And in the next place , I must here frankly acknowledge , that many of the ensuing Reflections are so far from being the Best , that en'n no better a Pen than Mine could make , that they are much Inferior to divers that I have already Made ; though ( for allowable Considerations ) I have for born to Publish them . And I must confess , that I am more beholden to my Occasional Reflections , than they are to me . For , whereas they have furnish'd me with Divers of the Thoughts , which have been the favourablyest entertain'd by the Readers of my other Books of Devotion , I did much impoverish these Papers , that professedly contain my Occasional Reflections , by not only leaving , but taking out of them several things , which were the most likely to have recommended them ; that I might accommodate other Writings , for which I had a greater Kindness or Concern . As for the Discourse of Occasionall Reflections , all that I shall say of it , is , That considering how early I attempted that Subject , and that I was fain to repair , as well as I could , the unseasonable Miss of divers Papers belonging to it , when I dispatch'd it to the Press ; considering these things ( I say ) I dispair not but that it will be thought , that I have not said nothing in favour of a Subject that hitherto had so little said to recommend it , That ev'n the Eloquent Bishop Hall , * imploying but some Lines , not Pages , upon the Prise and Utility of it , ( which he mentions but in very Generall Tearms ) left me to find out , by my own Thoughts and Experience , the various Considerations , by which I have endeavoured to Display the Usefulness of the way of thinking I would invite to . Which I have further manifested , by applying to that Scope , divers passages of Scripture , ( which the Reader must therefore not wonder , if he do not now meet with ) as Texts , that either by way of Example , or upon other Accounts , belong to what I have written about the Method of making Occasional Reflections . 'T is true , the Discourse may seem somewhat Incompleat , because of the Omission of this Way ( that is more than once mentioned in it . But though the loose Papers , wherein that Method , and divers Examples of it , are set down , were lying by me , when I tack'd up those that now come abroad ; yet my Occasions easily prevail'd with me to continue to suppress them . For though I did not much scruple to comply with my hast , and Avocations , by forbearing to swell a Book , whose Bulk already much exceeded my Intention ; because , that , as the Papers that now appear , were extorted from me ; so I confess , that I was not fond of exposing those that I had an expedient to keep back , but that I think it very fit to observe , first , whether the Reception that the following Meditations will find , will make me and others think it worth while , to have the ways published , that I was wont to use in making them . I had almost forgot to intimate , That some urgent Avocations having obliged me to send the following Treatise to the Press without reading it over my self , I now find that my hast will make me need an Apology to those Readers , that expect to have the passages and Phraises of Scripture printed in a discriminating Letter , and quoted in the Margent . For though in Books of Positive , or of Controversial Divinity , I confess I have often observed , a Margent stuffed with a multitude of Citations , to contain divers so unconcluding , if not impertinent , That the Number does better shew the Authors Memory than his judgment , yet in Books of Devotion , I am not much averse from complying with the generality of Readers , who expect to be inform'd by the Margent , where they may find those Stories , and Expressions , which their being borrow'd from an inspir'd Book , make more Operative and Emphatical . But I must on this Occasion further intimate , That as to those Citations of Passages of Scrpture wherein I may seeme to have mis-recited the VVords of the Text ; though as to some of them that were set down when I had not a Bible or Concordance at hand , my Memory may have deceiv'd me as to the words ( which is no more than has often happen'd to the Fathers themselves in the like case , and is a venial fault , where Dogmatical or Polēmical Divinity are not concerned ) yet oftentimes my variations from the English Version , were made on purpose . For having had the Curiosity to get my self instructed , as well by Jews as Christians , in the Eastern Tongues ( especially the Hebrew ) I thought I need not strictly confine my self to the words of our Translators , when ever I could render the meaning of a Text in such tearms as to me seemed proper or expressive ; or without injuring the sence of the Hebrew or the Greek , could better accommodate my presence purpose . Now whereas some may think that in this Preface I employ Excuses that seem ( some of them ) not to agree with one another ; I desire it may be considered , That the Meditations they relate to , being not only written upon differing Subjects , but ( which is more ) designed for very differing uses ( some of those Discourses being intended to invite the more unskilful , and Incourage the more Despondent sort of Readers ; and Others , to entertain Proficients ) it was but Requisite that I should by very Differing , ( and perchance seemingly Repugnant ) Considerations give an Account of such differing VVays of writing of them , as such distant Subjects , and my Scope , required . But what if it should fare with me Now as it has done on other Occasions , on which my friends have accus'd me , of framing more Objections against my self , than were afterwards made against me by my Readers ? I dare not say it is impossible but that this may prove the case . But if it do so , I shall not yet think my self to have Altogether miss'd my aim in what I have hitherto represented . For I have Mentioned the more particulars , and Discoursed the more largely of them , that if they prove not needful Apologies for my Reflections , they may prove useful Considerations for those whom I would invite to exercise their Pens in some such way of Writing : Divers of whom will probably be incouraged to venture upon making such composures , when they find Excuses for divers of those things that are the most likely to be thought to Blemish such Essays , ( or drhearten Beginners from attempting them ) to be disawn up already to their Hands . But as for my own particular , if I could make none of the Apologies now insisted on , for the Imperfections imputable to this Treatise ; yet I should not be destituted of a very just Excuse for the Publication of it . For divers Devout Persons , that had more Partiallity for these Writings , and less Tenderness of my Reputation , than I could have wished ; having long sollicited the Publications of those they had in their Hands , were at length so Resolved to effect it , that , in spight of the promises I at length made them to comply with their desires , when some other Writings I was then about , shouldbe Dispatched : I was fain to make use of a Legal Artifice to hinder for a while at the Stationers Hall the Publication of divers Papers that I had not so much as read over . But I confess I take notice of these passages , rather to excuse these imperfections , which Hast may have Occasion'd in these immatue Productions , them to Apologize for writing on Such a Subject . For so many Advantages that may accrue to a Devout and skilfull Person , by assiduously making of Occasional Meditations , have been displaid in the Discourse that is premised to those that follow ; that I hope the former Part of this Book will sufficiently Apologize , for my having written the later : Especially if to the Other particulars propos'd in the newly nam'd Discourse , as things fit to Recommend that kind of Thoughts , I here be allow'd to add , That a mans Devotion may not alone be cherish'd by Occasional Meditations , upon the Account of those which every private Christian makes for Himself , but by the help also of those which he finds made By others , or intends for them . For not only whilst pious Reflections are making , they are proper to Instruct the Mind , and Warm the Affections ; but the Objects upon which such Meditations have been made already , either by our selves or others , do Revive the Memory of those good Thoughts , that were suggested by them . So that when Diligence and Proficiency in the Practice of our Meleteticks , shall have supply'd us with Religious and hansome Reflections , upon the most Obvious VVorks of Nature , and the most Familiar Occurrences of humane Life ; Devout persons will have the Advantage to live almost Surrounded either with Instructours , or Remembrancers . And when they want Skill , or are indispos'd to extract Spiritual things out of Earthly ones , they may , without racking their Invention , be furnished with good Thoughts , upon many Objects by their Memory . For , ( as I elswhere more fully declare , ) those Truths and Notions that are dress●d up in apt Similitudes , pertinently appli'd , are wont to make durable Impressions on that Faculty , insomuch that though I am far from Pretending any of the Reflections to be met with in the following Treatise , to be of that Nature ; yet such as they are , divers Considerable persons of differing Ages and Sexes , have been pleas'd to say ( which is an Advantage may richly recompence more trouble than those Writings cost me ) That they scarce ever see such or such particular Things on which I have written Reflections , without remembring both those Thoughts , and their Author . So that They who have so easily attainable ●hings , as Happier Pens than Mine , in setting down Occasional Meditation , may have the Satisfaction of making almost the whole World a great * Conclave Mnemonicum , and a well furnished Promptuary , for the service of Piety and Vertue , and may almost under every Creature and Occurrence lay an Ambuscade against Sin and Idleness . Nor is this Indirectway of instructing men , Unlawful for a Christian , or Unworthy of him . For in the spiritual Warfar , where our Adversary is the old Serpent , Stratagems are as Lawful as Expedient , and he that gets the victory , whether or no he Wins Reputation by the Manner , is sure to obtain ( a greater Recompence ) Glory , by the Success . A Teacher is not oblig'd to imitate Alexander , who upon a Disputable Punctilio of Gallantry , that was neither Wise , nor Charitable , refus'd to steal a Victory : For the Prophet Nathan scrupled not to Deceive David , that he might Reclaim him ; and surprize him into a Confession of the Criminousness of his fault . And the Apostles being tearmed by their Masier , Fishers of Men , were warranted to make use of Baits as well as Hooks , and Nets . And our Saviour himself , by the Parable of the Wicked Husbandman that usurp'd the Vine , drew the Pharisees to an Acknowledgment , which they started from as soon as they perceived what they had done . And the same Divine Teacher , did so frequently imploy Fictions to teach Truths , that to condemn Figurative and Indirect ways of conveying ev'n Serious and Sacred matters , is to forget How often Christ himself made use of Parables . And I am the less troubled to see some Thoughts of mine , which , though unpolish'd , have an natural tendency to Inveagle men ( if I may so speak ) into Piety and Vertue , thrust abroad into the World ; Not only because I see no reason to Despair , that ev'n as to the most Obnoxious of these Meditations , the Examples they afford may make them Useful , when the Things they contain , do not make them Considerable and Equitable , Readers will rather pitty , than Admire to find , that an Author do's not Soar whilst he is Clogg'd or Depress'd by the Meanness of his Subject : but because some Experience seems to promise , that their Novelty and Variety , will procure the Book in the general , a favourable Entertainment ; And , indeed if I had written in a more usual or a more solemn way , I should perchance have had no Readers but Divines , or Humanists , or Devout Persons , or Despisers of the World , or ( in a word ) the Masters , or Lovers of that one kind of Learning , to which my Subject did belong : But treating as I do , of Whatever chanc'd to come in my way , and consequently of many very Differing , and Unusual things , Curiosity will probably invite both the Learned and the Devout ; both Gentlemen , and Ladyes ; and , in a word , Inquisitive Persons of several Kinds & Conditions , to cast their Eyes upon these Reflections ; which , by their Variety and Shortness , will have this advantage , towards the making them entertain'd with Patience , that scarce any of them will give him that peruses them , above half a quarter of an hours Exercise of it . And as I thought it not any Fault to have a Regard to what was like to Please a good part of the Readers I wrote for , ( though it would not else perhaps have pleas'd me , any more than it will the nicer palats of the Criticks ; ) So if these Trifles chance to meet with half so kind a Reception from the Publick , as they have had from Particular Persons , I shall not , perhaps , want the Consolation , which may be deriv'd from the Judgment of a great Master of Wit , who scrupled not to affirm , That he had rather his Entertainments should please the Guests , than the Cooks . Though they that would compleat the Good Fortune of these Papers , may do it more effectually , by Addicting themselves , as considerable Persons have been of late induc'd to do ) to Write Occasional Reflections ( how excellent soever they may prove ) than by being Kind to These ; since having written them , not to get Reputation , but Company , I cannot but be Unwilling to travel alone : and had rather be out-gone , than not at all follow'd , and Surpass'd , than not Imitated . An Advertisement touching the IV. Section . A Reader that is not Unattentive , may easily collect from what he will meet with in some of the ensuing Discourses , That they were written several years ago , under an Usur●ing Government , that then prevail'd . And this may keep it from appearing strange , That in Papers , which contain some things not likely to be Relish'd by those that were then in Power , the Author should take occasion to speak of himself as of Another person , as well to avoid the being Suspected by them , in case his Papers should come into any of their hands , as to comply with the Design he then had ; That if these Discourses should happen to be made publick , the Reader might be left to ghess , whether or no he were entertain'd with a Fiction or a true Narrative . And though a Change of Circumstances , has occasion'd the Publication of these Papers , which should have come forth by themselves ( if at all ) in such a way as will make most Readers look upon them as containing a Story purely Romantick : Yet they may have in them much less of Fiction , than Such will ( t is like ) Imagine . For being really a great Lover of Angling , and frequently diverting my self at that sport , sometimes alone , and sometimes in Company ; the Accidents of that Recreation , were the true Themes , on which the following Discourses were not the Only Meditations I had made . Nor is the Intimation given at the end of this ( 4 th ) Section , of a further Continuation of such Discourses , an Artifice or shift , to steal away from a Conversation I was unable to Continue , without seeming to do so ; there being in readiness divers Reflections relating to our Anglers , which had furnish'd Eusebius and his Friends with Discourses for the Afternoon , if I had judg'd , that to invite an Addition to so Prolix an Account as I had given of them already , nothing could be requisite but a Supply of Thoughts . A DISCOURSE Touching Occasional Meditations . SECT . I. CHAP. I. THE way of Thinking , whose Productions begin to be known by the name of Occasional Meditations , is , if rightly practis'd , so advantageous , and so delightful , that 't is Pity , the greatest part , ev'n of serious and devout Persons , should be so unacquainted with it : And therefore , Dear Sister , your Desire to bring this way of Meditation into Request , with some of our Friends , is that which I cannot disapprove . But I am so far from having the Vanity to think , that the Trifles of this kind , your Commands make me trouble you with , would recommend Occasional Reflections to those , whose Eyes they were not meant for , that I think my self oblig'd to premise something touching the Usefulness of this way of Meditating , lest the careless and unpolish'd Instances you will I fear meet with , among those I now present you , should disparage and bring a Prejudice upon Composures of this kind in general ; Wherefore , judging it requisite , to premise something touching this way of thinking , I shall forth-with apply my self to that Task : And I should judge it a very natural Distribution to divide the following Discourse into two parts , the first of which should contain some Invitations to the Cultivating this sort of Meditations , and the latter should offer something by way of Method , towards the better framing of them . But lest I should at this time be hinder'd from treating of each of them distinctly , I will at present omit that Division , and indeavour in recompence so to deliver the Motives I am to propose , that the first part of the Discourse may not appear maim'd , though it be unattended by the second , and yet the Particulars that might compose the second , may ( if it prove convenient to mention them at this time ) be commodiously enough inserted in opportune places of the first . Of Inducements to this Exercise , I might perhaps name many , but for order's sake , I shall comprize them in the ensuing five ; the first whereof will take up the present Section , and the remaining four , as many others . CHAP. II. ANd first , the way of Meditating , I would recommend , conduces to keep the Soul from Idleness , and Employments worse than Idleness ; for while a Man's thoughts are busi'd about the present subjects of his Reflections , our Ghostly Adversary is discourag'd to attempt that Soul , which he sees already taken up , with something that is at least innocent , if not good . If I had not elsewhere display'd the Evil and Danger of Idleness , and represented it as a thing , which , though we should admit not to be in it self a sin , yet may easily prove a greater mischief than a very great one , by at once tempting the Tempter to tempt us , and exposing the empty Soul , like an uninhabited place , to the next Passion or Temptation that takes the opportunity to seize upon it : If ( I say ) I had not elsewhere discours'd at large against Idleness , I might here represent it as so formidable an Enemy , that it would appear alone a sufficient Motive to welcome our way of Meditation ; That it banishes Idleness . He that is vers'd in making Reflections upon what occurs to him ; He that ( consequently ) has the works of Nature , and the actions of Men , and almost every Casualty that falls under his Notice , to set his Thoughts on work , shall scarce want Themes to employ them on : And he that can ( as it were ) make the World vocal , by furnishing every Creature , and almost every occurrence , with a Tongue to entertain him with , and can make the little Accidents of his Life , and the very Flowers of his Garden , read him Lectures of Ethicks or Divinity ; such a one , I say , shall scarce need to fly to the Tavern , or a worse place , to get a Drawer , or a Gamester ( perhaps no better qualifi'd ) to help him to get rid of his time , such a one will rather pity , than pursue those , who think it their Priviledge to spend their whole Life in Diversions from the main Business of it ; and out of an unskilful , and ill govern'd self-love , are come to that pass , that they cannot endure to be with themselves . Such a one will not need to frequent the company of those Gamesters , that are sure to lose that , which all their winnings will never be able to buy , or to redeem , and expose themselves coldly to as many Casualties , as ev'n War could threaten ; and voluntarily tempt those Passions , it is the Task of Wisdome to decline , and a Virtue to suppress ; losing nothing but their time , without losing their Patience too , and commonly a great part of that Reverence and Submission they owe to him , of whom the Scripture tells us , that ev'n of Lots themselves , the whole disposal is his . Nor will he need , for want of knowing what to do when he is alone , to make it his almost daily Employment , to make impertinent Visits , to unsanctify'd Companies , where sometimes he may lose his good Name , often his Innocence , oftner his Zeal , and always his Time. And , as the Exercise , I would perswade , will help to keep us from Idleness , so will it , to preserve us from harbouring evil Thoughts , which there is no such way to keep out of the Soul , as to keep her taken up with good ones ; as Husbandmen , to rid a piece of rank Land of Weeds , do often find it as effectual a Course to sow it with good Seed , as to cut them down , or burn them up . And indeed , the Thoughts of many a Person , are oftentimes so active , and restless , that something or other they must , and will perpetually be doing ; and like unruly Souldiers , if you have not a care to employ them well , they will employ themselves ill . Wherefore , when a Man hath once rendred this way of Thinking , familiar , sometimes the subject of his Meditation will lead him to Thoughts , and excite Affections , full of Serenity , and Joy , like those fair Mornings , where the cloudless Beams , and cherishing warmth of the Sun , inviting the Lark to aspire towards Heaven , make her at once mount , and sing ; and when the Mind is rais'd to such a welcome and elevated state , to listen to an ordinary Temptation , a Man must forgo his Pleasure , as well as violate his Duty , and in the difference betwixt the Imployment that busies him , and that whereto he is sollicited to stoop , he will easily discern , that his Innocence will not be the onely thing that he would lose by so disadvantageous a Change ; And sometimes too , whether or no the Imployment that busies his Thoughts , happen to be so delightful , it will however appear to be so considerable , that it will seasonably furnish him with that excellent Answer of Nehemiah , to those that would have diverted him from building of the Temple , to come to a Treaty with them , I am doing a great Work , ( and such indeed is the serving God , and the improving the Mind , whether we consider its Importance , or its Difficulty ) so that I cannot come down ; why should the work cease , whilst I leave it , and come down to you ? Which last Expression suits very well with the present case , since , when a pious Soul is once got upon the wing of Contemplation , she must descend and stoop to exchange her converse with Heavenly objects , for one with Earthly vanities , and much more must she debase and degrade her self , if the things she is tempted to , be Lusts , which she will thence clearly discern , to be as Low as the Hell they belong to , and deserve . And as these Objects will afford Employment enough to our Reflector , so will the wholsome Instructions they will suggest , incline him to shun those ways of wasting his time , which they enable him easily to avoid : For I have observ'd this Difference , betwixt Ghostly dangers , and ordinary ones , that , whereas in Military hazards , those that are the most forward to thrust themselves into dangers , are commonly the best able to surmount them ; they on the contrary , are wont to be the most fearful of Temptations , that are the most resolv'd , and best qualifi'd to resist them . CHAP. III. NOr will the Meleteticks ( or way , and kind of Meditation ) I would perswade , keep Men alone from such gross and notorious Idleness , that they may be ask'd the Question , propos'd by the Housholder in the Gospel , Why sit ye here all the Day idle ? But this way of Thinking , may in part keep Men from the loss of such smaller parcels of Time , as though a meer Morallist would not perhaps censure the neglect of them in others , yet a Devout person would condemn it in himself : For betwixt the more stated Employments , and important Occurrences of humane Life , there usually happen to be interpos'd certain Intervals of Time , which , though they are wont to be neglected , as being singly , or within the Compass of one day inconsiderable , yet in a Man's whole Life , they may amount to no contemptible Portion of it . Now these uncertain Parentheses , ( if I may so call them ) or Interludes , that happen to come between the more solemn Passages ( whether Businesses , or Recreations ) of humane Life , are wont to be lost by most Men , for want of a Value for them , and ev'n by good Men , for want of Skill to preserve them : For though they do not properly despise them , yet they neglect , or lose them , for want of knowing how to rescue them , or what to do with them . But as though grains of Sand and Ashes be a part , but of a despicable smallness , and very easie , and liable to be scatter'd , and blown away ; yet the skilful Artificer , by a vehement Fire , brings Numbers of these to afford him that noble substance , Glass , by whose help we may both see our selves , and our Blemishes , lively represented , ( as in Looking-glasses ) and discern Celestial objects , ( as with Telescopes ) and with the Sun-beams , kindle dispos'd Materials , ( as with Burning-glasses ) So when these little Fragments , or Parcels of Time , which , if not carefully look'd to , would be dissipated , and lost , come to be manag'd by a skilful Contemplator , and to be improv'd by the Celestial fire of Devotion , they may be so order'd , as to afford us both Looking-glasses , to dress our Souls by , and Perspectives to discover Heavenly wonders , and Incentives to inflame our hearts with Charity and Zeal ; And since Gold-smiths and Refiners are wont all the year long carefully to save the very sweepings of their Shops , because they may contain in them some Filings , or Dust of those richer Metals , Gold and Silver ; I see not why a Christian may not be as careful , not to lose the Fragments and lesser Intervals of a thing incomparably more precious than any Metal , Time ; especially , when the Improvement of them , by our Meleteticks , may not onely redeem so many Portions of our Life , but turn them to pious Uses , and particularly to the great Advantage of Devotion . And indeed , the Affairs and Customs of the World , the Imployments of our particular Callings , the allowable Recreations , that Health , or Weariness requires , and the Multitude of unfore-seen , and scarce evitable Avocations , that are wont to share our Time among them , leave us so little of it , to imploy in the set and solemn Exercises of Devotion , and make those so unfrequent , that our Hearts are in great Danger , of being , by the Business , and Pleasures , and Hurry of the World , if not perverted from Aspiring to , at least too long diverted from Enjoying , Communion with God , and kept too much Strangers to Him , if in the long Intervals of our more solemn Exercises of Devotion , we be not careful to lay hold on the short , and transient Opportunities of Cherishing , and reviving , that Grace in us , and do not by the Rises given us by the Things that occur , take occasion to make frequent , though but short Flights Heaven-wards , in extemporary Reflections , serious Soliloquies , piercing Ejaculations , and other mental , either Exercises , or Expressions of Devotion , by which means , we may make those very objects , and occasions , that would Discourage , or at least Distract , our Minds , elevate and animate them : As Jonathan made those very things , whereby his Enemies , the Philistims , sought to intrap , or destroy him , Incouragements to fight with them , and Omens of his Victory over them . And as scarce any Time is so short , but that things so Agile , and asspiring as the Flames of a Devout Soul , may take a flight to Heaven , ( as Nehemiah could find time to dart up a successful Prayer to the Throne of Grace , whilst he stood waiting behind the King of Persia's Chair ) so by these extemporary Reflections , as well as by other mental Acts of Piety duely made , a Devout Soul may not onely rescue these precious Fragments of Time , but procure Eternity with them . SECT . II. CHAP. I. A Second Inducement to the Practice of making Occasional Meditations , is , that for an Exercise of Devotion , 't is very delightful , and that upon sundry accounts . For first , Variety is a thing so pleasing to humane Nature , that there are many things , which it , either alone , or chiefly , recommends to us , and 't is rarely seen , that we love the same things very much , and very long ; and of things that else would appear equally good , we usually think that the better , which happens to be another . Now , a Person addicted to make Occasional Meditations , may be suppli'd with Subjects , whose Variety is scarce imaginable : For the works of Nature , and of Art , are not the onely Objects that often present themselves to our Reflector's Consideration ; The Revolutions of Governments , the Fates of Kingdoms , the Rise and Ruine of Favourites ; and on the other side , the most slight and trivial Occurrences : And in short , all that he sees happen from the highest Transactions , to the slightest Circumstances , incident to humane affairs , may afford matter of Contemplation to a Person dispos'd to it . The mind of Man is so comprehensive , and so active a faculty , that it can force its passage into those imaginary spaces , that are beyond the outermost part of the outermost Heaven , and can in a moment return back , to consider the smallest Circumstances of the meanest of humane affairs ; so that the thinking faculty , being equally fit , and dispos'd to reflect upon the works of God , and the actions of Men , how unlikely is it , that it should want Variety of Subjects to be imploy'd on , whilst the whole World makes but a part of its Object : And the several Productions of Nature , and Art , of the Providence of God , and the Will of Man , may be so many ways consider'd , and 〈◊〉 ●●riously compounded , that they may 〈◊〉 be suppos'd capable of affording O●●●sions to Notions , and Reflections , far more numberless than themselves ; so that the most vigorous , and the most active Soul , is in less danger of wanting fresh Game , than Thoughts to pursue such endless Variety of it . Besides , whereas Men are wont , for the most part , when they would Study hard , to repair to their Libraries , or to Stationers Shops ; the Occasional Reflector has his Library always with him , and his Books lying always open before him , and the World it self , and the Actions of the Men that live in it , and an almost infinite Variety of other Occurrences being capable of proving Objects of his Contemplation ; he can turn his Eyes no whither , where he may not perceive somewhat or other to suggest him a Reflection . But , that which may much indear such Meditations , is , their suprizing ev'n him , whose Thoughts they are : For one of the chief accounts , upon which Wit it self is delightful , is , in very many cases , the unexpectedness of the things that please us ; that unexpectedness being the highest Degree of Novelty , which , as I freshly noted , does exceedingly gratifie most Men's minds . We need not in this case , as in most others , make an uneasie Preparation to entertain our Instructors ; for our Instructions are suddenly , and as it were cut of an Ambuscade , shot into our Mind , from things whence we never expected them , so that we receive the advantage of learning good Lessons , without the trouble of going to School for them , which , to many , appears the greatest trouble that is to be undergone , for the Acquist of Knowledge . But though these Irradiations of Light , be oftentimes sudden , as that which we receive from flashes of Lightning , yet 't is not always upon the single account of this suddenness , that the Instructions , presented us by Occasional Meditations , have an unexpectedness ; for oftentimes , the Subject that is consider'd , appears not to be any thing at all of Kin to the Notion it suggests . And there are many of these Reflections , whose Titles , though they name the occasion of them , do so little assist , ev'n an ingenious Reader , to ghess what they contain , that if you tell him what is treated of , he will scarce imagine , how such Thoughts can be made to have a Relation to such remote Subjects ; And the Informations we receive from many Creatures , and Occurrences , are oftentimes extremely distant from what , one would conjecture to be the most obvious , and natural Thoughts those Themes are fitted to present us , though , when the Circumstances are throughly examin'd , and consider'd , the Informations appear proper enough : Thus , when a Navigator suddenly spies an unknown Vessel afar off , before he has hail'd her , he can scarcely , if at all , conclude what he shall learn by her , and he may from a Ship , that he finds perhaps upon some remoter coast of Africa , or the Indies , meet with Informations concerning his own Country , and affairs ; And thus sometimes a little Flower may point us to the Sun , and by casting our eyes down to our feet , we may in the water see those Stars that shine in the Firmament or highest visible Heaven . CHAP. II. AND , lastly , the pleasantness of these Meditations , to him that hath attain'd skill in making them , will , if he be not much mortifi'd , be much increas'd by their being Proofs , as well as Effects , of Skill . To be able to take up Instructions in Books that are replenished with them , and where they are purposely and distinctly exhibited in the form of Instructions , requires rather that a man be docile than ingenious , but to be able to collect Moral and Spiritual Documents out of a Book of Hieroglyphicks , or from a Lanscape or a Map , is more than every attentive considerer can do , and is that which argues something of Dexterousness and Sagacity that is not very ordinary . And so , from Ethical or Theological Composures , to take out Lessons that may improve the Mind , is a thing much inferiour to the being able to do the like out of the Book of Nature , where most Matters that are not Physical , if they seem not to be purposely veil'd , are at least but darkly hinted . And me-thinks there is such a difference betwixt him that but takes up Instructions in Books of Morality and Devotion , and him that by Occasional Reflections derives them from the Book of Nature , and the Accidents he chances to take notice of , as there is betwixt an Ant that contributes nothing either to the Production or Improvement of the Corn she lays up and feeds on , but onely carries away that which she finds ready form'd into its little Granary or Repository , and the Industrious Bee , who , without stealing from Flowers any thing that can prejudice them , does not onely gather , but improve and transform , her food , and live on that which otherwise would be useless , and besides , not onely has the pleasure to gather its food from Flowers , and from variety of them , but lives upon Honey , an Aliment that is as sweet and delicious as nutritive . 'T was doubtless a very great pleasure to Aesop , that by his ingenious Fictions he could , in a manner , lend Reason and Speech to Lions , Foxes , Crows , and other Animals , to whom Nature had deni'd both ; and I know not why it should be less delightful , by Occasional Reflections , to turn not onely Birds and Beasts , but all kinds of Creatures in the world , as well mute and inanimate , as irrational , not onely into Teachers of Ethicks , but oftentimes into Doctors of Divinity , and by compelling senseless Creatures to reveal Truths to us , that they were never acquainted with themselves , perform really something like that , which was but pretended by the antient Augures and other Diviners the Heathen world admir'd , who took upon them , by the casual flights of Birds , and the Inspection of the Intrals of Beasts , to learn the Will of Heaven . 'T is a piece of skill , for which Mathematicians have been deservedly admir'd , and which is little less pleasing to those that have it , than wonderful to those that have it not , that as if Artists were able to prescribe to the Sun and Moon , and the rest of the luminous Globes of Heaven , both their pace and their stages , they can make that inexhausted Fountain of Light , at so immense a Distance , by the Shadow of a little Gnomon , fitly plac'd , give us an exact account of all the Journeys he performs in the Zodiack ; but perhaps , 't is neither a less noble nor a less delightful piece of skill , to be able , by an innocent kind of Necromancy , to consult the dead , and conjure up worm-eaten Carkases out of their Mossy Graves , without fearing to hear from them such dismal Discourses as Saul had from dead Samuel , and to make , not the Stars onely , but all the Creatures of Nature , and the various occurrences that can fall under our notice , conspire to inrich us with Instructions they never meant us ; since the Motion of the celestial lights are known , certain , and invariable ; but these particulars are neither to be defin'd by number , nor limited by Rules . Not to say , that this Secret does as much excel that other , which recommends Astronomy , as Wisdom does Science , and is as much the more useful of the two , as to know how to pass away our time is more profitable , than to know how our time passes away . But there is a fourth particular , which , though somewhat less directly than the three I have already discours'd of , may be reduc'd to the Pleasantness of Occasional Meditations ; and it is , That whereas our innate Self-love is wont to make any thing that minds us of our faults exceedingly uneasie and unwelcome : in the Discoveries that , by this way of thinking , are made us of what is amiss , the uneasiness is very much allai'd , and the Pill very well gilt . For there are two main things that conduce to the sweetning of Reproofs ▪ and to keep men from being offended at them ; The one is , when they come from a person whom we love , and whom we believe to love us , and to have no other design in displeasing us than that of serving us : And the other is , That the Discovery that is made us of our faults be sweeten'd by Acknowledgments of our having Qualities of a commendable Nature , whence wise Reprovers usually mingle , and , as it were , brew their Reprehensions with Praises . Now , both these pleasing Vehicles , if I may so call them , and Correctives of Reproofs , concur in those we meet with in making Occasional Reflections . For , in these cases , being our own Instructors , and our own Consciences being the Makers of the Application , we cannot suspect the Reprehensions to come from Persons , that either mistake us , or are partial against us ; and that Truth which a man's Conscience applies to him , being found out by the sagacity of his own Understanding , extracting from Objects that which every Considerer would not have pick'd out thence ; it may very often happen , that the same Reflection will discover to a man his Excellencies , as well as make him take notice of his faults ; and that which makes him condemn the Disorders of his Affections , may argue , and thereby commend , the Goodness of his Parts . CHAP. III. I Know , it may be objected against the pleasantness of the Mental Exercise I have been speaking of , That to make Occasional Meditations is a work too difficult to be delightful . In Answer to this , I might represent , That there are employments wherein their being attended with somewhat of difficulty , is so far from deterring us , that it recommends them : as we see that in Hunting and Hawking , the toil that must be undergone is so much an indearment of the Recreation , of which it makes a great part , that when it happens that we do not meet with difficulties enough , we create new ones , as when Hunts-men give the Hare Law , ( as they speak ) for fear of killing her before they have almost kill'd their Horses , and perhaps themselves , in following her : Yet I shall rather chuse to make a more direct Answer , by observing , That the difficulties imagin'd in the practice I am treating of , seem to arise , not so much from the nature of the thing it self , as from some prejudices and misapprehensions that are entertain'd about it , especially the following two . The first is a needless Scruple , which makes some fancy themselves obliged to confine their thoughts to the subject that set them on work . And this dwelling long upon one Theme is to many men a thing uneasie and tedious enough . But for my part , I see no necessity of such a strictness ; and I have often observ'd the thoughts successfully to follow objects of a quite differing nature from those that were first started , from which , perhaps , though more obstinately persued , very little instruction or advantage would have been obtain'd , and it not unfrequently happens , that men trouble themselves in vain to make any profitable use of the considerations of those first objects , where the thoughts being licens'd to expatiate themselves , they do often at length pitch upon somewhat or other that is instructive , and at which , perhaps , they aim'd at the very first , though they attain'd it but by degrees , and persu'd it by winding and untrac'd ways . As when we let a Grey-hound loose in a Warren , we confine him not to the first Rabbet he makes after , since we see it frequently happens , that one sets him a running , and another proves his Quarry . Nor do I conceive such a practice disagreeable to the nature of Occasional Meditations , nor to be excluded by their name , for that appellation may well enough be appli'd to those emergent thoughts which fortuitous Occasions did awaken or suggest to us , nor is it necessary that our thoughts be always calculated for the subject that excited them , provided we thence took occasion to think : So that in some cases , the Occasion is not so much the Theme of the Meditation , as the Rise . For my part , I am so little scrupulous in this matter , that I would not confine Occasional Meditations to Divinity it self , though that be a very comprehensive Subject , but am ready to allow mens thoughts to expatiate much further , and to make of the Objects they contemplate not onely a Theological and a Moral , but also a Political , an Oeconomical , or even a Physical use . And I doubt whether the groundless Imagination , that Occasional Reflections ought to be confined to matters of Devotion , or , at furthest , of Morality , have not much helped to keep our Meleteticks so little cultivated as hitherto they have been . And indeed there is so perfect an harmony , and so near a kindred , betwixt Truths , that , in many cases , the one does either find out , or fairly hint , or else illustrate or confirm , the other . And 't is no wonder that divers of them should belong to the same Object , and be deduc'd from it . And if men were sollicitous to apply the things they take notice of in Occasional Objects , to the discovery or illustration of Oeconomical , Political , or Physical matters , it would probably bring such kind of thoughts more into request with several sorts of men , and possibly conduce to the improvement of those parts of Knowledge themselves . CHAP. IV. THE other thing I propos'd to mention , as that which discourages many from the addicting themselves to make Occasional Meditations , is a fancy , That to practise this kind of thinking , one is oblig'd to the trouble of writing down every Occasional Reflection that employs his thoughts ; and they conclude it far easier to forbear making any , than to write down all : But , to do this , were to undertake a task no less unnecessary than tedious . Those Meditations indeed that have some Excellency in them , that fits them to instruct others , should for that purpose be kept from perishing , and those that were not conceiv'd without some extraordinary Affection in a man's self , should be carefully persued , as Bellows to blow or rekindle Devotion , by reminding us of the devout thoughts the like Objects had excited in us . But for the rest of our Occasional Reflections , though they fill our heads , they need not employ our hands , as having perform'd all the service that need be expected from them within the mind already . Nor would I have any man be discourag'd from this way of thinking , that cannot express so much wit or eloquence in Occasional Meditations , as perhaps he may aspire to . For , besides that much subtilty of wit is not to be expected , or at least exacted , in this kind of composures , where we commonly make use of things rather out of haste than choice , as frequently being but the first thoughts we meet with , not the best we have ; besides this , I say , that which ought most to indear this sort of Reflections to a Christian , is rather that they cherish piety , than that they express wit , and help to make the man good , whether or no they make his style be thought so . 'T were injurious to nature to fancy , that the Fig-tree derives no benefit from the Rain and Sun , because they do not make it , like other Trees , flourish with Blossoms , more gaudy than necessary , though without praevious Buds it brings forth welcome Fruits . Not to add , that the difficulty of framing Occasional Meditations , need not be estimated by that which we find when we first addict our selves to the making of them ; for practice will by degrees so much lessen that difficulty , that after a while we shall find , that Occasional thoughts will need but small invitation to frequent those minds where they meet with a kind entertainment . And though men should be reduc'd to purchase this habitude at the rate of a little difficulty , I doubt not but they will find the benefit of it , when gotten , richly to recompense the trouble of acquiring it . Nor will the practice , that must contribute to the attainment of a reasonable degree of skill in making them , be half so troublesome when those Exercises but make up the habitude , as they will prove facil and delightful when they flow from it . SECT . III. CHAP. I. THe third grand Advantage that may be deriv'd from the custom of making Occasional Meditations , is , That it conduces to the exercise and improvement of divers of the faculties of the mind . And this it may do upon several accounts . 1. For , in the first place , it accustomes a man to an attentive observation of the Objects wherewith he is conversant . Whereas there is scarce any thing that may not prove the subject of an Occasional Meditation , so the natural propensity we have to manage well the Themes we undertake to handle , unperceivably ingages us to pry into the several attributes and relations of the things we consider , to obtain the greater plenty of particulars , for the making up of the more full and compleat Parallel betwixt the things whose resemblances we would set forth . By which means a man often comes to discover a multitnde of particulars even in obvious things , which , without such an ingagement to attention , he would never have minded , and which common beholders take no Notice of . And though it may seem , that the habit , produced by the practice of Occasional meditating , should accustom a man to heed only such Objects as are like to suggest to him devout thoughts ; yet , not to mention now that I shall advertise you anon , that there is no necessity of confineing occasional meditations , to matters Devout , or Theological , I shall only represent , that , since we know not , before we have considered the particular Objects that occurr to us , which of them will , and which of them will not , afford us the subject of an Occasional Reflection , the mind will , after a while , be ingag'd to a general and habitual attention , relating to the Objects that present themselves to it . Besides , that though we should at first apply our heedfulness to circumstances of only some few sorts of Objects , yet the habit , being once acquir'd , would easily reach to others than those that first occasion'd it ; as men , that by Learning to sing Anthems , are come to have critical ears , will be able to judge , much better than they could before , of the resemblances and differences of Tones in other Songs , and will take Notice of divers particularities in Voices , which would not be heeded by an unpractised Ear : And as we have made it appear , that the way of thinking we would recommend , does very much dispose men to an attentive frame of mind ; so , that such a frame or disposition is a great advantage in the whole course of a man's life , will not appear improbable to him who duly considers , that since attention , like a magnifying glass , shews us , even in common Objects , divers particularities , undiscerned by those who want that advantage , it must needs make the things he is conversant with , afford the considerer much more of instruction than they obtrude upon the ordinary regardless beholder , and consequently , this exercise of the mind must prove a compendious way to Experience , and make it attainable without grey-hairs ; for that , we know , consists not in the multitude of years , but of observations , from Numbers and variety of which it results : nor is there any reason , why prudence should be peculiarly ascrib'd to the Aged , except a supposition that such persons , by having liv'd long in the World , have had the opportunity of many and various occurrences to ripen their judgment ; so that if one man can by his attention make , as well he may in a small compass of time , as great a number of Observations as less heedful Persons are wont to do in a longer , I see not why such a man's Experience may not be equal to his , that has liv'd longer ; for it matters not much whether a man make a competent Number of Observations , in much time or in little , provided he have made them well . CHAP. II. II. THe Practice I would recommend , accustoms a man to make Reflections upon the things he takes notice of , and so , by exercising , improves his reasoning Faculty . For , as most men have much more strength and Agility in the right hand than in the left , and , generally speaking , those Limbs of the body that are most exercis'd , are stronger than the rest of the same kind , so the faculties of the mind are improv'd by Exercise , and those that we frequently employ , grow thereby the more vigorous and nimble . And , for my part , I have been often inclin'd to think , that the chief advantage that the reasoning faculty derives from the Institution received in Logick-Scholes , comes not so much from the Precepts themselves , which are pretended to make up an Art of reasoning , as from the frequent exercises that , by occasion of such Precepts , the Students are put upon ; and perhaps , if men were oblig'd to read the controversies of subtle Wits , and to engage in frequent Disputations , both premeditated and extemporary , it would add little less of readiness and acuteness to their wits , though they disputed of other matters than such as properly belong to Logick , and were not before imbu'd with the Precepts of that Art ; as we see , that the use of singing with those that can sing well , does much improve ones Voice , both as to strength and clearness , whatever the Tunes or Songs be that are sung , and how little soever those with whom one sings make it their Business to teach him the art of Musick . But this is only Conjecture ; and whether it be true or no , yet this I am confident is so , That the bringing of a man to be a thinking and a reflecting Person , is to procure him so great an Advantage , as though it were the only one may justly endear to him the custom of making Occasional Meditations ; and he that could bring this practice into the Request it deserves , would do a greater piece of service , not only to the particular Persons he perswades , but to mankind in general , than the greater part of good men themselves seem to be aware of . For though God having been pleased to make Reason the chief part of our Nature , among the various Objects that daily occur to us , it can scarce be but that some or other will in a manner obtrude some Notions ev'n upon the unattentive ; yet certainly , all that has been found worthy of Mankind in Mathematicks , Philosophy , and other kinds of Learning , has been attain'd by thinking Men , or by a frequent and regular Practice of imploying the thoughts : And lest it should be objected , that these various , and Elaborate effects of assiduous meditation were the productions only of Philosophers or other men of speculative heads ; Let us but consider , that though Gallants and Courtiers do seldom love to tire themselves with thinking , and are as seldom fond of writing Books , not to add , fit to write them , and though love be not the fruitfulest Theme that may be pitch'd on , yet that Passion , and some Particulars relating to it , frequently busying their thoughts , and being several wayes consider'd by them , has been display'd and contriv'd ev'n by such writers as I have been just now mentioning , into those numerous Play 's that daily imploy the Stage , and those Voluminous Romances that are too often the only Books which make up the Libraries of Gallants , and fill the Closets of Lady's . He that most truly called himself , the Truth , tells us , that the Devil is not only a Liar , but the Father of Lies , that is , the great Patron and Promoter of falshood , and , as such , he studiously opposes all useful Truths ; not only those for which we must be beholden to Revelation , but those also which may be attain'd by Ratiocination , and the well regulated exercise of our natural Faculty's ; And he were much less an Adversary and an Old Serpent than he is , if his Enmity to God and Man , did not justly make him think that scarce any thing is more his interest than sollicitously to divert men from thinking , and discourage them in it , there being few things whereby he could more effectually oppose at once , both the Glory of God and the good of Men. And sure , if so subtile an Adversary did not think it very much his Interest to be sollicitous about this matter , it could not be that men should choose for a Priviledge , the laying aside that faculty of Meditating which is indeed so much their Priviledge , that , if Experience did not convince the contrary , I could never suspect that the Non-employing of their thoughts could be their Choice rather than their Punishment , and that rational Creatures , especially professing Christianity , should either keep idle , or confine to Employments worse than Idleness ; so noble and improvable a Faculty , that enables an Ingenious Man to pry into the innermost Recesses of mysterious Nature , and discover there so much of the Wisdom ; Power , and Goodness , of the Author , as are most fit to give the Discoverer a high and devout Veneration for those Excellencies . A Faculty , whereby an Inquisitive Soul may expatiate it self through the whole Immensity of the Universe , and be her own Teacher in a thousand cases , where the Book is no less delightful than the Lessons are Instructive . A Faculty ( to conclude ) by whose help the restless mind having div'd to the lowermost parts of the Earth , can thence in a trice take such a Flight , that having travers'd all the corporeal Heavens , and scorn'd to suffer her self to be confin'd with the very Limits of the World , she roves about in the ultra-mundane spaces , and considers how farr they reach . CHAP. III. III. BEsides the two already mention'd Advantages , which the Intellectual part of the Mind may derive from the practice of Occasional Reflections , I should not scruple to add a third , if there were not too just Cause of apprehending , that my Writings may discredit any thing that comes propos'd of that Nature , by no better a Pen , and that the manner of what I am about to deliver , may disparage the Matter . But since , from the Experience ev'n of purblind and dim-sighted Persons , good Perspectives may be , not improperly , nor unsuccessfully , recommended , though their Native and peculiar Debility of Sight keep them from being able to see as clear , and as far , through such Glasses , as other Men can do , if themselves can , by the use of them , do far more than they could without them . I will adventure to speak of an improvement I cannot boast of , lest by suppressing the mention of an Advantage , because I cannot make it , I should seem either Vain , or Envious , as well as Dull . I shall then take notice , that the Meleteticks we are considering , may , where it finds a capable and dispos'd Subject , much improve that nimble and acceptable Faculty of the Mind , whereby some Men have a readiness , and subtilty , in conceiving things , and a quickness , and neatness , in expressing them , all which the custom of speaking comprehends under the name of Wit , which pleasing , and ( if well manag'd ) useful , Quality , the exercise I am discoursing of , may three or four several ways promote . For ( first ) the accustoming ones self to make Extemporal Reflections , and that upon all kind of Occasions , do's by degrees bring the Mind to a readiness of Conception , which keeps a Man from being easily surpris'd by the Subject he has occasion to consider , and enables him oftentimes to surprise his Hearers ; and that such a kind of surprise is one of the most endearing Circumstances of the productions of Wit , he must not have much consider'd the Nature of them , that ignores . Next , the same Exercise inures a Man to draw his Conceptions from the very Nature of the thing he speaks of , which , among those that can judge of Wit , is held a far greater sign of it , than the saying things more specious , and elaborate , that appear to be Antienter than the Occasion , as is usual in Epigrams , and other solemn premeditated pieces of Wit , where oftentimes the Thoughts were not made for the Themes , but before them : Whereas , the suddenness of a good Occasional Reflection , and its congruity to that which gave it Rise , persuades the Hearers , that the Speaker's Wit is of its own growth , and is rather suggested by the Occasion , than barely applied to it . A third way , whereby our Meleteticks may conduce to Wit , is , by bringing those that use to write their Thoughts , to what may be call'd a certain Suppleness of Style ; for when a Man treats of familiar , or of solemn Subjects , he is so much assisted by the received phrases and manners of speaking , that are wont to be imploi'd about them , that being seldome at a loss for convenient expressions , his Wit is seldome distress'd how to furnish him with words fit for his turn . But the Subjects that invite Occasional Reflections , are so various , and uncommon , and oftentimes so odd , that , to accommodate ones Discourse to them , the vulgar and receiv'd forms of Speech will afford him but little assistance , and to come off any thing well , he must exercise his Invention , and put it upon coining various and new Expressions , to sute that variety of unfamiliar Subjects , and of Occasions , that the Objects of his Meditation will engage him to write of : And by this difficult exercise of his Inventive faculty , he may by degrees so improve it , and , after a while , attain to so pliant a Style , that scarce any Thought will puzzle him to fit words to it , and he will be able to cut out Expressions , and make them sit close to such Subjects , as a Person unaccustom'd to such kind of Composures , would find it very difficult to write of , with any thing of propriety . CHAP. IV. IT remains , that I mention one way more , and that a considerable one , whereby the practice of Occasional Reflections may contribute to the Improvement of Wit ; and that is , by supplying Men with store and variety of good Comparisons . How great , and how acceptable , a part of Wit that is , which has the advantage to be express'd by apt Similitudes , every Man 's own experience , if he please to consult it , may , in some measure , inform him . And certainly , there is no one part of Wit that is so generally applicable to all kind of Persons ; for good Comparisons serve equally to illustrate , and to persuade ; the greatest Wits disdain them not , and ev'n ordinary Wits are capable to understand them , and to be affected by them ; and if a Sermon , or a long Discourse , be enrich'd with one apt Comparison , what part soever else be forgotten , that will be sure to be remembred . And , a but plausible Argument , dress'd up in fine Similitudes , shall be more praevalent among the generality of Men , than a Demonstration propos'd in a naked Syllogism ; and therefore , the antient Sages did so much chuse to imploy a Figurative way of delivering their Thoughts , that when they could not furnish themselves with Resemblances fit for their turns , they would devise Parables , and Apologues , to recommend what they said to the attentention and memory of those they would work upon . And those famous Orators , who , though they Liv'd in Common-wealths , did , by their Eloquence , exercise a more than Monarchical Government there , and who , by their inchanting Tongues , rul'd those Warlick people , whose Swords had made them Masters of the World ; those imperial Wits , I say , whose Oratory perform'd such Wonders , performed them chiefly by the help of their happy Comparisons , which alone contributed more to their success , than almost all the other persuasive Figures of their Triumphant Rhetorick : Lucky Comparisons being indeed those parts of Wit , that as well make the strongest Impressions upon the Mind , as they leave the deepest on the Memory . Now , as the being furnish'd with apt Comparisons , do's so very much conduce to the making a Man's Discourses and Writings appear Witty , so there is scarce any thing more fit and likely to supply a Man with store and variety of Comparisons , than the Custom of making Occasional Meditations : For he that uses himself to take notice of the properties and circumstances of most things that Occur to him , and to reflect on many of them , and thereby observes the relations of things to one another , and consequently discerns , how the properties or circumstances of one may be accommodated , by way of Resemblance or Dissimilitude , to somewhat that relates to the other , will often find , besides those things which afford him his Occasional Reflection , divers others , which , though less fit for the Meditation , that invited his taking notice of them , may be very fitly applicable to other subjects , and purposes , and will easily furnish him with Resemblances , wherewith he may , if he pleases , much increase the Books of Similitudes , already extant : And the Comparisons that may be this way lighted on , may sometimes prove strange , and unobvious enough , to be surprising ev'n to Himself , as well as to his Auditors , or his Readers . CHAP. V. BUt , besides those Similitudes , we may be furnish'd with , by the things we observe , without turning them into Occasional Meditations , we may find in those very Subjects , whereon we do make Reflections , Circumstances , that , though improper , or at least unnecessary , to be taken into the Occasional Meditation , may be very fitly accommodateD to other things , and plentifully contribute to the store and variety of Comparisons we lately mention'd ; this must appear so much a Truth , to any that is exercis'd in making Occasional Reflections , that I should perhaps forbear to illustrate it , by any particular example , but that this part of my Discourse recalls into my Mind some Thoughts that were suggested to me , by one of the last Occasions I had , to make Reflections of this Nature . I shall add then , that being all alone , and diverted a pretty while by a sudden storm of Thunder , Lightning , Wind , and Rain , from the imployments I had design'd my self to , I had the unwelcome leisure to make some Reflections upon the rude Objects that obtruded themselves upon my Observation . And the chief thing that presented it self to my Thoughts , was , a resemblance betwixt Prophane or Atheistical wits , and the black Clouds that then over-cast the Sky : For , as those Clouds are rais'd to an elevated Station , and do afford flashes of Light ; so these Irreligious wits are oftentimes conspicuous enough , and may bring forth Notions that are surprising , and instructive ; but as the same Clouds , whil'st they give us but their own momentany Light , obscure ( by darkning the Sky ) and hinder us , as much as they can , from receiving that of the Sun , which reaches further , and is many other ways preferrable to vanishing Coruscations ; so these Wits , whil'st they seem to enlighten those they dazle , with their own new Opinions , do really deprive them of the true Heavenly Light , that would else shine forth to them in the revealed Word of God : And as the Light that we do receive from the Clouds , may dazle and astonish us , but is not sufficient for us to Travel by ; so the admir'd reasoning of these Sophisters may surprise and amaze us , but will never prove sufficient to be , like the Scripture , a constant Lamp unto our feet , and Light unto our paths . And as the Light afforded by such Clouds , is not onely wont to be attended with affrighting Thunder , and hurtful Storms , but burns , and destroys , or at least scorches , and blacks , where it passes , and oftentimes falls upon Churches , Hospitals , Colledges , and brings such frights and ruins wheresoever it comes , that 't were a great deal better Men wanted the Light of such flashes , than that they should be expos'd to such inconveniencies by them : So the insolent and irregular Wits , I am speaking of , do not onely make an unwelcome Noise in the World , but do oftentimes so denigrate the Reputation of them that oppose them , and bear so little respect ev'n to things sacred , or useful to Mankind , without sparing the Church or Seminaries of Learning , if either come in their way , that they do far more Mischiefs by their errors , or their practices , than the little Instruction they give us , is able to make amends for . This , if I forget not , was the substance of the Occasional Meditation , suggested to me by the Storm ; but , besides that , there are in this some particulars , which are not necessary to the Meditation it self , and may be fitly enough accommodated , by way of Comparisons , to other Occasions . I remember , the same Subject ( the Storm ) had other Circumstances in it , fit to afford Similitudes , applicable to other Subjects , and some of them unobvious enough : For instance , 't is not easie to find so illustrious a Comparison , to set forth , how the most contrary Qualities may proceed from the same Subjects , as that which we may be suppli'd with , by considering , that , from the same Clouds , we derive both Light and Darkness ; and a noble Comparison of contraries , conjoyn'd in one Subject , may be borrow'd from the same Clouds , which afford us Lightning , and Rain , shew , that they contain in them two of the eminentest and seldomest consistent contraries of Nature , Fire and Water . And another Comparison may be deriv'd from the differing productions of these Clouds , to illustrate those things which do at once both much good , and much mischief , or sometimes the one , and sometimes the other : For the same Clouds both produce the Thunder , and the Lightning , and thereby blast Trees , kill Men and Beasts , fire Houses , and ruine the noblest Buildings , without sparing Churches themselves ; and , on the other side , plentifully afford us those refreshing and fertilizing Showers , that correct the heat of the sultry Air , and cure the barrenness of the parched Earth . And one that is skill'd in framing Comparisons out of Dissimilitudes , and exercis'd in the other ways of turning and winding of Simile's , may easily enough find , in the Subject we have been considering , Circumstances capable of being conveniently enough accommodated to more subjects and purposes , than I have leisure now to take notice of . And since , as the being able to find the latent resemblance betwixt things seemingly unlike , make up a great part of what we are wont to call Wit ; so the being able to discern the unobvious disparities of things manifestly resembling , is one of the chief things that displays the Faculty , Men call Judgment ; and since both these are very much assisted by the Custom of making Reflections , wherein we must take notice of the several properties , wherein things either are alike , or disagree ; Me-thinks it should not a little manifest the usefulness of our Meleteticks towards the improvement of Men's parts , that they not onely instruct the more serious faculty of the Soul , but sharpen the more subtile . CHAP. VI. IV. BUt the Practice I have all this while been recommending , do's not onely dispose us to Attention , in observing the things that occur to us , and accustom us to reflect on them seriously , and express them fitly , but do's also , though insensibly , suggest to us Ways and Methods , whereby to make the Objects we consider informative to us . For by Example , Analogy , or some of those other ways which we may be invited , on another occasion , to insist on , we are , as it were , led by the hand to the discovery of divers useful Notions , especially Practical , which else we should not take any notice of . And indeed , the VVorld is the great Book , not so much of Nature , as of the God of Nature , which we should find ev'n crowded with instructive Lessons , if we had but the Skill , and would take the Pains , to extract and pick them out : The Creatures are the true Aegyptian Hieroglyphicks , that under the rude forms of Birds , and Beasts , &c. conceal the mysterious secrets of Knowledge , and of Piety . And as Chymists boast of their Elixir , that 't will turn the ignoblest Metals into Gold ; so Wisdome makes all Objects , on which it operates , inrich the Possessor with useful and precious Thoughts : And since , ev'n the illiterate Husbandman can , with the most abject Dung it self , give a flourishing growth to the most useful Grains , to Medicinable herbs , and ev'n to fragrant Flowers ; why may not a wise Man , by the meanest Creatures , and slighted'st Object , give a considerable Improvement to the noblest Faculties of the Soul , and the most lovely Qualities of the Mind ? But the particular Method of deriving Instruction from the Subjects we consider , will be more fit to be particularly insisted on , when we shall have more time , or some other opportunity , to treat of the manner of making Occasional Meditations , and shew , how they may be fetch'd from Example , Analogy , Dissimilitude , Ratiocination , and other Topicks , which we must not now take any further notice of . SECT . IV. CHAP. I. HItherto we have considered the Benefits that may be afforded by the practice of Occasional Meditations to the Intellectual Faculties . We will now proceed to the Advantages that may accrue from the same Practice to the Will and Affections . These advantages being not onely the most valuable in themselves , but those upon whose account I have been engag'd in the present Undertaking . V. The last therefore and greatest Benefit I shall take notice of , in the practice I would invite you to , is , That it awakens good thoughts , and excites good motions , in the Will and Affections . For since we have already manifested , that it is wont to suggest variety of Notions to the Meditator , and such as are usually accompani'd with delight : This friendly property to Devotion , which I now ascribe to our Melecticks , is a very easie and genuine off-spring of the marriage of the two others : The Beams of Knowledge , acquired by such Reflections , having in them , like those of the Sun , not onely Light but Heat . And indeed it were somewhat strange , as well as sad , if a person disposed and accustomed to observe and consider , conversing with such instructive Books as those of God's Creatures and his Providence , with an intention to take out practical Lessons , should not find them . For amid'st that rich variety of Objects that in differing manners proffer themselves to his consideration , and suggest to him a great diversity of Reflections , it cannot reasonably be imagin'd that he should not find subjects or circumstances , that are proper , either to afford him Examples to imitate , or shew him the Danger , or Unhandsomeness , or Inconvenience of some thing that he should avoid , or raise his thoughts and affections Heaven-wards , or furnish him with some new practical consideration , or shew him some known Truth in a varied and delightful dress , or ( at least ) recal some Notions his frailty makes him need to be put in mind of , or , in a word , either refresh his memory , or otherwise cherish his Devotion . Let us suppose a person , who being qualifi'd and accustomed to reflect upon various objects that occur to him , mainly designs , in the exercise of that faculty , the warming of his Affections , and the improvement of his Piety , and we shall scarce doubt , but when he looks about him in the world , he will find it , what one of the Fathers loftily styled it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( a Schole for Rational Souls to learn the knowledge of God. ) There is scarce any thing that Nature has made , or that men do or suffer , though the Theme seem never so low and slight , whence the devout Reflector cannot take an occasion of an aspiring Meditation ; as in a hopeful morning the humble Lark can , from the lowest furrow in the field , take a soaring flight towards Heaven , and ascend thitherward with a melody that delights both her self and her hearers . If such a person considers how amongst such an admirable Variety , and such odd Antipathies of the numberless Creatures that compose the Universe , the constant observation of the Laws of their Nature makes them universally , and , as it were , unanimously , to conspire to make the Author of it appear wonderful in it , he cannot but be willingly possess'd with such an awful admiration of the matchless wisdom of their great Disposer , as made the Psalmist cry out , upon a somewhat what like occasion , * How manifold are thy works , O Lord , how wisely hast thou made them all ? If he have occasion to consider the merciful Dispensations of Divine Providence to the Godly , or to take notice of the severe Inflictions of Divine Justice on the Wicked , he will find himself powerfully engag'd to relie on the one , and to apprehend provoking the other . If he take notice that the World is but our Store-house , and that multitudes of admirable Creatures seem to have had a being given them , principally for the use of undeserving Man , insomuch that many of the Beasts , and Birds , and Fishes , are but our Caters for one another , he will burst out into Mental , if not Vocal , expressions of Thankfulness and Humiliation to the Father of Mercies , for so unmerited and ill returned a Bounty , and will be apt to say with David , What is man that thou takest knowledge of him ? or the son of man that thou makest account of him ? And if he compare this Munificence of God , in daily giving so many Creatures , that never violate the Laws of their Nature , nor endeavour to disappoint him of his Ends in creating them , for the necessities , nay , for the pleasures , of rebellious and unthankful Man , he will resent an ingenuous shame , and a noble disdain , That that Creature should be of all the least grateful that has received the most Benefits , and that he should of all others prove the most unruly , who alone has been endowed with Reason to rule himself withall . If in a Starry night he looks upon the Firmament , and considers how many fixed Stars there are , and how many thousand times more there might be without wanting room , the least of which Astronomers teach us to be far bigger than the whole Earth , which yet , by the probablest computation , contains above ten thousand millions of Cubick German Leagues , ( and consequently above threescore times as many English miles of solid measure ) he will find abundant cause to exclaim with David , When I consider thy Heavens , the work of thy hands , the Moon and Stars which thou hast ordained , What is man that thou should'st be mindful of him , or the Son of man that thou visitest him ? CHAP. II. ANd since our Discourse has led us to the mention of a Text , where the truly inspired Poet ( who , by his omitting to speak of the Sun , seems to have compos'd this Psalm in the night ) makes the Moon the chief subject of his Meditation , it will not perhaps be amiss , if , on this occasion , we add a few short Reflections on the same Theme , and thereby confirm what we lately noted about the differing Reflections , and Similitudes , which may be afforded by the same subject , as its several Attributes may be differingly consider'd . If then , in the first place , when our Contemplator takes notice of the greatest Brightness of the Moon , he remembers too , that 't is when she is at the Full , that she is subject to be Eclips'd , it would put him in mind of the mutability of humane things , and that oftentimes Prosperity proves never the more secure for appearing the more full and resplendent . Next , our Reflector may find in the Moon , a lively Emblem of a true Minister of the Gospel . For , as the Moon communicates to the Earth , the Light , and that onely , which she receives from the Sun ; so the Apostles , and first Preachers of Christianity , and ( in their measure ) their true Successors , communicate to Mankind , the Light , which themselves have receiv'd from the bright Sun of righteousness . And the Similitude may be advanc'd , by adding , that as the Moon shines not on the Earth , with any other Beams , than those she derives from that fountain of Light , the Sun ; so the true Preachers of the Heavenly Doctrine mingle not their own Inventions , or humane Traditions , with that pure and sincere Light of Revelation , they are emploi'd to dispense ; it being safest , and most desirable , for the Church , that Christians should receive the Bread of Life , as the Jews are recorded to have receiv'd the material Bread , in a passage of St. Matthew's Gospel , where 't is said , that Christ first brake , and gave to the Disciples , the Bread , which they afterwards , from Him , distributed to the People ; so that they might each of them , in a literal sence , imploy that expression of St. Paul , I have received of the Lord , that which I delivered unto you . And as though the Moon be destitute of native light , yet by vertue of that borrow'd one , which she plentifully receives from the Sun , she affords more to Men than any of the Stars , which , upon the score of their vast distance from the Sun , are , by modern Naturalists , suppos'd to shine by their own Light , so those illiterate Fisher-men , whom the Sun of Righteousness call'd , and made the Light of the world , did , by vertue of the copious Irradiations he vouchsaf'd them , diffuse far more Light to mankind , than the greatest Philosophers , that , being unassisted by Divine Revelation , had onely their own native beams to shine with . And as oftentimes the same Subject , but variously consider'd , may afford both somewhat fit to be shunn'd , and somewhat fit to be imitated ; so , in that which we suppose our Reflector now considering , he may easily discern the Emblem of an ungrateful person : For as the Moon , though she receive all the Light that ennobles her from the Sun , does yet , when she is admitted to the nearest Conjunction with him , eclipse that bright Planet , to which she owes all her splendour ; so unthankful men abuse those very favours that should endear to them their Benefactors , to the prejudice of those that oblige them . And 't is like that our Reflector may , by the way , take notice , That as what passes betwixt the Moon and the Sun , does thus afford him a Simile , whereby to set forth Ingratitude ; so what passes betwixt the Moon and the Sea , may supply him with an example of the contrary quality , and put him in mind , that a thankful man will be true and obsequious to his Benefactor , though the person that oblig'd him have lost that Prosperity that before made him conspicuous , and attracted vulgar eyes , as the Sea follows the course of the Moon , not onely when she shines upon it with her full Light , but when at the Change she can communicate little or no light to it . To the two above-mentioned Attributes , upon whose account the Moon afforded a comparison for humane Prosperity , and another for Preachers of the Gospel , we will now add , That she may afford us a Similitude to set forth a liberal Person by : For as the Moon freely communicates to the Earth , the Light she receives from the Sun , so the bountiful person imparts to indigent men the Largesses he receives , from the exuberant goodness of God. And as to Intellectual Communications the Parallel will hold further , since as the Moon enjoys not the less of Light , for her imparting so much to the Earth ; so in Mental Communications Liberality does not impoverish , and those excellent gifts cease not to be possess'd , by being imparted . And 't is very possible , ( to add that upon the By ) That after the light of the Moon has ( according to what I lately noted ) represented to our Contemplator the qualifications of a Preacher , it may also put him in mind of the Duty of a Hearer . For , as it were very foolish in us , and unthankful towards the Father of Lights , not to make use of the great Light we receive from the Sun , by the Moon , or not to acknowledge the Moon to be a very useful Creature , upon the score of that Light , wherewith she shines upon the Earth , though , in her , that Light be destitute of Heat ; so it were unwise and ungrateful for Hearers to refuse to acknowledge , or to be guided by , the conspicuous Endowments of Learning and Eloquence , that God vouchsafes to great Scholars , though they themselves were but illustrated , not warmed , by the Beams they reflect . But therefore , as Oysters , and other Shell-fish , are observ'd to thrive at the Increase of the Moon , though her Light be unattended with Heat , and though even when she is at Full , she wants not her spots , so devout Hearers will be careful to prosper proportionably to the Instructions they receive even from those Preachers , whose Illuminations are unaccompani'd with Zeal and Charity , and who , when they shine with the greatest Lustre , are not free from their Darknesses , as to some Points , or from notorious Blemishes . And as the Moon may thus furnish our Contemplator with Similitudes , to set forth both a Vertue and a Vice of the Mind , so may it supply him with an Emblem of its Condition : For as the Light of the Moon is sometimes Increasing , and sometimes in the Wane , and not onely is sometimes totally Eclips'd , but even when she is at the Full , is never free from dark Spots ; so the mind of Man , nay , even of a Christian , is but partly enlighten'd , and partly in the dark , and is sometimes more , and sometimes less , Illustrated by the Beams of Heavenly Light , and Joy , and not alone now and then quite Eclipsed by disconsolate Desertions , but even when it receives the most Light , and shines the brightest , knows but in part , and is in part blemish'd by its native Darknesses , and Imperfections . And these Resemblances are not so appropriated to the mind of Man , but that they might easily be shewn to be applicable to his condition , in point of outward Prosperity , and Adversity . And to these Resemblances other Reflections on the several Adjuncts of the Moon might be also added , together with several Examples of this nature on other Subjects , were it not that I think my self to have spent time enough already upon a Theme , that fell but incidentally under my consideration ; and were it not also , that the Reflections which might here be annex'd upon the Attributes of other Objects , may be more properly subjoyn'd to what may be on another occasion presented you , by way of Illustration of some Particulars , that belong to the fourth part of the precedent Section , in which my haste , and some other reasons , made me content my self , to give some few general Hints about such Reflections , and an Intimation of the Topicks whence I am wont to fetch them . CHAP. III. ANd having given you this Advertisement , en passant , we may now proceed a little further , and add , that if we suppose our Contemplator's thoughts to descend from Heaven to Earth , the far greater multitude and variety of Objects , they will meet with here below , will suggest to them much more numerous Reflections . But because so spacious a Field for Meditation as the whole Earth , would afford us too vast a Theme to be attempted on this occasion , we will confine our Contemplator to his Garden , or rather to any one of the Trees of it , and take notice , not of all the Meditations he might fetch thence , but onely of four or five of the considerablest of those , that the viewing it , may , as he walks by at several times , supply him with . In then , in the Spring of the Year , our Reflector see the Gardener pruning a Fruit-tree , we may suppose him invited by that Object , to reason thus within himself : Though one that were a Stranger to the Art of Gardening , would think , that that Man is an Enemy to this Tree , and goes about to destroy it , since he falls upon and wounds it , with a sharp Iron , and strikes off several of its Youthful parts , as if he meant to cut it in pieces ; yet , he that knows , that the Gardener's arm is not set on work by Anger , but by Skill , will not conclude that he hates the Tree he thus wounds , but that he has a mind to have it Fruitful , and judges these harsh means the fittest to produce that desirable Effect . And thus , whatever a Man , unacquainted with the ways and designs of Providence , may surmise , when he sees the Church not onely expos'd to the common Afflictions of humane Societies , ( for that is but like our Trees being expos'd to be weather-beaten by Winds , and Rain ) but distress'd by such Persecutions , as seem to be Divine Inflictions , that invite Men to say of the Body , what the Prophet fore-told should be said of the Head , We esteem'd him stricken , smitten of God , and afflicted . Whatever , I say , a carnal , or a moral , Man would be apt to imagine , upon sight of the Churches distresses ; the knowing Christian will not from thence infer , that God hates Her , or that he has abandon'd Her , since 't is He , that lov'd his Church so well , as to give Himself for it , who declares , that as many as He loves , He rebukes , and chastens . And this is so fitly applicable also to particular Believers , that the Divine Son of the great * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do's not onely give us cause to think , that Afflictions do not suppose God's Hate , but to hope that they may not always suppose Man's Guilt , but sometimes rather aim at his Improvement ; since they are the memorable words of our Saviour , speaking of his Father , Every branch in me , that beareth not Fruit , he taketh away , and every Branch that beareth Fruit , he purgeth it , that it may bring forth more Fruit. And it may somewhat illustrate the Similitude , to add , that the Husbandman uses onely to prune the Trees of his Garden , not those that grow wild in his Woods : But though he oftner wound these , yet he wounds the other more fatally , imploying but the pruning Hook to pare off the superfluous Twiggs , or , at most , Branches , of the one , whil'st he lays the Ax to the root of the other , to fell the Tree it self . But these are not the onely Thoughts , which the pruning of a Fruit-tree may suggest to our Reflector : For if he considers , That by cutting off several of the parts of the Tree , and by Nailing many of the rest to the Wall , the Gardener do's not onely secure the Tree from being blown down , or torn , by the rudeneness of boisterous Winds , but makes it look well shap'd : So the Divine Husbandman , ( as we have lately seen God stil'd in the Scripture ) by the wise , and seasonable , though seemingly rigorous , and usually unwelcome , Culture , he imploys upon those Children of his whom he afflicts , do's not onely protect them from several dangers , whereto , without those harsh restraints , they would be expos'd ; but as he makes them amends in point of Safety , for what he denies them in point of Liberty , so he adorns them by VVounding them . His kind and skilful stroaks adding as much to the Beauty of a Christian's Mind , as they cut away from the Superfluities of his Fortune : For the pressures of Affliction do give so much smoothness and gloss to the Soul that bears them patiently , and resign'dly , that the Heathen Moralist ventur'd to say , That if there were any Spectacle here below noble enough , and worthy to entertain the Eyes of God , it was that of a Good Man , generously contending with ill Fortune . And the Hyperbole ( though after this manner somewhat loftily expressed ) will appear the less strange to him that considers , That Job had not onely his Patience , when it had been tried to the uttermost , crown'd with a Fortune double to that which had been the fairest in the East ; but before his constancy was tried near so far , receiv'd that much higher recompence of an Honour never vouchsaf'd to Mortals until then , when God himself did not onely approve , but ( if I may so speak with reverence ) make his boast of , a Man. Hast thou consider'd ( says he to Man 's great Enemy ) my Servant Job , that there is none like him in the Earth , a perfect , and an upright Man , one that feareth God , and escheweth Evil ? and still he holdeth fast his Integrity , although thou moved'st me against him to destroy him without cause . Sure one may call him more than happy Job , since , if , as David tells us , the Man is happy whose sins God is pleas'd to cover ; what may that Man be accounted , whose Graces he vouchsafes to proclaim ? CHAP. IV. ANd as the consideration of the pruning of Trees , under the Notion of that which wounds them , may afford our Contemplator the Reflections already pointed at ; so the considering of the same Action , under another Notion , may lead him to Reflections of another Nature : For if he observes , that , in certain cases , Gardeners oftentimes do not onely prune away all the Suckers , and many of the Luxuriant sprigs , but cut off some of the Branches themselves , provided they spare the Master boughs ; and yet these Amputations , though they take much from the Tree , are design'd to add to the Fruit , as accordingly they are wont to do : If , I say , our Reflector takes notice of this , it may easily supply him with an illustration of what he may have observ'd among some Men , who , by Afflictions , ev'n in point of Fortune , are brought to be far more charitable than they would have been , if their peace and plenty had continued unimpair'd . As , besides that Saint Paul , speaking of the Macedonian Churches , gives them this Character , That in a great trial of Affliction , the abundance of their Joy , and their deep Poverty , abounded unto the Riches of their Liberality ; We have in Zacheus a memorable Instance to our present purpose , since , after his Repentance had , by his own consent , cut off from his Estate more than all that Slander , Oppression , and other unjust ways of Getting , ( which us'd to bring in but too great a part of a Publican's ) had added to it ; he gave away more , out of the Remainder of his Estate , than every liberal Man would have done out of the Whole . His Wealth , like a skilfully prun'd Tree bore the more Fruit to Piety ; for having had some parts of it cut away , he grew Rich ( in good works ) by being despoil'd , and his Charity increas'd as much as his Fortune was lessen'd . If , towards the end of the Spring , our Reflector see the Ground under his Tree strowed with the Blossoms , that Time and Winds may have cast down thence , 't is like it would furnish him with this consideration , That , as though the Blossoms are in themselves great Ornaments to a Tree , and oftentimes both useful and pleasant things , yet to be seasonably depriv'd of them , is not a mischief to the Tree that loses them ; since , till the Blossoms are gone , the Fruit , which is a better and more lasting thing , and more principally intended by Nature , cannot be had : So it will not always follow , that because certain things are in their kind desirable , and therefore may be reckoned among Goods , the loss or depravation of them must necessarily be an Evil. And so , though a fair and healthy Body may be look'd upon as a Blessing , yet it will not follow , that a Death ( as the Scripture speaks ) either in or for the Lord , because it throws this flourishing Body to the Ground , and makes it rot there , must needs be a deplorable Evil ; since , as the Blossoms falling off , is , according to the course of Nature , necessarily praevious to the formation , or at least the perfection , of the Fruit : So the being depriv'd of this Life , is , according to God's Ordination , a necessary Antecedent to our being inrich'd with those more solid and durable blessings of perfect Virtue and Happiness . And if , whil'st our Contemplator's Tree is adorn'd with Leaves , as well as Blossoms , ( as we often see several of the former come before all the latter are gone ) he chance to take notice how busie the Bees are in sucking these , whil'st they leave the others untouch'd , he may peradventure make this , or some such other Reflection on it ; That , though the Leaves be not onely Ornaments of a Tree , but Productions , often useful to shade and shelter the Fruit , and are of a more solid Texture , and a more durable Nature than the Blossoms , which seem to be of a slighter make , and rather gawdy and delightful than lasting ; yet 't is not about the Leaves , but the Blossoms , that the industrious Bee assiduously imploys her time , as sucking from those gawdy productions of the Tree , store of that Honey which the Leaves would not afford her . Thus , though the Books written about Dogmatical and Controversial points in Divinity , may be in their kind valuable and useful productions of skill in Theology , and may seem more strong and substantial Composures , and likely to retain their Reputations longer , than Books of Devotion ; yet 't is of these , rather than those , that the devout Christian will be a sollicitous Peruser ; since 't is not from barren , though solid Assertions or Disputes , but from florid and pathetical Books of Devotion , which first allure the Reader , and then affect him , that the devout Soul extracts her Honey , I mean those Caelestial pleasures that result from , as well as maintain , a free communion with God , which does at once both exercise her Devotion , and recompense it , and afford her , as Flowers do the Bee , an Aliment equally Nutritive and Delicious . And he may somewhat illustrate , as well as continue , the Allusion further , by considering , That Silk-worms that live upon Leaves , and Bees that feed on Flowers and Blossoms , do indeed both of them thrive upon their respective Aliments , and are thereby enabled to present Men with useful productions , but with this difference ; That the subtil threds of Silk-worms serve principally to cloath others , whereas the Honey that is elaborated by the Bee , does not onely supply others with a healing and cleansing Medicine in some Distempers , but affords a great deal of pleasure to the Bee her self : For thus , though as well the diligent Studiers of Speculative and Polemical Divinity , as the careful Perusers of Books of Devotion , may be advantag'd by what they Study , yet this difference may be observ'd betwixt them , that the former may , by the Discourses they read , be assisted to write others of the like Nature , whereby their Readers may be enabled to talk with more Acuteness , and Applause , but the latter may not onely be assisted by making such Composures as they assiduously converse with , to contribute to the cleansing of Men's Consciences from Dead works , and as well pacific the troubles of their Minds , as heal the Wounds which Schism or Scandal may have given to the Church ; but do often , in the first place , feel themselves all the Joys , and Advantages , they would procure to others , and they happily find Pious Reflections , Devout Soliloquies , Ardent Ejaculations , and other Mental Entertainments of a Religious Soul , to be of a Nature not onely so sweet , but so improving , and so advantageous , that whil'st many other laudable Imployments recommend us to the Students of Theology , these more especially recommend us to the Author of it , and indear us to God himself . If when our Fruit-tree has chang'd its white Livery for a Green , our Considerer chance to take notice how thick 't is set with Leaves , of which it had not one some Moneths before , it may possibly put him in mind of the Instability of their condition , that are undeservedly envied for a Numerous train of such seeming Friends , and gawdy Attendants , as are so to the Fortune , rather than the Person : For , as in the Sun-shiny moneths of Summer , when the fair weather would keep the Tree warm enough without the help of Leaves , it is wont to be cover'd with those Verdant Ornaments , but loses them all in Winter , when it needs their shelter from the Rigors of that Cold season : So those , that during the Sun-shine of prosperity , are beset with seeming Friends , of which they had no need , find themselves left naked , and forsaken of them all , when Adversity would make their Company of some Advantage . If our Contemplator chance to observe how his Tree flourishes with verdant Leaves , and gawdy Blossoms , at that Season of the Year , when it is providing to bring forth Fruit , it may put him in mind of the pleas'dness and alacrity , with which a Charitable person should set himself to the doing of good , and mind him , That as the God of Nature loves a cheerful Giver , so the temper of a liberal Person is pointed out by Nature her self , in a Tree , which seems to triumph in all the Ornaments it can put on , when it is about to exhaust the greatest part of its own stock of Sap to produce Fruits which onely others are to eat . If he take notice of the order wherein 't is usual for the Leaves and Blossoms to precede the Fruit , it may possibly invite him to look with a more favourable Eye upon the green and immature Essays of early Writers , if they discover , that the Author aims at good things , though he does not yet perform great ones : For , however these Youthful productions of the Pen are commonly rather pleasing and florid , than otherwise considerable , yet if they be good for their Season , and in their Kind , though that kind it self be not of the usefullest , they may deserve pardon , and perhaps incouragement ; since , though they be not yet solid , they may promise something that will be so ; and ev'n the best Trees present us their Blossoms , before they give us their Fruit. If the same Contemplator happens to see young people first shake the Tree in vain , and then climb it to gather unripe Fruit , it may afford him a representation of Men's over-eager and untimely persuits of several desirable things , and especially of Honour : For , as green Fruit , though of a good Kind , will not easily be shaken down by them that would gather it , but reduces them either to climb the Tree , or forcibly strike it off , which commonly bruises , and disfigures what it procures ; and as the Fruit , when thus obtain'd , is but sowr , and unwholsome , being neither sweetned nor concocted by Maturity , so that it usually both sets the Teeth on edge , and breeds Sickness in the Body , whereas , if the same Fruit were let alone till it were fully Ripe , and in Season , it would both readily drop into the Eater's mouth , and prove delicious , and more wholsome Food : So , when we greedily pursue after Honour , and Pleasure , of which this Life is not the proper Season , we not onely meet with Difficulties in acquiring them , but find not , in possessing them , either that Satisfaction , or that Advantage , that the Eagerness of our unruly Appetites promises us ; whereas , if we would stay contentedly till God's time be come , ( which is always the best , and fittest ) we should not steal , or force , but receive unfading Honours , and uncloying Delights , by being presented with Incorruptible Crowns of Glory , by him , with whom there is fulness of Joy , and at whose right hand ( the Station design'd for those that overcome the World's Allurements , and their own Impatience ) there are Pleasures for evermore ; that is , Eternal ones . Lastly , if towards the end of Summer , or of Autumn , our Reflector , coming to visit his Instructive Tree , find it present him store of Fruit , and perhaps observes it to be grown taller since the last Winter , each Bough will afford him a lively Emblem of a true Believer . For , as the loaded Branch makes use of the moisture it attracts from the dirty ground , to recede as much as it can from the Earth , and spends its sap in shooting up towards Heaven , and bearing Fruit for Men : so the devout Christian improves the Blessings he receives of this inferiour World , to elevate his mind above it : And the use that he makes of earthly Goods , and Advantages , is to raise his grateful Soul nearer to God , and dispense them by works of Charity to men . CHAP. V. THese ( Sophronia ) are some , and but some , of the Thoughts , which the Occasional Consideration of a Fruit-tree might suggest to a Considering Person . And if we should lead our Reflector from the Garden to the Woods , or to the River side , or into the Fields , or to the Street , or to a Library , or to the Exchange , or , in a word , to I know not how many other places I could name , I have some reason to think , that each of them would supply him with variety of Occasional Meditations . Wherefore , since the want of Themes will not , 't is fit that somewhat else should , place Bounds to this Discourse . And since , by finding , that I my self begin to be weary of writing , I have too much cause to fear that you are quite tir'd with reading , I think it high time to hasten to a Conclusion : Onely , before I make one , I must do our Meleteticks the right to advertise you , that you would do them wrong if you should imagine , that in the pass'd Discourse I have either carefully enumerated , or fully displai'd , the Advantages , which a devout and ingenious Contemplator may derive from the Exercise of the ways of Thinking I have been treating of . For , though I have in the past Discourse , especially those parts of it that are contain'd in the 3 d precedent , and in this present 4 th Section , said enough to recommend the Subject to any that is not much indispos'd to be prevail'd with ; yet I will not deny , but that , even in those two Sections , I have left much unsaid . For , besides the several Advantages and ways of making Occasional Meditations already pointed at , there are other accounts upon which the practice I would persuade may both benefit a pious Soul , and be made use of by an ingenious one . For the respects one thing may have to another are so numberless , and the mind of a rational man , vers'd in Meditations , may compound and disjoyn Notions so many ways , and may make such Inferences from them , and such Applications of them , that it frequently happens , that besides the Reflection , suggested by that which gave the first Rise to his Meditations , he lights upon Conceipts differing enough from them , and perhaps better than they : As when Hounds , hunting a Hare , meet in their way with a Stag. For , though Philosophers seem to have justly enough rejected the Opinion , attributed to Plato , That all Knowledge is but Reminiscence , yet certainly the Mind of a Man well furnish'd with variety of Notions , is , by the Analogy or Contrariety of Things and Notions , in reference to each other , so easily and readily excited to lay them together , and discourse upon them , that he is oftentimes by any sleight occasion helped to light ( and that with a strange and almost surprizing facility ) upon things that he would else have scarce taken the least notice of . When the Mind is once set on work , though the Occasion administred the first Thoughts , yet those thoughts themselves , may , as well as the Object that excited them , become the Themes of further Meditation : and the Connection of Thoughts within the Mind , may be , and frequently is , so latent , and so strange , that the Meditator will oftentimes admire to see how far the Notions he is at length lead to , are removed from those which the first Rise of his Meditation suggested . And by these Incidental Excursions he may sometimes be as much delighted and surpris'd , as Samson was , when going aside to look upon the Carcass of a Lion , he met with a Stock of Honey . But I can add one thing towards the inducing you to exercise your self in the way of Thinking , we have all this while been speaking of , which though I had almost forgot to take notice of , it will , I doubt not , seem important to Sophronia , to whom it need not be a discouragement from aiming at one of the noblest uses of Occasional Reflections , that it supposes not a bare acquaintance with them , but springs from an entire and ( if I may so speak ) intimate familiarity with our Meleteticks . For this use of Occasional Meditations , though it do but gradually differ from some of those that have been already mentioned , will perhaps by the devout ( and consequently by Sophronia ) be esteemed the highest Advantage that this way of Thinking can confer ; and it is , That the custom of making Occasional Reflections may insensibly , and by unperceiv'd degrees , work the Soul to a certain frame , or temper , which may not improperly be called Heavenly Mindedness , whereby she acquires an aptitude and disposition to make pious Reflections upon almost every Occurrence , and oftentimes without particularly designing it . But as this privilege will , as I was intimating , scarce fall to the share of any but those that , by long or frequent Exercise , have so accustom'd their minds to reflect upon what they see , that they continue that practice , as it were , of their own accord ; so when once , by such a constant kindness and hospitableness to such thoughts , that they will , as it were , come to the mind without calling , and make themselves its guests , without particular Invitations , the Soul has attain'd that desirable Frame we lately call'd Heavenly mindedness , which is a Disposition and a Readiness to make Spiritual uses of Earthly things , both the Advantage and the Delight of that frame of heart cannot but be extraordinary . It must surely afford a great deal of satisfaction to an Ingenious and Devout person , to be able to make the world both his Library and his Oratory . And which way soever he turns his eyes ( not onely upon unobvious things , but even upon the most familiar ones ) to behold something that instructs , or that delights him . And to find that almost every object that presents it self to his notice , presents also good Thoughts to his Mind , to be gather'd with as much Innocency and Pleasure , and with as little prejudice to the things that afford them , as Honey is gather'd by the industrious Bee from the differing Flowers she meets with in her way . Certainly , if we would carefully lay hold on , and duly manage , this help , it would prove a powerful Remedy to prevent or cure much of that Dulness and Drousiness , that do so frequently smother or blemish our Devotion . There would scarce any thing pass us , out of which we would not strike some spark or other of that Heavenly Fire , or that would not contribute something , either to kindle it , or to feed it , or to revive it . If but half the pretious time we impertinently trifle , or squander away , upon Employments that will be sure to cost us either Tears or Blushes , were carefully laid out in the cultivating of this kind of Thoughts , it might often save our Ministers the labour of insisting so long upon the Uses of their Doctrines , when the whole VVorld would be a Pulpit , every Creature turn a Preacher , and almost every Accident suggest an Use of Instruction , Reproof , or Exhortation . No Burial but would toll a Passing-bell to put us in mind of our Mortality : No Feast but would make us aspire to the Marriage-feast of the Lamb : No Cross but would add to our Desires to be dissolv'd and to be with Christ : No Mercy but would be a fresh Engagement unto Obedience to so good a Master as the Author of it : No Happiness of others , but would prove an Encouragement to serve him that can give That , and much greater : No Misery of others , but would awake and heighten our Gratitude , that we are priviledg'd from It : No Sin in our Neighbours , that would not disswade us from what we see look'd so unhandsomely in others : Nor any Virtue of theirs , but would excite our Emulation , and spur us on to imitate or surpass It. In a word , when the devout Soul is come to make that true use of the Creatures , as to look upon them as men do upon water , that the Sun gilds with his Beams , that is , not so much for it self as for the Reflective vertue it has to represent a more glorious Object ; and when she has , by long practice , accustom'd her self to spiritualize all the Objects and Accidents that occur to her , I see not why that practice may not be one of the most effectual means for making good that magnificent Assertion of the Apostle , That all things work together for good to them that love God. A devout Occasional Meditation , from how low a Theme soever it takes its Rise , being like Jacob's Ladder , whereof though the foot lean'd on the Earth , the top reach'd up to Heaven . OCCASIONAL REFLECTIONS . The I. SECTION . REFLECTION I. Upon his manner of giving Meat to his Dogg . IGnorantly thankfull Creature , thou begg'st in such a way , that by what would appear an antedated Gratitude , if it were not a designless Action , the manner of thy Petitioning , before-hand rewards the Grant of thy Request ; thy Addresses and Recompence being so made and order'd , that the Meat I cast thee may very well feed Religion in me . For , but observe this Dogg , I hold him out Meat , and my inviting Voice loudly encourages and invites him to take it : 'T is held indeed higher than he can Leap ; and yet , if he Leap not at it , I do not give it him ; but if he do , I let it fall half way into his Mouth . Not unresemblingly deals God with us ; He shews and holds forth to us ( the Soul 's true Aliment ) Eternal Glory , and his most Gracious Word summons and animates us to attempt it . Alas ! it is far above the reach of our Endeavours , and our Deserts , and yet if we aspire not to it , and strive not for it , in vain do we expect it ; but if we faithfully do what in us lies , and our Endeavours strain themselves to their utmost , God mercifully allows the VVill for the Effect , measures our performances by what they aim'd at , and favourably accepting what we can do , for what we should do , He supplies the imperfections of our faint , but yet aspiring Attempts , by stooping Condescentions ; and what our Endeavours want of reaching up to , his Grace and Acceptation brings down . Piety is the condition , though not the price , of Heaven ; and ( like the VVedding Garment in the Parable ) though it give us not a Right to the Beatifick Feast , is , yet , that without which none shall be admitted as a duely qualify'd Guest : For though we cannot reach Heaven by our good Works , we shall not obtain it without them . REFLECTION . II. Upon his distilling Spirit of Roses in a Limbick . ONe that knew how well I love the scent of Roses , and were ignorant of the Uses of this way of Distillation , would , questionless , think me very ill advis'd , thus hastily to deprive my self of the Flowers I most love , and employ Art to make them wither sooner than Nature would condemn then to do ; but those that know , both the fading condition of Flowers , ( which , unimprov'd by Art , delight but whilst they are , what they cannot long be , fresh ) and the exalting Efficacy of this kind of Distillation , will think this Artificial way , that Chymists take , of spoiling them , is an effect as well of their Providence as their Skil : For that pleasing and sprightly scent , that makes the Rose so welcome to us , is as short-liv'd and perishing , as the Flower , that harbours it , is fading ; and though my Limbick should not , yet a few days inevitably would , make all these Roses wither . But by this way of ordering my Roses , though I cannot preserve them , I can preserve that Spirituous and Ethereal part of them , for whose sake it is , that I so much prize and cherish this sort of Flowers ; which , by this means , I preserve , not indeed in the fading Body , but in the nobler and abstracted Quintessence ; which purer and lastinger Portion of them , will be more highly fragrant than ordinary Roses are wont to be , ev'n whilst they are fresh , in that Season , when those Flowers , that have not been thus early and purposely destroy'd , will , according to the course of Nature , whereto they are left , wither and putrifie . Thus he that sees a charitable Person , liberally part with that Money , which others are so fond of , if he be a stranger to the Operations of Faith , and the Promises of the Gospel , he will be apt to mistake the Christian's Liberality for Folly , or Profusion , and to think that he is fallen out with his Money : But he that remembers how clear a Prospect , and how absolute a Disposal of the future , the Scripture of Truth ( to use an Angel's expression ) ascribes to him , that bid his Disciples make themselves Friends with the uncertain ( or unfaithfull ) Mammon , ( for so the use I sometimes meet with of the Greek word , together with the Context , invites me to render it ) That when we fail , they may receive us into everlasting Habitations ; and he that shall likewise consider , not only the transitory Nature of VVorldly Possessions , ( from which their Perishing , or ours , will be sure e'r long to Divorce us ) but the inestimable Advantage , with which we shall receive in Heaven whatever we employ in pious Uses here on Earth , will conclude this way of parting with our VVealth , the surest and gainfullest way of preserving it ; since the Christian , by parting but with what ( however ) he could not long keep , shall , through God's munificent Goodness , obtain a much more valuable Treasure , that he shall never lose : So that thus to sacrifise Wealth to Charity , is not an early loss of it , but the right way of securing it ; for by this gainfull way , when we shall , in another VVorld , be past the possibility of possessing our Riches in Kind , such an Employment of them may help us to enjoy them , though not in the capacity of Riches , yet in that noble capacity of Goods , under which Notion alone they are desirable ; and thus laid up , they may there procure us , what they could never here afford us , Happiness . REFLECTION III. Upon his being in great Danger wandring , on Mendip Hills , among cover'd Lead Mines that he knew not of . HOw have I travell'd all this while upon the Brink of the Grave ! I thought only to be out of my Way , but little dream'd to be so near the end of all my Journeys , in that of my Life ; by Traversing to and fro amongst those deep and cover'd Pits , upon any one of which if my Horse had but chanc'd to stumble , ( and the very Mine-men I at length met with , think it a kind of Miracle he did not ) I had been Kill'd and Bury'd at once , and my Fate had been for ever as much conceal'd from my Friends as my Body : And all this escape a VVork so totally of God's Goodness , that I did not so much as know my Danger till I was past it ; so that it seem'd , sent , but to give me occasion of rejoycing in my Deliverance . How vast a Debt of Gratitude then do I owe to God ? and how extremely do I fall short of acquitting my self of it ? since , besides , that I make him but very unsuitable Returns for the Blessings I know I have receiv'd , I receive from him signal Blessings , that I do not so much as know of , and which consequently I am very unlike particularly to acknowledge . But this gracious Rescue , from so great and unexpected a Hazard , shall , I hope , teach me henceforth to beware , both of security , since I often fall into Dangers that I know not , and of Distrusts of God's Providence , since I have found it so watchfull to deliver me from those that I fear'd not . REFLECTION IV. His Horse stumbling in a very fair way . HEre is a patch of way , to which any less smooth than a Bowling-green were rugged , and in which it seems not only so unlikely , but so difficult , for a Horse to trip , that nothing could have made me believe a Horse could have stumbled here , but that mine has dangerously done so . This Jade has this very Evening carry'd me safely through ways , where stumbles were so much to be expected , that they were to have been forgiven ; and now in a place so smooth , that sure he could not faulter in it , only out of Curiosity and Trial , he falls under me so Lubberly , that I as much admir'd my Escape as Danger : But 't is too usual with us , unfaultringly to traverse Adversities rough ways , and stumble in Prosperities smoothest paths . The Observation is almost as Old as Prosperity , That Fortune ruins more Persons whilst she Embraces them , than whilst she would Crush them : But though the Observation be very common , it is not more so , than 't is to see ev'n those that make it , add to the instances that justifie it . I have seldome yet been so fortunate as to be obnoxious to that less frequently pittied than disarming Danger : Fortune has seldome yet vouchsaf'd to turn Syren to pervert me ; and she has hitherto given me much more Exercise for my Constancy than for my Moderation . I think too , that without slandering my self , I may confess , that I have sometimes wisht my self in the Lists with that bewitching Enemy , Prosperity ; and increas'd the Number of those many , who never think so fair an Adversary formidable till they find themselves Vanquish'd by her : But upon second Thoughts , I judge it better , to leave the choice of my Antagonist to him , who not only best knows my Strength , but gives it me ; especially , when I consider , that as we are all of us naturally such Stumblers , that ( as Solomon speaks in somewhat another sence ) even the just Man falls seven times a Day , Pro. 24. 16. so it is observ'd in Stumblers , that they are most so in fair way ; into which , if Providence lead my steps , I shall think it seasonable to pray , and lead us not into Temptation ; and shall not think it unseasonable to remember , That Ice is at once the smoothest and the slipperest of ways , and that ( the Jadishness of our Natures well consider'd ) there is no way wherein we ought to Travel with more heed , than that whose treacherous Evenness would divert us from taking heed to our way . REFLECTION V. Upon two very miserable Beggars , begging together by the High-way . BEhold this fore-most Wretch , whose strange Deformity and ghastly Sores equally exact our Pity and our Horrour ; he seems so fit an Object for Compassion , that not to exercise it towards him can scarce proceed from any other Cause than the not having any at all : The sadness of his Condition is augmented by his want of Eyes to see it ; and his Misery is such , that it calls for an increase of Pitty , by his being so Distracted , as to desire a longer Life , or rather longer Death : He sues more movingly to the Eye than to the Ear ; and does Petition much less by what he says , than what he is : Each several Member of his tortur'd Body is a new Motive to Compassion , and every Part of it so loudly pleads for Pitty , that ( as of Scoulds ) it may ( in another sence ) be said of him , that he is all Tongue . But yet this other Beggar thinks not his Condition the less deplorable for his Companions being the more so : He finds in the Diseases of his Fellow as little Consolation , as Cure ; nor does he at all think himself supply'd with a deficient hand , because the other wants one . And therefore , he is as importunate for Relief , as if all Miseries were not only heap'd on him , but confin'd to him : His fellows Burthen lightens not his Load ; and if Fortune never had persecuted any other , he could not more deplore nor resent her Persecutions ; so that , if we should judge of their Miseries rather by the Ear than by the Eye , this latter's sadder Complaints would move us to decree him the Advantage in point of Wretchedness . Translate now ( O my Soul ) all this unto Spirituals ; and as we measure the straightness of Lines , not by a Ramms Horn , but a Ruler ; so be not thou so Rash , as to infer thy Health from others more forlorn and desperate Diseases : Let not the greater difficulty of another's Cure , lessen the sollicitousness of thy Care for thine , nor make thee the less earnest in the Imploring and Labouring for Relief . In so deprav'd an Age as Ours , one may ( and perhaps in vain too ) search Hell to find wickeder Men than are to be , but too frequently , met with upon Earth : He will scarce be innocent , that will think himself so as long as he finds a Man more culpable than he ; and he shall scarce ever judge himself Guilty , whom the sight of a Guiltier will absolve : Nor will that Man ( till 't is perhaps too late ) be apt to attempt an Escape from the Pollutions of the World , that stays till he can see none more inextricably intangl'd in them than himself . Do not therefore , O my Soul , content thy self with that poor comparative Innocence that in Heaven ( which it will never bring thee too ) has no place , by reason of the absence of all vitious Persons ; and in Hell it self ( which it secures not from ) can afford only the ill Natur'd consolation of not being altogether as Miserable as the wretchedest Person in that place of Torment . REFLECTION VI. Sitting at ease in a Coach that went very fast . AS fast as this Coach goes , I sit in it so much at Ease , that whilst its rapid Motion makes others suspect that I am running for a VVager , this lazy Posture , and this soft Seat , do almost as much invite me to Rest , as if I were A-bed . The hasty VVheels strike fire out of the Flints they happen to run over , and yet this self-same swiftness of these VVheels , which , were I under them , would make them Crush my Bones themselves into Splinters , if not into a Jelly , now I am seated over them , and above their reach , serves but to carry me the faster towards my Journey 's end . Just so it is with outward Accidents , and Conditions , whose restless Vicissitudes but too justly and too fitly resemble them to VVheels : VVhen they meet with a Spirit that lies prostrate on the Ground , and falls Groveling beneath them , they disorder and oppress it : But he , whose high Reason , and exalted Piety , has , by a noble and steddy Contempt of them , plac'd him above them , may enjoy a happy and a setled Quiet , in spight of all these busie Agitations , and be so far from resenting any prejudicial discomposure from these inferiour Revolutions , that all those changes , that are taken for the Giddy turns of Fortune's VVheel , shall serve to approach him the faster to the blest Mansion he would arrive at . REFLECTION VII . Upon the Sight of a Wind-mill standing still . Genorio , Eusebius , Lindamor . Gen. YOur Eyes , Gentlemen , have been so long fix'd upon this Wind-mill , that in spight of the Barrenness of the Subject , I cannot but suspect it may have afforded one , or each of you ▪ an Occasional Meditation . Euseb . To justifie your Conjecture , Genorio , I will confess to you , That I was considering with my self , that if one , who knew not the Miller's Trade , and Design , should look upon this Structure , he would think the Owner worthy of so incommodious a Mansion , if not of a Room in Bedlam ; for we see he has chose to erect this Fabrick in a Solitary place , and upon the cold and bleak top of a swelling Ground , where nothing shelters it from the Violence of a Wind , whilst its high Scituation exposes it to the successive Violences of them all : But he that is acquainted with the Exigencies of the Miller's Design , and Trade , will think he has made a very proper choice , in scating himself in a place where no Wind can blow , that he shall not be able to make an Advantage of . And having consider'd this , Genorio , my Thoughts , when you interrupted them , were making this Application of it , That we ought not to be too forward to censure Men , otherwise Virtuous , and Discreet , for engaging themselves upon some accounts to troublesome and unsettling Employments ; for if th' end be not mischosen , the means are to be estimated by their tendency thereunto ; and though a calmer condition of Life , might be in it self more desirable , yet when a more expos'd one , can make him that is qualify'd for such Employments more serviceable in his Generation , this may , upon that account , be more Eligible than the other , since , as it exposes him to more hardships , so , in those very hardships , it affords him more Opportunities of prosecuting his Aims , so that his Station is recommended to him by those very Circumstances that make other Men dislike it . Gen. But may not I also know what Thoughts this worthy Theme suggested to Lindamor ? Lind. I was , Genorio , taking notice , that this whole Fabrick is indeed but a large Engine , where almost every thing , as well as the Sails and the Wheels , is fram'd and fitted for the Grinding of Corn : But , though this whole Structure be Artificially enough contriv'd , yet it can now do nothing in order to its end , for want of such a light and Airy thing as a breath of VVind , to put all this into Motion ; And , Genorio , this VVind-mill , thus consider'd , brought into my Mind the condition of a great Lord , that you and I not long since Visited , and who is far from being the only Person to whom the Reflection may be applicable ; for one that not knowing his Humour , and his Aims , should see how great a Provision his plentifull Fortune , and his Skil to manage it , have laid together , of those things which are wont to be thought the chiefest Instruments ( and perchance the chief Parts ) of Happiness , would be apt to envy his Condition , as discerning nothing that is wanting to it . But alas ! the Man expects and covets Esteem , and Reputation ; and though Fame have these Resemblances to the VVind , that 't is an Airy and Unsolid thing , which we must receive from others , and which we are not only unable to procure for our selves , but know not how long we shall keep it when we have it , yet the want of this alone makes all the rest utterly insufficient for his satisfaction . Thus the not so Great , as Ambitious Alexander , after all the Blood he had spilt in Conquering the VVorld , is said to have shed Tears , that he had Conquer'd but one , when a Philosopher told him there were more . And all the Favours that the greatest Potentate upon Earth , could heap upon proud Haman , were , by his own Confession , unable to make him think himself happy , as long as he could not neglect a Captives neglect of him ; all his Greatness did him no good , if but one Man had the Courage not to Bow to it ; and an unsatisfy'd Appetite of Revenge , quite spoild the Rellish of the great Monarch's Favours , and the fair Hester's Banquets . Nor do I doubt , Genorio , that we often marvel , if not repine , at Providence upon a great Mistake ; for by refusing to be God's Servants , Men usually become ▪ so to their own unruly Passions , and Affections . And therefore , we often very causelesly Envy the Great and Rich , as if they were as happy as the Advantages vouchsaf'd them , would make a wise and good Man ; whereas perhaps the Man courts a Reputation , that is not to be acquir'd by what Men have , but by what they are , and do ; or else he is in love with a Lady that loves not him , or loves another better : And the Coyness of a Mistress , the greater Title of a Neighbour , or some such trifling accident , that another would either not be subject to , or not be much concern'd for , will keep him from Enjoying any of those very things , for which By-standers Envy him : So just it is , that in Estimating a Man's condition , we should not only consider what Possessions he has , but what Desires . REFLECTION VIII . Upon his Paring of a rare Summer Apple . HOw prettily has curious Nature painted this gawdy Fruit ? Here is a green that Emeralds cannot , and Flora's self might boast : And Pomona seems to have affected , in the fresh and lively Vermilion that adorns this smooth Rind , an Emulation at Rubies themselves , and to have aim'd at manifesting , That she can give her Vegetable productions , as Lovely , and Orient , though not as lasting , Colours as those that make Jewels pretious Stones ; and if , upon the hearing the Praises this Scarlet deserves ▪ her Blushes ennoble her own Cheeks with so Vivid a Colour ▪ perhaps such a Livery of her Modesty might justifie her Pride . In a word , such pure and tempting Green and Red dye this same polish'd Skin , that our Vulgar boldness must be no longer question'd , for rendring that Fruit an Apple , that inveagled our first Parents : But though these winning Dyes delight me strangely , they are Food for my Eye alone , and not my Stomach ; I have no Palate for Colours , and to rellish this Fruit well , and know whether it performs to the Taste what it promises to the Sight , and justifie that Platonick definition which styles Beauty the Lustre and Flower of Goodness ; all this Gay out-side is cut and thrown away , and passes but for Parings . Thus in Opinions , though I look with Pleasure on that neat fashionable Dress , that smoother Pens so finely Cloath them with , and though I be delighted with the pretty and spruce Expressions , that Wit and Eloquence are wont to trick them up with ; yet when I mean to examine their true Rellish , that , upon liking , I may make them mine , I still strip and devest them of all those flattering Ornaments ( or cheating Disguises rather ) which so often conceal or mis-represent their true and genuine Nature , and ( before e'r I swallow them ) after they have been admitted by the more delusible faculty we call Fancy , I make them pass the severer scrutiny of Reason . REFLECTION IX . Upon his Coaches being stopt in a narrow Lane. HEre , for ought I can guess , my stay is like to be long enough , to afford me the leisure of a Reflection on it : For I have found already , in this narrow Lane , a very large Scene to exercise my Patience in ; and this Churlish Dray-man seems resolv'd to be as tedious to me , as Ludgate-hill is to his Horse , when his Cart is overloaden . They that are going on Foot to the same place this Coach should carry me to , find not their Passage hindred , or their Way obstructed by that which keeps me here ; and were I dispos'd to leave my Coach behind , and Foot it after them , I might in their Company sooner reach the place my Designs and Affairs call me to , than I shall ( probably ) be supply'd with hopes of getting quickly out from hence . Alas ! How frequently falls it out thus in our Journeys towards Heaven ? Those whom their adverse Fortune , or a Noble Scorn , hath stript of , or releas'd from , these troublesome and intangling Externals , may tread the Paths of Life nimbly , and cheerfully , being unstopt by many Obstacles , that intercept the Progresses of others . But those stately Persons , whose Pride or Effeminacy will not permit them to move an Inch towards Heaven , unless they may be carry'd thither in Pleasure's easie Coaches , and who will not bate a Superfluity , or lay by the least Circumstance or Punctilio of Grandezza , to lessen themselves into a capacity of entring in at the strait Gate , may soon find these treacherous and over-lov'd Conveniences turn'd into cumbersome Cloggs , and real Impediments , that will , if not Block up , at least Obstruct the passage to the Seat of so much Joy ; that ev'n to be cast Ashore there , by Shipwrack , were a Blessing ; and that he is thought unworthy to be admitted there , that cannot think it his Happiness to reach that place himself , though he leave all behind him to get thither . REFLECTION X. Looking through a Perspective Glass upon a Vessel we suspected to give us Chase , and to be a Pyrat . THis Glass does indeed approach the distrusted Vessel , but it approaches her only to our Eyes , not to our Ship ; if she be not making up to us , this harmless Instrument will prove no Loadstone to draw her towards us , and if she be , it will put us into a better readiness to receive her . Such another Instrument in relation to Death , is the Meditation of it ; ( by Mortals so much , and so causelesly , abhorr'd ) for though most Men as studiously shun all Thoughts of Death , as if , like nice Acquaintances , he would forbear to Visit where he knows he is never thought of , or as if we could exempt our selves from being Mortal , by forgetting that we are so ; yet does this Meditation bring Death nearer to us , without at all lessening the real distance betwixt Us and Him : If that last Enemy be not yet approaching us , this innocent Glass will no more quicken his pace , than direct his steps ; and if he be , without hastning his Arrival , it will prepare us for his Reception : For my part , my Beardless Chin allows me to presume , that by the course of Nature , I have yet a pretty stock of Sand in the upper part of my Hour-glass ; Wherefore , though I am too Young to say with Isaac , behold , now I am Old , And I know not the Day of my Death , Gen. 27. 2. yet since the Youngest and Lustiest of us all , has cause to say with the Mirrour of Patience , When a few Years are come , then shall I go the way whence I shall not return , Job . 16. 22. and since 't is the wise Man's Counsel , Not to boast our selves of to Morrow , because we know not what a Day may bring forth . I will endeavour ( to use our Saviour's tearms ) To take heed to my self , least at any time that Day come upon me unawares , Luke 21. 34. And as the only safe Expedient in order thereunto , I will ( in imitation of holy Job ) All the Days of my appointed time wait till my Change come , Job 14. 24. The II. SECTION , Containing OCCASIONAL REFLECTIONS , Upon the Accidents of an Ague . MEDITATION I. Upon the first Invasion of the Disease . THis Visit , ( Dear * Sophronia ) which you intended but for an act of Kindness , proves also one of Charity ; for though it be not many hours since we parted , and though you left me free from any other discomposure than that which your leaving me is wont to give me ; yet this little time has made so great a change in my Condition , as to be , I doubt not , already visible in my Looks : For whilst I was sitting quietly in my Chamber , and was as far from the Thoughts of Sickness , as from any such disorders as are wont to be the occasions of it ; and whilst I was delightfully entertain'd , by an Out-landish Virtuoso that came to Visit me , with an Account of the several attempts that are either made , or design'd ▪ in foreign Parts , to produce Curiosities , and improve Knowledge ; I was suddenly surpris'd with a Chilness , and a Shivering , that came so unexpected , and increas'd so fast , that it was heightned into a downright Fit of an Ague , before I could satisfie my self what it was . But I confess , that this unwelcome accident had not amaz'd me , as well as troubled me , if I had sufficiently consider'd to what a strange number and variety of Distempers these frail Carcasses of ours are Obnoxious ; for , if I had call'd to mind what my Curiosity for Dissections has shown me , and remembred how many Bones , and Muscles , and Veins , and Arteries , and Grisles , and Ligaments , and Nerves , and Membranes , and Juices , a humane Body is made up of , I could not have been surprised , that so curious an Engine , that consists of so many pieces , whose Harmony is requisite to Health , and whereof not any is superfluous , nor scarce any insensible , should have some or other of them out of order , it being no more strange that a Man's Body should be subject to Pain , or Sickness , than that an Instrument with above a thousand Strings ( if there were any such ) should frequently be out of Tune , especially since the bare change of Air may as well discompose the Body of a Man , as untune some of the Strings of such an Instrument ; so that ev'n the inimitable Structure of humane Bodies is scarce more admirable , than that such curious and elaborate Engines can be so contriv'd , as not to be oftner out of order than they are ; the preservation of so nice and exact a Frame being the next wonder to its Work-man-ship . And indeed , when I consider further , how many outward accidents are able to destroy the Life , or , at the least , the Health , ev'n of those that are carefull to preserve them ; and how easily the Beams of a warm Sun , or the Breath of a cold VVind , or too much , or too little Exercise , a Dish of green Fruit , or an infectious Vapour , or ev'n a sudden Fright , or ill News , are able to produce Sickness , and perhaps Death ; and when I think too , how many evitable Mischiefs our own Appetites , or Vices , expose us to , by acts of Intemperance , that necessitate the Creatures to offend us , and practices of Sin , whereby we provoke the Creator to punish us ; when I say , I consider all this , and consequently how many Mischiefs he must escape that arrives at Gray-hairs ; I confess , the commonness of the Sight cannot keep me from thinking it worth some wonder , to see an Old man , especially if he be any thing Healthy . But these kinds of Thoughts ( Sophronia ) are seldome entertain'd , unless they be excited by some unwelcome Occasions ; and when we are long accustomed to Health , we take it for granted , that we shall enjoy it , without taking it for a Mercy that we are so ; we are not sensible enough of our continual need and dependance on the divine Goodness , if we long and uninterruptedly enjoy it ; and by that unthankfull heedlesness we do , as it were , necessitate Providence to deprive us of its wonted supports , to make us sensible that we did enjoy , and that we always need them : It being but fit that Mercies should cease to be constant , which , their constancy only , that should be their indearment , keeps us from entertaining as Mercies ; I will therefore ( Sophronia ) endeavour to derive this advantage from this sudden Fit of Sickness , to make me thankfull for Health , when God shall be pleas'd to restore it me , and to keep me from reckoning confidently upon the lastingness of it : For though we are very unapt to take ev'n the Wise man's Counsel , where he forbids us to boast our selves of to Morrow , because we know not what a Day may bring forth ; yet by such accidents I find , that Solomon spoke much within compass , and had not done otherwise , if for a Day he had substituted an Hour : For so many , and so various are the unfore-seen accidents to which we poor Mortals are expos'd , that the continuance of our Health , or Prosperity , do much more merit our thanks , than the interruption of them can deserve our wonder . And I must confess , ( Sophronia ) that though my falling Sick may be but my unhappiness , my being so much surpris'd at it was my fault . MEDITATION II. Upon the immoderate Heat and Cold of the Aguish Fit. ONe that , not knowing what Ails me , should come in , and see me in this soft Bed , not only cover'd , but almost oppress'd , with Cloaths , would confidently conclude , that , whether or no I be distress'd by the contrary Quality , I cannot at least be troubled with Cold ; and if he himself were so , he will be apt to Envy me . And if instead of coming in my Cold fit , he should Visit me in my Hot one , and see me with my Shoulders and Arms quite uncover'd , and nothing but the single Sheet on the rest of my Body ; he would be apt to think , that I must lye very cool . But alas ! in spight of all that lies upon me , an internal Frost has so diffus'd it self through every Part , that my Teeth chatter , and my whole Body does shake strongly enough to made the Bed it self do so ; and , though I still wish for more Cloaths , yet those that are heap'd on me , can so little controle this praeternatural Cold , that a Pile of them might sooner be made great enough to Crush than to VVarm me : So that when I Travell'd ev'n in frosty Nights , the VVinter had nothing near so strong an Operation on me . And as that external Cold was far more supportable whilst it lasted , so it was incomparably more easie for me , by Exercise , and otherwise , to deliver my self from it . Thus , when a Great or Rich Man's mind is distemper'd with Ambition , Avarice , or any immoderate Affection , though the By-standers , that see not what disquiets him , but see what great store of Accommodations fortune has provided for him , may be drawn to Envy his Condition , and be kept very far from suspecting that he can want that Contentment , the means of which they see him so Richly supply'd with : And yet alas ! as the Colder heat of the external Air is much less troublesome to a Man in Health , though furnished with an ordinary proportion of Cloaths , than the Cold or Hot fit of an Ague , with a pile of Blankets first , and then a single Sheet ; so to a Vigorous and Healthy constitution of mind , External inconveniences are much more supportable than any Accommodations can make the condition of a distemper'd Soul. Let us not then judge of Men's happiness , so much by what they have , as by what they are , and consider both , that Fortune can but give much , and it must be the Mind that makes that much enough : And that , as 't is more easie to endure Winter , or the Dog-days in the Air , than in the Blood ; so a Healthfull mind , in spight of Outward inconveniences , may afford a Man a condition preferrable to all External accommodations without that . MEDITATION III. Upon the Succession of the Cold and Hot Fit. WHen the cold Fit first seiz'd me , me-thought it was rather melted Snow than Blood that Circulated in my Veins , where it mov'd so Inordinately , and maintain'd the vital Flame so Penuriously , that the greatest Sign which was left to distinguish this Cold from that of Death , was , its making me shake strong enough to shake the Bed I lay on . I call'd for more and more Cloaths , only because I needed them , not because I found any relief by them : I fancy'd the torrid Zone to be of a far more desirable Constitution than that we call the Temperate ; and as little as I am wont to reverence vulgar Chymists , I then envy'd their Laborants , whose imployment requires them to attend the Fire : But when the Cold Fit was once over , it was quickly succeeded by a Hot one , which after a while I thought more troublesome than it . I threw off the Cloaths much faster than my former importunity had procur'd them to be laid on me ; and I , that could a little before scarce feel all that had been heap'd on me , could not now support a single Sheet , but thought its weight oppress'd me . I envied the Inhabitants of Norway , and Iceland , far more than those that dwell either in the richest Province of East-India , or of the Golden Coast it self : And of all Creatures , not Rational , I thought the Fishes the happiest , since they Live in a cool Stream , and , when they please , may Drink as much as they List . If then ( Sophronia ) the self-same Person may , within less than two hours , have such different apprehensions of his own Condition , as now to complain of that as a sad Grievance , which but an hour before he wish'd for as a Relief ; we may well acknowledge , that we frequently mistake in estimating the Hardships and Afflictions we complain of , and find them not so uneasie as we make them , whilst we not only endure the whole Affliction that troubles us , but often increase it , by repining at the envied Condition of others . An afflicted Man is very apt to fancy , that any kind of Sickness , that for the present troubles him , is far less supportable than if it were exchang'd for another Disease ; and imagines his case to be so singular , that one cannot say to him in Saint Paul's Language , No Temptation has befallen you , but that which is common to Men , 1 Cor. 10. 13. He presumes , that he could far more easily support his Crosses , if instead of his present Disease , he had this or that other , though , if the Exchange were made , he would perchance wish for his first Sickness , if not be as much troubled at his own Folly , as with the Disease . He that is tormented with the Gout , is apt to envy any Sick man that is exempted from that Roaring pain , and able to VValk about ; He that is swell'd with the Dropsie , fancies all Persons happy whose Diseases allow them Drink to quench their Thirst : And the Blind man envies both these , and thinks no Persons so miserable in this VVorld as those that cannot see the VVorld . Feavers burn us , Agues shatter us , Dropsies drown us , Phrensies unman us , the Gout tortures us , Convulsions wrack us , Epilepsies fell us , Collicks tear us ; and in short , there is no considerable Disease that is not very troublesome in it self , how ever Religion may sanctifie and sweeten it : For as a Fortress , whose Defendants are not Treacherous , can scarce be taken otherwise than either by Famine , or Storm ; so Life , for whose preservation Nature is so faithfully sollicitous , cannot be extinguish'd , unless either Chronical Diseases do Lingringly destroy , or some Acute do hastily snatch it away . And indeed , if a Disease prove Mortal , 't is no more than is to be expected , if it tire out the Patient with tedious Languishments , or else dispatch him with dismal Symptoms : Nor is it in point of Sickness only , that we are often more unhappy than we need , by Fancying our selves more unhappy than we should be , if we were allow'd to exchange that which now troubles us , for any thing which does not . But there are Evils , which , though exceeding contrary in appearance , and circumstances , do yet agree in being extremely troublesome ; as the possest Wretch our Saviour cured in the Gospel , though he were sometimes cast into the Fire , and sometimes into the VVater , yet in both states was tormented by the same Divel , who in variety of Inflictions still express'd the same Malice . But we should make a righter Estimate of suffering , if we did but consider , that much uneasiness is annex'd to an Afflicted condition in general ; and that therefore , which we are sensible of , may proceed rather from the general nature of Sicknesses , and Crosses , than from the particular Kind and Degree of ours . And indeed , if a Man were permitted to exchange his Disease with those of others , he would often find his granted wishes to bring him a variety of Mischiefs , rather than an Exemption from them ; and many of those that we Envy , as thinking them far less Sufferers than our selves , do look with invidious Eyes on us , and do but dissemble their Grievances more handsomely than we , not find them more easie than ours . And that of Saint Peter may be more generally apply'd , than most Men think , where he exhorts to constancy , upon this consideration , That the same Sufferings are accomplish'd upon our Brethren in the World , 1 Pet. 5. 9. For 't is all one as to the Efficacy of this Lenity , whether our Afflictions be the same with those of others , in Kind , or not Superiour to them in Degree : And I doubt not , but we should support many of our Grievances as easily as those for which we wish them exchang'd , if the chief account upon which they trouble us , were not rather that they are the present ones , than the greatest . MEDITATION IV. Upon the being let Blood. ONe of the most troublesome Symptoms in almost all Feaverish Distempers , is wont to be Thirst ; and in mine it was importunate to a degree , that made me very much so , in frequently solliciting those that were about me for Drink , which , in the heat of the Fit , seem'd so desirable an Object , that it then much lessen'd my wonder at that parch'd King's agreement , who , urg'd with Thirst , sold his Liberty for a full Draught of cold VVater . But alas ! I sadly found , that the Liquor I swallow'd so Greedily , afforded me but a very transient Relief , the latter being gone almost as soon as the former had pass'd thorow my Throat , so that not only it did but amuse me , not Cure me ; but , which is worse , Drinking it self increas'd my Thirst , by encreasing the Feaver , whose uneasie Symptom that was . Wherefore , seeing all the cooling Juleps that could be administer'd , did free me from nothing but the Expectation of being much reliev'd by such slight and palliative Medicines ; the Doctor thought himself this Day oblig'd to a quite contrary , and yet a more generous Remedy ; and order'd , that , instead of giving me Drink , they should take away Blood , as judging it the best and far the surest course to take away the uneasie Symptom , by removing that which Foments the cause . Thus when the Mind is distemper'd with turbulent Commotions , and the disquieted Appetite does too restlessly and eagerly crave Objects , which , though perhaps in themselves not absolutely Bad , are at least made , by a Conjunction of Circumstances , unfit and dangerous for the Person that longs for them : VVe , like unskilfull or unruly Patients , fondly imagine , that the only way to appease our Desires , is , to grant them the Objects they so Passionately tend to . But the wise and soveraign Physitian of Souls , who considers not so much what we do wish , as what we should wish , often discerns , that this praeternatural Thirst indicates and calls for a Lancet , rather than a Julep , and knows it best to attempt the Cure , rather by taking away somewhat that we have than by giving us that which only a Spiritual superfluity reduces us to want : And in effect , we often see , that as a few Ounces of Blood taken away in a Feaver , does cool the Patient more than the giving him ten times as much Drink would do ; so a few Afflictions , by partly letting out , and partly moderating our corrupt Affections , do more compose and appease a Mind molested with inordinate Appetites , than the Possession of a great many of the Objects we impotently desire . VVhilst our Appetites are roving , and unreasonable , and insatiate , the obtaining of this or that particular Object does but amuse the Patient , not take away the Disease ; whereas seasonable , and sanctify'd Crosses , that teach us to know our selves , and make us sensible how little we deserve , and how little the things we are so Greedy of could make us happy , if obtain'd , may reduce us to a Resignation , and Tranquility of Mind , preferrable to those over-valu'd things , which , as it keeps us from enjoying , so it keeps us from needing . Thus Zacheus , who , whilst a Publican never thought he had enough , when he had once entertain'd our Saviour , though he offer'd to make a quadruple Restitution of what ever he had fraudulently acquir'd , was , upon a sudden , by being freed from Avarice , grown so Rich , that he was forward to give no less than half he had to the Poor ; as if his Divine Guest had wrought upon his Goods , such Miracles as he had done upon the five Loaves , and two Fishes , of which the Remains amounted to more than the whole Provision was at first . MEDITATION V. Upon the Taking of Physick . THe last bitter Potion that I took , ( Sophronia ) was , I remember , sweetned with the hopes were given me with it , that it might prove the last I should need to take , and would procure me a setled and durable Health : But I find by sad Experience , That the benefit I deriv'd from it is nothing near so lasting as it was welcome ; for I am now reduc'd to take Physick agen , and I fear must often do so , before I shall be able to dislodge this troublesome Ague that haunts me : For though the last Physick I took , wrought so well , that I hop'd it had brought away not only the ill Humours themselves , but the very sources of them ; yet by the effect of what I took this Morning , I not only find there is as much to be purged away now as there was then , but , what is sadder , I can scarce hope this Physick will excuse me from the need of taking more again ere long : But though 't is a troublesome thing , and must be often repeated , yet 't is a salutary thing too , and cannot be more unpleasant than 't is usefull ; and as Loathsome as it is , a Sickness were far worse . Thus when a relenting Sinner has endeavour'd to wash away his Sins with his Tears , he may possibly think himself so throughly wash'd in that abstersive Brine , ( which yet owes its cleansing Virtue not to its own Nature , but to the Blood of Christ ) that if he be a new Convert , and be entertain'd with those Ravishing delights wherewith God is often pleas'd to engage such returning Prodigals , ( as the Kind Father welcom'd his Riotous Son with Feasting , and with Musick ) that he is apt to fancy Repentance to be like Baptism , which , being receiv'd once for a Man 's whole Life , needs never be renewed . But though , during such transports , an unexperienc'd Convert may be apt to cast the Gauntlet to the VVorld , saying in his Spiritual prosperity , that he shall never be mov'd ; yet , as our Saviour speaks , The Spirit indeed is willing , but the Flesh is weak ; and too commonly our Resolutions flagg with our Joys , and those that a while before imagin'd they despis'd the World , find themselves Worsted , if not Captivated , by it ; and find it far more difficult than they thought it , to Live in the Company of Sinners without being of their Number , and in so defil'd a World without being spotted by it . And as the same David , who said in his Prosperity , he should never be mov'd , said in his Distress , he should one Day perish by the hand of Saul : So many of those , that whilst their Tears of Repentance , and of Joy , are not yet dry'd off their Eyes , are apt to defie and contemn all the Ghostly enemies , and difficulties , that oppose their present zealous Resolutions , will perhaps in a while after , when they meet with unexpected Impediments , and Foyls , change their confidence into despair , and think those very Enemies , whom they lately look'd on as Despicable , to be Insuperable : But as Physick , that does good for a time , ought not to be rejected , because it does good but for a time ; nor should we reject the only sure means of our present Recovery , for fear of future Relapses ; so , though we sadly find that Repentance must be repeated , and that after we have practis'd it often , we must have need of it agen ; yet since 't is the only proper means to recover a Soul out of a state of Sin , which is worse than any Disease , and leads to the worst of Deaths , we must never suffer our selves to be so far Discouraged , as to forgo so necessary and so profitable a Duty , and must not more frequently Relapse into faults , than renew our Sorrow for them , and our Resolves against them : For Innocence indeed is far more desirable than Repentance , as Health is than Physick . But as Physick is more Eligible than the continuance of Sickness , so is Repentance more Eligible than continuing in the state of Sin : And as the Drinking ev'n of a bitter Potion is a less Evil than the heat , and thirst , and restlesness of an Ague ; so to lament for Sin here , is a far less uneasie thing than to do it in a place where there is nothing but remediless VVailing , and Gnashing of Teeth . 'T is true , that our Souls are in this too like our Bodies , that our whole Lives are spent betwixt Purging away of naughty Humours , and accumulating them : And me-thinks I hear the Flesh still saying unto the Spirit , as Ruth did to Naomi , The Lord do so to me , and more also , if ought but Death part thee and me , Ruth 1. 14. But although there are Defilements , which , though often wash'd off , will as often come again to blemish us ; and though the Deeds of the * Body , will scarce all of them perfectly be put to Death , but with the Body it self ; yet next to an uninterrupted state of Health , frequent and early Recoveries are desirable : And though the shamefull necessity of needing to beg many pardons for the same fault , may justly make an ingenious Christian cry out with Saint Paul , O! Wretched Man that I am , who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death ; yet the same sense of his own frailty , that puts this Exclamation into his Mouth , may comfort his Heart , by its being a pledge , that he shall one Day be able Exultingly to say with the same Apostle in another place , Thanks be to God which giveth us the Victory , through our Lord Jesus Christ , 1 Cor. 15. 57. MEDITATION VI. Upon the Sirrups and other sweet things sent him by the Doctor . THis complaisant Physitian ( Sophronia ) is you see very sollicitous , that his Remedies should as well gratifie the Patient , as oppose the Disease : And besides , that this Julip is ting'd with Sirrup of Clove-gilly-flowers , that it may at once delight the Palate , and the Eye ; some of these other Remedies are sweetned with as much Sugar , as if they came not from an Apothecaries Shop , but a Confectioners . But my Mouth is too much out of Taste to rellish any thing that passes through it ; and though my Sickness makes this Flattering of the Palate almost necessary to the rendring these Medicines takable by me , yet upon the account of the same Distemper , all that the Doctor 's tenderness and skil could do to make them Pleasant , can at most but keep them from being Loathsome . And therefore , you will easily believe , Sophronia , that I enjoy these sweet things upon a score , that if it does Imbitter them , does at least , as to me , deprive them of their Nature : So that he , that for the sake of these Sirrups , and Electuaries , should , notwithstanding the Malady that needs them , envy me , might be suspected to be troubled with a worse Disease than an Ague is , a Frensie . Thus there are many Favourites of Fortune , whose seeming Enjoyments may perchance be Envy'd by those that do but Gaze on their Condition , whilst 't is rather pitty'd by those that know it : To be brought by Greatness of Power , or Riches , and Effeminacy of Mind , to that pass , that they seldome hear any thing but their own Praises , ev'n when their Actions merit Reprehension , and that they can rellish nothing that is not sweetned with so much of Flattery , as quite to disguise , and perhaps pervert , its Nature . These , as I was going to say , and such other unhappy Priviledges , are things , which ( whatever Fools may think ) will not recommend Greatness to a considering Man , and are far more fit to procure the Possessour's ruine , than wise Men's envy : And besides , that a vain and impotent Soul is , by those disquieting Qualities , molested with greater Distempers than those Gratifications can make amends for , and which often hinder the full Rellishing of these or any other Pleasure . The delight these treacherous Delicacies afford , is so much less considerable than the Weakness they suppose ; that 't is far more Eligible to be without them than to need them . MEDITATION VII . Upon the want of Sleep . AH ! Dear Sophronia , in spight of all the care , and officiousness of those diligent Attendants , that you were pleas'd to send to watch with me , I have Slept all Night as little as I do now , or as I shall desire to do whilst you stay here . This unwelcome leisure brought me as much a Necessity as an Opportunity to spend the time in entertaining my Thoughts , which on this occasion were almost as Various , and seem'd too as Wild , as , if I had Slept , my Dreams themselves would have been : And therefore , I presume you will not wonder , if I can now recall but few of them , and if the rest be as easily Vanish'd out of my Memory , as they came abruptly into my Mind . The first Thought that I remember entertain'd me , was that which was the most naturally suggested by the condition I was in : For when I found how tedious and wearisome each hour was , and observ'd how long a time seem'd to intervene betwixt the several Divisions that the striking of the Clock made of a Night , that must at this time of the Year be much shorter than the Day , I could not but consider , how insupportable their condition must be , to be cast into outer Darkness , where tormented Wretches lye , not as I do upon a soft Bed , but upon Fire and Brimstone , where no attendance of Servants , or kindness of Friends , is allow'd them , that need it as much as they deserve it little ; and , which is worst of all , where no Beam of hope is permitted to Consolate them , as if the Day should Dawn after so Dismal a Night , though protracted to Millions of Ages , each of whose miserable hours appears an Age. The next thing I was considering , was , How defective we are in point of Gratitude to God ; I now Blush that I cannot call to Mind the time , when I ever thought that his having vouchsaf'd me the power of Sleeping , deserv'd a particular Acknowledgment . But now I begin to see that 't is our Heedlesness , not their Uselesness , that keeps us from daily being thankfull for a multitude of Mercies , that we take no notice of ; Though it be injurious , That that only commonness that heightens the Benefit , should keep us from being sensible of the Greatness of it . I confess I was very lately one of them , who look'd upon Sleep as one of those inconveniencies of humane Nature , that merit a Consolation ; and I very little apprehended , that I should ever complain of the want of Sleep , as of a Grievance , the necessity of it being what I always look'd upon under that Notion : But I now perceive , he was a Wise man , who said , That God made every thing Beautifull in its Season . And yet , when I consider the Affinity betwixt Sleep and Death , whose Image it is , I cannot but think it very unlikely , that this Life should be design'd for our Happiness , since not to lose almost half of it were an Infelicity . Another thing I remember I was considering , was this , That though want of Sleep be one of the uneasiest accidents that attend on Sickness , yet in many cases it proves as usefull as it can be unwelcome : For there is a sort of Jolly people , far more Numerous than I could wish them , who are at utter defiance with Thinking , and do as much fear to be alone , as they should to do any course that is naturally productive of so unmanly a fear : And the same Sinfull employments , or Vain pastimes , that make them afraid of being alone , do so much keep them from the necessity of being so , that they keep them almost from the very Possibility of it : For in the time of Health , Visits , Businesses , Cards , and I know not how many other Avocations , which they justly stile Diversions , do succeed one another so thick , that in the Day there is no time left for the distracted Person to converse with his own Thoughts : And ev'n , when they are Sick , though they be debarr'd of many of those wonted Diversions , yet Cards and Company will give them enough to prove a Charm against Thinking , which the Patient is so willing , or rather sollicitous , to decline , the need of that Sickness less troubles him , as it keeps his Body from going abroad , than as it tends to drive his Thoughts home ; so that Sickness does little or nothing towards the making such Men consider , by casting them upon their Beds , unless it also hinder them from Sleeping there . But in the long and tedious Nights , when all the Praters , and the Gamesters ( who are usually call'd good Companions , but seldome prove good Friends ) are withdrawn , and have left our Patient quite alone , the Darkness of the Night begins to make him discern , and take some notice of his own Condition ▪ and his Eyes , for want of outward Objects , are turn'd inwards , he must , whether he will or no , during the Silence of the Night , hear those Lessons , which by the Hurry and Avocations of the Day he endeavour'd to avoid . And though this be a very unwelcome Mercy , yet 't is a Mercy still , and perhaps the greater for being so unwelcome : For if he could Sleep in Sickness , as he us'd to do in Health , he were in great danger of having his Conscience laid Asleep , till it should be Awak'd by the Flames and Shriecks of Hell. And the design of God in chastning , being to reclaim and amend us , we not only do , by our want of Reflecting , indure the trouble of Sickness , without reaping the benefit of it , but also by our shunning to consider , we are so Ill-natur'd to our selves , as to lengthen the Sickness , we are so Impatient of ; which is in us as foolish as 't would be in a nice Patient , after having been made to take a bitter , but a salutary Potion , to send unseasonably for Cordials and Julips to hinder the working of it , and so by such unruliness lose the benefit of the Operation , and lengthen his Pain and Sickness , to avoid the far less trouble of complying with the Nature of the Medicine , and the Designs of the Physitian : So that Repentance being necessary to Recovery , and the considering of a Man 's own ways as necessary to Repentance , the want of Sleep , which both allows us time , and imposes on us a necessity to think , may well be look'd upon as a happy Grievance , since it very much tends to the shortning of our Afflictions , by the disposing us to Co-operate towards God's aims in sending them . MEDITATION VIII . Upon telling the Strokes of an ill-going Clock in the Night . THe same Violence of my Fit , that made me very much need Sleep , allow'd me so little of it , that I think I miss'd not hearing one stroke of the Clock all the Night long . But since you know , Sophronia , that the Clock is kept by the Souldiers that are Quarter'd in the place where it stands , you will easily believe , that 't is not very carefully look'd to , especially since they are not only wont to let it go Ill , but do oft times make it do so on purpose , and as may best comply with the Officers occasions , and as they would have the Guards that are to be set here , or to be sent hence , sooner or later Reliev'd . Of this uncertain going of the Clock , I never had occasion to take so much notice as the last Night , when , lying too constantly awak'd , I began to observe , that though all the hours were so tedious , as to seem every one of them extraordinary long , yet they manifestly appear'd to me not to be equally so ; and therefore , when the Clock struck Eleven , to satisfie my self whether it did not mis-inform me , I call'd to one that sat up by me for the VVatch I use to measure the time with in nice Experiments , and found it to want but very little of Midnight ; and not much above an hour after , when by my VVatch it was but about one , those that kept the Clock , whether out of Negligence , or Design , or to make amends for past Slowness , made it strike two , which seem'd to me to hint a not unusefull Rule in estimating the length or shortness of Discourses : For there are Cases , where the difficulty or importance of the Subject is such , that though it cost a Man many words , yet , if what he says be not sufficiently fitted to the Exigency of the Occasion , and the Theam , he may speak much , without saying enough . But on the other hand , if ( as it often happens ) a Man speak either Unseasonably , Erroneously , or Impertinently , he may , though he say little , talk too much ; The paucity or number of VVords , is not , as many think it , that which is in such cases to be chiefly consider'd ; for 't is not many , or few , that are requir'd , but enough . And , As our Clock struck not so often as it should have done , when it struck Eleven , and yet struck a while after too often when it struck but two , because the first time it was Mid-night , and the second time it was but one of the Clock ; so to estimate whether what is said have its due length , we are not so much to look whether it be little , or much , as whether a Man speak in the right time , and say neither more nor less than he should . MEDITATION IX . Upon comparing the Clock and his Watch. THe occasion I had ( Sophronia ) to compare the Clock and my Watch , suggested to me this other Reflection , That the Dyal-plate of the Clock being I know not how many times larger than that of the Watch , the Circle on which the hours were mark'd in the one , did by vast Odds exceed the correspondent Circle of the other : And yet , though the Index of the Clock had then past through a far greater quantity of space than that of the Watch , this little Index , being , when it was indeed Mid-night , arriv'd at the mark of the twelfth hour , when the greater Index was come but to that of the eleventh , I justly concluded , That the VVatch did not only go truer , but more forward than the Clock . Thus in estimating Men's Lives , there is something else to be look'd at than the meer duration of them : For there are some Men , who having Loyter'd and Trifled away very many Years in the VVorld , have no other Argument of their Age , than the Church-books of their Gray-hairs ; and as little do they indeed Live , that waste a number of insignificant Years in successive or perpetual Diversions from the true business and end of Life . These , and many other kinds of Persons , that consume much Time to little purpose , may be said rather to have Lasted long , than to have Liv'd long : As the careless VVanderer , who , instead of Travelling , does nothing but stray from one wrong way to another , though he do so at Midsummer from Mornning to Night , may be said to have been long a Horse-back , but not to have perform'd a long Journey ; whereas he , that by thriftily Husbanding his time , and industriously Improving it , has early dispatch'd the business for which he was sent into the VVorld , needs not Gray-hairs to be reputed to have Liv'd long enough , and consequently longer than those that wear Gray-hairs , only because they were Born many Years before him . In a word , to one of these sorts of Men we may attribute a longer Time , but to the other a longer Life ; ( for ev'n the Heathen could say , Non est vivere sed valere Vita ) and within how narrow a compass soever a Man's Life be confin'd , if he have Liv'd so long , as before he comes to the end of Life he have reach'd the ends of Living ; The attainment of that Measure of Knowledge , and the practice of those Graces and Virtues that fit a Man to glorifie God in this short Life , and to be Glorified by him in that which shall have no End. MEDITATION X. Upon a Thief in a Candle . THe silence of the Night , and my being unable to Sleep , disposing me to have my attention very easily excited ; I chanc'd to take notice , that the Dim light of the Candle , which the Curtains were not drawn so close as to exclude every where out of the Bed , was on a suddain considerably increas'd , and continued so long in that condition , that , for fear of some mischance , I put my Head out of the Bed to see whence it was that this new and unexpected increase of Light proceeded ; but I quickly found , that 't was from a Thief ( as they call it ) in the Candle , which by its irregular way of making the Flame blaze , had melted down a good part of the Tallow , and would have spoil'd the rest , if I had not call'd to one of those that Watch'd with me , to rescue the remains by the removal of the Thief . But I had scarce done this , when , I confess to you , ( Sophronia ) I found my self invited to make some Reflections upon what I had done , and to read my self a new Lesson by the Beams of this new Light : For though this Thief made the Candle shine more strongly , and diffuse a much greater Light than it did before ; yet because it made a great and irregular waste of the Candle , I order'd it to be taken away ; and on this occasion me-thought I might justly make use of that saying of Pharaoh's forgetfull Butler , I do remember my Faults this Day , Gen. 41. 9. For though I find no great difficulty in abstaining from other kinds of Intemperance , yet to that of Studying , my Friends , and especially my Physitians , have often accus'd me of being too Indulgent : Nor can I altogether deny , but that in mental Exercises , there can be Exorbitancies , and Excesses , I may have sometimes been Guilty of them ; and that the things for which I think Life valuable , being the satisfaction that accrues from the improvement of Knowledge , and the exercise of Piety , I thought it allowable , if not commendable , to consume or hazard it for the attainment of those Ends ; and esteem'd Sickness more formidable for its unfitting me to learn , and to teach , than for its being attended with pain and danger , and look'd upon what it made me forbear , as far more troublesome than what ever else it made me endure . But I find my Body is a Jade , and tyres under my Mind , and a few hours fix'd Contemplation does sensibly so spend my Spirits , as to make me feel my self more weary that the Riding post for twice as many hours has ever done . Wherefore , since , though the proper use of a Candle be to consume it self , that it may give others Light , I yet thought fit to have the Thief taken away , because , though it made the Candle give more Light , it would have wasted it too fast , and consequently made it expire too soon ; I see not how I can resist their perswasions , that would have me husband better the little stock of strength Nature has given me , and the rather , by a moderate expence of it , endeavour to make it shine longe , though but Dimly , then consume it to fast , though for a while to keep up a Blaze : I will therefore endeavour to learn of this Sickness , and of this Accident , what the Doctors hitherto could never teach me , and injoyn my self an Abstinence , which to me is more uneasie , than if Wine , or VVomen , or other sensual Pleasures were to be the Objects of it ; but if in so difficult an Exercise of Self-denial , I do not always perform what I am now perswaded to , 't is like I shall easily forgive my self , for but a little hastning the end of my Life to attain the ends of it . MEDITATION XI . Upon the being in danger of Death . I Know that Physitians are wont after their Master Hypocrates , to tell us , That Feavers which intermit are devoid of Danger : But though an Ague , whilst it continues such , could not be a mortal Disease ; yet why may it not degenerate into such a one ? And for my part , who take the Prognosticks of Physitians to be but Guesses , not Prophesies , and know how backward they are to bid us fear , till our Condition leave them little hopes of us : I cannot but think that Patient very ill advis'd , who thinks it not time to entertain thoughts of Death , as long as his Doctor allows him any hopes of Life ; for in case they should both be deceiv'd , 't would be much easier for the mistaken Physitian to save his Credit , than for the unprepar'd Sinner to save his Soul. Wherefore , Sophronia , finding my Disease attended with unusual threatning Symptoms , not knowing where they would end , I last Night thought it fit to suppose they might end in Death : And two things especially made me the more ready for such an entertainment of my Thoughts . One , That we can scarce be too carefull and diligent in fitting our selves for the Acting of a part well , that we can never Act but once ; For where the Scripture tells us , It is appointed for all Men once to Dye ; it is immediately subjoyn'd , That after that comes Judgment ; and if we Dye ill once , we shall never be allow'd to Dye again , to see if we would Dye better the second time than we did the first : But as the Wise man Allegorically speaks , Where the Tree falls there shall it lye : So that the faults committed in this last and importantest of humane Actions , being irreparable , I think the only safe way is to imitate him , who , having said , If a Man Dye , shall he Live again ? presently annex'd by way of Inference and Resolution : All the Days of my appointed Time will I wait till my Change come . The other consideration that recommended to me the Thoughts of the Grave , was this , That we may be often sollicitous to provide against many Evils and Dangers that possibly may never reach us ; and many endure from the Anxious fears of contingent Mischiefs that never will befall them , more Torment than the apprehended Mischiefs themselves , though really suffer'd , would inflict . But Death will sooner or later infallibly come , and never finally deceive our Expectations , and therefore the fore-thoughts of it are an imployment which may prove , we know not how soon , of use , and will ( however ) prove of excellent Advantage : The frequent Meditation of the end of our Lives , conducing so much to make us lead them well , that the expectation of Death brings not less Advantages to those that scape the Grave , than to those that descend into it . Such like considerations ( Sophronia ) having put me upon the thoughts of Death , I presume you may have some Curiosity to know what these Thoughts were ; and therefore , though I have neither Fitness , nor Inclination to mention to you those that almost every Sober person would have upon a Death-Bed , as a Man , and as a Christian , I will only take notice to you of those few that were suggested to me , by the less general Circumstances of my condition . And I am the more willing to satisfie you Curiosity now , because I have my self been very inquisitive on the like occasion : For the approach of Death will ( if any thing can ) make Men serious and considerate , being for good and all to go off the Stage ; they make a truer and sincerer Judgment of the World they are ready to leave , and then have not the wonted Partiality for the pleasures and profits of a Life they are now abandoning . And as the Mind looks with other Eyes upon the World , when Death is ready to shut those of the Body ; so Men are then wont as well to speak their Thoughts more franckly , as to have them better grounded . Death stripping most Men of their Dissimulation , as well as of other things it makes them part with ; and indeed it is then high time for the Soul to put off her Disguises , when she is ready to put off the very Body it self . One thing then that I was considering , ( Sophronia ) was , in how wretched a condition I should now be , if I had been of the same Mind with the generality of those , who are of the same Age with me : For these presume , That Youth is as well made for Pleasures , as capable of them , and is not more a Temptation to Vanity , than an Excuse for it . They imagine themselves to do a great Matter , if , whilst Youth lasts , they do so much as resolve to grow better when it is gone ; and they think , That for a Man to be otherwise than Intentionally Religious before his Hair begin to change Colour , were not only to lose the priviledges of Youth , but to incroach upon those of old Age. But alas ! How few are Destroy'd by that incurable Disease , in comparison to those that Dye before they attain it ? And how little comfort is it upon a Death Bed , to think , that by the course of Nature , a Man might have Lived longer , when that very Thought might justly prove Dismal to an unprepar'd Man , by suggesting to him , that this early Death may argue the Measure of his Iniquities exceeding great , and that this untimely End is not so much a Debt due to Nature , as a Punishment of Sin. All the fruition of these deluding Pleasures of Sin , cannot countervail the Horrour that a Dying Man's Review of them will create , who not only sees himself upon the point of leaving them for ever , but of suffering for them as long . And on the contrary , the Review of Youthfull pleasures declin'd for Virtue 's or Religion's sake , will afford a Dying Man far higher Joys than their Fruition would ever have afforded him . MEDITATION XII . Upon the same Subject . ANd one thing more there is , ( Sophronia ) that I dare not conceal from you , how much cause soever I have to blush at the disclosing it ; And it is , That I judge quite otherwise of a competent preparation for Death now I am near it , than I did when I was in health . And therefore , if one , that , since his Conscience was first thorowly awakened , still resolv'd to be a Christian , and though he too often broke those good Resolutions , never renounc'd them , but tripp'd and stumbled in the way to Heaven , without quitting his purpose of continuing in it , finds a formidableness in the approach of Death : How uncomfortable must that approach be to those that have still run on in the ways of Sin , without once so much as seriously intending to forsake them ? A Youth free from Scandal , and sometimes productive of Practices that were somewhat more than Negative piety , is not so frequent among those that want not opportunities to enjoy the Vanities and Pleasures of the World , but that the Charity of other being seconded by that great inward flatterer Self-love , made me imagine that I was in a Condition fitter to wish for Death , than to fear it . But now I come to look on Death near at hand , and see beyond the Grave , that is just under me , that bottomless Gulf of Eternity ; me-thinks it is a very hard thing to be sufficiently prepar'd for a Change , that will transmit us to the Barr of an Omniscient Judge , to be there Doom'd to an endless state of infinite Happiness or Misery . There is no Art of Memory like a Death-Bed's Review of ones Life ; Sickness , and a nearer Prospect of Death , often makes a Man remember those Actions wherein Youth and Jollity made him forget his Duty ; and those frivolous Arguments , which when he was in Health , and free from Danger , were able to excuse him to his own indulgent Thoughts , he himself will scarce now think Valid enough to excuse him unto God , before whom , if the sinless Angels cover their Faces , sinfull Mortals may justly tremble to be brought to appear . VVhen the approach of Death makes the Bodily eyes grow Dim , those of the Conscience are enabled to discern , That as to many of the Pleas we formerly acquiesc'd in , it was the prevalence of our Senses that made us think them Reason : And none of that Jolly company , whose examples prevail'd with us to joyn with them in a course of Vanity , will stand by us at the Barr to excuse the Actions they tempted us to : And if they were there , they would be so far from being able to justifie us , that they would be condemn'd themselves . 'T is true , ( Sophronia ) if we consider Death only as the conclusion of Life , and a Debt all Men sooner or later pay to Nature , not only a Christian , but a Man , may entertain it without Horrour : But if one consider it as a change , That after having left his Body to rot in the Grave , will bring his Soul to the Tribunal of God , to answer the miscarriages of his whole past Life , and receive there an unalterable Sentence that will Doom him to endless and unconceivable Joys , or everlasting and inexpressible Torments ; I think 't is not inconsistent either with Piety or Courage , to look upon so great a change with something of Commotion : And many that would not fear to be put out of the VVorld , will apprehend to be let into Eternity . MEDITATION XIII . A further Continuation . ANother thing , Sophronia , which my present state suggested to me , was , a Reflection on the great mistake of those that think a Death-Bed the fittest and opportunest place to begin Repentance in : But sure these Men are very little acquainted , either with the disadvantages of a dangerous Sickness , or the nature of Repentance . 'T is true , that Sin and Death do more easily frighten one , when they are look'd on as both together : But I much doubt whether the being frighted by Hell , be sufficient to give a Man a well-grounded hope of Heaven : For when we see Sin and Torment at one view , and so near one to another , 't is not so easie to be sure which of the two it is that , as we presume , scares the Sinner towards Heaven . And surely Repentance , which ought to be the change of the whole Man , and in some sense the work of the whole Life , is very improperly begun , when Men have finished that course , which it should have guided them in : Nor have Men cause to presume , that when God is severely punishing them for their Sins , he will vouchsafe them so great a Grace as that of Repentance , which they would none of , till it could not make them serviceable to him . And as for the oppornity 't is hop'd an expiring State may give Men for Repentance , they must needs be great Strangers to great Sicknesses , that can promise themselves so unlikely a matter : VVho can secure them , that the Acuteness of the Disease will not invade the Brain ? and as Deliriums and Phrensies are not unfrequent in Feavers , and other acute Diseases , so in case they happen to persevere , the VVretch'd patient is cast into a desperate condition , ev'n on this side the Grave , and as near as the Body is to its Dissolution , the Man may be Dead a pretty while before it . But supposing he escape these Accidents , which make Repentance impossible , a dangerous Sickness has other Circumstances enough to make it very uneasie : For the Organical faculties of the Mind cannot but be dull'd and prejudic'd by the Discomposure of the Spirits , by which their Functions are to be exercis'd ; and the sense of Pain , the troublesome prescriptions of Physitians , the loathsome and bitter Potions , the weakning Operation of Physick , the Languishments produced by want of Spirits , the Restlessness proceeding from Heat and want of Sleep , the distracting Importunity of those interested Persons , especially if any of them be suspected to hover about the Dying Man's Bed , as Birds of Prey that wait for a Carcass , the Sighs and Tears of Friends and Relations that come to take their last Farewell , and to Imbitter it , The Lawyer that must be directed to draw up the VVill , the Divine that must be allowed to say something concerning the Soul , and the affrighted Conscience , that alone brings more disquiet than all the rest put together , do make a Dying Man's condition so Amazing , so Dismal , and so Distracting , that to think this an Opportune time to begin such a work , ( which may well enough imploy the whole Man in his calmest state of mind ) is a Madness as great as any , that ev'n a Death-Bed can , by the translation of the Humours into the Brain , occasion : For my part , I think it so wild , and so unadvisable a thing to put off the beginning to provide all Graces to a Death-Bed , that I think it uneasie enough so much as to exercise then those that were acquir'd before ; Men being in that state commonly unable so much as to Reap the consolation they have been Sowing all along a pious Life . And this ( Sophronia ) brings into my mind a consideration , which being taken from the very nature of a Death-Bed Repentance , should me-thinks very much deterr Men from resolving before hand to rely on it ; And it is this , That granting those ( Socians , and others ) to be mistaken , that think so late a Repentance to come too late to be available ; yet the Dying Sinner , though he may be kept from dispair of passing to Heaven , can scarce in an ordinary way have a comfortable assurance of getting thither ! For though it be said , That a true Repentance cannot come too late , yet it is a hard thing to be certain , that so late a Repentance is true . Since Repentance confessedly importeth an abandoning and renouncing of Sin , at least in Hearty purpose and resolution ; 't is very difficult for an habitual Sinner , that remembers what vows and purposes of change of Life , Sicknesses or Dangers have formerly induc'd him to make , which were forgotten , or violated , when the apprehensions that occasion'd them were over ; 't is hard I say for such a One to be sure , that his present Repentance is not of the same ignoble and uncurrent kind , since he has no Experience to satisfie him that it would be ordinarily , though not constantly , prevalent over the opposite Temptations ; and since also ( which is mainly to be consider'd ) 't is so easie for a Man to mistake for the true hatred of Sin , and the love of God , a horrour of Sin springing from the present painfull sense of the Mischief procur'd by it , together with the great fear of the approaching Torments that it threatens , and a strong desire of going to Heaven , when seeing himself unable to stay any longer on Earth , he must get thither to escape Hell. And as it is thus difficult , when a Man already feels much Punishment for Sin , and sees himself in danger of more , to discern clearly upon what account it is , that he is sorry for what he has committed ; so it must be certainly a state unspeakably anxious and uncomfortable to find ones self dragg'd to the Grave , without knowing whether the last Trumpet shall call him thence to Heaven , or to Hell : And if he should be deceiv'd in judging of the Validity of his Repentance , the fatal errour would be remediless , and the mistake far sadder and more horrid than that of the Syrians , who , when they thought they were arriv'd Victorious at Dothan , found themselves at the mercy of their Enemies in Samaria , 2 Kings 6. 18. To conclude , ( Sophronia ) he that resolves not to renounce his Sins , till he thinks Christ ready to renounce him for them , may very probably lose his Soul , and has most certainly lost his Ingenuity ; and that will appear a very sad loss for a Man , that being by Death denied the opportunities of actually leading a new and pious Life , must derive his comfort from the assurance that he sincerely intends it . MEDITATION XIV . Upon the Apprehensions of a Relapse . I Have now at length , Eusebia , by the goodness of God , regain'd that measure of Health , which makes the Doctor allow me to return to my former Studies , and Recreations , and Dyet ; and in a word , to my wonted course of Life , so that the Physitian having dismiss'd himself , nothing seems more seasonable and pertinent to my present Condition , than that of our Saviour to the Paralitick Man , to whom he gave both Recovery , and an Admonition , which , if he obey'd , he found the more advantagious of the two ; Behold , thou art made whole , Sin no more , least a worse thing come unto thee . But I am not so free from the apprehensions of an Ague , as my Friends think me from the danger of it : For having sadly Experienc'd the uneasiness of Sickness , I am thereby brought , though at no easie Rate , to set a high Value upon Health , and be a very Jealous Preserver of so great a Blessing ; and those petty Chilnesses that formerly I regarded not , but was apt to impute to nothing but Fumes of the Spleen , or Melancholy Vapours , are now able to give me hot Alarms , and make me apt to fancy them the fore-runners , if not the beginners , of the Cold fit of an Ague , the first Invasion of that Disease having been preceded by the like Distempers ; and accordingly , I carefully avoid the least Irregularities in point of Dyet , or of any other kind that may any ways endanger a Relapse into the Disease that once handl'd me so ill . But why should I be more apprehensive for my Body than my Mind ; and if at any time ( as it may but too often happen ) any Sin should come to be prevalent in my Mind , why should I not be sollicitously afraid of all the occasions and approaches of it , and tremble at these Commotions of the Appetite , which would not else perhaps be formidable to me , in case I have found that such Beginnings indulg'd or neglected have ended in actual Sin , the real Disease of the Soul ; and as dangerous Sicknesses do for the most part leave a crasie Disposition behind them , which threatens Relapses , so Sins once prevalent , though afterwards supprest , do yet leave behind them a secret Disposition or Propensity to the Repetition of the same faults ; and as 't is less difficult to find examples of Bodily Diseases , than of Spiritual ones , where the Patient is protected from Relapses , so I think we should be more watchfull against falling back into the Sins , than into the Sicknesses , we have once found our selves subject to , unless we would think , that a greater Danger , and of a Nobler part , deserv'd less of our care . MEDITATION XV. Upon his Reviewing and Tacking together the several Bills fil'd up in the Apothecary's Shop . EIther my Curiosity , Sophronia , or my Value of Health , has made it my Custom , when I have pass'd through a course of Physick , to review the particulars it consisted of ; That taking notice by what Remedies I found most good , and by what , little or none ; if I should fall into the like Distemper for the future , I might derive some advantage from my past Experience . In compliance with this Custom , as I was this Day reviewing and putting together the Doctor 's several Prescriptions sent me back by the Apothecary ; Good God! said I , in my self , what a multitude of unpleasant Medicines have I been order'd to take : The very Numbring , and Reading them were able to Discompose me , and make me almost Sick , though the taking of them help'd to make me VVell . And certainly , if when I was about to enter into a course of Physick , all these loathsome Medicines , and uneasie Prescriptions , had been presented to me together , as things I must take , and comply with , I should have utterly despair'd of a Recovery that must be so obtain'd , and should not perhaps have undertaken so difficult and tedious a Work , out of an apprehension that it would prove impossible for me to go thorow with it . Thus when a Man considers the Duties , and the Mortifications , that are requisite to a recovery out of a state of Sin , into a state of Grace , he must be resolute enough , if he be not deterr'd from undertaking the conditions that Piety requires , by so many and great difficulties as will present themselves to his affrighted Imagination : But let not this make him Despondent ; for 't is true , that these discomposing Medicines , if I must have taken so much as a tenth part of them in one Day , would have either dispatch'd me , or disabled me to endure the taking any the next . But then , although I now see these troublesome Prescriptions all at once , I did not use them so , but took only one or two harsh Remedies in one Day , and thereby was enabled to bear them , especially being assisted by moderate Intervalls of Respite , and supported both by other seasonable Cordials , and by that highest Cordial , the Hope that the use of these troublesome means of Recovery would soon free me from the need of them . And thus , though the hardships of Piety are , by the Ghostly and Carnal enemies of it , wont to be represented to one that begins to grow a Convert , so great and formidable a Multitude as to be insuperable ; yet if he consider , that though his fore-sight meet with them all at once , yet he will need to grapple with them but one after another , and may be as well able to overcome a Temptation this Day , or to Morrow , as he did another Yesterday : So that to this case also may in some sense be applied , that ( either Counsel , or Precept ) of our Saviour , not to be sollicitous for to Morrow , but to charge no more upon a Day than the trouble that belongs to it . And if he considers too , That as a wise Physitian has always a great care , that his Remedies be not disproportionate to the Patient's Strength , and after harsh Physick to relieve him with Cordials , so God will not suffer those that intrust themselves to him to be tempted above what they are able ; but will allow them Cordials after their Sufferings , in case he do not turn the Sufferings themselves into Cordials . If ( I say ) our new Convert shall consider things of this Nature , he will not be much discourag'd by the appearance of difficulties , that will as much ennoble and indear his success , as they can oppose it ; and he will never despair of Victory in an engagement , where he may justly hope to have God for his Second , and Heaven for his Reward . OCCASIONAL REFLECTIONS . The III. SECTION . REFLECTION I. Upon the sight of some variously Colour'd Clouds . THere is amongst us a sort of vain and flanting Grandees , who for their own Unhappiness , and their Age's , do but too much resemble these painted Clouds ; for both the one and other are Elevated to a Station , that makes most Men look upon them , as far above them ; and their Conspicuousness is often increas'd by the bright Sun-shine of the Prince's favour , which , though it really leaves them Creatures of the same frail Nature that it found them of ▪ does yet give them a Lustre and a Gawdiness , that much attracts the Eyes , and perhaps the Envy and Respect of those superficial Gazers upon things , that are wont to be Amus'd , if not Dazl'd , with their insignificant Out-sides . But the Parallel holds further ; for as , in spight of these Clouds sublimity and conspicuousness , they are but Aëry and Unsolid things , consisting of Vapours , and steer'd by every VVind : So the fine People I am comparing them too , in spight of their Exaltation , and of all the Shew they make , are really but slight Persons , destitute of intrinsick and solid worth , and guided either by their own blind Lusts , and Passions , or else by Interests as fickle as those , ( to which it will be no addition to say ) or as variable as the VVind . And as these Clouds , though they seem Vast as well as High , and are perhaps able , for a while , to make the Sky somewhat Dark , have usually but a short duration , and either quickly fall down in Rain , or are quite dissipated , and made to disappear : So these Titled persons , what Shew soever their Greatness makes , do oftentimes , either by a voluntary Humility and Repentance , as it were , descend of their own accord , and , by doing of good , endeavour to expiate and make amends for their former Uselesness , if not Mischiefs ; or else , after having been for a while stared at , they do ( some of them more slowly , and some more abruptly ) vanish , without leaving behind them any thing that can so much as entertain our Sight in the very place , where before they Ingross'd it : And this Ruine sometimes happens to the most Elevated persons , from that very Prince , whose favour made them attract so many Eyes ; as Clouds are oftentimes dispers'd before Night , by the same Sun that had rais'd and gilded them in the Morning . REFLECTION II. Upon his making of a Fire . HOW many fruitless Blasts have I been spending upon this sullen Fire ! 'T was not , though , the Greenness of this VVood ▪ that made it so uneasie to be Kindled ; but , 't was alone the greatness of the Loggs , on which the Fire could take no hold , but by the intervention of such smaller Sticks as were at first wanting here : VVitness ▪ that I had no sooner laid on a little Brush-wood , but the Flame , from those kindled Twiggs , invading and prevailing on the Billets ▪ grew suddenly great enough to threaten to make the House it self part of its Fuel , and turn it to such Ashes as it makes haste to reduce the VVood into . Me-thinks the blaze of this Fire should light me to discern something instructive in it : These Blocks may represent our Necessary , these Sticks our less important , Religious practices , and this aspiring Flame , the subtile Inhabitor of that of Hell. 'T wil be but succeslesly , that the Devil can attempt our grand Resolves , till he have first Master'd our less considerable ones ; and made his successes against these , not only Degrees , but Instruments , in the Destroying of the other : Our more neglected and seemingly trivial Affections , having once receiv'd his Fiery impressions , do easily impart them to higher Faculties , and serve to Kindle solider Materials . It is therefore the safest way , to be faithfull ev'n to our lesser Determinations , and watchfull over our less predominant Passions , and whensoever we find our selves tempted to violate the former , or neglect the latter , not so barely to cast one Eye upon the seeming inconsiderableness of what we are intic'd to , as not to fix the other upon the Consequences that may attend it ; and therein , to consider the importance of what such slighted things may , as they are manag'd , prove Instrumental , either to endanger , or preserve . REFLECTION III. Upon my Spaniel's Carefulness not to lose me in a strange place . DUring my stay at Home , whilst every Body this Cur chanc't to meet , made so much of their Landlord's Spaniel , that they seem'd to have added to Oracles that Proverb of Love me , love my Dogg , the cajoll'd Cur would never keep at home ; but being welcom'd to so many places abroad , made me few Visits , that cost me not the trouble of sending for him . But now , that we are in a place , where he sees not more Men than Strangers , he stirrs not from my Heels , and waits so close , and carefully , that it were now more difficult to lose him , than it was formerly to keep him from wandring . Thus doth it generally fare with us ; whilst we are Environed with numerous outward Objects , which , smiling on us , give our Gaddings to them , the Temptation of an inviting welcome ; how inclin'd are we to forget and wander from our great Master : But when we are depriv'd of those Enveigling Courters , our Maker too is freed from those seducing Rivals , and our undistracted Affections are brought to settle on their noblest Object , by the removal , and the displacing , as well as they would be by the Knowledge and the Undervaluation , of inferiour ones . Lord ! when I lose a Friend , or any outward Idol of my Fondness , teach me to reduce him to leave thee his Heir , by taking that loss for a Summons , to transfer and settle my whole Love on Thee ; and if Thou but vouchsafe to make me so happy , I shall think my self enough so , not to Envy him , to whom the loss of his Asses prov'd an occasion of his finding a Crown ; and shall not so much Regret what thy Dispensations shall have taken from me , as Gratulate to my self their having reduc'd me unto Thee . REFLECTION IV. Upon the prodigiously wet Weather , which happen'd the Summer that Colchester was Besieg'd . ( 1648. ) HOw strangely unseasonable is this Melancholy weather ! and how tedious a Winter have we indur'd this Summer ? More than these few last Weeks have not afforded us half as many Days , wherein we were neither troubl'd with Showry , or threaten'd by Cloudy , weather ; and we in England have great Temptations to envy Nature's Kindness unto Rhodes , if it be true what Geographers relate of that Island , that 't is a Rarity for the Inhabitants to see a Day pass without their seeing the Sun : For among us , the Confusions of our Country seem to have infected our very Air , and Serenity is as great a Rarity in the Sky , as in Men's Consciences ; so that those , who are wont to make Fires , not against Winter , but against Cold , have generally displac'd the florid , and the verdent Ornaments of their Chimneys , and think Vulcan more proper there than Flora ; and some begin to doubt , whether our Almanacks be not mistaken , by calling this Moneth July instead of November . But notwithstanding all this appearance of Winter above our Heads , yet whilst we see , that Cherries , and Strawberries , and other Summer fruits , do grow , and , though but slowly , make a Progress towards Maturity in our Orchards , we doubt not that 't is Summer , and expect that these Fruits , though they will not be Early ones , will at length come to be Ripe ones . Thus , for Reasons , which , though we know not yet , our knowing of God may assure us to be both VVise , and Just , a pious Soul may sometimes be reduc'd to so sad a Condition , that the Face of Heaven does to Her appear perpetually over-cast ; and the Tokens of God's Displeasure do so closely follow one another , that , to borrow Solomon's Phrase , The Clouds return after the Rain : But if , notwithstanding all this , the seemingly deserted Soul , do , like the good Ground mention'd in the Gospel , bring forth Fruit with Perseverance ; if Prayer , Charity , Resignation , and those other Divine Graces , that are wont to be the proper and genuine Productions of God's Spirit , do flourish , and prosper in the Soul , we may safely conclude that Soul , though never so Disconsolate , to be in the state of Grace , and that she really receives the blest Assistances of Him , who can alone give the Increase ( to the Seeds of Piety and Virtue ) though not in the glad and conspicuous way of an unclouded Heaven , yet in the effectual , though secret , Method of fructifying Influences ; and we may reasonably hope , That He that has not only begun a good Work , but carry'd it on thorow such Impediments , and Disadvantages , will perfect it , by bringing the slow , but yet gradually , ripening Fruit to the due Perfection : For those that are the humble Christian 's proper Graces do so much depend upon the Author , that , if they Flourish , his hiding himself in Clouds need not make us doubt the Fruits we see , to be the Productions of the Son of Righteousness , though we see Him not . VVe must not hastily conclude it VVinter with the Soul , though the Heaven be Lowring , provided the Earth be Fruitfull ; but remember , that the saving Influence of God's Spirit may be , where his comfortable Presence is not perceiv'd : The Living in sensible Comforts and Joys , is rather a part of our Reward , than of our Duty ; and that ( consequently ) it may save many Modest and Pious persons a great deal of Disquiet , if they would learn to judge of their Spiritual condition , rather by the Duties , and Services , they pay God , than by the present Consolations he vouchsafes Them ; or , in a word , rather by what they do , than by what they feel . REFLECTION V. Upon his being Carv'd to at a Feast . THorow many hands hath this Plate passed , before it came to mine ; and yet , though I bow'd to every one of those that helpt to Conveigh it , I kept my chief and solemnest Acknowledgment for the fair Lady that sent it . VVhy should'st thou not , O my Soul , instruct thy Gratitude to tread in the steps of thy Civility ? VVhen thou receivest any Blessing from that Father of Lights , from whom every good and perfect Gift comes down , pay a fitting share of thy thanks to them that hand it to thee ; but thorow all those means , look principally to that God that sends it : Let not the Pipe usurp upon the Spring , ( that were as absurd , as 't were for me to Kiss my hand to the Plate , or at best , to those that helpt to conveigh it , with a neglect of the Lady ) but so pay thy due Acknowledgment to the Reachers , that thou be sure to reserve thy principal Thanks , and highest strains of Gratitude , for the Giver . REFLECTION VI. Upon the sight of a Looking-glass , with a rich Frame . Eugenius , Lindamor , Eusebius . Lind. THis Glass , has a Frame so curious , and so rich , that though I could scarce , if I would , with-hold my Eyes from Gazing here ; yet , I believe , the Operation it has on my Curiosity , is no more than what it generally has on that of others ; and by the attention with which I saw , ev'n you , Gentlemen , surveigh it , I am easily perswaded , that one needs not be a Lady , not to pass by such a Looking-glass without repairing to it . Eug. I am much of your opinion , Lindamor , and such a sight as this has often made me a greater Friend , than many severer Persons are , to Eloquence in Sermons : For as if this very Glass had been plac'd here in a mean or common Frame , it would scarce have stopp'd us in our Passage through the Room , or have invited us to consult it ; so a Sermon , may , by the nicer sort of Auditors , be left unregarded , though it be for Substance excellent : VVhen , as the Frame , though it be not part of the Glass , nor shews us any part of our Faces , does yet , by its curious Work-manship , attract our Eyes , and so invite us to consult the Glass , that is held forth in it ; so the Wit , and fine Language , wherein it is Dress'd up , though it be no Essential or Theological part of the Sermon , yet it is often that which invites Men to hear , or read it . Lind. I think indeed , Eugenius , that Wit and Eloquence do highly recommend Sermons , and devout Composures , to the Curiosity and Attention of some , that else would scarcely mind them ; and upon that account , I allow of your Comparison , but give me leave to carry it on a little further , by observing , That as the curious Frame doth as well please , as attract , the Eye , without representing to it the lively Image of the beholders Face ; so the fine Expressions you applaud , are commonly parts of a Sermon that have no specular Virtue in them , I mean , that have no Power , like a good Looking-glass , to acquaint the Beholder with the true Image or Representation of his own Complexion , and Features : Nor will this Gaudy frame shew him what is otherwise than it should be , the discovery of which , nevertheless , in order to the rectifying what is amiss , is the principal and genuine use of a Looking-glass ; and therefore , as no skilfull Man will judge of the goodness of a Glass , by the fineness of the Frame , but rather by its giving him a true Representation of his Face , without liking it the worse , for shewing him its Moles , and Warts , or other Blemishes , if it have any ; so no wise Christian will judge of a rowsing Sermon , rather by the Language , than the Divinity , or will think the worse of a good Book , for discovering his Faults , or making him think the worse of his own , or other Men's , ill courses . Euseb . Let me add , Gentlemen , that as when a Glass has a rich and gawdy Frame , Children's Eyes are oftentimes so entertain'd and amus'd with it , that they are regardless of any thing else ; and for the sake of that part , which they can but see , they are unmindfull to consult that usefuller part , whose Office it is , to discover to them , themselves : So , when there is too much of Rhetorick in a Sermon , many , that should not be Children , have their Attention , not only so attracted , but so detain'd , by that , that they are not thereby invited to consult , but diverted from regarding , the more instructive part of the Discourse . And the more VVitty and Critical sort of Auditors , are so much more accustom'd to judge of Sermons , than to judge of themselves by them , that they deal with them , as if , in this Glass , a Man should only praise or discommend the VVork-man-ship of the umboss'd Images of the Frame , without caring to make use of the Glass it self , to mend any thing he finds out of order about him : For thus , these Fastidious and Censorious hearers , make no other Use nor Repetition of Sermons , than to censure or applaud the Expressions , and Contrivance , ( which should be look'd upon but as the Ornaments of it ) without minding the Doctrine , or caring to amend what that has discover'd to be amiss in them . But it must be confess'd , though I must Grieve and Blush , it can be truly so , that it is but too often , as the Scripture somewhere complains , like People , like Priest ; and that there is a sort of Preachers , and those of the most Celebrated , who take a Course more likely to encourage , than reform , such Hearers , and which would , perhaps , make Men such , if it did not find them so : For one of this sort of Preachers ( for I am loath to call them Divines ) appears more sollicitous to make his Expressions , than to make his Hearers , good . And whereas , these that are concern'd for the winning , or the saving , of Souls , think it a less sure sign of a good Sermon , that it makes the Hearers applaud the Preacher , than that it makes them condemn themselves : The Orator I am mentioning , had much rather hear their Praises , than their Sighs ; and accordingly , is more sollicitous to tickle their Ears , than , how much need soever there be of it , to launce their Consciences : He may , with far more Truth than Piety , invert the Profession of Saint Paul , and say , that he Preaches not Christ crucify'd , but himself ; and though now and then he seem very Vehemently to declaim against Vices , yet one may easily enough perceive , that 't is but a personated Anger , and that he rather fences with Sin , than is concern'd to Destroy it , and speaks against it rather to shew Skil , than to exercise Hatred ; and as he affects to appear rather an Orator , than a Divine , so he is well enough content , his Auditors should rather admire his good Language , than follow his best Counsel : And , as if all that belongs to Ministers , and their Flocks , could be perform'd in the Pulpit , and the Pew , he is more carefull to remember his Sermons before he has deliver'd them , than to keep his Auditors from forgetting them afterwards ; and unconcern'd for their Proficiency , seeks but their Praises , scarce ever aiming at so much as his own Discharge . In a word , in such kind of Sermons , there is little spoken , either from the Heart , or to the Heart ; the Orator and the Auditory tacitely agreeing to deceive themselves ; and the Conversion of Sinners , being neither the effect , nor the aim , of such florid , but unedifying , Discourses , the business is translated on both sides , as if the Preacher thought he had done his part , when he has shewn his VVit , and the Hearers thought they had done theirs , when they have commended it . REFLECTION VII . Upon my Spaniel's fetching me my Glove . POor Cur ! How importunate is he to be imploy'd about bringing me this Glove ? and with what Clamours , and how many Fawnings , does he court me to fling it him ? I never saw him so eager for a piece of Meat , as I find him for a Glove : And yet he knows it is no Food for him , nor is it Hunger that creates his Longings for it ; for now I have cast it him , he does nothing else with it , but ( with a kind of Pride to be sent for it , and a satisfaction which his glad Gestures make appear so Great , that the very use of Speech would not enable him to express it better ) brings it me back again ; as he meant to shew me , he desir'd it not to keep it for himself , but only to have it in his power , to return it as a present to his Master . But he must not bring me thus an empty Glove ; it is in thee , my Soul , to fill this Accident with Instruction , by learning from Religion , as dis-interess'd a Behaviour towards God , as Nature taught this Brute Creature towards me . I will in my addresses , for Externals , less earnestly implore them for the service they may do me , than for the service I may do God with them ; and ( as Princes Commands are look'd upon by Courtiers as Honours , and as Favours ) contenting my self with the Satisfaction of being trusted , and imploy'd by Him , I will rejoyce at the liberaller Expressions of his Love , as they may be improv'd into proportionable Expressions of mine , and will beg no Largess of his Bounty , without a design of referring it to his Glory . REFLECTION VIII . Upon the taking up his Horses from Grass , and giving them Oats before they were to be Ridden a Journey . JUst so does God usually deal with his Servants ; when he vouchsafes them extraordinary Measures of Grace , they are to look for Employments that will exercise it , or Temptations that will try it . Thus that great Captain of our Salvation , Heb. 12. 2. whom the Scripture so much and so deservedly exhorts us to have our Eyes on , When at his solemn Inauguration into his Prophetick Office , the Heavens were open'd , from whence the Spirit of God did in a Bodily shape , descend like a Dove upon him , accompany'd with a Heavenly Voice , proclaiming him the Beloved Son of God , in whom the Father is well pleas'd , Matth. 4. Then , I say , that is ( as Saint Mark tells us ) immediately , Jesus ( being , as another Evangelist has it , full of the Holy Ghost , Luk. 4. 1. ) was led up of the Spirit into the Wilderness to be Tempted of the Devil . That wise and mercifull Disposer of all things , who will not suffer his Children to be Tempted above what they are able , seasonably fortifies them by these preparatory Provisions and Consolations , for the Labours and Difficulties they are to be expos'd to . But whereas , if these Horses had reason wherewith to fore-see the Journey in order whereunto the Provender is so plentifully given them , they would ( if not be troubl'd at their good Cheer ) at least lose much of the Pleasure of it , by thinking of the Labour to ensue ; with the Servants of God the case is much otherwise . For such is his Goodness to those he is pleas'd thus to deal with , in proposing and reserving them a Crown in some sort proportionate to , and yet inestimably out-valuing , the Toils and Difficulties requisite to obtain it ; that as advantageous , and as welcome as his Preparatory Vouchsafements can be , the pious Soul may well think them less Favours upon their own Account , than as they enable the Receiver to do the more Service to the Giver . REFLECTION IX . Upon the making of a Fire with Charcoal . THose that Lust fascinates are apt to imagine , that if they can suppress its visible Effects , and sensible Heat , that will be sufficient to free them from all the Mischiefs , they need fear from it : But Lust is so pernicious a Guest , that not only he is very watchfull to intrude again where he has once been entertain'd , but , notwithstanding his Absence , he may continue to do Mischief to those that seem to have quite expell'd him . For as Wood that is once thorowly set on Fire , may afterwards have that Fire quite choak'd , and extinguish'd , and yet by those changes be turn'd into Charcoal , whereby it is not only made Black , but dispos'd to be far more easily Kindled , and Consum'd than before ; so those , who have once had their Hearts thorowly possest by the pernicious Flames of Lust , ( which is indeed , to imploy an inspir'd Expression , to be set on Fire of Hell ) ev'n when they have stifled these criminal Flames , and feel no more of their Heat , may not only have their Reputation irrecoverably blemish'd by what is past , but commonly carry about with them an unhappy Disposition to be re-inflam'd , and to have by a few Sparks , and a little Blowing , those destructive Fires so re-kindled , as to Rage more fatally than ever . REFLECTION . X. Looking through a Prismatical or Triangular Glass . THis more than flattering Glass , adorns all the Objects I look on thorow it , with a Variety of Colours , whose Vividness does as much charm my Sense , as their Nature poses my Reason ; Without the help of the Sun , and Clouds , it affords me as many Rain-bows as I please . And not only when I look on Trees , and Meadows , and Gardens , and such other Objects that are of themselves acceptable to the Sight ; this Glass lends them Ornaments above any they are beholden for , either to Nature , or Art : But when I cast my Eyes upon courser , and homely things , and ev'n on Dunghills , this favourable Interposer presents them to me in such curious and gawdy Colours , that it does not so properly hide their Deformities , as make them appear Lovely ; so that which way soever I turn my Eyes , I find them saluted , as if I were in some Rich Jewellers Shop , with Saphires , Topazes , Emerauds , and other Orient Gems , the Vividness of whose Colours , may justifie those that think Colours to be but disguised Light , which , by these various Reflections , and Refractions , comes to be rather Dy'd than Stain'd . But this Glass must as well afford me Instruction , as Delight , and ev'n by deceiving me , teach me : For thus , sinful Christians , when God looks upon them in themselves , must needs seem too Polluted , and Disfigur'd , not to appear Loathsom to Him , Who is of purer Eyes than to behold Inquity without Abhorrency ; but when Christ interposes betwixt his Eyes and Us , we then seem far other things than otherwise we should , and not only we do not appear Filthy , but we do appear Lovely , if not Glorious . And as though , some Objects , as things purely White , and Flames , look better through this Glass , than homely and dirty ones ; yet ev'n these , look'd upon through this Glass , are more Richly adorn'd , than the others beheld without it : So , whatever Difference there may be betwixt Persons that are either Innocent , or Exemplary , upon the bare account of Morality ; and those ignorant or frail Children of God , that , in themselves consider'd , would be much inferiour to those newly mention'd ; yet when these are look'd upon thorow Christ , they are much more acceptable in God's Eyes , than the others consider'd out of him . And I shall add this further , that , whereas my looking upon Objects through the Prism , however it makes them appear to my Eyes , does work no real Change in the things themselves , but leaves those that were homely and foul before , foul and homely still ; God's gracious looking upon us in Christ , makes us by degrees become fit for his Goodness to take delight in , and has an improving and transfiguring Power on us , like the Sun , that cherishes Green and unblown Flowers , and paints them with their curiousest Colours , by his looking on them . Since then , the Scripture tells us , that we are not only reconcil'd to God , but , if I may so express it , are ingratiated and endeared to him in the Beloved ; How much do we owe to that blessed Saviour , upon whose Account we enjoy the invaluable Priviledge to appear ( and grow fit to do so ) pleasing in God's Eyes ? which besides , that it is the highest Honour , leads to the highest Happiness ; or rather , is the one as well as the other . OCCASIONAL REFLECTIONS . The IV. SECTION . Which treats of Angling Improv'd To Spiritual Uses . DISCOURSE I. Upon the being call'd upon to rise early on a very fair Morning . THe Sun had as yet but approach'd the East , and my Body as yet lay moveless in the Bed , whilst my roving Thoughts were in various Dreams , rambling to distant places , when , me-thought , I heard my name several times pronounc'd by a not unknown Voice ; This noise made me , as I was soon after told , half open my Eyes , to see who it was that made it , but so faintly , that I had quickly let my Self fall asleep gaain , if the same Party had not the second time call'd me louder than before , and added to his Voice the pulling me by the Arm. But though this wak'd me so far , as to make me take notice that I was call'd upon to rise , yet my Drowsiness , and my Unwillingness to forgo a not unpleasant Dream , keeping me from discerning distinctly , who it was that call'd me , made me briskly enough bid him , what ever his business were , let me alone ; But though at the same time I turn'd away my Head to shun the Light , though dim , which at the half open'd Curtain shone in upon me , yet the Party instead of complying with my desires , did by throwing open the Curtains , further let in so much more Light upon my Face , that finding it would not serve my turn to keep my Eyes shut , I open'd them to see who it was that gave me this unwelcome Disturbance . This I had no sooner done , than I perceiv'd that 't was Eusebius , who with Lindamor , and two or three other Friends , was come to call me to go a Fishing , to a place , where by appointment we were to meet about Sun-rising . The respect I paid Eusebius , and the value I plac'd upon his Conversation , covered me with Blushes to be thus surpris'd by him , and oblig'd me to satisfie him as well as I could , how much I was troubl'd and asham'd to have the favour of his Company brought me to my Bed-side , which I ought , and intended to have waited on him . And thus , whilst I was making him my Apologies , and he was pleasantly reproaching me for my Laziness , and Laughing at the disorder I had not yet got quite out of , I made a shift hastily to get on my Cloaths , and put my self into a condition of attending him and the Company to the River-side . Whilst we were walking thither-ward , and Lindamor was minding Eusebius of the promise he had made the Day before , to exercise , upon most of the things that should occur to us , his Art of making Occasional Reflections , I was delighting my self with the deliciousness of that promising Morning , and indeed the freshness of the Air , the verdure of the Fields and Trees , and the various and curious Enammel of the Meadows , the Musick of the numerous Birds , that with as melodious as chearfull Voices welcom'd so fair a morning . The curious and orient Colours wherewith the rising Sun embellish'd the Eastern part of the Sky , and above all that source of Light , who , though he shews us all that we see of glorious and fair , shews us nothing so fair and glorious as himself , did so charm and transport me , that I could not hold expressing my satisfaction in tearms that , Eugenius was after pleased to say , needed not Rhymes to make them Poetical . And the sense of this invited me to add , that I now would not for any thing have miss'd being wak'd , and thought my self hugely oblig'd to Eusebius's freedome , that would not suffer me to sleep out so glorious a Morning , nor lose the satisfaction of such desirable Company . Eusebius , who was but a little way off in discourse with Lindamor , over-hearing a good part of what I had said , thought fit to take thence a Rise , to begin complying with his Friends requests , and accordingly , walking up towards me , and addressing himself to me , he told me , you are unconcern'd enough , Philaretus , in what I am about to say , to make it allowable for me to tell Lindamor , that what has this Morning happen'd to you , puts me in mind of what I have several times observ'd on another occasion . For when a Man is so lull'd asleep by sensual pleasures , that like one that sleeps , he has but the faculty , not the exercise of Reason , and takes his Dreams for realities , if some serious Divine , or other devout Friend , concern'd for the Sinner's soul , or his glory that Dy'd to redeem it , endeavour to awaken him , and rowse him out of that State wherein he lies so much at ease ; such attempts are wont at first to be look'd upon by the lazy Sinner , enamour'd of his ease , and present condition , but as pieces of unseasonable , if not uncivil officiousness , and entertaining the Light it self but as an unwelcome Guest , he obstinately shuts his Eyes against that which alone makes them usefull , and instead of looking upon the Attempter as his Friend , he checks him , and expostulates with him , and uses him almost as an Enemy ; Insomuch , that too often those that love the welfare of Souls too little , or their own ease too much , forgo , with their hopes , their endeavours to reclaim him . But if by God's blessing , upon the constancy of this kindness , and the letting in of so much Light upon the Sinner , that he finds himself unable to continue his Slumber any longer with it , he comes to be thorowly awak'd , he quickly grows sensible that he is brought out of the Kingdome of Darkness into a true and marvellous Light , and instead of those empty fleeting Dreams , which did before amuse and delude him , and which to rellish , and be fond of , the Eyes of his Mind must be as well clos'd as those of his Body , he is admitted to noble and manly entertainments , such as Reason chuses , Conscience applauds , and God himself approves . And this change of his condition he finds so advantageous , that he would not for all the World return again to that , he was at first so angry to be disswaded from , and he does not forgive , but thank the Person that disquieted him , and blushes at the Remembrance of his having reduc'd others to importune him to be happy : And betwixt shame and gratitude , the sense of his present , and of his past condition possessing him , how much he has reason to make his Rescuer as well amends for what he indur'd , as retributing for what he acted for him , he does perchance , especially in the first fervours of his Zeal , think himself as much oblig'd to his Awakener , as Philemon was to Saint Paul , to whom the Scripture says , that he ow'd even himself . And sometimes such a new Convert , as I am speaking of , will think his Obligation to the Instrument of his change so suitable to the transcendent satisfaction he finds in the change it self , that he would despair of seeing his Benefactor sufficiently recompens'd , if he did not remember a saying of the Prophet , ( That those that turn others to Righteousness , shall shine as the Stars for ever and ever , ) that gives him ground to hope that God himself ( whose plenty as well as bounty is inexhausted ) will make the Recompence his work . Wherefore , concludes Eusebius , if you chance to have any Friends , ( as 't is odds most Men have ) that stand in need of this as great as unwelcome expression of kindness , let us not be too soon discourag'd , by finding the effects of our friendship coldly received , and possibly too look'd upon as disturbances ; for besides , that the less they are desir'd , and the worse they are entertain'd , the more they needed : a Christian is not bound so much to concern himself in the success of his endeavours , as to leave it in the power of every one that will be obstinate , to make him unhappy , when the business one way or other come to an end , he may miss his aim , without losing his labour , since he serves a Master that is as ready to reward , as able to discern Intentions ; and in case your indeavours do succeed , you will at once make a Man your Friend , and worthy to be so . And you shall scarce ever find Men more affectionate to you , than those you have made your Friends , by making them Enemies to Vice. DISCOURSE II. Upon the Mounting , Singing , and Lighting of Larks . THe agreement we had made at our setting forth , that the motion of our Tongues should not hinder that of our Feet towards the River-side , was the cause , that the past Discourses not having discontinued our Walk , by that time they were ended , we began to Traverse certain plow'd Lands , that lay in the way betwixt us and the River . But we had scarce entred those Fields , when our Ears were saluted with the melodious Musick of a good number of Larks , whereof some mounted by degrees out of Sight , and others hovering and singing a while over our Heads , soon after lighted on the ground , not far from our Feet . After we had a while enjoy'd this costless , and yet excellent Musick , both Eusebius and I , chancing to cast our Eyes towards Eugenius , observ'd that his did very attentively wait upon the motions of a Lark , that , singing all the way upwards , and mounting by degrees out of sight , not long after descended and lighted among some clods of Earth , which being of the colour of her Body , made us quickly loose sight of her . Whereupon Eusebius , who was full as willing to hear as speak , and in the Occasional Reflections that he made , was wont at least as much to aim at the exciting others thoughts , as the venting of his own , begg'd Eugenius to tell us what it might be , which his attentiveness to the motions of the Lark made us presume he was thinking on . Eugenius after a little backwardness , which he thought Modesty exacted of him , soon answer'd us in these tearms . Among all Birds that we know , there is not any that seems of so elevated , and I had almost said Heavenly a Nature as the Lark , scarce any give so early and so sweet a welcome to the Springing day . And that which I was just now gazing on , seem'd so pleas'd with the unclouded Light , that she sung as if she came from the place she seem'd to go to , and during this charming Song , mounted so high , as if she meant not to stop , till she had reach'd that Sun , whose Beams so cherish'd and transported her ; and in this aspiring flight she rais'd her self so high , that though I will not say , she left the Earth beneath her very Sight , yet I may say , that she foar'd quite out of Ours . And yet when from this towring height she stoop'd to repose or solace her self upon the Ground , or else when to seise upon some worthless Worm , or other wretched Prey , she lighted on the Ground , she seem'd so like the Earth that was about her , that I believe you could scarce discern her from its Clods . And whereas other Birds that fly not half so high , nor seem any thing near so fond of the Sun , do yet build their Nests upon Trees , the Lark does as well build hers upon the Ground , as look like a part of it . Thus I have known , in these last and worst times , many a Hypocrite , that when he was conversant about sublimer Objects , appear'd , as well as he call'd himself , a Saint ; nothing seem'd so welcome to him as new Light ; one might think his Lips had been touch'd with a coal from the Altar , his Mouth did so sweetly shew forth Gods praise , and sacred dispensations . In sum , take this Hypocrite in his fit of Devotion , and to hear him talk , you would think , that if he had not been already in Heaven , at least he would never leave mounting , till he should get thither . But when the Opportunities of advantaging his lower Interests call'd him down to deal about Secular affairs here below , none appear'd more of a piece with the Earth than he , for he look'd as if he had been besmear'd all over with the Earth round about him , and he seem'd , in providing for his Family , to be of a meaner and a lower Spirit , than those very Men whom in discourse he was wont to undervalue , as being far more Earthy than himself . Since we know , says Eusebius , that the best things corrupted prove the worst , it can be no disparagement to Piety , to acknowledge that Hypocrisie is a Vice which you cannot too much condemn . And when the pretending of Religion grows to be a thing in request , many betake themselves to a form of Religion , who deny the Power of it ; And some perchance , have been preferr'd less for their Jacobs voice , than for their Esaus hands . But , Eugenius , let us not to shun one extream , fondly run into the other , and be afraid or asham'd to profess Religion , because some Hypocrites did but profess it ; His course is ignoble , and praeposterous , that treads the paths of Piety , rather because they lead to Preferment than to Heaven ; But yet 't is more excusable to live free from scandal for an inferiour end , than not to live so at all : And Hypocrites can as little justifie the profane , as themselves . It may be , that all that own Religion are not Pious ; but 't is certain , that he that scorns to own it must less be so . And if scoffers at Piety should succeed the Pretenders to it , they cannot be said ( as sometimes they would be thought ) to be an innocent sort of Hypocrites , that are better than they seem ; for Scandal is a thing so criminal , and contagious , that whosoever desires , and endeavours to appear evil , is so : To refuse to be Religious , because some have but professed themselves to be so , is to injure God , because he has been injur'd . A skilfull Jeweller will not forbear giving great rates for Neck-laces of true Pearl , though there be many Counterfeits for one that is not so ; Nor are the right Pearls a whit the less Cordial to those that take them , because the artificial Pearl made at Venice , consisting of Mercury and Glass , for all their fair shew , are rather Noxious , than Medicinal . And indeed our knowledge , that there are Hypocrites , ought rather to commend Piety to us , than discredit it with us ; since as none would take the pains to counterfeit Pearls , if true ones were not of Value ; So Men would not put themselves to the constraint of personating Piety , if that it self were not a noble Quality . Let us then , Eugenius , fly as far as you please from what we detest in Hypocrites : But then let us consider , what it is that we detest ; which being a bare , and therefore false pretence to Religion , let us only shun such a pretence , which will be best done by becomming real Possessors of the thing pretended to . DISCOURSE III. Upon the Sight of a fair Milk-maid singing to her Cow. EUgenius , who was not at all indispos'd to listen to Exhortations of this Nature , not only imbrac'd this made him by his Friend , but with earnestness enough continu'd the Conference to explain his meaning , and satisfie Eusebius , that he did not think Piety fit to be discountenanc'd , though he thought Hypocrisie was so , and that he was no Enemy to the Profession of Religion , but to those that blemish'd it by unsuitable Practices . And with such kind of Discourses we continu'd our Walk , till being come to a Style , over which we were to pass out of one Meadow into another , I chanc'd to stop , and turn about to pay Lindamor the Respect of desiring him to lead me the way over : But not finding him there , I hastily cast my Eyes all over the Field , till at length they discover'd him a good way off , in a Posture that seem'd extremely serious , and wherein he stood as immoveable as a Statue . This sight soon carry'd me towards him , and I had dispatch'd half my way before his changing his Posture gave him an opportunity to discover me , which as soon as he did , he immediately came to meet me , and almost before I had ask'd him the occasion of what I had seen ; Whilst ( reply'd he ) Eugenius was purging himself from a fault that none that knows him will suspect him to be guilty of , I was detain'd a little behind you by the Musick of one of those Larks , whose melody was so charming , that I could not find in my heart to make haste from it : But whilst I was listening to it , my Attention was diverted by a nobler Object , for I heard , from the further corner of this Meadow , a Voice , which , though not govern'd with Skil , did so repair the want of it by its native sweetness , that Art was absent without being miss'd , and I could not but have some Curiosity to see who was the Possessor of so much power to please ; turning then my steps towards that part of the Field whence the Voice came , my Eyes quickly ceas'd to envy my Ears , for they discover'd , kneeling by a Cow , and singing to her whilst she milk'd her , a Person , who , in the habit of a Milk-maid , seem'd to disguise one of those Nymphs that Poets are wont to describe us . And that you may not wonder , continues Lindamor , at what I shall say to you of a country Girle , Know , that methought I saw in her Face something more like Hermione , before she prov'd inconstant , than I expected to find in any of her Sex : I will not tell you , that this fair Creature had the Blushes of the Morning in her Cheeks , the Splendour of the Sun in her Eyes , the freshness of the Fields in her Looks , the whiteness of the Milk she express'd in her Skin , and the melody of the Larks , we were admiring , in her Voice , least you should think Mr. Boyls Seraphick Love had lost its Operation on me . But I may perhaps without much Hyperbole , give you this Account of her , that though her Cloaths are almost as course as cleanly , and though they are suited to her Condition , yet they are very ill suited to her Beauty , which , as if Nature intended a Triumph over Fortune , has , without any assistance of Ornament , more distress'd my Liberty , than others have been able to do with all their most curious Dresses . And this fair Creature , continues Lindamor , as she is rich in Natures bounty , appear'd as well by the chearfulness of the Tune she sung , as by the manner of her Singing it , so satisfy'd with the unpurchas'd Treasures she possesses , that she seem'd almost as much pleas'd as I was to look upon her . This Character of Lindamors inviting me to go see , whether or no it were deserv'd , and the frequent Experience I have had , that ev'n upon such bright Eyes as Poets , and Lovers , call'd Suns , I could gaze undazel'd enough to approve my self a right Eagle , assuring me I might safely do it , I fearlesly , but softly , approach'd the place where the fair Milk-maid was solliciting the Udder of a fresh Cow , and I found , that though indeed some Resemblance she had to Hermione , had made Lindamor flatter her , yet she look'd at once so innocently , and prettily , that she seem'd like to do Mischief , without at all intending it ; and I could not but fancy , that if some Ladies that are much cry'd up , and are very imperious Mistresses , because they are so , were bound to change Dresses with this unsophisticated and unadorn'd Maid , the one would appear to owe her Beauty to Art , and the other to be beholden for hers to nothing but Nature . But , Lindamor , who is not naturally indispos'd to be Amorous , did not think that this Imagination of mine did that pretty Creature right : for when I told him she would eclipse a hundred of our fine Ladies , if she had but the Dress of one of them ; Why , that ( replies he , with a kind of Indignation ) she can do without it , and perhaps , subjoyns he , as much as with it : For her present habit leaves her most her self , and Bravery would but disguise , or hide what it cannot adorn . And I am confident , ( continues he ) that should such a genuine Beauty appear among the Gallants , she would really captivate many , ev'n of those wary ones that do but pretend to be so , to the designing and applauded Ladies : For though Skil may encounter the Wiles of Art , it would scarce be able to resist the Charms of Nature . But whilst Lindamor was thus Complementing with what he fancy'd the Picture of his once lov'd Hermione , and had his Eyes as much fix'd upon her , as dazl'd ones could be , the lovely Milk-maid , ( who , all this while having not taken notice of us , was as regardless of Lindamor , as he seem'd to be of all things but her ) having dispatch'd what she was doing , took up her Pail to carry it homewards : But her way chancing to lye by that part of the Meadow where we were yet standing , she could not but discover us , and judging by our Cloaths , and more by Lindamors Meer , that we were of a Quality differing from theirs she was wont to converse with , she gave us a Salute low enough to let us see that she forgot not her Condition , but attended with so much Gracefulness , as made Lindamor conclude she merited a better , and , as she pass'd by him , to return the gesture of Respect , which he thought so much Beauty had a right in any habit to exact ; she vouchsaf'd him a Smile , which , I after told him , would have made him happy , if he had thought it had proceeded from Kindness , not Civility ; and she went away with a Look so serene , as well as taking , that she seem'd to carry home with her far more quiet , than she left him possess'd of . But I that had lost sight of her , without losing any thing with it , save the expectation of seeing in haste so fair a Milk-maid , was going to Railler with Lindamor , about what had pass'd , when I was restrain'd , by perceiving that the sight of a Person that seem'd so contented , together with the native pleasantness of that place , and of that glorious Morning , had such an operation upon him , that he could not forbear to celebrate the happiness and innocency of a Country life . And after he had with much Transport , and Fluency , repeated the substance of what Ovid and other antient Poets had in their strain deliver'd concerning the felicity of the Golden Age , he began to apply as much of it as the Matter would bear , to the recommending of a Rural life , and was very sollicitous to make me acknowledge , that though we are wont to look upon Villagers as an inferiour and wretched sort of People , yet they are the persons of the World , whose condition is the most proper , not only to keep them innocent , but to make them happy : Their cheap and simple way of Living , allowing them to rest contented , with what bounteous Nature has provided for them , or an easie Industry can procure them . Whereas among Men nobly Born , or Persons of Quality , 't is look'd upon as want of Breeding , for a Man not to think himself unhappy , as long as he hath not a thousand Pound a Year . Lindamor , though he here made a Pause to take breath , would yet perhaps have prosecuted his Discourse , had he not been prevented by the intervening of Eusebius , who a while after we had left him , having miss'd us , had follow'd us to the palace he found us in , and who , when he drew nigh , having over-heard Lindamor speaking , stood still a while at some distance off , to listen to what he said , and so became an unsuspected Auditor of the last part of his Friends Discourse . Whereupon taking him by the hand , and leading him towards the River , he told him , with a serious , not to call it a severe Look ; I had thought , Lindamor , you had made righter Estimates of the several courses of Life , than , by what I have newly over-heard you say , I now suspect you do . Know then , Lindamor , ( adds he ) That Innocence and Contentment depend more upon a Man's mind , than upon his condition : To manifest this to you , I shall in the first place observe , that 't is not always the Occasion , or the Object , but rather the Degree that makes an Affection of the Mind unruly and troublesome ; Nor is it according to the intrinsick value of things , which none save the Wise can discern ; but the Rate , how unskilfully soever fixt , which we put upon them , that they operate upon our passions . And therefore , you shall see a Child take on more sadly for the scape of a Sparrow , or the breaking of a Rattle , than some will do for the loss of a good Estate , nay , of a Friend ; and Haman , for the want of a Bow from Mordecai , complain'd more in his Place , than Job , till his miserable comforters had exasperated his grief , did for the loss of the biggest Fortune in the East , and of the Children he reserv'd it for , and valu'd far above it . And then , Lindamor , ( continues Eusebius ) do not imagine , that though Courtiers and Gallants have more spendid and glittering Temptations to Sin and Discontent , Country people are exempted from Temptation to either : Theirs may be as great , though not the same , nor so specious as the other ; their Faults and Infelicities are indeed less taken notice of , because their Persons and Conditions are obscure , and their Poverty conceals their Vices , as well as their Virtues , from our Eyes ; as in a sharp Winter the Snow does as well hide their Dunghills , as cover their Gardens . But if your Quality allow'd you to acquaint your self with the true state of this inferiour sort of People , you would soon perceive , that ev'n of rural Families , there is scarce any , that , as far as their Wits will reach , has not its several Parties , and little Intrigues ; Nor is there any Cottage so low , and narrow , as not to harbour Care , and Malice , and Covetousness , and Envy , if those that dwell in it have a mind to entertain them : And what Envy alone may do to produce Crimes and Discontents , we may conjecture by what happen'd betwixt Cain and Abel , since their being heirs to the whole World , could not keep two Brothers at peace , whilst one of them was envious : And there are some sordid Vices , which are more incident to the meaner and more necessitous sort of Men , as Spiders and Cobwebs are wont to abound more in thatch'd Cabbins , than in great Mens houses . I should perhaps ( says Eusebius ) think these people happy , if I found they thought themselves so ; but the Pomp and Vanities of the World have oftentimes stronger allurements for them , than for the Grandees and Courtiers themselves : For those that are possess'd of these imaginary Joys , are disabus'd by their own Experience ; and those that live among these Theatrical persons , are near enough to discern that they are but causelesly envy'd . As ( for my part ) when I had occasion to be conversant in great Mens Families , and the honour to preach in Princes Courts , the sight of their course of Life did as thorowly convince me of the Vanity of the World , as my Sermons endeavour'd to convince them . Whereas Country people see but the glittering and deluding outside of Greatness , and beholding it but at a distance , see it in the favourablest light which Men can behold it in , and consequently are strongly tempted to envy what they admire , and repine at their own condition , for the want of it : Nay , every gawdy trifle , that those that live in Towns and Cities chance to make shew of , is wont to make a Country man envy , as well as gape ; And 't is odds , but that very Milk-maid , whose condition you are pleas'd to think so happy , envies some Neighbouring Farmers Daughter for a piece of taudry Ribbon , or a black Hood : Nor are they so much more priviledg'd from the assaults of Temptation , than Men of higher rank ; For 't is not so much a Mans outward condition , as his inward disposition and temper of mind , that makes Temptations either to sin , or to discontent , prevalent , or unsuccessfull . When Joseph was sold into Egypt , and sollicited by a Woman that would needs be his Mistress upon more scores than one , though his condition expos'd him more to hopes and fears , than almost any other condition could expose another Man , And though his Youth made him very capable of rellishing the pleasures that his Beauty made him courted to receive , by giving them ; yet this chast Youth chose rather to be Imprison'd any where , than in a fair Ladies Arms , and preferr'd the being made a Captive , before the Captivating of his amorous Mistress . But whilst young Joseph was thus chast in the Aegyptian Potiphar's House , his eldest Brother Reuben was Incestuous in good Jacob's whose Family was then the visible Church of God ; and Lot , who was chast and temperate in Sodom it self , was Drunk and committed Incest in a Cave ; so much more does the success of Temptations depend upon the temper of a Man's mind , than upon the place he lives in . I know not ( says Eugenius ) whether the Innocence of Rural people be more easie than that of great Men , but sure it is not so commendable : For as a Woman that has never yielded , because she was never sollicited , may be call'd rather Innocent than Virtuous ; so their condition , that owe their not being Inveigl'd by the Vanities of the World , to their Ignorance of them , has more in it of good fortune than of merit . I thank you for that consideration , ( subjoyns Eusebius ) for I confess I think there is a great Disparity betwixt an unacquaintedness with the bewitching pleasures of the World , and a contempt of them . And he is the truly heroick Spirit , that can ( as David could ) plentifully enjoy all those sensual Delights and Vanities he chose to reject : For he could feast a Nation , and prefer Temperance before all that Abundance ; He could gain strange Victories at once over his outward Enemies , and over the Temptations he was expos'd to by such successes ; He could Build stately Palaces , and then profess himself to be but a Stranger , and a Sojourner upon Earth ; He could afford Humility room to sit with him on his Throne , and could listen to her Memento's amidst all the Acclamations of his People , and the Panegyricks of his Courtiers ; He was not to be resisted by Beauties , that to others were irresistible , when he postpon'd the fairest Objects that could here charm his Eyes , to such as were visible only to those of Faith ; He had got together the greatest Treasure , that for ought I remember we read of in any History , and yet seems never to have been much pleas'd with it , but when he dedicated it to the Building of the Temple , and made the fruits of his Valour the oblations of his Piety . To be short , he was the greatest Person upon Earth , when he was content to leave it ; and was willing to descend from the Throne into the Grave , whilst he look'd upon that as the place whence he must ascend to the Mansion of his God ; so much did he , ev'n whilst he wore an earthly Crown , aspire to an Heavely one . And though ( continues Eusebius ) we must now a days as little expect to meet with a Man of David's condition , as of his temper , yet proportionably we may put a vast Difference betwixt those that but escape the sight of the World's allurements , and those that reject the Profers of them . Eusebius was in this part of his Discourse , when we were come near enough to the River , to discover it within a little way of us : And therefore finding by his silence , that he thought it seasonable to desist , I only ventur'd to tell him , with a low Voice , as we continu'd our Walk , that I suspected , that in some of the things he had been saying , he had a design rather to check Lindamor a little , and keep up the Discourse , than to deny , that a retir'd and rural Life has great advantages towards Contentation : To which , that he might conclude what he had to say , before we reach'd the River , he made haste to reply in the same Tone , That I was not altogether mistaken : For ( says he ) I think the case may be pretty well represented , by saying , that as there are some Airs very much wholesomer than others , and fitter to preseve Men from Diseases ; so a very private and quiet condition of Life , does much more easily than a more expos'd and turbulent one , protect most sorts of Men from Vices and Disquiets . But then on the other side , as there are some Men of such sound and strong Constitutions , that they will enjoy their Health in the worst Airs , when Men of tender and vitiated Complexions will be Sickly in the best ; so there are some generous and steady Souls , that will pass thorow the most troublesome and most expos'd courses of Life , with more of both Innocence and Contentment , than others can enjoy in a condition far remoter from Disturbances and Temptations . And , annexes Eusebius , ( purposely raising his Voice ) as for these Villages that Lindamor thought so happy , I must dissent from him as long as I see they can admire , and almost worship , a Man for wearing a Gaudy suit of Cloaths , or having two or three Foot-men behind his Coach , before they know whether he be not a Knave , or a Fool , or both : For I shall scarce think , that he , who is himself posses'd with Envy , deserves mine . DISCOURSE IV. Upon Fishing with a counterfeit Fly. BEing at length come to the River-side , we quickly began to fall to the sport , for which we came thither , and Eugenius finding the Fish forward enough to bite , thought fit to spare his Flies , till he might have more need of them , and therfore ty'd to his Line a Hook , furnish'd with one of those counterfeit Flies , which in some Neibouring Countries are much us'd , and which being made of the Feathers of Wild-fowl , are not subject to be drench'd by the water , whereon those Birds are wont to swim . This Fly being for a pretty while scarce any oftner thrown in , than the Hook it hid was drawn up again with a Fish fastened to it , Eugenius looking on us with a smiling Countenance , seem'd to be very proud of his success ; which Eusebius taking notice of , Whilst , ( says he ) we smile to see , how easily you beguile these silly Fishes , that you catch so fast with this false Bait , possibly we are not much less unwary our selves ; And the Worlds treacherous pleasures do little less delude both me and you : For , Eugenius , ( continues he ) as the Apostles were Fishers of men in a good sense , so their and our grand adversary is a skilfull Fisher of men in a bad sense ; And too often in his attempts , to cheat fond Mortalls , meets with a success as great and easie , as you now find yours . And certainly , that Tempter , as the Scripture calls him , does sadly delude us , even when we rise at his best Baits , and , as it were , his true Flies : For , alas ! the best things he can give , are very worthless , most of them in their own nature , and all of them in comparison of what they must cost us to enjoy them . But however , Riches , Power , and the delights of the Senses are real goods in their Kind , though they be not of the best Kind : Yet alas , many of us are so fitted for deceits , that we do not put this subtle Angler , to make use of his true Baits to catch us ! we suffer him to abuse us much more grossly , and to cheat us with empty titles of Honour , or the ensnaring Smiles of great ones , or disquieting Drugeries disguis'd with the specious names of great imployments . And though these , when they must be obtain'd by sin , or are propos'd as the recompences for it , be , as I was going to say , but the Devils counterfeit Flies ; Yet , as if we were fond of being deceiv'd , we greedily swallow the Hook , for Flies , that do but look like such ; so Dim-sighted are we , as well to what Vice shews , as to what it hides . Let us not then ( concludes Eusebius ) rise at Baits , whereby we may be sure to be either grossly , or at least exceedingly deceiv'd ; For who ever ventures to commit a Sin , to taste the luscious sweets , that the fruition of it seems to promise , certainly is so far deceiv'd , as to swallow a true Hook for a Bait , which either proves but a counterfeit Fly , or hides that under its alluring shew , which makes it not need to be a counterfeit one to deceive him . DISCOURSE V. Upon a Fishes strugling after having swallow'd the Hook. FOrtune soon offer'd Eusebius a fair Opportunity to confirm this last part of his Reflection , for he had scarce made an end of it , when a large Fish , espying the Fly that kept my Hook swimming , rise swiftly at it , and having greedily chop'd it up , was hastily swimming away with it , when I struck him , and thereby stopt for a while his Progress ; but finding himself both Arrested and Wounded , he struggl'd with so much violence , that at length he broke my slender Line , ( that was fitted but for weaker Fishes ) and carry'd away a part of it , together with the annexed Hook , and Bait. If Philosophers ( says hereupon Eusebius ) be not too liberal in allowing Brutes to think , we may well suppose that this Fish expected a great deal of Pleasure from the Bait he fell upon so greedily , and that when once he had got it into his Mouth , he might well look upon it as his own , and those other Fishes that saw him swallow it , and swim away with it , did probably envy his good Fortune ; but yet indeed he does not enjoy his wish , though he seem to have the thing wish'd for within his power , for by the same action in which he suck'd in the Fly , he likewise took in the Hook , which does so wound and tear his tender Gills , and thereby put him into such restless pain , that no doubt he wishes that the Hook , Bait , and all , were out of his torn Jaws again , the one putting him to too much torture to let him at all rellish the other . Thus men , which do what they should not , to obtain any Object of their sensual Desires , whatever Pleasure they may before hand fancy to themselves in their success , are oftentimes , ev'n when they obtain then ends , disappointed of their expectations ; sometimes Conscience , Reason , or Honour , making them , ev'n when their desires are not of the worst sort , do as David did , when he had , more vehemently than became a pious General , long'd for Water out of the Well at Bethlehem , and by the strange Venterousness of his bold and affectionate Officers obtain'd it , could not find in his heart to Drink it , but pour'd it untasted on the Ground . But when the things we so long for must be criminally obtain'd , then it not only often fares with them , as it did with Amnon , who immediately upon the incestuous fruition of his ravish'd Sister , hated her more than before he had lov'd her ; but it sometimes happens to those that sin more heinously in this matter , as it did to Judas , who , after having betray'd a Master , that was incomparably more worth than all the World , and thereby for ever lost himself for a few pieces of Silver , seem'd to have it in his power , without having it in his will , to enjoy them , and in a desperate , but unseasonable , fit of anguish and remorse , did of his own accord disburthen himself of that Money , which he had sold his Conscience to get ; so that though he had what he sought , he had not what he expected : And when what he coveted was in his possession , he had the guilt of acquiring it , without the power of enjoying it . And ev'n in cases far less heinous , ( concludes Eusebius ) when Men seem to have got what they aim'd at , and to have carry'd it away as their Booty , in spight of all opposition , the Wound thereby inflicted on injur'd Conscience , puts them to so much of deserved pain , that the wishes they are thus criminally possest of , they do not enjoy , but detest . DISCOURSE VI. Upon the sight of ones Shadow cast upon the face of a River . THe fight of some Fishes playing to and fro upon the top of the VVater , diverted us from prosecuting our Conference , and drew us to apply our selves attentively to the catching of them , in which accordingly we spent some part of the Morning ; yet whilst we continu'd Angling , not far from one another , we often cast our Eyes ( as is usual in such cases ) upon each others fishing Corks , to learn as well the successes of our Friends , as in what places the Fish were forwardest to bite : As I chanc'd to look towards that Cork at which Eusebius's Hook was hanging , I perceiv'd that it was divers times drawn under VVater , without his endeavouring thereupon to strike that Fish that made thus bold with his Bait ; wherefore laying down my Angle a while , I went softly towards Eusebius , to see what it was that made him so regardless of his Sport , whilst yet , by the posture be continu'd in , he seem'd to be intent upon it : But approaching near enough , I quickly perceiv'd , That instead of minding his Hook , his Eyes were fixt sometimes upon his own Picture , reflected from the smooth Surface of the gliding stream , and sometimes upon the Shadow projected by his Body , a little beside the Picture upon the same River . The unwilling noise I made in coming so near , having oblig'd Eusebius to take notice of me , I thought fit , since I found I was discover'd , to ask him smilingly , whether he were Narcissus-like , making Love to his own Shadow . Eusebius ghessing by these words , that I had conjectur'd what he was doing , answer'd me with a look somewhat more serious than that I had spoken to him with ; I was indeed , Philaretus , attentively enough considering , sometimes my Picture , which the VVater presents me with , and sometimes the Shadow , which the Sun and I together cast upon the Water ; But ( says he , with a half Smile ) I look'd upon both these , not with the Eyes of a Narcissuss , ( for that would make me much Madder than he was ) but with those of a Christian : For I was considering , that one of the Differences betwixt the Law , and the Gospel , might not be ill represented by the Difference betwixt a common Looking-glass , and that afforded me by this Crystal stream : For though both being specular Bodies , I can see my Face in either ; yet if my Face be spotted with Dirt , or grown Pale by reason of the Faintness usual in such hot VVeather , a common Looking-glass will indeed discover those things to me , but will not otherwise assist me to remedy them ; whereas , when I consult this Stream , if it shew me any spots in my Face , it supplies me with water to wash them off , and by its cooling , and refreshing VVaters , can relieve me from that Faintness that reduces me to look Pale . Thus the Law , which is commonly , and which seems ev'n by an Apostle to be compared to a Looking-glass , shews us indeed the pollutions of our Souls , and discovers to us the effects of our spiritual I anguidness , and Faintness ; but the Gospel does not only do so , but tells the Embracers of it , by Saint John's mouth , If any Man sin , we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ , the Righteous , who is the Propitiation for our sins , and whose Blood cleanses us from all sin . And the Author of the same Gospel invites all those , that find themselves tired and thirsty , to come unto him , and to be refreshed . By this time , Lindamor , who was Angling not very far off , perceiving us stand together , as if we were engaged in some Discourse , laid by his Rod a while , and came to listen to what he expected he might learn from Eusebius ; who pausing here , I put him in mind , that he had also mentioned to me the sight of his Shadow upon the face of the River , as another object of his Contemplations , and that therefore my curiosity ( wherein I knew Lindamor , as soon as I should acquaint him with the occasion , would share ) made me very desirous to know what thoughts had been suggested to him , by a Subject that seem'd so slight and barren . Since you will needs know , ( replies Eusebius ) I will confess to you , that my Thoughts were Theologically enough employ'd , and therefore , least you should think , I affect to Preach out of the Pulpit , I will but succinctly mention some of these Various things , that this Shadow , as despicable as you think it , suggested to me : But since I was only entertaining and exciting my self , not discoursing with Naturalists , or disputing with Atheists , I presume you will not wonder , that I take the Doctrine of the Creation for granted , as it is acknowledged by Christians in general , and particularly by You. I was then considering , that this Shadow , related to me , might in some particulars be no unfit one of the Universe in reference to God : And indeed , perhaps the VVorld may without much extravagance be tearmed the Shadow of him , of whose Attributes , or Perfections , it exhibites to an attentive considerer divers excellent Impresses , and the resemblance may thus far be advanc'd , that as though it represents the Shape and Out-lines of my Body , which projects it , yet it represents but them , and consequently this Shadow in reference to it is but a superficial and worthless thing ; so the VVorld , though it be not destitute of several Impresses , and as it were Lineaments or Features of the Divine Wisdome and Power , yet for all this , its representations of the Divine Author of it , are but very Imperfect , Superficial , and Dark , and the Excellency of the Adorable Author of things , keeps him infinitely above all the works that he has made . But to mention some of the Comparisons I took notice of : In the first place we may consider , that I make this Shadow here without taking the least pains to do so , and with as little toyl God made the VVorld : He spake , and it was done ; He commanded , and it stood fast , ( says the Psalmist , speaking of the Creation ) and elsewhere the Scripture says , That the everlasting God , the Lord , the Creator of the ends of the Earth fainteth not , neither is weary , and therefore that Rest ascrib'd him on the seventh Day , is to be understood but a Cessation from Creating , not a Repose from Labour , for all disproportions to the power of created Agents , are so equally inconsiderable , in reference to one that is Infinite , that Omnipotence may make even the World without Toyl . Secondly , To make this Shadow , I neither use nor need Colours , nor Pencil ; I digg no Quarries , nor fell no Trees to perfect this work , and employ no Materials about it ; As little had God any Pre-existent matter to contrive into this vast Fabrick : Our Creed proclaims him the Creator of Heaven and Earth ; the Angel , that holds the Book , in the Revelations , describes him resemblingly ; and the Apostle tells us , That through Faith we understand that the Worlds were framed by the word of God ; so that things which are seen , were not made of things that do appear : And indeed it became an Omnipotent Architect , not to be beholden but to himself for his Materials . He that calleth things that are not , as though they were , makes them by calling them ; He brought forth Light out of Darkness , by calling for Light , and there was Light ; he spake it , and it was done , says the Psalmist ; and the VVorld was , if I may so express it , but the real Eccho of that productive , FIAT . The next thing , I was considering , was , that , to destroy this Shadow , I needed neither Sword , nor Pistol , the withdrawing of my self under the Neighbouring Trees being sufficient to make the Shadow disappear , and leave behind as little shape of it , as if there never had been any . And thus , as the VVorld could not have had a beginning , without having been provided by God , so for the continuance of the Being it enjoys , it depends altogether , and every moment , upon the will and pleasure of its first Author , of whom Saint Paul tells us , That in Him , we not only live , and move , but have our being ; and to the same purpose I think one may allege that place , where the Scripture says of God , not only , That he has made Heaven , the Heaven of Heavens with all their Hoast , the Earth and all things that are thereon , the Seas and all that is therein ; but adds , That he preserveth them all , as our Translatours English it ; for in the Hebrew I remember it is , Vivifies them all , that is , sustains them in that improper Kind of Life , or that Existence , which , whilst their Nature lasts , belongs unto it ; so that if God should at any time withdraw his preserving Influence , the World would presently Relapse , or Vanish into its first Nothing , as there are many Notions of the Mind such , as that of Genus , and Species , which are so the Creatures of Reason , that they have no longer an Existence in the nature of things , than they are actually upheld therein , by being actually thought upon by some Intellectual Being ; And God is so the preserver of all his Creatures , that one may say of the rest , as the Psalmist speaks of many of them , where addressing himself to God , he says , Thou hidest thy Face , they are troubled ; Thou takest away their Breath , they Dye , and return to their Dust ; Thou sendest forth thy Spirit , they are Created , &c. I was also taking notice , ( pursues Eusebius ) that to produce what changes I pleas'd , in all , or any part of this Shadow ; I needed not employ either Emissaries , or Instruments , nor so much as rowse up my self to any difficult Exertion of my own strength , since , by only moving this or that part of my own Body , I could change at pleasure in the twinkling of an Eye , the figure and posture of what part of the Shadow I thought fit : And thus , when God had a mind to work those Miracles , we most admire , as when at Josuah's prayer he stop'd the course of the Sun , and at Hezekiah's , made him go back , we Men are apt to imagine that these prodigious Effects must needs cost their Author much , and that he must strain his Power , and be necessitated to a troublesome Exertion of his Omnipotence , to be able to produce them , whereas to that Divine Agent , those things that would be to all others impossible , are so far from being difficult , and the Creatures have so absolute and continual a dependance on him , that 't is as easie for him to effect the greatest Alterations in them , as to resolve to do so , And even those Miraculous changes of the course of Nature , that do the most astonish us , do so naturally and necessarily flow from the Motions of his own Will , that to decree , and to execute , ( whether or no they require powers otherwise than Notionally differing ) are alike easie to him : And that irresistible Agent finds as little more difficulty to produce the greatest changes among the Creatures , than to produce the least ; as I find it harder to move the whole Arm of my Shadow , than to move its little Finger . And this consideration ( subjoyns Eusebius ) might be , methought , consolatory enough to his Church , who by reposing an entire trust in her God , entitles her self to the protection of him , that can as easily produce changes in the VVorld , as resolve on them , and can with the same facility destroy her and his greatest Enemies , as decree their Destruction . I was also further considering , ( says Eusebius ) That though the little wat'ry Bodies , that make up this River , and consequently those that glided along by me , were in a restless Motion , the hindmost always urging on , and chasing those that were before them , yet my Shadow was as compleat and stable upon the fugitive Stream , as if it had been projected on the water of a Pond , or rather as if all the parts of VVater , whereon 't was Visible , had been fixt and moveless ; of which I made this Application , that though we may say with Solomon , in a larger sence than his , That one Generation goes , and another comes , the VVorld being maintained by perpetual Vicissitudes of Generation and Corruption , yet the Wisdome and Providence of God does so far confine the Creatures to the establish'd Laws of Nature , that though vast Multitudes of Individualls are always giving place to others , yet the particular Creatures , which do at any time make up the VVorld , do always exhibit the like Picture of its divine Original . But yet lastly , ( says Eusebius ) I was considering too , that though this Shadow have some kind of resemblance to that , whose Shadow it is , yet the Picture is but very superficial and obscure ; And if we should suppose , the Fishes that inhabit this Stream , to be endued with reason , they could even from Lindamors shadow but collect , that the Original is a Man , and not a Brute ; but they could not hence make any discovery of what manner of Man he is , nor know any thing of his Virtues , or his Thoughts , or his Intention , nor consequently have that Notion of him , that I ( pursues Eusebius , turning to him , and a little Smiling on him ) do harbour and cherish , who having the happiness to converse with him , have the opportunity and the justice to admire him . Thus , where I formerly ventured to call the VVorld Gods Shadow , I did not forget , how imperfect a Picture a Shadow is wont to be : And though this dark Representation , that God has vouchsaf'd Men of himself in the Universe , be sufficient to convince us , that it was not made by chance , but produced by a Powerfull and Intelligent Being ; the eternal Power and God-head of the Great Author of Nature , as the Scripture seems to teach us , being manifested to attentive and rational Considerers , in the visible productions of his Power and VVisdome ; yet how short and dim a Knowledge must they have of him , that have no other than these Corporal Instructors . How many of his glorious Attributes are there , for whose Knowledge we must be beholden , rather to his VVritten , than his Created Word ? and how little will humane Intellects , without Revelation , discover of that manifold VVisdome of God , which the Scripture teaches us , That even to the Angels it must be made known by the Church . And if those Illuminated persons , such as Moses and Saint Paul himself , who had both extraordinary Revelations from God , and intimate Communion with him , confessed , that in this Life they saw him but Darkly , and , as it were , in a Glass ; sure the Dim light of meer Nature will give us but extremely imperfect , and detracting Idea's of him , whom the like Limitedness of our Nature will allow us to know but very imperfectly , in Heaven it self , though as we shall there see him Face to Face , our apprehensive Faculties will as well be inlarged , as the dazling and ravishing Object be disclosed . But , ( says Eusebius ) though I forget , that I am not in the Pulpit , I hope you remember , that I told you at first , how little I pretended these kind of Reflections would endure a rigorous Philosophical Examen , and that I am not so Indiscreet , as to expect that they should work Conviction in an Infidel , though I hope they may excite good Thoughts in a Believer . These last words of our Friend being not followed by any other ; Lindamor , having waited a while to ascertain himself , that Eusebius had ended his Discourse , began another , by saying : I perceive , Eusebius , with much more satisfaction than surprise , that the same Subject , and at the same time , did , as 't was fit , suggest very differing considerations to you and me ; for whilst your Shadow afforded you the rise of sublime Speculations , I was making but a moral Reflection upon mine : For taking notice , ( continues he ) that the Shade my Body projected , near Noon , was almost as much shorter than it , as in the Morning it was longer , prompted me to think , how foolish it were for me , who know by sure ways of measuring my own Statute , that it is moderate enough , not to be either proud of , or complain'd of , should imagine that I am either as Tall as a Gyant , or as Low as a Dwarf , because I see my Shadow either exceeding long , or extreamly short ; and I was further considering , pursues Lindamor , that if Philosophers , as well as the Vulgar , have rightly called Fame or Glory the Shadow of Virtue , it would be as irrational to estimate ones self not by the testimonies of ones Conscience , which is the Authentick standard of Intrinsick worth , but by the sickle Opinions of others , ( which oftentimes flatter , and oftner detract ) but very seldome give a just and impartial estimate of merit : The Fame may have its encrease , and decrements , whilst the Person continues the same , and loses nothing of substance with the Shadow . And for a Man that should examine himself , and judge of himself by his own designs , and actions , not other Mens words , to suffer himself to be puff'd up by vulgar applause , or dejected by unmerited censures , were to mistake a Shadow for a Standard . DISCOURSE VII . Upon a Fall occasion'd by coming too near the Rivers Brink . IT was not long after this , that Eugenius chancing to spy a little Nook , which seem'd to promise him a more convenient Station for his Angling , he invited Lindamor to share the advantage with him , and began to walk thitherward along the Rivers Brink , which the abundant moisture of the Waters that glided by it , had adorn'd with a pleasant Verdure ; But he had not marcht very far , when chancing to tread on a place , where the course of the Water had worn off the Bank , and made it hollow underneath , he found the Earth falter under him , and could not hinder his Feet from slipping down with the Turf that betray'd him ; nor could he have escaped so , had not his indeavours to cast the weight of his Body towards the Bank been assisted by Lindamor , who though not so near the Brink as to be in danger , was not so far off but that he was able to catch hold of him , and draw him to the firm Land. The noise that Lindamor made , when he saw his Friend falling , quickly drew Eusebius and me thither , where , after I had a while made my self merry with the Disaster , I found to have been so harmless ; Eusebius ( who arriv'd there a little later ) as'd him how he came to fall , and Eugenius answering , that he thought he had trod upon firm Ground , because he saw the Bank look to the very edge as if it differ'd not from the rest of the Field , which it terminated ; Eusebius took occasion from thence to tell him , You may from this take notice , that 't is not safe Travelling upon the confines of what is Lawfull , and what is Sinfull , no more than upon the Borders of two Hostile Nations : VVhen we suppose , that thus far we may go towards that which is Sinfull , without committing it , we are wont with more boldness than considerateness to conclude , that we need not scruple to venture , or rather that we shall run no venture , having firm footing all the way . But 't is much to be feared , that when we allow our selves to come as far as the utmost Verge of what is Lawfull , and to do that which in the Casuists Language , is , tantum non to Sin , the natural Proclivity of our minds to Evil , which carries them downwards , as weight does our Bodies , will sometime or other make us find hollow Ground , where we presume to find it firm : He that to Day will go towards Sin as far as he thinks he may , is in danger of going to Morrow further than he should ; And it is far more easie for him to be secure than to be safe , that walks upon the Brink of a Precipice . He was a wise Man , that as soon as he had forbidden his Son to enter into the path of the Wicked , and to go in the way of Evil men , subjoyns , as the best course to conform to the Prescription , avoid it , pass not by it , turn from it , and pass away : God's indulgence leaves us a Latitude to comply with our Infirmities , and Necessities , and to give us opportunities of exercising a pious Jealousie over our selves , and of shewing how much we fear to offend him . But a wary Christian will say in this case , as Saint Paul did in almost a like , All things are Lawfull for me , but all things are not Expedient ; And he must often go further than he can with Prudence , that will always go as far as he thinks he can with Innocence . DISCOURSE VIII . Upon the Good and Mischief that Rivers do . THis Discourse being ended , we All , as it were , by common Consent , apply'd our selves again to prosecute the Sport that had invited us to the River : But we had not Angl'd very long , before we were Disturb'd by a loud and confus'd Noise , which we soon discover'd to proceed from a Ship , that , together with some Barges , and other lesser Boats , were , by the help of a favourable Breath of Wind , Sailing up the River towards London . The sight of these Laden-Vessels , together with the prospect of the Thames , Which , ( as it happen'd in that place ) seem'd , in various Windings and Meanders , wantonly to fly , and to pursue it self : This sight , I say , together with that of the rich and flourishing Verdure , which the Waters , in their passage , bestow'd upon all the Lands that were on either side any thing near their Banks , invited Eugenius , to fall upon the praises of that Excellent River , which not only imparts Fertility and Plenty , here at home , by Inriching all the places that have the advantage to be near it ; but helps to bring us Home , whatever the Remoter parts of the World , and the Indies themselves , whether East or VVest , have of Rare or Usefull . Lindamor , having both applauded and recruited these Commendations , Me-thinks , ( says he ) That amongst other good things , wherewith this River furnish us , it may supply us with a good Argument against those Modern Stoicks , who are wont , with more Eloquence than Reason , to Declaim against the Passions , and would fain perswade Others , ( for I doubt whether they be so perswaded themselves ) That the Mind ought to deal with its Affections , as Pharaoh would have dealt with the Jews-Males , whom he thought it wise to Destroy , least they might , one Day , grow up into a condition to Revolt from him . But , because the Passions are ( sometimes ) Mutinous , to wish an Apathy , is as unkind to us , as it would be to our Country , To wish we had no Rivers , because ( sometimes ) they do Mischief , when great or suddain Rain swells them above their Banks . VVhen I consider , ( says Eusebius ) That of the Immaculate and Divine Lamb himself , 't is recorded in the Gospel , That He look'd round about , upon certain Jews , with Indignation , being griev'd for the Hardness of their Hearts ; So that two Passions are ascrib'd to Christ himself in one Verse : And when I consider too , the Indifferency , and ( consequently the Innocence ) of Passions in their own Nature , and the Use that VVise and Virtuous Persons may make of them , I cannot think we ought to throw away ( or so much as wish away ) those Instruments of Piety , which God and Nature has put into our Hands : But am very well content we should retain them , upon such conditions as Abraham did , Those Domesticks he bought with his Money , whom the Scripture tells us , He both Circumcis'd , and kept as Servants . But , ( continues Eusebius ) As I do not altogether disallow Lindamors Comparison , between Rivers and Passions , so he must give me leave to add this to it , That as Rivers , when they over-flow , Drown those Grounds , and Ruine those Husbandmen , which whilst they flow'd Calmly betwixt their Banks , they Fertiliz'd and Enrich'd : So our Passions , ( when they grow Exorbitant and Unruly ) destroy those Virtues , to which they may be very Serviceable whilst they keep within their Bounds . Instances of this truth , ( pursues Eusebius ) are but too Obvious ; 't is said , That Valour is Anger 's Whetstone ; and our being Councell'd by the Apostle , To be Angry , and not to Sin , argues , that Passion not to be Incompatible with Innocence , whilst 't is confin'd within the limits of Moderation . But when once Anger is Boyl'd up into Rage , or Choler into an habitual Fury , or appetite of Revenge , it makes more Havok in the VVorld than Beasts and Inundations : The greatest part of those Rivers of Blood , that are shed in Battels , ( though spilt by Anger ) do rather Irritate than Appease the unnatural Thirst of that insatiate Fury : The burning of Cities , the sinking of Fleets , and the Desolations of Provinces , and of Kingdoms , make but part of the Tragick effects of this Inhumane Passion , when it once thorowly possesses those that wield Scepters , and handle Swords . I will not tell Lindamor , That ev'n that noblest and best of Passions , Love , as gentle and amiable as it appears , when once it comes to degenerate by growing Unruly , or being Misplac'd , is guilty of far more Tragedies than those that have the fortune to be Acted on Theatres , or to furnish the VVriters of Romances ; and that which ( perchance at first ) seems to be but an Innocent Love , being not duely watch'd , and regulated , may , in time , grow to disobey , or deceive Parents , to violate Friendships , to send Challenges , and fight Duels , to betray the Honour of harmless Virgins , and of the noblest Families , to Rebel against Kings , procure the Ruine of Monarchies and Common-wealths ; And , in a word , To make thousands miserable , and those it possesses most of all , and thereby to bring Credit to , if not also to Surpass , the Fictions of Poets , and the Fabulous stories of Romances . And as for the desire of Excelling others , as great and noble things as it makes Men undertake , whilst it aspires only to a Transcendency in Virtue , and in Goodness , when that Passionate desire , by making Men too greedy of Superiority in Fame and Power , degenerates into Ambition ; How many Vices are usually set a work by this one Passion ! The contempt of the Laws , the Vilation of Oaths , the Renouncing of Allegiance , the Breach of Leagues and Compacts , the Murther of ones nearest Relation , ( if they be more nearly related to a Crown ) and all the other Crimes and Miseries , that are wont to beget or attend civil VVarrs , are the usual as well as dismal Productions of this aspiring Humour in a Subject ; Nor does it less Mischief when Harbour'd in a Prince's Breast , for the Undoing of his own People , the Subversion of his Neighbour's States , the Sacking of Cities , the Slaughter of Armies , the Dispeopling of some Provinces , and the Peopling of others with VViddows and Orphanes , are Sacrifices that are more frequently offer'd up to Ambition , than able to satisfie it : For what can quench his Thurst of Rule and Fame , or hinder the Attempts to which it stimulates him , that can find in his Heart to destroy Armies , and ruine Provinces , only that he may be taken notice off to be able to do so . Certainly ( subjoyns Eusebius ) he knew very well the Frame of humane Spirits , that said by the Pen of an Apostle ; From whence comes Warrs and Brawlings among you ? Come they not hence , ev'n of your Lusts that War in your Members : And I doubt whether Plagues , Wars and Famines have done more mischief to Mankind , than Anger and Ambition , and some other inordinate Passions ; for these do frequently bring upon Men those publick and other fatal Calamities , either as Judgments , which they provoke God to Inflict , or as Evils , which as proper consequents naturally flow , from those Mischievous practices , to which unbridl'd Passions hurry the criminally unhappy Persons they have Inflav'd . VVherefore , ( concludes Eusebius , casting his Eyes upon Lindamor ) As the usefulness of a River hinders us not from making good the Banks , and , if need be , making Damms , to confine it within its Limits , and prevent its Inundations ; So the usefulness of the Passions should not hinder us from watchfully employing the Methods and Expedients afforded us by Reason and Religion , to keep them within their due Bounds , which they seldome over-flow without shewing to our Cost , that , as 't is observed of Fire and VVater , they cannot be so good Servants , but that they are worse Masters . DISCOURSE IX . Upon the comparing of Lands , seated at differing distances from the River . THis last Discourse , to which the River had afforded the occasion , inviting me to Survey as much of it as was within my View , a little more attentively , gave me the opportunity of taking notice of a manifest difference betwixt the Lands that lay near it , and those whose Situation was remoter from it , and having acquainted Eusebius with what I had observ'd , which his own Eyes could not but presently bear witness to ; One ( says he ) that should only consider how swiftly this Stream runs along these flowery Meadows , and how great a quantity of Water passes through them , and from them , towards the Sea , would be apt to conclude , that certainly these Grounds retain none of the Water which runs from them so hastily , and so plentifully , especially since we can see no Chanels , nor other manifest Inlets , and Receptacles , that should divert and retain the fugitive Water , so that the Grounds confining on the River , must be but little advantag'd by its Neighbourhood . But , ( continues Eusebius ) though these Grounds have not any patent Passages , whereby to derive Water and Fatness from the River , and therefore must suffer the greatest part of it to run by them undiverted , yet still some of the Cherishing and Fertilizing moisture is from time to time soak'd in by the Neighbouring Ground , and ( perhaps by blind Pores , and crooked Chanels ) so dispersed thorow the whole Fields , that they have thereby Water , and in that vehicle Fertility convey'd to them , which you will not doubt , if you do but with me take notice , how much the Lands that lye on both sides near the Course of the River , are more Verdant , and Flourishing , and more Rich than those less happy Grounds , to whom their Remoteness denies the advantage of so improving a Neighbourhood . Thus ( resumes Eusebius ) many a pious Person that is an Assiduous attendant on the means of Grace , and has a care to place himself as it were in the way , by which the Ordinances of God , especially those of Reading , and Expounding of the Scriptures , are wont freely and copiously to flow , is ( especially upon any fit of Melancholy , or distress of Mind ) apt to be extremely discourag'd from prosecuting that course of Duties , and by looking upon the little that he remembers of so many excellent Sermons as he has heard , he is often inclined to conclude not only he has lost all the good Sermons that he has heard already , but that at least for such as he there is little to be expected from them for the future . But though to lose so much of a thing , so precious as the Doctrine of Salvation , be that , which is oftentimes a fault , and always an unhappiness , yet 't is a far less Mischief to forget Sermons than to forsake them , the one may be but an effect of a weak Memory , the other is that of a depraved Will , perverted by Laziness , Impatience , or some greater fault , we should scarce allow it for a Rational proceeding ; if one in a Consumption , or Disentery , because he grows not Fat with Feeding , should resolve to renounce Eating and Drinking . But this ( says Eusebius ) is not that which I chiefly intended : For Pious , but melancholy Persons , are oftentimes too Partial against themselves , to be competent Judges of their own Estate , they seem not to forget any Sermon so much as that , Charity should begin at home ; And they are much more carefull not to accuse any body wrongfully than themselves , though they might remember , that in the Estimate of Christ himself , all Grounds are not equally Fruitfull that are good , some bringing forth hundred , some sixty , some but thirty Fold , and yet to all he vouchsafes the title of Good ; and though , as mad Men that have quite lost their VVits , seldome or never complain of the want of them ; so those that have forfeited , or are devoid of Grace , rarely bemoan themselves of the weakness of it . And 't is no mean sign of Proficiency in Piety , to be apt to deplore ones unproficiency ; 'T is true , that Preaching is not always , and I fear not so much as often , the Savour of Life unto Life , the Perversness of the Hearers making it but too frequently the Savour of Death unto Death . But yet , speaking in the general , though it aggravate the Sins committed in spite of it , yet it usually hinders many others from being committed ; and he that twice a VVeek is told of God , and Duty , and Heaven , and Hell , has his Conscience more awak'd than he that never hears of any of these things . And if you but compare one of these despondent Christians , we are considering , with the careless Sensualists , that fly a rowzing Sermon , as they should do what it would deter them from ; you will easily discern a sufficient disparity between them , to invite you to conclude , that the Instructiveness of Preaching may , like the moisture of the River , be convey'd but by little and little at a time , and by unperceived Passages , and yet be able to impart Fertility : For though much run by , yet commonly something will stick , which we may safely conclude , if though we can discern it no other way , it disclose it self by the Effects ; for 't is not always to those that remember the most of them , that Sermons do the most good , as VVater retained in Ponds makes not the Bottom flourishing , but the Banks , and the Efficacy of a Sermon is better to be collected from the Impression it has on the Understanding , and Affections , than from that it leaves on the Memory , whether we retain the Particulars faithfully or no , and carry them home with us ; yet if a Sermon leave us Devouter than it found us , if we go from God's Ordinances , with a love to them , and a rellish of them , and a purpose to frequent them , we may be Despondents , but are not altogether Non-proficients ; that incorruptible Seed by which we are Regenerated , being once thrown into an honest Heart , may , as our Saviour intimates , grow up we know not well how , and though perhaps by insensible degrees , yet at length attain Maturity . To dispatch , ( concludes Eusebius ) whether or no a Man can orderly repeat all the Particulars that composed the Sermon , it does him good , if it either makes him good , or keeps him so : And its Operation is to be estimated , not so much by what we Remember , as by what we Resolve . What you have been saying , ( subjoyns Lindamor ) when he perceived that Eusebius had done speaking , suggests to me a Reflection , that till now I did not dream of ; And though it differ from that wherewith you have been pleased to entertain us , yet because 't is applicable to the same purpose , and occasioned by the same River , I shall without scruple , though after your Discourse , not without Blushes , tell you , that it is this ; I , among many others that Live near it , have often resorted in hot Weather to this River , to bathe my self in it , and after what I have been hearing , I now begin to consider , that though incomparably the greater part of the River run by me , without doing me any good , and though when I went out of it , I carried away little or none of it with me ; yet whilst I stayed in it , that very Stream , whose Waters run so fast away from me , washed and carried off whatever Foulness it might find sticking to my Skin : And besides , not only cooled me , and refreshed me , by allaying the intemperate heat that discomposed me , and made me faint , but also help'd me to a good Stomach for some while after . Thus ( resumes Lindamor ) I have sometimes found , that a moving Sermon , though it did not find me qualified to derive from it the Advantages it questionless afforded better Auditors , and when I went from it , I found I had retained so little of it , that it seemed to have almost totally slipt out of my Memory , yet the more Instructive and Pathetick passages of it had that Operation upon me , as to cleanse the Mind from some of the Impurities it had contracted , by Conversing to and fro in a defiling World , without suffering Pollutions to stay long , and settle where they began to be Harboured ; And besides , I found that a course of such Sermons , as I have been mentioning , did oftentimes ( and if it had not been my own fault , would have always done so ) both allay those Inordinate heats that tempting Objects are but too apt to Excite ; refresh my drooping Spirits , that continually needed to be revived , and raise in me an Appetite to the means of Grace , which are Piety's ( and consequently the Soul's ) true and improving Aliments . So that , ( concludes Lindamor ) though I seldome let Sermons do me all the good they may , and should , yet I dare not forsake them , because I forget them ; since 't is to do a Man some good , to make him less bad than he was , and to give a Value and Inclination for the means of growing better than he is . DISCOURSE X. Upon a Fishes running away with the Bait. THis Reflection of Lindamor's was soon follow'd by another of the same Gentleman's , who seeing many Fishes rise one after another , and bite at Eugenius's Bait , which he let them sometimes run away with , that he might be the surer to be able to draw them up , as he afterwards did several of them ; See , ( says Lindamor , as one of the Fishes had just swallowed the Hook ) how yonder silly Fish , having at length seized the beloved Bait , he has been Courting , posts away with it as his obtained wish , little dreaming of being himself taken : Thus ( continues the same Speaker ) when greedy Mortals have an opportunity to obtain forbidden things , they joyfully run away with them as the Goods they aimed at , and when they fondly think they have caught , they are so , and whilst they imagine themselves to carry away a Booty , they become a Prey ; for that he is in his Judgment that never errs , who , whatever he gets into the Bargain , loses himself . The Scripture , ( subjoyns Eusebius ) mentions , among other properties of Vice , that which it calls the Deceitfulness of Sin. And the wise Man tells us , that Wine is a Mocker ; and it may be one of the reasons of these Expressions , that when we think our selves possessed of a sinfull Pleasure , we are indeed possessed by it , as Doemeniacks are possessed by the Divel , who serves many other Sinners , though less perceivedly , as he serves Witches , whom he gets the Power to command , by seeming to obey them , and to comply with their criminal desires ; And , if we compare this , with what I was just now observing to you , on the occasion of the counterfeit Fly , we may add , That even when Sin seems the Kindest and most Obsequious to us , and to answer if not exceed our Desires , our case may be but like the Canaanitish General 's , who though he had Milk brought him by Jael instead of the Water he only requested , was but thereby invited to Sleep the Sleep of Death , and to have his Fears more surpass'd than his Desires had been . But , ( pursues Eusebius ) this may supply us with another Reflection ; for though this Fish seems to have devoured the Hook and Bait it swallowed , yet in effect it is taken thereby ; so the Divel , when he had played the Serpent and the Lion , when he had brought the Jews and Gentiles to conspire against their common Saviour , and had made Herod and Pilate friends to make them joynt Enemies to Christ , and when by these means he seemed to have obtained his end , by employing their hands to Kill the formidablest of all his Enemies , this pursued Prey destroyed the seeming Conquerour ; and Death appearing to swallow the Lord of Life , was , if I may so speak , choaked by the Attempt , since he not only was quickly able to say in the Apostles Triumphant Language : O Death , where is thy Sting ? O Grave , where is thy Victory ? but did by Death conquer him that had the power of Death , that is , the Divel ; nay , and made all his followers so much sharers in the advantages of his Conquest , as by the same way ( which we are informed by the same Text ) to deliver those whom the restless fear of Death perpetually kept from relishing the Joys of Life . DISCOURSE XI . Upon a Danger springing from an unseasonable Contest with the Steersman . THis Discourse being ended , Eugenius , who was look'd upon by us all as the most Experienc'd as well as concerned Angler among us , descrying at a good distance a place which he judged more convenient for our Sport , than that we there were in , where the Fish began to bite but slowly ; He invited the Company to this new Station , but when we were come thither , finding in a short time , that either it was ill stock'd with Fish , or that the Season of their Biting in the places thereabouts was over , he thought it concerned him to provide us some better place ; and accordingly , whilst we were yet , by the pleasure of mutual conversation , endeavouring to keep the Fishes sulleness from proving an Exercise to our patience , he walk'd on along the River , till he lighted upon a Youth , that by his Habit seem'd to belong to some Boat or other Vessel ; and having enquir'd of him , whether he could not be our Guide to some place where the Fish would bite quick , he replied , that he easily could , if we would take the trouble of coming to a place on the other side of the River , which his Master , who was a Fisher-man , had Baited over Night , and would questionless let us make use of for a small Gratification ; Eugenius , being very well content , call'd away the Company , which were led by the Youth to a Boat belonging to his Master , into which being entred , the old Man , who was owner of the Boat , hoys'd up Sails , and began to steer the Boat with one of his Oars , to a place he shewed us at a good distance off , but did it so unskilfully , that since a Mariner of his Age could scarce mistake so grossly for want of Experience in the River , we began to suspect , that he had too plentifully tasted a far stronger Liquor than that which was the Scene of his Trade ; and as the old Man was half Drunk , so the Youth appeared to be a meer Novice , both which we had quickly occasion to take notice off : For some Clouds that were gathering out of the Sea , passing over our Vessel , rais'd in their passage , as is usual enough , a temporary Wind , that to such a slight Boat as ours was , might almost pass for a kind of Storm ; For then the old Man gave out his directions so ill , and the Youth was so little able to execute them punctually , that two of the Company offended at their unskilfulness , began by angry and unseasonable Expostulations and Clamours , to confound the already disorder'd Boat-man , and being got up , with no small hazard to the Boat , they would perchance , by crossing the VVater-men in their endeavours , have made it miscarry , had not Lindamor , whose Travels had made him well acquainted with such cases , earnestly requested them to sit still , and let the VVater-men do their own work as well as they could , affirming , that he had seen more than one of those easily over-set Boats cast away by the confused and disagreeing endeavours of the VVater-men and Passengers to preserve it : This counsel was thought very reasonable , since the greater the VVind was , and the less the Steerman's dexterity , the more necessary it appear'd , that we should be orderly and quiet , and by leaning our Bodies sometimes one way , and sometimes another , as occasion requir'd , do what in us lay to keep the Vessel upright , and herein we were so prosperous , that soon after the Cloud was passed , and the Shower it brought with it was over , the VVind grew moderate enough to allow us to make some calm Reflections on what had happened : This Lindamor , from the thanks that were given him for his advice , took occasion to do in these tearms : Since States-men and Philosophers are wont to compare a Common-wealth to a Ship , I hope the Reflection suggested to us by what had just now happen'd , will be the easier pardon'd . The skil of ruling Nations , is an Art no less difficult than noble ; for whereas Statuaries , Masons , Carpenters , and other Artificers work upon inanimate Materials , a Ruler must manage free Agents , who may have each of them interests or designs of their own , distinct from those of the Prince , and many times repugnant to them : And the Prizes that are contended for in Government , either are , or ( which is in our case all one ) are thought , so Valuable , and the concurrents are so Concern'd , and consequently so Industrious to drive on each his own design , that without mentioning any of those many other things which make good Government difficult , these alone may suffice to make it more our trouble than our wonder , that the Rulers of States and Common-wealths should oftentimes mis-govern them . But the publick Infelicities of declining States , are not always wholly due to the Imprudence of the Ruler , but oftentimes those that most resent such Imprudency , even by those very Resentments , encrease the publick Disorders they appear so much troubled at ; and it may be a question , Whether it be more prejudicial to Common-wealths , to have Rulers that are mean States-men , than to have a Multitude of Subjects , that think themselves to be VVise ones , and are forward to Censure what is done by their Magistrates , either because it is done by their Superiours , or because 't is not done by themselves . Yet it may well be doubted , ( says Eugenius ) whether the Reverence and Submission we owe to Senates , or Princes , extend to our very Reasons , and our inward Thoughts : For the Right , and the Skil to Govern , are two very distinct things ; nor does the one confer the other : A Crown , how pretious soever , adorns but the outside of the Head , without enriching the inside ; and its Splendour will scarce dazle a VVise beholders Eyes , though it but too often does theirs that wear it : No , the Tribunal of reason has a Jurisdiction that reaches to Thrones themselves , and what you well observed just now concerning the difficulty of avoiding faults in Government , will , I presume , make you think it excusable , if I confess that I think , Soveraigns do now and then do what you confess 't is so hard for them to avoid doing ; Nor is it more a Breach of Loyalty , not to think a weak Governour a Prudent one , than not to think him Tall , or Streight , or Sharp-sighted , if Nature have made him Low , or Crooked , or Purblind . A Senate or a Monarch may indeed command my Life and Fortune ; but as for my Opinions , whether of Persons , or things , I cannot in most cases command them my self , but must suffer them to be such as the Nature of the things I judge of requires ; and therefore , the thinking all things done with VVisdome that are done by Men in Power , is too great an Impossibility to be a Duty ; and besides , it would lessen the Merit of Obedience , which otherwise would not appear to be paid to the Authority of the Magistrate , since we readily obey the Injunction of Lawyers and Physitians , as long as we think them Prudently fram'd for our good , though we acknowledge not these Persons to have any right to Command us . But though ( continues Eugenius ) I take Reason to be so supream a thing , that as even the greatest Princes Actions should be regulated by it , so they may be judg'd by it ; yet I allow lawfull Authority a Jurisdiction over my Actions , that I deny it over my Opinions ; and though I can obey the Orders that have the Impresses of VVisdome , as well as the stamp of Authority , with more hope and alacrity , yet I can obey those wherein I think Power is unguided by Prudence , with no less Punctualness and Fidelity : I would not resist a Magistrate when I cannot esteem him ; and though I dare discern Folly even in the greatest Princes , yet I can reverence Authority in the weakest . I know Eugenius too well ( says Lindamor ) not to believe him : But though I confess , that to do what you say , is to do much , and to do that which I fear is not usually done , yet me-thinks it were well if we did somewhat more ; for whereas most humane Actions , especially about Matters political , are attended with great variety of Circumstances , according to some or other of which , they may be differingly considered , and estimated , as 't is not very difficult to make many , if not most Actions appear politick or unwise , according as they are Cloathed with those of their Circumstances , that may be applied to excuse them , or with those that are fit to discommend them ; so I would take a care to put the favourablest Constructions on those publick Counsels , that are capable of more Constructions than one , and use the Parents of my Country , as Noah's two dutifull Children did their distemper'd Father , whose Nakedness when they had once discovered , they covered too ; and that in such a way , as shewed they were unwilling to see more of it than was necessary to enable them to hide it . And I say this , ( continues Lindamor ) with Relation to Eugenius , and such as he ; for as to the Vulgar , who yet make up the far greatest and loudest part of those that would intrude themselves into State-affairs , upon the pretence of their being ill managed by their Superiours ; I cannot but think , that whatever the course of Affairs be , these cannot but be incompetent Judges of their being Politick , or the contrary : For to judge of things barely by success , were somewhat to forget that there is a supream and absolute disposer of Events , and has been a practice always rejected by the Wise , as both discouraging Wisdome and affronting it ; And as for the Counsels , by which indeed the Prudence or Imprudence of publick Actions is to be estimated , the Vulgar is rarely admitted to have such a Prospect into the true State of Affairs , as is requisite to enable them to judge of the Expedience or unadvisedness of them , being unacquainted with the frame and Motives of the Prince's Counsels and Designs : Ordinary Men may often think that Imprudent , whil'st they consider it only in it self , which its congruity to the rest of the Prince's designs may make Politick enough , and a private Whisper , or the Intimation from an unsuspected Spy , or an intercepted Letter , or divers other things unperceiv'd , and perhaps undreamt of , by those that are not of the State-Cabal , may make it wise to do several things , which to those that look only at the Actions , without knowing the Motives , may appear Unpolitick , and would indeed be so , were it not for these Reasons , which yet ought to be as little Divulged as Disobey'd : So that the Peoples forwardness , to quarrel with the Transactions of their Prince , is usually compounded of Pride and Ignorance , and is most incident to those , that do not sufficiently understand either State-affairs or themselves ; and whil'st they judge upon incompetent Information , even when their Superiours are in the fault , they may be so , for censuring them . I must not now dispute , ( says Eusebius ) whether such as you , Gentlemen , whom their Conditions , Parts and Opportunities qualifie to discern the Interests and Designs of Princes , may not be allowed to judge of their Counsels , and see their Errours ; As our late Astronomers , being assisted with good Glasses , are allowed to tell us , that they discern Spots even in the Sun it self . But certainly , the Ambition of Pragmatical Inferiours , to make themselves States-men , upon pretence that those that sit at the Helm do not Govern it as wisely as these would do , if they were in the same places , is a fault no less prejudicial to any State , than Epidemical in some of them : For whil'st the Government is thus Decryed , the same disadvantageous Representatations embolden Strangers and Forrainers to attempt the Subversion of a State , and make the dispondent Subjects despair of preserving it , little considering that there are scarce ever any Imprudences in a Government , that can prove any thing near so Prejudicial to the Generality of the Subjects , as would the Subversion of it , whether by Forain Conquest , or by Intestine Jarrs ; such changes seldome doing less than entail upon unhappy Countries the fears and mischiefs of Warr. And that though it be granted , that the right of Governing does not confer the Skil , yet 't is much better to stick to the former , than oppose or desert it , because it wants the latter : For a right to a Crown , is that , which for the most part manifestly belongs but to one , and is seldome plausibly pretended to by above two or three , whereas the Skil to Govern is so undetermined , and so uncertain a thing , that Mens Innate pride and Self-love would encline almost every Man to claim it for himself , especially , since by challenging that , he might put for no less than Soveraignty : And in a State thus abandoned to the craftiest or the strongest , there would never want disturbing Vicissitude of Governments , as well as Governours , since whoever could get Interest enough in the Souldiery , or the Multitude , would quickly devise and impose such a frame of Government , as may put the Management of Affairs into his and his Parties hands , and give them the Authority that have the Power . But ( resumes Eusebius ) I must remember , that not Politicks , but Divinity is my Profession , and therefore without enlarging upon the confusion that is inevitable in a State , where the right of Governing being not heeded , or at least not ascertained , every Man would pretend to Counsel or Command , and none would think himself bound to Obey ; I shall only mind you , that Magistracy having been instituted by God , for the good of Mankind , we may in obeying our Lawfull Magistrates , though perhaps less Wise than we could wish them , not only participate the Advantages naturally accruing from Obedience to Superiours , but divers peculiar Blessings that God oftentimes vouchsafes to our Obedience to his Vice-gerents , and his Institutions . Let Subjects therefore ( says Eusebius ) wish for wise Princes , but submit to those the Providence of God , and the Laws of their Country , may have given them : Let us , if by any just way we be called to it , assist a Prince with the wisest Counsels we can ; if not , let us assist him to make the best of the unwise Counsels he has taken , without adding our Factiousness , or our Passions to his Misgovernment , remembring that , at least in my Opinion , to the happiness of a Common-wealth , it is not only requisite that the Prince know how to command well , but that the Subjects obey well ; and that even weak Counsels , faithfully assisted , and as much as may be rectified or repaired by those that are to Execute them , may less prejudice the publick , than the froward and jarring endeavours of Men , that perhaps would be wiser Rulers if they had a right to be so . It may be ( continues Eusebius ) that affection and diligence in the publick Service , may , in spight of the Governments miscarriages , prevent , or at least retard and lessen , the Ruine of the State. But however , ( concludes he ) it will be no small satisfaction to an honest Man , and a loyal Subject , not to be conscious to himself of having contributed to the publick Calamities , either by his own Provocations , or his Factious indignation at the Princes faults ; if a Man have done his utmost to hinder the Ruine he comes to be involved in , the publick Calamity will be far lighter to him , being not clogged by private Guilt ; and he will support the misfortune of it with far the less trouble , if he be to support nothing else . Nay , since the Service we do to whatever Prince is rightfully set over us , upon the score of his being Gods Vice-gerent , is ultimately directed to that Supream , and as the Scripture calls him , Only Potentate , whose Manificence is as inexhausted as his Treasure ; we may safely expect , that whatever prejudice we here sustain upon the account of the Prince's commands , will hereafter be advantageously considered to us in the reward of our Obedience . DISCOURSE XII . Upon Clouds rising out of the Sea , and falling down in Rain not Brackish . THis Discourse had already lasted so long , that as well my Unwillingness that one Theme should detain us any longer , as my Desire to keep Eugenius from making any Reply , which on such an occasion might perchance have begot some Dispute , made me forward to divert the Discourse , by inviting the Company to take notice of a black Cloud that was coming towards us , which soon after , in its passage under the Sun , interpos'd betwixt our Sight and that gloriousest Object of it . Lindamor then having a while attentively enough consider'd it , took thence an occasion to say : This Cloud , Gentlemen , whensoever it shall fall down in Rain , will sufficiently shew that it was before but VVater , which whilst it lay mingl'd with the rest of the River , or the Sea , whence 't is Exhal'd , may be suppos'd as Clear and Limpid as any of the rest ; but now that the Sun has by its powfull Beams elevated this VVater in the form of Vapours , and drawn it near it self , we see it Composes a Cloud , which does no longer receive or transmit the Light , but robs the Earth of it , and eclipses the Sun that rais'd it , and sometimes too , produces dismal storms of Rain , and Wind , and Hail . Thus ( pursues Lindamor ) there are many , who while they continu'd in a low and private Fortune , were as blameless as others ; and yet , when by a peculiar Vouchsafement of Providence , they are rais'd from that humble state to a conspicuous height , they seem to have as much chang'd their Nature as their Fortune , they grow as much worse than meaner Men , as their condition is better than that of such ; and the principal things by which they make their Exaltation be taken notice of , are , the Prejudice they do to their Inferiours , and the Ingratitude they exercise towards that Monarch of the VVorld , that rais'd them above others . Of so perverting a Nature , is so high a Station , that the gaining of an Earthly Crown , is very far from being a furtherance to the acquiring of an Heavenly one : And many , whom an humble condition of Life kept as Innocent as Lowly , are , by the highest Advancement in point of Fortune , impair'd in point of Morality ; and these supreme Dignities , which the ambitious World so fondly Courts and Envies , do so often manifest those that have attain'd them , to be unworthy of them . I know not whether Eugenius imagin'd that Lindamor did in this Discourse make some little Reflection , upon what we had lately said on the behalf of Princes : But I afterwards suspected , that it was partly to reply to this Observation , as well as entertain the Company with a new one that he subjoyn'd . As this Cloud has furnish'd Lindamor with one Reflection , so that which lately brought us the Showr of Rain , whose marks are yet upon our Hats , may supply us with another , which may shew , that Themes of this Nature are applicable to very differing purposes , according as one or other of their Circumstances happens to be consider'd and employ'd : For as far ( pursues he ) as we can judge by the Neighbourhood of the Sea , and by that Cloud 's being driven hither by a VVind blowing thence , it consisted of the Sea-water rais'd in the form of Vapours . But though the Water of the Ocean is Salt and Brackish , Unpleasant and Unwholesome whilst it lies there Unelevated ; yet that Water which has the Advantage of being rais'd to the second Region of the Air , appears , when 't is turn'd into Rain , to have left all its Brackishness behind it , and proves both wholesome for Mens Bodies , and fertilizing to their Fields . Thus ( continues Eugenius ) we sometimes see , that Men , who in a private condition were subject to divers Vices , devest them when they are advanc'd to the honour of putting on Royal Robes , as Silk-worms leave their Husks behind them , when by acquiring Wings they turn into ( a nobler sort of Creatures ) flying Animals ; as most Men change , so some improve their Minds with their Condition , and seem to have mis-behav'd themselves in a lower Station , but because they were Born to a higher , and were , whilst beneath it , detain'd out of their proper Sphere . And indeed , as a Throne exposes those that sit on it to peculiar Temptations to Vice , so does it afford them peculiar Engagements to Virtue , as so Elevated a Station is apt to make Men giddy , so is it proper to make them circumspect , by letting them see that all the VVorld sees Them ; the Sublimity of such a Condition would make any Soul , that is not very mean , despise many mean things that too often prevail upon Inferiour persons . If Princes have any sense of Shame and Honour , it will be a great Curb to them , to consider , that , as there are too many Eyes upon them to let their Vices be secret , so their Faults can as little escape Censure as Discovery ; and Men will be the more severe to their Reputations , because 't is the only thing wherein Subjects can punish their Soveraigns . If they have any thing of Generosity in their Natures , their very Condition , by placing them above other Objects , will make them aspire to Glory , and that is a Mistress , that ev'n Monarchs cannot successfully court , but with great and good Actions . And if they have withall a sense of Piety , they cannot , but , in Gratitude to him , whose Vicegerents they are , endeavour to promote his Interests that made them so , and so make themselves as like him as they can in his other Attributes of Clemency , Justice , and Bounty , as he has vouchsaf'd to make them in his Power and Authority : And besides , that the actual Possession of an Earthly Grown leaves them nothing worth aspiring to but a Heavenly one : The consideration of the great Advantages they have above other Men of doing Good , and the Exemplariness and Influence as well of their Vices as of their Virtues , will make them tremble at the thoughts of the Account they must one Day render of so many Thousands , perhaps of so many Millions , ( of Subjects ) committed to their Charge , if , as they are sure it will be a great one , they shall not make it a good one . Nor ( pursues Eugenius ) is History altogether unfurnish'd with Examples of those whom a Throne has as well Improv'd as Dignify'd : Saul was not the only Person , who when he was created King had another Spirit , and became another Man ; That Titus , who was the Head of it , was justly styl'd the Darling of Mankind , though his Virtue and Nobleness did , more than his Crown , keep the greatest part of Posterity from taking notice of any thing in him , but an Obligingness proportionate to his Greatness : Yet I find in some antient VVriters , to whom Truth was more dear than ev'n this Favourite of Mankind , that before he came to that supreme Pitch of humane Dignity , his course of Life did not promise the Roman World the happiness it deriv'd from his Government ; His Life before he came to be Emperour , having not been so free from Blemishes of Lust and Blood : But that I may , in writing his Character , invert what the Roman Historian said of one of his Predecessours , and say , that Titus had been thought Indignus Imperio nisi imperasset . And , without going as far as Rome , our own History affords us a Henry the Fifth , who , before he came to the Kingdome , was scarce thought worthy to Live in it , and did so degrade himself to the Practices of the meanest Malefactors , that a Judge , that was then his Fathers Subject , was fain to use him at that Rate ; and yet this Prince , as soon as he had Seated himself in the Throne , did as suddenly as if the Place it self had some secret Virtue to improve those it admitted , behave himself as a Person worthy of it ; and not only Conquer'd France , but , which was a Nobler , as well as a more difficult Victory , his own Resentments too , by preferring that Judge , when King , that had Imprison'd him , when Prince ; and evincing by so memorable an Action , that he preferr'd Virtue above himself , and renouncing the Pleasure of Revenge , he scrupl'd not to promote one whom he could not commend without condemning himself ; were it not , that in this Prince , according to what I was saying , the King was become another Man than the Subject . And perhaps , ( concludes Eugenius , a little Smiling ) I could proceed to give you other Examples enough to keep it from being improbable ; that one main Reason , why there are but few good Princes , is , because there are but few Princes ; were it not that I see the VVater-man prepare to Land us : And in effect , we were now come so near the place , where the Fisher-man design'd to set us Ashore , that whether or no Lindamor had a mind to return any thing to what Eugenius had said , it would then have appear'd unseasonable , either to resume the Debate , or prosecute the Discourse . DISCOURSE XIII . Upon drawing the Boat to the Shore . WHen we were now come to the place where we were to be Landed , least the Boat should be carried away by the Stream before we could step Ashore , the Owner of it reach'd out his long Pole , and by means of the Crook , taking fast hold of the Bank , he drew the Pole towards him with all his might , and thereby brought the Boat to Shore . This endeavour of the VVater-man's , and the effect of it , inviting Eusebius to smile a little , gave me the Curiosity , as soon as we were Landed , to enquire why he did so : It is almost as ordinary , ( answers Eusebius ) for Men to think themselves wiser than God , as 't is impossible for them really to be so . Those that study nothing but to obtain their Ends , and that scruple at nothing they judge conducive to them , do oftentimes lay their designs and plots with so much Artifice and Subtilty , that they do not doubt , that , whatever may become of Gods designs , and of his promises , and threats , those which themselves have laid so Politickly cannot but succed . And even pious and well-meaning Persons , that have the opportunity to discern the Politick ways that these Men take to compass their Ends , are oftentimes tempted to needless Fears , that Divine providence will be puzzl'd and distress'd by them ; and to think , that for Reasons secret , though just , Providence may be put by these Mens craft to play an after-game in the VVorld to come . But in such cases , it often fares with these grand Designers , as it did just now with our VVater-man : He had fastened his Grapling-Iron to the Shore , and putting to his utmost strength , did so forcibly endeavour to draw it towards him , that one , that did not know that the Shore was fixt , might expect this Lusty Fellows endeavours capable to put into Motion whatever he so forcibly drew towards him : But the Shore being fixt , and immoveable , instead of making that come to him , his very strainings drew him and his Boat to that . Thus the contrivers of the proud Pile of Babel , whereby they meant ( not , as most imagine , to secure themselves against a second Flood ; the Text being silent as to that Aim , and a Plain being a very improper place for such a purpose , but ) to make themselves a Name , and prevent Dispersion . These ambitious Contrivers , who had laid their Plot so hopefully , that they had engag'd no less than Mankind , and who probably had Designs as rais'd as their intended Fabrick , since those Expressions of him , that knew their Hearts , ( And this they begin to do , and now nothing will be restrained from them , which they have imagined to do ) seem'd me-thinks to warrant my Conjecturing , that those had designs very aspiring , that intended but to make a Rise to their soaring flight of a Tower , whose Top should reach unto Heaven . But the Policy of these ambitious Builders being contrary to the charitable decree of God , to have the Earth Peopl'd , he made use of that very conspiracy , that brought them together , to effect that which they conspir'd to prevent ; so , that now the remotest Parts of the Inhabited World are but the Colonies of Babel , whose scattered Architects have indeed made themselves a Name , but upon a quite contrary Account than they intended or expected . Thus the Purblind envy of Joseph's Brethren , having made them resolve to prevent his future Dreams of Superiority over them , made them think , that by Selling him for a Slave , they had taken sufficient Order he should never come to be their Master . And yet we see , that Joseph's being sold into Egypt , was made use of by the wise Orderer of humane Affairs , to make him in effect Lord of that rich and populous Kingdome ; and thereby , of his envious Brethren , Pharoah's Dreams having advantageously made him amends for the hardships his own had expos'd him to . So the proud Favourite of Ahasuerus questionless thought he could scarce miss his Ends , when , by the Counsel of his Friends , and , as he fondly thought , of his Gods too , he provided for Mordecai that fatal Gibbet , which probably he might have escap'd , if he had not erected it . Thus the High Priest and Sanhedrin of the Jews , seem'd to Act with much Policy , though no Justice , when they resolv'd upon the Death of our Saviour , least , as the Gospel tells us , the Romans should come and Destroy their Temple , and Nation , which whether indeed it did not rather procure than divert the coming of the Romans , the Church-History can inform you . Nay , the Old Serpent himself , that Arch-politician , that was the Instructer of those others I have been naming , even in his chiefest Master-piece , found himself the most Over-match'd by him , to whom the Scripture ascribes the taking of the VVise in their own Craftiness . For questionless , he highly applauded his own Subtilty , and seem'd to have taken the directest and most prosperous way to his impious Ends , that could be devis'd , when , having made Herod and Pilate Friends upon such tearms , that the Lamb of God should be the Victim of their new Confederacy , he had engag'd both Jews and Gentiles in a ruinous and tragick Conspiracy to Kill the Prince of Life , and by that unparallel'd Crime at once destroy the Divels chief Enemy , and make God theirs : And yet the Event has sufficiently manifested , that the Apostle might well affirm , that Christ by his Death destroy'd him that had the Empire of Death , the Divel , and that Satan's Kingdome never receiv'd so deadly a Wound , as that which pierc'd our Crucify'd Saviour's side . VVherefore in short , ( concludes Eusebius ) the Decrees of Providence are too solid and fixt to have Violence offered them by humane Attempts , how specious soever they be ; and those that think to bring God to their Bent , will find at long Running , that they have to do with One , whose Power and Wisdome are so Over-ruling , that not only he can frustrate their utmost endeavours , but make those very endeavours frustrate themselves , and employ Mens subtilest Policies to accomplish those very things they were design'd to defeat . DISCOURSE XIV . Upon Catching store of Fish at a Baited place . AS soon as we were come to the place the Fisher-man told us of , we found it as plentifully stor'd with Fish as he had fore-told us , and caught more in some few Minutes than we had taken in a whole hour before : But we did not half so much marvel at this , as we were pleas'd with it , because the Fisher-man inform'd us , that he had liberally Baited the place over-night with Corn , as well as VVorms ; whil'st this pleasant Exercise lasted , Eusebius marking how great a Resort of Fishes there was in that place , and how fast we drew them up , upon comparing what he saw happen , with the Occasion of it , thus acquainted us with the thoughts thereby suggested to him . Those ( says he ) that Yester-day in the Evening might see this Man ( pointing at the Fisher-man ) throw in his Baits by handfulls into this place , and then depart , as minding them no more , were probably , if they knew not his Design , and the Custom of Fishers , tempted to think him a wastfull Prodigal , or at best a venturous Fool , to bury his Corn in the River , and throw his Baits to be caught up by Fishes , that for ought he knew would never come back to thank their Host . But those that know ( what we now find ) how profitable a Course this is wont to prove , would , in stead of thinking such a practice a piece of Folly , look upon it as a piece of Pro●idence : For though he be sure not to recover in kind the things he cast upon the Waters , yet such a loss is wont to prove very gainfull unto him , whilst he loses but a Grain of Corn , or a Worm , to obtain Fishes of far more Value . Thus , though the purblind World may think a liberal Almes-giver , or a generous Confessor , a Fool , or a Prodigal , whil'st they only consider him as one that throws away what he has in present Possession , and seems not so much as to hope for the recovery of the same Goods , or any of the like Nature ; yet those whose Eyes being Illuminated with a Heavenly light , are thereby enabl'd to look into the vast and distant Regions of the future , and to descry there the final Issues of all Temporal things , will be so far from thinking him unwise , for parting with unsatisfying Trifles , to procure the highest and most permanent Goods , that they will think his Proceedings far more justifiable in point of Prudence , than we now think the Fisher-man's : Nor will the parting with a greater Fortune , as freely as with a lesser , any more alter the Case , than the Fisher-mans throwing in his bigger VVorms , and grains of Corn , with no more scruple than his lesser : For Heaven does as well incomparably outvaue the greatest , as the least Goods poor Morals can lay out for it ; and he , who has all things to give , and is infinitely more than all himself , has promis'd , that those that Sow plentifully , shall Reap so too ; and though the least of future Acquists would incomparably transcend the greatest Price that can be here given for it , yet the future Rewards will betwixt one another bear a proportion to the Occasions of them ; and as the Fisher-man is sure to lose what he throws into the Water , and is not sure to get by it any thing of greater Value than some Fishes ; the Christian-Adventurer , ( if I may so call him ) may hope , though not confidently promise himself , in this World the hundred fold mention'd by our Saviour , as well as in the VVorld to come Life everlasting . And therefore , if we do indeed in Saint Paul's Language , look , not to the things which are seen , which are but Temporary , but to the Invisible ones which are Eternal , we shall think that Exhortation of his very Rational , as well as very Pious , where , having Discours'd of the future and glorious State of the true Christians , he concludes , Wherefore , my beloved Brethren , be ye stedfast , immoveable , always abounding in the work of the Lord ; for as much as you know , that your Labour is not in vain in the Lord. DISCOURSE XV. Upon the Magnetical Needle of a Sun-Dyal . WE had not yet dismiss'd the Waterman , when Eugenius chancing to express a Curiosity , to know what a Clock it was , when we had freshly begun to Angle at our new Station ; as Lindamor and the rest drew their VVatches to satisfie his Question , so the Boat-man took out of his Pocket a little Sun-Dyal , furnished with an excited Needle to direct how to Set it , such Dyals being used among Mariners , not only to show them the hour of the Day , but to inform them from what quarter the VVind blows ; upon the sight of this Dyal , my natural Curiosity invited me , after it had told me the hour , to try whether the Magnetick Needle were well touched , by drawing a little Penknife out of a pair of Twises I then chanc'd to have about me , and approaching it to the North point of the Needle , which according to the known custom of such Needles , readily followed it , or rested over against it , which way soever I turned the Penknife , or whereabout soever I held it still ; Eusebius seeing me give my self this Diversion , came up to me to be a sharer in my sight , which no Familiarity can keep from being a VVonder : But after a while , he look'd upon it in a way that made me think it presented him somewhat else than the hour of the Day , or the corner of the VVind ; and I was confirm'd in that thought , by seeing him apply to it the case of Lindamor's VVatch , and then a Diamond-ring pluck'd from his own Finger , and in effect , he soon began to tell me ; Me-thinks , Philaretus , this Needle may afford us a good direction in the choice of Companies : And that is a matter of such moment , that some Divines perhaps would question , whether or no the direction it gives Navigators to find the Poles , be of much greater Importance : For not only it has been truly observed , that the choice of ones Company does exceedingly discover whether a Man be Good , or Bad , VVise , or Foolish ; but I shall venture to add , that it does very much contribute to make him what others say it declares him : For an assiduous Converse does insensibly dispose and fashion our Minds and Manners to a resemblance with those we delight to converse with , and there are few that have so much Resolution , as to disobey Customs and Fashions , especially when embraced by Persons that we love , and would be esteemed by , and from whose Opinions and Practices we can scarce dissent constantly without impressing a Dislike , that threatens to make them dislike us . For my part , ( says Lindamor ) I have always thought there is great difference betwixt keeping Company with some Men , and choosing to do so ; For whilst we Live in this VVorld , we must often have to do with the Lovers of the VVorld : But though to be cast by the Exigencies of our Callings upon bad Company , be an Infelicity without being a Fault , yet certainly , to choose such Company , and prefer it before that of wise and good Men , is in a high Degree both the one and the other . And I confess , ( continues he ) I cannot think , that the proper use of Conversation is but to pass away our time , not to improve it . You are certainly much in the right , ( subjoyns Eusebius ) for though too many of those that are now cried up for good Company , do either so disswade us from good and serious things , or so divert us from them , that 't is oftentimes counted a piece of Indiscretion to say any thing that may either inrich Men's Understandings , or awaken their Consciences ; yet I cannot but think , that Conversation may be , as well as ought to be , rescued from being an Instrument to promote Idleness and Vice ; and , if Men were not wanting to themselves , I doubt not , it may be so ordered , that Conversation , which so often robs Men of their time , and so frequently of their Devotion , might be made a great Instrument of Piety , and Knowledge , and become no less Usefull than 't is wont to be Pleasant . To make Companies ( replies Lindamor ) such as you think they may be , they must grow very different from what most commonly they are : For , not to speak of those loose and profane ones , where Virtue and Seriousness are openly derided , and any thing , how contrary soever to Piety , or right Reason , may be used , not only with tolleration , but applause , if Men can bring it out , I say not in Jest , ( for they are seldome more in earnest ) but neatly wrapt up in Raillery ; even in those civiller sorts of Company , where Vice is not professedly maintained , you shall seldome , during a long stay , hear any thing that is really worth carrying away with you , or remembring when you are gone . And to Discourse of any thing that is Grave enough , either to exercise Men's Intellects , or excite their Devotion , is counted a piece of Indiscretion , that is wont to be more carefully avoided than almost any thing that is really such ; so , that even in such Companies , the Innocentest use that we are wont to make of our time , is , to lose it : And really , ( continues Lindamor ) when I consider how ensnaring the worser sort of Companies are , and how little , even those that do not openly defie Piety and Knowledge , are wont to cherish either of them ; I begin to be reconciled to Hermites , who fly from such Conversations as are so apt to make Men either Vitious , or at least Idle into those Solitudes , where they are not like to be Tempted , either to renounce their Devotion , or to suppress it , to entertain idle Thoughts , or stifle good ones : Nor could I without much Scruple , as well as Impatience , allow my self to spend some part of my time in such kind of entertainments as many spend most of theirs in , were it not , that looking upon Civility as a Virtue , and Hospitality as in some cases a Duty , and upon both of them as things of good report , I can think those hours they make me spend , may be justly cast upon their account , and that the Ceremonious and Insignificant conversations whereto they oblige me , may be undergone upon some such account as that , on which serious Parents converse and oftentimes play with their Children ; for , as though the things they do , are in themselves trivial , and useless , yet they may be justifiable Effects of a paternal care to still a Child , or keep him from harming himself ; so the Duty of exercising of Civility makes me look upon as justifiable , though unpleasant , those Expressions of it , which , in themselves considered , I could not Reflect on without Indignation , and could not but think very much below any Man , whom Education has fitted for the exercise of Reason , or whom Religion has elevated to the hopes of Heaven . But it may ( says Eusebius ) on the other side be represented , that since 't is scarce possible not to meet sometimes with Companies that are not of the best sort , we should look upon those Necessities , as calls of Providence , to improve those Opportunities for the advantage of them we are engaged to converse with ; for Nature , as well as Christianity , teaches us , that we are not Born only for our selves , and therefore , as we ought often to converse with the best Men , to acquire Virtue and Knowledge , so we must sometimes converse with others , that we may impart them , and learn how much we are beholden to God's Goodness , that has so much discriminated us from other Men ; and though we do not find that our Conversation does immediately and visibly reform those we converse with , yet it will not presently follow , that it is altogether ineffectual on them : For , besides that the seeds of Virtue and Knowledge , as well as those of Plants , may long seem to lye dead , even in those Soils wherein they will afterwards Flourish and Fructifie , there may be at present a Good , though not a Conspicuous , Effect of your Discourse and Example . For when Men are hasting to Hell , he does them no small Service , that does so much as Retard their course , as Cordials , and other Medicines , may do good even to decrepid Old men , whom they cannot perfectly cure . And trust me , Lindamor , 't is no such useless performance as you may think it , for a Man of known Piety and Parts , by conversing with the Children of this Generation , To dare to own Religion among those that dare to deride it ; To keep alive and excite a witness for God and Good things in their Consciences ; To let them see , and make them ( at least inwardly ) acknowledge , the Beauty of a pious , Industrious , and well-ordered course of Life ; To convince them , that it is not for want of knowing the Vanities they dote on , that he despises them ; To shew , that a Man , that denies himself their sinfull Jollities , can Live contented without them : And , ( to dispatch ) To manifest , by a real and visible Demonstration , that a virtuous and discreet Life is no unpracticable , no more than Melancholy thing , ev'n in Bad times , and among Bad men . And says , Eusebius , to me it seems very considerable , that our Saviour himself , the great Author of our Faith , and Exemplar of our Piety , did not choose an Anchorites , or a Monastique Life , but a sociable and an affable way of conversing with Mortals , not refusing Invitations , even from Publicans , or to Weddings , and by such winning Condescensions gained the Hearts , and thereby a Power to reform the Lives , of multitudes of those he vouchsaf'd to converse with . Other considerations ( pursues Eusebius ) might be represented to the same purpose with these : But since I promised you something of Direction , I suppose you will expect I should tell you , not what I could say , but what I do think . I will tell you then in few words , that though I think it as well possible as fit for Men of radicated Virtue , and fine Parts , to make sometimes a good use of bad Company , especially when their lawfull occasions cast them into it ; yet for others to be often engag'd in such Company , though it may be but an Infelicity , is a very great one ; and to choose such Company , is , what is worse than an Unhappiness , a Fault : But generally speaking , I would distinguish three sorts of Companies ; for there are some , that not only are unable to improve me , but are unwilling to be improved themselves ; A second sort there is , that are as well ready to learn , as able to instruct : And there are others , that , though they are not Proficients enough to teach me things worth my Learning , are yet desirous to be taught by me , the little that I know , and they ignore . Now , as the Magnetick Needle we were looking on , and which affords us the Theam of this Discourse , if you should apply a Loadstone to it , would be most powerfully attracted by that , because it can receive fresh Virtue from it ; and even , if you approach a piece of Steel to it , the Needle will , though not so studiously , apply it self to it , from which , though it receives no Magnetick virtue , it can impart some to it : But if you offer it the Silver case of your Watch , or the Gold that makes up your Ring , or the Diamonds that are set in it , none of all these , how Rich or Glittering soever , will at all move the Needle , which suffers them to stand by unregarded ; So I shall with the most of Cheerfulness , and Application , seek the Company of those that are qualify'd , to impart to me the Virtue or the Knowledge they abound with : Nor shall I refuse to entertain a Society with those few , that being such small Proficients as to need to learn of me , are also forward to do so . But those that can neither teach me any thing that is Good , nor are disposed to let me teach it them , how great a shew soever they make , among those that make choice of their Companions by their Eyes ; I may be cast-upon their Conversation , but shall very hardly choose it . DISCOURSE XVI . Upon the Quenching of Quick-lime . I Had almost forgot to relate , that not far from the place where we went on Shore , and which we had not yet quitted , we saw divers heaps of Quick-lime , some Smoaking , and some that had not yet been Drench'd in Water ; and upon Enquiry of those that look'd to it , we were soon inform'd , that the conveniency of the Neighbouring River , both for slacking of Lime , and conveying Mortar , had made the Owners bring their Lime thither , to be temper'd and made fit for the Reparation of some Houses that we saw a little way off : But while we were talking , one of the Workmen began to throw Water upon one of the heaps that had not yet been Slack'd , and afterwards pour'd on so much more as serv'd quite to drown the Lime ; and Eus●bius marking , both what he did , and what ensu'd upon it , took thence occasion to say to us ; He that should see only the Effect of the first Effusion of cold Water upon quick Lime , would think , that by a kind of Antiperistesis , the Internal heat of the Lime is rather encreas'd than suffocated by the Coldness and Moisture of the VVater ; for that which before was not taken notice of , to manifest any sensible warmth , as soon as its Enemy the VVater begins to invade it , acquires a new heat and new forces in the Conflict , and not only shews a great Impatience , or Enmity , to that cold Liquor , by acting furiously upon it , and throwing off many parts into the Air , but prevails so far as to heat that cold Element it self , to that degree , as to make it Smoak and Boyl . But this Conflict is seldome near so lasting as 't is eager ; for if you have but the Patience to stay a while , you shall see the Lime , after it has spent its occasional Ardour , and after its Fire is quench'd , lye quietly with , nay under , the VVater , as cold and as moveless as it . Thus , when a devout Man , ( especially if his Fervour be adventitious from Education , or Custom , as the Fire in the Lime from the Calcination ) first falls into the Company of Persons , either Profane , or otherwise grossly Vitious , we often see , that his Zeal , instead of being smother'd by such a rude and unaccustom'd Opposition , seems rather to be excited and kindl'd thereby , and possibly seems more likely to impart the warmth of his Devotion to its Enemies than to lose any of it himself ; but when he is constantly , or at least frequently , surrounded with such Company , you will too often see him lose as well his own Ardour as the endeavours of communicating it ; and with those very Persons , that did at first kindle and exasperate his Zeal , you shall at last see him Live very quietly , and perhaps manifest as little of Religious warmth as they ; and that which at first did so strangely exasperate and discompose him , becomes after a while so familiar , as not at all to move him . DISCOURSE XVII . Upon ones Talking to an Eccho . WE had possibly dwelt longer upon such Reflections , had I not been suddenly diverted by the repeated Clamours of a Voice , which each of us imagin'd he had very often heard : VVhereupon , as it were , by common consent , we began to look round about us , to see if any of our little Company were missing , and finding that Eugenius was so , we readily concluded the Voice we heard , though somewhat alter'd by distance , and other circumstances , to be his ; and accordingly we hasted towards the place , whence we judg'd the Voice to proceed , that in case he were in any Distress , or had met with any Disaster , we might rescue or relieve him : But when we came near , we could now and then distinctly hear him speak some words so loud , and yet so incoherent and unable to compleat a Sense , as if he meant that all thereabouts should hear him , and no Body understand him . This made us double our Curiosity , and our Pace , till at length we descry'd him all alone in a solitary corner , wherein yet his Loudness kept us from believing he sought privacy : But as soon as he discover'd us , he seem'd both surpris'd and troubl'd at it ; coming to meet us , he first begg'd our pardon , if having been Louder than he thought , he had put us to a trouble he did not intend ; and then Laughing , ask'd us , if we did not think him Mad : But Eusebius smiling , told him , that before we could answer that Question , we must ask one of him , which was , what he had been doing . VVhilst you , ( answers Eugenius ) were ( I doubt not ) better employ'd , my natural Curiosity seduc'd me to spend some time in Ranging about the places near the River-side , and as I was passing by this Field , the accidental Lowing of an Ox made me take notice , that this Neighbouring Hill and Wood , furnish this place with an excellent Eccho , which I at first try'd only by VVhooping and Hollowing ; but afterwards diverted my self by framing my Questions so , as to make that Babling Nymph ( for so you know the Poets will have Eccho to be ) to Discourse with me . For my part , ( says Lindamor ) I should by no means like her Conversation , because that two Qualities she has , which to me would very much discommend it : And to prevent our asking him what those Qualities were , One of them , ( says he ) is , that she vouchsafes to Discourse indiscriminally with all commers that Talk to her , provided that they make Noise enough . You are much in the right , ( says Eugenius ) for that easiness of admitting all kind of Company , provided Men have boldness enough to intrude into ours , is one of the uneasiest Hardships , ( not to say Martyrdoms ) to which Custom has expos'd us , and does really do more Mischief than most Men take notice off ; since it does not only keep impertinent Fools in countenance , but encourages them to be very troublesome to wise Men. The VVorld is pester'd with a certain sort of Praters , who make up in Loudness what their Discourses want in Sense ; and because Men are so easie Natur'd as to allow the hearing to their Impertinencies they presently presume that the things they speak are none ; and most Men are so little able to discern in Discourse betwixt Confidence and Wit , that like our Eccho , to any that will but talk loud enough they will be sure to afford answers . And , ( which is worse ) this readiness to hazard our Patience , and certainly lose our Time , and thereby incourage others to multiply idle words , of which the Scripture seems to speak threatningly , is made by Custom an Expression , if not a Duty , of Civility ; and so even a Virtue is made accessary to a Fault . For my part , ( subjoyns Eugenius ) though I think these Talkative people worse publick Grievances than many of those for whose prevention , or redress , Parliaments are wont to be assembled , and Laws to be enacted ; and though I think their Robbing us of our time as much a worse Mischief than those petty Thefts for which Judges condemn Men , as a little Money is a less valuable Good than that precious Time , which no sum of it can either purchase or redeem ; yet I confess , I think that those of our great Lords and Ladies , that can admit this sort of Company , deserve it : For if such Persons have but minds in any measure suited to their Qualities , they may safely , by their Discountenance , banish such pitifull Creatures , and secure their Quiet , not only without injuring the Reputation of their Civility , but by advancing that of their Judgment . And I fear , ( continues Eugenius ) that those who decline this Imployment ( and indeed Improvement ) of their Titles , or other kinds of Eminency , do by their Remisness more harm than they imagine ; For though the Judgment and Company of such Persons , be not always the best grounded , or the best chosen , yet their Quality or Station in the VVorld makes it usually the most conspicuous , and the most consider'd . And I doubt not , there is no such Multitude of dis-interest Lovers of Good things , but that there will be the fewer found Studious to express VVit and Virtue in Conversation , when they see , that in the Estimate of those that are look'd upon as the chief Judges of what is or is not good Company , the most empty and impertinent Prattle with confidence , or loudness , procures a Man at least as good a Reception as the best and most rational Discourse without it . And , which is yet worse , that Tyrannous thing , which we misname Civility , has so degraded Reason , as well as displac'd Piety , in Conversation , that if there be never so many Persons together , entertaining themselves with rational or instructive Discourse , in case there come in but one impertinent Creature that is below it , all these shall sink themselves to his Level , and as much debase their Discourse , as if they believ'd it fitter , that all the rational Conversers should fore-go the Exercise and the Benefit of their VVit and Virtue , than that a Fool should not appear to talk as wisely as any of them ; and thus they seem'd asham'd of their Attainments , instead of making him asham'd of his Ignorance , and reducing him to improve himself into a capacity of being fit for their Company ; whereas , from a contrary practice , they might derive the great Advantage , either of freeing themselves from uninvited Companions , or of making them worth the having . But , ( subjoyns Lindamor ) I remember I told you there was a second Quality , that I dislik'd in the Nymph I found you entertaining , and that is , that , when I will , I can make her speak to me , just what I please . I know ( replies Eugenius ) that a moderate degree of Complaisance , is not only in many cases allowed us by Discretion , but necessary to keep up the Pleasantness , not to say the very Peace , of humane Societies ; For if all Men , at all times , spake their Minds freely , and did not soften one another by concealing their mutual Dislikes , and Dissents , and by certain outward Expressions of Kindness , or Respect , made by Complements and Gestures , Men have so many Imperfections , and so much Self-love with all , that scarce any two of them would endure one another ; Nay , and in spight of that Indulgence , which provident Nature has implanted in all Animals , for the preservation of their Species , in that of the Individuals that compose it , and as much as our own Faultiness has added to that Fondness ; yet , I doubt , we shall scarce find one Man of a thousand , that would endure so much as himself , if we did not for the most part exercise Complaisance within our own Breasts , and did not as much flatter our selves , and disguise our selves , to our selves , as we flatteringly disguise our selves to others . But , ( continues Eugenius ) when all this is said , I may endure , but I shall scarce choose and prize a Companion , that , like an Eccho , uses no liberty of his own , but allows me to direct whatever I would have to be answered me : And I know not whether I could not better like one that would ever dissent from me , than one that would never do so ; I cannot look upon him either as my Friend , or as Person worthy to be made so , who never evinces his being more concerned to advantage me , than to please me , by making use of the liberty of a Friend , and thereby shewing , that he considers not barely himself , but me ; besides , that as there is no true Friendship where there is not an Union of Affections , so methinks there can be no good Company where there is not sometimes a Dissent in Opinions . Eusebius , that was a Friend to Seriousness , without being an Enemy to Pleasantness , gathering from the long Pause made by his Friends , that they designed not the prosecuting of this Discourse any further ; Me-thinks , Gentlemen , ( says he , Smiling ) you are very severe to a harmless Nymph , who is so modest , and reserved , that she will never put you upon beginning a Conference with her , and so Complaisant in it , that 't is your own fault if ever she says any thing to you , that displeases 〈◊〉 , and for my part , ( continues he ) I have that opinion of humane things , that as I think there are very few so perfect , but that we may find something in them fit to be shunn'd , so there are not many so imperfect , but that they may suggest to us somewhat or other , that may not be unworthy of our imitation ; and as Lindamor has taken notice of two Qualities in our Eccho , which discommended it to him , so I have observed as many , that I rather approve than dislike . For , in the first place , 't is evident , that our Nymph ( however Eugenius has been pleased to mis-call her a Babler ) is much less Talkative than most of her own Sex , or indeed of ours ; for she never begins to talk with any Body , not speaking unless she be spoken to . He that considers how much of the Discourse that wastes Men's time , and entertains the most Companies with the most applause , consists of Talk that tends either to flatter those that are present , or detract from the absent , or to censure our Superiours , or our Betters , or to express our own Profaneness , or to excite the Pride or Carnality of others ; and he that shall consider , that though by these and many other ways we are extremely apt to offend in words , yet we must give an Account for that kind of words , what sort soever bemeant by them , which our Translators render Idle ones ; and that the Judge himself tells Men , that they shall by their words , as well as by their actions , be justified , or condemned ; will easily believe , that if Silence were as much in Fashion as 't is charitable to Mankind to wish it , the Regions of Hell would be far thinlier Peopled than now they are like to be . I could tell you , that Silence discovers Wisdome , and conceals Ignorance , and 't is a property that is so much belonging to wise Men , that even a Fool , when he holdeth his peace , may pass for one of that sort ; And I could easily add I know not how much in the commendation of this excellent Quality , if I knew how at the same time to praise Silence , and to practise it ; so that it may well pass for an excellency in the Nymph , whose Apology I am making , that she does not speak but when it is necessary she should , I mean , when she is spoken to , in such a way as does exact her answer . But this is not all the good qualities of our Eccho ; for as she rarely speaks but when 't is expected she should , so she seldome repeats above a small part of what is said to her ; this I account a very seasonable piece of Discretion , especially in such treacherous and fickle times as ours , where , almost as if he thought himself fit to be an universal States-man , such a one concerns himself very needlessly for almost all the publique Quarrels in Christendome , and shews himself zealous for a party which will receive no advantage by his disquiets ; and not content like a Merchant-venturer , his Passion may upon this account make him a Sufferer by what happens in the Remotest parts of the World ; In our own fatal Differences , ( which 't is almost as unsafe to speak freely of , as 't is unhappy to be involv'd in them ) he will on needless occasions declare , with his Opinion , his want of Judgment , and perhaps Ruine himself with those under whose Protection he lives , by spreading Reports , and maintaining Discourses , that rendred him suspected among those , who think that a Man must wish their Forces should be beaten , if he can think they may have been so ; Nay , I have known some , that , though put into considerable Employments , could not hold talking of their own Party , at a rate of freedome which those that have so much Innocence as not to deserve it , will scarce have so much Goodness as to support it : So that me-thinks , these Men deal with their Fortunes as Children oftentimes do with their Cards , when having taken a great deal of pains to build fine Castles with them , they themselves afterwards ruine them with their Breath . It may be a greater without being a more prejudicial price of Folly , to believe all that one hears , than to report all that one believes ; and especially , those are to be censured for want of our Nymphs reservedness , by whom it loses that name ; for though those kind of Men make sure by their way of Talking , to make others take notice how much they are confided in by their own party , yet sure they would take a discreeter course , if they did but consider , that the proof they give , that they are trusted with secrets , is , that they are unfit to be so . DISCOURSE XVIII . Upon a Giddiness occasion'd by looking attentively on a rapid Stream . THese thoughts of Eusebius suggested so many to Lindamor , and me , that to entertain our selves with them , we walk'd silently a good way along the River-side ; but at length , not hearing any more the Noise his Feet were wont to make in going , turning my self to see what was become of him , I perceiv'd him to be a pretty way behind me upon the Rivers brink , where he stood in a fixt Posture , as if he were very intent upon what he was doing . And 't was well for him , that my curiosity prompted me to see what it was that made him so attentive ; for , before I could quite come up to him , me-thought I saw him begin to stagger , and though that sight added wings to my Feet , yet I could scarce come time enough to lay hold on him , and , by pulling him down backwards , rescue him from falling into the River . The shrieck I gave at the sight of my Friends danger , was , it seems , loud enough to reach Eusebius's Ears , who , turning his Eyes towards the place whence the Noise came , and seeing Lindamor upon the Ground , made hastily towards us , and came up to us by that time I had help'd Lindamor up , and before I had receiv'd from him the obliging Acknowledgments he was pleas'd to make me for a piece of service that I thought had in it more of Recompence than Merit . Eusebius hearing what pass'd betwixt us , joyn'd his thanks to Lindamor's , and at the same time congratulated my Friend for his escape , and me for having , to use his Expressions , had the honour and satisfaction to be such a Person as Lindamor's Deliverer . But after our Expressions of Joy for his escape were over , Eusebius and I had both a curiosity to learn particularly the occasion of his Danger , which he told us in these words ; As I was thinking , Eusebius , on your last Reflection , I was diverted from prosecuting my Walk in Philaretus's Company , by happening to cast my Eyes on a part of the River , where the Stream runs far more swiftly than I have all this Day taken notice of it to do any where else , which induc'd me to stop a while , to observe it the more leisurely : And coming nearer , I found the Rapidness of the Current to be such , notwithstanding the depth of the Water , that I stood thinking with my self , how hard it were for one to escape , that should be so unlucky as to fall into it : But whilst I was thus musing , and attentively looking upon the Water , to try whether I could discover the Bottom , it happened to me , as it often does to those that gaze too stedfastly on swift Streams , that my Head began to grow giddy , and my Leggs to stagger towards the River , into which questionless I had fell , if Philaretus had not seasonably and obligingly prevented it . Something like this ( says Eusebius ) does not unfrequently happen in the unwary consideration of some sorts of sinfull Objects , especially those suggested by Atheism and Lust : For not only we oftentimes consider Atheistical suggestions , and entertain Libidinous fancies , without any intention to quit our Station , or the secure and solid Basis of Religion , and Chastity ; but we are often inclinable to think , that we converse with these Objects only to discern their Formidableness the better , and fortifie our Resolutions to shun them . And yet such is the pernicious Nature of Atheism , and of Lust , that they turn our Brains , and oftentimes , if Providence , or Christian prudence , do not seasonably interpose , we may unawares fall into the Mischief , even by too attentively surveying its greatness , and may be swallowed up by the danger , even whilst we were considering how great it is . To parley with such fascinating Enemies , though with a design to refuse them , and strengthen our Aversion to them , is against the Laws of our Christian warfare : And though it be not as criminal , may often prove as fatal , as to hold Intelligence with the Enemy . 'T is true , that the deformity of both these Sins is such , that all their Ugliness cannot be taken notice of at first sight : But the discovery is more dangerous than necessary , since a little knowledge of their Hideousness is enough to make every honest Heart abhor them . And since their less obvious Deformities are more dangerous to be pry'd into , than necessary to be known , let us fear to learn of these deluding Sins , more than we need know to hate them , and remember , that even those that are frighted by seeing Faces recently mark'd with the small Pox , may , notwithstanding that fear , catch the Disease with that sight . DISCOURSE XIX . Upon ones Drinking water out of the Brims of his Hat. WE were by this time come back to the Baited places we had left , when Eugenius , to whom his Rambling up and down , added to the heat of the Day , had given a vehement Thirst , spying a place where the Banks were very low , and almost level with the Surface of the Water , left us for a little while to repair thither ; and Kneeling upon the Ground , he took up with his Hat , which by Cocking the Brims he turn'd into a kind of Cup , such a proportion of Water that he quench'd his Thirst with it ; and carelessly throwing the rest upon the Ground , quickly return'd towards the Company , which he found he had not left so silently , but that our Eyes had been upon him all the while he was absent ; and that sight afforded Eusebius an occasion to tell us , Our friend Eugenius , might , if he had pleased , by stooping lower with his Head , have Drank immediately out of the entire River ; but you see he thought it more safe , and more convenient , to Drink out of a rude extemporary Cup ; and that this way suffic'd him fully to quench his Thirst , we may easily gather , by his pouring away of some remaining Water as superfluous : And 〈◊〉 he should tell us , that he could not have quench'd his Thirst with a sufficient quantity of Water , because he Drank it not out of the River , but out of his Hat ; I doubt not , you would think him troubl'd with a more formidable Distemper than Thirst , and conclude him in a greater need of Physick than of VVater . Thus ( resumes Eusebius ) to a sober Man , provided he have a Competency of Estate suited to his Needs and Condition , it matters not very much whether that Competency be afforded him by a moderate or by an exuberant Fortune , and oftentimes 't is more safe and convenient , and no less satisfactory , to receive this Competency out of that which is but a little , than out of that which is a great deal more than enough ; for not only the necessities of Nature are few , but her capacities are limited . And therefore , how much soever you have of Meat , and Drink , and the like accommodations ; the Body of a Man can enjoy but a certain , and that too no very great , Measure of them , proportion'd to the Cravings of our stinted Nature , by more than which 't is not the Body , but the unruly Fancy , that is Gratify'd ; as when the Stomach is satisfy'd , a Table full of untouch'd Dishes feeds but a Man's Eye , or his Pride ; and if he should Cram a little part of it into his Stomach , it would but be Nauseated at first , and afterwards breed ill Humours and Diseases . And accordingly , 't is no less than Solomon that says , When Goods encrease , they are encreas'd that Eat them ; and what Good is there to the Owners thereof , saving the beholding of them with their Eyes ? I dare not absolutely ( pursues he ) condemn those that think not the necessities of Nature the only Measures of a Competency of Fortune ; for though he that wants not them , wants a just cause to quarrel with Providence , yet Custom has so Entail'd some ways of Expence upon some Stations in the World , that since a Man can scarce Live without Them , and yet without Disgrace , there are but few who are so great Stoicks , or such mortify'd Christians , as not to think , that what is more than enough for one , may be less than enough for another , and as not to estimate their having or wanting a Competency , not only by the Exigencies of Nature , but by those of a Man's particular Quality , or Station . But ( subjoyns Eusebius ) he that has , in this liberal sence , a sufficiency of outward Goods , is me-thinks but ill advis'd , as well as unthankfull , if he repine at his Portion , because it is inferiour to those of the famously Rich : For though an unwieldy Affluence may afford some empty Pleasure to the Imagination , ( for to the Body it scarce affords any at all ) yet that small Pleasure is far from being able to countervail the Imbittering cares that attend an over-grown Fortune : For whatever the unexperienc'd may imagine , the frequent and sad Complaints of the Rich themselves sufficiently manifest , that 't is but an uneasie Condition , that makes our Cares necessary for things that are meerly superfluous ; and that Men , whose Possessions are so much spread and display'd , are but thereby expos'd the fairer and wider Marks that may be hit in many places by misfortune . Nor will Carelesness secure them , since a provident concern of a Man's Estate , though it be great , being by the Generality of Men look'd upon as a Duty , and a part of Prudence , he cannot suffer himself to be wrong'd or cheated of that , without losing , with his Right , his Reputation . For my part , ( says Lindamor ) I do the more wonder to see Men so greedy of Lading themselves , as the Scripture speaks , with thick Clay , that they Hoard up their Treasures from those uses which alone make Riches worthy the Name of Goods , and Live by a temper quite contrary to that of Saint Paul , As having all things , and possessing nothing . When I consider the things they pretend to by this as mean as unchristian Appetite ; The two chief of these , are wont to be , The keeping of a great House , and the leaving their Children great Matches . As to the former , though others are too much advantag'd by it not to extol it , and though it be sometimes indeed in some cases a decent , and almost necessary , piece of Greatness , yet 't is in my opinion one of the most unhappy Attendants that retain to it ; for the Laws of Hospitality , and much more those of Custom , turns him that keeps a great Table into an Honourable Host , subjects him to comply with the various and oftentimes unreasonable Humours of a succession of Guests , that he cares not for at all , and that care as little for him ; it brings him in a world of Acquaintance , to whom he must own himself oblig'd , because they come to Eat his Meat , and must really requite them , by giving them the pretiousest thing he has to part with , his Time : And a full Table , together with the Liberties that Custom allows at it , if not exacts there , tempt him both to Indulgence to his Appetite , prejudicial to his Health , and if they do not prevail with him to speak , do often at least to dispose him to hear , and to connive at , such free Discourses as are prejudicial to his Interests ; so that there is more than one account upon which a great Entertainer may be involv'd in David's Curse , against his mortal Enemy , of having his Table become a Snare . And for the design ( continues Lindamor ) of laying up vast Estates for a Man's Children ; if they be Sons , he thereby but encreases their Temptation to wish the Father Dead , and provides Incentives to their Vice , and Fuel for their Excesses , when he is so : And if they be Daughters , not to repeat the newly mention'd Inconveniences ; how many unhappy young Women have we seen , who , upon the score of the vast Portions left them by their Parents , have been betray'd , and sold by their Guardians , or by those Relations that should have been , as they were call'd , their Friends ? and how often have we also seen , that an unwieldy Fortune has been so far from Purchasing the Heir to it a good Husband , that it has procur'd her a Bad one , by making her think her self oblig'd and qualify'd to Match with some high Title , and procuring her to be Haunted by some , whose Vices perhaps alone have reduc'd him to Sell himself to redeem his Fortune , and to make an Address which aims but at the Portion , not the Person ; and accordingly , when he has got the one , he slights the other , and despises her for the want of that high Extraction she priz'd in him , and perchance hates her too , for confining him from some former and more than pretended Passion . I perceive then , Lindamor , ( says Eusebius ) that you are , as well as I , dispos'd to think him not a meer Fool , that pray'd God to give him neither Poverty , nor Riches , but to supply him with things suitable to his Condition , Prov. 30. 8. ( That seeming to be the meaning of the Hebrew Phrase ; ) A pinching Poverty , and a luxuriant Fortune ( though different Extremes ) being liable to almost equal Inconveniences , and a Competency affording us enough to engage us to Thankfulness , without Administring such Temptations to Sensuality and Pride . DISCOURSE XX. On seeing Boys swim with Bladders . THe Sun was yet so near the Meridian , that if the Attention Eusebius's Discouses excited , had not diverted us from minding the heat of the VVeather , we should have found it troublesome ; and in effect , soon after we had left listning to the conferences I have been repeating , we begun to feel a heat , uneasie enough to oblige us to retire from it : But taking several ways , as Chance or Inclination directed us , to shun the same inconvenience , it was my Fortune to hold the same course with Lindamor , and both of us , by following no Guide , but the design of shunning all beaten Paths , and unshelter'd Grounds , that being the likeliest way to reach our double end of Coolness and Privacy ; after we had a while walk'd somewhat near the River-side , we were at length brought to a Shady place , which we should have found , as well as we wish'd it , a Solitude , if others had not concurr'd with us in the same hopes ; for the Expectation of Privacy had brought thither divers , whom the Suns scorching heat invited to that cool and retir'd part of the River , where they hop'd to shun all other Eyes , as well as that of Heaven ; among those Swimmers we observ'd some Novices , who , to secure their first Attempts , had Bladders ty'd under their Arms , to keep them from sinking any lower . This sight ( says Lindamor , after he had a while mus'd upon it ) hath Circumstances in it , that me-thinks are applicable enough to the Education of many of the young Ladies of these times ; of whose faults , the Excellent Celia , and all the others , that you and I can think worth our Concern , are free enough to let me entertain you without Rudeness of them ; the Commonness of these Blemishes ennobling those few that are exempted from them . You cannot then ( continues Lindamor ) but have observ'd with me , that many of those young Ladies , whose Parents , out of a mistaken Zeal , condemn that which at the Court was wont to be call'd good Breeding , and Principles of Honour , as things below a Christian , and insufficient to bring their Possessours to Heaven , are so unluckily Bred , and so ill Humour'd , as well as Fashion'd , that an almost equally unhappy Education is requisite to make their Company tolerable : Civility , which is almost as Essential to a compleat Lady , as her Sex , they are perfect Strangers to , or rude Despisers of it ; and not only their Minds are not Imbu'd with those Principles of Friendship , Generosity , and Honour , which make some of their Sex so Lovely , and so Illustrious in Story , and of which more Ladies would be capable , if more were taught them ; but these are utterly uninstructed in the Laws of what the French call Bein seance , and are altogether unpractis'd in that Civility , and suppleness of Humour , which is requisite to endear Conversation , and is so proper to the softer Sex. I must confess , ( pursues Lindamor ) that I never have been more puzzl'd how to behave my self then in their Company : The serious sort of Discourse , ( ev'n such as is to be found in our fresher and more polish'd Romances ) they are utterly incapable of ; And in the trifling and pitifull Prattle that alone is not above them , they are so Unsociable , so Indiscreet , and oftentimes so Bold , that in spight of the respect , such as Celia gives me for her Sex , I find in their Conversations as much Exercise for my Patience as my Chastity , and being tempted to put off the respect that belongs to Ladies , as they do the modesty , I find it more difficult to retain my Civility than my Liberty . The Bladders ( resumes Lindamor ) which young Swimmers use , are , 't is confess'd , but light and empty things , that are easily made useless ; nay , though they help beginners , they are Cloggs to skilfull Swimmers , and yet these Trifles are they that hinder Novices from sinking into the Mud : Thus Honour , though it be an Airy unsolid thing , nay , though it oftentimes proves a hinderance to great Proficients in Christianity , yet to Persons that have not yet attain'd to higher Principles , it is an excellent support , and hinders them from sinking into many Meannesses , and Miscarriages , into which , those especially of the fairer Sex , that want a due sense of Honour , are too apt to be precipitated : You know what Lord told his accused Lady , that he knew she was too proud to be a Whore. And certainly , though Principles of Gallantry include not all Virtues , yet they avert those they sway from grosser Vices : And though to be well Bred , be not to be a Saint , but incomparably inferiour to it ; yet to be both , is more desirable than to be the latter only : And they are very unwise , who , before they are sure their Children will admit the higher and more perfect Principles of Religion , neglect to give them that Education that may render Moral Accomplishments acceptable to Them , and Them to well bred Company , least by proving indispos'd to Spiritual graces , their not having been taught the Moral Ornaments of the Mind , leave them destitute of all good Qualities . THE TRANSITION Containing A DISCOURSE Upon the Sports being interrupted by Rainy weather . NOtwithstanding the Serenity and Promisingness of the Morning we came out in , we have already upon the Water had one proof of the unsettl'dness of the Weather , and now upon the Land we meet with another : For , by that time Lindamor was come somewhat near the end of his Discours , he was oblig'd to hasten to it , by the approach of a Cloud , whose Largeness and Blackness threatned us with an imminent Showr : Nor did it give us a false Alarm , for by that time we could recover the next Shelter , the Showr we fled from , began to fall violently enough upon the Trees , we were retir'd to . And this unwelcome accident reducing us all to look about us , we quickly saw , to our Grief , that not only the Rain but the Clouds were increas'd , and the Sky being almost every where over-cast , left us no way to escape the inconveniences it threatned us with , but the making with what haste we could towards the place , over which we perceiv'd smoke enough , to conclude there was some Village beneath it : And finding at our Arrival thither , as good an Inn , as we could reasonably expect in such a place , after we had a while dry'd our selves by the Fire , Eugenius ( to whom Exercise and the time of the Day had given a good Stomach ) mov'd the Company , that in spight of the meanness of the House , we might rest our selves there , till we had Drest the Fish we had taken , to make up the best Dinner the place would afford : This motion I did not alone readily assent to , but seconded it , by representing , that probably by that time we had Din'd , we should either recover some fair Weather , or lose the hopes of regaining it for that Day . To which I added other considerations to perswade the Company , though , That indeed which prevail'd with me , was , the expectation of having an opportunity while Dinner was providing , to retire , as I soon after did , into another Room , and set down in short hand , what I have hitherto been relating , least either delay should make the particulars vanish out of my Memory , or they should be confounded there by the accession of such new Reflections , as , in case a fair Afternoon should invite us to return to the River , Eusebius would probably meet with Occasions of presenting us . But before I could handsomely slink away , I happen'd to be entertain'd a while with some things of the like Nature with those I was about to set down : For this unwelcome change after so glorious and hopefull a Morning , did naturally suggest to all of us , some thoughts of the Mutability and Fickleness of Prosperity , and how easily , as well as quickly , we may be depriv'd of that we cannot easily part with . But whilst the rest of us were entertaining themselves with these thoughts , Eugenius , who was more concern'd than any other of us , for the sport he came for , having a good while look'd with melancholy Eyes upon this change , began to repine and murmur at the interruption , which the persisting Rain continued to give him in it : Whereupon Lindamor took occasion to say , for my part , if I could dissipate these Clouds with a wish , I should scruple at the Ridding my self of them , ev'n at so easie a Rate : For I see , that the Gaping clefts of the parched Ground do , as it were with so many Mouths , proclaim its need of the Rain you repine at . And I always ( continues he ) am ready to joyn with the Husbandman in his wishings , as well for Rainy as for fair Weather , and am so much a Common-wealths Man , that I had rather at any time not escape a Showr , than let him want it . You are I confess , ( says Eugenius ) now I think a little better on it , in the right , and have more reason to be discontented at my Impatience , than I at the Weather ; for we should , ev'n in these lesser Occasions , as well as on greater , Exercise self-denial , and prefer a publick good to our private conveniences : And indeed it were far better , that I should miss some Fishes , than that thousands of Families should miss of Bread. Eusebius , that had hitherto listen'd to what was said , being unwilling , that his Friends Ingenuity should make him any longer accuse himself , told him , ( to divert the Discourse ) This accident , Eugenius , was suggesting to me , a thought , wherewith I shall not scruple to acquaint you , and the Company . For ( continues he ) as pleasant , and as much desir'd , as fair Weather is wont to be , and as much as we use to be discontented at a lowring and dropping sky , yet the one is no less necessary nor useful in its season , than the other . For too uninterrupted a course of Heat , and Sun-shine , would make the season fruitful in nothing , but in Caterpillars , ( or such kind of Vermine ) and in Diseases , and is far more proper to fill Graves , than Barns : Whereas seasonable vicissitudes of Clouds , and cloudy Weather , make both the Ground fruitful , and the Season healthful . Thus in our outward Condition , too long and constant a prosperity is wont to make the Soul Barren of all , but such Wantonnesses as 't is ill to be fruitful of , and the interposition of seasonable Afflictions is as necessary , and advantageous , as it can be unwelcome . But ( persues Eusebius ) the consideration that chiefly entertain'd me , was this , That as here , to make the Earth fruitful , the face of Heaven must be now and then obscur'd , and over-cast , we must be depriv'd of the welcome pleasure of the Sun to receive the fertilizing Benefit of the Rain ; so such is our condition here below , that our perverseness makes it necessary , that God should often-times appear to frown upon us , to make us fruitful in those Works , to which he is pleas'd to vouchsafe his smiles . But , Oh! ( concludes Eusebius , lifting up his eyes and hands towards Heaven ) how happy shall we be in that glorious and everlasting Day , when our Condition shall be as blessed in not requiring Vicissitudes as in not being subject to them . When the Sun-shine alone shall perform all that is wont to be done here both by it , and by the Rain ; and the Soul , like Aegypt , being fruitful without the assistance of the Clouds , we shall not need to have our joys Eclips'd , to have our Graces kept from being so , or to make our Light shine the brighter : But each blessed Soul shall be emblem'd by that Vision in the Revelations , where St. John saw an Angel standing in the Sun , we shall not then need to have our Love wean'd from inferiour or undue Objects , by any Experience of their Imperfections ; since the clear Discovery that God will vouchsafe us of his own Excellencies will abundantly suffice to confine our Affections to them : And since the works wherein we are to be fruitful in Heaven will be but to admire and thank him , that is infinite in Beauty , and in goodness , the perfecter sight and fruition we shall have of his astonishing as well as ravishing Attributes , will but proportionably increase our Wonder , and our Praises , and will naturally make us as Grateful For such a state as happy In It. OCCASIONAL REFLECTIONS . The V. SECTION . REFLECTION I. Upon the sight of N. N. making of Syrup of Violets . ONE that did not know the Medicinal Vertues of Violets , and were not acquainted with the Charitable Intentions of the skilful person , that is making a Syrup of them , would think him a very great Friend to Epicurism : For his Imployment seems wholly design'd to gratifie the senses . The things he deals with are Flowers and Sugar , and of them he is solicitous to make a Composition that may delight more than one or two Senses ; For in One Syrup he endeavours to please the Eye , by the loveliness of the Colour ; the Nose , by the perfume of the Scent ; the Taste , by as much sweetness as Sugar can impart . But he that knowing that Violets , though they please the Palate , can purge the Body , and notwithstanding their good smell , can expel bad humours , knows also that the Preparer of these fragrant Plants , in making their Juice into a Syrup , is careful to make it acceptable , that its pleasantness might recommend it , and invite ev'n those to prove its Vertues , who had rather continue sick , than make Trial of a disgusting Remedy ; will not blame his Curiosity , but commend his prudent Charity ; since he doubly obliges a Patient , that not onely presents him Remedies , but presents him Allurements to make use of them . If I see a person that is Learned and Eloquent , as well as Pious , busied about giving his Sermons , or other devout Composures , the Ornaments and Advantages which Learning or Wit do naturally confer upon those productions of the Tongue , or Pen , wherein they are plentifully and judiciously emploi'd ; I will not be forward to condemn him of a mis-expence of his Time or Talents ; whether they be laid out upon Speculative Notions in Theology , or upon Critical Inquiries into Obsolete Rites , or Disputable Etymologies ; or upon Philosophical Disquisitions or Experiments ; or upon the florid Embellishments of Language ; or ( in short ) upon some such other thing as seems extrinsecal to the Doctrine that is according to Godliness , and seems not to have any direct tendency to the promoting of Piety and the kindling of Devotion . For I consider , that as God hath made man subject to several wants , and hath both given him several allowable appetites , and endowed him with various faculties and abilities to gratifie them ; so a man's Pen may be very warrantably and usefully emploi'd , though it be not directly so , to teach a Theological Truth , or incite the Reader 's Zeal . And , besides what I have been alledging , there is a further and more principal Consideration which belongs to this matter . For ev'n wise men may prosecute the same design , without doing it all of them the same way ; and the several Means and Methods they imploy , notwithstanding a great Difference in other particulars , may agree in this , That the Respective Chusers of them had each of them a good Aim , and proceeded in a rational way . Though therefore I see a man of good parts , studious of learning , or of practising , the Precepts of Eloquence , and spend much time in reading florid Composures , or in making such ; I dare not be forward to censure him , for an effeminate or useless Writer . For there are so many things pious or laudable , and so many ways whereby some or other of them may either be directly promoted , or indirectly serv'd , by removing Objections , or other Impediments , that 't is not easie to be sure that a Rational Man cannot have as well a Rational as a well-meant design to instruct , if not reform , in those very Composures that seem fitted onely to delight . There being a Nicer sort of Readers which need Instruction ( and to whom 't is therefore a Charity to give it ) who are so far from being likely to be prevailed on by Discourses not tricked up with Flowers of Rhetorick , that they would scarce be drawn so much as to cast their eyes on them . A while before Esther made that generous Attempt , wherein , to rescue the people of God , she hazarded a Throne , to which above an hundred other Peoples paid homage , and ventur'd at once the greatest Crown and the fairest Head in the world ; One that had seen onely what she was doing , without knowing why she did it , would perchance have thought her emploi'd , more like a Disciple of Epicurus , than of Moses , whose People and her own was then in a forlorn and gasping condition . For the Scripture telling us , that she put on her Royal apparel , and the Tenour of the story intimating with what aim she did it , we may well suppose that she was not sparing in Jewels , and other of the richest Ornaments , on an Occasion where her Quality exacted that she should appear with a Magnificence befitting the greatest Princess in the world ; and that she was very curious in a Dress that was to heighten her Beauty , when by That , with the Giver's assistance , she was upon her knees to dazle the world's greatest Monarch on his Throne , and make Him pay Homage to her Charms , to whom above an hundred Nations had presented their fairest Productions , ( the brightest Nymphs of the East . ) And those that have read any thing of the Asiatick Luxury , will easily believe our pious Queen to have been also very sollicitous about the choice and ordering of her Sweet-meats , when she was to treat an Asian Monarch , who had treated the whole People of the chief City of the world for many days together , and as many Princes as made up the Noblest part of Mankind for above twenty times as long : and yet this Magnificent Queen , th●a seem'd busi'd about none but sensual Imploiments , had so commendable a Design both in her Ornaments and in her Banquets , that so meritorious an Imploiment of her Greatness shew'd her to be worthy of it ; and as it appear'd in the Event , that her Banquets did co-operate with her Fasts , and her Royal Robes with Mordecay's Sack-cloth and Ashes , to that happy rescue of her Nation , for which , after so many Ages , it doth to this day yearly celebrate her Memory . So whilst she seem'd busied to gratifie others sensuality and her own pride , her Disposition of Mind was so worthy the Success that crown'd her Attempt , that at the same time she was providing all that Pomp and those Delicacies , she was also providing to give them up , and sacrifize them , for the Interest of God's Church , and her People ; generously venturing for the service of Heaven a Height of prosperity , for whose loss nothing but Heaven it self could make her amends . REFLECTION II. Upon the sight of a Paper-Kite in a windy day . Eugenius , Lindamor . Eug. IF the Air were calm and quiet , this Kite would lie unregarded ev'n by those very Youths , that now look at nothing else . But the wind that blows away straws and feathers , and throws down leaves , does even by its being contrary , help to raise this Paper-Engine to that admired heighth , which makes it be gaz'd at by many others , than Boys , and not onely attract our eyes , but sometimes soar out of their reach . Thus , if a great Person , for Courage , or Parts , or both , have the ill fate to live in quiet , and peaceful times , he may long enough languish unregarded in an Age that needs him not . But if the times grow troublesome and dangerous , his generous spirit will not onely surmount the difficulties that are wont to attend them , but be rais'd by them , and turn them into steps to Glory and Preferment . Lind. Me-thinks , Eugenius , these Kites may afford us no less fit a resemblance of the fate of some Errours about Religion , especially if they chance to be maintain'd by Men that are resolute , and viceless . For there are some of these conceits so fond , and groundless , that they could not long subsist of themselves , and would soon cease to tempt a solemn Opposition , if they did not too soon meet with it . And as you were observing to another purpose , that these artificial Kites , which men take no notice of in calm weather , are both elevated and kept aloft by the blasts of contrary winds , so these erroneous Opinions I speak of , would , if they were let alone , grow quickly unregarded , whereas needless or ill manag'd Persecutions of Doctrine , not prejudicial to Government , ( for 't is onely such that I mean ) bring them into every body's Eye , and give them a Repute , that nothing else would have procur'd them , and make them be look'd upon as things of a sublime and celestial nature , that lead to that Heaven , they seem to aspire to . To thrive by Persecution , though it be a great Advantage , yet it is not the incommunicable Prerogative of Divine Truths ; And though it be certain that they get most by it , yet even Errors do often gain by it too , there being certain Advantages that accrue to Opinions , by being persecuted , without distinguishing whether they be true , or false . For men that are persecuted for their Religion , are generally careful to instruct themselves throughly in it , and furnish themselves with Arguments to defend it . The frowns of the Magistrate , and the watchful Eyes of their Adversaries , are strong Disswasives to them from doing any thing that may arm his hand , or provoke other's tongues against their Sect , to which they know their personal faults will be imputed . And above all this , their sufferings entitle them to popular commiseration , which is a thing that distress does so much invite , that even condemn'd Malefactors seldome want a share in it . And to some of these men Persecution is the more favourable , because it puts them upon fighting with the weapons they can best handle . For some are far better at Suffering , than at Disputing , and can more easily endure a Prison , than answer a Syllogism . And as this Constancy is often their best Argument , so is it an Argument , that the Generality of Men best understand , and consequently is likely to be most wrought on by , so that the more harsh than effectual way wherein they are dealt with , gives them the opportunity to display a Resoluteness , that makes most men think them well meaning , and in earnest , and their own Party cry them up for Martyrs , or at least Confessors ; which , in case that ( as it happens in most States ) scandalous sins be left unpunished at the same time , that Harmless Errours are so severely dealt with , gives them the fairer opportunity to insinuate into the minds of the people , that their Persecutors had rather see men vitious , than inquisitive . And , generally speaking , any personal sufferings that a well-meaning man undergoes for what he judges his Conscience , is but such a kind of burden to his mind , as feathers are to an Eagle , or a Falcon , which though in themselves consider'd they have a weight , yet instead of clogging him , they not onely help him to support himself , but enable him to soar towards Heaven , and reach a heighth that makes him prais'd or wonder'd at . REFLECTION III. Killing a Crow ( out of a window ) in a Hog's-trough , and immediately tracing the ensuing Reflection with a Pen made of one of his Quills . LOng and patiently did I wait for this unlucky Crow , wallowing in the sluttish Trough , ( whose sides kept him a great while out of the reach of my Gun ) and gorging himself with no less greediness , than the very Swinish Proprietaries of the Feast , till at length having guzzl'd and croak'd enough , when by hovering over his beloved Dainties , he had rais'd himself high enough , to prompt me to fire at him , my no less unexpected , than fatal shot , in a moment struck him down , and turning the Scene of his Delight into that of his Pangs , made him abruptly alter his Note , and change his triumphant Chant for a dismal and tragick Noise . This Method is not unusual to Divine Justice towards brawny and incorrigible Sinners , whose Souls no less Black , than this inauspitious Bird's feathers , do wear already the Livery of the Prince of Darkness , and with Greediness do the works of it , whose Delights are furnish'd ( as the Feasts of Crows are by Carrion ) by their own filthy lusts , or other people's faults , and who by the Oaths and Curses wherewith they offend Christian ears whilst they live , and by the ill odour they leave behind them when they are dead , do but too much justifie my resembling them to these hateful Creatures . Such sensual and obdurate Epicures , I say , God oft-times suffers to run on their long Carier , in paths of their own chusing , without checking them in the fruition of those Joys , which are to be their onely Portion , till at length their iniquity filling up the determinate measure , he cuts them off , in the heighth of their Injoyments , and employing oft-times their own sins for their Executioners , or at least Instruments of their Destruction , precipitates them headlong from the Pinacle of their Delights , into the bottomless Pit , which one of their Predecessors ( the rich man in the Parable ) call'd , as he sadly found it , the Place of Torment , where the luscious sweets of sin , are so dearly reckon'd for , and afford so much Bitterness in the latter end , that their sense sadly convinces them , of ( what their sensuality kept them from believing ) the folly of gaining any thing at the rate of losing their own Souls . Thus the Israelitish Prince found a Nemesis bold enough to violate the Sanctuary , even of his Mistress's arms , and ( regardless of its charms ) enter that lovely Circle , their Kindness clos'd him in , to snatch him thence , and extinguish the lustful flames that lighted him thither , with the cold blasts of Death . Thus the mutinous Loathers of Manna , and lusters after flesh , had their wish severely granted , for they had indeed Quails serv'd in by fieldsfull , but attended with so sudden and sharp a Reckoning , that whilst the flesh was yet between their teeth , ere it was chew'd , Death hindred them to swallow it , choak'd them with it , and devour'd them as greedily , as they did those Birds . Thus the insolent Philistins found themselves ill protected by their vainly celebrated God , and his ( much stronger ) Temple , though in the latter there were thousands of them , without any other Enemy , than one , they had sent for to be a friend to their Mirth . For in the very midst of all the Triumphs of a solemn Festival ( which had more properly been kept to Dililah ) whil'st they were insulting over captive Samson's Blindness , they could not see their own approching Destiny , though it were then so near , that the next fit of Laughter had not time to pass to their Mouths , ere an unexpected Vengeance ( the provok'd Deity lending an Omnipotent Arm to Samson's hand ) confounded in one Ruine , the Idol with the Worshippers , and suddenly turn'd the whole Temple into an Altar , with which the Priests themselves , fell surprized Sacrifices to that tragical Solemnity . And thus ( to hasten from so sad a Theme ) the revelling Belshazzar , in the midst of his Magnificent and Royal Feast , saw an intruding hand , which by its manner of appearing , as well as by what it wrote , was able to mar the Supper , without impairing the Dainties . And that Monarch , whom even a Siege could not reduce below a condition of Feasting , though he were carouzing in the consecrated Cups , had such a Brimmer of trembling put into his hand , as both presag'd and perchance began the Destiny approaching him under the Ensigns of the Noble Cyrus , whose Conquering Sword , guided by Providence , and made the Sword of Justice , did that very same night , let out his Wine , and Bloud , and Life together . Upon the same Subject . 'T Is hard on such an occasion to avoid making some Reflection upon the Mutability of worldly Conditions ! How little did this Crow imagine , a quarter of an hour since , that in so short a time , his Body should be as senseless , and as stinking Carrion , as that he was wont to feed it with ; that his feathers should wear so unlucky a kind of Mourning for his Destruction , and that I should write his Epitaph with one of his own Quils ! Sure since a few minutes can turn the healthiest Bodies into breathless Carkases , and put those very things into the hands of our Enemies , which were they that we principally reli'd on , for our safety , it were little less than Madness , to repose a distrustless Trust in these transitory Possessions , or treacherous Advantages , which we enjoy but by so fickle a Tenure . No ; we must never venture to wander far from God , upon the Presumption that Death is far enough from us , but rather in the very height of our Jollities , we should endeavour to remember , that they who feast themselves to-day , may themselves prove Feasts for the Worms tomorrow . REFLECTION IV. Upon a Glow-worm that he kept included in a Crystal Viol. IF this unhappy Worm had been as despicable as the other reptils that crept up and down the Hedge , whence I took him , he might , as well as they , have been left there still , and his own Obscurity , as well as that of the Night , had preserv'd him from the confinement he now suffers . And if , as he sometimes for a pretty while withdrew that Luminous Liquor , that is as it were the Candle to this small dark Lanthorn , he had continued to forbear the disclosing of it , he might have deluded my search , and escap'd his present Confinement . Rare Qualities may sometimes be Prerogatives , without being Advantages . And though a needless Ostentation of ones Excellencies may be more glorious , a modest Concealment of them is usually more safe : And an unseasonable disclosure of flashes of Wit , may sometimes do a Man no other service , than to direct his Adversaries how they may do him a mischief . And as though this Worm be lodg'd in a Crystalline Prison , through which it has the Honour to be gaz'd at by many Eyes , and among them , by some that are said to shine far more in the Day than this Creature do's in the Night ; yet no doubt , if he could express a sense of the Condition he is in , he would bewail it , and think himself unhappy in an excellency , which procures him at once Admiration and Captivity , by the former of which he does but give others a Pleasure , while in the latter he himself resents a Misery . This oftentimes is the fate of a great Wit , whom the Advantage he has of ordinary Men in Knowledge , the Light of the Mind exposes to so many effects of other Men's Importunate Curiosity , as to turn his Prerogative into a Trouble : The light that ennobles him , tempts Inquisitive Men to keep him , as upon the like score we do this Glow-worm , from sleeping : And his Conspicuousness is not more a Friend to his fame , than an Enemy to his quiet ; for Men allow such much Praise , but little Rest . They attract the Eyes of others , but are not suffer'd to shut their own , and find , that by a very disadvantagious Bargain , they are reduc'd for that imaginary good , call'd Fame , to pay that real Blessing , Liberty . And , as though this Luminous Creature be himself imprison'd in so close a Body as Glass , yet the Light that ennobles him , is not thereby restrain'd from diffusing it self : So there are certain Truths , that have in them so much of native Light or Evidence , that by the personal Distresses of the proposer , it cannot be hidden , or restrain'd ; but in spight of Prisons , it shines freely , and procures the Teachers of it Admiration , ev'n when it cannot procure them Liberty . REFLECTION V. Upon a Courts being put into Mourning . The I. PART . * Genorio , Eusebius , Lindamor . Genor . MEthinks , you look , Eusebius , as if the change that Blacks have made in this place , since I last saw you here , tempts you to question whether or no this be the Court. Lind. Yet , I fear , Eusebius will scarce doubt , that you , and these other Gentlemen are Courtiers , whil'st he sees how much you dissemble in personating sadness : For though your Cloaths look mournful , your Faces do not , and you talk to one another as unconcern'dly , as when you wore lighter Colours ; and your Grief is so slight , that it has not an Influence so much as upon your looks , and words , which yet are things that Courtiers are said to be able to disguise without an over-difficult constraint . Genor . But , I hope , Lindamor , I need not labour to persuade such as you , that , when we seem to mourn , without doing it , we may be thought guilty of dissimulation without being so : For what Duty is there , that you and I should be really troubled for the Death of a Prince , whose Subjects we were not , who never obliged us , and who perhaps did onely keep the Power of doing Good , which himself never us'd , from a Successor that had the will to employ it . But you will demand , why then we put on Black , To which , the Answer is easie , that Custom having establish'd that Ceremony in the Courts of Princes , in Amity with each other , the Omission would be look'd upon as an Affront , and be a Provocation . And therefore , the Blacks we wear , are not meant to express a Grief for the Dead , but a Respect to their living Relations : And thus , this as heartless as solemn shew of Mourning , is not put on by Hypocrisie , but by Prudence , or Civility . And in this case , I would appeal to Eusebius himself , but that I perceive some Object or other , has ever since we began to talk , engross'd his Attention , as well as seal'd up his Lips. Lind. I have taken notice of it , as well as you , Genorio , and I confess , I would give much to learn his Thoughts . Euseb . 'T is odds then , Lindamor , that you would over-purchase so worthless a Knowledge : And to satisfie your Curiosity , at an easier rate , I will tell you , that I was observing , how a Gentleman , who , it seems , does not much frequent the Court , chancing to come in a Colour'd suit , that , but last Week , would have been thought a fine one , was star'd at by all in the room , except your selves , whose Faces chanc'd to be turn'd from him , like a Man of another Country , ( not to say of another World ) which the poor Gentleman at length perceiving , he soon grew so sensible of it , that in spight of the Richness and Newness of his Cloaths , with many Blushes he slunk out of the Court , to which he found Men's gazing at him concluded him to be a Stranger . Lind. But this , Eusebius , is onely to tell us , what you observ'd , not what Reflections you made upon it , and you know , that which I was inquisitive after , was your Thoughts . Euseb . I will add then , Lindamor , since you will have it so , that I was considering , that there has been no Law made by the State to forbid any , much less Strangers , to appear in this Court in Colour'd cloaths : And those , which the Gentleman I was speaking of , had on , were such , both for fineness , and fashionableness , as would very well become a greater Court , if it were not in Mourning . But , now the Prince , and those that have the Honour to belong to him , or to frequent this place , have put themselves into Blacks , to appear in another , though in a finer Habit , is , to betray ones not belonging to the Court , nor using to come to it ; and among so many , that think they have a Right to give Laws in point of Cloaths , a Lac'd , or an Imbroider'd suit , though last Week in request , would now they have laid them by , make a Man look not so much like a Courtier , as a Player . And this Reflection invited me to consider further , what a strange Influence fashions have on Mankind , and what an happy change might be easily made in the World , if they , who have it in their Power to introduce Customs , would make it their Endeavour to introduce good ones . Lind. I am so much of your mind , Eusebius , that I confess , I envy not Princes so much for the Splendour and the Pleasures that they live in , nor for the Authority of raising Armies , nor perchance for the Happiness of making them Victorious , as for the power of imposing and reforming of Fashions . And I think it a less improvable Prerogative , to be able to coyn any Metal into mony , or call it in at pleasure , than by the stamp of their Authority to introduce good Customs , and make them current . Genor . But , do not Princes enough , when they take care to make good Laws , and see them well executed . Lind. I will not dispute , whether by That , they do all they ought , but sure I am , they do not all they may : For humane Laws being made for the civil Peace of humane Societies , they are wont to be fram'd not for the making Men virtuous , but the restraining them from being mischievous ; they consist far more of Prohibitions than Commands , and ev'n their Prohibitions reach but to a little part of what is ill ; the Business of Laws being to provide , not against all Evils , but those grosser ones , that are prejudicial to civil Societies : So that there are a thousand Rules of Reason , or Christianity , which States have not thought fit to turn into Laws . For Pride , Envy , Covetousness , Gluttony , Intemperance , Effeminateness , Oaths , Idleness , and I know not how many other Sins , contrary to the Laws of Nature , and of Christ , are so little provided against by humane Sanctions , that one may be a bad Christian , and a bad Man , without being a bad Citizen ; There being nothing more easie , nor I fear more usual , than for Multitudes to pass uncited before Man's Tribunal , to receive their Condemnation at God's . But though a Prince can scarce , as a Legislator , prevent , or suppress such Sins , yet , as a Pattern , he may do much towards it : For by his Example , his Opinions , his Encouragements , and his Frowns , he may reform an hundred particular things , which the Laws do not ( and perhaps cannot ) reach . His declar'd Esteem of such and such Practices , joyn'd with his particular Actions suited to it , and his profest dislike of those Sinful or Dishonourable courses , he finds the Rifest , back'd with a steddy and resolute discountenance of those that do not decline them , will , in a short time , bring those that are about him , to conform their Actions and Behaviour to what Men are satisfi'd , he desires , or likes . And those whom their nearness to Him , or their Employments , make the conspicuous and exemplary Persons , being thus model'd , their Relations and Dependants will quickly be so too , and then that which is in request at Court , being upon that very account look'd upon as the Fashion , it will by degrees be imitated by all those on whom the Court has Influence ; since , as we just now saw in the Instance of Eusebius's gawdy Gentleman , Men will be asham'd to be unlike those , whose Customs and Deportments pass for the Standards , by which those of other Men are to be measur'd . REFLECTION VI. Upon hearing of a Lute first tun'd , and then excellently play'd on . THe Jarring strings made so unpleasant a noise , whil'st the Instrument was tuning , that I wonder not at the Story that goes of a Grand Signior , who being invited by a Christian Embassadour to hear some of our Musick , commanded the Fidlers to be thrust out of his Seraglia , upon a mis-apprehension that they were playing , when they were but tuning . But this rare Artist had no sooner put an end to the short exercise he gave our Patience , than he put us to the Exercise of another Virtue : For his nimble and skilful Fingers make one of the innocentest Pleasures of the Senses to be one of the greatest , and this Charming melody ( for which Orpheus or Orion themselves might envy him ) do's not so properly delight as ravish us , and render it difficult to moderate the Transports of our Passions , but impossible to restrain the praises that express our satisfaction : So that if this Musitian had been discourag'd by the unpleasant Sounds that were not to be avoided , whil'st he was putting his Lute in Tune , from proceeding in his work , he had been very much wanting to himself , and to save a little pains , had lost a great deal of Pleasure and Applause . Thus , when the faculties and passions of the Mind , either through a native unruliness , or the remisness of Reason and Conscience are discompos'd , he that attempts to bring them into order , must expect to meet at first but an uneasie Task , and find the beginning of a Reformation more troublesome , for the time , than the past disorders were : But he is very little his own Friend , if he suffers these short-liv'd difficulties to make him leave his Endeavours unprosecuted : For when once they have reduc'd the untun'd Faculties and Affections of the Soul to that pass ▪ which Reason and Religion would have them brought to , the tun'd or compos'd Mind affords a satisfaction , whose greatness do's ev'n at present abundantly recompence the Trouble of procuring it , and which is yet but a praelude to that more ravishing Melody , wherein the Soul ( already Harmonious within it self ) shall hereafter bear a part , where the Harps of the Saints accompany the glad Voices that sing the Song of the Lamb , and the Hallelujahs of the rest of the Caelestial Quire. REFLECTION VII . Upon being presented with a rare Nosegay by a Gardener . Lindamor , Eusebius . Lind. HEre is indeed a Present , for which I must still think my self this fellow's Debtor , though he thinks I have over-paid him . 'T is pity these Rarities were not more suitably address'd , and worn by some of Natures other Master-pieces , with whom they might exchange a graceful Lustre , and have the Ornament they confer reflected back upon them . But one that had never been a Lover , would perhaps say , that that wish were more civil to the Flowers , than the Ladies , of whom there are few , which these soft polish'd Skins , and Orient Tinctures , would not easilier make Foils , than prove such to them : For ( not to name the Rest ) this Lovely fragrant Rose here , wears a Blush that needs not do so , at any Colour the Spring it self can , amongst all her Charming Rarities , shew . Yes , here are Flowers above the flattery of those of Rhetorick ; and besides , two or three unmingled Liveries , whose single Colours are bright , and taking enough to exclude the wish of a diversity ; here is a variety of Flowers , whose Dyes are so dexterously blended , and fitly checquer'd , that every single Flower is a variety . I envy not Arabia's Odours , whil'st that of this fresh Blusher charms my sense , and find my Nose and Eyes so ravishingly entertain'd here , that the Bee extracts less sweetness out of Flowers ; which were they but less frail , I fear would make me more so ( than yet I am . ) Surely this Gard'ner leads a happy Life ! He inherits nothing of Adam , but that Primitive profession that imploy'd and recompenc'd his Innocence , and such a Gay and priviledg'd Plot of his Eden , as seems exempted from the general Curse , and instead of the Thorns and Thistles that are the unthankful Earths wonted productions , brings him forth Lillies and Tulips , and gratefully crowns his Culture ( for Toil I cannot think it ) with chaplets of Flowers . Euseb . I perceive , ( Lindamor ) that you judge of the Delightfulness of this Man's calling , onely by these Lovely and Fragrant productions of it . And you see these curious Flowers in their prime , without seeing by what practices , and degrees , they have been brought from despicable seeds to this perfection and lustre . And perhaps , if you consider'd , that a Gardener must be digging in the violent heats of the Summer , and must be afraid of the bitter cold of the Winter , and must be watchful against surprising frosts in the Spring , and must not onely prune , and water , and weed his Ground , but must , to obtain these gawdy and odoriferous Flowers , submit to deal with homely and stinking Dung ; If ( Lindamor ) you would take notice of these and of some other Toils and Hardships that attend a Gardener's Trade , you would ( I doubt not ) confess , that his Imployments , like his Bushes , bring him Thorns as well as Roses . And now give me leave ( Lindamor ) to tell you , that this may be appli'd to the condition of some studious persons , that you and I know . For when we hear a Learned or Eloquent Sermon , or read some Book of Devotion , or perhaps some Occasional Discourse handsomely written , we are apt to envy the Preacher or the Writer , for being able to say some things thar instruct or please us so much . But alas , ( Lindamor ) though we see not these Productions of the Brain till they are finish'd , and consequently fitted to appear with their full Advantages abroad , yet to bring them to that pass , the Author may perhaps undergoe many a trouble that we dream not of . For he that has to do with difficult or weighty Subjects cannot present us a good Book , or a Fine Discourse , with the same ease that a rich man can present us a fine pair of Gloves , or a fine Collation , which may be had at an hour's warning from the next Milleners or Confectioners . For to be able to write one good Book on some Subjects , a man must have been at the trouble to read an hundred : To grow capable to give a better rendring of a Greek Text , he must perchance have perus'd Suidas , Stephanus , Hesychius , and I know not how many Lexicographers and Scholiasts : To be qualifi'd to make a Translation of an Hebrew Word or Phrase , that shall illustrate a dark Text , or clear a Difficulty , or more fitly agree with his notion , or accommodation of a place in Scripture , a man must have not onely like a School-Boy learn'd an Hebrew Grammar , and turn'd over Buxtorf's Schindler's , and other Dictionaries , but ( which is worse ) he must in many cases hazard his eyes and his patience in conversing with such Jewish Writings , not onely as Elias his Tishbi , and Kimchi's Michlol ; but to gain a little Rabbinical Learning , and find out some unobvious signification of a Word or Phrase , he must devour the tedious and voluminous Rhapsodies that make up the Talmud , in many of which he can scarce learn any thing but the Art of saying nothing in a multitude of words ; and in others , which are not so useless , the most he will find in I know not how many dull pages , ( written with as little Wit as Truth ) will perhaps be an Account of some wild Opinion , or some obsolete Custom , or some superstitious Rite of a generation of people , whose Fancies and Manners scarce any thing makes worth our inquiring after , but their having liv'd many Ages since . And even when a man sets himself to write those smooth Composures , where Eloquence is conspicuous , and seems to be chiefly design'd , the Author seldom comes by his Contentment on as easie terms as the Readers come by theirs . For , not to mention , that sometimes Periods that in a well printed Book look very handsomely , and run very evenly , were not in the written Copy without interlining and Transcriptions . Those that are Schollars themselves can hardly write without having an ambition , or at least a care , to approve their Discourses to them that are so too . And in the judgment of such Perusers , to be able to write well , one must not onely have skill in the Subject , but be well skill'd in the way of writing , lest the Matter be blemish'd by the manner of Handling it . And although to shew ones self a Master in treating of variety of Themes with a florid style , and even in those Composures that are design'd chiefly to express Wit and move Affections , one may think that Nature may be well let alone to supply any she has been kind to , with all they need , yet even in these cases there are some Toils and uneasinesses that are scarce to be avoided ; since a discreet man , though never so rich in Natures's gifts , will think himself oblig'd to study Rhetorick , that he may be sure he does not transgress the Laws of It. For though an Author 's Natural parts may make his Book abound with Wit , yet without the help of Art he will scarce make it free from faults . And to be well stock'd with Comparisons , which when skilfully manag'd make the most taking passages of fine Pieces , one must sometimes survey and range through the works of Nature and Art , which are the chief Ware-houses , where variety and choice of Similitudes is to be had , and to obtain those pleasing Ornaments there is oftentimes requir'd no less pains than to devise useful Notions . As one must search the Ditches amongst Briars and Weeds , not onely to find Medicinable Herbs , but to gather Prim-roses and Violets . So that ( Lindamor ) to conclude , if we consider the trouble that applauded Composures do oftentimes cost their Authors , we should be sensible we owe more than most men think we do to those to whom we owe good Books . But then unless they find some Recompence for their Labours , in the satisfaction of promoting piety , or in the well-natur'd Pleasure they feel themselves in pleasing others , I should scarce doubt but that some of the Writers , we think so happy , may rather deserve our Esteem than our Envy . REFLECTION VIII . Upon a Child that cri'd for the Stars . I Remember P. S. did once , upon just the like Theme , discourse to the following purpose . Amongst those numerous Eyes , that these fair Lights attract in so clear a night as this , there are not perhaps any that are more delighted with them , than this Child's seem to be . And those Persians that ador'd the rising Sun , could not be more charm'd with that glorious Object , than this Child is with these twinkling Lights , that need his absence to become so much as visible . But his is a pleasure , that is not more great than unquiet , for it makes him querulous , and unruly , and because he cannot by his struggling , and reaching forth his little hands , get possession of these shining Spangles , that look so finely , their fires produce water in his eyes , and cries in his mouth , that are very little of kin to the Musick the Platonists fanci'd in the Spheres he looks at . Whereas , though my inclinations for Astronomy make me so diligent a Gazer on the Stars , that in spight of my great Obnoxiousness to the inclemency of the nocturnal air , I gladly spend the coldest hours of the night in contemplating them ; I can yet look upon these bright Ornaments of Heaven it self , with a mind as calm and serene , as those very nights that are fittest to observe them in . I know divers men for whom Nature seems to have cut out too much work , in giving them , in an unconfinedly amorous Disposition of mind , strong Appetites for almost all the fair Objects that present themselves to their sight : These amorous Persons may be , I grant , very much delighted when they first gaze upon a Corstellation of fair Ladies , but the Heart commonly pays dear for the Pleasure of the Eye , and the eager desires that Beauty creates , are in such men excited too often not to be frequently disappointed , and are wont to be accompani'd with so many jealousies , and fears , and repulses , and difficulties , and dangers , and remorses , and despairs , that the unhappy Lovers ( if those that love more than one can merit that Title ) do rather languish than live , if you will believe either their own querulous words , or their pale and melancholly looks , which would make one think they were just entring into the Grave , or bad been newly digged out of it . Whereas a person that has his Affections , and Senses , at that command , which Reason and Religion require , and confer , can look upon the same Objects with pleas'd but not with dazl'd Eyes : He considers these bright and curious Productions , as fair animated Statues of Nature's framing , and contenting himself to admire the workmanship , adores onely the Divine Artificer , whose infinite amiableness is but faintly shadow'd forth even by such lovely Creatures . And therefore what has been said of Mistresses , may be more justly applicable to all the other Objects of Men's too eager Passions . To be short , looking upon these curiousest Productions of Nature , with a Philosopher's and a Christian's Eyes , he can cast them on those bright Objects with pleasure , and yet withdraw them without trouble , and allowing Beauty to contribute to his Delight , without being able to create him any Disquiet ; though it afford him a less transporting Pleasure than it sometimes do's the Amorist , yet , all things consider'd , it may afford him a greater Pleasure , by being more innocent , more untroubl'd , and more lasting ; And there may be such a Difference betwixt the Contentment of this calm admirer of Beauty , and that of a greedy and unconfin'd Prostituter of his Heart to it , as there is betwixt the unquiet Pleasure that the sight of the Stars gives to this Child , and the rational Contentment it may afford to an Astronomer . REFLECTION IX . Upon my Lady D. R. Her fine Closet . Lindamor , Eusebius . Lind. IS not this Closet strangely fine , Eusebius ? Here is such a variety of pretty and taking Objects , that they do as well distract the Eye as delight it ; the abundance , the choice , and the Order , do as well disclose the fair Posssessors skill , as Her magnificence , and shew at once , that she both has plenty , and deserves it , by knowing so well how to make use of it . Those things that are here solitary , or single , will scarce be elsewhere matched , and all the rest are so pretty , and so excellent in their several Kinds , that the number of fine things that make up this curious Collection , cannot hinder any of them from being a Rarity . And in a word , the Embellishments , that adorn and ennoble this delightful place , are such , that I believe the Possessor of them , as welcome as she is unto the best Companies , scarce ever looks upon finer things , than she can see in her Closet , unless when she looks into her Glass . But , me-thinks , Eusebius , you hear and view all this with a silent seriousness , which begins to make me suspect , that what I thought might be an Effect of your Wonder , may be so of your Dislike . Euseb . The Collection , Lindamor , is , I confess , very curious in its Kind , and such , as if the Mistress of it were less handsome than she is , might give her as well Cause to be jealous of these fine things , as to be proud of them , since a Beauty , that were but ordinary , could not divert a Spectator's Eye from Objects , whereof many are not so . But , Lindamor , I must freely tell you , that I like both the Lady , and the Closet , much better than the Custom ; such sights as these are introducing among Ladies of furnishing such Kind of Closets : I know that Youth may in certain cases , excuse some of the Impertinencies 't is wont to occasion ; And it is not strange to me , that Persons of the fairer Sex , should like , in all things about them , that handsomness for which they find themselves to be the most lik'd ; Nor would I forbid , ev'n such of them , as are not of a very high Quality , to have a retiring place so neatly adorn'd , as may invite them to be alone , and with-draw to it , to read , or meditate , provided these Ornaments be not so costly , as to rob Charity , or so gawdy , as to distract the Devotion they should but accommodate . And in case Circumstances should so conspire , as that Youth and Quality should be attended by such a plentiful Fortune , as that after all , that either Justice , Prudence , or Decency can challenge , there remains yet enough , both to relieve the Poor , and purchase Rarities themselves : I will not be so severe , as to condemn Persons so circumstanc'd , nor fall out with those that are able to reconcile Sumptuousness and Charity . But the number of such Ladies , especially so soon after a long civil War , must needs be but small , and I fear much inferiour to that of those , who will consider more what they see done before their Eyes , than they will the disparity of Circumstances betwixt their own Condition , and that of those they Aemulate : And the greater appearance of Ingeniousness , as well as Innocence , there is in the practice I am disapproving , the more dangerous it is , and the more fit to be examined and decri'd . For as the old Serpent has variety of Wiles , so he fits them to the various tempers of the Persons he assays to work upon ; and when he meets with Ladies virtuously disposed , since he cannot quite eradicate their inclinations to the best part of Religion , Charity , he will at least blast and render them fruitless ; and he justly thinks , he has reach'd no small part of his end , if though he cannot seduce them to do ill , he can at least hinder them from doing good . And this he has of late attempted but too prosperously , by persuading us to take those for the standard and examples of our Expences , that making none of the score of Piety , have the more left for their Vanities and their Appetites , which they gratifie at such high rates , that those that think themselves bound to imitate them in those Excesses , that are misnam'd Gallantry , shall have as little ability , as the other have will , to apply any considerable part of their Estates to those Uses , which chiefly God granted them those Estates for ; and by that time , the Lady her self , and the House , and the Closet , are furnished with all the Ornaments that Vanity and Emulation call for , there is nothing left for Charity to dispose of , nay , perhaps not for Justice ; the Creditor being oftentimes turned back empty as well as the Beggar , if not also made a Beggar by ruinous delays . And greater fortunes , than most Ladies have , may be exhausted , by gratifying such an ambition , as that of a Closet , to whose Costliness nothing can put limits , till Discretion do : Custom it self having not yet regulated a piece of Vanity , which , as imposing as Custom is wont to be , it has not yet dar'd to enjoyn . Lind. Me-thinks , Eusebius , you are somewhat forward to accuse those fair Creatures , that though they should want Innocence , would scarce want Advocates ; and you are to good a Casuist to ignore , that they are wont to alledge , that the Bravery you are so severe to , is no where expressly prohibited in the Scripture , and this unforbiddenness they think sufficient to evince , that the Sumptuousness you so condemn , is not absolutely , and in its own nature , Sinful . Euseb . I can readily believe , that Lindamor has Wit and Amorousness enough to make him find it more easie to defend fair Ladies , than to defend himself against them : And I know , 't is said , that these sumptuous Closets , and other Vanities , are not simply unlawful in their own Nature ; but I know too , that divers things , not in their own Nature unlawful , may be made so by circumstances , and if so , then I fear , That that can be no other than ill , which makes a Man needlessy disable himself to do good . The Apostle , that discountenanc'd Woman's wearing of Gold , or precious things upon their Bodies , would sure have opposed their having more sumptuous Ornaments upon their Walls : These cannot pray for us , but the poor and distressed , they keep us from relieving , may either successfully pray to God for us , or cry to him against us . The Scripture that represents Dives in Hell , without saying that he oppressed or defrauded any , gives no other account of his Doom , than that living at a high rate , and going richly dress'd , he neglected to relieve the starving poor . A few such Closets as this Ladies , might be easily enlarged , and contrived into an Hospital : A small part of these Superfluities would relieve the necessities of many Families , and a liberal Heart might purchase Heaven at an easier rate , than the furniture of this Closet cost the Owner of it . Nor is this practice so unallied to a fault , as to escape a punishment even in this World ; these Courtiers of Applause being oftentimes reduced to live in want , even in the midst of a plentiful Fortune ; these costly trifles so engrossing all that they can spare , that they must sometimes deny themselves things convenient , and perhaps almost necessary , to flaunt it out with those that are neither the one nor the other , and being frequently enough fain to immolate their own inclinations and desires , though perchance strong and innocent , to their Vanity . And those that have once found the happiness there is in making others happy , will think their Treasure better bestowed in feeding hungry Mouths , than idle Eyes : The costly Practice I am yet censuring , does not onely offend Charity , but starve it , by substracting from it that which should feed it , and enable it to act like it self . And for my part , I think , he that devises , and by his Example brings Credit to , a new Expensive way of Vanity , does really destroy more Poor , than if he usurped an Alms-house , or ruined an Hospital . And by the ill President he leaves , he takes the way to be uncharitable , even after Death , and so do harm , when Misers and Usurers themselves are wont ( by their Legacies ) to do some good . To conclude , 't is no very Christian practice to disobey the Dictates of Piety , without having so much to plead for so doing , as the pretence of following the Dictates of Custom : And 't is a great deal better to be without a gay Closet , than to be without Charity , which loveliest of Christian virtues , she must sure very much want , that will needlessly begin an new Example to give a bad one . REFLECTION X. Upon his seeing a Lark stoop to , and caught with , Day-nets . Eusebius , Lindamor . Euseb . POor Bird ! thou wert just now so high upon the Wing , that the tir'd Gazers fear'd thou hadst lost thy self in Heaven , and in thy fatal stooping seem'st to have brought us thence a Message , that so rellishes of that place , that I should be troubl'd to see thee so rudely entertain'd , if that Circumstance were not necessary to the Instructions of thy Message ; some Birds , you know , Lindamor , we usually beguile with Chaff , and others are generally drawn in by appropriated Baits , and by the Mouth , not the Eye . But the aspiring Lark seems compos'd of more sprightly , and refin'd Materials , she is ever a Natural , though no Native , Persian , and the Sun makes not a cloudless Visit to our Horizon , which that grateful Creature gives not a welcome to , both by Notes , which , could he hear them , he would think worthy of him , and by a flight as aspiring as if she meant he should hear them ; and , in a word , so conspicuous is this Creatures fondness of Light , that Fowlers have devis'd a way to catch her by it , and pervert it to her Ruine : For placing broken Looking-glasses upon a moveable Frame betwixt their Nets , the unwary Bird , while she is gazing upon that glittering Light the Glass reflects , and sporting her self in those Beams , which derive a new Glory from their very being broken , heedlessly gives into the Reach of the surprizing Nets , which suddenly cover her , and which the Light it self kept her from seeing . The Devil is like this Fowler , Lindamor , and you , or I , had perhaps resembl'd the unhappy Lark , if sometimes Providence did not both graciously , and seasonably , interpose , and ev'n when we were come near enough to have been cover'd by the Nets , rescu'd us from them ; for it has ever been that old Serpent's Policy , and practice , to take the exactest measure of our Inclinations , that he may skilfully suit his Temptations to them ; well knowing , that that Dexterity gains him a Devil within us , that conspires with him without us , to make us Instances of that Truth which represents Things divided against themselves as ruinous . If therefore , the Tempter find by Experience , that you are indispos'd to be wrought upon by common Temptations , to forget the Practice of Religion , that you have Unconcern'dness enough not to be much distracted with the empty and trifling Chaff , Youth is wont to be caught with , ( which perhaps seldome employ any of your Thoughts so much as those of Scorn , and Pity ) that the very Gain and solider Goods of this World ( for which many thought wise Men lose those of the next ) cannot make you so greedy , nor so fond of them , as he desires . If , I say , the Devil have sufficiently observ'd how uneasie it were to intice you with common Baits , he will alter his Method strait , and attempt to catch you with Light. He knows as well as I do , that you have a Curiosity , or rather a Greediness of Knowledge , that is impatient of being confin'd by any other Limits than those of Knowledge it self ; and accordingly , seldome , or perhaps never disturbing or frightning you , he will let you freely sport your self about the glittering Intellectual Glass , Men call Philosophy , and suffer you not onely to gaze upon all its pieces , and survey a pretty Number , but peradventure , pry into more than one ; and among so numerous , and delighting Objects , I fear , that if you will frankly own what my own Guilt makes me suspect you of , you must confess , That he had made you so share your Time , that you should scarce have left your self any for Heavenly Themes , and the Meditation of Death , ( which consequently might have then surpris'd you , had it invaded you ) if Providence had not mercifully snatch'd you out from between the Nets you were allur'd to , before you were quite involv'd in them ; and by Sickness , or else , by Means ( in other cases ) so unlikely , as outward Distractions , call'd your Thoughts home by driving them away from those enchanting Studies , whose Light might much likelier have betrai'd you into the Net , than have shewn it you . Lind. Though I am not surpris'd to hear Eusebius , yet I am glad to hear a Scholar talk at this rate , and believe with you , that many a one that was neither Crow , nor Wood-cock , has perish'd in this Snare ; and we have known but too many great Scholars , so intirely taken up with writing , and reading of Books , with learning this Science , and with teaching that , that by setting themselves such Tasks , as requir'd and imploi'd the whole Man , Death has undiscernedly stoll'n upon them , and unawares intruded into their Studies , where their restless Ambition to inrich the Mind never left them the leisure to prepare it , to leave the Body , but either made them surpris'd Instances of that sad ( but true ) Observation of Seneca , Plerosque in ipso Vitae apparatu Vita destituit , or else made their Condition like that of Archimedes , who was so busie in tracing his Circles , that he took no notice of that victorious Enemy that came to dispatch him . Euseb . I allow , that 't is the Innocence , as well as Pleasure of Knowledge , that deceives those Learned Men ; but they , as well as others , must remember , that ev'n the wholsomest Meats may be surfeited on , and there is nothing more unhealthy , than to feed very well , and do but very little Exercise . And I take it to be as true of the Intellectual , as the Material World , that it profits not a Man if he gain the whole World , and lose his own Soul. Whatsoever therefore Philosophers do tell us , of a wise Man , that he is no where banish'd , because he is a Citizen of the World ; I must think a Christian every where in Exile , because he is a Citizen of the Heavenly Jerusalem , and but a Stranger and a Sojourner here . It was not absolutely in the capacity of the Father of Lies , that the Devil boasted , that the Earth was his Dominion ; for , as our Saviour himself stil'd him , The Prince of this World , I find , that he has all things here so much at his Devotion , that there is no place that he cannot lay an Ambush in , since he can pervert ev'n Light it self , to hide his Snares . Let us , therefore , hereafter indeavour still to stand upon our Guard , as remembring our selves to be in an Enemy's Country , where Distrust is the onely Mother of safety ; and since Providence has so graciously presented us a Lesson , our Books would not have taught us , against such a fondness of them , as is injurious to Piety , and dangerous to the Soul ; Let us justifie , better than this silly Lark has done , that saying of Solomon , Surely in vain the Net is spread in the sight of any Bird. Let not Philosophy any more take up our Life so , as not to leave us leisure to prepare for Death , and study a Science which shall most benefit us in another World , and which alone will do so there : No , we may visit Athens , but we should dwell at Jerusalem ; we may take some turns on Parnassus , but should more frequent Mount Calvary , and must never so busie our selves about those many things , as to forget that Unum Necessarium , that good part which shall not be taken away from us . OCCASIONAL REFLECTIONS . The Last SECTION . REFLECTION I. Seeing a Child picking the Plums out of a piece of Cake his Mother had given him for his Breakfast . Eusebius . Lindamor . Euseb . THis Child is so much one in his humour , that despising meer Bread , though never so nourishing and wholesome , his Mother is fain to disguise the Materials of it into Cake , out of a belief that the toothsome , would make the nutritive part go smoothly down . But this lickerish Chit , I see , defeats her plot , and knows already how to nibble off the bait from the hook , and casting by the Meat , make his whole Meal of what was meant onely for Sauce , to give a Rellish to what he rejects for it . This puts me in mind of the unwelcome fate those Papers of mine , that treat of Devotion , have met with : For when I first was so unacquainted with the world , as to expect that Piety and Vertue were able , by their native charms , so much to endear my dress , as to win themselves adorers in a plain , or even a severe one ; I ventur'd some of them abroad , though not in Print , yet among my Acquaintance , in a careless Matron-like habit , in which I soon found they almost frighted most of those I had design'd them to work the quite contrary effects on . But when my Acquaintedness with the Genius of the Age had sadly taught me , that I was to alter my Method , that the Eloquence of Vertues Sermons was that which must attract an Auditory , and engage Attention to them ; and that those orders of hers , in which she employ'd not Rhetorick for her Secretary , could not be so much as listen'd to , much less obey'd , I endeavour'd to cloath Vertue , though not in a gawdy , in a Fashionable Habit , and devesting her not onely of her Sack-cloth , but her Blacks , where I saw she appear'd in them with Disadvantage , I endeavour'd to give her as much of the modern Ornaments of a fine Lady , as I could without danger of being accus'd to have dress'd her like a Curtizan . This Attempt having not prov'd so unsuccessful , but that many were pleas'd to assure me , I had not been unlucky in it , I spent some time in the self-denying Exercise of minding Words , and improving a Style , I hop'd to be able to improve to Virtue 's service , and subduing my Inclinations to be fit to Teach , as I had done to Learn , her Precepts ; I some times , for her sake , tri'd my Pen in a smoother , and more florid style , than that which the nature of the Studies I was most addicted to , made the most familiar to me , flattering my self with a Belief , that since my Writings had usually the good fortune not to be ill approv'd , I might so happily mingle and interweave Instructions with Delight , as to necessitate my Readers to swallow both together , or at least bribe them by the latter to entertain the former . Lind. You have better luck , as well as better skill , than many others , if you find it not often to fare with the Fishers of Men as it did with those other Fishers , that first were honoured with that glorious Title , when they complained to our Saviour , that we have toiled all the night , and have taken nothing . For I see that men are grown witty enough to elude what they cannot despise , and resemble the deaf Adder that stops her spiritual ears from hearkening to the voice of Charmers , be the Charmer never so cunning . And the best Reception that the moving'st Eloquence , that pleads for Piety , can obtain of them , is but such as may serve to make that applicable to the Preacher , which God once said to a Prophet , Lo thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice , and can play well upon an Instrument ; For they hear thy words , but they do them not . But the best is , that you serve a Master , that is as inclinable to reward , as able to discern , Intentions , and does not make his Estimates by Events , but judges of our Performances , not by the Effects they produce , but the Affections they flow'd from , and the Ends they aim'd at . Euseb . The Disciple is not above his Master , nor the Servant above his Lord. And therefore , Lindamor , as I dare not repine at the unsuccessfulness of my Endeavours , so I dare think , that whilst it proceeds but from the Obstinacy of others , 't is not likely to be imputed to me by Him that complain'd plain ' Himself , That all the day long he had stretch'd forth his hands to an unpersuadable and gain-saying people . Otherwise , I confess , I should not have much cause to be satisfi'd with the Return that all my Indeavours have hitherto brought me home . For I see that men can read a Book of Devotion as unconcern'dly as they do a Romance or a Play , in both of them culling out onely what they call Wit , and making no better use of it than either to exercise or improve their own . They hear the most pathetick Sermons , not as Christians but Oratours , and if in such Discourses they have been so just as to praise the Rhetorick , they think they may well be excus'd if they over-look the Divinity : In short , nothing but what gratifies their Fancy can leave any Impressions on their Memory , and that it self , if it tend to reform them , makes none on their Affections . And some whose happier Pens allow them to do it far more justly than I can , do complain , That if a devout Book have not good store of witty passages , they will not mind it at all , and if it have , they will mind nothing else . So that , Lindamor , I should sometimes be discourag'd from prosecuting Endeavours , which , though they now and then succeed , are oft-times so unprosperous , if I did not think , with you , that they who labour to win Souls to God , are set on work by him , that having no need of our Performances , seeks in our services but the opportunities of exercising his own Goodness . REFLECTION II. Upon the sight of Sweet-meats , very artificially counterfeited in Wax . THE shape and colours of the best Sweet-meats of these kinds , are here so luckily represented by a skilful Hand , that Art seems to have design'd rather to rival Nature , than barely to imitate Her , and a Lover of Junkets that approches not too near to these , must have much quickness of sight , or but little of appetite , if such inviting Objects do not tempt him both to mistake and to desire them . But , though at this distance these alluring Sweet-meats appear very pleasing ; yet if one should be so unadvis'd as to endeavour to eat them , instead of enjoying them more fully by the taste than he did by the sight , he would both spoil and disfigure them , and perhaps be so near choaking himself , that he would more earnestly wish them out of his mouth , than ever he wish'd them in it . There are some pleasures and conditions too in the world , which make so fine a shew at a distance , that in those that gaze at them aloof off , they frequently beget envy at them , and wishes for them ; and yet he that calmly beholds them takes the best way of enjoying them : since that which whilst 't is but aim'd at , is expected to be very satisfactory upon a nearer and fuller fruition , would be so far from proving so , and would so little be as sweet to the palate as specious to the eye , that it would not onely cease to afford them any delight , but would make them wish they had let those deluding Sweets alone , and would make attainments more uneasie and troublesome than even desire was . REFLECTION III. Upon the eating of Oysters . Eugenius , Lindamor . Eug. WHilst every body else is commending these Oysters , either with his Tongue or with his Teeth , so that one of the Company sticks not to say , that they are as much worth as if they contain'd each of them a Pearl , you onely seem as unconcern'd a Spectator , as if you thought their proper use , like that of Flowers , were , rather to be looked on than to be eaten . Lind. I confess , Eugenius , that I found my self more inclinable to reflect on what you are doing , than to keep you company in it , and whilst I saw such persons so gustfully swallow these extoll'd Fishes , the sight lead me to take more notice than perhaps you have done of the strange power of Education and Custom . Eug. And what , I pray you , has Custom to do with Oysters ? Lind. You will soon know that , if I tell you , that I was considering , on this occasion , how forward we are to think other Nations absurd or barbarous for such practices , that either the same , or little better , may be found unscrupled at among our selves ; and I acknowledge it to be one of the chief advantages I account my self to have obtain'd by my Travels , that as I do not easily admire , so I am not forward to deride , the Practice of any People for being New , and am not apt to think , their Customs must be therefore worse than ours , because they widely differ from them . I could give you store of Instances to justifie this impartiality , but because the circumstances of eating and drinking are those which make men , with the greatest confidence , term other Nations Brutish and Barbarous , I will confine may self to some Examples of that nature . We impute it for a barbarous custom to many Nations of the Indians , that like Beasts they eat raw Flesh . And pray' how much is that worse than our eating raw Fish , as we do in eating these Oysters ? Nor is this a practice of the rude Vulgar onely , but of the politest and nicest persons among us , such as Physicians , Divines , and even Ladies . And our way of eating seems much more barbarous than theirs , since they are wont to kill before they eat , but we scruple not to devour Oysters alive , and kill them not with our Hands or Teeth , but with our Stomachs , where ( for ought we know ) they begin to be digested before they make an end of dying . Nay sometimes when we dip them in Vinegar , we may , for sauce to one bit , devour alive a schole of little Animals , which , whether they be Fishes or Worms , I am not so sure , as I am , that I have , by the help of convenient Glasses , seen great numbers of them swimming up and down in less than a Sawcer full of Vinegar . We detest and despise some other Nations , for feeding upon Caterpillars , Grass-hoppers , and other Insects ; and others , for feeding upon Carrion , and stinking food . And do not many of us do as bad , when we not onely eat , but extoll , rotten Cheefe , whose Livid Colour sufficiently betrays its Putrefaction , and whose odious smell offends most mens Noses , and turns some mens Stomachs ? Nay , when this Cheese is grown to that high degree of rottenness that our critical palats like it best in , we then devour whole hundreds of Mites , which are really crawling Insects , bred out of Putrefaction , and these too are so numerous and little , that our greediness makes us swallow many of them alive . Among the Savagest Barbarians we count the Cannabals , and as for those among them that kill men to eat them , their inhumane cruelty cannot be too much detested ; but to count them so barbarous merely upon the score of feeding on man's flesh and bloud , is to forget that woman's milk , by which alone we feed our sucking Children , is , according to the received Opinion , but blanched Bloud ; and that Mummy is one of the usual Medicines commended and given by our Physicians for falls and bruises , and in other cases too . And if we plead that we use not Mummy for food , but Physick , the Indians may easily answer , that by our way of using man's flesh , we do oftentimes but protract sickness and pain , whereas they by theirs maintain their health and vigour . And there is no reason why it should be allowable to eat Broth , for instance , in a Consumption , and be condemnable to feed upon it to maintain health . But lastly , as the highest degree of Brutishness , our Travellers mention the practice of the Soldanians at the Cape of Good hope , who not onely eat raw meat , but , if they be hungry , eat the guts and all of their Cattle , with the Dung in them . I will not answer , that I know several among us , ( and perhaps some fair Ladies too ) that to prevent the Scurvy and the Gout , drink their own or Boy 's Urine : nor that women themselves do oftentimes take Parmacitty inwardly , though the Latin name ( Sperma Ceti ) sufficiently declare what excretion of a Whale it is ( though perhaps mistakenly ) believed to be : nor yet that under the name of Album Graecum , Dogs dung is commonly given to Patients of all sorts and qualities against sore Throats : nor will I mention , that in Holland 't is usual , as I have seen my self , to mingle Sheep's dung with their Cheeses , onely to give them a colour and a relish : But I will rather demand , how much less we do our selves , than what we abominate in those Savages , when we devour Oysters whole , guts , excrements , and all ; nay , when not for Physick , but onely for Delicacies , our Courtiers and Ladies themselves are wont to make sawce for the bodies of Lobsters of that green stuff , which is indeed their Dung : And to these I could add other Examples , if I were not afraid to divert you too long from so much pleasure as the Company seems to take in eating raw Fish . Eug. You put me in mind of a fancy of your Friend Mr. Boyle , who was saying , that he had thoughts of making a short Romantick story , where the Scene should be laid in some Island of the Southern Ocean , govern'd by some such rational Laws and Customs as those of Utopia or the New Atlantis , and in this Country he would introduce an Observing Native , that upon his return home from his Travels made in Europe , should give an account of our Countries and manners , under feign'd Names , and frequently intimate in his Relations , ( or in his Answers to Questions that should be made him ) the reasons of his wondring to find our Customs so extravagant and differing from those of his Country . For your Friend imagin'd , that by such a way of proposing many of our practices , we should our selves be brought unawares to condemn , or perhaps laugh at them , and should at least cease to wonder to find other Nations think them as extravagant , as we think the manners of the Dutch and Spaniards , as they are represented in our Travellers Books . Lind. I dislike not the project , and wish it were prosecuted by some Body , that being impartial were more a friend to Fables . For when I consider , that the name of Barbarian was given by the two Noblest Peoples of the Earth , the Greeks and Romans , not onely to all the rest of the World , but to one another , though both those Nations were highly civiliz'd , and the courtly Persians , and other voluptuous Asiaticks , were perhaps no less so than they ; I doubt that most Nations in stileing one anothers Manners extravagant and absurd , are guided more by Education and Partiality than Reason , and that we laugh at many Customs of Strangers onely because we never were bred to them , and prise many of our own onely because we never consider'd them . And we may well believe that Custom has much a larger Empire than men seem to be aware of , since whole Nations are wholly swai'd by it , that do not reckon themselves among its Subjects , nor so much as dream that they are so . REFLECTION IV. Upon a Lanthorn and Candle carri'd by , on a windy night . AS there are few Controversies more important , so there are not many , that have been more curiously and warmly disputed , than the Question , Whether a publick or a private life be preferrable ? But perhaps this may be much of the nature of the other Question , Whether a marri'd life or a single ought rather to be chosen ? that being best determinable by the Circumstances of particular cases . For though indefinitely speaking , one of the two may have advantages above the other , yet they are not so great , but that special Circumstances may make either of them the more eligible to particular persons . They that find themselves furnish'd with Abilities to serve their Generation in a publick capacity , and Vertue great enough to resist the Temptations , to which such a condition is usually expos'd , may not onely be allow'd to embrace such an Employment , but oblig'd to seek it . But he whose parts are too mean to qualifie him to govern others , and perhaps to enable him to govern himself , or manage his own private Concerns , or whose Graces are so weak , that 't is less to his Vertues or to his ability of resisting , than to his care of shunning the occasions of sin , that he ows his escaping the Guilt of it , had better deny himself some opportunities of doing Good , than expose himself to probable Temptations . For there is such a kind of difference betwixt Vertue shaded by a private , and shining forth in a publick life , as there is betwixt a Candle carri'd aloft in the open air , and inclosed in a Lanthorn ; in the former place it gives more light , but in the latter 't is in less danger to be blown out . REFLECTION V. Upon the first Audience of the Russian Extraordinary Embassadour , at which he made his Emperour's Presents . I See the general Expectation that there will be here this night a Magnificent Appearance , has produc'd one . And as it often happens in publick Shews , that the chief part of them is made by those that come to see them : so here , besides them whose Duty obliges them to attend at the Solemnity , there is a greater concourse of fine people of either Sex , than any thing of this nature has for these many years occasion'd . And not onely many of the Ladies wear in their Ribbands little less vivid colours , than those of their faces , and are set out with Jewels almost as sparkling as their Eyes , ( which yet the Courtiers think were able to warm the Russian hearts , though all the Ice and Snow of their Country guarded them ) but the Men themselves are many of them as finely and as richly dress'd , as if even they came as well to be seen as to see . And if the Embassadour be , what a man of his Employment should be , ( and what some say he is ) a Person acquainted with the Manners of Men , he cannot but know , That we , as other's Nations , value our own Fashions enough , to look upon Men disguis'd by the Russian dress , as little better than Anticks , if not as some new kind of Northern Animals . But for all this Gazing throng of Gawdy spectators , that were able to put an ordinary Stranger out of Countenance , to appear in a Habit differing from theirs ; the Embassadour , and those that come along with him , think it not fit to decline the Russian habit or Ceremonies , for the English , but keep to the Ceremonies us'd in Muscovy , as strictly as if the Monarch of it that sent them hither saw them here ; and are not discourag'd from this Manly proceeding , by seeing themselves star'd at for it by a number of Gawly spectators , that wear Cloaths , and use Ceremonies , so differing from theirs . And what ever those may think of the Embassadour , that are wont to estimate Men by the fashionableness of their Cloaths ; yet the Wiser and more Intelligent do not blame him , for refusing to disparage the Fashions of his own people , by appearing asham'd of them ; but , do rather think it prudent in him , to prefer the pleasing of his Master , and his own Country-men , before the gratifying of Strangers , since 't is not here , but at home , that he expects the recompence of his Behaviour , and Embassy . Thus , when a Christian , who belongs to a Celestial King , and whose Citizen-ship is in Heaven , being but a Stranger upon Earth , converses among the Men of the World , though in Matters indifferent , there is oft-times requir'd by Prudence , as much of Compliance as is allow'd by Innocence ; yet , when there happens an Occasion , wherein he cannot comply with the deprav'd Customs of those among whom he Lives , without disobeying Him for whom he Lives , and whose Servant he is , or doing something that would derogate from the Dignity of a Person related to such a Master , he will then less consider what may be thought of him by a Multitude , than what Account he is to render to him , who has forbidden Men to follow a Multitude to do Evil. And , as he knows , That his reward would be much less than he reckons upon , if it were a thing to be receiv'd on Earth , not in Heaven : So , how strange and unfashionable soever his Conformity to the Orders of his own Soveraign may appear , he chuses rather to displease Men than God , and acts , as both seeing , and being seen by , Him that is Invisible . A Continuation of the Discourse . ANd this ought to be more easie to him , than their Singularity is to the Russians , I have been mentioning ; for whereas these , if they be knowing , and impartial , refuse our Modes and Rites , not because they are worse , but onely because they are other than those of their Country ; he refuses to conform to the forbidden fashions of this World , not for their being different from those of the Kingdome he belongs to , but for their being bad , and condemn'd by Him that cannot err : Whereas , of the opposite practices , the same infallible Judge pronounces by the mouth of a Person by him inspir'd , that these are the good things , and the profitable unto Men. And whereas , these Strangers see nothing in this magnificent Assembly , whose Fashions they decline , fit to be despised , but see some Persons in it , to whom they pay a great respect , and who deserve it upon another account , than that of their wearing Crowns ; those that are Loyal to Virtue , have cause to look upon those they refuse to be like , with a noble , and just Indignation , as Persons that have degraded themselves , and by unworthy Practices blemish'd , and almost forfeited , the Dignity of their Nature , and the nobler Title of Christians . And , whereas these Muscovites are morally certain , that we shall never prefer their Fashions to our own ; the Christian has as great an assurance , that those , whose Practices he dissents from , will one day repent , that theirs dissented from his , and will wish they had imitated what they now seem to scorn . And however , when he shall come to the celestial City he belongs to , he will be in no danger to be derided for the sake of Piety , since those , that deride Piety , will not be admitted there . And as these Russians could not take a better way than that of not sneaking , to avoid the having their Rites and Persons undervalu'd ; so for a Christian , not to blush at his unfashionablest Practices , seems the hopefullest way to keep them and him from being scorn'd , especially with those , who having themselves no Quality better than Confidence , value it most in others . And sure it were a very unlikely way to keep others from despising the Customs of the Heavenly Jerusalem , for him that belongs to it to appear asham'd of them himself . Nor have pious Persons cause to be out of Countenance , at the singularity ev'n of a strictly virtuous Deportment , since , being ( as the Scripture tells us such Men in general are ) fellow Citizens with the Saints and Domesticks of God , they cannot justly be blam'd , if they aspire to be as like as they can here , to those , whom they desire and hope to be perfectly like hereafter . And if the Angels ( as the Scripture in several places seems to intimate ) are witnesses of our Actions , the smallest number of unfashionable good Men , may , upon that score , say to one another , as the Prophet did to his Servant , upon the account of the Heavenly Host that surrounded him , Fear not , for they that be with us are more than they that be with them . And the approbation of these illuminated , happy , and glorious Spirits , is sure more considerable than that of mortal , and , which is worse , of sensual Men , whether we consider their Number , or their Judgments . And however , the Day will come , when those that despise his Singularity , will envy his Happiness ; one welcoming smile from Christ will make him amends for all the scornful smiles of Sinful men ; And the sentence of Absolution , and Bliss , solemnly pronounc'd before God , Angels , and Men , will not onely recompence him for the World 's Disesteem , but shew that he did not deserve it . REFLECTION VI. Upon the sight of Roses and Tulips growing near one another . 'T Is so uncommon a thing to see Tulips last till Roses come to be blown , that the seeing them in this Garden grow together , as it deserves my notice , so methinks it should suggest to me some Reflection or other on it . And perhaps it may not be an improper one , to compare the difference betwixt these two kinds of Flowers , to the disparity which I have often observ'd , betwixt the Fates of those young Ladies , that are onely very handsome , and those that have a less degree of Beauty recompenc'd by the Accession of Wit , Discretion , and Virtue : For Tulips , whil'st they are fresh , do indeed by the Lustre , and Vividness , of their Colours , more delight the Eye than Roses ; but then they do not alone quickly fade , but as soon as they have lost that freshness , and gawdiness , that solv indear'd them , they degenerate into things not onely undesirable , but distastful ; whereas Roses , besides the moderate Beauty they disclose to the Eye , ( which is sufficient to please , though not to charm it ) do not onely keep their Colour longer than Tulips , but when that decays , retain a perfum'd Odour , and divers useful Qualities , and Virtues , that survive the Spring , and recommend them all the Year . Thus those unadvis'd young Ladies , that because Nature has given them Beauty enough , despise all other Qualities , and ev'n that regular Diet which is ordinarily requisite to make Beauty it self lasting , not onely are wont to decay betimes , but as soon as they have lost that Youthful freshness , that alone endear'd them , quickly pass from being Objects of Wonder , and Love , to be so of Pity , if not of Scorn ; Whereas those that were as sollicitous to enrich their Minds , as to adorn their Faces , may not onely with a mediocrity of Beauty be very desirable whil'st that lasts , but notwithstanding the recess of that , and Youth , may , by the fragrancy of their Reputation , and those Virtues and Ornaments of the Mind , that Time do's but improve , be always sufficiently endear'd to those that have merit enough to discern , and value , such Excellencies ; and whose Esteem and Friendship is alone worth their being concern'd for . In a word , they prove the happiest , as well as they are the wisest , Ladies , that whil'st they possess the desirable Qualities that Youth is wont to give , neglect not the acquist of those that Age cannot take away . REFLECTION VII . ( Taken out of the 2 d Book of the * Martyrdom of Theodora , and turn'd into an Occasional Meditation . ) Upon the sight of a Branch of Corral among a great Prince's Collection of Curiosities . THE present and future condition of a Christian , especially of a Martyr , is not ill represented by what we take notice of in Corral ; for whilst that Shrub yet lives , and remains fastned to its native earth or soil , it grows in an obscure Region of the world , and is perpetually surrounded , and over-flown , by the brackish and unpleasant waters of the Sea , and oftentimes expos'd to the irregular agitations of its waves . Besides , the substance of this Plant ( as those that should know inform us ) is but soft and tender under water , and its colour but sad and unlively : nor is it , like the Tulip or the Rose-bush , adorn'd with any pleasant verdure , and much less does it flourish with gawdy colours . And whilst it remains under water , the excellency of it does so little disclose it self , that men sail over it without suspecting or dreaming they have any thing of precious under their feet ; and by the fishes , in whose Region , or rather Element , it grows , 't is pass'd by wholly unregarded : But when this unheeded Corral comes to be torn off from its root , and pluck'd out of his soil , and so is kill'd in the capacity of a Plant , it then exchanges the dark and unquiet place it was confin'd to , for a more elevated and lightsome Region ; and instead of sharing the fate of common Shrubs and Flowers , first to degenerate into fading colours and offensive smells , and then to perish , either by rottenness or fire , our Corral , by the violence offer'd to it , acquires a delightful redness , together with a solidity and a durableness , that makes it a thing so lovely and immortal , that it serves for an Ornament , for the Cabinets of the Curious ; and what stupid Fishes do not at all regard , those nobler Creatures , Men , do so highly prise , that oftentimes it finds place even among the Rarities of Princes . Thus , a true Christian , whilst he is yet confin'd to the Region of the Animal Life , lives oftentimes in an obscure and low condition , and far from that prosperous state wherein the world's Favourites are wont to flourish , he is almost perpetually expos'd to pressures and afflictions , and either most men consider him not at all , or those that look at his out-side onely are apt to despise him because it is so homely . And he is not onely in such a ( seemingly forlorn ) condition , as made the Psalmist complain of himself , that all the waves pass'd over him ; but ( like those Plants of Corral , that , not growing so near the shoar , are constantly cover'd with water , as well as sometimes disorder'd by storms ) the calamities that do , as it were , over-whelm him , are never altogether remov'd , even in the intervals of those tempestuous Fits which increase his Distresses : But when the violence of sickness , or the fury of a Persecutor shall have taken away his life , he must be then translated into a higher and happier Region , Afflictions and Distresses will be all left behind . And when the sensual Idolizers of their Bodies shall be condemn'd to have those as loathsome as were their Minds , and as restless as their guilty Consciences , His Body will obtain new and glorious Qualities like that of his Redeemer , and his Soul shall find no less happy a Transfiguration , * the mortal part will be swallowed up of life , that perfection which is but in part shall be done away . And these newly acquir'd Excellencies of the whole man , will never after vanish or decay . And he that liv'd unregarded by the stupid Inhabitants of the earth , shall be joyfully welcom'd into the blest society of Celestial Spirits , and , what is infinitely more , be graciously welcom'd and dignifi'd by the Son of God himself . Men should not therefore , by a Christians present state , take their measures of his future fate , but rather should remember that he who said of such , They shall be mine in the day when I make up my * special treasures , is one whose Estimate of Persons and Conditions we may safely rely upon , since he is able to make any of them infallibly such as he pleases to pronounce them , and consequently we may look upon the constant Christian 's differing condition , with his eyes that said , We are now the Sons of God , and it does not ( indeed ) yet appear what we shall be , but we know that when he shall appear , we shall be like HIM ; who would be like himself alone , did not his goodness vouchsafe to exalt those that love him , to a likeness , which makes them very unlike the gloriousest things we here admire , by incomparably transcending them . REFLECTION VIII . Upon the sight of the effects of a Burning-glass . IT is a fault incident to many good men , to be too much indispos'd to entertain the Precepts of Vertue , as such excellent things deserve , in case those that teach them do not practise them . There are too many that do not think themselves oblig'd to take even the wholesomest advice from those , whom they see more careful to give it others , than to follow it themselves . And some of them are so nice , that they will scarce read a Book of Devotion , unless it come , like that St. John eat in the Apocalypse , from the hand of an Angel. But for my part , though I hope I both value and desire Religious Preachers as much as the rest of my Brethren , yet I think it would be much to the injury of Scripture and of Reason , if we should suffer the personal faults of men to keep them from doing that good , their nature fits them for . The Etymology of the Gospel importing its being welcome news , 't is pity that any one that teaches it should not have a title to the Character David gave Ahimaaz , of whom he said , that he is a good man , and brings good tidings . But my desirousness of piety in a Preacher is more for others sake than mine . For I know not why Truth , which is an intellectual thing , should lose its nature by any moral vitiousness in the Proposer . I know there is something extraordinary in the case of Noah , who awoke from his Wine and immediately prophesied , and yet the Event verifi'd his Predictions . Our Saviour instructing his Disciples about the Scribes and Pharisees , who sate in Moses's Chair , at the same time commands them to conform to their Doctrine , when he forbids them to imitate their Example . The Wise-men did not the less find Christ at Bethlehem , though the Priests and Pharisees sent them without accompanying them thither . And the Assyrian General was cured of his Leprosie by following the Prophet's prescription convey'd him by that Gehazi , who , by his unworthy carriage in that business , transplanted ( if I may so speak ) that foul Disease into himself and his posterity . I will therefore consider Sermons more than Preachers : For as in a Burning-glass , though the Sun-beams do but illustrate , not heat , it in their passage , they may yet , by its assistance , kindle subjects that are more disposed to receive their action : So those very Truths and Notions of a learned Preacher , which do but enlighten him , may inflame his Hearers , and kindle in their hearts the love of God. And as if a Perfume be set on fire by the Beams projected through a Burning-glass ( which they do not so much as warm in their passage ) the Scent is no less odoriferous and grateful , than if it had been produc'd by an actually burning coal . So neither is that Devotion which is kindled by the Eloquence of an indevout Preacher , any whit the less acceptable to God for their not being themselves affected with the Zeal they beget in others . And what the Book of Kings relates of Elisha's Bones , contains a far greater Miracle in the Historical , than in the Allegorical sense , in which 't is no such wonder to see a man rais'd to life by a dead Prophet . REFLECTION IX . Upon the finding a Horse-shoe in the High-way . THe common people of this Country have a Tradition , that 't is a lucky thing to find a Horse-shoe . And though 't was to make my self merry with this fond conceit of the superstitious Vulgar , I stoop'd to take this up ; yet now I observe in it a Circumstance that may , for ought I know , somewhat justifie the Tradition . For I take notice , that though Horse-shoes are by travelling worn out , yet if they had a sense of their own condition , it might afford them some consolation in it , that the same Journeys that waste them make them both useful and bright . Whereas , though the Horse-shoe I have taken up have not been consum'd upon the account of travelling , it has been eaten up by rust , which wastes it as well as Attrition would have done , but does not give it the lustre it would have receiv'd from that . I meet with many , who , very unmindful that He who was justly styl'd the Wise-man , whose counsel it was , that what ever our hand finds to do , we should do it with all our might , &c. make it the main business of their life merely to lengthen it , that are far more sollicitous to live long , than well , and would not undergo the least labour , or endure the least hardship , to do the greatest Good , but had rather lose an hundred opportunities of serving God , or obliging Men , than one Entertainment , or an hours sleep , and all this under the pretence of minding their Health , and complying with the Dictates of Self-preservation . But I have often observ'd too , that ev'n these jolly People that seldome have a serious Thought , but how to avoid serious Imployments , may , by making their whole Lives a Succession of Divertisements , or rather a constant Diversion from the true end of them , make their Lives indeed thereby useless , but not at all immortal . And truly , Feavers , Plurisies , and other acute Diseases , that are home-bread , besides those numerous fatal ones that are caught by Contagion , and a multitude of Casualties , do cut off so many before they reach old Age , in comparison of those , that the Diligence , and Industry , impos'd by Religion , or Curiosity , destroy , that I think so great a fear of using the Body for the interests of the Soul , and of him to whom we owe both , do's very little become his Disciples , who said , That 't was his Meat to do the Will of God that sent him , and to accomplish his Work. The trouble of Thirsting , and Sweating , and Undressing , would to an ingenious Man be but just recompenc'd by the bare pleasures of Eating , and Drinking , and Sleeping , to confine an honest and inquisitive Person from those , which he looks upon as the almost onely Manly employments , the exercise of Virtue , and the pursuit of Knowledge , by telling him , that such a forbearance may protract his Life , is , to promise a thing upon a condition that destroys the end and use of it ; and he will look upon it , as if you should offer him a Horse , provided he will not ride him , or a Perspective-glass , upon condition he shall not draw it out , for fear the Air should , as it sometimes do's , impair the Glasses . A Heaven-born Soul would scarce think it worth while to stay here below , if its work must be , not to imploy the Body , but to tend it . Those that are so unreasonably afraid to spend their Spirits , are in some regards less excusable than Misers themselves ; for though both hoard up things that cannot be better injoy'd than by being parted with , the chief uses for which they were intrusted with them ; yet in this , those I blame are more censurable than the Covetous themselves , since these , by their Niggardliness , can avoid spending their Money , but the others , by their Laziness , cannot avoid the Consumption of their time . I know a Man may be Prodigal of himself , as well as his Estate , and that both those Profusions are faults , and therefore fit to be declin'd . But if I could not shun both the Extremes , certainly , since we all must Dye , and the question is not whether or no we will Live for ever , ( for the most that can be hop'd for , is not to be priviledg'd from Death , but onely to be longer repriv'd ) but whether we will rather indeavour to lead a Life , mean , and unprofitable , a few more days , or a glorious Life , for a somewhat less number of them ? I should rather chuse to spend my Life quickly , than uselessly ; for he that lays out himself for Eternity , if he lose any Portion of his time upon that account , is the sooner put into possession of an Inexhaustible stock of it ; whereas those , who , that they may Live long , meanly forgo the ends of Living , and seek , by Laziness , to protract an insignificant stay on Earth , would , should they reach their Aim , add rather to their Years than to their Life . REFLECTION X. Upon the Shop of an ugly Painter rarely well stor'd with Pictures , of very handsome Ladies . Genorio , Lindamor , Eusebius . Genor . HEre is a deceitful Shop of Beauty , where many that come but to wonder , meet with Love , and ev'n when they buy , not what they like , pay their Hearts for it ; the Shop being so well furnish'd , that Beauty seems here to have assum'd all the variety of Features , and Complexions , she can be dress'd in , and so exquisitly to have fitted all Gazers , with proportionate and attractive Objects , that nothing but an absolute Incapability of Love , is here able to protect them from that Passion , which , not to resent among so many inspiring Wonders , were one . If in these Faces , the Originals equal the Transcripts , if Art have not flatter'd Nature , and attempted more to instruct than imitate her ; and if the Painter have not elected , rather to have his Pieces lik'd , than like , here are Apologies for Love , that can procure it , not onely Pardons , but Proselites . I must ( in that case ) add , that there are more Suns than one , whose Brightness , ev'n by Reflection , can dazle ; here are Princesses more illustrious for the Blood that lightens in their Cheeks , than for that which runs in their Veins , and who , like victorious Monarchs , can conquer at a distance , and captivate by Proxie . Euseb . I fear , Genorio ▪ that you are so transported with your Text , that you will quite forget ( if ever you intended it ) to make a Homily upon it : For you talk at such a rate , as if you were about to lose , to the Pictures of Ladies , the liberty , your Friend Mr. Boyle would be thought to have ever defended against their Originals , and fanci'd , that it might add to the other Resemblances you so admire betwixt them , if both of them were made Enemies to seriousness . Lind. I presume , Genorio will willingly allow me , to serve him at this turn ; for whether or no he meant us a Reflection , some charms or other he has met with in these Pictures , seem to have so arrested his Thoughts , as well as his Looks , that we shall not have them hastily deliver'd from so pleasing a Captivity ; and the Knowledge I alone , of us three , have of the Drawer of these Pictures , supplies me with a Circumstance , without which , I should not , when Eusebius is by , offer at an Occasional Meditation : But upon this advantage , I shall venture to tell you , That the thing I was considering , was , that though the Limner have drawn some Pieces , as handsome as Lovers think , or wish their Mistresses , and some ( as they tell me ) so like , that an actual Confrontation of the Artist's works , and Nature's , would scarce distinguish them , ( since the former would appear to differ from the later , but in that silence , which the laters admiration , to see themselves so perfectly represented , would impose ) yet is the Painter himself so deformed a Creature , that he might draw a lovelier Face ev'n than any here , by drawing one perfectly unlike his own . Alas , this discloses the difference there may be betwixt the being able to write fine Characters of Virtue , and the possessing of it . How ridiculous should I esteem this Limner , if with all this ugliness , he should esteem himself handsome , because his Pencil can draw Faces that are so ! As absurd were it for us , to grow proud of our devout Composures , and fancy Piety ours , because our Discourses can possibly inamour others of it . The Devil sometimes do's unmolestedly suffer us to write well , if he can but persuade us we need do no more , and that good Pens may dispense us from good Actions . Our Paper-warrs against Vices , are oftentimes like Alexander's , against the Neighbouring Nations , not out of Hatred , but Glory , not to Extirpate , but to Conquer them , and manifest to the World the sufficiency of our Parts , by a Victory , after which , we often treat the vanquish'd Enemy with greater Courtesie , than those whose Quarrel we undertook . Discourses against Vices , may be as well indited by Vanity , as by Zeal , and meant to express Wit , not persuade Piety . And if ( as it chanceth but too frequently ) we grow proud of them , we do , like Witches turning Exorcists , onely comply with Satan to cast out the Devil . Euseb . To second your pious , Reflection Lindamor , with some thoughts suitable to my Profession , I will add , that in the case you put , it happens to us as it once did to Gideon , who , of the spoils of God and Israels conquered Enemies , made an Idol , which prov'd , in the end , his , and his houses Snare . 'T was a most instructive Check , and divine admonition , that our Saviour gave his Apostles , when , in the account they brought him of their Embassy , they joyfully related their excercis'd power , of dispossessing Devils ; Notwithstanding ( answer'd Christ ) in this rejoice not , that Spirits are subject to you , but rather rejoice that your names are written in Heaven . In effect , though Judas were one of the Persons , invested with this miraculous power of casting Devils out of others , yet we read that Satan afterwards enter'd into Judas , and that it had been good for him , that he had never been born . And though , as Solomon tells us , He that winneth Souls , is wise , yet it is he only that shall do , as well as teach , the Commandments that shall be call'd great in the Kingdom of Heaven . And the Judge himself informing us , that , at the worlds last day , many will plead their having in his name not only prophesy'd or preach'd , but cast out Devils , and shall yet be disclaim'd by him ; sufficiently intimates , that 't is as possible , as unavailable , to do many wonderful works ( for Religion ) and to be workers of Iniquity . The true Christian should , Lindamor , be willing to impart any useful Discoveries that God shall please to vouchsafe him ; but he will ever consider the taking'st Notions he can frame of vertue , more as Engagments to it , than Arguments of it ; and since there is not any thing in which Charity ought more to begin at home than in devout Instructions , he will endeavour to make himself as much Piety's Votary , as Advocate ; to imitate those truly Wisemen , that as they inform'd those of Jerusalem , of the Starr they had seen in the East , did themselves follow it , till it brought them unto Christ ; to entitle himself to that of our Saviour , A good man , out of the good treasure of his heart , brings forth good things ; and ( finally ) to take his Celebrations of vertue from his Experience , not his Fancy ; as Nurse first feed themselves , to nourish their sucking Infants , to whom they give no meat , which they have not in their own Breasts first digested into Milk , lest ( like the Carpenters that toyl'd to build the Ark to save Noah from the Deluge , themselves perisht in , ) when he has preach'd to others , himself should prove a Cast-away . A Continuation of the Discourse . Genor . SUre , Gentlemen , 't is a happy thing to be able to convert the meanest things to the noblest uses , and make whatever one pleases , subservient to Piety , by skilfully imploying ev'n slight and unpromising Occasions , to represent her , which the Advantages of a vary'd and surprizing Dress , whereby you may procure that Vertue lovers , and your selves friends : For her Votary's are so ingenuous and disintress'd in their Amours , that they have as well as kindness for their Rivals , as their Mistress . Lind. I will not deny but that there may be Persons so inflam'd with heavenly Love , that their Devotion is able , like the last fire , that is to refine or destroy the World , to turn all things into Fuel for its victorious flames , and who , when they are once ingag'd in Meditation , can make their pious thoughts excite themselves and flame up higher , and higher , without the assistance of other Incentives , than what their own fervency procures them ; as 't is observed , that when the fire has seiz'd upon a Town , by how small a spark soever it have been kindl'd , if the flame come to be very great , though the air be very calm , the fire it self will produce a wind , that , without the help of Bellows , shall strongly blow it , and make it blaze the more , and aspire towards Heaven . But , Genorio , when-ever ( for I answer but for my self ) I shall meet with any such happy Contemplators , I shall have the Justice to be one of their Admirers , without having the vanity to pretend to be one of their number . Euseb . And I , for my part , shall tell you , Genorio , that though there may be divers charitable persons , besides your self , that by the Expressions it becomes me to use in some of my Meditations , and other composures of the like Nature , may be apt to fancy that I am my self , as devout as I indeavour to make my Readers , yet you must not imagine that my mind , like one of those Writing's , has no other thoughts than Religious , or at least moral ones ; For those may be the productions , not of a constant frame of mind , but of Occasional Fits of Devotion : And you may read a greater number of such Reflections in an hour than perhaps I have made in a month , not to say , in a year . And I must ingeniously confess to you , that I think it more easie to make ten good Sermons than to practise one , and to declaim against all sins than to relinquish any : There goes much lesse self-denial to conform to the Precepts of Cicero , than to those of Christ , and I find it so much less difficult to excite other mens passions , than to command my own , that if you will not suffer your charity too much to injure your judgment , You must look upon the devouter passages you may have met with among my Composures , as Expressions of what I aim at , rather than of what I practise . The End of the last Section . THE TABLE . A Discourse touching Occasional Meditations . 1 SECT . I. REFLECTION I. UPon his manner of giving meat to his Dog. 161 II. Upon his Distilling Spirit of Roses in a Limbeck . 163 III. Upon his being in great danger wandring , on Mendip hills , among cover'd Lead-mines that he knew not of . 167 IV. His Horse stumbling in a very fair way . 169 V. Upon two very miserable Beggars , begging together by the High-way . 172 VI. Sitting at case in a Coach that went very fast . 175 VII . Upon the sight of a Wind-mill standing still . 176 VIII . Upon his paring of a rare Summer-apple . 181 IX . Upon his Coaches being stopt in a narrow Lane. 182 X. Looking through a Perspective-glass upon a Vessel we suspected to give us Chace , and to be a Pyrat . 184 The II. SECTION , Containing Occasional Reflections upon the Accidents of an Ague . MEDITATION I. UPon the first Invasion of the Disease . 187 II. Upon the immoderate Heat and Cold of the Aguish Fit. 192 III. Upon the succession of the cold and hot Fit. 194 IV. Upon the being let Bloud . 199 V. Upon the taking of Physick . 202 VI. Upon the Syrups and other sweet things sent him by the Doctor . 206 VII . Upon the want of Sleep . 209 VIII . Upon telling the strokes of an ill-going Clock in the night . 214 IX . Upon comparing the Clock and his Watch. 216 X. Upon a Thief in a Candle . 218 XI . Upon the being in danger of death . 221 XII . Upon the same Subject . 226 XIII . A further Continuation . 229 XIV . Upon the apprehensions of a Relapse . 235 XV. Upon his reviewing and tacking together the several Bills fil'd up in the Apothecary's Shop . 237 The III SECTION . REFLECTION I. UPon the sight of some variously-coloured Clouds . 241 II. Upon his making of a Fire . 243 III. Upon my Spaniel's carefulness not to lose me in a strange place . 245 IV. Upon the prodigiously wet weather , which happen'd the Summer that Colchester was besieg'd . ( 1648 ) 246 V. Upon his being Carv'd to at a Feast . 250 VI. Upon the sight of a Looking-glass , with a rich Frame . 251 VII . Upon my Spaniel's fetching me my Glove . 256 VIII . Upon the taking up his Horses from Grass , and giving them Oats before they were to be ridden a Journey . 258 IX . Upon the making of a Fire with Charcoal . 260 X. Looking through a Prismatical or Triangular Glass . 261 The IV. SECTION . DISCOURSE I. UPon the being call'd upon to rise early on a very fair morning . 1 II. Upon the Mounting , Singing , and Lighting of Larks . 8 III. Upon the sight of a fair Milk-maid singing to her Cow. 13 IV. Upon Fishing with a counterfeit Fly. 27 V. Upon a Fish's strugling after having swallow'd the Hook. 30 VI. Upon the sight of ones Shadow cast upon the face of a River . 33 VII . Upon a Fall occasion'd by coming too near the Rivers Brink . 47 VIII . Upon the Good and Mischief that Rivers do . 50 IX . Upon the comparing of Lands , seated at differing distances from the River . 56 X. Upon a Fishes running away with the Bait. 64 XI . Upon a Danger springing from an unseasonable Contest with the Steersman . 67 XII . Upon Clouds rising out of the Sea , and falling down in Rain not Brackish . 80 XIII . Upon drawing the Boat to the Shore . 87 XIV . Upon Catching store of Fish at a Baited place . 92 XV. Upon the Magnetical Needle of a Sun-Dyal . 95 XVI . Upon the Quenching of Quick-lime . 105 XVII . Upon ones Talking to an Eccho . 107 XVIII . Upon a Giddiness occasion'd by looking attentively on a rapid Stream . 118 XIX . Upon ones Drinking water out of the Brims of his Hat. 122 XX. On seeing Boys swim with Bladders . 129 THE TRANSITION Containing A DISCOURSE Upon the Sports being interrupted by Rainy-weather . 133 The V. SECTION . REFLECTION I. UPon the sight of N. N. making of Syrup of Violets . 139 II. Upon the sight of a Paper-Kite in a Windy day 145 III. Killing a Crow ( out of a Window ) in a Hog's-trough , and immediately tracing the ensuing Reflection with a Pen made of one of his Quills . 149 Upon the same Subject . 153 IV. Upon a Glow-worm that he kept included in a Chrystal Viol. 154 V. Upon a Courts being put into Mourning . 156 VI. Upon hearing of a Lute first tun'd , and then excellently play'd on . 162 VII . Upon being presented with a rare Nose-gay by a Gardener . 165 VIII . Upon a Child that cri'd for the Stars . 171 IX . Upon my Lady D. R. Her fine Closet . 175 X. Upon his seeing a Lark stoop to , and caught with , Day-nets . 182 The Last SECTION . REFLECTION I. SEeing a Child picking the Plums out of a piece of Cake his Mother had given him for his Breakfast . 188 II. Upon the sight of Sweet-meats , very artificially counterfeited in Wax . 193 III. Upon the eating of Oysters . 194 IV. Upon a Lanthorn and Candle carri'd by , on a Windy night . 201 V. Upon the first Audience of the Russian Extraordinary Embassadour , at which he made his Emperour's Presents . 203 A Continuation of the Discourse . 206 VI. Upon the sight of Roses and Tulips growing near one another . 209 VII . Upon the sight of a Branch of Corral among a great Prince's Collection of Curiosities . 211 VIII . Upon the sight of the effects of a Burning-glass . 215 IX . Upon the finding a Horse-shoe in the High-way . 217 X. Upon the Shop of an ugly Painter rarely well stor'd with Pictures , of very handsome Ladies . 221 A Continuation of the Discourse . 227 FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A29010-e200 * 'T is the name given to the same Lady , in the II. Section of the following Meditations . Notes for div A29010-e360 It nigrum campis Agmen . * In the latter part of his Proeme , whereof the whole amounts not to one Page of this Preface . Would we but keep our wholesome Notions together Mankind would too rich . Bp. Hall in his Proeme . * So they call a certain Room , Arficially furnish'd with Pictures or other Images of things , whereby to help the Memory , Notes for div A29010-e2200 Prov. 16. 33. Nehemiah 6. 3. Matth. 20. 6. Jo. 8. 44. Psal . 119. 105. * So Junius and Tremelius translate the place , Quàm ampla sunt opera tua , O Jehova , quàm ea omnia sapienter fecisti ? and so the Original will bear , if the Hebrew Ma , be made applicable as well to the latter , as to the former part of the words . Ps . 104. 24. Ps . 144. 3. Psal . 8. 3 , 4. Mat. 15. 36 ▪ 1 Cor. 11. 3. Isaiah 53. 4. John 15. 2. * That is , Cultivator of the Ground . John 15. 2. Job 2. 3. Psal . 32. 1. 2 Cor. 8. 2. Luk. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Revel . 14. 13. 1 Pet. 5. 4. Psal . 16. 11. Judges 14. 8. Rom. 8. 28. Gen. 28. 12. Notes for div A29010-e4620 Sailing betwixt Roterdam and Graves-end on Easter-day , 1648. * A name often given by the Author to his excellent Sister R. who was almost always with him during his Sickness . Rom. . 8. 13. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . At Rhodes the Air is never so Dim and Cloudy , but one hour or other the Sun shineth out , Pliny , l. 2. c. 62. Where he also says the same of Syracusa . Merit 1. 12. Psal . 33. 9. Isaiah 40. 28. Revel . 10. 6. Hebr. 11. 8. Nehemiah the 9. and the 6. Psal . 104. 29 , 30. Ephes . 3. 10. James 4. 1. Judges 4. 29. 2 Cor. 15. 15. Hebr. 2. 14 , 15. 1 Sam. 10. 6. 9. Genes . 11. v. 6. Est . 5. 1. Gen. 15. 16 Luk. 16. 28 2 Sam. 2. 26. Num. 25 Num. 11. 33. Judges 16. At Lees. Hague 1648. * For there was a second part of this Reflection , but when it was to be sent to the Press it could not be found , nor would the Presses haste , and the Authors occasions , allow him either to stay till it were found , or write a new one . Thus in a Starry night fond Children cry For the rich Spangles that adorn the sky . Mr W. A. D. 1651. Luke 5. 5. Titus 3. 8. 2 Kin. 6. 16 ▪ * An unpublish'd Piece of the Author 's . * 2 Cor 5. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Mal. 3. 17. * Segullah . Joh. 3. 2. Joh. 4. 34. At the Hague . Judges 8. 24. 25. 26. &c. Mat. 5. 19. Mat. 7. 22. 23. Luk. 6. 45. 1 Cor. 9. 27. 
A28975	----	Experiments and considerations touching colours first occasionally written, among some other essays to a friend, and now suffer'd to come abroad as the beginning of an experimental history of colours / by the Honourable Robert Boyle ... Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1664 Approx. 594 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 235 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A28975 Wing B3967 ESTC R19422 12220645 ocm 12220645 56394 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A28975) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 56394) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 128:7) Experiments and considerations touching colours first occasionally written, among some other essays to a friend, and now suffer'd to come abroad as the beginning of an experimental history of colours / by the Honourable Robert Boyle ... Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. [41], 423 p., 1 folded leaf of plates : ill. Printed for Henry Herringman ..., London : 1664. "A short account of some observations made by Mr. Boyle about a diamond that shines in the dark" (p. 389-423) has special t.p. Errata: p. [41]. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. 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Colors -- Early works to 1800. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-06 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-07 Derek Lee Sampled and proofread 2006-07 Derek Lee Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion EXPERIMENTS AND CONSIDERATIONS Touching COLOURS . First occasionally Written , among some other Essays , to a Friend ; and now suffer'd to come abroad as THE BEGINNING Of An Experimental History OF COLOURS . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE , Fellow of the ROYAL SOCIETY . Non fingendum , aut excogitandum , sed inveniendum , quid Natura faciat , aut ferat . Bacon . LONDON , Printed for Henry Herringman at the Anchor in the Lower walk of the New-Exchange . MDCLXIV . THE PREFACE . HAving in convenient places of the following Treatise , mention'd the Motives , that induc'd me to write it , and the Scope I propos'd to my self in it , I think it superfluous to entertain the Reader now , with what he will meet with hereafter . And I should judge it needless , to trouble others , or my self , with any thing of Preface : were it not that I can scarce doubt , but this Book will fall into the hands of some Readers , who being unacquainted with the difficulty of attempts of this nature , will think it strange that I should publish any thing about Colours , without a particular Theory of them . But I dare expect that Intelligent and Equitable Readers will consider on my behalf : That the professed Design of this Treatise is to deliver things rather Historical than Dogmatical , and consequently if I have added divers new speculative Considerations and hints , which perhaps may afford no despicable Assistance towards the framing of a solid and comprehensive Hypothesis , I have done at least as much as I promis'd , or as the nature of my Undertaking exacted . But another thing there is , which if it should be objected , I fear I should not be able so easily to answer it , and that is ; That in the following Treatise ( especially in the Third part of it ) the Experiments might have been better Marshall'd , and some of them deliver'd in fewer words . For I must confess that this Essay was written to a private Friend , and that too , by snatches , at several times , and places , and ( after my manner ) in loose sheets , of which I oftentimes had not all by me that I had already written , when I was writing more , so that it needs be no wonder if all the Experiments be not rang'd to the best Advantage , and if some connections and consecutions of them might easily have been mended . Especially since having carelesly laid by the loose Papers , for several years after they were written , when I came to put them together to dispatch them to the Press , I found some of those I reckon'd upon , to be very unseasonably wanting . And to make any great change in the order of the rest , was more than the Printers importunity , and that , of my own avoavocations ( and perhaps also considerabler sollicitations ) would permit . But though some few preambles of the particular Experiments might have ( perchance ) been spar'd , or shorten'd , if I had had all my Papers under my View at once ; Yet in the most of those Introductory passages , the Reader will ( I hope ) find hints , or Advertisements , as well as Transitions . If I sometimes seem to insist long upon the circumstances of a Tryall , I hope I shall be easily excused by those that both know , how nice divers experiments of Colours are , and consider , that I was not barely to relate them , but so as to teach a young Gentleman to make them . And if I was not sollicitous , to make a nicer division of the whole Treatise , than into three parts , whereof the One contains some Considerations about Colours in general . The Other exhibits a specimen of an Account of particular Colours , Exemplifi'd in whiteness and Blackness . And the Third promiscuous Experiments about the remaining Colours ( especially Red ) in order to a Theory of them . If , I say , I contented my self with this easie Division of my Discourse , it was perhaps because I did not think it so necessary to be Curious about the Method or Contrivance of a Treatise , wherein I do not pretend to present my Reader with a compleat Fabrick , or so much as Modell ; but only to bring in Materials proper for the Building ; And if I did not well know how Ingenious the Curiosity and Civility of Friends makes them , to perswade Men by specious allegations , to gratifie their desires ; I should have been made to believe by persons very well qualify'd to judge of matters of this nature , that the following Experiments will not need the addition of accurate Method and speculative Notions to procure Acceptance for the Treatise that contains them : For it hath been represented , That in most of them , as the Novelly will make them surprizing , and the Quickness of performance , keep them from being tedious ; so the sensible changes , that are effected by them , are so manifest , so great , and so sudden , that scarce any will be displeased to see them , and those that are any thing Curious will scarce be able to see them , without finding themselves excited , to make Reflexions upon Them. But though with me , who love to measure Phyfical things by their use , not their strangeness , or prettiness , the partiality of others prevails not to make me over value these , or look upon them in themselves as other than Trifles : Yet I confess , that ever since I did divers years ago shew some of them to a Learned Company of Virtuosi : so many persons of differing Conditions , and ev'n Sexes , have been Curious to see them , and pleas'd not to Dislike them , that I cannot Despair , but that by complying with those that urge the Publicaion of them , I may both gratifie and excite the Curious , and lay perhaps a Foundation whereon either others or my self may in time superstruct a substantial Theory of Colours . And if Aristotle , after his Master Plato , have rightly observ'd Admiration to be the Parent of Philosophy , the wonder , some of these Trifles have been wont to produce in all sorts of Beholders , and the access they have sometimes gain'd ev'n to the Closets of Ladies , seem to promise , that since the subject is so pleasing , that the Speculation appears as Delightfull as Difficult , such easie and recreative Experiments , which require but little time , or charge , or trouble in the making , and when made are sensible and surprizing enough , may contribute more than others , ( far more important but as much more difficult ) to recommend those parts of Learning ( Chymistry and Corpuscular Philosophy ) by which they have been produc'd , and to which they give Testimony ev'n to such kind of persons , as value a pretty Trick more than a true Notion , and would scarce admit Philosophy , if it approach'd them in another Dress : without the strangeness or endearments of pleasantness to recommend it . I know that I do but ill consult my own Advantage in the consenting to the Publication of the following Treatise : For those things , which , whilst men knew not how they were perform'd , appear'd so strange , will , when the way of making them , and the Grounds on which I devis'd them , shall be Publick , quickly lose all that their being Rarityes , and their being thought Mysteries , contributed to recommend them . But 't is fitter for Mountebancks than Naturalis to desire to have their discoverys rather admir'd than understood , and for my part I had much rather deserve the thanks of the Ingenious , than enjoy the Applause of the Ignorant . And if I can so farr contribute to the discovery of the nature of Colours , as to help the Curious to it , I shall have reach'd my End , and sav'd my self some Labour which else I may chance be tempted to undergo in prosecuting that subject , and adding to this Treatise , which I therefore call a History , because it chiefly contains matters of fact , and which History the Title declares me to look upon but as Begun : Because though that above a hundred , not to say a hundred and fifty Experiments , ( some loose , and others interwoven amongst the discourses them selves ) may suffice to give a Beginning to a History not hitherto , that I know , begun by any ; yet the subject is so fruitfull , and so worthy , that those that are Curious of these Matters will be farr more wanting to themselves than I can suspect , if what I now publish prove any more than a Beginning . For , as I hope my End avours may afford them some assistance towards this work , so those Endeavours aremuch too Vnfinish'd to give them any discouragement , as if there were little left for others to do towards the History of Colours . For ( first ) I have been willing to leave unmention'd the most part of those Phaenomena of Colours , that Nature presents us of her own accord , ( that is , without being guided or over-ruld by man ) such as the different Colours that several sorts of Fruites pass through before they are perfectly ripe , and those that appear upon the fading of flowers and leaves , and the putrifaction ( and it s several degrees ) of fruits , &c. together with a thousand other obvious Instances of the changes of colours . Nor have I much medled with those familiar Phaenomena wherein man is not an Idle spectator ; such as the Greenness produc'd by salt in Beef much powder'd , and the Redness produc'd in the shells of Lobsters upon the boyling of those fisles ; For I was willing to leave the gathering of Observations to those that have not the Opportunity to make Expements . And for the same Reasons , among others , I did purposly omit the Lucriferous practise of Trades-men about colours ; as the ways of making Pigments , of Bleanching wax , of dying Scarlet , &c. though to divers of them I be not a stranger , and of some I have myself made Tryall . Next ; I did purposely pass by divers Experiments of other Writers that I had made Tryall of ( and that not without registring some of their Events ) unless I could some way or other improve them , because I wanted leasure to insert them , and had thoughts of prosecuting the work once begun of laying together those I had examin'd by themselves in case of my not being prevented by others diligence . So that there remains not a little , among the things that are already published , to imploy those that have a mind to exercise themselves in repeating and examining them . And I will not undertake , that none of the things deliver'd , ev'n in this Treatise , though never so faithfully set down , may not prove to be thus farr of this Sort , as to afford the Curious somewhat to add about them . For I remember that I have somewhere in the Book itself acknowledged , that having written it by snatches , partly in the Countrey , and partly at unseasonable times of the year , when the want of fit Instruments , and of a competent variety of flowers , salts , Pigments , and other materials made me leave some of the following Experiments , ( especialy those about Emphatical Colours ) far more unfinishd than they should have been , if it had been as easie for me to supply what was wanting to compleat them , as to discern . Thirdly to avoyd discouraging the young Gentleman I call Pyrophilus , whom the less Familiar , and more Laborious operations of Chymistry would probably have frighted , I purposely declin'd in what I writ to him , the setting down any Number of such Chymicall Experiments , as , by being very elaborate or tedious , would either require much skill , or exercise his patience . And yet that this sort of Experiments is exceedingly Numerous , and might more than a little inrich the History of Colours , those that are vers'd in Chymical processes , will , I presume , easily allow me . And ( Lastly ) for as much as I have occasion more than once in my several Writings to treat either porposely or incidentally of matters relating to Colours ; I did not , perhaps , conceive my self oblig'd , to deliver in one Treatise all that I would say concerning that subject . But to conclude , by summing up what I would say concerning what I have and what I have not done , in the following Papers ; I shall not ( on the one side ) deny , that considering that I pretended not to write an accurate Treatise of Colours , but an Occasional Essay to acquaint a private firiend with what then occurrd to me of the things I had thought or try'd concerning them ; I might presume I did enough for once , if I did clearly and faithfully set down , though not all the Experiments I could , yet at least such a variety of them , that an attentive Reader that shall consider the Grounds on which they have been made , and the hints that are purposely ( though dispersedly ) couched in them , may easily compound them , and otherwise vary them , so as very much to increase their Number . And yet ( on the other side ) I am so sensible both of how much I have , either out of necessity or choice , left undone , and of the fruitfullness of the subject I have begun to handle ; that though I had performed far more then 't is like many Readers will judge I have , I should yet be very free to let them apply to my Attempts that of Seneca , where having spoken of the Study of Natures Mysteries , and Particularly of the Cause of Earth-Quakes , he subjoins . Nullares consummata est dum incipit . Nec in hac tantum reomnium maxima ac involutissimâ , in quâ etiam cum multum actum erit , omnis aetas , quod agat inveniet ; sed in omni alio Negotio , longè semper à perfecto fuere Principia . The Publisher to the READER . Friendly Reader , HEre is presented to thy view one of the Abstrusest as well as the Gentilest Subjects of Natural Philosophy , the Experimentall History of Colours ; which though the Noble Author be pleased to think but Begun , yet I must take leave to say , that I think it so well begun , that the work is more than half dispatcht . Concerning which I cannot but give this advertisement to the Reader , that I have heard the Author express himself , that it would not surprise him , if it should happen to be objected , that some of these Experiments have been already published , partly by Chymists , and partly by two or three very fresh Writers upon other Subjects . And though the number of these Experiments be but very small , and though they be none of the considerablest , yet it may on this occasion be further represented , that it is easie for our Author to name several men , ( of whose number I can truly name my self ) who remember either their having seen him make , or their having read , his Accounts of the Experiments delivered in the following Tract several years since , and long before the publication of the Books , wherein they are mentioned . Nay in divers passages ( where he could do it without any great inconvenience ) he hath struck out Experiments , which he had tryed many years ago , because he since found them divulged by persons from whom he had not the least hint of them ; which yet is not touched , with design to reflect upon any Ingenious Man , as if he were a Plagiary : For , though our Generous Author were not reserved enough in shewing his Experiments to those that expressed a Curiosity to see them ( amongst whom a very Learned Man hath been pleased publickly to acknowledge it several years ago * ; yet the same thing may be well enough lighted on by persons that know nothing of one another . And especially Chymical Laboratories may many times afford the same Phaenomenon about Colours to several persons at the same or differing times . And as for the few Phaenomena mentioned in the same Chymical writers , as well as in the following Treatise , our Author hath given an account , why he did not decline rejecting them , in the Anotations upon the 47th Experiment of the third part . Not here to mention , what he elsewhere saith , to shew what use may be Justifiably made of Eperiments not of his own devising by a writer of Natural History , if , what he employes of others mens , be well examined or verified by himself . In the mean time , this Treatise is such , that there needs no other invitation to peruse it , but that t is composed by one of the Deepest & Most indefatigable searchers of Nature , which , I think the World , as far as I know it , affords . For mine own part , I feel a secret Joy within me , to see such beginings upon such Themes , it being demonstratively true , Mota facilius moveri , which causeth me to entertain strong hopes , that this Illustrious Virtuoso and Restless Inquirer into Nature's Secrets will not stop here , but go on and prosper in the Disquisition of the other principal Colours , Green , Red , and Yellow . The Reasoning faculty set once a sloat , will be carried on , and that with ease , especially , when the productions thereof meet , as they do here , with so greedy an Entertainment at home and a broad . I am confident , that the ROYAL SOCIETY , lately constituted by his MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY for improving Natural knowledge , will Judge it their interest to exhort our Author to the prosecution of this Argument , considering , how much it is their design and business to accumulate a good stock of such accurate Observations and Experiments , as may afford them and their Offpring genuine Matter to raise a Masculine Philosophy upon , whereby the Mind of Man may be enobled with the Knowledge of solid Truths , and the Life of Man benefited with ampler accommodations , than it hath been hitherto . Our Great Author , one of the Pillars of that Illustrious Corporation , is constantly furnishing large Symbola's to this work , and is now falln , as you see , upon so comprehensive and important a theme , as will , if insisted on and compleated , prove one of the considerablest peeces of that structure . To which , if he shall please to add his Treatise of Heat and Flame , as he is ready to publish his Experimental Accounts of Cold , I esteem , the World will be obliged to Him for having shewed them both the Right and Left Hand of Nature , and the Operations thereof . The considering Reader will by this very Treatise see abundant cause to sollicit the Author for more ; sure I am , that of whatever of the Productions of his Ingeny comes into Forein parts ( where I am happy in the acquaintance of many intelligent friends ) is highly valued ; And to my knowledge , there are those among the French , that have lately begun to learn English , on purpose to enable themselves to read his Books , being impatient of their Traduction into Latin. If I durst say all , I know of the Elogies received by me from abroad concerning Him , I should perhaps make this Preamble too prolix , and certainly offend the modesty of our Author . Wherefore I shall leave this , and conclude with desiring the Reader , that if he meet with other faults besides those , that the Errata take notice of ( as I believe he may ) he will please to consider both the weakness of the Authors eyes , for not reviewing , and the manifold Avocations of the Publisher for not doing his part ; who taketh his leave with inviting those , that have also considered this Nice subject experimentally , to follow the Example of our Noble Author , and impart such and the like performances to the now very inquisitive world . Farewell . THE CONTENTS . CHAP. I. THe Author shews the Reason , first of his Writing on this Subject ( 1. ) Next of his present manner of Handling it , and why he partly declines a Methodical way ( 2. ) and why he has partly made use of it in the History of Whiteness and Blackness . ( 3. ) Chap. 2. Some general Considerations are premis'd , first of the Insignificancy of the Observation of Colours in many Bodies ( 4 , 5. ) and the Importance of it in others ( 5. ) as particularly in the Tempering of Steel ( 6 , 7 , 8. ) The reason why other particular Instances are in that place omitted ( 9. ) A necessary distinction about Colour premis'd ( 10 , 11. ) That Colour is not Inherent in the Object ( 11. ) prov'd first by the Phantasms of Colours to Dreaming men , and Lunaticks ; Secondly by the sensation or apparition of Light upon a Blow given the Eye or the Distemper of the Brain from internal Vapours ( 12. ) . The Author recites a particular Instance in himself ; another that hapn'd to an Excellent Person related to him ( 13. ) and a third told him by an Ingenious Physician ( 14 , 15. ) Thirdly , from the change of Colours made by the Sensory Disaffected ( 15 , 16. ) Some Instances of this are related by the Author , observ'd in himself ( 16 , 17. ) others told him by a Lady of known Veracity ( 18. ) And others told him by a very Eminent Man ( 19. ) But the strange Instances afforded by such as are Bit by the Tarantula are omitted , as more properly deliver'd in another place . ( 20. ) Chap. 3. That the Colour of Bodies depends chiefly on the disposition of the Superficial parts , and partly upon the Variety of the Texture of the Object ( 21. ) The former of these are confirm'd by several Persons ( 22. ) and two Instances , the first of the Steel mention'd before , the second of melted Lead ( 23 , 24. ) of which last several Observables are noted ( 25. ) A third Instance is added of the Porousness of the appearing smooth Surface of Cork ( 26 , 27. ) And that the same kind of Porousness may be also in the other Colour'd Bodies ; And of what kind of Figures , the Superficial reflecting Particles of them may be ( 28. ) and of what Bulks , and closeness of Position ( 29. ) How much these may conduce to the Generation of Colour instanc'd in the Whiteness of Froth , and in the mixtures of Dry colour'd Powders ( 30. ) A further explication of the Variety that may be in the Superficial parts of Colour'd Bodies , that may cause that Effect , by an example drawn from the Surface of the Earth ( 31. ) An Apology for that gross Comparison ( 32. ) That the appearances of the Superficial asperities may be Varied from the position of the Eye , and several Instances given of such appearances ( 33 , 34 , 35. ) That the appearance of the Superficial particles may be Varied also by their Motion , confirm'd by an Instance of the smoaking Liquor ( 35. ) especially if the Superficial parts be of such a Nature as to appear divers in several Postures , explain'd by the variety of Colours exhibited by the shaken Leaves of some Plants ( 36. ) and by changeable Taffities ( 37 , 38 , 39. ) The Authors wish that the Variety of Colours in Mother of Pearl were examin'd with a Microscope ( 40. ) And his Conjectures , that possibly good Microscopes might discover those Superficial inequalities to be Real , which we now only imagine , with his reasons drawn partly from the Discoveries of the Telescope , and Microscope ( 41. ) And partly also from the Prodigiously strange example of a Blind man that could feel Colours ( 42. ) whose History is Related ( 43 , 44 , 45. ) The Authors conjecture and thoughts of it ( 46 , 47 , 48 , 49. ) and several Conclusions and Corollaries drawn from it about the Nature of Blackness and Black Bodies ( 50 , 51 , 52. ) and about the Asperities of several other Colour'd Bodies ( 53. ) And from these , and some premis'd Considerations , are propos'd some Conjectures ; That the reason of the several Phaenomena of Colours , afterwards to be met with , depends upon the Disposition of the Seen parts of the Object ( 54. ) That Liquors may alter the Colours of each other , and of other Bodies , first by their Insinuating themselves into the Pores , and filling them , whence the Asperity of the Surface of a Body becomes alter'd , explicated with some Instances ( 55 , 56. ) Next by removing those Bodies , which before hindred the appearance of the Genuine Colour , confirm'd by several examples ( 57 ) Thirdly , by making a Fissure or Separation either in the Contiguous or Continued Particles of a Body ( 58. ) Fourthly , by a Vnion or Conjunction of the formerly separated Particles ; Illustrated with divers Instances of precipitated Bodies ( 59. ) Fifthly , by Dislocating the parts , and putting them both into other Orders and Postures , which is Illustrated with Instances ( 60 , 61. ) Sixthly , by Motion , which is explain'd ( 62. ) And lastly , and chiefly , by the Vnion of the Saline Bodies , with the Superficial parts of another Body , whereby both their Bigness and Shape must necessarily be alter'd ( 63 , 64. ) Explain'd by Experiments ( 65 , 66. ) That the Colour of Bodies may be Chang'd by the concurrence of two or more of these ways ( 67. ) And besides all these , Eight Reflective causes of Colours , there may be in Transparent Bodies several Refractive ( 68 , 69. ) Why the Author thinks the Nature of Colours deserves yet a further Inquiry ( 69. ) First , for that the little Motes of Dust exhibited very lovely Colours in a darkned Room , whilst in a convenient posture to the Eye , which in other Postures and Lights they did not ( 70. ) And that though the smaller Parts of some Colour'd Bodies are Transparent , yet of others they are not , so that the first Doubt's , whether the Superficial parts create those Colours , and the second , whether there be any Refraction at all in the later ( 71 , 72 , 73. ) A famous Controversie among Philosophers , about the Nature of Colour decided . ( 74. 75. ) Chap. 4. The controversie stated about Real and Emphatical Colours ( 75 , 76. ) That the great Disparity between them seems to be , partly their Duration in the same state , and partly , that Genuine Colours are produc'd in Opacous Bodies by Reflection , and Emphatical in Transparent by Refraction ( 78. ) but that this is not to be taken in too large a Sense , the Cautionary instance of Froth is alleged and insisted on ( 78 , 79. ) That the Duration is not a sufficient Characteristick , exemplify'd by the duration of Froth , and other Emphatical Colours , and the suddain fading of Flowers , and other Bodies of Real ones ( 80. ) That the position of the Eye is not necessary to the discerning Emphatical Colours , shew'd by the seeing white Froth , or an Iris cast on the Wall by a Prism , in what place of the Room soever the Eye be ( 81. ) which proceeds from the specular Reflection of the Wall ( 82. ) that Emphatical Colours may be Compounded , and that the present Discourse is not much concern'd , whether there be , or be not made a distinction between Real and Emphatical Colours . ( 83. ) Chap. 5. Six Hypotheses about Colour recited ( 84 , 85 ) Why the Author cannot more fully Speak of any of these ( 86. ) nor Acquiesce in them ( 87 , 88. ) What Pyrophilus is to expect in this Treatise ( 88 , 89. ) What Hypothesis of Light and Colour the Author most inclines too ( 90. ) Why he thinks neither that nor any other sufficient ; and what his Difficulties are , that make him decline all Hypotheses , and to think it very difficult to stick to any . ( 91 , 92. ) Part the Second . Of the Nature of Whiteness and Blackness . CHAP. I. THe reason why the Author chose the Explication of Whiteness and Blackness ( 93. ) Wherein Democritus thought amiss of these ( 94. ) Gassendus his Opinion about them ( 95. ) What the Author approves , and a more full Explication of White , making it a Multiplicity of Light or Reflections ( 96 , 97. ) Confirm'd first by the Whiteness of the Meridian Sun , observ'd in Water ( 98. ) and of a piece of Iron glowing Hot ( 99. ) Secondly , by the Offensiveness of Snow to the Travellers eyes , confirm'd by an example of a Person that has Travell'd much in Russia ( 100. ) and by an Observation out of Olaus Magnus ( 100. ) and that the Snow does inlighten and clear the Air in the Night , confirm'd by the Mosco Physician , and Captain James ( 101. ) But that Snow has no inherent Light , prov'd by Experience ( 102. ) Thirdly , by the great store of Reflections , from white Bodies observ'd in a darkned Room , and by their unaptness to be Kindled by a Burning-glass ( 103. ) Fourthly , the Specularness of White Bodies is confirm'd by the Reflections in a dark Room from other Bodies ( 104. ) and by the appearance of a River , which both to the Eye and in a darkned Room appear'd White ( 105. 106. ) Fifthly , by the Whiteness of distill'd Mercury , and that of the Galaxie ( 107 , 108. ) and by the Whiteness of Froth , rais'd from whites of Eggs beaten ; that this Whiteness comes not from the Air , shew'd by Experiments ( 109. 110. ) where occasionally the Whiteness of Distill'd Oyls , Hot water , &c. are shew'd ( 111. ) That it seems not necessary the Reflecting Surfaces should be Sphaerical , confirm'd by Experiments ( 112 , 113. ) Sixthly , by the Whiteness of the Powders of transparent Bodies ( 114. ) Seventhly , by the Experiment of Whitening and Burnishing Silver . ( 115. 116. ) Chap. 2. A Recital of some Opinions about Blackness , and which the Author inclines to ( 117. ) which he further insists on and explicates ( 118 , 119. ) and shews for what reasons he imbrac'd that Hypothesis ( 120. ) First , from the contrary Nature of Whiteness and Blackness , White reflecting most Beams outwards , Black should reflect most inward ( 120. ) Next , from the Black appearance of all Bodies , when Shadow'd ; And the manner how this paucity of Refection outwards is caus'd , is further explicated , byshewing that the Superficial parts may be Conica and Pyramical ( 121. ) This and other Considrations formerly deliver'd , Illustrated by Experiments with black and white Marble ( 122 , 123. ) Thirdly , from the Black appearance of Holes in whit Linnen , and from the appearance of Velvet stroak'd several ways , and from an Observation of Carrots ( 124 , 125. ) Fourthly , from the small Reflection from Black in a darkned Room ( 125 , 126. ) Fifthly , from the Experiment of a Checker'd Tile expos'd to the Sun-beams ( 127. ) which is to be preferr'd before a Similar Experiment try'd in Italy , with black and white Marble ( 128. ) Some other congruous Observations ( 129. ) Sixthly , from the Roasting black'd Eggs in the Sun ( 130. ) Seventhly , by the Observation of the Blind man lately mention'd , and of another mention'd by Bartholine ( 130. ) That notwithstanding all these Reasons , the Author is not absolutely Positive , but remains yet a Secker after the true Nature of Whiteness and Blackness . ( 131 , 132. ) Experiments in Consort , touching Whiteness and Blackness . The first Experiment , with a Solution of Sublimate , made White with Spirit of Urine , &c. ( 133 , 134. ) The second Experiment , with an Infusion of Galls , made Black with Vitriol , &c. ( 135 , 136 ) further Discours'd of ( 137. ) The third Experiment , of the Blacking of Hrtshorn , and Ivory , and Tartar , and by a father Calcination making them White ( 138 , 139. The fourth Experiment , limiting the Chmist's principle , Adusta nigra sed perusta a●a , by several Instances of Calcin'd Alabaster Lead , Antimony , Vitriol , and by the Testimony of Bellonius , about the white Charcoles of Oxy-caedar , and by that of Camphire ( 140 , 141 , 142. ) That which follows about Inks was misplac'd by an Errour of the Printer , for it belongs to what has been formerly said of Galls ( 142 , 143. ) The fifth Experiment , of the black Smoak of Camphire ( 144. ) The sixth Experiment , of a black Caput Mortuum , of Oyl of Vitriol , with Oyl of Worm-wood , and also with Oyl of Winter-Savory ( 145. ) The seventh Experiment , of whitening Wax ( 146. ) The eighth Experiment , with Tin-glass , and Sublimate ( 147 , 148. ) The ninth Experiment , of a Black powder of Gold in the bottom of Aqua-fortis , and of the Blacking of Refin'd Gold and Silver ( 148 , 149. ) The tenth Experiment , of the staining Hair , Skin , Ivory , &c. Black , with Crystals of Silver ( 150 , 151. ) The eleventh Experiment , about the Blackness of the Skin , and Hair of Negroes , and Inhabitants of Hot Climates . Several Objections are made , and the whole Matter more fully discours'd , and stated from several notable Histories and Observations ( from the 151 to the 167. ) The twelfth Experiment , of the white Powders , afforded by Precipitating several Bodies , as Crabs Eyes , Minium , Coral , Silver , Lead , Tin , Quick-silver , Tin-glass , Antimony , Benzoin , and Resinous Gumms out of Spirit of Wine , &c. but this is not Universal , since other Bodies , as Gold , Antimony , Quick-silver , &c. may be Precipitated of other Colours ( 168 , 169 , 170. ) The thirteenth Experiment , of Changing the Blackness of some Bodies into other Colours ( 171 , 172. ) and of Whitening what would be Minium , and Copper , with Tin , and of Copper with Arsnick , which with Coppilling again Vanishes ; of covering the Colour of that of ⅔ of Gold with ⅔ of Silver melted in a Mass together ( 173 , 174. ) The fourteenth Experiment , of turning the black Body of Horn into a White immediately with Scraping , without changing the Substantial form , or without the Intervention of Salt , Sulphur , or Mercury ( 176. ) The fifteenth Experiment , contains several Instances against the Opinion of the Chymists , that Sulphur Adust is the cause of Blackness , and the whole Matter is fully discuss'd and stated ( from 176 to 184. ) Part the Third . Concerning Fromiscuous Experiments about Colours . Experiment the First . IN confirmation of a former Conjecture about the Generation of Colours from diversity of Reflections are set down several Observations made in a darkned Room ( 186 , 187. ) Experiment the second , That white Linnen seem'd Ting'd with the Red of Silk plac'd near it in a light Room ( 188 , 189. ) Experiment the third , Of the Trajection of Light through Colour'd Papers ( 189 , 190. ) Experiment the fourth , Observations of a Prism in a dark Room ( 191 , 192. ) Experiment the fifth , Of the Refracting and Reflecting Prismatical Colours in a light Room ( 193. ) Experiment the sixth , Of the Vanishing of the Iris of the Prism , upon the access of a greater adventitious Light ( 194. ) Experiment the seventh , Of the appearances of the same Colour'd Papers by Candle-light ( 195 , 196. ) Experiment the eighth , Of the Yellowness of the Flame of a Candle ( 197. ) Experiment the ninth , Of the Greenish Blew transparency of Leaf Gold ( 198. ) Experiment the tenth , Of the curious Tinctures afforded by Lignum Nephriticum ( from 199 to 203. ) Several trials for the Investigation of the Nature of it ( from 204 to 206. ) Kircher ' s relation of this Wood set down , and examin'd ( from 206 to 212. ) A Corollary on this tenth Experiment , shewing how it may be applicable for the Discovering , whether any Salt be of an Acid , or a Sulphureous , and Alcalizate Nature ( from 213 to 216. ) The eleventh Experiment , Of certain pieces of Glass that afforded this Variety of Colours ; And of the way of so Tinging any Plate of Glass with Silver ( from 216 to 219. ) The twelfth Experiment , Of the Mixing and Tempering of Painters Pigments ( 219 , 220 , 221. ) The thirteenth Experiment , Of compounding several Colours by Trajecting the Sun-beams through Ting'd Glasses ( from 221 to 224. ) The fourteenth Experiment , Of the Compounding of Real and Phantastical Colours , and the Results ( 224 , 225 , 226. ) as also the same of Phantastical Colours ( 226 , 227. ) The fifteenth Experiment , Of Varying the Trajected Iris by a Colour'd Prism ( 228 , 229. ) The sixteenth Experiment , Of the Red fumes of Spirit of Nitre , and the resembling Redness of the Horizontal Sun-beams ( 230 , 231. ) The seventeenth Experiment , Of making a Green by nine Kinds of Compositions ( from 231 to 236. ) And some Deductions from them against the necessity of recurring to Substantial forms and Hypostatical principles for the production of Colours ( from 237 to 240. ) The eighteenth Experiment , Of several Compositions of Blew and Yellow which produce not a Green , and of the production of a Green by other Colours ( 241 , 242. ) The nineteenth Experiment , contains several Instances of producing Colours , without the alteration of any Hypostatical principle , by the Prism , Bubbles , and Feathers ( from 242 to 245. ) The twentieth Experiment , Of turning the Blew of Violets into a Red by Acid Salts , and to a Green by Alcalizate ( 245 , 246. ) and the use of it for Investigating the Nature of Salts ( 247 , 248. ) The one and twentieth Experiment , of the same Changes effected by the same means on the Blew Tinctures of Corn-flowers ( 249 , 250. ) And some Restrictions to shew it not to be so general a propriety as one might imagine ( 251. ) The twenty second Experiment , of turning a Solution of Verdigrease into a Blew , with Alcalizate and Urinous Salts ( 252 , 253 , 254. ) The twenty third Experiment , of taking away the Colour of Roses with the Steams of Sulphur , and heightning them with the Steams Condens'd into Oyl of Sulphur per Campanam ( 254 , 255. ) The twenty fourth Experiment , of Tinging a great quantity of Liquor with a very little Ting'd Substance , Instanced in Cochineel ( from 255 to 257. ) The twenty fifth Experiment , of the more general use of Alcalizate and Sulphureous Salts in the Tinctures of Vegetables , further Instanced in the Tincture of Privet Berries , and of the Flowers of Mesereon and Pease ( from 257 to 259. ) An Annotation , shewing that of the three Hypostatical principles , Salt according to Paracelsus is the most , active about Colours ( from 259 to 261. ) Some things Praecursory premis'd to three several Instances next following , against the fore-mention'd Operations of Salts ( 261 , 262. ) The twenty sixth Experiment , containing Trials with Acid and Sulphureous Salts on the Red Tinctures of Clove-july-flowers , Buck thorn Berries , Red-Roses , Brasil , &c. ( 262 , 263. ) The twenty seventh Experiment , of the changes of the Colour of Jasmin flowers , and Snow drops , by Alcalizate and Sulphureous Salts ( 263 , 264. ) The twenty eighth Experiment , of other differing Effects on Mary-golds , Prim-roses , and fresh Madder ( 265. ) with an Admonition , that these Salts may have differing Effects in the changing of the Tinctures of divers other Vegetables ( 266 , 267. ) The twenty ninth Experiment , of the differing Effects of these Salts on Ripe and Unripe Juices , instanced in Black-berries , and the Juices of Roses ( from 267 to 270. ) Two reasons , why the Author added this twenty ninth Experiment , the last of which is confirm'd by an Instance of Mr. Parkinson , consonant to the Confession of the Makers of such Colours ( 272. ) The thirtieth Experiment , of several changes in Colours by Digestion , exemplify'd by an Amalgam of ☉ and ☿ and by Spirit of Harts-horn . And ( to such as believe it ) by the changes of the Elixir . The thirty first Experiment , shewing that most Tinctures drawn by Digestion incline to a Red , instanc'd in Jalap , Guaicum , Amber , Benzoin , Sulphur , Antimony , &c. ( 276 , 277. ) The thirty second Experiment , That some Reds with Diluting turn Yellow , others not , exemplify'd by the Tincture of Cochineel , and by Balsam of Sulphur , Tinctures of Amber , &c. ( 277 , 278 , 279. ) The thirty third Experiment , of a Red Tincture of Saccarum ♄ and Oyl of Turpentine made by Digestion ( 279. ) The thirty fourth Experiment , of drawing a Volatile red Tincture of Mercury , whose Steams were white , but it would Tinge the Skin black ( 279 , 280. ) The thirty fifth Experiment , of a suddain way of making a Blood red Colour with Oyl of Vitriol , and Oyl of Anniseeds , two transparent Liquors ( 280 , 281. ) The thirty sixth Experiment , of the Degenerating of several Colours exemplify'd in the last mention'd Blood red , and by Mr. Parkinsons relation of Turnsol , by some Trials with the Juice of Buck-thorn Berries , and other Vegetables , to which several notable Considerations and Advertisements back'd with Experiments are adjoyn'd ( from 281 to 288. ) The thirty seventh Experiment , Of Varying the Colour of the Tinctures of Cochineel , Redcherries , and Brasil , with Acid and Sulphureous Salts , and divers Considerations thereon ( from 288 to 290. ) The thirty eighth Experiment , About the Red fumes of some , and White of other distill'd Bodies , and of their Coalition for the most part into a transparent Liquor ( 290 , 291. ) And of the various Colours of dry Sublimations , exemplify'd with several Experiments ( 292 , 293 , 294. ) The thirty ninth Experiment , Of Varying the Decoction of Balaustiums with Acid and Urinous Salts ( 294 , 295. ) Some Annotations wherein two Experiments of Gassendus are Related , Examined , and Improv'd ( from 295 to 302. ) The fortieth Experiment , Of the no less Strange than Pleasant changes made with a Solution of Sublimate ( from 302 to 306. ) The difference between a Chymical and Philosophical Solution of a Phaenomenon ( 307 , 308. ) The Authors Chymical Explication of the Phaenomena , confirm'd by several Experiments made on Mercury , with several Saline Liquors ( from 308 to 310. ) An Improvement of the fortieth Experiment , by a fresh Decoction of Antimony in a Lixivium ( 311 , 312 , 313. ) Reflections on the tenth , twentieth , and fortieth Experiments , compar'd together , shewing away with this Tincture of Sublimate to distinguish whether any Saline Body to be examin'd be of a Urinous or Alcalizate Nature ( from 314 to 317. ) The Examination of Spirit of Sal-armoniack , and Spirit of Oak by these Principles ( from 316 to 319. ) That the Author knows ways of making highly Operative Saline Bodies , that produce none of the before mention'd Effects ( 319 , 320. ) Some notable Experiments about Solutions and Precipitations of Gold and Silver ( 320 , 321. ) The one and fortieth Experiment , Of Depriving a deep Blew Solution of Copper of its Colour ( 322. ) to which is adjoyn'd the Discolouring or making Transparent a Solution of Verdigrease , &c. and another of Restoring or Increasing it ( 322 , 323. ) The forty second Experiment , Of changing a Milk white Precipitate of Mercury into a Yellow , by Affusion of fair Water , with several Considerations thereon ( from 323 to 326. ) The forty third Experiment , Of Extracting a Green Solution with fair Water out of imperfectly Calcin'd Vitriol ( 327. ) The forty fourth Experiment , Of the Deepning and Diluting of several Tinctures , by the Affusions of Liquors , and by Conical Glasses that contain'd them , Exemplify'd in the Tinctures of Cochineel , Brasil , Verdigrease , Glass , Litmus , of which last on this occasion several pleasant Phaenomena are related ( from 328 to 335. ) To which are adjoyn'd certain Cautional Corollaries ( 335 , 336. ) The Water-drinker and some of his Legerdemain tricks related ( 337. ) The forty fifth Experiment , Of the turning Rhenish and White Wine into a lovely Green , with a preparation of Steel ( 338 , 339. Some further Trial made about these Tinctures , and a Similar Experiment of Olaus VVormius ( 340. ) The forty sixth Experiment , Of the Internal Colour of Metalls exhibittd by Calcination ( 341 , 342 , 343. ) Annotation the first , That several degrees of Fire may disclose a differing Colour ( 343. ) Annotation the second , That the Glasses of Metalls may exhibit also other Kinds of Colours ( 344. ) Annotation the third , That Minerals by several degrees of Fire may disclose several Colours ( 345. ) Experiment the forty seventh , Of the Internal Colours of Metalls disclos'd by their Dissolutions in several Menstruums ( from 345 to 350. ) Annotation the first , The Authors Apology for Recording some already known Experiments , without mentioning their Authors ( from 350 to 352. Annotation the second , That some Minerals also by Dissolutions in Menstruums may exhibit divers Colours ( 353. ) Annotation the third , That Metalls disclose other Colours by Precipitations , instanc'd in Mercury ( from 353 to 355. ) The forty eighth Experiment , Of Tinging Glass Blew with Leaf Silver , and with Calcin'd Copper , and White with Putty ( from 355 to 358. ) Annotation the first , That this white Glass is the Basis of Ammels ( 358. ) Annotion the second , That Colour'd Glasses may be Compounded like Colour'd Liquors in Dying Fat 's ( 359. ) Annotation the third , Of Tinging Glass with Mineral Substances , and of trying what Metalls they contain by this means ( from 360 to 362. ) Annotation the fourth , That Metalls may be Ting'd by Mineralls ( 362 , 363. ) Annotation the fifth , Of making several Kinds of Amauses or Counterfeit Stones ( from 363 to 365. ) Annotation the sixth , Of the Scarlet Dye , of the Stains of dissolv'd Gold and Silver ( 366 , 367. ) Of the Greenness of Salt Beef , and Redness of Neats Tongues from Salts ; of Gilding Silver with Bathe Water ( 368 , 369. ) And Tinging the Nails and Skin with Alcanna ( 369 ) The forty ninth Experiment , Of making Lakes ( 369. ) A particular example in Turmerick ( 370 , 371. ) Annotation the first , That in Precipitations wherein Allum is a Coefficient , a great part of them may consist of the Stony particles of that Compound Body ( from 372 to 375. ) Annotation the second , That Lakes may be made of other Substances , as Madder , Rue , &c. but that Alcalizate Salts do not always Extract the same Colour of which the Vegetable appears ( from 376 to 378. ) Annotation the third , That the Experiments related may Hint divers others ( 378. ) Annotation the fourth , That Alum is usefull for the preparing other than Vegetable Pigments ( 379. ) The fiftieth Experiment , Of the Similar effects of Saccarum ♄ and Alkalies , of Precipitating with Oyl of Vitriol out of Aqua-fortis , and Spirit of Vinegar ; and of divers Varyings of the Colours , with these Compounded ( from 380 to 384. ) Another very pretty Experiment , with a Solution of Minium ( 384 , 385. ) That these Experiments Skilfully digested may hint divers matters about Colours ( 386. ) The Authors Apologetick conclusion , in which is Cursorily hinted the Bow or Scarlet Dye ( 387. ) The Authors Letter to Sir Robert Moray , concerning his Observations on the Shining Diamond ( 391. &c. ) And the Observations themselves . Errata . Pag. 142. l. 20. These words , And to manifest , with the rest of what is by a mistake further printed in this fourth Experiment , belongeth , and is to be referred to the end of the second Eperiment , p. 137. pag. 145. l. 1. leg . matter . 146. l. 4. log . Bolts-head . pag. 161. in the marginal note l. 2. dele de . ib. l. 3. lege lib. 1. p. 163. l. ult . insert where between the words places and the. p. 164 l. 1. dele that . ibid. l. 8. leg Epidermis . ibid. l. 19. leg . 300 for 200. p. 169. l. 22. leg . into it . p. 170. l. 23. & 24. leg . Some Solutions hereafter to be mentioned , for the Solution of Potashes , and other Lixiviate Salts . p. 171. l. 6. insert part of between the words most and dissolved p. 176. l. ult . insert theparticle it between the words Judged and not p. 234. l. 4. log . Woud-wax or Wood-wax . p. 320l . 29. leg . urine for Urne . THE EXPERIMENTAL HISTORY OF COLOURS BEGUN . THE FIRST PART . CHAP. I. I Have seen you so passionately addicted , Pyrophilus to the delightful Art of Limning and Painting , that I cannot but think my self obliged to acquaint you with some of those things that have occurred to mee concerning the changes of Colours . And I may expect that I shall as well serve the Virtuosi in general , as gratifie you in particular , by furnishing a person , who , I hope , will both improve my Communications , and communicate his Improvements , with such Experiments and Observations as may both invite you to enquire seriously into the Nature of Colours , and assist you in the Investigation of it . This being the principal scope of the following Tract , I should do that which might prevent my own design , if I should here attempt to deliver you an accurate and particular Theory of Colours ; for that were to present you with what I desire to receive from you ; and , as farr as in mee lay , to make that study needless , to which I would engage you . 2 Wherefore my present work shall be but to divert and recreate , as well as excite you by the delivery of matters of fact , such as you may for the most part try with much ease , and possibly not without some delight : And lest you should expect any thing of Elaborate or Methodical in what you will meet with here , I must confess to you before-hand , that the seasons I was wont to chuse to devise and try Experiments about Colours , were those daies , wherein having taken Physick , and finding my self as unfit to speculate , as unwilling to be altogether idle , I chose this diversion , as a kind of Mean betwixt the one and the other . And I have the less scrupled to set down the following Experiments , as some of them came to my mind , and as the Notes wherein I had set down the rest , occurr'd to my hands , that by declining a Methodical way of delivering them , I might leave you and my self the greater liberty and convenience to add to them , and transpose them as shall appear expedient . 3 Yea , that you may not think mee too reserv'd , or look upon an Enquiry made up of meer Narratives , as somewhat jejune , I am content to premise a few considerations , that now offer themselves to my thoughts , which relate in a more general way , either to the Nature of Colours , or to the study of it . And I shall insert an Essay , as well Speculative as Historical , of the Nature of Whiteness and Blackness , that you may have a Specimen of the History of Colours , I have sometimes had thoughts of ; and if you dislike not the Method I have made use of , I hope , you , and some of the Virtuosi , your friends , may be thereby invited to go thorow with Red , Blew , Yellow , and the rest of the particular Colours , as I have done with White and Black , but with farr more sagacity and success . And if I can invite Ingenious men to undertake such Tasks , I doubt not but the Curious will quickly obtain a better Account of Colours , than as yet we have , since in our Method the Thecrical part of the Enquiry being attended , and as it were interwoven with the Historical , whatever becomes of the disputable Conjectures , the Philosophy of Colours will be promoted by the indisputable Experiments . CHAP. II. 1 TO come then in the first place to our more general Considerations , I shall begin with saying something as to the Importance of examining the Colours of Bodies . For there are some , especially Chymists , who think , that a considerable diversity of Colours does constantly argue an equal diversity of Nature , in the Bodies wherein it is conspicuous ; but I confess I am not altogether of their mind ; for not to mention changeable Taffaties , the blew and golden necks of Pidgeons , and divers Water-fowl , Rainbows Natural and Artificial , and other Bodies , whose Colours the Philosophers have been pleased to call not Real , but Apparent and Phantastical ; not to insist on these , I say , ( for fear of needlesly engaging in a Controversie ) we see in Parrots , Goldfinches , and divers other Birds , not only that the contiguous feathers which are probably as near in properties as place , are some of them Red , and others White , some of them Blew , & others Yellow , &c. but that in the several parts of the self-same feather there may often be seen the greatest disparity of Colours ; and so in the leaves of Tulips , July-flowers , and some other Vegetables the several leaves , and even the several parts of the same leaf , although no difference have been observed in their other properties , are frequently found painted with very different Colours . And such a variety we have much more admired in that lovely plant which is commonly , and not unjustly call'd the Marvayl of Peru ; for of divers scores of fine Flowers , which in its season that gaudy Plant does almost daily produce , I have scarce taken notice of any two that were dyed perfectly alike . But though Pyro : such things as these , among others , keep mee from daring to affirm , that the Diversity and change of Colours does alwaies argue any great difference or alteration , betwixt , or in , the Bodies , wherein it is to be discerned , yet that oftentimes the Alteration of Colours does signifie considerable Alterations in the disposition of parts of Bodies , may appear in the Extraction of Tinctures , and divers other Chymical Operations , wherein the change of Colours is the chief , and sometimes the only thing , by which the Artist regulates his proceeding , and is taught to know when 't is seasonable for him to leave off . Instances of this sort are more obvious in divers sorts of fruits , as Cherries , Plums , &c. wherein , according a● the Vegetable sap is sweetned , or otherwise ripened , by passing from one degree to another of Maturation , the external part of the fruit passes likewise from one to anothor Colour . But one of the noblest Instances I have met with of this kind , is not so obvious ; and that is the way of tempering Steel to make Gravers , Drills , Springs , and other Mechanical Instruments , which we have divers times both made Artificers practise in our presence , and tryed our selves , after the following manner . First , the slender Steel to be tempered is to be hardened by heating as much of it as is requisite among glowing Coals , till it be glowing hot , but it must not be quenched assoon as it is taken from the fire ( for that would make it too brittle , and spoil it ) but must be held over a bason of water , till it descend from a White heat to a Red one , which assoon as ever you perceive , you must immediacely quench as much as you desire to harden in the cold water . The Steel thus hardened , will , if it be good , look somewhat White and must be made bright at the end , that its change of Colours may be there conspicuous ; and then holding it so in the flame of a Candle , that the bright end may be , for about half an inch , or more , out of the flame , that the smoak do not stain or fully the brightness of it , you shall after a while see that clean end , which is almost contiguous to the flame , pass very nimbly from one Colour to another , as from a brighter Yellow , to a deeper and reddish Yellow , which Artificers call a sanguine , and from that to a fainter first , and then a a deeper Blew . And to bring home this Experiment to our present purpose , it is found by daily Experience , that each of these succeeding Colours argue such a change made in the texture of the Steel , that if it be taken from the flame , and immediately quenched in the tallow ( whereby it is setled in whatever temper it had before ) when it is Yellow , it is of such a hardness as makes it fit for Gravers Drills , and such like tools ; but if it be kept a few minutes longer in the flame till it grow Blew , it becomes much softer , and unfit to make Gravers for Metalls , but fit to make Springs for Watches , and such like Instruments , which are therefore commonly of that Colour ; and if the Steel be kept in the flame , after that this deep Blew hath disclosed it self , it will grow so soft , as to need to be new hardened again , before it can be brought to a temper , fit for Drills or Penknives . And I confess Pyro . I have taken much pleasure to see the Colours run along from the parts of the Steel contiguous to the flame , to the end of the Instrument , and succeed one another so fast , that if a man be not vigilant , to thrust the Steel into the tallow at the very nick of time , at which it has attain'd its due Colour , he shall miss of giving his tool the right temper . But because the flame of a Candle is offensive to my weak eyes , and because it is apt to either black or sully the contiguous part of the Steel which is held in it , and thereby hinder the change of Colours from being so long and clearly discern'd , I have sometimes made this Experiment by laying the Steel to be tempered upon a heated bar of Iron , which we finde also to be employ'd by some Artificers in the tempering of such great Instruments , as are too big to be soon heated sufficiently by the flame of a Candle . And you may easily satisfie your self Pyro : of the differing hardness and toughness , which is ascribed to Steel temper'd at different Colours , if you break but some slender wires of Steel so temper'd , and observe how they differ in brittleness , and if with a file you also make tryal of their various degrees of hardness . 2 But Pyrophilus , I must not at present any further prosecute the Consideration of the importance of Experiments about Colours , not only because you will in the following papers finde some Instances , that would here be presented you out of their due place , of the use that may be made of such Experiments , in discovering in divers bodies , what kind the salt is , that is predominant in them ; but also because a speculative Naturalist might justly enough allege , that as Light is so pleasing an object , as to be well worth our looking on , though it discover'd to us nothing but its self ; so modifi'd Light called Colour , were worth our contemplation , though by understanding its Nature we should be taught nothing else . And however , I need not make either you or my self excuses for entertaining you on the subject I am now about to treat of , since the pleasure Pyro : takes in mixing and laying on of Colours , will I presume keep him , and will ( I am sure ) keep mee from thinking it troublesome to set down , especially after the tedious processes ( about other matters ) wherewith I fear I may have tyr ▪ d him , some easie , and not unpleasant Experiments relating to that subject . 3 But , before we descend to the more particular considerations , we are to present you concerning Colours , I presume it will be seasonable to propose at the very entrance a Distinction ; the ignorance or neglect of which , seems to mee to have frequently enough occasioned either mistakes or confusion in the Writings of divers Modern Philosophers ; for Colour may be considered , either as it is a quality residing in the body that is said to be coloured , or to modifie the light after such or such a manner ; or else as the Light it self , which so modifi'd , strikes upon the organ of sight , and so causes that Sensation which we call Colour ; and that this latter may be look'd upon as the more proper , though not the usual acception of the word Colour , will be made probable by divers passages in the insuing part of our discourse ; and indeed it is the Light it self , which after a certain manner , either mingled with shades , or some other waies troubled , strikes our eyes , that does more immediately produce that motion in the organ , upon whose account men say they see such or such a Colour in the object ; yet , because there is in the body that is said to be coloured , a certain disposition of the superficial particles , whereby it sends the Light reflected , or refracted , to our eyes thus and thus alter'd , and not otherwise , it may also in some sense be said , that Colour depends upon the visible body ; and therefore we shall not be against that way of speaking of Colours that is most us'd among the Modern Naturalists , provided we be allowed to have recourse when occasion shall require to the premis'd distinction , and to take the more immediate cause of Colour to be the modifi'd Light it self , as it affects the Sensory ; though the disposition also of the colour'd body , as that modifies the Light , may be call'd by that name Metonimically ( to borrow a School term ) or Efficiently , that is in regard of its turning the Light , that rebounds from it , or passes thorow it , into this or that particular Colour . 4 I know not whether I may not on this occasion add , that Colour is so far from being an Inherent quality of the object in the sense that is wont to be declar'd by the Schools , or even in the sense of some Modern Atomists , that , if we consider the matter more attentively , we shall see cause to suspect , if not to conclude , that though Light do more immediately affect the organ of sight , than do the bodies that send it thither , yet Light it self produces the sensation of a Colour , but as it produces such a determinate kind of local motion in some part of the brain ; which , though it happen most commonly from the motion whereinto the slender strings of the Retina are put , by the appulse of Light , yet if the like motion happen to be produc'd by any other cause , wherein the Light concurrs not at all , a man shall think he sees the same Colour . For proof of this , I might put you in mind , that 't is usual for dreaming men to think they see the Images that appear to them in their sleep , adorn'd some with this , and some with that lively Colour , whilst yet , both the curtains of their bed , and those of their eyes are close drawn . And I might add the confidence with which distracted persons do oftentimes , when they are awake , think , they see black fiends in places , where there is no black object in sight without them . But I will rather observe , that not only when a man receives a great stroak upon his eye , or a very great one upon some other part of his head , he is wont to see , as it were , flashes of lightning , and little vivid , but vanishing flames , though perhaps his eyes be shut : But the like apparitions may happen , when the motion proceeds not from something without , but from something within the body , provided the unwonted fumes that wander up and down in the head , or the propagated concussion of any internal part in the body , do cause about the inward extremities of the Optick Nerve , such a motion as is wont to be there produc'd , when the stroak of the Light upon the Retina makes us conclude , that we see either Light , or such and such a Colour : This the most ingenious Des Cartes hath very well observ'd , but because he seems not to have exemplifi'd it by any unobvious or peculiar observation , I shall indeavour to illustrate this doctrine by a few Instances . 5 And first , I remember , that having , through Gods goodness , been free for several years , from troublesome Coughs , being afterwards , by an accident , suddenly cast into a violent one , I did often , when I was awaked in the night by my distempers , observe , that upon coughing strongly , it would seem to mee , that I saw very vivid , but immediately disappearing flames , which I took particular notice of , because of the conjecture I am now mentioning . 6 An excellent and very discreet person , very near ally'd both to you and mee , was relating to mee , that some time since , whilst she was talking with some other Ladies , upon a sudden , all the objects , she looked upon , appeared to her dyed with unusual Colours , some of one kind , and some of another , but all so bright and vivid , that she should have been as much delighted , as surpriz'd with them , but that finding the apparition to continue , she fear'd it portended some very great alteration as to her health : As indeed the day after she was assaulted with such violence by Hysterical and Hypocondrical Distempers , as both made her rave for some daies , and gave her , during that time , a Bastard Palsey . 7 Being a while since in a Town , where the Plague had made great havock , and inquiring of an ingenious man , that was so bold , as without much scruple to visit those that were sick of it , about the odd symptomes of a Disease that had swept away so many there ; he told mee , among other things , that he was able to tell divers Patients , to whom he was called , before they took their beds , or had any evident symptomes of the Plague , that they were indeed infected , upon peculiar observations , that being asked , they would tell him that the neighbouring objects , and particularly his cloths , appear'd to them beautifi'd with most glorious Colours , like those of the Rain-bow , oftentimes succeeding one another ; and this he affirm'd to be one of the most usual , as well as the most early symptomes , by which this odd Pestilence disclos'd it self : And when I asked how long the Patients were wont to be thus affected , he answered , that it was most commonly for about a day ; and when I further inquired whether or no Vomits , which in that Pestilence were usually given , did not remove this symptome ( For some used the taking of a Vomit , when they came ashore , to cure themselves of the obstinate and troublesome giddiness caus'd by the motion of the ship ) reply'd , that generally , upon the evacuation made by the Vomit , that strange apparition of Colours ceased , though the other symptomes were not so soon abated , yet he added ( to take notice of that upon the by , because the observation may perchance do good ) that an excellent Physician , in whose company he was wont to visit the sick , did give to almost all those to whom he was called , in the beginning before Nature was much weakened , a pretty odd Vomit consisting of eight or ten dramms of Infusion of Crocus Metallorum , and about half a dramm , or much more , of White Vitriol , with such success , that scarce one of ten to whom it was seasonably administred , miscarried . 8 But to return to the consideration of Colours : As an apparition of them may be produced by motions from within , without the assistance of an outward object , so I have observed , that 't is sometimes possible that the Colour that would otherwise be produced by an outward object , may be chang'd by some motion , or new texture already produced in the Sensory , as long as that unusual motion , or new disposition lasts ; for I have divers times try'd , that after I have through a Telescope look'd upon the Sun , though thorow a thick , red , or blew glass , to make its splendor supportable to the eye , the impression upon the Retina , would be not only so vivid , but so permanent , that if afterwards I turned my eye towards a flame , it would appear to mee of a Colour very differing from its usual one . And if I did divers times successively shut and open the same eye , I should see the adventitious Colour ( if I may so call it ) changed or impair'd by degrees , till at length ( for this unusual motion of the eye would not presently cease ) the flame would appear to mee , of the same hew that it did to other beholders ; a not unlike effect I found by looking upon the Moon , when she was near full , thorow an excellent Telescope , without colour'd Glass to screen my eye with ; But that which I desire may be taken notice of , because we may elsewhere have occasion to reflect upon it , and because it seems not agreeable to what Anatomists and Optical Writers deliver , touching the relation of the two eyes to each other , is this circumstance , that though my Right eye , with which I looked thorow the Telescope , were thus affected by the over-strong impression of the light , yet when the flame of a Candle , or some other bright object appear'd to me of a very unusual Colour , whilst look'd upon with the Discompos'd Eye , or ( though not so notably ) with both eyes at once ; yet if I shut that Eye , and looked upon the same object with the other , it would appear with no other than its usual Colour , though if I again opened , and made use of the Dazled eye , the vivid adventitious Colour would again appear . And on this occasion I must not pretermit an Observation which may perswade us , that an over-vehement stroak upon the Sensory , especially if it be naturally of a weak constitution , may make a more lasting impression than one would imagine , which impression may in some cases , as it were , mingle with , and vitiate the action of vivid objects for a long time after . For I know a Lady of unquestionable Veracity , who having lately , by a desperate fall , receiv'd several hurts , and particularly a considerable one upon a part of her face near her Eye , had her sight so troubl'd and disorder'd , that , as she hath more than once related to me , not only when the next morning one of her servants came to her bed side , to ask how she did , his cloaths appear'd adorn'd with such variety of dazling Colours , that she was fain presently to command him to withdraw , but the Images in her Hangings , did , for many daies after , appear to her , if the Room were not extraordinarily darken'd , embellish'd with several offensively vivid Colours , which no body else could see in them ; And when I enquir'd whether or no White Objects did not appear to her adorn'd with more luminous Colours than others , and whether she saw not some which she could not now well describe to any , whose eyes had never been distemper'd , she answer'd mee , that sometimes she thought she saw Colours so new and glorious , that they were of a peculiat kind , and such as she could not describe by their likeness to any she had beheld either before or since , and that White Objects did so much disorder her sight , that if several daies after her fall , she look'd upon the in-side of a Book , she fanci'd she saw there Colours like those of the Rain-bow , and even when she thought her self pretty well recover'd , and made bold to leave her Chamber , the coming into a place where the Walls and Ceeling were whited over , made those Objects appear to her cloath'd with such glorious and dazling Colours , as much offended her sight , and made her repent her venturousness , and she added , that this Distemper of her Eyes lasted no less than five or six weeks , though , since that , she hath been able to read and write much without finding the least Inconvenience in doing so . I would gladly have known , whether if she had shut the Injur'd Eye , the Phaenomena would have been the same , when she employ'd only the other , but I heard not of this accident early enough to satisfie that Enquiry . 9 Wherefore , I shall now add , that some years before , a person exceedingly eminent for his profound Skil in almost all kinds of Philological Learning , coming to advise with mee about a Distemper in his Eyes , told me , among other Circumstances of it , that , having upon a time looked too fixedly upon the Sun , thorow a Telescope , without any coloured Glass , to take off from the dazling splendour of the Object , the excess of Light did so strongly affect his Eye , that ever since , when he turns it towards a Window , or any White Object , he fancies , he seeth a Globe of Light , of about the bigness the Sun then appeared of to him , to pass before his Eyes : And having inquir'd of him , how long he had been troubled with this Indisposition , he reply'd , that it was already nine or ten years , since the Accident , that occasioned it , first befel him . 10 I could here subjoyn , Pyrophilus , some memorable Relations that I have met with in the Account given us by the experienc'd Epiphanius Ferdinandus , of the Symptomes he observ'd to be incident to those that are bitten with the Tarantula , by which ( Relations ) I could probably shew , that without any change in the Object , a change in the Instruments of Vision may for a great while make some Colours appear Charming , and make others Provoking , and both to a high degree , though neither of them produc'd any such Effects before . These things , I say , I could here subjoyn in confirmation of what I have been saying , to shew , that the Disposition of the Organ is of great Importance in the Dijudications we make of Colours , were it not that these strange Stories belonging more properly to another Discourse , I had rather , ( contenting my self to have given you an Intimation of them here ) that you should meet with them fully deliver'd there . CHAP. III. 1 BUt , Pyrophilus , I would not by all that I have hitherto discours'd , be thought to have forgotten the Distinction ( of Colour ) that I mentioned to you about the beginning of the third Section of the former Chapter ; and therefore , after all I have said of Colour , as it is modifi'd Light , and immediately affects the Sensory , I shall now re-mind you , that I did not deny , but that Colour might in some sense be consider'd as a Quality residing in the body that is said to be Colour'd , and indeed the greatest part of the following Experiments referr to Colour principally under that Notion , for there is in the bodyes we call Colour'd , and chiefly in their Superficial parts , a certain disposition , whereby they do so trouble the Light that comes from them to our Eye , as that it there makes that distinct Impression , upon whose Account we say , that the Seen body is either White or Black , or Red or Yellow , or of any one determinate Colour . But because we shall ( God permiting ) by the Experiments that are to follow some Pages hence , more fully and particularly shew , that the Changes , and consequently in divers places the Production and the appearance of Colours depends upon the continuing or alter'd Texture of the Object , we shall in this place intimate ( and that too but as by the way ) two or three things about this Matter . 2. And first it is not without some Reason , that I ascribe Colour ( in the sense formerly explan'd ) chiefly to the Superficial parts of Bodies , for not to question how much Opacous Corpuscles may abound even in those Bodies we call Diaphanous , it seems plain that of Opacous bodies we do indeed see little else than the Superficies , for if we found the beams of Light that rebound from the Object to the Eye , to peirce deep into the Colour'd body , we should not judge it Opacous , but either Translucid , or at least Semi-diaphanous , and though the Schools seem to teach us that Colour is a Penetrative Quality , that reaches to the Innermost parts of the Object , as if a piece of Sealing-wax be broken into never so many pieces , the Internal fragments will be as Red as the External surface did appear , yet that is but a Particular Example that will not overthrow the Reason lately offer'd , especially since I can alleage other Examples of a contrary Import , and two or three Negative Instances are sufficient to overthrow the Generality of a Positive Rule , especially if that be built but upon One or a Few Examples . Not ( then ) to mention Cherries , Plums , and I know not how many other Bodies , wherein the skin is of one Colour , and what it hides of another , I shall name a couple of Instances drawn from the Colours of Durable bodies that are thought far more Homogeneous , and have not parts that are either Organical , or of a Nature approaching thereunto . 3 To give you the first Instance , I shall need but to remind you of what I told you a little after the beginning of this Essay , touching the Blew and Red and Yellow , that may be produc'd upon a piece of temper'd Steel , for these Colours though they be very Vivid , yet if you break the Steel they adorn , they will appear to be but Superficial ; not only the innermost parts of the Metall , but those that are within a hairs breadth of the Superficies , having not any of these Colours , but retaining that of the Steel it self . Besides that , we may as well confirm this Observation , as some other particulars we elsewhere deliver concerning Colours , by the following Experiment which we purposely made . 4. We took a good quantity of clean Lead , and melted it with a strong Fire , and then immediately pouring it out into a clean Vessel of a convenient shape and matter , ( we us'd one of Iron , that the great and sudden Heat might not injure it ) and then carefully and nimbly taking off the Scum that floated on the top , we perceiv'd , as we expected , the smooth and grossie Surface of the melted matter , to be adorn'd with a ve● glorious Colour , which being as Transitory as Delightfull , did almost immediately give place to another vivid Colour , and that was as quickly succeeded by a third , and this as it were chas'd away by a fourth , and so these wonderfully vivid Colours successively appear'd and vanish'd , ( yet the same now and then appearing the second time ) till the Metall ceasing to be hot enough to afford any longer this pleasing Spectacle , the Colours that chanc'd to adorn the Surface , when the Lead thus began to cool , remain'd upon it ; but were so Superficial , that how little soever we scrap'd off the Surface of the Lead , we did in such places scrape off all the Colour , and discover only that which is natural to the Metall it self , which receiving its adventitious Colours , only when the heat was very Intense , and in that part which was expos'd to the comparatively very cold Air , ( which by other Experiments seems to abound with subtil Saline parts , perhaps not uncapable of working upon Lead so dispos'd : ) These things I say , together with my observing that whatever parts of the so strongly melted Lead were expos'd a while to the Air , turn'd into a kind of Scum or Litharge , how bright and clean soever they appear'd before , suggested to me some Thoughts or Ravings , which I have not now time to acquaint You with . One that did not know me , Pyrophilus , would perchance think I endeavour'd to impose upon You by relating this Experiment , which I have several times try'd , but the Reason why the Phaenomena mention'd have not been taken notice of , may be , that unless Lead be brought to a much higher degree of Fusion or Fluidity than is usual , or than is indeed requisite to make it melt , the Phaenomena I mention'd will scarce at all disclose themselves ; And we have also observ'd that this successive appearing and vanishing of vivid Colours , was wont to be impair'd or determin'd whilst the Metal expos'd to the Air remain'd yet hotter than one would readily suspect . And one thing I must further Note , of which I leave You to search after the Reason , namely , that the same Colours did not always and regularly succeed one another , as is usually in Steel , but in the diversify'd Order mention'd in this following Note , which I was scarce able to write down , the succession of the Colours was so very quick , whether that proceeded from the differing degrees of Heat in the Lead expos'd to the cool Air , or from some other Reason , I leave you to examine . [ Blew , Yellow , Purple , Blew ; Green , Purple , Blew , Yellow , Red ; Purple , Blew , Yellow and Blew , Yellow , Blew , Purple , Green mixt , Yellow , Red , Blew , Green , Yellow , Red , Purple , Green. ] 5. The Atomists of Old , and some Learned men of late , have attempted to explicate the variety of Colours in Opacous bodies from the various Figures of their Superficial parts ; the attempt is Ingenious , and the Doctrine seems partly True , but I confess I think there are divers other things that must be taken in as concurrent to produce those differing forms of Asperity , whereon the Colours of Opacous bodies seem to depend . To declare this a little , we must assume , that the Surfaces of all such Bodies how Smooth or polite soever they may appear to our Dull Sight and Touch , are exactly smooth only in a popular , or at most in a Physical sense , but not in a strict and rigid sense . 6. This , excellent Microscopes shew us in many Bodies , that seem Smooth to our naked Eyes ; and this not only as to the little Hillocks or Protuberancies that swell above that which may be conceiv'd to be the Plain or Level of the consider'd Surface , for it is obvious enough to those that are any thing conversant with such Glasses , but as to numerous Depressions beneath that Level , of which sort of Cavities by the help of a Microscope , which the greatest Artificer that makes them , judges to be the greatest Magnifying Glass in Europe , except one that equals it , we have on the Surface of a thin piece of Cork that appear'd smooth to the Eye , observ'd about sixty in a Row , within the length of less then an 31 and 32 part of an Inch , ( for the Glass takes in no longer a space at one view ) and these Cavities ( which made that little piece of Cork look almost like an empty Honey-comb ) were not only very distinct , and figur'd like one another , but of a considerable bigness , and a scarce credible depth ; insomuch that their distinct shadows as well as sides were plainly discern'd and easily to be reckon'd , and might have been well distinguish'd , though they had been ten times lesser than they were ; which I thought it not amiss to mention to you Pyrophilus upon the by , that you may thence make some Estimate , what a strange Inequality , and what a multitude of little Shades , there may really be , in a scarce sensible part of the Physical superficies , though the naked Eye sees no such matter . And as Excellent Microscopes shew us this Ruggedness in many Bodies that pass for Smooth , so there are divers Expements , though we must not now stay to urge them , which seem to perswade us of the same thing as to the rest of such Bodies as we are now treating off ; So , that there is no sensible part of an Opacous body , that may not be conceiv'd to be made up of a multitude of singly insensible Corpuscles , but in the giving these Surfaces that disposition , which makes them alter the Light that reflects thence to the Eye after the manner requisite to make the Object appear Green ; Blew , &c. the Figures of these Particles have a great , but not the only stroak . 'T is true indeed that the protuberant Particles may be of very great variety of Figures , Sphaerical , Elliptical , Conical , Cylindrical , Polyedrical , and some very irregular , and that according to the Nature of these , and the situation of the Lucid body , the Light must be variously affected , after one manner from Surfaces ( I now speak of Physical Surfaces ) consisting of Sphaerical , and in another from those that are made up of Conical or Cylindrical Corpuscles ; some being fitted to reflect more of the incident Beams of Light , others less , and some towards one part , others towards another . But besides this difference of Shape , there may be divers other things that may eminently concurr to vary the forms of Asperity that Colours so much depend on . For , willingly allowing the Figure of the Particles in the first place , I consider secondly , that the superficial Corpuscles , if I may so call them , may be bigger in one Body , and less in another , and consequently fitted to allay the Light falling on them with greater shades . Next , the protuberant Particles may be set more or less close together , that is , there may be a greater or a smaller number of them within the compass of one , than within the compass of another small part of the Surface of the same Extent , and how much these Qualities may serve to produce Colour may be somewhat guess'd at , by that which happens in the Agitation of Water ; for if the Bubbles that are thereby made be Great , and but Few , the Water will scarce acquire a sensible Colour , but if it be reduc'd to a Froth , consisting of Bubbles , which being very Minute and Contiguous to each other , are a multitude of them crowded into a narrow Room , the Water ( turned to Froth ) does then exhibit a very manifest White Colour , ( to which these last nam'd Conditions of the Bubbles do as well as their Convex figure contribute ) and that for Reasons to be mention'd anon . Besides , it is not necessary that the Superficial particles that exhibit one Colour , should be all of them Round , or all Conical , or all of any one Shape , but Corpuscles of differing Figures may be mingled on the Surface of the Opacous Body , as when the Corpuscles that make a Blew colour , and those that make a Yellow , come to be Accurately and Skilfully mix'd , they make up a Green , which though it seem one simple Colour , yet in this case appears to be made by Corpuscles of very differing Kinds , duely commix'd . Moreover the Figure and Bigness of the little Depressions , Cavities , Furrows or Pores intercepted betwixt these protuberant Corpuscles , are as well to be consider'd as the Sizes and Shapes of the Corpuscles themselves : For we may conceive the Physical superficies of a Body , where ( as we said ) its Colour does as it were reside , to be cut Transversly by a Mathematical plain , which you know is conceiv'd to be without any Depth or Thickness at all , and then as some parts of the Physical superficies will be Protuberant , or swell above this last plain , so others may be depress'd beneath it , as ( to explane my self by a gross Comparison ) in divers places of the Surface of the Earth , there are not only Neighbouring Hills , Trees , &c. that are rais'd above the Horizontal Level of the Valley , but Rivers , Wells , Pits and other Cavities that are depress'd beneath it , and that such Protuberant and Concave parts of a Surface may remit the Light so differingly , as much to vary a Colour , some examples and other things , that we shall hereafter have occasion to take notice off in this Tract , will sufficiently declare , till when , it may suffice to put you in mind , that of two Flat-sides of the same piece of , for example , red Marble , the one being diligently Polished , and the other left to its former Roughness , the differing degrees or sorts of Asperity , for the side that is smooth to the Touch wants not its Roughness , will so diversifie the Light reflected from the several Plains to the Eye , that a Painter would employ two differing Colours to represent them . 7. And I hope , Pyrophilus , you will not think it strange or impertinent , that I employ in divers passages of these Papers , examples drawn from Bodies and Shadows far more Gross , than those minute Protuberances and shady Pores on which in most cases the Colour of a Body as 't is an Inherent Quality or Disposition of its Surface , seems to depend . For sometimes I employ such Examples , rather to declare my Meaning , than prove my Conjecture ; things , whom their Smallness makes Insensible ; being better represented to the Imagination by such familiar Objects , as being like them enough in other respects , are of a Visible bulk . And next , though the Beams of Light are such subtil Bodies , that in respect of them , even Surfaces that are sensibly Smooth , are not exactly so , but have their own degree of Roughness , consisting of little Protuberances and Depressions ; and though consequently such Inequalities may suffice to give Bodies differing Colours , as we see in Marble that appears White or Black , or Red or Blew , even when the most carefully Polish'd , yet 't is plain by the late Instance of Red Marble ; and many others , that even bigger Protuberances and greater Shades may likewise so Diversifie the Roughness of a Bodies Superficies , as manifestly to concurr to the varying of its Colour , whereby such Examples appear to be proper enough to be employ'd in such a Subject as we have now in hand . And having hinted thus much on this Occasion , I now proceed . 8. The Situation also of the Superficial particles is considerable , which I distinguish into the Posture of the single Corpuscles , in respect of the Light , and of the Eye , and the Order of them in reference also to one another ; for a Body may otherwise reflect the Light , when its Superficial particles are more erected upon the Plain that may be conceiv'd to pass along their Basis , and when the Points or Extremes of such Particles are Obverted to the Eye , than when those Particles are so Inclin'd , that their Sides are in great part Discernable , as the Colour of Plush or Velvet will appear Vary'd to you , if you carefully stroak part of it one way , and part of it another , the posture of the particular Thrids , in reference to the Light , or the Eye , becoming thereby different . And you may observe in a Field of ripe Corn blown upon by the Wind , that there will appear as it were Waves of a Colour ( at least Gradually ) differing from that of the rest of the Field , the Wind by Depressing some of the Ears , and not at the same time others , making the one Reflect more from the Lateral and Strawy parts , than do the rest . And so , when Doggs are so angry , as to Erect the Hairs upon their Necks , and upon some other parts of their Bodies , those Parts seem to acquire a Colour vary'd from that which the same Hairs made , when in their usual Posture they did farr more stoop . And that the Order wherein the Superficial Corpuscles are Rang'd is not to be neglected , we may guess by turning of Water into Froth , the beating of Glass , and the scraping of Horns , in which cases the Corpuscles that were before so marshall'd as to be Perspicuous , do by the troubling of that Order become Dispos'd to terminate and reflect more Light , and thereby to appear Whitish . And there are other ways in which the Order of the Protuberant parts , in reference to the Eye , may much contribute to the appearing of a particular Colour , for I have often observ'd , that when Pease are Planted , or Set in Parallel Lines , and are Shot up about half a Foot above the Surface of the Ground , by looking on the Field or Plot of Ground from that part towards which the Parallel Lines tended , the greater part of the Ground by farr would appear of its own dirty Colour , but if I look'd upon it Transversly , the Plot would appear very Green , the upper parts of the Pease hindering the intercepted parts of the Ground , which as I said retain'd their wonted Colour , from being discover'd by the Eye . And I know not , Pyrophilus , whether I might not add , that even the Motion of the Small Parts of a Visible Object may in some cases contribute , though it be not so easie to say how , to the Producing or the Varying of a Colour ; for I have several times made a Liquor , which when it has well settled in a close Vial , is Transparent and Colourless , but as soon as the Glass is unstopp'd , begins to fly away very plentifully in a White and Opacous fume ; and there are other Bodies , whose Fumes , when they fill a Receiver , would make one suspect it contains Milk , and yet when these Fumes settle into a Liquor , that Liquor is not White , but Transparent ; And such White Fumes I have seen afforded by unstopping a Liquor I know , which yet is it self Diaphanous and Red ; Nor are these the only Instances of this Kind , that our Tryals can supply us with . And if the Superficial Corpuscles be of the Grosser sort , and be so Framed , that their differing Sides or Faces may exhibit differing Colours , then the Motion or Rest of those Corpuscles may be considerable , as to the Colour of the Superficies they compose , upon this account , that sometimes more , sometimes fewer of the Sides dispos'd to exhibit such a Colour may by this means become or continue more Obverted to the Eye than the rest , and compose a Physical Surface , that will be more or less sensibly interrupted ; As , to explane my meaning , by proposing a gross Example , I remember , that in some sorts of Leavy Plants thick set by one another , the two sides of whose Leaves were of somewhat differing Colours , there would be a notable Disparity as to Colour , if you look'd upon them both when the Leaves being at Rest had their upper and commonly expos'd sides Obverted to the Eye , and when a breath of Wind passing thorow them , made great Numbers of the usually Hidden sides of the Leaves become conspicuous . And though the Little Bodies , we were lately speaking of , may Singly and Apart seem almost Colourless , yet when Many of them are plac'd by one another , so near , that the Eye does not easily discern an Interruption , within a sensible space , they may exhibit a Colour ; as we see , that though a Slenderest Thrid of Dy'd Silk do's , whilst look'd on Single , seem almost quite Devoyd of Redness , ( for Instance ) yet when numbers of these Thrids are brought together into one Skein , their Colour becomes notorious . 9. But the same Occasion that invited me to say what I have mention'd concerning the Leaves of Trees , invites me also to give you some account of what happens in Changeable Taffities , where we see differing Colours , as it were , Emerge and Vanish upon the Ruffling of the same piece of Silk : As I have divers times with Pleasure observ'd , by the help of such a Microscope , as , though it do not very much Magnifie the Object , has in recompence this great Conveniency , that you may easily , as fast as you please , remove it from one part to another of a Large Object , of which the Glass taking a great part at once , you may thereby presently Survey the Whole . Now by the help of such a Microscope I could easily ( as I began to say ) discern , that in a piece of Changeable Taffity , ( that appear'd , for Instance , sometimes Red , and sometimes Green ) the Stuff was compos'd of Red thrids and Green , passing under and over each other , and crossing one another in almost innumerable points ; and if I look'd through the Glass upon any considerable portion of the Stuff , that ( for example sake ) to the naked Eye appear'd to be Red , I could plainly see , that in that Position , the Red thrids were Conspicuous , and reflected a vivid Light ; and though I could also perceive , that there were Green ones , yet by reason of their disadvantagious Position in the Physical Surface of the Taffity , they were in part hid by the more Protuberant Thrids of the other Colour ; and for the same cause , the Reflection from as much of the Green as was discover'd , was comparatively but Dim and Faint . And if , on the contrary , I look'd through the Microscope upon any part that appear'd Green , I could plainly see that the Red thrids were less fully expos'd to the Eye , and obscur'd by the Green ones , which therefore made up the Predominant Colour . And by observing the Texture of the Silken Stuff , I could easisy so expose the Thrids either of the one Colour or of the other to my Eye , as at pleasure to exhibit an apparition of Red or Green , or make those Colours succeed one another : So that , when I observ'd their Succession by the help of the Glass , I could mark how the Predominant Colour did as it were start out , when the Thrids that exhibited it came to be advantagiously plac'd ; And by making little Folds in the Stuff after a certain manner , the Sides that met and terminated in those Folds , would appear to the naked Eye , one of them Red , and the other Green. When Thrids of more than two differing Colours chance to be Interwoven , the resulting changeableness of the Taffity may be also somewhat different . But I choose to give an Instance in the Stuff I have been speaking off , because the mixture being more Simple , the way whereby the Changeableness is produc'd , may be the more easily apprehended : and though Reason alone might readily enough lead a considering Man to guess at the Explication , in case he knew how Changeable Taffities are made : yet I thought it not impertinent to mention it , because both Scholars and Gentlemen are wont to look upon the Inquiry into Manufactures , as a Mechanick imployment , and consequently below Them ; and because also with such a Microscope as I have been mentioning , the discovery is as well Pleasant as Satisfactory , and may affor'd Hints of the Solution of other Phaenomena of Colours . And it were not amiss , that some diligent Inquiry were made , whether the Microscope would give us an account of the Variableness of Colour , that is so Conspicuous and so Delightfull in Mother of Pearl , in Opalls , and some other resembling Bodies : For though I remember I did formerly attempt something of that Kind ( fruitlesly enough ) upon Mother of Pearl , yet not having then the advantage of my best Microscope , nor some Conveniences that might have been wish'd , I leave it to you , who have better Eyes , to try what you can do further ; since 't will be Some discovery to find , that , in this case , the best Eyes and Microscopes themselves can make None . 10. I confess , Pyrophilus ; that a great part of what I have deliver'd , ( or propos'd rather ) concerning the differing forms of Asperity in Bodies , by which Differences the incident Light either comes to be Reflected with more or less of Shade , and with that Shade more or less Interrupted , or else happens to be also otherwise Modify'd or Troubl'd , is but Conjectural . But I am not sure , that if it were not for the Dulness of our Senses , either these or some other Notions of Kin to them , might be better Countenanc'd ; for I am apt to suspect , that if we were Sharp sighted enough , or had such perfect Microscopes , as I fear are more to be wish'd than hop'd for , our promoted Sense might discern in the Physical Surfaces of Bodies , both a great many latent Ruggidnesses , and the particular Sizes , Shapes , and Situations of the extremely little Bodies that cause them , and perhaps might perceive among other Varieties that we now can but imagine , how those little Protuberances and Cavities do Interrupt and Dilate the Light , by mingling with it a multitude of little and singly undiscernable Shades , though some of them more , and some of them less Minute , some less , and some more Numerous , according to the Nature and Degree of the particular Colour we attribute to the Visible Object ; as we see , that in the Moon we can with Excellent Telescopes discern many Hills and Vallies , and as it were Pits and other Parts , whereof some are more , and some less Vividly illustrated , and others have a fainter , others a deeper Shade , though the naked Eye can discern no such matter in that Planet . And with an Excellent Microscope , where the Naked Eye did see but a Green powder , the Assisted Eye as we noted above , could discern particular Granules , some of them of a Blew , and some of them of a Yellow colour , which Corpuscles we had before-hand caus'd to be exquisitly mix'd to compound the Green. 11. And , Pyrophilus , that you may not think me altogether extravagant in what I have said of the Possibility , ( for I speak of no more ) of discerning the differing forms of Asperity in the Surfaces of Bodies of several Colours , I 'l here set down a Memorable particular that chanc'd to come to my Knowledge , since I writ a good part of this Essay ; and it is this . Meeting casually the other Day , with : the deservedly Famous * Dr. J. Finch , Extraordinary Anatomist to that Great Patron of the Virtuosi , the now Great Duke of Toscany , and enquiring of this Ingenious Person , what might be the chief Rarity he had seen in his late return out of Italy into England , he told me , it was a Man at Maestricht in the Low-Countrys , who at certain times can discern and distinguish Colours by the Touch with his Fingers . You 'l easily Conclude , that this is farr more strange , than what I propos'd but as not Impossible ; since the Sense of the Retina seeming to be much more Tender and quick than that of those Grosser Filaments , Nerves or Membrances of our Fingers , wherewith we use to handle Gross and Hard Bodies , it seems scarce credible , that any Accustomance , or Diet , or peculiarity of Constitution , should enable a Man to distinguish with such Gross and Unsuitable Organs , such Nice and Subtile Differences as those of the forms of Asperity , that belong to differing Colours , to receive whose Languid and Delicate Impressions by the Intervention of Light , Nature seems to have appointed and contexed into the Retina the tender and delicate Pith of the Optick Nerve . Wherefore I confess , I propos'd divers Scruples , and particularly whether the Doctor had taken care to bind a Napkin or Hankerchief over his Eyes so carefully , as to be sure he could make no use of his Sight , though he had but Counterfeited the want of it , to which I added divers other Questions , to satisfie my Self , whether there were any Likelihood of Collusion or other Tricks . But I found that the Judicious Doctor having gone farr out of his way , purposely to satisfie Himself and his Learned Prince about this Wonder , had been very Watchfull and Circumspect to keep Himself from being Impos'd upon . And that he might not through any mistake in point of Memory mis-inform Me , he did me the Favour at my Request , to look out the Notes he had Written for his Own and his Princes Information , the summ of which Memorials , as far as we shall mention them here , was this , That the Doctor having been inform'd at Utrecht , that there Lived one at some Miles distance from Maestricht , who could distinguish Colours by the Touch , when he came to the last nam'd Town , he sent a Messenger for him , and having Examin'd him , was told upon Enquiry these Particulars : That the Man's name was John Vermaasen , at that time about 33 Years of Age ; that when he was but two years Old , he had the Small Pox , which rendred him absolutely Blind : That at this present he is an Organist , and serves that Office in a publick Quire. That the Doctor discoursing with him over Night , the Blind man affirm'd , that he could distinguish Colours by the Touch , but that he could not do it , unless he were Fasting ; Any quantity of Drink taking from him that Exquisitness of Touch , which is requisite to so Nice a Sensation . That hereupon the Doctor provided against the next Morning seven pieces of Ribbon , of these seven Colours , Black , White , Red , Blew , Green , Yellow , and Gray , but as for mingled Colours , this Vermaasen would not undertake to discern them , though if offer'd , he would tell that they were Mix'd . That to discern the Colour of the Ribbon , he places it betwixt the Thumb and the Fore-finger , but his most exquisite perception was in his Thumb , and much better in the right Thumb than in the left . That after the Blind man had four or five times told the Doctor the several Colours , ( though Blinded with a Napkin for fear he might have some Sight ) the Doctor found he was twice mistaken , for he call'd the White Black , and the Red Blew , but still , he , before his Errour , would lay them by in Pairs , saying , that though he could easily distinguish them from all others , yet those two Pairs were not easily distinguish'd amongst themselves , whereupon the Doctor desir'd to be told by him what kind of Discrimination he had of Colours by his Touch , to which he gave a reply , for whose sake chiefly I insert all this Narrative in this place , namely , That all the difference was more or less Asperity , for says he , ( I give you the Doctor 's own words ) Black feels as if you were feeling Needles points , or some harsh Sand , and Red feels very Smooth . That the Doctor having desir'd him to tell in Order the difference of Colours to his Touch , he did as follows ; Black and White are the most asperous or unequal of all Colours , and so like , that 't is very hard to distinguish them , but Black is the most Rough of the two , Green is next in Asperity , Gray next to Green in Asperity , Yellow is the fifth in degree of Asperity , Red and Blew are so like , that they are as hard to distinguish as Black and White , but Red is somewhat more Asperous than Blew , so that Red has the sixth place , and Blew the seventh in Asperity . 12. To these Informations the Obliging Doctor was pleas'd to add the welcome present of three of those very pieces of Ribbon , whose Colours in his presence the Blind man had distinguished , pronouncing the one Gray , the other Red , and the third Green , which I keep by me as Rarities , and the rather , because he fear'd the rest were miscarry'd . 13. Before I saw the Notes that afforded me the precedent Narrative , I confess I suspected this man might have thus discriminated Colours , rather by the Smell than by the Touch ; for some of the Ingredients imployed by Dyers to Colour things , have Sents , that are not so Languid , nor so near of Kin , but that I thought it not impossible that a very Critical Nose might distinguish them , and this I the rather suspected , because he requir'd , that the Ribbons , whose Colours he was to Name , should be offer'd him Fasting in the morning ; for I have observ'd in Setting Doggs ; that the feeding of them ( epecially with some sorts of Aliments ) does very much impair the exquisite sent of their Noses . And though some of the foregoing particulars would have prevented that Conjecture , yet I confess to you ( Pyrophilus ) that I would gladly have had the Opportunity of Examining this Man my self , and of Questioning him about divers particulars which I do not find to have been yet thought upon . And though it be not incredible to me , that since the Liquors that Dyers imploy to tinge , are qualifi'd to do so by multitudes of little Corpuscles of the Pigment or Dying stuff , which are dissolved and extracted by the Liquor , and swim to and fro in it , those Corpuscles of Colour ( as the Atomists call them ) insinuating themselves into , and filling all the Pores of the Body to be Dyed , may Asperate its Superficies more or less according to the Bigness and Texture of the Corpuscles of the Pigment ; yet I can scarce believe , that our Blind man could distinguish all the Colours he did , meerly by the Ribbons having more or less of Asperity , so that I cannot but think , notwithstanding this History , that the Blind man distinguish'd Colours not only by the Degrees of Asperity in the Bodies offer'd to him , but by Forms of it , though this ( latter ) would perhaps have been very difficult for him to make an Intelligible mention of , because those Minute disparities having not been taken notice of by men for want of touch as Exquisite as our Blind Mans , are things he could not have Intelligibly express'd , which will easily seem Probable , if you consider , that under the name of Sharp , and Sweet , and Sour , there are abundance of , as it were , immediate peculiar Relishes or Tasts in differing sorts of Wine , which though Critical and Experienc'd Palats can easily discern themselves , cannot make them be understood by others , such Minute differences not having hitherto any Distinct names assign'd them . And it seems that there was somthing in the Forms of Asperity that was requisite to the Distinction of Colours , besides the Degree of it , since he found it so difficult to distingush Black and White from one another , though not from other Colours . For I might urge , that he seems not consonant to himself about the Red , which as you have seen in one place , he represents as somewhat more Asperous than the Blew ; and in another , very Smooth : But because he speaks of this Smoothness in that place , where he mentions the Roughness of Black , we may favourably presume that he might mean but a comparative Smoothness ; and therefore I shall not Insist on this , but rather Countenance my Conjecture by this , that he found it so Difficult , not only , to Discriminate Red and Blew , ( though the first of our promiscuous Experiments will inform you , that the Red reflects by great Odds more Light than the other ) but also to distinguish Black and White from one another , though not from other Colours . And indeed , though in the Ribbonds that were offer'd him , they might be almost equally Rough , yet in such slender Corpuscles as those of Colour , there may easily enough be Conceiv'd , not only a greater Closeness of Parts , or else Paucity of Protuberant Corpuseles , and the little extant Particles may be otherwise Figur'd , and Rang'd in the White than in the Black , but the Cavities may be much Deeper in the one than the other . 14. And perhaps , ( Pyrophilus ) it may prove some Illustration of what I mean , and help you to conceive how this may be , if I Represent , that where the Particles are so exceeding Slender , we may allow the Parts expos'd to the Sight and Touch to be a little Convex in comparison of the Erected Particles of Black Bodies , as if there were Wyres I know not how many times Slenderer than a Hair : whether you suppose them to be Figur'd like Needles , or Cylindrically , like the Hairs of a Brush , with Hemisphaerical ( or at least Convex ) Tops , they will be so very Slender , and consequently the Points both of the one sort and the other so very Sharp , that even an exquisite Touch will be able to distinguish no greater Difference between them , than that which our Blind man allow'd , when comparing Black and White Bodies , he said , that the latter was the less Rough of the two . Nor is every Kind of Roughness , though Sensible enough , Inconsistent with Whiteness , there being Cases , wherein the Physical Superficies of a Body is made by the same Operation both Rough and white , as when the Level Surface of clear Water being by agitation Asperated with a multitude of Unequal Bubbles , do's thereby acquire a Whiteness ; and as a Smooth piece of Glass , by being Scratch'd with a Diamond , do's in the Asperated part of its Surface disclose the same Colour . But more ( perchance ) of this elsewhere . 15. And therefore , we shall here pass by the Question , whether any thing might be consider'd about the Opacity of the Corpuscles of Black Pigments , and the Comparative Diaphanëity of those of many White Bodies , apply'd to our present Case ; and proceed , to represent , That the newly mention'd Exiguity and Shape of the extant Particles being suppos'd , it will then be considerable what we lately but Hinted , ( and therefore must now somewhat Explane ) That the Depth of the little Cavities , intercepted between the extant Particles , without being so much greater in Black Bodies than in White ones , as to be perceptibly so to the Gross Organs of Touch , may be very much greater in reference to their Disposition of Reflecting the imaginary subtile Beams of Light. For in Black Bodies , those Little intercepted Cavities , and other Depressions , may be so Figur'd , so Narrow and so Deep , that the incident Beams of Light , which the more extant Parts of the Physical Superficies are dispos'd to Reflect inwards , may be Detain'd there , and prove unable to Emerge ; whilst in a White Body , the Slender Particles may not only by their Figure be fitted to Reflect the Light copiously outwards , but the intercepted Cavities being not Deep , nor perhaps very Narrow , the Bottoms of them may be so Constituted , ' as to be fit to Reflect outwards much of the Light that falls even upon Them ; as you may possibly better apprehend , when we shall come to treat of Whiteness and Blackness . In the mean time it may suffice , that you take Notice with me , that the Blind mans Relations import no necessity of Concluding , that , though , because , according to the Judgment of his Touch , Black was the Roughest , as it is the Darkest of Colours , therefore White , which ( according to us ) is the Lightest , should be also the Smoothest : since I observe , that he makes Yellow to be two Degrees more Asperous than Blew , and as much less Asperous than Green ; whereas indeed , Yellow do's not only appear to the Eye a Lighter Colour than Blew , but ( by our first Experiment hereafter to be mention'd ) it will appear , that Yellow reflected much more Light than Blew , and manifestly more than Green , ( which we need not much wonder at , since in this Colour and the two others ( Blew and Yellow ) 't is not only the Reflected Light that is to be considered , since to produce both these , Refraction seems to Intervene , which by its Varieties may much alter the Case : ) which both seems to strengthen the Conjecture I was formerly proposing , that there was something else in the Kinds of Asperity , as well as in the Degrees of it , which enabled our Blind man to Discriminate Colours , and do's at least show , that we cannot in all Cases from the bare Difference in the Degrees of Asperity betwixt Colours , safely conclude , that the Rougher of any two always Reflects the least Light. 16. But this notwithstanding , ( Pyrophilus ) and what ever Curiosity I may have had to move some Questions to our Sagacious Blind man , yet thus much I think you will admit us to have gain'd by his Testimony , that since many Colours may be felt with the Circumstances above related , the Surfaces of such Coloured Bodies must certainly have differing Degrees , and in all probability have differing Forms or Kinds of Asperity belonging to them , which is all the Use that my present attempt obliges me to make of the History above deliver'd , that being sufficient to prove , that Colour do's much depend upon the Disposition of the Superficial parts of Bodies , and to shew in general , wherein 't is probable that such a Disposition do's ( principally at least ) consist . 17. But to return to what I was saying before I began to make mention of our Blind Organist , what we have deliver'd touching the causes of the several Forms of Asperity that may Diversifie the Surfaces of Colour'd Bodies , may perchance somewhat assist us to make some Conjectures in the general , at several of the ways whereby 't is possible for the Experiments hereafter to be mention'd , to produce the suddain changes of Colours that are wont to be Consequent upon them ; for most of these Phaenomena being produc'd by the Intervention of Liquors , and these for the most part abounding with very Minute , Active , and Variously Figur'd Saline Corpuscles , Liquors so Qualify'd may well enough very Nimbly alter the Texture of the Body they are imploy'd to Work upon , and so may change the form of Asperity , and thereby make them Remit to the Eye the Light that falls on them , after another manner than they did before , and by that means Vary the Colour , so farr forth as it depends upon the Texture or Disposition of the Seen Parts of the Object , which I say , Pyrophilus , that you may not think I would absolutely exclude all other ways of Modifying the Beams of Light between their Parting from the Lucid Body , and their Reception into the common Sensory . 18. Now there seen to me divers ways , by which we may conceive that Liquors may Nimbly alter the Colour of one another , and of other Bodies , upon which they Act , but my present haste will allow me to mention but some of them , without Insisting so much as upon those I shall name . 19. And first , the Minute Corpuscles that compose a Liquor may easily insinuate themselves into those Pores of Bodies , whereto their Size and Figure makes them Congruous , and these Pores they may either exactly Fill , or but Inadequately , and in this latter Case they will for the most part alter the Number and Figure , and always the Bigness of the former Pores . And in what capacity soever these Corpuscles of a Liquor come to be Lodg'd or Harbour'd in the Pores that admit them , the Surface of the Body will for the most part have its Asperity alter'd , and the Incident Light that meets with a Grosser Liquor in the little Cavities that before contain'd nothing but Air , or some yet Subtiler Fluid , will have its Beams either Refracted , or Imbib'd , or else Reflected more or less Interruptedly , than they would be , if the Body had been Unmoistned , as we see , that even fair Water falling on white Paper , or Linnen , and divers other Bodies apt to soak it in , will for some such Reasons as those newly mention'd , immediately alter the Colour of them , and for the most part make it Sadder than that of the Unwetted Parts of the same Bodies . And so you may see , that when in the Summer the High-ways are Dry and Dusty , if there falls store of Rain , they will quickly appear of a much Darker Colour than they did before , and if a Drop of Oyl be let fall upon a Sheet of White Paper , that part of it , which by the Imbibition of the Liquor acquires a greater Continuity , and some Transparency , will appear much Darker than the rest , many of the Incident Beams of Light being now Transmitted , that otherwise would be Reflected towards the Beholders Eyes . 20. Secondly , A Liquor may alter the Colour of a Body by freeing it from those things that hindred it from appearing in its Genuine Colour ; and though this may be said to be rather a Restauration of a Body to its own Colour , or a Retection of its native Colour , than a Change , yet still there Intervenes in it a change of the Colour which the Body appear'd to be of before this Operation . And such a change a Liquor may work , either by Dissolving , or Corroding , or by some such way of carrying off that Matter , which either Veil'd or Disguis'd the Colour that afterwards appears . Thus we restore Old pieces of Dirty Gold to a clean and nitid Yellow , by putting them into the Fire , and into Aqua-fortis , which take off the adventitious Filth that made that pure Metall look of a Dirty Colour . And there is also an easie way to restore Silver Coyns to their due Lustre , by fetching off that which Discolour'd them . And I know a Chymical Liquor , which I employ'd to restore pieces of Cloath spotted with Grease to their proper Colour , by Imbibing the Spotted part with this Liquor , which Incorporating with the Grease , and yet being of a very Volatile Nature , does easily carry it away with it Self . And I have sometimes try'd , that by Rubbing upon a good Touch-stone a certain Metalline mixture so Compounded , that the Impression it left upon the Stone appear'd of a very differing Colour from that of Gold , yet a little of Aqua-fortis would in a Trice make the Golden Colour disclose it self , by Dissolving the other Metalline Corpuscles that conceal'd those of the Gold , which you know that Menstruum will leave Untouch'd . 21. Thirdly , A Liquor may alter the Colour of a Body by making a Comminution of its Parts , and that principally two ways , the first by Disjoyning and Dissipating those Clusters of Particles , if I may so call them , which stuck more Loosely together , being fastned only by some more easily Dissoluble Ciment , which seems to be the Case of some of the following Experiments , where you 'l find the Colour of many Corpuscles brought to cohere by having been Precipitated together , Destroy'd by the Affusion of very peircing and incisive Liquors . The other of the two ways I was speaking of , is , by Dividing the Grosser and more Solid Particles into Minute ones , which will be always Lesser , and for the most part otherwise Shap'd than the Entire Corpuscle so Divided , as it will happen in a piece of Wood reduc'd into Splinters or Chips , or as when a piece of Chrystal heated red Hot and quench'd in Cold water is crack'd into a multitude of little Fragments , which though they fall not asunder , alter the Disposition of the Body of the Chrystal , as to its manner of Reflecting the Light , as we shall have Occasion to shew hereafter . 22. There is a fourth way contrary to the third , whereby a Liquor may change the Colour of another Body , especially of another Fluid , and that is , by procuring the Coalition of several Particles that before lay too Scatter'd and Dispers'd to exhibit the Colour that afterwards appears . Thus sometimes when I have had a Solution of Gold so Dilated , that I doubted whether the Liquor had really Imbib'd any true Gold or no , by pouring in a little Mercury , I have been quickly able to satisfie my Self , that the Liquor contain'd Gold , that Mettall after a little while Cloathing the Surface of the Quick-silver , with a Thin Film of its own Livery . And chiefly , though not only by this way of bringing the Minute parts of Bodies together in such Numbers as to make them become Notorious to the Eye , many of these Colours seem to be Generated which are produc'd by Precipitations , especially by such as are wont to be made with fair Water , as when Resinous Gumms dissolv'd in Spirit of Wine , are let fall again , if the Spirit be Copiously diluted with that weakning Liquor . And so out of the Rectify'd and Transparent Butter of Antimony , by the bare Mixture of fair Water , there will be plentifully Precipitated that Milk-white Substance , which by having its Looser Salts well wash'd off , is turn'd into that Medicine , which Vulgar Chymists are pleas'd to call Mercurius Vitae . 23. A fifth way , by which a Liquor may change the Colour of a Body , is , by Dislocating the Parts , and putting them out of their former Order into another , and perhaps also altering the Posture of the single Corpuscles as well as their Order or Situation in respect of one another . What certain Kinds of Commotion or Dislocation of the Parts of a Body may do towards the Changing its Colour , is not only evident in the Mutations of Colour observable in Quick-silver , and some other Concretes long kept by Chymists in a Convenient Heat , though in close Vessels , but in the Obvious Degenerations of Colour , which every Body may take notice of in Bruis'd Cherries , and other Fruit , by comparing after a while the Colour of the Injur'd with that of the Sound part of the same Fruit. And that also such Liquors , as we have been speaking of , may greatly Discompose the Textures of many Bodies , and thereby alter the Disposition of their Superficial parts , the great Commotion made in Metalls , and several other Bodies by Aqua-fortis , Oyl of Vitriol , and other Saline Menstruums , may easily perswade us , and what such Vary'd Situations of Parts may do towards the Diversifying of the manner of their Reflecting the Light , may be Guess'd in some Measure by the Beating of Transparent Glass into a White Powder , but farr better by the Experiments lately Pointed at , and hereafter Deliver'd , as the Producing and Destroying Colours by the means of subtil Saline Liquors , by whose Affusion the Parts of other Liquors are manifestly both Agitated , and likewise Dispos'd after another manner than they were before such Affusion . And in some Chymical Oyls , as particularly that of Lemmon Pills , by barely Shaking the Glass , that holds it , into Bubbles , that Transposition of the Parts which is consequent to the Shaking , will shew you on the Surfaces of the Bubbles exceeding Orient and Lively Colours , which when the Bubbles relapse into the rest of the Oyl , do immediately Vanish . 24. I know not , Pyrophilus , whether I should mention as a Distinct way , because it is of a somewhat more General Nature , that Power , whereby a Liquor may alter the Colour of another Body , by putting the Parts of it into Motion ; For though possibly the Motion so produc'd , does , as such , seldome suddenly change the Colour of the Body whose Parts are Agitated , yet this seems to be one of the most General , however not Immediate causes of the Quick change of Colours in Bodies . For the Parts being put into Motion by the adventitious Liquor , divers of them that were before United , may become thereby Disjoyn'd , and when that Motion ceases or decays , others of them may Stick together , and that in a new Order , by which means the Motion may sometimes produce Permanent changes of Colours , as in the Experiment you will meet with hereafter , of presently turning a Snowy White Body into a Yellow , by the bare Affusion of fair Water , which probably so Dissolves the Saline Corpuscles that remain'd in the Calx , and sets them at Liberty to Act upon one another , and the Metall , far more Powerfully than the Water without the Assistance of such Saline Corpuscles could do . And though you rubb Blew Vitriol , how Venereal and Unsophisticated soever it be , upon the Whetted Blade of a Knife , it will not impart to the Iron its Latent Colour , but if you moisten the Vitriol with your Spittle , or common Water , the Particles of the Liquor disjoyning those of the Vitriol , and thereby giving them the Various Agitation requisite to Fluid Bodies , the Metalline Corpuscles of the thus Dissolv'd Vitriol will Lodge themselves in Throngs in the Small and Congruous Pores of the Iron they are Rubb'd on , and so give the Surface of it the Genuine Colour of the Copper . 25. There remains yet a way , Pyrophilus , to be mention'd , by which a Liquor may alter the Colour of another Body , and this seems the most Important of all , because though it be nam'd but as One , yet it may indeed comprehend Many , and that is , by Associating the Saline Corpuscles , or any other Sort of the more Rigid ones of the Liquor , with the Particles of the Body that it is employ'd to Work upon . For these Adventitious Corpuscles Associating themselves with the Protuberant Particles of the Surface of a Colour'd Body , must necessarily alter their Bigness , and will most commonly alter their Shape . And how much the Colours of Bodies depend upon the Bulk and Figure of their Superficial Particles , you may Guess by this , that eminent antient Philosophers , and divers Moderns , have thought that all Colours might in a general way be made out by these two ; whose being Diversify'd , will in our Case be attended with these two Circumstances , the One , that the Protuberant Particles being Increas'd in Bulk , they will oftentimes be Vary'd as to the Closeness or Laxity of their Order , fewer of them being contain'd within the same Sensible ( though Minute ) space than before ; or else by approaching to one another , they must Straighten the Pores , and it may be too , they will by their manner of Associating themselves with the Protuberant Particles , intercept new Pores . And this invites me to consider farther , that the Adventitious Corpuscles , I have been speaking of , may likewise produce a great Change as well in the Little Cavities or Pores as in the Protuberances of a Colour'd Body ; for besides what we have just now taken notice of , they may by Lodging themselves in those little Cavities , fill them up , and it may well happen , that they may not only fill the Pores they Insinuate themselves into , but likewise have their Upper Parts extant above them ; and partly by these new Protuberances , partly by Increasing the Bulk of the former , these Extraneous Corpuscles may much alter the Number and Bigness of the Surfaces Pores , changing the Old and Intercepting new ones . And then 't is Odds , but the Order of the Little Extancies , and consequently that of the Little Depressions in point of Situation will be alter'd likewise : as if you dissolve Quick-silver in some kind of Aqua-fortis , the Saline Particles of the Menstruum , Associating themselves with the Mercurial Corpuscles , will make a Green Solution , which afterwards easily enough Degenerates . And Red Lead or Minium being Dissolv'd in Spirit of Vinegar , yields not a Red , but a Clear Solution , the Redness of the Lead being by the Liquor Destroy'd . But a better Instance may be taken from Copper , for I have try'd , that if upon a Copper-plate you let some Drops of weak Aqua-fortis rest for a while , the Corpuscles of the Menstruum joyning with those of the Metall , will produce a very sensible Asperity upon the Surface of the Plate , and will Concoagulate that way into very minute Grains of a Pale Blew Vitriol ; whereas if upon another part of the same Plate you suffer a little strong Spirit of Urine to rest a competent time , you shall find the Asperated Surface adorn'd with a Deeper and Richer Blew . And the same Aqua-fortis , that will quickly change the Redness of Red Lead into a Darker Colour , will , being put upon Crude Lead , produce a Whitish Substance , as with Copper it did a Blewish . And as with Iron it will produce a Reddish , and on White Quills a Yellowish , so much may the Coalition of the Parts of the same Liquor , with the differingly Figur'd Particles of Stable Bodies , divers ways Asperate the differingly Dispos'd Surfaces , and so Diversifie the Colour of those Bodies . And you 'l easily believe , that in many changes of Colour , that happen upon the Dissolutions of Metalls , and Precipitations made with Oyl of Tartar , and the like Fix'd Salts , there may Intervene a Coalition of Saline Corpuscles with the Particles of the Body Dissolv'd or Precipitated , if you examine how much the Vitriol of a Metall may be Heavier than the Metalline part of it alone , upon the Score of the Saline parts Concoagulated therewith , and , that in several Precipitations the weight of the Calx does for the same Reason much exceed that of the Metall , when it was first put in to be Dissolv'd . 26. But , Pyrophilus , to consider these Matters more particularly would be to forget that I declar'd against Adventuring , at least for this time , at particular Theories of Colours , and that accordingly you may justly expect from me rather Experiments than Speculations , and therefore I shall Dismiss this Subject of the Forms of Superficial Asperity in Colour'd Bodies , as soon as I shall but have nam'd to you by way of Supplement to what we have hitherto Discours'd in this Section , a Couple of Particulars , ( which you 'l easily grant me ) The one , That there are divers other ways for the speedy Production even of True and Permanent Colours in Bodies , besides those Practicable by the help of Liquors ; for proof of which Advertisement , though several Examples might be alleged , yet I shall need but Re-mind you of what I mention'd to you above , touching the change of Colours suddenly made on Temper'd Steel , and on Lead , by the Operation of Heat , without the Intervention of a Liquor . But the other particular I am to observe to you is of more Importance to our present Subject , and it is , That though Nature and Art may in some cases so change the Asperity of the Superficial parts of a Body , as to change its Colour by either of the ways I have propos'd Single or Unassisted , yet for the most part 't is by two or three , or perhaps by more of the fore-mention'd ways Associated together , that the Effect is produc'd , and if you consider how Variously those several ways and some others Ally'd unto them , which I have left unmention'd , may be Compounded and Apply'd , you will not much wonder that such fruitfull , whether Principles ( or Manners of , Diversification ) should be fitted to Change or Generate no small store of Differing Colours . 27. Hitherto , Pyrophilus , we have in discoursing of the Asperity of Bodies consider'd the little Protuberances of other Superficial particles which make up that Roughness , as if we took it for granted , that they must be perfectly Opacous and Impenetrable by the Beams of Light , and so , must contribute to the Variety of Colours as they terminate more or less Light , and reflect it to the Eye mix'd with more or less of thus or thus mingl'd Shades . But to deal Ingenuously with you , Pyrophilns , before I proceed any further , I must not conceal from you , that I have often thought it worth a Serious Enquiry , whether or no Particles of Matter , each of them singly Insensible , and therefore Small enough to be capable of being such Minute Particles , as the Atomists both of old and of late have ( not absurdly ) called Corpuscula Coloris , may not yet consist each of them of divers yet Minuter Particles , betwixt which we may conceive little Commissures where they Adhere to one another , and , however , may not be Porous enough to be , at least in some degree , Pervious to the unimaginably subtile Corpuscles that make up the Beams of Light , and consequently to be in such a degree Diaphanous . For , Pyrophilus , that the proposed Enquiry may be of moment to him that searches after the Nature of Colour , you 'l easily grant , if you consider , that whereas Perfectly Opacous bodies can but reflect the incident Beams of Light , those that are Diaphanous are qualified to refract them too , and that Refraction has such a stroak in the Production of Colours , as you cannot but have taken notice of , and perhaps admir'd in the Colours generated by the Trajection of Light through Drops of Water that exhibit a Rain-bow , through Prismatical glasses , and through divers other Transparent bodies . But 't is like , Pyrophilus , you 'l more easily allow that about this matter 't is rather Important to have a Certainty , than that 't is Rational to entertain a Doubt ; wherefore I must mention to you some of the Reasons that make me think it may need a further Enquiry , for I find that in a Darkned Room , where the Light is permitted to enter but at One hole , the little wandering Particles of Dust , that are commonly called Motes , and , unless in the Sun-beams , are not taken notice of by the unassisted Sight , I have , I say , often observ'd , that these roving Corpuscles being look'd on by an Eye plac'd on one side of the Beams that enter'd the Little hole , and by the Darkness having its Pupill much Enlarg'd , I could discern that these Motes as soon as they came within the compass of the Lumihous , whether Cylinder or Inverted Cone , if I may so call it , that was made up by the Unclouded Beams of the Sun , did in certain positions appear adorn'd with very vivid Colours , like those of the Rain-bow , or rathen like those of very Minute , but Sparkling fragments of Diamonds ; and as soon as the Continuance of their Motion had brought them to an Inconvenient position in reference to the Light and the Eye , they were only visible without Darting any lively Colours as before , which seems to argue that these little Motes , or minute Fragments , of several sorts of bodies reputed Opacous , and only crumbled as to their Exteriour and Looser parts into Dust , did not barely Reflect the Beams that fell upon them , but remit them to the Eye Refracted too . We may also observe , that several Bodies , ( as well some of a Vegetable , as others of an Animal nature ) which are wont to pass for Opacous , appear in great part Transparent , when they are reduc'd into Thin parts , and held against a powerful Light. This I have not only taken notice of in pieces of Ivory reduc'd but into Thick Leaves , as also in divers considerable Thick shells of Fishes , and in shaving of Wood , but I have also found that a piece of Deal , far thicker than one would easily imagine , being purposly interpos'd betwixt my Eye plac'd in a Room , and the clear Day-light , was not only somewhat Transparent , but ( perhaps by reason of its Gummous nature ) appear'd quite through of a lovely Red. And in the Darkned Room above mention'd , Bodies held against the hole at which the Light enter'd , appear'd far less Opacous than they would elsewhere have done , insomuch that I could easily and plainly see through the whole Thickness of my Hand , the Motions of a Body plac'd ( at a very near distance indeed , but yet ) beyond it . And even in Minerals , the Opacity is not always so great as many think , if the Body be made Thin , for White Marble though of a pretty Thickness , being within a Due distance plac'd betwixt the Eye and a Convenient Light , will suffer the Motions of ones Finger to be well discern'd through it , and so will pieces , Thick enough , of many common Flints . But above all , that Instance is remarkable , that is afforded us by Muscovie glass , ( which some call Selenites , others Lapis Specularis ) for though plates of this Mineral , though but of a moderate Thickness , do often appear Opacous , yet if one of these be Dextrously split into the thinnest Leaves 't is made up of , it will yield such a number of them , as scarce any thing but Experience could have perswaded me , and these Leaves will afford the most Transparent sort of consistent Bodies , that , for ought I have observ'd , are yet known ; and a single Leaf or Plate will be so far from being Opacous , that 't will scarce be so much as Visible . And multitudes of Bodies there are , whose Fragments seem Opacous to the naked Eye , which yet , when I have included them in good Microscopes , appear'd Transparent ; but , Pyrophilus , on the other side I am not yet sure that there are no Bodies , whose Minute Particles even in such a Microscope as that of mine , which I was lately mentioning , will not appear Diaphanous . For having consider'd Mercury Precipitated perse , the little Granules that made up the powder , look'd like little fragments of Coral beheld by the naked Eye at a Distance ( for very Near at hand Coral will sometimes , especially if it be Good , shew some Transparency . ) Filings likewise of Steel and Copper , though in an excellent Microscope , and a fair Day , they show'd like pretty Big Fragments of those Metalls , and had considerable Brightness on some of their Surfaces , yet I was not satisfi'd , that I perceiv'd any Reflection from the Inner parts of any of the Filings . Nay , having look'd in my best Microscope upon the Red Calx of Lead , ( commonly call'd Minium ) neither I , nor any I shew'd it to , could discern it to be other than Opacous , though the Day were Clear , and the Object strongly Enlightned . And the deeply Red Colour of Vitriol appear'd in the same Microscope ( notwithstanding the great Comminution effected by the Fire ) but like Grossy beaten Brick . So that , Pyrophilus , I shall willingly resign you the care of making some further Enquiries into the Subject we have now been considering ; for I confess , as I told you before , that I think that the Matter may need a further Scrutiny , nor would I be forward to Determine how far or in what cases the Transparency or Semi-diaphaniety of the Superficial Corpuscles of Bigger Bodies , may have an Interest in the Production of their Colours , especially because that even in divers White bodies , as Beaten Glass , Snow and Froth , where it seems manifest that the Superficial parts are singly Diaphanous , ( being either . Water , or Air , or Glass ) we see not that such Variety of Colours are produc'd as usually are by the Refraction of Light , even in those Bodies , when by their Bigness , Shape , &c. they are conveniently qualify'd to exhibit such Various and Lively Colours as those of the Rain-bow , and of Prismatical Glasses . 28. By what has been hitherto discours'd , Pyrophilus , we may be assisted to judge of that famous Controversie which was of Old disputed betwixt the Epicureans and other Atomists on the one side , and most other Philosophers on the other side . The former Denying Bodies to be Colour'd in the Dark , and the Latter making Colour to be an Inherent quality , as well as Figure , Hardness ; Weight , or the like . For though this Controversie be Reviv'd , and hotly Agitated among the Moderns , yet I doubt whether it be not in great part a Nominal dispute , and therefore let us , according to the Doctrine formerly deliver'd , Distinguish the Acceptions of the word Colour , and say , that if it be taken in the Stricter Sense , the Epicureans seem to be in the Right , for if Colour be indeed , though not according to them , but Light Modify'd , how can we conceive that it can Subsist in the Dark , that is , where it must be suppos'd there is no Light ; but on the other side , if Colour be consider'd as a certain Constant Disposition of the Superficial parts of the Object to Trouble the Light they Reflect after such and such a Determinate manner , this Constant , and , if I may so speak , Modifying disposition persevering in the Object , whether it be Shin'd upon or no , there seems no just reason to deny , but that in this Sense , Bodies retain their Colour as well in the Night as Day ; or , to Speak a little otherwise , it may be said , that Bodies are Potentially Colour'd in the Dark , and Actually in the Light. But of this Matter discoursing more fully elsewhere , as 't is a difficulty that concerns Qualities in general , I shall forbear to insist on it here . CHAP. IV. 1. OF greater Moment in the Investigation of the Nature of Colours is the Controversie , Whether those of the Rain-bow , and those that are often seen in Clouds , before the Rising , or after the Setting of the Sun ; and in a word , Whether those other Colours , that are wont to be call'd Emphatical , ought or ought not to be accounted True Colours . I need not tell you that the Negative is the Common Opinion , especially in the Schools , as may appear by that Vulgar distinction of Colours , whereby these under Consideration are term'd Apparent , by way of Opposition to those that in the other Member of the Distinction are call'd True or Genuine . This question I say seems to me of Importance , upon this Account , that it being commonly Granted , ( or however , easie enough to be Prov'd ) that Emphatical Colours are Light it self Modify'd by Refractions chiefly , with a concurrence sometimes of Reflections , and perhaps some other Accidents depending on these two ; if these Emphatical Colours be resolv'd to be Genuine , it will seem consequent , that Colours , or at least divers of them , are but Diversify'd Light , and not such Real and Inherent qualities as they are commonly thought to be . 2. Now since we are wont to esteem the Echoes and other Sounds of Bodies , to be True Sounds , all their Odours to be True Odours , and ( to be short ) since we judge other Sensible Qualities to be True ones , because they are the proper Objects of some or other of our Senses , I see not why Emphatical Colours , being the proper and peculiar Objects of the Organ of Sight , and capable to Affect it as Truly and as Powerfully as other Colours , should be reputed but Imaginary ones . And if we have ( which perchance you 'l allow ) formerly evinc'd Colour , ( when the word is taken in its more Proper sense ) to be but Modify'd Light , there will be small Reason to deny these to be true Colours , which more manifestly than others disclose themselves to be produc'd by Diversifications of the Light. 3. There is indeed taken notice of a Difference betwixt these Apparent colours , and those that are wont to be esteem'd Genuine , as to the Duration , which has induc'd some Learned Men to call the former rather Evanid than Fantastical . But as the Ingenious Gassendus does somewhere Judiciously observe , if this way of Arguing were Good , the Greeness of a Leaf ought to pass for Apparent , because , soon Fading into a Yellow , it scarce lasts at all , in comparison of the Greeness of an Emerauld . I shall add , that if the Sun-beams be in a convenient manner trajected through a Glass-prism , and thrown upon some well-shaded Object within a Room , the Rain-bow thereby Painted on the Surface of the Body that Terminates the Beams , may oftentimes last longer than some Colours I have produc'd in certain Bodies , which would justly , and without scruple be accounted Genuine Colours , and yet suddenly Degenerate , and lose their Nature . 4. A greater Disparity betwixt Emphatical Colours , and others , may perhaps be taken from this , that Genuine Colours seem to be produc'd in Opacous Bodies by Reflection , but Apparent ones in Diaphanous Bodies , and principally by Refraction , I say Principally rather than Solely , because in some cases Reflection also may concurr , but still this seems not to conclude these Latter Colours not to be True ones . Nor must what has been newly said of the Differences of True and Apparent Colours , be interpreted in too Unlimited a Sense , and therefore it may perhaps somewhat Assist you , both to Reflect upon the two fore-going Objections , and to judge of some other Passages which you 'l meet with in this Tract , if I take this Occasion to observe to you , that if Water be Agitated into Froth , it exhibits you know a White colour , which soon after it Loses upon the Resolution of the Bubbles into Air and Water , now in this case either the Whiteness of the Froth is a True Colour or not , if it be , then True Colours , supposing the Water pure and free from Mixtures of any thing Tenacious , may be as Short-liv'd as those of the Rain-bow ; also the Matter , wherein the Whiteness did Reside , may in a few moments perfectly Lose all foot-steps or remains of it . And besides , even Diaphanous Bodies may be capable of exhibiting True Colours by Reflection , for that Whiteness is so produc'd , we shall anon make it probable . But if on the other side it be said , that the Whiteness of Froth is an Emphatical Colour , then it must no longer be said , that Fantastical Colours require a certain Position of the Luminary and the Eye , and must be Vary'd or Destroy'd by the Change thereof , since Froth appears White , whether the Sun be Rising or Setting , or in the Meridian , or any where between it and the Horizon , and from what ( Neighbouring ) place soever the Beholders Eye looks upon it . And since by making a Liquor Tenacious enough , yet without Destroying its Transparency , or Staining it with any Colour , you may give the Little Films , whereof the Bubbles consist , such a Texture , as may make the Froth last very many Hours , if not some Days , or even Weeks , it will render it somewhat Improper to assign Duration for the Distinguishing Character to Discriminate Genuine from Fantastical Colours . For such Froth may much out-last the Undoubtedly true Colours of some of Nature's Productions , as in that Gaudy Plant not undeservedly call'd the Mervail of Peru , the Flowers do often Fade , the same Day they are Blown ; And I have often seen a Virginian Flower , which usually Withers within the compass of a Day ; and I am credibly Inform'd ; that not far from hence a curious Herborist has a Plant , whose Flowers perish in about an Hour . But if the Whiteness of Water turn'd into Froth must therefore be reputed Emphatical , because it appears not that the Nature of the Body is Alter'd , but only that the Disposition of its Parts in reference to the Incident Light is Chang'd , why may not the Whiteness be accounted Emphatical too , which I shall shew anon to be Producible , barely by such another change in Black Horn ? and yet this so easily acquir'd Whiteness seems to be as truly its Colour as the Blackness was before , and at least is more Permanent than the Greenness of Leaves , the Redness of Roses , and ; in short , than the Genuine Colours of the most part of Nature's Productions . It may indeed be further Objected , that according as the Sun or other Luminous Body changes place , these Emphatical Colours alter or vanish . But not to repeat what I have just now said , I shall add , that if a piece of Cloath in a Drapers Shop ( in such the Light being seldome Primary ) be variously Folded , it will appear of differing Colours , as the Parts happen to be more Illuminated or more Shaded , and if you stretch it Flat , it will commonly exhibit some one Uniform Colour , and yet these are not wont to be reputed Emphatical , so that the Difference seems to be chiefly this , that in the Case of the Rain-bow , and the like , the Position of the Luminary Varies the Colour , and in the Cloath I have been mentioning , the Position of the Object does it . Nor am I forward to allow that in all Cases the Apparition of Emphatical Colours requires a Determinate position of the Eye , for if Men will have the Whiteness of Froth Emphatical , you know what we have already Inferr'd from thence . Besides , the Sun-beams trajected through a Triangular Glass , after the manner lately mention'd , will , upon the Body that Terminates them , Paint a Rain-bow , that may be seen whether the Eye be plac'd on the Right Hand of it or the Left , or Above or Beneath it , or Before or Behind it ; and though there may appear some Little Variation in the Colours of the Rain-bow , beheld from Differing parts of the Room , yet such a Diversity may be also observ'd by an Attentive Eye in Real Colours , look'd upon under the like Circumstances . Nor will it follow , that because there remains no Foot-steps of the Colour upon the Object , when the Prism is Remov'd , that therefore the Colour was not Real , since the Light was truly Modify'd by the Refraction and Reflection it Suffer'd in its Trajection through the Prism ; and the Object in our case serv'd for a Specular Body , to Reflect that Colour to the Eye . And that you may not be Startled , Pyrophilus , that I should Venture to say , that a Rough and Colour'd Object may serve for a Speculum to Reflect the Artificial Rain-bow I have been mentioning , consider what usually happens in Darkned Rooms , where a Wall , or other Body conveniently Situated within , may so Reflect the Colours of Bodies , without the Room , that they may very clearly be Discern'd and Distinguish'd , and yet 't is taken for granted , that the Colours seen in a Darkned Room , though they leave no Traces of themselves upon the Wall or Body that Receives them , are the True Colours of the External Objects , together with which the Colours of the Images are Mov'd or do Rest . And the Errour is not in the Eye , whose Office is only to perceive the Appearances of things , and which does Truly so , but in the Judging or Estimative faculty , which Mistakingly concludes that Colour to belong to the Wall , which does indeed belong to the Object , because the Wall is that from whence the Beams of Light that carry the Visible Species , do come in Straight Lines directly to the Eye , as for the same Reason we are wont at a certain Distance from Concave Sphaerical Glasses , to perswade our selves that we see the Image come forth to Meet us , and Hang in the Air betwixt the Glass and Us , because the Reflected Beams that Compose the Image cross in that place , where the Image seems to be , and thence , and not from the Glass , do in Direct Lines take their Course to the Eye , and upon the like Cause it is , that divers Deceptions in Sounds and other Sensible Objects do depend , as we elsewhere declare . 5. I know not , whether I need add , that I have purposely Try'd , ( as you 'l find some Pages hence , and will perhaps think somewhat strange ) that Colours that are call'd Emphatical , because not Inherent in the Bodies in which they Appear , may be Compounded with one another , as those that are confessedly Genuine may . But when all this is said , Pyrophilus , I must Advertise you , that it is but Problematically Spoken , and that though I think the Opinion I have endeavour'd to fortifie Probable , yet a great part of our Discourse concerning Colours may be True , whether that Opinion be so or not . CHAP. V. 1. THere are you know , Pyrophilus , besides those Obsolete Opinions about Colours which have been long since Rejected , very Various Theories that have each of them , even at this day , Eminent Men for its Abetters ; for the Peripatetick Schools , though they dispute amongst themselves divers particulars concerning Colours , yet in this they seem Unanimously enough to Agree , that Colours are Inherent and Real Qualities , which the Light doth but Disclose , and not concurr to Produce . Besides there are Moderns , who with a slight Variation adopt the Opinion of Plato , and as he would have Colour to be nothing but a Kind of Flame consisting of Minute Corpuscles as it were Darted by the Object against the Eye , to whose Pores their Littleness and Figure made them congruous , so these would have Colour to be an Internal Light of the more Lucid parts of the Object , Darkned and consequently Alter'd by the Various Mixtures of the less Luminous parts . There are also others , who in imitation of some of the Antient Atomists , make Colour not to be Lucid steam , but yet a Corporeal Effluvium issuing out of the Colour'd Body , but the Knowingst of these have of late Reform'd their Hypothesis , by acknowledging and adding that some External Light is necessary to Excite , and as they speak , Sollicit these Corpuscles of Colour as they call them , and Bring them to the Eye . Another and more principal Opinion of the Modern Philosophers , to which this last nam'd may by a Favourable explication be reconcil'd , is that which derives Colours from the Mixture of Light and Darkness , or rather Light and Shadows . And as for the Chymists 't is known , that the generality of them ascribes the Origine of Colours to the Sulphureous Principle in Bodies , though I find , as I elsewhere largely shew , that some of the Chiefest of them derive Colours rather from Salt than Sulphur , and others , from the third Hypostatical Principle , Mercury . And as for the Cartesians I need not tell you , that they , supposing the Sensation of Light to bee produc'd by the Impulse made upon the Organs of Sight , by certain extremely Minute and Solid Globules , to which the Pores of the Air and other Diaphanous bodies are pervious , endeavour to derive the Varieties of Colours from the Various Proportion of the Direct Progress or Motion of these Globules to their Circumvolution or Motion about their own Centre , by which Varying Proportion they are by this Hypothesis suppos'd qualify'd to strike the Optick Nerve after several Distinct manners , so to produce the perception of Differing Colours . 2. Besides these six principal Hypotheses , Pyrophilus , there may be some others , which though Less known , may perhaps as well as these deserve to be taken into consideration by you ; but that I should copiously debate any of them at present , I presume you will not expect , if you consider the Scope of these Papers , and the Brevity I have design'd in them , and therefore I shall at this time only take notice to you in the general of two or three things that do more peculiarly concern the Treatise you have now in your hands . 3. And first , though the Embracers of the several Hypotheses I have been naming to you , by undertaking each Sect of them to explicate Colours indefinitely , by the particular Hypotheses they maintain , seem to hold it forth as the only Needfull Theory about that Subject , yet for my part I doubt whether any one of all these Hypotheses have a right to be admitted Exclusively to all others , for I think it Probable , that Whiteness and Blackness may be explicated by Reflection alone without Refraction , as you 'l find endeavour'd in the Discourse you 'l meet with e're long Of the Origine of Whiteness and Blackness , and on the other side , since I have not found that by any Mixture of White and True Black , ( for there is a Blewish Black which many mistake for a Genuine ) there can be a Blew , a Yellow , or a Red , to name no other Colours , produced , and since we do find that these Colours may be produc'd in the Glass-prism and other Transparent bodies , by the help of Refractions , it seems that Refraction is to be taken in into the Explication of some Colours , to whose Generation they seem to concurr , either by making a further or other Commixture of Shades with the Refracted Light , or by some other way not now to be discours'd . And as it seems not improbable , that in case the Pores of the Air , and other Diaphanous bodies be every where almost fill'd with such Globuli as the Cartesians suppose , the Various kind of Motion of these Globuli , may in many cases have no small stroak in Varying our Perception of Colour , so without the Supposition of these Globuli , which 't is not so easie to evince , I think we may probably enough conceive in general , that the Eye may be Variously affected , not only by the Entire Beams of Light that fall upon it as they are such , but by the Order , and by the Degree of Swiftness , and in a word by the Manner according to which the Particles that compose each Particular Beam arrive at the Sensory , so that whatever be the Figure of the Little Corpuscles , of which the Beams of Light consist , not only the Celerity or Slowness of their Revolution or Rotation in reference to their Progressive Motion , but their more Absolute Celerity , their Direct or Undulating Motion , and other Accidents , which may attend their Appulse to the Eye , may fit them to make Differing Impressions on it . 4. Secondly , For these and the like Considerations , Pyrophilus , I must desire that you would look upon this little Treatise , not as a Discourse written Principally to maintain any of the fore-mention'd Theories , Exclusively to all others , or substitute a New one of my Own , but as the beginning of a History of Colours , upon which , when you and your Ingenious friends shall have Enrich'd it , a Solid Theory may be safely built . But yet because this History is not meant barely for a Register of the things recorded in it , but for an Apparatus to a sound and comprehensitive Hypothesis , I thought fit , so to temper the whole Discourse , as to make it as conducible , as conveniently I can to that End , and therefore I have not scrupled to let you see that I was willing , as to save you the labour of Cultivating some Theories that I thought would never enable you to reach the Ends you aim at , so to contract your Enquiries into a Narrow compass , for both which purposes I thought it requisite to do these two things , the One , to set down some Experiments which by the help of the Reflections and Insinuations that attend them , may assist you to discover the Infirmness and Insufficiency both of the common Peripatetick Doctrine , and of the now more applauded Theory of the Chymists about Colour , because these two Doctrines having Possess'd themselves , the one of the most part of the Schools , and the other of the Esteem of the Generality of Physicians and other Learned Men , whose Professions and Ways of Study do not exact that they should Scrupulously examine the very First and Simplest Principles of Nature , I fear'd it would be to little purpose , without doing something to discover the Insufficiency of these Hypotheses , that I should , ( which was the Other thing I thought requisite for me to do ) set down among my other Experiments those in the greatest Number , that may let you see , that , till I shall be Better Inform'd , I encline to take Colour to be a Modification of Light , and would invite you chiefly to Cultivate that Hypothesis , and Improve it to the making out of the Generation of Particular Colours , as I have Endeavour'd to apply it to the Explication of Whiteness and Blackness . 5. Thirdly . But , Pyrophilus , though this be at present the Hypothesis I preferr , yet I propose it but in a General Sense , teaching only that the Beams of Light , Modify'd by the Bodies whence they are sent ( Reflected or Refracted ) to the Eye , produce there that Kind of Sensation , Men commonly call Colour ; But whether I think this Modification of the Light to be perform'd by Mixing it with Shades , or by Varying the Proportion of the Progress and Rotation of the Cartesian Globuli Caelestes , or by some other way which I am not now to mention , I pretend not here to Declare . Much less do I pretend to Determine , or scarce so much as to Hope to know all that were requisite to be Known , to give You , or even my Self , a perfect account of the Theory of Vision and Colours , for in Order to such an undertaking I would first Know what Light is , and if it be a Body ( as a Body or the Motion of a Body it seems to be ) what Kind of Corpuscles for Size and Shape it consists of , with what Swiftness they move Forwards , and Whirl about their own Centres . Then I would Know the Nature of Refraction , which I take to be one of the Abstrusest things ( not to explicate Plausibly , but to explicate Satisfactorily ) that I have met with in Physicks ; I would further Know what Kind and what Degree of Commixture of Darkness or Shades is made by Refractions or Reflections , or both , in the Superficial particles of those Bodies , that being Shin'd upon , constantly exhibit the one , for Instance , a Blew , the other a Yellow , the third a Red Colour ; I would further Know why this Contemperation of Light and Shade , that is made , for Example , by the Skin of a Ripe Cherry , should exhibit a Red , and not a Green , and the Leaf of the same Tree should exhibit a Green rather than a Red ; and indeed , Lastly , why since the Light that is Modify'd into these Colours consists but of Corpuscles moved against the Retina or Pith of the Optick Nerve , it should there not barely give a Stroak , but produce a Colour , whereas a Needle wounding likewise the Eye , would not produce Colour but Pain . These , and perhaps other things I should think requisite to be Known , before I should judge my Self to have fully Comprehended the True and Whole Nature of Colours ; and therefore , though by making the Experiments and Reflections deliver'd in this Paper , I have endeavour'd somewhat to Lessen my Ignorance in this Matter , and think it far more Desireable to discover a Little , than to discover Nothing , yet I pretend but to make it Probable by the Experiments I mention , that some Colours may be Plausibly enough Explicated in the General by the Doctrine here propos'd ; For whensoever I would Descend to the Minute and Accurate Explication of Particulars , I find my Self very Sensible of the great Obscurity of things , without excepting those which we never see but when they are Enlightned , and confess with Scaliger , Latet natura haec , ( says he , Speaking of that of Colour ) & sicut aliarum rerum species in profundissima caligine inscitiae humanae . THE EXPERIMENTAL HISTORY OF COLOURS . PART . II. Of the Nature of Whiteness and Blackness . CHAP. I. 1. THough after what I have acknowledged , Pyrophilus , of the Abstruse Nature of Colours in particular , you will easily believe , that I pretend not to give you a Satisfactory account of Whiteness and Blackness ; Yet not wholly to frustrate your Expectation of my offering something by way of Specimen towards the Explication of some Colours in particular , I shall make choice of These as the most Simple Ones , ( and by reason of their mutual Opposition the Least hardly explicable ) about which to present you my Thoughts , upon condition you will take them at most to be my Conjectures , not my Opinions . 2. When I apply'd my Self to consider , how the cause of Whiteness might be explan'd by Intelligible and Mechanical Principles , I remembred not to have met with any thing among the Antient Corpuscularian Philosophers , touching the Quality we call Whiteness , save that Democritus is by Aristotle said to have ascrib'd the Whiteness of Bodies to their Smoothness , and on the contrary their Blackness to their Asperity . But though about the Latter of those Qualities his Opinion be allowable , as we shall see anon , yet that he needs a Favourable Interpretation in what is Deliver'd concerning the First , ( at least if his Doctrine be not Mis-represented in this point , as it has been in many others ) we shall quickly have Occasion to manifest . But amongst the Moderns , the most Learned Gassendus in his Ingenious Epistle publish'd in the Year 1642. De apparente Magnitudine solis humilis & sublimis , reviving the Atomical Philosophy , has , though but Incidentally , deliver'd something towards the Explication of Whiteness upon Mechanical Principles : And because no Man that I know of , has done so before him , I shall , to be sure to do him Right , give you his Sense in his own Words : Cogites velim ( says he ) lucem quidem in Diaphano nullius coloris videri , sed in Opaco tamen terminante Candicare , ac tantò magis , quantò densior sea collectior fuerit . Deinde aquam non esse quidem coloris ex se candidi & radium tamen ex eâ reflexum versus oculum candicare . Rursus cum plana aquae Superficies non nifi ex una parte eam reflexionem faciat : si contigerit tamen illam in aliquot bullas intumescere , bullam unamquamque reflectionem facere , & candoris speciem creare certa Superficiei parte . Ad haec Spumam ex aqua pura non alia ratione videri candescere & albescerere quam quod sit congeries confertissima minutissimarum bullarum , quarum unaquaeque suum radium reflectit , unde continens candor alborve apparet . Denique Nivem nihil aliud videri quam speciem purissimae spumae ex bullulis quam minutissimis & confertissimis cohaerentis . Sed ridiculum me exhibeam , si sales meas nugas uberius proponem . 3. But though in this passage , that very Ingenious Person has Anticipated part of what I should say ; Yet I presume you will for all that expect , that I should give you a fuller Account of that . Notion of Whiteness , which I have the least Exceptions to , and of the Particulars whence I deduce it , which to do , I must mention to you the following Experiments and Observations . Whiteness then consider'd as a Quality in the Object , seems chiefly to depend upon this , That the Superficies of the Body that is call'd White , is Asperated by almost innumerable Small Surfaces , which being of an almost Specular Nature , are also so Plac'd , that some Looking this way , and some that way , they yet Reflect the Rays of Light that fall on them , not towards one another , but outwards towards the Spectators Eye . In this Rude and General account of Whiteness , it seems that besides those Qualities , which are common to Bodies of other Colours , as for instance the Minuteness and Number of the Superficial parts , the two chief things attributed to Bodies as White are made to be , First , that its Little Protuberances and Superficial parts be of somewhat a Specular Nature , that they may as little Looking-glasses each of them Reflect the Beams it receives , ( or the little Picture of the Sun made on it ) without otherwise considerably Altering them ; whereas in most other Colours , they are wont to be much Chang'd , by being also Refracted , or by being Return'd to the Eye , mixt with Shades or otherwise . And next , that its Superficial parts be so Situated , that they Retain not the Incident Rays of Light by Reflecting them Inwards , but Send them almost all Back , so that the Outermost Corpuscles of a White Body , having their Various Little Surfaces of a Specular Nature , a Man can from no place Behold the Body , but that there will be among those Innumerable Superficieculae , that Look some one way , and some another , enough of them Obverted to his Eye , to afford like a broken Looking-glass , a confused Idaea , or Representation of Light , and make such an Impression on the Organ , as that for which Men are wont to call a Body White . But this Notion will perhaps be best Explan'd by the same Experiments and Observations , on which it is Built , And therefore I shall now advance to Them. 4. And in the first place I consider , that the Sun and other Powerfully Lucid Bodies , are not only wont to Offend , which we call to Dazle our Eyes , but that if any Colour be to be Ascrib'd to them as they are Lucid , it seems it should be Whiteness : For the Sun at Noon-day , and in Clear weather , and when his Face is less Troubled , and as it were Stained by the Steams of Sublunary Bodies , and when his Beams have much less of the Atmosphere to Traject in their Passage to our Eyes , appears of a Colour more approaching to White , than when nearer the Horizon , the Interposition of certain Sorts of Fumes and Vapours make him oftentimes appear either Red , or at least more Yellow . And when the Sun Shines upon that Natural Looking-glass , a Smooth water , that part of it , which appears to this or that particular Beholder , the most Shin'd on , does to his Eye seem far Whiter than the rest . And here I shall add , that I have sometimes had the Opportunity to observe a thing , that may make to my present purpose , namely , that when the Sun was Veil'd over as it were , with a Thin White Cloud , and yet was too Bright to be Look'd upon Directly without Dazling , by casting my Eyes upon a Smooth water , as we sometimes do to observe Eclipses without prejudice to our Eyes , the Sun then not far from the Meridian , appear'd to me not Red , but so White , that 't was not without some Wonder , that I made the Observation . Besides , though we in English are wont to say , a thing is Red hot , as an Expression of its being Superlatively Ignitum , ( if I may so Speak for want of a proper English word ) yet in the Forges of Smiths , and the Furnaces of other Artificers , by that which they call a White heat , they mean a further Degree of Ignition , than by that which both they and we call a Red heat . 5. Secondly , I consider , that common Experience informs us , that as much Light Over-powers the Eye , so when the Ground is covered with Snow , ( a Body extremely White ) those that have Weak Eyes are wont to complain of too much Light : And even those that have not , are generally Sensible of an Extraordinary measure of Light in the Air ; and if they are fain to Look very long upon the Snow , find their Sight Offended by it . On which occasion we may call to mind what Xenophon relates , that his Cyrus marching his Army for divers days through Mountains covered with Snow , the Dazling splendor of its Whiteness prejudic'd the Sight of very many of his Souldiers , and Blinded some of them ; and other Stories of that Nature may be met with in Writers of good Note . And the like has been affirm'd to me by credible Persons of my own Acquaintance , and especially by one who though Skill'd in Physick and not Antient confess'd to me when I purposely ask'd him , that not only during his stay in Muscovy , he found his Eyes much Impair'd , by being reduc'd frequently to Travel in the Snow , but that the Weakness of his Eyes did not Leave him when he left that Country , but has follow'd him into these Parts , and yet continues to Trouble him . And to this doth agree what I as well as others have observ'd , namely , that when I Travell'd by Night , when the Ground was all cover'd with Snow , though the Night otherwise would not have been Lightsome , yet I could very well see to Choose my way . But much more Remarkable to my present purpose is that , which I have met with in Olaus Magnus , concerning the way of Travelling in Winter in the Northern Regions , where the Days of that Season are so very Short ; for after other things not needfull to be here Transcribed : Iter , says he , Diurnum duoscilicet montana milliaria ( quae 12 Italica sunt ) conficiunt . Nocte verò sub splendissima luna , duplatum iter consumunt aut triplatum . Neque id incommode fit , cum nivium reverberatione lunaris splendor sublimes & declives campos illustret , ac etiam montium praecipitia ac noxias feras à longè prospiciant evitandas . Which Testimony I the less Scruple to allege , because that it agrees very well with what has been Affirm'd to me by a Physician of Mosco , whom the Notion I have been Treating of concerning Whiteness invited me to ask whether he could not See much farther when he Travell'd by Night in Russia than he could do in England , or elsewhere , when there was no Snow upon the Ground ; For this Ingenious Person inform'd me , that he could See Things at a farr greater Distance , and with more Clearness , when he Travell'd by Night on the Russian Snow , though without the Assistance of Moon-shine , than we in these Parts would easily be perswaded . Though it seems not unlikely to me , that the Intenseness of the Cold may contribute something to the considerableness of the Effect , by much Clearing the Air of Darkish Steams , which in these more Temperate Climates are wont to Thicken it in Snowy weather : For having purposely inquir'd of this Doctor , and consulted that Ingenious Navigator Captain Iames's Voyage hereafter to be further mention'd , I find both their Relations agree in this , that in Dark Frosty Nights they could Discover more Stars , and See the rest Clearer than we in England are wont to do . 6. I know indeed that divers Learned Men think , that Snow so strongly Affects our Eyes , not by a Borrow'd , but a Native Light ; But I venture to give it as a Proof , that White Bodies reflect more Light than Others , because having once purposely plac'd a parcel of Snow in a Room carefully Darkned , that no Celestial Light might come to fall upon it ; neither I , nor an ingenious Person , ( Skill'd in Opticks ) whom I desir'd for a Witness , could find ; that it had any other Light than what it receiv'd . And however , 't is usual among those that Travel in Dark Nights , that the Guides wear something of White to be Discern'd by , there being scarce any Night so Dark , but that in the Free Air there remains some Light , though Broken and Debilitated perhaps by a thousand Reflections from the Opacous Corpuscles that Swim in the Air , and send it to one another before it comes to arrive at the Eye . 7. Thirdly , And the better to shew that White Bodies reflect store of Light , in comparison of those that are otherwise Colour'd , I did in the Darkn'd Room , formerly mention'd , hold nor far from the Hole , at which the Light was admitted , a Sheet only of White Paper , from whence casting the Sun-beams upon a White Wall , whereunto it was Obverted , it manifestly appear'd both to Me , and to the Person I took for a Witness of the Experiment , that it Reflected a far greater Light ; than any of the other Colours formerly mention'd , the Light so thrown upon the Wall notably Enlightning it , and by it a good part of the Room . And yet further to shew you , that White Bodies Reflect the Beams From them , and not Towards themselves , Let me add , that Ordinary Burning-glasses , such as are wont to be employ'd to light Tobacco , will not in a great while Burn , or so much as Discolour a Sheet of White Paper . Insomuch that even when I was a Boy , and Lov'd to make Tryals with Burning-glasses , I could not but wonder at this Odd Phaenomenon , which set me very Early upon Guessing at the Nature of Whiteness , especially because I took notice , that the Image of the Sun upon a White Paper was not so well Defin'd ( the Light seeming too Diffus'd ) as upon Black , and because I try'd , that Blacking over the Paper with Ink , not only the Ink would be quickly Dry'd up , but the Paper that I could not Burn before , would be quickly set on Fire . I have also try'd , that by exposing my Hand with a Thin Black Glove over it to the Warm Sun ; it was thereby very quickly and considerably more Heated , than if I took off the Glove , and held my Hand Naked , or put on it another Glove of Thin but White Leather . And having thus shewn you , Pyrophilus , that White Bodies reflect the most Light of any , let us now proceed , to consider what is further to be taken notice of in them , in order to our present Enquiry . 8. And Fourthly , whereas among the Dispositions we attributed to White Bodies , we also intimated this , That such Bodies are apt , like Speculums , though but Imperfect ones , to Reflect the Light that falls on them Untroubled or Unstain'd , we shall besides other particulars to be met with in these Papers , offer you this in favour of the Conjecture ; That in the Darkned Room several times mention'd in this Treatise , we try'd that the Sun-beams being cast from a Coloured Body upon a neighbouring White Wall , the Determinate Colour of the Body was from the Wall reflected to the Eye ; whereas we could in divers cases manifestly Alter the Colour arriving at the Eye , by Substituting at a convenient Distance , a ( conveniently ) Colour'd ( and Glossy ) Body instead of the White Wall. As by throwing the Beams from a Yellow Body upon a Blew , there would be Exhibited a kind of Green , as in the Experiments about Colours is more fully Declar'd . 9. I know not whether I should on this Occasion take notice , that when , as when looking upon the Calm and Smooth Surface of a River betwixt my Eye and the Sun , it appear'd to be a natural Speculum , wherein that Part which Reflected to my Eye the Entire and defin'd Image of the Sun , and the Beams less remote from those which exhibited That Image , appear'd indeed of a great and Whitish Brightness , but the rest Comparatively Dark enough : if afterwards the Superficies chanc'd to be a little , but not much troubled , by a gentle Breath of Wind , and thereby reduc'd into a Multitude of Small and Smooth Speculums , the Surface of the River would suitably to the Doctrine lately deliver'd , at a Distance appear very much of Kin to White , though it would lose that Brightness or Whiteness upon the Return of the Surface to Calmness and an Uniform Level . And I have sometimes for Tryals sake brought in by a Lenticular Glass , the Image of a River , Shin'd upon by the Sun , into an Upper Room Darkn'd , and Distant about a Quarter of a Mile from the River , by which means the Numerous Declining Surfaces of the Water appear'd so Contracted , that upon the Body that receiv'd the Images , the whole River appear'd a very White Object at two or three paces distance . But if we drew Near it , this Whiteness appear'd to proceed from an Innumerable company of Lucid Reflections , from the several Gently wav'd Superficies of the Water , which look'd Near at hand like a Multitude of very Little , but Shining Scales of Fish , of which many did every moment Disappear , and as many were by the Sun , Wind and River generated anew . But though this Observation seem'd Sufficiently to discover , how the Appearing Whiteness in that case was Produc'd , yet in some other cases Water may have the Same , though not so Vivid a Colour upon other Accounts ; for oftentimes it happens that the Smooth Surface of the Water does appear Bright or Whitish , by reason of the Reflection not immediatly of the Images of the Sun , but of the Brightness of the Sky ; and in such cases a Convenient Wind may where it passes along make the Surface look Black , by causing many such Furrows and Cavities , as may make the Inflected Superficies of the Water reflect the Brightness of the Sky rather Inward than Outward . And again , if the Wind increase into a Storm , the Water may appear White , especially near the Shore and the Ship , namely because the Rude Agitation Breaks it into Fome or Froth . So much do Whiteness and Blackness depend upon the Disposition of the Superficial parts of a Body to Reflect the Beams of Light Inward or Outward . But that as White Bodies reflect the most Light of any , so there Superficial Particles are , in the Sense newly Deliver'd , of a Specular Nature , I shall now further endeavour to shew both by the making of Specular bodies White , and the making of a White body Specular . 10. In the Fifth place then , I will inform You , that ( not to repeat what Gassendus observes concerning Water ) I have for Curiosity sake Distill'd Quick-silver in a Cucurbit , fitted with a Capacious Glass-head , and observ'd that when the Operation was perform'd by the Degrees of Fire requisite for my purpose , there would stick to the Inside of the Alembick a multitude of Little round drops of Mercury . And as you know that Mercury is a Specular Body , so each of these Little drops was a small round Looking-glass , and a Multitude of them lying Thick and Near one another , they did both in my Judgment , and that of those I Invited to see it , make the Glass they were fastened to , appear manifestly a White Body . And yet as I said , this Whiteness depended upon the Minuteness and Nearness of the Little Mercurial Globuli , the Convexity of whose Surfaces fitted them to represent in a Narrow compass a Multitude of Little Lucid Images to differingly situated Beholders . And here let me observe a thing that seems much to countenance the Notion I have been recommending : namely , that whereas divers parts of the Sky , and especially the Milky-way , do to the naked Eye appear White , ( as the name it self imports ) yet the Galaxie look'd upon through the Telescope , does not shew White , but appears to be made up of a Vast multitude of Little Starrs ; so that a Multitude of Lucid Bodies , if they be so Small that they cannot Singly or apart be discern'd by the Eye , and if they be sufficiently Thick set by one another , may by their confus'd beams appear to the Eye One White Body . And why it is not possible , that the like may be done , when a Multitude of Bright and Little Corpuscles being crowded together , are made to send together Vivid beams to the Eye , though they Shine but as the Planets by a Borrow'd Light ? 11. But to return to our Experiments . We may take notice , That the White of an Egg , though in part Transparent , yet by its power of Reflecting some Incident Rays of Light , is in some measure a Natural Speculum , being long agitated with a Whisk or Spoon , loses its Transparency , and becomes very White , by being turn'd into Froth , that is into an Aggregate of Numerous small Bubbles , whose Convex Superficies fits them to Reflect the Light every way Outwards . And 't is worth Noting , that when Water , for instance , is Agitated into Froth , if the Bubbles be Great and Few , the Whiteness will be but Faint , because the number of Specula within a Narrow compass is but Small , and they are not Thick set enough to Reflect so Many Little Images or Beams of the Lucid Body , as are requisite to produce a Vigorous Sensation of Whiteness : And partly least it should be said , that the Whiteness of such Globulous Particles proceeds from the Air Included in the Froth ; ( which to make good , it should be prov'd that the Air it self is White ) and partly to illustrate the better the Notion we have propos'd of Whiteness , I shall add , that I purposely made this Experiment , I took a quantity Fair water , & put to it in a clear Glass phial , a convenient quantity of Oyl or Spirit of Turpentine , because that Liquor will not Incorporate with Water , and yet is almost as Clear and Colourless as it ; these being Gently Shaken together , the Agitation breaks the Oyl ( which as I said , is Indispos'd to Mix like Wine or Milk per minima with the Water ) into a Multitude of Little Globes , which each of them Reflecting Outwards a Lucid Image , make the Imperfect Mixture of the two Liquors appear Whitish ; but if by Vehemently Shaking the Glass for a competent time you make a further Comminution of the Oyl into far more Numerous and Smaller Globuli , and thereby confound it also better with the Water , the Mixture will appear of a Much greater Whiteness , and almost like Milk ; whereas if the Glass be a while let alone , the Colour will by degrees Impair , as the Oyly globes grow Fewer and Bigger , and at length will quite Vanish , leaving both the Liquors Distinct and Diaphanous as before . And such a Tryal hath not ill succeeded , when insteed of the Colourless Oyl of Turpentine I took a Yellow Mixture made of a good Proportion of Crude Turpentine dissolv'd in that Liquor ; and ( if I mis-remember not ) it also succeeded better than one would expect , when I employ'd an Oyl brought by Filings of Copper infused in it , to a deep Green. And this ( by the way ) may be the Reason , why often times when the Oyls of some Spices and of Anniseeds &c. are Distilled in a Limbec with Water , the Water ( as I have several times observ'd ) comes over Whitish , and will perhaps continue so for a good while , because if the Fire be made too Strong , the subtile Chymical Oyl is thereby much Agitated and Broken , and Blended with the Water in such Numerous and Minute Globules , as cannot easily in a short time Emerge to the Top of the Water , and whilst they Remain in it , make it , for the Reason newly intimated , look Whitish ; and perhaps upon the same Ground a cause may be rendred , why Hot water is observ'd to be usually more Opacous and Whitish , than the same Water Cold , the Agitation turning the more Spirituous or otherwise Conveniently Dispos'd Particles of the Water into Vapours , thereby Producing in the Body of the Liquor a Multitude of Small Bubbles , which interrupt the Free passage , that the Beams of Light would else have Every way , and from the Innermost parts of the Water Reflect many of them Outwards . These and the like Examples , Pyrophilus , have induc'd me to Suspect , that the Superficial Particles of White bodies , may for the Most part be as well Convex as Smooth ; I content my self to say Suspect and for the most part , because it seems not Easie to prove , that when Diaphanous bodies , as we shall see by and by , are reduc'd into White Powders , each Corpuscle must needs be of a Convex Superficies , since perhaps it may Suffice that Specular Surfaces look severally ways . For ( as we have seen ) when a Diaphanous Body comes to be reduc'd to very Minute parts , it thereby requires a Multitude of Little Surfaces within a Narrow compass . And though each of these should not be of a Figure Convenient to Reflect a Round Image of the Sun , yet even from such an Inconveniently Figur'd body , there may be Reflected some ( either Streight or Crooked ) Physical Line of Light , which Line I call Physical , because it has some Breadth in it , and in which Line in many cases some Refraction of the Light falling upon the Body it depends on , may contribute to the Brightness , as if a Slender Wire ; or Solid Cylinder of Glass be expos'd to the Light , you shall see in some part of it a vivid Line of Light , and if we were able to draw out and lay together a Multitude of these Little Wires or Thrids of Glass , so Slender , that the Eye could not discern a Distance betwixt the Luminous Lines , there is little doubt ( as far as I can guess by a Tryal purposely made with very Slender , but far less Slender Thrids of Glass , whose Aggregate was Look'd upon one way White ) but the whole Physical Superficies compos'd of them , would to the Eye appear White , and if so , it will not be always necessary that the Figure of those Corpuscles , that make a Body appear White , should be Globulous . And as for Snow it self , though the Learned Gassendus ( as we have seen above ) makes it to seem nothing else but a pure Frozen Froth , consisting of exceedingly Minute and Thick set Bubbles ; yet I see no necessity of Admitting that , since not only by the Variously and Curiously Figur'd Snow , that I have divers times had the Opportunity with Pleasure to observe , but also by the Common Snow , it rather doth appear both to the Naked Eye , and in a Microscope , often , if not most commonly , to consist principally of Little Slender Icicles of several Shapes , which afford such Numerous Lines of Light , as we have been newly Speaking of . 12. Sixthly , If you take a Diaphanous Body , as for instance a Piece of Glass , and reduce it to Powder , the same Body , which when it was Entire , freely Transmitted the Beams of Light , acquiring by Contusion a multitude of Minute Surfaces , each of which is as it were a Little , but Imperfect Speculum , is qualify'd to Reflect in a Confus'd manner , so many either Beams , or Little and Singly Unobservable Images of the Lucid Body , that from a Diaphanous it Degenerates into a White Body . And I remember , I have for Trials sake taken Lumps of Rock Crystal , and Heating them Red hot in a Crucible , I found according to my Expectation , that being Quench'd in Fair water , even those that remain'd in seemingly entire Lumps , exchang'd their Translucency for Whiteness , the Ignition and Extinction having as it were Crack'd each Lump into a multitude of Minute Bodies , and thereby given it a great multitude of new Surfaces . And ev'n with Diaphanous Bodies , that are Colour'd , there may be this way a Greater Degree of Whiteness produc'd , than one would lightly think ; as I remember , I have by Contusion obtain'd Whitish Powders of Granates , Glass of Antimony , and Emeralds finely Beaten , and you may more easily make the Experiment , by taking Good Venereal Vitriol of a Deep Blew , and comparing with some of the Entire Crystalls purposely reserv'd , some of the Subtile Powder of the same Salt , which will Comparatively exhibit a very considerable degree of Whitishness . 13. Seventhly ; And as by a Change of Position in the Parts , a Body that is not White , may be made White , so by a Slight change of the Texture of its Surface , a White Body may be Depriv'd of its Whiteness . For if , ( as I have try'd in Gold-smiths Shops ) you take a piece of Silver that has been freshly Boyl'd , as the Artificers call it , ( which is done by , first Brushing , and then Decocting it with Salt and Tartar , and perhaps some other Ingredients ) you shall find it to be of a Lovely White . But if you take a piece of Smooth Steel , and therewith Burnish a part of it , which may be presently done ; you shall find that Part will Lose its Whiteness , and turn a Speculum , looking almost every where Dark , as other Looking-glasses do , which may not a little confirm our Doctrine . For by this we may guess , what it is chiefly that made the Body White before , by considering that all that was done to deprive it of that Whiteness , was only to Depress the Little Protuberances that were before on the Surface of the Silver into one Continu'd Superficies , and thereby effect this , that now the Image of the Lucid Body , and consequently a Kind of Whiteness shall appear to your Eye ; but in some place of the greater Silver Looking-glass ( whence the Beams reflected at an Angle Equal to that wherewith they fall on it , may reach your Eye ) whilst the Asperity remain'd Undestroy'd , the Light falling on innumerable Little Specula Obverted some one way , and some another , did from all Sensibly Distinguishable parts of the Superficies reflect confus'd Beams or Representations of Light to the Beholders Eye , from whence soever he chance to Look upon it . And among the Experiments annex'd to this Discourse , you will find One , wherein by the Change of Texture in Bodies , Whiteness is in a Trice both Generated and Destroy'd . CHAP. II. 1. WHat we have Discours'd of Whiteness , may somewhat Assist us to form a Notion of Blackness , those two Qualities being Contrary enough to Illustrate each other . Yet among the Antient Philosophers I find less Assistance to form a Notion of Blackness than of Whiteness , only Democritus in the passage above Recited out of Aristotle has given a General Hint of the Cause of this Colour , by referring the Blackness of Bodies to their Asperity . But this I call but a General Hint , because those Bodies that are Green , and Purple , and Blew , seem to be so as well as Black ones , upon the Account of their Superficial Asperity . But among the Moderns , the formerly mention'd Gassendus , perhaps invited by this Hint of Democritus , has Incidentally in another Epistle given us , though a very Short , yet a somewhat Clearer account of the Nature of Blackness in these words : Existimare par est corpora suâpte Naturâ nigra constare ex particulis , quarum Superficieculae scabrae sint , nec facilè lucem extrorsum reflectant . I wish this Ingenious Man had enlarg'd himself upon this Subject ; For indeed it seems , that as that which makes a Body White , is chiefly such a Disposition of its Parts , that it Reflects ( I mean without much Interruption ) more of the Light that falls on it , than Bodies of any other Colour do , so that which makes a Body Black is principally a Peculiar kind of Texture , chiefly of its Superficial Particles , whereby it does as it were Dead the Light that falls on it , so that very little is Reflected Outwards to the Eye . 2. And this Texture may be Explicated two , and perhaps more than two several ways , whereof the first is by Supposing in the Superficies of the Black Body a Particular kind of Asperity , whereby the Superficial Particles reflect but Few of the incident Beams Outwards , and the rest Inwards towards the Body it self . As if for Instance , we should conceive the Surface of a Black Body to be Asperated by an almost Numberless throng of Little Cylinders , Pyramids , Cones , and other such Corpuscles , which by their being Thick Set and Erected , reflect the Beams of Light from one to another Inwards , and send them too and fro so often , that at length they are Lost , before they can come to Rebound out again to the Eye . And this is the first of the two mention'd ways of Explicating Blackness . The other way is by Supposing the Texture of Black Bodies to be such , that either by their Yielding to the Beams of Light , or upon some other Account , they do as it were Dead the Beams of Light , and keep them from being Reflected in any Plenty , or with any Considerable Vigour of Motion , Outwards . According to this Notion it may be said , that the Corpuscles that make up the Beams of Light , whether they be Solary Effluviums , or Minute Particles of some Aetherial Substance , Thrusting on one another from the Lucid Body , do , falling on Black Bodies , meet with such a Texture , that such Bodies receive Into themselves , and Retain almost all the Motion communicated to them by the Corpuscles that make up the Beams of Light , and consequently Reflect but Few of them , or those but Languidly , towards the Eye , it happening here almost in like manner as to a Ball , which thrown against a Stone or Floor , would Rebound a great way Upwards , but Rebounds very Little or not at all , when it is thrown against Water , or Mud , or a Loose Not , because the Parts yield , and receive into themselves the Motion , on whose Account the Ball should be Reflected Outwards . But this Last way of Explicating Blackness , I shall content my Self to have Propos'd , without either Adopting it , or absolutely Rejecting it . For the Hardness of Touch-stones , Black Marble , and other Bodies , that being Black are Solid , seem to make it somewhat Improbable , that such Bodies should be of so Yielding a Texture , unless we should say , that some Bodies may be more Dispos'd to Yield to the Impulses of the Corpuscles of Light by reason of a Peculiar Texture , than other Bodies , that in other Tryals appear to be Softer than they . But though the Former of these two Explications of Blackness be that , by which we shall Endeavour to give an Account of it , yet as we said , we shall not Absolutely Reject this Latter , partly because they both Agree in this , that Black Bodies Reflect but Little of the Light that falls on them , and partly because it is not Impossible , that in some Cases both the Disposition of the Superficial particles , as to Figure and Position , and the Yielding of the Body , or some of its Parts , may Joyntly , though not in an Equal measure concurr to the rendring of a Body Black. The Considerations that induc'd me to propose this Notion of Blackness , as I Explan'd it , are principally these : 3. First , That as I lately said , Whiteness and Blackness being generally reputed to be Contrary Qualities , Whiteness depending as I said upon the Disposition of the Parts of a Body to Reflect much Light , it seems likely , that Blackness may depend upon a Contrary Disposition of the Black Bodies Surface ; But upon this I shall not Insist . 4. Next then we see , that if a Body of One and the same Colour be plac'd , part in the Sun-beams , and part in the Shade , that part which is not Shin'd on will appear more of Kin to Blackness than the other , from which more Light Rebounds to the Eye ; And Dark Colours seem the Blacker , the less Light they are Look'd upon in , and we think all Things Black in the Dark , when they send no Beams to make Impressions on our Organs of Sight , so that Shadows and Darkness are near of Kin , and Shaddow we know is but a Privation of Light , and accordingly Blackness seems to proceed from the Paucity of Beams Reflected from the Black Body to the Eye , I say the Paucity of Beams , because those Bodies that we call Black , as Marble , Jeat , &c. are Short of being perfectly so , else we should not See them at all . But though the Beams that fall on the Sides of those Erected Particles that we have been mentioning , do Few of them return Outwards , yet those that fall upon the Points of those Cylinders , Cones , or Pyramids , may thence Rebound to the Eye , though they make there but a Faint Impression , because they Arrive not there , but Mingl'd with a great Proportion of Little Shades . This may be Confirm'd by my having procur'd a Large piece of Black Marble well Polish'd , and brought to the Form of a Large Sphaerical and Concave Speculum ; For on the Inside this Marble being well Polish'd , was a kind of Dark Looking-glass , wherein I could plainly see a Little Image of the Sun , when that Shin'd upon it . But this Image was very far from Offending and Dazling my Eyes , as it would have done from another Speculum ; Nor , though the Speculum were Large , could I in a Long time , or in a Hot Sun set a piece of Wood on Fire , though a far less Speculum of the same Form , and of a more Reflecting Matter , would have made it Flame in a Trice . 5. And on this Occasion we may as well in Reference to something formerly deliver'd concerning Whiteness , as in Reference to what has been newly said , Subjoyn what we further observ'd touching the Differing Reflections of Light from White and Black Marble , namely , that having taking a pretty Large Mortar of White Marble , New and Polish'd in the Inside , and Expos'd it to the Sun , we found that it Reflected a great deal of Glaring Light , but so Dispers'd , that we could not make the Reflected Beams concurr in any such Conspicuous Focus , as that newly taken notice of in the Black Marble , though perhaps there may enough of them be made to meet near the Bottom , to make some Kind of Focus , especially since by holding in the Night-time a Candle at a convenient Distance , we were able to procure a Concourse of some , though not many of the Reflected Beams , at about two Inches distant from the Bottom of the Mortar : But we found the Heat even of the Sun-beams so Dispersedly Reflected to be very Lanquid , even in Comparison of the Black Marbles Focus . And the Little Picture of the Sun , that appear'd upon the White Marble as a Speculum , was but very Faint and exceeding ill Defin'd . Secondly , That taking two pieces of Plain and Polish'd Surfaces , and casting on them Successively the Beams of the same Candle , in such manner , as that the Neighbouring Superficies being Shaded by an Opacous and Perforated Body , the Incident Beams were permitted to pass but through a Round Hole of about Half an Inch Diameter , the Circle of Light that appear'd on the White Marble was in Comparison very Bright , but very ill Defin'd ; whereas that on the Black Marble was far less Luminous , but much more precisely Defin'd . 6. Thirdly , When you Look upon a piece of Linnen that has Small Holes in it , those Holes appear very Black , and Men are often deceiv'd in taking Holes for Spots of Ink ; And Painters to represent Holes , make use of Black , the Reason of which seems to be , that the Beams that fall on those Holes , fall into them so Deep , that none of them is Reflected back to the Eye . And in narrow Wells part of the Mouth seems Black , because the Incident Beams are Reflected Downwards from one side to another , till they can no more Rebound to the Eye . We may consider too , that if Differing parts of the same piece of Black Velvet be stroak'd Opposite ways , the piece of Velvet will appear of two Distinct kinds of Blackness , the one far Darker than the other , of which Disparity the Reason seems to be , that in the Less obscure part of the Velvet , the Little Silken Piles whereof 't is made up , being Inclin'd , there is a Greater part of each of them Obverted to the Eye , whereas in the other part the Piles of Silk being more Erected , there are far Fewer Beams Reflected Outwards from the Lateral parts of each Pile , so that most of those that Rebound to the Eye , come from the Tops of the Piles , which make but a Small part of the whole Superficies , that may be cover'd by the piece of Velvet . Which Explication I propose , not that I think the Blackness of the Velvet proceeds from the Cause assign'd , since each Single Pile of Silk is Black by reason of its Texture , in what Position soever you Look upon it ; But that the Greater Blackness of one of these Tuffts seems to proceed from the Greater Paucity of Beams Reflected from it , and that from the Fewness of those Parts of a Surface that Reflect Beams , and the Multitude of those Shaded Parts that Reflect none . And I remember , that I have oftentimes observ'd , that the Position of Particular Bodies far greater than Piles of Silk in reference to the Eye , may notwithstanding their having each of them a Colour of its own , make one part of their Aggregate appear far Darker than the other ; For I have near Great Towns often taken notice , that a Cart-load of Carrots pack'd up , appear'd of a much Darker Colour when Look'd upon , where the Points of the Carrots were Obverted to the Eye , than where the Sides of them were so . 7. Fourthly , In a Darkned Room , I purposely observ'd , that if the Sun-beams , which came in at the Hole were receiv'd upon White or any other Colour , and directed to a Convenient place of the Room , they would Manifestly , though not all Equally , Encrease the Light of that Part ; whereas if we Substituted , either a piece of Black Cloth or Black Velvet , it would so Dead the Incident Beams , that the place ( newly mention'd ) whereto I Obverted the Black Body , would be Less Enlightned than it was before , when it received its Light but from the Weak and Oblique Reflections of the Floor and Walls of a pretty Large Room , through which the Beams that came in at the Hole were Confusedly and Brokenly Dispers'd . 8. Fifthly , And to shew that the Beams that fall on Black Bodies , as they do not Rebound Outwards to the Eye , so they are Reflected towards the Body it self , as the Nature of those Erected Particles , to which we have imputed Blackness , requires , we will add an Experiment that will also confirm our Doctrine touching Whiteness ; Namely , that we took a Broad and Large Tile , and having Whitened over one half of the Superficies of it , and Black'd the other , we expos'd it to the Summer Sun ; And having let it lye there a convenient time ( for the Difference is more Apparent , if it have not lain there too long ) we found , as we expected , that whilst the Whited part of the Tile remained Cool enough , the Black'd part of the same Tile was grown not only Sensible , but very Hot , ( sometimes to a strong Degree . ) And to satisfie some of our Friends the more , we have sometimes left upon the Surface of the Tile , besides the White and Black parts thereof , a part that Retain'd the native Red of the Tile it self , and Exposing them to the Sun , we observ'd this Last mention'd to have Contracted a Heat in comparison of the White , but a Heat Inferiour to that of the Black , of which the Reason seems to be , that the Superficial Particles of Black Bodies , being , as we said , more Erected , than those of White or Red ones , the Corpuscles of Light falling on their sides , being for the most part Reflected Inwards from one Particle to another , and thereby engag'd as it were and kept from Rebounding Upwards , they communicate their brisk Motion , wherewith they were impell'd against the Black Body , ( upon whose account had they fallen upon a White Body , they would have been Reflected Outwards ) to the Small parts of the Black Body , and thereby Produce in those Small parts such an Agitation , as ( when we feel it ) we are wont to call Heat . I have been lately inform'd , that an Observation near of Kin to Ours , has been made by some Learned Men in France and Italy , by long Exposing to a very Hot Sun , two pieces of Marble , the one White , the other Black ; But though the Observation be worthy of them , and may confirm the same Truth with Our Experiment , yet besides that our Tryal needs not the Summer , nor any Great Heat to succeed , It seems to have this Advantage above the other , that whereas Bodies more Solid , and of a Closer Texture , though they use to be more Slowly Heated , are wont to receive a Greater Degree of Heat from the Sun or Fire , than ( Caeteris paribus ) Bodies of a Slightet Texture ; I have found by the Information of Stone-cutters , and by other ways of Enquiry , that Black Marble is much Solider and Harder than White , so that possibly the Difference betwixt the Degrees of Heat they receive from the Sun-beams will by many be ascrib'd to the Difference of their Texture , rather than to that of their Colour , though I think our Experiment will make it Probable enough that the greater part of that Difference may well be ascrib'd to that Disposition of Parts , which makes the one Reflect the Sun-beams Inward , and the other Outwards . And with this Doctrine accords very well , that Rooms hung with Black , are not only Darker than else they would be , but are wont to be Warmer too ; Insomuch that I have known a great Lady , whose Constitution was somewhat Tender , complain that she was wont to catch Cold , when she went out into the Air , after having made any long Visits to Persons , whose Rooms were hung with Black. And this is not the only Lady I have heard complain of the Warmth of such Rooms , which though perhaps it may be partly imputed to the Effluvia of those Materials wherewith the hangings were Dy'd , yet probably the Warmth of such Rooms depends chiefly upon the same Cause that the Darkness does ; As ( not to repeat what I formerly Noted touching my Gloves , ) to satisfie some Curious Persons of that Sex , I have convinc'd them , by Tryall , that of two Pieces of Silken Stuff given me by themselves , and expos'd in their Presence , to the same Window , Shin'd onby that Sun , the White was considerably Heated , when the Black was not so much as Sensibly so . 9. Sixthly , I remember , that Acquainting one Day a Virtuoso of Unsuspected Credit , that had Visited Hot Countries , with part of what I have here Deliver'd concerning Blackness , he Related to me by way of Confirmation of it , a very notable Experiment , which he had both Seen others make , and Made himself in a Warm Climate , namely , that having carefully Black'd over Eggs , and Expos'd them to the Hot Sun , they were thereby in no very Long time well Roasted , to which Effect I conceive the Heat of the Climate must have Concurr'd with the Disposition of the Black Surface to Reflect the Sun-beams Inward , for I remember , that having made that among other Tryals in England , though in Summer-time , the Eggs I Expos'd , acquir'd indeed a considerable Degree of Heat , but yet not so Intense a One , as prov'd sufficient to Roast them . 10. Seventhly , and Lastly , Our Conjectures at the Nature of Blackness may be somewhat Confirm'd by the ( formerly mention'd ) Observation of the Blind Dutch-man , that Discerns Colours with his Fingers ; for he says , that he Feels a greater Roughness upon the Surfaces of Black Bodies , than upon those of Red , or Yellow , or Green. And I remember , that the Diligent Bartholinus says , that a Blind Earl of Mansfield could Distinguish White from Black only by the Touch , which would sufficiently Argue a great Disparity in the Asperities , or other Superficial Textures of Bodies of those two Colours , if the Learn'd Relator had Affirm'd the Matter upon his own Knowledge . 11. These , Pyrophilus , are the chief things that Occurr to me at present , about the Nature of Whiteness and Blackness , which if they have Rendred it so much as Probable , that in Most , or at least Many Cases , the Causes of these Qualities may be such as I have Adventur'd to Deliver , it is as much as I Pretend to ; for till I have Opportunity to Examine the Matter by some further Tryals , I am not sure , but that in some White and Black Bodies , there may Concurr to the Colour some peculiar Texture or Disposition of the Body , whereby the Motion of the Small Corpuscles that make up the Incident Beams of Light , may be Differingly Modify'd , before they reach the Eye , especially in this , that White Bodies do not only Copiously Reflect those Incident Corpuscles Outwards , but Reflect them Briskly , and do not otherwise Alter them in the manner of their Motion . Nor shall I now stay to Enquire , whether some of those other ways , ( as a Disposition to Alter the Velocity , the Rotation , or the Order and Manner of Appulse to the Eye of the Reflected Corpuscles that Compos'd the Incident Beams of Light ) which we mention'd when we consider'd the Production of Colours in General , may not in some Cases be Applicable to those of White and Black Bodies : For I am yet so much a Seeker in this Matter , and so little Wedded to the Opinions I have propos'd , that what I am to add shall be but the Beginning of a Collection of Experiments and Observations towards the History of VVhiteness and Blackness , without at present interposing my Explications of them , that so , I may assist your Enquires without much Fore-stalling or Biassing your Judgment . EXPERIMENT IN CONSORT , Touching Whiteness & Blackness . EXPERIMENT I. HAving promis'd in the 114 , and 115. Pages of the foregoing Discourse of Whiteness and Blackness , to shew , that those two Colours may by a change of Texture in bodies , each of them apart Diaphanous and Colourless , be at pleasure and in a trice as well Generated as Destroy'd , We shall begin with Experiments that may acquit us of that promise . Take then what Quantity you please of Fair Water , and having Heated it , put into it as much good Common Sublimate , as it is able to Dissolve , and ( to be sure of having it well glutted : ) continue putting in the Sublimate , till some of it lye Untouch'd in the bottom of the Liquor , Filter this Solution through Cap-paper , to have it cleer and limpid , and into a spoonfull or two thereof , ( put into a clean glass vessel , ) shake about four or five drops ( according as you took more or less of this Solution ) of good limpid Spirits of Urine , and immediately the whole mixture will appear White like Milk , to which mixture if you presently add a convenient proportion of Rectifi'd Aqua Fortis ( for the number of drops is hard to determine , because of the Differing Strength of the liquor , but easily found by tryal ) the Whiteness will presently disappear , and the whole mixture become Transparent , which you may , if you please , again reduce to a good degree of Whiteness ( though inferiour to the first ) onely by a more copious affusion of fresh Spirit of Urine . N. First , That it is not so necessary to employ either Aqua Fortis or Spirit of Urine about this Experiment , but that we have made it with other liquors instead of these ; of which perhaps more elsewhere . Secondly , That this Experiment , though not made with the same Menstruums , nor producing the same Colour , is yet much of Kin to that other to be mentioned in this Tract among our other Experiments of Colours , about turning a Solution of Praecipitate into an Orange-colour , and the Chymical Reason being much alike in both , the annexing it to one of them may suffice FOR both . EXPERIMENT II. Make a strong Infusion of broken Galls in Fair Water , and having Filtred it into a clean Vial , add more of the same liquor to it , till you have made it somewhat Transparent , and sufficiently diluted the Colour , for the credit of the Experiment , lest otherwise the Darkness of the liquor might make it be objected , that 't was already almost Ink ; Into this Infusion snake a convenient quantity of a Cleer , but very strong Solution of Vitriol , and you shall immediately see the mixture turn Black almost like Ink , and such a way of producing Blackness is vulgar enough ; but if presently after you doe upon this mixture drop a small quantity of good oyl of Vitriol , and , by shaking the Vial disperse it nimbly through the two other liquors , you shall ( if you perform your part well , and have employ'd oyl of Vitriol Cleer and Strong enough ) see the Darkness of the liquor presently begin to be discuss'd , and grow pretty Cleer and Transparent , losing its Inky Blackness , which you may again restore to it by the affusion of a small quantity of a very strong Solution of Salt of Tartar. And though neither of these Atramentous liquors will seem other than very Pale Ink , if you write with a clean Pen dipt in them , yet that is common to them with some sorts of Ink that prove very good when Dry , as I have also found , that when I made these carefully , what I wrote with either of them , especially with the Former , would when throughly Dry grow Black enough not to appear bad Ink. This Experiment of taking away and restoring Blackness from and to the liquors , we have likewise tryed in Common Ink ; but there it succeeds not so well , and but very slowly , by reason that the Gum wont to be employed in the making it , does by its Tenacity oppose the operations of the above mention'd Saline liquors . But to consider Gum no more , what some kind of Praecipitation may have to do in the producing and destroying of Inks without it , I have elsewhere given you some occasion and assistance to enquire ; But I must not now stay to do so my self , only I shall take notice to you , that though it be taken for granted that bodies will not be Praecipitated by Alcaliz at Salts , that have not first been dissolved in some Acid Menstruums , yet I have found upon tryals , which my conjectures lead me to make on purpose , That divers Vegetables barely infus'd , or , but slightly decocted in common water , would , upon the affusion of a Strong and Cleer Lixivium of Potashes , and much more of some other Praecipitating liquors that I sometimes employ , afford good store of a Crudled matter , such as I have had in the Praecipitations of Vegetable substances , by the intervention of Acid things , and that this matter was easily separable from the rest of the liquor , being left behind by it in the Filtre ; and in making the first Ink mention'd in this Experiment , I found that I could by Filtration separate pretty store of a very Black pulverable substance , that remain'd in the Filtre , and when the Ink was made Cleer again by the Oyl of Vitriol , the affusion of dissolv'd Sal Tartari seem'd but to Praecipitate , and thereby to Unite and render Conspicuous the particles of the Black mixture that had before been dispers'd into very Minute and singly Invisible particles by the Incisive and resolving power of the highly Corrosive Oyl of Vitriol . EXPERIMENT III. If pieces of White Harts-horn be with a competent degree of fire distill'd in a Glass-retort , they will , after the avolation of the Flegm , Spirit , Volatile Salt , and the looser and lighter parts of the Oleagenous substance , remain behind of a Cole-black colour . And even Ivory it self being skilfully Burnt ( how I am wont to do it , I have elsewhere set down ) affords Painters one of the best and deepest Blacks they have , and yet in the Instance of distill'd Harts-horn , the operation being made in Glass-vessels carefully clos'd , it appears there is no Extraneous Black substance that Insinuates it self into White Harts-horn , and thereby makes it turn Black ; but that the Whiteness is destroy'd , and the Blackness generated , only by a Change of Texture , made in the burnt Body , by the Recess of some parts and the Transposition of others . And though I remember not that in many Distillations of Harts-horn I ever found the Cap. Mort. to pass from Black to a true Whiteness , whilst it continu'd in Clos'd vessels , yet having taken out the Cole-black fragments , and Calcin'd them in Open vessels , I could in few hours quite destroy that Blackness , & without sensibly changing their Bulk or Figure , reduce them to great Whiteness . So much do these two Colours depend upon the Disposition of the little parts , that the Bodies wherein they are to be met with do consist of . And we find , that if Whitewine Tartar , or even the white Crystalls of such Tartar be burnt without being truly Calcin'd , the Cap. Mortuum ( as the Chymists call the more Fixt part ) will be Black. But if you further continue the Calcination till you have perfectly Incinerated the Tartar , & kept it long enough in a Strong fire , the remaining Calx will be White . And so we see that not only other Vegetable substances , but even White woods , as the Hazel , will yield a Black Charcoal , and afterwards Whitish ashes ; And so Animal substances naturally White , as Bones and Eggshels , will grow Black upon the being Burnt , and White again when they are perfectly Calcin'd . EXPERIMENT IV. But yet I much Question whether that Rule delivered by divers , as well Philosophers as Chymists , adusta nigra , sed perasta alba , will hold as Universally as is presum'd , since I have several Examples to allege against it : For I have found that by burning Alablaster , so as both to make it appear to boyl almost like Milk , and to reduce it to a very fine Powder , it would not at all grow Black , but retain its Pure and Native Whiteness , and though by keeping it longer than is usual in the fire , I produc'd but a faint Yellow , even in that part of the Powder that lay nearest the top of the Crucible , yet having purposely enquired of an Experienc'd Stone-cutter , who is Curious enough in trying Conclusions in his own Trade , he told me he had found that if Alablaster or Plaister of Paris be very long kept in a Strong fire , the whole heap of burnt Powder would exchange its Whiteness for a much deeper Colour than the Yellow I observ'd . Lead being Calcin'd with a Strong fire turns ( after having perhaps run thorough divers other Colours ) into Minium , whose Colour we know is a deep Red ; and if you urge this Minium , as I have purposely done with a Strong fire , you may much easier find a Glassie and Brittle Body darker than Minium , than any white Calx or Glass . 'T is known among Chymists , that the white Calx of Antimony , by the further and more vehement operation of the fire may be melted into Glass , which we have obtain'd of a Red Colour , which is far deeper than that of the Calx of Burnt Antimony , and though common Glass of Antimony being usually Adulterated with Borax , have its Colour thereby diluted , oftentimes to a very pale Yellow ; yet not onely ours made more sincerily , was , as we said , of a Colour less remote from Black , than was the Calx ; but we observ'd , that by Melting it once or twice more , and so exposing it to the further operation of the Fire , we had , as we expected , the Colour heightned . To which we shall add but this one Instance , ( which is worth the taking notice of in Reference to Colours : ) That , if you take Blew , but Unsophisticated , Vitriol , and burn it very Slowly , and with a Gentle degree of Heat , you may observe , that when 't is Burnt but a Little , and yet so far as that you may rub it to Powder betwixt your fingers , it will be of a White or Whitish Colour ; But if you Prosecute the Calcination , this Body which by a light Adustion was made White , will pass through other Colours , as Gray , Yellowish , and Red ; and if you further burn it with a Long and Vehement fire , by that time it comes to be Perustum , it will be of a dark Purple , nearer to Black , not only than the first Calx , but than the Vitriol before it at all felt the fire . I might add that Crocus Martis ( per se as they call it ) made by the Lasting violence of the Reverberated flames is not so near a Kin to White , as the Iron or Steel that afforded it was before its Calcinations ; but that I suppose , these Instances may suffice to satisfie you , that Minerals are to be excepted out of the forementioned Rule , which perhaps , though it seldome fail in substances belonging to the Vegetable or Animal Kingdome , may yet be Question'd even in some of these , if that be true , which the Judicious Traveller Bellonius affirms , that Charcoales made out of the Wood of Oxycaeder are White ; And I could not find , that though in Retorts Harts-horn and other White Bodies will be Denigrated by Heat , yet Camphire would not at all lose its Whiteness , though I have purposely kept it in such a heat , as made it melt and boyl . And to manifest , Pyrophilus , that Galls are not so requisite as many suppose to the making Atramentous Liquors , we have sometimes made the following Experiment , We took dryed Rose leaves and Decocted them for a while in Fair Water , into two or three spoonfulls of this Decoction we shook a few drops of a strong and well filtrated Solution of Vitriol ( which perhaps had it been Green would have done as well ) and immediately the mixture did turn Black , and when into this mixture presently after it was made , we shook a just Proportion of Aqua Fortis , we turn'd it from a Black Ink to a deep Red one , which by the affusion of a little Spirit of Urine may be reduc'd immediately to an Opacous and Blackish Colour . And in regard , Pyrophilus , that in the former Experiments , both the Infusion of Galls , and the Decoction of Roses , and the Solution of Copperis employ'd about them , are endow'd each of them with its own Colour , there may be a more noble Experiment of the sudden production of Blackness made by the way mention'd in the Second Section of the Second Part of our Essays , for though upon the Confusion of the two Liquors there mention'd , there do immediately emerge a very Black mixture , yet both the Infusion of Orpiment and the Solution of Minium were before their being joyn'd together , Limpid and Colourless . EXPERIMENT V. And now I speak of Camphire , it puts me in mind of adding this Experiment , That , though as I said in Clos'd Glasses , I could not Denigrate it by Heat , but it would Sublime to the sides and top of the Glass , as it was before , yet not only it will , being set on fire in the Free Air , send forth a Copious smoak , but having purposely upon some of it that was Flaming , clapt a Large Glass , almost in the form of a Hive , ( but more Slender only ) with a Hole at the top ; ( which I caus'd to be made to trye Experiments of Fire and Flame in ) it continued so long burning that it Lin'd all the Inside of the Glass with a Soot as Black as Ink , and so Copious , that the Cioseness of the Vessel consider'd , almost all that part of the White Camphire that did take Fire , seem'd to have been chang'd into that deep Black Substance . EXPERIMENT VI. And this also brings into my mind another Experiment that I made about the production of Blackness , whereof , for Reasons too long to be here deduced , I expected and found a good Success , an it was this : I took Rectifi'd Oyl of Vittiol ( that I might have the Liquor Clean as well as Strong ) and by degrees mixt with it a convenient proportion of the Essential Oyl , as Chymists call it , of Wormwood , drawn over with store of Water in a Limbec , and warily Distilling the mixture in a Retort , there remain'd a scarce credible quantity of dry Matters , Black as a Coal . And because the Oyl of Wormwood , though a Chymical Oyl drawn by a Virtuoso , seem'd to have somewhat in it of the Colour of the Plant , I Substituted in its Room , the Pure and Subtile Essential Oyl of Winter-Savory , and mixing little by little this Liquor , with ( if I mis-remember not ) an Equal weight of the formerly mention'd Rectifi'd Oyl of Vitriol , and Distilling them as before in a Retort , besides what there pass'd over into the Receiver , even these two clear Liquors left me a Considerable Proportion , ( though not so great as the two former ) of a Substance Black as Pitch , which I yet Keep by me as a Rarity . EXPERIMENT VII . A way of Whiting Wax Cheaply and in Great Quantity may be a thing of good Oeconomical Use , and we have elsewhere set down the Practice of Trades-men that Blanch it ; But here Treating of Whiteness only in Order to the Philosophy of Colours , I shall not Examine which of the Slow vvayes may be best Employd , to free Wax from the Yellow Melleous parts , but shall rather set down a Quick way of making it White , though but in very Small Quantities . Take then a little Yellow Wax , scraped or thinly sliced , and putting it into a Colts-head or some other Convenient Glass , pour to it a pretty deal of Spirit of Wine , and placing the Vessel in Warm Sand , Encrease the Heat by degrees , till the Spirit of Wine begin to Simper or to Boyl a little ; and continuing that degree of Fire , if you have put Liquor enough , you will quickly have the Wax dissolv'd , then taking it off the fire , you may either suffer it to Cool as hastily as with Safety to the Glass you can , or Pour it whilst 't is yet Hot into a Filtre of Paper , and either in the Glass where it Cools , or in the Filtre , you will soon find the Wax and Menstruum together reduc'd into a White Substance , almost like Butter , which by letting the Spirit Exhale will shrink into a much Lesser Bulk , but still retaining its Whiteness . And that which is pretty in the working of this Magistery of Wax , is , that the Yellowness vanishes , neither appearing in the Spirit of VVine that passes Limpid through the Filtre , nor in the Butter of VVax , if I may so call it , that , as I said , is VVhite . EXPERIMENT VIII . There is an Experiment , Pyrophilus , which though I do not so exactly remember , and though it be somewhat Nice to make , yet I am willing to Acquaint You with , because the thing Produc'd , though it be but a Curiosity , is wont not a little to please the Beholders , and it is a way of turning by the help of a Dry Substance , an almost Golden-Colour'd Concrete , into a VVhite one , the several Tryals are not at present so fresh in my Memory to enable me to tell you Certainly , whether an Equal onely or a Double weight of Common Sublimate must be taken in reference to the Tinglass , but if I mistake not , there was in the Experiment that succeeded best , Two parts of the Former taken to One of the Latter . These Ingredients being finely Powdred and Exactly mix'd , we Sublim'd together by degrees of fire ( the due Gradation of which is in this Experiment a thing of main Importance ) there ascended a matter of a very peculiar Texture , for it was for the most part made up of very Thin , Smooth , Soft and Slippery Plates , almost like the finest sort of the Scales of Fishes , but of so Lovely a VVhite Inclining to Pearl-Colour , and of so Curious and Shining a Gloss , that they appear'd in some respect little Inferiour to Orient Pearls , and in other Regards , they seem'd to Surpass them , and were Applauded for a sort of the Prettiest Trifles that we had ever prepar'd to Amuse the Eye . I will not undertake that though you 'l hardly miss changing the Colour of your shining Tin-glass , yet you will the first or perhaps the second time hit Right upon the way of making the Glistring Sublimate I have been mentioning . EXPERIMENT IX . VVhen we Dissolve in Aqua Fortis a mixture of Gold and Silver melted into one Lump , it usually happens that the Powder of Gold that falls to the bottom , as not being Dissoluble by that Menstruum , will not have its own Yellow , but appear of a Black Colour , though neither the Gold , nor the Silver , nor the Aqua Fortis did before manifest any Blackness . And divers Alchymists , when they make Solutions of Minerals they would Examine , are very Glad , if they see a Black Powder Praecipirated to the Bottom , taking it for a Hopefull Sign , that those Particles are of a Golden Nature , which appear in a Colour so ordinary to Gold parted from other Metalls by Aqua Fortis , that it is a trouble to the Refiner to Reduce the Praecipitated Calx to its Native Colour . For though , ( as we have try'd , ) that may be Quickly enough done by Fire , which will make this Gold look very Gloriously ( as indeed 't is at least one of the Best wayes that is Practis'd for the Refining of Gold , ) yet it requires both Watchfulness and Skill , to give it such a Degree of Fire as will serve to Restore it to its Lustre , without giving it such a One , as may bring it to Fusion , to which the Minuteness of the Corpuscles it consists of makes the Powder very apt . And this brings into my Mind , that having taken a Flat and Bright piece of Gold , that was Refin'd by a Curious and Skilfull Person on purpose to Trye to what height of Purity Gold could be brought by Art , I found that this very piece , as Glorious as it look'd , being rubb'd a little upon a piece of fine clean Linnen , did sully it with a kind of Black ; and the like I have observ'd in Refin'd Silver , which I therefore mention , because I formerly suspected that the Impurity of the Metall might have been the only Cause of what I have divers times observ'd in wearing Silver-hilted Swords , Namely , that where they rubb'd upon my Clothes , if they were of a Light-Colour'd Cloath , the Affriction would quickly Black them ; and Congruously hereunto I have found Pens Blackt almost all over , when I had a while carri'd them about me in a Silver Ink-case . To which I shall only add , that whereas in these several Instances of Denigration , the Metalls are worn off , or otherwise Reduc'd into very Minute Parts , that Circumstance may prove not Unworthy your Notice . EXPERIMENT X. That a Solution of Silver does Dye Hair of a Black Colour , is a Known Experiment , which some persons more Curious than Dextrous , have so Unluckily made upon themselves as to make their Friends very Merry . And I remember that the other day , I made my self some Sport by an Improvement of this Observation , for having dissolv'd some Pure Silver in Aqua Fortis , and Evaporated the Menstruum ad siccitatem , as they speak , I caus'd a Quantity of fair Water to be pour'd upon the Calx two or three several times , and to be at each Evaporated , till the Calx was very Drye , and all the Greenish Blewness that is wont to appear in Common Crystals of Silver , was quite carry'd away . Then I made those I meant to Deceive , Moisten some part of their Skin with their own Spittle , and slightly Rub the moistned parts with a little of this Prepar'd Silver , Whereupon they Admir'd to see , that a Snow-white Body laid upon the White Skin should presently produce a deep Blackness , as if the stains had been made with Ink , especially considering that this Blackness could not , like that produc'd by ordinary Ink , be readily Wash'd off , but requir'd many Hours , and part of it some dayes to its Obliteration . And with the same White Calx and a little Fair Water we likewise Stain'd the White Hafts of Knives , with a lasting Black in those parts where the Calx was Plentifully enough laid on , for where it was laid on but very Thinly , the Stain was not quite of so Deep a Colour . EXPERIMENT XI . The Cause of the Blackness of those many Nations , which by one common Name we are wont to call Negroes , has been long since Disputed of by Learned Men , who possibly had not done amiss , if they had also taken into Consideration , why some whole races of other Animals besides Men , as Foxes and Hares , are Distinguish'd by a Blackness not familiar to the Generality of Animals of the same Species ; The General Opinion ( to be mention'd a little lower ) has been rejected even by some of the Antient Geographers , and among the Moderns Ortelius and divers other Learned Men have Question'd it . But this is no place to mention what thoughts I have had to and fro about these Matters : Only as I shall freely Acknowledge , that to me the Enquiry seems more Abstruse than it does to many others , and that because consulting with Authors , and with Books of Voyages , and with Travellers , to satisfie my self in matters of Fact , I have met with some things among them , which seem not to agree very well with the Notions of the most Classick Authors concerning these things ; for it being my Present Work to deliver rather matters Historical than Theorys , I shall Annex some few of my Collections , instead of a Solemn Disputation . It is commonly presum'd that the Heat of the Climates wherein they live , is the reason , why so many Inhabitants of the Scorching Regions of Africa are Black ; and there is this familiar Observation to Countenance this Conjecture , That we plainly see that Mowers , Reapers , and other Countrey-people , who spend the most part of the Hot Summer dayes expos'd to the Sun , have the skin of their Hands and Faces , which are the parts immediately Expos'd to the Sun and Air , made of a Darker Colour than before , and consequently tending to Blackness ; And Contrarywise we observe that the Danes and some other people that Inhabit Cold Climates , and even the English who feel not so Rigorous a Cold , have usually Whiter faces than the Spaniards , Portugalls and other European Inhabitants of Hotter Climates . But this Argument I take to be far more Specious than Convincing ; for though the Heat of the Sun may Darken the Colour of the Skin , by that Operation , which we in English call Sun-burning ; yet Experience doth not Evince , that I remember , That that Heat alone can produce a Discolouring that shall amount to a true Blackness , like that of Negroes , and we shall see by and by that even the Children of some Negroes not yet 10. dayes Old ( perhaps not so much by three quarters of that time ) will notwithstanding their Infancy be of the same Hue with their Parents . Besides , there is this strong Argument to be alleg'd against the Vulgar Opinion , that in divers places in Asia under the same Parallel , or even of the same Degree of Latitude with the African Regions Inhabited by Blacks , the People are at most but Tawny ; And in Africa it self divers Nations in the Empire of Ethiopia are not Negroes , though Situated in the Torrid Zone , and as neer the Aequinoctial , as other Nations that are so ( as the Black Inhabitants of Zeylan and Malabar are not in our Globes plac'd so near the Line as Amara the Famousest place in Ethiopia . ) Moreover , ( that which is of no small Moment in our present Disquisition ) I find not by the best Navigators and Travellers to the West-Indies , whose Books or themselves I have consulted on this Subject , that excepting perhaps one place or two of small extent , there are any Blacks Originally Natives of any part of America ( for the Blacks now there have been by the Europeans long Transplanted thither ) though the New World contain in it so great a Variety of Climates , and particularly reach quite Cross the Torri'd Zone from one Tropick to another . And though it be true that the Danes be a Whiter People than the Spaniards , yet that may proceed rather from other causes ( not here to be enquired into ) than from the Coldness of the Climate , since not onely the Swedes and other Inhabitants of those Cold Countreys , are not usually so White as the Danes , nor Whiter than other Nations in proportion to their Vicinity to the Pole. [ And since the Writing of the former part of this Essay , having an opportunity on a Solemn occasion to take Notice of the Numerous Train of some Extraordinary Embassadours sent from the Russian Emperour to a great Monarch , observ'd , that ( though it were then Winter ) the Colour of their Hair and Skin was far less Whitish than the Danes who Inhabit a milder Region is wont to be , but rather for the most part of a Darkish Brown ; And the Physician to the Embassadour with whom those Russes came , being ask'd by me whether in Muscovy it self the Generality of the People were more inclin'd to have Dark-colour'd Hair than Flaxen , he answer'd Affirmatively ; but seem'd to suspect that the True and Antient Russians , a Sept of whom he told me he had met with in one of the Provinces of that vast Empire , were rather VVhite like the Danes , than any thing near so Brown as the present Muscovites whom he guesses to be descended of the Tartars , and to have inherited their Colour from them . ] But to Prosecute our former Discourse , I shall add for further Proof of the Conjecture I was countenancing that good Authors inform us that there are Negroes in Africa not far from the Cape of good Hope , and consequently beyond the Southern Tropick , and without the Torrid Zone , much about the same Northern Latitude ( or very little more ) wherein there are divers American Nations that are not Negroes , and wherein the Inhabitants of Candia , some parts of Sicily , and even of Spain are not so much as Tawny-Mores . But ( which is a fresh and strong Argument against the common Opinion , ) I find by our recent Relations of Greenland , ( our Accounts whereof we owe to the Curiosity of that Royal Virtuoso the present King of Denmark , ) that the Inhabitants are Olive-colour'd , or rather of a Darker Hiew . But if the Case were the same with Men , and those other kinds of Animals I formerly nam'd , I should offer something as a considerable proof , That , Cold may do much towards the making Men White or Black , and however I shall set down the Observation as I have met with it , as worthy to come into the History of Whiteness and Blackness , and it is , that in some parts of Russia and of Livonia it is affirm'd by Olaus Magnus and others , that Hares and Foxes ( some add Partridges ) which before were Black , or Red , or Gray , do in the depth of Winter become White by reason of the great Cold ; ( for that it should be , as some conceive , by Looking upon the Snow , seems improbable upon divers accounts ) And I remember that having purposely enquir'd of a Virtuoso who lately Travell'd through Livonia to Mosca , concerning the Truth of this Tradition , he both told me , he believ'd it , and added , that he saw divers of those lately nam'd Animals either in Russia or Livonia ( for I do not very well remember whether of the two ) which , though White when he saw them in Winter , they assur'd him had been Black , or of other Colours before the Winter began , and would be so again when it was over . But for further satisfaction , I also consulted one that had for some years been an Eminent Physician in Russia , who though he rejected some other Traditions that are generally enough believ'd concerning that Countrey , told me nevertheless , that he saw no cause to doubt of this Tradition of Olaus Magnus as to Foxes and Hares , not onely because 't is the common and uncontroul'd Assertion of the Natives , but also because he himself in the Winter could never that he remember'd see Foxes and Hares of any other Colour than White ; And I my self having seen a small White Fox brought out of Russia into England towards the latter end of Winter , foretold those that shew'd him me , that he would change Colour in Summer , and accordingly coming to look upon him again in July , I found that the Back and Sides , together with the upper part of the Head and Tayl were already grown of a Dark Colour , the lower part of the Head and Belly containing as yet a Whiteness . Let me add , that were it not for some scruple I have , I should think more than what Olaus relates , : confirm'd by the Judicious Olearius , who was twice employ'd into those parts as a Publick Minister , who in his Account of Moscovy has this Passage : The Hares there are Gray ; but in some Provinces they grow White in the Winter . And within some few Lines after : It is not very Difficult to find the Cause of this Change , which certainly proceeds only from the Outward Cold , since I know that even in Summer , Hares will change Colour , if they be kept a competent time in a Cellar ; I say , were it not for some Scruple , because I take notice , that in the same Page the Author Affirms , that the like change of Colour that happens to Hares in some Provinces of Muscovy , happens to them also in Livonia , and yet immediately subjoyns , that in Curland the Hares vary not their Colour in Winter , though these two last named Countries be contiguous , ( that is ) sever'd only by the River of Dugna ; For it is scarce conceivable how Cold alone should have , in Countries so near , so strangely differing an operation , though no less strange a thing is confess'd by many , that ascribe the Complexion of Negroes to the Heat of the Sun , when they would have the River of Cenega so to bound the Moors , that though on the North-side they are but Tawny , on the other side they are Black. There is another Opinion concerning the Complexion of Negroes , that is not only embrac'd by many of the more Vulgar Writers , but likewise by that ingenious Traveller Mr. Sandys , and by a late most learned Critick , besides other men of Note , and these would have the Blackness of Negroes an effect of Noah's Curse ratify'd by God's , upon Cham ; But though I think that even a Naturalist may without disparagement believe all the Miracles attested by the Holy Scriptures , yet in this case to flye to a Supernatural Cause , will , I fear , look like Shifting off the Difficulty , instead of Resolving it ; for we enquire not the First and Universal , but the Proper , Immediate , and Physical Cause of the Jetty Colour of Negroes ; And not only we do not find expressed in the Scripture , that the Curse meant by Noah Cham , was the Blackness of his Posterity , but we do find plainly enough there that the Curse was quite another thing , namely , that he should be a Servant of servants , that is by an Ebraism , a very Abject Servant to his Brethren , which accordingly did in part come to pass , when the Israelites of the posterity of Sem , subdued the Canaanites , that descended from Cham , and kept them in great Subjection . Nor is it evident that Blackness is a Curse , for Navigators tell us of Black Nations , who think so much otherwise of their own condition , that they paint the Devil White . Nor is Blackness inconsistent with Beauty , which even to our European Eyes consists not so much in Colour , as an Advantageous Stature , a Comely Symmetry of the parts of the Body , and Good Features in the Face . So that I see not why Blackness should be thought such a Curse to the Negroes , unless perhaps it be , that being wont to go Naked in those Hot Climates , the Colour of their Skin does probably , according to the Doctrine above deliver'd , make the Sun-beams more Scorching to them , than they would prove to a people of a VVhite Complexion . Greater probability there is , That the Principal Cause ( for I would not exclude all concurrent ones ) of the Blackness of Negroes is some Peculiar and Seminal Impression , for not onely we see that Blackmore boyes brought over into these Colder Climates lose not their Colour ; But good Authors inform us , That the Off-spring of Negroes Transplanted out of Africa , above a hundred years ago , retain still the Complexion of their Progenitors , though possibly in Tract of time it will decay ; As on the other side , the White people removing into very Hot Climates , have their Skins by the Heat of the Sun scorch'd into Dark Colours ; yet neither they , nor their Children have been observ'd , even in the Countreys of Negroes , to descend to a Colour amounting to that of the Natives ; whereas I remember I have Read in Pisos excellent account of Brasile , that betwixt the Americans and Negroes are generated a distinct sort of Men , which they call Cabocles , and betwixt Portugalls and Aethiopian women , He tells us , he has sometimes seen Twins , whereof one had a White skin , the other a Black ; not to mention here some other instances , he gives , that the productions of the mixtures of differing people , that is ( indeed , ) the effects of Seminal Impressions which they consequently argue to have been their Causes ; and we shall not much scruple at this , if we consider , that even Organical parts may receive great Differences from such peculiar Impressions , upon what account soever they came to be setled in the first Individual persons , from whom they are Propagated to Posterity , as we see in the Blobber-Lips and Flat-Noses of most Nations of Negroes . And if we may Credit what Learned men deliver concerning the Little Feet of the Chinesses , the Macrocephali taken notice of by Hippocrates , will not be the only Instance we might apply to our present purpose . And on this occasion it will not perchance be Impertinent to add something of what I have observ'd in other Animals , as that there is a sort of Hens that want Rumps ; And that ( not to mention that in several places there is a sort of Crows or Daws that are not Cole-black as ours , but partly of a Whitish Colour ) in spight of Porphyries examples of Inseparable Accidents , I have seen a perfectly White Raven , as to Bill as well as Feathers , which I attentively consider'd , for fear of being impos'd upon . And this recalls into my Memory , what a very Ingenious Physician has divers times related to me of a young Lady , to whom being call'd , he found that though she much complain'd of want of Health , yet there appear'd so little cause either in her Body , or her Condition to Guess that She did any more than fancy her self Sick , that scrupling to give her Physick , he perswaded her Friends rather to divert her Mind by little Journeys of Pleasure , in one of which going to Visit St. Winifrids Well , this Lady , who was a Catholick , and devout in her Religion , and a pretty while in the VVater to perform some Devotions , and had occasion to fix her Eyes very attentively upon the Red pipple-stones , which in a scatter'd order made up a good part of those that appear'd through the water , and a while after growing Bigg , she was deliver'd of a Child , whose VVhite Skin was Copiously speckl'd with spots of the Colour and Bigness of those Stones , and though now this Child have already liv'd several years , yet she still retains them . I have but two things to add concerning the Blackness of Negroes , the one is , that the Seat of that Colour seems to be but the thin Epidermes , or outward Skin , for I knew a young Negroe , who having been lightly Sick of the Small Pox or Measles , ( for it was doubted which of the two vvas his Disease ) I found by enquiry of a person that vvas concern'd for him , that in those places the little Tumors that had broke their passage through the Skin , when they were gone , they left VVhitish specks behind them ; And the lately commended Piso assures us , that having the opportunity in Brasil to Dissect many Negroes , he cleerly found that their Blackness went no deeper than the very outward Skin , which Cuticula or Epiderms being remov'd , the undermost Skin or Cutis appear'd just as VVhite as that of Europaean Bodyes . And the like has been affirmed to me by a Physician of our own , whom , hearing he had Dissected a Negroe here in England , I consulted about this particular . The other thing to be here taken notice of concerning Negroes is , That having enquir'd of an Intelligent acquaintance of mine ( who keeps in the Indies about 200. of them as well VVomen as Men to work in his Plantations , ) whether their Children come Black into the world ; he answer'd , That they did not , but were brought forth of almost the like Reddish Colour with our European Children ; and having further enquir'd , how long it was before these Infants appear'd Black , he reply'd , that 't was not wont to be many daies . And agreeable to this account I find that , given us in a freshly publish'd French Book written by a Jesuit , that had good opportunity of Knowing the Truth of what he Delivers , for being one of the Missionaries of his Order into the Southern America upon the Laudable Design of Converting In-sidels to Christianity , he Baptiz'd several Infants , which when newly Born , were much of the same Colour with European Babes , but within about a Week began to appear of the Hue of their Parents . But more Pregnant is the Testimony of our Countrey-man Andrew Battel , who being sent Prisoner by the Portugalls to Angola , liv'd there , and in the adjoyning Regions , partly as a Prisoner , partly as a Pilot , and partly as a Souldier , near 18. years , and he mentioning the African Kingdom of Longo , peopl'd with Blacks , has this passage : The Children in this Countrey are Born White , and change their Colour in two dayes to a Perfect Black. As for Example , The Portugalls which dwell in the Kingdome of Longo have sometimes Children by the Negroe - women , and many times the Fathers are deceived , thinking , when the Child is Born , that it is theirs , and within two dayes it proves the Son or Daughter of a Negroe , which the Portugalls greatly grieve at ; And the same person has elsewhere a Relation , which , if he have made no use at all of the liberty of a Traveller , is very well worth our Notice , since this , together with that we have formerly mention'd of Seminal Impressions , shews a possibility , that a Race of Negroes might be begun , though none of the Sons of Adam for many Precedent Generations were of that Complexion . For I see not why it should not be at least as possible , that White Parents may sometimes have Black Children , as that African Negroes should sometimes have lastingly White ones , especially since concurrent causes may easily more befriend the Productions of the Former kind , than under the scorching Heat of Africa those of the Latter . And I remember on the occasion of what he delivers , that of the White Raven formerly mention'd , the Possessor affirm'd to me , that in the Nest out of which he was taken VVhite , they found with him but one other Young one , and that he was of as Jetty a Black as any common Raven . But let us hear our Author himself : Here are ( sayes he , speaking of the formerly mention'd Regions ) Born in this Countrey white Children , which is very rare among them , for their Parents are Negroes ; And when any of them are Born , they are presented to the King , and are call'd Dondos ; These are as White as any White Men. These are the Kings Witches , and are brought up in Witchcraft , and alwayes wait on the King : There is no man that dare meddle with these Dondos , if they go to the Market they may take what they list , for all Men stand in awe of them . The King of Longo hath four of them . And yet this Countrey in our Globes is plac'd almost in the midst of the Torrid Zone ( four or five Degrees Southward of the Line . ) And our Author elsewhere tells us of the Inhabitants , that they are so fond of their Blackness , that they will not suffer any that is not of that Colour ( as the Portugalls that come to Trade thither ) to be so much as Buri'd in their Land , of which he annexes a particular example , that may be seen in his Voyage preserv'd by our Industrious Countreyman Mr. Purchas . But it is high time for me to dismiss Observations , and go on with Experiments . EXPERIMENT XII . The way , Pyrophilus , of producing Whiteness by Chymical Praecipitations is very well worth our observing , for thereby Bodyes of very Differing Colours as well as Natures , though dissolv'd in Several Liquors , are all brought into Calces or Powders that are White . Thus we find that not only Crabs-eyes , that are of themselves White , and Pearls that are almost so , but Coral and Minium that are Red , being dissolv'd in Spirit of Vinegar , may be uniformly Praecipitated by Oyl of Tartar into White Powders . Thus Silver and Tin separately dissolv'd in Aqua Fortis , will the one Praecipitate it self , and the other be Praecipitated by common Salt-water into a White Calx , and so will Crude Lead and Quicksilver first dissolv'd likewise in Aqua Fortis . The like Calx will be afforded as I have try'd by a Solution of that shining Mineral Tinglass dissolv'd in Aqua Fortis , and Praecipitated out of it ; and divers of these Calces may be made at least as Fair and White , if not better Colour'd , if instead of Oyl of Tartar they were Praecipitated with Oyl of Vitriol , or with another Liquor I could Name . Nay , that Black Mineral Antimony it self , being reduc'd by and with the Salts that concurr to the Composition of common Sublimate , into that Cleer though Unctuous Liquor that Chymists commonly call Rectifi'd Butter of Antimony , will by the bare affusion of store of Fair Water be struck down into that Snow-white Powder , which when the adhering Saltness is well wash'd off , Chymists are pleas'd to call Mercurius Vitae , though the like Powder may be made of Antimony , without the addition of any Mercury at all . And this Lactescence if I may so call it , does also commonly ensue when Spirit of Wine , being Impregnated with those parts of Gums or other Vegetable Concretions , that are suppos'd to abound with Sulphureous Corpuscles , fair Water is suddenly pour'd upon the Tincture or Solution . And I remember that very lately I did , for Tryal sake , on a Tincture of Benjamin drawn with Spirit of Wine , and brought to be as Red as Blood , pour some fair Water , which presently mingling with the Liquor , immediately turn'd the whole Mixture White . But if such Seeming Milks be suffer'd to stand unstirr'd for a convenient while , they are wont to let fall to the bottome a Resinous Substance , which the Spirit of Wine Diluted and VVeakned by the Water pour'd in it , was unable to support any longer . And something of Kin to this change of Colour in Vegetables is that , which Chymists are wont to observe upon the pouring of Acid Spirits upon the Red Solution of Sulphur , dissolv'd in an Infusion of Pot-ashes , or in some other sharp Lixivium , the Praecipitated Sulphur before it subsides , immediately turning the Red Liquor into a White one . And other Examples might be added of this way of producing Whiteness in Bodyes by Praecipitating them out of the Liquors wherein they have been Dissolv'd ; but I think it may be more usefull to admonish you , Pyrophilus , that this observation admits of Restrictions , and is not so Universal , as by this time perhaps you have begun to think it ; For though most Praecipitated Bodyes are White , yet I know some that are not ; For Gold Dissolv'd in Aqua Regis , whether you Praecipitate it with Oyl of Tartar , or with Spirit of Sal Armoniack , will not afford a White but a Yellow Calx . Mercury also though reduc'd into Sublimate , and Praecipitated with Liquors abounding with Volatile Salts , as the Spirits drawn from Urine , Harts-horn , and other Animal substances , yet will afford , as we Noted in our first Experiment about Whiteness and Blackness , a VVhite Praecipitate , yet with the Solution of Pot-ashes and other Lixiviate Salts , it will let fall an Orange-Tawny Powder . And so will Crude Antimony , if , being dissolv'd in a strong Lye , you pour ( as farr as I remember ) any Acid Liquor upon the Solution newly Filtrated , whilst it is yet Warm . And if upon the Filtrated Solution of Vitriol , you pour a Solution of one of these fix'd Salts , there will subside a Copious substance , very farr from having any Whiteness , which the Chymists are pleas'd to call , how properly I have elsewhere examin'd , the Sulphur of Vitriol . So that most Dissolv'd Bodyes being by Praecipitation brought to White Powders , and yet some affording Praecipitates of other Colours , the reason of both the Phoenomena may deserve to be enquir'd into . EXPERIMENT XIII . Some Learned Modern Writers are of Opinion , that the Account upon which VVhiteness and Blackness ought to be call'd , as they commonly are , the two Extreme Colours , is , That Blackness ( by which I presume is meant the Bodyes endow'd with it ) receives no other Colours ; but VVhiteness very easily receives them all ; whence some of them compare VVhiteness to the Aristotelian Materia prima , that being capable of any sort of Forms , as they suppose White Bodyes to be of every kind of Colour . But not to Dispute about Names or Expressions , the thing it self that is affirm'd as Matter of Fact , seems to be True enough in most Cases , not in all , or so , as to hold Universally . For though it be a common observation among Dyers , That Clothes , which have once been throughly imbu'd with Black , cannot so well afterwards be Dy'd into Lighter Colours , the praeexistent Dark Colour infecting the Ingredients , that carry the Lighter Colour to be introduc'd , and making it degenerate into some more Sad one ; Yet the Experiments lately mention'd may shew us , that were the change of Colour in Black Bodies is attempted , not by mingling Bodyes of Lighter Colours with them , but by Addition of such things as are proper to alter the Texture of those Corpuscles that contain the Black Colour , 't is no such difficult matter , as the lately mention'd Learned Men imagine , to alter the Colour of Black Bodyes . For we saw that Inks of several Kinds might in a trice be depriv'd of all their Blackness ; and those made with Log-wood and Red-Roses might also be chang'd , the one into a Red , the other into a Reddish Liquor ; and with Oyl of Vitriol I have sometimes turn'd Black pieces of Silk into a kind of Yellow , and though the Taffaty were thereby made Rotten , yet the spoyling of that does no way prejudice the Experiment , the change of Black Silk into Yellow , being never the less True , because the Yellow Silk is the less good . And as for Whiteness , I think the general affirmation of its being so easily Destroy'd or Transmuted by any other Colour , ought not to be receiv'd without some Cautions and Restrictions . For whereas , according to what I formerly Noted , Lead is by Calcination turned into that Red Powder we call Minium ; And Tin by Calcination reduc'd to a White Calx , the common Putty that is sold and us'd so much in Shops , instead of being , as it is pretended and ought to be , only the Calx of Tin , is , by the Artificers that make it , to save the charge of Tin , made , ( as some of themselves have confess'd , and as I long suspected by the Cheap rate it may be bought for ) but of half Tin and half Lead , if not far more Lead than Tin , and yet the Putty in spight of so much Lead is a very White Powder , without disclosing any mixture of Minium . And so if you take two parts of Copper , which is a High-colour'd Metall , to but one of Tin , you may by Fusion bring them into one Mass , wherein the Whiteness of the Tin is much more Conspicuous and Predominant than the Reddishness of the Copper . And on this occasion it may not be Impertinent to mention an Experiment , which I relate upon the Credit of a very Honest man , whom I purposely enquir'd of about it , being my self not very fond of making Tryals with Arsenick , the Experiment is this , That if you Colliquate Arsenick and Copper in a due proportion , the Arsenick will Blanch the Copper both within and without , which is an Experiment well enough Known ; but when I enquir'd , whether or no this White mixture being skilfully kept a while upon the Cupel would not let go its Arsenick , which made Whiteness its praedominant Colour , and return to the Reddishness of Copper , I was assur'd of the Affirmative ; so that among Mineral Bodyes , some of those that are White , may be far more capable , than those I am reasoning with seem to have known , of Eclipsing others , and of making their Colour Praedominant in Mixtures . In further Confirmation of which may be added , that I remember that I also took a lump of Silver and Gold melted together , wherein by the Aestimate of a very Experienc'd Refiner , there might be about a fourth or third part of Gold , and yet the Yellow Colour of the Gold was so hid by the White of the Silver , that the whole Mass appear'd to be but Silver , and when it was rubb'd upon the Touchstone , an ordinary beholder could scarce have distinguish'd it from the Touch of common Silver ; though if I put a little Aqua Fortis upon any part of the White Surface it had given the Touchstone , the Silver in the moistned part being immediately taken up and conceal'd by the Liquor , the Golden Particles would presently disclose that native Yellow , and look rather as if Gold , than if the above mention'd mixture , had been rubb'd upon the Stone . EXPERIMENT XIV . I took a piece of Black-horn , ( polish'd as being part of a Comb ) this with a piece of broken glass I scrap'd into many thin and curdled flakes , some shorter and some longer , and having laid a pretty Quantity of these scrapings together , I found , as I look'd for , that the heap they compos'd was White , and though , if I laid it upon a clean piece of White Paper , its Colour seem'd somewhat Eclips'd by the greater Whiteness of the Body it was compar'd with , looking somewhat like Linnen that had been sulli'd by a little wearing , yet if I laid it upon a very Black Body , as upon a Beaver Hatt , it then appear'd to be of a good White , which Experiment , that you may in a trice make when you please , seems very much to Disfavour both their Doctrine that would have Colours to flow from the substantial Forms of Bodyes , and that of the Chymists also , who ascribe them to one of other of their three Hypostatical Principles ; for though in our Case there was so great a Change made , that the same Body without being substantially either Increas'd or Lessened , passes immediately from one extreme Colour to another ( and that too from Black to White ) yet this so great and sudden change is effected by a slight Mechanical Transposition of parts , there being no Salt or Sulphur or Mercury that can be pretended to be Added or Taken away , nor yet any substantial Form that can reasonably be suppos'd to be Generated and Destroy'd , the Effect proceeding only from a Local Motion of the parts which so vary'd their Position as to multiply their distinct Surfaces , and to Qualifie them to Reflect far more Light to the Eye , than they could before they were scrap'd off from the entire piece of Black horn . EXPERIMENT XV. And now , Pyrophilus , it will not be improper for us to take some notice of an Opinion touching the cause of Blackness , which I judged not so seasonable to Question , till I I had set down some of the Experiments , that might justifie my dissent from it . You know that of late divers Learned Men , having adopted the three Hypostatical Principles , besides other Notions of the Chymists , are very inclinable to reduce all Qualities of Bodies to one or other of those three Principles , and Particularly assign for the cause of Blackness the Sootie steam of adust or Torrifi'd Sulphur . But I hope that what we have deliver'd above to countenance the Opinion we have propos'd about the Cause of Blackness , will so easily supply you with several Particulars that may be made use of against this Opinion , that I shall now represent to You but two things concerning it . And First it seems that the favourers of the Chymicall Theories might have pitcht upon some more proper term , to express the Efficient of Blackness than Sulphur adust ; for we know that common Sulphur , not only when Melted , but even when Sublim'd , does not grow Black by suffering the Action of the fire , but continues and ascends Yellow , and rather more than less White , than it was before its being expos'd to the fire . And if it be set on fire , as when we make that acid Liquor , that Chymists call Oleum Sulphuris per campanam , it affords very little Soot , and indeed the flame yeelds so little , that it will scarce in any degree Black a sheet of White Paper , held a pretty while over the flame and smoak of it , which is observed rather to Whiten than Infect linnen , and which does plainly make Red Roses grow very Pale , but not at all Black , as far as the Smoak is permitted to reach the leaves . And I can shew you of a sort of fixt Sulphur made by an Industrious Laborant of your acquaintance , who assur'd me that he was wont to keep it for divers weeks together night and day in a naked and Violent fire , almost like that of the Glass-house , and when , to satisfie my Curiosity , I made him take out a lump of it , though it were glowing hot ( and yet not melted , ) it did not , when I had suffered it to cool , appear Black , the true Colour of it being a true Red. I know it may be said , that Chymists in the Opinion above recited mean the Principle of Sulphur , and not common Sulphur which receives its name , not from its being all perfectly of a Sulphureous Nature , but for that plenty and Predominancy of the Sulphureous Principle in it . But allowing this , 't is easie to reply , that still according to this very Reason , torrifi'd Sulphur should afford more Blackness , than most other concretes , wherein that Principle is confess'd to be far less copious . Also when I have expos'd Camphire to the fire in Close Vessels , as Inflamable , and consequently ( according to the Chymists ) as Sulphureous a Body as it is , I could not by such a degree of Heat , as brought it to Fusion , and made it Boyl in the glass , impress any thing of Blackness , or of any other Colour , than its own pure White , upon this Vegetable concrete . But what shall we say to Spirit of Wine , which being made by a Chymical Analysis of the Liquor that affords it , and being totally Inflamable , seems to have a full right to the title they give it of Sulphur Vegetabile , & yet this fluid Sulphur not only contracts not any degree of Blackness by being often so heated , as to be made to Boyl , but when it burns away with an Actual flame , I have not found that it would discolour a piece of White Paper held over it , with any discernable Soot . Tin also , that wants not , according to the Chymists , a Sulphur Joviale , when throughly burned by the fire into a Calx , is not Black , but eminently White . And I lately noted to you out of Bellonius , that the Charcoals of Oxy-cedar are not of the former of these two Colours , but of the latter . And the Smoak of our Tinby coals here in England , has been usually observ'd , rather to Blanch linnen then to Black it . To all which , other Particulars of the like nature might be added , but I rather choose to put you in mind of the third Experiment , about making Black Liquors , or Ink , of Bodies that were non of them Black before . For how can it be said , that when those Liquors are put together actually Cold , and continne so after their mixture , there intervenes any new Adustion of Sulphur to produce the emergent Blackness ? ( and the same question will be appliable to the Blackness produc'd upon the blade of a Knife , that has cut Lemmons and some kind of Sowr apples , if the juyce ( though both Actually and Potentially Cold ) be not quickly wip'd of ) And when by the instilling either of a few drops of Oyl of Vitriol as in the second Experiment , or of a little of the Liquor mention'd in the Passage pointed at in the fourth Experiment , ( where I teach at once to Destroy one black Ink , and make another ) the Blackness produc'd by those Experiments is presently destroy'd ; if the Colour proceeded only from the Plenty of Sulphurous parts , torrify'd in the Black Bodies , I demand , what becomes of them , when the Colour so suddenly dissappears ? For it cannot Reasonably be said , that all those that suffic'd to make so great a quantity of Black Matter , should resort to so very small a proportion of the Clarifying Liquor , ( if I may so call it ) as to be deluted by it , with out at all Denigrating it . And if it be said that the Instill'd Liquor dispers'd those Black Corpuscles , I demand , how that Dispersion comes to destroy their Blackness , but by making such a Local Motion of their part , as destroys their former Texture ? which may be a Matter of such moment in cases like ours , that I remember that I have in few houres , without addition , from Soot it self , attain'd pretty store of Crystalline Salt , and good store of Transparent Liquor , and ( which I have on another occasion noted as remarkable ) this so Black substance had its Colour so alter'd , by the change of Texture it receiv'd from the fire , wherewith it was distill'd , that it did for a great while afford such plenty of very white Exhalations , that the Receiver , though large , seem'd to be almost fill'd with Milk. Secondly , But were it granted , as it is in some cases not Improbable , that divers Bodies may receive a Blackness from a Sootie Exhalation̄ , occasion'd by the Adustion of their Sulphur , which ( for the Reasons lately mention'd I should rather call their Oyly parts ; ) yet still this account is applicable but to some Particular Bodies , and will afford us no General Theory of Blackness . For if , for example , White Harts-horn , being , in Vessels well luted to each other , expos'd to the fire , be said to turn Black by the Infection of its own Smoak , I think I may justly demand , what it is that makes the Smoak or Soot it self Black , since no such Colour , but its contrary , appear'd before in the Harts-horn ? And with the same Reason , when we are told , that torrify'd Sulphur makes bodies Blakc , I desire to be told also , why Torrefaction makes Sulphur it self Black ? nor will there be any Satisfactory Reason assign'd of these Quaeries , without taking in those Fertile as well as Intelligible Mechanical Principles of the Position and Texture of the Minute parts of the body in reference to the Light and the Eye ; and these applicable Principles may serve the turn in many cases , where the Adustion of Sulphur cannot be pretended ; as in the appearing Blackness of an Open window , lookt upon at a somewhat remote distance from the house , as also in the Blackness Men think they see in the Holes that happen to be in White linnen , or Paper of the like Colour ; and in the Increasing Blackness immediatly Produc'd barely by so rubbing Velvet , whose Piles were Inclin'd before , as to reduce them to a more Erected posture , in which and in many other cases formerly alleg'd , there appears nothing requisite to the Production of the Blackness , but the hindering of the incident Beams of Light from rebounding plentifully enough to the Eye . To be short , those I reason with , do concerning Blackness , what the Chymists are wont also to do concerning other Qualities , namely to content themselves to tell us , in what Ingredient of a Mixt Body , the Quality enquir'd after , does reside , instead of explicating the Nature of it , which ( to borrow a comparison from their own Laboratories ) is much as if in an enquiry after the cause of Salivation , they should think it enough to tell us , that the several Kinds of Praecipitates of Gold and Mercury , as likewise of Quick-silver and Silver ( for I know that make and use of such Praecipitates also ) do Salivate upon the account of the Mercury , which though Disguis'd abounds in them , whereas the Difficulty is as much to know upon what account Mercury it self , rather than other Bodies , has that power of working by Salivation . Which I say not , as though it were not something ( and too often the most we can arrive at ) to discover in which of the Ingredients of a Compounded Body , the Quality , whose Nature is fought , resides , but because , though this Discovery it self may pass for something , and is oftentimes more than what is taught us about the same subjects in the Schools , yet we ought not to think it enough , when more Clear and Particular accounts are to be had . THE Experimental History OF COLOURS Begun . The Third PART . Containing Promiscuous Experiments About COLOURS . EXPERIMENT I. BEcause that , according to the Conjectures I have above propos'd , one of the most General Causes of the Diversity of Colours in Opacous Bodyes , is , that some reflect the Light mingl'd with more , others with less of Shade ( either as to Quantity , or as to Interruption ) I hold ir not unfit to mention in the first place , the Experiments that I thought upon to examine this Conjecture . And though coming to transcribe them out of some Physiological Adversaria I had written in loose Papers , I cannot find one of the chief Records I had of my Tryals of this Nature , yet the Papers that scap'd miscarrying , will , I presume , suffice to manifest the main thing for which I now allege them ; I find then among my Adversaria , the following Narrative . October the 11. About ten in the Morning in Sun-shiny Weather , ( but not without fleeting Clouds ) we took several sorts of Paper Stain'd , some of one Colour , and some of another ; and in a Darken'd Room whose Window look'd Southward , we cast the Beams that came in at a hole about three Inches and a half in Diameter , upon a White wall that was plac'd on one side , about five foot distance from them . The White gave much the Brightest Reflection . The Green , Red , and Blew being Compar'd together , the Red gave much the strongest Reflection , and manifestly enough also threw its Colour upon the Wall ; The Green and Blew were scarce Discernable by their Colours , and seem'd to reflect an almost EqualLight . The Yellow Compar'd with the two last nam'd , Reflected somewhat more Light. The Red and Purple being Compar'd together , the former manifestly Reflected a good deal more Light. The Blew and Purple Compar'd together , the former seem'd to Reflect a little more Light , though the Purple Colour were more manifestly seen . A Sheet of very well sleek'd Marbl'd Paper being Apply'd as the others , did not cast any of its Distinct Colours upon the Wall ; nor throw its Light upon it with an Equal Diffusion ; but threw the Beams Unstain'd and Bright to this and that part of the Wall , as if it's Polish had given it the Nature of a specular Body . But comparing it with a sheet of White Paper , we found the Reflection of the latter to be much Stronger , it diffusing almost as much Light to a good Extent as the Marble Paper did to one part of the Wall. The Green and Purple left us somewhat in suspence which Reflected the most Light ; only the Purple seem'd to have some little Advantage over the Green , which was Dark in its kind . Thus much I find in our above mention'd Collections , among which there are also some Notes concerning the Production of Compounded Colours , by Reflection from Bodyes differingly Colour'd . And these Notes we intended should supply us with what we should mention as our second Experiment : but having lost the Paper that contain'd the Particulars , and remembring onely in General , that if the Objects which Reflected the Light were not Strongly Colour'd and somewhat Glossy , the Reflected Beams would not manifestly make a Compounded Colour upon the Wall , and even then but very Faintly , we shall now say no more of that Matter , only reserving our selves to mention hereafter the Composition of a Green , which we still retain in Memory . EXPERIMENT II. We may add , Pyrophilus , on this Occasion , that though a Darken'd Room be Generally thought requisite to make the Colour of a Body appear by Reflection from another Body , that is not one of those that are commonly agreed upon to be Specular ( as Polish'd Metall , Quick silver , Glass , Water , &c. ) Yet I have often observ'd that when I wore Doublets Lin'd with some silken Stuff that was very Glossy and Vividly Colour'd , especially Red , I could in an Inlightned Room plainly enough Discern the Colour , upon the Pure White Linnen that came out at my Sleeve and reach'd to my Cufs ; as if that Fine VVhite Body were more Specular , than Colour'd and Unpolish'd Bodyes are thought Capable of being . EXPERIMENT III. Whilst we were making the newly mention'd Experiments , we thought fit to try also what Composition of Colours might be made by Altering the Light in its Passage to the Eye by the Interposition not of Perfectly Diaphanous Bodies , ( that having been already try'd by others as well as by us ( as we shall soon have occasion to take notice ) but of Semi-opacous Bodyes , and those such as look'd upon in an ordinary Light , and not held betwixt it and the Eye , are not wont to be Discriminated from the rest of Opacous Bodyes ; of this Tryal , our mention'd Adversaria present us the following Account . Holding these Sheets , sometimes one sometimes the other of them , before the Hole betwixt the Sun and the Eye , with the Colour'd sides obverted to the Sun ; we found them single to be somewhat Transparent , and appear of the same Colour as before , onely a little alter'd by the great Light they were plac'd in ; but laying two of them one over another and applying them so to the Hole , the Colours were compounded as follows . The Blew and Yellow scarce exhibited any thing but a Darker Yellow , which we ascrib'd to the Coarseness of the Blew Papers , and its Darkness in its Kind . For applying the Blew parts of the Marbl'd Paper with the Yellow Paper after the same manner , they exhibited a good Green. They Yellow and Red look'd upon together gave us but a Dark Red , somewhat ( and but a little , ) inclining to an Orange Colour . The Purple and Red look'd on together appear'd more Scarlet . The Purple and Yellow made an Orange . The Green and Red made a Dark Orange Tawny . The Green and Purple made the Purple appear more Dirty . The Blew and Purple made the Purple more Lovely , and far more Deep . The Red parts of the Marbl'd Paper look'd upon with the Yellow appear'd of a Red far more like Scarlet than without it . But the Fineness or Coarseness of the Papers , their being carefully or slightly Colour'd , and divers other Circumstances , may so vary the Events of such Experiments as these , that if , Pyrophilus , you would Build much on them , you must carefully Repeat them . EXPERIMENT IV. The Triangular Prismatical Glass being the Instrument upon whose Effects we may the most Commodiously speculate the Nature of Emphatical Colours , ( and perhaps that of Others too ; ) we thought it might be usefull to observe the several Reflections and Refractions which the Incident Beams of Light suffer in Rebounding from it , and Passing through it . And this we thought might be Best done , not ( as is usual , ) in an ordinary Inlightn'd Room , where ( by reason of the Difficulty of doing otherwise ) ev'n the Curious have left Particulars Unheeded , which may in a convenient place be easily taken notice of ; but in a Darken'd Room , where by placing the Glass in a convenient Posture , the Various Reflections and Refractions may be Distinctly observ'd ; and where it may appear what Beams are Unting'd , and which they are , that upon the Bodyes that terminate them , do Paint either the Primary or Secondary Iris. In pursuance of this we did in the above mention'd Darken'd Room , make observation of no less than four Reflections , and three Refractions that were afforded us by the same Prism , and thought that notwithstanding what was taught us by the Rules of Catoptricks and Dioptricks , it would not be amiss to find also , by hiding sometimes one part of the Prism , and sometimes another , and observing where the Light or Colour Vanish'd thereupon , by which Reflection and by which Refraction each of the several places whereon the Light rebounding from , or passing through , the Prism appear'd either Sincere or Tincted , was produc'd . But because it vvould be Tedious and not so Intelligible to deliver this in Words , I have thought fit to Referr You to the Annexed Scheme where the Newly menrion'd particulars may be at one View taken Notice of . EXPERIMENT V. I know not whether you vvill think it Inconsiderable to annex to this Experiment , That vve observ'd in a Room not The Explication of the Scheme . P P P. An Aequilaterotriangular Crystalline Prism , one of whose edges P. is placed directly towards the Sun. A B & α β Two rays from the Sun falling on the Prism at B β. and thence partly reflected towards C & γ. and partly refracted towards D & δ. B C & β γ. Those reflected Rays . B D & β δ. Those refracted Rays which are partly refracted towards E & ε. and there paint an Iris 1 2 3 4 5. denoting the five consecutions of colours Red , Yellow , Green , Blew , and Purple ; and are partly reflected towards F & ζ. D F & δ ζ. Those Reflected Rays which are partly refracted towards G & μ. colourless , and partly reflected , towards H & Θ. F H & ζ Θ. Those reflected Rays which are refracted towards I & ι. and there paint an other fainter Iris , the colours of which are contrary to the former 5 4 3 2 1. signifying Purple , Blew , Green , Yellow , Red , so that the Prism in this posture exhibits four Rainbows . Place this Scheme between the 192 and 193. Pages . depiction of a prism bending light Darken'd , that the Prismatical Iris ( if I may so call it ) might be Reflected without losing any of its several Colours ( for we now consider not their Order ) not onely from a plain Looking-glass and from the calm Surface of Fair Water , but also from a Concave Looking-glass ; and that Refraction did as little Destroy those Colours as Reflection . For by the help of a large ( double Convex ) Burning-glass through which we Refracted the Suns Beams , we found that one part of the Iris might be made to appear either beyond , or on this side of the other Parts of the same Iris ; but yet the same Vivid Colours would appear in the Displac'd part ( if I may so term it ) as in the other . To which I shall add , that having , by hiding the side of the Prism , obverted to the Sun with an Opacous Body , wherein only one small hole was left for the Light to pass through , reduc'd the Prismatical Iris ( cast upon White Paper ) into a very narrow compass , and look'd upon it through a Microscope ; the Colours appear'd the same as to kind that they did to the naked Eye . EXPERIMENT VI. It may afford matter of Speculation to the Inquisitive , such as you , Pyrophilus , that as the Colours of outward Objects brought into a Darken'd Room , do so much depend for their Visibility upon the Dimness of the Light they are there beheld by ; that the ordinary Light of the day being freely let in upon them , they immediately disappear : so our Tryals have inform'd us , that as to the Prismatical Iris painted on the Floor by the Beams of the Sun Trajected through a Triangular-glass ; though the Colours of it appear very Vivid ev'n at Noon-day , and in Sun shiny Weather , yet by a more Powerfull Light they may be made to disappear . For having sometimes , ( in prosecution of some Conjectures of mine not now to be Insisted on , ) taken a large . Metalline Concave Speculum , and with it cast the converging Beams of the Sun upon a Prismatical Iris which I had caus'd to be projected upon the Floor , I found that the over-powerfull Light made the Colours of the Iris disappear . And if I so Reflected the Light as that it cross'd but the middle of the Iris , in that part only the Colours vanish'd or were made Invisible ; those parts of the Iris that were on the right and left hand of the Reflected Light ( which seem'd to divide them , and cut the Iris asunder ) continuing to exhibit the same Colours as before . But upon this we must not now stay to Speculate . EXPERIMENT VII . I have sometimes thought it worth while to take notice , whether or no the Colours of Opacous Bodies might not appear to the Eye some what Diversify'd , not only by the Disposition of the Superficial parts of the Bodyes themselves and by the Position of the Eye in Reference to the Object and the Light , ( for these things are No orious enough ; ) but according also to the Nature of the Lucid Body that shines upon them . And I remember that in Prosecution of this Curiosity , I observ'd a manifest Difference in some Kinds of Colour'd Bodyes look'd on by Day-light ; and afterwards by the light of the Moon ; either directly falling on them or Reflected upon them from a Concave Looking-glass . But not finding at present in my Collections about Colours any thing set down of this Kind , I shall , till I have opportunity to repeat them , content my self to add what I find Register'd concerning Colours look'd on by Candle-light , in regard that not only the Experiment is more easie to be repeated , but the Objects being the same sorts of Colour'd Paper lastly mention'd , the Collation of the two Experiments may help to make the Conjectures they will suggest somewhat the less uncertain . Within a few dayes of the time above mention'd , divers Sheets of Colour'd Paper that had been look'd upon before in the Sun-shine were look'd upon at night by the light of a pretty big Candle , ( snuff'd ) and the Changes that were observ'd were these . The Yellow seem'd much fainter than in the Day , and inclinable to a pale Straw Colour . The Red seem'd little Chang'd ; but seem'd to Reflect Light more strongly than any other Colour ( for White was none of them . ) A fair Deep Green look'd upon by it self , seem'd to be a Dark Blew : But being look'd upon together with a Dark Blew , appear'd Greenish ; and beheld together with a Yellow appear'd more Blew than at first . The Blew look'd more like a Deep Purple or Murray than it had done in the Day-light . The Purple seem'd very little alter'd . The Red look'd upon with the Yellow made the Yellow look almost like Brown Cap-paper . N. The Caution Subjoyned to the third Experiment , is also Applicable to this . EXPERIMENT VIII . But here I must not omit to subjoyn , that to satisfie our Selves , whether or no the Light of a Candle were not made unsincere , and as it were Ting'd with a Yellow Colour by the Admixtion of the Corpuscles it assumes from its Fuel ; we did not content our selves with what appears to the Naked Eye , but taking a pretty thick Red or Cylinder ( for thin Peeces would not serve the turn ) of deep Blew Glass , and looking upon the Candles flame at a Convenient distance through it , we perceiv'd as we expected , the Flame to look Green ; which as we often note , is the Colour wont to emerge from the Composition of Opacous Bodies , which were apart one of them Blew , and the other Yellow . And this perchance may be the main Reason of that which some observe , that a sheet of very White Paper being look'd upon by Candle light , 't is not easie at first to discern it from a light Yellow or Lemon Colour ; White Bodyes ( as we have elsewhere observ'd ) having more than those that are otherwise Colour'd , of a Specular Nature ; in regard that though they exhibit not , ( unless they be Polish'd , ) the shape of the Luminary that shines on them , yet they Reflect its Light more Sincere and Untroubl'd , by either Shades or Refractions , than Bodyes of other Colours ( as Blew , or Green , or Yellow or the like . ) EXPERIMENT IX . We took a Leaf of such Foliated Gold as Apothecaries are wont to Gild their Pills with ; and with the Edge of a Knife , ( lightly moysten'd by drawing it over the surface of the Tongue , and afterwards ) laid upon the edge of the Gold Leaf ; we so fasten'd it to the Knife , that being held against the light , it continu'd extended like a little Flagg . This Leaf being held very near the Eye , and obverted to the Light , appear'd so full of Pores , that it seem'd to have such a kind of Transparency as that of a Sive , or a piece of Cyprus , or a Love-Hood ; but the Light that pass'd by these Pores was in its Passages so Temper'd with Shadow , and Modify'd , that the Eye discern'd no more a Golden Colour , but a Greenish Blew . And for other's satisfaction , we did in the Night look upon a Candle through such a Leaf of Gold ; and by trying the Effect of several Proportions of Distance betwixt the Leaf , the Eye and the Light , we quickly hit upon such a Position for the Leaf of Gold , as that the flame , look'd on through it , appear'd of a Greenish Blew , as we have seen in the Day time . The like Experiment try'd with a Leaf of Silver succeeded not well . EXPERIMENT X. We have sometimes found in the Shops of our Druggists , a certain Wood , which is there call'd Lignum Nephriticum , because the Inhabitants of the Country where it grows , are wont to use the Infusion of it made in fair Water against the Stone of the Kidneys , and indeed an Eminent Physician of our Acquaintance , who has very Particularly enquir'd into that Disease , assures me , that he has found such an Infusion one of the most effectual Remedyes , which he has ever tried against that formidable Disease . The ancientest Account I have met : with of this Simple , is given us by the Experienc'd Monardes in these Words . Nobis , says he , Nova Hispania mittit quoddam ligni genus crassum & enode , cujus usus jam diu receptus fuit in his Regionibus ad Renum vitia & Urinae difficultates ac arenulas pellendas . Fit autem hac ratione , Lignum assulatim & minutim concisum in limpidissima aqua fontana maceratur , inque earelinquitur , donec aqua à bibentibus absumpta fit , dimidia hora post injectum lignum aqua Coeruleum colorem contrahit , quisensim intenditur pro temporis diuturnitate , tametsi lignum candidum sit . This Wood , Pyrophilus , may afford us an Experiment , which besides the singularity of it , may give no small assistance to an attentive Considerer towards the detection of the Nature of Colours . The Experiment as we made it is this . Take Lignum Nephriticum , and with a Knife cut it into thin Slices , put about a handfull of these Slices into two three or four pound of the purest Spring-water , let them infuse there a night , but if you be in hast , a much shorter time may suffice ; decant this Impregnated Water into a clear Glass Vial , and if you hold it directly between the Light and your Eye , you shall see it wholly Tincted ( excepting the very top of the Liquor , wherein you will some times discern a Sky-colour'd Circle ) with an almost Golden Colour , unless your Infusion have been made too Strong of the Wood , for in that case it will against the Light appear somewhat Dark and Reddish , and requires to be diluted by the addition of a convenient quantity of fair Water . But if you hold this Vial from the Light , so that your Eye be plac'd betwixt the Window and the Vial , the Liquor will appear of a deep and lovely Coeruleous Colour , of which also the drops , if any be lying on the out-side of the Glass , will seem to be very perfectly ; And thus far we have try'd the Experiment , and found it to succeed even by the Light of Candles of the larger size . If you so hold the Vial over against your Eyes , that it may have a Window on one side of it , and a Dark part of the Room both before it and on the other side , you shall see the Liquor partly of a Blewish and partly of a Golden Colour . If turning your back to the Window , you powr out some of the Liquor towards the Light and towards your Eyes , it will seem at the comming out of the Glass to be perfectly Coeruleous , but when it is sallen down a little way , the drops may seem Particolour'd , according as the Beams of Light do more or less fully Penetrate and Illustrate them . If you take a Bason about half full of Water , and having plac'd it so in the Sun-beams Shining into a Room , that one part of the Water may be freely Illustrated by the Beams of Light , and the other part of it Darkned by the shadow of the Brim of the Bason , if then I say you drop of our Tincture , made somewhat strong , both into the Shaded and Illuminated parts of the Water , you may by looking upon it from several places , and by a little Agitation of the water , observe divers pleasing Phoenomena which were tedious to particularize . If you powr a little of this Tincture upon a sheet of White Paper , so as the Liquor may remain of some depth upon it , you may perceive the Neighbouring drops to be partly of one Colour , and partly of the other , according to the position of your Eye in reference to the Light when it looks upon them , but if you powr off all the Liquor , the Paper will seem Dy'd of an almost Yellow Colour . And if a sheet of Paper with some of this Liquor in it be plac'd in a window where the Sunbeams may shine freely on it , then if you turn your back to the Sun and take a Pen or some such slender Body , and hold it over-thwart betwixt the Sun and the Liquor , you may perceive that the Shadow projected by the Pen upon the Liquor , will not all of it be a vulgar and Dark , but in part a curiously Colour'd shadow , that edge of it , which is next the Body that makes it , being almost of a lively Golden Colour , and the remoter verge of a Coeruleous one . These and other Phoenomena , which I have observ'd in this delightfull Experiment , divers of my friends have look'd upon not without some wonder , and I remember an excellent Oculist finding by accident in a friends Chamber a fine Vial full of this Liquor , which I had given that friend , and having never heard any thing of the Experiment , nor having any Body near him that could tell him what this strange Liquor might be , was a great while apprehensive , as he presently after told me , that some strange new distemper was invading his Eyes . And I confess that the unusualness of the Phoenomena made me very sollicitous to find out the Cause of this Experiment , and though I am far from pretending to have found it , yet my enquiries have , I suppose , enabled me to give such hints , as may lead your greater sagacity to the discovery of the Cause of this wonder . And first finding that this Tincture , if it were too copious in the water , Kept the Colours from being so lively , and their Change from being so discernable , and finding also that the Impregnating Virtue of this Wood did by its being frequently Infus'd in New Water by degrees Decay , I Conjectur'd that the Tincture afforded by the Wood must proceed from some Subtiler parts of it drawn forth by the Water , which swimming too and fro in it did so Modifie the Light , as to exhibit such and such Colours ; and because these Subtile parts were so easily Soluble even in Cold water , I concluded that they must abound with Salts , and perhaps contain much of the Essential Salt , as the Chymists call it , of the Wood. And to try whether these Subtile parts were Volatile enough to be Distill'd , without the Dissolution of their Texture , I carefully Distill'd some of the Tincted Liquor in very low Vessels , and the gentle heat of a Lamp Furnace ; but found all that came over to be as Limpid and Colourless as Rock-water , and the Liquor remaining in the Vessel to be so deeply Coeruleous , that it requir'd to be oppos'd to a very strong Light to appear of any other Colour . I took likewise a Vial with Spirit of Wine , and a little Salt of Harts-horn , and found that there was a certain proportion to be met with betwixt the Liquor and the Salt , which made the Mixture fit to exhibit some little Variety of Colours not Observable in ordinary Liquors , as it was variously directed in reference to the Light and the Eye , but this Change of Colour was very far short from that which we had admir'd in our Tincture . But however , I suspected that the Tinging Particles did abound with such Salts , whose Texture , and the Colour springing from it , would probably be alter'd by peircing Acid Salts , which would in likelihood either make some Dissipation of their Parts , or Associate themselves to the like Bodies , and either way alter the Colour exhibited by them ; whereupon Pouring into a small Vial full of Impregnated Water , a very little Spirit of Vinegar , I found that according to my Expectation , the Coeruleous Colour immediately vanish'd , but was deceiv'd in the Expectation I had , that the Golden Colour would do so too ; for , which way soever I turned the Vial , either to or from the Light , I found the Liquor to appear always of a Yellowish Colour and no other : Upon this I imagin'd that the Acid Salts of the Vinegar having been able to deprive the Liquor of its Coeruleous Colour , a Sulphureous Salt being of a contrary Nature , would be able to Mortifie the Saline Particles of Vinegar , and Destroy their Effects ; And accordingly having plac'd my Self betwixt the Window , and the Vial , and into the same Liquor dropt a few drops of Oyl of Tartar per Deliquium , ( as Chymists call it ) I observ'd with pleasure , that immediately upon the Diffusion of this Liquor , the Impregnated Water was restor'd to its former Coeruleous Colour ; And this Liquor of Tartar being very Ponderous , and falling at first to the Bottom of the Vial , it was easie to observe that for a little while the Lower part of the Liquor appear'd deeply Coeruleous , whilst all the Upper part retain'd its former Yellowness , which it immediately lost as soon as either Agitation or Time had made a competent Diffusion of the Liquor of Tartar through the Body of the former Tincture ; and this restor'd Liquor did , as it was Look'd upon against or from the Light , exhibit the same Phaenomena as the Tincted Water did , before either of the Adventitious Liquors was pour'd into it . Having made , Pyrophilus , divers Tryals upon this Nephritick Wood , we found mention made of it by the Industrious Jesuit Kircherus , who having received a Cup Turned of it from the Mexican Procurator of his Society , has probably receiv'd also from him the Information he gives us concerning that Exotick Plant , and therefore partly for that Reason , and partly because what he Writes concerning it , does not perfectly agree with what we have deliver'd , we shall not Scruple to acquaint you in his own Words , with as much of what he writes concerning our Wood , as is requisite to our present purpose . Hoc loco ( says he ) neutiquam omittendum duximus quoddam ligni candidi Mexicani genus , quod Indigenae Coalle & Tlapazatli vocant , quod etsi experientia hucusque non nisi Coeruleoaquam colore tingere docuerit , nos tamen continua experientia invenimus id aquam in omne Colorum genus transformare , quod merito cuipiam Paradoxum videri posset ; Ligni frutex grandis , ut aiunt , non rarò in molem arboris excrescit , truncus illius est crassus , enodis , instar piri arboris , folia ciceris foliis , aut rutae haud absimilia , flores exigui , oblongi , lutei & spicatim digesti ; est frigida & humida planta , licet parum recedat à medio temperamento . Hujus itaque descriptae arboris lignum in poculum efformatum , aquam eidem infusam primu in aquam intense Coeruleam , colore floris Baglossae , tingit , & quo diutius in eo steterit , tanto intensiorem colorem acquirit . Hanc igitur aquam si Vitreu Sphaerae infuderis , lucique exposueris , ne ullum quidem Coerulei coloris vestigium apparebit , sed instar aquae purae putae fontanae limpidam claramque aspicientibus se praebebit . Porro si hanc phialam vitream versus locum magis umbrosum direxeris , totus humor gratissimum virorem referet ; si adhuc umbrosioribus locis , subrubrum , & sic pro rerum objectarum conditione , mirum dictu , colorem mutabit ; in tenebris verò vel in vase opaco posita , Coeruleum colorem suum resumet . In this passage we may take notice of the following Particulars . And first , he calls it a White Mexican Wood , whereas ( not to mention that Mornardes informs us that it is brought out of Nova Hispania ) the Wood that we have met with in several places , and employ'd as Lignum Nephriticum , was not White , but for the most part of a much Darker Colour , not unlike that of the Sadder Colour'd Wood of Juniper . 'T is true , that Monardes himself also says , that the Wood is White ; and it is affirm'd , that the Wood which is of a Sadder Colour is Adulterated by being Imbu'd with the Tincture of a Vegetable , in whose Decoction it is steep'd . But having purposely enquir'd of the Eminentest of our English Druggists , he peremptorily deny'd it . And indeed , having consider'd some of the fairest Round pieces of this Wood that I could meet with in these Parts , I had Opportunity to take notice that in one or two of them it was the External part of the Wood that was White , and the more Inward part that was of the other Colour , the contrary of which would probably have appear'd , if the Wood had been Adulterated after the afore-mention'd manner . And I have at present by me a piece of such Wood , which for about an Inch next the Bark is White , and then as it were abruptly passes to the above-mention'd Colour , and yet this Wood by the Tincture , it afforded us in Water , appears to have its Colour'd part Genuine enough ; for as for the White part , it appears upon tryal of both at once , much less enrich'd with the tingent Property . Next , whereas our Author tells us , that the Infusion of this Wood expos'd in a Vial to the Light , looks like Spring-water , in which he afterwards adds , that there is no Tincture to be seen in it , our Observation and his agree not , for the Liquor , which opposed to the Darker part of a Room exhibits a Sky-colour , did constantly , when held against the Light , appear Yellowish or Reddish , according as its Tincture was more Dilute or Deep ; and then , whereas it has been already said , that the Coeruleous Colour was by Acid Salts a bolished , this Yellowish one surviv'd without any considerable Alteration , so that unless our Author's Words be taken in a very Limited Sense , we must conclude , that either his Memory mis-inform'd him , or that his White Nephritick Wood , and the Sadder Colour'd one which we employ'd , were not altogether of the same Nature : What he mentions of the Cup made of Lignum Nephriticum , we have not had Opportunity to try , not having been able to procure pieces of that Wood great enough , and otherwise fit to be turned into Cups ; but as for what he says in the Title of his Experiment , that this Wood tinges the Water with all sorts of Colours , that is much more than any of those pieces of Nephritick Wood that we have hitherto employ'd , was able to make good ; The change of Colours discernable in a Vial full of VVater , Impregnated by any of them , as it is directed towards a place more Lightsome or Obscure , being far from affording a Variety answerable to so promising a Title . And as for what he tells us , that in the Dark the Infusion of our VVood will resume a Coeruleous Colour , I wish he had Inform'd us how he Try'd it . But this brings into my mind , that having sometimes for Curiosity sake , brought a round Vial with a long Neck fill'd with the Tincture of Lignum Nephriticum into the Darken'd Room already often mention'd , and holding it sometimes in , sometimes near the Sun-beams that enter'd at the hole , and sometimes partly in them , and partly out of them , the Glass being held in several postures , and look'd upon from several Neighbouring parts of the Room , disclos'd a much greater Variety of Colours than in ordinary inlightn'd Rooms it is wont to do ; exhibiting , besides the usual Colours , a Red in some parts , and a Green in others , besides Intermediate Colours produc'd by the differing Degrees , and odd mixtures of Light and Shade . By all this You may see , Pyrophilus , the reasonableness of what we elsewhere had occasion to mention , when we have divers times told you , that it is usefull to have New Experiments try'd over again , though they were , at first , made by Knowing and Candid Men , such Reiterations of Experiments commonly exhibiting some New Phoenomena , detecting some Mistake or hinting some Truth , in reference to them , that was not formerly taken notice of . And some of our friends have been pleas'd to think , that we have made no unusefull addition to this Experiment , by shewing a way , how in a moment our Liquor may be depriv'd of its Blewness , and restor'd to it again by the affusion of a very few drops of Licuors , which have neither of them any Colour at all of their own . And that which deserves some particular wonder , is , that the Coeruleous Tincture of our Wood is subject by the former Method to be Destroy'd or Restor'd , the Yellowish or Reddish Tincture continuing what it was . And that you may see , that Salts are of a considerable use in the striking of Colours , let me add to the many Experiments which may be afforded us to this purpose by the Dyers Trade , this Observation ; That as far as we have hitherto try'd , those Liquors in general that are strong of Acid Salts have the Power of Destroying the Blewness of the Infusion of our Wood , and those Liquors indiscriminatly that abound with Sulphureous Salts , ( under which I comprehend the Urinous and Volatile Salts of Animal Substances , and the Alcalisate or fixed Salts that are made by Incineration ) have the vertue of Restoring it . A Corollary of the Tenth Experiment . That this Experiment , Pyrophilus , may be as well Usefull as Delightfull to You , I must mind You , Pyrophilus , that in the newly mention'd Observation , I have hinted to You a New and Easie way of Discovering in many Liquors ( for I dare not say in all ) whether it be an Acid or Sulphureous Salt , that is Predominant ; and that such a Discovery is oftentimes of great Difficulty , and may frequently be of great Use , he that is not a Stranger to the various Properties and Effects of Salts , and of how great moment it is to be able to distinguish their Tribes , may readily conceive . But to proceed to the way of trying other Liquors by an Infusion of our Wood , take it briefly thus . Suppose I have a mind to try whether I conjecture aright , when I imagine that Allom , though it be plainly a Mixt Body , does abound rather with Acid than Sulphureous Salt. To satisfie my self herein , I turn my back to the Light , and holding a small Vial full of the Tincture of Lignum Nephriticum , which look'd upon in that Position , appears Coeruleous , I drop into it a little of a strong Solution of Allom made in Fair Water , and finding upon the Affusion and shaking of this New liquor , that the Blewness formerly conspicuous in our Tincture does presently vanish , I am thereby incited to suppose , that the Salt Praedominant in Allom belongs to the Family of Sour Salts ; but if on the other side I have a mind to examine whether or no I rightly conceive that Salt of Urine , or of Harts-horn is rather of a Saline Sulphureous ( if I may so speak ) than of an Acid Nature , I drop a little of the Saline Spirit of either into the Nephritick Tincture , and finding that the Coeruleous Colour is rather thereby Deepned than Destroy'd , I collect that the Salts , which constitute these Spirits , are rather Sulphureous than Acid. And to satisfie my self yet farther in this particular , I take a small Vial of fresh Tincture , and placing both it and my self in reference to the Light as formerly , I drop into the Infusion just as much Distill'd Vinegar , or other Acid liquor as will serve to Deprive it of its Blewness ( which a few drops , if the Sour Liquor be strong , and the Vial small will suffice to do ) then without changing my Posture , I drop and shake into the same Vial a small proportion of Spirit of Harts-horn or Urine , and finding that upon this affusion , the Tincture immediately recovers its Coeruleous Colour , I am thereby confirm'd in my former Opinion , of the Sulphureous Nature of these Salts . And so , whereas it is much doubted by some Modern Chymists to what sort of Salt , that which is Praedominant in Quick-lime belongs , we have been perswaded to referr it rather to Lixiviate than Acid Salts , by having observ'd , that though an Evaporated Infusion of it will scarce yield such a Salt , as Ashes and other Alcalizate Bodyes are wont to do , yet if we deprive our Nephritick Tincture of its Blewness by just so much Distill'd Vinegar as is requisite to make that Colour Vanish , the Lixivium of Quick-lime will immediately upon its Affusion recall the Banished Colour ; but not so Powerfully as either of the Sulphureous Liquors formerly mention'd . And therefore I allow my self to guess at the Strength of the Liquors examin'd by this Experiment , by the Quantity of them which is sufficient to Destroy or Restore the Coeruleous Colour of our Tincture . But whether concerning Liquors , wherein neither Acid nor Alcalisate Salts are Eminently Praedominant , our Tincture will enable us to conjecture any thing more than that such Salts are not Praedominant in them , I take not upon me to determine here , but leave to further Tryal ; For I find not that Spirit of Wine , Spirit of Tartar freed from Acidity , or Chymical Oyl of Turpentine , ( although Liquors which must be conceiv'd very Saline , if Chymists have , which is here no place to Dispute , rightly ascrib'd tasts to the Saline Principle of Bodyes , ) have any Remarkable Power either to deprive our Tincture of its Coeruleous Colour , or restore it , when upon the Affusion of Spirit of Vinegar it has disappear'd . EXPERIMENT XI . And here I must not omit , Pyrophilus , to inform You , that we can shew You even in a Mineral Body something that may seem very near of Kin to the Changeable Quality of the Tincture of Lignum Nephriticum , for we have several flat pieces of Glass , of the thickness of ordinary Panes for Windows , one of which being interposed betwixt the Eye and a cleer Light , appears of a Golden Colour , not much unlike that of the moderate Tincture of our Wood , but being so look'd upon as that the Beams of light are not so much Trajected thorough it as Reflected from it to the Eye , that Yellow seems to degenerate into a pale Blew , somewhat like that of a Turquoise . And that which may also appear strange , is this , that if in a certain posture you hold one of these Plates Perpendicular to the Horizon , so that the Sun-beams shine upon half of it , the other half being Shaded , You may see that the part Shin'd upon will be of a much Diluter Yellow than the Shaded part which will appear much more Richly Colour'd ; and if You alter the Posture of the Glass , so that it be not held Perpendicular , but Parallel in reference to the Horizon , You may see , ( which perhaps you will admire ) the Shaded part look of a Golden Colour , but the other that the Sun shines freely on , will appear considerably Blew , and as you remove any part of the Glass thus held Horizontally into the Sun-beams or Shade , it will in the twinkling of an Eye seem to pass from one of the above mention'd Colours to the other , the Sun-beams Trajected through it upon a sheet of White Paper held near it , do colour it with a Yellow , somewhat bordering upon a Red , but yet the Glass may be so oppos'd to the Sun , that it may upon Paper project a mix'd Colour here and there more inclin'd to Yellow , and here and there more to Blew . The other Phoenomena of this odd Glass , I fear it would be scarce worth while to Record , and therefore I shall rather advertise You , First , that in the trying of these Experiments with it , you must take notice that one of the sides has either alone , or at least principally its Superficial parts dispos'd to the Reflection of the Blew Colour above nam'd , and that therefore you must have a care to keep that side nearest to the Eye . And next , that we have our selves made Glasses not unfit to exhibit an Experiment not unlike that I have been speaking of , by laying upon pieces of Glass some very finely foliated Silver , and giving it by degrees a much stronger Fire than is requisite or usual for the Tinging of Glasses of other Colours . And this Experiment , not to mention that it was made without a Furnace in which Artificers that Paint Glass are wont to be very Curious , is the more considerable , because , that though a Skilfull Painter could not deny to me that 't was with Silver he Colour'd his Glasses Yellow ; yet he told me , that when to Burn them ( as they speak ) he layes on the plates of Glass nothing but a Calx of Silver Calcin'd without Corrosive Liquors , and Temper'd with Fair Water , the Plates are Ting'd of a fine Yellow that looks of a Golden Colour , which part soever of it you turn to or from the Light ; whereas ( whether it be what an Artificer would call Over-doing , or Burning , or else the imploying the Silver Crude that makes the Difference , ) we have found more than once , that some Pieces of Glass prepar'd as we have related , though held against the Light they appear'd of a Transparent Yellow , yet look'd on with ones back turn'd to the Light they exhibited an Untransparent Blew . EXPERIMENT XII . If you will allow me , Pyrophilus , for the avoiding of Ambignity , to imploy the Word Pigments , to signifie such prepared materials ( as Cochinele , Vermilion , Orpiment , ) as Painters , Dyers and other Artificers make use of to impart or imitate particular Colours , I shall be the better understood in divers passages of the following papers , and particularly when I tell you , That the mixing of Pigments being no inconsiderable part of the Painters Art , it may seem an Incroachment in me to meddle with it . But I think I may easily be excus'd ( though I do not altogether pass it by ) if I restrain my self to the making of a Transient mention of some few of their Practices about this matter ; and that only so far forth , as may warrant me to observe to you , that there are but few Simple and Primary Colours ( if I may so call them ) from whose Various Compositions all the rest do as it were Result . For though Painters can imitate the Hues ( though not always the Splendor ) of those almost Numberless differing Colours that are to be met with in the Works of Nature , and of Art , I have not yet found , that to exhibit this strange Variety they need imploy any more than White , and Black , and Red , and Blew , and Yellow ; these five , Variously Compounded , and ( if I may so speak ) Decompounded , being sufficient to exhibit a Variety and Number of Colours , such , as those that are altogether Strangers to the Painters Pallets , can hardly imagine . Thus ( for Instance ) Black and White differingly mix'd , make a Vast company of Lighter and Darker Grays . Blew and Yellow make a huge Variety of Greens . Red and Yellow make Orange Tawny . Red with a little White makes a Carnation . Red with an Eye of Blew , makes a Purple ; and by these simple Compositions again Compounded among themselves , the Skilfull Painter can produce what kind of Colour he pleases , and a great many more than we have yet Names for . But , as I intimated above , 't is not my Design to prosecute this Subject , though I thought it not unfit to take some Notice of it , because we may hereafter have occasion to make use of what has been now deliver'd , to illustrate the Generation of Intermediate Colours ; concerning which we must yet subjoyn this Caution , that to make the Rules about the Emergency of Colours , fit to be Relied upon , the Corpuscles whereof the Pigments consist must be such as do not Destroy one anothers Texture , for in case they do , the produced Colour may be very Different from that which would Result from the Mixture of other harmless Pigments of the same Colours , as I shall have Occasion to shew ere long . EXPERIMENT XIII . It may also give much light to an Enquirer into the Nature of Colours , to know that not only in Green , but in many ( if not all ) other Colours , the Light of the Sun passing through Diaphanous Bodies of differing Hues may be tinged of the same Compound Colour , as if it came from some Painters Colours of the same Denomination , though this later be exhibited by Reflection , and be ( as the former Experiment declares ) manifestly Compounded of material Pigments . Wherefore to try the Composition of Colours by Trajection , we provided several Plates of Tinged Glass , which being laid two at a time one on the top of another , the Object look'd upon through them both , appear'd of a Compounded Colour , which agrees well with what we have observ'd in the second Experiment , of Looking against the Light through differingly Colour'd Papers . But we thought the Experiment would be more Satisfactory , if we procur'd the Sun-beams to be so Ting'd in their passage through Plates of Glass , as to exhibit the Compounded Colour upon a Sheet of White Paper . And though by reason of the Thickness of the Glasses , the Effect was but Faint , even when the Sun was High and Shin'd forth clear , yet , we easily remedied that by Contracting the Beams we cast on them by means of a Convex Burning-glass , which where it made the Beams much converge Increas'd the Light enough to make the Compounded Colour very manifest upon the Paper . By this means we observ'd , that the Beams trajected through Blew and Yellow compos'd a Green , that an intense and moderate Red did with Yellow make differing degrees of Saffron , and Orange Tawny Colours , that Green and Blew made a Colour partaking of both , such as that which some Latin Writers call Pavonaceus , that Red and Blew made a Purple , to which we might add other Colours , that we produc'd by the Combinations of Glasses differingly Ting'd , but that I want proper Words to express them in our Language , and had not when we made the Tryals , the Opportunity of consulting with a Painter , who perchance might have Suppli'd me with some of the terms I wanted . I know not whether it will be requisite to subjoyn on this Occasion , what I tried concerning Reflections from Colour'd Glasses , and other Transparent Bodies , namely , that having expos'd four or five sorts of them to the Sun , and cast the Reflected Beams upon White Paper held near at hand , the Light appear'd not manifestly Ting'd , but as if it had been Reflected from the Impervious parts of a Colourless Glass , only that Reflected from the Yellow was here and there stain'd with the same Colour , as if those Beams were not all Reflected from the Superficial , but some from the Internal parts of the Glass ; upon which Occasion you may take notice , that a Skilfull Tradesman , who makes such Colour'd Glass told me , that where as the Red Pigment was but Superficial , the Yellow penetrated to the very midst of the Plate . But for further Satisfaction , not having the Opportunity to Foliate those Plates , and so turn them into Looking-glasses , we Foliated a Plate of Muscovy Glass , and then laying on it a little Transparent Varnish of a Gold Colour , we expos'd it to the Sun-beams , so as to cast them upon a Body fit to receive them , on which the Reflected Light , appearing , as we expected , Yellow , manifested that Rebounding from the Specular part of the Selenitis , it was Ting'd in its return with the Colour of the Transparent Varnish through which it pass'd . EXPERIMENT XIV . After what we have said of the Composition of Colours , it will now be seasonable to annex some Experiments that we made in favour of those Colours , that are taught in the Schools not to be Real , but only Apparent and Phantastical ; For we found by Tryals , that these Colours might be Compounded , both with True and Stable Colours , and with one another , as well as unquestionably Genuine and Lasting Colours , and that the Colours resulting from such Compositions , would respectively deserve the same Denominations . For first , having by the Trajection of the Sun-beams through a Glass-prism thrown an Iris on the Floor , I found that by placing a Blew Glass at a convenient distance betwixt the Prism and the Iris , that part of the Iris that was before Yellow , might be made to appear Green , though not of a Grass Green , but of one more Dilute and Yellowish . And it seems not improbable , that the narrow Greenish List ( if I may so call it ) that is wont to be seen between the Yellow and Blew parts of the Iris , is made by the Confusion of those two Bordering Colours . Next , I found , that though the want of a sufficient Liveliness in either of the Compounding Colours , or a light Error in the manner of making the following Tryals , was enough to render some of them Unsuccessfull , yet when all necessary Circumstances were duely observ'd , the Event was answerable to our Expectation and Desire . And ( as I formerly Noted ) that Red and Blew compound a Purple , so I could produce this last nam'd Colour , by casting at some Distance from the Glass the Blew part of the Prismatical Iris ( as I think it may be call'd for Distinction sake ) upon a Lively Red , ( for else the Experiment succeeds not so well . ) And I remember , that sometimes when I try'd this upon a piece of Red Cloath , that part of the Iris which would have been Blew , ( as I try'd by covering that part of the Cloath with a piece of White Paper ) and Compounded with the Red , wherewith the Cloath was Imbued before , appear'd of a fair Purple , did , when I came to View it near at hand , look very Odly , as if there were some strange Reflection or Refraction or both made in the Hairs of which that Cloath was composed . Casting likewise the Prismatical Iris upon a very Vivid Blew , I found that part of it , which would else have been the Yellow , appear Green. ( Another somewhat differing Tryal , and yet fit to confirm this , you will find in the fifteenth Experiment . ) But it may seem somewhat more strange , that though the Prismatical Iris being made by the Refraction of Light through a Body that has no Colour at all , must according to the Doctrine of the Schools consist of as purely Emphatical Colours , as may be , yet even these may be Compounded with one another , as well as Real Colours in the Grossest Pigments . For I took at once two Triangular Glasses , and one of them being kept fixt in the same Posture , that the Iris it projected on the Floor might not Waver , I cast on the same Floor another Iris with the other Prism , and Moving it too and fro to bring what part of the second Iris I pleas'd , to fall upon what part of the first I thought fit , we did sometimes ( for a small Errour suffices to hinder the Success ) obtain by this means a Green Colour in that part of the more Stable Iris , that before was Yellow , or Blew , and frequently by casting those Beams , that in one of the Iris's made the Blew upon the Red parts of the other Iris , we were able to produce a lovely Purple , which we can Destroy or Recompose at pleasure , by Severing and Reapproaching the Edges of the two Iris's . EXPERIMENT XV. On this occasion , Pyrophilus , I shall add , that finding the Glass-prism to be the usefullest Instrument Men have yet imploy'd about the Contemplation of Colours , and considering that Prisms hitherto in use are made of Glass Transparent and Colourless , I thought it would not be amiss to try , what change the Superinduction of a Colour , without the Destruction of the Diaphaneity , would produce in the Colours exhibited by the Prism . But being unable to procure one to be made of Colour'd Glass , and fearing also that if it were not carefully made , the Thickness of it would render it too Opacous , I endeavoured to substitute one made of Clarify'd Rosin , or of Turpentine brought ( as I elsewhere teach ) to the consistence of a Transparent Gum. But though these Endeavours were not wholly lost , yet we found it so difficult to give these Materials their true Shape , that we chose rather to Varnish over an ordinary Prism with some of those few Pigments that are to be had Transparent ; as accordingly we did first with Yellow , and then with Red , or rather Crimson , made with Lake temper'd with a convenient Oyl , and the Event was , That for want of good Transparent Colours , ( of which you know there are but very few ) both the Yellow and the Red made the Glass so Opacous , ( though the Pigment were laid on but upon two Sides of the Glass , no more being absolutely necessary ) that unless I look'd upon an Inlightned Window , or the Flame of a Candle , or some other Luminous or very Vivid object , I could scarce discern any Colours at all , especially when the Glass was cover'd with Red. But when I did look on such Objects , it appear'd ( as I expected ) that the Colour of the Pigment had Vitiated or Drown'd some of those which the Prism would according to its wont have exhibited , and mingling with others , Alter'd them : as I remember , that both to my Eyes , and others to whom I show'd it , when the Prism was cover'd with Yellow , it made those Parts of bright Objects , where the Blew would else have been Conspicuous , appear of a light Green. But , Pyrophilus , both the Nature of the Colours , and the Degree of Transparency , or of Darkness in the Pigment , besides divers other Circumstances , did so vary the Phaenomena of these Tryals , that till I can procure small Colour'd Prisms , or Hollow ones that may be filled with Tincted Liquor , or obtain some better Pigments than those I was reduc'd to imploy , I shall forbear to Build any thing upon what has been deliver'd , and shall make no other use of it , than to invite you to prosecute the Inquiry further . EXPERIMENT XVI . And here , Pyrophilus , since we are treating of Emphatical Colours , we shall add what we think not unworthy your Observation , and not unfit to afford some Exercise to the Speculative . For there are some Liquors , which though Colourless themselves , when they come to be Elevated , and Dispers'd into Exhalations , exhibit a conspicuous Colour , which they lose again , when they come to be Reconjoyn'd into a Liquor , as good Spirit of Nitre , or upon its account strong Aqua-fortis , though devoid of all appearance of Redness whilst they continue in the form of a Liquor , if a little Heat chance to turn the Minute parts of them into Vapours , the Steam will appear of a Reddish or deep Yellow Colour , which will Vanish when those Exhalations come to resume the form of a Liquor . And not only if you look upon a Glass half full of Aqua-fortis , or Spirit of Nitre , and half full of Nitrous steams proceeding from it , you will see the Upper part of the Glass of the Colour freshly mention'd , if through it you look upon the Light. But which is much more considerable , I have tried , that putting Aqua-fortis in a long clear Glass , and adding a little Copper or some such open Metall to it , to excite Heat and Fumes , the Light trajected through those Fumes , and cast upon a sheet of White Paper , did upon that appear of the Colour that the Fumes did , when directly Look'd upon , as if the Light were as well Ting'd in its passage through these Fumes , as it would have been by passing through some Glass or Liquor in which the same Colour was Inherent . To which I shall further add , that having sometimes had the Curiosity to observe whether the Beams of the Sun near the Horizon trajected through a very Red Sky , would not ( though such Rednesses are taken to be but Emphatical Colours ) exhibit the like Colour , I found that the Beams falling within a Room upon a very White Object , plac'd directly opposite to the Sun , disclos'd a manifest Redness , as if they had pass'd through a Colour'd Medium . EXPERIMENT XVII . The emergency , Pyrophilus , of Colours upon the Coalition of the Particles of such Bodies as were neither of them of the Colour of that Mixture whereof they are the Ingredients , is very well worth our attentive Observation , as being of good use both Speculative and Practical ; For much of the Mechanical use of Colours among Painters and Dyers , doth depend upon the Knowledge of what Colours may be produc'd by the Mixtures of Pigments so and so Colour'd . And ( as we lately intimated ) 't is of advantage to the contemplative Naturalist , to know how many and which Colours are Primitive ( if I may so call them ) and Simple , because it both eases his Labour by confining his most sollicitious Enquiry to a small Number of Colours upon which the rest depend , and assists him to judge of the nature of particular compounded Colours , by shewing him from the Mixture of what more Simple ones , and of what Proportions of them to one another , the particular Colour to be consider'd does result . But because to insist on the Proportions , the Manner and the Effects of such Mixtures would oblige me to consider a greater part of the Painters Art and Dyers Trade , than I am well acquainted with , I confin'd my self to make Trial of several ways to produce Green , by the composition of Blew and Yellow . And shall in this place both Recapitulate most of the things I have Dispersedly deliver'd already concerning that Subject , and Recruit them . And first , whereas Painters ( as I noted above ) are wont to make Green by tempering Blew and Yellow , both of them made into a soft Consistence , with either Water or Oyl , or some Liquor of Kin to one of those two , according as the Picture is to be Drawn with those they call Water Colours , or those they term Oyl Colours , I found that by choosing fit Ingredients , and mixing them in the form of Dry Powders , I could do , what I could not if the Ingredients were temper'd up with a Liquor ; But the Blew and Yellow Powders must not only be finely Ground , but such as that the Corpuscles of the one may not be too unequal to those of the other , lest by their Disproportionate Minuteness the Smaller cover and hide the Greater . We us'd with good success a slight Mixture of the fine Powder of Bise , with that of Orpiment , or that of good Yellow Oker , I say a slight Mixture , because we found that an exquisite Mixture did not do so well , but by lightly mingling the two Pigments in several little Parcels , those of them in which the Proportion and Manner of Mixture was more Lucky , afforded us a good Green. 2. We also learn'd in the Dye-houses , that Cloth being Dy'd Blew with Woad , is afterwards by the Yellow Decoction of Luteola or Wood-wax Dy'd into a Green Colour . 3. You may also remember what we above Related , where we intimated , that having in a Darkn'd Room taken two Bodies , a Blew and a Yellow , and cast the Light Reflected from the one upon the other , we likewise obtain'd a Green. 4. And you may remember , that we observ'd a Green to be produc'd , when in the same Darkn'd Room we look'd at the Hole at which alone the Light enter'd , through the Green and Yellow parts of a sheet of Marbl'd Paper laid over one another . 5. We found too , that the Beams of the Sun being trajected through two pieces of Glass , the one Blew and the other Yellow , laid over one another , did upon a sheet of White paper on which they were made to fall , exhibit a lovely Green. 6. I hope also , that you have not already forgot , what was so lately deliver'd , concerning the composition of a Green , with a Blew and Yellow ; of which most Authors would call the one a Real , and the other an Emphatical . 7. And I presume , you may have yet fresh in your memory , what the fourteenth Experiment informs you , concerning the exhibiting of a Green , by the help of a Blew and Yellow , that were both of them Emphatical . 8. Wherefore we will proceed to take notice , that we also devis'd a way of trying whether or no Metalline Solutions though one of them at least had its Colour Adventitious , by the mixture of the Menstruum employ'd to dissolve it , might not be made to compound a Green after the manner of other Bodies . And though this seem'd not easie to be perform'd by reason of the Difficulty of finding Metalline Solutions of the Colour requisite , that would mix without Praecipitating each other ; yet after a while having consider'd the matter , the first Tryal afforded me the following Experiment . I took a High Yellow Solution of good Gold in Aqua-Regis , ( made of Aqua-fortis , and as I remember half its weight of Spirit of Salt ) To this I put a due Proportion of a deep and lovely Blew Solution of Crude Copper , ( which I have elsewhere taught to be readily Dissoluble in strong Spirit of Urine ) and these two Liquors though at first they seem'd a little to Curdle one another , yet being throughly mingl'd by Shaking , they presently , as had been Conjectur'd , united into a Transparent Green Liquor , which continu'd so for divers days that I kept it in a small Glass wherein 't was made , only letting fall a little Blackish Powder to the Bottom . The other Phaenomena of this Experiment belong not to this place , where it may suffice to take notice of the Production of a Green , and that the Experiment was more than once repeated with Success . 9. And lastly , to try whether this way of compounding Colours would hold ev'n in Ingredients actually melted by the Violence of the Fire , provided their Texture were capable of safely induring Fusion , we caus'd some Blew and Yellow Ammel to be long and well wrought together in the Flame of a Lamp , which being Strongly and Incessantly blown on them kept them in some degree of Fusion , and at length ( for the Experiment requires some Patience as well as Skil ) we obtain'd the expected Ammel of a Green Colour . I know not , Pyrophilus , whether it be worth while to acquaint you with the ways that came into my Thoughts , whereby in some measure to explicate the first of the ment on'd ways of making a Green ; for I have sometimes Conjectur'd , that the mixture of the Bise and the Orpiment produc'd a Green by so altering the Superficial Asperity , which each of those Ingredients had apart , that the Light Incident on the mixture was Reflected with differing Shades , as to Quantity , or Order , or both , from those of either of the Ingredients , and such as the Light is wont to be Modify'd with , when it Reflects from Grass , or Leaves , or some of those other Bodies that we are wont to call Green. And sometimes too I have doubted , whether the produced Green might not be partly at least deriv'd from this , That the Beams that Rebound from the Corpuscles of the Orpiment , giving one kind of stroak upon the Retina , whose Perception we call Yellow , and the Beams Reflected from the Corpuscles of the Bise , giving another stroak upon the same Retina , like to Objects that are Blew , the Contiguity and Minuteness of these Corpuscles may make the Appulse of the Reflected Light fall upon the Retina within so narrow a Compass , that the part they Beat upon being but as it were a Physical point , they may give a Compounded stroak , which may consequently exhibit a Compounded and new Kind of Sensation , as we see that two Strings of a Musical Instrument being struck together , making two Noises that arrive at the Ear at the same time as to Sense , yield a Sound differing from either of them , and as it were Compounded of both ; Insomuch that if they be Discordantly tun'd , though each of them struck apart would yield a Pleasing Sound , yet being struck together they make but a Harsh and troublesome Noise . But this not being so fit a place to prosecute Speculations , I shall not insist , neither upon these Conjectures nor any others , which the Experiment we have been mentioning may have suggested to me . And I shall leave it to you , Pyrophilus , to derive what Instruction you can from comparing together the Various ways whereby a Yellow and a Blew can be made to Compound a Green. That which I now pretend to , being only to shew that the first of those mention'd ways , ( not to take at present notice of the rest ) does far better agree with out Conjectures about Colours , than either with the Doctrine of the Schools , or with that of the Chymists , both which seem to be very much Disfavour'd by it . For first , since in the Mixture of the two mention'd Powders I could by the help of a very excellent Microscope ( for ordinary ones will scarce serve the turn ) discover that which seem'd to the naked Eye a Green Body , to be but a heap of Distinct , though very small Grains of Yellow Orpiment and Blew Bise confusedly enough Blended together , it appears that the Colour'd Corpuscles of either kind did each retain its own Nature and Colour ; By which it may be guess'd , what meer Transposition and Juxtaposition of Minute and Singly unchang'd Particles of Matter can do to produce a new Colour ; For that this Local Motion and new Disposition of the small parts of the Orpiment did Intervene is much more manifest than it is easie to Explicate how they should produce this new Green otherwise than by the new Manner of their being put together , and consequently by their new Disposition to Modifie the Incident Light by Reflecting it otherwise than they did before they were Mingl'd together . Secondly , The Green thus made being ( if I may so speak ) Mechanically produc'd , there is no pretence to derive it from I know not what incomprehensible Substantial Form , from which yet many would have us believe that Colours must flow ; Nor does this Green , though a Real and Permanent , not a Phantastical and Vanid Colour , seem to be such an Inherent Quality as they would have it , since not only each part of the Mixture remains unalter'd in Colour , and consequently of a differing Colour from the Heap they Compose , but if the Eye be assisted by a Microscope to discern things better and more distinctly than before it could , it sees not a Green Body , but a Heap of Blew and Yellow Corpuscles . And in the third place , I demand what either Sulphur , or Salt , or Mercury has to do in the Production of this Green ; For neither the Bise nor the Orpiment were indu'd with that Colour before , and the bare Juxtaposition of the Corpuscles of the two Powders that work not upon each other , but might if we had convenient Instruments be separated , unalter'd , cannot with any probability be imagin'd either to Increase or Diminish any of the three Hypostatical Principles , ( to which of them soever the Chymists are pleas'd to ascribe Colours ) nor does there here Intervene so much as Heat to afford them any colour to pretend , that at least there is made an Extraversion ( as the Helmontians speak ) of the Sulphur or of any of the two other supposed Principles ; But upon this Experiment we have already Reflected enough , if not more than enough for once . EXPERIMENT XVIII . But here , Pyrophilus , I must advertise you , that 't is not every Yellow and every Blew that being mingl'd will afford a Green ; For in case one of the Ingredients do not Act only as endow'd with such a Colour , but as having a power to alter the Texture of the Corpuscles of the other , so as to Indispose them to Reflect the Light , as Corpuscles that exhibit a Blew or a Yellow are wont to Reflect it , the emergent Colour may be not Green , but such as the change of Texture in the Corpuscles of one or both of the Ingredients qualifies them to shew forth ; as for instance , if you let fall a few Drops of Syrrup of Violets upon a piece of White Paper , though the Syrrup being spread will appear Blew , yet mingling with it two or three Drops of the lately mention'd Solution of Gold , I obtain'd not a Green but a Reddish mixture , which I expected from the remaining Power of the Acid Salts abounding in the Solution , such Salts or Saline Spirits being wont , as we shall see anon , though weakn'd , so to work upon that Syrrup as to change it into a Red or Reddish Colour . And to confirm that for which I allege the former Experiment , I shall add this other , that having made a very strong and high-colour'd Solution of Filings of Copper with Spirit of Urine , though the Menstruum seem'd Glutted with the Metall , because I put in so much Filings that many of them remain'd for divers days Undissolv'd at the Bottom , yet having put three or four Drops of Syrrup of Violets upon White Paper , I found that the deep Blew Solution proportionably mingl'd with this other Blew Liquor did not make a Blew mixture , but , as I expected , a fair Green , upon the account of the Urinous Salt that was in the Menstruum . EXPERIMENT XIX . To shew the Chymists , that Colours may be made to Appear or Vanish , where there intervenes no Accession or Change either of the Sulphureous , or the Saline , or the Mercurial principle ( as they speak ) of Bodies : I shall not make use of the Iris afforded by the Glass-prism , nor of the Colours to be seen in a fair Morning in those drops of Dew that do in a convenient manner Reflect and Refract the Beams of Light to the Eye ; But I will rather mind them of what they may observe in their own Laboratories , namely , that divers , if not all , Chymical Essential Oyls , as also good Spirit of Wine , being shaken till they have good store of Bubbles , those Bubbles will ( if attentively consider'd ) appear adorn'd with various and lovely Colours , which all immediately Vanish , upon the relapsing of the Liquor that affords those Bubbles their Skins , into the rest of the Oyl , or Spirit of Wine , so that a Colourless Liquor may be made in a trice to exhibit variety of Colours , and may lose them in a moment without the Accession or Diminution of any of its Hypostatical Principles . And , by the way , 't is not unworthy our notice , that some Bodies , as well Colourless , as Colour'd , by being brought to a great Thinness of parts , acquire Colours though they had none before , or Colours differing from them they were before endued with : For , not to insist on the Variety of Colours , that Water , made somewhat Glutinous by Sope , acquires , when 't is blown into such Sphaerical Bubbles as Boys are wont to make and play with ; Turpentine ( though it have a Colour deep enough of its own ) may ( by being blown into after a certain manner ) be brought to afford Bubbles adorn'd with variety of Orient Colours , which though they Vanish after some while upon the breaking of the Bubbles , yet they would in likelihood always exhibit Colours upon their Superfices , ( though not always the same in the same Parts of them , but Vary'd according to the Incidence of the Sight , and the Position of the Eye ) if their Texture were durable enough : For I have seen one that was Skill'd at fashioning Glasses by the help of a Lamp , blowing some of them so strongly as to burst them , whereupon it was found , that the Tenacity of the Metall was such , that before it broke it suffer'd it self to be reduc'd into Films so extremely thin , that being kept clean they constantly shew'd on their Surfaces ( but after the manner newly mention'd ) the varying Colours of the Rain-bow , which were exceedingly Vivid , as I had often opportunity to observe in some , that I caus'd purposely to be made , to keep by me . But lest it should be objected , that the above mention'd Instances are drawn from Transparent Liquors , it may possibly appear , not impertinent to add , what I have sometimes thought upon , and several times tried , when I was considering the Opinions of the Chymists about Colours . I took then a Feather of a convenient Bigness and Shape , and holding it at a fit distance betwixt my Eye and the Sun when he was near the Horizon , me thought there appear'd to me a Variety of little Rain-bows , with differing and very vivid Colours , of which none was constantly to be seen in the Feathers ; the like Phaenomenon I have at other times ( though not with altogether so good success ) produc'd , by interposing at a due distance a piece of Black Ribband betwixt the almost setting Sun and my Eye , not to mention the Trials I have made to the same purpose , with other Bodies . EXPERIMENT XX. Take good Syrrup of Violets , Impraegnated with the Tincture of the flowers , drop a little of it upon a White Paper ( for by that means the Change of Colour will be more conspicuous , and the Experiment may be practis'd in smaller Quantities ) and on this Liquor let fall two or three drops of Spirit either of Salt or Vinegar , or almost any other eminently Acid Liquor , and upon the Mixture of these you shall find the Syrrup immediatly turn'd Red , and the way of Effecting such a Change has not been unknown to divers Persons who have produc'd the like , by Spirit of Vitriol , or juice of Limmons , but have Groundlessly ascrib'd the Effect to some Peculiar Quality of those two Liquors , whereas , ( as we have already intimated ) almost any Acid Salt will turn Syrrup of Violets Red. But to improve the Experiment , let me add what has not ( that I know of ) been hitherto observ'd , and has , when we first shew'd it them , appear'd something strange , even to those that have been inquisitive into the Nature of Colours ; namely , that if instead of Spirit of Salt , or that of Vinegar , you drop upon the Syrrup of Violets a little Oyl of Tartar per Deliquium , or the like quantity of Solution of Potashes , and rubb them together with your finger , you shall find the Blew Colour of the Syrrup turn'd in a moment into a perfect Green , and the like may be perform'd by divers other Liquors , as we may have occasion elsewhere to Inform you . Annotation upon the twentieth Experiment . The use of what we lately deliver'd concerning the way of turning Syrrup of Violets , Red or Green , may be this ; That , though it be a far more common and procurable Liquor than the Infusion of Lignum Nephriticum , it may yet be easily substituted in its Room , when we have a mind to examine , whether or no the Salt predominant in a Liquor or other Body , wherein 't is Loose and Abundant , belong to the Tribe of Acid Salts or not . For if such a Body turn the Syrrup of a Red or Reddish Purple Colour , it does for the most part argue the Body ( especially if it be a distill'd Liquor ) to abound with Acid Salt. But if the Syrrup be made Green , that argues the Predominant Salt to be of a Nature repugnant to that of the Tribe of Acids . For , as I find that either Spirit of Salt , or Oyl of Vitriol , or Aqua-fortis , or Spirit of Vinegar , or Juice of Lemmons , or any of the Acid Liquors I have yet had occasion to try , will turn Syrrup of Violets , of a Red , ( or at least ) of a Reddish Colour , so I have found , that not only the Volatile Salts of all Animal Substances I have us'd , as Spirit of Harts-horn , of Urine , of Sal-Armoniack , of Blood , &c. but also all the Alcalizate Salts I have imploy'd , as the Solution of Salt of Tartar , of Pot-ashes , of common Wood-ashes , Lime-water , &c. will immediately change the Blew Syrrup , into a perfect Green. And by the same way ( to hint that upon the by ) I elsewhere show you , both the changes that Nature and Time produce , in the more Saline parts of some Bodies , may be discover'd , and also how ev'n such Chymically prepar'd Bodies , as belong not either to the Animal Kingdome , or to the Tribe of Alcali's , may have their new and superinduc'd Nature successfully Examin'd . In this place I shall only add , that not alone the Changing the Colour of the Syrrup , requires , that the Changing Body be more strong , of the Acid , or other sort of Salt that is Predominant in it , than is requisite for the working upon the Tincture of Lignum Nephriticum ; but that in this also , the Operation of the formerly mention'd Salts upon our Syrrup , differs from their Operation upon our Tinctures , that in this Liquor , if the Caeruleous Colour be Destroy'd by an Acid Salt , it may be Restor'd by one that is either Volatile , or Lixiviate ; whereas in Syrrup of Violets , though one of these contrary Salts will destroy the Action of the other , yet neither of them will restore the Syrrup to its native Blew ; but each of them will Change it into the Colour which it self doth ( if I may so speak ) affect , as we shall have Occasion to show in the Notes on the twenty fifth Experiment . EXPERIMENT XXI . There is a Weed , more known to Plowmen than belov'd by them , whose Flowers from their Colour are commonly call'd Blew-bottles , and Corn-weed from their Growing among Corn. These Flowers some Ladies do , upon the account of their Lovely Colour , think worth the being Candied , which when they are , they will long retain so fair a Colour , as makes them a very fine Sallad in the Winter . But I have try'd , that when they are freshly gather'd , they will afford a Juice , which when newly express'd , ( for in some cases 't will soon enough degenerate ) affords a very deep and pleasant Blew . Now , ( to draw this to our present Scope ) by dropping on this fresh Juice , a little Spirit of Salt , ( that being the Acid Spirit I had then at hand ) it immediately turn'd ( as I predicted ) into a Red. And if instead of the Sowr Spirit I mingled with it a little strong Solution of an Alcalizate Salt , it did presently disclose a lovely Green ; the same Changes being by those differing sorts of Saline Liquors , producible in this Natural juice , that we lately mention'd to have happen'd to that factitious Mixture , the Syrrup of Violets . And I remember , that finding this Blew Liquor , when freshly made , to be capable of serving in a Pen for an Ink of that Colour , I attempted by moistning one part of a piece of White Paper with the Spirit of Salt I have been mentioning , and another with some Alcalizate or Volatile Liquor , to draw a Line on the leisurely dry'd Paper , that should , e'vn before the Ink was dry , appear partly Blew , partly Red , and partly Green : But though the latter part of the Experiment succeeded not well , ( whether because Volatile Salts are too Fugitive to be retain'd in the Paper , and Alcalizate ones are too Unctuous , or so apt to draw Moisture from the Air , that they keep the Paper from drying well ) yet the former Part succeeded well enough ; the Blew and Red being Conspicuous enough to afford a surprizing Spectacle to those , I acquaint not with ( what I willingly allow you to call ) the Trick . Annotation upon the one and twentieth Experiment . But lest you should be tempted to think ( Pyrophilus ) that Volatile or Alcalizate Salts change Blews into Green , rather upon the score of the easie Transition of the former Colour into the latter , than upon the account of the Texture , wherein most Vegetables , that afford a Blew , seem , though otherwise differing , to be Allied , I will add , that when I purposely dissolv'd Blew Vitriol in fair Water , and thereby imbu'd sufficiently that Liquor with that Colour , a Lixiviate Liquor , and a Urinous Salt being Copiously pour'd upon distinct Parcels of it , did each of them , though perhaps with some Difference , turn the Liquor not Green , but of a deep Yellowish Colour , almost like that of Yellow Oker , which Colour the Precipitated Corpuscles retain'd , when they had Leisurely subsided to the Bottom . What this Precipitated Substance is , it is not needfull now to Enquire in this place , and in another , I have shown you , that notwithstanding its Colour , and its being Obtainable from an Acid Menstruum by the help of Salt of Tartar , it is yet far enough from being the true Sulphur of Vitriol . EXPERIMENT XXII . Our next Experiment ( Pyrophilus ) will perhaps seem to be of a contrary Nature to the two former , made upon Syrrup of Violets , and Juice of Blew-bottles . For as in them by the Affusion of Oyl of Tartar , a Blewish Liquor is made Green , so in this , by the sole Mixture of the same Oyl , a Greenish Liquor becomes Blew . The hint of this Experiment was given us by the practice of some Italian Painters , who being wont to Counterfeit Ultra-marine Azure ( as they call it ) by Grinding Verdigrease with Sal-Armoniack , and some other Saline Ingredients , and letting them Rot ( as they imagine ) for a good while together in a Dunghill , we suppos'd , that the change of Colour wrought in the Verdigrease by this way of Preparation , must proceed from the Action of certain Volatile and Alcalizate Salts , abounding in some of the mingled Concretes , and brought to make a further Dissolution of the Copper abounding in the Verdigrease , and therefore we Conjectur'd , that if both the Verdigrease , and such Salts were dissolv'd in fair Water , the small Parts of both being therein more subdivided , and set at liberty , would have better access to each other , and thereby Incorporate much the more suddenly ; And accordingly we found , that if upon a strong Solution of good French Verdigrease ( for 't is that we are wont to imploy , as the best ) you pour a just quantity of Oyl of Tartar , and shake them well together , you shall immediately see a notable Change of Colour , and the Mixture will grow thick , and not transparent , but if you stay a while , till the Grosser part be Precipitated to , and setled in the Bottom , you may obtain a clear Liquor of a very lovely Colour , and exceeding delightfull to the Eye . But , you must have a care to drop in a competent Quantity of Oyl of Tartar , for else the Colour will not be so Deep , and Rich ; and if instead of this Oyl you imploy a clear Lixivium of Pot-ashes , you may have an Azure somewhat Lighter or Paler than , and therefore differing from , the former . And if instead of either of these Liquors , you make use of Spirit of Urine , or of Harts-horn , you may according to the Quantity and Quality of the Spirit you pour in , obtain some further Variety ( though scarce considerable ) of Caeruleous Liquors . And yet lately by the help of this Urinous Spirit we made a Blew Liquor , which not a few Ingenious Persons , and among them , some , whose Profession makes them very Conversant with Colours , have looked upon with some wonder . But these Azure Colour'd Liquors should be freed from the Subsiding matter , which the Salts of Tartar or Urine precipitate out of them , rather by being Decanted , than by Filtration . For by the latter of these ways we have sometimes found , the Colour of them very much Impair'd , and little Superiour to that of the grosser Substance , that it left in the Filtre . EXPERIMENT XXIII . That Roses held over the Fume of Sulphur , may quickly by it be depriv'd of their Colour , and have as much of their Leaves , as the Fume works upon , burn'd pale , is an Experiment , that divers others have tried , as well as I. But ( Pyrophilus ) it may seem somewhat strange to one that has never consider'd the Compounded nature of Brimstone , That , whereas the Fume of Sulphur will , as we have said , Whiten the Leaves of Roses ; That Liquor , which is commonly call'd Oyl of Sulphur per Campanam , because it is suppos'd to be made by the Condensation of these Fumes in Glasses shap't like Bells , into a Liquor , does powerfully heighten the Tincture of Red Roses , and make it more Red and Vivid , as we have easily tried by putting some Red-Rose Leaves , that had been long dried , ( and so had lost much of their Colour ) into a Vial of fair Water . For a while after the Affusion of a convenient Quantity of the Liquor we are speaking of , both the Leaves themselves , and the Water they were Steep'd in , discover'd a very fresh and lovely Colour . EXPERIMENT XXIV . It may ( Pyrophilus ) somewhat serve to Illustrate , not only the Doctrine of Pigments , and of Colours , but divers other Parts of the Corpuscular Philosophy ; as that explicates Odours , and many other things , not as the Schools by Aery Qualities , but by Real , though extremely Minute Bodies ; to examine , how much of a Colourless Liquor , a very small Parcel of a Pigment may Imbue with a discernable Colour . And though there be scarce any thing of Preciseness to be expected from such Trials , yet I presum'd , that ( at least ) I should be able to show a much further Subdivision of the Parts of Matter into Visible Particles , than I have hitherto found taken notice of , and than most men would imagine ; no Body , that I know of , having yet attempted to reduce this Matter to any Measure . The Bodies , the most promising for such a purpose , might seem to be the Metalls , especially Gold , because of the Multitude , and Minuteness of its Parts , which might be argu'd from the incomparable Closeness of its Texture : But though we tried a Solution of Gold made in Aqua Regia first , and then in fair Water ; yet in regard we were to determine the Pigment we imploy'd , not by Bulk but Weight , and because also , that the Yellow Colour of Gold is but a faint one in Comparison of the deep Còlour of Cochineel , we rather chose this to make our Trials with . But among divers of these it will suffice to set down one , which was carefully made in Vessels conveniently Shap'd ; ( and that in the presence of a Witness , and an Assistant ) the Sum whereof I find among my Adversaria , Registred in the following Words . To which I shall only premise , ( to lessen the wonder of so strange a diffusion of the Pigment ) That Cochineel will be better Dissolv'd , and have its Colour far more heightn'd by Spirit of Urine , than ( I say not by common Water , but ) by Rectify'd Spirit of Wine it self . The Note I spoke off is this . [ One Grain of Cochineel dissolv'd in a pretty Quantity of Spirit of Urine , and then dissolv'd further by degrees in fair Water , imparted a discernable , though but a very faint Colour , to about six Glass-fulls of Water , each of them containing about forty three Ounces and an half , which amounts to above a hundred twenty five thousand times its own Weight . ] EXPERIMENT XXV . It may afford a considerable Hint ( Pyrophilus ) to him , that would improve the Art of Dying , to know what change of Colours may be produc'd by the three several sorts of Salts already often mention'd , ( some or other of which may be procur'd in Quantity at reasonable Rates ) in the Juices , Decoctions , Infusions , and ( in a word ) the more soluble parts of Vegetables . And , though the design of this Discourse be the Improvement of Knowledge , not of Trades : yet thus much I shall not scruple to intimate here , That the Blew Liquors , mention'd in the twentieth and one and twentieth Experiments , are fat from being the only Vegetable Substances , upon which Acid , Urinous , and Alcalizate Salts have the like Operations to those recited in those two Experiments . For Ripe Privet Berries ( for instance ) being crush'd upon White Paper , though they stain it with a Purplish Colour , yet if we let fall on some part of it two or three drops of Spirit of Salt , and on the other part a little more of the strong Solution of Pot-ashes , the former Liquor immediately turn'd that part of the Thick Juice or Pulp , on which it fell , into a lovely Red , and the latter turn'd the other part of it into a delightfull Green. Though I will not undertake , that those Colours in that Substance shall not be much more . Orient , than Lasting ; and though ( Pyrophilus ) this Experiment may seem to be almost the same with those already deliver'd concerning Syrrup of Violets , and the Juice of Blew-bottles , yet I think it not amiss to take this Occasion to inform you , that this Experiment reaches much farther , than perhaps you yet imagine , and may be of good Use to those , whom it concerns to know , how Dying Stuffs may be wrought upon by Saline Liquors . For , I have found this Experiment to succeed in so many Various Berries , Flowers , Blossoms , and other finer Parts of Vegetables , that neither my Memory , nor my Leisure serves me to enumerate them . And it is somewhat surprizing to see , by how Differingly-colour'd Flowers , or Blossoms , ( for example ) the Paper being stain'd , will by an Acid Spirit be immediately turn'd Red , and by any Alcaly or any Urinous Spirit turn'd Green ; insomuch that ev'n the crush'd Blossoms of Meserion , ( which I gather'd in Winter and frosty Weather ) and those of Pease , crush'd upon White Paper , how remote soever their Colours be from Green , would in a moment pass into a deep Degree of that Colour , upon the Touch of an Alcalizate Liquor . To which let us add , That either of those new Pigments ( if I may so call them ) may by the Affusion of enough of a contrary Liquor , be presently chang'd from Red into Green , and from Green into Red , which Observation will hold also in Syrrup of Violets ; Juices of Blew-bottles , &c. Annotation . After what I have formerly deliver'd to evince , That there are many Instances , wherein new Colours are produc'd or acquir'd by Bodies , which Chymists are wont to think destitute of Salt , or to whose change of Colours no new Accession of Saline Particles does appear to contribute , I think we may safely enough acknowledge , that we have taken notice of so many Changes made by the Intervention of Salts in the Colours of Mix'd Bodies , that it has lessen'd our Wonder , That though many Chymists are wont to ascribe the Colours of such Bodies to their Sulphureous , and the rest to their Mercurial Principle ; yet Paracelsus himself directs us in the Indagation of Colours , to have an Eye principally upon Salts , as we find in that passage of his , wherein he takes upon him to Oblige his Readers much by Instructing them , of what things they are to expect the Knowledge from each of the three distinct Principles of Bodies . Alias ( says he ) Colorum similis ratio est : De quibus brevem institutionem hanc attendite , quod scilicet colores omnes ex Sale prodeant . Sal enim dat colorem , dat Balsamum . And a little beneath . Iam natura Ipsa colores protrahit ex sale , cuique speciei dans illum , qui ipsi competit , &c. After which he concludes ; Itaque qui rerum omnium corpora cognoscere vult , huic opus est , ut anté omnia cognoscat Sulphur , Ab hoc , qui desiderat novisse Colores is scientiam istorum petat à Sale , Qui scire vult Virtutes , is scrutetur arcana Mercurii . Sic nimirum fundamentum hauserit Mysteriorum , in quolibet crescenti indagandorum , prout natura cuilibet speciei ea ingessit . But though Paracelsus ascribes to each of his belov'd Hypostatical Principles , much more than I fear will be found to belong to it ; yet if we please to consider Colours , not as Philosophers , but as Dyers , the concurrence of Salts to the striking and change of Colours , and their Efficacy , will , I suppose , appear so considerable , that we shall not need to quarrel much with Paracelsus , for ascribing in this place ( for I dare not affirm that he uses to be still of one Mind ) the Colours of Bodies to their Salts , if by Salts he here understood , not only Elementary Salts , but such also as are commonly taken for Salts , as Al●m , Crystals of Tartar , Vitriol , &c. because the Saline principle does chiefly abound in them , though indeed they be , as we elsewhere declare , mix'd Bodies , and have most of them , besides what is Saline , both Sulphureous , Aqueous , and Gross or Earthy parts . But though ( Pyrophilus ) I have observ'd a Red and Green to be produc'd , the former , by Acid Salts , the later by Salts not Acid , in the exprest Juices of so many differing Vegetable Substances , that the Observation , if persued , may prove ( as I said ) of good Use : yet to show you how much e'vn these Effects depend upon the particular Texture of Bodies , I must subjoyn some cases wherein I ( who am somewhat backwards to admit Observations for Universal ) had the Curiosity to discover , that the Experiments would not Uniformly succeed , and of these Exceptions , the chief that I now remember , are reducible to the following three . EXPERIMENT XXVI . And , ( first ) I thought fit to try the Operation of Acid Salts upon Vegetable Substances , that are already and by their own Nature Red. And accordingly I made Trial upon Syrrup of Clove-july-flowers , the clear express'd Juice of the succulent Berries of Spina Cervina , or Buck-thorn ( which I had long kept by me for the sake of its deep Colour ) upon Red Roses , Infusion of Brazil , and divers other Vegetable Substances , on some of which crush'd ( as is often mention'd ) upon White Paper , ( which is also to be understood in most of these Experiments , if no Circumstance of them argue otherwise ) Spirit of Salt either made no considerable Change , or alter'd the Colour but from a Darker to a Lighter Red. How it will succeed in many other Vegetable Juices , and Infusions of the same Colour , I have at present so few at hand , that I must leave you to find it our your self . But as for the Operation of the other sorts of Salts upon these Red Substances , I found it not very Uniform , some Red , or Reddish Infusions , as of Roses , being turn'd thereby into a dirty Colour , but yet inclining to Green. Nor was the Syrrup of Clove-july-flowers turn'd by the Solution of Pot-ashes to a much better , though somewhat a Greener , Colour . Another sort of Red Infusions was by an Alcaly not turn'd into a Green , but advanc'd into a Crimson , as I shall have occasion to note ere long . But there were other sorts , as particularly the lovely Colour'd juice of Buckthorn Berries , that readily pass'd into a lovely Green. EXPERIMENT XXVII . Among other Vegetables , which we thought likely to afford Exceptions to the General Observation about the differing Changes of Colours produc'd by Acid and Sulphureous Salts , we thought fit to make Trial upon the Flowers of Jasmin , they being both White as to Colour , and esteem'd to be of a more Oyly nature than other Flowers . Whereupon having taken the White parts only of the Flowers , and rubb'd them somewhat hard with my Finger upon a piece of clean Paper , it appear'd very little Discolour'd . Nor had Spirit of Salt , wherewith I moisten'd one part of it , any considerable Operation upon it . But Spirit of Urine , and somewhat more effectually a strong Alcalizate Solution , did immediately turn the almost Colourless Paper moisten'd by the Juice of the Jasmin , not as those Liquors are wont to do , when put upon the Juices of other Flowers , of a good Green , but of a Deep , though somewhat Greenish Yellow , which Experiment I did afterwards at several times repeat with the like success . But it seems not that a great degree of Unctuousness is necessary to the Production of the like Effects , for when we try'd the Experiment with the Leaves of those purely White Flowers that appear about the end of Winter , and are commonly call'd Snow drops , the event , was not much unlike that , which , we have been newly mentioning . EXPERIMENT XXVIII . Another sort of Instances to show , how much changes of Colours effected by Salts , depend upon the particular Texture of the Colour'd Bodies , has been afforded me by several Yellow Flowers , and other Vegetables , as Mary-gold Leaves , early Prim-roses , fresh Madder , &c. For being rubb'd upon White Paper , till they imbued it with their Colour , I found not , that by the addition of Alcalizate Liquors , nor yet by that of an Urinous Spirit , they would be turn'd either Green or Red : nor did so Acid a Spirit , as that of Salt , considerably alter their Colour , save that it seem'd a little to Dilute it . Only in some early Prim-roses it destroy'd the greatest part of the Colour , and made the Paper almost White agen . And Madder also afforded some thing peculiar , and very differing from what we have newly mention'd : For having gather'd some Roots of it , and , ( whilst they were recent ) express'd upon White Paper the Yellow Juice , an Alcalizate Solution drop'd upon it did not turn it either Green or White , but Red. And the bruis'd Madder it self being drench'd with the like Alcalizate Solution , exchang'd also its Yellowishness for a Redness . An admonition touching the four preceding Experiments . Having thus ( Pyrophilus ) given you divers Instances , to countenance the General observation deliver'd in the twenty fifth Experiment , and divers Exceptions whereby it ought to be Limited ; I must leave the further Inquiry into these Matters to your own Industry . For not remembring at present many of those other Trials , long since made to satisfie my self about Particulars , and not having now the Opportunity to repeat them , I must content my Self to have given you the Hint , and the ways of prosecuting the search your Self ; and only declare to you in general , that , As I have made many Trials , unmention'd in this Treatise , whose Events were agreeable to those mention'd in the twenty fifth Experiment , so ( to name now no other Instances ) what I have try'd with Acid and Sulphureous Salts upon the Pulp of Juniper Berries , rubb'd upon White Paper , inclines me to think , That among that vast Multitude , and strange Variety of Plants that adorn the face of the Earth , perhaps many other Vegetables may be found , on which such Menstruums may not have such Operations , as upon the Juice of Violets , Pease-blossoms , &c. no nor upon any of those three other sorts of Vegetables , that I have taken notice of in the three fore-going Experiments . It sufficiently appearing ev'n by these , that the effects of a Salt upon the Juices of particular Vegetables do very much depend upon their particular Textures . EXPERIMENT XXIX . It may be of some Use towards the discovery of the nature of these Changes , which the Alimental Juice receives in some Vegetables , according to the differing degrees of their Maturity , and according to the differing kinds of Plants of the same Denomination , to observe what Operation Acid , Urinous , and Alcalizate Salts will have upon the Juices of the several sorts of the Vegetable Substances I have been mentioning . To declare my meaning by an Example , I took from the same Cluster , one Blackberry full Ripe , and another that had not yet gone beyond a Redness , and rubbing a piece of White Paper , with the former , I observ'd , that the Juice adhering to it was of a dark Reddish Colour , full of little Black Specks , and that this Juice by a drop of a strong Lixivium , was immediately turn'd into a Greenish Colour deep enough , by as much Urinous Spirit into a Colour much of Kin to the former , though somewhat differing , and fainter ; and by a drop of Spirit of Salt into a fine and lightsome Red : where as the Red Berry being in like manner rubb'd upon Paper , left on it a Red Colour , which was very little alter'd by the Acid Spirit newly nam'd , and by the Urinous and Lixiviate Salts receiv'd changes of Colour differing from those that had been just before produc'd in the dark Juice of the Ripe Blackberry . I remember also , that though the Infusion of Damask-Roses would as well , though not so much , as that of Red ; be heightned by Acid Spirits to an intense degree of Redness , and by Lixiviate Salts be brought to a Darkish Green ; yet having for Trials sake taken a Rose , whose Leaves , which were large and numerous , like those of a Province Rose , were perfectly Yellow , though in a Solution of Salt of Tartar , they afforded a Green Blewish Tincture , yet I did not by an Acid Liquor obtain a Red one ; all that the Saline Spirit I imploy'd , perform'd , being ( if I much mis-remember not ) to Dilute somewhat the Yellowness of the Leaves . I would also have tried the Tincture of Yellow Violets , but could procure none . And if I were in those Islands of Banda , which are made Famous as well as Rich , by being the almost only places , where Cloves will prosper , I should think it worth my Curiosity to try , what Operation the three differing Kinds of Salts , I have so often mention'd , would have upon the Juice of this Sipce , ( express'd at the several Seasons of it ) as it grows upon the Tree . Since good Authors inform us , ( of what is remarkable ) that these whether Fruits , or Rudiments of Fruits , are at first white , afterward Green , and then Reddish , before they be beaten off the Tree , after which being Dry'd before they are put up , they grow Blackish as we see them . And one of the recentest Herbarists informs us , that the Flower grows upon the top of the Clove it self , consisting of four small Leaves , like a Cherry Blossom , but of an excellent Blew . But ( Pyrophilus ) to return to our own Observations , I shall add , that I the rather choose , to mention to you an Example drawn from Roses , because that though I am apt to think , as I elsewhere advertise , that something may be guess'd at about some of the Qualities of the Juices of Vegetables , by the Resemblance or Disparity that we meet with in the Changes made of their Colours , by the Operation of the same kinds of Salts ; yet that those Conjectures should be very warily made , may appear among other things , by the Instance I have chosen to give in Roses . For though , ( as I formerly told you ) the Dry'd Leaves , both of the Damask , and of Red ones , give a Red Tincture to Water sharpen'd with Acid Salts , yet the one sort of Leaves is known to have a Purgative faculty , and the other are often , and divers ways , imploy'd for Binding . And I also choose ( Pyrophilus ) to subjoyn this twenty ninth Experiment to those that precede it , about the change of the Colours of Vegetables by Salts , for these two reasons : The first , that you may not easily entertain Suspitions , if in the Trials of an Experiment of some of the Kinds formerly mention'd , you should meet with an Event somewhat differing from what my Relations may have made you expect . And the second , That you may hereby be invited to discern , that it may not be amiss to take notice of the particular Seasons wherein you gather the Vegetables which in Nicer Experiments you make use of . For , if I were not hindred both by haste and some justifiable Considerations , I could perhaps add considerable Instances , to those lately deliver'd , for the making out of this Observation ; but for certain reasons I shall at present substitute a remarkable passage to be met with in that Laborious Herbarist Mr. Parkinson , where treating of the Virtues of the ( already divers times mention'd ) Buckthorn Berries , he subjoyns the following account of several Pigments that are made of them , not only according to the several ways of Handling them , but according to the differing Seasons of Maturity , at which they are Gather'd ; Of these Berries , ( says he ) are made three several sorts of Colours as they shall be gather'd , that is , being gather'd while they are Green , and kept Dry , are call'd Sap-berries , which being steep'd into some Allom-water , or fresh bruis'd into Allom-water , they give a reasonable fair Yellow Colour which Painters use for their Work , and Book-binders to Colour the edges of Books , and Leather-dressers to Colour Leather , as they use also to make a Green Colour , call'd Sap-green , taken from the Berries when they are Black , being bruis'd and put into a Brass or Copper Kettle or Pan , and there suffer'd to abide three or four Days , or a little heated upon the Fire , and some beaten Allom put unto them , and afterwards press'd forth , the Juice or Liquor is usually put in great Bladders tied with strong thred at the Head and hung up untill it be Dry , which is dissolv'd in Water or Wine , but Sack ( he affirms ) is the best to preserve the Colour from Starving , ( as they call it ) that is , from Decaying , and make it hold fresh the longer . The third Colour ( where of none ( says he ) that I can find have made mention but only Tragus ) is a Purplish Colour , which is made of the Berries suffer'd to grow upon the Bushes untill the middle or end of November , that they are ready to drop from the Trees . And , I remember ( Pyrophilus ) that I try'd , with a success that pleas'd me well enough , to make such a kind of Pigment , as Painters call Sap-green , by a way not unlike that , deliver'd here by our Author , but I cannot now find any thing relating to that matter among my loose Papers . And my Trials were made so many years ago , that I dare not trust my Memory for Circumstances , but will rather tell you , that in a noted Colour-shop , I brought them by Questions to confess to me , that they made their Sap-green much after the ways by our Botanist here mention'd . And on this occasion I shall add an Observation , which though it does not strictly belong to this place , may well enough be mention'd here , namely , that I find by an account given us by the Learned Clusius , of Alaternus , that even the Grosser Parts of the same Plant , are some of them one Colour , and some another ; For speaking of that Plant , he tells us , that the Portugalls use the Bark to Dye their Nets into a Red Colour , and with the Chips of the Wood , which are Whitish , they Dye a Blackish Blew . EXPERIMENT XXX . Among the Experiments that tend to shew that the change of Colours in Bodies may proceed from the Vary'd Texture of their Parts , and the consequent change of their Disposition to Reflect or Refract the Light , that sort of Experiments must not be left unmention'd , which is afforded us by Chymical Digestions . For , if Chymists will believe several famous Writers about what they call the Philosophers Stone , they must acknowledge that the same Matter , seald up Hermetically in a Philosophical Egg , will by the continuance of Digestion , or if they will have it so ( for it is not Material in our case which of the two it be ) of Decoction , run through a great Variety of differing Colours , before it come to that of the Noblest Elixir ; whether that be Scarlet , or Purple , or what ever other Kind of Red. But without building any thing on so Obtruse and Questionable an Operation , ( which yet may be pertinently represented to those that believe the thing ) we may observe , that divers Bodies digested in carefully-clos'd Vessels , will in tract of time , change their Colour : As I have elsewhere mention'd my having observ'd ev'n in Rectify'd Spirit of Harts-horn , and as is evident in the Precipitations of Amalgams of Gold , and Mercury , without Addition , where by the continuance of a due Heat the Silver-Colour'd Amalgam is reduc'd into a shining Red Powder . Further Instances of this Kind you may find here and there in divers places of my other Essays . And indeed it has been a thing , that has much contributed to deceive many Chymists , that there are more Bodies than one , which by Digestion will be brought to exhibit that Variety and Succession of Colours , which they imagine to be Peculiar to what they call the True matter of the Philosophers . But concerning this , I shall referr you to what you may elsewhere find in the Discourse written touching the passive Deceptions of Chymists , and more about the Production of Colours by Digestion you will meet with presently . Wherefore I shall now make only this Observation from what has been deliver'd , That in these Operations there appears not any cause to attribute the new Colours emergent to the Action of a new Substantial form , nor to any Increase or Decrement of either the Salt , Sulphur , or Mercury of the Matter that acquires new Colours : For the Vessels are clos'd , and these Principles according to the Chymists are Ingenerable and Incorruptible ; so that the Effect seems to proceed from hence , that the Heat agitating and shuffling the Corpuscles of the Body expos'd to it , does improcess of time so change its Texture , as that the Transposed parts do Modifie the incident Light otherwise , than they did when the Matter appear'd of another Colour . EXPERIMENT XXXI . Among the several changes of Colour ; which Bodies acquire or disclose by Digestion , it it very remarkable , that Chymists find a Redness rather than any other Colour in most of the Tinctures they Draw , and ev'n in the more Gross Solutions they make of almost all Concretes , that abound either with Mineral or Vegetable Sulphur , though the Menstruum imploy'd about these Solutions or Tinctures be never so Limpid or Colourless . This we have observ'd in I know not how many Tinctures drawn with Spirit of Wine from Jalap , Guaicum , and several other Vegetables ; and not only in the Solutions of Amber , Benzoin , and divers other Concretes made with the same Menstruum , but also in divers Mineral Tinctures . And , not to urge that familiar Instance of the Ruby of Sulphur , as Chymists upon the score of its Colour , call the Solution of Flowers of Brimstone , made with the Spirit of Turpentine , nor to take notice of other more known Examples of the aptness of Chymical Oyls , to produce a Red Colour with the Sulphur they extract , or dissolve ; not to insist ( I say ) upon Instances of this nature , I shall further represent to you , as a thing remarkable , that , both Acid and Alcalizate Salts , though in most other cases of such contrary Operations , in reference to Colours , will with many Bodies that abound with Sulphureous , or with Oyly parts , produce a Red ; as is manifest partly in the more Vulgar Instances of the Tinctures , or Solutions of Sulphur made with Lixiviums , either of Calcin'd Tartar or Pot-ashes , and other Obvious examples , partly by this , that the true Glass of Antimony extracted with some Acid Spirits , with or without Wine , will yield a Red Tincture , and that I know an Acid Liquor , which in a moment will turn Oyl of Turpentine into a deep Red. But among the many Instances I could give you of the easie Production of Redness by the Operation of Saline Spirit , as well as of Spirit of Wine ; I remember two or three of those I have tried , which seem remarkable enough to deserve to be mention'd to you apart . EXPERIMENT XXXII . But before we set them down , it will not perhaps appear impertinent to premise ; That there seems to be a manifest Disparity betwixt Red Liquors , so that some of them may be said to have a Genuine Redness in comparison of others , that have a Yellowish Redness : For if you take ( for example ) a good Tincture of Chochineel , dilute it never so much with fair Water , you will not ( as far as I can judge by what I have tried ) be able to make it a Yellow Liquor . Insomuch that a Single drop of a rich Solution of Cochineel in Spirit of Urine , being Diluted with above an Ounce of fair Water , exhibited no Yellowishness at all , but a fair ( though somewhat faint ) Pinck or Carnation ; and even when Cochineel was by degrees Diluted much beyond the newly mention'd Colour , by the way formerly related to you in the twenty fourth Experiment , I remember not , that there appear'd in the whole Trial any Yellow . But if you take Balsom of Sulphur ( for Instance ) though it may appear in a Glass , where it has a good Thickness , to be of a deep Red , yet if you shake the Glass , or pour a few drops on a sheet of White Paper , spreading them on it with your Finger , the Balsom that falls back along the sides of the Glass , and that which stains the Paper , will appear Yellow , not Red. And there are divers Tinctures , such as that of Amber made with Spirit of Wine , ( to name now no more ) that will appear either Yellow or Red , according as the Vessels that they fill , are Slender or Broad . EXPERIMENT XXXIII . But to proceed to the Experiments I was about to deliver ; First , Oyl or Spirit of Turpentine , though clear as fair Water , being Digested upon the purely White Sugar of Lead , has , in a short time , afforded us a high Red Tincture , that some Artists are pleas'd to call the Balsom of Saturn , which they very much ( and probably not altogether without cause ) extoll as an excellent Medicine in divers Outward affections . EXPERIMENT XXXIV . Next , take of common Brimstone finely powdred five Ounces , of Sal-Armoniack likewise pulveriz'd an equal weight , of beaten Quick-lime six Ounces , mix these Powders exquisitely , and Distill them through a Retort plac'd in Sand by degrees of Fire , giving at length as intense a Heat as you well can in Sand , there will come over ( if you have wrought well ) a Volatile Tincture of Sulphur , which may probably prove an excellent Medicine , and should have been mention'd among the other Preparations of Sulphur , which we have elsewhere imparted to you , but that it is very pertinent to our present Subject , The change of Colours . For though none of the Ingredients be Red , the Distill'd Liquor will be so : and this Liquor if it be well Drawn , will upon a little Agitation of the Vial first unstop'd ( especially if it be held in a Warmer hand ) send forth a copious Fume , not Red , like that of Nitre , but White ; And sometimes this Liquor may be so Drawn , that I remember , not long since , I took pleasure to observe in a parcel of it , that Ingredients not Red , did not only yield by Distillation a Volatile Spirit that was Red , but though that Liquor did upon the bare opening of the Bottle it was kept in , drive us away with the plenty and Sulphureous sent of a White steam which it sent forth , yet the Liquor it self being touch'd by our Fingers , did immediately Dye them Black. EXPERIMENT XXXV . The third and last Experiment I shall now mention to shew , how prone Bodies abounding in Sulphureous parts are to afford a Red Colour , is one , wherein by the Operation of a Saline Spirit upon a White or Whitish Body , which according to the Chymists should be altogether Sulphureous , a Redness may be produc'd , not ( as in the former Experiments ) slowly , but in the twinkling of an Eye . We took then of the Essential Oyl of Anniseeds , which has this Peculiarity , that in Cold weather it loses its Fluidity and the greatest part of its Transparency , and looks like a White or Whitish Oyntment , and near at hand seems to consist of a Multitude of little soft Scales : Of this Coagulated Stuff we spread a little with a Knife upon a piece of White Paper , and letting fall on it , and mixing with it a drop or two of Oyl of Vitriol , immediately ( as we fore-saw ) there emerg'd together with some Heat and Smoak , a Blood-Red Colour , which therefore was in a trice produc'd by two Bodies , whereof the one had but a Whitish Colour , and the other ( if carefully rectify'd ) had no Colour at all . EXPERIMENT XXXVI . But on this Occasion ( Pyrophilus ) we must add once for all , that in many of the above-recited Experiments , though the changes of Colour happen'd as we have mention'd them : yet the emergent or produc'd Colour is oft times very subject to Degenerate , both quickly and much . Notwithstanding which , since the Changes , we have set down , do happen presently upon the Operation of the Bodies upon each other , or at the times by us specify'd ; that is sufficient both to justifie our Veracity , and to shew what we Intend ; it not being Essential to the Genuineness of a Colour to be Durable . For a fading Leaf , that is ready to Rot , and moulder into Dust , may have as true a Yellow , as a Wedge of Gold , which so obstinately resists both Time and Fire . And the reason , why I take occasion from the former Experiment to subjoyn this general Advertisement , is , that I have several times observ'd , that the Mixture resulting from the Oyls of Vitriol , and of Anniseeds , though it acquire a thicker consistence than either of the Ingredients had , has quickly lost its Colour , turning in a very short time into a dirty Gray , at least in the Superficial parts , where 't is expos'd to the Air ; which last Circumstance I therefore mention , because that , though it seem probable , that this Degeneration of Colours may oft times and in divers cases proceed from the further Action of the Saline Corpuscles , and the other Ingredients upon one another , yet in many cases much of the Quick change of Colours seems ascribeable to the Air , as may be made probable by several reason : The first whereof may be fetcht from the newly recited Example of the two Oyls ; The next may be , that we have sometimes observ'd long Window-Curtains of light Colours , to have that part of them , which was expos'd to the Air , when the Window , was open , of one Colour , and the lower part , that was sheltred from the Air by the Wall , of another Colour : And the third Argument may be fetch'd from divers Observations , both of others , and our own ; For of that Pigment so well known in Painters Shops , by the name of Turnso , our Industrious Parkinson , in the particular account he gives of the Plant that bears it , tells us also , That the Berries when they are at their full Maturity , have within them between the outer Skin and the inward Kirnel or Seed , a certain Juice or Moisture , which being rubb'd upon Paper or Cloath , at the first appears of a fresh and lovely Green Colour , but presently changeth into a kind of Blewish Purple , upon the Cloath or Paper , and the same Cloath afterwards wet in Water , and wrung forth , will Colour the Water into a Claret Wine Colour , and these ( concludes he ) are those Raggs of Cloath , which are usually call'd Turnsol in the Druggists or Grocers Shops . And to this Observation of our Botanist we will add an Experiment of our own , ( made before we met with That ) which , though in many Circumstances , very differing , serves to prove the same thing ; for having taken of the deeply Red Juice of Buckthorn Berries , which I bought of the Man that uses to sell it to the Apothecaries , to make their Syrrup de Spina Cervina , I let some of it drop upon a piece of White Paper , and having left it there for many hours , till the Paper was grown dry again , I found what I was inclin'd to suspect , namely , That this Juice was degenerated from a deep Red to a dirty kind of Greyish Colour , which , in a great part of the stain'd Paper seem'd not to have so much as an Eye of Red : Though a little Spirit of Salt or dissolv'd Alcaly would turn this unpleasant Colour ( as formerly I told you it would change the not yet alter'd Juice ) into a Red or Green. And to satisfie my self , that this Degeneration of Colour did not proceed from the Paper , I drop'd some of the deep Red or Crimson Juice upon a White glaz'd Tile , and suffering it to dry on there , I found that ev'n in that Body , on which it could not Soak , and by which it could not be Wrought , it nevertheless lost its Colour . And these Instances ( Pyrophilus ) I am the more carefull to mention to you , that you may not be much Surpris'd or Discourag'd , if you should sometimes miss of performing punctually what I affirm my self to have done in point of changing Colours ; since in these Experiments the over-sight or neglect of such little Circumstances , as in many others would not be perhaps considerable , may occasion the mis-carrying of a Trial. And I was willing also to take this occasion of Advertising you in the repeating of the Experiments mention'd in this Treatise , to make use of the Juices of Vegetables , and other things prepar'd for your Trials , as soon as ever they are ready , lest one or other of them grow less fit , if not quite unfit by delay ; and to estimate the Event of the Trials by the Change , that is produc'd presently upon the due and sufficient Application of Actives to Passives , ( as they speak ) because in many cases the effects of such Mixtures may not be lasting , and the newly produc'd Colour may in a little time degenerate . But , ( Pyrophilus ) I forgot to add to the two former Observations lately made about Vegetables , a third of the same Import , made in Mineral substances , by telling you , That the better to satisfie a Friend or two in this particular , I sometimes made , according to some Conjectures of mine , this Experiment ; That having dissolv'd good Silver in Aqua-fortis , and Precipitated it with Spirit of Salt , upon the first Decanting of the Liquor , the remaining Matter would be purely White ; but after it had lain a while uncover'd , that part of it , that was Contiguous to the Air , would not only lose its Whiteness , but appear of a very Dark and almost Blackish Colour , I say that part that was Contiguous to the Air , because if that were gently taken off , the Subjacent part of the same Mass would appear very White , till that also , having continu'd a while expos'd to the Air , would likewise Degenerate . Now whether the Air perform these things by the means of a Subtile Salt , which we elswhere show it not to be destitute of , or by a peircing Moisture , that is apt easily to insinuate it self into the Pores of some Bodies , and thereby change their Texture , and so their Colour : Or by solliciting the Avolation of certain parts of the Bodies , to which 't is Contiguous ; or by some other way , ( which possibly I may elsewhere propose and consider ) I have not now the leisure to discourse . And for the same reason , though I could add many other Instances , of what I formerly noted touching the emergency of Redness upon the Digestion of many Bodies , insomuch that I have often seen upon the Borders of France ( and probably we may have the like in England ) a sort of Pears , which digested for some time with a little Wine , in a Vessel exactly clos'd , will in not many hours appear throughout of a deep Red Colour , ( as also that of the Juice , wherein they are Stew'd , becomes ) but ev'n on pure and white Salt of Tartar , pure Spirit of Wine , as clear as Rock-water , will ( as we elsewhere declare ) by long Digestion acquire a Redness ; Though I say such Instances might be Multiply'd , and though there be some other Obvious changes of Colours , which happen so frequently , that they cannot but be as well Considerable as Notorious ; such as is the Blackness of almost all Bodies burn'd in the open Air : yet our haste invites us to resign you the Exercise of enquiring into the Causes of these Changes . And certainly , the reason both why the Soots of such differing Bodies are almost all of them all Black , why so much the greater part of Vegetables should be rather Green than of any other Colour , and particularly ( which more directly concerns this place ) why gentle Heats do so frequently in Chymical Operations produce rather a Redness than another Colour in digested Menstruums , not only Sulphureous , as Spirit of Wine , but Saline , as Spirit of Vinegar , may be very well worth a serious Inquiry ; which I shall therefore recommend to Pyrophilus and his Ingenious Friends . EXPERIMENT XXXVII . It may seem somewhat strange , that if you take the Crimson Solution of Cochineel , or the Juice of Black Cherries , and of some other Vegetables that afford the like Colour , ( which because many take but for a deep Red , we do with them sometimes call it so ) and let some of it fall upon a piece of Paper , a drop or two of an Acid Spirit , such as Spirit of Salt , or Aqua-fortis , will immediately turn it into a fair Red. Whereas if you make an Infusion of Brazil in fair Water , and drop a little Spirit of Salt or Aqua-fortis into it , that will destroy its Redness , and leave the Liquor of a Yellow , ( sometimes Pale ) I might perhaps plausibly enough say on this occasion , that if we consider the case a little more attentively , we may take notice , that the action of the Acid Spirit seems in both cases , but to weaken the Colour of the Liquor on which it falls . And so though it destroy Redness in the Tincture of Brazil , as well as produce Red in the Tincture of Chochineel , its Operations may be Uniform enough , since as Crimson seems to be little else than a very deep Red , with ( perhaps ) an Eye of Blew , so some kinds of Red seem ( as I have lately noted ) to be little else than heightned Yellow . And consequently in such Bodies , the Yellow seems to be but a diluted Red. And accordingly Alcalizate Solutions and Urinous Spirits , which seem dispos'd to Deepen the Colours of the Juices and Liquors of most Vegetables , will not only restore the Solution of Cochineel and the Infusion of Brazil to the Crimson , whence the Spirit of Salt had chang'd them into a truer Red ; but will also ( as I lately told you ) not only heighthen the Yellow Juice of Madder into Red , but advance the Red Infusion of Brazil to a Crimson . But I know not whether it will not be much safer to derive these Changes from vary'd Textures , than certain kinds of Bodies ; and you will perhaps think it worth while , that I should add on this occasion , That it may deserve some Speculation , why , notwithstanding what we have been observing , though Blew and Purple seem to be deeper Colours than Red , and therefore the Juices of Plants of either of the two former Colours may ( congruously enough to what has been just now noted ) be turn'd Red by Spirit of Salt or Aqua-fortis , yet Blew Syrrup of Violets and some Purples should both by Oyl of Tartar and Spirit of Urine be chang'd into Green , which seems to be not a deeper but a more diluted Colour than Blew , if not also than Purple . EXPERIMENT XXXVIII . It would much contribute to the History of Colours , if Chymists would in their Laboratories take a heedfull notice , and give us a faithfull account of the Colours observ'd in the Steams of Bodies either Sublim'd or Distill'd , and of the Colours of those Productions of the Fire , that are made up by the Coalition of those Steams . As ( for Instance ) we observe in the Distilling of pure Salt-peter , that at a certain season of the Operation , the Body , though it seem either Crystalline , or White , affords very Red Fumes : whereas though Vitriol be Green or Blew , the Spirit of it is observ'd to come over in Whitish Fumes . The like Colour I have taken notice of in the Fumes of several other Concretes of differing Colours , and Natures , especially when Distill'd with strong Fires . And we elsewhere note , that ev'n Soot , as Black as it is , has fill'd our Receivers with such copious White Fumes , that they seem'd to have had their In-sides wash'd with Milk. And no less observable may be , the Distill'd Liquors , into which such Fumes convene , ( for though we will not deny , that by skill and care a Reddish Liquor may be obtain'd from Nitte ) yet the common Spirit of it , in the making ev'n of which store of these Red Fumes are wont to pass over into the Receiver , appears not to be at all Red. And besides , that neither the Spirit of Vitriol , nor that of Soot is any thing White ; And , besides also , that as far as I have observ'd , most ( for I say not all ) of the Empyreumatical Oyls of Woods , and other Concretes , are either of a deep Red , or of a Colour between Red and Black ; besides this , I say , 't is very remarkable , that notwithstanding that great Variety of Colours to be met with in the Herbs , Flowers , and other Bodies wont to be Distill'd in Balneo : yet ( as far at least as our common Distillers Experience reacheth ) all the Waters and Spirits that first come over by that way of Distillation , leave the Colours of their Concretes behind them , though indeed there be one or two Vegetables not commonly taken notice of , whose Distill'd Liquors I elsewhere observe to carry over the Tincture of the Concrete with them . And as in Distillations , so in Sublimations , it were worth while to take notice of what comes up , in reference to our present scope , by purposely performing them ( as I have in some cases done ) in conveniently shap'd Glasses , that the Colour of the ascending Fumes may be discern'd ; For it may afford a Naturalist good Information to observe the Congruities or the Differences betwixt the Colours of the ascending Fumes , and those of the Flowers , they compose by their Convention . For it is evident , that these Flowers , do many of them in point of Colour , much differ , not only from one another , but oft times from the Concretes that afforded them . Thus , ( not here to repeat what I formerly noted of the Black Soots of very differingly Colour'd Bodies ) though Camphire and Brimstone afford Flowers much of their own Colour , save that those of Brimstone are wont to be a little Paler , than the Lumps that yielded them ; yet ev'n of Red Benzoin , that sublim'd Substance , which Chymists call its Flowers , is wont to be White or Whitish . And to omit other Instances , ev'n one and the same Black Mineral , Antimony , may be made to afford Flowers , some of them Red , and some Grey , and , which is more strange , some of them purely White . And 't is the Prescription of some Glass-men by exquisitely mingling a convenient proportion of Brimstone , Sal-Armoniack , and Quick-silver , and Subliming them together , to make a Sublimate of an excellent Blew ; and though having caus'd the Experiment to be made , we found the produc'd Sublimate to be far from being of a lovely Colour , ( as was promis'd ) that there and there , it seem'd Blewish , and at least was of a Colour differing enough from either of the Ingredients , which is sufficient for our present purpose . But a much finer Colour is promis'd by some of the Empiricks , that pretend to Secrets , who tell us , that Orpiment , being Sublim'd , will afford among the Parts of it that fly Upward , some little Masses , which , though the Mineral it self be of a good Yellow , will be Red enough to emulate Rubies , both in Colour and Translucency . And this Experiment may , for ought I know , sometimes succeed ; for I remember , that having in a small Bolt-head purposely sublim'd some powder'd Orpiment , we could in the Lower part of the Sublimate discern here and there some Reddish Lines , though much of the Upper part of the Sublimate consisted of a matter , which was not alone purely Yellow , but transparent almost like a Powder . And we have also this way obtain'd a Sublimate , the Lower part whereof though it consisted not of Rubies , yet the small pieces of it , which were Numerous enough , were of a pleasant Reddish Colour , and Glister'd very prettily . But to insist on such kind of Trials and Observations , ( where the ascending Fumes of Bodies differ in Colour from the Bodies themselves ) though it might indeed Inrich the History of Colours , would Robb me of too much of the little time I have to dispatch what I have further to tell you concerning them . EXPERIMENT XXXIX . Take the dry'd Buds ( or Blossoms ) of the Pomegranate Tree , ( which are commonly call'd in the Shops ( Balaustiums ) pull off the Reddish Leaves , and by a gentle Ebullition of them in fair Water , or by a competent Infusion of them in like Water well heated , extract a faint Reddish Tincture , which if the Liquor be turbid , you may Clarifie it by Filtrating it . Into this , if you pour a little good Spirit of Urine , or some other Spirit abounding in the like sort of Volatile Salts , the Mixture will presently turn of a dark Greenish Colour , but if instead of the fore-mention'd Liquor , you drop into the simple Infusion a little rectify'd Spirit of Sea-Salt , the Pale and almost Colourless Liquor will immediately not only grow more Transparent , but acquire a high Redness , like that of Rich Claret Wine , which so suddenly acquir'd Colour , may as quickly be Destroy'd and turn'd into a dirty Blewish Green , by the affusion of a competent quantity of the above-mention'd Spirit of Urine . Annotation . This Experiment may bring some Light to , and receive some from a couple of other Experiments , that I remember I have met with in the Ingenious Gassendus's Animadversions upon Epicurus's Philosophy , whilst I was turning over the Leaves of those Learned Commentaries ; ( my Eyes being too weak to let me read such Voluminous Books quite thorough ) And I the less scruple ( notwithstanding my contrary Custom in this Treatise ) to set down these Experiments of another , because I shall a little improve the latter of them , and because by comparing there with that which I have last recited , we may be assisted to Conjecture upon what account it is , that Oyl of Vitriol heightens the Tincture of Red-rose Leaves , since Spirit of Salt , which is a highly Acid Menstruum , but otherwise differing enough from Oyl of Vitriol , does the same thing . Our Authors Experiments then , as we made them , are these ; We took about a Glass-full of luke-warm Water , and in it immerg'd a quantity of the Leaves of Senna , and presently upon the Immersion there did not appear any Redness in the Water , but dropping into it a little Oyl of Tartar , the Liquor soon discover'd a Redness to the watchfull Eye , whereas by a little of that Acid Liquor of Vitriol , which is like the former , undeservedly called Oyl , such a Colour would not be extracted from the infused Senna . On the other side we took some Red-rose Leaves dry'd , and having shaken them into a Glass of fair Water , they imparted to it no Redness , but upon the affusion of a little Oyl of Vitriol the Water was immediately turn'd Red , which it would not have been , if instead of Oyl of Vitriol , we had imployed Oyl of Tartar to produce that Colour : That these were Gassendus his Experiments , I partly remember , and was assur'd by a Friend , who lately Transcribed them out of Gassendus his Book , which I therefore add , because I have not now that Book at hand . And the design of Gassendus in these Experiments our Friend affirms to be , to prove , that of things not Red a Redness may be made only by Mixture , and the Varied position of parts , wherein the Doctrine of that Subtil Philosopher doth not a little Authorize , what we have formerly delivered concerning the Emergency and Change of Colours . But the instances , that we have out of him set down , seem not to be the most Eminent , that may be produced of this truth : For our next Experiment will shew the production of several Colours out of Liquors , which have not any of them any such Colour , nor indeed any discernable one at all ; and whereas though our Author tells us , that there was no Redness either in the Water , or the Leaves of Senna , or the Oyl of Tartar ; And though it be true , that the Predominant Colour of the Leaves of Senna be another than Red , yet we have try'd , that by steeping that Plant a Night even in Cold water , it would afford a very deep Yellow or Reddish Tincture without the help of the Oyl of Tartar , which seems to do little more than assist the Water to extract more nimbly a plenty of that Red Tincture , wherewith the Leaves of Senna do of themselves abound , and having taken off the Tincture of Senna , made only with fair Water , before it grew to be Reddish , and Decanted it from the Leaves , we could not perceive , that by dropping some Oyl of Tartar into it , that Colour was considerable , though it were a little heightned into a Redness , which might have been expected , if the particles of the Oyl did eminently Co-operate , otherwise than we have expressed , to the production of this Redness . And as for the Experiment with Red-rose Leaves , the same thing may be alleged , for we found that such Leaves by bare Infusion for a Night and Day in fair Water , did afford us a Tincture bordering at least upon Redness , and that Colour being conspicuous in the Leaves themselves , would not by some seem so much to be produc'd as to be extracted by the affusion of Oyl of Vitriol . And the Experiment try'd with the dry'd Leaves of Damask-roses succeeded but imperfectly , but that is indeed observable to our Authors purpose , that Oyl of Tartar will not perform in this Experiment what Oyl of Vitriol doth ; but because this last named Liquor is not so easily to be had , give me leave to Advertise you , that the Experiment will succeed , if Instead of it you imploy Aqua-fortis . And though some Trials of our own formerly made , and others easily deducible from what we have already deliver'd , about the different . Families and Operations of Salt , might enable us to present you an Experiment upon Red-rose Leaves , more accommodated to our Authors purpose , than that which he hath given us ; yet our Reverence to so Candid a Philosopher , invites us rather to improve his Experiment , than substitute another in its place . Take therefore of the Tincture of Red-rose Leaves , ( for with Damask-rose Leaves the Experiment succeedeth not well ) made as before hath been taught with a little Oyl of Vitriol , and a good quantity of fair Water , pour off this Liquor into a clear Vial , half fill'd with Limpid water , till the Water held against the Light have acquir ▪ d a competent Redness , without losing its Transparency , into this Tincture drop leisurely a little good Spirit of Urine , and shaking the Vial , which you must still hold against the Light , you shall see the Red Liquor immediately turn'd into a fine Greenish Blew , which Colour was not to be found in any of the Bodies , upon whose Mixture it emerg'd , and this Change is the more observable , because in many Bodies the Degenerating of Blew into Red is usual enough , but the turning of Red into Blew is very unfrequent . If at every drop of Spirit of Urine you shake the Vial containing the Red Tincture , you may delightfully observe a pretty variety of Colours in the passage of that Tincture from a Red to a Blew , and sometimes we have this way hit upon such a Liquor , as being look't upon against and from the Light , did seem faintly to emulate the above-mention'd Tincture of Lignum Nephriticum . And if you make the Tincture of Red-roses very high , and without Diluting it with fair Water , pour on the Spirit of Urine , you may have a Blew so deep , as to make the Liquor Opacous , but being dropt upon White Paper the Colour will soon disclose it self . Also having made the Red , and consequently the Blew Tincture very Transparent , and suffer'd it to rest in a small open Vial for a Day or two , we found according to our Conjecture , that not only the Blew but the Red Colour also was Vanish'd ; the clear Liquor being of a bright Amber Colour , at the bottom of which subsided a Light , but Copious feculency of almost the same Colour , which seems to be nothing but the Tincted parts of the Rose Leaves drawn out by the Acid Spirits of the Oyl of Vitriol , and Precipitated by the Volatile Salt of the Spirit of Urine , which makes it the more probable , that the Redness drawn by the Oyl of Vitriol , was at least as well an extraction of the Tinging parts of the Roses , as a production of Redness ; and lastly , if you be destitute of Spirit of Urine , you may change the Colour of the Tincture of Roses with many other Sulphureous Salts , as a strong Solution of Pot-ashes , Oyl of Tartar , &c. which yet are seldome so free from Feculency , as the Spirituous parts of Urine becomes by repeated Distillation . Annotation . On this occasion , I call to mind , that I found , a way of producing , though not the same kind of Blew , as I have been mentioning , yet a Colour near of Kin to it , namely , a fair Purple , by imploying a Liquor not made Red by Art , instead of the Tincture of Red-roses , made with an Acid Spirit ; And my way was only to take Log-wood , ( a Wood very well known to Dyers ) having by Infusion the Powder of it a while in fair Water made that Liquor Red , I dropt into it a Tantillum of an Urinous Spirit , as that of Sal-Armoniack , ( and I have done the same thing with an Alcali ) by which the Colour was in a moment turn'd into a Rich , and lovely Purple . But care must be had , that you let not fall into a Spoonfull above two or three Drops , left the Colour become so deep , as to make the Liquor too Opacous . And ( to answer the other part of Gassendus his Experiment ) if instead of fair Water , I infus'd the Log-wood in Water made somewhat sowr by the Acid Spirit of Salt , I should obtain neither a Purple Liquor , nor a Red , but only a Yellow one . EXPERIMENT XL. The Experiment I am now to mention to you , Pyrophilus , is that which both you , and all the other Virtuosi that have seen it , have been pleas'd to think very strange ; and indeed of all the Experiments of Colours , I have yet met with , it seems to be the fittest to recommend the Doctrine propos'd in this Treatise , and to shew that we need not suppose , that all Colours must necessarily be Inherent Qualities , flowing from the Substantial Forms of the Bodies they are said to belong to , since by a bare Mechanical change of Texture in the Minute parts of Bodies , two Colours may in a moment be Generated quite De novo , and utterly Destroy'd . For there is this difference betwixt the following Experiment , and most of the others deliver'd in these Papers , that in this , the Colour that a Body already had , is not chang'd into another , but betwixt two Bodies , each of them apart devoid of Colour , there is in a moment generated a very deep Colour , and which if it were let alone , would be permanent ; and yet by a very small Parcel of a third Body , that has no Colour of its own , ( lest some may pretend I know not what Antipathy betwixt Colours ) this otherwise permanent Colour will be in another trice so quite Destroy'd , that there will remain no foot-stepts either of it or of any other Colour in the whole Mixture . The Experiment is very easie , and it is thus perform'd : Take good common Sublimate , and fully satiate with it what quantity of Water you please , Filtre the Solution carefully through clean and close Paper , that it may drop down as Clear and Colourless as Fountain water . Then when you 'l shew the Experiment , put of it about a Spoonfull into a small Wine-glass , or any other convenient Vessel made of clear Glass , and droping in three or four drops of good Oyl of Tartar , per Deliquium , well Filtred that it may likewise be without Colour , these two Limpid Liquors will in the twinkling of an Eye turn into an Opacous mixture of a deep Orange Colour , which by keeping the Glass continually shaking in your hand , you must preserve from setling too soon to the Bottom ; And when the Spectators have a little beheld this first Change , then you must presently drop in about four or five drops of Oyl of Vitriol , and continuing to shake the Glass pretty strongly , that it may the Nimbler diffuse it self , the whole Colour , if you have gone Skilfully to work , will immediately disappear , and all the Liquor in the Glass will be Clear and Colourless as before , without so much as a Sediment at the Bottom . But for the more gracefull Trial of this Experiment , 't will not be amiss to observe , First , That there should not be taken too much of the Solution of Sublimate , nor too much of the Oyl of Tartar drop'd in , to avoid the necessity of putting in so much Oyl of Vitriol as may make an Ebullition , and perhaps run over the Glass . Secondly , That 't is convenient to keep the Glass always a little shaking , both for the better mixing of the Liquors , and to keep the Yellow Substance from Subsiding , which else it would in a short time do , though when 't is subsided it will retain its Colour , and also be capable of being depriv'd of it by the Oyl newly mention'd . Thirdly , That if any Yellow matter stick at the sides of the Glass , 't is but inclining the Glass , till the clarify'd Liquor can wash alongst it , and the Liquor will presently imbibe it , and deprive it of its Colour . Many have somewhat wondred , how I came to light upon this Experiment , but the Notions or Conjectures I have about the differing Natures of the several Tribes of Salts , having led me to devise the Experiment , it will not be difficult for me to give you the Chymical Reason , if I may so speak , of the Phaenomenon . Having then observ'd , that Mercury being dissolv'd in some Menstruums , would yield a dark Yellow Precipitate , and supposing that , as to this , common Water , and the Salts that stick to the Mercury would be equivalent to those Acid Menstruums , which work upon the Quick-silver , upon the account of their Saline particles , I substituted a Solution of Sublimate in fair Water , instead of a Solution of Mercury in Aqua-fortis , or Spirit of Nitre , that simple Solution being both clearer and free from that very offensive smell , which accompanies the Solutions of Mercury made with those other corrosive Liquors ; then I consider'd , that That , which makes the Yellow Colour , is indeed but a Precipitate made by the means of the Oyl of Tartar , which we drop in , and which , as Chymists know , does generally precipitate Metalline Bodies corroded by Acid Salts ; so that the Colour in our case results from the Coalition of the Mercurial particles with the Saline ones , wherewith they were formerly associated , and with the Alcalizate particles of the Salt of Tartar that swim up and down in the Oyl . Wherefore considering also , that very many of the effects of Lixiviate Liquors , upon the Solutions of other Bodies , may be destroy'd by Acid Menstruums , as I elsewhere more particularly declare , I concluded , that if I chose a very potently Acid Liquor , which by its Incisive power might undo the work of the Oyl of Tartar , and disperse again those Particles , which the other had by Precipitation associated , into such minute Corpuseles as were before singly Inconspicuous , they would become Inconspicuous again , and consequently leave the Liquor as Colourless as before the Precipitation was made . This , as I said , Pyrophilus seems to be the Chymical reason of this Experiment , that is such a reason , as , supposing the truth of those Chymical Notions I have elsewhere I hope evinc'd , may give such an account of the Phaenomena as Chymical Notions can supply us with ; but I both here and elsewhere make use of this way of speaking , to intimate that I am sufficiently aware of the difference betwixt a Chymical Explication of a Phaenomenon , and one that is truly Philosophical or Mechanical ; as in our present case , I tell you something , when I tell you that the Yellowness of the Mercurial Solution , and the Oyl of Tartar is produc'd by the Precipitation occasion'd by the affusion of the latter of those Liquors , and that the destruction of the Colour proceeds from the Dissipation of that Curdl'd matter , whose Texture is destroy'd , and which is dissolv'd into Minute and Invisible particles by the potently Acid Menstruum , which is the reason , why there remains no Sediment in the Bottom , because the infused Oyl takes it up , and resolves it into hidden or invisible Parts , as Water does Salt or Sugar . But when I have told you all this , I am far from thinking I have told all that such an Inquisitive Person as your self would know , for I presume you would desire as well as I to learn ( at least ) why the Particles of the Mercury , of the Tartar , and of the Acid Salts convening together , should make rather an Orange Colour than a Red , or a Blew , or a Green , for 't is not enough to say what I related a little before , that divers Mercurial Solutions , though otherwise made , would yield a Yellow precipitate , because the Question will recurr concerning them ; and to give it a satisfactory answer , is , I freely acknowledge , more than I dare as yet pretend to . But to confirm my conjecture about the Chymical reason of our Experiment , I may add , that as I have ( viz. pag. 34th . of this Treatise ) elsewhere ( on another occasion ) told you , with Saline Liquors of another kind and nature than Salt of Tartar , ( namely , with Spirit of Urine , and Liquors of kin to that ) I can make the Mercury precipitate out of the first simple Solution quite of another Colour than that hitherto mention'd ; Nay , if instead of altering the Precipitating Liquor , I alter'd the Texture of the Sublimate in such a way as my Notions about Salt requir'd , I could produce the same Phaenomenon . For having purposely Sublim'd together Equal parts ( or thereabout ) of Sal-Armoniack and Sublimate , first diligently Mix'd , the ascending Flowers being dissolv'd in fair Water , and Filtred , gave a Solution Limpid and Colourless , like that of the other Sublimates , and yet an Alcaly drop'd into this Liquor did not turn it Yellow but White . And upon the same Grounds we may with Quick-silver , without the help of common Sublimate , prepare another sort of Flowers dissoluble in Water without Discolouring it , with which I could likewise do what I newly mention'd ; to which I shall add , ( what possibly you 'l somewhat wonder at ) That so much does the Colour depend upon the Texture resulting from the Convention of the several sorts of Corpuseles , that though in our Experiment , Oyl of Vitriol destroys the Yellow Colour , yet with Quick-silver and fair Water , by the help of Oyl of Vitriol alone , we may easily make a kind of Precipitate of a fair and permanent Yellow , as you will e're long ( in the forty second Expement of this third Part ) be taught . And I may further add , that I chose Oyl of Vitriol , not so much for any other or peculiar Quality , as for its being , when 't is well rectify'd , ( which 't is somewhat hazardous to bring it to be ) not only devoid of Colour and in Smells , but extremely Strong and Incisive ; For though common and undephlegmated Aqua-fortis will not perform the same thing well , yet that which is made exceeding Strong by being carefully Dephlegm'd , will do it pretty well , though not so well as Oyl of Vitriol which is so Strong , that even without Rectification it may for a need be made use of . I will not here tell you what I have try'd , that I may be able to deprive at pleasure the Precipitate that one of the Sulphureous Liquors had made , by the copious Affusion of the other : Because I found , though this Experiment is too ticklish to let me give a full account of it in few words , I shall therefore tell you , that it is not only for once , that the other above-mention'd Experiment may be made , the same Numerical parcels of Liquor being still imploy'd in it ; for after I have Clarify'd the Orange Colour'd Liquor , by the addition of as little of the Oyl of Viriol as will suffice to perform the effect , I can again at pleasure re-produce the Opacous Colour , by the dropping in of fresh Oyl of Tartar , and destroy it again by the Re-affusion of more of the Acid Menstruum ; and yet oftner if I please , can I with these two contrariant Liquors recall and disperse the Colour , though by reason of the addition of so much new Liquor , in reference to the Mercurial particles , the Colour will at length appear more dilute and faint . An improvement of the fortieth Experiment . And , Pyrophilus , to confirm yet further the Notions that led me to think on the propos'd Experiment , I shall acquaint you with another , which when I had conveniency I have sometimes added to it , and which has to the Spectators appear'd little less Odd than the first ; And though because the Liquor , requisite to make the Trial succeed well , must be on purpose prepar'd anew a while before , because it will not long retain its fitness for this work , I do but seldome annex this Experiment to the other , yet I shall tell you how I devis'd it , and how I make it . If you boyl Crude Antimony in a strong and clear Lixivium , you shall separate a Substance from it , which some Modern Chymists are pleas'd to call its Sulphur , but how deservedly I shall not here examine , having elsewhere done it in an Opportune place ; wherefore I shall now but need to take notice , that when this suppos'd Sulphur ( not now to call it rather a kind of Crocus ) is let fall by the Liquor upon its Refrigeration , it often settles in Flakes , or such like parcels of a Yellow Substance , ( which being by the precedent dissolution reduc'd into Minute parts , may peradventure be made to take Fire much more easily than the Grosser Powder of unprepar'd Antimony would have done . ) Considering therefore , that common Sulphur boyl'd in a Lixivium may be Precipitated out of it by Rhenish-wine or White-wine , which are Sowrish Liquors , and have in them , as I elsewhere shew , an Acid Salt ; and having found also by Trial , that with other Acid Liquors I could Precipitate out of Lixiviate Solvents some other Mineral concretions abounding with Sulphureons parts , of which sort is crude Antimony , I concluded it to be easie to Precipitate the Antimony dissolv'd , as was lately mention'd , with the Acid Oyl of Vitriol ; and though common Sulphur yields a White Precipitate , which the Chymists call Lac Sulphuris , yet I suppos'd the Precipitated Antimony would be of a deep Yellow Colour , as well , if made with Oyl of Vitriol , as if made only by Refrigeration and length of Time. From this 't was easie to deduce this Experiment , that if you put into one Glass some of the freshly Impregnated and Filtrated Solution of Antimony , and into another some of the Orange-Colour'd Mixture , ( which I formerly shew'd you how to make with a Mercurial Solution and Oyl of Tartar ) a few drops of Oyl of Vitriol dropp'd into the last mention'd Glass , would , as I told you before , turn the Deep Yellow mixture into a Cleer Liquor ; whereas a little of the same Oyl dropp'd out of the same Viol into the other Glass would presently ( but not without some ill sent ) turn the moderately cleer Solution into a Deep Yellow Substance . But this , as I said , succeeds not well , unless you employ a Lixivium that has but newly dissolv'd Antimony , and has not yet let it fall . But yet in Summer time , if your Lixivium have been duly Impregnated and well Filtred after it is quite cold , it will for some dayes ( perhaps much longer than I had occasion to try ) retain Antimony enough to exhibit , upon the Affusion of the Corrosive Oyl , as much of a good Yellow Substance as is necessary to satisfie the Beholders of the Possibility of the Experiment . Reflections upon the X L. Experiment Compared with the X. and XX. The Knowledge of the Distinction of Salts which we have propos'd , whereby they are discriminated into Acid , Volatile , or Salsuginous ( if I may for Distinction sake so call the Fugitive Salts of Animal Substances ) and fix d or Alcalizate , may possibly ( by that little part which we have already deliver'd , of what we could say of its Applicableness ) appear of so much Use in Natural Philosophy ( especially in the Practick part of it ) that I doubt not but it will be no Unwelcome Corollary of the Preceding Experiment , if by the help of it I teach you to distinguish , which of those Salts is Predominant in Chymical Liquors , as well as whether any of them be so or not . For though in our Notes upon the X. and XX. Experiments I have shown you a way by means of the Tincture of Lignum Nephriticum , or of Syrrup of Violets , to discover whether a propounded Salt be Acid or not , yet you can thereby only find in general that such and such Salts belong not to the Tribe of Acids , but cannot determine whether they belong to the Tribe of Urinous Salts ( under which for distinction sake I comprehend all those Volatile Salts of Animal or other Substances that are contrary to Acids ) or to that of Alcalies . For as well the one as the other of these Salino-Sulphurous Salts will restore the Caeruleous Colour to the Tincture of Lignum Nephriticum , and turn that of Syrrup of Violets into Green. Wherefore this XL. Experiment does opportunely supply the deficiency of those . For being sollicitous to find out some ready wayes of discriminating the Tribes of Chymical Salts , I found that all those I thought fit to make Tryal of , would , if they were of a Lixiviate Nature , make with Sublimate dissolv'd in Fair Water an Orange Tawny Precipitate ; whereas if they were of an Urinous Nature the Precipitate would be White and Milky . So that having alwayes by me some Syrrup of Violets and some Solution of Sublimate , I can by the help of the first of those Liquors discover in a trice , whether the propounded Salt or Saline Body be of an Acid Nature or no , if it be I need ( you know ) inquire no further ; but if it be not , I can very easily , and as readily distinguish between the other two kinds of Salts , by the White or Orange-Colour that is immediately produc'd , by letting fall a few Drops or Grains of the Salt to be examin'd , into a spoonfull of the cleer Solution of Sublimate . For Example , it has been suppos'd by some eminently Learned , That when Sal Armoniack being mingled with an Alcaly is forc'd from it by the Fire in close Vessels , the Volatile Salt that will thereby be obtain'd ( if the Operation be skilfully perform'd , ) is but a more fine and subtile sort of Sal Armoniack , which , 't is presum'd , this Operation do's but more exquisitely purifie , than common Solutions , Filtrations , and Coagulations . But this Opinion may be easily thown to be Erroneous , as by other Arguments , so particularly by the lately deliver'd Method of distinguishing the Tribes of Salts . For the Saline Spirit of Sal Armoniack , as it is in many other manifest Qualities very like the Spirit of Urine , so like , that it will in a trice make Syrrup of Violets of a Lovely Green , turn a Solution of good Verdigrease into an Excellent Azure , and make the Solution of a Sublimate yield a White Precipitate , insomuch that in most ( for I say not all of the Experiments ) where I Aim onely at producing a sudden change of Colour , I scruple not to use Spirit of Sal Armoniack when it is at hand , instead of Spirit of Urine , as indeed it seems chiefly to consist ( besides the flegm that helps to make it fluid ) of the Volatile Urinous Salt ( yet not excluding that of Soot ) that abounds in the Sal Armoniack and is set at liberty from the Sea Salt wherewith it was formerly associated , and clogg'd , by the Operation of the Alcaly , that divides the Ingredients of Sal Armoniack , and retains that Sea Salt with it self . What use may be made of the like way of exploration in that inquiry which puzzles so many Modern Naturalists , whether the Rich Pigment ( which we have often had occasion to mention ) belongs to the Vegetable or Animal Kingdome , you may find in another place where I give you some account of what I try'd about Cocheneel . But I think it needless to exemplifie here our Method by any other Instances , many such being to be met with in divers parts of this Treatise ; but I will rather advertise you , that , by this way of examining Chymical Liquors , you may not onely in most Cases conclude Affirmatively , but in some Cases Negatively . As since Spirit of Wine , and as far as I have try'd , those Chymical Oyles which Artists call Essential , did not ( when I us'd them as I had us'd the several Families of Salts upon that Syrrup ) turn Syrrup of Violets . Red or Green , nor the Solution of Sublimate White or Yellow , I inferr'd it may thence be probably argued , that either they are destitute of Salt , or have such as belongs not to either of the three Grand families already often mention'd . When I went to examine the Spirit of Oak or of such like Concretes forced over through a Retort , I found by this means amongst others , that ( as I elsewhere show ) those Chymists are much mistaken in it , that account it a simple Liquor , and one of their Hypostatical Principles : for not to mention what flegm it may have , I found that with a few drops of one of this sort of Spirits mix'd with a good proportion of Syrrup of Violets , I could change the Colour and make it Purplish , by the affinity of which Colour to Redness , I conjectur'd that this Spirit had some Acid Corpuseles in it , and accordingly I found that as it would destroy the Blewness of a Tincture of Lignum Nephriticum , so being put upon Corals it would Corrode them , as common Spirit of Vinegar , and other Acid Liquors are wont to do . And farther to examine whether there were not a great part of the Liquor that was not of an Acid nature , having separated the Sour or Vinegar-like part from the rest , which ( if I mistake not ) is far the more Copious , we concluded as we had conjectured , the other or remaining part , though it had a strong taste as well as smell , to be of a nature differing from that of either of the three sorts of Salts above mention'd , since it did as little as Spirit of Wine , and Chymical Oyls , alter the Colour either of Syrrup of Violets or Solution of Sublimate , whence we also inferr'd that the change that had been made of that Syrrup into a Purple Colour , was effected by the Vinegar , that was one of the two Ingredients of the Liquor , which was wont to pass for a Simple or Uncompounded Spirit . And , upon this account , 't was of the Spirit of Oak ( and the like Concretes ) freed from it's Vinegar that I elsewhere told you , that I had not then observ'd it , ( and I have repeated the Tryal but very lately ) to destroy the Caeruleous Tincture of Lignum Nephriticum . But this onely , en passant ; for the Chief thing I had to add was this , That by the same way may be examin'd and discover'd , divers changes that are produc'd in Bodies either by Nature only , or by Art ; either of them being able by changing the Texture of some Concretes I could name , to qualifie them to Operate after a New manner upon the above mention'd Syrrup , or Solution , or both . And by this means , to tell you that upon the by , I have been able to discover , that there may be made Bodies , which though they run per Deliquium , as readily as Salt of Tartar , belong in other respects , not to the family of Alcaliz , much less to that of Salsuginous , or that of Acid Salts . Perhaps too , I may know a way of making a highly operative Saline Body that shall neither change the Colour of Syrrup of Violets , nor Precipitate the Solution of Sublimate ; And , I can likewise if I please conceal by what Liquors I perform such changes of Colour , as I have been mentioning to you , by quite altering the Texture of some ordinary Chymical productions , the Exploration of which is the main use of the fortieth Experiment , which I think teaches not a little , if it teach us to discover the nature of those things ( in reference to Salt ) that are obtain'd by the ordinary Chymical Analysis of mix'd Bodyes , though perhaps there may be other Bodyes prepar'd by Chymistry which may have the same Effects in the change of Colours ; and yet be produc'd not from what Chymists call the Resolution of Bodies , but from their Composition . But the discoursing of things of this nature is more proper for another place . I shall now onely add , what might perhaps have been more seasonably told you before ; That the Reason why the way of Exploration of Salts hitherto deliver'd , succeeds in the Solution of Sublimate , depends upon the particular Texture of that Solution , as well as upon the differing Natures of the Saline Liquors imploy'd to Precipitate it . For Gold dissolv'd in Aqua Regia , whether you Precipitate it with Oyl of Tartar which is an Alcaly , or with Spirit of Urne , or Sal Armoniack which belongs to the family of Volatile Salts , will either way afford a Yellow substance : though with such an Acid Liquor , as , I say not Spirit of Salt , the Body that yields it , being upon the matter an Ingredient of Aqua Regis , but Oyl of Vitriol it self , I did not find that I could Precipitate the Metall out of the Solution ; or destroy the Colour of it , though the same Oyl of Vitriol would readily Precipitate Silver dissolv'd in Aqua-fortis . And if you dissolve pure Silver in Aqua-fortis , and suffer it to shoot into Crystals , the cleer Solution of these made in fair Water , will afford a very White Precipitate , whether it be made with an Alcaly , or an Acid Spirit , as that of Salt , whereas , which may seem somewhat strange , with Spirit of Sal Armoniack ( that I us'd was made of Quick-lime ) I could obtain no such White Precipitate ; that Volatile Spirit , nor ( as I remember ) that of Urine , scarce doing any more than striking down a very small quantity of Matter , which was neither White nor Whitish , so that the remaining Liquor being suffer'd to evaporate till the superfluous Moisture was gone , the greatest part of the Metalline Corpuscles with the Saline ones that had imbib'd them , concoagulated into Salt , as is usual in such Solutions , wherein the Metall has not been Precipitated . EXPERIMENT XLI . Of Kin to the last or fortieth Experiment is another which I remember I have sometimes shewn to Virtuosi that were pleas'd not to dislike it . I took Spirit of Urine made by Fermentation , and with a due proportion of Copper brought into small parts , I obtain'd a very lovely Azure Solution , and when I saw the Colour was such as was requisite , pouring into a clean Glass , about a spoonfull of this tincted Liquor , ( of which I us'd to keep a Quantity by me , ) I could by shaking into it some drops of Strong Oyl of Vitriol , deprive it in a trice of its Deep Colour , and make it look like Common-water . Annotation . This Experiment brings into my mind this other , which oftentimes succeeds well enough , though not quite so well as the former ; Namely , that if into about a small spoonfull of a Solution of good French Verdigrease made in fair Water , I drop't and shak'd some strong Spirit of Salt , or rather deflegm'd Aqua Fortis , the Greenness of the Solution would be made in a trice almost totally to disappear , & the Liquor held against the Light would scarce seeme other than Cleer or Limpid , to any but an Attentive Eye , which is therefore remarkable , because we know that Aqua-fortis corroding Copper , which is it that gives the Colour to Verdigrease , is wont to reduce it to a Green Blew Solution . But if into the other altogether or almost Colourless Liquor I was speaking of , you drop a just quantity either of Oyl of Tartar or Spirit of Urine , you shall find that after the Ebullition is ceas'd , the mixture will disclose a lively Colour , though somewhat differing from that which the Solution of Verdigrease had at first . EXPERIMENT XLII . That the Colour ( Pyrophilus ) of a Body may be chang'd by a Liquor which of it self is of no Colour , provided it be Saline , we have already manifested by a multitude of instances . Nor doth it seem so strange , because Saline Particles swimming up and down in Liquors , have been by many observ'd to be very operative in the Production and change of Colours . But divers of our Friends that are not acquainted with Chymical Operations have thought it very strange that a White Body , and a Dry one too , should immediately acquire a rich new Colour upon the bare affusion of Spring-Water destitute as well of adventitious Salt as of Tincture . And yet ( Pyrophilus ) the way of producing such a change of Colours may be easily enough lighted on by those that are conversant in the Solutions of Mercury . For we have try'd , that though by Evaporating a Solution of Quick-Silver in Aqua-fortis , and abstracting the Liquor till the remaining matter began to be well , but not too strongly dryed , fair Water pour'd on the remaining Calx made it but somewhat Yellowish ; yet when we took good Quick-Silver , and three or four times its weight of Oyl of Vitriol , in case we in a Glass Retort plac'd in Sand drew off the Saline Menstruum from the Metalline Liquor , till there remain'd a dry Calx at the bottome , though this Precipitate were a Snow White Body , yet upon pouring on it a large quantity of fair Water , we did almost in a moment perceive it to pass from a Milky Colour to one of the loveliest Light Yellows that ever we had beheld . Nor is the Turbith Mineral , that Chymists extol for its power to Salivate , and for other vertues , of a Colour much inferiour to this , though it be often made with a differing proportion of the Ingredients , a more troublesome way . For Beguinus , who calls it Mercurius praecipitatus optimus , takes to one part of Quick-Silver , but two of Liquor , and that is Rectifi'd Oyl of Sulphur , which is ( in England at least ) far more scarce and dear than Oyl of Vitriol ; he also requires a previous Digestion , two or three Cohobations , and frequent Ablutions with hot Distill'd Water , with other prescriptions , which though they may conduce to the Goodness of the Medicine , which is that he aims at , are troublesome , and , our Tryals have inform'd you unnecessary to the obtaining the Lemmon Colour which he regards not . But though we have very rarely seen either in Painters Shops , or elsewhere a finer Yellow than that which we have divers times this way produc'd ( which is the more considerable , because durable and pleasant Yellows are very hard to be met with , as may appear by the great use which Painters are for its Colours sake fain to make of that pernicious and heavy Mineral , Orpiment ) yet I fear our Yellow is too costly , to be like to be imploy'd by Painters , unless about Choice pieces of Work , nor do I know how well it will agree with every Pigment , especially , with Oyl'd Colours . And whether this Experiment , though it have seem'd somewhat strange to most we have shown it to , be really of another Nature than those wherein Saline Liquors are imploy'd , may , as we formerly also hinted , be so plausibly , doubted , that whether the Water pour'd on the Calx , do barely by imbibing some of its Saline parts alter its Colour by altering its Texture , or whether by dissolving the Concoagulated Salts , it does become a Saline Menstruum , and , as such , work upon the Mercury , I freely leave to you ( Pyrophilus ) to consider . And that I may give you some Assistance in your Enquiry , I will not only tell you , that I have several times with fair Water wash'd from this Calx , good store of strongly tasted Corpuscles , which by the abstraction of the Menstruum , I could reduce into Salt ; but I will also subjoyn an Experiment , which I devis'd , to shew among other things , how much a real and permanent Colour may be as it were drawn forth by a Liquor that has neither Colour , nor so much as Saline or other Active parts , provided it can but bring the parts of the Body it imbibes to convene into clusters dispos'd after the manner requisite to the exhibiting of the emergent Colour . The Experiment was this . EXPERIMENT XLIII . We took good common Vitriol , and having beaten it to Powder , and put it into a Crucible , we kept it melted in a gentle heat , till by the Evaporation of some parts , and the shuffling of the rest , it had quite lost its former Colour , what remain'd we took out , and found it to be a friable Calx , of a dirty Gray . On this we pour'd fair Water , which it did not Colour Green or Blew , but only seem'd to make a muddy mixture with it , then stopping the Vial wherein the Ingredients were put , we let it stand in a quiet place for some dayes , and after many hours the water having dissolv'd a good part of the imperfectly calcin'd Body , the Yitriolate Corpuscles swiming to and fro in the Liquor , had time by their opportune Occursions to constitute many little Masses of Vitriol , which gave the water they impregnated a fair Vitriolate Colour ; and this Liquor being pour'd off , the remaining dirty Powder did in process of time communicate the like Colour , but not so deep , to a second parcel of cleer Water that we pour'd on it . But this Experiment Pyrophilus is , ( to give you that hint by the way ) of too Luciferons a Nature to be fit to be fully prosecuted , now that I am in haste , and willing to dispatch what remains . And we have already said of it , as much as is requisite to our present purpose . EXPERIMENT XLIV . It may ( Pyrophilus ) somewhat contribute towards the shewing how much some Colours depend upon the less or greater mixture , and ( as it were , ) Contemperation of the Light with shades , to observe , how that sometimes the number of Particles , of the same Colour , receiv'd into the Pores of a Liquor , or swimming up and down in it , do seem much to vary the Colour of it . I could here present you with particular instances to show , how in many ( if not most ) consistent Bodyes , if the Colour be not a Light one , as White , Yellow , or the like , the closeness of parts in the Pigments makes it look Blackish , though when it is display'd and laid on thinly , it will perhaps appear to be either Blew , or Green , or Red. But the Colours of consistent Pigments , not being those which the Preamble of this Experiment has lead you to expect Examples in , I shall take the instances I am now to give you , rather from Liquors than Dry Bodyes . If then you put a little fair Water into a cleer and slender Vial , ( or rather into one of those pipes of Glass , which we shall by and by mention ; ) and let fall into it a few drops of a strong Decoction or Infusion of Cochineel , or ( for want of that ) of Brazil ; you may see the tincted drops descend like : little Clouds into the Liquor ; through which , if , by shaking the Vial , you diffuse them , they will turn the water either of a Pinck Colour , or like that which is wont to be made by the washing of raw flesh in fair Water ; by dropping a little more of the Decoction , you may heighten the Colour into a fine Red , almost like that which ennobles Rubies ; by continuing the affusion , you may bring the Liquor to a kind of a Crimson , and afterwards to a Dark and Opacous Redness , some what like that of Clotted Blood. And in the passage of the Liquor from one of these Colours to the other , you may observe , if you consider it attentively , divers other less noted Colours belonging to Red , to which it is not easie to give Names ; especially considering how much the proportion of the Decoction to the fair Water , and the strength of that Decoction , together with that of the trajected Light and other Circumstances , may vary the Phoenomena of this Experiment . For the convenienter making whereof , we use nstead of a Vial , any slender Pipe of Glass ofabout a foot or more in length , and about the thickness of a mans little finger ; For , if leaving one end of this Pipe open , you Seal up the other Hermetically , ( or at least stop it exquisitely with a Cork well fitted to it , and over-laid with hard Sealing Wax melted , and rubb'd upon it ; ) you shall have a Glass , wherein may be observ'd the Variations of the Colours of Liquors much better than in large Vials , and wherein Experiments of this Nature may be well made with very small quantities of Liquor . And if you please , you may in this Pipe produce variety of Colours in the various parts of the Liquor , and keep them swimning upon one another unmix'd for a good while . And some have marveil'd to see , what variety of Colours we have sometimes ( but I confess rather by chance than skill ) produc'd in those Glasses , by the bare infusion of Brazil , variously diluted with fair Water , and alter'd by the Infusion of several Chymical Spirits and other Saline Liquors devoid themselves of Colour , and when the whole Liquor is reduc'd to an Uniform degree of Colour , I have taken pleasure to make that very Liquor seem to be of Colours gradually differing , by filling with it Glasses of a Conical figure , ( whether the Glass have its basis in the ordinary position , or turn'd upwards . ) And yet you need not Glasses of an extraordinary shape to see an instance of what the vari'd mixture of Light and Shadow can do in the diversifying of the Colour . For if you take but a large round Vial , with a somewhat long and slender Neck , and filling it with our Red Infusion of Brazil , hold it against the Light , you will discern a notable Disparity betwixt the Colour of that part of the Liquor which is in the Body of the Vial , and that which is more pervious to the Light in the Neck . Nay , I remember , that I once had a Glass and a Blew Liquor ( consisting chiefly ( or only , if my memory deceive me not , ) of a certain Solution of Verdigreafe ) so fitted for my purpose , that though in other Glasses the Experiment would not succeed , yet when that particular Glass was fill'd with that Solution , in the Body of the Vial it appear'd of a Lovely Blew , and in the neck , ( where the Light did more dilute the Colour , ) of a manifest Green ; and though I suspected there might be some latent Yellowness in the substance of the neck of the Glass , which might with the Blew compose that Green , yet was I not satisfi'd my self with my Conjecture , but the thing seem'd odd to me , as well as to divers curious persons to whom it was shown . And I lately had a Broad piece of Glass , which being look'd on against the Light seem'd cleer enough , and held from the Light appear'd very lightly discolour'd , and yet it was a piece knock'd off from a great lump of Glass , to which if we rejoyn'd it , where it had been broken off , the whole Mass was as green as Grass . And I have several times us'd Bottles and stopples that were both made ( as those , I had them from assur'd me ) of the very same Metall , and yet whilst the bottle appear'd but inclining towards a Green , the Stopple ( by reason of its great thickness ) was of so deep a Colour that you would hardly believe they could possibly be made of the same materials . But to satisfie some Ingenious Men , on another occasion , I provided my self of a flat Glass ( which I yet have by me , ) with which if I look against the Light with the Broad side obverted to the Eye , it appeares like a good ordinary window Glass ; but if I turn the Edge of it to my Eye , and place my Eye in a convenient posture in reference to the Light , it may contend for deepness of Colour with an Emerald . And this Greenness puts me in mind of a certain thickish , but not consistent Pigment I have sometimes made , and can show you when you please , which being dropp'd on a piece of White Paper appears , where any quantity of it is fallen , of a somewhat Crimson Colour , but being with ones finger spread thinly on the Paper does presently exhibit a fair Green , which seems to proceed only from its disclosing its Colour upon the Extenuation of its Depth into Superficies , if the change be not somewhat help'd by the Colours degenerating upon one or other of the Accounts formerly mention'd . Let me add , that having made divers Tryals with that Blew substance , which in Painters Shops is call'd Litmase , we have sometimes taken Pleasure to observe , that being dissolv'd in a due proportion of fair Water , the Solution either oppos'd to the Light , or dropp'd upon White paper , did appear of a deep Colour betwixt Crimson and Purple ; and yet that being spread very thin on the Paper and suffer'd to dry on there , the Paper was wont to appear Stain'd of a Fine Blew . And to satisfie my selfe , that the diversity came not from the Paper , which one might suspect capable of inbibing the Liquor , and altering the Colour , I made the Tryal upon a flat piece of purely White Glass'd Earth , ( which I sometimes make use of about Experiments of Colours ) with an Event not unlike the former . And now I speak of Litmass , I will add , that having this very day taken a piece of it , that I had kept by me these several years , to make Tryals about Colours , and having let fall a few drops of the strong Infusion of it in fair water , into a fine Crystal Glass , shap'd like an inverted Cone , and almost full of fair Water , I had now ( as formerly ) the pleasure to see , and to show others , how these few tincted drops variously dispersing themselves through the Limpid Water , exhibited divers Colours , or varieties of Purple and Crimson . And when the Corpuscles of the Pigment seem'd to have equally diffus'd themselves through the whole Liquor , I then by putting two or three drops of Spirit of Salt , first made an odd change in the Colour of the Liquor , as well as a visible commotion among its small parts , and in a short time chang'd it wholly into a very Glorious Yellow , like that of a Topaz . After which if I let fall a few drops of the strong and heavy Solution of Pot-ashes , whose weight would quickly carry it to the sharp bottome of the Glass , there would soon appear four very pleasant and distinct Colours ; Namely , a Bright , but Dilute Colour at the picked bottome of the Glass ; a Purple , a little higher ; a deep and glorious Crimson , ( which Crimson seem'd to terminate the operation of the Salt upward ) in the confines betwixt the Purple and the Yellow ; and an Excellent Yellow , the same that before enobled the whole Liquor , reaching from thence to the top of the Glass . And if I pleas'd to pour very gently a little Spirit of Sal Armoniack , upon the upper part of this Yellow , there would also be a Purple or a Crimson , or both , generated there , so that the unalter'd part of the Yellow Liquor appear'd intercepted betwixt the two Neighbouring Colours . My scope in this 3d. Experiment ( Pyrophilus ) is manifold , as first to invite you to be wary in judging of the Colour of Liquors in such Glasses as are therein recommended to you , and consequently as much , if not more , when you imploy other Glasses . Secondly , That you may not think it strange , that I often content my self to rub upon a piece of White paper , the Juice of Bodies I would examine , since not onely I could not easily procure a sufficient Quantity of the juices of divers of them ; but in several Cases the Tryals of the quantities of such Juices in Glasses would make us more lyable to mistakes , than the way that in those cases I have made use of . Thirdly , I hope you will by these and divers other particulars deliver'd in this Treatise , be easily induc'd to think that I may have set down many Phoenomena . very faithfully , and just as they appear'd to me , and yet by reason of some unheeded circumstance in the conditions of the matter , and in the degree of Light , or the manner of trying the Experiment , you may find some things to vary from the Relations I make of them . Lastly , I design'd to give you an opportunity to free your self from the amazement which possesses most Men , at the Tricks of those Mountebancks that are commonly call'd Water-drinkers . For though not only the vulgar , but ev'n many persons that are far above that Rank , have so much admir'd to see , a man after having drunk a great deal of fair water , to spurt it out again in the form of Claret Wine , Sack , and Milk , that they have suspected the intervening of Magick , or some forbidden means to effect what they conceived above the power of Art ; yet having once by chance had occasion to oblige a Wanderer that made profession of that and other Jugling Tricks , I was easily confirm'd by his Ingenious confession to me , That this so much Admir'd Art , indeed consisted rather in a few Tricks , than in any great Skill , in altering the Nature and Colours of things . And I am easy to be perswaded , that there may be a great deal of Truth in a little Pamphlet Printed divers years ago in English , wherein the Author undertakes to discover , and that ( if I mistake not ) by the confession of some of the Complices themselves , That a famous Water-drinker then much Admir'd in England , perform'd his pretended Transmutations of Liquors by the help of two or three inconsiderable preparations and mixtures of not unobvious Liquors , and chiefly of an Infusion of Brazil variously diluted and made Pale or Yellowish , ( and otherwise alter'd ) with Vinegar , the rest of their work being perform'd by the shape of the Glasses , by Craft and Legerdemane . And for my part , that which I marvel at in this business ; is , the Drinkers being able to take down so much Water , and spout it out with that violence ; though Custome and a Vomit seasonably taken before hand , may in some of them much facilitate the work . But as for the changes made in the Liquors , they were but few and slight in comparison of those , that the being conversant in Chymical Experiments , and dextrous in applying them to the Transmuting of Colours ; may easily enough enable a man to make , as ev'n what has been newly deliver'd in this , and the foregoing Experiment ; especially if we add to it the things contained in the XX , the XXXIX and the XL. Experiments , may perhaps have already perswaded You. EXPERIMENT XLV . You may I presume ( Pyrophilus ) have taken notice , that in this whole Treatise , I purposely decline ( as far as I well can ) the mentioning of Elaborate Chymical Experiments , for fear of frighting you by their tediousness and difficulty ; but yet in confirmation of what I have been newly telling you about the possibility of Varying the Colours of Liquors , better than the Water-drinkers are wont to do , I shall add , that Helmont used to make a preparation of Steel , which a very Ingenious Chymist , his Sons Friend , whom you know , sometimes employes for a succedaneum to the Spaw-waters , by Diluting this Essentia Martis Liquida ( as he calls it ) with a due proportion of Water . Now that for which I mention to you this preparation , ( which as he communicated to me , I know he will not refuse to Pyrophilus ) is this , that though the Liquor ( as I can shew you when you please ) be almost of the Colour of a German ( not an Oriental ) Amethyst , and consequently remote enough from Green , yet a very few drops being let fall into a Large proportion of good Rhenish , or ( in want of that ) White Wine ( which yet do's not quite so well ) immediately turn'd the Liquor into a lovely Green , as I have not without delight shown several curious Persons . By which Phoenomenon you , may learn , among other things , how requisite it is in Experiments about the changes of Colours heedfully to mind the Circumstances of them ; for Water will not , as I have purposely try'd , concurr to the production of any such Green , nor did it give that Colour to moderate Spirit of Wine , wherein I purposely dissolv'd it , and Wine it self is a Liquor that few would suspect of being able to work suddenly any such change in a Metalline preparation of this Nature ; and to satisfie my self that this new Colour proceeds rather from the peculiar Texture of the Wine , than from any greater Acidity , that Rhenish or White-wine ( for that may not absurdly be suspected ) has in comparison of Water ; I purposely sharpen'd the Solution of this Essence in fair Water , with a good quantity of Spirit of Salt , notwithstanding which , the mixture acquir'd no Greenness . And to vary the Experiment a little , I try'd , that if into a Glass of Rhenish Wine made Green by this Essence , I dropp'd an Alcalizate Solution , or Urinous Spirit , the Wine would presently grow Turbid , and of an odd Dirty Colour : But if instead of dissolving the Essence in Wine , I dissolv'd it in fair Water sharpen'd perhaps with a little Spirit of Salt , then either the Urinious Spirit of Sal Armoniack , or the Solution of the fix'd Salt of Pot-ashes would immediately turn it of a Yellowish Colour , the fix'd or Urinous Salt Precipitating the Vitriolate substance contain'd in the Essence . But here I must not forget to take notice of a circumstance that deserves to be compar'd with some part of the fore-going Experiment , for whereas our Essence imparts a Greenness to Wine , but not to Water , the Industrious Olaus Wormius in his late Musaeum tells us of a rare kind of Turn-Sole which he calls Bezetta Rubra given him by an . Apothecary that knew not how it was made , whose lovely Redness would be easily communicated to Water , if it were immers'd in it ; but scarce to Wine , and not at all to Spirit of Wine , in which last circumstance it agrees with what I lately told you of our Essence , notwithstanding their disagreement in other particulars . EXPERIMENT XLVI . We have often taken notice , as of a remarkable thing , that Metalls as they appear to the Eye , before they come to be farther alter'd by other Bodyes , do exhibit Colours very different from those which the Fire and the Menstruum , either apart , or both together , do produce in them ; especially considering that these Metalline Bodyes are after all these disguises reducible not only to their former Metalline Consistence and other more radical properties , but to their Colour too , as if Nature had given divers Metalls to each of them a double Colour , an External , and an Internal ; But though upon a more attentive Consideration of this difference of Colours , it seem'd propable to me , that divers ( for I say not all ) of those Colours which we have just now call'd Internal , are rather produc'd by the Coalition of Metalline Particles with those of the Salts , or other Bodyes employ'd to work on them , than by the bare alteration of the parts of the Metalls themselves : and though therefore we may call the obvious Colours , Natural or Common , & the others Adventitious , yet because such changes of Colours , from whatsoever cause they be resolv'd to proceed may be properly enough taken in to illustrate our present Subject , we shall not scruple to take notice of some of them , especially because there are among them such as are produc'd without the intervenvention of Saline Menstruums . Of the Adventitious Colours of Metalline Bodies the Chief sorts seem to be these three . The first , such Colours as are produc'd without other Additaments by the Action of the fire upon Metalls . The next such as emerge from the Coalition of Metalline Particles with those of some Menstruum imploy'd to Corrode a Metall or Precipitate it ; And the last , The Colours afforded by Metalline Bodyes either Colliquated with , or otherwise Penetrating into , other Bodies , especially fusible ones . But these ( Pyrophilus , ) are only as I told you , the Chief sorts of the adventitious Colours of Metalls , for there may others belong to them , of which I shall hereafter have occasion to take notice of some , and of which also there possibly may be others that I never took notice of . And to begin with the first sort of Colours , 't is well enough known to Chymists , that Tin being Calcin'd by fire alone is wont to afford a White Calx , and Lead Calcin'd by fire alone affords that most Common Red-Powder we call Minium : Copper also Calcin'd per se , by a long or violent fire , is wont to yield ( as far as I have had occasion to take notice of it ) a very Dark or Blackish Powder ; That Iron likewise may by the Action of Reverberated flames be turn'd into a Colour almost like that of Saffron , may be easily deduc'd from the Preparation of that Powder , which by reason of its Colour and of the Metall 't is made of is by Chymists call'd , Crocus Martis per se . And that Mercury made by the stress of Fire , may be turn'd into a Red Powder , which Chymists call Precipitate per se , I elsewhere more particularly declare . Annotation I. It is not unworthy the Admonishing you , ( Pyrophilus , ) and it agrees very well with our Conjectures about the dependence of the change of a Body's Colour upon that of its Texture , that the same Metall may be the successive operation of the fire receive divers Adventitious Colours , as is evident in Lead , which before it come to so deep a Colour as that of Minium , may pass through divers others . Annotation II. Not only the Calces , but the Glasses of Metalls , Vitrify'd per se , may be of Colours differing from the Natural or Obvious Colour of the Metall ; as I have observ'd in the Glass of Lead , made by long exposing Crude Lead to a violent fire , and what I have observ'd about the Glass or Slagg of Copper , ( of which I can show you some of an odd kind of Texture , ) may be elsewhere more conveniently related . I have likewise seen a piece of very Dark Glass , which an Ingenious Artificer that show'd it me profess'd himself to have made of Silver alone by an extreme Violence ( which seems to be no more than is needfull ) of the fire . Annotation III. Minerals also by the Action of the Fire may be brought to afford Colours very differing from their own , as I not long since noted to you about the variously Colour'd Flowers of Antimony , to which we may add the Whitish Grey-Colour of its Calx , and the Yellow or Reddish Colour of the Glass , where into that Calx may be flux'd . And I remember , that I elsewhere told you , that Vitriol Calcin'd with a very gentle heat , and afterwards with higher and higher degrees of it , may be made to pass through several Colours before it descends to a Dark Purplish Colour , whereto a strong fire is wont at length to reduce it . But to insist on the Colours produc'd by the Operation of fire upon several Minerals would take up farr more time than I have now to spare . EXPERIMENT XLVII . The Adventitious Colours produc'd upon Metalls , or rather with them , by Saline Liquors , are many of them so well known to Chymists , that I would not here mention them , but that besides a not un-needed Testimony , I can add something of my own , to what I shall repeat about them , and divers Experiments which are familiar to Chymists , are as yet unknown to the greatest part of Ingenious Men. That Gold dissolv'd in Aqua Regia ennobles the Menstruum with its own Colour , is a thing that you cannot ( Pyrophilus , ) but have often seen . The Solutions of Mercury in Aqua-fortis are not generally taken notice of , to give any notable Tincture to the Menstruum ; but sometimes when the Liquor first falls upon the Quick Silver , I have observ'd a very remarkable , though not durable , Greenness , or Blewness to be produc'd , which is a Phoenomenon not unfit for you to consider , though I have not now the leisure to discourse upon it . Tin Corroded by Aqua-fortis till the Menstruum will work no farther on it , becomes exceeding White , but as we else where note , does very easily of it self acquire the consistence , not of a Metalline Calx , but of a Coagulated matter , which we have observ'd with pleasure to look so like , either to curdled Milk , or curdled Whites of Eggs , that a person unacquainted with such Solutions may easily be mistaken in it . But when I purposely prepar'd a Menstruum that would dissolve it as Aqua-fortis dissolves Silver , and not barely Corrode it , and quickly let it fall again , I remember not that I took notice of any particular Colour in the Solution , as if the more Whitish Metalls did not much Tinge their Menstruums , though the conspicuously Colour'd Metalls as Gold , and Copper , do . For Lead dissolv'd in Spirit of Vinegar or Aqua-fortis gives a Solution cleer enough , and if the Menstruum be abstracted appears either Diaphanous or White . Of the Colour of Iron we have elsewhere said something : And 't is worth noting , that , though if that Metall be dissolv'd in oyl of Vitriol diluted with water , it affords a Salt or Magistery so like in colour , as well as some other Qualities , to other green Vitriol , that Chymists do not improperly call it Vitriolum Martis ; yet I have purposely try'd , that , by changing the Menstruum , and pouring upon the filings of Steel , instead of oyl of Vitriol , Aqua Fortis , ( whereof as I remember , I us'd 4 parts to one of the Metall ) I obtain'd not a Green , but a Saffron Colour Solution ; or rather a thick Liquor of a deep but yellowish Red. Common Silver , such as is to be met with in Coines , being dissolv'd in Aqua fortis , yields a Solution tincted like that of Copper , which is not to be wondred at , because in the coining of Silver , they are wont ( as we elsewhere particularly inform you ) to give it an Allay of Copper , and that which is sold in shops for refined silver , is not ( so far as we have tryed ) so perfectly free from that ignobler Metall , but that a Solution of It in Aqua fortis , will give a Venereal Tincture to the Menstruum . But we could not observe upon the solution of some Silver , which was perfectly refin'd , ( such as some that we have , from which 8 or 10 times its weight of Lead has been blown off ) that the Menstruum though held against the Light in a Crystal Vial did manifestly disclose any Tincture , only it seem'd sometimes not to be quite destitute of a little , but very faint Blewishness . But here I must take notice , that of all the Metalls , there is not any which doth so easily and constantly disclose its unobvious colour as Copper doth . For not only in acid Menstruums as Aqua Fortis and Spirit of Vinegar , it gives a Blewish green solution , but if it be almost any way corroded , it appears of one of those two colours , as may be observ'd in Verdigreese made several wayes , in that odd preparation of Venus , which we elsewhere teach you to make with Sublimate , and in the common Vitriols of Venus deliver'd by Chymists ; and so constant is the disposition of Copper , notwithstanding the disguise Artists put upon it , to disclose the colour we have been mentioning , that we have by forcing it up with Sal Armoniack obtain'd a Sublimate of a Blewish Colour . Nay a famous Spagyrist affirms , that the very Mercury of it is green , but till he teach us an intelligible way of making such a Mercury , we must content our selves to inform you , that we have had a Cupreous Body , that was Praecipitated out of a distill'd Liquor , that seem'd to be the Sulphur of Venus , and seem'd even when flaming , of a Greenish Colour . And indeed Copper is a Metall so easily wrought upon by Liquors of several kinds ; that I should tell you , I know not any Mineral , that will concurr to the production of such a variety of Colours as Copper dissolv'd in several Menstruums , as Spirit of Vinegar , Aqua fortis , Aqua Regis , Spirit of Nitre , of Urine , of Soot , Oyls of several kinds , and I know not how many other Liquors , if the variety of somewhat differing colours ( that Copper will be made to assume , as it is wrought upon by several Liquors ) where not comprehended within the Limits of Greenish Blew , or Blewish Green. And yet I must advertise you ( Pyrophilus ) that being desirous to try if I could not make with crude Copper a Green Solution without the Blewishness that is wont to accompany its Vulgar Solutions , I bethought my self of using two Menstruums , which I had not known imploy'd to work on this Metall , and which I had certain Reasons to make Tryal of , as I successfully did . The one of these Liquors ( if I much misremember not ) was Spirit of Sugar distill'd in a Retort , which must be warily done , ( if you will avoid breaking your glasses ) and the other , Oyl or Spirit of Turpentine , which affords a fine Green Solution that is useful to me on several occasions . And yet to shew that the adventitious colour may result , as well from the true and permanent Copper it self , as the Salts wherewith 't is corroded , I shall add , that if you take a piece of good Dantzick Copperis , or any other Vitriol wherein Venus is praedominant , and having moistened it in your Mouth , or with fair water , rubb it upon a whetted knife , or any other bright piece of Steel or Iron , it will ( as we have formerly told you ) presently stain the Steel with a Reddish colour , like that of Copper ; the reason of which , we must not now stay to inquire . Annotation I. I presume you may have taken notice ( Pyrophilus ) that I have borrowed some of the Instances mention'd in this 47th Experiment , from the Laboratories of Chymists , and because in some ( though very few ) other passages of this Essay , I have likewise made use of Experiments mention'd also by some Spagyrical Writers , I think it not amiss to represent to you on this Occasion once for all , some things besides those which I intimated in the praeamble of this present Experiment ; For besides , that 't is very allowable for a Writer to repeat an Experiment which he invented not , in case he improve it ; And besides that many Experiments familiar to Chymists are unknown to the generality of Learned Men , who either never read Chymical processes , or never understood their meaning , or never durst believe them ; besides these things , I say , I shall represent , That , as to the few Experiments I have borrowed from the Chymists , if they be very Vulgar , 't would perhaps be difficult to ascribe each of them its own Author , and 't is more than the generality of Chymists themselves can do : and if they be not of very known and familiar practise among them , unless the Authors wherein I found them had given me cause to believe , themselves had try'd them , I know not why I might not set them down , as a part of the Phaenomena of Colours which I present you ; Many things unanimously enough deliver'd as matters of fact by ( I know not how many Chymical Writers ) being not to be rely'd on , upon the single Authority of such Authors : For Instance , as some Spagyrists deliver ( perhaps amongst several deceitful processes ) that Saccarum Saturni with Spirit of Turpentine will afford a Balsom , so Beguinus and many more tell us , that the same Concrete ( Saccaram Saturni ) will yield an incomparably fragrant Spirit , and a pretty Quantity of two several Oyles ; and yet since many have complain'd ; as well as I have done , that they could find no such odoriferous ; but rather an ill-sented Liquor , and scarce any oyl in their Distillation of that sweet Vitriol , a wary person would as little build any thing on what they say of the former Experiment , as upon what they averr of the later ; and therefore I scrupled not to mention this Red Balsom of which I have not seen any ; ( but what I made ) among my other Experiments about redness . Annot. II. We have sometimes had the Curiosity to try what Colours Minerals , as Tin-glass , Antimony , Spelter , &c. would yield in several Menstruums , nor have we forborn to try the Colours of Stones , of which that famous one , ( which Helmont calls Paracelsus's Ludus ) though it be digg'd out of the Earth and seem a true stone ; has afforded in Menstruums capable to dissolve so solid a stone , sometimes a Yellowish ; sometimes a Red solution of both which I can show you . But though I have from Minerals obtain'd with several Menstruums very differing Colours , and some such as perhaps you would be surpriz'd to see drawn from such Bodies : yet I must now pass by the particulars , being desirous to put an End to this Treatise , before I put an end to your Patience and my own . Annotation III. And yet before I pass to the next Experiment , I must put you in mind , that the Colours of Metals may in many cases be further alter'd by imploying , either praecipitating Salts , or other convenient Substances to act upon their Solutions . Of this you may remember , that I have given you several Instances already , to which may be added such as these , That if Quicksilver be dissolv'd in Aqua fortis , and Praecipitated out of the Solution , either with water impregnated with Sea salt , or with the spirit of that Concrete , it falls to the Bottom in the form of a white powder , whereas if it be Praecipitated with an Alcaly , it will afford a Yellowish or tawny powder , and if there be no Praecipitation made ; and the Menstruum be drawn off with a convenient fire , the corroded Mercury will remain in the Bottom , in the form of a substance that may be made to appear of differing Colours by differing degrees of Heat ; As I remember that lately having purposely abstracted Aqua fortis from some Quicksilver that we had dissolv'd in it , so that there remain'd a white Calx , exposing that to several degrees of Fire , and afterwards to a naked one , we obtain'd some new Colours , and at length the greatest part of the Calx lying at the Bottome of the Vial , and being brought partly to a Deep Yellow , and partly to a Red Colour , the rest appear'd elevated to the upper part and neck of the Vial , some in the form of a Reddish , and some of an Ash-Colour Sublimate . But of the differing Colours which by differing wayes and working of Quick Silver with Fire , and Saline Bodies , may be produc'd in Precipitates , I may elsewhere have occasion to take further notice . I also told you not long since , that if you corrode Quick-silver with Oyl of Vitriol instead of Aqua-fortis , and abstract the Menstruum , there will remain a White Calx which by the Affusion of Fair Water presently turns into a Lemmon Colour . And ev'n the Succedaneum to a Menstruum may sometimes serve the turn to change the Colours of a Metal . The lovely Red which Painters call Vermillion ; is made of Mercury , which is of the Colour of Silver , and of Brimstone which is of Kin to that of Gold , Sublim'd up together in a certain proportion , as is vulgarly known to Spagyrists . EXPERIMENT XLVIII . The third chief sort of the Adventitious Colours of Metals , is , that which is produc'd by associating them ( especially when Calcin'd ) with other fusible Bodies , and Principally Venice , and other fine Glass devoid of Colour . I have formerly given you an Example , whereby it may appear , that a Metal may impart to Glass a Colour much differing from its own , when I told you , how with Silver , I had given Glass a lovely Golden Colour . And I shall now add , that I have Learn'd from one of the Chief Artificers that sells Painted Glass , that those of his Trade Colour it Yellow with a preparation of the Calx of Silver . Though having lately had occasion among other Tryals to mingle a few grains of Shell-silver ( such as is imploy'd with the Pensil and Pen ) with a convenient proportion of povvder'd Crystal Glass , having kept them tvvo or three hours in fusion , I was surpriz'd to find the Colliquated Mass to appear upon breaking the Crucible of a lovely Saphirine Blew , which made me suspect my Servant might have brought me a wrong Crucible , but he constantly affirm'd it to be the same wherein the Silver was put , and considerable Circumstances countenanc'd his Assertion , so that till I have opportunity to make farther Tryal , I cannot but suspect , either that Silver which is not ( which is not very probable ) brought to a perfect Fusion and Colliquation with Glass , may impart to it other Colours than when Neal'd upon it , or else ( which is less unlikely ) that though Silver Beaters usually chuse the finest Coyn they can get , as that which is most extensive under the Hammer , yet the Silver-leaves of which this Shel-silver was made , might retain so much Copper as to enable it to give the predominant Tincture to the Glass . For , I must proceed to tell you ( Pyrophilus ) as another instance of the Adventitious Colours of Metals , that which is something strange , Namely , That though Copper Calcin'd per se affords but a Dark and basely Colour'd Calx , yet the Glasmen do with it , as themselves inform me , Tinge their Glass green . And I remember , that when once we took some crude Copper , and by frequent Igintion quenching it in Water had reduc'd it to a Dark and Ill-colour'd Powder , and afterwards kept it in Fusion in about a 100. times its weight of fine Glass , we had , though not a Green , yet a Blew colour'd Mass , which would perhaps have been Green , if we had hit right upon the Proportion of the Materials , and the Degree of Fire , and the Time wherein it ought to be kept in Fusion , so plentifully does that Metal abound in a Venerial Tincture , as Artists call it , and in so many wayes does it disclose that Richness . But though Copper do as we have said give somewhat near the like Colour to Glass , which it does to Aqua-fortis , yet it seems worth inquiry , whether those new Colours which Mineral Bodies disclose in melted Glass , proceed from the Coalition of the Corpuscles of the Mineral with the Particles of the Glass as such , or from the Action ( excited or actuated by fire ) of the Alcalizate Salt ( which is a main Ingredient of Glass , ) upon the Mineral Body , or from the concurrence of both these Causes , or else from any other . But to return to that which we were saying , we may observe that Putty made by calcining together a proportion of Tin and Lead , as it is it self a White Calx , so does it turn the Pitta di Crystalio ( as the Glassmen call the matter of the Purer sort of Glass , wherewith it is Colliquated into a White Mass , which if it be opacous enough is employ'd , as we elsewhere declare , for White Amel. But of the Colours which the other Metals may be made 'to produce in Colourless Glass , and other Vitrifiable Bodies , that have native Colours of their own , I must leave you to inform you self upon Tryal , or at least must forbear to do it till another time , considering how many Annotations are to follow , upon what has in this and the two former Experiments been said already . Annotation I. When the Materials of Glass being melted with Calcin'd Tin , have compos'd a Mass Undiaphanous and White , this White Amel is as it were the Basis of all those fine Concretes that Goldsmiths and several Artificers imploy in the curious Art of Enamelling . For this White and Fusible substance will receive into it self , without spoyling them , the Colours of divers other Mineral substances , which like it will indure the fire . Annotation II. So that as by the present ( XLVIII . ) Experiment it appears , that divers Minerals will impart to fusible Masses , Colours differing from their own ; so by the making and compounding of Amels , it may appear , that divers Bodies will both retain their Colour in the fire , and impart the same to some others wherewith they were vitrifi'd , and in such Tryals as that mention'd in the 17. Experiment , where I told you , that ev'n in Amels a Blew and Yellow will compound a Green. 'T is pretty to behold , not only that some Colours are of so fix'd a Nature , as to be capable of mixture without receiving any detriment by the fire , that do's so easily destroy or spoyl those of other Bodies ; but Mineral Pigments may be mingled by fire little less regularly and successfully , than in ordinary Dyeing Fatts , the vulgar Colours are wont to be mingled by the help of Water . Annotation III. 'T is not only Metalline , but other Mineral Bodies , that may be imploy'd , to give Tinctures unto Glass ( and 't is worth noting how small a quantity of some Mineral substances , will Tinge a Comparatively vast proportion of Glass , and we have sometimes attempted to Colour Glass , ev'n with Pretious Stones , and had cause to think the Experiment not cast away . And 't is known by them that have look'd into the Art of Glass ; that the Artificers use to tinge their Glass Blew , with that Dark Mineral Zaffora , ( some of my Tryals on which I elsewhere acquaint you ) which some would have to be a Mineral Earth , others a Stone , and others neither the one , nor the other , but which is confessedly of a Dark , but not a Blew Colour , though it be not agreed of what particular Colour it is . 'T is likewise though a familiar yet a remarkable practise among those that Deal in the making of Glass , to imploy ( as some of themselves have inform'd me ) what they call Manganess , and some Authors call Magnesia ( of which I make particular mention in another Treatise ) to exhibit in Glass not only other Colours than its own , ( which is so like in Darkness or Blackishness to the Load-stone , that 't is given by Mineralists , for one of the Reasons of its Latine Name ) but Colours differing from one another . For though they use it , ( which is somewhat strange ) to Clarifye their Glass , and free it from that Blewish Greenish Colour , which else it would too often be subject to , yet they also imploy it in certain proportions , to tinge their Glass both with a Red colour , and with a Purplish or Murry , and putting in a greater Quantity , they also make with it that deep obscure Glass which is wont to pass for Black , which agrees very well with , and may serve to confirm what we noted near the beginning of the 44th Experiment , of the seeming Blackness of those Bodies that are overcharg'd with the Corpuscles of such Colours , as Red , or Blevv , or Green , &c. And as by several Metals and other Minerals vve can give various Colours to Glass , so on the other side , by the differing Colours that Mineral Oars , or other Mineral Povvders being melted vvith . Glass disclose in it , a good Conjecture may be oftentimes made of the Metall or knovvn Mineral , that the Oar propos'd , either holds , or is most of kin to . And this easie vvay of examining Oars , may be in some cases of good use , and is not ill deliver'd by Glauber , to vvhom I shall at present refer you , for a more particular account of it : unless your Curiosity command also vvhat I have observ'd about these matters ; only I must here advertise you , that great circumspection is requisite to keep this way from proving fallacious , upon the account of the variations of Colour that may be produc'd by the differing proportions that may be us'd betwixt the Oar and the Glass , by the Richness or Poorness of the Oar it self , by the Degree of Fire , and ( especially ) by the Length of Time , during which the matter is kept in fusion ; as you will easily gather from what you will quickly meet with in the following Annotation upon this present 48th Experiment . Annotation IV. There is another way and differing enough from those already mention'd , by which Metalls may be brought to exhibit adventitious Colours : For by This , the Metall do's not so much impart a Colour to another Body , as receive a Colour from it , or rather both Bodies do by the new Texture resulting from their mistion produce a new Colour . I will not insist to this purpose upon the Examples afforded us by yellow Orpiment , and common Sea Salt , from which , sublim'd together , Chymists unanimously affirm their White or Crystalline Arsenick to be made : But 't is not unworthy our nothing , That though Yellow Orpiment be acknowledg'd to be the Copiousest by far of the two Ingredients of Arsenick , yet this last nam'd Body being duely added to the highest Colour'd Metall Copper , when 't is in fusion , gives it a whiteness both within and without . Thus Lapis Calaminaris changes and improves the Colour of Copper by turning it into Brass . And I have sometimes by the help of Zincle duely mix'd after a certain manner , given Copper one of the Richest Golden Colours that ever I have seen the Best true Gold Ennobled with . But pray have a care that such Hints fall not into any hands that may mis-imploy them . Annotation V. Upon the Knowledge of the differing wayes of making Minerals and Metalls produce their adventitious Colours in Bodies capable of Vitrification , depends the pretty Art of making what Chymists by a Barbarous Word are pleas'd to call Amanses , that is counterfeit , or factitious Gemms , as Emeralds , Rubies , Saphires , Topazes , and the like . For in the making of these , though pure Sand or Calcin'd Crystal give the Body , yet 't is for the most part some Metalline or Mineral Calx , mingled in a smal proportion that gives the Colour . But though I have many years since taken delight , to divert my self with this pleasing Art , and have seen very pretty Productions of it , yet besides that I fear I have now forgot most of the little Skill I had in it , this is no place to entertain you with what would rather take up an intire Discourse , than be comprehended in an Annotation ; wherefore the few things which I shall here take notice of to you , are only what belong to the present Argument , Namely , First , That I have often observ'd that Calcin'd Lead Colliquated with fine White Sand or Crystal , reduc'd by ignitions and subsequent extinctions in Water to a subtile Powder , will of it self be brought by a due Decoction to give a cleer Mass Colour'd like a German Amethyst . For though this glass of Lead , is look'd upon by them that know no better way of making Amanses , as the grand Work of them all , yet which is an inconvenience that much blemishes this way , the Calcin'd Lead it self does not only afford matter to the Amanses , but has also as well as other Metals a Colour of its own , which as I was saying , I have often found to be like that of German ( as many call them ) not Eastern Amethysts . Secondly , That nevertheless this Colour may be easily over-powr'd by those of divers other Mineral Pigments ( if I may so call them ) so that with a glass of Lead , you may Emulate ( for Instance ) the fresh and lovely Greenness of an Emerald , though in divers cases the Colour which the Lead it self upon Vitrification tends to , may vitiate that of the Pigment , which you would introduce into the Mass . Thirdly , That so much ev'n these Colours depend upon Texture , that in the Glass of Lead it self made of about three parts of Lytharge or Minium Colliquated with one of very finely Powder'd Crystal or Sand , we have taken pleasure to make the mixture pass through differing Colours , as we kept it more or less in the Fusion . For it was not usually till after a pretty long Decoction that the Mass attain'd to the Amethystin Colour . Fourthly and lastly , That the degrees of Coction and other Circumstances may so vary the Colour produc'd in the same mass , that in a Crucible that was not great I have had fragments of the same Mass , in some of which perhaps not so big as a Hazel-Nut , you may discern four distinct Colours . Annotation VI. You may remember ( Pyrophilus ) that when I mention'd the three sorts of adventitious Colours of Metals , I mention'd them but as the chief , not the only . For there may be other wayes , which though they do not in so strict a sense belong to the adventitious Colours of Metals , may not inconveniently be reduc'd to them . And of these I shall name now a couple , without denying that there may be more . The first may be drawn from the practise of those that Dye Scarlet . For the famousest Master in that Art , either in England or Holland , has confess'd to me , that neither others , nor he can strike that lovely Colour which is now wont to be call'd the Bow-Dye , without their Materials be Boyl'd in Vessels , either made of , or lin'd with a particular Metall . But of what I have known attempted in this kind , I must not as yet for fear of prejudicing or displeasing others give you any particular Account . The other way ( Pyrophilus ) of making Metals afford unobvious Colours , is by imbuing divers Bodies with Solutions of them made in their proper Menstruum's , As ( for Instance ) though Copper plentifully dissolv'd in Aqua fortis , will imbue several Bodies with the Colour of the Solution ; Yet some other Metalls will not ( as I elsewhere tell you ) and have often try'd . Gold dissolv'd in Aqua Regia , will , ( which is not commonly known ) Dye the Nails and Skin , and Hafts of Knives , and other things made of Ivory , not with a Golden , but a Purple Colour , which thought it manifest it self but slowly , is very durable , and scarce ever to be wash'd out . And if I misremember not , I have already told you in this Treatise , that the purer Crystals of fine Silver made with Aqua fortis , though they appear White , will presently Dye the Skin and Nails , with a Black , or at least a very Dark Colour , which Water will not wash off , as it will ordinary Ink from the same parts . And divers other Bodies may the same way be Dy'd , some of a Black , and others of a Blackish Colour . And as Metalline , so likewise Mineral Solutions may produce Colours differing enough from those of the Liquors themselves . I shall not fetch an Example of this , from what we daily see happen in the powdring of Beef , which by the Brine imploy'd about it ( especially if the flesh be over salted ) do's oftentimes appear at our Tables of a Green , and sometimes of a Reddish Colour , ( deep enough ) nor shall I insist on the practise of some that deal in Salt Petre , who , ( as I suspected , and as themselves acknowledg'd to me ) do , with the mixture of a certain proportion of that , and common Salt , give a fine Redness , not only to Neats Tongues , but which is more pretty as well as difficult , to such flesh , as would otherwise be purely White ; These Examples , I say , I shall deeline insisting on , as chusing rather to tell you , that I have several times try'd , that a Solution of the Sulphur of Vitriol , or ev'n of common Sulphur , though the Liquor appear'd clear enough , would immediately tinge a piece of new Coin , or other clean Silver , sometimes with a Golden , sometimes with a deeper , and more Reddish colour , according to the strength of the Solution , and the quantity of it , that chanc'd to adhere to the Metall , which may take off your wonder that the water of the hot Spring at Bath , abounding with dissolv'd Substances of a very Sulphureous Nature , should for a while , as it were gild , the new or clean pieces of Silver coyn , that are for a due time immers'd in it . And to these may be added those formerly mention'd Examples of the adventitious Colours of Mineral Bodies ; which brings into my mind , that , ev'n Vegetable Liquors , whether by degeneration , or by altering the Texture of the Body that imbibes them , may stain other Bodies with Colours differing enough from their own , of which very good Herbarists have afforded us a notable Example , by affirming that the Juice of Alcanna being green ( in which state I could never here procure it ) do's yet Dye the Skin and Nails of a Lasting Red. But I see this Treatise is like to prove too bulky without the addition of further Instances of this Nature . EXPERIMENT XLIX . Meeting the other day , Pyrophilus , in an Italian book , that treats of other matters , with a way of preparing what the Author calls a Lacca of Vegetables , by which the Italians mean a kind of Extract fit for Painting , like that rich Lacca in English commonly call'd Lake , which is imploy'd by Painters as a glorious Red. And finding the Experiment not to be inconsiderable , and very defectively set down , it will not be amiss to acquaint you with what some Tryals have inform'd us , in reference to this Experiment , which both by our Italian Author , and by divers of his Countrymen , is look'd upon as no trifling Secret. Take then the root call'd in Latin Curcuma , and in English Turmerick , ( which I made use of , because it was then at hand , and is among Vegetables fit for that purpose one of the most easiest to be had ) and when it is beaten , put what Quantity of it you please into fair Water , adding to every pound of Water about a spoonfull or better of as strong a Lixivium or Solution of Pot-ashes as you can well make , clarifying it by Filtration before you put it to the Decocting water . Let these things boyl , or rather simper over a soft Fire in a clean glaz'd Earthen Vessel , till you find by the Immersion of a sheet of White Paper ( or by some other way of Tryal ) that the Liquor is sufficiently impregnated with the Golden Tincture of the Turmerick , then take the Decoction off the Fire , and Filter or Strain it that it may be clean , and leisurely dropping into it a strong Solution of Roch Allum , you shall find the Decoction as it were curdl'd , and the tincted part of it either to emerge , to subside , or to swim up and down , like little Yellow flakes ; and if you pour this mixture into a Tunnel lin'd with Cap Paper , the Liquor that Filtred formerly so Yellow , will now pass clean thorow the Filtre , leaving its tincted , and as it were curdled parts in the Filtre , upon which fair Water must be so often pour'd , till you have Dulcifi'd the matter therein contain'd , the sign of which Dulcification is ( you know ) when the Water that has pass'd through it , comes from it as tastless as it was pour'd on it . And if without Filtration you would gather together the flakes of this Vegetable Lake , you must pour a great Quantity of fair Water upon the Decoction after the affusion of the Alluminous Solution , and you shall find the Liquor to grow clearer , and the Lake to settle together at the bottom , or emerge to the top of the Water , though sometimes having not pour'd out a sufficient Quantity of fair Water , we have observ'd the Lake partly to subside , and partly to emerge , leaving all the middle of the Liquor clear . But to make this Lake fit for use , it must by repeated affusions of fresh Water , be Dulcifi'd from the adhering Salts , as well as that separated by Filtration , and be spread and suffer'd to dry leisurely upon pieces of Cloth , with Brown Paper , or Chalk , or Bricks under them to imbibe the Moisture * . Annotation I. Whereas it is presum'd that the Magistery of Vegetables obtain'd this way consists but of the more . Soluble and Colour'd parts of the Plants that afford it , I must take the liberty to Question the Supposition . And for my so doing , I shall give you this account . According to the Notions ( such as they were ) that I had concerning Salts ; Allom , though to sense a Homogeneous Body , ought not to be reckon'd among true Salts , but to be it self look'd upon as a kind of Magistery , in regard that as Native Vitriol ( for such I have had ) contains both a Saline substance and a Metall , whether Copper , or Iron , corroded by it , and associated with it ; so Allom which may be of so near a kin to Vitriol , that in some places of England ( as we are assur'd by good Authority the same stone will sometimes afford both ) seems manifestly to contain a peculiar kind of Acid Spirit , generated in the Bowels of the Earth , and some kind of stony matter dissolv'd by it . And though in making our ordinary Allom , the Workmen use the Ashes of a Sea Weed ( vulgarly call'd Kelp ) and Urine : yet those that should know , inform us , that , here in England , there is besides the factitious Allom , Allom made by Nature without the help of those Additaments . Now ( Pyrophilus ) when I consider'd this composition of Allom , and that Alcalizate Salts are wont to Praecipitate what acid Salts have dissolv'd , I could not but be prone to suspect that the Curdled Matter , which is call'd the Magistery of Vegetables , may have in it no inconsiderable proportion of a stony substance Praecipitated out of the Allom by the Lixivium , wherein the Vegetable had been decocted , and to shew you , that there is no necessity , that all the curdl'd substance must belong to the Vegetable , I shall add , that I took a strong Solution of Allom , and having Filtred it , by pouring in a convenient Quantity of a strong Solution of Pot-ashes , I presently , as I expected , turn'd the mixture into a kind of white Curds ; which being put to Filtre , the Paper retain'd a stony Calx , copious enough , very White , and which seem'd to be of a Mineral Nature , both by some other signes , and this , that little Bits of it being put upon a live Coal , which was Gently Blown whilst they were on it , they did neither melt nor fly away , and yon n ay keep a Quantity of this White substance for a good while , ( nay for ought I can guess for a very long one ) in a red hot Crucible without losing or spoiling it ; nor did not Water wherein I purposely kept another parcel of such Calx , seem to do any more than wash away the looser adhering Salts from the stony Substance , which therefore seem'd unlikely to be separable by abiutions ( though reiterated ) from the Praecipitated parts of the Vegetable , whose Lake is intended . And to shew you , that there is likewise in Allom a Body , with which the fix'd Salt of the Alcalizare Solution will concoaguiare into a Saline Substance differing from either of them , I shall add , that I have taken pleasure to recover out of the slowly exhal'd Liquor , that pass'd through the filtre , and left the foremention'd Calx behind , a Body that at least seem'd a Salt very pretty to look on , as being very White , and consisting of an innumerable company of exceeding slender , and shining Particles , which would in part easily melt at the flame of a Candle , and in part flye away with some little noise . But of this substance , and its odd Qualities more perhaps elsewhere ; for now I shall only take notice to you , that I have likewise with Urinous Salts , such as the Spirit of Sal Armoniack , as well as with the Spirit of Urine it self , Nay , ( if I much mistake not ) ev'n with Stale Urine undistil'd , easily Precipitated such a White Calx , as I was formerly speaking of , out of a Limpid Solution of Allom , so that there is need of Circumspect on in judging of the Natures of Liquors by Precipitations wherein Allom intervenes , else we may sometimes mistakingly imagine that to be Precipitated out of a Liquor by Allom , which is rather Precipitated out of Allom by the Liquor : And this puts me in mind to tell you , that 't is not unpleasant to behold how quickly the Solution of Allom ( or injected lumps of Allom ) do's occasion the severing of the colour'd parts of the Decoction from the Liquor that seem'd to have so perfectly imbib'd them . Annot. 11. The above mention'd way of making Lakes we have tryed not only with Turmerick , but also with Madder , which yielded us a Red Lake ; and with Rue , which afforded us an extract , of ( almost if not altogether ) the same Colour with that of the leaves . But in regard that 't is Principally the Alcalizate Salt of the Pot-ashes , which enables the water to Extract so powerfully the Tincture of the Decocted Vegetables , I fear that our Author may be mistaken by supposing that the Decoction will alwayes be of the very same Colour with the Vegetable it is made off . For Lixiviate Salts , to which Pot-ashes eminently belong , though by peircing and opening the Bodies of Vegetables , they prepare and dispose them to part readily with their Tincture , yet some Tinctures they do not only draw out , but likewise alter them , as may be easily made appear by many of the Experiments already set down in this Treatise , and though Allom being of an Acid Nature , its Solutions may in some Cases destroy the Adventitious Colours produc'd by the Alcaly , and restore the former : yet besides that Allom is not , as I have lately shown , a meer Acid Salt , but a mixt Body , and besides , that its operations are languid in comparison of the activity of Salts freed by Distillation , or by Incineration and Dissolution , from the most of their Earthy parts , we have seen already Examples , that in divers Cases an Acid Salt will not restore a Vegetable substance to the Colour of which an Alcalizate one had depriv'd it , but makes it assume a third very differing from both , as we formerly told you , that if Syrrup of Violets were by an Alcaly turn'd Green , ( which Colour , as I have try'd , may be the same way produc'd in the Violet-leaves themselves without any Relation to a Syrrup ) an Acid Salt would not make it Blew again , but Red. And though I have by this way of making Lakes , made Magisteries ( for such they seem to be ) of Brazil , and as I remember of Cochinele it self , and of other things , Red , Yellow or Green which Lakes were enobled with a Rich Colour , and others had no bad one ; yet in some the colour of the Lake seem'd rather inferiour than otherwise to that of the Plant , and in others it seem'd both very differing , and much worse ; but Writing this in a time and place where I cannot provide my self of Flowres and other Vegetables to prosecute such Tryals in a competent variety of Subjects , I am content not to be positive in delivering a judgment of this way of Lakes , till Experience , or You , Pyrophilus , shall have afforded me a fuller and more particular Information . Annotation III. And on this occasion ( Pyrophilus ) I must here ( having forgot to do it sooner ) advertise you once for all , that having written several of the foregoing Experiments , not only in haste but at seasons of the year , and in places wherein I could not furnish my self with such Instruments , and such a variety of Materials , as the design of giving you an Introduction into the History of Colours requir'd , it can scarce be otherwise but that divers of the Experiments , that I have set down , may afford you some matter of new Tryals , if you think fit to supply the deficiencies of some of them ( especially the freshly mention'd about Lakes , and those that concern Emphatical Colours ) which deficiencies for want of being befriended with accommodations I could better discern than avoid . Annotation IV. The use of Allom is very great as well as familiar in the Dyers Trade , and I have not been ill pleas'd with the use I have been able to make of it in preparing other pigments than those they imploy with Vegetable Juices . But the Lucriferous practises of Dyers and other Tradesmen , I do , for Reasons that you may know when you please , purposely forbear in this Essay , though not strictly from pointing at , yet from making it a part of my present work explicitly and circumstantially to deliver , especially since I now find ( though late and not without some Blushes at my prolixity ) that what I intended but for a short Essay , is already swell'd into almost a Volume . EXPERIMENT L. Yet here , Pyrophilus , I must take leave to insert an Experiment , though perhaps you 'l think its coming in here an Intrusion , For I confess its more proper place would have been among those Experiments , that were brought as proofs and applications of our Notions concerning the differences of Salts ; but not having remembred to insert it in its fittest place , I had rather take notice of it in this , than leave it quite unmention'd : partly because it doth somewhat differ from the rest of our Experiments about Colours , in the way whereby 't is made ; and partly because the grounds upon which I devis'd it , may hint to you somewhat of the Method I use in Designing and Varying Experiments about Colours , and upon this account I shall inform you , not only What I did , but Why I did it . I consider'd then that the work of the former Experiments was either to change the Colour of a Body into another , or quite to destroy it , without giving it a successor , but I had a mind to give you also a way , whereby to turn a Body endued with one Colour into two Bodies , of Colours , as well as consistencies , very distinct from each other , and that by the help of a Body that had it self no Colour at all . In order to this , I remembered , that finding the Acidity of Spirit of Vinegar to be wholly destory'd by its working upon Minium ( or calcin'd Lead ) whereby the Salin particles of the Menstruum have their Taste and Nature quite alter'd , I had , among other Conjectures I had built upon that change , rightly concluded , that the Solution of Lead in Spirit of Vinegar would alter the Colour of the Juices and Infusions of several Plants , much after the like manner that I had found Oyl of Tartar to do ; and accordingly I was quickly satisfied upon Tryal , that the Infusion of Rose-leaves would by a small quantity of this Solution well mingl'd with it , be immediately turn'd into a somewhat sad Green. And further , I had often found , that Oyl of Vitriol , though a potently Acid Menstruum , will yet Praecipitate many Bodies , both Mineral and others , dissolv'd not onely in Aqua fortis ( as some Chymists have observ'd ) but particularly in Spirit of Vinegar , and I have further found , that the Calces or Powders Praecipitated by this Liquor were usually fair and White . Laying these things together , 't was not difficult to conclude , that if upon a good Tincture of Red Rose-leaves made with fair Water , I dropp'd a pretty quantity of a strong and sweet Solution of Minium , the Liquor would be turn'd into the like muddy Green Substance , as I have formerly intimated to You , that Oyl of Tartar would reduce it to , and that if then I added a convenient quantity of good Oyl of Vitriol , this last nam'd Liquor would have two distinct operations upon the Mixture , the one , that it would Praecipitate that resolv'd Lead in the form of a White Powder ; the other , that it would Clarifie the muddy Mixture , and both restore , and exceedingly heighten the Redness of the Infusion of Roses , which vvas the most copious Ingredient of the Green composition , and accordingly trying the Experiment in a Wine glass sharp at the bottom ( like an inverted Cone ) that the subsiding Powder might seem to take up the more room , and be the more conspicuous , I found that when I had shaken the Green Mixture , that the colour'd Liquor might be the more equally dispersed , a few drops of the rectifi'd Oyl of Vitriol did presently turn the opacous Liquor into one that was cleer and Red , almost like a Rubie , and threw down good store of a Powder , which when 't was settl'd , would have appear'd very White , if some interspers'd Particles of the red Liquor had not a little Allay'd the Purity , though not blemish'd the Beauty of the Colour . And to shew you , Pyrophilus , that these Effects do not flow from the Oyl of Vitriol , as it is such , but as it is a strongly Acid Menstruum , that has the property both to Praecipitate Lead , as well as some other Concretes out of Spirit of Vinegar , and to heighten the Colour of Red Rose-leaves , I add , that I have done the same thing , though perhaps not quite so well with Spirit of Salt , and that I could not do it with Aqua-sortis , because though that potent Menstruum does as well as the others heighthen the Redness of Roses , yet it would not like them Precipitate Lead out of Spirit of Vinegar , but would rather have dissolv'd it , if it had not found it dissolv'd already . And as by this way we have produc'd a Red Liquor , and a White Precipitate out of a Dirty Green magistery of Rose-leaves , so by the same Method , you may produce a fair Yellow , and sometimes a Red Liquor , and the like Precipitate , out of an Infusion of a curious Purple Colour . For you may call to mind , that in the Annotation upon the 39th . Experiment I intimated to you , that I had with a few drops of an Alcaly turn'd the Infusion of Logg-wood into a lovely Purple . Now if instead of this Alcaly I substituted a very strong and well Filtrated Solution of Minium , made with Spirit of Vinegar , and put about half as much of this Liquor as there was of the Infusion of Logg-wood , ( that the mixture might afford a pretty deal of Precipitate , ) the affusion of a conventent proportion of Spirit of Salt , would ( if the Liquors were well and nimbly stirr'd together ) presently strike down a Precipitate like that formerly mention'd , and turn the Liquor that swam above it , for the most part into a lovely Yellow . But for the advancing of this Experiment a little further , I consider'd , that in case I first turn'd a spoonfull of the infusion of Logg-wood Purple , by a convenient proportion of the Solution of Minium , the Affusion of Spirit of Sal Armoniack , would Precipitate the Corpuscles of Lead conceal'd in the Solution of Minium , and yet not destory the Purple colour of the Liquor ; whereupon I thus proceeded ; I took about a spoonfull of the fresh Tincture of Logg-wood , ( for I found that if it were stale the Experiment would not alwayes succeed , ) and having put to it a convenient proportion of the Solution of Minium to turn it into a deep and almost opacous Purple , I then drop'd in as much Spirit of Sal Armoniack , as I guess'd would Precipitate about half or more ( but not all ) of the Lead , and immediately stirring the mixture well together , I mingled the Precipitated parts with the others , so that they fell to the bottom , partly in the form of a Powder , and partly in the form of a Curdled Substance , that ( by reason of the Predominancy of the Ting'd Corpuscles over the White ) retain'd as well as the Supernatant Liquor , a Blewish Purple colour sufficiently Deep , and then instantly ( but yet Warily , ) pouring on a pretty Quantity of Spirit of Salt , the matter first Precipitated , was , by the above specifi'd figure of the bottome of the Glass preserv'd from being reach'd by the Spirituous Salt ; which hastily Precipitated upon it a new Bed ( if I may so call it ) of White Powder , being the remaining Corpuscles of the Lead , that the Urinous Spirit had not struck down : So that there appear'd in the Glass three distinct and very differingly colour'd Substances ; a Purple or Violet-colour'd Precipitate at the bottom , a White and Carnation ( sometimes a Variously colour'd ) Precipitate over That , and at the Top of all a Transparent Liquor of a lovely Yellow , or Red. Thus you see , Pyrophilus , that though to some I may have seem'd to have lighted on this ( 50th . ) Experiment by chance , and though others may imagine , that to have excogitated it , must have proceeded from some extraordinary insight into the nature of Colours , yet indeed , the devising of it need not be look'd upon as any great matter , especially to one that is a little vers'd in the notions , I have in these , and other Papers hinted concerning the differences of Salts . And perhaps I might add upon more than conjecture , that these very notions and some particulars scatteringly deliver'd in this Treatise , being skilfully put together , may suggest divers matters ( at least ) about Colours , that will not be altogether Despicable . But those hinted , Pyrophilus , I must now leave such as You to prosecute , having already spent farr more time than I intended to allow my self in acquainting You with particular Experiments and Observations concerning the changes of Colour , to which I might have added many more , but that I hope I may have presented You with a competent number to make out in some measure what I have at the beginning of this Essay either propos'd as my Design in this Tract , or deliver'd as my Conjectures concerning these matters . And it not being my present Designe , as I have more than once Declar'd , to deliver any Positive Hypothesis or solemn Theory of Colours , but only to furnish You with some Experiments towards the framing of such a Theory ; I shall add nothing to what I have said already , but a request that you would not be forward to think I have been mistaken in any thing I have deliver'd as matter of Fact concerning the changes of Colours , in case you should not every time you trye it , find it exactly to succeed . For besides the Contingencies to which we have elsewhere shewn some other Experiments to be obnoxious , the omission or variation of a seemingly unconsiderable circumstance , may hinder the success of an Experiment , wherein no other fault has been committed . Of which truth I shall only give you that single and almost obvious , but yet illustrious instance of the Art of Dying Scarlets , for though you should see every Ingredient that is us'd about it , though I should particularly inform You of the weight of each , and though you should be present at the kindling of the fire , and at the increasing and remitting of it , when ever the degree of Heat is to be alter'd , and though ( in a word ) you should see every thing done so particularly that you would scarce harbour the least doubt of your comprehending the whole Art : Yet if I should not disclose to You , that the Vessels , that immediately contain the Tinging Ingredients , are to be made of or to be lin'd with Tin , You would never be able by all that I could tell you else ( at least , if the Famousest and Candidest Artificers do not strangely delude themselves ) to bring your Tincture of Chochinele to Dye a perfect Scarlet . So much depends upon the very Vessel , wherein the Tinging matters are boyl'd , and so great an Influence may an unheeded Circumstance have on the Success of Experiments concerning Colours . FINIS . A SHORT ACCOUNT OF SOME OBSERVATIONS Made by Mr. BOYLE About a Diamond that Shines in the Dark . First enclosed in a Letter written to a Friend , And now together with it annexed to the Fore-going Treatise , upon the score of the Affinity betwixt Light and Colours . LONDON , Printed for Henry Herringman . 1664. A COPY OF THE LETTER That Mr. Boyle wrote to Sir Robert Morray , to accompany the Observations touching the Shining Diamond . SIR , THough Sir Robert Morray , and Monsieur Zulichem be Persons that have deserv'd so well of the Commonwealth of Learning , that I should think my self unworthy to be look'd upon as a Member of it , if I declin'd to Obey them , or to Serve them ; yet I should not without Reluctancy send you the Notes , you desire for him , if I did not hope that you will transmit together with them , some Account why they are not less unworthy of his perusal : which , that you may do , I must inform you , how the writing of them was Occasion'd , which in short was thus . As I was just going out of Town , hearing that an Ingenious Gentleman of my Acquaintance , lately return'd from Italy , had a Diamond , that being rubb'd , would shine in the Dark , and that he was not far off , I snatch'd time from my Occasions to make him a Visit , but finding him ready to go abroad , and having in vain try'd to make the Stone yield any Light in the Day time , I borrow'd it of him for that Night , upon condition to restore it him within a Day or two at furthest , at Gresham College , where we appointed to attend the meeting of the Society , that was then to be at that place . And hereupon I hasted that Evening out of Town , and finding after Supper that the Stone which in the Day time would afford no discernable Light , was really Conspicuous in the Dark , I was so taken with the Novelty , and so desirous to make some use of an opportunity that was like to last so little a while , that though at that time I had no body to assist me but a Foot-Boy , yet sitting up late , I made a shift that Night to try a pretty number of such of the things that then came into my thoughts , as were not in that place and time unpracticable . And the next Day being otherwise imploy'd , I was fain to make use of a drowsie part of the Night to set down hastily in Writing what I had observ'd , and without having the time in the Morning , to stay the transcribing of it , I order'd the Observations to be brought after me to Gresham College , where you may remember , that they were together with the Stone it self shown to the Royal Society , by which they had the good Fortune not to be dislik'd , though several things were through hast omitted , some of which you will find in the Margin of the inclosed Paper . The substance of this short Narrative I hope you will let Monsieur Zulichem know , that he may be kept from expecting any thing of finish'd in the Observations , and be dispos'd to excuse the want of it . But such as they are , I hope they will prove ( without a Clinch ) Luciferous Experiments , by setting the Speculations of the Curious on work , in a diligent Inquiry after the Nature of Light , towards the discovery of which , perhaps they have not yet met with so considerable an Experiment , since here we see Light produc'd in a dead and opacous Body , and that not as in rotten Wood , or in Fishes , or as in the Bolonian Stone , by a Natural Corruption , or by a Violent Destruction of the Texture of the Body , but by so slight a Mechanical operation upon its Texture , as we seem to know what it is , and as is immediately perform'd , and that several wayes without at all prejudicing the Body , or making any sensible alterations in its Manifest Qualities . And I am the more willing to expose my hasty Tryals to Monsieur Zulichem , and to You , because , he being upon the Consideration of Dioptricks , so odd a Phoenomenon relateing to the Subject , as probably he treats of , Light will , I hope , excite a person to consider it , that is wont to consider things he treats of very well . And for you Sir , I hope you will both recrute and perfect the Observations you receive , For you know that I cannot add to them , having a good while since restor'd to Mr. Clayton the Stone , which though it be now in the hands of a Prince that so highly deserves , by understanding them , the greatest Curiosities ; yet he vouchsafes you that access to him as keeps me from doubting , you may easily obtain leave to make further Tryals with it , of such a Monarch as ours , that is not more inquisitive himself , than a favourer of them that are so . I doubt not but these Notes will put you in mind of the Motion you made to the Society , to impose upon me the Task of bringing in , what I had on other occasions observ'd concerning shining Bodies . But though I deny not , that I sometimes made observations about the Bolonian Stone , and try'd some Experiments about some other shining Bodies ; Yet the same Reasons that reduc'd me then to be unwilling to receive ev'n their commands , must now be my Apology for not answering your Expectations , Namely the abstruse nature of Light , and my being already over-burden'd , and but too much kept imploy'd by the Urgency of the Press , as well as by more concerning and distracting Occasions . But yet I will tell you some part of what I have met with in reference to the Stone , of which I send you an account . Because I find on the one side , that a great many think it no Rarity upon a mistaken perswasion , that not only there are store of Carbuncles , of which this is one ; but that all Diamonds and other Glistering Jewels shine in the Dark . Whereas on the other side there are very Learn'd Men , who ( plausibly enough ) deny that there are any Carbuncles or shining Stones at all . And certainly , those Judicious men have much more to say for themselves , than the others commonly Plead , and therefore did deservedly look upon Mr. Clayton's Diamond as a great Rarity . For not only Boetius de Boot , who is judg'd the best Author on this Subject ; ascribes no such Virtue to Diamonds , but begins what he delivers of Carbuncles , with this passage . Magna fama est Carbunculi . Is vulgo putatur in tenebris Carbonis instar lucere ; fortassis quia Pyropus seu Anthrax appellatus à veteribus fuit . Verum hactenus nemo unqnam verè asserere ausus fuit , se gemmam noctu lucentem vidisse . Garcias ab Horto proregis Indiae Medicus , refert se allocutum fuisse , qui se vidisse affirmarent . Sed tis fidem non habuit . And a later Author , the Diligent and Judicious Johannes de Laet in his Chapter of Carbuncles and of Rubies , has this passage . Quia autem Carbunculi , Pyropi & Anthraces à veteribus nominantur , vulgo creditum fuit , Carbonis instar in tenebris lucere , quod tamen nullâ gemmâ hastenus deprehensum , licet à quibusdam temerè jactetur . And the recentest Writer I have met with on this Subject , Olaus Wormius , in his Account of his well furnish'd Musaeum , do's , where he treats of Rubies , concurr with the former Writers by these Words . Sunt qui Rubinum veterum Carbunculum esse existimant , sed deest una illa nota , quod in tenebris instar Anthracis non luceat : Ast talem Carbunculum in rerum naturâ non inveniri major pars Authorum existimant . Licet unum aut alterum in India apud Magnates quosdam reperiri scribant , cum tamen ex aliorum relatione id habeant saltem , sed ipsi non viderint . In confirmation of which I shall only add , that hearing of a Rubie , so very Vivid , that the Jewellers themselves have several times begg'd leave of the fair Lady to whom it belong'd , that they might try their choicest Rubies by comparing them with That , I had the Opportunity by the Favour of this Lady and her Husband , ( both which I have the Honour to be acquainted with ) to make a Trial of this famous Rubie in the Night , and in a Room well Darkn'd , but not only could not discern any thing of Light , by looking on the Stone before any thing had been done to it , but could not by all my Rubbing bring it to afford the least Glimmering of Light. But , Sir , though I be very backward to admit strange things for truths , yet I am not very forward to reject them as impossibilities , and therefore I would not discourage any from making further Inquiry , whether or no there be Really in Rerum natura , any such thing as a true Carbuncle or Stone that without Rubbing will shine in the Dark . For if such a thing can be found , it may afford no small Assistance to the Curious in the Investigation of Light , besides the Nobleness and Rarity of the thing it selfe . And though Vartomannus was not an Eye witness of what he relates , that the King of Pegu , one of the Chief Kings of the East-Indies , had a true Carbuncle of that Bigness and Splendour , that it shin'd very Gloriously in the Dark , and though Garcias ab Horto , the Indian Vice-Roys Physician , speaks of another Carbuncle , only upon the Report of one , that he Discours'd with , who affirmed himself to have seen it ; yet as we are not sure that these Men that gave themselves out to be Eye-witnesses speak true , yet they may have done so for ought we know to the contrary . And I could present you with a much considerabler Testimony to the same purpose , if I had the permission of a Person concern'd , without whose leave I must not do it . I might tell you that Marcus Paulus Venetus ( whose suppos'd Fables , divers of our later Travellours and Navigatours have since found to be truths ) speaking of the King of Zeilan that then was , tells us , that he was said to have the best Rubie in the World , a Palm long and as big as a mans Arm , without spot , shining like a Fire , and he subjoyns , that the Great Cham , under whom Paulus was a considerable Officer , sent and offer'd the value of a City for it ; But the King answer'd , he would not give it for the Treasure of the World , nor part with it , having been his Ancestours . And I could add , that in the Relation made by two Russian Conssacks of their Journey into Caray , written to their Emperour , they mention'd their having been told by the people of those parts , that their King had a Stone , which Lights as the Sun both Day and Night , call'd in their Language Surra , which those Cossacks interpret a Ruby . But these Relations are too uncertain for me to build any thing upon , and therefore I shall proceed to tell you , that there came hither about two years since out of America , the Governour of one of the Principal Colonies there , an Ancient Virtuoso , and one that has the Honour to be a member of the Royal Society ; this Gentleman finding some of the chief Affairs of his Country committed to another and me , made me divers Visits , and in one of them when I enquir'd what Rate Stones they had in those parts of the Indies he belong'd to , he told me , that the Indians had a Tradition that in a certain hardly accessible Hill , a pretty way up in the Country , there was a Stone which in the Night time shin'd very vividly , and to a great distance , and he assur'd me , that though he thought it not fit to venture himself so far among those Savages , yet he purposely sent thither a bold Englishman , with some Natives to be his guides , and that this Messenger brought him back word , that at a distance from the Hillock he had plainly perceiv'd such a shining Substance as the Indians Tradition mention'd , and being stimulated by Curiosity , had slighted those Superstitious Fears of the Inhabitants , and with much ado by reason of the Difficulty of the way , had made a shift to clamber up to that part of the Hill , where , by a very heedful Observation , he suppos'd himself to have seen the Light : but whether 't were that he had mistaken the place , or for some other Reason , he could not find it there , though when he was return'd to his former Station , he did agen see the Light shining in the same place where it shone before . A further Account of this Light I expect from the Gentleman that gave me this , who lately sent me the news of his being landed in that Country . And though I reserve to my self a full Liberty of Believing no more than I see cause ; yet I do the less scruple to relate this , because a good part of it agrees well enough with another Story that I shall in the next place have occasion to subjoyn , in order whereunto I shall tell you , that though the Learned Authors I formerly mention'd , tell us , that no Writer has affirm'd his having himself seen a real Carbuncle , yet , considering the Light of Mr. Claytons Diamond , it recall'd into my mind , that some years before , when I was Inquisitive about Stones , I had met with an old Italian Book highly extoll'd to me by very competent Judges , and that though the Book were very scarce , I had purchas'd it at a dear Rate , for the sake of a few considerable passages I met with in it , and particularly one , which being very remarkable in it self , and pertinent to our present Argument , I shall put it for you , though not word for word , which I fear I have forgot to do , yet as to the Sense , into English . Having promis'd ( says our Author ) to say something of that most precious sort of Jewels , Carbuncles , because they are very rarely to be met with , we shall briefly deliver what we know of them . In Clement the seventh's time , I happen'd to see one of them at a certain Ragusian Merchants , nam'd Beigoio di Bona , This was a Carbuncle white , of that kind of Whiteness which we said was to be found in those Rubies of which we made mention a little above , ( where he had said that those Rubies had a kind of Livid Whiteness or Paleness like that of a Calcidonian ) but it had in it a Lustre so pleasing and so marveilous , that it shin'd in the Dark , but not as much as colour'd Carbuncles , though it he true , that in an exceeding Dark place I saw it shine in the manner of fire almost gone out . But as for colour'd Carbuncles , it has not been my Fortune to have seen any , wherefore I will onely set down what I Learn'd about them Discoursing in my Youth with a Roman Gentleman of antient Experience in matters of Jewels , who told me , That one Jacopo Cola being by Night in a Vineyard of his , and espying something in the midst of it , that shin'd like a little glowing Coal , at the foot of a Vine , went near towards the place where he thought himself to have seen that fire , but not finding it , he said , that being return'd to the same place , whence he had first descry'd it , and perceiving there the same splendor as before , he mark'd it so heedfully , that he came at length to it , where he took up a very little Stone , which he carry'd away with Transports and Joy. And the next day carrying it about to show it divers of his Friends , whilst he was relating after what manner he found it , there casually interven'd a Venetian Embassadour , exceedingly expert in Jewels , who presently knowing it to be a Carbuncle , did craftily before he and the said Jacopo parted ( so that there was no Body present that understood the Worth of so Precious a Gemm ) purchase it for the Value of 10. Crowns , and the next day left Rome to shun the being necessitated to restore it , and ( as he affirm'd ) it was known within some while after that the said Venetian Gentleman did in Constantinople sell that Carbuncle to the then Grand Seignior , newly come to the Empire , for a hundred thousand Crowns . And this is what I can say concerning Carbuncles , and this is not a little at least as to the first part of this account , where our Cellini affirms himself to have seen a Real Carbuncle with his own Eyes , especially since this Author appears wary in what he delivers , and is inclin'd rather to lessen , than increase the wonder of it . And his Testimony is the more considerable , because though he were born a Subject neither to the Pope nor the then King of France ( that Royal Virtuoso Francis the first ) yet both the one and the other of those Princes imploy'd him much about making of their Noblest Jewels . What is now reported concerning a Shining Substance to be seen in one of the Islands about Scotland , were very improper for me to mention to Sr. Robert Morray , to whom the first . Information was Originally brought , and from whom I expect a farther ( for I scarce dare expect a convincing ) account of it . But I must not omit that some Virtuoso questioning me the other day at White-Hall about Mr. Claytons Diamond , and meeting amongst them an Ingenious Dutch Gentleman , whose Father was long Embassador for the Netherlands in England , I Learn'd of him , that , he is acquainted with a person , whose Name he told ( but I do not well remember it ) who was Admiral of the Dutch in the East-Indies , and who assur'd this Gentleman Monsieur Boreel , that at his return from thence he brought back with him into Holland a Stone , which though it look'd but like a Pale Dull Diamond , such as he saw Mr. Claytons to be , yet was it a Real Carbuncle , and did without rubbing shine so much , that when the Admiral had occasion to open a Chest which he kept under Deck in a Dark place , where 't was forbidden to bring Candles for fear of Mischances , as soon as he open'd the Trunck , the Stone would by its Native Light , shine so as to Illustrate a great part of it , and this Gentleman having very civilly and readily granted me the request I made him , to Write to the Admiral , who is yet alive in Holland , ( and probably may still have the Jewel by him , ) for a particular account of this Stone , I hope ere long to receive it , which will be the more welcome to me , not onely because so unlikely a thing needs a cleer evidence , but because I have had some suspition of that ( supposing the truth of the thing ) what may be a shining Stone in a very hot Countrey as the East-Indies , may perhaps cease to be so ( at least in certain seasons , ) in one as cold as Holland . For I observ'd in the Diamond I send you an account of , that not onely rubbing but a very moderate degree of warmth , though excited by other wayes , would make it shine a little . And 't is not impossible that there may be Stones as much more susceptible than that , of the Alterations requisite to make a Diamond shine , as that appeares to be more susceptible of them , than ordinary Diamonds . And I confess to you , that this is not the only odd suspition ( for they are not so much as conjectures ) that what I try'd upon this Diamond suggested to me . For not here to entertain you with the changes I think may be effected ev'n in harder sorts of Stones , by wayes not vulgar , nor very promising , because I may elsewhere have occasion to speak of them , and this Letter is but too Prolix already , that which I shall now acknowledge to you is , That I began to doubt whether there may not in some Cases be some Truth in what is said of the right Turquois , that it often changes Colour as the wearer is Sick or Well , and manifestly loses its splendor at his Death . For when I found that ev'n the warmth of an Affriction that lasted not above a quarter of a minute , Nay , that of my Body , ( whose Constitution you know is none of the hottest ) would make a manifest change in the solidest of Stones a Diamond , it seem'd not impossible , that certain warm and Saline steams issuing from the Pody of a living man , may by their plenty or paucity , or by their peculiar Nature , or by the total absence of them , diversifie the Colour , and the splendor of so soft a Stone as the Turquois . And though I admir'd to see , that I know not how many Men otherwise Learn'd , should confidently ascribe to Jewels such Virtues as seem no way competible to Inanimate Agents , if to any Corporeal ones at all , yet as to what is affirm'd concerning the Turquois ' s changing Colour , I know not well how to reject the Affirmation of so Learned ( and which in this case is much more considerable ) so Judicious a Lapidary as Boetius de Boot * , who upon his own particular and repeated Experience delivers so memorable a Narrative of the Turquois's changing Colour , that I cannot but think it worth your Perusal , especially since a much later and very Experienc'd Author , Olaus Wormius , where he treats of that Stone , Confirms it with this Testimony . Imprimis memorandum exemplum quod Anshelmus Boëtius de seipso refert , tam mutati Coloris , quam à casu preservationis . Cui & ipse haud dissimile adferre possum , nisi ex Anshelmo petitum quis putaret . I remember that I saw two or three years since a Turcois ( worn in a Ring ) wherein there were some small spots , which the Virtuoso whose it was asur'd me he had observ'd to grow sometimes greater sometimes less , and to be sometimes in one part of the Stone , sometimes in another . And I having encourag'd to make Pictures from time to time of the Stone , and of the Situation of the cloudy parts , that so their Motion may be more indisputable , and better observ'd , he came to me about the midle of this very week , and assur'd me that he had , as I wish'd , made from time to time Schemes or Pictures of the differing parts of the Stone , whereby the several Removes and motions of the above mentioned Clouds are very manifest , though the cause seem'd to him very occult : these Pictures he has promis'd to show me , and is very ready to put the Stone it self into my hands . But the ring having been the other day casually broken upon his finger , unless it can be taken out , and set again without any considerable heat , he is loath to have it medled with , for fear its peculiarity should be thereby destroy'd . And possibly his apprehension would have been strengthen'd , if I had had opportunity to tell him what is reladed by the Learned Wormius of an acquaintance of his , that had a Nephritick stone , of whose eminent Virtues he had often Experience ev'n in himself , and for that cause wore it still about his Wrist ; and yet going upon a time into a Bath of fair Water only , wherein certain Herbs had been boyl'd , the Stone by being wetted with this decoction , was depriv'd of all his Virtue , whence Wormius takes Occasion to advertise the sick , to lay by such stones whensoever they make use of a Bath . And we might expect to find Turcos likewise , easily to be wrought upon in point of Colour , if that were true , which the curious Antonio Neri , in his ingenious Arte Vetraria teaches of it , namely , That Turcois's discolourd and grown white , will regain and acquire an excellent Colour , if you but keep them two or three days at most cover'd with Oyl of sweet Almonds kept in a temperate heat by warm ashes , I say if it were true , because I doubt whether it be so , and have not as yet had opportunity to satisfie my self by Tryals , because I find by the confession of the most Skilfull Persons among whom I have laid out for Turcoises , that the , true ones are great rarities , though others be not at all so . And therefore I shall now only mind you of one thing that you know as well as I , namely , that the rare Stone which is called Oculus Mundi , if it be good in its Kind , will have so great a change made in its Texture by being barely left a while in the Languidest of Liquors , common Waters , that from Opacous it will become Transparent , and acquire a Lustre of which it will again be depriv'd , without using any other Art or Violence , by leaving it a while in the Air. And before experience had satisfy'd us of the truth of this , it seem'd as unlikely that common Water or Air , should work such great changes in that Gemm , as it now seems that the Effluviums of a human Body should effect lesser changes in a Turcois , especially if more susceptible of them , than other Stones of the same kind . But both my Watch and my Eyes tell me that 't is now high time to think of going to sleep , matters of this Nature , will be better , as well as more easily , clear'd by Conference , than Writing . And therefore since I think you know me too well to make it needfull for me to disclame Credulity , notwithstanding my having entertain'd you with all these Extravagancies ; for you know well , how wide a difference I am wont to put betwixt things that barely may be , and things that are , and between those Relations that are but not unworthy to be inquir'd into , and those that are not worthy to be actually believ'd ; without making Apologies for my Ravings , I shall readily comply with the drowsiness that calls upon me to release You , and the rather , because Monsieur Zulichem being concern'd in your desire to know the few things I have observed about the shining Stone . To entertain those with Suspicions that are accustomed not to acquiesce but in Demonstrations , were a thing that cannot be look'd upon as other than very improper by , SIR , Your most Affectionate and most Faithfull Servant , RO. BOYLE . OBSERVATIONS Made this * 27th . of October 1663. about Mr. Clayton's Diamond . BEing look'd on in the Day time , though in a Bed , whose Curtains were carefulsy drawn , I could not discern it to Shine at all , though well Rubb'd , but about a little after Sun-set , whilst the Twilight yet lasted , Nay , this Morning a pretty while after Sun-rising , ( but before I had been abroad in the more freely inlightned Air of the Chamber ) I could upon a light Affriction easily perceive the Stone to Shine . Secondly , The Candles being removed , I could not in a Dark place discern the Stone to have any Light , when I looked on it , without having Rubb'd or otherwise prepar'd it . Thirdly , By two white Pibbles though hard Rubb'd one against another , nor by the long and vehement Affriction of Rock Crystal against a piece of Red cloath , nor yet by Rubbing two Diamonds set in Ring , as I had Rubb'd this Stone , I could produce any sensible degree of Light. Fourthly , I found this Diamond hard enough , not only to enable me to write readily with it upon Glass , but to Grave on Rock Crystal it self . Fifthly , I found this to have like other Diamonds , an Electrical faculty . Sixthly , Being rubb'd upon my Cloaths , as is usual for the exciting of Amber , Wax , and other Electrical Bodies , it did in the Dark manifestly shine like Rotten Wood , or the Scales of Whitings , or other putrified Fish . Seventhly , But this Conspicuousness was Fainter than that of the Scales , and Slabber ( if I may so call it ) of Whitings , and much Fainter than the Light of a Glow-worm , by which I have been sometimes able to Read a short Word , whereas after an ordinary Affriction of this Diamond I was not able to discern distinctly by the Light of it any of the nearest Bodies : And this Glimmering also did very manifestly and considerably Decay presently upon the ceasing of the Affriction , though the Stone continued Visible some while after . Eighthly , But if it were Rubb'd upon a convenient Body for a pretty while , and Briskly enough , I found the Light would be for some moments much more considerable , almost like the Light of a Glow-worm , insomuch after I ceased Rubbing , I could with the Chaf'd stone exhibit a little Luminous Circle , like that , but not so bright as that which Children make by moving a stick Fir'd at the end , and in this case it would continue Visible about seven or eight times as long as I had been in Rubbing it . Ninthly , I found that holding it a while near the Flame of a Candle , ( from which yet I was carefull to avert my Eyes ) and being immediately remov'd into the Dark , it disclosed some faint Glimmering , but inferiour to that , it was wont to acquire by Rubbing . And afterward holding it near a Fire that had but little Flame , I found the Stone to be rather less than more excited , than it had been by the Candle . Tenthly , I likewise indeavour'd to make it Shine , by holding it a pretty while in a very Dark place , over a thick piece of Iron , that was well Heated , but not to that Degree as to be Visibly so . And though at length I found , that by this way also , the Stone acquired some Glimmering , yet it was less than by either of the other ways above mention'd . Eleventhly , I also brought it to some kind of Glimmering Light , by taking it into Bed with me , and holding it a good while upon a warm part of my Naked Body . Twelfthly , To satisfie my self , whether the Motion introduc'd into the Stone did generate the Light upon the account of its producing Heat there , I held it near the Flame of a Candle , till it was qualify'd to shine pretty well in the Dark , and then immediately I apply'd a slender Hair to try whether it would attract it , but found not that it did so ; though if it were made to shine by Rubbing , it was as I formerly noted Electrical . And for further Confirmation , though I once purposedly kept it so near the hot Iron I just now mention'd , as to make it sensibly Warm , yet it shin'd more Dimly than it had done by Affriction or the Flame of a Candle , though by both those ways it had not acquir'd any warmth that was sensible . Thirteenthly , Having purposely rubb'd it upon several Bodies differing as to Colour , and as to Texture , there seem'd to be some little Disparity in the excitation ( if I may so call it ) of Light. Upon White and Red Cloths it seem'd to succeed best , especially in comparison of Black ones . Fourteenthly , But to try what it would do rubb'd upon Bodies more hard , and less apt to yield Heat upon a light Affriction , than Cloath , I first rubb'd it upon a white wooden Box , by which it was excited , and afterwards upon a piece of purely Glazed Earth , which seem'd during the Attrition to make it Shine better than any of the other Bodies had done , without excepting the White ones , which I add , lest the Effect should be wholly ascrib'd to the disposition White Bodies are wont to have to Reflect much Light. Fifteenthly , Having well excited the Stone , I nimbly plung'd it under Water , that I had provided for that purpose , and perceiv'd it to Shine whilst it was beneath the Surface of that Liquor , and this I did divers times . But when I indeavour'd to produce a Light by rubbing it upon the lately mentioned Cover of the Box , the Stone and it being both held beneath the Surface of the Water , I did not well satisfie my self in the Event of the Trial ; But this I found , if I took the Stone out , and Rubb'd it upon a piece of Cloath , it would not as else it was wont to do , presently acquire a Luminousness , but needed to be rubb'd manifestly much longer before the desired Effect was found . Sixteenthly , I also try'd several times , that by covering it with my warm Spittle ( having no warm Water at hand ) it did not lose his Light. Seventeenthly , Finding that by Rubbing the Stone with the Flat side downwards , I did by reason of the Opacity of the Ring , and the sudden Decay of Light upon the ceasing of the Attrition , probably lose the sight of the Stones greatest Vividness ; and supposing that the Commotion made in one part of the Stone will be easily propagated all over , I sometimes held the piece of Cloath upon which I rubb'd it , so , that one side of the Stone was exposed to my Eye , whilst I was rubbing the other , whereby it appear'd more Vivid than formerly , and to make Luminous Tracts by its Motions too and fro . And sometimes holding the Stone upwards , I rubb'd its Broad side with a fine smooth piece of Transparent Horn , by which means the Light through that Diaphauous Substance , did whilst I was actually rubbing the Stone , appear so Brisk , that sometimes and in some places it seem'd to have little Sparks of Fire . Eighteenthly , I took also a piece of flat Blew Glass , and having rubb'd the Diamond well upon a Cloath , and nimbly clapt the Glass upon it , to try whether in case the Light could peirce it , it would by appearing Green , or of some other Colour than Blew , assist me to guess whether it self were sincere or no. But finding the Glass impervious to so faint a Light , I then thought it fit to try whether that hard Bodies would not by Attrition increase the Diamonds Light so as to become penetrable thereby , and accordingly when I rubb'd the Glass briskly upon the Stone , I found the Light to be Conspicuous enough , and somewhat Dy'd in its passage , but found it not easie to give a Name to the Colour it exhibited . Lastly , To comply with the Suspition I had upon the whole Matter , that the chief manifest Change wrought in the Stone , was by Compression of its parts , rather than Incalescence , I took a piece of white Tile well Glaz'd , and if I press'd the Stone hard against it , it seem'd though I did not rub it to and fro , to shine at the Sides : And however it did both very manifestly and vigorously Shine , if whilst I so press'd it , I mov'd it any way upon the Surface of the Tile , though I did not make it draw a Line of above a quarter of an Inch long , or thereabouts . And though I made it not move to and ' fro , but only from one end of the short Line to the other , without any return or Lateral motion . Nay , after it had been often rubb'd , and suffer'd to lose its Light again , not only it seem'd more easie to be excited than at the beginning of the Night ; but if I did press hard upon it with my Finger , at the very instant that I drew it briskly off , it would disclose a very Vivid but exceeding short Liv'd Splendour , not to call it a little Coruscation . * So that a Cartesian would scarce scruple to think he had found in this Stone no slight Confirmation of his Ingenious Masters Hypothesis , touching the Generation of Light in Sublunary Bodies , not sensibly Hot. A Postscript . Annexed some Hours after the Observations were Written . SO many particulars taken notice of in one Night , may make this Stone appear a kind of Prodigie , and the rather , because having try'd as I formerly noted , not only a fine Artificial Crystal , and some also that is Natural , but a Ruby and two Diamonds , I did not find that any of these disclos'd the like Glimmering of Light ; yet after all , perceiving by the Hardness , and the Testimony of a Skilfull Gold-smith , that this was rather a Natural than Artificial Stone ; for fear lest there might be some difference in the way of Setting , or in the shape of the Diamonds I made use of , neither of which was like this , a flat Table-stone , I thought fit to make a farther Trial of my own Diamonds , by such a brisk and assiduous Affriction as might make amends for the Disadvantages above-mention'd , in case they were the cause of the unsuccessfulness of the former Attempts : And accordingly I found , that by this way I could easily bring a Diamond I wore on my Finger to disclose a Light , that was sensible enough , and continued so though I cover'd it with Spittle , and us'd some other Trials about it . And this will much lessen the wonder of all the formerly mention'd Observations , by shewing that the properties that are so strange are not peculiar to one Diamond , but may be found in others also , and perhaps in divers other hard and Diaphanous Stones . Yet I hope that what this Discovery takes away from the Wonder of these Observations , it will add to the Instructiveness of them , by affording pregnants Hints , towards the Investigation of the Nature of Light. FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A28975-e160 L. Annae . 1 Senecae Natur. Quest . l. 6. c. 5. Notes for div A28975-e610 * He that desires more instances of this kind and matter , that according to this doctrine may much help the Theory of colours , and particularly the force both of Sulphureous and volatile , as likewise of Alcalizate and Acid Salts , and in what particulars , Colours likely depend not in their causation from any Salt at all , may beg his information from M. Boyle , who hath some while since honoured me with the sight of his papers concerning this subject , containing many excellent experiments , made by him for the Elucidation of this doctrine , &c. Dr. R. Sharrock in his ingenious and usefull History of the Propagation and Improvement of Vegetables , published in the yeare 1660. Notes for div A28975-e4900 See the Discourse of the Nature of Whiteness and Blackness . * Since for his eminent Qualities and Loyalty Grac'd , by his Majesty , with the Honour of Knighthood . Exercitat . 325. Parag. 4. Album quippe & nigrum , hoc quidem asperum esse dicit , hoe vero laeve . de Sensu 3. & Sensil . 3. Epist. 2. pag. 45. Gent. Septen . Histor . lib. 4. cap. 13. Hist . Anatom . Cent. 3. Hist . 44. Olearius Voy. age de Mosco . et de Perse liv . 3. Piso Nat. & Med. Hist . de Brasil . lib. in fine . Purchas Pilgrim . Second part , Seventh Book . 3. Chap. Sect. 5. Purchas . Ibid. Purchas Ibid. in sin . See Scaliger Exercit. 325. Sect. 9. Nicolaus Monardes lib. simplic . ex India allator . cap. 27. Kircher . Art. Mag. Ducis & umbrae , lib. 1. part . 3. Herbarists are wont to call this Plant Cyanus vulgaris minor . Paracelsus de Mineral . tract . 1. pag. m. 242. See Parkinson Th. Botan . Trib. 9. cap. 26. Parkinson , Thea , Bot. Trib. 4. cap. 12. Beguinus . Tyr. Chy. Lib. 2o. Cap. 13o. Libr. 2 ●o . Cap. 340. See the latter end of the fiftieth Experiment . * The Curious Reader that desires further Information concerning Lakes , may Resort to the 7th Book of Neri's Art of Glass , Englished ( 6 or 7 years since the Writing of this 49th Experiment ) and Illustrated with Learned Observations , by the Inquisitive and Experienc'd Dr. Charles Merret . Notes for div A28975-e21470 Boetius de Boot . Gem. & Lapid . Histor . Lib. 2. Cap. 8. Musaei Wormiani , Cap. 17. Purchas's Pilgrim . lib. 1. cap. 4. pag. 104. In the year 1619. Behvonu●o Cellini nell Aree del Gioiellar's Lib. 1. pag. 10. * The Narrative in the Authors own words , is this , Ego ( sayes he ) sanctè affirmare possum me unam aureo Annulo inclusam perpetuo gestare , cujus facultatem ( si gemmae est ) nunquam satis admirari potui . Gestaverat enim ante Triginta annos Hispanus quidam non procula puternis aedibus habitans . Is cum vitâ-functus esset , & ipsius suspellex ( ut moris apud nos est ) venum exposita esset , inter caetera etiam Turcois exponebatur . Verum nemo ( licet complures co concurrissent , ut eam propter Coloris Elegantiam , quam vivo Domino habuerat emerent ) sibi emptam voluit , pristinum enim nitorem & Colorem prorsus amiserat , ut potius Malachites , quam Turcois videretur . Aderat tum temporis gemmae habendae desiderio etiam parens & frater meus , qui antea saepius gratiam & elegantiam ipsius viderant , mirabundi cam nunc tam esse deformem , Emit cam nihilominus pater , satis●● vili pretio , qua omnibus contemptui crat , ac presentes non eam esse quam Hispanus gestaral , arbitrarentur . Domum reversus Pater , qui tam turpem Gemmam gestare sibi indecorum putabat , eam mihi dono dat , inquiens ; Quandoquidem , fili mi , vulgi fama est , Turcoidem , ut facultates suas exercere possit , dono dari debere tibi eam devoveo , ego acceptam Gemmam Sculptori trado , at gentilitia mea insignia illi , quamadmodam fieri solet , in Jaspide Chalcedonio , aliisque Ignobilioribus Gemmis , insculper l. Turpe enim existimabam , hujusmodi Gemmâ ornatus gratia , dum gratiam nullam haberet , uti . Paret Sculptor redditque Gemmam , quam gesto pro annulo Signatorio . Vix per mensem gestaram , redit illi pristinus color , sed non it a nitens propter Sculpturam , ac inaequalem superficiem . Miramur omnes gemmam , atque id praecipuè quod color indies pulchrior fieret . Id quià observabam , nunquam fere ●am à manu deposui , ita ut uunc adhuc candem gestem . Olaus Wormius in Musae . 18o. pag. 186. Musae . Worm , pag. 99. Arte Vetratia , lib. 7. cap. 102. Notes for div A28975-e22760 * These were brought in and Read before the Royal Society , ( the Day following ) Oct. 28. 1663. The Stone it self being to be shown to the Royal Society , when the Observations were deliver'd , I was willing ( being in haste ) to omit the Description of it , which is in short , That it was a Flat or Table Diamond , of about a third part of an Inch in length , and somewhat less in breadth , that it was a Dull Stone , and of a very bad Water , having in the Day time very little of the Vividness of ev'n ordinary Diamonds , and being Blemished with a whitish Cloud about the middle of it , which covered near a third part of the Stone . Hast made me forget to take notice that I went abroad the same Morning , the Sun shining forth clear enough , to look upon the Diamond through a Microscope , that I might try whether by that Magnifying Glass any thing of peculiar could be discern'd in the Texture of the Stone , and especially of the whitish Cloud that possest a good part of it . But for all my attention I could not discover any peculiarity worth mentioning . V. For it drew light Bodies like Amber , Jet , and other Concretes that are noted to do so ; But its attractive power seem'd inferiour to theirs . IX . We durst not hold it in the Flame of a Candle , no more than put it into a naked Fire ; For fear too Violent a Heat ( which has been observ'd to spoil many other precious Stones ) should vitiate and impair a Jewel , that was but borrow'd , and was suppos'd to be the only one of its Kind . XV. We likewise Plung'd it as soon as we had excited it , under Liquors of several sorts , as Spirit of Wine , Oyl both Chymical and express'd , an Acid Spirit , and as I remember an Alcalizate Solution , and found not any of those various Liquors to destroy its Shining property . XVI . Having found by this Observation , that a warm Liquor would not extinguish Light in the Diamond , I thought fit to try , whether by reason of its warmth it would not excite it , and divers times I found , that if it were kept therein , till the Water had leisure to communicate some of its Heat to it , it would often shine as soon as it was taken out , and probably we should have seen it Shine more , whilst it was in the Water , if some degree of Opacity which heated Water is wont to acquire , upon the score of the Numerous little Bubbles generated in it , had not kept us from discerning the Lustre of the Stone . * I after bethought my self of imploying a way , which produc'd the desir'd Effect both sooner and better . For holding betwixt my Fingers a Steel Bodkin , near the Lower part of it , I press'd the point hard against the Surface of the Diamond , and much more if I struck the point against it , the Coruscation would be extremely suddain , and very Vivid , though very Vanishing too , and this way which commonly much surpris'd and pleas'd the Spectators , seem'd far more proper than the other , to show that pressure alone , if forcible enough , though it were so suddain , and short , that it could not well be suppos'd to give the Stone any thing near a sensible degree of Warmth , as may be suspected of Rubbing , yet 't is sufficient to generate a very Vivid Light. Notes for div A28975-e23170 We afterwards , try'd precious Stones , as Diamonds , Rubies , Saphires , and Emeralls , &c. but found not any of them to Shine except some Diamonds , and of these we were not upon so little practice , able to fore-tell before hand , which would be brought to Shine , and which would not ; For several very good Diamonds , either would not Shine at all , or much less than others that were farr inferiour to them . And yet those Ingenious Men are mistaken , that think a Diamond must be foul and cloudy , as Mr. Claytons was , to be fit for Shining ; for as we could bring some such to afford a Glimmering Light , so with some clear and excellent Diamonds , we could do the like . But none of those many that we try'd of all Kinds , were equal to the Diamond on which the Observations were made , not only considering the degree of Light it affotded , but the easiness wherewith it was excited , and the Comparatively great duration of its Shining . 
A69611	----	Experimental notes of the mechanical origine or production of fixtness. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1675 Approx. 541 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 296 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A69611 Wing B3963A ESTC R22966 12362639 ocm 12362639 60281 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A69611) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 60281) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 836:20h, 2344:5, 650:5h) Experimental notes of the mechanical origine or production of fixtness. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 34 p. Printed by E. Flesher, for R. Davis Bookseller in Oxford., London : 1675. Reproduction of original in Bristol Public Library (Bristol, England) (reel 650:5h) and Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery (reel 836:20g and reel 2344:5). Items at 650:5h and 836:20h bound and filmed with: Experiments, notes, &c. about the mechanical origine or production of divers particular qualities among which is inferred a discourse of the imperfection of the chymist's doctrine of qualities together with some reflections upon the hypothesis of alcali and acidum / by the Honourable Robert Boyle. London : Printed by E. Flesher, for R. Davis ..., 1676 -- Of the mechanical origine of heat and cold / by the Honourable Robert Boyle. London : Printed by E. Flesher for R. Davis, 1675 -- Experiments and observations about the mechanical production of tasts / by the Honourable Robert Boyle. London : Printed by E. Flesher for R. Davis, 1675 -- Experiments and observations about the mechanical production of odours / by the Honourable Robert Boyle. London : Printed by E. Flesher for R. Davis, 1675 -- Of the imperfection of the chymist's doctrine of qualities / by the Honourable Robert Boyle. London : Printed by E. Flesher for R. Davis, 1675 -- Reflections upon the hypothesis of alcali and acidum / by the honourable Robert Boyle. London : Printed by E. Flesher for R. Davis, 1675 -- Experiments and notes about the mechanical origine or production of corrosiveness and corrosibility / by the Honourable Robert Boyle. London : Printed by E. Flesher for R. Davis, 1675 -- Of the mechanical causes of chymical precipitation / by the honourable Robert Boyle. London : Printed by E. Flesher for R. Davis, 1675 -- Experiments and notes about the mechanical production of magnetism / by the Honourable Robert Boyle. London : Printed by E. Flesher for R. Davis, 1676. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. 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Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Solids -- Early works to 1800. 2006-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-05 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-06 Emma (Leeson) Huber Sampled and proofread 2006-06 Emma (Leeson) Huber Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Experiments , Notes , &c. ABOUT THE Mechanical Origine or Production Of divers particular QUALITIES : Among which is inserted a Discourse of the IMPERFECTION OF THE CHYMIST's Doctrine OF QVALITIES ; Together with some Reflections upon the HYPOTHESIS OF ALCALI and ACIDUM . By the Honourable Robert Boyle , Esq ; Fellow of the R. Society . LONDON , Printed by E. Flesher , for R. Davis Bookseller in Oxford . 1675. Directions for the Book-binder ; to be put immediately after the general Title Page . THE several Tracts of this Book are to be bound in the order following , viz. After the Preface of the Publisher to the Reader , and the Advertisements relating to the whole Treatise , is to follow , 1. The Tract of Heat and Cold. 2. Of Tasts . 3. Of Odours . 4. Of the imperfection of the Chymists Doctrine of Qualities . 5. Reflexions upon the Hypothesis of Alcali and Acidum . 6. Advertisements relating to Chymical Qualities , to be bound next after the Title Page to Volatility . 7. Of Volatility . 8. Of Fixtness . 9. Of Corrosiveness & Corrosibility . 10. Of Chymical Precipitation . 11. Of Magnetism . 12. Of Electricity . ERRATA . IN the Tract of Heat and Cold , p. 28. at the end of the page dele Finis ▪ and go ▪ on to Exp. IX . p. 40. l. 21. r. degree of rapidness . p. 102. l. 15. put a comma after the word before . In the Tract of Corrosiveness and Corrosibility read in the current Title on the top of p. 2. and 3. & seqq . Corrosiveness and Corrosibility , nor or . THE PUBLISHER TO THE Reader . TO keep the Reader from being at all surpriz'd at the Date of the Title-Page , I must inform him , that a good part of the ensuing Tracts were Printed off , and in my custody , the last year ; and the rest had come out with them divers moneths ago , if the Noble Author had not been hinder'd from committing them to the Press by the desire and hope of being able in a short time to send them abroad more numerous , and by his being hinder'd to do so partly by Remove , partly by the want of some Papers that were odly lost or spoil'd , and partly by the sickness of himself , and divers of his near Relations . And some of these Impediments do yet suppress what the Author intended should have made a part of the Book , which now he suffers to be publish'd without them , though divers of his Papers about some other particular Qualities have been written so long ago , as to have lain for many years neglected among other of his old Writings : Which that he may have both leasure and health to review , and fit for publication , is the ardent wish of the sincere Lovers of Real Knowledge , who have reason to look on it as no mean proof of his constant kindness to Experimental Philosophy , that in these Tracts he perseveres in his course of freely and candidly communicating his Experiments and Observations to the publick , notwithstanding the liberty that hath been too boldly taken to mention them as their own by some later Writers ; as particularly by the Compiler of the Treatise , entitul'd Polygraphice , who in two Chapters hath allow'd himself to present his Reader with above Fifty Experiments , taken out of our Authors Book of Colours , without owning any one of them to Him , or so much as naming him or his Book in either of those Chapters ▪ nor , that I remember , in any of the others . Nor did I think this practice justified by the confession made in the Preface , importing , that the Compiler had taken the particulars he deliver'd from the Writings of others . For , this general and perfunctory acknowledgment neither doth right to particular Authors , nor , by naming them , enables the Reader to know , whether the things deliver'd come from persons fit to be credited or not : And therefore , since 't is but too likely , that such Concealment of the Names , if not Vsurpation of the Labours of the Benefactors to Philosophy , will prove much more forbidding to many others to impart their Experiments , than as yet they have to our generous Author ; it seems to be the Interest of the Commonwealth of Learning openly to discountenance so discouraging a practice , and to shew , that they do not think it fit that Possessors of useful pieces of knowledge should be strongly tempted to envy them to the Publick , to the end onely that a few Compilers should not be put upon so reasonable and easie a work , as by a few words or names to shew themselves just , if not grateful . But not to keep the Reader any longer from the perusal of these Tracts themselves , I shall conclude with intimating onely , that what our Author saith in one of them concerning the Insufficiency of the Chymical Hypothesis for explaining the Effects of Nature , is not at all intended by him to derogate from the sober Professors of Chymistry , or to discourage them from useful Chymical Operations ; forasmuch as I had the satisfaction , some years since , to see in the Authors hands a Discourse of his about the Usefulness of Chymistry for the Advancement of Natural Philosophy ; with which also 't is hoped he will e're long gratifie the Publick . ADVERTISEMENTS Relating to the following TREATISE . TO obviate some misapprehensions that may arise concerning the ensuing Notes about Particular Qualities , it may not be improper to adde something in this place to what has been said in another Paper in reference to those Notes , and consequently to premise to the particular Experiments some few general Advertisements about them . And I. we may consider , that there may be three differing ways of treating Historically of Particular Qualities . For either one may in a full and methodical History prosecute the Phaenomena ; or one may make a Collection of various Experiments and Observations whence may be gathered divers Phaenomena to illustrate several , but not all of the Heads or Parts of such an ample or methodical History ; or ( in the third place ) one may in a more confin'd way content ones self to deliver such Experiments and Observations of the Production , or the Destruction or Change of this or that Quality , as , being duly reason'd on , may suffice to shew wherein the nature of that Quality doth consist , especially in opposition to those erroneous conceits that have been entertained about it . Of the First of these three ways of treating of a Quality I pretend not to have given any compleat example ; but you will find , that I have begun such Histories in my Specimens about Fluidity and Firmness , and in the Experiments , Observations , &c. that I have put together about Cold. The Second sort of Historical Writings I have given an Instance of in my Experiments about Colours ; but in these ensuing Notes , the occasion I had to make them having obliged me chiefly to have an eye to the disproval of the errours of the Peripateticks and the Chymists about them , I hope I shall not be thought to have fallen very short in my Attempt , if I have ( here and there ) perform'd what may be required in the Third way of writing Historically of a Quality ; my present Design being chiefly to give an Intelligent and Historical Account of the Possible Mechanical Origination , not of the various Phaenomena of the particular Qualities succinctly mentioned in these Notes ; though , my secondary end being to become a Benefactor to the History of Qualities by providing Materials for my self or better Architects , I have not scrupled to adde to those , that tend more directly to discover the Nature or Essence of the Quality treated of , and to derive it from Mechanical Principles , some others ( which happen'd to come in my way ) that acquaint us but with some of the less luciferous Phaenomena . II. That you may not mistake what is driven at in many of the Experiments and Reasonings deliver'd or propos'd in the ensuing Notes about Particular Qualities , I must desire you to take notice with me , what it is that I pretend to offer you some proofs of . For , if I took upon me to demonstrate , that the Qualities of bodies cannot proceed from ( what the Schools call ) Substantial Forms , or from any other Causes but Mechanical , it might be reasonably enough expected , that my Argument should directly exclude them all . But since , in my Explications of Qualities , I pretend only , that they may be explicated by Mechanical Principles , without enquiring , whether they are explicable by any other ; that which I need to prove , is , not that Mechanical Principles are the necessary and onely things whereby Qualities may be explain'd , but that probably they will be found sufficient for their explication . And since these are confessedly more manifest and more intelligible than substantial Forms and other Scholastic Entities ( if I may so call them ) 't is obvious , what the consequence will be of our not being oblig'd to have recourse to things , whose existence is very disputable , and their nature very obscure . There are several ways that may be employed , some on one occasion , and some on another , either more directly to reduce Qualities ( as well as divers other things in nature ) to Mechanical Principles ; or , by shewing the insufficiency of the Peripatetic and Chymical Theories of Qualities , to recommend the Corpuscularian Doctrine of them . For further Illustration of this Point , I shall adde on this occasion , that there are three distinct sorts of Experiments ( besides other proofs ) that may be reasonably employ'd , ( though they be not equally efficacious ) when we treat of the Origine of Qualities . For some Instances may be brought to shew , that the propos'd Quality may be Mechanically introduc'd into a portion of matter , where it was not before . Other Instances there may be to shew , that by the same means the Quality may be notably varied as to degrees , or other not essential Attributes . And by some Instances also it may appear , that the Quality is Mechanically expell'd from , or abolish'd in , a portion of matter that was endow'd with it before . Sometimes also by the same Operation the former quality is destroyed , and a new one is produc'd . And each of these kinds of Instances may be usefully employ'd in our Notes about Particular Qualities . For , as to the first of them , there will be scarce any difficulty . And as to the second , since the permanent Degrees as well as other Attributes of Qualities are said to flow from ( and do indeed depend upon ) the same Principles that the Quality it self does ; if , especially in bodies inanimate , a change barely Mechanical does notably and permanently alter the degree or other considerable attribute ; it will afford , though not a clear proof , yet a probable presumption , that the Principles whereon the Quality it self depends are Mechanical . And lastly , if , by a bare Mechanical change of the internal Disposition and structure of a body , a permanent Quality , confess'd to flow from its substantial Form or inward Principle , be abolish'd , and perhaps also immediately succeeded by a new Quality Mechanically producible ; if , I say , this come to pass in a body Inanimate , especially if it be also , as to sense similar , such a Phaenomenon will not a little favour that Hypothesis which teaches , that these Qualities depend upon certain contextures and other Mechanical Affections of the small parts of the bodies , that are indowed with them , and consequently may be abolish'd when that necessary Modification is destroyed . This is thus briefly premis'd to shew the pertinency of alledging differing kinds of Experiments and Phaenomena in favour of the Corpuscular Hypothesis about Qualities . What has been thus laid down , may , I hope , facilitate and shorten most of the remaining work of this Preamble , which is to shew , though but very briefly , that there may be several ways , not impertinently employable to recommend the Corpuscularian Doctrine of Qualities . For first , it may sometimes be shewn , that a Substantial Form cannot be pretended to be the necessary Principle of this or that Quality ; as will ( for instance ) hereafter be made manifest in the Asperity and Smoothness of bodies , and in the Magnetical Vertue residing in a piece of Iron that has been impregnated by a Loadstone . 'T is true , that the force of such Instances is indirect , and that they do not expresly prove the Hypothesis in whose favour they are alledged ; but yet they may do it good service by disproving the Grounds and Conclusions of the Adversaries , and so ( by removing Prejudices , ) making way for the better entertainment of the truth . Secondly , we may sometimes obtain the same or the like Quality by Artificial and sometimes even temporary Compositions , which , being but factitious bodies , are by Learned Adversaries confess'd not to have Substantial Forms , and can indeed reasonably be presum'd to have but resulting Temperaments : As will be hereafter exemplifi'd in the production of Green by compounding Blew and Yellow , and in the Electrical Faculty of Glass ; and in the temporary whiteness produc'd by beating clear Oyl and fair Water into an Ointment , and by beating water into a froth , and , more permanently , in making Coral white by flawing it with heat ; and in divers other Particulars , that will more properly be elsewhere mention'd . Thirdly then , in some cases the Quality propos'd may be either introduced ; or vary'd , or distroy'd in an inanimate body , when no change appears to be made in the body , except what is Mechanical , and what might be produc'd in it , supposing such a parcel of matter were artificially fram'd and constituted as the body is , though without any Substantial Form , or other such like internal Principle . So when a piece of Glass , or of clarify'd Rosin , is , by being beaten to powder , deprived of its Transparency , and made white , there appears no change to be made in the pulveriz'd body , but a comminution of it into a multitude of Corpuscles , that by their number and the various scituations of their surfaces are fitted copiously to reflect the sincere Light several ways , or give some peculiar Modification to its Rayes ; and hinder that free passage of the beams of Light , that is requisite to Transparency . Fourthly , as in the cases belonging to the foregoing number there appears not to intervene in the Patient or Subject of the change , any thing but a Mechanical alteration of the Mechanical Structure or Constitution ; so in some other cases it appears not , that the Agent , whether natural or factitious , operates on the Patient otherwise than Mechanically , employing onely such a way of acting as may proceed from the Mechanisme of the matter , which it self consists of , and that of the body it acts upon . As when Goldsmiths burnish a Plate or Vessel of Silver , that having been lately boil'd lookt white before , though they deprive it of the greatest part of its colour , and give it a new power of reflecting the beams of Light and visible Objects , in the manner proper to specular bodies ; yet all this is done by the intervention of a burnishing Tool , which often is but a piece of Steel or Iron conveniently shap'd ; and all that this Burnisher does , is but to depress the little prominencies of the Silver , and reduce them , and the little cavites of it , to one physically level or plain Superficies . And so when a Hammer striking often on a Nail , makes the head of it grow hot , the Hammer is but a purely Mechanical Agent , and works by local motion . And when by striking a lump of Glass , it breaks it into a multitude of small parts that compose a white powder , it acts as Mechanically in the production of that Whiteness as it does in driving in a Nail to the head . And so likewise , when the powder'd Glass or Colophony lately mention'd is , by the fire , from a white and opacous body , reduc'd into a colourless ( or a reddish ) and transparent one , it appears not , that the fire , though a natural Agent , need work otherwise than Mechanically , by colliquating the incoherent grains of powder into one mass ; wherein , the ranks of pores not being broken and interrupted as before , the incident beams of Light are allow'd every way a free passage through them . Fifthly , the like Phaenomena to those of a Quality to be explicated , or at least as difficult in the same kind , may be produc'd in bodies and cases , wherein 't is plain we need not recurre to Substantial Forms . Thus a varying Colour , like that which is admired in a Pigeons Neck , may be produc'd in changeable Taffety , by a particular way of ranging and connecting Silk of several Colours into one piece of Stuff . Thus we have known Opals casually imitated and almost excell'd by Glass , which luckily degenerated in the Furnace . And somewhat the like changeable and very delightful Colour I remember to have introduced into common Glass with Silver or with Gold and Mercury . So likewise meerly by blowing fine Crystal-Glass at the flame of a Lamp to a very extraordinary thinness , we have made it to exhibit , and that vividly , all the Colours ( as they speak ) of the Rainbow ; and this power of pleasing by diversifying the Light , the Glass , if well preserved , may keep for a long time . Thus also by barely beating Gold into such thin leaves as Artificers and Apothecaries are wont to employ , it will be brought to exhibite a green Colour , when you hold it against the Light , whether of the day , or of a good Candle ; and this kind of Greenness as 't is permanent in the foliated Gold , so I have found by trial , that if the Sun-beams , somewhat united by a Burning-glass , be trajected through the expanded Leaf , and cast upon a piece of white paper , they will appear there as if they had been tinged in their passage . Nay , and sometimes a flight and almost momentany Mechanical change will seem to over-rule Nature , and introduce into a body the quite opposite Quality to that she had given it : As when a piece of black Horn is , onely by being thinly scraped with the edge of a knife or a piece of glass , reduced to permanently white Shavings . And to these Instances o● Colours , some Emphatical and some Permanent , might be added divers belonging to other Qualities , but that I ought not to anticipate what you will elsewhere meet with . There is yet another way of arguing in favour of the Corpuscularian Doctrine of Qualities , which , though it do not afford direct proofs of its being the best Hypothesis , yet it may much strengthen the Arguments drawn from other Topicks , and thereby serve to recommend the Doctrine it self . For , the use of an Hypothesis being to render an intelligible account of the Causes of the Effects or Phaenomena propos'd , without crossing the Laws of Nature or other Phaenomena , the more numerous and the more various the Particulars are , whereof some are explicable by the assign'd Hypothesis , and some are agreeable to it , or at least are not dissonant from it , the more valuable is the Hypothesis , and the more likely to be true . For 't is much more difficult , to finde an Hypothesis that is not true which will suit with many Phaenomena , especially if they be of various kinds , than but with few . And for this Reason I have set down among the Instances belonging to particular Qualities some such Experiments and Observations , as we are now speaking of , since , although they be not direct proofs of the preferrableness of our Doctrine , yet they may serve for Confirmation of it ; though this be not the only or perhaps the chief Reason of their being mention'd . For whatever they may be as Arguments , since they are matters of fact , I thought it not amiss to take this occasion of preserving them from being lost ; since , whether or no they contribute much to the establishment of the Mechanical Doctrine about Qualities , they will at least contribute to the Natural History of them . III. I shall not trouble the Reader with a Recital of those unlucky Accidents , that have hinder'd the Subjects of the following Book from being more numerous , and I hope he will the more easily excuse their paucity , if he be advertised , that although the particular Qualities , about which some Experiments and Notes , by way of Specimens , are here presented , be not near half so many as were intended to be treated of ; yet I was careful to chuse them such as might comprehend in a small number a great variety ; there being scarce one sort of Qualities , of which there is not an Instance given in this small Book , since therein Experiments and thoughts are deliver'd about Heat and Cold , which are the chief of the four FIRST QVALITIES ; about Tasts and Odours , which are of those , that , being the immediate objects of Sense , are wont to be call'd SENSIBLE QVALITIES ; about Volatility and Fixity , Corrosiveness and Corrosibility , which , as they are found in bodies purely natural , are referrable to those Qualities , that many Physical Writers call SECOND QVALITIES , and which yet , as they may be produced and destroyed by the Chymists Art , may be stiled Chymical Qualities , and the Spagyrical ways of introducing or expelling them may be referr'd to Chymical Operations , of which there is given a more ample Specimen in the Mechanical account of Chymical Precipitations . And lastly , some Notes are added about Magnetism and Electricity , which are known to belong to the Tribe of Occult Qualities . IV. If a want of apt Coherence and exact Method be discover'd in the following Essays , 't is hop'd , that defect will be easily excus'd by those that remember and consider , that these Papers were originally little better than a kind of Repsody of Experiments , Thoughts , and Observations , occasionally thrown together by way of Annotations upon some Passages of a Discourse ▪ ( about the differing Parts and Red integration of Nitre ) wherein some things were pointed at relating to the particular Qualities that are here more largely treated of . And though the Particulars that concern some of these Qualities , were afterwards ( to supply the place of those borrow'd by other Papers whilst these lay by me ) increas'd in number ; yet it was not to be expected , that their Accession should as well correct the Form as augment the Matter of our Annotations . And as for the two Tracts , that are inserted among these Essays about Qualities ; I mean the Discourse of the Imperfection of the Chymical Doctrine of them , and the Reflections on the Hypothesis of Acidum and Alcali , the occasion of their being made parts of this Book is so far express'd in the Tracts themselves , that I need not here trouble the Reader with a particular Account of it . V. I do not undertake , that all the following Accounts of Particular Qualities would prove to be the very true ones , nor every Explication the best that can be devis'd . For besides that the difficulty of the Subject , and Incompleatness of the History we yet have of Qualities , may well deterre a man , less diffident of his own abilities than I justly am , from assuming so much to himself , it is not absolutely necessary to my present Design . For , Mechanical Explications of natural Phaenomena do give so much more satisfaction to ingenious minds , than those that must employ Substantial Forms , Sympathy , Antipathy , &c. that the more judicious of the vulgar Philosophers themselves prefer them before all others , when they can be had ; ( as is elsewhere shewn at large , ) but then they look upon them either as confined to Mechanical Engines , or at least but as reaching to very few of Nature's Phaenomena , and , for that reason , unfit to be received as Physical Principles . To remove therefore this grand Prejudice and Objection , which seems to be the chief thing that has kept off Rational Inquirers from closing with the Mechanical Philosophy , it may be very conducive , if not sufficient , to propose such Mechanical accounts of Particular Qualities themselves , as are intelligible and possible , and are agreeable to the Phaenomena whereto they are applied . And to this it is no more necessary that the account propos'd should be the truest and best that can possibly be given , than it is to the proving that a Clock is not acted by a vital Principle , ( as those Chineses thought , who took the first , that was brought them out of Europe , for an Animal , ) but acts as an Engine , to do more than assign a Mechanical Structure made up of Wheels , a Spring , a Hammer , and other Mechanical pieces , that will regularly shew and strike the hour , whether this Contrivance be or be not the very same with that of the Particular Clock propos'd ; which may indeed be made to move either with Springs or Weights , and may consist of a greater or lesser number of Wheels , and those differingly scituated and connected ; but for all this variety 't will still be but an Engine . I intend not therefore by proposing the Theories and Conjectures ventur'd at in the following Papers , to debar my self of the Liberty either of altering them , or of substituting others in their places , in case a further progress in the History of Qualities shall suggest better Hypotheses or Explications . And 't was but agreeable to this Intention of mine , that I should , as I have done , on divers occasions in the following Notes , imploy the word Or , and express my self somewhat doubtingly , mentioning more than one Cause of a Phaenomenon , or Reason of an opinion , without dogmatically declaring for either ; since my purpose in these Notes was rather to shew , it was not necessary to betake our selves to the Scholastick or Chymical Doctrine about Qualities , than to act the Umpire between the differing Hypotheses of the Corpuscularians ; and , provided I kept my self within the bounds of Mechanical Philosophy , my design allowed me a great latitude in making explications of the Phaenomena , I had occasion to take notice of . FINIS . OF THE MECHANICAL ORIGINE OF HEAT and COLD . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esq ; Fellow of the R. Society . LONDON , Printed by E. Flesher , for R. Davis Bookseller in Oxford . 1675. Experiments and Notes ABOUT THE MECHANICAL ORIGINE OR PRODUCTION OF HEAT and COLD . SECT . I. About the Mechanical Production of Cold. HEAT & COLD being generally lookt upon as the most active among Qualities , from which many other Qualities are deducible , and by which many of Nature's Phaenomena , especially among the Peripateticks , are attempted to be explicated ; I suppose it will be very proper to begin with Instances of them to shew , that Qualities may be Mechanically produced or destroyed . A not useless Paraphrase of which expression may be this , That a portion of matter may come to be endowed with a Quality , which it had not before , or to be deprived of one that it had , or ( sometimes ) to acquire or lose a degree of that Quality ; though on the part of the Matter ( or , as some would speak , of the Patient ) there do not appear to intervene any more than a change of Texture , or some other Mechanical Alteration ; and though the Agents ( on their part ) do not appear to act upon it otherwise , than after a Mechanical manner , that is , by their bigness , shape , motion , and those other Attributes by vertue whereof Mechanical Powers and Engines perform their operations ; and this without having recourse to the Peripatetic Substantial Forms and Elements , or to the Hypostatical Principles of the Chymists . And having here ( as in a proper place ) to avoid ambiguity , premised once for all , this * Summary Declaration of the sense , agreeably whereunto I would have these Terms understood in the following Notes about the Origine of Particular Qualities ; I proceed now to set down some few examples of the Mechanical Production of Cold & Heat , beginning with those that relate to the former , because by reason of their Paucity they will be quickly dispatcht . And I hope I shall not need to make an Apology for mentioning no greater number ; since I scarce remember to have met with any Instances of this kind in any of the Classick Writers of Natural Philosophy . EXPER. I. MY first Experiment is afforded me by the Dissolution of Sal Armoniac , which I have somewhat wonder'd , that Chymists having often occasion to purifie that Salt by the help of Water , should not have , long since , and publickly , taken notice of . For if you put into three or four times its weight of Water a pound or but half a pound ( or even less ) of powder'd Sal Armoniack , and stir it about to hasten the dissolution , there will be produc'd in the mixture a very intense degree of Coldness , such as will not be onely very sensible to his hand that holds the Glass whilst the Dissolution is making , but will very manifestly discover it self by its Operation upon a Thermoscope . Nay , I have more than once by wetting the outside of the Glass , where the dissolution was making , and nimbly stirring the Mixture , turn'd that externally adhering water into real Ice , ( that was scrap'd off with a knife ) in less than a minute of an hour . And this thus generated Cold continued considerably intense , whilst the action of dissolution lasted ; but afterwards by degrees abated , and within a very few hours ceas'd . The particular Phaenomena I have noted in the Experiment , and the practical uses that may be made of it I reserve for another place * , the knowledge of them being not necessary in this , where what I have already related , may suffice for my present Argument . And to shew , that not onely a far more intense degree of Cold may emerge in this Mixture , than was to be found in either of the Ingredients before they were mingled , but a considerable Coldness may be begun to be produc'd between Bodies that were neither of them actually Cold before they were put together , I will subjoin a Transcript of what I find to this purpose among my Adversaria . EXPER. II. [ I Remember that once I had a mind to try , Whether the Coldness produced upon the Solution of beaten Sal Armoniac in water , might not be more probably referr'd to some change of Texture or Motion resulting from the action of the Liquor upon the Salt , than to any Infrigidation of the water made by the suddain dispersion of so many Saline grains of powder , which by reason of their Solidity may be suspected to be actually more cold than the Water they are put into ; I therefore provided a Glass full of that Liquor , and having brought it to such a Temper , that its warmth made the Spirit of Wine in the seal'd Weather-glass manifestly , though not nimbly , ascend ; I took out the Thermoscope , and laid it in powder'd Sal Armoniac , warm'd beforehand ; so that the tincted Liquor was made to ascend much nimblier by the Salt than just before by the Water ; and having presently remov'd the Instrument into that Liquor again , and poured the somewhat warm Sal Armoniac into the same , I found , as I imagin'd , that within a space of time which I guess'd to be about half a minute or less , the Spirit of Wine began hastily to subside , and within a few minutes fell above a whole division and a quarter below the mark at which it stood in the water , before that Liquor or the Salt were warm'd . Nor did the Spirit in a great while reascend to the height which it had when the water was cold . The same Experiment , being at another time reiterated , was tried with the like success ; which second may therefore serve for a Confirmation of the first . ] EXPER. III. HAving a mind likewise to shew some Ingenious men , how much the production of Heat and Cold depends upon Texture and other Mechanical Affections , I thought fit to make again a Sal Armoniac by a way I formerly publish'd , that I might be sure to know what Ingredients I employ'd , and shew their effects as well before conjunction as after it . I took then Spirit of Salt , and Spirit of fermented or rather putrified Urine ; and having put a seal'd Weather-glass into an open Vessel , where one of them was pour'd in , I put the other by degrees to it , and observ'd , that , as upon their mingling they made a great noise with many bubbles , so in this conflict they lost their former coldness , and impell'd up the Spirit of Wine in the seal'd Thermoscope : Then slowly evaporating the superfluous moisture , I obtained a fine sort of Sal Armoniac for the most part figur'd not unlike the other , when being dissolv'd and filtrated , it is warily coagulated . This new Salt being gently dry'd I put into a wide Glass of water , wherein I had before plac'd a seal'd Weather-glass , that the included Spirit might acquire the temper of the ambient Liquor , and having stirr'd this Salt in the water , though I took it then off the mantle-tree of a Chimney that had had fire in it divers hours before , it did , as I expected , make the tincted Spirit hastily subside and fall considerably low . EXPER. IV. SInce if two bodies upon their mixture acquire a greater degree of Cold than either of them had before there is a production of this additional degree of that Quality , it will be proper to add on this occasion the ensuing Experiment . We took a competent quantity of acid spirit distill'd from Roch-allom , ( that , though rectifi'd , was but weak , ) which , in the spirit of that salt , is not strange . Of this we put into a wide mouth'd Glass ( that was not great ) more than was sufficient to cover the globulous part of a good seal'd Thermoscope , and then suffering the instrument to stay a pretty while in the liquor , that the Spirit of wine might be cool'd as much as the ambient was , we put in little by little some volatile salt sublimed from Sal Armoniac and a fixt Alcali , and notwithstanding the very numerous ( but not great ) bubbles , and the noise and froath that were produced , as is usual upon the reaction of Acids and Alcalys , the tincted spirit in the Weather-glass , after having continued a good while at a stand , began a little to descend , and continued ( though but very slowly ) to do so , till the spirit of Allom was glutted with the volatile salt ; and this descent of the tincted liquor in the Instrument being measur'd , appear'd to be about an inch ( for it manifestly exceeded seven eighths . ) By comparing this Experiment with the first part of the foregoing , we may gather , that when Volatile and Urinous Salts or Spirits ( for the saline particles appear sometimes in a dry and sometimes in a liquid form ) tumultuate upon their being mixt with Acids , neither the Heat nor the Cold that ensues is produc'd by a Conflict with the Acids precisely as it is Acid , since we have seen that an urinous spirit produc'd an actual Heat with spirit of Salt , and the distill'd Salt of Sal Armoniac , which is also Urinous , with the acid spirit of Roch-Allom produces not a true effervescence , but a manifest Coldness : As the same Salt also did in a Trial of another sort , which was this . EXPER. V. WE took one part of Oyl of Vitriol , and shaking it into twelve parts of water we made a mixture , that at first was sensibly warm ; then suffering this to cool , we put a sufficient quantity of it into a wide mouth'd glass , and then we put a good Thermoscope Hermetically seal'd , above whose Ball the compounded liquor reached a pretty way . After some time had been allowed that the liquor in the Thermometer might acquire the temper of the ambient ; we put in by degrees as much volatile Salt of Sal Armoniac as would serve to satiate the acid spirits of the mixture : for , though these two made a notable conflict with tumult , noise , and froth , yet 't was but a cold ebullition ( if I may so stile it , ) for the spirit in the Thermoscope descended about an inch beneath the mark it rested at , when the seeming effervescence began . EXPER. VI. 'T Is known that Salt-peter being put into common water produces a sensible Coldness in it , as it also does in many other Liquors : But that the same Salt put into a Liquor of another Constitution may have a quite differing effect , I have convinc'd some inquisitive persons by mingling eight ounces of fine Salt-peter powder'd with six ounces of Oyl of Vitriol : For by that commixture with a Salt that was not only actually , but , as to many other bodies , potentially cold , the Oyl of Vitriol , that was sensibly cold before , quickly conceived a considerable degree of Heat , whose Effects also became visible in the copious Fumes that were emitted by the incalescent Mixture . EXPER. VII . THis brings into my mind , that though Gunpowder seems to be of so igneous a nature , that , when 't is put upon a Coal , it is turn'd presently into flame capable of promoting the deflagration of the Charcoal , and kindling divers bodies it meets with in its way ; yet if some ounces of Gunpowder reduced to powder be thrown into four or five times as much water , it will very manifestly impart a Coldness to it , as experience made with , as well as without , a seal'd Thermoscope has assured me . This and the foregoing Experiment do readily suggest an Inquiry into the nature of the Coldness , which Philosophers are wont to oppose to that which immediately and upon the first contact affect the organs of sense , and which therefore they call Actual or Formal . The success of this Experiment upon a second trial serv'd to confirm it , which is the more strange , because I have found , that a small quantity of Oyl of Vitriol , not beforehand mingled with water , would produce a notable heat in its conflict with a small portion of just such Salt as I employed before ( both the parcels having been , if I well remember , taken out of the same Glass . ) And this heat did upon trial , made with the former Thermoscope , make the tincted Spirit ascend much further than the lately recited Experiment made it subside . A DIGRESSION ABOUT POTENTIAL COLDNESS . POtential Coldness has been generally lookt upon , and that partly perhaps upon the score of its very name , as so abstruse a Quality , that 't is not onely rational but necessary to derive it from the substantial Forms of bodies . But I confess I see no necessity of believing it not to be referrable to Mechanical Principles . For as to the chief Instances of Potential Coldness , which are taken from the effects of some Medicines and aliments in the bodies of men , it may be said without improbability , that the produced Refrigeration proceeds chiefly from this , that the potentially cold body is made up of Corpuscles of such size , shape , &c. that being resolved and disjoined by the Menstruum of the stomach , or the fluids it may elsewhere meet with , they do so associate themselves with the small parts of the blood and other liquors , as , by clogging them or otherwise , to lessen their wonted agitation , and perhaps make them act in a peculiar way as well as less briskly on the nervous and fibrous parts ; and the perception of this Imminution ( and perhaps change ) of motion in the organs of feeling is that , which , being referr'd to the body that produces it , we call its Potential Coldness . Which Quality ▪ appears by this account to be , as I was saying before , but a Relative thing , and is wont to require the diffusion or dispersion of the small parts of the Corpuscles of the Agent , and their mingling themselves with the liquors or the small parts of the body they are to refrigerate . And therefore , if it be granted , that in Agues there is some morbifick matter of a viscous or not easily dissipable texture , that is harbor'd in some part of the body , and requires such a time to be made fluid and resolvable ; the Cold Fits of Agues need not be so much admired as they usually are ; since , though just before the Fit the same parcel of matter that is to produce it were actually in the body , yet it was not by reason of its clamminess actually resolved into small parts , and mingled with those of the bloud , and consequently could not make such a change in the motion of that liquor as is felt in the Cold Fit of an Ague ; ( for , of the further Change that occasions the Hot Fit , I am not here to speak ) And in some other Diseases a small quantity of matter , being resolved into minute parts , may be able to produce a great sense of Coldness in some part of a body , which by reason of the structure of that part may be peculiarly disposed to be affected thereby ; as I have known Hypochondriack and Hysterical women complain of great Degrees of Coldness , that would suddenly invade some particular part , chiefly of the Head or Back , and be for a good while troublesome there . And that , if a frigorific vapour or matter be exceeding subtile , an inconsiderable Quantity of it being dispersed through the bloud may suffice to produce a notable Refrigeration , I have learnt by Inquiry into the Effects of some Poysons ; and 't is not very material , whether the Poyson , generally speaking , be cold or hot , if it meet with a body dispos'd to have those affections that pass for cold ones produced in it . For I have made a Chymical Liquor , that was penetrant and fiery enough to the Taste , and had acquired a Subtlety and briskness from Distillation , with which I could almost in a trice , giving it but in the quantity of about a drop , cast an Animal into that which appear'd a sleep , and the like Liquor , in a not much greater quantity , being , by I know not whose mistake , apply'd to the aking Tooth of a very Ingenious Person , did presently , as he soon after told me , give him an universal Refrigeration , and trembling , worse than the cold Paroxisme of a Quartane . And though Scorpions do sometimes cause , by their sting , violent Heats in the parts they hurt , yet sometimes also the quite contrary happens , and their Poyson proves , in a high degree , potentially cold ; as may be learnt from the two following Observations recorded by eminent Physicians . * Famulum habui , ( saith Benivenius ) qui à Scorpione ictus , tam subito ac tam frigido sudore toto corpore perfusus est , ut algentissimâ nive atque glacie sese opprimi quereretur . Verùm cùm algenti illi solam Theriacam ex vino potentiore exhibuissem , illicò curatus est : Thus far he : To whose Narrative I adde this of Amatus Lusitanus . Vir qui à Scorpione in manus digito punctus fuit , multum dolebat , & refrigeratus totus contremebat , & per corpus dolores , cute totâ quasi acu punctâ , formicantes patiebatur , &c. I cannot now stay to enquire , Whether there may not be in these great Refrigerations , made by so small a quantity of Poyson , some small Concretions or Coagulations made of the minute particles of the bloud into little clots , less agile and more unwieldy than they were when they moved separately : which may be illustrated by the little Curdlings that may be made of the parts of Milk by a very small proportion of Runnet or some acid liquor , and the little coagulations made of the Spirit of Wine by that of Urine : Nor will I now enquire , whether , besides the retardment of the motion of the bloud , some poysons and other analogous Agents may not give the motion of it a new modification , ( as if some Corpuscles that usually are more whirl'd or brandish'd be put into a more direct Motion ) that may give it a peculiar kind of grating or other action upon the nervous and fibrous parts of the body . These , I say , and other suspicions that have sometimes come into my thoughts , I must not stay to examine ; but shall now rather offer to Consideration , Whether , since some parts of the humane body are very differing from others in their structure and internal Constitution ; and since also some Agents may abound in Corpuscles of differing shapes , bulks , and motions , the same Medicine may not in reference to the same humane body be potentially cold or potentially hot , according as 't is applied ; or perhaps may , upon one or both of the accounts newly mentioned , be cold in reference to one part of the body , and hot in reference to the other . And these effects need not be always ascrib'd to the meer and immediate action of the Corpuscles of the Medicine , but sometimes to the new Quality they acquire in their Passage by associating themselves with the bloud or other fluids of the body , or to the expulsion of some calorific or frigorific Corpuscles , or to the Disposition they give the part on which they operate , to be more or less permeated and agitated than before by some subtile aethereal matter , or other Efficients of Heat or Cold. Some of these Conjectures about the Relative Nature of Potentially cold bodies , may be either confirmed or illustrated by such Instances as these ; that Spirit of Wine being inwardly taken is potentially very hot , and yet being outwardly applied to some Burns and some hot Tumours does notably abate the Heat of the inflamed parts , though the same Spirit applied even outwardly to a tender eye will cause a great and dolorous agitation in it . And Camphire , which in the Dose of less than a half or perhaps a quarter of a Scruple , has been observed to diffuse a Heat through the body , is with success externally applied by Physicians and Chirurgeons in refrigerating Medicines . But I leave the further Inquiry into the Operations of Medicines to Physicians , who may possibly , by what has been said , be assisted to compose the differences between some famous Writers about the temperament of some Medicines , as Mercury , Camphire , &c. which some will have to be cold , and others maintain to be hot ; and shall onely offer by way of confirming , in general , that Potential Coldness is onely a Relative Quality , a few Particulars ; the first whereof is afforded by comparing together the VI. and the VII . Experiment before going , ( which have occasion'd this Digression about Potential Coldness ; ) since by them it seems probable , that the same thing may have it in reference to one body , and not to another , according to the disposition of the body it operates upon , or that operates upon it . And the Fumes of Lead have been observed sometimes ( for I have not found the Effect to succeed always ) to arrest the fluidity of Mercury , which change is supposed to be the effect of a Potential Coldness belonging to the Chymists Saturn in reference to fluid Mercury , though it have not that operation on any other liquor that we know of . And lastly , ( for I would not be too prolix ) though Nitre and Sal Armoniac be both apart and joyntly Cold in reference to Water , and though , however Nitre be throughly melted in a Crucible , it will not take fire of it self , yet if , whilst it is in Fusion , you shall by degrees cast on it some powder'd Sal Armoniac , it will take fire and flash vehemently , almost as if Sulphur had been injected . But our Excursion has , I fear , lasted too long , and therefore I shall presently re-enter into the way , and proceed to set down some Trials about Cold. EXPER. VIII . IN the first Experiment we observed , that upon the pouring of water upon Sal Armoniac there ensued an intense degree of Cold , and we have elsewhere recited , that the like effect was produc'd by putting , instead of common water , Oyl of Vitriol to Sal Armoniac ; but now , to shew further , what influence Motion and Texture may have upon such Trials , it may not be amiss to adde the following Experiment : To twelve ounces of Sal Armoniac we put by degrees an equal weight of water , and whilst the Liquor was dissolving the Salt , and by that action producing a great Coldness , we warily pour'd in twelve ounces also of good Oyl of Vitriol ; of which new mixture the event was , that a notable degree of Heat was quickly produced in the Glass wherein the Ingredients were confounded , as unlikely as it seemed , that , whereas each of the two Liquors is wont with Sal Armoniac to produce an intense Cold , both of them acting on it together should produce the contrary Quality . But the reason I had to expect the success , I met with , was this , that 't was probable the Heat arising from the mixture of the two Liquors would overpower the Coldness produceable by the operation of either , or both , of them upon the Salt. FINIS . EXPER. IX . IN most of the Experiments that we have hitherto proposed , Cold is wont to be regularly produc'd in a Mechanical way ; but I shall now adde , that in some sort of Trials I found that the Event was varied by unobserv'd Circumstances ; so that sometimes manifest Coldness would be produced by mixing two Bodies together , which at another time would upon their Congress disclose a manifest Heat , and sometimes again , though more rarely , would have but a very faint and remiss degree of either . Of this sort of Experiments , whose Events I could not confidently undertake for , I found to be , the dissolution of Salt of Tartar in Spirit of Vinegar , and of some other Salts , that were not acid , in the same Menstruum , and even Spirit of Verdigrease ( made per se ) though a more potent Menstruum than common Spirit of Vinegar , would not constantly produce near such a heat at the beginning of its operation , as the greatness of the seeming Effervescence , then excited , would make one expect , as may appear by the following Observation transcrib'd verbatim out of one of my Adversaria . [ Into eight ounces of Spirit of Verdigrease ( into which we had put a while before a standard-Thermoscope to acquire the like temper with the Liquor ) we put in a wide-mouthed Glass two ounces of Salt of Tartar , as fast as we durst for fear of making the matter boil over ; and though there were a great commotion excited by the action and reaction of the Ingredients , which was attended with a copious froth and a hissing noise ; yet 't was a pretty while e're the Glass was sensibly warm on the outside ; but by that time the salt was all dissolv'd , the Liquor in the Thermoscope appear'd to be impell'd up about three inches and an half . ] And yet , if my memory do not much deceive me , I have found , that by mixing Salt of Tartar with another Salt , the Texture of the fixt Alkali was so alter'd , that upon the affusion of spirit of Verdigrease , ( made without spirit of Vinegar and spirit of Wine , ) though there ensued a great conflict with noise and bubbles , yet , instead of an Incalescence , a considerable degree of Coldness was produced . EXPER. X. 'T Is very probable that further Trials will furnish us with more Instances to shew how the Production of Cold may in some cases be effected , varied , or hinder'd by Mechanical Circumstances that are easily and usually overlook'd . I remember , on this occasion , that though in the Experiment above recited we observ'd , that Oyl of Vitriol and water being first shaken together , the volatil salt of Sal Armoniac being afterwards put to them , produced a sensible Coldness ; yet I found , that if a little Oyl of Vitriol and of the volatile Salt were first put together , though soon after a considerable proportion of water were added , there would be produc'd not a Coldness , but a manifest degree of Heat , which would impell up the liquor in the Thermoscope to the height of some inches . And I remember too , that though Salt of Tartar will , as we shall see e're long , grow hot in the water , yet having distill'd some Salt of Tartar and Cinaber in a strong fire , and put the whole Caput mortuum into distill'd or Rain-water , it made indeed a hissing there as if it had been Quick-lime , but produced no Heat , that I could by feeling perceive . I shall adde , that not onely , as we have seen already , some unheeded Circumstances may promote or hinder the artificial Production of Cold by particular Agents , but , which will seem more strange , some unobserv'd , and perhaps hardly observable , Indisposition in the Patient may promote or hinder the effects of the grand and Catholick Efficients of Cold , whatever those be . This suspicion I represent as a thing that further experience may possibly countenance , because I have sometimes found , that the degree of the Operation of Cold has been much varied by latent Circumstances , some bodies being more wrought upon , and others less , than was upon very probable grounds expected . And particularly I remember , that though Oyl of Vitriol be one of the firiest liquors that is yet known , and does perform some of the Operations of fire it self , ( as we shall elsewhere have occasion to shew ) and will thaw Ice sooner than Spirit of Wine or any other liquor , as I have tried ; yet having put about a pound or more , by our estimate , of choice rectified Oyl of Vitriol into a strong Glass-Vial proportionable to it , we found , that , except a little that was fluid at the top , it was all congeal'd or coagulated into a mass like Ice , though the Glass stood in a Laboratory where a fire was constantly kept not far from it ▪ and where Oyl of Vitriol very seldom or never has before or since been observ'd to congeal or coagulate so much as in part . And the odness of our Phaenomenon was increas'd by this Circumstance , that the Mass continued solid ▪ a good while after the weather was grown too mild to have such Operations upon Liquors far less indispos'd to lose their fluidity by Cold , than even common Oyl of Vitriol is . On the other side I remember , that about two years ago , I expos'd some Oyl of sweet Almonds hermetically seal'd up in a Glass-bubble , to observe what Condensation an intense cold could make of it , ( for though Cold expands water , it condenses common oyl ; ) but the next day I found to my wonder , that not onely the oyl remain'd unfrozen by the sharp frost it had been expos'd to , but that it had not its transparency troubled , though 't is known , that oyl will be brought to concrete and turn opacous by a far less degree of Cold than is requisite to freeze water ; notwithstanding which this liquor , which was lodged in a glass so thin , that 't was blown at the flame of a Lamp , continued fluid and diaphanous in very frosty weather , so long till I lost the expectation of seeing it congeal'd or concreted . And this brings into my mind , that though Camphire be , as I formerly noted , reckon'd by many potentially cold , yet we kept some oyl of it , of our making , wherein the whole body of the Camphire remain'd , being onely by some Nitrous Spirits reduc'd to the form of an Oyl ; we kept it , I say , in such intense degrees of Cold , that would have easily frozen water , without finding it to lose its Transparency or its Fluidity . And here I shall put an end to the first Section , ( containing our Notes about Cold ) the design of which may be not a little promoted by comparing with them the beginning of the ensuing Section . For if it be true , that ( as we there shew ) the nature of Heat consists either onely or chiefly in the local motion of the small parts of a body Mechanically modified by certain conditions , of which the principal is the vehemency of the various agitations of those insensible parts ; and if it be also true , as Experience witnesses it to be , that , when the minute parts of a body are in or arrive at such a state , that they are more slowly or faintly agitated than those of our fingers or other organs of feeling , we judge them cold : These two things laid together seem plainly enough to argue , that a Privation or Negation of that Local Motion that is requisite to constitute Heat , may suffice for the denominating a body Cold , as Coldness is a quality of the Object , ( which as 't is perceiv'd by the mind , is also an affection of the Sentient : ) And therefore an Imminution of such a degree of former motion as is necessary to make a body Hot as to sense , and which is sufficient to the Production of sensible Coldness , may be Mechanically made , since Slowness as well as Swiftness being a Mode of Local motion is a Mechanical thing : And though its effect , which is Coldness , seem a Privation or Negation ; yet the Cause of it may be a positive Agent acting Mechanically , by clogging the Agile Calorific Particles , or deadning their motion , or perverting their determination , or by some other intelligible way bringing them to a state of Coldness as to sense : I say Coldness as to sense ; because as 't is a Tactile Quality , in the popular acception of it , 't is relative to our Organs of Feeling ; as we see that the same luke-warm water will appear hot and cold to the same mans hands , if , when both are plung'd into it , one of them shall have been newly held to the fire , and the other be benummed with frost . And indeed the custom of speaking has introduced an ambiguity into the word Cold , which often occasions mistakes , not easily without much attention and sometimes circumlocution also to be avoided ; since usually by Cold is meant that which immediately affects the sensory of him that pronounces a body Cold , whereas sometimes 't is taken in a more general notion for such a Negation or Imminution of motion , as though it operates not perceivably on our senses , does yet upon other bodies ; and sometimes also it is taken ( which is perhaps the more Philosophical sense ) for a perception , made in and by the mind , of the alteration produced in the Corporeal Organs by the operation of that , whatever it be , on whose account a body is found to be cold . But the Discussion of these Points is here purposely omitted , as for other Reasons , so principally because they may be found expresly handled in a fitter place . SECT . II. Of the Mechanicall Origine or Production of HEAT . AFter having dispatched the Instances I had to offer of the Production of Cold , it remains that I also propose some Experiments of Heat , which Quality will appear the more likely to be Mechanically producible , if we consider the nature of it , which seems to consist mainly , if not onely , in that Mechanical affection of matter we call Local motion mechanically modified , which modification , as far as I have observed , is made up of three Conditions . The first of these is , that the agitation of the parts be vehement , by which degree or rapidness , the motion proper to bodies that are hot distinguishes them from bodies that are barely fluid . For these , as such , require not near so brisk an agitation , as is wont to be necessary to make bodies deserve the name of hot . Thus we see that the particles of water in its natural ( or usual ) state , move so calmly , that we do not feel it at all warm , though it could not be a liquor unless they were in a restless motion ; but when water comes to be actually hot , the motion does manifestly and proportionably appear more vehement , since it does not onely briskly strike our organs of feeling , but ordinarily produces store of very small bubbles , and will melt butter or coagulated oyl , cast upon it , and will afford vapours , that , by the agitation they suffer , will be made to ascend into the air . And if the degree of Heat be such as to make the water boil , then the agitation becomes much more manifest by the confus'd motions , and waves , and noise , and bubbles , that are excited , and by other obvious effects and Phaenomena of the vehement and tumultuous motion , which is able to throw up visibly into the air great store of Corpuscles , in the form of vapours or smoak . Thus in a heated Iron the vehement agitation of the parts may be easily inferr'd from the motion and hissing noise it imparts to drops of water or spittle that fall upon it . For it makes them hiss and boil , and quickly forces their particles to quit the form of a liquor , and flye into the air in the form of steams . And lastly , Fire , which is the hottest body we know , consists of parts so vehemently agitated , that they perpetually and swiftly flye abroad in swarms , and dissipate or shatter all the combustible bodies they meet with in their way ; fire making so fierce a dissolution , and great a dispersion of its own fuel , that we may see whole piles of solid wood ( weighing perhaps many hundred pounds ) so dissipated in very few hours into flame and smoak , that oftentimes there will not be one pound of Ashes remaining . And this is the first Condition required to Heat . The second is this , that the determinations be very various , some particles moving towards the right , some to the left , hand , some directly upwards , some downwards , and some obliquely , &c. This variety of determinations appears to be in hot bodies both by some of the Instances newly mention'd , and especially that of flame , which is a body ; and by the diffusion that metals acquire , when they are melted , and by the operations of Heat that are exercis'd by hot bodies upon others , in what posture or scituation soever the body to be heated be applied to them . As a thoroughly ignited Coal will appear every way red , and will melt wax , and kindle brimstone , whether the body be apply'd to the upper or to the lower , or to any other part of the burning Coal . And congruously to this Notion , though air and water be mov'd never so vehemently , as in high Winds and Cataracts , yet we are not to expect that they should be manifestly hot , because the vehemency belongs to the progressive motion of the whole body ; notwithstanding which , the parts it consists of may not be near so much quickned in their motions made according to other determinations , as to become sensibly hot . And this Consideration may keep it from seeming strange , that in some cases , where the whole body , though rapidly moved , tends but one way , 't is not by that swift motion perceived to be made Hot. Nay , though the agitation be very various as well as vehement , there is yet a third Condition required to make it Calorific , namely , that the agitated particles , or at least the greatest number of them , be so minute as to be singly insensible . For though a heap of sand or dust it self were vehemently and confusedly agitated by a whirlwind , the bulk of the grains or Corpuscles , would keep their agitation from being properly Heat , though by their numerous strokes upon a man's face , and the brisk commotion of the spirits and other small particles that may thence ensue , they may perchance occasion the production of that Quality . If some attention be employ'd in considering the formerly propos'd Notion of the nature of Heat , it may not be difficult to discern , that the Mechanical production of it may be divers ways effected . For , excepting in some few Anomalous cases , ( wherein the regular course of things happens to be over-rul'd , ) by whatever ways the Insensible parts of a body are put into a very confus'd and vehement agitation , by the same ways Heat may be introduc'd into that body : agreeably to which Doctrine , as there are several Agents and Operations by which this Calorific Motion ( if I may so call it ) may be excited , so there may be several ways of Mechanically producing Heat , and many Experiments may be reduc'd to almost each of them , chance it self having in the Laboratories of Chymists afforded divers Phaenomena referrable to one or other of those Heads . Many of the more familiar Instances , applicable to our present purpose , have been long since collected by our justly famous Verulam in his short , but excellent , Paper de forma calidi , wherein ( though I do not acquiesce in every thing I meet with there ) he seems to have been , at least among the Moderns , the Person that has first handled the Doctrine of Heat like an Experimentall Philosopher . I shall therefore decline accumulating a multitude of Instances of the Production of Heat , and I shall also forbear to insist on such known things , as the Incalescence observable upon the pouring either of Oyl of Vitriol upon Salt of Tartar , ( in the making of Tartarum Vitriolatum ) or of Aqua fortis upon Silver or Quicksilver , ( in the dissolution of these Metals ) but shall rather chuse to mention some few Instances not so notorious as the former , but not unfit by their variety to exemplifie several of the differing ways of exciting Heat . And yet I shall not decline the mention of the most obvious and familiar Instance of all , namely the Heat observed in Quick-lime upon the affusion of cold water , because among learned men , and especially Peripateticks , I find causes to be assign'd that are either justly questionable or manifestly erroneous . For as to what is inculcated by the Schools about the Incalescence of a mixture of Quick-lime and water by vertue of a supposed antiperistasis or Invigoration of the internal Heat of the Lime by its being invironed by cold water , I have elsewhere shewn , that this is but an Imaginary Cause , by delivering upon Experiment ( which any man may easily make ) that , if instead of cold water the liquor be poured on very hot , the ebullition of the Lime will not be the less , but rather the greater : And Oyl of Turpentine , which is a lighter , and is lookt upon as a subtiler liquor than water , though it be poured quite cold on Quick-lime , will not , that I have observed , grow so much as sensibly hot with it . And now I have mentioned the Incalescence of Lime , which , though an abvious Phaenomenon , has exercised the wits of divers Philosophers and Chymists , I will adde two or three Observations in order to an Inquiry that may be some other time made into the genuine Causes of it ; which are not so easie to be found as many learned men may at first sight imagine . The acute Helmont indeed and his followers have ingeniously enough attempted to derive the Heat under consideration from the conflict of some Alcalizate and Acid salts , that are to be found in Quick-lime , and are dissolved , and so set at liberty to fight with one another by the water that slakes the Lime . But though we have some manifest marks of an Alcalizate Salt in Lime , yet that it contains also an Acid Salt , has not , that I remember , been proved ; and if the emerging of Heat be a sufficient reason to prove a latent acid Salt in Lime , I know not , why I may not inferr , that the like Salt lies conceal'd in other bodies , which the Chymists take to be of the purest or meerest sort of Alcalys . For I have purposely tried , EXPER. I that by putting a pretty quantity of dry Salt of Tartar in the palm of my hand , and wetting it well in cold water , there has been a very sensible Heat produced in the mixture ; and when I have made the trial with a more considerable quantity of salt and water in a Viol , the heat proved troublesomely intense , and continued to be at least sensible a good while after . This Experiment seems to favour the opinion , that the Heat produced in Lime whilst 't is quenching , proceeds from the Empyreuma , as the Chymists call it , or impression left by the violent fire , that was employ'd to reduce the stone to Lime . But if by Empyreuma be meant a bare impression made by the fire , 't will be more requisite than easie , to declare intelligibly , in what that impression consists , and how it operates to produce such considerable effects . And if the effect be ascribed to swarms of Atomes of fire , that remain adherent to the substance of the Lime , and are set at liberty to flye away by the liquor , which seems to be argued by the slaking of Lime without water , if it be for some time left in the air , whereby the Atomes of fire get opportunity to flye away by little and little : If this , I say , be alledged , I will not deny but there may be a sense , ( which I cannot explicate in few words ) wherein the Cooperation of a substantial Effluvium , for so I call it , of the fire , may be admitted in giving an account of our Phaenomenon . But the Cause formerly assigned , as 't is crudely proposed , leaves in my mind some Scruples . For 't is not so easie to apprehend , that such light and minute bodies as those of fire are supposed , should be so long detained as by this Hypothesis they must be allowed to be , in Quick-lime , kept in well-stopt vessels , from getting out of so laxe and porous a body as Lime , especially since we see not a great Incalescence or Ebullition ensue upon the pouring of water upon Minium , or Crocus Martis per se , though they have been calcined by violent and lasting fires , whose Effluviums or Emanations appear to adhere to them by the increase of weight , that Lead , if not also Mars , does manifestly receive from the Operation of the Fire . To which I shall adde , that , whereas one would think that the igneous Atoms should either flye away , or be extinguished by the supervening of water , I know , and elsewhere give account , EXPER. II of an Experiment , in which two Liquors , whereof one was furnished me by Nature , did by being several times separated and reconjoyned without additament , at each congress produce a sensible Heat . And an Instance of this kind , EXPER. III though not so odd , I purposely sought and found in Salt of Tartar , from which , after it had been once heated by the affusion of water , we abstracted or evaporated the Liquor without violence of fire , till the Salt was again dry ; and then putting on water a second time , the same Salt grew hot again in the Vial , and , if I misremember not , it produced this Incalescence the third time , if not the fourth ; and might probably have done it oftner , if I had had occasion to prosecute the Experiment . Which seems at least to argue , that the great violence of fire is not necessary to impress what passes for an Empyreum upon all calcined bodies that will heat with water . And on this occasion I shall venture to adde , that I have sometimes doubted , whether the Incalescence may not much depend upon the particular Disposition of the calcined body , which being deprived of its former moisture , and made more porous by the fire , doth by the help of those igneous Effluviums , for the most part of a saline nature , that are dispersed through it , and adhere to it , acquire such a Texture , that the water impell'd by its own weight , and the pressure of the Atmosphere , is able to get into a multitude of its pores at once , and suddenly dissolve the Igneous and Alcalizate Salt it every where meets with there , and briskly disjoyn the earthy and solid particles , that were blended with them ; which being exceeding numerous , though each of them perhaps be very minute , and moves but a very little way , yet their multitude makes the confused agitation of the whole aggregate of them , and of the particles of the water and salt vehement enough to produce a sensible Heat ; especially if we admit , that there is such a change made in the Pores , as occasions a great increase of this agitation , by the ingress and action of some subtile ethereal matter , from which alone Monsieur des Cartes ingeniously attempts to derive the Incalescence of Lime and water , as well as that of metals dissolved in corrosive Liquors ; though as to the Phaenomena we have been considering , there seems at least to concur a peculiar disposition of body , wherein Heat is to be produced to do one or both of these two things , namely , to retain good store of the igneous Effluvia , and to be , by their adhesion or some other operation of the fire , reduced to such a Texture of its component Particles , as to be fit to have them easily penetrated , and briskly as well as copiously dissipated , by invading water . And this Conjecture ( for I propose it as no other ) seems favour'd by divers Phaenomena , some whereof I shall now annex . For here it may be observed , that both the dissolved Salt of Tartar lately mentioned , and the artificial Liquor that grows hot with the natural , reacquires that Disposition to Incalescence upon a bare Constipation or closer Texture of the parts from the superfluous moisture they were drowned in before : The Heat that brought them to this Texture having been so gentle , that 't is no way likely that the igneous Exhalations could themselves produce such a Heat , or at least that they should adhere in such numbers as must be requisite to such an effect , unless the Texture of the Salt of Tartar ( or other body ) did peculiarly dispose it to detain them ; since I have found by Trial , that Sal Armoniac dissolv'd in water , EXPER. IV though boiled up with a brisker fire to a dry salt , would , upon its being again dissolved in water , not produce any Heat , but a very considerable degree of Cold. I shall adde , that though one would expect a great Cognation between the particles of Fire adhering to Quick-Lime , and those of high rectified Spirit of Wine , which is of so igneous a nature , as to be totally inflammable ; yet I have not found , that the affusion of Alkaol of Wine upon Quick-Lime , would produce any sensible Incalescence , or any visible dissolution or dissipation of the Lime , as common water would have done , though it seemed to be greedily enough soaked in by the lumps of Lime . And I further tried , that , if on this Lime so drenched I poured cold water , there insued no manifest Heat , nor did I so much as find the lump swelled , and thereby broken , till some hours after ; which seems to argue , that the Texture of the Lime was such , as to admit the particles of the Spirit of Wine into some of its pores , which were either larger or more congruous , without admitting it into the most numerous ones , whereinto the Liquor must be received , to be able suddenly to dissipate the Corpuscles of Lime into their minuter particles , into which ( Corpuscles ) it seems that the change that the aqueous particles received by associating with the spirituous ones , made them far less fit to penetrate and move briskly there , than if they had enter'd alone . I made also an Experiment that seems to favour our Conjecture , by shewing how much the Disposition of Lime to Incalescence may depend upon an idoneous Texture , and the Experiment , as I find it registred in one of my Memorials , is this . EXPER. V. [ UPon Quick-lime we put in a Retort as much moderately strong Spirit of Wine as would drench it , and swim a pretty way above it ; and then distilling with a gentle fire , we drew off some Spirit of Wine much stronger than that which had been put on , and then the Phlegm following it , the fire was increas'd , which brought over a good deal of phlegmatic strengthless Liquor ; by which one would have thought that the Quick-lime had been slaked ; but when the remaining matter had been taken out of the Retort , and suffer'd to cool , it appear'd to have a fiery disposition that it had not before . For if any lump of it as big as a Nutmeg or an Almond was cast into the water , it would hiss as if a coal of fire had been plunged into the Liquor , which was soon thereby sensibly heated . Nay , having kept divers lumps of this prepared Calx well cover'd from the air for divers weeks , to try whether it would retain this property , I found , as I expected , that the Calx operated after the same manner , if not more powerfully . For sometimes , especially when 't was reduced to small pieces , it would upon its coming into the water make such a brisk noise , as might almost pass for a kind of Explosion . ] These Phaenomena seem to argue , that the Disposition that Lime has to grow hot with water , depends much on some peculiar Texture , since the aqueous parts , that one would think capable of quenching all or most of the Atomes of Fire that are supposed to adhere to Quick-lime , did not near so much weaken the disposition of it to Incalescence , as the accession of the spirituous Corpuscles and their Contexture , with those of the Lime , increased that igneous Disposition . And that there might intervene such an association , seems to me the more probable , not onely because much of the distill'd Liquor was as phlegmatick , as if it had been robb'd of its more active parts , but because I have sometimes had Spirit of Wine come over with Quick-lime not in unobserved steams , but white fumes . To which I shall adde , that , besides that the Taste , and perhaps Odour of the Spirit of Wine , is often manifestly changed by a well-made Distillation from Quick-lime ; I have sometimes found that Liquor to give the Lime a kind of Alcalizat penetrancy , not to say fieriness of Taste , that was very brisk and remarkable . But I will not undertake , that every Experimenter , nor I my self , shall always make trials of this kind with the same success that I had in those above recited , in regard that I have found Quick-limes to differ much , not onely according to the degree of their Calcination , and to their Recentness , but also , and that especially , according to the differing natures of the stones and other bodies calcined . Which Observation engages me the more to propose what hath been hitherto deliver'd about Quick-lime , as onely Narratives and a Conjecture ; which I now perceive has detain'd us so long , that I am oblig'd to hasten to the remaining Experiments , and to be the more succinct in delivering them . EXPER. VI. ANd it will be convenient to begin with an instance or two of the Production of Heat , wherein there appears not to intervene any thing in the part of the Agent or Patient but Local Motion , and the natural Effects of it . And as to this sort of Experiments , a little attention and reflection may make some familiar Phaenomenon apposite to our present purpose . When , for example , a Smith does hastily hammer a Nail or such like piece of iron , the hammer'd metal will grow exceeding hot , and yet there appears not any thing to make it so , save the forcible motion of the hammer which impresses a vehement and variously determin'd agitation of the small parts of the Iron ; which being a cold body before , by that superinduc'd commotion of its small parts , becomes in divers senses hot ; first in a more lax acceptation of the word in reference to some other bodies , in respect of whom 't was cold before , and then sensibly hot ; because this newly gain'd agitation surpasses that of the parts of our fingers . And in this Instance 't is not to be overlookt , that oftentimes neither the hammer , by which , nor the anvil , on which a cold piece of Iron is forged , ( for all iron does not require precedent ignition to make it obey the hammer ) continue cold , after the operation is ended ; which shews , that the Heat acquir'd by the forged piece of iron was not communicated by the Hammer or Anvil as Heat , but produc'd in it by motion , which was great enough to put so small a body as the piece of iron into a strong and confus'd motion of its parts without being able to have the like operation upon so much greater masses of metal , as the Hammer and the Anvil ; though if the percussions were often and nimbly renewed , and the Hammer were but small , this also might be heated , ( though not so soon nor so much as the iron ; ) by which one may also take notice , that 't is not necessary , a body should be it self hot , to be calorific . And now I speak of striking an iron with a Hammer , I am put in mind of an Observation that seems to contradict , but does indeed confirm , our Theory : Namely , that , if a somewhat large nail be driven by a hammer into a plank or piece of wood , it will receive divers strokes on the head before it grow hot ; but when 't is driven to the head , so that it can go no further ▪ a few strokes will suffice to give it a considerable Heat ; for whilst , at every blow of the hammer , the nail enters further and further into the wood , the motion that is produc'd is chiefly progressive , and is of the whole nail tending one way ; whereas , when that motion is stopt , then the impulse given by the stroke being unable either to drive the nail further on , or destroy its intireness , must be spent in making a various vehement and intestine commotion of the parts among themselves , and in such an one we formerly observ'd the nature of Heat to consist . EXPER. VII . IN the foregoing Experiment the brisk agitation of the parts of a heated iron was made sensible to the touch ; I shall now adde one of the attempts , that I remember I made to render it discoverable to the eye it self . In order to this , and that I might also shew , that not onely a sensible but an intense degree of heat may be produc'd in a piece of cold iron by Local Motion , I caus'd a bar of that metal to be nimbly hammer'd by two or three lusty men accustom'd to manage that Instrument ; and these striking with as much force , and as little intermission as they could upon the iron , soon brought it to that degree of Heat , that not onely 't was a great deal too hot to be safely touched , but probably would , according to my design , have kindled Gunpowder , if that which I was fain to make use of had been of the best sort : For , to the wonder of the by-standers , the iron kindled the Sulphur of many of the grains of the corns of powder , and made them turn blue , though I do not well remember , that it made any of them go off . EXPER. VIII . BEsides the effects of manifest and violent Percussions , such as those we have been taking notice of to be made with a hammer , there are among Phaenomena obvious enough , some that shew the Producibleness of Heat even in cold iron , by causing an intestine commotion of its parts : For we find , that , if a piece of iron of a convenient shape and bulk be nimbly filed with a large rough File , a considerable degree of Heat will be quickly excited in those parts of the iron where the File passes to and fro , the many prominent parts of the Instrument giving a multitude of strokes or pushes to the parts of the iron that happen to stand in their way , and thereby making them put the neighbouring parts into a brisk and confus'd motion , and so into a state of Heat . Nor can it be well objected , that upon this account the File it self ought to grow as hot as the iron , which yet it will not do ; since , to omit other answers , the whole body of the File being moved to and fro , the same parts , that touch the iron this moment , pass off the next , and besides have leasure to cool themselves by communicating their newly received Agitation to the air before they are brought to grate again upon the iron , which , being supposed to be held immoveable , receives almost perpetual shakes in the same place . We find also , that Attrition , if it be any thing vehement , is wont to produce Heat in the solidest bodies ; as when the blade of a Knife being nimbly whetted grows presently hot . And if having taken a brass Nail , and driven it as far as you can to the end of the stick , to keep it fast and gain a handle , you then strongly rub the head to and fro against the floor or a plank of wood , you may quickly find it to have acquired a Heat intense enough to offend , if not burn ones fingers . And I remember , that going once in exceeding hot weather in a Coach , which for certain reasons we caus'd to be driven very fast , the attrition of the Nave of the Wheel against the Axel-tree was so vehement as oblig'd us to light out of the Coach to seek for water , to cool the over-chafed parts , and stop the growing mischief the excessive Heat had begun to do . The vulgar Experiment of strikeing fire with a Flint and Steel sufficiently declares , what a heat in a trice may be produc'd in cold bodies by Percussion , or Collision ; the later of which seems but mutual Percussion . But Instances of the same sort with the rest mention'd in this VI. Experiment being obvious enough , I shall forbear to multiply and insist on them . EXPER. IX . FOr the sake of those that think the Attrition of contiguous air is necessary to the Production of manifest Heat , I thought among other things of the following Experiment , and made Trial of it . We took some hard black Pitch , and having in a Bason , Poringer , or some such Vessel , placed it a convenient distance under water , we cast on it with a good Burning-glass the Sun-beams in such a manner , that notwithstanding the Refraction that they suffer'd in the passage through the interposed water , the Focus fell upon the Pitch , wherein it would produce sometimes bubbles , sometimes smoak , and quickly communicated a degree of Heat capable to make Pitch melt , if not also to boil . EXPER. X. THough the first and second Experiments of Section I. shew , that a considerable degree of Cold is produc'd by the dissolution of Sal Armoniac in common water ; yet by an additament , though but single , the Texture of it may be so alter'd , that , instead of Cold , a notable degree of Heat will be produced , if it be dissolved in that Liquor . For the manifestation of which we devis'd the following Experiment . We took Quick-lime , and slaked it in common cold water , that all the igneous or other particles , to which its power of heating that Liquor is ascrib'd , might be extracted and imbib'd , and so the Calx freed from them ; then on the remaining powder fresh water was often poured , that all adhering reliques of Salt might be wash'd off . After this , the thus dulcified Calx , being again well dried , was mingled with an equal weight of powder'd Sal Armoniac , and having with a strong fire melted the mass , the mixture was poured out ; and being afterwards beaten to powder , having given it a competent time to grow cold , we put two or three ounces of it into a wide-mouthed Glass , and pouring water upon it , within about a minute of an hour the mixture grew warm , and quickly attain'd so intense a Heat , that I could not hold the Glass in my hand . And though this Heat did not long last at the same height , it continued to be very sensible for a considerable time after . EXPER. XI . TO confirm this Experiment by a notable variation ; we took finely powder'd Sal Armoniac , and filings or scales of Steel , and when they were very diligently mixt ( for that Circumstance ought to be observ'd ) we caus'd them to be gradually sublim'd in a glass vessel , giving a smart fire towards the latter end . By this Operation so little of the mixture ascended , that , as we desired , far the greatest part of the Sal Armoniac staid at the bottom with the metal ; then taking out the Caput mortuum , I gave it time throughly to cool , but in a Glass well stopt , that it might not imbibe the moisture of the Air , ( as it is very apt to do . ) And lastly , though the Filings of Steel , as well as the Sal Armoniac , were bodies actually cold , and so might be thought likely to increase , not check , the coldness wont to be produced in water by that Salt ; yet putting the mixture into common water , there ensued , as we expected , an intense degree of Heat . And I remember , that having sublim'd the forementioned Salt in distinct Vessels , with the Filings of Steel , and with Filings of Copper , and for curiosities sake kept one of the Caput mortuums ( for I cannot certainly call to mind which of the two it was , ) divers moneths , ( if I mistake not , eight or nine , ) we at length took it out of the Vessel , wherein it had been kept carefully stopt , and , upon trial , were not deceiv'd in having expected , that all that while the disposition to give cold water a notable degree of Heat was preserved in it . EXPER. XII . IF Experiments were made after the above recited manner with Sal Armoniac and other mineral bodies than Iron and Copper , 't is not improbable , that some of the emerging Phaenomena would be found to confirm what has been said of the Interest of Texture , ( and some few other Mechanical Affections ) in the Production of Heat and Cold. Which Conjecture is somewhat favoured by the following Trial. Three ounces of Antimony , and an equal weight of Sal Armoniac being diligently powder'd and mixt , were by degrees of fire sublimed in a Glass-vessel , by which Operation we obtain'd three differing Substances , which we caused to be separately powder'd , when they were taken out of the Subliming Glass , lest the air or time should make any change in them ; and having before put the ball of a good seal'd Weather-glass for a while into water , that the Spirit of Wine might be brought to the temper of the external Liquor , we put on a convenient quantity of the powder'd Caput mortuum , which amounted to two ounces , and seemed to be little other than Antimony , which accordingly did scarce sensibly raise the Spirit of Wine in the Thermoscope , though that were a tender one . Then laying aside that water , and putting the Instrument into fresh , of the same temper , we put to it a very yellow Sublimate , that ascended higher than the other parts , and seemed to consist of the more sulphureous flowers of the Antimony , with a mixture of the more volatile parts of the Sal Armoniac . And this Substance made the tincted Spirit in the Thermoscope descend very slowly about a quarter of an inch ; but when the Instrument was put into fresh water of the same temper , and we had put in some of the powder of the lower sort of Sublimate , which was dark coloured , though both the Antimony and Sal Armoniac , it consisted of , had been long exposed to the action of a Subliming Heat ; yet the water was thereby speedily and notably cooled , insomuch , that the Spirit of Wine in the Weather-glass hastily descended , and continued to sink , till by our guess it had fallen not much short of three inches . Of these Phaenomena the Etiology , as some Moderns call the Theory , which proposes the Causes of things , is more easie to be found by a little consideration , than to be made out in few words . We made also an Experiment like that above recited , by subliming three ounces a piece of Minium and Sal Armoniac ; in which Trial we found , that though in the Caput mortuum , the Salt had notably wrought upon the Calx of Lead , and was in part associated with it , as appear'd by the whiteness of the said Caput mortuum , by its sweetish Taste , and by the weight ( which exceeded four drams that of all the Minium ; ) yet a convenient quantity of this powder'd mixture being put into water , wherein the former Weather-glass had been kept a while , the tincted Spirit of Wine was not manifestly either raised or deprest . And when in another Glass we prosecuted the Trial with the Sal Armoniac that had been sublimed from the Minium , it did indeed make the Spirit of Wine descend , but scarce a quarter so much as it had been made to fall by the lately mention'd Sublimate of Sal Armoniac and Antimony . EXPER. XIII . 'T Is known that many learned men , besides several Chymical Writers , ascribe the Incalescences , that are met with in the dissolution of Metals , to a conflict arising from a certain Antipathy or Hostility , which they suppose between the conflicting bodies , and particularly between the Acid Salt of the one , and the Alcalizate Salt , whether fixt or volatile , of the other . But since this Doctrine supposes a hatred between Inanimate bodies , in which 't is hard to conceive , how there can be any true passions , and does not intelligibly declare , by what means their suppos'd Hostility produces Heat ; 't is not likely , that , for these and some other Reasons , Inquisitive Naturalists will easily acquiesce in it . And on the other side it may be consider'd , whether it be not more probable , that Heats , suddenly produced in mixtures , proceed either from a very quick and copious diffusion of the parts of one body through those of another , whereby both are confusedly tumbled and put into a calorific motion ; or from this , that the parts of the dissolved body come to be every way in great numbers violently scatter'd ; or from the fierce and confused shocks or justlings of the Corpuscles of the conflicting bodies , or masses which may be suppos'd to have the motions of their parts differingly modified according to their respective Natures : Or from this , that by the plentiful ingress of the Corpuscles of the one into the almost commensurate parts of the other , the motion of some etherial matter that was wont before swiftly to permeate the distinct bodies , comes to be check'd and disturbed , and forced to either brandish or whirl about the parts in a confus'd manner , till it have settled it self a free passage through the new mixture , almost as the Light does thorow divers troubled liquors and vitrified bodies , which at length it makes transparent . But without here engaging in a solemn examination of the Hypothesis of Alcali and Acidum , and without determining whether any one , or more of the newly mention'd Mechanical Causes , or whether some other , that I have not yet named , is to be entitled to the effect ; it will not be impertinent to propose divers Instances of the Production of Heat by the Operation of one Agent , Oyl of Vitriol , that it may be consider'd whether it be likely , that this single Agent should upon the score of Antipathy , or that of its being an Acid Menstruum , be able to produce an intense Heat in many bodies of so differing natures as are some of those that we shall have occasion to name . And now I proceed to the Experiments themselves . Take some ounces of strong Oyl of Vitriol , and shaking it with three or four times its weight of common water , though both the liquors were cold when they were put together , yet their mixture will in a trice grow intensely hot , and continue considerably so for a good while . In this case it cannot probably be pretended by the Chymists , that the Heat arises from the conflict of the Acid and Alcalizate Salts abounding in the two liquors , since the common water is suppos'd an elementary body devoid of all salts ; and at least , being an insipid liquor , 't will scarce be thought to have Alcali enough to produce by its Reaction so intense a Heat . That the Heat emergent upon such a mixture may be very great , when the Quantities of the mingled liquors are considerably so , may be easily concluded from one of my Memorials , wherein I find that no more than two ounces of Oyl of Vitriol being poured ( but not all at once ) into four ounces onely of distilled Rain-water , made and kept it manifestly warm for a pretty deal above an hour , and during no small part of that time , kept it so hot , that 't was troublesome to be handled . EXPER. XIV . THe former Experiment brings into my mind one that I mention without teaching it in the History of Cold , and it appear'd very surprizing to those that knew not the ground of it . For having sometimes merrily propos'd to heat cold liquors with Ice , the undertaking seem'd extravagant if not impossible , but was easily perform'd by taking out of a bason of cold water , wherein divers fragments of Ice were swimming , one or two pieces that I perceived were well drenched with the liquor , and immersing them suddenly into a wide-mouth'd Glass wherein strong Oyl of Vitriol had been put ; for this Menstruum , presently mingling with the water that adher'd to the ice , produc'd in it a brisk heat , and that sometimes with a manifest smoke , which nimbly dissolved the contiguous parts of Ice , and those the next , and so the whole Ice being speedily reduced to water , and the corrosive Menstruum being by two or three shakes well dispersed through it , and mingled with it , the whole mixture would grow in a trice so hot , that sometimes the Vial that contain'd it , was not to be endured in ones hand . EXPER. XV. NOtwithstanding the vast difference betwixt common water and high rectified Spirit of Wine , whereof men generally take the former for the most contrary body to fire , and whereof the Chymists take the later to be but a kind of liquid Sulphur , since it may presently be all reduc'd into flame ; yet , as I expected , I found upon trial , that Oyl of Vitriol being mingled with pure Spirit of Wine , would as well grow hot , as with common water . Nor does this Experiment always require great quantities of the liquors . For when I took but one ounce of strong Oyl of Vitriol , though I put to it less than half an ounce of choice Spirit of Wine , yet those two being lightly shaken together , did in a trice conceive so brisk a Heat , that they almost fill'd the vial with fumes , and made it so hot , thar I had unawares like to have burnt my hand with it before I could lay it aside . I made the like Trial with the same Corrosive Menstruum , and common Aqua vitae bought at a Strong-water-shop , by the mixture of which Liquors , Heat was produc'd in the Vial that I could not well endure . The like success I had in an Experiment wherein Oyl of Vitriol was mixt with common Brandy ; save that in this the Heat produced seem'd not so intense as in the former Trial , which it self afforded not so fierce a Heat as that which was made with rectified Spirit of Wine . EXPER. XVI . THose Chymists , who conceive that all the Incalescencies of bodies upon their being mixt , proceed from their antipathy or hostility , will not perhaps expect , that the parts of the same body , ( either numerically , or in specie , as the Schools phrase it , ) should , and that without manifest conflict , grow very hot together . And yet having for trials sake put two ounces of Colcothar so strongly calcin'd , that it was burnt almost to blackness , into a Retort , we poured upon it two ounces of strong Oyl of English Vitriol , and found , that after about a minute of an hour they began to grow so hot , that I could not endure to hold my hand to the bottom of the Vessel , to which the mixture gave a heat , that continued sensible on the outside for between twenty and thirty minutes . EXPER. XVII . THough I have not observ'd any Liquor to equal Oyl of Vitriol in the number of Liquors with which it will grow hot ; yet I have not met with any Liquor wherewith it came to a greater Incalescence than it frequently enough did with common Oyl of Turpentine . For when we caused divers ounces of each to be well shaken together in a strong vessel , fasten'd , to prevent mischief , to the end of a pole or staff ; the Ebullition was great and fierce enough to be not undeservedly admired by the Spectators . And this brings into my mind a pleasant adventure afforded by these Liquors , of each of which , having for the Production of Heat and other purposes , caus'd a good bottle full to be put up with other things into a box , and sent down into the Countrey with a great charge , that care should be had of the Glasses ; the Wagon , in which the box was carried , happen'd by a great jolt , that had almost overturn'd it , to be so rudely shaken , that these Glasses were both broken , and the Liquors , mingling in the box , made such a noise and stink , and sent forth such quantities of smoke by the vents , which the fumes had open'd to themselves , that the Passengers with great outcries and much haste threw themselves out of the Wagon , for fear of being burnt in it . The Trials we made with Oyl of Turpentine , when strong Spirit of Nitre was substituted in the stead of Oyl of Vitriol , belong not to this place . EXPER. XVIII . BUt though Petroleum , especially when rectified , be , as I have elsewhere noted , a most subtile Liquor , and the lightest I have yet had occasion to try ; yet to shew you how much the Incalescence of Liquors may depend upon their Texture , I shall adde , that having mixt by degrees one ounce of rectified Petroleum , with an equal weight of strong Oyl of Vitriol , the former Liquor seemed to work upon the Surface of this last named , almost like a Menstruum , upon a metal , innumerous and small bubbles continually ascending for a while into the Oleum Petrae , which had its colour manifestly alter'd and deepen'd by the operation of the spirituous parts . But by all the action and re-action of these Liquors , there was produced no such smoaking and boiling , or intense heat , as if Oyl of Turpentine had been employed instead of Oyl of Vitriol ; the change which was produc'd as to Qualities being but a kind of Tepidness discoverable by the Touch. Almost the like success we had in the Conjunction of Petroleum , and Spirit of Nitre , a more full account whereof may be elsewhere met with . In this and the late Trials I did not care to make use of Spirit of Salt , because , at least , if it be but ordinarily strong , I found its operation on the Liquors above mention'd inconsiderable , ( and sometimes perhaps scarce sensible ) in comparison of those of Oyl of Vitriol , and in some cases of dephlegm'd Spirit of Nitre . EXPER. XIX . EXperienced Chymists will easily believe , that 't were not difficult to multiply Instances of Heat producible by Oyl of Vitriol upon solid bodies , especially Mineral ones . For 't is known , that in the usual preparation of Vitriolum Martis , there is a great effervescence excited upon the affusion of the Oyl of Vitriol upon Filings of Steel , especially if they be well drench'd in common water . And it will scarce be doubted , but that , as Oyl of Vitriol will ( at least partly ) dissolve a great many both calcin'd and testaceous bodies , as I have try'd with Lime , Oyster-shells , &c. so it will , during the dissolution , grow sensibly , if not intensely hot with them , as I found it to do both with those newly named , and others , as Chalk , Lapis Calaminaris , &c. with the last of which , if the Liquor be strong , it will heat exceedingly . EXPER. XX. WHerefore I will rather take notice of its Operation upon Vegetables , as bodies which corrosive Menstruums have scarce been thought fit to dissolve and grow hot with . To omit then Cherries , and divers Fruits abounding in watery juices , with which , perhaps on that very account , Oyl of Vitriol will grow hot ; I shall here take notice , that for trial sake , having mixt a convenient quantity of that Liquor with Raisins of the Sun beaten in a Mortar , the Raisins grew so hot , that , if I misremember not , the Glass that contain'd it had almost burnt my hand . These kind of Heats may be also produc'd by the mixture of Oyl of Vitriol with divers other Vegetable Substances ; but , as far as I have observed , scarce so eminently with any dry body , as with the crumbs of white bread , ( or even of brown ) with a little of which we have sometimes produced a surprising degree of Heat with strong or well-dephlegm'd Oyl of Vitriol , which is to be suppos'd to have been employed in the foregoing Experiments , and all others mention'd to be made by the help of that Menstruum in our Papers about Qualities , unless it be in any particular case otherwise declared . EXPER. XXI . 'T Is as little observed that Corrosive Menstruums are able to work , as such , on the soft parts of dead Animals , as on those of Vegetables , and yet I have more than once produced a notable Heat by mixing Oyl of Vitriol with minced flesh whether roasted or raw . EXPER. XXII . THough common Sea-salt does usually impart some degree , though not an intense one , of Coldness unto common water , during the act of Dissolution ; yet some Trials have informed me , that if it were cast into a competent quantity of Oyl of Vitriol , there would for the most part insue an Incalescence , which yet did not appear to succeed so regularly , as in most of the foregoing Experiments . But that Heat should be produc'd usually , though not perhaps constantly , by the above-named Menstruum and Salt , seems therefore worthy of our notice , because 't is known to Chymists , that common Salt is one main Ingredient of the few that make up common factitious Sal Armoniac , that is wont to be sold in the Shops . And I have been inform'd , that the excellent Academians of Florence have observed , that Oyl of Vitriol would not grow hot but cold by being put upon Sal Armoniac : Something like which I took notice of in rectified Spirit of Sulphur made per Campanam , but found the effect much more considerable , when , according to the Ingenious Florentine Experiment , I made the Trial with Oyl of Vitriol ; which Liquor having already furnished us with as many Phaenomena for our present purpose as could be well expected from one Agent , I shall scarce in this Paper about Heat make any farther use of it , but proceed to some other Experiments , wherein it does not intervene . EXPER. XXIII . WE took a good lump of common Sulphur of a convenient shape , and having rub'd or chaf'd it well , we found , as we expected , that by this attrition it grew sensibly warm ; and , That there was an intestine agitation , which you know is Local Motion , made by this attrition , did appear not onely by the newly mention'd Heat , whose nature consists in motion , and by the antecedent pressure , which was fit to put the parts into a disorderly vibration , but also by the sulphureous steams , which 't was easie to smell by holding the Sulphur to ones nose , as soon as it had been rub'd . Which Experiment , though it may seem trivial in it self , may be worth the consideration of those Chymists , who would derive all the Fire and Heat we meet with in sublunary bodies from Sulphur . For in our case a mass of Sulphur , before its parts were put into a new and brisk motion , was sensibly cold , and as soon as its parts were put into a greater agitation than those of a mans fingers , it grew sensibly hot ; which argues , that 't was not by its bare presence , or any emanative action , ( as the Schools speak ) that the Sulphur communicated any Heat to my hand ; and also that , when 't was briskly moved , it did impress that Quality , was no more than another solid body , though incombustible as common Glass , would have done , if its parts had been likewise put into an agitation surpassing that of my organs of feeling ; so that in our Experiment , Sulphur it self was beholden , for its actual Heat , to Local Motion , produced by external agents in its parts . EXPER. XXIV . WE thought it not amiss to try , whether when Sal Armoniac , that much infrigidates water , and Quick-lime , which is known to heat it , were by the fire exquisitely mingled , the mixture would impart to the Liquor a moderate or an intense degree of either of those Qualities . In prosecution of which Inquiry we took equal parts of Sal Armoniac and Quick-lime , which we fluxed together , and putting an ounce , by ghess , of the powder'd mixture into a Vial with a convenient quantity of cold water , we found , that the colliquated mass did , in about a minute , strike so great a heat through the Glass upon my hand , that I was glad to remove it hastily for fear of being scorched . EXPER. XXV . WE have given several , and might have given many more , Instances of the Incalescence of Mixtures , wherein both the Ingredients were Liquors , or at least one of them was a fluid body . But sometimes Heat may also be produc'd by the mixture of two powders ; since it has been observed in the preparation of the Butter or Oyl of Antimony , that , if a sufficient quantity of beaten Sublimate be very well mingled with powder'd Antimony , the mixture , after it has for a competent time ( which varies much according to circumstances , as the weather , vessel , place , &c. wherein the Experiment is made ) stood in the air , would sometimes grow manifestly hot , and now and then so intensely so , as to send forth copious and fetid fumes almost as if it would take fire . There is another Experiment made by the help of Antimony , and a pulveriz'd body , wherein the mixture , after it had been for divers hours expos'd to the air , visibly afforded us mineral Fumes . And to these I could adde more considerable , and perhaps scarce credible , Instances of bodies growing hot without Liquors , if Philanthropy did not forbid me . But to return to our Butter of Antimony , it seems not unfit to be enquired , whether there do not unobservedly intervene an aqueous moisture , which ( capable of relaxing the salts , and setting them a work ) I therefore suspected might be attracted ( as men commonly speak ) from the air , since the mixture of the Antimony and the Sublimate is prescribed to be placed in Cellars ; and in such we find , that Sublimate , or at least the saline part of it , is resolved per deliquium , ( as they call it ) which is nothing but a solution made by the watery steams wandering in the Air. EXPER. XXVI . I Have formerly deliver'd some Instances of the Incalescence produc'd by water in bodies that are readily dissolv'd in it , as Salt of Tartar and Quick-lime . But one would not lightly expect , that meer water should produce an Incalescence in solid bodies that are generally granted to be insoluble in it ; and are not wont to be , at least without length of time , visibly wrought on by it ; and yet trial has assured me , that a notable Incalescence may be produc'd by common water in flower or fine powder of Sulphur , and Filings of Steel or Iron . For when , in Summer time , I caus'd to be mingled a good quantity , ( as half a pound or rather a pound of each of the Ingredients ) and caus'd them to be throughly drenched with common water , in a convenient quantity whereof they were very well stirred up and down , and carefully mingled , the mixture would in a short time , perhaps less than an hour , grow so hot , that the Vessel that contain'd it could not be suffer'd in ones hand ; and the Heat was manifested to other Senses than the Touch , by the strong sulphureous stink that invaded the nose , and the thick smoak that ascended out of the mixture , especially when it was stirr'd with a stick or spattle . Whether the success will be the same at all times of the year , I do not know , and somewhat doubt , since I remember not , that I had occasion to try it in other Seasons than in Summer , or in Autumn . EXPER. XXVII . IN the Instances that Chymistry is wont to afford us of the Heat produc'd by the action of Menstruums upon other bodies , there intervenes some liquor , properly so call'd , that wets the hands of those that touch it ; and there are divers of the more judicious Chymists , that joyn with the generality of the Naturalists in denying , that Quicksilver , which is indeed a fluid body , but not a moist and wetting one in reference to us , will produce Heat by its immediate action on any other body , and particularly on Gold. But though I was long inclinable to their opinion , yet I cannot now be of it , several Trials having assur'd me , that a Mercury , whether afforded by Metals and Minerals , or impregnated by them , may by its preparation be enabled to insinuate it self nimbly into the body of Gold , whether calcin'd or crude , and become manifestly incalescent with it in less than two or three minutes of an hour . EXPER. XXVIII . SInce we know that some natural Salts , and especially Salt-peter , can produce a Coldness in the water they are dissolved in , I thought it might not be impertient to our enquiry into Heat and Cold , and might perhaps also contribute somewhat to the discovery of the Structure of Metals , and the salts that corrode them , if Solutions were made of some Saliform'd bodies , as Chymists call them , that are made up of metalline and saline parts , and do so abound with the latter , that the whole Concretions are on their account dissoluble in common water . Other Experiments of this sort belonging less to this place than to another , I shall here onely for example sake take notice of one that we made upon Quicksilver , which is esteem'd the coldest of Metals . For having by distilling from it four times its weight of Oyl of Vitriol , reduc'd it to a powder , which on the account of the adhering Salts of the Menstruum that it detain'd , was white and glistering , we put this powder into a wide-mouth'd Glass of water , wherein a seal'd Weather-glass had been left before it began manifestly to heat the water , as appear'd by the quick and considerable ascent of the tincted Spirit of Wine , that continued to rise upon putting in more of the Magistery ; which warm event is the more remarkable , because of the observation of Helmont , that the Salt adhering to the Mercury , corroded in good quantity by Oyl of Vitriol , if it be washed off and coagulated , becomes a kind of Alom . The event of the former Trial deserves the more notice , because having after the same manner and with the same Weather-glass made an Experiment with common water , and the powder of Vitriolum Martis , made with Oyl of Vitriol and the Filings of Steel , the tincted Spirit of Wine was not at all impell'd up as before , but rather , after a while , began to subside , and fell , though very slowly , about a quarter of an inch . The like Experiment being tried with powder'd Sublimate in common water , the liquor in the Thermoscope was scarce at all sensibly either rais'd or deprest , which argued the alteration as to Heat or Cold , to have been either none or very inconsiderable . Having given warning at the beginning of this Section , that in it I aimed rather at offering various than numerous Experiments about the Production of Heat , I think what has been already deliver'd may allow me to take leave of this Subject without mentioning divers Instances that I could easily adde , but think it fitter at present to omit . For those afforded me by Trials about Antiperistasis belong to a Paper on that Subject . Those that might be offer'd about Potential Heat in humane bodies , would perchance be thought but unnecessary after what has been said of Potential Coldness ; from which an attentive Considerer may easily gather , what according to our Doctrine is to be said of the contrary Quality . And divers Phaenomena , which would have been of the most considerable I could have mentioned of the Production of Heat , since in them that Quality is the most exalted , I reserve for the Title of Combustibleness and Incombustibility , having already suffer'd this Collection ( or rather Chaos ) of Particulars about the Production of Heat to swell to too great a bulk . FINIS . EXPERIMENTS , AND OBSERVATIONS , About the Mechanical Production OF TASTS . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esq ; Fellow of the R. Society . LONDON , Printed by E. Flesher , for R. Davis Bookseller in Oxford . 1675. EXPERIMENTS , AND OBSERVATIONS , About the Mechanical Production OF TASTS . TO make out the Mechanical Origine or Production of Sapors , as far as is necessary for my present purpose , 't will be expedient to premise in general , that , according to our notion of Tasts , they may depend upon the bigness , figure and motion of the saporifick corpuscles , considered separately , and as the affections of single and very minute particles of matter ; or else in a state of conjunction , as two or more of these affections , and the particles they belong to , may be combined or associated , either among themselves , or with other particles , that were not saporous before . And as these Coalitions and other Associations come to be diversified ; so the Tasts , resulting from them , will be altered or destroyed . But , to handle these distinctly and fully , were a task not onely too difficult and long , but improper in this place , where I pretend to deliver not Speculations , but matters of Fact : in setting down whereof nevertheless , to avoid too much confusion , I am content , where I can doe it readily and conveniently , in some of my Trials , to couch such references as may best point at those Heads , whence the Mechanical explications may be derived , and consequently our Doctrine confirmed . By Tast considered as belonging to the Object , ( under which Notion I here treat of it , ) I mean that quality , or whatever else it be , which enables a body by its operation , to produce in us that sensation , which we feel or perceive when we say we tast . That this something , whether you will call it a quality , or whatever else it be that makes or denominates an object saporous , or rather ( if I may be allowed a barbarous term ) saporifick , may so depend upon the shape , size , motion , and other Mechanical affections of the small parts of the tasted body , and result from the association of two or more of them , not excluding their congruity or incongruity to the organs of Tasting , may be made probable by the following Instances . EXPER. I. To divide a Body , almost insipid , into two Bodies of very strong and very differing Tasts . 'T IS observed , that Salt-peter refined , and by that purification freed from the Sea-salt that is wont to be mingled with it , does rather cool the tongue , than make any great saporifick impressions on it . And though I will not say , that it is , as some have thought , an insipid body ; yet the bitterishness , which seems to be its proper tast , is but very faint and languid . And yet this almost insipid body , being distilled by the way of Inflammation , ( which I elsewhere teach , ) or even by the help of an additament of such clay as is it self a tastless body , will afford a Nitrous spirit , that is extreamly sharp or corrosive upon the tongue , and will dissolve several Metals themselves , and a fixt salt , that is likewise very strongly tasted , but of a tast altogether different from that of the Spirit , that is extreamly sharp or corrosive upon the tongue ; and accordingly , this salt will dissolve divers compact bodies that the other will not work on , and will precipitate divers metals and other concretes out of those solutions , that have been made of them by the Spirit . EXPER. II. Of two Bodies , the one highly Acid and corrosive , and the other Alkalizat and fiery , to produce a Body almost insipid . THis may be performed by the way I have elsewhere mentioned of composing Salt-peter . For if upon a liquour of fixt Nitre , made per Deliquium , you warily drop good Spirit of Nitre , till it be just enough to satiate the Alkaly , ( for if there be too much or too little , the Experiment may miscarry , ) we may by a gentle evaporation , and sometimes without it , and that in a few minutes , obtain Crystals , which , being dried after they have been , if it be needfull , freed from any adhering particles , ( not of their own nature , ) will have upon the tongue neither a sharp nor an alkalizate tast , but that faint and scarce sensible bitterness that belongs to Salt-peter , if it be pure Salt-peter ; for the impure may perhaps strongly relish of the common Salt that is usually contained in it . The like production of Salt-peter we have sometimes made in far less time , and sometimes indeed in a trice , by substituting , in stead of the fixed Salt of Nitre , the saline parts of good Pot ashes , carefully freed by solution and filtration from the earthy and feculent ones . I have sometimes considered , whether the Phaenomena of these two Experiments may not be explicated by supposing them to arise from the new magnitudes and figures of the particles , which the fire , by breaking them , or forcibly rubbing them one against the other , or also against the Corpuscles of the additament , may be presumed to give them ; as if , for example , since we find the larger and best formed Crystals of Nitre to be of a prismatical shape with six sides , we should suppose the corpuscles of Nitre to be little prisms , whose angles and ends are too obtuse or blunt to make vigorous and deep impressions on the tongue ; and yet , if these little prisms be by a violent heat split , or otherwise broken , or forcibly made as it were to grind one another , they may come to have parts so much smaller than before , and endowed with such sharp sides and angles , that , being dissolved and agitated by the spittle that usually moistens the tongue , their smalness may give them great access to the pores of that organ , and the sharpness of their sides and points may fit them to stab and cut , and perhaps sear the nervous and membranous parts of the organ of Tast , and that variously , according to the grand diversities , as to shape and bulk , of the saporifick particles themselves . And this being granted , it seemed further conceivable , that when the Alkalizate and Acid particles come to be put together in the fluid mixture , wherein they swam , many of them might , after a multitude of various justlings and occursions , meet with one another so luckily and opportunely , as to recompose little prisms , or convene into other bodies , almost like those that made up the Crystals of Nitre , before 't was exposed to the fire . To illustrate which , we may conceive , that , though a prism of iron may be so shaped , that it will be wholly unfit to pierce the skin ; yet it may be so cut by transverse planes reaching to the opposite bases or ends , as to afford wedges , which , by the sharpness of their edges , may be fit both to cleave wood , and cut the skin ; and these wedges , being again put together after a requisite manner , may recompose a prism , whose extreams shall be too blunt to be fit for the former use . This may be also illustrated by the breaking of a dry stick circularly cut off at the ends , which though it is unapt , whilst intire and of that bulk , to prick the hand ; yet if it be violently broken , the ragged ends of it and the splinters may prove stiff , slender , and sharp enough to pierce and run into the hand : To which divers other such Mechanical Illustrations might be added . But , since I fear you think , as well as I , the main conjecture may not be worthy any farther prosecution , I shall not insist any longer on it . And because the historical part of these Experiments was for the main delivered by me already in the Essay about the Analysis and Redintegration of Nitre , I shall now proceed to other Trials . EXPER. III. Of two Bodies , the one extreamly bitter , and the other exceeding salt , to make an insipid mixture . TO make this Experiment , we must very warily pour upon Crystals made of Silver , dissolved in good Aqua fortis or Spirit of Nitre , strong brine made of common salt and water . For the mixture of these two being dried , and afterwards brought to fusion in a Crucible , and kept a competent while in that state , will afford a tough mass , the Chymists call Luna Cornea , which you may lick divers times , and scarce judge it other than insipid ; nor will it easily be brought to dissolve in much more piercing Menstruums than our spittle , as I have elsewhere shewn . EXPER. IV. Of two Bodies , the one extreamly sweet , and the other salter than the strongest Brine , to make an insipid mixture . THE doing of this requires some skill and much wariness in the Experimenter , who , to perform it well , must take a strong solution of Minium , made with an appropriated Menstruum , as good Spirit of Vinegar , or else Saccharum Saturni it self , dissolved in a convenient Vehicle ; and then must have great care and caution to put to it , by degrees , a just proportion of strong Spirit of Sal Armoniac , or the like Urinous Spirit , till the whole be precipitated ; and if the two former tasts are not sufficiently destroyed in the mixture , it may be dried and fluxed , as was above directed about Luna Cornea . EXPER. V. Of an insipid Body and a sour one , to make a Substance more bitter than Gall or Aloes . THis is easily performed by dissolving in strong Spirit of Nitre or good Aqua fortis as much pure Silver as the Menstruum will take up ; for , this solution being filtrated , has been often esteemed more bitter than so much Gall or Wormwood , or any other of those simples that have been famous for that quality : And if the superfluous moisture be abstracted , you may by coagulation obtain Crystals of Luna , that have been judged more strongly bitter than the solution it self . And that the corpuscles of these Crystals should leave a far more lasting tast of themselves , than the above-mentioned bitter bodies are wont to doe , will not seem so marvellous , as I remember some that tried have complained ; if we take notice , how deep the particles of these Crystals may pierce into the spungy organs of Tast , since , if one does but touch the pulp or nail of ones finger , ( first a little wetted with spittle or otherwise , ) with the powder of these Crystals , they will so penetrate the skin or nail , and stick so fast there , that you cannot in a reasonable time wash the stain off of the skin , and much less off of the nail , but it will continue to appear many hours on the former , and many days on the other . EXPER. VI. Of an insipid Body and a highly corrosive one , to make a Substance as sweet as Sugar . THis is easily done , by putting upon good Minium purified Aqua fortis or Spirit of Nitre , and letting them work upon one another in a gentle heat , till the liquour have dissolved its full proportion of the metal . For then , if the ingredients were good , and the operation rightly performed , the Menstruum would have a sweetness like that of ordinary Saccharum Saturni . But 't was not for nothing that I intimated , the ingredients should be also pure and good in their kind ; for , if the Minium be adulterated , as often it is , or the Spirit of Nitre or Aqua fortis be mingled , as it is usual before it be purged with Spirit of common Salt or other unfit ingredients , the operation may be successless , as I have more than once observed . EXPER. VII . Of obtaining without addition from the sweetest Bodies , Liquours corrosive enough to dissolve Metals . IF Sugar be put into a sufficiently capacious Retort , and warily distilled , ( for otherwise it will be apt to break the Vessel ) it will afford , among other things , a copious red Spirit , which , being slowly rectified , will lose its colour , and come over clear . The Caput Mortuum of the Sugar , which I have more than once had of an odd Contexture , may be found either almost or altogether insipid . And though the Spirit will be of a very penetrant tast , yet it will be very far from any kind of sweetness ; and though that liquour be thought to be homogeneous , and to be one of the Principles of the analized Sugar , yet ( as I have elsewhere shewn ) I found it to be a mixture of two Spirits ; with the one of which , besides bodies of a less close Texture , I dissolved ( even in the cold ) crude Copper , as was easie to be seen by the deep and lovely colour of the solution . And to these sour Spirits , afforded by Sugar it self , we have restored a kind of Saccharine sweetness , by compounding them with the particles of so insipid a body as Minium ; part of which they will in digestion dissolve . A like Spirit to that distilled from Sugar may be obtained from Honey ; but in regard of its aptness to swell exceedingly , Chymists are not wont to distill it without Sand , Brick , or some other additament . EXPER. VIII . To divide a Body , bitter in the highest degree , into two Substances , the one extreamly sour , and the other perfectly insipid . THis is easily done by putting some fine Crystals of Luna into a good Retort , and then distilling them in a Sand-furnace , capable of giving them so strong a fire , as to drive away all the spirits from the Silver . For , this remaining behind , according to its metalline nature , will be insipid , and the spirits , that are driven away from it , will unite in the Receiver into an acid and corrosive Menstruum . EXPER. IX . To produce variety of Tasts in one insipid Body , by associating it with divers Menstruums . AS this operation may , upon the account I elsewhere mention , be serviceable to investigate the figures of the particles of dissolved metals and other bodies ; so 't is very fit to manifest , what we would here have it shew , how much Tast may be diversified by , and consequently depend upon , Texture ; since a body that has no tast , may , in conjunction with sapid bodies , give them strong tasts all differing from one another , and each of them from that which the saporous bodies had before . I could propose divers ways of bringing this to trial , there being several insipid bodies , which I have found this way diversifiable . But because I remember not , that I have met with any mineral , that is dissoluble by near so many saline Menstruums , as Zinke , I look on that as the most fertile Subject to afford Instances to our present purpose . For I have found , that it will be dissolved not onely by Aqua fortis , Aqua Regis , Oil of Vetriol , Spirit of Nitre , Spirit of Salt , and other mineral Menstruums , but also by Vegetable Spirits , as distilled Vinegar , and by Animal ones too , as Spirit of Sal Armoniac ; though the one be Acid , and the other Urinous . And if the several Solutions , which may be made of this mineral , by so many differing liquours , be compared , the number of their differing tasts will suffice to make good the Title of the Experiment . EXPER. X. To produce variety of Tasts with one Menstruum , by associating it with insipid Bodies . THis Proposition a Mathematician would go near to call the Converse of the foregoing ; and as it may serve as well as that to discover the structure of the minute parts of divers metalline and mineral bodies ; so it may not onely as well , but better than that , serve us to illustrate the Corpuscularian Doctrine of Tasts , by shewing us , that a single , and , as far as Chymistry teaches us , a simple body , endowed with a peculiar tast , may , by being compounded with others , each of them insipid of it self , produce a considerable number of differing tasts . There may be more Instruments than one made use of in this Trial ; but of those that are known , and we may easily obtain , the most proper are Spirit of Nitre , and good Aqua fortis : For that , with refined Silver , will make a Solution bitter as Galls ; with Lead , 't will be of a Saccharine sweetness ; with that part of Tin , which it will keep dissolved , ( for the greatest 't is wont but to corrode and praecipitate ) it produces a tast very distant from both the former , but not odious ; with Copper , it affords an abominable tast ; with Mercury and Iron , it affords other kinds of bad Tasts . Nor are Metals the onely mineral bodies it will work upon : For , 't will dissolve Tin-glass , Antimony , Brass ; to which I could add Emery , Zinke , and other bodies whereon I have tried it . All which together will make up no despicable number of differing Tasts . EXPER. XI . Of two Liquours , the one highly corrosive , and the other very pungent and not pleasant , to compose a Body of a pleasant and Aromatick Tast . THis Experiment , which I elsewhere mention to other purposes , does in some regards better suit our present design , than most of the foregoing ; since here the Corrosive Menstruum is neither mortified by fixt nor urinous Salts , supposed to be of a contrary nature to it ; nor yet , as 't were , tired out nor disarm'd by corroding of metals or other solid bodies . The Experiment being somewhat dangerous to make at first in great , it may suffice for our present turn , to make it in the less quantity , as follows . Take one ounce of strong Spirit of Nitre , or of very good Aqua fortis it self , and put to it by little and little , ( which caution if you neglect , you may soon repent it , ) and another ounce of such rectified Spirit of Wine , as , being kindled in a Spoon , will flame all away : When these two liquours are well mixt , and grown cold again , you may , after some digestion , or , if hast require , without it , distill them totally over together , to unite them exquisitly into one liquour , in which , if the operation have been well performed , the corrosive particles of the Salts will not onely loose all their cutting acidity , wherewith they wounded the palat ; but by their new composition with the Vinous Spirits , the liquour acquires a Vinous tast , that is not onely not acid or offensive , but very pleasing , as if it belonged to some new or unknown Spice . EXPER. XII . To imitate by Art , and sometimes even in Minerals , the peculiar Tasts of natural Bodies , and even Vegetables . THis is not a fit place to declare , in what sense I do or do not admit of Souls in Vegetables , nor what I allow or deny to the Seminal or Plastick principle ascribed to Plants : But perhaps it will not be erroneous to conceive , that , whatever be the Agent in reference to those Tasts , that are said to be specifick to this or that Plant , that , on whose immediate account it is or becomes of this or that nature , is a complication of Mechanical Affections , as shape , size , &c. in the particles of that matter which is said to be endowed with such a specifick tast . To illustrate this , I thought it expedient , to endeavour to imitate the tast of some Natural bodies by Artificial Compositions or Preparations , but found it not easie , beforehand to be assured of the success of such Trials : And therefore I shall content my self here to mention three or four Instances , that , except the first , are rather Observations than such Experiments as we are speaking of . I remember then , that , making some Trials to alter the sensible Qualities of Smell , Tast , &c. of Oil of Vitriol , and Spirit of Wine , I obtained from them , among other things that suited with my design , a certain Liquour , which , though at first pleasant , would , at a certain nick of time , make one that had it in his mouth think it had been imbued with Garlick . And this brings into my mind , that a skilful person , famous for making good Sider , coming one day to advise with me , what he should doe to heighten the tast of it , and make it keep the longer , complained to me , that having , among other trials , put into a good Vessel full of juice of Apples a certain proportion of Mustard-seed , with hopes it would make the Sider more spirituous and pickant , he found , to his wonder and loss , that , when he came to draw it , it stank of Garlick so rank , that every body rejected it . I remember also , that , by fermenting a certain proportion ( for that we found requisite ) of semen Dauci with Beer of Ale , the Liquour had a very pleasant Relish of Limon-pills . But that seems much more considerable , which I shall now add ; That , with an insipid Metal and a very corrosive Menstruum , one may compound a tast , that I have several times observed to be so like a Vegetable , that I presume it may deceive many . This may be done by dissolving Gold , without any gross Salt , in the mixture of Aqua fortis and the Spirit of Salt , or even in common Aqua Regis , made by dissolving Sal Armoniac in Aqua fortis . For if the Experiment be happily made , one may obtain either a Solution or a Salt , whose austere tast will very much resemble that of Sloes , or of unripe Bullace . And this tast , with some little variety , I found in Gold dissolved without any distilled Liquour at all ; and also , if I much forget not , in Gold that by a peculiar Menstruum I had volatilized . The last Instance I shall give of the imitation of Tasts , I found to have been , for the main , known to some ingenious Ladies . But to make the Experiment succeed very well , a due proportion is the principal Circumstance , which is wont to be neglected . I cannot readily call to mind that which I found to succeed best ; but the Trial may be indifferently well made after such a manner as this : Take a pint or a pound of Malaga or Canary Sack , ( for though French and the like Wines may serve the turn , yet they are not so proper ; ) and put into it a drachm or two of good odoriferous Orrice Roots , cut into thin slices , and let them infuse in the Liquour a convenient time , 'till you perceive that they have given it a desired tast and smell ; then keep the thus perfumed Wine exactly stopped in a cool place : According to which way , I remember , that ( when I hit on the right proportion of Ingredients , and kept them a due time in infusion ) I had many years ago a Wine , which , being coloured with Cocheneele , or some such tingeing ingredient , was taken for good Rasberry-Wine , not onely by ordinary persons , but , among others , by a couple of eminent Physicians , one of whom pretended to an extraordinary criticalness of palate on such occasions ; both of them wondering , how at such an unlikely time of the year , as I chose to present them that Liquour among others , I could have such excellent Rasberry-Wine : Some of which ( to add that by the by ) I found to preserve the specifick tast two or three years after it was made . A Short EXCURSION About some Changes made OF TASTS BY MATURATION . IT will not perhaps be thought impertinent , but rather necessary , to add a word or two on this occasion for their sakes , that think the Maturation of Fruits , and the changes of Tasts , by which 't is usually known , must needs be the effect of the Vegetable Soul of the Plant. For , after the Fruit is gathered , and so , by being no longer a part of the Tree , does , according to the most common opinion , cease to be a part of the living Plant , as a Hand or a Foot cut off is no more reckoned among the Lims of the man it belonged to ; yet 't is very possible that some Fruits may receive maturation , after they have been severed from the Plants that bore them . For , not to mention , that Apples , gathered somewhat before the time , by lying in heaps , do usually obtain a mellowness , which seems to be a kind or degree of Maturation ; or that Medlars , gathered whilst they are hard and harsh , do become afterwards in process of time soft and better tasted ; in which state though some say they are rotten , yet others think that supposed rottenness is the proper Maturity of that kind of Fruit : Not to mention these , I say , or the like Instances , 't is a famous Assertion of several Writers of the Indian affairs , that the Fruit they call Bananas is usually gathered green , and hung up in bunches or clusters in the house , where they ripen by degrees , and have an advantageous change made both of their colour and of their tast . And this an ancient acquaintance of mine , a literate and observing person , of whom I inquired about it , assured me , he had himself lately tried and found to be true in America . And indeed I see not , why a convenient degree of warmth , whether external from the Sun and fire , or internal from some degree of fermentation or analogous intestine Commotion , may not ( whether the Fruit be united to the Plant or no ) put the sporifick Corpuscles into motion , and make them , by various and insensible transcursions , rub against each other , and thereby make the little bodies more slender or thin , and less rigid , or cutting and harsh , than they were before , and by various motions bring the Fruit they compose to a state wherein it is more soft in point of consistence , and abound in Corpuscles less harsh and more pliable , than they were before , and more congruous to the pores of the organ of Tast : And , in a word , make such a change in the constitution of the Fruit , as men are wont to express by the name of Maturity . And that such Mechanical changes of Texture may much alter the Qualities , and among them the Tast of a Fruit , is obvious in bruised Cherries and Apples , which in the bruised parts soon come to look and tast otherwise than they did before . This possibility of this is also obvious by Wardens , when slowly roasted in embers with so gentle a fire , as not to burn off the paper they are wont to be wrapt in , to be kept clean from the ashes . And I have seen , in the bordering Country betwixt France and Savoy , a sort of Pears , ( whose name I now remember not , ) which being kept for some hours in a moderate heat , in a Vessel exactly closed , with embers and ashes above and beneath them , will be reduced to a juicy Substance of a lovely red colour , and very sweet and lushious to the tast . Many other sorts of Fruit in other Countries , if they were handled after the same way , or otherwise skilfully wrought on by a moderate heat , would admit as great alterations in point of tast . Neither is that sort of Pear to be here omitted , which by meer Compression , duly ordered , without external heat , will in a few minutes be brought to exchange its former hardness and harshness for so yielding a Contexture and pleasant a tast , as I could not but think very remarkable . And that even more solid and stubborn Salts than those of Vegetables , may have the sharpness and piercingness of their tasts very much taken off by the bare internal action of one part upon the other , without the addition of any sweetning body , I have been induced to think by having found , upon trial , that , by the help of insipid Water , we may , without any violence of Fire , reduce Sea-salt into a Brine of so mild and peculiar ( I had almost said ) pleasant a tast , that one would scarce suspect what it had been , or believe that so great a change of a Mineral body could be effected by so slight an intestine Commotion as indeed produced it ; especially , since the alteration of tasts was not the most considerable that was produced by this Operation . As to Liquours that come from Vegetables , the emerging of new Sapors upon the intestine Commotion of the saporifick parts , as Consequences of such Commotions , is more obvious than is commonly considered in the juice of Grapes , which , from a sweet and spiritless Liquour , do by that internal motion we call Fermentation , acquire that pleasing pungency and briskness of tast that belongs to Wine , and afterwards degenerates into that acid and cutting tast that is proper to Vinegar ; and all this , by a change of Constitution made by the action of the parts themselves on one another , without the help of any external additament . FINIS . EXPERIMENTS , AND OBSERVATIONS , About the Mechanical Production OF ODOURS . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esq ; Fellow of the R. Society . LONDON , ●rinted by E. Flesher , for R. Davis Bookseller in Oxford . 1675. EXPERIMENTS , AND OBSERVATIONS , About the Mechanical Production OF ODOURS . SInce Tasts and Odours ( perhaps by reason of the nearness of the Organs they affect ) are wont , by Physical Writers , to be treated of next to one another , I also shall imitate them in handling those two Qualities , not onely for the intimated Reason , but because , what I have premised in general , and some other things that I have said already under the Title of Tasts , being applicable to Odours also , 't will not be necessary , and therefore 't would be tedious , to repeat them here . EXPER. I. With two Bodies , neither of them odorous , to produce immediately a strong Vrinous smell . TAke good Quick-lime and Sal Armoniac , and rub or grind them well together , and holding your Nose to the mixture , you will be saluted with an Urinous smell produced by the particles of the volatil Salt , united by this operation , which will also invade your Eyes , and make them to water . EXPER. II. By the bare addition of common Water , to produce immediately a very strong smell in a Body that had no such smell before . THis is one of the Phaenomena of an Experiment made with Camphire and Oil of Vitriol , which I have elsewhere mentioned to another purpose . For , if in that corrosive Menstruum you dissolve a good proportion , but not too much , of the strongly sented Gum , the odour of the Camphire will be quite concealed in the mixture ; but if you pour this mixture into a good quantity of fair Water , the dissolved Gum will immediately recover out of the Menstruum , and smell as strong as before , if not ( by reason of the warmth produced in the Operation ) more strongly . EXPER. III. Of producing some Odours , each of them quite differing from that of any of the Ingredients . HAving taken two ounces ( or parts ) of clear Oil of Turpentine , and mixt it with one ounce ( or part ) of Oil of Vitriol , ( which must be done by degrees , for otherwise the Vessel will be endangered , ) the clear Liquour that came over , upon the distillation of the mixture in a Sand-furnace , in stead of the odour of Turpentine , ( for the Oil of Vitriol alone is wont to be inodorous , ) smelt very strong of Sulphur ; insomuch that once , when I shewed this Experiment , approaching my Nose very boldly and hastily to the Receiver newly severed from the Retort , the sulphureous stink proved so strong , that it had almost ( to speak with the vulgar ) taken away my breath . And to illustrate yet farther the possible emergency of such odours upon the mixture of Ingredients , as neither of them was apart endowed with , we caused the substance that remained behind in the Retort ( in the form of a thin extract ) after one of the newly mentioned Distillations to be farther pressed by a stronger fire , which forced most of it over , partly in the form of a thick Oil , and partly in that of Butter ; both which we keep together in the same Vial , because their odour is neither that of Oil of Turpentine , nor that of Brimstone , but they smell exceedingly like the distilled Oil of Bees-wax . EXPER. IV. About the production of some Odours by Local motion . I Shall not now examine , whether the Local motion of an external Agent may not , without materially concurring to the operation , produce , by agitating and shuffling the parts , odorous corpuscles : But that the celerity and other modifications of the Local motion of the effluvia of Bodies may not onely serve to diversifie their odours , but so far produce them , as to make them perceptible by the sense , which otherwise would not be so , may be gathered from some observations , which , being obvious , are not so proper for this place . Wherefore I shall rather take notice , that I know several Bodies that are not onely inodorous when cold , but when considerably hot , and are fixt in the fire , and yet , by having their parts put into a peculiar kind of agitation , will presently grow plainly odorous . On this occasion I shall add , that , as there are some very hard Woods , that acquire a strong smell by the motion they may be exposed to in a Turner's Lath , ( as I have observed by trialls particularly made with the hard and ponderous Lignum Vitae , ) so some afford , whilst the operation lasts , an unexpected odour . And having inquired about this matter of two eminent Artists , ( whom I often employ , ) concerning the odour of Beech-wood whilst it is turning , they both agreed , that it would emit well-sented effluviums . And one of them affirmed to me farther , that , having bought a great block of that Wood , to make divers pieces of workmanship with it , when he came to turn it , there would issue out not onely a copious odour , but of such a peculiar fragrancy , that one that knew not whence it proceeded would have concluded he was smelling Roses . EXPER. V. By mixing a good proportion of a very strongly sented Body with an almost inodorous one , to deprive it speedily of all its smell . TAke Salt of Tartar , and drop upon it either Spirit of Nitre or Aqua fortis not too much dephlegmed , till all the effervescence cease , and the Liquour will no longer work upon the Alkali . These , by a slow Evaporation of the superfluous moisture , may be made to shoot into Crystalls like those of Nitre , which , after you have ( if need be ) by rubbing them with a dried cloath , freed them from loose adhering Corpuscles , will emulate Salt-peter , as in other Qualities , so in it s not being odorous ; though , if you distill them , or burn them on kindled coals , their fumes will quickly make you sensible , that they abounded with the stinking Spirits , that make Aqua fortis so offensive to the smell . EXPER. VI. By putting a very strongly stinking Body to another of a not sweet smell , to produce a mixture of a pleasant and strongly Aromatick odour . WHat is here proposed is performed at the same time that the Eleventh of the foregoing Experiments of Tasts is made . For the Liquour thereby produced , if it be well prepared , has not onely a spicy tast , but also a kind of Aromatick and pleasant smell ; and I have some now by me , that , though kept not over-carefully , does , after some years , retain much of its former odour , though not so much as of its tast . EXPER. VII . By digesting two Bodies , neither of them well sented , to produce Bodies of a very subtile and strongly fragrant odour . WE took a pound ( for instance ) of Spanish Wine , and put to it some ounces of Oil of Vitriol ; then , keeping them for a reasonable time in digestion , we obtained , as we expected , a mixture odoriferous enough . But this Triall you will find improved by that which insues . EXPER. VIII . By the bare addition of a Body almost inodorous , and not well sented , to give a pleasant and Aromatick smell to Spirit of Wine . THis we have several times done , by the ways elsewhere related for another scope , the summ of which , as far as it needs be mentioned in this place , is this . We took good Oil of blew Vitriol ( that was brought from Dantzick , ) though the very common will serve well , and having put to it , by degrees , an equal weight of Spirit of Wine totally inflammable , we digested them together , for two , three , or four weeks , ( sometimes much longer , and then with better success ; ) from which , when we came to distill the mixture , we had a very fragrant Spirit , which was sometimes so subtile , that , though distilled in a tall Glass with a gentle Heat , it would ( in spite of our care to secure the closeness of the Vessels at the junctures ) pierce through , and fill the Laboratory with a perfume , which , though men could not guess what body afforded it , yet they could not but wonder at it . Whence we may learn , both how much those spirituous and inflammable particles , the Chymists call the vegetable Sulphur of Wine , may work on and ennoble a mineral Sulphur ; ( for , that such an one there is in Oil of Vitriol , I have elsewhere proved by experience ; ) and how much the new Commistions and Contextures made by digestion may alter the odours of Bodies , whether Vegetable or Mineral . That also another Constitution of the same matter , without any manifest addition or recess of particles , may proceed to exhibit a very differing smell , will appear by the following Triall . EXPER. IX . To make the forementioned fragrant Body , without addition or fire , degenerate into the rank smell of Garlick . TO make out this , I need onely relate , that I have more than once put the above mentioned fragrant Liquour in stopt Glasses , whereof the one , and not the other , stood in a warm place , till in process of time I found that odoriferous Liquour so to degenerate in point of sent , that one would have thought it to have been strongly infected with Garlick . And the like unpleasant Smell I observed in a certain Oil made of Vegetable and Mineral Substances distilled together . And on this occasion I will add , ( though not as an Argument , ) this Observation , which though I shall not undertake it will always succeed , I think may not impertinently be set down in this place , partly because of the likeness of the odour produced , to that which was the effect of the last named Triall ; and partly ( or rather chiefly ) because it may shew us , that a Body , which it self is not onely inodorous , but very fixt , may yet , in some cases , have a great stroke in the Phaenomena of Odours ; whether by being wrought on by , and sometimes mingled with , the parts of the odorous body , and thereby giving it a new modification , I shall not now stay to enquire . We took then good Salt of Tartar , and put to it several times its weight of the expressed juice of Onions ; we kept them in a light digestion for a day or two , and then unstopping the Vial , we found the former smell of the Onions quite degenerated into a rank smell of Garlick , as was judged , even when fresh juice of Garlick was procured to compare them . To vary this Experiment , we made with fixt Salts , and some other strongly sented Juices , Trialls , whose events 't would perhaps be tedious here to relate . EXPER. X. With an inodorous Body , and another not well-sented , to produce a muskie smell . THis we have sometimes done by casting into Spirit ( not Oil ) of Vitriol a large proportion of small Pearls unbroken . For the action of the acid Menstruum upon these being moderated , partly by the weakness of the Menstruum , and partly by the intireness of the Pearls , the dissolution would sometimes last many hours . Holding from time to time my nose to the open orifice of the Glass , 't was easie to perceive a pleasant muskie smell , which also others , to whom I mentioned it , took notice of as well as I. And , if I misremember not , I took notice of the like smell , upon Pearls not onely dissolved in Spirit of Vinegar , but in another Liquour that had but a bad sent of its own . The foregoing Experiment calls to my mind that which follows . EXPER. XI . With fixt Metals , and Bodies either inodorous or stinking , to produce strong and pleasant smells , like those of some Vegetables and Minerals . THat Gold is too fixt a body to emit any odour , and that Aqua Regis has an odour that is very strong and offensive , I think will be easily granted . But yet Aurum fulminans being made ( as 't is known ) by precipitating with the inodorous Oil of Tartar the Solution made of the former in the latter , and this Precipitate being to be farther proceeded with in order to another Experiment ; we fulminated it per se in a Silver Vessel like that , but better contrived , that is ( if I misremember not ) somewhere described by Glauberus . And among other Phaenomena of this operation , that belong not to this place , we observed with pleasure , that , when the fulmination was recently made , the steams , which were afforded by the metal that had been fired , were endowed with a delightful smell , not unlike that of musk . From which Experiment and the foregoing we may learn , that Art , by lucky Contextures , may imitate the odours that are presumed to be natural and specifick ; and that Mineral and Vegetable Substances may compound a smell that is thought to be peculiar to Animals . And as Art sometimes imitates Nature in the production of Odours , as may be confirmed by what is above related concerning counterfeit Rasberry-Wine , wherein those that drank it believed they did not onely tast , but smell the Rasberry ; so sometimes Nature seems to imitate her self , in giving like odours to bodies extreamly differing . For , not yet to dismiss the smell of Musk , there is a certain Seed , which , for the affinity of its odour to that perfume , they call the Musk-seed ; and indeed , having some of it presented me by a Gentleman , that had newly brought it from the West-Indies , I found it , whilst 't was fresh , to have a fragrancy suitable to the name that was given it . There is also a sort of Rats in Muscovy , whose skins , whereof I have seen several , have a smell that has procured them the name of Musk-Rats . To which I know not , whether we may not add the mention of a certain sort of Ducks , which some call Musk-Ducks , because at a certain season of the year , if they be chaf'd by violent motion , they will under the wing emit a musky in stead of a sweaty sent ; which upon trial I perceived to be true . On the other side , I have known a certain Wood growing in the Indies , which , especially when the sent is excited by rubbing , stinks so rankly and so like Paracelsus's Zibetum Occidentale , ( stercus Humanum , ) that one would swear it were held under his Nose . And since I have been speaking of good sents produced by unlikely means , I shall not pretermit this Observation , that , though generally the fire impresses a strong offensive smell , which Chymists therefore call Empyreumatical , upon the odorous bodies that it works strongly on ; yet the constitution of a body may be such , that the new Contexture that is made of its parts , even by the violence of the fire , shall be fit to afford Effluviums rather agreeable to the organs of smelling , than any way offensive . For I remember , that , having for a certain purpose distilled Saccharum Saturni in a Retort with a strong fire , I then obtained , ( for I dare not undertake for the like success to every Experimenter , ) besides a piercing and Empyreumatical Liquour that was driven over into the Receiver , a good Lump of a Caput Mortuum of a grayish colour , which , notwithstanding the strong impression it had received from the fire , was so far from having any Empyreumatical sent , that it had a pleasing one , and when 't was broken , smelt almost like a fine Cake new baked , and broken whilst yet warm . And as the fire , notwithstanding the Empyreuma it is wont to give to almost all the bodies it burns , may yet be reduced to confer a good smell on some of them , if they be fitted upon such a contexture of their parts to emit steams of such a nature , ( whatever were the efficient cause of such a contexture ; ) so we observe in the Musk animal , that Nature in that Cat , or rather Deer , ( though it properly belong to neither kind , ) produces Musk by such a change , as is wont in other Animals to produce a putrefactive stink . So that , provided a due constitution of parts be introduced into a portion of matter , it may on that account be endowed with noble and desirable Sents , or other Qualities , though that Constitution were introduced by such unlikely means , as Combustion and Putrefaction themselves . In Confirmation of which , I shall subjoyn in the insuing account a notable , though casual , Phaenomenon , that occurr'd to a couple of Virtuosi of my Acquaintance . An eminent Professor of Mathematicks affirmed to me , that , chancing one day in the heat of Summer with another Mathematician ( who I remember was present when this was told ) to pass by a large Dunghil that was then in Lincolns-Inn-fields , when they came to a certain distance from it , they were both of them surprized to meet with a very strong smell of Musk , ( occasioned , probably , by a certain degree or a peculiar kind of Putrefaction , ) which each was for a while shy of taking notice of , for fear his Companion should have laughed at him for it ; but , when they came much nearer the Dunghill , that pleasing smell was succeeded by a stink proper to such a heap of Excrements . This puts me in mind of adding , that , though the excrements of Animals , and particularly their sweat , are usually foetid ; yet , that 't is not the nature of an excrement , but the constitutions , that usually belong to them , make them so , hath seemed probable to me upon some Observations . For , not to mention , what is related of Alexander the Great , I knew a Gentleman of a very happy Temperature of body , whose sweat , upon a critical examination , wherein I made use also of a surprize , I found to be fragrant ; which was confirmed also by some Learned men of my acquaintance , and particularly a Physician that lay with him . Though Civet usually passes for a Perfume , and as such is wont to be bought at a great rate ; yet it seems to be but a clammy excrement of the Animal that affords it , which is secreted into Bags provided by Nature to receive it . And I the rather mention Civet , because it usually affords a Phaenomenon that agrees very well with the Mechanical Doctrine concerning Odours , though it do not demonstrate it . For , when I have had the curiosity to visit divers of those Civet-Cats , ( as they call them ) though they have heads liker Foxes than Cats ; I observed , that a certain degree of Laxity ( if I may so style it ) of the odorous Atmosphere was requisite to make the smell fragrant . For , when I was near the Cages , where many of them were kept together , or any great Vessel full of Civet , the smell ( probably by the plenty , and perhaps the over-brisk motion of the effluvia , ) was rather rank and offensive than agreeable ; whereas , when I removed into the next room , or to some other convenient distance , the steams ( being less crowded , and farther from their fountain , ) presented themselves to my Nostrills under the notion of a Perfume . And , not to dismiss this our Eleventh Experiment without touching once more upon Musk , I shall add , that an Ingenious Lady , to whom I am nearly related , shewed me an odd Monkey , that had been presented her as a rarity by the then Admiral of England , and told me , among other things , that she had observed in it , that , being sick , he would seek for Spiders as his proper remedies , for some of which he then seemed to be looking , and thereby gave her occasion to tell me this ; which when he had eaten , the alteration it made in him would sometimes fill the room with a musky sent : But he had not the good luck to light on any whilst my visit lasted . EXPER. XII . To heighten good smells by Composition . 'T IS well known to Perfumers , and is easie to be observed , that Amber-greece alone , though esteemed the best and richest perfume that is yet known in the world , has but a very faint and scarce a pleasant sent . And I remember , that I have seen some hundreds of ounces together newly brought from the East-Indies ; but if I had not been before acquainted with the smell of Amber-greece alone , and had had onely the vulgar conceit of it , that 't is the best and strongest of perfumes , my Nostrills would scarce have made me suspect those lumps to have been any thing a-kin to Amber-greece . But if a due proportion of Musk , or even Civet , be dexterously mixt with Amber , the latent fragrancy , though it be thereby somewhat compounded , will quickly be called forth , and exceedingly heightned . And indeed 't is not , as 't is commonly presumed , the plenty of the richest Ingredients , as Amber-greece and Musk , but the just proportion and skilful mixture of them , that makes the noblest and most lasting perfume , of which I have had sufficient experience ; so that with a far less quantity of Musk and Amber , than not onely ordinary persons , but Perfumers themselves are wont to imploy , we have had several Perfumes , that for fragrancy were much preferred to those where Musk and Amber-greece are so plentifully imployed . The proportions and ways of mixture we best approved of , would be too long , and are not necessary , to be here set down ; but you will not much erre in making use of such a proportion as this , viz. eight parts of Amber-greece , two of Musk , and one of Civet : which quantities of Ingredients if they be skilfully and exactly mingled , you will not miss of a good Composition , with which you may innoble other materials , as Benzoin , Storax , sweet Flowers , &c. fit to make Pastills , Ointments for Leather , Pomander , &c. And we may here add , that , upon the score of the new Texture acquired by Composition , some things , that are not fragrant themselves , may yet much heighten the fragrancy of Odoriferous bodies . And of liquid perfumes I remember , 't was the secret of some Court-Ladies , noted for Curiosity about perfumes , to mingle always a due proportion of Wine-vinegar with the odoriferous Ingredients . And on this occasion , to shew the power of mixtures in improving Odours , I shall add something about a Liquour of mine , that has had the good fortune to be very favourably spoken of by persons of Quality accustomed to choice Perfumes . This Liquour ; though thought an elaborate preparation , as well for another reason , as to recommend it to some , whose Critical palates can tast the very titles of things , I called it Essence of Musk , is indeed a very plain simple preparation , which I thus make . I take an arbitrary Quantity of choice Musk without finely powdering it , and pour upon it about a finger's breadth of pure Spirit of Wine ; these in a Glass closely stopt I set in a quiet place to digest , without the help of any Furnace , and after some days , or a few weeks , ( according as Circumstances determined , ) the Spirit , which is somewhat odd , will in the cold have made a solution of the finest parts of the Musk , and will be thereby much tinged , but not of a red colour . This Liquour being decanted , I keep by it self as the richest of all ; and pour a like quantity of Spirit on the remaining Musk , which usually will in the cold , though more slowly , draw a tincture , but fainter than the former , which being poured off , the remaining Musk may be imployed for inferiour uses . Now that which made me mention this Preparation as pertinent to our present Subject , is this Phaenomenon of it , that the first essence , or rather tincture , being smelt to by it self , has but a faint , and not very pleasing , odour of Musk , so that every body would not discover that there was Musk in it ; but if a single drop , or two drops at most , were mixt with a pint , or perhaps a quart , of good Sack , the whole body of the Wine would presently acquire a considerably musky sent , and be so richly perfumed both as to tast and smell , as seemed strange enough to those that knew the vast disproportion of the Ingredients . FINIS . OF THE IMPERFECTION OF THE Chymist's DOCTRINE OF QUALITIES . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esq ; Fellow of the R. Society . LONDON , Printed by E. Flesher , for R. Davis Bookseller in Oxford . 1675. OF THE IMPERFCTION OF The Chymist's Doctrine OF QUALITIES . CHAP. I. SInce a great part of those Learned Men , especially Physicians , who have discerned the defects of the vulgar Philosophy , but are not yet come to understand and relish the Corpuscularian , have slid into the Doctrine of the Chymists ; and since the Spagyrists are wont to pretend to make out all the Qualities of bodies from the Predominancy of some one of their three Hypostatical Principles , I suppose it may both keep my opinion from appearing too presumptuous , and ( which is far more considerable ) may make way for the fairer Reception of the Mechanical Hypothesis about Qualities , if I here intimate ( though but briefly and in general ) some of those defects , that I have observed in Chymists Explications of Qualities . And I might begin with taking notice of the Obscurity of those Principles , which is no small defect in Notions whose proper office it should be to conduce to the illustration of others . For , how can that facilitate the understanding of an obscure Quality or Phaenomenon which is it self scarcely intelligible , or at least needs almost as much explanation as the thing 't is designed & pretended to explicate ? Now a man need not be very conversant in the writings of Chymists to observe , in how Laxe , Indefinite , and almost Arbitrary Senses they employ the Terms of Salt , Sulphur and Mercury ; of which I could never find that they were agreed upon any certain Definitions or setled Notions ; not onely differing Authors , but not unfrequently one and the same , and perhaps in the same Brook , employing them in very differing senses . But I will not give the Chymists any rise to pretend , that the chief fault that I find with their Hypothesis is but verbal ; though that it self may not a little blemish any Hypothesis , one of the first of whose Requisites ought to be Clearness ; and therefore I shall now advance and take notice of defects that are manifestly of another kind . And first the Doctrine that all their Theory is grounded on , seems to me Inevident and undemonstrated , not to say precarious . It is somewhat strange to me , that neither the Spagyrists themselves , nor yet their Adversaries , should have taken notice , that Chymists have rather supposed than evinced , that the Analysis of bodies by fire , or even that at least some Analysis is the onely instrument of investigating what Ingredients mixt bodies are made up of , since in divers cases That may be discovered by Composition as well as by Resolution ; as it may appear , that Vitriol consists of metalline parts ( whether Martial , or Venereal , or both ) associated by Coagulation with acid ones , one may , I say , discover this as well by making true Vitriol with Spirit ( improperly called Oil ) of Sulphur , or that of Salt , as by distilling or Resolving Vitriol by the fire . But I will not here enlarge on this subject , nor yet will I trouble you with what I have largely discoursed in the Sceptical Chymist , to call in question the grounds on which Chymists assert , that all mixt bodies are compounded of Salt , Sulphur , and Mercury . For it may suffice me now to tell you , that , whatsoever they may be able to obtain from other bodies , it does not appear by Experience , which is the grand , if not the onely , Argument they rely on , that all mixt bodies that have Qualities , consist of their tria prima , since they have not been able , that we know , truly , and without new Compositions , to resolve into those three , either Gold , or Silver , or Crystal , or Venetian Talck , or some other bodies , that I elsewhere name ; & yet these bodies are endowed with divers Qualities , as the two former with Fusibleness and Malleability , and all of them with Weight and Fixity ; so that in these and the like bodies , whence Chymists have not made it yet appear , that their Salt , Sulphur and Mercury , can be truly and adequately separated , 't will scarce be other than precarious , to derive the malleableness , colour , and other Qualities of such bodies from those Principles . Under this Head I consider also , that a great part of the Chymical Doctrine of Qualities is bottom'd on , or supposes , besides their newly questioned Analysis by fire , some other things , which , as far as I know , have not yet been well proved , and I question whether they ever will be . One of their main Suppositions is , that this or that Quality must have its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Sennertus , the Learnedst Champion of this opinion , calls it , or some particular material Principle , to the participation of which , as of the primary native and genuine subject , all other bodies must owe it : But upon this point having purposely discoursed elsewhere , I shall now onely observe , that , not to mention Local motion and Figure , I think 't will be hard to shew , what is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Gravity , Volatility , Heat , Sonorousness , Transparency and Opacity , which are Qualities to be indifferently met with in bodies whether simple or mixt . And whereas the Spagyrists are wont to argue , that , because this or that Quality is not to be derived truly from this or that particular Principle , as Salt , for instance , and Mercury ; therefore it must needs be derivable from the third , as Sulphur . This way of arguing involves a farther Supposition than that newly examined . For it implies , that every Quality in a compounded body must arise from some one of the tria prima , whereas experience assures us , that bodies may , by Composition , obtain Qualities , that were not to be found in any of the separate Ingredients . As we see in painting , that though blew and yellow be neither of them green , yet their mixture will be so . And though no single Sound will make an octave or diapason ; yet two sounds , whose proportion is double , will have an eighth . And Tinn and Copper melted and mingled together in a due proportion , will make a bell-metal far more sonorous than either of them was before . 'T is obvious enough for Chymists themselves to observe , that , though Lead be an insipid body , and Spirit of Vinegar a very sharp one , yet Saccharum Saturni , that is compounded out of these two , has a sweetness that makes it not ill deserve its name . But this ill-grounded Supposition of the Chymists , is extended farther in an usual Topic of theirs , according to which they conclude , That I know not how many Qualities , as well manifest as occult , must be explicated by their tria prima , because they are not explicable by the four elements of the Peripateticks . To make which argumentation valid , it must be proved , ( which I fear it will never be ) that there are no other wayes , by which those Qualities may be explicated , but by a determinate number of Material Principles , whether four or three : Besides that , till they have shewn that such Qualities may be intelligibly explicated by their Principles , the objection will lye as strong for the Aristotelians against them , as for them against the Aristotelians . CHAP. II. NExt I consider , that there are divers Qualities even in mixt bodies , wherein it does not appear , that the use of the Chymical Doctrine is Necessary . As , for instance , when pure Gold is by Heat onely brought to fusion , and consequently to the state of fluidity , and upon the remission of that heat , grows a solid and consistent body again , what addition or expulsion or change of any of the tria prima does appear to be the cause of this change of consistence ? Which is easie to be accounted for according to the Mechanical way , by the vehement agitation that the fire makes of the minute parts of the Gold to bring it to fusion ; and the cohesion of those parts , by vertue of their gravity and fitness to adhere to one another , when that agitation ceases . When Venice Glass is meerly by being beaten to pouder deprived of its Transparency and turned into a body opacous and white , what need or use of the tria prima have we in the explication of this Phaenomenon ? Or of that other which occurs , when by barely melting down this white and opacous body it is deprived of its opacity and colour , and becomes diaphanous ? And of this sort of Instances you will meet with divers in the following Notes about particular Qualities ; for which reason I shall forbear the mention of them here . CHAP. III. I Observe too , that the Spagyrical Doctrine of Qualities is Insufficient and too narrow to reach to all the Phaenomena or even to all the notable ones , that ought to be explicable by them . And this Insufficiency I find to be two-fold ; for , first , there are divers Qualities , of which Chymists will not so much as attempt to give us explications , and of other particular Qualities the explications , such as they are that they give us , are often very deficient and unsatisfactory ; and do not sometimes so much as take notice of divers considerable Phaenomena that belong to the Qualities whereof they pretend to give an account ; of which you will meet with divers Instances in the insuing Notes . And therefore I shall onely , ( to declare my meaning the better , ) invite you to observe with me , that though Gold be the body they affect to be most conversant with ; yet it will be very hard to shew , how the specific weight of Gold can be deduced from any or all of the three Principles , since Mercury it self , that is of bodies , known to us , the heaviest next to Gold , is so much lighter than Gold , that , whereas I have usually found Mercury to be to an equal weight of water , somewhat , though little , less than fourteen to one , I find pure Gold to be about nineteen times as heavy as so much water . Which will make it very difficult , not to say impossible for them to explain , how Gold should barely by participating of Mercury , which is a body much lighter than it self , obtain that great specific gravity we find it to have ; for the two other Hypostatical Principles , we know , are far lighter than Mercury . And I think it would much puzzle the Chymists , to give us any examples of a compounded body , that is specifically heavier than the heaviest of the Ingredients that it is made up of . And this is the first kind of Insufficiency I was taking notice of in the Chymical Doctrine of Qualities . The other is , That there are several bodies which the most Learned among themselves confess not to consist of their tria prima , and yet are indowed with Qualities , which consequently are not in those subjects to be explicated by the tria prima which are granted not to be found in them . Thus elementary Water , though never so pure , ( as distilled Rain-water , ) has fluidity and coldness and humidity and transparency and volatility , without having any of the tria prima . And the purest Earth , as Ashes carefully freed from the fixt salt , has gravity and consistence and dryness and colour and fixity , without owing them either to Salt , Sulphur , or Mercury ; not to mention , that there are Celestial bodies which do not appear , nor are wont to be pretended , to consist of the tria prima , that yet are indowed with Qualities . As the Sun has Light , and as many Philosophers think , Heat , and Colour ; and the Moon has a determinate consistence and figuration , ( as appears by her mountains ) and Astronomers observe , that the higher Planets and even the Fixt stars appear to be differingly coloured . But I shall not multiply Instances of this kind , because what I have said , may not onely serve for my present purpose , but bring a great Confirmation to what I lately said , when I noted , that the Chymical Principles were in many cases not necessary to explicate Qualities : For since in Earth , Water , &c. such diffused Qualities , as gravity , fixtness , colour , transparency and fluidity , must be acknowledged not to be derived from the tria prima ; 't is plain , that portions of matter may be endowed with such Qualities by other causes and agents than Salt , Sulphur and Mercury . And then why should we deny , that also in compounded bodies those Qualities may be ( sometimes at least ) produced by the same or the like Causes ? As we see , that the reduction of a diaphanous Solid to pouder , produces whiteness , whether the comminution happens to Rock-crystal or to Venice glass , or to Ice : The first of which is acknowledged to be a natural and perfectly mixt body ; the second a factitious and not onely mixt but decompounded body ; and the last , for ought appears , an elementary body , or at most very slightly and imperfectly mixt . And so by mingling Air in small portions with a diaphanous Liquor , as we do when we beat such a Liquor into foam , a whiteness is produced , as well in pure Water , which is acknowledged to be a simple body , as in white Wine , which is reckoned among perfectly mixt bodies . CHAP. IV. I Further observe , that the Chymists Explications do not reach deep and far enough . For first , most of them are not sufficiently distinct and full , so as to come home to the particular Phaenomena , nor often times so much as to all the grand ones , that belong to the History of the Qualities they pretend to explicate ▪ You will readily believe , that a Chymist will not easily make out by his Salt , Sulphur , and Mercury , why a Loadstone capp'd with steel may be made to take up a great deal more Iron , sometimes more than eight or ten times as much , than if it be immediatly applied to the iron ; or why , if one end of the Magnetic Needle is dispos'd to be attracted by the North-pole , for instance , of the Load-stone , the other Pole of the Load-stone will not attract it but drive it away : or , why a bar or rod of iron , being heated red-hot and cooled perpendicularly , will with its lower end drive away the flower de Luce , or the North-end of a Marriners Needle , which the upper end of the same barr or rod will not repell but draw to it . In short , of above threescore Properties or notable Phaenomena of Magnetic Bodies , that some Writers have reckon'd up , I do not remember that any three have been by Chymists so much as attempted to be solved by their three Principles . And even in those Qualities , in whose explications these Principles may more probably than elsewhere pretend to have a place , the Spagyrists accounts are wont to fall so short of being distinct and particular enough , that they use to leave divers considerable Phaenomena untouch'd , and do but very lamely or slightly explicate the more obvious or familiar . And I have so good an opinion of divers of the embracers of the Spagyrical Theory of Qualities ( among whom I have met with very Learned and worthy men ) that I think , that if a Quality being pos'd to them , they were at the same time presented with a good Catalogue of the Phaenomena , that they may take , in the History of it , as it were with one view , they would plainly perceive that there are more particulars to be accounted for , than at first they were aware of ; and divers of them such , as may quite discourage considering men from taking upon them to explain them all by the Tria prima , and oblige them to have recourse to more Catholic and comprehensive Principles . I know not , whether I may not add on this occasion , that , methinks , a Chymist , who by the help of his Tria Prima , takes upon him to interpret that Book of Nature of which the Qualities of bodies make a great part , acts at but a little better rate than he , that seeing a great book written in a Cypher , whereof he were acquainted but with three Letters , should undertake to decypher the whole piece . For though 't is like , he would in many words find one of the Letters of his short key , and in divers words two of them , and perhaps in some all three ; yet , besides that in most of the words wherein the known Letter or Letters may be met with , they may be so blended with other unknown Letters as to keep him from decyphering a good part of those very words , 't is more than probable , that a great part of the book would consist of words wherein none of his three Letters were to be found . CHAP. V. AND this is the first account , on which I observe that the Chymical Theory of Qualities does not reach far enough : But there is another branch of its deficiency . For even , when the explications seem to come home to the Phaenomena , they are not primary , and , if I may so speak , Fontal enough . To make this appear , I shall at present imploy but these two Considerations . The first is , that those substances themselves , that Chymists call their Principles , are each of them indowed with several Qualities . Thus Salt is a consistent , not a fluid , body ; it has its weight , 't is dissoluble in water , is either diaphanous or opacous , fixt or volatile , sapid or insipid ; ( I speak thus disjunctively , because Chymists are not all agreed about these things ; and it concerns not my Argument , which of the disputable Qualities be resolved upon . ) And Sulphur , according to them , is a body fusible , inflammable , &c. and , according to Experience , is consistent , heavy , &c. So that 't is by the help of more primary and general Principles , that we must explicate some of those Qualities , which being found in bodies , supposed to be perfectly similar or homogeneous , cannot be pretended to be derived in one of them from the other . And to say , that 't is the nature of a Principle to have this or that Quality , as , for instance , of Sulphur to be susible , and therefore we are not to exact a Reason why it is so ; though I could say much by way of answer , I shall now only observe , that this Argument is grounded but upon a supposition , and will be of no force , if from the primary affections of bodies one may deduce any good Mechanical Explication of Fusibility in the general , without necessarily supposing such a Primigeneal Sulphur , as the Chymists fancy , or deriving it from thence in other bodies . And indeed , since not only Salt-peter , Sea salt , Vitriol and Allum , but Salt of Tartar , and the Volatile Salt of Urine are all of them fusible ; I do not well see , how Chymists can derive the fusibleness even of Salts obtained by their own analysis ( such as Salt of Tartar and of Urine ) from the participation of the Sulphureous Ingredient ; especially since , if such an attempt should be made , it would overthrow the Hypothesis of three Simple bodies , whereof they will have all mixt ones to be compounded ; and still 't would remain to be explicated , upon what account the Principle , that is said to endow the other with such a Quality , comes to be endowed therewith it self . For 't is plain , that a mass of Sulphur is not an Atomical or Adamantine body ; but consists of a multitude of Corpuscles of determinate Figures , and connected after a determinate manner : so that it may be reasonably demanded , why such a Convention of particles , rather than many another that does not , constitutes a fusible body . CHAP. VI. AND this leads me to a further Consideration , which makes me look upon the Chymists explications as not deep and radical enough ; and it is this , that , when they tell us , for instance , that the fusibleness of bodies proceeds from Sulphur , in case they say true , they do but tell us what material Ingredient 't is that being mingled with and dispers'd through the other parts of a body , makes it apt to melt : But this does not intelligibly declare , what it is that makes a portion of matter fusible , and how the sulphureous Ingredient introduces that disposition into the rest of the mass , wherewith 't is commixt or united . And yet 't is such explications as these , that an inquisitive Naturalist chiefly looks after , and which I therefore call Philosophical . And to shew , that there may be more Fontal explications , I shall only observe , that , not to wander from our present instance , Sulphur it self is fusible . And therefore , as I lately intimated , Fusibility , which is not the Quality of one Atome , or Particle , but of an Aggregate of Particles , ought it self to be accounted for in that Principle , before the Fusibleness of all other bodies be derived from it . And 't will in the following notes appear , that in Sulphur it self that Quality may be probably deduced from the convention of Corpuscles of determinate shapes and sizes , contexed or connected after a convenient manner . And if either nature , or art , or chance , should bring together particles endowed with the like Mechanical Affections , and associate them after the like manner , the resulting body would be fusible , though the component particles had never been parts of the Chymists primordial sulphur : And such particles so convening might perhaps have made Sulphur it self , though before there had been no such body in the world . And what I say to those Chymists , that make the sulphureous Ingredient the cause of fusibility , may easily , mutatis mutandis , be applied to their Hypothesis , that rather ascribe that quality to the Mercurial or the Saline Principle , and consequently cannot give a rational account of the fusibility of Sulphur . And therefore though I readily allow ( as I shall have afterwards occasion to declare ) that Sulphur , or an other of the tria prima , may be met with , and even abound in several bodies endowed with the quality that is attributed to their participation of that Principle ; yet that this may be no certain sign that the propos'd Quality must flow from that Ingredient , you may perhaps be assisted to discern by this illustration , That if Tin be duly mixt with Copper or Gold , or , as I have tried , with Silver or Iron , it will make them very brittle ; and it is also an Ingredient of divers other bodies that are likewise brittle , as blew , green , white , and otherwise colour'd , Amels , which are usually made of calcin'd Tin ( which the Tradesmen call Puttee , ) colliquated with the Ingredients of Crystal-glass and some small portion of Mineral pigment . But though in all the above-named brittle bodies , Tin be a considerable Ingredient ; yet 't were very unadvised to affirm , that Brittleness in general proceeds from Tin. For provided the solid parts of consistent bodies touch one another but according to small portions of their surfaces , and be not implicated by their contexture , the Metalline or other Composition may be brittle , though there be no Tin at all in it . And in effect , the materials of glass being brought to fusion will compose a brittle body , as well when there is no Puttee colliquated with them , as when there is . Calcin'd Lead by the action of the fire may be melted into a brittle mass , and even into transparent Glass , without the help of Tin or any other additament . And I need not add , that there are a multitude of other bodies , that cannot be pretended to owe their brittleness to any participation of Tin , of which they have no need , if the matter they consist of wants not the requisite Mechanical Dispositions . And here I shall venture to add , that the way employed by the Chymists , as well as the Peripateticks , of accounting for things by the Ingredients , whether Elements , Principles , or other bodies , that they suppose them to consist of , will often frustrate the Naturalists expectation of events , which may frequently prove differing from what he promis'd himself , upon the Consideration of the Qualities of each Ingredient . For the ensuing Notes contain divers Instances , wherein there emerges a new Quality differing from , or even contrary to , any that is conspicuous in the Ingredients ; as two transparent bodies may make an opacous mixture , a yellow body and a blew , one that is green , two malleable bodies , a brittle one , two actually cold bodies , a hot one , two fluid bodies , a consistent one , &c. And as this way of judging by material Principles hinders the foreknowledg of Events from being certain ; so it much more hinders the assignation of Causes from being satisfactory ; so that perhaps some would not think it very rash to say , that those who judg of all mixt bodies as Apothecaries do of Medicines , barely by the Qualities and Proportions of the Ingredients ( such as among the Aristotelians are the four Elements , and among the Chymists the tria prima , ) do , as if one should pretend to give an account of the Phaenomena and operations of Clocks and Watches , and their Diversities by this , That some are made of brass wheels , some of iron , some have plain ungilt wheels , others of wheels overlaid with Gold , some furnished with gut-strings , others with little chains , &c. and that therefore the Qualities and Predominancies of these metalls that make parts of the Watch , ought to have ascribed to them , what indeed flows from their Coordination and Contrivance . CHAP. VII . THE last defect I observe in the Chymical Doctrine of Qualities , is , that in many cases it agrees not well with the Phaenomena of Nature , and that by one or both of these ways . First , there are divers changes of Qualities , wherein one may well expect , that a Chymical Principle should have a great stroak , and yet it does not at all appear to have so . He that considers , what great operations divers of the Hermeticks ascribe to this or that Hypostatical Principle , and how many Qualities according to them must from it be derived , can scarce do other than expect , that a great change as to those Qualities happening in a mixt body , should at least be accompany'd with some notable action of , or alteration in the Principle . And yet I have met with many instances , wherein Qualities are produced , or abolished , or very much altered , without any manifest introduction , expulsion , or considerable change of the Principle , whereon that Quality is said to depend , or perhaps of either of the two others : As when a piece of fine silver , that having been neald in the fire , and suffer'd to cool leisurely , is very flexible , is made stiff and hard to bend , barely by a few stroaks of a hammer . And a string of a Lute acquires or loses a sympathy , as they call it , with another string of the same or another Instrument , barely by being either stretched so as to make an Unison with it , or screw'd up or let down beyond or beneath that degree of Tension . To multiply instances of this kind would be to anticipate those , you will hereafter meet with in their due places . And therefore I shall pass on from the first sort of Phaenomena , that favour not the Chymical Hypothesis about Qualities , to the other which consists of those , wherein either that does not happen which according to their Hypothesis ought to happen , or the contrary happens to what according to their Hypothesis may justly be expected . Of this you will meet with instances hereafter ; I shall now trouble you but with one , the better to declare my meaning . 'T is not unknown to those Chymists , that work much in Silver and in Copper , that the former will endure Ignition and become red-hot in the fire , before it will be brought to fusion ; and the latter is yet far more difficult to be melted down than the other ; yet if you separately dissolve those two metalls in Aqua fortis , and by evaporation reduce them to Crystalls , these will be brought to fusion in a very little time , and with a very moderate Heat , without breaking the glasses that contain them . If you ask a vulgar Chymist the cause of this facility of fusion , he will probably tell you without scruple , that 't is from the saline parts of the Aqua fortis , which , being imbodied in the metals and of a very fusible nature , impart that easiness of fusion to the metals they are mixt with . According to which plausible explication one might well expect , that , if the saline Corpuscles were exquisitly mingled with Tin , they would make it far more fusible than of it self it is . And yet , as I have elsewhere noted , when I put Tin into a convenient quantity of Aqua fortis , the metal being corroded , subsided , as is usual , in the form of whites of eggs , which being well dried , the Tinn was so far from being grown more fusible by the addition of the saline particles of the Menstruum , that , whereas 't is known that simple Tin will melt long before it come to be red-hot , this prepar'd Tin would endure for a good while not only a thorow ignition , but the blast of a pair of double bellows , ( which we usually imploy'd to melt Silver and Copper it self , ) without being at all brought to fusion . And as for those Spagyrists that admit , as most of them are granted to do , that all kinds of metals may be turned into Gold by a very small proportion of what they call the Philosophers Elixir , one may I think shew them from their own concessions , that divers Qualities may be changed even in such constant bodies as Metals , without the addition of any considerable proportion of the simple Ingredients , to which they are wont to ascribe those Qualities ; provided the Agent , ( as an efficient rather than as a material Cause , ) be able to make a great change in the Mechanical affections of the parts whereof the metal it acts on is made up . Thus if we suppose a pound of Silver , a pound of Lead , and a pound of Iron to be transmuted into Gold , each by a grain of the powder of projection , this tinging powder , as a material Cause is inconsiderable , by reason of the smallness of its bulk , and as an efficient cause it works differing and even contrary effects , according to the disposition , wherein it finds the metal to be transmuted , and the changes it produces in the constituent Texture of it . Thus it brings Quick-silver to be fixt , which it was not before , and deprives it of the Fluidity which it had before ; it brings Silver to be indissolvable in Aqua fortis , which readily dissolved it before , and dissoluble in Aqua Regis , which before would not touch it ; and which is very considerable to our present purpose , whereas it makes Iron much more fusible than Mars , it makes Lead much less fusible than whilest it retained its pristine form , since Saturn melts ere it come to ignition , which Gold requires to bring it to fusion . But this is proposed only as an Argument ad hominem , till the Truth of the transmutation of metals into Gold , by way of projection , be sufficiently proved , and the circumstances and phaenomena of it particularly declared . I must not forget to take notice , that some learned modern Chymists would be thought to explicate divers of the Changes that happen to Bodies in point of Odours , Colours , &c. by saying that in such alterations the Sulphur or other Hypostatical Principle is intraverted or extraverted , or , as others speak , inverted . But I confess , to me these seem to be rather new terms then real explications . For , to omit divers of the Arguments mentioned in this present Treatise , that may be applied to this way of solving the Phaenomena of Qualities , one may justly object , that the supposed Extraversion or Intraversion of Sulphur can by no means reach to give an account of so great a variety of Odours , Colours , and other Qualities as may be found in the changed portions of matter we are speaking of . And which is more , what they call by these and the like names , cannot be done without Local motion transposing the particles of the matter , and consequently producing in it a change of Texture , which is the very thing we would infer , and which being supposed , we may grant Sulphur to be oftentimes actually present in the altered Bodies , without allowing it to be always necessary to produce the alterations in them , since Corpuscles so condition'd and contex'd would perform such Effects , whether Sulphur , as such , did , or did not , make up the subject matter of the Change. And now I shall conclude , and partly recapitulate what has been delivered in this and the two foregoing Chapters , with this summary consideration , That the Chymist's Salt , Sulphur and Mercury themselves are not the first and most simple Principles of Bodies , but rather primary Concretions of Corpuscles or Particles more simple than they , as being endowed only with the first , or most radical ( if I may so speak ) and most Catholick Affections of simple Bodies , namely Bulk , Shape , and Motion , or Rest ; by the different Conventions or Coalitions of which minutest portions of matter are made those differing Concretions that Chymists name Salt , Sulphur and Mercury . And to this Doctrine it will be consonant , that several Effects of this or that Spagyrical Principle need not be derived from Salt , for instance , or Sulphur as such , but may be explained by the help of some of those Corpuscles that I have lately call'd more Simple and Radical ; and such Explications being more simple and Mechanical , may be thought upon that score more fundamental and satisfactory . CHAP. VIII . I Know it may be objected in favour of the Chymists , that as their Hypostatical Principles , Salt , Sulphur and Mercury , are but three , so the Corpuscularian Principles are but very few ; and the chief of them Bulk , Size , and Motion , are but three neither ; so that it appears not why the Chymical Principles should be more barren than the Mechanical . To which allegation I answer , that , besides that these last nam'd Principles are more numerous , as taking in the Posture , Order , and Scituation , the Rest , and , above all , the almost infinitely diversifiable Contextures of the small parts , and the thence resulting structures of particular bodies , and fabrick of the world : Besides this , I say , each of the three Mechanical Principles , specified in the objection , though but one in name , is equivalent to many in effect ; as Figure , for instance , comprehends not only Triangles , Squares , Rhombusses , Rhomboids , Trapezions , and a multitude of Polygons , whether ordinate or irregular ; but , besides Cubes , Prismes , Cones , Spheres , Cylinders , Pyramids , and other Solids of known Denominations , a scarce numerable multitude of hooked , branched , Eel-like , screw-like , and other irregular bodies ; whereof though these , and some others , have distinct appellations , yet the greatest part are nameless ; so that it need be no wonder , that I should make the Mechanical Principles so much more fertile , that is , applicable to the production and explication of a far greater number of Phaenomena , than the Chymical ; which , whilest they are considered but as similar bodies , that are Ingredients of mixt and compounded ones , are chiefly variable but by the greater or lesser quantity that is employed by Nature or Art to make up the mixt body . And Painters observe , that Black and White , though mixt in differing Proportions , will still make but lighter and darker grays . And if it be said , that these Ingredients , by the Texture resulting from their mixtures , may acquire Qualities that neither of them had before ; I shall answer , that , to alledge this , is in effect to confess , that they must take in the Mechanical Principles , ( for to them belongs the Texture or Structure of bodies ) to assist the Chymical ones . And on this occasion , to borrow an illustration from our unpublished Dialogue of the Requisites of a good Hypothesis , I shall add , that a Chymist that should pretend , that because his three Principles are as many as those of the Corpuscularians , they are as sufficient as these to give an account of the Book of Nature , methinks , I say , he would do like a man that should pretend , that with four and twenty words he would make up a language as well as others can with the four and twenty Letters of the Alphabet , because he had as many words already formed , as they had of bare Letters ; not considering that instead of the small number of variations that can be made of his words by Prepositions and Terminations , the Letters of the Alphabet being variously combined , placed and reiterated , can be easily made to compose not only his four and twenty words , with their variations , but as many others as a whole language contains . CHAP. IX . NOtwithstanding all that I have been obliged to say to the Disadvantage of the Chymical Principles , in reference to the Explication of Qualities , I would not be thought to grant , that the Peripateticks have reason to triumph , as if their four Elements afforded a better Theory of Qualities . For , if I had , together with leisure enough to perform such a Task , any obligation to undertake it , I presume , it would not be difficult to shew , that the Aristotelian Doctrine about particular Qualities is liable to some of the same Objections with the Chymical , and to some others no less considerable ; and that , to derive all the Phaenomena their Doctrine ought to solve from Substantial Forms and real Qualities Elementary , is to impose on us a Theory more barren and precarious than that of the Spagyrists . That to derive the particular Qualities of bodies from those Substantial Forms , whence the Schools would have them to flow , is but an insufficient and unfit way of accounting for them , may appear by this , that Substantial Forms themselves are things , whose existence many Learned Philosophers deny , whose Theory many of them think Incomprehensible , and the most Candid and Judicious of the Peripateticks themselves confess it to be very abstruse ; so that from such doubtful and obscure Principles we can hardly expect clear Explications of the nature and Phaenomena of Qualities ; not to urge , that the Aristotelian Definitions , both of Qualities in general , and of divers of the more familiar Qualities in particular , as Heat , Cold , Moisture , Diaphaneity , &c. are far enough from being clear and well framed , as we elsewhere have occasion to shew . Another thing , which makes the Scholastic Doctrine of Qualities unsatisfactory , is , that it seldom so much as attempts to teach the Manner how the Qualities themselves and their Effects or Operations are produced . Of this you may elsewhere find an Instance given in the Quality that is wont to be first in the list , viz that of Heat , which though it may intelligibly and probably be explicated by the Corpuscular Hypothesis , yet in the Peripatetic account that is given of it , is both too questionable and too superficial to give much Content to a Rational Inquirer . And indeed to say , that a Substantial Form ( as that of the Fire ) acts by a Quality ( call'd Heat ) whose Nature 't is to produce such an effect ( as to soften Wax or harden Clay ) seems to be no other in substance , than to say , that it produces such an effect by some power it has to produce it . But what that power is , and how it operates , is that , which , though we most desire to know , we are left to seek . But to prosecute the Imperfections of the Peripatetick Hypothesis , were to intrench upon another discourse , where they are more fully laid open . And therefore I shall now but lightly glance upon a couple of imperfections , that more particularly relate to the Doctrine of Qualities . And first I do not think it a Convincing Argument that is wont to be imployed by the Aristotelians for their Elements , as well as by the Chymists for their Principles , that , because this or that Quality , which they ascribe to an Element or a Principle , is found in this or that body , which they call mixt , therefore it must owe that Quality to the participation of that Principle or Element . For , the same Texture of parts or other modification of matter may produce the like Quality in the more simple and the more compounded body , and they may both separately derive it from the same Cause , and not one from the Participation of the other . So Water and Earth and Metals and Stones , &c. are heavy upon the account of the common Cause of Gravity , and not because the rest partake of the Earth ; as may appear in Elementary water , which is as simple a body as it , and yet is heavy : So water and oil , and exactly deflegm'd Spirit of Wine , and Mercury , and also Metals and Glass of Antimony , and Minium or calcin'd Lead , whilest these three are in fusion are fluid , being made so by the variously determined motions of their minute parts and other Causes of Fluidity , and not by the participation of water , since the arid Calces of Lead and Antimony are not like to have retained in the fire so volatile a liquor as water , and since Fluidity is a Quality that Mercury enjoys in a more durable manner than Water it self : For that metalline liquor , as also Spirit of Wine well Rectified , will not be brought to freeze with the highest degree of Cold of our sharpest winters , though a far less degree of Cold would make water cease to be fluid and turn it into Ice . To this I shall only add ( in the second place , ) that 't is not unpleasant to see , how arbitrarily the Peripateticks derive the Qualities of bodies from their four Elements , as if , to give an instance in the lately named Quality , Liquidity , you shew them exactly deflegmed Spirit of Wine , and ask them , whence it has its great Fluidness , they will tell you from water , which yet is far less fluid than it , and this spirit of wine it self is much less so than the flame into which the spirit of wine is easily resoluble . But if you ask , whence it becomes totally inflammable , they must tell you , from the fire ; and yet the whole body , at least as far as sense can discover , is fluid , and the whole body becomes flame , ( and then is most fluid of all ; ) so that fire and water as contrary as they make them , must both be by vast odds predominant in the same body . This spirit of wine also , being a liquor whose least parts that are sensible are actually heavy , and compose a Liquor which is seven or eight hundred times as heavy as Air of the same bulk , which yet experience shews not to be devoid of weight , must be supposed to abound with Earthy particles , and yet this spirituous liquor may in a trice become Flame , which they would have to be the lightest body in the world . But , to enlarge on this subject , would be to forget , that the design of this Tract engages me to deal not with the Peripatetic School , but the Spagyrical . To which I shall therefore return , and give you this advertisement about it , that what I have hitherto objected is meant against the more common and received Doctrine about the Material Principles of bodies reputed mixt , as 't is wont by vulgar Chymists to be applied to the rendring an account of the Qualities of substances Corporeal ; and therefore I pretend not , that the past objections should conclude against other Chymical Theories than that which I was concerned to question . And if adept Philosophers , ( supposing there be such ) or any other more than ordinarily Intelligent Spagyrists , shall propose any particular Hypotheses , differing from those that I have questioned , as their Doctrine and Reasons are not yet known to me ; so I pretend not that the past Arguments should conclude against them , and am willing to think , that Persons advantaged with such peculiar opportunities to dive into the Mysteries of Nature , will be able to give us , if they shall please , a far better account of the Qualities of bodies than what is wont to be proposed by the generality of Chymists . Thus , dear Pyrophilus , I have laid before you some of the chief Imperfections I have observed in the vulgar Chymists Doctrine of Qualities , and consequently I have given you some of the chief Reasons that hinder me from acquiescing in it . And as my objections are not taken from the Scholastical subtleties nor the doubtful speculations of the Peripateticks or other Adversaries of the Hermetick Philosophy , but from the nature of things and from Chymical experiments themselves ; so I hope , if any of your Spagyrical friends have a minde to convince me , he will attempt to doe it by the most proper way , which is , by actually giving us clear and particular explications , at least of the grand Phaenomena of Qualities ; which , if he shall do , he will find me very ready to acquiesce in a Truth that comes usher'd in , and endear'd by so acceptable and useful a thing , as a Philosophical Theory of Qualities . FINIS . REFLECTIONS UPON THE Hypothesis OF ALCALI and ACIDUM . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esq ; Fellow of the R. Society . LONDON , Printed by E. Flesher , for R. Davis Bookseller in Oxford . 1675. THough the following Discourse was at first written by way of Appendix to the Treatise of the Imperfection of the Chymical Doctrine of Qualities ; yet the bulk of it , swelling beyond what was foreseen , made it seem expedient to publish it as a Tract by it self . REFLECTIONS UPON THE Hypothesis OF Alcali and Acidum . CHAP. I. I Presume , it will not be difficult to discern , that much of what has been said about the Imperfection of the vulgar Chymical Doctrine concerning Qualities , may with easie variations be applied to some other Hypotheses that are of kin to that Doctrine , and particularly to their Theory , that would derive both the Qualities of Bodies and the rest of the Phaenomena of Nature from what they call Acidum and Alcali . For though these two differences may be met with in a great number and variety of bodies , and consequently the Consideratin of them may frequently enough be of good use , ( especially to Spagyrists , and Physitians , when they are conversant about the secondary and ( if I may so call them ) Chymical Causes and Operations of divers mixt bodies ; ) yet I confess I cannot acquiesce in this Hypothesis of Alkeli and Acidum , in the latitude , wherein I find it urged and applied by the Admirers of it , as if it could be usefully substituted in the place of Matter and Motion . The Hypothesis , being in a sort subordinate to that of the tria prima , in ascribing to two contrary saline Principles what vulgar Chymists do to their Salt , Sulphur , and Mercury ; most of the objections we have made against the vulgar Chymical Doctrine , may , as I lately intimated , be applied , by a little variation , to this , and therefore I shall need but to touch upon the main things that keep me from acquiescing in this Hypothesis . CHAP. II. AND first , it seems precarious to affirm , that in all bodies , or even in all the sensible parts of mixts , Acid and Alcalizate parts are found ; there not having been , that I know , any Experimental Induction made of particulars any thing near numerous enough to make out so great an assertion , and in divers bodies , wherein Experience is vouch'd for the inexistence of these Principles , that Inexistence is indeed proved not by direct and clear experience , but upon a supposition , that such and such effects flow from the operations of the assumed Principles . Some Spagyrists , when they see Aqua fortis dissolve Filings of Copper , conclude from thence , that the Acid spirits of the Menstruum meet in the metal with an Alcali upon which they work ; which is but an unsafe way of arguing , since good Spirit of Urin , which they take to be a volatile Alcali , and which will make a great Conflict with Aqua fortis , will , as I have elsewhere noted , dissolve filings of Copper both readily enough and more genuinly than the Acid liquor is wont to do . So when they see the Magistery of Pearl or Coral , made by dropping oil of Tartar into the solutions of those bodies made with spirit of Vinegar , they ascribe the Precipitation to the fixt Alcali of the Tartar , that mortifies the Acidity of the spirit of Vinegar ; whereas the Precipitation would no less insue , if , instead of Alcalizat oil of Tartar , we imploy that highly acid liquor which they call Oleum Sulphuris per Campanam . I think also it may be doubted , whether those , I reason with , are so certain as they suppose , that at least when they can manifestly discover an Acid , for instance , in a body , the operation of that body upon another , which they judge to abound with an Alcali , must be the effect of a Conflict between those two jarring Principles , or , if I may so call them , Duellists . For an Acid body may do many things , not simply as an acid , but on the score of a Texture or modification , which endows it with other Qualities as well as Acidity , whose being associated with those other Qualities in some cases may be but accidental to the effect to be produced ; since by one or more of these other Qualities the body may act in cases , where Prejudice may make a Chymist consider nothing but Acidity . Thus when some Chymists see an acid Menstruum , as Aqua fortis , spirit of Salt , oil of Vitriol , &c. dissolve Iron , they presently ascribe the effect to an Acidity of the liquors , whereas well dephlegmed Urinous Spirits , which they hold to have a great Antipathy to Acids , will , as I have tried in some of them , readily enough dissolve crude Iron even in the Cold. And on the other side , Mercury will not work on the filings of Iron , though this be so open a metal that even weak liquors will do it ; and yet if one should urge , that Quicksilver readily dissolves Gold in Amalgamation , he may expect to be told , according to their Doctrine , that Mercury has in it an occult acid , by which it performs the solution ; whereas it seems much more probable , that Mercury has Corpuscles of such a shape and size as fit them to insinuate themselves into the Commensurate Pores they meet with in Gold , but make them unfit to enter readily the Pores of Iron , to which Nature has not made them congruous ; as on the other side the saline Corpuscles of Aqua fortis will easily find admission into the Pores of Iron , but not into those of Gold , to which they do not correspond as they do to the others . And when a knife , whose blade is touched with a Load-stone , cuts bread and takes up filings of Iron , it does neither of them upon the score of Alcali and Acidum , but the one upon the visible shape and the stiffness of the blade , and the other upon the latent Contrivance or change of Texture produced by the operation of the Load-stone in the particles that compose the Steel . This may perhaps be farther illustrated by adding , that when blew Vitriol , being beaten and finely searced , makes a white pouder , that whiteness is a quality which the pouder has not as being of a Vitriolate Nature . For Rock-Crystal or Venice-glass being finely beaten will have the same operation on the Eye , but it proceeds from the transparency of the body and the minuteness , multitude and confus'd scituation of the Corpuscles that make up the Pouder . And therefore , if other bodies be brought by Comminution into parts endow'd with such Mechanical affections , as we have named ; these aggregates will act upon the organs of Sight as white bodies . CHAP. III. AND this leads me to another Exception against the Hypothesis of the Duellists , which is , that the Framers of it seem arbitrarily to have assigned Provinces or Offices to each of their two Principles , as the Chymists do to each of their tria prima , and the Peripateticks to each of their Four Elements . For 't is not enough to Say , that an Acid , for instance , as such , performs these things , and an Alkali so many others , that they divide the Operations and Phaenomena of nature , or at least ( as some , more cautious , are content to say ) of mixt bodies between them ; since Assertions of such great moment ought not to be advanc'd or received without sufficient Proof . And perhaps the very distribution of Salts into Acids and Alcalies hath somewhat of arbitrary in it , since others may , without assuming much more , take the freedom to distribute them otherwise , there being not only several things wherein Acids and Alcalies agree , but also several things wherein Salts of the same denomination widely differ . As , for Instance , some Alkalies , according to those I reason with , are , like salt of Tartar , fixt , and will endure the violence of the fire ; others , like salt of Urin or Harts-horn , are exceedingly fugitive , and will be driven up with a scarce sensible degree of Heat ; some , as salt of Tartar , will precipitate the solution of Sublimate into an Orange-tawny ; others , as spirit of Blood and Harts-horn , precipitate such a solution into a milky substance . Oil of Tartar will very slowly operate upon filings of Copper , which Spirit of Urin and Harts-horn will readily dissolve in the Fire . And among Acids themselves the difference is no less if not much greater . Some of them will dissolve bodies that others will not , as Aqua fortis will dissolve Silver and Mercury , but leave Gold untouched ; or as Aqua Regis , though made without Sal Armoniac that dissolves Gold readily , will dissolve Mercury but scurvily , and Silver not at all . And this may happen , when the Menstruum that will not dissolve the body is reputed much stronger than that which does ; as dephlegm'd spirit of Vinegar will dissolve Lead , reduc'd to minute parts in the cold ; which is an effect that Chymists are not wont to expect from Spirit of Salt. Nay , which is more , one Acid will precipitate what another has dissolved , and contrarily ; as spirit of Salt will precipitate Silver out of spirit of Nitre . And I found oil of Vitriol to precipitate bodies of divers kinds , Minerals and others , out of some acid Menstruums , particularly spirit of Vinegar . To this might be added the Properties , peculiar to some particular Acids , as that Spirit of Nitre or Aqua fortis will dissolve Camphire into an Oil , and coagulate common oil into a consistent and brittle substance like Tallow ; and , though it will both corrode Silver , Copper , Lead , and Mercury , and keep them dissolved , it will quickly let fall almost the whole body of Tin , very soon after it has corroded as much as it can of it . By all which , and some other like Instances , I am induc'd to question , whether the Acidum and Alkali , we are speaking of , have the simplicity that Philosophy requires in Principles ; and shall be kept from wondering , if others shall think it as free for them to constitute other Principles , as 't is for the Learned men I reason with , to pitch upon Acidum and Alkali . And some perhaps will be bold to say , that , since the former of those Principles comprehend such a number of bodies , that are , many of them , very differing , and some of them directly contrary in their operations , it seems a slight and not Philosophical Account of their Nature , to define an Acid by its Hostility to an Alcali , which ( they will say ) is almost as if one should define a Man by saying , that he is an Animal that is at enmity with the Serpent ; or a Lyon , that he is a fourfooted beast that flies from a Crowing Cock. CHAP. IV. BUT although one of the chiefest Conditions that Philosophers may justly require in Principles , is , that , being to explain other things , they should be very clear themselves ; yet I do not much wonder , that the Definitions given us of Acidum and Alcali should be but unaccurate and superficial , since I find not , that they have themselves any clear and determinate Notion or sure marks , whereby to know them distinctly , without which Chymists will scarce be able to form clear and setled Notions of them . For to infer , as is usual , that , because a body dissolves another , which is dissoluble by this or that known acid , the Solvent must also be acid ; or to conclude , that , if a body precipitates a dissolved metal out of a confessedly acid Menstruum , the Precipitant must be an Alcali , to argue thus , I say , 't is unsecure ; since , not to repeat what I said lately of Copper , I found , that filings of Spelter will be dissolved as well by some Alcalies , ( as spirit of Sal Armoniac ) as by Acids . And bodies may be precipitated out of acid Menstruums , both by other Acids , and by liquors , where there appears not the least Alcali : As I have found , that a solution of Tin-glass , made in Aqua fortis , would be precipitated both by Spirit of Salt and by common or rain water . And as for the other grand way that Chymists employ , to distinguish Acids and Alcalies , namely by the Heat , Commotion , and bubbles that are excited , upon their being put together , that may be no such certain sign as they presume , they having indeed a dependance upon particular Contextures and other Mechanical affections , that Chymists are not wont to take any notice of . For almost any thing that is fitted variously and vehemently to agitate the minute parts of a body , will produce Heat in it ; and so , though water be neither an Acid nor an Alcalizate liquor , yet it would quickly grow very hot , not only with the highly acid Oil of Vitriol , but ( as I have more than once purposely tried and found ) with the fiery Alcalizat Salt of Tartar. And 't is to be noted , that neither in the one nor the other of these Incalescent mixtures , there is produced any such visible or audible conflict , as , according to the Doctrine of the Chymists I reason with , one would expect . And as for the production of bubbles , especially if accompanied with a hissing noise , neither is that such a certain sign as Chymists imagine : For the production of bubbles is not a necessary effect or concomitant of Heat excited by Conflicts , but depends very much upon the peculiar Disposition of Bodies put together to extricate , produce , or intercept particles of Air , ( or Steams , for the time equivalent to them ; ) and therefore as Oil of Vitriol , mixt in a due proportion with fair water , may be brought to make the water too hot to be held in ones hand , without exciting bubbles ; so I have found by trials purposely made , that Alcalizat Spirit of Urine drawn from some kinds of Quick-lime , being mixt with Oil of Vitriol moderately strong , would produce an intense Heat , whilest it produced either no manifest bubbles at all , or scarce any , though the Urinous Spirit was strong , and in other Trials operated like an Alcali ; and although also with Spirit of Urin , made per se the common way , the oil of Vitriol will produce a great hissing and a multitude of conspicuous bubbles . On the other side I have sometimes , though not so constantly , found , that some Acid Spirits , especially that of Verdigrease made per se , would , when poured upon Salt of Tartar , make a Conflict with it , and produce a copious froth , though we observed it not to be accompanied with any manifest Heat . And I elsewhere mention two bodies , upon whose putting together numerous bubbles would , for a long time , and not without noise , be generated , and succeed one another , though I could perceive no Heat at all to accompany this Tumult . As for the Tast , which by many is made a great Touchstone , whereby to know Acids and Alcalies , I consider that there is a multitude of mixt bodies , wherein we can so little discern by the Tast , which of the Principles is Predominant , that this Sense would not oblige one to suspect , much less to conclude , there were one grain of either of them to be found there ; such bodies are Diamonds and Rubies , and most Gems , besides many ignobler Stones , and Gold and Silver and Mercury , and I know not how many other bodies . On the other side , there are bodies that abound with Acid or Alcalizat Salts , which either have no Tast , or a quite differing one from that of the Chymical Principle . As though Venice-glass be in great part composed of a fixt Alcali ; yet to the Tongue it is insipid , and Crystalls of Lune and of Lead made with Aqua fortis , and containing great store of the Acid particles of the Menstruum , have nothing of Acidity in the mouth , the latter having a saccharine sweetness , and the former an extream bitterness . And even in Vegetable substances that have a manifest Tast , 't is not so easie to know by that , whether it be the Acid or the Alcalizat Principle that is predominant in them ; as in the Essential oils of Spices and other Vegetables . And in the gross Empereumatical Oils of Woods , and even in high Rectified Spirit of Wine , which therefore some will have to be an Alcalizat liquor , and others list it among Acids , though I did not find it neither to be destroyed or much altered by being put upon Coral or salt of Tartar , as would happen to an acid Menstruum , nor yet by being digested with and distilled from sea Salt , as might be probably expected from an Alcalizat one : Aand among those very bodies which their Tasts perswade Chymists to reckon amongst Acids , one may ( according to what I formerly noted ) observe so great a difference and variety of relishes , that , perhaps without being too severe , I may say , that if I were to allow Acids to be One Principle , it should be only in some such Metaphysical sense , as that wherein Air is said to be One Body , though it consist of the associated effluviums of a multitude of Corpuscles of very differing Natures , that agree in very little save in their being minute enough to concur to the Composition of a fluid aggregate , consisting of flying parts . But having dwelt longer than I intended on One Objection , 't is time that I proceed to those that remain . CHAP. V. ANother particular , I am unsatisfied with in the Hypothesis of Alcali and Acidum , is , that 't is in divers cases either needless or useless to explain the Phaenomena of Qualities , there being several of these produced , destroyed , or altered , where there does not appear any accession , recess , or change of either of those two Principles ; as when fluid water by hard beating is turn'd into consistent froth , and when transparent red Coral is , barely by being beaten and sifted finely , changed into a white and opacous powder ; and as when a very flexible piece of fine silver being hammer'd is brought to have a brisk spring , and after a while will , instead of continuing malleable , crack or cleave under the hammer ; and as when ( to dispatch and omit other instances ) a sufficiently thin leaf of Gold , held between the Light and the Eye , appears green . Another thing ( of kin to the former , ) that I like not in the Doctrine of Acidum and Alcali , is , that though the Patrons of it , whilest they would seem to constitute but two Principles , are fain ( as I lately intimated ) to make I know not how many differing sorts of Acids , besides some variety of Alcalies ; yet their Principles are too few and narrow to afford any satisfactory explication of the Phaenomena . For I fear , 't will be very difficult for them to give a Rational Account of Gravity , Springiness , Light , and Emphatical Colours , Sounds , and some other Qualities that are wont to be called manifest ; and much more of several that are confest to be occult , as Electricity , and Magnetism ; in which last I see not , how the affirming that there is in the Magnet an Acid and an Alcali , and that these two are of contrary Natures , will help to explain , how a Load-stone does , as they speak , attract the same end of a poised needle with one of its Poles , which 't will drive away with the other , and determine that needle when freely placed , to point North and South , and enable it to communicate by its bare touch the same Properties , and abundance of other strange ones , to another piece of Steel . But I forbear to alledge particular Examples referrable to the several Qualities above-mentioned , whether manifest or hidden , because that in great part is already done in our Notes about particular Qualities , in which 't will appear how little able the employing of Alcali and Acidum will be to afford us an account of many things . And though I enlarge not here on this objection , yet I take it to be of that importance , that , though there were no other , this were enough to shew that the Hypothesis that is liable to it , is Insufficient for the explication of Qualities ; and therefore 't will not I presume be thought strange that I add , that , as for those that would extend this narrow Chymical Doctrine to the whole object of Natural Philosophy , they must do more than I expect they will be able before they can make me their Proselyte , there being a multitude of Phaenomena in nature ( divers whereof I elsewhere take notice of in reference to the Chymists Philosophy ) in which what Acidum and Alcali have to do , I confess I do not understand . CHAP. VI. THE last thing ( which comprizes several others ) that seems to me a defect in the Doctrine of Alcali and Acidum , is , that divers if not most of those very things that are pretended to be explicated by them , are not satisfactorily explicated , some things being taken into the explications that are either not fundamental enough or not clearly intelligible , or are chargeable with both those Imperfections . And first I am dissatisfied with the very fundamental Notion of this Doctrine , namely a supposed Hostility between the tribe of Acids and that of Alkalies , accompanied , if you will have it so , with a friendship or sympathy with bodies belonging to the same tribe or Family . For I look upon Amity and Enmity as Affections of Intelligent Beings , and I have not yet found it explained by any , how those Appetites can be placed in Bodies Inanimate and devoid of knowledge , or of so much as Sense . And I elsewhere endeavour to shew , that what is called Sympathy and Antipathy between such bodies does in great part depend upon the actings of our own Intellect , which , supposing in every body an innate appetite to preserve it self both in a defensive and an offensive way , inclines us to conclude , that that body , which , though designlesly destroys or impairs the state or texture of another body , has an Enmity to it , though perhaps a slight Mechanical change may make bodys , that seem extreamly hostile , seem to agree very well and cooperate to the production of the same effects . As if the acid spirit of Salt and the volatile Alkali ( as they will have it ) that is commonly called Spirit of Urine be put together , they will , after a short though fierce conflict , upon a new contexture unite together into a Salt , little , if at all , differing from Sal Armoniac , in which the two reconciled Principles will amicably join in cooling of water , dissolving some metalline bodys , and producing divers other effects . And so , if upon a strong solution of Salt of Pot-ashes or of Salt of Tartar , good Spirit of Nitre be dropt in a due proportion , after the Heat and Tumult and Ebullition are over , the Acid and the Alkalizat Salts will convene into such a Concretion as Salt-peter , which is taken to be a natural body , either homogeneous , or at least consisting of parts that agree very friendly together , and conspire to constitute the particular kind of Salt that Chymists call Nitre . But the Sympathy and Antipathy that is said to be betwixt Inanimate bodys , I elsewhere more particularly consider , and therefore I shall now add in the second place , That the Explications made of Phaenomena according to the Doctrine of Alcali and Acidum do not , in my apprehension , perform what may be justly expected from Philosophical Explications . 'T is said indeed , that the Acidum working on the Alcali , or this upon that , produces the effect proposed ; but that is only to tell us , what is the Agent that operates , and not the Manner of the operation , or the means and process whereby it produces the effect proposed , and 't is this modus that Inquisitive Naturalists chiefly desire to learn. And if it be said , that it is by the mutual hostility of the Principles that the effect is produced , it may be answered , that besides , that that hostility it self is not , as we have just now observed , a thing clear , if so much as Intelligible ; this is so general and indeterminate a way of explicating things , as can afford little or no satisfaction to a searching and cautious Naturalist , that considers how very numerous and very various the Phaenomena of Qualities are . CHAP. VII . TO clear up and to countenance what I have been now saying , I shall only take notice of some few obvious Phaenomena of one of the most familiar Operations wherein Acidum and Alcali are supposed to be the grand Agents . 'T is known to the very Boys of Chymists , that Aqua Regis will dissolve Gold , Copper , and Mercury , and that with these metals , especially with the second , it will produce an intense degree of heat . If now the Cause of this Heat be demanded , it may be expected , that the Patrons of the Duellists will answer , that 't is from the action of the Acid salts of the Menstruum upon the Alcali they meet with in the Metalls . But not to mention how many things are here presumed , not proved ; nor that I know some Acid Menstruums , and some much more evidently Alcalizate Bodys than these Metals are , which yet do not upon their mixtures produce any sensible heat ; not , I say , to mention these , it is easie to discern , that this answer names indeed two supposed efficients of Heat , but does not explicate or declare how these Agents produce that Quality , which depends upon a certain vehement and various agitation of the singly insensible parts of Bodys , whether the Duellists , or any other , though very differing , Causes put them into a motion so modified . And therefore Gold and Copper by bare Concussion may be brought to an intense degree of heat without the accession of any acid parts to work upon them . But then further , when we are told , that Aqua Regis by its Acidity working on the Metalline Alcali makes a dissolution of the Metal ; I am told indeed what they think to be the Agent in this change , but not at all satisfied how this Agent effects it ; for , Copper being a very hard metal , and Gold generally esteemed by Chymists the closest and compactest Body in nature , I would gladly know , by what power and way such weak and probably either brittle or flexible bodys as acid Salts , are enabled with that force to disjoin such solid and closely coherent Corpuscles as make up the visible masses of Copper and Gold , nay , and scatter them with that violence as perhaps to toss up multitudes of them into the air . And since in the dissolution of these Metals there is another Phaenomenon to be accounted for , as well as the forcing of the parts asunder , namely the sustentation of the Metal in the Menstruum , the Chymists would have much informed me , if they had well explained , how their Acidum and Alcali is able to sustain and give fluidity to the Corpuscles of the dissolved Metal , which though it be but Copper , is nine times as heavy as a bulk of water equal to it , and if it be Gold , is nineteen times heavier than the Liquor that must keep it from sinking ; and at least divers times heavier in specie than the Salts , that are mingled with the aqueous parts , can make the Menstruum composed of them both . Whereas Trial has assured me , that , if a piece of Wax or any other such matter be made by less than the hundredth part heavier than an equal bulk of Water , it will , when thoroughly immersed , fall to the bottom and rest there . I might also ask a further Question about these Dissolutions , as why , whereas Aqua Regis dissolves Mercury without being much changed in colour by it , Gold retains its own Citrinity or yellowness in the solvent , and the solution of Copper is of a colour , which being greenish-blew is quite differing from that of the metal that affords it , as well as from that of the solvent ? And I might recruit these with other Queries not impertinent , but that these may suffice ( for a sample ) on this Occasion , and allow me to conclude this Chapter , by representing One thing which I would gladly recommend and inculcate to you , namely , that Those Hypotheses do not a little hinder the progress of Humane knowledge that introduce Morals and Politicks into the Explications of Corporeal Nature , where all things are indeed transacted according to Laws Mechanical . CHAP. VIII . I Might easily have been more copious in the Instances annext to the foregoing Animadversions , but that , being desirous to be short as well as clear , I purposely declined to make use of divers others , that seemed proper to be employed , and indeed might safely enough have been so , because those I have mentioned , and especially those , ( which make a great part of them ) that are Mechanical , are not liable to the same exceptions , that I foresaw might be made to elude the force of the Examples I passed by . And though I think I could very well make those foreseen Objections appear groundless or unsatisfactory ; yet that could scarce be done without engaging in Controversies that would prove more tedious than I judged them necessary . And yet , although what I have said in this Excursion be but a part of what I could say , I would not be thought to have forgot what I intimated at the beginning of it . For though the Reasons I alledged keep me from acquiescing in the Doctrine of Alcali and Acidum , as 't is proposed under the notion of a Philosophical Hypothesis , such as the Cartesian or Epicurean , which are each of them alledged by their embracers to be Mechanical , and of a very Catholick extent ; yet I deny not , that the Consideration of the Duellists ( or the two jarring Principles of Alcali and Acidum ) may be of good use to Spagyrists and Physitians , as I elsewhere further declare . Nor do I pretend by the past discourse that questions one Doctrine of the Chymists , to beget a general contempt of their Notions , and much less of their Experiments . For the operations of Chymistry may be misapplied by the erroneous Reasonings of the Artists without ceasing to be themselves things of great use , as being applicable as well to the Discovery or Confirmation of solid Theories , as the production of new Phaenomena , and beneficial effects . And though I think , that many Notions of Paracelsus and Helmont and some other Eminent Spagyrists are unsolid , and not worthy the veneration that their Admirers cherish for them ; yet divers of the Experiments , which either are alledged to favour these notions , or on other accounts are to be met with among the followers of these men , deserve the curiosity if not the esteem of the Industrious Inquirers into Natures Mysteries . And looking upon Chymistry in gross as a Discipline subordinate to Physiques , even Mechanical Philosophers may justly , in my opinion , think favourably of it , since , whatever Imperfections , or , if they please , Extravagancies there may be in the Principles and Explications of Paracelsus or other Leading Artists , these faults of the Theorical part may be sufficiently compensated by the Utilities that may be derived from the Practical part . And this I am the rather induced to say , because the Experiments , that Chymistry furnishes , may much assist a Naturalist to rectifie the Erroneous Theories that oftentimes accompany Them , and even those ( Mistakes ) that are endeavour'd to be evinced by them . And ( to conclude ) Chymistry seems to deal with men in reference to Notions , as it does in reference to Metals , assisting wary men to detect the Errors , unto which it may have misled the unwary : For the same Art that has taught some to impose on others , ( and perhaps themselves first ) by blanching Copper , imitating Gold , &c. does also supply Say-masters and Refiners , with the Means , by the Cupel , Cements , Aqua fortis , &c. to examine , whether Coins be true or false , and discover Adulterate Gold and Silver to be Counterfeit . FINIS . EXPERIMENTS , AND NOTES , About The Mechanical Origine AND PRODUCTION OF VOLATILITY . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esq ; Fellow of the R. Society . LONDON , Printed by E. Flesher , for R. Davis Bookseller in Oxford . 1675. ADVERTISEMENTS About the EXPERIMENTS AND NOTES Relating to CHYMICAL Qualities . WHen , after I had gone through the common Operations of Chymistry , I began to make some serious Reflections on them , I thought 't was pity , that Instruments that might prove so serviceable to the advancement of Natural Philosophy , should not be more studiously and skilfully made use of to so good a purpose . I saw indeed , that divers of the Chymists had by a diligent and laudable employment of their pains and industry , obtain'd divers Productions , and lighted on several Phaenomena considerable in their kind , and indeed more numerous , than , the narrowness and sterility of their Principles consider'd , could well be expected . But I observed too , that the generality of those that busie themselves about Chymical Operations ; some because they practise Physick ; and others because they either much wanted , or greedily coveted money , aimed in their Trials but at the Preparation of good Medicines for the humane body , or to discover the ways of curing the Diseases or Imperfections of Metals , without referring their Trials to the advancement of Natural Philosophy in general ; of which most of the Alchymists seem to have been so incurious , that not onely they did not institute Experiments for that purpose , but overlookt and despis'd those undesign'd ones that occurr'd to them whilst they were prosecuting a preparation of a Medicine , or a Transmutation of Metals . The sense I had of this too general omission of the Chymists , tempted me sometimes to try , whether I could do any thing towards the repairing of it by handling Chymistry , not as a Physician , or an Alchymist , but as a meer Naturalist , and so by applying Chymical Operations to Philosophical purposes . And in pursuance of these thoughts , I remember I drew up a Scheme of what I ventur'd to call a Chymia Philosophica , not out of any affectation of a splendid Title , but to intimate , that the Chymical Operations , there treated of , were not directed to the usual scopes of Physicians , or Transmuters of Metals , but partly to illustrate or confirm some Philosophical Theories by such Operations ; and partly to explicate those Operations by the help of such Theories . But before I had made any great progress in the pursuit of this design , the fatal Pestilence that raged in London , and in many other parts of England , in the years 1664 and 65 , obliging me among the rest to make several removes ; which put me upon taking new measures , and engaging me in other employments of my time , made me so long neglect the Papers I had drawn up , that at last I knew not where to finde them , ( though I hope they are not yet mislaid beyond recovery , ) which I was the less troubled at , because the great difficulties , to be met with in such an undertaking , did not a little discourage me , such a Task requiring as well as deserving a Person better furnished , than I had reason to think my self , with Abilities , Leisure , Chymical Experiments , and Conveniences , to try as many more as should appear needful . But yet to break the Ice for any that may hereafter think fit to set upon such a Work , or to shorten my own Labour , if I should see cause to resume it my self , I was content to throw in among my Notes about other Particular Qualities , some Experiments and Observations about some of those , that I have elsewhere call'd Chymical Qualities , because 't is chiesly by the Operations of Chymists , that men have been induced to take special notice of them . Of these Notes I have assigned to some Qualities more , and to some fewer , as either the nature or importance of the Subject seemed to require , or my Leisure and other Circumstances would permit . And though I have not here handled the Subjects they belonged to , as if I intended such a Chymia Philosophica as I lately mentioned , because my design did not make it necessary , but did perhaps make it impertinent for me to do so , yet in some of the larger Notes about Volatility and Fixtness , and especially about Precipitation , I have given some little Specimens of the Theorical part of a Philosophical Account of those Qualities or Operations , that I hope will not be wholly useless . I know , it may be objected , that I should have employed for Instances some more considerable Experiments , if not Arcana ; but though possibly I am not altogether unfurnished with such , yet aiming rather to promote Philosophy , than appear a Possessor of elaborate Processes , I declined several Experiments that required either more skill , or more time , or more expence than could be well expected from most Readers , and chose rather to employ such Experiments as may be more easily or cheaply tried , and , which is mainly to be consider'd , being more simple , are more clearly intelligible , and more fit to have Notions and Theories built upon them ; especially considering , that the Doctrine of Qualities being it self conversant about some of the Rudimental parts , if I may so call them , of Natural Philosophy , it seemed unfit to employ intricate Experiments , and whose Causes were liable to many disputes , to settle a Theory of them . In short , my design being to hold a Taper not so much to Chymists as to the Naturalists , 't was fit I should be less solicitous to gratifie the former than to inform the later . FINIS . EXPERIMENTS , AND NOTES , About The Mechanical Origine AND PRODUCTION OF VOLATILITY . CHAP. I. AS far as I have yet observed , the Qualifications or Attributes , on whose account a portion of matter is found to be Volatile , are chiefly four ; whereof the three former most regard the single Corpuscles as such ; and the last , the manner of their Union in the aggregate or body they make up . But before I enter upon particulars , give me leave to advertise you here once for all , That in the following Notes about Volatility and Fixtness , when I speak of the Corpuscles or minute parts of a body , I doe not mean strictly either the Elementary parts , such as Earth and Water , or the Hypostatical Principles , such as Salt , Sulphur , or Mercury ; for these things come not here into consideration : But onely such Corpuscles , whether of a simple , compounded or decompounded Nature , as have the particles they consist of so firmly united , that they will not be totally disjoyned or dissipated by that degree of Fire or Heat , wherein the matter is said to be volatile or to be fixt . But these combined particles will in their aggregate either ascend , or continue unraised per modum Vnius ( as they speak ) or as one intire Corpuscle . As in a Corpuscle of Sal Armoniac , whether it be a natural or factitious thing , or whether it be perfectly similar , or compounded of differing parts , I look upon the intire Corpuscle as a volatile portion of matter ; and so I doe on a Corpuscle of Sulphur , though experience shews when 't is kindled , that it has great store of acid Salt in it , but which is not extricated by bare sublimation : And so Colcothar of Vitriol falls under our consideration as a fixt body , without inquiring what cupreous or other mineral and not totally fixt parts may be united with the Earthly ones ; since the fires , we expose it to , do not separate them . And this being premised in the general , I now proceed to some particulars . And first to make a volatile body , the parts should be very small . For , caeteris paribus , those that are so , are more easily put into motion by the action of the fire and other Agents , and consequently more apt to be elevated , when , by the determination of the movent , the situation of the neighbouring bodies , or other Mechanical Circumstances , the agitated Corpuscles can continue their motion with less resistance upwards than any other way , ( as either downwards or horizontally . ) And if , as 't is highly probable , that which in light bodies , or at least in most of them , is wont to pass for positive Levity , be but a less degree of gravity than that of those contiguous bodies that raise them ; it will happen , that in very many cases , ( for I say not in all ) the great proportion of the surface of a Corpuscle to its bulk , ( which is usually greater in the lesser particles ) by making it more apt to be wrought on , either by the air agitated by the fire , or by the effluvia of kindled fuell , or by the impulse of the shaken Corpuscles of the body it self , will much facilitate the elevation of such a minute particle , by exposing a greater portion of it to the action of the agent , as it will oftentimes also facilitate the renewed sustentation of such a small body in the air , which resists more the descent of particles whose surfaces are large , than of others of the same gravity and bulk : As a leaf of paper displayed will much longer hover in the Air , than if it were reduced into a ball or pellet . That this minuteness of particles may dispose them to be carried upwards , by the impulse of other bodies and that of the agitated Air , is very obvious to be observed : As we see , that Horses in a high-way , though they be not able with the strokes of their feet to make stones , or gravel , or clods of Earth fly up , yet they will easily raise clouds of dust oftentimes mingled with the smaller grains of sand . And where Timber is sawing , the same wind that will not in the least move the beams , and scarce at all move the chips , will easily carry up the Saw-dust into the Air. And we see in our Chimneys , that the smoak readily ascends , whilst even small clods of soot , which is but an aggregate of the particles of smoak , fall headlong down . CHAP. II. THE next qualification requisite in the corpuscles of Volatile bodies is , that they be not too solid or heavy . For if they be so , though their bulk be very small , yet , unless other Circumstances do much compensate their weight , 't will be very difficult to elevate them , because of the great disproportion of their specific gravity to that of the Air , ( which contributes to sustain and even raise many sorts of volatile parts ) and to the strength of the igneous effluvia or other agents that would carry them up . Thus we see , that filings of Lead or Iron , and even Minium ( which is the calx of Lead ) though the grains they consist of be very small , will not easily be blown up like common dust , or meal , or other powders made of less ponderous materials . A third Qualification to be desired in the corpuscles that should make up a Volatile body is , that they be conveniently shaped for motion . For if they be of branched , hook'd , or other very irregular or inconvenient figures , they will be apt to be stopt and detained by other bodies , or entangled among themselves , and consequently very difficult to be carried upwards , in regard that , whilst they are thus fastened either to one another , or to any stable body , each single Corpuscle is not onely to be considered , as having its own peculiar bulk , since its cohesion with the other corpuscle or body that detains it , makes them fit to be look'd upon per modum Vnius ; that degree of heat they are exposed to being presumed uncapable of disjoyning them . And this may be one Reason , why Water , though it be specifically heavier than Oil , yet is much more easily brought to exhale in the form of vapours than is Oil , whose corpuscles by the lasting stains they leave on cloath , wood , wool , &c. ( which water will but transiently moisten , not stain ) seems to be of very intangling figures . The fourth and last qualification requisite in a Volatile body is , that the parts do loosely adhere , or at least be united in such a manner , as does not much indispose them to be separated by the fire in the form of fumes or vapours . For he that considers the matter , will easily grant , that , if the contexture of the corpuscles , whereof a body consists , be intricate , or their cohesion strong , their mutual implication , or their adherence to each other , will make one part hinder another from flying separately away , and their conjunction will make them too heavy or unweildy to be elevated together , as intire though compounded parts . Thus we see , that in Spring , or the beginning of Summer , a wind , though not faint , is unable to carry off the lightest leaves of trees , because they stick fast to the bows and twigs on which they grow , but in Autumn , when that adhesion ceases , and the leaves sit but loosely on , a wind no stronger than that they resisted before , will with ease blow them off , and perhaps carry them up a good way into the Air. But here note , that it was not without some cause , that I added above , that in a fluid body , the parts should at least be united in such a manner , as does not much indispose them to be separated . For 't is not impossible , that the parts of a body may , by the figures and smoothness of the surfaces , be sufficiently apt to be put into motion , and yet be indisposed to admit such a motion as would totally separate them and make them fly up into the Air. As , if you take two pieces of very flat and well-polished marble or glass , and lay them one upon the other , you easily make them slide along each others surfaces , but not easily pull up one of them , whilest the other continues its station . And when Glass is in the state of fusion , the parts of it will easily slide along each other , ( as is usual in those of other fluids ) and consequently change places , and yet the continuity of the whole is not intirely broken , but every corpuscle does somewhere touch some other corpuscle , and thereby maintain the cohesion that indisposes it for that intire separation accompanied with a motion upwards that we call avolation . And so , when Salt-peter alone , is in a Crucible exposed to the fire , though a very moderate degree of it will suffice to bring the Salt to a state of fusion , and consequently to put the corpuscles that compose it into a restless motion ; yet a greater degree of heat , than is necessary to melt it , will not extricate so much as the Spirits , and make them fly away . CHAP. III. THE foregoing Doctrine of the Volatility of bodies may be as well illustrated as applied , if we proceed to deduce from it the generall ways of Volatilization of bodies , or of introducing volatility into an assigned portion of matter . For these wayes seem not inconveniently reducible to five , which I shall severally mention , though Nature and Art do usually imploy two or more of them in conjunction . For which Reason I would not , when I speak of one of these wayes , be understood as if , excluding the rest , I meant that no other concurred with it . The first of the five ways or means of Volatilizing a body is , to reduce it into minute parts , and , caeteris paribus , the more minute they are the better . That the bringing a body into very minute parts may much conduce to the volatilizing of it , may be gathered from the vulgar practice of the Chymists , who when they would sublime or distill Antimony , Sal Armoniac , Sea-salt , Nitre , &c. are wont to beat them to powders to facilitate their receiving a further comminution by the action of the fire . And here I observe , that in some bodies this comminution ought not to be made onely at first , but to be continued afterwards . For Chymists find by experience , though perhaps without considering the reason of it , that Sea-salt and Nitre , will very hardly afford their Spirits in Distillations , without they be mingled with powdered clay or bole , or some such other additament , which usually twice or thrice exceeds the weight of the Salt it self : Although these additaments , being themselves fixt , seem unlikely to promote the volatilization of the bodies mixt with them , yet by hindering the small grains of Salt to melt together into one lump or masse , and consequently by keeping them in the state of Comminution , they much conduce to the driving up of the Spirits or the finer parts of the Salts by the operation of the fire . But to prosecute a little what I was saying of the Conduciveness of bringing a body into small parts to the volatilization of it , I shall add , that in some cases the Comminution may be much promoted by employing Physical , after Mechanical , ways ; and that , when the parts are brought to such a pitch of exiguity , they may be elevated much better than before . Thus , if you take filings of Mars , and mix them with Sal Armoniack , some few parts may be sublimed ; but if , as I have done , you dissolve those filings in good Spirit of Salt instead of Oil of Vitriol , and having coagulated the solution , you calcine the greenish Crystalls or vitriolum Martis that will be afforded , you may with ease , and in no long time , obtain a Crocus Martis of very fine parts ; so that I remember , when we exquisitely mingled this very fixt powder with a convenient proportion of Sal Armoniac , and gradually press'd it with a competent fire , we were able to elevate at the first Sublimation a considerable part of it ; and adding a like , or somewhat inferiour , proportion of fresh Sal Armoniac to the Caput Mortuum , we could raise so considerable a part of that also , and in it of the Crocus , that we thought , if we had had Conveniency to pursue the operation , we should , by not many repeated Sublimations , have elevated the whole Crocus , which ( to hint that upon the by , ) afforded a Sublimat of so very astringent a Tast , as may make the trial of it in stanching of blood , stopping of fluxes , and other cases , where potent astriction is desired , worthy of a Physicians Curiosity . CHAP. IV. THE second means to volatilize bodies is , to rub , grind , or otherwise reduce their corpuscles to be either smooth , or otherwise fitly shaped to clear themselves , or be disintangled from each other . By reason of the minuteness of the corpuscles , which keeps them from being separately discernible by the Eye , 't is not to be expected , that immediate and ocular Instances should be given on this occasion ; but that such a change is to be admitted in the small parts of many bodies , brought to be volatile , seems highly probable from the account formerly given of the requisites or conditions of Volatility , whose introduction into a portion of matter will scarce be explicated without the intervention of such a change . To this second Instrument of Volatilization , in concurrence with the first , may probably be referred the following Phaenomena : In the two first of which there is imployed no additional volatile Ingredient ; and in the fourth , a fixt body is disposed to volatility by the operation of a Liquour , though this be carefully abstracted from it . 1. If Urine freshly made be put to distill , the Phlegm will first ascend , and the Volatile salt will not rise 'till that be almost totally driven away , and then requires a not inconsiderable degree of fire to elevate it . But , if you putrefie or digest Urine , though in a well-closed Glass-Vessel , for seven or eight weeks , that gentle warmth will make the small parts so rub against , or otherwise act upon , one another , that the finer ones of the Salt will perhaps be made more slender and light , and however will be made to extricate themselves so far as to become volatile , and , ascending in a very gentle heat , leave the greatest part of the phlegm behind them . 2. So , if Must , or the sweet juice of Grapes , be distilled before it have been fermented , 't is observed by Chymists , and we have tried the like in artificial Wine made of Raisins , that the phlegm , but no ardent Spirit , will ascend . But when this Liquour is reduced to Wine by fermentation , which is accompanied with a great and intestine commotion of the justling parts , hitting and rubbing against one another , whereby some probably come to be broken , others to be variously ground and subtilized , the more subtile parts of the Liquour being extricated , or some of the parts being , by these operations , brought to be subtile , they are qualified to be raised by a very gentle heat before the phlegm , and convene into that fugitive Liquour , that Chymists , for its activity , call Spirit of Wine . Nor is it onely in the slighter Instances afforded by Animals and Vegetables , that Volatility may be effected by the means lately mentioned : For experience hath assured me , that 't is possible , by an artificial and long digestion , wherein the parts have leisure for frequent justlings and attritions , so to subtilize and dispose the corpuscles even of common Salt for Volatility , that we could make them ascend in a moderate fire of Sand without the help of Bole , Oil of Vitriol , or any Volatilizing additament ; and , which is more considerable , the Spirit would in rising precede the Phlegm , and leave the greatest part thereof behind it . This intestine commotion of parts capable of producing Volatility in the more disposed portions of a body , though it be much more easie to be found in Liquours , or in moist and soft bodies , yet I have sometimes , though rarely , met with it in dry ones . And particularly I remember , that some years ago having , for trial sake , taken Mustard-seed , which is a body pregnant with subtile parts , and caused it to be distilled per se in a Retort , I had , as I hoped , ( without any more ado , ) a great many grains of a clear and figured Volatile salt at the very first distillation : which Experiment having , for the greater security , made a second time with the like success , I mentioned it to some Lovers of Chymistry , as what I justly supposed they had not heard of . I leave it to farther Inquiry , whether , in a body so full of Spirits as Mustard-seed , the action and re-action of the parts among themselves , perhaps promoted by just degrees of fire , might not suffice to make in them a change equivalent in order to Volatilization , and ▪ the yielding a Volatile Salt , to that which we have observed Fermentation and Putrefaction to have made in the juice of Grapes , Urine , and some other bodies . How far the like success may be expected in other Trialls , I cannot tell ; especially not having by me any Notes of the events of some Attempts which that Inquiry put me upon : Onely I remember in general , that , as some trials , I made with other Seeds , and even with Aromatick ones , did not afford me any Volatile Salt ; so the success of other trials made me now and then think , that some subjects of the Vegetable kingdom , whence we are wont to drive over acid Spirits , but no dry Salt , may be distilled with so luckily regulated a heat , as to afford something , though but little , of Volatile Salt ; and that perhaps more bodies would be found to doe so , were they not too hastily or violently prest by the fire , whereby such saline schematisms of the desired parts of the matter are ( by being dissipated or confounded ) destroyed or vitiated ; as in a slow , dextrous , or fortunate way of management would come forth , not in a liquid , but a saline form . Of which Observation we may elsewhere mention some Instances , and shall before the close of this paper name one , afforded us by crude Tartar. 3. Though Silver be one of the fixedst bodies that we know of , yet that 't is not impossible but that , chiefly by a change of Texture , it may strangely be disposed to Volatility , I was induced to think by what I remember once happened to me . A Gentleman of my acquaintance , studious of Chymical Arcana , having lighted on a strange Menstruum , which he affirmed , and I had some cause to believe , not to be corrosive , he abstracted it from several metalls , ( for the same Liquour would serve again and again , ) and brought me the Remainders , with a desire that I would endeavour to reduce those of Lead and Silver into the pristine metals again , which he had in vain attempted to doe : whereupon , though I found the white Calx of Lead reducible , yet when I came to the Calx of Silver , I was not able to bring it into a body ; and having at length melted some Lead in a gentle fire , to try whether I could make it swallow up the Calx , in order to a farther operation , I was not a little surprized to find , that this mild heat made the Calx of Silver presently fly away and sublime in the form of a farina volatilis , which whitened the neighbouring part of the Chimney , as well as the upper part of the Crucible . 4. From that which Chymists themselves tell us , I think we may draw a good Argument ad hominem , to prove , that Volatility depends much upon the texture and other Mechanical affections of a body . For divers of those Hermetick Philosophers ( as they are called ) that write of the Elixir , tell us , that when their Philosophick Mercury or grand Solvent , being sealed up together with a third or fourth part of Gold in a glass-Egg , is kept in convenient degrees of fire , the whole matter , and consequently the Gold , will , by the mutual operation of the included Substances , be so changed , that not onely 't will circulate up and down in the glass , but , in case the digestion or decoction should be broken off at a certain inconvenient time , the Gold would be quite spoil'd , being , by the past and untimely-ended operation , made too Volatile to be reducible again into Gold : whereas , if the decoction be duly continued unto the end , not onely the Gold , but all the Philosophical Mercury or Menstruum will be turned into a Sulphur or powder of a wonderfully fixt nature . I know , there are several Chrysopaeans , that speak much otherwise of this Operation , and tell us , that the Gold imployed about it must be Philosophick Gold : But I know too , that there are divers others ( and those too none of the least candid or rational ) that speak of it as I have done ; and That is sufficient to ground an Argument on towards all those that embrace Their doctrine . And in this case 't is considerable , that 't is not by any superadded additament , that the most fixt body of Gold is made volatile , but the same massy matter , consisting of Gold and Philosophick Mercury , is , by the change of texture produced or occasioned by the various degrees and operations of fire upon it , brought to be first Volatile , and then extreamly fixt . And having said this in reference to one tribe of the Modern Spagyrists ; to another of them , the Helmontians , I think I can offer a good Argument ad hominem from the Testimony and Experiments of the Founder of their Sect. 5. The acute Hemont , among other prodigious powers that he ascribes to the Alkahest , affirms , that , by abstracting it frequently enough , it would so change all tangible bodies , and consequently stones and metals , that they might be distilled over into Liquours equiponderant to the respective bodies that afforded them , and having all the Qualities of Rain-water ; which if they have , I need not tell you that they must be very Volatile . And I see not how those that admit the Truth of this strange Alkahestical operation , can well deny , that Volatility depends upon the Mechanical affections of matter , since it appears not , that the Alkahest does , at least in our case , work upon bodies otherwise than Mechanically . And it must be confest , that the same material parts of a portion of corporeal substance , which , when they were associated and contexted ( whether by an Archeus , seed , form , or what else you please , ) after such a determinate manner , constituted a solid and fixt body , as a Flint or a lump of Gold ; by having their Texture dissolved ; and ( perhaps after being subtilized ) by being freed from their former implications or firm cohesions , may become the parts of a fluid body totally Volatile . CHAP. V. THE fourth means of making a body Volatile is , by associating the particles to be raised with such as are more Volatile than themselves , and of a figure fit to be fastened to them , or are at least apt , by being added to them , to make up with them corpuscles more disposed than they to Volatility . This being the grand Instrument of Volatilization , I shall spend somewhat the more time about it : But I shall first here a little explain the last clause , ( that I may not be obliged to resume it elsewhere , ) by intimating , that 't is not impossible , that the particles of an additament , though not more volatile than those of the body 't is mixt with , and perhaps though not volatile at all , will yet conduce to volatilize the body wherewith 't is mingled . For the particles of the additament may be of such figures , and so associated with those of the body to be elevated , as in this to enlarge the former pores , or produce new ones , by intercepting little cavities ( for they must not be great ones ) between the particles of a body to be raised , and those of the additament . For , by these and other such ways of association , the corpuscles , resulting from the combination or coalition of two or more of these differing particles , may , without becoming too big and unwieldy , become more conveniently shaped , or more light in proportion to their bulk , and so more easily buoyed up and sustained in the air , ( as when the Lid of a Copper-box being put on , makes the whole box emerge and swim in water , because of the intercepted cavity , though neither of the parts of the box would doe so , ) or otherwise more fitted for avolation than the particles themselves were before their being joined to those of the additament . By two things chiefly the corpuscles of the additament may contribute to the elevation of a body . For first , the parts of the former may be much more disposed for avolation than is necessary to their own Volatility . As when in the making of Sal Armoniac , the saline particles of Urine and of Soot are more fugitive than they need be to be themselves sublimed , and thereby are advantaged to carry up with them the more sluggish corpuscles whereof Sea-salt consists . And next , they may be of figures so proper to fasten them well to the body to be elevated , that the more fugitive will not be driven away or disjoyned from the more fixt by such a degree of Heat as is sufficient to raise them both together : To which effect the congruity or figuration is as well required , as the lightness or volatility of the particles of the additament . And therefore some of the fugitivest bodies that we know , as Spirit of Wine , Camphire , &c. will not volatilize many bodies which will be elevated by far less fugitive additaments ; because the corpuscles of Spirit of Wine stick not to those of the body they are mingled with , but , easily flying up themselves , leave those behind them , which they did rather barely touch than firmly adhere to : Whereas far less fugacious Liquours , if they be indowed with figures that fit them for a competently firm cohesion with the body they are mingled with , will be able to volatilize it . Of which I shall now give you some Instances in bodies that are very ponderous , or very fixt , or both . And I shall begin with Colcothar , though it being a vitriolate calx , made by a lasting and vehement fire , 't is ( consequently ) capable of resisting such a one . This being exquisitely ground with an equal weight of Sal Armoniac , which is it self a Salt but moderately volatile , will be in good part sublimed into those yellow Flowers , which we have elsewhere more particularly taught to prepare , under the name of Ens primum Veneris ; in which , that many vitriolate corpuscles of the Colcothar are really elevated , you may easily find by putting a grain or two of that reddish Substance into a strong infusion of Galls , which will thereby immediately acquire an inky colour . Steel also , which , to deserve that name , must have endured extraordinary violences of the fire , and greater than is needfull to obtain other metalls from their Mother Earth ; Steel it self , I say , being reduced to filings , and diligently ground with about an equal weight of Sal Armoniac , will , if degrees of fire be skilfully administred , ( for 't is easie to err in that point , ) without any previous calcination or reduction to a Crocus , suffer so much of the metall to be carried up , as will give the Sal Armoniac a notable colour , and an ironish tast . And here it will be proper to observe , for the sake of practical Chymists , that the Quantity or Proportion of the Volatile additament is to be regarded ; though not so much as its Nature , yet more than it is wont to be : And divers bodies , that are thought either altogether unfit for Sublimation , or at least uncapable to have any considerable portion of them elevated , may be copiously enough sublimed , if a greater proportion of the additament , than we usually content our selves with , be skilfully imployed . And in the newly-mentioned Instance of Filings of Steel , if , in stead of an equal weight of Sal Armoniac , the treble weight be taken , and the operation be duly managed , a far greater quantity of the metall may be raised , especially if fresh Sal Armoniac be carefully ground with the Caput Mortuum . And Sal Armoniac may perhaps be compounded with such other bodies , heavier than it self , as may qualifie it , when it is thus clogged , to elevate some congruous bodies better than it would of it self alone . And I shall venture to add this farther Advertisement , That if , besides the plenty of the additament , there be a sufficient fitness of its particles to lay hold on those of the body to be wrought on , Mineral bodies , and those ponderous enough , may be employed to volatilize other heavy bodies . And I am apt to think , that almost , if not more than almost , all Metalls themselves may by copious additaments and frequent Cohobations be brought to pass through the neck of the Retort in distillation ; and perhaps , if you melt them not with equal parts , but with many parts of Regulus of Antimony , and then proceed as the hints now given will direct you , you will not find cause to despise what I have been saying . You know what endeavours have been , and are still fruitlessly , imployed by Chymists to elevate so fixt a body as Salt of Tartar by additaments . I shall not now speak much of the enterprize in generall , designing chiefly to tell you on this occasion , that , whereas frequent experience shews , that Sal Armoniac being abstracted from Salt of Tartar , not onely the Salt of Tartar is left at the bottom , but a good part of the Sal Armoniac is left behind with it ; I suspected the cause might be , that Sal Armoniac , by the operation of the Alkaly of Tartar , is reduced into Sea-salt , and Urinous or fuliginous Salt , as 't was at first composed of those differing Ingredients ; and that by this means the volatil Salt being loosened or disintangled from the rest , and being of a very fugacious Nature , flyes easily away it self , without staying long enough to take up any other Salt with it . And therefore , if this Analysis of the Sal Armoniac could be prevented , it seemed not impossible to me , that some part of the Salt of Tartar , as well as of Colcothar and Steel , might be carried up by it : And accordingly having caused the Ingredients to be exceedingly well dryed , and both nimbly and carefully mixt , and speedily exposed to the fire , I have sometimes had a portion of Salt of Tartar carried up with the Sal Armoniac : but this happened so very rarely , that I suspected some peculiar fitness for this work in some parcels of Sal Armoniac , that are scarce but by the effect to be discerned from others . But however , what has happened to us may argue the Possibility of the thing , and may serve to shew the volatilizing efficacy of Sal Armoniac ; which is a Compound , that I elsewhere recommend , and doe it now again , as one of the usefullest Productions of vulgar Chymistry . And since I have mentioned the Volatilization of Salt of Tartar , presuming your Curiosity will make you desire my Opinion about the Possibility of it , I shall propose to you a distinction , that perhaps you doe not expect , by saying , that I think there is a great deal of difference between the making a Volatile Salt of Tartar , and the making Salt of Tartar Volatile . For , though this seem to be but a Nicety , yet really it is none ; and it is very possible , that a man may from Tartar obtain a Volatile salt , and yet be no wise able to volatilize that Tartareous Salt , that has been once by the incineration of the Tartar brought to fixt Alkaly . I have in the Sceptical Chymist summarily delivered a way , by which both I , and some Spagyrists that learned it of me , obtained from a mixture of Antimony , Nitre , and crude Tartar , a Volatil salt , which in probability comes from the last named of those three bodies ; but experience carefully made has assured me , that without any additament , by a distillation warily and very slowly made , ( insomuch that I have spent near a week in distilling one pound of matter ) very clean Tartar , or at least the Crystalls of Tartar , may , in conveniently shaped Vessels , be brought to afford a Substance that in Rectification will ascend to the upper part of the Vessel , in the form of a Volatil Salt , as if it were of Urine or of Harts-horne ; of which ( Tartareous ) Salt , I keep some by me : But this operation requires not onely a dexterous , but a patient distiller . But now as to the making a fixt Alkaly of Tartar become Volatil , I take it to be another , and have found it to be a far more difficult , work ; the common Processes of performing it being wont to promise much more than they can make good ; which I may justly say of some other , that private men have vaunted for great Arcana , but upon triall have satisfied me so little , that I have divers times offered pretenders to make Salt of Tartar Volatil , that without at all inquiring into their Processes , I would lay good wagers , that they could not doe what they pretended ; not onely as divers Philosophical Spagyrists require , without any visible additament , but by any additament whatever ; provided I were allowed to bring the Salt of Tartar my self , and to examine the Success , not by what may appear in the Alembic and Receiver , but by the weight of what would remain in the bottom . For I have convinced some of the more Ingenuous Artists , that the Salt that sublimed was not indeed the Alkaly of Tartar , but somewhat that was by the operation produced , or rather extricated out of the additaments . But yet I would not be thought to affirm , that 't is not possible to elevate the fixt Salt of Tartar. For sometimes I have been able to doe it , even at the first Distillation , by an artificial additament perhaps more fixt than it self ; but , though the operation was very gratefull to me , as it shewed the Possibility of the thing , yet the paucity of the Salt sublimed and other Circumstances , kept me from much valuing it upon any other account . And there are other wayes , whereby Experience has assured me , that Salt of Tartar may be raised . And if one of them were not so uncertain , that I can never promise before hand that it will at all succeed , and the other so laborious , difficult and costly , that few would attempt or be able to practice it , I should think them very valuable things ; since by the former way most part of the Salt of Tartar was quickly brought over in the form of a Liquor , whose piercing smell was scarce tolerable ; and by the latter way some Salt of Tartar of my own , being put into a Retort , and urged but with such a fire as could be given in a portable Sand-furnace , there remained not at the bottom near one half of the first weight , the additament having carried up the rest , partly in the form of a Liquor , but chiefly in that of a white Sublimate , which was neither ill-sented , nor in tast corrosive , or alcalizat , but very mild , and somewhat sweetish . And I doe not much doubt , but that by other wayes the fixt Alkaly of Tartar may be elevated , especially if , before it be exposed to the last operation of the fire , it be dextrously freed from the most of those Earthy and Viscous parts , that I think may be justly suspected to clog and bind the truly saline ones . But I have too long digrest , and therefore shall intimate onely upon the by , that even the spurious Sal Tartari volatilized that is made with Spirit of Vinegar , may , if it be well prepared , make amends for its Empyreumatical smell and tast , and may , notwithstanding them , in divers cases be of no despicable use , both as a Medicine , and a Menstruum . CHAP. VI. BEfore I draw towards a Conclusion of these Notes about Volatility , perhaps it will not be amiss , to take notice of a Phaenomenon , which may much surprise , and sometimes disappoint those that deal in Sublimations , unless they be forewarned of it . For though it be taken for granted , and for the most part may justly be so , that by carefully mingling what is sublimed with what remains , and re-subliming the mixture , a greater quantity of the body to be sublimed may be elevated the second time than was the first , and the third time than the second , and so onwards ; yet I have not found this Rule alwayes to hold , but in some Bodies , as particularly in some kinds of dulcified Colcothar , the Sal Armoniac , would at the first Sublimation carry up more of the fixed powder , than at the second or third . So that I was by several Tryalls perswaded , when I found a very well and highly coloured powder elevated , to lay it by for use , and thereby save my self the labour of a prosecution , that would not onely have proved useless , but prejudicial . And if I misremember not , by often repeated Cohobations , ( if I may so call them ) of Sal Armoniac upon crude or Mineral Antimony , though the Sublimate that was obtained by the first Operation , was much of it variously , and in some places richly , coloured ; yet afterwards , the Salt ascended from time to time paler and paler , leaving the Antimony behind it . Which way of making some Minerals more fixt and fusible I conceive may be of great use in some Medicinal Preparations , though I think it not fit to particularize them in this place : Where my chief intent was , to mention the Phaenomenon it self , and invite you to consider , whether it may be ascribed to this , that by the reiterated action of the fire , and grinding together of the body to be raised , either the corpuscles of the Sal Armoniac , or those of the other body , may have those little hooked or equivalent particles , whereby they take hold of one another , broken or worn off ; and whether the indisposedness of the Colcotharine or Antimonial parts to ascend , may not in some cases be promoted by their having , by frequent attritions , so smoothed their Surfaces that divers of them may closely adhere , like pieces of polished Glass , and so make up Clusters too unweildy to be so raised , as the single corpuscles they consist of , were . Which change may dispose them to be at once less Volatil and more Fusible . Which Conjectures I mention to excite you to frame better , or at least to make amends for my omission of examining these , by trying whether the Sal Armoniac grown white again will be as fit as it was at first to carry up fresh bodies ; and also by observing the weight of the unelevated part , and employing those other wayes of examen , which I should have done , if I had not then made Sublimations for another end , than to clear up the Doctrine of Volatility . And here it may be profitable to some Chymists , though not necessary to my Subject , to intimate , that Sublimations may be useful to make very fine Comminutions of divers bodies . That those that are elevated are reduced to a great fineness of parts , is obvious to be observed in many Examples , whence it has been anciently , not absurdly , said , that Sublimations are the Chymists Pestles , since ( as in Flowers of Sulphur and Antimony ) they do really resolve the elevated bodies into exceeding fine Flower , and much finer than Pestles and Mortars are wont to bring them to . But that which I intend in this Paragraph is not a thing so obvious , since 't is to observe , that sometimes even bodies so fixt as not at all to ascend in Sublimation , may yet be reduced by that operation into powders extreamly fine . For exemplifying of which , I shall put you in mind , that though Spagyrists complain much of the Difficulty of making a good Calx of Gold , and of the Imperfection of the few ordinary processes prescribed to make it , ( which would be more complained of , but that Chymical Physicians seldom attempt to prepare it , ) yet we are informed by triall , that by exactly grinding a thick amalgam of Gold and Mercury with a competent weight , ( at least equal to its own ) of finely powdered Sulphur , we may , by putting the mixture to sublime in a conveniently shaped Glass , by degrees of fire obtain a Cinaber that will leave behind it a finer Calx of Gold than will be had by some far more difficult processes . But 't is now time to draw towards a Conclusion of our Notes about Volatility ; which Quality depends so much upon the contexture of the corpuscles that are to be raised together , that even very ponderous bodies may serve for volatilizing additaments , if they be disposed to fasten themselves sufficiently to the bodies they are to carry up along with them . For , though Lead be , save one , the heaviest solid we know of , and though Quick-silver be the heaviest body in the world , except Gold ; yet trialls have assured us , that Quick-silver it self being united by Amalgamation with a small proportion of Lead , will by a fire that is none of the violentest , and in close Vessels , be made to carry over with it some of the Lead . As we clearly found by the increased weight of the Quick-silver that passed into the Receiver ; which , by the way , may make us cautious how we conclude Quicksilver to be pure , meerly from its having been distilled over . There remains but one body more heavy than those I come from naming , and that is Gold ; which , being also of a fixity so great that 't is indeed admirable , I doe not wonder that not onely the more wary Naturalists , but the more severe among the Chymists themselves should think it incapable of being volatilized . But yet , if we consider , how very minute parts Gold may be rationally supposed to consist of , and to be divisible into , me thinks it should not seem impossible , that , if men could light on Volatil Salts endowed with figures fit to stick fast to the corpuscles of the Gold , they would carry up with them bodies , whose solidity can scarce be more extraordinary than their minuteness is : And in effect , we have made more than one Menstruum , with which some particles of Gold may be carried up . But when I employed that which I recommended to you formerly under the name of Menstruum peracutum ( which consists mainly , and sometimes onely , of Spirit of Nitre , several times drawn from Butter of Antimony , ) I was able , without a very violent fire , in a few hours to elevate so much crude Gold , as , in the neck of the Retort , afforded me a considerable Quantity of Sublimate , which I have had red as blood , and whose consisting partly of Gold manifestly appeared by this , that I was able with ease to reduce that metall out of it . In reckoning up the Instruments of Volatilization , we must not quite leave out the mention of the Air , which I have often observed to facilitate the elevation of some bodies even in close Vessels ; wherein , though to fill them too full be judged by many a Compendious practise , because the streams have a less way to ascend , yet Experience has several times informed me , that , at least in some cases , they take wrong measures , and that ( to pass by another Cause of their disappointment ) a large proportion of Air , purposely left in the Vessels , may more than compensate the greater space that is to be ascended by the vapours or exhalations of the matter that is to be distilled or sublimed . And if , in close Vessels , the presence of the Air may promote the ascension of bodies , it may well be expected , that the elevation of divers of them may be furthered by being attempted in open Vessels , to which the Air has free access . And if we may give any credit to the probable Relations of some Chymists , the Air does much contribute to the volatilization of some bodies that are barely , though indeed for no short time , exposed to it . But the account on which the Air by its bare presence or peculiar operations conduces to the Volatilization of some bodies , is a thing very difficult to be determined , without having recourse to some Notions about Gravity and Levity , and of the Constitution of the corpuscles that compose the Air ; which I take to be both very numerous and no less various . And therefore I must not in these occasional Notes lanch out into such a Subject , though , for fear I should be blamed for too much slighting my old acquaintance the Air , I durst not quite omit the power it has to dispose some bodies to Volatility . A moderate attention may suffice to make it be discerned , that in what hath been hitherto delivered , I have for the most part considered the small portions of matter , to be elevated in Volatilization , as intire Corpuscles : And therefore it may be now pertinent , to intimate in a Line or two , that there may be also Cases , wherein a kind of Volatilization , improperly so called , may be effected , by making use of such additaments as break off or otherwise divide the particles of the corpuscles to be elevated , and by adhering to , and so clogging , one of the particles to which it proves more congruous , inable the other , which is now brought to be more light or disingaged , to ascend . This may be illustrated by what happens , when Sal Armoniac is well ground with Lapis Calaminaris or with some fix'd Alkali , and then committed to distillation : For the Sea-salt , that enters the Composition of the Sal Armoniac , being detained by the stone or the Alkali , there is a divorce made between the common Salt and the urinous and fuliginous Salts , that were incorporated with it , and being now disingaged from it , are easily elevated . I elsewhere mention , that I have observed in Man's Urine a kind of native Sal Armoniac , much less Volatile than the fugitive that is sublim'd from Man's Blood , Harts-horn , &c. and therefore supposing , that a separation of parts may be made by an Alkali , as well in this Salt as in the common factitious Sal Armoniac , I put to fresh Urine a convenient proportion ( which was a plentifull one ) of Salt of Pot-ashes ( that being then at hand ) and distilling the Liquor , it yielded , according to expectation , a Spirit more Volatile than the Phlegm , and of a very piercing tast ; which way of obtaining a Spirit without any violence of fire , and without either previously abstracting the Phlegm , ( as we are fain to do in fresh Urine ) or tediously waiting for the fermentation of stale Urine , I taught some Chymists , because of the usefulness of Spirit of Urine ; which being obtained this innocent way , would probably be employed with much less suspicion of corrosiveness , than if in the operation I had made use of Quick-lime . Another Illustration of what I was not long since saying , may be fetch'd from the Experiment of making Spirit of Nitre by mixing Salt-peter with Oil of Vitriol , and distilling them together : For the Oil does so divide or break the corpuscles of the Nitre , that the now-disposed particles of that Salt , which amount to a great portion of the whole , will be made easily enough to ascend even with a moderate fire of Sand , and sometimes without any fire at all , in the form of Spirits , exceeding unquiet , subtle , and apt to moak a way . To which Instances of this imperfect kind of Volatilization more might be added , but that you may well think , I have detain'd you but too long already with indigested Notes about one Quality . CHAP. VII . THe last means of Volatilizing bodies is , the operation of the Fire or some other actual Heat : But of this , which is obvious , it would be superfluous to discourse . Onely this I shall intimate , that there may be bodies , which , in such degrees of fire as are wont to be given in the vulgar operations of Chymists , will not be elevated , which yet may be forced up by such violent and lasting fires , as are employed by the Melters of Ores , and Founders of Guns , and sometimes by Glass-makers . And on this Consideration I shall here observe to you , since I did not doe it at my entrance on these Notes , that Chymists are wont to speak , and I have accordingly been led to treat , of Volatility and Fixity in a popular sense of those Terms . For if we would consider the matter more strictly , I presume we should find that Volatility and Fixity are but relative Qualities , which are to be estimated , especially the former of them , by the degree of fire to which the body , whereto we ascribe one or other of those Qualities , is exposed ; and therefore it is much more difficult than men are aware of , to determine accurately , when a body ought to be accounted Volatile and when not ; since there is no determinate degree of Heat agreed on , nor indeed easie to be devised , that may be as a standard , whereby to measure Volatility and Fixtness : And 't is obvious , that a body , that remains fixt in one degree of fire , may be forced up by another . To which may be added , agreeably to what I lately began to observe , that a body may pass for absolutely fixt among the generality of Chymists , and yet be unable to persevere in the fires of Founders and Glass-makers : Which brings into my mind , that not having observed , that Chymists have examined the Fixity of other bodies than metalline ones by the Cupel , I had the Curiosity to put dry Salt of Tartar upon it , and found , as I expected , that in no long time it manifestly wasted in so vehement a heat , wherein also the Air came freely at it , ( though Quick-lime , handled after the same way , lost not of its weight , ) and having well mixed one ounce of good Salt of Tartar with treble its weight of Tobacco-pipe Clay , we kept them but for two , or at most three hours , in a strong fire ; yet the Crucible being purposely left uncovered , we found the Salt of Tartar so wasted , that the remaining mixture ( which was not flux'd ) afforded us not near a quarter of an ounce of Salt. And indeed I scarce doubt , but that in strictness divers of those bodies that pass for absolutely fixt , are but semi-fixt , or at least but comparatively and relatively fix'd , that is , in reference to such degrees of fire , as they are wont to be exposed to in the Distillations , Sublimations , &c. of Chymists ; not such as are given in the raging fires of Founders , and Glass-makers . And perhaps even the fires of Glass-makers and Say-masters themselves are not the most intense that may possibly be made in a short time , provided there be but small portions of matter to be wrought on by them . And in effect , I know very few bodies , besides Gold , that will perserve totally fixt in the vehementest degrees of fire that Trials have made me acquainted with . And I elsewhere tell you , that , though Tin , in our Chymical Reverberatories themselves , is wont to be reduced but into a Calx that is reputed very fixt ; yet in those intense fires , that a Virtuoso of my acquaintance uses in his Tin-Mines , there is not seldom found quantities of Tin carried up to a notable height in the form of a whitish powder , which , being in good masses forced off from the places to which it had fastened it self , does by a skillful reduction yield many a pound weight of good malleable metal , which seemed to me to be rather more , than less , fine than ordinary Tin. Postscript , Relating to Page 15. of this Tract ; and here annext for their sakes , who have a mind to repeat the Experiment there delivered , that so they may know the quantities employed in it . WIth two parts of this Crocus we ground very well three parts of Sal Armoniac , and having sublimed them in a strong fire , we took off the high coloured Sublimat , and put in either an equal weight , or a weight exceeding it by half , to the Caput Mortuum , we found after the second Sublimation , which was also high coloured , that of an ounce of Crocus we had raised six drams , that is , three quarters of the whole weight . FINIS . EXPERIMENTAL NOTES OF The Mechanical Origine OR PRODVCTION OF FIXTNESS . LONDON , Printed by E. Flesher , for R. Davis Bookseller in Oxford . 1675. OF The Mechanical Origine OR PRODVCTION OF FIXTNESS . CHAP. I. FIXITY being the opposite Quality to Volatility , what we have discoursed about the latter , will make the nature of the former more easily understood , and upon that account allow me to make somewhat the quicker dispatch of what I have to say of it . The Qualifications that conduce most to the Fixity of a portion of matter , seem to be these . First , the grossness or the bulk of the corpuscles it consists of . For if these be too big , they will be too unwieldly and unapt to be carried up into the Air by the action of such minute particles as those of the Fire , and will also be unfit to be buoyed up by the weight of the Air ; as we see , that Vapours , whilst they are such , are small enough to swim in the Air , but can no longer be sustained by it , when they convene into drops of rain or flakes of snow . But here it is to be observed , that when I speak of the corpuscles that a fixt body consists of , I mean not either its Elementary or its Hypostatical Principles , as such , but onely those very little masses or clusters of particles , of what kind soever they be , that stick so firmly to one another , as not to be divisible and dissipable by that degree of fire in which the body is said to be fixt ; so that each of those little Concretions , though it may it self be made up of two , three , or more particles of a simpler nature , is considered here per modum Vnius , or as one intire corpuscle . And this is one Qualification conducive to the Fixtness of a body . The next is the ponderousness or solidity of the corpuscles it is made up of . For if these be very solid , and ( which solid and compact bodies usually are ) of a considerable specifick gravity , they will be too heavy to be carried up by the effluvia or the action of the fire , and their ponderousness will make them as unwieldy , and indisposed to be elevated by such Agents , as the grossness of their bulk would make bigger corpuscles , but of a proportionably inferiour specifick weight . On which account the calces of some metals and minerals , as Gold , Silver , &c. though , by the operation of Solvents , or of the fire , or of both , reduced to powders exceedingly subtile , will resist such vehement fires , as will easily drive up bigger , but less heavy and compact , corpuscles , than those calces consist of . The third Qualification that conduces to the Fixity of a body , belongs to its Integral parts , not barely as they are several parts of it , but as they are aggregated or contexed into one body . For , the Qualification , I mean , is the ineptitude of the component corpuscles for avolation , by reason of their branchedness , irregular figures , crookedness , or other inconvenient shape , which intangles the particles among one another , and makes them difficult to be extricated ; by which means , if one of them do ascend , others , wherewith 't is complicated , must ascend with it ; and , whatever be the account on which divers particles stick firmly together , the aggregate will be too heavy or unwieldy to be raised . Which I therefore take notice of , because that , though usually 't is on the roughness and irregularity of corpuscles , that their cohesion depends ; yet it sometimes happens , that the smoothness and flatness of their surfaces makes them so stick together , as to resist a total divulsion ; as may be illustrated by what I have said of the cohesion of polished marbles and the plates of glass , and by the fixity of glass it self in the fire . From this account of the Causes or Requisites of Fixity , may be deduced the following means of giving or adding Fixation to a body , that was before either Volatile , or less fixt . These means may be reduced to two general Heads ; First , the action of the Fire , as the parts of the body , exposed to it , are thereby made to operate variously on one another . And next , the association of the particles of a volatile body with those of some proper additament : Which term , [ of proper ] I rather imploy than that , one would expect , [ of fixt ; ] because 't will ere long appear , that , in certain cases , some volatile bodies may more conduce to the fixation of other volatile bodies , than some fixt Ones doe . But these two Instruments of Fixation being but general , I shall propose four or five more particular ones . CHAP. II. AND first , in some cases it may conduce to Fixation , that , either by an additament , or by the operation of the fire , the parts of a body be brought to touch each other in large portions of their surfaces . For , that from such a contact there will follow such a mutual cohesion , as will at least indispose the touching corpuscles to suffer a total divulsion , may appear probable from what we lately noted of the cohesion of pieces of marble and glass , and from some other Phaenomena belonging to the History of Firmness , from which we may properly enough borrow some instances , as least for illustration , in the Doctrine of Fixtness , in regard that usually , though not always , the same things that make a body Firm , give it some degree of Fixity , by keeping it from being dissipated by the wonted degrees of Heat , and Agitation it meets with in the Air. But to return to the contact we were speaking of , I think it not impossible , ( though you may perhaps think it strange , ) that the bare operation of the Fire may , in some cases , procure a Cohesion among the particles , ( and consequently make them more Fixt , ) as well as in others disjoyn them , and thereby make them more Volatile . For , as in some bodies , the figures and sizes of the corpuscles may be such , that the action of the fire may rub or tear off the little beards or hooks , or other particles that intangle them , and by that means make it more easie for the corpuscles to be disingaged and fly upwards ; so in other bodies , the size and shape of the corpuscles may be such , that the agitation , caused by the fire , may rub them one against the other , so as by mutual attrition to grind , as 't were , their surfaces , and make them so broad and smooth , if not also so flat , as that the contact of the corpuscles shall come to be made according to a large portion of their superficies , from whence will naturally follow a firm Cohesion . Which I shall illustrate by what we may observe among those that grind glasses for Telescopes and Microscopes . For , these Artificers , by long rubbing a piece of glass against a metalline Dish or concave Vessel , do by this attrition at length bring the two bodies to touch one another in so many parts of their congruous surfaces , that they will stick firmly to one another , so as sometimes to oblige the Work-man to use violence to disjoyn them . And this instance ( which is not the sole I could alleage ) may suffice to shew , how a Cohesion of corpuscles may be produced by the mutual adaptation of their congruous surfaces . And if two grosser corpuscles , or a greater number of smaller , be thus brought to stick together , you will easily believe , their Aggregate will prove too heavy or unwieldy for avolation . And to shew , that the fire may effect a laevigation in the surfaces of some corpuscles , I have sometimes caused Minium , and some other calces , that I judged convenient , to be melted for a competent time , in a vehement fire conveniently administred ; whereby , according to expectation , that which was before a dull and incoherent powder , was reduced into much grosser corpuscles , multitudes of whose grains appeared smooth , glittering , and almost specular , like those of fine litharge of gold ; and the masses that these grains composed , were usually solid enough and of difficult fusion . And when we make glass of Lead per se , ( which I elsewhere teach you how to doe , ) 't is plain , that the particles of the Lead are reduced to a great smoothness ; since , wheresoever you break the glass , the surfaces , produced at the crack , will not be jagged , but smooth , and considerably specular . Nor do I think it impossible , that , even when the fire does not make any great attrition of the Corpuscles of the body to be fixt , it may yet occasion their sticking together , because by long tumbling them up and down in various manners , it may at length , after multitudes of revolutions and differing occursions , bring those of their surfaces together , which , by reason of their breadth , smoothness , or congruity of figure , are fit for mutual cohesion ; and when once they come to stick , there is no necessity , that the same causes , that were able to make them pass by one another , when their contact was but according to an inconsiderable part of their surfaces , should have the same effect now , when their contact is full ; though perhaps , if the degree of fire were much increased , a more vehement agitation would surmount this cohesion , and dissipate again these clusters of coalescent corpuscles . These conjectures will perhaps appear less extravagant , if you consider what happens in the preparation of Quick-silver praecipitated per se . For there , running Mercury , being put into a conveniently shaped Glass , is exposed to a moderate fire for a considerable time : ( For I have sometimes found six or seven weeks to be too short a one . ) In this degree of fire the parts are variously tumbled , and made many of them to ascend , till convening into drops on the sides of the glass , their weight carries them down again ; but at length , after many mutual occursions , if not also attritions , some of the parts begin to stick together in the form of a red powder , and then more and more Mercurial particles are fastened to it , till at length all , or by much the greater part of the Mercury , is reduced into the like Praecipitate , which , by this cohesion of the parts , being grown more fixt , will not with the same degree of Heat be made to rise and circulate , as the Mercury would before ; and yet , as I elsewhere note , I have found by trial , that , with a greater and competent degree of heat , this Praecipitate per se , would , without the help of any volatilizing additament , be easily reduced into running Mercury again . Chymists and Physicians , who agree in supposing this Praecipitate to be made without any additament , will perchance scarce be able to give a more likely account of the consistency and degree of Fixity that is obtained in the Mercury ; in which , since no body is added to it , there appears not to be wrought any but a Mechanical change . And though , I confess , I have not been without suspicions , that in Philosophical strictness this Praecipitate may not be made per se , but that some penetrating igneous particles , especially saline , may have associated themselves with the Mercurial Corpuscles ; yet even upon this supposition it may be said , that these particles contribute to the effect that is produced , but by facilitating or procuring , by their opportune Interposition , the mutual Cohesion of Corpuscles that would not otherwise stick to one another . Perhaps it will not be altogether impertinent to add , on this occasion , that , as for the generality of Chymists , as well others as Helmontians , that assert the Transmutation of all metalls into Gold by the Philosopher's Stone , me thinks , they may grant it to be probable , that a new and fit Contexture of the parts of a volatile body may , especially by procuring a full contact among them , very much contribute to make it highly fixt . For , to omit what is related by less credible Authours , 't is averred , upon his own trial , by Helmont , who pretended not to the Elixir , that a grain of the powder , that was given him , transmuted a pound ( if I mis-remember not ) of running Mercury ; where the proportion of the Elixir to the Mercury was so inconsiderable , that it cannot reasonably be supposed , that every Corpuscle of the Quick-silver , that before was volatile , was made extreamly fixt meerly by its Coalition with a particle of the powder , since , to make one grain suffice for this Coalition , the parts it must be divided into must be scarce conceivably minute , and therefore each single part not likely to be fixt it self , or at least more likely to be carried up by the vehemently agitated Mercury , than to restrain that from avolation ; whereas , if we suppose the Elixir to have made such a commotion among the corpuscles of the Mercury , as ( having made them perhaps somewhat change their figure , and expelled some inconvenient particles , ) to bring them to stick to one another , according to very great portions of their surfaces , and intangle one another , it will not be disagreeable to the Mechanical Doctrine of Fixity , that the Mercury should , endure the fire as well as Gold , on the score of its new Texture , which , supposing the story true , appears to have been introduced , by the new colour , specifick gravity , Indissolubleness in Aqua fortis , and other Qualities wherein Gold differs from Mercury , especially Malleableness , which , according to our Notes about that Quality , usually requires that the parts , from whose union it results , be either hooked , branched , or otherwise adapted and fitted to make them take fast hold of one another , or stick close to one another . And since , in the whole mass of the factitious Gold , all save one grain must be materially the same body , which , before the projection was made , was Quick-silver , we may see how great a proportion of volatile matter may , by an inconsiderable quantity of fixing additament , acquire such a new Disposition of its parts , as to become most fixt . And however , this Instance will agree much better with the Mechanical Doctrine about Fixity , than with that vulgar Opinion of the Chymists , ( wherewith 't will not at all comply , ) That if , in a mixture , the volatile part do much exceed the fixt , it will carry up that , or at least a good portion thereof , with it ; and on the contrary . But though this Rule holds in many cases , where there is no peculiar indisposition to the effect that is aimed at ; yet if the Mechanical affections of the bodies be ill suited to such a purpose , our Philosophical Experiment manifestly proves , that the Rule will not hold , since so great a multitude of grains of Mercury , in stead of carrying up with them one grain of the Elixir , are detained by it in the strongest fire . And thus much for the first way of fixing Volatile Bodies . CHAP. III. THE second way of producing Fixity , is by expelling , breaking , or otherwise disabling those volatile Corpuscles that are too indisposed to be fixt themselves , or are fitted to carry up with them such particles as would not , without their help , ascend . That the Expulsion of such parts is a proper means to make the aggregate of those that remain more fixt , I presume you will not put me solicitously to prove ; and we have a manifest instance of it in Soot , where , though many active parts were by the violence of the fire and current of the air carried up together by the more volatile parts ; yet , when Soot is well distilled in a Retort , a competent time being given for the extricating and avolation of the other parts , there will at the bottom remain a substance that will not now fly away , as it formerly did . And here let me observe , that the recesse of the fugitive corpuscles may contribute to the fixation of a body , not barely because the remaining matter is freed from so many unfixt , if not also volatilizing , parts ; but , as it may often happen , that upon their recesse the pores or intervals , they left behind them , are filled up with more solid or heavy matter , and the body becomes , as more homogeneous , so more close and compact . And whereas I intimated , that , besides the expulsion of unfit corpuscles , they may be otherwise disabled from hindering the fixation of the masse they belong to , I did it , because it seems very possible , that in some cases they may , by the action of the fire , be so broken , as with their fragments to fill up the pores or intervals of the body they appertained to ; or may make such coalitions with the particles of a convenient additament , as to be no impediment to the Fixity of the whole masse , though they remain in it . Which possibly you will think may well happen , when you shall have perused the Instances annext to the fourth way of fixing bodies . The third means of fixing , or lessening the Volatility of , bodies , is by preserving that rest among the parts , whose contrary is necessary to their Volatilization . And this may be done by preventing or checking that Heat , or other motion , which external Agents strive to introduce into the parts of the proposed body . But this means tending rather to hinder the actual avolation of a portion of matter , or , at most , procure a temporary abatement of its volatility , than to give it a stable fixity , I shall not any longer insist on it . The fourth way of producing Fixity in a body , is by putting to it such an appropriated Additament , whether fixt or volatile , that the Corpuscles of the body may be put among themselves , or with those of the additament , into a complicated state , or intangled contexture . This being the usual and principal way of producing Fixity , we shall dwell somewhat the longer upon it , and give Instances of several degrees of Fixation . For , though they do not produce that quality in the strictest acceptation of the word , Fixity ; yet 't is usefull in our present inquiry , to take notice , by what means that volatility comes to be gradually abated , since that may facilitate our understanding , how the Volatility of a body comes to be totally abated , and consequently the body to be fixt . CHAP. IV. AND first we find , that a fixt additament , if its parts be conveniently shaped , may easily give a degree of fixity to a very volatile body . Thus Spirit of Nitre , that will of it self easily enough fly away in the Air , having its saline particles associated with those of fixt Nitre , or salt of Tartar , will with the Alkaly compose a salt of a Nitrous nature , which will endure to be melted in a Crucible without being deprived even of its Spirits . And I have found , that the spirits of Nitre , that abound in Aqua fortis , being concoagulated with the Silver they corrode , though one would not expect that such subtile Corpuscles should stick fast to so compact and solid a body as Silver ; yet Crystalls , produced by their Coalition , being put into a Retort , may be kept a pretty while in fusion , before the metal will let go the Nitrous spirits . When we poured Oil of Vitriol upon the Calx of Vitriol , though many Phlegmatick and other Sulphureous particles were driven away by the excited Heat ; yet the saline parts , that combined with the fixt ones of the Colcothar , stuck fast enough to them , not to be easily driven away . And if Oil of Vitriol be in a due proportion dropt upon Salt of Tartar , there results a Tartarum vitriolatum , wherein the acid and alkalizate parts cohere so strongly , that 't is not an ordinary degree of fire will be able to disjoyn them . Insomuch that divers Chymists have ( though very erroniously ) thought this compounded Salt to be indestructible . But a less heavy liquour than the ponderous Oil of Vitriol may by an Alkaly be more strongly detained than that Oil it self ; experience having assured me , that Spirit of Salt being dropt to satiety upon a fixt Alkaly , ( I used either that of Nitre or of Tartar , ) there would be made so strict an union , that , having , without additaments , distilled the resulting salt with a strong and lasting fire , it appeared not at all considerably to be wrought upon , and was not so much as melted . But 't is not the bare Mixture or Commistion of Volatile particles with Fixt ones , ( yea though the former be predominant in quantity , ) that will suffice to elevate the latter . For , unlesse the figures of the latter be congruous and fitted to fasten to the other , the volatile parts will fly away in the Heat , and leave the rest as fixt as before : as when sand or ashes are wetted or drenched with water , they quickly part with that water , without parting with any degree of their Fixity . But on the other side , it is not always necessary , that the body , which is fitted to destroy , or much abate , the volatility of another substance , should be it self fixt . For , if there be a skilful or lucky coaptation of the figures of the particles of both the bodies , these particles may take such hold of one another , as to compose corpuscles , that will neither by reason of their strict union be divided by Heat ; nor by reason of their resulting grossness be elevated even by a strong fire , or at least by such a degree of Heat as would have sufficed to raise more indisposed bodies than either of the separate Ingredients of the mixture . This observation , if duly made out , does so much favour our Doctrine about the Mechanical Origine of Fixation , and may be of such use , not onely to Chymists , in some of their operations , but to Philosophers , in assigning the causes of divers Phaenomena of Nature , that it may be worth while to exemplifie it by some Instances . The first whereof I shall take from an usual practice of the Chymists themselves : which I the rather doe , to let you see , that such known Experiments are too often over-looked by them that make them , but yet may hint or confirm Theories to those that reflect on them . The Instance , I here speak of , is that which is afforded by the vulgar Preparation of Bezoardicum Minerale . For , though the rectified Butter or Oil of Antimony and the Spirit of Nitre , that are put together to make this white Praecipitate , are both of them distilled liquours ; yet the copious powder , that results from their Union , is , by that Union of volatile parts , so far fixt , that , after they have edulcorated it with water , they prescribe the calcining of it in a Crucible for five or six hours : which operation it could not bear , unless it had attained to a considerable fixation . This discourse supposes with the generality of Chymists , that the addition of a due quantity of spirit of Nitre , is necessary to be employed in making the Bezoardicum Minerale . But if it be a true Observation , which is attributed to the Learned Guntherus Billichius , ( but which I had no Furnace at hand to examine when I heard of it , ) if , I say , it be true , that a Bezoardicum Minerale may be obtained , without spirit of Nitre , barely by a slow evaporation , made in a Glasse-dish , of the more fugitive parts of the Oil of Antimony ; this Instance will not indeed be proper in this place , but yet will belong to the second of the foregoing ways of introducing Fixity . I proceed now to alleage other particulars in favour of the above-mentioned Observation . If you take strong Spirit of Salt , that , when the Glass is unstopt , will smoak of it self in the cold air , and satiate it with the volatile Spirit of Vrine , the superfluous moisture being abstracted , you will obtain by this preparation ( which , you may remember , I long since communicated to you , and divers other Virtuosi , ) a compounded Salt , scarce , if at all , distinguishable from Sal Armoniac , and which will not , as the Salts it consists of will doe , before their coalition , easily fly up of it self into the air , but will require a not despicable degree of fire to sublime it . Of these semivolatile Compositions of Salt I have made , and elsewhere mentioned , others , which I shall not here repeat , but passe on to other Instances pertinent to our present design . I lately mentioned , that the Volatility of the spirits of Nitre may be very much abated , by bringing them to coagulate into Crystalls with particles of corroded Silver ; but I shall now add , that I guessed , and by trial found , that these Nitrous spirits may be made much more fixt by the addition of the Spirit of Salt , which , if it be good , will of it self smoak in the Air. For , having dissolved a convenient quantity of Crystalls of Silver in distilled water , and precipitated them , not with a Solution of Salt , but the Spirit of Salt ; the phlegm being abstracted , and some few of the looser saline particles ; though the remaining masse were prest with a violent fire that kept the Retort red-hot for a good while ; yet the Nitrous and Saline spirits would by no means be driven away from the Silver , but continued in fusion with it ; and when the masse was taken out , these Spirits did so abound in it , that it had no appearance of a Metal , but looked rather like a thick piece of Horn. The next Instance I shall name is afforded us by that kind of Turbith , which may be made by Oil of Vitriol , in stead of the Aqua fortis imployed in the common Turpethum Minerale . For , though Oil of Vitriol be a distilled liquour , and Mercury a body volatile enough ; yet , when we abstracted four or five parts of Oil of Vitriol from one of Quick-silver , ( especially if the operation were repeated , ) and then washed off as much as we could of the saline particles of the Oil of Vitriol ; yet those that remained adhering to the Mercury made it far more fixt , than either of the liquours had been before , and inabled it even in a Crucible to endure such a degree of fire , before it could be driven away , as , I confess , I somewhat wondered at . The like Turbith may be made with Oil of Sulphur per Campanam . But this is nothing to what Helmont tells us of the operation of his Alkahest , where he affirms , that that Menstruum , which is volatile enough , being abstracted from running Mercury , not onely coagulates it , but leaves it fixt , so that it will endure the brunt of fires acuated by Bellows , ( omnem follium ignem . ) If this be certain , it will not be a slender proof , that Fixity may be Mechanically produced ; and however , the Argument will be good in reference to the Helmontian Spagyrists . For if , as one would expect , there do remain some particles of the Menstruum with those of the metal , it will not be denied , that two volatile substances may perfectly fix one another . And if , as Helmont seems to think , the Menstruum be totally abstracted , this supposition will the more favour our Doctrine about Fixity ; since , if there be no material additament left with the Quick-silver , the Fixation cannot so reasonably be ascribed to any thing , as to some new Mechanical modification , and particularly to some change of Texture introduced into the Mercury it self . And that you may think this the less improbable , I will now proceed to some Instances , whereof the first shall be this ; That , having put a mixture made of a certain proportion of two dry , as well as volatile , bodies , ( viz. Sal Armoniac , and Flower or very fine powder of Sulphur , ) to half its weight of common running Mercury , and elevated this mixture three or four times from it , ( in a conveniently shaped , and not over-wide , glass ) the Mercury , that lay in the bottom in the form of a ponderous and somewhat purplish powder , was , by this operation , so fixt , that it long endured a strong fire , which at length was made so strong , that it melted the Glass , and kept it melted , without being strong enough to force up the Mercury : which , by some trials , not so proper to be here mentioned , seemed to have its salivating and emetick powers extraordinarily infringed , and sometimes quite suppressed . But this onely upon the bye . In all the other Instances , ( wherewith I shall conclude these Notes , ) I shall employ one Menstruum , Oil of Vitriol , and shew you the efficacy of it in fixing some parts of volatile bodies with some parts of it self ; by which examples it may appear , that a Volatile body may not onely lessen the volatility of another body , as in the lately mentioned case of our spirituous Sal Armoniac ; but that two Substances , that apart were volatile , may compose a third , that will not onely be less volatile , but considerably ( if not altogether ) fixt . We mixed then , by degrees , about equal parts of Oil of Vitriol and Oil of Turpentine : and though each of them single , especially the latter , will ascend with a moderate fire in a Sand-furnace ; yet , after the Distillation was ended , we had a considerable quantity , sometimes ( if I misremember not ) a fifth or sixth part , of a Caput Mortuum black as a Coal , and whereof a great part was of a scarce to be expected fixtness in the fire . To give a higher proof of the disposition , that Oil of Vitriol has to let some of its parts grow fixt by combination with those of an exceeding , volatile additament , I mixed this liquour with an equal or double weight of highly rectified Spirit of Wine , and not onely after , but sometimes without , previous digestion , I found , that the fluid parts of the mixture being totally abstracted , there would remain a pretty quantity of a black Substance so fixt as to afford just cause of wonder . And because Camphire is esteemed the most fugitive of consistent bodies , in regard that , being but laid in the free air , without any help of the fire , it will fly all away ; I tried , what Oil of Vitriol abstracted from Camphire would doe ; and found at the bottom of the Retort a greater quantity than one would expect of a Substance as black as pitch , and almost as far from the volatility as from the colour of Camphire , though it appeared not , that any of the Gum had sublim'd into the neck of the Retort . From all which Instances it seems manifestly enough to follow , that in many cases there needs nothing to make associated particles , whether volatile or not , become fixt , but either to implicate or intangle them among themselves , or bring them to touch one another according to large portions of their surfaces , or by both these ways conjoyntly , or by some others , to procure the firm Cohaesion of so many particles , that the resulting Corpuscles be too big or heavy to be , by the degree of fire wherein they are said to be fixt , driven up into the Air. FINIS . Experiments and Notes ABOUT THE MECHANICAL ORIGINE OR PRODUCTION OF CORROSIVENESS AND CORROSIBILITY . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esq ; Fellow of the R. Society . LONDON , Printed by E. Flesher , for R. Davis Bookseller in Oxford . 1675. Experiments and Notes ABOUT THE MECHANICAL PRODUCTION OF CORROSIVENESS AND CORROSIBILITY . SECT . I. About the Mechanical Origine of Corrosiveness . I Do not in the following Notes treat of Corrosiveness in their strict sense of the word , who ascribe this Quality only to Liquors , that are notably acid or sowre , such as Aqua fortis , Spirit of Salt ; Vinegar ▪ Juice of Lemons , &c. but , that I may not be oblig'd to overlook Urinous , Oleous , and divers other Solvents , or to coin new names for their differing Solutive Powers , I presume to employ the word Corrosiveness in a greater latitude , so as to make it almost equivalent to the Solutive power of Liquors , referring other Menstruums to those that are Corrosive or fretting , ( though not always as to the most proper , yet ) as to the principal and best known species ; which I the less scruple here to do , because I have * elsewhere more distinctly enumerated and sorted the Solvents of bodies . The Attributes that seem the most proper to qualifie a Liquor to be Corrosive , are all of them Mechanical , being such as are these that follow : First , That the Menstruum consist of , or abound with , Corpuscles not too big to get in at the Pores or Commissures of the body to be dissolved ; nor yet be so very minute as to pass through them , as the beams of Light do through Glass ; or to be unable by reason of their great slenderness and flexibility to disjoyn the parts they invade . Secondly , That these Corpuscles be of a shape fitting them to insinuate themselves more or less into the Pores or Commissures above-mentioned , in order to the dissociating of the solid parts . Thirdly , That they have a competent degree of solidity to disjoyn the Particles of the body to be dissolved ; which Solidity of Solvent corpuscles is somewhat distinct from their bulk , mention'd in the first Qualification ; as may appear by comparing a stalk of Wheat and a metalline Wire of the same Diameter , or a flexible wand of Osier of the bigness of ones little finger , with a rigid rod of Iron of the same length and thickness . Fourthly , That the Corpuscles of the Menstruum be agile and advantaged for motion , ( such as is fit to disjoyn the parts of the invaded body ) either by their shape , or their minuteness , or their fitness to have their action befriended by adjuvant Causes ; such as may be ( first ) the pressure of the Atmosphere , which may impell them into the Pores of bodies not fill'd with a Substance so resisting as common Air : As we see , that water will by the prevalent pressure of the Ambient , whether Air or Water , be raised to the height of some inches in capillary Glasses , and in the pores of Spunges , whose consistent parts being of easier cession than the sides of Glass-pipes , those Pores will be enlarged , and consequently those sides disjoyn'd , as appears by the dilatation and swelling of the Spunge : And ( secondly ) the agitation , that the intruding Corpuscles may be fitted to receive in those Pores or Commissures by the transcursion of some subtile ethereal matter ; or by the numerous knocks and other pulses of the swimming or tumbled Corpuscles of the Menstruum it self , ( which being a fluid body , must have its small parts perpetually and variously moved ) whereby the engaged Corpuscles , like so many little Wedges and Leavers , may be enabled to wrench open , or force asunder the little parts between which they have insinuated themselves . But I shall not here prosecute this Theory , ( which , to be handled fully , would require a discourse apart ) since these Conjectures are propos'd but to make it probable in the general , That the Corrosiveness of bodies may be deduced from Mechanical Principles : But whether best from the newly propos'd ones , or any other , need not be anxiously consider'd in these Notes , where the things mainly intended and rely'd on , are the Experiments and Phaenomena themselves . EXPER. I. 'T Is obvious , that , though the recently exprest Juice of Grapes be sweet , whilst it retains the Texture that belongs to it as 't is new , ( especially if it be made of some sorts of Grapes that grow in hot Regions , ) yet after fermentation , 't will , in tract of time , as 't were spontaneously , degenerate into Vinegar . In which Liquor , to a multitude of the more solid Corpuscles of the Must , their frequent and mutual Attritions may be supposed to have given edges like those of the blades of swords or knives ; and in which , perhaps , the confused agitation that preceded , extricated , or , as it were , unsheathed some ac●d particles , that ( deriv'd from the sap of the Vine , or , perchance more originally , from the juice of the Earth ) were at first in the Must , but lay conceal'd , and as it were sheathed , among the other particles wherewith they were associated , when they were prest out of the Grapes . Now this Liquor , that by the forementioned ( or other like ) Mechanical Changes is become Vinegar , does so abound with Corpuscles , which , on the account of their edges , or their otherwise sharp and penetrative shape , are Acid and Corrosive , that the better sort of it will , without any preparation , dissolve Coral , Crabs-eyes , and even some Stones , Lapis stellaris in particular , as also Minium , ( or the Calx of Lead ) and even crude Copper , as we have often tried . And not onely the distill'd Spirit of it will do those things more powerfully , and perform some other things that meer Vinegar cannot ; but the saline particles , wont to remain after Distillation , may , by being distill'd and cohobated per se , or by being skilfully united with the foregoing Spirit , be brought to a Menstruum of no small efficacy in the dissolution ▪ and other preparations of metalline bodies , too compact for the meer Spirit it self to work upon . From divers other sweet things also may Vinegar be made ; and even of Honey , skilfully fermented with a small proportion of common water , may be made a Vinegar stronger than many of the common Wine-vinegars ; as has been affirmed to me by a very candid Physician , who had occasion to deal much in Liquors . EXPER. II. NOt onely several dry Woods , and other Bodies that most of them pass for insipid , but Honey and Sugar themselves afford by Distillation Acid Spirits that will dissolve Coral , Pearls , &c. and will also corrode some Metals and metalline Bodies themselves ; as I have often found by Trial. So that the violent Operation of the fire , that destroys what they call the Form of the distill'd body , and works as a Mechanical Agent by agitating , breaking , dissipating , and under a new constitution reassembling the parts , procures for the Distiller an Acid Corrosive Menstruum ; which whether it be brought to pass by making the Corpuscles rub one another into the figure of little sharp blades , or by splitting some solid parts into sharp or cutting Corpuscles , or by unsheathing , as it were , some parts , that , during the former Texture of the body , did not appear to be acid ; or whether it be rather effected by some other Mechanical way , may in due time be further considered . EXPER. III. 'T Is observ'd by Refiners , Goldsmiths and Chymists , that Aqua Fortis and Aqua Regia , which are Corrosive Menstruums , dissolve Metals , the former of them Silver , and the latter Gold , much more speedily and copiously when an external heat gives their intestine motions a new degree of Vehemency or Velocity , which is but a mechanical thing ; and yet this superadded measure of Agitation is not onely in the abovemention'd Instances a powerfully assistant Cause in the Solutions made by the lately mention'd Corrosive Liquors , but is that without which some Menstruums are not wont sensibly to corrode some bodies at all , as we have tried in keeping Quick-silver in three or four times its weight of Oyl of Vitriol ; since in this Menstruum I found not the Mercury to be dissolved or corroded , though I kept it a long time in the Cold : Whereas , when the Oyl of Vitriol was excited by a convenient heat , ( which was not faint ) it corroded the Mercury into a fine white Calx or powder , which , by the affusion of fair water , would be presently turn'd into a yellowish Calx of the colour and nature of a Turbith . I remember also , that having for trials sake dissolv'd in a weak Spirit of Salt , a fourth part of its weight of fine Crystals of Nitre , we found , that it would not in the cold ( at least during a good while that we waited for its operation ) dissolve Leaf-gold ; but when the Menstruum was a little heated at the fire , the Solution proceeded readily enough . And in some cases , though the external heat be but small , yet there may intervene a brisk heat , and much cooperate in the dissolution of a Body ; as , for instance , of Quicksilver in Aqua Fortis . For it is no prodigy to find , that when a full proportion of that fluid Metal has been taken , the Solution , though at first altogether liquid , and as to sense uniform , comes to have after a while a good quantity of coagulated or crystalliz'd matter at the bottom , of which the cause may be , that in the very act of Corrosion there is excited an intense degree of heat , which conferring a new degree of agitation to the Menstruum , makes it dissolve a good deal more , than afterwards , when the Conflict is over , it is able to keep up . EXPER. IV. WE have observed also , that Agitation does in some cases so much promote the Dissolutive power of Saline bodies , that though they be not reduc'd to that subtilty of parts , to which a strong Distillation brings them ; yet they may in their grosser and cruder form have the power to work on Metals ; as I elsewhere shew , that by barely boiling some Solutions of Salts of a convenient structure , as Nitre , Sal Armoniac , &c. with foliated Gold , Silver , &c. we have corroded these Metalas , and can dissolve some others . And by boiling crude Copper ( in Filings ) with Sublimate and common water , we were able , in no long time , to make a Solution of the Metal . EXPER. V. SOmetimes also , so languid an Agitation , as that which seems but sufficient to keep a Liquor in the state of fluidity , may suffice to give some dry bodies a corroding power , which they could not otherwise exercise ; as in the way of writing ones name ( or a Motto ) upon the blade of a knife with common Sublimate : For , if having very thinly overlaid which side you please with Bees-wax , you write with a bodkin or some pointed thing upon it ; the Wax being thereby removed from the strokes made by the sharp body , 't is easie to etch with Sublimate ; since you need but strew the powder of it upon the place bared of the Wax , and wet it well with meer common water ; for strong Vinegar is not necessary . For after a while all the parts of the blade that should not be fretted , being protected by the Case or Film of Wax , the Sublimate will corrode onely where way has been made for it by the bodkin , and the Letters will be more or less deeply ingraven ( or rather etch'd ) according to the time the Sublimate is suffer'd to lye on . And if you aim onely at a legible impression , a few minutes of an hour ( as four or five ) may serve the turn . EXPER. VI. THis brings into my mind an Observation I have sometimes had occasion to make , that I found more useful than common , and it is , That divers Bodies , whether distill'd or not distill'd , that are not thought capable of dissolving other Bodies , because in moderate degrees of heat they will not work on them , may yet by intense degrees of heat be brought to be fit Solvents for them . To which purpose I remember , that having a distill'd Liquor , which was rather sweet to the taste , than either acid , lixiviate or urinous , though for that reason it seem'd unfit to work on Pearls , and accordingly did not dissolve them in a considerable time , wherein they were kept with it in a more than ordinarily warm digestion ; yet the Glass being for many hours ( amounting perhaps to some days ) kept in such an heat of sand as made the Liquor boil , we had a Dissolution of Pearls , that uniting with the Menstruum made it a very valuable Liquor . And though the Solvents of crude Gold , wont to be employed by Chymists , are generally distill'd Liquors that are acid , and in the lately mention'd Solvent , made of crude Salts and common water , Acidity seem'd to be the predominant quality ( which makes the use of Solutions made in Aqua Regia , &c. suspected by many Physicians and Chymists ; ) yet fitly chosen Alcalizate Bodies themselves , as repugnant as they use to be to Acids , without the help of any Liquor will be enabled by a melting Fire in no long time to penetrate and tear asunder the parts even of crude Gold ; so that it may afterwards be easily taken up in Liquors that are not acid , or even by water it self . EXPER. VII . THe Tract about Salt-peter , that gave occasion to these Annotations , may furnish us with an eminent Instance of the Production of Solvents . For , though pure Salt-peter it self , when dissolv'd in water , is not observ'd to be a Menstruum for the Solution of the Metals hereafter to be named , or so much as of Coral it self ; yet , when by a convenient Distillation its parts are split , if I may so speak , and by Attrition , or other Mechanical ways of working on them , reduc'd to the shapes of Acid and Alcalizate Salts , it then affords two sorts of Menstruums of very differing natures , which betwixt them dissolve or corrode a great number and variety of Bodies ; as the Spirit of Nitre without addition is a Solvent for most Metals , as Silver , Mercury , Copper , Lead , &c. and also divers Mineral Bodies , as-Tin-glass , Spelter , Lapis Calaminaris , &c. and the fixed Salt of Nitre operates upon Sulphureous Minerals , as common Sulphur , Antimony , and divers other Bodies , of which I elsewhere make mention . EXPER. VIII . BY the former Trials it has appear'd , that the increase of Motion in the more penetrating Corpuscles of a Liquor , contributes much to its Solutive power ; and I shall now adde , that the Shape and Size , which are Mechanical affections , and sometimes also the Solidity of the same Corpuscles does eminently concur to qualifie a Liquor to dissolve this or that particular body . Of this , even some of the more familiar practices of Chymists may supply us with Instances . For there is no account so probable as may be given upon this supposition , why Aqua Fortis ▪ which will dissolve Silver , without medling with Gold , should , by the addition of a fourth part of its weight of Sal Armoniac , be turn'd into Aqua Regia , which , without medling with Silver , will dissolve Gold. But there is no necessity of having recourse to so gross and compounded a Body as Sal Armoniac to enable Aqua Fortis to dissolve Gold : For , the Spirit of common Salt alone being mingled in a due proportion , will suffice for that purpose . Which ( by the way ) shews , that the Volatile Salt of Urine and Soot , that concur to the making up of Sal Armoniac , are not necessary to the dissolution of Gold , for which a Solvent may be made with Aqua Fortis and crude Sea-salt . I might adde , that the Mechanical affections of a Menstruum may have such an interest in its dissolutive power , that even Mineral or Metalline Corpuscles may become useful Ingredients of it , though perhaps it be a distill'd Liquor ; as might be illustrated by the Operations of some compounded Solvents , such as is the Oyl of Antimony made by repeated Rectifications of what Chymists call its Butter , which , whatever some say to the contrary , does much abound in Antimonial Substance . EXPER. IX . BUt I shall return to our Aqua Regia , because the mention I had occasion to make of that Solvent brought into my mind what I devis'd , to make it probable , that a smaller change , than one would lightly imagine , of the bulk , shape , or solidity of the Corpuscles of a Menstruum may make it fit to dissolve a Body it would not work on before . And this I the rather attempted , because the warier sort of Chymists themselves are very shye of the inward use or preparations made of Gold by the help of Aqua Fortis , because of the odious stink they find , and the venenosity they suspect in that corrosive Menstruum : Whereas Spirit of Salt we look upon as a much more innocent Liquor , whereof , if it be but diluted with fair water or any ordinary drink , a good Dose may be safely given inwardly , though it have not wrought upon Gold or any other body , to take off its acrimony . But , whether or no this prove of any great use in Physick , wherein perhaps , if any quantity of Gold be to be dissolved , a greater proportion of Spirit of Nitre would be needed ; the success will not be unfit to be mention'd in reference to what we were saying of Solvents . For , whereas we find not that our Spirit of Salt here in England will at all dissolve crude Gold , we found , that by putting some Leaf-gold into a convenient quantity of good Spirit of Salt , when we had dropt-in Spirit of Nitre ( shaking the Glass at each drop , ) till we perceived , that the mixture was just able in a moderate heat to dissolve the Gold , we found , that we had been oblig'd to employ but after the rate of twelve drops of the latter Liquor to an ounce of the former ; so that , supposing each of these drops to weigh a grain , the fortieth part of Spirit of Nitre being added , served to turn the Spirit of Salt into a kind of Aqua Regia . But to know the proportion otherwise than by ghess , we weigh'd six other drops of the same Spirit of Salt , and found them to amount not fully to three grains and an half : Whence it appeared , that we added but about a seventieth part of the Nitrous Spirit to that of Salt. The Experiments that have been hitherto recited , relate chiefly to the Production of Corrosive Menstruums ; and therefore I shall now adde an account of a couple of Trials , that I made manifestly to lessen or quite to destroy Corrosiveness in Liquors very conspicuous for that quality . EXPER. X. WHereas one of the most corrosive Menstruums , that is yet known , is Oyl of Vitriol , which will fret in pieces both divers Metals and Minerals , and a great number and variety of animal and vegetable bodies ; yet if you digest with it for a while onely an equal weight of highly rectified Spirit of Wine , and afterwards distill the mixture very warily , ( for else the Experiment may very easily miscarry , ) you may obtain a pretty deal of Liquor not corrosive at all , and the remaining substance will be reduc'd partly into a Liquor , which , though acid , is not more so than one part of good Oyl of Vitriol will make ten times as much common water , by being well mingled with it ; and partly into a dry substance that has scarce any taste at all , much less a corrosive one . EXPER. XI . ANd though good Aqua Fortis be the most generally employed of corrosive Menstruums , as being capable of dissolving or corroding , not onely many Minerals , as Tin-glass , Antimony , Zinke , &c. but all Metals except Gold , ( for , though it make not a permanent Solution of crude Tin , it quickly frets the parts asunder , and reduces it to an immalleable substance ; ) yet to shew , how much the power of corroding may be taken away by changing the Mechanical Texture of a Menstruum , even without seeming to destroy the fretting Salts , I practis'd ( and communicated to divers Virtuosi ) the following Experiment , elsewhere mentioned to other purposes . We took equal parts of good Aqua Fortis , and highly dephlegm'd Spirit of Wine , and having mingled them warily and by degrees , ( without which caution the Operation may prove dangerous , ) we united them by two or three Distillations of the whole mixture ; which afterwards we found not to have the least fretting taste , and to be so deprived of its corrosive nature , that it would not work upon Silver , though by Precipitation or otherwise reduc'd to very small parts ; nay , it would scarce sensibly work in a good while on Filings of Copper , or upon other bodies , which meer Vinegar , or perhaps Rhenish wine will corrode . Nay , I remember , that with another Spirit , ( that was not Urinous ) and afterwards with Alkool of Wine we shew'd a more surprizing Specimen of the power of either destroying or debilitating the Corrosiveness of a Menstruum , and checking its Operation . For , having caused a piece of Copper-plate to be put into one ounce of Aqua Fortis , when this Liquor was eagerly working upon the Metal , I caus'd an ounce of the Alkool of Wine , or the other Spirit to be poured , ( which it should warily be ) upon the agitated mixture ; whose effervescence , at the first instant , seemed to be much increased , but presently after was checked , and the Corrosiveness of the Menstruum being speedily disabled or corrected , the remaining Copper was left undissolved at the bottom . Nor are these the onely acid Menstruums that I have many years since been able to correct by such a way : For I applied it to others , as Spirit of Nitre , and even Aqua Regis it self ; but it has not an equal operation upon all , and least of all ( as far as I can remember ) upon Spirit of Salt ; as on the other side strong Spirit of Nitre was the Menstruum upon which its effects were the most satisfactory . Most of the Chymists pretend , that the Solutions of bodies are perform'd by a certain Cognation and Sympathy between the Menstruum and the body it is to work upon . And it is not to be denied , that in divers Instances there is , as it were , a Consanguinity between the Menstruum and the body to be dissolved ; as when Sulphur is dissolved by Oyls whether exprest or distill'd : But yet , as the opinion is generally proposed , I cannot acquiesce in it , partly because there are divers Solutions and other Phaenomena , where it will not take place , and partly because even in those instances wherein 't is thought most applicable , the effect seems to depend upon Mechanical Principles . EXPER. XII . ANd first , 't will be difficult to shew , what Consanguinity there is between Sal Gem , and Antimony , and Iron , and Zinke , and Bread , and Camphire , and Lapis Calaminaris , and flesh of divers kinds , and Oister-shells , and Harts-horn , and Chalk , and Quick-lime ; some of which belong to the Vegetable , some to the Mineral , and some to the Animal Kingdom ; and yet all of them and divers others ( as I have tried ) may , even without the assistance of external Heat , be dissolved or corroded by one single Mineral Menstruum , Oyl of Vitriol . And which is not to be neglected on this occasion , some of them may be bodies , supposed by Chymists to have an Antipathy to each other in point of Corrosion or Dissolution . EXPER. XIII . I Observe also , that a Dissolution may be made of the same body by Menstruums , to which the Chymists attribute ( as I just now observed they did to some Bodies ) a mutual Antipathy , and which therefore are not like to have a Sympathy with the same third body ; as I found by trial , that both Aqua Fortis , and Spirit of Urine , upon whose mixture there insues a conflict with a great effervescence , will each of them apart readily dissolve crude Zinke , and so each of them will , the Filings of Copper . Not to mention , that pure Spirit of Wine and Oyl of Vitriol , as great a difference as there is between them , in I know not how many respects , and as notable a heat as will insue upon their Commixture , will each of them dissolve Camphire ; to which may be added other instances of the like nature . As for what is commonly said , that Oyls dissolve Sulphur , and Saline Menstruums Metals , because ( as they speak ) Simile simili gaudet : I answer , That where there is any such similitude , it may be very probably ascribed , not so much , with the Chymists that favour Aristotle , to the essential forms of the bodies that are to work on each other , nor , with the meer Chymists , to their Salt , or Sulphur , or Mercury , as such ; but to the congruity between the pores and figures of the Menstruum , and the body dissolved by it , and to some other Mechanical Affections of them . EXPER. XIV . FOr Silver , for example , not onely will be dissolved by Nitre which they reckon a Salt , but be amalgam'd with , and consequently dissolved by , Quicksilver , and also by the operation of Brimstone , be easily incorporated with that Mineral which Chymists are wont to account of so oleaginous a nature , and insoluble in Aqua Fortis . EXPER. XV. ANd as for those Dissolutions that are made with Oylie and inflammable Menstruums , of common Sulphur and other inflammable bodies , the Dissolution does not make for them so clearly as they imagine . For if such Menstruums operate , as is alledged , upon the account of their being , as well as the bodies they work upon , of a sulphureous nature , whence is it that highly rectified Spirit of Wine , which according to them must be of a most Sulphureous nature , since being set on fire 't will flame all away without leaving one drop behind it , will not ( unless perhaps after a tedious while ) dissolve even Flowers of Brimstone , which essential as well as express'd Oyls will easily take up ; as Spirit of Wine it self also will do almost in a trice , if ( as we shall see anon ) by the help of an Alcali the Texture of the Brimstone be alter'd , though the onely thing that is added to the Sulphur being an incombustible substance , is nothing near of so sulphureous a nature as the Flowers , and need have no Consanguinity upon the score of its Origine with Spirit of Wine , as 't is alledged that Salt of Tartar has ; since I have tried , That fixt Nitre , employ'd instead of it , will do the same . EXPER. XVI . THe mention of Nitre brings into my mind , that the Salt-peter being wont to be lookt upon by Chymists as a very inflammable body , ought , according to them , to be of a very sulphureous nature ; yet we find not that 't is in Chymical Oyls , but in water , readily dissolved . And whereas Chymists tell us , that the Solutions of Alcaly's , such as Salt of Tartar , or of Pot-ashes in common Oyls , proceed from the great cognation between them , I demand , whence it happens , that Salt of Tartar will by boiling be dissolved in the exprest Oyl of Almonds , or of Olives , and be reduc'd with it to a soapy body , and that yet with the essential Oyl of Juniper or Aniseeds , &c. where what they call the Sulphur is made pure and penetrant , being freed from the earthy , aqueous and feculent parts , which Distillation discovers to be in the exprest Oyls , you may boil Salt of Tartar twenty times as long without making any Soap of them , or perhaps any sensible Solution of the Alkaly . And Chymists know , how difficult it is , and how unsuccessfully 't is wont to be attempted to dissolve pure Salt of Tartar in pure Spirit of Wine , by digesting the not peculiarly prepar'd Salt in the cognate Menstruum . I will not urge , that , though the most conspicuous mark of Sulphur be inflammability , and is in an eminent degree to be found in Oyl as well as Sulphur ; yet an Alkaly and water which are neither singly , nor united inflammable , will dissolve common Sulphur . EXPER. XVII . BUt to make it probable against the Chymists , ( for I propose it but as an argument ad hominem ) that the Solution of Sulphur in exprest Oyls depends upon somewhat else besides the abundance of the second Principle in both the bodies ; I will adde to what I said before , an affirmation of divers Chymical Writers themselves , who reckon Aqua Regis , which is plainly a Saline Menstruum , and dissolves Copper , Iron , Coral , &c. like Acid Liquors , among the Solvents of Sulphur , and by that power among other things distinguish it from Aqua Fortis . And on the other side if , there be a Congruity betwixt an exprest Oyl and another body , though it be such as , by its easie Dissolubleness in Acid Salts , Chymists should pronounce to be of a saline nature , an exprest Oyl will readily enough work upon it ; as I have tried by digesting even crude Copper in Filings with Oyl of sweet Almonds , which took up so much of the metal as to be deeply coloured thereby , as if it had been a Corrosive Liquor : Nay , I shall adde , that even with Milk , as mild a Liquor as 't is , I have found by Trial , that without the help of fire a kind of Dissolution may , though not in few hours , be made of crude Copper , as appear'd by the greenish blew colour the Filings acquired , when they had been well drenched in the Liquor , and left for a certain time in the Vessel , where the air had very free access to them . EXPER. XVIII . BEsides the Argument ad hominem , newly drawn from Aqua Regia , it may be proper enough to urge another of the same kind upon the generality of the Helmontians and Paracelsians , who admit what the Heads of their Sects deliver concerning the Operations of the Alkahest . For whereas 't is affirm'd , that this irresistible Menstruum will dissolve all tangible bodies here below , so as they may be reduc'd into insipid water ; as on the one side 't will be very hard to conceive how a specificated Menstruum that is determin'd to be either Acid , or Lixiviate , or Urinous , &c. should be able to dissolve so great a variety of Bodies of differing and perhaps contrary natures , in some whereof Acids , in other Lixiviate Salts , and in others Urinous are predominant ; so on the other side , if the Alkahest be not a specificated Menstruum , 't will very much disfavour the Opinion of the Chymists , that will have some Bodies dissoluble onely by Acids as such , others by fixt Alkalys , and others again by Volatile Salts ; since a Menstruum , that is neither Acid , Lixiviate , nor Urinous , is able to dissolve bodies , in some of which one , and in others another of those Principles is predominant : So that , if a Liquor be conveniently qualified , it is not necessary that it should be either Acid to dissolve Pearl or Coral , or Alkalizate to dissolve Sulphur . But upon what Mechanical account an analyzing Menstruum may operate , is not necessary to be here determin'd . And I elsewhere offer some thoughts of mine about it . EXPER. XIX . IF we duly reflect upon the known process that Chymists are wont to employ in making Mercurius dulcis , we shall find it very favourable to our Hypothesis . For though we have already shewn in the V. Experiment , and 't is generally confest , that common Sublimate made of Mercury is a highly corrosive body ; yet , if it be well ground with near an equal weight of Quicksilver , and be a few times sublimed , ( to mix them the more exactly ) it will become so mild , that 't will not so much as taste sharp upon the tongue ; so that Chymists are wont to call it Mercurius dulcis : And yet this Dulcification seems to be performed in a Mechanical way . For most part of the Salts , that made the Sublimate so Corrosive , abide in the Mercurius dulcis ; but by being compounded with more Quicksilver , they are diluted by it , and ( which is more considerable ) acquire a new Texture , which renders them unfit to operate , as they did before , when the fretting Salts were not joyn'd with a sufficient quantity of the Mercury to inhibit their corrosive activity . It may perhaps somewhat help us to conceive , how this change may be made , if we imagine , that a company of meer Knife-blades be first fitted with Hafts , which will in some regard lessen their wounding power by covering or casing them at that end which is design'd for the handle ; ( though their insertion into those Hafts , turning them into Knives , makes them otherwise the fitter to cut and pierce ) and that each of them be afterwards sheathed , ( which is , as it were , a hafting of the Blades too ; ) for then they become unfit to cut or stab , as before , though the Blades be not destroyed : Or else we may conceive these Blades without Hafts or Sheaths to be tied up in bundles , or as it were in little faggots with pieces of wood , somewhat longer than themselves , opportunely placed between them . For neither in this new Constitution would they be fit to cut and stab as before . And by conceiving the edges of more or fewer of the Blades to be turn'd inwards , and those that are not , to have more or less of their points and edges to be sheath'd , or otherwise cover'd by interpos'd bodies , one may be help'd to imagine , how the genuine effects of the Blades may be variously lessen'd or diversifi'd . But , whether these or any other like changes of Disposition be fancy'd , it may by Mechanical Illustrations become intelligible , how the Corrosive Salts of common Sublimate may lose their efficacy , when they are united with a sufficient quantity of Quicksilver in Mercurius dulcis : In which new state the Salts may indeed in a Chymical phrase be said to be satiated ; but this Chymical phrase does not explicate how this Saturation takes away the Corrosiveness from Salts that are still actually present in the sweet Mercury . And by Analogy to some such Explications as the above propos'd , a possible Account may be render'd , why fretting Salts do either quite lose their sharpness , as Alkalies , whilst they are imbodied with Sand in common Glass ; or lose much of their Corrosive Acidity , as Oyl of Vitriol does when with Steel it composes Vitriolum Martis ; or else are transmuted or disguis'd by conjunction with some corroded bodies of a peculiar Texture , as when Aqua Fortis does with Silver make an extreamly bitter Salt or Vitriol , and with Lead one that is positively sweet almost like common Saccharum Saturni . EXPER. XX. TO shew , how much the Efficacy of a Menstruum may depend even upon such seemingly slight Mechanical Circumstances as one would not easily suspect any necessity of , I shall employ an Experiment , which though the unpractis'd may easily fail of making well , yet , when I tried it after the best manner , I did it with good success . I put then upon Lead a good quantity of well rectified Aqua Fortis , in which the Metal , as I expected , continued undissolved ; though , if the Chymists say truly that the dissolving power of the Menstruum consists onely in the acid Salts that it abounds with , it seems naturally to follow , that the more abundance of them there is in a determinate quantity of the Liquor , it should be the more powerfully able to dissolve Metalline and Mineral bodies . And in effect we see , that , if Corrosive Menstruums be not sufficiently dephlegmed ▪ they will not work on divers of them . But , notwithstanding this plausible Doctrine of the Chymists , conjecturing that the Saline Particles that swam in our Aqua Fortis might be more throng'd together , than was convenient for a body of such a Texture of Saline parts , and such intervals between them , I diluted the Menstruum by adding to it what I thought fit of fair water , and then found , that the desired Congruity betwixt the Agent and the Patient emerged , and the Liquor quickly began to fall upon the Metal and dissolve it . And if you would try an Experiment to the same purpose , that needs much less circumspection to make it succeed , you may , instead of employing Lead , reiterate what I elsewhere mention my self to have tried with Silver , which would not dissolve in too strong Aqua fortis , but would be readily fallen upon by that Liquor , when I had weaken'd it with common water . And this it may suffice to have said at present of the power or faculty that is found in some bodies of Corroding or Dissolving others . Whereof I have not found among the Aristotelians , I have met with , so much as an Offer at an Intelligible account . And I the less expect the vulgar Chymists will from their Hypostatical Principles afford us a Satisfactory one , when , besides the Particulars that from the nature of the things and Helmont's Writings have been lately alledg'd against their Hypothesis , I consider , how slight accounts they are wont to give us even of the familiar Phaenomena of Corrosive Liquors . For if , for example , you ask a vulgar Chymist why Aqua fortis dissolves Silver and Copper , 't is great odds but he will tell you , 't is because of the abundance of fretting Salt that is in it , and has a cognation with the Salts of the Metal . And if you ask him , why Spirit of Salt dissolves Copper , he will tell you 't is for the same reason ; and yet , if you put Spirit of Salt , though very strong , to Aqua fortis , this Liquor will not dissolve Silver , because upon the mixture , the Liquors acquire a new Gonstitution as to the Saline Particles , by vertue of which the mixture will dissolve , instead of Silver , Gold. Whence we may argue against the Chymists , that the Inability of this compounded Liquor to work on Silver does not proceed from its being weaken'd by the Spirit of Salt ; as well because , according to them , Gold is far the more compact metal of the two , and requires a more potent Menstruum to work upon it , as because this same compounded Liquor will readily dissolve Copper . And to the same purpose with this Experiment I should alledge divers others , if I thought this the fittest place wherein I could propose them . SECT . II. About the Mechanicall Origine of CORROSIBILITY . COrrosibility being the quality that answers Corrosiveness , he that has taken notice of the Advertisement I formerly gave about my use of the Term Corrosiveness in these Notes , may easily judge , in what sense I employ the name of the other Quality ; which ( whether you will stile it Opposite or Conjugate ) for want of a better word , I call Corrosibility . This Corrosibility of Bodies is as well as their Corrosiveness a Relative thing ; as we see , that Gold , for instance ▪ will not be dissolved by Aqua fortis , but will by Aqua Regis ; whereas Silver is not soluble by the latter of these Menstruums , but is by the former . And this relative Affection , on whose account a Body comes to be corrodible by a Menstruum , seems to consist chiefly in three things , which all of them depend upon Mechanical Principles . Of these Qualifications the first is , that the Body to be corroded be furnish'd with Pores of such a bigness and figure , that the Corpuscles of the Solvent may enter them , and yet not be much agitated in them without giving brisk knocks or shakes to the solid parts that make up the walls , if I may so call them , of the Pores . And 't is for want of this condition , that Glass is penetrated in a multitude of places , but not dissipated or dissolv'd by the incident beams of Light , which permeate its Pores without any considerable resistance ; and though the Pores and Commissures of a Body were less minute , and capable of letting in some grosser Corpuscles , yet if these were , for want of solidity or rigidness , too flexible , or were of a figure incongruous to that of the Pores they should enter , the Dissolution would not insue ; as it happens when pure Spirit of Wine is in the cold put upon Salt of Tartar , or when Aqua fortis is put upon powder of Sulphur . The second Qualification of a Corrodible Body is , that its consistent Corpuscles be of such a Bulk and Solidity , as does not render them uncapable of being disjoyn'd by the action of the insinuating corpuscles of the Menstruum . Agreeable to this and the former Observation is the practice of Chymists , who oftentimes , when they would have a Body to be wrought on by a Menstruum otherwise too weak for it in its crude estate , dispose it to receive the action of the Menstruum by previously opening it , ( as they speak ) that is , by enlarging the Pores , making a comminution of the Corpuscles , or weakening their Cohesion . And we see , that divers Bodies are brought by fit preparations to be resoluble in Liquors that would not work on them before . Thus , as was lately noted , Lime-stone by Calcination becomes ( in part ) dissoluble in water ; and some Metalline Calces will be so wrought on by Solvents , as they would not be by the same Agents , if the preparation of the Metalline or other Body had not given them a new Disposition . Thus , though crude Tartar , especially in lumps , is very slowly and difficultly dissoluble in cold water , yet when 't is burnt it may be presently dissolved in that Liquor ; and thus , though the Filings and the Calx of Silver will not be at all dissolv'd by common water or Spirit of Wine ; yet if by the interposition of the Saline Particles of Aqua Fortis , the Lunar Corpuscles be so disjoyn'd , and suffer such a comminution as they do in Crystals of Lune , the Metal thus prepared and brought with its Saline Additament into a new Texture will easily enough dissolve , not onely in water , but , as I have tried , in well rectified Spirit of Wine . And the like Solubility I have found in the Crystals of Lead made with Spirit of Verdigrease , or good distill'd Vinegar , and in those of Copper made with Aqua Fortis . The last Disposition to Corrosibility consists in such a cohesion of the parts , whereof a Body is made up , as is not too strict to be superable by the action of the Menstruum . This Condition , though of kin to the former , is yet somewhat differing from it , since a body may consist of parts either bulky or solid , which yet may touch one another in such small portions of their Surfaces , as to be much more easily dissociable than the minute or less solid parts of another Body , whose contact is more full and close , and so their Cohesion more strict . By what has been said it may seem probable , that , as I formerly intimated , the Corrosibility of Bodies is but a Mechanical Relation , resulting from the Mechanical Affections and Contexture of its parts , as they intercept Pores of such sizes and figures as make them congruous to those of the Corpuscles of the Menstruum , that are to pierce between them , and disjoyn them . That the Quality , that disposes the body it affects to be dissolv'd by Corrosive and other Menstruums , does ( as hath been declared ) in many cases depend upon the Mechanical Texture and Affections of the body in reference to the Menstruum that is to work upon it , may be made very probable by what we are in due place to deliver concerning the Pores of Bodies and Figures of Corpuscles . But yet in compliance with the design of these Notes , and agreeably to my custom on other Subjects , I shall subjoyn a few Experiments on this occasion also . EXPER. I. IF we put highly rectified Spirit of Wine upon crude Sulphur , or even Flowers of Sulphur , the Liquor will lie quietly thereon , especially in the cold , for many hours and days without making any visible Solution of it ; and if such exactly dephlegmed Spirit were put on very dry Salt of Tartar , the Salt would lie in an undissolved powder at the bottom : and yet , if before any Liquor be employed , the Sulphur be gently melted , and then the Alkali of Tartar be by degrees put to it , and incorporated with it ; as there will result a new Texture discoverable to the eye by the new colour of the Composition , so there will emerge a disposition that was not before in either of the Ingredients , to be dissolved by Spirit of Wine ; insomuch , that though the mixture be kept till it be quite cold , or long after too , provided it be carefully secur'd from the access of the air , the Spirit of Wine being put to it , and shaken with it , will , if you have gone to work aright , acquire a yellow Tincture in a minute of an hour ; and perhaps in less than half a quarter of an hour a red one , being richly impregnated with sulphureous Particles discoverable by the Smell , Taste , and divers Operations . EXPER. II. [ 'T Is known to several Chymists , that Spirit of Salt does not dissolve crude Mercury in the cold ; and I remember , I kept them for a considerable time in no contemptible heat without finding any Solution following . But I suppose , many of them will be gratified by an Experiment once mention'd to me by an Ingenious German Gentleman , namely , That if Mercury be precipitated per se , that is , reduc'd to a red powder without additament , by the meer operation of the fire , the Texture will be so chang'd , that the above-mention'd Spirit will readily dissolve it ; for I found it upon Trial to do so ; nay , sometimes so readily , that I scarce remember that I ever saw any Menstruum so nimbly dissolve any Metalline body whatsoever . ] EXPER. III. THe former Experiment is the more remarkable , because , that though Oyl of Vitriol will in a good heat corrode Quicksilver , ( as we have already related in the first Section , ) yet I remember I kept a Precipitate per se for divers hours in a considerable degree of Heat , without finding it to be dissolved or corroded by the Menstruum . And yet having , for trials sake , put another parcel of the same Mercurial powder into some Aqua fortis , or Spirit of Nitre , there insued a speedy Dissolution even in the cold . And that this Disposition to be dissolved by Spirit of Salt , that Mercury acquires by being turned into Precipitate per se , that is , by being calcin'd , is not meerly the effect of the operation of the fire upon it , but of some change of Texture produced by that Operation ; may be probably argued from hence , that , whereas Spirit of Salt is a very proper Menstruum , as I have often tried , for the dissolving of Iron or Steel ; yet , when that Metal is reduced by the action of the fire ( especially if a kind of Vitrification , and an irroration with distill'd Vinegar have preceded ) to Crocus Martis , though it be thereby brought to a very fine powder , yet I found not , that , as Spirit of Salt will readily and with heat and noise dissolve Filings of Mars , so it would have the same or any thing near such an Operation upon the Crocus : but rather , after a good while , it would leave in the bottom of the Glass a considerable , if not the greatest , part of it scarce , if at all , sensibly alter'd . And the Menstruum seem'd rather to have extracted a Tincture , than made an ordinary Solution ; since the colour of it was a high yellow or reddish , whereas Mars , dissolved in Spirit of Salt , affords a green Solution . Whether by repeated Operations with fresh Menstruum further Dissolutions might in time be made , I had not occasion to try , and it may suffice for our present purpose , that Mars by the operation of the fire did evidently acquire , not , as Mercury had done , a manifest facility , but on the contrary , a great indisposition to be dissolved by Spirit of Salt. To second this Experiment , we vary'd it , by employing , instead of Spirit of Salt , strong Oyl of Vitriol , which being pour'd on a little Crocus Martis made per se , did not , as that Menstruum is wont to do upon Filings of crude Mars , readily and manifestly fall upon the powder with froth and noise , but ( on the contrary ) rested for divers hours calmly upon it , without so much as producing with it any sensible warmth . EXPER. IV. IT agrees very well with our Doctrine about the dependance of the Corrosibility of Bodies upon their Texture , that from divers Bodies , whilst they are in conjunction with others , there result masses , and those homogeneous as to sense , that are easily dissoluble in Liquors , in which a great part of the matter , if it were separated from the rest , would not be at all dissolved . Thus we see , that common Vitriol is easily dissolved in meer water ; whereas if it be skilfully calcin'd , it will yield sometimes near half its first weight of insipid Colcothar , which not onely is not soluble in water , but which neither Aqua Fortis nor Aqua Regis , though sometimes they will colour themselves upon it , are able ( as far as I have tried ) to make Solutions of . We see likewise , that simple water will , being boil'd for a competent time with Harts-horn , dissolve it and make a Jelly of it : And yet , when we have taken Harts-horn throughly calcin'd to whiteness , not onely we found that common water was no longer a fit Solvent for it , but we observed , that when we put Oyl of Vitriol it self upon it , a good part of the white powder was even by that Corrosive Menstruum left undissolved . EXPER. V. IN the Fifteenth of the foregoing Experiments I refer to a way of making the Flower or Powder of common Sulphur become easily dissoluble , which otherwise 't is far from being , in highly rectified Spirit of Wine . Wherefore I shall now adde , that 't is quickly perform'd by gently melting the Sulphur , and incorporating with it by degrees an equal or a greater weight of finely powder'd Salt of Tartar , or of fixt Nitre . For if the mixture be put warm into a Mortar that is so too ; and as soon as 't is reduc'd to powder , be put into a Glass , and well shaken with pure Spirit of Wine , it will , ( as perhaps I may have elsewhere observed , ) in a few minutes acquire a yellow colour , which afterwards will grow deeper , and manifest it self by the smell and effects to be a real Solution of Sulphur ; and yet this Solubleness in Spirit of Wine seems procur'd by the change of Texture , resulting from the Commixtion of meer Salt of Tartar , which Chymists know , to their trouble , to be it self a body almost as difficult as Sulphur to be dissolved in phlegmless Spirit of Wine , unless the Constitution of it be first alter'd by some convenient additament . Which last words I adde , because , though Spirit of Verdigrease be a Menstruum that uses to come off in Distillation much more intirely than other acid Menstruums from the bodies it has dissolved ; yet it will serve well for an additament to open ( as the Chymists speak ) the body of the Salt of Tartar. For this purpose I employ Spirit of Verdigrease , not made first with Spirit of Vinegar , and then of Wine , after the long and laborious way prescribed by Basilius and Zwelfer , but easily and expeditiously by a simple Distillation of crude Verdigrease of the better sort . For when you have with this Liquor ( being , if there be need , once rectified ) dissolv'd as much good Salt of Tartar , as 't will take up in the cold , if you draw off the Menstruum ad siccitatem , the remaining dry Salt will be manifestly alter'd in Texture even to the eye , and will readily enough in high rectified Spirit of Wine afford a Solution , which I have found considerable in order to divers uses that concern not our present Discourse . EXPER. VI. TO the Consideration of the Followers of Helmont I shall recommend an Experiment of that famous Chymist's , which seems to sute exceeding well with the Doctrine propos'd in this Section . For he tells us , that , if by a subtle Menstruum to which he ascribes that power . Quicksilver be devested ( or depriv'd ) of its external Sulphur , as he terms it , all the rest of the fluid Metal , which he wittily enough stiles , the Kernel of Mercury , will be no longer corrosible by it . So that upon this Supposition , though common Quicksilver be observ'd to be so obnoxious to Aqua Fortis , that the same quantity of that Liquor will dissolve more of it , than of any other Metal ; yet , if by the deprivation of some portion of it the latent Texture of the Metal be alter'd , though not ( that I remember ) the visible appearance of it ; the Body that was before so easily dissolved by Aqua Fortis , ceases to be at all dissoluble by it . EXPER. VII . AS for those Chymists of differing Sects , that agree in giving credit to the strange things that are affirm'd of the Operations of the Alkahest , we may in favour of our Doctrine urge them with what is deliver'd by Helmont , where he asserts , that all solid Bodies , as Stones , Minerals , and Metals themselves , by having this Liquor duly abstracted or distill'd off from them , may be changed into Salt , equiponderant to the respective bodies whereon the Menstruum was put . So that supposing the Alkahest to be totally abstracted , ( as it seems very probable to be , since the weight of the body whence 't was drawn off is not alter'd ; ) what other change than of Texture can be reasonably imagin'd to have been made in the transmuted bodies ? and yet divers of them , as Flints , Rubies , Saphyrs , Gold , Silver , &c. that were insoluble before , some of them in any known Menstruums , and others in any but Corrosive Liquors , come to be capable of being dissolv'd in common water . EXPER. VIII . 'T Is a remarkable Phaenomenon , that suits very well with our opinion about the interest of Mechanical Principles in the Corrosive Power of Menstruums , and the Corrosibility of bodies , that we produc'd by the following Experiment : This we purposely made to shew , after how differing manners the same body may be dissolv'd by two Menstruums , whose minute parts are very differingly constituted and agitated . For whereas 't is known , that if we put large grains of Sea-salt into common water , they will be dissolved therein calmly and silently without any appearance of conflict ; If we put such grains of Salt into good Oyl of Vitriol , that Liquor will fall furiously upon them , and produce for a good while a hissing noise with fumes , and a great store of bubbles , as if a potent Menstruum were corroding some stubborn metal or mineral . And this Experiment I the rather mention , because it may be of use to us on divers other occasions . For else 't is not the onely , though it be the remarkablest , that I made to the same purpose . EXPER. IX . FOr , whereas Aqua Fortis or Aqua Regis , being pour'd upon Filings of Copper , will work upon them with much noise and ebullition , I have tried , that good Spirit of Sal Armoniac or Urine , being put upon the like Filings , and left there without stopping the Glass , will quickly begin to work on them , and quietly dissolve them almost as water dissolves Sugar . To which may be added , that even with Oyl of Turpentine I have , though but slowly , dissolved crude Copper ; and the Experiment seemed to favour our Conjecture the more , because having tried it several times , it appear'd , that common unrectified Oyl would perform the Solution much quicker than that which was purified and subtiliz'd by rectification ; which though more subtle and penetrant , yet was , it seems , on that account less fit to dissolve the Metal , than the grosser Oyl whose particles might be more solid or more advantageously shap'd , or on some other Mechanical account better qualified for the purpose . EXPER. X. TAke good Silver , and , having dissolv'd it in Aqua Fortis , precipitate it with a sufficient quantity of good Spirit of Salt ; then having wash'd the Calx , which will be very white , with common water , and dried it well , melt it with a moderate fire into a fusible Mass , which will be very much of the nature of what Chymists call Cornu Lunae , and which they make by precipitating dissolv'd Silver with a bare Solution of common Salt made in common water . And whereas both Spirit of Salt and Silver dissolv'd in Aqua Fortis will each of them apart readily dissolve in simple water , our Luna Cornea not onely will not do so , but is so indispos'd to Dissolution , that I remember I have kept it in Digestion , some in Aqua fortis , and some in Aqua Regia , and that for a good while , and in no very faint degree of heat , without being able to dissolve it like a Metal , the Menstruums having indeed ting'd themselves upon it , but left the Composition undissolv'd at the bottom . With this Instance ( of which sort more might be afforded by Chymical Precipitations ) I shall conclude what I design'd to offer at present about the Corrosibility of Bodies , as it may be consider'd in a more general way . For as to the Disposition that Particular Bodies have of being dissolved in , or of re●isting , Determinate Liquors , it were much easier for me to enlarge upon that Subject , than it was to provide the Instances above recited . And these are not so few , but that 't is hop'd they may suffice to make it probable , that in the Relation betwixt a Solvent and the Body it is to work upon , that which depends upon the Mechanical affections of one or both , is much to be consider'd , and has a great interest in the operations of one of the bodies upon the other . FINIS . OF THE MECHANICAL CAUSES OF CHYMICAL PRECIPITATION . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esq ; Fellow of the R. Society . LONDON , Printed by E. Flesher , for R. Davis Bookseller in Oxford . 1675. Advertisement . THough I shall not deny , that , in Grammatical strictness , Precipitation should be reckoned among Chymical Operations , not Qualities , yet I did not much scruple to insert the following Discourse among the Notes about Particular Qualities , because many , if not most , of the Phaenomena , mentioned in the ensuing Essay , may be considered as depending , some of them , upon a power , that certain bodies have to cause Precipitation , and some upon such a Disposition to be struck down by others , as may , if men please , be called Precipitability . And so these differing Affections may with ( at least ) tolerable Congruity be referred to those that we have elsewhere stiled Chymical Qualities . But though I hope , I may in these few Lines have said enough concerning the name given to these Attributes , yet perhaps it will be found in time , that the things themselves may deserve a larger Discourse than my little leasure would allow them . For that is not a causeless Intimation of the Importance of the subject , wherewith I conclude the following Tract , since besides that many more Instances might have been particularly referred to the Heads treated of in the Insuing Essay , there are improper kinds of Precipitation ( besides those mentioned in the former part of the Discourse ) to which one may not incongruously refer divers of the Phaenomena of Nature , as well in the greater as in the lesser world , whereof either no Causes at all , or but improper ones are wont to be given . And besides the simple Spirits and Salts usually employed by Chymists , there are many compounded and decompounded bodies not only factitious but natural , ( and some such as one would scarce suspect ) that may in congruous subjects produce such Precipitations , as I speak of . And the Phaenomena and Consequents of such operations may in divers cases prove conducive both to the Discovery of Physical Causes , and the Production of useful effects ; though the particularizing of such Phaenomena do rather belong to a History of Precipitations , than to such a Discourse as that which follows , wherein I proposed not so much to deliver the latent Mysteries , as to investigate the Mechanical Causes of Precipitation . OF THE MECHANICAL CAUSES OF CHYMICAL PRECIPITATION . CHAP. I. BY Precipitation is here meant such an agitation or motion of a heterogeneous liquor , as in no long time makes the parts of it subside , and that usually in the form of a powder or other consistent body . As , on many occasions , Chymists call the substance that is made to fall to the bottom of the liquor , the Precipitate ; so for brevity sake we shall call the body that is put into the liquor to procure that subsiding , the Precipitant ; as also that which is to be struck down , the Precipitable substance or matter , and the liquor wherein it swims before the separation , the Menstruum or Solvent . When a hasty fall of a heterogeneous body is procured by a Precipitant , the Operation is called Precipitation in the proper or strict sense : But when the separation is made without any such addition , or the substance , separated from the fluid part of the liquor , instead of subsiding emerges , then the word is used in a more comprehensive , but less proper , acceptation . As for the Causes of Precipitation the very name it self in its Chymical sense having been scarce heard of in the Peripatetic Schools , it is not to be expected , that they should have given an account of the Reasons of the thing . And 't is like , that those few Aristotelians , that have , by their converse with the laboratories or writings of Chymists , taken notice of this Operation , would , according to their custom on such occasions , have recourse for the explication of it to some secret sympathy or antipathy between the bodies whose action and reaction intervenes in this Operation . But if this be the way proposed , of accounting for it , I shall quickly have occasion to say somewhat to it in considering the ways proposed by the Chymists , who were wont to refer Precipitation , either , as is most usual , to a sympathy betwixt the Precipitating body and the Menstruum which makes the Solvent run to the embraces of the Precipitant , and so let fall the particles of the body sustained before ; or ( with others ) to a great antipathy or contrariety between the acid salt of the Menstruum and the fixed salt of the Oil , or solution of calcined Tartar , which is the most general and usual Precipitant they imploy . But I see not , how either of these causes will either reach to all the Phaenomena that have been exhibited , or give a true account even of some of those , to which it seems applicable . For first , in Precipitations , wherein what they call a sympathy between the liquors , is supposed to produce the effect , this admired sympathy does not ( in my apprehension ) evince such a mysterious occult Quality as is presumed , but rather consists in a greater congruity as to bigness , shape , motion and pores of the minute parts between the Menstruum and the Precipitant , than between the same Solvent and the body it kept before dissolved . And though this sympathy rightly explained may be allowed to have an interest in some such Precipitations as let fall the dissolved body in its pristine nature and form , and only reduced into minute powder ; yet I find not , that in the generality of Precipitations this Doctrine will hold ; For in some that we have made of Gold and Silver in proper Menstruums , after the subsiding matter had been well washed and dried , several Precipitates of Gold made , some with oil of Tartar , which abounds with a fixed salt , and is the usual Precipitant , and some with an Urinous Spirit , which works by Vertue of a salt highly fugitive or Volatile , I found the powder to exceed the weight of the Gold and Silver I had put to dissolve ; and the Eye it self sufficiently discovers such Precipitates not to be meer metalline powders , but Compositions , whose consisting , not ( as hath been by some body suspected ) of the combined Salts alone , but of the metalline parts also , may be strongly concluded not only from the ponderousness of divers of them in reference to their bulk , but also manifestly from the reduction of true malleable metals from several of them . CHAP. II. THE other Chymical way of explicating Precipitations may , in a right sence , be made use of by a Naturalist on some particular occasions . But I think it much too narrow and defective , as 't is in a general way proposed , to be fit to be acquiesced in . For first 't is plain , that 't is not only Salt of Tartar and other fixed Alcalies that precipitate most bodies that are dissolved in acid Menstruums ; as in making of Aurum fulminans , oil of Tartar precipitates the Gold out of Aqua Regis : But acid liquors themselves do on many occasions no less powerfully precipitate metals and other bodies out of one another . Thus spirit of Salt , ( as I have often tried ) precipitates Silver out of Aqua fortis : The corrosive Spirit of Nitre copiously precipitates that white powder whereof they make Bezoardicum Minerale : Spirit or oil of Sulphur made by a glass-bell precipitates Corals , Pearls , &c. dissolved in Spirit of Vinegar , as is known to many Chymists , who now use this Oleum Sulphuris per Campanam , to make the Magistery of Pearls , &c. for which vulgar Chymists imploy Oleum Tartari per deliquium . I have sometimes made a Menstruum , wherein though there were both Acid and Alcalizate Salts ; yet I did not find , that either acid Spirits or oil of Tartar , or even Spirit of Urine would precipitate the dissolved substances . And I have observed , both that Salts of a contrary nature will precipitate bodies out of the same Menstruum , as not only Salt of Tartar , but Sea-salt being dissolved , will precipitate each other , and each of them apart will precipitate Silver out of Aqua fortis ; and that even , where there is a confessed contrariety betwixt two liquors , it may be so ordered , that neither of them shall precipitate what is dissolved by the other ; of which I shall have occasion to give ere long a remarkable instance . But it will best appear , that the abovementioned Theories of the Peripateticks and Chymists are at least insufficient to solve the Phaenomena ( many of which were probably not known to most of them , and perhaps not weigh'd by any , ) if we proceed to observe the Mechanical ways , by which Precipitations may be accounted for ; whereof I shall at present propose some Number , and say somewhat of each of them apart ; not that I think all of them to be equally important and comprehensive , or that I absolutely deny , that any one of them may be reduced to some of the other ; but that I think , it may better elucidate the subject , to treat of them severally , when I shall have premised , that I would not thence infer , that though , for the most part , Nature does principally effect Precipitations by one or other of these ways , yet in divers cases she may not imploy two or more of them about performing the operation . To precipitate the Corpuscles of a metal out of a Menstruum , wherein being once throughly dissolved it would of it self continue in that state , the two general ways that the nature of the thing seems to suggest to him that considers it , are , either to add to the weight or bulk of the dissolved Corpuscles , and thereby render them unfit to accompany the particles of the Menstruum in their motions ; or to weaken the sustaining power of the Menstruum , and thereby disable it to keep the metalline particles swimming any longer : which falling of the deserted parts of the metal or other bodie , does oftentimes the more easily insue , because in many cases , when the sustaining particles of the Menstruum come to be too much weakned , that proves an occasion to the metalline Corpuscles , disturbed in the former motion that kept them separate , to make occursions and coalitions among themselves , and their fall becomes the effect , though not equally so , of both ways of Precipitation ; as on the other side , there are several occasions on which the same Precipitant , that brings the swimming particles of the metal to stick to one another , does likewise , by mortifying or disabling the saline Spirits or other parts of the solvent , weaken the sustaining power of that liquor . CHAP. III. TO descend now to the distinct Considerations about these two ways : The first of the most genera Causes of Precipitation is such a Cohaesion procured by the Precipitant in the solution , as makes the compounded corpuscles , or at least the associated particles of the dissolved body , too heavy to be sustained , or too bulky to be kept in a state of fluidity by the liquor . That in many Precipitations there is made a coalition betwixt the small parts of the Precipitant and those of the dissolved metal , or other body , and frequently also with the saline spirits of the Menstruum , may be easily shewn by the weight of the Precipitate , which though carefully washed and dryed , often surpasses , and sometimes very considerably , that of your crude metal that was dissolved ; of which we lately gave an instance in Aurum fulminans and precipitated Silver ; & we may yet give a more conspicuous one , in that which Chymists call Luna Cornea : For , if having dissolved Silver in good Aqua fortis , you Precipitate it with the solution of Sea-salt in fair water , and from the very white Precipitate wash the loose adhering salts , the remaining powder , being dryed and slowly melted , will look much less like a metalline body than like a piece of horn , whence also it takes its name ; so considerable is the additament of the saline to the metalline particles . And that part of such additaments is , retained , may not only be found by weighing , but in divers cases may be argued from what is obvious to the Eye : as if you dissolve Mercury in Aqua fortis , and into the philtrated solution drop spirit of Salt , or salt-water , or an urinous spirit , as of Sal Armoniac , you will have a very white Precipitate ; but if instead of any of these , you drop-in deliquated salt of Tartar , your Precipitate will be of a brick or orange colour . From which experiment and some others I would gladly take a rise to perswade Chymists and Physitians , that 't is not so indifferent , as those seem to think who look on Precipitation but as a kind of Comminution , by what means the precipitation is performed . For by reason of the strict adhesion of divers saline particles of the precipitant and the solvent , the precipitated body , notwithstanding all the wonted ablutions , may have its qualities much diversified by those of the particles of the liquors , when these are fitted to stick very fast to it . Which last words I add , because , though that sometimes happens , yet it does not always , there being a geater difference than every body takes notice of between Precipitations ; as you will be induced to think , if you precipitate the solution of Silver with Copper , with spirit of Sal Armoniac , with salt water , with oil of Tartar ▪ with quick-silver , with crude Tartar and with Zink . And in the lately proposed Example , you will think it probable , that 't is not all one , whether to dissolved Mercury or Silver , you imploy the subtile distilled Spirits of Salt , or the gross body , whether in a dry form , or barely dissolved in common water . And thus much of the Conduciveness of weight to the striking down the Corpuscles of a dissolved Body . That also the Bulk of a body may very much contribute to make it sink or swim in a liquor , appears by obvious instances . Thus Salt or Sugar , being put into water either in lumps or even in powder that is but gross , falls at first to the bottom , and lies there , notwithstanding the Air that may be intercepted between its parts or externally adhere to it . But when by the insinuating action of the water it is dissolved into minute particles , these are carried up and down with those of the liquor and subside not . The like happens , when a piece of silver is cast into Aqua fortis , and in many other cases . On the other side I have several times observed , that some bodies that had long swam in a Menstruum , whilst their minute parts were kept from convening in it , did afterwards by the coalition of many of those particles into bodies of a visible bulk coagulate and subside , ( though sometimes , to hinder the evaporation of the Menstruum , the vessels were kept stopt . ) Of this I elsewhere mention divers examples ; and particularly in urinous and animal spirits , well dephlegm'd , I have found , that after all had for a considerable time continued in the form of a perfect liquor , and as to sense homogeneous , store of solid corpuscles , convening together , setled at the bottom of the glasses in the form of saline Crystals . Having also long kept a very red solution of Sulphur first unlock'd , ( as they speak ) made with highly rectified spirit of urine , I observed , that at length the Sulphureous particles , making little concretions between themselves , totally subsided and left the liquor almost devoid of tincture . By which you may see , that 't was not impertinent to mention ( as I lately did ) among the subordinate causes of Precipitation , the associating of the particles of a dissolved body with one another . Of which I elsewhere give a notable Example in the shining powder that I obtained from Gold dissolved in a peculiar Menstruum , without any Precipitant , by the coalition of the metalline particles , to which a tract of time gave opportunity to meet and adhere in a convenient manner . If in what the Chymists call Precipitate per se , the Mercury be indeed brought to lose its fluidity , and become a powder without being compounded with any additional body , ( which doubt I elsewhere state and discourse of ) it will afford us a notable instance to prove , that the coalitions of particles into clusters of the self same matter will render them unfit for the motion requisite to fluidity . For in this odd precipitation by fire , wherein the same Menstruum is both the Liquor and the Precipitate , being not all made at once , the Corpuscles that first disclose themselves by their redness , are rejected by those of the Mercury that yet remains fluid , as unable to accompany them in the motions that belong to Mercury as such . CHAP. IV. BEfore I dismiss that way of Precipitating , that depends upon the unwieldiness which the Precipitant gives to the body it is to strike down , it may not be impertinent , especially in reference to the foregoing part of this Paper , to consider , that perhaps in divers cases the Corpuscles of a dissolved body may be made unfit to be any longer sustained in the Menstruum , though the Precipitant adds very little to their bulk , or at least much more to their specific weight than to it . For I have elsewere shewn , that in divers solutions made of bodys by acid Menstruums , there are either generated or extricated many small Aerial particles ; and it will be easily granted , that these may be small enough to be detained in the pores of the liquor and be invisible there , if we consider , what a multitude of aerial and formerly imperceptible bubbles is afforded by common water in our Pneumatical Receivers , when the incumbent air that before pressed the liquor , is pumpt out . And if the Corpuscles of the dissolved body have any little Cavities or pores fit to lodge Aerial particles , or have asperous surfaces , between whose prominent parts the generated air may conveniently lie ; in such cases , I say , these Invisible bubbles may be lookt upon , as making with the solid Corpuscles they adhered to , little aggregates much lighter in specie than the Corpuscles themselves would be ; and consequently if the Precipitant consist of particles of such a size and shape as are fit to expel these little bubbles , and lodge themselves in the cavities possessed by them before , there will be produced new aggregates composed of the Corpuscles of the dissolved body and the particles of the Precipitant ; which aggregates though they do take up very little or perhaps not at all more room ( takeing that word in a popular sense ) than those , whereof the Aerial bubbles made a part , will yet be Specifically heavier than the former Aggregates were , and may thereby overcome the sustaining power of the Menstruum . One thing more may be fit to be taken notice of before we pass on further , namely , that 't is upon the score of the Specific gravity of a body , and not barely upon the action of the Precipitant , that an aggregate or a Convention of particles does rather fall to the bottom than rise to the top . For , though the Agents that procured the Coalition , make the cluster of particles become of a bulk too unwieldy to continue in the liquor as parts of it ; yet if each of them be lighter in specie than an equal bulk of the Menstruum , or if they so convene as to intercept a sufficient number of little bubbles or aerial Corpuscles between them , and so become lighter than as much of the Menstruum as they take up the room of , they will not be precipitated but emerge ; as may be seen in the Preparation of those Magisteries of Vegetables , I elswhere mention ; where some deeply colour'd plants being made to tinge plentifully the Lixivium they are boyled in , are afterwards by the addition of Alum made to curdle , as it were , into coloured Concretions , which being ( totally or in part ) too big to swim as they did before they conven'd , and too light in comparison of the Menstruum to subside , emerge to the top and float there . An easier and neater Example to the same purpose I remember I shewed by dissolving Camphire in highly rectified spirit of Wine , 'till the solution was very strong . For though the Camphire , when put in Lumps into the spirit , sunk to the bottom of it ; yet , when good store of water , ( a liquor somewhat heavier in Specie than Camphire , ) was poured upon the solution , the Camphire quickly concreted and returned to its own nature , and within a while emerged to the top of the mingled liquors and floated there . These particulars I was willing to mention here , that I might give an instance or two of those precipitations , that I formerly spake of as improperly so called . And here I must not decline taking notice of a Phaenomenon , that sometimes occurs in Precipitations , and at first sight may seem contrary to our Doctrine about them . For now and then it happens , that after some drops of the Precipitant have begun a Precipitation at the top or bottom of the Solvent , one shakes the vessel , that the Precipitant may be the sooner diffused through the other liquor , but then they are quickly surprized to find , that instead of hastning the compleat Precipitation , the matter already precipitated disappears , and the solvent returns to be clear , or , as to sense , as uniform , as it was before the Precipitant was put into it . B●u this Phaenomenon does not at all cross our Theory . For , when this happens , though that part of the Solvent , to which the Precipitant reaches , is disabled for Reasons mentioned in this Discourse to support the dissolved body , yet this quantity of the Precipitant is but small in proportion to the whole bulk of the solvent . And therefore , when the agitation of the vessel disperses the clusters of loosly concreted particles through the whole liquor , ( which is seldom so exactly proportioned to the body it was to work on , as to be but just strong enough to dissolve it ) that greater part of the Liquor , to which before the shaking of the vessel the Precipitant did not reach , may well be lookt upon as a fresh Menstruum , which is able to mortifie or overpower the small quantity of the Precipitant that is mingled with it , and so to destroy its late operation on the body dissolved , by which means the solution returns , as to sense , to its former state . Which may be illustrated by a not unpleasant Experiment , I remember I have long since made by precipitating a brick-coloured powder out of a strong solution of Sublimate made in fair water . For this subsiding matter , being laid to dry in the Philter , by which 't was separated from the water , would retain a deep but somewhat dirty colour ; and if then , putting it into the bottom of a wine glass , I poured upon it , either clear oil of Vitriol , or some other strong acid Menstruum , the Alcalizat particles being disabled and swallowed up by some of the acid ones of the Menstruum , the other acid ones would so readily dissolve the residue of the powder , that in a trice the colour of it would disappear and the whole mixture be reduced into a clear Liquor , without any sediment at the bottom . Thus much may suffice at present about the first general way of Precipitating Bodies out of the Liquors they swam in . CHAP. V. THE other of the two principal ways , by which Precipitations may be effected , is the disabling of the Solvent to sustain the dissolved body . There may be many instances , wherein this second way of effecting Precipitations may be associated by Nature with the first way formerly proposed ; but notwithstanding the cases , wherein Nature may ( as I formerly noted ) imploy both the ways therein , yet in most cases they sufficiently differ , in regard that in the former way the subsiding of the dissolved body is chiefly , if not only , caused by the additional weight as well as action of the external Precipitant ; whereas in most of the instances of the later way , the effect is produced either without salt of Tartar , or any such Precipitant , or by some other quality of the Precipitant more than by its weight , or at least besides the weight it adds : Though I forget not , that I lately gave an example of a shining powder of Gold , that fell to the bottom of a Menstruum without the help of an External Precipitant : But that was done so slowly , that it may be disputed , whether it were a true Precipitation ; and I alledged it not as such , but to shew , that the increased bulk of Particles may make them unfit to swim in Menstruums , wherein they swam whilst they were more minute . And the like answer may be accommodated to the Precipitate per se newly mentioned . This premised , I proceed now to observe , that the general way , I last proposed , contains in it several subordinate wayes , that are more particular ; of which I shall now mention the chief that occur to me , and though but briefly , illustrate each of them by examples . And first a Precipitation may be made , if the saline or other dissolving particles of the Menstruum are mortified or rendred unfit for their former function , by particles of a Precipitant that are of a contrary nature . Thus Gold and some other minerals , being dissolved in Aqua Regis , will be precipitated with spirit of urine and other such liquors abounding with volatile and salino-sulphureous Corpuscles , upon whose account it is that they act ; whence these salts themselves , though cast into a Menstruum in a dry form , will serve to make the like Precipitations . And I the rather on this occasion mention Urinous spirits than Salt of Tartar , because those volatile particles add much less of weight to the little Concretions , which compose the Precipitated powder . Upon instances of this kind , many of the modern Chymists have built that Antipathy betwixt the Salts of the solvent and those of the Menstruum , to which they ascribe almost all Precipitations . But against this I have represented something already , and shall partly now , and partly in the sequel of this discourse add some farther reasons of my not being satisfied with this Doctrine . For , besides that 't is insufficient to reach many of the Phaenomena of Precipitations , ( as will ere long be shown , ) and besides that 't is not easie to make out , that there is any real antipathy betwixt inanimate bodies ; I consider , 1. That some of those Menstruums , to which this Antipathy is attributed , do after a short commotion ( whereby they are disposed to make convenient occursions and coalitions ) amicably unite into concretions participating of both the Ingredients ; as I have somewhere shewn by an Example purposely devis'd to make this out ; to do which I dropped a clear solution of fixed Nitre , instead of the usual one of common salt , upon a solution of silver , in Aqua-fortis : For the saline particles of the Solvent and those of the Precipitant , will , as I have elsewhere recirecited , for the most part friendly unite into such Crystals of Nitre for the main , as they were obtained from : And though this notion of the Chymists , if well explained , be applicable to far more instances than the proposers of it seemed to have thought on , and may be made good use of in Practice ; yet I take it to be such as is not true Universally , and , where it is true , ought to be explicated according to Mechanical Principles . For , if the particles of the Menstruum and those of the Precipitant be so framed , that upon the action of the one upon the other , there will be produced Corpuscles too big and unwieldy to continue in the state of fludity , there will insue a Precipitation : But if the constitution of the corpuscles of the Precipitating and of the Dissolved body be such , that the Precipitant also it self is fit to be a Menstruum to dissolve that body in ; then , though there be an union of the Salts of the Precipitant and the metal ( or other Solutum ) and perhaps of the solvent too , yet a Precipitation will not necessarily follow , though the saline particles of the two liquors seemed , by the heat and ebullition excited between them upon their meeting , to exercise a great and mutual antipathy . To satisfie some Ingenious men about this particular , I dissolved Zink or Speltar in a certain urinous spirit ; ( for , there are more than one that may serve the turn ; ) and then put to it a convenient quantity of a proper acid spirit ; but though there would be a manifest conflict thereby occasioned betwixt the two liquors ; yet the speltar remained dissolved in the mixture . And I remember , that for the same purpose I devised another Experiment , which is somewhat more easie and more clear . I dissolved Copper calcined per se , or even crude , in strong spirit of salt ; ( for unless it be such , it will not be so proper , ) and having put to it by degrees a good quantity of spirit of Sal-Armoniac or fermented Urine , though there would be a great commotion with hissing and bubbles produced , the Copper would not be precipitated , because this Urinous spirit will as well as the Salt , ( and much more readily ) dissolve the same metal , and it would be kept dissolved notwithstanding their operation on one another ; the intervening of which , and their action upon the metalline corpuscles , may be gathered from hence , that the green solution , made with spirit of salt alone , will by the supervening urinous spirits be changed either into a blewish green , or , if the proportion of this spirit be very great , into a rich blew almost like ultramarine . And from these two Experiments we may probably argue , that when the Precipitation of a metal &c. insues , it is not barely or the account of the supposed Antipathy betwixt the Salts , but because the causes of that seeming Antipathy do likewise upon a Mechanical account dispose the Corpuscles of the confounded liquors so to cohere , as to be too unwieldy for the fluid part . CHAP. VI. ANother way , whereby the dissolving particles of a Menstruum may be rendred unfit to sustain the dissolved body , is to present them another that they can more easily work on . A notable Experiment of this you have in the common practice of Refiners , who , to recover the Silver out of Lace and other such mixtures wherein it abounds , use to dissolve it in Aqua fortis , and then in the solution leave Copper plates for a whole night ( or many hours . ) But if you have a mind to see the Experiment without waiting so long , you may imploy the way , whereby I have often quickly dispatched it . As soon then as I have dissolved a convenient quantity , which needs not be a great one , of Silver in cleansed Aqua fortis , I add twenty or twenty five times as much of either distilled water or rain water ; ( for though common water will sometimes do well , yet it seldome does so well ; ) and then into the clear solution I hang by a string a clean piece of Copper , which will be presently covered with little shining plates almost like scales of fish , which one may easily shake off and make room for more . And this may illustrate what we formerly mentioned about the subsiding of metalline corpuscles , when they convene in liquors , wherein , whilst they were dispersed in very minute parts , they swam freely . For in this operation the little scales of Silver seemed to be purely metalline , and there is no saline Precipitant , as Salt of Tartar or of Urine , imployed to make them subside . Upon the same ground , Gold and Silver dissolved in their proper Menstruums may be precipitated with running Mercury ; and if a Solution of blew Vitriol ( such as the Roman , East-Indian , or other of the like colours ) be made in water , a clean plate of Steel or Iron being immersed in it , will presently be overlaid with a very thin case of Copper-which after a while will grow thick , er ; but does not adhere to the iron so loosely as to be shaken off , as the Precipitated silver newly mentioned may be from the Copper-plates whereto it adheres . And that in these operations the saline particles may really quit the dissolved body , and work upon the Precipitant , may appear by the lately mentioned practice of Refiners , where the Aqua-fortis , that forsakes the particles of the silver , falls a working upon the copper-plates imployed about the Precipitation , and dissolves so much of them as to acquire the greenish blew colour of a good solution of that metal . And the Copper we can easily again without salts obtain by Precipitation out of that liquor with iron , and that too , remaining dissolved in its place , we can precipitate with the tastless powder of another Mineral . Besides these two ways of weakning the Menstruum , namely , by mortifying its saline particles or seducing them to work on other bodies , and to forsake those they first dissolved , there are some other ways of weakning the Menstruum . A Third way of effecting this , is by lessening or disturbing the agitation of the solvent . And indeed since we find by experience , that some liquors when they are heated , will either dissolve some bodies they would not dissolve at all when they were cold , or dissolve them more powerfully or copiously when hot than cold ; 't is not unreasonable to suppose , that what considerably lessens that agitation of the parts of the Menstruum that is necessary to the keeping the dissolved body in the state of fluidity , should occasion the falling of it again to the bottom . In slow operations I could give divers examples of the precipitating power of Cold ; there being divers solutions and particularly that of Amber-greece , that I had kept fluid all the Summer , which in the Winter would subside . And the like may be sometimes observed in far less time in the solutions of Brimstone made in certain oleaginous Menstruums ; and I have now & then had some solutions , and particularly one of Benzoin made in spirit of wine , that would surprize me with the turbidness ( which begins the state of Precipitation ) it would acquire upon a sudden change of the weather towards Cold , though it were not in the winter season . Another way of weakening the Menstruum and so causing the Precipitation of a body dissolved in it , is the diluting or lessening the tenacity of it , whether that tenacity proceed from viscosity or the competent number and constipation of the parts . Of this we have an instance in the Magisteries ( as many Chymists are pleased to call them ) of Jalap , Benzoin , and of divers others , Resinous and Gummous bodies dissolved in spirit of wine . For by the affusion of common water , the Menstruum being too much diluted is not able to keep those particles in the state of fluidity , but must suffer them to subside , ( as they usually do in the form of white powder , ) or , ( as it may happen sometimes , ) make some parts emerge . Examples also of this kind are afforded us by the common preparations of Mercurius Vitae . For though in oil of Autimony , made by the Rectification of the butter , the saline particles are so numerous and keep so close to one another , that they are able to sustain the Antimonial Corpuscles they carried over with them in Distillation , and keep them together with themselves in the form of a liquor ; yet when by the copious affusion of the water , those sustaining particles are separated and removed to a distance from each other , the Antimonial Corpuscles and the Mercurial ( if any such there were , ) being of a ponderous nature , will easily subside into that Emetic powder , which , ( when well washed ) the Chymists flatteringly enough call Mercurius Vitae . But here I must interpose an advertisement , which will help to shew us , how much Precipitations depend upon the Mechanical contextures of bodies . For , though not only in the newly recited examples , but in divers others , the affusion of water , by diluting the salts and weakenning the Menstruum , makes the metall or other dissolved body fall precipitately to the bottom ; yet if the saline particles of the solvent , and those of the body be fitted for so strict an union , that the Corpuscles resulting from their Coalitions will not so easily be separated by the particles of water , as suffer themselves to be carried up and down with them , whether because of the minuteness of these compounded Corpuscles , or because of some congruity betwixt them and those of the water ; they will not be precipitated out of the weakened solution , but still continue a part of it ; as I have tryed partly with some solution of Silver and Gold , made in acid Menstruums , but much more satisfactorily in solutions of Copper , made in the urinous spirit of Sal Armoniac . For , though that blew solution were diluted with many thousand times as much distilled water as the dissolved metal weighed ; yet its swimming Corpuscles did by their colour manifestly appear to be dispersed through the whole liquor . CHAP. VII . BUT , to prosecute our former discourse , which we broke off after the mention of Mercurius Vitae , 't will now be seasonable to add , that we have made divers other Precipitations , by the bare affusion of water , out of solutions , and sometimes out of distilled liquors ; which , for brevity sake , I here omit , that I may hasten to the last way I shall now stay to mention . Another way then , whereby Precipitations of bodies may be produced by debilitating the Menstruum they swim in , is by lessening the proportion of the Solvent to the Solutum , without any evaporation of the liquor . These last words I add , because that , when there is an obstruction or any other expulsion of the Menstruum by heat , if it be total , 't is called Exsiccation , as when dry salt of Tartar is obtained from the filtrated Lixivium of the calcined Tartar ; and though the evaporation be not total , yet the effects of it are not wont to be reckoned amongst Precipitations . And although the way , I am about to propose , if it be attentively considered , has much affinity with the foregoing , and the Phaenomena may perhaps in some sort be reduced to them ; yet the instances that I shall name , having not , I know , been thought of by others , and being such as every one would not deduce from what I have been mentioning , I shall add a word of the inducements I had to make the tryals , as well as of the success of them . Considering then , that Water will not dissolve Salts indefinitely , but when it has received its due proportion , 't will then dissolve no more , but , if they be put into it , let them fall to the ground and continue undissolved ; and that if when water is satiated , any of the liquor be evaporated or otherwise wasted , it will in proportion let fall the salt it had already taken up ; I concluded , that if I could mingle with water any liquor , with which its particles would more readily associate than with those of Salt , the depriving the solution of so many of its aqueous particles would be equivalent to the evaporation of as much water or thereabouts , as they , by being united , could compose . Wherefore making a lixivium of distilled water or clean rain-water , and of Salt of Tartar so strong , that if a grain more were cast in it , it would lie undissolved at the bottom ; I put a quantity of this fiery Lixivium into a slender cylindrical vessel , till it had therein reached such a height as I thought fit ; then taking as much as I thought sufficient of strong spirit of wine , that would burn every drop away , that so it might have no flegm nor water of its own , I poured this upon the saline solution , and shaking the liquors pretty well together to bring them to mix as well as I could , I laid the tube in a quiet place , and afterwards found , as I expected , that there was a pretty quantity of white salt of Tartar fallen to the bottom of the vessel , which salt had been meerly forsaken by the aqueous particles that sustained it before , but forsook it to pass into the spirit of wine , wherewith they were more disposed to associate themselves ; which I concluded , because having , before I poured on this last named liquor , made a mark on the glass to shew how far the lixivium reached , I found ( what I looked for ) that after the Precipitation , the Lixivium , that remained yet strong enough to continue unmixed with the incumbent spirit , had its surface not where the mark shewed it had been before , but a considerable distance beneath it , the spirit of wine having gained in extent what it lost in strength by receiving so many aqueous particles into it . I chose to make this tryal rather with a Lixivium of Salt of Tartar than with oyl of Tartar per Deliquium , because in this last named liquor the aqueous and saline particles are more closely combined and therefore more difficult to be separated than I thought they would be in a Lixivium hastily made , though very strong . And though by much agitation I have sometimes obtained some salt of Tartar from the above-mentioned oil ; yet the experiment succeeded nothing near so well with that liquor as with a Lixivium . I made also the like tryal with exceedingly dephlegmed spirit of wine , and as strong a Brine as I could make of common salt dissolved without heat in common water ; and I thereby obtained no despicable proportion of finely figured salt , that was let fall to the bottom . But this experiment , to be succesful , requires greater care in him that makes it , than the former needs . To confirm , and somewhat to vary this way of Precipitation , I shall add , that having made a clear solution of choice Gum Arabic in common water , and poured upon it a little high rectified spirit of wine , on this occasion there was also made , and that in a trice , a copious precipitation of a light and purely white substance not unpleasant to behold . And for further Confirmation I dissolved a full proportion of Myrrhe in fair water , and into the filtrated solution , which was transparent , but of a high brown colour , I dropt a large proportion ( which Circumstance is not to be omitted ) of carefully dephlegm'd spirit of wine , which according to expectation made a copious Precipitate of the Gum. And these instances I the rather set down in this place , because they seem to show , that simple water is a real Menstruum , which may have its dissolving and sustaining virtue weakened by the accession of Liquors , that are not doubted to be much stronger than it . By specifying the hitherto mentioned wayes , whereby Precipitations may be Mechanically performed and accounted for , I would by no means be thought to deny , that there may be some omitted here , which either others that shall consider the matter with more attention , or I my self , if I shall have leisure to do it , may think on . For I propose these but as the chief that occurr to my present thoughts ; and I forbear to add more instances to exemplifie them , because I would not injure some of my other papers , that have a greater right to those Instances . Only this I shall note in general , that the Doctrine and History of Precipitations , if well delivered , will be a thing of more extent and moment than seems hitherto to have been imagined ; since not only several of the changes in the blood and other liquors and juices of the humane body may thereby be the better understood ; and they prevented , or their ill consequences remedied ; but in the practical part of Mineralogy divers usefull things may probably be performed by the assistance of such a Doctrine and History . To keep which conjecture from seeming extravagant , I shall only here intimate , that 't is not alone in bodies that are naturally or permanently liquid , but in those solid and ponderous bodies , that are for a short time made so by the violence of the fire , that many of the things suggested by this Doctrine may have place . For whilst divers of those Bodies are in fusion , they may be treated as liquors ; and metalls , and perhaps other heterogeneous bodies may be obtained from them by fit though dry Precipitants , as in some other writings I partly did , and may elsewhere yet further , declare . FINIS . Experiments and Notes ABOUT THE MECHANICAL PRODUCTION OF Magnetism . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esq ; Fellow of the R. Society . LONDON , Printed by E. Flesher , for R. Davis Bookseller in Oxford . 1676. ADVERTISEMENT Concerning the following NOTES About OCCULT QUALITIES . THE following Papers ( about Magnetism and Electricity ) would appear with less disadvantage , if the Author's willingness and Promise , that this Tome should be furnished with notes about some Occult Qualities , as well as about divers sorts of those that are presumed to be Manifest , did not prevail with him to let the ensuing Notes appear without those about the Pores of Bodies and Figures of Corpuscles , that should have preceded them , and some others that should have accompanied them . But the Author chose rather to venture these Papers abroad in the Condition , such as 't is , they now appear in , than make those already printed about manifest Qualities stay longer for Accessions , which some troublesome Accidents will not suffer him to hasten to the press ; and without which , he now fears this Tome may swell to a more than competent Bulk . Experiments and Notes ABOUT THE Mechanical Production OF MAGNETICAL QUALITIES . THough the vertues of the Loadstone be none of the least famous of Occult Qualities , and are perhaps the most justly admired ; yet I shall venture to offer something to make it probable , that some , even of these , may be introduced into bodies by the production of Mechanical changes in them . To make way for what I am to deliver to this purpose , it will be expedient to remove that general and settled prejudice , that has kept men from so much as thinking of any Mechanical account of Magnetisms , which is a belief , that these Qualities do immediately flow from the Substantial Form of the Loadstone , whose abstruse nature is disproportionate to our understandings . EXPER. I But for my part , I confess , I see no necessity of admitting this supposition ; for I see , that a piece of Steel fitly shaped and well excited , will , like a Loadstone , have its determinate Poles , and with them point at the North and South ; it will draw other pieces of Iron and Steel to it , and which is more , communicate to them the same kind , though not degree , of attractive and directive vertue it had it self , and will possess these faculties not as light and transient impressions , but as such setled and durable Powers that it may retain them for many years , if the Loadstone , to which it has been duly applied , were vigorous enough : Of which sort I remember I have seen one ( and made some tryals with it ) that yielded an income to the owner , who received money from Navigators and others for suffering them to touch their needles , swords , knives &c. at his excellent Magnet . Now , in a piece of steel or iron thus excited , 't is plain , that the Magnetic operations may be regularly performed for whole years by a body , to which the form of a Loadstone does not belong , since , as it had its own form before , so it retains the same still , continuing as malleable , fusible &c. as an ordinary piece of the same metal unexcited : so that , if there be introduced a fit disposition into the internal parts of the metal by the action of the Loadstone , the metal , continuing of the same Species it was before , will need nothing save the continuance of that acquired disposition to be capable of performing Magnetical Operations ; and if this disposition or internal constitution of the excited iron be destroyed , though the form of the metal be not at all injured , yet the former power of Attraction shall be abolished , EXPER. II as appears when an excited iron is made red hot in the fire , and suffered to cool again . And here give me leave to take notice of what I have elsewhere related to another purpose , EXPER. III namely that a Loadstone may ( as I have more than once tryed ) be easily deprived by ignition of its Power of sensibly attracting Martial bodies , and yet be scarce , if at all , visibly changed , but continue a true Loadstone in other capacities , which , according to the vulgar Philosophy ought to depend upon its Substantial Form , and the Loadstone thus spoiled may , notwithst●●d●●● this Form , have its 〈…〉 at pleasure like a piece of Iron ; as I have elsewhere particularly declared . And I will confirm what I have been saying with an experiment that you do not perhaps expect ; namely , that though it be generally taken for granted ( without being contradicted that I know of by any man ) that , in a sound Loadstone , that has never been injured by the fire , not only the attractive Power , but the particular Vertue that it has to point constantly , when left to it self , with one of its determinate extreams to one determinate pole , flowes immediately from the substantial or at least essential Form ; yet this Form remaining undestroyed by Fire , the Poles may be changed , and that with ease and speed . For among my notes about Magnetical Experiments , whence I borrow some passages of this paper , I find the following Account . EXPER. IV. TO shew that the virtue that a Loadstone hath by this determinate Pole or Extream to attract , for example , the South-end of a poised needle , and with the opposite extream or Pole the North-end of the same needle , I made among other tryals the following Experiment . Taking a very small fragment of a Loadstone , I found , agreeably to my conjecture , that by applying sometimes one Pole , sometimes the other , to that pole of ( a small but ) a very vigorous Loadstone that was fit for my purpose , I could at pleasure , in a few minutes , change the Poles of the little fragment , as I tryed by its operations upon a needle freely poised ; though by applying a fragment a pretty deal bigger , ( for in it self it appeared very small , ) I was not able in far more hours than I employed minutes before , to make any sensible change of the Poles . This short Memorial being added to the preceding part of this discourse , will , I hope , satisfie you , that how unanimously so ever men have deduced all magnetick operations from the form of the Loadstone ; yet some internal change of pores or some other Mechanical alterations or inward disposition , either of the excited Iron or of the Loadstone it self , may suffice to make a body capable or uncapable of exercising some determinate magnetical operations ; which may invite you to cast a more unprejudiced eye upon those few particulars , I shall now subjoin to make it probable , that even Magnetical Qualities may be Mechanically produced or altered . EXPER. V. I Have often observed in the shops of Artificers , as Smiths , Turners of metals &c. that , when hardened and well tempered tools are well heated by Attrition , if whilest they are thus warmed you apply them to filings or chips , as they call them , or thin fragments of Steel or Iron , they will take them up , as if the instruments were touched with a Loadstone : but as they will not do so , unless they be thus excited by rubbing till they be warmed , by which means a greater commotion is made in the inner parts of he Steel so neither would they retain so vigorous a Magnetism as to support the little fragments of Steel that stuck to them after they were grown cold again . Which may be confirmed by what , if I much misremember not , I shewed some Acquaintances of yours ; which was , that , by barely rubbing a conveniently EXPER. VI. shaped piece of Steel against the floor till it had gained a sufficient heat , it would whilest it continued so , discover a manifest , though but faint attractive power , which vanished together with the adventitious Heat . EXPER. VII . WE elsewhere observe , which perhaps you also may have done , that the Iron bars of windows , by having stood very long in an erected posture , may at length grow Magnetical , so that , if you apply the North point of a poised and excited Needle to the bottom of the Bar , it will drive it away , & attract the Southern ; and if you raise the magnetick needle to the upper part of the Bar , and apply it as before , this will draw the Northern extream , which the other end of the bar expelled ; probably because , as 't is elsewhere declared , the bar is in tract of time , by the continual action of the Magnetical effuvia of the Tarraqueous Globe , turned into a kind of Magnet , whose lower end becomes the North-pole of it , and the other the Southern . Therefore according to the Magnetical Laws , the former must expel the Northern extream of the Needle , and the later draw it . EXPER. VIII . I Have found indeed , and I question not but other observers may have done so too , that , if a bar of Iron , that has not stood long in an erected posture , be but held perpendicular , the forementioned experiment will succeed , ( probably upon such an account as that I have lately intimated : ) But then this virtue , displayed by the extreams of the bar of Iron , will not be at all permanent , but so transient , that , if the bar be but inverted and held again upright , that end which just before was the uppermost , and drew the north-end of the needle , will now , being lowermost , drive it away , which , as was lately observed , will not happen to a bar which has been some years or other competent time kept in the same Position . So that , since length of time is requisite to make the verticity of a bar of Iron so durable & constant , that the same extream will have the same virtues in reference to the Magnetical needle , whether you make it the upper end or the lower end of the bar , it seems not improbable to me , that by length of time the whole Magnetick virtue of this Iron may be increased , and consequently some degree of attraction acquired . And by this Consideration I shall endeavour to explicate that strange thing , that is reported by some Moderns to have happened in Italy , where a bar of Iron is affirmed to have been converted into a Loadstone , whereof a piece was kept among other rarities in the curious Aldrovandus his Musaeum Metallicum . For considering the greatness of its Specific Gravity , the malleableness and other properties , wherein Iron differs from Loadstone , I cannot easily believe , that , by such a way as is mentioned , a metal should be turned into a stone . And therefore , having consulted the book it self , whence this Relation was borrowed , I found the story imperfectly enough delivered : The chiefest and clearest thing in it being , that at the top of the Church of Arimini a great iron-bar , that was placed there to support a Cross of an hundred pound weight , was at length turned into a Loadstone . But whether the reality of this transmutation was examined , and how it appeared that the fragment of the Loadstone presented to Aldrovandus was taken from that bar of Iron , I am not fully satisfied by that Narrative . Therefore , when I remember the great resemblance I have sometimes seen in colour , besides other manifest Qualities , betwixt some Loadstones and some course or almost rusty Iron , I am tempted to Conjecture , that those that observed this Iron-bar when broken to have acquired a strong Magnetical virtue , which they dreamed not that tract of time might communicate to it , might easily be perswaded , by this virtue and the resemblance of colour , that the Iron was turned into Loadstone : especially they being prepossess'd with that Aristotelian Maxim , whence our Author would explain this strange Phaenomenon , that inter Symbolum habentia facilis est transmutatio . But , leaving this as a bare conjecture , we may take notice , that what virtue an oblong piece of Iron may need a long tract of time to acquire , by the help onely of its position , may be imparted to it in a very short time , by the intervention of such a nimble agent , as the fire . As may be often , though not always , observed in Tongs , EXPER. IX and such like Iron Utensils , that , having been ignited , have been set to cool , leaning against some wall or other prop , that kept them in an erected posture , which makes it probable that the great commotion of the parts , made by the vehement heat of the fire , disposed the Iron , whilst it was yet soft , and had its pores more lax , and parts more pliable , disposed it , I say , to receive much quicker impressions from the Magnetical effluvia of the Earth , than it would have done , if it had still been cold . EXPER. X And 't is very observable to our present purpose , what differing effects are produced by the operation of the fire , upon two Magnetick bodies according to their respective constitutions . For , by keeping a Loadstone red-hot , though you cool it afterwards in a perpendicular posture , you may deprive it of its former power of manifestly attracting : But a bar of Iron being ignited , and set to cool perpendicularly , does thereby acquire a manifest verticity . Of which differing events I must not now stay to inquire , whether or no the true reason be , That the peculiar Texture or internal constitution that makes a Loadstone somewhat more than an ordinary Ore of Iron , ( which metal , as far as I have tried , is the usual ingredient of Loadstones ) being spoiled by the violence of the fire , this rude Agent leaves it in the condition of common Iron , or perhaps of ignited Iron-ore : whereas the fire does soften the Iron it self ( which is a metal not an Ore ) agitating its parts , and making them the more flexible , and by relaxing its pores , disposes it to be easily and plentifully pervaded by the Magnetical steams of the Earth , from which it may not improbably be thought to receive the verticity it acquires ; and this the rather , because , as I have often tryed , and elsewhere mentioned , EXPER. XI if an oblong Loadstone , once spoil'd by the fire , be thorowly ignited and cooled either perpendicularly , or lying horizontally North and South , it will , as well as a piece of Iron handled after the same manner , be made to acquire new poles , or change the old ones , as the skilful experimenter pleases . But whatever be the true cause of the disparity of the fires operation upon a sound Loadstone and a bar of Iron , the effect seems to strengthen our conjecture , That Magnetical operations may much depend upon Mechanical Principles . And I hope you will find further probability added to it , by some Phaenomena recited in another paper , to which I once committed some promiscuous Experiments and Observations Magnetical . EXPER. XII . IF I may be allowed to borrow an Experiment from a little Tract * that yet lyes by me , and has been seen but by two or three friends , it may be added to the instances already given about the production of Magnetism . For in that Experiment I have shewn , how having brought a good piece of a certain kind of English Oker , which yet perhaps was no fitter than other , to a convenient shape , though , till it was altered by the fire , it discovered no Magnetical Quality ; yet after it had been kept red-hot in the fire and was suffered to cool in a convenient posture , it was enabled to exercise Magnetical operations upon a pois'd Needle . EXPER. XIII . AS for the Abolition of the Magnetical vertue in a body endow'd with it , it may be made without destroying the Substantial or the Essential Form of the body , and without sensibly adding , diminishing , or altering any thing in reference to the Salt , Sulphur and Mercury , which Chymists presume Iron and Steel , as well as other mixt bodies , to be composed of . For it has been sometimes observed , that the bare continuance of a Loadstone it self in a contrary position to that , which , when freely placed , it seems to effect , has either corrupted or sensibly lessened the vertue of it . What I formerly observed to this purpose . I elsewhere relate , and since that having a Loadstone , whose vigor was look'd upon by skilfu● persons as very extraordinary , and which , whilst it was in an Artificers hand , was therefore held at a high rate , I was careful , being by some occasions call'd out of London , to lock it up , with some other rarities , in a Cabinet , whereof I took the key along with me , and still kept it in my own Pocket . But my stay abroad proving much longer than I expected , when , being returned to London , I had occasion to make use of this Loadstone for an Experiment , I found it indeed where I left it , but so exceedingly decayed , as to its attractive power , which I had formerly examin'd by weight , by having lain almost a year in an inconvenient posture , that if it had not been for the circumstances newly related , I should have concluded that some body had purposely got it out in my absence , and spoiled it by help of the fire , the vertue being so much impaired , that I cared little to employ it any more about considerable Experiments . EXPER. XIV And this corruption of the Magnetical vertue , which may in tract of time be made in a Loadstone it self , may in a trice be made by the help of that Stone in an excited Needle . For 't is observ'd by Magnetical Writers , and my own Trials purposely made have assured me of it , that a well pois'd Needle , being by the touch of a good Loadstone , excited and brought to turn one of its ends to the North and the other to the South , it may be a contrary touch of the same Loadstone be deprived of the faculty it had of directing its determinate extreams to determinate Poles . Nay , by another touch ( or the same , and even without immediate Contact , if the Magnet be vigorous enough ) the Needle may presently have its direction so changed , that the end , which formerly pointed to the North pole , shall now regard the South , and the other end shall instead of the Southern , respect the Northen pole . EXPER. XV. AND to make it the more probable , that the change of the Magnetism communicated to Iron may be produc'd at least in good part by Mechanical operations , procuring some change of texture in the Iron ; I shall subjoyn a notable Experiment of the ingenious Doctor Power , which when I heard of , I tryed as well as I could ; and though , perhaps for want of conveniency , I could not make it fully answer what it promised , yet the success of the trial was considerable enough to make it pertinent in this place , and to induce me to think , it might yet better succeed with him , whose Experiment , as far as it concerns my present purpose , imports , that if a Puncheon , as Smiths call it , or a Rod of Iron , be , by being ignited and suffered to cool North and South , and hammered at the ends , very manifestly endow'd with Magnetical vertue , this vertue will in a trice be destroyed , by two or three smart blows of a strong hammer upon the middle of the oblong piece of Iron . But Magnetism is so fertile a Subject , that if I had now the leisure and conveniency to range among Magnetical Writers , I should scarce doubt of finding , among their many Experiments and Observations , divers that might be added to those above delivered , as being easily applicable to my present Argument . And I hope you will find farther probability added to what has been said , to shew , that Magnetical operations may much depend upon Mechanical Principles , by some Phaenomena recited in another Paper , to which I once committed some promiscuous Experiments and Observations Magnetical . FINIS . Experiments and Notes ABOUT THE MECHANICAL ORIGINE OR PRODUCTION OF Electricity . By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esq ; Fellow of the R. Society . LONDON , Printed by E. Flesher , for R. Davis Bookseller in Oxford . 1675. Experiments and Notes ABOUT THE MECHANICAL ORIGINE OR PRODUCTION OF Electricity . THat 't is not necessary to believe Electrical Attraction ( which you know is generally listed among Occult Qualities ) to be the effect of a naked and solitary Quality flowing immediately from a Substantial Form ; but that it may rather be the effect of a Material Effluvium , issuing from , and returning to , the Electrical Body ( and perhaps in some cases assisted in its Operation by the external air ) seems agreable to divers things that may be observ'd in such Bodies and their manner of acting . There are differing Hypotheses ( and all of them Mechanical , propos'd by the Moderns ) to solve the Phaenomena of Electrical Attraction . Of these Opinions the First is that of the learned Jesuite Cabaeus , who , though a Peripatetick and Commentator on Aristotle , thinks the drawing of light Bodies by Jet , Amber , &c. may be accounted for , by supposing , that the steams that issue , or , if I may so speak , sally , out of Amber , when heated by rubbing , discuss and expell the neighbouring air ; which after it has deen driven off a little way , makes as it were a small whirlwind , because of the resistance it finds from the remoter air , which has not been wrought on by the Electrical Steams ; and that these , shrinking back swiftly enough to the Amber , do in their returns bring along with them such light bodies as they meet with in their way . On occasion of which Hypothesis I shall offer it to be consider'd , Whether by the gravity of the Atmospherical Air , surmounting the Specifick Gravity of the little and rarifi'd Atmosphere , made about the Amber by its emissions , and comprising the light Body fasten'd on by them , the Attraction may not in divers cases be either caused or promoted . Another Hypothesis is that proposed by that Ingenious Gentleman Sir Kenelm Digby , and embraced by the very Learned Dr. Browne , ( who seems to make our Gilbert himself to have been of it ) and divers other sagacious men . And according to this Hypothesis , the Amber , or other Electrick , being chaf'd or heated , is made to emit certain Rayes or Files of unctuous Steams , which , when they come to be a little cool'd by the external air , are somewhat condens'd , and having lost of their former agitation , shrink back to the body whence they sallied out , and carry with them those light bodies , that their further ends happen to adhere to , at the time of their Retraction : As when a drop of Oyl or Syrup hangs from the end of a small stick , if that be dextrously and cautiously struck , the viscous substance will , by that impulse , be stretch'd out , and presently retreating , will bring along with it the dust or other light bodies that chanced to stick to the remoter parts of it . And this way of explaining Electrical Attractions is employ'd also by the Learned Gassendus , who addes to it , that these Electrical Rays ( if they may be so call'd ) being emitted several ways , and consequently crossing one another , get into the pores of the Straw , or other light body to be attracted , and by means of their Decussation take the faster hold of it , and have the greater force to carry it along with them , when they shrink back to the Amber whence they were emitted . A third Hypothesis there is , which was devised by the Acute Cartesius , who dislikes the Explications of others , chiefly because he thinks them not applicable to Glass , which he supposes unfit to send forth Effluvia , and which is yet an Electrical body ; and therefore attempts to account for Electrical Attractions by the intervention of certain particles , shap'd almost like small pieces of Ribbond , which he supposes to be form'd of this subtile matter harbour'd in the pores or crevises of Glass . But this Hypothesis , though ingenious in it self , yet depending upon the knowledge of divers of his peculiar Principles , I cannot intelligibly propose it in few words , and therefore shall refer you to himself for an account of it : which I the less scruple to do , because though it be not unworthy of the wonted Acuteness of the Authour , yet he seems himself to doubt , whether it will reach all Electrical Bodies ; and it seems to me , that the reason why he rejects the way of explicating Attraction by the Emission of the finer parts of the attrahent ( to which Hypothesis , if it be rightly proposed , I confess my self very inclinable ) is grounded upon a mistake , which , though a Philosopher may , for want of Experience in that Particular , without disparagement fall into , is nevertheless a mistake . For whereas our excellent Author says , that Electrical Effluvia , such as are supposed to be emitted by Amber , Wax , &c. cannot be imagin'd to proceed from Glass , I grant the Supposition to be plausible , but cannot allow it to be true . For as solid a body as Glass is , yet if you but dextrously rub for two or three minutes a couple of pieces of Glass against one another , you will find that Glass is not onely capable of emitting Effluvia , but such ones as to be odorous , and sometimes to be rankly stinking . But it is not necessary , that in this Paper , where I pretend not to write Discourses but Notes , I should consider all that has been , or I think may be , said for and against each of the above-mentioned Hypotheses ; since they all agree in what is sufficient for my present purpose , namely , that Electrical Attractions are not the Effects of a meer Quality , but of a Substantial Emanation from the attracting Body : And 't is plain , that they all endeavour to solve the Phaenomena in a Mechanical way , without recurring to Substantial Forms , and inexplicable Qualities , or so much as taking notice of the Hypostatical Principles of the Chymists . Wherefore it may suffice in this place , that I mention-some Phaenomena that in general make it probable , that Amber , &c. draws such light Bodies , as pieces of Straw , Hair , and the like , by vertue of some Mechanical Affections either of the attracting or of the attracted Bodies , or of both the one and the other . 1. The first and most general Observation is , That Electrical Bodies draw not unless they be warm'd ; which Rule though I have now and then found to admit of an Exception , ( whereof I elsewhere offer an account , ) yet , as to the generality of common Electricks , it holds well enough to give much countenance to our Doctrine , which teaches the effects of Electrical Bodies to be perform'd by Corporeal Emanations . For 't is known , that Heat , by agitating the parts of a fit Body , solicites it as it were to send forth its Effluvia , as is obvious in odoriferous Gums and Perfumes , which , being heated , send forth their fragrant steams , both further and more copiously than otherwise they would . 2. Next , it has been observ'd , that Amber , &c. warm'd by the fire , does not attract so vigorously , as if it acquire an equal degree of heat by being chaf'd or rub'd : So that the modification of motion in the internal parts , and in the Emanations of the Amber , may , as well as the degree of it , contribute to the Attraction . And my particular Observations incline me to adde , that the effect may oftentimes be much promoted , by employing both these ways successively ; as I thought I manifestly found when I first warm'd the Amber at the fire , and presently after chaf'd it a little upon a piece of cloth . For then a very few rubbings seem'd to excite it more than many more would otherwise have done : As if the heat of the fire had put the parts into a general , but confus'd , agitation ; to which 't was easie for the subsequent Attrition ( or Reciprocation of Pressure ) to give a convenient modification in a Body whose Texture disposes it to become vigorously Electrical . 3. Another Observation that is made about these Bodies , is , That they require Tersion as well as Attrition ; and though I doubt whether the Rule be infallible , yet I deny not but that weaker Electricks require to be as well wip'd as chaf'd ; and even good ones will have their Operation promoted by the same means . And this is very agreeable to our Doctrine , since Tersion , besides that it is , as I have sometimes manifestly known it , a kind or degree of Attrition , frees the Surface from those adherences that might choak the pores of the Amber , or at least hinder the emanation of the steams to be so free and copious as otherwise it would be . 4. 'T is likewise observ'd , That whereas the Magnetical Steams are so subtile , that they penetrate and perform their Operation through all kind of Mediums hitherto known to us ; Electrical Steams are like those of some odoriferous Bodies , easily check'd in their progress , since 't is affirm'd by Learned Writers , who say they speak upon particular Trial , 〈…〉 of the finest 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 is sufficient to hinder 〈…〉 Operation of excited Amber upon a Straw or Feather plac'd never so little beyond it . 5. It has been also observed , that the effects of Electrical Attraction are weaken'd if the air be thick and cloudy ; and especially if the South-wind blows : And that Electricks display their vertue more faintly by night than by day , and more vigorously in clear weather , and when the winds are Northerly . All which the Learned Kircherus asserts himself to have found true by experience ; insomuch that those bodies that are but faintly drawn when the weather is clear , will not , when 't is thick and cloudy , be at all moved . 6. We have also observed , That divers Concretes , that are notably Electrical , do abound in an effluviable matter ( if I may so call it ) which is capable of being manifestly evaporated by heat and rubbing . Thus we see , that most Resinous Gums , that draw light bodies , do also , being moderately solicited by heat , ( whether this be excited by the fire , or by Attrition or Contusion ) emit steams . And in pieces of Sulphur conveniently shaped , I found upon due Attrition a Sulphureous stink . And that piece of Amber which I most employ , being somewhat large and very well polish'd , will , being rub'd upon a piece of woollen cloth , emit steams , which the nostrils themselves may perceive ; and they sometimes seem to me not unlike those that I took notice of , when I kept in my mouth a drop or two of the diluted Tincture ( or Solution of the finer parts ) of Amber made with Spirit of Wine , or of Sal Armoniac . 7. It agrees very well with what has been said of the corporeal Emanations of Amber , that its attractive power will continue some time after it has been once excited . For the Attrition having caus'd an intestine commotion in the parts of the Concrete , the heat or warmth that is thereby excited ought not to cease , as soon as ever the rubbing is over , but to continue capable of emitting Effluvia for some time afterwards , which will be longer or shorter according to the goodness of the Electric , and the degree of the Antecedent commotion : which joyn'd together may sometimes make the effect considerable , insomuch that in a warm day , about noon , I did with a certain body , not much , if at all , bigger than a Pea , but very vigorously attractive , move to and fro a Steel Needle freely poysed , about three minutes ( or the twentieth part of an hour ) after I had left off rubbing the Attrahent . 8. That it may not seem impossible , that Electrical Effluvia should be able to insinuate themselves into the pores of many other bodies , I shall adde , that I found them subtile enough to attract not onely Spirit of Wine , but that fluid aggregate of Corpuscles we call Smoak . For having well lighted a Wax-taper , which I preferr'd to a common Candle to avoid the stink of the snuff , I blew out the flame ; and , when the smoak ascended in a slender stream , held , at a convenient distance from it , an excited piece of Amber or a chafed Diamond , which would manifestly make the ascending smoak deviate from its former line , and turn aside , to beat , as it were , against the Electric , which , if it were vigorous , would act at a considerable distance , and seemed to smoak for a pretty while together . 9. That 't is not in any peculiar Sympathy between an Electric and a body whereon it operates , that Electrical Attraction depends , seems the more probale , because Amber , for instance , does not attract onely one determinate sort of bodies , as the Loadstone does Iron , and those bodies wherein it abounds ; but as far as I have yet tried , it draws indifferently all bodies whatsoever , being plac'd within a due distance from it , ( as my choicest piece of Amber draws not onely Sand and Mineral Powders , but Filings of Steel and Copper , and beaten Gold it self ) provided they be minute or light enough , except perhaps it be fire : I employ the word perhaps , because I am not yet so clear in this point . For having applied a strong Electric at a convenient distance to small fragments of ignited matter , they were readily enough attracted , and shin'd , whilst they were sticking to the body that had drawn them : But when I look'd attentively upon them , I found the shining sparks to be , as it were , cloath'd with light ashes , which , in spite of my diligence , had been already form'd about the attracted Corpuscles , upon the expiring of a good part of the fire ; so that it remain'd somewhat doubtful to me , whether the ignited Corpuscles , whilst they were totally such , were attracted ; or whether the immediate objects of the Attraction were not the new form'd ashes , which carried up with them those yet unextinguished parts of fire , that chanc'd to be lodg'd in them . But , as for flame , our Countreyman Gilbert delivers as his Experiment , That an Electric , though duly excited and applied , will not move the flame of the slenderest Candle . Which some will think not so easie to be well tried with common Electricks , as Amber , hard Wax , Sulphur , and the like unctuous Concretes , that very easily take fire : Therefore I chose to make my Trial with a rough Diamond extraordinarily attractive , which I could , without injuring it , hold as near as I pleas'd to the flame of a Candle or Taper ; and though I was not satisfi'd that it did either attract the flame , as it visibly did the smoak , or manifestly agitate it ; yet granting that Gilbert's Assertion will constantly hold true , and so , that flame is to be excepted from the general Rule , yet this exception may well comport with the Hypothesis hitherto countenanc'd , since it may be said , as 't is , if I mistake not , by Kirkerus , that the heat of the flame dissipates the Effluvia , by whose means the Attraction should be perform'd . To which I shall adde , that possibly the Celerity of the motion of the Flame upwards , may render it very difficult for the Electrical Emanations to divert the Flame from its Course . 10. We have found by Experiment , That a vigorous and well excited piece of Amber will draw , not onely the powder of Amber , but less minute fragments of it . And as in many cases one contrary directs to another , so this Trial suggested a further , which , in case of good success , would probably argue , that in Electrical Attraction not onely Effluvia are emitted by the Electrical body , but these Effluvia fasten upon the body to be drawn , and that in such a way , that the intervening viscous strings , which may be supposed to be made up of those cohering Effluvia , are , when their agitation ceases , contracted or made to shrink inwards towards both ends , almost as a highly stretch'd Lute-string does when 't is permitted to retreat into shorter Dimensions . But the Conjecture it self was much more easie to be made than the Experiment requisite to examine it . For we found it no easie matter to suspend an Electric , great and vigorous enough , in such a manner , that it might , whilst suspended , be excited , and be so nicely poised , that so faint a force as that wherewith it attracts light bodies should be able to procure a Local Motion to the whole Body it self . But after some fruitless attempts with other Electricks , I had recourse to the very vigorous piece of polish'd Amber , formerly mention'd , and when we had with the help of a little Wax suspended it by a silken thread , we chafed very well one of the blunt edges of it upon a kind of large Pin-cushion cover'd with a course and black woollen stuff , and then brought the Electric , as soon as we could , to settle notwithstanding its hanging freely at the bottom of the string . This course of rubbing on the edge of the Amber we pitch'd upon for more than one reason ; for if we had chafed the flat side , the Amber could not have approached the body it had been rub'd on without making a change of place in the whole Electric , and , which is worse , without making it move ( contrary to the nature of heavy bodies ) somewhat upwards ; whereas the Amber having , by reason of its suspension , its parts counterpoised by one another ; to make the excited edge approach to another body , that edge needed not at all ascend , but onely be moved horizontally , to which way of moving the gravity of the Electric ( which the string kept from moving downwards ) could be but little or no hinderance . And agreeably to this we found , that if , as soon as the suspended and well rubb'd Electric was brought to settle freely , we applied to the chafed edge , but without touching it , the lately mention'd Cushion , which , by reason of its rough Superficies and porosity , was fit for the Electrical Effluvia to fasten upon , the edge would manifestly be drawn aside by the Cushion steadily held , and if this were slowly removed , would follow it a good way ; and when this body no longer detain'd it , would return to the posture wherein it had settled before . And this power of approaching the Cushion by vertue of the operation of its own steams , was so durable in our vigorous piece of Amber , that by once chafing it , I was able to make it follow the Cushion no less than ten or eleven times . Whether from such Experiments one may argue , that 't is but , as 't were , by accident that Amber attracts another body , and not this the Amber ; and whether these ought to make us question , if Electricks may with so much propriety , as has been hitherto generally supposed , be said to Attract , are doubts that my Design does not here oblige me to examine . Some other Phaenomena might be added of the same Tendency with those already mention'd , ( as the advantage that Electrical Bodies usually get by having well polish'd or at least smooth Surfaces , ) but the Title of this Paper promising some Experiments about the Production of Electricity , I must not omit to recite , how I have been sometimes able to produce or destroy this Quality in certain bodies , by means of alterations , that appear'd not to be other than Mechanical . EXPER. I. ANd first , having with a very mild heat slowly evaporated about a fourth part of good Turpentine , I found , that the remaining body would not , when cold , continue a Liquor , but harden'd into a transparent Gum almost like Amber , which , as I look'd for , proved Electrical . EXPER. II. SEcondly , by mixing two such liquid Bodies as Petroleum and strong Spirit of Nitre in a certain proportion , and then distilling them till there remained a dry mass , I obtain'd a brittle substance as black as Jet ; and whose Superficies ( where it was contiguous to the Retort ) was glossie like that Mineral when polished ; and as I expected I found it also to resemble Jet , in being endowed with an Electrical Faculty . EXPER. III. THirdly , Having burnt Antimony to ashes , and of those ashes , without any addition , made a transparent Glass , I found , that , when rubb'd , as Electrical Bodies ought to be to excite them , it answer'd my expectation , by manifesting a not inconsiderable Electricity . And this is the worthier of notice , because , that as a Vitrum Antimonii , that is said to be purer than ordinary , may be made of the Regulus of the same Mineral , in whose preparation you know a great part of the Antimonial Sulphur is separated and left among the Scoriae ; so Glass of Antimony made without additament , may easily , as experience has inform'd us , be in part reduc'd to a Regulus , ( a Body not reckon'd amongst Electrical ones . ) And that you may not think , that 't is onely some peculiar and fixt part of the Antimony that is capable of Vitrification , let me assure you , that even with the other part that is wont to flye away , ( namely the Flowers ) an Antimonial Glass may without an addition of other Ingredients be made . EXPER. IV. FOurthly , The mention of a Vitrified Body brings into my mind , that I more than once made some Glass of Lead per se , ( which I found no very easie work ) that also was not wholly destitute of an Electrical Vertue , though it had but a very languid one . And it is not here to be overlook'd , that this Glass might easily be brought to afford again malleable Lead , which was never reckon'd , that I know of , among Electrical Bodies . EXPER. V. FIfthly , Having taken some Amber , and warily distill'd it , not with Sand or powder'd Brick , or some such additament as Chymists are wont to use , for fear it should boyl over or break their Vessels ; but by its self , that I might have an unmixed Caput mortuum ; Having made this Distillation , I say , and continued it till it had afforded a good proportion of phlegm , Spirit , Volatile Salt , and Oyl , the Retort was warily broken , and the remaining matter was taken out in a lump , which , though it had quite lost its colour being burnt quite black , and though it were grown strangely brittle in comparison of Amber , so that they who believe the vertue of attracting light Bodies to flow from the substantial form of Amber , would not expect it in a Body so changed and deprived of its noblest parts : Yet this Caput mortuum was so far from having lost its Electrical Faculty , that it seemed to attract more vigorously than Amber it self is wont to do before it be committed to Distillation . And from the foregoing Instances afforded us by the Glass of Antimony , we may learn , that when the form of a Body seems to be destroyed by a fiery Analysis that dissipates the parts of it , the remaining substance may yet be endowed with Electricity , as the Caput mortuum of Amber ●ay acquire it ; as in the case of the Glass of Antimony made of the Calx and of the Flowers . And from the second Example above-mentioned , and from common Glass which is Electrical , we may also learn , that Bodies that are neither of them apart observed to be endowed with Electricity , may have that Vertue result in the compounded substance that they constitute , though it be but a factitious Body . To the foregoing Experiments , whose Success is wont to be uniform enough , I shall adde the Recital of a surprising Phaenomenon , which , though not constant , may help to make it probable , that Electrical Attractions need not be suppos'd still to proceed from the substantial , or even from the essential Form of the Attrahent ; but may be the effects of unheeded , and , as it were , fortuitous Causes . And however , I dare not suppress so strange an Observation , and therefore shall relate that which I had the luck to make of an odd sort of Electrical Attraction ( as it seem'd , ) not taken notice of ( that I know of ) by any either Naturalist or other Writer , and it is this . EXPER. VI. THat false Locks ( as they call them ) of some Hair , being by curling or otherwise brought to a certain degree of driness , or of stiffness , will be attracted by the flesh of some persons , or seem to apply themselves to it , as Hair is wont to do to Amber or Jet excited by rubbing . Of this I had a Proof in such Locks worn by two very Fair Ladies that you know . For at some times I observed , that they could not keep their Locks from flying to their Cheeks , and ( though neither of them made any use , or had any need of Painting ) from sticking there . When one of these Beauties first shew'd me this Experiment , I turn'd it into a Complemental Raillery , as suspecting there might be some trick in it , though I after saw the same thing happen to the others Locks too . But as she is no ordinary Virtuosa , she very ingeniously remov'd my suspicions , and ( as I requested ) gave me leave to satisfie my self further , by desiring her to hold her warm hand at a convenient distance from one of those Locks taken off and held in the air . For as soon as she did this , the lower end of the Lock , which was free , applied it self presently to her hand : which seem'd the more strange , because so great a multitude of Hair would not have been easily attracted by an ordinary Electrical Body , that had not been considerably large , or extraordinarily vigorous . This repeated Observation put me upon inquiring among some other young Ladies , whether they had observed any such like thing , but I found little satisfaction to my Question , except from one of them eminent for being ingenious , who told me , that sometimes she had met with these troublesome Locks ; but that all she could tell me of the Circumstances , which I would have been inform'd about , was , that they seem'd to her to flye most to her Cheeks when they had been put into a somewhat stiff Curle , and when the Weather was frosty . * Some years after the making the Experiments about the Production of Electricity , having a desire to try , whether in the Attractions made by Amber , the motions excited by the air had a considerable Interest , or whether the Effect were not due rather to the Emission and Retraction of Effluvia , which being of a viscous nature may consist of Particles either branch'd or hookt , or otherwise fit for some kind of Cohesion , and capable of being stretch'd , and of shrinking again , as Leather Thongs are : To examine this , I say , I thought the fittest way , if 't were practicable , would be , to try , whether Amber would draw a light Body in a Glass whence the air was pumpt out . And though the Trial of this seem'd very difficult to make , and we were somewhat discouraged by our first attempt , wherein the weight of the ambient air broke our Receiver , which chanced to prove too weak , when the internal air had been with extraordinary diligence pumpt out ; yet having a vigorous piece of Amber , which I had caus'd to be purposely turn'd and polish'd for Electrical Experiments , I afterwards repeated the Trial , and found , that in warm Weather it would retain a manifest power of attracting for several minutes ( for it stirred a pois'd Needle after above 1 / 4 of an hour ) after we had done rubbing it . Upon which encouragement we suspended it , being first well chafed , in a Glass Receiver that was not great , just over a light Body ; and making haste with our Air-Pumb to exhaust th● Glass , when the Air was withdrawn , we did by a Contrivance let down the suspended Amber till it came very near the Straw or Feather , and perceived , as we expected , that in some Trials , upon the least Contact it would lift it up ; and in others , for we repeated the Experiment , the Amber would raise it without touching it , that is , would attract it . You will probably be the less dispos'd to believe , That Electrical Attractions must proceed from the Substantial Forms of the Attrahents , or rom the Predominancy of this or that Chymical Principle in them , if I acquaint you with some odd Trials wherein the Attraction of light Bodies seem'd to depend upon very small circumstances . And though forbearing at present , to offer you my thoughts about the cause of these surprising Phaenomena , I propose it onely as a Probleme to your self and your curious Friends , yet the main circumstances seeming to be of a Mechanical Nature , the recital of my Trials will not be impertinent to the Design and Subject of this Paper . EXPER. VII . I Took then a large and vigorous piece of Amber conveniently shaped for my purpose , and a downy feather , such as grows upon the Bodies , not Wings or Tails of a somewhat large Chicken : Then having moderately excited the Electrick , I held the Amber so near it , that the neighbouring part of the feather was drawn by it and stuck fast to it ; but the remoter parts continued in their former posture . This done , I applyed my fore-finger to these erected downy feathers , and immediately , as I expected , they left their preceeding posture , and applied themselves to it as if it had been an Electrical Body . And whether I offered to them my nail , or the pulpy part of my finger , or held my finger towards the right hand or the left , or directly over , these downy feathers that were near the little Quill did nimbly , and , for ought appear'd , equally turn themselves towards it , and fasten themselves to it . And to shew that the streams that issued out of so warm a Body as my finger were not necessary to attract ( as men speak ) the abovementioned feathers , instead of my finger , I applied to them , after the same manner , a little Cylindrical Instrument of Silver , to which they bowed and fastened themselves as they had done to my finger , though the tip of this Instrument were presented to them in several postures . The like success I had with the end of an Iron Key , and the like also with a cold piece of polish'd black Marble ; and sometimes the feathers did so readily and strongly fasten themselves to these extraneous and unexcited Bodies , that I have been able ( though not easily ) to make one of them draw the feather from the Amber it self . But it is diligently to be observ'd , that this unusual attraction happened onely whilst the electrical operation of the excited Amber continued strong enough to sustain the feathers . For afterwards , neither the approach of my finger , nor that of the other bodies , would make the downy feathers change their posture . Yet as soon as ever the Amber was by a light affriction excited again , the feather would be disposed to apply it self again to the abovementioned Bodies . And lest there should be any peculiarity in that particular feather , I made the Trials with others ( provided they were not long enough to exceed the sphere of activity of the Amber ) and found the Experiment to answer my expectation . I made the Experiment also at differing times , and with some months , if not rather years , of interval , but with the like success . And lest you should think these Phaenomena proceed from some peculiarity in the piece of Amber I employed , I shall add , that I found uniformity enough in the success , when , in the place of Amber , I substituted another Electrick , and particularly a smooth mass of melted Brimstone . These are the Phaenomena I thought fit to mention at present of this unusual way of drawing light bodies , and with this Experiment I should conclude my Notes about Electricity , but that I think it will not be amiss before I take leave of this Subject , to give this Advertisement , That the event of Electrical Experiments is not always so certain as that of many others , being sometimes much varied by seemingly slight circumstances , and now and then by some that are altogether over-look'd . This Observation may receive credit from some of the particulars above recited ( especially concerning the interest of the weather , &c. in Electrical Phaenomena . ) But now I shall add , that , not onely there may happen some variations in the success of Trials made with Electrical Bodies , but that it is not so certain as many think , whether some particular Bodies be or be not Electrical . For the inquisitive Kircherus reckons Crystall among those Gems to whom Nature has denyed the attractive power we are speaking of ; and yet I remember not , that , among all the trials I have made with native Crystall , I have found any that was destitute of the power he refuses them . Also a late most learned Writer reciting the Electricks , reckon'd up by our industrious Countryman Gilbert , and increasing their number by some observed by himself , ( to which I shall now add , besides white Saphyrs , and white English Amethysts , the almost Diaphanous spar of Lead Ore ) denies Electricity to a couple of transparent Gems , the Cornelion and the Emrald . And I do the less wonder he should do so to the former , because I have my self in vain tried to make any attraction with a piece of Cornelion so large and fair , that 't was kept for a rarity ; and yet with divers other fine Cornelions I have been able to attract some light bodies very manifestly , if not briskly ; and I usually wear a Cornelian Ring , that is richly enough endowed with Electricity . But as for Emralds , as I thought it strange that Nature should have denied them a Quality she has granted to so many other Diaphanous Gems , and even to Crystal , so I thought the assertion deserved an Examen , upon which I concluded , that at least it does not universally and constantly hold true . I had indeed seen in a Ring a Stone of price and great lustre , which , though green , I found to be , ( as I guess'd it would prove ) vigorously enough Electrical . But this Experiment , though seemingly conclusive , I did not look upon as a fair trial , because the Stone was not a true Emrald , but , which is rare , a green Saphir . And I learned by inquiry of the skillful Jeweller that cut it , that it was so far from having the softness of an Emrald , that he found it harder than blew Saphyrs themselves , which yet are Gems of great hardness , and by some reputed second to none , but Diamonds . Without therefore concluding any thing from this Experiment , save that , if the assertion I was to examin were true , the want of an Electrical faculty might be thought a Concomitant rather of the peculiar Texture of the Emrald than of its green colour , I proceeded to make trial with three or four Emralds , whose being true was not doubted , and found them all somewhat , though not equally , endow'd with Electricity , which I found to be yet more considerable in an Emrald of my own , whose colour was so excellent , that by skilful persons 't was look'd on as a rarity . And though , by this success of my inquiry , I perceived I could not , as else I might have done , shew the Curious a new way of judging of true and false Emralds , yet the like way may be , though not always certain , yet oftentimes of use , in the estimating whether Diamonds be true or counterfeit , especially , if , being set in Rings , the surest way of trying them cannot conveniently be employed . For whereas Glass , though it have some Electricity , seems , as far as I have observed , to have but a faint one , there are often found Diamonds that have a very vigorous one . And I do not remember I met with any Electrick of the same bulk , that was more vigorous than a rough Diamond I have , which is the same that I formerly mentioned to have moved a Needle above three minutes after I had ceased to chafe it . And this brings into my mind , that it has been observed , that Diamonds draw better whilst rough , than they do after they are cut and polish'd ; which seeming to contradict what has been observed by others and by us also , that Amber , for instance , attracts more vigorously if the surface be made very smooth than otherwise , it induces me to conjecture , that , if this Observation about Diamonds be true , as some of my trials have now and then inclined me to think it , and if it do not in some cases considerably depend upon the loss of the ( Electrical ) Substance of the Stone , by its being cut and ground , the Reason may possibly be , that the great rapidness with which the Wheels that serve to cut and polish Diamonds must be mov'd , does excite a great degree of heat , ( which the sense ▪ may easily discover ) in the Stone , and by that and the strong concussion it makes of its parts , may force it to spend its effluviable matter , if I may so call it , so plentifully , that the Stone may be impoverish'd , and perhaps also , on the account of some little change in its Texture , be rendred lesse disposed to emit those effluvia that are Instruments of Electrical Attraction . But as I willingly leave the matter of Fact to further Trial , so I do the Cause of it , in case it prove true , to farther Inquiry . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A69611-e750 See Tracts about Cosmical Qualities , &c. to which is prefixt an Introduction to the History of Particular Qualities ; Printed at Oxford 1671. Notes for div A69611-e2150 * See more of this in the Preamble . * Divers of the Phaenomena , &c. of this Experiment were afterwards printed Numb . 15. of the Ph. Transact . Notes for div A69611-e2630 * Beniven . cap. 56. Abditorum apud Schenk . Lib. 7. de venen . Observ . 24. Cent. 6. Observ . Notes for div A69611-e6520 See in the Paper of Tasts , Exper. XII . Notes for div A69611-e14610 * This refers to an Essay of the Authors about the Usefulness of Chymistry to , &c. Notes for div A69611-e16380 See the beginning of the first Section . Notes for div A69611-e19240 * Relating to the Magnetism of the Earth . Notes for div A69611-e20140 Princip . part 4. Art. 184. 
A29007	----	New experiments physico-mechanical, touching the air New experiments physico-mechanical, touching the spring of the air, and its effects Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1682 Approx. 1001 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 237 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A29007 Wing B4000_PARTIAL Wing B3942_PARTIAL ESTC R23366 12760915 ocm 12760915 93491 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A29007) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 93491) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 707:11) New experiments physico-mechanical, touching the air New experiments physico-mechanical, touching the spring of the air, and its effects Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. Sharrock, Robert, 1630-1684. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. Defence of the doctrine touching the spring and weight of the air. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. Examen of Mr. T. Hobbes his Dialogus physicus de naturâ aëris. The third edition : whereunto is added a defence of the author's explication of the experiments, against the objections of Franciscus Linus and, Thomas Hobbs. [16], 203, [12], 117, [8], 102, [2] p., 2 leaves of plates (1 folded) ; 21 cm. Printed by Miles Flesher for Richard Davis, bookseller in Oxford, [London : 1682] Title taken from half-title. Each of the three works has special t. p. and separate paging; the third has separate signatures. Contains the first formulation of Boyle's law. "A catalogue of all the philosophical works published by our author": p. [1]-[2] at end. Edited by Robert Sharrock. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. New experiments physico-mechanical, touching the spring of the air, and its effects, made, for the most part, in a new pnuematical [sic] engine : written by way of letter to the Right Honorable Charles Lord Vicount of Dungarvan, eldest son to the Earl of Corke / by the Honorable Robert Boyle Esq. -- A defence of the doctrine touching the spring and weight of the air, propos'd by Mr. R. Boyle in his New physico-mechanical experiments, against the objections of Franciscus Linus : wherewith the objector's funicular hypothesis is also examin'd / by the author of those experiments -- An examen of Mr. T. Hobbs his Dialogus physicus de naturâ aëris, as far as it concerns Mr. Boyle's book of New experiments touching the spring of the air, &c. : with an appendix touching Mr. Hobbs's doctrine of fluidity and firmness / by the author of those experiments. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). 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Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Line, Francis, 1595-1675. -- Tractatus de corporum inseparabilitate. Hobbes, Thomas, 1588-1679. -- Dialogus physicus. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691 -- Bibliography. Air -- Early works to 1800. Air-pump -- Early works to 1800. 2000-00 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2001-07 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2001-08 TCP Staff (Michigan) Sampled and proofread 2001-10 TCP Staff (Michigan) Text and markup reviewed and edited 2001-11 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion New Experiments PHYSICO-MECHANICAL , Touching the AIR The Third Edition . Whereunto is added A DEFENCE of the Author's EXPLICATION OF THE EXPERIMENTS , Against the OBJECTIONS OF FRANCISCUS LINUS And , THOMAS HOBBS . NEW EXPERIMENTS PHYSICO-MECHANICAL , Touching The SPRING of the AIR , and its EFFECTS , Made , for the most part , in a New Pnuematical Engine , Written by way of LETTER To the Right Honorable CHARLES Lord Vicount of DUNGARVAN , Eldest Son to the EARL of CORKE . By the Honorable ROBERT BOYLE Esq LONDON , Printed by Miles Flesher for Richard Davis , Bookseller in Oxford , MDCLXXXII . To the Reader . ALthough the following Treatise being far more prolix than becomes a Letter , and than I at first intended it ; I am very unwilling to encrease the already excessive bulk of the Book by a Preface , yet there are some Particulars that I think my self oblig'd to take notice of to the Reader , as things that will either concern him to know , or me to have known . In the first place then : If it be demanded why I publish to the World a Letter , which by its Style and diverse Passages , appears to have been written as well For , as To a particular Person ; I have chiefly these two things to answer : The one , That the Experiments therein related , having been many of them try'd in the presence of Ingenious Men ; and by that means having made some noise among the Virtuosi ( insomuch that some of them have been sent into Foreign Countries , where they have had the luck not to be despis'd ) I could not , without quite tyring more than one Amanuensis , give out half as many Copies of them as were so earnestly desired , that I could not civilly refuse them . The other , That intelligent Persons in matters of this kind , perswade me , that the publication of what I had observ'd touching the nature of the Air , would not be useless to the World ; and that in an Age so taken with Novelties as is ours , these new Experiments would be gratefull to the Lovers of free and real Learning : So that I might at once comply with my grand Design of promoting Experimental and Usefull Philosophy , and obtain the great satisfaction of giving some to ingenious Men ; the hope of which , is , I confess , a temptation that I cannot easily resist . Of my being somewhat prolix in many of my Experiments , I have these Reasons to render , That some of them being altogether new , seem'd to need the being circumstantially related , to keep the Reader from distrusting them : That divers Circumstances I did here and there set down for fear of forgetting them , when I may hereafter have occasion to make use of them in my other Writings : That in divers cases I thought it necessary to deliver things circumstantially , that the Person I addressed them to might , without mistake , and with as little trouble as is possible , be able to repeat such unusual Experiments : and that after I consented to let my Observations be made publick , the most ordinary reason of my prolixity was , That foreseeing that such a trouble as I met with in making those trials carefully , and the great expence of time that they necessarily require ( not to mention the charges of making the Engine , and imploying a Man to manage it ) will probably keep most Men from trying again these Experiments : I thought I might do the generality of my Readers no unacceptable piece of service , by so punctually relating what I carefully observ'd , that they may look upon these Narratives as standing Records in our new Pneumaticks , and need not reiterate themselves an Experiment to have as distinct an Idea of it , as may suffice them to ground their Reflexions and Speculations upon . And because sometimes ' - t is the Discourse made upon the Experiment that makes it appear prolix , I have commonly left a conspicuous interval betwixt such Discourses , and the Experiments whereunto they belong , or are annexed ; that they who desire only the Historical part of the account we give of our Engine , may reade the Narratives , without being put to the trouble of reading the Reflexions too : which I here take notice of for the sake of those that are well vers'd in the New Philosophy , and in the Mathematicks ; that such may skip what was design'd but for such Persons as may be less acquainted , even than I , with matters of this nature ( scarce so much as mentioned by any Writer in our Language ) and not for them from whom I shall be much more forward to learn , than to pretend to teach them . Of my being wont to speak rather doubtfully , or hesitantly , than resolvedly , concerning matters wherein I apprehend some difficulty , I have in another Treatise ( which may , through God's assistance , come abroad ere long ) given a particular , and , I have , a satisfactory account : wherefore I shall now defend my practice but by the Observation of Aristotle , who somewhere notes , That to seem to know all things certainly , and to speak positively of them , is a trick of bold and young Fellows : whereas those that are indeed intelligent and considerate , are wont to imploy more wary and diffident expressions , or ( as he speaks ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . There are divers Reflexions , and other Passages in the following Epistle , and even some Experiments ( occasionally mention'd ) which may seem either impertinent or superfluous , but are not so : Being purposely written , either to evince some truth oppos'd , or disprove some erroneous conceit maintain'd by some eminent New Philosopher , or by some other Ingenious Men , who , I presum'd , would easily forgive me the having on such occasions purposely omitted their Names ; though an inquisitive Person will probably discover divers of them , by the mention of the Opinions disprov'd in the Experiments I am excusing . Ever since I discern'd the usefulness of speculative Geometry to Natural Philosophy , the unhappy Distempers of my Eyes , have so far kept me from being much conversant in it , that I fear I shall need the pardon of my Mathematical Readers , for some Passages , which , if I had been deeply skill'd in Geometry , I should have treated more accurately . And indeed , having , for Reasons elsewhere deduc'd , purposely kept my self a stranger to most of the new Hypotheses in Philosophy , I am sensible enough that the Engine I treat of hath prevail'd with me to write of some subjects which are sufficiently remote from those I have been most conversant in . And having been reduc'd to write the greatest part of the ensuing Letter at a distance , not only from my Library , but from my own Manuscripts , I cannot but fear that my Discourses do not only want many choice things wherewith the Learned Writings of others might have enriched or imbelished them : But that partly for this reason , and partly for that touch'd upon a little before , It is possible I may have mention'd some Notions already publish'd by others , without taking notice of the Authors , not out of any design to defraud deserving Men , but for want of knowing such particulars to have been already publish'd by them : Especially the Experiments of our Engine being themselves sufficient to hint such Notions as we build upon them . The order of the Experiments every Reader may alter , as suits best with his own design in perusing them : For not only all those betwixt whom there is an Affinity in Nature ( by belonging to one subject ) are not always plac'd one by another , but they are not still set down so much as in the order wherein they were made ; but most commonly in that casual one wherein my occasions induc'd me to dispatch them to the Press . And , which is worse , I did usually send quite away the former Experiments , before the later were written , or perhaps so much as made : Whereby I lost the advantage of correcting and supplying the Imperfections of what I had formerly written , by the light of my subsequent Trials and Discoveries . Besides all this , the distemper in my Eyes forbidding me not only to write my self so much as one Experiment , but even to reade over my self what I dictated to others : I cannot but fear , that besides the Author's mistakes , this Edition may be blemish'd by many , that may be properly imputed to a very unskilfull Writer ( whom I was oftentimes by haste , reduc'd against my custome , to imploy ) and may have escaped the Diligence of that Learned Friend , that doth me the favour to oversee the Press ; especially , there being the distance of two days Journey betwixt it and me . I need not , perhaps , represent to the equitable Reader , how much the strange Confusions of this unhappy Nation , in the midst of which I have made and written these Experiments , are apt to disturb that calmness of mind , and undistractedness of Thoughts , that are wont to be requisite to Happy Speculations . But I presume , that by all these things put together , he will readily perceive , That I have been so far from following the Poet 's prudent Counsel touching the flow Publication of Books design'd to purchase credit by , — Nonumque prematur in Annum that I suffer this Treatise to come abroad into the World with a multitude of disadvantages . But if it be demanded , why then I did not make it fitter for the Press before I sent it thither ? my Answer must be , That not at first imagining that this sort of Experiments would prove any thing near so troublesome , either to make , or to record , as I afterwards found them , I did , to engage the Printer to dispatch , promise him to send him the whole Epistle in a very short time : So that although now and then the occasional vacations of the Press , by reason of Festivals , or the absence of the Corrector , gave me the leisure to exspatiate upon some subject ; yet being oftentimes call'd upon to dispatch the Papers to the Press , my promise , and many unexpected Avocations , obliged me to a haste , which , though it hath detracted nothing from the Faithfulness of the Histerical part of our Book , hath ( I fear ) been disadvantageous enough to all the rest . And I made the less scruple to let the following Papers pass out of my hands , with all their Imperfections ; because , as the Publick Affairs , and my own , were then circumstanc'd , I knew not when , ( if at all ) I should be again in a condition to prosecute Experiments of this kind ; especially , since ( to omit my being almost weary of being , as it were , confin'd to one sort of Experiments ) I am pre-ingag'd ( if it please God to vouchsafe me Life and Health ) to imploy my first leisure in the publication of some other Physiological Papers , which I thought'twould make me much the fitter to take in hand , if I first dispatch'd all that I had at this time to write touching our Engine . I have this farther to add , by way of Excuse , That as it hath been my design in publishing these Experiments to gratifie Ingenious Men ; so , if I have not been much flattered , I may hope that the various hints to be met with in the following Letter , will ( at least ) somewhat awaken Mens thoughts , and excite them to new Speculations ( such as perhaps even inquisitive Men would scarce else light upon ) and I need not despair , that even the examination of such new Suspicions and Enquiries will hence also , at least occasionally , be facilitated : I said occasionally , because it being , as'tis proverbially said , Facile Inventis addere : It seems not irrational to expect , that our Engine it self , and divers of our Experiments , will be much promoted by the industry of Inventive and Mathematical Wits , whose Contrivances may easily either correct or supply , and consequently surpass many of those we have made use of . And , particularly , if Men by skill and patience can arrive both to evacuate such Receivers as ours , till there be no more Air left in them , than there seems to have remain'd in the Glasses made use of about the Magdeburgick Experiment ( hereafter to be mentioned ) and to keep out the Air for a competent while , the Usefulness and Discoveries of our Engine , will not be a little advanc'd . And perhaps that may belong to it , which I remember Seneca speaks of Nature : Initiatos ( saith he ) nos credimus , in Vestibulo ejus haeremus : For being now in a place where we are not quite destitute of moderately skilfull Artificers , we have since the Conclusion of the following Letter , made some Additions to our Engine , by whose help we find ( upon some new trials ) that we may be able , without much of new trouble , to keep the ambient Air out of the exhausted Receiver for a whole day ; and perhaps we should be able to keep it out much longer , if before we shall have dispatch'd some urgent Affairs , and publish'd some Papers for which a kind of Promise is thought to make us Debtors to the Press , we could be at leisure to prosecute such Experiments , as may possibly afford a Supplement to the following Treatise , from which I shall now no longer detain the Reader . Friendly Reader , I Know all Persons that have a publick Spirit for the Advancement of Learning , will think much that this piece came not out in a Language of more general Use , than this you see it now attir'd in ; especially since the Excellent Noble Person , who is the Author , is known to be well able himself ( being almost universally a Linguist ) to have given it either the Old Latine , or the Newer French Dress . But if it be an Honour to a Language to be preferr'd , and this Honour breeds sometimes an Emulation , as anciently it did between the Greeks and Romans , it cannot be thought unhandsome for an English Nobleman to have preferr'd his own : And it may be a sufficient Reason for the Gentry of Foreign Parts to learn our Speech , or keep Interpreters , that they are sure to have for their requital , from many of our English Writers ( as here from this Piece ) much curiously ingenious , and profitable Learning . But as to this Particular ( give me leave to use words from a Story ) Since the Mountain cannot come to Mahomet , Mahomet will go to the Mountain : I mean thus ; Because many witty Men , Persons of Honour and Estate especially , may be suppos'd to be able to make a better account , by employing their Studies and Time on Matter than Words , and so are justly impeded from learning Languages ; And because ( as I may judge ) the Noble Author is willing to oblige all Men , He hath already provided , that this Piece shall shortly be done into Latine , that so it may come home to divers worthy Persons in its Stream , who cannot travel to find it out in its first Origine . Having therefore leave so to do , I cannot forbear to give the World the Advertisement of this Latine Edition , lest some skilfull Artist should take needless pains about a work , which will ere long ( by God's furtherance ) be done to his Hands ; For such unprofitable expences of Study have too frequently hapened , and too much to the disadvantage of Learning , for want of a sufficient Correspondence and intercourse between such as are exercised in the Mines of Wisedom . This is all the trouble I shall at present give you : Nor shall I need mind you , if you have a true gust for the Book you reade , to have an honour and thankfull regard to the Person that hath favour'd us with the Communication of these his Trials , and is manifestly so great a Patron and Friend to Experimental Learning , and all true Wisedom ; for should you fail in this , you might deservedly be depriv'd of some other Observations on the same subject , which the Author , I hear , hath made since the finishing of this Treatise . I desire to be excused that I do not make Excuses for the slowness of the Publication , hoping that the long expectation you have had of it , will enhance , and not diminish your delight in the enjoyment of a piece like to be , amongst the Students in accurate Philosophy , of so general acceptance . Farewell . R. Sh. A SUMMARY of the chief Matters treated of in this Epistolical Discourse . THe Proaemium wherein is set down the occasion of this discourse . 1. The motives that induc'd the Author thereunto . 2. The hints he received 3. The things wherein this Engine excels any that have yet been made use of . 4. The description of the Engine and its parts , 5 &c. The way of preparing and using it , 8 &c. The division of the Experiments triable thereby into two sorts , and the difficulty of excluding the Air. 10 , &c. The first Experiment , touching the manner of pumping out the Air , and by what degrees the Receiver is emptied , 11 , &c. A digression touching the Spring or Elastical power of the Air , with an attempt for a Mechanical Explication thereof , necessary to be premis'd for the explanation of the Phaenomena , exhibited in this and the subsequent Experiments . 12 , &c. The second Experiment , touching the pressure of the Air against the sides of the Bodies it invirons , 20 , &c. with a digressive Explication of the pressure of the Air included within an ambient Body . 21 &c. The third Experiment , touching the force requisite to draw down the Sucker , 23 &c. The Opinion of an eminent Modern Naturalist examin'd . 24 &c. The fourth Experiment , touching the swelling of a Bladder ; with the degrees by which it increaseth , 25 &c. Another Opinion of a Learned Author examin'd , 26 &c. The fifth Experiment , touching the breaking of a Bladder in the Receiver . And of another by heat . 27 , 28. The sixth Experiment , of divers ways by which the elastical expansion of the Air was measur'd . 29 , &c. The seventh Experiment , touching what Figure doth best resist the pressure of the Air. 33 The eight Experiment , tending to a farther Demonstration of the former , from the breaking of a glass Helmet inward . 34 The ninth Experiment contains a farther confirmation from the breaking of a Glass outward , 35 &c. with an Experiment to prove , that these Phaenomena proceed not from an invincible Fuga vacui , 37. A description of other small Receivers , and their conveniencies , 38 &c. A Receipt for the making of a Composition to cement crack'd Glasses . 39 The tenth Experiment , touching the flaming of Candles inclosed in the Receiver . 39 &c. The eleventh Experiment , touching the burning of Coals : and the lasting of the excandescence of an included piece of Iron . 42 The twelfth Experiment , concerning the burning of Match . 44 The thirteenth Experiment , concerning the farther prosecution of the preceding , tending to prove the extinction of the Fire in the former Experiments , not to have proceeded from the pressure of the Fire by the Fumes . Some remarkable Circumstances of it . The Experiment of Match try'd in a Small Receiver . 45 &c. The fourteenth Experiment , touching the striking Fire , and klindling of Powder with the Lock of a Pistol in the evacuated Receiver . 47 &c. The fifteenth Experiment , touching the unsuccessfulness of kindling included Bodies with a Burning-glass , and the Author's intention to prosecute it farther . 49 The sixteenth Experiment , concerning the operation of the Loadstone . 52 The seventeenth Experiment , touching the gradual descent of the Quick-silver in the Torricellian Experiment , 51 &c. Some observable Circumstances concerning it , 54 &c. The same Experiment try'd in one of the small Receivers , 55. How this Experiment may be made use of to know the strength of the pressure of the Air for every degree of Rarefaction , 56 &c. The trial of the same Experiment in a Tube not two foot long , 57. The raising of the Mercurial Cylinder , by the forcing of more Air into the Receiver , ib. Some Allegation for and against a Vacuum considered , 59 &c. Some Advertisements concerning the inconveniencies that may arise from the diversity of measures made use of for the defining the altitude of the Mercurial Cylinder ; and from the neglect of little parcels of Air apt to remain between the Mercury and the concave surface of the Tube , 60 &c. Some Expedients for the more exact filling the Tube , 61. The height the Author once found of the Mercurial Cylinder , according to English measure . 63 The eighteenth Experiment , containing a new Observation touching the variation of the height of the Mercurial Cylinder in the same Tube , with an offer at the Reason thereof . 63 &c. The nineteenth Experiment , touching the subsiding of a Cylinder of Water , 69. The same try'd in a small Receiver . 70 The twentieth Experiment , touching the Elater of Water , with a digressive Experiment to the same purpose . 71 &c. The 21 Experiment , being a prosecution of the former Enquiry , by experimenting the Generation of Bubbles under Water , a recital of some not able Circumstances , with some observable Corollaries deduc'd therefrom . 73 &c. The 22 Experiment , tending to a determination of the Enquiry propos'd in the former Experiment , by proving the matter of these Bubbles from their permanency to be Air : The Experiments try'd in the great and small Receivers , evincing the same thing , 77 &c. An Experiment wherein there appear'd Bubbles in Quick-silver , 79. The Author's Inference , 80. A digressive Enquiry , whether or no Air may be generated anew ; with several Histories and Experiments , tending to the resolving and clearing thereof , ibid. &c. The Author's excuse for so long a digression . 90 The 23 Experiment , containing a farther enquiry touching Bubbles made with common and distill'd Water . 91 The 24 Experiment , wherein the enquiry is prosccuted with other Liquors , as with Sallet Oyl , Oyl of Turpentine , a Solution of Tartar , Spirit of Vinegar , Red-Wine , Milk , Hens Eggs , Spirit of Urine , Spirit of Wine and Water , Spirit of Wine . 94 &c. The wonderfull expansion of the Spirit of Wine . 97 The 25 Experiment , touching the expansion and gravity of the Air under Water . 98 &c. The 26 Experiment , touching the Vibrations of a Pendulum . 102 &c. The 27 Experiment , touching the propagation of sound : and the Author's intention of trying some other Experiments , for the further elucidation thereof . 103 The 28 Experiment , touching the sudden eruption of Bubbles from the Water , when the Air 's pressure was speedily remov'd . 108 The 29 Experiment , touching the cause of the ascent of Fumes and Vapors , wherein't is prov'd ( from the several motions , ( which the Fumes of a strange smoking Liquor , of the Author's , were observ'd to have in the Receiver , upon the exsuction of the Air ) that the reason of their ascent proceeds from the gravity of the ambient Air , and not from any positive levity of their own . 110 &c. The 30 Experiment , concerning the nature of a fluid Body , illustrated by the example of smoke , which in several circumstances seems very much to resemble the property of a fluid Body , 113. A conjecture of the cause of the Sun's undulation . 115 The 31 Experiment , concerning the Phaenomena of two flat Marbles exactly plain'd and wrought together , and the true reason thereof . The Author's intention for the further prosecution thereof , and what hindred him ; the reason why the under Marble did not fall from the upper ( being only conjoyn'd with Spirit of Wine ) when the Receiver was evacuated . And a notable relation concerning the cohesion of flat Bodies . 116 &c. The 32 Experiment , touching the forcible pressure of the Air against the outward Superficies of a Valve , fasten'd upon the Stop-cock of the Receiver . The Diameter of it , and the weight it sustain'd . 118 &c. The 33 Experiment , touching the great pressure of the Air against the under Superficies of the Sucker , 120 &c. what weight was requisite to depress it , and what weight it would lift and carry up with it , 121 &c. What improvement and use there may be made of this Experiment , ib. A Discourse touching the nature of Suction , proving that Suga vacui is not the adequate cause thereof . 123 &c. The 34 Experiment , containing several attempts for the weighing of light Bodies in the exhausted Receiver . 131 &c. The 35 Experiment , touching the cause of a Filtration , and the rising of mater in Siphons , 133 &c. A relation of a new kind of Siphon , of the Author's , upon the occasion of trying the Experiment lately observ'd by some French-men , and further improv'd by himself ; and some conjectures touching the cause of the exhibited Phaenomena . 136 &c. The 36 Experiment , touching the weighing of a parcel of Air in the exhausted Vessel ; and some other Observations for the explication thereof , 138 &c. An accidental Experiment , tending to the further confirmation of the Author's Reflexions upon the first Experiment ; with a digressive observation , noting the subtile penetrancy of some Spirits , to exceed by far that of the Air , 140 &c. and some other Experiments to shew the difficulty of the ingress of the Air into the pores or holes of some Bodies into which water will readily insinuate it self , with a conjecture at the cause thereof , 142. The Author returns to the prosecution of the inquiry after the gravity of the Air : But first , ( upon the occasion of the tenacity of a thin Bubble of Glass ) sets down his thoughts concerning the strange exuperancy of strength in Air , agitated by heat , above what the same hath unagitated : and then proceeds to the examination of the weight of the Air by an AEolipile , and compares the result thereof , with that of Mersennus , 143 , 144 &c. The Opinions and Experiments of divers Authors , and some of his own , touching the proportion of weight betwixt Water and Air , are compar'd and examin'd by the Author , 145. The result thereof , ibid. Mersennus his Observation reconciled , with that of the Author ; and the proportion between the gravity of Water and Air about London , 146 &c. After the recital of the Opinions of several Writers , touching the proportion of gravity between Water and Quick-silver , the Author sets down his own trials , made several ways , together with his conclusion therefrom , 147 &c. The use he makes of this inquiry for the ghessing at the height of the Atmosphere , 148. what other Experiments are requisite to the determination thereof . 149 The 37 Experiment , touching the strange and odd Phaenomenon , of the sudden flashes of light in the cavity of the Receiver ; the several circumstances and difficulties of it , with some attempts towards the rendring a reason thereof , 153 &c. The difficulty of so doing farther shown from the consideration of the various changes of Air which do not immediately fall under our senses : This last proposition prov'd by several Observations . 156 , 157 The 38 Experiment , touching the freezing of Water . A problem ( concerning the great force wherewith a freezing Liquor extends it self ) proposed upon the consideration of divers admirable effects wrought thereby . 162 The 39 Experiment , containing an inquisition after the temperature of the substance that remained in the cavity of the Receiver , after the Air was well exhausted . The relation of a Phaenomenon , seeming to proceed from the swelling of the Glass : with an advertisement concerning the pliableness of Glass in small pieces . 164 The 40 Experiment , touching the difficulty that occurred in making trial whether rarefied Air were able to sustain flying Insects . 166 The 41 Experiment , exhibiting several trials touching the respiration of divers sorts of Animals included in the Receiver , 167 &c. with a digression containing some doubts touching Respiration , wherein are delivered several Experiments relating thereunto . 171 The 42 Experiment , touching the differing operation of corrosive Liquors in the emptied Receiver and in the open Air. 196 The 43 Experiment , touching the spontaneous Ebullition of warm Liquors in the exhausted Receiver . 198 The Conclusion . 201 TO THE LORD of DUNGARVAN , My Honored and Dear NEPHEW . My Dear Lord , REceiving in your last from Paris , a desire that I would adde some more Experiments to those I formerly sent You over : I could not be so much your Servant as I am , without looking upon that Desire as a Command ; and consequently , without thinking my self obliged to consider by what sort of Experiments it might the most acceptably be obey'd . And at the same time , perceiving by Letters from some other Ingenious Persons at Paris , that several of the Virtuosi there , were very intent upon the examination of the Interest of the Air , in hindring the descent of the Quick-silver , in the famous Experiment touching a Vacuum : I thought I could not comply with your Desires in a more fit and seasonable manner , than by prosecuting and endeavouring to promote that noble Experiment of Torricellius : and by presenting Your Lordship an account of my attempts to illustrate a Subject , about which ( its being so much discours'd of where you are , together with your inbred Curiosity , and love of Experimental Learning ) made me suppose you sufficiently inquisitive . And though I pretend not to acquaint you , on this occasion , with any store of new Discoveries , yet possibly I shall be so happy , as to assist you to know some things which you did formerly but suppose ; and shall present you , if not with new Theories , at least with new Proofs of such as are not yet become unquestionable . And if what I shall deliver , hath the good fortune to encourage and assist you to prosecute the Hints it will afford , I shall account my self , in paying of a duty to you , to have done a piece of Service to the Commonwealth of Learning . Since it may highly conduce to the advancement of that Experimental Philosophy , the effectual pursuit of which , requires as well a Purse as a Brain , to endear it to hopefull Persons of your Quality : who may accomplish many things , which others can but wish , or at most , but design , by being able to imploy the Presents of Fortune in the search of the Mysteries of Nature . And I am not faintly induc'd to make choice of this Subject , rather than any of the expected Chymical ones , to entertain Your Lordship upon , by these two Considerations : The one , That the Air being so necessary to humane Life , that not only the generality of Men , but most other Creatures that breathe , cannot live many minutes without it ; any considerable discovery of its Nature , seems likely to prove of moment to Mankind . And the other is , That the ambient Air , being that whereto both our own Bodies , and most of the others we deal with here below , are almost perpetually contiguous ; not only its alterations have a notable and manifest share in those obvious Effects , that Men have already been invited to ascribe thereunto ( such as are the various Distempers incident to humane Bodies especially if crazy in the Spring , the Autumn , and also on most of the great and sudden changes of Weather ) but likewise , the further discovery of the Nature of the Air , will probably discover to us , that it concurs more or less to the exhibiting of many Phaenomena , in which it hath hitherto scarce been suspected to have any Interest . So that a true account of any Experiment that is New concerning a thing , wherewith we have such constant and necessary intercourse , may not only prove of some advantage to humane Life , but gratifie Philosophers , by promoting their Speculations on a Subject which hath so much opportunity to solicite their Curiosity . And I should immediately proceed to the mention of my Experiments , but that I like too well that worthy saying of In Praefat. lib. 1. the Naturalist Pliny , Benignum est & plenum ingenui pudoris , fateri per quos profeceris , not to conform to it , by acquainting your Lordship , in the first place , with the Hint I had of the Engine I am to entertain you with . You may be pleas'd to remember , that a while before our separation in England , I told you of a Book that I had heard of , but not perus'd , publish'd by the industrious Jesuit Schottus , wherein 't was said , He related how that ingenious Gentleman , Otto Gericke , Consul of Magdeburg , had lately practis'd in Germany a way of emptying Glass Vessels , by sucking out the Air at the mouth of the Vessel , plung'd under Water : And you may also perhaps remember , that I express'd my self much delighted with this Experiment , since thereby the great force of the external Air ( either rushing in at the open'd Orifice of the empty'd Vessel , or violently forcing up the Water into it ) was rendred more obvious and conspicuous than in any Experiment that I had formerly seen . And though it may appear by some of those Writings I sometimes shew'd your Lordship , that I had been solicitous to try things upon the same ground ; yet in regard this Gentleman was before-hand with me in producing such considerable Effects , by means of the exsuction of Air , I think myself oblig'd to acknowledge the assistance and encouragement , the Report of his Performances hath afforded me . To give your Lordship then , in the first place , some account of the Engine it self : It consists of two principal parts ; a glass Vessel , and a Pump to draw the Air out of it . The former of these ( which we , with the Glass-men , shall often call a Receiver , for its affinity to the large Vessels of that name , used by Chymists ) consists of a Glass with a wide hole at the top , of a cover to that hole , and of a Stop-cock fastned to the end of the Neck , at the bottom . The shape of the Glass , you will find express'd in the first Figure of the annexed Scheme . And for the size of it , it contain'd about 30 Wine Quarts , each of them containing near two Pound ( of 16 Ounces to the Pound ) of Water : We should have been better pleas'd with a more capacious Vessel , but the Glass-men professed themselves unable to blow a larger , of such a thickness and shape as was requisite to our purpose . At the very top of the Vessel , ( A ) you may observe a round hole , whose Diametre ( BC ) is of about four Inches ; and whereof , the Orifice is incircled with a lip of Glass , almost an Inch high : For the making of which lip , it was requisite ( to mention that upon the by , in case your Lordship should have such another Engine made for you ) to have a hollow and tapering Pipe of Glass drawn out , whereof the Orifice above mentioned was the Basis , and then to have the Cone cut off with an hot Iron , within about an Inch of the Points ( BC. ) The use of the lip , is to sustain the cover delineated in the second Figure ; where ( DE ) points out a brass Ring , so cast , as that it doth cover the lip ( BC ) of the first Figure , and is cemented on , upon it , with a strong and close Cement . To the inward tapering Orifice of this Ring ( which is about three Inches over ) are exquisitely ground the sides of the Brass stopple ( FG ; ) so that the concave superficies of the one , and the convex of the other , may touch one another in so many places , as may leave as little access , as possible , to the external Air : And in the midst of this cover is left a hole ( HI ) of about half an Inch over , invironed also with a Ring or Socket of the same Metal , and fitted likewise with a Brass stopple ( K ) made in the form of the Key of a Stop-cock , and exactly ground into the hole ( HI ) it is to fill ; so as that , though it be turn'd round in the cavity it possesses , it will not let in the air , and yet may be put in or taken out at pleasure , for uses to be hereafter mentioned . In order to some of which , it is perforated with a little hole , ( 8 ) traversing the whole thickness of it at the lower end ; through which , and a little Brass Ring ( L ) fastned to one side ( no matter which ) of the bottom of the stopple ( FG ) a string ( 8 , 9 , 10. ) might pass , to be imploy'd to move some things in the capacity of the empty'd Vessel , without any where unstopping it . The last thing belonging to our Receiver , is the Stop-cock , designed in the first Figure by ( N , ) for the better fastening of which to the neck , and exacter exclusion of the Air , there was soder'd on to the shank of the Cock ( X ) a Plate of Tin , ( MTUW ) long enough to cover the neck of the Receiver . But because the cementing of this was a matter of some difficulty , it will not be amiss to mention here the manner of it ; which was , That the cavity of the Tin Plate was fill'd with a melted Cement , made of Pitch , Rosin , and Wood ashes , well incorporated ; and to hinder this liquid Mixture from getting into the Orifice ( Z ) of the shank ( X , ) that hole was stop'd with a Cock , to which was fastned a string , whereby it might be pull'd out at the upper Orifice of the Receiver ; and then , the Glass neck of the Receiver being well warm'd , was thrust into this Cement , and over the shank , whereby it was effected , that all the space betwixt the Tin Plate and the Receiver , and betwixt the internal superficies of the Receiver , and the shank of the Cock , was fill'd with the Cement ; and so we have dispatch'd the first upper part of the Engine . The undermost remaining part consists of a Frame , and of a sucking Pump , or as we formerly call'd it , an Air Pump , supported by it : The Frame is of Wood , small , but very strong , consisting of three legs , ( 111 ) so plac'd , that one side of it may stand perpendicular , that the free motion of the hand may not be hindered . In the midst of which frame , is transversly nail'd a board , ( 222 ) which may not improperly be call'd a Midriff , upon which rests , and to which is strongly fastned , the main part of the Pump it self , which is the only thing remaining to be described . The Pump consists of four parts , a hollow Cylinder , a Sucker , a handle to move that Sucker , and a Valve . The Cylinder was ( by a pattern ) cast of Brass ; it is in length about 14 Inches , thick enough to be very strong , notwithstanding the Cylindrical cavity left within it ; this cavity is about three Inches Diametre , and makes as exact a Cylinder as the Artificer was able to bore . This hollow Cylinder is fitted with a Sucker , ( 4455 ) consisting of two parts ; the one ( 44 ) somewhat less in Diametre than the Cavity of the Cylinder ; upon which is nail'd a good thick piece of tann'd Shoe-leather , which will go so close to the Cylinder , that it will need to be very forcibly knock'd and ram'd in , if at any time it be taken out ; which is therefore done , that it may the more exactly hinder the Air from insinuating it self betwixt it and the sides of the Cylinder whereon it is to move . To the midst of this former part of the Sucker is strongly fastned the other ; namely , a thick and narrow plate of Iron ( 55 ) somewhat longer than the Cylinder , one of whose edges is smooth , but at the other edge it is indented ( as I may so speak ) with a row of Teeth , delineated in the Scheme , into whose intervals are to be fitted , the Teeth of a small Iron Nut , ( αβ ) ( as Tradesmen call it ) which is fastned by two staples ( 22 ) to the underside of the formerly mention'd transverse board ( 222 ) on which the Cylinder rests , and is turn'd to and fro by the third piece of this Pump , namely , the handle or Manubrium , ( 7 ) of which the Figure gives a sufficient description . The fourth and last part of this Cylinder , is the Valve , ( R ) consisting of a hole bored through at the top of the Cylinder , a little tapering towards the cavity ; into which hole is ground a tapering Peg of Brass , to be thrust in , and taken out at pleasure . The Engine being thus describ'd , it will be requisite to add , that something is wont to be done before it be set on work , for the more easie moving of the Sucker , and for the better exclusion of the outward Air : which , when the Vessel begins to be exhausted , is much more difficult to be kept out , than one would easily imagine . There must then be first pour'd in at the top of the Receiver , a little sallad Oyl , partly to fill up any small intervals that may happen to be betwixt the contiguous surfaces of the internal parts of the Stop-cock : And partly , that it may be the more easie to turn the Key ( S ) backwards and forwards . Pretty store of Oyl must also be pour'd into the Cylinder , both that the Sucker may slip up and down in it the more smoothly and freely , and that the Air might be the better hindred from getting in between them : And for the like reasons , a little Oyl is to be used also about the Valve . Upon which occasion , it would not be omitted ( for it is strange ) that oftentimes , when neither the pouring in of Water , nor even of Oyl it alone , prov'd capable to make the Sucker move easily enough in the Cylinder ; a mixture of both those Liquors would readily ( sometimes even to admiration ) perform the desired effect . And lastly , the Brass cover of the Receiver , being put into the Brass ring formerly describ'd , that no Air may get between them , it will be very requisite to plaister over very carefully the upper edges of both , with the Plaister formerly mentioned , or some other as close , which is to be spread upon the edges with an hot Iron ; that , being melted , it may run into and fill up all the cranies , or other little cavities , at which the Air might otherwise get entrance . All things being thus fitted , and the lower shank ( O ) of the Stop-cock being put into the upper Orifice of the Cylinder ( and ) into which it was exactly ground ; the Experimenter is first , by turning the handle , to force the Sucker to the top of the Cylinder , that there may be no Air left in the upper part of it : Then shutting the Valve with the Plug , and turning the other way , he is to draw down the Sucker to the bottom of the Cylinder ; by which motion of the Sucker , the Air that was formerly in the Cylinder being thrust out , and none being permitted to succeed in its room , 't is manifest that the cavity of the Cylinder must be empty in reference to the Air. So that if thereupon the Key of the Stop-cock be so turn'd , as that through the perforation of it , a free passage be opened betwixt the Cylinder and the Receiver , part of the Air formerly contain'd in the Receiver , will nimbly descend into the Cylinder . And this Air being , by the turning back of the Key , hinder'd from the returning into the Receiver , may , by the opening of the Valve , and forcing up of the Sucker to the top of the Cylinder again , be driven out into the open Air. And thus by the repetition of the motion of the Sucker upward and downward , and by opportunely turning the Key , and stopping the Valve , as occasion requires , more or less Air may be suck'd out of the Receiver , according to the exigency of the Experiment , and the intention of him that makes it . Your Lordship will , perhaps , think that I have been unnecessarily prolix in this first part of my Discourse : But if you had seen how many unexpected difficulties we found to keep out the external Air , even for a little while , when some considerable part of the internal had been suck'd out ; You would peradventure allow , that I might have set down more circumstances than I have , without setting down any , whose knowledge , he that shall try the Experiment , may not have need of . Which is so true , that , before we proceed any further , I cannot think it unseasonable to advertise Your Lordship , that there are two chief sorts of Experiments , which we design'd in our Engine to make tryal of : The one , such as may be quickly dispatch'd , and therefore may be try'd in our Engine , though it leak a little , because the Air may be faster drawn out , by nimbly plying the Pump , than it can get in at undiscern'd leaks ; I say at undiscern'd leaks , because such as are big enough to be discover'd , can scarce be uneasie to be stopt . The other sort of Experiments consist of those that require , not only that the internal Air be drawn out of the Receiver , but that it be likewise for a long time kept out of it . Such are the preservation of Animal and other Bodies therein , the germination and growth of Vegetables , and other trials of several sorts , which it is apparent cannot be well made , unless the external Air can , for a competent while , be excluded : Since , even at a very small leak , there may enough get in , to make the Vacuum soon lose that name ; by which I here declare once for all , that I understand not a space wherein there is no Body at all , but such as is either altogether , or almost totally devoid of Air. Now this distinction of Experiments I thought fit to premise to the ensuing Narratives , because , upon trial , we found it so exceeding ( and scarce imaginably ) difficult a matter , to keep out the Air from getting at all in at any imperceptible hole or flaw whatsoever , ( in a Vessel immediately surrounded with the compressed Atmosphere , ) that in spight of all our care and diligence , we never were able totally to exhaust the Receiver , or keep it when it was almost empty , any considerable time , from leaking more or less : although ( as we have lately intimated ) by unwearied quickness in plying the Pump , the internal Air can be much faster drawn out than the external can get in , till the Receiver come to be almost quite empty . And that 's enough to enable Men to discover hitherto unobserved Phaenomena of Nature . The Experiments therefore of the first sort , will , I fear , prove the only ones wherewith my Avocations will allow me to entertain Your Lordship in this Letter . For till your further Commands shall engage me to undertake , by God's permission , such an Employment , and more leasure shall better fit me for it , I know not whether I shall be in a condition to try what may be done , to enable me to give you some account of the other sort of Experiments also . EXPERIMENT I. TO proceed now to the Phaenomena , exhibited to us by the Engine above described ; I hold it not unfit to begin with what doth constantly and regularly offer it self to our observation , as depending upon the Fabrick of the Engine it self , and not upon the nature of this or that particular Experiment which 't is employed to try . First , then , upon the drawing down of the Sucker ( the Valve being shut ) the Cylindrical space , deserted by the Sucker , is left devoid of Air ; and therefore , upon the turning of the Key , the Air contained in the Receiver rusheth into the emptied Cylinder , till the Air in both those Vessels be brought to about an equal measure of dilatation . And therefore , upon shutting the Receiver by re-turning the Key , if you open the Valve , and force up the Sucker again , you will find , that after this first exsuction you will drive out almost a whole Cylinder full of Air : But at the following exsuctions , you will draw less and less of Air out of the Receiver into the Cylinder , because there will still remain less and less Air in the Receiver it self ; and consequently , the Particles of the remaining Air , having more room to extend themselves in , will less press out one another . This you will easily perceive , by finding , that you still force less and less Air out of the Cylinder ; so that when the Receiver is almost exhausted , you may force up the Sucker almost to the top of the Cylinder , before you will need to unstop the Valve to let out any Air : And if at such time , the Valve being shut , you let go the handle of the Pump , you will find the Sucker forcibly carried up to the top of the Cylinder , by the protrusion of the external Air ; which , being much less rarified than that within the Cylinder ; must have a more forcible pressure upon the Sucker , than the internal is able to resist : And by this means you may know how far you have emptied the Receiver . And to this we may add , on this occasion , that constantly upon the turning of the Key to let out the Air from the Receiver , into the emptied Cylinder , there is immediately produced a considerably brisk noise , especially whilst there is any plenty of Air in the Receiver . For the more easie understanding of the Experiments triable by our Engine ; I thought it not superfluous , nor unseasonable in the recital of this first of them , to insinuate that notion by which it seems likely that most , if not all of them , will prove explicable . Your Lordship will easily suppose , that the Notion I speak of is , That there is a Spring , or Elastical power in the Air we live in . By which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or spring of the Air , that which I mean is this : That our Air either consists of , or at least abounds with , parts of such a nature ; that in case they be bent or compress'd by the weight of the incumbent part of the Atmosphere , or by any other Body , they do endeavour , as much as in them lieth , to free themselves from that pressure , by bearing against the contiguous Bodies that keep them bent ; and , as soon as those Bodies are remov'd or reduced to give them way , by presently unbending and stretching out themselves , either quite , or so far forth as the contiguous Bodies that resist them will permit , and thereby expanding the whole parcel of Air , these elastical Bodies compose . This Notion may perhaps be somewhat further explain'd , by conceiving the Air near the Earth to be such a heap of little Bodies , lying one upon another , as may be resembled to a Fleece of Wooll . For this ( to omit other likenesses betwixt them ) consists of many slender and flexible Hairs ; each of which may indeed , like a little Spring , be easily bent or rouled up ; but will also , like a Spring , be still endeavouring to stretch it self out again . For though both these Hairs , and the Aereal Corpuscles to which we liken them , do easily yield to external pressures ; yet each of them ( by virtue of its structure ) is endow'd with a Power or Principle of self-Dilatation ; by virtue where of , though the hairs may by a Man's hand be bent and crouded closer together , and into a narrower room than suits best with the nature of the Body , yet , whilst the compression lasts , there is in the fleece they compose an endeavour outwards , where by it continually thrusts against the hand that opposes its Expansion . And upon the removal of the external pressure , by opening the hand more or less , the compressed Wool doth , as it were , spontaneously expand or display itself towards the recovery of its former more loose and free condition , till the Fleece hath either regain'd its former Dimensions , or at least , approach'd them as near as the compressing hand ( perchance not quite open'd ) will permit . This Power of self-Dilatation , is somewhat more conspicuous in a dry Spunge compress'd , than in a fleece of Wool. But yet we rather chose to employ the latter , on this occasion , because it is not like a Spunge , an intire Body , but a number of slender and flexible Bodies , loosely complicated , as the Air it self seems to be . There is yet another way to explicate the Spring of the Air , namely , by supposing with that most ingenious Gentleman , Monsieur Des Cartes , That the Air is nothing but a Congeries or heap of small and ( for the most part ) of flexible Particles ; of several sizes , and of all kind of Figures which are rais'd by heat ( especially that of the Sun ) into that fluid and subtle Ethereal Body that surrounds the Earth ; and by the restless agitation of that Celestial matter wherein those particles swim , are so whirld round , that each Corpuscle endeavours to beat off all others from coming within the little Sphere requisite to its motion about its own Centre ; and ( in case any , by intruding into that Sphere , shall oppose its free Rotation ) to expel or drive it away : So that according to this doctrine , it imports very little , whether the particles of the Air have the structure requisite to Springs , or be of any other form ( how irregular soever ) since their Elastical power is not made to depend upon their shape or structure , but upon the vehement agitation , and ( as it were ) brandishing motion , which they receive from the fluid Ether that swiftly flows between them , and whirling about each of them ( independently from the rest ) not only keeps those slender Aëreal Bodies seperated and stretcht out ( at least , as far as the Neighbouring ones will permit ) which otherwise , by reason of their flexibleness and weight , would flag or curl ; but also makes them hit against , and knock away each other , and consequently require more room , than that , which , if they were compress'd , they would take up . By these two differing ways , my Lord , may the Springs of the Air be explicated . But though the former of them be that , which by reason of its seeming somewhat more easie , I shall for the most part make use of in the following Discourse : yet am I not willing to declare peremptorily for either of them , against the other . And indeed , though I have in another Treatise endeavoured to make it probable , that the returning of Elastical Bodies ( if I may so call them ) forcibly bent , to their former position , may be Mechanically explicated : Yet I must confess , that to determine whether the motion of Restitution in Bodies , proceed from this , That the parts of a Body of a peculiar Structure are put into motion by the bending of the Spring , or from the endeavor of some subtle ambient Body , whose passage may be oppos'd or obstructed , or else it 's pressure unequally resisted by reason of the new shape or magnitude , which the bending of a Spring may give the Pores of it : To determine this , I say , seems to me a matter of more difficulty , than at first sight one would easily imagine it . Wherefore I shall decline medling with a Subject , which is much more hard to be explicated , than necessary to be so , by him , whose business it is not , in this Letter , to assign the adequate cause of the Spring of the Air , but only to manifest , That the Air hath a Spring , and to relate some of its effects . I know not whether I need annex that , though either of the above-mention'd Hypotheses , and perhaps some others , may afford us an account plausible enough of the Air 's Spring ; yet I doubt , whether any of them gives us a sufficient account of its Nature . And of this doubt , I might here mention some Reasons , but that , peradventure , I may ( God permitting ) have a fitter occasion to say something of it elsew here . And therefore I shuold now proceed to the next Experiment , but that I think it requisite , first , to suggest to your Lordship what comes into my thoughts , by way of Answer to a plausible Objection , which I foresee you may make against our propos'd Doctrine , touching the Spring of the Air. For it may be alledged , that though the Air were granted to consist of springy Particles ( if I may so speak ) yet thereby we could only give an account of the Dilatation of the Air in Wind Guns , and other pneumatical Engines wherein the Air hath been compress'd , and its springs violently bent by an apparent external force ; upon the removal of which , 't is no wonder that the Air should , by the motion of restitution expand it self till it hath recovered its more natural dimensions : whereas in our above-mentioned first Experiment , and in almost all others triable in our Engine , it appears not , that any compression of the Air preceded its spontaneous Dilatation or Expansion of it self . To remove this difficulty , I must desire Your Lordship to take notice , that of whatever nature the Air , very remote from the Earth , may be , and whatever the Schools may confidently teach to the contrary , yet we have divers Experiments to evince , that the Atmosphere we live in , is not ( otherwise than comparatively to more ponderous Bodies ) light , but heavy : And did not their gravity hinder them , it appears not why the streams of the Terraqueous Globe , of which our Air in great part consists , should not rise much higher , than the Refractions of the Sun , and other Stars give men ground to think , that the Atmosphere , ( even in the judgment of those Rescent Astronomers , who seem willing to enlarge its bounds as much as they dare , ) doth reach . But lest you should expect my seconding this Reason by Experience ; and lest you should object , That most of the Experiments that have been propos'd to prove the gravity of the Air , have been either barely propos'd , or perhaps not accurately tri'd ; I am content , before I pass further , to mention here . That I found a dry lambs-bladder containing near about two thirds of a pint , and compress'd by a packthred tied about it , to lose a grain and the eighth part of a grain of its former weight , by the recess of the Air upon my having prickt it : And this with a pair of Scales , which , when the full bladder and the correspondent weight were in it , would manifestly turn either way with the 32 part of a grain . And if it be further objected , That the Air in the Bladder was violently compress'd by the packthred and the sides of the Bladder , we might probably ( to wave prolix answers ) be furnish'd with a Reply , by setting down the differing weight of our Receiver , when empti'd and when full of uncompress'd Air , if we could here procure Scales fit for so nice an Experiment ; since we are informed , that in the German Experiment , commended at the beginning of this Letter , the ingenious Triers of it found , That their Glass Vessel , of the capacity of 32 measures , was lighter when the Air had been drawn out of it , than before , by no less than one ounce and 3 / 10 that is , an ounce and very near a third : But of the gravity of the Air , we may elsewhere have occasion to make further mention . Taking it then for granted that the Air is not devoid of weight , it will not be uneasie to conceive , That that part of the Atmosphere wherein we live , being the lower part of it , the Corpuscles that compose it , are very much compress'd by the weight of all those of the like nature that are directly over them ; that is , of all the Particles of Air , that being pil'd up upon them , reach to the top of the Atmosphere . And though the height of this Atmosphere , according to the famous Kepler , and some others , scarce exceeds eight common miles ; yet other eminent and later Astronomers , would promote the confines of the Atmosphere to exceed six or seven times that number of miles . And the diligent and learned Ricciolo makes it probable , that the Atmosphere may , at least in divers places , be at least fifty miles high . So that according to a moderate estimate of the thickness of the Atmosphere , we may well suppose , that a Column of Air , of many miles in height , leaning upon some springy Corpuscles of Air here below , may have weight enough to bend their little springs , and keep them bent : As , ( to resume our former comparison , ) if there were fleeces of Wooll pil'd up to a mountainous height , upon one another , the hairs that compose the lowermost Locks which support the rest , would , by the weight of all the Wool above them , be as well strongly compress'd , as if a Man should squeeze them together in his hands , or employ any such other moderate force to compress them . So that we need not wonder , that upon the taking off the incumbent Air from any parcel of the Atmosphere here below , the Corpuscles , whereof that undermost Air consists , should display themselves , and take up more room than before . And if it be objected , That in Water , the weight of the upper and of the lower part is the same : I answer , That , ( besides that it may be well doubted whether the observation , by reason of the great difficulty , hath been exactly made , ) there is a manifest disparity betwixt the Air and Water : For I have not found , upon an Experiment purposely made , ( and in another Treatise Recorded ) that Water will suffer any considerable compression ; whereas we may observe in Wind-Guns , ( to mention now no other Engines ) that the Air will suffer it self to be crouded into a comparatively very little room ; in so much , that a very diligent Examiner of the Phaenomena of Wind-Guns would have us believe , that in one of them , by condensation , he reduc'd the Air into a space at least eight times narrower than it before possest . And to this , if we add a noble Phaenomenon of the Experiment De Vacuo ; these things put together , may for the present suffice to countenance our Doctrine . For that noble Experimenter , Monsieur Pascal ( the Son ) had the commendable Curiosity to cause the Torricellian Experiment to be tri'd at the foot , about the middle , and at the top of that high Mountain ( in Auvergne , if I mistake not ) commonly call'd Le Puy de Domme ; whereby it was found , That the Mercury in the Tube fell down lower , about three inches , at the top of the Mountain than at the bottom . And a Learned Man a while since inform'd me , That a great Virtuose , friend to us both , hath , with not unlike success , tried the same Experiment in the lower and upper parts of a Mountain in the west of England . Of which , the reason seems manifestly enough to be this , That upon the tops of high Mountains , the Air which bears against the restagnant Quick-silver , is less press'd by the less ponderous incumbent Air ; and consequently is not able totally to hinder the descent of so tall and heavy a Cylinder of Quick-silver , as at the bottom of such Mountains did but maintain an AEquilibrium with the incumbent Atmosphere . And if it be yet further Objected against what hath been propos'd touching the compactness and pressure of the inferiour Air ; That we find this very Air to yield readily to the motion of little Flies , and even to that of Feathers , and such other light and weak Bodies ; which seems to argue , that the particles of our Air are not so compress'd as we have represented them , especially , since by our former Experiment it appears , that the Air readily dilated it self downward , from the Receiver into the Pump , when 't is plain , that it is not the incumbent Atmosphere , but only the subjacent Air in the brass Cylinder that hath been remov'd : If this , I say , be objected , we may reply , That , when a man squeezeth a fleece of Wool in his hand , he may feel that the Wool incessantly bears against his hand , as that which hinders the hairs it consists of , to recover their former and more natural extent . So each parcel of the Air about the Earth , doth constantly endeavour to thrust away all those contiguous Bodies , ( whether . Aëreal or more gross , ) that keep it bent , and hinder the expansion of its parts , which will dilate themselves , or fly abroad towards that part , ( whether upwards or downwards , ) where they find their attempted Dilatation of themselves less resisted by the neighbouring Bodies . Thus the Corpuscles of that Air we have been all this while speaking of , being unable , by reason of their weight , to ascend above the Convexity of the Atmosphere , and by reason of the resistance of the surface of the Earth and Water , to fall down lower , they are forced , by their own gravity and this resistance , to expand and diffuse themselves about the Terrestrial Globe ; whereby it comes to pass , that they must as well press the contiguous Corpuscles of Air that on either side oppose their Dilatation , as they must press upon the surface of the Earth , and , as it were recoyling thence , endeavour to thrust away those upper particles of Air that lean upon them . And , as for the easie yielding of the Air to the Bodies that move in it , if we consider that the Corpuscles whereof it consists , though of a springy nature , are yet so very small , as to make up ( which 't is manifest they do ) a fluid Body , it will not be difficult to conceive , that in the Air , as in other Bodies that are fluid , the little Bodies it consists of , are in an almost restless motion , whereby they become ( as we have more fully discoursed in another Treatise ) very much disposed to yield to other Bodies , or easie to be displac'd by them ; and that the same Corpuscles are likewise so variously mov'd , as they are intire Corpuscles , that if some strive to push a Body plac'd among them towards the right hand ( for instance ) others , whose motion hath an opposite determination , as strongly thrust the same Body towards the left ; whereby neither of them proves able to move it out of its place , the pressure on all hands being reduced as it were to an AEquilibrium : So that the Corpuscles of the Air must be as well sometimes considered under the notion of little Springs , which remaining bent , are in their entire bulk transported from place to place ; as under the notion of Springs displaying themselves , whose parts fly abroad , whilst , as to their entire bulk they scarce change place : As the two ends of a Bow , shot off , fly from one another , whereas the Bow it self may be held fast in the Archer's hand ; and that it is the equal pressure of the Air on all sides upon the Bodies that are in it , which causeth the easie Cession of its parts , may be argu'd from hence : That if by the help of our Engine the Air be but in great part , though not totally , drawn away from one side of a Body without being drawn away from the other , he that shall think to move that Body to and fro , as easily as before , will find himself much mistaken . In verification of which we will , to divert your Lordship a little , mention here a Phaenomenon of our Engine , which even to divers ingenious persons hath at first sight seem'd very wonderfull . EXPERIMENT II. THe thing that is wont to be admired , and which may pass for our second experiment is this , That if , when the Receiver is almost empty , a By-stander be desired to lift up the brass Key ( formerly described as a stopple in the brass Cover ) he will find it a difficult thing to do so , if the Vessel be well exhausted ; and even when but a moderate quantity of Air hath been drawn out , he will , when he hath lifted it up a little , so that it is somewhat loose from the sides of the lip or socket , which ( with the help of a little oyl ) it exactly filled before , he will ( I say ) find it so difficult to be lifted up , that he will imagine there is some great weight fastned to the bottom of it . And if ( as sometimes hath been done for merriment ) onely a Bladder be tied to it , it is pleasant to see how men will marvail that so light a Body , filled at most but with Air , should so forcibly draw down their hand as if it were fill'd with some very ponderous thing : Whereas the cause of this pretty Phaenomenon seems plainly enough to be only this , That the Air in the Receiver , being very much dilated , its Spring must be very much weakn'd , and consequently it can but faintly press up the lower end of the stopple , whereas the Spring of the external Air being no way debilitated , he that a little lifts up the stopple must with his hand support a pressure equal to the disproportion betwixt the force of the internal expanded Air , and that of the Atmosphere incumbent upon the upper part of the same key or stopple : And so men being unused to find any resistance , in lifting things up , from the free Air above them , they are forward to conclude that that which depresseth their hands must needs be some weight , though they know not where plac'd , drawing beneath it . And , that we have not mis-assign'd the cause of this Phaenomenon , seems evident enough by this , That as Air is suffered by little and little to get into the Receiver , the weight that a man fancieth his hand supports , is manifestly felt to decrease more and more , the internal Air by this recruit approaching more to an AEquilibrium with the external , till at length the Receiver growing again full of Air , the stopple may be lifted up without any difficulty at all . By several other of the Experiments afforded us by our Engine , the same notion of the great and equal pressure of the free Air upon the Bodies it environs , might be here manifested , but that we think it not so fit to anticipate such Experiments : And therefore shall rather employ a few lines to clear up the difficulty touching this matter , which we have observ'd to have troubled some even of the Philosophical and Mathematical Spectators of our Engine , who have wonder'd that we should talk of the Air exquisitely shut up in our Receiver , as if it were all one with the pressure of the Atmosphere ; whereas the thick and close body of the Glass , wholly impervious to the Air , doth manifestly keep the incumbent Pillar of the Atmosphere from pressing in the least upon the Air within the Glass , which it can no where come to touch . To elucidate a little this matter , let us consider , That if a man should take a fleece of Wooll , and having first by compressing it in his hand reduc'd it into a narrower compass , should nimbly convey and shut it close up into a Box just fit for it , though the force of his hand would then no longer bend those numerous springy Bodies that compose the Fleece , yet they would continue as strongly bent as before , because , the Box they are inclos'd in , would as much resist their re-expanding of themselves , as did the hand that put them in . For thus we may conceive , that the Air being shut up , when its parts are bent by the whole weight of the incumbent Atmosphere , though that weight can no longer lean upon it , by reason it is kept off by the Glass , yet the Corpuscles of the Air within that Glass continue as forcibly bent , as they were before their inclusion , because the sides of the Glass hinder them from displaying or stretching out themselves . And if it be objected that this is unlikely , because even Glass bubbles , such as are wont to be blown at the flame of a Lamp , exceeding thin , and Hermetically seal'd , will not break ; whereas it cannot be imagin'd that so thin a Prison of Glass could resist the Elastical force of all the included Air , if that Air were so compress'd as we suppose : It may be easily reply'd , That the pressure of the inward Air against the Glass , is countervail'd by the equal pressure of the outward against the same Glass . And we see in bubbles , that by reason of this , an exceeding thin film of Water is often able , for a good while , to hinder the eruption of a pretty quantity of Air. And this may be also more conspicuous in those great Spherical bubbles , that Boyes sometimes blow with Water , to which Sope hath given a Tenacity . But that , if the pressure of the ambient Air were remov'd , the internal Air may be able to break thicker Glasses , than those lately mention'd , will appear by some of the following Experiments ; to which , we shall therefore now hasten , having , I fear , been but too prolix in this Excursion , though we thought it not amiss to annex to our first Experiments some general Considerations touching the Spring of the Air , because ( this Doctrine being yet a stranger to the Schools ) not only we find not the thing it self to be much taken notice of ; but of those few that have heard of it , the greater part have been forward to reject it , upon a mistaken perswasion , that those Phaenomena are the effects of Natures abhorrency of a Vacuum , which seem to be more fitly ascribable to the weight and spring of the Air. EXPERIMENT III. WE will now proceed to observe , that though , by the help of the handle , the Sucker be easily drawn down to the bottom of the Cylinder ; yet , without the help of that Leaver , there would be required to the same effect , a force or weight great enough to surmount the pressure of the whole Atmosphere : since otherwise the Air would not be driven out of its place , when none is permitted to succeed into the place deserted by the Sucker . This seems evident , from the known Torricellian Experiment , in which , if the inverted Tube of Mercury be but 25 Digits high , or somewhat more , the Quicksilver will not fall , but remain suspended in the Tube , because it cannot press the subjacent Mercury with so great a force , as doth the incumbent Cylinder of the Air , reaching thence to the top of the Atmosphere : Whereas , if the Cylinder of Mercury were three or four digits longer , it would over-power that of the external Air , and run out into the Vessel'd Mercury , till the two Cylinders came to an AEquilibrium , and no further . Hence we need not wonder , that though the Sucker move easily enough up and down in the Cylinder by the help of the Manubrium ; yet if the Manubrium be taken off , it will require a considerable strength to move it either way . Nor will it seem strange , that if , when the Valve and Stop-cock are well shut , you draw down the Sucker , and then let go the Manubrium ; the Sucker will , as it were of it self , re-ascend to the top of the Cylinder , since the spring of the external Air findeth nothing to resist its pressing up the Sucker . And for the same reason , when the Receiver is almost evacuated , though , having drawn down the Sucker , you open the way from the Receiver to the Cylinder , and then intercept that way again by returning the Key ; the Sucker will , upon the letting go the Manubrium , be forcibly carried up almost to the top of the Cylinder : Because the Air within the Cylinder , being equally dilated and weakned with that of the Glass , is unable to withstand the pressure of the external Air , till it be driven into so little space , that there is an AEquilibrium betwixt its force and that of the Air without . And congruously hereunto we find , that in this case , the Sucker is drawn down with little less difficulty , than if the Cylinder , being devoid of Air , the Stop-cock were exactly shut : We might take notice of some other things , that depend upon the Fabrick of our Engine it self ; but to shun prolixity , we will , in this place , content our selves to mention one of them , which seems to be of greater moment than the rest , and it is this ; that when the Sucker hath been impell'd to the top of the Cylinder , and the Valve is so carefully stopp'd , that there is no Air left in the Cylinder above the Sucker : If then the Sucker be drawn to the lower part of the Cylinder , he that manageth the Pump findeth not any sensibly greater difficulty to depress the Sucker , when it is nearer the bottom of the Cylinder , than when it is much farther off . Which circumstance we therefore think fit to take notice of , because an eminent Modern Naturalist hath taught , that , when the Air is sucked out of a Body , the violence wherewith it is wont to rush into it again , as soon as it is allow'd to re-enter , proceeds mainly from this ; That the pressure of the ambient Air is strengthened upon the accession of the Air suck'd out ; which , to make it self room , forceth the neighbouring Air to a violent-subingression of its parts : which , if it were true , he that draweth down the Sucker , would find the resistance of the external Air increas'd as he draweth it lower , more of the displaced Air being thrust into it to compress it . But , by what hath been discours'd upon the first Experiment , it seems more probable , that without any such strengthening of the pressure of the outward Air , the taking quite away or the debilitating of the resistance from within , may suffice to produce the effects under consideration . But this will perhaps be illustrated by some or other of our future Experiments , and therefore shall be no longer insisted on here . EXPERIMENT IV. HAving thus taken notice of some of the constant Phaenomena of our Engine it self , let us now proceed to the Experiments triable in it . We took then a Lambs Bladder large , well dry'd , and very limber , and leaving in it about half as much Air as it could contain , we caus'd the neck of it to be strongly try'd , so that none of the included Air , though by pressure , could get out . This Bladder being convey'd into the Receiver , and the Cover luted on , the Pump was set on work , and after two or three exsuctions of the ambient Air ( whereby the Spring of that which remain'd in the Glass was weaken'd ) the Imprison'd Air began to swell in the Bladder , and , as more and more of the Air in the Receiver was , from time to time , drawn out ; so did that in the Bladder more and more expand it self , and display the folds of the formerly flaccid Bladder : So that before we had exhausted the Receiver near so much as we could , the Bladder appear'd as full and stretched , as if it had been blown up with a Quill . And that it may appear that this plumpness of the Bladder proceeded from the surmounting of the debilitated Spring of the ambient Air remaining in the Vessel , by the stronger Spring of the Air remaining in the Bladder ; we return'd the Key of the Stop-cock , and by degrees allow'd the external Air to return into the Receiver : Whereupon it happen'd , as was expected , that as the Air came in from without , the distended Air in the Bladder , was proportionably compress'd into a narrower room , and the sides of the Bladder grew flaccid , till the Receiver having re-admitted its wonted quantity of Air , the Bladder appear'd as full of wrinkles and cavities as before . This Experiment is much of the same nature with that which was , some years ago , said to be made by that eminent Geometrician Monsieur Roberval , with a Carps Bladder empty'd and convey'd into a Tube , wherein the Experiment De Vacuo was afterwards try'd , which ingenious Experiment of his , justly deserveth the thanks of those that have been , or shall be solicitous to discover the nature of the Air. But to return to our Experiment , we may take notice of this Circumstance in it , That after the Receiver hath been in some measure empty'd , the Bladder doth , at each exsuction , swell much more conspicuously than it did at any of the first Exsuctions ; insomuch that towards the end of the pumping , not only a great fold or cavity in the surface of the Bladder may be made even , by the stretching of the inward self-expanding Air : But we have sometimes seen , upon the turning of the Key to let the ambient Air pass out of the Receiver into the Cylinder , we have seen ( I say ) the Air in the Bladder suddenly expand it self so much and so briskly , that it manifestly lifted up some light Bodies that lean'd upon it , and seem'd to lift up the Bladder it self . Now because it hath , by very learned Men , been doubted , whether the swelling of the Bladder may not have proceeded ( not from the Dilatation of the included Air , ) but from the Texture of the Fibres , which , being wont to keep the Bladder extended when the Animal ( to whom it belong'd ) was alive , may be suppos'd in our Experiment to have return'd , like so many Springs to their wonted extent , upon the removal of the ambient Air that compress'd and bent them : Because this , I say , hath been doubted , we thought fit to make this further trial . We let down into the Receiver with the fore-mentioned Bladder two other much smaller , and of the same kind of Animal ; the one of these was not ty'd up at the neck that there might be liberty left to the Air that was not squeez'd out ( which might amount to about a fifth part of what the Bladder held before ) to pass out into the Receiver : The other had the sides of it stretch'd out and press'd together , almost into the form of a Cup , that they might intercept the less Air betwixt them , and then was strongly ty'd up at the neck : This done , and the Air being in some measure suck'd out of the Pneumatical Glass ( if I may so call it ) the Bladder , mention'd at the beginning of our Experiment , appear'd extended every way to its full Dimensions ; whereas neither of the two others did remarkably swell , and that , whose neck was not ty'd , seem'd very little , if at all less wrinkl'd than when it was put in . We made likewise a strong Ligature about the middle of a long Bladder partly empty'd , and upon the drawing the Air out of the Receiver , could observe no such swelling betwixt the Ligature and the neck of the Bladder , which had been purposely left open , as betwixt the same Ligature and the bottom of the Bladder , whence the included Air could no way get out . But a farther and sufficient manifestation whence the intumescence of the Bladder proceeds , may be deduc'd from the following Experiment . EXPERIMENT V. TO try then at once both what it was that expanded the Bladder , and what a powerfull Spring there is ev'n in the Air we are wont to think uncompress'd : We caus'd a Bladder dry , well ty'd and blown moderately full , to be hung in the Receiver by one end of a string , whose other end was fastned to the inside of the Cover : and upon drawing out the ambient Air , that press'd on the Bladder ; the internal Air not finding the wonted resistance , first swell'd and distended the Bladder , and then broke it , with so wide and crooked a rent , as if it had been forcibly torn asunder with hands . After which a second Bladder being convey'd in , the Experiment was repeated with like success : And I suppose it will not be imagin'd that in this case the Bladder was broken by its own Fibres , rather than by the Imprison'd Air. And of this Experiment these two Phaenomena may be taken notice of : The one , that the Bladder at its breaking gave a great report , almost like a Cracker : And the other , That the Air contain'd in the Bladder , had the power to break it with the mention'd Impetuosity , long before the ambient Air was all , or near all , drawn out of the Receiver . But , to verifie what we say in another Discourse , where we show , That even true Experiments may , by reason of the easie mistake of some unheeded Circumstance , be unsuccessfully try'd ; we will Advertise , on this occasion , that we did oftentimes in vain try the breaking of Bladders , after the manner above mention'd : Of which the cause appear'd to be this , That the Bladders we could not break , having been brought us ready blown from those that sold them , were grown dry before they came to our hands : whence it came to pass , that , if we afterwards ty'd them very hard , they were apt to fret and so become unserviceable ; and if we ty'd them but moderately hard , their stifness kept them from being clos'd so exactly , but that when the included Air had in the exhausted Receiver distended them as much as easily it could , it would in part get out between the little wrinkles of the Sphincter of the Neck : Whence also it usually happen'd , that , upon the letting in the Air from without , the Bladders appear'd more flaccid and empty than before they were put in ; whereas when the Bladders were brought us moist from the Butchers , we could , without injuring them , tie their necks so close , that none of the Air once blown in , could get out of them , but by violently breaking them . It would not be amiss on this occasion to point at something which may deserve a more deliberate Speculation than we can now afford it ; namely that the Elastical Power of the same Quantity of Air may be as well encreas'd by the Agitation of the Aërial Particles ( whether only moving them more swiftly and scattering them , or also extending or stretching them out , I determine not ) within an every way inclosing and yet yielding Body ; as display'd by the withdrawing of the Air that press'd it without . For we found that a Bladder , but moderately fill'd with Air and strongly ty'd , being a while held near the Fire , not only grew exceeding turgid and hard , but afterwards , being brought nearer to the Fire , suddenly broke with so loud and vehement a noise , as stony'd those that were by , and made us for a while after , almost deaf . EXPERIMENT VI. HAving thus seen that the Air hath an Elastical Power , we were next desirous to know in some measure how far a parcel of Air might by this its own Spring be dilated . And though we were not provided of Instruments fit to measure the dilatation of the Air any thing accurately , yet because an imperfect measure of it was more desirable than none at all , we devis'd the following method as very easily practicable . We took a limber Lambs Bladder which was thorowly wetted in fair Water , that the sides of it being squeez'd together , there might be no Air left in its folds : ( as indeed we could not afterwards upon trial discern any ) The neck of this Bladder was strongly tied about that of a small Glass , ( capable of holding five full drachmes of Water ) the Bladder being first so compress'd , that all the included Air was only in the Glass , without being press'd there ; then the Pump being set on work after a few exsuctions , the Air in the little Viol began to dilate it self and produce a small Tumor in the neck of the Bladder ; and as the ambient Air was more and more drawn away , so the included Air penetrated farther and farther into the Bladder , and by degrees listed up the sides and display'd its folds , till at length it seem'd to have blown it up to its full extent : Whereupon the external Air , being permitted to flow back into the Receiver , repuls'd the Air that had fill'd the Bladder , into its former narrow receptacle , and brought the Bladder to be again flaccid and wrinkled as before : Then taking out the Bladder , but without severing it from the Glass , we did , by a hole made at the top of the Bladder , fill the Vessel , they both made up , with Water , whose weight was five Ounces five Drachmes and a half : Five Drachmes whereof were above-mention'd to be the contents of the Bottle . So that in this Experiment , when the Air had most extended the Bladder , it possess'd in all above nine times as much room as it did when it was put into the Receiver . And it would probably have much inlarg'd its bounds , but that the Bladder by its weight and the sticking together of its sides did somewhat resist its expansion : And which was more considerable , the Bladder appear'd tumid enough , whilst yet a pretty deal of Air was left in the Receiver , whose exsuction would according to our former Observation , probably have given way to a farther expansion of the Air , especially supposing the dilatation not to be restrain'd by the Bladder . SInce we wrote the other day the former Experiment , we have met with some Glasses not very unfit for our purpose ; by means of which we are now able , with a little more trouble , to measure the expansion of the Air a great deal more accurately than we could by the help of the above-mention'd Bladder , which was much too narrow to allow the Air its utmost distention . We took then first a Cylindrical Pipe of Glass , whose bore was about a quarter of an Inch in Diameter : This Pipe was so bent and doubled , that , notwithstanding its being about two foot in length , it might have been shut up into a smaller Receiver , not a Foot high : But by misfortune it crack'd in the cooling , whereby we were reduced to make use of one part which was straight and intire , but exceeded not six or seven Inches . This little Tube was open at one end ; and at the other , where it was Hermetically seal'd , had a small Glass bubble to receive the Air whose dilatation was to be measur'd . Along the side of this Tube was pasted a straight narrow piece of Parchment , divided into twenty six equal parts , marked with black Lines and Figures , that by them might be measur'd both the included Air and its dilatation . Afterwards we fill'd the Tube with Water , almost to the top ; and stopping the open end with the Finger , and inverting the Tube , the Air was permitted to ascend to the above mention'd Glass bubble . And by reason this ascent was very slow , it gave us the opportunity to mark how much more or less than one of the twenty six divisions this Air took up . By this means , after a trial or two , we were inabled to convey to the top of the Glass a bubble of Air equal enough , as to sight , to one of those Divisions : Then the open end of the Tube being put into a small Viol , whose bottom was cover'd with Water , about half an Inch high ; we included both Glasses into a small and slender Receiver , and caused the Pump to be set on work . The event was , That at the first exsuction of the Air there appear'd not any expansion of the bubble , comparable to what appear'd at the second , and that upon a very few exsuctions the bubble reaching as low as the surface of the subjacent Water , gave us cause to think , That if our Pipe had not been broken , it would have expanded it self much farther : Wherefore we took out the little Tube , and found that besides the twenty six divisions formerly mention'd , the Glass bubble and some part of the Pipe to which the divided Parchment did not reach , amounted to six divisions more . Whereby it appears that the Air hath take up one and thirty times as much room as before , and yet seem'd capable of a much greater expansion , if the Glass would have permitted it . Wherefore after the former manner , we let in another bubble , that by our guess was but half as big as the former , and found , that upon the exsuction of the Air from the Receiver , this little bubble did not only fill up the whole Tube , but ( in part ) break through the subjacent Water in the Viol , and thereby manifest it self to have prossessed sixty and odd times its former room . These two Experiments are mention'd to make way for the more easy belief of that which is now to follow . Finding then that our Tube was too short to serve our turn , we took a slender Quill of Glass which happen'd to be at hand , though it were not so fit for our purpose as we could have wished , in regard it was three or four times as big at one end as the other . This Pipe which was thirty Inches long , being Hermetically seal'd at the slender end , was almost filled with water ; and after the above-related manner a bubble was convey'd to the top of it , and the open extreme was put into a Viol that had a little fair Water at the bottom : Then the Cover , by means of a small hole purposely made in it for the Glass Pipe to stand out at , was cemented on to the Receiver , and the Pump being set on work , after some exsuctions , not only the Air manifestly appear'd extended below the surface of the subjacent Water ; but one of the By-standers affirms , that he saw some bubbles come out at the bottom of the Pipe and break through the Water . This done , we left off Pumping , and observ'd how at the unperceiv'd leaks of the Receiver the Air got in so fast , that it very quickly impell'd up the Water to the top of the Tube , excepting a little space whereinto that bubble was repuls'd , which had so lately possess'd the whole Tube ; this Air at the slender end appear'd to be a Cylinder of ⅚ parts of an Inch in length , but when the Pipe was taken out and turn'd upside down , it appear'd at the other end inferiour in bulck to a Pea. These things being thus done we took ( to make the Experiment the more exactly ) a small pair of Scales , such as Gold-Smiths use to weigh Cold Coyn in ; and weighing the Tube and Water in it , we found them to amount to one Ounce thirty Grains and an half : Then we pour'd in as much Water as serv'd to fill up the Tube , wherein before we had left as much space unfill'd up as was possess'd by the bubble , and weighing again the Pipe and Water , we found the weight increas'd onely by one Grain . Lastly , pouring out the Water , and carefully freeing the Pipe from it ( which yet we could not perfectly doe ) we weighed the Glass alone , and found it to want two Drachmes and thirty two Grains of its former weight : So that the bubble of Air taking up the room but of one Grain in weight of Water , it appear'd that the Air by its own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was so rarified , as to take up one hundred fifty two times as much room as it did before : Though it were then compress'd by nothing but the ordinary pressure of the contiguous Air. I know not whether it be requisite to take notice , that this Experiment was made indeed in a moist Night , but in a Room , in whose Chimney there was burning a good Fire , which did perhaps somewhat rarifie the Air of which the bubble consisted . It hath seem'd almost incredible which is related by the Industrious Mersennus , That the Air by the violence of heat , though as great as our Vessels can support without fusion , can be so dilated as to take up seventy times as much room as before : Wherefore because we were willing to have a confirmation of so strange a Phaenomenon ; we once more convey'd into the Tube a bubble of the bigness of the former , and prosecuting the Experiment as before with the same Water , we observed that the Air did manifestly stretch it self so far , as to appear several times a good way below the surface of the Water in the Viol , and that too with a surface very convex toward the bottom of the Pipe. Nay , the Pump being ply'd a little longer , the Air did manifestly reach to that place where the bottom of the Tube leaned upon the bottom of the Viol , and seemed to knock upon it and rebound from it : Which Circumstances we add , partly that the Phaenomenon we have been relating may not be imputed to the bare subsiding of the Water that filled the Tube , upon the taking off the pressure of the ambient Air. And partly also that it may appear that if our Experiments have not been so accurately made as with fitter Instruments might perhaps be possible ; yet the expansion of the Air is likely to be rather greater than lesser than we have made it : Since the Air was able to press away the Water at the bottom of the Pipe , though that were about two Inches below the surface of the Water that was then in the Viol , and would have been at least as high in the Pipe , if the Water had onely subsided and not been depressed : So that it seems not unlikely that if the Experiment could be so made , as that the expansion of the Air might not be resisted by the Neighbouring Bodies , it would yet enlarge its bounds , and perhaps stretch it self to two hundred times its former bulk , if not more . However , what we have now tryed will , I hope , suffice to hinder divers of the Phaenomena of our Engine from being distrusted : Since in that part of the Atmosphere we live in , that which we call the free Air ( and presume to be so uncompressed ) is crouded into so very small a part of that space , which if it were not hindred it would possess . We would gladly have tryed also whether the Air at its greatest expansion could be farther rarified by heat ; but doe what we could , our Receiver leaked too fast to let us give our selves any satisfaction in that particular . EXPERIMENT VII . TO discover likewise by the means of that pressure of the Air , both the strength of Glass , and how much interest the Figure of a Body may have in its greater or lesser Resistance to the pressure of other Bodies , we made these farther tryals . We caus'd to be blown with a Lamp , a round Glass bubble , capable of containing , by guess , about five Ounces of Water , with a slender neck about the bigness of a Swan's Quill , and it was purposely blown very thin , as Viols made with Lamps are wont to be , that the thinness of the matter might keep the roundness of the Figure from making the Vessel too strong . Then having moderately emptied the Receiver , and taken it out of the Pump , we speedily applied to the Orifice of the bottom of it , the Neck of the newly mention'd Glass , carefully stopping the Crannies with melted Plaister , that no Air might get in at them : And after turning the Key of the Stop-cock , we made a free passage for the Air to pass out of the bubble into the Receiver : Which it did with great celerity , leaving the bubble as empty as the Receiver it self ; as appear'd to us by some Circumstances not now to be insisted on . Notwithstanding all which , the Vessel , continuing as intire as before , gave us cause to wonder that the bare roundness of the Figure should enable a Glass , almost as thin as Paper , to resist so great a pressure as that of the whole incumbent Atmosphere . And having reiterated the Experiment , we found again that the pressure of the ambient Body , thrusting all the parts inwards , made them , by reason of their arched Figure , so support one another , that the Glass remain'd as whole as at first . Now that the Figure of the Glass is of great moment in this matter , may be evinced by this other Experiment . EXPERIMENT VIII . WE took a Glass Helmet or Alembick ( delineated by the seventh Figure ) such as Chymists use in Distillations , and containing by conjecture between two and three Pints : The Rostrum or Rose of it mark'd with ( c ) was Hermetically closed ; and at the top of it was a hole , into which was fitted and cemented one of the Shanks of a middle-siz'd Stop-cock ; so that the Glass being turn'd upside-down , the wide Orifice ( which in common Glass-Helmets is the onely one ) was upwards ; and to that wide Orifice was fitted a cast cover of Lead , which was carefully cemented on to the Glass : Then the other Shank of the Stop-cock being with cement likewise fasten'd into the upper part of the Pump , the exsuction of the Air was endeavoured . But it was not long before , the remaining Air being made much too weak to ballance the pressure of the Ambient Air , the Glass was ( not without a great noise ) crack'd almost half round , along that part of it where it began to bend inwards : As if in the Figure , the crack had been made according to the Line ( a b , ) and upon an endeavour to pump out more of the Air , the crack once begun , appear'd to run on farther ; though the Glass where it was broken seem'd to be ( by conjecture ) above ten , some thought above twenty times , as thick as the bubble mentioned in the foregoing Experiment . This will perhaps make it seem strange , that having taken another Glass bubble blown at the same time , and like for ought we discerned for size , thickness and Figure , to that thin one formerly mentioned ; and having sealed it up Hermetically , and suspended it in the Receiver , the exsuction of the ambient Air did not enable the imprisoned Air to break , or in the least to crack the bubble ; though the Experiment were laboriously tried , and that several times with bubbles of other sizes : But that perhaps the heat of the Candle or Lamp wherewith such Glasses are Hermetically sealed , ( not to mention the warmth of his hands that seal'd it ) might so rarefy the contained Air , as much to weaken its Spring , may seem probably by the following Experiments . EXPERIMENT IX . WE took a Glass Viol able to hold three or four Ounces of Water , and of the thickness usual in Glasses of that size ; into the Neck of this was put a moderately slender Pipe of Glass , which was carefully fastened with a mixture of equal parts of Pitch and Rosin to the Neck of the Viol , and which reached almost to the bottom of it , as the sixth Figure declareth . This Viol being , upon a particular design , filled with Water , till that came up in it , a pretty deal higher than the lower end of the Pipe , was put into one of our small Receivers , ( containing between a Pint and a Quart ) in such manner as that the Glass Pipe , passing through a hole made purposely for it in the Leaden-Cover of the Receiver , was for the most part of it without the Vessel , which being exactly closed , the Pump was set on work : But at the very first exsuction , and before the Sucker was drawn to the bottom of the Cylinder , there flew out of the Viol a piece of Glass half as broad as the Palm of a Man's Hand , and it was thrown out with such violence , that hitting against the Neighbouring side of the Receiver , it not onely dashed it self to pieces , but cracked the very Receiver in many places , with a great noise that much surprised all that were in the Room . but it seemed , that in so little a Receiver , the Air about the Viol being suddenly drawn out , the Air imprisoned in the Vessel , having on it the whole pressure of the Atmosphere ( to which by the Pipe open at both ends , It and the Water were exposed ) and not having on the other side the wonted pressure of the Ambient Air to ballance that other pressure , the resistance of Glass was finally surmounted , and the Viol once beginning to break where it was weakest , the external Air might rush in with violence enough to throw the cracked parcel so forcibly against the Neighbouring side of the Receiver , as to break that too . And this may be presumed sufficient to verify what we delivered in that part of our Appendix to the first Experiment where we mentioned the almost equal pressure of the Air on either side of a thin Glass Vessel , as the cause of its not being broken by the forcible spring of the contained Air. But yet that it be not suspected that chance had an interest in so odd an Experiment as we have been relating , we will add that for farther satisfaction we reiterated it in a round Glass containing by Guess about six ounces of Water : This Viol we put into such a small Receiver as was lately mentioned , in such manner as that the bottom of it rested upon the lower part of the Pneumatical Glass , and the Neck came out through the Leaden-cover of the same at a hole made purposely for it . But being made circumspect by the foregoing mischance , we had put the Viol into a Bladder , before we put it into the Receiver to hinder this last-named Glass from being endangered by the breaking of the other . Then the Pneumatical Vessel being closed so that no way was left for the outward Air to get into it , but by breaking through the Viol , into whose cavity it had free access by the mouth of it , ( which was purposely left open , ) the Sucker being nimbly drawn down , the external Air immediately pressed forcibly as well upon the Leaden-cover as the Viol ; and the Cover happening to be in one place a little narrower than the edge of the Pneumatical Glass , was depressed , and thrust into it so violently by the incumbent Air , that getting a little within the tapering Lip of the Glass , it did ( like a kind of Wedge , ) thrust out that side where it was depressed , so as , ( though the Receiver was new , ) to split it . This accident being thus mentioned upon the bye to confirm what we formerly said touching the fitness or unfitness of Glasses of some Figures to resist the pressure of the Atmosphere ; We will proceed to relate the remaining part of the Experiment , namely , That having fitted on a wider Cover to the same Receiver , and closed both that and the crack with Cement , we prosecuted the Experiment in the manner above related , with this success : That upon the quick depressing of the Sucker , the external Air burst the Body of the Viol into above an hundred pieces , many of them exceeding small , and that with such violence , that we found a wide rent , besides many holes , made in the Bladder it self . And to evince that these Phaenomena were the effects of a limited and even moderate force , and not of such an abhorrency of a Vacuum as that to avoid it , many have been pleased to think that Nature must , upon occasion , exercise an almost boundless power ; we afterwards purposely try'd this Experiment with several Glasses somewhat thicker than those Viols , and found the event to verify our conjecture , that it would not succeed : For the Glasses were taken out as intire as they were put in . And here , My Lord , I hold it not unfit , upon occasion of the mention that hath been made of our having employ'd small Receivers , and one of them , notwithstanding its being crack'd , to annex these two Advertisements . First then , besides the great Pneumatical Glass so often mentioned , and the proportionate Stop-cock , we thought fit to provide our selves with some small Receivers blown of Crystalline Glass , of several Shapes , and furnished with smaller Stop-cocks purposely made ; and this we did upon hopes , that when we had surmounted the difficulties to be met with in Cementing the Glasses to the Stop-cocks , and the Pneumatical Vessels to the Pump , so exquisitely as is requisite for our purpose , we should from the smallness of our Receivers receive a four-fold Advantage . The first , that by reason of the slenderness of the Vessels , and their being made of much purer and clearer metal , ( as the Glass-men speak , ) than the great Receiver , we might have a more perfect view of every thing happening within them . The next , that such small Vessels might be emptied with less labour and in much less time . The third , that this nimble exsuction of the ambient Air would make many changes in the Bodies shut up in these Glasses more sudden and conspicuous than otherwise they would prove . And the last , that we should be able to draw and keep out the Air much more perfectly from such small Vessels than from our large Receiver , But though we were not much disappointed in the expectation of the three first advantages , yet we were in our hopes of the fourth . For besides the great difficulty we found in fitting together the Glasses , the Stop-cocks , and the Covers ; besides this I say , we found our selves seldom able to draw , and keep out the Air so far as to make the remaining Air in these Receivers weaker than the remaining Air in our great Receiver . For though sometimes the Leaks of some of these little Receivers may be much ( either fewer or smaller ) than those of the larger Vessel ; yet a little Air getting into one of these , wherein it had but little room to expand and display it self , might press as much upon all parts of the internal surface of the Vessel , and upon the included Bodies , as a greater quantity of the Air in a Vessel in whose capacity it might find more room to expand it self . The other thing that we were to advertise , is , That 't is not every small crack that can make such a Receiver as is of a roundish Figure altogether useless to our Experiment , in regard that upon the exsuction of the internal Air , the ambient Air on all sides pressing the Glass inwards or towards the middle , doth consequently thrust the Lips of the crack closer , and so rather close than increase it . This I mention partly because Receivers fit for our turn are more easily cracked than procured , and therefore ought not to be unnecessarily thrown away as unserviceable : And partly because I think it becomes one that professeth himself a faithfull Relator of Experiments , not to conceal from Your Lordship , that after a few of the foregoing Experiments were made , there happened in the great Receiver a crack of about a Span long , beginning at the upper Orifice , and occasion'd , as it seem'd , by the excessive heat of too large an Iron that was employ'd to melt the Cement about that Orifice . But having laid upon this crack a broad Plaister , ( which in one of our Essays written some years since to your ingenious and hopefull Cousin Jones , we extoll for the mending of crack'd Receivers , and other Chymical Glasses ; ) and having afterwards thickly overlaid this Plaister with Diachylon , we neither could then , nor can yet perceive that the Vessel leaks sensibly at that crack . The Plaister was made of good quick Lime finely poudred , and nimbly ground with a Pestle in a Mortar , with a quantity ( I know not how much precisely , not having those Essays in this place ) of scrapings of Cheese and a little fair Water , no more than is just necessary to bring the mixture to a somewhat soft Paste , which when the Ingredients are exquisitely incorporated , will have a strong and stincking smell : Then it must be immediately spread upon a Linnen Cloath of three or four fingers breadth , and presently apply'd , lest it begin to harden . But if your Lordship had seen how we mended with it Receivers even for the most subtle Chymical Spirits . You would scarce wonder at the service it hath done in our Pneumatical Glass . EXPERIMENT X. WE took a Tallow-candle of such a size that eight of them make about a pound , and having in a very commodious Candlestick let it down into the Receiver , and so suspended it , that the Flame burnt almost in the middle of the Vessel , we did in some two minutes exactly close it up : and upon pumping very nimbly , we found , that , within little more than half a minute after , the Flame went out , though the Snuff had been purposely left of that length we judged the most convenient for the lasting of the Flame . But the second time having put in the same Candle into the Receiver , ( after it had by the blasts of a pair of Bellows been freed from Fumes ) the Flame lasted about two minutes from the time the Pumper began to draw out the Air ; upon the first exsuction whereof , the Flame seem'd to contract it self in all its dimensions . And these things were farther observable , that after the two or three first exsuctions of the Air , the Flame ( except at the very top ) appear'd exceeding blew , and that the Flame still receded more and more from the Tallow , till at length it appear'd to posses onely the very top of the Week , and there it went out . The same Candle being lighted again was shut into the Receiver , to try how it would last there without drawing forth the Air , and we found that it lasted much longer than formerly ; and before it went out , receded from the Tallow towards the top of the Week , but not neer so much as in the former Experiment . And having an intention to observe particularly what the motion of the Smoke would be in these Experiments : We took notice that when the Air was not drawn out , there did , upon the extinction of the Flame , a considerable part of the Week remain kindled , which ( probably by reason of the Circulation of the Air ) in the Vessel , occasion'd by the heat ) emitted a Steam , which ascended swiftly and directly upwards in a slender and uninterrupted Cylinder of smoke , till it came to the top , whence it manifestly recoil'd by the sides to the lower part of the Vessel . Whereas when the Flame went out upon the exsuction of the Air one time ( when the Flame retir'd very leasurely to the top ) we perceived it not to be follow'd by any smoke at all . And at another time the upper part of the Week remaining kindled after the extinction of the Flame , the slender steam of Fumes that did arise ascended but a very little way , and then after some uncertain motions this and that way , did , for the most part , soon fall downwards . Being desirous also to try whether there would be any difference as well in our Receiver , as there is wont to be elsewhere betwixt Candles made of Wax and those made of Tallow , as to their duration ; we took slender Tapers of white Wax , ( commonly called Virgins Wax ) that being found to burn with much less smoke than common yellow Wax . Six of these of like bigness , and each of them of about the thickness of a Swan's Quill , we press'd together into one Candle : and having lighted all the Weeks , we let in the above-mention'd Wax-candle into the Receiver , and made what haste we could to close it up with Cement . But , though in the mean while we left open the Valve of the Cylinder , the hole of the Stop-cock , and that in the Cover of the Receiver , that some Air might get in to cherish the Flame , and the Smoke might have a vent ; Yet for so great a Flame the Air sufficed not so much as till the Cover could be perfectly luted on : So that before we were quite ready to imploy the Pump , the Candle was extinguished . Wherefore we took but one of the above mention'd Tapers , and having lighted it , clos'd it up in the Receiver , to try how long a small Flame with a proportionable smoke would continue in such a quantity of Air : but we found upon two several tryals , that from the beginning of pumping , the Flame went out in about a minute of an hour . It appear'd indeed to us that the swinging of the Wier to and fro ( in the Engine shaken by pumping ) hasten'd the vanishing of the Flame , which seem'd by that motion to be cast sometimes on one side of the Week and sometimes on the other . But though once we purposely refrain'd pumping after a very few exsuctions of the Air , that the Flame might not be agitated , yet it lasted not much longer than the newly-mention'd time . And lastly , closing up the same Taper , lighted again , to discover how long it would last without drawing out of the Air , we found that it burnt for a while vividly enough , but afterwards began to be lessen'd more and more in all its dimensions . And we observ'd that the Flame did not , as before , retire it self by little and little towards the top , but towards the bottom of the Week ( from which yet it did a little withdraw upwards just before it went out ) so that the upper part of the Week-appear'd for a pretty while manifestly above the top of the Flame , which having lasted about five minutes , was succeeded by a directly ascending stream of Smoke . EXPERIMENT XI . THere was taken a Wier , which being bent almost in the form of a Screw , constituted such an Instrument , to contain Coals and leave them every way accessible to the Air , as the tenth Figure declareth ; the breadth of this Vessel was no less than that it might with ease be convey'd into the Receiver : And having fill'd it to the height of about five Inches with throughly kindled Wood-coals , we let it down into the Glass ; and speedily closing it , we caus'd the Pumper to ply his work , and observ'd that upon the very first exsuction of the Air ( though perhaps not because of that onely ) the Fire in the Coals began to grow very dim , and though the agitation of the Vessel did make them swing up and down ( which in the sree Air would have retarded the extinction of the Fire ) yet when we could no longer discern any redness at all in any of them , casting our eyes upon a minute Watch we kept by us on this occasion , we found that from the beginning of the Pumping ( which might be about two minutes after the Coals had been put in glowing ) to the total dis-appearing of the Fire , there had passed but three minutes . Whereupon , to try the Experiment a little farther , we presently took out the Coals , in which it seems there had remained some little parcels of Fire , rather cover'd than totally quench'd : For in the open Air the Coals began to be re-kindled in several places , wherefore having by swinging them about in the Wier , throughly lighted them the second time , we let them down again into the Receiver , and clos'd it speedily as before ; and then waiting till the Fire seem'd totally extinct without medling with the Pump , we found that from the time the Vessel was clos'd , till that no Fire at all could be perceiv'd , there had passed about four minutes : Whereby it seem'd to appear that the drawing away of the ambient Air made the Fire go out sooner than otherwise it would have done ; though that part of the Air that we drew out left the more room for the stifling steams of the Coals to be received into . Lastly , Having taken out the Wier and put other Coals into it , we did , in the same Room where the Engine stood , let it hang quietly by a string in the open Air , to try how long the Fire would last without agitation , when no Air was kept from it , And we found that the Fire began to go out first at the top and outsides of the Coals ; but inwards and near the bottom the Fire continu'd visible for above half an hour , a great part of the Coals , especially those next the bottom , being burnt to ashes before the Fire went out . We caus'd likewise a piece of Iron to be forg'd , of the bigness of a middle siz'd Char-coal , and having made it red-hot throughout ; we caus'd it in the lately mention'd Wier , to be speedily convey'd and shut up into the Receiver , being desirous to try what would become of a glowing Body , by reason of its texture more vehemently hot than a burning Coal of the same bigness , and yet unlike to send forth such copious and stifling Fumes : But we could not observe any manifest change upon the exsuction of the Air. The Iron began indeed to lose its fiery redness at the top , but that seem'd to be because it was at the upper end somewhat more slender than at the lower : The redness , though it were in the day time , continued visible about four minutes ; and then , before it did quite disappear , we turn'd the Key of the Stop-cock , but could not discern any change of the Iron upon the rushing in of the Air. Yet some little remainders of Wax that stuck to the Wier , and were turn'd into Fumes by the heat of the neighbouring Iron , seem'd to afford a more plentifull , or at least a much more expanded Smoke when the Air was suck'd out , than afterwards ; though allowance was made for the decreasing heat of the Iron . And lastly , notwithstanding a considerable exsuction of the ambient Air , though not by far so great a one as might have been made by the Engine ; and notwithstanding the inconsiderable dissipation of the parts of the Iron ; the surrounding sides of the Receiver were sensibly , and almost offensively heated by it ; insomuch that a pretty while after the Iron was taken out , the sides of the Glass manifestly retain'd a warmth : which would not be unfit to be consider'd by a Person at more leasure than I am now . EXPERIMENT XII . BEing willing to try after this something that would not cherish much Fire at once , and would keep Fire much longer than a Coal : We took a piece of Match , such as Souldiers use , of the thickness of a Man's little Finger , or somewhat thicker ; and this being well lighted at one end , was by a string suspended with that end downwards in the cavity of the Receiver which was immediately clos'd : And yet by that time it could well be so , the copious Fumes of the Match had near fill'd and darken'd the Receiver . Wherefore , lest the Vessel should be endanger'd , the Pump was nimbly ply'd , and a great deal of Air and Smoke mixt together was drawn out , whereby the Receiver growing more clear , we could discern the Fire in the Match to burn more and more languidly : and notwithstanding that by the diligence us'd in pumping , it seem'd to have room enough allow'd it to throw out Fumes ; yet , after no long time , it ceas'd from being discernable either by its Light or its Smoke . And , though by that we were invited to suppose it quite extinguished , yet we continu'd pumping a-while , in prosecution of another Experiment we were trying at the same time : And this we did the more willingly , because of a suspicion , the Experiment about the Coals , might easily suggest , and which the event declar'd not to have been altogether groundless . For upon the admission of the external Air , the Fire , that seem'd to have gone out a pretty while before , did presently revive ; and being as it were refresh'd by the new Air , and blown by the Wind made by that Air in rushing in , it began again to shine and dissipate the neighbouring Fuel into Smoke as formally . EXPERIMENT XIII . A While after we let down into the Receiver together with a lighted piece of Match , a great Bladder well tyed at the Neck , but very lank , as not containing actually much ( if any thing ) above a Pint of Air , but being capable of containing ten or twelve times as much . Our scope in this Experiment was partly to try whether or no the smoke of the Match , replenishing the Receiver , would be able to hinder the dilatation of the inward Air , upon the exsuction of the ambient : And partly to discover whether the extinction of the Fire in the Match did proceed from want of Air , or barely from the pressure of its own Fumes , which for want of room to expand themselves in , might be suppos'd to recoyl upon the Fire , and so to stifle it . The event of our tryal was , That at the beginning of our pumping the Match appear'd well lighted , though it had almost fill'd the Receiver with its plentifull Fumes : But by degrees it burnt more and more dimly , notwithstanding , that by the nimble drawing out the Air and Smoke , the Vessel were made less opacous , and less full of compressing matter ; as appear'd by this , That the longer we pump'd , the less Air and Smoke came out of the Cylinder at the opening of the Valve , and consequently the less came into it before ; yet the Fire in the Match went but slowly out . And when afterwards , to satisfy our selves of its expiration , we had darken'd the Room , and in vain endeavoured to discover any spark of Fire , ( as we could not for some time before by the help of Candles discern the least rising of Smoke , ) we yet continued pumping six or seven times ; and after all that , letting in the Air , the seemingly dead Fire quickly revived , and manifested its recovery by Light and store of Smoke , with the latter of which it quickly began to replenish the Receiver . Then we fell to pumping afresh , and continued that labour so long , till the re kindled Match went out again : and thinking it then fit not to cease from pumping so soon as before , we found that in less than half a quarter of an hour the Fire was got out for good and all , and past the possibility of being recover'd by the re-admitted Air. Some Circumstances , besides those already mention'd , occurr'd in the making of the Experiment , of which these are the principal . First , When the Receiver was full of Smoke , if the Cylinder were emptied , immediately upon the turning of the Stop-cock , the Receiver would appear manifestly darken'd to his eye that look'd upon the light through it : and this darkness was much less when the Receiver was much less fill'd with Fumes : It was also instantaneous , and seem'd to proceed from a sudden change of place and situation in the exhalations , upon the vent suddenly afforded them and the Air they were mixt with , out of the Receiver into the Cylinder . The next thing we observed was , a kind of Halo that appear'd a good while about the Fire , and seem'd to be produced by the surrounding Exhalations . And lastly , it is remarkable , That even when the Fumes seemed most to replenish the Receiver , they did not sensibly hinder the Air included in the Bladder from dilating it self after the same manner ( for ought we could discern ) as it would have otherwise done : So that before the Fire or the Match was quite extinct , the Bladder appear'd swell'd at least to six or seven times its former capacity . Since the writing of these last Lines , we took a small Receiver , capable of containing ( by guess ) about a pound and a half of Water ; and in the midst of it we suspended a lighted Match , but though within one minute of an hour ( or there abouts ) from the putting in of the Match , we had cemented on the Cover , yet we could not make such haste , but that before we began to pump , the Smoke had so fill'd that small Receiver , as for ought we discern'd , to choke the Fire . And having again and again reiterated the Experiment , it seem'd still as at first , that we could not close up the Vessel , and pump out all the Fumes time enough to rescue the Fire from extinction , whereupon we made use of this Expedient : Assoon as we had pump'd once or twice , we suddenly turn'd the Key , and thereby gave access to the excluded Air , which rushing violently in , as if it had been forced thorow a pair of Bellows , did both drive away the ashes , fill the Glass with fresh Air , and by blowing the almost extinguish'd Fire , re-kindl'd it , as appear'd by the Matches beginning again to smoke , which before it had ceas'd to do ; we having by this means obtained a lighted Match in the Receiver , without being reduced to spend time to close it up , commanded the Air to be immediately pump'd out , and found that upon the exsuction of it , the Match quickly left smoking , as it seem'd , by reason of the absence of the Air ; and yet if some urgent occasions had not hinder'd us , we would for greater security have try'd , whether or no the Match rekindled as formerly , would smoke much longer , in case of no exsuction of the ambient Air. EXPERIMENT XIV . TO try diverse things at once , and particularly whether Fire , though we found it would not long last , might not be produced in our evacuated Receiver : We took a Pistol of about a foot in length , and having firmly tyed it to a stick almost as long as the Cavity of the Receiver , we very carefully prim'd it with well dry'd Gunpowder , and then cocking it , we ty'd to the Tricker , one end of a string , whose other end was fasten'd to the Key formerly mention'd to belong to the Cover of our Receiver . This done , we convey'd the Pistol , together with the annexed Staff , into the Vessel which being clos'd up , and empty'd aster the usual manner , we began to turn the Key in the Cover ; and thereby shortning the string that reach'd from it to the Pistol , we pull'd aside the Tricker , and observ'd , that according to our expectation the force of the Spring of the Lock was not sensibly abated by the absence of the Air : ( from whose impetus yet some Modern Naturalists would derive the cause of the motion of Restitution in solid Bodies ) For the Cock falling with its wonted violence upon the Steel , struck out of it as many , and as conspicuous parts of Fire , as , for ought we could perceive , it would have done in the open Air. Repeating this Experiment diverse times , we also observed whether or no there would appear any considerable diversity in the Motion of the shining Sparks in a place where the remaining Air was so much rarefied , but could not perceive but that they moved some of them upwards , as well as some of them downwards , and some of them side-ways , as they are wont to do , when upon such collisions they fly out in the open Air. We likewise caus'd a piece of Steel to be made of the form and bigness of the Flint , in whose place we put it , and then the Pistol being cock'd and conveyed into the Receiver , the Tricker was pull'd after the Air was drawn out : And though the place were purposely somewhat darken'd , yet there appear'd not upon the striking of the two Steels against each other the least spark of Fire : Nor did we expect any ( having before in vain attempted to strike Fire this way in the open Air ) though we thought fit to make the Experiment , to undeceive those who fancy in rarefied Air , I know not what strange disposition , to take fire upon a much slighter occasion than this Experiment afforded . We have indeed found , that by the dextrous Collision of two harden'd pieces of Steel , store of sparks may be struck out : But that was done with such vehement percussion of the edges of the two Steels , as could not well be compass'd in our Receiver . But the chief thing we design'd to doe with our Pistol , was , To observe whether Gun-powder would take Fire in our empty'd and closely stop'd Glass ? Whether the expansion of the Flame would be considerably varied by the absence of so much of the ambient Air as was drawn out of the Receiver ? And whether the Flame would diffuse it self upward , as it is wont , notwithstanding it s not having about it the usual proportion of Air to force it up ? And though most of our Attempts to fire the Gun-powder in the Pan of the Pistol succeeded not , because we were fain to let it hang almost perpendicular in the Receiver , whereby the Powder was shaken down before the sparks could reach it : yet once the Experiment succeeded , and the kindled Powder seem'd to make a more expanded Flame than it would have done in the open Air , but mounted upwards according to its wont , whether by reason of that little portion of Air , which in spight of our pumping remained in the Receiver , or for any other cause , we have not now the leasure to consider . But we must not forget , that upon the extinction of the Flame the Receiver appear'd darken'd with smoke , which seem'd to move freely up and down , and upon the letting in the Air at the Stop-cock began to circulate much ●aster than before . We would have made more observations concerning this Flame , but that of two or three attempts we afterwards made to repeat the kindling of the Powder , not any one succeeded ; and we have not the leasure to dwell long upon one kind of Trials . EXPERIMENT XV. TO these Experiments concerning Fire we added another , which though it succeeded not , may perhaps without impertinency be recorded : partly , because that ( as we have in another Treatise amply declar'd ) it is usefull to recite what Experiments miscarry as well as succeed . And partly also , because it is very possible that what we endeavoured in vain , may be performed by Your Lordship , or some other Vertuoso that shall have stancher Tessels than we had , and more Sunny days than the present Winter allows us . We convey'd then into one of our small Receivers a piece of matter combustible , dry and black ( experience declaring things of that colour to be most easily kindled ) and carefully closing the Vessel , we brought it to a Window at which the Sun , not very far from the Meridian , shone in very freely : then drawing out the Air with speed we united the Sun beams with a Burning-glass upon the combustible matter , which began immediately to send forth a smoke that quickly darkned the Receiver , but notwithstanding all our care and diligence the external Air got in so fast , that after divers trials we were fain to leave off the Experiment in that Glass , and induc'd to make trial of it in our great Receiver . Having then after some difficulty lodg'd the combustible matter in the cavity of this Vessel in such manner , as that it was almost contiguous to that side thereof that was next the Sun , we did endeavour with a pretty large Burning-glass to kindle it , but found , as we fear'd , That , by reason of the thickness of the Glass , ( which was also of a less pure and less Diaphanous matter than the other ) the Sun-beams thrown in by the Burning-glass , were in their passage so dislocated and scattered ( not now to mention those many that being reflected , could not pierce into the cavity of the Receiver ) that we could not possibly unite enough of them to kindle the matter , nor so much as to make it sensibly smoke . Yet we hope that the seeing whether Bodies ( other than Gun-powder ) may be kindled , and what would happen to them when set on fire , in a place in great measure devoid of Air , may prove so Lucilerous an Experiment , that when the Season is more favourable we shall , God permitting , make farther trial of it , and acquaint your Lordship with the Event , if it prove prosperous . In the mean time we shall pass on to other Experiments , as soon as we have advertis'd Your Lordship that we have forborn to make such Reflexions upon the several Experiments we have set down concerning Fire , as the matter would have easily afforded , and Your Lordship may perhaps have expected . But I made the less scruple to forbear the annexing of Speculations to these Recitals , because Carneades and Eleutherius have in some Dialogues concerning Heat and Flame , ( which were last year seen by some Friends , and may be , when you please , commanded by You , ) mention'd divers of my Thoughts and Experiments concerning Fire , EXPERIMENT XVI . WE designed to try whether or no divers Magnetical Experiments would exhibit any unusual Phaenomena , being made in our Evacuated Receiver instead of the open Air : But for want of leasure and conveniency to prosecute such Trials , we were induced to reserve the rest for another time , and to content our selves with making that which follows . We convey'd into the Receiver a little Pedestal of Wood , in the midst of which was perpendicularly erected a slender Iron , upon whose sharp point an excited Needle of Steel purposely made , and of about five Inches long , was so placed , that hanging in an AEquilibrium it could move freely towards either hand . Then the Air being after the usual manner pumped out , we apply'd a Load-stone moderately vigorous to the outside of the Glass , and found that it attracted or repell'd the ends of the Needle , according to the Laws Magnetical , without any remarkable difference from what the same Load-stone would have done , had none of the Air been drawn away from about the Needle , which , when the Load-stone was removed , after some tremulous Vibrations to and fro , rested in a position , wherein it look'd North and South . EXPERIMENT XVII . PRoceed we now to the mention of that Experiment , whereof the satisfactory trial was the principal fruit I promis'd my self from our Engine , It being then fufficiently known , that , in the Experiment De Vacuo , the Quick-silver in the Tube is wont to remain elevated , above the surface of that whereon it leans , about 27 digits : I considered , that , if the true and only reason why the Quick-silver falls no lower , be , that at that Altitude , the Mercurial Cylinder in the Tube is in an AEquilibrium with the Cylinder of Air , suppos'd to reach from the adjacent Mercury to the top of the Atmosphere : then if this Experiment could be try'd out of the Atmosphere , the Quick-silver in the Tube would fall down to a level with that in the Vessel , since then there would be no pressure upon the subjacent , to resist the weight of the Incumbent Mercury . Whence I inferr'd ( as easily I might ) that if the Experiment could be try'd in our Engine , the Quick-silver would subside below 27 Digits , in proportion to the exsuction of Air , that should be made out of the Receiver . For , as when the Air is shut into the Receiver , it doth ( according to what hath above been taught ) continue there as strongly compress'd , as it did whilst all the incumbent Cylinder of the Atmosphere lean'd immediately upon it ; because the Glass , wherein it is pen'd up , hinders it to deliver it self , by an expansion of its parts , from the pressure wherewith it was shut up . So if we could perfectly draw the Air out of the Receiver , it would conduce as well to our purpose , as if we were allow'd to try the Experiment beyond the Atmosphere . Wherefore ( after having surmounted some little difficulties which occurr'd at the beginning ) the Experiment was made after this manner . We took a slender and very curiously blown Cylinder of Glass , of near three foot in length , and whose bore had in Diameter a quarter of an Inch , wanting a hairs breadth : This Pipe being Hermetically seal'd at one end , was , at the other , fill'd with Quick-silver , care being taken in the filling , that as few bubbles as was possible should be left in the Mercury : Then the Tube being stopt with the Finger and inverted , was open'd , according to the manner of the Experiment , into a somewhat long and slender Cylindrical Box ( instead of which we now are wont to use a Glass of the same form ) half fill'd with Quick-silver : And so , the liquid metal being suffered to subside , and a piece of Paper being pasted on level with its upper surface , the Box and Tube and all were by strings carefully let down into the Receiver : And then , by means of the hole formerly mentioned to be left in the Cover , the said Cover was slipt along as much of the Tube as reached above the top of the Receiver ; And the Interval , left betwixt the sides of the Hole and those of the Tube , was very exquisitely filled up with melted ( but not over hot ) Diachylon , and the round chink , betwixt the Cover and the Receiver , was likewise very carefully closed up : Upon which closure there appeared not any change in the height of the Mercurial Cylinder ; no more , than if the interposed Glass Receiver did not hinder the immediate pressure of the ambient Atmosphere upon the inclosed Air ; which hereby appears to bear upon the Mercury , rather by virtue of its spring than of its weight : since its weight cannot be supposed to amount to above two or three Ounces , which is inconsiderable in comparison of such a Cylinder of Mercury as it would keep from subsiding . All things : being thus in a readiness , the Sucker was drawn down ; and , immediately upon the egress of a Cylinder of Air out of the Receiver , the Quick silver in the Tube did , according to expectation , subside : And notice being carefully taken ( by a mark fastened to the outside ) of the place where it stopt , we caused him that managed the Pump to pump again , and marked how low the Quick-silver fell at the second exsuction ; but continuing this work , we were quickly hindred from accurately marking the Stages made by the Mercury in its descent , because it soon sunk below the top of the Receiver , so that we could henceforward mark it no other ways than by the eye . And thus , continuing the labour of pumping for about a quarter of an hour , we found our selves unable to bring the Quick-silver in the Tube totally to subside ; because , when the Receiver was considerably emptyed of its Air , and consequently that little that remained grown unable to resist the Irruption of the External , that Air would ( in spight of whatever we could doe ) press in at some little Avenue or other ; and though much could not thereat get in , yet a little was sufficient to counterballance the pressure of so small a Cylinder of Quick-silver , as then remained in the Tube . Now ( to satisfy our selves farther , that the falling of the Quick-silver in the Tube to a determinate height , proceedeth from the AEquilibrium , wherein it is at that height with the external Air , the one gravitating , the other pressing with equal force upon the subjacent Mercury ) we returned the Key and let in some new Air ; upon which the Mercury immediately began to ascend ( or rather to be impelled upwards ) in the Tube , and continued ascending , till having returned the Key , it immediately rested at the height which it had then attained : And so , by turning and returning the Key , we did several times at pleasure impell it upwards , and check its ascent . And lastly , having given a free egress at the Stop-cock to as much of the external Air as would come in , the Quick-silver was impelled up almost to its first height : I say almost , because it ftopt near a quarter of an Inch beneath the Paper mark formerly mentioned ; which we ascri●ed to this , That there was ( as is usual in this Experiment ) some little Particles of Air engaged among those of the Quick-silver ; which Particles , upon the descent of the Quick-silver , did manisestly rise up in bubbles towards the top of the Tube , and by their pressure , as well as by lessening the Cylinder by as much room as they formerly took up in it , hindred the Quick-silver from regaining its first height . This Experiment was a few days after repeated in the presence of those excellent and deservedly Famous Mathematick Professors , Dr. Wallis , Dr. Ward , and Mr. Wren , who were pleased to honour it with their Presence : And whom I name , both as justly counting it an Honour to be known to them , and as being glad of such Judicious and illustrious Witnesses of our Experiment ; and'twas by their guess , that the top of the Quick-silver in the Tube was defined to be brought within an Inch of the surface of that in the Vessel . And here , for the Illustration of the foregoing Experiment , it will not be amiss to mention some other particulars relating to it . First then , When we endeavoured to make the Experiment with the Tube closed at one end with Diachylon instead of an Hermetical Seal ; we perceived , that upon the drawing of some of the Air out of the Receiver , the Mercury did indeed begin to fall , but continued asterwards to subside , though we did not continue pumping . When it appeared , that though the Diachylon that stopt the end of the Tube , were so thick and strong , that the external Air could not press it in ( as experience taught us that it would have done , if there had been but little of it ) yet the subtler parts of it were able ( though slowly ) to insinuate themselves through the very body of the Plaister , which it seems was not of so close a Texture , as that which we mentioned our selves to have successfully made use of in the Experiment De Vacuo some years ago . So that now we begin to suspect , that perhaps one reason , why we cannot persectly pump out the Air , may be , that when the Vessel is almost empty , some of the subtler parts of the external Air may , by the pressure of the Atmosphere , be strained through the very body of the Diachylon into the Receiver . But this is only conjecture . Another Circumstance of our Experiment was this , That , if ( when the Quick-silver in the Tube was fallen low ) too much ingress were , at the hole of the Stop-cock , suddenly permitted to the external Air ; it would rush in with that violence , and bear so forcibly upon the surface of the subjacent Quick-silver , that it would impell it up into the Tube rudely enough to endanger the breaking of the Glass . We formerly mention'd , that the Quick-silver did not in its descent fall as much at a time after the two or three first exsuctions of the Air , as at the beginning . For , having marked its several Stages upon the Tube , we found , that at the first suck it descended an Inch and ⅜ , and at the second an Inch and ⅜ ; and when the Vessel was almost emptied , it would scarce at one exsuction be drawn down above the breadth of a Barly-corn . And indeed we found it very difficult to measure in what proportion these decrements of the Mercurial Cylinder did proceed : Partly because ( as we have already intimated ) the Quick-silver wassoon drawn below the top of the Receiver ; and partly because , upon its descent at each exsuction , it would immediately re-ascend a little upwards ; either by reason of the leaking of the Vessel at some imperceptible hole or other , or by reason of the motion of restitution in the Air , which , being somewhat compresled by the fall as well as weight of the Quick-silver , would repell it a little upwards , and make it vibrate a little up and down , before they could reduce each other to such an AEquilibrium as both might rest in . But though we could not hitherto make observations accurate enough concerning the measures of the Quick-silver's descent , to reduce them into any Hypothesis , yet would we not discourage any from attempting it ; since , if it could be reduc'd to a certainty , 't is probable that the discovery would not be unusefull . And , to illustrate this matter a little more , we will add , That we made a shift to try the Experiment in one of our above-mention'd small Receivers , not containing a Quart ; but ( agreeably to what we formerly observed ) we found it as difficult to bring this to be quite empty as to evacuate the greater ; the least external Air that could get in ( and we could not possibly keep it all perfectly out ) sufficing in so small a Vessel to display a considerable pressure upon the surface of the Mercury , and thereby hinder that in the Tube from falling to a level with it . But this is remarkable , that having two or three times try'd the Experiment in a small Vessel , upon the very first Cylinder of Air that was drawn out of the Receiver , the Mercury fell in the Tube 18 Inches and a half , and at another trial 19 Inches and a half . But on this occasion , I hold it not unfit to give your Lordship notice that I hop'd from the descent of the Quick-silver in the Tube upon the first suck , to derive this advantage : that I should thence be enabled to give a near guess at the proportion of force betwixt the pressure of the Air ( according to its various states , as to Density and Rarefraction ) and the gravity of Quick-silver , than hitherto hath been done . For in our Experiment there are divers things given , that may be made use of towards such a discovery . For first we may know the capacity of the Receiver wherein the Experiment is made , since , by filling it with water , we may easily compute how many Quarts , or Measures of any other denomination , it containeth of Air ; which Air , when shut up in the Vessel may be suppos'd to have a pressure equal to that of the Atmosphere ; since it is able to keep the Quick-silver in the Tube from falling any lower than it did in the free and open Air. Next here is given us the capacity of the brass Cylinder empty'd by the drawing down of the Sucker ( its bore and height being mention'd in the description of our Pump ) whereby we may come to know how much of the Air contain'd in the Receiver is drawn out at the first-suck . And we may also easily define , either in weight or cubick measures , the Cylinder of Quick silver that answers to the Cylinder of Air lately mention'd ( that Mercurial Cylinder being in our Engine computable by deducting from the entire altitude of that Cylinder of Quick-silver , the altitude at which it rests upon the first exsuction . ) But though , if this Experiment were very watchfully try'd in Vessels of several sizes , and the various descents of the Quick-silver compar'd among themselves , 't is not improbable , that some such things , as we hop'd for , may thereby be discovered . Yet because not only the solid contents of as much of the Glass-tube as remains within the concave surface of the Receiver , and ( which is more difficult ) the varying contents of the Vessel containing the Mercury , and of as much of the Mercury it self as is not in the Tube , must be deducted out of the capacity of the Receiver , but there must also an allowance be made for this , that the Cylinder that is empty'd by the drawing down of the Sucker , and comes to be fill'd upon the letting of the Air out of the Receiver into it , is not so replenish'd with Air as the Receiver it self at first was : because there passeth no more Air out of the Receiver into the Cylinder , than is requisite to reduce the Air in the cavity of the Cylinder , and in that of the Receiver to the same measure of dilatation . Because of these ( I say ) and some other difficulties that require more skill in Mathematicks than I pretend to , and much more leasure than my present occasions would allow me , I was willing to refer the nicer consideration of this matter to some of our Learned and accurate Mathematicians , thinking it enough for me to have given the Hint already suggested . For farther confirmation of what hath been delivered , we likewise tried the Experiment in a Tube of less than two foot long : and , when there was so much Air drawn out of the Vessel , that the remaining Air was not able to counterballance the Mercurial Cylinder , the Quick-silver in the Tube subsided so visibly , that ( the Experiment being try'd in the little Vessel lately mention'd ) at the first suck it fell above a span , and was afterwards drawn lower and lower for a little while ; and the external Air being let in upon it , impell'd it up again almost to the top of the Tube : So little matters it how heavy or light the Cylinder of Quicksilver to subside is , provided its gravity overpower the pressure of as much external Air as bears upon the surface of that Mercury into which it is to fall . Lastly we also observ'd , That if ( when the Mercury in the Tube had been drawn down , and by an Ingress permitted to the external Air , impell'd up again to its former height ) there were some more Air thrust up by the help of the Pump into the Receiver , the Quick-silver in the Tube would ascend much above the wonted height of 27 digits , and immediately upon the letting out of that Air would fall again to the height it rested at before . Your Lordship will here perhaps expect , that as those who have treated of the Torricellian Experiment , have for the most part maintained the Affirmative , or the Negative of that famous Question , Whether or no that Noble Experiment infer a Vacuum ? so I should on this occasion interpose my Opinion touching that Controversie , or at least declare whether or no , in our Engine , the exsuction of the Air do prove the place deserted by the Air suck'd out , to be truly empty , that is , devoid of all Corporeal Substance . But besides , that I have neither the leasure , nor the ability , to enter into a solemn Debate of so nice a Question ; Your Lordship may , if you think it worth the trouble , in the Dialogues not long since referr'd to , find the Difficulties on both sides represented ; which then made me yield but a very wavering assent to either of the parties contending about the Question : Nor dare I yet take upon me to determine so difficult a Controversie . For on the one side it appears , that notwithstanding the exsuction of the Air , our Receiver may not be destitute of all Bodies , since any thing placed in it , may be seen there ; which would not be , if it were not pervious to those beams of Light which rebounding from the seen Object to our eyes , affect us with the sense of it : And that either these Beams are Corporeal Emanations from some lucid body , or else at least , the light they convey doth result from the brisk motion of some subtle Matter , I could , if I mistake not , sufficiently manifest out of the Dialogues above-mention'd , if I thought Your Lordship could seriously imagine that Light could be convey'd without , at least , having , ( if I may so speak ) a Body for its Vehicle . By the sixteenth Experiment , it also appears that the closeness of our Receiver hinders it not from admitting the Effluvia of the Load-stone ; which makes it very probable that it also freely admits the Magnetical steams of the Earth ; concerning which , we have in another Treatise endeavour'd to manifest that numbers of them do always permeate our Air. But on the other side it may be said , That as for the subtle Matter which makes the-Objects enclosed in our evacuated Receiver , visible , and the Magnetical Effluvia of the Earth that may be presum'd to pass thorow it , though we should grant our Vessel not to be quite devoid of them , yet we cannot so reasonably affirm it to be replenish'd with them , as we may suppose , that if they were gather'd together into one place without Intervals between them , they would fill but a small part of the whole Receiver . As in the thirteenth Experiment , a piece of Match was inconsiderable for its bulk , whilst its parts lay close together , that afterwards ( when the Fire had scatter'd them into smoke ) seem'd to replenish all the Vessel . For ( as elsewhere our Experiments have demonstrated ) both Light and the Effluvia of the Load-stone , may be readily admitted into a Glass , Hermatically seal'd , though before their Admission , as full of Air as hollow Bodies here below are wont to be ; so that upon the exsuction of the Air , the large space deserted by it , may remain empty , notwithstanding the pretence of those subtle Corpuscles , by which Lucid and Magnetical Bodies produce their effects . And as for the Allegations above mention'd , they seem'd to prove but that the Receiver devoid of Air , may be replenish'd with some Etherial matter , as some Modern Naturalists write of but not that it really is so . And indeed to me it yet seems , that as to those spaces which the Vacuists would have to be empty , because they are manifestly devoid of Air ; and all grosser Bodies the Plenists ( if I may so call them ) do not prove that such spaces are replenish'd with such a subtle matter as they speak of , by any sensible effects , or operations of it ( of which divers new Trials purposely made , have not yet shewn me any ) but only conclude that there must be such a Body , because there cannot be a Void . And the reason why there cannot be a Void , being by them taken , not from any Experiments , or Phaenomena of Nature , that clearly and particularly prove their Hypothesis , but from their notion of a Body , whose Nature , according to them , consisting only in extension ( which indeed seems the property most essential to , because inseparable from a Body ) to say a space devoid of Body , is to speak in the Schoolmens Phrase , a Contradiction in Adjecto . This reason I say , being thus desum'd , seems to make the Controversie about a Vacuum , rather a Metaphysical , than a Physiological Question ; which therefore we shall here no longer debate , finding it very difficult either to satisfie Naturalists with this Cartesian Notion of a Body , or to manifest wherein it is erroneous , and substitute a better in its stead . But though we are unwilling to examine any farther the Inferences wont to be made from the Torricellian Experiment , yet we think it not impertinent to present Your Lordship with a couple of Advertisements concerning it . First , then if in trying the Experiment here or elsewhere , you make use of the English measures that Mathematicians and Tradesmen are here wont to employ , You will , unless you be forewarn'd of it , be apt to suspect that those that have written of the Experiment have been mistaken . For whereas men are wont generally to talk of the Quick-silver's remaining suspended at the height of between six or seven and twenty Inches ; we commonly observed , when divers years since we first were solicitous about this Experiment , that the Quick-silver in the Tube rested at about 29 Inches and a half above the surface of the Restagnant Quick-silver in the Vessel , which did at first both amaze and perplex us , because though we held it not improbable that the difference of the grosser English Air , and that of Italy and France , might keep the Quick-silver from falling quite as low in this colder , as in those warmer Climates ; yet we could not believe that that difference in the Air should alone be able to make so great an one in the heights of the Mercurial Cylinders ; and accordingly upon enquiry we found , that though the various density of the Air be not to be over-looked in this Experiment , yet the main Reason why we found the Cylinder of Mercury to consist of so many Inches , was this , That our English Inches are somewhat inferiour in length to the digits made use of in Foreign Parts , by the Writers of the Experiment . The next thing I desire Your Lordship to take notice of , is , That the height of the Mercurial Cylinder is not wont to be found altogether so great as really it might prove , by reason of the negligence or incogitancy of most that make the Experiment . For oftentimes upon the opening of the inverted Tube into the Vessel'd Mercury , you may observe a bubble of Air to ascend from the bottom of the Tube through the subsiding Quick-silver to the top ; and almost always you may , if you look narrowly , take notice of a multitude of small bubbles all along the inside of the Tube betwixt the Quick-silver and the Glass : ( not now to mention the Particles of Air that lie concealed in the very Body of the Mercury ) Many of which , upon the Quick-silver's forsaking the upper part of the Tube , do break into that deserted space where they find little or no resistance to their expanding of themselves . Whether this be the reason that upon the Application of warm Bodies to the emptied part of the Tube , the subjacent Mercury would be depressed somewhat lower , we shall not determine ; though it seem very probable , especially since we found , that , upon the application of Linnen cloaths dipped in Water , to the same part of the Tube , the Quick-silver would somewhat ascend ; as if the cold had condensed the imprisoned Air , ( that pressed upon it , ) into a lesser room . But that the deserted space is not wont to be totally devoid of Air , we were induced to think by several Circumstances . For when an eminent Mathematician , and excellent Experimenter , had taken great pains and spent much time in accurately filling up a Tube of Mercury , we found that yet there remained store of inconspicuous bubbles , by inverting the Tube , letting the Quick-silver fall to its wonted height ; and by applying ( by degrees ) a red hot Iron to the outside of the Tube , over against the upper part of the Mercurial Cylinder , ( for hereby the little unheeded bubbles , being mightily expanded , ascended in such numbers , and so fast to the deserted space , that the upper part of the Quick-silver seemed , to our wonder , to boil . ) We farther observed , That in the trials of the Torricellian Experiment we have seen made by others , and ( one excepted ) all our own , we never found that upon the inclining of the Tube the Quick-silver would fully reach to the very top of the sealed end : Which argued , that there was some Air retreated thither that kept the Mercury out of the unreplenished space . If Your Lordship should now demand what are the best expedients to hinder the intrusion of the Air in this Experiment ; we must answer , That of those which are easily intelligible without ocular demonstration , we can at present suggest , upon our own trials , no better than these . First , at the open end of the Tube the Glass must not only be made as even at the edges as you can , but it is very convenient ( especially if the Tube be large ) that the bottom be every way bent inwards , that so the Orifice , not much exceeding a quarter of an Inch in Diameter , may be the more easily and exactly stopped by the Experimenter's finger ; between which and the Quick-silver , that there may be no Air intercepted ( as very often it happens that there is ) it is requisite that the Tube be filled as full as possibly it can be , that the finger which is to stop it , pressing upon the accumulated and protuberant Mercury , may rather throw down some , than not find enough exactly to keep out the Air. It is also an usefull and compendious way not to fill the Tube at first quite of Mercury , but to leave near the top about a quarter of an Inch empty ; for if you then stop the open end with your finger , and invert the Tube , that quarter of an Inch of Air will ascend in a great bubble to the top , and in its passage thither , will gather up all the little bubbles , and unite them with it self into one great one ; so that if by reinverting the Tube , you let that bubble return to the open end of it , you will have a much closer Mercurial Cylinder than before , and need but to add a very little Quick-silver more to fill up the Tube exactly . And lastly , as for those lesser and inconspicuous parcels of Air which cannot this way begleaned up , You may endeavour before you invert the Tube , to free the Quick-silver from them by shaking the Tube , and gently knocking on the outside of it , after every little parcel of Quick-silver which you pour in ; and afterwards , by forcing the small latitant bubbles of Air to disclose themselves and break , by imploying a hot Iron in such manner as we lately mentioned . I remember that by carefully filling the Tube , though yet it were not quite free from Air , we have made the Mercurial Cylinder reach to 30 Inches and above an eight , and this in a very short Tube : which we therefore mention , because we have found , by Experience , that in short Tubes a little Air is more prejudicial to the Experiment than in long ones , where the Air having more room to expand it self , doth less potently press upon the subjacent Mercury . And since we are fallen upon the consideration of the Altitude of the Mercurial Cylinder , I must not conceal from Your Lordship an Experiment relating thereunto , which perhaps will set both You and many of your Friends the Vertuosi on thinking ; and , by disclosing some things about the Air or Atmosphere , that have scarce hitherto been taken notice of , may afford you some hints conducive to a further discovery of the subject of this Epistle . EXPERIMENT XVIII . WE took a Glass Tube , which though it were not much above three Foot long , we made choice of , because it was of a more than ordinarily even thickness . This we fill'd with Mercury , though not with as much care as we could , yet with somewhat more than is wont to be used in making the Torricellian Experiment . Then , having according to the manner inverted the Tube , and open'd the mouth of it beneath the surface of some other Quick-silver , that in the Tube fell down to the wonted height , leaving , as is usual , some little Particles of Air in the space it deserted , as we guest by observing , that upon the Application of hot Bodies to the upper part of the Tube , the Quicksilver would be a little depress'd . Lastly , having put both the Tube and the Vessel it lean'd on into a convenient Wooden frame to keep them from mischances : we plac'd that Frame in a Window within my Bed-chamber , that I might both keep the Mercury from being stirr'd , and have opportunity to watch from time to time the Phaenomena it was to exhibit . For the better discovery of which , when the Quick-silver both in the Tube and subjacent Vessel was perfectly at rest , we took notice , by a mark made on the outside of the Glass , how high the included Liquor then reach'd . During several Weeks that the Tube was kept in that Windown ( which was very rarely open'd ) I had the opportunity to observe , that the Quick-silver did sometimes faintly imitate the Liquor of a Weather-glass , subsiding a little in warm , and rising a little in cold Weather , which we ascribed to the greater or lesser pressure of that little Air that remain'd at the top of the Tube , expanded or condens'd by the heat or cold that affected the ambient Air. But that which I was chiefly carefull to observe , was this , That oftentimes the Quick-silver did rise and fall in the Tube , and that very notably , without conforming it self to what is usual in Weather-glasses , whose Air is at the top , nay quite contrary thereunto : for sometimes I observ'd it in very cold weather ( such as this Winter hath already afforded us good store of ) to fall down much lower than at other times , when by reason of the absence of both Frost , Snow , and sharp Winds , the Air was comparatively much warmer . And I farther observ'd , That sometimes the Quick-silver would for some days together rest almost at the same height ; and at other times again it would in the compass of the same day considerably vary its altitude , though there appear'd no change either in the Air abroad , or in the temper of the Air within the Room ( wherein was constantly kept a good Fire ) nor in any thing else , to which either I , or some eminently Learned Men , whom I then acquainted with the Experiment , could reasonably impute such a change : Especially considering that the space wherein the Mercury wandred up and down , within about five Weeks , amounted to full two Inches , of which we found by our several marks whereby we had taken notice of its several removes , that it had descended about 9 / 16 of an Inch from the place where it first setled , and the other Inch and 7 / 16 it had ascended . And it seems probable that the height of the Mercurial Cylinder would have varied yet more , if the Experiment had been made in the open Air , and in a long Tube , where the Particles of the imprison'd Air by having more room to display themselves in , might not have had so strong a Spring to work upon the Quick-silver with . But for want both of time and of a competent quantity of Mercury ( which was not to be procur'd where we then happen'd to be ) we were unable to make any farther tryals : which therefore chiefly troubled us , because we would gladly have try'd an ingenious Experiment which was suggested unto us by that excellent Mathematician Mr. Wren , who being invited to name any thing he would have us try touching the pressure of the Air , desired us to observe whether or no the Quick-silver in a long Tube would not a little vary its height according to the Tides , especially about the New and Full Moon ; about which times Mariners observe those great Flowings and Ebbs of the Sea , that they call the Spring-Tides . For he sagaciously and plausibly conjectur'd that such observations , accurately made , would discover the truth or erroneousness of the Cartesian Hypothesis concerning the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea : which Des Cartes ascribeth to the greater pressure made upon the Air by the Moon , and the Intercurrent Ethereal Substance at certain times ( of the Day , and of the Lunary Month ) than at others . But in regard we found the Quick-silver in the Tube to move up and down so uncertainly , by reason , as it seems , of accidental mutation in the Air ; I somewhat doubt : whether we shall find the Altitude of the Quick-silver to vary as regularly as the Experiment is ingeniously propos'd . The success we shall ( God permitting us to make tryal of it ) acquaint your Lordship with ; and in the mean time take notice , that when we had occasion to take the Tube out of the Frame ( after it had staid there part of November and part of December ) a good Fire being then in the room , because it was a Snowy day , we found the Quick-silver in the Tube to be above the upper surface of the subjacent Mercury 29 Inches three quarters . If Your Lordship should now aske me what are the true causes of this varying altitude of the Mercurial Cylinder ; I should not undertake to answer so difficult a question , and should venture to say no more , than that among divers possible causes to which it may be ascribed , it would not be , perhaps , absurd to reckon these that follow . First then we may consider , that the Air in the upper part of the Tube is much more rarefied , and therefore more weak than the External Air , as may appear by this among other things , That upon the inclining of the Tube , the Quick-silver will readily ascend almost to the very top of it , and so take up eight or nine tenth parts , and perhaps more of that space which it deserted before : which would not happen , if that whole space had been full of unrarefied Air , since that ( as tryal may easily satisfie you ) would not have suffer'd it self to be thrust into so narrow a room by so weak a pressure . So that although in our Tube when the included Air , was heated , the Quick-silver was somewhat depress'd ; yet there is this difference betwixt such a Tube and common Weather-Glasses , that in these the included and the ambient Air are in an AEquilibrium as to pressure , and the weight of the Water that keeps them separate is scarce considerable . Whereas in such a Tube as we are speaking of , the Air within , is very much more dilated than that without . And 't is not so much the spring or resistance of the included Air , as the weight of the Mercurial Cylinder it self , that hinders the Quick-silver from ascending higher : For if we should suppose that deserted part of the Tube perfectly devoid of Air , yet would the Quick-silver rise but a little higher in it , and be far from filling it ; in regard the outward Air would not be able to impell up such a weight much higher : whereas it may , by our former Experiments appear , that if all the Air in the upper part of the Weather-Glass were away , the Water would be impell'd up to the very top of it , though the Pipe were above thirty foot long . We may next consider , that this rarefied : Air at the upper part of our Tube being exactly shut up betwixt the Glass and the Quick-silver , it was scarce subject to any discernable alterations , save those it receiv'd from heat and cold . And we may farther consider , that yet the external Air or Atmosphere is subject to many alterations , besides them that proceed from either of those Qualities . For the Experiment that occasion'd this Discourse , seems to make it probable enough , that there may be strange Ebbings and Flowings , as it were , in the Atmosphere , or at least , that it may admit great and sudden Mutations , either as to its Altitude or its Density , from causes , as well unknown to us , as the effects are unheeded by us . And that You may not think that there is nothing in Nature but our Experiment that agrees with this our conjecture , we might put Your Lordship in mind of the Pains and Aches that are often complain'd of by those that have had great Wounds or Bruises , and that do presage great Mutations in the Air oftentimes , whilst to strong and healthy Persons no sign of any such thing appears . And that is also very memorable to this purpose , which I remember I have somewhere read in a Book of the Ingenious Kircherus , who giving a pertinent admonition concerning the various refractions that may happen in the Air , relateth , That during his stay in Malta , he often saw Mount AEtna , though the next day , notwithstanding its being extremely clear , he could not see it ; adding , that Vintemillius , a very Learned Person , did oftentimes , from a Hill he names , behold the whole Island he calls Luprica protuberant above the Sea , though at other times , notwithstanding a clear Sky , he could not see it . And though perhaps this may be in part ascribed to the various light and position of the Sun , or to the various disposition of the Spectators eye , or peradventure to some other cause ; yet the most probable cause seems to be the differing Density of the Air , occasion'd by Exhalations capable to increase the refraction , and consequently bring Beams to the Eye , which otherwise would not fall on it . We have likewise , in another Treatise , mention'd our having often observ'd with Telescopes a plenty of Steams in the Air , which without such a help would not be taken notice of , and which , as they were not at all times to be seen even through a Telescope , so they did sometimes , especially after a shower of Rain , hastily disappear : and when we have visited those places that abound with Mines , we have several times been told by the Diggers , that even when the Sky seem'd clear , there would , not seldome , suddenly arise , and sometimes long continue , a certain Steam ( which they usually call a damp ) so gross and thick that it would oftentimes put out their very Candels , if they did not seasonably prevent it . And I think it will easily be granted , that the ascension of such Steams into this or that part of the Air , and their mixing with it , are very like to thicken it ; as on the other side either heat or the sudden condensation of the Air in another part of the Atmosphere ( to mention now no other causes ) are capable of rarefying it . Nor will it very much import the main scope of our Discourse , whether it be suppos'd that the copious Steams the earth sends into the Air , thicken that part of the Atmosphere that receives them , and make it more heavy : Or that sometimes the Fumes may ascend with such celerity , that though the Air be thickn'd yet they rather diminish than encrease its gravitation , in regard that the quickness of their ascent , not onely keeps them from gravitating themselves , but may hinder the pressing downwards of many Aërial Corpuscles that they meet with in their way upwards . This I say , is of no great importance to our present Discourse , since either way the Terrestrial Steam may here and there considerably alter the gravity or pressure of the Atmosphere . Your Lordship may also be pleased to remember , That by our seventeenth Experiment it appear'd , that , as when the Air in the Receiver was expanded more than ordinarily , the Quick-silver in the Tube did proportionably subside ; so when the Air in the same Receiver was a little more than ordinarily compress'd , it did impell up the Quick-silver in the Tube , above the wonted height of betwixt six and seven and twenty digits . And if to these things we annex , that for ought we can find by tryals purposely made , the degree of rarity or density of the Air , shut up into our Receiver , doth not sensibly alter its temperature as to cold or heat . It will not , I hope , appear absurd to conceive , That since the Air , included in the Tube , could but very saintly hinder the ascent of the Quick-silver , or press it downwards ; Since too , that included Air could scarce immediately receive any sensible alteration , save either by heat or cold ; And since also , that according to the bare density or rarity of the Air incumbent on the subjacent Quick-silver in the Vessel , that in the Tube was impell'd more or less high ; such changes happening in the neighbouring part of the outward Air , either by the ascension of gross or copious exhalations , or by any other cause ( of which there may be divers ) as were capable to make considerable alterations in the consistence of the Air , as to rarity and density , may be able proportionably to alter the height of the Quick-silver . I rather say , that such alterations may be , than that they are the causes of our Phaenomenon : because I think it sufficient , if I have propos'd conjectures not altogether irrational about a new Mystery of Nature , touching which , the chief things I pretend to , is to give occasion to the Curious to enquire farther into it , than I have been yet able to do . EXPERIMENT XIX . THe same Reason that mov'd us to conclude , that by the drawing of the Air out of the Receiver , the Mercury would descend in a Tube shorter than six and twenty digits , induc'd us also to expect , that by the same means Water might be brought to subside in Glass Tubes of a moderate length : Though by the noble Experiment , said to have been accurately made in France , by Monsieur Paschal , we are informed that a Tube of no less than about two and thirty Foot ; was found requisite to make the Experiment De vacuo succeed with Water instead of Quick-silver : so tall a Cylinder of that lighter Liquor , being it seems , requisite to equal the Weight of a Mercurial Cylinder of six or seven and twenty digits , and surmount the pressure of the Atmosphere . We took then a Tube of Glass , Hermetically seal'd at one end , of about four foot in length , and not very slender : This , at the open end , we fill'd with common Water , and then stopt that end till we had inverted the Tube , and open'd it beneath the surface of a quantity of the like Water , contain'd in a somewhat deep and slender Vessel . This Vessel , with the Tube in it , was let down into the Receiver , and the Receiver being clos'd up after the accustom'd manner , the Pump was set on work . As much of the event as concerns our present purpose , was this , That till a considerable part of the Air was drawn out of the Receiver , the Tube continu'd top-full of Water as when it was put in , it being requisite that a great part of the Air , formerly contain'd in the Receiver , should be drawn out , to bring the remaining Air to an AEquilibrium , with so short and light a Cylinder of Water . But when once the Water began to fall in the Tube , then each exsuction of Air made it descend a little lower , though nothing near so much as the Quick-silver at the beginning did in the Experiment formerly mention'd . Nor did there appear so much inequality in the spaces transmitted by the Water in its descent , as there it did in those observ'd in the fall of the Quick-silver , of which the cause will scarce seem abstruse to him that shall duly reflect upon what hath been already deliver'd . And whereas we drew down the Quick-silver in the Tube so far as to bring it within an Inch of the surface of the other Quick-silver into which it was to fall ; the lowest we were able to draw down the Water was , by our conjecture , to about a Foot or more above the surface of that in the Vessel ; of which I know not whether it will be needfull to assign so obvious a cause as that , though the little Air remaining in the Receiver could not hinder a Cylinder of above on Inch high of Quick-silver from subsiding ; yet it might be very well able , by its pressure , to countervail the weight of a Cylinder of a Foot long or more , of a Liquor so much less ponderous than Quick-silver , as Water is . And in fine , to conclude our Experiment , when the Water was drawn down thus low , we found , that by letting in the outward Air , it might be immediately impell'd up again to the higher parts of the Tube . We will adde no more concerning this Experiment , save that having try'd it in one of our small Receivers , we observ'd , That upon the first exsuction of the Air the Water did usually subside divers Inches , and at the second ( exsuction ) fall down much lower , subsiding sometimes near two Foot ; as also that upon the letting in of the Air from without , the Water was impell'd up with very great celerity . EXPERIMENT XX. THat the Air hath a notable Elastical power ( whencesoever that proceeds ) we have , I suppose , abundantly evinc'd , and it Begins to be acknowledg'd by the eminentest Modern Naturalists . But whether or no there be in Water so much as a languid one , seems hitherto to have been scarce consider'd nor hath been yet , for ought I know , determin'd either way by any Writer , which invited us to make the following Experiment . There was taken a great Glass bubble , with a long neck ; ( such as Chymists are wont to call a Philosophical Egge ) which being fill'd with common Water till the Liquor reach'd about a span above the bubble , and a piece of Paper being there pasted on , was put unstop'd into the Receiver , and then the Air was suck'd out after the wonted manner . The event was this , that a considerable part of the Air , pen'd up in the Receiver , was drawn out , before we discern'd any expansion of the Water ; but , continuing the labour of pumping , the Water manifestly began to ascend in the stem of the Glass , and divers bubbles loosening themselves from the lower parts of the Vessel , made their way through the Body of the Water , to the top of it , and there brake into the Receiver : And after the Water once appear'd to swell , then at each time the Stop cock was turn'd to let out the Air from the Receiver into the Pump , the Water in the Neck of the Glass did suddenly rise about the breadth of a Barly-corn in the Neck of the Glass and so attain'd by degrees , to a considerable height above the mark formerly mention'd . And at length ( to make the expansion of the Water more evident ) the outward Air was suddenly let in , and the Water immediately subsided and deserted all the space it had newly gain'd in the Glass . And , on this occasion , it will not perhaps be amiss to acquaint Your Lordship here ( though we have already mention'd it in another Paper , to another purpose ) with another Expedient that we made use of two or three years ago , to try whether or no Water had a Spring in it . About that time then , That Great and Learned Promoter of Experimental Philosophy Dr. Wilkins , doing me the Honour to come himself , and bring some of his inquisitive Friends to my Lodging , we there had in readiness a round and hollow Vessel of Pewter , great enough to contain two pounds of Water , and exactly close every where , but at one little hole where it was to be fill'd , then partly by sucking out the Air , and partly by injecting Water with a Syringe , it was ( not without some difficulty ) fill'd up to the top ; and that hole being plac'd directly upwards , there was a little more Water leisurely forc'd in by the Syringe . Upon which , though the Vessel were permitted to rest , and the hole kept in its former posture , yet the compress'd Water leisurely swell'd above the Orifice of the hole , and divers drops ran over along the sides of the Vessel . After this we caus'd a skilfull Pewterer ( who had made the Globe ) to close it up in our presence with Soder so exquisitely , that none suspected there was any thing left in it besides Water . And lastly , the Vessel thus soder'd up , was warily and often struck in divers places with a Wooden Mallet , and thereby was manifestly compress'd , whereby the inclosed Water was crouded into less room than it had before : And thereupon we took a Needle , and with it and the Mallet perforated the Vessel , and drew out the Needle again ; the Water ( but in a very slender Stream ) was suddenly thrown after it into the Air , to the height of two or three Feet . As for the other Phaenomena of this Experiment , since they belong not to our present purpose , and are partly mention'd in another of our Papers , we shall , instead of recording them here , give this Advertisement : That as evidently as this Experiment , and that made in our Receiver , seem to prove a power in the Water to expand and restore it self after compression ; yet for a reason to be met with ere long , I judged it not safe , to infer that Conclusion from these Premises , till I had made some of the following tryals , to the mention of which I will therefore hasten . EXPERIMENT XXI . TO discover whether the Expansion of the Water really proceeded from an Elastical power in the parts of the Water it self , we thought it requisite to try two things : The one , Whether or no the Atmosphere gravitates upon Bodies under Water ; and the other , Whether in case it do gravitate , the Intumescence of the Water may not be ascribed to some substance subtler than it self , residing in it . In order to the satisfying myself about the first of these , I intended to let down into the Receiver a Vessel of Water , wherein should be immers'd a very small oyl'd Bladder , almost devoid of Air , but strongly ty'd up at the Neck with a string , and detain'd a little under Water by such a weight fasten'd to that string , as should just be able to keep the Bladder from swimming , and no more . For I suppos'd , that if when all things were thus order'd , the Receiver were empty'd , in case there were any such pressure of the Atmosphere upon Water , as I was inclin'd to believe , the Air within the Bladder , being upon the exsuction of the Air within the Receiver , freed from that pressure , and being press'd onely by the small weight of the incumbent Water , would considerably expand it self ; but whilst we were preparing Bladders for this Experiment , there occurr'd an easie way for the making at once both the Discoveries I desir'd . We took then a Glass Viol , containing by ghess a pound and some ounces of Water , this we fill'd top full , and then we put into the Neck of it a Glass Pipe a pretty deal bigger than a Goose Quill , open at both ends , and of divers Inches in length : One end of this Pipe was so put into the Neck of the Viol , as to reach a little below it , and then was carefully cemented thereto that no Air might get into the Viol , nor any Water get out of it , otherwise than through the Pipe ; and then the Pipe being warily fill'd , about half way up to the top , with more Water , and a mark being pasted over aganst the upper surface of the Liquor ; the Viol thus fitted with the Pipe , was , by strings let down into the Receiver , and according to the wonted manner exquisitely clos'd up in it . This done , we began to pump out the Air , and when a pretty quantity of it had been drawn away , the Water in the Pipe began to rise higher in the Pipe , at the sides of which some little bubbles discover'd themselves . After a little while longer , the Water still swelling , there appear'd at the bottom of the Pipe a bubble about the bigness of a small Pea , which ascending through the Pipe to the top of the Water , stay'd there a while and then broke ; but the Pump being nimbly ply'd , the expansion of the Water so encreas'd , that quickly , getting up to the top of the Pipe , some drops of it began to run down along the out-side of it , which oblig'd us to forbear pumping a while , and give the Water leave to subside within less than two Inches of the bottom of the Pipe. After this the Pump being again set on work , the bubbles began to ascend from the bottom of the Pipe , being not all of a size , but yet so big , that estimating one with another , they appear'd to be of the size of the smaller sort of Peas ; and of these we reckon'd about sixty which came up one after another , besides store of smaller ones , of which we made no reckoning : And at length , growing weary of reckoning and pumping too ( because we found , that in spight of all our pains and industry , some undiscern'd Leak or other in the Receiver hinder'd us from being able to empty it altogether ) we thought fit to desist for that time , after tryal made of what operation the external Air , being let in upon the expanded Water , would have ; and accordingly turning the Key to let in the Air , we saw , as we expected , that the Water in the Pipe in a moment fell down almost to the bottom of it . Now of this Experiment there are two or three Circumstances yet to be mention'd , which are no less , than those already recited , pertinent to our present purpose . In the first place then , when the greater part of the Air had been pump'd out of the Receiver , the rising bubbles ascended so very slowly in the Pipe , that their Progress was scarce discernable ; which seem'd to proceed from this , That their bigness was such , That they could not sufficiently extend themselves in the cavity of the Glass , without pressing on both hands against the sides of it , whereby they became of more difficult extrusion to the Water . And though it may seem strange that these bubbles should be of any considerable bulk , since 't is like they consisted of lesser parcels of the Air lurking in the Water , than those that were vigorous enough to make their way through , long before them : yet they were commonly much larger than before , some of them being equal in quantity to four or five Peas : whether this their increase of bulk proceeded from the greater decrement of the pressure of the Air , or from the Union of two or three of those numerous bubbles which were then generated below the bottom of the Pipe , where we could not see what was done among them . Another thing we noted in our bubbles was , That whereas in ordinary ones the Air , together with the thin film of Water that invests and detains it , is wont to swell above the surface of the Water it swims on , and commonly to constitute Hemispherical Bodies with it , the little parcels of Air that came up after the Receiver was pretty well empty'd , did not make protuberant bubbles , but such whose upper surface was either level with , or beneath that of the Water , so that the upper surface being usually somewhat convex , the less protuberant parts of it had a pretty quantity of Water remaining above them . We also farther observ'd , that whereas in the bubbles that first appear'd in the Pipe , the ascending Air did , as in other common bubbles , make its way upwards , by dividing the Water through which it pass'd , in those bubbles that appear'd at the latter end of our Experiment , when the pressure of the little external Air , remaining in the Receiver , was grown inconsiderable , the ascending parcels of Air having how little more than the weight of the incumbent Water to surmount , were able both so to expand themselves as to fill up that part of the Pipe which they pervaded , and by pressing every way against the sides of it , to lift upwards with them what Water they found above them , without letting any considerable quantity glide down along the sides of the Glass ; So that sometimes we could see a bubble thrust on before it a whole Cylinder of Water of perhaps an Inch high , and carry it up to the top of the Pipe ; though as we formerly noted , upon the letting in the external Air , these tumid bubbles suddenly relaps'd to their former inconspicuousness . All these things laid together seem'd sufficiently to confirm that , which the consideration of the thing it self would easily enough perswade , namely , That the Air , and such like Bodies being under Water , may be press'd upon as well by the Atmosphere , as by the weight of the incumbent Water it self . Hence likewise we may verify what we observ'd at the close of the foregoing Experiment , namely , That from the sole swelling of Water there recorded , it cannot be so safely concluded , that Water , when freed from compression , is endow'd with an Elastical power of expanding it self : since thereby it appears that the Intumescence produc'd by that Experiment , may , ( at least in great part ) be ascribed to the numerous little bubbles which are wont to be produc'd in Water , from which the pressure of the Atmosphere is in great measure taken off . So apt are we to be mis-led , even by Experiments themselves , into Mistakes , when either we consider not that most Effects may proceed from various Causes , or mind onely those Circumstances of our Experiment , which seem to comply with our preconceiv'd Hypothesis or Conjectures . And hence it seems also probable , that in the Pores or invisible little recesses of Water it self there lie commonly interspers'd many parcels of either Air , or at least something Analagous thereunto , although so very small , that they have not been hitherto so much as suspected to lurk there . But if it be demanded how it appears that there is interspers'd through the Body of Water any substance thinner than it self , and why that which produc'd the bubbles abovemention'd should not be resolutely said to be nothing else than a more active and spirituous part of the Water , we shall , in order to the Elucidation of this matter , subjoyn to what was formerly deliver'd the following Experiment . EXPERIMENT XXII . WE recited in our ninteenth Experiment , how by drawing most of the Air out of the Receiver , we made the Water subside by degrees in a Glass not four Foot long : We shall now add , that in the like Experiment made in such a Tube , or a greater , it may be observ'd , That when the Water begins to fall , there will appear store of bubbles fasten'd all along to the sides of the Glass ; of which bubbles , by the agitation of the Vessel consequent upon pumping , there will arise good numbers to the top of the Water , and there break ; and as the Cylinder of Water is brought to be lower and lower , so the bubbles will appear more numerous in that part of the Tube which the Water yet fills ; and the nearer the surface of the Water , in its descent , approacheth to these bubbles , the greater they will grow , because having the less weight and pressure upon them , the expansion of that Air which makes them , can be the less resisted by the pressure of the incumbent Water and Air ; as seems probable from hence , that upon the letting in a little external Air , those bubbles immediately shrink . It may indeed , as we lately intimated , be conjectur'd , that these bubbles proceed not so much from any Air pre-existent in the Water , and lurking in the Pores of it , as from the more subtle parts of the Water it self ; which by the expansion allow'd them upon the diminish'd pressure of the ambient Bodies may generate such bubbles . And indeed , I am not yet so well satisfied that bubbles may not ( at least sometimes ) have such an origination : but that which makes me suspect that those in our tryals contain real Air , formerly latitant in the Pores of the Water , is this , That upon the inletting of the external Air , the Water was not again impell'd to the very top of the Tube whence it began to fall , but was stopt in its ascent near an Inch beneath the top . And since , if the upper part of the Tube had been devoid of any other than such Ethereal matter as was subtle enough freely to penetrate the pores of the Glass , the external Air would have been able to impel the Water to the top of a Tube seven or eight times as long as ours was ; The Phaenomenon under consideration seem'd manifestly to argue , that the many bubbles that broke at the top of the Water , did contain a real Air , which being collected into one place , and hinder'd by the top of the Glass from receding , was able to with stand the pressure of the outward Air. As we see that if never so little Air remain in the Tube upon the making the Experiment De Vacuo with Quick-silver , no inclining of the Tube , ( though a long one , will enable a Man to impell the Mercury up to the very top , by reason ( as we formerly noted ) of the resistance of the included Air , which will not be compress'd beyond a certain degree . But in order to a farther discovery what our bubbles were , we will , on this occafion , inform Your Lordship , that we try'd the XIXth Experiment in one of our small Receivers , and found , that upon the drawing down of the Water , so many bubbles disclos'd themselves , and broke into the upper part of the Tube , that having afterwards let in the external Air , the Water was not thereby impell'd to the top of the Tube ( three Foot in length ) within a little more than half an Inch. And whether or no it were Air that possess'd that space at the top of the Tube which was not fill'd with Water , we took this course to examine . We drew the second time the Air out of the Receiver , and found , that by reason of the body that possess'd the top of the Tube , we were able not onely to make the Water in the Tube fall to a level with the surface of the Water in the Vessel ; But also ( by plying the Pump a little longer ) a great way beneath it : which , since it could not well be ascrib'd to the bare subsiding of the Water , by reason of its own weight , argued that the Water was depress'd by the Air : which was confirm'd by the Figure of the surface of the Water in the Tube , which was much more concave than that of Water in Tubes of that bigness useth to be . And this farther tryal ( to add that upon the bye ) we made at the same time , That when the Water in the Pipe was drawn down almost as low as the Water without it , we observ'd , that ( though we desisted from pumping ) by the bare application of a hand moderately warm to the deserted part of the Tube , the remaining Water would be speedily and notably depress'd . And having for a while held a kindled Coal to the outside of the Tube , ( the Pump being still unimploy'd , because the Vessel chanced to hold extraordinarily well ) the Air was by the heat so far expanded , that it quickly drove the Water to the bottom of the Tube , which was divers Inches beneath the surface of the ambient Water . Whereby it appears ( by the same way by which we formerly measur'd the dilatation of the Air ) that the Air , even when it is expanded to between 90 and 100 times its extent , will yet readily admit of a much farther rarefaction by heat . I consider'd also that in case the Bubbles we have been speaking of , were produc'd by the parcels of Air latitant in the Water , that Air being now got together to the top of the Tube , though the Air were again drawn out of the Receiver , the taking off its pressure would not disclose bubbles as before ; and accordingly , the Air being again pump'd out , the Water in the Tube descended as formerly : but for a great while we scarce saw one bubble appear , onely when the Receiver had been very much exhausted ; and the Water was fallen very low , there appear'd near the bottom of the Tube , certain little bubbles , which seem'd to consist of such parcels of Air as had not , by reason of their smallness , got up to the top of the Water , with the more bulky and vigorous ones . And that which is not inconsiderable , is , That having , by letting in the Air , forc'd up the Water into the Tube , we could not perceive that it ascended near the top , though we permitted the Engine to remain unimploy'd for two or three Nights together , and watch'd whether the Water would swell up and fill the Tube . And on this occasion I remember , that having try'd such an Experiment as this with Quick-silver instead of Water , in a Tube of about a Foot and a half long , wherein it might seem more hopefull to escape bubbles ; yet upon the drawing down the Quick-silver as low as we could , and letting in the external Air upon it , we found that some lurking particles of Air were got up to the top of the Tube , and hinder'd the Quick-silver from being forc'd up again so high . And though the Quick-silver were by this means brought to appear a very close and lovely Metalline Cylinder , not interrupted by interspers'd bubbles as before ; yet having caus'd the Air to be again drawn out of the Receiver , I could perceive several little bubbles to disclose themselves , fasten'd to the inside of the Tube , near the bottom of it ; and having purposely watch'd one or two of the chiefest , I had the pleasure to observe , that though they grew bigger and bigger as the surface of the Mercurial Cylinder fell nearer and nearer to them , so as that at length they swell'd into a conspicuous bulk ; yet upon the wary letting in the Air upon them , they did not break , but presently shrunk up into a littleness that render'd them inconspicuous . Whence it seems very probable , if not certain , that even in the closest and most ponderous Liquors , and therefore much more in Water , there may lurk undiscernable parcels of Air , capable , upon the removal of the pressure of the ambient Air ( though but in part ) and that of the liquor wherein it lurks , to produce conspicuous bubbles . And consequently , if it seem inconvenient to admit an Elastical power in the Water , it may be said that the swelling of the compress'd Water in the Pewter Vessel lately mention'd , and the springing up of the Water at the hole made by the Needle , were not the effects of any internal Elater of the Water , but of the spring of the many little particles of Air dispers'd through that Water , and acting upon it in their sudden recovering themselves to a greater extent , than that to which a violent compression had reduc'd them to . But though , from all these particulars , it seems manifest that the Bubbles we have been all this while treating of , were produc'd by such a substance as may be properly enough call'd Air ; yet till we shall have had the opportunity of making some farther tryals concerning the nature of the Air , we shall not resolutely determine whether or no Air be a Primogenial Body ( if I may so speak ) that cannot now be generated or turn'd either into Water or any other Body . Yet in the mean while ( because it is an important Question , and if rightly determin'd , may much conduce to the knowledge of the nature of the Air ) we think it not unfit to make a brief mention of some of the particulars which at present occur to our thoughts in favor of either part of the Question . First then , divers Naturalists esteem the Air ( as well as other Elements ) to be ingenerable and incorruptible . And reasons plausible enough may be drawn to countenance this Opinion from the consideration of that permanency that ought to belong to the corporeal Principles of other Bodies . Next , Experience may be pleaded to the same purpose , for I have read of some who in vain attempted to turn Air into Water , or Water into Air. The diligent Schottus tells us , that amongst other rarities to be met with in that great Repository of them , the Musaeum Kercherianum , there is a round Glass with a tapering neck near half full ( as one may guess by the Scheme he annexeth ) of ordinary Spring-water , which having been hermetically shut up there by Clavius the famous Geometrician , the included Water is to this day preserv'd , not onely clear and pure , as if it were but newly put in : But ( as it seems ) without ( in the least ) turning into Air , notwithstanding its having been kept there these fifty years : For he tells us , That the Water hath continued there all this while without any diminution . Nor doth it appear in those Glasses , which for Chymical Experiments we usually close with Hermes his Seal ( as they call it ) that the included Air doth , during its long imprisonment , notwithstanding the alteration it receiveth from various degrees of heat , discernably alter its nature . Whereas we plainly perceive in our Digestions and Distillations , that though Water may be rarefied into invisible Vapors , yet it is not really chang'd into Air , but onely divided by heat , and scatter'd into very minute parts , which meeting together in the Alembick or in the Receiver , do presently return into such Water as they constituted before . And we also see , that even Spirit of Wine , and other subtle and fugitive Spirits , though they easily fly into the Air , and mingle with it , do yet in the Glasses of Chymists easily lay aside the disguise of Air , and resume the divested form of Liquors . And so volatile Salts , as of Urine , Harts-horn , &c. though they will readily disperse themselves through the Air , and play up and down in the capacity of an Alembick or a Receiver : yet will they , after a while , fasten themselves to the insides of such Glasses in the form of Salts . Besides , since Air is confessedly endow'd with an Elastical power that probably proceeds from its Texture , it appears not , what it is , that in such light alterations of Water , as are by many presum'd capable of turning it into Air , can be reasonably suppos'd so to contrive the Particles of Water , as to give them , ( and that permanently , ) the structure requisite to a Spring . I add the word permanently , because the newly mention'd observations seem to argue the Corpuscles of Air to be irreducible into Water , whereas the Aqueous Particles may perhaps for a while be so vehemently agitated , as to press almost like Springs upon other Bodies ; yet upon the ceasing of the agitation , they quickly , by relapsing into Water , disclcse themselves to have been nothing else whilst they counterfeited the Air. Lastly , The Experiment formerly made in our Engine with a piece of Match , seems to evince , that even those light and subtle Fumes ( for the most part not aqueous neither ) into which the Fire it self shatters dry Bodies , have no such Spring in them as the Air , since they were unable to hinder or repress the expansion of the Air included in the Bladder they surrounded . I remember indeed that the Learned Josephus Acosta , in his History of the West Indies , tells us , That he saw in those parts some Grates of Iron so rusted and consum'd by the Air , that the Metal being press'd between the Fingers , dissolv'd ( to use his words ) to powder , as if it had been Hay or parched Straw . And I remember too , that the Accurate Varenius tells us , That in the Islands commonly called Azores , the Air ( and Wind ) is so sharp , that in a short time it frets not onely Iron Plates , but the very Tiles upon the Roofs of Houses , and reduceth them to dust . And I have elsewhere mention'd some recent Observations of this kind . But it may be said , That the abovemention'd Authors ascribe the recited effects chiefly to the Winds , and that , however the corrosion of the Iron and the Tiles may proceed not from the Air it self , or any of its genuine parts , but from some saline Corpuscles dispers'd through the Air , and driven by the Winds against the Bodies it is presum'd to fret . And that such volatile Salts may copiously ascend into the Air , and yet retain their nature , as doth the more fixt Salt in the Sea-water , the sublimations of Sal-Armoniack may sufficiently evince . Not to mention , that I have shewn some Friends a secret kind of saline Substance incomparably subtler than Sal-Armoniack , which did not onely easily enough ascend it self , but carried up with it ( and that in a very great proportion ) the solid and ponderous Body even of uncalcin'd Gold in the form of subtle exhalations , which did afterwards fasten themselves to the upper parts of the Vessels , and yet manifest themselves to continue Gold. We remember also , that to try whether Water could be turn'd into Air , we once took an AEolipile , into which we had before convey'd some Water , and placing it upon kindled Coals when the heat forc'd out a vehement stream of aqueous Vapors ; we ty'd about the Neck of it , that of a Bladder , which we had before empty'd of Air ; and finding the AEolipile after a while to blow up the Bladder , we carefully ty'd it again that the included substance might not get away . Then slipping it off from the AEolipile we convey'd it into our Receiver , to try whether or no that which in part distended the Bladder would appear by its Spring to be true Air : whereby we found that upon the exsuction of the ambient Air , the included substance expanded it self and the Bladder , to a very much greater bulk than it was of before . And for farther satisfaction , having again taken out the Bladder , we suffer'd it to remain ty'd up till next Morning , to try whether time , and the coldness of the Night , would make the contain'd substance relapse into Water : But the next Morning we found it little less tumid than before . I remember , I say , that I once made this Experiment ; but I might say in answer to it , that the chief reason of my mentioning it , is , To let Your Lordship see , how requisite it is to be circumspect and considerate , when we are to make and to build upon nice Experiments . For though I may seem to have used sufficient caution , yet afterward considering with my self that the AEolipile I had imploy'd was a very large one , and that it required much more care than one that hath not try'd it would imagine , to drive out all the Air from a large AEolipile , I easily suspected that the distension of the Bladder in our pneumatical Vessel , might proceed not from the watery steams that came out at the narrow mouth of the AEolipile , and had very much wetted the Bladder , but from the rarefied Air which in that sort of Vessels is wont for a good while together to come out with the rarefied Water : and accordingly having reiterated the Experiment , I found it very difficult ( by reason of the thrinking of the Bladders ( upon their being heated ) and of other impediments ) to make it so accurately as to deduce from it , that Water may be rarefied into true Air. Against the other four above-mention'd Considerations , we cannot spend time to frame Objections , but must forthwith proceed to the mention of those things that seem to argue that Air ( at least such as produc'd our bubbles ) may be generated of Water and other Bodies . First then we have found by Experience that a vapid Air , or Water rarefied into Vapor , may at least for a while emulate the elastical power of that which is generally acknowledg'd to be true Air. For if you take a good AEolipile , with a moderately strong and slender Neck , and filling it with Water , lay it upon quick Coals , you may after a while observe so great a pressure by some of the parts contain'd in the AEolipile upon others , that the Water will sometimes be thrown up into the Air above three or four Foot high ; and if you then take the AEolipile almost red hot from off the fire , you may perceive that the Water will for a longer time than one would easily imagine continue to be spouted out in a violent Stream . And if there remains but little Water in the AEolipile when 't is taken very hot from the Fire , immersing the Neck of it into cold Water , you will find , that after it begins to suck in some Water , there will be made from time to time store of large bubbles in that Water wherein the Neck was plunged . Which bubbles seem manifestly to proceed from hence , that for a while the heat in the AEolipile continues strong enough to rarefy part of the Water that is suck'd in , and expel it in the form of Vapors through the Water incumbent on the Pipe. If also when the AEolipile is almost full of Water , and therefore can contain but little Air ; you hold a Coal or Brand in that stream of Vapors that issues out of the narrow mouth of it , you will find this vapid or rorid Air , ( if I may so call it ) to blow the Fire very strongly , and with a roaring noise . And that it be not said that 't is by the external Air which the aqueous steams drive before them , and not by the Steams themselves , that the Blast is made and the Flame excited ; it hath been observ'd , that by approaching the Coal or Brand almost to the mouth of the AEolipile , the Wind appear'd more vehement , than if the Body to be kindled were held some Inches off . But in regard the elastical power of the Stream , issuing out of an AEolipile , seems manifestly due to the heat that expands and agitates the aqueous Particles whereof that Stream consists , and that such rapid Winds seem to be but water scatter'd into little parts and set a-moving ; since we find , that holding a Knife , or any solid , smooth , and close Body against the Stream that issues out of the AEolipile , the Vapors condensing upon it , will presently cover it with Water : It will be very pertinent to subjoyn a notable Experiment that I remember I have met with in the description given us by the Industrious Kircher , of several Musical Engines . And ( though it may seem somewhat prolix ) we will resite what he delivers in his own words , which are these . Cum eodem tempore quo haec scripsi , summi Pont. Innocentii X mi mandato organi hydraulici in horto Quirinali constituendi cura mihi commendata esset , AEoliam cameram insigni sanè successu construi jussimus , eâ quae sequitur ratione . Erat longitudo sive altitudo camerae AH 5 Pedum , Latitudine 3 ferè ex lateribus constructa ; in medio duo tenebat Diaphragmata CD & EF in modum cribri pluribus foraminibus pertusi . Paulo infra canalis G aquam advehens inserebatur in H eidem epistomium parabat exitum . Aqua itaque per canalem G maximo impetu ruens vehementissimum ventum mox intus excitabat ; qui ventus nimiâ humiditate imbutus , ut purior exiret sicciórque , Diaphragmata illa in cribri modum pertusa , ordinata sunt . Intra haec enim aquae vehemens agitatio rupta fractáque Aerem puriorem per A canalem subtiliorémque emittebat : Verum cum postea inventum sit Aerem plus aequo humidum interioribus Organi meatibus maximum detrimentum inferre : Hinc , ut Aer aquosus ficcissimam consistentiam acquireret , ordinavimus canalem plumbeum QR in helicem contortum vasi S aliquantulum capaciori in modum Urnae efformato , insertum . Intra Urnam enim plumbeam & canalem tortuosum illisus Aer humidus , ita ab omni aquositate defaecabatur , ut ex furno in Organum derivatus dici potuerit . Urna S canalis tortuosi QR ultimum orificium Z inseritur anemothecae Organi . Et hunc modum Organis hydraulicis omnium aptissimum reperi . Debet autem camera illa situari in loco quantum fieri potest sicciori , ita ut longo canali aqua intra eam derivetur , ne locus humiditate suâ Organis officiat . Thus far the Ingenious Kircherus , whom I the rather cite , because although I have been informed of divers Ventiducts ( as they call them ) by very knowing Travellers that have observ'd them : yet this relation of our Author being very punctual , and deliver'd upon his own particular Experience , hath I confess , made me with I had had the good fortune when I was at Rome , to take notice of these Organs ; or that I had now the opportunity of examining of such an Experiment . For if upon a strict enquiry I should find that the breath that blows the Organs doth not really upon the ceasing of its unusual agitation by little and little relapse into Water , I should strongly suspect that 't is possible for Water to be easily turh'd into Air. I remember indeed , that we have formerly taught , that there lurks an interspersed Air in the pores of ordinary Water , which may possibly be struck out by the breaking of the Water in its fall into the AEolian Chamber , ( as he calls it . ) But in regard the Scheme seems to represent that Chamber as closely shut , and thereby forbids us to suppose that any Air is carried into it , but what is latitant in the Water , it will scarce seem probable ( to him who remembers how small a proportion of Air , that appear'd to be when its rarefication ceased , which was conceal'd in the Water we freed from bubbles in our Receiver ) that so little Air as is commonly dispers'd through Water , should be able , in so little Water as was requisite for so small a room , to make so vehement a Wind as our Author here tells us of . I have sometime therefore suspected , that in this case the Wind may be produc'd by small particles of the Water it self , forcibly expell'd out of the Chamber into the Organs . And to the Objection , to which I foresaw this ghess to be liable , namely , That , no heat intervening , there appear'd nothing that should raise the Water into exhalations , and give them an impulse . I thought it might be said , that motion alone , if vehement enough , may , without sensible heat , suffice to break Water into very minute parts , and make them ascend upwards , if they can no where else more easily continue their agitation . For I remember , that travelling betwixt Lyons and Geneva , I saw , not very far out of the way , a place where the River of Rhone , comeing suddenly to be straiten'd betwixt two Rocks , so near each other , that a Man may , ( if my Memory fail me not ) stand a stride upon both at once : that rapid Stream dashing with great impetuosity against its Rocky Boundaries , doth break part of its Water into such minute Corpuscles , and put them into such a motion , that Passengers observe at a good distance off , as it were a Mist arising from that place , and ascending a good way up into the Air. Such , I say , was my suspicion touching the Wind we have been considering , but it seems something odd that aqueous Vapors should , like a dry Wind , pass through so long and tortuous a Pipe of Lead , as that describ'd by our Authour , since we see in the Heads of Stills , and the Necks of AEolipiles , how quickly such Vapors are even by a very little cold recondensed into Water . But to this also something may be speciously reply'd ; wherefore contenting my self to have mention'd our Author's Experiment as a plausible , though not demonstrative proof , that Water may be transmuted into Air. We will pass on to mention in the third place another Experiment , which we try'd in order to the same enquiry . We took a clear glass Bubble ( capable of containing by guess about three Ounces of Water ) with a Neck somewhat long and wide , of a Cylindrical form ; this we fill'd with Oyl of Vitriol and fair Water , of each almost a like quantity , and casting in half a dozen small Iron Nails , we stopt the mouth of the Glass ( which was top full of Liquor ) with a flat piece of Diapalma provided for the purpose , that , accommodating it self to the surface of the Water , the Air might be exquisitely excluded : and speedily inverting the Viol , we put the Neck of it into a small wide-mouth'd Glass that stood ready with more of the same Liquor in it , to receive it . As soon as the Neck had reach'd the bottom of the Liquor it was dipp'd into , there appear'd at the upper part ( which was before the bottom ) of the Viol a bubble , of about the bigness of a Pea , which seem'd rather to consist of small and recent Bubbles , produc'd by the action of the dissolving Liquor upon the Iron , than any parcel of the external Air that might be suspected to have got in upon the inversion of the Glass , especially since we gave time to those little Particles of Air which were carried down with the Nails into the Liquor to fly up again . But whence this first Bubble was produced , is not so material to our Experiment , in regard it was so small : For soon after we perceiv'd the Bubbles produc'd by the action of the Menstruum upon the Metal , ascending copiously to the Bubble already named , and breaking into it , did soon exceedingly encrease it , and by degrees depress the Water lower and lower , till at length the substance contain'd in these Bubbles possessed the whole cavity of the glass Viol , and almost of its Neck too , reaching much lower in the Neck than the surface of the ambient Liquor , where with the open-mouth'd Glass was by this means almost replenished . And because it might be suspected that the depression of the Liquor might proceed from the agitation whereinto the exhaling and imprison'd Steams were put , by that heat which is wont to result from that action of corrosive salts upon Metals , we suffered both the Viol and the open-mouth'd Glass to remain as they were , in a Window , for three or four days and nights together ; but looking upon them several times during that while , as well as at the expiration of it , the whole cavity of the glass Bubble , and most of its Neck , seem'd to be possess'd by Air , since by its spring it was able for so long to hinder the expell'd and ambient Liquor from regaining its former place . And it was remarkable , that just before we took the glass Bubble out of the other Glass , upon the application of a warm hand to the convex part of the Bubble ; the imprison'd substance readily dilated it self like Air , and broke through the Liquor in divers bubbles , succeeding one another . Having also another time try'd the like Experiment with a small Viol , and with Nails dissolv'd in Aquafortis , we found nothing incongruous to what we have now deliver'd . And this Circumstance we observ'd , that the newly generated Steams did not onely possess almost all the whole cavity of the Glass , but divers times without the assistance of the heat of my hand , broke away in large bubbles through the ambient Liquor into the open Air : So that these Experiments with corrosive Liquors , seem'd manifestly enough to prove , though not that Air may be generated out of the Water , yet that in general Air may be generated anew . Lastly , To the foregoing Arguments from Experience we might easily subjoyn the Authority of Aristotle , and of ( his Followers ) the Schools who are known to have taught , that Air and Water being symbolizing Elements ( in the quality of moisture ) are easily transmutable into one another . But we shall rather to the foregoing Argument add this , drawn from Reason , That if , as Leucippus , Democritus , Epicurus and others , follow'd by divers modern Naturalists , have taught , that the difference of Bodies proceeds but from the various Magnitudes , Figures , Motions , and Textures of the small parts they consist of , all the qualities that make them differ , being deducible from thence ) there appears no reason why the minute parts of Water , and other Bodies , may not be so agitated or connected as to deserve the name of Air. For if we allow the Cartesian Hypothesis , according to which , as we noted at the beginning of this Letter , the Air may consist of any terrene or aqueous Corpuscles , provided they be kept swimming in the interfluent Celestial Matter ; it is obvious that Air may be as often generated as Terrestrial Particles , minute enough to be carried up and down , by the Celestial Matter , ascend into the Atmosphere . And if we will have the Air to be a congeries of little slender Springs , it seems not impossible , though it be difficult , that the small parts of divers Bodies may by a lucky concourse of causes be so connected , as to constitute such little Springs , since ( as we note in another Treatise ) Water in the Plants it nourisheth is usually contriv'd into springy Bodies , and even the bare alter'd position and connexion of the parts of a Body may suffice to give it a Spring that it had not before , as may be seen in a thin and flexible Plate of Silver ; unto which , by some strokes of a Hammer , you may give a Spring , and by onely heating it red-hot , you may make it again flexible as before . These , My Lord , are some of the Considerations at present occurring to my thoughts , by which it may be made probable , that Air may be generated anew . And though it be not impossible to propose Objections against these , as well as against what hath been represented in favour of the contrary Doctrine ; yet having already almost tired my self , and I fear more than almost tired Your Lordship with so troublesome an Enquiry after the nature of Bubbles , I shall willingly leave Your Lordship to judge of the Arguments alledged on either side , and I should scarce have ventur'd to entertain You so long concerning such empty things as the Bubbles , which have occasioned all this Discourse , but that I am willing to invite You to take notice with me of the obscurity of things , or the dimness of our created Intellects ( which yet of late too many so far presume upon , as either to deny or censure the Almighty and Omniscient Creator himself ) and to learn hence this Lesson , That there are very many Things in Nature that we disdainfully overlook as obvious or despicable , each of which would exercise our Understandings , if not pose them too , if we would but attentively enough consider it , and not superficially contemplate , but attempt satisfactorily to explicate the nature of it . EXPERIMENT XXIII . SInce the writing of the twenty first and twenty second Experiments ( and notwithstanding all that hath been on their occasion deliver'd concerning Bubbles ) we made some farther trials in prosecution of the same inquiry whereto they were designed . We chose then , amongst those Glasses which Chymists are wont to call Philosophical Eggs , one that containing about nine Ounces of Water , had a Neck of half an Inch in Diameter at the top , and as we guest , almost an Inch at the bottom ; which breadth we pitched upon for a reason that will by and by appear : then filling it up with common Water to the height of about a Foot and an half , so that the upper part remained empty , we shut it into the Receiver , and watch'd what would follow upon pumping , which proved that a great part of the Air being drawn out , the Bubbles began to discover themselves at the bottom and sides of the Glass ; and increasing , as the Air was more and more drawn away , they did from time to time ascend copiously enough to the top of the Water , and there quickly break : but by reason that the wideness of the Glass allow'd them free passage through the Water , they did not appear as in the former Experiments to make it swell : The Water scarce ever rising at all above the mark affixt to its upper surface , when it was put in , and upon the return permitted to the outward Air , and consequently the shrinking in of the remaining bubbles , the Water seem'd to have lost of his first extent , by the avolation of the formerly interspers'd Air. Being willing likewise to try whether distilled Water were , by having been divided into minute parts , and then re-united , more or less dispos'd to expand it self than Water not distill'd : We took out of our Laboratory some carefully distill'd Rain-water , and put about two Ounces of it into a round Glass-bubble , with a very small Neck ( not exceeding the sixth part of an Inch in diameter ) which we filled half way to the top , and then convey'd it into the Receiver ; the issue was , that though we drew out more Air than ordinary , yet there appeared not the least intumescence of the Water , nor any ascending bubbles . But suspecting that either the small quantity of the Water or the figure of the Vessel might have an interest in this odd Phaenomenon , we took the lately mentioned Philosophical Egg , and another not much differing from it ; the former we fill'd up with distill'd Rain-water to the old mark , and into the latter we put a long Cylinder or Rod of solid Glass to straiten the cavity of the Neck by almost filling it up ; and then pouring some distilled Water into that also , till it reach'd within some Fingers breadth of the top , the Eggs were let down into the Receiver . In this Experiment the Air was so far drawn forth , before there appeared any bubble in either of the Glasses , that the disparity betwixt this and common Water was manifest enough . But at length , when the Air was almost quite pump'd out , the bubbles began to disclose themselves , and to increase as the pressure of the Air in the Receiver decreas'd . But whereas in the first mentioned Philosophical Egg the bubbles were very small , and never able to swell the Water , that we took notice of , at all above the mark : In the other , whose Neck , as we lately said , was straitned , and their passage obstructed , great numbers of them , and bigger , fastned themselves to the lower end of the Glass-rammer ( if we may so call it ) and gather'd in such numbers between that and the sides of the Neek , that the Water swell'd about a Finger's breadth above the mark , though upon the admitting of the external Air it relapsed to the former mark , or rather fell somewhat below it . And although thereupon in the first named Vessel all the bubbles presently disappeared , yet in the other we observed , that divers remained fastned to the lower part of the Glass-rammer , and continued there somewhat to our wonder , for above an hour after , but contracted in their dimentions . Moreover , having suffered the Glasses to remain above twenty four hours in the Receiver , we asterwards repeated the Experiment , to try what change the exsuction of the external Air would produce in the Water , after the internal and latitant Air had ( as is above recited ) in great measure got away in bubbles , and whether or no the Water would by standing re admit any new particles of Air in the room of those that had forsaken it . But though we exhausted the Receiver very diligently , yet we scarce saw a bubble in either of the Glasses , not with standing which , we perceiv'd the Water to rise about the breadth of a Barly-corn , or more , in the Neck of that Glass wherein the solid Cylinder had been put ; the Liquor in the other Glass not sensibly swelling . And lastly upon the letting in of the Air , the Water in the straitned Neck soon subsided to the mark above which it had swollen , which whether it ought to be ascrib'd to the same small expansion of the parts of the Water it self , or to the rarifaction of some yet latitant Air broken into such small particles , as to escape our observation , seems not easily determinable , without such farther tryals , as would perhaps prove tedious to be recited as well as to be made ; though I was content to set down those already mentioned , that it might appear how requisite it is in nice Experiments to consider variety of Circumstances . EXPERIMENT XXIV . AFter having thus discovered what operation the exsuction of the ambient Air had upon Water , we thought good to try also what changes would happen in other Liquors upon the like taking off the pressure of the external Air. We took then a glass Egg , somewhat bigger than a Turkey Egg , which had a long Neck or Stem of about a ⅓ part of an Inch in diameter ; and filling it up with Sallet-oyl untill it reach'd above half way to the top of the Neck , we inclos'd it in the Receiver together with common Water in a resembling Vessel ; that we might the better compare together the operation of the exsuction of the Air upon those two Liquors . The Pump being set on work , there began to appear bubbles in the Oyl much sooner than in the Water , and afterwards they also ascended much more copiously in the former Liquor than in the latter : Nay , and when by having quite tired the Pumper , and almost our own Patience , we gave over , the Bubbles rose almost ( if not altogether ) in as great numbers as ever , insomuch that none of the various Liquors we tried either before or since , seemed to abound more with Aerial Particles than did this Oyl . In which it was farther remarkable , that between the time it was set into the Receiver , and that , at which we could get ready to pump , it subsided notably ( by ghess about half an Inch ) below the mark it reached before it was put in . After this express'd Oyl , we made tryal of a distill'd one , and for that purpose made choice of the common Oyl or Spirit ( for in the Shops where it is sold , the same Liquor is promiscuously called by either name ) of Turpentine , because 't was onely of that Chymical Oyl , we had a sufficient quantity : which , being put into a small glass Bubble with a slender Neck , so as to fill it about two Inches from the top , did , upon the evacuating of the Receiver , present us with great store of bubbles , most of which rising from the bottom , expanded themselves exceedingly in their ascent , and made the Liquor in the Neck to swell so much by degrees , that at length it divers times ran over at the top : by which means , we were hindred from being able to discern upon the letting in of the Air , how much the subsidence of the Oyl below the first mark was due to the recess of the Bubbles . Having likewise a mind to try whether , as strong a solution of Salt of Tartar in fair Water as could be made ( we having then no Oyl of Tartar per deliquium at hand ) though it be accounted , Quick-silver excepted , the heaviest of Liquors , would afford us any bubbles ; we put in a glass Egg full of it at the same time , with other Liquors , and found that they did long yield store of bubbles before any discovered themselves in the Liquor of Tartar ; and having pursued the Experiment , it appear'd , That of all the Liquors we made trial of , this afforded the fewest and smallest bubbles . Spirit of Vineger being tried after the same manner , exhibited a moderate number of bubbles , but scarce any thing else worth the mentioning . Nor could we in Red Wine , try'd in a glass Egg , take notice of any thing very observable . For though upon the exsuction of the Air the bubbles ascended in this Liquor , as it were in sholes , and shifted places among themselves in their ascent ; yet the intumescence of the whole bulk of the Liquor was scarce at all sensible , the bubbles most commonly breaking very soon after their arrival at the top , where during their stay , they composed a kind of shallow froth , which alone appeared higher in the Neck of the Glass , than was the Wine when it was let down . Neither yet did Milk , conveyed into our Pneumatical Vessel , present us with any thing memorable save that ( as it seem'd by reason of some unctuousness of the Liquor ) the bubbles not easily breaking at the top , and thrusting up one another , made the Intumescence appear much greater than that of common Water . We likewise conveyed Hens Eggs into the Receiver , but after the exsuction of the Air , took them out whole again . That which invited us to put them in , was , That ( as perhaps we mention in other papers ) we had among other Experiments of cold , made Eggs burst , by freezing them within doors with Snow and Salt : The Ice , into which the aqueous parts of the Egg were turned by the cold , so distending ( probably by reason of the numerous bubbles wont to be observable in Ice ) the outward parts of the Egg , that it usually crack'd the Shell , though the inner Membrane that involv'd the several Liquors of the Egg , because it would stretch and yield , remain'd unbroken . And hereupon we imagin'd that in our Engine it might appear , whether or no there were any considerable Spring , either in any of the Liquors , or in any other more spirituous substance included in the Egg. We took also some Spirit of Urine , carelesly enough deflegmed , and put it into the same Glass ( first carefully scour'd and cleansed ) wherein we had put the Oyl olive above-mentioned We took also another Glass , differing from a Glass egg , onely in that its bottom was flat , and fill'd it up to about ⅔ of the Neck ( which was wider than that of the Egg ) with rectified Spirit of Wine . We took also another Glass egg , and having fill'd it with common Water till it reached to the middle of the Neck , we poured to it of the same Spirit of Wine , till it reached about an Inch higher . These three Glasses having marks set on them , over against the edges of the contain'd Liquors were put into the Receiver , and that beginning to be evacuated , the bubbles in all the three Liquors began to appear . The mixture of the Spirit of Wine and Water disclos'd a great store of bubbles , especially towards the top ; but scarce afforded us any thing worth the remembring . The Spirit of Urine appear'd to swell near an Inch and an half above the mark ; and besides that , sent forth store of bubbles , which made a kind of froth at the upper part of it . And above that spume , there appear'd eight or ten great bubbles one above another , in a very decent order , each of them constituting , as it were , a Cylinder of about half an Inch high , and as broad as the internal cavity of the Neck : So that all the upper part of the Neck ( for these bubbles reach'd to the top ) seem'd to be divided into almost equal parts by certain Diaphragmes , consisting of the coats of the bubbles , whose edges appeared like so many Rings suspended one above another . In the Spirit of Wine there did arise a great multitude of bubbles , even till weariness did make us give over the Experiment . And in these bubbles two or three things were remarkable ; as first , That they ascended with a very notable celerity : Next , That being arrived at the top , they made no stay there : and yet , notwithstanding the great thinness and spirituousness of the Liquor , did , before they broke , lift up the upper surface of it , and for a moment or two form thereof a thin film or skin which appeared protuberant above the rest of the superficies like a small Hemisphere . Thirdly , That they ascended streight up , whereas those produced at the lower part of the Vessel , containing the mixture of the Water and Spirit of Wine , ascended with a wavering or wrigling motion , whereby they described an indented Line . Lastly , it was observable in the Spirit of Wine ( and we took notice of the like in the Oyl of Turpentine lately mentioned ) that not onely the bubbles seemed to rise from certain determinate places at the bottom of the Glass , but that in their ascension they kept an almost equal distance from each other , and follow'd one another in a certain order , whereby they seem'd part of small Bracelets , consisting of equally little incontiguous Beads : the lower end of each Bracelet , being as it were , fastned to a certain point at the bottom of the Glass . The Air being sparingly let into the Receiver , the great bubbles formerly mentioned as incumbent upon one another , in that Glass that contained the Spirit of Urine , were by orderly degrees lessened , till at length they wholly subsided . Notwithstanding the recess of so many bubbles as broke on the top of the Spirit of Urine , during all the time of the Experiment ; yet it scarcely appear'd at all to be sunk below the mark : Nor did the mixture of Spirit of Wine and Water considerably subside . But that is nothing to what we observ'd in the Spirit of Wine , for not onely it conspicuously expanded it self in the Neck of the Vessel that contain'd it ; notwithstanding the largeness of it , and that the Bubbles were wont to break at the top of it almost as soon as they arriv'd there : But upon the readmission of the external Air , the Spirit of Wine retain'd its newly acquired expansion . And though we let it alone for near an hour together , in expectation that it might subside ; yet when we took it out , we found it still swell'd between a quarter and half an Inch above the mark ; and although it was not easily imaginable how this Phaenomenon could proceed from any mistake in trying the Experiment , yet the strangeness of it invited me to repeat it with fresh Spirit of Wine . Which , swelling in the Neck as formerly , I left all night in the Receiver , allowing free access to the external Air at the Stop-cock , and the next day found it still expanded as before , save that it seem'd a little lower : which decrement perhaps proceeded from the avolation of some of the fugitive parts of so voiatile a Liquor . And for better satisfaction having taken out the Glass , and consider'd it in the open Air , and at a Window , I could not find that there was any remaining bubbles that could occasion the persevering and admir'd expansion . EXPERIMENT XXV . BEing desirous to discover what difference there might be as to gravity and levity , between Air expanded under Water , and it self before such expansion ; we took two very small Viols , such as Chymical Essences ( as they call them ) are wont to be kept in , and of the size and shape expressed by the eighth Figure : into one of these we put so much of a certain ponderous Mercurial mixture ( hapning to be then at hand ) that the mouth being stopt with a little soft Wax , the Glass would just sink in Water and no more ; this we let fall to the bottom of a wide-mouth'd Christal Jar , fill'd with about half a pint of common Water , and into the same Vessel we sunk the other Essence-glass unstop'd , with as much water in it as was more than sufficient to make it subside . Both these sunk with their mouths downwards , the former being about three quarters full of Air , the latter containing in it a bubble of Air that was guess'd to be of the bigness of half a Pea : This done , the wide mouth'd Glass was let down into the Receiver , and the way of employing the Engine was carefully made use of . The success was , That having drawn out a pretty quantity of Air , the bubbles began to disclose themselves in the Water , as in the former Experiments ; and though for a good while after the bubbles ascended in swarms from the lower parts of the Water , and hastily broke at the top ; yet we prosecuted the Experiment so long without seeing any effect wrought upon the Essence-bottles , that we began to despair of seeing of them rise . But continuing to ply the Pump , that little Glass , whose mouth was open'd , came to the top of the Water , being , as it were , boy'd up thither by a great number of bubbles that had fastned themselves to the sides of it ; swimming thus with the mouth downward , we could easily perceive that the internal Air above-mention'd had much dilated it self , and thereby seem'd to have contributed to the emerging of the Glass , which remain'd floating , notwithstanding the breaking and vanishing of most of the contiguous bubbles : being hereby incouraged to persist in pumping , we observed with some pleasure , that at each time we turn'd the Key , the Air in the little Glass did manifestly expand it self and thrust out the Water , generally retaining a very protuberant surface where it was contiguous to the remaining Water . And when after divers exsuctions of the Air in the Receiver , that in the Viol so dilated it self as to expel almost all the Water , it turn'd up its mouth towards the surface of the Water in the Jar , and there deliver'd a large bubble , and then relapsed into its former floating posture . And this Experiment taught us , among other things , that it was a work of more time and labour than we imagin'd , to exhaust our Engine as much as it may be exhausted : for although before the emerging of the small Viol , we did ( as hath been touch'd already ) think we had very considerably emptied the Receiver , because there seem'd to come out but very little or almost no sensible Air at each exsuction into , and out of the Cylinder ; yet afterwards , at each drawing down the Sucker , the Air included in the Viol did manifestly dilate it self , so long , that it did no less than nine times turn its mouth upwards , and discharge a bubble by conjecture about the bigness of a Pea , after the manner newly recited . But as for that Viol which had the weight in it , it rose not at all . So that being not able by quick pumping to gain another bubble from the Air in the swimming Glass , which proceeded from some small leak in the Vessel , though it held in this Experiment more stanch than was usual , we thought fit to let in leasurely the Air from without , upon whose admission that within the Viol shrinking into a very narrow compass , the Glass did , as we expected , fall down to the bottom of the Jar. But being desirous before we proceed to any new Experiment , to try once more whether the little Glass , that had the weight in it , might not also be rais'd : After we had suffer'd the Engine to remain clos'd as it was , for five or six hours , the Pump was again ply'd with so much obstinacy , that not onely about the upper part of the Jar there appear'd a good number of bubbles ( but very much smaller than those we saw the first time ) but afterwards , there came from the bottom of the Jar , bubbles about the bigness of small Peas : which the Pump being still kept going , follow'd one another to the number of forty , coming from the stopp'd Viol ; whose mouth , it seems , had not been shut so strongly and closely , but that the included Air , dilating it self by its own spring , made it self some little passage betwixt the Wax and the Glass , and got away in these bubbles ; after which , the unstopt Glass began to float again , the Air shut up in it being manifestly so dilated as to expel a good part of the Water , but not so much as to break quite thorough . And at length , when our expectation of it was almost tired out , the heavier of the two Viols began to come alost , and immediately to subside again ; which appear'd to be occasion'd by the Air within it , whose bulk and spring being weaken'd by the recess of the forty bubbles before-mention'd , it was no longer able , as formerly , to break forcibly through the incumbent Water ; but forming a bubble at the mouth of the Glass , boyed it up towards the top ; and there getting away , left it to sink again till the pressure of the Air in the Receiver being farther taken off , the Air in the Viol was permitted to expand it self farther , and to create another bubble , by which it was again for a while carried up . And it was remarkable , that though after having emptied the Receiver as far as well we could , we ceased from pumping ; yet the Vessel continuing more stanch than it was wont , this ascent and fall of the Viol was repeated to the ninth time ; the included Air , by reason of the smallness of the vent at which it must pass out , being not able to get away otherwise than by little and little ; and consequently , in divers such parcels as were able to constitute bubbles , each of them big enough to raise the Viol and keep it alost untill the avolation of that bubble . Whereby it may appear , that the grand rule in Hydrostaticks , That a Body will swim in the Water , in case it be lighter than as much of the Water as equals it in bulk , will hold likewise when the pressure of the Atmosphere is in very great measure , if not when it is totally taken off from the Liquor and the Body : though it were worth inquiring what it is that so plentifully concurs to fill the bubbles made in our Experiment by the so much expanded Air. For to say with the old Peripatetick Schools , That the Air in rarefaction , may acquire a new extent , without the admission of any new substance , would be an account of the Phaenomenon very much out of date , and which , I suppose , our Modern Naturalists would neither give nor acquiesce in . I know not whether it may be requisite to add , that in this Experiment , as in the former , the outward Air , being let in , did soon precipitate the floating Viol. But I think it will not be amiss to note , that ( congruously to what hath been above recorded of the vast expansion of the Air ) the Water which in the heavier Viol , succeeded in the room of those forty odd , if not fifty great bubbles of Air , which at several times got out of it , amounted but to a very inconsiderable bigness . EXPERIMENT XXVI . IT having been observ'd by those that have consider'd what belongs to Pendulums ( a Speculation that may , in my poor judgment , be highly usefull to the Naturalists ) that their Vibrations are more slowly made , and that their motion lasts less in a thicker , than in a thinner Medium : We thought it not amiss to try if a Pendulum would swing faster , or continue swinging longer in our Receiver , in case of exsuction of the Air , than otherwise . Wherefore we took a couple of round and polish'd Pendulums of Iron or Steel , of equal bigness , as near as we could get the Artificer to make them , and weighing each of them twenty Drachmes , wanting as many Grains . One of these we suspended in the cavity of the Receiver by a very slender silken string , of about seven Inches and a half in length from the Cover of the Receiver to which it is fasten'd . Then ( by inclining the Engine ) we made the Pendulum swing to and fro in it , and describe as long Arches as in the capacity of so brittle a Vessel we thought safe and convenient . And one of the Assistants telling the recursions of the other Pendulum hanging in the free Air , by a string of about the same length , we shortned and lengthned this other Pendulum , till it appear'd to keep the same pace in its Vibrations , with that shut up in the Receiver . Then having carefully drawn away the Air , we did again set the Pendulum in the Receiver a vibrating ; and giving the other Pendulum such a motion as made it describe an Arch , according to ones ghess , equal to that of the included Pendulum ; we reckon'd , one of us , the Recursions of that Pendulum which was swinging within the Receiver ; and another of us , that which was moving in ( that which one would think a much more resisting medium ) the Air. But once , one of us reckon'd near two and twenty Recursions of the included Pendulum , whilst the other reckon'd but twenty of the Pendulum that vibrated without . And another time also , the former of these Pendula was reckon'd to have made one and twenty Recursions , wherein the other made but twenty ; Yet this Experiment seem'd to teach us little , save that the difference betwixt the motion of such a Pendulum in the common Air , and in one exceedingly rarefied , is scarce sensible in Vessels no bigger than our Receiver ; especially , since though during this Experiment it held very well , yet we could not suppose it to be altogether devoid of Air. We observed also , that when the Receiver was full of Air , the included Pendulum continued its Recursions about fifteen minutes ( or a quarter of an hour ) before it left off swinging ; and that after the exsuction of the Air , the vibration of the same Pendulum ( being fresh put into motion ) appear'd not ( by a minutes Watch ) to last sensibly longer . So that the event of this Experiment being other than we expected , scarce afforded us any other satisfaction , than that of our not having omitted to try it . And whether , in case the trial be made with a Pendulum much less disproportionate to the Air than Steel is , the event will much better answer expectation , experience may be consulted . EXPERIMENT XXVII . THAT the Air is the medium whereby sounds are convey'd to the Ear , hath been for many Ages , and is yet the common Doctrine of the Schools . But this Received Opinion hath been of late oppos'd by some Philosophers upon the account of an Experiment made by the Industrious Kircher , and other Learned Men : who have ( as they assure us ) observ'd , That if a Bell , with a Steel Clapper , be so fasten'd to the inside of a Tube , that upon the making the Experiment De Vacuo with that Tube , the Bell remain'd suspended in the deferted space at the upper end of the Tube : And if also a vigorous Load-stone be apply'd on the outside of the Tube to the Bell , it will attract the Clapper , which upon the removal of the Load-stone falling back , will strike against the opposite side of the Bell , and thereby produce a very audible sound ; Whence divers have concluded , That 't is not the Air , but some more subtle Body that is the medium of sounds . But because we conceiv'd that , to invalidate such a consequence fro m this ingenious Experiment ( though the most luciferous , that could well be made without some such Engine as ours ) some things might be speciously enough alledg'd ; we thought fit to make a trial or two , in order to the discovery of what the Air doth in conveying of sounds , reserving divers other Experiments triable in our Engine concerning sounds , till we can obtain more leasure to prosecute them . Conceiving it then the best way to make our trial with such a noise as might not be loud enough to make it difficult to discern slighter variations in it ; but rather might be , both lasting , ( that we might take notice by what degrees it decreas'd ; ) and so small , that it could not grow much weaker without becoming imperceptible . We took a Watch , whose Case we open'd , that the contain'd Air might have free egress into that of the Receiver . And this Watch was suspended in the cavity of the Vessel onely by a Pack-thread , as the unlikeliest thing to convey a sound to the top of the Receiver : And then closing up the Vessel with melted Plaister , we listen'd near the sides of it , and plainly enough heard the noise made by the ballance . Those also of us , that watch'd for that Circumstance , observ'd , that the noise seem'd to come directly in a streight Line , from the Watch unto the Ear. And it was observable to this purpose , that we found a manifest disparity of noice , by holding our Ears near the sides of the Receiver , and near the Cover of it : which difference seem'd to proceed from that of the Texture of the Glass , from the structure of the Cover ( and the Cement ) through which the sound was propagated from the Watch to the Ear. But let us prosecute our Experiment . The Pump after this being imploy'd , it seem'd that from time to time the sound grew fainter and fainter ; so that when the Receiver was empty'd as much as it us'd to be for the foregoing Experiments , neither we , nor some Strangers that chanc'd to be then in the Room , could , by applying our Ears to the very sides , hear any noise from within ; though we could easily perceive that by the moving of the hand which mark'd the second minutes , and by that of the ballance , that the Watch neither stood still , nor remarkably varied from its wonted motion . And to satisfy our selves farther that it was indeed the absence of the Air about the Watch that hinder'd us from hearing it , we let in the external Air at the Stop-cock , and then , though we turn'd the Key and stopt the Valve , yet we could plainly hear the noise made by the ballance , though we held our Ears sometimes at two Foot distance from the outside of the Receiver . And this Experiment being reiterated into another place , succeeded after the like manner . Which seems to prove , that whether or no the Air be the only , it is at least , the principal medium of Sounds . And by the way it is very well worth noting , that in a Vessel so well clos'd as our Receiver , so weak a pulse as that of the ballance of a Watch should propagate a motion to the Ear in a Physically streight Line , notwithstanding the interposition of so close a Body as Glass , especially Glass of such thickness as that of our Receiver : since by this it seems that the Air imprison'd in the Glass , must , by the motion of the ballance , be made to beat against the concave part of the Receiver , strongly enough to make its convex part beat upon the contiguous Air , and so propagate the motion to the Listners Ears . I know this cannot but seem strange to those , who , with an eminent Modern Philosopher , will not allow that a Sound , made in the cavity of a Room , or other place so clos'd , that there is no intercourse betwixt the external and internal Air , can be heard by those without , unless the sounding Body do immediately strike against some part of the inclosing Body . But not having now time to handle Controversies , we shall onely annex , That after the foregoing Experiment , we took a Bell of about two Inches in Diameter at the bottom , which was supported in the mid'st of the cavity of the Receiver by a bent stick , which by reason of its Spring press'd with its two ends against the opposite parts of the inside of the Vessel : in which , when it was clos'd up , we observed that the Bell seemed to sound more dead than it did when just before it sounded in the open Air. And yet , when afterwards we had ( as formerly ) emptyed the Receiver , we could not discern any considerable change ( for some said they observ'd a small one ) in the loudness of the sound . Whereby it seemed that though the Air be the principal medium of sound , yet either a more subtle matter may be also a medium of it , or else an ambient Body that contains but very few particles of Air , in comparison of those it is easily capable of , is sufficient for that purpose . And this , among other things , invited us to consider , whether in the above-mentioned Experiment made with the Bell and the Load-stone , there might not in the deserted part of the Tube remain Air enough to produce a sound : since the Tubes for the Experiment De Vacuo ( not to mention the usual thinness of the Glass ) being seldom made greater than is requisite , a little Air might bear a not inconsiderable proportion to the deserted space : And that also , in the Experiment De Vacuo , as it is wont to be made , there is generally some little Air that gets in from without ; or at least store of bubbles that arise from the Body of the Quick-silver , or other Liquor it self , Observations heedfully made have frequently informed us : And it may also appear , by what hath been formerly delivered concerning the Torricellian Experiment . On the occasion of this Experiment concerning sounds , we may add in this place , That when we tried the Experiment formerly mentioned , of firing Gun-powder with a Pistol in our evacuated Receiver , the noise made by the striking of the Flint against the Steel , was exceeding languid in comparison of what it would have been in the open Air. And on divers other occasions it appeared that the sounds created within our exhausted Glass , if they were not lost before they reach'd the Ear , seem'd at least to arrive there very much weaken'd . We intended to try whether or no the Wire-string of an Instrument shut up into our Receiver , would , when the ambient Air was suck'd out , at all tremble , if in another Instrument held close to it , but with out the Receiver , a string tun'd ( as Musicians speak , how properly I now examine not ) to an Unison with it , were briskly toucht , and set a Vibrating . This , I say , we purpos'd to try to see how the motion made in the Air without , would be propagated through the cavity of our evacuated Receiver . But when the Instrument wherewith the tryal was to be made came to be imploy'd , it prov'd too big to go into the Pneumatical Vessel : and we have not now the conveniency to have a fitter made . We thought likewise to convey into the Receiver a long and slender pair of Bellows , made after the fashion of those usually employ'd to blow Organs , and furnished with a small Musical instead of an ordinary Pipe. For we hop'd , that by means of a string fastned to the upper part of the Bellows , and to the moveable stopple that makes a part of the Cover of our Receiver , we should , by frequently turning round that stopple , and the annexed string , after the manner already often recited , be able to lift up and distend the Bellows ; and by the help of a competent weight fastned to the same upper part of the Bellows , we should likewise be able , at pleasure , to compress them : and by consequence , try whether that subtler matter than Air ( which , according to those that deny a Vacuum , must be suppos'd to fill the exhausted Receiver ) would be able to produce a sound in the Musical Pipe ; or in a Pipe like that of ordinary Bellows , to beget a Wind capable to turn or set on moving some very light matter , either shap'd like the Sails of a Wind-Mill , or of some other convenient form , and exposed to its Orifice . This Experiment , I say , we thought to make , but have not yet actually made it for want of an Artificer to make us such a pair of Bellows as it requires . We had thoughts also of trying whether or no , as Sounds made by the Bodies in our Receiver become much more languid than ordinary , by reason of the want of Air : so they would grow stronger , in case there were an unusual quantity of Air crouded and shut up in the same Vessel . Which may be done ( though not without some difficulty ) by the help of the Pump , provided the Cover and Stopple be so firmly fasten'd ( by binding and Cement , or otherwise ) to the Glass and to each other , that there be no danger of the condensed Airs blowing of either of them away , or its breaking through the junctures . These thoughts , My Lord , as I was saying , we entertain'd ; but for want of leasure , as , of as good Receivers as ours , to substitute in its place , in case we should break it before we learn'd the skill of condensing the Air in it , we durst not put them in practice : Yet , on this occasion , give me leave to advertise Your Lordship once for all , That though for the reasons newly intimated , we have , Only in the seventeenth Experiment , taken notice , that by the help of our Engine the Air may be condens'd as well as rarefied ; yet there are divers other of our Experiments , whose Phaenomena it were worth while to try to vary , by means of the compression of the Air. EXPERIMENT XXVIII . WE taught , among divers other things , when we discoursed of our first Experiment , That the Air shut up in our Receiver , presseth as strongly upon the Bodies shut up with it , as if they were exposed to the pressure of the whole Atmosphere . That this was not inconsiderately propounded , we hope Your Lordship hath gather'd from divers of the things already recited : But yet perhaps it will not be amiss to subjoin , by way of farther confirmation of the same truth , the following Experiment : which would have accompanied the 20th , but the Paper wherein the one was written chanced not to be at hand , when the other was sent away . We convey'd into the Receiver a new Glass Viol , capable of holding about 6 or 7 ounces of Water , into which we had before put 2 or 3 Spoonfulls of that Liquor , and stopt it close with a fit Cork . The Pneumatical Vessel being emptyed , there appear'd not any change in the inclos'd Water , the Air imprisoned with it , not having the force to blow out the stopple . Which event , though it were no other than we expected , was differing from what we desir'd . For we would gladly have seen what change would have appeared in the Water upon the Bottles being suddenly unstopp'd , in a place where the ambient Body was so differing from our common Air. Wherefore we did again put in the Viol , but less strongly clos'd than formerly , though as strongly stopt as seem'd requisite on ordinary occasions : But when the Air was pumped out of the Receiver , that within the Viol did quickly , as we expected , find or make it self little passages to get out at : as we argued , from this , That whereas when the Viol was put in the time before , the Water remained all the while perfectly free from bubbles ; at this time the bottom of the Glass appear'd all covered with them , and they , upon the egress of the excluded Air into the Receiver , did presently flag and shrink up . From these trials it seem'd deducible enough , that whilst the Viol continued to be well stopt , the included Water did , from the Air , shut up with it , sustain a pressure equal to that of the Atmosphere ; since till the Air could get out of the Glass , there appeared no bubbles in the Water , notwithstanding the want of pressure in the ambient Body . But to be sure to reach the chief end of our Experiment , we made use of this other expedient : We caused a convenient quantity of Water to be put , and Hermetically shut up into a Glass Egg , whose long Neck ( which was purposely made of an unequal thickness ) was fastened to one end of a string , whose other end was tied to the Cover of our Receiver , after the manner elsewhere mentioned already : Then the Egg being conveyed into the Pneumatical Vessel , and that being evacuated , we did , by turning the brass Stopple formerly describ'd amongst the parts of our Engine , so shorten the string as to break the Glass ; whereby liberty being given to the Air imprisoned in the Egg , to pass into the cavity of the Receiver , the sudden recess of the Air made the bubbles in a trice appear so numerous , and ascend so swiftly in the Water , that their motion look'd like that of a violent shower of Rain ; save that the bubbles did not , like the drops of Rain , tend downwards , but upwards . Which made me resemble this Phaenomenon to what I have seen happen in the dissolution of Seed-Pearl in some acid Menstruum , inwhich , if a good quantity of the little Pearls be cast whole , they will at first , if the Menstruum be sharp enough , be carried in swarms from the bottom to the top of the Liquor . We will add , that without sealing up the Glass , this Experiment may be tryed in one of our smallest Receivers . For there the exsuction of the ambient Air may be performed so nimbly , that immediately the bubbles lurking in the Water are allowed to display themselves , and ascend in throngs ; insomuch , as having in such a Receiver try'd the Experiment with Wine as a more spirituous Liquor ) instead of Water , the Red-Wine appeared all cover'd , with a copious , but vanishing white Froth , almost as if a Vessel full of bottl'd drink had been unwarily opened . EXPERIMENT XXIX . IT may not a little conduce to the clearer explication of divers Points in the Doctrine of Meteors , and perhaps of some other Physiological difficulties , to discover what the Air doth to the motion of those Steams or Exhalations that ascend into it , namely , Whether they mount upwards by virtue of any such positive levity ( as some Peripateticks speak ) acquir'd together with their Aërial nature , as inables them to pierce through part of the Atmosphere , and over-come its resistance . Or else , whether these steams being once raised above the Earth by their agitation , have their ascent and sustentation aloft , rather promoted than hindred by the Air : as the inferior parts of that , being thicker and heavier than the superior , the steams can more easily continue for a while their agitation upwards than downwards ; And afterwards are by the same fluidity and thickness of the Air , carried to and fro in it , and kept from relapsing to the Earth : as in the Sea-Water the saline parts are kept from subsiding by those aqueous ones wherewith they are associated . We hop'd to illustrate this matter , by observing the motion of the smoke , proceeding from kindled or flaming Bodies in our exhausted Receiver . But as we formerly noted , upon the exsuction of the Air , the smoking of those Bodies presently ceas'd . We had thoughts also of conveying into our Pneumatical Glass a hot Iron , with some Bodie easie to be dissipated into smoke set upon it , but consider'd , that neither was that way free from inconveniencies ; especially this , that the hot Body would make the Imprisoned Air circulate within the Receiver , and consequently make it questionable whether the ascent of the steams would not be due to the new and acquired motion of the Air. Wherefore I bethought my self of another way to satisfie in some measure my curiosity , to wit , by means of a certain Liquor , which I call'd to mind that some years ago I had ( for a design that belongs not to our present purpose ) prepar'd ; which , I suppose , I shew'd Your Lordship , and which had the luck to be taken notice of by divers very Ingenious and Famous Men. For this Liquor , though most of its Ingredients be Metals , and all of them ponderous enough , is yet of that nature , that whilst the Viol wherein it is kept is stopt ( how slight a Cover soever ) both the Liquor and the Glass are transparent ; and so is that upper half of the Glass to which the Liquor reacheth not : But as soon as ever the stopple is taken out , and full access is given to the external Air , both the inward part of the Cork , and the Liquor it self , do presently send upwards , and scatter abroad asume as thick and white , as if there were a quantity of Alabaster-dust thrown up into the Air : And this smoaking of the Liquor lasts till my unwillingness to waste it invites me to stop it again , and then the ascension of the fumes suddenly ceaseth , till the Viol be again unstop'd . This fuming Liquor then I thought would much conduce to the discovery I desir'd to make , since it sav'd me the need of conveying any hot Body with it into the Receiver , and would not darken it with fumes before the time . Wherefore having ty'd to the Viol a great weight of Lead , to keep it from being lifted up by the drawing out of the Cork ; and having ty'd to the stopple one end of a string , of which the other end was made fast to the Cover of the Pneumatical Glass , the Liquor was carefully clos'd up after the wonted manner ; then the Air being diligently pump'd out , the Viol was unstop'd in the empty'd Receiver . And though immediately , upon the drawing out of the Cork , there appear'd to be as it were thrown up some white fumes , which seem'd to proceed from the Air before imprison'd in the Viol , and diffusing it self suddenly into the capacity of the Receiver : Yet we afterward observ'd , as we expected , That the fumes did not amount and disperse themselves as they used to do in the open Air ; but that , when by reason of the agitation of the Corpuscles of the Liquor , which could not continue their motion in so narrow a space as the Viol afforded them , and were therefore reduc'd to thrust one another out of it ; when , I say , by these assistances the fumes were ascended to the lip of the Viol , they mounted no higher , but ran down along the outside of the Viol to the bottom of it ; and thence along , a long and inclining piece of Lead , on which the Viol rested , like a little Stream ( not very much bigger than a Swans Quill ) whose nature they seem'd to emulate so well , that it quitted not the Viol till it was come to the bottom of it , and then forsook it in such a manner'a as stream of Water of the same bigness would have done . And this stream lasted a pretty while , and would probably have lasted longer , but that being loath to waste my Liquor , I let in at the Stop-cock a pretty deal of the external Air ; notwithstanding which , finding after a while that the stream did run afresh , though , as it seem'd not altogether so copious as before ; I let as much more Air , as would come in : and found ( somewhat to my wonder ) that though the stream formerly mention'd dis-appear'd , yet there appear'd not any white fumes to arise , either from the Cork , or out of the Viol it self , no not when the Cover was remov'd from the Receiver ; though not only after a while there ascended white fumes from the Receiver : but having forthwith taken out the Viol into the open Air , it emitted white exhalations as before ; and having presently after unstopp'd it in an open Window , we found both it and the Cork immediately to send forth a yet much more plentifull smoak : Though it be now divers years since this Numerical Liquor was prepared , after the manner mention'd either by Carneiades or Eleutherius ( for I do not well remember which ) in those Dialogues concerning Heat and Flame that have above been mention'd . More circumstances concerning these Fumes we might have observ'd , had we not been deterr'd by an Indisposition in point of health , from having much to do with steams of so dangerous a nature , as by that of the Ingredients of this Liquor these seem likely to be of . The reflexions that may be made upon this Experiment , we have not now the leasure to prosecute , and therefore shall content our selves to recommend the several circumstances of it to Your Lordship's serious consideration ; and to take notice ( en passant ) that steams in an ambient Body , or a medium thinner than themselves , may both tend downwards , and otherwise emulate the nature of a Liquor ; which I therefore point at , that it may appear the less strange , if we sometimes speak of the Atmosphere as of a kind of Liquor , in comparison of that more thin and subtle Celestial matter that surrounds it . And though it might perchance suffice to have on this occasion intimated thus much ; yet , lest this way of speaking of the Atmosphere should be thought too bold and extravagant , I am content to borrow an Experiment of the discourse formerly mention'd ( touching fluidity and firmness ) and subjoyn it here with alterations suitable to the contrivance of our Engine ; and this the rather , because I hope it may conduce to the discovery of the nature of the Atmosphere : for which reason it might have been annext to what hath been noted either upon the first , or eighteenth Experiment , but that when they were written and sent away , it came not into my mind . The Experiment then as we try'd in our Engine , was as follows . EXPERIMENT XXX . WE took one of the small Receivers , often mention'd already , and into it we convey'd a piece of well lighted Match ; and letting it remain there till it had fill'd the Receiver with smoak , we took it out and hastily clos'd again the Receiver , that the smoak might not get away . Then staying awhile to let these fumes leisurely subside , we found , as we expected , that after some time they setled themselves in the lower half of the Receiver ; in a darkish Body , leaving the upper half of the Receiver transparent , and as to sight , full of nought but clear Air. Now to manifest that this smoak thus setled emulated a Liquor , we inclin'd the Engine that contain'd it , sometimes to one side , and sometimes to the other ; and observ'd the smoak to keep its surface almost Horizontal , notwithstanding the stooping of the Vessel that held it , as Water , or another liquor would in the like case have done . And if by a quicker rocking of the Engine the smoak were more swiftly shaken , it would , like Water , either vibrate to and fro from one side to the other of the Glass , or else have its surface manifestly curl'd with Waves , but preserve its self in an entire and distinct Body from the incumbent Air ; and being permitted to rest a while , would soon recover its former smooth and level Superficies . If also the Key were turn'd and the Valve unstopp'd , so that there was a free , though but a narrow passage open'd betwixt the external Air and the cavity of the Receiver , then would some of this smoak fall down , as it were , in a stream into the subjacent Cylinder , and a proportionate quantity of the outward Air , would manifestly ascend through it into the incumbent Air , much after the same manner as if you invert a Viol with a long neck , and well fill'd with Red-Wine , into a Glass full of fair Water , you shall see the Water and Wine by degrees mingle with one another ; the one falling down as it were in little colour'd streams , and the other ascending in its room in the like curled streams , sometimes preceded by round parcels of Water , which , by reason of their transparency , look almost like bubbles . The other circumstances of this Experiment , belonging not all of them to our present purpose , we shall content our selves with taking notice of one which seems the most important , and may illustrate and confirm some things formerly delivered . And it was , That if , when the superficies of our smoak lay smooth and Horizontal , a hot Iron were held near the outside of the Receiver , the neighbouring part of the included fumes ( for the rest did not very much alter their former superficies ) being rarified by the heat , would readily ascend in a large Pillar of smoak to the very top of the Receiver , yet without seeming to lose a distinct superficies , or to be confounded with Air ; below which , upon the recess of the adventitious heat that by agitating it impell'd it upward , it would again subside . All which being added to the late Experiment of the smoaking Liquor , and to what may be from that which hath been elsewhere said , gather'd to the same purpose , will , I hope , keep it at least from appearing absur'd . If , since we see that there is so great an inequality in the density and weight of Liquors , that Water is near fourteen times thinner or lighter than Quick-silver of the same bulk ; and well dephlegm'd spirit of Wine , yet much lighter than Water , we venture to speak sometimes of the Atmosphere , as if it were a peculiar kind of thin and halitious Liquor ( if I may so call it ) much lighter than Spirit of Wine . To these things I know not whether it will be requisite to add , That as we lately took notice of conspicuous Waves that appear'd upon the superficies of our agitated smoak : So some such thing may not absurdly be conjectur'd to happen on the superficies of the Atmosphere , by those strange ruggednesses that appear ( especially in the Spring and Fall , when Exhalations and Vapours are wont to ascend most plentifully ) upon the limb or edge of the Rising and Setting Sun. I speak thus disfidently upon this occasion , because I know , that by the Fluctuation or Boyling of the Suns own superficies , divers eminent Mathematicians have plausibly enough ( but how truly , I leave Your Lordship to judge ) endeavour'd to give an account of it . But if we will joyn with those that have ascrib'd of late this Phaenomenon , to the refraction the Sun-beams suffer in our vapid air , we may , as hath been intimated , promote their Doctrine , by deducing from it , That probably the surface of the Atmosphere is oftentimes ( if not always ) exceedingly curl'd or wav'd . And certainly it is somewhat wonderfull , as well as very pleasant to behold , how , to him that looks upon the setting Sun through a long and excellent Telescope , there will not only appear strange inequalities in the edge of it ( insomuch that I have often seen it more indented than a Saw ) but those inequalities will vanish in one place , and presently appear in another , and seem perfectly to move like Waves succeeding and destroying one another , save that their motion oftentimes seems to be quickest ; as if in that vast Sea they were carried on by a Current , or at least by a Tide . And this ( as we elsewhere note ) appears to the Eye , not only when it looks directly through the Telescope upon the Sun ; but also when a large and well defin'd Image of the Sun is by the same Telescope brought into a Room and cast upon a sheet of white Paper . But to insist on this were to digress : and therefore I will proceed to Experiments of another kind . EXPERIMENT XXXI . IT hath been admir'd by very ingenious Men , that if the exquisitely polish'd surfaces of two flat pieces of Marble , be so congruous to each other , that from their mutual application there will result an immediate contact , they will stick so fast together , that he that lifts up the uppermost , shall , if the undermost be not exceeding heavy , lift up that too , and sustain it alost in the free Air. A probable cause of this so close adhesion , we have elsewhere endeavoured to deduce from the unequal pressure of the Air upon the undermost stone ; For the lower superficies of that stone being freely expos'd to the Air , is press'd upon by it , whereas the uppermost surface , being contiguous to the superior stone , is thereby defended from the pressure of the Air ; which consequently pressing the lower stone against the upper , hinders it from falling , as we have elsewhere more fully declar'd . Upon these grounds we conjectur'd , that in case we could procure two Marbles exactly ground to one another , and in case we could also sufficiently evacuate our Receiver ; the lower stone would , for want of the wonted and sustaining pressure of the Air , fall from the upper . But the farther trial of this Experiment we must , unless Your Lordship think it worth Your making at Paris , put off till a fitter opportunity . For where we now are , we cannot procure Marbles so exactly ground , that they will sustain one another in the Air above a minute or two , which is a much shorter time than the emptying of our Receiver requires . We did indeed try to make our Marbles stick close together , by moistening their polish'd surfaces with rectifi'd spirit of Wine , in regard that liquor , by its sudden avolation from Marble , if pour'd thereon , without leaving it moist or less smooth , seem'd unable to sustain them together after the manner of a glutinous Body , and yet seem'd sufficient to exclude and keep out the Air. But this we try'd to little purpose , for having convey'd into the Receiver two black square Marbles ( the one of two Inches and a third in length or breadth , and somewhat more than half an Inch in thickness : The other of the same extent , but not much above half so thick ) fasten'd together by the intervention of pure spirit of Wine ; and having suspended the thicker by a string from the cover , we found not that the exsuction of the ambient Air would separate them , though a weight amounting to four Ounces were fasten'd to the lowermost Marble to facilitate its falling of . I would gladly have the Experiment try'd with Marble , so well polish'd , as to need no Liquor whatsoever to make them cohere , and in a Vessel out of which the Air may be more persectly drawn than it was out of ours . But in the mean time , though we will not determine whether the spirit of Wine did contribute to the strong cohesion of these stones , otherwise than by keeping ev'n the subtlest parts of the Air from getting in between them : yet it seemed that the not falling down of the lowermost Marble , might , without improbability , be ascrib'd to the pressure of the Air remaining in the Receiver ; which , as we formerly noted , having been able to keep a Cylinder of Water , of above a Foot in height , from falling to the bottom of the Tube , may well enough be suppos'd capable of keeping so broad a flat Marble from descending . And though this may seem a strange proof of the strength of the spring of the Air , ev'n when rarefied , yet it will scarce seem incredible to him that hath observ'd how exceeding strong a cohesion may be made betwixt broad Bodies , only by their immediate touching one another . A notable instance of which , I met with in this short Narrative of the Learned Zucchius . Juveni ( saith he ) lacertorum suorum robur jactanti proposit a semel est lamina aerea , per ansam in medio extantem apprehensam elevanda è tabula marmorea , cui optime congruebat : qui primo tanquam rem ludicram puero committendam contempsit : tum instantibus amicis manum utrámque admovens , cum luctatus diu haerentem non removisset , excusavit impotentiam , objecta peregrini & potentissimi glutinis interpositione , quo fortissime copulante nequiret divelli ; donec vidit ab alio per tabulam facilimè laminam deduci , & ad extrema productam , & actam in transversum inde deportari . But that we may learn from our , own Engine , that two Bodies , though they touch each other but in a small part of their surfaces , may be made to cohere very strongly , only by this , That the Air presses much more forcibly upon the inferiour superficies of the lowermost Body , than upon the upper surface of the same : We will hereunto annex the following Experiment , though out of the order wherein they were made . EXPERIMENT XXXII . I Remember I have , in a Discourse touching Fluidity and Firmness , made mention of my having , by the exsuction of the Air out of a Glass Vessel , made that Vessel take up , or suck up ( to speak in the common Language ) a Body weighing divers Ounces ; but our Engine affording us the opportunity of making considerabler Experiments of that kind , We thought fit to make a further trial of the force of the Atmosphere's pressure upwards , after the following manner . The Receiver having been exquisitely clos'd as we have often taught already , and the Air being in a good measure drawn out of it , it was remov'd from off the Pump : and to the lower branch of the Stop-cock , there was speedily apply'd a tapering Valve of brass , such as is described in the 9th Figure , made fit to go with its narrower end into the cavity of the branch , and to fill the Orifice of that cavity with its broader part . And that the Air might not get in at the little intervals , left here and there between the convex surface of the stopple and the internal edge of the branch , those intervals were stopt with a little Diachylon . And to the door , or , ( if you please ) that part of the Valve which was to move to and fro , and in this Experiment hung perpendicular to the Horizon , there was , at a button of brass belonging to the Valve , fasten'd a broad scale wherein weights were to be put . This done , the Key of the Stop-cock was turn'd , and the external Air beating like a forcible stream upon the Valve to get in there , it did suddenly both shut the Valve and keep it shut so strongly , that we had time to cast in divers weights one after another into the Scale ; till at length the weight overpowering the pressure of the Atmosphere , drew down the Valve by the strings that tied the Scale to it , and gave liberty to the outward Air to rush into the Receiver . Though another time , when the Valve had but little weight hanging at it , being , by I know not what accident , drawn down beneath its former place , it was by the impetuous current of the outward Air suddenly impell'd up into it again , and kept there . But in the former Experiment it is remarkable , That though the Receiver were not well exhausted , and though it leak'd whilst the rest of the Experiment was in prosecution : and though the Valve whereon the Cylinder of the Atmosphere could press , were not above an Inch and a half in Diameter , yet the weight kept up by suction , or rather supported by the Air , ( namely the Valve , the Scale and what was cast out of it , ) being sent to be weigh'd , amounted to about ten of our common Pounds , consisting of sixteen Ounces a piece : So that we doubted not but that , had the Experiment been made with favourable circumstances , the Air endeavouring to press in at the Orifice of the Stop-cock , would have kept a very much greater weight from falling out of it ; I say the Air , because we found , by trial purposely made , that neither the imperfect contact of the Valve and the Stop-cock , nor the Diachylon that was employ'd to fill up the little Crannies left betwixt them , were considerable in this Experiment . By which it may , among other things , appear , that I did not without cause in the above-named Discourse touching Fluidity and Firmness , ascribe a great force , even to such Pillars of . Air as may be supposed to begin at the top of the Atmosphere , and recoyling from the ground , to terminate on the Bodies on which they press : since in the present Experiment such a weight was supported by so slender a Cylinder of Air , rebounding from the Earth to the Valve whereon it did bear . EXPERIMENT XXXIII . BUt in regard we have not yet been able to empty so great a Vessel as our Receiver , so well as we can the Cylinder it self ; our Pump alone may afford us a nobler instance of the force of the Air we live in , insomuch , that by help of this part of our Engine , we may give a pretty near ghess at the strength of the Atmosphere , computed as a weight . And the way may be this ; First , the Sucker being brought to move easily up and down the Cylinder , is to be impelled to the top of it : Then the Receiver must be taken off from the Pump , that the upper Orifice of the Cylinder remaining open , the Air may freely succeed the Sucker , and therefore readily yield to its motion downwards . This done , there must be fasten'd to one of the Iron Teeth of the Sucker , such a weight as may just suffice to draw it to the bottom of the Cylinder . And having thus examin'd what weight is necessary to draw down the Sucker , when the Atmosphere makes no other than the ordinary resistance of the Air against its descent ; the Sucker must be again forc'd to the top of the Cylinder , whose upper Orifice must now be exactly closed ; and then ( the first weight remaining ) we easily may , by hanging a Scale to the above-mention'd Iron ( that makes part of the Sucker ) cast in known weights so long , till in spight of the reluctancy of the Atmosphere the Sucker be drawn down . For to these weights in the Scale , that of the Scale it self being added , the sum will give us the weight of a Column of Air , equal in Diameter to the Sucker , or to the cavity of the Cylinder , and in length to the height of the Atmosphere . According to this method we did , since the writing of the last Experiment , attempt to measure the pressure of the Atmosphere , but found it more difficult than we expected , to persorm it with any accurateness ; for though by the help of the Manubrium the Sucker moved up and down with so much ease , that one would have thought that both its convex surface , and the concave one of the Cylinder were exquisitely smooth , and as it were slippery ; yet when the Sucker came to be moved onely with a dead weight or pressure ( that was not ( like the force of him that pumped ) intended as occasion required ) we found that the little rufnesses or other inequalities , and perhaps too , the unequal pressure of the Leather against the cavity of the Cylinder , were able , now and then , to put a stop to the descent or ascent of the Sucker , though a very little external help would easily surmount that impediment ; and then the Sucker would , for a while , continue its formerly interrupted motion , though that assistance were withdrawn . But this discouragement did not deter us from prosecuting our Experiment , and endeavouring , by a carefull trial , to make it as instructive as we could . We found then that a Leaden Weight , of 28 pounds ( each consisting of sixteen Ounces ) being fastned to one of the teeth of the Sucker , drew it down closely enough , when the upper Orifice of the Cylinder was left open : though by the help of Oyl and Water , and by the frequent moving the Sucker up and down with the Manubrium , its motion in the Cylinder had been before purposely facilitated . This done , the upper Orifice of the Cylinder was very carefully and closely stopped , the Valve being likewise shut with its wonted Stopple well oyl'd , after the Sucker had been again impell'd up to the top of the Cylinder . Then to the precedent twenty eight pound , we added a hundred and twelve pounds more ; which forcing down the Sucker , though but leisurely , we took off the twenty eight pound weight ; and being unable to procure just such weights as we would have had , we hung on , instead of it , one of fourteen pound : but found that , with the rest , unable to carry down the Sucker . And to satisfie our selves , and the Spectators , that it was the resistance of the ambient Air that hinder'd the descent of so great a weight , after that we had try'd that upon unstopping the Valve , and thereby opening an access to the external Air , the Sucker would be immediately drawn down . After this , I say , we made this farther Experiment , That having by a Man's strength forcibly depress'd the Sucker to the bottom of the Cylinder , and then fastned weights , to the above-named Iron that makes part of that Sucker , the pressure of the external Air finding little or nothing in the cavity of the evacuated Cylinder to resist it , did presently begin to impell the Sucker , with the weights that clogg'd it , towards the upper part of the Cylinder ; till some such accidental Impediment , as we formerly mention'd , check'd its course . And when that rub , ( which easily might be , ) was taken out of the way , it would continue its ascent to the top , to the no small wonder of those By-standers , that could not comprehend how such a weight could ascend , as it were , of it self ; that is , without any invisible force , or so much as Suction to list it up . And indeed it is very considerable , that though possibly there might remain some particles of Air in the Cylinder , after the drawing down of the Sucker ; yet the pressure of a Cylinder of the Atmosphere , somewhat less than three Inches in Diameter ( for , as it was said in the description of our Engine , the cavity of the Cylinder was no broader ) was able , uncompress'd , not only to sustain , but even to drive up a weight of an hundred and odd pounds : for besides the weight of the whole Sucker it self , which amounts to some pounds , the weights annexed to it made up an hundred and three pounds , besides an Iron Bar , that by conjecture weighed two pounds more ; and yet all these together fall somewhat short of the weight which we lately mention'd , the resistance of the Air , to have held suspended in the cavity of the Cylinder . And though ( as hath been already acknowledg'd ( we cannot peradventure , obtain by the recited means so exact an account as were to be wish'd , of what we would discover : Yet , if it serve us to ground conjectures more approaching to the Truth , than we have hitherto met with , I hope it will be consider'd ( which a famous Poet judiciously says ) Est quoddam prodire tenus , si non datur ultra . Peradventure it will not be impertinent to annex to the other circumstances that have been already set down concerning this Experiment , That it was made in Winter , in Weather neither Frosty nor Rainy , about the change of the Moon , and at a place whose latitude is near about 51 degrees and a half : For perhaps the force or pressure of the Air may vary , according to the Seasons of the Year , the temperature of the Weather , the elevation of the Pole , or the phases of the Moon ; all , or even any of them seeming capable to alter either the height or consistence of the incumbent Atmosphere : And therefore it would not be amiss if this Experiment were carefully tried at several times and places , with variety of circumstances . It might also be tried with Cylinders of several Diameters , exquisitely fitted with Suckers , that we might know what proportion several Pillars of the Atmosphere bear to the weights they are able to sustain or lift up ; and consequently , whether the increase or decrement of the resistance of the ambient Air , can be reduced to any regular proportion to the Diameters of the Suckers : These , and divers other such things which may be try'd with this Cylinder , might most of them be more exactly try'd by the Torricellian Experiments , if we could get Tubes so accurately blown and drawn , that the cavity were perfectly Cylindrical . To dwell upon all the several Reflexions , that a speculative Wit might make upon this and the foregoing Experiment , ( I mean the thirty third and thirty second ) would require almost a Volume ; whereas our occasions will scarce allow us time to touch upon three or four of the chief Inferences that seem deducible from them , and therefore we shall content our selves to point at those few . And first , as many other Phaenomena of our Engine , so especially , the two lately mention'd Experiments , seem very much to call in question the received Opinion of the nature or cause of Suction . For it 's true indeed , that when men suck , they commonly use some manifest endeavour by a peculiar motion of their Mouths , Chests , and some other conspiring parts , to convey to them the body to be suck'd in . And hence perhaps they have taken occasion , to think that in all Suction there must be some endeavour or motion in the sucking to attract the sucked Body . But in our last Experiment it appears not at all how the upper part of the empty'd Cylinder that remains moveless all the while , or any part of it , doth at all endeavour to draw to it the depressed Sucker and the annexed weights . And yet those that behold the ascension of the Sucker , without seriously considering the cause of it , do readily conclude it to be raised by something that powerfully Sucks or attracts it , though they see not what that may be or where it lurks . So that it seems not absolutely necessary to Suction , that there be in the Body , which is said to suck , an endeavour or motion in order thereunto , but rather that Suction may be at least for the most part reduced to Pulsion , and its effects ascrib'd to such a pressure of the neighbouring Air upon those Bodies ( whether Aërial , or of other natures ) that are contiguous to the Body that is said to attract them , as is stronger , than that substance , which possesseth the cavity of that sucking Body , is able to resist . To object here , that it was some particles of Air remaining in the emptied Cylinder that attracted this weight to obviate a Vacuum , will scarce be satisfactory ; unless it can be clearly made out by what little hooks , or other grappling Instruments , the internal Air could take hold of the Sucker ; how so little of it obtained the force to lift up so great a weight ; and why also , upon the letting in of a little more Air into one of our evacuated Vessels , the attraction is , instead of being strengthened , much weakned ; though , if there were danger of a Vacuum before , it would remain , notwithstanding this ingress of a little Air. For that still there remained in the capacity of the exhausted Cylinder store of little rooms , or spaces empty or devoid of Air , may appear by the great violence wherewith the Air rusheth in , if any way be open'd to it . And that 't is not so much the decrement of the Vacuum within the cavity of the vessel that debilitates the attraction , as the Spring of the included Air ( whose presence makes the decrement ) that doth it by resisting the pressure of the external Air , seems probable , partly from the Disability of vacuities , whether greater or lesser , to resist the pressure of the Air ; and partly by some of the Phaenomena of our Experiments , and particularly by this Circumstance of the Three and Thirtieth , that the Sucker was , by the pressure of the Ambient Air , impell'd upwards with its weight hanging at it , not onely when it was in the bottom of the Cylinder , and consequently left a great Vacuum in the cavity of it ; but when the Sucker had been already impell'd almost to the top of the Cylinder , and consequently , when the Vacuum that remain'd was become very little in comparison of that which preceded the beginning of the Sucker's ascension . In the next place , these Experiments may teach us , what to judge of the vulgar Axiom received for so many Ages as an undoubted Truth in the Peripatetick Schools ; That Nature abhors and flyeth a Vacuum , and that to such a degree , that no humane power ( to go no higher ) is able to make one in the Universe ; wherein Heaven and Earth would change places , and all its other Bodies rather act contrary to their own Nature , than suffer it . For , if by a Vacuum we will understand a place perfectly devoid of all corporeal Substance , it may indeed then , as we formerly noted , be plausibly enough maintained that there is no such thing in the world ; but that the generality of the Plenists , ( especially till of late years some of them grew more wary ) did not take a Vacuum in so strict a sense , may appear by the Experiments formerly , and ev'n to this day imploy'd by the Deniers of a Vacuum , to prove it impossible that there can be any made . For when they alledge ( for Instance ) that when a man sucks Water through a long Pipe , that heavy Liquor , contrary to its Nature , ascends into the Sucker's mouth , only , to fill up that room made by the Dilatation of his Breast and Lungs , which otherwise will in part be empty . And when they tell us , that the reason why if a long Pipe exactly clos'd at one end be filled top-full of Water , and then inverted , no Liquor will fall out of the open Orifice ; Or , to use a more samiliar Example , when they teach , that the cause , why in a Gardiner's watering Pot shaped conically , or like a Sugar-Loaf , fill'd with Water , no Liquor falls down through the numerous holes at the bottom , whilst the Gardiner keeps his Thumb upon the Orifice of the little hole at the top , and no longer ; must be that if in the case proposed the Water should descend , the Air being unable to succeed it , there would be le●t at the upper and deserted part of the Vessel a Vacuum , that would be avoided if the hole at the top were open'd . When ( I say ) they alledge such Experiments , the tendency of them seems plainly to import , that they mean , by a Vacuum , any space here below that is not filled with a visible body , or at least with Air though it be not quite devoy'd of all Body whatsoever . For why should Nature , out of her detestation of a Vacuum , make Bodies act contrary to their own tendency , that a place may be fill'd with Air , if its being so were not necessary to the avoiding of a Vacuum . Taking then a Vacuum in this vulgar and obvious sense , the common opinion about it seems lyable to several Exceptions , whereof some of the chief are suggested to us by our Engine . It will not easily then be intelligibly made out , how hatred or aversation , which is a passion of the Soul , can either for a Vacuum , or any other object , be supposed to be in Water , or such like inanimate Body , which cannot be presumed to know when a Vacuum would ensue ; if they did not bestir themselves to prevent it : nor to be so generous as to act contrary to what is most conducive to their own particular preservation for the publique good of the Universe . As much then of intelligible and probable Truth , as is contain'd in this Metaphorical Expression , seems to amount but to this ; That by the Wise Authour of Nature ( who is justly said to have made all things in number , weight and measure , ) the Universe , and the parts of it , are so contriv'd , that it is as hard to make a Vacuum in it , as if they studiously conspir'd to prevent it . And how far this it self may be granted , deserves to be farther consider'd . For in the next place , our Experiments seem to teach , that the supposed Aversation of Nature to a Vacuum is but accidental , or in consequence , partly of the Weight and Fluidity , or , at least , Fluxility of the Bodies here below ; and partly , and perhaps principally , of the spring of the Air , whose restless endeavour to expand it self every way , makes it either rush in it self , or compel the interposed Bodies into all spaces , where it finds no greater resistance than it can surmount . And that in those motions which are made ob fugam Vacui ( as the common phrase is ) Bodies act without such generosity and consideration , as is wont to be ascrib'd to them , is apparent enough in our 32d Experiment , where the torrent of Air , that seem'd to strive to get into the empty'd Receiver , did plainly prevent its own design by so impelling the Valve , as to make it shut the only Orifice the Air was to get out at . And if afterwards either Nature , or the internal Air , had a design the external Air should be attracted , they seem'd to prosecute very unwisely by continuing to suck the Valve so strongly ; when they found that by that Suction the Valve it self could not be drawn in : Whereas by forbearing to suck , the Valve would by its own weight have fallen down , and suffer'd the excluded Air to return freely , and to fill again the exhausted Vessel . And this minds me to take notice of another deficiency , pointed at by our Experiments in the common Doctrine of those Plenists we reason with ; for many of those unusual motions in Bodies , that are said to be made to escape a Vacuum , seem rather made to fill it . For why , to instance in our newly mention'd Experiment , as soon as the Valve was depressed by the weight we hung at it , should the Air so impetuously and copiously rush into the cavity of the Receiver ; if there were before no vacant room there to receive it ? and if there were , then all the while the Valve kept out the Air , those little spaces in the Receiver , which the corpuscles of that Air afterwards fill'd , may be concluded to have remain'd empty . So that the seeming violence , imploy'd by Nature on the occasion of the evacuating of the Vessel , seems to have come too late to hinder the making of Vacuities in the Receiver , and only to have , as soon as we permitted , fill'd up with Air those that were already made . And as for the care of the publique good of the Universe ascrib'd to dead and stupid Bodies , we shall only demand , why in our 19th Experiment , upon the Exsuction of the ambient Air , the Water deserted the upper half of the Glass-Tube ; and did not ascend to fill it up , till the external Air was let in upon it : whereas by its easie and sudden regaining that upper part of the Tube , it appeared both that there was there much space devoid of Air , and that the Water might with small or no resistance have ascended into it , if it could have done so without the impulsion of the re-admitted Air ; which , it seems , was necessary to mind the Water of its formerly neglected Duty to the Universe . Nay , for ought appeareth , even when the excluded Air , as soon as 't was permitted , rush'd violently into our exhausted Receiver , that flowing in of the Air proceeded rather from the determinate Force of the Spring of the neighbouring Air , than from any endeavour to fill up , much less to prevent vacuity's . For though when as much Air as will , is gotten into our Receiver our present Opponents take it for granted that it is full of Air ; yet if it be remembred that when we made our 17th Experiment we crouded in more Air to our Receiver than it usually holds ; and if we also consider ( which is much more ) that the Air of the same consistence with that in our Receiver may in Wind-guns , as is known , and as we have tryed , be compressed at least into half its wonted room ( I say at least , because some affirm , that the Air may be thrust into an 8th , or a yet smaller part of its ordinary extent ) it seems necessary to admit either a notion of condensation and rarefaction that is not intelligible , or that in the capacity of our Receiver when presumed to be full of Air , there yet remain'd as much of space as was taken up by all the Aërial corpuscles , unpossessed by the Air. Which seems plainly , to infer that the Air that rush'd into our empty'd vessel did not doe it precisely to fill up the Vacuities of it , since it left so many unfill'd , but rather was thrust in by the pressure of the contiguous Air : which as it could not , but be always ready to expand it self , where it found least resistance , so was it unable to fill the Receiver any more , than untill the Air within was reduc'd to the same measure of Compactness with that without . We may also from our two already often mention'd Experiments farther deduce , that , ( since Natures hatred of a Vacuum is but Metaphorical and Accidental , being but a consequence or result of the pressure of the Air and of the Gravity , and partly also of the Fluxility of some other Bodies ) The power she makes use of to hinder a Vacuum , is not ( as we have else-where also noted ) any such boundless thing as men have been pleased to imagine . And the reasons why in the former Experiments , mentioned in favour of the Plenists , Bodies seem to forget their own Natures to shun a Vacuum , seems to be but this ; That in the alledged cases the weight of that Water that was either kept from falling or impell'd up , was not great enough to surmount the pressure of the contiguous Air ; which , if it had been , the Water would have subsided , though no Air could have succeeded . For not to repeat that Experiment of Monsieur Paschal ( formerly mention'd to have been tryed in a Glass exceeding 32. Foot ) wherein the inverted Pipe being long enough to contain a competent-weight of Water , that Liquor freely ran out at the lower Orifice : Not to mention this ( I say ) we saw in our nineteenth Experiment , that when the pressure of the ambient Air was sufficiently weakn'd , the Water would fall out apace at the Orifice even of a short Pipe , though the Air could not succeed into the room deserted by it . And it were not amiss if tryal were made on the tops of very high Mountains , to discover with what case a Vacuum could be made near the confines of the Atmosphere , where the Air is probably but light in comparison of what it is here below . But our present ( three and thirtieth ) Experiment seems to manifest , not onely that the power , exercis'd by Nature , to shun or replenish a Vacuum , is limitted , but that it may be determin'd even to Pounds and Ounces : Insomuch that we might say , such a weight Nature will sustain or will lift up to resist a Vacuum in our Engine ; but if an Ounce more be added to that weight , it will surmount Her so much magnifi'd detestation of Vacuities . And thus , My Lord , our Experiments may not onely answer those of the Plenists , but enable us to retort their Arguments against themselves : since , if that be true which they alleadge , that , when Water falls not down according to its nature , in a Body wherein no Air can succeed to fill up the place it must leave , the suspension of the Liquor is made Ne detur Vacuum , ( as they speak ) it will follow , that if the Water can be brought to subside in such a case , that deserted space may be deem'd empty , according to their own Doctrine ; especially , since Nature ( as they would perswade us ) bestirs her self so mightily to keep it from being deserted . I hope I shall not need to remind Your Lordship , that I have all this while been speaking of a Vacuum , not in the strict and Philosophical sense , but in that more obvious and familiar one that hath been formerly declar'd . And therefore I shall now proceed to observe in the last place , that our 33d Experiment affords us a notable proof of the unheeded strength of that pressure which is sustain'd by the Corpuscles of what we call the free Air , and presume to be uncompressed . For , as fluid and yielding a Body as it is , our Experiment teacheth us , That ev'n in our Climate , and without any other compression than what is ( at least here below ) Natural , or ( to speak more properly ) ordinary to it , it bears so strongly upon the Bodies whereunto it is contiguous , that a Cylinder of this free Air , not exceeding three Inches in Diameter is able to raise and carry up a weight , amounting to between sixteen and seventeen hundred Ounces . I said even in our Climate , because that is temperate enough ; and as far as my observations assist me to conjecture , the Air in many other more Northern Countries may be much thicker , and able to support a greater weight : which is not to be doubted of , if there be no mistake in what is Recorded concerning the Hollanders , that were forc'd by the Ice to Winter in Nova Zembla , namely , That they found there so condens'd an Air , that they could not make their Clock goe , ev'n by a very great addition to the weights that were wont to move it . I suppose Your Lordship will readily take notice , that I might very easily have discoursed much more fully and accurately than I have done , against the common opinion touching Suction , and touching natures hatred of a Vacuum . But I was willing to keep my self to those considerations touching these matters , that might be verified by our engine it self , especially , since , as I said at first , it would take up too much time to insist particularly upon all the Reflexions that may be made even upon our two last Experiments . And therefore passing to the next , I shall leave it to Your Lordship to consider how far these tryals of ours will either confirm or disfavour the new Doctrine of several eminent Naturalists , who teach , That in all motion there is necessarily a Circle of Bodies , as they speak , moving together ; and whether the Circles in such motion be an Accidental or Consequential thing or no. EXPERIMENT XXXIIII . 'T Is a known thing to those that are conversant in the Hydrostaticks , That two Bodies which in the Air are of equal weight , but of unequal bulk , as Gold , for instance and Iron , being afterwards weighed in Water , will lose their AEquilibrium upon the change of the ambient Body : so that the Gold will sink lower than the Iron ; which , by reason of its greater bulk , hath more Water to lift or displace , that it may sink . By Analogy to this Experiment , it seemed probable , that if two weights did in our Engine ballance each other , when the Glass was full of Air ; upon the exsuction of a great part of that Air , so notable a change in the consistence of the ambient Body , would make them lose their AEquilibrium . But being desirous at the same time to make a tryal , for a certain Design that needs not here be mention'd , we took for one of our weights a dry Bladder , strongly tyed at the Neck , and about half fill'd with Air ( that being a weight both slight , and that would expand it self in the evacuated Glass ) and fastning that to one part of our formerly mentioned exact ballance ( which turns with the 32d part of a Grain ) we put a Metalline counterpoise into the opposite Scale ; and so the two weights being brought to an AEquilibrium , the ballance was convey'd into the Receiver , and suspended from the Cover of it . But before we proceed farther , we must note , That presently after the laying on of the Cover , the Bladder appear'd to preponderate , whereupon the Scales being taken out , and reduc'd very near to an AEquilibrium , yet so , that a litle advantage remained on that side to which the Metalline weight belonged ; they were again let down into the Receiver , which was presently made fast with Plaister , and a hot Iron : Soon after which before the Pump was employ'd , the Bladder seem'd again a little to preponderate . Afterwards the Air in the Glass being begun to be drawn out , the Bladder began ( according to the formerly mention'd Observations ) to expand it self , and manifestly to outweigh the opposite weight , drawing down the Scale to which it was fastned very much beneath the other , especially when the Air had swell'd it to its full extent . This done , we very leisurely let in the external Air ; and observ'd , that upon the flagging of the Bladder , the Scale whereto it was fastned , not onely by degrees return'd to an AEquilibrium with the other , but at length was a little outweighed by it . But because we suspected there might have interven'd some unheeded Circumstance in this last part of the Experiment we would not presently take out the Scales , nor meddle with the Cover , but leaving things as they were , we perceiv'd , that after a little while the Bladder began again to preponderate , and by degrees to sink lower and lower for divers hours , wherefore , leaving the Vessel closed up all night , we repair'd to it next Morning , and found the Bladder fallen yet lower . As if the very substance of it , had imbibed some of the moisture wherewith the Air ( the Season being very rainy ) did then abound : As Lutestrings , which are made likewise of the Membranous parts of Guts , strongly wreath'd , are known to swell so much oftentimes as to break in rainy and wet weather . Which conjecture is the more to be regarded , because congruously unto it one of the company having a little warm'd the Bladder , found it then lighter than the opposite weight . But this must be look'd upon as a bare conjecture , till we can gain time to make farther tryals about it . In the mean while we shall adde , that without removing the Scales or the Cover of the Receiver , we again caused the Air to be drawn out ( the weather continuing very moist ) but found not any manifest alteration in the ballance ; whether because the AEquilibrium was too far lost to let a small change appear , we determine not . But to make the Experiment with a Body less apt to be altered by the temperature of the Air , than was the Bladder ; we brought the Scales again to an AEquilibrium with two weights , whereof the one was of Lead , the other of Cork . And having evacuated the Receiver , we observed , that both upon the exsuction , and after the return of the Air , the Cork did manifestly preponderate , and much more , a while after the Air had been let in again , than whilst it was kept out . Wherefore , in the room of the Cork , we substituted a piece of Char-coal , as less likely to imbibe any moisture from the Air , but the event proved much the same with that newly related : So that this Experiment seems more liable to Casualties than any , excepting one we have made in our Engine . And as it is difficult to prevent them , so it seems not very easie to discover the causes of them , whereof we shall therefore at present forbear mentioning our Conjectures . EXPERIMENT XXXV . SOme Learned Mathematicians have of late ingeniously endeavoured to reduce Filtres to Siphons ; but still the true cause of the ascension of Water , and other Liquors both in Siphons and in Filtration , needing ( for ought we have yet found ) a clearer Discovery and Explication , we were desirous to try whether or no the pressure of the Air might reasonably be supposed to have either the principal , or at least a considerable Interest in the raising of those Liquors . But because we found that we could not yet so evacuate our Receiver , but that the remaining Air though but little in comparison of the exhausted , would be able to impell the Water to a greater height than is usual in ordinary Filtrations : we resolved instead of a List of Cotton , or the like Filtre , to make use of a Siphon of Glass , delineated in the third Figure , consisting of three pieces , two streight , and the third crooked to joyn them together ; whose Junctures were diligently clos'd that no Air might find entrance at them . One of the Legs of this Siphon was ( as it should be ) somewhat longer than the other , and was pervious at the bottom of it onely , by a hole almost as slender as a hair , that the Water might but very leasurely drop out of it , lest it should all run out before the Experiment were compleated . The other and shorter Leg of the Siphon was quite open at the end , and the same wideness with the rest of the Pipe , whose bore was about ¼ of an Inch. The whole Siphon made up of these several pieces put together , was design'd to be about a Foot and a half long ; that the remaining Air , when the Vessel was exhausted after the wonted manner , might not be able to impell the Water to the top of the Siphon ; which being inverted , was fill'd with Water , and of which the Shorter leg being let down two or three Inches deep into a Glass Vessel full of Water , and the upper parts of it being fasten'd to the inside of the Cover of the Receiver , we proceeded to close first , and then to empty the Vessel . The effect of the tryal was this , That till a pretty quantity of Air had been drawn out , the Water dropp'd freely out at the lower end of the lower leg of the Siphon , as if the Experiment had been performed in the free Air. But afterwards , the Bubbles ( as had been apprehended ) began to disclose themselves in the Water , and ascending to the top of the Siphon , imbodyed themselves there into one , which was augmented by little and little , by the rising of other bubbles that from time to time broke into it , but much more by its own dilatation , which increas'd proportionably to the exsuction that was made of the Air out of the Receiver . So that at length the Water in the shorter Leg of the Siphon was reduc'd , partly by the extraction of the ambient Air , and partly by the expansion of the great Bubble at the upper part of the Siphon , to be but about a Foot high , if so much ; whereby it came to pass , that the course of the Water in the Siphon was interrupted , and that which remain'd in the longer Leg of it , continu'd suspended there without dropping any longer . But upon the turning of the Stop-cock , the outward Air ( being let into the Receiver ) got into the Siphon , by the little hole at which the Water formerly dropt out ; and traversing all the incumbent Cylinder of Water , in the form of Bubbles , joynd it self with that Air that before possess'd the top of the Siphon . To prevent the inconveniences arising from these Bubbles , two Glass Pipes , like the former , were so placed , as to terminate together in the midst of the Belly of a Glass Viol , into whose Neck they were carefully fasten'd with Cement ; and then both the Viol and the Pipes being ( which was not done without difficulty ) totally fill'd with Water , the Siphon describ'd in the fifth Figure , was plac'd with its shorter Leg in the Glass of Water as formerly ; and the Experiment being prosecuted after the same manner , much more Air than formerly was drawn out , before the bubbles , disclosing themselves in the water , were able to disturb the Experiment ; because that in the capacity of the Viol there was room enough for them to stretch themselves , without depressing the Water below the ends of the Pipes ; and during this time , the Water continued to drop out of the propending Leg of the Siphon . But at length the Receiver being very much empty'd , the passage of the Water through the Siphon ceas'd , the upper ends of the Pipes beginning to appear a little above theremaining Water in the Viol , whose dilated Air appear'd likewise to press down the Water in the Pipes , and fill the upper part of them . And hereby the continuity of the Water , and so the Experiment it self being interrupted we were invited to let in the Air again , which , according to its various proportions of pressure to that of the Air in the Viol and the Pipes , did for a good while exhibite a pleasing variety of Phaenomena , which we have not now the leasure to recite . And though upon the whole matter there seem'd little or no cause to doubt , but that , if the Bubbles had not disturb'd the Experiment , it would manifestly enough have appear'd that the course of Water through Siphons depends upon the pressure of the Air : yet we resolv'd , at our next leasure and conveniency , to try the Experiment again , with a quantity of Water before freed from Bubbles by the help of the same Engine . This occasion I have had to take notice of Siphons , puts me in mind of an odde kind of Siphon that I caus'd to be made ā pretty while ago ; and which hath been since , by an Ingenious Man of Your acquaintance , communicated to divers others . The occasion was this : An eminent Mathematician told me one day , that some inquisitive French Men ( whose Names I know not ) had observ'd , That in case one end of a slender and perforated Pipe of Glass be dip'd in Water , the liquor will ascend to some height in the Pipe , though held perpendicular to the plain of the Water . And , to satisfie me that he mis-related not the Experiment , he soon after brought two or three small Pipes of Glass , which gave me the opportunity of trying it : though I had the less reason to distrust it , because I remember I had often , in the long and slender Pipes of some weather Glasses , which I had caus'd to be made after a somewhat peculiar fashion , taken notice of the like ascension of the Liquor , though ( presuming it might be casual ) I had made but little reflexion upon it . But after this tryal , beginning to suppose , that though the Water in these Pipes that were brought me , rise not above a quarter of an Inch , ( if near so high ) yet , if the Pipes were made slender enough , the Water might rise to a very much greater height ; I caus'd several of them to be , by a dexterous Hand , drawn out at the flame of a Lamp , in one of which that was almost incredibly slender we found that the Water ascended ( as it were of it self ) five Inches by measure , to the no small wonder of some famous Mathematicians , who were Spectators of some of these Experiments . And this height the Water reach'd to , though the Pipe were held in as erected a posture as we could : For if it were inclin'd , the Water would fill a greater part of it , though not rise higher in it . And we also found , that when the inside of the Pipe was wetted beforehand , the Water would rise much better than otherways : But we caus'd not all our slender Pipes to be made streight , but some of them crooked , like Siphons : And having immers'd the shorter Leg of one of these into a Glass that held some fair Water , we found , as we expected , that the Water arising to the top of the Siphon , though that were high enough , did of it self run down the longer Leg , and continue running like an ordinary Siphon . The cause of this ascension of the Water , appear'd to all that were present so difficult , that I must not stay to enumerate the various Conjectures that were made at it , much less to examine them ; especially having nothing but bare Conjectures to substitute in the room of those I do not approve . We try'd indeed , by conveying a very slender Pipe and a small Vessel of Water into our Engine , whether or no the exsuction of the ambient Air would assist us to find the cause of the ascension we have been speaking of : But though we imploy'd red Wine instead of Water , yet we could scarce certainly perceive thorow so much Glass , as was interpos'd betwixt our eyes and the Liquor , what happen'd in a Pipe so slender that the redness of the Wine was scarce sensible in it . But as far as we could discern , there happen'd no great alteration to the Liquor : which seem'd the less strange , because the spring of that Air that might depress the Water in the Pipe , was equally debilitated with that which remain'd to press upon the surface of the Water in the little Glass . Wherefore , in favor of his Ingenious Conjecture who ascrib'd the Phaenomenon under consideration , to the greater pressure made upon the water by the Air without the Pipe , than by that within it , ( where so much of the Water ( consisting perhaps of Corpuscles more pliant to the internal surfaces of the Air ) was contiguous to the Glass ) it was shown , that in case the little Glass Vessel that held the water , of which a part ascended into the slender Pipe , were so clos'd , that a Man might with his mouth suck the Air out of it , the water would immediately subside in the small Pipe. And this would indeed infer , that it ascended before onely by the pressure of the incumbent Air ; But that it may ( how justly I know not ) be objected , That peradventure this would not happen , in case the upper end of the Pipe were in a Vacuum : And that 't is very probable the water may subside , not because the pressure of the internal Air is taken off by Exsuction , but by reason of the spring of the external Air , which impels the Water it findes in its way to the cavity deserted by the other Air , and would as well impel the same water upwards , as make it subside , if it were not for the accidental posture of the Glasses . However , having not now leisure to examine any farther this Matter , I shall onely mind Your Lordship , that if You will prosecute this Speculation , it will be pertinent to find out likewise , Why the surface of water ( as is manifest in Pipes ) useth to be concave , being depress'd in the middle , and higher on every side ? and why in Quicksilver on the contrary , not onely the surface is wont to be very convex , or swelling , in the middle ; but if you dip the end of a slender Pipe in it , the surface of the Liquor ( as 't is call'd ) will be lower within the Pipe , than without . Which Phaenomena , whether , and how far , they may be deduc'd from the Figure of the mercurial Corpuscles , and the Shape of the springy Particles of the Air , I willingly leave to be consider'd . EXPERIMENT XXXVI . SEveral ways we have met with propos'd , partly by the excellent Galileo , and partly by other ingenious Writers , to manifest that the Air is not devoid of weight ; some of these require the previous absence of the Air to be weighed ; and others , the violent condensation of it . But if we could list a pair of Scales above the Atmosphere , or place them in a Vacuum , we might there weigh a parcel of Air it self , as here we do other Bodies in the Air , because it would there be heavier than that which surrounds it , as are grosser Bodies we commonly weigh , than the medium or ambient Air. Wherefore , though we have above declin'd to affirm , that our Receiver , when emptyed , deserves the name of a true Vacuum , and though we cannot yet perfectly free it from Air it self , yet we thought fit to try how far the Air would manifest its gravity in so thin a medium , as we could make in our . Receiver , by evacuating it . We caus'd then to be blown at the Flame of a Lamp , a Glass bubble of about the bigness of a small Hen-egge , and of an Oval form , save that at one end there was drawn out an exceeding slender Pipe , that the Bubble might be sealed up , with as little rarefaction as might be , of the Air included in the great or Oval Cavity of it . This Glass being sealed , was fastened to one of the Scales of the exact pair of Ballances formerly mention'd ; and being counterpois'd with a weight of Lead , was convey'd into the Receiver , and clos'd up in it . The Beam appearing to continue Horizontal , the Pump was set on work , and there scarce past above two or three Exsuctions of the Air , before the Ballance lost its Equilibrium , and began to incline to that side on which the Bubble was ; which , as the Air was farther and farther drawn out , did manifestly more and more preponderate , till he that pumped began to grow weary of his Imployment : after which the Air being leisurely let in againe , the Scales by degrees returned to their former Equilibrium . After that we took them out , and casting into that Scale to which the lead belonged three quarters of a grain , we conveyed the ballance into the Receiver , which being closed up , and exhausted as before , we observ'd , that as the Air was drawn out more and more , so the Glass bubble came nearer and nearer to an Equilibrium with the other weight , till at length the Beam was drawn to hang Horizontal ; which ( as we had found by another tryal ) we could not bring it to do , when a quarter of a Grain more was added to the Scale , to which the Lead belong'd : though it seem'd questionless , that if we could have perfectly empty'd the Receiver of the contain'd Air , that included in the bubble would have weighed above a Grain , notwithstanding its having been probably somewhat rarefied by the flame , by the help of which , the bubble was seal'd up . Let us adde , That on the regress of the excluded Air , the Lead , and the weight cast into the same scale , did again very much preponderate . We likwise convey'd into the Receiver , the same bubble , open'd at the end of the slender Pipe above-mention'd , but having drawn out the Air , after the accustomed manner , we found not as before , the bubble to out-weigh the opposite Lead : so that by the help of our Engine we can weigh the Air , as we weigh other Bodies , in its natural or ordinary consistence , without at all condensing it : Nay , which is remarkable , having convey'd a Lambs bladder about half full of Air into the Receiver , we observed , that though upon the drawing out of the ambient Air , the imprisoned Air so expanded it self , as to distend the Bladder so , as to seem ready to Break it ; yet this rarefied Air did manifestly depress the Scale whereunto it was annexed . Another thing we must not forget to mention , that happened to us , whilst we were making tryals concerning the weight of the Air ; namely , that having once caus'd the Pump to be somewhat obstinately ply'd , to discover the better what may be expected from the thinness of the medium in this Experiment ; the Imprison'd Air broke its brittle Prison , and throwing the greatest part of it against the side of the Receiver , dash'd it against that thick Glass into a multitude of pieces . Which accident I mention , partly that it may confirm what we deliver'd in our Reflexions , upon the first Experiment , where we considered what would probably be done by the spring of the Air Imprison'd in such Glasses , in case the ballancing pressure of the ambient Air were withdrawn ; and partly , that we may thence discern of how close a Texture Glass is , since so very thin a film of Glass ( if I may so call it ) prov'd so impervious to the Air , that it could not get away through the Pores , but was forc'd to break the Glass in pieces to free it self ; and this , notwithstanding the time and advantage it had to try to get out at the Pores . And this I mention , that neither our Experiments , nor those of divers Learned Men , might receive any prejudice from an Experiment which I happen'd to make divers years ago , and which , having been so much taken notice of by curious Men , may be drawn to countenance their erroneous Opinion , who would fain perswade us , That Glass is penetrable by Air properly so called . Our Experiment was briefly this : We were distilling a certain Substance , that much abounded with subtle Spirits and volatile Salt , in a strong Earthen vessel of an unusual shape , to which was luted a large Receiver , made of the course sort of Glass ( which the Trades-men are wont to call green Glass ) but in our absence , the Fire , though it were to be very strong , was , by the negligence or mistake of those we appointed to attend it , so excessively increas'd , that when we came back to the Fornace , we found the spirituous and saline Corpuscles pour'd out ( if I may so call it ) so hot , and so copiously into the Receiver , that they made it all opacous , and more likely to flie in pieces , than fit to be touch'd . Yet , being curious to observe the effects of a Distillation , prosecuted with so intense and unusual a degree of heat , we ventur'd to come near , and observ'd , among other things , that on the outside of the Receiver , at a great distance from the juncture , there was setled a round whitish Spot or two , which at first we thought might be some stain upon the Glass ; but after , finding it to be in divers Qualities like the Oyl and Salt of the Concrete we were Distilling , we began to suspect that the most subtle and fugitive parts of the impetuously ascending Steams , had penetrated the substance ( as they speak ) of the Glass , and by the cold of the ambient Air were condensed on the surface of it . And though we were very backward to credit this suspition , and therefore call'd in an Ingenious Person or two , both to assist us in the Observation , and have Witness of its event , we continued a while longer to watch the escape of such unctuous Fumes ; and upon the whole matter unanimously concluded that ( all things consider'd ) the subtle parts of the distill'd matter being violently agitated , by the excessive heat that pass'd through the Pores of the Glass , widn'd by the same heat . But this having never happen'd but once in any of the Distillations we have either made or seen , though these be not a few , it is much more reasonable to suppose , that the perviousness of our Receiver to a Body much more subtle than Air , proceeded partly from the looser Texture of that particular parcel of Glass the Receiver was made of ( for Experience hath taught us , that all Glass is not of the same compactness and solidity ) and partly from the enormous heat , which , together with the vehement agitation of the penetrant Spirits , open'd the Pores of the Glass ; than to imagine that such a substance as Air , should be able to permeate the Body of Glass contrary to the testimony of a thousand Chymical and Mechanical Experiments , and of many of those made in our Engine , especially that newly recited : Nay , by our fifth Experiment it appears that a thin Bladder will not at its Pores give passage even to rarefied Air. And on this occasion we will annex an Experiment , which hath made some of those we have acquainted with it , doubt , whether the Corpuscles of the Air be not less subtle than those of Water . But without examining here the reasonableness of that doubt , we will proceed to recite the Experiment it self , which seems to teach , That though Air , when sufficiently compressed , may perchance get entrance into narrower holes and crannies than Water ; yet unless the Air be forc'd in at such very little holes , it will not get in at them , though they may be big enough to let Water pass through them . The Experiment then was this : I took a fair Glass Siphon , the lower end of whose longest Leg was drawn by degrees to such a slenderness , that the Orifice , at which the Water was to fall out , would hardly admit a very small Pin : This Siphon being inverted , the matter was so order'd , that a little Bubble of Air was intercepted in the slenderest part of the Siphon , betwixt the little hole newly mention'd , and the incumbent Water , upon which it came to pass , that the Air being not to be forc'd through so narrow a passage , by so light a Cylinder of Water , ( though amounting to the length of divers Inches , ) as lean'd upon it , hindered the farther efflux of the Water , as long as I pleased to let it stay in that narrow place : whereas , when by blowing a little at the wider end of the Siphon , that little parcel of Air was forced out with some Water , the remaining Water , that before continu'd suspended , began freely to drop down again as formerly . And if you take a Glass Pipe , whether it be in the form of a Siphon , or no , that being for the most part of the thickness of a Mans Finger , is yet towards one end so slender , as to terminate in a hole almost as small as a Horse-hair ; and if you fill this Pipe with Water , you will find that Liquor to drop down freely enough thorow the slender Extream : But if you then invert the Pipe , you will find that the Air will not easily get in at the same hole through which the Water passed . For in the sharp end of the Pipe , some Inches of water will remain suspended , which , 't is probable , would not happen , if the Air could get in to succeed it , since if the hole were a little wider , the Water would immediately subside . And though it be true , that if the Pipe be of the length of many Inches , a great part of the Water will run down at the wider Orifice : yet that seems to happen for some other reason , than because the Air succeeds it at the upper and narrow Orifice , since all the slender part of the Pipe , and perhaps some Inches more , will continue full of Water . And on this occasion I remember , that whereas it appears by our fifth Experiment , That the Aërial Corpuscles ( except perhaps some that are extraordinarily fine ) will not pass thorow the Pores of a Lambs Bladder , yet Particles of Water will , as we have long since observ'd , and as may be easily try'd , by very closely tying a little Alcalizate Salt ( we us'd the Calx of Tartar made with Nitre ) in a fine Bladder , and dipping the lower end of the Bladder in Water ; for if you hold it there for a competent while , you will find that there will strain thorow the Pores of the Bladder , Water enough to dissolve the Salt into a Liquor . But I see I am slip'd into a Digression , wherefore I will not examine , whether , the Experiment I have related , proceeded from hence , That the springy Texture of the Corpuscles of the Air , makes them less apt to yield and accommodate themselves easily to the narrow Pores of Bodies , than the more flexible Particles of Water ; or whether it may more probably be ascrib'd to some other Cause . Nor will I stay to consider how far we may hence be assisted to ghess at the cause of the ascension of Water in the slender Pipes , and Siphons formerly mention'd , but will return to our Bubble ; and take notice , That we thought fit also to endeavor to measure the capacity of the Bubble we had made use of , by filling it with Water , that we might the better know how much Water answer'd in weight to ¾ of a Grain of Air , but notwithstanding all the diligence that was used to preserve so brittle a Vessel , it broke before we could perfect that we were about , and we were not then provided of another Bubble fit for our turn . The haste I was in , My Lord , when I sent away the last Sheet , made me forget to take notice to you of a Problem that occurr'd to my thoughts , upon the occasion of the slow breaking of the Glass Bubble in our evacuated Receiver . For it may seem strange , since by our sixth Experiment it appears , that the Air , when permitted , will by its own internal Spring expand it self twice as much as Mersennus was able to expand it , by the heat even of a candent AEolipile : Yet the Elater of the Air was scarce able to break a very thin Glass Bubble , and utterly unable to break one somewhat thicker , within whose cavity it was imprison'd ; whereas Air pen'd up and agitated by heat is able to perform so much more considerable effects , that ( not to mention those of Rarefaction that are more obvious ) the Learned Jesuit Cabaeus ( he that writ of the Load-stone ) relates , That he saw a Marble Pillar ( so vast , that three men together with display'd arms could not imbrace it , and that 1000 Yoke of Oxen drawing it several ways with all their strength , could not have torn it assunder ) quite broken off in the midst , by reason of some Wood , which happening to be burnt just by the Pillar the heat proceeding from the neighbouring Fir , so rarefied some Air or Spirituous Matter which was shut up in the cavities of the Marble , that it broke through the solid Body of the Stone to obtain room to expand it self . I remember I have taken notice that probably the reason why the included Air did not break the hermetically seal'd Bubbles that remain'd intire in our emptyed Receiver , was , That the Air , being somewhat rarefied by the flame imploy'd to close the Glass , its Spring , upon the recess of the heat , grew weaker than before . But though we reject not that ghess , yet it will not in the present case serve the turn , because that much smaller Glass bubbles exactly clos'd , will , by the included Air ( though agitated by the heat of a very moderate Fire ) be made to fly in pieces . Whether we may be assisted to salve this Problem , by considering that the heat doth from within vehemently agitate the Corpuscles of the Air , and add its assistance to the Spring they had before , I shall not now examine : since I here but propose a Problem , and that chiefly that by this memorable Story of Cabaeus , notice may be taken of the prodigious power of Rarefaction , which hereby appears capable of performing stranger things than any of our Experiments have hitherto ascrib'd to it . We should hence , My Lord , immediately proceed to the next Experiment , but that we think it fit , on this occasion , to acquaint You with what some former tryals ( though not made in our Engine ) have taught us , concerning what we would have discover'd by the newly mention'd Bubble that broke . And this the rather , because ( a great part of this Letter supposing the gravity of the Air ) it will not be impertinent to determine more particularly than hitherto we have done , what gravity we ascribe to it . We took then an AEolipile made of Copper , weighing six ounces , five drachms , and eight and forty grains : this being made as hot as we durst make it , ( for fear of melting the mettle , or at least the Sodar ) was removed from the fire and immediately stopped with hard Wax that no Air at all might get in at the little hole , wont to be left in AEolipiles for the fumes to issue out at : Then the AEolipile being suffer'd leasurely to cool , was again weighed together with the Wax that stopt it , and was found to weigh ( by reason of the additional weight of the Wax ) six ounces , six drachms , and 39 grains . Lastly , the Wax being perforated without taking any of it out of the Scale , the external Air was suffered to rush in ( which it did with some noise ) and then the AEolipile and Wax , being again weighed amounted to six ounces , six drachms , and 50 grains . So that the AEolipile freed as far as our fire could free it , from its Air , weighed less than it self when replenished with Air , full eleven grains . That is , the Air containable within the cavity of the AEolipile amounted to eleven grains and somewhat more ; I say somewhat more , because of the particles of Air , that were not driven by the fire out of the AEolipile . And by the Way ( if there be no mistake in the observations of the diligent Mersennus ) it may seem strange that it should so much differ from 2 or 3 of ours ; in none of which we could rarefie the Air in our AEolipile ( though made red hot almost all over , and so immediately plung'd into cold Water ) to half that degree which he mentions , namely to 70 times its natural extent , unless it were that the AEolipile he imploy'd was able to sustain a more vehement heat than ours ( which yet we kept in so great an one , that once the Soder melting , it fell asunder into the two Hemispheres it consists of . ) The fore-mentioned way of weighing the Air by the help of an AEolipile , seems somewhat more exact than that which Mersennus used , In that in ours the AEolipile was not weighed , till it was cold ; whereas in his , being weighed red hot , it is subject to lose of its substance in the cooling , for ( as we have elsewhere noted on another occasion ) Copper heated red hot , is wont in the cooling to throw off little thin seales in such plenty , that having purposely watched a Copper AEolipile during its refrigeration , we have seen the place round about it almost covered with those little scales it had every way scatter'd : which , however they amount not to much , ought not to be over-looked , when 't is so light a Body as Air , that is to be weighed . We will not examine whether , the AEolipile in cooling may not receive some little increment of weight , either from the vapid or saline Steams that wander up and down in the Air : But we will rather mention , that ( for the greater exactness ) we imployed to weigh our AElipile , both when fill'd only with Air and when replenish'd with Water , a pair of Scales that would turn ( as they speak ) with the fourth part of a grain . As to the proportion of weight betwixt Air and Water , some learned men have attempted it by ways so unaccurate that they seem to have much mistaken it . For ( not to mention the improbable accounts of Kepler and others . ) The learned and diligent Ricciolus , having purposely endeavoured to investigate this proportion by means of a thin bladder , estimates the weight of the Air to that of the Water to be as one to ten thousand , or there abouts . And indeed I remember that having formerly , on a certain occasion , weighed a large bladder full of Air , and found it when the Air was all squeesed out , to have contained fourteen grains of Air. I found the same bladder afterwards fill'd with Water to contain very near 14 pound of that liquor : according to which account , the proportion of Air to Water was almost as a grain to a pound , that is , as one , to above 7600. To this we may add , that on the other side , Galileo himself using another , ( but an unaccurate way too , ) defined the Air to be in weight to Water , but as one to 4 hundred . But the way formerly proposed of weighing the Air by an AEolipile , seems by great odds more exact ; and ( as far as we could ghess ) seemed to agree well enough with the Experiment made in our Receiver . Wherefore it will be best to trust our AEolipile in the enquiry we are about . And according to our observations the water it contained amounting to one and twenty ounces and an half , and as much Air as was requisite to fill it weighing eleven grains , the proportion in gravity of Air to Water of the same bulk will be as one to 938. And though we could not fill the AEolipile with water , so exactly as we would , yet in regard we could not neither as perfectly as we would , drive the Air out of it by heat , we think the proportion may well enough hold : but those that are delighted with round numbers ( as the phrase is ) will not be much mistaken if they reckon Water to be near a thousand times heavier than Air. And ( for farther proof that we have made the proportion betwixt these two Bodies rather greater than lesser than indeed it is : and also to confirm our former observation of the weight of the Air ) we will add , That , having another time put some Water into the AEolipile before we set it on the fire , that the copious vapours of the rarefied liquor might the better drive out the Air , we found , upon tryal carefully made , that when the AEolipile was refrigerated , and the included vapours were by the cold turned again into Water ( which could not have happen'd to the Air , that the preceding Steams expelled ) the Air , when it was let in , increas'd the weight of the AEolipile as much as before , namely , Eleven Grains ; though there were already in it twelve Drachms and a half , besides a couple of Grains of Water , which remained of that we had formerly put into it to drive out the Air. Mersennus indeed tells us , that by his account Air is in weight to Water , as 1 to 1356. And adds , that we may , without any danger , believe that the gravity of Water to that of Air of a like bulk , is not less than of 1300 to 1. And consequently that the quantity of Air to a quantity of Water equiponderant thereto , is as 1300 to 1. But why we should relinquish our own carefully repeated tryals , I see not . Yet I am unwilling to reject those of so accurate and usefull a Writer : And therefore shall propose a way of reconciling our differing Observations , by presenting , that the discrepance between them may probably arise from the differing consistence of the Air at London and at Paris : For our Air being more cold and moist , than that which Your Lordship now breaths , may be suppos'd also to be a fourth or fifth part more heavy . I leave it to be consider'd , whether it be of any moment that our Observations were made in the midst of Winter , whereas his were perhaps made in some warmer time of the Year . But I think it were not amiss , that , by the method formerly propos'd , the gravity of the Air were observ'd both in several Countries , and in the same Country , in the several Seasons of the Year and differing Temperatures of the Weather . And I would give something of value to know the weight of such an AEolipile as ours full of Air , in the midst of Winter in Nova Zembla , if that be true which we formerly ●ook notice of , namely , That the Hollanders , who Wintered there , found that Air so thick that their Clock would not go . If Your Lordship should now ask me , if I could not by the help of these , and our other Observations , decide the Controversies of our Modern Mathematicians about the height of the Air or Atmosphere , by determining how high it doth indeed reach : I should answer , That though it seems easie enough to shew that divers Famous and Applauded Writers have been mistaken in assigning the height of the Atmosphere : Yet it seems very difficult precisely to define of what height it is . And because we have hitherto but lightly touch'd upon a matter of such importance , we presume it will not be thought impertinent , upon this occasion , to annex something towards the Elucidation of it . What we have already try'd and newly set down , allows us to take it for granted , that ( at least about London ) the proportion of gravity betwixt Water and Air , of equal bulk , is as of a thousand to one . The next thing therefore that we are to enquire after , in order to our present design , is the difference in weight betwixt Water and Quick-silver : And though this hath been defin'd already by the Illustrious Verulam , and some other inquisitive Persons , that have compared the weight of several Bodies , and cast their Observations into Tables , yet we shall not scruple to annex our own tryals about it : Partly , because we find Authors considerably to disagree ; partly , because we used exacter Scales , and a somewhat more wary method than others seem to have done : And partly also , because having prosecuted our inquiry by two or three several ways ; the small difference between the events may assure us that we were not much mistaken . We took then a Glass Pipe , of the form of an inverted Siphon , whose shape is delineated in the sixteenth Figure : And pouring into it a quantity of Quick-silver , we held it so , that the superficies of the Liquor , both in the longer and shorter leg , lay in a Horizontal Line , denoted in the Scheme by the prick'd Line E F ; then pouring Water into the longer Leg of the Siphon , till that was almost fill'd , we observ'd the surface of the Quick-silver in that Leg to be , by the weight of the Water , depressed , as from E to B ; and in the shorter Leg , to be as much impell'd upwards as from F to C : Whereupon having formerly stuck marks , as well at the point B , as at the opposite point D , we measur'd both the distance D C to have the height of the Cylinder of Quick-silver , which was raised above the point D ( level with the surface of the Quick-silver in the other Leg ) by the weight of the Water , and the distance B A which gave us the height of the Cylinder of Water . So that the distance D C amounting to 2 13\54 Inches , and the height of the Water amounting 30 45\54 Inches ; and the whole numbers on both sides , which the annexed Fractions being reduc'd to improper Fractions of the same denomination , the proportion , appear'd to be ( the denominators being left out as equal on both sides ) as 121 to 1665 ; or by reduction , as one to 92 / 121. Besides this unusual way of determining the gravity of some things , we measur'd the proportion betwixt Quick-silver and Water , by the help of so exact a ballance , as looseth its AEquilibrium by the hundredth part of a Grain . But because there is wont to be committed an oversight in weighing Quick-silver and Water , especially if the Orifice of the Vessel wherein they are put be any thing wide , in regard that men heed not that the surface of Water in Vessels will be concave , but that of Quick-silver notably convex or protuberant : To avoid this usual oversight ( I say ) we made use of a Glass bubble , blown very thin at the Flame of a Lamp , that it might not be too heavy for the Ballance , and terminating in a very slender neck wherein the concavity or convexity of a Liquor could not be considerable : This Glass weighing 23½ Grains , we fill'd almost with Quick-silver , and fastning a mark over against the middle of the protuberant Superficies as near as our Eyes could judge , we found that the Quick-silver alone weighed 299 7 / 12 Grains ; Then the Quick-silver being pour'd out , and the same Glass being fill'd as full of common Water , we found the Liquor to weigh 21⅞ Grains . Whereby it appear'd the weight of Water to Quick-silver , is as one to 13 19 / 28 : Though our Illustrious Verulam ( questionless not for want of Judgment or Care , but of exact Instruments ) Makes the proportion betwixt those two Liquors to be greater than of 1 to 17. And to add , that upon the bye , since Quick-silver and well rectified Spirit of Wine , are ( how justly I say not ) accounted , the one the heaviest , and the other the lightest of Liquors ; we thought to fill the same Glass , and with the same Scales to observe the difference betwixt them , which we found to be as of 1 to 16 641 / 1084 ; whereby it appear'd , That the difference betwixt Spirit of Wine , that may be made to burn all away , ( such as was ours ) and common Water , is as betwixt 1 and 1 44 / 171. We might here take occasion to admire , that though Water ( as appear'd by the Experiment formerly mention'd of the Pewter Vessel ) seems not capable of any considerable condensation , and seems not to have interspersed in it any store of Air ; yet Quick-silver , of no greater bulk than Water , should weigh near fourteen times as much . But having only pointed at this as a thing worthy of consideration , we will proceed in our inquiry after the height of the Atmosphere : And to avoid the trouble of Fractions , we will assume , that Quick-silver is fourteen times as heavy as Water , since it wants so little of being so . Wherefore , having now given us the proportion of Air to Water , and Water to Quick-silver , it will be very easie to find the proportion betwixt Air and Quick-silver , in case we will suppose the Atmosphere to be uniformly of such a consistence as the Air we weighed here below . For since our Engine hath sufficiently manifested that 't is the AEquilibrium with the external Air , that in the Torricellian Experiment keeps the Quick-silver from subsiding ; And since , by our accurate Experiment formerly mention'd , it appears that a Cylinder of Mercury , able to ballance a Cylinder of the whole Atmosphere , amounted to near about thirty Inches ; and since , consequently we may assume the proportion of Quick-silver to Air to be as fourteen thousand to one ; it will follow , that a Cylinder of Air , capable to maintain an AEquilibrium , with a Mercurial Cylinder of two Foot and an half in height , must amount to 35000 Feet of our English measure ; and consequently ( reckoning five Foot to a Geometrical Pace , and one thousand such Paces to a Mile ) to seven full Miles . But this ( as we lately intimated ) proceeds upon the supposition , that the Air is every where of the same consistence that we found it near the surface of the Earth ; but that cannot with any safety be concluded , not only for the reason I find to have been taken notice of by the Ancients , and thus exprest in Seneca . Omnis Aër ( says he ) quo propior est terris hoc crassior ; quemadmodum in aqua & in omni humore faex ima est , ita in Aëre spississima-quaeque desidunt , but much more , because the springy Texture of the Aerial Corpuscles ; makes them capable of a very great compression , which the weight of the incumbent part of the Atmosphere is very sufficient to give those that be undermost and near the surface of the Earth . And if we recall to mind those former Experiments , whereby we have manifested , That Air , much rarefied without heat , may easily admit a farther rarefaction from heat , and that the Air , even without being expanded by heat , is capable of being rarefied to above one hundred and fifty times the extent it usually possesseth here below ; How can it be demonstrated that the Atmosphere may not , for ought we know , or at least for ought can be determin'd by our Statical and Mechanical Experiments , rise to the height of Five and twenty German Leagues , if not of some hundred of common Miles ? And this conjecture it self may appear very injurious to the height whereunto Exhalations may ascend , if we will allow that there was no mistake in that strange Observation made at Tolouse in a clear Night in August , by the diligent Mathematician Emamuel Magnan , and thus Recorded by Ricciolus , for I have not at hand the Author 's own Book : Vidit ( says he ) ab hora undecima post meridiem usque ad mediam noctem Lunâ infra horizontem positâ , nubeculam quandam lucidam prope Meridianum fere usque ad Zenith diffusam quae consideratis omnibus non poterat nisi à sole illuminari ; ideoque altior esse debuit tota umbra terrae . Addit ( continues Ricciolus ) simile quid evenisse Michaeli Angelo Riccio apud Sabinos versanti nempe viro in Mathesi eruditissimo . Various Observations made at the feet , tops , and interjacent parts of high Mountains , might perchance somewhat assist us to make an estimate in what proportion , if in any certain one , the higher Air is thicker than the lower , and ghess at the difform consistence , as to laxity and compactness of the Air at several distances from us . And if the difficulties about the refractions of the Celestial Lights , were satisfactorily determin'd , that might also much conduce to the placing due limits to the Atmosphere ( whose , Dimensions those Observations about Refractions seem hitherto much to contract . ) But for the present we dare not pronounce any thing peremptorily concerning the height of it , but leave it to farther inquiry : contenting our selves to have manifested the mistake of divers eminent Modern Writers , who will not allow the Atmosphere to exceed above two or three Miles in height ( as the Famous Kepler will not the Aër refractivus ) and to have rendred a reason why in the mention we made in the Notes upon the first Experiment touching the height of the Atmosphere , we scrupled not to speak of it , as if it might be many Miles high . EXPERIMENT XXXVII . WE will now proceed to recite a Phaenomenon , which , though made amongst the first , we thought fit not to mention till after many others , that we might have the opportunity to observe as many Circumstances of it as we could , and so present Your Lordship at once , most of what we at several times have taken notice of concerning so odd a Phaenomenon . Our Engine had not been long finish'd , when , at the first leisure we could steal from our occasions to make trial of it , we caused the Air to be pump'd out of the Receiver ; and whilst I was busied in entertaining a Learned Friend that just then came to visit me , an Ingenious By-stander , thought he perceiv'd some new kind of Light in the Receiver , of which giving me hastily notice , my Friend and I presently observ'd , that when the Sucker was drawn down , immediately upon the turning of the Key , there appear'd a kind of Light in the Receiver , almost like a faint flash of Lightning in the Day-time , and almost as suddenly did it appear and vanish . Having , not without some amazement , observ'd divers of these apparitions of Light , we took notice that the Day was clear , the hour about ten in the Morning , that the only Window in the Room faced the North ; and also , that by interposing a Cloak , or any opacous Body between the Receiver and the Window , though the rest of the Room were sufficiently enlightned , yet the flashes did not appear as before , unless the opacous Body were removed . But not being able on all these Circumstances to ground any firm Conjecture at the cause of this surprising Phaenomenon , as soon as Night was come , we made the Room very dark ; and plying the Pump , as in the Morning , we could not , though we often try'd , find , upon the turning of the Key , so much as the least glimmering of Light ; whence we inferred , that the flash appearing in the Receiver , did not proceed from any new Light generated there , but from some reflexions of the light of the Sun , or other Luminous Bodies plac'd without it ; though whence the Reflexion should proceed , it pos'd us to conjecture . Wherefore the next Morning , hoping to inform our selves better , we went about to repeat the Experiment , but though we could as well as formerly exhaust the Receiver , though the place wherein we made the trial was the very same ; and though other Circumstances were resembling , yet we could not discover the least appearance of Light all that Day , nor on divers others on which trial was again fruitlesly made ; nor can we to this very time be sure a Day before-hand that these Flashes will be to be seen in our great Receiver . Nay , having once found the Engine in a good humour ( if I may so speak ) to shew this trick , and sent notice of it to our Learned Friend Dr. Wallis , who express'd a great desire to see this Phaenomenon , though he were not then above a Bow-shoot off , and made haste to fatisfie his Curiosity ; yet by that time he was come , the thing he came for was no longer to be seen ; so that having vainly endeavoured to exhibit again the Phaenomenon in his prefence , I began to apprehend what he might think of me , when unexpectedly the Engine presented us a flash , and after that a second , and as many more , as suffic'd to satisfie him that we might very well confidently relate , that we have our selves seen this Phaenomenon , though not confidently promise to shew it others . And this unsuccessfulness whereto our Experiment is liable , being such , that by all our watchfulness and trials , we could never reduce it to any certain Rules or Observations ; since in all constitutions of the Weather , times of the Day , &c. It will sometimes answer , and sometimes disappoint our expectations ; We are much discourag'd from venturing to frame an Hypothesis to give an account of it : which if the Experiment did constantly succeed , might the more hopefully be attempted ; by the help of the following Phaenomena laid together : some of them produc'd upon trials purposely made to examine the validity of the conjectures , other trials had suggested . First then we observ'd , that the Apparition of Light may be made as well by Candle-light , as by Day-light ; and in whatever position the Candle be held , in reference to the Receiver , as on this or that hand of it , above it , beneath it , or any other way , provided the beams of Light be not hinder'd from falling upon the Vessel . Next , we noted that the flash appears immediately upon the turning of the Key , to let the Air out of the Receiver into the emptied Cylinder , in so much that I remember not that when at any time in our great Receiver , the Stop-cock was open'd before the Cylinder was exhausted ( whereby it came to pass that the Air did rather descend , than rush into the Cylinder ) the often mentioned flash appear'd to our eyes . Yet , we farther observ'd , that when instead of the great Receiver we made use of a small Glass , not containing above a pound and a half of Water , the Phaenomenon might be exhibited though the Stop-cock were open , provided the Sucker were drawn nimbly down . We noted too , that when we began to empty the Receiver , the appearances of Light were much more conspicuous than towards the latter end , when little Air at a time could pass out of the Receiver . We observed also , that when the Sucker had not been long before well Oyl'd , and instead of the great Receiver , the smaller Vessel above-mention'd was emptied ; We observ'd , I say , that then , upon the opening of the Stop-cock , as the Air descended out of the Glass into the emptied Cylinder , so at the same time there ascended out of the Cylinder into the Vessel a certain steam , which seem'd to consist of very little Bubbles , or other minute Corpuscles thrown up from the Oyl , rarefied by the attrition it suffered in the Cylinder . For at the same time that these Steams ascended into the Glass , some of the same kind manifestly issued out like a little Pillar of Smoke at the Orifice of the Valve , when that was occasionally opened . And these Steams frequently enough presenting themselves to our view , we found , by exposing the Glass to a clear Light , that they were wont to play up and down in it , and so by their whitishness , to emulate in some measure the apparition of Light. For we likewise sometimes found , by watchfull observation , that when the Flash was great , not only at the very instant the Receiver lost of its transparency , by appearing full of some kind of whitish substance ; but that for some short time after the sides of the Glass continued somewhat opacous , and seem'd to be darken'd , as if some whitish Steam adher'd to the inside of them . He that would render a Reason of the Phaenomenon , whereof all these are not all the Circumstances , must do two things ; whereof the one is difficult , and the other little less than impossible : For he must give an account not only whence the appearing whiteness proceeds , but wherefore that whiteness doth sometimes appear , and sometimes not . For our part , we freely confess our selves at a loss about rendering a Reason of the less difficult part of the Problem : And though Your Lordship should ev'n press us to declare what Conjecture it was , that the above recited Circumstances suggested to us , we should propose the thoughts we then had , no otherwise than as bare Conjectures . In case then our Phaenomenon had constantly and uniformly appear'd , we should have suspected it to have been produc'd after some such manner as follows . First , we observ'd that , thought that which we saw in our Receiver seem'd to be some kind of Light , yet it was indeed but a whiteness which did ( as hath already been noted ) opacate ( as some speak ) the inside of the Glass . Next we consider'd , that our common Air abounds with Particles , or little Bodies , capable to reflect the beams of Light. Of this we might easily give divers proofs , but we shall name but two : The one , that vulgar observation of the Motes that appear in multitudes swimming up and down in the Air , when the Sun-beams shooting into a Room , or any other shady place , discover them , though otherwise the Eye cannot distinguish them from the rest of the Air : The other proof we will take from what we ( and no doubt very many others ) have observ'd , touching the Illumination of the Air in the Night . And we particularly remember , that , being at some distance from London one Night , that the People , upon a very welcome occasion , testified their Joy by numerous Bon-fires ; though , by reason of the Interposition of the Houses , we could not see the Fires themselves , yet we could plainly see the Air all enlighten'd over and near the City ; which argu'd , that the lucid Beams shot upwards from the fires , met in the Air with Corpuscles opacous enough to reflect them to our Eyes . A third thing that we considered , was , That white may be produc'd ( without excluding otherways , or denying invisible Pores in the solidest Bodies ) when the continuity of a Diaphanous Body happens to be interrupted by a great number of surfaces , which , like so many little Looking-glasses , do confusedly represent a multitude of little and seemingly contiguous Images of the lucid Body . We shall not insist on the explanation of this , but refer You for it to what we have said in another Paper ( touching Colours . ) But the Instances that seem to prove it are obvious : For Water or whites of Eggs beaten to froth , do lose their transparency and appear white . And having out of one of our lessers Receivers carefully drawn out the Air , and so order'd it , that the hole by which the Water was to get in , was exceeding small , that the Liquor might be the more broken in its passage thorow it , we observ'd with pleasure , That , the Neck being held under Water , and the little hole newly mention'd being open'd , the Water that rushed in was so broken , and acquired such a multitude of new Surfaces , that the Receiver seem'd to be full rather of Milk than Water . We have likewise found out , That by heating a lump of Crystal to a certain degree , and quenching it in fair Water , it would be discontinu'd by such a multitude of Cracks , ( which created new Surfaces within it ) that though it would not fall asunder , but retain its former shape , yet it would lose its transparency , and appear white . Upon these Considerations , My Lord , and some others , it seem'd not absur'd to imagine , That upon the rushing of the Air out of the Receiver into the empty'd Cylinder , the Air in the Receiver being suddenly and vehemently expanded , the Texture of it was as suddenly alter'd , and the parts made so to shift places ( and perhaps some of them to change postures ) as during their new and vehement motion and their varied situation , to disturb the wonted continuity , and so the Diaphaneity of the Air ; which ( as we have already noted ) upon its ceasing to be a transparent Body , without the interposition of colour'd things , must easily degenerate into white . Several things there were that made this Conjecture seem the less improbable . As first , That the whiteness always appear'd greater when the exsuction began to be made , whilst there was store of Air in the Receiver , than when the Air was in great part drawn out . And next , That , having exhausted the Receiver , and apply'd to the hole in the Stop-cock a large bubble of clear Glass , in such a manner , that we could at pleasure let the Air pass out at the small Glass into the great one , and easily fill the small one with Air again , We observ'd with pleasure , That , upon the opening the passage betwixt the two Glasses , the Air in the smaller having so much room in the greater to receive it , the Dissilition of that Air was so great , that the small Viol seem'd to be full of Milk ; and this Experiment we repeated several times . To which we may add , That , having provided a small Receiver , whose upper Orifice was so narrow that I could stop it with my Thumb , I observ'd , that when , upon the exsuction of the Air , the capacity of the Glass appear'd white , if , by a sudden removal of my Thumb , I let in the outward Air , that whiteness would immediately vanish . And whereas it may be objected , That in the Instance formerly mention'd , Water turning from perspicuous to white , there intervenes the Air , which is a Body of a Heterogeneous nature , and must turn it into Bubbles to make it lose its transparency . We may borrow an Answer from an Experiment we deliver in another Treatise , where we teach , how to make two very volatile Liquors , which being gently put together , are clear as Rock-water , and yet will almost in a moment , without the sub-ingression of Air to turn them into Bubbles , so alter the disposition of their insensible parts , as to become a white and consistent Body . And this happens not as in the precipitation of Benjamin , and some other Resinous Bodies , which being dissolv'd in spirit of Wine , may , by the effusion of fair Water , be turn'd into a seemingly Milky substance . For this whiteness belongs not to the whole Liquor , but to the Corpuscles of the dissolv'd Gum , which after a while subsiding leave the Liquor transparent , themselves only remaining white : Whereas in our case , 't is from the vary'd texture of the whole formerly transparent fluid Body , and not from this or that part , that this whiteness results : For the Body is white throughout , and will long continue so ; and yet may , in process of time , without any addition , be totally reduc'd into a transparent Body as before . But besides the Conjecture insisted on all this while , we grounded another upon the following Observation , which was , That having convey'd some smoke into our Receiver plac'd against a Window , we observ'd , that upon the exsuction of the Air , the Corpuscles that were swimming in it , did manifestly enough make the Receiver seem more opacous at the very moment of the rushing out of the Air : For considering that the whiteness , whose cause we enquire of , did but sometimes appear , it seem'd not impossible but that at such times the Air in the Receiver might abound with Particles , capable of reflecting the Light in the manner requisite to exhibite a white colour , by their being put into a certain unusual Motion . As may be in some measure illustrated by this , That the new motion of the freshly mention'd Fumes , made the inside of the Receiver appear somewhat darker than before : And partly by the nature of our formerly mention'd smoking Liquor , whose parts , though they seem'd transparent whilst they compos'd a Liquor , yet when the same Corpuscles , upon the unstopping of the Glass , were put into a new motion , and dispos'd after a new manner , they did opacate that part of the Air they mov'd in , and exhibited a greater whiteness than that which sometimes appears in our Pneumatical Vessel . Nor should we content our selves with this single Instance , to manifest , That little Bodies , which being rang'd after one manner , are Diaphanous and Colour-less , may , by being barely agitated , dispers'd , and consequently otherways rang'd , exhibit a colour , if we were not unwilling to rob our Collection of Experiments concerning Colours . But , My Lord , I foresee You may make some Objections against our proposed ghess , which perhaps I shall scarce be able to answer , especially , if You insist upon having me render a Reason why our Phaenomenon appears not constantly . I might indeed answer , that probably it would do so , if instead of our great Receiver we use such a small Viol as we have lately mention'd , wherein the Dissilition of the Air being much greater , is like to be the more conspicuous : Since I remember not that we ever made our trial with such small Vessels , without finding the expected whiteness to appear . But it would remain to be explicated , why in our great Receiver the Phaenomenon should sometimes be seen , and oftentimes not appear . And though that Conjecture which we last made should not be rejected , yet if we were farther press'd to assign a reason why the Air should abound with such Particles , as we there suppose , more at one time than another , we are not yet provided of any better Answer , than this general one , That the Air about us , ( and much more that within the Receiver , ) may be much alter'd by such causes as few are aware of : For , not to repeat those probable Arguments of this Assertion which we have occasionally mention'd here and there in the former part of this Epistle , we will here set down two or three Instances to verifie the same Proposition . First , I find that the Learned Josephus Acosta , among other Judicious Observations he made in America , hath this concerning the effects of some Winds : There are ( saith he ) Winds which naturally trouble the Water of the Sea , and make it green , and black ; others , clear as Crystal . Next , we have observ'd , That though we convey'd into the Receiver our Scales , and the Pendula formerly mention'd , clean and bright ; yet aster the Receiver had been empty'd , and the Air let in again , the gloss or lustre both of the one , and of the other , appear'd tarnish'd by a beginning rust . And in the last place , we will subjoyn an Observation we made some Years ago , which hath been heard of by divers Ingenious Men , and seen by some of them : We had , with pure Spirit of Wine , drawn a Tincture out of a certain Concrete which useth to be reckon'd among Mineral Bodies ; And this Tincture being very pure and transparent , we did , because we put a great value upon it , put into a Crystal Viol which we carefully stopp'd , and lock'd up in a Press among some other things that we specially priz'd . This Liquor being a Chymical Rarity , and besides very defecate , and of a pleasing Golden colour ; we had often occasion to look upon it , and so to take notice , that one time it seem'd to be very much troubled , and not clear as it was wont to be : Whereupon we imagined , that though it would be something strange , yet it was not impossible , that some Precipitation of the Mineral Corpuscles was then happening , and that thence the Liquor was opacated . But , finding after some days that though the expected Precipitation had not been made , yet the Liquor , retaining its former vivid Colour , was grown clear again as before ; we somewhat wondered at it , and locking it up again in the same Press , we resolved to observe , both whether the like changes would again appear in our Tincture ; and whether in case they should appear , they would be ascribable to the alterations of the Weather . But though , during the greatest part of a Winter and a Spring , we took pleasure to observe , how the Liquor would often grow turbid , and after a while clear again : Yet we could not find that these Mutations depended upon any that were manifest in the Air , which would be often dark and clouded , when the Tincture was clear and transparent ; as on the other side , in clear Weather the Liquor would appear sometimes troubled , and more opacous . So that being unable to give an account of these odd changes in our Tincture ( which we suppose we have not yet lost , though we know not whether it hath lost its fickle Nature ) either by those of the Air , or any thing else that occurr'd to our thoughts ; we could not but suspect , that there may be in divers Bodies , as it were Spontaneous Mutations , that is , such changes as depend not upon manifest Causes . But , My Lord , what hath been all this while said concerning our Phaenomenon , is offer'd to You , not as containing a satisfactory account of it , but to assist You to give Your self one . EXPERIMENT XXXVIII . WE took a Glass Vessel , open at the top , and into it we put a mixture of Snow and common Salt , ( such a mixture as we have in another Treatise largely discoursed of ) and into the midst of this mixture we set a Glass , of a Cylindrical form , closely stopp'd at the lower end with Plaister , and open at the upper , at which we fill'd it with common Water . These things being let down into the Receiver , and the Pump being set on work , the Snow began to melt somewhat faster than we expected ; Whether upon the account of the exsuction of the Air , or because there was but little of the Snow , or whether for any other Reason , it appear'd doubtfull . But however , by that time the Receiver had been considerably exhausted , which was done in less than ¼ of an hour , we perceived the Water near the bottom of the Glass Cylinder to Freeze , and the Ice by a little longer stay , seem'd to encrease , and to rise somewhat higher than the surface of the surrounding Liquor , whereinto almost all the Snow and Salt were resolv'd . The Glass being taken out , it appear'd that the Ice was as thick as the inside of the Glass it fill'd , though into that I could put my Thumb . The upper surface of the Ice was very concave , which whether it were due to any unheeded accident , or to the exsuction of the Air , we leave to be determin'd by farther trial . And lastly , the Ice held against the Light , appear'd not destitute of Bubbles , though some By-standers thought they were fewer than would have been found if the Water had been frozen in the open Air. The like Experiment we try'd also another time in one of our small Receivers , with not unlike success . And on this occasion , My Lord , give me leave to propose a Problem , which shall be this : Whence proceeds that strange force that we may sometimes observe in frozen Water , to break the Bodies that imprison it , though hard and solid ? That there is such a force in Water expos'd to Congelation , may be gathered not only from what may be often observ'd in Winter , of the bursting of Glasses too close stopp'd , fill'd with Water or aqueous Liquors , but by Instances as much more considerable as less obvious . For I remember , that an Ingenious Stone-cutter not long since complain'd to me , That sometimes , through the negligence of Servants , the Rain being suffered to soak into Marble Stones , the supervening violent Frosts would burst the Stones , to the Possessour's no small damage . And I remember another Trades-man , in whose House I had Lodgings , was last Winter complaining , that even Implements made of Bell-metal , being carelesly expos'd to the wet , have been broken and spoil'd by the Water , which , having gotten into the little Cavities and Crannies of the Metal , was there afterwards frozen and expanded into Ice . And to these Relations , we can add one of the formerly mention'd Cabaeus's , whereby they not only may be confirm'd ; but are surpass'd : For he tells us , That he saw a huge Vessel of exceeding hard Marble , split asunder by congeal'd Water , whose rarefaction , saith our Author , prov'd so vehement , that the hardness of the Stone yielded to it ; and so a vessel was broken , which would not have been so by 100 Yoke of Oxen drawing it several ways . I know , My Lord , that to solve this Problem , it will be said , That Congelation doth not ( as is commonly , but erroneously presum'd ) reduce Water into less room than it possess'd before , but rather makes it take up more . And I have elsewhere prov'd by particular Experiments , That whether or no Ice may be truly said to be Water rarefi'd ( for that seems questionable ) it may be said to take up more room than the Water did before Glaciation . But though we grant that freezing makes Water swell , yet , how cold ( which in Weather-Glasses manifestly condenseth the Air ) should expand either the Water , or the intercepted Air so forcibly , as to perform such things as we have newly related , will yet remain a Problem . EXPERIMENT XXXIX . WE took an Oval Glass , clear and ( lest it should break ) pretty strong , with a short Neck at the obtuser end ; through this Neck , we thrust almost to the bottom , a Pipe of Glass , which was closely cemented to the newly mention'd Neck , the upper part of which Pipe , was drawn in some places more slender than a Crows Quill , that the changes of the Air in that Glass Egg might be the more conspicuous ; Then there was convey'd into the Glass five or six Spoon-fulls of Water , part of which , by blowing Air into the Egg , was rais'd into the above-mention'd slender part of the Pipe , so that the Water was interpos'd between the external Air , and that included in the Egg. This Weather glass ( delineated in the fourteenth Figure ) was so plac'd , and clos'd up in the cavity of one of our small Receivers , that only the slender part of the Pipe , to the height of four or five Inches , passing thorow a hole in the Cover remain'd expos'd to the open Air. The Pump being set a work , upon the exsuction of the Air , the Water in the Pipe descended about a quarter of an Inch , and this upon two or three reiterated trials ; which seem'd sufficiently to argue , that there was no heat produc'd in the Receiver upon the exsuction of the Air : For even a little heat would probably have been discover'd by that Weather-glass , since upon the bare application of my hand to the outside of the Receiver , the warmth having after some time been communicated or propagated through both the Glasses , and the interval betwixt them , to the imprison'd Air , did so rarefie that , as to inable it , by pressing upon the subjacent Water , to impel that in the Pipe very many times as far as it had fallen downwards upon the exsuction of the Air. Yet shall not we conclude , that in the cavity of the Receiver the cold was greater after the exsuction of the Air than before . For if it be demanded what then could cause the fore-mention'd subsiding of the Water ? it may be answered , That probably it was the reaching of the Glass Egg , which , upon the exsuction of the ambient Air , was unable to resist altogether as much as formerly the pressure of the included Air , and of the Atmosphere , which , by the intervention of the Water , press'd upon its concave surface : Which seem'd probable , as well by what was above deliver'd , in the Experiment about the breaking of the Glass by the force of the Atmosphere ; as by this notable Circumstance ( which we divers times observ'd ) That when by drawing the Air out of the Receiver , the Water in the Pipe was subsided , upon the re-admission of the external Air , to press against the convex surface of the Egg , the Water was presently re-impell'd to its former height : Which would perhaps appear less strange to Your Lordship , if You had yet seen , what we have heretofore taught in another Treatise , concerning the Spring that may be discover'd in Glass , as rigid and inflexible a Body as it is generally esteem'd . And in the mean while it may serve the turn , to cause a Glass Egg to be blown exceeding thin ; and then , having broken it , try how far you can by degrees bend some narrow parts of it ; and how readily , upon the removal of what kept it bent , it will restore it self to its former state or posture . But to return to our Experiment : From thence it seems probable , either that there succeeds no Body in the room of the Air drawn out of our Receiver ; or that it is not every Matter that is suotle enough readily to pass through the Pores of Glass , that is always agitated enough to produce Heat where ever it is plentifully found . So that if no Vacuum be to be admitted , this Experiment seems to invite us to allow a great disparity , either as to bulk , or as to agitation , or as to both , betwixt some parts of the Etherial substance , and those that are wont here below to produce Heat and Fire . We try'd also what Operation the drawing out of the Air would have upon Camphire , that being a Body , which , though not a Liquor , consists of such Volatile or Fugitive parts , that without any greater agitation than that of the open Air it self , they will copiously flie away . But we sound not that even this loose Body was sensibly alter'd by the exsuction of the ambient Air. EXPERIMENT XL. IT may seem well worth trying , whether or no in our exhausted Glass the want of an ambient Body , of the wonted thickness of Air , would disable even light and little Animals , as Bees , and other winged Insects , to fly . But though we easily foresaw how difficult it would be to make such an Experiment ; yet not to omit our endeavours : We procur'd a large Flesh Fly , which we convey'd into a small Receiver . We also another time shut into a great Receiver a Humming Bee , that appear'd strong and lively , though we had rather have made the trial with a Butter-fly , if the cold Season would have permitted us to find any . * The Fly , after some exsuctions of the Air , dropp'd down from the side of the Glass whereon she was walking : But , that the Experiment with the Bee might be the more instructive , we convey'd in with her a bundle of Flowers , which remain'd suspended by a string near the upper part of the Receiver : And having provok'd the Bee , we excited her to flie up and down , the capacity of the Vessel , till at length , as we desir'd , she lighted upon the Flowers ; whereupon we presently began to draw out the Air , and observ'd , That though for some time the Bee seem'd to take no notice of it , yet within a while after she did not flie , but fall down from the Flowers ; without appearing to make any use of her Wings to help her self . But whether this fall of the Bee , and the other Insect , proceeded from the mediums being too thin for them to flie in , or barely from the weakness , and as it were swooning of the Animals themselves , you will easily gather from the following Experiment . EXPERIMENT XLI . TO satisfie our selves in some measure , about the account upon which Respiration is so necessary to the Animals , that Nature hath furnished with Lungs , we took ( being then unable to procure any other lively Bird , small enough to be put into the Receiver ) a Lark , one of whose Wings had been broken by a shot , of a Man that we had sent to provide us some Birds for our Experiment ; but notwithstanding this hurt , the Lark was very lively , and did , being put into the Receiver , divers times spring up in it to a good height . The Vessel being hastily , but carefully clos'd , the Pump was diligently ply'd , and the Bird for a while appear'd lively enough ; but upon a greater exsuction of the Air , she began manifestly to droop and appear sick , and very soon after was taken with as violent and irregular Convulsions , as are wont to be observ'd in Poultry , when their heads are wrung off : For the Bird threw her self over and over two or three times , and dyed with her Breast upward , her Head downwards , and her Neck awry . And though upon the appearing of these Convulsions , we turn'd the Stop-cock , and let in the Air upon her , yet it came too late ; whereupon casting our Eyes upon one of those accurate Dyals that go with a Pendulum , and were of late ingeniously invented by the Noble and Learned Hugenius , we found that the whole Tragedy had been concluded within ten Minutes of an hour , part of which time had been imploy'd in cementing the Cover to the Receiver . Soon after we got a Hen-sparrow which being caught with Bird-lime was not at all hurt ; when we put her into the Receiver , almost to the top of which she would briskly raise her self , the Experiment being try'd with this Bird , as it was with the former , she seemed to be dead within seven minutes , one of which were imployed in cementing on the Cover : But upon the speedy turning of the Key , the fresh Air flowing in , began slowly to revive her , so that aster some pantings she opened her eyes , and regain'd her feet , and in about a ¼ of an hour after , threatned to make an escape at the top of the Glass , which had been unstopped to let in the fresh Air upon her : But the Receiver being closed the second time , she was killed with violent Convulsions , within five Minutes from the beginning of the Pumping . A while after we put in a Mouse , newly taken , in such a Trap as had rather affrighted than hurt him ; whilst he was leaping up very high in the Receiver , we fasten'd the Cover to it , expecting that an Animal used to live in narrow holes with very little fresh Air , would endure the want of it better than the lately mentioned Birds : But though , for a while after the Pump was set a work , he continued leaping up as before ; yet , 't was not long ere he began to appear sick and giddy , and to stagger : after which he fell down as dead , but without such violent Convulsions as the Bird died with . Wherepon , hastily turning the Key , we let in some fresh Air upon him , by which he recovered , after a while , his senses and his feet , but seemed to continue weak and sick : But at length , growing able to skip as formerly , the Pump was plyed again for eight minutes , about the middle of which space , if not before a very little Air by a mischance got in at the Stop-cock ; and about two minutes after that , the Mouse divers times leap'd up lively enough , though after about two minutes more he fell down quite dead , yet with Convulsions far milder than those wherewith the two Birds expired . This alacrity so little before his death , and his not dying sooner than at the end of the eighth minute , seemed ascribable to the Air ( how little soever ) that slipt into the Receiver . For the first time , those Convulsions ( that , if they had not been suddenly remedied , had immediately dispatch'd him ) seised on him in six minutes after the Pump began to be set a work . These Experiments seemed the more strange , in regard that during a great part of those few minutes the Engine could but considerably rarefie the Air ( and that too , but by degrees ) and at the end of them there remained in the Receiver no inconsiderable quantity ; as may appear by what we have formerly said of our not being able to draw down Water in a Tube , within much less than a Foot of the bottom : With which we likewise consider'd , that by the exsuction of the Air and interspersed Vapours , there was left in the Receiver a space some hundreds of times exceeding the bigness of the Animal , to receive the fuliginous Steams , from which , expiration discharges the Lungs ; and , which in the other cases hitherto known , may be suspected , for want of room , to stifle those Animals that are closely pen'd up in too narrow Receptacles . I forgot to mention , that having caus'd these three Creatures to be open'd , I could , in such small Bodies , discover little of what we sought for , and what we might possibly have found in larger Animals ; for though the Lungs of the Birds appear'd very red , and as it were inflam'd , yet that colour being usual enough in the Lungs of such winged Creatures , deserves not so much our notice , as it doth , That in almost all the destructive Experiments made in our Engine , the Animals appear'd to die with violent Convulsive motions : From which , whether Physicians can gather any thing towards the discovery of the Nature of Convulsive Distempers , I leave to them to consider . Having proceeded thus far , though ( as we have partly intimated already ) there appear'd not much cause to doubt , but that the death of the fore-mention'd Animals proceeded rather from the want of Air , than that the Air was over-clogg'd by the steams of their Bodies , exquisitely pen'd up in the Glass ; yet I , that love not to believe any thing upon Conjectures , when by a not over-difficult Experiment I can try whether it be true or no , thought it the safest way to obviate Objections , and remove Scruples , by shutting up another Mouse as close as I could in the Receiver , wherein it lived about three quarters of an hour ; and might probably have done so much longer , had not a Virtuoso of quality , who in the mean while chanc'd to make me a Visit , desir'd to see whether or no the Mouse could be kill'd by the exsuction of the ambient Air whereupon we thought fit to open , for a little while , an intercourse betwixt the Air in the Receiver , and that without it , that the Mouse might thereby ( if it were needfull for him ) be refresh'd , and yet we did this without uncementing the Cover at the top , that it might not be objected , that perhaps the Vessel was more closely stopp'd for the exsuction of the Air than before . The Experiment had this event , that after the Mouse had liv'd ten Minutes , ( which we ascrib'd to this that the Pump , for want of having been lately Oyled , could move but slowly , and could not by him that manag'd it , be made to work as nimbly as it was wont ) at the end of that time he dy'd with Convulsive Fits , wherein he made two or three bounds into the Air , before he fell down dead . Nor was I content with this , but for Your Lordships farther satisfaction , and my own , I caused a Mouse , that was very hungry , to be shut in all Night , with a Bed of Paper for him to rest upon : And to be sure that the Receiver was well clos'd , I caus'd some Air to be drawn out of it , whereby , perceiving that there was no sensible leak , I presently re-admitted the Air at the Stop-cock , lest the want of it should harm the little Animal ; and then I caused the Engine to be kept all Night by the Fire side , to keep him from being destroyed by the immoderate cold of the Frosty Night . And this care succeeded so well , that the next Morning I found that the Mouse not only was alive , but had devour'd a good part of the Cheese that had been put in with him . And having thus kept him alive full twelve hours , or better , we did , by sucking out part of the Air , bring him to droop , and to appear swell'd ; and by letting in the Air again , we soon reduc'd him to his former liveliness . A Digression containing some Doubts touching Respiration . I Fear Your Lordship will now expect , that to these Experiments I should add my Reflexions on them , and attempt , by their assistence , to resolve the difficulties that occur about Respiration ; since at the beginning I acknowledg'd a farther enquiry into the Nature of that , to have been my design in the related Tryals . But I have yet , because of the inconvenient season of the Year , made so few Experiments , and have been so little satisfied by those I have been able to make , that they have hitherto made Respiration appear to me rather a more , than a less Mysterious thing , than it did before . But yet , since they have furnished me with some such new Considerations , concerning the use of the Air , as confirms me in my Diffidence of the truth of what is commonly believ'd touching that matter ; That I may not appear sullen or lazy , I am content not to decline employing a few hours in setting down my Doubts , in presenting Your Lordship some Hints , and in considering whether the Tryals made in our Engine , will at least assist us to discover wherein the Deficiency lies that needs to be supplyed . And this , My Lord , being all my present Design , I suppose You will not expect that ( as if You knew not , or had forgotten what Anatomists are wont to teach ) I should entertain You with a needless Discourse of the Organs of Respiration , and the variety of their Structure in several Animals ; though if it were necessary , and had not been perform'd by others I should think , with Galen , that by treating of the Fabricks of living Bodies , I might compose Hymns to the wise Author of Nature , who , in the excellent contrivance of the Lungs , and other parts of ( those admirable Engines ) Animals , manifests himself to be indeed what the Eloquent Prophet most justly speaks him , Wonderfull in Councel , and excellent in working . Nor shall we any farther meddle with those Controversies so much agitated among the Moderns , namely , Whether the motion of the Lungs in Respiration be their own , or but consequent to the motion of the Thorax , Diaphragme , and ( as some Learned Men would have it ) the Abdomen ; And , Whence it is that the Air swells the Lungs in Inspiration , any farther than they may receive light from our Engine : But that it may appear what kind of service it is that may be expected from it on this occasion , we must premise a few Words to shew wherein the strength of the Objection we are to answer , lies : In favour then of those that would have the Lungs rather passive than active in the business of Respiration , it may against the common opinion be alledg'd , That as the Lungs being destitute of Muscles and of Fibres , are unfit to dilate themselves ; so it appears , that without the motion of the Thorax they would not be fill'd with Air. Since as our Learned Friend Dr. Highmore hath well ( and congruously , to what our selves have purposely tried ) observed , if a live Dog have a great wound made in his Chest , the Lobes of the Lungs on that side of the Mediastinum will subside and lie still ; the Thorax and the Lobes on the other side of the Mediastinum , continuing their former motion . And if suddenly at once the Muscles of the Chest be on both sides dissected , upon the Ingress of the Air , the whole Lungs , though untouch'd , will remain moveless , at least , as to any expansion or contraction of their substance . To which we may add the Observation of the diligent Bartholinus , who affirms the like of the Diaphragme also , namely , That it being wounded , the Lungs will fall together , and the Respiration cease , which my Experiments oppose not , provided the Wound be any thing great . And indeed the Diaphragme seems the principal Instrument of ordinary and gentle Respiration , although to restrained Respiration ( if I may so call it ) the intercostal Muscles , and perhaps some others may be allowed eminently to concur . But the chief of the Controversies formerly pointed at , is not yet decided , namely , what it is that conveys the Air into the Lungs . For when , to counterballance all that hath been alledg'd , those that plead for the Lungs demand what it is that should bring the Air into the Lungs , if themselves do not attract it , their Antagonists disagree about the Reply . For when to this question some of the best Modern Philosophers answer , That by the dilatation of the Chest the contiguous Air is thrust away , and that pressing upon the next Air to it , and so onwards , the Propulsion it continued till the Air be driven into the Lungs , and so dilate them : When this ( I say ) is answered , it is Objected even by Bartholine himself , as a convincing Reply , that , according to this Doctrine , a Man could not fetch his Breath from a great Vessel full of Air , with a slender Neck , because , that when his Mouth covers the Orifice of the Neck , the dilatation of his Thorax could not propell the Air in the Vessel into his Lungs , by reason of its being separated by the inclosing Vessel from the ambient Air ; and yet , say they , Experience witnesseth , that out of such a Vessel a Man may suck Air. But of this difficulty our Engine furnisheth us with an easie Solution , since many of : the former Experiments have manifested , That in the case proposed , there needs not be made any ( though 't is true that in ordinary Respiration there is wont to be made some ) propulsion of the Air by the swelling Thorax or Abdomen into the Lungs ; since upon the bare Dilatation of the Thorax , the Spring of that internal Air , or halituous substance that is wont to possess as much of the cavity of the Chest as the Lungs fill not up , being much weaken'd , the external and contiguous Air must necessarily press in at the open Wind pipe into the Lungs , as finding there less resistance than any where else about it . And hence ( by the way ) we may derive a new assistance to judge of that famous Controversie disputed among Naturalists and Physicians , ever since Galen's time , some maintaining that the Chest , with the contained Lungs , may be resembled to a pair of Bellows , which comes therefore to be fill'd because it was dilated : And others pleading to have the comparison made to a Bladder , which is therefore dilated because it is fill'd . For as to the Thorax , it seems evident from what hath been lately said , that it , like a pair of Bellows , happens to be partly fill'd with Air , but because it was dilated : But as for the Lungs themselves , who want Fibres to distend them , they may fitly enough be compar'd to a Bladder ; since they are dilated by being fill'd , namely , by that Air which rusheth into them upon the dilatation of the Chest , in whose increased cavity it finds ( as we freshly noted ) less resistance to its Spring than elsewhere . And this brings into my mind that strange Observation of Nicolaus Fontanus , a Physician at Amsterdam , who testifieth , That in a Boy of the same Town , four years old , there was found , instead of Lungs , a certain Membranous Bladder ; which being fill'd with Wind , and furnish'd with little Veins , had its origination from the Wind-Pipe it self ; which being suppos'd true , how well it will agree with most of the Opinions touching Respiration , I leave to be consider'd . And thus may the grand Objection of Bartholine , and others , be answered : But I leave to Anatomists to consider what is to be said to some Observations that seem to contradict those Anatomical Experiments already mention'd : Such was particularly that which I remember I have read in Sennertus ( from the observation of his Father-in-law Schato ) of a Melancholy Student , who having stabb'd himself , and pierced the Diaphragme in the thinner or tendonous part ( call'd by many the Nervous Circle ) lived seven Months after he had wounded himself , though after his death ( preceded by violent Vomitings ) the Wound ( perchance dilated by those strainings ) appear'd so great , that the whole Stomach was found to have got in by it into the left side of the Thorax . And such also was the accident that happen'd to a Noble Man , whom I remember I have seen , and who is yet alive , in whose Chest there hath , for these many years , remain'd a hole so great , that the motion of his Heart may be perceiv'd by it . These ( I say ) and some other Observations , I shall now forbear to insist on , because I hold it not unfit , before we come to consider the use of Respiration , that we acquaint Your Lordship with an Ingenious Conjecture , that was made at the cause of the hasty death of the Animals our Engine kill'd : namely , That it was not the want of Air that destroy'd them , but the Pressure of the innate Air in the cavity of the Chest ; as if the spring of the Air being no longer counterballanc'd by the ambient Air , was thereby become so strong , that it kept the Thorax forcibly distended , and hinder'd its wonted contraction ; and so compress'd the Lungs and their Vessels , as to obstruct the circulation of the Blood. And this Conjecture , as it is specious enough , so I might have admitted it for true ; but that I consider'd , that ( not to mention that one , especially of the Animals kill'd in our Engine , seemed manifestly for a pretty while , and not long before he dy'd , to move his Thorax , as if he exercis'd Respiration ) the diligent Wallaeus relates , that he divers times observed , in the dissection of live Bodies , that the Membrane that invests the Lungs , had Pores in it as big as the larger sort of Peas , which agreeth with the Observations of Chyrurgions and Physicians , viz. That Matter collected in the Thorax , hath penetrated into the Lungs , and been discharged by coughing . And I remember too , that most of the Animals we kill'd in our Engine were Birds , of whose Lungs Harvey somewhere informs us , That he observ'd them very manifestly to open at their extremities into the Abdomen : And by such perforitions we may well'suppose the passage free betwixt the external Air , and that in the Abdomen : But this Conjecture may be farther consider'd . Besides , to show that the Animals that died in our Glasses , need not be supposed to have been kill'd by the want of Air , we foresee another Argument that we must deal so ingeniously with Your Lordship , as not to conceal . You very well know , that besides the generality of the Schools , there are many new Philosophers who , though they dissent from the old Peripateticks in other things , do , as they , deny the possibility of a Vacuum ; and hold , that those spaces which are devoid of Air , and other grosser Bodies , are all of them exactly replenished with a certain Etherial Matter , so thin and subtle , that it can freely permeate the Pores of the compactedst and closest Bodies , and ev'n of Glass it self . Now some of those Naturalists that are of this perswasion may object , That the Animals that died in our Receiver , did so , not so much for lack of Air , as by reason that the Air that was pump'd out was necessarily succeeded by an Etherial substance ; which consisting of parts vehemently agitated , and so very small , as without resistance to pass in and out through the very Pores of Glass ; it may well be supposed , that a considerable quantity of this restless and subtle Matter , meeting together in the Receiver , with the excessive heat of it , may be quickly able to destroy a little Animal , or at least , make the Air too intemperately hot to be fit for Respiration . But though this be a Difficulty not so easily to be resolved without the assistance of our Engine , yet I suppose we have already answer'd the Objection by our 38th and 39th Experiments ; which , though we made partly for other purposes , yet we premis'd them only to clear up the difficulty proposed . Another suspicion we should have entertain'd concerning the death of our Animals , namely , That upon the sudden removal of the wonted pressure of the ambient Air , the warm blood of those Animals was brought to an Effervescence or Ebullition , or at least so vehemently expanded , as to disturb the circulation of the Blood , and so disorder the whole Oeconomy of the Body . ( This ( I say ) I should have had some suspicion of ) but that Animals of a hot Constitution are not the sole ones that cannot in our exhausted Engine exercise the Function of Life . But I must not now dwell upon matters of this nature , because I think it high time to proceed to the consideration of the principal subject of our Engine , namely , the use of Respiration ; or rather , The use of the Air in Respiration . For whereas of the divers uses of it mentioned by Anatomists the most , such as the Production and Modulation of the Voice by the Elision of the Air , the Larynx , &c. the expulsion of Excrements by Coughing , the conveying in of Odours by Inspiration , and some others , rather convenient for the well being of an Animal , than absolutely necessary to his Life : Whereas ( I say ) the other uses are such as we have said , The great Hippocrates himself gives this notable Testimony to the use of the Air , as to Animals endow'd with Lungs : Mortalibus ( saith he ) hic ( spiritus ) tum vitae , tum morborum aegrotis causa est . Tantáque corporibus omnibus spiritûs inest necessitas , ut fiquidem aliis omnibus & cibis & potionibus , quis abstineat , duos tamen aut tres , vel plures dies possit vitam ducere : At si quis spiritus in corpus vias intercipiat , vel exiguâ diei parte , homini pereundum fit ; Adeo necessarius est usus spiritûs in corpore . Ad haec quoque , quum omnibus aliis actionibus homines quiescant , quod mutationibus innumeris vita sit exposita , ab hâc tamen solâ actione nunquam desistant animantia , quin aut spiritum adducant , aut reddant . But touching the account upon which the Inspiration and Exspiration of Air ( both which are comprehended in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Respiration ) is so necessary to Life , both Naturalists and Physicians do so disagree , that it will be very difficult either to reconcile their Opinions , or determine their Controversies . For first , Many there are who think the chief ( if not sole ) use of Respiration to be the cooling and tempering of that Heat in the Heart and Blood , which otherwise would be immoderate : And this Opinion , not only seems to be most received amongst Scholastick Writers , but divers of the new Philosophers , Cartesians , and others , admitted with some variation ; teaching . That the Air is necessary , by its coldness , to condense the Blood that passeth out of the right Ventricle of the Heart into the Lungs , that thereby it may contain such a consistence , as is requisite to make it fit Fewel for the vital fire or flame , in the left Ventricle of the Heart . And this Opinion seems favour'd by this , That Fishes , and other cold Creatures , whose Hearts have but one cavity , are also unprovided of Lungs , and by some other considerations . But though it need not be deny'd , that the inspir'd Air may sometimes be of use by refrigerating the Heart ; yet ( against the Opinion that makes this Refrigeration , the most genuine and constant use of the Air ) it may be Objected , That divers cold Creatures ( some of which , as particularly Frogs , live in the Water ) have yet need of Respiration , which seems not likely to be needed for Refrigeration by them that are destitute of any sensible heat , and besides , live in the cold Water : That even decrepid old Men , whose natural Heat is made very languid , and almost extinguish'd by reason of Age , have yet a necessity of frequent Respiration : That a temperate Air is fittest for the generality of breathing Creatures ; and as an Air too hot , so also an Air too cold , may be inconvenient for them ( especially , if they be troubled with an immoderate degree of the same quality which is predominant in the Air : ) That in some Diseases the natural heat is so weaken'd , that in case the use of Respiratic were to cool , it would be more hurtfull than beneficial to Breath ; and the suspending of the Respiration , may supply the place of those very hot Medicines that are wont to be employ'd in such Distempers : That Nature might much better have given the Heart but a moderate heat , than such an excessive one , as needs to be perpetually cool'd , to keep it from growing destructive ; which the gentle , and not the burning heat of an Animal's Heart , . seems not intense enough so indispensably to require . These , and other Objections , might be oppos'd , and press'd against the recited Opinion : But we shall not insist on them , but only add to them , That it appears not by our foregoing Experiments ( I mean the 38th and 39th ) that in our exhausted Receiver , where yet Animals die so suddenly for want of Respiration , the ambient Body is sensibly hotter than the common Air. Other Learned Men there are , who will have the very substance of the Air to get in by the Vessels of the Lungs , to the left Ventricle of the Heart , not only to temper its heat , but to provide for the generation of Spirits . And these alledge for themselves the authority of the Ancients , among whom Hippocrates seems manifestly to favour their Opinion ; and both Aristotle and Galen do sometimes ( for methinks they speak doubtfully enough ) appear inclineable to it . But for ought ever I could see in Dissections , it is very difficult to make out , how the Air is convey'd into the left Ventricle of the Heart , especially the Systole and Diastole of the Heart and Lungs being very far from being Synchronical : Besides , that the Spirits seeming to be but the most subtle and unctuous Particles of the Blood , appear to be of a very differing Nature from that of the lean and incombustible Corpuscles of Air. Other Objections against this Opinion have been proposed , and press'd by that excellent Anatomist , and my Industrious Friend , Dr. Highmore , to whom I shall therefore refer you . Another Opinion there is touching Respiration , which makes the genuine use of it to be Ventilation not of the Heart , but of the Blood , in its passage through the Lungs ; in which passage , it is dis-burthened of those Excrementitious Steams proceeding , for the most part , from the superfluous Serosities , of the Blood , ( we may add ) and of the Chyle too , which ( by those new Conduits of late very happily detected by the Famous Pecquet ) hath been newly mix'd with it in the Heart . ) And this Opinion is that of the Industrious Maebius , and is said to have been that of that excellent Philosopher Gassendus ; and hath been in part an Opinion almost vulgar : But this Hypothesis may be explicated two ways : For first , The necessity of the Air in Respiration , may be suppos'd to proceed from hence ; That as a Flame cannot long burn in a narrow and close place , because the Fuliginous Steams it uncessantly throws out , cannot be long receiv'd into the ambient Body ; which , after a while , growing too full of them to admit any more , stifles the flame : So that the vital Fire in the Heart requires an ambient Body , of a yielding nature , to receive into it the superfluous Serosities , and other Recrements of the Blood , whose seasonable Expulsion is requisite to depurate the Mass of Blood , and make it fit both to circulate , and to maintain the vital heat residing in the Heart . The other way of explicating the above-mentioned Hypothesis , is , by supposing , that the Air doth not only , as a Receptacle , admit into its Pores the Excrementitious vapours of the Blood , when they are expell'd through the Wind-pipe , but doth also convey them out of the Lungs , in regard that the inspired Air , reaching to all the ends of the Aspera Ateria , doth there associate it self with the exhalations of the circulating Blood , and when 't is exploded , carries them away with it self : as we see that Winds speedily dry up the surfaces of wet Bodies , not to say any thing of what we formerly observed touching our Liquor , whose fumes were strangely elevated upon the ingress of the Air. Now of these two ways of Explicating the use of Respiration , our Engine affords us this Objection against the first ; That upon the exsuction of the Air , the Animals die a great deal sooner than if it were left in the Vessel ; though by that exsuction the ambient space is left much more free to receive the Steams that are either breathed out of the Lungs of the Animal , or discharg'd by insensible Transpiration through the Pores of his Skin . But if the Hypothesis propos'd , be taken in the other sense , it seems congruous enough to that grand observation , which partly the Phaenomena of our Engine , and partly the relations of Travellers , have suggested to us : namely , That there is a certain consistence of Air requisite to Respiration ; so that if it be too thick , and already over-charged with Vapours , it will be unfit to unite with , and carry off those of the Blood , as Water will dissolve , and associate to it self but a certain proportion of saline Corpuscles ; and if it be too thin or rarefied , the number or size of the Aërial Particles is too small to be able to assume and carry off the halituous Excrements of the Blood , in such plenty as is requisite . Now that Air too much thicken'd ( and as it were clogg'd ) with Steams , is unfit for Respiration , may appear by what is wont to happen in the Lead-Mines of Devonshire , ( and for ought I know , in those too of other Countries , though I have seen Mines where no such thing was complain'd of ) for I have been informed by more than one credible Person ( and particularly by an Ingenious Man , that hath often , for curiosity , digg'd in those Mines , and been imploy'd about them ) that there often riseth Damps , as retaining the Germane Word by which we call them ) which doth so thicken the Air , that unless the Work-men speedily make signs to them that are above , they would ( which also sometimes happens ) be presently stifled for want of Breath , and though their Companions do make haste to draw them up , yet frequently , by that time they come to the free Air , they are , as it were in a swoon , and are a good while before they come to themselves again . And that this swooning seems not to proceed from any Arsenical or Poysonous Exhalation contain'd in the Damp , as from its overmuch condensing the Air , seems probable from hence ; That the same Damps oftentimes leisurely extinguish the flames of their Candles or Lamps ; and from hence also that it appears ( by many Relations of Authentical Authors ) that in those Cellars where great store of new Wine is set to work , Men have been suffocated by the too great plenty of the Steams exhaling from the Must , and too much thickning the Air : As may be gathered from the custom that is now used in some hot Countries , where those that have occasion to go into such Cellars , carry with them a quantity of well kindled Coals , which they hold near their Faces ; whereby it comes to pass , that the Fire discussing the Fumes , and rarefying the Air , reduceth the ambient Body to a consistence fit for Respiration . We will add ( by way of Confirmation ) the following Experiment : In such a small Receiver , as those wherein we kill'd divers Birds , we carefully clos'd up one , who , though for a quarter of an hour he seem'd not much prejudiced by the closeness of his Prison , afterwards be●●n first to pant very vehemently , and keep his Bill very open , and then to appear very sick ; and last of all , after some long and violent strainings , to cast up some little matter out of his Stomach : which he did several times , till growing so sick , that he stagger'd and gasp'd , as being just ready to die . We perceiv'd , that within about three quarters of an hour from the time that he was put in , he had so thickened and tainted the Air with the Steams of his Body , that it was become altogether unfit for the use of Respiration : Which he will not much wonder at , who hath taken notice in Sanctorius his Statica Medicina , how much that part of our Aliments , which goeth off by insensible Transpiration , exceeds in weight all the visible and grosser Excrements both solid and liquid . That ( on the other side ) an Air too much dilated is not serviceable for the ends of Respiration , the hasty death of the Animal we kill'd in our exhausted Receiver , seems sufficiently to manifest . And it may not irrationally be doubted , whether or no , if a Man were rais'd to the very top of the Atmosphere , he would be able to live many minutes , and would not quickly dye for want of such Air as we are wont to breath here below . And that this Conjecture may not appear extravagant , I shall on this occasion subjoyn a memorable Relation that I have met with in the Learned Josephus Acosta , who tells us , That when he himself past the high Mountains of Peru , ( which they call Pariacaca ) to which , he says , That the Alps themselves seem'd to them but as ordinary Houses , in regard of high Towers , he and his Companions were surprised with such extreme Pangs of Straining and Vomiting , ( not without casting up Blood too ) and with so violent a Distemper , that he concludes he should undoubtedly have died , but that this lasted not above three or four hours , before they came into a more convenient and natural temperature of Air : To which our Learned Author adds an Inference , which being the principal thing I design'd in mentioning , the Narrative I shall set down in his own words : I therefore ( says he ) perswade my self , That the Element of the Air is there so subtle and delicate , as it is not proportionable with the breathing of Man , which req●●●es a more gross and temperate Air ; and I believe it is the cause that doth so much alter the Stomach , and trouble all the Disposition . Thus far our Author , whose Words I mention , that we may ghess by what happens somewhat near the Confines of the Atmosphere ( though probably far from the surface of it ) what would happen beyond the Atmosphere . That , which some of those that treat of the height of Mountains , relate out of Aristotle , namely , That those that ascend to the top of the Mountain Olympus , could not keep themselves alive , without carrying with them wet Spunges , by whose assistance they could respire in that Air , otherwise too thin for Respiration : ( That Relation ( I say ) concerning this Mountain ) would much confirm what hath been newly recited out of Acosta , if we had sufficient reason to believe it : But I confess , I am very diffident of the truth of it ; partly because cause when I pass'd the Alps , I took notice of no notable change betwixt the consistence of the Air at the top and the bottom of the Mountain ; partly because in a punctual Relation made by an English Gentleman , of his ascension to the top of the Pike of Tenariff ( which is by great odds higher than Olympus ) I find no mention of any such difficulty of breathing ; and partly also because the same Author tells us out of Aristotle , That upon the top of Olympus there is no motion of the Air , insomuch , that Letters traced upon the dust , have been , after many years , found legible and not discompos'd ; whereas that Inquisitive Busbequius ( who was Embassadour from the German to the Turkish Emperour ) in one of his eloquent Epistles , tells us , upon his own knowledge , That Olympus may be seen from Constantinople , blanch'd with perpetual Snow ; which seems to argue , That the top of that , as well as of divers other tall Hills , is not above that Region of the Air wherein Meteors are formed . Though otherwise , in that memorable Narrative which David Fraelichius , made of his ascent to the top of the prodigiously high Hungarian Mountain Carpathus : He tells us , That when , having pass'd through very thick Clouds , he came to the very top of the Hill , he found the Air so calm and subtle , that not a hair of his head mov'd , whereas in the lower Stages of the Mountain he felt a vehement Wind. But this might well be casual , as was his , having a clear Air where he was , though there were Clouds , not only beneath him , but above him . But ( though what hath been hitherto discours'd , incline us to look upon the Ventilation and Depuration of the Blood , as one of the principal and constant uses of Respiration ; yet ) methinks it may be suspected that the Air doth something more than barely help to carry off what is thrown out of the Blood in its passage through the Lungs , from the right Ventricle of the Heart to the left . For we see , in Phlegmatick Constitutions and Diseases , that the Blood will circulate tolerably well , notwithstanding its being excessively ferous : And in Asthmatical Persons , we often see , that though the Lungs be very much stuff'd with tough Phlegm , yet the Patient may live some Months , if not some Years . So that it seems scarce probable , that either the want of throwing out the supefluous Serum of the Blood for a few moments , or the detaining it , during so short a while , in the Lungs , should be able to kill a perfectly sound and lively Animal : I say , for a few moments , because , that having divers times try'd the Experiment of killing Birds in a small Receiver , we commonly found , that within half a minute of an hour ; or thereabout , the Bird would be surpris'd by mortal Convulsions , and within about a minute more would be stark dead , beyond the recovery of the Air , though never so hastily let in . Which sort of Experiments seem so strange , that we were obliged to make it several times , which gain'd it the advantage of having Persons of differing Qualities , Professions and Sexes , ( as not only Ladies and Lords , but Doctors and Mathematicians ) to witness it . And to satisfie Your Lordship , that it was not the narrowness of the Vessel , but the sudden exsuction of the Air that dispatched these Creatures so soon ; we will add , That we once inclos'd one of these Birds in one of these small Receivers , where , for a while , he was so little sensible of his Imprisonment , that he eat very chearfully certain seeds that we conveyed in with him , and not only lived ten minutes , but had probably lived much longer , had not a great Person , that was Spectator of some of these Experiments , rescu'd him from the prosecution of the Trial. Another Bird being within about half a minute , cast into violent Convulsions , and reduced into a sprawling condition , upon the exsuction of the Air , by the pity of some fair Lady 's related to Your Lordship ) who made me hastily let in some Air at the Stop-cock , the gasping Animal was presently recovered , and in a condition to enjoy the benefit of the Lady's compassion . And another time also , being resolved not to be interrupted in our Experiment , we did , at night , shut up a Bird in one of our small Receivers , and observ'd that for a good while he so little felt thealteration of the Air , that he fell asleep with his Head under his Wing ; and though he afterwards awak'd sick , yet he continu'd upon his legs between forty minutes and three quarters of an hour ; after which , seeming ready to expire ; we took him out , and soon found him able to make use of the liberty we gave him for a compensation of his sufferings . If to the foregoing Instances of the sudden destruction of Animals , by the removal of the ambient Air , we should now annex some , that we think fitter to reserve till anon ; perhaps Your Lordship would suspect , with me , that there is some use of the Air which we do not yet so well understand , that makes it so continually needfull to the Life of Animals , Paracelsus indeed tells us , That as the Stomach concocts Meat , and makes part of it usefull to the Body , rejecting the other part , so the Lungs consume part of the Air , and proscribe the rest . So that according to our Hermetick Philosopher ( as his followers would have him stil'd ) it seems we may suppose that there is in the Air a little vital Quintessence ( if I may so call it ) which serves to the refreshment and restauration of our vital Spirits , for which use the grosser and incomparably greater part of the Air being unserviceable , it need not seem strange that an Animal stands in need of almost incessantly drawing in fresh Air. But though this Opinion is not ( as some of the same Author ) absur'd , yet besides that , it should not be barely asserted , but explicated and prov'd ; and besides that , some Objections may be fram'd against it , out of what hath been already argu'd against the Transmutation of Air into vital Spirits : Besides these things , it seems not probable , that the bare want of the Generation of the wonted quantity of vital Spirits , for less than one minute , should within that time be able to kill a lively Animal , without the help of any external violence at all . But yet , on occasion of this Opinion of Paracelsus , perhaps it will not be impertinent , if before I proceed , I acquaint Your Lordship with a Conceit of that deservedly Famous Mechanician and Chymist , Cornelius Drebell , who among other strange things that he perform'd , is affirmed ( by more than a few credible Persons ) to have contrived for the late Learned King James , a Vessel to go under Water ; of which , trial was made in the Thames , with admired success , the Vessel carrying twelve Rowers , besides Passengers ; one of which is yet alive , and related it to an excellent Mathematician that inform'd me of it . Now that for which I mention this Story , is , That having had the curiosity and opportunity to make particular enquiries among the Relations of Drebell , and especially of an Ingenious Physician that married his Daughter , concerning the grounds upon which he conceived it feasible to make men unaccustomed to continue so long under Water without suffocation , or ( as the lately mention'd Person that went in the Vessel affirms ) without inconvenience . I was answer'd that Drebell conceiv'd , that 't is not the whole body of the Air , but a certain Quintessence ( as Chymists speak ) or spirituous part of it , that makes it fit for Respiration , which being spent , the remaining grosser body , or carcase ( if I may so call it ) of the Air , is unable to cherish the vital flame residing in the Heart : So that ( for ought I could gather ) besides the Mechanical contrivance of his Vessel he had a Chymical liquor , which he accounted the chief Secret of his submarine Navigation . For when from time to time he perceived , that the finer and purer part of the Air was consumed , or over-clogg'd by the Respiration , and steams of those that went in his Ship , he would , by unstopping a Vessel full of this Liquor , speedily restore to the troubled Air such a proportion of Vital parts , as would make it again for a good while fit for Respiration , whether by dissipating , or precipitating the grosser Exhalations , or by some other intelligible way , I must not now stay to examine , contenting my self to add , that having had the opportunity to doe some service to those of his Relations , that were most Intimate with him , and having made it my business to learn what this strange Liquor might be , they constantly affirm'd that Drebell would never disclose the Liquor unto any , nor so much as tell the matter whereof he had made it , to above one Person , who himself assured me what it was . This account of Drebell's performance , I mention , not that I any farther assent to his opinion than I have already intimated , but because the Man , and the Invention being extraordinary , I suppose Your Lordship will not be displeas'd to know the utmost I could learn about it ; especially not having found it mentioned by any Writer . Wherefore I have been sometimes inclin'd to favourable thoughts of their opinion , who would have the Air necessary to ventilate , and cherish the vital slame , which they do suppose to be continually burning in the Heart . For we see , that in our Engine the flame of a Lamp will last almost as little after the exsuction of the Air , as the life of an Animal : Nay , I remember , that though I devis'd a more promising way , to make a fire last in our exhausted Receiver , yet it would not succeed : We took a hard body made in the form of a Clove , but twice as long , and proportionably thick , this body being made of such a Composition , that if it be kindl'd at the upper end , it will most certainly burn away to the very bottom , much better than a Match ; we convey'd it divers times kindl'd at the upper end , into one of our small Receivers , but still found , that though presently upon the exsuction of the Air , it would leave smoking , and seem quite gone out , and again begin to smoke as soon as the Air was let in upon it ; yet if the Air were kept out but four or five minutes , the fire would be totally , and irrevocably extinguish'd . To which we will add , that though we convey'd into a great Receiver , a small lamp with rectifi'd spirit of Wine , that being so pure as not to smut the Cotten week , or so much as a piece of white Paper held over it ; yet we could not by divers trials make the flame last a couple of minutes after the Air was begun to be drawn out . But though our Engine thus shews us a new kind of resemblance betwixt Fire and Life : Yet the opinion we have last mentioned is not free from Difficulties . For , though in the hearts of many Animals , Blood be a warm liquor , and in some even a hot one ; yet it is not easie to conceive either how the Air ( in substance ) can get thither , or how , in case it could , it were able to increase the heat . Since , however , the Air may encrease the heat of a Coal by blowing off the ashes , and making the active Corpuscles pierce farther into the kindled body , and shatter it the more , yet we see hot Liquors have their heat allayed , and not augmented , by having Air blown on them . And whereas some Eminent Naturalists think it not inconvenient , to make the heat residing in the Heart to be a true flame , provided they add , that 't is such a temperate , and almost insensible fire , as the flame of spirit of Wine , which will long burn upon fine white Linnen or Paper without consuming either : Give me leave to wish that they had been more curious to make differing trials with that liquor . For ( as we observe in another Treatise ) the reason why a Linnen cloth , dipped in common Spirit of Wine , is not burnt by the flame of it , is , because the Phlegm of the Liquor defends the Cloth : And the Flame of Spirit of Wine is so far from being too weak to burn a piece of Paper , or of Linnen , that I have us'd it in Lamps to distill Liquors out of tall Cucurbites , and found that the Spirit burned away indeed much faster than Sallet Oyl , but gave at least as great a heat : Nay , I have , for curiosity sake , melted crude Gold , and that readily enough , with the bare Flame of pure Spirit of Wine . But not to press this any farther , we will , on this occasion , venture to subjoyn an odd Observation , which may perhaps invite to a farther Enquiry into the Opinion we have for Discourse sake oppos'd . Our English Democritus , Dr. Harvey , proposeth this difficult and noble Problem to Anatomists , Why a foetus , even out of the Womb , if involv'd in the secundines , may live a good while without Respiration ; but in case after having once began to breath , its Respiration be stopp'd , it will presently die . We are far from pretending to solve so hard a Problem , but this we try'd in relation to it ; We took a Bitch that was said to be almost ready to whelp , and having caused her to be hang'd , we presently open'd her Abdomen , and found four Puppeys in her Womb ; one of these we took out , and having freed him from the Teguments that involved him , and from the Liquor he swam in , we observed that he quickly opened his Mouth very wide , moved his Tongue , and exercised Respiration ; then we opened both his Abdomen and his Chest , and cut assunder the Diaphragme , notwithstanding which , he seemed often to endeavour Respiring , and mov'd in a notable manner , both the Inter costal Muscles , part of the Diaphragme , the Mouth and the Tongue : But that which we mention this Puppy for , was this , That being desirous to try whether the other young ones that had not yet breath'd at all , would long survive this or no ; we took them also out of the Womb , and having open'd them found none of them so much alive , as to have any perceptible motion in his heart , whereas the heart of that Puppy which had once enjoy'd the benefit of Respiration , continued beating so long , that we our selves observ'd the Auricle to beat , after five or six hours ; and a Servant that staid-up and watch'd it after we were gone to Bed , affirm'd , That he saw the Pulsation continue about two hours longer . I shall leave it to others to make Reflexions upon this Observation , compar'd with Dr. Harvey's Problem . It is much doubted , whether Fishes breath under Water , and we shall not take upon us , as yet , to determine the Question either way , because we have not yet been able to procure little Fishes alive to make Experiments upon : That such as are not Setaceous ( for such manifestly breath ) have not Respiration , properly so called , such as is exercised by four footed Beasts , and Birds , may be argu'd from their having no cavity in their Hearts , and from their want of Lungs , whence they are observed to be Mute ; unless we say , what is not altogether absurd , That their Gills seem somewhat Analogous ( as to their use ) to Lungs . But that on the other side , Air is necessary to the Lives even of Fishes , and that therefore 't is probable they have some obscure kind of Respiration , seems manifest by two or three Observations and Experiments , mentioned by divers Authors , who tell us , That Fishes soon die in Ponds and Glasses quite fill'd with Water ; if the one be so frozen over , and the other so closely stopp'd , that the Fishes cannot enjoy the benefit of the Air , if we allow them to be true . But because these Relations are not wont to be deliver'd by Writers upon their own Knowledge ; as I shall not reject them , so I dare not build upon them , till I have opportunity to examine them by experience . In the mean time , we will add , That our Engine hath taught us two things that may illustrate the matter in hand : The one , That there is wont to lurk in Water , many little parcels of interspers'd Air , whereof it seems not impossible that Fishes may make some use , either by separating it , when they strain the Water thorow their Gills , or by some other way : The other , what may be collected from the following Experiment . We took a large Eel , ( being able to procure no other Fish alive ) and removing it out of the vessel of Water , wherein it was brought us , into our great Receiver , we caus'd the Air to be pump'd out ; and observ'd , That the Eel , after some motion to and fro in the Glass , seem'd somewhat discompos'd ; and that when we had prosecuted the exsuction of the Air somewhat obstinately , she turn'd up her belly , as dying Fishes are wont to do , and from thence-forward lay altogether moveless , just as if she were stark dead ; and though I did not think her so , yet the continuing in that posture , even after the Cover of the Receiver was taken off ( whereby the Air was let in ) I should have been of the opinion of the By-standers , if the Diffidence I am wont to exercise in trying Experiments ( especially such as are not usual ) had not invited me to take the Fish out of the Receiver , upon which she shew'd her self , by her vivid motions , as much alive as before . But that is most strange which we observ'd of a great , gray , House-Snail ( as they call it ) which being clos'd up in one of our small Receivers , did not only not fall down from the side of the Glass , upon the drawing out of the Air. ( For that may be ascrib'd to the tenacity of the Liquor wherewith Snails use to stick themselves , even to the smoothest Bodies ) but was not so much as depriv'd of progressive motion by the recess of the Air : Though , except this Snail , we never put any living Creature into our Receiver , whom it did not kill , or at least reduce to seem ready to die . But as we shall not here examine what interest the glutinous , and uneasily dissipable nature of the Juices of Snails , may have on this event ; so whether this escape of our Eel be ascrib'd to the particular and vivacious nature of this sort of Fishes ; or to this , That the Air is not indeed necessary to the life of Fishes ; or finally to this , That though these Animals need some Air , yet they need so little , that that which could not be drawn out of the Receiver , might ( at least for a while ) suffice them , we will not now determine . Nor are we at leisure to examine that Paradox of Hippocrates , which some Learned Physicians have of late reviv'd , namely , That the Foetus respires in the Womb : For on the one side it seems very difficult to conceive , how Air should traverse the Body of the Mother , and the Teguments of the Child : And since Nature hath , in new-born Babes , contriv'd peculiar and Temporary Vessels , that the Blood may circulate thorow other Passages , than it is wont to doe in the same Individuals when they come to have the free use of their Lungs , it seems unlikely , that Infants in the Womb do properly respire : But then since our Experiments have manifested , That almost all kind of Liquors do , as well as Water , abound with interspers'd Corpuscles of Air , it seems not altogether absurd to say , That when the Foetus is grown big , he may ( especially the upper part of the involving Amnios , being destitute of Liquor , and fill'd only with an halituous substance ) exercise some obscure Respiration ; especially , since 't is not ( as many wise Men think it ) a Fable , That Children have been heard to cry in the Mothers Womb : For though it happens exceeding rarely , yet sometimes it hath been observ'd . And I know a young Lady , whose Friends , when she was some years since with Child , complain'd to me , that she was several times much frighted with the Cries of her Infant , which , till I disabus'd her , she and her Friends look'd upon as Portentous . And such Observations are the more credible , because not only Houswives , but more judicious Persons , mention it as no very unfrequent thing to hear the Chick pip and cry in the Egg , before the Shell be broken . But this I mention but as a probable , not a cogent Argument , till I can discover whether an Elision of an halituous Substance , though no true Air , may not at the top of the Larynx produce a Sound , since I find that the Blade of a Knife , held in several postures in the stream of Vapors ( or rarefied Water ) that issues out of an AEolipile , will afford various and very audible Sounds . I had thoughts of conveying into our Receiver young ones , ripped out of the Womb of their Dams , with their involving Coats intire , but could not procure them And I have also had thoughts of trying whether it be not practicable , to make a Receiver , though not of Glass , yet with little Glass windows , so placed , that one may freely look into it , capacious enough to hold a Man , who may observe several things , both touching Respiration , and divers other matters ; and who , in case of fainting , may , by giving a sign of his weakness , be immediately reliev'd , by having Air let in upon him . And it seems not impossible , but that by accustomance , some Men may bring themselves to support the want of Air a pretty while , since we see that divers will live , so much longer than other Men , under Water : that those that dive for Pearls in the West Indies are said to be able to stay a whole hour under Water . And Cardan tells us of one Colanus a Diver in Sicily , who was able to continue ( if Cardan neither mistake nor impose upon us ) three or four times as long . Not to mind Your Lordship , that You have Your self oftentimes seen in England , a corpulent Man , who is wont to descend to the bottom of the Thames , and bring out of deep holes at the bottom of the Banks , large Fishes alive in his hands . And Acosta tells us , he saw in Peru the like manner of fishing , but more difficult , practised by the Indians . I made mention of some Men , and of Accustomance : because there are but very few , who , though they use themselves to it by degrees , are fit to support , for many minutes , the want of Air. Insomuch that an ingenious Man of my acquaintance , who is very famous for the usefull skill of drawing Goods , and even Ordnance , out of sunk Ships , being asked by me how long he was able to continue at the depth of 50 or 60 foot under Water , without the use of Respiration , confessed to me , that he cannot continue above two minutes of an hour , without resorting to the Air , which he carries down with him in a certain Engine ( whereof I can show Your Lordship a description . ) Another thing I also learn'd of him by enquiry , that was not despicable : For asking him , whether he found any use of chawing little Sponges , dipt in Oyl , in his mouth , when he was perfectly under Water , and at a distance from his Engine ; he told me , that by the help of these Sponges he could much longer support the want of his wonted Respiration , than he was able to doe without them . The true cause of which , would perhaps , if discovered , teach us some thing pertinent to the Problem touching the Respiration of Fishes . But the necessity of Air to the most part of Animals unaccustomed to the want of it , may best be judg'd of , by the following Experiments , which we try'd in our Engine , to discover , whether Insects themselves have not , either Respiration , or some other use of the Air equivalent thereunto . We took then an humble Bee , one of those common flyes that are call'd Flesh-flies , and one of those hairy Worms that resemble Caterpillars , and are wont to be call'd Palmer-worms : These three we convey'd into one of our small Receivers , and observ'd , to the great wonder of the Beholders , that not only the Bee , and the Fly fell down , and lay with their Bellies upwards ; but the Worm it self seem'd to be suddenly struck dead : All of them being reduc'd to lie without motion , or any other discernable sign of life , within somewhat less ( if we mistake not ) than one minute of an hour : And this , notwithstanding the smallness of the Animals in proportion to the capacity of the Vessels : Which circumstance we the rather mention , because we found that the Vessel was not free from leaks . And to satisfie the Spectators , that 't was the absence of the Air that caus'd this great and sudden change : We had no sooner re-admitted the Air at the Stop-cock , than all the three Insects began to shew signs of life , and by little and little to recover . But when we had again drawn out the Air , their motions presently ceased , and they fell down seemingly dead as before , continuing moveless , as long as , by continuing to pump , the vessel was kept exhausted . This invited us thankfully to reflect upon the wise goodness of the Creator , who by giving the Air a spring , hath made it so very difficult , as Men find it , to exclude a thing so necessary to Animals : And it gave us also occasion to suspect , that if Insects have no Lungs , nor any part analogous thereunto , the ambient Air afsects them , and relieves them at the Pores of their skin , it not being irrational to extend to these Creatures that of Hippocrates ; who saith , That a living Body is throughout perspirable ; or to use his expression , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , dispos'd to admit and part with what is Spirituous : Which may be somewhat illustrated by what we have elsewhere noted , That the moister parts of the Air readily insinuate themselves into , and recede from the pores of the Beards of wild Oats , and those of divers other wild Plants ; which almost continually wreath and unwreath themselves according to , even , the light variations of the temperature of the ambient Air. This Circumstance of our Experiment we particularly took notice of , that when at any time , upon the ingress of the Air , the Bee began to recover , the first sign of Life she gave , was a vehemen panting , which appear'd near the Tail : Which we therefore mention , because we have observ'd the like in Bees drown'd in Water , when they first come to be reviv'd by a convenient heat : As if the Air were in the one case as proper to set the Spirits , and Alimental Juice moving , as heat is in the other ; and this may , perchance , deserve a farther consideration . We may add , That we scarce ever saw any thing that seem'd so much as this Experiment , to manifest , That even living Creatures ( Man always excepted ) are a kind of curious Engines , fram'd and contriv'd by nature ( or rather the Author of it ) much more skilfully than our gross Tools and imperfect Wits can reach to . For in our present Instance we see Animals , vivid and perfectly sound , depriv'd immediately of motion , and any discernable signs of life , and reduc'd to a condition that dissers from death , but in that it is not absolutely irrecoverable . This ( I say ) we see perform'd without any , so much as the least external violence offer'd to the Engine ; unless it be such as is offered to a Wind-Mill , when the Wind ceasing to blow on the Sails , all the several parts remain moveless and useless , till a new Breath put them into motion again . And this was farther very notable in this Experiment ; That whereas 't is known that Bees and Flies will not only walk , but flie for a great while , after their heads are off ; and sometimes one half of the Body will , for divers hours , walk up and down , when it is sever'd from the other : Yet , upon the exsuction of the Air , not only the progressive motion of the whole Body , but the very motions of the Limbs do forthwith cease ; as if the presence of the Air were more necessary to these Animals , than the presence of their own Heads . But it seems , that in these Insects , that fluid Body ( whether it be a Juice or Flame ) wherein Life chiefly resides , is nothing neaŕ so easily dissipable , as in perfect Animals . For whereas we have above-recited , That the Birds we conveyed into our small Receiver were within two minutes brought to be past recovery , we were unable ( though by trying him that pump'd ) to kill our Insects by the exsuction of the Air : For though , as long as the Pump was kept moving , they continued immovable ; yet when he desisted from pumping , the Air that press'd in at the unperceiv'd Leaks ( did though slowly ) restore them to the free exercise of functions of Life . But , My Lord , I grow troublesome , and therefore shall pass on to other Experiments : Yet without despairing of your pardon for having entertain'd you so long about the use of Respiration , because it is a subject of that difficulty to be explain'd , and yet of that importance to humane Life , that I shall not regret the trouble my Experiments have cost me , if they be found in any degree serviceable to the purposes to which they were design'd . And though I despair not but that hereafter our Engine may furnish us with divers Phaenomena usefull to illustrate the Doctrine of Respiration ; yet having not , as yet , had the opportunity to make the other trials , of various kinds , that I judge requisite for my Information : I must confess to Your Lordship , that in what I have hitherto said , I pretend not so much to establish , or over-throw this or that Hypothesis , as to lay together divers of the Particulars that occurr'd to me , in order to a future inquiry . I say , divers of the Particulars , because I could add many others , but that I want time , and fear that I shall need Your Lordship's pardon , for having been so prolix in writing ; and that of Physicians ( which perhaps I shall more easily obtain ) for having invaded Anatomy , a Discipline which they challenge to themselves , and indeed have been the almost sole Improvers of . Without denying then that the inspir'd and exspir'd Air may be sometimes very usefull , by condensing and cooling the Blood that passeth through the Lungs ; I hold that the depuration of the Blood in that passage , is not only one of the ordinary , but one of the principal uses of Respiration . But I am apt also to suspect , that the Air doth something else in Respiration , which hath not yet been sufficiently explain'd ; and therefore , till I have examin'd the matter more deliberately , I shall not scruple to answer the Questions that may be asked me , touching the genuine use of Respiration , in the excellent Words employ'd by the acute St. Austin , to one that ask'd him hard Questions : Mallem quidem ( says he ) eorum quae à me quaesivisti , habere scientiam quam ignorantiam : sed quia id nondum potui , magis eligo cautam ignorantiam confiteri , quam falsam scientiam profiteri . EXPERIMENT XLII . HAving ( partly upon the consideration of some of the foregoing Experiments , and partly upon grounds not now to be insisted on ) entertain'd a suspicion , that the action of Corrosive Liquors in the dissolving of Bodies , may be considerably varied by the gravitation or pressure of the incumbent Air , and the removal of it ; I thought fit to examine my Conjecture by the following Experiment . I took whole pieces of red Coral , and cast them into as much spirit of Vineger , as sufficed to swim above an Inch over them : These substances I made choice of , that the Ebullition upon the Solution might not be too great , and that the operation might last the longer . Having then put about half a score sprigs of Coral , together with the Menstruum , into a somewhat long neck'd Viol , whereof they seem'd scarce to fill a third part , we convey'd that Viol into one of our small Pneumatical Glasses , containing by ghess about a Quart of Water ; and having fastned on the Cover , after the accustom'd manner , we suffered the Liquor to remain unmov'd a while , to observe whether the Menslruum would work upon the Coral otherwise than besore . But sinding there did only arise , as formerly , a pretty number of small Bubbles , that made there no sensible froth upon the surface of the distill'd Vineger , there were made two or three exsuctions of the Air ; upon which , there emerg'd from the Coral such a multitude of Bubbles , as made the whole Body of the Menstruum appear white ; and soon aster a Froth , as big as all the rest of the Liquor , was seen to swim upon it : And the Menstruum plainly appear'd to boil in the Glass , like a seething Pot. And though , if we desisted but one minute from pumping , the decrement of the Froth and Ebullition , upon the getting in of a little Air , at some leak or other , seem'd to argue , that the removal of the pressure of the external Air was the cause , or , at least , the occasion of this Effervescence : Yet to evince this the more clearly , we turn'd the Key , and let in the external Air at the Stop-cock ; immediately upon whose entrance the Froth vanish'd , and so many of the Bubbles within the body of the Liquor disappear'd , that it lost its whiteness , and grew transparent again : The Menstruum also working as languidly upon the Coral , as it did before they were put into the Receiver : But when we had again drawn out the Air , first the whiteness re-appear'd , then the Ebullition was renew'd , which , ( the pumping being a while longer and nimbly pursued , ) grew so great , that for 3 or 4 times one aster another , when ever the Air was let out of the Receiver into the emptied Cylinder , the frothy liquor overflow'd the Glass , and ran down by the sides of it : And yet , upon the readmitting of the excluded Air , the boiling Liquor grew immediately as calm and as transparent as at first : As if indeed the operation of it , upon the Coral , had been facilitated by the exsuction of the incumbent Air , which on its recess , lest it more easie sor the more active parts of the liquor to shew themselves such , than it was whilst the wonted pressure of the Air continued unremoved . It may indeed be suspected , that those vast and numerous Bubbles proceeded , not from the action of the Menstruum upon the Coral , but from the suddain emersion of those many little parcels of Air that ( as we formerly observ'd ) are wont to be dispers'd in Liquors , without excluding Spirit of Vineger ; but having had this suspicion before we try'd the Experiment , we convey'd our distill'd Vineger alone into the Receiver , and kept it a while there , to free it from its Bubbles ( which were but very small ) before ever we put the Coral into it . It may be suspected likewise , that the agitation of the Liquor , necessary following upon the shaking of the Glass , by pumping , might occasion the recited Ebullition ; but upon trial made , there appear'd not any notable change in the Liquor , or its operation , though the containing Vessel were shaken , provided no Air were suck'd out of it . The former Experiment was another time try'd in another small Receiver , with Coral grosly powdred , and the success was very much alike , scarce differing in any thing , but that the Coral being reduc'd to smaller parts , upon the ebullition of the Liquor , so many little lumps of Coral would be carried and Boy'd up by the emerging Bubbles , as sometimes to darken the Viol , though the same Coraline Corpuscles would be let fall again upon the letting in of the Air. Some thing also we try'd in our great Receiver , concerning the solution of Metals in Aqua fortis , and other Corrosive Liquors ; but partly the stink , and partly some accidents , kept us from observing any thing peculiar and remarkable about those Solutions . One thing we must not omit , that when the Spirit of Vineger was boiling upon the Coral , we took off the Cover of the Receiver , and took out the Viol , but could not find , that notwithstanding so very late an Ebullition , the Liquor had any heat great enough to be at all sensible to our hands . EXPERIMENT XLIII . WE will now subjoyn an Experiment , which , if the former did not lessen , the wonder of it would probably appear very strange to Your Lordship , as it did to the first Spectators of it . The Experiment was this : We caus'd Water to be boil'd a pretty while , that by the heat it might be freed from the latitant Air , so often already taken notice of in common Water : Then almost filling with it a Glass Viol , capable of containing near four Ounces of that Liquor ; we convey'd it , whilst the Water was yet hot , into one of our small Receivers ( big enough to hold about a pound of Water ) and having luted on the Cover , we caus'd the Air to be drawn out : Upon the two first exsuctions , there scarce appear'd any change in the Liquor , nor was there any notable alteration made by the third ; but at the fourth , and afterwards , the Water appear'd to boil in the Viol , as if it had stood over a very quick Fire ; for the Bubbles were much greater than are usually found upon the Ebullition of very much more Water than was contain'd in our Viol. And this Effervescence was so great in the upper part of the Water , that the Liquor boyling over the top of the Neck , a pretty deal of it ran down into the Receiver , and sometimes continued ( though more languidly ) boyling there . Prosecuting this Experiment , we observ'd , that sometimes , after the first Ebullition , we were reduc'd to make divers exsuctions of the Air , before the Liquor would be brought to boil again . But at other times , as often as the Key was turn'd to let the Air pass from the Receiver into the Pump , the Effervescence would begin afresh , though the Pump were ply'd for a pretty while together ; which seem'd to argue , that the boyling of the Water proceeded from hence , That upon the withdrawing the pressure of the incumbent Air , either the fiery Corpuscles , or rather the Vapors agitated by the heat in the Water ( which last , what we have formerly noted touching the raresied Water of an AEolipile , manifest to be capable of an Elastical Power ) were permitted to expand themselves mightily in the evacuated Receiver ; and did , in their tumultuous Dilatation , list up ( as the Air is wont to do ) the uppermost part of the Water , and turning it into Bubbles , made the Water appear boiling . This conjecture was farther confirm'd by these additional Circumstances : First , The Effervescence was confin'd to the upper part of the Water , the lower remaining quiet , unless the Liquor were but shallow . Next , although sometimes ( as is already noted ) the Ebullition began again , after it had ceas'd a pretty while , which seem'd to infer , That some concurrent cause ( whatever that were ) did a little modifie the operation of heat ; yet , when the Water in the Viol could by no pumping be brought to boil any more , the self-same Water , being in the very same Viol warm'd again , and reconvey'd into the Pneumatical Glass , was quickly brought to boil afresh , and that vehemently and long enough ; not to mention , that a new parcel , taken out of the same parcel of the boiled Water with the former , and put in cold , could by no pumping be brought to the least shew of Effervescence . Besides , having try'd the Experiment in hot Sallet Oyl , being a much more tenacious Liquor , and requiring a stronger heat to make it boil , could not be brought to an Effervescence in our Receiver ; whereas the Chymical Oyl of Turpentine , being thinner and more volatile , was presently made to boil up , till it reach'd four or five times the former height in the Viol , in whose bottom it lay , and continued boiling till it was almost reduc'd to be but luke-warm . Wine also being a more thin and spirituous Liquor than Water , being convey'd in hot , instead of the Oyl , did , as I remember , at the very first exsuction begin to boil so vehemently , that , in a short time that the Pump was kept moving , four parts of five , by our ghess , boil'd over out of the Viol , though it had a pretty long Neck . On which occasion we will add , that even the Water it self , near one half , would sometimes boil over into the Receiver before it became luke-warm . And it was also remarkable , that once , when the Air had been drawn out , the Liquor did , upon a single Exsuction , boil so long with prodigiously vast Bubbles , that the Effervescence lasted almost as long as was requisite for the rehearsing of a Pater Noster . Now the Experiment having been try'd more than once , and found to succeed as to the main , seems much to countenance the Conjecture we made at the beginning of this Letter , where we told Your Lordship , That perhaps the pressure of the Air might have an interest in more Phaenomena than Men have hitherto thought . For as we had not then made this Experiment , so now we have made it , it seems to teach , That the Air , by its stronger or weaker pressure , may very much Modefie ( as the School-men speak ) divers of the Operations of that vehement and tumultuous Agitation of the small parts of Bodies , wherein the nature of heat seems chiefly , if not solely , to consist . Insomuch that if a heated Body were convey'd above the Atmosphere , 't is probable that the heat may have a differing operation , as to the power of dissipating the parts of it , from what it hath here below . To conclude , This Experiment might have been farther prosecuted , but our want of leisure makes us content our selves to add at present ; That perhaps it would not be lost labour if this were try'd , not only with other Liquors , but with variety of heated , and especially soft or melted Bodies : But in such cases the Receiver ought to be shap'd , as is most proper to preserve the Cement where with the Cover must be fastned on , from being melted by the heat of the included Matter ; the inconvenience to be hereby avoided , having befallen us in the use of a Receiver too shallow , though otherwise capacious enough . The CONCLVSION . BEing come thus far , My dear Lord , not without thoughts of proceeding farther : The unwelcome Importunity of my occasions becomes so prevalent , that it quite hinders , for the present , my design'd Progress ; and reduceth me , not only to reserve for another opportunity that kind of Experiments , which , at some distance from the beginning of this Letter , I call'd ( as Your Lordship may remember ) Experiments of the second sort ; but to leave unessay'd some of the first sort , which I might try in the Engine , as it now is , were it not that my Avocations are grown so urgent , for my remove from the place where the Engine was set up , that I am put to write Your Lordship this Excuse ; Weary , and in an Inn which I take in my way to my Dearest Brother Corke : Who being at length arriv'd in England , after I have for divers years been deprived of his Company , and wish'd for it as long ; what ever my other Occasions may be , my first Business must be to wait on Him and Your excellent Mother ; in whose gratefull Company I may hope to forget a while those publick Calamities that distress this too unhappy Nation , Since that is indear'd to me , both by their personal Merit ; by the near Relation which Nature gives me to Him , Affinity to Her , and Friendship to both ; and also by their many Favours , especially that of my owing them My Lord of Dungarvan . But I suffer my self to be transported too far with these delightfull thoughts ; To return therefore to our Engine . Though I find this Letter is beyond my expectation swell'd , not only into a Book , but almost into a Volume ; yet the Experiments already mentioned in it , are so far from comprising all those that may be try'd by the help of our Engine , that I have not yet been able to try all those , which , presently occurring to my thoughts , upon my first seeing the working of it , I caus'd to be set down in a Catalogue within less than half an hour . But I doubt I have but too much cause to apprehend that the Affairs , and other things I complain of , have made it needfull for me to Apologize , as well for the things I have set down , as for those I am necessitated to omit . For as partial as Men use to be to the Children of their own Brains , as well as to those of their Loins , I must not deny that the foregoing Trials are not altogether free from such unaccuratenesses , nor the recital of them from such Imperfections , as I my self can now discern , and could , perhaps , partly mend , if I had the leisure to repeat the Experiments , with the Circumstances that have since offer'd themselves to my Thoughts , as things that might have been worth Observation or Enquiry . But the truth is , that I was reduc'd to make these Experiments , when my Thoughts had things that more concern'd me to imploy them , and the same avocations made me set them down , for the most part , as soon as I had made them , and in the same order , and that so fast , that I had not over-frequently the opportunity to mind any more than the bare Truth of what I set down ; without allowing it any of those advantages that Method , Stile , and decent Embellishments , are wont to confer on the Composures they are imploy'd to adorn . But , My Lord , though to invite and encourage You and Your learned Friends at Paris , to make a farther use of this Engine , than I have yet been able to doe , I am thus free to acknowledge the Imperfections of the foregoing Letter : Yet , if some Intelligent Persons mistake not , by what hath been done , such as it is , there is a way open'd , whereby Sagacious Wits will be assisted to make such farther Discoveries in some points of Natural Phylosophy , as are yet scarce dream'd of . And I am the more desirous to engage You to that Imployment , because I am apt to think , that if the making and writing of such Experiments shall cost You as much trouble as they have me , You will be inclin'd to excuse me ; and if the Discoveries give You as much pleasure as they gave me , You will ( perhaps ) be invited to thank me . However , I think ( My Lord ) I may justly pretend , that the things I have set down have been faithfully Recorded , though not elaborately Written ; and , I suppose , my former Papers may have long since satisfied You , that though many devise Experiments better than Your Servant , none perhaps hath related them more carefully and more truly : And particularly of These ; sometimes one , sometimes another , hath been performed in the presence of Persons , divers of them eminent for their Writings , and all for their Learning . Wherefore , having in the foregoing Narratives made it my business to enoble them with the chief Requisites of Historical Composures , Candor , and Truth , I cannot despair that You will either excuse their Imperfections , or , at least , forgive them : Especially , considering that this unpolish'd Letter is as well a Production of Your Lordship's Commands and my Obedience , as a Testimony of my desire to make others beholden to My Lord of Dungarvan , by the same way which I indeavour to express my Self Beconsfield , this 20th of December , 1659. His Lordship 's Most obedient Servant , and Most affectionate Uncle , ROBERT BOTLE . A DEFENCE OF THE DOCTRINE Touching the Spring and Weight Of the AIR , Propos'd by Mr. R. BOYLE in his New Physico-Mechanical Experiments ; Against the OBJECTIONS of FRANCISCVS LINVS . Wherewith the Objector's FUNICULAR HYPOTHESIS is also Examin'd . By the Author of those Experiments . LONDON , Printed by M. Flesher , for Richard Davis Bookseller in Oxford , 1682. The Publisher TO THE READER . Friendly Reader , Yov may possibly in this Volume have expected the Appendix which the Author heretofore promised , and has intended shall contain some additional Experiments to those which were formerly publish'd , and are here now reprinted in this Second Edition . These following Answers to Franciscus Linus and Mr. Hobbs are presented in compensation of the delay , and for your forbearance of that Appendix , which ere long you may expect in kind . For the Author having hinted the Promise seems thereby to acknowledge the Debt , and to be content to continue the Obligation to see it performed . And these ought the rather to be his excuse , because the writing these Answers , and publishing the Sceptical Chymist , and some other Discourses , have been the principal hindrances to that Piece ; which is really so near a readiness , that part of it has lain at the Press these six Months : But yet it being not all perfected , the Stationer was loth to delay any longer the Publication of these , for which he has been so frequently call'd upon . And they ( though a Latine Edition is intended ) appear now the rather in English , that they may accompany the Second Edition of the Original Experiments , which were printed first in that Language in Octavo ; and that instead of the promised Appendix they may complete the bulk of the Quarto Volume . As for that part of this Piece that concerns Mr. Hobbs , it might have been larger : but the information that the Author had that the Learned Dr. Wallis was writing against some passages in Mr. Hobbs his Dialogues ( as well that concerning the Air as the rest ) was the occasion why his H. would make no Animadversion on some passages therein , and thought it not fit to enlarge upon others . And for the Errata of the Press I hope they will not be many : However the Author as to these is to be excused , who never ( in regard to his Eyes and Impediments on other occasions ) gives himself the trouble of Corrections and Revises ; neither could the Publisher much attend the Press , it being printed in a distant place from his usual Adobe . If , as I wish , you shall find this jealousie of mine to have been causless , you will have reason to give the Piece that is so kindly offered , and leads you such rare and untrodden paths in the best way of Natural Philosophy , the fairer entertainment and acceptance . Farewell . Ro. Sh. THE AUTHOUR's PREFACE AND DECLARATION . THEY that know how indispos'd I naturally am to Contentiousness , will , I presume , wonder to see me publickly engaged in two Controversies at once . But that I am still as averse as ever from entering into Disputes that may handsomly be declin'd , the way wherein I have managed the following Controversies will , I hope , evince . And the Inducements I now have to appear in publick are such , that it would be hard for me to resist the being prevail'd on by them . For , in the first place , I was ( by Name , as it were ) challenged by a person , who undertook to disprove not one or two of my Conjectures , but as much of the whole Body of my Treatise as concern'd the Spring of the Air , which most of my Explications suppose . And this being done by a Learned Man , who writes very confidently of the goodness of his Hypothesis and Arguments , and his Book being soon after follow'd by another written by Mr. Hobbs , a man of Name in the World ; there seem'd to be some danger that so early an Opposition might oppress the Doctrine I had propos'd , before it was well understood and duly ponder'd . Wherefore I fear'd I might be wanting to the Truth and my self , if I should at such a time be altogether silent ; especially since I might probably divert many who would otherwise be forward to appear against us , by letting them see how defensible our Doctrine is even against such Adversaries as those I have reply'd to . And this course I the rather chose , that in case I should henceforward comply with those who would have me forbear to write any further of these Controversies , it might not be presently inferr'd from my silence , that a good Cause cannot enable a Pen no better than mine to defend it . But I scarce doubt but that intelligent Readers , especially those that are imbued with the Principles of the Corpuscularian Philosophy , will be much more apt to think that I had reason to write the following Discourses , than to think that I had any to make them so prolix : And especially ingenious men , that are accustomed to admit nothing that either is not intelligible , or is precarious , will think divers of the Objections I reply to have needed no Answers , or at least no solemn ones . But to these I have four things to represent . And First , That which not a little swells the bulk of the following Treatises , is the incerting those passages of my Adversaries that I examine in their own words : which being a Practice that I expect from any that shall think fit to animadvert upon any Opinion or Argument of mine ; I thought it but equitable to do what I desir'd to have done to me , though oftentimes I could not do it in a little room . Next , I was the more willing to prosecute some of Franciscus Linus his Objections , because the fear of being reduc'd to grant a Vacuum has so prevail'd with many eminent persons bred up in the received Philosophy of the Schools , that though they disagree both with him and among themselves about the particular manner of solving the Phaenomena of the Torricellian Experiment ; yet they agree in ascribing them to some extremelyrarefi'd substance that fills up the space deserted by the Quicksilver . So that this Opinion , as to the main , being approved by many eminent Scholars , especially of that most learned Order of the Jesuites , ( to whom perhaps its Congruity to some Articles of their Religion chiefly recommends it ) I was willing to pay them that respect , as not to dissent from persons , divers of whom for their eminence in Mathematicks and other Learning I much esteem , without shewing that I do it not but upon Considerations that I think weighty . Thirdly , though the Examiners Hypothesis have but few , and not very considerable , Arguments to countenance it ; yet his Objections against our Doctrine ( the Reply to which takes up the first Part of the following Treatise ) are such , as though they may be solidly answered by any that throughly understands our Hypothesis , yet they may chance puzzle such Readers as do not , and these possibly will prove more than a few And , Lastly , because that sometimes when the Argument objected did not perhaps deserve to be much insisted on , the Argument treated of deserv'd to be considered ; I thought it not amiss to make use now and then of some such opportunities to illustrate the matter it self under consideration : Which I the rather did for these two Reasons ; First , because I find that , except by some able Mathematicians and very few other contemplative men , the Doctrine of the Spring of the Air , at least as I have proposed it , is not yet sufficiently apprehended , ( and therefore needs to be inculcated . ) Insomuch that through a great part of some late Discourses of men otherwise eminently learned , ( written against other Elaterists , not me ) there seems to run so great and clear a mistake , perhaps for want of skill in the Hydrostaticks , that I can scarce impute it to any thing , but to their not throughly understanding the Hypothesis they would confute . And , Next , because I was willing to lay down in my Answer to the Objections I examin'd , the grounds of answering such other Arguments as may be built upon the same or the like Principles . And perhaps I may truly enough say , that in the following Treatise I have already in effect answered several discourses , written some before and some since mine , by learned men , about the Torricellian and other new Experiments relating to a Vacuum , though I forbore to mention the names or words of the Authors , because I found not that my Writings or Experiments were as yet known to them . To these things I may adde , that I thought the Discourses of Linus the fitter to be insisted on , because he seems to have more diligently than some others , ( who yet venture to dispute against it ) enquired into our Doctrine . And I shall not scruple to say thus much of an Adversary , ( and one to whom I gave no provocation to be so ) that though I dare not speak in general of those that have written either about the Weight of the Air , or else For or Against a Vacuum , because ( as I acknowledge in the first Chapter following ) I cannot yet procure the Books of divers learned men , especially of those great Personages , Robervall , Balianus and Casatus ; yet among the Writers I have hitherto met with , who have recourse to the Aristotelean Rarefaction and Condensation in the Controversies under debate , scarce any seems to have contrived his Hypothesis better than our Linus . Not that I think his Principle is either true , or ( at least to such as I ) intelligible ; but that the Funiculus he assumes being allow'd him , he may , for a Reason to be touch'd a little below , make out , though not all the Phaenomena of my Experiments , yet many more of them than most other Plenists , that deny the Spring of the Air , can deduce from their Hypotheses if granted . And in regard that , whereas we ascribe to the Air a Motion of Restitution outwards , he attributes to it the like Motion inwards , it cannot but happen that , though the Principles cannot both be true yet many of the Phaenomena may be explicable by which of them soever is granted : because of this , I say , it is not so easie as many ingenious Readers may be apt to think , to draw pertinent Objections from Experience against the Adversary I have to deal with . Which I represent , lest , as some may think I have employ'd more Arguments than I needed , so others should think I have omitted many ; as indeed I have omitted some , that I might pertinently have employ'd . But there is another sort of Persons besides those I mention'd at the beginning of this Preface , to whom I must address the remaining part of it ; namely , to those who seem troubled , that I suffer my self to be diverted either by Linus or Mr. Hobbs from perfecting those Experimental Treatises that are lying by me , almost promis'd by the learned Publisher of the Latine Edition of my Essays ; and from prosecuting those wayes of enquiry into the Nature of things , wherein they are pleas'd to think I may be more serviceable to real Learning and the Lovers of it . And I confess that these Mens Reasons and Perswasions have so far prevailed with me , that after what I have done in the two following Treatises , to Vindicate my Writings from the Objections made against them by two Learned men of very differing Hypotheses , and thereby to shew in some measure that I am not altogether unacquainted with the way of defending oppos'd Truths , I have laid aside the thoughts of writing any more distinct or entire Polemical Treatises about the Subjects already disputed of . And to this I am invited by several other Reasons ( besides what I have newly intimated . ) For first , as I elsewhere declare , it was not my cheif Design to establish Theories and Principles , but to devise Experiments , and to enrich the History of Nature with Observations faithfully made and deliver'd ; that by these , and the like Contributions , made by others , men may in time be furnish'd with a sufficient stock of Experiments to ground Hypotheses and Theories on . And though in my Physico-Mechanical Epistle and my Specimens I have ventur'd some Conjectures also at the Causes of the Phaenomena I relate , lest the Discourse should appear to inquisitive Readers too jejune ; yet ( as I formerly said ) I propos'd my Thoughts but as Conjectures design'd ( though not onely , yet chiefly ) to excite the Curiosity of the Ingenious , and afford some hints and assistance to the Disquisitions of the Speculative . And accordingly I have not forborn to mention divers things , which judicious Readers may easily perceive I foresaw that many would think unfavourable to the Opinions I inclin'd to . So that for me to leave Experimental for Controversial Studies , were a course unsuitable to the principal scope of my Writings . Next , though I have adventur'd to improve the Doctrine of the Spring and Weight of the Air by some Supplements where I found it deficient , and to recommend it by some new Illustrations and Arguments deduc'd from my Experiments : yet the Hypotheses themselves ( for the main ) being the Opinions also of far learneder Men than I , it might be thought injurious both to them and to our common Cause , if I should needlesly go about to hinder them from the Honour of Vindicating the Truths we agree in ; especially , some of them being Excellent Mathematicians , and others Eminent Naturalists , whose Concern to maintain the Hypotheses against Objections , if any shall arise , is equal to mine , and whose leisure and abilities far exceed those of a Person who both is sickly , and hath other employments enough , and who ( if he were far better skil'd in Geometry than he pretends to be ) hath such a weakness in his Eyes , as makes him both unwilling and unfit to engage in any Study where the conversing with Mathematical Schemes is necessary . Thirdly , nor do I see much cause to doubt that the things I have deliver'd will notwithstanding my silence be left undefended : The forwardness I have already observ'd in divers Vertuosi to Vindicate those Writings , which they are pleas'd to say have convinc'd them , and to save me the labour of penning the following Treatises , scarce permitting me such an Apprehension . Especially since there are some things that will much facilitate their Task , if not keep men from putting them upon it . For though Mr. Hobbs and Linus have examin'd my Writings upon Principles wherein they differ as much from each other as from me ; yet neither have they seen cause to deny any thing that I deliver as Experiment , nor have their Objections been considerable , whether as to Number or to Weight , against the Applications I have made of my Principles to solve the Phaenomena . So that usually without objecting any Incongruity to my particular Explications , they are fain to fall upon the Hypotheses themselves : in whose Defence I think I may with the more Reason expect to be seconded , because not onely I have endeavour'd , as I formerly noted , to lay the grounds of answering such Objections as I foresaw might arise ; but I have also , to prevent or ease their labour , written the two first Parts of my Defence against Linus , without being oblig'd to do so for the Vindicating of my Explications , which are particularly maintain'd in the third Part. I know not whether I may venture to adde on this occasion , That those who have taken notice of the usefulness of Experiments to true Philosophy , and have observ'd that nevertheless the Difficulty , Trouble , and Charge of making them is such , that even in this Learned Age of ours there are very few Bacon's or Mersennus's to be met with , and those who have either made themselves , or at least seen others make Experiments , even such as those I have publish'd , with the care I am wont to think my self oblig'd to employ on such Occasions ; will perhaps not onely believe that they cost me far more time and pains than they that have not made nor seen such tryals are apt to imagine , but will possibly think it enough for a Person that is not by Profession a Scholar , to make them carefully , and set them down faithfully , and will allow him to let others Vindicate the Truths he may have the good fortune to discover , especially , when there are so many fitter for it than he , who have ( as well as his Adversaries ) more leisure to write Disputations than opportunity to prosecute Experiments ; the latter of which to be perform'd as it ought to be , doth in many cases , besides some Dexterity scarce to be gain'd but by practice , require sometimes more Diligence , and oftentimes too more Cost , than most are willing , or than many are able , to bestow upon them . To be short , though if any thing very worthy to be taken notice of by me be suggested against any of my cheif opinions or Explications , I may either take an occasion to say somewhat to it elsewhere , or at least have an opportunity to consider it in a Review , wherein I may alter , mend , supply , vindicate or retract divers Passages of my other Writings : yet I would not have it expected that I should exchange a Book with every one that is at leisure to write one against a Vacuum , or about the Air. Which Declaration I make , not that I think it will or ought to hinder any man from making use of his liberty to express a dissent , if he sees cause ; but for these two Reasons . The one , That my silence might not injure either the Truth or my self , by tempting men to think , that whatever I do not answer , I cannot ; but might give unbiass'd and judicious Readers a Caution to allow as little of Advantage to the Writings of my adversaries upon the account of their being unanswer'd by me , as if I were no longer in the World. And the other , That I may not hinder those who would reply to such Adversaries by leaveing them an apprehension that either I may prevent them , or they me . To conclude , I see no cause to despair , that whether or no my Writings be protected , the Truths they hold forth will in time in spite of opposition establish themselves in the Minds of men , as the Circulation of the Bloud , and other formerly much contested Truths have already done . My Humour has naturally made me too careful not to offend those I dissent from , to make it necessary for any man to be my Adversary upon the account of Personal Injuries or Provocations . And as for any whom either Judgment or Envy may invite to contend , that the things I have communicated to the World deserved not so much Applause as they have had the luck to be entertain'd with ; that shall make no Quarrel betwixt us : For perhaps I am my self as much of that mind as he ; and however I shall not scruple to profess my self one of those who is more desirous to spend his time usefully , than to have the Glory of leaving nothing that was ever written against him unanswer'd ; and who is more solicitous to pursue the wayes of discovering Truth , than to have it thought that he never was so much subject to Humane Frailties as to miss it . A DEFENCE Of Mr. R. BOYLE's EXPLICATIONS of his Physico-Mechanical EXPERIMENTS , against FRANCISCUS LINUS . The I. Part. Wherein the Adversaries Objections against the Elaterists are examined . CHAP. I. A Newly-published Treatise , De Corporum inseparabilitate , being brought to my Hands , I find several Chapters of it employ'd to oppose the Explications I ventur'd to give of some of my new Experiments touching the Spring of the Air. Wherefore though I am very little delighted to be engag'd in Controversies , and though I be not at present without Employments enough ( of a private , and of a publick Nature ) to make it unseasonable for me , to be by a Work of this sort diverted from them ; yet for the Reasons specified in the Preface , I hold it not amiss to examine briefly what is objected against the thing I have delivered : and the rather , partly , because the learned Author , whoever he be ( for 't is the Title-Page of his Book that first acquainted me with the name of Franciscus Linus ) having forborn provoking Language in his Objections , allowes me in answering them to comply with my Inclinations and Custom of exercising Civility , even where I most dissent in point of Judgment . Besides , the Author himself has somewhat facilitated my Reply to him , by directing me in the ninth Page to some Books and Passages that I had not , when I publisht my Epistle , either seen or taken notice of . As indeed there are besides some of these several other Discourses that treat of the Torrecellian Experiments , which though by the names of their Authors I guess to be learnedly written , I have not to this day had opportunity to peruse , my stay in the remoter part of Ireland ( whither Philosophical Books were not , in that time of publick Confusion , brought ) having kept me from hearing of divers of them , till they were all bought up . Which I here mention , to excuse my self if I have not taken notice of some things or passages to be met with in these Writings , which their Learned Authors or Inquisitive Readers might justly perhaps expect I should take some notice of , in case those Writings had fallen into my hands . But to digress no further . 'T is true indeed , and it somewhat troubles me that it is so , that I can scarce promise my self to make my Adversary a Proselyte , since he without scruple assumes those very things as Principles , that to me seem almost as great Inconveniences as I would desire to shew any Opinion I dislike , to be liable unto . But since whatever Operation the following Discourse may have upon the Person that occasion'd it , I hope it may bring some satisfaction to those Philosophers who can as little as I understand the Aristotelean Rarefaction , and who will as well as I be backward to admit what they cannot understand ; it shall suffice me to defend the Truths I have deliver'd , if I cannot be so happy as to convince my acute Adversary of them ; and I shall not believe my labour lost , if this Discourse can contribute to the Establishment of some Notions in Philosophy that I think not inconsiderable in the minds of those whose clear Principles make me the most respect their Judgements , and for whose sakes I principally write . Now though I be not in strictness oblig'd to defend any more than such of my own Explications as the Examiner has thought fit to question , and those Particulars which I have added by way of Improvement to the two Hypotheses of the Spring and Weight of the Air ; yet that I may the more effectually prosecute what I lately intimated I aim at in this Writing , and may as well illustrate my Doctrine as defend it , I shall divide the ensuing Treatise into three Parts ; whereof the first is design'd to answer my Adversaries Objections against our Principles ; the second shall examine the Funicular Hypothesis he would substitute in their stead ; and the third shall contain particular Replyes to what he alledges against some of my particular Explications . CHAP. II. ALthough our Author confesses in his second Chapter , that the Air has a Spring as well as a Weight , yet he resolutely denies that Spring to be near great enough to perform those things which his Adversaries ( whom for brevities sake we will venture to call Elaterists ) ascribe to it . And his whole fourth Chapter , as the Title declares , is imploy'd to prove that the Spring of the Air is unable in a close place to keep the Mercury suspended in the Torrecellian Experiment . The proof of this Assertion he sayes is easie : But alledges two or three Arguments for it , which I think will be more easily answer'd than his Assertion evinc'd . In the First he sayes that those Experiments concerning the Adhesion of ones finger , &c. which he had mentioned in the foregoing Chapter , eodem modo se habent in loco clauso ac in aperto . But the answering of this we shall suspend till anon ; partly , because it may then be more conveniently examin'd , and partly , because our Author seems not to build much upon it , his chief Argument being that which he proposes in these words , Cum tota vis hujus Elaterii pendeat à refutato jam aëris aequipondio cum digitis 29½ argenti vivi , it a ut nec plus , nec minus faciat hoc elaterium in loco occluso , quam fit per illud aequipondium in loco aperto ; manifestum est , cum jam ostensum sit fictitium planè esse hujusmodi aequipondium , fictitium quoque esse tale elaterium . Wherefore since all the validity of his Objection against the Spring of the Air depends upon his former Chapter , wherein he thinks he has disprov'd the Weight of the Air ; it will behove us to look back into the former Chapter , and examine the four Arguments which he there proposes . But I must crave leave to vary from his method , and consider the third in the first place , because the removal of that Objection will facilitate and shorten the answer to the rest . His Third Argument therefore is thus set down . Nam si Tubus viginti tantum digitorum ( quo usi sumus in primo Argumento ) non totus impleatur argento , ut prius , sed spacium aliquod inter digitum superiorem & argentum relinquatur in quo sit solus aër ; videbimus subtracto inferiore digito superiorem non solum deorsum trahi , ut prius , sed etiam argentum jam descendere , idque notabiliter , quantum nimirum extendi potest exiguailla aëris particula à tali pondere descendente . Unde st loco illius aëris ponatur aqua , aliusve liquor qui non tam facilè extenditur , descensus nullus erit . Hinc , inquam , contra hanc sententiam formatur argumentum : nam st externus ille aër nequeat vel hos viginti digitos argenti à lapsu sustentare , uti jam vidimus , quomodo quaeso sustentabit 29½ ? Certè haec nullatenus reconciliari possunt . But to this Argument , which he thinks so irreconcilable with his Adversaries Hypothesis he has himself furnisht them with an Answer in these words , Dices forte ideo argentum in hoc casu descendere , quia deorsum truditur ab aëre illo sese per suum Elaterium dilatante . Which Anfwer I think sufficient for the Objection , notwithstanding the two exceptions he takes at it . For first , whereas he sayes , that sic deberet digitus potius à tubo repelli , quam eidem affigi , cum non minus sursum quam deorsum fiat bujusmodi dilatatio : He considers not , that though the endeavour of the included Air to expand it self be at first every way alike , yet the expansion it self in our case must necessarily be made downward , and not upward ; because the Finger that stops the Tube being expos'd on the upper parts and the sides to the external Air , has the whole Weight and pressure of the Atmosphere upon it ; and consequently cannot be thrust away but by a force capable to surmount that pressure : whereas on the lower side of the Included Air there is the Weight of the whole Mercurial Cylinder to assist the Spring of the Air , to surmount the Weight of the Atmosphere that gravitates upon the restagnant Mercury . So that the Air included and endeavouring to expand it self , finding no assistance to expand it self upward , and a considerable one to expand it self downward , it is very natural that it should expand it self that way whence it finds less resistance . As accordingly it will happen , till the Spring of the Air be so far debilitated by its Expansion , that its pressure , together with the weight of the Mercury that remains suspended , will but counter-balance , not overcome , the pressure of the outward Air upon the restagnant Mercury . And this explication may be confirm'd by this trial that I have purposely made , namely , that if in stead of Quicksilver you employ Water , and leave as before in the Tube an Inch of Air , and then inverting it , open it under Water , you will perceive the included Inch of Air not to dilate it self any thing near ( for I need not here define the Proportion ) half so far as it did when the Tube was almost fill'd with Mercury ; because the Weight of so short a Cylinder of Water does but equal that of between an Inch and an Inch and an half onely of Quicksilver , and consequently the inward Air is far less assisted to dilate it self and surmount the pressure of the outward Air by the Cylinder of Water than by that of Mercury . And as for what our Author sayes , that if instead of Air , Water or some other Liquor be left at the top of the Tube , the Quicksilver will not descend : the Elaterists can readily solve that Phaenomenon , by saying that Water has either no Spring at all , or but an exceeding weak one ; and so scarce presses but by its Weight , which in so short a Cylinder is inconsiderable . Now the same solution we have given of our Examiners Objection , gives us also an account why the Finger is so strongly fastned to the upper part of the Orifice of the Tube it stops ; for the included Air being so far dilated that an Inch , for example , left at first in the upper Part of the Tube , reaches twice or thrice as far as it did before the descent of the Quicksilver , its spring must be proportionably weakned . And consequently that part of the Finger that is within the Tube will have much les pressure against it from the dilated Air within , than the upper part of the same Finger will have from the unrarefi'd Air without . By which means the Pulp of the Finger will be thrust in ( which our Author is pleas'd to call suckt in ) as we shall ere long have occasion to declare in our Answer to his second Argument . And having said thus much to our Authors first exception against the solution he foresaw we would give of his third Argument ; we have not much to say at present to this second . For whereas he sayes , Concipi non posse quomodo aër ille sic se dilatet , argentumque deorsum trudat , nisi occupando majorem locum : Quod tamen hi Authores quam maxime refugiunt , asserentes rarefactionem non aliter fieri , quam per corpuscula aut vacuitates : I wish he had more clearly express'd himself , since as his words are couch'd I cannot easily guess what he means , and much less easily discern how they make an Argument against his Adversaries . For , sure he thinks them not so absurd , as to imagine that the Air can dilate it self , and thrust down the Mercury , without in some sense taking up more room than it did before : For the very word Dilatation , and the effect they ascribe to the included Air , clearly imply as much ; so that I see not why he should say that they are so averse from granting the Air to take up more Place than before , especially since he takes notice in the former Chapter , that we compare the Expansion of the Air to that of compress'd Wooll ; and since he here also annexes that we explicate Rarefaction either by Corpuscles or Vacuities . But this later Clause makes me suspect his meaning to be , that the Elaterists do not admit that the same Air may adequately fill more of Place at one time than at another ; which I believe to be as true as that the self-same lock of compress'd Wooll has no more Hairs in it , nor does adequately fill more Place with them , when it is permitted to expand it self , than whilst it remain'd compress'd . But against this way of Rarefaction our Author here has not any Objection , unless it be intimated in these words , Concipi non potest : Which if it be , I shall need onely to mind him in this place , that whereas many of the chiefest Philosophers , both of Ancient and our own times , have profest they thought not the Aristotelean way of Rarefaction conceivable ; and he acknowledges ( as we shall see anon ) that it is not clear ; what the ablest of his Party ( the modern Plenists ) are wont to object against the way of Rarefaction he dislikes , is , that it is not true , not that it is not intelligible . CHAP. III. OUR Authors Second Objection ( for so I reckon it ) is thus propos'd by him . Si sumatur tubus utrinque apert us sed longior , puta digitorum 40. Argentoque impleatur , eique digitus supernè applicatur ut prius , videbimus subtracto inferiore digito , argentum quidem descendere usque ad consuetam suam stationem ; Digitum autem superiorem fortiter intra tubum trahi , eique firmissime , ut prius , adhaerere . Ex quo rursum evidenter concluditur , argentum , in sua statione constitutum , non ibidem sustentari ab externo aëre , sed à funiculo quodam interno suspendi , cujus superior extremitas , digito affixa , eum sic intra tubum trahit , eique affigit . But this Argument being much of the same nature with that drawn from his third Experiment , the Answer made to that and to his first may be easily apply'd , and will be sufficient for this also ; especially because in our present case there is less Pressure against the Pulp of the Finger in the inside of the Tube than in the third Experiment ( where some Air is inoluded , though much expanded and weakned ; ) the Pressure of the Atmosphere being in the present case kept off from it by the subjacent Mercury , whereas there is nothing of that Pressure abated against the other parts of the Finger that kept it off from the deserted Cavity of the Tube , save onely that from the Pulp that is contiguous to the Tube , there may be somewhat of that Pressure taken off by the Weight of the Glass it self . But as for that Part of the Finger which immediately covers the hole , whether or no there be any Spring in its own fibres , or other constituent substances , which finding no resistance in the place deserted by the Quicksilver , may contribute to its swelling ( for that we will not now examine ) he that has duly consider'd the account already given of this Intrusion of the Pulp into the Glass , will find no need of our Authors internal Funiculus , which to some seems more difficult to conceive , than any of the Phaenomena in Controversie is to be explain'd without it . CHAP. IV. BY what we have already said against our Examiners Third Argument , we may be assisted to answer his first , though he propose it as a very clear Demonstration ; and though it be indeed the principal thing in his Book . Sumatur ( sayes he ) tubus brevior digitis 29½ puta digitorum 20. non tamen clausus altero extremo , ( ut hactenus ) sed utrinque apertus : Hic Tubus , immerso ejus orificio Argento restagnanti , suppositoque digito , ne effluat Argentum Tubo infundendum , impleatur Argento vivo : aliusque deinde digitus orificio quoque applicetur , illudque bene claudat . Quo facto , si subtrahatur inferior digitus , sentietur superior vehementer trahi ac sugi intra tubum , tamque pertinaciter ei ( vel argento potius , ut postea ) adhaerere , ut ipsum tubum cum toto argento incluso facilè elevet teneatque in vase pendulum . Ex quo sane experimento clarissimè refellitur haec sententia : Cum enim , juxta eam , Argentum in tubo hujusmodi 20. tantum digitorum , sursum trudatur à praeponderante aëre externo : nunquam profecto per eam explicabitur , quomodo digitus ille sic trahatur deorsum , tuboque tam vehementer adhaereat ; non enim à trudente sursum potest sic deorsum trahi . Thus far our Authors objection , in answer whereunto I have divers things to represent , to shew , that a good account may be given of this Experiment in the Hypothesis of the Elaterists , which is sufficient to manifest how far the argument is from being so unanswerable as the proposer of it would perswade his Reader . I deny then that the Finger is drawn downward , or made by suction to adhere to the Tube ; but I explicate that which he calls the suction of the Finger , as I lately did in answer to his third Argument , as we shall more particularly see anon . He sayes indeed , that the Air which thrust up the Quicksilver cannot so strongly draw down the Finger . As if the Air were not a fluid body , but a single and entire pillar of some solid matter . But to shorten our Reply to his Objections , the best way perhaps will be briefly to explicate the Phaenomenon thus : When the Tube is fill'd with Quicksilver , the Finger that stops the upper Orifice is almost equally press'd above and at the sides by the contiguous Air ; but when the lower Finger is remov'd , then the Cylinder of Mercury , which before gravitated upon the Finger , comes to gravitate upon the restagnant Mercury , and by its intervention to press against the outward Air : so that against those parts of the Finger that are contiguous to the Air there is all the wonted pressure of the outward Air ; whereas against that Pulp that is contiguous to the Mercury there is not so much pressure as against the other parts of the Finger by two thirds . I say by two thirds , or thereabout , because the Mercurial Cylinder in this Experiment is suppos'd to be twenty Inches high ; and if it were but a little more than thirty Inches high , ( which is a third more ) then the weight of the Quicksilver would take off not two thirds only , but the whole pressure of the outward Air , from the above-mentioned pulp of the Finger . For in that case the Quicksilver would quite desert it , and settle beneath it . Wherefore since it has appeared by our Answer to the Examiner's third Argument , That the pressure of the outward Air is taken off from the body that remains in the upper part of the Tube , according to the weight of the Liquor suspended in the Tube ; and since in our Hypothesis the pressure of the outward Air is able to keep thirty Inches of Quicksilver , or two or three and thirty foot of Water , suspended in a Tube ; it need be no great wonder , if a pressure of the ambient Air , equal to the weight of a Cylinder of Water of near twenty two foot long , should be able to thrust in the pulp of the Finger at the upper Orifice of the Tube , and make it stick closely enough to the lip of it . I know the Examiner affirms , That no thrusting or pressure from without can ever effect such an adhesion of the Finger to the Tube . But this should be as well prov'd as said . But , first , though I am willing to think the Examiner would not knowingly relate any thing he is not persuaded of ; yet as far as I and another person very well vers'd in these Experiments have purposely tried , I could not find the Adhesion of the Finger to the Tube to be near so strong as our Author hath related . Secondly , if you carefully endeavour by pressure and otherwise to thrust the pulp of your Finger into the Orifice of the Tube , you may through the Glass perceive it to be manifestly tumid in the cavity of the Pipe. And if by pressing your Finger against the Orifice of the Tube , you should not make the pulp adhere quite so strongly to the Tube , nor swell quite so much within it , as may happen in some Mercurial Experiments ; it is to be consider'd , that the Air being a fluid as well as a heavy body , it does not ( as grosser Weights would ) press only against the upper part of the Finger , but pressing as much of the finger as is expos'd to it almost every where , and almost uniformly , as well as strongly , it does by its lateral pressure on every side thrust in the Pulp of the Finger into the hole where there is not any resistance at all , or at least near so much pressure against the Pulp as that of the ambient Air against the parts of the Finger contiguous to it . By this it may appear that we need not borrow the Objection our Author offers to lend us ; namely , that in the Experiment under consideration the Quicksilver is press'd downward by the Spring of some Air lurking betwixt it and the Finger . ( Though I am prone to think that unless the Experiment be made with a great deal of care , such a thing may easily happen , and contribute to the stronger Adhesion of the Finger to the Tube . ) This I say may appear not withstanding what our Author Objects , that the Air expanding it self will thrust away the Finger upwards , since the contrary of that pretence we have lately manifested in the Answer to his Third Argument . And as for what he adds to confirm his Argumentation in these words , Quod vel inde confirmatur , Quia cum praeponderans ille aër succedat ( uti asseritur ) loco sublati inferioris digiti , id est , eodem modo nunc sustentet Argentum quo ante ab applicato digito inferiore sustentabatur ; manifestum est , non debere , juxta hanc sententiam , magis deorsum trahi digitum superiorem post sublatam inferiorem quam ante . Cum itaque contrarium planè doceat experientia , satis liquet sententiam illam esse falsam . We must consider that the Tube being suppos'd perfectly full of Mercury , the Finger that stops the lower Orifice is wont to be kept strongly press'd against it , lest any of that ponderous Liquor should get out between the Tube and the Finger . So that although both the lower Finger do indeed keep up the Mercury in the Tube , and the pressure of the outward Air would do so too ; yet there is this difference , that the pressure of the Atmosphere depending upon its Weight , cannot be intended and weakned as we please , as can that of the undermost Finger . And therefore whereas the Atmospherical Cylinder will not keep up a Cylinder of Quicksilver of above thirty Inches high , those that make the Torricellian Experiment do often , upon one occasion or other , keep up with the Finger a Mercurial Cylinder of perhaps forty or fifty Inches or far more : So that whereas in our case , before the removal of the undermost Finger , the Pulp of the uppermost must have about the same pressure against it where it is contiguous to the Mercury , as there is against the other part of the same Finger ; after the removal of the undermost Finger , there is as much of the Atmospherical Pressure , if I may so speak , taken off from the newly mention'd Pulp as counter-balances a Cylinder of Quicksilver of twenty Inches long . CHAP. V. THe Examiners Fourth and last Experiment is thus propos'd . Quarto denique ( says he ) impugnatur : Quia ex eo sequeretur , Argentum vivum per similem Tubum è vasculo exugi posse eâdem prorsus facilitate quâ ex eodem exugeretur aqua : quod tamen experientiae repugnat , quâ docemur aquam in os sugentis facillimè attrahi ; quo tamen Argentum vivum ne toto quidem adhibito conatu perduci queat , imo vix ad Tubi medietatem . Sequelam autem sic ostendo : Quia cum in hac sententia nihil aliud agendum sit quam hoc , ut per Tubum sic ascendat subject us Liquor , sive Aqua fuerit , sive Argentum , nisi ut sugendo sur sum trahatur aër Tubo inclusus , quo sic attracto ascendit illico subject us Liquor , protrusus nimirum ab externo aëre jam praeponderante ( uti docet Pecquettus in dissertatione Anatomica pag. 63. ) manifestum est , eadem planè facilitate exugendum sic Argentum vivum qua exugitur Aqua : Quod quum Experientiae tam aperte repugnat , necesse est sententiam ex qua sequitur falsam esse . This Experiment I remember I made some years ago , accordingly 't is alledg'd in the fourth Essay of the Treatise ( I was then writing ) to prove against the Vulgar Opinion , that Liquors do not to prevent a Vacuum spontaneously ascend , which I presume will be so far allow'd of by our Author , who would have Liquors suppos'd to be rais'd by Suction violently drawn up by the contraction of his Funiculus . But to examine this Experiment , as it concerns the present Controversie , we may recal to mind that we formerly shew'd in the Answer to our Author's Third Argument , That when the Mercurial Cylinder that leans upon the restagnant Mercury has at the other end of it Air , kept from any entercourse with the Atmosphere , that included Air has so much of the Pressure of the external Air taken off from it as counterpoises the Mercurial Cylinder . And the Finger that is expos'd to the whole Pressure of the ambient Air in some of its Parts , and in others but to the much fainter Pressure of the included Air , endures an unusal Pressure from the preponderating power of the Atmosphere . We may consider also that there is against the Thorax and those Muscles of the Abdomen that are subservient to Respiration the Pressure of the whole ambient Air. Which Pressure , notwithstanding , The Muscles design'd for the use of Respiration , are able without any considerable resistance to dilate the Thorax at pleasure ; because , as fast as they open the Chest , and by dilating it weaken the Spring of that Air which is then within the Body , the external Air by flowing in , for want of finding the usual resistance there , keeps that within the Thorax in an AEquilibrium of force with that without . These things premised , 't is not Difficult in our Hypothesis to give an Answer to our Examiner's Experiment . For we say when a Cylinder of Mercury is rais'd in the Tube to any considerable height , the Pressure of the Air in the Thorax is lessen'd by the whole weight of that Mercurial Cylinder , and consequently the Respiratory Muscles are thereby disabled to dilate the Chest as freely as they were wont , by reason of the prevalency of the undiminish'd Pressure of the external Air against the weakned Pressure of the internal : But if instead of Mercury you substitute Water , so short a Cylinder of that comparatively light Liquor takes off so little of the Pressure of the included Air , that it comes into the Lungs with almost its usual strength , and consequently with almost as much force as the outward Air presses with against the Thorax . And on this occasion there occurs to my thoughts a noble Experiment of the most Ingenious Monsieur Paschal , which clearly shews , that if we could free the upper part of such a Tube as we are now considering from the Pressure of all internal Air , it would follow , as the Examiner says it should , that the Quicksilyer would by the Pressure of the outward Air be impell'd up into the Tube as well as Water , till it had attain'd a height great enough to make its Weight not inferiour but equal to that of the Atmosphere . The Experiment it self being so pertinent and considerable , we shall annex it in the same words wherein it is related by his Country-man and Acquaintance , the Learned and Candid Gassendus . Neque hoc verò solum , sed insuper vitreo Diabete Clysteréve ea qua par fuerit longitudine confecto , & post embolum ad orificium usque compulsum , immisso ad normam in subjectum Hydrargyrum , deprehendit , ubi embolum sensim deinde educitur , consequi Hydrargvrum ascendereque ad eandem usque duorum pedum & digitorum trium eum semisse altitudinem . To which he immediately subjoyns a Circumstance very considerable to the present Controversie in the following Clause . Ac ubi deinceps , adhibita licet non majore vi , Embolum altius educitur , consistere Hydrargyrum , neque amplius consequi , ac fieri interim Inane quod spatium intercipitur ab ipso ad Embolum usque . Thus far he . So that as to the Examiner's Experiment , we may well explicate it in our Hypothesis , by saying , that agreeably to it it happens , that in a more forcible Respiration the Mercurial Cylinder is raised higher than in a more languid ; because , in the former Case , the Chest being more dilated , the included Air is also more expanded ; whereby its debilitated Spring cannot as before enable the Mercurial Cylinder to counterpoise altogether the Pressure of the ambient Air. And that the reason why the Quicksilver is not by Respiration rais'd as high as it is kept suspended in the Torricellian Experiment , is not , that the Pressure of the outward Air is unable to raise it so high , but because , as we have already declar'd , the free Dilatation of the Thorax is opposed by the Pressure of the ambient Air ; which Pressure being against so great a Superficies , and being but imperfectly resisted by the debilitated Pressure of the Air within the Thorax , will be easily imagined to be very considerable by him who considers that in our Engine , the Pressure of the external Air against the Sucker of less than three inches Diameter was , as we relate in the 33. Experiment , able to thrust up a Weight of above a hundred pound . And here we may observe upon the By in confirmation of our former Doctrine , that when we strongly suck up Quicksilver in a Glass Tube , though the Elevation of the Quicksilver be according to our Author performed likewise by his Funiculus contracting it self every way , and though there be a Communication betwixt the internal surface of the Lungs , and the cavity of the Tube ; yet we feel not in our Lungs any endeavour of the shrinking Funiculus to tear off that Membrane they are lin'd with . And thus we have examin'd our Author's four Arguments , to prove that in the Torricellian Experiment the Quicksilver cannot be kept suspended by the counterpoise of the external Air : Against which Opinion he tells us indeed , that other Arguments might be alledg'd ) but as it is not probable that if he had thought them better than those he has elected to insist on , he would have omitted them ; so 't is not unlikely that Answers might be as well found for them as for the others ; especially since that which he singles out for a Specimen is , that from his Adversaries Hypothesis it would follow , that the Quicksilver would descend much more ( I suppose 't is a mistake of the Press , for much less ) in cold Weather than in hot , because the Air is then thicker and heavier , and therefore ought to impel up the Quicksilver higher . For besides that we shall in its due place question the validity of our Author's Consequence ; it will be here sufficient to Reply , that the Observation on which he grounds it does not constantly hold , as his Objection supposes : Which may appear by that part of our 18. Experiment whence the matter of fact is desum'd , as we shall have occasion to take further notice of when we shall come to the Defence of that Experiment . So that what has been hitherto Discours'd on both sides being duly consider'd , the Reader is left to judge what ground the Examiner had for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherewith he is pleas'd to conclude his Third Chapter , Maneat igitur tot Argumentis comprobatum , quorum quodlibet se solo sufficit , Argentum ( facto Experimento in loco aperto ) per externi aëris gravitatem à lapsu minimè sustentari . CHAP. VI. HIs fourth Chapter , wherein the Title promises that he will prove , Argentum in loco occluso non sustentari à lapsu per ipsum aëris Elaterium , is very short , and does not require that we should dwell long upon it . For the proof he brings of his Assertion being this , Cumtota vis hujus Elaterii pendeat à refutato jam aëris aequipondio cum digitis 29½ Argenti vivi , ita ut nec plus nec minus faciat hoc elaterium in loco occluso quam fit per illud aequipondium in loco aperto ; manifestum est , cum jam ostensum sit fictitium planè esse hujusmodi aequipondium , fictitium quoque esse tale elaterium : This being no new Argument , but an Inference from those he had set down in the former Chapter , by our Answers to them it is become needless for us to make any distinct Reply to this . We shall rather desire the Reader to take notice , that whereas our Author says that according to his Adversaries , Nec plus nec minus faciat hoc Elaterium in loco occluso quam fit per illud AEquipondium in loco aperto ; whatever others may have written , we for our part allow of this Opinion but in some Cases ; for in others we have perform'd much more by the Spring of the Air , which we can within certain limits increase at pleasure , than can be perform'd by the bare weight , which for ought we know remains always somewhat near the same . And of this advantage that the spring of the Air may have in point of force above the weight of it , we have formerly given an Instance in our 17. Experiment , ( where , by compressing the Air in the Receiver , we impell'd the Mercurial Cylinder higher than the station at which the counterpoise of the Air is wont to sustain it ) and shall hereafter have occasion to give yet more considerable proofs . To the lately recited words our Examiner subjoyns these ; Adde , cum allata jam capite praecedente experimenta de adhaesione digiti , &c. eodem modo se habent in loco clauso ac in aperto , necessarium esse facta ex eis argumenta contra aequipondium , eadem quoque contra elaterium vim habere . But though he propose this as a new Argument , yet since 't is built but upon the adhesion of the Finger ( of which we have already given an account in our Hypothesis ) I see not how it requires any new and particular Answer . And whereas he says , that the Experiments he had mentioned concerning the adhesion of ones Finger , &c. eodem modo se habent in loco clauso ac in aperto ; I could wish he had added what way he took to make the Trials . For he gives no intimation that he did them any other ways than in ordinary rooms . And in such there scarce ever wants a communication betwixt the inward and outward Air , either at the Chimney , or Window , or Door not exactly shut , or at some hole or crevice or other , by means of which the weight of the Atmosphere has its operation within the room . To his second Argument our Author adds not a third , unless we take that for an Argument which he immediately annexes to his last recited words : Et profectò ( says he ) si secum expenderent hi Authores , quanta sit difficultas explicandi hujusmodi aëris elaterium , nisi idem aër se solo occupet majorem locum ( ut paulo ante ) credo eos sententiam facilè mutaturos . But this being said gratis , does not exact an Answer ; and he must make it more intelligible than any man that I know of has yet done , how the same Air can adequately fill more space at one time than at another , before he perswade me to change my opinion about the Spring of the Air : Especially since he himself allows that the Air has a Spring , whereby it is able , when it has been violently compress'd , to recover its due extension ; the manner whereof if he will intelligibly explicate , his Adversaries will have no great difficulty to make out the spring of the Air. But whether his Hypothesis , or ours , be the more intelligible , will be more properly considered in the second part of our Discourse , to which we will therefore now proceed . The II. Part. Wherein the Adversaries Funicular Hypothesis is examin'd CHAP. I. What is alledged to prove the Funiculus is consider'd ; and some Difficulties are propos'd against the Hypothesis . THE Hypothesis that the Examiner would , as a better , substitute in the place of ours , is , if I mistake it not , briefly this ; That the things we ascribe to the weight or spring of the Air are really perform'd by neither , but by a certain Funiculus , or extremely thin substance , provided in such cases by Nature , ne detur vacuum , which being exceedingly rarefied by a forcible distension , does perpetually and strongly endeavour to contract it self into dimensions more agreeable to the nature of the distended body ; and consequently does violently attract all the bodies whereunto it is contiguous , if they be not too heavy to be remov'd by it . But this Hypothesis of our Authors does to me , I confess , appear liable to such Exceptions , that though I dislik'd that of his Adversaries yet I should not imbrace his , but rather wait till time and further Speculations or tryals should suggest some other Theory , fitter to be acquiesc'd in than this ; which seems to be partly precarious , partly unintelligible , and partly insufficient , and besides needless : though it will not be so convenient to prove each of these apart , because divers of my Objections tend to prove the Doctrine , against which they are alledged , obnoxious to more than one of the imputed Imperfections . First , then , the Arguments by which our Author endeavours to evince his Funiculus , are incompetent for that end . The Arguments which he proposes in his sixth Chapter , ( where he undertakes to make good his Assertion ) I there find to be three . The first he sets down in these words , Constat hoc primò exjam dict is Capite praecedente : nequit enim argentum descendens sic digitum deorsum trahere , tuboque affigere , nisi à tali Funiculo suspendatur , eumque suo pondere vehementer extendat , ut per se patet . But to this proof answer has been made already in the former Part of this Discourse : onely whereas the Author seems to refer us to the foregoing Chapter , we will look back to it , and take notice of what I find there against the Vacuists . For though I neither am bound , nor intend , in this Discourse to declare my self for , or against a Vacuum ; yet since I am now writing against the Funicular Hypothesis , it will much conduce to shew that it is not firmly grounded , if I examine what he here alledges against the Assertors of a Vacuum . In the next place therefore I consider that according to the Examiner , there can be no Vacuum ; and that he makes to be the main reason why Nature in the Torricellian and our Experiments does act after so extraordinary a manner , as is requisite to the production of his Funiculus . For in the 47 th . Page , having in his Adversaries name demanded what need there is at the descent of the Quicksilver , that before it falls a superficies should be separated from it , and extended ; Respondeo ( sayes he ) ideo hoc fieri , ne detur vacuum ; cum nihil aliud ibi adsit quod loco argenti descendentis possit succedere . To which he immediately subjoyns , ( with what cogency I will not now examine ) Atque hinc plane confirmatur commune illud per tot jam elapsa secula usurpatum in Scholis axioma , viz. Naturam à vacuo abhorrere . And though he seem to make his Funiculus the immediate cause of the Phaenomena occurring in the Torricellian and our Experiments : yet that , if you pursue the inquiry a little higher , he resolves them into Natures abhorrency of a Vacuum , himself plainly informs us in the next page ; Nam licet ( sayes he ) immediata ratio cur aqua v. g. ex hydria hortulana superne clausa ( quo exemplo utuntur ) non descendat , non sit metus va . ui , sed ea quam modo diximus , nempe quod non detur sufficiens pondus ad solvendum illum nexum quo adhaereat aqua clausae hydriae summitati ; ad eam tamen rationem tandem necessario veniendum est . But , though as well our Author 's Funiculus , as the other scarce conceivable Hypotheses that learned men have devised , to account for the suspension of the Quicksilver otherwise than by the resistance of the external Air , seem to have been excogitated onely to shun the necessity of admitting a Vacuum : yet I see not how our Examiner cogently proves , either that there can be none in rerum naturâ , or that De facto there is none produc'd in these Experiments . For in his fifth Chapter ( where he professedly undertakes that task ) he has but these two incompetent Arguments . The first is drawn from the attraction , as he supposes , of the Finger into the deserted cavity of the Tube in the Torricellian Experiment : Quae quidem ( sayes he ) tam vehemens tractio & adhaesio , cum non nisi à reali aliquo corpore inter digitum & argentum constitutum queat provenire , manifestum est spatium illud vacuum non esse , sed verâ aliquâ substantiâ repletum . But to this Argument having already given an Answer , let us ( without staying to urge , that the Vacuists will perhaps object , that they see not a Necessity , though they should admit of Traction in the case , that the internal substance must therefore perfectly replenish the deserted Cavity ; without pressing this , I say , let us ) consider his other , which he draws from the Diaphaneity of the deserted part of the Tube , which space ( he sayes ) were it empty , would appear like a little black Pillar , Eo quod nullae species visuales neque ab eo neque per illud possunt ad oculum pervenire . But ( not to engage our selves in Optical Speculations and Controversies ) if we grant him somewhat more than perhaps he can prove ; yet as the Experiment will not demonstrate that there is nothing of body in any part of the space deserted by the Mercury , so neither will the Argument conclude ( as the Proposer of it does twice in this Chapter ) That space ver â aliquâ substantiâ repleri . For according to the Hypothesis of the Epicureans and other Atomists , who make Light to be a corporeal Effluvium from lucid bodies , and to consist of Atoms so minute , as freely to get in at the narrow Pores of Glass , there will be no cause to deny interspers'd Vacuities in the upper part of the Tube . For the Corpuscles of Light that permeate that space may be so numerous , as to leave no sensible part of it un-inlightned ; and yet may have so many little empty Intervals betwixt them , that , if all that is corporeal in the space we speak of were united into one lump , it would not perhaps adequately fill the one half ( not to say the tenth , or even the hundredth part ) of the whole space : According to what we have noted in the 17. Experiment , that a Room my appear full of the smoke of a Perfume , though if all the Corpuscles that compose that smoke were re-united , they would again make up but a small Pastil . To which purpose I remember I have taken Camphire , of which a little will fill a Room with its odour , and having in well-clos'd distillatory Glasses caught the Fumes driven over by heat , I thereby reduc'd them to re-conjoyn into true Camphire , whose bulk is very inconsiderable in comparison of the space it fills as to sense , when the odorous Corpuscles are scattered through the free Air. To which I might adde , that the Torricellian Experiment being made in a dark night , or in a Room perfectly darkn'd , if it succeed ( as there is little cause to suspect it will not ) it may well be doubted whether our Authors Argument will there take place . For if he endeavour to prove that the place in question was full in the dark , because upon the letting in of the Day , or the bringing in of a Candle , the light appears within it ; the Vacuists may reply according to their Hypothesis , That that light is a new one , flowing from the lucid body that darts its corporeal beams quite through the Glass and Space we dispute about , which for want of such Corpuscles were not just before visible . And supposing light not to be made by a trajection of Atoms through Diaphanous bodies , but a propagation of the impulse of lucid bodies through them ; yet it will not thence necessarily follow , that the deserted part of the Tube must be full : As in our 27. Experiment ( though many of those gross Aërial Particles that appear'd necessary to convey a languid sound were drawn out of our Receiver at the first and second Exsuction ; yet there remain'd so many of the like Corpuscles , that those that were wanting were not miss'd by the sense , though afterwards , when a far greater number was drawn out , they were ) so there may be matter enough remaining to transmit the impulse of light ; though betwixt the Particles of that matter there should be store of vacuities intercepted . Whereas our Author pretends to prove , not onely that there is no coacervate Vacuity in the space so often mention'd , but absolutely that there is none . For 't is in this last sense , as well as the other , that the Schools and our Author , who defends their Opinion , deny a V●cuum . But notwithstanding what we have now discours'd , as in our 17. Experiment we declin'd determining whether there be a Vacuum or no ; so now what we have said to the Examiners Argument , has not been to declare our whole sense of the Controversie , but onely to shew , that though his Hypothesis supposes there is no Vacuum , yet his Arguments do not sufficiently prove it : which may help to shew his Doctrine to be precarious ; for otherwise the Cartesians , though Plenists , may plausibly enough ( whether truly or no I now dispute not ) decline the necessity of admitting a Vacuum in the deserted space of the Tube , by supposing it fill'd with their second and first Element , whose Particles they imagine to be minute enough freely to pass in and out through the Pores of Glass . But then they must allow the pressure of the outward Air to be the cause of the suspension of the Quicksilver : for though the materia caelestis may readily fill the spaces the Mercury deserts ; yet that within the Tube cannot hinder so ponderous a liquor from subsiding as low as the restagnant Mercury ; since all the parts of the Tube , as well the lowermost as the uppermost , being pervious to that subtile matter , it may with like facility succeed in whatever part of the Tube shall be forsaken by the Quicksilver . The Examiners second Argument in the same place is , That since the Mercurial Cylinder is not sustain'd by the outward Air it must necessarily be , that it be kept suspended by his internal string . But since for the proof of this he is content to refer us to the third Chapter ; our having already examin'd that , allows us to proceed to his third Argument , which is , That the Mercurial Cylinder , resting in its wonted station , does not gravitate : as may appear by applying the Finger to the immers'd or lower Orifice of the Tube . Whence he infers , that it must of necessity be suspended from within the Tube . And indeed if you dexterously apply your Finger to the open end of the Tube , when you have almost , but not quite , lifted it out of the restagnant Mercury , ( which circumstance must not be neglected , though our Author have omitted it ) that so you may shut up no more Quicksilver than the Mercurial Cylinder is wont to consist of , you will find the Experiment to succeed well enough : ( Which makes me somewhat wonder to find it affirm'd , that the learned Maignan denies it ) not but that you will feel upon your Finger a gravitation or pressure of the Glass-Tube , and the contained Mercury as of one body ; but that you will not feel any sensible pressure of the Mercury apart , as if it endeavoured to thrust away your Finger from the Tube . But the reason of this is not hard to give in our Hypothesis ; for according to that , the Mercurial Cylinder and the Air counterpoising one another , the Finger sustains not any sensibly-differing pressure from the ambient Air that presses against the Nail and fides of it , and from the included Quicksilver that presses against the Pulp . But if the Mercurial Cylinder should exceed the usual length , then the Finger would feel some pressure from that surplusage of Quicksilver , which the Air does not assist the Finger to sustain . So that this pleasant Phaenomenon may be as well solv'd in our Hypothesis , as in the Examiners : in which if we had time to clear an Objection , which we fore-see might be made , but might be answer'd too , we would demand why , when the Mercury included in the Tube is but of a due altitude , it should run out upon the removal of the Finger that stops it beneath , in case it be sustain'd onely by the internal Funiculus , and do , according to his Doctrine , when the Funiculus sustains it , emulate a solid body , if the pressure of the external Air has not ( as our Author teaches it not to have ) any thing to do in this matter . And if some inquisitive person shall here object , That certainly the Finger must feel much pain by being squeez'd betwixt two such pressures , as that of a Pillar of thirty Inches of Quicksilver on the one side , and an equivalent pressure from the Atmospherical Pillar on the other , it may readily be represented , that in fluid bodies ( such as are those concern'd in our Difficulty ) a solid body has no such sense of pressure from the ambient bodies as ( unless Experience had otherwise instructed us ) we should perhaps imagine . For , not to mention that having inquired of a famous Diver , whether he found himself sensibly compressed by the Water at the bottom of the Sea ; he agreed with the generality of Divers in the Negative : I am inform'd that the learned Maignan did purposely try , that his hand being thrust three or four Palmes deep into Quicksilver , his fingers were not sensible , either of any weight from the incumbent , or of any pressure from the ambient , Quicksilver . The reason of which ( whether that inquisitive man have given it or no ) is not necessary in our present Controversie to be lookt after . To these three Arguments the Examiner addes not a fourth , unless he design to present it us in this concluding passage : Huc etiam faciunt insignes librationes quibus argentum subito descendens agitatur : Idem enim hic fit quod in aliis Pendulis & ab alto demissis fieri solet . But of this Phaenomenon also t is easie to give an account in our Hypothesis by two several wayes ; whereof the First ( which is proper chiefly when the Experiment is made in a close place , as our Receiver ) is , That the Quicksilver by its sudden descent acquires an impetus superadded to the pressure it has upon the score of its wonted gravity ; whereby it for a while falls below its station , and thereby compresses the Air that leans upon the restagnant Mercury . Which Air by its own Spring again forcibly dilating it self to recover its former extension , and ( as is usual in Springs ) hastily flying open , expands it self beyond it , and thereby impells up the Quicksilver somewhat above its wonted station , in its fall from whence it again acquires somewhat ( though not so much as before ) of impetus or power , to force the Corpuscles of the Air to a Sub-ingression ; and this reciprocation of pressure betwixt the Quicksilver and the outward Air decreasing by degrees , does at length wholly cease , when the Mercury has lost that superadded pressure , which it acquired by its falling from parts of the Tube higher than its due station . But this first way of Explicating these Vibrations is not necessary in the free Air : For if we consider the ambient Air onely as a weight , and remember what we have newly said of the impetus acquir'd by descent ; this Phaenomenon may be easily enough explain'd , by taking notice of what happens in a Balance , when one of the equiponde rant Scales chancing to be depress'd , they do not till after many Vibrations settle in aequilibrio . And on this occasion I shall adde this Experiment : I took a Glass Pipe , whose two legs ( very unequal in length ) were parallel enough , and both perpendicular to that part of the Pipe that connected them ; ( such a Syphon is describ'd in our 36. Experiment , to find the proportion of the gravity of Mercury and Water ) into this Quicksilver was pour'd till 't was some Inches high , and equally high in both legs : then the Pipe being inclin'd till the most part of the Quicksilver was fallen into one of the legs , I stopt the Orifice of the other leg with my Finger , and erecting again the Pipe , though the Quicksilver were forc'd to ascend a little in that stopt leg ; yet by reason my Finger kept the Air from getting away , the Quicksilver was kept lower by a good deal in that stopt leg than in the other ; but if by suddenly removing my Finger I gave passage to the included and somewhat comprest Air , the preponderant Quicksilver in the other leg would with the Mercury in this unstopt leg , make divers undulations before that liquor did in both legs come to rest in an aequilibrium . Of which the Reason may be easily deduc'd from what has been newly deliver'd ; and yet in this case there is no pretence to be made of a Funiculus of violently distended Air to effect the Vibrations of the Mercury . CHAP. II Divers other Difficulties are objected against the Funicular Hypothesis THirdly , But though our Examiner have not sufficiently proved his Hypothesis , yet perhaps it may be in its own nature so like to be true , as to deserve to be imbrac'd as such . Wherefore we will now take notice of some of those many things that to our apprehension render it very improbable . And first , whereas our Author acknowledges that Quicksilver , Water , Wine , and other Liquors , will , as well one as another , descend in Tubes exactly sealed at the top , in case the Cylinder of liquor exceed the weight of a Mercurial Cylinder of 29½ . Inches ; and will subside no longer than till it is come to equiponderate a Cylinder of Quicksilver of that height ; whereas , I say , the Examiner is by the ingenious Monsieur Paschall's , and other Experiments , induc'd to admit this ; it cannot but seem strange that , whatever the liquor be , there should be just the same weight or strength to extend them into a Funiculus : though Water , for instance , and Quicksilver be near fourteen times as heavy one as the other , and be otherwise of very distant natures ; and though divers other liquors , as Oyle and Water , be likewise of Textures very differing . And this may somewhat the more be wondred at , because our Author ( in his Animadversions upon our 31. Experiment ) is pleased to make so great a difference betwixt the disposition of bodies of various consistences , as fluid and firm , to be extenuated into a Funiculus , that he will not allow any humane force to be able to produce one , by the divulsion of two flat Marbles , in case the contact of their Surfaces were so exquisite as quite to exclude all Air ; though in the same place his Ratiocination plainly enough teaches ( which Experience however does ) that adhering Marbles , though with extraordinary difficulty , may be forcibly sever'd , and according to him the superficial parts may be distended into a Funiculus , that prevents a Vacuum . But now the Hypothesis of his Adversaries is not at all incumbred with this difficulty . For the weight of the outward Air being that which keeps liquors suspended in Tubes sealed at the top ; it matters not of what nature or texture the suspended liquor is , provided its weight be the same with that of a Mercurial Cylinder equiponderant to the Aerial one : As if there be a pound of Lead in one Scale , it will not destroy the aequilibrium , whether what be put in the other be Gold , or Quicksilver , or Wooll , or Feathers , provided its weight be just a pound . In the next place we may take notice , That the account our Examiner gives us of his Funiculus in the tenth Chapter , ( where he takes upon him to Explicate it ) is much more strange than satisfactory , and not made out by any such parallel operations of Nature , as his Adversaries will not ( and may not well do it ) dispute the truth of . Whereas the weight and Spring of the Air may be inferr'd from such unquestion'd Experiments as are nor concern'd in our present Controversie . For the gravity of the Air may be manifested by a pair of Scales , and the Spring of it discloses it self so clearly in wind guns and other Instruments , that our Adversary ( as we have already had occasion to inculcate ) does not deny it . But to consider his explication of his Funiculus , he would have us note two things : First , Argentum dum replet totum tubum , non mere tangere ejus summitatem ( ut primo aspectu videtur ) sed eidem quoque firmiter adhaerere . Patet hoc ( subjoyns he ) experimento illo in primo argumento capitis tertii de tubo utrinque aperto . But what is to be answer'd to this proof may be easily gathered from what we have replyed to that Argument . And to what our Author addes to prove , That the adhesion of the Finger is to the subjacent Mercury , not to the Tube ; namely , That Licet illud tubi orificium oleo , aliâve materiâ adhaesionem impediente , inungatur , non minus tamen firmiter adhaerebit digitus quàm priùs ; an Answer may be drawn from the same place : nor perhaps will his reasoning much satisfie those who consider that bodies by trusion may easily enough be made stick together , as much as in our case the Tube and Finger do , notwithstanding one of them is anoynted with Oyle , and that this adhesion of the Finger to the Tube is to be met with in cases where the Surface of the included Quick-silver is not contiguous to the Finger , but many Inches below . As for what he addes concerning the reason why Water and Quicksilver ascend by suction , we have already taught what is to be answered to it , by ascribing that ascension to the pressure of the external Air : without any need of having recourse to a Funiculus ; or imagining with him in this place , That because nothing besides the Water or Quicksilver can insuch cases succeed the Air , ( which yet is not easie to be prov'd in reference to a thin AEthereal substance ) therefore , Partes ipsius aëris ( to use his expression ) sic tubo inclusae ( quae aliàs tam facile separantur ) nunc tam fortiter sibi invicem agglutinentur , ut validissimam ( uti videmus ) conficiunt catenam , qua non solum aqua , sed ponderosum illud argentum sic in altum trahatur . Which way of wreathing a little rarefied Air into so strong a rope , how probable it is , I will for a while leave the Reader to judge , and advance to our Author's second Notandum , which he thus proposes : Rarefactionem sive extensionem corporis ad occupandum majorem locum fieri non solo calore , sed etiam distensione seu vi divulsivâ : sicut è contra condensatio non solo frigore perficitur , sedetiam compressione , uti innumeŕa passim docent exempla . And 't is true and obvious , that the condensation of bodies , taking that word in a large sense , may be made as well by compression as cold . But I wish he had more clearly exprest what he means in this place by that Rarefaction , which he sayes is to be made by distension , or a vis divulsiva , whereof he tells us there are innumerable instances . For , as far as may be gathered from the three Examples he subjoyns , 't is onely the Air that is capable of being so extended as his Hypothesis requires Quicksilver and even Stones must be . And I know not how it will be proved , that even Air may be thus extended so far , as in the Magdeburg Experiment , to fill a place more than two thousand times as big as that it fill'd before . For that the same Air in this and his two foregoing Instances does adequately fill more space at one time than another , he proves but by the rushing in of water into the evacuated Glass , and filling it within a little quite full , which he sayes , is done by the distended Air that contracting it self draws up the water with it . Which Explication how much less likely it is , than that the water is in such cases impell'd up by the pressure of the Atmosphere , we shall anon ( when we come to discuss his way of Rarefaction and condensation ) have occasion to examine . In the mean time let us consider with him the Explication which , after having promis'd the two above recited Observations , he gives us of his Funiculus ; Cum per primum Notandum argentum it a adhaereat tubi vertici , & per secundum , rarefactio fiat per meram corporis distensionem , it a rem se habere , ut argentum descendens à vertice tubi affixam eirelinquat superficiem suam extimam sive supremam , eamque eousque suo pondere extendat extenuetque , donec facilius sit aliam superficiem similiter relinquere quam priorem illam ulterius extendere : Secundam igitur relinquit , eamque eodem modo descendendo extendit , donec facilius sit tertiam adhuc separari quam illam secundam extendere ulterius : & sic deinceps , donec tandem vires amplius non habeat superficies sic separandi & extendendi ; nempe donec perveniat ad altitudinem digitorum duntaxat 29½ . ubi quiescit , ut capite primo dictum est . Thus far our Examiners Explication : By which 't is easie to discern , that he is fain to assign his Funiculus a way of being produc'd strange and unparallel'd enough . For , not to repeat our Animadversions upon the first of the two Notandum's , on which the Explication is grounded , I must demand by what force , upon the bare separation of the Quicksilver and the top of the Tube , the new body he mentions comes to be produc'd ; or at least how it appears that the Mercury leaves any such thing as he speaks of behind it . For the sense perceives no such matter at the top of the Tube , nor is it necessary to explicate the Phaenomena as we have formerly seen . It may also be marvell'd at , that the bare weight of the descending Mercury should be able to extend a Surface into a Body . And besides , it seems precariously affirm'd , that there is such a successive leaving behind of one Surface after another as is here imagin'd : Nor does it at all appear how , though some of the Quicksilver were turn'd into a thin subtile substance , yet that substance comes to be contriv'd into a Funiculus of so strange a nature , that scarce any weight ( for ought appears by his Doctrine ) can be able to break it ; that contrary to all other strings it may be stretched without being made more slender ; and that it has other very odde properties , some of which we shall anon have occasion to mention . As for what our Author subjoyns in these words , Eodem itaque fere modo separari videntur hae superficies ab argento descendente , & in tenuissimum quendam funiculum per descendens pondus extendi , quo per calorem in accensa candela separantur hujusmodi superficies à subject a cera aut sevo , & in subtilissimam flammam extenuantur . Vbinotatu dignum , quemadmodum flamma illaplusquam millies sine dubio majus spatium occupat , quam antea occupaverat pars illa cerae ex qua conficitur ; ita prorsus & hic existimandum Funiculum illum plusquam millies majus spatium occupare quàm prius occupaverat illa argenti particula ex qua sit exortus : Vti etiam sine dubio contingit , quando talis particula à subjecto igne in vaporem convertitur . Though it be the onely Example whereby he endeavours to illustrate the generation of his Funiculus , yet ( I presume ) he scarce expects we should think it an apposite one . For besides that there here intervenes a conspicuous and powerful Agent , namely , an actual Fire to sever and agitate the parts of the Candle ; and besides that there is a manifest wasting of the Wax or Tallow turn'd into flame ; besides these things , I say , we must not admit that the Fuel when turn'd into a flame does really fill ( I say , not , with our Author ) more than a thousand times , but so much as twice more of genuine space than the Wax 't was made of . For it may be said that the flame is little or nothing else than an aggregate of those Corpuscles which before lay upon the upper superficies of the Candle , and by the violent heat were divided into minuter particles , vehemently agitated and brought from lying as it were upon a flat to beat off one another , and make up about the Wiek such a figure as is usual in the flame of Candles burning in the free Air. Nor will it necessarily follow , that the space which the flame seems to take up should contain neither Air nor AEther , nor any thing else , save the parts of that flame , because the eye cannot discern any other body there : For even the smoke ascending from the snuff of a newly-extinguish'd Candle appears a dark pillar , which to the eye at some distance seems to consist of smoke ; when as yet there are so many Aerial and other invisible Corpuscles mingled with it , as if all those parts of smoke that make a great show in the Air were collected and contiguous , they would not perhaps amount to the bigness of a Pins head , as may appear by the great quantity of streams that in Chymical Vessels are wont to go to the making up of one drop of Spirit . And therefore it does not ill fall out for our turn , that the Examiner , to inforce his former Example , alledges the turning of a particle of Quicksilver into vapour , by putting fire under it : for if such be the Rarefaction of Mercury , 't is not at all like to make such a Funiculus as he talks of , since those Mercurial Fumes appear by divers Experiments to be Mercury divided and thrown abroad into minute parts , whereby though the body obtain more of Surface than it had before , yet it really fills no more of true and genuine space , since if all the particular little spaces fill'd by these scatter'd Corpuscles were reduc'd into one , ( as the Corpuscles themselves often are in Chymical Operations ) they would amount but to one total space , equal to that of the whole Mercury before rarefaction . But these Objections against this Explication are not all that I have to say against our Adversaries Funiculus it self . For I farther demand how the Funiculus comes by such hooks or graple-irons , or parts of the like shape , to take fast hold of all contiguous bodies , and even the smoothest , such as Glass , and the calm surface of Quicksilver , Water , Oyle , and other fluids : And how these slender and invisible hooks cannot onely in the tersest bodies find an innumerable company of ears or loops to take hold on , but hold so strongly that they are able not alone to lift up a tall Cylinder of that very ponderous metal of Quick-silver , but to draw inwards the sides of strong Glasses so forcibly , as to break them all to pieces . And 't is also somewhat strange , that Water and other fluid bodies ( whose parts are wont to be so easily separable ) should , when the Funiculus once layes hold on the superficial Corpuscles , presently emulate the nature of consistent bodies , and be drawn up like Masses each of them of an intire piece ; though even in the exhausted Receiver they appear by their undulation ( when they are stir'd by Bubbles that pass freely through them ) and many other signs to continue fluid bodies . It seems also very difficult to conceive how this extenuated substance should require so strong a spring inward as the Examiner all along his books ascribes to it . Nor will it serve his turn to require of us in exchange an Explication of the Airs spring outward , since he acknowledges , as well as we , that it has such a spring . I know , that by calling this extenuated substance a Funiculus , he seems plainly to intimate that it has its spring inward , upon the same account that Lute-strings and Ropes forcibly stretch'd have theirs . But there is no small disparity betwixt them : for whereas in strings there is requir'd either wreathing , or some peculiar and artificial texture of the component parts ; a rarefaction of Air ( were it granted ) does not include or infer any such contrivance of parts as is requisite to make bodies Elastical . And if the Cartesian Notion of the cause of Springiness be admitted , then our extenuated substance having no Pores to be pervaded by the materia subtilis ( to which besides our Author also makes Glass impervious ) will be destitute of Springiness . And however , since Lute-strings , Ropes , &c. must , when they shrink inwards , either fill up or lessen their Pores , and increase in thickness as they diminish in length ; our Examiners Funiculus must differ very much from them , since it has no Pores to receive the shrinking parts , and contracts it self as to length , without increasing its thickness . Nor can it well be pretended that this self contraction is done ob fugam vacui , since though it should not be made , a Vacuum would not ensue . And if it be said that it is made that the preternaturally stretch'd Body might restore it self to its natural dimensions : I answer , That I am not very forward to allow acting for ends to Bodies inanimate , and consequently devoid of knowledge ; and therefore should gladly see some unquestionable Examples produc'd of Operations of that nature . And however to me , who in Physical enquiries of this nature look for efficient rather than final causes , 't is not easie to conceive how Air by being expanded ( in which case its force ( like that of other rarefi'd Bodies ) seems principally to tend outwards , as we see in fired Gun-powder , in AEolipiles , in warm'd Weather-glasses , &c. ) should acquire so prodigious a force of moving contiguous Bodies inwards . Nor does it to me seem very probable , that , when for instance part of a polish'd Marble is extended into a Funiculus , that Funiculus does so strongly aspire to turn into Marble again . I might likewise wish our Author had more clearly explicated , how it comes to pass ( which he all along takes for granted ) that the access of the outward Air does so much and so suddenly relax the tension of his Funiculus ; since that being ( according to him ) a real and Poreless body , 't is not so obvious how the presence of another can so easily and to so strange a degree make it shrink . But I will rather observe , that 't is very unlikely that the space which our Adversary would have replenish'd with his Funicular substance , should be full of little highly-stretcht strings , that lay fast hold of the surfaces of all contiguous Bodies , and always violently endeavour to pull them inwards . For we have related in our 26. Experiment , that a Pendulum being set a moving in our exhausted Receiver , did swing to and fro as freely , and with the string stretch'd as streight , as for ought we could perceive it would have done in the common Air. Nay , the Balance of a Watch did there move freely and nimbly to and fro ; which 't is hard to conceive those Bodies could do , if they were to break through a medium consisting of innumerable exceedingly-stretched strings . On which occasion we might add , that 't is somewhat strange that these strings , thus cut or broken by the passage of these bodies through them , could so readily have their parts re-united , and without any more ado be made intire again . And we might also take notice of this as another strange peculiarity in our Author 's Funiculus , That in this case the two divided parts of each small string that is broken do not , like those of other broken strings , shrink and fly back from one another ; but ( as we just now said ) immediately redintegrate themselves : Whereas , when in the Torricellian Experiment the Tube and contain'd Mercury is suddenly lifted up out of the restagnant Quicksilver into the Air , the Funiculus does so strangely contract it self , that it quite vanishes ; insomuch that the ascending Mercury may rise to the very top of the Tube . These , I say , and divers other difficulties might on this occasion be insisted on ; but that , supposing our selves to have mentioned enough of them for once , we think it now more seasonable to proceed to the remaining part of our Discourse . CHAP. III. The Aristotelean Rarefaction ( proposed by the Adversary ) examin'd . BUt this is not all that renders the Examiner's Hypothesis improbable : For , besides those already mentioned particulars , upon whose score it is very difficult to be understood ; it necessarily supposes such a Rarefaction and Condensation , as is , I confess , to me , as well as to many other considering persons , unintelligible . For the better discernment of the force of this Objection we must briefly premise , That a Body is commonly said to be rarefi'd or dilated , ( for I take the word in a larger sense than , I know , many others do , for a reason that will quickly appear ) when it acquires greater dimensions than the same Body had before ; and to be condens'd , when it is reduc'd into less dimensions , that is , into a lesser space than it contain'd before : ( as when a dry Spunge being first dipp'd in water swells to a far greater bulk , and then being strongly squeez'd and held compressed , is not only reduced into less room than it had before it was squeézed , but into less than it had even before it was wetted . ) And I must further premise , That Rarefaction ( as also Condensation ) being amongst the most obvious Phaenomena of Nature , there are three ( and for ought we know but three ) ways of explicating it : For , either we must say with the Atomists and Vacuists , that the Corpuscles whereof the rarefied Body consists do so depart from each other , that no other substance comes in between them to fill up the deserted spaces that come to be left betwixt the incontiguous Corpuscles ; or else we must say with divers of the ancient Philosophers , and many of the Moderns , especially the Cartesians , that these new Intervals produced betwixt the Particles of the raresied Body are but dilated Pores , replenished , in like manner as those of the tumid Spunge are by the imbibed water , by some subtile AEthereal substance , that insinuates it self betwixt the disjoyned Particles : Or , lastly , we must imagine with Aristotle and most of his followers , that the self-same Body does not only obtain a greater space in Rarefaction , and a lesser in Condensation , but adequately and exactly fill it , and so when rarefied acquires larger dimensions without either leaving any vacuities betwixt its component Corpuscles , or admitting between them any new or extraneous substance whatsoever . Now 't is to this last ( and , as some call it , rigorous ) way of Rarefaction that our Adversary has recourse in his Hypothesis : Though this , I confess , appear to me so difficult to be conceived , that I make a doubt whether any Phaenomenon can be explained by it ; since to explain a thing is to deduce it from something or other in Nature more known than it self . He that would meet with full Discussions of this Aristotelean Rarefaction , may resort to the learned writings of Gassendus , Cartesius and Maignan , who have accused it of divers great absurdities : But for my part , I shall at present content my self to make use to my purpose of two or three passages that I meet with ( though not together ) in our Author himself . Let us then suppose , that in the Magdeburg Experiment he so often ( though I think causlesly enough ) urges to prove his Hypothesis ; let us ( I say ) for easier considerations sake suppose , that the undilated Air , which ( as he tells us ) possessed about half an inch of space , consisted of a hundred Corpuscles , or ( if that name be in this case disliked ) a hundred parts ; ( for it matters not what number we pitch upon ) and 't will not be denied , but that as the whole parcel of Air , or the Aggregate of this hundred Corpuscles , is adequate to the whole space it fills , so each of the hundred parts , that make it up , is likewise adequately commensurate to its peculiar space , which we here suppose to be a hundredth part of the whole space . This premised , our Author having elsewhere this passage , Corpore occupante locum verbi gratia duplo majorem , necesse est ut quaelibet ejus pars locum quoque duplo majorem occupet ; prompts us to subjoyn , that in the whole capacity of the Globe ( which according to him was two thousand times as great as the room possessed by the unexpanded Air ) there must likewise be two hundred thousand parts of space commensurate each of them to one of the fore-mentioned hundredth parts of Air ; and consequently , when he affirms that that half Inch of Air possessed the whole cavity of the Globe , if we will not admit ( as he does not ) either Vacuities or some intervening subtile substance in the Interval of the Aërial parts , he must give us leave to conclude , that each part of Air does adequately fill two thousand parts of space . Now that this should be resolutely taught to be not only naturally possible , ( for we dispute not here of what the Divine Omnipotence can do ) but to be really and regularly done in this Magdeburg Experiment , will questionless appear very absurd to the Cartesians and those other Philosophers , who take Extension to be but notionally different from Body , and consequently impossible to be acquir'd or lost without the addition or detraction of Matter ; and will , I doubt not , appear strange to those other Readers , who consider how generally Naturalists have looked upon Extension as inseparable , and as immediately flowing from matter ; and upon Bodies , as having necessary relation to a commensurate space . Nor do I see , if one portion of Air may so easily be brought exactly to fill up a space two thousand times as big as that which it did but fill before without the addition of any new substance ; I see not ( I say ) why the matter contained in every of these two thousand parts of space may not be further brought to fill two thousand more , and so onwards , since each of these newly-replenished spaces is presumed to be exactly filled with Body , and no Space , nor consequently that which the unrarefied Air replenished , can be more than adequately full . And since , according to our Adversary , not only fluid Bodies , as Air and Quicksilver , but even solid and hard ones , as Marble , are capable of such a Distension as we speak of , why may not the World be made I know not how many thousand times bigger than it is , without either admitting any thing of Vacuity betwixt its parts , or being increased with the addition of one Atome of new matter ? Which to me is so difficult to conceive , that I have sometimes doubted , whether in case it could be proved , that in the exhausted Globe we speak of there were no Vacuities within , nor any subtile matter permitted to enter from without , it were not more intelligible to suppose that God had created a new matter to joyn with the Air in filling up the Cavity , than that the self-same Air should adequately fill two thousand spaces , whereof one was exactly commensurate to it even when it was uncompressed . For divers eminent Naturalists , both ancient and modern , believing upon a Physical account the Souls of men to be created and infused , will admit it as intelligible that God does frequently create substances on certain emergent occasions . But I know that many of them will not likewise think it conceivable , that without his immediate interposition an accession of new , real Dimensions should be had without either vacuities or accession of matter . And indeed when I considered these difficulties and others , that attend the Rarefaction our Examiner throughout his whole Book supposes , and when I found that ever and anon he remits us to what he teaches concerning Rarefaction ; I could not but with some greediness resort to the Chapters he addressed me to . But when I had perused them , I found the Difficulties remained such still , and that 't was very hard even for a witty man to make more of a subject than the nature of it does bear . Which I say , that by professing my self unsatisfied with what he writes , I may not be thought to find fault with a man for not doing what perhaps is not to be done , and for not making such abstruse Notions plain , as are scarcely ( if at all ) so much as intelligible . And indeed as he has handled this subject modestly enough , so in some places his Expressions are to me somewhat dark ; which I mention , not to impute it as a Crime in him , that he wrote in a diffident and doubtfull strain of so difficult a matter , but to excuse my self if I have not always guessed aright at his meaning . The things he alledges in favour of the Rarefaction he would persuade are two : The one , That the Phaenomena of Rarefaction cannot be explicated either by Vacuities or the subingression of an AEthereal substance ; and the other , That there are two ways of explicating the rigorous Rarefaction he contends for . His Objections against the Epicurean and Cartesian ways of making out Rarefaction are some of them more plausible than most of those that are wont to be urged against them ; yet not such as are not capable enough of Answers . But whilst some of the passages appeared easie to be replyed to by the Favourers of the Hypothesis they oppose , before I had fully examined the rest , chancing to mention these Chapters to an ingenious Man , hereafter to be further mentioned in this Treatise ; he told me he had so far considered them more than the rest of the book , that he had thought upon some Hypotheses , whereby the Phaenomena of Rarefaction might be made out either according to the Vacuists , or according to the Cartesians , adding , that he had also examined the Instance our Adversary pretends to be afforded him of his Rarefaction by what happens in the Rota Aristotelica . Wherefore being sufficiently distressed by Avocations of several sorts , and being willing to reserve the Declaration of my own thoughts concerning the manner of Rarefaction and Condensation for another Treatise , I shall refer the Reader to the ingenious Conjectures about this Subject , which the Writer of them intends to annex to the present Discourse ; and only add in general , That whereas the Examiner's Argument on this occasion is , That his way of Rarefaction must be admitted , because neither of the other two can be well made out , his Adversaries may with the same reason , argue that one of theirs is to be allowed , since his is incumbred with such manifest difficulties . And they may enforce what they say by representing , that the inconveniences that attend his Hypothesis about Rarefaction are insuperable , arising from the unintelligible nature of the thing it self ; whereas those to which the other ways are obnoxious , may seem to spring but from mens not having yet discovered what kind of Figures and Motions of the small Particles may best qualifie them to make the Body that consists of them capable of a competent expansion . After our Author's Objections against the two ways of Rarefaction proposed , the one by the Vacuists , and the other by the Cartesians and others , that admit the solidest Bodies , and even Glass it self , to be pervious to an AEthereal or subtile matter ; he attempts to explicate the manner by which that rigorous Rarefaction he teaches is perform'd : and having premised , that the Explication of the way how each part of the rarefy'd Body becomes extended , depends upon the quality of the parts into which the Body is ultimately resolv'd ; and having truly observ'd , that they must necessarily be either really indivisible , or still endlesly divisible ; he endeavours to explicate the Aristotelean Rarefaction according to those two Hypotheses . But , though he thus propose two ways of making out his Rarefaction ; yet besides that they are irreconcilable , he speaks of them so darkly and doubtfully , that it seems less easie to discern which of the two he would be content to stick to , than that he himself scarce acquiesces in either of them . And , first , having told us how Rarefaction may be explain'd , in case we admit Bodies to be divisible in infinitum , he does himself make such an Objection against the infinity of parts in a continuum , as he is fain to give so obscure an Answer to , that I confess I do not understand it ; and presume , that not only the most part of unprejudiced Readers will as little acquiesce in the Answer as I do ; but even the Author himself will not marvel at my confession , since in the same place he acknowledges the Answer to be somewhat obscure , and endeavours to excuse its being so , because in that Hypothesis it can scarce be otherwise . Wherefore I shall only add on this occasion , that 't is not clear to me , that even such a divisibility of a continuum as is here supposed would make out the Rarefaction he contends for . For , let the integrant parts of a continuum be more or less finite or infinite in number , yet still each part , being a corporeal substance , must have some Particle of space commensurate to it ; and if the whole Body be rarefied , for instance , to twice its former bigness , then will each part be likewise extended to double its former dimensions , and fill both the place it took up before , and another equal to it , and so two places . The second Argument alledged to recommend the hitherto-mentioned way of explicating Rarefaction is , That many learned Men , amongst whom he names two , Aquinas and Suarez , have taught that the same corporeal thing may naturally be , and de facto often is , in the souls of Brutes really indivisible and virtually extended . But , though I pay those two Authors a just respect for their great skill in Scholastical and Metaphysical learning ; yet the Examiner cannot ignore , that I could make a long Catalogue of Writers , both ancient and modern , at least as well vers'd in natural Philosophy as Saint Thomas and Suarez , who have some of them in express words denied this to be naturally possible ; and others have declared themselves of the same judgment by establishing principles , with which this Conceit of the virtual extension of the indivisible Corpuscles is absolutely inconsistent . And though no Author had hitherto opposed it , yet I , that dispute not what this or that man thought , but what'tis rational to think , should nevertheless not scruple to reject it now ; and should not doubt to find store of the best Naturalists of the same opinion with me , and perhaps among them the Examiner himself , who ( however this acknowledgment may agree with the three following Chapters of his book ) tells us , ( pag. 160. ) that Juxta probabiliorem sententiam hujusmodi virtualis extensio rei corporeae concedenda non est , utpote soli rei spirituali propria . But to conclude at length this tedious Enquiry into the Aristotelean way of Rarefaction , ( which is of so obscure a nature that it can scarce be either proposed or examined in few words ) I will not take upon me resolutely to affirm which of the two ways of explicating it ( by Atomes or by Parts infinitely divisible ) our Author declares himself for . But which of them soever it be , I think I have shown that he has not intelligibly made it out : And I make the less scruple to do so , because he himself is so ingenuous as ( at the close of his discourse of the two ways ) to speak thus of the Opinion he prefers ; Praestat communi & receptae hactenus in Scholis sententiae insistere , quae licet difficultates quidem non clarè solvat , iis tamen aperte non succumbit . So that in this discourse of Rarefaction , to which our Author has so often in the foregoing part of the Book referred us , as that which should make good what there seemed the most improbable ; he has but instead of a probable Hypothesis needlesly rejected , substituted a Doctrine which himself dares not pretend capable of being well freed from the difficulties with which it may be charged ; though I doubt not but other Readers , especially Naturalists , will think he has been very civil to this obscure Doctrine , in saying that Difficultatibus non aperte succumbit . As for the other way of explicating Rarefaction , namely , by supposing that a body is made up of parts indivisible ; he will not I presume , deny , but that the Objections we formerly made against it are weighty . For according to this Hypothesis ( which one would think he prefers , since he makes use of it in the three or four last Chapters of his Book ) Necessariò fatendum est ( says he ) unam eandemque partem poni in duplici loco adaequate : Cum enim indivisibilis sit , locumque occupet majorem quam prius , necesse est ut tota sit in quolibet punato totius lici , sive ut per totum illud spatium virtualiter extendatur . So that when hein the very next Page affirms , that by this virtual extention of the parts , the Difficulties that have for so many Ages troubled Philosophers may be easily solved , he must give me leave ( who love to speak intelligibly , and not to admit what I cannot understand ) to desire he would explain to me what this extensto virtualis is , and how it will remove the Difficulties that I formerly charged upon the Aristotelean Rarefaction . For the easier consideration of this matter , let us resume what we lately supposed , namely , that in the Magdeburgick Experiment the half Inch of undilated Air consisted of a hundred Corpuscles ; I demand how the indivisibility of these Corpuscles will qualifie them to make out such a Rarefaction as the Author imagines . For what does their being indivisible do in this case , but make it the less intelligible how they can fill above a hundred parts of space ? 'T is easie to foresee he will answer , That they are virtually extended . But not here to question how their indivisibility makes them capable of being so ; I demand , whether by an Atoms being virtually extended , its corporeal substance do really ( I mean adequately ) fill more space than it did before , or whether it do not : ( for one of the two is necessary . ) If it do , then 't is a true and real , and not barely a virtual extension . And that such an extension will not serve the turn , what we have formerly argued against the Peripatetick Rarefaction will evince ; and our Adversary seems to consess as much , by devising this virtual extension to avoid the inconveniences to which he saw his Doctrine of Rarefaction would otherwise plainly appear expos'd . But if it be said , That when an Atome is virtually extended , its corporeal substance fills no more space than before : This is but a Verbal shift , that may perhaps amuse an unwary Reader , but it will scarce satisfie a considering one . For I demand how that which is not a substance can fill place ; and how this improper and but Metaphorical Extension will salve the Phaenomena of Rarefaction : as how the half Inch of Air at the top of the fore-mentioned Globe shall without a corporeal extension fill the whole Globe of two thousand times its bigness when the water is suck'd out of it , and act at the lower part of the Globe . Which last Clause I therefore add , because not only our Author teaches ( pag. 91. and 92. ) that the whole Globe was filled with a certain thin substance , which by its contraction violently snatch'd up the water into which the neck of the Glass was immers'd ; but in a parallel case he makes it his grand Argument to prove , that there is no Vacuum in the deserted part of the Tube in the Torricellian Experiment , That the attraction of the Finger cannot be performed but by some real Body . Wherefore till the Examiner do intelligibly explain how a virtual Extension , as it is opposed to a corporeal , can make an Atome fill twice , nay , two thousand times more space than it did before ; I suppose this device of virtual extension will appear to unbiass'd Naturalists but a very unsatisfactory evasion . Two Arguments indeed there are which our Adversary offers as proofs of what he teaches . The first is , That they commonly teach in the Schools , that at least divinitus ( as he speaks ) such a thing as is pleaded for may be done , and that consequently it is not repugnant to the nature of a body . But , though they that either know me , or have read what I have written about matters Theological , will , I hope , readily believe , that none is more willing to acknowledge and venerate Divine Omnipotence ; yet in some famous Schools they teach , that it is contrary to the nature of the thing . And that men who think so , and consequently look not upon it as an object of Divine Omnipotence , may ( whatever he here say ) without impiety be of a differing mind from him about the possibility of such a Rarefaction as he would here have , our Author may perchance think fit to grant , if he remember that he himself says a few Pages after , Cum tempus sit Ens essentialiter successivum , it a ut ne divinitus quidem possint duae ejus partes simul existere , &c. But , not now to dispute of a power that I am more willing to adore than question , I say , that our Controversie is not what God can do , but about what can be done by Natural Agents , not elevated above the sphere of Nature . For though God can both create and annihilate , yet Nature can do neither : and in the judgment of true Philosophers I suppose our Hypothesis would need no other advantage to make it be preferred before our Adversaries , than that in ours things are explicated by the ordinary course of Nature , whereas in the other recourse must be had to miracles . But though our Author's way of explicating Rarefaction be thus improbable , yet I must not here omit to take notice , that his Funiculus supposes a Condensation that to me appears incumbred with no less manifest difficulties . For , since he teaches that a body may be condens'd without either having any vacuities for the comprest parts to retire into , or having Pores filled with any subtile and yielding matter that may be squeez'd out of them ; it will follow , that the parts of the Body to be condens'd do immediately touch each other : which supposed , I demand how Bodies that are already contiguous can be brought to farther Approximations without penetrating each other , at least in some of their part . So that I see not how the Examiners Condensation can be perform'd without penetration of dimensions . A thing that Philosophers of all Ages have looked upon as by no means to be admitted in Nature . And our Author himself speaks somewhere at the same rate , where to the Question , Why the walls that inclose fired Gun-powder must be blown asunder ? Respondeo ( says he ) haec omnia inde accidere , quod pulvis ille sic accensus & in flammam conversus , longe majus spatium nunc occupet quàm prius . Vnde fit , ut cum totum cubiculum antea fuerit plenissimum , disrumpantur sic parietes , ne detur corporum penetratio . In the Magdeburgick Experiment he tells us ( as we have heard already ) that the whole capacity of the Globe is filled with an extremely-thin body . But not now to examine how properly he calls that a rare body , which according to him intercepts neither Pores nor any heterogeneous substance , the greater or lesser absence of which makes men call a Body more or less dense ; not to insist on this , I say , let us consider , that before the admission of water into the exhausted Globe there was , according to him , two thousand half Inches of a substance , which , however it was produc'd or got thither , was a true and real Body ; and that after the admission of the water there remained in the same Globe , besides the water that came in , no more than one half Inch of body . Since then our Author does not pretend ( which if he did , might be easily disproved ) that the one thousand nine hundred ninety nine half Inches of Matter , that now appear no more , traversed the body of Water ; since he will not allow that it gets away through the Pores of the Glass , I demand , what becomes of so great a quantity of Matter ? For that 't is annihilated I suppose he is too rational a man to pretend , ( nor , if he should , would it be at all believ'd ) and to say , that a thousand and so many hundred parts of Matter should be retir'd into that one part of space that contains the one half Inch of Air , is little less incredible : For that space was suppos'd perfectly full of body before , and how a thing can be more than perfectly full , who can conceive ? To dispatch : According to our Author's way of Condensation , two , or perhaps two thousand , Bodies may be crouded into a space that is adequately fill'd by one of them apart . And if this be not penetration of Dimensions , I desire to be informed what is so ; and till then I shall leave it to any unprepossess'd Naturalist to judge , whether an Hypothesis that needs suppose a thing so generally concluded to be impossible to Nature , be probable or not ; and whether to tell us that the very same parcel of Air , that is now without violence contain'd in half an Inch of space , shall by and by fill two thousand times as much room , and presently after shrink again into the two thousandth part of the space it newly possess'd , be not to turn a Body into a Spirit , and , confounding their Notions , attribute to the former the discriminating and least easily conceivable properties of the later . And this Argument is , I confess , with me of that weight , that this alone would keep me from admitting the Examiners Hypothesis : Yet if any happier Contemplator shall prove so sharp-sighted , as to devise and clearly propose a way of making the Rarefaction and Condensation hitherto argued against , intelligible to me , he is not like to find me obstinate . Nor indeed is there sufficient cause why his succeeding in that attempt should make our Adversaries Hypothesis preferrable to ours , since that would not prove it either necessary , or so much as sufficient , but only answer some of the Arguments that tend to prove ' its not intelligible . And that we have other Arguments on our side than those that relate to Rarefaction and Condensation , may appear partly by what has been discours'd already , and partly by what we have now to subjoyn . CHAP. IV. A Consideration ( pertinent to the present Controversie ) of what happens in trying the Torricellian and other Experiments , at the tops and feet of Hills . THere remain then yet a couple of Considerations to be oppos'd against the Examiners Hypothesis , which , though the past Discourse may make them be look'd upon as needless , we must not pretermit , because they contain such Arguments as may not only be imployed against our Adversaries Doctrine , but will very much tend to the confirmation of ours . I consider then further , that the Hypothesis I am opposing , being but a kind of Inversion of ours , and supposing the spring or motion of Restitution in the Air to tend inwards , as according to us it tends outwards ; it cannot be , that if the supposition it self were ( what I think I have prov'd it is not ) true , many of the Phaenomena would be plausibly enough explicable by it : the same motions in an intermediate body being in many cases producible alike , whether we suppose it to be thrust or drawn ; provided both the endeavours tend the same way . But then we may be satisfied whether the effect be to be ascribed to Pulsion or to Traction , ( as they commonly speak , though indeed the later seems reducible to the former ) if we can find out an Experiment wherein there is reason such an effect should follow , in case Pulsion be the cause inquired after , and not in case it be Traction . And such an Experimentum Crucis ( to speak with our Illustrious Verulam ) is afforded us by that noble Observation of Monsieur Paschal , mentioned by the famous Pecquet , and out of him by our Author : namely , that the Torricellian Experiment being made at the foot and in divers places of a very high Mountain , ( of the altitude of five hundred fathom or three thousand foot ) he found , that after he had ascended a hundred and fifty Fathom , the Quicksilver was fallen two Inches and a quarter below its station at the Mountains foot ; and that at the very top of the Hill it had descended above three Inches below the same wonted station . Whence it appears that the Quicksilver being carried up towards the top of the Atmosphere , falls down the lower , the higher the place is wherein the observation is made : of which the reason is plain in our Hypothesis , namely , that the nearer we come to the top of the Atmosphere , the shorter and lighter is the Cylinder of Air incumbent upon the restagnant Mercury ; and consequently the less weight of Cylindrical Mercury will that Air be able to counterpoise and keep suspended . And since this notable Phaenomenon does thus clearly follow upon ours , and not upon our Adversaries Hypothesis ; this Experiment seems to determine the controversie betwixt them : because in this case the Examiner cannot pretend , as he does in the seventeenth and divers other of our Experiments , that the descent of the Quicksilver in the Tube is caus'd , not by the diminution of the external Airs pressure , but from the preternatural Rarefaction or Distension of that external Air ( in the Receiver ) when by seeking to restore it self , it endeavours to draw up the restagnant Mercury : For in our present case there appears no such forcible Dilatation of that Air , as in many of the Phaenomena of our Engine he is pleas'd to imagine . It need therefore be no great wonder , if his Adversaries do , as he observes , make a great account of this Experiment , to prove that the Mercury is kept up in the Tube by the resistance of the external Air. Nor do I think his Answers to the Argument drawn from hence will keep them from thinking it cogent . For to an Objection upon which he takes notice that they lay so much stress , he replies but two things ; which neither singly nor together will near amount to a satisfactory Answer . And , First , he questions the truth of the Observation it self ; because having made trial in a low Hill , the event did no ways answer his expectation . But though , in stead of disapproving , I am willing to commend his Curiosity , to make the Experiment himself , and especially since 't was both new and important ; and though also I like his Modesty , in rather suspecting some mistake in the manner of the Observation , than that the Experimenters did not sincerely deliver it : yet , since there must be an Error somewhere , I must rather charge it upon the Examiners observation ( I say his Observation , not his want of sincerity ) than upon Monsieur Paschal's . For besides the commendations that the learned Gassendus , who relates the Experiment , gives to that ingenious Gentleman ( Monsieur Paschal ) by whose direction he supposes it to have been try'd : the same Gassendus relates , that the like Observation was five times repeated , partim intra sacellum , partimaëre libero , & nunc quidem flante , nunc silente vento . Which circumstances sufficiently argue the Diligence where with the Experiment was try'd in Auvergne . Especially since I can confirm these Observations by two more made on distant Hills in England : the one of which I procur'd from that known Virtuoso Mr. J. Ball , whom I desir'd to make the Experiment at a Mountain in Devonshire , on the side whereof he dwelt ; and the other made in Lancashire by that ingenious Gentleman Mr. Rich. Townley . Both which Observations , since I have mention'd them at large in the Appendix to the Physico Mechanical Treatise , shall not now repeat ; contenting my self to observe to our present purpose , that however the proportion of the Descent of the Quicksilver may vary , according to the differing consistence and other accidents of the neighbouring Air , in the particular places and times of the Experiments being made , yet all Observations agree in this , That nearer the top of the Atmosphere the Quicksilver falls lower than it does further from it . To all this I shall add two things that will very much confirm our Hypothesis . The one is , that the freshly-nam'd Mr. Townley , and divers ingenious Persons that assisted at the Tryal , bethought themselves of so making the Torricellian Experiment at the top of the Hill , as to leave a determinate quantity of Air in the Tube , before the mouth of it was open'd under the vessell'd Mercury ; and taking notice how low such a quantity of that Air depressed the Mercurial Cylinder , they likewise observ'd , that at the Mountains foot the included Air was not able to depress the Quicksilver so much . Whence we inferre , that the Cylinder of Air at the top of the Hill being shorter and lighter , did not so strongly press against the included Air , as did the ambient Air at the bottom of the Hill , where the Aëreal Cylinder was longer and heavier . The other Particular I shall mention for confirmation of our Hypothesis , is that Experiment ( which , though it be needless , seems yet more cogent and proper to prevent Evasions ) made by the same Mousieur Paschal , of carrying a weakly-blown Foot-ball from the bottom to the top of an high Mountain . For that Foot-ball swell'd more and more , the higher it was carried , so that it appeared as if it were full blown at the top of the Mountain , and gradually growing lank again , as it was carried downwards ; so that at the foot of the Hill it was flaccid as before . This , I say , having thus happened , we have here an Experiment to prove our Hypothesis , wherein recourse cannot be had to any forcibly and preternaturally distended Body , such as that is pretended to be which remains in the deserted space of the Tube in the Torricellian Experiment . The other thing which the Examiner alledges against our Argument from Monsieur Paschal's Tryals , is , that supposing it to be true , yet it cannot thence be inferr'd , that the subsidence of the Mercury at the top of the Hill proceeded from the Atmospherical Cylinder's being there lighter and less able to sustain the Quicksilver . Sed dici potest ( sayes he ) ideo sic in vertice Montis magis descendisse , quod ibidem esset Aura frigidior , aut ex alio Temperamento hujusmodi descensum causante . But this solution will not serve the turn : For the coldnes , of the ambient Air ( which yet the Experimenters take not notice of ) would rather contract the rarefied substance within the Tube , and so draw up the Mercury higher , as our Author himself teaches us , that 't is from the shrinking of the Funiculus occasion'd by the cold that the Water in Thermometers ascends in cold weather . And whereas the onely proof he addes of so improbable an Explication is taken from our eighteenth Experiment , wherein we relate , that sometimes the Quicksilver did sensibly fall lower in colder than in far less cold weather : I answer , that this eighteenth Experiment will scarce make more for him than against him : For , as I there take notice that the Quicksilver descended in cold weather , so it sometimes descended likewise in hot weather , and rose in cold . And 't is very strange , that in all the Observations made , in differing Countries and at diffe ing times , it should still so happen that the Mercurial Cylinder should be shorter near the top of the Atmosphere than further from it ; if the resistance of the outward Air have nothing to do with the keeping it suspended . And 't is yet more strange , that the foot-ball should in like manner grow turgid and flaccid , according as it is carried into places where it has a shorter or longer Pillar of Air incumbent on it . I was going to proceed to what remains of this second Part of our Treatise , But that since I begun this Chapter casually meeting with an Experiment lately sent in a Letter to a very Ingenious * Acquaintance of his and mine by a very Industrious Physician * ( who is said to have had the curiosity to try over again many of the Experiments of our Engine ) and finding it very proper to confirm our newly related Experiment made at Westminster , and to be of such a nature as we have not in this part of England the opportunity to try the like , for want of Hills high enough , I shall ( according to the permission given me ) insert it in this place . And the rather , that as the Mountains have by the Tryals made on them of the Torricellian Experiment , afforded us a noble proof of the weight of the Air ; so they may afford us one of its Spring : wherein I hope the Phaenomenon of the Waters descent will not be ascribed to any attraction made of the Water by the violently-distended outward Air. And because the Experiment was not made by us , but by another , we will set it down in his words , which are these : This fifteenth of October 1661. we took a Weather glass A B , of about two foot in length , and carrying it to the bottom of Hallifax Hill , the Water stood in the shank at thirteen Inches above the Water in the Vessel : Thence carrying it thus fill'd , with the whole frame , immediately to the top of the said Hill , the Water fell down to the point D , viz. an Inch and a quarter lower than it was at the bottom of the said Hill ; which ( as he rightly inferrs ) proves the Elasticity of the Air : for the internal Air A C , which was of the same power and extension with the external at the bottom of the Hill , did manifest a greater Elasticity than the Mountain-Air there * , and so extended it self further by C D. The like Experiment , I hear , the same Ingenious Doctor has very lately repeated , and found the descent of the Water to be greater than before . And though some Virtuosi have thought it strange , that in an Hill far inferiour to the Alps and Appennines , so short a Cylinder of so light a liquor as Water should fall so much ; yet I see not any reason to distrust upon this ground either His Experiment or Ours ( lately mention'd to have been made at Westminster ; ) but rather to wonder the Water fell not more ( if the Hill be considerably high : ) for their suspicion seems grounded upon a mistake , as if because the Quicksilver in the Torricellian Experiment made without purposely leaving any Air in the Tube , would not , at the top of the mention'd Hill , have subsided above an Inch , if so much , the Water , that is near fourteen times lighter , should not fall above a sourteenth part of that space ; whereas in the Torricellian Experiment , the upper and deserted space of the Tube has little or no Air left in it , but the Correspondent part of the Weather-glass was furnish'd with Air , whose pressure was little less than that of the Atmosphere at the bottom of the Hill ; and consequently must be much greater than the pressure of the Atmosphere at the top of the Hill , where the Atmospherical Cylinder's gravity ( upon whose account it presses ) must be much diminish'd by its being made much shorter , and by its consisting of an Air less comprest . And thus much for the first of the two Considerations wherewith I promised to conclude this second part of the present Tract . Onely before I proceed I must in a word desire the Reader to take notice , that though I have here singled out but one of the nine Experiments which the Examiner in the 11. and 12. Chapters reckons up as urg'd by his Adversaries ; yet do not thereby declare my acquiescing in his Explications of those Phaenomena , but onely leave both them and some other things he delivers about Siphons and the Magdeburg Experiments , to be discours'd by those that are more concerned to examine them , contenting my self to have sufficiently disproved the Funiculus which his Expositions suppose , and cleared the grounds of explicating such Experiments aright . CHAP. V. Two new Experiments touching the measure of the Force of the Spring of Air compress'd and dilated . THE other thing that I would have considered touching our Adversaries Hypothesis is , That it is needless . For whereas he denies not that the Air has some Weight and Spring , but affirms that it is very insufficient to perform such great matters as the counterpoising of a Mercurial Cylinder of 29. Inches , as we teach that it may : We shall now endeavour to manifest by Experiments purposely made , that the Spring of the Air is capable of doing far more than 't is necessary for us to ascribe to it , to salve the Phaenomena of the Torricellian Experiment . We took then a long Glass-Tube , which by a dexterous hand and the help of a Lamp was in such a manner crooked at the bottom , that the part turned up was almost parallel to the rest of the Tube , and the Orifice of this shorter leg of the Siphon ( if I may so call the whole Instrument ) being Hermetically seal'd , the length of it was divided into Inches , ( each of which was subdivided into eight parts ) by a streight list of paper , which containing those Divisions was carefully pasted all along it : then putting in as much Quicksilver as served to fill the Arch or bended part of the Siphon , that the Mercury standing in a level might reach in the one leg to the bottom of the divided paper , and just to the same height or Horizontal line in the other ; we took care , by frequently inclining the Tube , so that the Air might freely pass from one leg into the other by the sides of the Mercury , ( we took ( I say ) care ) that the Air at last included in the shorter Cylinder should be of the same laxity with the rest of the Air about it . This done , we began to pour Quicksilver into the longer leg of the Siphon , which by its weight pressing up that in the shorter leg , did by degrees streighten the included Air : and continuing this pouring in of Quicksilver till the Air in the shorter leg was by condensation reduced to take up but half the space it possess'd ( I say , possess'd , not fill'd ) before ; we cast our eyes upon the longer leg of the Glass , on which was likewise pasted a list of paper carefully divided into Inches and parts , and we observed , not without delight and satisfaction , that the Quicksilver in that longer part of the Tube was 29. Inches higher than the other . Now that this Observation does both very well agree with and confirm our Hypothesis , will be easily discerned by him that takes notice what we teach , and Monsieur Paschal and our English friends Experiments prove , that the greater the weight is that leans upon the Air , the more forcible is its endeavour of Dilatation , and consequently its power of resistance , ( as other Springs are stronger when bent by greater weights . ) For this being considered , it will appear to agree rarely-well with the Hypothesis , that as according to it the Air in that degree of density and correspondent measure of resistance to which the weight of the incumbent Atmosphere had brought it , was able to counterbalance and resist the pressure of a Mercurial Cylinder of about 29. Inches , as we are taught by the Torricellian Experiment ; so here the same Air being brought to a degree of density about twice as great as that it had before , obtains a Spring twice as strong as formerly . As may appear by its being able to sustain or resist a Cylinder of 29 Inches in the longer Tube , together with the weight of the Atmospherical Cylinder , that lean'd upon those 29 Inches of Mercury ; and , as we just now inferr'd from the Torricellian Experiment , was equivalent to them . We were hindered from prosecuting the trial at that time by the casual breaking of the Tube . But because an accurate Experiment of this nature would be of great importance to the Doctrine of the Spring of the Air , and has not yet been made ( that I know ) by any man ; and because also it is more uneasie to be made than one would think , in regard of the difficulty as well of procuring crooked Tubes fit for the purpose , as of making a just estimate of the true place of the Protuberant Mercury's surface ; I suppose it will not be unwelcome to the Reader , to be informed that after some other trials , one of which we made in a Tube whose longer leg was perpendicular , and the other , that contained the Air , parallel to the Horizon , we at last procured a Tube of the Figure exprest in the Scheme ; which Tube , though of a pretty bigness , was so long , that the Cylinder whereof the shorter leg of it consisted admitted a list of Paper , which had before been divided into 12 Inches and their quarters , and the longer leg admitted another list of Paper of divers foot in length , and divided after the same manner : then Quicksilver being poured in to fill up the bended part of the Glass , that the surface of it in either leg might rest in the same Horizontal line , as we lately taught , there was more and more Quicksilver poured into the longer Tube ; and notice being watchfully taken how far the Mercury was risen in that longer Tube , when it appeared to have ascended to any of the divisions in the shorter Tube , the several Observations that were thus successively made , and as they were made set down , afforded us the ensuing Table . A Table of the Condensation of the Air A A B C D E 48 12 00 Added to 29⅛ makes 29 2 / 16 29 2 / 16 46 11½ 01 7 / 16 30 9 / 16 30 6 / 16 44 11 02 13 / 16 31 15 / 16 31 12 / 16 42 10½ 04 6 / 16 33 8 / 16 33 1 / 7 40 10 06 3 / 16 35 5 / 16 35 -- 38 9½ 07 14 / 16 37 -- 36 15 / 19 36 9 10 2 / 16 39 5 / 16 38⅞ 34 8½ 12 8 / 16 41 10 / 16 41 2 / 17 32 8 15 1 / 16 44 3 / 16 43 11 / 16 30 7½ 17 15 / 16 47 1 / 16 46⅗ 28 7 21 3 / 16 50 5 / 16 50 -- 26 6½ 25 3 / 16 54 5 / 16 53 10 / 13 24 6 29 11 / 16 58 13 / 16 58 2 / 8 23 5 ¾ 32 3 / 16 61 5 / 16 60 18 / 23 22 5½ 34 15 / 16 64 1 / 16 63 6 / 11 21 5 ¼ 37 15 / 16 67 1 / 16 66 4 / 7 20 5 41 9 / 16 70 11 / 16 70 -- 19 4 ¾ 45 -- 74 2 / 16 73 11 / 19 18 4½ 48 12 / 16 77 14 / 16 77 ⅔ 17 4 ¼ 53 11 / 16 82 12 / 16 82 4 / 17 16 4 58 2 / 16 87 14 / 16 87 ⅜ 15 3 ¾ 63 15 / 16 93 1 / 16 93 ⅕ 14 3 ½ 71 5 / 16 100 7 / 16 99 6 / 7 13 3 ¼ 78 11 / 16 107 13 / 16 107 7 / 13 12 3 88 7 / 16 117 9 / 16 116 4 / 8 AA . The number of equal spaces in the shorter leg , that contained the same parcel of Air diversly extended . B. The height of the Mercurial Cylinder in the longer leg , that compress'd the Air into those dimensions . C. The height of a Mercurial Cylinder that counterbalanc'd the pressure of the Atmosphere . D. The Aggregate of the two last Columns B and C , exhibiting the pressure sustained by the included Air. E. What that pressure should be according to the Hypothesis , that supposes the pressures and expansions to be in reciprocal proportion . For the better understanding of this Experiment it may not be amiss to take notice of the following particulars : 1. That the Tube being so tall that we could not conveniently make use of it in a Chamber , we were fain to use it on a pair of Stairs , which yet were very lightsome , the Tube being for preservations sake by strings so suspended , that it did scarce touch the Box presently to be mentioned . 2. The lower and crooked part of the Pipe was placed in a square wooden Box , of a good largness and depth , to prevent the loss of the Quicksilver that might fall aside in the transfusion from the Vessel into the Pipe , and to receive the whole Quicksilver in case the Tube should break . 3. That we were two to make the Observation together , the one to take notice at the bottom how the Quicksilver rose in the shorter Cylinder , and the other to pour in at the top of the longer , it being very hard and troublesome for one man alone to do both accurately . 4. That the Quicksilver was poured in but by little and little , according to the direction of him that observed below , it being , far easier to pour in more , than to take out any in case too much at once had been poured in . 5. That at the beginning of the Operation , that we might the more truly discern where the Quicksilver rested from time to time , we made use of a small Looking-glass , held in a convenient posture to reflect to the eye what we desired to discern . 6. That when the Air was so compress'd , as to be crouded into less than a quarter of the space it possess'd before , we tryed whether the cold of a Linen Cloth dipp'd in Water would then condense it . And it sometimes seemed a little to shrink , but not so manifestly as that we dare build any thing upon it . We then tried likewise whether heat would notwithstanding so forcible a compressure dilate it , and approaching the flame of a Candle to that part where the Air was pent up , the heat had a more sensible operation than the cold had before ; so that we scarce doubted but that the expansion of the Air would , notwithstanding the weight that opprest it , have been made conspicuous , if the fear of unseasonably breaking the Glass had not kept us from increasing the heat . Now although we deny not but that in our Table some particulars do not so exactly answer to what our formerly-intimated Hypothesis might perchance invite the Reader to expect ; yet the Variations are not so considerable , but that they may probably enough be ascribed to some such want of exactness as in such nice Experiments is scarce avoidable . But for all that , till further trial hath more clearly informed me , I shall not venture to determine whether or no the intimated Theory will hold universally and precisely , either in Condensation of Air , or Rarefaction : All that I shall now urge being , That however , the trial already made sufficiently proves the main thing for which I here alledge it ; since by it 't is evident , that as common Air when reduc'd to half its wonted extent , obtained near about twice as forcible a Spring as it had before ; so this thus comprest Air being further thrust into half this narrow room , obtained thereby a Spring about as strong again as that it last had , and consequently four times as strong as that of the common Air. And there is no cause to doubt , that if we had been here furnisht with a greater quantity of Quicksilver and a very strong Tube , we might by a further compression of the included Air have made it counterbalance the pressure of a far taller and heavier Cylinder of Mercury . For no man perhaps yet knows how near to an infinite compression the Air may be capable of , if the compressing force be competently increas'd . So that here our Adversary may plainly see that the Spring of the Air , which he makes so light of , may not only be able to resist the weight of 29 Inches , but in some cases of above an hundred Inches of Quicksilver , and that without the assistance of his Funiculus , which in our present case has nothing to do . And to let you see that we did not ( a little above ) inconsiderately mention the weight of the incumbent Atmospherical Cylinder as a part of the weight resisted by the imprisoned Air , we will here annex , that we took care , when the Mercurial Cylinder in the longer leg of the Pipe was about an hundred Inches high , to cause one to suck at the open Orifice ; whereupon ( as we expected ) the Mercury in the Tube did notably ascend . Which considerable Phaenomenon cannot be ascribed to our Examiners Funiculus , since by his own confession that cannot pull up the Mercury , if the Mercurial Cylinder be above 29 or 30 Inches of Mercury . And therefore we shall render this reason of it , That the pressure of the incumbent Air being in part taken off by its expanding itself into the Suckers dilated Chest ; the' imprison'd Air was thereby enabled to dilate it self manifestly , and repel the Mercury that comprest it , till there was an equality of force betwixt the strong Spring of that comprest Air on the one part , and the tall Mercurial Cylinder , together with the contiguous dilated Air , on the other part . Now , if to what we have thus delivered concerning the compression of Air we add some Observations concerning its spontaneous Expansion , it will the better appear how much the Phaenomena of these Mercurial Experiments depend upon the differing measures of strength to be met with in the Air 's Spring , according to its various degrees of compression and Laxity . But , before I enter upon this subject , I shall readily acknowledge that I had not reduc'd the trials I had made about measuring the Expansion of the Air to any certain Hypothesis , when that ingenious Gentleman Mr. Richard Townley was pleased to inform me , that having by the perusal of my Physico-Mechanical Experiments been satisfied that the Spring of the Air was the cause of it , he had endeavoured ( and I wish in such attempts other ingenious men would follow his example ) to supply what I had omitted concerning the reducing to a precise estimate how much Air dilated of it self loses of its Elastical force , according to the measures of its Dilatation . He added , that he had begun to set down what occurred to him to this purpose in a short Discourse , whereof he afterwards did me the favour to shew me the beginning , which gives me a just Curiosity to see it perfected . But , because I neither know , nor ( by reason of the great distance betwixt our places of residence ) have at present the opportunity to enquire , whether he will think fit to annex his Discourse to our Appendix , or to publish it by it self , or at all ; and because he hath not yet , for ought I know , met with fit Glasses to make an any-thing-accurate Table of the Decrement of the force of dilated Air ; our present design invites us to present the Reader with that which follows , wherein I had the assistance of the same person that I took notice of in the former Chapter , as having written something about Rarefaction : whom I the rather make mention of on this occasion , because when he first heard me speak of Mr. Townley's suppositions about the proportion wherein Air loses of its Spring by Dilatation , he told me he had the year before ( and not long after the publication of my Pneumatical Treatise ) made Observations to the same purpose , which he acknowledged to agree well enough with Mr. Townley's Theory : And so did ( as their Author was pleased to tell me ) some Trials made about the same time by that Noble Virtuoso and eminent Mathematician the Lord Brouncker , from whose further Enquiries into this matter , if his occasions will allow him to make them , the Curious may well hope for something very accurate . A Table of the Rarefaction of the Air. A B C D E 1 00 0 / 0 Subtracted from 29¾ leaves . 29¾ 29¾ 1 ½ 10 ⅝ 19 ⅛ 19 ⅚ 2 15 ⅜ 14 ⅜ 14 ⅞ 3 20 2 / 8 9 4 / 8 9 15 / 12 4 22 ⅝ 7 ⅛ 7 7 / 16 5 24 ⅛ 5 ⅝ 5 19 / 20 6 24 ⅞ 4 ⅞ 4 23 / 24 7 25 4 / 8 4 2 / 8 4 ¼ 8 26 0 / 0 3 6 / 8 3 23 / 32 9 26 ⅜ 3 ⅜ 3 11 / 36 10 26 6 / 8 3 0 / 0 2 39 / 40 12 27 ⅛ 2 ⅝ 2 23 / 48 14 27 4 / 8 2 2 / 8 2 ⅛ 16 27 6 / 8 2 0 / 0 1 55 / 64 18 27 ⅞ 1 ⅞ 1 47 / 72 20 28● 1 6 / 8 1 9 / 80 24 28 2 / 8 1 4 / 8 1 23 / 96 28 28 ⅜ 1 ⅜ 1 1 / 16 32 28 4 / 8 1 2 / 8 0 119 / 128 A. The number of equal spaces at the top of the Tube , that contained the same parcel of Air. B. The height of the Mercurial Cylinder , that together with the Spring of the included Air counterbalanced the pressure of the Atmosphere . C. The pressure of the Atmosphere . D. The Complement of B to C , exhibiting the pressure sustained by the included Air. E. What that pressure should be according to the Hypothesis . To make the Experiment of the debilitated force of expanded Air the plainer , 't will not be amiss to note some particulars , especially touching the manner of making the Trial ; which ( for the reasons lately mention'd ) we made on a lightsome pair of Stairs , and with a Box also lin'd with Paper to receive the Mercury that might be spilt . And in regard it would require a vast and in few places procurable quantity of Quicksilver , to imploy vessels of such kind as are ordinary in the Torricellian Experiment , we made use of a Glass-Tube of about six foot long , for that being Hermetically sealed at one end , serv'd out turn as well as if we could have made the Experiment in a Tub or Pond of seventy Inches deep . Secondly , We also provided a slender Glass-Pipe of about the bigness of a Swans Quill , and open at both ends : All along which was pasted a narrow list of Paper divided into Inches and half quarters . Thirdly , This slender Pipe being thrust down into the greater Tube almost fill'd with Quicksilver , the Glass helpt to make it swell to the top of the Tube , and the Quicksilver getting in at the lower orifice of the Pipe , fill'd it up till the Mercury included in that was near about a level with the surface of the surrounding Mercury in the Tube . Fourthly , there being , as near as we could guess , little more than an Inch of the slender Pipe left above the surface of the restagnant Mercury , and consequently unfill'd therewith , the prominent orifice was carefully clos'd with sealing Wax melted ; after which the Pipe was let alone for a while , that the Air dilated a little by the heat of the Wax , might upon refrigeration be reduc'd to its wonted density . And then we observ'd by the help of the above-mentioned list of Paper , whether we had not included somewhat more or somewhat less than an Inch of Air , and in either case we were fain to rectifie the error by a small hole made ( with a heated Pin ) in the Wax , and afterwards clos'd up again . Fifthly , Having thus included a just Inch of Air , we lifted up the slender Pipe by degrees , till the Air was dilated to an Inch , an Inch and an half , two Inches , &c. and observed in Inches and Eighths , the length of the Mercurial Cylinder , which at each degree of the Air 's expansion was impell'd above the surface of the restagnant Mercury in the Tube . Sixthly , The Observations being ended , we presently made the Torricellian Experiment with the above-mention'd great Tube of six foot long , that we might know the height of the Mercurial Cylinder , for that particular day and hour ; which height we found to be 29¾ Inches . Seventhly , Our Observations made after this manner furnish'd us with the preceding Table , in which there would not probably have been found the difference here set down betwixt the force of the Air when expanded to double its former dimensions , and what that force should have been precisely according to the Theory , but that the included Inch of Air receiv'd some little accession during the Trial ; which this newly-mention'd difference making us suspect , we found by replunging the Pipe into the Quicksilver , that the included Air had gain'd about half an eighth , which we guest to have come from some little Aëreal bubbles in the Quicksilver , contain'd in the Pipe ( so easie is it in such nice Experiments to miss of exactness . ) We try'd also with 12 Inches of Air shut up to be dilated ; but being then hindred by some unwelcome avocations to prosecute those Experiments , we shall elsewhere , out of other Notes and Trials ( God permitting ) set down some other accurate Tables concerning this matter . By which possibly we may be assisted to resolve whether the Atmosphere should be look'd upon ( as it usually is ) as a limited and bounded Portion of the Air ; or whether we should in a stricter sense than we did before , use the Atmosphere and Aëreal part of the World for almost equivalent terms ; or else whether we should allow the word Atmosphere some other notion in relation to its Extent and Limits ; ( for as to its Spring and Weight , these Experiments do not question , but evince them . ) But we are willing , as we said , to refer these matters to our Appendix , and till then to retain our wonted manner of speaking of the Air and Atmosphere . In the mean time ( to return to our last-mention'd Experiments ) besides that so little a variation may be in great part imputed to the difficulty of making Experiments of this nature exactly , and perhaps a good part of it to something of inequality in the cavity of the Pipe , or even in the thickness of the Glass ; besides this , I say , the proportion betwixt the several pressures of the included Air undilated and expanded , especially when the Dilatation was great ( for when the Air swell'd but to four times its first extent , the Mercurial Cylinder , though of near 23 Inches , differ'd not a quarter of an Inch from what it should have been according to Mathematical exactness ) the proportion , I say , was sutable enough to what might be expected , to allow us to make this reflexion upon the whole , That whether or no the intimated Theory will hold exactly , ( for about that , as I said above , I dare determine nothing resolutely till I have further considered the matter ) yet since the Inch of Air when it was first included was shut up with no other pressure than that which it had from the weight of the incumbent Air , and was no more comprest than the rest of the Air we breathed and moved in ; and since also this Inch of Air , when expanded to twice its former dimensions , was able with the help of a Mercurial Cylinder of about 15 Inches to counterpoise the weight of the Atmosphere , which the weight of the external Air gravitating upon the restagnant Mercury was able to impell up into the Pipe , and sustain above twenty eight Inches of Mercury when the internal Air by its great expansion had its Spring too far debilitated to make any considerable ( I say considerable , for it was not yet so dilated as not to make some ) resistance : Since , I say , these things are so , the free Air here below appears to be almost as strongly comprest by the weight of the incumbent Air as it would be by the Weight of a Mercurial Cylinder of twenty eight or thirty Inches ; and consequently is not in such a state of laxity and freedom as men are wont to imagine ; and acts like some mechanical Agent , the decrement of whose force holds a stricter proportion to its increase of dimension , than has been hitherto taken notice of . I must not now stand to propose the several reflexions that may be made upon the foregoing Observations touching the Compression and Expansion of Air ; partly because we could scarce avoid making the Historical part somewhat prolix ; and partly because I suppose we have already said enough to shew what was intended , namely , that to solve the Phaenomena there is not of our Adversaries Hypothesis any need : the evincing of which will appear to be of no small moment in our present Controversie , to him that considers , that the two main things that induced the Learned Examiner to reject our Hypothesis are , that Nature abhors a Vacuum , and that though the Air have some Weight and Spring , yet these are insufficient to make out the known Phaenomena ; for which we must therefore have recourse to his Funiculus . Now as we have formerly seen , that he has not so satisfactorily disproved as resolutely rejected a Vacuum , so we have now manifested that the Spring of the Air may suffice to perform greater things than what our Explication of the Torricellian Experiments and those of our Engine obliges us to ascribe to it . Wherefore since besides the several difficulties that incumber the Hypothesis we oppose , and especially its being scarce , if at all , intelligible , we can add that it is unnecessary ; we dare expect that such Readers as are not byass'd by their reverence for Aristotle or the Peripatetick Schools , will hardly reject an Hypothesis which , besides that it is very intelligible , is now prov'd to be sufficient , only to imbrace a Doctrine that supposes such a rarefaction and condensation , as many famous Naturalists rejected for its not being comprehensible , even when they knew of no other way ( that was probable ) of solving the Phaenomena wont to be explicated by it . The III. Part. Wherein what is objected against Mr. Boyle's Explications of particular Experiments , is answered . AND now we are come to the third and last Part of our Defence ; wherein we are to consider what our Examiner is pleas'd to object against some passages of our Physico-Mechanical Treatise . But though this may seem the only part wherein I am particularly concern'd ; yet perhaps we shall find it , if not the shortest , at least the easiest , part of our Task . Partly , because our Author takes no exceptions at the Experiments themselves , as we have recorded them ( which from an Adversary , who in some places speaks of them as an Eye-witness , is no contemptible testimony that the matters of fact have been rightly delivered : ) and partly , because there are divers Experiments which , together with their Explications , the Examiner has thought fit to leave untoucht , and thereby allows us to do so too : and partly also , because that ( as to divers of those Experiments upon which he animadverts ) he does not pretend to shew that our Explications are ill deduc'd or incongruous to our Principles ; but only that the Phaenomena may be explain'd either better or as well by his Hypothesis , whereof he supposes himself to have demonstrated the truth , together with the erroneousness of ours , in the other parts of his Book , especially the third , fourth and fifth Chapters . So that after what we have said to vindicate the Hypothesis we maintain , and take away our Author 's imaginary Funiculus ; it will not be requisite for us on such occasions to examine his particular Assertions and Explications . Which Advertisement we hope the Reader will be pleased to bear in mind , and thereby save himself and us the trouble of a great deal of unnecessary repetition . Wherefore presuming he will do so , we shall not stay to examine the first and second Corollaries , which in his 17 Chapter he annexes to the manner of emptying our Receiver by our Pump . Neither should we say any thing as to his third and last Corollary , but that we think fit to desire the Reader to take notice , that according to what he teaches in that place , the more the Air is rarefied , the more forcibly it is able to contract it self . A defence of our 1. and 2. Experiments . And to proceed now to his 18 Chapter , which he intitles De Experimentis Boylianis , we shall find according to what we lately noted , that against the first Experiment he objects nothing save that , if one of the Fingers be applied to the Orifice of the Valve when the Pump is freed from Air , the Experimenter shall feel to his pain that the Sucker is not thrust inward by the external Air , but , as the Finger , drawn inward by the internal . But this Phaenomenon of the intrusion of the Finger into a Cavity , where it finds no resistance , having been formerly accounted for according to our Hypothesis , we shall not need to repeat our Explication of it ; though this mistaken Phaenomenon supplies our Adversary with divers of his following Animadversions , and indeed with a great part of his Book . And accordingly his Objection against our Second Experiment being of the same nature with that against the first , requires but the same Answer : For it will not alter the case that he adds upon this Experiment , Hoc esse discrimen manifestum inter pressionem & suctionem , quod suctio efficiat hujusmodi adhaesionem , pressio autem minimè ; since to say so is but to affirm , not to prove . The 3. Experiment . What our Author would except against the 3. Experiment he ought to have more intelligibly exprest : For whereas of a Discourse wherein I deliver several particulars , he only says that Nullatenus satisfacit , ut legenti constabit ; I would not do the Reader the injury to suspect him of taking this proofless Assertion for a rational Confutation ; especially since upon the review of that third Experiment I find nothing that agrees not with my Hypothesis , however it may disagree with the Examiners . But , to consider the Explication he substitutes in the room of our Doctrine , which he rejects , he gives it us in these words ; Hoc quoque Experimentum principiis nostris optimè convenit : Cum enim per illam Emboli depressionem aër in cavitate brachii inclusus separetur ab eodem brachio , descendatque simul cum Embolo ( uti de aqua simul cum argento vivo descendente capite decimo tertio vidimus ) fit ut in tota illa depressione , novae semper ab aëre illo descendente superficies deripiantur simul & extendantur , ut ibidem de aqua est explicatum : cum itaque aeque facile diripiantur & extendantur hujusmodi superficies in fine depressionis ac initio , mirum non est quod eadem utrobique sentiatur deprimendi difficultas . By which though he seems to intend an Opposition to that part of the third Experiment which I oppos'd not against his Opinion , but that of some learned Vacuists : Yet ( not to mention that he seems to have somewhat mistaken my sense ) he offers nothing at all to invalidate my inference against them ; but instead of that proposes a defence of his own Opinion , which supposes the truth of his disproved Hypothesis , and is either unsatisfactory even according to that , or else disagrees with what himself hath taught us but a little before . For 't is evident that the more the Sucker is depress'd , the more the Cylinder is exhausted of Air. And in his third Corollary ( which we lately desired the Reader to observe ) speaking of the Air in the Receiver ( and the case is the same with the Air in the Cylinder ) he affirms more than once , Eo magis extendi ac rarefieri aërem relictum , quo plus inde exhauritur , majoremque proinde acquirere vim sese contrahendi . Whereas here he would have us believe , that the little internal Air that was in the Cavity of the shank of the Stop-cock , does as strongly retract the Sucker , or , which in our case is all one , resist its depression , when the Sucker is yet near the top of the Cylinder , ( and consequently when the included Air is but a little dilated ) as when the same Sucker being forced down to the lower part of the Cylinder , the same portion of remaining Air must be exceedingly more distended . The 4. Experiment . In the Fourth Experiment , touching the swelling of a Bladder upon the removal of the ambient Air ; and proportionably to that removal : Our Author objects nothing against the Explication we give of it by the Spring of the Air included in the Bladder , and distending it according as the pressure of the ambient Air is weakned . But he endeavours also to explicate it his way , to which he says this circumstance does excellently agree , that upon the regress of the external Air into the Receiver , the tumid Bladder immediately shrinks , because ( saith he ) by such ingress of the external Air , the Air in the Receiver , which drew the sides of the Bladder outward from the middle of it , is relax'd . Which Explication whether it be more natural than ours ( that ascribes the shrinking of the Bladder to the pressure of the Air that is let into the Receiver ) let the Reader judge , who has considered what we have formerly objected against the Examiners Funiculus , and the Relaxation of it upon the admission of Air. As for the reason likewise he adds , why a perforated Bladder does not also swell , namely , that by the hole , how little soever , the included Air is suck'd out by the rarefi'd ambient , we leave it to the impartial Reader to consider whether is the more genuine Explication , either ours ( against which he has nothing to object ) or his , which to make clearly out he ought ( according to what we formerly noted disputing against his Funiculus ) to shew us what kind of strings they are ; which though , according to him , strongly fastned to the inside of the Receiver and the superficies of the Bladder , must draw just as forcibly one as another , how long soever they be without the Bladder in comparison of those that within the Bladder draw so as to hinder the diduction of its sides . For Experience shews , that in a perforated Bladder the wrinkles continue as if there were no drawing at all . And though he could describe how such a string may be context , yet our Explication will have this advantage in point of probability above his , That whereas he denies not that the Air has Spring and Weight , as we deny his Funiculus to have any other than an imaginary existence ; and whereas he acknowledges that by the Instrument the Air about the Bladder is exhausted ; to shew that there needs no more than that , and consequently no Funiculus , to draw asunder the sides of the Bladder , we can confirm our Explication by the formerly-mentioned Experiment of the ingenious Paschal , who carrying a flaccid Foot-ball from the bottom to the top of an high Mountain , found it to swell proportionably as he ascended , and as the weight and pressure of the ambient Air decreased , and likewise to shrink again as he descended . And yet in this case there is no recourse to be had to a Funiculus of violently-rarefi'd Air to draw asunder every way the sides of the Foot-ball . But however the Examiner will be able to defend his Explication , it may suffice us that he has objected nothing against ours . The 5. Experiment . Against the cause we assign of the fifth Experiment he likewise objects nothing , but only ascribes the breaking of the Bladder to the self-contraction of the rarefi'd Air in the Receiver . And therefore referring the Reader to what we have newly said about the last Experiment , we will with our Author pass over the sixth and seventh , to which he has no quarrel , and proceed to the eighth . The 8. Experiment . This is that wherein we mention our having broke a Glass-Receiver , which was not globular , by the exhaustion of most of the inward Air , whereby its debilitated pressure became unable to resist the unweakned pressure of the outward Air. But this Explication the Examiner confidently rejects in these words , At profect non videtur credibile , mollissimum hunc aërem tam vehementer vitrum ( tantae praesertim crassitudinis quantae ibidem dicitur ) undique sic comprimere ut illud perfringat : as if it were more credible that the little Air within ( which , according to him , is so much thinner than common Air ) should be able to act more powerfully upon the Glass than the Air without , which himself confesses to be a heavy body , and which not only reaches from the surface of the Earth to the top of the highest Mountains , but which ( as may not improbably be argued from what we have elsewhere delivered ) may , for ought we know to the contrary , be heaped upon the Receiver to the height of some hundreds of Miles , nay , to I know not how many thousands , in case the Atmosphere be not a bounded portion of the Air , but reach as high as It. As for the Explication he substitutes in these words , Verius itaque respondetur , ideo sic fractum esse illud vitrum , quia per exhaustionem illam later a ejus vehementiùs introrsum sint attracta , quam ut ( ob figuram illam resistendo minus idoneam ) resistere potuerint . Cum enim inclusus aër lateribus vitri firmissimè adhaereat , nihil aliud erit aërem illum sic exhaurire , quam satagere latera vitri introrsum flectere : By what we have already discoursed about the Funiculus , the Reader may easily discern what is to be answered . Nor does our Author here shew us any way by which his imaginary strings should take such fast hold of the sides of the Glass , as to be able to draw them together notwithstanding the resistance they find from the close texture of the Body to be broken . The 9. Experiment . Our Explication of the ninth Experiment he handles very severely : for having briefly recited it , he proposes his Objection against it thus , Sed profecto nimis longè videtur hoc à veritate recedere : potestque vel inde solum satis refutari ; quia si tanta sit pressura aëris sic per tubum illum in phialam descendentis , ut ipsam phialam perfringat , deberet profecto inclusam aquam , cui immergitur ille tubus , valde quoque ante fractionem phialae commovere , bullulasque in eadem excitare , &c. ut constat , siquis , insufflando per illum tubulum , aquam vel mediocriter sic premat . At certum est aquam , antequam frangatur sic phiala , nec tantillum moveri : ut experienti constabit . But , I do confess , I do for all this think our Explication more true , than well considered by our Author . For the putting of water into the Vial that was broken , was done ( as is clearly intimated in the beginning of our Narrative ) upon a particular design ( as indeed we tryed divers other things with our Engine , not so much with immediate reference to the Spring of the Air , as to make use of such Tryals in some other of our Writings . ) And accordingly in the second Tryal mentioned in the same Experiment the water was omitted . But , notwithstanding this water , the sides of the Glass being exposed to the pressure of the Atmosphere , had that whole pressure against them before the exhaustion of the Receiver ; so that there needed no such blowing in of the Air afresh as our Author imagines , to effect the breaking of the Vial , it being sufficient for that purpose , that the pressure against the convex superficies of it was taken off by the exhaustion of the Receiver , the pressure against the concave superficies remaining as great as ever . And therefore we need not altogether deny what the Examiner sayes that Licet clausus superne fuisset tubulus ille , eodem tamen modo fract a sine dubio fuisset phiala . For , since in such cases the Air ( as we have often taught ) is shut up with the whole pressure of the Atmosphere upon it , it may almost as easily break the Glass as if it were unstopt . And accordingly we mention in the 36. Experiment the breaking of a thin Glass Hermetically seal'd upon the recess of the ambient Air. But , how confidently soever our Author speaks , I thought fit to adde the word almost , because we observed in the 39 Experiment , that such thin Vials ( and thick ones will not break ) are subject upon the withdrawing of the ambient , Air to retch a little , whereby the Spring of the Air within the Vial might in some cases ( I say , in some ) be so far weakned as not to be able to break it , unless assisted by the pressure of the Atmosphere wherewith it communicates , and which leans upon it . And when the Vial does actually begin to break , then the pursuing pressure of the outward Air upon the yielding Air within the Vial may help to throw the parts of the Glass more forcibly asunder . All the Experiments from the 9. to the 17. exclusively our Examiner leaving uncensured , we may with him advance to the consideration of the 17. The 17 Experiment defended . In this we relate how , when we made the Torricellian Experiment , we shut up the restagnant Mercury together with the Tube and the suspended Mercurial Cylinder ( of about 29. Inches ) in our Receiver , that by drawing off and letting in the Air at pleasure upon the restagnant Mercury , and consequently weakning and increasing its pressure , we might make it more clearly appear than hitherto had been done by Experiment , that the suspension of the Mercurial Cylinder , and the height of it , depended upon the greater or lesser pressure of the Air. But against our Explication of this Experiment ( which has had the good fortune to convince and satisfie many ingenious men ) the Examiner objects nothing in particular , contenting himself to have recourse here also to his Funiculus . Yet two observations of ours he is pleased to take notice of . The first is , that though the Quicksilver were exactly shut up into our Receiver after the manner newly declared , yet the suspended Quicksilver did not descend : whence having said that I argue , that it is now sustained not by the Counterpoise of the Atmosphere , but by the Spring of the Air shut up in the Receiver , he subjoyns onely this , Sed rectius sane infertur , Cylindrum illum nihil ibidem antea praestitisse . But whether this be not gratis dictum we leave the Reader to collect from what we have formerly discourst in the second Part of this Defence of the Spring of the Air ; especially from that Experiment ; by which it appears , that Spring may sustain a far higher Cylinder of Quicksilver . In the second Observation he mentions of ours , he summarily recites our Explication of the descent and ascent of the Mercury in the Tube , by the debilitated and strengthned Spring of the Air. But without finding fault with our application of that principle to the Phaenomena , he sayes that he has sufficiently refuted the principle it self in the fourth Chapter , ( which how well he has done we have already seen ) and therefore explicates the matter thus ; Dico igitur ( sayes he ) argentum per illam exhaustionem sic in tubo descendere , quod deorsum trahatur ab aëre qui incumbit argento restagnanti : siquidem incumbens ille aër jam per exhaustionem valde rarefact us & extensus , sese vehementer contrahit , & contrahendo conatur etiam subjectum sibi argentum restagnans è suo vasculo elevare , unde fit ut ( argento illo restagnante minus . jam gravitante in fundum sui vasculi ) argentum quod est in tubo descendat ; ut per se patet . Adeoque mirum non est , quod , ingrediente postea aëre externo , rursum argentum ascendat , cum per illum ingressum vis illa sic elevans argentum restagnans debilitetur . But this Explication supposing such a Funiculus as we have already shewn to be but fictitious , the Reader will easily gather what is to be judged of it from what has been already delivered . Wherefore I shall onely subjoyn , that by this Explication , were it admitted , there is onely an account given of that part of our seventeenth Experiment which relates to the descent of the Mercury below its wonted height , and its re-ascent to it . But as for our having by the forcing in some more Air into the Receiver , impell'd the Quicksilver to a considerably-greater height than 't is wont to be sustain'd at in the Torricellian Experiment , I confess I understand not how the Examiner gives an account of it in the following words , ( which are immediately annex'd to those we last recited of his , and which are all that he employes to explicate this notable Phaenomenon ) Atque hinc etiam redditur ratio alterius quod ibidem quoque notatur , nempe quod per violentam intrusionem aëris externi in Recipientem , ascenderit argentum notabiliter supra digitos 29½ . Nam sicut per extractionem aëris argentum infra stationem detrahitur , sic etiam per intrusionem novi supra eandem elevabitur . For in this passage I see not how he himself does not rather repeat the matter of fact , than give any account how it is perform'd . And if it be alledged on his behalf , That according to his principles it may be said that , upon the pressure of adventitious Air upon the restagnant Mercury , the Funiculus in the Tube , that was not able before to draw it up above 29½ Inches , is now enabled to draw it up higher ; I demand upon what account this new Air does thus press against the restagnant Mercury , and impell up and sustain that in the Tube . It will not be said that 't is by its weight ; for as much Mercury as may be thus impell'd up above the usual station will weigh a great many times more than the Air forc'd into the Receiver . And therefore it remains that the additional Air counterpoises the additional Mercury by its Spring . And if we consider withall , that there 's no reason to doubt , ( especially considering what we have formerly delivered upon tryal touching the power of comprest Air to impell up Quicksilver ) but that , had we not been afraid of breaking our Vessel we might by forcing more Air into the Receiver have impell'd it up to the top of the Tube , and kept it there ; we shall scarce deny but that , supposing there could be no such Funiculus as our Examiner's in rerum natura , the pressure of the incumbent Air alone might suffice to keep a correspondent Cylinder of Mercury suspended : and that without any attraction of the restagnant Mercury by a Funiculus of violently-distended Air in the Receiver , the Quicksilver in the Tube may be made to rest at any height greater or lesser , provided it exceed 30 Inches , onely because its weight is just able to counterbalance the pressure of the contiguous Air. I know not whether I may not adde ( to express an unwillingness to omit what some may think proper to do my Adversary right ) that it may be said for the Examiner , that he in the 11 page acknowledging with us a power in the Air to recover its due extension if it be crouded into less room than its disposition requires ; a man may from that principle solve the Phaenomena in question by saying , that the Air in the Receiver being forcibly comprest by the intrusion of fresh Air into the same vessel , does by its endeavour to recover its due expansion press upon the restagnant Mercury , and force up some of it into the Tube . But this Explication , though it agree with what the Author teaches in a place very distant from his Notes upon our 17 Experiment , now under debate ; yet still 't is not clear to me how , by what he sayes in these Notes , the Phaenomenon is accounted for as the word Hinc imports it to be . But otherwise I need not quarrel with the Explication , since without recurring to the Funiculus for the sustaining of the additional Mercury , the solution of the Phaenomenon is given upon the same principle that I employ . The 18 Experiment . Our Examiner in his Animadversion upon the 18 Experiment , having recited my Conjecture as the cause why a Cylinder of Mercury did in Winter rise and fall in the Tube , sometimes as Water is wont to do in a Weather-glass , according to the laws of heat and cold , and sometimes quite contrary thereunto ; adds , that this Experiment does strongly enough overthrow our Hypothesis of the Atmospherical Cylinder , and clearly shew that the Quicksilver is not sustained by it : Nam ( sayes he ) si hic ab eo sustentatum fuisset , debuisset potius frigidiore tempore ascendere quam descendere , eo quod aër tunc multo densior esset & gravior . Itaque non sustentatur argentum ab aëris aequipondio , ut asseritur . And by the same Argument he concludes against the Mercury's being sustained by the Spring of the Air. But in his Animadversions upon this Experiment he seems to have been too forward to reprehend ; for he neither well confutes my Conjecture , nor substitutes so much as a plausible one in the stead of it . And as to his Objection I answer , First , That it doth not conclude : because that as sometimes the Quicksilver in the Tube did rise in warmer , and fall in colder , weather ; so at other times it did rather emulate the ascent and descent of water in a Weather-glass . Secondly , Though it be true , that Cold is wont to condense this or that parcel of Air , and that a parcel of Air may be made heavier by Condensation ; yet that is in regard of the ambient Air that retains its wonted laxity , in which the condensed Air is weighed . But our Author has not yet proved , that in case the cold of the Winter should condense the whole incumbent Atmosphere , it would then gravitate sensibly more upon the restagnant Quicksilver than before . As a Pound of Wooll will not sensibly vary its weight , though the hairs whereof it is composed be made to lie sometimes in a looser , sometimes in a closer , order . And , thirdly , this Objection does as little agree with his Doctrine as with my Conjecture : For in the 50. page , where he gives us an account according to his principles of the rising and falling of water in a Weather-glass , and compares it with the suspension of Quicksilver , he tells us , Hinc fit quod , contracto hoc funiculo per frigus , aqua illa tempore frigido ascendat , descendat autem tempore calido , eo quod per calorem funiculus ille dilatetur . So that , according to the Examiner himself , the Quicksilver ought to have ascended in colder , and descended in warmer , weather . Now , although I proposed my thoughts of the difficult Phaenomenon under consideration but as a Conjecture , and therefore shall be ready to alter them , either upon further discovery , or better information ; yet I see not why it should be post-posed to the Examiner's , who , though he rejects our Explication , substitutes no other than what may be gathered from these words , Ego certe non dubito quin dentur hujusmodi occultae causae , quibus funiculus ille subtilis , quo in tubo suspenditur argentum ( ut dictum est capite decimo ) modo producatur , modo abbrevietur , &c. sicque argentum nunc demittat , nunc elevet . For , since we have made it probable that the copious Fumes sometimes suddenly ascending into the Air , and rolling up and down in it , sometimes sensibly altering ( if good Authors may be credited ) the refraction of it , and since some other causes , mentioned in our eighteenth Experiment , may alter the density and gravity of the Air that leans upon the restagnant Mercury ; I suppose the Reader will think it more intelligible , and probable that alterations , other than those produced by heat and cold may happen to the incumbent Atmosphere , which freely communicates with the neighbouring Air , and may thereby become sometimes more stufft , and sometimes more destitute of adventitious Exhalations ; than that such changes should happen to a Funiculus included in Glass , which according to our Author is impervious to the subtilest steams that are , and concerning which he offers not so much as a Conjecture upon what other account it can happen to be sometimes contracted , and sometimes stretch'd . The 19 Experiment . Upon this the Examiner has onely this short Animadversion , In decimo nono ostendit aquam eodem modo per exhaustionem Recipientis descendere , quo in praecedente descendere ostenderat argentum vivum ; cujus cum eadem sit ratio , non est cur amplius ei insistamus . In which words since he offers nothing new or peculiar to shew any incongruity in our Explication to our principles , which agree very well with the new Phaenomena of the Experiment ; we are content to leave the Reader to judge of the Hypotheses themselves , which of the two is the more probable , either ours , that onely requires that the Air in the Receiver should equally resist a Cylinder of Water and of Quicksilver , when their weight is but the same , though their altitudes be not ; or the Examiner's , which exacts that ( according to what we formerly elsewhere noted ) Bodies of such differing nature and texture as Quicksilver and Water should need but just the same weight or strength to rarefie them into a Funiculus . The 20 Experiment . In his Examen of this Experiment our Author makes me infer from the Phaenomena he repeats , that not onely the Air , but the Water also has a Spring . But though I suspect not that he does wilfully mistake my sense , yet by what I write in this and the following Experiments the Reader may well enough perceive , that I spoke but very doubtfully of a Spring in the water ; nay , and that I did in the 154 page expresly teach , That the intumescence of it might ( at least in great part ) proceed from that of the small parcels of Air , which I thought to be usually harboured in the body of that liquor . But whereas I ascribe the appearance of the Bubbles in the water to this , that upon the exhaustion of some of the Air incumbent on the water , the pressure of what remains is much debilitated , whereby the little Particles of Air lurking in the Water are allowed to expand themselves into bubbles ; he rejects this Explication as manifestly false : Nam ( sayes he ) si ita fieret , deberent profecto hujusmodi bullulae non è fundo vasis sic ascendere , ( uti tam in hoc quam in sequentibus experimentis in quibus de istis bullis agitur semper asseritur ) sed è superiore parte aquae , ubi minus premuntur , ut per se est manifestum . But why he should be here so peremptory I confess I do not , for all this Objection , yet see : For in the bottom of the next page he sayes , he will not deny but that Aërial Particles latitant in the other parts of the water ( he had before spoken of the bottom of it ) may be extended into bubbles by his way of Rarefaction . And that we particularly mentioned the rising of bubbles , even from the bottom of the water , was because that circumstance seem'd to deserve a peculiar note ; and not ( as he seems to imagine ) as if the bubbles did not also rise from the superior parts of the liquor , since we did take notice of it about the middle of the 149 page . And we often in this and the following Experiments observ'd , that the ascending bubbles grew bigger the nearer they came to the top . Which agrees more clearly with our Hypothesis wherein their conspicuous swelling as they ascend is attributed more to the lessening of the pressure of the incumbent Air than to the decrement of the weight of the incumbent water , ( since when the surface of this liquor is lean'd upon by the Atmosphere , the ascending bubbles scarce sensibly increase in Vessels no deeper than ours ) then with the Explication which the Examiner gives in these words , Respondeo , aquam per illant aëris exhaustionem non sponte sic ascendere , sed sursum violenter trahi , ac elevari à rare facto illo aëre sese contrahente . Quemadmodum enim aqua aliqualem patitur compressionem ( ut experientiâ constat ) it a & aliqualem quoque hic patitur distentionem . Atque hinc clarè patet , cur potius à fundo vasts quam à parte aquae superiore oriantur hujusmodi bullae . Cum enim vehemens illa suctio conetur aquam à fundo phialae elevare , nascitur ibidem subtilis quaedam materia quae in bullas conversa sic ascendit , uti capite decimo quinto in quarto Experimento dictum est . For , whatever he may think , it does not hence so clearly appear how the endeavour only of the Funiculus to draw up the Water from the bottom of the Vial , to which , that endeavour notwithstanding , it remains contiguous , should generate in some parts of the bottom of the Glass , and not in others , such a subtile matter as he tells us of . And I suppose the Reader will , as well as I , wish he had more intelligibly declared how this strange generation of subtile matter comes to be effected . And I presume it will likewise be expected that he also declare , why both in our case and in the Torricellian Experiment the bubbles grow so much larger by being nearer the top of the liquor ; if , as he rejects our Explication of this Circumstance , the effect of the suction he speaks of be greater upon the lower part of the liquor than the upper , to which alone nevertheless his Funiculus , that is said so to draw the liquor , is contiguous . Our Author making no particular Objection against the 10 following Experiments , we also shall pass them by , and fall with him upon the consideration of the 31 Experiment . The 31 Experiment . Upon this our Author having recited our Conjecture as the cause why two very flat and smooth Marbles stick so closely together , that by lifting up the uppermost you may take up also the lowermost , approves my way of examining that Conjecture . But whereas I say that the reason why , though the Marbles were kept together by the pressure of the ambient Air , yet they did not fall asunder in our exhausted Receiver , no not though a weight of 4 Ounces were hung at the lower stone , might be , that by reason of some small leak in the Receiver the Air could not be sufficiently drawn out : yet he tells us with his wonted confidence , Certum esse , sententiam illam vel hoc solo Experimento satis refelli . But possibly he would have spoken less resolutely , if he had made all the trials about the adhesion of Maibles that we relate our selves to have made in the short History we have publish'd of Fluidity and Firmness . For our Examiner speaks as if all that we ascribe to the Air in such Experiments were to sustain the lower Marble with the weight perhaps of a few Ounces : Whereas in case the Air be kept from getting in at all between the stones , it may ( according to our Hypothesis ) sustain a Weight either altogether or well-nigh equal to that of a pillar of Air as broad as the Basis of thelower Marble , and as long as the Atmosphere is high , or to the weight of a pillar of Quicksilver of the same thickness , and about 30 Inches long ; these two pillars appearing by the Torricellian Experiment to counterpoise each other . And therefore since in the seventeenth Experiment , when we had exhausted our Receiver as far as we could , there remain'd Air enough to keep up in the Tube a Cylinder of about an Inch long of Quicksilver ; and since the broader the contiguous Marbles are , the greater weight fastned to the lowermost may be sustain'd by the resistance of the Air , ( as is obvious to him that considers the Hypothesis , and as we have proved by Experiment in the forementioned Tract ) it need be no wonder that the Air remaining in the Receiver should be able to support the lowermost Marble , whose Diameter was near two Inches , and a weight of four Ounces , those two Weights being inferior to that of a Mercurial Cylinder of that Diameter and an Inch in length . And though it were not , yet we are not sure that the Receiver was as well emptied when we made the 31 Experiment , as when we made the 17. And ( if my Memory does not much misinform me ) 't was with the same pair of Marbles that in the presence of an illustrious Assembly of Virtuosi ( who were Spectators of the Experiment ) the uppermost Marble drew up the lowermost , though that were clogg'd with a weight of above 430 Ounces . As for the account the Examiner substitutes of our Phaenomenon , I know not whether many Readers will acquiesce in it : For , not to insist upon the Objection which himself takes notice of , that according to him the distended Air in the Receiver should draw asunder the adhering Marbles ; his Explication supposes that there cannot naturally be a Vacuum , whence he infers that , Necesse erat ut lapis ille non aliter descenderet , quàm relinquendo post se tenuem bujusmodi substantiam , qualis ab argento vivo aut aquâ sic descendentibus relinqui solet . But whereas he adds , that the cause of the obstinate adhesion we meet with in our case is , that such a substance is far more difficult to be separated from Marble than from Qucksilver or any other kind of Body ; that Assertion is precarious . And though I have tried Experiments of this nature with stones of several sizes , perhaps an hundred times , yet I never could find that by their cohesion they would sustain a weight greater than that of a Pillar of the Atmosphere that prest against the lowermost : Which is a considerable Circumstance , that much better agrees with our Explication than our Adversaries . And whereas he further says , Vnde existimo planè , si perfectè complan at a fuerint duo marmora sic conjunct a , it a ut nullus omnino aër inter utrumque mediaret , non posse ea ullis humanis viribus ab invicem divelli : I hope I need not tell the Reader , that whether or no this agree with what he had immediately before taught of the separableness of a subtile substance even from Marble , so bold and improbable an Assertion requires the being countenanc'd with a much better proof than the only one he subjoyns in these words , Vti etiam confirmat exemplum quod ibidem adducit Author de lamina aenea , tabulae cuidam marmoreae it a adhaerente , ut à lacertoso juvene , de suis viribus gloriante , non potuerit per annulum centro ejus affixum inde elevari . For sure there is great odds betwixt the strength of a man unassisted by any Engine , and the utmost extent of Humane Power . And indeed accor ing to our Hypothesis , and without having recourse to Natures dreading of a Vacuum , the case is clear enough : For , supposing the Plate to be of any considerable breadth , the Pillar of the Atmosphere that lean'd upon it , and must at the instant of its deserting the superficies of the Table all at once be lifted up with it , may well exceed the force of a single man , especially in an inconvenient posture ; since by the cohesion of a pair of Marbles of about three Inches Diameter , I did with my own hands take up above a thousand and three hundred Ounces . The 32 and 33 Experiments . Against our Explication of these two , which our Author examines together , he objects nothing peculiar , but contents himself to explicate them by his Funiculus : Wherefore neither shall we need to frame any peculiar defence for it , especially if the Reader will be pleased to refer hither as much of what we oppos'd to his Animadversion on the third Experiment as is justly applicable to our present Controversie . Our Author indeed endeavours to prove his Explication by saying , that the distended Air in the exhausted Cylinder draws up the Sucker with the annexed weight , Eodem fere modo quo videmus in cueurbitulis dorso aegrotantis applicatis , in quibus , extincta jam flamma , rarefact us aër se contrahens carnem tam vehementer , uti videmus , elevat attrahitque intra cucurbitulam . But that Phaenomenon is easily enough explicable in our Hypothesis , by saying , that upon the vanishing of that heat which strengthned the pressure of the included Air , the Spring of it grows too weak to resist any longer the pressure of the ambient Air ; which thereupon thrusts the flesh and neighbouring blood of the Patient into the Cupping-glass , almost after the same manner as we formerly taught the Pulp of the Finger to be thrust into the deserted Cavity of the Glass-Tube in the Torricellian Experiment . The 34 , 35 and 36 Experiments . To these our Author saying nothing but this , In his tribus nihil peculiariter occurrit hic explicandum , cujus ratio ex jam dictis non facile pateat ; we also may be allow'd to pretermit them , and pass on to The 37 Experiment . Of the appearance of Light or Whiteness , mentioned in this Experiment , the Examiner confesses that we have assigned a cause probable enough , by referring it to the vehement and sudden commotion of the included Air. And indeed though I do still look upon some of the things that I hesitantly propos'd about this difficult Phaenomenon but as mere Conjectures , and though he annexes his Explication of it ; yet I see not but that it is coincident with ours , or not better than it . For , to what I had said of the Commotion of the parts of the Air , he adds only in two or three several places their being violently distended ; which how it improves the Explication of the Phaenomenon I do not readily see . And whereas he subjoyns , Existimo autem dicendum potius candorem illum esse lumen quoddam reflexum , quam innatum , eo quòd ( ut testatur Author ) in tenebris non appareat , sed solum de die aut accensa candela : I presume the attentive Reader will easily discern that his Opinion is much-what the same that I propos'd and grounded on the same reason . But the chief difficulty in this abstruse Phaenomenon , namely why we meet with it but sometimes , our Examiner's Explication leaves untouch'd . The 38 and 39 Experiments . Against these our Author makes no peculiar Objections . The 40 and 41 Experiments . But in his Animadversions upon these , having told the Reader that I seem to ascribe the sudden extinction of the included Animals to the excessive thinness of the Air remaining in the Receiver , made by the recess of what was drawn out , unfit for Respiration ; he adds resolutely enough , Verum impossible videtur , ut hujusmodi animalcula ob solum defectum crassioris aëris tam cito moriantur : But gives no other reason than that they dye so soon , which is no more than what he said in the newly-cited words , and besides is grounded upon something of mistake . For the Creatures he mentions were a Bee , a Fly , and a Caterpillar , and those included too in a small Receiver , which could be suddenly exhausted : and these indeed became moveless within a minute of an hour ; but that minute was not ( as the word is often us'd to signifie in English ) a Moment , but the Sixtieth part of an Hour . And though these Insects did in so short a time grow moveless , yet they were not so soon kill'd ; as appears by the Narrative . The sanguineous Animals that did indeed dye , were kill'd more slowly . And I remember that having purposely enquir'd of a man ( us'd to go under water by the help of an Engine wherein he could carry Air with him to the bottom of the Sea ) how long he could endure , before he was accustomed to dive , without breathing or the use of a Spunge ; he told me , that at first he could hold out about two or three Minutes at a time : Which made me think that Divers become able to continue under Water so long , either by a peculiarly-convenient Constitution of body , or by a gradual exercise . And I am apt to think that he did , as men are wont to do , when he said two or three Minutes , mean what is indeed a much shorter time than that when exactly measured amounts to . For , having purposely made trial upon a couple of Moles that were brought me together alive , one of them included in a small , though not very small , Receiver was between two and three Minutes in killing ; whereas the other being immediately after detain'd under Water did not there continue full a Minute and a quarter , before it finally ceas'd from giving any sign at all of life . By which trial it may appear , that 't is not impossible that the want of Respiration should dispatch an Animal in as little time as is mentioned in the Experiment I am now defending . And indeed our Author either should have proved that 't is not possible for the want of Air to destroy Animals so soon , or should have given us some better account of the Phaenomenon . For whereas he teaches us , that according to his Doctrine the little Animals above mentioned were so soon kill'd , quia per rarefactumillum aërem sese contrahentem extractus sit corum halitus : I see not that hereby , if he explicate the Phaenomenon otherwise than we , he explains it better ; for he seems to speak as if he thought this halitus to be some peculiar part of the Animal in which his life resides . And besides he seems not to consider , that whereas , according to me as well as according to him , the Air contained in the Lungs ( supposing these Animalcula have any ) must in great part pass thence into the Receiver , ( for whether that be done by the Spring of the Air it self , that was harboured in the Lungs , or the traction of the more rarefi'd Air in the Receiver , is not material in our present case ) the Examiner must , as well as I , render a reason why the extenuation or recess of the halitus should cause the hasty death of the included Animals ; and condemning my Conjecture he ought to have substituted another reason : and though he subjoyns these words , and concludes with them , Atque hinc quoque ortae sunt vehementes illae convulsiones , quas ante mortem passas esse aviculas quasdam memorat ibidem Author ; yet I doubt not but the Reader will think it had not been amiss that the Author had more intelligibly reduc'd these Tragick Symptoms from his Assumption , for the sake of those that are not Anatomists and Physicians enough to discern how his Funiculus could produce these effects . For my part , as in the 41 Experiment I tender'd my thoughts concerning Respiration but doubtingly , so I am yet unwilling to determine resolvedly in a matter of that difficulty . The 42 and 43 Experiments . In his Examen of these two last of our Physico-Mechanical Experiments , the Author contents himself to endeavour to explicate the Phaenomena recited in them by the contraction of the rarefi'd Air ; which , according to him , endeavours to draw up the subjacent water out of the Vial , whereby it vehemently distends the parts of that water , as he taught in the like case upon the 20 Experiment . But since we have already consider'd his Animadversion upon that , although this presumed distension of the water is not visible that we have observ'd , when cold water , that has been first freed from his interspers'd Air , is put into the Receiver , notwithstanding that the Funiculus should in that case also distend it ; we are so afraid of tiring out the Readers patience by the frequent repetition of the same things , that we will leave it to him to judge which of the two Explications , the Examiner's or ours , is to be preferred , without troubling him and our selves with defence of Accounts against which our Adversary does not here make any peculiar Objections . And thus have we by God's assistance considered what the Examiner hath been pleased to oppose either against our particular Explications , or against the Hypotheses that divers of them suppose : Wherein I have been the more particular and prolix , because I would willingly excuse my self and others from the trouble of any more Disputes of this kind . I hope there is not in my Answers any thing of Asperity to be met with ; for I have no quarrel to the Person of the Author , or his just reputation ; nor did I intend to use any more freedom of Speech in the answering his Objections , than his resolute way of proposing divers of them made it on those occasions needfull for the Caution of those Readers who are not acquainted with our differing ways of writing , and perhaps have not observed that some men are wont to consider as much what they propose but with a Perhaps , or some such expression of diffidence , as others do what they deliver far more resolutely . And though being very far from being wedded to my Opinions , I am still ready to exchange them for better , if they shall be duly made out to me , ( which I think it possible enough they may hereafter be ; ) yet peradventure the Reader will think with me , that the Examiner has not given me cause to renounce any of them , since the Objections he has propos'd against me have been sufficiently answered , and since the Hypothesis he would substitute in the room of ours ( besides that it is partly precarious ) supposes things which divers of the eminentest Wits of our Age ( otherwise of differing Opinions ) profess they cannot admit or so much as understand : Whereas the Weight and Spring of the Air are not denied by our Author himself , and are demonstrable by Experiments that are not controverted betwixt us . Which things I represent for the defence of what I think the Truth , and not to offend my learned Adversary , who shall have my free consent to be thought to have fail'd rather in the Choice than in the Management of the Controversie . Though since this passes for his first Book , and since consequently he is not like to have been provoked , or engaged in point of Reputation , to challenge me or any of those far more eminent Persons he has nam'd among his Adversaries , I am induc'd by the severity wherewith I have known eminent Virtuosi speak of his Attempts , and particularly of his Funiculus , to fear that some of those he has needlesly oppos'd , will be apt to apply to him that of St. Austin against some of his Adversaries , that had disputed against him with much more Subtilty than Reason , In mala causa non possunt aliter , at malam causam quis eos coegit habere ? But this notwithstanding I am , as I was going to say , content my Adversary should be thought to have said for his Principles as much as the Subject will bear ; nor would I have it made his Disparagement , that I have declared that his whole Book has not made me depart from any of my Opinions or Explications , since his Hypothesis and mine being inconsistent , it may be looked upon as a sign rather that each of us have , than that either of us have not , reason'd closely to his own Principles , that the things we infer from our contrary Suppositions do so generally disagree . FINIS . AN EXPLICATION OF RAREFACTION . THE chief Arguments of the Author of a certain Treatise De Corporum inseparabilitate , whereby he endeavours to invalidate the Hypothesis of the Weight and Spring of the Air , and to set up and establish instead thereof an unintelligible Hypothesis of Attraction , performed by I know not what strange imaginary Funiculus , are only Five , two against the former , and three for the later . The first of which is , That the Weight and Spring of the Air are not sufficient to perform the Effects ascribed to them : The second , that could they be performed by that Hypothesis granted , yet the way of this strange Spring it self is not intelligibly explained or explicable by the Defenders of it . Now the former of these being little else but a bare Affirmation , and the later bearing some shew of Demonstration , I shall endeavour to examine it as I find it set down in his 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 and 24 Chapters , to which ( especially the 23 ) he very often in his Book refers the Reader for satisfaction , pretending there to evince that Rarefaction cannot be made out any otherwise than by supposing a body to be in 2 , 3 , 4 , 10 , 100 , 1000 , 1000000 of places at the same instant , and adequately to fill all and every one of those places . First therefore , we will examine his Negative , and next his Affirmative , Arguments for this strange Hypothesis . His Negative I find in the 20 Chapter , where he endeavours to confute the two ways of explicating the Rarefaction and Spring of the Air , namely , that of the Vacuists and that of the Plenists . Concerning the first of these we find him conclude it impossible , first , because he had before proved that there can be no Vacuum , which being done by a Circle ( viz. There is no Vacuum in the Tube because Nature abhors a Vacuum , and we see Nature abhors a Vacuum because she will not suffer a Vacuum in the Tube above the Mercury , but to prevent it will continually spin the Quicksilver into superficies , and never diminish the body of it ) will suffer me to pass to his next , which is , That this way is false , because in the Experiment of the Carp's Bladder the Air is rarefi'd a 1000 times bigger ; nay , in respect of the body of Gold it has 1000000 times less matter in equal spaces . And this , says he , is a Phaenomenon that is impossible ever to be made out by interspers'd Vacuities . Now that the Vacuists cannot presently , by so bold an assertion as this , be made to forsake their Principles , he may perceive by these following Solutions which I shall give of all the Phaenomena he recites , flowing naturally from an Hypothesis that I shall for the present assume . Let us suppose then the Particles of Bodies , at least those of the Air , to be of the form of a piece of Ribond , that is , to be very long , slender , thin and flexible laminae , coyled or wound up together as a Cable , piece of Ribond , Spring of a Watch , Hoop , or the like , are : We will suppose these to have all of them the same length , but some to have a stronger , others a weaker Spring : We will further suppose each of these so coyled up to have such an innate circular motion , as that thereby they may describe a Sphere equal in Diameter to their own , much after the manner that a Meridian turn'd about the Poles of a Globe will describe by its revolution a Sphere of the same Diameter with its own in the Air. By this Circular motion the parts of the laminae endeavouring to recede from the Centre or Axis of their motion , acquire a Springiness outward like that of a Watch-Spring , and would naturally flie abroad until they were stretch'd out at length , but that being incompast with the like on every side , they cannot do it without the removal of them , as not having room sufficient for such a motion . And the faster this circular motion is , the more do the parts endeavour to recede from the Axis , and consequently the stronger is their Spring or endeavour outward . These springy Bodies thus shap'd and thus moved are sufficient to produce all the Phaenomena he names as impossible to be explicated . And , first , for the business of Expansion , it will very naturally be explained by it : As let us suppose for instance the Diameter of these small coyled Particles of the Air ( which being next the Earth are press'd upon by all those numerous incumbent Particles that make up the Atmosphere , and are thereby so crouded that they can but very little untwist themselves ; let us suppose , I say , the Diameter of these Particles ) to be 1 / 1000000000000 of an Inch ; and then to be much of the form of those represented in the 4 Figure by ABCD : and that these Particles , when a considerable quantity of the pressure of the ambient parts is taken away , will flie abroad into a Coyle or Zone ten times as big in Diameter as before ; that is , they will now be 10 / 1000000000000 of an Inch in Diameter , and appear in the form of those in the Figure exprest by EFGH : these Zones whirl'd round as the former will describe a Sphere 1000 times as big in bulk , and thereby fence that space from being entred by any of the like Zones : this it would doe , supposing . those Spheres did immediately always touch each other ; but because of their circular motion , whenever they meet they must necessarily be beaten , and flie off from one another , and so require a yet greater space to perform their motion in . This suppos'd , there are no Phaenomena of Rarefaction ( which is enough at present to answer what he objects ) but may be naturally and intelligibly made out . As first , for that of the swelling of a Carp's Bladder , if we suppose some small parcels of the former comprest laminae to lie latitant within the folds of it , and being much coyled up together scarce to take any sensible room , this Bladder in the Air will appear to contain very little or nothing within it ; whereas when the pressure of the Air is taken off in good part from the outsides of it , then those formerly latitant Particles disclose themselves by flying open into much bigger Zones , so as perhaps to be able to defend a thousand times bigger space from being entred into by their like or any other gross Particles , such as those of the Bladder . Now because the Pores of a Bladder are such as are not easily permeable by the Particles of Air , therefore these lurking Particles so expanding themselves must necessarily plump out the sides of the Bladder , and so keep them turgid until the pressure of the Air that at first coyled them be re-admitted to doe the same thing for them again . Next , as for Rarefaction by heat , that will as naturally follow as the former from this Hypothesis . For the Atoms of fire flowing in in great numbers , and passing through with a very rapid motion , must needs accelerate the motion of these Particles , from which acceleration their Spring or endeavour outward will be augmented , that is , those Zones will have a strong nitency to flie wider open , ( for we know that the swifter any body is moved circularly , the more do the parts of it endeavour to recede from the Centre of that motion ) from whence if it has room will follow a Rarefaction . As for the conveyance of Light , that being according to Epicurus performed by the local motion of peculiar Atoms , their motions to and fro through this medium will be less impeded by the rarefi'd Air than by the condens'd ; as indeed upon Experiment we shall really find them . As for his third Objection drawn from his supposed attractive virtue of the thus-rarefi'd Air , that is quickly answered , by denying it to have any power at all of attraction ; and by shewing ( which is already done ) that what effects he would have to be performed by the attraction of the included , is really done by the pressure of the ambient , Air. And , lastly , the Phaenomena of my Lord Bacon's Experiment are sufficiently obvious and easie to be deduc'd . So then , by granting Epicurus his Principles , that the Atoms or Particles of bodies have an innate motion ; and granting our Supposition of the determinate motion and figure of the Aërial Particles , all the Phaenomena of Rarefaction and Condensation , of Light , Sound , Heat , &c. will naturally and necessarily follow : and the Author's Objections against this first way of Rarefaction will signifie very little . As to the second way of Rarefactiore by the intrusion or intervention of some subtile matter or AEther into the spaces deserted by the rarefying Particles , which is that propos'd by the Assertors of a Plenum , this also is by the Author condemned , and branded with Impossibility . And why ? First , because 't is ( he says ) impossible that the above-mentioned Phaenomena of the Carp's Bladder can be explained by it . Secondly , because 't is impossible to give a reason from it of the impetuous ascent of Water admitted into an exhausted Receiver . And , Thirdly , because 't is impossible to explicate the Phaenomena of Gun-powder . His Reasons to confirm which three Impossibilities , because drawn from a mere mistake , or ignorance of those Hypotheses which have been invented by the Assertors of that Opinion , I shall pass over , and content my self to explain a way how these Impossibilities may become Possibilities , if not Probabilities . And the way that I shall take , shall be that of the most acute Modern Philosopher Monsieur Des Cartes , published in his Philosophical Works : Which is this , That the Air is a Body consisting of long , slender , flexible Particles , agitated or whirl'd round by the rapid motion of the Globuli Caelestes , and the subtile Matter of his first Element , whereby they are each of them enabled to drive or force out of their Vortice all such other agitated Particles . Now the swifter these Bodies are whirl'd round , the more do their flexible parts flie asunder and stretch themselves out , and the more forcibly do they resist the ingress of any other so agitated particles into their Vortice , and consequently the slower their motion is , the less will be their resistance . And because there is a vast number of these whirled Particles lying one above another , and each Particle having its peculiar gravity ; it will necessarily follow that the undermost ( which to maintain their Vortice must resist so great a pressure ) must very much be hindred from expanding themselves so far as otherwise they would , were there none of those incompassing agitated Particles that lay in their way : And that those being by any means removed , or they themselves by a more rapid motion of the Particles of their Vehicles , the first and second Element , ( which is according to that Hypothesis an effect of Heat ) more swiftly and strongly whirled round , they presently begin to expand themselves , and maintain a bigger Vortice than before . Now to perform what I just now promised , I shall endeavour to give a possible , if not a probable , cause of the objected Phaenomena . And , First , for that of the Carp's Bladder , where the Air is rarefi'd ( says the Author ) 1000 times , it will easily be explained by supposing the few Particles of the Air , which ( whilst they sustain the pressure of all the incumbent Atmosphere ) inconspicuously lurk within the Bladder , ( each of them being able to maintain but a very small Vortice ) to be by the subsiding Mercury in the Torricellian Experiment freed from the pressure of the Air , and their motion continuing the same ( by reason that the Transcursion of their Vehicles is not at all or very little hindered either by the Glass or Bladder ) their parts having room to expand themselves , will flie abroad to such Extensions as may perhaps make a Vortice 1000 times as big in bulk as what they were not able just before to exceed . Hence the Particles of the Air ( being so gross as not easily to pervade the Pores of the Bladder ) must necessarily drive out the sides of the Bladder to its utmost extent , and serve to fill the Receiver in the Magdeburgick Experiment . Now , whereas these Particles will by the same pressure of the Air be reduc'd to the same state they were in at first , that is , to be thronged into a very little room , and thereby be able to maintain a very small Vortice ; the Air let in in the Torricellian Experiment reduces the Air in the Bladder to its former inconspicuousness , as the admission of the Water in the Magdeburg Experiment does that Receiver full of rarefi'd Air into the bigness of a Hazel Nut. Now the Water in this last-mention'd Experiment enters with a great impetuosity , because driven on with the whole pressure of the Atmosphere , and resisted only by the small force of the so-far . rarefi'd Air. As for the Author's Objection against this way of Rarefaction drawn from the Phaenomena of Gun-powder , I shall endeavour to answer it by shewing them possibly explicable by a Cartesian Hypothesis . For supposing those Terrestrial parts of the Gun-powder to be first at rest , and afterwards agitated by the rapid motion of his first Element , there will be sufficient difference of the former and later condition in respect of Extension ; and supposing the particular constitution of Gun-powder ( arising partly from the Specifick forms of the Particles of its ingredients , Nitre , Sulphure and Char-coal , and partly from their proportionate commistion ) to be such as will readily yield to the motion of his Materia subtilis , so soon as an ingress is admitted to it by the firing of any particular parcel of it , the Expansion will be speedy enough . So then let us suppose a Barrel of Gun-powder placed in some close room , to some grains of which we will suppose some actual fire to be applied , by which actual fire ( the Texture of the Powder being such ) those grains are suddenly fired , that is , many Millions of parts , which before lay still and at rest , are by the action of the burning Coals shatter'd , as it were , and put into a posture ready to be agitated by the rapid motion of the Materia subtilis : into which posture they are no sooner put , than agitated and whirled sufficiently by it ; whence follows a vast Expansion of that part of Gun-powder so fired . For each of its parts being thus whirl'd and hurried round , expel and beat off with great violence all the contiguous Particles , so as that each Particle takes up now 1000 times as much Elbow-room ( if I may so speak ) as just before serv'd its turn , and consequently those that are outermost take every one their way directly from the parcel or Corn they had lain quiet in , being hurried away by the sudden Expansion of the Particles that lay next within them ; so that whatever grain or parcel of Gun-powder they chance to meet with , before they have lost their motion , they presently shiver and put into such a motion as makes them fit to receive the action of the Materia subtilis . Which subtile Matter being every where present , and nothing slow in performing its office , immediately agitates those also like the former ; so that in a trice the Particles of the whole Barrel of Gun-powder are thus disordered , and by the motion the Materia subtilis must needs be hurried away with so great an impetuosity on all sides , as not only to break in pieces its slight wooden prison , and remove the lighter Particles of the ambient Air , but huge Beams , nay , vast accumulated Masses of the most compacted Structures of Stone , and even shake the very Earth it self , or whatever else stands in its way , whose Texture is so close as not to give its Particles free passage through its Pores . This understood , I see not , first , what the Author 's three Arguments brought to prove his Objection signifie , for there are no more Corpuscles in the room before the Gun-powder is fired than after , nor is there any more matter or substance before the sides of the room by yielding give place for the external fluid Bodies to succeed , and the only change is this , that the Globuli secundi Elementi ( as he calls them ) are expell'd out of the room , and the Materia primi Elementi succeeds in the place of it . Nor do I see , secondly , what great reason he had for his grand Conclusion , Haeo abundè demonstrant , rarefactionem per hujusmodi corpuscula nullatenus posse explicari . Having thus examined the Author's first Arguments , that Rarefaction cannot be made out by any other way than his ; we shall find his other , which he brings to establish his own Hypothesis , much of the same kind . As , First , that his way of Rarefaction implies no Contradiction : For if the affirming a body to be really and totally in this place , and at the same time to be really and wholly in another , that is , to be in this place , and not to be in this place , be not a Contradiction , I know not what is . Next , that some learned School-men have thought so ; to which I answer , more learned men have thought otherwise . And , lastly , that there are very plain Examples of the like nature to be found in other things ; of which he only brings one , viz. that of the Rota Aristotelica , which upon examination we shall find to make as little to the purpose as any of the other . An Explication of the Rota Aristotelica . THe great Problem of the Rota Aristotelica , by his explication of which he pretends not only to solve all the difficulties concerning Local motion , quae Philosophorum ingenia bactenus valde exercuerunt , but to give an instance for the confirmation of his unintelligible Hypothesis of Rarefaction , wherein there is extensio seu correspondentia ejusdem rei ad locum nunc majorem , nunc minorem ; we may upon examination find to be either a Paralogism , or else nothing but what those Philosophers said whom he accounts gravel'd with it . Of this Subject he begins in his 25th Chapter , where after he has set down a description of it , he makes an instance in a Cart-wheel ; Rem ante oculos ponit rota alicujus currus , ejusque umbo seu lignum illudcrassum & rotundum cui infiguntur radii ; siquidem dum progrediente curru ipsa rota circumduct a describit in subject a terra orbitam sibi aequalem , umbo ille describit in subjecto aëre orbitam ( I suppose both here and before he means Lineam ) se multo longiorem , utpote aequalem orbitae totius rotae , licet ipse non nist semel quoque fuerit circumvolutus . ( Asfor what he says , that the Nave must be suppos'd to pass through the Air , and not to touch a solid Plain , I do not yet understand the force of his Reason , nor why he fets it down , making nothing to his present purpose , unless it were because he did not well understand the thing ) In which , says he , the great difficulty is to explain how the Nave should be so turned about its Axis , ut partes suas successivè applicet lineae duplo plures partes habenti , idque motu perpetuo ac uniformi nè vel ad oculum instar interrupto . Which how true , and what great occasion he had to wonder at the solution of that Problem by the Example of a man standing still and another walking , we shall find by and by , when we come to explain the Problem : But first I shall examine his Hypothesis and Explication . And First , he supposes Time to consist of a determinate number of Indivisibles , ( that is , such as have neither prius nor posterius included in them ) which he calls Instants . And next he supposes the praesentiam localem seu ubicationem cujuslibet partis indivisibilis & virtualiter extensae esse quoque indivisibilem & virtualiter extensam : Which supposition so strangely exprest is no more than this , that the extension or space of his Indivisibles is also indivisible . But as for his Virtual Extension , I confess I understand as little what it is as I verily believe he did ; and therefore I will proceed to his following supposition . His Third therefore is , That by how much more rare a body is , by so much the more are its Indivisibles virtually extended . Hence his Fourth is , That though these Indivisibles be really indisivible , yet they are virtually in quotvis partes divisibiles . Whence he deduces his Fifth Principle , That since these Indivisibles are really indivisible and virtually extended , they must necessarily be moved after the same manner that other indivisible and virtually-extended things are . His Instances are in the motions of an Angel and an indivisible piece of wood , which , he says , are both of the same kind . As for that of Angels , having no immediate Revelation , and a Spirit and its actions not falling under sense , and not having any third way by which to be inform'd , I shall leave him there to enjoy his fancies . But as for that of his piece of wood , we shall find it sufficiently full of absurdities and contradictions . And first , he calls it indivisible , but why I know not ; for 't is neither really nor yet mentally so : not mentally so by his fourth Principle , where he says that'tis virtualiter in quotvis partes divisibiles , by which word virtualiter he means the same thing with mentaliter , or nothing . Nor , secondly , is it really so : for then ( according to the main business of his Book , as may be gathered from the first words of his Title Page . Tractatus de Corporum Inseparabilitate ) it would be impossible that any thing in the world should be divisible ; for he making an inseparable continuity , and that Bodies will rather be ( I can't tell how ) stretch'd beyond their own dimension in infinitum , than part from one another ; a body may as soon pass through the dimensions of any one Indivisible , as pass between two . Next , he grants in the strange stretching or rarefaction of these Indivisibles a temporary motion of the condens'd Dimension ; whence there will follow that there must be distinct places or Ubi's , it must be terminus à quo , terminus ad quem , & medium . And next , it were impossible to divide a line into two parts , supposing it consisted of an unequal number of Indivisibles ; as if 101 Indivisibles of exceedingly-rarefi'd Air should be extended in length an Inch , it were impossible to divide that Inch into two equal parts . I might run over many more , but it would be too tedious to be here recited . As for his indivisible parts of Time , those also must necessarily be in quotvis partes divisibiles ; for else the same body or Indivisible must necessarily be in divers places at the same instant . But because he can swallow , nay confidently affirm , this and many other such like contradictions and absurdities , I am not willing to mention them ; and I think it would have made more for the Author's reputation if he had done so too . As for his last Chapter , where he applies these Principles to the Explication of the Rota Aristotelica , I have not here time to set down all the absurdities that any one that has but a smattering in the Mathematicks may observe : as , sometimes half an indivisible part of a Circumference may touch an indivisible of a Line ; sometimes one may touch half , a quarter , a hundredth part , a whole one , two , ten , a hundred , &c. at the same instant ; nay , an indivisible of a Circle may be all of it in a thousand places together , and the like . And this he brings as a great Argument to establish his Hypothesis of Rarefaction , pretending it to comprise many AEnigma's and very great difficulties ; whereas the thing is very plain and easie , and contains no such obscurities . For if , for example , we suppose a Wheel ABCD to be moved in a direct motion from AIC to KLM , every point of it retaining the same position to that line that they had at the beginning of their motion , each of the points AEIGC will on a Plain , or in the Medium it pervades , pass through or describe a line equal to the line IL , and not only all the points lying in the line AIC , but all and every point of the whole Area of the Circle ; this must necessarily happen if the Diameter AIC be moved parallel to it self : But if whilst it be thus moved with an equal progression , it be likewise moved with an equal circulation , the case will be altered . For then , first , each point will by this compound motion describe on the Plain or Medium either a perfect Cyclorid , as when the Wheel makes one perfect revolution , whilst the whole is progressively moved from I to L ; or some Piece , as when the Wheel has not perfected its revolution ; or more than a whole one , as when the Circle has made more than one whole revolution whilst it is moved in its determinate length . I shall here only consider the first , as pertaining more especially to my present purpose , and in regard the two later on occasion may be easily explicated by it . Next , each point of this Circle acquires from its compounded motion various degrees of Celerity as to its progression , according to its various position to a point which is always found in some part of the line drawn through the Centre of the circular motion perpendicular to the progressive . And it is found thus , as the Circumference to the Radius , so is the line of the progressive motion to the distance of the point from the Centre . And this happens because the line of Progression is equal to the Circle described on that distance as Radius ; each point therefore of this smaller Circle , when it comes to touch the Perpendicular , must , as to its progressive motion , stand still : This point therefore will be the Centre of this compounded motion . Now because for the explication of the Rota Aristotelica we need not consider any other than those Points which are transient through or cross the Perpendicular line , we shall only examine them . Let then in our Example A be the Centre or immoveable point , the Circumference therefore ABCD will be equal to IL or AK by our Hypothesis . Now because the point I , which is the Centre of the Rotation , has only one motion , viz. that of Lation , its celerity will be equal to the single celerity of the Lation ; we will therefore put it to have one degree , C , because it is moved with two motions , both tending the same way , and each equal to the velocity of I , must needs have two degrees of velocity . The point F , because moved with two motions , both tending the same way , the one ( viz. its Lation ) being equal to that of I , and the other ( because it is but half as far distant from the Centre of Rotation as C , and therefore is moved but with half the celerity of C , which was equal to that of I ) but half as quick , we will put to have one degree and an half . By the like method we might find the velocity of all the points in the Perpendicular , viz. such as we have there marked some of them ; but it would be too tedious , we needing not to consider more than the two points A and E. The point at E being moved forward by its progression with the same velocity that I , but by its rotation ( which is but half as swift as that of the Circle ABCD , that is double the Circle EFGH ) being moved the contrary way or backwards with half the velocity , loseth half of its progression forwards . The point in A being by its progression moved forwards equally swift with I , and by its rotation ( the Circle ABCD being equal to the line IL ) being carried backwards with equal velocity , must necessarily stand still as to its progression . Now having shewn that the point A ( being by reason of its two equal opposite motions at rest ) does only touch a point of the line AK , and is not at all moved on it ; and that the point E ( being carried forward twice as fast by its progression as it is carried backward by its rotation , and thereby moved half as fast as the point I ) does not only touch the line EK , but whilst it touches it is moved on it with a progressive motion half as swift as that of I : It will necessarily follow , that each point situate in E must necessarily describe a small line , which is a part of the whole EC . Now both the contact of the former , and the contact and progression of the later , being performed by an infinite succession of points in the space of an infinite succession of Instants ; I see not any one difficulty of this Problem but may satisfactorily be given an account of by it , without having recourse to the Hypothesis of the determinate number of indivisibles of space and time , which at best will only come to this , that In such a determinate moment or minute space of time , ( which consists of an infinite consecution of Instants , and has prius and posterius in it ; though yet he will call it an Instant , and have it to have the same proprieties with an Instant used in the common Philosophical sense ) such a determinate minute Corpuscle ( which , though it have extension in length , breadth and thickness , yet will he not admit it to be divisible or have parts , no not though , according to his Hypothesis , the indivisible of one body may be rarefied to be as big in bulk as a million of the indivisibles of another , but will have it to be called and to be a real indivisible ) will successively pass over such a determinate space or length ( which yet he will not admit to be divisible , though according to his Principles it may equalize the length of millions of his other Indivisibles , nor admit a successive motion , but instantaneous , though that does necessarily put a body into two , three , ten , a hundred , &c. places at once ; but will have these also to be indivisible . ) Haste makes me pass over the absurdities about the contact of a Circle and a Line , and to comprise in short all that great Explication he has given of this and other intricate ( as he calls them ) Problems , which is this , That the reason of the celerity of the motion of some one of these indivisibles above another is , that it passes through a greater part of an Indivisible in the same instant than the slower ; that is in plain sense no more than this , One body is swifter than another because it is moved faster . From whence he draws several Corollaries , as that Hence may be given a reason why an Eagle is swifter than a Tortoise , viz. because it moves saster . I should have solved several Objections which may be brought against the divisibility of Quantity in infinitum ; but that as all the Scholastick Writers are full of them , so it is a Subject which we are least able to dispute of having very little information of the nature of Infinity from the Senses . FINIS . The Citations Englished . CHap. 2. Pag. 3. Cum tota vis , &c. Being the whole power of the Spring of the Air depends upon the AEquilibrium of its weight with twenty nine Inches and an half of Quicksilver , so that this Spring doth neither more nor less in a shut place , than is done by that AEquilibrium in an open place : It is manifest , seeing we have shewed the AEquilibrium to be plainly fictitious and imaginary , that the Spring ascribed to the Air is so likewise . P. 4. Nam si Tubus , &c. For if a Tube but twenty Inches long ( such as we used in our first Argument ) be not quite filled with Quicksilver , as before , but a little space be left betwixt the Mercury and the Finger on the top of the Tube , in which Air only may abide : We shall find that the Finger below being removed , the Finger on the top will not only be drawn downwards , as before , but the Quicksilver shall descend also , and that notably , viz. as much as so small a parcel of Air can be extended by such a descending weight . So that if instead of Air , Water or any other Liquor which is not so easily extended be put in its place , there will be no descent at all . Hence , I say , against this Opinion an Argument is framed : For if the external Air cannot keep up those twenty Inches of Quicksilver from descending , as we have proved ; how shall it keep up twenty nine Inches and an half ? Assuredly these can no way be reconciled . Ibid. Dices fortè , &c. You will perchance say , that the Quicksilver therefore doth in the alledged case descend , because it is thrust down by that parcel of Air which dilates its self by its own Spring . Ibid. Sic deberet , &c. So should the Finger be rather thrust from the top of the Tube , than thereby fastned to it ; because this Dilatation must be made as well upwards as downwards . P. 6. Concipi , &c. It cannot be conceived how that Air should dilate it self , or thrust down the Mercury , unless by taking up a greater place ; which thing these Authors are much against , asserting that Rarefaction can be made no otherways than by Corpuscles or Vacuities . Chap. 3. p. 7. Si , &c. If you take a Tube open at both ends of a good length , suppose forty Inches long , and fill it with Mercury , and place your Finger on the top as before , taking away your lower Finger you will find the Mercury to descend even to its wonted station , and your Finger on the top to be strongly drawn within the Tube , and to stick close unto it . Whence again it is evidently concluded that the Mercury placed in its own station is not there upheld by the external Air , but suspended by a certain internal Cord , whose upper end being fastned to the Finger draws and fastens it after this manner into the Tube . Chap. 4. p. 8. Sumatur , &c. Take a Tube shorter than twenty nine Inches and an half , for instance of twenty Digits , not shut , as hitherto , at one end , but with both ends open : let this Tube , its Orifice being immers'd in restagnant Mercury , and one Finger being plac'd underneath , that the Mercury to be poured in run not through , be filled with Mercury ; and then another Finger be applied to its Orifice , to close it well : Which being done , if you draw away your lower Finger , the upper will be found to be strongly drawn and suck'd into the Tube , and so stifly to adhere to it , ( or rather to the Quicksilver , as I shall hereafter shew ) that it will elevate the Tube it self with all the Quicksilver , and make it continue to hang pendulous in the Vessel . From which Experiment this Opinion is most clearly refuted : For , seeing according to it the Quicksilver in such a Tube but twenty Inches long must be thrust upwards by the preponderating Air ; it will never by it be explained how this Finger is so drawn downwards , and made so strongly to stick to the Tube . For it cannot by the Air thrusting upwards be thus drawn downwards . p. 10 , 11. Quod vel , &c. Which is thence confirmed , Because if that preponderating Air succeeds , as is asserted , in the place of the lower Finger which was withdrawn , that is , if it uphold the Quicksilver after the same manner which it was upheld by the lower Finger applied under it ; it is manifest , according to this Opinion , that the Finger on the top ought not to be more drawn downwards after the lower Finger is removed than before . Seeing then that Experience teacheth the contrary , it is manifest that Opinion must be false . Chap. 5. p. 11 , 12. Quarto , &c. In the fourth place it is impugn'd , Because thence it would follow that Quicksilver through a like Tube might be suck'd with the same easiness out of a Vessel that Water is suck'd out of the same . Which notwithstanding is contrary to Experience , by which we are taught that Water is easily drawn into the mouth of him that sucks , whereas Quicksilver cannot be drawn thither by his utmost endeavour , nay , scarce unto the middle of the Tube . The sequel I thus manifest : Because seeing , according to this Opinion , that the Liquor underneath , whether it be Water or Mercury , may so ascend , no more is requir'd but that the Air shut in the Tube may be drawn upwards by sucking ; which being drawn up , the Liquor underneath will immediately ascend , being thrust thither by the external Air now preponderating , ( as Pecquet declares in his Anatomical Discourse , p. 63. ) It is manifest that the Mercury may be suck'd out with the same easiness that Water is suck'd out with . Which being so evidently against Experience , the Opinion from whence it is deduced must needs be false . p. 13. Neque hoc , &c. And not only this , but over and above , if a Glass Diabetes or Syringe be made of a sufficient length , and after that the Sucker is thrust into the utmost Orifice , it be placed according to use in the Mercury underneath ; he finds that as soon as the Sucker is drawn out , the Mercury follows , and ascends to the same height of two Feet and three Inches and an half . And when afterwards , although no greater force be added , the Sucker is drawn higher , he finds that the Mercury stands , and follows no further , and so that space is made empty which remains between the Mercury and the Sucker . p. 15. Maneat igitur , &c. Be it therefore confirm'd by so many Arguments , of which every one is sufficient in it self , that Quicksilver ( the Experiment being made in an open place ) is not upheld from falling by the weight of the external Air. Cap. 6. Ibid. Argentum , &c. That Quicksilver in a close place is not upheld from falling by the Elater or Spring of the Air. Ibid. Cum tota , &c. Seeing the whole power of this Spring depends upon the already-confuted AEquilibrium of the Air with 29 Inches and an half of Quicksilver , so that this Spring does neither more nor less in a close place than is done by that AEquilibrium in an open place ; it is manifest , seeing this AEquilibrium is already shewn to be plainly fictitious and imaginary , that the Spring of the Air is so likewise . p. 16. Nec plus , &c. And that this Spring doth neither more nor less in a close place , than is done by that AEquilibrium in an open place . Ibid. Adde , &c. Add , that seeing the Experiments brought in the Chapter above of the adhesion of the Finger , &c. are alike in a close and an open place : it is necessary and certain that the same Arguments made against the AEquilibrium have force against the Spring of the Air. p. 17. Et profecto , &c. And really if these Authors would consider how great a difficulty there is in explaining this Spring of the Air , unless the same Air by it self alone may take up a greater place , I believe they would readily alter their Opinion . Part 2. Chap. 1. p. 19. Constet hoc , &c. This appears from what has been already spoken in the preceding Chapter : For the Quicksilver descending cannot so draw the Finger downwards , and fasten it unto the Tube , unless it be hung upon the Finger by such a Cord , which by its weight it vehemently stretches , as is manifest by it self . Ibid. Respondeo , &c. I answer , That this comes to pass that there may be no Vaculty , seeing there is nothing else there that can succeed into the place of the descending Quicksilver . Ibid. And hence is confirm'd that common Axiom used in the Schools for so many Ages past , that Nature doth abhor a Vacuum . Ibid. Nam licet , &c. For though the immediate cause why Water ( for instance ) doth not descend from a Gardener's Watering-pot ( for that Example they use ) stopt on the top , is not the fear of a Vacuum , but the reason now mentioned , namely , That there is not weight sufficient to loose that conjuncture by which the Water doth adhere to the top of the closed Water-pot : Nevertheless in the end we must of necessity come to that Cause . p. 20. Quae quidem , &c. Which traction and adhesion when it cannot proceed but from some real Body placed between the Finger and the Mercury , it is manifest that that space is not empty , but filled with some true substance . Ibid. Eo quod , & e. Because no visual species's could proceed either from it , or through it , unto the eye . Ibid. Vera , &c. To be filled with any true substance . p. 24. Huc etiam , &c. And to this purpose make those considerable Vibrations with which Quicksilver is stirred in its descent : For the same thing happens here that befalls other Pendula in their fall from on high . p. 27. Argenium dum , &c. Quicksilver while it fills the whole Tube doth not only touch its top , ( as you would think at the first sight ) but doth firmly stick unto it also ; as it is manifest from the Experiment mentioned in the first Argument of the third Chapter , concerning the Tube open at both ends . Ibid. Licet illud , &c. Though that Orifice of the Tube be anointed with Oyl , or any other matter that will hinder adhesion , nevertheless the Finger will no less firmly stick than before . p. 28. Partes , &c. That the parts of Air it self so shut up in the Tube ( which otherwise are so easily severed ) are now so firmly glued to one another , that they make ( as we see ) a strong Chain , by which not only Water but even weighty Quicksilver is drawn on high . Ibid. Rarefactionem , &c. That the Rarefaction or Extension of a Body so as to make it take up more space is not only made by Heat , but by distension or a certain disjoyning power ; as on the contrary Condensation is not only made by Cold , but also by Compression , as infinite Examples bear us witness . p. 29. Cum per , &c. Seeing by the first Note 't is manifest that the Quicksilver doth so stick to the top of the Tube , and by the second Note the Rarefaction is made only by the mere distension of the body ; it so comes to pass that the descending Quicksilver leaves its external or upper superficies fixed unto the top of the Tube , and by its weight doth so stretch and extenuate it , untill it becomes easier to leave another superficies in like manner , than to extend that any further . It leaves therefore a second , and doth by its descent extend that a little further , until it becomes easier to separate a third than to extend that any further : And so forwards , until at length it hath no power to separate or extend any more superficies , namely , until it comes unto the height of 29 Inches and an half ; where it acquiesces , as we have declared in the first Chapter . p. 30. These Surfaces seem to be separated from the Quicksilver , and to be extended into a most slender string by the weight that falls down , after the same manner that in a lighted Candle surfaces of like sort are separated from the Wax or Tallow underneath by the heat above , and are extenuated into a most subtile flame . In which it is worth observation , that as that flame doth doubtless take up more than a thousand times a greater space than the part of the Wax of which the flame was made took up : So is it here to be thought , that that string doth take up a space more than a thousand times as big as that which the small particle of Mercury , from whence it arose , did before take up . As also it doubtless happens when such a particle by a fire underneath is turned into a vapour . p. 36. Corpore , &c. A body taking up a place , for instance , twice as big as it self ; it is of necessity that every part of it must likewise take up a place twice as big as it self . p. 41. Juxta , &c. According to the more probable Opinion such a virtual extension of a corporeal Being is not to be granted , as being only proper to such as are Spiritual . Ibid. Praestat , &c. It is better to continue in the common Opinion , which hath been hitherto received in the Schools : which although it doth not clearly resolve all difficulties , yet it doth not openly lie under them . Ibid. Necessario , &c. We must needs confess that one and the same part must be in two places adequately . For seeing it is indivisible , and takes up a greater place than before , it must of necessity be all in every point of that place , or that be virtually extended through all that space . p. 43. Cumtempus , &c. Seeing Time is a Being esfentially successive , so that neither by divine power can two of its parts exist together . p. 44. Respondeo , &c. I answer , that all these things happen because the Gun powder so kindled and turned into flame takes up a much greater space than before . Whence it comes to pass that seeing the Chamber was before quite full , by this means the walls are broken that there may be no penetration of bodies . p. 48. Partim , &c. Sometimes within the Chapel , sometimes in the open Air ; the wind sometimes blowing , and sometimes being still . p. 52. Sed dici , &c. But it may be said , that on the top of the Mountain it therefore descended after that manner , because the Air was more cold there , or of some other temperature , such as might cause this descent . p. 68. Hoc esse , &c. That this is the difference between Pression and Suction , that Suction makes such an adhesion , and Pression doth not . p. 69. Hoc quoque &c. And even this Experiment doth very well agree with our Principles : For seeing by this depression of the Sucker , the Air shut up in the cavity of the Cylinder is separated from the Cylinder , and doth descend together with the Sucket , ( as we have , Chap. 13. observed of Water descending together with Quicksilver ) it comes to pass that in that whole depression new surfaces are taken from that descending Air , and stretched out , as we have there explained it in the case of descending water . Since therefore such surfaces are as easily slipt of and extended in the end of the depression as in the beginning ; it is no wonder that there is found the same difficulty of depressing it at both times . Ibid. Eo magis , &c. That the Air is so much the more extended and rarefied , by how much the more is thence exhausted , and so doth acquire a greater force of contracting it self . p. 71. At profecto , &c. But truly it seems not credible that this most soft Air should so vehemently compress a Glass on all sides ( especially one of that thickness there mention'd ) as to break it . p. 72. Verius , &c. It is therefore more truly answered , that the Glass is therefore so broken , because by that exsuction its sides are more vehemently drawn inwards than ( by reason of the figure unfit for resistency ) they were able to resist . For seeing the included Air doth most firmly stick to the sides of the Glass , to draw out the Air will be nothing elst but to endeavour to bend the fides of the Glass inwards . Ibid. Sed profecto , &c. But truly this seems too far remov'd from Truth , and may be by this alone sufficiently refuted . Because if the pressure of the Air which descends by that Tube into the Vial be so great as to break the Vial it self , it ought certainly , before the breaking of the Vial , very much to move the water in which the Tube is immers'd , and to excite bubbles in it , &c. as appears , if any one blowing through that Tube doth make but an ordinary pressure upon the water . But it is sure that the water before the Vial is broken doth not move at all : as the Experimenter will find . p. 73. Licet , &c. Though the Tube had been shut at the top , the Vial had doubtless been broken after the same manner . p. 74. Sed rectius , &c. But it is more rightly thence inferr'd that that Cylinder did nothing there before . p. 75. Dice , &c. I say then that the Quicksilver doth by that exhaustion so descend in the Tube , because it is drawn downwards by the Air incumbent upon the restagnant Quicksilver . For that incumbent Air , being by its exhaustion greatly rarefied and extended , vehemently contracts its self , and by this contraction doth endeavour to lift the restagnant Mercury out of its Vessel ; whence it comes to pass that ( the restagnant Mercury now less gravitating upon the bottom of its Vessel ) the Quicksilver in the Tube must descend , as is manifest in it self : So that it is no wonder that , the external Air afterwards entring , the Quicksilver again ascends , seeing by that ingress the force which elevates the restagnant Quicksilver is weakned . Ibid. Atque hinc , &c. And hence is a reason also given of another thing which is there noted , namely , that by the violent intrusion of the external Air into the Receiver the Quicksilver ascended considerably above 29 Inches and an half . For as by the extraction of the Air the Quicksilver is deprest below its station , so by the intrusion of new Air it is elevated above it . p. 77. Nam si , &c. For if it were kept up by that , it ought rather to ascend than descend in colder weather , because the Air then would be more dense and heavy . Therefore the Quicksilver is not upheld by the AEquilibrium of Air , as is asserted . p. 78. Hinc fit , &c. Hence it comes to pass , that this Funicle being contracted by the cold , the water doth ascend in cold weather ; but doth descend in hot , because by heat the Funicle is dilated . Ibid. Ego certè , &c. I truly do not doubt but there are some such occult causes , by which the slender Funicle that suspends ( as we mentioned in the 10. Chapter ) the Quicksilver in the Tube is sometimes lengthned , sometimes shortned , and so doth sometimes let down , and sometimes lift up the Quicksilver . p. 79. In decimo nono , &c. In the 19. he shews that water doth in the same manner descend upon the exhausting the Receiver , as he had shewn Quicksilver in the foregoing Chapter to descend . Of both which seeing there is the same cause , there is no reason we should any longer insist on this . p. 80. Nam fi , &c. For if it were done so , these bubbles ought not so to have ascended from the bottom of the Vessel , ( as it is asserted they did , both in this and the following Experiments that treat of bubbles ) but from the upper part of the water , where they are less comprest ; as it is apparently manifest . p. 81. Respondeo , &c. I answer that the water , upon that exhaustion of the Air , doth not so ascend of its own accord , but is violently drawn or lifted upwards by that rarefied Air contracting it self . For as water doth suffer some compression ( as appears by experience ) so here also it suffers some distension . And hence it is clearly manifest why these bubbles should arise rather from the bottom of the Vessel , than from the upper part of the water . For when that vehement suction doth endeavour to elevate the water from the bottom of the Vial , there arises there a certain subtile matter , which being turned into bubbles doth so ascend as is mentioned in the 15. Chapter and the 4. Experiment . p. 82. Certum esse , &c. It is certain that that Opinion is sufficiently refuted by this single Experiment . p. 83. Necesse , &c. It must needs be that that stone could not otherwise descend , than by leaving behind it such a thin substance as is left by Quicksilver or Water descending in like manner . Ibid. Vnde , &c. Whence I plainly conceive that if two perfectlypolish'd Marbles were so joyned that no Air at all were left between them , they could not be drawn asunder by all the power of Man. Ibid. Vti etiam , &c. Which also is confirmed by the Example the Author there brings of a Brass Plate sticking so close to a Marble Table , that by a lusty Youth , who boasted of his own strength , it could not be lifted off by a Ring fixed to its Centre . p. 84. Eodem , &c. Almost the same manner as we see in Cupping-glasses applied to a Patients back , in which the flame being extinct , the rarefied Air contracting it self doth so vehemently ( as we see ) lift up , and draw the flesh within the Glass . p. 85. In his , &c. In these three there is nothing occurs to be peculiarly here explicated , the account of which is not easie from what is already delivered . Ibid. Existimo , &c. But I think that Whiteness should be rather called a reflex than an innate light , because , as the Author bears witness , it appears not in the dark , but only in the day , or by Candle-light . p. 86. Verum , &c. But it seems impossible that such Animals should dye so soon only for want of a thicker Air. p. 87. Quia per , &c. Because by the self-contraction of the rarefied Air their breath is drawn out of their bodies . Ibid. Atque hinc , &c. And thence also arose those vehement Convulsions , which the Author there mentions certain small Birds to have endured before their death . p. 89. In mala , &c. In a bad Cause they can do no other ; but who compell'd them to undertake a bad Cause ? A Summary of the Contents of the several Chapters . PART I. WHerein the Adversaries Objections against the Elaterists are examined . CHAP. I. The occasion of this Writing , pag. 1. Franciscus Linus his civility in writing obliges the Author to the like , p. 2. Books concerning the Torricellian Experiment wherewith the Author was formerly unacquainted , ibid. The Inconvenience of Linus's Principles , ibid. The division of the ensuing Treatise into three parts . CHAP. II. A repetition of the Adversary's Opinion and Arguments . His Arguments against the Weight of the Air examined , p. 4. An Experiment of his to prove that the external Air cannot keep up twenty Inches of Quick-silver from descending in a Tube twenty Inches long , ibid. The Author's answer and reconciliation of the Experiment to his Hypothesis , p. 5. and the relation of an Experiment of the Author's , wherein only water being employed instead of Quick silver , without other alteration of the Adversaries Experiment , it agrees well with and confirms the Author's Hypothesis , and his Explication of the mentioned Experiments , ibid. That Water hath no Spring at all , or a very weak one , p. 6. The second Argument examined , ib. Whether the same quantity of Air can adequately fill a greater space , p. 7. The conceivableness of both Hypotheses compared , ibid. CHAP. III. Another Argument of the Adversaries , from an Experiment wherein the Mercury sinking draws the Finger into the Tube , examined . Q. Whether the Mercury placed in its own station is upheld by the external Air , or suspended there by an internal Cord ? p. 7 , 8. CHAP. IV. A repetition of Franciscus Linus his principal Experiment , wherein in a Tube of twenty Inches long the Finger on the top is supposed to be strongly drawn and suck'd into the Tube , p. 8. The Experiment explicated without the assistance of Suction , by the pressure of the external Air upon the outside of the Finger , thrust , not suck'd in , p. 9. Franciscus Linus his argumentation considered , p. 10. CHAP. V. The Eximiners last Experiment considered , in which he argues against the Author's Hypothesis , because Mercury is not suck'd out of a Vessel through a Tube so easily as Water is , p. 11 , 12. An Experiment of Monsieur Paschall shewing , that if the upper part of a Tube could be freed from the pressure of all internal Air , the Mercury would by the pressure of the outward Air be carried up into the Tube as well as Water , till it had attained a height great enough to make its weight equal to that of the Atmosphere , p. 13. Why in a more forcible respiration the Mercurial Cylinder is raised higher than in a more languid , p. 14. A Remark by the bie , That the contraction of the Adversaries supposed Funiculus is not felt upon the Lungs , p. 15. CHAP. VI. The examination of the Adversaries 4th Chapter , p. 15. That the Spring of the Air may have some advantage in point of force above the Weight of it , p. 16. That it is unintelligible how the same Air can adequately fill more space at one time than at another , p. 17. PART II. Wherein the Adversaries Funicular Hypothesis is examined . CHAP. I. Wherein what is alledged to prove the Funiculus is considered ; and some Difficulties are proposed against the Hypothesis . The nature of this supposed Funiculus described , p. 18. That according to the Adversaries Opinion this Funiculus is produced by Nature only to binder a Vacuum , p. 19 , 20. The Adversaries proofs that there is no Vacuum examined , p. 20 , 21. That where no sensible part is un-enlightned , the place may not be full of light , p. 21. The same true in Odours , ibid. That there may be matter enough to transmit the impulse of Light , though betwixt the Particles of that matter there should be store of Vacuities intercepted , p. 22. That a solid Body bath no considerable sense of pressure from fluid bodies , p. 24. Of the causes of the Vibrations of Quick-silver in its descent , p. 24 , 25. CHAP. II. Wherein divers other Difficulties are objected against the Funicular Hypothesis . As that in Liquors of divers weights and natures , as Water , Wine and Quick-silver , there should be just the same weight or strength to extend them into a Funiculus , p. 27. That whereas the Weight and Spring of the Air is inferr'd from unquestioned Experiments , the account of that Hypothesis is strange and unsatisfactory . As that the Quick-silver doth not only touch the top of the Glass , but stick to it ; That Nature wreaths a little rarefied Air into a strong rope even able to draw up Quick-silver , p. 27 , 28. That Rarefaction is performed by a certain unknown force , or vis divulsiva , ibid. That thin Surfaces are left successively one after another , that these Surfaces are contrived into strings , that may be stretch'd without being made more slender , &c. p. 29. The illustration of the manner how his Funiculus is made , from the rarefaction of Wax or Tallow in a lighted Candle , is considered , p. 30. and shewed not to be apposite , ibid. Divers other difficulties and improbabilities manifested in the Funicular Hypothesis , p. 31. Of the inward Spring necessary to the contraction of his Funiculus , p. 31 , 32. An Argument from a Pendulum's moving freely in an exhausted Receiver , that the medium it moves in doth not consist of innumerable exceedingly-stretch'd strings , p. 35. CHAP. III. The Aristotelean Rarefaction proposed by the Adversary examined . What Rarefaction and Condensation is , p. 34. Three ways of explicating how Rarefaction is made , p. 34 , 35. Absurdities in resolving the Magdeburg Experiment by the Aristotelean way of Rarefaction , p. 36. The inconveniences of the several Hypotheses compared , p. 37. The difficulties in the Adversaries explaining Rarefaction by Bodies infinitely divisible , ibid. The difficulties of explaining it by supposing Bodies made up of parts indivisible , p. 39 , 40. The difficulties wherewith his Condensation is incumbred , as that it infers Penetration of Dimensions , &c. p. 41. CHAP. IV. A Consideration pertinent to the present Controversie , of what happens in trying the Torricellian and other Experiments at the top and feet of Hills . That the Funicular Hypothesis is but an Inversion of the Elastical , one supposing a Spring inwards , the other outwards ; one performing its effects by Pulsion , the other by Traction , p. 46. That these trials on the tops and feet of Hills determine the case for the Author's Hypothesis , p. 47. The truth of the Observation of Monsieur Paschall confirmed , p. 48. and the several trials that have been made of it related , ibid. A trial of the Author 's from the Leads of the Abbey-Church at Westminster , p. 50 , 51 , 52. That the subsidence of the Mercury at the top of a Hill proceeds from the lightness of the Atmospherical Cylinder there , p. 53. The relation of an Experiment lately made at Hallifax Hill in confirmation of the former , p. 54. CHAP. V. Two new Experiments touching the measure of the force of the Spring of the Air compress'd and dilated . That it is capable of doing far more than the necessity of the Author's Hypothesis requires , p. 55. The first Experiment , of compressing Air by pouring Mercury into a crooked Tube , related , ibid. Wherein the same Air being brought to a degree of density twice as great , obtains a Spring twice as strong as before , p. 57. A Table of the Condensation of the Air according to this Experiment , p. 58. Particular Circumstances observed in the making the Experiment , ibid. How far the Spring of the Air may be increased , p. 60. Of the decrement of the force of dilated Air , p. 61. A Table of the Rarefaction of the Air , p. 62. Particular Circumstances in making the Experiment whence this Table was drawn , p. 63 , &c. That the free Air here below appears to be near as strongly comprest by the weight of the incumbent Air as it would be by the weight of a Mercurial Cylinder of 28 or 30 Inches , p. 65. PART III. Wherein what is objected against Mr. Boyle's Explications of particular Experiments is answered . The entrance into this Part of the Discourse , with an advertisement how far only it will be requisite to examine the Adversaries assertions and explications , the Hypothesis on both sides being before considered , p. 67. A defence of the first and second Experiments , concerning the intrusion of the Finger into the Orifice of the Valve of the evacuated Receiver , p. 68. A defence of the third Experiment , why the Sucker being drawn down there is no greater difficulty in the end than in the beginning of the depression , ibid. Of the fourth Experiment , touching the swelling of a Bladder upon the exhaustion of the ambient Air , and proportionably to that exhaustion , p. 70 , 71. The Author 's and the Funicular Hypothesis in the explication of this Phaenomenon compared , ibid. Of the fifth Experiment , ibid. Of the eighth Experiment , about the breaking of a Glass-Receiver which was not globular upon the exhaustion of the inward Air , p. 71. Whether it were more likely to be broken by the pressure of the Atmosphere without , or a contraction of a string of Air witbin , p. 72. Of the ninth Experiment , ibid. Whether the breaking of the Vial outwards in the exhausted Receiver , was caused by the pressure of the Atmosphere through the Tube which was open to the ambient Air , p. 73. Of the 17. Experiment , p. 74 , 75 , 76. The Torricellian Experiment being made within the Receiver , whether the descent and ascent of the Mercury in the Tube , under and above its wonted station , be caused by the debilitated and strengthned Spring of the Air , ibid. Of the 18. Experiment , p. 77 , 78. Whether the Authors or the Funicular Hypothesis assign the more probable cause why a Cylinder of Mercury did in Winter rise and fall in the Tube , sometimes as Water in a weather-glass according to the laws of Heat and Cold , and sometimes contrary thereunto , ibid. Of the 19. Experiment , p. 79. Of the 20. Experiment , p. 79 , 80. Some mistakes in the Adversary of the Author's meaning about the Spring of the Water , and the places whence the bubbles arose , ibid. The Hypotheses compared , ibid. Of the 31. Experiment , p. 81 , 82 , 83. Of the cause why the Marbles fell not asunder in the exhausted Receiver , though a weight of four Ounces were hung at the lower stone , ibid. Whether the account of the Author or Adversary be more satisfactory , ibid. Of the 32. and 33. Experiments , of the re-ascent of the Sucker and its carrying up a great weight with it upon the exhaustion of the Receiver , p. 84. How the flesh and neighbouring blood of a Patient is thrust up into a Cupping-glass , ibid. Of the 37. Experiment , and the cause of the appearance of light or whiteness therein , p. 85. Of the 40. and 41. Experiments , concerning the cause of the sudden death of Animals in the exhausted Receiver , p. 85 , 86. Of the 42. and 43. Experiments , p. 87. The Conclusion , p. 91 , 92. FINIS . AN EXAMEN OF Mr. T. HOBBS his Dialogus Physicus De Naturâ Aëris . As far as it concerns Mr. BOYLE's Book of New Experiments touching the Spring of the Air , &c. With an APPENDIX touching Mr. Hobbs's Doctrine of Fluidity and Firmness . By the Author of those Experiments . LONDON , Printed by M. Flesher , for Richard Davis Bookseller in Oxford , 1682. THE PREFACE . HAVING , soon after I had begun the following Examen of Mr. Hobbs's Dialogue , been diverted for a good while by divers urgent Avocations from pursuing it ; I was in the mean time informed by learned men ( some of whom keep great Correspondences with the Virtuosi abroad ) that my publishing any thing against his Objections would not be necessary , nor was much expected : Whereupon I should perhaps have declined resuming an Employment , that to a person of my humour could not be delightfull ; but that besides those Inducements mentioned at the beginning of the following Treatise , it came into my mind that my Adversary , not content to fall upon the Explications of my Experiments , has ( by an Attempt , for ought I know , unexampled ) endeavoured to disparage unobvious Experiments themselves , and to discourage others from making them . Which if he could by his Dialogue effect , I dare be bold to say , he would far more prejudice Philosophy by this one Tract , than He ( and that it may not seem said to undervalue him , I shall adde , or any Man else ) can promote it by all his other Writings . Wherefore , though his disparaging of Experiments would probably have much more Authority ( especially with considering men ) if he had been the Author of considerable ones , or did appear to be more than ordinarily skilled in them : yet lest for all this his Fame and Confident way of writing might prejudice Experimental Philosophy in the minds of those who are yet strangers to it , I thought it not amiss , both to go on with the Discourse I had begun , and to enlarge it beyond what I first designed ; and accordingly , to the intended Vindication of the main points of our Doctrine , The Weight and Spring of the Air , which ( if I mistake not ) we have firmly established , we have added an Examen , that otherwise we should scarce have made , of the greatest part of the Physiological passages in Mr. Hobbs's book , most of which I thought might be rationally question'd , and many of them clearly disprov'd . And in pursuance of this , though I did not perhaps alwayes think my self oblig'd to prosecute things further than the nature of my Design requir'd , or to forget that the Matters in dispute were not all of an equal weight ; yet the Reflexions I have employ'd will , I presume , be found sufficient to shew both that 't is easie even for a great Wit frequently enough to mistake , and much more frequently to miss of clearly demonstrating what he pretends in matters Physical , for want of having sufficiently considered the Experiments he would be thought to despise ; and that Mr. Hobbs's Adversaries need not be much ashamed of the Name he is pleased to give them of Experimentarian Philosophers . It was also suggested to me , that the dangerous Opinions about some important , if not fundamental , Articles of Religion I had met within his Leviathan , and some other of his Writings , having made but too great Impressions upon divers persons , ( who , though said to be for the most part either of greater Quality , or of greater Wit than Learning , do yet divers of them deserve better Principles ) these Errors being chiefly recommended by the Opinion they had of Mr. Hobbs's demonstrative way of Philosophy ; it might possibly prove some service to higher Truths than those in Controversie between him and me , to shew that in the Physicks themselves his Opinions , and even his Ratiocinations , have no such great advantage over those of some Orthodox Christian Naturalists . But for all this , as little as I would grudge to write a much longer than the following Discourse to do Religion the least service ; yet thinking it fit to leave Controversies of this kind to those whom they more particularly concern , I should scarce in the Introduction to a Dispute about the Air have at all mentioned any thing of this nature , but that Mr. Hobbs in the Preface to his Dialogue is pleased ( though I know not to what purpose in that place ) to speak without limitation or distinction ( and consequently unwarily enough at least ) of the things said in the Books of Naturalists concerning immaterial substances , ( and sure some things true , ( at least That there are such Beings ) as well as some things erroneous , are there said : ) though he hath been by the learned Dr. More and others publickly accused to have taught , That 't is absurd to believe that there either are or can be any . Which yet methinks he should not do , since elsewhere and in this very Dialogue he builds several things in his Philosophy upon the Creation of the World , and an Infinite Power : And how a thing material can create matter and have an Infinite Power , I confess I do not understand . I doubt not but Critical Readers will think I might have excepted against many more particulars in Mr. Hobbs's Book than I have Examin'd ; and indeed about this I dare not contend with them . For besides that I may through haste and indisposedness to quarrel , have over-seen several things which an Eye either severer or more attentive would have observ'd ; I purposely past by divers things I did not altogether over-look ; partly , because I thought it needless to question them ( having no want of other Objections ) and partly , because I could not do so in few words , and was loth to engage in needless and long-winded Disputes : And perhaps I was too weary of my Employment to be willing to spend many words when I could safely spare them . And though others will possibly think it strange , that a Member of the Society he is so severe to should not take notice of such passages as these , Nam conveniant ( sayes he , speaking of the Virtuosi that meet at Gresham College ) Studia conferant , Experimenta faciant quantum volunt , nisi & principiis utantur meis , nihil proficient ; and again , Nae illi quae dicerent non videntur cogitasse , sed sortitos esse ; and elsewhere , Conjicere hinc licet , quam sint boni ratiocinatores , & quae sit ab illis expect and a Philosophia Naturalis ; and ( to trouble you no more ) Ad causas autem propter quas proficere ne paululum quidem potuistis nec poteritis , accedunt etiam alia , ut odium Hobbii , quia nimium liberè scripserat de Academiis veritatem : Nam ex eo tempore irati Physici & Mathematici veritatem ab eo venientem non recepturos se palam professi sunt : Though , as I said , some may wonder I should silently pretermit such passages as these ; yet besides what I elsewhere say by way of Account of my so doing , I shall here tell them , that I presume some sorts of Readers will more easily pardon me for neglecting such Expressions , than they will Mr. Hobbs for using them . And I confess , I thought I should find it more easie to say nothing at all to such passages , than say any thing without saying somewhat that would offend a Person that could allow himself to say such things . Though I ignore not that divers Readers will much the less rellish the following Discourse , for my having , perchance not altogether for want of knowing how to write otherwise , forborn to furnish it with quick and smart Expressions , which are wont to be employ'd in Disputes , to expose or depreciate an Adversaries Person or Cause , and which are usually not the least things that serve to amuse such Readers , and engage their attention . But I fear I have much less need to make Excuses for my Omissions , than for having in the following Examen been reduc'd by the Nature of my Task , to say so many things which Intelligent Readers need not be taught by me . And therefore such shall have my consent to skip , if they please , the whole Discourse ; which though I could scarce upon such an Occasion make a very Instructive one , yet if they will be pleas'd to forgive me its Barrenness , I hope hereafter to avoid the like Temptations of writing again at the like rate . And having said thus much as to the Reasons of my penning the following Discourse , I must adde something , though but little , touching the Manner of it ; Wherein I hope I have not much , if at all , swerv'd from what I propos'd to my self , namely , to give an Example of Disputing in Print against a Provoking , though unprovoked , Adversary , without Bitterness and Incivility , and without pursuing those things which how much more soever they belong to the Person of an Antagonist than to his Cause , are wont to make up a great part ( if not the greatest ) of Books divulg'd on such Occasions . But since I intend what I write for Intelligent and Ingenious Readers , I dare expect that my forbearing to insist on such things as I judg'd wholly extrinsecal to the Opinions and Arguments I examine will be ascrib'd to the true Cause , That my Discourse will not be thought to have the less of Reason for having the less of Passion ; and ( especially ) That my silence as to those things that are spoken to the Disparagement of the Illustrious Company that meets at Gresham College , will be look'd upon onely as an effect of my judging it fit to leave them the full Liberty to right themselves , if they think it worth while , by some better Pen than mine . And if Mr. Hobbs think fit to say any thing to the following Discourse , it will not be amiss that his Reply be as inoffensive as I have endeavour'd to make my Examen . For having dispatch'd as much as I think requisite to say of this Controversie my self , and having other ( and I hope better ) Employments for my leasure hours , if I can get any ; I must leave the further Disputes , if any shall arise , to be manag'd by others , who , if Mr. Hobbs refuse to imitate my way of writing , will possibly make no seruple to imitate his , and put him in mind of that Law of Vespasian , upon which himself would be thought to ground that heap of strange Titles he bestows upon the two Learned Savilian * Professors , That it is unlawfull to give ill Language first , but civil and lawfull to return it . I have but one thing more to adde ; which is , that I would not be so far mistaken , as to be upon the Account of what I have written against my two Adversaries , look'd upon as a Person wedded to his Opinions : For not having hitherto learn'd that either of their Books has yet made Proselytes , I presume it will not be wonder'd at that they have not made me one . And though the two Learned Authors I have answer'd , have given me no Cause to retract any of my Opinions ; yet as 't is not improbable that others reasoning upon better Principles may do what these have not done , so I am still of the same temper I was of when I us'd to propose my Thoughts but as Conjectures . AN EXAMEN Of the greatest Part of Mr. HOBBS's DIALOGUS PHYSICUS De Natura Aeris . CHAP. I. The Occasion and Scope of the present Treatise . MEeting the other day with a Treatise then newly publisht by Mr. Hobbs , and intituled Dialogus Physicus De Natura Aeris ; The Name of the Author , the Subject of the Book , and the Information I had a good while before received from his Friends that he was writing against me , invited me to peruse it as a Discourse wherein I might probably find my self concern'd : nor was I deceived in my Expectation . For having cursorily pass'd through it , I readily found , that though I be not expresly nam'd there , and though some things in the Title-page , and some others in the Book it self , seem to make the chief Design of it to be the Disparagement of the Society that is wont to meet at Gresham College ; yet the Arguments are for the most part levelled at some Writings of mine , published some of them the year before , and some of them this last Spring ; As the Experiments , whose Explications he is pleased to censure , do all along declare . I confesse I was somewhat surpriz'd to find that Mr. Hobbs , whom if my Books have at all mentioned , it has been with respect , should fall upon a person that had not provoked him , whilst such Mathematicians as Dr. Wallis , Dr. Ward , Tacquet , and Moranus ( Men much too famous to be despicable Adversaries ) having a good while since professedly and unchalleng'd written against him , he hath yet , the whole Discourses of some , and so great a part of the Objections of the others , to reply to . And it somewhat added to my wonder , that a Writer of Politicks should causelesly and needlesly , for ought I can learn , fall upon a Society , whereof , besides many other Persons of Quality and men of Parts , his own great Patron , and my highly Honour'd and Learned Friend , The Earl of Devonshire himself , is an Illustrious Member . And as for me , I shall not scruple to confess , that I could have been well enough contented Mr. Hobbs had spared this Dialogue , partly because I have a natural Indispos'dness to Contention , partly because I am at present distracted by store of other Employments both of a Publick and a Private nature , ( and particularly by the publishing of three or four Books of differing Subjects , and Printed in several places ) partly because Mr. Hobbs's Objections are of such a Nature , that perhaps my Replies , though as short as ( my Design mention'd in the Preface considered ) I can conveniently make them , will amount to a longer Discourse than most Readers will think the Objections needed ; and partly too , because Mr. Hobbs is pleas'd to write of divers Worthy and Learned-Men in so depreciating , and of himself in so differing , a way , that I fear I shall find it somewhat uneasie to retain ( under such Provocations to decline it ) the Civility I am wont , and am desirous to write with ; and that I must almost despair of dissenting without an absolute Rupture from a Person , whose way of Discoursing is such , that though I shall not give it any Epithete , yet I confess it leaves me but little hope that I can oppose him without angering him . But however , because if I can ( as I intend to do ) so far comply with my Inclinations and my Custom , as to wave personal and extrinsick Matters , and restrain my self to the Examen of the Argumentative part of his Discourse ; My Reply will not need to be prolix ; and because he has vouchsafed rather to single out a young Writer , whose Books ( at least of Matters Philosophical ) do but begin to appear in the World , than to defend himself against those Illustrious Enemies , upon whom he might expect to gain much more Honour ; and because Mr. Hobbs's Name may with some Readers give his Arguments an Efficacy which their own Nature could not confer on them ; I must resolve to submit to what he and my Concern for the Truths he rejects impose upon me . But to shorten as much as I can a Work to Which I can allow but very little time , it will be expedient before I descend to the Examination of Particulars , to premise three or four Advertisements touching the Occasion and the Nature of the Controversie , that I might not be reduc'd to a frequent and unwelcome Inculcation of the same things . CHAP. II. Of some mistakes of Mr. Hobbs touching matters of fact , and the Author's Doctrine . ANd first , whereas Mr. Hobbs is pleas'd to write as if the Explications and Experiments to be met with in the Physico-Mechanical Treatise he censures , were those of the whole Society at Gresham College ; I must do them that Right to declare , that this way of Proceeding is manifestly grounded upon a Mistake . I will not affirm that the Mistake was wilsull , that Mr Hobbs might give himself a pretence to Quarrel with them , ( who have hitherto suspended the Declaring themselves as a Society ) in the controverted Points . But there are some that think Mr. Hobbs might very easily have avoided this mistake : since the Book he censures was published ( and perhaps taken notice of by most of the Virtuosi here ) some Months before the Society was begun . And the Experiments themselves had been long before the Book came sorth , not onely seen and discoursed of by divers Learned Men and Illustrious Persons , but had the Honour to have our great Monarch of the Virtuost , as well as of Great Britain , for a Spectator . And though possibly divers of the Learned Members of our Assembly may have no unfavourable opinion of what I have delivered in that Book ; yet the Assembly , as such , has been so far from Adopting or Owning my Opinions as theirs , that it has with Approbation been propos'd among them , to repeat the Experiments , and take a review of the Explications , that upon a strict Examen of the several Opinions , and the Objections that could be brought in against them , they might see what Judgement will be fit to be past on them . And although there be very few Philosophers whose Parts may make their Judgement more formidable to me ; yet to comply with their Design , whatsoever the event might be , I presented them the Engine it self , I had made use of and describ'd in my Book ; chusing rather to undergo their Censures , than want their Instructions . By which it may appear , upon how little ground Mr. Hobbs has thought fit to impute to the Society those Opinions which ( how Erroneous soever he is pleas'd to think them , ) I must own to be mine . And this Justice I the rather do It , because 't is all that I am to do in this Treatise on their Behalf , not onely for the Reasons above intimated , but because the Vindication of such an Assembly against Mr. Hobbs deserves a better Pen than mine , though it doth not need it . Secondly , undertaking then the Defence of my own Cause , without Interessing them in my Quarrel , I must next admonish the Reader , that whereas Mr. Hobbs writes , as if the new Experiments were devised or at least employ'd , to prove a Vacuum ; he is in this likewise mistaken . For neither has the Society declared either for or against a Vacuum , nor have I : Nay I have not only forborn to profess my self a Vacuist , or a Plenist , but I have in a fit place of my Epistle expressly said , that I reserv'd the declaring of my own Opinion touching that Point to another Discourse ( which as yet is not published . ) Wherefore Mr. Hobbs either injures or mistakes those , whom he will needs make his Adversaries , when he represents the new Experiments as Demonstrations alledg'd by profess'd Vacuists to disprove the Fulness of the World. And though I shall be oblig'd in the following Discourse to reject Mr. Hobbs's Supposition of a Plenum ; yet I intend not thereby to declare whether or no I do absolutely allow a Vacuum . But that which I drive at , and which alone my present Work exacts , is to shew that I may reasonably oppose the Hypothesis of a Plenum , as it is stated by Mr. Hobbs : and consequently , unless he had better prov'd it , I may very well refuse to let Him take it for demonstrated . But I intend not to question whether or no other Plenists may not have better Arguments than his Principles have suggested to him : nor to deny but that the Cartesians , may without granting a Vacuum , give a more plausible Account ( whether true or no ) of divers of the Phaenomena of our Engine , if they will add , as some of them of late have done the Spring of the Air to their Hypothesis , That the Celestial Matter of which the Air does in great part consist , is subtile enough freely to pass through the Pores of the closest Bodies , and even Glass it self . As for the Assertion Non dari vacuum , though , as I said , I need not in this place declare my self either for or against it , yet I confess I do not find that Mr. Hobbs , though all along this Discourse he argues from this Principle against those he thinks Vacuists , has demonstrated it . For in his Book De Corpore ( though a main part of it depend upon the Plenitude of the World ) He has that I remember , but one positive Argument ( indeed he thinks that unanswerable ) to evince it . And that is drawn from this Experiment : That if a Gardeners Watering-Pot be fill'd with Water , the hole at the top being stopt , the Water will not flow out at any of the holes in the bottom : But if the finger be removed to let in the Air above , it will run out at them all ; and , as soon as the finger is applied to it again , the Water will suddenly and totallay be stayed again srom running out . The cause whereof ( subjoyns he ) seems to be no other but this , that the Water cannot by its natural endeavour to descend drive down the Air below it , because there is no place for it to go into ; unlesse either by thrusting away the next contiguous Air it proceed by continual endeavour to the hole at the top , where it may enter and succeed in the place of the Water that floweth out ; or else by resisting the endeavour of the Water downwards penetrate the same , and pass up through it . But this Experiment , as an obvious one , and without dreaming that Mr. Hobbs had laid such stress upon it , I have incidentally answer'd in what I say in two or three passages on the thirty third Experiment of my Epistle . But after found that it had been more fully answer'd ( but upon Grounds some of which I do not need ) by my Learned Friend Dr. Ward , with whom I thus take Mr. Hobbs his Argument to pieces . The Cause , according to Mr. Hobbs , of the Suspension of the Water in the Vessel is , that the Water cannot thrust away the Air. 2. And it cannot thrust that away unless Air succeed in its place . 3. But Air cannot succeed in its place , unless either by getting in at the upper Orifice , or at the Holes that perforate the bottom . By which view of the Argument it appears that the main force of it lies in the second Proposition ; but neither doth he demonstrate that ( which omission might excuse us from any further Answer ) nor indeed do I think it true . For if the Watering Pot were tall enough , what Reason is there , why the Water should not run out at the Holes of it ? as Monsieur Paschall's Experiment mentioned in my Epistle manifests ; That though in a Glass-Tube Hermetically sealed at one end , and several times as long as a Watering-Pot , the Water will not fall down ; yet it will , if the Tube exceed two or three and thirty foot , or thereabouts . And indeed the Suspension or Descent of the Water depends upon the Proportion betwixt the weight of the Aqueous Pillar that tends downwards , and the Resistance or Pressure of the Air that can come to bear against it . For as on the one side , when the height of that Pillar is so increas'd , as that it can outweigh the Atmospherical Cylinder that opposes its Descent , 't will flow out till those two Cylinders come to an AEquilibrium : so on the other side if instead of increasing the length of the Cylinder of the Water , you lessen the pressure and resistance of the Air , the Water will likewise descend , though the Pillar be very short , as I have shown in the nineteenth Experiment ; where by withdrawing some of the Air , in the Receiver , and thereby weakning its Spring , the Water in a Tube Hermetically seal'd at one end of but about four foot long subsided about three foot , though That the space relinquish'd by the Water was not full of Air , as Mr. Hobbs his Argumentation requires it should be , may be prov'd by what is there added , That by letting in the outward Air when the Water was sunk so low it was immediately impell'd up again to the higher parts of the Tube . And indeed ( as I elsewhere discourse ) it seems to me a difficult matter for those that reject , as Mr. Hobbs justly does , that Conceit of Natures Abhorring a Vacuum , and making it , as it were , her business to hinder it , to prove there can be no Vacuum at all by any particular Experiment . For if the Fulness of the World be not made necessary either by the Nature of Body in general , or by the Design of the Author of the Universe , it can scarce be easie to prove by a particular Experiment , that no Humane Force or Art can contrive a way of overcoming at least for some time , and as to some space , either the Gravity of fluid Bodies or whatever other Quality of the Air or Water it is by which the Contiguity of the neighbouring Parts of the World is wont to be maintain'd . As we see the Water that will not descendeven in a Tube of thirty foot , ( and thereby has made men think it will never descend whilst the Air is not permitted to succeed it , ) may by our Engine be brought to subside in a Tube of about a foot long . And I shall here add this out of my ( yet unpublisht ) Dialogues of Flame and Heat : That whilst onely particular Experiments are brought to assert the Impossibility of a Vacuum , perhaps the Vacuists will have the Advantage on their side . For a thousand Experiments are not of that force to prove universally that a thing cannot be effected , as one that shews it may be , is to prove the contrary . And the Vacuists have as well as the Plenists store of Experiments on their side that seem to favour their Hypothesis , according to which , were it true , I see not why they may not solve the Objections drawn from either the ascension of Liquors upon Suction , or the non-descension of Liquors in Watering-Pots clos'd at the top , or from any of the like Experiments I have yet met with , in case the Weight and Spring of the Air be taken in to solve the Phaenomena . And the Vacuists will have this Advantage , that if Mr. Hobbs shall say that it it as lawfull for him to assume a Plenum as for others to assume a Vacuum ; not onely it may be answer'd , 't is also as lawfull for them to assume the contrary ; and he but Barely Assuming , not Proving a Plenum , his Doctrine will still remain questionable . But I think I could say more in favour of the Vacuists Experiments ; namely , That whereas in some Phaenomena of the Torrecellian Experiment , and in many of those of our Engine , Mr. Hobbs proves the space deserted by the Quicksilver or the Air to have no Vacuity , because according to his Supposition the World is full ; and not by any sensible Phaenomena that prove the Space in Question to be perfectly full : ) For no less Fulness is requisite to the truth of his Hypothesis : ) The Vacuists on the other side need not go about to prove that those Spaces are not full by their Hypothesis . But they prove it by this , that it appears by sensible Phaenomena , that the Quicksilver deserts the upper part of the Tube ; and that much Air is pump'd out of our Receiver . ( The first of which is evident to the Eye ; and so is the other too , when the Pump is kept under Water . ) But it does not appear by the like Phaenomena , that the Air ( as Mr. Hobbs would have it in is Elements ) does Succeed to fill , I say , perfectly to fill the deserted space ; which also they will confirm from hence , that in the Torrecellian Experiment by inclining the Tube the relinquish'd space may be again readily fill'd with Mercury ; and if our exhausted Receiver be plung'd under Water , that Liquor , when access is given it to the Cavity , violently rushes into it , and almost fills it up . From all which it seems probably deducible , That 't is a very hard thing , by . Mr Hobbs's way of managing the Controversie , to prove that there can be no Vacuum , But as for the Cartesian's more subtile and plausible way of asserting a Plenum , it concerns me not here to Dispute against it , or Declare for it . I will add this , and but this , on the occasion of Mr. Hobbs's Building a great part of his Philosophy upon no surer a ground , That we may hence learn how little Reason there is to blame me as he is pleas'd to do , for making elaborate Experiments ; and that though ( as I have elsewhere purposely and amply discours'd ) obvious Experiments are by no means to be despis'd ; yet 't is not safe in all Cases to content ones self with such : Especially when there is Reason to suspect that the Phaenomenon they exhibit may proceed from more Causes than one , and to expect that a more Artificial Trial may determine which of them is the true . Thirdly , whereas Mr. Hobbs is pleas'd to find much sault with the Society , and me , for not assigning the Case of Springs in general ; that Omission seeming to him very unworthy of Philosophers : I answer , that the Society having hitherto , for weighty Reasons , forborn to determine the particular Causes of Things , there was no Reason they should alter their Method , for Experiments that were not made or published by Them or by their Order And as for me , the Title of my Book promises some Experiments touching the Spring of the Air and its Effects , not Speculations of the Causes of Springs in general . My avow'd Intention was candidly to communicate with the Curious some Experiments which I thought their Novelty would render acceptable to them , wherein I have the good luck not to have been mistaken ; nor can I be justly censur'd for not performing what I did not undertake , nor was oblig'd to . And perhaps Mr. Hobbs would more prejudice the Commonwealth of Learning by his severity , than he has yet Advantag'd it by any other way , if he could obtain , that none should publish an Experiment or Observation that cannot by deduction from the First and Catholick Principles of Philosophy assign the true Cause of it . But when I take upon me to write , as Mr. Hobbs has done , Elements of Philosophy , then perhaps I shall be able to give an Account of Springs , not much more unsatisfactory than others think his . For though he referre us to his Explication given of the Motion of Restitution in his Book De Corpore ; yet in the 22 Chapter and 30. Section , which professedly contains his Theory of it , after having premis'd , ( what rightly interpreted may be true enough , ) that the Cause of the Restitution proceeds not from the taking away the force by which they were compressed or extended the ( removing of Impediments not having the Efficacy of a Cause ) that which follows to the end of the Section is onely this : The Cause therefore of their Restitution is some Motion either of the Parts of the Ambient , or of the Parts of the Body compress'd or extended . But the Parts of the Ambient have no endeavour which contributes to their Compression or Extention , nor to the setting them at Liberty or Restitution . It remains therefore , that from the time of their Compression or Extension , there be left some endeavour ( or Motion ) by which the Impediment being remov'd , every Part resumes its former place ; that is to say , the Whole restores it self . Now this notwithstanding , I am so dull , or so wary , that though I had met with this passage , and all the Praises the Author in his Dialogue gives it , yet I should have made some scruple to undertake the assigning the true Cause of Springs in general . For first , the Learned Gassendus , and the Epicureans both Ancient and Modern , together with divers other Naturalists , do not admit what Mr. Hobbs supposes a few lines before , that That which is at rest cannot be mov'd but by a moved and contiguous Movent . For they think Motion , or at least conatus ad motum , an unlooseable Property , congenit to Matter . And , by the way , whatever exceptions I have to this Opinion , yet I am not satisfied with that Principle of Mr. Hobbs , though it be the Fundamental one of his Philosophy ; unless it be more warily propos'd . For to assert universally and without exception , as he does in his Elements , that nothing can be moved but by a Body contiguous and moved ; I do not take to be true , nor consistent with his other Assumptions . This I elswhere ( in a Discourse against another than Mr. Hobbs , about the Christian Religion ) prove more at large : But now it will suffice to represent that Mr. Hobbs not onely admitting , but making use in his Philosophy of the Creation of the World , either he must allow that Motion is Natural to some , if not all Parts of Matter ; or that God put them into a Motion not included in their Nature . From which it will necessarily follow , that at least some Bodies may have Motion though it be not given them by any Body contiguous and moved , as an attentive considerer m●y easily discern . But to return to the Cause of Springs . Secondly , whereas Mr. Hobbs assumes that the Parts of the Ambient have no endeavour which contributes to their Compression or Extention , nor to the setting of them at Liberty or Restitution : He says this indeed , But does not go about to prove it . And I should the less have made this precarious Assertion , because that after the celebrated Des Cartes himself , the Cartesian Philosophers generally ascribed the Motion of Restitution to the passage of a subtile Ethereal Substance ( and an AEther Mr. Hobbs also admits ) through the Pores of the Springy Body , which striving to obtain its wonted Freedom of passage , restores them to the shape and bigness from which they were forced . Nay , I shall have occasion to shew anon that Mr. Hobbs himself , whatever he say in this place , does elsewhere ascribe a Motion of their own to multitudes of Terrestrial Corpuscles . And I might add , that elsewhere he speaks of the re-kindling of the Fire taken out of the Receiver after this manner . Quanquam vis illius motus in Recipiente ( ut loquimini ) evacuato diminuta sit , oppressa ab Aëris intus commoti consistentia , non tamen extinguitur ; & propterealevata oppressione , satis habebit virium ad excitandum phantasiam lucis quanquan debiliorem . But I shall rather subjoyn , That yet , Thirdly , I do not think it improbable what the Learned Gassendus had taught , and what Mr. Hobbs here teaches , that the Restitution of bent Springs may proceed from a certain Endeavour or Motion in their internal Parts ( left from the time of their Compression or Extension ) which when the Impediment is remov'd , makes every Part resume its former place , and thereby makes the Whole restore it self . But this notwithstanding , I fear'd others might be as Inquisitive as my self , and might expect from him that would undertake to settle a general Theory of the Motion of Restitution , the clear and distinct Explication of several Phaenomena that I had met with , which are not touch'd , nor perhaps were , some of them , thought upon , by Mr. Hobbs . As first , why such a de●●rminate Temper of Iron and Steel is requisite to make it Elastical ; so that if after having been hardned and gradually heated it be suddenly cool'd at an inconvenient point of time , it will be brittle , and fit to make Gravers and other rigid Tools , not Springs . Next , why Bows and other Elastical Bodies , if they be kept too long bent , lose in process of time almost all their Elastical Power , and continue crooked . Thirdly why not onely divers solid Bodies as well as Lead and Gold , which before tryal , one would think as likely as many Springy ones to have their Parts put into a due Motion by the force that bends them , should be devoid of an Elastical Power . Fourthly , what kind of Motion , and what kind of Texture it is , by virtue whereof , the Parts of a Body being for a very short time put into Motion , do some Months , perhaps some Years , retain in great part a smart Motion , without in so long a time communicating it to the Ambient Bodies , to some or other of which multitudes of them are perpetually contiguous , and thereby losing it themselves . Why upon such a bare and inartificial change made in the Texture of a Body as is scarce at all discernable to the Eye , it should acquire a strong Spring that it had not before ( as I have try'd upon Silver and Copper , which though flexible before they were hammer'd , yet being beaten into thin Plates obtain'd a notable Spring : ) And why ( which may seem more strange , upon another light change of Texture ) the acquired Spring may presently be lost again ; as I have try'd in Silver , that Chymists teach us loses nothing in the fire , which having by being hammer'd acquir'd a strong Spring , we have presently made flexible again as before , by only heating it red-hot , without so much as melting it ; which argues that in Springs , Texture is as well to be considered as Motion . To these I might add other Particulars that I had either made or observ'd ( and mention in another Treatise ) concerning Springs ; all which Phaenomena perhaps every one that has read what we have lately recited out of Mr. Hobbs , will not presently be able satisfactorily to explicate . So that I hope the equitable Reader will not think it a fault that ( contenting my self to propose the two Explications of Springs , I saw most lik'd among the Curious ; to which I should have added Mr. Hobbs's , if I had found it as much esteemed ) I declin'd engaging my self in Controversies about the Origine of Motion , and such other high Speculations , as had my Abilities enabled me , neither my Design exacted , nor my leasure permitted that I should prosecute . And though Mr. Hobbs be pleased to speak thus of his Notion concerning the Restitution of Bodies ; Sine qua Hypothest quantuscunque labor , ars , sumptus , ad rerum naturalium invisibiles causas inveniendas adhibetur frustra erit : Yet whether that bold Assertion should passe for an Argument , for an Hyperbole , or for a Complement to himself , I am content to let the Reader judge . Fourthly , Mr Hobbs in divers passages wherein he disputes against me , seems to have misapprehended my Notion of the Air. For when I say , that the Air has Gravity and an Elastical Power , or that the Air is , in great part , pump'd out of the Receiver , 't is plain enough that I take the Air in the obvious Acception of the word , for part of the Atmosphere which we breath , and wherein we move . Nor do I find that any other of my Readers do otherwise understand me . But Mr. Hobbs seems to think he has sufficiently confuted me , if in some cases he have prov'd ( which whether he have done well or no is not here to be examin'd ) that there is a subtile substance , which he calls AEther ( but which I wish he had better explain'd ) in some places which I take not to be fill'd with Air ; and that the AEther has or has not some Accidents which I deny or ascribe to the Air. Whereas I deny not but that the Atmosphere or fluid Body that surrounds the terraqueous Globe , may , besides the grosser and more solid Corpuscles wherewith it abounds , consist of a thinner Matter , which for distinction sake I also now and then call Ethereal . And therefore though I did not think my self oblig'd to declare against either the Atomical or the Cartesian Hypothests touching the Nature of the Air , yet I propos'd the later too as probable ( which as it excludes a Vacuum , so it makes the Air consist in great part of a Celestial Matter . ) And my incidental Explications of the Rarefaction and Condensation of the Air , together with my comparing it to a Fleece of Wooll , sufficiently declare that I take it not to be a Homogeneous Body ; and though there be Air intercepted betwixt the Hairs of Wooll , yet in case I should prove that a Box were not so full of Wooll as before , because the most part of the Hairs had been taken out , I should not think he argued well against me , that should onely prove that the Box contain'd as much of Matter , consisting of Air and Wooll together , afterwards as before . Nor do I think Mr. Hobbs has in divers passages , wherein he supposes he disputes against me , much more directly contradicted what I teach concerning the Air , if that word be rightly and in my sense understood . And on this occasion I must crave leave to add , that whereas he is pleas'd to intimate that I misrepresent the Cartestan Hypothests , ascribing that to the Air which Des Cartes does to Water ; If the Reader think it worth while to compare the Summary Account I give of that Hypothests , with what Des Cartes himself has taught in his 45 , 46 , & 47. Articles of the fourth Part of his Principles , wherein that Author comprises his Doctrine of the Nature of the Air , he will quickly find , that whether or on Mr. Hobbs be mistaken , I am not unless it be in estimating his Hypothests by what he teaches in his Principles , which were published after his Meteors , and more elaborately written . And as for that particular , which alone Mr. Hobbs alledges , namely , that he makes not the Parts of Air but of Water so flexible : Des Cartes's Words in the 46. Article are these ; Cum ejus Particulae ferè omnes sint flexiles in star mollium plumularum veltenuium funiculorum , &c. And as for what Mr. Hobbs subjoyns , Sed quisquis talis supposition is Author fuit , parum refert . Nam ipsa Hypothesis , in qua motus supponitur materiae subtilis sine causa velocissimus , & praeterea Corpusculorum innumer abiles vertigines diversae ab illius Materiae unico motu generatae , vix sani hominis est . I cannot but in Gratitude to such a Personage declare my dislike , to find him upon so slight an Occasion so coursly us'd for an Opinion the Censurer of it does no better confute , and Which is thought to be in some particulars not so unlike his own . And perhaps I should be afear'd that Mr. Hobbs's speaking so severely of one that was at least a famous Geometrician , might reflect upon the English Civility in the opinion of Strangers , if I did not hope that those who have read Doctor Ward 's Exercitation will look upon this censure of the Cartesian Doctrine by Mr. Hobbs , as provoked by that severe Judgment of Des Cartes mentioned by the Doctor in these words ; Nempe hoc est quod alicubi admiratus est magnus Cartesius ; nusquam eum , sive verum , sive falsum posuerit , rectè aliquid ex suppositionibus , ratiocinando inferre . CHAP. III. Wherein the Weight and Spring of the Air are asserted against Mr. Hobbs . HAving thus dispatch'd those general Considerations I thought expedient to premise , my proposed Method leads me in the next place to consider that Mr. Hobbs does not , that I remember , deny the truth of any of the matters of fact I have deliver'd . Nor does he , if my memory fail me not , labor to prove that the Explications I have given of my Experiments , are not agreeable to the Doctrine I propos'd : But rather thinks fit to reject our two grand Hypotheses themselves , The Weight , and the Spring of the Air. And therefore it will suffice us in this Chapter briefly , but not slightly , to prove what he is unwilling to grant . And first , that the Air ( in the sense wherein we take the word ) is not devoid of Weight , we have prov'd by divers Experiments : which having more fully deliver'd in the Book it self , it may in this place suffice now to name them . One then of these Experiments that prove the Air 's Gravity , is , that we found a blown Bladder carefully weighed in an exact pair of Scales , manifestly heavier when full of Air , than when the Air was let out . Next it has been observ'd in our 36. Experiment , that an AEolipile , being well heated , and the little hole left at the top of the Pipe being stopt , when it was thus hot ; upon the opening of that hole , when the AEolipile was grown cold again , the external Air rushing in with a wistling noise at the foremention'd Orifice , made the AEolipile weigh so much more than it did just before the external Air got in , that it amounted , by computation , to near a thousandth part of the Weight of an equal bulk of Water . And though some difficulty may perhaps be mov'd touching the accurateness of the proportion this way found out , betwixt the gravities of those Bodies ; yet that the one as well as the other is actually heavy ( which is all that we here need contend for ) the Experiment sufficiently manifests . Thirdly , in the Magdeburgick Experiment , ( mention'd at the beginning of our Epistle ) the ingenious makers of it found , that , having before weighed the great Receiver they were to exhaust , and having done the like after the extraction of the Air , they found it to weigh one whole Ounce and 3 / 10 ; quod sane ( saies the learned Publisher , though a Peripatetick ) luculentissimum est argumentum gravitatis aëris . Fourthly , in our 36. Experiment we relate our having weighed the Air , and that shut up in Bodies in our exhausted Receiver , wherein of two Bodies of differing Natures ( the one a blown Bladder , and the other a Glass Bubble ) that were aequiponderant each to a more solid Weight before the Air was pumpt out , that which included a good quantity of Air did manifestly preponderate after the exhaustion . And to these four we might adde other proofs to the same purpose ; But that these contain in them such a variety of Cases , that I think it would be superfluous . But now let us see what Mr. Hobbs objects against the newly-mention'd Experiment of the Bladder weighed in the exhausted Receiver , ( for the others he quarrels not with , ) Quod quidem lanx ( saith he ) in qua est vesica , magis deprimitur quam altera , certi esse possunt , oculis testibus : Quod autem id à gravitate aëris naturali accidit , certi esse non possunt ; praesertim si quae sit gravitatis causa efficiens nesciunt . But I know not whom Mr. Hobbs will perswade , that a man cannot be sure that Lead is in Specie heavier than Cork , unless he knows what is the efficient cause of Gravity . And Mr. Hobbs speaks in his 30. Chapter ( where he expresly treats of that Subject ) as if that had not been explain'd by any man , and consequently not by any Writer of Staticks : ( and perhaps I am therein somewhat of his mind ) And yet sure all these Writers , treating of the Proportion of Heavy Bodies , did not write they knew not what . And , though he mentions his own Hypothesis , as that than which nothing is more likely ; yet I think I could frame Objections against it , that would not easily be answer'd , if my present task requir'd it ; or if I found his opinion , in this point , embrac'd , as yet , by men of Note . Wherefore I shall now say no more of it than he himself doth namely , that according to his Doctrine , It may well be thought to determine ( for it is a certain consequent ) that heavy Bodies descend with less and less velocity , as they are more and more remote from the AEquator ; and that at the Poles themselves they will either not descend at all , or not descend by the Axis : which whether it be true or false , Experience must determine . Which till it have done in his favour ( an event I do not expect ) I hope he will allow me to distrust his Hypothesis . But to return to our Experiment . The Account he gives why the Bladder does propend ( for so he loves to speak ) is this , Quod vesica sive follibus sive flatu oris distenta sit , gravior sit quam eadem vesica non distenta , negarenolo , propter majorem quantitatem Atomorum follibus , vel Corpusculorum fuligineorum ab halitu inflatorum . Ab experimento autem quod fit à vesica inflata nihil colligunt quod sit satis certum . Oportuit lancibus imponere duo vasa pondere aequalia , quorum alterum esset accuratè clausum , alterum apertum : Sic enim non inflatus sed inclusus tantum aër ponderatus esset . Quando igitur aërem sic ponderatum videbis , meditabimur postea quid dicendum sit de Phaenomeno quod retuleris . But , as to the First part of this passage , it does not deny the gravity of what we call the Air ; but onely endeavours to shew what Parts they are that make it heavy . And as to the Second , he seems to mistake the present Case . For , there is no need that the Air in the Bladder be , before the exhaustion of the Receiver , ( in which the foregoing ( fifteenth ) Page declares he Supposes the Experiment to be made ) heavier than the outward Air. Wherefore when he subjoyns that from this Experiment we collect nothing quod sit satis certum , the Affirmation is not an Inference , but Precarious . And as for the annexed way whereby he would wish to have an Experiment made fit to infer the gravity of the Air , if he had not . over-look'd what I have delivered in the beginning of the 36. Experiment , he would easily have perceiv'd that we did make a Trial much of the same nature with that he desires . For we weighed in our Receiver the Air , in a Glass Hermetically sealed ; wherein it was not ( to use his Expression ) inflated , but onely included . This is what he here objects against the gravity of the Air in the other place ( Pag. 8. & 9. ) where he saies something to this Controversie ; he inculcates also that we should first explicate what is Gravity , and then adds , Quod Atmosphaerae insunt permistae corpori AEthereo multae tum aquae tum etiam terrae particulae , facile persuadeor ; sed quod in medio AEthere , sursum , deorsum , quaquaversum motae , nec semper alterae alteris innitentes gravitent , inconceptibile est . To which he adds two or three Reflexions , whose Examen being here unnecessary , would require more time than perhaps it would ( in reference to the present Controversie ) deserve : for we are now enquiring not how the Air comes to gravitate , but whether or no it have gravity . And since in his Elements of Philosophy he grants , and gives his Reason for it , That if Air be blown into a hollow Cylinder , or into a Bladder , it will increase the Weight of either of them a little : and since here he likewise confesses ( as we have just now seen ) that there are mingled with the AEther many aqueous and earthly ( and consequently heavy ) Particles : he confesses that which we labor to evince ; namely , that the Air is not devoid of Weight . And it concerns us no more than himself , to shew how the Corpuscles , upon whose account the Air is heavy , make it so . And this being what Mr. Hobbs in several places thinks fit to object against the Gravity of the Air ; the Reader will , I suppose , easily take notice that he has left the Experiment of the AEolipile , and some others , unanswered . Though these alone prove that the Air is a manifest Weight even when it is not comprest , but retains its laxity . Having said thus much to evince against Mr. Hobbs the Gravity of the Air , let us now examine whether it have not also a Spring ( in the sense we take that word in . ) This though Mr. Hobbs be pleas'd to call ( as he also does the weight of the Air ) a Dream ; yet he does himself grant , in effect , as much as is requisite to prove the Spring of the Air , in the sense I contend for it . For taking upon him to give account ( how good an one we shall see anon ) of that known Experiment wherein the Air is comprest in a Glass Bottle by the forcible injection of Water , which Water , when the Glass is unstop't , the Air does again throw out in recovering its former Dimensions ; of this Experiment ( I say ) he gives this account ( Pag. 24. ) Aër quo ab initio Sphaera plenus erat à Corpusculis illis terreis motus motu circulari simplice , vi injectionis coactus , qui quidem purus est exit ( aquam injectam penetrans ) in aërem extrinsecum , locum relinquens aquae ; sequitur ergo Corpusculis illis terreis minus relinqui loci in quo motum suum naturalen exercere possint : itaque in se mutuo impingentes aquam urgent ad egressum ; egredientem aër externus ( quia universum supponitur esse plenum ) penetrat , locumque egredientis aëris successivè occupat , donec Corpuscula , quantitate aëris eadem restituta , libertatem motui suo naturalem recipiant . But how little this comes short of granting as much Spring to the Air as the Cartesians do , and as I need require , may easily be judg'd by divers passages in our Book ; and particularly by our proposing as not improbable , the Cartesian way of explicating the Spring of the Air ; according to which the Corpuscles that swim in the AEther , being each hindred by the neighbouring ones from the freedom of its motion , they beat off one another ( which Mr. Hobbs would have them do : ) whence it comes to pass that , in any assign'd portion of Air here below , the Corpuscles that compose that portion , beaten off by one another , do make the whole portion tend to obtain ( though not exactly to fill up ) more room , and consequently to emulate a Spring , like that which we scruple not to ascribe to a comprest Fleece of Wooll , because of a like endeavour to expand it self . We may enforce this by another passage of Mr. Hobbs's , that speaks expresly enough to our present purpose , where he gives this Reason of one of the Phaenomena of our Engine , Quoniam per suctoris retractionem aër purus impulsus erat , partes autem terreae impulsae non erant ; major erat ratio particularum terrearum quae extra Cylindrum suctori contiguae erant , ad aërem purum , in quo motum suum exercebant , post revulsionem quam ante : quare particulae illae motae minus habentes loci ad motum suum naturalem exercendum , aliae aliis impingebant , & propellebant : necesse ergo erat , ut particulae quae suctoris superficiei contiguae erant suctorem propellerent . To which we may adde , that Mr. Hobbs himself seems rather to reject other mens wayes of proposing the Spring of the Air , than resolutely to deny the thing it self . For , Vidisti ( sayes he ) jam Elastrum illud aëris quod supponunt , aut impossibile esse , aut recurrendum esse ad Hypothesin Hobbianam . But besides Mr. Hobbs's Concessions in the passages newly recited , and some others ; we can prove the Spring of the Air by many of the Phaenomena of our Engine , which we have deduc'd from it , and of which he does not offer any other way of Explication . Wherefore we shall now content our selves to prove the Spring of the Air by two Experiments : The one not mention'd in our Epistle , and the other much oppos'd by Mr. Hobbs . And first , if you make the Torrecellian Experiment in a Tube of between two foot and half and three foot in length , and if , when the Mercury rests at its wonted Station , you dexterously stop the Orifice of the Tube with your Finger ( that Orifice being lifted up as near the surface of the restagnant Mercury as it can be , without giving admission to the external Air ) and if then you quite lift up the Tube thus stopt into the free Air you shall feel upon your Finger little or no gravitation or pressure from the Weight of the Mercurial Cylinder , distinct from the Weight of the Tube : because ( as we have more fully explicated this Phaenomenon elsewhere ) the gravity of the Quicksilver is balanc'd by that of the outward Air that thrusts the Finger against it . But if you invert the Tube , and having let in the Air at the Orifice , stop it again with your Finger , and again let the Mercurial Cylinder lean upon that Finger ; you shall then find your Finger strongly prest , and endeavour'd to be thrust away : which new pressure , since it cannot come from the Mercury , that being the very same that was in the Tubebefore , nor from the Weight of the admitted Air , which perhaps may not amount to so much as a grain , to what can we rationally ascribe it but to the Spring of the included Air , whose force will be as well manifest to the Eye as the Finger , if the Tube be unstopt under the surface of the restagnant Mercury ; for then that in the Glass will not rest as before at the usual Station , but be deprest beneath it a good way , perhaps some Inches ? And if you make the Torrecellian Experiment in a short Tube seal'd at neither end , but stopt above and below with your Fingers , you shall find , upon the unstopping of the upper Orifice a new and forcible pressure upon the Finger that keeps the lower Orifice stopt , made by the gravitation of the external Air , which was before kept off from leaning upon the Mercurial Cylinder by the upper Finger ; the Pulp of which Finger by that gravitating Air was before thrust into the deserted Cavity of the Tube ( as we have elsewhere discourst , in a fuller measure , of these Experiments . ) Which will evince against Mr. Hobbs , both the Spring of the Air and Gravity of the Atmosphere ; since he is as little as I for ascribing these Phaenomena to the efficacy or absence of my other Antagonist's imaginary Funiculus . The other Experiment I shall mention is the Fourth in our Epistle ; namely , that of the swelling and shrinking of a Bladder hung in our Receiver , according as the ambient Air , and consequently its pressure , is withdrawn or suffer'd to return . But though this Experiment be so congruous to our Hypothesis , that 't is generally acquiesc'd in by those Ingenious men that have hitherto seen it ; yet Mr. Hobbs is pleas'd to reject our Explication , and substitute another in these Words , which are all he has concerning this matter . Quia Cuticula omnis ex filiculis constat , quae propter figuras , contactum per omnia punct a accuratum habere non possunt , pervia ergo est vesica , cum sit cuticula , nec aëri tantum , sed etiam aquae , qualis est sudor . Eadem ergo aëris per vim incussi est compressio intra vesicam quae extra , cujus conatus , propter viam motuum undiquaque decussatam , tendit undiquaque ad superficiem vesicae concavam . Quare necessarium est ut undiquaque intumescat , & crescente conatûs vehementiâ tandem laceretur . But , if this be a sufficient Answer to such an Experiment , I confess I fear it will be harder than we are yet aware of to prove any thing by Experiments . For first , how unlike is it to be true what he affirms , and what his Reply supposes , namely , that such Bladders as we us'd are readily pervious to the Air ; when easie Experience shewes us , that by leasurely compressing such blown bladders betwixt our hands , we shall rather break them ( as we have try'd ) than squeeze out the Air at the Pores ? So that the rest of his Answer being built upon what is so repugnant to common Experience , will not need a particular Consutation : but however ex abundanti we will adde , that in our 36. Experiment , we relate that by the exhaustion of the Air we likewise broke a Glass Hermetically seal'd ; and to say that Glass also is pervious to Air , were to affirm what the greatest part of his Book supposes to be false . Besides , whereas there is not any sensible and unquestionable Phaenomenon to prove that the Receiver is full of any such aër per vim incussus as he would have , we see plainly that when the Air does manifestly get into the Receiver , the Bladder is not thereby made to swell , but strangely to shrink . Moreover since ( according to Mr. Hobbs ) the Bladder is pervious to the Air , and the Air within the Receiver is universally comprest , as well that which is within the Bladder as that which is without it ; how comes it to pass , that the Air that bears against the Convex Surface of the Bladder does not resist that which is contiguous to the Concave Superficies of the same ; And at least how comes the Bladder to be broken by the Air , which , according to Mr. Hobbs , can get in and out at pleasure ? And lastly , to shew that to the swelling of the Bladder there needs nothing but the Spring of the included Air , and not such vehement agitation of the ambient Air as Mr. Hobbs supposes to be made in our Engine ; It appears by the elsewhere-mention'd Experiment of Monsieur Paschal , that in the free and ordinary Air a Foot-ball half blown up will swell more and more the nearer it is carried to the top of an high Mountain ; where the incumbent Cylinder of the Atmosphere is shorter , and its Weight lighter : and will , for the contrary Reason , grow more and more flag'd , the nearer it approaches again to the foot of the Mountain . Though I doubt not but the Arguments employ'd in this Chapter will be sufficient to convince impartial Readers ; yet I shall adde by way of Inforcement , that whereas Mr. Hobbs ascribes the Weight of the Air in Bladders to the earthy Corpuscles intruded by him that blows them up ; and attributes the Spring of the Air in the Wind gun and in the Phaenomena of our Engine , to the violent Motion the Air is put into by the vehement impulses of the Rammer or Sucker : our Doctrine may be evinc'd by Experiment , wherein the Air in its natural and wonted state operates without being forcibly comprest or put into motion by us . This may appear by the two sorts of Experiments to be made upon high Mountains , which we have mention'd and urg'd in the Second Part of our Defence against the Learned Linus . Wherefore referring the Reader thither , we shall now onely in very few words mention the substance of them . The First Experiment is , That it has been found upon Tryal , both formerly in France and since in England , that the Quicksilver in the Torricellian Experiment falls notably lower at the top of a Mountain than at the foot , ( by Monsieur Paschal's observation upon a Hill ( far higher than those the Experiment was try'd on here ) the difference was so great , as to amount , as the most ingenious Pecquet , a happy promoter of Experimental Learning , informs us , to above three Inches ) which we say is caused by this , that the Atmospherical Cylinder is much lighter , as well as shorter , at the top of the Mountain than at the bottom : and Mr Hobbs disallows not the Experiment , but yet gives onely this account of it , Sed & particulae illae quae interspersae aëri it a moventur ut supposuimus , magis confertae sunt ad radicem montis quàm in summo , nam hoc quoque supposuimus . But what then ? how does the plenty of these interspers'd Particles hinder the Mercurial Cylinder from descending at the bottom of the Hill as much as at the top , unless by their gravity or pressure ? And 't is very unlikely that the Earthy Atomes , contiguous to the restagnant Mercury at the bottom of the Hill , should be able by their weight to keep suspended a Cylinder of Mercury of above three Inches , unless the contiguous Air were gravitated upon by the weight of other incumbent parts of the Atmosphere . The other of the two mentioned Experiments is briefly this , That a Termoscope being carried from the bottom to the top of a Hill , the included Air , instead of shrinking in that colder Region , manifestly dilated it self , and notably depress'd the water . An effect which I see not to what it can well be attributed but to the spring of the included Air , which having not near so great a pressure against it from the Atmosphere incumbent on the restagnant and suspended water , was able to make it self more room than before it could ; and since that pressure of the Atmosphere depends for ought appears upon its gravity , the same Experiment may argue both the spring of the Air and its weight . And this may suffice for our third Chapter , wherein having evinc'd against Mr. Hobbs our grand Hypothesis of the weight and Spring of the Air , I hope we have dispatched the chief part of our work ; since as for the particular Explications we deduce from these Hypotheses , there are but very few , if any , that he endeavours to prove incongruous to them . Yet after we shall have ( in the following Chapter ) consider'd upon what grounds he prefers his Doctrine before ours , we shall ( God permitting ) in two or three other Chapters gather up the things that he objects against some particular Opinions and Explications by us delivered , and examine them . CHAP. IV. Wherein Mr. Hobbs's principal Explications of the Phaenomena of the Authors Engine are Examined . OF the Hypotheses that Mr. Hobbs assumes to explicate the Phaenomena of our Engine , himself gives us a summary in this passage , ( pag. 10. ) intellêxtiergo Hypotheses meas , 1. Quod aëri interspersae sunt particulae multae terreae praeditae motu circulari simplice , naturae congenito . 2. Quod major est quantitas earum particularum in aëre propè adterram quàm in aëre à terra remotiore . Now here I might at the beginning take notice , that there are other things which he takes for granted . As , first , Non dari Vacuum , which as we have already seen he has not well evinced , nor I think easily will upon the grounds he proceeds on . Next , that our common Air is chiefly composed of an AEthereal substance , which methinks he should have proved ; since for the most part the Vacuists ( and such he will needs have his Adversaries to be ) admit not that pure Air of his . Thirdly , that the Air , at least the pure Air , is easily divisible into parts always fluid and always Air. Indeed he sayes of this Assumption , * Nec suppono tantùm , sed credo ; but neither to suppose nor to believe , is to prove . And what he adds , † Neque est qui hactenus ullam adduxit rationem , quare ita esse non potest ; if it were true , would conclude little , since many things have not been , and perhaps cannot be , proved to be true ; of whose not being possible no proof has been given . We might , I say , mention and examine these other Assumptions of our Author , but for brevities sake we will consider those two lately recited from him . And as for the second of them , bateing the peculiar motion he is pleas'd to ascribe to the earthy Particles , I shall not contend with him about that Hypothesis ; and therefore shall now onely consider the other . The Motus circularis simplex it self , which he imagines in the Sun and the terrestrial Globe , I shall not need to examine , since Dr. Ward ( a person whom , wthout disparagement to a famous man , I may affirm to be ati least as esteemed for Astronomy as Mr. Hobbs ) has expresly endeavoured to confute it , and that not without some derision , ( which yet I willingly forbear to imitate ) by Arguments that I cannot learn Mr. Hobbs has yet answered . And I am informed that the learned Dr. Wallis , and others intend , some Animadversions on this Motion . But restraining our present consideration to what this Dialogue suggests to me , This Assumption to me seems very precarious , since I know not any unquestionable Example or Experiment whereby it can be made out , that any small parcel of matter has such a motus circularis simplex as he ascribes to each of these innumerable earthy and ( as himself adds in the same page ) aqueous Particles . The onely Argument he brings in that page to prove that each Atome would have this motion , if all the rest of the earth were annihilated , does not to me seem clear . For , not to mention that it is still by many learned men doubted whether the Terrestrial Globe it self have it ; nor to examine whether or no he assigns a good Natural cause of it ; it is not always true , that each minute part of a Homogeneous body ( which yet 't will be hard to prove the Terrestrial Globe to be ) has in every respect the same qualities with the whole ; As the roundness which a small drop of Water or Quicksilver is commonly observed to have when it leans upon a dry or greasie plain , is not to be met with in great portions of either of those Liquors , though placed upon the same plain . And Mr. Hobbs as well as we makes the terrene Atoms in the Air to have gravity , which yet is a quality that does not properly belong to the whole Globe of the Earth ; nor is it manifest why , because the Terrestrial Globe moves in a vast Circle about the Sun , each particular Atom of it must describe a small Circle in the Air about I know not what Centre . And since he teaches in his second Hypothesis , and a few lines before it , That the Air , near the Earth abounds with such Terrene Corpuscles , 't is not likely they should be permitted to exercise such a regular motion as he attributes to them ; but hitting against one another , they must in probability be put into almost as various and confused a motion as Des Cartes ascribes to his Terrestrial Particles swimming in the Atmosphere . That which some will , I doubt not , peculiarly wonder at in Mr. Hobbs's Hypothesis is , that he makes this regular motion of each Atom naturae suae congenitus : For Philosophers that are known to wish very well to Religion , and to have done it good service , have been very shie of having recourse , as he has , to Creation , for the explaining of particular Phaenomena . And the Cartesians will think it at least as allowable for them to suppose the Motion he will not grant in their Materia subtilis , as for Mr. Hobbs to assume it in his Particulae terreae : especially since he seems to make each such Atom put into and kept in a regular motion ; whereas they assume but the having of one general impulse given to the whole mass of Matter . Those likewise that fancie a Spring properly so called in particular Aerial Corpuscles , will hence perhaps take occasion to think they may suppose an ingenite motion fit for their turn , as well as he an ingenite motus circularis simplex . How well like wise this Hypothesis will agree with his Fundamental Doctrine , That Nihil movetur nisi à corpore contiguo & moto , I leave to him to consider . As also whether or no Gassendus , and those other Atomists that admit Creation , may not hence countenance their grand supposition of the congenite motion of Atoms , which granted would destroy the best part of Mr. Hobbs's Philosophy . But whatever becomes of this motus circularis simplex , I need not be much solicitous , having formerly shewn , that the admission of it would not disprove what I have delivered concerning the Spring of the Air : and therefore leaving Mr. Hobbs to dispute it out , if he think fit , with his other Adversaries , I will proceed to the main Explications , wherein Mr. Hobbs endeavours to prefer his Doctrine about the Phaenomena of our Engine before ours . And these I find to be the four that ensue . The first and principal of these is that wherein he strives to prove , That by the Exhaustion of our Cylinder no Vacuum is produced , and to give of the Experiment it self a very differing account from ours . This he does in the following passage ; which , by reason of its importance in our present Controversie , we shall set down verbatim : Dum Suctor ( sayes he ) retrahitur , quanto relict us locus major fit , tanto minus loci relinquitur aëri externo , qui retrusus à Suctore moto versus externa , proximum sibi aërem similiter movet , & hic alium , & sic continuè , ita ut necesse sit aërem tandem compelli in locum desertum à Suctore , & intrare inter superficiem Suctoris convexam & Cylindri concavam : supposito enim aëris partes esse infinitè subtiles , impossibile est ut viâ illâ qua retrahitur Suctor , illae non se insinuent . Primò enim , contactus superficierum istarum per omnia puncta perfectus esse non potest , quia ipsae superficies fieri infinitè laeves non-possunt . Deinde vis illa quae ad Suctorem revellendum adhibetur , cavitatem Cylindri aliquantulum distendit . Postremo , si in confinio duarum dictarum superficierum ingrediatur una tantum atomus dura , aër purus eâ viâ ingreditur conatu quantumvis debili .. Poteram etiam computasse aërem illum qui propter eandem causam insinuasset se per Cylindri valvulam . Sublatam ergo vides consequentiam à retractione Suctoris ad locum vacuum . Sequuturum hoc quoque est , aëremillum qui est in locum à Suctore desertum impulsus , quia magnâ vi impulsus est , motu valde celeri & per circuitum inter summum & imum in Cylindro moveri ; cum nondum sit quod motum ejus possit debilitare : Scis autem nihil esse quod sibi motum aut impertiri possit aut diminuere . But this Ratiocination containeth divers things lyable to exceptions ; and in order to the examining of it I must premise , That I know not why Mr. Hobbs should here confine his discourse to the Pump without taking notice of the Glass , for whose evacuation 't was designed . Wherefore for easier considerations sake we will consider , how this discourse will account for the Exhaustion of the Receiver , as well as for the Cylinder ; for we usually empty them both in the same tryals . And he being obliged to explicate the Exhaustion of the one as well as the other , it will be convenient to take into consideration the Receiver also , because that being of Glass and transparent , we can better see what happens in it than in the opacous Cylinder . This premised , we may now proceed to the Exceptions themselves . And , first , I do not clearly see by this Explication how he avoids a Vacuum : For , according to his first words , the external Air is displac'd by the motion of the Sucker outward , and this displac'd Air must move that which is next to it , and that the next , and so onward , ( whether in infinitum or no he declares not ; ) so that at length ( tandem ) the Air must be compell'd into the place deserted by the Sucker : so that till this returning Air get in betwixt the Sucker and the Cylinder , how appears it from this Discourse , that the deserted space was not empty for some little while ? For , certainly , all these motions of the Air forward and backward could not be perform'd in an instant ; as may appear by the motion of Sounds and Echo's , whose Velocity is reducible to measure . Secondly , though he takes his Adversaries to be Vacuists , yet ( to give an account of these Phaenomena ) he supposes the Plenitude of the World ; as may appear both by express passages in his Dialogue , and by his here rendring no other probable cause of the Airs getting into the room relinquish'd by the Sucker . But , because I have not here taken upon me the person of a Vacuist , I shall offer some other Considerations . I wish then , thirdly , that Mr. Hobbs had declared from whence the regress of the Airs impulsion should begin ; for that may well be required from one that , making the World full , and for ought appears ( the Celestial Globes excepted ) fluid , allows us to believe it infinite , if the Magistrate shall please to enjoyn us that belief . Fourthly , I demand what necessity there is there should be such a forcible return of the impulse , as is requisite to thrust in the Air at so narrow a passage as that between the Sucker and Cylinder . For , why may not that impulse when diffused in the vast ambient Medium , be so communicated and blended among the differing motions of the other parts of it , as not to return again from whence it begun ? As we see that a Voice , though strong , will not move the Air beyond a certain distance smartly enough to be reflected in an Echo to the Speaker : and a stone cast into a Lake will have the Waves it makes diverted from returning to the place they began at . Fifthly , I do not likewise see that 't is prov'd , or probable , what Mr. Hobbs affirms of so thick a Cylinder as ours , that it should be distended by the depressing of the Sucker . But this I insist not on ; for the main thing that is peculiar in Mr. Hobbs's Explication is , That as much Air as is driven away by the Sucker , gets presently in again betwixt it and the Cylinder : wherefore let us examine that a little . I say then , that by the Air which is so supposed to get in , he either means , in the usual sense and in ours , the Common Air , such as we live and breathe in ; or he does not . If he do speak of such Air , I can plainly prove by several Experiments , that our Engine is in great part devoid of it . For , first , if there be a contrivance made , whereby the whole Pump may be covered with Water , one may , as we have tryed , plainly see the Air that is drawn out of the Receiver , at each reciprocation of the Sucker , pass in great bubbles out of the Valve through the water . Next , it appears by the Magdeburg Experiment formerly mentioned , that by reason of the recess of the Air , the Globe of Glass , whence it went out , was diminish'd in weight above an Ounce . Thirdly the same truth may be proved by the Experiments formerly mentioned of the swelling of a Bladder , and the breaking of an Hermetically-seal'd Glass upon the recess of the ambient Air : these Experiments having been already vindicated from Mr. Hobbs's very improbable Explications of them . Fourthly , the same may be prov'd by the breaking of weak or ill-figur'd Receivers inwards ; of which in our Hypothesis the reason is clear , but not in Mr Hobbs's . But , fifthly , ( not to multiply Instances , though that were easie for me ) what I contend for may be sufficiently proved by this one Phaenomenon , That though , if the Receiver being full of common Air the Key be turned under water , the water will not at all be spurted up at the open Orifice : yet the like being done after the Exhaustion of the Receiver , we have had divers Gallons of water violently impell'd into the cavity of the Glass ; which could not happen if it were full of Air , both in regard there can be no probable cause assigned why the water should be thus spurted up ; and because the Receiver being already full of Air , either two bodies must be contained in one place , and so we must allow Penetration of Dimensions ; or else common Air , to which Glass is impervious , must pass through the water , which we conclude it does not , because no such bubbles are made in the external water as would appear if common Air past through it : Nay , so little of this common Air was sometimes left in the Globe us'd at Magdeburg , that when the water was suffered to rush in , it reduced the Air into less by the beholders estimate than the thousandth part of the capacity of the Globe : And even if our Receiver be unstopt , not under water , but in the open Air , the ambient Air will violently press in with a noise great and lasting enough to argue that the Glass was far from being full of such Air before . And thus we may argue against Mr. Hobbs , if he would have the Engine , when we call it exhausted , fill'd with common Air , as his words in the recited passage ( where he talks of the external Air , and that impell'd into the Cylinder , without differencing them ) seem to intimate . But because by some other passages of this Dialogue he may be favourably thought to mean , that the pure Air ( as he speaks ) is that which gets in by the sides of the Sucker into the Pump , and so into the Receiver ; let us consider his Explication in this sense also . And not to urge , that it had not been amiss if , to avoid ambiguity , he had more clearly exprest himself , and named that Other here , as well as he elsewhere calls it so : not to urge this , I say , I desire it may be taken notice of that if Mr. Hobbs take the Air in this Second Notion , he opposes not what I have delivered ; the Air I pretend to be pumpt out of the Receiver being the common Air , which consists in great part of grosser Corpuscles than the AEthereal substance ; and therefore I might safely pass on to another subject . But I consider further , that even this explication of Mr. Hobbs's will be lyable to the two first Inconveniences lately objected against the other in favour of the Vacuists ; and to divers of those things besides , that are objected in the following parts of that Discourse . Next I observe again , that though the Pump be all the while kept under water , yet the Exhaustion of the Cylinder and Receiver will be made as well as in the open Air : I demand then of Mr. Hobbs , how the pure Air gets in by the sides of the Sucker that is immers'd in water ? I presume that for want of a more plausible Answer he will here say , ( as he elsewhere does in an almost parallel case ) That the Air passes through the body of the water to fill up that deserted space , that must otherwise be void : But then I appeal to any rational man , whether I am obliged to believe so unlikely a thing upon Mr. Hobbs's bare affirmation . If I be , I must almost despair to prove things by Experiments ; and if he will allow me to expect from him as much as he seems to do from me , I shall scarce despair to maintain almost any Hypothesis I please : For , besides that he does not so much as pretend by any Phaenomenon to countenance this bold assertion , there are Phaenomena that make against it . For I know not how many Experiments shew us , that when Air passes through Water , it makes bubbles there , which in our case do not appear . And besides , I see not why the outward Air should not rather impell the water ( as we see it frequently does in such cases ) than be supposed to dive so strangely and unperceivedly through it . When also the diligently-exhausted Receiver is unstopt under water , he that observes how the water rushes in with a stream as big as the passage will give leave , will hardly imagine that at the self-same time as much Air as there gets in water can pass through the same hole without being perceiv'd . But it may by Plenists be said in Mr. Hobbs's behalf , and it seems the most that can be said , that either his Explication or a Vacuum must be admitted . To which I reply , First , that he has not evinc'd there can be no Vacuum ; having endeavoured to prove it but by a single Experiment , which at best does not more strongly plead against a Vacuum than this does for it . Next that we have lately made it probable , that by his Explication he does not avoid the necessity of a Vacuum . And thirdly , that a Plenist without having recourse to Mr. Hobbs's precarious diving of the Air , may more probably decline the necessity of yielding a Vacuum by saying , according to the Principles of the Cartesians , ( the subtilest and wariest Champions for a Plenum I have yet met with ) that the AEther is by the impulse of the depressed Sucker and the resistance of the ambient Bodies squeez'd in at the pores of the Glass or Cylinder into the cavity of the vessel , as fast as room is there made for it . And I confess , I somewhat wonder at Mr. Hobbs's being averse to this way of salving the objected Difficultie , since ( a little above the middle of that passage of his we have so long been examining ) he supposes the parts of the Air to be infinitely subtile ; which if they are , I know not what pores can be too narrow for them to insinuate themselves into . But , to press this no further , I must here take notice , that whether the cavity of the Receiver be resolved to be ( totally or in part ) empty or full of Mr. Hobbs's AEtherial Body , or the Cartesians Celestial matter ; the violent rushing in of the water , when the vessel is unstopt under that Liquor , and divers other Phaenomena which will not be ascrib'd to the subtile matter within ( to which they attribute not any attraction ) sufficiently argue that there is in the External Air a far greater power of pressing inwards , than there is within of resisting ; and consequently such a Weight or Spring in that Air as my Epistle challenges to it . I had almost forgot to Answer the last lines of Mr. Hobbs's so often mentioned passage , where he would have the Air that he supposes to be impell'd into the Sucker , to move very swiftly betwixt the top and bottom of it . And so elsewhere he would have the same Air , when it gets into the cavity of the Receiver . But having tired my self , as I fear I have you , by dwelling so long upon one passage ; I will skip somewhat that I here approve not in the Ratiocination , and onely say , that when a light Bladder is suspended in the cavity of the Receiver , it betrays no such motion as is here imagined ; nay , the flame of a Taper , as our Epistle mentions , was not blown out , nor ( for ought appeared ) stir'd by this suppos'd wind : to which I shall adde , that Smoke produced in the Receiver whilst it remained exhausted , was not by this vehement motion of the Air blown about the Receiver , as is particularly set down in our Appendix , promised by the Translator of the newly-mentioned Treatise . But if you let in the Common external Air at the Stop-cock , that indeed will rush in with Noise and Violence , and whirle about the Bladder that hung quietly enough before . Having thus examined Mr. Hobbs's First solemn Explication , I now proceed to the next , wherein he undertakes to give an account by his Hypothesis of the Reason , Why in our Engine , if the Manubrium of the deprest Sucker happens to slip out of the Pumpers hand , the Sucker is carryed up again towards the top of the Cylinder . But since this Explication is such , that though he mentions it as his first , presently after the Recital of his two Hypotheses , he himself is pleas'd to confess in the last page of his Book , that 't is Erronious ; I shall forbear to vex it , thinking such acknowledgments more fit to be imitated whenever there is the like occasion , than to be discouraged . But as for the Explication which at the end of his Dialogues he substitutes for his Retracted one , I confess to me 't is so obscure , that I know not well what to make of it . But , as far as upon consideration I can understand it , it is coincident with that , which in our Method will be call'd his Fourth Explication ; with which that it may the better agree , seems one of the chief Reasons of his altering it from what we had proposed at first . Wherefore we should presently fall upon examining them both together ; but that between them I meet with an Explication ( which in our reckoning is the Third ) of the Torricellian Experiment . And here he spends many words to prove the Opinion he had whether proposed or adopted in his Elements of Philosophy ; namely , that the place deserted by the suspended Mercury is not empty , but full of Air. But because this Exposition assumes what he has not yet Demonstrated , viz. Non dari Vacuum , and because the Torricellian Experiment as 't is wont to be made is none of the Phaenomena of our Engine ; I shall refer you to what those Learned men Doctor Ward and Moranus have prosessedly , and the first of them largely enough , written against Mr. Hobbs's Explication , ( yet without making all that either of them teaches mine : ) Because , for my part , it will suffice me to argue , as I did before , that if he takes the Air in the common sense of the Word ( and that wherein his Readers generally understand him ) his conceipt is manifestly Repugnant to several such Phaenomena as these . That if the Experiment be very well made , we may by inclining the Tube impell the Mercury from its wonted station to the top of the Tube ; which will not happen in case the Air were before Inclination let into that deserted space . That if when the Mercury is setled at its wonted station , the Tube be lifted up out of the Restagnant Quicksilver , the outward Air will drive up the heavy Mercurial Cylinder oftentimes with force enough to beat out the sealed end . To which we shall adde onely this Experiment : The Quicksilver resting at its wonted station , if you carefully stop the lower Orifice under the Surface of the Restagnant Quicksilver , and then lifting up the Tube ( that which we us'd was about three or four foot long ) into the Air , keep it well stopt , if , I say , you first depress one end and then the other , you shall find the Quicksilver fall against the deprest extreme of the Tube with such swiftness and force , as will perhaps surprize you , and make you apprehend that the Tube will be either beaten out of your hand or broken : Whereas if unstopping the Tube whilst the self-same quantity of Mercury remains in it , you let the outward Air into the cavity unpossest by the Mercury , and then if you again stop the Orifice with your finger , and proceed as formerly , you shall perceive the motion of the included Liquor to be very much slower and less violent than formerly , by reason of the resistance of the admitted Air : which will also manifestly disclose it self by the conflict and bubbles that will be produc'd betwixt the Air and Quicksilver in their hasty passing by one another to the opposite ends of the Tube . If any friend of Mr. Hobbs's seeing the manifest inconveniences of this opinion , shall on his behalf pretend that 't is what he calls the pure Air , that passes through the body of the Quicksilver to the deserted part of the Glass Cane ; the answer is ready , that Mr. Hobbs's expressions look so much another way , that his Readers ( for ought I have found ) do generally understand him of such common Air as is displac'd by the descent of the Mercury . And therefore I had reason enough to argue against what he wrote , as I have newly done ; and however , this assertion is clearly precarious , and lyable to the Objections formerly alledg'd against the passing of the Air through the water . To which we may adde this circumstance , that in our present case it must descend into a far heavier and closer Liquor than water . But perhaps it will be thought , I have already said more than needed against an opinion which has been rejected as well by Plenists as Vacuists ; and though mention'd as to the main by several Writers , as well before Mr. Hobbs asserted it as afterwards , has been thought so unlikely , as not to have been ( that I know of ) approv'd by any man , even before the discovery of the Phaenomena of our Engine . Which last words I adde , because that Mr. Hobbs not pretending that any attraction intervenes in the case , I see not how he can possibly make out , to omit other Phaenomena , the descent of the Mercury in the Tube further and further beneath its wonted station , upon the Exhaustion of the Receiver , and the re-ascension of the same Mercury in the same Tube , as we please to let in more or less of the outward Air ; without admitting as much of Spring or Pressure in the Air as I need contend to have here allowed me . The weight of the Terrene Particles , by which , at the end of the third Exposition , he is reduc'd to endeavour the Solution of the Quicksilvers falling lower at the top than at the bottom of a Hill , ( for I am willing to think that is his meaning , and that 't is by the Transcribers fault rather than his , that resolutely affirms the quite contrary ) will by no means serve his turn : It being utterly improbable to imagine , that the contain'd in so little a vessell as one of our Receivers can by its weight counter-balance so ponderous a Cylinder of Quicksilver : Whence we may be allowed to argue that the Air sustains it by such a Pressure or Spring as we plead for , whether that proceed from the Texture of the Aerial Particles , or from their Motion , or from both . The Fourth and last of Mr. Hobbs's principal Expositions is of that Experiment of ours , wherein 100. and odde pound weight being hung at the depressed Sucker , the Sucker was notwithstanding impell'd up again by the Air to the top of the Cylinder . Of this Phaenomenon ( which has not hitherto prov'd unwellcome to the Vertuous ) Mr Hobbs gives us the following account . Haerent hic nostri : ( which why he sayes I know not ) quomodo haec expedies tu ? A. Expedivi ante . Aër enim à retractione Suctoris retrò pulsus , nec locum in mundo ( ut supponimus pleno ) quò se recipiat inveniens , nisi quem ipse , corpora contigua suis locis pellens , sibi faceret , perpetuâ pulsione in Cylindrum tandem cogitur , tantâ velocitate inter Cylindri concavam & Suctoris convexam superficiem , quant a respondere solet viribus illis magnis quas ad Suctorem revellendum necessarias expertt estis . Aër autem ille , quâ velocitate ingreditur , eandem ingressus retinet , simulque latera Cylindri aenei ( vi elasticâ praediti ) undiquaque distinet . Conatur ergo Aër in Cylindro vehementer motus contra omnes partes superficiei Cylindri concavae ; srustra quidem dum Suctor retrahitur : sed quamprimum Suctor manu emissus Aërem impellere cessat , Aër ille qui ante incussus erat , propter conatum in omne punctum superficiei Cylindri internae & vim Aëris elasticam , insinuabit se inter easdem superficies eâdem velocitate quâ impulsus fuerat , id est , eâ velocitate quae respondet viribus impulsionis . Si ergo tanta ponderis vis Suctori appendatur quanta manuum vis erat quâ impellebatur , velocitas quâ idem Aër è Cylindro exit , locum in mundo pleno nullum habens quò se recipiat , Suctorem rursus ad Cylindri summitatem impellet , propter eandem causam quae effecit ut Suctor paulo ante impulerit Aërem . Thus far our Authors passage : against whose solution 't is easie to draw divers Arguments from what we have discourst against the first of his four Explications . But though we refer you thither , yet we will here also observe , that this whole conceipt of the Aires running in and out with strange velocity between the Sucker and the Cylinder is precarious ; nor does he propose any one Phaenomenon to countenance it . To which general Advertisement I shall adde the three following particulars . First , that in an Engine so contrived , that the Pump lay cover'd with water , when the Sucker was retracted , the Atmosphere would strongly press the water against it ; and if the Manubrium were let go , would swiftly enough repell up the Sucker into the deserted cavity of the Cylinder . Which being a case Parallel to that under consideration , let any unbiass'd Person judge how likely it is , that the Air could perform all these Excursions without exciting bubbles , notwithstanding the Waters constant interposition betwixt it and the Cylinder . Secondly , that there is as little probability in what our Author teaches in those words Conatur ergo Aër , &c. I might here repeat what we formerly mention'd of the breaking of our Receivers inwards , not outwards ; and I might adde , that I see no reason why the Conatus of the Included Air , if its Conatus were granted , should be frustraneous , when the Sucker is deprest . But I will rather demand , Why , if the Air within have so strong an endeavour outwards , as to stretch the thick sides of the Bras . Cylinder , as Mr. Hobbs ( with what probability , let any man judge ) would have it ; I demand , I say , why this Air does not throw out the Wooden Peg or Valve , which we have often to our trouble seen thrown out with great force and noise , when the deprest Sucker being thrust up again whiles there was Air in the Cylinder , we forgot to leave the Valve open ; though in this case the Air that drove out the Peg was far enough from stretching the Cylinder . And I further demand , how it comes to pass , that , if having stopt the hole of the Cylinder with your finger instead of the Peg , you swiftly depress the Sucker , you shall be so far from feeling a Pressure outwards against the Pulp of the finger from any thing contain'd in the cavity of the Cylinder , that your finger will be strongly , and perhaps not without some pain , prest in by the ambient Air ; in so much that 't was this Phaenomenon , and one somewhat like it in the Torricellian Experiment , that seem to have ingag'd my other Adversary , the Learned Linus , to maintain a conceipt quite contrary to Mr. Hobbs's , and imagine in the deserted cavity of the Cylinder , not a distending , but violently contracting substance . Thirdly . That as to the last part of the passage under consideration , beginning at si ergo , &c. which seems to me somewhat intricate , I do not so clearly understand why the Air that is impell'd in so swiftly betwixt the Cylinder and the Sucker , should not resist the swift Egress Mr. Hobbs ascribes to the included Air by the same passage : nor why this impell'd Air , that has so strong an endeavour outward , should never depress the Sucker ( against whose upper part it must bear as well as against the Cylinder ) as well as the same Air diffusing its Motion through the vast ambient Medium , can enable the external Air to thrust up the Sucker again ; especially , since during such a depression of the Sucker ( as we have mention'd not to happen ) made by the Rebound of the Air , forcibly impell'd in from the close bottom of the Cylinder , the Air from without may all the while , with congruity enough to Mr. Hobbs's principles , get in between the said Sucker and the Cylinder . But not to insist upon these niceties : I say , that the lifting up of the Sucker either is not necessary to prevent a Vacuum , or that in some cases it will be hard to shew how a Vacuum can by Mr. Hobbs be avoided . For when the deprest Sucker is ready to be thurst up again , if you hang a somewhat greater weight at it than an hundred and odde pounds , it shall not be lifted up at all . And I shall make this further improvement of the Experiment under consideration , that whereas this progress and regression of the impulse of the external Air cannot reasonably be suppos'd to be very lasting , you may by a competent weight detain the Sucker deprest , till the ambient Air is as quiet as it uses to be ; and yet if then you take off the overplus of weight , and perhaps a little more , in case the Pump have been very stanch , the Sucker and the great weight appended will notwithstanding be carried up : which 't is no way likely it could be by the impulse of the outward Air , which had time to decay and be confounded . And as for the inward Air , beside that we have proved , that it has no such conatus outwards as Mr. Hobbs pretends , why should not that , were it granted , throw out the Sucker rather than cause it to be impell'd inward ; it being no way likely , that in case some Air should get out of the cavity of the Cylinder , it could so move the outward Air , as that the reflex of that impulse should make that free outward Air bear more strongly against the outside of the Sucker than the inside of the same Sucker is prest against by the included Air , whose impetus is incomparably less diffused ? But not to be thought a more nice and diligent Opponent than the matter requires , I shall drive this Discourse no further : but rather desire it may be observ'd in general , that whatever be resolv'd to be in the Cavity of the Cylinder when the Sucker is deprest ; yet since 't is manifest , that it is at least in great part devoid of common Air , and since the Sucker with the appended weight may , if the Instrument leak not , be impell'd up , when in all probability those forced Undulations of the Air , that may be supposed to have been made by the Sucker , have ceast ; the Cartesians , Mr. Hobbs , and those others that will not have recourse to the un-intelligible attraction of some rarefied substance within , must ascribe so strange a Phaenomenon to the pressure of the Air without . But I shall no further press this Fourth Objection , partly because 't is added to the other three onely ex abundanti , and partly because this Chapter is grown so long already I know indeed that after the Exposition last recited out of Mr. Hobbs , he makes the Academian Dialogist confess , that the rest of the Phaenomena of our Engine may also not uneasily be reduc'd to his principles . But perhaps they that take notice of the variety of those Phaenomena we have set down in our Treatise , will scarce be of his mind ; and those that have considered what has been discours'd in this Chapter against his four principal Explications , and what I am about to subjoyn in the following part of this Treatise , concerning divers other Solutions that he gives , Will perhaps be inclined to think that others may be like these , without being therefore necessarily true . CHAP. V. In which divers scattered Explications and other passages in Mr. Hobbs's Dialogue are examined . I Proceed then to the Fifth Chapter , in which and the next I glean up and examine divers scatter'd passages , wherein he offers at somewhat by way of Argument against some things we had delivered in our Epistolical Treatise : I say , what he offers by way of Argument ; for as to those passages that do but either praise himself or disparage his Adversaries , I have almost as little leisure as inclination to take notice of them , and do not much apprehend that the Virtuosi ( especially such as know us both ) will think what I write the less rational for being civil ; or will let me suffer in their Opinions for neglecting to trouble them in aPhilosophical Controversie , with matters that do but very little belong to it . To skip then what Mr. Hobbs is pleased to say in the first Page of his Dialogue , concerning some disputable discoveries about Sensation , which he challenges to himself ; and to pass by divers other things in the second or third following pages , which relate to him , or to the Society he writes against , rather than to the nature of the Air ; we should begin with the Opinion he thinks fit in the fifth page to impute to us , as if we distinguish'd what is fluid from what is not so , onely ( for so his Ratiocination imports ) by the bigness of the parts of which a Body consists : But designing in an Appendix to be subjoyned to this Discourse to examine what I find in this Dialogue dispersed touching Fluidity , I shall now onely say , that he does very much mistake and mis-represent my Doctrine of Fluidity ; wherein I expresly teach , That the principal cause or condition of it is not the size , but the motion of the small parts that compose the fluid body . To take up then the particulars we are to examine , in the order ( as far as conveniently may be ) wherein I find them lye in the Authors Dialogue , and passing by at present those things which either we have considered already , or are not to consider in this place ; The first particular that offers it self to be taken notice of , is this passage at the bottom of the twelfth page ; B. In vas apertum infudimus aquam , in aqua fistulam statuimus erectam , longam , exilissimam ; observavimus autem aquam è vase subjecto in erectam fistulam ascendisse . A. Nec mirum ; nam superficiem aquae , particulae aëri interspersae aquaeque contiguae motu suo verberabant , ita ut aqua non potuit in fistulam non ascendere , & sensibiliter quidem in fistulam valde angustam . To this I say , that 't is manifest by what I write in my Epistle , that I did not then take upon me , nor do I undertake in this place , to assign the true reason of the propos'd Phaenomenon . An Attempt of this kind has been since address'd to me , which being ingenious , if not also true , may be consulted . In the mean time I cannot but declare that I am no way satisfied with Mr. Hobbs's Exposition : For , to say nothing of the motion he ascribes to the particles dispersed through the Air , he leaves the difficulty unsolved , since there being common Air as well within the Cavity of the slender Pipes as without it , he neither shews , nor so much as offers at , a reason why the pressure of the Air within should not resist the pressure of the same kind of Air without ; as we see it does in greater Pipes . And possibly he would have past by this particular , if he had not overlook'd the Advertisement I gave towards the close of the 35. Experiment , That it would concern those who should undertake to shew the causes of this Phaenomenon to bethink themselves also of a reason why , if the Experiment be tryed with Quicksilver instead of Water , the Surface of the Liquor will instead of being higher , be lower within the Pipe than without it : Whereas if Mr. Hobbs's Explication be sufficient , why should not the contrary happen in Quicksilver as well as in Water ? The next passage I have to consider is in the 13. page thus set down ; Siquis post impulsionem revulsionemque Suctoris aliquoties repetitam , Epistomium superni orificii Recipientis conetur extrahere , inveniet illud valde gravitare , tanquam si multarum librarum pondus ab eo penderet . Vnde contingit hoc ? A. Ab aëris qui est in Recipiente fortissimo conatu circulari facto à violento ingressu aëris inter superficiem Suctoris convexam & Cylindri concavam , generato per iteratam illam impulsionem revulsionemque Suctoris , quam vos perperam vocatis exuctionem aëris . Nam propter naturae plenitudinem , Epistomium extrahi non potest , quin aër qui est in Recipiente ( Epistomio contiguus ) una extrahendus sit . Qui quidem aer , si quiesceret , facillimè Epistomium sequeretur : sed dum velocissimè circuit , satis difficulter sequitur ; id est , videtur esse valde gravis . B. Verisimile est : Nam ut aër novus in Recipiens paulatim admittitur , etiam apparentem illam gravitatem paulatim perdit . But , I do not much fear that this Explication will keep the Experiment from continuing to be thought by ingenious men , a notable Confirmation of our Hypothesis . For , to pass by something that , though I am no way satisfied with , cannot well be examined in few words ; I answer , First , that if there be such a vehement circular endeavour as he imagines of the Air in the Receiver , by which motion he elsewhere teaches ( as we have seen above ) that the Air rushes out with violence enough to make the Atmosphere lift up in our Cylinder above an hundred pound weight ; I see not why it should not rather throw out the stopple under consideration , than hinder its extraction . And I see not why , when the external Air is re-admitted at the stop-cock into the exhausted Receiver , and thereupon there does sensibly follow for a little while a whirling about of the included Air , the stopple , that just before seemed so much to resist the being drawn out , should cease to make any such resistance . Nor do I see how the plenitude of Nature should , as is here intimated , hinder the extraction of the stopple : For , according to the Plenists , the World and the Receiver must be at all times equally full . And if the contiguous Air must for Mr Hobbs's reason necessarily be extracted with the stopple in one case , I see not why the like should not happen in another . But since Mr. Hobbs is pleased to call us Experimentarian Philosophers , let us shew that such Explications as these of his need not make us asham'd of the name . I say then , that it appears by our Experiments that there is no such Fortissimus conatus circularis in the exhausted Receiver as he pretends ; but that there is indeed an endeavour of the Ambient Atmosphere to press inwards the parts of the Glass and Cover that are contiguous to it . For , as I have also noted already , a light Bladder suspended in the cavity of the Receiver betrayed no such motion as Mr. Hobbs here supposes . To which I shall now adde , that neither were a pair of Scales suspended within the same Cavity ; nor was a long Magnetical Needle that rested upon the point of another Needle , at all whirled about by this imaginary motion of the Air. Besides , if you leisurely loosen the Brass stopple , so that it may be very near , but not contiguous , to the sides of the Socket , you shall manifestly perceive a strong current of Air to flow into the Receiver at that passage : And more than once , when instead of that piece of Brass we stopt the hole in the Cover with our Cement , one might observe sometimes whilst we were pumping , sometimes after we had done pumping , that the outward Air by degrees depress'd the superficies of the Cement expos'd to it , and made it concave , and now and then would break through it , thrusting it inward with great violence and noise . In the same page our Author rectifies , after his way , another of our Explications in these words ; Vidimus item aquam demissam in Recipiens post Suctoris aliquot reciprocationes ita bullire , ac st supposito igne fervesceret . A. Id quoque accidit propter velocitatem aëris , ut dictum est , in Recipiente circumeuntis ; nisi forte aquam illam dum bullit calidam quoque esse deprehendatis . Nam si certi essemus illam calescere , alia causa Phaenomeni excogitanda esset . B. Imo certi sumus quod non calescit sensibiliter . A. Quid ergo tali aquae motui conferre posse putas majorem vel minorem Atmosphaerae gravitatem ? B. Neque illum motum attribuunt , puto , Atmosphaerae . But , I confess , I see not how the circular motion of the Air within the Receiver could in a Vial with a long neck produce such effects as in my Epistle are recited : especially I see not how such a wind passing along the Surface of the Water could raise so many and so strangely-big bubbles , which seemed many of them to rise from the lower parts of the Water , and swell'd notably as they ascended ; and how such a wind should carry up the most part of the Water through the long neck of the Vial , and as it were spout into the Receiver . As for what he sayes about the gravity of the Atmosphere , 't is plain enough that my conjecture ascribes the Phaenomenon to the taking off , not the gravity of the external Air , but of the pressure of the Air within the Receiver ; though I see not why the removal of the weight of the Atmosphere , if it could be out of the Engine effected , should not have a like operation . And ( to answer Mr. Hobbs's Question as it should have been put ) that which I think the greater or lesser pressure of the Air confers to this Phaenomenon is this , That whereas common Experience shews us , that water by being heated is expanded , and has bubbles generated in it ; and whereas our former Experiments , especially the 28. have made it appear , that there is wont to be in water and other liquors Aerial Particles , which tend to expand themselves , and do actually do so , in numerous bubbles , when the pressure of the incumbent Air is considerably lessened : In the present Phaenomenon that pressure being by the exhaustion of the Receiver taken off , the Aerial particles and agitated Vapours that abound in the hot water are allowed to expand themselves , as before they could not , and to make such numerous and great bubbles , that thereby a good part of the water is carried out of the Vial. So that I somewhat wonder what makes Mr. Hobbs speak as if there were no sensible heat of the water under consideration , since 't is expresly said that it was put in hot ; and if it were put in cold , could by no pumping be brought to the least shew of Effervescence . And as for his Explication of the Phaenomenon , the Experimentarian Philosophers need not the Objection lately made against it ; For I have already evinced by Experiments , that there is in our exhausted Receivers no such peculiar motion of the Air as he ascribes the Phaenomenon to ; nay , when there is manifestly a whirling about the Air in the Glass upon the admission of the external Air , the production of numerous bubbles in the water presently ceaseth . And therefore I see not why Mr. Hobbs might not have let alone my Conjecture , ( for I propos'd it , and look upon it , as no more ) unless he could either have disproved it better , or substituted a more probable one than he has in its place . As for what he-adds in these words , Ab hoc experimenta manifestum est , quod Recipiens per exuctionem hanc quam vocatis Aeris , non sit vacuum . Nam moveri aqua non potuit nisi à movente aliquo moto & contiguo . Phaenomenum hoc demonstrationem suppositionis meae continere videtur non infirmam . I am not obliged to answer it , but leave that to those that are profest Vacuists ; against whom I must doubt whether his Ratiocination will conclude , though the consequence be not manifest to me . For himself allows his Terrestrial Atoms an innate circular motion , which consequently needs not depend upon some body contiguous and moved ; and the Vacuists will say , that the particles of the water being strongly agitated when it was put into the Receiver , ( whether by fiery Corpuscles swarming in it , or otherwise ) and the resistance of the incumbent Air being taken off , the Phaenomenon would be produced just as it is , though we should suppose no other body to succeed in the room of the exhausted Air. And besides , though some subtile particles of active matter should get in to agitate the Aqueous and Aerial Corpuscles , yet ( they may say ) there is no necessity that such minute particles should be numerous enough to fill up exactly all the little spaces deserted by the Air. And even upon this supposition , as it would not follow that such relinquish'd spaces were all of them quite empty ; so would not the Phaenomenon at all prove , much less manifestly prove , that they were quite full . And since an actual heat , that is , a brisk and various Agitation of its small parts , is requisite to the boyling of the water in this Experiment ; perhaps others will not think it more absurd , that the removal of the pressure of the Air should occasion this expansive motion in the water , than that which Mr. Hobbs must allow , that in Air comprest by Quicksilver , or some other weight , the removal of that pressure is sufficient to make that Air expand it self by the flying abroad of its parts . And whereas Mr. Hobbs urges this other Argument against the Vacuists , Praeterea dic mihi , bullientem aquam potuistin ' conspicere ? B. Quidni ? A. Nonne visionem fieri concedunt vestri per actionem continuam ab objecto ad oculum ? Nonne etiam putant actionem esse motum , & omnem motum esse corporis ? Quomodo ergo potuit ab objecto , nempe aqua , ad oculos tuos motus per vacuum ( id est , per non corpus ) derivare ? B. Non affirmant nostri it a vacuum esse Recipiens , ut nullus omnino aër relict us sit . A. Nil refert an totum Recipiens vacuum sit , an magna ejus pars ; nam utrumvis supponatur , derivatio motus ab objecto ad oculum intercipietur . B. Ita videtur , nec habeo quod respondeam . The Vacuists will perhaps answer him as I answered Franciseus Linus to an almost like Objection . And those of them ( which make far the greatest number ) who plead but for an interspersed Vacuum , will perhaps tell him , that they take Vision to be made not by such a Propagation of Impulse as he does , but by a Trajection of Effluvia , that issuing out of the Sun , and traversing the Diaphanous bodies interpos'd , rebound from the object to the eye . And according to this Doctrine they may ask Mr. Hobbs , why a motion may not be made through a Vacuum or non corpus ? nay , how it can naturally be stopt in vacuo where there is nothing to resist it ? But Controversies of this nature it lyes not upon me to prosecute . In the 14. page Mr. Hobbs having recited that Experiment of ours , of killing Animals included in our Receiver by the exhaustion of the Air in two or three minutes of an hour , subjoyns these words , Credin'tu animalia istatam cito interempta esse eo quod carerent aëre ? Quomodo ergo sub aquam vivunt Urinatores , quorum aliqui ( assueti à pueritiâ ) caruere aëre per horam integram ? Inclusa in Recipiente animalia occidit motus ille idem vehementissimus , quo distenduntur rumpunturque inclusae vesicae . But , though he sayes no more in this place concerning this matter , yet it seems he either much liked his own Conjectures , or greatly disliked mine , since in his Epistle Dedicatory to the learned . Sorberius he singles out this sole Phaenomenon to explicate ; Ego contra ( sayes he there ) neque aërem exugi posse , neque inclusum animal ( etsi exuctus esset ) tam cito moriturum esse existimo . Actio quidem quam mors illa sequitur videri potest vel suctio quaedam ( & propterea exuctione conclusi aëris interfici animal , respiratione sublatâ ) vel etim compulsio aëris ab omni parte versus caentrum sphaerae cui animal includitur ; & sic videri potest mori à tenacitate compressi aëris , quast aqua suffocatum ; nimirum haustum in intima pulmonum aërem solito tenaciorem , inter arteriam & venam pulmonis , cursum sanguinis intercipiendo sistere . But , as I proposed my Coniecture doubtingly , and profess my self to be in a further enquiry about the use of the Air and of Respiration ; so I must still think , that we want some further or clearer discovery about that matter , notwithstanding what has been delivered concerning it by Mr. Hobbs . For his Argument against my Conjecture is in the passage that propose , it answer'd by himself : for he plainly intimates that Divers who can live without Air ( which yet I might question , if he means without any Air at all ) for a whole hour , are accustomed to it from their Childhood . Wherefore , unless the Animals that dyed in my Engine had been for a long time framed by degrees to live without Air , it will not follow that the want of it could not dispatch them in a short time , as ordinary men may be drowned in a few minutes . And having purposely let down some Mice and small Birds into a deep Glass fill'd with water , and kept them from emerging by a Weight tyed to their legs or tayls , though some lived longer than others , yet I observed them to be kill'd fast enough to keep my Conjecture from being incredible : especially the last we made tryal of , though a large and lusty Mouse , appear'd to be quite dead within somewhat less than one minute , measured by the Vibrations of a Pendulum . And we particularly took notice , that before drowning divers bubbles , which seemed to be the respired Air , came out of their mouths , and ascended through the water . And as for the Explication that Mr. Hobbs would recommend instead of mine , not to urge that I could wish he had been pleas'd to shew us how the tenacious Air he imagines to be inspired comes to produce those strange Convulsions and other Symptomes mentioned in my Epistle ; not to urge this , I say , we have already disproved the supposition his Opinion is built on , namely , that there is in the exhausted Receiver such a motus vehementissimus as he pretends : besides that he shews not how this motion comes to kill the included Animals which I was wont to keep , not near the Centre of the Receiver , where he seems to think this motion most operative , but near the bottom of it , that the included Animal might have something firm under his feet . Nor does it at all clear the difficulty , that he would have this motion the same whereby included Bladders are distended and broken . For , besides that 't is very hard to conceive how the tenacity of the Air , or its beating from all parts upon the convex Surface of an almost quite empty Bladder , ( for in such also the Experiment he refers to will succeed ) should make it burst outwards ; besides this ( I say ) we have already proved that the distension and breaking of Bladders in our Receiver proceeds not from any such motion of the neighbouring Air as is here presumed , but from a quite differing , if not from a contrary cause . In the same page our Author makes a digression from the Engine , and discourses of another Experiment which I have long since often made : but though his Explication be lyable enough to just Exceptions , ( as I can make good if it be required ) yet because the Experiment is none of those I delivered , I shall leave it to be examined by others : and for the same reason I forbear to meddle with that he has in the next page concerning the Wind-gun , as to what he has in the same 16. page in these words , Placet mihi tua magis Hypothesis quam illa de vi aëris elastica : nam video quod à veritate illius veritas dependet vel vacui vel pleni ; sed à veritate hujus nihil sequitur in neutram partem quaestionis . Aëris , inquit , structura similis est compressae lanae . Bene est . Lana fit ex filis . Recte . Sed cujus figurae ? Si Parallelopipedi , nulla potestesse compressio partium : si non Parallelopipedi , erunt inter fila illa spatia quaedam relicta ; quae si vacua sunt , supponunt Vacuum , ad probandum quod Vacuum est possibile ; si plena , plenum dicunt quod vacuum putant . To this passage , I say , I cannot but represent , that the Question is not , whether from the Hypothesis that ascribes a Spring to the Air , depends the proof of a Vacuum or a Plenum , but whether the Hypothesis it self be true or no. For , sure there are many things certain in Natural Philosophy , from whose truth that of a Plenum or a Vacuum cannot be deduc'd . And to what he addes concerning the structure of the Aërial Particles , the Vacuists may tell him , that they make no such Argument as he is pleased to make for them ; and do not commonly imploy the Figure of the Aërial Particles to prove a Vacuum , but other Arguments , such as Mr. Hobbs has not yet well answered : and having by them , as they judge , prov'd interspersed Vacuities , they might without inconvenience suppose in an Aërial Corpuscle little empty Pores , upon whose account it may be capable of compression , in case they should think fit ( which I know not that any of them does ) to assign it the Figure of a Parallelopipedon . But this Controversie the Vacuists may , if they please , prosecute . In the same page Mr. Hobbs begins , and in the next he continues , a long discourse concerning the going out of fire in our Receiver upon the exhaustion of the Air : the passage is too prolix , and does too little concern the Spring of the Air to be here totally transcribed , or examined Period by Period . In summe , he indeavours to do two things : the one is to reduce what happens to kindled Coals placed in our Engine to what happens in certain Mines , wherein when some thick damps ascend , both Charcoals and Candles are soon extinguished thereby : the other is to shew , that by the Reciprocation of the Sucker , the Air impell'd first into the Cylinder , and then into the Receiver , is put into such a motion as gives it a certain middle consistence , as he speaks , betwixt the consistence of pure Air and that of Water . But I shall not need to examine this second part of his discourse , because I deny the first ; and being able to disprove the thing it self , namely , the thickness of the Air in the exhausted Receiver , I need not spend time about what he teaches de modo . To examine then onely the first of the above mentioned particulars , I shall begin with observing that his story of the damp to be met with in Mines is more largely set down by Mr. Hobbs in that Chapter of his Elements of Philosophy , where he treats of Gravity ; in which place he seems to mention it ( to use his own Expression ) as a story of doubtfull credit , which 't is not like he would have done if had then seen it . Which I mention , not that I deny the story for the main , nor that I would bring Mr. Hobbs into a suspicion of relating things untrue as matters of fact , his enemies themselves having not accused him of such a meanness ; but because , if he have not since observed the thing himself , there may easily be a mistake in some of the circumstances : as for instance , the number of Minutes wherein the thick Air choaks the fire ; and 't is upon that circumstance that the validity of what he deduces from the observation chiefly depends . But , however the matter fare with these subterraneal Damps , we have already proved by several of the Experiments of our Engine , that in the exhausted Receiver there is no such motion of the Air as is here supposed . And it may be sufficiently proved , that whatever remains in the Receiver is not such a substance as Mr. Hobbs would have it : for that , he here tells us , is of a consistence betwixt Air and Water ; and in the above cited place of his Elements he sayes , that 't is not much lighter than Water . But by the Magdeburgick Experiment ( we have already had occasion to mention two or three times ) 't is evident that the Receiver by being exhausted of common Air is so far from growing heavier , much less so much heavier as it must if it were filled with a substance not much lighter than Water , that it lost above an Ounce of its former weight . And to this agrees what we see happen in AEolipiles , that grow lighter when the Air is expell'd . Besides , if the Receiver be in our present case filled with a substance whose consistence is so much nearer that of Water than is our common Air , as Mr. Hobbs would have it ; how chance a Pendulum should not move very sensibly slower in it , when in Water the Diadromes are so exceedingly much more slow ? And the breaking of an Hermetically-seal'd bubble in our Receiver outwards , when the Air was much exhausted , and not before , together with divers other Experiments that might be easily applyed to this purpose , in our Epistle , do sufficiently evince , that 't is not a thicker and far heavier Air , but a more yielding and lighter , that remains after Pumping in the Cavity of our Receiver . And thus much as to Mr. Hobbs's discourse upon our Experiment . But as for the thing it self , it appears that when I related it I thought it might admit a further enquiry : And indeed there may be so many ways of extinguishing Fire ( as we see that the flame of a Candle may be blown out by the wind , or quenched in water , or put out by the compression of a pair of Snuffers , or suffocated for want of Air to receive its fuliginous steams , or ( if that be a different way ) stifled by the thick Exhalations of deep Mines or of new Wine ) that as 't is not in all cases so easie to assign the true cause of the extinction of fire , so 't is unsafe to conclude with Mr. Hobbs , that because a Candle or a live Coal may a great way under ground be extinguisht by a thick Damp , therefore the effect must proceed from the like cause in our Receiver , where there is no sign of any Damp or unusual thickness of the Air , but of the contrary . But let us follow Mr. Hobbs to the next passage , wherein he seems fond enough of playing the Censor . For , speaking of our 11. Experiment , wherein the Coals that seemed almost dead in our exhausted Receiver , being taken out into the Air began to shine again , having made his Academian Dialogist say , Fuere eorum aliqui qui remansisse dixerunt in carbonibus illis ( quanquam extincti videbantur ) particulas quasdam igneas , quae admisso aëre ventilate caeteram molem denuo accenderent : The other ( by whom Mr. Hobbs is meant ) answers him , Nae illi quae dicerent non videntur cogitasse , sed sortitos esse . This is very severe . But let us see what weighty reason he has to be so : Credin ' tu in carbone ignito partem aliquam non carbonem , sed ignem esse ; aut in candente ferro partem inesse quod ferrum non sit sed ignis ? But some will think that by these words he does rather propose than prove his Opinion : wherefore let us hear his Ratiocination , which he annexes in the following words , Ab unica scintilla magnae urbis incendium nasci potest . Atqui si ignis corpus ab ignito diversum sit , non plures potuere esse partes igneae in toto incendio quam in una illa scintillula . Videmus corpora diversorum generum à luce Solis tam per refractionem quam reflexionem factam in speculis comburentibus accendi posse : neque tamen quenquam esse credo qui putet particul is igneas à Sole eject as transire posse per substantiam globuli crystallini . In aëre intermedio ignis nullus est . But I doubt his Adversaries will say , that he is so far from having in this passage well confuted their Opinions , that he seems not to have well understood them : For they will tell him , that they teach not that the fire is materially different from every part of the fewel ; but that the igneous Corpuscles , whilst they are divided , blended and opprest with the others , have not the power to shine or burn , till being by some spark or other body actually burning , or by some other equivalent cause extricated , they flock together in swarms , and then are able to burn and shine , that is , to appear fire : Which fire is yet but a part of the fewel ; as appears by the Phlegme , Ashes , and perhaps other incombustible parts of the Coal or other fewel . So that the Atomists and divers others will not allow what Mr. Hobbs infers about an incendium . And whereas he tells us he believes that no body thinks , Particulas igneas à Sole eject as transire posse per substantiam globuli crystallini ; he seems to me to have very little heeded the Epicurean Hypothesis . For , not onely the learned Gassendus , but I know not how many other Atomists ( besides other Naturalists ) Ancient and Modern , expresly teach the Sun-beams to consist of fiery Corpuscles , trajected through the Air , and capable of passing through Glass ; whereby these Authors give an account of those specula ustoria that burn by reflexion . These things I represent , not that I intend here to adopt the Atomists Opinion of the nature of Fire , of which I am not obliged to declare my thoughts here , and have done it elsewhere ; but to shew that Mr. Hobbs's Arguments are not a sufficient ground for so heavy a Censure . And if a Coal be kindled at one end , though Mr. Hobbs would have the kindled end a Coal , not Fire ; yet if he please to hold it in his naked hand , he may find that differs enough from the other end to deserve another name . And I , that but related a Phaenomenon , did not perhaps express my self much less warily , if not more so , than Mr. Hobbs himself . For whereas my words are these , We presently took out the Coals , in which it seems there had remained some little Parcels of fire , rather covered than totally quench'd : for in the open air the Coals began to be rekindled in several places : Mr. Hobbs even in his Elements of Philosophy speaks thus upon a somewhat-like occasion , If a Grate filled with Coals throughly kindled , and burning never so brightly , be let down , as soon as ever it is below C. the fire will begin to grow pale , and shortly after ( loosing its light ) be extinguisht , no otherwise than if it were quencht in water : but if the Grate be drawn up again presently , while the Coals are still very hot , the fire will by little and little be kindled again , and shine as before . As for the reason Mr. Hobbs assigns of our Experiment in the lately mentioned passage of his Dialogue , being grounded upon such a thickness of the Air in the Receiver as we have already disproved , it needs not to be examined . And lastly , as to what he subjoynes in these words , Quando autem est quod de homine vere pronunciare possumus quod est mortuus , sive ( quod idem est ) animam expiravit . Cognitum enim est homines nonnullos pro mortuis habitos , postridie elatos revixisse . A. De puncto temporis quo anima à corpore separatur difficile est statuere . Perge igitur ad experimenta alia . I confess I see not why that needless Question might not have been well spared , if he designed to give it no better Answer . CHAP. VI. Wherein other passages of Mr. Hobbs's Dialogue that concern the Author are examin'd WHat our Author has in the 19. page concerning a Bladder has been already examined , wherefore I proceed to the next passage in the same page , which is this ; B. Si acus magnete excitus libere pendeat intra Recipiens , sequetur tamen ille motum ferri quod circumducitur extra Recipiens . Item object a intus posita ab iis qui extra sunt videbuntur , & soni intus facti audientur , omnia haec aeque post atque ante exuctionem aëris , nisi quod soni sunt aliquanto post quam ante debiliores . A. Manifestissima haec sunt signa Recipientis semper pleni , nec posse inde exugi aërem . Quod autem soni inde sentiantur debiliores , signum est consistentiae aëris . Consistentia autem aëris à motu ejus est per lineas diametraliter oppositas . But I meet with few of the Vacuists , who , even in the Torricellian Experiment , think the place relinquished by the Quicksilver to be perfectly void , most of them allowing , that though it be not quite full of body , yet it may contain some of the Earth's magnetical steams , or of those igneous Corpuscles that flow from the Sun , or both of them . Now against these who would from our Experiments deduce but onely an interspersed Vacuum , I see not that the Phaenomena mentioned by Mr. Hobbs do conclude half so manifestly as he pretends : For , as to the motion of the Needle within the Receiver , 't is known that they are wont to ascribe Magnetical Attraction to certain Effluvia , that issuing out of the Loadstone are subtile enough to pass through the Pores of the closest bodies without excepting Glass ; so that although the Receiver were quite empty'd before , the Needle might be wrought upon by Magnetical Corpuscles , that need not be supposed to fill the 10th . part of the Receiver . I know indeed that Mr. Hobbs has another Hypothesis of the Phaenomena of the Loadstone , but I know that divers learned Writers have absolutely rejected it , and not one such that I have heard of has approved it . And as for the other two Phaenomena here mentioned by Mr. Hobbs , the Atomists may answer , That the first ( touching Objects seen in the Receiver ) has been shewn already not to overthrow their Doctrine : and that the other ( concerning the Debilitation of Sounds ) makes against him , not for him ; since we have already disproved that consistence of the Air whereto he ascribes it . And the same Arguments that overthrow that Opinion may make it seem somewhat strange , that he should subjoyn our Experiment of two like Pendula , whose Vibrations we found not manifestly to differ within and without our exhausted Receiver . For the former should move far slower than the other according to Mr. Hobbs's Conceit , that the Receiver , when we say 't is exhausted , is filled with a substance of a middle consistence betwixt pure Air and Water , and not much lighter than Water . But whether the Receiver be in such cases adequately full or no , the Vacuists may further consider . For its being granted to be full would not overthrow either of my Hypotheses , namely , the Weight and Spring of the Air. In the same 19. and some following pages Mr. Hobbs , has a long Discourse against my Conjecture at the reason I propose in my 31. Experiment , why ( as I there express it ) if the exquisitely polisht Surfaces of two flat pieces of Marble be so congruous to each other , that upon their mutual application there results an immediate contact , they will stick so fast together , that he that lifts up the uppermost shall , if the undermost be not exceeding heavy , lift up that too , and sustain it aloft in the free Air. The Conjecture it self is in the same page thus set down , That the lower superficies of that ( undermost ) stone being freely exposed to the Air , is prest upon by it ; whereas the uppermost surface being contiguous to the superiour stone , is thereby defended from the pressure of the Air , which consequently pressing the lower stone against the upper hinders it from falling , as we have elsewhere more fully declared . Which last words I therefore omit not , because they shew that I handle this matter in this place but incidentally , and may make use of what I have deliver'd where I treat of it more expresly ; as I have since done in Print in the History of Fluidity and Firmness , which Mr. Hobbs appears to have seen by those censures of some passages of it that I shall hereafter examine . His whole Discourse concerning my Conjecture , and his Scheme , would be too prolix to be entirely inserted . But the thing his Discourse drives at is to shew , that neither the Spring nor Weight of the Air have any thing to do with this Phaenomenon : and therefore when he had made his Academian relate , that two coherent Marbles suspended in our Receiver did not fall asunder upon the exhaustion of it , he subjoyns that it was , Quia nihil istic erat quod ageret Atmosphaerae pondus ; and annexes , Experimento hoc excogitari contra opinionem eorum qui Vacuum asserunt aliud argumentum fortius aut evidentius non potuit . Nam si duorum cohaerentium alterutrum secundum eam viam in qua jacent ipsae contiguae superficies propulsum esset , facile separarentur , aëre proximo in locum relictum successivè semper influente ; sed illa ita divellere , ut simul totum amitterent contactum , impossibile est , mundo pleno . Oporteret enim aut motum fieri ab uno termino ad alium in instante , aut duo corpora eodem tempore in eodem esse loco : quorum utrumvis dicere est absurdum . But how this should be so cogent and manifest an Argument against the Vacuists I confess I do not well discern . For that which it proves ( if it prove any thing ) seems to be , That in case the cohering Marbles could be so severed as to lose at once their whole contact , the world might be concluded not to be full : But I see not how it thence follows , that therefore there can be no Vacuum . For my part I would demand , whether the so strong cohesion of the Marbles be necessary or not to the plenitude of the world . If it be , how chance a sufficient weight hung to the lower Marble can immediatley draw them asunder ? and if it be not , why does not Mr. Hobbs assign some other cause of their so strong adhesion , if it depend neither upon the Spring nor Weight of the Air ? As for the non-separation of the two Marbles in our Receiver , I have said in the same 31. Experiment , that the cause may probably be the pressure of the Air remaining in the Receiver not sufficiently exhausted . And this Conjecture I have more fully defended in what I have written about it against Franciscus Linus , where I shew , that 't is no way unlikely the remaining Air should be able to sustain a weight of four or five Ounces hanging at the lower Marble , since the free Air was able to support between 400. and 500. Ounces hanging at the same . But Mr. Hobbs tells us , that the cause I assign of the cohesion of our Marbles is lyable to huge inconveniences ; of the greatness of which we may judge by the first of them Confitentur ( sayes he ) tum ipsi tum alii omnes , ponderationem omnem conatum esse per lineas rectas undiquaque ad centrum terrae ; & proinde non Cylindrum vel Columnam fieri , sed per Pyramidem , cujus vertex est centrum terrae , basis pars superficiei Atmosphaerae . As if it were much material whether a body whose Basis is scarce two Inches Diameter , and whose length amounts to some thousands of Miles , be considered as a Cylinder or a Piramid . Certainly Stevinus and other learned Writers of the Hydrostaticks would scarce have made this an Objection , since they scruple not to make it a postulatum , that all not very distant Perpendiculars be looked upon as parallel , though they allow such Perpendiculars would meet in the Centre of the Earth . What he adds partly in these words , Conatus ergo punctorum omnium ponderantium propagabitur ad superficiem Marmoris superioris antequam possit propagari ulterius ( puta ) ad terram , and partly in the following lines , to prove that the whole endeavour of the Pyramid that leans upon the upper Marble is terminated there , and that there is no endeavour of the Atmosphere against the under-superficies of the lowermost Marble ; This Ratiocination seems grounded , partly upon a Conceit of his about the nature of Gravity , according to which I see not why any Body plac'd between the sides of that Pyramid or rather Cone , whereof the upper-superficies of the higher Marble is the Basis , should descend upon the account of gravity ; and partly from a mistake of my Opinion : for I do no where , that I know of , speak as if I thought this sustentation of the lower Marble were performed by little Globules or other minute bodies protruding one another directly towards the Centre of the Earth , and rebounding from a perfectly smooth superficies ; nor need I say , that the lower stone is sustained by the pressure of the self-same pillar of the Atmosphere that is incumbent on the upper , since other parts of the Atmosphere , some on the one hand and some on the other , pressing obliquely upon the uneven surface of the Earth , may have their pressure upward terminated against the lower surface of the undermost Marble . And in the mentioned History of Fluidity and Firmness , speaking ( pag. 187. ) of the adhesion of flat Glasses , ( and the reason is the same in our flat Marbles ) I plainly deduce it from the pressure of the fluid Air , which , like a liquor , diffusing it self upon the surface of the Terrestrial Globe , because its descent is there resisted , does , like water and other liquors , press almost equally every way , and strongly endeavour to thrust away any body against which it can bear ; so that whereever the pressure is taken off from one part of a body and not from the opposite , that body will be prest toward that part , whether it be downwards , or sidewards , or upwards , where that formerly-equal resistance is removed . And this Explication I do in that Discourse back with Considerations and Experiments , which Mr. Hobbs is not pleased to take any notice of ; wherefore I hold it not amiss to adde here two or three other experiments to one of those mentioned there . First then , an AEolipile being by heat freed from Air as much as you can , if the little hole at the extremity of the neck , by which the Air gets in and out , be presently and carefully stopt with Wax , and afterwards suffer'd to cool , there will not be in the Cavity of the AEolipile a resistance any thing near equal to the pressure of the outward Air. And therefore if you perforate the Wax , that Air will violently be impell'd in at the unstopt Orifice , whether the neck be held parallel or perpendicular to the Horizon , or in any other situation in respect of the Centre of the Earth . And the like will happen if the AEolipile be unstopt under water . Next , I relate in the mentioned History , that having drawn some of the Air out of a large Glass with a narrow mouth , and thereby destroyed the equality of force betwixt the weight of the outward Air , and the now weakned spring of the inward ; I found that by immediately applying a flat body to the Orifice of the Vessel , that body was readily lifted up and sustain'd in the Air as long as I pleas'd , though the weight of it exceeded 20. Ounces . Thirdly , I lately met with the relation of an Experiment which does abundantly make out the power of the ambient Atmosphere to press bodies against each other , when it cannot get between their internal surfaces . For the ingenious Author of the Magdeburgick Experiment writes to the industrious Schottus , that having caused two Copper Plates to be made almost in the form of Scales a little above half an Ell in Diameter , and exactly congruous if laid upon one another ; Has ( sayes our Jesuite ) si mutuo sibi imponit , & aërem extrahit , adeo ab externi aëris gravitate compressae atque unitae tenentur , ut sex viri robusti eas divellere non possint . Quod si tandem adhibito omni conatu divellantur , crepitum edunt sclopeti aut Musquetae explosioni non minorem ; quamprimum vero per claviculum feu Epistomium apertum vel minimus aditus laxatur aëri , sponte separantur . And , Fourthly , if a Glass Vial ( such as will be anon more fully describ'd ) have a Pipe open at both ends so fitted into it , that no Air can get in or out betwixt the neck and it ; and if the Vial be so far filled with water , that the lower end of the Pipe be well immersed therein ; if then you suck at the upper end of the Pipe , the water will ascend to a good height ; which argues its being forc'd upwards by the oblique pressure of the Air in the Vial ; for 't is onely in the Pipe and not in the Vial that there is any Air in the same Perpendicular with the Water that is impell'd up . But let us follow Mr. Hobbs a little further . Having ask'd this Question , Sed vis illa elastica quam in aëre esse dicunt , nihilne ad marmor sustinendum conferre potest ? he answers , Nihil omnino ; non enim conatus in aëre est ullus ad centrum terrae magis quam ad aliud quodvis punctum Universi . Quoniam enim gravia omnia tendunt à circumferentia Atmosphaerae ad centrum terrae , & inde rursus ad circumferentiam Atmosphaerae per easdem lineas reflexas , conatus sursum conatui deorsum aequalis erit , & proinde mutuo se perimentes neutrâ conabuntur viâ . But that the Spring of the Air may perform somewhat in the case proposed , I hope the newly-mention'd Experiments have evinc'd . And the reason he annexes to his Negative , as also the difficult Example he subjoyns , of a man lying in the bottom of the Sea , seem rather oppos'd to the Weight than the Spring of the Air. But we have already both by Experiments and by his own Concessions sufficiently prov'd that the Air is not devoid of gravity ; and that it likewise gravitates upon the terraqueous Globe , which in this page he seems to deny , we have proved by divers reasons , and particularly in our 25. Experiment by the vast expansion of Air under Water , when the pressure of the incumbent Air was taken off from the Water . As for the Scheme he annexes , I confess I do not well see what he drives at in it ; at least if it be intended for a Confutation of the Conjecture I have been defending : nor am I the onely person that complain of his writing often enough obscurely . And as far as we can judge by the conclusion couch'd in these words Non potest ergo pars , BC. ( which in the Explication of the Scheme he calls , Pars Atmosphaerae intra totam posita ubicunque ) ( propter magnitudinem ) quantumvis gravis sit descendere , neque ergo premere sive gravitare ; his Notions about Gravity are somewhat strange , and probably either do not concern us , or will be found repugnant to those Experiments on which our Conjecture is grounded . And as for what he adds , Si possibile esse negarem , ut diligentiâ & arte humanâ duae superficies corporum duorum inter se per omnia puncta ita accurate congruae fiant , ut ne minimo quidem corpusculo creabili transitus permittatur , non video quomodo illi aut suam Hypothesim tueri , aut negationem nostram improbitatis arguere jure possent : I confess I do not see how this Argumentation proves any thing against the Interest , either of the Weight , or so much as of the Spring of the Air in the cohesion of our Marbles . For , provided that the Corpuscles of the Air get not in between the two stones , the pressure of the Air may well suffice to keep them together . And , lastly , as for that modest passage ( that immediately precedes the words newly recited ) wherein he sayes , Vtraque illa phantasia , tum gravitatis Atmosphaerae , tum vis Elasticae sive Antitupiae aëris , somnium erat . Siquidem autem illis concederetur esse aliquam in filiculis aëris Antitupiam , quaeretque aliquis , unde illa curvata quidem sed quiescentia moverentur rursus ad rectitudinem , deberent illi , si Physici haberi volunt , causam ejus aliquam possibilem assignare : We have already given an account why we forbore to assign a cause of the motion of Restitution ; but methinks Mr. Hobbs might have , for the speaking so , chosen a fitter place than this , where he gives me so far an opportunity to tell him again , that he should , if he would be thought a Naturalist , have assigned some cause of the Phaenomenon about which he had all this while been desputing : which since even he himself has declin'd to do , perhaps the Phaenomenon will be thought somewhat difficult , and my attempt at discovering the cause of it will be at least excused . But after having so long dwelt upon the consideration of our Marbles , it is high time to proceed to what remains . In the 24. page Mr. Hobbs has that passage I formerly recited touching the Glass-Fountains , out of which water is thrown up by compress'd Air. But though I as well as others have made use of such Fountains , invented by Vincenzo Vincenti of Urbin , and was unsatisfied with the account he gives of their Phaenomena ; yet in regatd some learned men , and particularly Dr. Ward , have already examined his Explication , and I am not obliged to do so ; I shall onely take notice of what our Author objects to prove that this Phaenomenon cannot be solv'd by the Spring of the Air , in these words : B. Cur non potest aqua , quae cum injiceretur particulas aëris comprimebat , ab iisdem particulis se explicantibus rursus rejici ? A. Quia locum explicatae majorem non requirunt quam compressae . Quemadmodum in vase aqua pleno , in qua esset multitudo anguillarum , anguillas sive in se volutas sive explicatas idem semper capit locum . Propellere ergo aquam per vim Elasticam , quae alia non est quam motus corporum se explicantium , non possunt . B. Comparatio illa aëris cum aqua anguillis plena , nostris , credo , non displicebit . But the Elaterists will answer , that neither can his earthly Atoms , to whom he ascribes the Rejection of the water forc'd in , truly fill up more parts of space at one time than at another ; and therefore the Objection might have been spared : but indeed it reaches us not . For we , as Mr. Hobbs knows well , are not wont to compare the Air to Eels , but to Wooll : and though each hair that makes up a compress'd lock of wooll , do not really fill more space with wooll when extended than when crumpl'd ; yet when there is a congeries of these hairs compress'd together , the whole fleece or congeries does by its spring endeavour to thrust away those contiguous bodies by which it is penn'd up , as I have more fully explained in my Epistle ; so that these Aerial Corpuscles , being pent up by the water forc'd into the Glas , still endeavour to expand themselves by throwing it out . What our Author addes in the same page , as if they were mistaken that think the Experiments of the Plenists tended ( especially till of late ) to prove that the generality of them did not always mean by a Vacuum a space perfectly devoid of all corporeal substance , but any space here below that is not fill'd with a visible body , or at least with Air , ( for these are my words to which I suppose Mr. Hobbs alludes ) To this , I say , it is scarce worth while to make answer , the Controversie being of such small moment , ( though I think I could easily enough do it ) especially since he rather excuses those that may have negligently exprest themselves , than disproves what I said . And since I spoke chiefly and by name of the Peripatetick Schools , he may well allow that their Expressions concerning this matter were not alwayes so accurate , whilst in this very passage he concludes with these words , Vides quam ineptum sit ad explicationem effectuum talium advocare verba Metaphorica , ut fugam vacui , horrorem naturae , &c. quibus olim ad existimationem suam tuendam usae sunt Scholae . Nor is what he adds concerning the Vacuum to be attributed to Democritus and Epicurus either clear enough , or of concernment enough to our Dispute , to be insisted on by us ; especially since I see not to what purpose he brings it in . But there are in this page two particulars , which , though they make little or nothing against what I said of the Plenists , may deserve to be taken notice of . The second ( for I think it expedient to dispatch that first ) is couch'd in these words , In Hydriis perforatis ideo haeret aqua , quia quae per tantillum foramen exiturit , adeo exigua est , ut non posset ita in longitudinem se diffundere , ut descendendo aditum aëri faciat per foraminum circumferentias ; neque aër ab exeunte aqua pulsus locum alium ( in mundo pleno ) habere potest praeterquam quem aqua deseret . But this Experiment I have already examined as 't is propos'd in his Elements of Philosophy ; and therefore I shall now onely say to the light variation I find of it here , that the reason here assign'd why the water in Gardeners pots clos'd at the top does not descend , is not rightly assign'd , since ( to omit other objections ) by Monsieur Paschall's Experiment it appears , that though in Pipes of no great length the water will not run out , yet if the Pipe be long enough , though the Orifice be no wider , the water will descend without giving passage to the Air at the circumference of it . But the other particular here mentioned by Mr. Hobbs , who thus proposes it , Qui per fistulam ore aquam sugit , aerem medium prius sugit , quo distentum aerem externum removet ; qui remotus locum ( in pleno ) habere nisi proximum removendo non potest , & sic continua pulsione aqua tandem pellitur in fistulam , succeditque aeri qui exugitur ; deserves a more particular consideration . For this account of the ascension of Liquors by suction is not onely here given by Mr. Hobbs , but for the main by the learned Gassendus himself , and other Atomists , and is generally acquiesc'd in by the modern Philosophers ; perhaps the rather , because it seems not to establish or overthrow a Vacuum . But though I shall not deny but that many Phaenomena of Nature may be probably explicated by this Propagation and return of Motion ; yet there are some Phaenomena here below , which I see not how the Cartesians , or the Atomists , or Mr. Hobbs can explicate without admitting the Spring of the Air , and which perhaps by the Spring of the Air may be explicated without the recurring to such a propagation and return of impulse . Divers instances to this purpose I elsewhere consider , but at present I shall propose onely one Experiment purposely devis'd to shew that both Vacuists and Plenists should admit an Elastical power in the Air. I took then a Glass-Vessel consisting of two parts ; the one was a Vial capable of containing about a pound of water , and the other a Pipe open at both ends , the lower of which reach'd within two Inches of the bottom of the Vial : this Pipe was by the Glass-man fastned into the neck of the Vial , not by any Cement , lest , it should be pretended that the Air might undiscernedly get in or out , but with melted Glass of a good thickness : into this Vessel by the open Pipe I at length ( for it is somewhat difficult ) pour'd water enough to swim a pretty way above the lower extreme of the pipe , and then often inclin'd the Vessel , to give a free intercourse betwixt the Air within the Vial and that without it , that if the internal Air were comprest by the affusion of the water it might free it self , as it readily did by ascending in bubbles along the inclined Pipe , till the outward and inward Air were reduc'd to an equality of pressure . Now if all Suction were produc'd by the pressure of the Air , thrust away by the dilated Chest of him that sucks , and so thrusting the water or other liquor into the Pipe at which he sucks , it seems evident , in our case , that the water would not ascend by suction : since by the contrivance of the Vessel , the Air thrust away by him that sucks cannot at all come to bear or press upon the water . And yet , whether the Pipe were inclin'd or erected , the water did according to my expectation easily enough ascend , upon suction , to the top of the Pipe , and ran over into my mouth . I say , easily enough , because that though the Spring of the Air pent up in the Vial were able , upon the decrease of the pressure of the outward Air , occasion'd by my sucking , to impell the water strongly enough into the Pipe ; yet , when a pretty quantity of water had been so impell'd up , the included Air gaining thereby more room to expand it self , its spring was thereby so far weakned , that the water ascended far less easily than in ordinary suction . The other circumstances worth noting in this Experiment belong not to this place ; and what has been delivered may , I hope , suffice for the purpose 't is alledg'd for . Onely one particular I shall here adde , by way of confirmation of what I said touching the weakn'd Spring of the Air , and it is this ; That partly to shew some , who yet embrace the Opinion of the Schools , that the ascension of the water in the Pipe did not proceed from any such tendency in the water it self to ascend for prevention of a Vacuum , and partly for other reasons that concern not this place , I did carefully take out the water by degrees , till the lower end of the Pipe was but very little under the surface of the water , though in the cavity of the Pipe the water , as it usually will be in Pipes that are not wide , was a pretty deal higher : then suffering the Vessel to rest , and sucking at the upper end of the Pipe , the water ( as I foresaw it would be ) was impell'd up , yet without reaching near the top , till the surface of it was fallen a little below the bottom of the Pipe. But then , though I continu'd sucking , no more water ascended into the Pipe , but the Air passing through it towards my mouth , did in its passage toss up the water that was already in the Pipe , and turn it into bubbles , ( of a strong bigness when the cavity of the Pipe would permit it ) which broke ( not without noise ) one after another : and thus the ascending Air for a pretty while kept the water in the Pipe from falling back to that in the Vial. But when I remov'd my mouth , the Spring of the Air remaining in the Cavity of the Vial , being debilitated by the recess of the Air I had ( as men are wont to speak ) suck'd out , it was not able to resist the pressure of the outward Air , and accordingly the water in the Pipe was not onely depress'd into the Vial , but the outward Air forc'd its way in many bubbles , and not without some noise , through the water contiguous to the bottom of the Pipe , till the pressure of the included Air and that of the Atmosphere were reduc'd to an equality . But in the same 25. page our Author tells us , that the Society he writes against would have the cause of Filtration , and that of the passage of water through Siphons , to be the same . To which he annexes , this peremptory passage , Id vero impossibile est . Nam in Siphone nisi ambo crura aquâ impleantur , aqua è pelvi non ascendet . Ascensionis causa in pannum est motus ille terrearum atomorum quae aquae contiguae sunt , motus ( inquam ) circularis simplex , aëri in quo moventur communicatus ; quae atomi aquam ferientes in materiam laneam incutiunt , incussae autem magis magisque madefaciunt , donec madida tota sit . Cum vero madida tota sit , &c. Thus far he ; but the passage in my Epistle , upon which he seems to have grounded his Opposition , is but this ( wherewith I begin my 35. Experiment ) Some learned Mathematicians ( I meant the industrious Schottus and some Cartesians ) have of late ingeniously endeavoured to reduce Filtres to Siphons ; but still the cause of the ascension of water and other liquor both in Siphons and in Filtration needing ( for ought we have yet found ) a clearer discovery and explication , we were desirous to try , &c. So that neither did I ascribe this reduction ( of Filtres to Siphons ) to a Society which was not then in being , nor perhaps so much as design'd ; nor did I adopt it my self ; but express'd a desire to have it further examin'd . But as for the cause of Filtration it self , I may take a fitter opportunity to discourse of it ; in the mean time I doubt whether the reason here assign'd by Mr. Hobbs will not seem as well precarious , as the motus circularis simplex of earthly Atoms , whereon it is grounded . Nor does his Explication render a reason why Quicksilver will not ascend the 14. part as high in the Filtre , though in part immers'd into it , as water , nay , will not reach so high where 't is contiguous to the Filtre , as where 't is not : nor why it should begin to ascend , since , for ought he shews to the contrary , the pressure of the Air , even in the sense he takes the Air , ought to be the same on that part of the Surface of the Liquor which is contiguous to the Filtre , and on any other part of the same Surface . To which I shall onely adde , that as resolutely as Mr. Hobbs sayes 't is impossible for the water to ascend out of the Vessel into a Siphon , unless both the legs be fill'd with that Liquor , he would probably have spoken more warily , and distinguish'd betwixt Siphons , if he had been pleased to take notice of what I relate in the-forementioned 35. Experiment , of a small Glass-Siphon I devis'd , whereof when the shorter leg was but dipp'd in water , the Liquor did presently as it were of it self run down the longer leg . Which Experiment , besides other considerations , may induce us to suspect that the nature of Siphons and of Filtration may not yet be so throughly understood , as not to deserve a further enquiry . But to draw at length towards a Conclusion of our troublesome Examen ; it remains onely that I take some notice of the general Corollary that Mr. Hobbs is pleased to deduce from his whole Discourse , of the Experiments exhibited in our Engine . A. Fateris ergo ( says he ) nihil hactenus à Collegis tuis promotam esse scientiam causarum naturalium , nisi quod unus eorum machinam invenerit qua motus excitari aeris possit talis , ut partes sphaerae simul undiquaque tendant ad centrum , & ut Hypotheses Hobbianae , ante quidem satis probabiles , hinc reddantur probabiliores . B. Nec fateri pudet ; nam , Est aliquid prodire tenus , si non datur ultra . A. Quid tenus ; Quorsum autem tantus apparatus & sumptus machinarum factu difficilium , ut eatenus tantum prodiretis quantum ante prodierat Hobbius ? cur non inde potius incepistis ubi ille desiit ? cur principiis ab eo positis non estis usi ? Cumque Aristoteles recte dixisset , Ignorato motu ignorari naturam , quomodo tantum in vos suscipere onus ausi estis , &c. As to what he sayes to the disparagement of the Assembly , and in his own praise , the laws I prescribed my self at the beginning of this Discourse forbid me to reply to what is more likely , amongst civil and judicious Readers , to prejudice his own reputation than theirs he is so displeased with . And as for that which he assigns to be the use of our Engine , I shall very willingly leave it to the ingenious to judge what use may be made of it . But as for this mentioned by Mr. Hobbs , if he means here , as he elsewhere teaches ( pag. 13. and 19. ) that the Motion he speaks of is produc'd by that of the Air impell'd betwixt the sides of the Sucker and the Cylinder ; perhaps it will be thought I have sufficiently proved , that 't is not any of its uses , so far is it from being its chief or onely use . But I consess I somewhat wonder Mr. Hobbs should quarrel with me , ( for 't is I that in my Epistle employ the following Verse ) for saying , Est aliquid prodire tenus , si non datur ultra . And this not , as some would perhaps suspect , because I do not imitate him , in speaking of my self , as he does of himself , but because he thinks the expression too arrogant . For since he here confesses that his Hypotheses are by this Engine rendered more probable , some will perchance think that to be enough to entitle my Experiment to some degree of usefulness , unless Mr. Hobbs's Doctrine of the Air had found more embracers than before these seasonable , though despised , Experiments it was observed to have . But , since either of us may be partial in his own case , I am very well content to leave others to judge both whether my Expression have been guilty of Arrogance , and how much he has done more than prodire tenus in all the past long Discourse against me , when they have considered what new Experiment or matter of fact Mr. Hobbs has therein added to enrich the History of Nature , what new Truths he has discovered , or what Errors ( except one of his own in the last page ) he has well confuted . These things , I say , I am very well content to leave to be judged of by all dis-interessed persons , without being much discouraged by the differing strain wherein Mr. Hobbs thinks fit to speak of his own performances and mine , or invited to imitate him in that way of writing , my Endeavours ( such as they are ) having hitherto been favoured with such a Reception among the Virtuosi , that possibly I may have almost as little need as reason to commend them . But 't is somewhat trouble some work to argue long with a man that 's angry with an Expression , which perhaps none but he would have found fault with for want of modesty ; and therefore as I have lest un-recited several provoking and very undeserved Expressions he emploies in the same page , and even that passage , where to prove our Naturalists and Mathematicians professed they would not receive Truth coming from him , he alledges onely a saying ( whether true or no I examine not ) of Dr. Owen , who , besides that his profession was Divinity , not Philosophy or Mathematicks , neither is nor ever was of our Society ; as , I say , I have ( for the reason newly intimated ) declin'd taking notice of matters of this nature ; so I will not now stay to enquire why he urges us , whom he would have men take for Vacuists , with the Authority of Aristotle , whom on other occasions he is wont to use with as little respect as if he were a Member of our Society . Nor shall I now examine , why here and elsewhere he sends us to his own Writings for the Doctrine of Motion , as if , to omit ancienter Authors , such great Personages as Galilaeo , Mersennus , Verulam , Des-Cartes , Gassendus , Balianus , Foannes Marcus Marci , Honoratus Fabris , ( not to mention other Moderns , nor those of our own assembly , as the eminently learned Sir Kenelme Digby , and the others , whom their Modesty forbids me here to name ) had not most of them learnedly , and some of them copiously , written of Local Motion before Mr. Hobbs's Books , where he treats of it , came abroad into the World. This , I say , I shall not insist on , because I would hasten to a Conclusion . Onely one thing I must adde , that whereas he accuses us of devising elaborate and sumptuous Engines , I do not fear to find so many Readers of his mind , that I need make them Excuses for what perhaps will obtain their Thanks . And whatever Mr. Hobbs may think , for my part I freely confess , that I love Truth so well , that I do not think , no onely my Pains and Charges , but even what I rate much higher , my Time it self , too much for the discovery of Truth ; or ( that Mr. Hobbs may not think me partial ) even for the establishment of such Truths as , though discover'd by some , are yet as far more generally opposed than imbraced . There remain yet some other pages of Mr. Hobbs's . Dialogue , wherein he speaks of Fire , and Cold , and Ice , and Light , and Colours , and Fluidity , and Hardness , and Thickness , and Ethicks , and Politicks , and the Duplication of the Cube , and the Quadrature of the Circle , and several other Subjects . But these I forbear to meddle with , not that I approve them all , or the greatest part , but partly , because I am too much tired already to be fond of engaging in Controversies that I am not tyed to meddle with , ( except what concerns Fluidity and Firmness , which I shall , God willing , examine by it self ; ) partly , because divers passages relate to Persons , not Things : partly , because I do not much fear that Mr. Hobbs will find every Reader so easie and complaisant as he makes his Academian , who in many passages of the Dialogue speaks not unsutably to what he does in the last page ofit , where he excepts but one particular ( and that is neither the Duplication of the Cube , nor the Squaring of the Circle ) when he tells Mr. Hobbs , Discedo jam multo ( ut mihi videor ) quam ante certior , & quae dixifti omnia teneo & probo : and partly , because Mr. Hobbs has some things , as about Fire , and certain Colours , which I am not forward to reject , though the Considerations that incline me to some such Opinions be perhaps very differing from the Grounds on which he proposes them . And indeed as well my Nature as my Custom forbids me to scruple to learn , if I can , of Persons much less famous than Mr. Hobbs . 'T is far from my humour to write against all that every man sayes , that ( how causlesly soever ) writes against me ; and I am almost as much indisposed to reject as to embrace , without distinction , whatever it be that this or that man teaches . CHAP. VII . ( Being an APPENDIX to the past Discourse ) Wherein is examin'd what Mr. Hobbs teaches concerning Fluidity and Firmness . ALthough Mr. Hobbs do not name me for the Maintainer of the Opinions which I have proposed in the History of Fluidity and Firmness , and which he censures : yet since that History , after having been mentioned in the Book I have hitherto been defending , was published a good while before Mr. Hobbs's Dialogue ; and since some of the chief particulars he censures or takes notice of , are delivered there , and some of them perchance no where else ; I think it may concern me to examine what he sayes either against my Opinions , or in favour of his own , touching Fluidity and Firmness . And if it be said that he meant not his Objections particularly against me , but rather against some other person , who may have liked such Opinions : I shall answer , That I am content to leave to others the defence of their particular Opinions , and to have as much of the following Discourse as is concerned in this Allegation , looked upon as written onely upon this supposition , that my writings are those he designs to oppose . But there being other things in what he discourses about Fluidity and Firmness , which for the reasons freshly intimated I think fit here to consider , I chuse to gather up together the passages touching these subjects which I find scattered in his Dialogue , that I may have the better opportunity to clear up the matter it self under debate . But , before I go further , I must at the very entrance of this Discourse take notice , that in the fifth page , where Mr. Hobbs begins to dispute against our Notion of Fluidity , he very much mistakes my Opinion , as may appear by these words , which he puts into the mouth of his Academian , Sed plerique nostrum naturam fluidam à non fluida distinguimus magnitudine partium ex quibus corpus aliquod constat , & quasi compingitur : Itaque non modo aërem ; aquam & liquorum omnem , sed etiam cinerem & pulverem , tanquam fluida contemplamur . Et fluida ex non fluidis composita esse posse non negamus ; nam divisibilitatem illam infinitam non concoquimus . To which he answers , Divisio quidem infinita concipi non potest , divisibilitas autem facile . Ego contra , distinctionem non capio intra fluida & non fluida quam sumitis à magnitudine partium ; nam si caperem , ruina illa sive rudera illa quae jacent in Ecclesia Paulina mibi dicenda essent fluida : sin propter nimiam lapidum magnitudinem fluida illa esse negaveritis , defini mihi magnitudinem illam quam habens pars ruentis muri , propter eam sit dicenda fluida . Tu vero qui divisibilitatem infinitam non capis , dic mihi quae tibi apparet causa , quare Deo omnipotenti difficilius esse putem creare corpus fluidum , & cujus partes actu diffluant , omni data atomo minus , quam creare Oceanum . Itaque desperare me facis omnem conventus vestri fructum , dicendo quod putant aërem , aquam , & caetera fluida constare ex non fluidis , tanquam si murum , cujus ruentes lapides aliquousque discurrunt , dicerent esse fluidum . Si sic loquendum est , nihil non est fluidum ; nam etiam marmor comminui potest in partes omni atomo Epicureana minores . Thus he . But in my History , though I make the smalness of the parts whereof a body consists one of the requisites to its being fluid ; yet at the end of the 13. Section I call the various agitation of those Particles the principal qualification of all , and in the beginning of the 14. Section I call it the cheif condition of a fluid body . And therefore he much mistakes , if he thinks that we alwayes consider Ashes and Dust as fluids absolutely speaking . But as he * somewhere tells us , that by Fire he understands the combustible matter it self , not simply and alwayes , but then onely when , &c. So neither do I look upon the Dust of Alabaster , ( to my words about which , I suppose , he has a respect in the passage under consideration ) as a fluid body simply and alwayes ; for I clearly teach the contrary , but onely when and whilst its parts are not alone reduced to a competent smallness , but are also actually put into such a various agitation as makes the body they compose ( even according to Mr. Hobbs's own Definition , which is , That Fluid bodies are those whose parts may by very weak endeavour be separated from one another ) emulate a fluid body by the very easie Cession of its component Corpuscles , and by its boyling like a liquor . By this the Reader may discern how little that makes against me which Mr. Hobbs talks , and seems to do it seriously , of the Ruines of Pauls ; as if according to my Opinion , Ruina illa sive rudera a quae jacent in Ecclesia Paulina dicenda essent fluida . For 't is most evident that I require in the parts of a fluid body both minuteness and such a motion along each other as makes them easily yeild to the touch : which qualifications how well they belong to the ruines of Pauls , is , I think not very difficult to determine ; though in the same passage Mr. Hobbs do again make use of the like example , to which he subjoyns . Si sic loquendum est , nihil non est fluidum ; which how little it follows from my Doctrine about Fluidity there needs not a quick-sighted Reader to discern . As for the Reason he annexes in these words , Nam etiam marmor comminui potest in partes omni atomo Epicureana minores ; I would gladly know by what art Mr. Hobbs can divide Marble into lesser Particles than such as are naturally indivisible , ( for such Epicurus makes his Atoms to be : ) nor do I see how , in case this could be done , it proves , that there is not any thing that is not fluid . For I say that the blocks of Marble before Comminution are not fluid , either according to him or according to me ; nay , the greatest Comminution imaginable would not , according to my Doctrine , make a lump of Marble fluid , unless the heap composed of the parts , how minute soever , were actually and variously set a moving amongst themselves . But he would perhaps have spoken more warily , if he had considered the difference there is betwixt saying that all things are fluid , and saying , as I do , that there are many bodies that are now solid , which by Comminution , Motion , and other requisite alterations , may be made parts of a fluid body : As hard Ice may be turned into fluid Water , and Quicksilver precipitated per se into a red Powder , may be reduced to running Mercury . As for what he sayes of an infinite divisibility of body , it is scarce in this place worth while to examine it . For I have shewn in the History of Firmness , that this Divisibility ( which I had then considered ) does no way overthrow my Doctrine of Fluidity ; nor does Mr. Hobbs here answer what I there discourse . Besides that indeed I donot so well understand what he means and drives at , when he sayes that Divisio quidem infinita concipi non potest , Divisibilitas autem facile . For since in this very passage and within a very few lines he has recourse in this matter to God's Omnipotence , I see not why an infinite division cannot be as well conceived as an infinite divisibility , since sure an Omnipotent Agent is able to do what is possible to be done ; and why else should a body be called infinitely divisible ? Besides , when Mr. Hobbs has recourse to what God can do , ( whose Omnipotence we have both great reason to acknowledge ) it imports not to the Controversie about Fluidity to determine what the Almighty Creator can do , but what he actually has done . And , lastly , whereas my Adversary requires to have the magnitude defined which a part of a falling Wall ought to have to deserve the name of fluid ; first , he should have clearly proved that Fluidity belongs to any one single part of matter how minute soever , and not rather to an aggregate of Particles . And next I say those Corpuscles that compose a fluid body may be of several sizes , as those of Water , Oyl , and Quicksilver , provided they be little enough to be put into the agitation requisite to give the aggregate they make up the qualities that are wont to denominate bodies fluid ; and 't is no more requisite for me to define precisely the magnitudes of the parts of a fluid body , than for Mr. Hobbs in his Definition above-recited to define ( which he will not easily do ) what precise degree of endeavour must be signified by that very weak endeavour , by which if the parts of a body can be separated from one another , he thinks fit to call them fluid . But though I thought it not amiss to make these Animadversions upon Mr. Hobbs's Ratiocination , yet as to the Opinion it self , for whose sake he speaks so severely and so despairingly of our Society , if it be considered as I propos'd it , he shews me as yet no cause at all to renounce it . For that which I taught is this , That if a solid body be reduc'd into parts minute enough , those solid Corpuscles , whilst they are put into a convenient motion , may become parts of a fluid body . And against this Mr. Hobbs's indignation seems stronger than his Argument : For that which he objects being as we have lately seen , that at this rate all bodies must be fluid ; 't is evident by what I have already argued , that he infers this Absurdity not from my Opinion , but his own mistake of it : nor did I content my self with the proofless proposal of my Conjecture , but I delivered in several parts of the often mention'd History particular Experiments to evince what I taught : As that a consistent coagulum of pure spirits of Urine and Wine may by bare digestion be turned into a permanent liquor ; and that the fluid body of Quicksilver may without any sensible addition be turned into a permanent dry Powder , and may again in a trice by bare heat be turned into a lastingly fluid body . Whereto I added other Experiments , which together with these Mr. Hobbs would possibly have thought fit to answer , if he had found it easie for him to do so . After this passage extant in Mr. Hobbs's fifth page that I have all this while been examining , I remember nothing in his Dialogue that requires to be insisted on about Fluidity and Firmness , till we come to the 29. page , where having asked what cause the Academians assign of Hardness , 't is answered that some of them assign three : to which Mr. Hobbs so far agrees as to say , Quin corpuscula ( qualia sunt atomi quas supponit Lucretius atque etiam Hobbius ) jam ante dur a facile possint ab aliqua dict arum causaram compingi , it a ut totum ex illis factum durum fiat , dubitandum non est . But then he would have us assign the cause of that he calls durum primum . But after some discourse , wherein he is pleased to approve an Objection of mine against some learned men that ascribe all Cohesion of bodies to a certain Glue , he answers himself the Objection he frames against my Doctrine about Hardness , and thereby allowed me to proceed to what he further presses in these words , Si dura ex primis duris fieri dicant , quare non & fluida fieri putant ex primis fluidis ? An creari fluida maxima potuere , ut aether , minima non potuere ? Qui Corpusculum durum aut fluidum primus fecit , potuit , si libuisset , illud fecisse tum majus , tum minus quocunque corpore dato . Quod si fluidum fiat ex non fluidis , ut vos dicitis , & durum ex duris tantum , nonne sequitur ex fluidis primis neque fluidum fieri neque durum ? But against this passage I have divers things to represent . For , first , ( not now to mention that it may be questioned with what propriety one part of matter more than another may be called primum durum ) he should have told us what he means by his prima fluida , and how he proves that there are any such ; which since he has not done , 't will be at least as hard for a considering man to acquiesce in his Question as to answer it . For my part , I know no fluid body upon whose account , as of an Ingredient , all others are fluid . And , I think , 't will be hard for Mr. Hobbs to shew that Water , Quicksilver , and purely-rectifi'd Chymical Oyles ( to name now no other liquors ) do consist of such fluida prima as he teaches , whereto they owe all their Fluidity . And 't is plain by several Experiments delivered in our History , and even by the obvious changes of Water and Ice into one another , that 't is the motion , rest , and the texture of the Corpuscles which compose a Body , that make it firm or fluid . As for what Mr. Hobbs demands , whether the smallest Fluids imaginable could not as well have been created as the AEther , it proves nothing against me , the Question not being , what might have been made , but what is so . And he should have answered the Arguments I * alledge to make it improbable that a fluid body is , as he would perswade us in his Book † De Corpore , alwayes divisible into bodies equally fluid , as Quantity into Quantities . 'T is true , he there tells us that , though many others do not , He understands by Fluidity that which is made such by Nature equally in every part of the fluid body , in such manner as water seems fluid , and to divide it self into parts perpetually fluid . But whether others will take this for a clear Notion of Fluidity I think may well be doubted ; and he should not barely say , but prove , ( which , I think he will find hard to do ) that the Corpuscles of water divide themselves so as he teaches , since we see , that not onely they cannot penetrate Glass , but are unable to be driven in at the Pores of more open bodies , which other liquors easily pierce into . And , lastly , as to Mr. Hobbs's Question , Quod si fluidum fiat &c. 't is easie to foresee what according to my Doctrine I may answer : For , not to mention that the Argumentation is invalid , unless by Fluidum he mean Omne fluidum , I reply , That till he have explained what he means by his Fluida prima , and proved that there are such , the Question needs no Answer . Besides that whatever he upon mistakes strives to infer , my Doctrine is so far from affirming that there are many parts of matter of which neither fluid nor hard bodies can be made , that I teach , as we have lately seen , that there are multitudes of parts that may , by being reduced to a sufficient smalness and put into a convenient motion , or by being brought to a mutual contact and rest , be made to constitute either a fluid body or a firm one : as may be exemplified in the formerly-mentioned instances of two subtile liquors that immediately composed a consistent body ; and of Quicksilver , which without additaments was made sometimes a Powder , and sometimes a liquor . What Mr. Hobbs addes in the next page about the difficulty of explaining the Diaphaneity of Glass or Crystal , in case they consisted of Corpuscles hard and implicated , or having their Pores in any way whatsoever disjoyned , I must not now insist on ; since besides that such a disquisition would require almost a Volume , the true and general cause of Transparency in bodies is in my poor Opinion one of the abstrusest things in Natural Phylosophy ; and Mr. Hobbs's Explication of it ( though none of his worst Conceits ) has for ought I can find fallen short of satisfying the Curious , as well as those of other men have done . But to me , that have not taken upon me to write Elements of Phylosophy , it is enough that I have by competent Experiments and other Proofs confirm'd the truth of my Doctrine about the cause of Firmness ; though I attempt not to explicate the other qualities of the same bodies , whose Explication my undertaking does not exact . Wherefore I hope I may now hasten to conclude this Appendix , with spending a few words on the Notion of Fluidity and Firmness Mr. Hobbs would substitute instead of mine . For , having now ( perhaps but too prolixly ) examined what he has been pleased to object against my doctrine , I shall not need spend time to vindicate the Experiments and Considerations whereon I built it , Mr. Hobbs , for reasons best known to himself , not having thought fit to take notice of them . Mr. Hobbs's Theory of Fluidity and Firmness is thus delivered by himself ; B. Quaenam duri & fluidi sunt principia ? A. Quid aliud nisi fluidi quidem , Quies , duri autem , Motus quidam ad illum effectum producendum idoneus ? Per Quietem intelligo duar am partium inter se quietem cum se mutuo tangunt quidem , sed non premunt : Nam & fluida moveri tota possunt retenta fluiditate , & dura quiescere , ut tamen partes eorum moveantur . I doubt not but this will to most Readers seem a Paradox . And as for his Ratiocination contain'd in the two last lines , I shall readily allow him that Fluida moveri tota possunt retent a fluiditate , since that I think agrees at least as well with my Hypothesis as his : but whereas he adds that hard bodies may rest , and yet their parts be moved , that may in one case be conceived , and in another not . For indeed the implicated parts of a firm body may be made to tremble or a little vibrate as it were to and fro , as those of a sounding Bell do , or as in a Hedge the branches and twigs may be shaken by the wind , whilst the trees and bushes themselves continue rooted in the ground . But that in a body the constituent Corpuscles should all or most of them be moved quite out of their places in respect of one another , as was lately shewn to happen in fluids , and yet the body continue hard , is more requisite than easie to be proved . But Mr. Hobbs contents himself to alledge in favour of his strange Notion touching Fluidity and Firmness three particulars , which , I confess , afford me not the least satisfaction . The first is drawn from what he formerly taught touching the swift motion of the Air in our Cylinder ; which example ( as he calls it ) having repeated , he adds , Atque hinc manifestum est vehementem esse in aëre it a moto & clauso compressionem , quantam scilicet efficere potest vis illa qua incussus erat ; atque etiam à tanta compressione aliquem gradum consistentiae fieri , quanquam consistentia aquae minorem . Quod si esset in iisdem particulis aëris omnibus , praeter motum illum quo alter a alteram premit , motus ille circularis simplex , isque satis vehemens , impossibile fere esset unam earum à suo circello dimoveri , quin reliquis particulis resistentibus , totus simul premeretur , idest , totum durum esset : durum enimest totumillud , cujus nulla cedit parsnisi cedente toto . Vides ergoposse fieri duritiem in fluidissimo aëre per motum hunc circularem simplicem particularem , quibus duo motus contrarii ante dederant vertiginem . But , I confess , I do not see how the Motus circularis simplex he talks of should give such a hardness to the fluid Air : nor is it manifest to me how the Air that perfectly fills the Cylinder can be by motion compress'd , especially so far as to obtain thereby a degree of consistence fit to be mentioned , as he speaks of it , when ( without adding the word much , or any other equivalent term ) he sayes that yet 't is less than the consistence of water . For the Cylinder being , according to him , perfectly full of Air , I see not how the Pumping can make the Cavity ( to use his own expression elsewhere ) fuller than full ; nor consequently can compress the Air to a consistence any thing near that of water , without penetration of Dimensions . But these things were mentioned onely ex abundanti , for the violent motion it self of the Air in the Cylinder ( which motion the Argument supposes ) has been already , in the Examen of one of the former passages of his Dialogue , sufficiently manifested to be contrary to Experience . The second thing Mr. Hobbs alledges is his Conceit of the Generation of Flesh within the Muscles of the humane body . But besides that he takes for granted two or three things which many learned Anatomists and Physicians , even among the Moderns , will scarce allow him , and which he does not prove : besides this , I say , ( which I may elsewhere have occasion to consider further ) the account he gives of the Generation of Flesh from these suppositions , is far from being evidently enough deduc'd to vie for clearness with many of those Experiments which I have alledged in favour of the Opinion he opposes . And whereas he adds , Atque talis quidem esse potest causa efficiens Duri primi , Duri autem secundi , id est , Duri à cohaesione durorum primorum , causa potest esse motus ille idem circularis simplex conjunctus cum contactu eorundem superficiali , vel etiam intricatione : Not again to say any thing to his durum primum , I confess I do not see how the motus circularis simplex should need to be superadded to the Contact or Intrication of the cohering firm Corpuscles , to procure a Cohesion , to which'tis needless , and which in divers cases may be rather hindered than furthered by it . The third thing that Mr. Hobbs alledges is not so much a confirmation of his own Doctrine , as an Objection , as he seems to think , against that of his Adversaries . For , Si supponamus ( sayes he presently after his last-recited words ) cum illis , duritiei causam esse magnitudinem aut crassitiem partium , quam rationem reddere poterimus , cur durior vel firmior sit aqua congelata , quam est eadem aqua ante congelationem ? But it may easily be replyed , That we make not the bigness or grosness of the parts of a body the onely or chief cause of its hardness , but their rest by one another , which the parts of frozen water have ; whereas those of unfrozen water have it not , but are in a state of Fluidity , and consequently not of Firmness . Which may be illustrated by what I * elsewhere relate of pure Oyle of Aniseeds , and a substance I distilled out of Benzoin , both which bodies were sometimes fluid and sometimes consistent , as the greater or lesser warmth of the Air kept their parts in a due motion or suffered them to rest . But in exchange of these few & unconcluding arguments , which are all that Mr. Hobbs alledges to countenance his Paradox , how many Experiments and Reasons mightwe transcribe out of our History of Fluidity and Firmness in favour of the contrary Truth ? And as Critical as Mr. Hobbs appears in laying down the requisites of a good Hypothesis , I must make bold to the two conditions he mentions ( pag. 11. ) Vt sit conceptibilis ( idest , non absurda ) ( which whether it be enough I now dispute not ) & Vt ab ea concessa inferri possit Phaenomeni necessitas , to adde a third , namely , That it be not inconsistent with any other Truth or Phaenomenon of Nature . Which third condition whether divers of Mr. Hobbs's Hypotheses ( which himself in this place calls mirandae ) do not want , we have in part already considered in the Treatise to which this is an Appendix ; and ( as I newly intimated ) I might further shew as to his Notion of Fluidity and Firmness , if I would here repeat all the Experiments mentioned in my History of them , though they be not all that I have made ready to the same purpose against another opportunity : but partly weariness , and partly a natural unwillingness to repeat , induces me rather to refer my Reader thither . Which when I do , I do not forget that Mr. Hobbs appears offended at me and others for troubling our selves to make un-obvious Experiments . But that I may not repeat what in divers Treatises I represent concerning the Usefulness of such Experiments , I shall now onely oppose to the Authority of Mr. Hobbs in this Dialogue , wherein he has been pleased to chuse those he calls the Experimentarian Philosophers for his Adversaries , the Authority and Reason of the same Mr. Hobbs in another Dialogue ( published but the year before ) where one of his two Discoursers having said , Qui corpora corporibus admovendo , nova & mirabilia ostendunt Naturae opera , mirum in modum incendunt animos hominum amore Philosophiae , & ad causas investigandas non parum instigant , eoque nomine laude digni sunt : the other confirms it by adding , It a est ; nam historiam Naturalem ( sine qua scientia Naturalis frustra quaeritur ) locupletant . And howsoever Mr. Hobbs needed not have recourse to such Experiments as he would be thought to disapprove , ( I mean Elaborate ones ) to discern that his Notions do not over-well agree with the Phaenomena . For , if there be not a various motion in the small parts of Water and such liquors , whence is it that a lump of common Salt being thrown into a pot of water is there dissolved into minute bodies , whereof many are carried to the very top of the water , and are so exquisitely diffused and mingled with the liquor , that each least drop of it contains numbers of Saline Corpuscles ? And if motion be the cause rather of hardness than fluidity , how comes it to pass that in frosty weather Ice is by heat ( which Mr. Hobbs will not deny to be motion , or an effect of it ) turned from a hard to a fluid body ? And that Metals , as Gold and Silver , &c. whilst they are either cold , or exposed but to a moderate heat are firm and consistent bodies ; and by a violent heat , which does manifestly give their parts a various and vehement agitation , ( as appears by their sudden dissipating of Spittle , Greace , and far more stable bodies , cast upon them , into smoak ) are put into a fluidity , which upon their removal from the fire they quickly exchange for firmness ? But since the want of more to say would not in haste put a Period to this Discourse , I am content to let my Haste break it off ; especially since after I have thus examined what Mr. Hobbs teaches concerning Fluidity and Firmness , either here , or in that Section of his Elements where he pretends to define them , I think I need not fear that a Doctrine which I have perhaps with some care endeavoured to establish , for the main , upon Experiments , should be overthrown by Opinions whose grounds are but such as we have already seen ; and in pleading for which the Author is pleased not onely to leave almost all my Arguments untouch'd , but not so much as to offer at explicating by his Principles any of those numerous and important Phaenomena of Fluidity and Firmness delivered in the Treatise he opposes . And now leaving Mr. Hobbs to apply my self to the Reader , I have to the things hitherto discourst but this one thing to adde concerning them , That as little cause as Mr. Hobbs has hitherto given me to distrust what I have written of Fluidity and Firmness ; yet I am not now more confident of my Conjectures than I was , when toward the end of the Preface to the History of these two Qualities I spoke diffidently enough of the Theorical part of that Treatise . And I freely confess , that the great difficulty of things , and the little abilities I find my self furnisht with to surmount it , do often in general beget in me a great distrust even of things whereof my Adversaries Objections give me not any . FINIS . The Citations English'd PAg. 12. Quanquam vis , &c. Although the force of that motion in the evacuated Receiver be diminished , being opprest by the consistence of the Air moved within , yet it is not extinguished : and therefore that oppression being taken off will have strength enough to excite an appearance of light , though somewhat weaker than ordinary . p. 13 , 14. Sine , &c. Without which Hypothesis let never so much labour , art , cost be bestowed for the finding out of the invisible causes of natural things , all will be in vain . p. 15. Cum ejus , &c. Seeing almost all its parts are flexil , like little soft feathers to fine threds . Ibid. Sed quisquis , &c. But it matters not who was the Author of that Supposition . For the very Hypothesis it self , wherein is supposed a motion of subtil matter , which is swift without any cause assigned , and hath moreover divers innumerable circulations of Corpuscles generated from the single motion of that matter , is not the conceipt of a man of wit or sense . p. 16. Nempe hoc , &c. This is the thing that the great Des-Cartes somewhere admired , that he , whether his Positions are true or false , doth never in argumentation make any right inference from his Suppositions . p. 17. Quod sane , &c. Which is indeed a most evident argument of the weight of the Air. Ibid. Quod quidem lanx , &c. That the Scale in which the Bladder is , is more deprest than the other , they may be certain , their eyes bearing them witness : but that this comes from the natural gravity of the Air he cannot be assured ; especially if they are ignorant what is the efficient cause of Gravity . p. 18. Quod vesica , &c. That the Bladder , whether it be blown up with a pair of Bellows , or with the breath of ones mouth , is heavier than when it is not blown up , I will not deny , because of the greater quantity of Atoms from the Bellows , or of fuliginous Corpuseles that are blown in from the breath . But notwithstanding they gather nothing of sufficient certainty from this Experiment of a blown Bladder . They ought to have put into the Scales two Vessels of equal weight , whereof one should be shut and the other open : For by this means Air not blown in , but onely inclosed , had been weighed . When therefore you shall see Air so weighed , we will afterwards consider what may be said concerning the Phaenomenon you bring . p. 19. Quod Atmosphaerae , &c. That many Particles both of Earth and Water mingled with the AEthereal body are in the Atmosphere , I am easily persuaded : but that in the middle of the AEther they should move upwards , downwards , every way , and that one leaning on the back of another they should not gravitate , is a thing utterly unconceivable . p. 20. Aer quo , &c. The Air , with which in the beginning the Spherical Glass was full , being moved by those Earthy Corpuscles in a simple circular motion , and being comprest by the force of the Injection , that of it which is pure ( penetrating the injected Water ) gets out into the open Air , and gives place to the Water . It follows therefore that those earthy Corpuscles have less place left , in which they can exercise their natural motion : therefore beating one upon another they force the water to go out ; it thus going out , the external Air ( because the Universe is supposed to be full ) penetrates it , and successively takes up the place of the Air that goes out , until the Corpuscles , the same quantity of Air being restored , regain a liberty natural to their motion . p. 21. Quoniam , per , &c. Because by the drawing back of the Sucker the pure Air was thrust in , but the earthy parts were not thrust in ; there was a greater proportion of earthy Particles , which without the Cylinder were near the Sucker , unto the pure Air , in which they exercised their motion as well after this revulsion as before . Wherefore these Particles so moved having less place to exercise their natural motion in , some of them fell foul and beat upon the rest . So that of necessity the Particles that were near the surface of the Sucker must drive it upwards . Ibid. Vidisti , &c. You see now that the Spring of the Air , which they fuppose , is either an impossible thing : or they must ( for its defence ) have recourse to the Hypothesis of Mr. Hobbs . p. 23. Quia cuticula omnis , &c. Because every skin is made up of small threds or filaments , which by reason of their figures cannot accurately touch in all points . The Bladder therefore , being a skin must be pervious not onely to Air but to Water also , as to sweat : Therefore of the Air beat in by force there is the same compression within the Bladder that there is without . The endeavour of which , the way of its motions being every way cross , tends every way to the concave superficies of the Bladder . Wherefore it is of necessity that it must swell every way , and the vehemency of the endeavour increasing , be torn at last . p. 26. Intellexti , &c. Have you understood my Hypotheses ? 1. That there are with the Air intersperst many earthy Particles , endued with a simple circular motion , congenite to its nature . 2. That there is a greater quantity of these Particles in the Air that is near the Earth , than in that which is more remote from it . p. 27. Neque est , &c. nor is there any one that hitherto has brought any reason why it may not be so . p. 29. Nihil , &c. Nothing is moved but by a contiguous Body that is in motion . Ibid. Dum Suctor , &c. While the Sucker is drawn back , by how much a greater place is left ( within , ) by so much a lesser place is left to the external Air , which being thrust backwards by the motion of the Sucker towards the outmost parts , doth move in like manner the Air that is next it self , and that Air the next , and so forwards ; so that it is of necessity at last that the Air must be compell'd into the space deserted by the Sucker , and to enter between the convex and surface of the Sucker , and the concave of the Cylinder . For it being supposed that the parts of the Air are infinitely subtil , it is impossible but they should insinuate themselves that way by which the Sucker is drawn down . For first , the contact of those surfaces cannot be perfect in all points , because the surfaces themselves cannot be made infinitely smooth . Then , that force which is applied to draw back the Sucker , doth distend in some measure the cavity of the Cylinder . Lastly , if in the confines of ( that is , betwixt ) the two surfaces any one single hard Atom should enter , pure Air will enter at the same way , although with a weak endeavour . I might also have accounted that Air which for the same cause insinuates it self through the Valve of the Cylinder . You see therefore the consequence from the retraction of the Sucker , to the being of an Empty place is taken away . It will follow also that the Air which is driven up into the place deserted by the Sucker , because it is driven up thither by a great force , is moved with a very swift and circular motion betwixt the top and the bottom in the Cylinder , because there is nothing there that can weaken its motion : and you know that there is nothing that can give motion to its own self , or diminish it . p. 39. Haerent hic , &c. Here our men are at a stand : How will you expedite this difficulty ? A. I have don 't already : For the Air being beaten back by the retraction of the Sucker , and finding no place in the world ( which we suppose to be full ) where it might dispose it self , besides that which by driving out other bodies from their places it may make for it self , is by perpetual pulsion at length forced in the Cylinder with so great swiftness , between the concave surface of the Cylinder and the convex surface of the Sucker , as may answer that store of power which you found necessary to the drawing back of the Sucker . Now the Air , with what swiftness it enters , retains the same within , and then distends every way the sides of the Brass Cylinder , which is ( of it self ) Elastical . Therefore the Air in the Cylinder being vehemently moved , endeavours or thrusts against all parts of the concave surface of the Cylinder ; but in vain , untill the Sucker , is drawn back : But as soon as the Sucker having slipt the hand , ceases to make its impulse upon the Air , that Air which was before driven in , by reason of its endeavour against every point of the internal superficies of the Cylinder and of the Elastical force of the Air , will insinuate it self between the same surfaces with the same swiftness as that by which it was impell'd , that is , with that velocity which answers the strength of the impulsion . If therefore so great a power of Weight be hung upon the Sucker as may answer the power of the hands by which it was impulss'd ; the swiftness with which the same Air goes out of the Cylinder , finding no place in the world ( which is full ) where to dispose it self , will again impell the Sucker to the top of the Cylinder , for the same reason that the Sucker a little before made an impulse upon the Air. p. 44. In vas , &c. B. We poured water into an open Vessel , we placed in the water a long , streight , slender Tube ; and we observed that the water did ascend from the Vessel underneath into the erected Tube . A. No wonder : For the small Particles that are interspers'd in the Air near the Water , did by their motion beat upon the surface of the Water , so that the Water must of necessity ascend into the Pipe , and that sensibly into a Pipe that was so exceeding slender . p. 45. Siquis , &c. If any one after the frequently-repeated impulse and retraction of the Sucker , endeavour to draw out the Stopple of the upper Orifice of the Receiver , he shall find it gravitates very much , as if a weight of many pounds hung upon it . Whence comes this ? A. From a strong circular endeavour of the Air within the Receiver , made by the violent ingress of the Air between the convex surface of the Sucker and the concave of the Cylinder , procured by the repeated impulse and revulsion of the Sucker , which you improperly call the Exsuction of the Air. For by reason of the fullness of Nature the Stopple cannot be drawn out , but the Air that is in the Receiver ( contiguous to the Stopple ) must be drawn out too : which Air , if it were settled and at rest , the Stopple would easily be drawn out ; but whiles that doesmost swiftly circulate , it comes out very hardly , that is , it seems to be very heavy . B. Very likely : For as soon as fresh Air is by degrees let into the Receiver , it likewise by degrees loses this seeming gravity . p. 47. Vidimus , &c. We saw also water , being let down into the Receiver , after some returns of the motion of the Sucker , to bubble so as if it had boiled over a fire . A. This likewise happens , as we spake , by reason of the swiftness of the circulating Air : unless perhaps you find the water hot too whiles it bubbles . For if we were sure it was hot , we must find out some other cause of the Phaenomenon . B. We are certain it is not sensibly hot . A. In what therefore can the greater or lesser motion of the Atmosphere promote such a motion as this ? B. I suppose they do not attribute this motion to the Atmosphere . p. 49. A. It is manifest from this Experiment , that the Receiver is not made empty by this exsuction of Air , as you call it : For the water could not be moved but by some contiguous mover , that was it self in motion . Therefore this Phaenomenon seems to contain no weak demonstration of my Hypothesis . p. 50. Besides , tell me , could you see the water bubbling in that manner ? B. What else ? A. Do not your Associates grant that Vision is made by a continued action from the object unto the eye ? Do they not also think action to be motion , and all motion to be of some body ? How therefore could the motion be derived from the object , the water , unto your eyes through a Vacuum , that is somewhat that is not a body ? B. Our friends do not affirm the Recipient to be so empty that no Air at all is left . A. No matter whether the Receiver be wholly , or for the greater part empty ; for which ever you suppose , the derivation of the motion from the object to the eye will be intercepted . B. It may be so ; I can't tell what to answer . p. 51. Credin ' tu , &c. Do you think these Animals were therefore so quickly killed because they wanted Air ? How then do they who make a trade of Diving live under water , of whom there be some who being accustomed from their childhood have wanted Air a whole hour ? No. Thatmost vehement motion by which Bladders shut therein are distended and broken , kills these Animals shut up in the Receiver . Ibid. Ego contra , &c. I on the contrary think that neither the Air can be suck'd out , nor that the Animal would so soon dye if it were suck'd out . The action indeed to which this death is a consequent may seem either a certain suction ( and so , that the Animal is kill'd by the exsuction of the included Air , its Respiration being taken away ) or a compulsion of the Air from all parts towards the Centre of the spherical Glass in which the Animal is inclosed , and so may be seen to dye stifled by the tenacity of the compress'd Air , as it were , with Water ; the Air more tenacious than usual , being drawn into the inwards of the Lungs , and there between the Pulmonary Artery and Vein stopping the course of the blood . p. 53. Placet , &c. Your Hypothesis pleases me better than that of the Spring of the Air : For from its truth depends the truth of a Vacuum or a Plenum ; but from the truth of that nothing follows on either part of the Question . The make of the Air ( sayes he ) is like that of comprest wooll . Well ; wooll is made of hairs or threds . Right ; but of what figure ? if of a Parallelopipedon , there can be no compression of parts : if not of a Parallelopipedon , there will be betwixt the hairs certain spaces left , which if they be empty they suppose some place empty , to prove that a Vacuum is possible ; if full , they say that is full which they suppose to be empty . p. 56. Fuere , &c. There were some of them that said there remained in those coals ( though they seem'd extinguish'd ) some fiery Particles , which being blow'd up by the Air upon its admission did re-kindle the rest of the mass . Ibid. Nae , &c. In good faith they seem not so much as to have considered what they should speak , as to have taken it up at all adventures . Do you believe that in a kindled coal , there is any part which is not a coal but fire ; or in a red-hot Iron there is any part that is not Iron but Fire ? A great City may be set on fire by one spark : Now if the body of fire be different from the thing fired , there can be no more parts of fire in the whole Town on fire than that one spark . We see bodies of divers kinds may be set on fire by the light of the Sun , as well by the Refraction as the Reflexion that is made in Burning-glasses . And yet I do not believe that there is any man thinks that Particles of fire darted from the Sun can pass through the substance of a crystal Globe . And in the Air between the Sun and the Globe there is no fire . p. 58. When is it that we may truly say of a man that he is dead , or ( which is the same ) hath expired his Soul ? For it has been known that some men who have been taken for dead , being brought out the next day revived . A. It is hard to determine the point of time in which the soul is separated from the body . Proceed therefore to other Experiments . p. 59. Si acus , &c. If a Needle excited by a Loadstone hang freely within the Receiver , it will nevertheless follow the motion of the Iron which is drawn about without the Receiver . So objects put within will be seen by those that are without , and sounds made within will be heard without : all these as well after as before the exsuction of the Air , except that the sounds are somewhat more weakly heard after than before . B. These are most manifest signs that the Receiver is alwayes full , and that the Air cannot thence be suck'd out . That the sounds thence are more weak to ones hearing is a sign of the consistence of the Air ; for the consistence of the Air is diametrically opposite from its motion . p. 61. Quia nihil &c. Because there was nothing there that the weight of the Atmosphere should do ; no more strong or evident Argument could be made against a Vacuum than this Experiment . For if of two coherent Marbles either of them should be thrust forward that way that their surfaces lye contiguous , they would easily be sever'd ; the neighbouring Air successively flowing into the deserted place . But so to pull them asunder , that at one time they should lose their whole contact , is impossible , the world being full . For then either motion must be made from one term to another in an instant , or two bodies at the same time must be in the same place : to say either of which is absurd . p. 62. Confitentur , &c. They themselves and all others confess , that all Ponderation is an endeavour every way by right lines unto the Centre of the Earth ; and so that it is made not by the figure of a Cylinder or Column , but by a Pyramide , whose top is the Centre of the Earth , and whose Basis is part of the surface of the Atmosphere . Ibid. Conatus , &c. Therefore the endeavour of all the points that ponderate will be propagated to the surface of the upper Marble , before it can be propagated further ( suppose ) to the Earth . p. 64. Has , &c. These Scales he puts one upon another and draws out the Air , and then are they kept so comprest and united by the gravity of the external Air , that six strong men cannot pull them asunder . But if at length by the use of utmost endeavour they are pluckt in sunder , they make a noise equal to the report of a Musquet ; but as soon as ever by the Stop-cock open'd there is the least entrance given to the Air , they are severed of their own accord . p. 65. Sed vis , &c. But can the Spring , which they say is in the Air , confer nothing to the holding up the Marble ? — Nothing at all : For there is no endeavour of the Air to the Centre of the Earth , more than to any other point in the Universe . For seeing that heavy things tend from the circumference of the Atmosphere unto the Centre of the Earth , and thence again to the circumference of the Atmosphere by the same reflected lines , the endeavour upwards will be equal to the endeavour downwards , and so destroying one another they will endeavour neither way . p. 66. Non potest ergo pars BC , &c. Therefore the part BC ( that is a part of the Atmosphere placed any where within the whole ) cannot ( by reason of its greatness ) descend , although it be heavy , and therefore it cannot press or gravitate . Ibid. Si possibile , &c. If I should deny it possible , that by the art of man two furfaces of two bodies could be made so accurately fit that they should touch in all points , so that there could no creable Corpuscle pass between them ; I do not see how they could defend their own Hypothesis , or disprove our Negative assertion . Ibid. Vtraque , &c. Both these Fancies , as well that of the Weight as of the Spring or Antitupy of the Air , are Dreams . But if it be granted that there is a kind of Recoyling in those small hairs or slender Corpuscles of which the Air consists ; one may enquire whence it is that those crooked bodies , settled and at quiet in that posture , came to be moved into a streightness . They ought , if they will be esteemed Natural Phylosophers , to assign some possible cause of this . p. 67. Cur non , &c. Why cannot the water , which when it was injected did compress the particles of Air , be again cast out by the same particles explicating themselves ? A. Because when explicated they require no greater place than when comprest : As in a vessel full of water , wherein are many Eeles , the same proportion of place receives them , whether they are folded round or at length . Therefore they cannot drive up the water by their Spring , which is nothing else but the motion of bodies explicating themselves . B. The comparison of Air to Eeles in water I suppose will be well received by our Academians . p. 68. Vides , &c. You see how foolish a thing it is to bring for the explication of such effects Metaphorical words , as the shunning of a Vacuum , the ahhorrence of Nature , &c. which heretofore the Schools used to defend their reputation . Ibid. In the Gardeners Watering-pots therefore is the water suspended , because that which issues out at so small a hole is so little , that it cannot diffuse it self to such a length , that by its descent it may give passage to the Air through the circumferences of the holes . Nor can the Air driven off by the water going out find any other place besides that which the water leaves . p. 69. Qui per , &c. He that sucks water into his mouth by a Pipe , first sucks up the Air between , whereby he removes the distended external Air , which being removed ( the world being full ) it can have no place but by removing the next , and so by continual pulsion the water is at length driven into the Pipe , and doth fucceed the Air which is suckt out . p. 72. Id vero , &c. But that is impossible : For in a Siphon , unless both legs are filled with water , the water will not ascend out of the Bason . The cause of its ascent into that cloth is the motion of the earthy Atoms which are near the water , I say the simple circular motion communicated to the Air in which they move , which Atoms striking the water beat it up into the woolly matter , which beating of them against the cloth makes it more and more moist , till it becomes all over wet . And when it is so , &c. p. 73. A. Fateris , &c. You confess then that your Collegiates have as yet in nothing advanced the knowledge of natural causes , but that one of them hath found out an Engine , in which there may be such a motion of the Air excited , that the parts of the Sphere may together every way tend unto the Centre , and that the Hypotheses of Mr. Hobbs , before probable enough , may be thence made more probable . B. Right ; I am not ashamed to confess it ; for it is somewhat to arrive so far , if we can make no further progress . A. Why so far ? To what end such preparation and charge for Engines difficult to be made , to make no further discovery than Mr. Hobbs had made before you ? Why did you not rather begin where he ended ? Why did you not use the Principles he had laid ; and when Aristotle had rightly said , That without the knowledge of Motion there is no knowledge of Nature , how durst you take such a task upon your selves ? Ibid. Est , &c. Thus to have made an entrance though we miss Of further progress , some performance is . p. 75. But most of us distinguish the nature of fluid from that which is not fluid , by the greatness of the parts of which any body consists and is made up with . Wherefore we do not onely look upon Air , Water , and all Liquors , but upon Ashes also and Dust , as fluid bodies . And we deny not that fluid things may be made of things not fluid ; for we do not digest the Notion of infinite Divisibility . A. Infinite Division cannot be conceived , but ( infinite ) Divisibility may easily . I on the contrary do not understand the distinction of Fluids and not Fluids , which you take from the greatness of the parts : could I digest this , I must say , the ruines of shattered rubbish stones that lye in Pauls were fluid . But if those ruines cannot be called fluid because the stones are too big , define me the bigness that the parts of a ruin'd wall must have that they may be called fluid . But you that cannot understand infinite Divisibility , tell me what you think to be the cause why I should think it more hard for Almighty God to create a fluid body less than any Atom proposed , that its parts might actually flow , than to create the Ocean . Therefore you make me despair of any fruit of your meeting , by saying , that they think Air , Water , and other fluids consist of Non-fluids ; as if a wall that began to fall and be ruinous were called by them a fluid body . If they may speak so , every thing is fluid , for even Marble it self may be broken into parts less than any Atom imagin'd by Epicurus . p. 79. Ruina , &c. The ruines that lye in Pauls Church might be called fluid . Ibid. Si sic , &c. If they may so speak , there is nothing but is fluid , for even Marble may be beaten into parts less than any Epicurean Atom . p. 80. Divisio , &c. Division that is infinite cannot be conceived , Divisibility may easily . p. 81 , 82. Quia corpuscula , &c. But the Corpuscles ( such as are the Atoms supposed by Lucretius and also by Mr. Hobbs ) being hard before might be easily compacted by any of the mention'd causes , so that it is not to be doubted but that the whole to be made of those Corpuscles will be hard . Ibid. Si dura , &c. If hard bodies are made out of parts originally hard , why are not fluid bodies made of parts originally fluid ? Could great fluids , as the AEther , be created ; and could not small ones ? He that first made a body hard or fluid , could if he would have made it greater or less than any other proposed body . Now if a fluid body be made of parts not fluid , ( as you speak ) and hard bodies onely from hard parts ; doth it not follow that nothing neither fluid nor hard is made of original fluids ? p. 84. B. Quaenam , &c. What are the principles of Fluidity and Firmness . A. Of Fluidity nothing but Rest , of Firmness Motion , such as is fit to produce that effect . By Rest I understand the rest of two parts one with another , when they each touch , but neither press one another . For entire bodies of fluids may be in motion their fluidity abiding , and hard bodies be at rest although their parts be in motion . p. 85. Atque binc , &c. And hence it is manifest that there is a great compression in the Air so moved and shut up , namely , so great as that force by which it was driven in was able to make ; and also that from so great compression some degree of consistence must be made , though less than that of the consistence of water . Now if in all the same Particles of Air , besides the motion by which one presses another , there was also the simple circular motion and that vehement enough , it would be almost impossible any one of them should be moved from its little circle ; but that the other Particles resisting , the whole would be pressed together , that is , become hard : For that is hard of which no part gives place but upon the motion of the whole . You see therefore that hardness may be made in a most fluid body by this simple circular motion of Particles , which was before imparted to them by two contrary motions . p. 86. Atque talis , &c. And such indeed may be the cause of the Durum primum , or first hard body . But of the second , that is , of the cohesion of two of these first hard bodies , the cause may be the very same simple circular motion , conjoyned with their superficial contact , or perhaps their being one with another intricated . Ibid. Si supponamus , &c. If we suppose with them that the cause of hardness is the greatness or thickness of the parts , what reason can we give why congealed water should be harder or firmer than the same water is before such congelation ? p. 87. Ut sit , &c. That it be conceivable , that is , not absurd ; and that from its being granted the necessity of the Phaenomenon may be inferr'd . p. 88. Qui , &c. They which putting bodies to bodies shew the new and admirable works of Nature do wonderfully inflame the minds of men with the love of Philosophy , and do not a little instigate them unto the search of Causes , and on that account are worthy of commendation . True ; for they enrich Natural History , without which Natural Science is in vain sought for . A Summary of the Contents of the several Chapters . CHAP. I. THe occasion and scope of the present Treatise . Reasons why Mr. Hobbs might have employed himself otherwise , and have spared this Discourse , p. 2. Why the Author would have been contented he had done so , ibid. Why he now undertakes the Reply , p. 3. CHAP. II. Of some mistakes of Mr. Hobbs touching matters of Fact and the Authors Doctrine . That he mistakes in ascribing the Explications and Experiments in the Physico-Mechanical Treatise of the Society at Gresham College , p. 3. the Experiments having been seen done long , and the book published , before the Society began , &c. p. 4. That the Experiments were not devised nor employed to prove a Vacuum , Ibid. Whether Mr. Hobbs by the Experiment of the Gardeners Watering-pot demonstrates that there can be no Vacuum , p. 5. That if the Watering-pot were tall enough , the water would run out with unstopping the upper Orifice , prov'd by M. Paschal's Experiment , p. 6. The way of Argument on both sides compared , p. 7 , 8. Why the Author did not assign the cause of Springs , p. 9. That Mr. Hobbs his account of Springs is imperfect , and that he has not solved the Phaenomena of them , p. 10 , 11 , 12 , 13. That he mistook the Authors notion of the Air , p. 14. 15. CHAP. III. Wherein the Weight and Spring of the Air are asserted against Mr. Hobbs . Several Experiments recited that prove the real Weight of the Air , p. 16 , 17. Mr. Hobbs's Objections against the Experiment of the heaviness of a blown Bladder , p. 17 , 18. answered , p. 19. The Spring of the Air asserted from Mr. Hobbs's concessions , p. 20 , 21 , The same asserted by particular Experiments , p. 22 , 23. Mr. Hobbs his answer to that of the Bladder considered , p. 23 , 24. Experiments of the Spring of the Air not comprest , p. 25. CHAP. IV. Wherein Mr. Hobbs his principal Explications of the Authors Phaenomena are examined . What things Mr. Hobbs takes for granted , p. 26. His Hypothesis considered of the simple circular motion , whether it be not precariously ascribed to aqueous and earthy Particles , p. 27 , 28. Whether in the exhaustion of the Cylinder any Vacuum be produced , p. 29 , 30 , 31. Experiments to prove that the Glass is in great part devoid of common Air , p. 31 , 32. Whether a purer sort of Air may unperceived dive under Water to pass into the Receiver betwixt the Cylinder and the Suker , p. 33 , 34. That the Cartesian way of explicating this Phaenomenon in favour of the Plenists is more plausible than Mr. Hobbs's , p. 35. Whether the place deserted by the suspended Mercury in the Torricellian Experiment be empty or full of Air , p. 37 , 38. Mr. Hobbs's Explication of that Experiment of Mr. Boyle , in which the Air impells up the Sucker together with above 100. pound weight , p. 39 , 40. The Examination of this Explication , p. 41 , 42. CHAP. V. In which divers scatter'd Explications and other passages in Mr. Hobbs's Dialogue are examined : His Explications why water without visible force ascends in a slender Pipe considered , p. 44 , 45. Why the stopple of the Cover of the exhausted Receiver so much gravitates , considered , p. 46. His Explication and the Authors , why in the exhausting of the Receiver water let down into it boyles as it were or bubbles there , viewed and compared , p. 47 , 48 Whether the Phaenomenon of this water bubbling in the Receiver be an evidence that there is no vacuity in the Receiver , p. 49 , 50. Whether Animals in the exhausted Receiver dye for want of Air , or for the causes assigned by Mr. Hobbs , p. 51 , 52. That the Author asserts not the proof of a Vacuum or Plenum to depend on the Hypothesis of the Spring of the Air , p. 53. That the Air in the exhausted Receiver is not thicker but thinner , not heavier but lighter , proved by Experiments , p. 54 55. The Epicurean Hypothesis of fire , and the effects of the Sun-beams through Burning-glasses , p. 57. Whether he deserves a censure that calls kindled coals fire , p. 58. CHAP. VI. Wherein other passages of Mr. Hobbs's Dialogue that concern the Author are examined . That the Experiments of the Needle 's motion in the exhausted Receiver , and of sounds being audible , and objects visible there , are reconcilable to the doctrine of the Atomists , p. 59. Whether from the cohesion of two Marbles the non : existence of a Vacuum follows , p. 60 , 61. How the lower Marble is upheld , p. 62 , 63. The power of the oblique pressure of the Air to these effects illustrated by Experiments , p. 64. Whether the throwing up of water in the Glass fountains , invented by Vincenzo Vincenti of Urbin , can be explicated by the Spring of the Air , p. 67 , 68. Mr Hobbs's Explication of the cause of waters being suspended in a Gardeners Watering-pot examin'd , p. 69. An Experiment purposely devised to shew that both Vacuists and Plenists should admit an Elastical power in the Air , p. 70 , 71. Mr. Hobbs's correction of the Authors discourse about the ascension of water in Siphons and Filtres animadverted , p. 72. Some unhandsom passages , and such as shew the unequal estimation Mr. Hobbs has of his own and others preformances in Philosophy , p. 73 , 74. What parts of Mr. Hobbs's Treatise , and why , past by without censure by the Author , p. 75. CHAP. VII . ( Being an Appendix to the past Discourse ) Wherein is examined what Mr. Hobbs teaches concerning Fluidity and Firmness . Mr. Hobbs mistakes , and so misreports , the Authors Doctrine of the cause of Fluidity , p. 77. His Animadversions on the Doctrine considered , p. 78 , 79. Whether fluid bodies are made from parts originally fluid , or from small Solids in motion , &c. p. 79 , 80 , 81. Mr. Hobbs's Theory of Fluidity and Firmness examined , p. 81 , 82 , &c. What influence therein his simple circular motion may have , considered , p. 82 , 83. That there is a third requisite of a good Hypothesis , viz. That it be not inconsistent with any Truth or Phaenomenon of Nature , p. 84. That Mr Hobbs his Hypothesis wants this requisite , proved by references , p. 85. By instances out of ordinary , not elaborate , Experiments , p. 86. The Conclusion to the Reader , p. 88. FINIS . A CATALOGUE Of all the PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS Published by our AUTHOR . * NEW Physico-mechanical Experiments concerning the Weight and Spring of the Air ; published in English , Anno Dom. 1660. * A Continuation of them , Part I. 1669. * The Defence of the New Experiments , &c. against Franciscus Linus . The Examen of the Physical Dialogues of Thomas Hobbs , concerning the Air. These two were published , A. D. 1661. * The Sceptical Chymist . 1661. * Physiological Essays , together with the History of Fluidity and Firmness , and some other Tracts , Printed 1662. * The Experimental History of Colours begun , A. 1663. Concerning the usefulness of Experimental Philosophy ; the first Tome : A. 1664. The second Tome was Printed , 1669. * A Tract concerning the Origin of Forms and Qualities , 1666. Though this Tract was turned into Latine divers years before the Genevlan Collection was published , yet was omitted therein whence it appears , that the Publisher was not very cautious , who affirms in his Preface , That all Mr. Boyle's Works are contained in that Volume . The Experimental History of Cold begun , to which is subjoined a Dissertation concerning Antiperistasis , together with an Examen of Mr. Hobbs's Doctrine about Cold ; 1665. * Hydrostatical Paradoxes ; 1666. * The Origin of Forms and Qualities ; the second Edition ; to which is annexed a Dissertation concerning Subordinate Forms ; 1671. * Tracts concerning the Cosmical Qualities of things ; Cosmical Suspicions ; the Temper of the Marine Regions ; the Temper of the Subterranean Regions , and of the Bottom of the Sea : 1671. * An Essay concerning the Origin and Vertues of Gems ; 1672. A Tract containing New Experiments between Flame and Air ; together with an Hydrostatical Dissertation ; 1672. * Some Essays concerning the wonderfull Subtilty and Efficacy of Effluviums , and their determinate Nature ; 1673. Some Tracts consisting of Observations concerning the Saltness of the Sea ; with a Sceptical Dialogue concerning the Nature of Cold both positive and privative ; 1674. Tracts containing some Suspicions concerning some Occult Qualities of the Air ; with an Appendix touching Celestial Magnets , &c. 1674. An Introduction to the History of particular Qualities in the Phylosophical Transactions N. 63. p. 2057. * Of the Excellency of the Mechanical Hypothesis ; N. 103. p. 53. Experiments and Observations concerning the Mechanical Production and Origin of several particular Qualities ; together with some Reflexions upon the Hypothesis of Acid and Alcaly ; 1675. The Sceptical Chymist , or Chymico-physical Doubts and Paradoxes about those Experiments , whereby vulgar Spagyrists do labour to evince , that Sal ; Sulphur and Mercury are the genuine Principles of things ; to which , viz. in this 2d . Edition , sundry Experiments and Considerations are subjoined concerning the Producibleness of Chymical Principles ; 1680. * A Continuation of new Physico-mechanical Experiments ; the second Part ; 1680. The Aerial Noctiluca , or some New Phaenomena and a Process of a Factitious self-shining Substance ; 1680. New Experiments and Observations made upon the Icy Noctiluca , to which is annexed a Chymical Paradox ; 168½ . These are the Philosophical Works of our Author hitherto published ; what he hath wrote in Divinity belongs not properly to this place ; not to mention several Dissertations of his which you may find here and there intersporsed among the Philosophical Transactions published in Print . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A29007-e2470 In a Discourse touching fluidity and firmness . Schottus Mecham hydraulicopneumat . Part 3. Class . 1. Natural and Moral Hist. of the Indies . Lib. 3. c. 9. Geogr. General . Lib. 1. cap. 19. Kirch . Art. Mag. Con. & Disson . lib. 9. p. 309. See the fifteenth Figure . P. Nic. Zucchius apud Scbot . part . 1. Mec. Hydraulopneum . Aere frigido existente tardius moventar Automata quam aere calido , adeo quidem at Automaton quod Belgae in Nova Zembla agentes in aedibus suis collocaverunt omnino à motu cessaverit etsimulto majus pondus ei addidissent quam antea serre solebat . Varenius Geo : General . lib. 111. Propo : 7. pag. 648. P : Nicol : Cab : lib : 4. Meteor : Aristot : Senec. Nat. quest . lib. 4. cap. 10. Ricciol . Alma . Nov. Tom. 2. lib. 10. sect . 6. prop. 50. Ex Magnan . lib. 1. Perspectivae horariae prop. 38. Joseph . Acosta's Nat. and Mor. Hyst . of the Indies , jib . 3. cap. 9. In lib. 4. Meleor . Arist. * * Since the writing of this XLth Experiment , we procur'd a white Butter-Fly , and inclosed it in one of our smaller Receivers , where , though at first he fluttered up and down , yet presently , upon the exsuction of the Air , he fell down as in a swoon , retaining no other motion than some little trembling of the Wings . Epist. 3. Fraelichius ' apud Varen . Geogra . Gener. lib. 1. cap. 19. Notes for div A29007-e13390 About the History of Flame of Heat , of Colours , of the Origine of Qualities and Forms , &c. Notes for div A29007-e14130 Page . 20. Page 16. Pag. 17. Pag. 15. Page 12. Page 14. Pag. 18. Gass Phys. Sect. 1. Lib. 2. Pag. 204. De nupero Inanis Experimento . Pag. 19. Pag. 19. Pag. 20. Pag. 21. Pag. 21. Pag. 11. Page 24. Pag. 48. Page . 22. Page 25. Pag. 38. Page . 38. Pag. 40. Pag. 40 , 41. Pag. 41. Pag. 43 , 44. Pag. 42. Pag. 160. Pag 169. Pag. 163. Chap. 5. Pag. 175. Pag. 159. Pag. 66. Gassendus Tomo . 1. pag. 211. Page 63. Pag. 50. * * Mr. Croon one of the learned Professors of Gresham College . * * Dr. Hen. Power . See the second Figure . * * Probably these or the like words , did manifest Pressure , are here omitted , for the Mountain-Air there seems to have acted rather by its Weight than Elasticity . Pag. 11. See the 5. Figure . See Part 2. C. 5. Sed contra manifeste . See also in the 43 Experim . these passages , — And this Effervescence was so great in the upper part of the water , &c. As also , — The Effervescence was confin'd to the upper part of the water , unless , &c. See more concerning this Objection in the Answer to it as 't is propos'd by Mr. Hobbs . Notes for div A29007-e32340 — Neque hominis Philosophi esse censeo corporum quorundam , ut solis & stellarum , mirabiles supponere magnitudines , contra vero mirabiles exiguitates non admittere , cum Virtutis ejusdem infinitae sit utraque creare tam maxima quam minima . Mr. Hobbs in his Dialogue of the Air , page 11. See also page 5. and elsewhere . * * So go your wayes ( speaking to Doctor J. Wallis and Doctor S. Ward ) you uncivil Ecclesiasticks , Inhumane Divines , Dedoctors of Morality , unasinous Collegues , Egregious pair of Isachar's , most wretched Vindices and Indices Academiarum ; and remember Vespasians Law , &c. Mr. Hobbs Lesson 6. page 64. Notes for div A29007-e32920 Cap. 26. Sect. 2. In some Dialogues of Heat and Flame . Pag. 18. Pag. 8. Wardi Exer. in Philosoph . Hobbian . pag. 188. Exper. Magdeburgicum apud Schotum , pag. 446. Pag. 15. Elem. of Phil. Ch. 30. Sect. 4. Pag. 16. Pag. 9. Chap. 30. Sect. 10. Utraque enim illa phant sia tum gravitatis Atmosphaerae , tum vis Elasticae sive antitupiae aëris , somnium erat . Dial. p. 21. Pag. 11. The Motions therefore of those small Bodies ( speaking of the Earthy Particles in the Air ) will be less and less free , by how much the quantity of the injected Water is greater and greater : so that by their Motion falling upon one another , the same Bodies will mutually compress each other , and have a perpetual endeavour of regaining their liberty , and of depressing the Water that hinders them . Elem. Chap. 30. Sect. 9. Pag. 8. In our Defence against Linus . Pag. 19. Pag. 12. * * Pag. 4. † † Ioid. Pag. 5. Page 22. Pag. 12. Page 13. Page 13. Page 3. Itaque Page 13 , 14. Page . 14. Page 16. Page 18. Page 18. Page 1● . Page 79. Chap. 30. Sect. 14. Page 18. Page . 18. Compare that in the 30. Chap. 14. Sect. of his Physicks with that of his Dialogue , page 15 , 16. Page 6. Page 10. Page . 20. Page 20. Schot . Mech . Hyd. Pneumat . pag. 461. Pag. 20 , 21. Page 22. Page 21 , 22. Page 24. Page 25. Page 25. Page 25. Page . 23. Page 5. * * Hobbs de Corp. ch . 27. Mr. Hobbs de Corpore , cap. 26. part . 4. Page 29. Page 30. * * History of . Firmness , page , 227. and elsewhere . † † Chap. 16. Sect. 4. Page 31. Page 30. Page 30. Page . 31. Page . 31. * * In the History of Fluidity and Firmness . Mr. Hobbs in Examinat . & Emendatione , &c. Dialog . 6. 
A29001	----	New experiments and observations touching cold, or, An experimental history of cold begun to which are added an examen of antiperistasis and an examen of Mr. Hobs's doctrine about cold / by the Honorable Robert Boyle ... ; whereunto is annexed An account of freezing, brought in to the Royal Society by the learned Dr. C. Merret ... Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1665 Approx. 1034 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 506 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A29001 Wing B3996 ESTC R16750 12725174 ocm 12725174 66342 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A29001) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 66342) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1031:11) New experiments and observations touching cold, or, An experimental history of cold begun to which are added an examen of antiperistasis and an examen of Mr. Hobs's doctrine about cold / by the Honorable Robert Boyle ... ; whereunto is annexed An account of freezing, brought in to the Royal Society by the learned Dr. C. Merret ... Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. Merret, Christopher, 1614-1695. Account of freezing. [72], 845, [7], 54 p., 2 leaves of plates (one folded) : ill. Printed for John Crook ..., London : MDCLXV [1665] Errata page following preface. Some duplicate pagination. Reproduction of original in the British Library. 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Low temperature research -- Early works to 1800. 2000-00 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2001-09 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2002-07 John Latta Sampled and proofread 2002-07 John Latta Text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-08 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion NEW EXPERIMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS TOUCHING COLD , OR AN EXPERIMENTAL HISTORY OF COLD , Begun . To which are added An Examen of Antiperistasis , And An Examen of Mr. Hobs's Doctrine about COLD . By the Honorable Robert Boyle , Fellow of the ROYAL SOCIETY . Whereunto is annexed An Account of Freezing , brought in to the Royal Society , by the learned Dr. C. Merret , a Fellow of it . Non fingendum , aut excogitandum , sed inveniendum , quid natura faciat , aut ferat , Bacon . LONDON . Printed for John Crook , at the Sign of the Ship in St. Pauls Church-yard , MDCLXV . THE PUBLISHER TO THE INGENIOUS READER . I Am fully perswaded , you will much rejoyce to see that Exquisite searcher of Nature , the Illustrious Robert Boyle , come abroad again , as knowing he never does so , but when richly furnisht with very Instructive and Useful matter . He presents you here with a Treatise of New Observations and Experiments , in order to an Experimental History of Cold. This is the Body of the Book , but it comes accompanied with some Preliminaries , and an Appendix , whereof the former contains New Thermometrical Experiments and Thoughts , the latter an Exercitation about the Doctrine of Antiperistasis , followed with a short Examen of Mr. Hobs ' s Doctrine , touching Cold. From all which it will more and more become manifest , with what spirit and care this Excellent Person advanceth real Philosophy , with what exactness he pursueth his Engagement therein , and how great caution he useth , that nothing may slide into the Philosophical store , that may prove prejudicial to the Axioms and Theories hereafter perhaps to be deduc'd from thence . Having thus shortly given you my sense of the substance of this Considerable Treatise , I am now to advertise you of one or two circumstances , necessary to be taken notice of in its perusal . One is , that the Noble Author being at Oxford , when the Book was printed at London , he hopes the Reader will not impute to him the Errors of the Press , which yet he is perswaded will not be many , and out of which must be excepted a Blank or two , occasion'd by this , That the Authors Papers being near two years since given to be transcribed to one , whose skill in writing was much greater , than ( as it afterwards appear'd ) his knowledge of what was , or was not good sense , or true English ; this person suddenly going for Africk before the Transcript had been examin'd , and not taking care to leave all the first Copy , the Author found , ( besides several Blanks , that he filled up out of his Memory , or by repeating the Experiments , they belonged to ) one or two , where he was not able to repair the Copists omissions : And besides unexpectedly met with very many Passages so miserably handled , that by putting him to the trouble of writing almost a New Book , when part of this was already in the Press , it much retarded the Publication of that , which now comes forth . The other is , That , whereas in the Preface some passages are so penned , as to suppose the Book to be published early in the Winter , the Reader is to be advertis'd , That the 〈◊〉 part of the Preface was sent a good while since to the Press , though the latter , however then written out , was hindred from accompanying it , by some hopes of the Authors to gain by delay an opportunity ( he missed of ) to perfect an Experiment he was desirous to insert ; and that , when the Frost began , which was late in the season , the Coldness did within a while arrive at that degree , that by its operation upon the moisten'd paper , it long put a stop to the Proceedings of the Press . But the Author , that he might neither be quite defeated of his aim , nor disappoint the Curious of their Expectation , did in the first or second week of the Frost , which was about the end of the year 1664. present the Royal Society with divers Copies of the History of Cold , though the Book were not then quite printed off . And these Books being so near finish'd , that of 21. Sections , whereof the History of Cold consists , the Press had then reach'd to about the 19. and I had the 20. in my hands to supply it , when the weather should permit ; the Author hop'd , that by seasonably communicating so much of his intended Treatise to so many of the Virtuosi , that were the likeliest to make use of it , he had pretty well provided against the Prejudice , that might otherwise accrue from the slowness of the Press , and therefore allow'd himself to subjoyn to the History , the discourse of Antiperistasis , and the Examen of Mr. Hobs's Doctrine * , as belonging to the same subject : And finding the frosty weather to continue later , than was expected ( which had he foreseen , before his History was printed off , it would have given him opportunity of Enlargements ) he hopes the Publication may not be yet too late for diligent Readers , to make some use of the season for examining his Experiments , or trying some of the New ones , those may suggest . And therefore for the quicker dispatch of the Book , he purposely omits , and reserves for another occasion , besides the papers , that he hath not yet given me , some that I have already in my hands . And 't is , I presume , for the same reason , that he forbears to publish , what he long since writ about the Origine of Forms and Qualities , in a small Tract , which he had thoughts of sending forth in the company of the ensuing History , as a Discourse fit to be an Introduction as well to That , as to his Historical writings about Colours and some other Qualities . This is all the Advertisement I had to give you . And seeing it would be altogether impertinent , for me to take any pains , or to use any Art to procure a Gust for a Book , composed by Mr. Boyle , I have no more to say , but that the Author being so Generous as to oblige Forrain Nations as well as his Own , has already taken care of having it put into Latine , Farewel . H. O. London , March 10. 1664 / 5 THE AUTHORS PREFACE INTRODUCTORY . COld is so barren a subject , and affords so few Experiments , that are either very delightful for their surprizing prettiness , or very considerable for their immediate use , that instead of admiring , that any of my friends should wonder at my having been induc'd to write of such a Theme , I freely confess , that I have been sometimes tempted to wonder at it my self ; and therefore I think my self oblig'd to give my Readers an account of these three things , Why I thought fit to write of Cold at all ? For what Reasons I have treated of it after the manner to be met with in the ensuing Book ? And , Why I venture my unfinished Collections about it , abroad so soon ? I. To satisfie the first of these Queries , I have several things to say . And first , That the subject I have chosen is very noble , and important ; for since Heat has so general an Interest in the Productions of Natures Phaenomena , that ( Motion excepted , of which it is a kind ) there is scarce any thing in Nature , whose Efficacy is so great , and so diffus'd , it seems not likely , that its Antagonist , Cold , should be a despicable Quality . And certainly Cold , and Heat , especially when imploy'd by turns , are the two grand Instruments by which Nature performs so many of her Operations here below , that our great Verulam did not speak inconsiderately , when he called Heat the Right hand of Nature , and Cold her Left. And though in our temperate Climate the Effects of Cold seem not to be very remarkable , yet besides that , in more Northern Regions they are oftententimes stupendious , the Nature of that Quality must needs be very well worth our considering , if it were but for the Power it has to 〈◊〉 and check the 〈◊〉 of Heat , upon which account alone , if there were no other , it may be look'd upon as so considerable a Quality , that even lesser Discoveries about it , may both be acceptable and prove useful . In the next place I shall represent , that notwithstanding Cold 's being so important a subject , it has hitherto been 〈◊〉 most totally neglected . For I remember not , that any of the Classick Authors , I am acquainted with , hath said any thing of it that is considerable . They do indeed generally treat of it , as one of the four first Qualities . But that which they are wont to say , amounts to little more , then that 't is a Quality that does congregate both things of like , and things of unlike nature . The Unsatisfactoriness of which vulgar Definition , I had some years ago an occasion to manifest ( in another Treatise . ) And having given us this inconsiderate Description of Cold , they commonly take leave of the subject , as if it deserved no further handling , then could be afforded it in a few Lines , wherein indeed they say too much about it , but not enough . And even among other Writers of Bodies of 〈◊〉 Philosophy , or of the Doctrine of Meteors it self , the Reader will find , how little of true and pertinent has been contributed to the ensuing History of Cold. And though among the Vulgar , and the Writers that adopt their Traditions without examining them , I find same few particulars delivered , touching Cold ; yet some of them are so untrue , and others so uncertain , that they have furnished me with little else , then the necessity of Questioning , or of disproving them : so that when I considered all these things , I could not but take notice , that very little has been hitherto said of Cold , by those Schoolmen , and other Writers , ( that I have yet met with ) who have professedly , ( though but perfunctorily , and , as it were , incidentally ) treated of it . But yet instead of thinking it a Discouragement , that so many Learned Men , to whom that Quality could not but be obvious , and to whom it was as familiar as to me , had in so many Ages said little or nothing of it to the purpose ; I found this very thing an invitation to my attempt , that I might in some measure repair the Omissions of Mankinds Curiosity towards a subject so considerable , and so diffus'd , by trying what I could do toward founding the History of a Quality , which has been hitherto so neglected , as if all men judg'd it either unworthy of being cultivated , or uncapable to be improved . Another inducement to me was , that having six or seven years ago written some Tracts ( though I have not since had opportunity to publish them ) in order to the History of Heat and Flame ; it seem'd the more proper for me to treat of the contrary quality , Cold , since according to the known rule , confronted Opposites give themselves a mutual Illustration . And another inducement of almost the same Nature , was afforded me by remembring , that whereas Cold in its higher degrees , is wont to be communicated to us by the Air , ( whencesoever the Air has it , ) and I have on several occasions been oblig'd to treat of divers Properties of the Air , as of its weight and spring ( in my Physico-Mechanical Treatise ) of the several strengths of that spring , in proportion to the degrees of the airs Condensation , the Experiments of which , reduc'd into Tables , were first publish'd ( and for ought I yet know made ) by us , ( in the defence of that Book against Franciscus Linus * ) and of divers other Qualities of the air in several passages of our other writings , which 't were now superfluous to take notice of ; all this made it appear convenient enough , that among other Attributes of the Air , which we either have had , or expect to have occasion to treat of , so eminent and diffus d a one as its Coldness , should not be left untouch'd by the same Pen. But though neither any , nor all these inducements had been sufficient to ingage me to draw together , and recruit my Observations concerning Cold , there was another , that could not miss of prevailing , The Command of the Royal Society , impos'd on me in such a way , that I thought , it would less misbecome me to obey it unskilfully , then not at all . Especially since from so Illustrious a Company ( where I have the Happiness not to be hated ) I may in my endeavours to obey and serve them , hope to find my failings both pardoned , and made Occasions of discovering the Truths , I aim'd at . II. After this Account of the Motives that induc'd me to resolve to draw together the Notes I had on several occasions set down , about the Phaenomena of Cold , it may be now expected , that I render some reason , why I have thus digested them , and why I have not written the following Treatise in a more accurate way . First then I readily acknowledge , that the Method is not exact . Nay , that it is less so then the Scheme of heads of Inquiry , that I drew up to give my self a general Prospect of the subject I was to handle . But when I had considered , how comprehensive a Theme I had pitch'd upon , and how much more comprehensive , future discoveries and hints might make it , I thought , it altogether unadvisable for me , that had no more time , nor no more opportunity then I had , when I began to compile the following History , to engage my self to a method , according to which I was not perhaps able to treat of any one of the principal parts of the designed History . And yet on the other side , being unwilling to huddle my Experiments confusedly together , I thought it an expedient , that might in great part decline both those Inconveniences , to draw up a company of comprehensive Titles , under which might commodiously be rang'd most of the Particulars I had observ'd , reserving those few , that were not so easily referable to any of those , to be thrown at last into a Section by themselves . And this I the rather did , because I would not , by a Confinement to a strict method , discourage others from continuing the History , by adding new Titles to those 21. I have treated of , as well as by inserting other Experiments or Observations in any of them . That the Sections or Titles are very unequal , will not , I presume , be much blam'd by them , that consider , that my Design being to set down Matters of Fact , not write a complete and regular Treatise , the length of each Section was to be determined not by its Proportion , to that which went before it or followed after it , but by the number and condition of the Particulars that were to compose it . And I thought it much more pardonable , that any of the Sections should be disproportionately short , then lengthened either by untruths or by impertinencies . Some of the accounts will probably to some Readers appear too prolix ; and I could very easily , as well as willingly , have prevented that objection , if I had not more consulted the scope of the Book , then the ease or Reputation of the Writer . But my design being , not only to gratifie some Readers , but to assist others to prosecute the work I had begun , as the Experiments are most of them new , and many of them tri'd by methods hitherto unpractis'd ; I conceiv'd my self oblig'd to set down somewhat circumstantially , not only the Events , but the Manner of my Trials , that I might at once , both the better satisfie the scrupulous , and be assistant to those that would examine or repeat such Experiments , and also gratifie those , who are pleas'd to think , that a somewhat assiduous Conversation with Nature , may have given me some little faculty in devising Experiments , and the ways of making them , above those that have been conversant only with Books and Notions . And in some of the following Trials I was the more induc'd to set down all the principal circumstances , because , that being not to be made , but by the help of Glasses skilsully shap'd , and Hermetically seal'd , and other Instruments and Operations , that require more tools , and more of manual Dexterity , then every ingenious Man is Master of ; 't is very likely that most Readers will not be able , or perhaps willing , to reiterate such Trials , and therefore will be glad to find them so deliver'd , as that they may without too much danger acquiesce in them , as being made with Diligence , as well as Faithfulness . The latter of which Qualities will , I presume , be allow'd me , as well upon the account of the plain and simple way , wherein matters of fact are delivered in the following Book , as upon the score of the Testimonies , that even Adversaries , as well as others , have thought fit to give to the Historical part of my former Treatises . And ( to intimate That on this occasion ) this strict Fidelity to Truth I scruple not to own , though perhaps it may be attended with an inconvenience in point of Reputation , that writers of less Veracity are less exposed to . For I have found by Experience , that some Men , who probably would not mention the Experiments of most others , without vouching their Authors , for fear of losing their own credit , in case the thing related should not prove true ; have , without taking the least notice of me , made use of such Experiments of mine , as I have strong motives to think they never made nor saw , only because they had been related by one , after whom they thought they might without a hazard of their credit deliver any Matter of Fact. And the liberty that some have allow'd themselves in adopting my Communications ( such as they are ) is notorious enough to have been publickly complain'd of more then once , by Persons that are meer strangers to me . But though I had not the Probability , which the Notice , that begins to be taken of it , seems to give me , of having some Justice done me : yet Veracity is a Quality that does , I think , so well become a Christian and a writer of Natural History , that I had much rather 〈◊〉 any Disadvantage , I may be subject to for it , then decline the Practice of it . But to return to the following History . I confess the Prolixity of some passages of our History is increas'd by the transitions , excuses , and suspitions that are made use of in them ; but I confess too , That if this way of writing be a fault , it was not always caus'd by inadvertency . For as to what is said to connect the parts of our History together , or excuse the not prosecuting of this or that particular Trial , the beedful Reader may oftentimes perceive , that they contain in them , though not perhaps conspicuously , either cautions , or advertisements , or hints , not impertinent to my main scope , and improvable by an attentive Peruser . And as for the suspitions and scruples to which now and then I may seem to have too long indulg'd , I had two or three inducements to invite me to what I did . For the mention of conjectures , that every Reader was not so likely to light upon , might more conduce , then at first one would think , to the main design of my Book , which was to begin , and promote the natural History of Cold , since these suspitions about the causes and scruples about other things , relating to our Experiments , may probably produce , not only new reasonings and Inquiries , but new Trials to clear the difficulties and determine the doubts . Besides I thought it not amiss to take such occasions to make some Readers sensible , that to make indubitable inferences even from certain Experiments , is not near so easie a work , as many are pleas'd to imagine . And whereas I was not without inducements to think , that some Critical and Sagacious Readers , will not only excuse my having taken notice of so many scruples , but wish I had mov'd more on some occasions , and propos'd some in certain cases , where I have not mention'd any , I thought it might invite such Jealous Readers to think , that I foresaw divers little difficulties and scruples , that might be mov'd in several cases , where I have not expresly taken notice of them , either because I judg'd them easie enough to be answered without my help , or because the things themselves were not considerable enough to deserve a long or sollicitous discourse to clear them , especially from ae Writer , that being often tir'd himself in examining such Niceties , was affraid he should too much tire the generality of his Readers , if he should too frequently insist upon them . If it be objected , that notwithstanding some things are set down prolixly , yet other Experiments , that might properly be referred to some of the Titles I handle , are wholly omitted ; I answer , that this were indeed a fault in one , that should pretend to write full and accurate Discourses of the subjects propos'd in his Titles , but not in me , who do not at all pretend to say under each head all that may be pertinently referr'd to it , ( for that may probably be a great deal more then is yet come to my Knowledge ) but only those Particulars , that I my self have tri'd or observ'd , or at least have receiv'd upon credible Testimony . And perhaps some amends may be made for these Omissions , by my having frequently enough mention'd the Experiments , that , when I propos'd them , I had only design'd or attempted without perfecting them . For the Experience of many Ages has shewn us , that hitherto , not only men do not appear to have made any store of Trials concerning Cold , but seem not to have so much as design'd it . And therefore it seem'd not unreasonable to presume , that it would prove an Assistance to the Generality of Readers , if probable and practicable Experiments were propos'd to them . And since 't is the improvement of the subject that I aim at , by whomsoever it may happen to be improv'd , I thought it but reasonable to use my indeavour , that those Experiments , which for want of opportunity I my self could not try , might be tri'd by others , who may be befriended by more favourable Circumstances . Nor is that great Ornament and Guide of Philosophical Historians of Nature , the Lord Verulam himself , asham'd to substitute , on I know not how many occasions , his Fiat Experimentum , that is a precept or a wish to have an Experiment made , instead of an Account of the Experiment made already . And yet in this mention of things , I could wish to have tri'd , I have been far more sparing then every Reader will take notice of . For I judg'd it not discreet to mention all the Experiments I had thought upon , or even already set down in several Catalogues , lest they should appear extravagant to those , that are unacquainted with the several Notions , and trials , and contrivances , which made them appear to me not irrational , and which yet 't would have been tedious , and not worth while to have particularly mention'd . But that in what we have newly ( and a little before ) had occasion to say of our ways of making Experiments , our meaning may not be misconstru'd , we must here Advertise the Reader , that though in many of the following Experiments , the contrivances will not perchance be dislik'd , yet in many others they are far enough from being such as might have been propos'd by one , that had wanted no Accommodations fit for such a work as ours . But I was reduc'd to make many of those Experiments in a Village , and whilest I was writing them , was obliged to make frequent Removes , by which means I seldom had the liberty to make my Trials after such a manner , as I could contrive them , if I could have Instruments and other assistances to my wish . For sometimes I wanted conveniently shap'd Glasses , sometimes the Implements necessary to seal them up with , sometimes such ingredients as I needed to work on , oftentimes frosty Weather , for the freezing of Bodies to be expos'd to the open Air , and not seldom Ice and Snow for Artificial congelations ; sometimes Weather-glasses , especially seal'd ones , two of which being unluckily broken after one another , kept me from being able to make divers considerable Experiments ; sometimes tender Scales , and sometimes other Mechanical Instruments of several sorts , and more then sometimes ( for it happened very frequently ) I wanted time so to prosecute and finish the Experiments , as to satisfie my self about divers circumstances , which , though possibly few Readers will take notice to be wanting ; I would gladly have observ'd , if I had not been hindered , not only by the haste I was often fain to make for fear of losing a frost , but the importunity both of other Avocations , and even of the distraction given me by the multitude of Experiments , which haste made me prosecute at once . And indeed , as in divers others of the Treatises , I have occasionally written , so particularly in a great part of this History of Cold , my writing in places , where I wanted such Mechanical Accommodations , as I could have wished for , and devis'd , has reduced me oftentimes both to leave Experiments untri'd , that would have much illustrated my subject , or clear'd the difficulties of it , and contrive several of those I mention , not after the best manner that might be , but after the best manner , that was practicable by the accommodations I was then able to procure : so that it need not be wondered at , or blamed , if in some passages of these Papers , Experiments to the self same purpose are more accurately tri'd , or by more Expedient ways at one time then another . For as a Physician , if he come to practise in the Country , where Apothecaries shops are but ill furnished , both as to the Number and as to the Quality of the Drugs , must accommodate his Practise to the scant Materia Medica , of which alone he has the command : So when I write of Experimental matters , in places where I cannot have Workmen , nor Instruments fit for my turn , I must be content to vary my Experiments accordingly , and sute them to the accommodations I am confined to , which , though it be an unwelcome Condition , is made the less so to me , by a Hope , that the Equitable Readers will think it to be all that a man is bound to do in such cases , to procure the best assistances he can , and manage those , he is able to procure , to the best Advantage . And this I the rather take notice of on this occasion , that ingenious men might not be too much discouraged by imagining , that , because they live in the Country , or upon other scores cannot furnish themselves with the best Instruments and accommodations , nor injoy the assistance of the skilfullest Artificers ; they are either Unqualifi'd for the making of Experiments and Observations , or Superseded from it . For though in some cases , where the measures of things must be nicely determin'd , and principally in Observations , whereon either Theorems or Hypotheses about the Proportions of things are to be grounded ; very good Instruments are exceeding useful , and sometimes necessary : yet there are thousands of particulars , whose knowledge may be instructive to those , that Are or Would be Naturalists , where no such Nieety is requisite , and where the measuring things by Ounces and Inches will serve the turn , without determining them to Lines , and to Grains . And even in cases , where Exact observations are ( to some purposes ) Requisite , those that are not so , may be oftentimes very useful , by affording Hints , by which others may be 〈◊〉 and assisted to make those more accurate Trials . And here let me take notice , that a Tool or Instrument is not therefore to be despised , if it be Proper enough to the Particular use to which 't is appli'd , because some more Mechanical head or hand , may propose or make another , that is more Artificially contriv'd , or more Neat and Portable , or that will also perform Other things , then that we are speaking of . For there is a vast multitude of Physical Phaenomena , wherein Mathematical exactness is not necessary , and Observations about these , may be well enough made by divers Other ways , then by the most Artificial , that Can be devis'd . As though a fine Watch may have these Advantages , That it is a neater thing , and more portable then an ordinary Clock , that it may be improv'd by the Addition of an Alarum , and that it may also perhaps shew the Day of the Month , the Age of the Moon , the Tides , and divers other things , of which the Clock shews not any ; yet an Ordinary Clock may serve to measure an hour by , as well as this finer Engine ; and so may a Sun-Dyal , and many other Instruments on divers occasions , though in other Cases , and other Regards , they be far less commodious , then either a Watch or Clock . Besides , that in many cases a skilful Natur alist will by a variety and collation of Experiments , make the same discoveries , and perform the same things , for which others are wont to be beholding to Instruments , and perhaps do many things without them , that have never been done with them . And since Necessity is proverbially allow'd to be the Mother of Inventions , even in Tradesmen , and Vulgar heads , why should we doubt , but that the rich and inventive Intellect of a Philosopher , may in cases of necestity turn it self , and contrive the things it can dispose of , into so many differing forms , that it will often make its own Sagacity and Industry supply the want of exact Tools and Instruments . And these Considerations that tend to keep ingenious Men from Dispondency , I therefore think fit to Inculcate , because the Common-wealth of Learning would lose too many useful Observations and Experiments , and the History of Nature would make too slow a Progress , if it were presum'd , that none but Geometers and Mechanitians should imploy themselves about writing any part of that History . But to return to those Trials of our own , that occasioned this ( as I hope , Seasonable ) Digression , I was about to add , That as the acknowledgement I was making , that some of the Trials were 〈◊〉 want of Accommodations less Artificial then I could have design'd or wish'd them , touches not all , nor haply the greatest part of the following Experiments ; so it need not derogate from the Readers reliance on those which it does concern . For though some of them might have been more Artificially performed to the manner , yet they could not have been more Faithfully registred , as to the Events . Which though I dare promise my self , that most Readers will be induc'd to believe , upon the Considerations not long since intimated ; Yet I think it requisite to give this intimation on this occasion , because , that though I have * 〈◊〉 largely manifested to what contingencies divers Experiments are liable , yet I have found very few , whose events are so subject to be varied , by slight and not easily beeded circumstances , as several Experiments concerning Cold : Where oftentimes the degree of that Quality , or the time during which it continues appli'd , or the manner of Application , or the thickness , shape and bulk , &c. of the vessels that contained the matter expos'd to it , may have a far greater influence on the success , then those , that have not tri'd , can easily imagine . And it increases the difficulty , that these Experiments of ours being ( very few excepted ) the only that are yet made publick concerning Cold ; we cannot so easily , as in other cases , free our selves from the doubts , that may be suggested by different events , by comparing together several Experiments of the same kind , though to obviate this inconvenience , as far as I may , I have divers times in cases , where the Experiments seem'd like to be thought strange , or to be distrusted , set down several Trials of the same thing , that they might mutually support and confirm one another . Of those Contingent Experiments about Cold , I was newly speaking of , the Reader may meet with an eminent Example in the 21. Title , where mention is made of the differing Effects of Air blown out of a pair Bellows upon a Weather-glass : and as for the suspition I there conclude with , ( though I yet doubt , whether 〈◊〉 will reach All the Cases incident to that Experiment ) I have since been confirm'd in it , by finding , that by purposely varying the temper of the Bellows themselves , I could divers times considerably vary the operations , which the Winds , blown out of them in their differing states , had upon the Liquor in the Weather-glass * Of this I expect to have an opportunity of saying more , and therefore shall at present add but this one particular , which may sufficiently justifie me for having said , That Weather-glasses & our Sensories may give very differing Informations about the Temperature of the Air turn'd into Wind , by being blown out of the same pair of Bellows . For having taken two Hermetically seal'd Weather-glasses furnished with highly rectified spirit of Wine , and purposely made for my Experiments , by a person eminently dexterous in making such Instruments , and having likewise provided a large pair of Bellows , I found , that by blowing 20. blasts at a time on the Ball of one of them , though the Pipe were not only slender , but of an unusual length , amounting to about 30. Inches , yet the Liquor did not sensibly subside any more then rise . And in the other Weather-glass , whose Pipe was less long , but whose Ball was purposely made far greater to be the fitter for short and nice Experiments , we found more then once , and ( that as well in the cold Air , as in a close Room ) that the wind that was blown in divers blasts out of the Bellows , against the lower part of the Instrument , did not only make the spirit of Wine subside , but did make it manifestly , though but very little , ascend . And 't is not necessary , for the making good of what I taught , that such Trials should always succeed just as these did , since it may suffice to prove what I pretended , that a good seal'd Weather-glass did divers times discover the Wind to be rather warm , then cold , when upon Trial ( then purposely made ) it felt not only manifestly , but considerably cold , both to a By-standers Hand , and to my own Hand and Face , though my hand , that was blown upon , were immediately before more then ordinarily cold . And I shall here add , That judging it fit to make further Trial , with an unseal'd Weather-glass , I made one , that was in some regards preferable to those mentioned in the second Praeliminary Discourse , by making the Bubble large , and the Cylindrical Pipe so proportion'd to it , that instead of a Drop of water , a Pillar about an Inch long of that Liquor was kept suspended , and play'd as well conspicuously as nimbly up and down in the Pipe. And having fastned this Instrument in an erected Posture , with the Sphaerical part uppermost , to the inside of a Window , by blowing upon the Ball with the Bellows above mentioned , which had lain some hours not very far from the Chimney-corner , ( but without seeming to be sensibly warm'd by the neighbourhood of the fire ) a very few blasts made the suspended water hastily subside , ( and thereby witness the Expansion , and so the warmth of the included Air ) and upon my ceasing to blow , the same water would reascend in the Pipe , and that , though I stood near it to watch it , ( which shows , that the former Depression was not caused by the approach of my warm Body ) and this I did more then once , both alone and before witness , notwithstanding that the Air blown at the same time out of the same Bellows upon our hand and face seem'd cool enough . But fearing to insist any longer on this matter in a Preface , I think it now unseasonable to add , That as some contingent Experiments in subsequent Trials may Fail oftner , so other may perchance Succeed oftner then is expected : As I have sometimes observed in the figures , that appear in the Ice made of some Liquors , that abound with Volatile , Urinous , or with certain other Salts . But to say a word in general of Experiments , whose success is not always uniform : As a Magnetick Needle , though it do not always precisely respect the Poles , but both declines sometimes Eastward , and sometimes Westward , and varies that Declination uncertainly as to us , does nevertheless so far respect the North , as in spight of its Variations to be an Excellent guide to Navigators : So there are contingent Experiments , whose Events , though they sometimes vary , are seldom very exorbitant , but for the most part are regular enough to afford Philosophers very useful Informations and Directions . If it be demanded , why in the 15 , 18 , and 19. Sections I have inserted so many Quotations out of several Authors , and how that agrees with what I have said not far from the beginning of this Preface of the uncultivatedness of the subject I have adventured on ? I answer , That what I have done crosses not what I have said . For my complaint was , That there has been very little , especially of any moment , delivered concerning Cold by Classick Authors , and that even other learned Writers , who have had occasion to say something purposely of Cold , have handled it exceeding Jejunely ; but this hinders not , but that if a Man will take the Pains to seek out , and enquire of Travellers , and has the curiosity and opportunity to consult Voyages and Navigations , he may among a multitude of other things , that have nothing to do with Cold , meet with some few that concern that subject : And yet the Authors that deliver such particulars , can no more properly be said to have written professedly of Cold , then of Botanicks , or Zoology , or Meteors , or Civil Philosophy , because in the same Journal they mention a great frost , or a great snow , as chancing to happen on such a day , with as little particular design as they mention a Storm , or a Whale , or a Bear , or the manners of an Indian people . This Consideration being premis'd , 't will not be difficult to return an Answer to the former part of the Question lately propos'd . For the unfrequency of my Quotations in most of the Sections of the following History , will , I presume , sufficiently perswade the Reader , that I would not needlesly imploy so many of them in the three Sections , that are nam'd in the Question . But the Writers of Physicks being , for ought I know , silent as to the particulars I have transcrib'd out of other Writers , and the Observations being such as I could not my self make in this Temperate Climate ; I must either make use of other mens Testimonies , or leave some of the Remarkablest Phaenomena of Cold unmention'd . And they that shall try how much pains it will cost them , to range among Books , which many of them contain little but melancholly Acounts of storms and distresses , and Ice , and Bears , and Foxes , to cull out here and there a passage fit to make a part of such a Collection as they may here meet with , will possibly rather thank , then blame me for having , to gratifie my Readers , given my self so laborious and unpleasant an entertainment . And I was the rather content to enlarge a little on the foremention'd occasions , not only because I was unwilling to be ingag'd more then once in so troublesome an Imployment , but ( and that chiefly ) because most of the particulars , I have collected out of Navigators , are afforded me by the Voyages of our own Country-men , who having written only in English , an Account of what their Relations contain of most material concerning Cold , will probably be welcome , as well as new to the curious of other Countries , who cannot understand their Books , divers of which having been long out of Print , are so hard to be procur'd , even here in England , that I doubt not but these Extracts of them will be acceptable , even to divers of the Virtuosi of our own 〈◊〉 , especially since I have been careful to alledge most of the Testimonies in the writers own words , though they are not always the best , wherein the things he delivers might be express'd . And this course I the rather took , that I might do what I think very useful to be done by all writers of Natural History , who would do well to distinguish more carefully , then hitherto many have done betwixt the matters of fact , they deliver as upon their own knowledge , and those which they have but upon trust from others . I know it would be more acceptable to most Readers , if I were less punctual and scrupulous in my Quotations ; it being by many accounted a more Gentile and Masterly way of writing , to cite others but seldom , and then to name only the Authors , or mention what they say in the words of Him , that Cites , not Theirs , that are Cited . And there are some Writers of such known Diligence and Veracity , as to be safely trusted , and some Cases wherein I do not dislike , but comply with this Custom ( after having 〈◊〉 consulted my Author to be Master of his true and genuine sense , ) but in matters Historical , and whereon Philosophical and Important Truths are to be built , I should think my self beholden to a Writer , for setting them down in such a way , as that I may satisfie my self , that the Testimony is faithfully reported . In order to which it will be sometimes very useful to be enabled to repair to the Original Witness , and , if need be , survey there the context of the alledged passage . For I must here advertise 〈◊〉 Reader , that in matters of any moment , 〈◊〉 not from every Writer , that I dare trust the Quotations he makes of the passages of other Authors , in his Own words , not Theirs : For upon comparing very many Quotations , I have found , that oftentimes there is no such thing , as is pretended to be really met with in the place referred to ; and even when neither the Book , nor Chapter , nor Page are misquoted , I have too frequently found , that the Alledgers of Testimonies , do either through Inadvertency misapprehend , or misrecite the sense of the Author they quote , or out of Design make him speak , that which may comply with their purpose , whether it were his own sense or no : and by their Indefinite citations make it too troublesome and difficult a work , for the Reader to find out , whether they have imposed upon him or not . But this only by the by , to return therefore to the passages we were speaking of , in the 15 , 18 , and 19. Sections , I shall now add , that having in the beginning of the XIX . Title of the insuing History itself rendered an Account of my not scrupling to insert some strange Relations concerning Cold , it will not be requisite to mention here , what the Reader will meet with there . And I scarce doubt but he will excuse such passages , if he consider , That as I could not omit them without leaving out some of the eminentest Phaenomena of Cold , so being unable to examine them here in England , all I could do , was , to report them faithfully , and mention only such as were either affirmed by Eye witnesses ( as the most , I have inserted , are ) or , at least recommended by credible Testimony , whereof we shall say more by and by ; To which sort of Narratives , I know not whether I may refer That , ( which yet for its strangeness may deserve a transient mention , ) came awhile since to my ears , of an English man , who related to an eminent Virtuoso of our acquaintance , That a Dutch Master of a Ship , returning from the Northern Countries , very solemnly affirm'd , being therein seconded by one of his Country-men , and offered to produce his Journal for proof , That indeavouring to sail Northwards as far as he could , he came within less then a degree of the Pole itself , and found the Sea open , and the cold very tolerable . But to return to what we were saying , before this odd Relation diverted us , I did not only decline the mention of divers things , with which I fear many Writers would have adorned a History of Cold , but even of those that I my self have inserted , I would have left out divers , were it not , that many of the Relations , that may appear so wonderful , seem not to me to be repugnant to the nature of things , but only suppose a far greater degree of Cold , then we have in these parts , and yet the familiar effects of the Cold we have here , would perhaps be looked on as incredible , by one that were born and bred in the Kingdom of Congo , where Odoardus Lopes , who lived long there , informs us , that Ice , that is water made solid , is so unknown a rarity , that it would there be valued as much as so much Gold. And a Learned Physician , that lived in Jamaica , being asked how far he found the Temperature of that Country to be like that of Congo , answered me , That in that Island he observed not all the Winter long , either Frost or Snow : And yet here it will not be unseasonable to say a word or two of the three Principal Authors , from whom most of our strange relations we are considering are transcribed . The first is Gerat de Veer , who writ the Voyage of the Hollanders to Nova Zembla , a Book so eminent in its kind , that it may seem a wasting of time to set down a Character of it ; and therefore I shall only advertise the Reader of two things , the one , That the Dutch did indeed make three consecutive Voyages to Nova Zembla , but that the third being that in which they wintered , there most of the particulars are to be understood of that . The other thing is , that having lost the Translation that was made of those Voyages out of Dutch into English ( published in a Book by themselves ) without being able to procure another , I was obliged to have the citations transcribed , as I found them extant in that faithful Collection of Voyages compiled by Purchas , who seems by the Style to have ( as to the Book we are speaking of ) only plai'd the part of an Interpreter . And here 't will be seasonable to add , that whereas that excellent Collection consists of several distinct Tomes 〈◊〉 Volumes , the many Quotations to be met with in the Margent of our History under the name of Purchas , are to be understood , ( unless the contrary be intimated ) to belong to the third Part of his Pilgrim , where the Dutch and other Voyages into Northern Countries are to be found . The next Book I intended to mention , is Magnus's History of the Northern Nations . And though this Author is of very suspected Credit , and delivers some things upon hear-say , which , they are kinder to him then I , that are pleass'd to beleive ; for which reason I do but very sparingly make use of his History , yet considering , that he was Archbishop of Upsale in Sweden , and appears to have more Learning , then many that never read his Books , imagine ; I thought I might Now and Then , make use of his Testimony , in matters wherein he either professes himself to speak upon his own knowledge , or delivers but such things as being consistent with the Laws of Nature appear Improbable , only , because of the Intense Cold that they suppose ; which I the rather say , because he 〈◊〉 somewhere speaking of the Cold , that by the Laws of Nature reigns in the North , subjoyns this Passage ; Sub quo quia natus , & versatus sum etiam circa elevationem graduum Poli Arctici 86. arbitror me posse hoc , & multis sequentibus Capitulis , nonnihil Caeteris vaga opinione scribentibus clarius demonstrare , quam vehemens & horrendum sit illic frigus . And , though perchance few Readers will perceive it , I have been so Severe in rejecting not only Relations , but even Authors otherwise not Obscure , that , how much soever I foresaw my scrupulousness might impoverish my History , yet there are some whole Treatises about Cold Countries , whence I have shunn'd to borrow any one Authority , because I perceiv'd the Authors had not observed the things they recount themselves , and were too easie in believing others . The third Writer I meant to take notice of , is Captain James , a Person from whose Journal I have borrowed more observations , then from those of any other Sea-man , not only because his Book supplied me with them , and because it is somewhat scarce , and not to be met with in Purchas's Tomes , ( having been written some years after they were finished ) but because this Gentleman was much commended to me , both by some Friends of mine , who were well acquainted with him , and by the Esteem that competent Judges appear to have made of him . For having been , not only imployed by the Inquisitive Merchants of Bristol , to discover a Northwest passage into the South Sea , but designed for so difficult a work by so judicious a Prince , as the late King , and having at his return published his Voyages by his Majesties command ; as by these circumstances , though not by these only , this Gentlemans Relations may well be represented to us , as likely to deserve our consideration and Credit : So by his breeding in the University , and his acquaintance with the Mathematicks , he was enabled to make far better use then an ordinary Sea-man would have done , of the opportunity he had to observe the Phaenomena of Cold , by being forced to Winter , in a place where he endured little ( if at all ) less extremity of Cold , then that of Nova Zembla . I presume 't will easily be taken notice of , That in the following History I have declined the Asserting of any particular Hypothesis , concerning the Adequate cause of Cold. Not but that I may have long had Conjectures about that matter , as well as other men , but I was willing to reserve to my self an Intire Liberty of declaring what Opinion I most inclined to , till the Historical part being finished , I may have the better opportunity to Survey and Compare the Phaenomena ; and the leisure , ( which I cannot promise my self in haste , ) of calmly considering what Theory may best agree with them : especially since I freely acknowledge , That I found the framing of an Universal and unexceptionable Hypothesis of Cold , to be a work of greater difficulty , then every Body would imagine ; especially to me , to whom some Experiments purposely made have suggested a puzling Difficulty , which 't is like that Philosophers have not yet thought of . And whatever Applause is wont in this Age to attend a forwardness to assert Hypotheses , yet though Fame were less to be sought then Truth ; this will not much move me , whilest I observe , That Hypotheses hastily pitch'd upon , do seldom keep their Reputation long ; and divers of them that are highly Applauded at the first , come after a while to be Forsaken , even by those that devised them . As for the Title of the following Book , I call the Experiments new , because indeed , if I mistake not , nine parts of ten ( not to say nineteen of twenty ) are so . But though a 150. or 200. Experiments of that kind , besides Collections from Travellers , and Books that do not professedly treat of Cold , may , I presume , allow me to have begun the natural History of Cold ; yet in the very Title Page I think fit to intimate , that I look upon what I have done but as a Beginning . For though some very noted Virtuosi have been pleased to seem surprized , to see what so barren and uncultivated a subject has been brought to afford this Treatise ; yet I look upon these as things , that do rather Promise then Present a Harvest , and but as some early Sheaves of that Crop , which mens future Industry will reap from a subject , that is indeed Barren , but not Unimprovable . For I see not why it should not hold in the History of Cold , as well as in many other attempts ; That the greatest Difficulties are wont to be met with at the Beginning , and those being once surmounted , the Progress becomes far more Easie. And as the Magnetick Needle , though it point directly but at the North and South , does yet discover to the Seaman the East and West , and all the other points of the Compass : So there are divers Experiments , which though they do primarily and Directly teach us but a Notion or two , may yet assist us to discover with ease many other Truths , to which they seem'd not at first sight to afford us a Direction . So that What is here already done , such as it is , partly by Hinting various Inquiries about Cold , and partly by Suggesting ways not formerly practised of making further Experiments , may possibly make it more easie for others to Add to these a number , far exceeding that , which they will here meet with , then it would have been without such assistances , ( which I had not ) to contribute to the History of Cold , even such a stock as I have begun it with . And this I the rather incline to think , because I find , that when once a Man is in the right way of making Inquiries into such subjects , Experiments and Notions will reciprocally direct to one another , and suggest so many things to him , that if I were now to begin this work again , and had Cold , and fitly shap'd Glasses , and Instruments , with other Accommodations at command , there are divers parts , on which my Inlargements would not perchance be much Inferiour to what is Already extant there , if they did not much Exceed it . But besides That , I have other work enough , and that of a quite other Nature upon my hands ; the Truth is , that I am plainly Tired with writing on this subject , having never handled any part of Natural Philosophy , that was so Troublesome , and full of Hardships , as this has proved ; especially because , that not only the Experiments being New , and many of them subject to miscarriages , required to be almost constantly Watched , but being unable to produce or intend Cold as we can do Heat , nor command the Experiments that concern Congelation , with as little difficulty , as we can do those , that belong to divers other subjects ; I was fain to Wait for , and make Use of a Fit of frosty weather ( which has very long been a rarity ) as sollicitously as Pilots watch for , and improve a Wind. III. It remains now , that I give some account , why I suffer so unfinished a piece , as I acknowledge this to be , to come forth at this time . And I confess , that if I had not preferred the gratifying the Curious , before the advantages of my own Reputation , I should have kept this Book in my hands some Winters longer , that It might come forth , both more rich , and less unpolished . But how great a power my Friends have with me in such cases , the Reader may easily guess by the Preamble he will find prefixed to the first Title of the ensuing History . For by the Date of that , he will see , how early my Papers about Cold were to have been communicated ; nor was I any thing near so much befriended , as I expected , by those interposing Accidents , that have for above a year and a half , kept those Papers lying by me . For the then next , and now last Winter proved so strangely Mild , as to be altogether unfavourable to such a work as I had design'd . Wherefore finding , that Delays had done me no more service , and press'd by the sollicitations of divers Virtuosi from several parts , I resolved , that I would suspend till another opportunity , the drawing together of what I had Observed or Collected , touching the Regions of the Air , and some of the chief Hypotheses , that are controverted about Cold , with what other loose Papers , touching that Quality , I not could so readily dispatch to the Press ; and would not with-hold from the Curious what assistance my Collections could afford them , to make use of this Winter to prosecute Experiments of Cold. And remembring how favorable an entertainment my former Endeavours to gratifie Ingenious Men , had found among them , I took a Course , wherein I was more likely to obtain Thanks then Praises , and chose rather to adventure on the Equity and Favour of the Reader , for the Pardon of those faults and Imperfections , that are imputable to Hast , then to deny him the opportunity of this Cold season , wherein to Examine the Truth , and Supply the Deficiencies of what I had delivered . And this I the rather did , both because I was desirous to Quit this subject , for another from which it had diverted me , and for which I have more Value and Kindness ; and because , that as a tender Constitution of Body kept me , whilest I was writing the following History , from adventuring upon some Trials , that might ( probably ) have inrich'd it ; so the Continuance of the same disadvantages , together with other inopportune Distempers super added to them , do not permit me to Know , whether , and how far I shall be able to Prosecute the work I have begun : and do oftentimes reduce me to be more concern'd to Shun the Effects of Cold , then Observe the Phaenomena of It. And indeed , whether those prove true Prophets or no , that assure me I shall lose no reputation by this History ( as incompleat as it comes forth , ) I think , if Ingenious Men knew , how much Trouble and Exercise of my patience it has cost me , they would , peradventure , vouchsafe me some of their thanks , if not for what I have done , yet for what I have suffer'd for their sakes , ( and would scarce have undergone upon any Inferior account whatsoever ; ) it being , though a less Noble , yet no less Troublesome an Imployment , to Dig in Mines of Copper , then in those of Gold : and Men being oftentimes obliged to Suffer as much Wet and Cold , and Dive as deep , to fetch up Sponges , as to fetch up Pearls . Errata . PAge 5. line 17. read , that in not nice , for , that even in nice , p. 46. l. 8. r. effected , p. 48. l. 16. dele and , together with ( ) , p. 82. l. 28. r. 28. chapter , p. 178. l. 7. dele which , p. 266. l. 22. r. it did rise four inches , p. 292. l. 6. r. that stood on the ice , p. 302. l. 9. r. three , for , thee , p. 380. l. 10. r. cemented by intercepted and then frozen water , instead of congealed by cold water , p. 488. l. 11. r. 52. degr . 52. min. In the Appendix of Dr. Merret , pag. 35. lin . 36. read , upon these mixtures , not in . The Contents of the Experimental History of Cold. Title I. EXperiments touching Bodies capable of Freezing others . pag. 108. Title II. Experiments and Observations touching Bodies disposed to be Frozen . p. 133. Title III. Experiments touching Bodies , Indisposed to be Frozen . p. 140. Title IV. Experiments and Observations touching the degrees of Cold in several Bodies . p. 149. Title V. Experiments touching the Tendency of Cold , upwards or downwards . p. 173. Title VI. Experiments and Observations 〈◊〉 the Preservation and Destruction of ( Eggs , Aples , and other ) Bodies by Cold. p. 184. Title VII . Experiments touching the Expansion of Water and Aqueous Liquors by Freezing . p. 222. Title VIII . Experiments touching the Contraction of Liquors by Cold. p. 237. Title IX . Experiments in Consort , touching the Bubbles , from which the Levity of Ice is supposed to proceed . p. 245. Title X. Experiments about the measure of the Expansion and the Contraction of Liquors by Cold. p. 279. Title XI . Experiments touching the Expansive force of Freezing Water . p. 296. Title XII . Experiments touching a new way of estimating the Expansive force of Congelation , and of highly compressing Air without Engines . p. 382. Title XIII . Experiments and Observations touching the Sphere of Activity of Cold. p. 328. Title XIV . Experiments touching differing Medium's , through which Cold may be diffused . p. 345. Title XV. Experiments and Observations touching Ice . p. 364. Title XVI . Experiments and Observations touching the duration of Ice and Snow , and the destroying of them by the Air , and several Liquors . p. 396. Title XVII . Considerations and Experiments touching the Primum Frigidum . p. 412. Title XVIII . Experiments and Observations touching the Coldness and Temperature of the Air. p. 464. Title XIX . Of the strange Effects of Cold. p. 520. Title XX. Experiments touching the weight of Bodies Frozen and unfrozen . p. 550. Title XXI . Promiscuous Experimeuts and Observations concerning Cold. p. 575. AN ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READERS OF The following Experiments , by the Author of the foregoing History . AT the same time , that the Royal Society required of me an Account of what I had observed , or tried , concerning Cold , they recommended the making of Trials , about that subject , to the Learned Dr. C. Merret , who having dispatched what he intended , much earlier then I could bring in my far more Voluminous Papers , he long ago presented His to that Illustrious Company : and since That , has thought fit to let them indear my Treatise , by their being Annexed to it , and composing a part of It ; and that such a part , as much might be said of it , if after I have inform'd the Reader of its having obtained the Thanks of a Society , that is too much accustomed to receive and produce Excellent things , to be suspected of valuing Trifles , I could think it needful and proper to give those Papers any other Elogium . And it falling out fortunately enough , That the Doctor and I ( being at some miles distance ) did not communicate our Designs to one another ; as I knew Nothing of what he had been doing , till I heard it publickly read at Gresham Colledge , when far the greatest part of my Experiments were ( as is known to more Persons then one ) already recorded ; So I afterwards scrupulously abstained from borrowing the Trials mentioned in his Papers , to inrich mine : which forbearance was the more easie to me , because after the first time I heard those Papers read , I never Desired a Copy , nor Had a Sight of them . By this means it happened ; That besides those many Titles , which being handled at large in the History , are left untouched in the following Tract , even on those Occasions , where the Learned Doctor and I happen to treat of the same subjects ; our Trials are but Very few of them coincident ; upon which score , the Reader will meet with more Variety betwixt us , then probably he would have expected to find on such an Occasion . Having drawn up this Advertisement about the Doctors Papers , as supposing them the very same , he presented to the Royal Society ; upon a sight of the following Sheets , ( as they were some hours since brought me from the Press ; ) the Additions I there find , make it appear necessary to say something further to the Reader . I must inform him then , that about the middle of this Winter , and about the end of December 1664. I presented to the Royal Society several Books , containing each of them Eighteen or Nineteen of the Twenty One Titles , whereof my History consists ; that the Virtuosi might have the Opportunity of the Cold ( which then began to be so strong , as to keep the Press from dispatching the rest of the Book ) to examine my Experiments , and add to them ; and one of these being delivered to the Doctor , as the likeliest Person to make use of it , together with an Order tò the Stationer , to let him have the remaining Sheets of the Book , as fast as they should from time to time be Printed ; he had the Curiosity , as to Enlarge some of the things he had already tried and brought in himself ; ( as is intimated in the Forty Sixth Page ) so to make Trial of some particulars , that I had proposed and performed , which either their Importance ( as the way of freezing from the Bottom upwards , by me suggested , and the weight of Bodies frozen and unfrozen ) or his Opportunity invited him to make choice of ; and has been pleased to afford them place among his own Experiments * ; by whichmeans , though the coincidence of what we deliver will appear to happen more frequently , then the Advertisement will make one expect : yet to such Readers as do not prefer Variety before Certainty , these coincident Passages will not in likelihood be unacceptable . For in those Cases , where the Events of our Trials are the same , 't is like the Truth will be the more confirmed * ; and in Cases where the successes are very differing , the Reader will be excited to make further Trials himself , and will be thereby enabled to judge , which Trials have been the most carefully made , and the most warily delivered . And , though I think it but a Necessary Profession for me , to say on this occasion , That I am pretty Confident of my having performed my Duty , as to the Historical part ; yet this need not hinder , but that most of the differing successes , we are speaking of , may prove but Instances of the Truth of what I long since admonished the Reader ( in my Preface , ) That there are among the Experiments of Cold , divers that are liable to Contingencies : So that , as I would not have the Papers of this Learned Man comprehended in what I said , of the Jejuness of the Writers I had met with , who treat of Cold , in a Preface written , when I was not sure the following Papers would be made publick ; so I hope the Reception of these Papers of this Ingenious Person will be such , as may invite him to hasten the Publication of those fruits of his Learning and Industry on another subject , which divers of the Virtuosi do not more Expect , then Desire , to have communicated to them . AN ADVERTISEMENT . THat the Reader may not wonder to find the following Dialogue cited in the History of Cold , whereunto nevertheless it is subjoyn'd ; he is to be inform'd , that a Section About Antiperistasis was really both written and transcrib'd before any part of that History was sent to the Press . But finding , that the Accession of new Particulars had so much swell'd it , that 't was unfit to pass ( as I first design'd it should ) for one of the Titles of the History of Cold , I judg'd it convenient to sever it from the rest , upon the score of its bulk , and yet annex it to them upon the Account of those many Historical Passages in it , that belong to the same subject , that is handled in those Sections . The Reader will quickly find , that the Tract consists of two parts , whereof the first ( which to allow the more Freedom of Inquiry and Discourse , written in the way of Dialogue , ) contains an Examen of Antiperistasis , without pretending to question it absolutely and indefinitely , but rather , As it is wont to be Taught and Prov'd . And this Dialogue , for reasons , that it too little concerns the Reader to know , and would take up too much time to tell him , both begins as a Continuation of some former Discourse , and somewhere mentions the Author , as a Third or Absent Person . And to make it the likelier to other Dialogues , the Quotations are not made with the Authors's punctualness in the rest of this Book , but yet with his usual Faithfulness ; nor hath his Introducing men Discoursing ( as it were by chance ) kept him from putting into the Margent the very words of some Passages , which he thought the most important and likely to be distrusted . But though this first Part be entire and finish'd in its kind , and so might very well ( if not best ) have been put forth Single , to invalidate the common Doctrine of Antiperistasis , ( in the sense wherein 't is there oppos'd ; ) yet because in Philosophical Matters , 't is not so much Victory or Applause , that is to be sought , as Truth ; I forbore not to subjoyn to a Discourse , that may perchance satisfie most of my Readers , some scruples about which I wish'd for further satisfaction and Certainty my self ; of the chiefest of which , the Sceptical Consideration will give the Reader an Account . New THERMOMETRICAL EXPERIMENTS And THOUGHTS . The I. Discourse , Proposing the I. Paradox , Viz. That not only our Senses , but common Weather-glasses , may mis-inform us about Cold. IT may to most men appear a work of needless Curiosity , or superfluous diligence , to examine sollicitously , by what Criterion or way of estimate the Coldness of Bodies , and the degrees of it are to be judg'd , Since Coldness being a Tactile Quality , it seems impertinent to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any other judges of It then the Organs of that sense , whose proper object it is . And accordingly , those great Philosophers , Democritus , Epicurus , Aristotle , ( and till of late ) all others both Ancient and Modern seem to have contented themselves in the matter with the Reports of their Sensories . But this notwithstanding , since we can scarce imploy too much care and diligence in the Examining of those 〈◊〉 , which we are to Examine many other things by , perhaps it will be neither unseasonable nor useless to 〈◊〉 something touching this Subject . For though it be true , that Cold in its primary and most Obvious Notion be a thing relative to our Organs of Feeling , yet since it has also notable Operations on divers other Bodies besides ours ; And since some of them seem more sensible of its changes , and others are less uncertainly affected by them , it would be Expedient to take in the Effects of Cold upon other Bodies , in the Estimates we make of the degrees of it . And to make this appear the more reasonable , I shall not scruple to propose the following Paradox , namely , That our Sensories either alone , or assisted by Common Weather-glasses are not too confidently to be relied on in the judging of the degrees of Cold. To make this Paradox Plausible ( which is almost as much as I here pretend to ) I shall represent in the first place , that the account , upon which we are wont to Judge a Body to be Cold , seems to be , that we feel its particles less vehemently agitated then those of our Fingers or other parts of the Organ of Touching . And consequently , if the temper of that Organ be chang'd , the Object will appear more or less Cold to us , though it self continue of one and the same Temper . This may be exemplified by what has been observ'd by those that frequent Baths , where the milder degrees of heat , that are us'd to prepare those that come in for the higher , seem very great to them that coming out of the cold Air dispose themselves to go into the Hot Baths , but are thought cold and chilling to the same persons when they return thither out of much warmer places ; which need not be wondred at , since those , that come out of the cold Air , find that of the moderately warm Room more agitated , then the cold Ambient would suffer the External Parts of their Bodies to be , whereas the same warm Air , having yet a less agitation then that in which the hotter parts of the Bath had put the sensitive parts of the Bathers Bodies , must seem cold and chilling to Them. But 't is not only in such cases as this , wherein Men can scarce avoid taking notice of a manifest change in themselves , that these mistaken Reports of our senses may have place . For oft-times we are impos'd upon by more secret changes in the disposition of our Sensories , when there needs something of attention and of Reasoning , if not of Philosophy to make us aware of them . For being apt to take it for granted that our Temper is the same , when there is no very manifest cause why it should be chang'd , we often impute that to 〈◊〉 , whereof the Cause is in our selves ; and if this change in our selves be wrought by unsuspected Agents , or by insensible degrees , we do not easily take notice of it . Thus though in Summer divers Cellars , that are not deep , are perhaps no colder then the External Air was , ( when it was judg'd but Temperate , ) in Winter or the Spring ; yet it will seem very Cold to us that bring into it Bodies heated by the Summer Sun , and accustomed to a warmer Air ; nay cold does so much depend upon the degree of Agitation in the parts of the Object in reference to the Sentient , that even when we may think the Sensory unalter'd , it may judge an Object to have a degree of Coldness which indeed it hath not ; as I remember , that to satisfie some Friends , that 't is not every Wind which feels cold to us , that is really more Cold , then the still Air , I have sometimes shewen , that even in nice Weather-glasses Air blown out of a pair of Bellows does not appear to have acquired any Coldness by being turn'd into Wind , though if it were blown against the hands or face , it would produce a new and manifest sense of Cold ; of which the reason seems to be , That though the Organ in general seems not to be alter'd , yet the Wind by reason of its Motion , is able not only to drive away the parts of the Air contiguous to the hand , or face , and the warm steams of the Body which temper'd its Coldness ; but to pierce deeper then the calm Air is wont to do into the pores of the skin , where by comparison to the more inward and hotter parts of the Sensory it must needs appear less agitated and consequently colder . Besides , that sometimes we may meet with certain Steams in the Air that have in reference to the Blood and Spirits of humane Bodies ( though not perhaps to divers other Liquors ) a certain hidden power of chilling , as Opium , ev'n in outward applications ( for in such ways I have known a great Chirurgion much use it and highly extol it ) strikes a Coldness into the Body by the subtile Effluvium's that insinuate themselves at the pores of the Skin ; and perhaps too , that Coldness is ascrib'd to External Bodies , which is produc'd in us by some Frigorifick Vapour , or other distemper ; which being too slight to be taken notice of as a disease , may yet be of Kin to those Agents , that produce what Physicians call horrors and Rigors at the beginning of Feavers , and some other distempers ; or produce that strange and universal Coldness of the external parts , which is frequently enough observ'd among other Symptomes in Hysterical Women . Moreover , Bodies may often appear colder to us then to a Weather-glass , because our Sensories are more affected by the density and Penetrancy of the parts . This may seem somewhat strange , but being sutable enough to some of my Conjectures about Cold , I have often made Tryals with very nice Weather-glasses , that have assur'd me , that ( at least oft-times ) when water seems to be cold enough to our touch , it appears not to be colder to the Weather-glass then the Ambient Air. These Trials I have sometimes made with seal'd Weather-glasses , but the most with another sort of Weather-glasses ( whose structure and use are by and by to be mentioned ) which though they seldom prove durable , nor of any great use in any other then such nice and short Experiments , yet they discover slighter changes of the Temper of the Air then would be notable ( not to say sensible ) in ordinary Thermometers . But of multitudes of Trials that I sometimes made with these Glasses , I can at present find among my loose Papers but a very few ; and though I remember , that in one or two ( made about the same time with some of those that follow ) I observ'd Things that make me now wish I had had Opportunity to make those further Trials of Them , which some of their Phaenomena seem to direct the making of : yet I shall annex these that follow as I find them entred , because they are not perhaps destitute of hints improvable by further prosecution . June 26. between two and four in the afternoon ( the Weather moderate for the season ) I took a thin white glass-Egge blown at a Lamp about the bigness of a Walnut , with a stem coming out of it about the bigness of a large Pigeons Quill four or five Inches long , and open at the Top ; this slender pipe being dipp'd in water , admitted into its Cavity a little Cylinder of Water , of half an Inch long or somewhat more , which ( the Glass being erected ) subsided by its own weight , or the Temper of the Air in the Egge ( in reference to the outward Air ) till it fell to the lower part of the Pipe , where it comes out of the Egge , and thereabout it would rest . Now if taking this Glass by the Top betwixt my Thumb and forefinger , I deprest the Egge under the surface of a Bason of fair water ( cold enough to the touch ) the little Aqueous Cylinder , that parted betwixt the Air in the Egge , and the external , would , instead of being made to subside by the Eggs immersion into the Cold water , presently rise up from the lower part of the Pipe , till it reach'd about the middle of it , though the Glass were , in this and the following Trials , held erected ; and as soon as it was taken out of the Water into the Air , the water would again subside , whether I held the Glass , or let it rest upon the Boards , or a Linen Carpet , that cover'd the Table , on which the Trials were made . And this I did several times as well with as without witness . I tried also that if , instead of water , I made use of Quicksilver , though not big enough to cover the Egge much above half way , and in the rest proceeded as above ; the cold Quicksilver would presently make the Aqueous Cylinder hastily ascend near three Inches , sometimes almost , and sometimes quite to the Top of the slender pipe , whence the water would again quickly subside , when the Glass was taken out into the free Air , or set to rest upright as before . Besides , having set the vessel of Quicksilver and the Bason of water very near one another , I did at least upon three or four several Trials find , as I expected , that when by immersing the Egge in water , the pendulous Cylinder was rais'd so high , that it did no longer sensibly ascend , by nimbly taking the Egge out of the water and depressing it in the Quicksilver , it would rise far higher : and I also tri'd , that nimbly removing the Egge out of the Quicksilver into the water , the pendulous Cylinder would subside , after plunging the Egge under water , though not so fast , nor near so low as it would do , in case the Glass were remov'd from the Quicksilver into the Air. Upon another Trial made much about this time , though not the self same day ; the pendulous water in the same Glass , ( the day being for the most part windy and rainy ) did subside upon the immersion of the Glass into water , not only a while before noon , but an hour or two after dinner , and at distant hours afterwards , though the Descent of the Pendulous water was neither so quick , nor so considerable as it had been formerly in the Mornings . June 27. In the morning a small Cylinder of Water pendulous in the above mentioned Glass , upon the immersion of the Egge in a Bason of water , would immediately and very considerably subside , whereas the same glass , being immersed in the Vessel of Quicksilver formerly mentioned , 〈◊〉 presently ascend . Both parts of this Experiment we several times tried , and the Reason was suspected to be , that the Quicksilver had stay'd all night in my Chamber , which was somewhat warm , whereas the water was brought up that morning , and to the touch seem'd colder then the Quicksilver , and a while after dinner , the same water having been still kept in the room , we divers times found , that as well That , as the Quicksilver , did immediately upon immersion impel up the pendulous water in the slender pipe . Another time in frosty weather ( and about the beginning of January ) we did with such a glass ( as has been already several times mention'd ) take somedrops of water out of a vessel , wherein that Liquor had for a good while been kept ; that it might be reduc'd as near as we could to the Temperature of the Ambient Air ; then 〈◊〉 the suspended water to continue a convenient while in the long and slender stem of the Weather-glass , that the internal Air might be reduc'd to the temper of the external , we took up the Glass by the open end ; and immersing the obtuse part of It into a shallow Vessel containing some of the above mentioned Water , we found the suspended drop suddenly impell'd upwards about half an Inch or more , and the Ball of the Thermometer being taken out of the Water into the Air , the pendulous drop did again ( though far more slowly then it ascended ) subside . This was repeated three or four times with some intervals between ( and that in a Room where there was no Chimney ) and still with the like success , save that in the two last Trials we took the Weather-glass out of the shallow water , and plunging it into a deep vessel of the same water ( that stood very near the other ) we found ( for further confirmation of the Experiment ) that the pendulous water was upon these new immersions , impell'd up , near ( if not full ) as high again , as when we had immers'd it only in the shallow vessel : and taking it out of this deep Glass , we found the Cold of the external Air to reduce It to its former humble station . Thus far the notes , I have yet been able to recover : and though , as I said , I dare not build very much upon them , yet by small seal'd Weather-glasses I find enough to invite me to suspect , that of the degrees of heat and cold in the Air we may receive differing informations , when we imploy only our Organs of Touching , and when we make use of fit Instruments . I shall add on this occasion , that not only water it self , but moist vapours abounding in the Air , may make Us think it colder then the Weather-glass discovers it to be . For though it be generally taken for granted , that the Thermometer does only more exactly measure or determine the Effects , which cold hath both upon it and upon our Sensories , yet I have long suspected that there is somewhat else in the case . And I have observ'd , that sometimes the weather seem'd more or less cold to me , then that which preceded , when the contrary appear'd in the Weather-glass ; and that , when upon consideration of the whole matter , that difference did not appear to depend upon those circumstances of Exercise or Rest , or the Temperature of the Air I came out of , or any of those other things , to which a considerate man , that goes upon no better then the common opinions about Weather-glasses , would be apt to impute to that Phaenomenon . And I was the less dispos'd to think my self mistaken , because having purposely enquir'd of others in the same house , who were not told , what Information the Weather-glass gave , they agreed with me in the sense I had of the Temperature of the Weather . And having since , as occasion serv'd , communicated my Observations and suspitions to divers Ingenious Men , I have been by their recenter Observations confirm'd , that what I have taken notice of , was not the Effect of any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . From which , and other particulars , that we may have elsewhere opportunity to mention , we may plausibly enough infer , that it were not amiss , not only to take notice , when we have opportunity , of the sense , that is Express'd of the degrees of Cold by Birds and other animals , whose diet is more simple and regular then ours , and whose perceptions are commonly more delicate and less diverted ; but , especially , to examine the coldness of the Air and other Bodies as well by Experiments and instruments , as by the touch . And on this Occasion I must not pretermit that memorable Account , that is given us by Martinius in that Noble piece of Geography which he calls Atlas Chinensis , where speaking of the Air of that populous Countrey he has this singular passage : Ad Caeli ( says he ) solique temperiem quod attinet , majus in hac provinciâ frigus est , quàm illius poscat poli altitudo : vix enim illa excedit gradum secundum supra quadragesimum ; & tamen per integros quatuor saepe menses flumina omnia adeò durè concrescunt gelu , ut currus equosque 〈◊〉 gravissima etiam onera glacies ferat , innoxiè acsecurissimè transeant : ex iis ingentia etiam glaciei frusta exscindūtur , quae in futuram aestatem ad delicias servant . His 〈◊〉 omnes naves ita in ipsâ glacie defixae sunt , ut progredi nequeant ubicunque illas frigus occupat ( quod certo certius circa medium Novembris ingruere solet ) per quatuor illos menses immotae ibi perstare coguntur , neque enim resolvitur glacies ante Martii initium ; haec plerumque glaciei concretio uno fit die , cum non nisi pluribus fiat liquefactio ; to which he adds what makes most to our present purpose , 〈◊〉 illud mirum , tantum non videri aut sentiri illud frigus ut Europeos ad hypocausta subeunda videatur posse cogere , aut in Europâ ad glaciem producendam 〈◊〉 unde ad subterraneas illic exhalationes pro harum rerum causis indagandis 〈◊〉 recurrendum est , &c. But all that I have been implying of the Necessity and Usefulness of the Weather-glass , is no way inconsistent with the truth of the latter part of our formerly propos'd paradox , namely that we are not rashly to rely upon the Informations even of common Weather-glasses themselves . For though they be an excellent Invention , and their Informations in many Cases preferable to those of our senses , because those Dead Engins are not in such cases obnoxious to the same Causes of uncertainty with our Living Bodies , yet I fear they have too much ascribed to them , when they are look'd upon as such exact Instruments to measure heat and cold by , that we neither can have nor need desire any better . For , not yet to mention some inconveniences in the contrivance of them , which makes them unapplicable to some purposes , and less proper in others , then Thermoscopes might be made , even in divers cases , wherein they are presum'd to be unexceptionable , their Reports are not to me , I confess , quite exempt from suspicion . For in ordinary Weather-glasses some part of the Liquor being contiguous to the External Air , it is subject to be impell'd more or less upwards , not only according as heat or cold affects the included Air , but according as the incumbent Air happens to be heavier or lighter . And though this be a thing not taken Notice of by those that have treated of Weather-glasses , yet 〈◊〉 what we have elsewhere manifested concerning the weight and spring of the Air , aud what we have probably 〈◊〉 concerning the varying height of the Mercurial Cylinder in the Torrecellian Experiment ; I see not why It should not much call in Question the Informations we receive from common Weather-glasses in those cases , where the height or weight of the Atmosphaerical pillar , that presses upon the Water in the Weather-glass , is considerably longer or shorter , lighter or heavier then is usual . For besides the reason of the thing , we have Experience on our side . I might mention on this Occasion an Experiment I thought on , and also attempted last winter to show ev'n upon a Ballance the varying gravity of the Atmosphaere in one and the same place , by hanging a small Metalline weight at one End of a pair of Scales so strangely exact , that they would turn with far less then the 500. part of a grain ; and counterpoising it at the other end with a Hermetically seal'd Glass Bubble , which being blown as large and as thin as could possibly be procur'd of so small a weight , might by its great disproportion in Bulk to the Metalline Body lose more of its weight then That would upon the Ambient Airs growing more heavy . But the particular Account of this Attempt belonging to another place , the trial ought not to be more then hinted here , especially since it may suffice for our present purpose to alledge that having found ( as we have already in other papers noted ) that in a Weather-glass , where the Water is not fenc'd from the External Air , the weight of the Atmosphaere may make it alter considerably between the Top and Bottom even of a Church or Steeple , though it appear'd by more certain Thermoscopes , that 't was not the differing Temperature of the Air as to Cold and Heat , but the differing gravity of the Atmosphaere , which being shorter and lighter at the Top press'd less forcibly upon the subjacent Water and the included Air , as is more fully made out in the Treatise above related to . And having by the intervention of a Learned Acquaintance desir'd to have some Experiments made of the Effect of the Air upon Weather-glasses in deep Pits or Mines , where the Atmosphaerical Cylinder is longer and heavier , I receiv'd Information that an Ingenious Physician , who had the Opportunity of trying what I desir'd , had found , that in the Bottom of one of those very deep Pits , the water in a common Weather glass rose near three Inches higher then at the top , in a shank or pipe of about thirty Inches long . And this notwithstanding the warmth , that is usual in such deep places , which seems not any thing near so plausibly referable to any other cause , as to the increas'd gravity of the Atmosphaerical Pillar incumbent on the Water , that Pillar being heavier at the Bottom then at the Mouth of the Pit , by the weight of an aerial Pillar equal in length to the pits perpendicular height or depth . But these are not the only Cases wherein the differing gravities of the Atmosphaere may , as well as Heat and Cold , have an interest in the rising and falling of the Liquor in Common Weather-glasses . For though you should not remove them out of one place , and though consequently it may seem that the Atmosphaerical Pillar , that presses upon the water , must be still of the same length , yet ( not to urge , that That may alter , unknown to us ) if retaining its length it retain not its gravity , we may be easily impos'd upon , and take that Ascension or Subsidence of the Liquor for the Effect of a higher or remiss degree of Cold , which may either totally or at least in part ( and in what part , we are left to guess ) be the Effect of the increas'd or lessened weight of the Atmosphaerical Pillar , happening either by the copious dispersion of Vapours and other heavy Steams through the Air , or upon other Occasions not necessary to be here discours'd of , or by the Praecipitation of such vapours by rain or into dew , or else by the Removal of the Occasions of the Augmented Gravity or Pressure of the Air. For we have often observ'd great Variations to happen in the height of the Mercurial Cylinder in the Torricellian Experiment upon great rains and fogs , and other sudden and considerable mutations of the Incumbent Air. But since I my self thought fit , notwithstanding the plausible ratiocination , that led me to this Conjecture , to examine it by Experience ; I can scarce doubt but that others may have the like Curiosity that I had . And therefore , because it may seem a paradox , it will not be amiss , of many to annex three or four Trials I made to examine the propos'd doctrine , especially ours having been the first observations of this kind , that , for ought we know , have been made by any . And indeed others could scarce have well made such , though they had lighted on the same thoughts , for want of such seal'd Weather-glasses to make them with . To omit then those that I made with a seal'd Weather-glass , and an ordinary one ( in which the water remains suspended beneath the included Air ) I shall briefly relate , that in a Room unfurnished with a Chimney , I kept two Weather-glasses , which for more exactness sake , I caus'd to be made of a length far greater then ordinary ; so that the divisions of the one were half inches , and those of the other not much less , and yet were Numerous . The one of these which was furnished with good spirits of Wine , was seal'd , the other not , but this last I caus'd to be so made of the shape represented by the Scheme , that the Air being shut up in the lower part of the Instrument ( not as in common Weather-glasses at the Top ) the Liquor might as well in this as in the seal'd Weather-glass rise with heat and fall with Cold. In these Thermoscopes ( where the Ascension and relapse of the Liquors were , by reason of the length of the Pipes , far more conspicuous then in Vulgar Weather-glasses ) I observ'd with pleasure , that the Hermetical Thermoscope ( if I may for distinction sake so call It , by reason of its being Hermetically seal'd ) did regularly enough descend in cold weather , and ascend in 〈◊〉 : But the other , which was not seal'd , but had a little hole left open at the Top of the Pipe , though , when the Atmosphaere continued of the same weight , it would like the other rise with Heat and fall with Cold , yet when the Atmosphaeres gravity was alter'd , they would not uniformly move together , but when ( as we gather'd from other observations ) the Atmosphaere grew heavier , the Liquor in the Pipe did not ascend , as high as it would have done , if the Atmosphaere had continued in its former degree of gravitation . And on the contrary , when the incumbent Air came to be lighter , the Liquor would rise in the open Weather-glass in a proportion greater then the single increase of heat would have exacted ; so that by comparing the two Weather-glasses together , I did usually foretel , whether the Mercury in the Torricellian Tube ( which I keep purposely by me in a frame ) were risen or fallen , and consequently whether the external Air were heavier or lighter then before . As on the other side , by looking on the height of the Mercurial Cylinder , I could easily tell before hand , whether the Liquor in the open Weather-glass were higher or lower then that in the Hermetical ; the rising or falling of the Mercurial Cylinder one quarter of an Inch ( the Temperature of the Air continuing as to heat and cold ) usually signifying a great disparity betwixt the Ascension or the falling of the Liquors in the two Instruments . Among the several notes , I find among my loose papers , and in a Diary I kept for a while of these observations , I shall content my self to transcribe the following two , because , though divers others were made by my Amanuensis , whose care is not to be distrusted , yet by reason of my absence I could not take notice of them my self . The first of these Memorandums runs thus : Last night I took notice , that there was but one or two Divisions difference betwixt the two Thermometers , but upon such a change of Weather , that happened this day , as made me imagine , that the Atmosphaere would be lighter then 〈◊〉 , consulting the Barometer ( if to avoid Circumlocutions I may so call the whole Instrument wherein a Mercurial Cylinder of 29. or 30. Inches is kept suspended after the manner of the Torricellian Experiment . ) I found the Quicksilver lower then it had been a great while , and thereupon concluding , there would be a notable disparity , between the seal'd and open Weather-glass , I hastned to them , and found that the latter being much alleviated from the weight of the Incumbent Air , was no less then 17. Divisions higher then the others , and comparing the height the two Instruments were this day at , with an observation I my self made about a week ago , when the Quicksilver was much higher then now it is ; I found , that although this afternoon the seal'd Glass being at 41 , the other was at 58 ; yet Then , when the seal'd Weather-glass , was five divisions higher , namely , at 46 , the unseal'd Weather-glass was but at 27. So that betwixt that time and this , the Liquor in the seal'd Weather-glass , has descended five Divisions , but that in the open Weather-glass has ascended 31. Thus far the first of the above mentioned Notes ; the second is as follows . The Mercurial Cylinder being higher , then it has been a good while , and yet the Weather warm and Sun-shiny , when the Liquor in the seal'd Glass stood very near the 50th division , that in the unseal'd was fallen down as low as the 32. So that it is very possible , that the unheeded change in the weight of the external Air may have a greater power to compress the included Air in an unseal'd Weather-glass , then a not inconsiderable degree of warmth may have to dilate it , and consequently in an ordinary Weather-glass , where the Air is included at the Top , it may often fall out , that contrary to what men suppose must needs happen , the pendulous Water may rise in warmer weather , and fall in colder . And ev'n since the writing of the immediately foregoing part of this page , within a few days that interven'd , I have my self made observations , that do yet more clearly manifest this truth , as may appear by the following notes . The first of which speaks 〈◊〉 . Memorandum , that Yesterday night the Quicksilver being at 29 Inches , the Liquors in the seal'd and unseal'd Weather-glasses , were near about the same Division , the former being at 40 , and the other being but half a Division short of that Number . But this night the Quicksilver being risen about ¼ of an Inch ; the Liquor in the seal'd is ascended to 45 , and the other descended beneath 35 about half a Division , so that there is now 10 Divisions between them . This is the first Note , to which the following night enabled me to add this other . The Quicksilver being risen almost ¾ of an Inch above the station it rested at the night before last night , the Hermetical Weather-glass being as it was then above the 40 Division ; the Liquor in the other , which was open , in two days and nights is fallen to the 17 , and consequently is subsided about 23 Divisions , whilest the other is about the same height at which it was at the beginning of that time . Two or three days after , being returned to the place wherein I had made this last observation , and from which some urgent Occasions had for that time exacted my absence ; I found the Disparity , betwixt the two Thermometers that is express'd in the following Memorial . This day the Quicksilver being risen to 30 Inches , when the Liquor in the seal'd Weather-glass was at about 41 Divisions , that in the other was depress'd a pretty deal below the Ninth Division , so that the difference between the two Thermometers was increas'd since the last Observation from 23 to near 33 Divisions , all which the Liquor in the open Weather-glass had sunk down , whilest that in the seal'd continued almost at a stand . And the day after this Memorial , I had occasion to register another , which being the last , I shall here think requisite to take notice of in this 〈◊〉 , I shall subjoyn it with that , which immediately preceded in order of Time. This day the Quicksilver continuing at the same height , at which I observ'd it yesterday , but the Weather being grown much colder , the Liquor appears in both the Glasses to have uniformly enough subsided ; that in the seal'd Weather-glass , being about the 33 , and the other being sunk quite below the lowest mark of all , which was more then I apprehended it would have done , when there was no frost , especially since by my Diary it appears , that one of the last times I observ'd the Hermetical Weather-glass to stand at near about the same height , namely , the 34 ; the Liquor in the other Glass was no lower then the 41 : nor probably would there be now so great a difference , if the Atmosphaere had not been this day very heavy ; whereas , when this freshly recited observation was made , I find by the Diary , the Quicksilver to have ascended but to 29 Inches , and a pretty deal less then a half . Since that time , being forced by several Avocations to be often absent from the place where my Thermoscopes were kept , I was not careful to prosecute such Observations , those already set down ( not to mention those that are not here transcrib'd ) being judg'd abundantly sufficient to evince the Paradox propos'd to be prov'd by them : Only , to manifest that after I desisted from registring my Observations , the Phaenomena may probably have been as remarkable as before ; I shall add , That one of the last times I chanc'd to take notice of the Difference to be gather'd by comparing the two Weather-glasses , I found ( the weather happening to be warmer then ordinary ) the difference between them to exceed any that I remembred my self to have then observ'd , amounting to forty four , if not to forty five Divisions . And ev'n since the writing of the Last Line , we have had opportunity to observe a Phaenomenon , which if it had occurr'd to us in the place where we might have compar'd the Barascope with the Exact Weather-glasses hitherto mention'd , ( and whereby we had been invited to rely upon it ) would perhaps appear more Considerable then any of the Observations yet recorded . For not very many hours ago , finding in the Morning the Quicksilver to be risen in a good Barascope of mine ( though another from that , all this while referred to , and elsewhere kept ) above ¾ of an Inch higher then the place it rested at the Night foregoing , and a somewhat Nice Weather-glass ( where the included Air is kept in the lower part of the Instrument , which is shaped like that already describ'd in this Discourse ) being consulted to show what Effect so great and sudden a change of the Atmosphaeres gravity would have upon it ; I saw the tincted Liquor in the shank depress'd a full Inch or more beneath the Surface of the Ambient Liquor in the Viol , which strange depression of the Liquor in a pipe above 20 Inches long , and where the alterations of the Air as to Heat and Cold are not wont to produce any thing near so great an Effect , I could not but take much notice of . Since the season of the year makes it no way likely that the night , though Cold , could have had so powerful an Operation on it , especially since an Amanuensis that watch'd it much longer then I , affirms that he saw the Liquor driven down quite to the very Bottom of the pipe , and a Bubble of the outward Air to make its passage through the water , and to joyn with the Air contain'd in the cavity of the Viol. The II. Discourse , Containing some New Observations about the Deficiencies of Weather-glasses , together with some Considerations touching the New or Hermetical Thermometers . ANd since I had occasion to speak of the Deficiencies of Weather-glasses , and the mistakes whereto men are liable in the Judgement they make of Cold and Heat upon Their Informations , it will not perhaps appear impertinent to add three or four Considerations more to excite men to the greater Wariness and Industry , both in the making and using Weather-glasses , and in their Judging by them . 1. And first , I consider , that we are very much to seek for a Standard or certain Measure of Cold , as we have setled Standards for weight , and magnitude , and time , so that when a man mentions an Aker , or an Ounce , or an Hour , they that hear him , know what he means , and can easily exhibit the same measure : but as for the degrees of Cold ( as we have elsewhere noted concerning those of Heat ) we have as yet no certain and practicable way of determining them ; for , though , if I use a Weather glass long , 't is easie for me to find , when the Weather is colder , or when warmer , then it was at the time when the Weather-glass was first finished , yet that is a way of estimating , whereby I may in some degrees satisfie my self , but cannot so well instruct others , since I have no certain way to know determinately , so as to be able to communicate my knowledge to a remote Correspondent , what degree of Coldness or Heat there was in the Air , when I first finished my Thermoscope ; For besides that , we want distinct Names for the several gradual differences of Coldness , we have already declar'd , that our sense of feeling cannot safely be relied upon to measure them ; and as for the Weather-glass , that is a thing , which in this case is suppos'd to be no fit Standard to tell us what was precisely the temper of the Air , when it self was first finished , since that does but inform us of the recessions from it , or else that the Air continues in the Temper it was in at the making of the Instrument , but does not determine for us that Temper , and enable us , to express it ; as indeed it is so mutable a thing , ev'n in the same place , and oft-times in the same day , if not the same hour , that it seems little else then a Moral impossibility , to settle such an universal & procurable Standard of Cold , as we have of several other things . And indeed there is scarce any Quality , for whose differences we have fewer distinct Names , having scarce any for the many degrees of Coldness that may be conceiv'd to be intermediate , betwixt Lukewarmness and the Freezing degree of Cold , and even these are undefin'd enough ; for that , which to some mens senses will feel Lukewarm , by others will be judg'd Hot , and by others perhaps cold ; nor is even the glaciating degree of Coldness well determin'd , since not only differing Liquors , as oyl , wine , and water , will manifestly freez much more easily one then another , but even Liquors of the same denomination ; and of waters themselves some are more easily turn'd into Ice then others , and I see no great cause to doubt but that there may be sufficiently differing degrees of Cold , whereof the mildest may suffice for the congelation of some waters . I must not forget to add , that the same person , that has made many observations with a Weather-glass , is so confin'd by that numerical Instrument , that if by the spilling of the Liquor , or the cracking of the Glass , or the casual intrusion of some Bubbles of Air , or by any of divers other Accidents that may happen , the Instrument should be spoil'd , he would , though he should imploy again the same Instrument , be reduc'd to seek out 〈◊〉 new Standard , wherewith to measure the varying temperature of the Air. And though it be not difficult to include in the Cavity of a Weather-glass some other fluid Body instead of Air , yet it will be very difficult , if not impossible , to include a Body , fit to resent and show the Alterations of the Ambient Air , without being also liable to receive impressions from it at the time of its being first shut up . Yet I will not here omit that I have sometimes consider'd whether the essential oyl of Aniseeds ( which is that that is distill'd by the intervention of water in a Limbeck ) might not , during a good part of the year , be of some use to us , in making and judging of Weather-glasses . For this Liquor , as we 〈◊〉 also note , having the peculiarity of loosing its fluidity during almost all the Winter , and a good part of the Spring , and Autumn too , when the Weather or the time of the day is colder ; this Liquor , I say , being such , in case you very gently thaw it , and then putting into it , the Ball of a Weather-glass furnish'd with spirit of Wine that will burn all away , you suffer the oyl to re-congeal leisurely of it self , you may by observing the station of the spirit of Wine in the Thermoscope , when the Oyl begins manifestly to curdle about it , be in some measure assisted , to make another Weather-glass like it . For if you put such rectified spirit of Wine into a Glass , the Cavity of whose Sphaerical , and that of its Cylindrical part , are as near , as may be , equal to the correspondent Cavities in the former Glass , you may by some heedful Trials , made with thaw'd and recongeal'd oyl of Aniseeds , bring the second Weather-glass to be somewhat like the first ; and if you know the Quantity of your spirit of Wine , you may easily enough make an estimate , by the place it reaches to in the Neck of the Instrument , whose capacity you also know , whether it expands or contracts it self to the 40 , the 30 , or the 20 part , &c. of the 〈◊〉 it was of , when the Weather-glass was made . By the help of the same Oyl you may make some kind of estimate , though a more uncertain one , of the difference of two Weather-glasses of unequal bigness : And though I know how much may be alledg'd to show the uncertainty of this way of making a Standard for Weather-glasses ; yet as what I have formerly represented , may manifest me to be far enough from looking on it as an exact Standard of Cold ; so perhaps the way propos'd may not be altogether useless in the making and comparing Weather-glasses , since in such cases , where we are not to expect to hit the mark it self , it is of some advantage to be able to shoot less wide of it then otherwise we should . II. But not to insist any further on a difficulty , which is so hardly 〈◊〉 as that , which occurs about setling a perfect Standard of Cold , there are unaccuratenesses in the measuring of Cold by Weather-glasses , which may be avoided , but are not ; For , Men are not wont to take care , that the Stems be even and Cylindrical enough , but are wont to make use of such , as are much wider at the upper part near the bubble , then otherwhere ; nor do they observe , as they might , a proportion betwixt the Diameter of the Bore of the Cylinder , and that of the Cavity of the Sphaerical Bubble , and divers other circumstances are commonly neglected , which if well order'd would make much towards the Certainty and instructiveness of the Informations , afforded us by Weather-glasses . To which may be added , that even in those , where some part of the Liquor is expos'd to the external Air , there may be made Contrivances much more convenient , in order , at least , to some particular purposes , then that of the Vulgar Weather-glass , some of which we have imploy'd , and others have been either skilfully devis'd , or also happily attempted by some eminently ingenious Members of the Royal Society . And though that , which we have already discrib'd in another Treatise , be very simple , yet it is much more commodious for several of the following Experiments of Cold , then that , which is commonly in use . For in this , where the included Air is as it were pendulous at the Top of the Glass , 't is very troublesome and difficult so to apply Cold Bodies , and especially Liquid ones to it , as therewith to measure their Temper , whereas the Thermometers , I speak of , being made by the insertion of a Cylindrical pipe of Glass ( open at both ends ) into a Viol or Bottle , and by exactly stopping with sealing wax , or very close Cement the Mouth of the Viol , that the included Air may have no communication with the External , but by the newly mentioned Pipe : In this kind of Instrument , I say , by chusing a Viol as large , as you please , and fitting it with a Cylynder , slender enough , the proportion between the part of the Viol possest by included Air , and the Cavity of the Cylinder , in which the Liquor is to play up and down , may be easily made so great , as to make the Liquor in this Instrument , with the same degree of Heat or Cold , rise or fall four or five , or more times as much as the pendulous Liquor is wont to do in an Ordinary Weather-glass , where the cavity that lodges the Air , is wont to be much too small , considering the Bigness of the pipe , whereinto the Air must , when 't is rarifi'd , expand it self . But 't is not the greater sensibility ( if I may so speak ) of this very kind of Weather-glasses , nor their not needing frames , that makes me take notice of them in this place ( where I purposely pass by contrivances that I know to be more curious ) but this other Quality , which makes them fit for divers of the following Experiments , wherein we shall have occasion to mention them , namely , that with little or no trouble and inconvenience we may imploy Liquors or other Bodies to refrigerate the included Air , by immersing the Viol , if need be ( by a weight ) into the Liquor to be examin'd , and letting it stand there as long as we please . And so we may also measure the Coldness of Earth , Snow , powder'd Ice , and other consistent Bodies , which may be heap'd about the Viol , or in which it may be buri'd . III. I consider too , that though men are wont confidently enough to conclude , that in case ( for instance ) the Coldness of the weather make the Liquor in a Thermoscope yesterday an Inch higher then 't was the day before , and this day an Inch higher then 't was yesterday , the Air must be this day as cold again as it was yesterday , or at least that the increase of Cold must be double to what it was yesterday , and so in other proportions , yet the Validity of this Collection may very justly be Question'd ; For , though we should grant , that Cold is that which of it self , or by its own power contracts the Air , yet how does it appear , that a double degree of Cold must produce a double degree of condensation in the Air , and not either more or less . Since besides that 't is taken for granted , but not prov'd , that the differing Quantities of included Air in several Instruments , and the differing bignesses of the Pipes , and the differing degrees of Expansion , wherein the included Air may happen to be , when the Ascension of the Water begins to be reckon'd , may render this Hypothesis very suspicious ; besides all this , ( I say ) I am not inclin'd to grant ( what Philosophers have hitherto suppos'd ) that the Condensation of the Air , and the ascension of the Water is only , or so much as principally , affected by the proper Virtue of the Cold , but by the pressure of the Ambient Air , as we shall ere long more fully declare : And if this be made out , then the computation , we are considering , will be found to be very fallacious , for we have elsewhere shown , That the strengths requir'd to compress Air , are in reciprocal proportion , or there abouts , to the spaces comprehending the same portion of Air ; so that if a Cylinder ( for instance ) of four Inches of Air , be just able to resist a strength or pressure equivalent to 10. pound weight , when it comes to be compress'd into two Inches ; in this case , I say , an equal force superadded to the former , ( which makes that a double force , or equivalent to 20 pound weight , ) will drive up that already comprest Air into half the space ; that is , into one Inch or thereabouts ; whence it follows , that in estimating the condensation of the Air in a Weather-glass , we must not only consider , how much space it is made to desert , but also , what proportion that deserted space bears to the whole space it formerly possest , and to what degree of density it was reduc'd , before the application of the then force ; and we must remember , that the resistence of the included Air is not to be look'd upon , as that of a weight , which may remain always the same , but that of a spring forcibly bent , and which is increas'd more and more , as it is crowded into less and less Room . But these Nicer speculations it would here be somewhat improper to pursue . IV. Wherefore I shall proceed to what may seem a Paradox , that even the particular Nature of the Liquors , imploy'd in Weather-glasses , is not altogether to be neglected , till we have a better and more determinate Theory of the causes of Cold , then I fear we have : For , though usually it matters not much , what Liquor you imploy , yet 't is not impossible , that in some cases men may slip into mistakes about them , for it will not follow , that if of two Liquors , the one be much the more obnoxious to the higher degree of Cold , that of Glaciation , the other must be less easily susceptible of the lower degrees of Cold ; since those , that make seal'd Weather-glasses , some with water , and some with spirit of wine , have confessed to me , that they find these ( last nam'd ) much more apt to receive notable impressions from faint degrees of Cold , then those that are furnished but with water , and ( which yet is easily turn'd into Ice ) by the cold of our Climate , which will by no means produce the like effect upon pure spirit of Wine . Besides we cannot always safely conclude ( as Philosophers and Chymists generally do ) that the more subtile and spirituous Liquors must be the least capable of being congealed ( that is , made to lose its fluidity , as oyl and some other substances are wont to be reduc'd to do by the Action of Cold ) for the Chymical Oyl of Aniseeds distill'd by a Limbeck is so hot and strong a Liquor , that a few drops of it conveniently dissolv'd will make a whole Cup of Beer taste as strong , and perhaps heat the Body as much as so much Wine , and yet this hot and subtile Liquor I have found upon Trial , purposely made , to be more easily congealable ( in the sense freshly explain'd ) by cold , then even common water ; and to continue so several days , after a Thaw had resolv'd the common Ice into fluid water again . And I know some distill'd Liquors , whose component particles are so piercing and so vehemently agitated , that the tongue cannot suffer them , and they are not perhaps inferior to most Chymical Oyls , nor to Aquafortis it self , and yet these may be congeal'd by far less degrees of Cold , then such , as would yet prove ineffectual to freez either the generality of Chymical Oyls , or the generality of saline spirits . And indeed till we attain to some more determinate Theory of Cold , and come to know more touching its causes , then we yet do , I see not , why it should be absurd to suspect , that though there be some kind of Bodies , which seem fitted to produce Cold indiscriminately in the Bodies they invade or touch , yet if the refrigeration of a Body be but the lessening of the wonted or former agitation of its parts ( from what cause soever that remisness proceeds ) it seems not impossible , but that besides those Bodies or Corpuscles , that may be look'd upon as the Catholick Efficients of Cold , there may be particular Agents , which in reference to this or that particular Body may be call'd frigorifick , though they would not so much refrigerate another Body , which perhaps would be more easily affected , then the former , by 〈◊〉 efficients of Cold. For we may observe , that Quicksilver may be congeal'd by the Steams of Lead , which have not been taken notice of to have any such Effect upon any other fluid Body , and yet Quicksilver is not to be depriv'd of its fluidity by such a degree of Cold , as would freez not only water but wine . And by what we have formerly related upon the credit of that great Traveller , the Jesuit Martinius , it seems , that water it self may in some Regions be so dispos'd by the constitution of the Soyl , that 't is susceptible of strange impressions of Cold in proportion to the Effect , which that degree of Cold produces there in humane Bodies . Besides , Opium also , of which three or four grains have too oft destroyed the heat of the whole mass of Blood in a mans Body , though that be a very hot , subtile , and spirituous Liquor , does not sensibly refrigerate water , as far as I could observe with a good seal'd Weather-glass , which I put sometimes in a glass of ordinary water , and sometimes into a glass of water of the same Temper , and ( as we guess'd ) of the same Quantity , wherein Opium , enough to kill very many men , was put in thin slices , and suffered to dissolve ; which seems to argue , that as differing Liquors have each their peculiar Texture , so there may be certain Bodies , whose minute particles by their peculiar seize , shape and motion , may be qualified to hinder , or at least lessen the agitation of the particles of the appropriated Liquor , into whose pores they insinuate themselves ; And thereby , according to the lately mention'd supposition , they may refrigerate that particular Liquor without having the like Effect on other Liquors , whose Textures are differing . And I might countenance this by adding , that as fiery and agitated a spirit as that of wine , when well 〈◊〉 , is justly thought to be ; yet I know more liquors then one , that being mingled with it , will in a trice deprive it of its 〈◊〉 ; and the like change I have sometimes made in some other liquors also . But I must not insist on such matters , having mention'd them but only to awaken mens curiosity and circumspection , and not to build much upon them , which will be easily credited , if it be remembred , that a little above I my self sufficiently intimated , that this Conjecture supposes something about the Theory of Cold , which is not yet sufficiently clear'd . Only , because the former Experiments show , That the various Agitation of the minute parts of a Liquor , whereon its Fluidity depends , may be hindred or suppressed by the intervention of adventitious 〈◊〉 : But do not clearly show , That the Liquor by being depriv'd of that Kind of Agitation does actually acquire a Coldness : I might subjoyn thus much , that by the Addition of a certain substance ( which for just reasons I must forbear to describe ) that would scarce sensibly refrigerate common Water ; I can make a certain ( and for ought I know , one only ) Liquor , that is wont to the touch to be much of the Temper of Water , to conceive a considerable degree of Coldness : This , I say , ( as strange as it may seem ) I might here subjoyn to countenance the Conjectures , I have been delivering , and afford some new Corrolaries ; but for the Reason newly intimated I forbear , and the rather because I think it high time to return thither , whence the Considerations , I have offer'd about Weather-glasses , have made me digress . I was going then to take notice , upon the Occasion offer'd by what I related of the Influence of the Atmosphaeres gravity upon common Weather-glasses , of the difference between them and those that are Hermetically seal'd . And indeed , these are in some things so much more convenient then the others , that ( if I be not mistaken ) it has already prov'd somewhat serviceable to the Inquisitive , that I have directed the making of the first of them , that have been blown in England ; At the Beginning indeed I had difficulty to bring men to believe , there would be a rarefaction and condensation of a liquor Hermetically seal'd up , because of the School Doctrine touching the impossibility of a vacuum , and especially , because I had never seen any Experiment of this kind , nor met with any that had , but after some Trials , which my Conjectures led me to make succesfully enough , that in Hermetically seal'd Glasses , both Air and Water might be alternately rarifi'd and condens'd ; I found my work much facilitated by the sight of a small seal'd Weather-glass , newly brought by an Ingenious Traveller from Florence , where it seems some of the Eminent Virtuosi , that enobled that fair City , had got the start of us in reducing seal'd Glasses into a convenient shape for Thermoscopes . But since that , the Invention has in England by a dexterous hand , that uses to make them for me , been improv'd , and the Glasses we now use are more conveniently shap'd , and more Exact then the Pattern , I caused the first to be made by . But the filling of these long ones that we now use , is a work of more niceness and difficulty , then they that have not tried will be apt to imagine , and therefore may elsewhere deserve either from our Pen , or his , that is most vers'd in making them , a more particular account of the way of Performing it : The advantages of these Weather-glasses being at no hand inconsiderable . For , the weight or pressure of the Atmosphaere ( which , as we have noted , may work very much upon others , ) their being seal'd defends them from : And by this Advantage they may be us'd in the highest and in the deepest places , with as much certainty as any where else . Next , whereas in other Thermometers the Liquor is very subject to be spilt , in case they be removed from place to place , and which is worse , though they be not remov'd , is subject to be prey'd upon and wasted by the Air , whereby informations of such Weather-glasses are rendred in Tract of time somewhat uncertain : In seal'd Weather-glasses , there is no danger , that Liquor should either spill or evaporate , And upon the same Account , 〈◊〉 have this Advantage , that you may safely let them down into the Sea , and immerse them in any Liquor , you please , without excepting the most corrosive to examine their Coldness : Not to mention , that instead of the courser Liquors used in common Weather-glasses , which are some of them not unapt to freez , and others unapt enough to comply with the slighter alterations of the Air , and instead of the colourless Liquor , whether water or no ( I know not ) us'd in the Florentine Weather-glass I saw , We imploy highly rectifi'd spirit of Wine , whose being brought to a lovely red with Cochinele , open'd by the most subtile volatile spirit of Urine , by which means the included Liquor is not only very conspicuous and secur'd from freezing , but so susceptible of even the slighter impressions of external Bodies ( which would work but faintly on water ) that 't is pleasant to see , how many Inches a mild degree of heat will make the Tincture ascend in the very slender Cylindrical stem of one of these useful Instruments ; of which we have spoken the more particularly in this place , because we shall have frequent occasions to mention them in the following Papers ; and no body as yet , that we know , has written any Account of them . But though these Weather-glasses be much more to be relied on , then those that are commonly in use , yet we would have a Philosopher look upon both these and our Sensories , but as Instruments to be imployed by his Reason , when he makes his Estimates of the Coldness of Bodies : And though perhaps it will signifie nothing in the Event , yet I see not , why it should misbecome a Naturalists Diligence and circumspection to try , whether ev'n such weather-glasses ought to be so far allow'd of , as to hinder men from looking after any other kind of ways of estimating Cold. For , though the sealing of these Weather-glasses protect the included Liquor from the pressure of the Air , and keep it from evaporating , yet it will not follow from hence , that they must be exempt from all the other imperfections , which we formerly mention'd to be imputable to Weather-glasses . I know not whether you will allow me to add on this occasion , that the tincted spirit of Wine ( and the like may ( for ought we know ) be said of any such Liquor ) being a particular mixture , in case it be allow'd possible , that the subtile steams of such Bodies ( as we formerly noted to be frigorifick in respect to some Liquors ) may insinuate themselves through the pores of Glass ; as 't is granted , that the Effluviums of the Loadstone do readily per-meat It : in this Case , I say , though I willingly allow it not to be likely , yet it is not absolutely impossible , that some Steams , that wander through the Air , may be more or less Cold , or may more promote or hinder an agitation among the minute parts in reference to It , then in reference to other Liquors : as we formerly noted , that a grain or two of Opium will exceedingly allay the warmth and motion of the whole mass of Blood in a mans Body , though ten times that Quantity will not sensibly refrigerate the tenth part of so much water . And that this may appear the less extravagant , I shall here add some mention of an odd Phaenomenon , that , as it were , by some Fate has occur'd to me , since I began the Discourse I am now upon ; for whilest I was yesterday writing It , I had occasion to Examine by such a Seal'd Weather-glass ( as I have been speaking of ) the Temper of a certain strange kind of mixture , that towards the close of this Treatise , I shall have Occasion to take special Notice of : and though to the touch it appear'd but Lukewarm , yet having put into it the Ball , and part of the stem of the seal'd Weather-glass , I found the Included Liquor slowly enough impell'd up so high , that at length , to my wonder , it rose eight or nine Inches in a Stem , which was not much above a foot long ; but that which I relate , as the surprizing Circumstance , is , that when I had taken out the Thermoscope , and remov'd it again into a deep Glass full of Cold water , whence I had just before taken it out , to put it into the Anomalous mixture , I had a mind to examine ; the Tincture in the Weather-glass did not ( as it was wont , and as any one would have expected ) begin to subside again towards its former station , but continued within about half an Inch or less of the very Top of the Instrument , though neither my own busie Eyes , nor those of a person very well Vers'd in making and using Thermoscopes , could perceive , that the expanded Tincture was any where discontinued by any Air or Bubbles , which at first we suspected might possibly ( though it were very unlikely ) have been generated by the Tepor of the mixture . But that which continued our wonder , if not increased it , was , that during four or five hours , that the Instrument continued in the Cold water , and during some hours also , that it was expos'd to the Air , the Tincture did not subside above half an Inch ; and which is yet more strange , having left the Glass all night , in the window of a Room , where there was no Chimney , I found in the morning , that its descent was scarce sensibly greater , for it continued about eight Inches higher , then the mark it stood at , when I first put it into the Lukewarm mixture , and how long it will yet retain this strange expansion , is more then I can tell . But by this and what I may have occasion hereafter to relate concerning this mixture , it may appear somewhat the more reasonable to suspect , that even seal'd Weather-glasses furnished with high rectifi'd spirit of Wine , may in some ( though very rare ) conjunctures of Circumstances , and from some peculiar Agents , either by their insinuating themselves through the Pores of the Glass , or on some other Account , receive impressions , that , as far as can easily be discern'd , are not purely the genuine and wonted Operations of Heat and Cold. The Chymist Orthelius tells us , that the Liquor distill'd from the Oar of Magnesia or Bismute ( which seems to be the same Mineral , that we in English call Tin-glass ) will swell in the Glass 't is kept in , not only manifestly , but very considerably at the full Moon ; and shrink at the new Moon ; and if all my endeavours to procure that Oar had not prov'd fruitless , I should be able by my own Experience to disprove or confirm so admirable a Phaenomenon ; but being as yet unfurnish'd to make the Trial my self , lest it might appear a Vanity , so much as to mention ( without rejecting it ) a thing so very unlikely : I shall add , that since I find the Thing for the main , which was delivered by the Chymist , imploy'd as an Argument by a famous Mathematician ( the Jesuite Casatus ) whose expressions are such , as if he himself had observ'd , that even in stopt Glasses , the foremention'd Mineral spirit increased very sensibly in Bulk about the time of the full Moon , which wonder being admitted , may not only countenance what we were saying , but hint some other very strange things in Nature . This brings into my mind ( what I have elsewhere mention'd ) that a Tincture of Amber , I had made with high rectifi'd spirit of Wine , did for many Moneths in a well stopt Glass discover it self to be affected with certain changes , which were thought to proceed from some secret mutations of the Air , that did sensibly so work , as I had not observed it to do upon other Liquors , wherein the spirit of Wine abounded . And perhaps upon long and diligent observation , one might find a Disparity betwixt Weather-glasses kept in the same place , but furnished with differing Liquors , a Disparity , I say , that could not be so well ascrib'd to any thing as to the peculiar Nature of the Respective Liquors , which , though of divers kinds , may ( to add that towards the facilitation of Trials ) be made of a very conspicuous colour , by the self-same Metal , Copper , which not only gives the Known colour in Aqua fortis , but affords a fair solution in Aqua Regis , and it makes a Liquor of a most deep and lovely blew in spirit of Urine , or of Sal Armoniack , and the like ; nay , I have found , that in good Chymical Oyl of Turpentine ( for express'd oyls are too easily congeal'd ) the bare filings of it will yield a sufficient Tincture . But because it is yet but a bare suspicion , that Seal'd Weather-glasses made of differing Liquors , but in other points alike may be otherwise then uniformly affected by the Temperature of the External Air ; I shall now add an observation already made , to show , that even the Seal'd Weather-glasses furnish'd with spirit of Wine are not so perfectly secluded from all commerce with external Bodies , and liableness to their operations , but that they may be wrought upon otherwise then we think . For I have more then once observ'd , that even in seal'd Thermoscopes ( made purposely at home for me , and with great care by the expertest maker of Them ) after a good while , and when no such matter was expected , there have emerg'd Bubbles , which , whether they proceeded from some undiscernable Particles of Air , harbour'd in the Pores of the Water , which in process of time , by their Union came to make conspicuous Bubbles , or from some dispos'd particles of the spirit of Wine it self by successive alterations brought to a state of Elasticity , I now examine not ; but only affirm , that sometimes I have had of these Bubbles great enough to possess the space of many Inches in the shank of a long seal'd Weather-glass , and I have been troubled with them in more Weather-glasses then one or two : which I therefore take Notice of , not only , because it serves to prove what I was saying , but because it is very fit , an Advertisement should be given of it to prevent mistakes . For when these Bubbles are small , and are generated or happen to stay at or about the Place , where the Sphaerical and Cylindrical parts of the Glass meet , they may easily ( as I have observ'd ) lurk unheeded , and reaching from side to side , so divide the spirit of Wine in the Ball from That in the Stem , that the latter shall not be able 〈◊〉 rise and fall according to the changes of the weather ; the Bubble notwithstanding its aerial nature , being more indispos'd to be mov'd up and down in the slender Stem of a small Weather-glass , then the spirit of Wine it self , as we have elsewhere shown , that when Air is not forc'd , a Bubble of it will not in several cases so readily pass through a very narrow passage , as would that grosser fluid , Water . But all these difficulties ( not to call them extravagances ) which I have been mentioning about seal'd Weather-glasses , I represent not to show , that it is ( at least as yet ) worth while to suspect ours so far , as to imploy all the Diligence and Inventions , that were 〈◊〉 to prevent or silence the suspicions of a Sceptick , or that might be thought upon , in case the matter did require or deserve such extraordinary Nicety , but only to give men a rise to consider , whether it would be amiss to take in ( when Occasion presents it self ) as many collateral Experiments and Observations as conveniently we can , to be made use of as well as our Sensories and Weather-glasses in the Dijudications of Cold. And perhaps an Attentive Enquiry purposely made , would discover to us several other Bodies , Natural or Factitious , which we might make some use of in estimating the degrees of Cold. For though ( to give an instance ) 〈◊〉 be thought the Liquor , that is most susceptible of such an Intensity of Cold , as will destroy or suspend its Fluidity , yet not here to repeat , what we formerly deliver'd of the easie congealableness of Oyl of Aniseeds , we have ( as we elsewhere note to another purpose ) distill'd a substance from Benzoin , which becomes of a fluid , a consistent Body , and may be reduc'd to the state of fluidity again by very much lesser alterations of the Ambient Air , as to Heat and Cold , then would have produc'd Ice or Thaw'd it . I could also here take notice of , what I have sometimes observ'd in Amber-greese , dissolv'd in high rectifi'd spirit of Wine , or in other Sulphurous or Resinous concretions dissolv'd in the same Liquor ; for now and then , though it seem'd a mere Liquor in warm Weather , it would in Cold weather let go part of what it swallow'd up , and afterwards redissolve it upon the return of warm weather ; some of these concretions , as I have seen in Excellent Amber-greese , shooting into fine figur'd masses , others being more rudely congeal'd . And I might also add , what I have observ'd in Chymical Liquors , ( not unskilfully prepar'd out of Urine , Harts-horn , &c. ) which would sometimes seem to be totally clear Spirits , and at other times would suffer a greater or lesser proportion of Salt to Chrystallize at the Bottom , according to the Mutations of the Weather , in point of Cold and Heat . Such kind of instances ( I say ) I could mention , but I shall rather chuse to prosecute my Examples in that obviousest of Liquors , Water , and add , that even That may afford us other Testimonies of the increased or lessen'd cold of the Air , then that which it gives us in Common Weather-glasses . For in some parts of France the Watermen observe , that the Rivers will bear Boats heavier loaden in Winter , then in Summer ; and I have upon inquiry been credibly inform'd , that Seamen have observ'd their ships to draw less water upon the Coasts of frozen Regions ( where yet the Sea is wont to be less brackish ) then they do on our British Seas : which argues , that water is thicker and heavier in Winter then in Summer . Nay , I shall add , that not only in differing Seasons of the Year , but even at several times of the same day I have often observed the Coldness of the Air to be ( regularly enough ) so much greater at one time of the day then at another , that a Glass bubble Hermetically seal'd and pois'd so as to be exactly of the same weight with its equal Bulk of Water , as that Liquor was constituted at one time of the Day , would about Noon , when the warmth , that the Summers Sun produc'd in the Air , had somewhat rarifi'd the water , and thereby made it bulk for bulk somewhat lighter then before , the Bubble would sink to the Bottom of the water , which ( for the better marking the Experiment ) I kept in a Glass-Tube ; but when at night the coolness of the Air had recondens'd the water , and thereby made it heavier , it began by little and little to buoy up the Bubble , which usually by morning regain'd the Top of the Water ; and at other times of the day it not unfrequently happen'd , that the Bubble continued swimming up and down betwixt the Top and the Bottom , without reaching either of them , sometimes staying so long in the same part of the Tube , that it much surpriz'd divers of the Virtuosi themselves , who thought the poising of a weight so nicely , not only a very great difficulty ( as indeed it is ) but an insuperable one . But of this Experiment I elsewhere say more ; and because about other Weather-glasses I have said so much already , I think it may not be improper to Sum up my thoughts concerning the Criteria of Cold , by representing the following particulars . 1. That by reason of the various and unheeded predispositions of our Bodies , the single and immediate informations of our senses are not always to be trusted . 2. That though Common Weather-glasses are useful Instruments , and the informations they give us are in most cases preferrable to those of our sense of touching , in regard of their not being so subject to unheeded mutations : yet ev'n these Instruments being subject to be wrought upon by the differing weights of the Atmosphaere , as well as by Heat and Cold , may ( upon that , and perhaps some other accounts ) easily mis-inform us in several cases , unless in such Cases we observe by other Instruments the present weight of the Atmosphaere . 3. That the seal'd Weather-glasses , we have been mentioning , are so far preferrable to the Common ones , as ( especially they not being obnoxious to the various pressure of the external Air ) that there seems no need in most cases to decline their reports , or postpose Them to those of any other Instruments : But yet in some nice Cases it may be prudent ( where it may conveniently be done ) to make use also of other ways of examining the Coldness of Bodies , that the concurrence or variance to be met with in such ways of Examination , may either confirm the Testimony of the Weather-glass , or excite or assist us to a further and severer inquiry . 4. That I would not have Men too easily deterr'd from devising and trying various Experiments ( if otherwise not unlikely or irrational ) about the estimating of Cold , by their appearing disagreeable to the vulgar Notions about that Quality . For I doubt , our Theory of Cold is not only very imperfect , but , in great part ill grounded . And I should never have ventur'd at trying to make seal'd Weather-glasses , if I could have been withheld either by the grand Peripatetick Opinion , that ( to shun a void ) water must remain suspended in Glasses , where if it fall , the Air cannot succeed it ; or the general opinion ev'n of Philosophers as well new as old , That Air must be far easier then any visible Liquor condens'd by Cold. The III. Discourse , Containing The II. Paradox , Viz. Touching the Cause of the Condensation of Air , and Ascent of Water by Cold in Common Weather-glasses . THough I thought here to end the Praeliminary Discourse , as doubting it may be thought prolix enough already , yet for confirmation of what I was lately noting , about the incompleteness of the Theory of Cold ( and because the evincement thereof may give rise to many Trials that may inrich the History of Cold ) I will here subjoyn a Discourse formerly written on another Occasion . For though upon that Account I am fain to leave out the beginning of It , as not suted to the present Occasion , yet the main Body of the Discourse may be ( I think not improperly ) annex'd to what has been already said about Weather-glasses , since it examines the causes of the principal Phaenomenon of them , and will perhaps help to discover the incompleteness of mens Notions about Cold , by showing that the true cause , ev'n of the most obvious Phaenomenon of Common Weather-glasses ( though almost every man thinks he understands It ) has not yet been sufficiently inquir'd into . The discourse then ( that first part of It as forreign to our present purpose ) being omitted , is as follows . — To prosecute our Disquisition satisfactorily , it will concern us to consider , upon what Account the water rises in Cold Weather and falls in Hot , in common Weather-glasses , whose Construction being so well known , that we need not spend time to set it down , we may forthwith proceed to take notice , That concerning the reason , why in these Weather-glasses the water , or other Liquor in the shank or pipe , ascends with Cold , and descends with Heat : there are three opinions , that will deserve our Consideration . The first is the common opinion of the Schools and Peripateticks , and indeed of the generality of learned Men of differing Sects , who teach , that the Cold of the External Air , contracting the Air included in the Weather-glass , and thereby reducing it into a narrower Room then formerly it possest , the water must necessarily ascend to fill the place deserted by the retired Air , lest that space should become a vacuum , which Nature abhors . But against this Explication we have several things to object . For first , I am not satisfi'd , that any of the Schoolmen or Peripateticks ( at least of those I have met with ) have solidly evinc'd that Nature cannot be brought to admit a vacuum . Nor do I much exspect to see that assertion well prov'd , by these , or by any other , that forbear to make use of the Argument of the Cartesians drawn from the Nature of a Body , whose very essence they place in its having extension : which I say , because about this Argument I neither have yet published , nor do now intend to deliver my thoughts . Next , it seems a way of Explicating , that little becomes a Naturalist , to attribute to the senseless and inanimate Body of water an Aim at the good of the Universe , strong enough to make it act , as if it were a free Agent contrary to the tendency of its own private Nature to prevent a Vacuum , that , as is presum'd , would be hurtful to the Universe . But these Arguments we have elsewhere urg'd , and therefore need not insist longer on them here . Thirdly , if you take a Bolthead , with a large Ball and long stem ; and do , with that and Quicksilver make the Torricellian Experiment , there will be an Instrument prepar'd like a Common Weather-glass , save that the stem is longer , and that the Liquor is Mercury instead of Water , and yet in this case we see not , that the Mercury , which remains pendulous in the pipe at the height of about 30. Inches , offers to ascend into the cavity of the Bolthead , to fill up the space , whence the Air was expell'd by the Mercury , and which the Quicksilver also by its subsiding deserted . And the outward application of Cold Bodies to the 〈◊〉 part of the head will not perhaps Occasion the rising of the Quicksilver a ¼ of an Inch , is half so much , though the like degree of Cold would make the water ascend in a Vulgar Thermometer , though shorter , to the height of several Inches . But this Argument I also on another Occasion further display and vindicare . Wherefore I shall add one more , taken from the Consideration of these seal'd Weather-glasses , that are describ'd in this 〈◊〉 History of Cold. For , in these the Air does not shrink , but rather seems to be expanded , when the weather grows Colder . If it be said , that water being contracted by the Cold , the Air follows it to prevent a Vacuum : I answer , that those , that say this , should explain , why , whereas in Common Weather-glasses the water ascends to follow the Air , in these the Air must descend to follow the water : And why , since to avoid a Vacuum the one in common Weather-glasses , and the other in seal'd ones resists contraction , Nature does not rather make the Air in Common Thermometers , retain the extension , they conceive due to its nature , then put her self to the double Labour of suffering the Air to be preternaturally condens'd , and compelling the water to ascend contrary to its nature . But these Arguments I will not urge so much , as this other , that in our present case , the above propos'd Answer will by no means salve the difficulty . For if the water be really condens'd into less , and the Air expanded into more space then they respectively possest before ; I see not , how a Vacuum or a worse Inconvenience will be avoided ; for I demand , since Glass is granted to be impervious to Air and water ( as indeed else Nature would not need to make water ascend contrary to its own tendency in a Common Weather-glass ) what becomes of the Body , that was harbour'd in the space deserted by the water upon its Condensation ? Which Question , those that do not say , any thing escaped away through the Glass , or that any thing was annihilated , will not easily answer . But this is not all , for I further demand , when the Air expands it self to follow the water , how by that expansion of the Air , a Vacuum both coacervatum ( as the old Epicureans spoke ) and interspersum , is avoided . For the aerial Corpuscles cannot advance into this space deserted by the water , without leaving either in whole or in part the spaces they fill'd before , so that by this remove an aerial Corpuscle only changes place , but does not adequately fill any more place then it did before . But if it be said , that the same Air without any substantial Accession , may adequately fill more space at one time then at another : If this , I say , be pretended , I shall not urge that it appears not , why it were not more easie for Nature in common Weather-glasses , as well as in seal'd ones , to rarifie the Air , which they reach to be so very easily rarifi'd and condens'd , then to make the heavy Body of water to ascend . For I may very well reply , that I scarce know any Opinion in Natural Philosophy , that to me seems more unintelligible , and more worthy to be confidently rejected , then This harsh Hypothesis of Rarefaction . Of which I should think it injurious to so judicious a Philosopher , as my Lord Brouncher , to indeavour here to manifest the absurdity , though I had not in another place shewn it already . The next Opinion , we are to consider touching the cause of the ascension of Water by cold in Weather-glasses , is that of Mr. 〈◊〉 , who , in the last Chapter of his Book de Corpore , Sect. the 12. having premis'd a delineation of a common Weather-glass , subjoyns this Explication : In the sixth and seventh Articles of the 27. Chap. ( where I consider the cause of Cold ) I have shewn , that fluid Bodies are made colder by the pressure of the Air , that is to say , by a constant wind that presseth them . For the same cause it is , that the superficies of the water is press'd at F , and having no place , to which it may retire from this pressure , besides the Cavity of the Cylinder between H and E , it is therefore necessarily forced thither by the Cold , and consequently it ascendeth more or less according as the Cold is more or less increas'd . And again , as the Heat is more intense , or the Cold more remiss , the same water will be depress'd more or less by its own gravity , that is to say , by the cause of gravity above explicated . But however the Author of this Explication , to prepare us to receive it , tell us , that however the above mention'd Phaenomenon be certainly known to be true by experience , the cause nevertheless has not yet been discover'd : yet I confess , I think , this newly recited assertion might as well have been plac'd after his explication , as just before it . For first , whereas he remits us to the sixth and seventh Articles of the 27. Chapter ( for the reference is misprinted ) as containing the grounds of this Explication , I must profess my self far from being satisfi'd with the general Theory of Cold deliver'd in that Chapter , as being partly precarious , partly insufficient , and partly scarce intelligible , as I shall elsewhere have Occasion to shew : and as for what he particularly alledges in the sixth and seventh Articles of a constant wind , that presses fluid Bodies , and makes them Cold , besides that that is prooflesly affirm'd , we shall anon have Occasion to mention an Experiment , where water was not only much refrigerated , but turn'd into Ice , though it were seal'd up in Glass Vessels , and those suspended too in other Glasses , wherein some of them had Air about them , and some others were totally immers'd in unfreezing Liquors , so that the water that was seal'd up was sufficiently protected from being raked by the wind , as Mr. Hob's conceipt of the Cause of freezing requires . Secondly , I see no necessity , that the Cold should press up the superficies of the Water into the shank of the Weather-glass , especially since 't is manifest , that the Water will rise with Cold in a Weather-glass kept in a still place , and free from any sensible wind . Besides that , it should be prov'd , and not barely affirm'd , that an insensible Motion deserves the name of wind , and that such a one is the cause of the refrigeration of water , and it should be also shewn , how this wind comes to be able to raise the water , and that to the height of many Inches more in one part of the superficies then in another . Besides all this , I say , we find by Experience , that Water powred into a Bolthead , till it have fill'd the Ball , and reach'd a good way into the Stem , will upon a powerful refrigeration , short of freezing ( which is the case of water in Weather-glasses , when the Air grows colder ) manifestly shrink into a narrower room , instead of being impell'd up higher in the Pipe. And if in an ordinary Weather-glass , with a long shank , you apply a mixture of Ice or Snow , and Salt to the Bolthead , the water will readily ascend in the shank to the height of divers Inches , which how it will be explain'd by Mr. Hob's Hypothesis , I do not well see . Thirdly , I wonder he should tell us , that the reason why the press'd water ascends into the shank of the Weather-glass , is , because it hath no other place into which it may retire from the pressure of the wind , since he , rejecting a Vacuum , and affirming the world to be every where perfectly full , should not , methinks , have so soon forgotten , that in the very Paragraph or Section immediately preceding this , himself had told us , that he cannot imagine , how the same place can be always full , and nevertheless contain sometimes a greater , sometimes a less Quantity of matter ; that is to say , that it can be fuller then full . So that I see not , why the water should find more room to entertain it , in the Cylindrical cavity of the Weather-glass already adequately fill'd with Air , then otherwhere . And in the seal'd Weather-glasses , we have above been mentioning , and wherein the water descends with Cold , 't will be very hard for Mr. Hobs to make out the Phaenomenon according to his doctrine . Besides that his Explication gives us no account of the Condensation of the Air by cold in such Weather-glasses , as those , wherein the water descends with Cold and rises with Heat . Fourthly and lastly , whereas Mr. Hobs takes notice of no other cause of the 〈◊〉 of water in Weather-glasses by Heat , but it s own gravity , he seems to have but slightly consider'd the matter . For though in some cases the gravity of the water may suffice to depress it , yet in other cases that gravity alone , will by no means serve the turn , but we must have recourse to the expansive Motion or spring of the Air included in the Cavity of the Glass . For if you place a Thermometer with a large Ball , wherein the water ascends but a little way into the shank , in a window expos'd to the warm Sun , you will often perceive the surface of the water in the Pipe to be a good deal lower , then that of the water on the outside of the Pipe , which shews , that this depression proceeds not from the bare sinking of the water , but from its being thrust down by the pressure of the incumbent Air ; since the waters own weight , would make the internal water fall but to a level with the surface of the external water , and not so much beneath it . And for further proof , you may , by keeping such a Weather-glass long enough in the hot Sun , bring the Air so far to expand it self , as to drive the water out of the shank , and break through the external water in divers conspicuous Bubbles , after whose eruption the remaining Air being again refrigerated by the removal of the Weather-glass into a cooler place , the loss of that part of the Air , that escap'd away in Bubbles , will make the water ascend higher in the shank , then in the like degree of Cold , it would formerly have been impell'd . And thus much may suffice to shew the unsatisfactoriness of Mr. Hob's conceipt . The third and last opinion we shall mention , is , that of some ingenious modern Naturalists , who acknowledging that the Air has a weight ( which Mr. Hobs also does in effect admit , though he make not so good use of it as they ) do by that explicate the ascension of water in Weather-glasses , teaching that the Cold of the Ambient Air making the included Air shrink into far less room then it possest before , the water in the subjacent Vessel is , by the weight of the incumbent Air , which presses on it more forcibly in all the other parts of its surface , then it is press'd upon in that included in the shank , impell'd up into that part of the shank , which was newly deserted by the self-contracting Air. But though this Account be preferable by far to those which we mention'd before it , and though it be not only ingenious , but , as far as it reaches , true , yet to me I confess it seems not sufficient , and therefore I would supply what is defective , by taking in the pressure , ( and in some cases the spring ) of the external Air , not only against the surface of water ( for That the newly mention'd explication likewise does ) but also against the internal or included Air. For the recited Hypothesis gives indeed a rational account , why the water is impell'd into the place deserted by the Air ; but then supposes , that the Air is made to contract it self by cold alone , when it makes room for the water that succeeds in its place , whereas I am apt to think , that both the effects may proceed , at least in great part , from the same cause , and that the pressure of the contiguous and neighbouring Air , does according to my Conjecture eminently concur to reduce the cool'd Air , shut up in the Weather-glass , into a narrower space . This it does in common Weather-glasses , because the Ambient Air retains the whole pressure , it has upon the Account of its weight , whereas the internal Air by its refrigeration , even when but equal to that of the External Air , looses part of the pressure , it had upon the account of its now weakned spring . But this , as I newly intimated , is not the sole account , upon which the Air may in some sorts of Weather-glasses impel up the water , and contribute to the condensation of the Air incumbent on the water . For in some circumstances ( one or two of which we shall produce by and by ) it may so happen , that the rest of the Air , that bears upon the water to be rais'd , will not be so much refrigerated , as the included Air , that is to be condens'd , and consequently the other Air will have a stronger spring , then this last mention'd Air will retain , and therefore the former will have a greater pressure , then the latter will be able to resist . We shall not now examine , whether the spring of the Air depend upon the springy structure of each aerial Corpuscle , as the spring of wool does upon the Texture of the particular hairs it consists of , or upon the agitation of some interfluent subtile matter , that in its passage through the aerial particles whirles each of them about , or upon both these causes together , or upon some other differing from either of them ; but this seems probable enough , that as , when Air , being seal'd up in a Glass , is afterwards well heated , though it acquire not any greater dimensions , as to sense , then it had before , yet it has its spring much increased by the Heat , as may appear , if the seal'd Tip be broken under water , by the eruption of Bubbles by the indeavour of the imprison'd Air to expand it self ; so upon the refrigeration of the Air , so seal'd up , though the additional spring ( if I may so speak ) which the Heat gave it , will be lost upon the recess of that Heat , or as soon as the effect of that heat is distroy'd , yet there will remain in the included Air a considerable spring , and sufficient to make it as well fill ( at least as to sense ) the cavity of the seal'd Glass , as it did , when its spring was stronger . And proportionably we may conceive , that though Cold , at least such as we meet with in this climate of ours , do make the spring of an included parcel of Air weaker , then it was before the refrigeration of that Air , yet it may not make it so much weaker , but that the aerial Corpuscles may be kept so far extended as not at all ( or , scarce sensibly ) to quit the room they possest before , in case there be not contiguous to them any other Body , which by its pressure indeavours to thrust them inwards , and so make them desert part of that space : which clause I therefore add , because , that if the case propos'd do happen , 't is obvious to conceive , that the weakned spring of the Air cannot retain so much force to resist an external pressure , as it would have , if the Cold had not debilitated it , and consequently this cooled Air must yield and suffer it self to be condens'd , if it come to be expos'd to a pressure , to which it was but equal before its being weakned . And such in common Weather-glasses is the pressure , that is constantly upon the surface of the water without the Pipe , upon the account of the gravity of as much of the Air or Atmosphaere , as comes to bear upon it . Having thus explain'd our conjecture , we will now proceed to the Experiments we made to countenance it , as we find them entred in our loose notes . In one of which I find what follows . We took a Viol capable of containing five or six ounces of water , and having fill'd it almost half full with that Liquor , we inverted into it a Glass-pipe of about 10. Inches long , and much bigger then a large Swans Quill , seal'd at one end , and at the other fill'd top full with water , so that the open Orifice being immers'd under the Vessell'd water ( of the Viol ) there remain'd no Air at the Top of the Pipe : Then , as much of the Orifice of the Viols neck , as was not fill'd by the pipe , being carefully clos'd with Cement , that no Air could get in or out , the Viol was plac'd in snow and salt , till the vessell'd water began to freez at the Top and Bottom : And according to our expectation we found , that notwithstanding this great degree of infrigeration of the Air in the Viol , the water in the Pipe did not at all descend . So that either the Air did not shrink by so great a Cold , or the water , whether to avoid a vacuum , or otherwise , did not remove out of the Pipe to possess the place deserted by the refrigerated Air. Afterwards we endeavoured to repeat the Experiment with the same Glasses , but having had occasion to be absent a little too long ( though not very long ) we found at our return the upper and seal'd part of the pipe beaten out , which we suppos'd to have been done by the intumescence of the water in the Viol upon its glaciation . Wherefore we fastned into the same Viol another Pipe some Inches longer then the former , and drawn very slender at the seal'd end , that it might easily be broken there , and having set the viol to freez as before , without finding the water to descend in the Pipe , we did with a forceps break off the slender seal'd end , that the outward Air might come to press upon the suspended water , and , by it , upon the cool'd Air in the viol , whereupon , as we expected , the water was swiftly depress'd , by our estimate , eight or ten Inches , but not so low by a pretty deal , as the surface of the water in the viol . After this , by rarifying the Air in the Viol , and by blowing into it through the pipe , the water was rais'd within about half an Inch of the Top of the Pipe , whose slender end being seal'd , the viol was again plac'd in snow and salt , but the spring of the Air at the Top , which was rarifi'd before , was by refrigeration so weakned , that it was unable sensibly to depress the water ; wherefore breaking off the Apex , as before , the upper Air immediately drove it down divers Inches . Our last Tryal therefore , was to leave in the same Pipe about 3 ½ Inches of Air rarifi'd , as little as we could , and placing the viol in salt and snow , as before , we observ'd , that the Air in the Pipe did , upon the refrigeration of the Air in the viol , expand it self very little , though the water in the Viol were in part turned into Ice ; but upon breaking off the slender seal'd end , the outward Air presently depress'd the water above two Inches beneath the last level , and by removing the Glass into a warmer room , we found , that the water ascended a pretty deal above an Inch higher , then the same uppermost level , whereby we probably concluded our Weather-glass to be stanch . Thus much I find together in one place among my promiscuos collections : but after this coming to have the conveniency of Glasses so shap'd as to be easily seal'd , I judg'd it fit to make use of some of them to keep ev'n the most suspicious from objecting , that I should also have made some Trials with Glasses , which being Hermetically seal'd , would be sure most accurately to hinder all immediate Intercourse betwixt the internal and external Air. And I remember , that once we took a Glass , like the Bolthead of a common Weather-glass , save that the small End was drawn very slender , for the more easie breaking of the Apex : And into this Glass a convenient Quantity of water was powr'd , and then the Glass being seal'd up at the sharp end and inverted , the water fell down to that end , and possest its due space in the Pipe : Then the round end of the Glass , having a mixture of snow and salt appli'd , about it , though the internal air must needs have been thereby much refrigerated ( as will be readily granted , and may be gather'd from divers of the Experiments mention'd in these papers ) yet we observ'd not the water manifestly to rise . And though an attentive Eye should in such a Trial discern some sensible intumescence in the water ; yet that may well enough proceed from some little expansion of the Aerial particles , which we have elsewhere shewn to be usually latitant in Common water , upon the diminution of the pressure of the Air above the water , caused by weakning that air's spring by the Cold. But when we had , to complete the Experiment , broken the slender end of the Glass under water , the included air , becoming then contiguous to water , that had obtain'd immediate Intercourse with that water , whose surface was every where prest by a pillar of the External air that leaned upon it , the water was by the gravity of that outward air hastily impell'd into the Cavity of the Pipe ( the spring of whose air was , as we said , weakned by the Cold ) to the height , if I misremember not , of several Inches . Another sort of Trials I remember we made after the following manner . We took Glass Bubbles ( blown with a Lamp ) some of about the bigness of a Nutmeg , and some much greater ; each of these Bubbles we furnished with a very slender stem ( often no bigger then a Ravens Quill ) which was usually divers , and sometimes many Inches long . Into this stem a drop or two of water being convey'd , might easily enough , by reason of the Lightness of so little Liquor , together with the slenderness of the Cavity ( which permitted not the included air to penetrate the water at the sides , but rather impel up the intire Body of it ) be kept suspended , and so betray very small changes , ( and much smaller then to be taken notice of by common Weather glasses ) as to rarefaction and condensation in the air it lean'd upon . Now when in one of these Instruments , if watching when the pendulous water was somewhat near the Top of the stem , we nimbly applied to the Orifice of that stem the flame of a Candle , we could by that Heat almost in a moment seal it up , by reason of the thinness of the Glass , and the slenderness of the stem . And if then we plac'd the thus seal'd Glass in a mixture of snow and salt , how much soever the air within the cavity of the Ball must be , in all probability , refrigerated by this operation , yet it would scarce sensibly , and not at all considerably shrink , as we gather'd from the pendulous waters remaining in the same place , or its falling at most but inconsiderably lower . But if then , with a pair of Scissars or otherwise , we dexterously broke off the seal'd end of the stem , and thereby expos'd the internal refrigerated , to the pressure of the external air , the water immediately would be hastily thrust down , sometimes divers Inches below its former station , and sometimes quite into the cavity of the round end of the Glass . To which we shall add , that not only , when these Thermometers were seald , neither the usual degrees of Cold , nor those of the Heat in the Ambient Air would at all considerably depress or raise the pendulous water , which if the Glass were not seal'd , would , as we formerly noted , shew it self wonderfully sensible of the mutations of the Air as to those two Qualities : But we sometimes purposely tri'd , that though upon the refrigeration of the sormerly rarified air in the Glass , the pendulous water were descending fast enough , yet if ev'n then we nimbly seal'd up the open Orifice of the stem ( which may easily be done in a trice ) the descent of the water would be presently stopt , and it would stay either just in , or very near the same part of the shank , wherein it chanc'd to be , when by sealing of the Glass it came to be fenced from the pressure of the Atmosphaere , and in that place it would continue till the seal'd end were broken off . For then in case the ambient air were as cool as it was , when the Glass was seal'd , the water would for the reason already given be further deprest , according as the weakned spring of the inward rarifi'd air was more or less remote from an equality to the pressure of the ambient air . Besides , for further Trial , we took a large Glass-egg with a long stem , which stem was purposely so bent , that it represented a glass-Syphon , in whose shorter leg the glass was drawn very small , that it might be the more easily first seal'd , and then broken . This done , we got in a convenient Quantity of water , which ascended to a pretty height in both the legs of the bent glass , after which the shorter leg being nimbly seal'd , after the manner hereafter to be mention'd , there remained a pretty Quantity of air above the water in that shorter leg , which was purposely left there , that it might by its spring impel up the water in the longer leg upon the refrigeration of the Air included in that longer leg . All this being done , the whole glass was so plac'd in a convenient frame , that the oval part of it was supported by the frame , beneath which the bended shank of the Weather-glass did hang so , that a mixture of Ice and Salt might be conveniently laid upon this frame to surround and refrigerate the air included in the Egg , without much cooling the air in the Cylindrical part of the Glass . The account that I find of this Trial in one of my notes , is this . In the greater bent Egg , that was seal'd up with water , in both legs , upon the application of Ice and Salt to the Ellipsis at a convenient time , the water in the longer leg ascended a little , but not by our guess above a barley Corns length , if near so much , and about four Inches of air ( as I remember ) that were left in the shorter leg , expanded it self ( to sense ) as much ; but , as soon as I broke off the slender wire , wherein the shorter leg ended , the external air rushing in , made the water rise about two inches and a quarter in the longer leg , and then , there not being water enough , broke through it in many bubbles . Thus far the note , to which I shall only add , that in this case the ascension of the water in the longer leg cannot be attributed to the weight of the air in the shorter leg , that being , I know not how much , too small to lift up so much water , but to the spring of that air . And also that we need not marvel , the Expansion of that 〈◊〉 should be so small , since some of the Experiments , 〈◊〉 to be related , will shew us , that the refrigeration of the air in such Trials ( as that newly 〈◊〉 ) does not weaken the spring of it any thing near so considerably as one would expect . So that the air in the longer leg could yield but a very little to that in the shorter leg , especially since the smallness of this last nam'd portion of air made its spring to be more easily and considerably weakned by a small Expansion . Thus far our Paradoxical Discourse , which contains divers particulars , that , being added to the considerations , whereunto we have ( by way of Appendix ) subjoyned It , might afford us several Reflections : But having dwelt too long on one subject already , we shall now conclude with This , upon the whole matter ; That there is somewhat or other in the Business of Weather-glasses , which ( I fear ) we do not yet sufficiently understand , and which yet , I hope , that by other Trials and more heedful Observations we shall discover . The Paper that was prefixt ( by way of a short Prefatory Address ) to the ensuing History of Cold , when being to be brought in , and presented to the Royal Society , it was put into the hands of ( its most worthy President ) the Lord Viscount Brounker , was as followeth . Little-Chelsey , Feb. 14. 1662. S. A. My Lord , THe time Your Lordship and the Society appoint me for the bringing in of my Papers , concerning Cold , is so very short , that to give You the fruits of my Obedience as early as You are pleased to require them , I must present them You very immature , and I should say very unsit for your Perusal , if you were not aswel qualified to supply Deficiencies and Imperfections as to discern them . For of all the Old Observations , I made divers years ago in order to the History of Cold , I have not yet found enough to fill up one Sheet of Paper : And as for those , I made the last Frosty season , besides that I was several times diverted by Avocations distracting enough , the same sharpness of the weather , which gave me the Opportunity of making some Experiments , brought me an Indisposition , which by forbidding me to be 〈◊〉 , and stay long in the cold Air , hindred me from making divers others ; and ( which is worst of all ) whilest I was confin'd to a place where I wanted divers Glasses , and other Instruments I would have employ'd , the ways both by land and water , were so obstructed by the snow and ice , that I could not seasonably procure them from London , and was thereby reduc'd to leave several trials , I should have made , 〈◊〉 ther unattempted , or unprosecuted . But lest You should think , that , what I intend only to excuse my unaccurateness , is meant to excuse my Pains , I shall without further Apology apply my self to do what the shortness of the time will allow me , which is little more then to transcribe into this Historical Collection , most of the Particulars , which Your Lordships Commands exact , though haste will make me do it in the very words , for the most part , that I find them , in a kind of Note-book , wherein I had thrown them for my own private use , which I the less scruple now to do , not only because the haste , that exacts from me this way of writing , may serve to excuse it in me , but that it may the better appear , how little I had design'd to 〈◊〉 or byass them to any preconceiv'd Hypothesis . THE EXPERIMENTAL HISTORY OF COLD Begun . Title I. Experiments touching Bodies capable of Freezing others . TO go Methodically to work , we should perhaps begin with considering , what subjects are capable , or not capable of harbouring the Quality we are to treat of ; And to invite us to this , it seems probable enough , that among the Bodies , we are conversant with here below , there is scarce any except Fire , that is not , at some time or other , susceptible of actual Cold , ( at least as to sense : ) And ev'n concerning Fire 〈◊〉 , till that difficulty be clearly determin'd , which we have elsewhere started ; namely , whether Fire be not , as Wind ( at least like such as is made by Air blown out of a pair of Bellows ) rather a state of Matter , or Matter consider'd whilest it is in such a kind of Motion , then a distinct and particular species of natural Bodies ? there may remain some Doubt , since we see , that Bodies , which may be either in a Moment , as Gunpowder , or ( as far as sense can judge ) totally , as high rectifi'd spirit of Wine , turn'd into fire , may yet immediately before their Accension , be actually Cold : And as to Gunpowder , presently after Accension , its scatter'd Parts caught in clos'd Vessels , will also appear cold to the Touch. But such things nevertheless we must not now insist on , partly because it requires the resolving of a somewhat difficult Question , which more properly belongs to the Considerations about Heat , where we have already handled it ; partly because our Design in the following Collections , was not so much to gather and set down Observations , that were obvious to any that was furnish'd with a Mediocrity of Attention , as Experiments purposely made in order to the History of Cold ; and partly too , because in this Collection , though we do , as occasion serves , take notice of some Experiments and Phaenomena , that relate to Cold in General , or indefinitely ; yet our chief work has been to find out , and deliver , the Phaenomena of Congelation , or of that intense Degree of Cold , which either does freez the Bodies it works upon , or at least were capable of turning common water fitly expos'd to it , into Ice . And this may serve for a general Advertisement about the ensuing Papers ; and consequently having premis'd it , we shall without any further Preamble proceed to the setting down such things , as we have tri'd and observ'd concerning those Matters : beginning with those that belong to the Title prefix'd to the first Part , or Section , of our History . 1. The Bodies that are cold enough to freez others , are in this climate of ours but very few , and among the most remarkable , is a Mixture of Snow and Salt , which though little known , and less us'd here in England , is in Italy and some other Regions much employ'd , especially to cool Drinks and Fruits , which men may easily do , by burying , in this mixture , Glasses , or other convenient vessels , fill'd either solely with Wine , or other Drinks , or else with water , that hath immersed in it the fruits to be refrigerated . 2. The Circumstances we are wont to observe in making and employing this mixture , we shall hereafter in due place deliver , and therefore here we shall only take notice , that we could not find upon some trials , that such Glasses filled with water , as would be frozen easily enough by this mixture of Snow and Salt , would be in like manner frozen , in case we employ'd Snow alone , without mingling any Salt with it . I deny not , that 't is very possible , that in very cold Countries , as well Snow as beaten Ice may freez water powred into the Intervals of its Parts . But there is great odds betwixt water so intermingled with Ice or Snow , and only surrounded with it in a vessel where the water is , as it were , in one entire Body , and of a comparatively considerable thickness : And there is also a great Difference betwixt the degrees of coldness in 〈◊〉 Air of Frigid Regions , and of England . And perhaps too there may be some Disparity betwixt the Degrees of Coldness of Ice and Snow in those Climates , and in ours . And we must have a care , that in case a Vial full of water buri'd all night should freez , we ascribe not the Effect to the bare Operation of the Snow , which may be ( entirely , or in great Part ) due to the coldness of the Air , which would perhaps have perform'd the Effect without the Snow . 3. But though Snow and Salt mixt together will freez water better then Snow alone , yet we must not think , that there is any such peculiar vertue in Sea-salt , to enable Snow to freez , but that there are divers other Salts , each of which concurring with Snow , is capable of producing the like Effect . For we found upon trial , that we could freez water without the help of Sea salt , by substituting in its place , either Nitre , or Alume , or Vitriol , or Sal Armoniack , or even Sugar ; for either of those being mingled with a due proportion of Snow , would serve the turn , though they did not seem equally to advance the congealing power of the Snow ; nor scarce any of them did do it so well as Sea salt . But of this elsewhere more . 4. When we had made the newly mentioned trials , some particular conjectures we have long had , about the nature of Salts , invited us to try , whether , uotwithstanding the comminution and consequent change produced in Salts by Distillation , the Saline Corpuscles , that abound in the distill'd liquors of those concretes , as well as in their solutions , would not likewise , by being mixt with it , enable Snow to freez water , at least in small and slender Glasses ? This we first went about to try with good spirit of Salt , but we found , as we fear'd , that though it made a sufficiently quick dissolution of the Snow it wrought upon , yet its fluidity hindered it from being retain'd long enough by the Snow , to the bottom of which it would fall , before they had stay'd so long together , as was requisite to freez so much as a little Essence-bottle full of common water . 5. Wherefore we bethought our selves of an expedient , whereby to try the operation , not only of those spirits , but of divers other bodies , which were unapt for a Due commixture of Snow after the way newly mention'd ; or of which we had too little , or valued them too much , to be willing to spend quantities of them upon these trials . And this way ( that remains to be mention'd ) we somewhat the better lik'd , because the Experiments made according to it would also prove Experiments of the transmission of Cold through the extremely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Glass . And even in this way of trying , we did at first meet with a discouragement , which least it should happen to others , we shall here take notice of , namely , that having put a convenient quantity of Snow into a somewhat thick green glass Vial , though we copiously 〈◊〉 mixt with it a somewhat weak spirit of salt , ( being loath to imploy the best we had ) and having well stopt the vessel , did carefully 〈◊〉 together , and thereby agitate the mixture in it , yet the Glass appeared only bedew'd upon the outside , without having there any thing frozen . But suspecting , that the thickness of the Glass might be that , which hindred the operation of the included mixture , we put snow and a convenient proportion of the self same spirit of salt into a couple of thin Vials , one of which we clos'd exactly , and the other negligently , and having long shaken them , we found that what adhered to them on the outside , was ( though but somewhat faintly and thinly ) frozen . 6. And , as to this sort of Experiments we shall here observe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all , that the Snow or Ice included , 〈◊〉 with the Saline Ingredient ( whatever that were ) was always thaw'd within the Glass , and that consequently , 't was the condens'd vapor of the Air , or other liquor that adhered to the outside of the glass , which was turn'd into Ice , which is the Reason , why in mentioning these Experiments we often use the word freez in a transitive sense , to signifie the operation of the frigorifick mixture upon other bodies . 7. This premised , let us proceed to relate , that we afterwards took Oyl of Vitriol , and mixing it with Snow in such an other vial as that last mentioned , we found its freezing power far greater then that of spirit of salt . And least it should be pretended , that in these Experiments , the cold was not transmitted through the sides of the glass , but that the Air within the vial , highly refrigerated by the mixture , Did upon the account of their free intercourse enable the Air contiguous to the outside of the vial to freez the Dew it met with sticking on it ; we prosecuted the Experiments with the addition of this circumstance , that on several occasions we seal'd up the vial , that contained the 〈◊〉 and the other frigorifick body it was mixt with , and afterwards by the help of this mixture froze the externally adhering moisture . 8. Having then according to this way substituted spirit of Nitre for oyl of Vitriol , or spirit of Salt , we found , that it froze yet more powerfully then either of those two liquors , and continued to do so in those parts of the outsides of the glass , that were adjacent to the included snow , till that snow was almost totally resolv'd into a liquor . This we tri'd both in a thin seal'd glass , and in a pretty thick glass stopp'd only with a Cork . 9. Afterwards we successfully enough tri'd the Experiment with spirits less acid , as not only with spirit of Vinegre , but with spirit of Sugar , I mean the Red Empyreumatical spirit forc'd over in a Retort , which mixt with snow , according to the manner of the Experiment , did at length freez the externally adhering moisture . But the filmes of ice were very thin , and very apt quickly to disappear . 10. Having thus made a number of trials with acid spirits , we thought fit to make some with Urinous spirits that abound in volatile salt , and accordingly having mixt spirit of Urine and Snow in an open vial , and agitated them , we found that the external moisture did discernably , though not very strongly , freez . But with spirit of Sal Armoniack drawn from Quick Lime ( according to the way I have delivered in another Treatise ) the operation was quick and powerful enough . 11. Having tri'd to freez water with acid , and with volatile spirits 〈◊〉 , we thought it not amiss to try what they would do both together , and accordingly pouring upon snow both some spirit of Urine , and a little oyl of Vitriol , and shaking them into the snow in an open Vial , we found that the mixture did freez , though the glaciation , in this case produced , were very languid . 12. Having thus tri'd salts disingag'd from their grosser parts , or shattered into Corpuscles by distillation , we made some trial likewise with grosser salts , as with Sal Gem , with a sublimate made with common Sublimate and Sal Armoniack , nay , and with both 〈◊〉 and Kitchin Sugar , with all which among 〈◊〉 like bodies , that I can now Remember , the Experiment succeeded well enough : also a very strong solution of Pot-ashes , mixt with snow in a open single Vial , did freez , but that very faintly . And both a very strong solution of very pure salt of Tartar , and ( at another time ) a strong solution of Pot-ashes , being the one as well as the other , mixt and agitated with snow in a single vial , produced filmes of ice ( though thin ones ) on the outside of the glass . 13. After this , we thought fit to make a trial of another kind , of which I find this account among my Notes . We filled a single vial with snow , and then powred into it a convenient proportion of a strongly sweet solution of minium in spirit of Vinegre , and having shak'd the mixture together , we found , that this sweet Sugar of Lead , did as well as acid and alcalizate salts , excite the cold of the snow so much , as to produce filmes of ice on the outside of the glass : but a parcel of the same solution , being for divers hours kept in snow and salt , was not thereby frozen . In order to the discovery of some hints of the account , upon which the above mentioned mixtures were more intensly frigefactive then snow alone , we sealed up a single vial full of snow unmingled with any other ingredient , and found it to thaw much more slowly then any of those parcels of snow which we had mixt with salts or spirits . In prosecution of this conjecture , we shall add , that for ought we could find by divers trials , no salt , that helps not the snow to dissolve faster then else it would , did inable it to produce ice , though usually it did produce dew on the outside of the vial , that contained the mixture ; and accordingly , neither Chrystals of Tartar , nor Borax , both beaten to powder , nor , which is more ( considering what we lately noted of the effects of another sort of Sublimate ) would Sublimate inable the snow to freez ; as well the powder of Sublimate , as that of Borax , and that of Tartar , lying for a great while in the snow undissolv'd . 14. Belonging to this matter , I find among my papers also this Note . [ Water of Quick Lime ( made , by quenching store of unslak'd Lime in common water ) twice tri'd would not make snow freez , perhaps because though the water were kept stopt , yet the liquor having been kept in the glass a twelve-moneth , and more ; probably the spirits may have flown away , which I find by inquiring of one that Drinks much Lime-water , that it abounds with , when fresh , and grows destitute of a while after ; and possibly also the badness of the Lime was the cause , why being mingled with snow it would not freez , though all the vials , that did not freez , did yet gather store of dew on the outsides ( perhaps because of the snow , whose melting alone may suffice to produce that effect . ] 15. It may seem somewhat more strange , that distilled oyl of Turpentine , which is so hot and fiery a liquor , should not enable snow to freez , but this agrees not ill with the conjecture lately mentioned , for it will hereafter appear , that in oyl of Turpentine Ice dissolves slower then in Divers other liquors , without excepting common water it self . 16. And yet notwithstanding the bad success of this trial , we were not Discouraged from making another with spirit of Wine ; for , though according to the common opinion of Chymists and Physicians , it be a mere vegetable Sulphur , yet we , that have elsewhere ventured to ascribe some such operations to it as Chymists would have belong to Saline Liquors , did not scruple to seal up in a single vial almost filled with snow , a convenient quantity of pure spirit of Wine , ( drawn off from quick Lime the better to dephlegm it ) and of this mixture we found the operation more powerful then any of those we have formerly mentioned : for the freezing vertue of this did not only last long , both in the seal'd single vial , and in another that was open , but the inclosed mixture presently crusted the outside of the glass ( or of the neck , if it were made to fill that ) with ice , which might be taken off in flakes of good breadth , or in pieces of good thickness . Nay , it presently froze Urine into Figured ice , which might be taken off in scales . 17. This last circumstance puts me in mind of another Experiment , whereby we tried by a vigorous mixture of Snow , and some choice spirit of Nitre , we had met with to freez liquors of more difficult conglaciation then fair water . We took then some snow , and mingled with it some of the newly mentioned spirit of Nitre in so luckly a proportion , that it froze very vigorously and very suddenly , insomuch that once almost as soon as it was set to the ground , it froze the vial to the floor it was set on , and the outside of the glass , that contained this mixture , we wetted with spirit of Vinegre , which was frozen into pretty thick ice . But yet ( not quite to forget that circumstance ) retaining the salt taste of spirit of Vinegre , and though this mixture would not discernably freez spirit of Nitre on the outside , yet it transmitted cold enough to freez weak spirit of Salt , and to give Us the pleasure of seeing some Saline liquors presently turned into figur'd Ice , as not only the last mentioned spirit exhibited some little ( as it were ) Saline Iceikles crossing each other , and quickly vanishing , but ( which was far prettier ) having often observed , that Sal Armoniack being dissolved in water , and the solution being put very slowly to evaporate in part , but not too much , away , the remaining liquor would in the cold shoot into parcels ofsalt very prettily figur'd , some of them resembling combs with teeth on both sides , and others resembling feathers ; having observ'd this , I say , and being desirous to try , whether the spirit of Sal Armoniack , distilled by the help of quick Lime , being put to congeal on the outside of a glass , would not afford a Resemblingly figured Ice ; we found upon trial , both that the mixture was able to freez that subtile spirit , and also , that it shot into Branches almost like those , exhibited by such salts undistilled . And it was not unpleasant to behold , how upon the inclining the glass so , that the freezing mixture rested a little , near any part of the spirit , this liquor would shoot into such branches as we have been speaking of , so nimbly , that the eye could plainly discern them , as it were , to grow , and hastily overspread the surface of the glass , but those Branches were wont quickly to vanish . I had almost forgot to mention , that I tried the freezing with snow , and divers fermented Liquors undistilled instead of spirit of Wine , and though the Experiments succeeded not with small Beer , much less with water , yet there was a glaciation , though but slight , produc'd not only by the addition of Wine , but even by that of moderately strong Ale. 18. Having observed , that the Liquors and other bodies , that assisted the snow to freez , were generally such as hastned its dissolution , we thought it not altogether unworthy the trial , to examine , what would be the Event of procuring a speedy dissolution of the snow , by substituting bodies actually warm , instead of potential hot ones : Of this sort of trials , I find among my Notes these two registred . [ 1. Into a single vial almost filled with snow , there was poured a pretty quantity of well heated sand , that it might dissolve the snow in many places at once , without heating the ambient Air , or the outside of the glass ; but though the solution of the snow seemed to succeed well enough upon the shaking of the vessel , yet the outside of the glass was only bedewed , not frozen . 2. Into another single vial almost filled with snow , we poured some water , which we judg'd of a convenient warmth , and we poured it in by a funnel , that had but a slender orifice beneath , that the warm water might fall into the middle of the snow , without Running to the sides , and taking a convenient time to shake the glass , we did by this way produce a very considerable degree of cold , and much dew on the outside , but were not satisfied , that any of that dew was frozen , though the success would have invited us to have made further trials in greater glasses , if we had had any more snow at hand . ] Wherefore This Experiment is to be further and more artificially tri'd . 19. It is a common tradition , not only among the vulgar , but ( I presume , upon their account ) among learned men , that the oftentimes variously , and sometimes prettily enough figur'd hoar frost , which is wont to appear upon glass windows in mornings , preceded by frosty nights , are exsudations , as it were , that penetrating the glass-windows , are , upon their coming forth to the cold external Air , frozen thereby into variously figured ice : How groundless this conceipt is , may be easily discovered , if men had not so lazy a curiosity , as not to try ( which they may do in a moment , and without trouble ) whether the Ice be , according to the tradition on the outside of the window , and not contrary to it on the In-side , where indeed it is generated of the aqueous Corpuscles , that swiming up and down in the Air within the Room , are by the various motion that belongs to the parts of fluid bodies as such , brought to pass along the window , and there by the vehement cold of the neighbouring external Air , communicated through the glass , condens'd into dew , and frozen into Ice . 20. And because divers modern Naturalists have taught ( I think erroneously ) that glass is easily enough pervious , not only to Air , but to divers subtile liquors , lest the favourers of this Doctrine should object , that we have ill assigned the natural cause of the ice , appearing on the outside of the glass in the former Experiments , which according to them may rather proceed from the subtler ( but yet visible ) parts of the excessively cold mixture of the snow and saline bodies penetrating the pores of the glass , and setling on the outside of it : To obviate this objection , I say , and to confirm what we have taught in another Treatise about the wandring of store of aqueous vapours through the Air , we will add the following Experiments , purposely made to evince these truths . 21. At one time four ounces and a quarter , of a mixture of Ice and Salt , being inclosed in a vial , and thereby enabled to condense the vapours of the ambient Air , was by their accession increas'd 12. grains . Another time a vial , wherein snow ( weighing two ounces six drachms and an half ) was suffered to condense the vapid Air , the dew , that partly adher'd to it , and partly fell from it , made the whole weigh four grains more then the vial did , when it was first put into the scale , in which scale we found some water flowing from the dew , which gave that increase of weight . And here let me add by the way , that the tip of This seal'd vial , being broken under water , suck'd in a considerable quantity of it , whether , because of some little rarefaction of the Air included in the sealing , or because of the infrigidation of that Air by the snow , or for both these Reasons , or any other , I shall not Now dispute . 22. But other Experiments to the same purpose we made , wherein the increase of weight was more considerable ; and that the way , we used , may be the better understood , and the conclusion built upon it the more undiscuss'd , we will add a couple of trials , that we find among our notes concerning this matter . [ In a single vial we seal'd up as much snow and salt , as afterwards , when melted , we found to weigh between five and six ounces , after a while the salt beginning to melt the snow , the Dew on the outside began to congeal , and being rubb'd off , the hoar frost would quickly begin to come again . This vial for further trial being put into a pair of scales with a counterpoise , after a while , as the vapours , that wandred through the Air in the warm room , hapned to be detain'd more and more upon the outside of the glass , and to be there frozen , the scale , wherein the glass was , began to be deprest , and to shrink lower and lower , after which , by adding a little to the counterpoise , we reduced them again to an Equilibrium : And yet after a while , the scale , that held the vial , subsided again more and more , till the Included snow was melted ; so that to reduce the scales to their first Equilibrium , we were fain to add in all to the Counterpoise a weight , which we Estimated to be about eight or ten grains , ( for we had then no great weights by us . ) The vial being taken out , there appeared near half a small spoonful of Liquor in the scale it stood in , which proceded from the thaw of the Ice , that was generated about it . But in that part of the scale , which was covered with the convex part of the bottom of the glass , there appeared no wet . A like or smaller quantity of snow and spirit of Wine being seal'd up in a single vial , the outside quickly appeared cas'd with ice as high as the mixture reacht within , and this vial also being counterpois'd in a pair of scales , did by degrees depress the scale that held it , till it had sunk it very low , and about seven grains did but reduce the scales to an Equilibrium , but the scales being somewhat rusty , we could not make the Trials with that Exactness we desired . ] 23. But at other times , when the Experiment was more luckily , though not more carefully tri'd , with better scales , the increase of weight from the condens'd vapours of the Air , was somewhat more considerable ; for I find in a short note , [ That at one time a mixture of spirit of Wine and Snow , weighing three ounces and three quarters , afforded of condens'd vapours about 18. grains . And at another time a mixture of Snow and Sal Gem , weighing three ounces and seventy grains , procured us 〈◊〉 accession of water weighing about 20. grains . ] Title II. Experiments and Observations touching Bodies Disposed to be Frozen . 1. T Were almost endless to try particularly , which bodies are , or are not capable of congelation , and the degree of cold would also in such Experiments be ( as near as men can ) determin'd ; because many bodies will freez in one degree of cold , that will not in another ; wherefore we are willing to leave these trials to those , that have more leisure and opportunity to prosecute them , and shall only set down some , and those , somewhat various , that we may not leave this part of the History of Cold quite unfurnish'd . And we must mention the fewer , because , being in the Countrey , we were not provided of divers of the bodies which we should have expos'd . 2. In very cold snowy weather , we tri'd , that ( besides common water ) Urine , Beer , Ale , Milk , Vinegre , and French and Rhenish Wine ( though these two Last but slowly ) were turned into ice , either totally , or in part . But such instances will possibly be thought too obvious to be insisted on ; therefore I shall add , That not only we froze a strong solution of Gum Arabick , and another of white Sugar in common water , but that We took Alume , Vitriol , Salt-Petre , and Sea salt , and made of each of them in a single vial as strong a solution as we could , we also made a strong solution of Verdegrease in fair water ( which was thereby deeply coloured ) all these we exposed to the cold Air. The solution of Alume , Nitre and Verdegrease froze without affording any notable Phaenomena , either in the figuration of the Ice , or otherwise : Of the solution of Vitriol there remain'd at the bottom of the glass , a pretty quantity unfrozen , and of a clear substance , whose colour was very high of the Vitriol , whereas the upper part of the same solution differed very little in colour from common Ice . 3. But because it seems not so strange , that these gross sorts of Saline bodies should be turned into Ice , we thought fit to try , whether or no also divers salts , freed from the grosser parts of their concretes by the fire , were not likewise capable of congelation . We exposed therefore spirit of Vinegre in one small glass , and spirit of Urine in another , to an intense cold , and found , that not only the former , but the latter also froze . 4. We took likewise some of the fiery lixiviate salt of Pot ashes , and a single vial , in which we put , to two ounces of 〈◊〉 , a drachm of the Alcaly , and exposing it to a very sharp Air , we did , when we came to see the success of the trial , find Ice lying on the top in little sticks ( something crossing one another ) almost like the Crystals of rocked Petre , and besides these that lay levell'd , there were others that shot downwards in very great numbers . 5. We also found that Oyl of Tartar per deliquium , or at least a strong solution of the fixt salt of Tartar , though it seemed much to resist the 〈◊〉 , yet it was once by snow and salt brought to Congelation . Appendix to the II. Title . SInce I wrote the present Book concerning Cold ( excepting some of the Appendices ) having once had the Opportunity of an Hours Discourse with an Ingenious Man , that not only liv'd some years in Muscovy , but was , and is still Physician to the great Monarch of that Empire , and having likewise at other times conversed with Navigators , and some other credible persons , that had travelled either to Greenland , Terra Nova , or other gelid Climates , I propos'd them divers Questions , by their Answers to which , I learned some particulars , which together with others , that I have met with in Voyages and other Books , I think it not amiss to annex by way of Appendices to the foregoing , and some of the following Sections , or Titles . About the freezing of common express'd Oyls , I know not well what to determine ; For that they may by a very intense Cold be depriv'd of their Fluidity , and be made capable of being cut into portions , that will retain the figure given them , my own Trials invite me to believe ; but whether such oyls will be turned into true ( by which I mean ) hard and brittle Ice , is a Question scarce to be determin'd by any Experiments we can make here in England , where we could not reduce oyl Olive into Ice : And for the Relations of those that have liv'd in colder Countries , I find them to disagree : For when I asked the lately mention'd Doctor the Question , how far he had known oyl Congeal'd in 〈◊〉 ? He answered me , That it did there freez much harder then in our Climate , but would not , that 〈◊〉 had observed , be turn'd into true & perfect Ice . On the other hand I find the Testimony of that Ingenious Navigator Captain T. James , who relating the effects of cold he met with in the Island where he and his men were forc'd to winter , does in one place reckon Oyl among the Liquors , such as Vinegre , and Sack , that ev'n in their house was firmly frozen , and more expresly elsewhere . All our Sack ( says he ) Vinegre , Oyl and every thing else that was liquid , was now frozen as hard as a piece of wood , and we must cut it with a Hatchet . And Olaus Magnus speaking of the fights , wont to be made upon the Ice in the Nothern Regions , Glacialis Congressus ( says he ) fit in Laneis Calcibus , non pellibus , aut Coriis unctis : 〈◊〉 enim frigoris , quodcunque sit unctuosum convertit in Lubricitatem glacialem . There being a great Similitude in point of Inflammability , and disposition to mix with many subtle Oleous Bodies , betwixt spirit of Wine and Oyl , and as great an affinity in divers other regards , betwixt that spirit and both aqueous and saline Liquors , with which it will readily mix ; I had a great Curiosity to know , what kind of change would be produc'd in vinous spirits , in case they were exposed to a cold great enough to work a visible change in their Texture ; I therefore solicitously inquir'd of the Russian Emperors lately mention'd Physician , whether or no he had observ'd in Muscovy any manifest change produc'd by cold in Hot Waters , and spirit of Wine ? To which he returned me this answer ; That common Aniseed-water , and the like weak spirits would be turn'd into an imperfect kind of Ice , and that ev'n the very strong spirits , though they would not be turn'd into Ice , would be turn'd into a kind of substance like Oyl . Title III. Experiments touching Bodies Indispos'd to be Frozen . 1. WE found many liquors , whose subtle parts being by Distillation brought over , and united into very spirituous liquors , and so either totally , or in great measure freed from those phlegmatickor aqueous parts , that dispose Bodies to congelation , could not be brought to freeze , either by the cold of the external Air , to which in frosty nights we exposed them , or by such an Application of snow and salt , as served to freez other Bodies . 2. Of this sort were , among acid menstruum's , Aqua fortis , spirit of Nitre , of Salt ; also oyl of Turpentine , and almost all , ( I add the word almost , because the Essential oyl of Aniseeds , and the Empireumatical oyl of common oyl will lose their fluidity in a less degree of Cold , then that of our mildest frosts , ) I say almost all the Chymical oyls we had by us , as likewise spirit of Wine , and other strong spirits of fermented Liquors , and even 〈◊〉 it self , if it were good , would very hardly be brought to afford us any Ice at all : But among the many liquors , that would not freez , there were a few , whose trials afforded us some circumstances not altogether unworthy their being mention'd . As 1. I being desirous to satisfie some friends , that 't was the brisk spirit of the Grapes , whether resulting from , or extricated and exalted by fermentation , that kept ( all ) the rest of the Sack from freezing : I took a parcel of that liquor , that would afford us no Ice at all , and by the help of a lighted candle , or some other actually flaming body , kindled it , and letting the inflammable part burn away , the remaining part of the Liquor ( which was by vast odds the greatest part ) was easily brought to freez . Next when the formerly mentioned trial was made with water and Pot-ashes , we likewise , in another glass , exposed a solution , wherein the proportion of salt of 〈◊〉 , in reference to the water was four times greater , there being in this zij of the salt to 〈◊〉 only of water , and this solution , though the glass were covered with hoar frost and Ice on the outside , froze not at all within . And likewise , when another time we made a very strong solution of salt of Tartar , that was very pure and fiery , it did not freez , though a considerably strong solution of salt of Pot-ashes , that was exposed with it , did . So that these Experiments about the glaciation of Lixiviate Liquors must be repeated to be reduc'd to a certainty . 3. That the common express'd oyls of Vegetables will , after their manner , freez , that is , lose their fluidity , and become , as it were , curdl'd in very cold weather , is a 〈◊〉 of common observation ; but I had a mind to try , whether or no Train oyl , that is made of the fat of Animals , ( commonly that of Whales ) though not by distillation , properly so called , yet by the help of fire , would not be more capable of resisting the violence of the cold , and accordingly I found , that Train oyl , exposed to the Air in a convenient vial , continued fluid ; notwithstanding a more then ordinary sharpness of weather , and this I tried two or three several times , but at length one night proved so very cold , that the next morning I found the oyl unfluid ; which differing 〈◊〉 seem a little to Countenance , but more to disfavour the Report of Olaus Magnus , who writes , That whereas in Northern Regions 't is usual for strong places to lose in winter the protection afforded them in Summer , by their Ditches , though never so wide and deep , because the frost makes them easily passable to the Enemy : This inconvenicy is wont to be prevented by pouring into the Ditches , the Ice , if there be need , being first broken , great store of this Train oyl , which swimming upon the surface of the water , and being incongealable by the cold , protects the subjacent water from the freezing violence of the cold , and keeps the moats unpassable . But because our Author mentions this as a known and vulgar Practice in those Icy Regions , it may perhaps deserve a little Enquiry , whether the Whale Oyl , used by the Swedes , Laplanders , Muscovites , and other Inhabitants of those parts be not differing , either as to the Fishes , 't is made of , or as to the way of making it , or as to the way of keeping it from such Train Oyl as we Employed , unless perhaps it do already appear by the Relation of writers belonging to those Countries , or of Travellers , that have been in them , that Olaus Magnus has in that particular , as I fear , he has in some others , misinformed his Readers . 4. We took notice , that a strong solution of common Sugar was easily enough turned into Ice ; but on a strong solution of Sugar of Lead we could not with salt and snow work the like change , and this , though the trial were not negligently made ; which I therefore think not unworthy to be mention'd , because that the two only Ingredients of this Sugar were Lead , which is esteemed a very cold Body , and spirit of Vinegre , from which , as I noted above , we did by the like degree of cold to that we here employed , obtain Ice : And though in this metalline Sugar we may well suppose the Saline parts of the spirit of Vinegre to be much more concentrated or united , then they were in the spirit ; yet the solution must abound with aqueous parts : and this Sugar seeming but a kind of Vitriol of Lead , 't is worth our Notice , that its solution would not freez , as well as that of common Vitriol , though in this latter concrete the metal be corroded by a spirit , which , as far as can be judged by the Liquors afforded in distillation , is very much sharper and stronger then spirit of Vinegre . 5. We likewise tried to freez Quick silver , and for that purpose provided a bubble , that being blown with a Lamp , was but thin , and so flat , that the sides almost touched , and it held but a little Mercury , and that by the figure of the Glass , being reduced to a large surface , with but very little depth or thickness , it was far more exposed , then if it had been in a ordinary round Bubble , to the action of the cold ; but we could not at all freez this extravagant liquor , though we tried it more then once , and though the last time , we exposed it in the same 〈◊〉 to the same degree of Cold , wherewith we made one of the following Experiments , that required a very Intense degree of that Quality . And in another thin glass-Bubble we long exposed Quicksilver to an extraordinary sharp air , but though the cold had some operation upon it , not here necessary to be mention'd ; yet we could not find , that it did at all bring it to freez : wherefore I could wish that trial were made in Muscovy , Greenland , Charles Island , or some other of the most 〈◊〉 Regions , where the Effects of cold ( which here are upon Quicksilver but languid ) are the most considerable , and sometimes stupendious . 6. It is very remarkable , that though not only the solutions of other gross salts , but , as we have seen , divers more saline and spirituous liquors , were brought by snow and salt to Congelation ; yet a brine made very strong of Common salt , could not be brought to freez at all , though we kept it exposed with the other saline solutions , that did freez , during a whole night , that was exceeding sharp . Which Experiment I also tried many years since , to draw thence an Argument in favour of the Cartestan Hypothesis about cold , which I shall not now consider ; but rather add , that being desirous to try , with what proportions of Sea salt and water , the congelation of them might be effected , I found , I could freez some Sea water , that had been brought up in a Barrel to that Monarch of the Virtuosi , the King , for the making of trials with it ; and that having in a single vial exposed to the Air in a very bitter night , a solution consisting of twenty parts of water , and one of salt , which is double the proportion of salt to be commonly found in our Sea-water , the next day we found a good part of the Liquor frozen , the Ice swimming at the top in figures almost like Broom , spreading from the surface of the water downwards . And to add , That upon the by , we suffered the Ice of salt-water to thaw , to try , whether it would yield fresh water , but it seemed not devoid of some Brackishness , which whether or no it proceeded from some parts of the contiguous brine , that adhered to the Ice , I leave to further and exacter observations , since I am credibly informed , that in Amsterdam there are divers , that use the thaw'd Ice of the Sea-water to brew their Beer with , instead of common fresh water . 3. And since I made that Experiment , I find in the industrious Bartholinus's newly publish'd Book , De Nivis usu , a Confirmation of the probability of the Report I just now mention'd , his words being these , De Glacie ex marinâ aquâ certum est , siresolvatur , salsum saporem deposuisse , quod etiam non ita pridem expertus est Cl. Jacobus Finckius Academiae nostrae senior , & Physices Professor , benè meritus , in glaciei frustis è portu nostro allatis . Title IIII. Experiments and Observations touching the Degrees of Cold in several Bodies . 1. AFter having treated of the Bodies that are the most capable of producing Cold , and of those that are most dispos'd , or indispos'd to receive it , it would be Methodical to take notice of the Degrees of Cold , to be met with in differing Bodies : But though a work of this nature might somewhat conduce to the Discovery of Cold in general , yet it is so laborious a Task , and , to be well perform'd , requires so much more of Leisure , and Conveniency , then I am Master of , that I must resign it to those that are better furnish'd with them ; which I the freelier do , because the Experiments , which at this Time make the principal part of our History , being chiefly of the highest Degrees of Cold , we may seem to have done something of what more 〈◊〉 concerns our present Design , by having made the Experiments , anon to be subjoyn'd within this present Section or Title . And yet thus much we elsewhere do towards the framing of a Table of the Degrees of Cold , that we do on other occasions set down those hitherto unpractis'd ways that we have imploy'd , to estimate the greater or lesser Coldness of Bodies , by several kinds of Weather-glasses , differing from the common ones , and far more fit then they , for such a Purpose . For by Hermetically seal'd Thermoscopes furnish'd with high rectifi'd spirit of Wine , we can estimate the differing degrees of Coldness in Liquors , of which we shall presently mention an Example . And by using such Weather-glasses , as have their Air included not at the top , but at the bottom of the Instrument , we can within some reasonable Latitude , measure the Coldness both of intire solid Bodies , or minuter Bodies , as Salts , &c. by beating them alike , and very small , and placing the Instruments at equal Depths in the powder of each of them . And besides that the shape of these Thermoscopes does , as we have elsewhere shewn , make them proper for these uses , for which the vulgar ones , where the included Air is at the top of the Instrument , are not fit : besides this , I say , 't is easie in these we make use of , to make the Pipe so slender in proportion to the Cavity of the Vial , whereinto 't is inserted , that very much minuter Differences of Cold will be manifest in these , then are wont to be sensible in common Weather-glasses . And besides these two sorts we have elsewhere propos'd , and describ'd a third and new kind of Thermometer , wherein a drop of liquor being suspended in a very slender Pipe of Glass , betwixt the outward and the inward Air , makes it far more fit for those Experiments , wherein we either despair , or care not , to measure the Difference of Cold betwixt two Bodies , but are only desirous to try , whether or no they differ in Coldness , and in case they do , which of them has most : For these Weather-glasses , are so exceeding sensible even of the minute Differences of Heat and Cold , as manifestly to discover Disparities , which other Thermoscopes are not nice enough to give us any Notice of . Only this Advertisement we must add about them , that when we use them to examine the Coldness , not of liquid , but of consistent Bodies , we alter a little the figure of the wide end of the Glass ; and instead of maing it a round bubble , as we have elsewhere describ'd , we make it with a flat or flattish bottom , that the whole Instrument might thereon , as on a Basis , stand of it self upright , and so , being still taken up by the open and slender end , for fear of rarifying the included Air , ( which Caution is here given once for all ) may be transferr'd with a pendulous drop in the Pipe , and plac'd sometimes on one , and sometimes on another of the solid Bodies to be examined by it . For if the Body , 't is removed to , be more or less cold then that it rested on before , that coldness communicated through the Glass to the Air , by which the pendulous drop is supported , that Airs Expansion or Contraction will manifestly appear by the rising or the falling of the drop . And thus we have taken pleasure to remove it from one kind of wood to another , from woods to metals , and from metals to stones , &c. But the Expedients , that may be propos'd to improve these little Instruments to the purposes we have been treating of , and the Cautions , that may be added to prevent mens drawing mistaking Inferences from the Informations they seem to give them , will take up more time , then we are willing to spend npon an occasion , that will not perhaps be thought to deserve it , nor much to require any others , then those we shall by and by subjoyn . And therefore I shall proceed to the Experiment promis'd at the beginning of this Title or Section . 2. To make so much as a tolerable Estimate of the Difference betwixt such great Degrees as are not any of them too weak to congeal water , is a thing , which , as we have not yet known to be attempted , so it seem'd not easie to be perform'd . For , Freezing having been commonly reputed the ultimate Effect or Production of Cold , men have not been sollicitous to look beyond it . And though the Disparity we find betwixt several Fits of weather , all of them frosty , seem to be too manifest and frequent to be probably ascrib'd to nothing , but the differing Dispositions of our Bodies , yet how to estimate that Difference , it is not so obvious . For though we should have recourse to common Weather-glasses , yet they might easily deceive us , since not only by estimating by them , the coldest day of one Winter , with the coldest day of another , but in judging of the Coldness of any two days in the same fit of frosty weather , there intervenes time enough to make it doubtful , whether the vari'd Gravitation of the Atmosphere , produce not the change observ'd in the Weather-glass . Besides that , admitting vulgar Thermometers could not , as they easily may , misinform us , they are imploy'd only to give us an Account of those degrees of Cold , 〈◊〉 Nature of her own accord produces in the Air ; but not to discover , whether or no Nature assisted by Art , may not produce greater : And , 't will easily be granted , that they are yet less made use of to help us to an Estimate of this Disparity . And though some guess may be made by the operations of Cold upon Liquors expos'd to it , yet some , as water , and very aqueous Liquors , will freez too soon , and others , as Vinous spirits , will not at all , ( that we have found ) here in England . And though French-Wine will sometimes be brought to begin to freez , yet that happens but very seldom , and in many Winters not at all , and leaves too great an Interval , betwixt the degrees necessary to congeal Wine , and sufficient to congeal Water , not to mention the uncertainty proceeding from the differing strengths of the Wines . 3. Upon these and other considerations we thought it requisite to make use of an Expedient , whose Nature and use will be easily gathered out of the following Experiments : And though by a mischance , that broke my Weather-glass , I have been hindred from measuring exactly in what Proportion to the whole bulk the spirit of Wine was contracted , by the surplusage of Cold , that was more then necessary to make water freez , yet I doubt not but something of use to our present Theme , may be thence collected , and especially the main thing design'd will manifestly appear , which is the Intensity of Cold produc'd by Art , beyond that which Nature needs to employ upon the glaciating of water . [ 4. A small seal'd Weather-glass furnished with spirit of Wine , the ball being about the bigness of a large Nutmeg , and the Cylindrical stem being very slender , and about ten Inches long , the Ball and part of the stem being immers'd in a vessel of water , half buri'd in snow and salt , when the water began to freez at the top , the bottom and the sides ( but before the Ice had reach'd the Ball , for fear it should break it ) the tincted liquor was found subsided to 5 ⅔ Divisions , being half Inches , and being taken out thence , and Ice and Salt being immediately appli'd to the Ball , the Liquor fell lower to about 1 ½ Division . ] And that it may not be doubted , but that the water , though in part congeal'd , remain'd warm in comparison of the spirit of Wine , though uncongeal'd , that had been refrigerated by the snow and salt , we will add this other Experiment , which we find in another of our Notes thus set down . [ 5. The seal'd Weather-glass being kept in the water till it began to freez , descended to 5 ½ : Being immediately remov'd into the same snow and salt , that made the water begin to freez , it descended at the beginning very fast , and afterwards more slowly , till it came to the very bottom of the stem , where it expands it self into the Ball ; then being remov'd into the same glass of water , whence it was taken , and which was well stor'd with loose Pieces of Ice , it did nevertheless hastily ascend at the beginning , and was soon after impell'd to the former Height of five Divisions and an half , or thereabouts . ] 6. But perhaps some amends may be made for the disaster of the Weather-glass , by adding , that I found by another Trial , that the Condensation of Liquors by such Colds , as we are wont to have , or can easily produce here , is nothing near so great as one would imagine . And though for want of a Glass-ball , furnish'd with a neck slender enough , I could not make the Experiment so much to my satisfaction , as perhaps else I might have done ; yet the goodness of the scales , I made use of , and some greater care , then possibly every Experimenter would have imploy'd , may make the following Observation Luciferous . 7. We took then ( on a cold , but not frosty day ) oyl of Turpentine , as a Liquor , whose being free from phlegm or water , we would easily be more certain of , then if we had imploy'd spirit of Wine ; and this oyl it self we rectifi'd in a gentle heat , to make it the more pure and subtle . Then we took a small round vessel of clear glass furnish'd with a conveniently long stem or pipe , and having first weighed the glass alone in a pair of very good scales , we found it to weigh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 56 ½ gr . then putting in oyl of Turpentine , till it fill'd the round part of the Glass , and ascended a little way into the stem , we carefully mark'd with a Diamond on the outside of the Glass , how high it reach'd , and then weigh'd the Glass and the Oyl together , which weigh'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 34 ½ gr . then we put in by degrees a quarter of a Drachm , and with a Diamond carefully mark'd , how high it reach'd in the pipe , and so we continued putting in several Quantities of oyl , still carefully weighing each parcel in the scale , and marking its height on the outside of the Glass ( which we did in order to a certain design , and found it a work tedious and troublesome enough ) till the Liquor and the Glass together weighed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4 ½ grains ; then we put fair water into an open-mouth'd Glass , in which we also plac'd the little Bolt-head with oyl of Turpentine , and by such a circumposition of salt and snow , as is * hereafter to be often mention'd , we made the water , which was contain'd in the wide mouth'd Glasses , and by which the Sphaerical part of the Bolt-head , containing the Oyl , was surrounded , we made this water , I say , begin to freez , and when we perceiv'd a little Ice to be produc'd in it , we carefully mark'd with a Diamond to what part of the stem the oyl of Turpentine was subsided , and then transferring the Bolt-head into a mixture of snow and salt , where we kept it for an hour or two , till we could perceive it to fall no lower , and marking with a Diamond this station also of the Liquor , we afterwards remov'd the Glass into a warmer Air , till the Oyl by expanding it self had regain'd the highest mark , whence it had begun to sink . Then into a very little Glass , carefully counterpois'd in a pair of exacter scales then the former , we gently poured out of the Oyl , till what remain'd rested against that mark on the outside of the stem , to which it fell , when the water began to freez : and this we found to amount to somewhat above 9 ½ grains , so that for conveniency of reckoning , we may safely enough take the Intire number of 10. grains . After this we poured out of the remaining oyl into the same little Glass , till , what rested in the Pipe , was even with that mark , to which the snow and salt had made it fall ; and this parcel of oyl hapned to be almost precisely of the same weight with the other ; so that in this Trial ( for perhaps in others , which it were therefore worth while to make , the degree of Cold may much vary the Events ) the Artificial way of freezing , we imploy'd , made the oyl subside as much after it had been refrigerated and condens'd by a cold capable of freezing water , as that degree of Cold had been able to condense it at first . And lastly , having deducted the weight of the Glass from the weight of the whole Oyl and Glass , to obtain the weight of the oyl alone ; and having divided the weight of the whole Oyl , first , by that of the former parcel , we have mentioned to be ten grains , and then by the superadded weight of the second parcel , we took out , ( both which parcels together we estimated at twenty grains , ) we found that rectifi'd oyl of Turpentine of a moderate temper , being expos'd to such a degree of Cold , as would freez common water , did by by shrinking lose but about a ninty fourth part of its Bulk , and being reduc'd to as great a degree of Cold as we could bring it to by snow and salt , ev'n then it lost but about a forty seventh part of its Bulk ; I say about , because I thought it needless , as well as tedious to mind fractions and little odd numbers , especially since , as we formerly intimated , it was scarce possible to arrive at a great exactness in such a Neck , as that of our Bolt-head , though it were proportionable enough to the Ball , and chosen among several , that were purposely procur'd for the trying of Experiments . 8. There are some other Trials about the Degrees of Cold , which for want of Ice and other Accommodations we could not make , as we would have done , often ; nor shall scarce be able to do it , till more friendly Circumstances afford us an opportunity : And yet because our Trials , though not prosecuted as far as we thought , may possibly prove not unwelcome , we will subjoyn something about two of the chiefest of them . 9. The one was design'd to measure in what proportion water of a moderate degree of Coldness , would be made to shrink by the circumposition of snow and salt before it begin by Congelation to expand it self : of this , what we shall here take notice , is only , That by a Trial purposely made with common water , in a round Glass furnish'd with a long stem , we found the water in that stem to subside so very little , that , whether or no it were insensible , it was inconsiderable . But probably a greater Quantity of water , and a slenderer stem , would have made the shrinking of the Liquor more Notable , and upon that Account 't is , that I here mention It. 10. The other Thing was , to measure by the differing weight and Density of the same portion of water , what change was produc'd in it , betwixt the hottest time of Summer , and first a glaciating Degree of Cold , and then the highest we could produce by Art. And in order to this , we weigh'd with a pair of exact scales , a glass bubble heavier then water , in that liquor , when it seemed to be at a moderate Temper , as to Coldness , and by the Diminution , which we found of the glasses weight in the water , we easily collected , according to the Rules of the Hydrostaticks , the weight of as much water , as is equal in bulk to the glass Bubble , and thereby the Proportion betwixt the glass and an equal bulk of such water , as we first weighed it in ; then by the application of snow and salt , we made that water begin to freez , and weighing in it again the same bubble , 't was easie to collect by the Decrement of its weight in this refrigerated water , what Proportion an equal Bulk of the liquor did then bear to the Glass ; and by comparing these two differing Proportions together , we were assisted to make an Estimate , how much the water was made more heavy , and dense by the Action of a freezing degree of Cold : Afterwards taking our time in Summer , we thought fit in the same parcel of water ( that had been purposely reserved in a glass ) to weigh the same bubble , that by the difference of its weight in the water , when made much lighter by the heat of the ambient Air , we might obtain the Information we desir'd : to which we shall add , That we also recommended to some Virtuosi , that were likely to have the opportunity of gratifying Us , that such an Experiment might be procured to be made in the midst of Summer in some part of Italy , by the help of the there not unfrequent Conveniency of a Conservatory of snow , wherein the water might be reduc'd to freez before the end of the same hour , at whose beginning the there warmer Air had given it its greatest Expansion , and so the Difference betwixt the Density of the same parcel of water might be the more conspicuous . But as I have not received any Account of my Desires from abroad , so coming now 〈◊〉 home to review the Memorial , I caused to be written of the newly mention'd Observation , I find , that through the Negligence or Mistake of an Amanuensis , there must needs be a manifest oversight committed in the 〈◊〉 down the Numbers , which my Memory does not now enable me to repair . And the season being now improper to repeat the Experiment , as well as the numerical parcel of water I had kept , and I imployed both times , being thrown away , I think it may be sufficient , if not too much , to have thus particularly intimated the way we took , without ading the Cautions , where with we proceeded , nor what Trials we made to the same purpose with high rectifi'd spirit of Wine , since unlucky accidents frustrated our Attempts . 11. Whether the making of these kind of Trials , with the waters of the particular Rivers or Seas , men are to sail on , may afford any useful estimate , if , and how much , Ships and other Vessels , may on those 〈◊〉 be safely loaden more in Winter 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 , may be an 〈◊〉 of which I shall not in this place 〈◊〉 any 〈◊〉 Notice , then to intimate thus much , That the difference betwixt water highly refrigerated , and that which is but of an usual degree of coldness , is not so great as some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seem to have thought . For on a Day , which ( though made cold by snow intermingled with the rain that then fell ) was not a frost , we took common water , and weighed in it a glass Bubble , whose weight in the Air was 150. grains , and this Bubble weigh'd in that water , lost so much of its former weight , as to weigh about 28 ⅝ grains : and then by snow and salt , reducing that water to such a degree of Coldness , that it began to be turned into Ice about the inside of a small open glass that contain'd it , we found the same Bubble not to weigh at all above one eighth part of a grain less then it did before : So that , if we may judge of the shrinking and condensation of the water by the Increment of weight , it shrunk but about a 230. part of its former Bulk , and this according to a pair of scales , that would turn with about the 32. part of a grain : which may keep us from wondring at what we lately delivered concerning the very inconsiderable subsidence of the water , we exposed to snow and salt in a small Bolthead . And it may also make that the more probable , which we not long since related about the oyl of Turpentines not losing much above a 100. part of its Bulk , by being expos'd to such a degree of cold , as made water begin to freez . Whether we may from this , and from the formerly recited Experiment , of the great subsidence of spirit of Wine in a seal'd Weather-glass , safely conclude , these subtile distill'd Liquors to be much more sensible then water of Cold , as well as of Heat , further Trials will best resolve ; and these I have not now so much opportunity , as I could wish , to pursue . 12. But they that have a mind to prosecute Experiments of this kind , and others , that relate to the Degrees of Cold , may perchance be somewhat assisted even by these Relations , and especially by those Passages that mention the use of the seal'd Weather-glass , furnish'd with spirit of Wine , and of those wherein a drop of liquor is kept pendulous . For the former of these being not subject to the Alterations of the Atmospheres 〈◊〉 , nor ( as may be probably suppos'd , by reason of the strength of the high rectifi'd spirit of Wine ) to be frozen , by sending the same Weather-glass ( which may be made portable enough , as I have tried by transporting one of them in a Case that might be easily carri'd even in a Pocket ) from one Countrey to another , one may make far better Discoveries of the differing Degrees of Coldness in differing Regions , and know ( somewhat near ) how much the Air even of Muscovy , or Norway , or Greenland it self , is colder then that of England , or any other Countrey , whence the Weather-glass shall be sent : The Instrument being accompanied with a memorial of the Degree , it stood at , when expos'd to such a Cold , as made water begin to freez . 13. The other Thermometer , where a drop of liquor is kept pendulous , may not only be imploy'd in such cases , where the Pipe and Bubble can be erected upon the Horizon , but by reason , that the outward Air will indifferently impel the Bubble laterally or upwards , upon the Refrigeration of the inward , and that the bubble will not barely by its weight drop out of the inverted Instrument , because of the resistence of the subjacent outward Air ; for these causes , I say , such a Thermoscope may , as we have tri'd , be also us'd , where the Pipe shall be held Horizontal , or inclin'd , or even Perpendicularly downwards , so that the flat Part of the Bubble may be appli'd to discover the Coldness , either of the Wall , or of the Ceiling of a room , or other Bodies however scituated . And if the Pipe be made long and even , ( as sometimes we imploy one above a foot long ) not only sensible , but great Effects of very little Disparities in the Coldness of Bodies , to which the Instrument is appli'd , may with pleasure be observed . And the same drop of liquor may be long enough preserv'd useful in the Pipe. But this Advertisement I shall give , that as sensible as this Instrument appears to be of the nicer Differences of Coldness , as of Heat , yet they that shall have the Curiosity to examine with it , as I have done , the Temperature , I say not , of more resembling Bodies , but of Liquors , that may be thought to have their parts so differingly agitated , as common Water , high rectifi'd spirit of Wine , and even rectifi'd oyl of Turpentine , ( I add not Dephlegm'd oyl of Vitriol , because of some odd Phaenomena not here to be insisted on ) will perhaps find the Event so little , in many cases , answer the Expectation he would have had of uniformly finding great Disparities in their actual Coldness , if he had not met with this Advertisement , that he will not much wonder , that a Person , who wants not other Imployments for his Time , was willing to decline so tedious and nice a Task . Title V. Experiments touching the Tendency of Cold Upwards or Downwards . 1. THough , after the consideration of the sphere of Activity of Cold , it would be the most proper place to take some Notice of the Direction of its Activity , yet because one of the Experiments , that belong to This head , is of great use to facilitate the trial of many of those , that follow , throughout this whole Collection ; we will no longer delay to say something of this matter , namely , in what Line , or , if you please , towards what part the frigefactive vertue of cold Bodies does operate the furthest and the most strongly . 2. 'T is a Known Doctrine among Philosophers , that the Diffusion of Heat tends chiefly upwards , as the flame of a Candle will burn many things held over it at a greater Distance , then it would considerably warm them at , in case they were held beneath its level , or even by its sides : and 't is true , that in all cases vulgarly taken notice of , the observation , for reasons elsewhere discoursed of , holds well enough ; and therefore it may be worth enquiry , whether in Cold , which is generally looked upon as the contrary Quality to Heat , the diffusion ( from cold bodies ) be made more strongly downwards , then either upwards or towards the sides . About this matter , I can as yet find among my Notes but the two following Experiments , 〈◊〉 those not both together . [ A very thin bubble was blown at a Lamp , and purposely made flat at the bottom , that it might be the more exposed to the cold , and it was suspended by a string within a pretty deal less then an inch of a mixture of beaten Ice and Salt , wherewith we had half fill'd a conveniently large wide-mouth'd glass , but we could not find , that a cold , Capable of freezing , did strike so high upwards , for the water in the bubble remained altogether unfrozen ; which agrees very well with what we have observed , that a mixture of ice and salt did not 〈◊〉 the vapours , that wandered through the Air , above half a barley corns breadth higher , then the mixture in the Glass reached . ] 3. [ A mixture of snow and salt being put into a vial with a long neck , the round part of it was by a weight kept under water , out of which being taken after a while , the outside of the glass beneath the surface of the water was cased with solid Ice , N B. especially about the bottom of the vial , of greater hardness and thickness then one could easily imagine . ] 4. Thus far the notes , from which nevertheless I will not positively conclude , though they seem to perswade it , that the tendency of the cold produced by Bodies qualified to freez others , is greater downwards then upwards : For , the satisfactory determination of that matter may , for ought I know , require Trials more artificial and nice , then those we have been reciting . And I could wish , that I could find the last of them to have been carefully repeated and registred , because it seems somewhat strange , that the Ice should be much thicker at the bottom of the vial , then elsewhere , in regard , that when we have , as we very frequently have , put mixtures of snow and salt into vials , and left them in the open Air , we generally observ'd , that the outside of the Glass was cas'd with Ice , or covered with hoar frost , directly over against that part of the inside of the Glass , wherein the frigorifick mixture was . So that part of the snow and salt resolving one another , and falling down in the form of a liquor to the bottom , the unmelted part of the mixture would float upon this liquor , and the external Ice would appear over against the floating mixture , by which it was generated : So that as the mixture grew thinner and thinner , so would the Zone or girdle , if I may so call it , of external Ice , grow narrower and narrower , till at length , when the snow was quite melted away , the external Ice would quickly also vanish . But from this observation ( which we frequently made ) That as in such vials 〈◊〉 Ice did not appear ( as I just now related ) above half a corns breadth higher then the mixture in the glass ; so I remember not to have observed it much lower beneath the mixture ; from those things , I say , it may be probably conjectured , that even the coldest Bodies ( at least unless their Bulk alter the case ) do not diffuse their freezing vertue , either upwards or downwards to any considerable distance . 5. These trials , as I was intimating , may suggest some difficulties about the last of the two Experiments , transcribed out of my notes . But as 't is evident these observations were made in the open Air , by the freezing of its roving vapours , and the mentioned Experiment was made under water , so how much this difference of mediums may alter the case , as to the way of the Diffusion of cold , I dare not , till further trial , boldly determine , especially since one Circumstance , to be under the next Title mentioned , about the freezing of Eggs , may pass for an addirional Experiment as to our present Enquiry : For the Cases obtain'd by frozen Eggs suspended under water , which seem to argue , that the Diffusion of their cold was made every way , since they were quite enclosed in the Ice , they had produced . 6. Though the Experiment of freezing water by the Intervention of salt and snow be not a new one for substance , yet I hold it not amiss , to make a further mention of it on this occasion . Because that what I am to deliver about it , is a Paticular not taken notice of ( that I know of ) by others ; the premising of which , will , according to what we lately intimated , much facilitate the trial of many of the Experiments to be set down in the following part of these papers , and will indeed appear to be of no small moment in our whole Attempt of Framing an History of Cold. For it has long seemed to me one of the chief things , that has hindered men from making any considerable progress in this matter , that whereas glass-vessels are generally much the most proper to freez liquors in , because their transparency allows us to see what changes the Cold makes in the liquors exposed to it ; the way of freezing with salt and snow , as it has been hitherto used , does almost as little , as the common way of barely exposing vessels to the cold Air in frosty weather , prevent the unseasonable breaking of the glasses . For in both these ways , the water or other liquor , usually beginning to freez at the top , and it being the Nature of Glaciation , as we shall see anon , to distend the water and Aqueous liquors it hardens , it is usually and naturally consequent , that when the upper crust of Ice is grown thick , and by reason of the Expansion of the frozen liquor bears hard with its edges against the sides of the glass , contiguous to it , the included Liquor , ( that is by degrees successively turned into Ice ) requiring more Room then before , and forcibly endeavouring to Expand it self every way , finds it less difficult to burst the glass , then lift up the Ice ; and consequently does the former , and thereby spoils the Experiment , before it be come to perfection , or have let us see what Nature would have done , if she had not been thus hindred in her work . 7. The consideration of this invited me to alter the common way of freezing , and order the matter so , that whensoever I pleased , the exposed liquor should not begin to freez at the top or sides , but at the bottom , which I concluded it very easie to do , by mingling the salt with that part only of the snow , which was to lye beneath and about the bottom of the glass I placed in it . For by this means the snow , that was contiguous to the sides , was able but to cool the water , and dispose it to Glaciation , whereas the mingled snow and salt , on which the bottom of the glass rested , did actually turn the neighbouring Liquor into Ice , and lift up the incumbent liquor toward the higher and empty parts of the glass : And this liquor also I could afterwards freez at pleasure , without danger of breaking the vessel , only by so applying salt and snow to the sides of the glass , that they never reached , except perhaps at the very conclusion of the Experiment , so high by a reasonable distance , as the upper surface of the liquor in the glass ; so that the superior parts of that liquor were always kept fluid , and capable of being easily impell'd higher and higher by the Expansion of the freezing parts of the subjacent liquor . 8. The Speculative inference , that may be drawn from this Experiment , of making water begin to freez at the bottom , not the top , will be more properly taken notice of in another place ; In the mean time I shall only intimate by the way , that there is no great necessity of any nice proportion of salt to snow , nor of any exquisite mixture of them : a third or fourth part or thereabouts of Sea salt , in reference to the snow , will not do amiss ; nor do I usually put salt to all the snow at once , unless in some case , wherein I have a mind to freez a liquor quickly , and make a speedy resolution of the snow and salt in order thereunto ; to which I shall only add , that by the way above mentioned , I do upon particular occasions make the exposed liquor freez , not at the bottom or the top , but next to what side of the Glass I please , according to the Exigency of the Experiment . But though it may suffice to have hinted the Speculative Inference , that may be drawn from this way of freezing Liquors , it will be expedient to give explicitely this practical Advertisement , concerning it , that whereas it seems to have been taken for granted , that snow is necessary in this Artifice , and we our selves were for some time led away with the rest , by that supposition ; yet that is but a presumption , and ought to be removed as one very prejudicial to those that with us design the prosecuting Experiments , in order to the History of Cold. For snow is but seldom to be found on the ground in comparison of Ice , and being but a Congeries of many small Icesicles with much Air intercepted among them , it is not ( 〈◊〉 paribus ) near so durable as the more intire Body of solid Ice ; and yet we have found by frequent Experience , that Ice well beaten in a Mortar , will serve our turn for Artificial Glaciations , as well ( if not in some respects better ) as snow , and therefore in this History of Cold we indifferently prescribe Snow and Salt , or Salt and Ice as the Ingredients of our Glaciating Mixtures . Title VI. Experiments and Observations touching the Preservation and Destruction of ( Eggs , Apples , and other ) Bodies by Cold. 1. IT is a Tradition common enough , though not here in England , yet among those that have given us Accounts of very cold 〈◊〉 , that if Eggs or Apples , being frozen , be thawed near the fire , they will be thereby spoiled , but if they be immersed in cold water , the internal cold will be drawn out , as they suppose , by the external , and the frozen Bodies will be harmlefly , though not so quickly , thawed , This Tradition I thought fit to examine , not only because it may be doubted , whether it will succeed in our more Temperate Climate , and because I love not to relye upon Traditions , when I have the opportunity to examine them ( especially if no one Credible Author affirms them upon his particular knowledge , ) but also because I thought the Experiment , if true , might be so varied and made use of , as to become luciferous enough , and afford us divers Phaenomena of cold , not so easie to be produced by the more known ways of experimenting . And accordingly having exposed some of these Bodies to a cold that was judged sharp enough , we afterwards put them in water , but found not the event answer our expectations , no Ice appearing to be generated ; nevertheless we were not hereby so discouraged , as not to repeat the Experiment ( which we judged to be not unlikely ) with more sollicitousness and advantage then before ; and having thereby brought it to succeed , we afterwards made several trials of it with several distinct aims , but 〈◊〉 now find any Entry of divers of them . But those I have hitherto met with among my Notes , I shall subjoyn , as having in them some Particulars , that may afford useful hints to an Enquirer into the History and Nature of Cold. And I shall set down together , and that in this place ( though it would not otherwise be the most proper ) those I have met with , because some Circumstances of one or other of them may be of use to us on several occasions in the present Treatise . 2. [ An Egg weighing twelve drachms and one grain wrapt in a wax'd paper ( to keep it from the liquor of the thawing snow ) and frozen with snow and salt , wanted four grains of that weight : put into a dish of fair water there crusted as much Ice about the outside as made the Egg and Ice fifteen drachms and nine grains ; the ice being taken off from the shell , and the shell very well dried , the Egg was found to weigh twelve drachms and twelve grains ; the Egg being broken , was found almost quite thawed ; the Egg frozen swam in water , being thawed it sunk . ] 3. [ We took two Eggs strongly frozen , and in a room where there was a good fire , we put one of them into a deep woodden-dish full of very cold water , and set the other by it , upon a table about two yards from the fire , that they might be in Air of the same temper as to heat and cold ; then perceiving the Egg , that lay under water , to have obtained a thick crust of Ice , we took it out , and having first freed it from the Ice , broke it , and found that some part of the white was not yet freed from a pretty store of little parcels of Ice , but the rest of the white ( which was much the greater part ) and the Yelk seemed to be much what of the same consistence , as if the Egg had not formerly been frozen , whereas the other Egg , that lay by upon the dry table , had not only its whole white frozen into a consistent Body , but the Yelk it self , though we saw no distinct particles of Ice in it , was grown so hard , that it cut just like the Yelk of an Egg over boiled , and being cut quite through , shewed us certain concentrical circles of somewhat differing Colours , with a speck much whiter then any of them in the middle of the Yelk ; which last circumstances , whether they were accidental or no , further observation must determine . ] Note , that though we have not found above once , that frozen Eggs would swim , yet when we had broken such Eggs , the frozen white would swim , but not the yelk . 4. We afterwards repeated the Experiment of laying two frozen Eggs near together in the place above mentioned , the one under water , and the other out of it , till that put in water had got a thick Icy crust , and by breaking of them both , presently after one another , were confirmed in the Perswasion , that frozen Eggs will thaw by great odds ( caeteris paribus ) faster when immersed in water , then when surrounded only with Air. 5. [ We likewise took a frozen Egg , and from a fix'd place suspended it so by a slender packthread , that it hung quite under water without yet touching the vessel , that the water was in . This we did partly upon another Design , and partly to observe , whether or no the Ice would in this case be considerably thicker or thinner against the lower parts of the Egg , as we formerly mention'd our selves to have observed it to be very manifestly at the lower parts of a glass , which having Ice and Salt in it , was immersed under water ; but when we took out the Egg , after we saw that its Icy case had covered the packthread it was hung by , we found the case upon breaking it , of a thickness uniform enough to keep us from concluding any thing from this trial ; since , though there were a pretty deal of Ice generated at so small a distance from the case of the Egg , that it seemed to owe its Production to the same cause ; yet , which was somewhat odd , we did not find , that this Ice stuck to that which did immediately embrace the Egg , though we had some faint suspition , that the Rudiments of it might have been very early parted from the Egg , by some little shaking of the table occasioned by peoples passing to and fro in the room . ] 6. [ We took some Pippins , and exposing them to freez all night , and putting them the next morning into a Bason of very cold water ( though in a warm room ) they were not long there without being inclosed with cases of Ice of a considerable thickness ; Where note , 1. That that part of a floating Apple , that was immersed under water , had a very much thicker coat then the other part which remained above it . 2. That the extant part seemed likewise to be harder then the immersed . 3. That one of these Pippins being purposely left out of the Bason , but layed by it , seemed upon cutting to be harder and more frozen then those Apples which had been put into the water , which scarce seemed to be at all harder then ordinary Pippins , that had never been set to freez , at least as to those parts of the Apples that were near the rinde , and consequently near the Ice . 4. That neither frozen Pippins nor frozen Eggs , notwithstanding their great power of turning part of the contiguous water into Ice , did appear to Us to detain or congeal any of the roving vapors of the Air , as Ice or Snow included with Salt in glasses is , ( as we have formerly observed ) accustomed very remarkably to do . ] 7. [ We took Eggs , and froze them with ice and salt , till the shells of them were made to crack , then we took them out , and put one of them in Milk , two of them in a wide Drinking Glass full of Beer , and two more in a large Glass , wherein we covered them with Sack , that was poured in till it reached much higher in the Glass then the Eggs. But none of these trials produc'd , as we could perceive one grain of ice . ] And being desirous to see , whether the Acid salt of Vinegre , or the Cold in a well frozen Egg , would have the chief Operation , if those two Bodies were put together : I found upon Trial , that the Saline parts of the Vinegre began to dissolve the Egg-shell , as appeared by the much altered Colour of it , but the Cold of the ice in the Eggs was not able to freez any part of the water or phlegm of the Vinegre . 8. We had also thoughts of trying whether or no pieces of Iron of several shapes and bignesses , being for divers days and nights exposed to the freezing Air , and afterwards immersed in water , would produce any ice , as frozen Eggs and Apples do . For the Brittleness of the Laths of Stone-Bows in sharp frosts , together with other observations elsewhere mention'd , seem to argue , that ( to use a popular phrase ) the Frost does also get into these Bodies . And I have been assured by one , whom the Trials , I had made with Eggs and Apples , invited me to consult , that a great Cheese , he immersed in water in a Cold Countrey , was presently covered over with ice . But though , as I said , I had thoughts of making the above mentioned Trials , yet for want of a frost sufficiently durable , I was not able to effect what I design'd . But thus much I tri'd , That though I kept good Lumps of Iron , and as I remember of other Metalls , besides pieces of Glass , and a stone or two of a convenient size , in snow and salt , I know not how much longer , then would have suffic'd to make Eggs or Apples , or such kind of things fit to produce store of ice in water , upon their being thaw'd therein ; yet we could not find , that upon the immersing the several newly nam'd Mineral Bodies , there was the least ice produced in the cold water , where we kept them covered . I must not nevertheless omit to make some mention of that which lately 〈◊〉 to happen at the door of our own Laboratory ( respecting the North East ) where some Glasses , newly brought from the shop , and not imployed , lying in a Basket , as they poured water into one of them to rince it , part of it was presently turned into ice , whilest one of my Domesticks held it in his hand , who coming presently to show it me , I suspected the ice might have come from , or rather with the water that was poured into the Glass , but upon enquiring was assured of the Contrary . 9. But here I must not omit another trial relating to the former Experiments , which may seem somewhat odd , if its Event prove constantly the same , as when we tried it . For after these and divers other Experiments made , with frozen Eggs and Apples , we thought it might be worth the examining , whether or no Ice and the Liquors of these Concretes would produce the like effects , as Frozen Eggs and Apples ; and because 't is usually an easier way , then that which is more common of bringing Bodies , whose degree of cold is more languid , to freez water , to include them with ice or snow in a single vial , and so put them upon acting only upon the minute , and easily congealable vapors that wander in the Air : we took that Course in the trials we are mentioning , whose success is thus briefly set down in one of our notes . [ 10. Ice and Juice of Pippins well shaken together in a single vial , produced abundance of dew , but we could not satisfie our selves , that it produced any Ice . ] [ 11. Also Ice and the white of an Egg moderately beaten into a Liquor , were tried , with just the like success : But these trials having scarce been made above once , and at most but twice , are to be 〈◊〉 . ] 12. As for what is said , That Eggs and Apples thaw'd in the water , are better preserv'd then thaw'd by the fires side , we tri'd it in Pippins ( for in Eggs the Experiment is not so easily and quickly made ) and as far as we could discern , found it true , and somewhat wondred to see , how soon , and how much putrefaction was induc'd into those loosely contexed Bodies by an overhasty thawing . 13. If we may believe the Relations of Navigators , and others of good Credit ( of one or two of whom I had the opportunity to make Inquiry ) there may be good use made of what happens in the different ways of thawing Eggs and Apples , by applying the Observation to other Bodies , and even to Men , that happen to be dangerously nipp'd by excessive Cold. For it is a known Observation among those , that have inhabited or visited the Northern Climates , that if those , whose hands or feet , or faces happen to be frozen , approach them too near or hastily to the fire , they are in danger of losing , or at least much prejudicing the overhastily thaw'd parts . ( Upon divers of us ( says Captain James , speaking of his companions ) had the cold rais'd Blisters as big as Walnuts . This we imagined to come , by reason that they came too hastily to the fire . ) And therefore they that are more careful to be safely then quickly deliver'd from the painful cold , are wont , before they come near the fire , whether it be open or in Stoves , either well to wash their hands , or other frozen parts , in very cold water , or else to rub them well with Snow it self . And this brings into my mind , that I sometimes indeavoured to find by trial , what Beeflong exposed to freez , and differingly thaw'd , would teach me by way of confirmation of this Tradition ; but being then oblig'd to unseasonable Removes from the place where I made my Trials , they did not for that Reason afford me the satisfaction I desir'd ; but meeting with an intelligent person , that had been an housekeeper in Muscovy , and enquiring of him whether he had observed any thing about this matter , he told me , that having once had two very large Cheeses frozen , he thaw'd one of them in water , and the other in a Stove , but found , that thawing in water was much the better way of the two ; and I was well pleased to be answered by him , that the Cheese , thaw'd in water , did soon acquire therein a Crust of ice . 14. But more memorable is that Relation , which I remember I have read in the experienc'd Chirurgion Hildanus's Treatise of Gangrenes , where he relates from credible Testimony , how the whole Body of a Man was succesfully thaw'd , and which is more strange , cas'd all over with ice , by being handled as our Eggs and Apples were . His own words , because the Narrative may prove of some use , I shall subjoyn , and they are these ; Narravit mihi vir quidam nobilis & fide dignus , se , cum eas Regiones peragraret , incidisse aliquando in Viatorem secundum Viam frigore rigidum , ac pene mortuum , quem plaustro suo impositum , cum deduxisset in Diversorium , hospes illico demersit in frigidam , quo facto undiquaque ita erupit Gelu , ut ipsius Corpus glacie , seu ferreo Thorace contectum conspiceretur . Tum quoque propinatum illi aiebat Cyathum ampliorem Hydromelitis , quo illi seu potu ordinario utuntur , addito pulves re Cinamomi , Caryophyllorum & Macis , unde sudor in lecto provocatus est ; atque ita aegrum ad se rediisse amissis dunt axat manuum & pedum extremis Articulis . Hinc intelligimus hanc Methodum sanandi congelatos veram ac tutam esse , ac eam etiam probat Summus Philosophus qui regiones illas frequentavit , &c. 15. The Experiment deliver'd at the Beginning of this Title , ( of speedily producing ice on the outside of frozen Eggs and Apples , by immersing them in Cold water ) I take to be one of the two or three most illustrious , I have hitherto met with about congelation ; and as likely as any to assist us to investigate the causes of it . But though the Phaenomena seem very favourable to their Hypothesis , that suppose congelation to be effected by the ingress of frigorifick Atoms into the water or other Bodies to be congealed ; yet ( for some reasons ) I shall not here offer to draw any speculative inference from the Experiment , contenting my self to have here , and at the beginning of this Section hinted in transitu the hopefulness of its proving Luciferous . 16. But I remember that the Title of this Section promises something concerning the preservation and destruction of other inanimate Bodies , as well as Eggs and Apples , by Cold ; but as that intimated promise makes the last part of the Title , so what I have to deliver on this subject must not be expected to be other then the last part of this Section . And indeed to be able to add much to that little , which is generally known about this subject , I should either have liv'd in colder Climates then ours , or have had , which I had not , the opportunity of making Experiments , that require length of time . And therefore I shall only propose a general Consideration about this matter , and subjoyn a few of the chief Observations I have met with in Navigators or others about it . That then , which I would premise in general , is only this , That whether Bodies be srozen by the ingress of frigorifick Atoms , which by their intruding in swarms , can scarce avoid discomposing the Texture of the Body , or whether it be made by the recess of some matter , that did before Congelation , more strongly agitate its parts ; which way soever , I say , freezing is effected , 't is manifest , that the Nature of a frozen Body is , at least for the time , much alter'd , and therefore we thought fit to place it among our general Articles of Inquiry about Cold , what the effects of it may be as to the Conservation or Destruction of the Textures of Bodies . But as for the duly prosecuting this inquiry , we do , as we lately intimated , want the time and conveniency , we judge needful for such a work , the matter seeming to require , that it be watchfully and considerately manag'd , and that both the Nature of particular Bodies , and the differing degrees of Cold , and the differing times wherein the Condition of the expos'd Body is estimated , be taken into Consideration . For we find , that a moderate degree of Cold preserves many Bodies , and that glaciation destroys , or at least prejudices most others ( probably by discomposing or vitiating their Texture ) when they come to be thaw'd , though whilest the Frost is in them , it keep almost all Bodies from disclosing any putrefaction . 17. This being the general Consideration I intended to propose , it remains that I add out of credible Writers , or other Relators , some Observations to illustrate and confirm the chief particulars comprehended in it . And first , that a moderate degree of cold conduces much to the preservation of the greatest part of inanimate Bodies , is a thing vulgarly taken notice of and acknowledg'd . And I do not readily remember any instances that manifest , that any degree of Cold , though more then moderate , provided it fall short of freezing the Bodies expos'd to it , does spoil them . Regii Mutinenses ( says the industrious Bartholinus ) nivem hoc fine arctè 〈◊〉 servant in Cellis Nivariis , in quibus fervente aestate vidi carnes mactatorum Animalium à putredine diu se conservasse . The next thing I shall mention to our present purpose , is a memorable passage in Captain James's Voyage , which shows , that so great a Degree of Cold , as may be suppos'd to have reign'd in his ship , that was frozen up all the Winter in one of the Coldest Regions of the World , was not great enough to spoil the meat and drink , that had layen all that time under water , because it seems by the story , that they were not actually frozen ; the words of his Journal are these . By the Ninth of May we were come to , and got up our five Barrels of Beef and Pork , and had four Buts of Beer , and one of Cyder , which God had preserved for us : it had layen under water all the winter ; yet we could not perceive , that it was any thing the worse ; which is the more remarkable , because of what we shall note by and by , both out of other Books , and even out of this , about what became of a stronger Liquor then Beer , once brought to Glaciation : And it seems our Navigator found Cold , if extremely intended , so destructive a thing , that he thought fit to take notice in his Journal , That even a Cable having layen under the ice all the Winter , was not in June found a jote the worse . 18. And it seems by a passage in Simlerus's account of the Alpes , that even Intire Bodies may be very long preserved by snow , and , as far as I can guess by the story , without glaciation . Refert ( says Bartholinus , speaking of him ) in Rhetis apud Rinwaldios , nivium è monte ruentium 〈◊〉 sylvam & 〈◊〉 Abietes dejecisse ; accidisse etiam Helvetio milite per Alpes iter faciente ut 60. homines & plures eadem nivis conglobatione opprimerentur . Hoc igitur Nivium tumulo sepulti , ad 〈◊〉 Aestatis delitescunt , quo solut â nonnihil Nive Deciduâ , Corpora mortua inviolata patent , si ab amicis , vel transeuntibus quaerantur . Vidimus ipsi triste hoc spectaculum , &c. 19. Secondly , I could alledge many instances to show , that many , if not most inanimate Bodies , ( I say inanimate , because of the Gangraenes and Sphacelations that often rob living men of frozen Toes , Noses , and sometimes other parts ) if they be actually frozen , will not disclose any putrefaction , whilest they continue in that state . Nor is this much to be wondred at , since whether we will suppose , that in Glaciation the moist and fluid parts are wedg'd in by intruding swarms of frigorifick Atomes , or that those restless particles , that were wont to keep the Body fluid or soft , are called forth of it , be the cause of glaciation ; which soever of these two ways we pitch upon , we must in frozen Bodies conceive an unwonted rest to be produced of those movable particles , whose internal commotions , and disorderly coalitions and Avolations , are either the Causes , or the necessary Concomitants of Corruption . 20. On this Occasion I remember , that meeting with a knowing Man , whose affairs stopp'd him during the Winter upon the Coasts of Sweden and Denmark , being desirous to learn of him , how long they could in those colder Climates preserve in Winter Dead Bodies unburied , and yet uncorrupted , he told me , he had opportunity to observe , that though the frost lasted , as it usually did in that season , three or four moneths together , or longer , the Bodies might without any Embalming , or other Artificial way of preservation , be kept untainted by the bare coldness of the Air. Of Bodies lasting long unputrified in ice , Navigators and others have afforded us several instances , but we will mention two , because they contain something more remarkable then the rest . The one is thus delivered by Bartholinus . Notandum , Corpor a occisorum hyeme eodem positu , eademque figur â permanere rigidâ , quâ ante eadem depraehensa sunt . Visum id extra urbem nostram , quum 11. Feb. 1659. oppugnantes hostes repellerentur , magnaque strage occumberent : alii enim rigidi iratum vultum ostendebant , alii oculos elatos , alii ore diducto ringentes , alii Brachiis extensis gladium minari , alii alio situ prostrati jacebant . Imo ex mari gelato , primo vere resoluto , eques equo suo insidens integer emersit , nescio quid manibus tenens . The other instance is afforded us by Captain James's Journal , and is by him thus delivered . In the Evening ( of the 18. of May ) the Master of our ship , after Burial returned aboard ship , and looking about her , discovered some part of our Gunner under the Gun-room ports . This man we had committed to Sea at a good distance from the ship , and in deep water near six moneths before . The 19. in the morning I sent Men to dig him out , he was fast in the Ice , his head downwards , and his heel upwards , for he had but one Leg ; and the Plaister was as yet at his wound : in the afternoon they digged him clear out , after all which time he was as free from noisomness , as when we first committed him to Sea. This alteration had the Ice and water and time only wrought on him , that his flesh would slip up and down upon his 〈◊〉 like a Glove on a mans hand . But there is one pertinent particular more , which if it be strictly true , is so very remarkable , that I cannot on this occasion forbear to annex it , which is , That according to the relation of the Merchants of Copenhagen , that return thither from Spitzberg , a place in Greenland , the extreme Cold will there suffer nothing to putrifie and corrupt , insomuch that Buried Bodies are preserved 30. years 〈◊〉 and inviolated by any 〈◊〉 . 21. Thirdly , though whilest Bodies continue frozen , the cold ( as may be supposed ) by arresting the insensible particles , from whose tumultuary motions , and disorderly Avolations Corruption is wont to proceed , may keep the ill operations of Cold upon the violated Textures of Bodies from appearing ; yet when once that 〈◊〉 is removed , divers bodies make haste to discover , that their Texture was discompos'd , if not quite vitiated by the excessive cold . I might alledge on this occasion , that I have shown divers ingenious Men by an Experiment I have taught in another * Treatise , that the change produc'd in the Textures of some Bodies by glaciation , may be made manifest even to the sight . For by freezing an Oxes Eye , the Crystalline humour , which in its natural state is transparent enough , to deserve its Name of Crystalline , though not fluid enough to deserve the Name of humour , lost with its former Texture all its Diaphancity , and being cut in two with a sharp knife , appeared quite throughout very white . But for confirmation of this I shall rather add , that I remember , that the person formerly mention'd , that had made trial of the two Cheeses , confess'd to me , That , though that which had been thaw'd in Cold water , was very much the less spoil'd , yet they were both of them manifestly impair'd ( and the other of them was so in its very consistence ) by the Frost , though the Bulk of the Cheeses was very considerable , and though they were both of them , of a more then ordinarily good and durable sort . 22. The next thing I shall alledge to this purpose , is the Observation of the Hollanders , even by such a degree of cold as they met with in Nova Zembla , before the middle of October , at which time their strong Beer , by being partly frozen , had its Texture so vitiated , that the reunion of its unfrozen to its thaw'd parts could not restore it to any thing near such a spirituous Liquor , as it was before . We were forc'd ( says Gerad de Veer , that wrote the story ) to melt the Beer , for there was scarce any unfrozen Beer in the Barrel , but in that thick yeast that was unfrozen , lay the strength of the Beer , so that it was too strong to drink alone ; and that which was frozen tasted like water , and being melted , we mix'd one with the other , and so drank it , but it had neither ftrength nor taste . And in the next Moneths Journal he tells us , that their best Beer was for the most part wholly without any strength , so that it had no savour at all . But a more remarkable instance to our present purpose , is afforded us by our Countrey-man Captain James , because it manifests the Cold to have the same effect upon a much stronger and more spirituous Liquor . I ever doubted ( says he in his Journal ) that we should be weakest in Spring , and therefore had I reserved a Tun of Alegant Wine unto this time . Of this by 〈◊〉 seven parts of water to one ofWine , we made some weak Beverage , which ( by reason that the Wine by being frozen , had lost his virtue ) was little better then water . 23. And I remember that a learned Man , whom I ask'd some questions concerning this matter , told me , that in a Northern Countrey , less colder then Muscovy , he had observed , that Beef having been very long frozen , when it came afterwards to be eaten , was almost insipid , and being boil'd afforded a Broth little better then common water . 24. If I had not wanted opportunity , I should here subjoyn an Account of some Trials , for which I made provision , as thinking them not absolutely unworthy the making , though extravagant enough not to be likely to succeed . For I had a mind to try , not only whether some plants , and other Medicinal things , whose specifick virtues I was acquainted with , would lose their peculiar Qualities by being throughly congeal'd , and ( several ways ) thaw'd ; and whether thaw'd Harts-horn , of which the Quantity of Salt and Saline spirit of such a determinate strength should beforehand be tri'd by distillation , would , after having been long congeal'd , yield by the same way of distillation the same Quantity of those actual substances , as if the Harts-horn had not been frozen at all . But I had also thoughts to try , whether the Electrical faculty of Amber , ( both the Natural , and that factitious imitation of it I elsewhere teach ) and whether the attractive or directive Virtue of Loadstones , especially very weak ones , would be either impair'd , or any ways alter'd by being very long exposed to the intensest degrees of Cold within my power of producing . But to have nam'd such extravagancies , is that , which I think enough , and others I fear may think too much . 25. Yet some few things I shall subjoyn on this occasion , because it will add somewhat not impertinent to the Design of this Treatise ( which is to deliver the Phaenomena of Cold ) as well as countenance what I have been proposing ; and those things are , That I can by very credible Testimony make it appear , that an intense Cold may have a greater operation upon the Texture even of solid and durable Bodies , then we in this temperate Climate are commonly aware of . I shall not urge , that even here in England ' t is generally believ'd , that Mens Bones are more apt to break upon falls in Frosty , then in other Weather , because that may possibly be imputed to the hardness of the frozen Ground . Nor , that I remember when I was wont to make use of Stone-Bows , I found it a common observation , that in Frosty Weather the Laths , though of Steel , would , by the Cold , be made so Brittle , that unless extraordinary care were had of them , or some Expedients were us'd about them , they would be apt to break . Nor yet , that an Ingenious Overseer of great Buildings has informed me , that those that deal in Timber and other Wood , find it much more easie to be cleft in hard Frosts , then in Ordinary Weather . These and the like instances I do , as I was intimating , forbear to urge , because these effects of Cold are much inferior to those that have been met with in more intemperate Regions . 26. And to begin with its Operation upon what we were last treating of , Wood. Of Charleton-Island Captain James has this passage about the Timber , they imploy'd upon their work , The Boys ( says he ) with Cuttle axes must cut Boughs for the Carpenter ; for every piece of Timber , that he did work , must first be thaw'd in the fire . And a little before , he tells us , that even when they found a standing Tree , They must make a fire to it to thaw it , otherwise it could not be cut . 27. And I remember , that two several persons , both of them Scholars , and strangers to one another , that had occasion to travel as far as Mosco , assur'd me , that they Divers times observ'd in extreme frosts , that the Timber-work ( whether the Boards or the Beams ) of some Houses , which , according to the Custom of that Countrey , were made of wood , and perhaps not well seasoned , would , by the operation of the Cold , be made to crack in divers places , with a Noise , which was surprizing enough to them , especially in the Night . 28. I remember also , that a Physician , who liv'd for some years in one of the Coldest Plantations of the West Indies , related to me , that he had observ'd the Bricks , he had imploy'd about Building , to be very apt to be spoil'd by the long and vehement frosts of the Winters there ; where he likewise said , that 't was a usual thing for the Houses builded of Brick , to decay in fewer years by far , then here in England , which he said was generally , and , as he thought , truly imputed to the excessive Cold , which made the Bricks apt to crumble , and moulder away . But though I dare not lay much weight on this Observation , unless I knew , whether the Bricks were sufficiently burn'd , and free from pibbles , 〈◊〉 by the heat that burn'd the Bricks : yet we must not deny , that extreme Colds may be able to shatter or dissolve the Texture of as close and solid Bodies as Bricks , especially if the Aqueous Moisture be not sufficiently driven away , if we will admit , what I remember I have mention'd in another Treatise , out of a very Learned and credible Author , of the power , that a sreezing Degree of Cold has had to break even solid Marble . And much less shall we doubt the possibility of what the Physician related , if we will not reject the Testimony of the Learned Olaus 〈◊〉 , according to which , Instruments made even of so hard a Metal as Brass , are not priviledg'd from the Destructive Operations of some Degrees of Cold. For , Ex aere facta opera ( says he in his Curious Musaeum ) vi frigoris quandoque rumpuntur , quod tamen pauci credunt , id tamen expertus est Eratostenes , & Nostras Johannis Munckius in difficillimo suo Itinere , quo per fretum Christianum transitum in mare Australe invenire moliebatur . To which , perhaps most Writers , would , if they met with it , add this passage out of the Dutch-mens Voyage to Nova Zembla . The 20. ( of October ) it was calm Sunshiny weather , and then again we saw the Sea open , at which time we went on Board , to fetch the rest of our Beer out of the ship , where we found some of the Barrels frozen in pieces , and the Iron Hoops that were upon the Josam Barrels , were also frozen in pieces . But though this Testimony seems to prove , that extreme Cold may break even Iron it self , and though possibly such an Affirmation might in the general not be erroneous , yet I shall forbear to draw that 〈◊〉 from this passage , because I suspect , that since the Irons , that were broken , were Hoops , and since it seems probable by the story , that there were Barrels not 〈◊〉 with Iron , broken also by the same Frost ; the breaking of the Hoops may have been the effect , not of the violence of the Cold , as acting immediately upon the Iron , but of the Liquor in the vessels , which being by the Cold that froze it , turn'd into ice , was so forcibly expanded , as to burst , what ever 〈◊〉 its dilation , according to what we shall have occasion in its due place more fully to deliver . An Appendix to the VI. Title . INquiring of the formerly mention'd Physician to the Russian Emperor , what experience teaches about some of the matters treated of in this ( sixth ) Title , in those cold Climates , where the effects of freezing are more notable : He told me , that the tradition ( mention'd above touching the safest way of thawing ) is in Muscovy generally receiv'd , and that 't is usual for Men , that have their Cheeks and Noses frozen , to rub them well with snow , and escape unharmed ; whereas if they go immediately into their Stoves , they often lose the Tops of their Noses , and introduce into their Cheeks a kind of paralytick Distemper , or benummedness , that they cannot get rid of in many Moneths . And having also inquir'd of the same Ingenious person , whether Wine frozen , and then permitted to thaw , till the unfrozen Liquor had quite resolved the ice , was not thereby spoil'd by having its Texture vitiated , he answered , that in very strong Claret-wine he found the Colour scarce at all destroy'd , nor the Liquor otherwise much impair'd ; but that in weaker Claret-wine the Colour was spoil'd , and the Liquor was otherwise much the worse . But note , that in the French-wine there remain'd a third part or more unfrozen , so that it seems not to have been expos'd to near so extreme a cold , as that of the Hollanders , or of Captain James ; and that Physician likewise told me , that of some very strong Beer , that he had in great part frozen , the ice had some Taste of the Hops , but was dispirited like phlegm . Having inquir'd how long dead Bodies would keep , he told me , that if they were throughly frozen , they would be preserv'd incorrupted till the thaw , though that perhaps might not happen within four or five Moneths after the Death of the Man. He added , that he had the Venison of Elkes sent him unsalted , and yet untainted , out of Siberia ( which is some hundreds of leagues distant from Mosco ) and that Beef and other flesh well frozen , would keep unputrified for a very long time ; and when I ask'd whether the freezing did 〈◊〉 impair it , he answered , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keeping it congeal'd , it will grow very dry and be impair'd in Taste , and will not make so good 〈◊〉 as meat that was never frozen . And he further 〈◊〉 me , 〈◊〉 in case frozen meat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it would be far the less impair'd , and might be well rosted , but if before it was thaw'd , it were laid down to the Fire , it would not ever be well rosted , and would eat very scurvily ; and though a shoulder 〈◊〉 Mutton , for instance , were kept very many hours turning before the fire , yet it would continue raw in the middle . Having inquir'd about the rubbing Bodies with Snow to unfreez them , he told me ( agreeable to what I noted him to have said above ) that he had seen several persons , that had been frozen , & that when a man is told , that he is frozen , and having ask'd whereabouts ( for the party himself usually knows it not ) is inform'd , that it is in this , or that place , which is commonly the Nose or the upper part of the Cheek , or perhaps the Tip of the Ear , he usually rubs the part very well with Snow , and lets it thaw by degrees , else , if without that preparation he should go immediately into the Stove , he would be in danger to lose his Nose , or other frozen part . The Doctor added , that they use to rub the frozen Meat and Fish with Snow , and that he once examin'd a Man , who in his youth had been frozen all over , and inform'd the Doctor , that having had occasion in a journey to quit his Sled for a while , and do some Exercise , that had almost made him sweat , being careless of himself when he return'd to the Sled again , he was frozen all over , and had so died , had not the Company by Accident taken Notice of him , and by rubbing him over with Snow , and by the use of the like means recover'd him again ; but he told the Doctor , that by this whole Accident he was put to no pain , save that when he came to himself again , he felt such a pricking all his Body over , as men are wont to find in an Arm or Leg benumm'd by having been long lean'd upon . When I ask'd whether the sharpness of the Cold , did not work upon the stones , he answer'd , That as to Flints he could not tell , but as to other stones , and such as are oftentimes us'd for Building , the violence of the Cold made them frequently moulder into Dust. And to satisfie my Curiosity about the Effect of Cold upon Wood , he told me , that he had very often in the night , especially when their keen frosts were unaccompani'd with Snow , heard the Trees cleave and crack with very great , and sometimes frightful noises , and that the outside of the Fir-Trees , that were laid upon one another in their Buildings , and was expos'd to the Air , would do the like , and that he had often seen the gaping Clefts sometimes wide enough to put in his fingers , which would remain in the Trees , and in the Fir-wood , till the thaw , after which they would pretty well close of themselves . Title VII . Experiments touching the Expansion of Water , and Aqueous Liquors by Freezing . 1. THat water and other Liquors are condensed by Cold , and so much the more condensed , by how much the greater the degree of Cold is that condenses them , has been for many ages generally taught by the Schools , and taken for granted among men , till of late some more speculative then the rest , have called it in question upon the account of the levity of Ice , since which I have met with two modern writers , that have incidentally endeavoured to prove , that Ice is water , not condensed , but rarified by the intumescence of water exposed to freezing in vessels fitly shap'd . These Attempts of these learned Men putting me in mind of what I had tried to this purpose , when I was scarce more then a Boy , invited me to consider , that by the usual ways of Glaciation , such as these ingenious Men employ'd , the Experiment is wont to meet with a Disaster , by the breaking of the Glasses , which not only makes the Event liable to some objections of theirs , that befriend the common Opinion , but ( which is more considerable ) hinders them from judging what this Expansion of water , that is made by freezing may amount to : wherefore we will now set down what we have done to ascertain ( and yet limit ) the Experiment , as also to advance it further . 2. Whereas then these two learned Men , we have been mentioning , do so expose the water to freez , that it is turn'd into Ice at the top as soon as elsewhere ; the inconveniences of which way we have already noted , we , by freezing the water , as we have formerly taught , from the bottom upwards , can easily preserve our Glasses entire , and yet turn the whole contained water into Ice ; so that if according to this way You so place a Bolthead or a Glass-egg , in whose Cavity the water ascends to the height of an inch , or thereabouts , within the stem or shank , in a mixture of Ice , or snow and salt , as that the water is first turned into ice at the bottom and sides , and not till the very last at the top , you shall manifestly see , that the ice will reach a good way higher in the neck , then the fluid water did , and that upon a gentle thaw of the ice , the water , it returns to , will rest at the same height in the stem , to which it reached , before it was exposed to be frozen . 3. We have likewise used other ways unspoken of by the lately mentioned writers , to evince , that water is expanded by being frozen ; as first , that we took a strong earthen vessel of a Cylindrical form , and filling it with water to a certain height , we exposed it unstopped , both to the open Air in frosty nights , and to the operation of snow and salt , and found , that the ice did manifestly reach higher then the water did , before it was congealed . Besides , if a hollow Pipe or Cylinder made of some compact matter , be stopped at one end with wax , or some things else , which it may be more easie to drive out , then to burst the Cylinder , and if at the other end it be filled with water , and that orifice also be stopped after the same manner , this Pipe suspended in a sufficiently cold Air , will have the included water frozen , and by that change , if the Experiment have been rightly made , the water will upon congelation take up so much more room then it did before , that the above mentioned stoppels , or at least one of them will be thrust out , and there will be produced a rod of Ice a good deal longer then the pipe , at each of whose ends ( or at least at one of them ) a Cylindrical piece of Ice of a pretty length may be broken off , without medling with the Pipe , or the ice that fills it . Divers other ways of proving the same Truth might be here alledged , but that , though these were not , 〈◊〉 they are , sufficient , the matter would yet be abundantly confirm'd by divers of the Experiments , that will here and there come in more opportunely in the following part of this Treatise . 4. But here it will not be altogether impertinent or unseasonable , to take notice , that not only those School Philosophers , who have considered the breaking of well 〈◊〉 Glasses in frosty weather , ( an accident but too frequent in Apothecaries Shops , and Laboratories ) but divers modern Virtuosi , are wont to ascribe the Phaenomenon to this , that the Cold of the external Air , contracting the Air and Liquor within , the Ambient Air must break the sides of the Glass to fill that space , which being deserted upon the condensation of the included Air , the liquor would otherwise leave a vacuum abhorr'd by nature ; and even those few Moderns , that are loath to ascribe this Phaenomenon to Natures abhorrency of a vacuum , either not being acquainted with the weight of the Air , know not , what probable account to give of it , or if they acknowledge that weight , are wont to ascribe it to that , and to the great contraction of the internal Air , made by the Cold of the External . 5. But as for the Peripateticks , the above mentioned Experiments sufficiently evince , that in many cases , 't is not the shrinking , but the Expansion of the liquors contained in the stopt vessels , that occasions their bursting , and therefore in these cases , we need not , nor cannot fly to I know not what fuga vacui for an account of the Phaenomenon ; and whereas it may be objected , that even glasses not half full of distill'd waters , if they be exactly stopt , are often broken by the frost in Apothecaries shops : I answer , That neither in this case do I see any need of having any recourse , either to the fuga vacui , or to the weight of the external Air , for even here the Expansion of the freezing liquor may serve the turn , for in such inartificial glaciations the liquor begins to freez at the top , and the ice there generated , fastning itself ( as on other occasions we declare ) very strongly to the sides of the Glass , contiguous to its edg , as the liquor freezes deeper and deeper , this crust of Ice increases in thickness and strength , so that the water is included , as in a vessel Hermetically sealed betwixt this Ice at the upper part , and the sides and bottom of the Glass every where else , and consequently , the remaining water being uncapable of Congelation without Expansion , when the ice is grown strong enough at the top to make it easier for the expansive endeavour of the freezing water to crack the sides or bottom of the Glass , then to force up that thick cake of Ice , the vessel will be broken , how much soever there be of it empty above the surface of the Ice . And this Conjecture may be confirmed by these two Particulars , the one , That when water is frozen in a broad vessel , which is too strong to be broken or stretch'd by the frost , the surface of the ice contiguous to the Air will be convex or protuberant , because that though the glaciation began at the top , the thickness and Compactness of the vessel makes it easier for the expansive endeavour to thrust up that cake of ice in those parts of it , that are the remoter from the sides , whereunto they are strongly fastned , then to break so solid a vessel . 6. The other Particular is afforded us by that Experiment of ours ( mention'd in the Vth . Title foregoing ) wherein if a vessel half full of water be made to freez , not first at the top , but at the bottom , that liquor may be turned into ice without danger to the glass . But we will now add an Experiment , on whose occasion we have set down these Considerations . For being inclined to think , that the spring of the Air , shut up in a vessel stopped , will preserve it expanded , or at least keep it from considerably shrinking , notwithstanding a very great degree of Cold , in case the vessel be strong and close enough to fence it from the pressure of the external Air , we conjectured that the bare weight of the outward Air added to the Refrigeration of the included Air , would not be sufficient to break much weaker glasses , then those we have been speaking of . And therefore partly to satisfie some ingenious Men , that this Conjecture made me dissent from , and partly to show the Peripateticks , and those that adhere to them in the question under consideration , that either the Cold alone cannot always , as they teach us , contract the Air , or that if it do , the breaking of well stopp'd glasses in frosty weather is much fitter to evince , that there may be a vacuum , then that there can be none , we made the following Experiment . 7. We took three glass-bubbles of differing shapes and sizes , which we caused to be blown with a Lamp , that , to make the Experiment very favourable for our Adversaries , we might have them much thinner , and consequently , weaker then those glasses that are wont to be made use of to keep liquors in , and which notwithstanding are wont to be broken , though they be not full by the frost . These Bubbles , when the Air was at a convenient temper within , were ( as easily they might be ) nimbly seal'd up with care , to avoid the heating of the Air in them , and being afterwards expos'd sometimes to the Air it self in very frosty weather , and sometimes to that greater Cold , which is produced by the placing them in a mixture of snow and salt , we could not nevertheless find , that any one of the three was at all broken or cracked , so that in case the included Air were condensed into a lesser room , the space it deserted may be concluded empty , or else it will hardly appear , what 〈◊〉 there can be , that Nature should break , as the Peripateticks pretend , very much stronger glasses in Apothecaries shops , to prevent a vacuum . 8. Having shown , that water it self , acquires a considerable Expansion by Cold , we will next shew , that Aqueous Bodies , or those that abound with waterish parts , do divers , if not 〈◊〉 of them , the like . We took Eggs , and exposing them to a sufficient Degree of Cold , we observ'd , that when the contain'd liquors were turn'd into Ice , they burst the shells asunder , so that divers gaping Cracks were to be seen in them , as long as they continu'd frozen . 9. Milk , Urine , Rhenish-wine , and good spirit of Wine , being set to freez in distinct glass Eggs , neither of the three former liquors 〈◊〉 observ'd to subside before it began to rise . The Event in sum was , that the Urine was much longer , then either of the two other liquors , before it began to swell , but rose to a far greater height , then they , afterwards . The Wine did not leave the mark above an inch beneath . The Milk ascended about two inches , and the Urine by guess six or seven . 10. A strong solution of 〈◊〉 Vitriol , being put into a Cylindrical Pipe , seal'd at one end so , that the liquor fill'd the Pipe to the height of about six or eight inches , being frozen with snow and salt , the congeal'd liquor grew very opacous , and look'd as if it had been turn'd or shot into Vitriol , save a little that remain'd fluid , and transparent near the bottom . And this Ice as appeared , rose considerably higher then the liquor did before Congelation . It were perhaps worth trying , whether or no even several Bodies of a stable consistence , and durable Texture , might not be found to receive some , though less manifest Dilatation by excessive Cold. And methinks those , who attribute Glaciation to the plentiful Ingress of frigorifick Atoms into Bodies , should by their Hypothesis have been invited to make some Trials of this kind , since we see that the invisible Moisture of the Air against rainy weather , does seem manifestly enough to alter the Dimensions of doors , window-shuts , and other such works made of wood not well season'd . And even without supposing the truth of the Epicurean Hypothesis , if we consider , that in Bread , though we are sure , that much more water was added to the Meal , or Flower , then was exhal'd in the Oven , yet there appears not the least drop of water distinct in the Concrete , and that Harts-horn , Sponges , and many other Bodies , that seem very dry , will afford by distillation good store of phlegm or water , and more then can probably be ascrib'd to any transmuting Operation of the Fire : If , I say , we consider these and the like things , it may seem worth while to try ( which I want the conveniency to do ) by accurate measures , whether the invisible and interspers'd water , its comminution notwithstanding , will not upon freezing swell the Body that harbours it . And I would the more gladly have been satisfi'd in this , because I hop'd it might help me to unriddle a strange 〈◊〉 , afforded us by the Narrative of the Dutchmens Voyage to Nova Zembla , wherein they relate , That the Cold was so great , that their Clock was frozen , and would not go , though they hung more weight upon it then before : So that they were fain to measure their Time by hour-glasses . For though this odd Effect might be suspected to proceed from some little Isicles sticking to some of the Wheels , or the Line , in regard they not far off tell us , that the steams of their Bodies , and other things within their close house , did so fasten themselves to the walls , to the Roof , and even to their Cabins , as to line them with Ice , of no less then two fingers thick ; yet besides , that it cannot be probably suppos'd , that they , who had so great need of their Clock , during the tedious absence of the Sun for many weeks together , should not all the Winter long be aware of this . Besides this , I say , I find that in Captain James's wintering at Charleton , his Clock and Watch were so frozen too , That they could not go , notwithstanding they were still kept by the fire side in a Chest , 〈◊〉 in clothes . So that in case it appear , that according to what we 〈◊〉 noted out of Wormius , the frost can get into Metals , it can also distend them , and other stable Bodies : We might conceive , that the stopping of the Clocks might proceed from the stiffness , or the swelling of the line , to which the weight was fastned , or a swelling even of some of the wheels , or other Metalline parts of the Clock , that may spoil the necessary congruity between the Teeth , &c. as I have tri'd , that some parts of an Iron Instrument , I caus'd to be made , would by no means fit one within another , when expanded by much Heat , ( and though Cold be the cause of the expansion , the Effect may be the same ) though at other times they would . And if we knew whether Springs lose any thing of their Elasticity by the violence of the Cold , we might thence also be assisted to guess , whether the frosts Operation upon the Spring of Captain James's Watch ( for he mentions that , as distinct from his Clock ) might contribute any thing to the forcing it to stand still . But these are bare Conjectures , from which I will therefore pass on to the following Section . Title VIII . Experiments touching the Contraction of Liquors by Cold. 1. BUt notwithstanding all the former Experiments , we must not conclude universally , that all liquors are dispos'd to be expanded by Cold , neither by a moderate degree , nor even by so intense a degree of it as suffices to freez or congeal the liquors exposed to it ; this we have tri'd , not only in spirit of Wine , Aqua fortis , Oyl of Turpentine , and divers other liquors , that we could not bring to freez , but also in oyl congeal'd by the Vehemence of Cold , so that as to the change of Dimensions produc'd in Liquors by Cold , there must be a great difference allowed betwixt water and aqueous liquors on the one side , and oyl and divers other liquors , that are some of them of an oleaginous , and some of a very spirituous , or a very highly corrosive nature , on the other side . Nor have we yet made trials enough to reduce this matter to a certainty . For though we could not bring some strong Saline spirits , nor the most of Chymical oyls to freez , yet in some our Attempts succeeded not ill . But I remember not , that in any liquor we could by Cold produce any sensible expansion , but rather a manifest Condensation , unless we could bring it actually to freez . 2. The trials we made of the Efficacy of Cold to condense liquors , were many , but it may , for the present , suffice to set down two or three differing ones , that occur to us in our Collections . To the entry of the Experiment , lately recited , of the expansion of Milk , Urine , and the Rhenish Wine , there are subjoyned these words . [ But the Egg that held the spirit of Wine , though it were much smaller then we usually employ , and fitted with a proportionably slender stem , and though it were kept divers hours partly in Ice , and Salt , and partly in Snow and Salt , yet it froze not at all , but subsided by degrees below the first mark to the quantity of ¾ of an inch in the stem ; and though it afterwards seemed to rise a little , yet it never swelled up again to the said first mark . ] 3. [ We took a round Bolthead of about in Diameter , and poured in Mercury till it reached a pretty way into the neck , which was purposely drawn more slender then ordinary , and having , without approaching it to the fire , freed it from some of the larger bubbles of Air , that appeared at the sides , we put it into a mixture of Ice and Salt , where the Cold so wrought upon it , that watching it attentively , we could discern not only its having moved , but its motion , downwards , which it continued ( though not visibly in the progress , as at the first ) till it was subsided in the neck two inches or better , which was far more then could be attributed to the contraction of any sensible Aerial Particles , though they had lost not only the 30. part of their Dimensions , as we have sometimes observed , of the Air , but had been contracted to a point ; and we observed too , that the Quicksilver once thus infrigidated , though not frozen , retained some of the acquired Cold , for many hours after , as appeared by its keeping below the mark of its first height , though we had kept it all night in a warm room . ] 4. [ We took a small Egg with a proportionably slender stem , into which we poured common oyl , till it rose a pretty way ( but not much ) above the oval part of the glass , then having put a mark upon the station of the liquor , we placed the vessel in snow and salt , and observed it not to swell as other liquors , but to subside , with Cold , till being quite frozen or congeal'd , it appeared to be shrunk about an inch or more beneath the mark , then being thaw'd , it swelled again to the mark . ] 5. The Experiment was repeated the second time , with not much worse success , but we found , that if the glass were removed out of the snow into some place near the fire , the hot Air would not only thaw it , but so rarifie it , as to make it ascend above the mark . A third time we seal'd up the same oyl in the same glass , and repeated the Experiment with like success to that , we had the second time , and that the frozen oyl was really condensed , we found , because it would sink in oyl of the same kind cold , but unfrozen ; and this , notwithstanding divers bubbles , which we observed usually to be made about each lump of congeal'd oyl , that we cast in , upon its begining to sink in the fluid oyl . This we tri'd , both with oyl well congeal'd ( or if another word please better , Incrassated or Curled ) by snow and salt , and with oyl less congeal'd , frozen by the bare cold of the Ambient Air ; but this latter seemed to sight to sink more slowly then the other , as being less congealed and ponderous , yet would not lumps of the mass of oyl sink or continue immersed . I say not in common water , but in Sack or Claret-wine , and if thrust down into either of these liquors , they nimbly enough emerged . 6. Whether or no Chymical oyls , though , like expressed oyls , they shrink with a moderate degree of Cold , would by congelation be , like them , contracted , or like Aqueous liquors expanded , we could not satisfie our selves by Experiment , because we were unable to advance Cold to a degree capable of bringing such oyls to congelation , only we had thoughts to make a trial with oyl of Aniseeds , distilled with water in a Limbeck , in regard , that though it be a very subtile liquor , and as Chymists call it , an Essential oyl , and though in the Summer time , and at some other seasons ( if the weather be warm ) it will remain fluid , yet in the Winter , when the Air is cold , it will , if it be well drawn , and genuine , easily enough lose its fluidity , and therefore we thought it might do well to pour some of it in moderate weather , into a conveniently shap'd glass , and then to freez it externally by the application of Ice and Salt , that we might observe , whether upon congelation it would shrink or be expanded . And accordingly , though we were not provided with any Quantity of this oyl , yet in weather that was not sharp , we did by the help of some Ice which we procur'd , when the season made it a Rarity , surround a glass pipe fill'd with fluid oyl of Aniseeds , and found , though the Pipe were but short , yet the inclosed substance , when it had lost its fluidity , had considerably lost of the height which it reached to before . 7. And because the Empyreumatical oyls , that are driven out of Retorts by somewhat violent fires , seem'd to be of a nature differing enough from those Essential oyls ( as Artists call them ) which are drawn in Limbecks by the help of water , as well as fire : And because we observ'd , that some of the firmer oyls may be us'd in Physick in much larger Doses , then 't is thought safe to give the latter in : Conjecturing from hence , that probably Empyreumatical oyls may be less hot , and so less indispos'd to Congelation , we thought fit to make trial ( no body else in probability having done it ) whether the Cold in our Climate could be brought to freez these oyls , and whether it would expand or condense them ; wherefore exposing , in conveniently shap'd vessels , some good oyl of Guajacum , that was diaphanous enough , though very highly colour'd , to the greatest Cold we could produce , we attempted , but in vain , to deprive it of its fluidity . All that we were able to effect , being to make it very manifestly shrink . Title IX . Experiments in Consort , Touching the Bubbles from which the Levity of Ice is supposed to proceed . 1. SInce the first thing that made the Moderns suspect , that water is expanded by freezing , is the floating of Ice upon water , it will not be 〈◊〉 for confirmation of that Argument , to take some notice of the 〈◊〉 of Ice in respect of water ; This is best observed in great Quantities of Ice , for whereas in small fragments or plates , the Ice , though it 〈◊〉 not to the bottom of the water , will oftentimes sink so low in it , as scarce to leave any part evidently extant above the surface of the water , in vast quantities of Ice , that extancy is sometimes so conspicuous , that Navigators in their Voyages to Island , Greenland , and other frozen Regions , complain of meeting with lumps , or rather floating rocks of Ice , as high as their main Masts . And if we should meet with Cases , wherein we might safely suppose the Ice to be as solid as entire pieces of Ice are wont to be with us , and not to be made up of icy fragments cemented together , with the interception of considerable Cavities filled with Air , it would not be difficult for any that understands Hydrostaticks to give a pretty near guess at the height of the Extant part , by the help of what we lately observ'd of the Measures of water's Expansion , and by the knowledge of the immersed part ; which , supposing that the Ice were of a prismatical figure , and floated in an erected posture , would in fresh water amount to about eight or nine times the length of the part of the Prisme superior to the surface of the water . 2. But because perhaps the great disparity in the degrees of Cold , whereby water is in this , and in those gelid Climates turn'd into Ice , may breed a difference in the expansion of the frozen water , and because some other circumstances may be needful to be taken into consideration , about the height of floating Ice above water , and these will be more properly taken notice of under the following Title , I shall only upon this head ( of the Levity of Ice ) subjoyn the ensuing transcript of one of our notes concerning That subject . [ We found , that pieces of Ice , clear and free , for ought the Eye could take notice of , from bubbles , would not be made to sink in spirit of Wine once distilled from Brandy , and it floated likewise in strong spirit of Wine drawn from quick Lime ; but if the spirit of Wine were well warmed , such Ice , as I mentioned , would sink in it , though as it grew cold the same Ice would slowly ascend , and sometimes remain for a while , as if it were suspended without sensibly rising or falling . But all this while the Ice , thawed apace in the water whereinto it was dissolved , did manifestly seem to run down like a stream through the lighter body of the spirit of Wine , the Diversity of the Refractions making this easie to be taken notice of ; yet common water , though heated as hot as I could indure to hold the glass in my hand , would not let the fragments of the same parcel of Ice sink into it : but in oyl of Turpentine , and in thrice Rectifi'd spirit of Wine , the Ice would sink like a stone . ] 3. That the levity of Ice in respect of water proceeds from the bubbles that are produc'd in it , and make the water , when congeal'd , take up more room then when fluid , has scarce been doubted by any , that has consider'd the Texture of Ice , as well as taken notice of its levity . But if this be the true and only reason , we may conjecture , that there must be great store of bubbles in Ice , extremely minute , and undiscern'd by the naked Eye . For though in very many parcels of Ice , the bubbles are as well conspicuous as numerous , insomuch that they render the Ice whitish and opacous , yet we have observed , that other pieces would swim , which yet were of an almost crystalline clearness . And therefore we thought fit to look upon some clear pieces of Ice in a Microscope , and we shall subjoyn the Event , because that when we beheld some of this ice in one of our Microscopes , which has been counted by several of the curious , as good a Magnifier , as perhaps any is in the world , we could not discover such store of bubbles , as it seemed there should appear upon the supposition , that the adequate cause of the levity and expansion of frozen water is but the interspersion of such bubbles . The Observations I have been mentioning , I find thus set down among my Notes . [ A piece of Ice , that to the Eye look'd clear like crystal , being put into the great Microscope , appear'd even there free from bubbles , and yet the same piece of Ice being presently remov'd , and cast into common water , would swim at the top , and if it were forcibly duck'd , would swiftly enough emerge . Another piece of Ice , that to the naked Eye was not so clear as the former , appear'd in the same Microscope to have store of bubbles , some of them appearing there no bigger then a small pins head , and some of them being yet lesser , and scarcely visible in the Microscope it self . ] And here , because it seems a considerable doubt , and well worth the examining , whether or no water , when frozen into Ice , grows heavier or lighter , not in reference to such water as it was generated of ( since it is evident , that upon that it will float ) but more absolutely speaking , we judg'd it not amiss to examine this matter by an Experiment , but we could not discover any difference between the weight of the same parcel of water fluid and frozen , as will appear by the ninth Paragraph of the Experiment to be a little beneath recited . But since that , whether or no we allow any other cause , together with the bubbles , to the levity of Ice , it seems a thing not to be doubted , that its expansion and lightness is mainly , if not only , due to the interspersion of bubbles , the generation of them seems to be one of the considerablest Phaenomena of Cold , and the Investigating by what cause those cavities are produced , and in case they be perfectly full , what substance 't is that fills them , is none of the meanest enquiries , that should exercise the industry of a searcher into the Nature of Cold. 4. Mr. Hobs , and some others seem to think , that the expansion of water by congelation , is caus'd by the Intrusion of Air , which constitutes those numerous bubbles wont to be observ'd in Ice ; we might here demand , why in case that upon freezing there must be a considerable accession of Air from without , when oyl is frozen , it is , notwithstanding the ingress of this Air , not expanded , but condens'd ; but because these conjecturers do not allow glass to be pervious to common Air , we shall at present press them with this Experiment , which we have divers times made . We took a glass-Egg with a long stem , and filling it almost with water , we seal'd it Hermetically up to exclude the pretence that some adventitious Air might get in , and insinuate it self into the water , and yet such an Egg being exposed to congelation , the frozen water would be manifestly expanded , and swell'd by numerous bubbles , which oftentimes gave it a whitish opacity . To which we may add , that new metalline vessels being fill'd with water , and carefully stopp'd , the liquor would nevertheless , when exposed to the Cold , be thereby expanded , and turned into Ice furnished with bubbles . 5. If it be objected , that in the Experiment of the Hermetically seal'd glass , the produced bubbles might come from the Air , which being seal'd up together with the water , might by the expansion of that water be brought to mingle with it : I answer , that this is very improbable . For 1. if the bubbles must cause the expansion of the water , how shall the water be at first expanded to reduce the Air to a Division into bubbles . Next , 't is evident by the Experiments we shall ere long relate , that the Air as to the Body of it , retains its station above the water , and preserves it self together in one parcel , since it suffers a compression , that oftentimes makes it break the glass that imprisons 〈◊〉 , which it would not need to do , in case it dispers'd it self into the Body of the water ; for then there would appear no cause , why the Air and water should after congelation require more room then they did before . 3. In this Experiment we usually begin to produce Ice and bubbles in the water , contiguous to the bottom of the vessel ( that part being by the snow and salt first refrigerated ) in which case there appears no reason , why the Air , which is a thousand times lighter then the water , should against its nature dive to the bottom of the water , and if it were disposed to dive , why should we not see it break through the water in bubbles , as is usual in other cases , where Air penetrates water . 4. In metalline vessels , and in Glasses quite filled with water , before they are stopped , there is no pretence of the diving of the Air from the top , there having been none left there . 5. and lastly , If all the bubbles of Ice were made by , and filled with true Air descending from the upper parts of the vessels , and only dispersed through the water , then , upon the thawing of this Ice , the Air would emerge , and we might recover as much of real Air as would fill the space acquired by the water upon the account of its being turned into Ice , which is contrary to our Experience . And this Argument may also be urged against any that should pretend , ( for I exspect not to see him prove it ) that though Air , as numerous experiments evince , cannot get out of a seal'd glass , yet it may , in such a case as this , get into it . But we find upon trials , that the Cavities of these bubbles are not any thing near filled with Air , if they have in them any more Air at all , then that little which is wont , as we have elsewhere shewn , to lurk in the particles of water , and other liquors . And the making good of this leads us to the second Enquiry , we were proposing about these bubbles , namely , whether or no their cavities be fill'd , and fill'd with Air. 6. The full resolution of this whole Difficulty would be no easie Matter , nor well to be dispatched with so much brevity as my occasions exact . For it would require satisfactory Answers , to more then one or two Questions , since , for ought I know , it may lead us to the debate of those two grand Queries , whether or no Nature admit a Vacuum , and whether a great part of the Universe consist of a certain Ethereal matter , subtile enough to pass through the pores , not only of liquors , but of compact bodies , and even of glass it self : we should also be obliged to enquire , whether or no Air , I mean true and permanent Air , can be generated anew , as well out of common water , as many other liquors , and whether it may be generated by Cold it self , and perhaps we should be oblig'd to inquire into the Modus of this production , and engage our selves in divers other difficulties , whose full Prosecution , besides that they would as much exceed our present leisure , as Abilities , seems more properly to belong to the more general part of Physicks , where such kind of general Questions are fittest to be handled . Wherefore we will now only consider this Particular Question , whether or no the Cavities of the Bubbles wont to abound in Ice , be filled with common Air ; and even this question , though it seem but one , comprizes two : for to resolve it , we must determine , whether there be any true Air contained in those Cavities , and whether in case there be , they be adequately filled with that Air , ( by true Air I mean such an invisible fluid , as does permanently retain a spring like the common Air. ) 7. The former of these two Questions , I must confess my self not yet resolved about , my Experiments having not hitherto succeeded uniformly enough to satisfie so jealous an observer . But yet I shall annex our trials , not only because the thing has not been , that we know of , somuch as attempted by others , and our ways of Experimenting , if they be duly prosecuted , seem as promising and hopeful ( if the Question be reducible to any certain Decision ) as perhaps will be easily lighted on ; but because also we have , if we mistake not , resolved the second Question , by shewing that there is but a small part of true Air contained in the Bubbles of Ice , whatever Ingenious men , that rely upon probable Conjectures without consulting Experience , have been pleas'd to believe to the contrary . That the bubbles observed in Ice cannot all be filled with the Aerial particles lurking in the water , seems evident enough by the expansion of the water , and the Quantity of space taken up by those bubbles , which how the interspers'd , and formerly latitant Air can adequately fill , unless the same parcel of Matter could truly 〈◊〉 much more space at one time then at another ( which I take to be physically impossible ) I do not yet apprehend . But two ways of trial there are , which we imployed to shew , that the Icy bubbles are nothing near filled with true Air , whether Men will have that pre-existent in the water , or stollen in from without , or generated anew ; the former of the two ways of trials probably arguing , that these bubbles proceed not only ( for that they may proceed partly we do not at all deny ) from the Air pre-existent in the water , and the latter concluding more generally , that but a small part of the icy bubbles are filled with genuine Air. 8. And 1. we were invited to conjecture , both , that sometimes , or in some cases , the Air latitant in the water might contribute to generate icy bubbles , though it was unable adequately to fill them ; and again , that sometimes or in other cases such bubbles would be almost as numerously generated , notwithstanding the recess of far the greatest part of that latitant Air , by the three following Experiments taken verbatim out of our Collections . I. We took fair water , and having kept it in the exhausted Receiver of our Pneumatical Engine for a good while , till we perceived it not to send up any more bubbles , we presently transferred it into snow and salt , where it was long enough before it began to freez , and then we observed , that the water did not swell near so much as common water is wont to do , and the ice seemed to have few or no bubbles worth taking notice of : but when I afterwards placed it between my Eye and the vigorous flame of a Candle , I could perceive , that it was not quite destitute of bubbles , though they were extremely small , in comparison of those , that would probably have appeared in ordinary water . Thus far the first Experiment ; the second follows , which was made at another time . II. The water that had been freed from the bubbles in the Receiver , though it afforded an ice , that seem'd to have smaller bubbles , yet this ice being thaw'd , part of the water was gently poured into a pipe of glass , wherein being frozen , it swell'd considerably enough above its first level , and besides burst the glass , being also very opacous by reason of the bubbles . The third Experiment was more industriously prosecuted , as may appear by this ample Narrative of it , transcribed out of our Collections . III. We took a small Egg with a pretty long neck , and pouring in water till it reach'd an inch within the stem , conveyed it into a long slender Cylindrical Receiver , provided on purpose to make trials with such tall glasses , the Air being by degrees drawn out of the bubbles appeared from time to time greater and greater , and when the Receiver was well exhausted , the water seemed to boil a longer time then one would have expected , and sometimes the bubbles ascended so fast and great , that we were in doubt , whether the water did not boil over the top of the Pipe : the exhausted Receiver was permitted to be so for a good while , till the water had discharged it self in bubbles of its Air , and then the glass-Egg was removed into a vessel furnished with ice and salt , and there left ten or twelve hours , that all the water , save that in the neck , might be throughly frozen , and then we found it to have risen a great way above its first height , and removing it into an Air temper'd like that wherein the first part of the Experiment was made , & having left it there in a quiet place for ten or twelve hours to thaw leisurely ( lest too warm an Air , or too much stirring the glass might be an occasion of generating new bubbles , ) in the exterior part of the ice near the glass , we saw pretty store of bubbles , but when that was thaw'd , the rest of the ice appeared of a peculiar and unusual texture , having no determinate bubbles , that I could easily distinguish , but seeming almost like a piece of frosted glass , where the Parts , that made the Asperity , were exceeding thick set , but this ice swam in the water , whereinto the rest had been dissolved before it was all thawed : when there yet remained a lump about the bigness of a small Walnut , we reconveyed it into the Receiver , to try whether upon the exuction of the Air , the ice would be presently melted , but the alteration produced , was so small , if any , that we durst not ground any thing upon it . The Receiver being exhausted , there did at length appear some bubbles in the water , but they were not numerous , and a hundred of them seem'd not to amount to one of those larger ones , the same water had yielded us the first time it was put in : in the ice also some small bubbles disclosed themselves , which we did not perceive there before , wherefore we took out the Egg , and found ( the ice being now thaw'd ) that the water was subsided to the mark we had made , before it was expos'd to congelation , if not some very little way beneath it : Then we went about to find the Proportion wherein this dispirited water was expanded by glaciation , but in pursuing this there hapned a mischance to the glass , which kept the Experiment from being so accurate as we designed . And therefore , though it seemed to us , that it amounted to about the twelfth part , which is less then that of the undispirited water , yet we designed the repetition of the Experiment . Only in this we could not be mistaken , that the expansion wrs considerable , since the water rose three inches and a half in the stem , though the whole water in the Egg and stem too , weighed but two ounces and a half . 〈◊〉 the vessel had not been unluckily cracked , we should have frozen the water once more , and then sealing up the glass Hermetically , and suffering the ice leisurely to thaw , should have inverted it , and broken it under water , and have proceeded with it as we had done with some other glasses in the formerly mentioned Experiments . 9. [ A little glass Cylinder open only at one end , of a convenient length , was thrust into a deep and wide mouth'd-glass about half filled with a mixture of Ice and salt : but the Cylinder was neither so quite filled , that the water should run over , nor yet far short of being so ; that , ( for all the opacous mixture of Ice and Salt ) we might guess at the freezing of that part of the water , that we could not see by the changes appearing in the other . Then conveying all into a Receiver , that we had in readiness beforehand , we quickly pumped out the Air , upon which there came both from the upper & lower parts of the water , great store of Bubbles to the top , where most of them brake into the Receiver , having found upon trials purposely made , that the Engine had continued stanch all the while , and perceiving by the intumescence of the superior parts of the water , that the other were frozen , we let in the external Air , and having removed the Receiver , and taken out the mixture before the Ice was half melted , we found the water , as high as the mixture reached , to be turn'd into ice , which besides some large and conspicuous bubbles had small ones enough to render it opacous ; and upon the account of this expansion it was , that the water did in the free Air continue a good deal higher then the mark , it was but level with , when the Cylinder was exposed to freez . ] 10. The other way we employ'd to examine what was contained in icy bubbles , and which seemed clearly enough to manifest , that they are very far from being filled with true and springy Air , is intimated in the last clause of the foregoing narrative , but will be best understood by the annexed Experiments transcribed just as I find them registred in my Collections : and though they be prolix , and contain some few Particulars , that make not directly for the purpose I alledge them for , yet I think not fit to dismember or to epitomize them , or otherwise to alter any thing in them , partly , that the inference I make from them , may be the less mistrusted , partly , because the way of Experimenting being altogether new , will be best apprehended by the subjoyned Examples , and partly too , because those Particulars that relate not directly to the occasion of our mentioning these trials , may be useful to illustrate or confirm some thing that is already delivered , or is hereafter to be delivered in the present History of Cold. 11. [ We took this day a glass of the form of an Egg , but of double the capacity , out of whose obtuse end rose up a long Cylindrical neck , capable to receive the end of my little finger , and no more , this being fill'd with common water , till the liquor reached a pretty way within the pipe , and the surface of the water being carefully marked on the outside , was placed in a vessel , wherein ice very grosly beaten , was mingled with a convenient Proportion of salt ( according to our way of Glaciation ) the Mixture not reaching up to the mark by above an inch . The Experiment afforded us these Particulars . I. A heedful Eye did not perceive the water sensibly to subside before it began to freez . II. The water began to swell , and some parts of it next the side or bottom of the glass , to freez within a quarter of an hour . III. The ascent of the water in the pipe increased so fast , that within an hour , from the time the glass was put in , it did rise 4. inches and 2 / 9 above the mark , & afterwards the swelling connutied so , that we took it out , though a good part of the water remain'd unfrozen , it had reach'd five inches and somewhat more then a half above the first Mark. IV. The ice and salt being purposely kept always beneath the surface of the water , the lower parts of the water were frozen , and never the upper surface . V. During all this great Elevation of the water , there appeared no bubbles worth taking notice of in the unfrozen parts of the liquor , but the ice was very full of them , divers of which toward the latter end of the Experiment were very large Bubbles ( but not all of them round ) some being about the bigness of hail shot , some small like Mustard seed , and others again not much inferior to little pease . VI. Having taken out the glass , when the water was at the highest mark , we did upon a certain design , pour in as much sallet Oyl as swam about two inches above it , and then the glass was nimbly at the flame of a Lamp seal'd up , during which time the included water subsided a little , but the glass being again put into the ice and salt , the Cold quickly restored the water to its former height , and there remained about an inch and a half of the seal'd glass unpossessed by the two contain'd liquors . VII . Then with a good pair of scales we weigh'd the glass-Egg first in the Air , and then in the water ( the better to discern , whether any shrinking of the glass interven'd in the case , ) where it hung freely , and was left hanging in its Equilibrium with its opposite weight . VIII . Whilest it thus hung , upon the thawing of the ice many bubbles , great and small ascended ( the great ones with a wrigling motion ) and vanish'd at the top . IX . As the ice thaw'd , the water and oyl descended , till the whole ice was return'd to water , at which time we observ'd these two remarkable things , the one , That the Equilibrium remain'd the same ; the other , ( which was more considerable ) that the water was subsided again as low as the first mark , with which it was level before it began to swell , without falling beneath it , notwithstanding the recess of such a multitude of Bubbles , divers of which were very large . X. The glass being inverted , the seal'd end , which was drawn slender , was gently broken under water , of which some , being impell'd in , did sensibly reduce the Air at the opposite end into a narrower room ; and , as one of the spectators observ'd , into a much narrower , which is consonant enough to reason . XI . The glass being again inverted , and held till it was setled , we found , that the water drawn in together with the water it found there , and the oyl , possess'd the same places , ( as appeared by the marks in the Cavity of the Receiver , ) that they did , when it was seal'd up . XII . And lastly , having thrown out the oyl , and employing , where need was , a little water of the same kind we had made use of all this while , we found the glass fill'd to the highest mark , to weigh 4374. grains , when it was fill'd but to the lowest mark , 4152. grains , and when quite empty'd 1032. So that the water contain'd betwixt the highest and lowest mark , and rais'd by the Glaciation , was about a fifteenth part of the water set to freez , and probably would have amounted to much more , if the water had been all frozen . ] 12. [ A large glass-Egg being taken with a proportionably big stem , we poured water into it , till it reached about an inch above the bottom of the stem , and fastning a mark there , we exposed it all night to freez in snow and salt , which was so placed , as not to reach so high as the bottom of the stem ; the next day about ten of the clock we found the water risen in the stem about 15. inches above the mark , the whole Cylinder of water being fluid by reason of the snows not reaching to it . ( Then upon a design to be elsewhere mentioned , we seal'd up the glass by a very slender pipe , that had been before purposely drawn out to a pretty distance from the body of the Cylinder , that the glass might be seal'd , in a trice before the flame of a Candle could sensibly rarifie the Air , and after a while we broke off the Apex of this slender pipe in prosecution of our former Design . ) Then suffering the water to swell freely , within seven or eight hours it reach'd the very top of the glass , a drop or two running over at the slender Orifice thereof , so that in all , the water ascended about 19. inches above the first mark : then we tried by the flame of a candle to seal the glass , but by reason of the Rarefaction of some of the water , by the Heat , into vapours , by which some of the other water was , from time to time , spurted against the flame of the Candle , we found it troublesome enough to seal it up , the vessel being removed into a warm place , till next morning , and all the ice in the belly of it ( for the water in the stem continued fluid ) being thawed , the water subsided , not only to its first mark , but a little beneath it , by reason of that which was thrown out , upon occasion of the sealing of the glass : but when we came to invert this , after the manner above mention'd , into a vessel of water , to see how much of the space deserted by the thaw'd Ice , was fill'd with Air , and how much was fill'd with a subtiler substance , or empty , just then a mischance frustrated our Expectation . ] 13. [ An Egg about the same bigness with the former , was placed to freez in beaten ice and salt , and in less then a quarter of an hour , it was risen near an inch above the Mark , where the surface of the water was at the first , and the water in the ball and the joyning of the neck was frozen into Laminae . After an hour and a quarter , those Laminae , that before appeared in the beginning of the neck , now disappear'd , but the ball seem'd frozen into a white ice , and the water in the neck was risen above the first mark four inches and a half . There now appear'd abundance of small bubbles , continually ascending through the neck ( which so continu'd all the time after , till it was quite thaw'd ) and the white ice appear'd full of bubbles . The Experiment being further pursu'd , the water ascended higher and higher , till it had reach'd about eight inches above the first mark : Then the top of the pipe , being with a Lamp drawn out , into a very slender Cylinder ( for the conveniency of sealing up ) the glass was again put into the ice , that the Air heated by the Lamp might cool , upon which the water continued swelling , till it began to run over at the orifice of the slender pipe , which being held by in the flame of a candle , was in a trice seal'd up , so that the whole glass now appear'd full of water , bating an inconsiderable Quantity of rarifi'd Air , ( not amounting to the bigness of half a small Pea ) that remain'd contiguous to the seal'd part ; the Egg being brought into a warm room , was kept there all night , and a good part of the next morning , before the ice was quite thaw'd , which when it was , the water was found subsided to the first mark , and which being done , the glass was inverted , and the seal'd end immers'd a good way under water , where being broken , the external Air impell'd the water in the Bason into the Cavity of the pipe , insomuch , that when we took it out , which we did , as soon as we thought nomore water was impell'd up , reinverting the glass , we found , that the admitted water reach'd seven inches above the first mark , and left an inch and a half of the stem , before it began to be wire-drawn , besides as much of the slender part of the stem , as by guess amounted to a quarter of an inch or more , so that it seem'd , that the Bubbles , which made the water swell , and appear'd in the 〈◊〉 , amounted to an inch and three quarters of Air , which consequently seem'd to be for the most part generated by this operation , and to seven inches either of a vacuum , or some 〈◊〉 substance , which by its having no spring to resist the Pressure of the outward Air , appear'd not to be Air : We could not exactly measure the Quantity of water we had in all , and the proportion of it betwixt the marks , 〈◊〉 having left the glass in the window , to try whether time or Cold would make the admitted water shrink ( which we did not find it to do the weather was so sharp , that beginning ( as we concluded ) to 〈◊〉 the water in the stem , the increasing ice burst out the belly of the glass into many pieces . ] Another time . 14. [ A seal'd glass being broken under water , there was impell'd into the Cylinder ten inches and a little above a half . And the mark , it should have risen to , was eleven inches and a quarter above the first and lowest mark . ] Another time . 15. [ In the same Bolthead , wherein the greatest condensation of the Air was tri'd , the water was by the Cold made to swell very near a foot above the mark it rested at , when it began to freez ; then the glass being 〈◊〉 up , the contain'd water was removed , and suffered leisurely to thaw , and upon the Dissolution of the ice , the water fell back to the former mark : lastly , the glass being inverted , the Apex was broken off under water , and the water in the stem was by the outward Air , pressing upon the water in the Bason , with some Impetus and noise driven up into the Cavity of the glass ; and , the glass being seasonably and warily remov'd from the Bason , we found there had been impell'd up of the water in the Bason , a little more then eleven inches , so that there seem'd to be near ⅞ of an inch of Air generated or separated by the former operation . ] Another time . 16. [ In the same glass we made the water to swell about ten inches , and inverting the stem , and breaking the Neb under water , we found about ten inches of water to have been impell'd into the stem ; so that in this there seem'd no generation of Air. ] 17. To all these Experiments we shall subjoyn , in two words , that as in water , so in some aqueous liquors we found , that the icy Bubbles were not fill'd with Air ( though we did not think fit to take the pains to measure their respective Expansions by being congeal'd : ) For in that elsewhere mention'd Experiment , where we expos'd Milk , Urine , and Rhenish-wine to freez , when all those liquors were risen above their former marks , as is there related , our Notes inform us , that the Experiment was thus prosecuted . 18. [ Being seal'd up ( the foregoing words mention'd the above-named expanded liquors ) and suffer'd to thaw , the several liquors subsided to their first marks or thereabouts , and the glasses being inverted and broken under water , we were by an accident hindred from observing what we desir'd in that which had the Wine , though when it was taken out of the freezing pot , it had ice , but not much , swimming in it . But into the glass that had the Milk , the water was manifestly impell'd by the outward Air , and so it was into the glass that had the Urine , which being remov'd from the Bason , and reinverted , appear'd to have as much new liquor in its stem , as amounted by guess to five or six inches . ] 19. To which Experiment we may add , that another time a seal'd glass of partly frozen Claret-wine being broken under water , the water was impell'd up between half an inch , and an inch above the mark , beyond which it would not have ascended , if the bubbles had been full of true and permanent Air. 20. If it be said , that though I have delivered too many Particulars about so empty and slight a Theme as Bubbles , I have this to answer , that possibly all these Experiments have rather shew'd us , what it is not that fills them , then what it is , so that more then all these Experiments appearing requisite to clear up the Difficulties about them , I shall not think I have altogether mis-spent my time , especially if so many past Experiments , both new , and not altogether impertinent , by their not having taught us enough about so despicable a subject as a Bubble , shall , as they justly may teach us Humility . Title X. Experiments about the Measure of the Expansion and the Contraction of Liquors by Cold. 1. TO the Experiments ( mention'd in the Seventh and Ninth Titles ) which shew , that water has an Expansion , it will be proper to subjoyn some of those , whereby we endeavoured to measure that Expansion . And here we shall not content our selves to say , that whereas the Authors , we had formerly occasion to point at , take notice of their having raised water in a Bolthead half an inch or an inch by freezing , we have made it ascend a foot and a half and more ; This , I say , we shall pass by , because that though by such Experiments we have very clearly and undeniably manifested the Expansion of the water , yet unless the Capacity of the vessel be known , they will signifie but little towards the determining the Quantity of that Expansion , which yet is the thing we are now enquiring after , wherefore we shall add , that we employ'd two differing ways to measure this Expansion . 2. The one was , by putting in , by weight , such a number of ounces of water , into a Bolthead , till the water was risen a pretty way in the long stem , wherewith it was filled , then marking on the outside , to what height every freshly added ounce of water reach'd in the stem , we afterwards poured out a convenient Quantity of the liquor ( yet leaving enough to fill the whole cavity of the spherical or obtuse end of the vessel , and of the lower part of the stem ) then leisurely freezing this remaining water from the bottom upwards , we observed , that when it was frozen , the ice that was made of 82. parts of water , filled , as one of our Notes inform us , the space of 91. and ( if I mistake not the Character ) an eight , so that by this troublesome way of Examination , we found that the water by the Expansion , it received from Cold , was made to possess about a ninth part more space then it did before congelation . 3. [ In another of our notes , we find as follows , 55 , parts of water extended themselves by freezing into sixty and a half , about six of those parts remaining unfrozen , so that in this Experiment the waters Expansion was not much ( though somewhat ) differing from what it was in that last mention'd . ] 4. The other way we made use of to measure the Dimensions , that water gains by freezing , was , to take a Cylindrical pipe of glass seal'd at one end , and left open at the other , at which we fill'd it with water to a certain height , that we took notice of by a mark appli'd to the outside , and then keeping it in an erected posture , and freezing it from the bottom upwards , we found , that it had acquir'd by a tenth part or thereabouts , greater Dimensions in the form of ice , then it possessed in the form of water . But the nature of the particular parcel of liquor exposed to the Cold ( for it is not necessary that all waters should be equally dispos'd to be expanded by freezing ) and some other circumstances , not now to be discoursed of , may well beget some little variety in the success of this sort of trials . For in one that we made carefully , we found the Expansion somewhat greater , then that last mentioned , as may appear by the following Note , which compar'd with what was lately delivered , of the trials we made by weight of the water's Expansion , may invite us to think , that we cannot much err by estimating in general , that the room that Ice takes up more then water , amounts to about a ninth part of the space possessed by the same water , before it was turned into Ice . The note we were speaking of , is this . 5. [ In a more then ordinarily even Cylindrical glass , we exposed some water to freez , to measure its Intumescence , and found that it expanded its self to about an eighth part , or at least a ninth upon glaciation ; this we tri'd twice , and thought that the Intumescence might have been more considerable , but that in a Cylinder the freezing did not seem to succeed so well . ] But here we must resolve a difficulty , which though ordinary Readers may take no notice of , yet may breed a scruple in the minds of those that are acquainted with Hydrostaticks . For to such Readers this Account of ours may seem to be contrary to the Experience of Navigators into cold Climates , who tell us ( as we shall have occasion to take notice in due place ) of vast pieces of Ice , as high , not only as the Poops of their Ships , but as the Masts of them ; and yet the Depth of these stupendious pieces of Ice , seems not at all Answerable to what it may be suppos'd to be , in case we compare together the Estimate above deliver'd of the Expansion of water , and that grand Hydrostatical Theorem demonstrated by Archimedes and Stevinus , That floating Bodies will so far , and but so far , sink in the Liquor that supports them , till the immersed part of the Body be equal to a Bulk of water , weighing as much as the whole Body . For Captain James in his often cited Voyage , makes mention of great pieces of Ice , that were twice as high as the Top-mast-head of his Ship. 6. And the Hollanders in their famous Voyage to Nova Zembla , mention one stupendious Hill of Ice , which I therefore take notice of here , not only because it has been thought the greatest that men have met with , but because they deliver its Dimensions , not as Captain James and Navigators are wont to do , by comparison with the unknown heights of some of the Masts of their Ships , but by certain and determinate Measures , which in the Icy Island , we are speaking of , were so divided by the surface of the water , that there was 16. fathome extant above it , though there were but 36. beneath it , which though a vast depth in it self , yet 〈◊〉 but little exceed double the height . And the Danish Navigator Janus Munckius , imploy'd by his King to bring him an Account of Greenland , mentions some floating pieces of Ice , that he met with and observ'd in that Sea , which though but somewhat above 40. fathome under water , were extant 20. fathome , that is ( near half as much ) above water , whereas it seems , that according to our above mention'd Computation of the Expansion of water , the part under the water ought to be eight or nine times as deep , as that above the water is high . 7. To clear this difficulty , I shall represent these three particulars . First , that in our Computation the Ice that sinks so deep , is suppos'd to float in fresh water , whereas in the Observations of the above nam'd Navigators , those vast pieces of Ice floated on the Sea-water , which by reason of its saltness , being heavier then fresh-water , Ice will not sink so deep into that , as into this . And that salt may hugely increase the weight of the water , wherein it is dissolv'd , may be clearly gather'd from the ponderousness of common Brine , and from the practise of several sorts of Tradesmen , who to examine the strength of their Lixiviums , and other Saline Liquors are wont to try , whether they will keep an Egg floating , which we know common water will not do . And I have also by the Resolution of some Metalline Bodies in fit Menstruums made Liquors , that are yet much more ponderous , then is sufficient for the support of Eggs. But yet we must be so candid , as to take notice of what some Modern Geographers deliver with probability enough , namely , That nearer the poles the Seas are not wont to be so salt , as in the temperate and the Torrid Zones , and those Northern being not so salt as our Seas , there is the less to be allow'd for the difference in gravity ( and consequently in the power to keep Ice from sinking ) betwixt those Seas and ours . 8. But secondly , this lesser saltness of the water in the Northern Seas , may , as to our case be recompenc'd by the greater coldness of it . For though , as we have formerly observed , the Condensation of fresh water , effected here by a degree of Cold capable to make it begin to freez , is not so great as most men would imagine ; yet besides that , I have often taken pleasure to make the same Body to sink or ascend in the same water , by a much less variation 〈◊〉 Cold then that we have been mentioning ; it is to be consider'd , that the degree of Cold , to which water was brought in the Experiment deliver'd in the fourth Section , to which we are now looking back , was but such a degree as would make fresh water begin to freez ; whereas the salt Sea-water , being indispos'd to congelation , may by so vehement a Cold as reigns in the Winter season in those gelid Climates , be far more intensly refrigerated , and thereby more condens'd then common water is here , by such a measure of Cold , as may begin to freez small portions of it . But though , what we have hitherto represented , may well be look'd upon as not inconsiderable to the purpose for which it has been alledg'd , yet the main thing , that is to remove the scruple suggested by the height of Icy hills above the water , is , 9. Thirdly , that such Hills of Ice are not to be look'd upon as intire and solid ones , but as vast piles or lumps , and masses of Ice , casually and rudely heap'd up and cemented by the excessive Cold , freezing them together by the intervention of the water that washes them , which piles of many pieces of Ice are not made without great Cavities intercepted , and fill'd only with Air , between the more solid Cakes or Lumps ; so that the weight of these stupendious pieces of Ice , is not to be estimated by the bigness they appear of at a distance from the Eye , but considering how much Air there is intercepted between the Icy Bodies , of which they are compiled , there may be a hollow structure of Ice reaching high into the Air , and yet the whole Aggregate or Icy pile , will press the subjacent water on which it leans , no more then would as much water , as were equal in Bulk only to the immers'd parts ; as we see in Barges loaden with Boards , which though pil'd up to a great height above the water , make not the vessel to sink more then a Lading that would make a far less show , and oftentimes be all contain'd within the Cavity of the vessel , provided it be more ponderous in specie . But to enter into any further Consideration of these Hydrostatical matters , would be improper in this place , especially since we have * elsewhere treated of them . And that these floating Hills and Islands of Ice , are not intire and solid pieces of it , we shall otherwhere have occasion to shew out of Navigators , and even in the Observation , we have mentioned out of Janus Munck , the Learned Relator of it Bartholinus , takes notice , that those vast pieces of Ice ( we have been mentioning ) that reach'd 20 , fathome above water , were compiled of store of Snow frozen together . 10. These Considerations may serve to render some Account of those stupendiously tall pieces of ice , whose extant part bears so great a proportion to the immersed part , when the whole mass does really float . But I confess I doubt , that not only in the Examples we have alledg'd , but in other eminent ones of mountains of ice , if I may so call them , there may be a mistake , and that the height of them above the water , would be far less , and the depth under water far greater , if the ice had water enough to swim freely . For Sea-men by reason of the difficulty , are not wont to measure the height of those pieces that float at liberty in the Sea. And as for those that are on ground , as their heights lye far more convenient to be measured , so the measurers not knowing how long they may have been on ground , for ought I know , much of that admir'd height , may be attributed to the snows , that from time to time fall very plentifully in those frozen Regions , and are compacted together , either by the Sun , whose Beams sometimes begin to thaw it , and sometimes by the water of the waves that beat against the Ice , and being congeal'd with the snow , does as it were cement the parts of it together , and sometimes by both of these causes . So in the instance alledg'd out of Captain James , of pieces of ice that were twice as high as his Top-mast-head ; it is said also , that they were on ground in 40. fathome . And in the other Example mention'd out of Bartholinus , though there be 40. fathome attributed to the immersed part of the ice , yet that measure is not exclusive of a greater , for it is said , that the ice reach'd downwards above 40. fathome ; and how much downwards , and whether as far as the ground , we are left at liberty to guess . And in that stupendious piece of Ice recorded in the Nova Zembla voyage , to have been in all 52. fathome , that is , 300. and twelve foot deep , though it be granted what they affirm , that it was 16. fathome above the water , which is almost a third part of the whole depth ; yet I observe , that of this Icy mountain it is said , that it lay fast on the ground . So that as on the one side it seems probable , that the upper part of Islands of ice may be increas'd by snow ; and as I remember , that in that famously inquisitive Navigator Mr. Hudsons voyage for the discovery of the North-west passage , 't is related , that his company was * so well acquainted with the Ice , that when Night , or foggy or foul weather took them , they would seek out the Broadest Islands of Ice , and there come to Anchor , and run and sport , and fill water that stood the Ice in ponds very fresh and good . So on the other side we know not , how much lower the Dutch-mens Ice and Captain James's would have reach'd into the Sea , in case the ground they rested on , had not hindred them . For though one might probably think , that these are the greatest depths that any Hills of Ice have been observ'd to attain , that mention'd by the Hollanders reaching 36. fathome beneath the water , and that mention'd by Captain James , no less then 40. fathome : yet I find in Mr. Hudsons Voyage , that the English in the Bay , that bears his Name , met with more then one or two Islands of Ice , of a fargreater depth underwater . For among other things , the Relator has this memorable passage ; In this Bay , where we were thus troubled with Ice , we saw many of those mountains of Ice a ground , in six or seven score fathome water . And if the Sea had been deep enough , even these stupendious moles of Ice would probably have sunk much lower , and so have lessened the heights of the mountains . 11. I know that delivering the measure of the Expansion of water alone , I have not said all that may be said about the Expansion of Liquors : But because , as it has not yet appeared to me , that any Liquor is expanded by Cold , unless by actual freezing ; I doubted , whether Aqueous Liquors , as Wine , Milk , Urine , &c. were otherwise expanded by congelation , then upon the Account of the water or phlegmatick ( and , in a strict sense , congealable , ) part contain'd in them ; and whether it were worth while , for a man in haste , to examine , their particular Expansions , Notwithstanding which , I would not discourage any from trying , whether or no by the differing Dilatations of Aqueous Liquors , some of them of the same , and some of them of differing kinds , we may be assisted to make any estimate of the differing proportions they contain , of phlegm , and of more spirituous or useful Ingredients . 12. After what has been hitherto delivered concerning the Expansion of Liquors by Cold , it may be expected we should say something of the measure of their Contraction by the same Quality . But as for water , which is the principal Liquor , whose Dimensions are to be consider'd , I have formerly declar'd , that I could seldom or never find its contraction ( in the Winter season when I tried it ) to be at all considerable . And I shall now add , that having for greater certainty , procur'd the Experiment to be made by another also , in a Bolthead , the Account I received of it , was , that he could scarce discern the water in the stem to fall beneath its station , ( mark'd at the upper part of the pipe , ) when the water in the Ball was so far infrigidated as to begin to freez . Though I will not deny , that in warmer Climates , as Italy , or Spain , the contraction of the water a little before glaciation begins , may be somewhat considerable , especially if the Experiment be made in Summer , or in case ( either there or here ) the water expos'd to freez be put into a vessel very advantageously shap'd , or brought out of some warm Chamber or other place , where the heat of the Air , that surrounded it , had rarifi'd it . But to examine the measures of Contraction in the several Liquors , and with the nice Observations , that such a work , to be accurately prosecured , would require , would have taken up much more of my time then I was willing to imploy about a work which I look'd not on as important enough to deserve it . And therefore I shall here add nothing to what I have said under the Title of the Degrees of Cold , touching the contraction of spirit of Wine , and of oyl of Turpentine , by the differing degrees of that Quality . And as for the condensation of Air , the vastest fluid we deal with , I did indeed think fit to measure how much Cold condenses it . But the account of that Experiment will be more opportunely deliver'd in * one of the following Discourses . Title XI . Experiments touching the Expansive Force of Freezing Water . 1. HAving shewn that there is an Expansion made of water , and Aqueous Bodies , by Congelation , let us now examine how strong this Expansion is , and the rather because no body has yet , that we know of , made any particular trials on purpose to make discoveries in this matter , so that although some unhappy Accidents have kept our Experiments from being as accurate as we designed , ( and as , God assisting , we may hereafter make them ) yet at least we shall shew this Expansion to be more forcible , then has hitherto been commonly taken notice of , and assist men to make a somewhat less uncertain Estimate of the force of it , then they seem to have yet endeavoured to enable themselves to make . 2. And 1. we shall mention some Experiments , that do in general shew , that the Expansion of freezing water is considerably strong . We took a new Pewter-bottle , capable to contain , as we guess'd , about half a pint of water , and having fill'd it top full with that Liquor , we scru'd on the stopple , and exposed it during a very frosty night , to the cold Air , and the next morning the water appeared to have burst the Bottle , though its matter were metalline , and though purposely for this trial we had chosen it quite new , the crack appeared to be in the very substance of the Pewter . This Experiment we repeated ; and 't was one of those bottles fill'd with Ice that had crack'd it , which a Noble Virtuoso would needs make me ( who should else have scrupled to amuse , with such a Triffle , so great a Monarch , and so great a Virtuoso ) bring to his Majesty , to satisfie him , by the wideness of the crack , and the Protuberance of the Ice , that shewed it self in it , that the water had been really expanded by Congelation . 3. We also tried , whether or no a much smaller Quantity of water , would not , if frozen , have the like Effect , and accordingly , filling with about an ounce of water a scru'd Pewter box ( such as many use to keep Treacle & Salves in ) quite new , and of a considerable thickness , we found , that upon the freezing of the included water , the vessel was very much burst . Afterwards filling a Quart Bottle ( if I mistake not the capacity ) with a congealable liquor , and tying down the Cork very hard with strong Packthread , we found that the frost made the liquor force out the stopple in spite of all the care we had taken to keep it down . But afterwards we so well fastned a Cork to the neck of a quart bottle of Glass , that it was easier for the congealing liquor to break the vessel , then to thrust out the stopple , and having for a great many hours expos'd this to an exceeding sharp Air , we found at length the bottle burst , although it were so thick and strong , that we were invited to measure the breadth of the sides , and found that the thinnest place , where it was broken by the Ice , was 3 / 16 of an inch , and the thickest ⅜ that is twice as much 〈◊〉 we also by the help of the frost broke an earthen bottle of strong Flanders metal , of which the thinnest part that was broken , was equal by measure , to the thinnest part of the other . 4. But the above mention'd Instances serving only to declare in general , that the Expansion of water by Cold is very forcible , I thought fit to attempt the reducing of the Matter somewhat nearer an Estimate less remote from being determinate , and because the water expos'd to congelation , may be probably supposed to be Homogeneous , we judg'd , that the quantity of it , may very much vary its degree of Force , and because some may suspect , that the Figure also may not be inconsiderable in this matter , we thought fit to make our Trials in a Brass vessel , whose Cavity was Cylindrical , and which to make it stronger , had an orifice but at one of its ends : and whose thickness was such , that we had reason to expect , that whilest the top remained covered , but with a reasonable weight , the included water would find it more easie to lift up that weight , then break the sides . To this Cylinder we fitted a cover of the same mettal that was flat , and went a little way into the Cavity , leaning also upon the edges of the sides for the more closer stopping of the orifice ; the cavity of this Cylinder was in length about five inches , and in breadth about an inch and three quarters . This Cylinder being fill'd top full with water , and the cover being carefully put on , was fastned into an Iron frame , that held it erected , and allowed us to place an iron weight , amounting to 56. pound , or half a hundred of common English weight , which circumstance I mention ( because the common hundred that our Carriers , & c. use , exceeds five score by twelve . ) But this vessel being exposed in a frosty night , to the cold Air , the contain'd water did not the next morning appear to be frozen , and the trial was another time that way repeated with no better success , as if either the thickness or clearness of the mettal had broken the violence of the external Airs frigefactive Power , or the weight that oppressed the Cover had hindred that Expansion of the water , which is wont to accompany its Glaciation . Wherefore we thought it requisite to apply to the outside of the vessel a mixture of salt with ice or snow , as that which we had observed to introduce a higher degree of Cold then the Air alone , even in very frosty nights ; and though this way it self , the glaciation proceeded very slowly , and sometimes scarce at all , yet at length we found , that the water was by this means brought so far to freez , that on the morrow the ice had on one side swelled above the top of the Cylinder , and by lifting the cover on that side , had thrown down the incumbent weight ; but in this trial the cover having been uniformly , or every where lifted up above the upper orifice of the Cylinder , we repeated the Experiment divers times , as we could get opportunity , sometimes with success , and sometimes without it ; and of one of the chief of our Experiments of this sort , we find the following account among our Collections . 5. [ The hollow brass weight , being about one inch and thee quarters in Diameter , and the brass cover put on , was loaded with a weight of 56. pound upon the cover , and expos'd to an excessively sharp night , the next morning the cover and the weight were found visibly lifted up , though not above ( that we could discern ) a small Barley-corns breadth , but the thickness of the brass cover was not here estimated , which was much less then half an inch , which according to former observations , one might exspect to see the ice ascend . But that which we took particular notice of , was , that the inclosed Cylinder of ice , being by a gentle thaw of the superficial parts taken out , appear'd so full of bubbles , as to be thereby made opacous : Also when in the morning the Cylinder was brought into my Chamber , before the fire was made , the 56. pound weight being newly taken off . at a little hole , that seemed to be between the edge of the Brass and Ice , there came out a great many drops of water , dilated into numerous bubbles , and reduced into a kind of sroth , as if upon the removal of the oppressing weight the bubbles of the water had got liberty to expand themselves , but this lasted but a very little . ] 6. After this , the difficulty we have often met with in the placing of great weights conveniently upon the cover of a Cylinder , and the Expectation we had to find the Quantity of the water , we made use of , capable upon its Congelation , to lift up a much greater weight , invited us to make trial of its Expansive force , by some what a differing way , which was , to fit a wooden plug to the Cavity of the Cylinder ( after we had suffered it to soak a convenient time in water , that , swelling as much as it would before , it might be made to swell no more by the water , which would lye contiguous to it in the vessel ) and then to drive it forcibly in , till by considerable weights appended to the extant part of the plug , when the Cylinder was inverted , we could not draw it out ; the success of one of these Trials is thus set down in our Collections . 7. [ A Plug was driven into the Cavity of a Brass Cylinder , first filled with water , the Plug being also well soaked , then the Cylinder being inverted , the Plug took up half a hundred and a quarter of a hundred weight , and would possibly have taken up much more , and being exposed to a very sharp night , the freezing water thrust out the plug about a barley-corns breadth , quite round above the upper edge of the Cylinder , and it freezing all that day and the next night , it was again exposed , the plug not being yet taken out , and then the plug was beaten out a little more , namely ( in all ) near a quarter of an inch . ] 8. Thus we see , that the expansive endeavour of the water forced a resistence , at least equal to that which would have been made by a weight of 74. pound , and probably , as the note intimates , would have appear'd able to do more , if we had had convenient weights and Instruments , wherewith to have measur'd the strength of the waters endeavour outwards , which some subsequent Trials , made us think very considerable , though not finding their Events set down in our notes , we think it fit at present to leave them unmentioned . But one thing there is in these trials , that I think not unworthy a Philosophers notice , and his considering , namely , that this endeavour of the water to expand it self , is thus vigorous , though the uttermost term to which it would expand it self , in case it were not at all resisted , would be but to about a ninth , or at most an eight part of the space it possest before it began to freez ; whereas Air may by Heat ( which * yet we have elsewhere shewn , will not reduce it to any thing near its utmost expansion ) be brought to possess ( though not to fill ) according to the diligent † Mersennus's observation , seventy times , the Dimensions it had before Rarefaction , and consequently the Air expanded by Heat , does by its endeavours , tend to acquire above 60. times the space that the water does , when expanded by so high a degree of Cold , as is capable to turn it all into Ice : not to mention that the expansion to which the Air tends upon the Account of its own spring , is , ( as we shew in another * place ) many times greater then that to which Mersennus could bring it upon the bare Account of Heat . 9. There remains yet one way , whereby we hop'd , though not to measure the Expansive force of freezing water , yet to manifest it to be prodigiously great , or in case we fail'd of this aim , to produce at least some other Phaenomena relating to Cold , that would not be inconsiderable . And though our endeavours succeeded not , yet because a happier opportunity may bring them to be one way or other succesful , we shall annex , That we caus'd to be made , an Iron Ball of between two and three inches in Diameter , which Ball was solid , save that in the midst there was a small Cavity left to place a little water in , together with a female screw , as they call it , reaching from the outward surface of that internal cavity ; and to this was applied a strong Iron screw , so fitted to the internal cavity of the other screw , as to fill it with as much exactness as could be obtained . And this screw was made to go so hard , that it requir'd to be screw'd in by the help of a Vice , that it might not be forc'd out , without breaking the Iron it self . Our design in imploying this Instrument was , that having well fill'd the internal cavity with water , and forc'd in the screw as far as it could be made to go , the Instrument thus charg'd with water , might be expos'd to the highest degree of Cold we could produce . For having thus ordered the matter , we thought we might expect , either that the water how much soever we heightned and lengthned the Cold , would not freez at all , being hindred from the Expansion belonging to Ice in comparison of water ; or , if it did freez , that one of these two things would happen , either that the expansive force of that little water , would by forcing such an Iron Instrument , manifest its strength to be stupendious , or by not breaking it , present us with ice without Bubbles , or at least not rarer and lighter , then the water it was made of ; but for want of a sufficient Cold our designs succeeded not , so as to satisfie us , though we more then once attempted it . For the great thickness of the Iron being consider'd , we were not sure that the waters not freezing , might not proceed rather from the thickness and compactness of the metal , then from its resistence to the expansion of water . And therefore we must suspend the inferences , this Experiment may afford us , till we have opportunity to make trial of it , with a Cold not only very intense , but durable enough , the want of which last circumstance keeps us from daring to build any thing on our Experiment . 10. And here we may take notice , that it may be an inquiry , more worthy a Philosopher , then easie for him , whence this prodigious force , we have observ'd in water , expanded by glaciation , should proceed . For if Cold be but , as the Cartesians would have , a privation of Heat , though by the recess of that Ethereal substance , which agitated the little Eel-like particles of the water , and thereby made them compose a fluid body , it may easily enough be conceiv'd , that they should remain rigid in the Postures wherein the Ethereal substance quitted them , and thereby compose an unfluid Body like Ice : yet how these little Eels should by that recess acquire as strong an endeavour outwards , as if they were so many little springs , and expand themselves too with so stupendious a force , is that which does not so readily appear . And on the other side in the Epicurean way of explicating Cold , though the Phaenomenon seems some what less difficult ; yet it is not at all easie to be salv'd : For though , granting the Ingress of swarms of Cold Corpuscles , the Body of water may be suppos'd to be thereby much swell'd and expanded , yet besides that these Corpuscles stealing insensibly into the Liquors they insinuate themselves into , without any shew of boisterousness or violence , 't is not so easie to conceive how they should display so strange a force against the sides of those strong vessels that they break , when they may as freely permeat or enter them : besides this , I say , we observe that in Oyl , which requires a far greater degree of Cold to be congeal'd to a good degree of hardness , the swarms of frigorifick Atoms that invade it , are so far from making it take up more room then before , that they reduce it into less , as may appear by those former Experiments which manifested , that Cold does not expand , either oyl or uncongealable Liquors , but condense them . 11. After what I have thus largely delivered , concerning the expansive endeavour of freezing water , I hope I may be allow'd to leave to others ( if they shall think it worth the labour ) the prosecution of the like Experiments upon Wine , Milk , Urine , and other Liquors abounding with Aqueous parts , concerning which we shall only in general remind those that may have forgotten it , That by some of our Experiments it appears , that such Aqueous Liquors are expanded by congelation , and , that their endeavour outwards is considerably forcible , seems more then likely from what we formerly noted out of the Dutch Voyage to Nova Zembla , where 't is related , that by the extreme Cold , both some of their other Barrels , and some of those that were hooped with Iron , were , as they speak , frozen in pieces , that is , according to our Conjecture , burst together , with the Hoops , whether of Wood or Iron , by the expansive force of the imprison'd Liquors brought to freez . 12. To which I shall add , that when I asked an Ingenious person , whether in Russia , where he liv'd a good while , Beer and Wine did not , when brought to congelation , break the vessels they were frozen in ; He Answered , That he had not observed wooden vessels to have been broken by them , ( perhaps because of their yielding ) but glass and stone Bottles often . Title XII . Experiments touching a New way of estimating the Expansive force of Congelation , and of highly compressing Air without Engines . 1. THere is yet another way , that I bethought my self of , at once to measure the force wherewith freezing water expands it self , and to reduce the Air to a greater degree of condensation , then I have as yet found it brought to by any unquestionable way of compressing it : But whereas by this method to determine exactly the Expansive force of the water , it were requisite not only to know the quantity of the water , and that of the Air exposed to the Cold , but to make the Experiment in vessels conveniently shap'd to measure the Dilatation of the one , and the compression of the other ; our Experiments being made in a place where we were not provided of such glasses , we were not able to make our trials so instructive and satisfactory , as else we might have done ; nevertheless we shall not scruple to subjoyn those of them , that we find noted down among our Collections , allowing our selves to hope , that will not be unacceptable or appear impertinent , not only upon the account of their novelty , but for two other reasons . 2. The first , because though they do not accurately define the Expansive force of freezing water , yet they manifest , that it is wonderfully great , better perhaps then any Experiment that has been hitherto practised ( not to say , thought of ) as may appear by comparing what we have delivered in another Treatise , of the great force requisite to compress Air considerably , with the great compression of Air that has already been this way effected . 3. The second , because this new way affords us one of condensing the Air much farther then hitherto it has , by any method I have heard of , been unquestionably reduced , I say , unquestionably , because though the diligent Mersennus , and others , seem to have conceived himself , to have reduced it in the wind-Gun into a very narrow room , yet besides that , by our Expedient , we have compressed it beyond what these Ingenious Men pretend to : Besides this , I say , I have long much questioned , whether the way of compressing Air in a wind-Gun , which both they and we have imploy'd , may safely be relied on ; for the oyl or some other analogous thing , that is wont this way to be imploy'd , and the overlooking of several circumstances , that are more necessary to be taken into diligent consideration , then wont to be so , may easily enough occasion no small mistake in assigning so great a degree to the compression of the Air ; but our Exceptions against this way of measuring it , may be more opportunely discours'd of in another place . And therefore we will now proceed to take notice , that of the two known ways of compressing Air , the clearest and most satisfactory , seems to be that which is performed in the wind Fountain , as 't is commonly called , where yet I have seldom , if ever , seen the Air , ( that I remember ) by all the violence men could use to syringe in water , crowded into so little as the third part of the capacity of the vessel . And an ingenious Artificer , that makes store of these Fountains , being consulted by me , about the further compressing of Air in them , he deterr'd me from venturing to try it , by affirming to me , that both he and another skilful Person of my Acquaintance , had like to have been spoiled by such attempts ; for endeavouring to urge the Air beyond a moderate degree of compression , it not only burst some Fountains made of Glass , but when the Attempt was made in a large , but thick vessel , made of strong and compact Flanders Earth ( the same with that of Jugs and stone Bottles ) the vessel was by the over-bent spring of the Air burst with a horrid noise , and the pieces thrown off with that violence , that if they had hit him , or his Friend that assisted him in the Experiment , they might have maimed him , if not killed him out right , so that the greatest unquestionable Compression of the Air seems to have been that , recorded in the Fifth Chapter of our Defence against the learned Linus , where nevertheless , we could reduce the Air by the weight of a Cylinder of Mercury of about 100. inches , ( which consequently might near countervale a Cylinder of six score foot of water ) but into a little less then a fourth part of its usual extent ; but how much further the Air may be compressed by our new purposed way , it is now time to shew by the ensuing notes , of which we have not omitted any that we could find , both that some scruples , which might else arise about the way we imployed , may be prevented , or satisfied , and that the way , we imployed in practising this method , might by some variety of Examples be the better understood . 4. [ We took a large glass-Egg , with a Cylindrical stem about the bigness of my middle finger , and pouring in water , till it reach'd about a fingers breadth higher then the bottom of the stem , we set it to freez in snow and salt , for some hours , with the stop of the stem ( which was drawn out into a very slender pipe almost at right angles with the stem ) open , and there left it for some hours , and the water was risen betwixt six and a half , and seven inches . This we did in order to another Experiment , but then easily and nimbly sealing up the slender pipe above mentioned , that the Air in the stem might not be heated , we let it continue in the snow , sometimes adding fresh for about 24. hours to observe , to what degree the water , by expanding it self , would compress the imprison'd Air. The length of the Cylinder of Air to be condens'd at the time of the sealing , was ( accounting by Estimation for the slender pipe newly taken notice of ) almost 9 ⅞ inches . This space we observed the ascending water as the ice increas'd below , to invade by degrees : ( for we watch'd it , and measur'd it from time to time ) so much , till at length the water reach'd to 8. inches and ⅞ almost , above the station ( which we had carefully mark'd with a Diamond ) in which we found it , when the glass was seal'd up , leaving but about an inch of Air at the top , so that of the whole space before possess'd by the Air , the water had intruded into near nine parts of ten ; then being partly apprehensive the glass would hold no longer , but have its upper part blown off , as it happened to us a little before with another vessel , and partly being desirous to try that which follows , we leisurely inverted the glass , that the Air might get up to the ice , for all the water in the stem had been purposely kept unfrozen , and having provided a Jar to receive the water that should be thrown out , we broke the slender pipe which we had seal'd up , and immediately as we expected , the compressed Air with violence and noise , blew out of the stem into the Jar about ten inches of water , which was somewhat more ( between half an inch and a whole inch , by reason of the Impetus of the self expanding Air ) then the space possess'd by the Air , before it began to be compress'd . And besides this , such a strange multitude of Bubbles , that were formerly repress'd , did now get liberty to ascend from the lower parts of the glass to the top of the remaining water , that it somewhat emulated that which happens to botled Beer ; upon the taking out of the Cork . N. B. when the Air was compressed beyond seven inches , we observ'd divers times , that the inside of the glass possess'd by the Air , and nearest to the water , was round about , to a pretty height , full of very little drops like a small dew , but when we came to break the glass , we took noe such notice , whether the rising water had lick'd them up , or their concourse made them run down into it , or for some other reason , we determine not . ] Another . 5. [ We took a single vial filled with water , about half an inch above the lower part of the neck , and leaving about two inches of Air in the remaining part of the neck , which was drawn out into a slender pipe , like that of the glass last mentioned , we seal'd it up , the Air being first well cool'd , and exposing it to freez , we observ'd a while after , that it had by guess condens'd the Air into lesser room . A while after , being in another Chamber , we heard a considerable noise , and imagining what it was , we went directly to the glass , whose upper part consisting of about an inch of the neck , besides the slender pipe , we found had been blown off from the table upon the ground , the body and part of the neck remaining in the snow ; but this glass was of a mettal that uses to be more brittle then white glass . ] Another . 6. [ A round white glass , almost fill'd with water , was seal'd up with care to avoid heating the included Air , which amounted to a Cylinder of about two inches and ⅞ ; after a while the water swell'd and compressed the Air almost two inches , that is full two thirds : and then ( as we conjectur'd , because the snow reaching too high , froze it in the neck ) we found the glass crack'd in many places of the Ball , and the top thrown off at some little distance from it . ] Another . 7. [ A large single vial seal'd , in whose neck the Air was not condens'd to half its former room , just as we were going to break it under water , to observe the sally of the compress'd Air , suddenly blew off with a good noise , and threw from the table almost the whole neck of the Vial in one intire piece , which is near four inches long , and at the Basis above an inch broad . ] 8. [ A glass about the bigness of a Turkey Egg , and of an oval form , with a Neck almost Cylindrical , but somewhat wider at the lower then the upper part , was fill'd with water , till there was left in the neck four inches and a half , whereof the last quarter of an inch , and a little more , was much narrower then the rest , being drawn into a conical shape , that it might be easily seal'd at the Apex ; along this Cylinder , from the surface of the water , to the top of the glass , was pasted a list of Paper , divided into inches and quarters , and then the glass being carefully and expeditiously seal'd up by the flame of a candle , we observ'd , that by holding the glass a while in a warm hand , and a room where there was a good fire , the water was swell'd up near a quarter of an inch , but placing the glass amongst solid pieces of ice mixt with salt , the water quickly began to subside upon the Infrigidation , and a while after beginning to freez , it began to swell , and by degrees compress'd the Air , till it had crowded it into less then a 17. part , by what seem'd indisputable , for by estimate , it seem'd to some to be crowded into less then a 20. part , is not a much lesser part of the room it formerly possess'd , which difference of Estimates , notwithstanding the divided Paper , proceeded from the change of the figure of the upper end of the glass , from the Cylindrical , and to shew that there was no leak at the place where the glass was seal'd ; besides , that by prying diligently , we could discern none ; besides this , I say , when the pressure of the thus crowded Air grew too strong for the resistence of the glass , it burst with a noise , that made us come to it from several places of the house ; the vessel broke not in the Cylindrical part ( as I may so speak ) but in the oval , the whole pipe with the seal'd end remaining entire , the ice appear'd full enough of Bubbles , which made it white and opacous , and the water that had ascended into the neck , upon the breaking , was all driven out of it . ] Thus far our Collections , but because we had in another glass , where the operation was sooner dispatch'd , an opportunity of watching & observing somewhat more exactly , we will add , 9. That the last , and possibly the best Experiment we had of compressing Air by freezing , was made in a short and strong glass . Egg , whose ball was very great in proportion to the stem , that the expanding of the water might have the more forcible operation : This vessel being exactly seal'd , and having a divided list of paper pasted along the stem , was set to freez with snow ( or ice ) and salt , and the contain'd water did quickly begin to crowd the Air into a lesser room , and for a good while ascended very fast , till at length it having thrust the Air into so small a part of the Cavity of the pipe , that we vehemently suspected there might be some unheeded flaw or crack of the glass , at which the Air had stollen out , we drew near the vessel , and attentively prying all about it , to try if we could discover any ground of our suspition , we found ( as far as the divided list , and other circumstances could inform us ) that the Air ( supposing none of it to have got away ) was reduc'd by our Estimate into the 19. part of the space it possess'd before . And this our curiosity prov'd not unseasonable , for whilest we were narrowly surveying the glass , to spy out some flaw in it , we were quickly satisfied there had been none , by a huge crack made upon the Eruption of the included Air , whose spring being by so great a compression made too strong for the glass to resist , it did with a great noise break the ball of the glass into many pieces , throwing the unfrozen part of the water upon me , and also throwing off the stem of the Egg , which yet I had the good fortune to recover intire , and which I yet keep by me as a rarity . 10. Thus far we then proceeded in compressing the Air , which being done in vessels Hermetically seal'd , where no Air can get in or out , seems to me a more unexceptionable way , then those that have hitherto been thought of . But further , we could not then prosecute it for want both of convenient glasses , and of ice or snow , of which if we were provided , and particularly of strong glasses , we should little doubt of reducing the Air to a yet more considerable degree of compression . 11. We may add on this occasion , that we look'd upon the same way as somewhat less unpromising then others , that have been hitherto us'd to try the compression of water ; for though hitherto neither the Experiments of Ingenious Men , nor those made by our selves have fully satisfi'd us , that water admits any more compression , then it may suffer upon the account of the little parcels of Air , that is wont to be dispersed among it , yet the unsuccesfulness may perhaps ( for I propose it but as a mere conjecture ) be imputed to the porousness of the vessels , wherein by the ways already practis'd , the Experiment must be made , whereas in this new way of ours , not only the force wherewith the compress'd Air presses upon the water , grows at length to be exceeding great , and is appli'd not with a sudden Impetus , as when a Pewter vessel is knock'd with a Hammer , but by slow and regular degrees of increase , but the water is kept in a vessel impervious to its subtilest parts , so that it may indeed crack the glass , but cannot get out at the pores , as water compress'd is wont to do at those of metalline vessels . The prosecution of this Experiment to bring it to any thing of Accurateness , we omitted , partly through forgetfulness and Avocations , and sometimes for want of conveniency to try it . But by the first of the lately mention'd Experiments , about the condensation of Air , it seems by the strong multitude of Bubbles , which upon the breaking of the glass appear'd in the water that had been compress'd betwixt the Air and the 〈◊〉 , that those two Bodies had very violently compress'd it : and this we are the more apt to believe , because that another time , when we had seal'd up some Air , and water in a glass-Egg , and permitted the water to swell by the operation of the Cold , but till it had reduc'd the Air , included with it , to about three quarters of the space it possest before , even then ( I say ) to try whether the subjacent water were not also compress'd by the Air it urg'd , we broke off the seal'd Apex of the glass , and perceiv'd , as we expected , the water to ascend , and that to the height of a quarter of an inch , as we found by measure . But such trials having not been , as we just now acknowledg'd , duly prosecuted , we shall at present content our selves to have nam'd this way of attempting the compression of water , without grounding any Inferences upon it . Title XIII . Experiments and Observations touching the sphere of Activity of Cold. 1. THe sphere of Activity of Cold , or to speak plainer , the space , to whose extremities every way the action of a Cold body is able to reach , is a thing very well worth the enquiring after , but more difficult to find , then at first one would imagine : For to be able to assign the determinate limits , within which , and not beyond them , a cold Body can operate , several things are to be taken into consideration ; as first , what the degree of Cold is , that belongs to the assigned Body : For it seems rational to conceive , that if a cold Body as such , have a diffusive vertue , those that have greater degrees of Cold , as Ice and Snow , will be able to diffuse it to a greater distance , as we see that a coal of Fire will cast a sensible heat much further then a piece of wood , that is heated without being kindled . Secondly , the Medium through which the Diffusion is made , may help to enlarge the Bounds , or straiten the Limits of it , as that medium is more or less dispos'd to receive or to transmit the Action of the cold Agent . Thirdly , Not only the Consistence , and Texture of the Medium , but its Motion , or Rest may be considered in this case . For in frosty and snowy weather , men observe the winds that come from frozen lands , to blow more cold , then winds from the same Quarter would do , in case there were no Ice nor Snow in their Passage . Fourthly , There may be made very differing Estimates of the Diffusion of Cold , according to the Instrument that is imploy'd to receive , and acquaint us with the Action of Cold. For a liquor or other Body may not appear cold to him , that examines it with a Weather-glass , whilest he shall feel it cold with his hand ; and , as we elsewhere also note , to that sensory it self , as 't is variously dispos'd , the same object will seem more or less cold ; so much may the Predisposition of the Organ impose upon the unskilful or unwary . Fifthly , The very bulk of a cold Body may very much inlarge or lessen its sphere of Activity , as we may have occasion to shew ere long . And besides there may be divers other things , that may render it very difficult to ascertain any thing in this matter . And therefore I shall reserve them for other opportunities , and observe now in general , that in such small parcels of Ice it self , as in our Experiments we are wont to deal with , we have found the sphere of Activity of Cold exceeding narrow , not only in comparison of that of heat in fire , but in comparison of the Atmosphere , if I may so call it , of many odorous Bodies , as Musk , Civet , Spices , Roses , Wormwood , Assa dulcis , Assa foetida , Castoreum , Camphire , and the like ; nay , and even in comparison of the sphere of Activity of the more vigorous Loadstones , insomuch that we have doubted , whether the sense could discern a cold Body , 〈◊〉 then by immediate Contact ? 2. And to examine this , having taken a piece of Ice , we did not find upon trials , that I partly made my self , and partly caus'd in my presence to be made by others , that if a mans Eyes were close shut , he could certainly discern the Approach of a moderately siz'd piece of Ice , though held never so near his fingers ends . Nay , which is more considerable , having had the curiosity to make the Trial , with one of those very sensible Thermoscopes I have formerly mention'd ( wherein a pendulous drop of liquor plays up and down in a slender pipe ) I found , that by holding it very near to little Masses of snow ( somewhat compacted too ) the movable drop , did not betray any manifest operation of so cold a neighbouring Body ; but if the glass were made to touch the snow , the effect would then be notable , by the hasty descent of the pendulous drop , or its motion towards the obtuse part of the Instrument , in case that were not perpendicularly , but laterally appli'd to the snowy Lumps . But this languidness of operation , may perhaps proceed in great part from the smallness of the Pieces of Ice that were imploy'd : For hearing of a Merchant , that had made divers Observations about Cold in Greenland , I desir'd , by the mediation of a very learned Friend , to be inform'd , whether or no in the night they could perceive those vast heaps , or rather mountains of ice , that are wont to float up and down in that Sea , by any new and manifest accession of Cold , and was inform'd by way of Answer to that Question , that being at Sea , they could know the approach of Ice , as well by the increase of Cold , as by the glaring light which the Air seem'd to receive from the neighbouring Ice . 3. But that which makes me suspect , that there may in this account be some mistake , is , that I have not yet met with any like observation in any of the voyages into gelid Climates , that I have had occasion to peruse , though in some of them the Navigators frequently mention their having met with vast rands ( as some call them ) and Islands of mountainous ice in the night . And 't is , as I remember , the complaint of one or two , if not more of them , that the Ship lay close by such vast pieces of ice , without their being aware of it , by reason of the fogs . By which it seems that there was no sensible Cold diffused to any considerable distance , whereby they might be advertised of the unwelcome neighbourhood even of so much ice : But possibly the approach of far smaller masses of ice , would have been sensible to them in such a Climate as ours , where the organs would not have been indisposed to feel , by a long accustomance , of any thing near so intense a degree of Cold , as that which then reigned in those Northern Seas . 4. Whilest we were considering the Difference , betwixt the operations of even the Coldest Bodies at the very nearest Distance , and upon immediate Contact , we thought it an Experiment not altogether unworthy to be tri'd , whether , though ice and snow alone , that is , unassisted by salts , would not in some of our formerly mention'd Experiments freez water , through the thickness even of a thin glass , they may not yet do it when the water is immediately contiguous to them . And I remember , that we took a conveniently shap'd Glass , and having frozen the contained water for some hours , from the bottom upwards , till the ice was grown to be of a considerable thickness , we mark'd , what part of the glass was possess'd by the unfrozen water , and then removing the vessel to a little Distance from the snow , and salt , it stood in before , we let it 〈◊〉 there , to try whether the ice would freez any part of the contiguous and incumbent water ; but some intervening accidents hindred us from being able to derive any great satisfaction one way or other from our trial . 5. Wherefore we shall add by way of Compensation , that the diligent Olearius relates , that at Ispahan , the Capital City of Persia , though it be seated in a very hot Climate , and though it seldom freez there above a finger thick , and the ice melt presently at Sun-rising , yet the Inhabitants have Conservatories , which they furnish with solid pieces of ice of a good thickness , only by pouring at night great store of water at convenient intervals of time , upon a shelving floor of Free-stone or Marble , whereon , as the water runs over it , the most dispos'd of its parts , are in their passage arrested , and frozen by the contiguous ice , which by this means ( says my learned Author ) may be brought in two or three successive nights , to a very considerable thickness . 6. We several times gave order to have this Experiment tried in England , but partly through the negligence of those we imploy'd , and partly upon the score of intervening circumstances , our expectation was but ill answered . And in this case I mention intervening circumstances , because having caus'd a servant to pump in the night , upon a not very thin plate of ice , that was laid shelving upon a Board , and another flat piece of Ice being about the same time laid under a place , where water derived from a neighbouring spring , is wont continually to drop , he brought me word , that not only in this last nam'd place , the ice melted away , but that under the pump , instead of increasing in thickness by the waters running over it , it was thereby rather dissolv'd . At which somewhat wondring , I went in the morning my self to the pump , and causing a good flake of ice to be in a convenient posture plac'd under it , I observed the water as it came out of the pump , and was falling on the ice , to smoak , as if the depth of the Well had made the water , though very Cold to the touch , somewhat warm in comparison of the ice , and thereby fitter to resolve then to increase it ; ( which inconvenience may be prevented by suffering the water of deep Springs and Wells , to stand to cool in the Air , before it be put to the Ice , ) and this , though the neighbouring Air were , as I found by manifest proofs , so cold , that I was not tempted to impute the unsuccesfulness of the Experiment , rather to its want of a sufficient coldness , then the water's : So that till I have an opportunity of making a further Trial , I cannot 〈◊〉 more to the Persian way of augmenting ice . But to proceed , our having met with but an unsatisfactory Account of this Experiment , which we were the more troubled at , because this seem'd a promising way of trying that , which otherwise is not so easily reduc'd to Experiment ; for the Temperature of the Air , must be seriously consider'd in assigning the Cause of divers trials , that may be made for the resolving of the same Question . For to omit other Examples , here in England we find , that water poured on snow , is wont to hasten the Dissolution of it , and not to be congeal'd by it ; whereas having inquir'd of an Ingenious Person , that liv'd a good while among the Russians , he inform'd me , that it was their usual way to turn water and snow into ice , by pouring a convenient Proportion of that liquor into a great quantity of snow , and having also inquir'd , 〈◊〉 ice had not the like operation , he told 〈◊〉 , that t was usual , and he had seen it practis'd in 〈◊〉 , to cement Ice to Buildings , and other things , and also to case over Bodies , as it were , with Ice , by gradually throwing water upon them . But I doubt , whether that Effect be to be ascrib'd barely to the Contiguity of the Ice , because I learn'd of him , that this way of increasing ice is practis'd in very frosty weather , when water thinly spread upon almost any other Body , would be frozen by the vehement sharpness of the Air. 7. The Glaciations , that nature unguided by Art , is wont to make , beginning at those parts of Bodies , at which they are expos'd to the Air , it usually happens , that they freez from the upper towards the lower parts . But how far in Earth and Water ( the most considerable Bodies , that are subject to be frozen ) the frost will pierce downwards , though for some hints , it would afford , worth the knowing , is not easie to be defin'd , because the deepness of the frost may be much varied by the degree of Coldness in the Air , by which the Glaciation seems to be produc'd , as also by the greater or 〈◊〉 Duration of the frost , by the looser or closer texture of the Earth , by the nature of the Juices wherewith the Earth is imbu'd , and by the constitution of the subjacent , and more internal parts of the Earth , some of which send up either actually warm , or potentially hot and resolving steams , such as those that make corrosive liquors in the bowels of the Earth ; so that the frost will not seiz upon , or at least cannot continue over Mines ; and I have seen good large scopes of land , where vast quantities of good Lime-stone lay near the surface of the Earth , on which I have been assur'd by the Inhabitants , that the snow will not lye . There are divers other things , that may vary the depth to which the frost can penetrate into the ground , ( I say , into the ground , because in most cases it will pierce deeper into the water . ) But yet that we may not leave this part of the History of Cold altogether uncontributed to , we will add some of our Notes , whereby it will appear , that in our Climate the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 less into the ground , then many are pleas'd to think . 8. The notes I find about this matter are these that follow , which I 〈◊〉 unaltered , because 't were tedious , and not worth while to add the way we imploy'd , and the cautions we us'd in making the observations , but we shall rather intimate , that the following trials were made in a Village about two miles from a great City . [ I. Jan. 22. After four nights of frost , that was taken notice of for very hard , we went into an Orchard , where the ground was level , and not covered with grass , and found by digging , that the frost had scarce pierc'd into the ground three inches and a half . And in a Garden nearer the house , we found not the Earth to be frozen more then two inches beneath its surface . II. Nine or ten nights successive frost froze the grasless ground in the Garden , about six inches and a half , or better in depth , and the grasless ground in the Orchard , where a wall 〈◊〉 it from the south Sun , to the 〈◊〉 of about eight inches and a half , or better . ] [ February the 9. we digg'd in an Orchard near a wall , that respects the North , and found the frost to have 〈◊〉 the ground 〈◊〉 a foot and two inches , at least above a foot : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the eight day since it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inches and a half . ] [ A slender pipe of glass , about 18. inches long , and seal'd at one end , was thrust over night into a hole , purposely made with a Spit , straight down into the ground , the 〈◊〉 of the water being in the same level with that of the Earth , the next morning the Tube being taken out , the water appear'd frozen in the whole Capacity of the Cylinder , but a little more then three inches . But from this stick of ice , there reach'd downwards a part of a Cylinder of ice of about six inches in length , the rest of the water remain'd 〈◊〉 , though it were an exceeding sharp night , preceded by a Constitution of the Air , that had been very lasting , and very bitter . The Earth in the Garden , where this Trial was made , we guess'd to be frozen eight or ten inches deep , as it was in another place about the same house . But is this Tube had not been in the ground , the ambient Air would have frozen it quite through . ] 9. Another Note much of the same import , we find in another place of our Collections . Finding that by reason of the mildness of our Climate , I was scarce to hope for any much deeper Congelation of the Earth or Water , I appli'd my self to inquire of an Ingenious Man , that had been at Musco , whether he had observed any thing there to my present purpose , as also to find in Captain James's Voyage , whether that inquisitive Navigator had taken notice of any thing , that might inform me , how far the Cold was able to freeze the Earth or Water in the Island of Charleton , where that Quality may probably be supposed to have had as large a sphere of Activity , as in almost any part of the habitable world : And by my Inquiries I 〈◊〉 , that even in frozen Regions themselves , a congealing degree of Cold pierces nothing near so deep into the Earth and Sea , as one would imagine : For the Traveller , I spoke with , told me , that in a Garden in Musco , where he took notice of the thing I inquir'd about , he found not the ground to be frozen much above two foot deep . And in Captain James's Journal , the most that I find ( and that too , where he gives an Account of the prodigiously tall ice they had in January ) concerning the piercing of the frost into the ground , is this , that The ground at tenfoot deep was frozen . Whence by the way we may gather how much sharper Cold may be presum'd to have reigned in that Island , then even in Russia . And as for the freezing of the water , He does in another place occasionally give us this memorable Account of it , where He relates the manner of the breaking up the Ice in the frozen Sea , that surrounds the Island we have been speaking of . It is first to be noted ( says he ) that it doth not freez ( naturally ) above six foot , the rest is by accident , such is that Ice , that you may see here six fathome thick . This we had manifest proof of by our digging the Ice out of the Ship , and by digging to our Anchors before the Ice broke up . The rest of that account not concerning our present purpose , I forbear to annex , only taking notice , that notwithstanding our lately mention'd Experiment of freezing water in a glass Tube thrust into the Ground , yet it seems , that at least where Captain James winter'd , the water was not much above half so thick frozen as the Earth . But we have already noted the indisposition of salt-water to congelation , and whether fresh water would not have been deeper frozen may be justly doubted . Title XIV . Experiments touching the differing Mediums through which Cold may be diffus'd . 1. IN examining whether Cold might be diffus'd through all Mediums indefinitely , notwithstanding their Compactness or the Closeness of their Texture , we must have a Care not to make our Trials with Mediums of too great thickness , least we mistakingly impute that to the Nature of the Medium which is indeed caus'd by the distance which the Medium puts betwixt the Agent and the Patient . For the mixtures of Ice and Snow , wherewith we made our Experiments , will operate but at a very small distance , though the Medium resist no more then the common Air , as may appear by some of the Experiments recorded in this Treatise . This premis'd , we may proceed to relate , that having plac'd a copious mixture of ice and salt in Pipkins glaz'd within , and in white Basons glaz'd both within and without , we observ'd , that the outside of both those sorts of vessels was crusted over with ice : though , however the bak'd Earth had not been compact , nor the vitrifi'd surfaces of a very close Texture ; the very thickness of the vessels was so great , that it seem'd it would scarce have been able to freez at a greater distance . 2. By the Experiments formerly mention'd of freezing water in Pewter bottles , it appears , that Cold is able to operate through such mettalline vessels . 3. And this may be somewhat confirm'd by one of the prettiest Experiments , that is to be perform'd by the help of Cold , namely , the making Icy Cups to drink in . The way we us'd was this ; We caus'd to be made a Cup of Lattin ( by which I mean Iron reduc'd into thin plates , and tinn'd over on both sides ) of the shape and bigness I intended to have the Cup of ; then I caus'd to be made of the same matter another Cup of the same shape with the former , but every way less , so that it would go into the greater , and leave a competent interval for water , betwixt its convex surface , and the concave of the other . This innermost Cup was furnished with a rim or lip , by which it lean'd upon the greater , and by whose help its sides and bottom were easily plac'd at a just and even distance from the sides and bottom of the other ; but the Distance between the two bottoms is made greater , then that between the sides , that the icy Cup might stand the firmer , and last the longer . The interval between the two parts of this Mould being fill'd with water , and the Cavity of the internal Cup being fill'd with a mixture of ice and salt , ( partly to freez the contiguous water , and thereby cooperate to the quicker making of the Cup and partly by its weight to keep the water from buoying up so light a Cup , ) the external part was surrounded with ice and salt , whose Cold so powerfully penetrated to the internal metalline Mould , that the water was quickly frozen , and ( the Parts of the Mould being disjoyn'd ) appeared turn'd into an icy Cup of the bigness and figure design'd . And these Cups being easily to be made , and of various shapes ( and that in the midst of Summer , if snow or ice be at hand ) are very pleasant triffles , especially in hot weather , when they impart a very refreshing coolness to the drink poured into them , and though they last not long , especially if they be imploy'd to drink Wine , and such like spirituous Drinks in , yet whilest some are melting , others may be provided , and so the loss may be easily repair'd ; all the difficulty we met with , was to disjoyn the parts of the Mould which are wont to stick very fast to the ice they include . And we tri'd to obviate this , sometimes by annointing the inside of the Mould with some unctuous and not offensive matter , to hinder the Adhesion of the ice , and sometimes by applying some convenient heat both to the convex part of the external , and the concave part of the internal piece of the Mould , which last mention'd way is quick and sure , but lessens the durableness of the Cup. ( We were lately inform'd , that this way of making Cups of Ice , is set down 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Argenis , and 't is like enough , that 〈◊〉 Man may have learn'd it amongst some of the Virtuosi of Italy he convers'd with : But if we that learn'd it from none of them , had not been taught it by Experience , we should scarce have ventur'd to try it upon the Credit of a Romance ; that sort of Composures being wont to be fabulous enough to pass but for Poems in Prose . ) 4. The learned and industrious Mathematician Erasmus Bartholinus , mentions in his newly publish'd Discourse de Figura 〈◊〉 , an Experiment , by which he tells us , that some Masters of Natures secrets , do easily , even in the midst of heat , reduce water into Air. For they put a little snow or ice into a Funnel , and thereby so refrigerate and condense the ambient Air , that there will dew trickle down the sides of the Funnel : By which means it has been said , that some Ingenious Men have hop'd to make an artificial Fountain in the midst of Summer . But I here mention this Experiment rather , because 't is not unlikely to please those to whom 't is new , and because having purposely tri'd it in large and thick funnels of glass , it may be pertinently enough deliver'd in this place , ( where we are treating of the Transmission or Propagation of Cold ; through close and thick Mediums , ) then because we expect to make of it that use , especially that Oeconomical use , that has been lately intimated . For first , 't will be very hard to prove , that 't is the very Air it self , and not rather the vapours swimming in it , that are by this means transmuted into water . And secondly , 't is true indeed , that a mixture of snow and salt will condense vapours on the outside of a Funnel , but either they , that hop'd to make this use of the Experiment , have little Experience of it , and write conjecturally , or else they have made it with a success very differing from ours . For though , we imploy'd a large Funnel , and suspended it by a string ( artificially enough ti'd about it ) in the free Air : And though the mixture of ice and salt we put in , were sufficiently infrigidating ( as will appear by and by ) and far more so , then ice or snow alone would have been , yet that mixture being not able to condense the vaporous Parts of the Air into dew , much , if at all , longer then the mutual Dissolution of the salt and snow lasted , the liquor that was this way obtain'd , and dropp'd down at the bottom of the Funnel ( whose internal Perforation ought to be carefully stopp'd , least any of the resolved snow and salt should fall through , and spoil the other liquor ) was indeed sweet like rain water , but so very little , as well , as so slowly generated , that it amounted not any thing near to that which the snow , imploy'd and spoil'd to make it , would have afforded . So that it may be question'd , whether some cooling liquors , which can as well as this mixture condense the vapid Air into water , and whose Texture is not destroy'd in this operation , as that of the snow is , might not be more hopefully imploy'd to obtain water from the Air ; to which I shall only add this one thing , That the mixture of snow and salt did turn the vapours , that fasten themselves to the outside of the glass , first into Ice , before they dropt down in the form of water ; in almost all our Trials of this nature , as well in thick Funnels , as in other and thinner glasses . 5. That in Hermetically seal'd glasses , an included mixture of snow and salt will freez the vapours of the Air on the outside of the glass , divers of the Experiments of the present Treatise do manifestly evince , which argue , that even so extremely close a Medium as Glasses , is not able to hinder the Transmission of Cold. And this is not superfluously added , because in vessels not Hermetically seal'd , it may be pretended , that 't is the internal Air that communicates its Coldness by some unheeded , but immediate intercourse , with the external . After this we thought it worth an Experiment , to try , whether , or how , Cold would be diffused through a Medium , that some would think a Vacuum , and which to others would seem much less disposed to assist the Diffusion of Cold , then common Air it self ; to compass this , the Expedient we bethought our selves of , was , to suspend a slender glass full of water in one of the small Receivers belonging to our Pneumatical Engine , and when the Air was very carefully pump'd out , to bury the exhausted Receiver in a copious and ready prepar'd mixture of Ice and Salt , to see , whether notwithstanding the withdrawing of the Medium , the water suspended in a kind of Vacuum , as to Air or gross substances would yet be frozen by the Cold. That Event of our trials , which alone I find among my Notes , is registred in these terms . 6. [ A small pipe seal'd at one end , was , at the other , fill'd almost with water , and was put into a Receiver , consisting of a somewhat long and slender Tube of Glass , seal'd at one end , and inverted upon the Engine plate , then the Air was carefully exhausted , for the pump was ply'd a while after no Air appear'd to come forth in any bubble out of the Receiver , through the external water ; nor did the water in the small pipe within , disclose any number of bubbles worth taking notice of : then by the help of an almost Cylindrical plate of Iron , beaten Ice and Salt , were heap'd against the outside of the Receiver , about the height , to which the water in the small pipe reach'd . And at length , though , as we all thought , much more slowly then such a Congelation would else have been perform'd , the water was for the most part frozen in odd kind of flakes from the top to the bottom , and the ice seem'd not to have any considerable number of Bubbles . ] 7. There is one Experiment , I have made about the Transmission of Cold through indispos'd Mediums , which may not be unworthy to be here inserted . For I had once a mind to try , whether a cold Body could operate through a Medium , that was , as to touch , actually hot , and had its heat continually renew'd by a sountain , as it were , of heat , that perpetually diffus'd through it , new supplies of warm Liquor , so that the cold Body could not here , as in other cases , first allay the heat of the Medium , and then lessen it more and more , till it had quite extinguish'd it . To compass this , I had soon after an opportunity of making some trials presented me : For being at the Mineral Springs at Tunbridge , to drink those wholsome waters for my healths sake , I soon accustomed my self to drink them in considerable Quantities very early in the morning , when they were exceeding Cold , and sometimes drinking them in bed , as well as sometimes at the Springs-head , I had the Curiosity to observe , whether in case I took them down very fast , they would not through the warm Muscles and outward Parts of the Abdomen , diffuse a sensible Coldness ; and upon more Trials then one , I found , that by laying my warm hands on the outside of my Belly , I there felt at least , as it seemed to me , a manifest and considerable Degree of Coldness . And when I related this to some ingenious Persons , that were better acquainted with those Springs then I , they told me , that there was among those many that then resorted to those famous Springs , a Knight , whose Name I remember not , whose Disease being judg'd formidable , the Physicians enjoyned him to drink in a morning two or three times the Quantity , that afforded me the Observation I was relating , and that when this Knight had fill'd his Belly with so much water , he us'd mightily to complain of the Coldness it diffus'd through his Abdomen , insomuch that he was fain to ply those parts long with hot Napkins clapp'd to them , one after another , which yet , as he complain'd , were soon refrigerated by the excessive Cold that the water diffus'd to the outside of his Belly , which yet nevertheless was not , that I could learn , at all prejudic'd , no more then mine , by so sensible and piercing a Cold. 8. It may be doubted , whether in case water be not fluid upon the account of a congenite motion in the Corpuscles it consists of , its fluidness may not proceed from the agitation of the ambient Air , either immediately contiguous to the surface , or communicating its agitation to the water , by propagation of its Impulse through the vessel that interposes betwixt them . To contribute to the clearing of this , and some other things , we devis'd the following Experiment . We provided a glass-bubble of about the bigness of a Walnut , and the form almost of a Pear , whose stem was purposely made crooked for the conveniency of suspension . This being fill'd with water ( which is troublesome enough to be done , unless one have the knack ) we hung it at one end of a thread , whose other end we past through a Cork , by a perforation purposely made : into which , we afterwards fastned the thread , by thrusting in a small peg to rivet it in . Then filling a glass not very broad , but yet furnished with a mouth wide enough to receive the bubble , with oyl of Turpentine , such as we bought it at the shops , we stopp'd the orifice with the newly mention'd Cork , so that the seal'd Bubble hanging at it , was covered , and every way surrounded by the oyl of Turpentine , which being a liquor , that ( at least in such Colds as we here have ) will not freez , we plac'd the glass in beaten Ice and Salt , and as it were buri'd it therein , and at the end of about three hours ( having been diverted by some occasions from taking it sooner out ) we found , as we had conjectured , that notwithstanding that , the oyl of Turpentine continued perfectly fluid as before , yet the Bubble totally immersed in this heating Chymical oyl , was frozen throughout , not excepting that which was harboured in the little Neck or Stalk , and when I came to lift it out of the liquor , the glass being crack'd ( as we supposed by the Cold ) the string brought up a little part of that which was nearest to it ; the rest in the form above mentioned , staying behind and subsiding . And that which was remarkable in this piece of Ice , was , that when we had taken it out , it appeared cleft very deep ( from the outside almost to the centre ) according to a line drawn from the slenderest part of it , almost as if one should with a knife cut a Pear in two , from the stalk downwards , according to its whole length . And these two pieces were easily enough separable , and ( to adde that circumstance ) for trial sake we left them divided in the same liquor and vessel , with some thawing Ice and Salt about them , for 14. or 15. hours , without finding them any thing near so much wasted or resolved into water , as most would have expected . Whilest the above mentioned Bubble was exposed to be frozen , we likewise placed by it in another vessel a Glass-Egg , whose Ball and a little part of its stem we had fill'd with some of the very same parcel of oyl of Turpentine , and placing about the sides of this Egg some ice and salt , we observed , as we expected , that the liquor was , after a little while , made by the Cold to subside about half an inch , so that 't is worth some Philosophers considering , why , if according to the lately mention'd Atomical doctrine , Cold be made by the introduction of swarms of real and extended , though Atomical Bodies , they should pervade the oyl , and contract it without freezing it , but freez the water without contracting it , but expending it rather . 9. [ A small bubble of the bigness of a very little Nutmeg , fill'd with water , and Hermetically seal'd up , was by a cork and a string suspended in spirit of Wine , so as to be surrounded therewith , and being exposed to the Air the same night , in the stopt glass , was the next morning found altogether frozen , though the spirit of Wine it self were not at all so : But another bubble , by the help of a string Cork , and piece of Lead , carefully suspended in a strong solution of Sea-salt , and exposed at the same time in a like vessel with the former , when they both came to be look'd upon , appear'd to be no more frozen then the brine it self , which was not so at all . ] 10. [ A glass Bubble of the bigness of a small Nutmeg , fill'd with water , and Hermetically seal'd , being immersed by a weight of Lead fastned to it , beneath the surface of a very salt Brine , but yet not so as to reach the bottom of the liquor or glass , was exposed all night to freez , in weather that was extraordinarily cold , but neither the imprison'd water , nor the other appeared to be at all frozen . The like Experiment we repeated another frosty night , but without freezing either of the liquors . But to show the usefulness of repeating Experiments about Cold , if there be opportunity , and especially in such cases , where the degree or some other circumstance may much vary the event , we will add , that having exposed a Bubble like that newly mention'd , and immers'd in spirit of Wine , we found the next morning the water in the bubble turn'd into ice , and having likewise exposed such a bubble immers'd in very strong Brine , to be frozen by a mixture of ice and salt , within about two hours after , we found the bubble broken , as we suppos'd , upon the Expansion of the water upon its growing Ice . And we also found the upper part of the bubble with the Ice sticking to it , and the other part of the glass was crack'd , with lines running from a point almost like the Pole and Meridian in a Globe , whence we concluded the glass to have been , as 't is probable , burst asunder upon the Expansion of the fresh water into ice , and that the Reason why there remain'd but a comparatively little parcel of ice , was probably , that the salt water getting in at those crannies or chinks , dissolved as much of the new made ice , as in a little while it could easily reach . ] Besides , 11. [ We fill'd a glass bubble with fair water , and having Hermetically seal'd it , we suspended it by a string fastned to the cork in the cavity of a wide mouth'd glass , well stopt , so that the bubble was every way at a good distance from the sides , bottom , and top of the glass . This we did to try , whether a sufficient degree of Cold at that distance , would be freely transmitted through the glass , without the intervention of a visible liquor , and accordingly we found the suspended Bubble crack'd by the ice that fill'd it . ] Title XV. Experiments and Observations touching Ice . 1. A Great part of our present History , being imploy'd about delivering the Phaenomena of Congelation , it is not to be expected , that in this Section , where we treat of Ice as a distinct part of our Theme , we should deliver all those particulars , that have occurr'd to us , wherein ice is concern'd . And therefore we shall restrain our selves to the mention of those , that belong to ice , considered , as it consists of intire and distinct Portions of congeled water . Aud though we shall deliver some few Experiments of our own , such as we had any opportunity to make , yet much the greater part of this Section will fitly enough be taken up by Collections out of Travellers , and Navigators , into those Colder Regions , that afford much considerabler , or at least much stranger Observations concerning ice , then are to be met with in so temperate a Climate as ours . And what we have to deliver in this Section , will naturally be divided into two parts , the one consisting of our own Experiments , 〈◊〉 the other containing some Passages , that we have selected out of Voyages , or that have been afforded us by the Relations of credible Travellers . And of these two sorts of Observables , that which has been first mention'd shall be first treated of . 2. Some that have been in the East Indies inform us , that in some parts of those Countries , they were looked upon as great Liars , for affirming , that in Europe the fluid body of water , was often without any artifice or endeavour of Man , turned in a few hours into a solid and compact Body , such as Ice . And certainly , if custom did not take away the strangness of it , it would to us also appear very wonderful , that so great a change of Texture should be so easily and inartificially produced . But how solid the Body of ice is , or rather how strong is the mutual adhesion of its parts , has not yet , that we know of , been attempted by Experiments to be reduced to some kind of Estimate ; and indeed so many things must be taken into consideration , that it will be difficult to arrive at any more then a fair conjecture in this matter ; especially , because ( 〈◊〉 think ) it may justly be doubted , whether or no differing degrees of Cold may not vary the degree of compactness of the ice , and my doubt will not perhaps appear groundless , if I add , that having , to satisfie my self , inquired of an intelligent Person , that liv'd some years in Russia , he answered me , that he found the ice of those parts to be much harder then that of these . 3. We had in our thoughts divers ways to Estimate the cohesion of the parts of ice , whereof one was , to freez water in a hollow metalline Cylinder , and taking out the ice , and keeping it in a Perpendicular posture cast into a scale weigh'd before-hand , and carefully fastned to the bottom of the ice , more and more weight , till the mere weight broke the Cylinder , and this we had thoughts to try in Cylinders of differing Diameters and lengths , but wanted conveniencies to make the Experiments ; ( which if they were made ( as some of our Trials were ) in the open Air , and in places exposed to some gelid wind , it would the better secure the ice from being weakned or thaw'd during the Trials . ) 4. We therefore attempted by another way , to investigate the strength of ice . For we took a plate of it , of an uniorm , and also of a considerable thickness , and with sides cut parallel , that it might serve for a kind of leaver , and plac'd it betwixt two wooden Bars , whose distance we knew , and then laying on it a great weight , the Centre of whose Pression , as near as we could estimate , was equally , or in determinate measures , distant from the woodden fulcrums : we endeavoured to try , how great a weight it would support ; but in the Village , where we made the trials , we could not get weights that were conveniently shap'd , and ponderous enough , to break it , and though we caused a Man to stand upon it , yet neither could his weight break it , till he chanced to add an impressed force with his foot , to the weight of his Body . So that being unable to determine , what that additional and impressed force might amount to , almost all that we could safely conclude , either from this Experiment , or some other ways of trial with scales , and other ways that we made use of ( but for want of conveniencies unsuccesfully ) was , that the force of ice to support weights , is much greater then men are wont to imagine , which seems somewhat the more strange , because it is not here in England so solid a Body , as by this one would guess : for not only glass would readily scratch it deep enough , but even with common Knives we would cut it , and that with great ease . 5. Yet one not inconsiderable Account I was able to give my self of the strength of ice , which I find in my Notes thus delivered . [ There was taken a piece of ice three inches long , and three broad , and somewhat less then a quarter of an inch thick ; this was laid cross-ways upon a frame , so that the two parts , on which the ice lean'd , were distant three inches , then there was taken an Iron , shap'd like the figure of ( the common Arithmetical Cypher , that denotes Seven ) 7 , to whose hanging leg , if I may so call it , there was fastned at the end , which was under the middle of the ice , a scale , into which several weights were put , such as by some former Trials we guess'd to be almost as much as the ice would well suffer , after which the horizontal leg of the Iron was very gently laid upon the ice , as near as we could guess , in the middle of the distance , between the two sides of the frame , and consequently parallel to them both , then the weights not proving altogether sufficient to break the ice , we let them hang a while at it , and observ'd how the edge of the incumbent leg of Iron ( which edge was * broad ) did work it self downwards into the ice , so that by our guess , when the ice broke , as after a while it did , it had lost at one end of the Incision , if I may so call it , half its thickness , and at the other , about a third part of it . The weights that broke it , amounted to 17. pounds Haberdupois , and 117. ounces Troy. 6. The Experiment was repeated with all the former circumstances , only the piece of Ice was two inches and a half broad , and a quarter of an inch thick , the distance of the frame was three inches , as before , the weights that broke it , were 17. pounds Haberdupois , and 48. ounces Troy. The horizontal arm of the iron had melted somewhat more then half through the ice when it broke , viz. more then ⅔ of the thickness at one end , and somewhat less then half at the other . 7. We divers times intimated in some of the first Sections of our present History , that the addition of salt to Ice , did hasten the dissolution of it , which though it may be easily proved by some other Phaenomena of our Experiments , yet it will not be amiss to mention here a couple of particular trials , by which we have more manifestly evinc'd it : And first , we divers times took a broad and flat plate of ice , less then a ¼ of an inch thick , and having placed it horizontally upon a joyn'd-stool , ( a table , or any other flat piece of wood will do as well ) we strewed here and there a convenient quantity of Bay-salt upon it , and though we observed , that , if the surfaces of the ice and stool , were not both of them flat , and congruous enough , the ice would be thaw'd indeed , but the other part of the Experiment would not well succeed ; yet when we made the trial carefully , and watchfully , the plate of ice partly thaw'd by the salt , would be so firmly frozen to the stool it leaned on , that we were fain with an iron instrument , to knock it all to pieces , before we could sever it from the stool , into whose pores the ice newly generated by the Experiment , did pierce so deep , that notwithstanding our knocking , many little parcels of ice would continue to stick close to the wood , whose pores they had invaded . But the circumstances which in this Experiment made the most to our purpose , are these two ; The one , that having sometimes laid the salt but on few , and somewhat distant parts of the plate , the intermediate parts would many of them remain unfrozen to the stool , whilest those , where the salt had been laid , were frozen so hard to it . And the other circumstance is , that the grosser grains of salt , would so far dissolve the ice whereto they were contiguous , as ( if I may so speak ) to bury themselves therein , whilest the other parts of the ice , upon which , or near which , no salt had been laid , kept their surfaces smooth and intire . We tried likewise two or three times to freez a plate of ice to a flat piece of wood , by making use of Aqua fortis , instead of common salt , but the Experiment succeeded not well , though once we brought the ice to stick to the wood manifestly , but not strongly . 8. To this we shall add , the following Experiment , which when we watchfully made it , succeeded well , and I find it among my notes set down in these terms . [ Solid fragments of ice having pretty store of salt thrown on them , upon the first falling of the salt among the ice , there was produced a little 〈◊〉 noise , and for a good while after there manifestly ascended out of several parts of the mixture , conveniently held betwixt a candle and the eye , a steam or smoak , like that of warm meat , though the night were rainy and warm , and though the morning had not been frosty . ] The mention here made of the crackling noise made by the ice upon the addition of salt , ( which seemed to proceed from the crackling of the brittle ice , produc'd by the operation of the salt upon it ) brings into my mind an Experiment I had formerly made , whereof a greater noise of the same kind is a Phaenomenon : though the Experiment were chiefly made for the Discovery of the texture of Ice : The event of the trial I find thus set down among my notes . 9. [ We took some cakes of ice , each of the thickness between an 〈◊〉 and a ¼ part of an inch , but not so very compact ice , as to be free from store of bubbles ; some good Aqua fortis dropp'd upon this , did quickly penetrate it with a noise , that seem'd to be the cracking of the ice , underneath which the sowre liquor was very plainly to be tasted ; Oyl of Vitriol did the same , but much more powerfully , and without seeming to crack the ice which it past through ; so that though but three or four drops were let fall upon the plate , it immediately shew'd it self in drops exceedingly corrosive on the other side of the ice . And the like success we had with a trial made with the same liquor upon three such plates of ice frozen one upon the top of another . ] 10. Having proceeded as far as we were able towards the bringing the strength of ice to some kind of Estimate , by such Experiments as we had opportunity to make here , we thought it not amiss to seek what information we could get about this matter among the Descriptions that are given us of Cold Regions : But I have not yet found any thing to have been taken notice of to this purpose worth transcribing , except a passage in the Arch-Bishop of upsal , wherein though the estimate of the force of Ice be , as we shall by and by show , 〈◊〉 after a gross manner , yet since this it self is more then I have met with elsewhere , I think it worth subjoyning , as our Author delivers it in these terms : Glacies ( says he ) primae & mediae hyemis adeò fortis & tenax est , ut spissitudine seu densitate duorum digitorum sufferat hominem Ambulantem , trium vero digitorum equestrem Armatum ; unius palmae & dimidiae , turmas , vel exercitus militares ; trium vel quatuor palmarum integram Legionem seu myriadem populorum , quemadmodum inferiùs de bellis Hyemalibus memorandum erit . But though this be sufficient to afford us an illustrious Testimony of the wonderful strong cohesion of the parts of ice , yet we mention'd it but as a popular way of estimate , which may better embolden Travellers , then satisfie Philosophers , in regard that the Author determines only the thickness of the ice , and not the distance of that part of it , that supports the weight from the shore or brink , on which , as on a Hypomochlion , the remotest part of the ice does lean or rest . And if we consider the ice as a Lever , and the Brink or Brinks on which it is supported , as a single or double sulcrum , the distance of the weight may be of very great moment in reference to its pressure or gravitation on the ice , which may much more easily support the weight of divers men plac'd very near the prop , then that of one man plac'd at a great distance from it , as will be easily granted by those , that are not strangers to the Mechanicks , especially to the nature and properties of the several kinds of Levers . But not now to debate , whether in certain cases , the ice we speak of , may not receive some support from the subjacent water , nor whether some other circumstances may not sometimes be able to alter the case a little , our very considering the ice as a single or double Lever , though it may hinder us from measuring the determinate strength of ice upon Olaus's Observation , yet it will set forth the strength of it so much the more , since by his indefinite expressions he seems sufficiently to intimate , that when the ice has attain'd such a thickness , its resistance is equivalent to such a weight , without examining on what part of the ice it chances to be placed . 11. Thus far our Experiments concerning ice ( with the Appendix subjoyned out of Olaus to the same purpose . ) We will now proceed to some of the observations we have met with in Seamens Journals , and elsewhere . I say to some , because to enumerate them all , would spend more time and labour then I can afford , and therefore I shall restrain my self to the mention of some few of the chiefest . I. And in the first place for confirmation of what I deliver'd at the beginning of this Section , from the report of a Traveller into Russia , touching the hardness of ice in those gelid Climates , in comparison of our ice , which I have found it easie to scrape with glass , or to cut with a knife ; I shall subjoyn this passage of Captain G. Weymouth , in his Voyage for the Discovery of the Northwest passage . As we were ( says he ) breaking off some of this Ice , which was very painful for us to do , for it was almost as hard as a rock , &c. II. Next to shew , that it was not a superfluous wariness , that made me in a former Section doubt , that even the ice made of Sea-water might be altogether or almost insipid ; I will subjoyn , that I have since met with some Relations , that seem to justifie what is there deliver'd . And in one of our Englishmens Voyages into the Northern Seas , I find more then one instance to my present purpose , though I shall here set down but one , which is so full and express , that it needs no companions : Our Navigator speaking thus ; About nine of the Clock in the forenoon , we came by a great Island of Ice , and by this Island we found some pieces of Ice broken off from the said Island , and being in great want of fresh water , we hoysed out our Boats of both Ships , and loaded them twice with Ice , which made us very good fresh water . But all this notwithstanding , I yet retain some scruple , till those that have better opportunity to make a more satisfactory Experiment shall ease me of it . For though by these Narratives it seems more then probable , that the ice in the midst of the Sea consists but of the fresh Particles of water , that plentifully concur to compose the Sea water , yet besides that , in case the fresh water were taken , as some of that , I have found mentioned in Voyages , has confessedly been , from the top of the ice , it might possibly be no more then melted snow , which , as we elsewhere take notice , does in those extremely cold Regions easily freez upon the ice it falls on , and oftentimes much increases the height of it : Besides this , I say , the Argument from the insipidness of the resolved ice , will conclude but upon supposition , that as that ice was found in the Sea , so it was also made of the Sea water ; which though it may have been , yet I somewhat doubt , whether it were or no , since I find some Navigators of the most conversant in the cold Climates to inform us , That most of those vast Quantities of ice that are to be met with about Nova Zembla , and the strait of Weigats , and that choke up some other passages , whereby men have attempted to pass into the south Sea , are compos'd of the accumulation of numerous pieces of ice ( cemented together by cold water ) that are brought down from the great River Oby , and others , so that it may very well be suppos'd , that these * mountainous pieces of ice may be some of these , which , upon the shattering of ice in Bays and straits , partly by the heat of the Sun , and partly by the Tides , may be afterwards by the winds and currents driven all up and down the Seas , to parts very distant from the shore , and some of these it may be , that our Countreymen met with , and obtain'd their fresh water from : Which I the rather incline to think , because that ( as we shall have occasion to observe in another Section ) the main Sea it self is seldom or never frozen . But my scope in all this , is , but to propose a scruple , not an opinion . III. The next and principal thing concerning ice , is the bigness of it , which I find , by the Relations partly of some Acquaintances of my own , and partly of some Navigators into the North , to be sometimes not only prodigious , but now and then scarce credible . And therefore , as I shall mention but few instances , that I have selected out of the best Journals , and other writings I have met with , so I shall add a few more Testimonies to keep them by their mutual support , from being entertain'd with a Disbelief , which their strangeness would else tempt men to . Of the vastness of single mountains of ice , the most stupendious Example , that for ought I know , is to be met with in any language but ours , is that , which I formerly took notice of out of the Dutch Voyage to Nova Zembla , which was ninty six foot high ( that is above twenty foot higher , than on a certain occasion I found the Leads of Westminster Abbey to be . ) But 't is probable , that our Captain James met with as great , if not greater : For though in some places he mentions divers hills of Ice , that were aground in 40. fathom water , and consequently were as deep under water , as that newly taken notice of out of the Hollanders : And though he elsewhere mentions other pieces of no less depth , and twice as high as his top-Mast head , and this in June , yet elsewhere , and long after relating his return home , he has this passage ; We have sail'd through much mountainous Ice far higher then our Top-Mast head : But this day we sail'd by the highest that I ever yet saw , which was incredible indeed to be related . But the stupendiousest piece ( for heighth and depth ) of single Ice , that perhaps has been ever observ'd and measur'd by men , is that which our Famous English Seaman Mr. W. Baffin ( whose name is to be met with in many modern Maps and Globes ) mentions himself to have met with upon the coast of Greenland , whose whole Relation I shall therefore subjoyn , not only because of the stupendiousness of this piece of ice , but because he takes notice of an observation , which I knew not to have been made by any , and comes somewhat near the estimate , we formerly made , of the proportion betwixt the extant and immers'd parts of floating ice , only the following Estimate makes the extant part somewhat greater then we did , which may easily proceed from other mens having , as Mr. Baffin here does , grounded their computation upon what occurr'd to them at Sea , or in salt water , where the ice must sink less , then in fresh water , such as my Estimate suppos'd . Our Navigators words then are these , The 17. of May we sail'd by many great Islands of Ice , some of which were above 200. foot high above water , as I prov'd by one shortly after , which I fonnd to be 240. foot high , and if the report of some men be true , which affirms , that there is but one seventh part of Ice above water , then the height of that piece of Ice which I observed was one hundred and forty fathoms , or one thousand six hundred and eighty foot from the top to the bottom . This proportion I know doth hold in much Ice , but whether it do so in all , I know not . Thus far of the height and depth of single pieces of ice : as for the other Dimensions ( the length and breadth ) I remember not , that I have read of any , that had the Curiosity to measure the extent of any of them , excepting Captain James , whose Ship being once arrested , between some flat and extraordinary large pieces of ice , he and his men went out to walk upon them , and he took the pains to measure some of the pieces , which he says he found to be a 1000. of his paces long . And probably among so many mountains and Islands of ice , there would have been found some intire pieces , of a greater extent then even these , if men had had the curiosity to measure them . Hitherto we have treated of the bigness of single pieces of ice , we will now proceed to say something of the dimensions of the aggregates of many of them , among which having selected four or five as the principal , I remember my self to have yet met with , I presume it will be sufficient to subjoyn them only . About ten of the clock we met with a mighty bank of ice , being by supposition seven or eight leagues , or twenty four miles long , ( says that experienced English Pilot James Hall , in his Voyage of Denmark for the discovery of Greenland . ) Another of our English Navigators mentions , that even in June all the Sea ( wherein he was indeavouring to sail ) as far as he could see from the top of a high hill , was covered with ice , saving that within a quarter of a mile of the shore it was clear round about once in a Tide . By which last clause , it seems , that this vast extent of ice , was either one intire floating Island , or at least a vast bank or rand ( as some Seamen term it ) of ice . But the strangest account of banks of ice , that I have yet met with in any sober Author , is that which is mention'd by the learned French Hydrographer , Fournier , who relates , that in the year 1635. the French fleet sailing to Canada , met with several pieces of ice , as high as steeples , and particularly one , whether piece or bank of ice ( for the French word Glace may signifie either ) which they were troubled to coast along for above forty leagues . If this be the same story , ( as one may suspect it to be , by the circumstances of the place , and fleet , ) there is a great mistake in another place , where our Author speaks of the vastness of the ice : but if it be another story ( as some differing circumstances argue ) the French it seems met with ice far more stupendious , then even that already mentioned . For , ( says our Author ) in the Sea which washes Canada , there is often seen , even in the moneth of August , to pass by , Ices much bigger then Ships . In the year 1635. the French Fleet sailing there , coasted along , for three days and three nights , one that was above 80. leagues long , flat in some places like vast Champions , and high in others like frightful hills . The latter part of which passage may confirm what we formerly deliver'd in another Section , concerning the unequal compagination of 〈◊〉 Islands . To what has been said touching the extent , and other dimensions of floating , or at least loose pieces of ice , it will be fit to add something of the extent of ice , coherent to one or both of those shores , that bound the water , whose upper part is congeal'd . And in the first place , we shall out of many instances to our present purpose , that might be borrowed from the writings of Olaus Magnus , select this one memorable one that shall serve for all : Neque minori bellandi impetu ( says he ) Sueci ac Gothi super aperta glacie , quam in ipsa solidissima terra confligunt ; imo , ut prius dictum est , ubi antea aestivo tempore acerrima commissa sunt bella Navalia , eisdem in locis 〈◊〉 concreta , aciebus militari modo instructis , Bombardis ordinatis , habentur horrendi conflictus . Adeo solida glacies est in equestribus turmis sufferendis , amplitèr vel strictè collocatis . I pretermit then , what he elsewhere relates of the Voyages and Wars made in Winter by the Northern Nations . They that have liv'd in those Countries , relate , as things most known and samiliar ( what has been confirmed to me by more then one unsuspected eye witness ) the long Journeys that are commonly taken upon the Icy Bridges , or rather plains , by travellers , with all their Carriages to very distant places . And that which may bring credit to these strange relations , by shewing , that no less unlikely ones are sometimes true , is , what all Europe knows , that within these three years the whole Swedish Army , led on by their King , march'd over the Sea to the Island of Zeeland , where Copenhagen the Capital City of Denmark stands . * But it may seem much more strange , which I will therefore add , that as in the North Countries frequently , so sometimes even in the warmer Regions of the East , the Sea it self , has by the Cold , been congeal'd to a prodigious breadth . Insolitum est , ( saith Bartholinus ) quod refert Constantinus Manasses in Annalibus accidisse , Theophilo imperante , ut hyems saeva mare cogeret in glaciem ad profunditatem sanè immensam , humidúinque illud Elementum , Lapidis ad duritiem , fluxione prorsus ademptâ , redigeret . And Michael Glycas relates , That in the year 775. the Winter was so sharp in the East , that along the Coast , the Sea ( he means the Mediterranean ) was frozen for 50. leagues , and the Ice was compacted as into a rock , 30. Cubits deep ; so strange a Quantity of snow , likewise falling , that it was rais'd to the height of 30. Cubits above the Ice , which likewise agrees very well with what we formerly noted , touching the possible increase of the height of some pieces of ice by the falling of the snow upon them . IV. It remains now , that we subjoyn a few promiscuous observations concerning ice , that are not so readily reducible to the three foregoing heads . And we shall begin with what was taken notice of by the Dutch in their Nova Zembla Voyage , where relating how they fastned their Ships to a great piece of ice , to shelter themselves from the stormy winds , There ( add they ) we went upon the ice , and wondred much thereat , it was such manner of Ice : for on the top it was full of earth , and there was found about 〈◊〉 eggs , and it was not like other ice , for it was of a perfect Azure colour , like to the skies , whereby there grew great contention of words amongst our men , some saying that it was ice , others that it was frozen land ; for it lay unreasonable high above the water , it was at least eighteen fathom under the water , close to the ground , and ten fathom above the water . The like blew colour in rocky pieces of ice , I remember I have somewhere found , to have been taken notice of by a modern Navigator , or whether the words of Virgil , concerning the frigid Zone , Caerulea glacie concretae , atque imbribus atris , belong to this subject , I leave others to consider , nor shall I stay to examine , whether this blewness , that has been observ'd in ice , be always an inherent or permanent colour , or else sometimes one of those that are styl'd Emphatical . 'T is very considerable , if it be true , what is related by Olaus Magnus , concerning the degenerating ( if I may so speak ) of ice , from its wonted hardness in the Spring of the year . For in the same Chapter , where he gives us the lately transcribed account of the strength of Ice in those Northern Countries , after having interpos'd some other passages , he subjoyns these words ; Liquescente tamen glacie ad principium Aprilis , nullus ejus spissitudini , minus fortitudini , nisi in aurora , ambulando confidit , quia solis diurno aspectu tam fragilis redditur , ut quae-equestres armatos paulo ante portaverat , vix hominem nunc sufferre possit inermen . This puts me in mind to add , that oftentimes in the writers of Journies and Voyages , we meet with mention of great noises made by the breaking of ice , and in this very Chapter our Archbishop taking notice of the clefts that sometimes happen in Champions of ice , adds , That when the ice chances thus to open , especially if it be in the night , the noise of it maybe heard a far off , like the loud and horrid noise of thunder , and of earthquakes . And on this occasion may be subjoyned a couple of passages extant in different places of the formerly mention'd Hall's Voyages : The first is thus delivered ; When we met with a huge and high Island of ice , we steering hard to board the same , and being shota little too Northwards of it , there fell from the top thereof , some quantity of ice , which in the fall did make such a noise , as though it had been the report of five Canons . But the next passage is more directly pertinent to our present subject , and is couch'd in these words ; About twelve of the clock this night , it being still calm , we found our selves suddenly compassed round about with great Islands of ice , which made such a hideous noise , as was most wonderful , so that by no means we could double the same to the westward , wherefore , &c. Of these kind of icy thunders ( as some travellers call them ) there are divers instances to be met with , mention'd in the several Voyages of the Hollanders , & particularly in those to Nova Zembla : But many of those noises seem to be made by the dashing of the great pieces of ice against one another : But if it happen , when the ice ( as sometimes it is said to do ) seems to cleave , as it were , of its own accord ; to us that live in a temperate Climate , it may be a matter of some dispute , whence these loud ruptures of ice may proceed . For Olaus Magnus , in the Chapter above cited , does not improbably ascribe them to the warm exhalations , that in some places ascend out of the ground . And I remember , in favour of this opinion , that I once caused divers pieces of thick ice to be brought out of a cool place into a somewhat warm room , and listening , observ'd a noise to come from them , as if it had been produced by store of little cracks made in them , but somewhat or other prevented me from repeating the Experiment , and satisfying my self about the Conjecture . But having lately inquired of an intelligent Polander , that has travelled much upon these icy plains , he agreed with our Author , and others , as to the frightful noise , that are produc'd by these cracks of ice , but affirm'd upon his own observation ( for that I particularly inquired after ) that these great clefts were often made , not by thawing heat , but by excessive cold , and that he had taken notice of them in extremely sharp weather . Indeed we sometimes observe , that in very bitter frosts the frozen ground will cleave , as we elsewhere have occasion to take notice . But whether that be not a different case from this , or whether the Polonian Gentleman were not mistaken , or whether both these mention'd accounts of the cleaving of ice , may on different conjunctures of circumstances take place , we leave to farther inquiry . There is a tradition concerning ice , about the famous Volcan-Hecla , in Island , which , though verily believ'd among the superstitious vulgar of those parts , is spoken of so slightly by Blefkenius , who being upon that coast , had the curiosity to sail purposely thither , that I think it not worth while to take any farther notice of it . But 't were too tedious to set down in this Section , ( which the strangeness and variety of the Theme has made so prolix already ) the other things , that may be mentioned without impertinency concerning ice ; and therefore we shall here desist from so laborious a task , as also omit the handling of snow and hail : For though they are reducible to ice , yet I shall at least suspend the treating of them , partly because Bartholinus and Meteorologists have sav'd much of my labour , and partly for the reason newly intimated , so that we shall conclude this Section as soon as we have taken notice , that there is yet somewhat relating to ice , which , being in itself considerable , and whereof hitherto no experimental account appears to have been given , what we our selves have tried about it , may challenge to be treated of apart . Title XVI . Experiments and Observations touching the duration of Ice and Snow , and the destroying of them by the Air and several Liquors . 1. IT may be an Experiment , as well instructive as new , to determine , what liquor dissolves ice sooner then others , and in what proportion of quickness the solutions in the several liquors are made . For Men have hitherto contented themselves to suspect in general , that there are other liquors potentially hot , wherein ice will sooner dissolve , then it will in water . But this opinion either being grounded upon no Experience at all , or taken up upon the sight of what happens to pieces of ice , which no care was taken 〈◊〉 reduce to the same bulk and figure , no more then to measure attentively how long one outlasted the other ; we thought fit to try , if we could not bring this matter to Experiment , and make a determination in it , though not exactly true , yet less remote from exactness then had been yet , for ought I know , so much as attempted . 2. In order to this we procured some bullet moulds , and having first carefully stopped the little Crevice , that is wont to remain betwixt the two halfs of the mould , with a good close Cement , we afterwards filled them with water , and carefully closed up the orifice of the hole , at which the water was poured in , and then setting the mould to freez in ice and salt , we found it difficult enough to keep the water ( more or less of it ) from running away through some unperceiv'd passage , before the cold could have time by congealing it to arrest it . But after a while , when we had thus made a bullet of ice , we found it a new and greater difficulty to get it whole out of the moulds , without warming them , for by that way we could indeed loosen the ice , but then we could not avoid thawing it too , and that most times not uniformly : wherefore we tried by greasing the inside of the moulds to keep the ice from sticking so close to them , ( notwithstanding the distention the water suffered by its being frozen ) but that we might pick out the bullet entire , and this succeeding well enough , we hoped by this way to obtain our end , which was to have a competent number of pieces of ice of equal bulk , and of the same figure to be put at once to thaw in several liquors ; but we could by no means procure moulds , which had any number of distinct cells of the same bigness , those long pairs of moulds that were to be met with in shops , having their distinct cells generally made on purpose of very different bignesses , which rendred them altogether useless for our design . Wherefore we were fain , for want of an exacter way , to take a glass pipe of the most even and Cylindrical that we had , and of a bore capable to admit a big mans little finger , this glass being stopt at one end , and kept open at the other , was filled to the height of about half a foot or more of fair water ; and ice , and salt , being heaped up about it , that the cold might reach as far as the 〈◊〉 did , it was quickly frozen . In the mean while , I had caused several wide mouth'd glasses to be brought into my Chamber ( wherein , by reason of some indisposition , that hindred me from going abroad , I kept some fire ) and having poured several liquors into these glasses , which had been placed all on a row , we suffered them to rest there a while , that the ambient Air might have time to reduce them , as far as it could , to its temper , and consequently to the same temper as to heat and cold , and then with the warmth of ones hand , the included ice being loosened from the glass , as it was taken out , and a ruler divided into inches and eights , being laid alongst it , with a knife a little warmed , the ice was soon , and yet not carelesly , divided into several small Cylinders of three quarters of an inch , a piece ; and these Cylinders thus reduced to as sensible an equality as we could , were nimbly and carefully put into the several liquors hereafter to be mentioned , and whilest we our selves watched very attentively , till each of these icy Cylinders was quite , and yet but just dissolved , we caused others to keep time by the help of a Pendulum , whose Vibrations were each a second minute ( or 60. part of a Common Minute , whereof 60. go to make an hour ) and it was easie for those we appointed , to watch the Vibrations of the Pendulum , notwithstanding the Quickness of its Motion , because it was fitted to a little Instrument purposely contrived for such nice observations , wherein a long Index moving upon a divided Dyal plate , did very manifestly point out the number of the Diadromes made by the Pendulum . 3. This Experiment was afterwards repeated twice with Cylinders of ice , each of them an inch long , and though the successes of these trials were various enough , yet we shall subjoyn both the last , ( as being made with more advantage then the first ) that the more light may be gathered from them , and that at least we may discover how difficult it is to make such Experiments in this matter , as that all the nice circumstances of them may safely be relied on . I. Trial. 1. Oyl of Vitriol , where a Cylinder of Ice , of an iuch long , being put into , lasted 5. minutes . 2. Spirit of Wine , ( in which the ice sunk ) lasted 12. minutes . 3. Aqua fortis lasted 12 ½ minutes . 4. Water lasted about 12. minutes . 5. Oyl of Turpentine lasted ( not good ) 44. minutes . 6. Air lasted 64. minutes . II. Trial. 1. In Oyl of Vitriol , where an inch of Cylindrical ice lasted 3. minutes . 2. In Spirit of Wine , lasted 13. minutes . 3. In Water , lasted 26. minutes . 4. In Oyl of Turpentine , lasted 47. minutes . 5. In Sallet Oyl , lasted 52. minutes . 6. In the Air , lasted 152. minutes . 4. We likewise thought it worth trying , whether there would be any difference , and how much difference there would be in the Duration of pieces of ice of the same bulk and figure , some of them made of common water , and others of frozen Wine , Milk , Oyl , Urine , and other spirituous liquors ; these several pieces being exposed to be thaw'd in the same Air , or other ambient liquor . 5. We also tried whether Motion would impart a heat to ice , by nimbly rubbing a strong piece of ice upon a plate of ice , and though this seemed to hasten the dissolution in that part of the icy plate , where the Altrition had been made , yet we were unwilling to determine the matter , till further and exacter trial have been made . 6. And this brings into my mind an Experiment , that has by some been thought very strange . The occasion I remember was , that I received the last Winter the honour of a visit from a Nobleman of great eminency and learning , who chancing to come in , while I was making some trials with ice , would needs know what I was doing with it , but the presence of a very fair Lady , in whom Hymen had made him happy , and of some other Company of that Sex , that he brought along with him , inviting me to give him the answer , that I thought would be most suited and acceptable to his Company , I merrily told him , that I was trying , how to heat a Cold liquor with ice , and to satisfie him , that was no impossibility , I held out an open mouth'd glass , full of a certain liquor ( which for some just reasons I do not describe , but do plainly teach it in an opportuner place ) and desired them to feel , whether it were not actually Cold , and when they were satisfied , it was so , I chose among the pieces ofice , that lay by me , that I judg'd by the eye to be fit for my purpose , ( for every piece was not so , for a reason I elsewhere shew , ) and throwing it into this liquor , it did not only in a trice vanish in it , but the Lady , I was mentioning , seeing the liquor smoak , and advancing hastily to try , whether it were really warm , found it so hot , that she was quickly fain to let it alone , and had almost burnt her tender hand , with which she had , in spight of my 〈◊〉 wasion , taken hold of the glass , which Her Lord himself could 〈◊〉 indure to hold in his . But this Experiment , which for the main I have repeated before competent witnesses , though it be not impertinent to the History of Cold , yet I shall not build much upon it , because , how strange soever many have been pleased to think it , I shall elsewhere shew , that I made use of a certain unperceivable slight , which , in my opinion , did as well , as the nature of the liquor and the texture of the ice , contribute to the suddenness and surprizingness of the Effect . 7. But to return to the duration of the effects of Cold , I think those much mistaken , who imagine , that the effects of Cold do continually depend upon the actual presence and influence of the manifest efficients , as the light of the Air depends upon the Sun , or Fire , or other luminous body , upon whose removal it immediately ceases . For when cold agents have actually brought a disposed subject to a state of congelation , though the manifest efficient cause cease from acting , or perhaps from being , the effect may yet continue . For in most cases , if a certain texture be once produced in a body , it is agreeable to the constancy of nature , that it persevere in that state , till it be forceably put out of it , by some agent capable to overpower it , and though we usually see ice and snow , as it were of their own accord to melt away , when the frosty constitution of the Air ceases ; yet the cause of that may be not barely the cessation of frosty weather , but that those easily dissoluble bodies are exposed to the free Air , which being heated by the Sun beams , and perhaps by calorifick expirations from the earth , is furnisht with an actual cause , upon whose account it destroys the texture of the ice and snow ; but even here above ground , if snow be well compacted into great masses , in which by reason of the closeness of the little icickles , but little Air is allowed to get between them , I have seen such masses of snow last so long , not only in thawing , but in rainy weather , as to be wondered at , and if such snow ( or ice ) be kept in a place where it may be fenced from the Sun , and other external enimies , though the place , it is lodged in , be not any thing near cold enough to produce ice , yet it will , as some trial hath taught me , preserve ice and snow for a very long time . Appendix to the XVI . Title . AN eminent instance to confirm what is delivered at the close of the foregoing Section , is afforded us by the conservatories , wherein snow and ice are kept all the Summer long . Of these I have seen in Italy , and elsewhere ; but supposing I had the command of some Italian , and other books , wherein I should meet with the dimensions , and other circumstances that belong to them , my finding my expectation disappointed by those books , makes me think it very well worth while to subjoyn somewhat about things , that may give us opportunity of making a multitude of Experiments about Cold. And therefore meeting the other day ( by good chance ) with my ingenious friend Mr. J. Evelyn , his inquisitive travels , and his insight into the more polite kinds of knowledge , and particularly Architecture , made me desire and expect of him that account of the Italian way of making conservatories of snow , that I had miss'd of , in several Authors ; and having readily obtain'd my desire of him , I shall not injure so justly esteem'd a style as his , to deliver his description in any other words , then those ensuing ones , wherein I received it from him . [ The snow Pits in Italy , &c. are sunk in the most solitary and cool'd places , commonly at the foot of some mountain or elevated ground , which may best protect them from the Meridional and Occidental Sun , 25. foot wide at the orifice , and about 50. in depth , is esteem'd a competent Proportion . And though this be excavated in a Conical form , yet it is made flat at the bottom or point . The sides of the Pit are so joyc'd , that boards may be nail'd upon them very closely joynted . ( His Majesties at Greenwich newly made on the side of the Castle-hill , is , as I remember , steen'd with Brick , and hardly so wide at the mouth . ) About a yard from the bottom is fix'd a strong Frame or Tressle , upon which lies a kind of woodden grate ; the top or cover is double thatch'd , with Reed or Straw , upon a copped frame or roof , in one of the sides whereof is a narrow door-case , hipped on like the top of a Dormer , and thatch'd , and so it is complete . To conserve Snow . They lay clean Straw upon the grate or wattle , so as to keep the Snow from running through , whilest they beat it to a hard cake of an icy consistence , which is near one foot thick , upon this they make a layer of straw , and on that snow , beaten as before , and so continue a bed of straw , and a bed of snow , S. S. S. till the pit be full to the brim . Finally , they lay Straw or Reed ( for I remember to have seen both ) a competent thickness over all , and keep the door lock'd . This grate is contriv'd , that the snow melting by any accident in laying , or extraordinary season of weather , may drain away from the mass , and sink without stagnating upon it , which would accelerate the Dissolution , and therefore the very bottom is but slightly steen'd . Those who are most circumspect and curious , preserve a tall Circle of shady trees about the pit , which may rather shade , then drip upon it . ] Thus far this learned Gentlemans account of Conservatories of Snow . And on this occasion I might add what the Dutch in their Nova Zembla Voyage relate , namely , that the three and twentieth of June , though it were fair Sunshiny weather , yet the heat was not so strong as to melt the Snow , to afford them water to drink , and that in spight of their being reduc'd to put Snow into their mouths , to melt it down into their throats , they were compelled to indure great thirst . But because it was in so cold a Climate , that this duration of the Snow was observ'd , I shall rather take notice , that in the Alps , and other high mountains , even of warmer Climates , though the snow doth partly melt towards the end of Summer ; yet in some places , where the reflection of the Sun beams is less considerable , the tops will even then remain covered with snow , as we among many others have in those Countries observed . And for further confirmation of the Doctrine deliver'd at the end of this 16. Title , I shall subjoyn a Passage , which having unexspectedly met with in an unlikely place of Captain James's Voyage , I think not fit to leave unmention'd here , not only because 't is the sole artificial observation that I yet met with , concerning the lasting of ice , and so may recommend to us the Ingenuity of an Author , whose Testimony we somewhat frequently make use of , but because the observation is in it self remarkable , and notwithstanding the difference of places may serve for the purpose we alledge it : Our Navigators words are these ; I have in July , and in the beginning of August taken some of the Ice into the ship , and cut it square two foot , and put it into the Boat , where the Sun did shine on it with a very strong reflex about it . And notwithstanding the warmth of the Ship ( for we kept a good fire ) and our breathings , and motions it would not melt in eight or ten days . And it is also considerable to our present purpose , what the same Author elsewhere has about the durableness of the Congelation of the ground not yet thaw'd at the beginning of June . For the ground ( says he ) was yet frozen , and thus much we found by experience in the burying of our men , in setting up the Kings Standard towards the latter end of June , and by our Well at our coming away , in the beginning of July , at which time upon the land , for some other reasons , it was very hot weather . Title XVII . Considerations and Experiments touching the Primum Frigidum . 1. THe dispute , which is the Primum Frigidum , is very well known among Naturalists ; some contending for the Earth , others for the Water , others for the Air , and some of the Moderns for Nitre : But all seeming to agree , that there is some Body or other , that is of its own nature supremely Cold , and by participation of which , all other cold Bodies obtain that quality . 2. But for my part , I think , that , before men had so hotly disputed , which is the Primum Frigidum , they would have done well to enquire , whether there be any such thing or no ( in the sense newly express'd . ) For though I make some scruple , resolutely to contradict such several Sects of Philosophers , as agree in taking It for granted , yet I think it may be not irrationally Question'd , and that upon two or three accounts . 3. For ( first ) it is disputable enough , as we shall hereafter see , whether cold be ( as they speak ) a positive quality , or a bare privation of heat , and till this question be determined , it will be somewhat improper to wrangle sollicitously , which may be the Primum Frigidum . For if a Bodies being cold , signifie no more , then it s not having its insensible parts so much agitated , as those of our Sensories , by which we are wont to judge of tactile qualities ; there will be no cause to bring in a Primum Frigidum , upon whose account particular Bodies must be cold , since to make this or that Body so , it suffices that the Sun or the Fire , or some other agent , whatever it were , that agitated more vehemently its parts before , does now either cease to agitate them , or agitate them but very remisly : So that , till it be determin'd , whether cold be a positive quality , or but a privative ; it will be needless to contend , what particular Body ought to be esteem'd the primum frigidum ( in the sense above specifi'd . ) 4. Secondly , Though it be taken for granted , not only by the Schools , but by their Adversaries the Chymists , that heat and moisture , driness and gravity , and I know not how many other qualities , must have each of them a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or a principal subject to reside in , upon whose account , and by participation of which , that Quality belongs to the other Bodies , wherein it is to be met with ; though this be so , I say , yet we have * elsewhere fully enough manifested , that this fundamental Notion , upon which much of the Doctrine of Qualities , is both by Aristotelians , and vulgar Chymists , superstructed , is but an unwarrantable conceit , and therefore not sufficient for a wary Naturalist to build the Notion of a primum frigidum upon ; there being indeed many qualities , as gravity , and figure , and motion , and colour , and sound , &c. of which no true and genuine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can ( for ought I could ever yet discover ) be assigned : and because heat and cold are look'd upon as Diametrically opposite Qualities , we may consider , that it will be very hard to show , that there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of heat ; since stones , and mettals , and plants , and animals , and ( very few excepted ) all consistent Bodies , we are conversant with , may by motion be brought to heat , which to attribute to the participation of some portion or other of the imaginary Element of fire , is not only precarious ( being affirm'd by many , and prov'd by none ) but erroneous , or at least needless , as we have more at large declar'd in other papers . 5. A third thing , that induces me to question , whether there be a primum frigidum , is , that among those Bodies , that the chiefest Sects of Philosophers , whether Ancient or Modern , have pitch'd upon , there is not any , that seems clearly to deserve the title of the primum frigidum . But to make this appear , we must distinctly ( though as briefly as our design will permit ) consider those four several Bodies , which we have ( at the Beginning of this Section ) taken notice of , to stand in competition , in the Opinions of Philosophers , for the title of primum frigidum . 6. First , then Plutarch and others contend , that it is the Earth ; but , to omit other Arguments , we see , that the Earth is frozen not by its own cold , but by its vicinity to the Air , as may be argued by this , viz. that the congealing cold even in the midst of Winter affects but the surface of the Earth , where it borders on the Air , and seldom pierces above a few feet , or , at most , yards , beneath that part wherein the Earth is exposed , and immediately contiguous , to the Air , as may appear by what we have formerly deliver'd concerning the small depth , to which frosts reach in the ground . And therefore if the Earth be protected from the Air ( though by so cold a Body as water ) it may be kept unfrozen all the Winter long , as may be gathered from that remarkable practise in the great Salt-marshes of the French Islands of Xaintonge , where , as a diligent Writer of that Countrey , very well vers'd in the making of the French Salt , informs us , when once the season of Coagulating Salt by the heat of the Sun is quite past , the Owners are careful by opening certain Sluces to overflow all the Banks , and Dams , that make and divide the Salt-ponds , and serve for the Workmen to pass to and fro : for ( says my Author in his own language ) if they left those Marshes ( or Salt-works ) uncovered , the frost would make such havock amongst them , that it would be necessary to make them up again every year , but by means of the water , they are preserv'd ( or kept in repair ) from year to year : which practise I the rather mention , because the hint , it affords , as it is considerable to our present purpose , so it may on some occasions be applicable to practises useful to humane society . 7. Besides , the Earth being ( according to those we reason with ) the coldest , heaviest , and solidest of Elements , it is not so probable , as to excuse them from the need of proving it , that those excessively cold Agents , that freez the Clouds into Snow and Hail , should be 〈◊〉 Exhalations carried up to the middle Region of the Air , especially since it must be done by Agents , either hard to be guess'd at , or considerably hot . And 't is not easie to give a reason , why , if Elementary Corpuscles steaming from the Earth , have such a congealing cold , where they are disunited , and but interspers'd among the particles of Air , the Mass of the Earth it self , whence those exhalations are suppos'd to proceed , should not be able also to congeal water , since the Terrestrial Corpuscles being more thick set , and united in a Clod of Earth , then in an equal portion of the Atmosphere , it seems , that where the frigorifick matter is more dense , the cold should be more vehement , as Philosophers observe , that heat is more intense in a glowing bar of Iron , then an equal portion of the flame of kindled Straw . 8. But ( not to repeat what we formerly mention'd about Colds being a Privation ) there is another Argument against the Earths being the primum frigidum , and that is taken from the Subterraneal fires , which breaking forth in many places of the Earth , as in Aetna , Vesuvius , Hecla , the Pico of Tenariffe , &c. seem to argue a Subterraneal fire , upon whose existence not only many Chymists build great matters , but even divers Philosophers have adopted it , and the learned Gassendus himself seems so far to countenance it , as to imploy it as one Argument of the Earths being naturally neither hot nor cold . The mention of this Subterraneal fire brings into my mind some things that I have met with amongst good , though not Classick , Authors , and amongst men that have been either diggers of ( or conversant in ) Mines , not improper to be here taken notice of . For though I do not now intend to declare my opinion about the Central fire , either of the Chymists , or Cartesians , and though the Examples newly mention'd , and such other seem to me but very inconsiderable , in reference to the whole Earth , yet 't is observable to our present purpose , that there should be so much Subterraneal heat or warmth , at least generally to be met with : For even where there appear no manifest signs of Subterraneal fires , I have known those , that were wont to go to the Bottom of deep Mines , complain , that a very little Exercise would put them into a great sweat ; and a learned and experienced French Doctor , that hath written in his own Language of Stones and Jewels , affirms , that in such Mines the Subterraneal Vapors and Exhalations , are visibly so abundant , and likewise so hot , that the Mine-men are constrain'd ( which a person I spoke with affirmed to me , touching himself ) to work in their shirts , by reason of the great heat they there felt , and though I would have been glad to know , whether those deep places would have appear'd as hot , when judg'd of by a seal'd Weather-glass , as they did to the Mine-mens Sensories , because of some little doubt I harbour'd , whether much of that copious sweating , and seeming heat , might not proceed from the thickness of the dampish Air , and its unfitness for Respiration ; yet , because a Virtuoso , that had a Lead-Mine of his own , in which he wrought himself for curiosity , answered me , that he was not wont to find any difficulty of breathing in the place , where he was so apt to sweat ; and since I find not , that others have complain'd of having their respiration incommodated in such places , unless by Accidental Damps , my scruple was much abated , and the rather , because the Author lately mention'd , expresly affirms , that the Sudorifick heat ( if I may so speak ) is to be found in the Bowels of the Earth , as well in Summer 〈◊〉 in Winter , which prevents the ascribing of it to Antiperistasis . And in other places then Mines 't is generally observ'd , that Wells and Springs freez not , if the place , whence the water is drawn , be very deep , but , as we have observ'd elsewhere , that it oft comes up smoaking , and , as it were , reaking , which argues , that at the least the Earth , wherein it was harbour'd , or through which it pass'd , was , if not warm , free from such a degree of Cold , as might be exspected in the Earth , if it were the primum frigidum . Nor can it be reasonably pretended , that the Subterraneal heat comes from the Beams of the Sun , since learned Men have observed , that those heat not the Earth above six or seven foot deep even in Southern Countries , and though we should allow them to pierce three times as far , yet that would not be considerable to the depth of the Mines above mentioned , and if the lower part of the Earth were of its own nature cold , and received the heat , it discloses only from the Sun and Stars ; the deeper men dig , the lesser of heat and steams they would meet with , whereas the above cited French Minerallist affirms , that the lower they go , the more vapours , exhalations , and heat they find . 9. But because this learned man delivers this circumstance in a dogmatical , rather then an historical way , I will add somewhat out of a relation ( whence I have * elsewhere taken other particulars ) made by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 likewise , that had 〈◊〉 curiosity to descend himself into the deep Mines of Hungary , some of which , that he went down into , may be collected by his Narrative , to have three or four 〈◊〉 fathom , that is eighteen , or twenty four hundred foot of perpendicular depth . This Author then relates , that after he had descended about 180. or a hundred fathoms , he came into a very warm Region of the Earth , which lasted to the bottom of the Mine , and is so 〈◊〉 both Winter and Summer , that the Laborors are wont to work in it without their clothes , and he was scarce able to indure the heat of it , although the external Air were very hot : the weather being very fair , and the moneth July , * He adds , that he having demanded of the Overseer of the Mine , whence this heat came , he was answer'd , to that and several other questions , That it came from the lower parts of the earth ; that in all deep Mines , after one is past the Colder crust of the earth , one comes into a region , that is perpetually warm , and that where ever they dig the ground , after they are come to such a depth ( which he elsewhere mentions to be about 80. or a hundred fathom ) they feel no more any cold , but a perpetual heat , how deep soever they dig , ( * yet without observing , that after they are once into that warm region , they find the heat sensibly increase , the nearer they approach to the centre of the earth , unless by accident they happen to dig through vains of hotter Minerals . ) And these answers ( subjoyns my Author ) I received not in one Mine alone , or from a single overseer , but in all the Mines , and from all the Masters of them ; so that if these were not mistaken , we may safely conclude , that as far as experience can inform us , the body of the earth in its lowermost parts , where 't is presum'd to be coldest , is every where , and that considerably , hot . I said , if these Mine-men were not mistaken , because having been in the bottom of some Mines my self , though I find it acknowledged , that 't is still warm in the bottom of deep ones , yet I confess , I somewhat suspect by what I have observ'd , that this degree of heat , which our French Physician found in the Hungarian Mines , might be rather in great part from the peculiar nature of those places , or of the Minerals generated there , then barely ( as he and those that inform'd him suppose ) from the greatness of their depth beneath the surface of the earth ; for I know several mixtures , besides those that are common , of bodies neither of them actually hot , which will produce a considerable degree of heat . And very credible eye witnesses affirm , that in some parts of England , they dig up good store of a kind of Mineral , which is thought to be of a Vitriolate nature , which by the bare addition of common water , will grow hot , almost to ignition . So that the Hungarian Mines being deep , and as appears by our Authors Narrative , being not 〈◊〉 of water enough to make a Subterraneal Spring in the Mine its self , besides what water may plentifully ascend in the forms of vapours , and moisten the Oar , it may be suspected , that either the water , or some appropriated Mineral spirit or juice ( of which the bowels of the earth may contain divers , that we know nothing of ) may produce together with the Mineral a warm steam , which for want of sufficient vent in those narrow , and close places , may heat them considerably , which conjecture may be countenanced by these three circumstances , that I took notice of in our Authors Narrative ; one , That the smoak that copiously ascended out of the Mine by the perpendicular grove , was not barely hot , but consisted of stinking exhalations , which were so saline , and fretting , as oftentimes to corrode and spoil both the woodden ladders or stairs , and the iron instruments of the diggers . The other , that the overseers themselves of the Mines , told Morinus ( as we lately saw ) that they in some places met with veins of hot Minerals , which made it hotter , then the bare vicinity of those places to the centre of the earth would have done . And lastly , * as our Author was descending into the golden Mine at Cremnitz , he found in one place , the heat to increase as he descended more and more , ( which seems not to agree with a passage we lately mention'd out of him ) and to exceed any he had met with in any other Mine ; and afterwards the overseer bringing him into a room , that abounded with smaragdine Vitriol , ( the Mineral whence this heat proceeded ) though the room were spacious , he found there , besides a sharp spirit very offensive to his throat , so troublesome a heat , that he was ready to faint away with sweating , and very much wondered how the diggers were able to work there . And elsewhere the Author himself notes , that such hot Mines of Vitriol , or Sulphur , may be found even in the first region of the earth , ( as he calls that which is somewhat near the surface , and which he thinks 〈◊〉 to name the cold region ) and within a large sphere of activity make it perpetually hot . But this , as I was intimating , I mention but as a suspicion , or a conjecture , and notwithstanding that the degree of heat may be much increased in these Mines , by the concurrance of accidental causes , in case the conjecture be admitted ; yet since the frequency of a sensible degree of heat in very deep places does very little favour their opinion , that will allow the earth to have no other heat , but what it receives from the Sun beams , or by the manifest fire of burning hills , as Aetna and Vesuvius . And if it should be objected , that this Subterraneal heat is adventitious to the Earth , which is supremely cold of its own nature ; Gassendus might reply , that 't is as likely , that the coldness of it near the superficies may be adventitious too , and that it appears at least as manifestly , that the one proceeds from the contiguous Air , as it does , that the other proceeds from some included fire ; and if I misremember not , he hath this consideration , that 't is somewhat strange , that Nature should have intended the Earth for its summum frigidum , and yet that a great part ( and for ought we know the greatest ) should be constantly kept warm , either by the Sun , as under the Torrid Zone , or by the Subterraneal fires . But the objection mention'd against Gassendus , opposes but one of the Arguments we have alledg'd against the Earths being the primum frigidum , and would leave the others in their force , though it did more convincingly answer , that , against which 't is framed , then it seems to do . 10. And if the Patrons of the Earths coldness , to evade the Arguments I have alledged , should pretend , that when they affirm the Earth to be the primum frigidum , they mean not the Elementary Earth , but some Body that is mingled with it ; I shall desire to know , which 't is they mean of the many other Bodies , that make up the Terrestrial Globe , that we may examine what right it has to that Title ; and in the mean time I shall conclude against them , that the Earth it self has none , since they grant a colder Body then it , and such a one as the earth must be beholding to , for the greatest degrees of coldness it chances to possess . 11. But though I presume , enough has been said to make it appear unlikely , that the Earth should be the primum frigidum , yet I must in this dissent from the learned Gassendus , that he thinks the Earth , not only not to be the primum frigidum , but not to be naturally cold any more then hot . For the insensible parts of the Earth , like those of other firm Bodies , being heavy , and perhaps gross , and either having no constant motion at all , or at least a far more remiss agitation , then that of our Sensories ; it seems to follow , that the Earth must seem cold to us , unless it be by the communicated heat , or motion of some extrinsick Agent , put into a degree of agitation , that belongs not to its nature ; and for the like reason I think it not improbable , that pure Earth should in its own Nature be colder , then either pure Water or pure Air , since the Earth being a consistent Body , its component particles are at rest among themselves , or at least mov'd with an almost infinite slowness , whereas Water and Air being fluids , their component particles must be in a restless and various motion , and consequently be less remote from heat , which is a state wherein the various agitation of the minute particles is more vehement . 12. And if those , that plead for the Earth , had declar'd , that they meant not the pure or Elementary Earth , but that part of the Terrestrial Globe , that is distinct from the Sea , and other Waters , that make it up , and would have Earth in that sense not to be the primum frigidum , but only the summum frigidum , perhaps they might have a better plea for their Opinion , then they can urge for theirs , who contend for the Water or the Air , especially , if to countenance their Opinion , this memorable observation be added , which I have met with among those Navigators , that have had the greatest Experience of the Frigid Zone ; for the Dutch , that sail'd thrice to Nova 〈◊〉 , and once wintered there , affirm in their first voyage , that the highest degrees of Cold are not to be met with in the main Sea , where yet men are most expos'd to the Operations of the Air , and of the Water , but either upon the Land or near it . That accurate Geometrician and Hydrographer Fournier tells us , that in 1595. the Hollanders being intercepted by Icy Scholes in the strait of Weigats , and meeting with certain Muscovites , demanded of them , whether those Seas were always frozen , and were answered , that neither the Northern Sea , nor that of Tartary did ever freez , and that 't was only that strait with the Sea contiguous to the shores of some Bays and Gulphs , that were frozen ; and our judicious Author , not only adds , that in effect all those that sail into those parts relate , That all those Lumps of Ice are such as have been loosened , and severed from the Islands , and the Rivers of the Samojeds and Tartars , but adventures to affirm in general terms , that 't is certain , the main Seas never freez , and that 't is but the confines , and shores of some of them , that are frozen . 13. That the water is the primum frigidum , the Opinion of Aristotle has made it to be , that of the schools , and of the generality of Philosophers . But I can as little acquiesce in this opinion , as in the former , not finding it agreeable to what experience teaches us . 14. For not to mention , that it would be very difficult to prove , that divers very cold Bodies , as Gold and Silver , and Crystal , and several other fusible stones have in them any water at all , to which their coldness may with any degree of probability be ascribed ; nor to urge the Arguments , that some Modern contenders for the supreme coldness of the Air are wont to imploy ; not ( I say ) to insist on such things , I shall content my self to make use of this obvious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Cold , that in Rivers , Ponds , and other receptacles of water , the congelation begins at the Top where the liquor is expos'd to the immediate contact of the Air , which sufficiently argues , that the Air is colder then the Water , since it is able not only sensibly to refrigerate it , but to deprive it of its fluidity , and congeal it into Ice , whereas if the water it self were the primum frigidum , either it ought to be , at least as to the major part of it , always congeal'd , or we may justly demand a reason , why , when it does freez , the glaciation should not begin in the middle , or at the bottom , as soon as at the Top , if not sooner . And our Arguments against the precedency of the water in point of coldness , may be strengthen'd by this , That frosts are wont to be hardest , when the Air is very clear , and freest from Aqueous vapors , whereas in rainy weather , wherein such vapors most abound , the cold is wont to be far more remiss : To which we may add , what we lately deliver'd from the observation of Navigators , that even in the frigid Zone the main Sea , where yet the water is in the greatest mass , and so most likely , as well as advantag'd to disclose its nature , never freezes , though the Straits , and Bays , and Gulphs be frozen over , which argues , that the greatest degrees of Cold are rather to be assign'd to the Air , or to the Earth , then to the Water , which by the practise formerly mention'd of the Masters of the French Salt Marshes appears to be ( when it is of a considerable depth ) fitter to preserve Bodies from congelation , then to congeal them , which instance I the rather repeat , because it seems to argue , that the water is not so much as dispos'd to receive any very intense degree of cold at a remote distance from the Air : for though Navigators tell us of exceeding thick pieces of Ice , yet , as we have already elsewhere noted , we are not bound to believe , that the congealing cold has pierced any thing near so much as that thickness amounts to from the superficies of the Sea directly downwards ; for though it were no great matter if it did , in comparison of that depth of the Sea , which , though the water be naturally cold , the sharpest Air is unable to congeal , yet we have elsewhere proved , that those thick masses of Ice , are not solid and intire pieces , but rather heaps of many 〈◊〉 , and other fragments of Ice , which running upon one another , or sliding under one another , are by the congelation of the intercepted water ( and perchance half thaw'd snow ) as it were , cemented together into mis-shapen and unweildy masses ; which conjecture agrees very well with that observation of the Ingenious Captain James , which he delivers in these words . It seldom rains after the middle of September , but snows , and that snow will not melt on the lands , nor sands : At low water , when it snows ( which it doth very often ) the sands are all covered over with it , which the half tide carries 〈◊〉 ously ( twice in twenty four hours ) into the great Bay , which is the common Rendezvous of it . Every low water , are the sands left clear to gather more to the increase of it . Thus doth it dayly gather in this manner , till the latter end of Octob. and by that time hath it brought the Sea to that coldness , that as it snows , the snow will lye upon the water in flakes , without changing its colour , but with the wind is wrought together , and as the Winter goes forward , it begins to freez on the surface of it , two or three inches , or more in one night , which being carried with the half tide , meets with some obstacle ( as it soon doth ) and then it crumples , and so runs upon it self , that in few hours it will be five or six foot thick ; the half tide still flowing , carries it so fast away , that by December it is grown to an infinite multiplication of Ice . Thus far this Navigator , to which I shall add another passage out of one of his Countreymen ( Mr. Hudson ) ( famous for the Northern Discoveries , that bare his name ) by which , added to what has been elsewhere deliver'd to the same purpose , we may be invited to believe , that the vast Hills and Islands of Ice , that are to be met with about the Straits of Weigats and elsewhere , are not generated of the Sea it self . It s no marvel ( says he ) that there is so much Ice in the Sea towards the Pole , so many Sounds and Rivers being in the Lands of Nova Zembla , and Newland to ingender it , besides the coasts of Pechora , Russia , and Greenland , with Lappia , as by proof I find by my Travel in these parts . 15. But for all this , I think not fit , as does the Ingenious Gassendus , and some others , to make the water indifferent , as to heat and cold . For , as I formerly noted concerning the Earth ; so I must now represent touching the water , that , setting aside the 〈◊〉 of the Sun , which is but adventitious , where it does operate , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many vast portions of that Element , which it 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 reach , the insensible parts of water are much less agitated , then those of our Sensories temperately dispos'd , and consequently may in regard of us be judg'd cold . For though water being a Liquor , I readily allow it a various Motion of its component Corpuscles , ( that being requisite to make a Body fluid , ) yet such an agitation , which is sufficient for fluidity , may be , and often is , far more remiss , then that of the spirits , Blood , and other liquors of so hot a Sanguineous animal as Man , as we see , that Urine , though after it has been long omitted , it continues a fluid Body , yet its parts are far less agitated , then they were , when it came hot , and reeking out of the Bladder . 16. And upon this occasion , I shall add , what by inquiry I have learned , that ( except the parts somewhat near the superficies of the water , which the heat of the Sun , or the warmth of the neighbouring lower Region of the Air may give some warmth to ) the whole Body of the Sea is very cold ; for being very well acquainted with one , that for some time got a livelihood , by going down into the Bottom of the Sea , to fetch up what could be recovered out of shipwrackt vessels , I purposely inquired of him , what cold he felt under water , and he more then once told me , that though near the Top of the water the cold were very moderate , yet when he was necessitated to descend a great depth , he found it so great , that he could not very long support it ; and particularly he told me , that having occasion to descend about twelve or fourteen fathom deep ( which is nothing in comparison of the depth of many Seas ) to fasten ropes to the Ordinance of a great ship , that was some years since cast away , near the coast of one of the Northern Countries , though the Engine that was let down with him supplied him so well with Air , that he was not incommodated in point of Respiration , and though he felt no other inconveniencies , that might disswade his tarrying longer , yet the cold was so great , and troublesome , that he was not able to endure it above two or three hours , but was constrain'd to remount to a milder , as well as a higher Region . I wish'd several times he had had with him a seal'd Weather-glass ( for ordinary Thermometers would on that occasion have been unserviceable ) to prevent some little doubt , that might be made , whether the intense Cold he felt might not be only and chiefly in reference to his Body , which might be so alter'd , and dispos'd by this new Briny Ambient , as to make such a disturbance in the course or texture of his Blood , as that which makes Aguish persons so cold at the beginning of the fit , though the temperature of the Ambient Body continue the same . But this is not the only person , that found the Sea Exceeding cold , for I remember Beguinus relates from the mouth of a Marseillian Knight , that was overseer of the Coral-fishing in the Kingdom of Tunis , that having upon that coast let down a young man , to feel , whether Coral were hard or soft , as it grew in the water , when this man was come about eight fathom , near the Bottom of the Sea , he felt it exceeding cold . To which we shall add the testimony of a sober Traveller , Josephus Acosta , who tells us , That it is a thing remarkable , that in the depth of the Ocean , the water cannot be made hot by the violence of the Sun , as in Rivers : Finally ( he subjoyns ) even as Salt-Petre ( though it be of the nature of Salt ) hath the property to cool water , even so we see by experience , that in some parts and havens , the salt water doth refresh , the which we have observed in that of Callao , where they put the water or wine which they drink , into the Sea in Flaggons to be refreshed , whereby we may undoubtedly find , that the Ocean hath this property to temper and moderate the excessive heat . For this cause we feel greater heat at Land then at Sea , caeteris paribus , and commonly Countries lying near the Sea , are cooler then those that are farther off . By all these testimonies , it seems to appear , that both in very cold Regions , and very hot , the deep parts of the Sea seem to be very Cold , the Sun beams being not able to penetrate the Sea to any great depth ; for I remember , that having enquired of the Diver I lately mentioned , whether he could discern the light of the Sun at any great distance from the surface of the water , he answered me , that he could not , but as he went down deeper and deeper , so he found it darker and darker , and that to a degree , that would scarce have been expected in so Diaphanous a Body as water is . 17. But this submarine cold ( if I may so call it ) though it be great and considerable , is not so intense , as to intitle water to be the primum frigidum , since as cold as our Divers found it at the bottom of the Sea , they did not find it cold enough to freez the water there , as the Air often does at the Top. 18. The next Opinion we are to consider , is that of the Stoicks of old , and adopted by the generality of Modern Philosophers , that are not Peripateticks , who assert the Air to be the primum frigidum : But being ere long more particularly to treat of the Temperature of the Air , we will reserve till then to examine , whether it be cold of its own nature or not ; but in the mean time , we shall here take leave to question , whether it ought to be esteem'd the primum frigidum . For not to mention , that Aristotle , and the Schools , with many other learned men , think the Air so far from being the coldest of the Elements , that they reckon it among the hot ones , because I confels their opinion is not mine , not to represent the heat of the Air in the Torrid Zone , nor that by the generality of Philosophers , the upper Region of the Air , which is believed to make incomparably the greatest part of it , is always hot , and the lower Region is so too , in comparison of the middle , though the coldness even of this is not perhaps unquestionable , not to urge any of these things , I say , I shall in this place mention only two observations . 19. The one is that , which I lately recited , touching the great coldness of the water in the deeper parts of the Sea , for'tis not easie to show , how this great cold proceeds from that of the Air , whose operation seems not ( as may be judg'd by that little way that frosts pierce into the moist Earth ) to reach very far beneath the surface of the water , ( insomuch that Captain James , who had very good opportunity to try , allows not , in case the Ice be not made by accumulation , that the Frost pierces above two yards perpendicularly downwards from the surface of the water , even in the coldest habitable Regions . ) And this will seem the more rational , if we consider , that in case the coldness of the Sea proceeded constantly from the Air , as such , the cold would be greater near the surface , where 't is contiguous to the Air , then in the parts remoter from it , and yet the contrary may appear by the passages lately recited . 20. But if it be objected , that this at best can prove no more , then that the Air is not the primum frigidum , notwithstanding which , it may be the summum frigidum . For answer , I must proceed to my second Argument , which will perhaps evince , that it is not that neither , for by the same way of arguing , by which those I am now dealing with endeavour to prove the Air to be the coldest Body in the World , I shall endeavour to prove , that it is not so : For their grand , and ( as far as I remember ) their only considerable Argument is drawn from Experience , which shows , that water begins to freez at the Top , where 't is exposed to the Air ; but to this vulgar Experiment I oppose that of mine , which I have often mentioned already to other purposes , that by an application of salt and snow , I can make water , that would else freez at the Top , begin to freez at the Bottom , or at any side I please , and that much sooner then the common Air , even in a sharp frosty night , would be able to congeal it ; and when in exceeding cold weather the Ambient Nocturnal Air had reduc'd a parcel of Air purposely included in a convenient glass , to as great a degree of condensation as it could : I have more then once by the External application of other things , been able to condense it much farther , which argues , that 't is not the Air as such , but some adventitious frigorifick Corpuscles ( taking that term as I do in this Treatise in a large sense ) that may sometimes be mingled with it , which produce the notablest degrees of cold , or upon whose Account the Air produces them . And if these be duly applied , water will be congealed , whether Air comes to touch the surface of it or no ; nay , though Bodies , which the Air can never penetrte nor congeal any of their parts , be interpos'd , as may appear by the Experiments formerly mention'd of freezing water included in glass bubbles , and suspended in oyl of Turpentine , and other uncongealed Liquors ; and it is worth taking notice of , by them that conclude the Airs being the primum frigidum , from the waters beginning to freez at the Top , where 't is contiguous to the Air , that it is there also where the Ice begins to thaw . 21. Besides the three Opinions we have hitherto examin'd , there is a fourth , that justly deserves to be seriously consider'd ; for the learned and ingenious Gassendus is suppos'd , though I doubt how truly , to be the Author of it , and though according to his custom , he speaks warily , and not so confidently of it , yet in his last writings he much countenances it ; yet some eminently learned men , as well of our own , as of other Nations , have resolutely enough embraced it . According then to these , the congelation of Liquors , and the cold we meet with in the Air , Water , and other Bodies , proceeds from the admixture of Nitrous exhalations , or Corpuscles introduc'd into them : And as I have a great respect for divers of these mens persons , so I like very well in their opinion , that they do not ascribe the supreme degree of frigefactive Virtue to the Air it self , but to some adventitious thing , that is mingled with it ; but whereas they pitch upon Nitre , as the grand Universal efficient of cold , I confess I cannot yet fully acquiesce in that Tenent . For though I am not averse from allowing Salt-Petre to be one of those Bodies , that are endued with a refrigerating power , and to be copiously enough dispers'd through several portions of the Earth , yet for ought I know , there may be not only divers other causes of cold , but divers other Bodies qualified to be Efficients of cold , as well as Salt-Petre . 22. And first , if cold be not a positive quality , but the absence of heat , the removing of calorifick Agents will in many cases suffice to produce cold without the introduction of any Nitrous particles into the Body to be refrigerated . But because 't is disputable , whether cold be a positive quality or no , we will urge this Argument no further , till the Controversie be decided , and till then , as it will remain not improbable , we propose it as no other , but proceed to the next . 23. In the second place , I see not as yet any proof , that the great cold , we have formerly mention'd to be met with in the depths of that vast Body the Sea , especially when it is greater elsewhere , then nearer the Top , where the Air may better communicate its coldness to it , must be the effect of Nitrous Atoms , which must certainly swarm in prodigious multitudes to be able to refrigerate every drop and sensible particle of so stupendiously vast a Body as the Ocean . Besides that I remember not to have found or known it observ'd , that Nitre , especially in vast quantities reaches near so deep in the Earth , as those parts of the Sea , that are found exceeding cold . And as the halituous part of Nitre is more dispos'd to fly up into the Air , then dive down into the Sea , so we find no great documents of its having its grosser and sensible parts abounding in the Sea-water , since the evaporations of that leaves not behind it Salt-petre , but common Salt. But these , though no light considerations , are not those , that most weigh with me . 24. For ( in the next place ) I am not satisfied with the Experiences I find alledged to prove , that 't is by Nitre , that the Air and the neighboring parts of the Earth , and Water ( not to repeat the objections I lately borrowed from the Sea ) receive their highest degrees of Cold. For when Gassendus and others tell us , that 't is Nitre resolv'd into exhalations , that make the gelid Wind , which refrigerates all things it touches , and penetrating into the water , congeals it , this , I say , to me will seem precarious , untill Gassendus ( or some other for him ) tell us , what Experiments they are ( which he seems in one place to intimate ) that this new Doctrine depends on ; for , I , confess , that for my part , I who have perhaps had more opportunity to resolve Nitre , have seen no great feats , that the steams of it have done , more then those of other saline Bodies in the production of cold ; and the spirit of Nitre , which is a liquor consisting of the volatile parts of that resolved salt , not only does not ( that I have observed ) appear to the touch to have considerably , if at all , a greater actual cold , then that of divers other Liquors , but seems to have a potential heat . For whether or no the Exhalations of Nitre be able to congeal water into Ice , I have formerly observ'd , serv'd , that the spirit of Nitre or Aqua fortis will dissolve Ice into water , very near , if not altogether as soon as the spirit of 〈◊〉 it self , which inflamable Liquor is generally acknowledg'd to be in a high degree potentially hot . If Gassenaus did not mean such steams of 〈◊〉 as these which I have been 〈◊〉 of , it had not been amiss to have signified what other kind of Corpuscles of resolved Nitre he meant , without leaving his Reader to divine it ; and if we may judge of other Experiments , which we lately took notice , that Gassendus seems to intimate , by that which he sets down a little after , compar'd with that he had mention'd a little before : I am not likely much to be convinc'd by them , but shall rather be tempted to suspect , that learned man might be impos'd upon by others to write that , as matter of fact , which he never had tried , and yet own not the having it only by report . For whereas he seems to 〈◊〉 , that dissolved Nitre mingling it self with water , freezes it , and that in Summer , yet I must freely 〈◊〉 , that although 〈◊〉 other Learned Moderns teach the same thing ( but without any mans avouching it , that I know , upon his own experience ) I , who am no 〈◊〉 to Nitrous Experiments , have never been able to produce , or so fortunate , as to see any such effect , and 〈◊〉 somewhat strange to me , that Chymists , who make such frequent solutions of Nitre , and ofrentimes with less water , then is sufficient to dissolve it all , so that by consequence the proportion of the Nitre to the Water , must have run through almost all the possible measures of proportion , should never so much , as by chance ( as I can hear ) have observ'd any such matter : and that which makes me thus interpret Gassendus his meaning , ( though in one of the two passages , wherein he sets down this Experiment , he mentions also snow , or ice to be added to the Nitre ) is , that in the first of those two passages , he ascribes the congelation to Nitre alone , without speaking of either ice or snow ; and in the other place , not only his words seem to import , that notwithstanding the addition of the other ingredients , the Corpuscles of the Nitre expiring out of the mixture , and penetrating into the water , are they that make it freez , but the Exigence of his discourse seems to require such an interpretation : for to say it is the Corpuscles of the Nitre , that were harbour'd in the ice or snow , that freez the water they invade , is no better then to beg the Question . For besides that , he ought to prove , that there are multitudes of the Corpuscles of Nitre , lodg'd in snow and ice : Besides this , I say , since these two Bodies are said to be water before they were congealed , to grant what his Explication supposes about ice and snow , is to grant in effect , that Nitre alone ( without ice or snow ) can turn water into ice , which is the thing that Experience warranted us lately to deny ; and if this be all , that is meant by the Experiment , the mixing of Nitre with the ice , or the snow , will signifie very little , to evince what should be proved . For , if instead of Nitre you take Sea-salt , or the spirit of Salt , nay , the inflamable part of Wine , the Experiment will succeed ; and yet I think Gassendus would not have the Corpuscles of these Bodies to be frigorifick , like those of Nitre , which yet they may be prov'd to be by the same Argument , which is imployed to show , that the Corpuscles of the Nitre , which is added as a distinct ingredient to the ice , or to the snow , are the Efficients of the Congelation . 25. Having thus examin'd Gassendus his Experiments , we will now , as our next and last Argument touching this subject , subjoyn our own , as far as we can find any of them among our notes , some of which follow in these words . 26. [ As cold as they think Salt-petre to be , who teach its spirituous parts to be the Grand and Catholick efficients of cold , yet we found , that it would dissolve ice readily enough , as well as Sea-salt , &c. are wont to do , as we collected from this , That roch'd Petre mingled with ice , would freez the vapors wandring in the Air , to the outside of the single Vial , wherein we made the Experiment , which the ice alone would not have done ; and having placed some 〈◊〉 , sie beaten Nitre ( of the same parcel ) in little heaps here and there upon plates of ice , we manifestly found them to sink into the ice , which argued their dissolving it ; and having put some of it upon a thick and smooth piece of ice , we found , that it had 〈◊〉 a hole quite through it , whilest the surrounding part of the ice remain'd of a good thickness . ] 27. [ We took a large single Vial , almost full of water , and put it into as much roch'd Petre , as by keeping it a good while by the fires side , we could dissolve in it , of which one mark was , that there remain'd a pretty deal of Salt intire 〈◊〉 the Bottom of the liquor , this being expos'd to the Air , during an extremely sharp night , and a good part of the day , the solution was 〈◊〉 so hard to the very Top of the liquor , that having broken the glass , we could hardly break the included mass . But at the Bottom there 〈◊〉 pear'd some liquor , with Crystals of Nitre well figur'd , that seem'd to have shot in it , and argued the Water to be sufficiently impreguated with the Salt. ] 28. [ As for the spirituous parts of Nitre , so far forth as their temper , as to heat or cold , can be judg'd by distillation , and by Weather-glasses , they are not actually more cold then some other Liquors , and appear rather to be potentially 〈◊〉 , then cold , at least they seem indispos'd to turn water into ice , since we have 〈◊〉 ; that the spirit of Nitre will readily enough turn ice into water . ] 29. These three foregoing 〈◊〉 show , that Salt-petre is no such 〈◊〉 derfully cold Body , but that 〈◊〉 are others colder , as being able to freez water , which Nitre could not congeal . Nay , they manifest , that Nitre , which is said to be the efficient of ice , does thaw and dissolve it , and so seems at least in reference to It , to be rather hot then cold . 30. I shall now add one note more , to show it does not always make water so much as equally cold with the common Air ; the Experiment I find thus recorded . 31. [ We took a seal'd Weather-glass , and by a little pulley fastned to a frame , suspended it in a solution of roch'd-Petre , as strong as we could make it , without heat , as appear'd by a pretty Quantity of Nitre , that had continued some days undissolved in the vessel , which was a Beer-glass , with a flat Bottom . After the Ball of the Weather-glass had been suspended in this liquor , to try , whether the Ambient Air were not at this time colder then the Liquor , ( it being a cloudy and windy day , and betwixt the hours of 11. and 12. ) though both the Weather-glass and it , had stood some days in the same place . I lifted up the glass out of the water by the string it hung by , that I might not touch it with my warm hands , and found the Liquor in the glass to descend by degrees , about two divisions ( which were eights of an inch ) and then by the string lifting up the Weather-glass , and putting again the solution of Nitre under it , the included Liquor was impell'd up again two divisions , and sometimes two divisions and a half , for to satisfie my self the more fully , I repeated the Experiment several times , and observ'd , that the included liquor usually ascended the first division , so fast , that the eye could perceive its progress , and that the ascent upon the immersion in the dissolv'd Nitre was discernably quicker , then the descent upon the removal of the Weather-glass into the open Air , though the space both of the one and of the other were about , either two divisions , or two divisions and a half . ] 32. If it be here demanded , what then I think of the frigifactive Virtue of Nitre , I must answer , that I have not yet fully satisfi'd my self concerning it , but thus much I am not willing to deny , That among divers other Bodies , that upon several occasions exhale from the Terrestrial Globe , those Corpuscles that are of a Nitrous Nature , may be for the most part well qualified to refrigerate the Air , and I am not indispos'd to think , that there may be store of little saline Bodies of kin to Nitre , that ( especially at certain times ) 〈◊〉 in great multitudes to and fro , in some parts of the Atmosphere ; but that this aerial salt , which some moderns call volatile Nitre , should be true and perfect Salt-petre is more then I am sure of , and that this Salt alone should be the summum frigidum , is more then as yet I am convinc'd of ; especially , since , for ought I know , there may be in the bowels of the Earth , ( whence I have seen many concretes digg'd out , whose very names and outsides are for the most part unknown , even to Chymists themselves ) divers other Bodies besides Salt-petre , whose steams may have a power of refrigerating the Air , as great in proportion to their Quantity , as those of Salt-petre ; and since common salt in artificial glaciations , is found to cooperate as powerfully , as Salt-petre it self , and since it is undeniably a Body , of which there is a vast quantity in the Terrestrial Globe , and which by reason of the Sea , where it abounds , is exceedingly diffus'd , I see no great reason , why we may not aswel esteem that kind of Salt among the Catholick efficients of Cold , and the rather , because that the smallest Corpuscles , our eye discerns of Sea-salt , are wont to be , ( though not exactly ) of a Cubical figure , which is that figure , Philoponus informs us , the great Democritus of old ( justly admir'd by Gassendus ) assign'd to the Atoms of cold , whereas , according to Gassendus himself , the Corpuscles of Nitre , at least as far as sense has inform'd us , are not the most conveniently shap'd to produce cold , since he labours to show , that the figure of frigorifick Atoms is to be Tetrahedrical or Pyramidal , whereas the Crystals , or Grains , great or small , into which good Salt-petre shoots , are wont to be Prismatical having their base Sexangular ; but to return to what I was saying , concerning the congealing of water , with ice , I shall subjoyn , that the same Experiment countenances my conjecturing , that oftentimes it may not be emanations of one Salt , or other Body , but a peculiar and lucky conjunction of those of two or more sorts of them , that produces the intense degree of cold , as we see , that ice and snow themselves have their coldness advanc'd ( as to its effects ) by the mixture either of Sea-salt or Nitre , or spirit of Wine , or any other appropriated additaments . Nay , I may elsewhere have occasion to shew , that actual Cold , may be manifestly promoted , if not generated , by the addition of a Body that is not actually Cold. But to all this I must add , that I doubt whether any of those saline or Terrestrial expirations , either single or conjoyned , be the adequate causes of cold , since , for ought I know , there may be other ways of producing it , besides the introduction of frigorifick , whether Atoms or Corpuscles , of which we may have occasion to take some notice hereafter . In the mean time , having discours'd thus long against the admitting a primum frigidum , I think it not amiss to take notice once more , that my design in playing the Sceptick on this subject , is not so much to reject other mens probable opinions , of a primum frigidum , as absolutely false , as 't is to give an account , why I look upon them , as doubtful . Title XVIII . Experiments and Observations touching the Coldness and Temperature of the Air. 1. I Have shewn in the former Section , that the Air is not the Primum Frigidum , but yet I cannot readily yield my assent to the Opinion of the learned Gassendus , and some others , ( who have written before , and since him ) that the Air is of it self indifferent , that is , neither cold , nor hot , but as it happens to be made , either the one or the other by external Agents . For if we take Cold in the obvious and received Acception of the word , that is , for a Quality relative to the senses of a Man , whose Organs are in a good or middle Temper , in reference to Cold and Heat , 〈◊〉 am hitherto inclinable to think , that we may rather attribute Coldness to the Air , then either Heat , or a perfect Neutrality as to Heat and Cold. For to make a Body cold as to sense , it seems to be sufficient , that its minute Corpuscles do less agitate the small parts of our Organs of Feeling , then they are wont to be agitated by the Blood , and other fluid parts of the Body ; and consequently , if supposing the Air devoid of those calorifick and frigorifick Atoms , to which the learned Men , I was naming , ascribe its heat and cold , it would constitute a fluid , which either by reason of the minuteness of its parts , or their want of a sufficiently vehement motion , would less affect the sensory of Feeling , then the internal liquors , and spirits of the body are wont to do , and so it would appear actually cold . Nor is it necessary , that all liquors , much less all fluids , should be as much agitated as the blood and vital humors of a humane body , as we see ( to omit what in the last Section is mention'd about newly emitted Urine , and to skip other obvious instances ) in those Fishes and other Animals , whose Blood and analogous Juices are always , and that in the state , which passes for their natural state , actually Cold to our Touch. And I see no sufficient reason , why we should not conceive the Air even in its natural state , ( at least as far forth as it can be said to have a natural state ) to be one of the number of cold Fluids . For as to the main , if not only , Argument of Gassendus , and others , namely , That , as we see the Air to be easily heated by the Action of the Sun , or the fire , so we see it as easily refrigerated by ice , and snow , and Northerly winds , and other Efficients of Cold , and that heat and cold reign in it by turns in Summer and in Winter : This only proves , what I readily grant , that the Air is easily susceptible at several times of both these contrary Qualities , but it does not shew , that one is not more connatural to it , then the other , as we see , that the water may be easily depriv'd of its fluidity by the circumposition of snow and salt , and reduc'd to be fluid again by the Sun , or the Fire ; and yet according to them , as well as others , fluidity , not Firmness , is the natural quality of water . But this is not that , which I lay most weight upon , for I considered , that it is manifest and acknowledg'd by these learned Men themselves , that the heat of the Air is adventitious to it , and communicated by the beams of the Sun , or of the Fire , or by some other Agents naturally productive of heat , as well in other Bodies as the Air : And 't is also evident , that upon the bare absence , ( for ought else that appears ) of the Sun , or Extinction of the Fire , or removal of the other causes of heat , the Air will , as it were of its own accord , be reduc'd to Coldness . Whereas , that there are swarms of frigorifick Atoms diffus'd through the Air , from which all its coldness proceeds , is but an Hypothesis of their own , far from being manifest in it self , and not hitherto , that I know of , prov'd by any fit Experiment or cogent reason . And though in some cases I am not adverse to the admitting such Corpuscles , as may in a sense , be styl'd frigorifick , yet I see not why we should have recourse to them in cases where such a bare cessation , or lessening of former motion , as may easily be ascrib'd to manifest causes , may serve the turn , as to a Sensible ( for I now consider not the causes of the Intenser ) Coldness in the Air , without taking them in . And the opinion , I incline to , has at least this advantage , that the Air seems to be as rightfully term'd cold , as Iron , Marble , Mercury , Crystal , Salt-petre , and such other Bodies , which men unanimously look upon as such , there being none of these to which the Argument imploy'd against the coldness of the Air , is not applicable , save that the Air being a fluid of a looser and finer Texture does sooner receive , and lose the impressions of heat and cold . And yet if a Block of Marble , for instance , or an Iron Bullet were remov'd into one of those empty spaces , that Gassendus and some others suppos'd to be beyond the bounds of this world , I see not why it should not be rather cold , then either warm , or in a state of perfect Neutrality : Since when the Corpuscles of Heat , and those of Cold had extricated themselves , and were flown away into the neighbouring Vacuum , the component Particles of the stone or metal , whose implicated Texture would hinder their Dissilition , remaining much less agitated then our Organs of feeling are by the warm blood and spirits , that vivifie them , must , if applied to those sensories , appear Cold. 2. But I shall not upon this subject spend any farther discourse , since perhaps the dispute , either may be , or at least may easily be made Verbal : For in case those I argue with , should so explain their opinion , as not to deny , that in its own nature the Air , left to its self , may be reputed Cold in reference to the sensories of men , who are warm animals : But say , that nevertheless , comparing it indefinitely to other then humane bodies here below , it is so easily susceptable of both the contrary qualities , that neither of them seems predominant in it ; and that when it is considerably either cold or hot , it is made so by adventitious agents : I shall not much contend with them , especially if it can clearly be made our , that there are great quantities of such cold spirits , as Cabaeus and Gassendus suppos'd to be universally productive of cold ( more or less ) in all bodies , where they get admission ; but of these cold spirits more perhaps elsewhere . Our principal business in this Section being to deliver Experiments and Observations , and because we shall mention but few of the former sort , we will dispatch them first . 3. [ November the 20. 1662. we took a Weather-glass fill'd to a convenient height with well rectifi'd spirit of Wine , and Hermetically seal'd , this we inclos'd in a glass Receiver of a Cylindrical form , of about two inches Diameter , and about a foot and a half high , and having cemented on the Receiver , we let it alone for some hours , that it might perfectly cool . Then drawing out the Air , and watching it narrowly , we observ'd , that the liquor in the Weather-glass descended a little , though but a very little upon the first Exuction of the Air , and a little , though it seem'd somewhat less , upon the second , but afterwards we did not find it sensibly to descend . This subsidence of the liquor in all amounting to about the length of a Barley corn , we attributed to the stretching of the glass by the spring of the included Air , when the ambient was withdrawn , and accordingly upon our allowing a Regress to the excluded Air , we saw the spirit in the Thermometer , rise about half a Barley-corns length to the place whence it began to subside . Afterwards we suck'd out , and let in the Air of the Receiver , as before , with like success , as to the descent and remounting of the liquor . 4. N. B. We tri'd with a very hot Handkerchief appli'd in a convenient place to the outside of the Receiver , whether the included Weather-glass would receive impressions from it , the Air , that was wont to be intermediate , being remov'd ; but we did not find the liquor in the Weather-glass sensibly to swell , either by this way , or by casting upon it the concentrated beams of a candle trajected through a double convex glass . But when the Air was readmitted into the Cavity of the Receiver , then the same Handkerchief , heated a fresh , and applied , made the spirit of Wine sensibly , though but little more , to ascend : Of which yet it seem'd something difficult by reason of the Nicety of the Experiment to estimate with any thing of certainty the Cause . ] So that upon the whole matter , till the Experiment be repeated in Airs of differing tempers , to verifie , whether 't was the withdrawing of the wonted pressure , or the recess of the substance of the Air , that made the liquor included in the Thermoscope subside , and till the Experiment be repeated with the further observation of other circumstances ( which reiteration of the Trial we intended , but were by intervening accidents hindred ) the recited Experiment will not afford much more then good hints towards the Discovery of the Temperature of the Air. 5. I have * elsewhere taken notice , that air included in Vessels sufficiently strong and well clos'd , was not sensibly , or at least not considerably condens'd by Cold , but when the Air was not so included , as not to be in some part or other expos'd to the pressure of the outward Air or Atmosphere , it would then by a degree of Cold , capable to freez water , be manifestly reduc'd into a less room . But how much this Contraction or Condensation of the air may amount to , I did not there subjoyn , nor has the measuring of it been , that I know of , attempted by any man. Wherefore we thought fit to indeavour something in this kind , of which we shall annex a brief account , whereby it will appear upon the whole matter , that in the Climate , we live in , the Cold does not so considerably condense the Air , as most men seem to have hitherto imagin'd . 6. And first , it will not be amiss to intimate , that among other ways we tried to measure the shrinking of the Air by sealing it up in glasses furnish'd with long and very slender stems , that by breaking off the tips of those glasses immers'd under water , when by the Cold Air of a frosty night , or the Circumposition of snow and salt , the included air was highly refrigerated , the water might ( by the pressure of the Atmosphere upon it ) be impell'd into the Cylindrical cavity of the broken glass , and by its greater or lesser Ascent therein shew , how much the internal Air had been made to shrink upon the account of the Cold. But this way , for reasons too long to be here deduc'd , we found it troublesome and difficult to practise with any thing of certainty . Nor did we ever , that I remember , by this way bring the refrigerated air to lose above a 30. part of its former dimensions . 7. We would have tried also to measure the Condensation of the air by the ascent of water into the stem of a Bolthead , so inverted , that the orifice of the stem might be under the surface of the water , and the Bolt-head kept erected . But this way we disapproved , because it was likely ( and indeed we found it so by experience ) that the external air would first freez the uppermost part of the water contain'd in the stem , and thereby hinder its ascent , and perhaps occasion the bursting of the lower part of the said stem . 8. Wherefore though for want of a sufficient Quantity of some liquor , that would neither freez like water , and aqueous Bodies , nor congeal like common oyl , and the like unctuous Juices , we found it for a while somewhat difficult to practise the Experiment , yet bethinking our selves of the indisposition that Brine has to Congelation , we made so strong a Brine with common salt , that with it ( and as I remember , with oyl of Turpentine also , of which we chanc'd to have some quantity by us ) we made divers Trials , of which I had two among our Collections , which we shall here subjoyn , whereof the one informs us , that an Egg being inverted into salt water , the Cold of a frosty night made the air shrink in the Pipe near five inches ; and the other ( which is the accuratest I meet with among my Collections ) gives me this account , That January the 29. the Air extended into 2057. spaces , was by the cold of the sharp and frosty night contracted into 1965. spaces , so that in extraordinarily cold weather , the most we could make the Air lose of its former dimensions by the additional Cold of the Atmosphere , was a 22. part , and a little more then a third : And this was the greatest condensation of the Air , that we remember our selves to have observ'd , though we were so careful , as after we had placed marks , where the incongealable liquor reach'd in the pipe , that when the internal air was expos'd abroad to the cold , we caused servants to watch , and from time to time to take notice ( by placing marks ) of the various ascents of the liquor , especially early in the morning , least we should omit taking notice of the greatest contraction of the air , which omission ( by reason that the Coldness of the ambient air does oftentimes begin to be remitted before we can feel it to be so ) is not easily avoided without watchfulness . 9. But having thus observ'd the Condensation of included air by the natural and unassisted Cold of the external air , we thought fit to prosecute the trial somewhat further , and in regard we conceiv'd the Cold of a mixture of snow and salt to be far more intense , then that of the mere ambient air alone , we endeavoured to measure , as near as we could , how much the one exceeded the other : And though we found , that by prosecuting the lately mention'd Trial in the glass-Egg by the application of ice and salt to the Elliptical part of the vessel , the liquor rise by our Estimate near four inches more ( then those five which it had risen already , upon the account of the Refrigeration of the included air by the bare cold of the external : ) Yet by prosecuting the other Experiment ( made the 29. of January ) at the same time , when we were making it , we did somewhat more accurately determine the matter . For by applying ice and salt to the outside of the vessel , we found , that the included air was contracted from 1965. spaces , to which the Cold of the ambient air had reduc'd it , into 1860. spaces , so that the Circumposition of ice and salt did as much , nay somewhat more condense it , after the mere Cold of the external air had contracted it as far as it could , then the bare , though intense , Cold of the ambient air could condense it at first , and the greatest degree of adventitious Cold we were able to give by the help of nature or of art , did not make the air expos'd to it , lose a full tenth part of its former Dimensions : on which occasion it may not be unworthy observation , That there is no greater Disparity betwixt the proportion in which the Cold was able to condense the Air , and that wherein the Cold was able to expand water . 10. This is all that at present I think fit to say concerning the interest that Winds may have in the Temperature of the Air. And therefore I will now proceed to those other particulars , wherewith I not long since said , that I intended to close up this Section ; and I might on this occasion subjoyn many things , but partly haste , and partly other considerations will confine me to those , that relate to the effects of Cold upon the Air in a more general way . 11. And first , we will observe , that Cold may hinder in an almost incredible measure , the warming operation of the Sun upon the Air , not only in the hottest part of the Day ( for that may sometimes happen , even in our Climate ) but at several times of the Day , even in the heat of Summer . 12. I remember I once accidentally met with an intelligent and sober Gentleman , who had several times sail'd upon the frigid Zone , and though an intervening accident separated us so suddenly , that I had not opportunity to obtain from him the resolution of above two or three questions ; yet this I learned of him belonging to our present purpose , That by the help of a Journal he kept , he call'd to mind , that upon the coast of Greenland he had observ'd it to snow all Midsummer night , which affirmation of so credible a person , imboldens me to add some other relations , which I should else have scrupled at . 13. Mr. Logan an English Merchant , that Winter'd at Pecora , one of the Northern Towns of Muscovy , relates , that being there at a great Salmon-fishing , there hapned about the close of August ( which in many Countries is wont to be the hottest time of all the year ) so strong a Frost , which lasted till the fourth day , That the Ozera was frozen over , and the Ice driving in the River to and again , broke all the Nets , so that they got no Salmon , no not so much as for their own Victuals . 14. Captain G. Weymouth mentions , that in July , though he was not near the Latitude of Nova Zembla , much less of Greenland , yet sailing in a thick fog , when by reason of the darkness , it occasioned , he thought good to take in some of his sails , when his men came to hand them , they found their Sails , Ropes , and Tacklings so hard frozen , that it did ( says he ) seem very strange unto us , being in the chiefest time of Summer . 15. In the fifth Voyage of the English to Cherry Island , which lies betwixt 74. and 75. degrees of Latitude , they observ'd , that the wind being at North-east upon the 24. of July , It freez'd so hard , that the Ice did hang on their 〈◊〉 . And in the seventh Voyage ( which was made three years after ) to the same Island , they mention , that on the 14. of July the wind being Northerly , they had both snow and frost . 16. The next thing that we shall take notice of , is the degree of Cold , which the Efficient causes of that Quality , whatever they be , are able to produce in the air ; but of this we must not here treat indefinitely , the strange effects of cold upon other bodies being most of them produc'd by the intervention of the cold first diffus'd in the Air , and those are treated of in a distinct Section , wherefore we shall now give two or three instances of the sudden operations of the Cold harbour'd in the Air. The formerly mention'd English Ambassador into Russia , Dr. Fletcher , gives us two instances very memorable to our present purpose . When you pass ( says he ) out of a warm Room into a Cold , you will sensibly feel your breath to wax stark , and even stifling with the cold , as you draw it in and out . So powerfully and nimbly does the intensely refrigerated Air work upon the Organs of respiration . [ And whereas a very credible person , now chief Physician to the Russian Emperor , being ask'd by me concerning the truth of what is reported , sometimes to happen at Musco , and is reputed the eminentest proof that is readily observable of the extreme coldness of the air , assur'd me , that he himself saw the water thrown up into the air , fall down actually congeal'd into ice : Dr. Fletcher confirms this Report . For ] our Ambassador also says , That the sharpness of the Air you may judge of by this , for that water dropped down , or cast up into the Air , congeal'd into Ice before it come to ground . And I remember , that inquiring about the probability of such Relations , he answered me , That being at the famous Seige of Smolensko in Russia , he observ'd it to be so extremely cold in the fields , that his Spittle would freez in falling betwixt his mouth and the ground , and that if he spit against a Tree , or a piece of wood , it would not stick , but fall to the foot of it . 17. Among the Phaenomena of Cold , relating to the air , I endeavour'd to observe , whether upon the change of the Weather , from warm or mild , to cold and frosty , there would appear any difference of the weight of the Atmosphere by its being plentifully furnish'd with a new stock of such frigorifick Corpuscles as several of the modern Philosophers ascribe its coldness to , but though I several times observ'd by comparing a good Barometer ( and sometimes also unseal'd Weather-glasses furnish'd one with a tincted Liquor , and the other with Quicksilver ) with a good seal'd Weather-glass , furnished with pure spirit of Wine , that upon the coming in of clear and frosty weather , the Atmosphere would very early appear sensibly heavier then before , and continue so , as long as the cold and clear weather lasted ; yet by reason of some considerations and Trials , that breed some scruple in me , I refer the matter to more frequent and lasting observations , then I yet have been able to make , in which it will concern those that have a mind to prosecute such Trials , not only to consider , whether or no the increased gravity of the Atmosphere may not proceed from some other Cause , then the coming of frigorifick Atoms into the Air ; but to have a special care , that their Barascopes be more carefully freed from the Air , that is wont to lurk in Quick silver it self , as well as other Liquors , then those in the making of the Torricellian Experiment Tubes usually are , least that Air getting up into the deserted part of the Tube , do by its expansion and contraction , obtain an unsuspected interest in the rising and falling of the subjacent Mercurial Cylinder , and so impose upon them . 18. Another Effect that the Cold especially in Northern Countries has oftentimes upon the Atmosphere , is , the making the Air more or less clear then usually it is . For in the Northern Voyages , the Seamen frequently complain of thick and lasting Fogs , whose causes I shall not now consider , but some help to guess at them may be given by what we are about to add , namely , that it very frequently happens on the contrary , That when the cold is very intense , the air grows much clearer then at other times , probably because the Cold by condensing precipitates the vapours , that thicken the air , and by freezing the surface of the earth , keeps in the steams , that would else arise to thicken the air . Not to dispute , 〈◊〉 it may not also somewhat repress the vapours , that would be afforded by the water it self , since some of our Navigators observe , that even when it was not cold enough to freez the surface of the Sea , it would so far chill and infrigidate it , that the snow would lye on it without melting . 19. I remember a Swedish extraordinary Ambassador , and a very knowing person , whom I had the honour to be particularly acquainted with , would say , when he saw a frosty day accompanied with great clearness , that it then look'd like a Swedish winter , where when once the frosty weather is setled , the sky is wont for a very long time to be very serene and 〈◊〉 , and here in England we usually observe the sharpest frosty nights to be the clearest . But to confirm our Observation by a very remarkable instance , I shall borrow it 〈◊〉 a Navigator very curious of Celestial Observations , which circumstance I mention to bring the greater credit to the following observation of Captain James , which in his Journal is thus delivered : The thirtieth and one and thirtieth of January , there appeared in the beginning of the night more Stars in the Firmanent , then ever I had before seen by two thirds . I could see the Cloud in Cancer full of small Stars . 20. To determine what effect the coldness of the air may have upon the Refractions of the Luminaries and other Stars , I look upon as a work of no small difficulty , and that would require much consideration as well as time , wherefore I shall only add two or three narratives , supplied me by Navigators , without adding at present any thing to the matters of fact . 21. The first is that famous Observation of the Dutch in Nova Zembla , who take great pains to evince by several circumstances , some of them highly probable , that they were not mistaken in their account of time , according to which they concluded , that they saw the Sun , whom they had lost sight of eleven weeks before , about fourteen days sooner then he ought to have appear'd to them , which difference has been , for ought I know to the contrary , by all that have taken notice of it , ascrib'd to the strangely great Refraction in that Gelid and Northern air . 22. And as for that other extremely cold Country , where Captain James wintered , it appears by his Journal , that he there made divers Celestial , and other observations , which gave him opportunity to take notice of the Refraction , and he seems to complain , that he found it very great , though among the particulars he takes notice of , there are some that seem not very strange , nor are there any that are near so wonderful , as that newly mention'd of the Hollanders in Nova Zembla , however in regard of the extreme coldness of the Winter air in Charleton Island , it may be worth while to take notice of the following passages out of his Journal , since they may at least help us to conjecture what is not to be expected in reference to Refractions from the coldness of the air as such . The 21. of January ( says he ) I observed the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what exactness I could ( it being very clear Sunshine weather ) which I found to be 51. 52. This difference is by reason that here is a great Refraction . Which last clause is very obscure , unless it refers , as one may guess it does , to what he had elsewhere said , That his first coming to the Island , he took the Latitude with two Quadrants , and found it to be inst 52. degrees , without any minutes . Elsewhere ; my 〈◊〉 ( says he ) by these glasses I compar'd to the Stars coming to the Meridian . By this means we found the Sun to rise twenty minutes before it should , and in the evening to remain above the horizon twenty minutes ( or thereabouts ) longer then it should . And all this by reason of the Refraction . And in another place , March the 15. This evening ( says he ) the moon rose in a very long oval alongst the Horizon . I shall add one passage more out of our Author , concerning Refractions , not only because it may bear Testimony to some relations of the like kind , that I have mention'd in another Treatise ; but because it is concluded with an observation , that ( if there be nothing of mistake in it ) is odd enough . I had often ( says he ) observed the difference betwixt clear weather , and misty Refractious weather in this manner . From a little Hill , which was near adjoyning to our house , in the clearest weather , when the Sun shone , with all the purity of Air that I could conceive , we could not see a little Istand , which bare of us south south-east some four leagues of ; but if the weather were misty ( as aforesaid ) then we could often see it from the lowest place . 23. Hitherto I have treated of the Temperature of the Air in general , and though the past Discourse have been prolix enough , yet possibly I may have no fewer things to say , if I would at present fall upon the particular consideration of the three Regions into which the Air is wont to be distinguished . For I confess I am not altogether without scruples , both as to the Number , and as to the Limits , and as to the Qualities assign'd to these Aerial Regions . But ( as I have partly declar'd in another * Tract ) though I had time to enter upon so intricate a Disquisition , yet till I have an opportunity to consult some other papers , I know not whether what I have noted touching these difficulties , may not more properly belong to another Treatise , then this of Cold. 24. Having thus dispatch'd the few Experiments I can meet with among my papers , concerning the Coldness of the Air , I now proceed to subjoyn some observations , that have occurr'd to me in the writings or verbal Relations of Navigators and Travellers about that subject . But in regard , that the greatest part of the Phaenomena of Cold , which nature of her own accord presents us with , seem to be produc'd , either mediately or immediately by the Air , we intend not here to treat of the coldness of the air in the largest sense , but only to take notice of some of the choicer instances , that seem to belong to our present Argument . And these we shall annex , either as Promiscuous Observations at the Close of this Section , or as Illustrations or proofs of the three following Observations . I. The first I shall propose in these terms , that the greater or lesser coldness of the Air in several Climates and Countries , is nothing near so regularly proportionate to their respective distances from the Pole , or their vicinity to the Equator , as men are wont to presume . This puts me in mind of what I have formerly , either heard from a skilful man , or observ'd my self about the difference betwixt places of the same latitude in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere ; namely , That of places equally distant the one from the Northern , the other from the Southern Pole , the latter are generally much colder then the former . And as I remember , I long since noted some things to this purpose ; but being not at present able to recover them , I shall propose this only , as that which may deserve an inquiry , being not yet satisfi'd , but that in the Examples I had taken notice of , some accidental and concurrent causes may have occasion'd the greater coldness observ'd in the places seated on the other side of the Line ; as on this side of it , the like causes may much vary the coldness of differing places of equal latitudes , as we are now going to shew by the following testimonies . 1. How excessive a Cold reigns at Musco and thereabouts in the Winter time , when many men lose their noses or their toes , and some their lives by the extremity of the cold , we have several times occasion to take notice of in this Treatise . And yet at Edenburgh , which I find some of our modern Navigators to place more Northerly by above a degree , there , I say , and in the neighbouring places , the air is known to be temperate enough , and the cold very tolerable : And 't is affirm'd , that the snow very rarely lyes any long time on the ground after it is fallen . 2. In the Voyage made for discoveries northward , by Mr. Poole , in the year 1610. I find this passage , I was certifi'd , that all the Ponds and Lakes were unfrozen , they being fresh water , which putteth me in hope of a mild Summer here , after so sharp a beginning , as I have had , and my opinion is such ( and I assure my self it is so ) that a passage may be as soon attain'd this way by the Pole , as any unknown way whatsoever , by reason the Sun doth give a great heat in this Climate ; and the Ice ( near the 79. degree ) I mean that that freezeth here , is nothing so huge as I have seen in 73. degrees . To this agrees the testimony of the Hollanders in their first Voyage to Nova Zembla , in which the writer of it , Gerat de Veer , speaks thus , We have assuredly found , that the only and most hinderance to our Voyage , was the Ice , that we found about Nova Zembla , under 73 , 74 , 75 , and 76. degrees , and not so much upon the Sea , between both the lands , whereby it appeareth , that not the nearness of the North Pole , but the Ice that cometh in and out from the Tartarian Sea about Nova Zembla , caused 〈◊〉 to feel the greatest cold . Therefore in regard , that the nearness of the Pole was not the cause of the great cold that we felt , &c. And a little after , — It is true ( says he ) that in the Country lying under 80. degrees ( which we esteem to be Greenland ) there is both leaves and grass to be seen , wherein such beasts , as feed of leaves and grass , as Harts , Hinds , and such like beasts , live , whereas to the contrary in Nova Zembla , there groweth neither leaves nor grass , and there are no beasts there , but such as eat flesh , as Bears and Foxes , &c. although Nova Zembla lyeth 4 , 5 , and 6. degrees more Southerly from the Pole , then the other land aforesaid . And to this purpose I remember what is related by the learned Josephus Acosta , concerning the Heats and Colds in the Torrid Zone , and elsewhere : When I pass'd ( says he ) to the Indies , I will tell what chanc'd unto me , having read what Poets and Philosophers write of the burning Zone , I perswaded myself , that coming to the Aequinoctial , I should not indure the violent heat , but it fell out otherwise , for when I pass'd , which was when the 〈◊〉 was there for Zenith , being entered into Aries , in the moneth of March I felt so great a cold , as I was forc'd to go into the Sun to warm me : what could I else do then but laugh at Aristotles Meteors , and his Philosophy , seeing that in that place , and at that season , when as all should be scorch'd with heat , according to his rules , 〈◊〉 and all my companions were a cold ? in truth there is no Region in the world more pleasant and temperate , then under the Equinoctial , although it be not in all parts of an equal temperature , but have great diversities . The burning Zone in some parts is very temperate , as in Quitto , and on the plains of Peru , in some parts very cold , as at Potosi , and in some veryhot , as in Ethiopia , Brasile , and the Molucques . And within two Chapters after , he discourses more largely of some of these Particulars . And again Chapter the 12. You may continually ( says he ) see upon the tops of these mountains snow , hail , and frozen waters , and the cold so bitter , as the grass is all wither'd , so as the men and beasts , which pass that way , are benumm'd with cold . This , as I have said , is in the burning Zone , and it happens most commonly when they have the Sun for Zenith . These Testimonies of a learned man , that writes upon his own knowledge , I thought it worth producing , to make it probable , that as in several Countries the heat does not always answer to the nearness of places to the Line , so in Northern Regions the cold may not always be proportionate to their vicinity to the Pole. In Mr. Hudsons second voyage written by himself , he mentions that above 71. degrees , though they were much pester'd with ice , about the end of June , that day ( when this hapned ) was calm , clear , and hot weather , adding of the next day also , that it was calm , hot , and fair weather . And Acosta tells us , that we see these differences , not only on the land , but also on the Sea : there are some Seas where they feel great heat , as the report of that of Mazambigus , and Ormus in the east , and of the Sea of Panama in the west . There are other Seas in the same degree of height very cold , as that of Peru , in the which we were a cold , when we first sail'd it , which was in March , when the Sun was directly over us . In truth on this continent , 〈◊〉 the Land and Sea are of one sort , we cannot imagine any other cause of this so great a 〈◊〉 , but the quality of the wind that 〈◊〉 refresh them . But to multiply no more instances , we shall conclude with this one , That Charleton Island , where Captain James winter'd ( and of which we so often have occasion to make mention in our History ) though it seems by the effects to be a colder Region , then even the Countrey about Musco , and perhaps as cold as Nova Zembla it self ; yet Captain James , who had several times occasion to take the latitude of it , and assignes it the same Elevation , and consequently , the same Distance from the Pole with Cambridge , whose latitude he reckons to be 51. degrees besides minutes , and whose air is very well known to be very temperate . And it is remarkable , that though this place , whose latitude is short of 52. degrees , was found uninhabitable by reason of the cold , yet not only in Mr. Hudsons Voyage , the writers admonish the Readers to take notice , That although they ran along near the shore , they found no great cold , which made them think , that if they had been on shore the place is temperate : And yet in this place they reckon themselves to have reach'd the 78. degree of latitude : And our recenter Navigations inform us , that several parts of Greenland , to which this newly mentioned coast belong'd , are well enough inhabited : And one of our English Navigators assures us , that the true height of Pustozera in Russia is no less then 68. degrees and a half , if not more , and yet that is a town not only well inhabited , but of great trade ; but in Hudsons voyage I find what is more strange , That under the 81. degree of latitude , beyond which they discovered land very far off , but ( beyond which none is thought to have actually sail'd toward the Pole ) they found it during the whole day clear weather , with little wind , and reasonable warm . And beyond 80. degrees , they not only found a stream or two of fresh water , but found it hot on the shore , and drank water to cool their thirst , which they also commended . II. The next observable I am to propose about the coldness of the Air , is this , That the degrees both of Heat and Cold in the air may be much greater in the same climate , and the same place , at several seasons of the year , or even at several times of the same day , then most men would believe . For the proof of this Proposition , we shall subjoyn two sorts of Testimonies , of Travellers , and Navigators , the former shewing , that in Countries , where it is very cold in Winter , it may 〈◊〉 be hot in Summer ; and the latter manifesting , that even on the same day , as well as in the same place , the heat and cold , that succeed one another , may be one of them sensible , though the other were extreme , or may perhaps be both of them considerable . To make this good , we shall produce the following Testimonies . 1. Dr. Giles Fletcher , English Ambassador to the Muscovian Emperor , in his Treatise of Russia , and the adjoyning Regions , has this memorable passage to our present purpose . The whole Countrey ( says he ) differeth very much from it self , by reason of the year , so that a man would 〈◊〉 to see the great alteration , and difference betwixt the Winters and Summers in Russia . The whole Countrey in the Winter lyeth under snow , which falleth continually , and is sometime of a yard or two thick , but greater towards the North ; the Rivers , and other waters are all frozen up , a yard or more thick , how swift or broad soever they be , and this continueth commonly for five moneths , to wit , from the beginning of November , till towards the end of March ; what time the snow beginneth to melt , so that it would breed a frost in a man to look abroad at that time , and see the Winters face of that Countrey . And a little after he adds : And yet in the Summer time you shall see such a new hew and face of a Countrey , the woods ( which for the most part are all of Fir and Birch ) so fresh , and so sweet ; the Pastures and Meadows so green , and well grown ( and that upon the sudden ) such variety of flowers , such noise of Birds ( especially of Nightingals , that seem to be more loud , and of a more variable note , then in other Countries ) that a man shall not lightly travel in a more pleasant Countrey . And some lines after , As the Winter exceedeth in cold , so the Summer inclineth to 〈◊〉 much heat , especially in the 〈◊〉 of June , July , and August , being much warmer 〈◊〉 the Summer Air in England . Almost like things have been much more recently affirm'd by the learned Olearius , Secretary to the Duke of Holstein's Embassy into Russia , and now Bibliothecarius to the present Prince of Holstein . And an ac quaintance of mine , who , after having liv'd in Italy , pass'd a Summer in Russia , assur'd me , that he scarce in Italy did ever eat better Melons , then some which he had eaten at Musco , of a strange bigness , which bears witness to that almost incredible Relation of Olearius , who ( after having much prais'd their goodness at Musco ) affirms , that he there met with Melons of 40. pound weight , of 〈◊〉 he there teaches the Culture . At the royal City of China , which scarce exceeding the 42. degrees of latitude , one would expect , that as the Summer is very warm , so the Winter should be very mild , as it is observ'd to be in divers places of Spain , Italy , and Greece , that have the same , or a more Northern latitude : and yet the learned Jesuite Martinius , who liv'd many years in China , assures us , that usually for four whole moneths together , all the Rivers are so hard frozen , that not only all Ships are clos'd , and kept immovable by the Ice , but that also horses , wagons , and even the heaviest carriages do securely pass over the Ice . Concerning which , he adds this strange circumstance , that 't is usually made in one day , though to its dissolution it require many . Prosper Alpinus in his learned Treatise de medicina Aegyptiorum , tells us , that at Grand Cayro , where he practis'd Physick , though that famous Metropolis of Aegypt be distant but six degrees from the Tropick of Cancer , yet the Air , which in Summer is almost insupportably hot , in Winter is sometimes very considerably cold ; adding , that there is not any sort of Diseases that proceed ( as he is pleas'd to speak ) from distillations from the head , to which the people are not there subject : To these instances we shall annex but two more , but those remarkable ones . The first is mention'd by Purchase , as communicated to him by an eye witness , in these words . This I thought good at our parting to advertise thee , That Mr. Hebey hath affirm'd to me , touching the diversity of weather in Greenland , that one day it hath been so cold ( the wind blowing out of some quarter ) that they could scarce handle the frozen Sails ; another day so hot , that the pitch melted of the Ship , so that hardly they could keep their Clothes from pollution : yea , he hath seen at midnight Tobacco lighted or fired by the Sun beams with a glass . The other example I am to produce , is no less remarkable ; namely , that in the often mention'd Charleton Island , where that winter was as sharp , perhaps as any known place of the habitable world , Captain James his Journal gives us this account of the weather : In June the sixteenth ( says he ) was wondrous hot , with some thunder and lightning , so that our men did go into the Ponds ashore to swim , and cool themselves , yet was the water very cold still . Here had lately appeared divers sorts of Flies , as Butterflies , Butchers-flies , Horse-flies , and such an infinite abundance of blood-thirsty Muskitoes , thatwewere more tormented with them , then ever we were with the cold weather . These ( I think ) lye dead in the old rotten wood all the Winter , and in Summer they revive again . Here be likewise infinite companies of Ants , and Frogs in the Ponds upon the land . Thus we see , what difference there may be in the same place , betwixt the temperature of the Air in Winter , and Summer . We shall now add what may appear more strange , that there may be very great disparities in the heat and coldness of the air , not only in the same place , but within the compass of the same day . The lately mention'd Alpinus , affords me an example to this purpose , in Aegypt its self , where one would expect a much more uniform heat . Hyeme ( says he ) nocturnus aer admodum frigidus observatur , qui ob orto sole paulo post , parum incalescit , in meridieque plurimum : adveniente vere nocte rursum infrigidum permutatur , ita , ut aer ille valdè inaequalis sit dicendus , ab ipsiusque illa inaequalitate plurimi morbi originem ducunt atque generantur , qui eo tempore per urbem vagantur . The learned Olearius relating how he travelled with the Ambassadors , whose Secretary he was , over a branch of mount Taurus , takes notice , that it being after the middle of June , the air of that hot region of Persia oblig'd them only to travel by night , and yet the nocturnal cold was so great , that they were all benummed with it , insomuch , that they were hardly able to alight from their Horses ; adding , that the sudden change from an extreme cold , to the excessive heat , they were again expos'd to the next day , cast no less then 15. of their company into strong burning feavers at once . ( Which brought into my mind the complaint of good Jacob , who , though he liv'd in an Eastern Countrey , when he had said , that in the day the drought consumed him , adds , and the frost by night . ) And the same curious traveller mentions , that in another Countrey in Persia , call'd Faclu , notwithstanding the heat of the region ( at the end of March , at which time they pass'd that way ) they saw and felt in one night , which they were forc't to pass without their tents , both lightning , and thunders , and winds , and rain , and snow , and ice . We will conclude with a remarkable instance , afforded us by the Journal of the English that wintred at Charleton Island . The season here in this Climate ( says the often quoted Author of the voyage ) is most unnatural ; for in the day time it will be extreme hot , yea , not indurable in the Sun , which is , by reason that it is a sandy Countrey . In the night again , it will freez an inch thick in the Ponds , and in the Tubs about , and in our house , and all this towards the latter end of June . III. The third observable I intended to take notice of , about the Coldness of the Air , may be compriz'd in this Proposition , That in many places the Temperature of the Air , as to Cold and Heat , seems not to depend so much upon the Elevation of the Pole , as upon the Nature and Circumstances of the winds that blow there . It would require a very long Discourse , to treat in this place of Winds in general , and much more to examine the several causes of winds , that are assign'd by several Authors , and therefore when I have once given this intimation , that divers of these opinions may be more easily reconcil'd , then the maintainers of them seem to have thought , to the Truth , if not to one another : The causes that may produce wind , being so various , that many of those propos'd , may each of them in some cases be true , though none of them in all cases be sufficient : having hinted this , I say , it may suffice on this occasion , to subjoyn three or four observations , to prove and illustrate the matter of fact delivered in the Proposition . And first , 't is a known Observation in these parts of the world , that Northerly and Northeasterly winds , do at all times of the year bring cold along with them , and commonly if it be Winter , Frost . And here in England I have sometimes wondred at the power of the winds , to bring not only sudden Frosts , but sudden Thaws , when the frost was expected to be setled , and durable , which yet seems to hold commonly , but not without exception . For during one of the considerablest Fits of Frost and Snow , that I have taken notice of in England , I remember , that I observed ( not without some wonder ) that the Wind was many days Southerly , unless it may be said , That this Southerly Wind was but the Return of a stream of Northerly Wind , which had blown for many days before , and might by some obstacles , and agents , not here to be inquir'd after , be made to wheel about , or recoyl hither , before it had lost the greatest portion of the refrigerating Corpuscles it consisted of before . The formerly mention'd Prosper Alpinus , attributes strange things to the Northerly wind , that blows in Aegypt , as to the cooling and refreshing the Air , in spight of the violent 〈◊〉 , that would otherwise be 〈◊〉 . ( And many in Egypt * ascribe to the Aetesian Winds , that almost miraculous ceasing of the Plague at Grand Cairo , of which we elsewhere speak . ) Dominatur autem aer ( says he ) summè calidus , ipsius caeli , ut dictum est , ratione , quod haec civitas 〈◊〉 Tropico Cancri tantum 6. gradibus distet . Quâ brevi inter-capedine dum sol ad illum accedit Tropicum , & illorum Zenith fit propinquior , aer ille valdè incalescit , & nisi Aetesiae venti tunc à septentrione spirarent , vehementissimus , & qui vix à nostris perferri possit , caloris aestus sentiretur . Advenae nostri iis provenientibus ad subterranea loca confugiunt , in quibus morantur quousque ille ventorum ardor residerit atque cessaverit . Conjunxit haec incommoda Deus Optimus , cum aliis quibusdam bonis , nam ubi calidissimi illi venti conticuere , statim à Septentrione flare alii incipiunt , qui subitaneum inflammatis atque laxatis corporibus solatium praestant . Si enim illi diu perseveraverint , nemo in eâ regione vivere possit . Whence winds should have this power to change the Constitution of the Air , and especially to bring cold along with them , is not so easie to be determin'd . Indeed the other Qualities , and even the heat , that is observable in winds , may for the most part be probably enough deriv'd from the Qualities of the places , by which they pass . Of this we have already given an example or two in the passages lately mention'd . And it may be further confirm'd by what Acosta says , that he himself saw in some parts of the Indies : namely , That the Iron Grates were so rusted and consumed by a peculiar wind , that pressing the mettal between your fingers , it would be dissolv'd , and crumbled , as if it had been Hay or 〈◊〉 Straw . And this Learned Traveller , who seems to have taken peculiar notice of the winds , affords us in divers places of his Book several Examples to confirm what we were saying ( though he take not the nature of the regions , along which the wind blows , to be alone in all cases a sufficient Cause of their Qualities ) of which yet we shall now mention but these two memorable passages . In a small distance ( says he ) you shall see in one wind many diversities . For example , the Solanus or Eastern wind is commonly hot and troublesome in Spain ; and in Murria , it is the coldest and healthfullest that is , for that it passeth by the Orchards , and that large Champiane which we see very fresh . In Carthagene , which is not far from thence , the same wind is troublesome , and unwholsome . The Meridi●nal ( which they of the Ocean call South , and those of the Mediterranean Sea , Mezo Giorno ) commonly is rainy , and boisterous , and in the same City , whereof I speak , it is wholsome and pleasant . And in his Description of Peru , speaking of the South and South-west , he affirms , that this wind yet in this region is marvellous pleasing . But though , as we were saying , many other Qualities of winds may be deduc'd from the Nature and Condition of the places , by which they pass : And though the heat also , which Prosper Alpinus ( as we lately took notice ) attributes to the Southerly winds , that blow in Egypt , may be probably ascrib'd to the heated Exhalations and vapours they bring from the Southern and parched Regions they blow over ; yet whence the great coldness of Northern and Easterly winds should come , may be scrupled at by many of the modern Philosophers , who with divers Cartesians will not admit , that there are any Corpuscles of Cold. And possibly I could , about these matters , propose some other difficulties , not so easie to be resolved . But not being now to discuss the Hypothesis about Cold , I think it will be more proper in this place , instead of entring upon disputes and Speculations , to subjoyn an Experiment that I made , to give some light about this matter . Considering then that I had not met with any Trial of the Nature of that I am about to mention , and that such a Trial might possibly prove Luciferous , I caused a pretty large pair of ordinary Bellows to be kept a good while in the Room , where the Experiment was to be made , that it might receive the Temperature of the Air in that Chamber , then placing upon a board , one of those flat Bottom'd Weather-glasses , that I elsewhere describe to contain a movable drop of pendulous water , by blowing at several times with intermissions upon the bubble or lower end of the Weather-glass , though the wind blown against my hand , were , as to sense , very manifestly cold , yet it did not cool the air included in the Bubble , but rather a little warm'd it , as appear'd by a small , but sensible , ascension of the pendulous drop each time , that , after some interpos'd rest , the lower part of the glass was blown upon , which seem'd to proceed from some small alteration towards warmth , that the air received by its stay ( though short ) in the Bellows , as seem'd deducible from hence , that if by closely covering the Clack , the matter were so ordered , that the Air , that should come into the Bellows , must come in all at the nose ; if this nose being held very near the bubble of the Weather-glass , the Air were , by opening the Bellows , suddenly drawn in , that stream of air or wind coming from a part of the window , where the air was a little cooler , then that which was wont to come out of the Bellows , would not , as the other , make the pendulous drop rise , but rather the contrary . This done , we proceeded to shew by Experiment , That though a wind were nothing , but a stream of Air , yet in its passage it might acquire a considerable coldness distinct from that which it has by vertue of its motion , though upon the score of that , we see that air mov'd by a fan , ( or as in our newly mentioned Trial ) by a pair of Bellows , might to our touch , feel Cold , nor did we forbear to expect a good event of our Trial , upon the doubt that may be rais'd , whether there be frigorifick Corpuscles or no : For whatever become of that question , I thought I might expect , that whether or no Ice emit Corpuscles , that are universally frigorifick , yet the air being , either by them , or upon what account soever , highly refrigerated , the Corpuscles that compose this cold Air , being most of them driven on before it , by the wind that meets them in its way , will , in a sense , prove frigorifick , in regard of a less cold body , which they shall happen to be blown upon , and accordingly , having provided a ridge Tyle inverted , and half fill'd the Cavity , which look'd upwards , with a mixture of ice and salt , and having likewise put the Iron pipe of the Bellows upon that mixture , and then covered it with more of the same , that so the Pipe being surrounded , as far as conveniently it could be , with ice and salt , the air contain'd in it , might thereby be highly refrigerated , I found , that blowing wind out of the Bellows upon my hand , that wind felt much more cold , then that which had been before blown upon myhand , out of the same Bellows , before the frigefactive mixture was appli'd to it . But for fear my sense of feeling should deceive me , I caus'd a Weather-glass , made after the common manner , but with a more slender pipe , to be so plac'd , that the nose of the Bellows ( which together with the Tyle and Ice , was upheld with a frame ) lay in a level with the bubble of the Thermometer , and then blowing the refrigerated air of the Bellows npon the globular part of the glass , I saw the water in the Cylindrical part and shank , manifestly ascend , as it was wont to do upon the refrigeration of the included air : And as this Ascension of the liquor continued , during three or four blasts of the Bellows , so upon the cessation of the artificial wind , the water subsided by degrees again , till by fresh blasts it was made to ascend . Lastly , having repeated this Experiment , we thought fit to trye , how much the air , refrigerated immediately by the frigorisick mixture , would produce a colder wind then the former , and accordingly , drawing back the nose of the Bellows , that the air , that should be blown out , might pass along the Cavity left in the frigorisick mixture by the Iron pipe ( of the Bellows ) which we had withdrawn , the wind was manifestly more cold , then before , and had a greater operation on the Weather-glass , it was blown upon . This Experiment , if carried on , and prosecuted , may possibly prove more Luciferous ; but I will not take upon me here to determine , whether all cold winds must be necessarily made so , by frigorifick Corpuscles properly so call'd , since I have sometimes suspected , that some winds may be cold , only by consisting of , or driving before them , those higher parts of the Air , that , by reason of the languid Reflection of the Sun beams , in that upper ( or perhaps Arctick ) region of the Air , are for the most part very cold . For it may be observ'd , that Rains oftentimes very much and suddenly refrigerate the lower Air , when no wind , but what the clouds and rain make , accompanies them , as if they brought down store of cold air with them from that uper Region ; which Acosta , and one I conversed with , that visited far higher mountains , then the Alps , affirm to be in some places ( for I am not satisfi'd , that 't is so every where ) exceedingly cold , both in hot Climates , and in hot seasons of the year . And I observe , that the Hollanders do , in more places then one or two , mention the Northerly and North-easterly winds , to be those , that brought them the prodigious colds they met with , though Nova Zembla , where they were expos'd to them , be so Northwards , that it lies within 16. or 17. degrees of the Pole it self . This being a bare suspition , it may suffice to have touch'd it . But I shall subjoyn two or three instances on the occasion of our proposition , concerning the influence of the winds upon the air , and to show more particularly , That even cold winds receive not always their Qualities , so much from the Quarter whence they blow , as from the Regions over which they blow : I shall therefore begin with what is delivered by Mr. Wood , in his New Englands prospect . Whereas in England ( says he ) most of the cold winds and weathers come from the Sea ; and those situations , are counted most unwholsome , that are near the Sea-coast , in that Countrey it is not so , but otherwise . And having added , as his reason , that the North-east wind , coming from the Sea , produces warm weather , melting the snow , and thawing the ground ; he subjoyns , only the North-west wind coming over the Land , is the cause of extreme cold weather , being always accompanied with deep snows , and bitter frosts , &c. To which passages we shall add only one out of Captain James , as being considerable to our present purpose . The winds ( says he ) since we came hither , have been very variable and unconstant ; and till within this fortnight , the Southerly wind was coldest . The reason I conceive to be , for that it did blow from the main Land , which was all covered with snow , and for that the North winds came out of the great Bay , which hitherto was open . Title XIX . Of the strange Effects of Cold. 1. TO enumerate and prosecute all the several Effects of Cold , being the chief work of the whole Book , it is not to be expected , that they should be particularly treated of in this one Section of it , wherein I shall therefore confine my self to mention only those Effects of Cold , that are not familiar , but seem to have in them something of wonderful ; nor must I take notice of All them neither , least I should be guilty of useless Repetitions , but only of them , which either are not at all , or are but incidentally or transiently delivered in the foregoing Sections . Nor is it to be expected , that I should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credit for the truth of every 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Relations I am about to 〈◊〉 . For if they had not something of extraordinary , and consequently , that may beget some Diffidence in wary men , they would not be proper for the title of this Section , and most of them , that they may be fit to be plac'd here , must be the Effects of such extreme degrees of Cold , that I cannot in this temperate Climate of ours , examine the truth of them by my own Trials , so that all I can do , is , to make choice of such Relations , as are almost all of them delivered by the Relators , as upon their own Knowledge . And even this may perchance , not only gratifie and excite the Curiosity of some , who are pleas'd with no things so much , as with those , that have somewhat in them of Prodigy , and ( which is more considerable ) their Narratives may afford the Ingenious such strange Phaenomena , that the Explication of them may serve , both to exercise their wits , and try their Hypothesis . 2. It seems not necessary , in the marshalling these observations , to be scrupulous about method , but yet to avoid confusion , we shall first mention the Effects of Cold , as to those four great Bodies , of that part of the Sublunary World we live in , that are commonly reputed Elements , and thence we will proceed to take notice of the Effects of Cold upon some other inanimate Bodies , and , for an instance of its operation on living Creatures , upon men . 3. Of the power of Cold , either to straiten the sphere of activity of fire , or to hinder its wonted effects , the chief examples I have met with are recorded , partly by the Dutch in Nova Zembla , and partly by Captain James , when he winter'd in Charleton Island . These Hollanders in one place speak thus ; The twentieth it was fair and still weather , the wind Easterly , then we wash'd our Sheets , but it was so cold , that when we had wash'd and wrung them , they presently froze so stiff , that although we laid them by a great fire , the side that laid next the fire thaw'd , but the other side was hard frozen , &c. Elsewhere thus , We were in great fear , that if the extremity of the Cold grew to be more and more , we should all dye there , with cold , for what fire soever we made , it would not warm us . And because it were tedious to transcribe all that their Journals afford us to our present purpose we will conclude with this passage , Hereby we were so fast shut up into the House , as if we had been prisoners , and it was so extreme Cold , that the fire almost cast no heat , for as we put our feet to the fire , we burnt our hose before we could feel the heat , so that we had work enough to do to patch our hose , and which is more , if we had not sooner smelt then felt them , we should have burnt them ere we had known it . Though Captain James wintred in a Countrey many degrees remoter from the Pole , then Nova Zembla , yet in one place he gives us this account of the colds power to restrain or oppose the action of fire . The Cooks Tubs , wherein he did water his meat , standing about a yard from the fire , and which he did all day ply with melted snow water , yet in the night season , while he slept but one watch , would they be firm frozen to the very Bottom . And therefore was he fain to water his meat in a Brass Kettle , close adjoyning to the fire ; and I have many times both seen and felt , by putting my hand into it ; that side which was next the fire was very warm , and the other an inch frozen . I leave the rest to our Cook , who will almost speak miracles of the Cold. 3. Thus far our Enlish Navigator , whose relation compar'd with those of the Hollanders , make me not so much wonder , as I once did , that men should relate to Marcus Polus , that there is a certain Plain in Tartary , situated between some of the highest mountains in the World , where if fire be kindled , it is not so bright , nor so effectual to boil any thing , as in other places . For so Purchase renders that passage ; whence occasion has been taken to impute to Marcus Polus , a writer not always half so fabulous , as many think him , that he affirm'd , that there was a Countrey in Tartary , where fire could not be kindled . 4. And as for the other newly mention'd relations of Seamen and Travellers , though to us , that live in England , they cannot but seem very strange ; yet I am kept from rejecting them as utterly incredible , by considering , that ice and snow having before their Congelation been water , must in probability owe their Coldness , to that which reign'd in the Air : So that if in any place Nature has , either so plentifully stock'd the Air it self with frigorisick exspirations , or other Corpuscles ( if we will admit any such ) or have upon any other account rendred it as cold as it can make ice and snow to be even here amongst us , I know not why the Northerness of the climate , and perhaps some saline expirations from the Earth and Sea , may not there diffuse through the air a cold superior to that , which by small Quantities of ice ( or snow ) and salt , can at a small distance be produc'd here . And this cold is so intense , that by pouring some water on a Joynt-stool , and placing on it a silver Tankard , or other convenient vessel , we may , as experience has assur'd me , with beaten ice ( or snow ) and salt , and a little water ( which is added to hasten the solution of the other ) nimbly stirr'd together in the pot , make the mixture freez the external water quite through the Tankard ; and they may be by this way so hard frozen together , as that by lifting up the pot , you may lift up the Joynt-stool too , and that ( which is the circumstance , for which I mention this ) just by the fire , which in this case is unable to hinder so difficult an operation of the Cold. 5. Thus much of the effects of cold , in reference to fire . What the same quality may perform upon Air , we shall say but little of in this place , because we treat of those Phaenomena , partly in the foregoing Section of the coldness of the Air , and partly in other places . Only we shall not here pretermit a testimony of the learned Olearius , who , as an eye witness , confirms what we elsewhere deliver of the high degree of cold , to which the Air may be brought . For he tells us , That in Muscovy he experimentally found , that which others left recorded in their writings , That ones spittle would be congeal'd before it reach'd the ground , and that water would freez as it was dropping down . 6. Of the effects of cold upon water , we shall not need to say much in this place , since the two notablest of them being , the power cold has to congeal water suddenly , and the force it has to turn vast quantities of it into sollid ice . Of the former I have newly given , out of Olearius , an example as eminent as almost any that is to be met with , and of the latter also , I have given several instances in the Section , that treats of ice : Yet two or three notable instances , which we do not elsewhere mention , 't will not be improper to deliver in this place . 7. The first declares , that notwithstanding the warmth of the inside of a mans mouth , his spittle may be frozen even there . The 27. of September ( they are the words of Gerat de Veer ) it blew hard Northeast , and it froze so hard , that as we put a nail into our mouthes ( as when men work Carpenters work they use to do ) there would Ice hang thereon , when we took it out again , and make the blood follow . The like relation ( if I misremember not ) I have met with in a modern English Navigator , and it is very little , if at all more strange , then what is affirm'd by Queen Elizabeths Ambassador to the Russian Emperor : In the extremity of winter ( says Doctor Fletcher , speaking of Muscovia ) if you hold a pewter Dish , or Pot in your hand , or any other mettal , except in some chamber , where their warm Stoves be , your fingers will stick fast to it , and draw off the skin at the parting . 8. The other instance I intended to mention , is this , that though Macrobius , and other learned men , both ancient and modern , will not allow salt water to be congealable ; yet the Dutch at Nova Zembla relate , that even in the midst of September ( and a the Marginal note says , in a night ) It froze two inches thick in the salt water . 9. As to the effects of violent colds upon the Earth , what they would prove upon pure and Elementary Earth ( if any such there be ) I can but conjecture ; but as for that impure or mingled Earth , which we commonly tread on , the effects of extreme cold upon that , may be very notable . For Olearius relates , that in the year 1634. the cold was so bitter at Musco , that in the great market-place , he saw the ground open'd by it so , that there was made a cleft of many yards long , and a foot broad . [ And the present great Duke of Muscovies Physician being asked by me concerning the truth of such relations , answered me , that he himself had in those parts seen the ground reduc'd by the cold , to gape so wide , that a childs head might well have been put into the cleft . ] 10. 'T is somewhat strange , that the violent heat of Summer , and the extreme cold of Winter should both of them be able to produce in the ground the like effects ; but whether to make these gaping chinks , that we have been speaking of , the surface of the ground expos'd to the air , being first frozen , is afterwards broken by the expansive force of the moist earth underneath , to which the cold at length pierces , and congealing it , makes it swell , and heave , and so burst or cleave the hard and frozen crust of the ground , which cannot sufficiently yield to it , whether this ( I say ) may produce the clefts we were speaking of , or whether they must be deriv'd from some other cause , not having yet made the experiments , I thought upon , to clear the matter one way or other , I do not as yet pretend to determine , but will rather subjoyn the second observation I purpos'd to mention of a strange operation of Cold upon the ground , and it is afforded us by the Dutch in their often quoted third voyage to Nova Zembla : In one place of which they tell us , That when they had built them a wooden house , and were going to shut themselves up in it , for the winter , they made a great fire , without the house , therewith to thaw the ground , that they might so lay it , viz. the wood about the house , that it might be the closer , but it was all lost labour , for the earth was so hard , and frozen so deep into the ground , that they could not thaw it , and it would have cost them too much wood , and therefore they were forced to leave off that labour . 11. After what we have said about the strange effects of cold , in reference to fire , air , water , and earth , we will now proceed to take notice of its effects upon confessedly compounded Bodies , whether inanimate or living ; but of the former sort of mix'd Bodies ( I mean those that have not Life ) it will not be necessary to say much in this Section , in regard that we have in many other places , upon several occasions had opportunities to mention already most of the particulars that belong to that head . For we elsewhere take notice , that violent Colds will freez Beer , Ale , Vinegre , Oyl , common Wine , and even Sack and Alegant themselves . We have likewise noted , that the Cold may have a notable operation , upon Wood , Bricks , Stone , vessels of Glass , Earth , and even Pewter , and Iron themselves , to which Bartholinus out of Janus Muncks Voyage to Greenland , allows us to add vessels of Brass ( though these are not immediately broken by the Cold , but by the included Liquors which it dilates ) and divers strange effects of Cold upon inanimate Bodies , which 't were here troublesome to recapitulate , may be met with dispers'd in several places of the present History . Wherefore having only intimated in general , that , though many plants are preserv'd by a moderate cold , yet it has been observ'd , that most Garden-plants are destroy'd by excessive degrees of it , we will pass on to consider the effects of Cold upon animals , and of the many observations , that we have met with among Travellers , concerning this subject , we shall , to avoid prolixity , deliver only the considerablest , and those that we find attested by very credible Writers . 12. Captain James speaking of the last of the three differences he makes of Cold ( namely , that which he and his company felt in the woods ) gives this account of it ; As for the last , it would be so extreme , that it was not endurable ; no clothes were proof against it , no motion could resist it . It would moreover so freez the hair of our Eye-lids , that we could not see ; and I verily believe , that it would have stifled a man in a very few hours . 13. Olearius giving an account of the Air of Muscovy , and especially the Capital City of it , The Cold ( says he ) is there so violent , that no Furs can hinder it , but sometimes mens Noses , and Ears , Feet and Hands will be frozen , and all fall off . He adds , that , in the year 1634. when he was there , they could not go 50. paces without being benumm'd with cold , and in danger of losing some of their Limbs . And yet to add , that remarkable observation upon the by , the same Author , near the same place , speaking of Musco , and the neighbouring Provinces distinguished from the rest of that vast Empire , says , That the Air is good and healthy , so that there one scarce ever hears of the Plague , or any other Epidemical diseases . And he adds , that for that reason , when in the year 1654. the Plague made havock in that great City , the thing was very surprizing , nothing like it having been seen there in the memory of men . 14. Our already divers times mention'd English Ambassador Dr. Fletcher , speaking of the cold that sometimes happens in Russia , witnesseth thus much of it . Divers ( says he ) not only that travel abroad , but in the very markets and streets of their Towns are mortally pinch'd , and kill'd with all ; so that you shall see many drop down in the streets , many Travellers brought into the Towns sitting dead , and stiff in their sleds . Divers lose their Noses , the Tips of their Ears , and the Balls of their Cheeks , their Toes , Feet , &c. Many times when the winter is very hard and extreme , the Bears and Wolves issue by troops out of the woods , driven by hunger , and enter the Villages , tearing and ravening all they can find , so that the inhabitants are fain to flee for the safeguard of their Lives . 15. To descend now to observations , that do some what more punctually set forth the more particular Phaenomena of Cold , in reference to mens Bodies , take the following Observation . The 15. of March some of their men , that had been abroad to kill Deer , returned so disabled with cold , which did rise up in blisters under the soals of their feet , and upon their legs , to the bigness of Walnuts , that they could not recover their former estate ( which was not very well ) in a fortnight after . This may be confirmed by that passage of the Hollanders , where speaking of their preparing springes to take Foxes , they add , that they did it with no small trouble ; for that if they stay'd long without doors , there arose Blisters upon their Faces and Ears . We did dayly find by experience ( says Captain James ) that the cold in the woods would freez our faces , or any part of our 〈◊〉 , that was bare ; but it was not so mortifying , &c. 16. The Dutch speaking of the pains they were fain to take to dig away the snow , that cover'd the house , and choaked up their door , adds , that in that laborious work , they were forc'd to use great speed , for they could not long endure without the house , because of the extreme cold , although they wore Foxes skins about their heads , and double apparel upon their backs . 17. The lately mention'd Captain James relates , that in Charleton Island he was fain to cut the hair of his head short , and shave away all the hair of his face , because the Isicles , that would be fastned to it , made it , as he speaks , become intolerable . 18. And he elsewhere relates , that once he and his Companions , having been for a little while parted into two companies , had their faces , hair and clothes so frozen over , that they could not know each other by their habits , nor ( which is a considerable circumstance , for whose sake chiefly I mention this passage ) by their voices . 19. And the same Author gives this account of the death of the Gunner of his Ship , whom he calls a strong hearted Man , and who died before the end of November . He had ( says our Author ) a close boarded Cabbin in the Gun-room , which was very close indeed , and as many clothes on him as was convenient , ( for we wanted no clothes ) and a pan with coals of fire continually in his Cabbin , for all which warmth his plaister would freez at his wound , and his bottle of Sack at his head . 20. The 11. of December ( says Gerard de Veer ) it was fair weather , and a clear Air , but very cold , which he that felt not would not believe , for our shooes froze as hard as horns upon our feet , and within they were white , so that we could not wear our shooes , but were forc'd to make great pattents , the upper part being sheep skins , which we put on over three or four pair of socks , and so went in them to keep our feet warm , yea , and the clothes upon our backs were white over with frost . 21. Which may be somewhat confirmed by this passage of Captain James . The clothes on our Beds would be covered with hoar frost , which in this little habitacle was not far from the fire . We might adde to all these , this other passage of the often mentioned Gerard de Veer . The 26. of December , it was foul weather , the wind North-west , and it was so cold , that we could not warm us , although we used all the means we could with great fires , good store of clothes , and with hot stones and Billets laid upon our feet , and upon our Bodies , as we lay in our Cabbins , but notwithstanding all this , in the morning our Cabbins were 〈◊〉 zen , &c. But we shall not insist on such passages , as this last recited , because that of the force of cold to repress and withstand the fire , we have already deliver'd as remarkable things , as will be easily met with , in approved Writers , in the former part of this present Section . 22. I have my self met with a knowing and very credible person , that related to me of the cold of Russia , where he travelled , little less strange things , then those I have mentioned of it out of Books ; and if I did not want the Historians name , I should make small difficulty to add , That since I made a good progress in this present Section , a very learned Traveller ( though not into cold Countries ) related to me , upon the occasion of what I was treating , what he affirm'd to have met with in an approv'd History of the strange operation of the inclemency of the Air upon multitudes of men at once , namely , that about the year ( if he rightly remember it ) 1498. an Army of the Turks making an incursion into Poland , upon their return was surprized with such an extremity of Cold and of Snow , that though it were but ( if he mistake not ) in November , forty thousand of them ( the whole Army consisting of seventy thousand ) perish'd through the extremity upon the place . 23. Amongst the many Relations I have met with of the fatal Effects of Cold in the Northern Countries , I took notice not without a little wonder , as well as trouble , that I could not find , that any of the Relators had the curiosity to see what change was made in the internal parts of the Bodies so destroy'd , which yet were an inquiry very proper to have been made , but at length the other day an ingenious Person having shew'd me a Book newly publish'd in French , containing the Description of a 〈◊〉 Province he calls 〈◊〉 , as I was skimming it over , with hope to find some observations about Cold , I lighted on a relation , which though not such as I desir'd , is more then I have any where else found , and I take the more notice of it , because , that though the very name of this Province is scarce hitherto known to us in England , yet having a while after by good chance met with an intelligent Polonian Lord , and having inquired of him , whether he had ever been in that Country , he both told me , that he had been quarter'd there , and by his Answers and Relations did countenance divers particularities of it , mention'd by this French officer ( named Monsieur de Beauplan ) who liv'd long there . This Author then after having taken notice , that this fertile Province , though but situated in the same height of the Pole with Normandy , is oftentimes subject to excessive colds ( which circumstance I mention as a further confirmation of something of the same nature delivered in the former Section ) gives an Account of two differing Effects of this Cold upon the Bodies of men : The one being a peculiar kind of sickness , the other Death . 24. The first which I remember not to have elsewhere met with , is , that sometimes when the natural heat proves strong enough to protect the Toes , and Cheeks , and Ears , and other parts , that are either more remote from the heart , or more tender from a sudden mortification ; yet unless nature be assisted , either by good Precautions , or Remedies , she cannot hinder the cold from producing in these parts Cancers , as painful as those which are caus'd by a scalding and malignant humour , and which let me see ( says my Author ) when I was in those Countreys , that cold was not less cutting nor powerfull to destroy things , then the fire to consume them : He adds , that the beginning of these Cancerous sores is so small , that what produces the pain scarce equals the bigness of a Pea , and yet in few days , nay sometimes in few hours it spreads so , as to destroy the whole part it invades , which he confirms by the Example of two persons of his acquaintance , who in a trice lost by Congelation the badges of their Sex. 25. As to those that are kill'd with Cold , our Author informs us , that they perish'd by two differing kinds of death . For some being not sufficiently fortifi'd against the cold by their own internal heat , nor competently arm'd against it by Furs , Inunctions , and other external means , after having had their hands and feet first seized by the cold , till they grow past feeling it , there the rest of their Bodies are so invaded , that they are taken with a ( kind of Lethargick ) Drowziness , that gives them extreme Propensity to sleep , which if indulg'd to , they can no more awake out of , but dye insensibly . And from this kind of Death our Author adds , that he was several times snatch'd by his servants , who were more accustom'd to the cold , and seasonably forc'd him to awake out of those drowzinesses , which they knew to be most dangerous . And that sometimes the death by cold is indolent enough , the Relations of some intelligent acquaintances of mine , who have been in exceeding cold Countries , do confirm . 26. But the other way whereby cold destroys men , is that , which is the most remarkable in our Author , and though less sudden is more cruel . For he tells us , that sometimes the cold seizes mens Bodies in the reins , and all about the Wast ( and especially horse-men underneath the Armor of the Back and Breast ) and straitens , as he speaks , those parts so forcibly , that it freezes all the parts of the Belly , especially the Guts , so that though they have keen appetites , they cannot digest , or so much as retain the lightest and easiest Aliments , without excepting Broths themselves , but presently reject them by vomit , with unspeakable gripings and pains , and so continually complaining of their condition , and sometimes crying out , as if some body were tearing out their bowels , they end their miserable lifes , being often brought by the violence of their torments to the brink of madness and despair , before they come to that of the grave . And our Author having seen some of these departed wretches open'd , says , that they found the greatest part of their guts black , burn'd up , and as it were glew'd together , whence he thinks it probable , that , as their bowels came to be spoil'd and gangrenated , they were forc'd to those complaints and exclamations ; and we may add , That probably upon the same cause depended those continual vomits of what they eat or drunk ; the Gangrene of the guts hindering the descent of Excrements downwards , as it often falls out , in the true Iliaca Passio , and the Peristaltick , or the usual motion of the parts being inverted , as it also frequently happens in the same disease . There is no doubt but Anatomists and Physicians will think this account very imperfect , but yet I think my self beholden to the Author for it , because 't is not the best , but the only , that I have hitherto yet met with of this matter , though I could wish it had been much more full and particular , and that he had also open'd those Animals , and especially their brains , that he mentions to have been kill'd suddenly , and without pain , by cold . For such informations ( whose want , as far as our Climate will permit , I have had thoughts of supplying by Experiments upon other animals ) would perhaps satisfie me one way or other about a conjecture I have had , and been able to countenance by several trials upon Vegetables and dead Animals , about the cause of mortifications produc'd by excessive cold . 27. What effects a violent Cold may have upon the bodies of other animals then men , I scarce find at all taken notice of by the Writers I have met with , and what I remember upon that subject amounts to but few particulars : The French Author lately quoted , takes notice in general , that the cold in Ukrain , as the Polanders call it , is sometimes so great , as to be scarce supportable by horses , and some other tame beasts . 28. This same Author also mentions a certain fourfooted Animal called Bohack , which is said to be peculiar to those parts , and hides himself under ground in the Winter ; and having inquir'd of the lately mention'd Polish Nobleman concerning this beast , he told me , that being in that Province he had one presented him as a rarity , upon an occasion proper enough to be mention'd here : For some of the Poles chancing to dig ( for some purpose that I remember not ) in a certain retir'd place , were surpriz'd to find under ground , an Animal not familiar to them , and though this creature was so frozen and stiff , that they thought it to be stark dead , yet when they came to flea it for its skin , being awaken'd by pain , it recovered life again , as was brought as a rarity to the Commander , from whom I have the relation . 29. That some other animals may be frozen till they are stiff , and yet recover , I shall ( ere long ) have occasion to observe at the close of the 21. Section . And therefore I shall now add but this , That whereas 't is a Tradition among Travellers into Northern Climates , that both Birds and wild Beasts are in icy and snowy Countries ordinarily turn'd white , if not at all times , yet at least in the Winter by the coldness of those gelid Climates , I dare neither admit the position as a thing that is true universally , nor reject it as a thing that is never so . For not now to enquire , whether whiteness proceeds from the coldness of the Countrey , or from some setled seminary impression , or from the imagination of the females affected by the vivid whiteness of the snow , that almost all the year long is the constant object of their sight : I find by the Voyages I have perus'd , that Navigators often mention their meeting with ' store of white Bears and Foxes in Nova Zembla , and other very Northern Regions , as also their meeting sometimes with herds of white Deer : And in the Alps , always covered with snow , good Authors mention their having met with white Partridges ; to which purpose I remember , that when I was in Savoy , and the neighbouring Countries , which have mountains almost perpetually cap'd with snow , I heard them often talk of a certain white kind of Pheasants to be met with in the upper parts of the mountains , which for the excellency of their taste were accounted very great delicacies . But on the other side , the same Navigators treating even of the coldest Climates , seem to distinguish the white Bears from others of those parts . * And as for a herd of white Deer , their colour may proceed from seminal impressions , since here in England I have seen several Deer of that colour , and though Greenland be by some degrees nearer to the Pole then Nova Zembla , yet I have seen a live Deer brought thence somewhat differingly shap'd from ours , whose skin was not white , but rather a kind of dun : And to add That upon the by , I took notice , that provident Nature to arm them against the cold , had afforded him a Coat , that might have pass'd for a Fur. 30. Yet these two things seem remarkable in favour of the efficacy of cold , the one , that in several cold Countries , as particularly Greenland , and Livonia , even Modern describers of them affirm , that Hares will grow white in Winter , and return to their native colour in Summer . And the other , that though Charleton Island differ not one degree in Latitude from London ; yet ( as the cold is there prodigious , so ) I remember , that Captain James some where takes notice of his having seen there , both divers Foxes , that were pied black and white , and white Partridges , though he could not catch them . But of the whiteness of Animals I elsewhere treat among other subjects , that belong to the History of Colours . And having already been more prolix then I intended in setting down the observations of others , I think it now time for me to resume the mention of my own Experiments , divers of which , though made before others , that have been already mention'd , X or XII . Sections of , I thought fit for to reserve for this place , both for other reasons , and because , this place seems proper for Experiments , that have a nearer tendency to the hinting or the examining the more general Hypothesis about Cold. Title XX. Experiments touching the weight of Bodies frozen and unfrozen . 1. SInce divers of those ingenious men , that have of late revived , and embraced the Doctrine of the old Atomists , teach us , that water is turned into ice by the introduction of frigorifick Corpuscles , which Democritus of old is said to have believed to be cubical ( and to which other Philosophers of late have assigned other shapes indeed , but yet determinate ones ) we thought fit not so much for our own satisfaction , as for that of others , to try , whether or no a Liquor by its increase of weight , when frozen , would betray any substantial accession of the Corpuscles of Cold , which according to the Epicurean Principles , may , by reason of their smallness , pass in freely , and in vast multitudes , at the pores of other Bodies , and even of glass , and which by reason of the same smallness , must be supposed exceedingly numerous to be able to arrest the motions of such multitudes of minute Corpuscles , as must go to the making up of any considerable quantity of water . 2. And first we made a trial with Eggs , of which our Notes give us the following account . 3. [ We took a good pair of Scales and placing them upon a frame ( purposely made for such Experiments , as required , that the things to be weighed should remain long in the ballance ) we put into one of these a couple of Eggs , and having counterpoised them with brass weights , we suffered them to continue all night in a Turret ( built as it had been made for an observatory ) that the breaking of the Eggs , or any such other accidents might not hinder the success of our endeavours ( which were to try , whether the Corpuscles of Cold , which divers Philosophers suppose to be the Efficients of Congelation , would make them any whit heavier , ) but we were somewhat surprized , when the next morning , after a very sharp night , going up to the Turret , we found ( the scales and frame being in good plight ) the Eggs to be grown lighter by very near four grains . ] Thus far the Note . 4. But though we afterwards repeated the Experiment once or twice ( if not oftner ) yet having been by intervening avocations diverted from registring the circumstances of the events ; I dare not now trust my memory for any more , then that some of the circumstances seemed odd enough , but uncertain , and that I desisted from prosecuting the Experiment , chiefly for this reason , that an increase of weight in exposed Eggs was scarcely to be hoped for , because 〈◊〉 seemed probable , that part of the more subtile and spirituous Corpuscles contained in the Egg do continually , by little and little , get away through the pores of the skin and shell ; that , seeming to be the reason why Eggs long kept have usually within the shell , a manifest , and sometimes very considerable cavity unfilled with either yelk or white , which Cavity seems to have been left by the recess of the subtile parts we have been mentioning , so that although the frigorifick Atoms should by their ingress add some , not altogether insensible weight to the Egg , yet that would not , unless perhaps in the very nick of time , when the Congelation is first actually made , be taken notice of , by reason of the greater decrement of weight , that proceeds from the Avolation of the more subtile parts of the Egg it self . 5. And to satisfie our selves about this matter , we took four hen Eggs , and counterpoised them carefully in a good pair of Scales , which were suspended at a frame , that the ballance might be kept unstirr'd in a quiet room , wherein we had placed it , and suffering it to continue there for a pretty while , we observ'd , that though it were Winter , and though the room wherein it stood were destitute of a Chimney , yet that Scale wherein the Eggs lay , did almost dayly grow manifestly lighter , so that it was requisite , from time to time , to take a grain out of the opposite scale , to reduce the ballance to an Equilibrium . And by this means we found the Eggs after some time to have lost eight grains of their former weight , but how much more they would have lost , if we had continued the Experiment , the need we had of the Scales kept us from discovering . 6. Upon this occasion I will add , that I us'd some endeavours to satisfie my self about this inquiry , viz. whether Eggs being once actually frozen ( for those mention'd in the former Note , might lose their weight before they were so ) and kept in a pair of good Scales fasten'd to a frame in some quiet place , well fenc'd from the Sun , would by the cold of the Air in freezing weather , be kept for any considerable time , without a sensible diminution of weight , but an unexpected thaw hindered us from seeing the success of what we design'd of this nature , both as to Eggs , and also some other Bodies : For if the Experiment were very carefully tri'd upon a competent variety of them , it might possibly assist us to guess , especially in Camphire , and some other easily exhalible bodies , what interest Cold may have in suppressing or diminishing the expiration of their Effluvia . 7. But to return to the weight of Bodies frozen and unfrozen , we attempted to discover somewhat about it by several ways , according as the differing accommodations , we were furnish'd with , permitted . And of these trials I will mention four or five , as well of the less , as of the more accurate , as my memory or Notes supply me with them . 8. One of the less Accurate ways we imployed to try , whether ice , in which according to the Atomists , great store of these frigorifick Corpuscles must be wedged , would not upon their expulsion or recess , leave the water lighter then was the ice , was that which follows , wherein to hasten the Experiment , we mingled a little salt . And though we foresaw there would be a difficulty from the Adhaesion of the vapors of the external Air , to the outside of the glass we were to employ , we thought , that inconvenience might be remedied by well wiping off the frost , or dew from the outside of the glass , till it were clean and dry : The event of the trial we find succinctly set down among our Notes as follows . [ A single vial sealed up with ice and salt , being wiped dry , and weighed , was found to weigh four ounces four drachms and a half , when it was quite thawed , it was found to weigh somewhat more then a grain less then its former counterpoise . ] But more accurate and satisfactory Trials about this matter , I find thus set down in one of my papers . 9. [ We took a vial more thin then those that are commonly us'd , that , of the Aggregate of that and the Liquor , the glass might make so much the lesser part : This vial was furnished with a somewhat long neck , which at the flame of a Lamp was drawn by degrees slenderer and slenderer , that being very narrow at the Top , it might the more readily and conveniently be seal'd , notwithstanding the waters being in it ; then we almost fill'd it with that Liquor , I say almost , because a competent space ought to be left unfill'd , to allow the water , swell'd by glaciation , room to expand it self : This vial with the liquor in it , was plac'd in a mixture of snow and salt after our usual manner , and when the glass appear'd almost full of ice , it was taken out , and nimbly clos'd with Hermes's seal , presently after this was weigh'd in a pair of very good Scales , and the vial together with the contain'd liquor , amounted to 〈◊〉 . 38. gr . ss , which yet was not all ice , because these things could not be done so nimbly , but that some of the ice began to thaw , before we were able to dispatch them quite , the vial thus seal'd being remov'd , and suffered for two or three hours to thaw , when the ice was vanish'd , we weigh'd again the seal'd glass in the same Scales , and found , that it weigh'd , as before , at least , if there were any difference , it seem'd to weigh a little more . ] But this Increment that amounted not quite to ½ a grain , might easily be attributed to some difference in the weights and grains themselves , wherein 't is not easie to find a perfect exactness , or to some little unheeded moisture , that might adhere to some part of the vial . 10. And because it may be wished , that as this Experiment shews the weight of Ice resolv'd into water , to be the same with that of the solid ice , so we had tri'd , whether the weight of water congeal'd into ice , would be the same with that of the former fluid water , we will subjoyn what immediately follows in the same paper in these words . 11. [ We took a seal'd vial , very thin , that it might be lighter , but not so large as the other , by about a third , as amounting in the lately mention'd Scales but to 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . gr . 41. when we had seal'd it up with the water in it . This vial we plac'd as we had done the other , in a mixture of snow and salt , freezing it warily , lest being seal'd , it should break , then we remov'd it into the same Scales , to try , whether it had got any weight by the suppos'd subingression of the Atoms of Cold , which many learned men take to be the efficients of Congelation ; but it either weighed just as before , or if there were any difference , it seem'd to have lost ¼ of a grain . Being suffer'd to thaw , and put into the same Scales again , it weigh'd just as much as it did , when frozen , though the weights were numerically the same , and about ⅛ would sway the Scales , or at least be sensible upon them . But note , that I was careful this last time to wipe the outside of the glass with a linen cloth , because I have observ'd , according to what I elsewhere deliver , that , in case ice be any thing hastily thaw'd , it may produce a dew on the outside of the glass , as I suspected , that even the warm Air might in some measure do in this , and if it had not been for this suspition , some adhering dew , that I was thereby enabled to detect and wipe off , before I put the vial into the Scales , might easily have impos'd upon us . 12. These Trials I presume may give some satisfaction about the inquiry , for the resolving whereof , I thought fit to make them . 13. But I was also desirous to see , whether any difference , as to weight , would be produc'd by freezing and thawing ( if I may use those expressions in this case ) Iron , Stone , Wood , or the like solid and permanent Bodies , which I intended to have exactly weigh'd , before and after their being expos'd to the Air , and also after the frost was gone , ( and all this against Counterpoizes not expos'd to so great a Cold ) would discover any sensible alteration , as to weight , that might safely be ascrib'd to the Cold. And though Avocations , and the negligence of one that we imploy'd , kept us from bringing the matter to such an issue as was desired , yet the Trials seem'd not altogether irrational , since we have formerly made it probable ( and have since met with fresh instances to confirm it ) that even Stones , and Metals , may resent some change of Texture by the operation of some degrees of Cold. And indeed induc'd by such considerations of that kind , as seem'd the least doubtful , I remember I sometime made several experiments of the weight of some metals , and stones , both before and after they had been much expos'd to a more vehement Cold , then would have suffic'd to turn water into ice , and also after they had been , if I may so speak , thaw'd in a warm Air. But the paper in which we registred the events of these trials having been mislay'd , I dare not charge my memory with the particulars . Only , if I mistake not , one or two of the stones seem'd to have increased in weight , after having been buried in our frigorifick mixture , which I was apt to impute to some particles of the ice resolv'd into water by the salt , that was mingled with it , and ( being perhaps made more piercing by the saline particles associated with them ) imbib'd into the pores of the stone . For I remember , that having procur'd an Experiment , that I then wanted conveniency to try my self , to be made by an ingenions person , upon a stone hard enough to bear a good polish , I was by him inform'd , that the stone by having been kept a while in water , did , though it were afterwards wip't dry , discover a manifest increase of weight : and in confirmation of my conjecture , I shall add , that from a sort of stones , that are of a texture close enough to be usually polisht ; I did , as I expected , obtain by distillation ( and that without a naked fire ) a considerable quantity of an almost insipid liquor , which I suspected to be in good part but water soaked into the stone , for reasons , that 't is not worth while here to discourse of ; the cause of my mentioning these particulars being , that ( I hope ) they may make those , that shall hereafter try such Experiments , cautious how they draw inferences from them , and may invite them to expose the bodies , they would make trial of , rather to the cold of the free Air in very sharp weather , ( for want of which , we our selves could not do what we advise ) then to artificial glaciations at least , unless they be so ordered , that nothing that 's moist come to touch the bodies to be wrought upon . 14. But such Trials as these newly mention'd , and others of the like kind , we must leave to be prosecuted by those , that are furnish'd with accurate Scales , and leisure ; for want of the latter of which , and sometimes too of the former , we were fain to give over the pursuit of them , which troubled us the less , because those made with the seal'd Vials were diligently made ; and as for divers others , we made them , as we were saying , more to be able to gratifie others , then to satisfie our selves , because though in case there should unquestionably appear some sensible increase or decrement of weight , upon that which the Atomists would call the Accession or Expiration of frigorifick Corpuscles ; it would afford a plausible Argument in favour of the Epicurean Doctrine , about the generation of ice ; yet if no such change of weight should be found upon the freezing or the thawing of water , or any other Body , I doubt whether it may , on the contrary , be safely concluded , that the Atomists Theory of Cold is false . For possibly they may pretend , that the Atoms of Cold may not have either gravity or levity , any more then the steams of Electrical Bodies , or the Effluvia of the Loadstone . Nay , though we should admit the frigorifick Corpuscles not to be altogether devoid of gravity , it may yet be said , that when they invade the Body , they freez , they expel thence some other preexistent Atomes , that may also have some little weight , and that the frigorifick Corpuscles , that flie , or are driven away , may be succeeded by some such , when bodies come to be thaw'd . But of this no more at present . Appendix to the XX. Title . THe Experiments recorded in the foregoing Section , may perchance in this regard prove more useful then I was aware of , that they may keep men from being misled by the contrary accounts , that I find to have been given of the weight of ice , and water , by no obscure writers . For ( to spare one of the famousest of the Ancients ) Helmont in the Treatise he calls Gas Aquae , where he gives an account of the congelation of water , which I confess to be unintelligible enough to me , and where he is pleased to ascribe to I know not what extenuation of part of the sulphur he supposes to be in water , that levity of ice , which the bubbles , it contains , afford us an intelligible and ready account of , delivers very positively this Experiment . Imple ( says he ) lagenam vitream & magnam frustis Glaciei , collum verò claudatur sigillo Hermetis , id est , per vitri ibidem liquationem : ponatur haectum lagena in bilance adjecto pondere in oppositum , & videbis quod propemodum octava sui parte aqua post resolutam glaciem erit ponderosiior seipsa glacie . Quod cum millesies ex eadem aqua fieri possit , &c. Thus far Helmont , who in case he take lagena vitrea in the ordinary acception of the word , would have made us some amends for this erroneous account , if he had taught us the way how he could seal such a broad vessel , as a glass flagon , Hermetically . But what has been deliver'd in the foregoing Section , will sufficiently shew , what is to be thought of this Experiment of Helmonts . And for further confirmation , we have several times weigh'd ice frozen , and reduc'd to water , without finding any cause to doubt , but that Helmont was mistaken . And particularly upon the last Trial I made of this kind , having fill'd a wide mouth'd glass with solid fragments of ice , together with it amounting to a pound ( of which the glass alone weigh'd somewhat above five ounces ) I whelm'd over the mouth of it another flat bottom glass , that if any vapours should ascend , they might be condens'd into drops , as in the like case I had formerly observ'd them to do . And this ice being thaw'd in a warm room , as no drops were seen to stick to the inside of the inverted glass , so the other glass being again put into the same Scales , appear'd almost exactly of the same weight as formerly , whereas the ice alone , that had been resolv'd , amounting to much above eight ounces , according to Helmonts proportion , the weights should have been augmented by a whole ounce at least : And I make little doubt , but that if the Experiment had been tri'd in greater quantities of ice , the event would have been very little , if at all , different . But I purposely chose in the 〈◊〉 Experiments about cold , to make my I rials in no greater quantities of matter then I have done , because 't is very difficult to get scales strong enough to weigh , without being injur'd , much greater weights , and yet be accurate enough to discover truly such small differences , as are fit to be taken notice of in such Experiments . But to return to Helmont , notwithstanding all that we have said against what he delivers about the weight of ice , yet because I take this inquisitive Chymist to have been , in spite of all his extravagancies , a Benefactor to experimental learning , I am willing to suggest on his behalf , that possibly much of the additional weight he ascribes to the resolv'd ice , may have proceeded from that which would not have been taken notice of by an ordinary Experimenter . For ( as I not long since intimated ) I have ( sometimes purposely , and sometimes by chance ) by thawing ice in clos'd vessels somewhat hastily , produc'd a copious dew on the outside of the vessels , which dew , as being made by the condens'd vapours of the ambient Air , ought to be wip'd off , before the vessel be put into the scales to weigh the melted ice : And 't is possible also , that Helmont may have err'd in the manner of weighing his Lagena , whatever he mean by it , it being usual even for learned men , that are not vers'd in Statick's , to mistake in Experiments , which require , that things be skilfully and nicely weigh'd : How far this excuse may be appli'd to a late Commentator upon Aristotles Meteors , who says , he tri'd , that water frozen is heavier then unfrozen , being a stranger to that Authors writings , I shall not consider : only whereas Helmont and He seem to agree very little in their Affirmations , it will be perhaps more difficult to accord them , then to determine , by the help of our formerly register'd Experiments , what may be thought of both their Relations . Yet I shall add on this occasion , That if I had not devis'd the above mention'd way of freezing water by Art in Hermetically seal'd glasses , I should have found it difficult to reduce , what is affirm'd by Manelphus , which I then dreamt not of , to an accurate Experiment ; for though I had imploy'd a seal'd glass , ( which I have not heard , that he or any other has yet made use of to that purpose ) yet if I had in that vessel expos'd the water to be frozen the common way , 't is odds ( though it be not absolutely certain ) that the water beginning , as 't is wont to congeal at the Top , the Expansion of the subsequently freezing water would break the glass , and so spoil the Experiment : And for the same reason I have sometimes in vain attempted , to examine the weight of water frozen , by nature , according to her wonted method in open vials . And if insteed of glasses , you make use of strong earthen vessels , there is danger , that something may be imbib'd , or adhere to the porous vessel , and increase the weight , and by some such way , or by some mistake in weighing , 't is very probable Manelphus may have been deceiv'd , which I am the more inclin'd to think , if we suppose him a sincere writer , not only because of some things I have taken notice of about congelations made in earthen vessels , but because , when I have instead of an earthen , made use of a metalline pottinger ( both which sorts of vessels have in common this inconvenience , that their ponderousness makes them less fit for accurate Scales ) there appear'd cause to suspect , either that our Author did not use metalline vessels , or , which I rather suspect , that he wanted skill or diligence in weighing . For as I find no intimation of his having imploy'd any peculiar or artificial sort of vessels , so , if he us'd such as we have newly been speaking of , and had weigh'd them carefully , I cannot but think , that instead of finding the ice heavier then the water 't was made of , he would have rather found it lighter . For I remember , that having once expos'd all night a pottinger almost full of common water , to an exceeding sharp Air , and having caus'd it the next morning to be brought me , when the liquor was throughly frozen , I found it to have lost about 50. grains ( if I misremember not ) of its former weight , and though this event were consonant enough to my conjectures , yet for greater certainty I repeated the Experiments another 〈◊〉 night with this new caution ; that the pottinger and water , together with the counterpoise , were kept suspended in the Scales , to be sure that no effusion of any part of the water in carrying it abroad to the open Air , should be made without being taken notice of ; but the next morning ( somewhat late ) the vessel with the contain'd water now congeal'd , appear'd to have lost about 60. grains : and with the like success the Trial was reiterated once more , and that in weather so sharp , that I am not apt to think , the water expos'd by Manelphus , began to freez sooner then ours . But the event was not unexpected , for besides that I consider'd , that in these kind of Experiments , part of the water , notwithstanding the exceeding coldness of the Air , must in all likelihood fly away before the surface of it began to be congeal'd , I judge it not improbable , that not only the fluid part , but even that , which was already congeal'd , might continually lose some of its Corpuscles , and by their recess lose also somewhat of its weight . And least these conjectures should seem too too unlikely , 't will not be amiss to add in favour of the first of them , that having purposely provided a large Pewter Box , with a cover to screw on it , and having fill'd it almost full of water , ( I say almost , because if the vessel had been quite full , the congealing cold might have burst it ) and carefully weigh'd the Aggregate of both ( which amounted to 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . gr . 11. whereof the vessel weigh'd 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . and gr . 8. ) we expos'd the water after the Top of the pot was screw'd on , to hinder the Avolation of it , to the freezing Air all night , and the next morning found it frozen from the top to the bottom , though not uniformly and perfectly , but found not one grain difference betwixt its present and its former weight : And as for the second conjecture newly propos'd , though it may seem somewhat strange , yet it is confirmable by this Experiment ; that having plac'd divers lumps of solid ice in a Pottinger , which together with them weigh'd a pound , consisting of 16 〈◊〉 , and having exposed these things in the same scales , wherein they were weigh'd , to the free Air on a very frosty night , we found the ice to have lost the next morning 24. grains of its weight , and the weather continuing so cold , that it froze hard all day long in the shade , I gave order to have it kept out of the Sun in the same scales , during all that time , and a good part of the following night , and then weighing it the second time , found , that the whole decrement of weight , did now amount to five grains above two drachms , though the weight of the ice without the pottinger were but about seven ounces ; and when we had kept about 13. ounces of ice in a very frosty night expos'd to the cold Air , it had lost as early as the next morning a good deal above two drachms of its former weight : But these Statical observations have perhaps already but too much swell'd this Appendix . Title XXI . Promiscuous Experiments and Observations concerning Cold. 1. I Hope it will not be imagined , that I have such narrow thoughts of the subject I treat of , Cold , as to believe , that I have compriz'd under those few Titles , prefix'd to the Sections of this Historical Treatise , all the Particulars that I knew to belong to so comprehensive a Theme , as would readily appear , if I thought it convenient to insert here the Scheme of Articles of inquiry , that I drew up to direct my self , what inquiries and Experiments to make . But though there were divers of those Heads , to which I could say so little , that I judg'd it improper to assign them distinct Titles , because as to some of them , I had not time and opportunity to make those Trials , which if I had not wanted those Requisites , might have been made even here in England : and because also , as to more of them , I conceiv'd my self unable to produce in this temperate Climate , so strong and durable a Cold , as seem'd necessary to make the trials , that might be referr'd to them , succeed so far , as to satisfie my doubts , either affirmatively , or negatively : Though , I say , these , and some other Considerations kept me from increasing the Number of the Titles , among which I have distributed the Experiments and Observations , that make up the foregoing part of this Treatise , yet since divers particulars have occurr'd to me , which though they seem not properly reducible to the foregoing Titles , do yet belong to the subject and design of this Treatise , I think it fit to annex them in this place , and without any other order then that , wherein they shall happen to occur to me , throw them into this one Section , together with some loose Experiments , and divers Relations , that I have met with among Navigators and Authors , that have travell'd into the Northern Climates , touching Cold , not forbearing to insert promiscuously among them , some few Paralipomena , which if they had seasonably come to my hands , or into my mind , might have had a more proper place among the foregoing Sections , or have composed a Title by themselves . Wherefore though the Observations will not be altogether unaccompanied with Experiments , yet for the reasons above intimated , much the greater part of what is to be deliver'd under this Title , will consist of Collections out of Voyages , in which the strange things mention'd , being such as we cannot examine by our own Trials , I can equitably be thought answerable for the Truth of nothing , but the Citations . 2. I remember I tri'd at several times divers Experiments , to discover , whether or no congelation would by constriction of the pores of Bodies , or vitiating their Texture , or arresting the motion of their parts , hinder them from emitting those Effluvia , that we call odors , but the Register of these Observations , being unhappily lost in one of my late removes , I dare add but these few , wherein I have no cause to distrust my memory . 3. I did in the Moneths of December and January , at several times gather differing sorts of flowers in frosty weather , but in most when they were freshly gather'd , and hastily smelt to , I could scarce perceive any sensible smell , whether it were , that the causes above hinted , hinder'd the expiration of the odoriferous steams , or that the cold had some undiscerned influence upon the Organ of smelling , which made the sense more dull , or that the same cold kept the Alimental juice of the flowers from rising in such plenty , and abounding so much with spirituous parts , as was usual at the more friendly seasons of the year : and this seem'd the more likely to be one reason of the Phaenomenon , because most of the flowers were flaggy , and as it were ready to wither , and because also a Primrose , that was vigorous and fresh in its kind , had an odor , that was manifestly ( and 't will easily be believ'd , that it was not strongly ) sweet , and genuine . 4. I took also about an ounce by guess of Rose-water , and putting it into a small vial , after I had smelt to it , it was expos'd to freez in the open Air , and when it began to have ice in it , I then smelt to it again , but found not the perfume considerably , if so much as manifesty abated , and lastly , having suffer'd it to continue in the Air , that was then very sharp , till 't was quite frozen , and discover'd no liquor , when the vial was turn'd upside down , the ice notwithstanding was not distitute of a graceful and genuine sent , though it seem'd somewhat faint ; but after the ice was reduc'd to water again , the fragrancy appear'd considerable . But on this occasion 't will not be improper to subjoyn this Caution , That care must be had in Trials of this Nature , to make ones estimate betimes , for if a man should stay too long about it , there is danger , that the warmth of ones breath and face may relax the pores , or thaw the surface of the ice , that is held near his Nose , and both free and excite the Corpuscles of smell , that are imprison'd there , that so instead of ice he may smell a liquor . The reasonableness of which advertisment may be justifi'd by an Experiment that I am about to annex . For being pretty well confirmed by the casual and unwilling Observations of one of my friends , curious in making sweet water , That even Liquors , more easie to be spoilt then Rose-water , would not have their fragrancy destroy'd , though perhaps impair'd , nor so much as their odors for the time quite imprison'd and suppress'd by congelation , and this appearing congruous to what I formerly noted of the Effluviums , that may by the Decrement of weight be gathered to issue from ice it self , I thought it worth while to try , whether stinking Liquors would not be more alter'd by congelation , then odoriferous ones : and accordingly having procur'd some rain water , that had been kept in a Tub , till it stunck so strongly , that I could hardly endure it near my nose , I caus'd a pottinger 〈◊〉 of it to be expos'd all night to a very sharp Air , and examining it the next morning , when it was all turn'd into ice , neither I nor some others , to whom it was offer'd , could perceive any stinck at all in it : and having in another place , but with as stinking water , repeated the Experiment , when the pottinger was the next morning brought to my beds side , I found it to smell abominably , whereupon guessing , that this difference proceeded from some thaw made by the warmth of the room in the superficial parts of the ice , I found it to be so indeed , partly by the help of the light , which discovered a little liquor upon the ice , and partly by exposing the vessel with that liquor in it to the cold Air again , by whose operations an ice was produc'd , that was perfectly inodorous ; and I remember , that one of these parcels of ice being thaw'd , seem'd to be less stinking then before * it had been frozen , and if I had not been diverted , I should have tried , whether this ice , that did not emit odors , would emit like other ice , Effluvia , discoverable by the Scales : for whether the ice would lose of its weight , which seem'd the more probable , or would not , the event may afford a not inconsiderable hint . 5. It is a thing not only remarkable , but scarce credible , that though the Cold has such strange and Tragical effects at Musco , and elsewhere in Cold Countries , as we have formerly mention'd , especially a little after the beginning of this 18. and somewhere in the 19. Section , yet this happens to the Russians and Livonians themselves , who not only by living in such a Countrey , must be accustomed to bitter Colds , but , who to harden themselves to the Cold , have us'd themselves , and thereby brought themselves to be able to pass to a great degree of Cold , from no less a degree of heat , without any visible prejudice to their healths . For I remember , that having inquired of a Virtuoso of unquestionable credit , whether the report of our Merchants , concerning this strange custom of the Muscovites and Livonians were certainly true , he assur'd me , that it was so , at least as to the Livonians , among whom being in their Countrey , he had known it practis'd . And the same was affirmed to me by an ingenious person , a Doctor of Divinity , that had occasion some years since to make a journey to Musco . And the Tradition is abundantly confirm'd by Olearius , whose Testimony we shall subjoyn , because this seems one of the eminentest , and least credible instances , that we have yet met with of the strange power that custom may have , even upon the Bodies of men . ' T is a wonderful thing , says he , to see how far those Bodies ( speaking of the Russians , that are accustomed and hardned to the Cold ) can endure heat , and how when it makes them ready to faint , they go out of their Stoves stark naked , both men and women , and cast themselves into cold water , or cause it to be pour'd upon their Bodies , and even in Winter wallow in the Snow . To which passage our Author adds from his own observation particular Examples of the Truth of what he delivers . 6. I had several years since , the curiosity to try , whether there were any truth in that tradition , which is confidently affirm'd , ( and experience by some is pretended for it ) that the Beams of the Moon are cold , but though I were not able to find any such matter , either by the ununited beams of the Moon , or by the same beams concentred by such Burning-glasses as I then had ; yet having some years after furnish'd my self with 〈◊〉 large and extraordinary good mettalline Concave , I resolv'd to try , whether those beams were not only devoid of cold , but also somewhat warmish , since they are the Sun-beams , though reflected from the Moon . And we see , that his beams , though reflected from glasses not shap'd for Burning , may yet produce some not insensible degree of warmth . But notwithstanding my care to make my Trials in clear weather , when the Moon was about the full , and , if I misremember not , with a Weàther-glass , I could not perceive by any concentration of the Lunar beams , no not upon a black object , that her light did produce any sensible degree , either of cold or heat ; but perhaps others with very large glasses may be more succesful in their Trials . 7. On this occasion I shall add , that meeting the other day in a Booksellers shop , with the works of the Learned Physician Sanctorius ( whom I look upon as an inquisitive man , considering when and where he liv'd ) a Picture drew my eyes to take off an Experiment , whereby he thinks to evince the light of the Moon to be considerably hot , which he says , he tri'd by a Burning-glass , through which the Moons light being cast upon the Ball of a common Weather-glass , the water was thereby depressed a good way , as appear'd to many of his disciples , amidst whom the observation was made . But though this may invite me , when opportunity shall serve , to repeat my Trials , yet I must till then suspend my assent to his Conclusion . For my Burning-glass was much better , then by the Narrative his seems to have been , and my Trials were perhaps at least as carefully and impartially made , as his Experiment in which this may probably have impos'd upon him ; That performing the Experiment , a company of his Scholars , whilest they stood round about his Thermoscope , and stoop'd ( as in likelihood their curiosity made them to do ) to see by so dim a light the event of the Experiment , the unheeded warmth of their breath and bodies might , unawares to Sanctorius , somewhat affect the Air included in the Weather-glass , and by 〈◊〉 it , cause that depression of the water , which he ascrib'd to the Moon beams . But because this is a conjecture , I intend , if God permit , to repeat the Experiment , when I shall have opportunity to do with a more tender Weather-glass , then I had by me , when I made my former Observations . To the XI . Title . BY the unsuccesfulness of the former attempts made with an Iron instrument , I was invited , especially being at another place , where I was unfurnish'd with such hollow Iron balls , as are mention'd Num. the 10. to substitute the following Experiment . I caus'd a skilful Smith to take a Pistol barrel , guess'd to be of about two foot in length , and of a proportionable bore , and when he had by riveting in a piece of Iron , exactly stopp'd the touch-hole , I caus'd him to fit to the nose of the barrel a screw , to go as close as well he could make it , and then having fill'd it to the very top with water , I caus'd the screw to be thrust in ( which could not be done without the Effusion of some of the water ) as forcibly as the Party I imploy'd was able to do it , that the water , dilated by Congelation , might not either drive out the screw , or get between it and the top of the Barrel , and having then suspended this barrel in a perpendicular posture in the free Air , in a very cold 〈◊〉 , which then unexpectedly happen'd , and gave me the 〈◊〉 of making the trial , I found the next morning , that the 〈◊〉 water had thrust out a great part of the screw , notwithstanding , that to fill up intervals , I had oyl'd it before , and was got out betwixt the remaining part of it , and the barrel , as appear'd by some ice , that was got out , and stuck round about the screw ; wherefore the bitter cold continuing one day longer , I did the next night cause the intervals , that might be left betwixt the male and female screws , to be fill'd up with melted Bees wax , which I presum'd would keep the screw from being turn'd by the water : and having in other points proceeded as formerly , I found the next morning , that the screw held , as I desir'd , and the preceding night having been exceeding bitter , the cold had so forcibly congeal'd and expanded the water , that it burst the Iron barrel somewhat near the top , and made a considerable and oblique crack in it , about which a pretty quantity of ice appear'd to stick , besides that there were three or four other flaws , at some of which smaller quantities of water appear'd to have got out . At the same time , that I bespoke this Iron Barrel of the Smith , I order'd him to get me a brass one fill'd up after the same manner , to make the Experiment the more satisfactory . But though he could not procure it , yet the success was not unwelcome , because it was manifest , that there were cracks in the Iron in one place conspicuous , and in others easily discoverable , by blowing into the barrel , and putting on the outside of the suspected parts , either spittle , or some fit liquor , whose agitation plainly disclos'd the egress of the wind , and there appear'd small cause to doubt , but that these cracks were produc'd by the operation of the cold , since not only the Smith was a skilful man in his trade , and one that I us'd to imploy about Instruments , and also the barrel had been sometimes kept many hours fill'd with water , without appearing other then very stanch : but which is the considerablest circumstance the night before , the frost as I lately noted , was not able to make the water break out at any of these clefts , though it were able to force it self a way out at the screw , in spight of all the care we had taken to make it go close . I have only this circumstance to add about this matter , that when by thawing one part of the ice , some pieces of the rest were got out of the barrel , all I took notice of appear'd to be full enough of Bubbles , but yet such as seem'd lesser then ordinary , whether they were so by chance , or were determined to be so , by the resistence or compression , which the freezing water found upon its endeavouring to expand it self in the barrel . Appendix to the XVII . Title . LOng since the writing of the foregoing Section , meeting with a passage in Bartholinus , where he vouches Cabaeus for the Experiment of congealing water ( without limiting it to any season of the year ) by putting Salt 〈◊〉 into it and shaking it strongly , I was thereby confirmed , that I was not mistaken , in supposing , that Gassendus ( mention'd in the former Section ) did not exclude that corporal and visible Nitre out of the number of the grand efficients of congelation . For Cabaeus having publish'd his comment upon Aristotles Meteors ( whence this experiment is taken by Bartholinus ) before Gassendus publisht his Book , 't is probable , that he as well as others borrowed the Experiment from him , and Cabaeus , as Bartholinus quotes him , prescribes the putting the Salt-petre its self into water , which being a while put into a brisk motion , will after some agitation , not only refrigerate that water , but bring it to a true and proper congelation . Wherefore suspecting , that this relation , wherein Bartholinus says , he will believe him without an oath , may have given rise to the opinions and affirmations of those ingenious writers , that have since ascrib'd such wonderful coldness to Nitre , and finding in Bartholinus , that Cabaeus's proportion betwixt the Nitre and the water , was that of 35. to a 100. that is almost as one to three , I thought it very well worth while to make Trial of an Experiment , which seem'd to me little less unlikely then considerable . I took then a pound of good Salt-petre , and near 3. pound of common water ( to observe the more narrowly Cabaeus's proportion ) these being put into a large new Pipkin , were kept constantly and nimbly stirr'd about , sometimes by me , sometimes by one or other of my Domesticks relieving one another , when they were weary , but though the mixture was with a kind of broad glass spattle kept in a brisk motion , that for the most part was 〈◊〉 the manner of a whirle-pool , and sometimes a more confus'd agitation , and though we kept it thus stirring for almost an hour and a half , till we saw no likelihood of effecting any thing by trying our selves any further , yet not only we could not perceive , that any Atom of true ice was produc'd , whereas according to our Authors we might have expected a true and perfect congelation of all or the greatest part of the water , but we did not find , that there was so much as any freezing of the vapours on the outside of the vessel ; and for this reason we thought 〈◊〉 , about the same time , to try the Experiments by another kind of Agitation , and mixing two ounces of Salt-petre with about six of water , in a conveniently siz'd vial , we did several of us successively vehemently shake the vial too and fro , till we were almost tyr'd ; but neither this way was there produced the least ice within the glass , or the least congelation of the vapours of the Air on the outside of it . 'T is true , that when so great a proportion of Salt-petre began to be dissolv'd in the Pipkin , the water had a sensible increase of coldness , which afterwards seem'd to diminish , when once the Nitre was dissolv'd ; but not to mention , that ( if I much mistake not ) we have observ'd the water to be refrigerated , when upon the dissolution of common salt , multitudes of actually cold and solid Corpuscles came to be every way dispers'd through it ; this coldness produc'd by the Nitre , was very far short of the degree requisite to congelation : for to satisfie my self , that my sense did not misinform me , I took a good seal'd Weather-glass of about ten or twelve inches long , and immersing it into the cold mixture of Nitre and Water , I observ'd the tincted spirit of Wine in the stem to descend not inconsiderably , and when I perceived that degree of cold to have wrought its effect , I remov'd the Thermoscope into a vial fill'd with common water , about which I had caus'd to be plac'd a mixture of beaten ice and salt , to 〈◊〉 the contained water , in which the ball of the Instrument being plac'd , the spirit of Wine hastily descended two or three inches below that place at which it stood , when 't was remov'd out of the Nitrous solution : And for further satisfaction removing the Thermoscope once again into that solution , the spirit of Wine in the stem was hastily impell'd up , as if the bubble had been put into warm water . And once more the Weather-glass being remov'd into the formerly mention'd 〈◊〉 water , the tincted liquor began to fall down hastily again , and within a while subsided almost into the bubble , whereupon to avoid injuring the instrument , we thought fit to take it out ; so that upon the whole matter , if the learned Cabaeus were not deluded by mistaking some Crystals of Nitre ( which I have observ'd easily to shoot again in water , that has been 〈◊〉 with it ) for true and proper ice , I cannot but wonder at his assertion , and must take the liberty to think my self warranted by so many Harmonious Trials , as I have found unfavourable to the suppos'd supremeness of Cold in Salt-petre , to retain my former opinion about it , till more succesful Experiments withdraw me from it . 'T is a receiv'd Tradition among the Water-men and many others , that the Rivers , if not Ponds also , are frozen first at the bottom , and begin to thaw there . But though I find this opinion to be in request , not only among English Water-men , but among the French too , yet I think it may be very warrantably question'd : For 't is evident in waters we expose to freez in large vessels , that the congelations begin at the surface , where the liquor is 〈◊〉 to the Air , and thence as the cold continues to prevail , the ice increases and thickens downwards , and therefore we see , that Frogs retire themselves in frosty weather to the bottom of ditches , whence I have had many of them taken out very brisk and vigorous , from under the thick ice that cover'd the water . And I have been informed by an observing person , that at least in some places , 't is usual in Winter for shoals of Fishes to retire to those depths of the Sea , if not of Rivers also , where they are not to be found in Summer . Besides if Rivers were frozen at the 〈◊〉 , we must very frequently meet in the emergent pieces of ice , the shapes of those irregular Cavities and Protuberances , that are often to be found in the uneven soils , over which Rivers take their course , whereas generally those emergent pieces of ice are flat , as those flakes , that are generated on the surface of the water . Moreover if even deep rivers freez first at the bottom , why should not very many Springs and Wells 〈◊〉 first at the bottom too , the contrary of which nevertheless is obvious to be observ'd . In confirmation of all which we may make use of what we formerly noted ( in the Section of the Primum Frigidum ) about the 〈◊〉 of the Masters of the French Salt-works , who by overflowing the Banks and Causeways all the winter , keep them from being spoil'd by the srost , which could not be done , if the waters they stand under froze as well at the bottom , as at the Top. But I find , that that , which deceives our Water-men , is , that they often observe flakes of ice to ascend from the bottom of Rivers , to the Top , and indeed it often happens , that after the hard frost has continued a while , these emergent pieces of ice , do very much contribute to the freezing over of Rivers . For , coming , in some of the narrower parts of them , to be stopp'd by the superficial ice , that reaches on each side of the River a good way from the Banks towards the middle , those flat icy bodies are easily cemented by the violence of the cold , and by the help of the contiguous water , to one another , and by degrees straitning , and at length choaking up the passage , they give a stop to the other flakes of ice , that either emerging from the bottom , or loosened from the banks of the River , or carried down the stream towards them , and these being also by the same Cold cemented to the rest , the River is at length quite frozen over . And the reason why so many flakes of ice come from the bottom of the River , seems to be , that after the water has been frozen all along near the banks , either the warmth of the Sun by day , or some of those many casualties , that may perform such a thing , does by thawing the ground , or otherwise loosen many pieces of that ice together with the earth , stones , &c. that they adher'd to , from the more stable parts of the banks , and these heavy bodies do by their weight carry down with them the ice they are fastned to ; but then the water at the bottom of the river being warm in comparison of the Air in frosty weather ( since that even common water is so , we have manifested by experience , where we show how much sooner ice will be dissolv'd in water , then thaw'd in Air ) the dispers'd ice is by degrees so wrought upon , that those parts by which it held to the stones , earth , or other heavy bodies being resolv'd , the remaining ice being much lighter bulk for bulk , then water , gets loose , and straightway emerges , and may perhaps carry up with it divers stones and clods of earth , that may yet happen to stick to it , or be inclos'd in it , the sight of which perswades the Water-man , that the flakes of ice were generated at the bottom of the river , whereas a large piece of ice may carry up and support bodies of that kind of a great 〈◊〉 , in case the ice it self be proportionably great , so that the Aggregate of the ice , and heavy bodies , 〈◊〉 not the weight of an equal bulk of water . On which occasion I remember , that Captain James Hall in a voyage , extant in Purchas , relates , that upon a large piece of ice in the Sea they found a great stone , which they judg'd to be three hundred pound weight . But of the Tradition of the Water-men we shall say no more , then that this hath been discours'd , but upon no great information , though the best we could procure ; so that for further satisfaction , it were to be desir'd , that either by sending down a Diver , or by letting down some instrument fit to feel ( if I may so speak ) the bottom of Rivers with , and to try , whether ice , if it met with any , be loose from , or uniformly coherent to the ground , and also bring up parcels of whatever stuff it meets with there , the matter were by Competent Experiments put out of doubt . We took a seal'd Weather-glass furnish'd with spirit of Wine , and though not above 10. inches long in all , yet sensible enough , and having caus'd a hole to be made in the Cover of a Box , just wide enough for the smaller end of the Glass to be thrust in at , we inverted the Thermometer , so that the ball of it rested upon the cover of a Box , and the pipe pointed directly downwards , then we placed about the ball a little beaten ice and salt , and observ'd , whether , according to our expectation , the tincted spirit , that reach'd to the middle of the pipe , or thereabouts , would be retracted upon the refrigeration of the liquor in the ball , and accordingly the spirit did in very few minutes ascend in that short pipe above an inch higher , then a mark whereby we took notice of its former station , and would perhaps have ascended much more , if the application of the frigorifick mixture had been continued , by which , and another succeeding Experiment to the same purpose , it seems , that the condensation of liquors by cold , is not always effected by their proper gravity only , which ordinarily may be sufficient to make the parts fall closer together : but whether in our case the contraction be assisted by some little tenacity in the liquor , or by the spring of some little aerial , or other spirituous and Elastick particles , from which the instrument was not perfectly freed , when it was seal'd up , or which happened to be generated within it afterwards , will be among orher things more properly inquir'd into in another place , where we may have occasion to make use of this Experiment . There is a famous Tradition , that in Muscovy , and some other cold Countries , 't is usual out of Ponds and Rivers to take up good numbers of Swallows inclos'd in pieces of ice , and that the benumm'd birds upon the thawing of the ice in a warm room , will come to themselves again , and fly about amazedly for a while , but not long survive so great and sudden a change . I have in another Treatise already said somewhat about this Tradition , and therefore shall now say no more of it , then these two things . First , that I since was assur'd by a person of honour , that is very curious , and was commanded by ( a many ways ) great Prince to inquire out the truth of it , when he was in some of those Countries , where the thing is said to be familiar enough , and that the 〈◊〉 and soberest persons he could ask affirm'd the thing to be true : But ( secondly ) having lately inquired about this matter of a knowing person of quality , that was born and bred in Poland , he answered me , That in the parts where he liv'd , it was a very general and unquestion'd opinion , that Swallows often hid themselves all the Winter under water in Ponds and Lakes , and Seggy places , and that the Fishermen , when having broken the ice , they cast their Nets for Fish , do draw them up benummed , but not dead , so that they quickly in Stoves recover their wings , but seldom after that prolong their lives : But as for their being taken up in ice , he told me , he had not heard of it , though I see not why in case they commit themselves to shallow waters , as those of Ponds and Seggy places , often are a sharp lasting frost may not sometimes reach them . And therefore that which left me the greatest scruple about this Tradition , is , That this Gentleman , notwithstanding his curiosity , could not affirm , that ever he himself had seen any example of the thing he related . But I will take this occasion to add , that having a mind in frosty weather to try some Anatomical Experiments about Frogs , one that I imploy'd breaking in a Ditch some ice that was very thick , and of which he was to bring me a quantity , found in the water , that was under the ice , good store of Frogs ( besides some Toads ) which I found to be very lively , and divers of which I kept for certain uses a good while after . To confirm , and to add some Paralipomena unto what I have deliver'd in the Second , and in the Twentieth Titles , about the frosts getting into hard and solid bodies , I shall here subjoyn some particulars there omitted , which I have learned partly from Experiments , and partly from persons worthy of credit , whom I purposely consulted about this matter . And first as to the freezing of Wood , we have sometimes tri'd it by purposely exposing partly other Wood , and partly branches cut off from growing Trees , to an intense degree of Cold , by which the wood seem'd in one night to be for some little depth manifestly enough invaded by the frost . But a domestick of mine having a little while since had occasion to fell an old Apple-tree , on a day that had been preceded by a fortnights bitter frost , came and informed me , That he found , that the frost had evidently pierc'd into the very middle of it , though it were about a foot in Diameter . And an Experienc'd Artificer , whose head and hand were much imploy'd about the building of great mens houses , told me , that he had often seen here in England pieces of Timber it self manifestly frozen , and rendred exceeding difficult to be saw'd , the frost also appearing by evident signs to continue in the saw-dust . And therefore it will be the less strange , if in Poland the effects of Cold upon wood be more conspicuous . For a learned native assur'd me , that in his Countrey 't was usual to have wood frozen so hard , that the Hatchets would not cut it , but rebound from it , and that 't was very usual to hear in the night a great many loud cracks , almost like the reports of Pistols , of the shingles or wooden tyles , wherewith in many places they cover their houses instead of Slate , and this ( as I purposely ask'd ) when the weather was dry , and excessively cold . When I likewise inquir'd about the thawing of wood , he told me , he had several times seen pieces of Timber , which having been throughly frozen in the Air , did , when brought into rooms made warm by Stoves , become cover'd with a kind of hoar frost , and made them look white , and that though his Bow ( which he shew'd me ) were very strong and tough , as being made not of wood , but horn , and other close materials , it would be so chang'd by the frost , that unless special care were had in the thawing of it , it would break . That Marle and Chalk , and other less solid terrestrial Concretions will be shatter'd by strong and durable frosts , is observ'd by Husbandmen , who thereby find it the better fitted to manure their land , the Texture of those bodies , during whose intireness , the parts most proper to feed grass and corn , are more lock'd up , being by congelation in great part dissolv'd , but that true and solid stones wont to be imploy'd in noble and durable Buildings , should be spoil'd by the frost , will perhaps to most readers seem very improbable . And therefore I shall here add what I have learn'd by inquiry of the ingeniousest and most experienc'd Mason I have met with , because it may not only surprize most readers , but prove an useful observation to him . Having then inquir'd of this Tradesman , whether he did not find , that some free stone , a name vulgarly known , would not be spoil'd by the frost , he told me , that he had often observ'd both free stone and harder stones then that , to be exceedingly spoil'd by the frost , and reduc'd to crack or scale off , to the blemishing and prejudice of the houses , that are built of them . But because it may be objected against this , that experience shews us , that divers of the stateliest Fabricks in England have these stones for their chief materials , and yet indure very well the inclemencies of the Air , the reply may be , that the difference may not consist in the peculiar natures of the stones imploy'd , but in the several seasons in which the same kind of stones are digg'd out of the Quarry . For if they be digg'd up , when the cold weather is already come in , and imploy'd in building the same Winter , they will , upon very hard frosts , be apt to be shatter'd or scale , but if they be digg'd early in the Summer , and suffer'd to lye expos'd to the Sun and Air , during all the heat of the Summer , these season'd stones , if I may so call them , may outlast many sharp Winters unimpair'd . It seems to me worth trying , whether during their insolation , if that term may be allow'd me , there do not by the operation of the heat and air upon them , exhale a certain unripe mineral , sap , or moisture ( whose recess may perhaps be discover'd by weight ) which if it remain in the stone , may by very piercing frosts be congeal'd almost like the sap in Timber-trees , and shatter the Texture of the stone , which agrees well with what was told me by an understanding person , that is Master of a great Glass-house , of whom having purposely inquir'd , whether he did not find , that his great earthen pots , which are made up with as little water as is possible , & are deservedly famous for their durable Texture , had not that Texture alter'd and impair'd by very piercing frosts ; he assur'd me , that if he did not take care to keep the frost ( as they speak ) from getting into them , those great and solid vessels , wherein he us'd to keep his glass in fusion , would in the fire scale or crack ( and perhaps fly ) and become unserviceable no less then some weeks sooner , then if they had never been impair'd by the frost . And when I inquired , whether also glass it self would not be much prejudiced thereby , he affirmed to me , that oftentimes in very hard frosts many glasses , that had continued intire for many weeks ( for that circumstance I was sollicitous to ask about ) would as it were of their own own accord crack with loud noises . But whatever prove to be the issue of such Trials , it will not be amiss to confirm the Phaenomenon it self , by the testimony of an illiterate , but very experienc'd French Aurhor , who on a certain occasion tells us , ( as I also take notice in another * Treatise ) That he knows the stones of the mountains of Ardenne ( famous enough in France ) are harder then Marble , and yet the inhabitants of that Countrey do not draw them out of the Quarry in winter , because they are subject to the frost . And it has been divers times seen , that upon thaws , the rocks without being cut , have fallen down , and kill'd many . But it may yet seem far more unlikely , that frosts should get into mettals themselves , and yet having ask'd the newly mention'd Polonian , whether he had observ'd any thing of that kind , he answer'd , that he had often by drawing out his sword and pulling out his pistols , when he had been long in the field , and came into a hot room , found them quickly almost whitened over , by a kind of small hoar frost . But whether this were , as he conceiv'd any thing , that was drawn out of the Steel , and setled on the surface of it , I want circumstances enough to make me willing to determine . But if we will credit Olaus Magnus , it must be confess'd , that considerably thick pieces of Iron and Steel it self , will in the Northern Regions be render'd so brittle by the extreme frost , that they are fain to temper their instruments after a peculiar manner : his words , which being remarkable , I forbear to alter , are these , Videntur praeterea ferrei ligones certa ratione fabricati , quia his spissa atque indurata glacies caeteris instrumentis ferreis non cedens facilius infringitur dum aliae secures chalybe permixtae , in vehementi frigore ad solum glaciei vel virentis arboris ictum instar vitri rumpuntur , ubi ligones praedicti sive ferreae hastae fortissimi manent . Which testimony , notwithstanding what some have written to this Authors disparagement , does not seem to me at all incredible . For I remember , that even here in England I have had the curiosity to cause trials to be made in very frosty weather , whereby , if an expert Smith I then us'd to imploy , did not gratis deceive me in the Irons I imploy'd , that 〈◊〉 may by such degrees of cold , as even our Climate is capable of , be rendered exceeding brittle , as he several times affirm'd to me , that there are some kinds of iron which he could hammer , and turn , as they phrase it , cold in open weather , which yet in very hard frosts would become so brittle , as by the same way of working easily to break , if not to flye asunder . And this he affirm'd both of Iron and Steel , of which latter mettal another very skilful workman , whom I also consulted , certifi'd the like : but though this disagreed not with trials purposely made on Iron rods had inform'd me , yet presuming , that in such a nice piece of work as a spring , some further satisfaction about this matter might be obtain'd , I inquired of a very dexterous Artificer , that was skill'd in making springs for others , whether or no he found a necessity of giving springs another temper in very frosty weather , then at other seasons , and he answered me , that in such 〈◊〉 if he gave his springs the same temper , that he did in mild and open weather , they would be very apt to break . And therefore in very sharp seasons he us'd to take them down lower , as they speak , that is , give them a softer temper then at other times , which as it makes it probable , that the cold may have a considerable operation upon bodies , upon which most men would not suspect it to have one , so that discovery may afford a hint , that may possibly reach further then we are yet aware of , touching the interest that cold may have in many of the Phaenomena of nature . I should here subjoyn , that in prosecution of what is deliver'd in the XX. Section about the weight of solid bodies , that I there wish'd might be expos'd to a congealing Air , I did cause some Trials of that kind to be made in a very frosty night , especially with Bricks , but something that happened to the only Scales I then had fit for such an Experiment , made me doubt , whether some little increase of weight , that seem'd to be gain'd by congelation , were to be reli'd upon , though there did not appear any hoar frost , or other thing outwardly adhering , to which the effect could be ascrib'd . It is a Tradition , which the Schools and others have receiv'd with great veneration from their Master Aristotle , that hot water will sooner freez then cold ; but I do not much wonder , that the learned 〈◊〉 , as I find him quoted by Bartholinus , should contradict this Tradition , though he be himself a commentator upon that Book of Aristotle , wherein 't is deliver'd . For I could never satisfie my self , that there is ( at least with our water , and in our Climate ) any truth in the Assertion , though I have made trial of it more ways then one , but it may very well suffice to mention a few of the plainest and easiest Trials , with whose success I am well satisfi'd as to the main , as the Reader also will , I doubt not , be ; though not having , for want of health , been able to have so immediate an inspection of these , as of the rest of my Experiments , I was sometimes fain to trust the watchfulness of my servants ( whom I was careful to send out often ) to bring me word how long after the first freezing of the cold water , it was before the other began to be congeal'd . We took then three pottingers , as near of a size as we could , and the one we fill'd almost to the top with cold water , the other with water , that had been boil'd before , and was moderately cool'd again , and the third with hot water ; these three vessels were expos'd together in the same place to the freezing Air. In the Entry of one of the Trials , I find , that being all three put out at half an hour after eight of the clock . That the pottinger that contain'd the cold liquor began to freez at ¼ after ten . That which contain'd the water heated and cool'd again , began to freez ¾ past ten . And that which contain'd the hot water , at half an hour after eleven , and somewhat better . So that though all froze within the compass of two hours , yet the cold water began this time to freez an hour and a ¼ sooner then the hot . These pottingers were earthen , but I elsewhere made the Trial in others of mettal , and there also the cold water began to freez , both before that which had been heated and cooled again , and long before the hot . Another time I measured out the water by spoonfuls into pottingers ( not having then by me any fit Scales to weigh it ) to be the more sure , that the quantities of water should not be considerably unequal , and then also the cold water froze a considerable while before the hot . But my usual jealousie in the making nice Experiments , tempting me to inquire , whether the water in some of the former Trials had not been heated in a stone Bottle , not a Skillet , it was confess'd , that it was so , but that the bottle us'd to contain nothing but Beer , and had been wash'd before-hand : And though I did not think , that the bottle could have any considerable influence on the Experiment ; yet least it should be suspected , that the scalding water , mighr have imbib'd some spirituous parts remaining yet among the minute dregs of Beer in the pores of the bottle , for the greater security I caus'd the water to be heated in a Skillet , and because in one of the Trials made in a Village , where we had not choice of pottingers , the cold water chanc'd to be put into one , that afterwards seem'd less , then that wherein the hot was expos'd , I did this very day repeat the Experiment , by putting cold water into a somewhat larger pottinger , heating the other water in a Skillet , and the event of the Trials is this , That the cold water being put out with the rest at ¾ after 6. began to freez somewhat before ½ after 7. The water heated and cool'd again , began to freez ¾ after 7. And having these frozen waters a pretty while by me , I sent in for my own further satisfaction , for the hot water , and found it not to be , in the least , frozen at half a quarter after 8. So that supposing it to continue half a quarter of an hour longer before the beginning of its congelation , * it was twice as long ere it began to freez , as the cold water had been . By which we may see how well bestow'd their labour has been , that have puzled themselves and others , to give the reason of a Phaenomenon , which perhaps with half the pains they might have found to be but Chymaerical . I have been the more circumstantial in setting down these Trials , that I may express a civility to so famous a Philosopher as Aristotle , and also because Artificial Congelations , which we can commonly best command , and which we have the oftenest us'd about our other Experiments , are not so proper for this . For having formerly had the curiosity to take two pipes of glass made of the same Cylinder , that they might be of equal bore , and having seal'd each of them at one end , and having fill'd both to the same height , and then stirr'd them too and fro together in a mixture of beaten ice , water and salt , ( which mixture I make use of for the effecting sudden Congelations ) I found both waters to freez too quickly to make a notable disparity in the length of times , that they remain'd uncongeal'd : And we will not on this occasion omit one Phaenomenon afforded us by these Trials , because it may admonish men , how cautious they ought to be in making nice Experiments . For having once made the formerly mention'd Trial , with glass pipes , that were but 〈◊〉 ( as not exceeding the 〈◊〉 of a mans fore-finger ) and having for greater caution put the hot water first into one glass , and then into another , we found one time , that the hot water froze first , and wondering at it , we examin'd the glasses , and perceiving one of them to be more Conical or acuminated , where it had been seal'd up then the other , it seem'd probable , and afterwards appear'd true , that the water in this acuminated part , being suddenly frozen by reason of the slenderness of the glass there , promoted and accelerated the Congelation of the rest , so that whether it were the cold or the hot water , that was put into that pipe , it would thereby gain a manifest advantage . In the foregoing Experiments ( made in pottingers ) I made use not only of cold and hot water , but of water that had been heated and cool'd again , though not reduc'd to its full pristine coldness , to prevent the Objections of some , that might pretend , that such water would have frozen sooner then Cold , which yet would not salve the common opinion which specifies not such water . Postscript . ANd it seems , that such Cautions as I have been mentioning , are not altogether useless . For accidentally casting my eye upon the Circulus Pisanus of Berigardus upon Aristotles Meteors , I somewhat wonder'd to find , that an Author , who is look'd upon to be a great adversary of Aristotle , except in his dangerous and ill-grounded conceit of the eternity of the world , and some other erroneous opinions , does yet indeavour to justifie Aristotle by affirming , that his Experiment will succeed , if by heated water we understand , that which having been heated , is suffered to cool again , till it be reduc'd to the temper of other water which was not heated . For this refrigerated water he says , he has found to congeal much sooner then the other water , but this I confess I am very unapt to believe . For having divers times caus'd cold water to be expos'd to the Air in frosty weather , with that which had been heated and cool'd again , and having set sometimes one of my Domesticks , sometimes another , to watch them , the events did very much disfavour the assertion of our Author , though care was had of the circumstances most considerable in such an Experiment , as the matter , size and shape of the vessels ; the equal degree of cold in the two several parcels of water ( into both which I sometimes dipp'd my finger to judge of them before they were expos'd ) and the place , in which they were put both together to be frozen . But for further satisfaction , we elsewhere took two pottingers , bought purposely for the making of Experiments , of the same size and shape , and in the same shop ; one of these we almost fill'd with cold water out of a glass , wherein we mark'd how high that water reach'd , that by filling the same glass to the same height with the refrigerated water , we might be able to measure out the same quantity into the other pottinger . This done , I appointed one , whose care I had no reason to distrust , to examine the tempers of the several waters , with a more then ordinarily sensible Weather-glass , as a far safer Criterion then the bare touch , to judge of the coldness of liquors ; these being reduc'd to the same temper , were expos'd to a very sharp Air , and there watch'd by the person , whom ( being not well , and unable to support such weather my self ) I appointed to attend the Experiment , and he according to direction finding them begin to freez , as 't were at the very same time , brought me in the two pottingers , in each of which I saw the beginnings , and but the beginnings of congelation , where the upper surfaces of the waters were contiguous to the containing vessels : so that having made this Experiment with much greater exactness then probably Berigardus did , or , for want of such instruments as I us'd , could make it , I cannot but suspect , supposing the common waters , he and I us'd , to be of the same nature , that he was either negligent or over-seen in affirming , that heated and refrigerated water , will cool so much sooner , as he would perswade us , then other . * And as I am not convinc'd by experience , that it will freez sooner at all , so till he have better made out the reason he seems to give of the Phaenomenon , I must question whether he rightly ascribe after Cabaeus ( if I much misremember not ) the congelation of water to a certain Coagulum , distinct from the cold spirits , that plentifully mingle with the water , which Coagulum it seems ( for his style is not wont to be very perspicuous ) that he would have to consist of certain dry Corpuscles , no less necessary to conglaciate water , then Runnet to curdle Milk : And for what this Author says , * that he must have imploy'd boiling or scalding water , who affirms it to be less congealable then other , that mistake may be sufficiently disprov'd by the several above recited Trials , wherein we found water , moderately refrigerated , to freez much later then cold , and whereas Berigardus intimates , that the person whoever he be , that he dissents from , does unskilfully suppose warm salt-water to be the less dispos'd to congelation for being salt , our Author is therein also mistaken ; for though it be true what he alledges , that salt outwardly appli'd promotes the congelation of water , yet , that dissolv'd in water , it has a contrary effect , may appear by the familiar observation , that Sea-water is much more difficult to be congeal'd then fresh water : and to show , that 't is not a property of Sea-water , but a water impregnated with common Salt , I have several times tri'd , that a strong solution of such salt in ordinary water , will not at all be congeal'd by the being expos'd to the Air , even in very sharp frosts , as may be easily collected from some of the Experiments mention'd in the former part of this Book . Another particular there is ( about the use of Allume in reference to freezing ) in this often cited passage of Berigardus , which I might here examine , if my hast and my indisposedness to ingage in a controversie of small moment , did not injoyn me to defer it till a fitter occasion . To confirm the power ascrib'd in the VI. Section to cold , as to the long preservation of bodies from corruption , 't will not be amiss to add these two remarkable passages , the latter of which affords a good instance of the improvement , that may be made of some degrees of cold to the uses of humane life . The first observation is afforded us by some of our Countrey-men , in a Voyage extant in Purchas , where the writer of it speaks thus : Of the Samojeds , whose Countrey he visited , Their Dead they bury on the side of the hills , where they live ( which is commonly on some small Islands ) making a pile of stones over them , yet not so close , but that we might see the dead Body , the Air being so piercing , that it keepeth them from much stincking savour : so likewise I have seen their Dogs buried in the same manner . The other observation is given us in the description of Iceland ( made by one that visited it ) to be met with in the same Purchas's Collections , where among other things he gives us this Account , which if I mistake not , I have had confirm'd by others , of their strange way of ordering and preserving their Fish. Having taken them , they pluck out the bones , and lay up their bowels , and make Fat or Oyl of them : They heap up their Fish in the open Air , and the purity of the Air is such there , that they are hardned only with the Wind and Sun , without Salt , better surely then if they were corned with Salt. And if they kill any Beast , they preserve the flesh without stinck or putrefaction , without Salt , hardned only with the Wind. I know not whether 't will be worth while to add to the fifth and sixth Numbers of the VII . Title , that , for further confirmation of our opinion , that 't is not Natures abhorrencie of a Vacuum , but the distension of the water , that breaks glasses , when the contain'd liquors come to be congeal'd , I did on set purpose fill several vials ( some at one time , and some at another ) to the lower parts of their necks ( most of which were purposely made long ) with common water , and though they were all left unstopp'd , that the external Air might come in freely to them ; yet not only one of them , that I stirr'd up and down in a mixture of beaten ice , salt , and water , was hastily broken upon the congelation of the contain'd water , but several others , that were expos'd to be frozen more leisurely by the cold Air only , were likewise broken to pieces , by the expansion of the freezing water , as appear'd both by the gaping cracks , and also by this , that the ice was considerably risen in the necks above the waters former stations , which had been noted by marks before ; and if it had been more easie for the included water to make it self room , either by stretching the glass , or ( rather ) leaving the superficial ice congeal'd at first in the neck , or by both those ways together , then to break the vessel , the vial would probably have remained intire . I say probably , because I am not sure , that there may not sometimes intervene in these Experiments somewhat that may need further observation and inquiring . For as it seems , that what I have been lately saying may be confirmed by an unstopp'd vial , which was expos'd at the same time to congelation , with this success , that without breaking the vial the water was frozen , and the ice in the neck impell'd up a good way above the height , at which the liquor rested before it began to congeal ; so on the other side I remember , that I have sometimes had a good store of liquor frozen in a vial , without breaking the glass , though a vial were stopp'd : as if the difference , that I have on other occasions observed betwixt glasses , whereof some are very brittle , and others more apt to yield , might have an influence on such Experiments , or that some peculiar softness , or other property of the ice , that afforded me my observation , or else some other thing not yet taken notice of , were able to vary their success . In confirmation of what is delivered in the VII . Section , about the expansion of water by freezing , I shall add , that having caus'd some strong glass-Bottles of a not inconsiderable bignéss to be fill'd with a congealable liquor , excepting the necks , which were fill'd with Sallet oyl , I observ'd , that in a somewhat long , and very sharp frost the contained water was so far expanded by congelation , that it not only thrust up the corks , but the cold having taken away the defluency of the oyl , that liquor together with the water , that could no longer be contain'd in the Cavities of the glasses , being as it seem'd , frozen as fast as it was thrust out of the neck , there appear'd quite above the upper part of the Bottles , Cylinders of divers inches in height , consisting partly of concreted oyl , and partly of congeal'd water , having on their tops the corks that had been rais'd by them . It is a Tradition very currant among us , that when Ponds or Rivers are frozen over , unless the ice be seasonably broken in several places , the Fishes will dye for want of Air. And I find this Tradition to be more general , then , before I made particular inquiry into it , I knew of . For Olaus Magnus mentions it more then once , without at all questioning the truth of it , but rather , as if the general practise of the Northern Nations to break in divers places their frozen Ponds and Rivers , were grounded upon the certainty of it . In the twentieth Book ( which treats of Fishes ) after having spoke of the reasons , why the Northern Fishermen imploy so much pains and industry to fish under the ice , and having said among other things , that the nature of the Fish exacts it , he adds this reason , that , Nisi glacie perforata respiracula susciperent , quotquot in flumine vel stagno versantur , subito morerentur . Another passage of the same Author , and taken likewise out of the same ( 20. ) Book you may meet with in the Margent , though in another place he seems to intimate another , and not an absurd , reason of the death of Fishes in Winter , where advertising the Reader , that Ponds and Lakes did generally begin to freez in * October , he adds , that Fishes are usually found suffocated , when the Thaw comes , where veins ( or springs ) of living water do not enter : by which passage he seems to make the want of shifted water cooperate to the suffocation of the Fishes . And to the same purpose I shall now add , that having inquir'd of a learned Native , that had had about Cracovia , ( whose Territory is said to abound much in Ponds ) whether the Polanders also us'd the same custome , he answered me , that they did , and that sometimes in larger Ponds they were careful to break the ice in eight or ten several places , to make so many , either vents or Air-holes , for the preservation ( as they suppos'd ) of the Fish. And when I inquir'd of the often mention'd Russian Emperors Physician , whether in Muscovy the frost kill'd the Fishes in the Ponds , in case the ice were not broken to give them Air , he answered , that in ordinary Ponds it were not to be doubted , but that in great Lakes he could not tell , because the Fishermen use to break many great holes in the ice for the taking of the Fish. For at each of these holes they thrust in a Net , and all these Nets are drawn up together in one great breach made insome convenient place near the middle of the rest . It appears then , that the Tradition is general enough , but whether it be well grounded , I dare not determine , either affirmatively or negatively , till trial have been made in Ponds with more of design or of curiosity , and watchfulness , then I have known hitherto done , men seeming to have acquiesc'd in the Tradition without examining it , and to have been more careful , not to omit what is generally believ'd necessary to the preservation of their Fish , then to try , whether they would escape without it : Wherefore , though for ought I know the Tradition may prove true , yet to induce men not to think it certain , till experience has duly convinc'd them of it , I shall represent , That as much as I have in other Treatises manifested , how necessary Air is to Animals ; yet whether Fishes may not live , either without Air , or without any more of it , then they may find interspers'd in the water they swim in , has not yet , that I know of , been sufficiently prov'd . For what we have attempted of that nature in our Pneumatical Engine , whether it be satisfactory or not , is not yet divulged . And I remember not to have hitherto met with any writer , ( except Olaus be construed to intimate so much ) that affirms upon his own observation , that the want of breaking ice in Ponds has destroy'd all the Fish. Besides , that possibly in frozen Ponds , there may be other reasons of the death of the Fishes , that are kill'd ( if any store of them be so ) by very sharp frosts . For who knows what the locking up of some kinds of subterraneal steams , that are wont freely to ascend through water unfrozen , may do to vitiate and infect the unventulated water , and make it noxious to the Fishes , that live in it : perhaps also the excrementitious steams , that insensibly issue out of the bodies of the Fishes themselves , may by being penn'd up by the ice , contribute in some cases to the vitiating of the water , at least in reference to some sort of Fishes . For being desirous to learn from a person curious of the ways of preserving and transporting Fish , whether some Fishes would not quickly languish , grow sick , and sometimes dy out-right , if the water they swam in were not often shifted , he assur'd me , that some kinds of them would : and it has not yet , that I hear of , been tri'd , whether or no , though Ponds seldom freez to the bottom , yet the water that remains under the ice ( in which it self some Fishes may be now and then intercepted ) may not , even whilest it continues uncongeal'd , admit a degree of cold , that though not great enough to turn water into ice , may yet be great enough , when it continues very long , to destroy Fishes , though not immediately , yet within a less space of time , then that , during which the surface of the Pond continues frozen . But 't is not worth while to be sollicitous about conjectures of causes , till we are sure of the Truth of the Phaenomenon ; and these things are propos'd not so much to confute the Tradition , we have been speaking of , as to bring it to a Trial , which , having no opportunity to make in Ponds , I endeavour'd as well this Winter as formerly , to obtain what information I could from Trials made in small vessels , with the few Fishes I was able to procure . And I shall subjoyn most of these Trials , not because I think them very considerable , but because they are , for ought I know , the only attempts of the kind , that have yet been made . To satisfie my self , whether the ices denying access to the Air , was that which destroy'd Fishes in frozen Ponds , I thought upon this Epedient , I procur'd a glass vessel with a large belly , and a long neck , but so slender , that it was only wide enough for the body of the Fishes to pass through , and then having fill'd the vessel with some live Gudgeons , and a good Quantity of water , the neck of it was made to pass through a hole that was left , or made for it in the midst of a metalline plate , or wooden Trencher , which could descend no lower then the neck , because of the inferior part of the glass that would not suffer it , and which serv'd to support a mixture of Ice ( or Snow ) and Salt , which was appli'd round about the extant neck of the glass . By this contrivance I propos'd to my self a double advantage : the first , that , whereas in broad vessels 't is not always so easie , as one would think to be sure , that the surface of the water is quite frozen over in every part , by this way I could easily satisfie my self , by inverting the glass , and observing , that the ice had so exactly choak'd up and stopt the neck , that no drop of water could get out , not any bubble of Air get in , and yet the Fishes had liberty enough to play in the subjacent water . The other conveniency was , that , the frigorifick mixture being appli'd to the neck , no water was congeal'd , or extremely refrigerated , but that which was contain'd in the neck , so that there seem'd no cause to suspect , that in case the Fishes , thus debarr'd of Air , should not be able to live in the water , it was rather Cold , then want of Air that kill'd them . But though not having then been able , by reason of a remove , to prosecute these Trials to the utmost , nor to register all the circumstances , I shall not lay much weight upon it , yet I remember , that the included Fishes continued long enough alive , to make me shrowdly suspect the Truth of the vulgar Tradition . Another time being destitute of the conveniency of such glasses , I caus'd some of the same kind of Fishes to be put into a broad and flat earthen vessel , with not much more water , then suffic'd perfectly to cover them , and having expos'd them all night to a very intense degree of cold , I found the next morning , that some hours after day , they were alive , and seem'd not to have been much prejudiced by the cold , or exclusion of Air. 'T is true , that there was a very large moveable bubble under the ice , but that seem'd to have been generated by the Air , or some Analogous substance , emitted out of the Gills or bodies of the Fishes themselves : for , that the surface of the water was exactly frozen over ( which does not in such Trials happen so often , as one would think ) I found , by being able to hold the vessel quite inverted , without losing one drop of water . And that this large bubble might possibly proceed from the Fishes themselves , I was induc'd to suspect , because having at different seasons of the year , for divers purposes kept several sorts of Fishes , and particularly Gudgeons , for many days in glass vessels , to satisfie my self about some Phaenomena I had a mind to observe , I have often by watching them , seen them lift up their mouthes above the surface of the water , and seem to gape and take in Air , and afterwards let go under water out of their mouthes and gills divers bubbles , which seem'd to be portions of the Air they had taken in , perhaps a little alter'd in their bodies . And particularly in Lampries ( of which odd sort of Fishes I elsewhere make mention ) I have with pleasure , both observ'd and show'd to ingenious men , that being taken out of the water into the Air , and then held under water again , they very manifestly appear'd to squeez out , and that not without some force , at those several little holes , which are commonly mistaken for their eyes , numerous and conspicuous bubbles of Air , which they seem'd to have taken in at their mouthes , if not also at those holes . But of these matters a fitter occasion may perhaps invite me to say more . To return now to our Gudgeons , I shall add , that to satisfie my self further , what cold and want of Air they may be brought to support , I expos'd a couple of them in a bason , to an exceeding bitter night , and though the next day I found the ice frozen in the vessel to a great thickness , and one of the Fishes frozen up in it , there remaining a little water unfrozen , the other Fish appear'd through the ice to move to and fro , and the ice being afterwards partly thaw'd , and partly broken , not only that Fish was found lively enough , but the other , which I alone judg'd not to be quite dead , though , when the ice was broke , it lay moveless , did in a few minutes so far recover , as to tow after it ( if I may so speak ) a good piece , into which his tail remain'd yet inserted ; and though one of these , and some other Gudgeons , that had been already weakned by long keeping , were once more expos'd in the Bason to the frost , and suffer'd to lye there , till they were frozen up , yet the ice being broken , in which they were inclos'd , though their bodies were stiff and crooked , and seem'd to be stark dead , lying in the water with their bellies upwards , yet one of them quickly recovered , and the other not very long after began to show manifest signs of life , though he could not in many hours after so far recover , as to swim with his back upwards . 'T is true , that these Fishes did not long survive , but of that , two or three , not improbable reasons , might be given , if it were worth while to name here any other then this , that the ice , they had been frozen up in , or the violence that was offered them by the fragments of it , when it was broken , had wounded them , as was manifest enough by some hurts , that appear'd upon their bodies ; yet some other Gudgeons were irrecoverably frozen to death , by being kept inclos'd in ice , during ( if I misremember not the time ) three days . And as for other Animals , I caus'd a couple of Frogs to be artificially frozen in a wide mouth'd glass , furnish'd with a convenient quantity of water , but though they seem'd at first inclos'd in ice , yet looking nearer , I found , that about each of them there remain'd a little turbid liquor unfrozen , as if it had been kept so by some expirations from their bodies . Wherefore causing either the same , or two others , ( for I do not punctually remember that circumstance ) to be carefully frozen , and for a considerable while , I found , that notwithstanding the ice , into which most part of the water was reduc'd , not only one of them before the ice was broken appear'd to be perfectly alive , but the other that was moveless and stiff , and lying with the belly upwards in a Bason of cold water , whereinto it was cast , did in a very few minutes begin to swim about in it . I should have made more Trials at least , if not also more satisfactory ones , if I could have had Fishes and vessels , and cold weather at command : But upon the whole matter , though the Tradition , we have been examining , may perhaps have some thing of truth in it , yet it seems to deserve to be further inquired into , both in reference to the truth of the matter of fact , the death of Fishes in frozen Ponds and Rivers , and in reference to the cause , whereto that effect is imputed . I met with an odd passage in Captain James's voyage , which if it had been circumstantially enough set down , might prove of moment in reference to the weight of bodies frozen and unfrozen , and therefore though I would not build any thing on it , yet I shall not omit it . The ninth ( says he ) we hoisted out our Beer and Cydar , and made a Raft of it , fastning it to our shore-Anchor . The Beer and Cydar sunck presently to the ground , which was nothing strange to us , for that any wood or pipe-staves , that had layen under the ice all Winter , would also sinck down so soon , as ever it was heav'd over board . About the duration of ice I forgot , through hast , to add a relation of Capt. James , whereby it may appear , That though Wine abounds with very spirituous and nimble parts , whence it resists congelation far more then water , yet if even this liquor came once to be congeal'd , the ice made of it may be very durable . For he sets down in his Journal , that when he came to his Ship again , he found a But of Wine , that had been all the Winter in the upper deck , to continue as yet all firm frozen , though it were then the moneth of May. When I treated of the great proportion in some pieces of ice , that were aground , instead of taking notice of the great piece of ice mention'd by Gerard de Veer , to be 52. fathom deep , the passage that was to be transcrib'd , was this other , hard by , which contains two examples of towers of ice , where the extant part reach'd upwards more then half as much as the immersed part reach'd downwards . We saw ( says he ) another great piece of ice not far from us , lying fast in the Sea , that was as sharp above , as if it had been a Tower , whereunto we rowed , and casting out our lead , we found that it lay 20. fathom fast on the ground under the water , and 12. fathom above the water . — We rowed to another piece of ice , and cast out our Lead , and found that it lay 18. fathom deep , fast on the ground under the water , and 10. fathom above the water . That snow lying long , and too long on the ground , does much conduce to the fertilizing of it , is a common observation of our Husbandmen . And Bartholinus in his Treatise of the use of snow , brings several passages out of Authors to make it good : to which I shall add the testimony of our learned English Ambassador , Dr. Fletcher , who speaking of the fruitfulness of the soil , and hasty growth of many things in the great Empire of Russia , gives this account of it . This fresh and speedy growth of the Spring there , seemeth to proceed from the benefit of the snow , which all the Winter time being spread over the whole Country , as a white robe , and keeping it warm from the rigour of the frost , in the Spring time ( when the Sun waxeth warm , and dissolveth it into water ) doth so throughly drench and soak the ground , that it is somewhat of a slight and sandymold , and then shineth so hotly upon it again , that it draweth the herbs and plants forth in great plenty , and variety , in a very short time . As we made some Trials to discover , whether congelation would destroy or considerably alter the odors of bodies , so we had the like curiosity in reference to divers other qualities , not only those that are reputed manifest , as colours and tastes , the latter of which we sometimes found to be notably chang'd for the worse in flesh congeal'd , but also those that are wont to be call'd occult , and among the qualities of this sort , I had particularly a mind to try , whether the purging faculty of Catharticks would be advanc'd or impair'd , or destroy'd by congelation , and for this purpose I caus'd to be expos'd thereunto divers purging liquors , some of a more benigne , and some of a brisker nature , and that in differing forms , as of syrup , decoction , infusion , &c. But for want of opportunity , to try upon the bodies of animals , what change the cold had made in the purging liquors , it had congeal'd , I was unable to give my self an account of the success of such Experiments ; only since , in some of these Trials I had a care to make use of Cathartick liquors prepar'd by fermentation , ( which way of preparing them , is it self a thing , I elsewhere take notice of , as not unworthy to be prosecuted . ) I shall add on this occasion , that fermentation is so noble and important a subject , that the influence of cold upon it may deserve a particular inquiry . And I am invited to think , that that influence may be very considerable , partly by my having observ'd ( upon a Trial purposely made ) both that Raisins and water , ( with which I was us'd to make Artificial Wines ) did not in many days , whilest the weather was very frosty , so much as manifestly begin to ferment , though the water were kept fluid ; and partly by my having observ'd , that Beer will continue as it were new , and be kept from being , as they call it , ready to drink much longer then one would readily suspect , if very frosty weather supervene , before it have quite finished its fermentation , insomuch , that an experienc'd person , of whom I afterwards inquir'd about this matter , assur'd me , that Beer not duly ripe , would not sometimes in five or six weeks of very frosty weather , be brought to be as ripe as in one week of warm and friendly weather . But we have a nobler instance to our present purpose , if that be true which I learn'd from an intelligent Frenchman , whom I consulted about this matter . For according to this experienc'd person , the way to keep Wine in the Must ( in which state its sweetness makes it desir'd by many ) is to take newly express'd juice of Grapes , and having turn'd it up before it begins to work , to let down the vessels ( which ought to be very carefully clos'd ) to the bottom of some deep Well or River , for six or eight weeks , during which time the liquor will be so well setled ( if I may so speak ) in the constitution , it has so long obtain'd , that afterwards it may be kept in almost the same state , and for divers moneths continue a sweet , and not yet fermented liquor , which some , in imitation of the French and Latins , call in one word , Must. And how by the help of Cold well appli'd , some other juices , that are wont to work early , and to be thereby soon spoil'd , may be long kept from working , the Reader may perchance learn in another Treatise , to which such matters more properly belong . 'T is known , that the Schools define cold by the property , they ascribe to it , of congregating both Heterogeneous and Homogeneous things . I thought it not amiss to attempt the making some separations in bodies by the force of Cold. For if that hold true in this climate , which has been observ'd by Travellers and Navigators in Northern Regions ; that men may obtain from Beer and Wine a very strong spirit , and a phlegme by congelation , it seems probable , that in divers other liquors the waterish part will begin to freez before the more spirituous and saline , and if so , we may be assisted to make divers separations , as well by cold , as by heat , and dephlegme , if I may so speak , some liquors , as well by congelation as by distillation : but I doubt , whether the ordinary frosts of this Countrey can produce a degree of cold great enough to make such divisions and separations in bodies , as have been observ'd in the more Northern Climates . For though having purposely hung out a glass-bottle with a quart of Beer in it , in an extraordinarily sharp night , I found the next morning , that much the greatest part of the Beer being turn'd into ice , there remain'd somewhat nearer the middle , but nearer the bottom , an uncongeal'd liquor , which to me and others seem'd stronger then the Beer , and was at least manifestly stronger then the thaw'd ice , which made but a spiritless , and , as it were , but a dead drink ; yet in some other Trials my success was not so considerable as some would have expected . For having put one part of high rectifi'd spirit of Wine , to about five or six parts , if I misremember not , of common water , and having put them into a round glass , and plac'd that in beaten ice and salt , though the mixture were in great part turn'd into ice ; yet I could not perceive , that even two liquors so slightly mingled , were any thing accurately severed from one another , although once , to enable my self the better to judge of it , the spirit of Wine I imploy'd was beforehand deeply tincted with Cochinele , and therefore I the less wonder , that in Claret Wine I could not make any exact separation of the red and the colourless parts : However I thought it not amiss to try , how far in some other liquors this way of separating the waterish , and more easily congealable part from the rest , would or would not succeed . And I remember , that a large glass vessel , wherein spirit of Vinegre was exposed to the cold , a considerable part was turned into ice , whose swimming argued it to be lighter then the rest of the liquor : but though I put some of this ice in a glass by it self , to examine by its weight and taste , when thaw'd , how much it differ'd from the uncongeal'd part of the spirit , my hopes were disappointed by a misfortune , which was not repaired by my exposing afterwards a smaller quantity of spirit of Vinegre to the Nocturnal Air , for that proved so cold , that the whole was turned into ice , wherefore I must reserve for another opportunity the prosecuting that Experiment , as also the trying , whether a separation of the Serous or the Oleaginous parts of Milk may be effected . For though once the frost seem'd to have promoted a separation of Creme , notwithstanding that heat also may do it , and though another time there seem'd to be another kind of divulsion of parts made by congelation ; yet for want of leisure to prosecute such Trials , they prov'd not satisfactory , no more then did some attempts of the like nature , that I made upon blood by freezing it . But notwithstanding these discouragements , I resolv'd to try , what I could do upon Brine . For calling to mind the Relations mentioned in the XV. Title , and elsewhere , which seem to argue , that in some cases the ice of the Sea-water may , being thaw'd , yield fresh water , and being the more inclin'd to think it worth Trial , by a Physician , I since happened to discourse with about this matter , who affirm'd to me , that sailing along the coast of Germany , he had taken out of the Sea ice , that being thaw'd , he found to afford good fresh water , I began to consider , whether we might not by cold , free salt water at some seasons of the year , from a great deal of the phlegme , which 't is wont to cost much to free them from by fire , and other means . For a little help towards the diminution of the fresh water , is look'd upon as so useful an Experiment , by many that boil salt out of the salt springs , that in some Countries , that are thought the skilfullest in that trade , they make their salt-water fall upon great bundles of small brush-wood , that being thereby divided , and reduc'd to a far greater superficies , there may , in falling through , some of the purely Aqueous parts exhale away ; wherefore dissolving one part of common salt in 44. times its weight of common water , that it might be reduc'd , either exactly , or near , to the degree of saltness , that has been by several writers observed in the water of our neighbouring Seas , and having likewise caus'd another and much stronger Brine to be made , by putting in to the water a far greater proportion of salt , ( for so there is in many of our salt springs ) we expos'd these several solutions to the congealing cold of the Air in frosty weather , where the last mention'd solution being too strongly impregnated with the salt , continued some days and nights altogether uncongeal'd ; but that weaker solution , which emulated Sea water , being expos'd in a shallow and wide mouth'd vessel ( that shape being judg'd the most proper we could procure for our design ) the large superficies , that was expos'd to the Air , did , as we expected , afford us a cake of ice , which being taken off , and the rest of the liquor expos'd again to the Air in the same vessel , we obtain'd a second cake of ice , and taking the remaining , which seem'd to be indispos'd enough to congelation , we found , that by comparing it with that , which was afforded us by the first cake of ice permitted to thaw , there appear'd a very manifest difference betwixt the water , whereinto the ice was resolv'd , scarce tasting so much as brackish , whereas the liquor , that had continued uncongeal'd , was considerably salt in taste . And if I had had the conveniency of examining my self these two liquors Hydrostatically , as I was fain to have them examin'd by another , I doubt not but by their weight , I should have discovered precisely enough the difference between them ( which the person I employ'd found to be considerable ) and consequently should have been assisted to make an estimate of the advantage , that might be afforded by the operation of the cold towards the freezing of the Brine from its superfluous water . But though I had not a quantity of ice great enough to satisfie me , whether that little brackishness of taste , I have mention'd , proceeded from some saline Corpuscles , that concurr'd to the constituting of the ice it self , or did only adhere to the lower part of it , among other particles of the liquor , that remain'd uncongeal'd , yet perhaps 't were not amiss to try , whether in very large , though not deep vessels , this Experiment , especially promoted by some expedients , that practise may suggest , may not in some seasons and places , be brought to be of some advantage . Whilest I was endeavouring by some of the above recited Experiments , to make some separations in liquors by congelation , I thought fit to try by the same means , what separations I could make in some bodies , betwixt liquors , and those more stable parts among which they were ingag'd , hoping , upon considerations , which 't were too long to enumerate , that , if such attempts should succeed , they might afford hints of a Luciferous nature . I took then divers vegetable substances of differing kinds , as Turnips , Carrets , Beets , Apples , and tender wood , freshly cut off from growing trees , as also divers Animal substances , as Musculous flesh , Livers , Brains , Eyes , Tongues , and other parts , and expos'd them to a very sharp cold , that they might be throughly frozen . Now one of the chief things , that I propos'd to my self in this attempt , was , to try how far I could by congelation make discovery of any thing about the Texture of Animals and Plants , that had not been taken notice of by Anatomists themselves , and would scarce otherwise be render'd visible . And I easily found , that I had not groundlesly imagin'd , that in divers Succulent bodies , both vegetable and animal , the sap or the juice , that was so dispers'd among the other parts , and divided into such minute portions , as not to be manifestly enough discriminated , might by congelation be both discern'd and separated from the rest . For in divers Plants , I found the Alimental juice to be congeal'd into vast multitudes of distinct Corpuscles of ice ; some of which , when the bodies were tranversly cut with a sharp knife , and left a while in the Air , might be wip'd or scrap'd off from the superficies of the body , upon which 't would after a while appear in the form of an Efflorescence , almost like meal : but in others I took a better and quicker course , for by warily compressing the frozen bodies , I could presently make the icy Corpuscles start in vast numbers out of their little holes , and though some of these were so minute as to invite me to use a Microscope , that magnifi'd a little , ( not having then any of my best at hand ) yet in some bodies , and especially in Carrets and Beets , the icy Corpuscles were big enough to be distinctly or apart conspicuous , insomuch , that I was not mistaken in hoping , that the figures , as well as sizes ( for as to the Colour it was scarce discernible in the ice , produc'd in so deeply crimson a Root , as the Beet it self ) of these little pieces of ice , might be guess'd at by the bigness and shape of the Pores , that were left in the more stable part , or ( if I may so call it ) the Parenchyma of the root , though in making an estimate of these Cavities , as well as in discovering the order , wherein they are rang'd , I found it useful to cut the frozen roots , sometimes according to their length , and sometimes quite cross . For by that means there would appear in Carrets , for example , of the larger sort , a great disparity in the order of the Pores , which , when the root was divided by a plain parallel to the Basis , appear'd plac'd in lines almost streight , tending almost like the spoaks of a wheel , from the middle to the circumference . But if the Carret were slit from one end towards the other , the icy Corpuscles and pores would seem rang'd in an order , that would appear very differing , but which I have not now the leisure to describe , no more then what I observed with a Microscope , about the ice and pores of Apples , the Tongues of Animals , Chips of green and sappy wood , & c. expos'd to congelation : only this I shall not pretermit , That as I many years since made ( and , as I now find , too freely communicated ) an Experiment , ( menon'd long after in other papers ; of freezing the eyes of Oxen , and other Animals , whereby the soft and the fluid humors of that admirable organ may be so hardned , as to become tractable , even to unskilful Dissectors : So I did on this occasion apply that Experiment to the brains of Animals , which though too soft to be easily dissected , especially by those that are not dexterous , may by congelation be made very manageable by them : And besides , that in dissecting the hardned brain , it sometimes seem'd , that the knife did cut through multitudes of icy Corpuscles , ( as when one cuts a frozen Apple ) the substance of the brain seem'd also to the eye to be stuffed with them , and the Ventricles of it did at least conspicuously harbour pieces of ice , if it were not fill'd up with them ; and the manifest difference of Texture , that there is between the white and yelk of a througly frozen Egg , and also betwixt the Crystalline and the Aqueous , and the Vitreous humors of the eye , wherein by congelation the Crystalline alone loses its transparency , but acquires no conspicuous ice , whilest the others are full of ice , and that diaphanous , these and such like disparities , I say , may invite one to hope , that some things may by congealing of bodies , be discovered about their Texture , that may afford sagacious Anatomists improvable hints . I know not , whether it will be thought worth while to take notice , That neither an Eye , nor a Liver , nor a lean piece of flesh , nor a live Fish , nor a living Frog , being frozen and put into cold water , was observ'd to be upon its thawing cas'd with ice , as frozen Eggs and Apples are wont to be : because having forgot to make the Experiment above once , I dare not much rely on it ; but whereas we have formerly observ'd , that congelation does most commonly spoil , or at least impair Eggs , and Apples , and Flesh , and many other bodies , I think it may not be unworthy to be consider'd , how far , and in what cases we may give a Mechanical account of this Phaenomenon . For though the immersion of frozen bodies in cold water be allowed to thaw them , with less prejudice , then if they were thaw'd hastily by the sire , or suffer'd to thaw themselves in the Air : yet there have been complaints made ; That notwithstanding this expedient , several bodies have been much the worse for having been throughly frozen , now since I have lately shown , that in many stable bodies , the Alimental juice is by congelation turn'd into ice , and have formerly evinc'd , that water and aqueous liquors are expanded by congelation , I see not why we may not suspect , that the innumerable icy Corpuscles , into which the Alimental juice is turn'd by the frost , being each of them expanded proportionably to their respective bignesses , may not only prejudice the whole , by having their own constitution impair'd , as has been formerly observ'd in Aligant , and other Vinous liquors , but may upon their expansion crush in some places , and distend in others , the more stable parts , in whose Cavities they were harbour'd , and thereby so vitiate their Texture , as to impair some of their qualities , and dispose the Compositum to corruption . How much Contusion may prejudice tender bodies , and accelerate putrefaction , is evident in many fruits , especially the more tender ones , which having been bruised , quickly begin to rot in those parts , that have been injur'd . And 't is agreeable to what has been formerly shown , to conceive , that in congelation there seems to happen an almost innumerable multitude of little contusions , made by the fluid parts harden'd and expanded by frost , of the formerly more stable parts every where intercepted between them : And though these icy Corpusces be but small , yet the sides of that stable matter , that separates them , and which they indeavour to stretch or crush , are oftentimes proportionably thin . And we have formerly noted , That , besides that Eggs will be burst by having their Alimental juice frozen , both shingles and stones themselves may have their Texture spoil'd by the congelation of the Mineral sap , that is in exceeding minute and insensible particles dispers'd through those bodies : and the violation of the Texture of Plants , Herbs , and Animals , by the expansion of the aqueous and juicy particles , which , though they be not congregated , do abound in them , will be the less wonder'd at , if it be remember'd , that our former Trials manifest , that a few ounces of water congeal'd , did not only burst Glass and Pewter vessels , but even the Iron barrel of a Gun. Whilest I was upon these Trials , I had also a curiosity to know , whether by freezing Animals to death , I could discover any such change in the qualities or structure of their parts , as might help us to discover , by what means it is , that excessive colds kill men in Northern Countries , since such a discovery might probably be of good use to the People that live in those gelid Regions : But having taken a young Rabbet , as the tenderest and fittest beast , I could then procure for such a Trial , and having expos'd him all night to an extraordinarily bitter frost , without finding him otherwise mischiefed by it , then that one of his legs was swell'd and grown stiff , I was more inclin'd to resign over to others , then to repeat my self what seem'd to be an ill natur'd Experiment , though perhaps it may have much less of cruelty , then one would think , since some of our former observations have made it probable , that oftentimes the extinction of life by cold is a more indolent kind of death , then almost any other . But in a Rabbet purposely strangled , and presently expos'd intire to a bitter cold , we found ice produc'd in such parts , as would have made us prosecute the Trial , had the want of such Animals and of leisure not hinder'd us . It is affirm'd by divers eminent writers , and those modern ones too , that water impregnated with the saline parts of Plants , and afterwards frozen , will exhibite in the ice , the shape of the same Plant : And the learned , but I fear , too credulous , Gaffarel tells us , that this is no Rarity , being dayly shewn by one Monsieur de la Clave . But to what we have already publish'd in another Treatise , * to shew , that this Experiment as it is wont to be deliver'd , is either untrue , or very contingent ; we shall need but to add , that , since the Experiments there mention'd , we did again lately try , what could be done with Decoctions , that were richly imbu'd , and highly ting'd with the spirituous parts of the Vegetables ; but this ice was by no means so figur'd as the Patrons of the Tradition promise : And I remember , that having also made , for curiosity sake , a Lixivium with 16. parts of water , and but one of salt of Potashes , that the mixture might be sure to freez , and having expos'd the liquor in a thin glass vial to an exceeding cold Air , we found the copious ice produc'd , to lye on the top in little sticks , not unlike those Prismatical bodies , wherein Salt-petre is wont to roch , and those parts of this ice , that were beneath the water , were shot in thin parallel plates , exceeding numerous , but ( as one of our notes expresly informs us ) no way in the shape of Trees , by whose Incineration nevertheless Polonian Potashes , ( as eye witnesses , that deal in them , inform me ) are made . Long after the making of the newly recited Experiment , I chanc'd to find , that the learned Bartholinus in the Treatise , we have often had occasion to take notice of , says , That the water , wherein Cabbage has been decocted , will , when frozen , represent a Cabbage , the vegetable spirits being , as he supposes , concentrated by the cold . How well this Experiment may succeed , when made in a cold Countrey like his , I do not know : but not having my self , when I first took notice of it , the opportunity to try it satisfactorily by help of a frosty night , all I could do , was , to take a good decoction of Cabbage , and filtrate it through Cap paper , that it might be , though yellow , yet clear , and then by the circumposition of our frigorifick mixture , we froze this liquor in a thin glass vial , but the ice did not , either to me or others , appear to have any thing in it like a Cabbage , or remarkably differing from other ice . And being afterwards befriended with two or three frosty nights , we expos'd a decoction of Cabbage , to be congeal'd by the Nocturnal Air alone , without the help of Art ; but neither this way did the Experiment succeed well . And though once a few ounces of the decoction being lightly frozen in a vial , there appeared in the thin ice , that adher'd to the inside of the glass , a figure not so very unlike that of a Cabbage leaf , but that some such accident may have invited our learned Author to think , that the representations of Cabbages would constantly appear in their frozen decoctions , yet I was inclin'd to think this figuration rather casual , by the curiosity I have had to freez the decoctions of several Herbs , some of them spirituous enough , as Rosemary , and Penny-royal , without being able to find in the ice , I obtain'd from them , any conviction of the truth of the Tradition we are examining . And I have lately had more then once , by freezing fair water alone , after a certain manner , ice , that seem'd much more to exhibite the shapes of vegetables , then any decoctions of them , that I have made . And particularly I found more then once , that by putting hot water into a somewhat slender Cylinder of glass , and agitating it in a frigorifick mixture , consisting of beaten ice , salt , and water , so that it was very speedily frozen thereby , it was congeal'd into an ice much more regularly and prettily figur'd , then I have seen it in divers of the waters impregnated with the fix'd salts of Plants , though of these we are told such wonders . Such particulars as these joyn'd with what I have elsewhere observ'd to the same purpose , make me , I confess , somewhat surpriz'd to meet in Berigardus's forecited discourse upon Aristotles Meteors , such a passage as this ; Paucis notum est , cur intra glaciem cernuntur interdum multiformes stirpium imagines in Ampullis vitreis , aquae superficie tenus congelatae plenis . Hoc autem fit injecto in Phialas sale diversarum stirpium , nam ubi erit sal alicujus plantae & Artemisiae , in suo Lixivio glacies adhaerens vitro , refert ejus folia laciniosa : similiter in alia Phiala videbuntur folia Plantae , cujus sal in suam aquam fuerit injectus . Et nè quis hoc fortuito cadere putet , in aquâ saepius solutâ , & congelatâ eaedem imagines semper occurrent , ut vel ex eo dixeris multiplicem spiritum salis in principiis natur alibus esse ponendum . Thus far this Author , who would have done well , if he had been so much more lucky , then other men , as to have performed these things , to assure expresly of his having done so , those many ingenious men , that much distrust the relations of those Chymists , that are not of the best sort : and 't is of such suspicious Authors , that I here declare once for all , that I would have the Reader understand all the passages of this Book , wherein I may seem to say any thing ( for avoiding of tediousness ) indefinitely to the disparagement of Chymists . And in case he had not tri'd them , he should , in gratitude to the Authors of them , have told us , he had , what he delivers of them , but from others , and not have authoriz'd the untri'd reports of writers , not always too veracious by his building Theories upon them . And as for what he immediately subjoyns , and seems to rely on , out of Quercitan , ( and other Spagyrical writers , who possibly had it themselves from him ) about the seminal virtues surviving in the Ashes of burnt plants ; though I will not here examine , or absolutely reject the opinion , because the discussion of it belongs to another place , yet as to the Experiment whereon Berigardus and others relye , namely , that the Lixiviums made of the Ashes of Plants , will exhibite , being congealed , the figures of the pristine vegetables ; besides that a general conclusion , as to other Plants , seems to be inferred from what happened in Netles only , I much doubt , whether that famous Experiment it self of the frozen Lixivium of Netles , were more then casual , if it were not also assisted by an indulgent phansie . For having , after divers Experiments made with other fixed salts , purposely repair'd , for greater security , to the notedst Chymist in England , to obtain from him some fixed salts , very faithfully prepared , and intimating withal , that 't was to try such an Experiment ( which he was a favourer of ) I did by mingling these salts each in a distinct vial , sometimes with one , and sometimes with another proportion of water , and afterwards exposing them to the cold Air , obtain indeed divers portions of ice , but without any such figurations , as the learned Berigardus would have expected ; though some of these Trials were made more then once , as well with the Lixivium of Netles , as with the Lees of other Plants : so that I doubt this Author is more scrupulous in admitting some important truths , in which the best Philosophers , as well Heathen as Christian , agree , then in examining the uncertain Traditions of the Chymists , whose unsatisfactory way of setting down matters of fact , I am induc'd to take notice of his imitating , by finding , that in the very same page ( that I have newly cited ) he relates another Chymical Experiment in these terms . Velim porro ostendere mirabili Experientiâ , quàm sint penetrabiles aliqui spiritus Corporei : Exarentur in charta literae , aceto albo , quarum nullum vestigium deprehendatur , claudaturque primis foliis Crassissimi alicujus Libri . Paretur alia Charta , quae inficiatur aqua illa faetida , ubi dilutum fuerit Auripigmentum , & exsiccata claudatur postremis foliis ejusdem Libri leviter compressi , statim videbis in priori charta literas conspicuas , perinde ac si atramento 〈◊〉 fuissent . Now , though some thing like what is here propos'd to be done , may be perform'd , and other Phaenomena of the Experiment , such as he seems not to have been acquainted with , may be also exhibited , after the manner I have * elsewhere particularly set down , yet he must have good luck , that performs it only by the directions here given by our Author , who by omitting one of the chief ingredients , and some requisite circumstances , appears indeed manifestly enough to have heard of such an Experiment , but without seeming to have sufficiently known , what he pretends to teach ( at least as far as his bringing this Experiment as a proof , and the obscure style , he is wont to imploy in the little I have yet read of his Book , permits me to judge . ) But to return to the figurations of ice , notwithstanding such unsuccesful Trials about them , as I have been mentioning , I will not deny it to be possible , that a prepossessed and favourable spectator may think himself to have discern'd in the ice , the figures he look'd for there . For since the writing of the Essay not long since quoted , we have found , that several Bodies , and even Sea-salt , and Allume , to whom Nature has given their own determinate figures , have , when dissolv'd in water , concurred with it to exhibite an ice very oddly , as well as prettily figur'd ( nor will I presume to determine the utmost , that a lucky observer may sometimes meet with in this kind ) but to name at present no other Arguments , the figures this way produc'd , were too various and extravagant not to be referred to chance , and not to afford instances how much That can perform in the exhibiting of such Aparitions . On which occasion I shall add , that I remember , I once show'd at the Royal Society , a glass head , whose inside was lin'd with a certain substance , that passed for saline , fashioned into the figures of Trees , as curious , as if they had been drawn by a Limner ; and yet as I produc'd these figures only by rectifying common oyl of Turpentine , from Sea-salt ( which salt I elsewhere shew not to be necessary ) in a certain degree of heat : so by varying that degree of heat , I could make the ascending steams settle in other figures ; and I can easily produce very pretty shapes of Trees , by distillation of that , which belongs not to the vegetable , but the animal Kingdom . And to these I could add divers other instances of the like tendency , to make it still the more probable , that though oftentimes one may happen to find pretty Idaeas's , or Apparitions in ice ; yet the like , or as fine , may be produc'd by chance . And I have sometimes obtained by freezing Infusions , Decoctions , Spirits , Solutions , and other Liquors , as Vinegre ( and particularly ) Milk , and even common water , figures , that were so pretty , but withal so unconstantly produc'd , and so easily variable by circumstances , that as it would fill a Book particularly to describe them ( which for that reason I hope to be excus'd for declining ) so they would much delude him , that should expect to find them every time the same , that he had found them once . And to intimate That by the by , to make several Trials in a short time , and thereby produce variety of figures , 't is not an ill expedient to expose the liquor , one would have congeal'd , in very shallow vessels , or if it be put into other vessles , to leave it , but of very little depth . And if the vessel it self be highly refrigerated , either by the cold Air , or by having salt and ice applied to the outside of it , the congelation may succeed much the more nimbly ; so that within a short while the same liquor , being divers times thaw'd and frozen again , may possibly exhibit variety of figures . And the production of ice may be also much accelerated , by dipping into the liquor , one would have congealed , the convex surface of some glass or other smooth body , that will not imbibe water ; for thereby the depth of the liquor will be exceedingly extenuated , and how much such a thinness or want of depth , may dispose a liquor to be speedily penetrated and congealed by the cold , may be guessed , by what is above delivered in the Section out of Olearius , of the way of multiplying ice in Persia , by making water thinly diffuse it self over a plate of ice , or some other aptly figured , and very cold body : In confirmation whereof I will add on this occasion , that I have seen a pair of Stairs , on which , though they were situated near to three Chimneys , commonly furnished with fire , almost all the day long , the water that was imployed to wash them , being thinly spread with a Mop , would presently congeal ( though they assur'd me it was hot , when 't was begun to be laid 〈◊〉 ) and cover the Stairs with glossy filmes of ice . And I have likewise observed in a very sharp night , that the water which dropp'd down from the nose of a Pump , was so well congealed , as 't was sliding away , that the ice thus arrested in its passage ( in which 't will easily be granted that it spreads it self very thinly ) had rais'd a kind of icy pyramid of a considerable bigness and height . I forgot to mention in due places ( and therefore think fit to take notice of it here ) that when I was considering of the ways , whereby it might be manifested , to those that want nice 〈◊〉 , or distrust their skill to use them , whence that ice comes , that appears on the outside of frozen Eggs put to thaw in cold water , I found it somewhat difficult to pitch upon such a liquor as I desir'd . For if common water be the liquor imploy'd , it may be said , that it affords the matter , whereof the ice in question is made : and if I imploy'd liquors , that were spirituous or saline , it might be pretended , that the frost ( as they speak ) did indeed come out of the frozen Egg , though the shell did not appear cas'd with ice , because as fast as the frost came to the outside of the Egg , it was resolv'd by the spirituous or saline Corpuscles of the liquor : wherefore as an expedient , I resolved to make use of oyl of Turpentine , as a liquor , which I had found incongealable by the greatest cold , I had observed in our Climate , and which yet ( as may appear by the third Paragraph of the XVI . Title ) was more indispos'd , then common water it self , to thaw any icy Efflorescence , that might be emitted by the Egg. But the Experiment was tri'd , without uniformity in the successes . For the first time I put a frozen Egg into oyl of Turpentine , I did not observe , that any ice was produced on the outside : neither was the event differing , when another time I put two frozen Eggs together into a small vessel full of that oyl , though to refrigerate the liquor , the vessel was for a while placed upon a mixture of salt and ice , and though also the Egg-shells at their gaping cracks ( produced by congelation ) discovered , that the contained liquor was well frozen . I intended to prosecute the Experiment another time ( wanting ice to do it then ) because that once , when during the Trial I was hindred from watching it , one of my Domesticks , whom I ordered to look after it , assured me , that the Egg , that was put to thaw in the oyl of Turpentine , had there obtained ice on the outside of it , which I should readily have believed , upon the score of a like observation , I had made my self , in two Eggs that were frozen to the bottom of the vessel , wherein they had been put to thaw , were it not , that one or both of them had been , by a mistake , dipt in water , before they were put into the above mentioned oyl . Some Readers may have expected to find among the examples recited of the influence of cold upon the Air , that strange story , which is related by the learned Josephus Acosta , of the mountains of Pariacaca ( which he several times traversed ) * but besides that I have delivered a great part of it already in another Treatise , I was loath to say more , till I had leisure ( which I have not now ) to discuss the scruples , that I have , not so much about the matter of fact , as about the cause , which perhaps may be something besides cold . But since I have mention'd this XVIII . Section , I will here take notice of what I then intended , but forgot to set down , namely , That to the instances alledged to show , the coldness of regions not to be always proportionate to their greater and less vicinity to the Pole , we may add a memorable one afforded us by a Countrey so well known to many of us , as New England , where , though the Winters are so long and bitter , as we have formerly related out of Mr. Woods's Prospect of that Countrey ( which has been confirm'd to me by an American Physician , that liv'd there ) yet that Region , which is so very much colder then ours , is in many places no less then a 10. or 11. degrees remoter from the Pole. I shall add to the same XVIII . Section , that as to the Experiment I there mention'd concerning Winds , and which I associate with the testimony of the newly named Mr. Wood ; I find that the season of the year , and some other circumstances may vary it more , then one would easily have suspected . For though I faithfully recited the Phaenomena , as I then ( and that sometimes with witness ) took notice of them , yet some moneths after , and in other weather , having occasion to repeat the former part of that Experiment , I was somewhat surpriz'd at the success . For coming to blow upon the Ball of a seal'd Weather-glass , which though in its kind very tender , might be probably presumed to be less so , then a Thermoscope made with a pendulous drop of water ( such as that , mention'd in the forecited Paragraph ) I found , that if I continued to blow any thing long and briskly , the highly rectified spirit of Wine ( which circumstance I therefore name , because possibly the nature of That may somewhat alter the case ) would sometimes manifestly enough subside . And in that Paragraph of the 18. Title , where I recited the Experiment of the infrigidating Winds , I should more expresly have taken notice of this circumstance , that , to satisfie my self , that 't was not the bare Wind , as such , whose operation upon the Air included in the Ball of a Weather-glass , made the liquor to ascend , we put a mark upon the height it stood at , when we had a pretty while blown upon it , and then without removing the Bellows , put ice and salt about the Iron pipe of it . By which mixture the Air , that was afterwards blown through that pipe , was so cool'd in its passage , as to make the liquor very manifestly to ascend , even in a Weather-glass , where I did imploy ( as I have elsewhere declared , that I often do ) Quicksilver instead of water , or spirit of Wine . And least the vicinity of the frigorifick mixture should be suspected to have caus'd this contraction of the included Air , we did sometimes purposely intermit the moving of the Bellows , without removing the Weather-glass ; and though notwithstanding that vicinity , the liquor would begin a little to subside ; yet when ever the cold spirits or the Corpuscles of the highly refrigerated Air , were by the playing of the Bellows anew , approach'd to , or rather brought to touch in swarms the globular part of the instrument , the Mercury would manifestly ascend . And since we are speaking of Weather-glasses , I shall on this occasion subjoyn , That certain circumstances may also vary the success of another Experiment ( somewhat of kin to that lately repeated , about the pendulous Drop ) which is briefly mentioned not far from the beginning of the first Praeliminary Discourse . For though the common Thermometers , that are here wont to be sold in shops , have usually the Pipe of the Bolthead very large in proportion to the Ball , and therefore are in that place said to be Weather-glasses not nice , and though on such instruments in certain Temperatures of the Air ( intimated by the word sometimes , imploy'd in that passage ) the Air blown out of a pair of Bellows against some part of the included Air , would not , especially at the beginning , make the Air sensibly contract it self , and the liquor ascend ; though at the very first and second blast , the coldness of this artificial Wind , might be very sensible to the touch ( which was the thing intended to be taught in that passage ) yet having the curiosity with other Bellows , at another season of the year , to blow long upon the Ball of a not common , but nice Weather-glass of my own making , furnished with a pipe , that was very slender , I divers times ( but not always ) found the tincted liquor manifestly enough to ascend , as if the Wind , consisting of a more compress'd Air , did by containing a greater number of cold particles in the same room , more affect the internal Air , then the contact of the calm and lax outward Air did before ; which disparity of events has given me the design of making further Trials with differing Thermoscopes , at other seasons of the year , to see if I can bring the matter to some certainty , by discovering the cause of this contingency , in which I afterwards suspected , that some light degree of warmth or coolness in the Bellows themselves , which , as being unmanifest to the sense , scap'd unheeded , might have an interest . When I was about some of the former Experiments , I would willingly have had an opportunity of trying , with a good seal'd Weather-glass , what difference there would be , betwixt the cold of the nocturnal Air in a frosty night , in places where the Air was kept calm , by being shelter'd from the wind , not by inhabited buildings , but by some Wall , or other body , whence any warm Effluviums were least to be expected , and betwixt the cold of the same Air , in places where cold winds , especially Northerly or Easterly did freely and strongly blow . But my occasions then confining me to a Town , I had not conveniency to make any secure observations of that nature ; and even in a more commodious place , unless it were determined , whether there be Corpuscles properly and constantly frigorifick , upon whose account some winds are so much colder then others , there may arise more scruples about this matter , then I must now stay to discuss . There is one thing more , that , it may be , is not impertinent to mention , before I take leave of the XVIII . Title ; for in confirmation of what is there delivered , concerning the Vicissitudes of these troublesome degrees of cold and heat , within the the compass of the same Natural day , complain'd of by the Patriarch Jacob , and by Olearius , I shall add , that having since had opportunity to inquire about such matters , of a learned Physician , lately come from the Indies , he assur'd me , that notwithstanding the violent heats of the day , he usually observed the nights to be so very cold , that he was perswaded some positively frigorifick steams , did in the night ascend out of the Earth , and make it very expedient , if not necessary , for those English , that live in the warmer parts of America , to imitate the Natives , in keeping fires under their Hammacks , or hanging Beds . I thought it might be a Luciferous Experiment , in relation to an Hypothesis , that might be propos'd about cold , to try , whether , if two such liquors were provided , as by being mix'd together , would so far forth lose their fluidity , as to obtain at least the consistence of an Unguent , this impediment put to the former confused and greater agitation of their parts , would produce any sensible degree of cold ; this I thought fit to try , by immersing for a competent time , the Ball of a tender seal'd Weather-glass , into each of the liquors apart , and then into the soft mixture , their coalition would compose . To produce such a mixture more ways then one , it was not difficult for me , by the help of some Experiments , I had provided to add to my History of fluidity and sirmness . But though a strong solution of Minium ( or calcined Lead ) in spirit of Vineger , or a very strong infusion of good quick-Lime in water , will either of them ( and one of them I did make use of , though I have forgotten which ) coagulate a just proportion of good Sallet Oyl ( to name no other made by expression ) into such a consistence as I have been speaking of ; yet for want of a seal'd Thermoscope , tender enough , I cannot now repeat the Experiment , and till I do , I dare not draw any conclusion from it , though , if I much misremember not , when I show'd it an ingenious person , neither he nor I could perceive , that the liquors , by being depriv'd of their fluidity , had acquir'd any thing of coldness discoverable by the seal'd Weather-glass . It is much controverted among the Curious , whether water be capable of Compression , and divers have of late inclin'd to the negative , upon observing a want of cogency in the Experiments , that have been brought to evince the affirmative . What Trials and Observations we long since made about this matter , may be met with in some of our other Treatises , wherefore I shall now subjoyn , that having imagin'd , that Cold might afford a hopefuller way , then ( for ought I know ) any man has us'd , of bringing this controversie to the dicision of an Experiment , I made that attempt , that is mention'd in the XII . Title ; in prosecution of which , as soon as I could procure some , though but some of the accommodations , which I long wanted ; I made an Experiment , which I shall subjoyn , because , though it be not so considerable , as with better implements I could have made it , yet the way , I chose , has ( as I partly intimated elsewhere ) these two advantages ; that the force imploy'd to compress the Air , is both very great , and very gradually , and slowly appli'd ; and that the vessel will not , like those that have been hitherto made use of , give any passage through its pores to water , though violently compress'd . We took then a Round Ball of glass , furnish'd with a moderately long Pipe , and having fill'd it with water , till the liquor reach'd within some inches of the top , it was Hermetically seal'd up , and then the water by a mixture of beaten ice and salt , was made to freez from the bottom upwards , that without breaking the glass , the unfrozen water , by the expansive endeavour of that which was freezing , might be impell'd upwards , and so at once , both compress the Air , and be press'd upon by it , having by this means condens'd the Air , as far as we thought safe to do in a glass , that was not strong , we cropt of the small Apex of the glass , and immediately the compress'd Air flew out with a great noise , and that part of the Pipe which was unfill'd with water , was fill'd with smoak , that made it look white , and great store of little bubbles hastily ascended from the lower parts of the water , to the upper ( where most of them quickly broke ) in such a way , as put me in mind of what usually happens upon the opening of vessels that contain'd bottled Beer . But that which was principally to be noted , was this , that besides the bubbles or froth , the water it self ( at least supposing , that no little unheeded bubbles that did not quite emerge , could sensibly contribute to its height ) immediately ascended in the Pipe about ¾ of an inch , which ( having carefully mark'd the first and second stations , with a Diamond on the outside of the glass ) 't was easie for us to measure . I have elsewhere propos'd a suspicion , that in the attempts , that had been till then made , to compress water , the condensation ( in case there were really any ) might perchance proceed from the compression of the Aerial particles , that I have shown to be wont to ly dispers'd in the pores of common water . But though the considerable expansion of water , notwithstanding the breaking of the bubbles in our present Experiment , seems manifestly to argue , that this could be but a concurrent cause ( if it had any sensible effect at all ) of our Phaenomena , yet I dare not absolutely rely , even upon an Experiment , that seems so cogent , till I have satisfi'd my self , that no springiness , which I have sometimes suspected , might be in the ice , had any interest in the produc'd effect ; and that the great pressure of the forcibly condens'd Air , did not make the glass it self stretch or yield . For if it were able to do so , then the parts of the violently distended glass , upon the removal of the forcible pressure of the Air ( which must cease upon the breaking of the Hermetical seal ) returning to their former straitness below , will make the water ascend somewhat higher in the pipe . But though I could not procure glasses , as well very thick , as conveniently shaped , wherewith to examine this suspicion , which I would likewise have tri'd by the bulk of the glass in water , before and after the letting out of the compress'd Air ; yet because most Readers will probably think so much caution more then necessary , I shall add , that if I had not wanted conveniencies , and had not had mischances , the Experiment would in likelihood have been advanc'd , especially care being taken , that the Air left in the pipe should be well refrigerated before its being seal'd up ( as we sometimes did by ice and salt , applied in a perforated Box to the outside ) lest part of its spring should depend upon an evanid degree of heat , upon which account the pipe ought beforehand to be drawn so slender , that the glass may be melted together in a trice . For though for want of strong glasses , & the best sort of instruments to seal up such with , the success was not still so considerable as I hop'd for ; yet as 4. or 5. other Trials , made , as well with another liquor , as with water , did exhibit a manifest intumescence of the liquors ( without computing the froth produc'd at the top ; ) so in the Experiment lately mention'd , if we had judg'd them strong enough to indure such a compression of the included Air , as we have often made on other occasions , the effect would probably have been much more considerable : For though the difference betwixt the length of the same water compress'd and uncompress'd , amounted to an Aqueous Cylinder of ⅜ of an inch in height , yet the Air , that made this compression of the water , was it self reduc'd but from 8. inches to 5. so that it took up almost half its former room , whereas we have sometimes reduc'd it to an 18. or 20. part thereof . If I had been accommodated with one of my Pneumatical Engines , I should have tri'd , whether water being first carefully freed from the latitant Air in the exhausted Receiver , and then compress'd after the manner hitherto recited , the event of the Trial would have been considerably varied . I might add as other Phaenomena of our Experiment , that when we broke off the seal'd Apex of the glass , before the included Air was much compress'd , there neither 〈◊〉 be any great noise made , nor any considerable froth produc'd , at the top of the water , and that having had the curiosity to repeat the Experiment in one of the same glasses , 〈◊〉 had been 〈◊〉 us'd , and with the same 〈◊〉 , that had been already compress'd in it , we found , that upon the breaking off the Hermetical seal the second time , the water did nevertheless ascend in the Pipe betwixt ⅛ and ¼ part of an inch . And to these particulars I could both add other circumstances , that I took notice of in the same Experiment , and subjoyn many other Experiments and Observations , but that I am already tyr'd . And though I have not found Cold to be a subject over-fruitful in Experiments Pleasing and Curious , yet now I am grown somewhat acquainted with it , I find it may suggest so many other new ones , that since the Barrenness of my Theme , will not easily put a period to this Treatise , 't is fit that now at length I should let my Weariness and want of Leisure do it . FINIS . AN Examen of Antiperistasis , AS It is wont to be Taught and Prov'd . Themistius , Carneades , Eleutherius . Themistius . 1. AS for Antiperistasis , the Truth of it is a thing so conspicuous , and so generally acknowledg'd , that I cannot imagine what should make some men deny it , except it be , that they find all others to confess it . For though in other cases they are wont to pretend Experience for their quitting the receiv'd Opinions , yet here they quit Experience it self for singularity , and chuse rather to depart from the Testimony of their senses , then not to depart from the Generality of Men. 2. And to evince , that this is not said gratis , I might observe to you , That there are no less then three grand inducements , that have lead both the Vulgar and Philosophers ( two sorts of men , that seldom agree in other things ) to consent in the acknowledgment of Antiperistasis ; Authority , Reason , and Experience . But though I think fit to name them all three , yet since the first of them , by having , as I just now noted , invited our Adversaries to dissent from the Truth , is a somewhat unlikely Medium to prevail on them to acknowledge it , I shall insist only on the two latter , having once declar'd , that I lay aside the first not as worthless in it self , but needless to my cause . 3. To begin then with the Arguments afforded us by Reason . What can there be more agreeable to the wisdom and goodness of Nature , who designing the Preservation of things , is wont to be careful of fitting them with requisites for that preservation ; then to furnish cold and heat , with that self invigorating power , which each of them may put forth , when 't is environ'd with its contrary . For the order of the universe requiring , that cold and heat should reside in those Bodies , that often happen to be mingled with one another , those two noble and necessary Qualities , would be too often destroy'd in the particular subjects that harboured them , if provident Nature had not so ordered the matter , that when a Body , wherein either of them resides , happens to be surrounded by other Bodies , wherein the contrary Quality is predominant , the besieg'd Quality by retiring to the innermost parts of that which it possesses , and there by recollecting its forces , and as it were , animating it self to a vigorous defence , is intended or increased in its degree , and so becomes able to resist an Adversary , that would otherwise easily destroy it . 4. To illustrate as well as supply this Argument drawn from Reason , we shall need but to subjoyn the other afforded us by Experience , which does almost every day give us not only opportunity to observe , but cause to admire the effects of this self invigorating power , which , when occasionally exerted , we call Antiperistasis : And these Phaenomena ought the more to be acquiesced in , because they may safely be looked upon as genuine Declarations , which Nature makes of Her own accord , and not as confessions extorted from Her by Artificial and compulsory Experiments , when being tortured by Instruments and Engines , as upon so many Racks , she is forced to seem to confess whatever the Tormentors please . 5. To proceed then to the spontaneous Phaenomena of Nature I was recommending , we see , that whereas in Summer the lowest and highest Regions of the Air are made almost unsufferable to us by their heat , the cold expelled from the earth and water by the Suns scorching beams , retires to the middle Region of the Air , and there defends it self against the heat of the other two , though in the one that Quality be assisted by the almost perpendicular reflection of the Sun-beams , and in the other it 〈◊〉 rendered very confiderable by the vastness of the upper Region of the Air , and its Vicinity to the Element of fire . And as the cold maintains it self in the middle Region , by vertue of the intensness , which it acquires upon the account of Antiperistasis ; so the Lightning that flashes out of the Clouds , is but a fire produc'd in that midle Region by the hot Exhalations penn'd up , and intended in point of heat by the ambient Cold , to a degree that amounts to ascension . 6. But though these be unquestionably the effects of that excessive coldness ; yet we need not go so far as the tops of mountains to fetch proofs of our doctrine , since we may find them at the bottom of our Wells . For though Carneades perhaps will not , yet the earth as well as the Air doth readily acknowledge the power of Antiperistasis . And if the reason above alledged did not evince it , our very senses would . For as in Summer , when the Air about us is sultry hot , we find , to our great refreshment , that the Air in Cellars and Vaults , to which the cold then retreats , is eminent for the opposite Quality ; so in Winter when the outward Air freezes the very Lakes and Rivers , where their surfaces are expos'd to it , the internal Air in Vaults and Cellars in Winter , which becomes the sanctuary of heat , as in Summer it was of Cold , is able not only to keep our Bodies from freezing , but to put them into sweats . And not only Wells and Springs upon the account of their resting in , or coming out of the deepest parts of the earth , continue fluid , whilest all the waters , that are contiguous to the Air , are by the excessive cold hardened into ice ; but the water freshly drawn from such Wells , feels warm , or at least tepid to a mans hand put into it . And as if Nature design'd men should not be able to contradict the doctrine of Antiperistasis , without contradicting more then one of their own senses , she has taken care , that oftentimes the water , that is freshly drawn out of the deeper sorts of Wells and Springs , should manifestly , as I have seen it , smoak , as if it had been but lately taken off the fire . And this may be said , without a Metaphor , to demonstrate ad ocnlum , the reality of Antiperistasis , there being no other cause to which this warmth can be attributed , then the retiring of the heat from the cold external Air , to the lower parts of the earth and water : since both these Elements themselves being naturally cold , and one of them in the supreme degree , the heat we are mentioning is so far from being likely to be generated in so unfit a place , that if it were not very great , it must be extinguished there , by the coldness of the superior Air , and that of the inferior parts of the Earth . Eleutherius . 7. That Carneades may have but one trouble to answer the Allegations to be made in favour of Antiperistasis , I hope he will give me leave ( according to my custom of siding with either party , as occasion invites me ) to add to the familiar Observations mentioned by Themistius , some others that are less obvious . For I franckly confess to you , that when I consider what interest , the unheeded dipositions of our own Bodies may have in the estimates we make of the degrees of cold and heat , in other Bodies ; I should not lay much weight upon the Phaenomena , that are wont to be urg'd as proofs of Antiperistasis , if some instances somewhat less lyable to suspicion , did not countenance the doctrine they are urg'd for . I know that Carneades being wont so to propose his opinion about Antiperistasis , as only to deny , that it is clearly made out by the reasons or Experiments , that are commonly produc'd to evince it , it were somewhat improper to urge him with observations , that are not familiar , and wont to be imploy'd ; but I know too , that he is not so rigid an Adversary , as not to allow me to mention some uncommon relations , that I learned from men of good credit . I shall tell you then , that having purposely inquired of ingenious men , that had been very deep under ground , some in Coal-pits , and some in Mines . One of them affirmed , that at the 〈◊〉 of the Grove ( as they call it ) or Pit , he found it very hot in September . And another , that he often found it hot enough to be troublesome in Winter . And a third ( who is himself a great seeker for Mines , and a Master of considerable ones ) that he found it to be hot all the year long . And to manifest , that such Observations will hold even in gelid Regions , I shall repeat to you , what I remember I read in the voyage of that ingenious Navigator , Captain James , who giving an account of Charleton Island , which by his relation seems to be as cold as Iceland itself , says , That his men found it more mortifying cold to wade through the water in the beginning of June , when the Sea was all full of ice , then in December , when it was increasing . And he adds , that which makes more to our present purpose , and proves the other part of the doctrine of Antiperistasis ; That from their Well , out of which they had water in December , they had none in July . And to strengthen the observation yet further , I will acquaint you with a relation to this purpose not unworthy your notice . For hearing of an ingenious Physician , that liv'd some years in , and about Musco , I applied my self to him ( as possibly you may have done , for if I mistake not , I have seen you together ) to know , whether in that frozen Region he observed the Cellars to be hot in Winter . And his answer to That , and some other Questions of the like nature I put to him , amounted in short to this , That when I enquired , whether their Springs and Wells were not all frozen in the Winter , he told me , that he saw some Springs , whose warers froze not at all near the Spring-head , but , at a good distance from thence , it began to be thinly cas'd over with ice . He added , That his own Well was about six fathoms deep , between the surface of the earth , and that of the water , and that the water in it , was , as I remember , about three or four fathoms deep , and that not only this Well froze not all the Winter , but that the Well of his neighbour , which was but one fathom deep to the superficies of the water , did not freez neither . And to satisfie my curiosity about the steams of this water , he told me , that when a Bucket of water was newly drawn , if it were agitated , it would smoak . But that from the Well it self , when the water in it was left quiet and unstirred , he did not perceive any smoak to arise . 8. To all this I shall add this further circumstance , that having purposely inquired , whether in the Winter he found it as hot in Cellars at Musco , as it is wont to be in that season in ours ? He answered me , that when the doors and windows were carefully shut , to hinder the immediate commerce betwixt the included and external Air , he often found , if he stay'd long in his Cellar , it would not only defend him from the sharpness of the Russian cold , as bitter as that is wont to be in Winter , but keep him warm enough , to be ready to sweat , though he laid by his Furs . So that if we may rely , either upon the Testimony of our senses , we must necessarily admit Cellars to be warmer in Winter , then in Summer , and consequently allow an Antiperistasis . 9. Carneades . Though I were not in haste , I should not think it necessary to reply any thing else to the first part of what was said by Themistius , then that , what he alledges of the Universality of the Opinion he maintains , may serve to recommend that which he opposes . For the vulgar Doctrine about Antiperistasis , being , as he urges , receiv'd , and taught in all the Schools , the Innovators he declaims against , must have learned it there among the other Peripatetick tenents , that youth is wont to be imbued with in those places ; so that it may rather seem the love of truth , then of singularity , that engages them against an opinion , which before was their own , as well as that of the generality of Scholars , aud consequently against which they cannot maintain a Paradox , that does not imply a Retractation . But I shall not prosecute my Answer to Themistius's preamble , since Eleutherius , whom I am chiefly to speak to , is too much a Philosopher to think Truth less her self , for being slenderly attended ; or to think any men the less like to be Her followers , because they are but few . To come then directly to the controversie it self , I think I need not tell one of you , that the other mistakes my opinion about it . For I perceive , Eleutherius hath not quite forgotten , that I have not been wont to deny an Antiperistasis , as it may be , but only as it is wont to be explicated . But since Themistius seems to be willing to have me his Antagonist in this controversie , and since Eleutherius himself seems to conspire with him , I am content to act for a while the part , you Gentlemen would have me take upon me , and will propose to you part of what I would say , for the opinion you impute to me , in case I were really of it . 10. To come then to the controversie it self , though Themistius has drawn his proofs for the Antiperistasis of the Schools , partly from Reason , and partly from Experience ; yet the very same two Topicks seem to me to afford considerations , that may justly warrant our calling it in question . 11. And first , if we look upon the reason of the thing considered abstractedly from the Experiments , that are pretended to evince an Antiperistasis , we cannot but think it may be very rational , I say not , to doubt of it , but to reject it . For in the first place , according to the course of Nature , one contrary , ought to destroy , not to corroborate , the other . And next , 't is a maxime among the Peripateticks themselves , That natural causes always act as much as they can . And certainly as to our case , wherein we treat not of living creatures , I cannot but think the Axiom physically demonstrative . For inanimate Agents act not by choice , but by a necessary impulse , and not being endow'd with Understanding and Will , cannot of themselves be able to moderate or to suspend their actions . And as for what Themistius alledges , that it was necessary for the Preservation of Cold and Heat , that they should be endowed with such a power of intending themselves , I must freely 〈◊〉 , that though in living creatures , and especially in the bodies of the perfecter sorts of Animals , I do in divers cases allow arguments drawn from final causes ; yet where only inanimate bodies are concern'd , I do not easily suffer my self to be prevail'd upon by such Arguments . Nor is there any danger , that Cold and Heat , whose causes are so radicated in Nature , should be lost out of the World , in case each parcel of matter , that happens to be surrounded with bodies , wherein a contrary quality is predominant , were not endowed with an incomprehensible faculty of self invigoration . And Nature either does not need the help of this imaginary power , or oftentimes has recourse unto it to very little purpose ; since we see , that these Qualities subsist in the world , and yet de facto the bottles of Water , Wine , and other Liquors , that are carried up and down in the Summer , are regularly warmed by the Ambient Air. And in Muscovy and other cold Northern Countries , Men , and other Animals have oftentimes their Vital Heat destroyed by the cold that surrounds them , being thereby actually frozen to death . And I somewhat wonder , that the followers of Aristotle should not take notice of that famous Experiment , which he himself delivers , where he teaches , that hot water will sooner congeal then cold . For if the matter of fact were true , it would sufficiently manifest , that the heat harboured in the water , is destroyed , not invigorated by the coldness of the Air that surrounds it ; so that Themistius must , I fear , on this occasion , take sanctuary in my observation , and to keep Aristotle from destroying his own opinion , with his own Experiment , had best say , as I do , that it is not true . And though it is not to be denied , that white surrounded with black , or black with white , becomes thereby the more conspicuous ; yet 't is acknowledged , that there is no real increase , or intension of either quality , but only a comparative one in reference to our senses obtain'd by this Collation . Nor does a Pumice-stone grow more dry , then it was in the fire or earth , by being transferred into the Air or Water , and consequently environed with either of those two fluids , which Themistius and his Schools teach us to be moist Elements : neither will you expect to find a piece of dim glass become really more transparent , though one should set it in a frame of Ebony , though that wood be so opacous as to be black . And whereas 't is commonly alledged , as a proof of the power , Nature has given Bodies of flying their contraries , that drops of water falling upon a Table , will gather themselves into little globes , to avoid the contrary quality in the Table , and keep themselves from being swallowed up by the dry wood ; the cause pretended has no interest in the effect , but little drops of water , where the gravity is not great enough to surmount the action of the ambient fluid , if they meet with small dust upon a Table , they do as they roul along , gather it up , and their surfaces being covered with it , do not immediately touch the board , which else they would stick to . And to show you , that the Globular figure , which the drops of water , and other Liquors , sometimes acquire , proceeds not from their flying of driness , but either from their being every way press'd , at least almost equally ( for in some cases also they are not exactly round ) by some ambient fluid , of a disagreeing Nature , or from some other cause differing from that the Schools would give , I shall desire you to take notice , that the drops of water , that swim in Oyl , so as to be surrounded with it , will likewise be Globular ; and yet Oyl is a true and moistening liquor , as well as water . And the drops of Quicksilver , though upon a Table they are more disposed , then water , to gather themselves into a round figure ; yet that they do it not as humid Bodies , is evident , because Quicksilver broken into drops , will have most of them Globular , not only in Oyl , but in Water . And to show you , that 't is from the incongruity , it has to certain bodies , that its drops will not stick upon a Table , nor upon some other bodies , but gather themselves into little sphaeres , as if they designed to touch the woodden Plain but in a Point : To manifest this I say , we need but take notice , that though the same drops will retain the same figure on Stone or Iron , yet they will readily adhere to Gold , and lose their Globulousness upon it , though Gold be a far drier body then Wood , which , as far as distillation can manifest , must have in it store of humid parts of several kinds , ( I mean both watery and unctuous . ) But this may relish of a digression ; my task being only to examine the Antiperistasis of cold and heat , concerning which I think I had very just cause to pronounce the vulgar conceit very unconsonant to the nature of inanimate beings . For the Peripateticks talk of Cold and Heat surrounded by the opposite quality , as if both of them had an understanding , and foresight , that in case it did not gather up its spirits , and stoutly play its part against the opposite that distresses it , it must infallibly perish : and as if being conscious to its self , of having a power of self invigoration , at the presence of its Adversary , it were able to encourage it self like the Heroe in the Poet , that said , Nunc animis opus est , Aenea nunc pectore firmo , which indeed is to transform Physical agents into Moral ones . 12. Eleuth . The validity of the Peripatetick Argument , drawn from Reason , considered abstractedly from Experience , I shall leave Themistius to dispute out with you , at more leisure . And since you well know , that the only Arguments I alledge to countenance Antiperistasis , were built upon Experience , as judging them either the best or the only good ones , I long to hear what you will say to the Examples that have been produced of that which you deny . 13. Carneades . That , Eleutherius , which I have to answer to the examples that are urged , either by the Schools , or by you in favour of Antiperistasis , consists of two parts . For first I might show , that as reason declares openly against the common Opinion , so there are Experiments which favour mine , and which may be opposed to those you have alledged for the contrary doctrine . And secondly , I might represent , that of those examples , some are false , others doubtful ; and those that are neither of these two , are insufficient , or capable of being otherwise explicated , without the help of your Hypothesis . But for brevities sake , I shall not manage these two replies apart , but mention , as occasion shall serve , the Experiments , that favour my opinion , among my other answers , to what you have been pleased to urge on the behalf of Aristotle . 14. To begin then with that grand Experiment , which I remember a late Champion for Antiperistasis , makes his leading Argument to establish it , and which is so generally urged on that occasion , I mean the heating of quick-Lime in cold water . I confess I cannot but admire the Laziness and Credulity of Mankind , which have so long , and generally acquiesc'd in what they might so easily have found to be false . This I say , because I was possibly the first , that has had both the curiosity and boldness to examine so general and constant a Tradition ; yet I doubt not , that you will soon be brought to take it as well as I , for as great as popular an error . For to let you manifestly see , how little the Incalescence of the quick-Lime needs be allowed to proceed from the coldness of the ambient water , if instead of cold water , you quench it with hot water , the Ebullition of the liquor , will not only be as great , as if the water were cold , but oftentimes far greater . As I have sometimes for curiosity removed boiling water from the fire , and when the liquor had left of boiling , but was yet scalding hot , I put into it a convenient quantity of quick-Lime , and after a while , the water , which , as I said , had ceas'd from boiling , began to boil afresh , with so much vehemence , and such large and copious bubbles , that it threatned to run over the Pot , of which , before the effervescence , a considerable part was left unfill'd . And this was no more then what I might well look for , hot water being much fitter then cold to pervade nimbly the body of the Lime , and hastily dissolve , and set at liberty the igneous and saline parts , wherewith it abounds . And how much a greater interest salts may have in such incalescencies , then Cold , I have also taken pleasure to try , by pouring Acid spirits , and particularly spirit of salt upon good quick-Lime . For by this means there would be a far greater degree of heat excited , then if I had instead of spirit of Salt used common water : And this , whether I imploy'd the spirit cold or hot . For in either case , so small a portion as about the bigness of a Walnut of Lime put into a small glass , would by the addition of a little spirit of Salt put to it by degrees , both hiss , and smoak , and boil very surprizingly , and notwithstanding the small quantity of the matter , would conceive so great a heat , that I was not able to hold the glass in my hand . And to show some friends , how little , heat excited in quick-Lime by cold water , proceeds barely from the coldness of that liquor ; I caus'd a parcel of good Lime to be beaten small , and putting one part of it into a glass vessel , I drench'd it plentifully with oyl of Turpentine , more then it would imbibe , and the other portion of the Lime I likewise drench'd with common water : both these liquors having stood in the same room , that they might be reduc'd by the same Ambient Air , to a like degree of coldness , the event of this Trial was ( what I look'd for ) that the oyl of Turpentine , notwithstanding its actual coldness , and the great subtilty and piercingness of parts , which it has in common with other Chymical oyls , being of an incongruous Texture seem'd not to make any dissolution of the powdered Lime , and did not , for several hours , that I kept it , produce , that I perceived , any sensible heat in the Lime . Whereas to show , that 't was not the fault of the Lime , that part of it , on which common water had been poured , did after a little while conceive so strong a heat , that it broke a large openmouth'd-glass , into whose bottom it was put , and not only grew so hot , that I could not endure to hold it in my hand , but sent out at the mouth of the glass , though that were considerably distant from the Lime , a copious white fume , so hot , that I could not well suffer the holding of my hand over it . And to prevent a possible , though invalid , objection , which I foresaw might be drawn against the Experiment made with oyl of Turpentine , from the Oleaginous Nature of that liquor ; I covered a piece of the same sort of quick-Lime , I have been speaking of , with highly rectified spirit of Wine : but though I left them together all night , yet I perceived not , that the liquor had at all slack'd the Lime , which continued in an intire lump , till upon the substituting of common water , it did , as I remember , quickly appear to be slack'd , since it fell assunder into a kind of minute white powder , which was ( bating the colour ) almost like mud , and would easily by a little shaking be disperst , like it , through the water . 15. Eleutherius . I ingeniously confess to you , Carneades , that what you say surprizes me , for I thought it superfluous to try my self , so acknowledged an Experiment , being not able to imagine , that so many learned men for so many Ages , should so unanimously and confidently deliver a matter of fact , of which , if it were not true , the falsity could be so easily discovered . 16. Carneades . For my part , Eleutherius , I confess I am wont to doubt of what they teach , that seldom or never doubt . And I hope you will forgive me , if having found an assertion so general and uncontroul'd of a falsity so easie to be disprov'd , I be inclinable to suspect the Truth of their other inferior Traditions about Antiperistasis ; and of these I will mention the two chiefest I have met with among the moderns ( for being contriv'd Experiments , I presume you will easily believe they came not from Aristotle , nor the Ancienter Schoolmen that commented upon Him. ) 17. The first of these is the freezing a Pot to a Joynt-stool , by a mixture of snow and salt , by the fires side : in which case 't is pretended , that the fire does so intend the cold , as to enable it to congeal the water , that stagnated upon the surface of the stool , betwixt That and the bottom of the Pot. But how little need there is of Antiperistasis in this Experiment , you may guess by this , that I have purposely made it with good success , in a place in which there neither was , nor ever probably had been a fire , the room being destitute of a Chimney . And this Trial of mine I could confirm by divers other Experiments of the like nature , but that this one is sufficient . 18. I proceed therefore to the other Experiment , which is delivered by very learned men , and for whom I have a great respect : according to these , if you take a somewhat large Pot , and having fill'd it almost with snow , place in the midle of the snow a Vial full of water ; this Pot being put over the fire , the coldness of the snow will be so intended by the heat , from which it flies into the water , that it will turn that liquor into ice . But though I several times tri'd this Experiment , yet neither in earthen , nor in silver vessels , could I ever produce the promised ice . And I remember , that an eminently learned man , that wondered to find me so diffident of what he said , he knew to be true , readily undertook to convince me by an Ocular proof , but with no better success then I had had before . So that the Argument may be plausibly enough retorted upon them that urge it . 19. And in case the Trial should succeed sometime or other ( for that it doth not ordinarily , I have shown already ) yet will there be no necessity of deriving the effects from Antiperistasis . For though in such cases the fire would contribute to the production of the effect , by hastening the dissolution of the snow , yet the heat of the fire does but remotely , and by accident cause the production of ice , since other Agents will do the same thing , that are qualified to make a quick dissolution of the snow , whether they be hot or no ; as I have tri'd that spirit and crude salt of Nitre , will either of them by a due application , bring snow , by dissolving it , to congeal water , though the Spirit and the Nitre be generally agreed upon to actually cold , and one , if not both of them , to be potentially cold too . 20. Having thus dispatch'd the Experiments pretended to evince an Antiperistasis , I must now examine the Observations , that are alledg'd to that purpose , of which the principal , if not the only , are these . The coldness of the middle Region of the Air. The increase of mens stomacks in Winter . The generation of Hail ; and the heat and cold in Cellars , and other Subterraneal places , when the contrary Quality reigns in the Air. 21. To begin with the first of these : I will not now dispute , whether the second Region of the Air , have really that coldness that is wont to be ascrib'd to it : Though our Friend Mr. Boyle seems to doubt , whether that Regions being always , and every where cold , have been as strongly proved , as asserted . But passing over that Question , I see no need of imploring the help of Antiperistasis , to keep the second Region of the Air for the most part cool . For without at all taking in the cause imagin'd by the Schools , an obvious and sufficient one may be easily assign'd . For the Air being , as to sense , cold of its own nature , so that when we feel it hot , it is made so by some adventitious agent , and that agent being for the most part the Sun , who heats the Air chiefly , though not only , by its reflected beams ; their heat is so languid , by that time they arrive , dispers'd , at the second Region of the Air , that they are not able to overpower its Natural coldness , increased perchance by some frigorifick spirits , that may find a more commodious harbour there , then in other parts of the Atmosphere . And whatever be the true cause of the coldness in the middle region of the Air , I cannot but admire to find , that Coldness so 〈◊〉 ascrib'd to Antiperistasis , by Themistius and his Friends the Aristotelians : For according to them , 't is the Nature of the Element of Air to be as well hot as moist , and according to the same Peripateticks , both the upper Region of the Air always , and the lower in Summer is hot , the former by the neighbourhood of the imaginary Element of fire , and the latter by the reflection of the Sun-beams from the Earth : which two Positions being laid together , I would fain learn of any Aristotelian , how Antiperistasis comes to take place here ? For , according to them , those Bodies have their cold and heat increas'd by Antiperistasis , that are on both hands assail'd by Bodies of a contrary Quality , to that which is natural to the surrounded Body , whereas the whole Element of Air , and consequently the middle Region , being , as they would perswade us , hot , of its own Nature ; what shadow of probability is there , that the highest and lowest Regions , by being hot , should make the middle Region , which is also naturally hot , intensly and durably cold . But though the objection is so clear , that it needs not to be insisted on ; yet because 't is but an Argument ad hominem , I shall add this for their sakes , that are not in this point Peripateticks , That it does not appear to me , that if the Air be naturally rather cold , then hot , the second Region must owe the Intensness of that Quality to Antiperistasis . For the ground of the opinion , I oppose , being this , That both the first and the third Regions are considerably hot , I would gladly find it prov'd as to the upper Region . I confess I have not found the assertion contradicted , but that , as little convinces me , as the uncontrouledness of the Tradition about quick-Lime , that I lately confuted . 'T is true , there are two reasons alledged , to evince the heat of the supreme Region of the Air , but neither of them to me seems cogent . For the first is , that the Vicinity of this Region to the Element of fire makes it partake a high degree of Heat . But if we consider the distance of that Element , which they place contiguous to the Orb of the Moon , and how little nearer to it the concave part of the upper Region is , then the Convex of the middle , we may easily conceive , that in two distances , that are both of them so immense , so small a disparity cannot be much ( if at all ) more considerable , then the greater nearness of one side of a sheet of paper held at three yards distance from an ordinary fire , in comparison of the distance of the other side of the same paper ; or then the distances of a small Wart , and of the neighbouring parts of the face , when a man comes within 2. or 3. yards of the fire . But 't is not worth while to prosecute this Consideration , because the Argument against which 't is alledg'd , is built upon the groundless supposition of the Element of fire , a figment which many of themselves do dayly grow asham'd of , as indeed its existence is as little to be discovered by reason , as perceiv'd by sense . 22. The other Argument for the heat of the third Region of the Air , is , that fiery Meteors are kindled by it . But not now to question , whether all Meteors that shine , and therefore pass for fiery , are really kindled exhalations ; we see , that in the lower Region of the Air , and in Winter , those fires that are called either Helena , or Castor and Pollux , are generated in great storms , and hang about the sails and shrouds of Ships . Nay , do not we much more frequently see , that Lightning is produced at all seasons of the year ( for in warmer Countries thousands have observed it to thunder ( and so have I ) in Winter ) in the middle region of the Air. And since 't is not the heat of the inferior part of the Air , that kindles those Exhalations ; and if notwithstanding the Coldness of the second Region , fiery Meteors may be frequently generated there ; I see no reason why the Production of such Meteors should argue the heat of the third Region of the Air. And if that Region be not hot , then it will , I presume , be easily granted , that the coldness of the second must very improperly be attributed to such an Antiperistasis , as it is generally ascribed to . 23. I come next to consider that Aphoristical saying of Hypocrates , Ventres hyeme esse calidiores , together with the Observation whereon it seems to have been grounded . I will not now examine , whether any arguments for the contrary may be drawn from the heat and thirst men feel in Summer , and the refreshment they then find by Drinks and Fruits , and other Aliments that are actually cold . For that which I principally intended to say , is this , That I much more doubt the matter of fact delivered in the Aphorism , then that , in case it be true , it may be made out without the help of Antiperistasis in the vulgar and Scholastick notion of that Term. 24. I consider then first , that the proof , that is wont to be brought of the greater heat of mens stomacks in Winter , is , that men are wont to have then a greater appetite to their meat . But though I pay so much respect to the great Hypocrates , as to allow the Aphorism in a sense ; yet I admit it to be true but upon an Hypothesis , that I do not admit to be so . For the Aphorism supposes , that the digestion of meat in the stomack is made by heat , and consequently , that the stronger digestion , that is wont to be made in Winter , is an argument of the stomacks being then hotter , then at other seasons of the year . But the Erroniousness of this supposition , I think , I need not solemnly prove to Eleutherius , who I doubt not has taken notice of several things in Nature , that agree not with it , and particularly of the strong concoction , that is made in the stomacks of divers ravenous fishes , whose stomacks and blood are yet , as I have purposely observed , sensibly cold : but if it should in some cases prove true , that there is really in mens bodies a far greater heat in Winter then in Summer ; yet this would not infer an Antiperistasis in the sense , wherein I oppose it . For the vital heat lodg'd in the heart , always generating out of the blood and juices , that continually circulate through that part , great store of spirits and warm exhalations , which are wont to transpire through the pores of the skin in much greater quantities , then , notwithstanding the affirmations of Sanctorius , any thing but my own Trials could have perswaded me , these warm steams finding the pores of the skin straitned and shut up , grow more and more copious in the body , and thereby heat the stomack , as well as the other internal parts of it : And perhaps also the same frigorifick Corpuscles or Temperature of the Air , that produce cold in Winter , may by shutting in certain kinds of Effluvia , or perhaps altering the motion or Texture of the blood , reduce it to such a disposition , as that the appetite shall be increas'd , as well as the concoction in the stomack promoted by the Stomachical menstruum , or ferment , which either is newly generated in Winter , or more copiously supplied ( by the circulating of the blood to the stomack ) in that season then in others . And to show , that a good appetite may be procur'd by agents endow'd with very distinct and contrary qualities : do not we see , that spicy Sauces , Wine and Vineger do all of them , in most men , beget an appetite , though the two former be confessedly hot , and the latter cold . And so Wormwood , and juice of Lemmons have both of them frequently reliv'd dull and weak stomacks , though the one be confessedly a hot simple , and the other a cold . And in some cases , either the frigorifick Corpuscles themselves , and perhaps some other unknown to us , that they may bring along with them , may so sollicite the stomack , as to breed an eager appetite , not precisely by their being cold or hot , but by their peculiar nature ; as we have instances of some , that in these parts by walking on the snow , procure to themselves a Bulimus . And the learned Fromundus relating , how he himself by walking long on the snow , was surpriz'd with such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , takes notice , that the chief cause of the fainting was in the stomack : And that he found by his own experience , that that part was discompos'd , convell'd , and provok'd to cast . To which he adds , ( what makes much for my present purpose ) that he now thinks the chief cause of the Bulimia to consist in certain steams , that do peculiarly affect the stomack , which they gnaw and distend . And just before he observes , that straining to fetch deep coughs is a present remedy in this distemper , by discharging the stomack and Lungs of those snowy spirits , which were either attracted in respiration , or had some other way insinuated themselves into those parts : So that besides the cold abstractedly consider'd , the stomack may be peculiarly affected by other , either attributes or concomitants , of the frigorifick Corpuscles , that grow powerful in frosty weather ; with which it well agrees , that divers have been observed to be subject to Bulimias's in these parts of the world , though in our warmer Climates such men endure nothing near so great a cold , nor are so much inconvenienced by it , as multitudes of others , that in Nova Zembla , and other gelid Regions never complain'd of having contracted even in the midst of Winter , any such disease . 25. Another argument that is specious enough , urg'd in favour of Antiperistasis , is borrowed from the production of Hail , which is presum'd to be generated in Summer only , not in Winter , and , according to Aristotle and the Schools , is made in the lowest Region of the Air , by the cold of the falling drops of rain so highly intended by the warmth it meets with in the Air near the Earth , as to congeal the water wherein 't is harbour'd . But though I freely confess to you , that I think the generation of Hail difficult enough to be solidly explicated ; yet I scruple not to reject the receiv'd doctrine about it , for several reasons , of which I will now name four . 26. For in the first place , 't is not universally true , as is suppos'd , and the Aristotelian doctrine requires , that Hail falls not but in Summer , or very hot weather . For I have my self observ'd it within this twelve moneth , to Hail at the latter end of November , and that , when some frosty days have preceded , and when the coldness of the weather was complain'd of . Nay , the longest shower of Hail , that either I , or some others remember our selves to have ever known , I observ'd to fall about a week before the end of January , on a night preceded by a very frosty day , which it self was preceded by a sharp fit of frosty weather . And here I must notpreter mit this circumstance , that when the tedious shower was over , there came to the house , where I then was , a maid , that is servant to one of my Domesticks , and related to her Master , and others , how she was for a good while misled out of the beaten way , where the storm found her by an Ignis fatuus , which she followed , till by its passing over a place , where she found an unpassable hedge , it both show'd her , that she was out of her way , and that it was no candle , though she had so confidently thought it one , that she call'd out to the party , she presum'd it to be carried by . I will leave Themistius to unriddle , how the Nocturnal Air could kindle a fiery Meteor by its coldness , and at the same time congeal the falling drops of water into ice by its warmth , and shall only add , that I doubt not but other observations of the like kind have been often made , though perhaps seldom recorded . For within the compass of a very few weeks of the storm , some servants of mine affirm'd themselves to have observed it to Hail two or three times besides that already mention'd . 27. Next , if Aristotle have rightly assign'd the cause of Hail , 't is somewhat strange it should not fall far more frequently in Summer , and especially in hot Climates , then it does , considering how often in all probability the drops of rain fall cold out of the second Region into the warm Air of the first . And more strange it is , That even in those parts of Aegypt , where it rains frequently enough and plentifully ( for so Prosper Alpinus , that liv'd long there , assures us it does ) though not about Grand Cairo , yet about Alexandria and 〈◊〉 , sium , it should never Hail no more then Snow , as the same learned Physician ( a witness above exception ) affirms . Besides , whereas it is pretended , that Snow is generated in the upper Region of the Air , and Hail always in the lower , my own observation has afforded me many instances , that seem to contradict the Tradition . For I have observed in I know not how many great grains of Hail , that besides a hard transparent icy shell , there was as 't were a snowy Pith of a soft and white substance , and this snowy part was most commonly in the middle of the icy , which made me call it Pith , but sometimes otherwise . And lastly , whereas the favourers of Antiperistasis would have the Drops of rain in their descent , to be congeal'd apart in the ambient Air ; not to urge , how little the irregular and Angular figures we often meet with in Hail does countenance this doctrine ; Hail often falls in grains , too great by odds to be fit to comply with Aristotles conceit . For not to mention the grains of Hail I have observed my self to be of a bigness unsuitable to this opinion , divers learned eye-witnesses have inform'd me of their having observ'd much greater then those I have done : and particularly an eminent Virtuoso of unquestionable credit , affirm'd both to me and to an Assembly of Virtuosi , that he had some years ago at Lyons in France observ'd a shower of Hail , many of whose grains were as big as ordinary Tennis-balls , and which did the Windows and Tyles a mischief answerable to that unusual bulk . And Bartholinus affirms , that he himself observ'd , in another shower of Hail , grains of a more unwonted size ; a single grain weighing no less then a whole pound . But though this it self is little in comparison of what I remember I have somewhere met with in learned Authors , yet it may abundantly suffice to disprove the vulgar conceit about the generation of Hail , till we meet in these Countries with showers of rain , whose single drops prove to be of such a bigness ; which I presume those that ascribe Hail to Antiperistasis will not easily show us . 28. I come now to consider the last and indeed the chiefest example , that is given of Antiperistasis , namely the coldness of Cellars , and other subterraneal Vaults in Summer , and their heat in Winter . And as the Argument , wont to be drawn from hence , consists of two parts , I will examine each of them by its self . 29. And first , as to the refreshing coldness , that subterraneal places are wont to afford us in Summer , I both deny , that they are then colder than in Winter ; and I say , that though they were , that coldness would not necessarily infer an Antiperistasis . 30. We must consider then , that in Summer our Bodies having for many days , if not some weeks , or perhaps months , been constantly environ'd with an Air , which , at that season of the year , is much hotter , then 't is wont to be in Winter , or in other seasons , our senses may easily impose upon us , and we may be much mistaken , by concluding upon their Testimony , that the subterraneal Air we then find so cool , is really colder , then it was in Winter , or at the Spring ; as they that come out of hot Baths think the Air of the adjoyning rooms very fresh and cool , which they found to be very warm , when coming out of the open Air , they went through those warm rooms to the Bath , and the deepness and retiredness of these subterraneal Caves keep the Air , they harbour'd , from being any thing near so much affected with the changes of the season , as the outward Air that is freely expos'd to the Suns warming beams , which pierces with any sensible force so little a way into the ground , that Diggers are not wont to observe the Earth to be dried and discolour'd by them beyond the depth of a very few feet . And I have found , that in very shallow Mines not exceeding six or seven yards in depth , though the mouth were wide , and the descent perpendicular enough , the Air was cool in the heat of Summer ; so that the free Air and our Bodies that are always immers'd in it , being much warmer in Summer then at other times , and the subterraneal Air by reason of its remoteness from those causes of alteration , continuing still the same , or but very little chang'd , it 's no wonder , there should appear a difference as to sense , when our bodies pass from one of them to another . 31. And supposing , but not yielding , that the Air of Cellars and Vaults were really colder in Summer then in Winter , that is , were discovered to have a greater coldness , not only as to our sense of feeling , but as to Weather-glasses ; yet why should we for all that have recourse for the solution of the difficulty to an Antiperistasis , which 't is much harder to understand , then to find out the cause of the Phaenomenon , which seems in short to be this , That whereas ( which I shall soon have occasion to manifest ) there are warm Exhalations , that in all seasons are plentifully sent up by the subterraneal heat , from the lower to the superficial parts of the Earth , these steams , that in Winter are in great part repress'd , or check'd in their ascent , by the cold frost or snow , that constipates the surface of the Earth , and choaks up its pores , these Exhalations , I say , that being detain'd in the ground would temper the Native coldness of the Earth and Water , and consequently that of Springs , and of the subterraneal Air , are by the heat that reigns in the outward Air , call'd out at the many pores and chinks , which that heat opens on the surface of the ground , by which means the water of deep Springs and Wells , and the subterraneal Air , being depriv'd of that , which is wont to allay their Native or wonted coldness , are left to disclose a higher degree of it , and seem to have that quality increas'd , when indeed it is but freed from the mixture of its contrary that weakened it . 32. As for the heat , we find in Cellars and Vaults in Winter , the solutions already given will be applicable to that Phaenomenon also , which by this way is yet more easie to be accounted for then the other . For having first question'd the matter of fact , 't will not be difficult to show , that though it were true , it need not be ascrib'd to Antiperistasis . 33. I think then , that it may be justly question'd , whether Cellars in general are hotter in Winter then they are in Summer . For as for the Testimony of our senses , upon which alone men are wont to conclude the affirmative , it may in this case easily and much delude us . For those places being shelter'd from the winds , and kept from a free communication with the outward Air , are much less expos'd then others to the action of those agents , whatever they be , that produce cold in the Air. So that our bodies being constantly immers'd in the Air refrigerated by the Winter , and consequently brought nearer to the temper of that Air , when we bring those bodies into Cellars the subterraneal air must seem warm to us , though in it self it were really invaried as to its temper . 34. Now that many Cellars are indeed colder in the midst of Winter , then in the heat of Summer , though not in respect of our senses , yet in respect of other bodies that have not the same predispositions , I am induc'd to believe by some Experiments of mine own , purposely made . And first in a frosty evening having hung out in a Garden two seald Weather-glasses , that they might be reduc'd as near as could be to the temper of the ambient Air , I brought one of them into a Cellar , and it soon began manifestly to rise , and in two or three hours ascended five or six divisions , whilest the water in another seal'd Weather-glass , that continued suspended in the same part of the Garden , did rather a little subside , then at all rise , which is agreeable to the first part of what I was saying ; namely , that the Air , harbour'd in Cellars , is not so powerfully affected by the ordinary efficients of cold , as the free and external air . And now as to the second part of what I was saying , that the subterraneal Air , though it be less affected by the outward cold , may be somewhat affected by it , instead of growing hotter by Antiperistasis ; I shall add , that early in the morning in frosty Weather the liquor in the same Weather-glass appear'd more subsided , then over-night , which shows , that the external air did lessen , not increase the warmth of the air in the Cellar . And having there plac'd a wide mouth'd glass of oyl , which in thawing weather remain'd all night fluid as before , the same liquor , the very next night , which was a bitter frost , was so far frozen and congeal'd , as to sink in other oyl , and keep its surface exactly , though the glass were inclined and turned upside down . And prosecuting my Trial , I found , that in a sharp frost , and great snow , the liquor , that on the Thursday night was beneath the fourth knub or mark of division , a sudden thaw coming with a South wind , the next morning in the same Cellar the liquor was ascended to the eighth mark . And continuing the Weather-glass in the same Cellar for a good while , to watch its alterations every night and morning , I remember I met with , and registred more observations , that confirm'd me in my opinion , though 't is so long ago , that I have forgot the particular circumstances . And after these Trials meeting with a learned Polander , I did without declaring my opinion , inquire of him , whether in his Country he had at any time observ'd Beer to freez in Cellars in frosty weather , to which he answer'd , that in the coldest Winters , if the Beer were small , the Barrels would oftentimes be frozen , but not if it were strong . But I need not have recourse to forrain Testimony , having my self observed here in England more then one Barrel of Beer to be frozen in the Cellar in exceeding cold weather . Insomuch that one of the Barrels being full , and the liquor expanded by freezing , was forc'd out at certain chinks , which seem to have been made by that expansive force , and the liquor so ejected , adhered in a considerable lump to the outside of the vessel ; and yet this Cellar had its Windows carefully shut , and not only was near a Kitchin , where fire was constantly kept , but , which was more considerable , it had this principal mark of being a good Cellar , that in the heat of Summer it us'd to afford me drink sufficiently cool . And now to requite Eleutherius with the Testimony of that very person , Physician to the Russian Emperor , whose authority he lately alledg'd against me , I shall confess , that as he suspects , I had conference with this Doctor , and when I diligently enquired of him , whether their Cellars at Musco were really very cold in Summer , he answered me , that they were not , and that they had distinct Cellars for Summer and for Winter , that their small Beer would quickly grow sowr in their Cellars in Summer , if their vessels were not kept in Snow , that therefore their way was to make at the bottom of their Summer Cellars ( to which belong'd a Well to receive the water dropping from the melted Snow ) a deep layer of snow , on which they afterwards cast a convenient quantity of water , that the whole mass might be turn'd into a kind of ice . In this snow they keep their Casks , making sometimes a layer of Snow , and a layer of Cask , and digging out their vessels , as they had occasion to use them . ] By all which it may appear how groundlesly it 's universally affirm'd of Cellars , that as they seem to the sense , so they really are hotter in Winter then in Summer . 35. But if it should happen , ( as in some places 't is not impossible , but that it may ) that some Vaults and Cellars are really warmer in Summer then in Winter ; yet I see not why this should reduce us to the acknowledgment of an Antiperistasis ; for neither could the effect be made out by that , nor would there be any necessity to have recourse to it . 36. And first I might content my self to repeat , what I have formerly said , to shew the incongruity of Antiperistasis in general to Natures ways of acting . And I might add , that to imagine with some late Peripateticks , ( whom all their reverence to Aristotle has not so far blinded , as not to let them see the unreasonableness of his conceit ) that in Winter the warmth of the ambient air retreats into Cellars and Vaults to shun its contrary , is to make meer accidents , or at best inanimate agents , act with knowledge and design . But I will rather represent , that , though Antiperistasis were intelligible , it were improper to alledge it in our case . For to invigorate the warmth of the air by the Cold , the air must according to them be environ'd with other cold bodies , and the heat must retire it self as far as it can from them . And accordingly 't is observ'd , that in Winter the deepest Cellars are warmest ; but in the case before us the subterraneal air , though above , it have the cold that reigns in Winter ; yet beneath , the subterraneal heat makes the Earth very warm . This I shall not wonder , if you look upon , as new and Paradoxical . And therefore I shall apply my self to the proof of it , and to convince you , I shall not imploy the observations of Chymists and Mineralists , for fear you should suspect them of ignorance or design , but I will use only the authority of a learned Physician , who I think was also a professor of Mathematicks , who in but too many points is a stout Peripatetick , and who above all this professes himself to be an eye-witness of what he relates . This Author then informs us , that about the year 1615. he had a curiosity to visit the Mines of Hungary , and particularly to go down into the deep Goden Mine at Cremnitz , and that after he had descended fourscore or a hundred fathom , he found it excessively hot , though he had but a slight linnen garment on , and though he be a maintainer of Antiperistasis , yet he affirms that not only the Overseer and workmen of that Mine , but also those of divers other Mines unanimously assured him , That that lower Region of the Earth was all the year long very hot , and as well in Winter as he found it in Summer ; so that it seems in Winter the heat of the subterraneal parts less remote from the superficies , cannot be intended by the coldness of the more internal parts of the Earth , those parts being themselves not always cold , but always hot . 37. Eleutherius . But you may , Carneades , remember , that this very Author tells you , that he found the supreme region of the Earth , as he calls it , which is that next the air , exceedingly cold , both as he went down into the Mine , and as he came up again , and that he ascribes that coldness to Antiperistasis . 38. Carneades . Right , but you may remember too , that he relates , that 't was in July , and in very hot weather , that he went down into the Mine , and that to avoid fouling his clothes , he put them off , and exchang'd them for a light loose Linnen garment , such as the Diggers wore , and this himself mentions , as that which much increased the coldness he felt : So that if besides this , we consider , that he descended into a cooler place , with a Body already affected with the great heat , which he elsewhere takes notice , that that season had given the outward air , and perhaps much heated by riding or walking to the Mine , we shall not wonder , that he found the change very sensible as he went down ; and we shall less wonder , that he found the upper Region of the Earth , as he calls it , more cold when he came up again : since besides the toil of going to and fro , and ascending through narrow , low , and difficult passages , he came out of a place excessively hot ; insomuch that he tells us , that the Overseer of the Mine would not go back with him the same way he came , but took a far shorter , though it were a more dangerous way , causing himself to be drawn up in a perpendicular Groove , and rendring this reason , that 't was very unhealthy , when one comes out of a place where the Diggers work naked , and where one is even melting into sweat , to make any long stay in the superior Region of the Earth . So that besides that this Author , although he maintains Antiperistasis , yet he allows this upper Region to be hot in Winter , as well as cold in Summer , and consequently , that in Winter it has not a cold region beneath , as well as above it , which is enough to vindicate the thing for which I first alledged his Testimony : Besides this , I say , to me , who , though I willingly thank him for his Narrative , am much more sway'd by what he relates , then by what he thinks ; the matter of fact seems very favourable to my opinion ; for you see , that I can justly refer the cold he felt near the surface of the Earth , to the deception of his sense , but the heat he felt within the bowels of the Earth cannot be referred to the same cause , since he tells us , that at the top of that great and perpendicular Groove , by which the Mine-master was drawn up , there ascended a plentiful smoak , that was , even above the mouth of it , felt actually hot ; and besides his own confession , that the deep parts of the Mine , were more then seemingly hot , I can draw further proofs from these two circumstances , that I have elsewhere met with in his Narrative : The one , that on the surface of the Earth , it was then excessively hot ; another , that the smoak , which , notwithstanding this heat appeared hot , had in its ascent passed through four or five hundred foot of a cold region of the Earth , whereby it may well be supposed , to have been much infrigidated . To these relations of the learned Morinus , I will add , that the Archbishop of Upsal affirms , that in the year 1528. being in Poland , he went to visit those deep mountains ( as he terms them ) whence they dig solid salt , and having descended fifty Ladders , found in the deeper places , that the workmen were naked , because of the heat : so that supposing the time of the year not to be considerable in this case , it seems by this relation , that , provided a man descends low enough into the bowels of the Earth , he will find it very hot , even in places that want those Metals , or Marchisites , or other like Mineral substances , by the action of saline liquors , or exhalations , upon which , you , Eleutherius , have , I remember , sometimes suspected , that the heat observed in Mines may be produced . 39. I have hitherto shown , that the heat of Cellars and Vaults in Winter , has been very improperly , and now I come to show , that it has been as unnecessarily ascrib'd to Antiperistasis . For as the air of those places is protected from the greatest part of the adventitious Coldness that reigns in the outward Air : so the subterraneal air has a positive cause of heat in Winter , that it has not in Summer . For as I formerly took notice , in Summer the pores of the Earth , being dilated and opened by heat , the warm exhalations , that were wont to be mingled with moist vapours in the bowels of the Earth , are call'd out , and exhal'd away . For as in the Winter the surface of the Earth being hardned by frost , or the pores of it choak'd up , or at least much obstructed , the hot steams , that , as I lately prov'd by our French Authors Testimony ( to which I could add , that of eminent Chymists and Mineralists ) do continually , and copiously enough ascend from the warm Region , or lower parts of the Earth , are in great part detained and imprisoned in Cellars , and other subterraneal cavities , where consequently they produce such a heat , as to those that come out of the cold air , may be very sensible . And the rather , because whilest men , by the coldness of the season , are more then ordinarily careful , to stop up the passages , at which the external air may get in , they do , though designlesly , stop up the vents , at which the subterraneous exhalations might get out . And to shew you , that this last circumstance is not impertinently taken notice of , I shall tell you , that a very grave Author having occasion to mention Cellars , relates it , as a practise in divers houses of a Town , where he had been , to keep vents in their deep Cellars , which in the Summer , were from time to time opened , partly to keep the places sweet and wholsom , and partly to let out the warm Exhalations , that would else hinder their liquors from keeping so fresh , and well . And these steams were affirm'd to have been several times taken notice of to ascend visibly into the free air like a smoak , which several Phaenomena , and particularly what I formerly related of the hot fumes , that manifestly ascended out of the great Groove in the Hungarian Mine , may keep us from thinking incredible . 40. And now by what I have hitherto discours'd , I have made way for the solution of a Phaenomenon , that is wont to be much urg'd in favour of Antiperistasis , namely , the smoaking of water , that is drawn in frosty weather , out of deep Wells and Springs . 41. But first I must advertise you , that 't is improperly enough , that some urge for Antiperistasis , such examples as the strange Spring near the Temple of Jupiter Ammon , which Lucretius and others have observed to have been exceeding cold in the day time , and as hot at night ; for , not now to examine , whether this story be not fabulous , or might not be ascrib'd to some crafty trick of the Idolatrous Priests , that had a mind to impose upon Alexander , as well as others , and procure an admiration to the place ; I consider , that this , and other the like cases , such as are the Springs mentioned in the Islands of Maldiviae , by Pyrard ( a French Author , that was shipwrack'd , and liv'd long in those parts ) must be referred to the peculiar Nature of the Springs , or some other hidden cause , since , if the water of them were but ordinary , and the Phaenomena were the effects of Antiperistasis , it might justly be expected , that the like should happen in all Springs , or at least in very many , which , that it does not , common experience shows us . And I would say , that this might be the case of the Spring , you mention out of Captain James's Voyage , but that besides , that he does not say expresly , that it was frozen in July , but only that then it afforded him no water , which might happen upon divers other accounts : And besides , that 't is manifest , that in far hotter Countries , where the excessive heat of the Air might more intend the subterraneal cold , if Antiperistasis could do it , there is no talk of any such degree of cold in Summer , as to freez the Springs ; besides this , I say , there seems to be , through some mistake or other , a contradiction in the relation it self , since in the same Voyage , speaking of the same month of December , he expresly says , that their Well was then frozen up , so , that dig as deep as they could , they could come by no water . And he complains on that occasion , of the unwholsomness of melted snow-water . 'T is true , that he soon after mentions a Spring , that he found under a hills side , which did not so freez , but that he could break the ice and come to it , but by his very sending far from his house to that Spring , it appears to have been a Consequence , and therefore a Proof , of the uselesness of his Well in December ; as his affirmation , that it continued all the year so , as to be serviceable , when the ice was broken , shows , that the Antiperistasis did not freez it up in Summer . And having cleared my self of such a Testimony of this ingenious Navigator , as would appear very illustrious , if there had been no mistake about it , I shall not scruple to add , that the late publisher of the Latin Description of Denmark and Norway informs us , that in or near that little Danish Island 〈◊〉 , wherein the famous Tycho built his Urani-Burgum , there is one Spring among many ordinary ones , that even in the coldest Winter is never frozen , which , subjoyns my Author , does in these regions exceeding rarely happen to be found . Olaus Magnus also relates , that in another part of the King of Denmarks Dominions , namely , near Nidrosia , one of the chief Cities of Norway , there is a Lake , that even in that Northern Region never freezes . And the learned Josephus Acosta mentions , that among a very great number of hot Springs to be met with in Peru , At the Baths , which they call the Baths of Ingua , there is a course of water , which comes forth all hot and boiling , and joyning unto it , there is another , whose water is as cold as ice . He adds , That the Ingua ( or the Peruvian Emperor ) was accustomed to temper the one with the other , and that it is a wonderful thing to see Springs of so contrary qualities , so near one to another . These relations as I was saying , I scruple not to mention , though at first sight they may seem to disfavour my cause . For by these and some others it may appear , that Springs may obtain very peculiar and strange qualities from the nature of the places whence they come , or through which they pass , or from some other causes , that are as hidden from us , as the originals of these rare waters . And this being once prov'd , who knows what interest , such causes , as we are strangers to , may have in some Phaenomena , that are wont to be wholly ascrib'd to the heat and cold of the superficial part of the ground , and what influence they have upon many other Springs ( besides those above mentioned ) some of which that are very deep , may rise from the warm region of the Earth , where they may be affected by the place , as both these and others may be by Mineral juices and steams ( such , perhaps , as we know nothing of ) though we well know , that some of them that are saline , without being at all sensibly hot , will powerfully resist congelation . 42. But having hinted thus much on this occasion , I shall now proceed to consider , The smoaking of waters drawn from deep places in frosty weather , and show , that it does not necessarily conclude , such water to be warmer in Winter , since that effect may proceed not from the greater warmth of the water in such weather , but from the greater coldness of the Air. For we may take notice , that a mans breath in Summer , or in mild Winter weather , becomes very visible , the cold ambient Air nimbly condensing the fuliginous steams , which are discharg'd by the Lungs , and which in warmer weather are readily diffus'd in imperceptible particles through the air . And I have observed upon the opening of issues in some mens arms , that though no smoak be visible in Summer , it will be very conspicuous in exceeding sharp weather , though mens arms , at least the external parts of them , seem to have less heat in frosty weather , then in Summer ; since in the former of those seasons , they are wont to be manifestly more slender , the fleshy parts and juices being condensed by the coldness of the Air. And though the insensible Transpirations , that continually exhale from all the parts of our bodies , are not wont to be visible here , even in Winter ; yet in extremely cold Countries , as Nova Zembla , or Charleton Island , those Effluvia have been observ'd , not only to be thickned , but to be turned into ice it self , sometimes within the Sea-mens shooes . And here in England , having not long since imployed a labouring man to dig a deep hole in very frosty weather , two Servants of mine , that stood by to see him work , did both of them assure me , when they return'd , that the steams of his heated body , were frozen upon the outside of his Wastcoat , which , one of them , whilest the other was about to give me notice of it , inconsiderately wip'd off . 43. And since we see how fast the water in Ponds and Ditches , wastes and decreases in Summer , there is no cause to doubt , but that it does then continually emit Exhalations as well , if not much more 〈◊〉 , then in Winter , which may be manifestly confirmed by this , that in the Summer , one shall often see in the mornings or evenings , the face of the water cover'd with a mist or smoak , that rises out of it . And I have sometimes taken pleasure to see this aggregate of Exhalations , hover over the water , and make , as it were , another River of a lighter liquor , that conform'd it self , for a considerable way , to the breadth and windings of the stream , whence it proceeded . And I think it will be easily granted , that the water in Summer time is at least as warm at noon , when such Exhalations are not visible , as in the morning when they are , though the Air be colder at this part of the day , then at that ; which observation gives us the true reason of the Phaenomenon . 44. And though notwithstanding all this , it were made to appear , that in some cases , the smoaking water of Springs may be really warmer in Winter then in Summer ; yet a sufficient reason of the Phaenomenon may be fetch'd from what I have already delivered about the detention of the warm subterraneal vapours by the frost , and snow , and rain , that make the earth less perspirable in Winter . 45. And because I know Themistius will look upon a thing so disagreeable to the vulgar opinion , Of the Coldness of the whole Element of Earth , as a Paradox ; I will take this opportunity to add a further confirmation , to what I have been saying . 46. And first , that there arise copious and warm steams from the lower parts of the Earth , may be prov'd , not only by what I have already mentioned , touching the Hangarian Mines , but by the common complaint of Diggers in most , though not in all deep Mines , That they are oftentimes troubled , and sometimes endangered by sudden damps , which do frequently so stuff up and thicken the subterraneal Air , that they make it not only unfit for respiration , but able to extinguish the Lamps and Candles , that the Miners use , to give them light to work by . And I remember , that I have visited Mines , where having inquired of the diggers , whether those hot exhalations , that compose their damps , did not sometimes actually take fire within the bowels of the Earth , I was answered , that in some of their Pits ( and particularly in one , that they show'd me ) though not in all , they did , insomuch that the exhalation suddenly kindling , would make a report at the mouth of the Pit like a Musquet , or a small piece of Ordinance , and the flame would actually burn off the hair , and scorch the skins of 〈◊〉 workmen , that did not seasonably get out of the Pit , when the exhalation appear'd to be near an ascension , or did not nimbly fall down flat with their faces to the ground , till the flame was gone out . And one of these workmen that I ask'd , affirm'd himself to have been several times , to his no small trouble , so burned , and that ( if I much misremember not ) twice in one day . And it seems to me as well as to Morinus very probable , that those great quantities of rain and snow , and storms , and ( perhaps ) some other Meteors , that are taken notice of in Winter , may rather consist of these subterraneal steams , then the vapours and exhalations attracted by the Sun ( or at least may as much consist of the former , as the latter . ) For his heat is then very languid , and acts upon the ground but during the day time , which is very short ( whereas those Meteors are generated indifferently at all hours of the day and night ) and the sky is oftentimes , for many days together , quite overcast with clouds , and the surface of the ground so constipated with frost , that it will sometimes freez even in the Sun-shine : So that 't is not near so likely , that the heat of the Sun , in the midst of all these disadvantages , should be able to elevate so great a plenty of exhalations and vapours , as are requisite to compose the rain , and snow , and storms , that sometimes last almost all the Winter , as that they should be suppli'd by subterraneal steams copiously sent up from the heat that continually reigns in the lower parts of the Earth , and by traversing the Sea , and at other vents , get up into the Air. 47. To make out this , my formerly quoted French Author relates a very memorable thing , that was told him by the Masters of those Mines in Hungary ( which are at least as deep as any that I remember I have seen or read of ; ) namely , that the Miners were able certainly to foretel sooner then any other mortals , the Tempests and sudden mutations , that were to happen in the Air. For when they perceived by the burning blew of their Lights , and by other manifest signs , that they could easily take notice of in their Grooves , that store of the Tempestuous Damp ( if I may so call it ) was ascending from the lower parts of the Earth , though the sky above were clear , and the Air calm ; yet they conld assuredly foretel the approach of a storm , or some other great alteration in the Air , which would accordingly ensue within no very long time aster . And to confirm this Narrative , I shall add , not only that 't is agreeable to what I lately told you was affirm'd to me by other Mine-men , but that having enquir'd of a very ingenious Physician , who liv'd many years in Cornwall , ( a Country you know famous for Tin-Mines , some of which are infamous for the damps that infest them ) he told me , that divers of the experienced Fishermen assur'd him , that oftentimes they did perceive fires shining in the night , sometimes in one place , sometimes in another , which were suppos'd to be kindled by the sulphurous and other subterraneous exhalations , and that , when they perceiv'd those fires , ( especially if any number appear'd in several places ) those that were well acquainted with the coast , would not continue long out at Sea , but rather quit an opportunity of catching Fish , then not make seasonably to the shore , having often observed , and particularly this last year , that bold and unexperienced Mariners , by slighting these forerunners of storms , were in few hours shipwrack'd by them . 48. To this I shall add , what happened some years since , upon the Irish coast , near a strong Fortress , called Duncannon , where divers of the ships Royal of England lying at anchor , in a place where they apprehended no danger from the wind , there seem'd suddenly to ascend out of the water , not far from them , a black cloud , in shape and bigness not much unlike a Barrel , which mounting upwards , was not long after follow'd , as the most experienced Pilot foretold , so hideous a storm , as forc'd those ships to go to Sea again , and had like to have cast them away in it . And this account was both written by the principal officers of the Squadron , to their superiors in England , and given soon after it happened , by the chief of those eye-witnesses ( and particularly by the Pilot ) to a very near kinsman of mine ( well vers'd in Maritine affairs ) that commanded the land forces in those parts , as a truth no less known then memorable . 49. And on occasion of what I was saying , about the eruption of hot steams , in several parts of the Earth , I now call to mind something that I have met with in a very small , but curious Dissertation , De admirandis Hungariae aquis , whose Anonymous Author I gather from some passages in the Tract it self , to have been a Nobleman , Governor of Saros , and some other places in Hungary , and to have written this discourse , both for , and to that inquisitive German , Baron Sigis mundus Liber , famous for the account he gave the world of the Ambassy , whereon he was sent by the German to the Russian Emperor . This Anonymous , but noble writer , tells us then , that in that part of Hungary , which he calls Comitatus Zoliensis , there is a gaping piece of ground , which does emit such mortal exspirations , that they suffocate , not only Cats and Dogs , purposely held at the end of long poles over the cleft , but kill even Birds , that attempt to fly over it . And in other places of the same Tract , I have met with many other relations , which if I had time to make a particular mention of , would much countenance what I have been lately saying : but though I pretermit several other instances , I cannot but take especial notice of one , which ( together with what I lately mention'd to have happened near Duncannon ) may make it probable , that not only under the surface of the dry ground , but in that part of the Terrestrial Globe , that is covered with water , there may arise streams ( and consequently Exhalations ) actually , and that considerably , hot . For in one place he takes notice , that , not far from the well known City of Buda , there is a hot Spring ( which they call Purgatory ) which the waters of Danubius it self are not able to keep from being hot ; nay , within the very Banks , betwixt which that great River runs , there boil up hot Srings , where those that will go deep enough into the water , may commodiously bath themselves . And elsewhere speaking of the River Istrogranum , in the same County , he adds , That not only the Banks of it , but within the very River it self , one may discover hot Springs , by removing the Sand at the bottom with ones feet . To this I shall add , That having heard of a Ditch in the North of England ( in some regards more strange , though less famous then the sulphureous Grotta near Naples ) whence not only subterraneal steams , but those so sulphureous , as to be easily Inflamable , did constantly and plentifully ascend into the Air , I had the curiosity to make inquiry about it , of the Minister of the place , ( a very learned Man , and conversant in Mines ) who then happened to be my neighbour , and he attested the truth of the relation upon his own knowledge . And it was confirm'd to me by a very ingenious Gentleman , who went purposely to visit this place , and found it true , That a lighted Candle , or some such actually burning body being held where this Exhalation issued out of the Earth , would kindle it , and make it actually flame for a good while , and ( if I misremember not ) as long as one pleas'd . And as this place was but few years since taken notice of , so there may be probably very many others , yet undiscovered , that may supply the Air with store of Mineral exhalations , proper to generate fiery Meteors and Winds ; I remember , that having lately ask'd an inquisitive Gentleman , that is a great searcher after Mines , whether he did not observe some meteors near those places , where he is most conversant , he told me , that 't is very usual in some of them , to see certain great fires moving in the Air , which in those places , diggers , because of some resemblance ( real or imaginary ) are wont to call Draggons . [ And the Russian Emperors Physician , you were speaking of , inform'd me a while since , that he had , not long ago , observ'd in Winter a River in Muscovy , where though the rest of the surface was frozen , there was a part of it near a mile long , that remain'd uncovered with ice , which probably was kept from being generated there by those subterraneous Exhalations , since he says he saw them ascend up all the way like the smoak of an Oven . ] And in case the matter of fact delivered by Olaus Magnus be true , concerning the strange thaws that sometimes happen , with terrible noises , in the great Lake Veter , those wonderful Phaenomena , may not improbably be ascrib'd to the ascent of great store of hot subterraneal steams , which suddenly cracking the thick and solid ice in many places at once , produce the hideous Noises , and the hasty Thaw that he speaks of . And this suspicion may be countenanced partly by this circumstance , that before these sudden thaws , the Lake begins with great noise to boil at the bottom , and partly by what is related by a more Authentick writer , I mean , that learned Traveller the Jesuite Martinius , who witnesses , that at Peking , the royal City of China , 't is very usual , that after the Rivers and Ponds have continued hard frozen over , during the Winter , the Thaw is made in one day ; which , since the freezing of the waters ( as he tells us ) required many , makes it very probable , That the sudden thaw is effected ( as he also inclines to think ) by subterraneal steams , which I may well suppose to be exceeding copious , and to diffuse themselves every way to a very great extent , since they are able so soon to thaw the Rivers and Ponds of a large Territory , and that ( which makes mainly for my present purpose ) beginning contrary to vulgar thaws , from the bottom upwards . 50. And having thus manifested , that the lower parts of the Earth do send up great store of Exhalations and Vapours to the upper parts , it will be obvious to conceive , that as in divers places of the Terrestrial Globe , these steams get into the Air , either by the advantage of finding vents , such as those I have already mentioned , or by growing copious enough to force themselves a passage : So in most other places , where the ascending steams find no commodious vents , or are too faintly driven up to gain themselves a passage , they must be repress'd or detain'd beneath the surface of the Earth , which has its pores in Winter usually choak'd up with snow or rain , or its surface constipated and hardened with ice or frost , so that these exhalations being pent up , and receiving fresh supplies , from time to time , from beneath , 't were no wonder , if they should somewhat warm deep Cellars and Wells , where they are thus detain'd ; and therefore our Husbandmen do not speak altogether so improperly , when they say , that the snow keeps the ground warm . And I remember , that Dr. Smith , the learned English 〈◊〉 into Musco , makes it to be one of the principal reasons of the great fertility , he justly ascribes to the Country there about , that during almost all the Winter , the ground is to a great height covered with snow , which does not only inrich it by the fertilizing salt , which the Earth gains from the snow , when that comes to be melted , but does also contribute to its improvement , by choaking up , or obstructing the pores , at which the Nitro-sulphureous , and other useful Corpuscles , that are sent up by the 〈◊〉 heat , would easily get away . And least ( Gentlemen ) you should think , that 't is only by the Ratiocination , that I conclude , that there is really great store of warm steams detain'd under ground in the Winter : I shall add this sensible observation , receiv'd from the Russian Emperors Physician already often mention'd , by whom I have been assured , that about Musco , where the surface of the ground is far more constipated in Winter , this 't is in these parts , and where they are wont to keep their Cellars much closer , the subterraneous Exhalations being hinder'd to fly abroad , will in time multiply so fast , that he assures me , that upon the unwary opening of the doors of Cellars , that have been long kept shut , there would sally out a warm smoak , and very thick , almost like that of a furnace , and sometimes the steam that issues out will be so gross and plentiful , that it has brought men into danger of being suffocated by it . 51. And now , Gentlemen , having shown , that though Experience be so confidently appeal'd to , by the maintainers of Antiperistasis , yet she has not hitherto afforded them any thing , that much favours their Cause , it remains , that I show , that she bears witness against it . For besides that some passages of my late Discourses do really contain Phaenomena , that not only do not favour Antiperistasis , but may justly be imploy'd as Experiments against it , I shall ex abundanti ( as they speak ) present you with something , which I necessitated Experience to supply me with , that seems expresly to overthrow it . 52. I might urge against those , who , though they begin to be asham'd of the Doctrine of the Schools , would establish an Antiperistasis upon the account of what they call a fuga Contrarii , that the very instance they are wont to bring for their opinion , may be retorted upon them . For when they tell us , that in Winter , the heat , to fly the cold of the external Air , retires it self into the lower parts of the Earth , and there harbours in Cellars and Wells , as may be prov'd by the smoaking of water drawn from deep Wells , which argues its heat , the vapours which fly away , being , as vapours , hot in comparison of the outward Air ; we may easily answer , by demanding , why , if the heat , that was harbour'd in a smoaking Bucket of water , have the wit or instinct to fly from its Contrary , it does not in the Bucket , as 't is said to do in the Well , retire it self as far as it can from the surrounding cold of the ambient Air , but instead of retiring to the innermost parts of the water ( those being remotest from that ) it needlesly flies abroad , with the vapours it excites , and does , as it were , of its own accord cast it self into the arms of the enemies it should shun . And indeed what I just now mention'd to you , as related to me by the great Duke of Muscovies Physician , does sufficiently manifest , that the cause , why the Corpuscles , that keep Cellars warm , abide beneath the surface of the Earth in Winter , is not that they fly the cold as their enemy , but that they are pent up beneath the ground , since , when vent is given them , they immediately rush into the open Air , without fearing the cold even of Russia in the very midst of Winter . 53. But I shall press this no further , but rather add , that the doctrine of Antiperistasis is as little beholding to the following Experiment , which I sometimes tri'd , in order to the disabusing some Abetters of Themistius . I took then an Iron-rod , of about the bigness of a mans finger , having at one end of it a very broad and thick piece of Iron ( shap'd almost like a spattule ) that the quantity of the matter , might upon the ignition of the Iron , make the heat very considerable : then having caus'd this thick end to be made red hot in the fire , and having suddenly quench'd it in cold water , I could not perceive , that the other end of the rod , by which it was wont to be held , did at all grow sensibly hot , as a favourer of Antiperistasis would have expected it should do to a very high degree , as presuming , that the innumerable particles of heat , that swarmed in the compact body of the red hot part of the Iron , must , to fly the cold of the water , retire in throngs towards the other extreme of the Iron , and make it exceedingly hot . And least any preexistent warmth should hinder me from perceiving an increase of heat , in case any were produc'd in the handle of the Iron , I caus'd it the next time the Trial was made , to be kept in cold water , and yet even then the immersion of the broad and candent end into the cold water , brought as little of sensible heat to the other end , that I held in my hand , as it had done the time before , and having caus'd the Experiment to be tri'd by another , the account I receiv'd was , that it succeeded with him , as it had done with me . 54. But this is not the main thing ( Gentlemen ) that I intended to acquaint you with , there being an Expedient , that I purposely devised to make one Experiment , more considerable against Antiperistasis , then are the several mistaken observations of the Peripetaticks to establish it . 55. I took then a good seal'd Weather-glass , 12. or 14. inches long , furnished with good spirit of Wine , and having provided an open mouth'd glass of a convenient shape and size , and fill'd it but to a due height ( that it might not afterwards run over ) with common water , I so ordered the matter , that the stem of the Thermoscope being supported by the cork , into which by a perforation or slit it was inserted , when the glass was stopp'd by the cork , the whole ball of the Thermometer was immers'd in the water , that fill'd the wide mouth'd glass , and did no where touch either the bottom or the sides of the glass , so that the ball or bubble was every way surrounded with water . The instrument being thus prepar'd , we observ'd at what station the ambient cold water had made the tincted spirit rest in the stem of the Thermoscope , and then having provided a fit proportion of warm water in a commodiously shaped vessel , I remov'd the instrument into it , and plac'd it so , as that the external warm water reach'd to a convenient height on the outside of the open mouth'd glass : But though I carefully watch'd , whether the heat of the external water , would increase or strike inwards the cold of that water , which did immediately incompass the ball of the Weather-glass ; yet I perceived no such matter , the tincted spirit in the stem keeping its station ( without sinking beneath it ) till the heat , after a while , having by degrees been diffus'd through the formerly cold water , by the intervention of that now warmed , the tincted spirit in the Thermometer began to ascend . 56. And to reduce the other part too , of the doctrine of Antiperistasis , to the determination of an Experiment , the same Thermoscope was plac'd in the same wide mouth'd glass just after the former manner , only instead of the cold water , that , which immediately surrounded the glass , was warm , and when the warmth had impell'd up the tincted spirit , till its ascent began to be very slow , I immers'd the instrument to a convenient depth in a vessel , that contain'd highly refrigerated water , mingled with divers pieces of ice . But notwitstanding my watchfulness , it did not appear to me , that the warmth of the water , that did immediately encompass the ball of the Weather-glass , was at all increas'd or intended , by that Liquors being besieg'd by water exceeding cold ; for the languid motion of the tincted spirit upwards , was not hereby so much as sensibly accelerated ( as it must have been considerably , if the heat of the internal water had been so augmented , or struck inwards by the cold of the external , as the Schools Doctrine would have made one expect ) but rather the ascent was by the chillingness of the contiguous water quickly check'd , and the formerly ascending spirit was soon brought to subside again . And to give my self the fuller satisfaction about some of the chief Phaenomena of this , and the former Experiment , I had the curiosity to observe them more then once . POSTSCRIPT . A Sceptical Consideration of the Heat of Cellars in Winter , and their Coldness in Summer . THe foregoing Discourses of Carneades seem to have sufficiently shaken the Foundations of the Vulgar Doctrine of Antiperistasis , so far forth as 't is superstructed upon the Vulgar Observations and Phaenomena , whereon men are wont to build it ; and it seems to have also made it highly Probable , that in case some of the Examples wont to be produc'd in favour of Antiperistasis , should prove Historically true , yet those Phaenomena may more congruously , to the wonted proceedings of Nature , be explicated by the detention of calorifick or frigorifick Corpuscles , by the operation of the external cold or heat , then to a cerain inexplicable self invigoration , which is commonly propos'd in such a way as invests inanimate bodies with the prerogatives of free Agents . But though Carneades his Adversaries seem not to have well made out the Historical part of the receiv'd Doctrine concerning cold , yet upon an impartial survey of what has been alledg'd on both sides , I freely confess , that to me some of the matters of fact themselves seem not yet so clearly determined as I could wish : for as to the obvious Phaenomena , that nature does , as it were , of Her own accord present us , they seem to have been but perfunctorily considered , and our senses only being the judges of them , we may easily , as Carneades argues , be impos'd upon by the unheeded predispositions of our Organs . And as for contriv'd and Artificial Experiments , there scarce seem to have been any made fit to clear the difficulties , that invite me to suspend my judgement as to the grand Question ( of fact ) whether Cellars , and other subterraneous places be really hotter in Winter then in Summer . 'T is true , that I have scarce met with any point , wherein the modern Schoolmen seem to have so much consulted Nature , as in this of Antiperistasis . For inquiring what has been written of that subject , that may either confirm or oppose what has in the precedent Dialogue been deliver'd about Antiperistasis ; I found that the curiousness and importance of the subject have made two or three of those writers less negligent then I suspected . But though I have lately met with in them an Experiment or two , that seem cogently to evince , I do not say an Antiperistasis in the sense of the Schools , but , that subterraneal places are really hotter in Winter then in Summer , yet I must for a while longer continue my suspension of judgement , which , that even such persons as are circumspect themselves , may not think unreasonable , I will briefly subjoyn the grounds of my Scepticism about this matter . First then the learned Jesuite Zucchius , who is wont to be far more industrious then other Aristotelians ( and on some subjects is careful to propose Experiments , though he be not so clear and happy in expressing his thoughts ) assures us somewhere , that having kept a good seal'd Weather-glass , for three years together in a good Cellar , he found the water to rise by the Coldness of the ambient Air in the Summer , and to be depressed by the rarefaction of it in the winter ; which seems undeniably to infer , that whatever be the reason of it , the heat in subterraneal places is indeed greater in Winter then in Summer . And another recent Schoolman , who , as I am told , is of the same order , though the learned Man publish'd his little Book under one of his Disciples Names , affirms , that he found by a Weather-glass , that a Well at the place where he lived , was colder in Summer and hotter in Winter . And these assertions of Zucchius , and the other Jesuite , do I confess restrain me for a while from yielding a full assent to what Carneades hath delivered , as to the matter of subterraneal Cold and Heat . But on the other side , I am not hitherto reduc'd by these Experiments , to declare with his Adversaries against him , because of the following scruples . First then I consider , that 't is not universally true , which is wont to be indefinitely affirm'd , and believ'd , that Cellars and other subterraneal places are hotter in Winter then in Summer . For the instances produced by Carneades , seem plainly enough to manifest the contrary , and my own observations made in a Cellar with a seal'd Weather glass , do keep me from dissenting from Carneades as to that point . I would therefore make a distinction of subterraneal places ; for some are deep , as the best sort of Cellars , other deeper yet , as the Hungarian Mines , mention'd by Carneades out of Morinus ; and some again are but shallow , as many ordinary Cellars and Vaults : of these three sorts of subterraneal Places , the deepest of all do not , as far as the Authority of Mineralists above alledg'd may be reli'd on ( for I am yet inquiring further ) grow hot and cold , according to the several seasons of the year , as the vulgar doctrine of Antiperistasis requires , but are continually hot : The shallower sort of subterraneal places , though by reason of their being fenc'd from the outward Air , they are not so subject to the alterations of it , whether to heat or cold , as open places are , yet by reason of their vicinity to the surface of the Earth , they are so far affected with the mutations , which the outward Air is liable to in several seasons of the year , that in Winter , though they be warm in respect of the colder Air abroad , yet they are really ( at least some of them ) as far as I have tri'd , colder in very cold weather , and less cold in warm weather . And in this opinion , I am confirm'd by two things ; the one , that having purposely inquir'd of the Polonian Nobleman mentioned by Carneades , whether he had observ'd in his Country , that in sharp Winters small Beer would freez in Cellars , that were not very deep , but would continue fluid in those that were , he assured me he had taken notice of it : The other thing is the Confession of the Anonymous Jesuite lately mention'd , who acknowledges , that he found but little difference between the Temperature of the water in the Well he examin'd in Summer and in Winter , though it were a considerably deep one , and adds a while after , that at Florence , where the subterraneal Vaults are shallower , the Air is observ'd to be colder in Winter then in Summer , though at Rome in their deep Cellars the contrary has been found . So that the lower-most sort of subterraneal cavities being , for ought appears , perpetually hot , and the upper or shallower sort of them , being colder , not hotter in cold weather then 't is in warm , 't is about the Temperature of the middle sorts of them , such as are the deeper and better Cellars , that the question remains to be determined . And thus much of my first consideration . The next thing I shall offer to be consider'd is this , That 't is not so easie a matter , as even Philosophers and Mathematicians may think it , to make with the weather-glasses hitherto in use , an Experiment to our present purpose , that shall not be liable to some exception , especially if the Cellars or Wells , where the observations are to be made , be very deep . For the gravity of that thick and vapid subterraneal Air , and the greater pressure , which the Air may there have , by reason of its pressing , according to an Atmospherical Pillar lengthened by the depth of the Cellar or Well , may in very deep Cavities , as well alter the height of the water in common Weather-glasses , as heat and cold do , and so make it uncertain , when the mutation is to be ascrib'd to the one , and when to the other , or at least very difficult to determine distinctly , what share is due to the pressure , and what to the temperature of the Air. And this uncertainty may be much increas'd by this more important Consideration , that not only in places where the heights of the Atmospherical Cylinders are differing , the pressures of the Air upon the stagnant water in the Weather-glasses may be so too , but even in the self same place the instrument remaining unmov'd , the pressure of the Atmosphere may , as I have often observ'd , hastily and considerably alter , and that without any constant and manifest cause ( at least that I could hitherto discover , ) so that the erroneous estimate , that may be hereby suggested of the temperature of the Air can scarce possibly be avoided , without the help of a seal'd Weather-glass , where the included liquor is subject to be wrought upon by the heat and cold , not pressure of the Air. So that to apply this to Zucchius his Experiment , unless he had been aware of this , and unless I knew , that he had divers times made his observations , with the assistance of a seal'd Weather-glass , it may be suspected , that he might accidentally find the water in his common Weather-glass ( for such a one it appears he us'd , as probably knowing no other ) to be higher , when he look'd on it in Summer , then when he look'd on it in Winter , not because really the subterraneal Air was colder in the former season , then in the latter , but because the Atmosphere chanc'd then to be heavier : and when I remember in how few hours I have sometimes , and that not long since , observ'd the Quicksilver , both in a good Barometer , and even in an unseal'd Weather-glass furnished with Quicksilver , to rise almost an inch perpendicularly , without any manifest Cause proceeding from cold , I cannot think it impossible , that in long Weather glasses furnish'd only with water , or some such liquor , the undiscerned alterations of the Atmospheres pressure , may produce very notable ones in the height of the water in such instruments . But this is not all , that a jealous man might suspect . For Zucchius having , for ought appears , made his Observations but in one place , we are not sure , but that may be one of those , whereof there may be many , on which the subterraneal Exhalations have a peculiar , and not languid influence ; as Carneades has towards the close of his Discourse made probable , out of the Relations of Olaus Magnus , and Martinius , touching the great and sudden thaws , that sometimes begin from the bottom ; and thereby argue their being produc'd by copious steams , that ascend from the lower parts of the Terrestrial Globe , which may be further confirm'd , by what he formerly noted of the sudden Damps , that happen in many Mines . But that which is of the most importance about our present inquiry , remains yet to be mentioned , which is , that having had the curiosity to inquire , whether no body else had made Experiments of the same kind ; I find , that the learned Maignan had the same curiosity that Zucchius had , but with very differing success ; and therefore , though this inquisitive person do admit in his Disputation about Antiperistasis , a Notion , that I confess I cannot approve , ( since to ascribe , as he does , a fuga Contrarii to Cold and Hot spirits , is in my apprehension to turn inanimate Bodies into intelligent and designing Beings ; ) yet he does justly and rationally reject with Carneades , the vulgar doctrine of Antiperistasis , and confirms his rejection of it by two Experiments . For first , he says , that he found with a Thermometer , that when in Winter a cold Northerly wind froze the water without doors , it was not less cold in Wine-Cellars , then 't was at the same season , and at the same hour of the day in his Study only the Paper-shuts of his window , that regarded likewise the North , being put to . And though , if he had said nothing else . I should have suspected , that this might have proceeded from the shallowness of the Cellars he made his Trial in , yet he prevents that suspicion , by taking notice in one clause of his Relation , that the Cellars were of the very best of their kind , in which in Summer the greatest Cold was wont to be felt . But his next Experiment is yet more considerable , which I shall therefore deliver in his own words that follow . Expertus ego sum ( says he ) Thermometro fidelissimo , & à praecedente hyeme in sequentem aestatem prorsus invariato , instructo etiam tali aquâ , nempe in hoc ipsum ex praescripto Trebellii , it a comparata ut non exhaletur , neque minuatur , expertus ( inquam ) sum in supradictis optimis Cellis Vinariis maximum , quod ardentissima aestate fuit , frigus , non adaequasse illud quod ibidem erat brumali tempore , ut dixi in superiori Experimento , siquidem in Tubo Vitrei Thermometri quatuor circiter palmos longo , & in octo gradus Graduumque minuta diviso , aqua byeme ascendit ad gradus 7. cum semisse , aestate autem vix gradum Sextum super avit , cum tamen ad sensum multo magis vigeret frigus istud 〈◊〉 . Thus far this learned , as well as resolute Author , who seeming by the Mathematical part of his Perspectiva Horaria , to be an accurate and industrious maker of observations , we may oppose his newly recited Experiment to that of Zucchius , which it flatly contradicts ; and therefore since the depth of the Cellars is of great moment in Experiments of this Nature ; since also the particular Nature of the place or soil , where the Cellar or other Cavities happen to be , may in some cases not be inconsiderable ; and since lastly , neither Zucchius nor Maignan seem to have been aware of the differing weights of the Atmosphere , in the self same place , ( as not having seen the XVIII . of our Physico-mechanical Experiments , before which I never saw nor heard of any thing publish'd , or otherwise written to that purpose ) I hope I shall be excus'd , if I retain some scruples about the Historical Question I have been considering , till the Experiment have been carefully made , for a competent space of time in several places , and that not with common Weather glasses ( like those us'd by my two learned Authors ) wherein the liquor may be made to rise and fall by the differing gravities of the Air , but with seal'd Thermoscopes , wherein the alterations may more safely be suppos'd to proceed only from its heat and cold . And to conclude , since Carneades has speciously enough answered the other Observations , that are wont to be produc'd in favour of the Aristotelian Antiperistasis , if Maignans relation be better warranted by future Experiments , then that of Zucchius , it will very much disfavour the whole Doctrine it self , which seeming to have been devis'd , but to give an account of the Phaenomena , to which 't is wont to be appli'd , considering men will be but little invited to imbrace it , if the matter of fact be as little Certain as what is propos'd in the Hypothesis is Intelligible . FINIS . AN EXAMEN OF Mr. Hobs's Doctrine , touching Cold. 1. Mr. Hobs's Theory concerning Cold , does to me , I confess , appear so inconsiderately pitch'd upon , and so slightly made out , that I should not think , it merited , especially in an Historical Treatise , a particular or sollicitous Examination , but that in proposing it , he scruples not to talk to his Readers of his Demonstrations ; and the preferrence , he is wont to give himself above the Eminentest , as well of Modern as of Ancient Writers , has had no small effect upon many , who not knowing how indulgent some writers are wont to be , to the issues of their own brain , as such are apt to mistake Confidence for Evidence , and may be modest enough to think , that their not discerning a clearness in his Explications and Reasonings , is rather the fault of their Understandings , then of his Doctrine . Mr. Hobs delivers his Theory in the seven first Articles of the 28. Chapter of the fourth part of his Elements . But because the whole discourse is too long to be here transcrib'd , and because in the 2 , 3 , and 4. Sections , that which he treats of , is the generation of winds , and that which he handles in the fifth , is the notion of a hard body ; we may safely leave out those four Sections , especially since , though there be in them divers things about the motion of the Sun , and other matters , that are more strongly asserted then prov'd , yet his doctrine tending but to shew how the winds are generated , though it were granted , would make but very little , if any thing at all , towards the evincing of his Theory about cold . 2. And that we may not be suspected to injure his opinion or his arguments , we will , though the Citation will be somewhat prolix , first recite them as himself delivers them in those three Sections , that treat immediately of Cold , and then we will subjoyn our Animadversions on them . 3. [ These things ( says he ) being premis'd , I shall shew a possible cause , why there is greater cold near the Poles of the Earth , then further from them . The motion of the Sun between the Tropicks , driving the Air towards that part of the Earths superficies , which is perpendicular under it , makes it spread it self every way ; and the velocity of this expansion of the Air grows greater and greater , as the superficies of the Earth comes more and more to be straitned ; that is to say , as the Circles which are parallel to the Aequator come to be less and less . Wherefore this expansive motion of the air , drives before it the parts of the air , which are in its way continually towards the Poles more and more strongly , as its force comes to be more and more united , that is to say , as the Circles which are parallel to the Aequator are less and less ; that is so much the more , by how much they are nearer to the Poles of the Earth . In those places therefore which are nearer to the Poles , there is greater cold , then in those which are more remote from them . Now this expansion of the air upon the superficies of the Earth from East to West , doth by reason of the Suns perpetual accession to the places which are successively under it , make it cold at the time of the Suns rising and setting , but as the Sun comes to be more and more perpendicular to those cooled places , so by the heat , which is generated by the supervening simple motion of the Sun , that cold is again remitted , and can never be great , because the action by which it was generated was not permanent . Wherefore I have rendred a possible cause of cold in those places , that are near the Pole , or where the obliquity of the Sun is great . 4. How water may be congealed by Cold , may be explained in this manner . Let A. ( in the first figure ) represent the Sun , and B. the Earth ; A. will therefore be much greater then B. Let E. F. be in the plain of the Aequinoctial , to which let G. H. I. K. and L. C. be parallel . Lastly , let C. and D. be the Poles of the Earth . The air therefore by its action in those parallels will rake the superficies of the Earth ; and that with a motion so much the stronger , by how much the parallel Circles towards the Poles grew less and less . From whence must arise a wind which will force together the uppermost parts of the water , and withal raise them a little , weakening their endeavour towards the Center of the Earth . And from their endeavour towards the Center of the Earth , joyned with the endeavour of the said wind , the uppermost parts of the water will be press'd together and coagulated , that is to say , the top of the water will be skinned over and hardened , and so again the water next the Top will be hardened in the same manner , till at length the ice be thick . And this ice being now compacted of little hard Bodies , must also contain many particles of air receiv'd into it . As Rivers and Seas , so also in the like manner may the Clouds be frozen : For when by the ascending and discendding of several clouds at the same time , the air intercepted between them is by compression forced out , it rakes , and by little and little hardens them . And though those small drops ( which usually make clouds ) be not yet united into greater bodies , yet the same wind will be made , and by it , as water is congealed into ice , so will vapours in the same manner be congealed into snow . From the same cause it is , that ice may be made by art , and that not far from the fire : for it is done by the mingling snow and salt together , and by burying in it a small vessel full of water . Now when the snow and salt ( which have in them a great deal of air ) are melting , the air which is 〈◊〉 out every way in wind , rakes the sides of the vessel ; and as the wind by its motion rakes the vessel , so the vessel by the same motion and action congeals the water within it . 5. We find by Experience , that cold is always more remiss in places where it rains , and where the weather is cloudy ( things being alike in all other respects ) then where the air is clear . And this agreeth very well with what I said before ; for in clear weather the course of the wind , which ( as I said even now ) rak'd the superficies of the Earth , as it is free from all interruption , so also it is very strong . But when small drops of water are either rising or falling , that wind is repelled , broken and dissipated by them ; and the less the wind is , the less is the cold . 6. We find also by experience , that in deep Wells the water freezeth not so much , at it doth upon the superficies of the Earth . For the wind by which ice is made , entring into the Earth ( by reason of the laxity of its parts ) more or less loseth some of its force , though not much . So that if the Well be not deep , it will freez , whereas if it be so deep , as that the wind , which causeth cold , cannot reach it , it will not freez . 7. We find moreover by experience , that ice is lighter then water , the cause whereof is manifest from that which I have already shown , namely , that the air is receiv'd in , and mingled with the particles of the water , whilest it is congealing . ] 8. To examine now Mr. Hobs's Theory concerning Cold , we may in the first place take notice , that his very Notion of Cold is not so accurately , nor warily deliver'd . I will not here urge , that it may well be Question'd , whether the tending outwards of the spirits and fluid parts of the Bodies of animals , do necessarily proceed from , and argue heat . Since in our Pneumatical Engine , when the air is withdrawn from about an included viper ( to mention no other Animals ) there is a great intumescence , and consequently a greater indeavour outwards of the fluid parts of the body , then we see made by any degree of heat of the ambient Air , wont to be produc'd by the Sun. This , I say , I will not insist on , but rather take notice , that though Mr. Hobs tells us , that to cool , is to make the exterior parts of the body indeavour inwards : yet our Experiments tell us , that when a very high degree of Cold is introdnc'd , not only into water , but into Wine , and divers other partly Aqueous liquors , there is a plain intumescence , and consequently indeavour outwards of the parts of the refrigerated Body . And certainly Cold having an operation upon a great multitude and variety of bodies , as well as upon our Sensories , he that would give a satisfactory definition of it , must take into his consideration divers other effects , besides those it produces on humane bodies . And even in these , he will not easily prove , that in every case any such indeavour inwards from the Ambient Aetherial substance , as his Doctrine seems to suppose , is necessary to the perception of Cold , since as the mind perceives divers other qualities , by various motions in the Nervous or Membranous parts of the sentient ; so Cold may be perceiv'd , either by the Decrement of the agitation of the parts of the Object , in reference to those of the Sensory ; or else by some differing impulse of the sensitive parts occasion'd by some change made in the motion of the blood or spirits , upon the deadning of that motion ; or by the turbulent motion of those excrementitious steams , that are wont , when the blood circulates as nimbly , and the pores are kept as open as before , to be dissipated by insensible transpiration . 9. It may afford some illustration to this matter to add , That having inquir'd of some Hysterical Women , who complain'd to me of their distempers , whether they did not sometimes find a very great coldness in some parts of their heads , especially at the Top , I was answered , that they did so , and one of them complain'd , that she felt in the upper part of her head such a Coldness , as if some body were pouring cold water upon it . And having inquired of a couple of eminent Physicians , of great practise , about this matter , they both assur'd me , that many of their Hysterical patients had made complaints to them , of such great Coldness in the upper part of the head , and some also along the Vertebra's of the Neck and Back . And one of these Experienc'd Doctors added , that this happen'd to some of his Patients , when they seem'd to him and to themselves to be otherwise Hot. The noble * Avicen also some where takes notice , that the invenom'd Bitings of some kinds of Serpents ; ( creatures too well known in the Hot Countries where he liv'd ) made those that were bitten by them , either become or think themselves very cold . But that will perhaps seem more remarkable , which I shall further add , namely , that I know a Nobleman , who follow'd the Wars in several Countries , and has signaliz'd his Valour in them ; and yet though his stature be proportionate to his courage ; yet when this person falls ( as frequently he has done ) in a fit of the stone , he feels an universal cold over his whole body , just like that which begins the fit of an Ague . And though he assures me , that the stones , that torment him , and which he usually voids , are but very small ; yet whilest the fit continues , which oftentimes lasts many hours , he does not only feel an extraordinary Coldness , but which is more strange , and which I particularly inquir'd after , cannot by clothes , or almost any other means , keep himself warm . 10. I elsewhere take notice of some other Observations , agreeable to these , by some of which we may be perswaded , that there may be other ways , besides those already mention'd , of perceiving cold , though the outward parts of our bodies were not prest inwards . And whereas Mr. Hobs infers , that He , who would know the cause of cold , must find by what motion or motions the exterior parts of any body indeavour to retire inwards , that seems but an inconsiderate direction . For in compressions , that are made by surrounding bodies , there is produc'd an indeavour inward of the parts of the comprest body , though no Cold , but sometimes rather Heat be thereby generated . And I hope Mr. Hobs will not object , that in this case the parts do not retire , but are thrust inwards , since according to him no body at all can be moved , but by a body contiguous and mov'd . But what I have hitherto taken notice of , being chiefly design'd to shew , that the notion of cold in general is not so obvious a thing to be rightly pitch'd upon , as many think , and that therefore it needs be no wonder , that it hath notbeen accurately and warily propos'd by Mr. Hobs : I shall not any further prosecute that discourse , but proceed to what remains . Next then , the Cause he assigns , why a man can blow hot or cold with the same breath , is very questionable ; partly because he supposes in part of the breath such a simple motion , as he calls it , of the small particles of the same breath , as he will not easily Prove , and as * eminent Astronomers and Mathematicians have Rejected ; and partly because that without the suspected supposition , I could ( by putting together the Conjectures of two learned Writers , and what I have elsewhere added of my own ) give a more probable account of the Phaenomenon , if I had not lome scruples about the matter of Fact it self : which last clause I add , because , though I am not sure , that further Trials may not satisfie me , That the Wind or Breath , that is blown out at the middle of the compress'd Lips , has in it such a real coldness , as men have generally ascrib'd to it ; yet hitherto some Trials , that my jealousie led me to make , incline me to suspect , there may be a mistake about this matter , and that , in estimating the Temper of the produc'd Wind , our senses may impose upon us . For having taken a very good and tender seal'd Weather-glass , and blown upon it through a glass-Pipe ( of about half a yard long ) that was chosen slender , to be sure that my breath should issue out in a small stream ; by this wind beating upon the ball of the Weather-glass , I could not make the included spirit of Wine subside , but manifestly , though not much , ascend , though the Wind , that I presently blew through the same Pipe , seem'd sensibly cold , both to the hand of by-standers , and to my own , and yet mine was then more then ordinarily cold . So that having no great enencouragement to enter into a dispute about the cause of a Phaenomenon , whose Historical circnmstances are not yet sufficiently known and cleared , I will now proceed to add , that whatever be the cause of the effect , there are divers things that make Mr. Hobs's Hypothesis of the Cause of Cold unfit to be acquiesc'd in . For we see that the grand cause , he assigns of cold and its effects , is wind , which according to him is Air moved in a considerable quantity , and that either forwards only , or in an undulating motion : and he tells us too , that when the breath is more strongly blown out of the mouth , then is the direct motion prevalent ( over the simple motion ) which , says he , makes us feel cold ; for , says he , the direct motion of the breath or air is wind , and all wind cools or diminishes former heat . To which words in the very next line he subjoyns , that not only great , but almost any ventilation , and stirring of the Air doth refrigerate . But against this doctrine I have several things to object . 11. For first , we see there are very hard frosts , not only continued , but 〈◊〉 begun , when the Air is calm and free from winds , and high and boisterous Southerly winds are not here wont to be near so cold as far weaker winds , that blow from the North-east . 12. Next , if Mr. Hobs teach us , that 't is the direct motion of the stream of breath , that is more strongly blown out , that makes us feel Cold , he is obliged to render a reason , why in an Aeolipile with a long neck , the stream that issues out , though oftentimes far stronger then that , which is wont to be made by compressing the Lips , at a pretty distance from the hole , it issues out of , is not cold , but hot . 13. Thirdly , Mr. Hobs elsewhere teaches , that when in our Engine the pump has been long imploy'd to exhaust ( as we say ) the Receiver , there must be a vehement wind produc'd in that Receiver , and yet by one of our other Experiments , it appear'd , that for all this in a good seal'd Weather-glass plac'd there , before the included Air begins to be ( as we say ) emptied , there appear'd no sign of any intense degree of cold produc'd by this suppos'd wind , so that either the wind is but imaginary , or else Mr. Hobs ascribes to winds as such , an infrigidating efficacy , that does not belong to them . 14. Fourthly , we find by experience , that in hard frosts water will freez , not only though there be no wind stirring in the ambient Air , but though the liquor be kept in a close room , where , though the wind were high abroad , it could not get admittance ; and some of our Experiments carefully made have assured us , that water seal'd up in one glass , and that glass kept suspended in another glass carefully stopt , to keep out not only all wind , but all Adventitious Air , may nevertheless be not only much cool'd , but turn'd into ice . 15. Fifthly , we found by other Experiments , that a frozen Egg , though suspended in , and perfectedly surrounded with water , where no wind can come at it , will be every way crusted over with ice , in which case there is no probability , that the ice should be generated according to the way propos'd by Mr. Hobs. For he will scarce prove , nor is there any likelihood , that a wind pierc'd the shell and closer coats of the Egg to get into the contain'd liquors , and freez them ; and a more unlikely assertion it would be , to pretend , ( as he that maintains Mr. Hobs's doctrine , must ) that so very little Air , if there be any , as is mingled with the juices of the Egg , is , by the Cold , which is not wont to expand Air ( nor water , till it be ready to make it freez ) turn'd into a wind subtile enough , freely to penetrate the shell and coats of the Egg , and great enough to diffuse it self every way , and turn on every side the neighbouring water into ice ; and all this notwithstanding , that not only it appear'd not by bubbles breaking through the water , that there is any Adventitious Air , that comes out of the Egg at all ; but that also , supposing there were some such contain'd in the Egg , yet what shadow of reason is there to conceive , that the Air which was engag'd in , and surrounded with the substances of the white , and the yelk of the Egg , must needs be a wind , since , according to Mr. Hobs , that requires a considerable motion of most of the parts of the mov'd Air the same way , and according to him also a body cannot be put into motion , but by another body contiguous and mov'd . 16. Sixtly , Mr. Hobs does indeed affirm , that all wind cools , but is so far from proving , that the highest degrees of Cold must needs proceed from wind , that he does not well evince , that all winds refrigerate . Nor are we bound to believe it without proof , since wind being , according to him , but Air mov'd in a considerable quantity , either in a direct or undulating motion , it does not appear how Motion should , rather then Rest , make Air grow cold . For though it be true , that usually winds seem Cold to us ; yet ( in the first place ) it is not universally true , since some , that have travelled into hot Countries , and particularly the learned Alpinus , have complain'd , that the winds coming to them in the Summer , from more torrid Regions , have appear'd to them almost like the steam that comes out at the open mouth of a heated Oven . And if Marcus Polus Venetus be to be credited , ( for I mention his Testimony but ex abundanti ) the Southern winds near Ormus , have been sometimes so hot , as to destroy an Army it self at once . And secondly , even when the wind does feel cold to us , it may oftentimes do so but by accident ; for , as we elsewhere likewise teach , the steams that issue out of our bodies being usually warmer then the ambient Air , ( whence in great Assemblies , even those that are not throng'd , find it exceeding hot , and I have several times observ'd a hot wind to come from those throngs , and beat upon my face : ) and the more inward parts of our bodies themselves , being very much hotter then the ambient Air , especially that which is not yet full of warm steams ; the same causes that turn the Air into a wind , put it into a motion , that both displaces the more neighbouring and more heated Air , and also makes it pierce far deeper into the pores of the skin , whereby coming to be sensible to those parts , that are somewhat more inward then the Cuticula , and far more hot , the Air turn'd into wind seems to us more cold , then the restagnant Air ( if I may so speak , ) upon such another account , as that , upon which , if a man has one of his hands hot , and another not , the same body that will appear luke-warm to this , will appear cold to the other ; because , though the felt body be the same , yet the Organs of feeling are differingly dispos'd . And to confirm this doctrine by an Experiment ( which has succeeded Often enough , and need not succeed Always to serve our present purpose , ) we will add , that though Air blown through a pair of Bellows upon ones hand , when 't is in a moderate temper , will seem very cold ; yet , that the ambient Air by being thus turn'd into wind , does indeed acquire a relative coldness , so as to seem cold to our senses , but yet without acquiring such a cold as is presum'd , may appear by this , that by blowing the same air with the same Bellows upon Weather-glasses , though made more then ordinarily long , and by an Artist eminent at making them , we could not observe , that this winds beating upon them did sensibly refrigerate either the Air or the liquor . Though 't is not impossible , but that in some cases the wind may cool even inanimate bodies , by driving away a parcel of ambient air , impregnated with exhalations less cold , then the air that composes the wind . But this is not much , if at all , more then would be effected , if , without a wind , some other body should precipitate out of the air near the Weather-glass , the warmer Effluvia we have been mentioning , especially if the Precipitating Body introduce in the room of the displaced Particles , such as may in a safe sense be term'd Frigorifick . 17. Seventhly , Nor can we admit without a favourable construction , Mr. Hobs his way of expressing himself , where he says , as we have lately seen , that All wind cools or deminishes former heat . For if we take heat in the most common sense , wherein the word is used , not only by other writers , but also by Philosophers , to make wind the adequate cause of cold , it must in many cases do more then diminish former heat . For water , for instance , that is ready to freez , is already actually cold in a high degree , and yet the wind ( if Mr. Hobs will needs have that to be the efficient of freezing ) must make this not hot , but already very cold liquor , more cold yet , before it can quite turn it into ice . 18. These things thus establisht , it will not be difficult to dispatch the remaining part of Mr. Hobs his Theory of Cold ; for to proceed to his sixth Section , we shall pass by what a Cosmographer would perhaps except against in his doctrine , about the generation and motion of the wind upon the surface of the Earth , and shall only take notice in the remaining part of that Section of thus much ; That the most of what Mr. Hobs here shews us , is but , that there is an expansion of the air , or a wind generated by the motion and action of the Sun ; but why this wind thus generated must produce cold , I do not see that he shews ; nor does his affirming , that it moves towards the Poles , help the matter , for besides that we have shewn , that wind as such , is not sufficient to produce far less degrees of cold , then those that are felt in many Northern Regions , there must be some other cause , then the motion of the air or steams driven away by the Sun , to make bodies not in themselves cold , ( for so they were suppos'd not to be , when the Sun began to put them in motion ) become vehemently cold in their passage . For Mr. Hobs cannot , as other Naturalists , derive the coldness of freezing winds from the cold steams they meet with , and carry along with them in their passage through cold Regions , since then those steams rather then the wind would be the cause of that vehement coldness ; and so it might justly be demanded , whence the coldness of those cold exhalations proceeds . Besides that , 't is very precarious and unconsonant to observation , to imagine such a wind , as he talks of , to blow , whenever great frosts happen , since , as we noted before , very vehement glaciations may be observ'd , especially in Northern Regions , when the air is calm and free from winds . 19. The account he gives in his seventh Section of turning water into ice , is the most unsatisfactory I have ever yet met with : for a good part of that Section is so written , as if he were affear'd to be understood : But whereas he supposes , that by the indeavour of the wind to raise the parts of the water , joyn'd with the indeavour of the parts of the water towards the Center of the Earth , the uppermost parts of the water will be prest together and coagulated , he says that , which is very far from satisfactory . For first , ice is often produced , where no wind can come to beat upon the uppermost parts of the water , and to raise them : and in vessels Hermetically seal'd , which exactly keep out air and wind , ice may be generated , as many of our Experiments evince . And this alone were a sufficient answer , since the whole explication is built upon the action of the wind . But this is not all we have to object ; for not to urge , that he should have prov'd , that the uppermost parts of the water must be raised in congelation , especially since oyl and divers other liquors are contracted by it , not to urge this , I say , what shew of probability is there , that by the bare indeavour of the wind , and the gravity of the superficiate parts of the water , there should be any such forcible compression made , as he is pleas'd to take for granted . And yet this it self is less improbable , then that supposing the upermost parts of the water to be pressed together , that pressure is sufficient to coagulate , as he speaks , or rather congeal them into ice . So bold and unlikely an assertion should at least have been countenanced by some plausible reason , or an example in some measure parallel . For I remember not any one instance , wherein any degree of compression , that has been imploy'd , much less so slight a one as this must be , considering the causes whence 't is said to proceed , can harden any liquor into ice , or any other hard body . And in the Experiment , we have elsewhere mentioned of filling a Pewter vessel with water , and when 't is exactly clos'd , compressing it by the knocks of a Hammer , till the water be reduc'd to penetrate the very Pewter , we found not that so violent a compression did give the water the least disposition to turn a hard body . And as for the way Mr. Hobs assigns of Increasing the thickness of ice , 't is very difficult to conceive , how a cake of ice on the top of the water being hard frozen to the sides of the containing vessel , and thereby severing betwixt the included water and the external air ; the wind that cannot come to touch the water , because of the interposition of the hard and rigid ice , should yet be able , sometimes at the depth of nine or ten foot , or much further , to beat upon the subjacent water , and turn it into ice . And it is yet more difficult to conceive , how the wind must do all this , when , as was lately noted , the water does very often freez more and more downwards , to a great depth , in places where the wind cannot come to beat upon it at all . And as to what Mr. Hobs further teaches , that the ice must contain many particles of air receiv'd into it , we have elsewhere occasion to show , how 〈◊〉 he discourses about those Icy Bubbles . 20. The reason he assigns of the freezing of water with Snow and 〈◊〉 , does as little satisfie as the rest of his Theory of Cold. For not to mention , that he affirms without proving it , that Snow and Salt have in them a great deal of air ; it is very precarious to assert , that this air must be prest out every way in wind , which must rake the sides of the vessel , for 't is strange , that far more diligent observers then Mr. Hobs should take no notice of any such wind , if any such wind there were ; but this is yet less strange , then that which follows ; namely , that this wind must so rake the sides of the vessel , as to make the vessel by the same motion and action congeal the water within it . For what affinity is there between a wind , passing along the outside of a glass , altogether impervious to it , and the turning a fluid body , included in that glass , into a hard and brittle body . The wind indeed may perhaps , if it be strong , a little shake or agitate the particles that compose the glass , and those may communicate some of their motion to the contiguous parts of the water ; but why all this must amount to the turning of that water into ice , is more , I confess , by far then I can apprehend . Especially seeing , that though you long blow upon a glass of water with a pair of Bellows , where there is not an Imaginary wind , as Mr. Hobs's , but a Real and manifest one ; yet the water will be so far from being frozen , that our formerly mentioned Experiments ( of blowing upon Thermometers ) make it probable , that it will scarce be cool'd . And if Sea-salt do contain so much air , by vertue of which , it , as well as the Snow , produces so intense a degree of Cold , how chance that being resolv'd in a little water without Snow , it does not produce at least a far greater degree of cold then we find it to do ? Besides , in the Experiment we made ( and elsewhere mention ) of freezing water seal'd up in Bubbles , though the Bubbles were suspended in other glasses , whose sides no where touched them , and the remaining part of whose cavities were fill'd some with air , and some with unfreezing liquors ; what likelihood is there , that Mr. Hobs's insensible Wind should be able to occasion so many successive Rakings through differing Bodies , as there must be , to propagate the congelative motion ( if I may so call it ) of the wind , through the first glass , to the included Air or Liquor , and through that new Medium to the glass containing immediately the water , and through that to the innermost parts of the seal'd up water . And it might be further objected , if it were worth while , that Mr. Hobs does not so much as offer at a reason , why spirit of Wine , Aqua fortis , or even Brine , if it be of the strongest sort , are not either by this mixture , or ( here in England ) by the Wind in the open Air turn'd into Ice , as well as many other Liquors are . 21. The reason why Cold is wont to be more remiss in rainy or cloudy weather , then in that which is more clear , is not better given by Mr. Hobs , then by some others that have written before him : for not to mention , that I have seen great frosts , and lasting enough in cloudy , and sometimes very dark weather ; that which he talks of the winds being more strong in clear weather , then in cloudy , is of no great importance , since common Experience shews , that in clear weather the Air may be very cold , and the frost very great , where no wind is felt to rake , as he would have it , the superficies of the Earth . Nor does experience bear witness to what he not warily enough pronounces , that the less the wind is , the less is the Cold. There are but two Phaenomena more , which in this Section Mr. Hobs pretends to explicate ; The one is , that in deep Wells the water does not freez so much , as it does upon the superficies of the Earth . But the reason of this we elsewhere take occasion to consider , & therefore in this place we need only note , that Mr. Hobs has not rightly assigned it by ascribing it to the winds entring more or less into the Earth , by reason of the laxity of its parts ; since besides that it is very improbable , that the wind should not , as he says it does not , lose much of its force by entring into the Earth at its pores , and other lesser cavities ( for that seems to be his meaning by the laxity of the Earths parts ) to so great a depth as water lies in several Wells subject to freezing : besides this , I say , Experience teaches us , that Wells may be frozen , though their Orifices be well covered , and the wind be thereby kept from approaching the included water by divers yards ; and very many Wells , that are subject to freez , when Northerly and Eastwardly winds reign , will likewise be frozen in very cold Winters , whether any wind blows , or not . 22. The other and last Phaenomenon , Mr. Hobs attempts to explicate , is , That ice is lighter then water ; the cause whereof , says he , is manifest from what I have already shewn ; namely , That air is receiv'd in , and mingled with the particles of the water whilest it is in congealing . But that this is not the true reason , may be argued from hence , that if a conveniently shap'd glass-vessel be fill'd top full with water , and expos'd either unseal'd or seal'd to congelation , the ice will have store of bubbles , which , at least in the seal'd vessel , cannot by Mr. Hobs , who will not affirm glass to be pervious to the Air , be pretended to proceed from bubbles , that got from without into the water , whilest it was in congealing . And we have sometimes had occasion to manifest by particular Experiments purposely made , how little of Air there is even in those bubbles that are generated in ice , made in vessels , where the Air was not kept from being contiguous to the water . 23. And thus have we gone through Mr. Hobs's Theory of Cold. In his Proposing of which , we wish'd he had in Divers places been more Clear ; and in our cursory Examination of which , we have seen that most of the particulars are either precarious or erroneous , and were they neither , yet the whole Theory would , I fear , prove very insufficient . Since an attentive Reader cannot but have marked , that this learned Author has past by far the greatest part even of the more obvious Phaenomena of Cold , without attempting to Explicate them , or so much as shewing in a general way , that he had Consider'd them , & thought them explicable by his Hypothesis : By which he that will fairly explain all the Phaenomena recited in the Notes we have been drawing together , and which yet contain but a Beginning of the History of Cold , shall give me a very good opinion of his Sagacity . A Postscript . THough the hast , I am obliged to comply with , keep me from annexing the Historical Papers , wherewith I had thoughts to Conclude this Book , concerning Cold ; yet since the Nature of the past Examen gave me but little Opportunity to teach the Reader any thing more considerable , then that Mr. Hobs's Doctrine is Erroneous ; I am very inclinable to make him here some such little amends , as the Time will permit , for that Paucity of Experiments . And therefore since in the last Section of the foregoing History , upon occasion of an Experiment very Imperfectly , and not intelligibly deliver'd by Berigardus , I intimate my having elsewhere Plainly set down , either the same he meant , or one of that Nature ; and that with considerable Phaenomena unmention'd by him : I chuse rather to borrow some Account of it from another Treatise , to which it belongs , then not gratifie some of the Curious , to whom the Phaenomena I shew'd them of it , seemed no less pretty then surprizing . The way then that I us'd in making this Experiment , may be gathered from the following directions . Take of good unslak'd Lime three parts ( or thereabouts * ) of ( yellow ) Orpiment one part , of fair water 15. or 16. parts ; beat the Lime grosly , and powder the Orpiment ( with care to avoid the noxious Dust that may fly up * ) and having put these two ingredients into the water , let them remain there for two or three hours , or longer , if needs be , remembring to shake or stir the mixture from time to time . By this means you will obtain a somewhat faetid Liquor , whereof by warily Decanting , or by Filtrating it , the Clear part must be severed from the rest . In the mean time take a piece of Cork , and having lighted it so , that it is kindled throughout , remove it from the fire , whilest 't is yet burning , and by a quick immersion , quench it in fair water . And having by this means reduc'd it to a coal , you may ( in case you have not err'd in the Operation ) by grinding it with a convenient Quantity of Gum-water * , bring it to the colour and consistence of a good black Ink , that you may use with an ordinary Pen. Whilest these things are doing , you may take what quantity you think fit of common * Minium , and two or three times its weight of spirit of Vineger ( which needs not be for this purpose much stronger then phlegm , and to which even undistill'd Vineger may be a succedaneum ) and putting the powder and liquor into a glass . Vial , or any other convenient vessel , let them infuse over hot Embers , or in some considerably warm place for two or three hours more or less , till the liquor have acquir'd a very sweet taste . All things being thus prepar'd , take a new , 〈◊〉 at least a clean Pen , and write with it some such thing , as you either desire or need not fear to have read , between ( if you please ) or , which is safer , * Over the Lines , which contain your secret , and which are to be trac'd with the solution of 〈◊〉 ; for this Liquor , if it be either well decanted or filtred , will be so clear , that what is written with it by a new Pen , will not be seen upon the Paper when it is dry . Lastly , when you would show the Experiment , dip a small 〈◊〉 of Sponge , or a Linnen-rag ( or for a need , a little paper wreath'd ) in the water , that was made with Lime and Auripigmentum , and with this liquor , which , though it smell ill , will look limpid and clear , wiping over the Paper , it will presently at once , both wipe out or obliterate what was written with the black Ink , and make all that was written with the invisible Ink , though perhaps in the self-same Lines , appear black , so as to be very easily and plainly legible . This is the way , to which many years ago my Trials led me , of making this odd Experiment . For the performing whereof , if any can propose a more Easie and Better way ( for I find by an Inquisitive * Traveller , that there are more ways then one ) I shall willingly learn it . In the mean time the Reader may perceive , that I did not causlesly intimate , That the learned Berigardus , though he would manifest a great thing in Philosophy by this Experiment , did yet either not Understand himself that part of it , he pretends to Teach , or has omitted one of the main Ingredients of the water of Orpiment he speaks of . For I did not find , that even by a long Infusion , nor by some Decoction of the Orpiment alone ( without the Quick-lime ) there would be produc'd a Liquor , either obviously faetid , or that would perform so much as a Less matter , then what that , which he mentions , should . And whereas he seems to commend this way ( though but between Lines written with common Ink ) for the writing of things one would not have to be discovered , and though I have yet met with no body , that having seen the Experiment , is not of his mind ; yet I remember , that , when many years ago , I was making Trials concerning the several ways of making invisible Inks , my Conjectures led me to discover , that I could very readily bring , what was written with a solution of Minium , to be Legible , by the help of the fire ; as well as I could also detect by the same way several invisible Inks , which are believ'd to require appropriated Liquors to make them Confess their secrets . But I must reserve the Reflections , and other particulars that relate to this Experiment , for the Treatise to which it belong'd . Only I will now add , That besides the above-specified motives to communicate what I have at present witten of it , I was the rather induc'd to do so , because I had mention'd , but not taught this Experiment , in the History of Whiteness and Blackness ; and because also Berigardus is not the only Author of Note I have met with , that having made particular mention of the Experiment , has given the Curious but a Lame and unsatisfactory Account of it . FINIS . Philosophical Writings * already publish'd by this Author . NEw Experiments Physico-mechanical , touching the Air , 1660. publish'd about Midsummer . Certain Physiological Essays , written on several occasions , 1661. in March. The Sceptical Chymist , 1661. in August . A defence of the Doctrine touching the Spring and Weight of the Air , against the Objections of Franciscus Linus , 1662. in the Spring . The usefulness of Experimental Philosophy , 1663. in June . Experiments and Considerations touching Colours , 1664. in May. Such Philosophical Writings of the same Author , as being occasionally mention'd ( here and there ) in the above-nam'd Books , are not yet publish'd , but ( though not absolutely promis'd ) by divers of the Curious expected . THe second Section of the second part of the usefulness of Experimental Philosophy . Two Essays concerning the Concealments and Disguises of the Seeds of Living Creatures . Some Additional notes design'd by way of Appendix to the Physico-Mechanical Treatise . Two Historical Dialogues , one concerning Flame , the other concerning Heat . Hydrostatical Paradoxes made out by Physico-Mechanical Experiments . An Essay of the Origine of Forms and Qualities . Of the Production of Qualities ( manifest and occult ) by Art. The Sceptical Naturalist , being a Letter about the Imperfections of Natural Philosophy , as we yet have it . A Discourse of Improbable Truths . AN ADVERTISEMENT . THe Author of the following Discourse intending it should make a part of certain Considerations upon the four famousest Hypotheses , or Opinions , of the Nature and Cause of Cold ; which ( Considerations ) he thought fit to reserve for the latter end of the History of that Quality , was invited to suppress it ever since the former part of the year , that preceded the last . And though this Discourse , ( both for other Reasons , and because he found it more ready and finished , then some other Papers , that belonged to the same part of the newly mentioned History ) comes abroad unaccompanied ; yet he judged it not amiss , to intimate thus much , That the Reader may be informed , upon what Account Mr. Hobs's Opinions come to be examined in a Historical Treatise ; and may not wonder , either to find , that divers passages of It are omitted , that are unfavourable enough to Mr. Hobs's Doctrine , or to meet with in a Discourse postpon'd to the History of Cold , some Experiments , that seem to argue it to have been written before they were 〈◊〉 into the Order , wherein they now appear . To this I have nothing to add , but that whereas through haste the Scheme referred to in the long citation out of Mr. Hobs's , has not been added to the others , that belong to this Book , I am not much troubled at the Omission , ( as also that in other Quotations the place is not always as well mentioned as the words , ) because , if any shall be found , that after having considered , what I urge against the ( Great , but Imaginary ) Interest , Mr. Hobs would ascribe to Winds ( whether he explicate their causes rightly or not ) in the Production of lesser degrees of Cold , but , ( how improbably soever ) of congelation it self , shall think the sight of that Scheme of any Importance : this Learned Mans Book De Corpore , is in so many hands , that any Reader that shall desire it , may very easily have an opportunity to consult the Scheme in the particularly cited place . An Account of Freezing made in December and January , 1662. SInce the business of Freezing is obnoxious to many various contingencies , I must necessarily premise these following circumstances , that these experiments were made in very hard weather , yet with some alternate relaxations , the frost continuing above six weeks . And the place I chose was in stone-windows , exposed to the North , and North-east winds , and some upon the ground . The vessels were Glass-canes of several bores , earthen and pewter , small pans and porringers , spoons of pewter , and silver , glasses of various figures , as Vials , Cylindrical , round , and square , flasques , recipients , boltsheads and some Conical ones . Most whereof by the diversity of their figure , their openness or closeness produce various effects in freezing , as the following observations will shew . The quantity also of the liquor exposed is to be considered , for what will shew a small thin plate of ice in a small parcel of some liquors , will shew none in a greater . The method I shall follow in delivering my observations shall be , first to run over the various liquors or bodies , whether fluid or consistent , simple or compound , &c. used in this work . Secondly , what figures observable in those ices . Thirdly , some effects arising 〈◊〉 . Fourthly , some properties and qualities . Fifthly , some lets or helps both to freezing and thawing . Sixthly , some uses 〈◊〉 ice . In pursuance of which particulars , I had recourse to those ingenious 〈◊〉 of Mr. 〈◊〉 , registred in your Cimelia , and then to Bartholinus his late Book De Nive , and to my own collected notes from various Authors , adding whatsoever trials I thought meet . And in all these I have barely set down matter of fact , neither mentioning the Authors nor their errors , which would have been both nauseous and tedious , nor 〈◊〉 I endeavour to render a reason of the various 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( which cannot be done without a volume ) but shall leave that province to an Honourable person of this Society , who hath had much experience and reflections on this subject . And now to my task . As to my first head of things used , I shall begin with common water , which I exposed in a triple 〈◊〉 , in like quantities , and in open 〈◊〉 , viz. first cold , secondly , boiling hot , thirdly , an equal mixture of both the former . The effect was this , the cold was frozen in one hour , the boiling hot in two hours , and the mixt in hour 1 and ½ ; but with this difference , that the cold did freez first at the top , and sides , and had a large thick crust before there was any shew of ice in the boiling hot ; but the mixt and boiling hot began to freez first at the bottom of the vessels , and when the top was cold then it freezed there also , leaving betwixt the bottom and top of the vessel a cavity for the water , which in time was wholly converted to ice . The same succeeded most manifestly in these waters powred on a smooth table , where the cold water was presently frozen before the boiling hot water could become cold at the bottom . Water exhausted of air in Mr. Boyles engine was frozen almost as soon as a like quantity expos'd in an open pan . The ice whereof appeared white , and to consist purely of bubbles . The glass used was a four ounce round vial , and a small Tube one foot long half filled with water . Fair water wherein Arsnick had been infused eight moneths , congealed much sooner then a like quantity of water , into very white ice . Solutions of all the sorts of Vitriols freezed sooner in pans and Tubes , then water or any other solution of the other salts by much , though that of Alume came very little short of it . The ice kept both colour and taste upon the least touch of the tongue , in all of them . A solution of Alume did freez into an ice whiter then milk , and stuck so close to the sides of the pan , that it could hardly be separated from it : this was the firmest ice offered to me in all my trials , next to which in both these qualities were the Vitriols , especially the Roman . Sandever quickly freezeth , Frit sooner then it , and Kelp then them both , all of them into lumps very white , and consequently not Diaphanous . Sal Armoniac shewed some variety in point of time , for in the same pan , quantity , and place with the other salted waters 't would for the most part freez long after the former , though once it did freez before them . Common salt two drachms dissolved in four ounces of common water ( for that proportion I observed in all my solutions ) did in 30. hours space in the hardest season turn to pretty hard and white ice , whereas the former solutions became so in two or three hours at the most . A beer-glass was filled with stinking Sea-water full of salt , which within 26. hours acquired at the top a plate of ice of the thickness of an ½ a Crown piece , with few bubbles in it . This tasted salt and stinking as before , but being dissolved at the fire , or thaw'd of its self , the stinking taste was gone , but the saltish continued . The residue in the glass within four days ( the season continuing ) and plates taken off ( once in 24. hours ) was frozen throughout , but that at the bottom of the glass seem'd to have a much brisker taste then that at the top , neither was it so firm and friable as that . I tried another beer glass with the same water , which froze most part of it , but the season continued not so constantly sharp so long together , as in the former experiment , and therefore I could conclude nothing therefrom . But in small broad earthen-pans set in ice in 36. hours the same water became ice throughout , and with the addition of a parcel of ice or snow much sooner . Some water was impregnated with as much bay-salt , some with as much Salt Petre , some with as much Sal Armoniac as the water was capable to receive , and neither of these did congeal with the highest degree of cold , continued six days together . A solution of salt of Tartar soon converted into ice , but in much longer time then common water . I observed that it began to freez in a Tube at the top , bottom , and sides first , leaving the liquor in the middle unfrozen , whereas other solutions and liquors congealed uniformly , by descending , or ascending , or both at the same time , from side to side through the middle : of this I made but one Trial. Salt Peter required 28. hours in a very cold season , and in that time became in the open pan a most pure white ice perfectly like Sal Prunellae , which an Apothecary mistook it for . This ice thrown into the fire ( after the aqueous humidity was evaporated ) did sparkle as that salt useth to do . A strong Lixivium made hereof with an addition of Copperas or Alume singly , or mixt , set in snow and salt , or snow alone , was froze in one night . Sal Gem alone of all the salts , though snow and ice were mixed with it in great proportion , and though the pan was set in salt and snow , could not all that time be brought to congelation : an odd experiment . Phlegm of Vitriol did freez sooner then the solutions before mentioned . Oyl of Vitriol begins congelation ( or coagulation rather ) near as soon as fair water . A pretty large Tube was fill'd ¾ full with this oyl , and about ¼ thereof was frozen , the rest remaining at the bottom uncongealed . This Tube was broken in the presence , and by the command of this Honourable society , the coagulated part whereof was tasted by many then present , and concluded by all those , that it was a strong Vitriolate taste . This coagulated part was of a paler colour then the other , and both these mixed and powred into a vial-glass heated it so hot , that none there could hold it . This coagulated part kept so in the air a week after all my other liquors had been thaw'd , and would in probability have continued so much longer had not the glass been broken . I exposed another lesser Tube with the same oyl , which became frozen throughout , and required very much relaxation in the air to return to its former fluidity . I had set a mark on these Tubes ( as on all the rest , to observe their several risings ) and the oyl of Vitriol , when coagulated , sunk more then half an inch below it , and being dissolved at the fire returned to its first station , as you also saw . And this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is peculiar to this oyl alone , all other liquors rising higher then the mark . I now come to my stronger liquors of Beer , Ale and Wines . I exposed at the same time a flask of small Beer , and another of strong Ale , the former whereof was frozen throughout in 38. hours , but three pints of the Ale continued unfrozen after six days continuance of very hard weather . And the air then disposed to thawing , I broke the flask , and with the unfrozen liquor made an excellent mornings draught at four in the morning . This Ale in colour , strength , and quickness seemed to me and the other three tasters that sate up with me , much better then when 't was first put into the flask , and by comparing it with some other in the house of the same barrel , we plainly found the said difference . After this I took the icy part of the Ale and thawed it at a fire , which was in all a pint of liquor ( though the flagon containing three pints of liquor , was fill'd with that ice ) very pale , and of a quick and alish taste , very much resembling that drink which the brewers call blew John. This ice was not so firm as that of water , but fuller of bubbles . I assayed the same a second time , but could not by reason of the changableness of the Weather attain so great a thickness of ice as in the former . And in this also I found the same changes as before . A beer-glass of Hull Ale in 24. hours contracted a crust of ice as thick as an ½ Crown , and proceeding as in Sea-salt water , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were the very same , all the Laminae taken off , appeared of the same colour and taste , and the lowest ice was the most tender . Another glass of the same Ale exposed did not freez throughout ( no crust being taken off ) in five days , when my own Ale did in a like glass , both being set out together . Now the taste and colour appeared the same , or at least had no sensible difference , when they had been thawed of themselves , and when first exposed . Hull Ale hath a brackish taste . Claret very strong exposed in a spoon in 35. hours hard freezing became an ice all of it , it was soft , kept its former colour and taste , soon discovering to the tongue of one who knew not whence it was , its nature , quality and kind . Canary at the same time in a spoon exposed in 38. hours acquired on its surface an exceeding thin plate of ice as thin as the finest paper , and proceeded no farther in four days following . Neither Claret nor Canary would shew the least sign of congelation in Tubes , much less in Bottles . Two ounces of the best spirit of Wine exposed in an earthen pan did all evaporate in less then 12. hours , but the same quantity of Brandee left near a spoonful of insipid ice without any taste of the spirit , which cast into the fire flamed not at all . I could discern no bubbles in this phlegmatick ice , but having 〈◊〉 it betwixt mine eye and a candle , it manifested many bubbles by its shadows . Quaere , whether this may not turn to profit in colder Countries in rectifying spirits of Wine . We now come to consistent bodies , and shall begin with animals and their parts . Two eyes , the one of an Ox , the other of a Sheep in one night were both totally frozen , the three humors very hard , not separable one from another , neither of them Diaphanous , as naturally they are , and the Chrystalline was as white as that of a whitings boil'd . The Tunicles , Fat and Muscles were also frozen , as appeared by their stifness , and by putting them into cold water . The ice of the waterish and glassy humors seemed to be made of flakes . A pint of Sheeps blood did freez at the top , and all the sides of the dish wherein 't was put , and was nothing else but the serum of the blood . This ice being separated from the blood , and thaw'd at the fire , and then again exposed congealed into a seeming membranous substance , and was taken for such by some that saw it , and so continued in a warm season , and appeared in all respects a membrane . This also was seen and registred in the Journal . The blood remaining gave me no signs that frost had taken it . I dissected a Dog and a Cat , having lain dead in the open air , and found their entrails , nay the very heart stiff , and some little ice in the Ventricles of their hearts , and their Vena Cava . Milk soon freezeth into most white flakes of ice , retaining the proper taste of Milk : these flakes are soft and manifest not many bubbles . Several Eggs were exposed , and both yolk and white in one night were hard frozen . They require a longer time to freez then Apples do . The best way to thaw them both is to lay them on Newcastle-coal , or in a deep Cellar . Whether Eggs once frozen will produce Chicken or no , I cannot say , but have been told by good house-wives they will. Some affirm that Eggs and Apples put into water , the ice will be thawed within them , and the ice appear on the shell and skin . 'T is true , if you hold either of them near the surface of the water , they will soon gather a very thick crust upon their outsides , but if you then break the one or cut the other , you shall see them full of ice , and the Eggs then poched will taste very tough . So that this ice seems to be gathered from without , and not to come from within . And besides if it did so , they must needs lose their weight , the contrary whereof will anon appear . But for the more surety I proceeded to this farther experiment . I immersed in my Cistern an Egg and an Apple two foot deep into water , and there suspended them with strings tied about them to keep them from sinking for the space of 24. hours , and then took them out and opened them . I could never observe in that time , though I often looked at them , any ice on their outsides , and the one being broken , and the other cut , were found both of them full within of ice . The next order shall be Vegetables , and of them a 〈◊〉 instances , 〈◊〉 of those which are of a biting or sowre taste . Now for the first I employed the roots of horse-raddish and Onions ( for other edible roots and plants every one knows will freez ) which 〈◊〉 the frost had taken them by their taste , and ice was found betwixt each of the skins of the Onions 〈◊〉 the taste of the root ; yet I have observed Beer wherein Horse-raddish and 〈◊〉 have been infused , will not 〈◊〉 so soon as other stronger Beer without them . Oranges and Limons frozen have a tough and hard rind , their icy juices lose much of their genuine taste ; they were both frozen hard in 26. hours or a little more , having a thick rinde . They as other fruits , when thawed , soon become rotten , and therefore the Fruiterers keeps them under ground in low Cellars , and cover them with straw , as they do their Apples . Which did exposed in one night freez throughout . If you cut one of them through the middle , 't will have on both the plains a most pure thin ice hardly discernable by the eye , but easily by the touch , or by scraping it off with a knife . The cores of these Apples soon turn brown , and begin their corruption there . Oyl exposed did acquire the consistency of butter melted and cool'd again ; but in Caves and Cellars I could never see it more then candy . Strong White-wine Vinegre did all soon freez in a Tube , and without any apparent bubbles . And to conclude without mentioning Nuts , Bread , Butter , Cheese , Soap , and many other things which came under my trial , 't is most certain , that whatsoever hath any waterish humidity in it , is capable of congelation : what are not you have in the next Paragraph . Having now done with what will freez , I shall briefly recount some things whereon the cold hath no such effect . We mentioned before spirit of Wine , add to it such strong waters as are made of it , viz. Aqua Mariae , Caelestis , &c. and Canary Wines in larger vessels . Secondly , the strong Lees of Soap-boylers , and others made of other salts , to which refer the spirits extracted from salt ; Vitriol , Salt Petre , Aquafortis , and spirit of Sulphur , which last precipitated to the bottom of the Tube , a small quantity of powder very like in colour to Sulphur Vivum , which being separated from the spirit ( for nothing of that evaporated ) cracked between my teeth , and tasted like Brimstone , and being put into water , made it as white as Lac Sulphuris doth , but 't would not flame , perhaps because too much of its strong acid spirit was mixed with it . Spirit of Soot afforded also a precipitation or sediment ( the spirit not congealing ) at the bottom of the Tube of a yellowish colour , but much bitterer then the spirit its self , and inflamable also . But here 't is to be observed that the said spirits that would not freez alone , yet with the mixture of about 12. parts of water , or less of ice , or snow , did freez throughout ; except the spirits of Salt , of Nitre , and Aqua fortis , which would not freez with those quantities of water , ice , and snow . I intended to have tried them with a greater quantity of the said ingredients , but the weather failed me . Whether the salt water freez in the Sea , I cannot experimentally determine , but shall add what was told me by one that said he had dissolved ice in the Northern Seas , and found it very salt . The next proposed was the figure of liquors frozen ; wherein I shall observe in general , that most of the liquors differed one from another in their figures , and being permitted to freez , and thaw often , they still returned to the same figure , most whereof were branched . Alume appeared in lumps , Salt Petre , Tartar , milk , Ale , Wine , and Sal Armoniac in plates , and other liquors mentioned to freez into a very soft ice , seeming to be made up of small globuli adhering each to other . Fair water kelp and the frits resembled an oaken leaf , the leafie parts being taken away , and the fibres only remaining , the interstitia being fill'd up with smoother ice . The middle rib ( if I may so say ) as in plants was much bigger then the lateral ones , all which seemed but different 〈◊〉 , whose points extended towards the outside of the vessel containing the water , and made acute angles with the middle rib towards the lesser end of the said leaf . Concerning the figures of frozen Urine I shall say nothing , the accurate description of curious Mr. Hook having so fully and truly performed that part of my task . Now as to the famous experiment of Quercetan , and affirmed by many other Chymists , I made experiments in these following Vegetables , Rosemary , Rue , Scurvigrass , Mints , and Plantane , wherewith I thus proceeded , I mixed with ½ a pint of their distilled waters ½ or ¾ of an ounce of their own salts , the Rosemary and Rue were calcined , and their salts extracted with their own waters , and then were added to their salts their own distill'd waters in the above mentioned proportions . The glasses wherein the Rue and Plantane were put , being seal'd with Hermes seal , and the other glasses left open . The effect was , that neither of them shewed the least resemblance of the plants , from which they were extracted , neither figure nor shew of roots , stalks , branches nor leaves , ( but only a lump or heap of small globuli ) much less of flour or seed . Besides the kelp frozen hath many fibres , which is made the most of it of Alga Marina , whose leaf is long and smooth without fibres in it . This one thing I cannot pretermit , that the sented waters seemed upon their thawing to have acquired , and advanced much in their sents , and especially the Rosemary , whose salt hath no smell , and its water but little ; yet thawed , they 〈◊〉 as strong almost as fresh leaves rubb'd and smelt too . A large recipient was fill'd with water , which being frozen throughout , and the upper crust of the ice broken , there appeared in the middle of it a multitude of thin laminae of ice , some more some less wide , from which proceeded stiriae , or teeth pointing inwards , and set at pretty equal distances , so that the laminae and stiriae resembled very much so many combs placed in no order , some lying directly , others obliquely , none transversly , having intervals betwixt each of them ; betwixt some of them I could put my finger without breaking the points of the stiriae : these combs were placed round about a cavity in the middle of the receiver , sufficient to receive two of my fingers . In a flask filled competently with water , when 't was frozen there appeared throughout the ice infinite silver-coloured bubbles , very like unto tailed hail-shot of several sizes , the largest about ¼ of an inch long , where thickest , of the bigness of a great pins-head , others much less in all dimensions . The points of them all looked outwards , and the bigger part inwards towards the Centre , where also were the largest . For there they would easily admit a little pin into all their cavity , without the least resistence . The figures of them were pretty regular , first a small thread , and then a head as big as a shot , and thence gradually ended in a point . Some of these were straight , most a little crooked . There was a cavity in the centre of this ice filled with unfrozen water , from which I could find multitudes of cavities of bubbles , not fully formed . And in the more solid parts of the ice cut , you may discern them by a black spot where the hole enters into the cavity . All the same Phaenomena appeared in a second trial , but that the bubbles were shorter and larger , and not so sharp pointed . The like I also observed in a Conical glass seal'd up . The next thing to be treated of , is the effects of freezing , viz. the expansion of liquors frozen , and consequently thereunto the breaking of bodies wherein they are inclosed . All the liquors tried did sensibly in glass Tubes rise beyond my mark , before the liquors could sensibly be discerned to freez , and after rose somewhat higher with freezing . The height of the rising I shall here set of a few experiments , instead of many made ( having troubled your patience too long in the former Paragraphs ) in several processes . Vinegre and Urine rose about half an inch , and Lees made with salts of Rosemary kelp the frits about ¼ of an inch . Solutions of Alume and Copperas somewhat less , and in general the saline liquors less then water , which rose a full inch , and small Beer in a very narrow Tube four inches , but water in the small capillary Tubes could not be perceived , either to expand its self , and certainly not to freez at all . Oyl of Vitriol alone ( as hath been said ) sinks below the mark . Hot water put into a Tube first sinketh till'tis cold , and then riseth before it freez . Open-mouth'd glasses , such as Beer-glasses , &c. fill'd with water up to the brim , when frozen , the ice will manifestly rise above the superficies , and make a solid triangle there . But narrow necked glasses more plainly shew this rising . In a flask filled with water four inches below the mouth , the ice rose above the mouth , and hung two inches without it . And once in a Bolthead the ice rose five inches above the water-mark . And here I shall briefly add two things , first , that if glasses be fill'd about ⅔ full they seldom break , but if more they will for the most part break . Secondly , that round figured or spherical glasses for the most part break in an uniform manner . I fill'd a Bolthead full to the neck , and stopt it at the top , which was 12. inches distant from the body , with a piece of melted candle . The ice rose above three inches in the neck , and the glass brake in the thinnest part of the body , from the point of breaking , as from a pole , the cracks run as so many meridians , but unequally distant each from other , and consequently concurred not in an opposite pole on the other side , besides there was great difference in the length of those cracks , none whereof went round the glass . In a flask thus crackt , in many places the cracks were very irregular in all the places , for some of them ran from their centres upwards , others downwards , some somewhat parallel , but most obliquely , and few of them were considerably straight . Glass-bottles , and especially stone Jugs keep very little , and the last no method in their breaking ; the same also 〈◊〉 square glasses : woods follow their grain , and metals no order at all . And now I come to some remarks proceeding ( as I said ) from this expansion , viz. the breaking of the vessels , or force of freezing , wherein also you may take notice of that quality of cold , mentioned by the Poet , penetrabile frigus , piercing where light comes not . Two Oval Boxes , the one of Box , the other of Maple ( both firm woods ) containing each above two ounces of water , were fill'd full , and with screws closed very fast , both these Boxes were rended from the bottom to the top in one night , with gaps big enough to receive a barley corn into them ; these woods stretch but little , and therefore break more surely , and with larger rents then softer wood will do . Secondly , a Pepper Box of Laton made of Iron , covered with Tin , had the neck broken off , and holes made in the top near the neck ; and the bottom , where 't was souldred , was so dissevered that water would easily run out there . Leaden pipes laid above ground were broken in many places . One I saw 20. yards long broken in seven places , and another in my Cellar six yards long broken in two places . I saw likewise in many places of this City Leaden pipes , above a foot deep under ground , broken in several parts . Cocks of Cisterns , and other brass Cocks , and also the barrels in pumps made of brass or lead , usually break with the frost . I exposed a Copper Box of a pear fashion , which did bear three several freezings , by reason of the great extensibility of that metal , but at the fourth assay it crackt all along one side of it , almost to the screw . Next I tried a Cylindrical silver Inkhorn , but that did bear five trials , and therein I could perceive neither crack , nor dilatation of its superficies . I intended to have tried it in a small bottle , but the weather fail'd me . I exposed also a round silver ball of the bigness of a large Nut , the silver became very sensibly extended to a larger superficies , but did not suffer any solution of its continuity . Tobacco-pipes , and all earthen ware taking any frost in their drying ( before they are burnt ) become very brittle , and being put into a strong fire will certainly break into many pieces . Tyles of houses , and hard stones in buildings , scale and break off upon thawing , and thence 't is that the Northern sides of stone-buildings first decay , and moulder away , as 't is most manifest in ancient magnificent structures . Alablaster and Marble having any chinks in them , frequently break with frost , and the Statuaries tell me , they never saw any solid Marble break : as for Flints , Paving-stones , precious stones , and such as will receive a polish , the bitumens , as Amber , Kennel-coal , &c. I could never see any effect on them . The next effect shall be that of adhaesion , concerning which take the following experiments . A smooth piece of ice was laid on a smooth Table , and common salt throwed upon it , the effect was , that the ice stuck so firmly to it , that it could not be severed from the table , without breaking the ice into many small pieces ; & 't will continue in this close cohaesion till the salt hath corroded through the ice to the very table ( making many holes in the ice ) and hath melted it to the very bottom . But if you lay salt first upon the table , and ice upon it , then the ice sticketh not , but thaweth . These following salts applied ( as before common salt was ) cause adhaesion to the table , but not so firm as it , viz. Kelp , Sandever , Sal Indus , Gem. Prunellae and Armoniac , and Pot-ashes , but not Alume or Vitriol . The next experiment of adhaesion was this ; I held a nail betwixt my lips in the open air a very little space , which stuck so firmly to them , that I could not pull it thence without difficulty and pain . Another effect is concentration of spirits and colours . Concerning the former you have already as much as I know , especially in the Paragraph of freezing Beer and Ale. Concerning the latter take these following trials . Cochanele was boiled in water to a very high tincture , and frozen , and to twice four ounces of this decoction was added in one glass a little spoonful of spirit of Wine , and in another as much Sea salt-water . All these were frozen throughout , and every part of this ice seemed to me of an equal colour . though the edges , as thinner and nearer the light appeared of a brighter colour ( as they do unfrozen ) but the glasses being broken , shewed no discernable difference in any of them , neither as to colour nor taste . The like trials were made with Maddes weed and Indico , and the success was the same . Secondly , I exposed a pint Porringer full of the decoction of soot , which ( the air relaxing ) did only freez an inch thick , this continued above a week consistent ( in a thawing season ) and very solid . Some that saw it judged it to be brown Sugar Candy , the taste whereof was near , if not altogether as strong as the uncongealed liquor remaining at the bottom . And in another trial , when the whole was frozen , no concentration was seen . But though it was not my hap to find this effect , my trials having been made in Vials , square , Cylindrical or round , yet Mr. Hauk a worthy fellow of this Society happily lighted on it , as you may perceive by his relation , and Schemes of his Glasses hereunto annexed . Some affirm as an effect of freezing , an addition of weight made in the bodies frozen , but this affirmation answers not my trials . For in four Eggs and four Apples fully frozen , I found the weight of them the same when frozen , and thawed , as they had before they were exposed , each of the Eggs and Apples being weighed in this triple state both severally and joyntly , with the particular weights I shall not trouble you . Besides that freezing adds no weight , 't is apparent in sealed Glasses , from whence nothing can expire , and by exact ponderation of them , I could not perceive any the least difference in weight in the said triple state . This I tried several times with as much exactness as possibly I could , and still found the same event . Another property of freezing is to render many bodies more friable and brittle , as most woods , as also Iron and Steel , as every one knoweth that hath used Crosbows in frosty seasons , and so likewise the bones of animals , and 't is commonly observed by Chirurgions , that more men break their legs and arms in such seasons , then at any other time of the year , especially such who have been tainted with the Lues venerea , as Hildanus somewhere notes . I shall now conclude the effects of freezing by ranging them into good and bad . The good are the long preserving bodies most subject to putrifaction , healthiness , and confirming the tone of all animals , and thickning the hairs and furs of such as have them , fatten some . Besides it exceedingly clears the air , and other bodies , as 't is manifest by the stinking Seasalt-water before mentioned , as also by this that follows , namely , I took six of the most musty stone-Bottles I could procure , and competently fill'd them with water , which after freezing and thawing again , became as sweet as ever they were before . Bad effects are the killing and destroying animals , and vegetables by congealing and stopping their vital and nourishing juices , rendring them totally immovable . 'T is observable that in Greenland and Nova Zembla nothing but grass grows , as also what was told me by Dr. Collins the present Physician of the Emperor of Russia , that no thorny plant nor thistles grow in that Countrey . And this present year most of the Rosemary and Sage about London was wholly destroyed , besides most of the more tender Plants . My fourth proposal was the properties and qualities of ice , some whereof my task engageth me to enumerate only , such are its slipperiness , smoothness , hardness , whereby and by its bulk and motion it breaks down bridges , &c. its firmness and strength to bear carriages , and burdens ; its diaphaneity , which is much less then the liquor of which 't is made . For I could never discern any object , though but confusedly , a foot beyond the clearest piece of ice , by reason of the many bubbles and luminous parts within it . Which bubbles shew only shadows , but the ice its self interposed betwixt your eye and a candle , appears in many round circles , from which proceeds many rays of light , four or five or more , in the form of a Star of about a ¼ of an inch in diameter , which so glase your eyes , you can scarcely see any thing , but bright light and shadow . As for its penetration and thickness something hath been said above , to which I shall add , that I have seen the Thames ice of the thickness of eight inches , or more near the middle of the River , and on the sides much more . And in Garden walks the earth frozen near two foot deep , whereas on the sides of the same walks , on a richer mould , the frost did not reach much above one foot and ¼ , and Pipes of Lead have been broken above a foot under the surface of the ground . I shall not mention the huge mountains of ice found in the most Northerly Seas , but proceed to its weight . 'T is generally known , that ice swims upon the water . But I have seen snow-balls moistened only with water , and then compressed with a strong force , and afterwards frozen , to sink : besides the congealed oyl of Vitriol descends in water , and common ice is frequently observed under water ; whether the solutions of salts frozen will sink , was by me forgotten to observe , and whether coagulated oyl will sink in unfrozen , as Bartholine affirms . Some affirm that snow-balls hard pressed , without addition of water , will sink , but experience teacheth me the contrary . As for its tactile qualities , every one knows 't is colder then water , which you may increase by adding salt unto it , or rather snow . Smell it hath none , but it binds up that quality in all , but most spirituous bodies , which it also in some degrees refracts in them . Lastly , ice yields both reflection and refraction , whereof I shall speak when I come to its uses . My fifth head was lets and helps in freezing , which I shall 〈◊〉 dispatch . Those besides the North and North-east winds , the absence of the Sun , and the highest parts of houses or mountains , are the mixture of snow and salt ( then which there 's nothing more painfully and unsufferably cold to my feeling ) as is apparant by the trick of freezing with snow and salt by the fire side , as also by the ingenious way of making cups of ice , invented by an incomparable person . Add hereunto , that water falling or thrown upon ice or snow , soon becomes congealed . A mixture also of ice beaten into powder , and mixed with common Sea-salt ( which is best ) or with Kelp , Alume , Vitriol or Nitre . And here note , that vessels fill'd with water , and set in these mixtures , begin their freezing at the bottom of the liquor , and consequently are not so subject to be broken , as those are which are not set in these mixtures , and that the water riseth higher with , then without them . I find also , that oyl of Vitriol alone , mixed with snow or ice have the same effect , though not so powerful . One affirms , that Salt-peter dissolved in water , and put into a Bolt-head , and long agitated , not only cools the hand exceedingly ( which is very true ) but also converts it to ice , yea , in the very Summer month , which answereth not my trial , though kept a whole hour in that agitation in the hardest season . This following Experiment also I add , proposed to me . I fill'd a Bolt-head containing a quart of water , and set it in an Iron pan , surrounding it on every side with snow , which covered also part of the neck , and then set the Kettle over the fire , and took now and then the Bolt-head from the fire , whilest the snow was thawing , but not the least sign of freezing appeared in the water put into the Bolt-head . As for the helps of thawing , take this Experiment . I set in the same Cellar three pans full of ice , one on Newcastle coal , a second on sand , a third on the earthen floor , they thawed in the same order they are mentioned , which was thrice repeated , and once that placed on the coal did thaw , when the other continued their ice . Seal'd glasses seem neither to promote or hinder this act of freezing . The same success I had with Eggs and Apples in my Cellar . The last thing I shall speak to is the use of ice , you may therewith make a siphon , being fashioned and applied as usually siphons are , and this will happen , whether you make it one continued piece of ice , or two contiguous ones , for in both the water will run exceeding fast , and this siphon soon empties all the water out . A second use is for refraction , whereof Mr. Hook hath given you already a learned demonstration . And I having formed some smooth ice into various figures , like most of those mentioned by the Dioptrick writers , the 〈◊〉 were the very same as in the like figured glasses ; but how Des-Cartes made Dioptrick glasses of it I know not , especially to make use of them : and lastly you may make a speculum of it , especially if a piece of blacked paper be placed behind it , and if you hold a candle at a convenient distance , there will appear very many speculums to your eye , according to the number of the bubbles contained in the ice . But I could not observe any heat proceed from ice , though cut in the true figure for burning-glasses , and exposed in naked ice , but frozen in spherical glasses 't will heat a little . I shall here subjoyn some propositions of learned Bartholinus , taken from his book De Nive , being near to the former Argument , who affirms . 1. That the more subtile distilled spirits gain a clear splendor and elegancy from snow placed about them . 2. That the rays from snow newly fallen glitter , and excel in a kind of splendor wherewith the eyes are dazled . Both these are true , and have but one common cause , vsz . the multitude of reflections caused by the infinite globuli , whereof every flake of snow consists . 3. That he saw Cabbage growing in his garden , putrifie on that part , which was above the snow . 'T is certain , that frost alone , with or without snow , hath this effect on Cabbage , being of the tribe of succulent plants , and I observed , that this year 1644. our great Houseleek or American Aloes ( usually hung up in houses ) kept in an upper room , was totally destroy'd by the cold . And that Apples will 〈◊〉 I have said before , and Houswifes to prevent the rotting of Onions , commonly hang them up in their Kitchins , or keep them in Ovens , or some close place . And this present year 1662. I saw at Mr. Boxes , the eminent Druggists house , abundance of Squils or Sea-Onions quite rotten they were laid not in an open , but close Garret . 4. When snow melts by the Suns heat , copious vapours from the Earth cloud the Sun. He should rather have said vapours from the melted snow , and 't is no wonder , that vapours cloud the Sun. 5. Snow melts and falls off from Ivy. I have observed all the sorts of Ivies , and ever-greens with us , and some biting plants too , but find in them all the contrary to what is here asserted . Nay , no difference hath been observed even in hoar frosts , which fall equally , and continues on all sorts of Plants . 6. He excludes not a small portion of earth from snow , though pure , which , saith he , is manifest from distillation . This experiment I have found true by evaporation , which is tantamount to distillation , and indeed all melted snow leaves an earthy and foul setling behind it . 7. Viscosity with softness is greater in new , then in old snow , and therefore 't is brought into a mass . Viscosity in it I understand not , its softness indeed is manifest too , by the tracks of beasts , which appear more fair , the snow not rising on the sides of the impression made by their feet ( as it doth in old ) but retains their perfect character . 8. Watercresses and Scurvigrass grow under the snow in Gardens . I apprehend not that any Plant whatsoever grows at all in hard seasons , my meaning is , that no Plant acquires any greater bulk of quantity , but keeps at a stand only , and this Country-men affirm of grass and corn , and Gardiners of other Plants . 'T is true many Plants will upon thawing shew a finer verdure , and if warm weather presently follow , all vegetables will thrive exceedingly . For how they should thus grow when their nourishing liquor is congeal'd , and consequently become immoveable , I understand not . 9. Air is included in Snow , Which this way of mine to make snow , fully convinceth . I took the whites of Eggs and beat them in the open air with a spoon , into a frothy consistence , as women do to make their snow possets , and then taking a little of this substance , and laying it on a trencher , it soon became plain flakes of snow , so that none that saw them could judge otherwise . Another accidental Experiment proves the same , for having put water into a Tube , and having long and strongly agitated it , there arose many bubbles at the top , which soon freezing ( my agitation ceasing ) became perfect snow . And now having here set down the way of counterfeiting , at least , if not of making snow , I will add how a pruina or hoar frost also may be imitated . I took a Pail filled with warm water , and hung over it Hair , Moss , and a piece of Rosemary , now the atomical vapours rising from the water , fixing themselves on the Moss , Hair and Rosemary , became on them a perfect hoar frost . The like is dayly seen on the Beards and Hair of men and horses , travelling in cold Winter nights or mornings , proceeding from their breaths , steams of their bodies , or moist atoms of the Air. I tried also to make hail with drops of water , but could not hit on 't , for they would never become white : Whence 't is manifest , that hail is not drops of rain suffering glaciation in the falling , as the received opinion of Philosophers asserts . 10. Snow abounds with fat . This I understand not . 11. Snow with ice swims on water . This is a clear consequence from the seventh assertion . 12. Snow-water boils meat sooner , and makes the flesh whiter . I tried this in flesh and fish , but could find no manifest difference , either to their sooner boiling or whiteness . 13. Snow newly fallen hath no taste , but lying long on the ground , or frozen , somewhat bites the tongue . My taste was not so acute , as to distinguish the biting of one from the other . T is true indeed , that snow frozen doth more affect the tongue with its coldness , then snow alone . 14. Worms are sometimes found in snow . This neither my own observation , nor relation from others can make out . 15. From snow by a peculiar art , a salt of wonderful strength is drawn . He saith not this of his own observation , nor teacheth the way to extract it . 16. After much snow plenty of Nuts . This frequently suits with the Country-mans observation , but many times fails , such years also commonly produce plenty of Wheat , other seasons concurring . I shall here also insert two remarks out of the same Authors concerning freezing . The one is , that the great Duke of Tuscany distilled spirit from Wine , only by putting snow upon the Alembick , without help of fire . The second , that the Duke of Mantua had a powder which soon congealed water into ice , even in the Summer . And to conclude , take these general observations made by the command of the Royal Society , with Weather-glasses fram'd after the Italian mode , and fill'd in part with tinged spirit of Wine . Which I shall deliver briefly and in gross , and not each days alteration apart ; I took then two of the said glasses of equal dimensions , as near as might be , and fill'd them with the same spirit of Wine , one of them I placed in my Study-window , standing North-west , the other in Mr. Pulleyns Warehouse under St. Pauls-Church , and chose there a small recess or room , which was most remote from the entrance , and the warmest in the whole Warehouse ; both the glasses were setled in their stations the 15. of October 1662. the spirit in both having the altitude of three inches just . When the glass in my Study was depress'd , by the cold , an inch , I went and observed that in the Warehouse to have received no manifest change in its station . And at a second visit the spirit was depressed ¼ of an inch below , when that above-ground was depressed near two inches . And during the long continuance of all that hard Winter , it never descended above ¾ of an inch , and never was higher there then three inches and ¼ in a mild season in April following , by which time the papers fixed to the glass , and whereon were fixed the degrees , was quite rotten , and the characters scarcely legible . And at the same time , that in my Study was raised to four inches ¾ . By which it appears , that the said Warehouse was in the coldest season as warm as in a mild March , for at that station the glass in my Study stood , commonly betwixt two inches and 2. and ½ . And so indeed this place appeared to one that went into it at the coldest season . And to this purpose I several times sent in at night my hardest frozen liquors , which were constantly thawed in the morning , though it freezed exceeding hard above ground . The glass in my Study , after two days hard freezing , was sunk below my marks , into the very ball , so that I could make no farther observations concerning the cold above ground . From the former observations , that popular error is manifestly refuted , viz. that Cellars and Subterraneous places are hotter in the Winter then in the Summer , which though they appear so to us , because they warm us in the Winter , and cool us in the Summer , yet they are not so in themselves , for it appears by the former Experiment , that in the coldest season the spirit was depressed to two inches and ¼ , and rose in April to 3 ½ , and no doubt would have risen about ¾ of an inch higher , had it continued there till the hottest season of the year . One thing more I observed , viz. that the tinged spirit of Wine had in this subterraneous Vault totally lost its colour , whereas that in my Study ( two years after ) still retains its former tincture . Since the printing of the foregoing Papers , viz. 1664. ( there being no frosts in England 1663. ) I made these following Experiments . Finding the third of January the season disposed to freezing , I exposed a Pint bottle of Claret , and a glassCane filled with Canary , a solution of Sal Gem , Train-oyl , and the Oyl of Fructus musae , and on the fourth of the same month , the night being the coldest and sharpest that I ever felt , ( which all I spake with the next day confirmed ) the wind then blowing hard at South-west , I found in the morning all the liquors frozen , except the Sal Gem exposed in an earthen pan , which shewed at the bottom of the dish some seemingly Crystallized salt , the oyl of the said fruit became very friable , and of a milky white colour , but the Train-oyl only lost its fluidity , and became of the consistence of soft greese . And the same night a bottle of the Rhenish Wine , called Backrag , and another of lusty White-wine , standing in a room a story high , exposed to the said wind , had most of the Wine frozen in them , the ices whereof being taken out , tasted somewhat weaker then the Wine it self . All the same things happened the sixth night of the same month . It is to be observed , that the pint of Claret , and the Sack in the tube , were both frozen throughout these two nights , and after their double freezing and thawing , they lost nothing of their spirit , colour , and taste ; nay , the Claret being a strong Burgundy Wine , though it often suffered glaciation and thawing for three weeks together , yet in all that time suffered no manifest alteration , but appeared the same to sence , as when it was exposed , in colour , taste , and strength . As to the concentration of coloured liquors , Mr. Haak shewed me an Oval glass , having at one end a narrow Cane above an inch long , almost filled with water , tinged with Cochineel , frozen throughout , the ice round about , towards the sides of the glass , shewed wholly colourless , but that in the midst was of an exceeding high dye , but the ice that was raised to the neck of the glass , was lightly tinged with a scarlet hue . Hereupon having some flasks by me , I put into one a strong decoction of Cochineel , and into another a like decoction of Soot , which being exposed to the air , and incompassed in a vessel with snow and salt , they did freez to the thickness of an inch or more , and the air then beginning to relax , I broke the flasks , and the desolved ice yielded a water totally colourless . I made also an Experiment with a very strong decoction of Gentian roots , which being exposed in a four ounce vial , the ice thereof had a far deeper colour , and bitterer taste in the middle , and towards the bottom , then towards the outsides of it . And whereas Barclay relates , that King James being in Denmark to fetch his Queen thence , in the Winter season had his nose and ears in danger of Gangreening , which being timely perceived by some of the King of Denmarks Nobility , they caused the parts to be rubbed with snow , and so the danger was avoided ; the same travellers affirm , that in the Northern parts , where men become stiff with cold , and almost frozen to death , that they rub the frozen parts with snow , or else cast the whole body into water , by which means the whole body is crusted over with ice , as Eggs and Apples are , as if the freezing Atoms did pass from the body frozen into the water or snow ; and this way of curing Gangreens from cold , Sennertus doth prescribe . To make some Experiment hereof , I exposed flesh and fish , and found , that by immersing them into water , they soon became more limber and flexible , and more easily yielding to the knife , and compassed with a crust of ice of the thickness of about half a crown , manifest tokens of their thawing , and being cut , they discovered nothing of ice in them . This for more certainty , I often reiterated , as also in Eggs and Apples , above a dozen times , and never failed of unthawing them by this way . 'T is to be noted , if you immerse the flesh , fish , eggs , or apples deep into the water , no ice will appear on their outsides , but only when you hold them neer the surface of the water . As to the Persian Experiment mentioned by Olearius , of making huge heaps of ice to be preserved for cooling of their drinks , I observed , that by pouring water into an open Pan , or into a Flask gradually , some at one time , some at another , I could quickly freez by this way a whole Flaskfull , when near half of a Flask filled at one , though helped by art , was unfrozen . I observed also , that the ditches betwixt Southwark and Redderiff had acquired an exceeding thickness of ice , caused by the flowing of the water in them at full Tide , for new water being brought in by the Tide , was there congeal'd to the thickness of some inches every ebbing and flowing . I observed also the ice on the banks of Thames above two yards thick ; the inhabitants told me they had seen it three or four yards thick , which thus came to pass ; the Tide flowing in , and meeting with great flakes of ice , drove them to the banks , and lodged them on the ice there frozen , which flakes uniting there with the former ice , raised it to that excessive height or thickness . Besides every one may observe in London Streets , and elsewhere , in Chanels where no constant current is , that water coming from the houses , soon fill the Chanels with thick ice , for running but a little at a time , it freezeth almost as fast as it cometh thither . Nay , I have seen ice of some yards thickness in such places , where a small rill or stream of water gently falls on the side of a hill . Amongst those things that will freez , Mortar and Plaister of Paris were omitted , and thence 't is that Plaisterers and Bricklayers play all the Winter . My Lord Verulam in his natural History ( and some from him have affirmed to me ) that Apples and Eggs covered with a wet cloath , will not freez , but I find no difference in those that are thus covered , and them that are not . Add to those that sink upon congelation , all oyls from Animals , and from Vegetables , that are extracted by expression or boiling . Add to those that freez not water and Sugar boiled to the consistence of a Syrup , and also all other Syrups , none whereof I could ever take notice , or learn by others , that they would freez . 'T is true , that water having an equal quantity of Sugar dissolved in it will freez , but with a little more mixed therewith , freezeth not . To try the effect of cold upon Loadstones , I exposed several of them in the open Air , and also within rooms in the most severe weather , the needle being kept in a warm place . At other times I exposed the needle to the cold air , keeping the stones warm , at other times both were exposed , but in none of my Experiments could I conclude any thing certain to their attractive faculty , for the sphere of their activity was found to be sometimes greater , and sometimes less , to a considerable difference , in ten several good stones imployed for this purpose . I essayed also to find out a standard of cold , whereby to fit the tinged spirit of Wine for the Weather-glasses , and to that end made use of Conduit water , and the distilled waters of Plantane , Poppies , Black-Cherry , Nightshade , Scurvigrass , and Horse-raddish ; all which were first placed in the same room where a fire was kept , and then removed , and measured out into spoons in equal quantities , and also a drop of them dropt on the same bench , but though this was often tried , I could not make any sure inference from them , only I observed that the black-Cherry water did for the most part freez first , but the other with very great uncertainty . The Horse-raddish and Scurvigrass waters were for the most part froze last . The best way to discover the very beginning of freezing of liquors , is to move a Pin or Needle through the liquors , whereby the ice will be raised , and become discernable , when the naked eye can discover none at all . FINIS . Figure 1. Page 9 , 10 , 11 , ● 98. A the Ball or Egg. B C the Stem . D the little Aqueous Cylinder . Figure 2. the open Weather glass mentioned pag. 24 , & 43 Figure 3. the seal'd Weather-glass or Thermoscop●mentioned pag. 24 , 55 , 56. Figure 4. the Barometer o● Mercurial Standard placed in Frame B B mentioned pag. 25 Figure 5. an Instrumen● mentioned pag. 93. A the Vial. B C the Pipe cemented in t the neck of the Vial , open at ● and seal'd at B. Figure 6. pag. 97. A the Bolt-head . B the small Stem . B C the Cylinder of wate● inclos'd . Figure 7. pag. 101. Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A29001-e270 * It was thought needless to insert Mr. Hobs's Scheme , touching this subject , because it only shews , that Wind is the cause of Cold. Notes for div A29001-e650 Sceptical Chymist . * Chapter the fifth of that Treatise . * The two Essays of the Unsuccesfulness of Experiments . * Another remarkable instance of the variable success of the Experiments of Cold , I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with in an Experiment 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 Dr. 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of oyl of 〈◊〉 . For though I 〈◊〉 that Liquor in smal ' vessels of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 . and 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at one 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of the Air in 〈◊〉 nights , 〈◊〉 extraordinarily sharp , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is more , our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Salt , would 〈◊〉 the Experiment succeed , 〈◊〉 that we tri'd it with several parcels of Oyl of Vitriol . And yet , that the Learned Doctor by the help of the Air alone ( for he uses not our 〈◊〉 mixture ) did bring that Liquor , either to a true 〈◊〉 , or a coagulated substance , that look'd just like Ice ; both 〈◊〉 eminent Virtuosi , and I my self , who had the Curiosity to 〈◊〉 it , can bear him witness . Lib. 1. Titulo de frig . Asperitate , pag. 9. Notes for div A29001-e3600 This is pointed at in the third Page of the following Account , where mention is made of an Honorable Person , &c. See the Publisher's Advertisement to the Reader . * Among which I am since informed , that he had tried divers , before he saw my Papers . * So one of the chief Passages of the Examen of Antiperistasis is much confirmed by the Forty Fourth and Forty Fifth Pages ( of the following Papers ) which contain an Account of a Trial made by the command of the Royal Society , to whom it was proposed by the Author of the Examen , with a request , that they would be pleased to order it to be made . The Art of Pottery . Notes for div A29001-e4020 Pag. 27 , 28. See the 18. of our New Physico-Mechanical Experiments . In the defence against Linus Cap. 4 Dr. H. P. An Ingenious man has proposed another way of setling a Standard for Weather-glasses ; namely , by observing the coldness , which is requisite to make distill'd water begin to freez : But though the accurateness of this way may be as well as the other justly Question'd , and cannot often be put in practise , even in Winter it self , nor without trouble ; yet it may also be advantagiously made use of , when the cold happens to be great enough to freez water . Dr. Wren . Dr. Goddard . Mr. Hook. Defence against Linus Cap. the 5th . Theatr. Chynic . volum . 6. Vitrum optimè clausum ne quid exspir are posset , in loco ubi quiesceret statui , 〈◊〉 sine animi voluptate lice bat in Pleniluniis manifesta inclusi liquoris incrementa observare , in Noviluniis vero Decrementa , &c. They are the words of Paulus Casatus in his Terra Machinis mota , Pag. 143. But since the writing of these Praeliminary Discourses , the Author of them having consulted by the means of some Ingenious friends , the learned Casatus , finds , that He never made nor saw the Experiment himself , but relates it upon the authority of a certain Dutchman , whose name he adds not , and who therefore may probably be the same Orthelius that is mention'd by the Author of these Praeliminary Discourses , who thinks it requisite to give the Reader this Advertisement , because Casatus himself did not , as he should have done , intimate that he de iver'd this but upon anothers credit . L' Hydrographie du P. Fournier , liv . 18. Cap. 12. Defence against Linus Cap. 3. Sect. 11. of the same 30. Chap. See more concerning these Weather-glasses in the first of these three Discourses . See th 〈…〉 gure 〈…〉 rest 〈…〉 Notes for div A29001-e6910 Pag. 58. Olai Magni Gent. Sept. Hist. Lib. 11. Cap. 24. Olaus Magnus in Historia Gentium Septentrionalium , lib. 11. cap. 20. & 21. Cap. 6. pag. 42. See the Praeliminary Discourses . 4. Jan. 15. * See the latter part of the next Title . In the Discourse touching the primum frigidum . Gulielmus Fabritius Hildanus de Gangr . & 〈◊〉 Cap. 10. Barthol . de usu Nivis pag. 80. Pag. 74. Pag. 79. Barthol . de figurâ nivis pag. 79 〈◊〉 . de usu Nivis pag. 83. Capt. James's Trav. pag. 76. Barthol . de usu Nivis Cap. 12. * Of the usefulness of Experimental Philosophy : Purch . Lib. 3. cap. 5. Sect. 2. pag. 493. Pag. 73. Pag. 67. Lib. 1. Sect. 〈◊〉 Cap. 5. pag. 122. Nicholaus Zucchius , & Melchior Cornaeus It froze so sore within the house , that the Walls & the Roof thereof were frozen two fingers thick with Ice , and also in our Cabins , where we lay all those three days , while we could not go out . Gerat de 〈◊〉 in his third Voyage . Pag. 64. Feb. 4. 1661. Decemb. 11. 1662. Decemb. Decemb. Decemb. the 17. Barthol . de Nivis usu Chap. 6. * In our Hydrostatical Paradoxes . Ex nive copiosa glaciata compacta . Pag. 14. * Mr. Hudsons Voyage for the discovery of the North-west passage , written partly by Mr. Abacuck Pricket . * In the Sect about the Temperature of the Air. * New Exp. Physico-mech . Exper. 6. † See the forecited place . * The Appendix to the Physico-mechanical Experiments . Decemb. the 13. Decemb. 13. Voyage de 〈◊〉 & de Perse , Liv. V. Pag. 63. Pag. 86. * The breadth was , I know not how , omitted in the note , but as I remember , it was about an 8. part of an Inch. Olaus Ma. Gent. Septentr . Hist. Lib. 1. Cap. 14. Purchas . Lib. 4. Cap. 13. Purchas . lib. 4. cap. 13. pag. 813. * Neither hereafter will I marvel , though the strait of Weigats be stopped up to the Northeast , with such huge mountains of Ice , since the Rivers Oby and Jenesce , and very many more , whose names are not yet known , pour out such a quantity thereof , that in a manner it is incredible : For it cometh to pass in the beginning of the Spring , that in places near unto the Sea , the Ice through the excessive thickness , and multitude thereof , doth carry down wood before it . And without doubt this is the cause , that about the shore of the strait of Weigates , so great abundance of floatiug wood is every where seen : and whereas in that strait near nnto Nova Zembla , it is so extreme Cold , it is no marvel , if in regard of the narrowness of the strait , so huge heaps of Ice are gathered and frozen together , that in the end they grow to sixty , or at least to fifty fathomes thickness : Says the Description of the Countreys of Siberia , Samojeda , &c. extant in Purchas's third part of his Pilgrim . Lib. 3. Cap. 7. Pag. 14. Pag. 106. Purchas . lib. 4. cap. 18. pag. 837. Pag. 17. Hydrographie du P. G. Fournier , liv . 9. cap. 29. compar'd with the 22. Chap. of the same Book . Olai Mag. lib. 3. cap. 2. pag. 334 * — Saepe aliàs & his annis fatalibus tam profundè congelavit ( marina Aqua ) ut non tantùm plaustra , sed integrum exercitum ad aliquot Milliaria Germanica secure vexerit , &c. Inquit T. Barthol . De nivis usu , pag. 43. Barthol . de nivis usu , cap. 6. Glycas apud Fournier , liv . 9. cap. 19. In the Evening we were inclosed amongst great pieces ( of Ice ) as high as our Poop , and some of the sharp blew corners of them did reach quite under us . Capt. Jam. pag. 6. Olaus lib. 1. cap. 14. Olaus Magnus 〈◊〉 . 11. & Blefkenius in Purch . lib. 3. cap. 22. I have seen also the sides lin'd with reeds 〈◊〉 , instead of boarding or steening . Pag. 101. Pag. 〈◊〉 . * In the Sceptical Chymist . The Dialogues about heat and flame . 〈◊〉 Bernard de Palissey au Traitté du Sel commum . De Claves au second Livre das pierres & pierreris , Cap. 2. Ibid. 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 livre 11. cap. 2. * In the Discourses about Antiperistasis , the following passages are taken , out of a 〈◊〉 narrative , consisting of about two sheets of paper of Joh. Baptista Morinus , published in the year 1619. and titled , Relatio de locis Subterraneis , annexed to a discourse ( too much built on Astrological and Aristotelian grounds ) of the threefold Region , that he conceives to be as well in the Earth as in the Air. * Vnde calor ille procederet petii à praefecto . Respondit , ex partibus inferioribus , inferius enim perpetuo calet . Quod responsum magis adhuc miratus , quaesivi anres ita sese haberet in fodinis omnibus . Respondit ita se habere in omnibus , saltem profundis , ut post profundum Terrae frigidae tractum , in locum calidum descendatur . Et quod , ubicunque terra foditur post similem profunditatem , nullum amplius sentitur frigus , sed semper calor , quantumcunque profundè fodiatur . * — Percunctatus sum an quo magis acceditur ad terrae centrum , calor ille major perciperetur . Respondit , id nunquam fuisse animadversum , nisi interdum dum fodiendo 〈◊〉 venae calidorum Mineralium . — 〈◊〉 Responsa non in unicâ fodinâ , & ab unico praefecto 〈◊〉 ; sed , &c. * Cum descendendo 〈◊〉 illum magis ac magis augeri sentirem : hujus rationem petii à praefecto , quod in nullâ adhuc 〈◊〉 similem 〈◊〉 intensionem percipissem . 〈◊〉 , Mineram Vitrioli paulo inferius existere , 〈◊〉 calorem multiplicaret . It was not the Sea , nor the nearness unto the Pole , but the Ice about the land , that let and hindred us ( as I said before ) for that as soon as we made from the land , and put more into the Sea , although it was much further northward , presently we felt more warmth , and in that opinion our Pilot William Barents dyed , who notwithstanding the fearful and intollerable Cold that he indur'd , yet he was not discourag'd , but offer'd to lay wagers with divers of us , that by Gods help he would bring that pretended Voyage to an end , if he held his course Northeast from the North Cape . Gerat de Veer in Purchas , pag. 474. Furchas . lib. 3. cap. 15. pag. 〈◊〉 . Beguinus in Tyrocinio Chymico , lib. 2. cap. 1. Josephus Acosta lib. 2. cap. 11. Gassendi Phy. Lib. 6. Sect. 1. pag. 399. De qualitatibus rerum — ac addi quidem fortassis potest , 〈◊〉 frigoris semina , si quae constant , potissimum ex frigorificis Atomis abire in halinitrum corpor aque ipsis affinia , quando experimur non exsolvi halini trum , quin & penetrando in aquam , ipsam 〈◊〉 & universa à se contacta refrigeret , & abeundo in halitum 〈◊〉 gelidum seu frigidum ventum , sed res pendet ex variis , quae non possunt hoc loco commemorari , Experimentis . Ib. pag. 400. Quomodo possunt corpuscula Nitri in aquam infusi illam praeter modum adeo frigidam reddere imò , & per aestatem etiam congelare , dum nitrum nivi glaceive detritae commistum lagenae circumponitur , ipsaque praeter corpus Lagenae penetrant in 〈◊〉 contentam . Aug. 1. * In the third Preliminary Discourse . Purchase lib. 4. pag. 542. Purchase pag. 811. These voyages are extant in Purchase lib. 1. cap. 13. and this passage is in pag. 560. Purchase pag. 564. Purchase pag. 415. Purchase pag. 414. Pag. 62. Pag. 61. Pag. 46. Pag. 64. Pag. 66. Pag. 69. * A Sceptical Disquisition of Antiperistasis . Pag. 702. Pag. 473. 474. Acosta lib. 2. cap. 9. pag. 101. Pag. 109. Purchase pag. 578. See James voyage , pag. 61. & 81. and elsewhere . Purchase pag. 569. Josephus Acosta lib. 2. pag. 111 , 112. Purchase pag. 571. Pag. 414. Purchase pag. 415. Voyage de Moscovie & de Perse , 〈◊〉 3. p m. 117 , 118 , 119. Pag. 119. Pequin . Lib. 1. cap. 6. Pag. 81. Pag. 9. The weather was snowy and foggy , freezing our rigging , and making every thing so slippery , that a man can scarce stand . And all this with the wind Southerly , says Captain James ( page 104. ) in his Journal 26. of August . * Ab his ventis aerem alteratum , esse causam 〈◊〉 pestis illa dissolvatur , multi illorum Affirmant . Quod etiam non videtur penitus à veritate alienū , quando id multis etiam rationibus nobis persuaderi possit , in primisque , &c. Prosp. Alpin . lib. 1. De medicina Aegypt . cap. 18. Ibid. lib. 1. cap. 6. Ibid. lib. 1. cap. 7. pag. 11. Josephus Acosta , lib. 3. cap. 9. Lib. 3. cap. 2. p. 120. Lib. 3. cap. Part 1. cap. 2. Captain James's voyage , pag. 52 , 53. Purchase lib. 3. cap. 5. Sect. 2. pag. 495. Captain James 65. Purchase lib 1. cap. 4. pag. 74. Olear . lib. 3. p m. 117 Purchase pag. 491. Purchase pag. 491. Purchas . pag. 491. Captain James's voyage , 64. Livre 3. p. m. 117. Livre 3. 116. Purchas . lib. 3. pag. 415. Purchas . pag. 497. Pag 64. Pag. 497. Pag. 56. Pag. 52. Purchas . lib. 3. cap. 5. pag. 496 Pag. 65. Purchas . pag. 497. * And 't is from very Northern Countries , that we usually receive very dark colour'd Furs , and the skins as well of black Foxes as of white ones . Lepores coloris & pellis mutatione anni tempestates sequuntur , ac hiberno tempore albis pilis vestiti , aestivis mensibus eosdem cinereos habent . Livoniae nova discriptio , Pag. 303. Pag. 46. & Pag. 89. Num. 35. — Hinc gelidam congelatamque aquam graviorem esse non congelata expertus est Jo. Manelphus , Com. in 4. Meteor . Aristot. Inquit Tho. Bartholinus de Nivis usu cap. 12. * If it had not been for the negligence or mistake of one , that I ordered in my absence to freez and thaw the same water , divers times one after 〈◊〉 , I might have added the success of that Experiment , which I was sorry to miss of , because it might possibly have afforded an useful hint about a way to correct stinking water in some Climates or seasons . Olearius , livre 3. pag. 168. In the Section touching the duration of Ice . * Of the imper fection of Physicks . Maistre Bernard Palissy . Lib. 1. pag. mihi 23. * As it afterwards did at the least . * Quare ferventem aquam adhibuisse oportet qui asserit eam esse minus gelabilem , praecipuè salsam . Pag. 571. * Tam cito illa congelabat , ut eximerem ex eo crustam unam aut alteram antequam non calefacta vet levissime concrevisset . Pag. 572. Here the Postscript ends . Purchas lib. 4. cap. 19. pag. 844. Lib. 3. cap. 22. Volentes igitur piscari sub glacie duo magna for amina latitudine 8. vel 10. pedum , centum & quinquaginta vel 200. passibus à se invicem directa distantia , aperiunt , interquae 30. vel 40. minor a for amina , latitudine unius pedis & semis , ab utroque latere distantia 30. pedum intermedia constituunt , tum per ea , &c. Olai Mag. lib. 20. Olaus Mag. Titulo , De cursu glaciali , pro piscibus . Quae ( Anguillae ) si totaliter glacie constrictae fuerint simul omnes respiraculum ab aere nou habentes pariter suffocatae moriuntur . * Praemittendum est quod generaliter omnes lacus , & stagnales Aquae in mense Octobri incipiunt congelari , glaciesque aucto frigore in plerisque locis tantum condensari , ut ubi venae lacus & stagna viventis aquae non intrant , pisces suffocati tempore resolutionis glaciei inspiciantur , verum ne haec 〈◊〉 tam dispendiosa fiat , diligentiâ 〈◊〉 continue glacies ipsa perfringitur ne congeletur . Olai Magni lib. 1. Titulo de transitu glaciali , &c. Pag. 82. Pag. 47. Purchas lib. 3. cap. 5. pag. 487 Purchas lib. 3. cap. 1. pag. 415. Of the usefulness of Experimental Philosophy . * Of the Unsuccesfulness of Experiments . Rem vero adeo obscuram exemplis similibus illustrabo Brassicae : aqua congelata Brassicam representat , spiritibus vegetalibus à frigore 〈◊〉 atis . Tho. Bartholinus de usu Nivis , pag. 17. Pag. 573. * In the unpublish . ed Section of the usefulness of Experimental Philosophy . Of the unsuccesfulness of Experiments . * Where a wonderfully piercing , though not sensibly violent cold , does sometimes suddenly kill men , and yet preserve their Bodies untainted whole years together . Notes for div A29001-e29510 Pag. 36. See the History of fluidity , Sect. 19. — Coepimus in hanc fodinam per gradus valde strictos profunde admodum descendere , per regionem certè frigidissimam , quam solis vestibus metallicis opertus , multo frigidiorem sensi , &c. p. m. 130. — Inquam descendi mense Julio , quo anni tempestas vigebat calidissima , siccissimaque . p. m. 130. Pag. 142 , & 143. Pag. 125. Exhalatio aere levior per ipsum puteum ascendit magno impetu , in ejus sumitate adhuc sensibiliter calida ipsa aestate , licet supremam terrae regionem tunc frigidissimam permeat . Pag. 128. see also pag. 125. In Polonia vero montes profundissimi salis sunt , praesertim in Vielisca & Bochna ubi videndi causâ transcensis scalis , vidi in profundioribus locis laboratores nudes ob calorem , ferreis instrumentis eruere opulentissimum The saurum salis , veluti Aurum & Argentum ex Mineris inexhaustis . Olaus Mag. lib. 13. p. 382. Pag. 63. Pag. 58. Pag. 59. Hancque naturam , lacum similem , prope Metropolin Nidrosiensem Regni Norvegiae , habere compertum est , eo praecipue Argumento , quod in mediis frigoribus nunquam congelatur . Lib. 2. Joseph . Acost . Hist. Ind. pag. 174. P. m. 136. Quia vero in Comitatum Zoliensem , dum aquas persequimur , ventum est , non possum praeterire hiatum terrae iisdem in locis famosum ob pestilentes expirationes , quibus Aves supervolantes , & quaevis alia animantia extingui constat , manifesto eorum experimento , qui , &c. Pag. 74. Ibidem est sub dio fons calidarum caeteris 〈◊〉 , quem Purgatorium vocavere , ea nimirum ratione , quod , quamadmodum proditum est in purgatorio poenas nocentium pro noxarum modo , alias acerbiores alias mitiores , ita quaedam insunt Aquae hoc in fonte discrimina , namquâ in eum à Danubii ripâ aditus est , subfrigida primum , mox tepida , & quo in eum penetraris altius hoc magis calet . In recessu vero interiore tam est calida , ut ferri non possit . Est etiam is calor haud dubie aquae hujus proprius ; nam alia , quae dixi , temperamenta verisimile est à Danubio accedere , qui crepidinem hujus fontis lambit , & cum vel modicè excrescit , totum inundat , neque tamen ita restinguit , quin caleat . Quin intra ipsam ripam , qua Danubio perennis cursus est , calidae ebulliunt , ubi qui altius mergi volunt lavare consueverunt . Pag. 57. Neque in ripâ tantum eruuntur Calidae , sed etiam intra amnem , si fundum ejus pedibus suffodias . Calet autem immodicè , nec sunt Idoneae balneis , 〈◊〉 temperentur , quod Admistione frigidae de proximo haustae in proclivi est . Pag. 65. Nec praetereundum hic puto Lacum esse LX. milliarum in longitudine , & XX. in latitudine Italicorum , 〈◊〉 appellatum in Regno Ostrogothorum , quae talis est naturae , quod cum tempestuoso vento congelatus fuerit , & tempus resolutionis immineat , vehementissimo strepitu incipit fundo ebullire & commoveri , magna violentiâ perumpere in parvas rimas , vel scissuras , quae fiunt in glacie , & has in modico temporis spatio faciens valdè latas , licet pro tunc glacies in spissitudine habuerit , plusquam unum , vel duo brachia . Lib. primo , pag. 23. Dr. Sam. Collins . See the second Preliminary discourse , that accompanies the History of Cold. My backwardness to admit a fuga Contrarii , may be somewhat confirmed by what I lately learned from the English Extraordinary Ambassador ( the Earl of Carlisle ) into Russia , newly returned thence . For meeting the other day with an opportunity of asking his Lordship a few Questions ( which he was pleased to answer with his wonted civility ) about the Cold in Muscovy : I was informed by one of his answers , That his Excellency had there the curiosity to observe some Bottles of choice and strong Wine , that were vehemently frozen , and the opportunity to take notice , that the liquor was quite congeal'd throughout , and turned into solid ice , whence he rationally inferred , that the 〈◊〉 parts of the Wine did not in these Bottles ( for ought he acknowledg'd , that in greater vessels , that may sometimes hold true , which is said of the production of spirit of Wine by congelation ) retire to the Center , and remain there unfrozen ; and his Lordship ingeniously persued the Experiment , and confirmed the conjecture , by causing the ice taken out of the broken Bottles to be thawed by degrees into several vessels , by which means he found , that the liquor afforded by the exterior parts of the resolved ice , was very little , if at all less strong , then that which was obtained from the internal parts of the same ice ; from which Observation Carneades would argue , That at least 't is not universall , but in particular cases , and therefore probably by accident , or upon particular accounts , that the Concentration of the spirits of Liquors is consequent upon being exposed to Cold. I presume he means Cornelius Drebell . Notes for div A29001-e34510 Artic. 6. Artic. 7. * Quoted by Paul. Neworantz . De Purpurâ , Cap. 12. * Doctor S. Ward ( now the worthy Bishop of Exeter ) and Dr. J. Wallis ( the learned Savilian Professor of Geometry . ) Chap. 28. Sect. 2. at the beginning . See the VI. Section of the History of Cold. Euri , Austrique venti à Meridie loca Arenosa summoque calore inflammata transeuntes atque Aegyptum spirantes tantum caloris aestus , pulverumque & inflammatarum Arenarum evehunt ut ignitas fornacis flammas , nec non pulveribus obscurissimas nubes eo asportasse videatur . And elsewhere , — Prima aestatis parte calidissimâ inaequalissimaque ob vehementissimum Meridionalium Ventorum calorem , &c. Prosper Alpinus de Medicina Aegyptiorum . From 9. till noon , there blows a wind with such extreme heat from the sands , that it swallows up a mans breath , and stifleth him . — The King of Chermain sent an Army of sixteen hundred horse , and five thousand foot , against the Lord of Ormus , for not paying his Tribute , which were all surprized and stifled with that wind . Marcus Polus in Purchas's Pilgrims , lib. 111. p. m. 71. See this difficulty more largely handled in the first Preliminary discourse . In the new Experiments touching the Spring of the Air. See the IX . Title of the History of Cold. See the IV. Section of the History of Cold. See the Examen of Antiperistasis . See the IX . Title of the History of Cold. Pag. 673. * According to the goodness of the Lim , of which , if it be very strong , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may serve the turn , and which , if it be too weak , may make the Experiment miscarry . * To prevent which , I usually cause the Orpiment to be beaten , wrapp'd up in divers papers , or some other way secur'd from Avolation , and from harming the vessel wherein 't is pounded . * Which for this use 't will suffice to make by dissolving Gum-Arabick in a little fair water . * This is known in the shops by the name of Red-Lead , and is here specified , as being cheap and easie to be 〈◊〉 , though I suppose that other Calxes or powders of the same metal , if they be not sophisticated , may serve the turn . * If you write first with the black Ink , and then with the solution , the Lines must be made somewhat distant , that those which express your secret may have room between the others , and therefore the better to avoid suspition , I chose rather to write first with the invisible Ink , and then over that with the black , as if I had writ on an ordinary piece of white paper , by which means I could write the black Lines as close as I pleased . * That learned Gentleman Mr. H. Oldenburg , Secretary to the Royal Society . Notes for div A29001-e36380 * For those that concern Divinity belong not to this Catalogue . 
A29031	----	Some considerations touching the vsefulnesse of experimental naturall philosophy propos'd in familiar discourses to a friend, by way of invitation to the study of it. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. 1663 Approx. 1104 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 291 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A29031 Wing B4029 ESTC R19249 12219966 ocm 12219966 56384 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A29031) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 56384) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 128:9) Some considerations touching the vsefulnesse of experimental naturall philosophy propos'd in familiar discourses to a friend, by way of invitation to the study of it. Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. Sharrock, Robert, 1630-1684. 2 v. in 1. Printed by Hen. Hall ... for Ric. Davis, Oxford : 1663. Written by Robert Boyle. Cf. BM. "The publisher to the reader" signed: Ro. Sharrock. Errata at the end of both volumes. Includes indexes. Imperfect: pages 49-56 lacking. Reproduction of original in Library of Congress. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Science -- Early works to 1800. 2005-02 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-08 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-09 Jonathan Blaney Sampled and proofread 2005-09 Jonathan Blaney Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion SOME CONSIDERATIONS touching the VSEFVLNESSE Of EXPERIMENTAL Naturall Philosophy , Propos'd in Familiar Discourses to a Friend , by way of Invitation to the Study of it . OXFORD Printed by HEN : HALL Printer to the University , for RIC : DAVIS . Anno Domini 1663. OF THE VSEFVLNESSE OF Experimental Philosophy . The PVBLISHER to the Reader . IT is , Courteous Reader , part of the Satyr of Petronius against the Vice of his own Time. Priscis temporibus , cum adhuc nuda Virtus placeret , vigebant Artes ingenuae , summumque certamen inter homines erat , ne quid profuturum saeculis diu lateret . Democritus omnium Herbarum succos expressit , & ne lapidum virgultorumque vis lateret , aetatem inter Experimenta consumpsit . Other Examples of the like Industry he brings , and then concludes against the Laziness and Luxury of his own Age. At Nos , saith He , ne paratas quidem Artes audemus cognoscere , sed accusatores Antiquitatis vitia tantum docemus & discimus . It was for want of a Democritus or two that he casts this hard Censure upon his own Time. For , notwithstanding all his Harangue in Commend●tion of some Ages which were antient to his Own , It is evident out of History , that there was never at once any great Number , who seriously and in earnest for the Benefit of Mankind applyed themselves to these severe Scrutinyes of Natural Bodyes . It is true that now and then , in all Centuries from the Beginning of the World , there have appear'd some Persons of a Nature more refin'd , as if indeed ( according to that Phancy of the Old Poets ) some Prometheus had made them either of another Metall , or of another Temper , from the Vulgar , utterly above all Mixture with , or Embasement by the common Fashions of this World ; who did make it the End of their Lives , by Severing and Mixing , Making and Marring , and multiplying Variety of Experiments on all Bodies , to discover their hidden Vertues , & so to enlarge the Power & Empire of Man. But these were ever very few and singular . Even in that so much celebrated Time of Democritus these Studies were so rare , that his usual Exercise of the Anatomy of Beasts was look'd upon , as that which made the Soundness of his Mind questionable , even as a Spice of Madness in him : and probably much more might the Vulgar of his Age have been amused , had they seen him torturing Minerals and Metals in the more toilsome Anatomy of Fire . Now if it be a dishonourable Crimination to an Age , that it hath brought out no Persons who make it their great Endeavour Ne quid profuturum saeculis lateat : and if the Discovery of one or two persons of this Kind be enough to expiate for , and take off the Dishonour of the Proletarian Lazinesse and Luxury of the Rest , I think I may justly esteem that the exhibiting to the World the History of the Studyes of the Honourable Author of this Piece may serve to be the Apology and Defence of our Age against such Censures as that wherewith the newly cited Satyrist stained his own Time. And this was one great Reason that hath made me very forward to promote the Publication of This , and diverse other Writings of the same Noble Author . For were there only Tokens of Endeavour in Them , the proof of This Endeavour ( even without Attainment ) ought to wipe off all Imputations of this nature . But this Motive ( though I do account that by exhibiting this Expiation I do somewhat oblige the Age , whose Honour is thereby defended , yet ) was far from being the most great and forcible . For the Excellence of the Works themselves , even as soon as they fell from the pen of the Author , did long since in all Equity set an Imprimatur on them . Nec sumunt aut ponunt secures Arbitrio popularis Aurae . Epicurus ▪ when he was casting up the account of his life , upon the very Day of his Death , mentions a very great pleasure that he even then took in two Parts of his former Studyes : And these were his Rationes , and his Inventa ; Points well argued , and things happily sound out . The two very same particulars are principally conspicuous in this ensuing Piece . There are good Conclusions against the Enemies of the Being and Providence of God in the First Part , and in the Second there be Notices of divers Inventa profitable to the Use of Man. By the one sound Notions are proposed to the Readers apprehension from the Contemplation of God's Creation and Government of the World , and thereby good Matter is suggested to his Affection for the Advancement of his Devotion ; by the Other , the●e are divers things deliver'd , which may tend to enlarge Man's power of doing Good : By them , in the whole , both our Honour to God , and our Charity to our Neighbors may be assisted : in which two the Substantial part of all the most Noble , not only Human but Christian Vertues , both Speculative and Practical , are certainly contained . I must not omit , that an Argument of this Nature , at this Time , may justly be commended for its Seasonableness , when divers Persons , who know not the way of Experimental Philosophy , and are loath now to give themselves the trouble of learning it , have been making some attempts , very unthankfully , to traduce both It , and its Promoters . These Considerations passed with me for Reasons , and had upon me this force and Prevalence , that as soon as I had the Authors leave , I durst not forbear the committing of them to the Press , notwithstanding his Many arguments , which were plausible enough to the Contrary : as , namely , that much of the First Part was written when he was of so immature Years , that should I be particular concerning his Age then , to any person who hath read the Piece , the Paucity of such Instances might justly make me dispair of begetting Credit to my Relation . Another Objection was , That , though his Method did of necessity lead him to it , yet it might be look'd upon as unbecomming for Him to meddle with the Physitians Art , of which he never did ( nor could , by reason of his Native Honour ) make any Profession . But these Oppositions being raised upon points of Curiosity in Ceremony and outward Decorum , were of lit●le weight , when the forementioned Noble Offices of Charity and doing good were in the other Scale . The greater Question was . Suppose them to be publisht , But why now ? Why so soon ? Should not rather the Edition have been delay'd , untill it might have come out together with The second Section of the second Part ? ( which discovers the Use that may be made of Experimental Learning , to advance the Empire of Man over other Creatures ) or untill the Common Preface , and some other little Tracts , all written long since , and intended to accompany this , might be revised by the Author ; or at least untill the Author might have had leisure to have made some more new & full Animadversions to the Receipts & Processes contain'd in the Appendix ? The Consideration which answer'd this Objection was , That this Piece , as now printed alone , would make ( as you see it doth ) a very competent Book , which would have by it Self the perfection , if not of the Whole yet of a more principal part ; and of that part , which to Professors or Candidates of Learning is most desireable . And then the Author's Avocations and other Studies being so many , that we could prefix no certain time for the complement of the mention'd remaining parts , I was loath to hazard the Preservation of These by deferring the Impression ; since I know there is no Security of the continuance of those Writings which are reposed only in single , or at most in few written Copies . I remember , the Author had once lost for a good while one of these very Essays which are now here Printed , and put beyond that Danger for the future . Besides other Casual accidents , the very Contingency of Humane life , and the chance of a Man's papers after Death , ( For to them the Question of King Solomon is most proper and pertinent , VVho knows whether then they may happen to fall into the hands of a Wise man or a Fool ? ) were of force enough to perswade me to secure these , when it was in my power , unto the Common Use. Would not Printing in all probability have preserv'd unto Us that Universal History of Vegetables from the Cedar of ●ibanus unto the Moss that groweth upon the Wall , written by that Wise and Learned King , and the loss of which we now in vain lament ? Would not Printing have sav'd that Excellent Book of Democritus , which he inscribed his XEIPOKMHTA or EXPERIMENTS of his own personal Tryal , so utterly lost , that the Name of the piece is not mention'd among the Catalogue of his Writings in Laertius ? And may not the Printing of this Piece be a meanes of the preservation ( besides the Notional part ) of divers very useful XEIPOKMHTA of the Honourable Author , who hath been ever unwearied in the Tryal of all probable Experiments , that may increase the Light or advance the Profit of Mankind ? But before I leave the Reader , I must give him this single Advertisement , that the Passages included within the Paratheses or Crotchetts , as the Press stiles them , that is , between any two such Marks as these [ ] were inserted long since the writing of these Essays , upon the Relection of some parts of the Book before He sent it to me : Which I therefore did so distinguish , and do intimate , that there may appear no inconsistency in our Author , and the Reader may not marvel to find somethings very Recent in a Book written several Years agoe . Farewell . RO : SHARROCK . The Author's ADVERTISEMENT about the following ESSAYS . THat the Title of the following Treatise might not raise in the Reader an Expectation of more then he will find in the Book , I think my self oblig'd to inform him , That , though it come not forth before , divers parts were sent to the Press in 1660 , or 1661 , and this present Y●ar 1663 , yet the very Last Essay of it was written divers Years before . Since when those Papers were left , sometimes in the hands of Friends , and sometimes in distant places where I could not come at them : which I mention , that the Reader may neither wonder nor blame Me , if he now meet with some things in them that have already been published by others , or are more vulgarly known then my way of mentioning them implyes . For it may , this notwithstanding , very well be , that when I writ them , no body had yet lighted on some of them , and that others of them did then but begin to be taken notice of . And as for the Five first Essays , which treat of The Usefulness of Natural Philosophy to the Mind of Man , though by my addressing them all the way to the Gentleman I call Pyrophilus , they may seem to have been Originally written to the same Person , and about the same time with the Essays , that make up the Second Part ; yet indeed a great Portion of the First part was written , as I remember , 10 or 12 years ago , ( when I was scarce above 21 or 22 years old ) to another Friend , to whom the Considerations that serv'd to confirm Piety , and excite Devotion , were far more acceptable then those that were more purely Physiologicall : so that having , whether through lazinesse , or w●nt of leisure contented my self to substitute the name of Pyrophilus for that of my other Friend ( who was not unwilling I should do so ) in a Discourse written when I was so Young ; I would not have the Reader think , that I do now so app●ove of all those Youthful Discourses ( which I therefore suffer to pass abroad without a Name ) as to think all the Tenets they propos'd to be irrefragable T●uths , or all the Reasonings they contein , to be Demonstrative ; & that I would at present have my Judgment estimated according to their Cogency . But yet I do without much Reluctancy comply with those Friends , who would by no means consent , that the Five first Essays of this Treatise should not come forth with the Rest ; partly because not writing all things for all Readers , I hold it not unfit to publish something to gratify those , who desire with me to be both excited and assisted to admire and praise the Great and VVise Author of all things ; partly because the Treatise would seem main'd and incompleat , if the latter Essays should come abroad without the Rest ; and partly too because Learned Men have been pleas'd to assure me , that those Essays are not destitute of Notions and Ratiocinations , that are not altogether vulgar or contemptible . However those Readers , that either cannot rellish , or at least desire not any thing , but what is meerly Physiologicall , may , thus advertis'd , passe by the former part of this Treatise , and content themselves to read over the Latter , though they who shall take the Pains to read Both , will not perhaps think their Labour lost : Since I have taken Care to leave even the former Part as little disfurnisht with Experiments and useful Notions , as , the Argument consider'd , I conveniently coul● . And since also for the Paucity of such things in the First Part , I have endeavoured to make amends in the Second , which is almost wholly Physiological ; concerning which nevertheless I shall admonish the Reader . And indeed the whole Tenets that make up the following Book , are by no means to be look'd upon as Published for an acurate Treatise of the Usefulnes of true Physiology , but as Familiar Writings , that want only the formality of Salve and Vale to passe for Physiological and Medical Epistles ; consisting of such loose Observations , as I thought might be this way preserv'd , and did not so properly belong to my other Writings as they seem'd fitted for the use , and whereto I have applyed them ; namely , that being drawn up together into one Treatise , their Union might enable them to make the greater Impression , and might ( somewhat at least ) recommend that sort of Learning to a Beginner . And one thing that must be especially comprehended in this Admonition is , that the Particulars I have mentioned , to shew of what use Chymical Experiments may be to a Physitian , are not , possibly , the chiefest that even I could set down , if I were not restrained by some justifiable Considerations ; especially 'till I see what Entertainment , the things I now venture abroad , will meet with there : Some of those I reserve , appearing such to me , that I confesse I do not slight them enough to be fond of obtruding them upon the Publick , if I thought they would not be welcome to it . And I do so little desire to have , what I have written , look●d upon as the most that can be said , to shew the Usefulness of Experimental Philosophy , that I scruple not to acknowledg there are things which incline me to suspect , that some in the world , though not particularly known to me , may have Arcana , to which most of the Processes I reserve , as well as all that is commonly known in Chymistry , may prove little more then Trifles . Of the USEFULNESSE of EXPERIMENTALL PHILOSOPHY , Principally as it Relates to the MIND of MAN. THE NATURAL PHILOSOPHY wont to be taught in most Schools , being little other then a Systeme of the Opinions of Aristotle , and some few other Writers , is not , I confesse , Pyrophilus , very difficult to be Learned ; as being attainable by the perusall of a few of the more Current Authors . But , Pyrophilus , that EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY , which you will find Treated of in the following Essayes , is a Study , if duely prosecuted , so difficult , so chargable , and so toilsome , that I think it requisite , before I propose any particular Subjects to your Enquiries , to possesse you with a just value of true and solid Physiologie ; and to convince you , That by endevouring to addict you to it , I invite you not to mispend your time or trouble on a Science unable to merit and requite it . In order , Pyrophilus , to the giving you this satisfaction , Give me leave to mind you , that it was a saying of Pythagoras , worthy so celebrated a Philosopher , That there are two things which most ennoble Man , and make him resemble the Gods ; To know the Truth , and To do Good. For , Pyrophilus , that Diviner part of Man , the Soule , which alone is capable of wearing the Glorious Image of its Author , being endowed with two chief Faculties , the Understanding and the Will ; the former is blest and perfectionated by Knowledg , and the latter's Loveliest and most improving property is Goodnesse . A due Reflection upon this excellent Sentence of him to whom Philosophers owe that modest name , should , me thinks , Pyrophilus , very much endear to us the Study of Naturall Philosophy . For there is no Humane Science th●t does more gratifie and enrich the Understanding with variety of choice and acceptable Truths ; nor scarce any that does more enable a willing mind to exercise a Goodnesse beneficiall to others . To manifest these truths more distinctly , Pyrophilus , and yet without exceeding that Brevity my Avocations and the bounds of an Essay exact of me , I shall , among the numerous advantages accruing to Men from the Study of the Book of Nature , content my selfe to instance only in a Couple , that relate more properly to the Improving of Mens Understandings , and to mention a few of those many , by which it encreases their Power . The two chiefe advantages which a reall acquaintance with Nature brings to our Minds , are , First , by instructing our Understandings and gratifying our Curiosities ; and next , by exciting and cherishing our Devotion . And for the first of these , since , as Aristotle teacheth , and was taught himself by Common Experience , all Men are Naturally desirous to Know : that Propensity cannot but be powerfully engaged to the Works of Nature , which being incessantly present to our senses , do continually sollicite our Curiosities : Of whose potent inclining us to the Contemplation of Natures Wonders , it is not perhaps the inconsiderablest Instance , That though the Naturall Philosophy hitherto taught in most Schools , hath been so Litigious in its Theorie , and so barren as to its Productions ; yet it hath found numbers of Zealous and Learned Cultivators , whom sure nothing but Mens inbred fondnesse for the Object it converses with , and the end it pretends to , could so passionately devote to it . And since that ( as the same Aristotle taught by his Master Plato well observes ) Admiration is the Parent of Philosophy , by engaging us to enquire into the Causes of the things at which we marvail ; we cannot but be powerfully invited to the Contemplation of Nature , by living and conversing among Wonders , some of which are obvious and conspicuous enough to amaze even ordinary Beholders ; and others admirable and abstruse enough to as●onish the most inquisitive Spectators . The bare prospect of this magnificent Fabrick of the Universe , furnished and adorned with such strange variety of curious and usefull Creatures , would , suffice to transport us both with Wonder and Joy , if their Commonnesse did not hinder their Operations . Of which Truth Mr Stepkins , the famous Oculist , did not long since supply us with a memorable Instance : For ( as both himselfe and an Illustrious Person that was present at the Cure informed me ) a Maid of about Eighteen yeares of Age , having by a couple of Cataracts , that she brought with her into the World , lived absolutely blind from the moment of her Birth ; being brought to the free Use of her Eyes , was so ravisht at the surprizing spect●cle of so many and various Objects , as presented themselves to her unacquainted Sight , that almost every thing she saw transported her with such admiration and delight , that she was in danger to loose the eyes of her Mind by those of her Body , and expound that Mysticall Arabian Proverb , which advises , To shut the Windowes , that the House may be Light. But if the bare beholding of this admirable Structure is capable of pleasing men so highly , how much satisfaction , Pyrophilus , may it be supposed to afford to an Intelligent Spectator , who is able both to understand and to relish the admirable Architecture and skilfull contrivance of it : For the Book of Nature is to an ordinary Gazer , and a Naturalist , like a rare Book of Hieroglyphicks to a Child , and a Philosopher : the one is sufficiently pleas'd with the Odnesse and Variety of the Curious Pictures that adorne it ; whereas the other is not only delighted with those outward objects that gratifie his sense , but receives a much higher satisfaction in admiring the knowledg of the Author , and in finding out and inriching himselfe with those abstruse and vailed Truths dexterously hinted in them . Yes , Pyrophilus , as the Understanding is the highest faculty in Man , so its Pleasures are the highest he can naturally receive . And therefore I cannot much wonder that the famous Archimedes lighting in a Bath upon an Expedient to resolve a perplexing difficultie in Naturall Philosophy , should leap out of the Bath , and run unclothed like a mad-man , crying nothing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I have found it , I have found it . Nor do I so much admire as deplore the ●atally venturous Curiosit● of the Elder Pliny , who , as the Younger relates , could not be deterr'd by the fo●mi●ablenesse of the destructive flames vomite● by V●suvius , from indevoring by their Light to read the Natu●e of such Vulcanian Hils ; but in spight of all the disswasi●ns of his Friends , an● the ●ff●●ghting eruptions of that hideous Place , he resolved that Flaming Won●er should rather kill him , then escape him ; and thereupon approch'd so neer that he lost his Life to satisfie his Cu●iosity , and fell ( if I may so speak ) a Martyr to Physiologie . For we daily see Alchymists hazard their L●ves on Minerall Experiments in Furnaces , where though the fires are not so vast and fierce , as those that Pliny went to consider ; yet the ( dangerous when not pernicious ) Fumes do sometimes prove as fatall . One would think , Pyrophilus , that the conversing with dead and stinking Carkases ( that are not onely hideous objects in themselves , but made more ghastly by the puting us in mind that our selves must be such ) should be not onely a very melancholy , but a very hated imployment . And yet , Pyrophilus , there are Anatomists who dote upon it ; and I confess its Instructiveness has not onely so reconciled me to it , but so enamor'd me of it , that I have often spent hours much less delightfully , not onely in Courts , but even in Libraries , then in tracing in those forsaken M●nsions , the inimitable Workmanship of the Omniscient Architect . The curious Works of famous Artificers , are wont to invite the V●sits , and excite the wonder of the generality of inquisit●ve Persons . And I remember , that in my Travels , I have often taken no small pains to obtain the pleasure of gaz●ng upon some Masterpiece of Art : But now , I confess , I could with more del●ght look upon a skilful Dissection , then the famous Clock at Strasburg . And , methinks , Aristotle discou●ses very Philosophically in that place , where p●ssing from the consi●●●ation of the sublimist productions of Nature , to just●fie his diligence in recording the more homely Circu●st●nces of the History of Animals , he thu● dis●o●●●es : R●stat ( sa●th he● ut d● animanti natura d●sseramus , nihil p●o viribus omitten●es v●l viliu● vel nobilius . Nam & in iis quae hoc in g●nere minùs grata nostro occurrunt sensui , Natura parens & author omniū miras excitat voluptates hominibus , qui intelligunt causas & ingenuè Philosophan●ur . Absurdum enim nulla ration● p●obandum est , si imagines quid●m rerum naturalium non sine delectatione p●optereà inspectamus , quòd ingen●um contempla●ur quod illas condiderit , id est , artem pingendi aut fingendi ; rerum autem ipsarum naturae ingenio miráque solertia constitutam contemplationem non magis prosequamur atque exosculemur , modo causas perspicere valeamus : It remains ( saith he ) that we discourse of the natures of Animals , being circumspect to omit none , either of the nobler or inferior sort : For even from those Creatures which less please our sense , does the universal Parent , Nature , afford incredible contentments to such Persons , as understand their causes , and Philophize ingenuously . Since it were absurd and inconsistent to reason , if we should behold the Portraitures of Natural things with delectation , because we observe the accuratness wherewith they are designed , namely , the skil of Painture or Sculpture ; and not much more aff●ct and pursue the contemplation of things themselves , contrived by the exquisite Artifice and Sagacity of Nature , provided we be able to und●rstand their causes . And the better to make out to you , Pyrophilus , the delightfulness of the study of Natural Philosophy , let me observe to you , That those pleasing Truths it teacheth us , do highly gratifie our intellectual Faculties , without displeasing any of them : for they are none of those Criminal Pleasures , which injur'd and incensed Conscience does very much allay , even in the Fruition , and turns into Torments after it . Nor are the Enquiries I am recommending of that trifling and unserviceable sort of Imployments , which though Conscience condemns not as unlawful for a Christian , Reason disapproves as not worthy of a Philosopher ; and wherewith to be much delighted , argues a weakness ; as to be pleased with Babies and Whistles , supposes unripe and weak Intellectuals : But the contemplation of Nature , is an Imployment , which both the Possessors of the sublimest Reason , and those of the seve●est Virtue , have not onely allowed , but cultivated . The Learne● Author of the Book De Mundo , ascrib'd to Aristotle , begins it w●th this Elogium of Natural Philosophy : Mihi quid●m saepe ( says he ) divina quaedem res , Alexander , admirationeque digna visa est Philosophia ; praecipuè vero in ea parte in qua sola ipsa sublime sese t●llens ad contemplandas rerum naturas , magno illic studio contendit existentem in ●is veritatem pernoscere . Philosophy ( saith he ) O Alexander , hath oftentim●s seem'd to me a Divine and Admirable Thing ; but chiefly , that part of it , which aspires to contemplate the Natures of things , imploying its utmost power in searching out the truth contained in them . The reasonableness of which Commendation , he handsomly enough prosecutes in the subsequent Discou●se : To which I shall refer you , that I may proceed to minde you , that Pythagoras , Democritus , Plato , and divers others of those whose Wisdom made after-ages reverence Antiquity , did not onely esteem the Truths of Nature worth studying for , but thought them too worth Travelling for as far as those Eastern Regions , whose Wise-men were then cry'd up for the best Expositors of the obscure Book of Nature . And that severe Teacher , and perswasive Recommender of the strictest Virtue , Seneca ( whose eminent Wisdom made him invited to govern Him that was to govern the World , and who so often and so excellently presses the husbanding of our time ) does not onely in several Passages of his Writings praise a contemplation of Nature , but Writes himself seven Books of Natural Questions , and addresses them to that very Lucilius , whom in his Epistles he takes such pains to make compleatly Virtuous ; and in his Preface , after he had said according to his manner , loftily , Equidem tunc Naturae rerum gratias ago , cum illam non ab hac parte video , quae publi●a est , sed cum secretiora ejus intravi , cum disco quae Universi Materia sit , quis Author , aut Custos , &c. Then do I pay my acknowledgements to Nature , when I behold her not on the out-side , which is obvious to publick view , but am enter'd into her more secret Recesses ; when I understand what the Matter of the Universe is , who its Author , and Preserver , &c. He concludes in the same strain , Nisi ad haec admitterer , non fuerat operae pretium nasci : Had I been debarr'd from these things , it would not have been worth coming into the World. And to adde what he excellently says in another Treatise , Ad haec quaerenda natus ( says he , having spoken of Enquiries concerning the Universe ) aestima quàm non multùm acceperit temporis , etiam si illud totum sibi vindicet , cui licet nihil facilitate eripi , nihil negligentia patiatur excidere ; licet horas suas avarissime servet , & usque in ultimae aetatis humanae terminos procedat , nec quicquid illi ex eo quod Natura constituit fortuna concutiat ; tamen homo ad immortalium cognitionem nimis mortalis est . Ergo secundum Naturam vivo , si totum me illi dedi , si illius Admirator Cultorque sum . Natura autem utrumque facere me voluit & agere , & contemplationi vacare . Being born designedly for searching out these things , consider that the portion of time allotted to Man , is not great , if this study should ingross it all ; since though he should pr●serve his hours with the greatest frugality all his life-time , not suffering any to be stolen from him , or slide away negligently , and never be disturb●d by Accidents of Fortune in th● Imployment Nature has appointed him , yet is he too Mortal to attain the knowledge of Immortal Things . Wherefore , I live agreeably to Nature , when I give up my self wholly to Her , and am Her Admirer and Adorer . Moreover , Nature hath d●signed me to act , and imploy my self in Contemplation . How far Religion is from dis-approving the Study of Physiology , I shall have occasion to manifest ere long , when we shall come to shew , That it is an act of Piety to offer up for the Creatures the Sacrifice of Praise to the Creator ; For , as anciently among the Jews , by virtue of an Aaronical Extraction , Men were born with a Right to Priesthood ; so Reason is a Natural Dignity , and Knowledge a Prerogative , that can confer a Priesthood without Unction or Imposition of Hands . And as for Reason , that is so far from making us judge that Imployment unworthy of Rational Creatures , that those Philosophers ( as Aristotle , Epicurus , Democritus , &c. ) that have improv'd Reason to the gr●atest height , have the most seriously and industriously imploy'd it to investigate the Truths , and promote the study of Natural Philosophy . And indeed , that noble Faculty call'd Reason , being conscious of the great progress it may enable us to make in the knowledge of Natures Mysteries , if it were industriously imploy'd in the study of them , cannot , but like a great Commander , think it self disobliged by not being considerably employ'd . And certainly we are wanting to our selves , and are guilty of little less then our own Degradation , that being by Gods peculiar vouchsafement , endowed with those noble Faculties of Understanding , and Discoursing , and plac'd amidst a numberless variety of Objects , that incessantly invite our Contemplations , can content our selves to behold so many Instructive Creatures which make up this vast Universe , whose noblest Part we are design'd to be , with no more , or but little more discerning Eyes then those less favored Animals , to whom Nature hath denyed the Prerogative of Reason , as we deny our selves the use of it . Aristotle well observes , that among Animals , Man alone is of an erected Stature ; and adds , That it is because his Nature hath something in it of Divine : Officium autem Divini ( infers he ) est intelligere atque Sapere : The Qualifications of a Divine Being , are Understanding and Wisdom . And it cannot but mis-become the dignity of such a Creature to live Ignorant or Unstudious of the Laws and Constitutions of that great Commonwealth ( as divers of the Antients have not improperly stiled the World ) whereof he is the eminentest part : And were we not lulled asleep by Custom or Sensuality , it could not but Trouble , as well as it Injures a reasonable Soul to Ignore the Structure and Contrivance of that admirably Organiz'd Body in which she lives , and to whose intervention she owes the Knowledge she hath of other Creatures . 'T is true indeed , that even the generality of Men , without making it their design , know somewhat more of the Works of Nature , then Creatures destitute of Reason can , by the advantage of that Superior Faculty , which cannot but even unurg'd , and of its own accord make some , though but slight , reflections on the Information of the Senses : But if those Impressions be onely receiv'd and not improv'd , but rather neglected ; and if we ( contenting our selves with the superficial account given us of things by their obvious Appearances and Qualities ) are beholding for that we know , to our Nature , not our Industry , we faultily loose both one of the noblest Imployments , and one of the highest Satisfactions of our rational Faculty : And he that is this way wanting to himself , seems to live in this magnificent Structure , call'd the Universe , not unlike a Spider in a Palace ; who taking notice onely of those Objects that obtrude themselves upon her Senses , lives ignorant of all the other Rooms of the House , save that wherein she lurks , and discerning nothing either of the Architecture of the stately Building , or of the Proportion of the Parts of it in relation to each other , and to the intire Structure , makes it her whole business , by intrapping of Flies to continue an useless Life ; or exercise her self to spin Cob-webs , which though consisting of very subtle Threds , are unserviceable for any other then her own trifling uses . And that the contemplation of the World , especially the higher Region of it , was design'd for Mans Imployment by Natures Self , even the Heathen Poet ( perhaps instructed by Aristotle ) could observe , who Sings , Pronaque cum spectent Animalia caetera terram , Os homini sublime dedit , coelumque tueri Jussit , & erectos ad sidera tollere vultus . Wise Nature , framing Brutes with downward looks , Man with a lofty Aspect did indue , And bad him Heaven with its bright Glories view . I might annex , Pyrophilus , the Story Josephus tells us in the beginning of his Jewish Antiquities , that 't was the holy Seth and his Posterity ( who are in Genesis stil'd the Sons of God ) that were the Inventers of Astronomy , whose more Fundamental Observations ( to perpetuate them to Man-kinde , and sever them from the foretold destructions by Fire and Water ) they engraved upon two Pillars , the one of Brick , the other of Stone ; the latter of which our Historian reports to have been extant in Syria in his time . And it is an almost uncontroll'd tradition , that the Patriarch , whom God vouchsafes to stile his Friend , was the first Teacher of Astronomy and Philosophy to the Egyptians , from whom , long afterwards , the Grecians learn'd them . Berosus himself records him to have been skill'd in the Science of the Stars , as he is cited by Josephus , ( Ant. lib. 1. c. 8. ) who a little after speaking of Abraham and the Egyptians , expresly affirms , that Numerorum scientiam & sid●rum benignè illis communicavit : Nam ante Abrahami ad se adventum , Aegyptii rudes erant hujusmodi disciplinarum ; quae à Chaldeis ad Aegyptios profectae , hinc ad Graecos tandem pervenerunt . But , Pyrophilus , to put it out of question that the sublimest reason needs not make the Possessor of it think the studie of Physiologie an Imployment below him , that Unequall'd Solomon , who was pronounced the Wisest of men by their omniscient Author , did not onely Justifie the Study of Naturall Philosophy by addicting himselfe to it , but ennobled it by teaching it , and purposely composing of it those matchlesse Records of Nature , from which I remember some Jewish Authors relate Aristotle to have borrowed diverse ; which ( if it be true ) may well be supposed to be the choicest pieces that adorn'd his Philosophie , and which Providence perhaps depriv'd the World of , upon such a score as it did the Jewes of the Body of Moses , lest men should Idolize it ; or as some Rabbies are pleased to informe us , lest vicious men should venture upon all kinds of Intemperance , out of Confidence of finding out by the help of those excellent Writings the Cure of all the Distempers their dissolutenesse should produce . And , Pyrophilus , yet a little further to discover to you , the Delightfulnesse of the Contemplations of Natures works , Give me leave to mind you of their almost unimaginable Variety , as of a Propertie , that should methinks not faintly recommend Naturall Philosophy , to curious and active Intellectuals . For most other Sciences , at least as they are wont to be taught , are so narrow and so circumscrib'd , that he who has read one of the best and recentest Systems of them , shall find little in the other Books publisht on those subjects , but disguis'd repetitions ; and a diligent Scholar may in no long time learn as much as the Professors themselves can teach him . But the objects of Naturall Philosophy , being as many as the Laws and Works of Nature are , so various and so numberlesse , that if a Man had the Age of Methuselah to spend , he might sooner want time then matter , for his Contemplations : And so pregnant is each of that vast multitude of Creatures , that make up the Naturalists Theme , with usefull matter to employ Mens studie , that I dare say , that the whole life of a Philosopher spent in that alone , would be too short to give a full and perfect account of the Natural Properties and Uses of any one of several Minerals , Plants , or Animals , that I could name . 'T is an almost incredible variety of Vegetables , that the teeming Earth , impregnated by Gods Producat Terra , does in several Regions produce . Botanists have a pretty while since , reckon'd up near 6000 Subjects of the Vegetable Kingdom ; since when , divers other not-described Plants have been observed by Herbarists ; the chief of which will , I hope , be shortly communicated to the World , by that Curious and Diligent Botanist my Industrious Acquaintance , Dr. How , to whom I not long since presented a peculiar and excellent kinde of Pepper , whose Shell tastes not unlike Cinnamon , and smells so like Cloves , that with the Odor I have deceived many , which he confest to be new even to him ; it having been lately g●thered in Jamaica ( where it abounds ) and presented me by the inquisitive Commander of the English Forces there . And yet , Pyrophilus , this great variety of Simples could not deter either Ancient or Modern Inquirers from Writing entire Treatises of some particular Ones . So Pliny tells us , a That Themison the Physitian publisht a Volume ( for so he call'd it ) of that vulgar and despised Herb called Plantain : So the same b Author tells us , That Amphilochus ▪ writ a Volume De Medica Herba , & Cytisa ; and King c Juba another , of a sort of Nymphaea by him found on Mount Atlas . And in our Times , not to mention those many Books that have been written by Physitians , Of the Structure of Mans Body , and De Usu Partium : Carolus Rosenbergius writ some Years since an entire Book of Roses , which he calls his Rhodologia : Martinus Blochwitius since published another Book of Elder , under the Title of Anatomia Sambuci . Among the Chymists , Angelus Sala publisht in distinct Treatises , his Vitriologia , Tartarologia , Saccharologia : Untzerus also writ peculiar Tracts , De Mercurio , De Sulphure , De Sale. And Paracelsus himself vouchsafed distinct Treatises to Hypericon , Persicaria , Helleborus , and some other particular Plants . Basilius Valentinus ( one of the most Knowing and Candid Chymical Writers ) publisht long since an excellent Treatise of Antimony , inscrib'd Currus Triumphalis Antimonii ; but though in his other he hath also taught us divers other things concerning it , yet he left so much undiscovered in Antimony , that Angelus Sala was thereby emboldned to publish his Anatomia Antimonii . And Hamerus Poppius ( if that be his true name ) Johannis Tholdius , and the experienced Alexander van Suchten , thought fit to write entire Treatises of that same Mineral ; by which if they seem to Eclipse the diligence of Basilius , at least they bore witness to his Judgement : for modestly inviting his Readers to make further enquiries into the Nature and Preparations of that abstruse Mineral , He gives this account of his leaving many things unmention'd , That the shortness of Life makes it impossible for one man throughly to learn Antimony , in which every day something of new is discovered . And I remember , that having lately given a Chymist , upon his request , some Directions for drawing , not an imaginary Mercury of Antimony , as those which are wont to be taught by Chymists , but a real fluid Quick-silver ; he some days since brought me about an Ounce of it ( which you may command when you please ) as the first Fruits of Directions , differing enough from those which I have hitherto met with in Authors A peculiar way likewise of separating from Antimony , not such a Substance as those which are as improperly as vulgarly call'd Antimonial Sulphurs , but a really combustible Body , which looks and burns so like common Brimstone , that it is not easily distinguishable from it , we shall elsewhere , God willing , Pyrophilus , teach you . And I remember , that whereas according to the way mentioned by Basilius in his Currus Triumphalis , and both generally transcrib'd by Authors , and formerly practis'd by our selves , the Tincture of the Gl●ss of Antimony is very tedious to make , being to be drawn with Spirit of Vinegar , I once made a Menstruum to draw it more expeditiously , which having not hither to met with in any of the Authors I have read , I shall not conceal from you : Taking then an arbitrary quantity of the best French Verdegreece , and distilling it orderly in a strong naked Fire , I found the extorted Liquor to extract ( even in an ordinary digesting heat ) from powdred Antimonial Glass , a Blood-red Tincture in three or four hours ; and my curiosity leading me to abstract the Menstruum from the tinging Powder , and put it again upon ●ulveris'd Glass , I found it again h●ghly Tincted in a very few hours . And prosecuting the Experiment , I found that by drawing off the Menstruum , and ●igesting Spirit of Wine upon the remaining Calx , I could soon obtain a red Tincture , or Solution , From which some Chymists , if I should tell them what I have now told you , would perhaps expect no ordinary Medicine . But this , I suppose , you will think less strange , then that with a Liquor easily separated , by a way which I may elsewhere teach you , from an obvious Vegetable , of which you may safely eat a whole Pound at a time , I have drawn a deep red Tincture , even from crude Antimony , and th●t in not many hours , and without heat . And to these Experiments of Antimony , I might ( partly from the communication of my Friends , and partly from some tryals of my own ) adde divers other undivulg'd Experiments relating to that Mineral ; if it were not now more seasonable , reserving them for other Papers , to minde you , That the Learned Kircherus hath inrich'd us with a great Volume in Folio , of Light and Shadows ; and another in Quarto , of the Load stone : and yet none of these have so exhausted the Subjects they have treated of , but that an after-Enquirer may be able to recruit their Observations with many new ones , perhaps more numerous or more considerable then the former : As after our Learned Country-man Gilbertus had written a Volume of the Load-stone , the Jesuit Cabeus was not by that deterr'd from writing another of the same Subject : And though since Cabeus , the Ingenious Kircherus have so largely prosecuted it in his Voluminous Ars Magnetica , yet he has not reap'd his Field so clean , but that a careful Gleaner may still finde Ears enough to make some Sheaves . And what I have lately try'd or seen , makes me think it very possible to recruit those many of Kircherus , with some further Magnetical Experiments unmention'd in his Book . And I have , the very day I writ this , made in that admirable Stone a not-inconsiderable Experiment , not extant ( that I remember ) there : For taking an oblong Load-stone , and heating it red-hot , I found the attractive Facultie in not many minutes , either altogether abolish'd , or at least so impaired and weakned , that I was scarce , if at all , able to discern it . But this hath been observed , though not so faithfully related , by more then one ; wherefore I shall adde , That by refrigerating this red-hot Load-stone either North or South , I found that I could give its Extreams a Polarity ( if I may so speak ) which they would readily display upon an excited Needle freely plac'd in Aequilibrium : And not onely so , but I could by refrigerating the same ●nd sometime North & sometime South , in a very short time change the Poles of the Load-stone at pleasure , making that which was a quarter of an hour before the North-pole , become the South ; and on the contrary , the formerly Southern Pole become the Northern : And this change was wrought on the Load-stone , not onely by cooling it directly North and South , but by cooling it perpendicularly ; that end of it which was contiguous to the Ground , growing the Northern Pole , and so ( according to the Laws Magnetical ) drawing to it the South en● of the Needle ; and that which was remotest from it , the contrary one : As if indeed the Terrestrial Globe , were , as some Magnetick Philosophers have suppos'd it , but a Great Magnes , since its Effluviums are able , in some Cases , to impart a Magnetick Faculty to the Load-stone it self . Some other Experiments of this nature , not extant in Kircherus , we may have elsewhere fit opportunity to mention . And indeed , that Enigmatical Mineral ( if I may so call it ) the Load-stone , is a subject so fertile in Rarities , that I hear , he himself is Reprinting that accurate Treatise , with new and large Additions . Nor are the smallest and most despicable productions of Nature so barren , but that they are capable both to invite our Speculations , and to recompense them . Pliny in the eleventh Book of his Natural History , where he treats of Insects , is a little after the entr●nce , transported with an unwonted admiration of the Workmanship of Nature in them : Nusquam alibi ( says he ) spectatiore Naturae rerum artificio : In nothing elswhere ( saith he ) is the workmanship of Nature more remarkable then in the contexture of these little Creatures . And after a Wonder , not unworthy a Philosopher , he concludes , Rerum Natura nusquam magis quam in minimis tota est : Nature in her whole Power is never more wholly seen then in her smallest Works . To which Epiphonema he adds this Sober and Philosophical Admonition , Quapropter , quaeso ne haec legentes , quoniam ex his spernunt multa , etiam relata fastidio damnent , cum in contemplatione Naturae nihil possit videri supervacaneum : Wherefore I would request the Perusers of these Discourses , that although the subjects we treat of are contemptible in their eyes , they would not therefore disdain the relations we shall make of them ; since nothing ought to seem superfluous in the contemplation of Nature . I remember that it is from the consideration of so despicable a part as the skin of the Sole of the Foot , that Galen takes occasion to magnifie the Wisdom of God in those excellent terms that we shall have occasion to mention hereafter . And , as he says rarely well , though some Creatures seem made of much courser Stuff then others , yet even in the vilest the Makers Art Shines through the despicableness of the Matter . For Idiots admire in things the Beauty of their Materials , but Artists that of the Workmanship : To which , after a great deal of Philosophical Discourse , he adds , N●que oculo nec cerebro deterius est pes constructus , si utraque pa●s ad actiones , cujus gratia fuit facta , se habeat optimè ; neque cerebrum sine pede se probe haberet , neque pes sine cerebro : Eget enim , opinor , illud vehiculo , hic autem sensu : Nor is the Foot worse contriv'd then the Brain or Eye , provided each part be duly dispos'd for performance of the actions to which it was design'd : Since the Brain could not conveniently want the Foot , nor the Foot the Brain : For , I conceive , that one stands in need of a support for local motion , and the other of a source from whence to derive the faculties of Feeling . To which we may annex that Judicious reasoning of Aristotle , who descending from the Contemplation of the sublimer Works of Nature , to treat of the Parts of Animals , thus endeavors to keep his Readers from thinking that the Object of it must render that Enquiry despicable : Restat ( says he ) ut de animante Natura disseramus : And having set down those Words which you have not long since read in connection to these , he thus prosecutes his Discourse : Quamobrem , viliorum animalium disputationem perpensionemque fastidio quod am puerili sprevisse , molesteque tulisse dignum nequaquam est : Cum nullares sit Naturae , inqua non mirandum aliquod habeatur . Et quod Heraclitum ferunt dixisse ad eos , quicum alloqui eum vellent , quòd fortè in Casa furnaria quadam caloris gratia sedentem vidissent , accedere temperarunt , ingredi enim eos fidenter jussit , Quoniam , inquit , ne huic quidem loco Dit desunt immortales ; Hoc idem in indaganda quoque natura animantium faciendum est . Aggredi enim quaeque sine ullo pudore debemus ; cum in omnibus Naturae numen , & honestum pulchrúmque insit Ingenium ; Wherefore it is altogether unseemly to reject with a kind of Childish nicetie , or be offended at the Discourse and Speculation of inferior Animals ; Since there is nothing in all Nature , but containes in it somewhat worthy of Admiration . And as it is recorded of Heraclitus , that seeing some persons desirous to speak with him , refuse to approach towards him , because they beheld him warming himselfe in a miserable Cottage , he bad them come in without scruple , since here also ( said he ) are the Immortall Gods present : So in like manner ought we to be highly perswaded of the Dignity of Animals , when we make Enquirtes into their Natures . Which we ought in no wise to be asham'd of ; since the mighty Power and laudable Wisdome of Nature is conspicuous in all things . Nay Paracelsus himselfe , as haughty as he was , was Philosopher enough not to disdain to write a Book De Mysteriis Vermium ; wherein , though according to His manner he have set down many extravagances , he is more Candid in the Delivery of severall Remedies ( which Experience hath recently taught us to be more effectuall then probable ) then in most other of his Writings : And in that Treatise he justly reprehends the Lazinesse and Pride of those Physitians , who not only neglect and scorn Enquiries of Nature themselves : but when the fruits of such Enquiries are presented them by others , instead of a gratefull acceptance , receive them with contempt and derision . To which a while after he adds , what is most true , That God hath Creat●d nothing so Vile , Despicable , Abject , or Filthy in the World , that may not make for the Health and Use of Man. And certainly what ever God himselfe has been pleased to think worthy his Making , its Fellow-creature , Man , should not think unworthy of his Knowing . Nor is it a disparagement to a Humane Notion , to represent a Creature , which has the Honour to have been framed according to a Divine Idea : and therefore the Wisest of Men in His Naturall History , scruples not to write as well of abject Reptil's , as of Lions , Eagles , Elephants , and other Noble Animals : and did not only Treate of the tall Cedars of Lebanon , but that despicable Plant ( whatever it be that is designed by the Hebrew Ezob ) which growes out of the Wall. For my part , If I durst think my Actions fit to be Examples , I should tell you , that I have been so farre from that effeminat● squeamishnesse , that one of the Philosophicall Treatises , for which I have been gathering Experiments , is of the Nature and Use of Dungs . And though my condition does ( God be praised ) ennable me to make Experiments by others Hands ; Yet have I not been so nice as to decline dissecting Dogs , Wolves , Fishes , and even Rats and Mice , with my own Hands . Nor when I am in my Laboratory do I scruple with them naked to handle Lute and Charcoale . I should here , Py●ophilus , cease to entertain you with Discourses of the pleasantness of Natural Philosophy , but that I remember I have not yet told you , that the Study of Physiologie is not only Delightful , as it teaches us to Know Nature , but also as it teaches us in many Cases to Master and Command her . For the true Naturalist ( as we shall see hereafter ) does not only Know many things , which other men Ignore , but can Performe many things that other men cannot Doe ; being ennabled by his skill not barely to understand several Wonders of Nature , but also partly to imitate , and partly to multiply and improve them . And how Naturally we affect the Exercise of this Power over the Creatures may appear in the Delight Children take to do many things ( which we may have occasion to mention elsewhere ) that seem to proceed from an Innate Propensity to please themselves in imitating or changing the Productions of Nature . And sure 't is a great Honour that the Indulgent Creator vouchsafes to Naturalists , that though he gives them not the power to produce one Atome of Matter , yet he allowes them the power to introduce so many Formes ( which Philosophers teach to be nobler then Matter ) and work such changes among the Creatures , that if Adam were now alive , and should Survey that great Variety of Man's Productions , that is to be found in the shops of Artificers , the Laboratories of Chymists , and other well-furnished Magazine● of Art , he would admire to see what a new world , as it were , or set of Things has been added to the Primitive Creatures by the Industry of His Posterity . And though it be very true , that Man is but the Minister of Nature , and can but duely apply Agents to Patients ( The rest of the Work being done by the applied Bodies themselves ) yet by His skill in making those Applications , he is able to performe such things as do not only give him a Power to Master Creatures otherwise much stronger then himselfe ; but may ennable one man to do such wonders , as another man shall think he cannot sufficiently admire . As the poor Indians lookt upon the Spaniards as more then Men , because the knowledg they had of the Properties of Nitre , Sulphur and Charcoale duely mixt , ennabled them to Thunder and Lighten so fatally , when they pleased . And this Empire of Man , as a Naturalist , over the Creatures , may perchance be to a Philosophical Soul preserved by reason untainted with Vulgar Opinions , of a much more satisfactory kind of Power or Soveraignty then that for which ambitious Mortals are wont so bloodily to contend . For oftentimes this Latter , being commonly but the Gift of Nature or Present of Fortune , and but too often the Acquist of Crimes , does no more argue any true worth or noble superiority in the possessor of it , then it argues one Brasse Counter to be of a better Mettal then its Fellowes , in that it is chosen out to stand in the Account for many Thousand Pounds more then any of them . Whereas the Dominion that Physiologie gives the Prosperous Studier of it ( besides that it is wont to be innocently acquired , by being the Effect of his Knowledg ) is a Power that becomes Man as Man. And to an ingenious spirit , the Wonders he performes bring perchance a higher satisfaction , as they are Proofes of his Knowledg , then as they are Productions of his Power , or even bring Accessions to his Store . ESSAY II. OF THE SAME . THe next Advantage , Pyrophilus , that we mention'd the Knowledg of Nature to bring to the Minds of Men , is , That it therein excites and cherishes Devotion ; Which when I say , Pyroph . I forget not that there are severall Divines ( and some of them Eminent ones ) that out of a Holy Jealousie ( as they think ) for Religion , labour to deterre men from addicting themselves to serious and thorough Enquiries into Nature , as from a Study unsafe for a Christian , and likely to end in Atheisme , by making it possible for Men ( that I may propose to you their Objection as much to its Advantage as I can ) to give themselves such an Account of all the Wonders of Nature , by the single Knowledg of Second Causes , as may bring them to disbelieve the Necessitie of a First . And certainly , Pyrophilus , if this Apprehension were well grounded , I should think the threatned Evill so considerable , that instead of inviting you to the Study of Naturall Philosophy , I should very earnestly Labour to Disswade you from it . For I , that had much rather have Men not Philosophers then not Christans , should be better content to see you ignore the Mysteries of Nature then deny the Author of it . But though the Zeale of their Intentions keep Me from harbouring any unfavourable Opinion of the Persons of these Men , yet the Prejudice that might redound from their Doctrine ( if generally received ) both to the Glory of God from the Creatures , and to the Empire of Man over them , forbids Me to leave their Opinion unanswer'd ; though I am Sorry that the Necessity of Vindicating the Study I recommend to You from so Heinous a Crime as they have accus'd it of , will compel me to Theologize in a Philosophical Discours : Which that I may do , with as much Brevity as the Weight and Exigency of my Subject will permit , I shall Content my selfe onely in the Explication of my own Thoughts , to hint to you the grounds of Answering what is alledg'd against them . And First , Pyrophilus , I must premise , That though it may be a Presumption in Man , ( who to use a Scripture Expression , Is but of Yesterday , and knows Nothing , because his Dayes upon the Earth are but as a shadow ) precisely and peremptorily to define all the Ends and Aimes of the Omniscient God in His Great Work of the Creation ; Yet , perhaps , it will be no great venture to suppose that at least in the Creating of the Sublunary World , and the more Conspicuous Stars , two of God's Principal Ends were , the Manifestation of His own Glory , and the Good of Men. For the First of these ; The Lord hath made all things for himselfe , saies the Preacher ; For of Him , and through Him , and to Him , are all things , saies the Apostle . And , Thou hast Created all things ; and for Thy Pleasure they are and were Created , say the Twenty foure Prostrate Elders ( Representatives , perhaps , of the whole Church of both Testaments , propagated by the Twelve Patriarchs , and the like number of Apostles ) to their Creatour , which Truth , were it requisite , might be further confirmed by several other Texts , which to decline needlesse prolixity , I here forbear to insist on . Consonantly to this we hear the Psalmist Proclaiming that The Heavens Declare the Glory of God , and the Firmament sheweth his Handy-Works . To which purpose we may also observe , that though Man were not Created till the close of the Sixt Day ( the Resident's Arrival being Obligingly Suspended till the Palace was made ready to entertain Him ) yet that none of God's works might want Intelligent Spectators and Admirers , the Angels were Created the First Day , as Divines generally infer from the Words of God in Job ; Where wast thou when I laid the Foundations of the Earth ? and a little after ; When the Morning Stars sang together , and all the Sons of God shouted for Joy. Where by the Morning Stars and Sons of God are suppos'd to be meant the newly Created Angels ; one of whose earliest exercises was , it seems , to applaud the Creation , and take thence occasion to sing Hymnes to the Almighty Author of it . I should not , Pyrophilus , adde any thing further on this subject , but that having since the writing of these thoughts met with a Discourse of Seneca's , very consonant to some of them , I suppose it may tend to your delight as well as to their advantage , if I present you some of the Truths you have seen in my courser Languag , drest up in his finer and happier Expressions . Curiosum nobis ( saith he ) natura ingenium dedit , & artis sibi pulchritudinísque conscia , spectatores nos tantis rerum spectaculis genuit , perditura fructum sui , si tam magna , tam clara tam subtiliter ducta , tam nitida & non uno genere formosa solitudini ostenderet ; Ut scias illam spectari voluisse , non tantum aspici , vide quem locum nobis dedit ; nec erexit tantummodo hominem , sed etiam ad contemplationem Viae facturum ; ut ab ortu sidera in occasum labentia prosequi posset & vultum suum circumferre cum toto , Sublime illi fecit caput , & collo flexibili imposuit . Deinde sena per diem , sena per noctem signa produxit ; nullam non partem sui explicuit , ut per haec quae obtulerat ejus oculis cupiditatem faceret etiam caeterorum : nec enim omnia nec tanta visimus quanta sunt , sed acies nostra aperit sibi investigando viam , & fundamenta veri jacit , ut inquisitio transeat ex apertis in obscura , & aliquid ipso Mundo inveniat Antiquius . And least you might be offended at his mentioning of Nature , and silence of God , give me leave to informe you , that about the close of the Chapter immediately preceding that , whence the Passage you come from Reading is transcrib'd , having spoken of the Enquiries of Philosophers into the Nature of the Universe , he adds , Haec qui contemplatur , quid Deo praestat ? ne tanta ejus Opera sine teste sint . And to proceed to that which we have formerly assign'd for the Second End of the Creation ; That much of this Visible World was made for the use of M●n , may appear , not only from the time of his Creation ( already taken notice of ) and by the Commission given to the first Progenitors of Mankind , to replenish the Earth , and subdue it , and to have Dominion over the Fish of the Sea , and over the Fouls of the Air , and over all the Earth , and over every living thing that creepeth or moveth on the Earth : But also by God's making those noble and vast Luminaries , and other Bodies that adorn'd the Skie to give light upon the Earth , though inferiour to them in Dimensions , and to divide between the Day and between the Night , and to be for Signes , and for Seasons , and for Daies , and for Years . To this agrees that Passage in the Prophet , Thus saith the Lord that Created the Heavens , God himselfe that form'd the Earth , and made it , He hath estab●ished it , He Created it not in Vaine , He formed it to be Inhabited , &c. And the Inspired Poet speaks of Man's Dignity in very comprehensive Termes , For thou ( saies he to his Maker ) hast made him little lower then the Angels , and hast Crowned him with Glory and Honour ; Thou madest him to have Dominion over the Works of thy Hands , thou hast put all things under his Feet . The same truth may be confirm'd by divers other Texts , which it might here prove tedious to insist on . And therefore I shall rather observe , that consonantly thereunto , God was pleased to consider man so much more then the Creatures made for him , that he made the Sun it selfe at one time to stand still , and at another time to goe back , and divers times made the parts of the Universe forget their Nature , or Act contrary to it ; And ha's ( in summe ) vouchsafed to alter by Miracles the Course of Nature , for the instruction or reliefe of Man ( As when the Fire suspended its destructive Operation , whilst the three resolute Jewes with their Protectour walk'd unharm'd in the mid'st of those flames that destroy'd the Kindlers ; and as the heavy Iron emerg'd up to the swimming piece of wood , miraculously by Elisha made Magneticall . ) And you may also , Pyrophilus , take notice , that when Adam had transgressed , immediatly the ground was cursed for his sake . And as it is not unusual in Humane Justice to raze the very houses of Regicides and resembling Traitours ; So when the provocations of Sodom swell'd high enough to reach Heaven , God did not only Destroy the Inhabitants from the Face of the Earth , but for the Inhabitants Sins destroy'd the very Face of the Earth . So when in Noah's time a Deluge of Impiety call'd for a Deluge of Waters , God looking upon the living Creatures as made for the Use of Man , stuck not to Destroy them with him , and for him ; but involv'd in his Ruine all those Animals that were not necessary to the perpetuation of the Species , and the Sacrifice due for Noah's preservation . And so when ( in the Last daies ) the Earth shall be replenish'd with those Scoffers mention'd by St Peter , who will walk after their own Lusts , and deride the Expectation of God's foretold coming to Judg and Punish the Ungodly , their Impiety shall be as well punisht as silenc't by the unexpected Flames ( perhaps hastned by that very impiety ) that shall either Destroy or Transfigure the World. For as by the Law of Moses , the Leprous Garment which could not be recover'd by being washt in Water , was to be burnt in the Fire , so the World which the Deluge could not Cleanse , a generall Conflagration must Destroy . Nor is reason it selfe backward to countenance what we teach . For it is no great presumption to conceive , that the rest of the Creatures were made for Man , since He alone of the Visible World is able to enjoy , use , and relish m●ny of the other Creatures , and to discerne the Omniscience , Almightinesse and Goodnesse of their Author in them , and returne Him praises for them . 'T is not for themselves that the Rubies fl●me , other Jewels sparkle , the Bezar-stone is Antidot●●l ; n●r is it for their own advantage that fruitfull trees spend ●nd exhaust themselves in Annual profusions . The Light which he diffuses through the World is uselesse to the Sun himselfe , whose inanimate being makes him incapable of delighting in his own splendor ; which he receives but to convey it to the Earth , and other by him illuminated Globes : whence probably the Hebrewes call'd him Shemesh , which Grammarians derive from the Roote Shemash signifying in the Chaldean Tongue , to serve , or minister to ; the Sun being the great Minister of Nature , and Servant general of the Universe . And as Animals alone among the Creatures seem to have a proper sense of , and complacency in , their own Being ; So Man alone among Animals is endow'd with Reason , at least such a pitch of it , as by which he can discerne God's Creatures to be the Gifts of God , and referre them to their Creator's Glory . This truth I find not only embrac'd by Christians , but assented to even by Jewes and Heathens ; Among the Jewes my Learned Acquaintance , Manasseh Ben Israel , professedly labours to prove it by Scripture and Tradition ( though in some of his Arguments he might appear more a Philosopher , if he would have appear'd lesse a Rabbi ) and among other passages I remember he alledges that , wherein the Wise man saies ( as our Translators English it ) That the Righteous is an everlasting Foundation ; which he renders , Justus est columna Mundi , The Just Man is the Pillar of the World. And indeed if the Context did not somewhat disfavour the Interpretation , the Hebrew words [ tzaddîk yesôd olâm ] would well enough bear the sense assigned them . Congruously whereunto , I remember that when Noah ( who is call'd in Scripture a Righteous man , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a Herald , or Proclaimer of Righteousnesse ) offer'd up that noble Sacrifice of all the sorts of clean Beasts and Fowles , as a Thank-offering for the Reprieve of the World , God is said to have smelled a Savour of Rest , and to have resolved in his Heart never to Curse the ground for Man's sake , but to continue the vicissitudes of Summer , and Winter , Day , and Night , &c , as long as the Earth shall remain . And among the Philosophers themselves , the Truth we are now manifesting , has not been altogether ignor'd . For though Seneca somewhere , more wittily then truely , saies , Non causa mundo sumus hyemem aestatémque referendi ; suas ista leges habent , quibus divina exercentur . Nimis nos suspicimus , si digni nobis videmur , propter quos tanta moveantur : Yet Lactantius ( not to mention other Authors ) tels us that the Stoicks generally believed the World to have been made for man. Vera est ( saies he ) sententia Stoicorum , qui ajunt nostra causa Mundum fuisse constructum . Omnia enim quibus constat , quaeque generat ex se Mundus , ad utilitatem hominis accommodata sunt . And Seneca himselfe speaks elsewhere almost as if he had read and believed the beginning of Genesis ; Dii ( saies he ) non per negligentiam nos genuere , quibus tam multa genuerant : Cogitavit enim nos ante Natura quam fecit . Nor were the Stoicks the only Philosophers to whom the Contemplation of the Universe discover'd this End of it . For to instance now in Cicero only ; Quorum igitur causâ ( saies that great Orator ) effectum esse mundum ? Eorum scilicet Animantium , quae ratione utuntur : Hi sunt Dii et Homines , quibus profecto nihil est melius . Having thus prem●sed , Pyrophilus , that two of God's principal aimes in the Creation , were the manifestation of his own Glorious Attributes , and the Welfare of his noblest Visible Creature , Man ; It will not be perhaps difficult for You to discerne , that those who labour to deterre men from sedulous Enquiries into Nature , do , ( though I grant , designelessely ) take a course which tends to defeat God of both those mention'd Ends. For to speak first to the Last of them ; that man 's external fruition of the Creatures , and the Delight and Accommodation which they may afford him , must be highly prejudic'd and impair'd by his ignorance of that Natural Philosophy , wherein his Dominion over the Creatures chiefly consists , what we sh●ll say hereafter concerning the usefulnesse of the Knowledg of Nature to humane Life , will sufficiently evince . But such an Animal fruition ( if I may so call it ) of the Works of Nature , affords not Man all the good that God design'd him in them . For Religion being not only the great Duty of Man , but the grand Instrument of his future Happinesse , which consists in an Union with and Fruition of God , during that endlesse Terme that shall succeed the expiration of his transitory Life on Earth ; what ever increases or cherishes his Religion deserves to be lookt on as a great contributer to his Happinesse . And we may therefore venture to affirme that the knowledg of the Creatures does lesse advantage Man , as it ennables him to Master them ; then as it Assists him , by admiring and serving him , to become Acceptable to their Author . And what ever our distrustful Adversaries are pleas'd to surmise to the contrary , certainly God intended that his Creatures should afford not only Necessaries , and Accommodations to our Animal part , but Instructions to our Intellectual . The World is wont to be stil'd not unfitly by Divines , The Christians Inne ; but perchance it may be altogether as properly call'd his Ship : for whereas both Appellations suppose him a Traveller , the Inne , though it refresh him in his Journey , does not further him in it , but rather retard his progresse by detaining him in one place ; whereas a Ship not only serves the Passenger for an Inne when he is weary , but helps to convey him towards his Journey 's End. And according to this Notion , to suppose that God hath placed in the World innumerable things to feed Man , and delight him , and none to instruct him , were a conceit little lesse injurious to God , then it were to a wise Merchant , that sends Persons , he loves , to a farre Country , to think that he would furnish their Cabinets with plenty of Provisions , soft Beds , fine Pictures , and all other accommodations for their Voyage , but send them to Sea disprovided of Sea-Charts and Mariners Compasses , and other requisite helps to steer their Course by , to the desired Harbour . And indeed so farre is God from being unwilling , that we should Prye into his Works , that , by divers Dispensations he imposes on us little lesse then a necessity of studying them . For first he begins the Book of Scripture with the Description of the Book of Nature ; of which he not only gives us a general account , to informe us that he made the World ; since for that end the very first Verse in the Bible might have suffic'd : But he vouchsafes us by retaile the Narrative of each Day 's Proceedings , and in the two first Chapters of Gen●sis , is pleas'd to give nobler hints of Natural Philosophy , then men are yet perhaps aware of . Though that in most other places of the Scripture , where the Works of Nature are mentioned but incidently , or in order to other purposes , they are spoken of rather in a Popular then Accurate manner , I dare not peremptorily deny , being unwilling to interesse the reputation of Holy Writ ( design'd to teach us rather Divinity then Philosophy ) in the doubtful contentions of Naturalists , about such matters as may ( though the History of the Creation cannot ) be known by the meer Light of Natural Reason . We may next observe , that God has made some knowledg of his Created Book , both conducive to the beliefe , and necessary to the Understanding , of his Written one : Our Saviour making it one cause of the Sadduces great Error about the Resurrection , that they knew not the Power of God. And the Scripture being so full of Allusions to , and comparisons borrowed from the properties of the Creatures , that there are many Texts not clearly Intelligible without some knowledg of them ; as may appear even by the first Gospel ( The Promise that the Seed of the Woman should Bruise the S●rpents Head , and have his Heele bruised by that subtle Creature ) preached to fallen Man in Paradise , and by the representation of the Worlds Four great Monarchies , and the Genius of each of them , under the Notion of Four Beasts , in Daniels prophetick Vision : and that often repeated Precept of our great Master to his Disciples , is coucht in an expression alluding to the properties of Animals : For where he commands them to be Wise as Serpents , and Harmlesse as Doves , he does not only recommend to them a Serpentine warinesse in declining dangers , but seems also to prescribe not alone an inoffensivenesse towards others ( the conspicuousnesse of which quality in Pigeons have made them , though erroneously , be supposed to have no Gall ) But also as harmlesse a way of escaping the dangers they are actually ingaged in , as that of Doves , who being pursued by Birds of Prey , endeavour to save themselves not by fight but , only by flight . And indeed so many of the Texts in Scripture are not to be competently illustrated , without some knowledg of the properties of the Creatures related to in them , that I wonder not , that Levinus Lemnius , Frantzius , Rueus , and other Learned Men have thought it requisite to publish entire Treatises , some of the Animals , others of the Stones , and others of the other Works of Nature mentioned in Scripture : Only I could wish that they had been as wary in their Writings , as commendable for their Intentions , and had not sometimes admitted doubtful or fabulous accounts into Comments upon that Book , whose Prerogative it is to teach nothing but Truth . Nor ought their Labors to deterre others from cultivating the same Theme ; For as ( such is Gods condescention to Humane weaknesse ) most of the Texts , to whose Exposition Physiologie is necessary , may be explicated by the knowledg of the external , or at least more easily observed qualities of the Creatures ; So , that there are divers not to be fully understood without the Assistance , of more penetrating indagations of the Abstrusities of Nature and the more unobvious properties of things , an Intelligent and Philosophical peruser will readily discerne . Now if you should put me upon telling you , Pyrophilus , what those Attributes of God are , which I so often mention to be visibly display'd in the Fabrick of the World , I can readily answer you , that though many of Gods Attributes are legible in his Creatures , yet those that are most conspicuous there , are his Power , his Wisdome , and his Goodnesse , in which the World , as well as the Bible , though in a diff●ring , and in some points a darker way , is designed to instruct us , which that you may not think to be affirm'd gratis , we must insist a while on each of the Three . And fi●st , How boundlesse a power , or rather what an Almightinesse is eminently displayed in Gods making out of Nothing all Things , and without Materials or Instruments constructing this Immense Frabrick of the World , whose Vastnesse is such , that even what may be prov'd of it , can scarcely be conceived , and after a Mathematical Demonstration , its Greatnesse is distrusted ? Which yet is , I confesse , a wonder lesse to be admir'd then the Power expressed by God in so immense a Work , which neverthelesse some moderne Philosophers ( whose opinions I find some Cabalists to countenance ) suppose to be not the only Production of Gods Omnipotence . Not to mention Elephants , or Whales , some of which an Hyperbolist would not scruple to call moving Mountains and Floting Islands ; and to passe by those stupendous Hils , and those Seas , where the Light looses it selfe , as Objects which their neernesse only represents so Bulky ; let us hasten to consider , that whereas the Terrestrial Globe we Men inhabit , containes , besides all those vast Kingdomes the Unions of some of which constituted the Worlds foure celebrated Monarchies , those spacious ( since detected ) American Regions , that have been deservedly stiled The New World : And that whereas the Common Account makes the circuit of this Terrestrial Globe to be no lesse then 22600 Italian miles , consisting each of 1000 Geometrical Paces ( which number the more recent account of the accurate Gassendus makes amount to 26255 Miles of the same measure ) whereas , I say , this Globe of Earth and Water seems to us so vast , Astronomers teach us , that it is but a Point in comparison of the Immensity of Heaven ; which they not irrationally prove by the Parallaxis ( or Circular difference betwixt the place of a Star , suppos'd to be taken by two Observations , the one made at the Centre , and the other on the surface of the Earth ) which Gassendus confesseth to be undiscernable in the fixt Stars : as if the Terrestrial Globe were so meer a Point , that it were not material , whether a fixt Star be look'd upon from the Centre , or from the surface of the Earth . This may lessen our wonder at the Ptolomaeans , making the Sun ( which seems not half a Foot over ) to be above a hundred sixty and six times bigger then the Earth ; and distant from it One thousand one hundred sixty and five Semi-Diameters of the Earth , each of which contains , according to the afore-mentioned computation of Gassendus , 4177 Miles ; and at their supposing the fixt Stars ( whose distance the same Author , as a Ptolomaean , supput's to be 19000 Semi-Diameters of the Earth ) so great , that they conclude each of the fixt or smallest Magnitude to be no less then 18 times greater then the whole Earth , & each Star of the First or Chief Magnitude to exceed the T●rrestrial Globe 108 times . And as for the Coperricans ( that growing Sext of Astronomers ) they , as their Hypothesis requires , suppose the vastness of the Firmament to be exceedingly greater then the Ancients believed it . For Philippus Lansbergius , who ventur'd to assign Distances and Dimensions to the Planets and Fixt Stars ( which Copernicus forbore to do ) supposes as well as his Master , that the Great Orb it self ( as the Copernicans call that in which they esteem the Earth to move about the Sun ) though its Semi-Diameter be suppos'd to be 1500 times as great as that of the Earth , is but as a Point in comparison of the Firmament or Sphere of the Fixt Stars ; which he supposes to be distant from the Earth no less then 28000 Semi-Diameters of the Great Orb , that is , 42000000 of Semi-diameters of the Earth ; or according to the former Computation of common Miles 175434000000 , which is a Distance vastly exceeding that which the Ptolomaeans ven●ur'd to assign , and such as even imagination it self can hardly reach to . I confess indeed , that I am not so well satisfied with the exactness ( nor perhaps with the Grounds ) of these kinde of Computations , by reason of the Difficulty I have met with in making exact Celestial Observations with either Telescopes , or other Instruments , sufficiently witness'd , by the great disparity remarkable betwixt the Computations of the best-Artists themselves . But on the other side I am not sure , but that even the Copernicans ascribe not too great a distance to some of the Fixt Stars ; since ( for ought we yet know ) those of the sixth Magnitude , and those which our Telescopes discover ( though our bare Eyes cannot ) are not really less then those of the first Magnitude , but onely appear so by reason of their greater Distance from our Eyes ; as some Fixt Stars seem no bigger then Venus and Mercury , which are much lesser then the Earth . And therefore upon such Considerations , and because the modestest Computation allows the Firmament to be great enough to make the Earth but a Point in comparison of it ; it will be safe enough , as well as just , to conclude with the Psalmist , Great is the Lord , and greatly to be praised ; and his greatness is unsearchable . The next Attribute of God that shines forth in his Creatures , is his Wisdom ; which to an intelligent Considerer appears very manifestly express'd in the World , whether you contemplate it as an Aggregate or System of all Natural Bodies , or consider the Creatures it is made up of , both in their particular and distinct Natures , and in Relation to each other , and the Universe which they constitute . In some of these the Wisdom of God is so conspicuous , and written in such large Characters , that it is legible even to a vulgar Reader : But in many others the Lineaments and Traces of it are so delicate and slender , or so wrapt up and cover'd with Corporeity , that it requires an attentive and intelligent Peruser . So numberless a multitude , and so great a variety of Birds , Beasts , Fishes , Reptiles , Herbs , Shrubs , Trees , Stones , Metals , Minerals , Stars , &c. and every one of them plentifully furnish'd and endow'd with all the Qualifications requisite to the Attainment of the respective Ends of its Creation , are productions of a Wisdom too limitless not to be peculiar to God : To insist on any one of them in particular ( besides that it would too much swell this Discourse ) might appear injurious to the rest ; which do all of them deserve that extensive Exclamation of the Psalmist , How manifold are thy works , O Lord ; in Wisdom hast thou made them all . And therefore I shall content my self to observe in general , That as highly as some Naturalists are pleased to value their own knowledge , it can at best attain but to understand and applaud , not emulate the Productions of God. For as a Novice , when the curiosest Watch the rarest Artist can make , is taken in pieces and set before him , may easily enough discern the Workmanship and Contrivance of it to be excellent ; but had he not been shown it , could never have of himself devised so skilful and rare a piece of Work : So , for instance , an Anatomist , though when by many and dexterous Dissections of humane Bodies , and by the help of Mechanical Principles and Rules ( without a competent skill wherein , a Man can scarce be an Accomplish'd and Philosophical Anatomist ) he has learn'd the Structure , Use and Harmony of the parts of the Body , he is able to discern that matchless Engine to be admirably contriv'd , in order to the exercise of all the Motions and Functions whereto it was design'd : And yet this Artist , had he never contemplated a humane Body , could never have imagin'd or devis'd an Engine of no greater Bulk , any thing near so fitted to perform all that variety of Actions we daily see perform'd either in or by a humane Body . Thus the Circular motion of the Blood , and structure of the Valves of the Heart and Veins ( The consideration whereof , as himself told me , first hinted the Circulation to our Famous Harvey ) though now Modern Experiments have for the main ( the Modus seeming not yet so fully explicated ) convinc'd us of them , we acknowledge them to be very expedient , and can admire Gods Wisdom in contriving them : Yet those many Learned Anatomists , that have for many succeeding Ages preceded both Dr Harvey , and Columbus , Caesalpinus , Padre Paulo , and Mr Warner ( for each of these four last are suppos'd by some to have had some notion of the Circulation ) by all their diligent contemplation of humane Bodies , never dream'd ( for ought appears ) of so advantagious an use of the Valves of the Heart , nor that nimble Circular motion of the Blood , of which our modern Circulators think they discern such excellent Use , not to say , Necessity . And though it be true , that the greater Works of God do as well declare his great Wisdom as his Power , according to that of the Inspired Philosopher ; The Lord by Wisdom hath founded the Earth , by Understanding hath he establish'd the Heavens . By his Knowledge the depths are broken up , and the Clouds drop down the Dew : Yet does not his Wisdom appear less in lesser Creatures ; for there is none of them so little , but it would deserve a great deal of our Wonder , did we attentively enough consider it . And as Apelles ( in the Story ) was discover'd by the skilful Protagoras , by so neat and slender a Line , that Protagoras , by being scarce able to discern it , discern'd it to have been drawn by Apelles : So God , in these little Creatures , oftentimes draws traces of Omniscience , too delicate to be liable to be ascrib'd to any other Cause . I have seen Elephants , and admir'd them less then the structure of a dissected Mole , which hath better Eyes then those , that will not see a designation in the dimness of its Eyes ( made onely to see the Light , not other Objects by the help of it ) and the unwonted posture of its Feet , given it not to run on the Ground , but to dig it self a way under Ground . And , as despicable as their Littleness makes the Vulgar apt to think some Creatures , I must confess my wonder dwell not so much on Natures Clocks ( if I may so speak ) as on her Watches , and is more exercis'd in the coyness of the sensitive Plant , and the Magnetical Properties of a small and abject Load-stone , then the bulk of the tallest Oakes , or those vast Rocks , made famous by Shipwracks . I have pass'd the Alpes , and have seen as much to admire at in an Ant-hill , and have so much wondred at the Industry of those little Creatures themselves that inhabited it , that I have ceas'd to wonder at their having given a Theme to Solomon's Contemplation . Those vast Exotick Animals which the Multitude flocks to see , and which Men give Money to be allow'd to gaze on , have had many of them lesse of my Admiration , then the little Catterpillar ( as Learned Naturalists esteem it ) to which we are beholden for Silk . For ( not to mention all the Observables crouded by Nature in that little Worm ) I thought it very well deserv'd my wonder ( when not long since I kept some of them purposely to try Experiments ) how this curious Spinster , after he had buryed himself alive in the precious Tomb he had wrought for himself out of his own Bowels , did cast off his former Skin and Legs , and , in shew , his former Nature , appearing for divers days but an almost movelesse Magot ; till at length , divesting this second Tegument also ( in which Nest , Phenix-like , he had been regenerated out of his own Remains ) he came forth ( if I may so speak ) out of this attiring Room under another form , with Wings , Eyes , and Leggs , &c. to act a new part upon the Stage of the World ; which ( having spent some days without feeding ( that I could observe ) in providing for the propagation of his Species ) he forsakes and dies . And I the rather mention the Silk-Worm , because that there have been of late divers subtle Speculators , who would fain perswade us , That Animals do nothing out of Instinct , or , if you please , innate or seminal Impressions ; but Spin , build Nests , and perform all the other Actions for which they are admir'd , barely by Imitation of what they have seen done by others of the same Kinde . But in the Silk-Worm ( at least here in England ) this plausible Opinion will not hold : For the Silk-worms I kept , were not hatch'd but in the Spring , out of Eggs laid some Days in the Sun ; and the Worms that laid those Eggs , being every one of them dead the Winter before , it was impossible these new Silk-Worms , when they first began to spin their scarce imaginable fine Web , and inclose themselves in Oval Balls of a very Artificial Figure and Texture , should have wrought thus by Imitation ; there not having been for many Moneths before , in the place where they were hatch'd ( nor perhaps in the whole Country ) any Silk-Worms alive which they might imitate . But I must leave these curious Spinsters to their Work , and proceed to tell you , That Seas and Mountains , with the other Hyperboles of Nature ( if I may so term them ) proclaim indeed Gods Power , but do not perhaps more manifest his Wisdom , then the contrivance of some living Engines , and ( if I may so call them ) Breathing Atoms , that are so small that they are almost all Workmanship ; so that , as before , in the Psalmists Expression we truly said of Gods Greatnesse , That it was unsearchable ; we may now as truly say of his Wisdom in the Prophets Words , and in the same Text where he represents him as the Creator of the ends of the Earth , That there is no searching of his Understanding . And if I durst , Pyrophilus , make this part of this Essay of a length too disproportionate to the rest , I could easily , as well as willingly , represent to you divers things which might serve to Illustrate the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , manifold Wisdom of God ( as St. Paul speaks on another occasion ) But though I dare not expatiate on this Subject , yet neither dare I altogether conceal from you , that I have sometimes admired to see what scarce imaginable variety of living Engines his Plastick skill ( if I may so speak ) has been able to produce , ( especially in the Waters ) without scarce any other resemblance betwixt them , then that they are each of them excellent in its own Kinde , and compleatly furnish'd according to the exigency of its Nature . And that which much encreases this Wonder , is the disproportion of those living Engines , wherein the great [ Yotzêr hakkôl ] Former of all things ( as the Scripture justly calls God ) has been pleas'd to display an almost equally skilful Contrivance . Amongst Terrestrial Animals we have the Elephant , of whose stupendious vastness such strange things are related , even by eminent Writers , that I know not well how either to dis-believe them , or give credit to them : And therefore we shall content our selves to mention that which is left on Record by the accurate Gassendus in the Life of Peireskius ; For this matchless Gentleman having caus'd an Elephant , in the Year 1631 , to be weigh'd in a Scale , purposely provided , he was found to weigh , of the Roman Pounds ( consisting of twelve Ounces apiece ) very near Five thousand : And yet surely that this Elephant was very far from being one of the largest of that sort of Beasts , he that shall consider the bigness and length of some of their Teeth , as they are commonly call'd , which are to be seen at divers places , both in England and elsewhere , and is not resolv'd not to believe the consonant Relations of Eastern Travellers ( among whom Linschoten tells us there have been some Teeth found to weigh Two hundred pounds apiece , each pound consisting of twenty four Ounces ) may be easily perswaded . On the other side let us reflect upon the smalness of some Terrestrial Animals ; and not to mention that little white Creature bred in Wax , which Aristotle call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and speaks of as suppos'd to be the least of all living Creatures whatsoever : Let us consider those little Mites that are bred in mouldy Cheese ; for divers of these scarce amount to the weight of a Grain , and every Pound containing Five thousand seven hundred and sixty Grains ; supposing each Mite did weigh a whole Grain , yet that formerly mention'd small Elephant would exceed him near 28800000 times . And yet though a Mite seem but a moving Atome , and unless there be divers together , is not easily discern'd by the unassisted Eye ; yet in an excellent Microscope I have , you know , several times both seen and shewn to others , even in a gloomy Day , and a disadvantageous Place , not onely the Limbs of this little Animal , but the very Hair growing upon his Legs . Now let us but consider how strangely skilful and delicate a Workmanship must be employ'd to contrive into so narrow a compass , the several Parts Internal and External , requisite to make up this little Animal ; how many must goe to the texture of the Eyes , and other Organs of Sense ; how many to the Snout ( which he has , not unlike a Hog ) and the several parts of it ; how many to the Stomach and Guts , and the other Inward Parts addicted to the digestion of Aliment , and exclusion of Excrements ; and to be short , how inimaginably subtle must be the Animal Spirits running too and from Nerves suitable in such little Legs : And if , as we have observ'd them to multiply by Eggs , the little Creatures be hatch'd in those little Eggs , after the manner of divers other Oviparous Animals , how much smaller then a hatched Mite must be a Mite upon the Animation of its delineated Parts ? since in Hens Eggs we have sometimes seen the Chick manifestly alive , and its Limbs clearly delineated , whilst yet it took up so small a portion of the Egge , that both the White and the Yolk ( betwixt which it is generated , and not of the Chalaza or Tredle , as Aquapendente and other Moderns teach ) seem'd to be sometimes yet intire , as well as involv'd in their peculiar Membranes . But it is not so conspicuous in gradient Animals ( if I may so speak ) as in swimming ones ; How vastly disproportionate Masses of Matter the wise Former of all things can fashion into living Engines . For Whales are much more stupendious Creatures then Elephants : And not to mention what Hartenius ( apud Johnstonum ) tells us of twenty sorts of Whales , whereof the eighteenth Species , which he calls Nordhwal , is by him related to be Ninety Ells long ; but what Ells he means , I know not : Nor to mention those less incredible Accounts which are given of the vastness of Whales by our English Navigators , who are wont to Fish for them ; I shall onely set down what is related by one of the eminentest Modern Lyncean Philosophers , because he speaks as an Eye-witness , when he tells us , That in the Year 1624 , there was cast upon a place near Santa Severa , about 30 Miles from Rome , a dead Whale of 91 Psalms in length , and 50 in thickness : He adds , That its Mouth was 16 Palms long , and 10 high ; in which , being opened and kept gaping ; a Man on Horse-back might finde competent room ; this Mouth being used to harbor a Tongue of twenty Palms ( which may make out fifteen Foot ) in length . The same inquisitive Writer adds , That four Years before , near the Island of Corsica , not far from the Coast of Italy , another Whale was cast , One hundred Foot long ; which being a Female , was found to be big with a Cub of thirty Foot long , 1500 pound weight . But that which will let you see , Pyrophilus , the disproportion betwixt there kinde of Fishes and common Elephants , is , that which the same Author adds , That the Lord onely , or Fat ( as he speaks Carnea pinguedo ) of this corpulent Creature , weigh'd One hundred and thirty five thousand pound , that is , above Twenty seven times the weight of the whole Elephant , which was caus'd to be weigh'd by Peireskius . And though the Omnipotent Creator be able to make swimming Creatures of such prodigious bigness , that the Ocean it self may seem to be but a proportionate Pond for such Fishes ; yet is the same Omniscient Continuer , as able to make a swimming Engine more slender then a Cheese mite , and so little , that a small part of a Grain may out-weigh divers of them . For , Pyrophilus , I must here acquaint you with a strange Observation , which I have been inform'd to have been some while since made in Italy by Panarola a Famous Physitian in Rome , who is said , by the help of an excellent Microscope , to have discern'd in Vinegar small Living Creatures , which he takes to be Worms . The mention of so unlikely an Experiment , made me engage some excellent Philosophers and Mathematicians to assist me in examining it : But though our Microscopes exceeded the best that were brought us over from Rome , yet all our diligence and attention did but make them conclude that Panarola's Eyes had been deluded . Notwithstanding which , causing a somewhat hollow bottom of pure Crystalline Glasse to be fitted to my Microscope , I prosecuted the Enquiry my self ; and at length was so lucky , as not onely to discover these little Creatures with a Microscope , but by holding the Liquor in a Crystal Viol , almost upon the strong Flame of a Candle , to discover multitudes of them with my naked Eyes , as weak as they are . But though I have already convinc'd those that formerly derided such Observations , as not to be made with the best Microscope , yet the great weakness of my Sight has not permitted me to perfect my Observations concerning these Creatures . And therefore reserving the more particular mention of this odde Observation till another time , I shall now onely tell you as much as is pertinent to our present purpose ; namely , That having with a certain parcel of strong White-wine Vinegar ( for 't is not in every Vinegar that they are constantly to be found ) fill'd up to the top thin Viols with long and slender Necks ; and having likewise with the same Liquor fill'd other small Crystalline Viols , though short-neck'd , and held them betwixt my Eye and the Sun , or a Window open towards it , or very near a great Candle , I have often in these Glasses , especially in their slender Necks , after having a while fix'd my Eye on them ( attention being in this case very necessary ) admiringly observ'd great numbers ( and sometimes as it were Shoals ) of living Creatures , which seem'd to be rather Fishes then Worms ; for they swim freely up and down the Liquor , and often hover about the top of it , with a wrigling motion , like that of Eels , to which likewise their long and slender shape resembles them . And though these swimming Creatures be not all exactly of a size , yet some of them seem'd slenderer then any sort of living ones , that hath hitherto been taken notice of by the unassisted Eye : And I remember , that having look'd in a good Microscope upon one of them , and a Cheese-mite much about the same time , the Fish appear'd so slender , that we judg'd it not much thicker then one of the Legs of the Mite : So that considering what a vast deal of matter the great Creator can manage and fashion into a Whale , and in how little room he can contrive all the parts requisite to constitute a Fish , we may justly say to him in the Psalmists Language , There is none like unto thee ( O Lord ) neither are there any works like unto thy works . The last of the three Properties of God , which we mentioned him to have manifested in the Creation , is his Goodnesse ; Of which all his Creatures do in their due measure partake , partly by their having a Being vouchsafed them , and partly by their being preserved in it as long as their subordination to higher purposes , and to more powerful creatures do permit , by that supporting Influence of God which keeps them from relapsing into their first Nothing ; according to that memorable Passage , where Nehemiah having mentioned God as the Creatour of the Heavens , the Earth , the Seas , and all the Creatures belonging to them , He calls Him the Preserver , or ( as the Original has it ) The enlivener of them all . And as for Animals , who are more capable of enjoying , though not most of them of discerning His bounty , His Goodnesse to them is more conspicuous . For besides that in Scripture he is called The Preserver both of Man and Beast , and accordingly is said to give food even to the young Ravens that cry , and to have after the Flood remembred not only Noah , but every living thing that was with him in the Ark , His Goodnesse to them is apparent by the plentiful and easily attainable provision he makes according to the exigence of their several Natures . For that innumerable swarm of various Birds , Beasts , Fishes , Reptiles , and other Animals that People the Terrestrial Globe , and the contiguous parts of the World , and by his endowing each of them , with all the Qualifications requisite to the perpetuation of their Species , and the preservation of their Lives , as far forth as is consistent with his Ends in their Creation . But most resplendent does the Goodnesse of God appear towards his Favourite Creature , Man , whom having vouchsaf'd to ennoble with his own Image , he makes most of the Creatures of the world visible to us , pay homage to him , and in some manner or degree do him service : God's liberality at once bestowing on him all those Creatures by endowing him with a Reason enabling him to make use of them ; so that even those Creatures which he is not able to subdue by his Power , he is able to make serviceable to him by his Knowledg ; as those vast Globes of Light , which are so farre above him , that their Immensity and Brightnesse can scarce render them visible to him , are by man's Mathematicks forced to give him an account of all their Motions , and waiting upon his Dials keep time for him ; and even the defects of such works of Nature , are by man's skill made serviceable to him , as the Eclipses of the Moon serve Geographers notably in that difficult and useful worke of finding Longitudes . The Stars serve for Candles to give man light , and the Celestial Orbs are his Candlesticks . He breaths the Aire , the Fire wa●mes him , and serves him not only in his Kitchin , but to master most other Bodies in his furnaces . The Clouds water his Land , the Earth supports him and his Buildings , the Sea and winds convey him and his Floating-houses to the remotest parts of the World , and enable him to possesse every where almost all that Nature or Art has provided for him any where . The Earth produces him an innumerable multitude of Beasts to feed , cloath , and carrie him ; of Flowers and Jewels to delight and adorne him ; of Fruits , to sustaine and refresh him ; of Stones and Timber , to lodg him ; of Simples , to cure him ; and in summe , the whole sublunary World is but his Magazine . And it seems the grand businesse of restlesse Nature so to constitute and manage his Productions , as to furnish him with Necessaries , Accommodations , and Pleasures . Of such a Number of Plants , Animals , Metals , Minerals , &c. that people and enrich the Terrestriall Globe , perhaps there is not any one , of which Man might not make an excellent use , had he but an insight into its Nature : nor are the most abject and despicable therefore the least useful . There is not any Stone , no not the sparkling Diamond it self , to whom Man is so much beholden , as he is to the dark & unpromising Load-stone , without which the New-World probably had never been detected , and many Regions of the Old World would have little or no commerce with each other . Nor have the Lion , the Eagle , and the Whale , joyned all together ( though reputed the Chief of Birds , Beasts , and Fishes ) been so serviceable to M●n , as that despicable Insect , The Silk-worm . And if we impartially consider the Lucriferousness ( if I may speak in my Lord of St Albans Stile ) of the properties of Things , and their Medical Virtues , we shall finde , That we trample upon many things , for which we should have cause to kneel , and offer God Praises , if we knew all their Qualities and Uses : But of this subject we may elsewhere purposely treat . To which I must onely adde , Pyrophilus , That you will injure Nature , if you suppose , either that all the Concretes , endowed with excellent Properties , have long since been notorious , or that all the Medicinal Virtues of Simples , commonly us'd , are already known ; or that all those Concretes are destitute of considerable Properties , to whom none have been yet ascrib'd by eminent Authors . For almost every day either discloses new Creatures , or makes new Discoveries of the usefulnesse of things ; almost each of which hath yet a kinde of Terra incognita , or undetected part in it : How many new Concretes , rich in Medicinal vertues , does the New World present the Inquisitive Physitians of the Old ? Notatu dignum ( says the Ingenious Piso , in his newly publish'd Medicina Brasileensis , lib. 1. ) quod eximiae tot arbores , frutices , & innumerae herbae , figura , foliis & fructibus a veteris orbis Vegetabilibus , paucis exceptis , dissimillimae appareant . Idem de avibus , animantibus & piscibus deprehenditur , ut & insectis alatis , atque alis destitutis ; quae ineffabili colorum pulchritudine & portentosa multitudine generantur , partim nota nobis , partim incognita . And of the known American Simples , How many latent Virtues does experience from time to time discover ? And ( to mention now no others ) the Febrifugal property of that Peruvian Tree , called by the Natives Gannanaperide , whose Bark , call'd commonly China Febris , has been at Rome , and freshly also at London , found so wonderfully eff●ctual against those stubborn Diseases , Quartain Agues ; and though a Lea●ned Author endeavors to depreciate it , by alledging , That it is wont rather to suspend the Fits , then truly cure the Disease , which after awhile will return again ; yet , besides that , it may be often very beneficial to a weakned Patient , to have his Fits put off , the Physitiā thereby also gaining Opportunities to imploy strengthning and preventing Remedies : Besides this , I say , if you will credit that great Person , Sir Kenelm Digby , it is rather the Patients or Doctors fault , then the Medicines , if the Disease return . For having purposely consulted him about this Objection against the Use of the Cortex Febrifugus , he solemnly assur'd me , That of betwixt Twenty and Thirty Persons , that he had himself cur'd of Quartanes by this Remedy , not so many as Two fell into a Relapse . And now I am upon the more freshly discover'd Virtues of American Drugs , I might acquaint you with the admirable Properties , not onely in Diseases , but even in Wounds of a certain Mineral , which ( though careful examination of it has not yet taught me to what Species of Stones to reduce it ) you cannot but have heard mention'd with wonder , under the name of Sir Raleigh's Stone , which my Father , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , enjoy'd , and did strange things with for many years , and by his Will bequeathed ( as the highest Legacy he could leave him ) to his dearest Friend , the most Learned and Famous B● Usher , Primate of Ireland : But of this Stone , the merit of the subject makes me reserve what I have to say , to a Discourse , wherein I may be allowed to say more to it then now I dare : and therefore I shall proceed to tell you , that 't is not in the Simples of the New World onely , that new Medicinal properties may be discover'd ; for even those which daily obtrude themselves upon our careless Eyes , or are trampled under our regardlesse Feet , may possesse Virtues , to which the major part of Botanists are mere Strangers . To which purpose , I remember that I have often gather'd a little short-liv'd and despicable Plant , with which alone ( slightly infus'd in Beer ) I lately knew a yong Kinsman of Sir D●gby's , in few Days , and without pain , as both Himself , his Mother , and his Physitian assur'd me , cur'd of that stubborn and seldom vanquish'd Disease of the Kings Evil , against which it doth Wonders ; and yet having consulted not onely some of the famousest and recentest Herbals , both English and Latine , about this , but also enquired of two or three eminent Herbarists , I could finde neither any such Virtue , nor almost any at all , ascrib'd by Authors to that excellent Plant. And whereas Gods bounty to Man in the Creatures , seems a little clouded and streightned by his permitting some Poisonous Plants and Venomous Animals to have a Being in Nature ; to that it may be reply'd , First , That many Poisonous Bodies contain their own Antidotes ; insomuch that the diligent Piso , who hath had great opportunities to examine the Effects of both , ventures to say , treating of the Poisons and Antidotes to be met with in Brasil , Equidem vix dixeris , Venena an Alexiteria plura sint pronata : and a little lower , Sic folia , flores , & fructus herbarum Tangaraca & Juquerii , venena Brasiliae facile prima , propriam suam unaquaeque radicem oppositum habet Antidotum : and a little after , Barbari viperarum pinguedinem & capita , tum & integra Insecta quae vulnera intulerint , ex arte parata , audacter & felici cum successu venenatis ictibus applicant ; adeoque per ipsos effectus comprobare nituntur in omni veneno contineri suum Antidotum : And next , that the noxiousnesse of many ( and therefore not improbably of all of them ) is not so incorrigible , but that by Mans Art and Chymical Preparations , they may be made , not onely innocent and harmless , but useful too . This Truth , Pyrophilus , Antimony and Quick-silver , and some other noxious Bodies ( which Men have learn'd to make Medicinal ) have already taught our Modern Physitians ; who prescribe , even in their Dispensatories , divers Medicines made out of those churlish Minerals , to which , in the ensuing Discourses , you will find divers others ( perhaps not inferior ) added . That Opium is reckon'd by Physitians among Poisons , I need not tell you ; and yet such powerful Remedies may be made with it for many desperate Cases , especially in hot Countries , that the good it may doe , so much exceeds the harm , that Physitians would be so●ry there were none of it in the World. The Oyl of Scorpions is not onely Antidotal against their Stings , but is witnessed , by experience , to be very useful to bring away the descending Stone of the Kidneys , and to remedy divers ot●er Mischiefs , besides those that Scorpions can doe . And to these I shall need but to adde one instance more , because of the noblenesse of that single one , and that is the Root Mandihoca , so common all over the West Indies : for N●ture is so far from having been a Step-mother to Man in making th●t Plant abound so much in those Countries , though in its c●ude simplicity ( as the Helmontians speak it be confessedly a rank Poison , that she hath scarce in any one Plant been so bountiful to the Americans . For by a slight and easie preparation , which we shall hereafter mention , it affords many popu●ous Nations almost all the Bread they eat , and some of them a good part of their Drink ; th● Root freed by a strong Press from the noxious Juice , and d●y'd , affording them that Cassavie Meal , whereof they m●ke their Bread ; which by the taste and colour I could not discern to be other then good . Nor is this the onely use this Poisonous Plant affords them : For the above-commended Piso gives us this short , but comprehensive Cha●acter of it ; concinnatur· ( lib. 3º ) But ●oncerning the use that may be made of Poisonous Cre●tu●es , we elsewhere professedly discourse : And shall therefore now proceed to observe to you here , that I have not yet ment●on'd to you the instance which most manifests the greatness of the Good which God intended Man in the Creatures : For , not content to have provided him all that was requisite either to Support or Accommodate him here , he hath been pleas'd to contrive the World so , that ( if Man be not wanting to himself ) it may afford him not onely Necessaries and Delights , but Instructions too ; For each Page in the great Volume of Nature is full of real Hieroglyphicks , where ( by an inverted way of Expression ) Things stand for Words , and their Qualities for Letters . The Psalmist observes , That the Heavens declare the glory of God : And indeed , they celebrate his Praises , though with a soundless Voice , yet with so loud a one ( and which gives us the Moral of Plato's exploded notion of the Musick of the Spheres ) to our intellectual Ears , that he scruples not to affirm , that There is no Speech nor Language where their voice is not heard ( or as Junius and Tremellius render it , without violence to the Hebrew Text , There is no Speech nor Words ; yet without these their Voice is understood ) and that their Line is gone throughout all the earth ; that is ( as the Learned Diodati expounds it ) their Writing in gross and plain Draughts , and their Words to the end of the World : Their Language having so escap'd the confusion of Tongues , that these Natural and Immortal Preachers give all Nations occasion to say of them , as the Assembly at Pentecost did of the Inspir'd Apostles , We do hear them speak in our Tongues the wonderful Works of God. Nor can we without listning to these Sermons , derive the entire ( perhaps not the chiefest ) Benefit design'd us in the Creatures : For sure , that God , who hath compos'd us both of Body and Soul , hath not confin'd the uses of so many admirable Creatures , and so much inimitable Workmanship to that ignoble part of Man which coupleth him to the Beasts , with the neglect of that Diviner Portion , which allies him to the Angels ; vouchsafing to the Lord of the Creature● in the fruition of this his Palace , no higher Prerogative then he is pleas'd to allow to the Brutes , that serve but to compleat the variety requisite for its embellishment . Of this Opinion I lately found that excellent Writer , St Austine , to have been before me : For , Non debes uti oculis ( says he ) ut pecus , tantum ut videas , quae addas ventri , non menti : utere , ut homo , intende Coelum , & intende Facta , & quaere Factorem ; aspice quae vides , & quaere quem non vides , crede in eum quem non vides , propter ista quae vides . Nolite fieri sicut equus & mulus , &c. Nor can the Creatures onely inform Man of Gods Being and Attributes ( as we have already seen ) but also instruct him in his own Duties : For we may say of the World , as St Austin did of the Sacraments , that it is Verbum visibile . And certainly , God hath never so confin'd himself to instruct Men by Words or Types , as not to reserve himself the liberty of doing it by things : Witness his appointing the Rainbow to Preach his Goodness to all Nations , and fortifie the Faith of Mankinde against the fear of a second Deluge . 'T is something to high a saying for an Heathen , that of Plato , where he teaches , That the World is Gods Epistle , written to Mankinde . For by Solomon God sends the Sluggard to school to the Ant , to learn a provident Industry : Christ commands his Disciples to learn of Serpents and Pigeons prudence and inoffensiveness : The same Divine Teacher enjoyns his Apostles to consider the Lilies , or ( as some would have it ) the Tulips of the Field , and to learn thence that difficult Virtue of a distrustless relyance upon God : And St Paul seems almost angry with the Corinthians , That their Faith , in so abstruse Mysteries as that of the Resurrection , was not inform'd and strengthned , by considering the meliorating death of Corn committed to the Earth : And the Royal Poet learns Humility , by the Contemplation of the most elevated parts of Nature ; When I consider ( says he ) the Heavens , the work of thy Fingers , the Moon and Stars which thou hast ordained , What is Man , that thou visitest him ? Thus you may see that God intended the World should serve Man , not onely for a Palace to live in , and to gaze on , but for a School of Virtue ; to which his Philanthropy reserves such inestimable Rewards , that the Creatures can , on no account , be so beneficial to Man , as by promoting his Piety , by a competent degree of which , Gods goodness hath made no less then Eternal Felicity attainable . ESSAY III. Containing a Continuation of the Former . HAving thus , Pyrophilus , endeavored to evince , that the Opinion that would deter Men from the scrutiny of Nature , is not a little prejudicial to Mans Interests , and does very much lessen the Advantages he may derive from the Creatures , both in relation to his accommodation in this Life , and his Felicity in the next : Let us proceed to consider , whether the Doctrine we oppose do not likewise tend , in its own nature ( though not in the Intentions of its Patrons ) to defeat God of much of that Glory which Man both ought and might ascribe to him , both for himself and the rest of the Creatures . How unlikely is it that we should be able to offer to God that Glory , Praise , and Admiration , he both expects and merits from such a contemplation of the Creatures , as though it be requisite to the true knowledge of their Nature and Properties , is yet suppos'd either pernicious , or at least dangerous , You , Pyrophilus , or any other impartial Person may easily determine . For the Works of God are not like the Tricks of Juglers , or the Pageants that entertain Princes , where concealment is requisite to wonder ; but the knowledge of the Works of God proportions our admiration of them , they participating and disclosing so much of the inexhausted Perfections of their Author , that the further we contemplate them , the more Foot-steps and Impressions we discover of the Perfections of their Creator ; and our utmost Science can but give us a juster veneration of his Omniscience . And as when some Country Fellow looks upon a curious Watch , though he may be hugely taken with the rich Enamel of the Case , and perhaps with some pretty Landskip that adorns the Dial-plate ; yet will not his Ignorance permit him so advantageous a Notion of the exquisite Makers skill , as that little Engine will form in some curious Artist , who besides that obvious Workmanship that first entertains the Eye , considers the exactness , and knows the use of every Wheel , takes notice of their proportion , contrivance , and adaptation altogether , and of the hidden Springs that move them all : So in the World , though every Peruser may read the existence of a Deity , and be in his degree affected with what he sees , yet is he utterly unable to descry there those subtler Characters and Flourishes of Omniscience , which true Philosophers are sharp-sighted enough to discern . The existence of God is indeed so legibly written on the Creatures , that ( as the Scripture speaks in another sense ) He may run that reads it ; that is , even a perfunctory Beholder , that makes it not his business , may perceive it . But that this God has manifested in these Creatures a Power , a Wisdom , and a Goodness worthy of himself , needs an attentive and diligent Surveyor to discover . How different notions of Gods Wisdom do the Eggs of Hens produce in the ordinary Eaters of them , and in curious Naturalists , who carefully watch and diligently observe from time to time the admirable progress of Nature in the Formation of a Chick , from the first change appearing in the Cicatricula ( or little whitish speck discernable in the Coat of the Eggs Yolk ) to the breaking of the Egg-shell by the perfectly hatched Bird , and on Natures exquisite method in the order and fashioning of the parts , make such Philosophical reflections as you may meet with ( not to mention what Aristotle and Fabricius ab Aquapendente , have observed on that subject ) in the Ingenious Treatise of Generation , which our accurate and justly Famous Anatomist , Dr Highmore , has been pleased to Dedicate to me ; and in the excellent Exercitations , De Ovo , of that great Promoter of Anatomical Knowledge , Dr Harvey . And whereas it may be alledg'd , That the Attributes of God , which are not taught us , but after much speculation of the World , are things of which no Man but an Atheist doubts ; to this it may be reply'd , That besides that , it ill becomes the sense we ought to have of our weakness to despise any helps vouchsaf'd us of God to assist us to know or serve him ; besides this , I say , God loving , as he deserves , to be honor'd in all our Faculties , and consequently to be glorifi'd and acknowledg'd by the acts of Reason , as well as by those of Faith , there must be sure found a great disparity betwixt that general , confus'd , and lazy Idea we commonly have of his Power and Wisdom , and the distinct , rational , and affecting notions of those Attributes which are form'd by an attentive inspection of those Creatures in which they are most legible , and which were made chiefly for that very end . The Queen of Sheba had heard in her own Country a very advantageous Fame of the Wisdom of Solomon ; but when the curiosity of a personal Visit made her an Eye-witness of those particular both exquisite Structures , and almost Divinely prudent Conducts and Contrivances wherein that Wisdom did inimitably display it self , she then brake forth into Pathetick and Venerating Exclamations , that acknowledg'd how much juster and improved a Character ( of his Wisdom ) her Eyes had now given her , then formerly her Ears had done . Very like a Philosopher , methinks , does the Great Mercurius Trismegistus ( if we grant him to be the Author of the Books ascribed to him ) speak , when he tells his Son , There can be no Religion more true or just , then to know the things that are , and to acknowledge thanks for all things to him that made them ; which thing I shall not cease to do : ( he continues ) Be Pious and Religious , O my Son ! for he that does so is the best and highest Philosopher ; and without Philosophy it is impossible ever to attain to the height and exactness of Piety and Religion . And 't was perhaps , Pyrophilus , to ingage us to an industrious industrious indagation of the Creatures , that God made Man so indigent , and furnish'd him with such a multiplicity of Desires ; so that whereas other Creatures are content with those few obvious and easily attainable necessaries , that Nature has almost every where provided for them ; In Man alone , every sense has store of greedy Appetites , for the most part of Superfluities and Dainties , that to relieve his numerous Wants , or satisfie his more numerous Desires , He might be oblig'd with an inquisitive Industry to Range , Anatomize , and Ransack Nature , and by that concern'd survey come to a more exquisite Admiration of the Omniscient Author . To illustrate this subject yet a little further , Pyrophilus , give me leave to observe to you , That Philosophers of almost all Religions have been , by the contemplation of the World , mov'd to consider it under the notion of a Temple : Ne adoremus ( says Plutarch ) Elementa , Coelum , Solem , Lunam , &c. specula sunt haec , in quibus artem illius singularem intueamur , qui mundum condidit , & adornavit ; nec est aliud Mundus quam Templum ejus : Let us not venerate the Elements , the Heaven , the Sun , the Moon , &c. these are but Miroirs , wherein we may behold his excellent Art , who fram'd and adorn'd the World ; nor is the World any thing else but his Temple : Homines ( says Cicero ) tuentur illum Globum , quem in Templo hoc medium vides , qui terra dicitur : Men abide upon that Globe which you see in the m●ddle of this Temple , and is called the Earth ; which Macrobius handsomely thus expounds : Quicquid humano aspectui subjicitur , Templum ejus vocavit qui solâ mente concipitur , ut qui haec veneratur ut templa , cultum tamen maximum debeat Conditori , sciatque quisquis in usum Templi hujus inducitur , ritu sibi vivendum sacerdotis : All that humane view reaches , he terms his Temple , who is apprehended by the minde alone ; to the end that who so reverences these things as Temples , might render the greatest worship to the Maker ; and every one that is brought to converse in this Temple , might know himself oblig'd to live like a Priest. And the Lofty Seneca ( to mention now no other Heathens ) in divers passages of his excellent Writings , stiles the World a Temple ; and I remember in his Treatise , De Beneficiis , he avers in terms not unworthy his Mind or his Subject , Totum mundum Deorum esse immortalium Templum , solum quidem amplitudine illorum ac magnificentiâ dignum . That the whole World is the Temple of the immortal Gods , being alone worthy of their Grandeur and Magnificence . The assent of the Jewish Philosophers , to this Notion , you may be pleased to receive from their Eloquent Philo , who not only gives the World the Name of Temple , but gives us this account of that appellation ; Templum Dei supremum & verè tale existimare totum hunc mundum , qui sacrartum quidem habet , purissimam rerum naturae partem , Coelum ; ornamenta , stellas ; sacerdotes , administros potentiae ejus , Angelos , & incorporeas animas . The whole VVorld is to be accounted the chiefest Template of God ; the Sanctū Sanctorū of it is the purest part of the Universe , Heaven ; the ornam●nts , the Stars ; the Priests , the Ministers of His Power , Angels , and immaterial Souls . And as for Christian Philosophers , I suppose it would be needlesse to enumerate the passages wherein they adapt the Notion of the World already mention'd ; and therefore I shall content my selfe to adde , that the Scripture it selfe seems to Authorise it by representing to us in the 8th and 9th Chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews , the Mosaical Tabernacle , as an adumbration of that Great Temple of the World ; and particularly there is a signal Text in the latter of those Chapters , where it is said that Christ is not enter'd into Holy places made with Hands [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] which are copies of the true [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] but into Heaven it selfe , now to appeare in the presence of God for us . Upon what account , Pyrophilus , I esteem the World a Temple , I may elsewhere have occasion to Declare ; but this for the present : It will not be rash to infer that if the World be a Temple , Man sure must be the Priest , ordain'd ( by being qualifi'd ) to celebrate Divine Service not only in it , but for it . For as in Schools , when the Prince or some munificent Benefactor confers some large possession or rich annuity upon the Foundation , though all the Boyes be concern'd in the benefit , yet because most of them are too young to be sensible of it , or too unlearned to be able to make the retribution of a handsome acknowledgment , either the Master or that other person of the Society , who is most capable and the best spoakesman , is by a kind of natural right engag'd to the duty of returning praise and thanks , not for himself alone , but in the name of all the rest : So in the World , where there are so many inanimate and irrational Creatures , that neither understand how much they owe to their Creator , by owing him even themselves , nor are born to a condition inabling them to acknowledg it ; Man , as born the Priest of Nature , and as the most oblig'd and most capable member of it , is bound to returne Thanks and Praises to his Maker , not only for himselfe but for the whole Creation . In which sense we may reconcile those two current Assertions , That God made all things for His own Glory , and that God made all things for Man , and Man for himselfe . Since whether or no Man be a Microcosme or Little World in Paracelsus's sense , if not as a resembler , yet as a representer of the Macrocosme or Great World , he presents with his own adorations the Homages of all the Creatures to their Creator , though they be ignorant of what is done , as Infants under the Law were of the sacrifices offered on their account . And in this Relation may the Creatures answer the Solemn invitation made them in the whole 148 Psalm , and numerous other Scriptures : which they may do ( to borrow a barbarous but significant School-terme ) objectively , though not formally ; I mean , by proving occasions , though not singers of his praises , and being such objects as prompt and invite Man to pay God that praise upon their score , which they cannot actually pay him themselves ; even God's mutest works being capable of being said to praise him in the same sense ( though in an incomparably transcendenter degree ) that Solomon saies of his virtuous Woman ( in the last Verse of the Proverbs ) Let her own VVorks praise her in the Gates ; that is , give the considerers of them occasion to extol her : and thus by man's referring the knowledg of the Creature to the Creator's Glory , it becomes in some sense , and congruously to its own Nature , the praiser of its Maker , as may seem intimated in this OEconomy of the Last part of one of the Psalmes , Blesse the Lord , all ye His Hosts , the Ministers of His that do His pleasure . Blesse the Lord , all His VVorks , in all places of His Dominion : Blesse the Lord , O my Soule . Where by shutting up the rest of God's Creatures betwixt Angels and Man's Soule , he seems to insinuate that the irrational Creatures blesse the Lord by the mouth of those that are Intelligent . And truly , Pyrophilus , I fear it may relish a little of selfishnesse , to make such a disparity betwixt Perfections , all of them equal , because all of them infinite , as to let God's mercy , because it most advantages us , so to ingrosse our thoughts , and wonder , as to make us neglect the contemplation of those other Glorious Attributes , his Power and his VVisdome , which were those that exacted both Man and Angels adoration , before sin gave occasion to the exercise of the first . And I shall not scruple to confesse unto you , that I dare not confine the Acts of Devotion to those which most men suppose to comprise the whole exercise of it ; not that I at all undervalue , or would depreciate any , even the meanest practises of Devotion , which either Scripture or reason consonant to it recommends ; but that I esteem that God may be also acceptably ( and perhaps more nobly ) serv'd and glorifi'd by our entertaining of high , rational , and as much as our nature is capable of worthy notions , attended with a profound and proportionable admiration of those divine Attributes and Prerogatives for whose manifesting he was pleas'd to construct this vast Fabrick . To which purpose I consider , that in the Life to come , when we shall questionless glorifie God exactliest , we shall have little either need or use of Faith , Prayer , Liberality , Patience , and resembling Graces ; but our Worship will chiefly consist in elevated Notions , and a prostrate Veneration of Gods Omnipotence , Wisdom , Goodness , and other Perfections ; and such a one as this is represented in the Apocalyps , to be the present employment of the Blest Spirits in Heaven , where the Elders that assist about the Throne of God , are describ'd , casting their Crowns before it , and saying to him that sits on it , Thou art worthy , O Lord , to receive Glory , and Honor , and Power : for thou hast created all things , and for thy pleasure they are and were created . By this time , Pyrophilus , I hope you begin to think , that the Doctrine that tends to deter Men from enquiring into Nature , is as well derogatory from Gods Glory , as prejudicial to Mans Interests . And indeed , I purpos'd to content my self with the having disperst throughout the past Discourse , the grounds of answering their Objection against the study of Physiology , who pretend it is apt to make Men Atheists : But because I am much concern'd to have you satisfied of so important a Truth , as that which we have hitherto been laboring to evince , I must beg your leave , Pyrophilus , to adde , ex abundanti ( as they speak ) to what has been already alledg'd , some things that may more directly answer the Objection of our Adversaries , and manifest how little their severity is befriended , either by Scripture , Reason , or Experience . And first , it seems not at all probable , That if the Omniscient Author of Nature knew that the study of his Works did really tend to make Men dis-believe his Being or Attributes , he would have given Men so many Invitations , and almost Necessities , to study and contemplate the Nature of his Creatures : Of these Invitations divers have been mention'd already , and more might be added to them , if we thought it requisite . But what has been above alledg'd , will make us forbear the annexing of any , save that of the ancient Institution of the Sabbath , which many eminent Divines do not groundlesly hold to have been ordain'd to commemorate the Creation , and give Men the opportunity every Seventh Day to contemplate God in his Works , as he himself was pleas'd to rest on the first Seventh Day , and contemplate Himself in the works of the first six . And though our Western Churches , for certain Reasons ( not here to be inquir'd into ) have long since disus'd the Solemnizing of the Saturday , and appointed the Sunday for the Celebration of both the Works of the Redemption , and Creation of the World together ; yet 't is evident enough that the Primitive Christians did for the most part keep the Saturday as Holy-day , as well as the Sunday : For that ancient Book ( whoever be resolv'd to have written it ) which goes under the Name of Clement's Constitutions , affords us , among others , these two memorable Passages to our purpose : And first , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( says he ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Keep the Sabbath and the Lords Day as Holy-days ; that being dedicated to the remembrance of the Creation , and this to that of the Redemption : To which we shall adde this second Passage of the same Author , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. Let Servants work for five days ; but on the Sabbath , and the Lords-day , let them attend in the Church the Doctrine of Godliness . To which purpose , I remember the most Learned Grotius observes , That the converted Emperor Constantine , forbad the compelling Christians to appear before Tribunals on either of those Days , as being their Festivals : Nay , and if Modern Travellers do not mis-inform me , I finde that divers of the Eastern Churches , particularly the Abyssine Christians , to this day do as well sanctifie the Sabbath-day in commemoration of Gods having created the World , as the Lords-day to commemorate the Resurrection of Christ. And as for the Jews sense of the Fourth Commandment , some of the Learnedst of their Criticks are pleas'd to distinguish betwixt the Words Zachôr and Smôr , Remember and Keep , imploy'd in the Command of solemnizing the Sabbath : For , the remembring of it they hold to be an act of Religion , performable by all Man-kinde that are capable of it , and acquainted with its having been commanded ; though the keeping of it Holy they suppose onely enjoyn'd to the Israelites : On , which occasion , I remember I was one Sabbath-day entertain'd at his own Lodgings , by a Learned Jew ( who taught me the Holy Language ) with Meat then newly dress'd : to remove my wonder at which , he told me , That it was dress'd by Christians , who , being Gentiles , were not oblig'd to the strict and legal observation of the Sabbath . But whatever be to be thought of this Jewish Notion , yet questionless if the Fourth Commandment do not , at least , divers other Passages of Scripture do much discountenance their severity , who would fright Men from the indagation of Nature . And he that shall duly consider divers Texts obvious enough in the Book of Job , and the Psalms ( besides other parts of the Bible ) will not readily conclude , that Natural Philosophy and Divinity are at such variance , as the Divines we deal with would perswade us . St Paul seems to inform us , that the invisible things of God from the Creation of the World , are clearly seen , being understood by the things that are made , even his eternal Power and God-head : So that they that were mention'd before are without excuse . And though I ignore not , that not onely several of the Socinians following their Master Socinus , but some few Orthodox Writers , are pleas'd to give a very differing Interpretation of that Text , and make the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to signifie those things of God that have been Invisible ever since the Creation of the World , and referring the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to things not made , as we Translate it , but done ( as the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles ) yet I see no necessity why the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be taken in a sense exclusive of the Creation , and not at least admitted to take in all the Ways and Methods imployed by God to manifest the invisible things there intimated unto Man : And certainly , however St Paul may be suppos'd to appear but darkly , yet Job was clearly of a differing Opinion from theirs , who teach , That the study of Nature leads to Atheism : For ask now the Beasts ( says he ) and they will teach thee , and the Fowls of the Air , and they shall tell thee : or speak to the Earth , and it shall teach thee , and the Fishes of the Sea shall declare unto thee . Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this ? And consonantly hereunto ( which 'twere not amiss for our Adversaries to take notice of ) we may observe , That almost all the Writers of Natural Theology , and the most also of those that have labored to demonstrate the Truth of Christian Religion ( divers of whom have been as well Profound Divines , as otherwise Eminent Scholars ) have undertaken to evince , by the consideration of the Universe , both that there is a God , and that he is the Author of it : Which I the rather mention , Pyrophilus , because I would not be mistaken , as if I disputed against Divines in general , or were guilty of the least Irreverence towards a Faculty , in whose Study I have thought my self oblig'd , as a Christian , to spend much of my time ; and especially , I would not appear dis-respectful to Divines in England , where they have already been but too much vilified , though questionless for their Sins against God , yet , I fear , not without the Sin of their Oppressors . In the next place I consider , That since Physiology is said to tempt to Atheism , but by enabling Men to give an account of all the Phaenomena of Nature , by the knowledge of Second Causes , without taking in the First , it will not be so easie a matter as many presume , for the contemplation of Nature , to turn a considering Man Atheist . For we are yet , for ought I can finde , far enough from being able to explicate all the Phaenomena of Nature by any Principles whatsoever . And even of the Atomical Philosophers , whose Sect seems to have the most ingeniously attempted it , some of the eminentest have themselves freely acknowledged to me , their being unable to do it convincingly to others , or so much as satisfactorily to themselves : And indeed , not onely the Generation of Animals is a Mystery , which all that Naturalists have said to explain it , hath been far enough from depriving of that Name ; but we see that to explicate all the various Phaenomena that belong to that single in●nimate , and seemingly homogeneous Body , Mercury , so as not to make any Hypothesis assum'd to make out one of its Properties or Effects incongruous to any other Hypothesis requisite to the explanation of any of the rest , hath been hitherto found so difficult , that if our Posterity be not much happier Unriddlers , then our Fore-Fathers , or we have been , it is like to prove a Task capable of defeating the Industry and Attempts , I say not of more then one Philosopher , but of more then one Age ; even our Chymical Tortures hitherto , having , from that deluding Proteus , forc'd no Confessions that bring us not more Wonder then Satisfaction , and do not Beget almost as many Scruples as they Resolve . ESSAY IV. Containing a requisite Digression concerning those that would exclude the Deity from intermedling with Matter . I Ignore not that not onely Leucippus , Epicurus , and other Atomists of old , but of late some Persons , for the most part Adorers of Aristotle's Writings , have pretended to be able to explicate the first Beginning of Things , and the World 's Phaenomena , without taking in , or acknowledging any Divine Author of it : And therefore , though we may elsewhere , by the assistance of that Author , have an opportunity to give You an Account of our unsatisfiedness with the Attempts made by some bold Wits in favor of such Pretensions ; Yet since the main Truth We plead for , in this Discourse , is so nearly concern'd in what hath been taught by those that would keep God from being thought to have any share in the Production of the Universe ; I can scarce forbear ( as unwilling as I am to digress ) to represent to You , on the present occasion , a few Considerations which may assist You , if not to lessen the Arrogance of such Persons , at least , to keep Your self from thinking their Evidence as great as their Confidence is wont to be . Now of the Philosophers we speak of , some being Atomists , and others not , it will be requisite to say something to each of the two sorts : And because we not long since , in an Illustrious Company , where You , Pyrophilus , are not unknown , met with one of them , who avowedly , grounded his Opinions on the Aristotelean or vulgar Physiology , We shall first recommend to You two or three Considerations concerning such arrogant Peripateticks ( For I speak not of that Sect in general , of which I know there are divers excellent Men. ) First then , You will in many Passages of the following Essays , finde , that dive●s things that have been very Magisterially taught , and confidently believ'd among the Followers of Aristotle , are Errors or Mistakes ; and that as several , even of the obvious Phaenomena of Nature , do contradict the common Peripatetick Doctrine , so divers , at least of those that are more abstruse , are not explicable by it ; and as confidently as these his Followers talk of the expounding the very Riddles of Nature ; yet I remember that he himself somewhere ( for I cannot call to minde the place ) did not scruple to confess , that As the Eyes of Owls are to the splendor of the Day , so are those of our Minds even to things obvious and manifest . I shall next take notice , That Philosophers , who scorn to ascribe any thing to God , do often deceive themselves , in thinking they have sufficiently satisfied our Enquiries , when they have given us the nearest and most immediate caus●s of some things ; whereas oftentimes the assignment of those Causes is but the manifesting that such and such Effects may be deduc'd from the more Catholick affections of things , though these be not unfrequently as abstruse as the Phaenomena explicated by them , as having onely their Effects more obvious , not their Nature better understood : As when , for instance , an account is demanded of that strange supposed Sympathy betwixt Quick-silver and Gold ; in that we finde , that whereas all other Bodies swim upon Quick-silver , it will readily swallow up Gold , and hide it in its Bosom . This pretended Sympathy the Naturalist may explicate , by saying , That Gold being the onely Body heavier then Quick-silver of the same bulk , the known Laws of the Hydrostaticks make it necessary , that Gold should sink in it , and all lighter Bodies swim on it : But though the cause of this Effect be thus plausibly assign'd , by deducing it from so known and obvious an affection of Bodies , as Gravity , which every man is apt to think he sufficiently understands ; yet will not this put a satisfactorie period to a severe Inquirers Curiositie , who will , perchance , be apt to alledge , That though the Effects of Gravity indeed be very obvious , yet the Cause and Nature of it are as obscure as those of almost any Phaenomena it can be brought to explicate . And that therefore he that desires no further account , desists too soon from his Enquiries , and acquiesces long before he comes to his Journies end . And indeed , the investigation of the true nature and adequate cause of gravity , is a task of that difficulty , that in spight of ought I have hitherto seen or read , I must yet retain great doubts whether they have been clearly and solidly made out by any Man. And sure , Pyrophilus , there are divers Effects in Nature , of which , though the immediate Cause may be plausibly assign'd , yet if we further enquire into the Causes of those Causes , and desist not from ascending in the Scale of Causes till we are arriv'd at the top of it , we shall perhaps finde the more Catholick and Primary causes of Things , to be either certain , primitive , general and fix'd Laws of Nature ( or rules of Action and Passion among the parcels of the Universal Matter ) or else the Shape , Size , Motion , and other primary Affections of the smallest parts of Matter , and of their first Coalitions or Clusters : especially those endowed with seminal Faculties or Properties , or ( to dispatch ) the admirable conspiring of the several parts of the Universe to the production of particular Effects ; of all which it will be difficult to give a satisfactory Account , without acknowledging an intelligent Author or Disposer of Things . And the better to clear so weighty a Truth , let us further consider on this occasion , That not onely Aristotle , and those that , mis-led by his Authority , maintain the Eternity of the World , but very many other Philosophers and Physitian● , who ascribe so much to Nature , that they will not be reduc'd to acknowledge an Author of it , are wont very much to delude both themselves and others in the account they presume to give us , as satisfactory of the Causes or Reasons of very many Effects : I will not instance in the Magnetick Properties of Things , nor any of those numerous abstrusities of Nature , which 't is well known that the Aristoteleans are wont to refer to Sympathy , Antipathy , or Occult Qualities , and strive to put Men off with empty Names , whereby they do not so much lessen our Ignorance , as betray their own . But I shall instance in those more obvious Phaenomena , of which they suppose they have given us very satisfactory Accounts : If you ask one of those I speak of , whence it comes to pass that if a Man put one end of a long Reed into a Vessel full of Water , and suck at the other end , his Mouth will be immediatly fill'd with that Liquor ; he will readily tell you , That the Suction drawing the Air out of the cavity of the Reed , the Water must necessarily succeed in the place deserted by the Air , to prevent a Vacuity abhorr'd by Nature . If you likewise ask such a Man , Why to Women about a certain Age , their Purgationes Menstruae do commonly supervene , he will think he has sufficiently answered you , when he has told you , that about that Age , beginning to beripe for Procreation , Nature has wisely provided that their superfluous Blood should be sent to the Uterine Vessels , partly to dis-burthen the Mass of Blood of an useless load , and partly to contribute Matter , or at least afford Nourishment in case of Conception . But though these Solutions are wont to be acquiesc'd in by such as those that give them , yet I see not how they can satisfie a rigid Reasoner . For not now to mention what may be objected against them out of some Modern Mechanical and Anatomical Observations , let us a little consider , that to say that the ascent of the Water in the first Problem , proceeds from Natures Detestation of a Vacuity , supposes that there is a kinde of Anima Mundi , furnished with various Passions , which watchfully provides for the safety of the Universe ; or that a Brute and Inanimate Creature , as Water , not onely has a power to move its heavy Body upwards , contrary ( to speak in their Language ) to the tendency of its particular Nature , but knows both that Air has been suck'd out of the Reed , and that unless it succeed the attracted Air , there will follow a Vacuum ; and that this Water is withal so generous , as by ascending , to act contrary to its particular inclination for the general good of the Universe , like a Noble Patriot , that sacrifices his particular Interests to the publick ones of his Countrey . But to shew Men by an easie Experiment how little Attraction is perform'd to avoid a Vacuum , I have sometimes done thus ; I have taken a slender Pipe of Glass , of about four Foot long , and putting one of the open ends of it into a Vessel full of Quick-silver , I have suck'd as stronly as I could at the other , and caus'd one to watch the ascent of the Quick-silver , and mark where it was at the highest , and I found not that at one suck , I could raise it up much above a Foot ; and having caus'd a couple of strong Men , one after another , to suck at the same end of the same Pipe , I found not that either of them could draw it up much higher . Nor did it appear that by repeated Suctions , though the upper end of the Pipe were each time stopp'd , to hinder the relapse of the Quick-silver , it could at all be rais'd above the seven and twenty Digits at which it us'd to subsist in the Torrecellian Experiment De Vacuo : Whereas the same end of that Tube being put into a small Vessel of Water , I could at one suck make the Water swiftly ascend thorow the perpendicularly held Tube into my Mouth , which argues , that the ascension of Liquors upon Suction , rather depends upon the pressure of the Air , and their respective measures of Gravity and Lightness compar'd to that Pressure , then it proceeds from such an abhorrency of a Vacuum as is presum'd . And so likewise in the other Question propos'd , it is imply'd , that there is in a Female Body something , that knows the rule of Physitians , that of a Plethora , the Cure is the convenient Evacuation of Blood , and that this intelligent Faculty is wise enough also to propose to it self the double end above-mentioned , in this Evacuation , and therefore will not provide a Quantity of Blood great enough to require an Excretion , nor begin it till the Female be come to an Age wherein 't is possible for both the Ends to be obtain'd ; & that also this presiding Nature is so charitable , as that Man-kinde might not fail , it will make the Female subject to such Monethly Superfluities of Blood , from which Experience informs us , that a whole Set of Diseases peculiar to that Sex , does frequently proceed . And in a word , there is a multitude of Problems , especially such as belong to the use of the Parts of a humane Body , and to the Causes and Cures of the Diseases incident thereunto , in whose Explication those we write of , content themselves to tell us , That Nature does such and such a thing , because it was fit for her so to do ; but they endeavor not to make intelligible to us , what they mean by this Nature , and how meer , and consequently bruit , Bodies can act according to Laws , and for determinate Ends , without any knowledge either of the one or of the other . Let them therefore , till they have made out their Hypothesis more intelligibly , either cease to ascribe to irrational Creatures such Actions as in Men are apparently the Productions of Reason and Choice , and sometimes even of Industry and Virtue ; or else let them with us acknowledge , that such Actions of Creatures in themselves Irrational , are perform'd under the superintendence and guidance of a Wise and Intelligent Author of Things . But that you may not mistake me , Pyrophilus , it will be requisite for me , to acquaint you in two or three words with some of my present thoughts concerning this subject : That there are some Actions so peculiar to Man , upon the account of his Intellect and Will , that they cannot be satisfactorily explicated after the maner of the Actings of meer corporeal Agents , I am very much inclin'd to believe : And whether or no there may be some Actions of some other Animals , which cannot well be Mechanically explicated , I have not here leisure or opportunity to examine . But for ( most of ) the other Phaenomena of Nature , methinks we may , without absurdity , conceive , That God , of whom in the Scripture 't is affirm'd , That all his Works are known to him from the Beginning ; having resolved , before the Creation , to make such a World as this of Ours , did divide ( at least if he did not create it incoherent ) that Matter which he had provided into an innumerable multitude of very variously figur'd Corpuscles , and both connected those Particles into such Textures or particular Bodies , and plac'd them in such Scituations , and put them into such Motions , that by the assistance of his ordinary preserving Concourse , the Phaenomena , which he intended should appear in the Universe , must as orderly follow , and be exhibited by the Bodies necessarily acting according to those Impressions or Laws , though they understand them not at all , as if each of those Creatures had a Design of Self-preservation , and were furnish'd with Knowledge and Industry to prosecute it ; and as if there were diffus'd through the Universe an intelligent Being , watchful over the publick Good of it , and careful to Administer all things wisely for the good of the particular Parts of it , but so far forth as is consistent with the Good of the whole , and the preservation of the Primitive and Catholick Laws established by the Supreme Cause . As in the formerly mention'd Clock of Strasburg , the several Pieces making up that curious Engine , are so fram'd and adapted , and are put into such a motion , that though the numerous Wheels , and other parts of it , move several ways , and that without any thing either of Knowledge or Design ; yet each performs its part in order to the various Ends for which it was contriv'd , as regularly and uniformly as if it knew and were concern'd to do its Duty ; and the various Motions of the Wheels , and other parts concur to exhibit the Phaenomena design'd by the Artificer in the Engine , as exactly as if they were animated by a common Principle , which makes them knowingly conspire to do so , and might , to a rude Indian , seem to be more intelligent then Cunradus Dasypodius himself , that published a Description of it , wherein he tells the World , That he contrived it , who could not tell the hours and measure time so accuratly as his Clock . And according to this Notion , if you be pleas'd to bear it in your memory , Pyrophilus , you may easily apprehend in what sense I use many common Phrases , which custom hath so authorized , that we can scarce write of Physiological subjects without employing either them , or frequent and tedious Circumlocutions in their stead : Thus when I say , that a stone endeavors to descend towards the Centre of the Earth , or that being put into a Vessel of Water , it affects the lowest place : I mean that not such a Mathematical Point as the Centre of the Earth , hath power to attract all heavy Bodies , the least of which , it being a point , it cannot harbor ; or that a Stone does really aim at that unknown and unattainable Centre ; but that , as we say , that a Man strives or endeavors to go to any place , at which he would quickly arrive , if he were not forcibly hindered by some Body that holds him fast where he is , and will not let him go : So a Stone may be said to strive to descend , when either by the Magnetical Steams of the Earth , or the pressure of some subtle Matter incumbent on it , or by what ever else may be the cause of Gravity , the Stone is so determined to tend downwards , that if all Impediments , interpos'd by the Neighboring Bodies , were removed , it would certainly and directly fall to the ground ; or being put into a Vessel with Water , or any other Liquor much less heavy then it self ( for on Quick-silver , which is heavier , Stones will swim ) the same Gravity will make it subside to the bottom of the Vessel , and consequently thrust away its bulk of Water , which though heavy in it self , yet because it is less ponderous then the Stone , seems to be light . And so in our late instance in the Clock , if it be said that the Hand that points at the Hours affects a circular motion , because it constantly moves round the Centre of the Dial-plate , 't is evident that the inanimate piece of Metal affects not that motion more then any other , but onely that the impression it receives from the Wheels , and the adaptation of the rest of the Engine , determine it to move after that manner . And although if a Man should with his Finger stop that Index from proceeding in its course , it may be said , in some sense , that it strives or endeavors to prosecute its former Circular Motion ; yet that will signifie no more , then that by virtue of the Contrivance of the Engine , the Index is so impell'd , that , if the Obstacle , put by the Finger of him that stops it , were taken away , the Index would move onwards , from that part of the Circle where it was stopt , towards the mark of the next Hour . Nor do I by this , Pyrophilus , deny that it may in a right sense be said , as it is wont to be in the Schools , that Opus Naturae est opus Intelligentiae : Neither do I reject such common Expressions as Nature always affects and intends that which is best , and Nature doth nothing in vain . For since I must , according to the above-mention'd Notion , refer many of the actions of irrational Creatures to a most wise Disposer of Things , it can scarce seem strange to me , that in those particulars in which the Author intended , and it was requisite that irrational Creatures should operate so and so for their own Preservation , or the Propagation of their Species , or the publick good of the Universe , their Actions being ordered by a Reason transcending Ours , should not onely oftentimes resemble the Actings of Reason in Us , but sometimes even surpass them . As in effect we see that Silk-worms and Spiders can , without being taught , spin much more curiously their Balls and Webs , then our best Spinsters could ; and that several Birds can build and fasten their Nests more Artificially then many a Man , or perhaps any Man could frame and fasten such little and elaborate Buildings . And the Industries of Foxes , Bees , and divers other Beasts , are such , that 't is not much to be wondered at that those Creatures should have Reasons ascrib'd to them by divers Learned Men , who yet perhaps would be less confident , if they considered how much may be said for the Immortality of all rational Souls . And that the subtle Actings of these Beasts are determined to some few Particulars requisite for their own Preservation , or that of their Species ; whereas on all other occasions , they seem to betray their want of Reason , and by their Voice and Gestures seem to express nothing , but the Natural Passions , and not any Rational or Logical Conceptions . And therefore , as when ( to resume our former comparison ) I see in a curious Clock , how orderly every Wheel and other part performs its own Motions , and with what seeming Unanimity they conspire to shew the Hour , and accomplish the other Designs of the Artificer , I do not imagine that any of the Wheels , &c. or the Engine it self is endowed with Reason , but commend that of the Workman who fram'd it so Artificially . So when I contemplate the Actions of those several Creatures that make up the World , I do not conclude , the inanimate Pieces , at least , that 't is made up of , or the vast Engine it self , to act with Reason or Design , but admire and praise the most wise Author , who by his admirable Contrivance can so regularly produce Effects , to which so great a number of successive and conspiring Causes are requir'd . And thus much , Pyrophilus , having been represented concerning those , that rejecting from the Production and Preservation of Things , all but Nature , yet imbrace the Principles of the vulgar Philosphy , you will perhaps think it more then enough : but Object , That what is not to be expected from the barren Principles of the Schools , may yet be perform'd by those Atomical ones which we our selves have within not very many Pages seem'd to acknowledge Ingenious . And I know indeed , that the modern Admirers of Epicurus confidently enough pretend , that he and his Expositors have already , without being beholding to a Deity , clearly made out , at least the Origine of the World , and of the principal Bodies 't is made up of : But I confess , I am so far from being convinc'd of this , that I have been confirm'd rather , then unsetled in my Opinion , of the difficulty of making out the Original of the World , and of the Creatures , especially the living Ones that compose it , by considering the accounts which are given us of the Nativity ( if I may so speak ) of the Universe , and of the Animals , by those great Denyers of Creation and Providence , Epicurus , and his Parapharst Lucretius : Whose having shown themselves ( as I freely confess they have ) very subtile Philosophers in explicating divers Mysteries of Nature , ought not so much to recommend to us their impious Errors , about the Original of Things , as to let us see the necessity of ascribing it to an Intelligent Cause . This then is the account of this matter , which is given us by Epicurus himself , in that Epistle of his to Herodotus , which we finde in Diogenes Laertius : Quod ad Meteora attinet existimari non oportet , aut motum , aut conversionem , aut Ecclipsin , aut or●um occasumvè , aut al●a hujuscemodi ideo fieri quod sit Praefectus aliquis , qui sic disponat , disposuerituè ac simul beatitudinem immortalitatemque possideat : And having interposed some Lines , to prove that the Providence of God is not consistent with his Felicity , he addes , Quare opinandum est , tum cum Mundus procreatus est , factos fuisse eos circumplexus convolventium se Atomorum , ut nata fuerit haec necessitas , quâ circuitus tales obierint : And elsewhere in the same Epistle , Infiniti ( says he ) sunt mundi , alii similes isti , alii vero dissimiles . Quippe Atomi cum sint infinitae , ut non multo ante demonstratum est per infinitatem spatiorum , & alibi aliae , ac procul ab hoc ad fabrefactionem Mundorum infinitorum variè concurrunt . And least this Epicurean Explication of the Worlds Original should seem to owe all its unsatisfactoriness to its obscure brevity , we shall not scruple to give you that elegant Paraphrase and Exposition of it , which Lucretius has delivered in his 5th Book , De Rerum Natura : Sed quibus ille modis , conjectus , materiai Fundarit Coelum , ac Terram Pontique profunda Solis , Lunai cursus ex ordine ponam , Nam certe , neque conciliis primordia rerum Ordine se quaeque atque sagaci mente locarunt , Nec quos quaeque darent motus pepigere profectò : Sed quia multa modis multis primordia rerum Ex infinito jam tempore percita plagis , Ponderibusque suis , consuerunt concita ferri , Omnimodisque coire , atque omnia pertentare , Quaecunque inter se possent congressa creare ; Propterea fit , ut magnum volgata per aeuum , Omnigenos coetus & motus experiundo , Tandem conveniant : ea quae conjuncta repentè Magnarum rerum fiant exordia soepè Terrai maris , & coeli generisque animantum . The Hypothesis express'd in these Verses ( which please our Author so well , that he has almost the same Lines in several other places of his Poem ) he prosecutes and applies to some particular parts of the Universe in the same 5th Book : But whilst he thus refuseth to allow God an Interest in the Worlds production , his Hypothesis requires that we should allow him several things , which he doth assume , not prove : As First , That Matter is Eternal . 2. That from Eternity it was actually divided , and that into such insensibly small parts , as may deserve the name of Atoms ; whereas it may be suppos'd , that Matter , though Eternal , was at first one coherent Mass , it belonging to Matter to be divisible , but not so of necessity , to be actually divided . 3. That the number of these Atoms is really infinite . 4. That these Atoms have an inane Infinitum ( as the Epicureans speak ) to move in . 5. That these Atoms are endowed with an almost infinite variety of determinate Figures , some being round , others cubical , others hooked , others conical , &c. whereas not to mention before-hand what we may elsewhere object , besides against this Assumption , he shews not why , nor how this Atome c●me to be Spherical rather then Conical , and another Hooked rather then Pyramidal : But these Assumptions I insist not on , because of two others much more considerable , which our Author is fain to take for granted in his Hypothesis : For 6ly , He supposes his Eternal Atoms to have from Eternity been their own Movers , whereas it is plain that Motion is no way necessary to the Essence of Matter , which seems to consist in extension : For Matter is no less Matter , when it rests , then when it is in motion ; and we daily see many parcels of Matter pass from the state of motion to that of rest , and from this to that , communicating their motion to Matter that lay still before , and thereby loosing it themselves . Nor has any Man , that I know , satisfactorily made out how Matter can move it self : And indeed , in the Bodies which we here below converse withal , we scarce finde that any thing is mov'd but by something else ; and even in these motions of Animals that seem spontaneous , the Will or Appetite doth not produce the motion of the Animal , but guide and determine that of the Spirits , which by the Nerves move the Muscles , and so the whole Body , as may appear by the weariness and unweildiness of Animals , when by much motion the Spirits are spent . And accordingly I finde that Anaxagoras , though he believed , as Aristotle did after him , that Matter was Eternal , yet he discern'd that the notion of Matter not necessarily including motion , there was a necessity of taking in a Mens , as he stiles God , to set this sluggish Matter a moving . And I remember Aristotle himself , in one place of his Metaphysicks , disputing against some of the antienter Philosophers , askes , Quonamque modo movebuntur si nulla erit actu causa ? non enim ipsa materia seipsam movebit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rerum opifex Virtus : But though elsewhere I have met with Passages of his near of kin to this , yet he seems not to express his Opinion uniformly and clearly enough to engage me to define it or make a Weapon of it : And therefore I shall rather proceed to take notice , That according to the Epicurean Hypothesis , not onely the motion , but the determination of that motion is supposed . For Epicurus will have his Atoms move downwards , and that not in paralel Lines , lest they should never meet to constitute the World , but according to Lines somewhat inclining towards one another ; so that there must be not onely motion , but gravity in Atoms , before there be any Centre of gravity for them to move towards ; and they must move rather downwards then upwards , or side-ways , and in such Lines as nothing is produc'd capable of confining them to . Which are Assumptions so bold and precarious , that I finde some , even of his Admirers , to be asham'd of them : Which will save me the labor of arguing against them , and allow me to take notice in the 7th place , That this Epicurean Doctrine supposes that a sufficient number of Atoms , and their motion downwards being granted , there will need nothing but their fortuitous concourse in their fall , to give a Being to all those Bodys that make up the World. Indeed , that the various coalitions of Atoms , or at least small Particles of Matter , might have constituted the World , had not been perhaps a very absurd Opinion for a Philosopher , if he had , as Reason requires , suppos'd that the great Mass of lazy Matter was Created by God at the Beginning , and by Him put into a swift and various motion , whereby it was actually divided into small Parts of several Sizes and Figures , whose motion and crossings of each other were so guided by God , as to constitute , by their occursions and coalitions , the great inanimate parts of the Universe , and the seminal Principles of animated Concretions . And therefore I wonder not much that the Milesian Thales ( the first of the Grecian Philosophers ( as Cicero informs us ) that inquir'd into these matters ) should hold that Opinion which Tully expresses in these Words : Aquam dixit esse initium rerum , Deum autem eam Mentem quae ex aqua cuncta finxerat : And that of Anaxagoras , the same Author should give us this account , Omnium rerum descriptionem & modum mentis infinitae vi ac ratione ratione designari & confici voluit : For though these great Men exceedingly err'd , in thinking it necessary that God should be provided of a pre-existent , and by him not created Matter to make the World of , yet at least they discern'd and acknowledg'd the necessity of a Wise and Powerful Agent to dispose and fashion this rude Matter , and contrive it into so goodly a Structure , as we behold , without imagining with Epicurus , that chance should turn a Chaos into a World. And really it is much more unlikely , that so many admirable Creatures that constitute this one exquisite and stupendous Fabrick of the World should be made by the casual confluence of falling Atoms , justling or knocking one another in the immense vacuity , then that in a Printers Working-house a multitude of small Letters , being thrown upon the Ground , should fall dispos'd into such an order , as clearly to exhibit the History of the Creation of the World , describ'd in the 3 or 4 first Chapters of Genesis , of which History , it may be doubted whether chance may ever be able to dispose the fallen Letters into the Words of one Line . I ignore not that sometimes odde Figures , and almost Pictures may be met with , and may seem casually produc'd in Stones , and divers other inanimate Bodies : And I am so far from denying this , that I may elsewhere have opportunity to shew You , that I have been no carelesse Observer of such Varieties . But first , even in divers Minerals , as we may see in Nitre , Chrystal , and several others , the Figures that are admired are not produc'd by chance , but by something analogous to seminal Principles , as may appear by their uniform regularity in the same sort of Concretions , and by the practice of some of the skilfullest of the Salt-peter Men , who when they have drawn as much Nitre as they can out of the Nitrous Earth , cast not the Earth away , but preserve it in heaps for six or seven Years ; at the end of which time , they finde it impregnated with new Salt-peter , produced chiefly by the seminal Principle of Nitre implanted in that Earth . To prove that Metalline Bodies were not all made at the beginning of the World , but have some of them a Power , though slowly to propagate their Nature when they meet with a disposed Matter ; you may finde many notable Testimonies and Relations in a little Book of Physico-Chymical Questions , Written by Jo : Conradus Gerhardus , a Germane Doctor , and most of them recited ( together with some of his own ) by the Learned Sennertus : But lest you should suspect the Narratives of these Authors , as somewhat partial to their Fellow Chymists Opinions , I shall here annex that memorable Relation which I finde Recorded by Linschoten , and Garcias ab Horto , a pair of unsuspected Writers in this case concerning Diamonds , whereby it may appear that the seminal Principles of those precious Stones , as of Plants , are lodg'd in the Bowels of the Mine they grow in : Diamonds ( says the first , in that Chapter of his Travels where he treats of those Jewels ) are digg'd like Gold out of Mines , where they digg'd one year the length of a Man into the Ground , within three or four years after there are found Diamonds again in the same place , which grow there ; sometimes they finde Diamonds of 400 or 800 Grains . Adamantes ( says the latter ) qui altissimè in terrae visceribus , multisque annis perfici debebant in summo fere solo generantur & duorum aut trium annorum spatio perficiuntur : Nam si in ipsa fodina hoc anno ad cubiti altitudinem fodias Adamantes reperies . Post biennium rursus illic excavato ibidem , invenies Adamantes . And next , how inconsiderable , alass , are these supposed Productions of Chance , in comparison of the elaborate Contrivances of Nature in Animals ? since in the Body of Man , for instance , of so many hundred Parts it is made up of , there is scarce any that can be either left out , or made otherwise then as it is , or plac'd elsewhere then where it is , without an apparent detriment to that curious Engine ; some of whose parts , as the Eye , and the valves of the Veins , would be so unfit for any thing else , and are so fitted for the uses that are made of them , that 't is so far from being likely that such skilful Contrivances should be made by any Being not intelligent , that they require a more then ordinary Intelligence to comprehend how skilfully they are made . As for the account that Lucretius , out of Epicurus , gives us of the first Production of Men , in I know not what Wombs adhering to the Ground , and which much more becomes him as a Poet , then as a Philosopher , I shall not here waste time to manifest its unlikelyness , that witty Father * Lactantius having already done that copiously for me . And indeed it seems so pure a Fiction , that were it not that the Hypothesis he took upon him to maintain , could scarce afford him any less extravagant account of the Original of Animals , The unsuitableness of this Romance , to those excellent Notions with which he has enriched divers other parts of his Works , would make me apt to suspect , that when he writ this part of his Poem , he was in one of the Fits of that Phrensie , which some , even of his Admirers , suppose him to have been put into by a Philtre given him by his either Wife , or Mrs Lucillia ; in the Intervals of which , they say , that he writ his Books . And here let us further consider , That as confidently as many Atomists , and other Naturalists , presume to know the true and genuine Causes of the Things they attempt to explicate , yet very often the utmost they can attain to in their Explications , is , That the explicated Phaenomena May be produc'd after such a Manner as they deliver , but not that they really Are so : For as an Artificer can set all the Wheels of a Clock a going , as well with Springs as with Weights , and may with violence discharge a Bullet out of the Barrel of a Gun , not onely by means of Gunpowder , but of compress'd Air , and even of a Spring . So the same Effects may be produc'd by divers Causes different from one another ; and it will oftentimes be very difficult , if not impossible for our dim Reasons to discern surely which of those several ways , whereby it is possible for Nature to produce the same Phaenomena she has really made use of to exhibit them . And sure , he that in a skilful Watch-makers Shop shall observe how many several ways Watches and Clocks may be contriv'd , and yet all of them shew the same things , and shall consider how apt an ordinary Man , that had never seen the inside but of one sort of Watches , would be , to think that all these are contriv'd after the same manner , as that whose Fabrick he has already taken notice of ; such a Person , I say , will scarce be backward to think that so admirable an Engineer as Nature , by many pieces of her Workmanship , appears to be , can , by very various and differing Contrivances , perform the same things ; and that it is a very easie mistake for Men to conclude , that because an Effect may be produc'd by such determinate Causes , it must be so , or actually is so . And as confident as those we speak of use to be , of knowing the true and adequate Causes of Things , yet Epicurus himself , as appears by ancient Testimony , and by his own Writings , was more modest , not onely contenting himself , on many occasions , to propose several possible ways whereby a Phaenomenon may be accounted for , but sometimes seeming to dislike the so pitching upon any one Explication , as to exclude and reject all others : And some Modern Philosophers that much favor his Doctrine , do likewise imitate his Example , in pretending to assign not precisely the true , but possible Causes of the Phaenomenon they endeavor to explain . And I remember , that Aristotle himself ( what ever confidence he sometimes seems to express ) does in his first Book of Meteors ingeniously confess , that concerning many of Natures Phaenomena , he thinks it sufficient that they May be so perform'd as he explicates them . But granting that we did never so certainly know in the general that these Phaenomena of Nature must proceed from the Magnitudes , Figures , Motions , and thence resulting Qualities of Atoms , yet we may be very much to seek as to the particular Causes of this or that particular Effect or Event : For it is one thing to be able to shew it possible for such and such Effects to proceed from the Various Magnitudes , Shapes , Motions , and Concretions of Atoms , and another thing to be able to declare what precise , and determinate Figures , Sizes , and Motions of Atoms , will suffice to make out the propos'd Phaenomena , without incongruity to any others to be met with in Nature : As it is one thing for a Man ignorant of the Mechanicks to make it plausible , that the motions of the fam'd Clock at Strasburge are perform'd by the means of certain Wheels , Springs , and Weights , &c. and another to be able to describe distinctly , the Magnitude , Figures , Proportions , Motions , and ( in short ) the whole Contrivance either of that admirable Engine , or some other capable to perform the same things . Nay , a Lover of disputing would proceed farther , and question that way of reasoning , which even the eminentest Atomists are wont to employ to demonstrate that they explicate things aright . For the grand Argument by which they use to confirm the truth of their Explications , is , That either the Phaenomenon must be explicated after the manner by them specified , or else it cannot at all be explicated intelligibly : In what sense we disallow not , but rather approve this kinde of Ratiocination , we may elsewhere tell you . But that which is in this place more fit to be represented , is , That this way of arguing seems not in our present case so Cogent , as they that are wont to imploy it think it to be : For besides that , it is bold to affirm and hard to prove that , what they cannot yet explicate by their Principles , cannot possibly be explicated by any other Men , or any other Philosophy ; besides this , I say , that which they would reduce their Adversaries to , as an Absurdity , seems not to deserve that name : For supposing the Argument to be conclusive , That either the propos'd Explication must be allow'd , or Men can give none at all that is intelligible , I see not what absurdity it were to admit of the consequence : For who has demonstrated to us , That Men must be able to explicate all Natures Phaenomena , especially since divers of them are so abstruse , that even the Learned'st Atomists scruple not to acknowledge their being unable to give an account of them . And how will it be prov'd that the Omniscient God , or that admirable Contriver , Nature , can exhibit Phaenomena by no wayes , but such as are explicable by the dim Reason of Man ? I say , Explicable rather then Intelligible ; because there may be things , which though we might understand well enough , if God , or some more intelligent Being then our own , did make it h●s Work to inform us of them , yet we should never of our selves finde out those Truths . As an ordinary Watch-maker may be able to understand the curiousest Contrivance of the skilfullest Artificer , if this Man take care to explain his Engine to him , but would never have understood it if he had not been taught . Whereas to explicate the Nature and Causes of the Phaenomena we are speaking of , we must not onely be able to understand , but to investigate them . And whereas it is peremptorily insisted on by some Epicureans , who thereby pretend to demonstrate the excellency and certainty of their Explications , that according to them , Nature is declar'd to produce things in the way that is most facile and agreeable to our Reason : It may be replyed , That what we are to enquire after , is , how Things have been , or are really produced , not whether or no the manner of their Production be such , as may the most easily be understood by us : For if all things were , as those we reason withal maintain , casually produced , there is no reason to imagine that Chance considered what manner of their Production would be the most easily intelligible to us . And if God be allowed to be , as indeed he is , the Author of the Universe , how will it appear that He , whose Knowledge infinitely transcends ours , and who may be suppos'd to operate according to the Dictates of his own immense Wisdom , should , in his Creating of things , have respect to the measure and ease of Humane Understandings , and not rather , if of any , of Angelical Intellects , so that whether it be to God , or to Chance , that we ascribe the Production of things , that way may often be fittest or likelyest for Nature to work by , which is not easiest for us to understand . And as for the way of arguing , so often imploy'd ( especially against the Truth we now contend for ) and so much rely'd on by many Modern Philosophers , namely , That they cannot clearly conceive such or such a thing propos'd , and therefore think it fit to be rejected ; I shall readily agree with them in the not being forward to assent to any thing , especially in Philosophy , that cannot well be conceiv'd by knowing and considering Men : But there is so much difference among Men , as to their faculty of framing distinct Notions of th●ngs , and through Mens partiality or lazyness , many a particular Person is so much more apt , then these Men seem to be aware of , to think , or at least , to pretend , that he cannot conceive , what he has no minde to assent to , that a Man had need be wary how he rejects Opinions , that are impugn'd onely by this way of Ratiocination , by which , I hope , it will not be expected that we should be more prevail'd with , then that Sect of Philosophers that imploys it most . And among those that resolve the Phaenomena of Nature into the Mechanical Powers of Things , or the various Figures , Sizes and Motions of the parts of Matter ; I meet with some , as the Epicureans , who tell us , They cannot frame a Notion of an Incorporeal Substance or Spirit , nor conceive how , if the Soul were such , it could act upon the Body : And yet others that seem no less speculative , seriously and solemnly professe , That they can conceive a clear and distinct Notion of a Spirit , which they believe the humane Soul , that regulates at least , if not produces divers Motions of the Body , to be ; denying on the other side , That it can be clearly conceiv'd , either that any thing that is onely material can think , or that there can possibly be any Vacuum ( that is , Place without any Body ) in the Universe ; both which the Epicureans profess themselves not onely to conceive as Possible , but to believe as True. And thus much , Pyrophilus , it may suffice to have said in relation to those who would reject God from having any thing to do , either in the Production or Government of the World , upon this ground , that they , if you will believe them , can explicate the Original and Phaenomena of it without him ; but 't is not all , nor the greatest part of the Favorers of the Atomical Philosophy , that presume so much of themselves , and derogate so much from God : To say therefore something to the more moderate and judicious of that Perswasion , we will candidly propose on their behalf the most plausible Objection we can foresee against the Truth we have been all this while pleading for . They may then thus argue against us , That though the Atomists cannot sufficiently demonstrate from what Natural Causes every particular Effect proceeds , and satisfactorily explicate after what determinate manner each particular Phaenomenon is produc'd ; yet it may suffice to take away the necessity of having recourse to a Deity , that they can make out in general , That all the things that appear in the World , may , and must be perform'd by meerly corporeal Agents ; or if you please , That all Natures Phaenomena may be produc'd by the parcels of the great Mass of Universal Matter , variously shap'd , connected , and mov'd . As a Man that sees a screw'd Gun shot off , though he may not be able to describe the number , bigness , shape and coaptation of all the Pieces of the Lock , Stock , and Barrel , yet he may readily conceive that the Effects of the Gun , how wonderful soever they may seem , may be perform'd by certain pieces of Steel or I●on , and some parcels of Wood , of Gun powder , and of Lead , all fashion'd and put together according to the exigency of the Engine , and will not doubt , but that they are produc'd by the power of some such Mechanical Contrivance of things purely Corporeal , without the assistance of spiritual or supernatural Agents . In answer to this Objection , I must first profess to you , That I make a great doubt whether there be not some Phaenomena in Nature , which the Atomists cannot satisfactorily explain by any Figuration , Motion , or Connection of material Particles whatsoever : For some Faculties and Operations of the reasonable Soul in Man , are of so peculiar and transcendent a kinde , that as I have not yet found them solidly explicated by corporeal Principles , so I expect not to see them in haste made out by such . And if a spiritual Substance be admitted to enter the Composition of a Man , and to act by and upon his Body ; besides that , one of the chief and fundamental Doctrines of the Epicureans ( namely , That there is nothing in the Universe but Corpus and Inane ) will thereby be subverted ; it will appear that an Incorporeal and Intelligent Being may work upon Matter , which would argue , at least a possibility that there may be a spiritual Deity , and that he may intermeddle with , and have an influence upon the Operations of things Corporeal : But to insist no longer on this , let us give a further and direct Answer to the propos'd Objection , by representing , That although as things are now established in the World , an Atomist were able to explain the Phaenomena we meet with , by supposing the parts of Matter to be of such Sizes , and such Shapes , and to be mov'd after such a manner as is agreeable to the Nature of the particular Phaenomenon to be thereby exhibited , yet it would not thence necessarily follow , That at the fi●st production of the World , there was no need of a most powerful and intelligent Being to dispose that Chaos , or confus'd heap of numberless Atoms into the World , to establish the universal and conspiring Harmonie of things ; and especially to connect those Atoms into those various seminal Contextures , upon which most of the more abstruse Operations , and elaborate Productions of Nature appear to depend : For many things may be perform'd by Matter variously figur'd and mov'd , which yet would never be perform'd by it , if it had been still left to it self without being , at first at least , fashion'd after such a manner , and put into such a Motion by an Intelligent Agent . As the Quill that a Philosopher writes with , being dipt in Ink , and then mov'd after such and such a manner upon White Paper , all which are Corporeal things , may very well trace an excellent and rational Discourse ; but the Quill would never have been mov'd after the requisite manner upon the Paper , had not its motion been guided and regulated by the Understanding of the Writer : Or rather , yet once more to resume our former Example of the Strasbourgh Clock , though a skilful Artist , admitted to examine and consider it , both without and within , may very well discern that such Wheels , Springs , Weights , and other Pieces of which the Engine consists , being set together in such a coapt●tion , are sufficient to produce such and such Motions , and such other Effects as that Clock is celebrated for , yet the more he discerns the aptness and sufficiency of the parts to produce the Effects emergent from them , the less he will be apt to suspect that so curious an Engine was produc'd by any casual concurrence of the Parts it consists of , and not rather by the skill of an intelligent and ingenious Contriver ; or that the Wheels , and other parts , were of this or that Size , or this or that determinate Shape , for any other reason , then because it pleas'd the Artificer to make them so ; though the reason that mov'd the Artificer to employ such Figures and Quantities , sooner then others , may well be suppos'd to have been , that the Nature of his Design made him think them very proper and commodious for its accomplishment , if not better then any other suited to the several Exigencies of it . If an Epicurean should be told , that a Man , after having been for some days really dead , became alive again , I think it will not be doubted , but that he would reject such a Relation as impossible , and therefore too manifestly false to be believed by any Man in his Wits : And yet , according to his Principles , the Man , as well Soul as Body , consisted onely of divers Particles of the Universal Matter , by various Motions brought together , and dispos'd after a certain manner : And consequently , he must ground his perswasion that 't is impossible to redintegrate the Engine once spoil'd by death , upon this , That as Chance cannot with the least probablity be presum'd to have produc'd such a strange Effect ; so according to him , there can be no Cause assign'd , knowing and powerful enough , to rally and bring together again the disbanded and scattered parcels of Matter ( or substitute other equivalent ones ) that together with the remaining Carcase , compos'd the dead Man , so to reunite them to the rest ; and lastly , so to place and put into Motion both the one and the other , as were requisite to make a living Man once more result from them . I know that this Example reaches not all the Circumstances of the Controversie we have been debating ; but yet , if I mistake not , it will serve the turn for which I propose it : For , not now to insist upon this inference from it , That a considering Man may confidently reject a thing that is not absolutely impossible , provided it be highly incredible ; not to insist on this , I say , the thing I aim at in the mention of it , is onely to shew , That such things may possibly be effected by Matter and Motion , as no wise Man will believe to have been produc'd by a bare Agitation of the Particles of Matter , not guided by the superintendency of a Powerful and Knowing Director . Now that the Atoms , or Particles of Matter of which the World consists , made no agreement with each other to convene and settle in the manner requisite to constitute the Universe , Lucretius does not so properly confess , as affirm , in that fore-cited Passage where he judiciously tells us , That — Certè neque consiliis Primordia rerum Ordine se quaeque , atque sagaci mente locarunt : Nec quos quaeque darent Motus pepigêre profecto . And the thing it self is manifest enough , from the Nature of Atoms confessedly inanimate and devoid of understanding . So that although we should grant , Pyrophilus , the possible Emergency of the innumerable Effects we admire in the World , from the various Properties and Coalitions of Atoms , yet still you see the formerly mention'd difficulty ( touching the Resulting of All things from Matter left to it self ) would recur ; and it would as well be incredible that an innumerable multitude of insensible Particles , as that a lesser number of bigger Parcels of Matter , should either conspire to constitute , or fortuitously justle themselves into so admirable and harmonious a Fabrick as the Universe , or as the Body of Man ; and consequently it is not credible that they should constitute either , unless as their motions were ( at least , in order to their seminal Contextures and primary Coalitions ) regulated and guided by an intelligent Contriver and Orderer of things . And I should so littte think it a Disparagement to have but so much said of any Hypothesis of mine , that I suppose I may affirm it , without offending either the most sober , or the generality of the Atomical Philosophers , to whom , and to their Doctrine , my Writings will manifest me to be no otherwise affected then I ought . ESSAY V. Wherein the Discourse interrupted by the late Digression , is resumed and concluded . IT remains now , Pyroph : that we at length return into the way from whence the foregoing Digression has , I fear , too long diverted us , and that to prosecute and finish our Discourse , we take it up where we left it and were tempted to digress , namely , at the end of the III Essay ; betwixt which , and the beginning of this V , all that has been interpos'd may be look'd upon but as a long Parenthesis . In the third place then I consider , That whether or no it be true which our Antagonists suggest , that there are some things in Nature which tempt Philosophers more then they doe the Vulgar , to doubt or deny a God ; yet certainly there are divers things in Nature that do much conduce to the evincing of a Deity , which Naturalists either alone discern , or at least discern them better then other Men : For besides the abstruse Properties of particular Bodies , not discover'd by any but those that make particular Enquiries into those Bodies , there are many things in Nature , which to a superficial Observer seem to have no relation to one another ; whereas to a knowing Naturalist , that is able to discern their secret Correspondencies and Alliances , these things which seem to be altogether Irrelative each to other , appear so Proportionate and so Harmonious both betwixt themselves , and in reference to the Universe they are parts of , that they represent to him a very differing and incomparably better Prospect then to another Man : As he that looks upon a Picture made up of scatter'd and deform'd pieces , beholding them united into one Face , by a Cylindrical Looking-glass aptly plac'd , discerns the skill of the Artist that drew it , better then he that looks onely on the single parts of that Picture , or upon the whole Picture , without the uniting Cylinder . Which brings into my minde , That whereas in the Sacred Story of the Creation , when mention is made of Gods having consider'd the Works of each of the first six Days , at the end of it , it is said of the Work of every Day , That God saw that it was good ( except of the second Day , because the separation of the Waters was but imperfectly made on that day , and compleated in the next , on which it is therefore twice said , That God saw that it was good ) whereas , I say , when God look'd upon his Works in particular , it is onely said , That he saw that they were good ; when He is introduc'd at the close of the Creation , as looking upon , and surveying his Creatures in their Harmony , and entire System , it is emphatically said , That he saw every thing that he had made , and behold it was very good . And if Aristotle be indeed the Author of the Book De Mundo ad Alexandrum , which passes for his , and is said to have been Written by him towards the end of his Life , it would not be unworthy our Observation to take notice , how he that in his other Writings is wont to talk of Gods Interest in the Creatures darkly , and hesitantly enough , is wrought upon by the Contemplation of the Universe , as it is an orderly Aggregate or System of the Works of Nature , to make Expressions of the Divine Architect , which are not unworthy of Aristotle , though being meerly humane they cannot be worthy of God. Amongst many I shall single out some ; and I hope , Pyrophilus , you will excuse me , if in this Essay , and some of the precedent ones , I do contrary to my custom , employ pretty store of Passages taken out of other Authors . For first , the nature of my Design makes it requisite for me to shew what Opinion the Heathen Philosophers had of the Study of Physiology , and what Power their Contemplation of Nature had to engage them to Acts of Religion . And next , since divers of the same Passages wherein they had set down their Opinions , contain'd also the Grounds and Reasons of them , whereby they have anticipated much of what we should say upon the same subjects , I was unwilling to deprive you of their pertinent Ratiocinations , or rob them of the Glory of what they had well Written . And this necessary Apology premis'd , let us proceed to consider his Passages ; and first , Restat ( says he ) ut summatim de Causae disseramus , quae cunctarum ipsa rerum vim habet tutricem & continentem , quemadmodum caetera perstrinximus : Flagitii enim instar esset , cum de mundo dicere instituerim , tractatu si minus exquisito fortasse , at certe qui sat esse possit ad formulam doctrinae crassiorem , intactam praecipuam mundi partem principemque praeterire . And a little after , Etenim ( says he ) cunctarum quae rerum natura complectitur , cum servator est Deus , tum vero quaecunque in hoc mundo quoquomodo perficiuntur eorum omnium idem est Genitor : Non sic tamen ipse ut opificis in morem , animalisque lassitudinem sentientis labore affici possit , ut qui ea facultate utatur , quae nulli cedat difficultati , cujus ipse vi facultatis omnia in potestate continet , nec minus etiam quae longius ab ipso videntur esse summo●a : To which purpose he elsewhere says , Augustius decentiusque existimandum est , Deum summo in loco it a esse collocatum : Numinis ut tamen ejus vis per universum mundum pertingens , tum Solem , Lunamque moveat , tum Coelum omne circumagat , simulque causam praebeat eorum quae in Terra sunt salutis atque incolumitatis : And in the same Book he adds , Ut vero sūmatim loquamur quod in navi Gubernator est , quod in Curru agitator , quod in Choro praecentor , quod denique lex in Civitate , & dux in exerctiu , hoc Deus est in mūdo . Nisi si hactenus interest , quod labor , & motus multiplex illos exercet , & curae angunt variae , cum huic illaborata succedunt ōnia , omnis molestiae expertia . And certainly he that is a stranger to Anatomy , shall never be able to discern in the circulation of the blood , the motion of the Chyle , and the contrivance of all the parts of a humane Body , those Proofs , as well as Effects , of an Omniscient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or Artist , which a curious Anatomist will discover in that elaborate and matchless Engine : as I remember , I had occasion not long since to take notice of in the shape of that strange Muscle ( the obturator internus ) which some call from its Figure Marsupialis , serving to the motion of the Thigh . For this Muscle seems so made , as if Nature had design'd in it , to manifest , That she is skill'd in the Mechanicks , not onely as a Mathematician that understands the powers of Distance , Weight , Proportion , Motion and Figure ; but as an Artificer , or Handy-crafts man , who knows by dextrous Contrivances to furnish the more endanger'd parts of his Work , with what is more useful to make it lasting : There being ( to omit other Observables , belonging to that Muscle ) a deep notch made in the Coxendix , to shorten the way betwixt the two extremities of the Muscle , and make it bear upon the Bone with a blunter Angle . And because the Tendon is long , lest , notwithstanding the former provision , it should be apt to fret out upon the edge of the Bone , Nature has provided for it a Musculous piece of Flesh , wherein it is as it were sheath'd , that so it might not immediately bear , and grate upon the Bone ; just as our Artificers use to sow Cases of Leather upon those parts of silken Strings , which being to grate upon harder Bodies , were otherwise endangered to be fretted out by Attrition . And a like skilfulness of Nature in the Mechanical Contrivance of the Parts , is more obviously discernable in the Structure of that admirable Engine , by which such variety of other Engines are made , the Hand : where ( not to mention the Ligamentum latum , or Wrist-band , that keeps the Tendons that move under it from inconveniently starting up upon the Contraction of the respective Muscles ) the wonderful perforations that are made through the Tendons of the Musculi per forat , by those of the Musculi perforantes , for the more commodious motion of the Joynts of the Fingers , may conspicuously manifest the Mechanical Dexterity of Nature ; as it may her Husbanding ( if I may so speak ) of her Work , That in a F●●tus , whil'st it lies in the Womb , because the Lungs are not to be display'd as afterwards , and so the Blood needs not circulate thorow Them from the right Ventricle of the Heart , into the left , for the use of Respiration , as it must in grown Animals , she contrives a nearer way ; and by certain short Pipes , peculiar to such young Creatures , she more commodiously performs in them the Circulation of the Blood , proportion'd to their present condition ; and afterwards , when the Animal is brought out of the Womb into the open Air , and put upon the constant exercise of his Lungs , these temporary Conduit-pipes little by little vanish . So careful is Nature not to do things in vain . And therefore I do not much wonder , that Galen , though I remember he somewhere ( unprovokedly and causelesly enough ) derides Moses , and seems not over much inclin'd to make Religious acknowledgements ; yet when he comes to consider particularly the exquisite Structure of a humane Body , should break forth into very elevated , and even pathetical Celebrations of God , and tell us , That in his Books , De usu Partium , he compos'd Hymns to the Creators praise . And certainly , he that shall see a skilful Anatomist dextrously dissect that admirable part of Man , the Eye , and shall consider the curious Contrivance of the several Coats , Humors , and other Parts it consists of , with all their adaptations and uses , would be easily perswaded , That a good Anatomist has much stronger Invitations to believe , and admire an Omniscient Author of Nature , then he that never saw a Dissection , especially if he should see how all of these concur to make up one Optical Instrument to convey the Species of the visible object to the Optick Nerve , and so to the Brain ; as I have , with pleasure consider'd it , in the recent Eye of a Cat ( for with keeping , it will grow flaccid ) cut cleanly off , where the Optick Nerve enters the Sclerotis , and is going to expand it self into the Retina , for holding this Eye at a convenient distance betwixt yours and a Candle , you may see the Image of a Flame lively exprest upon that part of the back side of the Eye at which the Optick Nerve enters the above-mention'd Sclerotis : Some thing of this kinde we have also shown our Friends with the eyes of dead Men , carefully sever'd from their heads ; and with the ( dexterously taken out ) Christalline humor of a Humane Eye , we have often read , as with a Lens or Magnifying glass . And to assist you in so pleasing a speculation , as that of the Eye , we shall adde , That by reason Ox Eyes are much larger , and much easier to be had then humane ones , we are wont to make much use of them , and to discern some things better in their Coats , we immerse them for a little while in boyling Water , and to be able to consider the form and bigness of the Vitreous and Crystalline humors , better then the fluidity of the one , and the softness of the other are wont to allow Anatomists to do ; we have sometimes , by a way hereafter to be set down , speedily frozen Eyes , and thereby have turn'd the Vitreous humor into very numerous and Diaphanous Films ( as it were of Ice , and the Crystalline into a firm Substance , but ( which perhaps you will wonder at ) not Transparent . An eye thus frozen , may be cut along that which Optical Writers call the Optical Axis , and then it affords an instructive Prospect , which we have not been able to obtain any other way . But because , notwithstanding this Expedient in the Eyes of Men , and the generality of Terrestrial Animals , the Opacousness of the Sclerotis hinders the Pictures that outward Objects ( unless they be lucid ones ) make with in the Eye to be clearly discern'd . We think our selves oblig'd to that excellent Mathematician of your Acquaintance , Pyrophilus , who , upon some Discourse we had with him concerning this Subject , lately advis'd us to make use of the Eyes of white Rabbets ( for if those Animals be of another colour , he says , their Eyes will not prove so fit for our purpose ) For having held some of these Eyes at a convenient distance betwixt my Eyes and the Window , I found them to be so transparent , That the rayes proceeding from the Panes of Glass , Iron Bars , &c. of the Window , passing through the Crystalline humor , and in their passage refracted , did on the Retina exhibit in an inverted Posture , according to the Optical Laws , the contracted , but lively Pictures of those external Objects ; and those Pictures , by reason of the transparency of the Sclerotis , became visible through it to my attentive Eyes : As in a darken'd Room the shadows of Objects without it , projected on a fine sheet of Paper , may , by reason of the thinness of the Paper , be seen thorow it by those that stand behinde it . By Candle-light we could see little in the bottom of these eyes , but lucid Objects , such as the flame of the Candle , which appear'd tremulous , though inverted ; but by Day-light we could manifestly discern in them both the motions of very neighboring Objects , and the more vivid of their colours . And really , Pyrophilus , it seems to me not onely highly dishonorable for a Reasonable Soul to live in so Divinely built a Mansion , as the Body she resides in , altogether unacquainted with the exquisite Structure of it ; but I am confident , it is a great obstacle to our rendring God the Praises due to him , for his having so excellently lodg'd us , that we are so ignorant of the curious Workmanship of the Mansions our Souls live in ; for not onely the Psalmist , from the consideration of the Divine Art display'd by God , in the moulding and fashioning his Body in the Womb , takes a just occasion to celebrate his Maker , I will praise thee ( says he ) because I am fearfully and wonderfully made , marvellous are thy works , and that my Soul knoweth right well : My substance was not hid from thee , when I was made in secret , and curiously wrought ( with as much curiosity as Tapstry or Embrodery , as the Hebrew Rukkamti seems to import ) In the lowest parts of the Earth , thine eyes did see my substance , yet being unperfect ; and in thy Book all my members were written , which in continuance were fashioned , when as yet there were none of them . But even from Galen himself Anatomical Reflections have been able to extort Expressions of Devotion : Cum igitur ( says he ) quod in omnibus recte fit , omnes ad artem referunt , quod ●utem in uno , aut duobus non ad artem , sed fortunam ; merito ex nostri structura corporis licet admirari summam artem , aequitatem , & vim naturae , quae nos construxit . Constat siquidem corpus nostrum ex ossibus pluribus quam ducentis , ad singula ossa vero pervenit nutriens vena ; sicut ad musculos : cum hâc etiam arteria , & Nervi ; pariaque adamussimsunt , & animo similia in dextra animantis parte sita , iis quae in altera sunt ; Os ossi , Musculus musculo , Vena vena , Arteria arteriae , ac Nervus nervo ; idque exceptis visceribus , atque nonnullis particulis quae habere propriam descriptionem videntur . Duplices itaque corporis nostri partes , omnino inter se sunt similes , & magnitudine & conformatione , sicuti & consistentia quam voco juxta mollitiem , duritiemque differentia . Quemadm●dum igitur de Humanis effectibus judicium facimus , ex navi summa arte constructa cognoscentes peritiam artificis , ita etiam de Divinis facere convenit , corporisque nostri Opificem admirari , quicunque tandem is Deorum existat , etiamsi eum non videmus . Perhaps it may be truly said yet further , That although in humane Bodies , many Wonders , as we have lately mention'd , have been discover'd to us by Anatomy , yet Anatomy it self has not discover'd to us all the Wonders to be met with in a humane Body , nor will detect them , till Anatomists be skill'd in some other things over and above that of dexterously Dissecting : For it seems very probable , that the excellent contrivance of some parts will never be fully apprehended , without a competent knowledge of the Nature of those Juices tha● are to pass thorow them , and some of them receive their beginning or some alteration in them ; And the Nature of these Juices will scarce be exactly known , without some skill in divers parts of Physiology , and especially in Chymistry . Besides , the reason of the Origination , Shape , Bulk , Length , Progress , and Infection of each particular Muscle , can hardly be well accounted for , without some skill in the Principles of Mechanicks , and in the nature and properties of Leavers , Pulleys , &c. Moreover , there is a certain Harmonious Proportion betwixt the parts of a humane Body , in reference both to the whole , and to one another , which is not wont to be heeded by Anatomists , but much taken notice of by Statuaries and Painters : For they reckon , that when a Mans Arms are display'd , the distance betwixt his middle Fingers is equal to the height of his Body ; so they reckon sometimes seven , sometimes eight lengths of the Head , to the length of the Body , and four times the length of the Nose to that of the Head , as three times the same length to that of the Face : And divers such Observations we have met with among them , which we shall not now insist on , but rather tell you , That without some skill in Opticks , it will be hard for an Anatomist to shew the Wisdom of God in making the Crystalline humor of the Eyes of Men , onely of a somewhat convex or lenticular form , rather then as those of Fishes of an almost perfectly Spherical one . Nor do I remember that in Anatomy Schools I have heard any account given of this difference , which yet tends much to manifest the Wisdom of the Author of Nature , who has so excellently suited the Eyes of Animals to the several parts of the Universe he design'd them to inhabit . For Men , and other Terrestrial Animals living in the Air , the Beams of Light , reflected from visible Objects , and falling over the Cornea and the Aqueous humor , do necessarily suffer a Refraction there , as coming from the Air , which is a thinner Medium into a thicker , and so there needs the less of further Refraction to be made by the Crystalline humor , and consequently its Figure needs to be but moderately convex ; whereas Fishes living constantly in the Water , the Medium , through which they see things , is almost of a like thickness with the Cornea and Aqueous humor ; so that there being little or no Refraction made in their Eyes but by the Crystalline it self , it was necessary that that should be exceedingly convex , that it might make a very great Refraction , and thereby unite the Beams nearer at hand ; which if the Crystalline were less convex , would tend to a point of Concourse beyond the Retina , and consequently paint on it but a languid and confus'd Picture of the Object they should represent . As for Paracelsus , certainly he is injurious to Man , if ( as some eminent Chymists expound him ) he calls Man a Microcosm , because his Body is really made up of all the several kindes of Creatures the Macrocosm or greater World consists of , and so is but a Model or Epitomy of the Universe : For ( to omit that the Antients ( as Galen informs us ) gave the Title of Microcosms to Animals in general ) 't is the Glory and Prerogative of Man , that God was pleas'd to make him not after the Worlds Image , but His own . On which occasion , give me leave to tell you , That however , the consideration of the dignity conferr'd on us in the Image of God , ( in whatever that Image be resolv'd to consist ) should , methinks , be some engagement to us to look upon our selves as belonging unto God ; As our Saviour , from the Image of Caesar stampt upon a Coyn , pronounc'd it fit to render unto Caesar the things of Caesar , and to God , those of God. In the fourth place , I consider that the universal experience of all Ages manifests , That the contemplation of the World has been much more prevalent to make those that have addicted themselves to it , Believers , then Denyers of a Deity : For 't is very apparent that the old Philosophers , for the most part , acknowledg'd a God , and as evident it is by their want of revelation , by many Passages in their Writings , and by divers other things not now to be insisted on , That the consideration of the works of Nature , was the chief thing that Induc'd them to acknowledge a Divine Author of them . This Truth I could easily make out , were I at leisure to transcribe Testimonies , which , because I am not , I shall content my self to mention to you one , which may well serve for many , it being a Confession made by Aristotle , or whatever other Learned Philosopher it was , who writ the Book De Mundo , That Gods being the Architect and Upholder of the World , was the general belief of the Ages that preceded his : Vetus ( says he ) sermo est à majoribus proditus , inter omnes homines , universa tum ex Deo tum per Deū constituta fuisse , atque coagmentata , nullamque naturam satis instructam ad salutem esse posse , quae citra Dei praesidium , suae ipsa demum tutela permissa sit : And as for both the Opinion of that eminent Author himself , and the Grounds of it , he speaks of God and the Creation almost in the terms of St Paul : Proinde ( says he ) haec etiam de Deo sentienda nobis sunt , illo quidem , si vim spectes , Valentissimo , si decorem , Formosissimo , si vitam Immortali , denique si virtutem Praestantissimo . Quapropter cum sit inconspicabilis naturae omni interiturae , ipsis nihilominus ipse cernitur ab operibus , atque ea quidem quae aëre quoquomodo affecto , quae in terra , quae in aqua , ea certe Dei opera esse merito dixerimus ; Dei inquam opera , eum imperio summo Mundum , ac pro potestate obtinentis , Ex quo deo ut inquit Empedocles Physicus . Omnia quotquot erunt , quot sunt praesentia , quotque Orta fuere antehac stirpes , hominesque feraeque Inde etiam volucres , piscesque humoris Alumni . And those few Philosophers ( if ever there have been any at all ) that have been really Atheists , are no ways considerable for their number , in respect of those that have asserted a Deity ; and their Paradoxes have been lookt upon as so Irrational , that as soon as they have been propos'd , they have been disdainfully rejected and condemn'd by all the rest of Man-kinde , who have look'd upon the Patrons of them as Monsters rather then Philosophers . And if there be , at this day , any Nations ( as Navigators inform us there are in Brasil , and some other parts of the Indies ) that worship no God , they consist not of Naturalists , but Bruit , and Irrational Barbarians , who may be suppos'd rather to ignore the Being of God , then deny it ; and who at least are little less strangers to the Mysteries of Nature , then to the Author of it . And if it be a Truth that there are really such Atheistical People , it may serve to recommend to us the Study of Physiology , by shewing us , That without the help of any such innate belief , or perswasion of a God , as is suppos'd connatural to Man , Reason exercis'd upon the Objects the Creation presents us with , is sufficient to convince Philosophers of a Deity ; and indeed such a care has God taken , to make his Being conspicuous in his Creatures , that they all seem loudly and unanimously to speak to their attentive Considerers , in the Psalmists Language , Know ye that the Lord , he is God : 't is he that hath made us , and not we our selves : And as it is said , That the Stars in their courses fought against Sisera , so it may be truly said , That not onely the Stars , but all the rest of the Creatures do in their courses fight against the Atheists , by supplying an unprejudic'd Considerer of them with Weapons fit to over-throw his impious Error . To which purpose , I remember Aristotle , in his Book De Mundo , makes use of a pretty Simile to declare the conspicuousness of the Creator in his Creatures : Fama est ( says he ) Phidiam illum statuarium , quum Minervam illam quae est in Arce , coagmentaret , in medio ejus scuto faciem suam expressisse , oculosque fallenti artificio ita devinxisse simulachro , eximere ut inde ipsam siquis cuperet , minime posset , aliter quidem certe , quam ut ipsum solveret simulachrum , opusque ejusmodi compactile confunderet ; Hanc eandem rationem Deus habet in Mundo ut pote qui universorum coagmentationem cohaerentem cohibeat & coarctet , incolumitaetemque Universitatis conservet ; Nisi quatenus non medio ille loco in Terra scilicet , ubi Turbida Regio est , sed in excelso situs est , purus ipse in puro loco . But to declare how Atheists may be reduc'd either to confess a first Cause , or to offer violence to their own Faculties , by denying things as certain as those , which 't is apparent that ( in other cases ) themselves firmly assent to , would require a Discourse too large to be proper to be prosecuted here ; and therefore if I have not , in another Treatise , an opportunity of insisting on that subject , I must content my self to refer you for further satisfaction on it , to the Writers of Natural Theology . Nor does Physiology barely conduce to make Men believe the existence of a Deity , but admire and celebrate the Perfections of it : And the noblest Worship from that greater part of the World , to which God did not vouchsafe any explicite and particular Revelation of his Will , hath been paid Him , by those whom the beauty of this goodly Temple of the Universe , transported with a rational Wonder at the Wisdom , Power , and Goodness of the Divine Architect . And this kinde of Devotion being commonly proportionate to the discoveries of Nature that begot it , it needs not seem strange , that divers of the best Philosophers amongst the Heathens , should be the greatest Celebrators of God : And 't was therefore perhaps not without cause that the Indian Gymnosophists , the Persian Magi , the Egyptian Sacrificers , and the old ●auls De●ides , were to their Peoples both Philosophers and Priests ; and that in divers Civiliz'd Nations , Philosophy and Priesthood were so ally'd , that those whose Profession should give them most interest in the definition of Man , made a more strict profession of celebrating and praising God. I might easily , with divers Instances , manifest how great a Veneration the Study of the Creatures has given Philosophers , for those Attributes of God that are stamp'd upon them , and conspicuous in them : But my willingness to hasten to the more Experimental part of what I have to say concerning the usefulness of Physiology , makes me content my self to present you with a couple , or a leash of Authorities , for proof of what has bee● alledg'd ; the first shall be of Galen , in his third Book De usu Partium , where treating of the Skin that invests the sole of the Foot : Cutem ipsam ( says he ) non laxam , aut subtilem , a●t mollem , sed constrictam , & mediocritèr duram , sensilemque ut non facile pateretur subdidit pedi sapientissimus Conditor noster : Cui commentarios hos , ceu hymnos quosdam compono , & in e● pietatem esse existimans , non si Taurorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ei plurimus quispiam sacrificarit , & casias aliaque sexcenta unguenta suffumigarit : Sed si noverim ipse primus deinde exposuerim aliis quaenam sit ipsius Sapientia , quae Virtus , quae Providentia , quae Bonitus ; ignorantia quorum summa Impietas est , non si à sacrificio abstineas . Quod enim cultu convenienti exornavit omnia , nullique bona inviderit id perfectissimae Bonitatis specimen esse statu● , Invenisse autem quo pacto omnia adornarentur summae Sapientiae est , at effecisse omnia quae voluit Virtutis est invictae . To which Illustrious Passage he annexes much more , worthy of Galens Pen , and your perusal . To this let me adde , in the second place , that of Hermes Trismegistus , almost at the very beginning of his first Book , Englished by Dr. Everard : He that shall learn and study the things that are , and how they are ordered and governed , and by whom , and for what cause , or to what end , will acknowledge thanks to the Work-man , as to a good Father , an excellent Nurse , and a faithful Steward ; and he that gives Thanks shall be Pious or Religious , and he that is Religious shall know both where the Truth is , and what it is ; and learning that , he will be yet more and more Religious : To which I cannot but adde a resembling Passage of that great Hermetical Philosopher ( as his Followers love to call him ) Paracelsus : Oppido ( says he ) admir abilis , in suis Operibus , Deus est ; à quorum contemplatione nec interdiu , nec noctu desistendum , sed jugiter illorum indagationi vacandum est , Hoc enim est ambulare in Viis Dei. All which bears witness to , and may , in exchange , receive Authority from that remarkable passage of that Great and Solid Philosopher , Sir Francis Bacon , who scruples not somewhere to affirm , " That it is an assured Truth , and a conclusion of Experience , That a little or superficial taste of Philosophy , may , perchance , incline the minde of a Man to Atheism , but a full Draught thereof , brings the Minde back again to Religion . For in the entrance of Philosophy , when the Second Causes , which are next unto the Senses , do offer themselves to the Minde of Man , and the Minde it self cleaves unto them , and dwells there , a forgetfulness of the Highest Cause may creep in : But when a Man passeth further , and beholds the Dependency , Continuation , and Confederacy of Causes , and the Works of Providence , then according to the Allegory of the Poets , he will easily believe that the highest Link of Natures Chain must needs be tyed to the foot of Jupiters Chair ; or ( to speak our Chancellors thoughts more Scripturally ) That Physiology , like Jacobs Vision , discovers to us a Ladder , whose top reaches up to the foot-stool of the Throne of God : To which he deservedly addes , Let no Man , upon a weak conceit of sobriety , or ill-applyed moderation , think or maintain that a Man can search too far , or be too well studied in the Book of Gods Word , or in the Book of Gods Works , Divinity , or Philosophy : But rather le● Men awake themselves , and chearfully endeavor and pursue an endless progress or proficiency in both ; onely let them beware lest they apply Knowledge to Swelling , not to Charity ; to Ostentation , not to Use : And again , That they do not unwisely mingle and confound these distinct Learnings of Theology and Philosophy , and their several Waters together . In the fifth place , Pyrophilus , I consider , that when the Divines we are answering suppose Physiology likely to render a Man an Atheist , they do it ( as hath above been noted already ) upon this Ground , That Natural Philosophy may enable him to explicate both the regular Phaenomena , and the aberrations of Nature , without having recourse to a first Cause or God. But though this supposal were as great a Truth , as we have endeavored to make it a Mistake , yet I see not why a Studier of Physiology , though never so great a Proficient in it , may not rationally be an utter Enemy to Atheism : For the Contemplation of the Creatures , is but one of the ways of coming to be convinc'd that there is a God ; and therefore , though Religion were unable to make use of the Argument drawn from the Works of Nature , to prove the existence of a Deity , yet has she other Arguments enough besides , to keep any Considerate and Impartial Man from growing an Atheist . And here give me leave , for the sake of these Divines , to observe , That though the Devils be Spirits , not onely extreamly knowing in the Properties of Things ( by their hidden skill in Physiology , by which they teach Magicians , and their other Clients , to do divers of the strange things for which they are admired ) But also unmeasureably proud , and willing to pervert their knowledge to the cherishing of Atheism ; yet St. James informs us , That they themselves believe there is a God , and tremble at him ; which argues , either that skill in Natural Philosophy does not necessarily lead to Atheism , or that there are other Arguments , besides those drawn from Science , sufficient to convince the most refractary of the existence of a Deity . But not to insist on any thing of this nature , nor so much as to mention what proofs the consideration of our own Minds , and their in-bred Notions , may affo●d us of a Deity , I shall content my self to minde you , That the several Patefactions which God has been pleas'd to make of himself , to Man especially , those made by seasonably accomplish'd Prophesies , and by Miracles , do not onely demonstrate the Being , but the Providence , and divers of the Attributes of God. And indeed , methinks , the Divines we reason with may well allow these Patefactions to be capable of evincing the existence of a God , since they are sufficient , and , for ought I know , the best Arguments we have to convince a rational Man of the truth of the Christian Religion . For the Miracles of Christ ( especially his Resurrection ) and those of his Disciples , by being Works altogether supernatural , overthrow Atheism ; and being owned to be done in Gods Name , and to authorize a Doctrine ascrib'd to his Inspiration ; his Goodness , and his Wisdom , permit us not to believe that he would suffer such numerous , great , and uncontrouled Miracles , to be set as his Seals to a Lie , and delude Men little less then inevitably into the belief of a Doctrine not true . And as for the Miracles themselves ( especially that of Christs Resurrection , so much , and so deservedly insisted on by Peter to the Jews , and Paul to the Gentiles ) the truth of them is so ascertain'd to us by many of the solemnist , and most authentick ways of Attestation , whereby the certainty of Matters of Fact is capable of being satisfactorily made out , that 't is hard to shew how these Testimonies can be deny'd , without denying some acknowledg'd Principle of Reason , or some other received Notion , which these Contradictors Opinions or Practice manifest them to look upon as a truth . And upon this account , so much might be said to evince the reasonableness of assenting to the Christian Religion , and to shew , that as much may be said for it , as need be said for any Religion , and much more then can be said for any other ; that it need be no wonder , that , as Learned Men as ever the World admir'd , have not been many of them Embracers , but some of them Champions of it . But having more fully , in another Treatise , discours'd of this subject , I shall content my self to make this Inference from what has been alledg'd , that since the most Judicious Propugners of Christianity have held and found , that , upon the score of Gods miraculous Revelations of himself , rational Men might be brought to believe the abstruser Articles of the Christian Religion , those Revelations cannot but be sufficient to convince them of so fundamental and refulgent a Truth ( which all the others suppose ) as that of the existence of God. In the sixth and last place , I will here adde ( on this occasion ) that an insight into Physiological Principles , may very much assist a Man to answer the Objections of Atheists , against the Being of a Deity , and the Exceptions they make to the Arguments brought to prove that there is one : For though it has long been the custom of such Men , to talk as if themselves , and those of their minde , were not alone the best , but almost the onely Naturalists ; and to perplex others with pretending , th●t , whereas it is not conceiveable how there can be a God , all things are by the Principles of the Atomical Philosophy , made clear and facil . Though this , I say , have long been us'd among the Opposers of a Deity , yet he that not regarding their confidence , shall attentively consider the very first Principles of things , may plainly enough discern , that of the Arguments wherewith Natural Philosophy has furnish'd Atheists , those that are indeed considerable , are far fewer then one would readily think ; and that the difficulty of conceiving the Eternity , Self-existence , and some other Attributes of God ( though that afford them their grand Objection ) proceeds not so much from any absurdity belonging to the Notion of a Deity , as such ; as from the difficulty which our dim humane Intellects finde to conceive the Nature of those first Things ( whatever we suppose them ) which , to be the Causes of all others , must be themselves without cause : For he that shall attentively consider , what the Atomists themselves may be compell'd to allow concerning the Eternity of Matter , the Origine of local Motion ( which plainly belongs not to the Nature of Body ) the Infinity or Boundlesness of space , the Divisibleness or non-Divisibility of each Corporeal Substance into infinite Material Parts , may clearly perceive that the Atomist , by denying that there is a God , cannot free his Understanding from such puzling Difficulties as he pretends to be the Reasons of his Denyal . For instead of one God , he must confess an infinite number of Atoms to be Eternal , Self-existent , Immortal , Self-moving , and must make Suppositions , incumbred with Difficulties enough to him that has competently accustomed his Thoughts to leave Second Causes beneath them , and contemplate those Causes that have none . But I am unwilling to swell this Essay , by insisting on such Considerations as these , especially since you may finde them more aptly deduc'd in other Papers , some of which treat of the Truth of Christian Religion , and others are design'd for the Illustration of some things in this & the fore-going Essays . For I must confess to you , Pyrophilus , that by reason of the sundry Avocations , I have been so diverted from proposing some of the Reasons I have employ'd , to their best advantage , that I my self , at another time , could have both mention'd them with lesser disadvantage , and have added divers others : And therefore I have not onely had thoughts of enlarging upon some Passages of our past Discourse , but I long since made a Collection ( though it be not now in my power ) of Observations , and Experiments to elucidate a Point in one of those Discourses , whereby may be enervated one of the three chief Physiological Reasonings , that I have met with among the Atheists . Upon consideration of all the Premises , I confess , Pyrophilus , that I am enclined to think there may , perhaps , be more cause to apprehend , that the delightfulness of the Study of Phisiology should too much confine your Thoughts and Joys to the Creatures , then that your Proficiency in it should bring you to dis-believe the Creator : For I have observ'd it to be a fault , incident enough to Ingenious Persons , to let their mindes be so taken up , and , as it were , charm'd with that almost infinite variety of pleasing Objects , which Nature presents to their Contemplation , that they too much dis-relish other Pleasures and Employments , and are too apt to undervalue even those wherewith the improv'd Opportunities of serving God , or holding Communion with Him , are capable of Blessing the Pious Soul. But , Pyroph : though comparatively to Fame , and Mistresses , and Baggs , and Bottles , and those other transient , unsatisfactory , ( in a word ) deluding Objects , on which the greatest part of mistaken Mortals , so fondly dote , the entertaining of our Noblest Faculties , with Objects suited to them , and proper both to gratifie our Curiosity , and to enrich our understandings , with variety of acceptable and useful Notions , affords a satisfaction that very well deserves the choice and preferrence of a rational Creature : Yet certainly , Pyrophilus , as God is infinitely better then all the things that he has made , so the Knowledge of Him is much better then the knowledge of them ; and he that has plac'd so much delightfulness in a Knowledge , wherein he allows his very Enemies to become very great Proficients , has sure reserv'd much Higher , and more contenting Pleasures to sweeten and endear those Disclosures of Himself , which He vouchsafes to none but those that love Him , and are lov'd by Him. And therefore , Pyrophilus , though I will allow you to expect from the Contemplation of Nature a greater satisfaction , then from any thing you need decline for it ▪ yet I would not have you expect from it any such satisfaction as you may entirely acquiess in , for nothing but the enjoyment of Him that made the Soul for Himself can satisfie it , the Creatures being as well uncapable to afford us a compleat Felicity by our Intellectual Speculations of them , as by our sensual Fruitions of them ; for though the knowledge of Nature be preferrable by odds to those other Idols which we have mention'd , as inferior to it , yet we here attain that knowledge , but very imperfectly , and our acquisitions of it cost us so dear , and the Pleasures of them is so allay'd with the disquieting Curiosity they are wont to excite , that the wisest of Men , and greatest of Philosophers among the Antients , scruples not , upon his own experience , to call the addicting of ones heart to seek and search out by Wisdom , concerning all things that are done under the Heaven , a sore travel given by God to the sons of Men , to be exercis'd ( or , as the Original hath it , to afflict themselves ) therewith : And the same experienc'd Writer elsewhere tells us , That he that encreases knowledge , encreases sorrow . And 't was perhaps for this reason that Adam was form'd out of Paradice , and afterwards by God brought into it , to intimate , That Felicity is not a thing that Man can acquire for himself , but must receive as a free gift from the liberal Hand of God : And as the Children of the Prophets sought translated Elias with very great diligence , but with no success , so do we as Fruitlesly as Industriously , seek after perfect Happiness here , both they and we , missing of what we seek for the same reason ; because we seek for that on Earth , which is not to be found but in Heaven : And this I forewarn you of , Pyrophilus , not at all to discourage you from the study of Physiology , but to keep you from meeting with that great Discouragement of finding in it much less of satisfaction then you expected , and over-great expectation from it , being one of the disadvantagiousest Circumstances with which it is possible for any thing to be enjoyed . But at length , Pyrophilus , though late , I begin to discern into how tedious a digression my zeal for Natural Philosophy , and for you , has mis-led me , and how it has drawn from my Pen some Passages , which may seem to relish more of the Preacher , then the Naturalist ; yet I might alledge divers things to justifie , or , at least , extenuate what I have done : As first , That if in making this Excursion I have err'd , I have not done so without the Authority of great Examples ; for not onely Seneca doth frequently both season his Natural Speculations with Moral Documents and Reflections , and owns , that he purposely does so , where he says , Omnibus rebus , omnibusque sermonibus aliquid salutare miscendum est , cum imus per Occulta Naturae , &c. but even Pliny ( as far as he was from being guilty of over-much Devotion ) does from divers Passages in his Natural History , allow himself to take occasion to inveigh against the Luxury , Excesses , and other Epidemical Vices of his time . And I might next represent , that perhaps the endeavoring to manifest , that the knowledge of the Creatures should , and how it may be referr'd to the Creators Glory , is not altogether impertinent to the design I have of promoting Physiology , for it seems consonant both to Gods Goodness , and that repeated Axiome in the Gospel , which tells us , That he that improves his Talents to good uses , shall be intrusted with more , That the imploying the little Knowledge I have in the service of Him I owe it to , may invite Him to encrease that little , and make it less despicable . And perhaps it is not the least cause of our ignorance , in Natural Philosophy it self , that when we study the Great Book of Nature , call'd The Universe , we consult , peradventure , almost all other Expositors to understand its Mysteries , without making any address for instruction to the Author , who yet is justly stil'd in the Scripture , That Father of Lights ( in the plural Number ) from whom descends every good and every perfect Gift , not onely those supernatural Graces , that relate to another World , but those intellectual Endowments , that qualifie Men for the prosperous Contemplation of this : And therefore in the Evangelical Prophet , he is said , to instruct even the Plough man , and teach him the skill and understanding he displays in his own Profession . And though I dare not affirm , with some of the Helmontians and Paracelsians , that God di●closes to Men the Great Mystery of Chymistry by Good Angels , or by Nocturnal Visions , as he once taught Jacob , to make Lambs and Kids come into the World speckled , and ring-streaked ; yet perswaded I am , that the favor of God does ( much more then most Men are aware of ) vouchsafe to promote some Mens Proficiency in the study of Nature , partly by protecting their attempts from those unlucky Accidents which often make Ingenuous and Industrious endeavors miscarry ; and partly by making them dear and acceptable to the Possessors of Secrets , by whose Friendly Communication they may often learn that in a few Moments , which cost the Imparters many a Years toyl and study ; and partly too , or rather principally , by directing them to those happy and pregnant Hints , which an ordinary skill and industry may so improve as to do such things , and make such discoveries by virtue of them , as both others , and the person himself , whose knowledge is thus encreased , would scarce have imagin'd to be possible : And in effect , the chiefest of the Secrets that have been communicated to me , the Owners have acknowledg'd to me to have been attain'd , rather , as they were pleas'd to speak , by accidental Hints , then accurate Enquiries : confessions of this nature I have divers times met with in the Writings of the more Ingenious of the Chymists , and of other Naturalists , and by one of these accidental Hints , of late , the acute and lucky Pecquet was directed to finde the newly discovered Lactea Thoracica , as before him Asellius found without seeking , as himself confesseth , the Lactea Mesenterica ; and by an accident too ( as himself hath told me ) did our industrious Anatomist , Dr. Jolive , first light upon those yet more freshly detected Vessels , which afterwards the Ingenuous Bartholinus , without being inform'd of them , or seeking for them , hath met with , and acquainted the World with , under the name of Vasa Lymphatica ; and the two great Inventions of the later Ages , Gunpowder , and the Loadstones respect unto the Poles , are suppos'd to be due rather to Chance , then any extraordinary skill in Philosophical Principles ( which indeed would scarce have made any Man dream of such extravagant Properties , as those of Magnetick Bodies ) As if God design'd to keep Philosophers humble , and ( though he allow regular Industry , sufficient encouragement , yet ) to remain Himself dispenser of the chief Mysteries of Nature . To what hath been represented , Pyrophilus , I might adde much more to excuse my Excursions , if I were not content to be beholden to you for a Pardon , and to invite you to grant it me , I shall promise you to be very careful not to repeat the like offence ; and whereas most Chymical Writers take occasion from almost every Discovery or Process they acquaint us with , to digress and wander into tedious , and too often dull and impertinent Theological Reflections or Sermons . I have troubled you with almost all that I have to say ( to you ) of Theological at once , and I have endeavored to sprinkle it as far as the subject would allow me , with some Passages Experimental . And indeed I should not at all have engag'd my self into so long a Discourse of the not onely Innocency , but Usefulness of the knowledge of Nature , in reference to Religion , but that I could not acquiess in what I had met with on that subject in any of the Writers I have perus'd , Divines being commonly too unacquainted with Nature , to be able to manage it Physiologically enough , and Naturalists commonly esteeming it on part of their work to treat of it at all . And therefore I scruple not to confess freely to you , Pyrophilus , that , as I shall think my self richly rewarded for all the ensuing Essays , if the past Discourse but prove so happy as to bring you to value , and to make the Religious use of the Creatures recommended to you in it : So I had rather any of my Papers should be pass'd by unperused , then those parts of these Essays that treat of that use . And indeed 't is none of the least of Satisfactions , I hope , to derive from my Physical Composures , that by premising before them the now almost finish'd Discourse , I have done my hearty endeavor to manifest and recommend the true use of all the Discoveries of Nature , which either my Enquiries , or your own , may afford you . And indeed for my part , Pyrophilus , I esteem the Doctrine I have been pleading for of that importance , that I am perswaded , That he that could bring Philosophical Devotion into the request it Merits , should contribute as much to the solemnizing of Gods Praises , as the Benefactor of Choristers and Founders of Chauntries , and not much less then Davids so celebrated designation and settlement of that Religious Levitical Musick , instituted for the solemn Celebration of God. For the sensible Representations of Gods Attributes to be met with in the Creatures , occurring almost every where to our observation , would very assiduously solicit us to admire Him , did we but arightly discern Him in them : And the Impressions made on the Minde by these Representations , proceeding not from a bare ( and perhaps languid ) whether Belief or Notion of the Perfections express'd in them , but from an actual and operative intuition of them , would excite an admiration ( with the Devotion springing thence ) by so much the more intense , by how much ( it would be ) more rational . And sure , Pyrophilus , so much admirable Workmanship as God hath display'd in the Universe , was never meant for Eyes that wilfully close themselves , and affront it with the not judging it worthy the speculating . Beasts inhabit and enjoy the World : Man , if he will do more , must study , and ( if I may so speak ) Spiritualize it : 'T is the first act of Religion , and equally obliging in all Religions : 'T is the duty of Man , as Man ; and the Homage we pay for the Priviledge of Reason : Which was given us , not onely to refer our selves , but the other Creatures , that want it , to the Creators Glory . Which makes me sometimes angry with them who so busie themselves in the Duties and Imployments of their second and superinduc'd Relations , that they will never finde the leisure to discharge that Primitive and Natural Obligation , who are more concern'd as Citizens of any place , then of the World ; and both worship God so ba●ely as Catholick or Protestants , Anabaptists or Socinians , and live so wholy as Lords or Councellors , Londoners or Parisians , that they will never finde the leisure , or consider not that it concerns them to worship and live as Men. And the neglect of this Philosophical Worship of God , for which we are pleading , seems to be culpable in Men proportionably to their being qualified , and comply with that invitation of the Psalmist , to sing Praises to God with understanding , or ( the Expression in the Original being somewhat ambiguous ) to sing to him a learn'd Canticle , as he elsewhere speaks , to praise him according to his excellent Greatness . For Knowledge being a gift of God , intrusted to us to glorifie the Giver with it , the Greatness of it must aggravate the neglect of imploying it gratefully ; and the sublimest Knowledge here attainable will not destroy , but onely heighten and enoble our admiration , and will prove the Incense ( or more spiritual and acceptable part , of that Sacrifice of Praise ( for those reflections which their Nature makes onely acts of Reason , their End may make acts of Piety ) wherein the Intelligent Admirer offers up the whole World in Eucharists to its Maker . For admiration ( I do not say astonishment or surprize ) being an acknowledgement of the Objects transcending our Knowledge , the learneder the transcendent Faculty is , the greater is the admired Objects transcendency acknowledg'd : And certainly , Gods Wisdom is much less glorifi'd by the vulgar astonishment of an unlettered Starer ( whose ignorance may be as well suspected for his Wonder , as the excellency of the Object ) then from their learned Hymns , whose industrious Curiosity hath brought their understandings to a prostrate Veneration of of what their Reason , not Ignorance , hath taught them not to be perfectly comprehensible by them . And as such Persons have such piercing Eyes , that where a transient or unlearned glance scarce observes any thing , they can discern an adorable Wisdom , being able ( as I may so speak ) to read the Stenography of Gods omniscient hand ; so their skilful Fingers know how to choose , and how to touch those Strings that may sound sweetest to the Praise of their Maker . And on the open'd Body of the same Animal , a skilful Anatomist will make reflections , as much more to the honor of its Creator , then an ordinary Butcher can ; as the Musick made on a Lute , by a rare Lutanist , will be preferable to the noise made on the same Instrument by a Stranger unto Melody . And give me leave to tell you , Pyrophilus , that such a reasonable Worship ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) of God ( to use St. Paul's Expression , though in an other sense ) is perhaps a much nobler way of adoring him , then those that are not qualified to practise it , are aware of , and is not improper even for Christians to exercise : For , Pyrophilus , it would be considered , That as God hath not by becoming ( as the Scripture more then once stiles him ) our Saviour laid by his first Relation to us as our Creator ( whence St. Peter exhorts , even the suffering Christians of his time , to commit their Souls to God under the notion of a Faithful Creator ) so neither hath he given up his right to those Intelligent Adorations from us , which become us upon the account of being his rational Creatures ; neither are such performances made less acceptable to him by the filial relation into which Christ hath brought us to him , that Glorious relation as well endearing to him our services as our persons . And let me adde , Pyrophilus , that not onely Galen ( as we have seen already ) tells us , That the discerning ones self , and discovering to others the Perfections of God display'd in the Creatures , is a more acceptable act of Religion , then the burning of Sacrifices or Perfumes upon his Altars ; and not onely Trismegistus forbidding Asclepius to burn Incense , tells him , That the Thanks and Praises of Men , are the noblest Incense that can be offered up to God : But God himself ( in his written Word ) is pleas'd to say , That he that sacrificeth Praise ( for so 't is in the Original ) honoreth him : And the Scripture consonantly mentions as a very acceptable part of Religious Worship , the Sacrifice of Praise , and the Calves of our Lips : By offering up of which , we make that true use of the Creatures , of so referring them to their Creators Glory , that ( to conclude this Discourse by Crowning it ( as it were ) with that excellent Circle mention'd by the Apostle ) As all things are of him , and Through him , so they may be To him : to whom be Glory for ever Amen . The Citations English'd . P. 24. Seneca de Otio Sap. Cap. 32. NAture , conscious to her Self of her own Beauty and Artifice , hath given us a curious searching Wit , and to so excellent and great shews , begat us to be Spectators ; otherwise , she would have lost the Fruit of her Self , if to a desert and solitude she should have set forth so magnificent , so famous , so finely drawn , so fair and many ways beautiful Pieces . That you may know she would not only have them seen , but look'd upon , take notice of the place she hath given us : For she hath not onely made Man of an upright Stature , but being so made , for better Contemplation , that he might follow with his Eye the course of the Stars , from the Rising to the Setting , and carry about his Looks , together with his whole Body , she hath both given him a tall Head , and placed that upon a flexible Neck : Then she shews six Constellations by Day , and six by Night ; She hath laid open every part of her Self , that by those things which she hath offered to the Eyes of Man , she might breed a desire of knowing the rest . Yet neither do we see all her Works , nor those that we see , do we see in those Proportions which they truly have : But our Sight , by searching , does open a way unto it self , and lay the grounds of Truth , that so Inquiry may pass from things that are plain to things that are obscure , and finde somewhat more Ancient even then the World it self , See Sen. de Vita Beata , Cap. 32. Pag. 28. What does he that contemplates the Nature of the Universe , of honor unto God ? This , that his great Works are not without a Witness . P. 28. Sen. 2. de Ira. cap. 27. We are not the cause of the seasons and returns of Summer and Winter to the World : These have their own Laws , accommodated to the Exercise of Divine Beings : We arrogate too much honor to our selves , if we esteem our selves worthy that such vast Bodies should fulfil such Motions for our sakes . Ib. Lactantius de Ira Dei , cap. 13. True is the Opinion of the Stoicks , that say , How that for our sakes the Wo●ld was made for all things that are , and the World doth by it self generate , are accommodated to the Advantage of Man. Ib. Seneca de Benef. cap. 23. The Gods were not careless or unconcern'd in the making of Man , for whom they made so many other Creatures : For Nature design'd us , and drew us out in Idea before she made us . Ib. Cicero 2. De Nat : Deorum . And for whose sake then was the World made ? For those Beings that have Reason and Intelligence viz. Gods and Men , then whom no Being is more excellent . P. 43. Piso in Medicina Brasil : Lib. 1. It is observable , That so many excellent Trees , Shrubs , and an innumerable company of Herbs , some few excepted , should all appear so unlike the Vegetables of the Antiently known World , both in Figure , Leaf and Fruits : And the same Observation is made of Birds , Beasts and Fishes ; and of Insects both Flying and Creeping , which are monstrously numerous , and of unspeakable Beauty in Colour , some known to us , and some unknown . P. 47. Piso , ib. You can scarce determine , whether in these Countries there are found mote Poisons or Antidotes : The Leaves , Flowers , and Fruits of the Herbs Tangarack and Juquer , the two most potent Venoms of Brasil , each of these hath its proper Root for an opposite Antidote — The Barbarians apply the Fat and Heads of Vipers , and the whole Bodies of those Insects , prepared according to Art , that stung or struck any Person , and that with boldness , and happy success , to the Wounds made by them , and so by the effects do attempt to prove , That in every Venom it s own Antidote is contained . P. 49. Piso , ib. From the Root Mandihoca , that abounds with a very potent Poison , there is made not onely excellent Aliment , but even Antidote too . P. 50. Ex Augustino . You ought not to use your Eyes as a Bruit , onely to take notice of Provisions for your Belly , and not for your Minde : Use them as a Man : Pry up into Heaven : See the things made , and enquire the Maker : Look upon those things you can see , and seek after Him whom you cannot see , and believe on Him you cannot see , because of those things you see : And be not like the Horse and Mule , &c. P. 75. Epicurus in Epist : ad Herod : in Laertio . As to the Meteors , you ought not to believe that there is either Motion , or Change , or Ecclipse , or the rise or setting of them , because of any superior President , which doth , or hath so disposed of it , and himself possesses all the while Happiness and Immortal Life : Wherefore you must think , that when the World was made , those implications and foldings of Atoms happen'd , which caused this necessity , that these Bodies should pass through these Motions . There are infinite Worlds , some like this , some unlike it : For since Atoms are infinite ( as I newly shewed from the infiniteness of the Spaces ) some in one , others in others , distant parts of these Spaces far from us , variously concur to the making of infinite Worlds . P. 75. Lucretius , Lib. 5. But how at first , when Matter thus was whirl'd , Heav'n , Earth , and Sea , the high and lower World , The Sun and Moon , and all were made , I 'le shew : For sure the first rude Atoms never knew By sage Intelligence , and Councel grave , T' appoint the places that all Beings have : Nor will I think , that all the Motions here Order'd at first by fixt Agreements were , But th' Elements that long had beat about , Been buffeted , now in , now carryed out : Screw'd into every hole , and try'd to take , With any thing , in any place to make Somewhat at last ; after much time and coyl , Motions and Meetings , and a world of toyl Made up this Junto . And thus being joyn'd : And thus in kinde Embraces firmly twin'd , And link'd together , they alone did frame , Heav'n , Earth and Sea , and th' Creatures in the same . P. 77. Aristot : Metaph : 12. c. 6. How shall things be mov'd if there be no actual cause : For Matter cannot move it self , but requires to be mov'd by a Tectonic ' thing-creating Power . P. 78. Ciceronis de Thalete . He said , Water was the Principle of all things , but God was that Intelligence , that made all things out of Water : Ejusdem de Anaxagorâ : The delineation and manner of all things he thought to be design'd and made by the power and reason of an infinite Intelligence . P. 80. Garcias ab Horto , L. 1. simp : c. 47. Diamonds , which ought to be brought to perfection in the deepest Bowels of the Earth , and in a long tract of Time , are almost at the top of the Ground , and in three or four Years space made perfect : For if you dig this Year but the depth of a Cubit , you will finde Diamonds ; and after two Year dig there , you will finde Diamonds again . P. 93. Arist : de Mundo . cap. 6. It remains that we speak briefly concerning that 〈◊〉 , whose Power preserves and supports all things , in like manner , as we have compendiously handled other matters : For it would seem criminal to pass over the chief part of the World untouch'd , having design'd to discourse of the Universe in a Treatise , which , if less accurate , yet certainly may be sufficient for a rough platform of Doctrine . Ibid. For God is both the Preserver of all things contain'd in the Universe , and likewise the Producer of every thing whatsoever which is any wise made in this World : Yet not so as to be sensible of labor , after the manner of a Workman , or a Creature , which is subject to weariness ; for he is indued with a power which is inferior to no difficulty , and whereby he contains all things under his authority , even such as seem most distant from him . 'T is more magnificent and agreeable to conceive God , so resident in the Highest Place , that nevertheless his Divine Energy being diffus'd throughout the whole World , moves both the Sun and Moon , turns round the whole Globe of Heaven , and affords the causes of Safety and Preservation of such things as are upon the Earth . But to sum up all in brief ; what the Pilot is in a Ship ; what the Driver in a Chariot ; what the chief Singer is in a Dance : finally , what Magistracy is in a Commonwealth , and the General in an Army , That is God in the World : Unless there be this difference , That much toil and manifold cares perplex them ; but all things are perform'd by God without labor or trouble . P. 98. Galen . de Plac : Hipp : & Plat : Lib. 7. Whereas therefore ( saith he ) all Men ascribe that to Art , which is made aright in all respects ; but that which is so only in one or two , not to Art , but Fortune : The structure of our Body gives us cause to admire the excellent Art , exactness and power of Nature which fram'd us . For our Body consists of above Two hundred Bones ; to each of which tends a Vein for conveying of nourishment ( in like manner as to the Muscles ) which is accompanied with an Artery and a Nerve , and the parts are exactly pairs , and those plac'd in the right side of an Animal , are wholly alike to those in the other , Bone to Bone , Muscle to Muscle , Vein to Vein , Artery to Artery , and Nerve to Nerve ; excepting onely the Bowels , and some other parts , which seem to have a peculiar construction . So that the parts of our Body are double , and altogether alike among themselves , both in greatness and shape , as also in consistence , which I place in the diversity of softness and hardness . As therefore we use to judge of things made by Men , acknowledging the skill of a Work-man , by the building of a Ship with extraordinary Art ; so also it behoveth to do in those of God , and to admire the Framer of our Body , whosoever of the Gods he were , although we do not see Him. P. 101. Arist : de Mundo , Cap. 6. 'T is an ancient Tradition ( saith he ) diffus'd amongst all Mankinde from our Ancestors , That all things were made and produc'd of God , and by God ; and that no Nature can be sufficiently furnish'd for its own safety , which is left without the support of God , to its own protection . P. Ead : Thus therefore we ought to conceive of God ; If we consider His Power , He is Omnipotent ; if His Shape , most Beautiful ; if His Life , Immortal ; and finally , if His Virtue , most Excellent . Wherefore though undiscernable by any corruptible Nature , yet He is perceiv'd by such , in His Works ; and indeed those things which are produc'd in the Air , by any mutation whatsoever ; in the Earth , or in the Water , we ought deservedly to term the Works of God ; which God is the absolute and soveraign Lord of the World , and out of whom ( as saith Empedocles the Naturalist ) All things beginning have , which e'r shall be , Are present or to come , Plants , Men and Beasts , And Fowl , and Fish the off-spring of the Sea. Pag. 102. Arist : de Mundo , Cap. 6. 'T is reported , That when Phidias , the excellent Statuary , made the Image of Minerva , which is in the Castle at ●thens , he contriv'd his own Picture in the middle of her Shield , and fastned the Eyes of it to the Statue by so cunning Workmanship , that if any one were minded to take it away , he could not do it without breaking the Statue , and disordering the connection of the Work. After the same manner is God in the World , retaining and upholding the coherence of all things , and preserving the safety of the Universe : Onely , He is not in the midst of it ( namely the Earth ) which is a turbulent Region , but in the highest place , which is sutable to His Purity . P. 103 , 104. Galen de Usu partium . Our most wise Creator hath plac'd under the Foot a skin , not loose , or thin , or soft , but close , and of indifferent hardness and sense , to the end it might not easily suffer injury : To Him I compose these Commentaries as certain Hymns , esteeming Piety not to consist in Sacrificing many Hecatombs of Oxen to Him , or burning Cassia , and a thousand other Perfumes ; but in this , first to know my self , and then to declare to others , what His Wisdom , Power , Providence and Goodness is : the ignorance of which , not the abstaining from Sacrifice , is the greatest Impiety . For I account it an evidence of most perfect goodness , that He hath furnish'd all things with convenient ornament , and deny'd . His benefits to none . Now , to have devis'd how all things might be handsomly fram'd , is the part of highest Wisdom ; but to have made all things which he would , of insuperable Power . P. 104. Paracelsus de Mineral : Tract . 1 : God is very admirable in His Works ; from the Contemplation of which we ought not to desist Night or Day , but continually be imploy'd in the inquisition of them . For this is to walk in the ways of God. The INDEX to the First part . THe reason why the Author endeavours to possesse Pyrophilus with the true value of Experimental Philosophy . 1 That Experimental Philosophy is conducive to the improving of man's Understanding , and to the increasing of man's power . 2 Arguments to prove that Man's Curiosity for Knowledge is much thereby gratified . ibid. A relation of the transport & surprisal of a Maid born blind ; when being about 18. years old she obtei●ed the first sight of the various Objects this world presented her with . 3 That the knowledg of the inward Architecture and contrivanecs of Nature is more delightfull then the sight of the outward shapes . 4 Examples and Instances of the prevalence ●f the pleasure that arises from the attainment of Knowledg . 4 That the knowledg of the most curious Artificial works is not more delightfull then the knowledg of Natural . 5. That the delight herein is altogether inoffensive . 6 Instances of the Esteem diverse ancient Philosophers had for it . 6 , 7 How this study consists with Religion . 8 The absurdity of not imploying humane faculties on the contemplation of those Obiects to which they are fitted . 9. Illustrated by the similitude of a Spider in a Palace , taking notice of nothing besides her own Cobweb . 10 The Opinions that Seth , Abraham , Solomon , Ovid had of man's fitnesse for the study of Astronomy , and other Physiology . 11 VVhy Providence might deprive us of Solomons Physiology . 11 Of the delight that may arise from the variety of Obiects which Nature produc●th . 12 That there be above 6000 Subiects of the Vegetable Kingdom . ib. Of an excellent Jamaica Pepper newly brought over . ib. How many Treatises are already made of Antimony , which yet hath not been perfectly discovered . 13 Of a real Mercury of Antimony . 14. and a reall combustible Sulphur of Antimony that burns like ordinary Brimstone . 14 A new Tincture of Antimonial Glass , with the entire process to draw it . 14 Of Gilbertus , Cabeus , and Kircher , who successively writ the Experiments of the Loadstone . 15 Of some new Experiments hitherto undiscoverd of that Stone . ib. That admirable speculations may arise from the most despicable productions of Nature . 16 , 17 VVhat ever God has thought worthy of making , man should not think unworthy of knowing . 18 , 19 Of the Dominion and Power that Physiology gives the prosperous studiers of it . 20 , 21 That the Knowledg of Nature excites and cherishes Devotion . 22 The Ends of God's Creation , his own Glory . 23 , 24 That Man 's Good is a second Eud , proved by Scripture . 25. The same proved by Reason and Authority . 26 , 27 , 28 How the Sun [ Shemesh ] is the great minister of the Universe . 27 , That accommodation and delight which the Creatures might afford Man is much impaired by the want of Natural Philosophie . 29 That the instructions to our Intellectual part are more considerable then the accommodations we have from Nature to our Animal part . ib. Of the Hints of Natural Philosophy in the History of the Creation , and other references to it in other places . 30 , 31 How God's Power is conspicuous in the Creatures . 32 , 33 , 34. How God's wisdome is conspicuous in them . 34 Particular Observations of the structure of Humane Body . 35 Of the eyes and feet of Moles . 36 Of the Silk-worme . 37. That it worketh by Instinct and not by Imitation . 37 , 38 Of the vastnesse of the Elephant , and its disproportion to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and such like Mites . 39 , 40 Of the vastnesse of the Whale , and its disproportion to the small Worms or Fishes lately discovere'd in Vineger . 41 , 42 How God's Goodness is conspicuous in his Creatures , by his provision of accommodations for them all ; but especially for his Favorite , Man. 43 , 44 , 45 Of the unknown and new detected Properties and Vertues of diverse Concretes . 45 Of the Peruvian Bark , commonly called the Jesuits Powder , and other Concretes observable for their unknown Properties . 46 Of the use of diverse noxious Concretes , and that they contein their own Antidotes . 47 , 48 Of that excellent West Indian root Mandihoca . 48 How we are by the Creatures instructed to Devotion . 40 , 50 , 51 That their Opinion who would deterre men from the scrutiny of Nature tends to defeat God of much of that Glory Man should ascribe unto him . 53 , 54 , 55 That Philosophers of all Religions have considered the World under the notion of God's Temple . 56 That in this Temple Man must be the Priest. 57 , 58 The contemplation of Gods mercy ought not so to ingross our thoughts , as to make us neglect the Glory of his Power and Wisdome . 59 That the study of Physiology is not apt to make men Atheists . 60. Prov'd further from the ancient Institution of the Sabbath . 61 That Physiology cannot explicate by second causes all the Phaenomena of Nature , so as to exclude the first . 63. Prov'd by the Instance of the unknown nature Mercury , &c. 64 That same of the Peripatetick Sect are guilty of this endeavour . 65 That their Hypothesis is very full of mistakes . 66 That these excluders of the Deity make but imperfect explications of the Phaenomena of Nature . ib. And do not explaine the Scale of Causes to the last Cause . 67 Instances of things wherein their account is not satisfactory : 68. as 1. In the particulars , the causes of which they assign Occult Qualities . ib. 2. when they assign Natures abborrency of Vacuity to be the cause that Water doth ascend in Suction . ib. whereas the contrary is proved in the Suction of Quick silver , 69 3. When they assign the causes of the Purgationes Menstrnae . 69 , 70 And when in other cases they ascribe to irrational Creatures such actions as in men are the production of Reason and Choice . 70 The Author's conceit concerning God's Creation of the parts of the World , and so placing them , that they ( by the assistance of his ordinary concourse ) must needs exhibit these Phaenomena . 71. Illustrated by the Clock at Strasburg . ib. How far such borrowed & Metaphorical Phrases , which Custom h●s authorized , may be used . 72 Quick-silver being heavier then Stones , they swim thereon , yet sinck in lighter liquors . 72 That the Instances of the Actions of divers Creatures resembling Reason commend the Wisedom of God. 73 , 74 Defects in the Explication of Nature by the Epicureans , who deny the concurrence of God. 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 That the figures in Nitre , Chrystal , and divers Minerals are produced not by chance , but by somewhat Analogous to seminal principles . 79 That the Generation of Animals is much lesse to be accounted the production of Chance . 80 That the Hypotheses of Philosophy only shew that an effect may be produced by such a cause , not that it must . 81 That to a perfect Knowledg there must not only appear the possible , but the definite and real , not only the general , but the particular causes . 82 Some defects in the waies of Reaoning used by the most eminent Atomists . 83 , 84 , 85 The most plausible argument of the Opposers of a Deity considered . 86 , 87 , 88 , 89 That there are some things in Nature which conduce much to the evincing of a Deity , which are only known to Naturalists . 91. Explain'd by the comparison of the Uniting scatter'd pieces of Paint into one face by a Cylindrical Looking Glass . 92 The Testimony of the Author of the Book De Mundo ascribed to Aristotle introduced . ib. Of the admirable contrivance of the Make of the Musculus Marsupialis . 94. and of the parts of the Hand . ib. The contrivance for the Circulation of the Bloud in a Foetus before the use of Respiration . 95 Galen's Speech , That his Books De Usu Partium were as Hymns to the Creator . ib. The Fabrick of the Eye considered : ib. Some Experimental Observations of the Eye , and the use of its parts in order to Vision . 96 The way to prepare the Eyes of Animals for the better making observations on them . ib. Some particulars wherein the Eyes of white Rabbets are better then others for Observation . 97 That it is dishonourable for the Soule to be unacquainted with the exquisite structure of the Body , being its own Mansion . 97. Proved out of Instances in the Psalmist and Galen . ib. Why the anterior part of Fishes Eyes ought to be more Spherical then those of men . 99 That God made Man not after the World's Image , but his Own. 100 That the Image of God on us should engage us to esteem our selves us belonging to God. ib. Arguments from Authority , and the Experience of all Ages , That the Contemplation of the World has addicted Man to the Reverence of God. 100 That those People who worship not God , are not Naturalists but Barbarians , and that their Atheisme doth continue for want of the Contemplation of the World. 101 A comparison of the Image of God on the Creature , to that of Phidias on Minerva's Shield . 102 The noblest worship that has been paid to God from such who have not had particular Revelation of his will , has arose from the speculation of God's Wisdom , Power , and Goodnesse in the fabrick of the Creature . 103. The Testimonies of Galen , Hermes , Paracelsus , L. Bacon . 104. That Religion has other Arguments besides those drawn from the works of Nature , enough to keep any considering man from Atheism . 106 That the Difficulty of conceiving the Eternity , Self-Existence , and other Attributes of one God , is less then to conceive infinite , eternal , self-existent , and self-moving Atomes . 108 As God is infinitely bettter then all his Creatures , so the Knowledg of him is better then the Knowledg of his Creatures . 110 The Imperfection and Disquiet that there is in humane Science . 110 , 111 How the Favour of God conduces to promote mens . Proficiency in the study of Nature . 112 The Reason of the Authors so long Discourse on this Subject . 114 Beasts inhabit and enjoy the World , 't is Man's duty to Spiritualize it . 115 That it being the prime Duty of Man to give God the Honour of his Creatures , it is to be preferr'd before secondary Duties . ib. That the different greatnesse in the Knowledg make a like difference in the Honour given to the Creator . 117 God , by becoming our Saviour , has not laid aside the Relation of a Creator . 117 That he , who sacrificeth Praise , honoureth God. ib. The Conclusion . 118 ERRATA in the First Part. Pag. 24. lin . 22. lege contemplationem factum . p. 62. l. 28. l. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 69. l. 7. l. his private Interests . l. 28. of the Air against the Suckers chest . p. 73. l. 32. have Reason . l. 34. Souls . And. p. 75. l. 3. of Animals . p. 77. l. 5. principally in Extension . p. 75. l. 4. any Centrum gravium . p. 79. l. 24. are not unquestionably produced by chance but perhaps . p. 81. l. 6. dele * . l. 11. Animals ; the. p. 85 l. 15. Ratiocination . By. l. 17. most . p. 87. l. ult . l. Things or their Motions . p. 88. l. 15. Parts it . p. 94. l. 32. Musculi perforati . p. 98. l. 8. sunt & omnino . l. 33. Insertion of . p. 99. l. 17. perfectly Spherical one as to the Anterior part which is obverted to the outward Objects . p. 107. l. 15. Not onely . OF THE VSEFVLNESSE OF Naturall Philosophy . The Second Part. Of its Vsefulness to promote the Empire of Man over things CORPOREAL . OXFORD , Printed by HEN : HALL Printer to the University , for RIC : DAVIS . In the year of our Lord , 1663. OF THE VSEFVLNESSE OF Naturall Philosophy . The Second Part. The first SECTION . Of it's Vsefulness to PHYSICK . ESSAY I. Containing some Particulars tending to shew the Vsefulness of Natural Philosophy to the Physiolological part of Physick . AFter having , in the former part of this Treatise , Pyrophilus , thus largely endeavored to manifest to you the advantagiousness of Natural Philosophy to the minde of Man , we shall now proceed to speak of its Usefulness , both to his Body and Fortune . For I must ingeniously confess to you , Pyrophilus , That I should not have neer so high a value as I now cherish for Physiology , if I thought it could onely teach a Man to discourse of Nature , but not at all to master Her ; and served onely , with pleasing Speculations , to entertain his Understanding without at all increasing his Power . And though I presume not to judge of other Mens knowledge , yet , for my own particular , I shall not dare to think my self a true Naturalist , till my skill can make my Garden yield better Herbs and Flowers , or my Orchard better Fruit , or my Fields better Corn , or my Dairy better Cheese then theirs that are strangers to Physiology . And certainly , Pyrophilus , if we seriously intend to convince the distrustful World of the real usefulness of Natural Philosophy , we must take some such course , as that Milestan Thales did , who was by the Antients reckoned among the very first of their Naturalists , and their seven celebrated Wise-men : Of this Thales it is reported , That being upbraidingly demanded what advantage the Professors of Astrology could derive from the knowledge of it ; he Astrologically foreseeing what Year it would prove for Olives , before any wonted signs of it did appear to Husbandmen , Ingrossed , by giving earnest , the greater part of the Olives , which the next Season should afford to Chios and Miletus ; And being thereby inabled , when most Men wanted Oyl , to sell his at his own rates , he made advantage enough of his skill , to let his Friends see , That Philosophers may have the acquisition of Wealth more in their power then in their aim . Me thinks , it should be a disparagement to a Philosopher , when he descends to consider Husbandry , not to be able , with all his Science , to improve the precepts of an Art , resulting from the lame and unlearned Observations and Practice of such illiterate Persons as Gardeners , Plow-men , and Milk-maids . And indeed , Pyrophilus , though it be but too evident , that the barren Philosophy , wont to be taught in the Schools , have hitherto been found of very little use in humane Life ; yet if the true Principles of that fertil Science were thorowly known , consider'd and apply'd , 't is scarce imaginable , how universal and advantagious a change they would make in the World : For in Man's knowledge of the nature of the Creatures , does principally consist his Empire over them . ( his Knowledge and his Power having generally the same limits ) And as the Nerves , that move the whole Body , and by it , that great variety of Engines imployed by Man on his manifold occasions , proceed from the Brain ; so all the operations , by which we alter Nature and produce such changes in the Creatures , flow from our knowledge of them . Theological inquiries excepted , there is no ●mployment wherein Mankinde is so much and so generally concern'd , as 't is in the study of Natural Philosophy . And those great Transactions which make such a noise in the World , and establish Monarchies or ruine Empires , reach not to so many Persons with their influence , as do the Theories of Physiology . To manifest this Truth , we need but consider , what changes in the Face of things have been made by two Discoveries , trivial enough ; the one being but of the inclination of the Needle , touched by the Load-stone , to point toward the Pole ; the other being but a casual Discovery of the supposed antipathy between Salt-Peter and Brimstone : For without the knowledge of the former , those vast Regions of America , and all the Treasures of Gold , Silver , and Precious Stones , and much more Precious Simples they send us , would have probably continued undetected ; And the latter , giving an occasional rise to the invention of Gunpowder , has quite alter'd the condition of Martial Affairs over the World , both by Sea and Land. And certainly , true Natural Philosophy is so far from being a barren speculative Knowledge , that Physick , Husbandry , and very many Trades ( as those of Tanners , Dyers , Brewers , Founders , &c. ) are but Corollaries or Applications of some few Theorems of it . If I had not a great respect for the Great Hippocrates , I should venter to say , That some of those rigid Laws of Draco ( whose severity made Men say , That they were written in Blood ) have , perhaps , cost fewer Persons their Lives , then that one Aphorism of Hippocrates , which teaching , That if a teeming Woman be let Blood , she will miscarry , has for divers Ages prevail'd with great numbers of Physitians , to suffer multitudes of their Female Patients to die under their hands , who might propably have been rescued by a discreet Phlebotomy , which experience has assured us ( whatever the close of * the Aphorism says to the contrary ) to have been sometimes not onely safely , but usefully employed , even when the Infant is grown pretty big . But my respect for so great a Person as Hippocrates , makes me content it should be thought , That till of late , Physitians have for the most part mistaken their Dictators meaning in this Aphorism , provided it be granted me , That through this mistake numbers of teeming Women have been suffered to perish , who might probably , by the seasonable loss of some of their Blood , have prevented that of their Lives . And if an Error , which occasion'd onely a fault of omission , hath been so prejudicial to Man-kinde , I suppose you will readily grant that those Errors of Physitians , that are apt to produce faults of commission , and rash attempts , may prove much mo●e hurtful . And so much I finde to be acknowledg'd by Galen , in that honest and excellent Passage of his , in his Comment upon the Aphorisms , where having mention'd the danger of trying conclusions upon Men , by reason of the nobleness of the Subject ; and having added , That the Physitians Art is not like that of a Potter , a Carpenter , or the like , where a Man may freely try what he pleases to gratifie his curiosity , or satisfie himself about his Notions , because that if he spoils ( for instance ) the Wood he works on , no Body is indanger'd by his miscarriage : He thus concludes , In corpore autem Human● ea tentare , quae non sunt experientum comprobata periculo non vacat ; cùm temeraria experientiae finis sit totius Animantis internecio . And indeed , since the Physitian borrows his Principles of the Naturalist , I cannot but somewhat admire to see divers Persons , who are by themselves and others thought such wise Men , think the study of Natural Philosophy of small concernment : for when by their Policy or good Fortune they have acquired never so much Wealth or Power , and all other transitory Goods , and are blest with Children to inherit them , if the Principles of Natural Philosophy be mis-laid , we oftentimes see the ignorance or the mistake of a Doctor , deprive them of all at once , and shew how dangerous it is to be sollicitous of the means of attaining the accommodations of Life , with the contempt of that Knowledge which in very many cases is humanely necessary to the preservation of Life it self . But , Pyrophilus , though our unintended prolixity in the former part of our Discourse concerning the Usefulness of Physiology , oblige us to the greater brevity in this latter part of it ; yet to shew you , That of the two things , which you may remember we told you Pythagoras pronounc'd most God like in Man ( The Knowledge of Truth , and the Doing of Good ) Physiology as well qualifies us for the latter , as it inriches us with the former . It will not be amiss a little more particularly ( though as succinctly as so copious a Subject will permit ) to consider the probability there is that no small Improvement may be made by Mens proficiency in Experimental Knowledge of those Arts which are the chiefest Instruments of Man's dominion over the Creatures . These Arts ( to divide them not accurately , but popularly ) do serve either to relieve Man's necessities , as Physick and Husbandry ; or for his accomodation , as the Trades of Shoo-makers , Diers , Tanners , &c. or for his delight , as the Trades of Painters , Confectioners , Perfumers , &c. to all which Arts , and many others ally'd to them , Philosophical Experiments and Observations , may , by a knowing Naturalist , be made to extend a meliorating Influence . If I should , Pyrophilus , say this , without offering any thing at all by way of Proof that I say it not inconsideratly , You would , I fear , believe , that I deliver it too slightly for a Matter of that moment : And if , on the other side , I should in this Discourse present to you all the Particulars that I think I could , without Impertinency , employ to countenance what I have said , it would swell this Treatise to a Volumn , and defraud divers of my other Essays . And therefore I hold it not unfit to choose a middle way , and set down , on this occasion , either onely or chiefly those things which do the most readily occur to me , and do not so properly belong to the rest of my physiological papers . And to avoid Confusion , I shall , according to the Division newly propos'd , employ one Section of this Second part of the present Treatise , in setting down such things as relate to the Improvement of Physick : And in the other Section , deliver such particulars as concern those other useful Arts that depend upon Natural philosophy . But in regard that ( as I have already intimated ) the following Discourse is to consist chiefly of those things that belong not to any of my other Essays , You will not , I presume , expect that I should handle any subject fully or Methodically on this occasion : Which warning I especially intend for that part of the ensuing Discourse that relates to physick . For you will easily believe , that I am far from pretending to be a Doctor in that Faculty : And accordingly , in this and the four following Essays , I shall onely throw together divers such particulars as not belonging to my Writings , would , perhaps be lost , if I did not lay hold on this Opportunity for their preservation , of which they are not altogether judged unworthy by some knowing Men , whose Encouragements , to mention them to you , have disswaded me from wholly passing by , in this Discourse Matters properly Medical , what scruples soever I had to venture at speaking of them , Especially since I have not now the Conveniency to furnish these Essays with divers Particulars ( by some thought not inconsiderable ) which I may , pe●haps be invited to adde to them hereafter , if I finde by your Reception of these that the others are like to be welcome . To say something then of Physick , and to suppose the fitness of the now receiv'd division of it into five Parts : The Physiological ( the Physitian taking that in a stricter sense then Philosophers , and then we do every where , save in this Essay ) Pathological , Semeiotical , Hygieinal and Therapeutical , let us briefly take notice how each of these is indebted to , or capable of being improved by experienc'd Naturalists . And indeed , such is the affinity between Natural Philosophy and Physick , or the dependance of this on that , that we need not wonder at the judicious Observation of Aristotle , where he thus writes , Naturalium ferè plurimis & Medicorum , qui magis Philosophicè artem prosequuntur , illi quidem finiunt ad ea , quae de Medicina ; hi verò ex iis qua de Natura , incipiunt quae de Medicina . But we must instance these things more particularly : And first for Physiology , 't is apparent , That the Physitian takes much of his Doctrine in that part of his Art from the Naturalist : 〈◊〉 to ment●on now no other parts of Physiology , in its stricter acception , the experience of our own age may suffice to manifest , what light the Anatomical doctrine of Mans Body may receive from Experiments made on other subjects . For since it were too barbarous , and too great a violation of the Laws , not onely of Divinity but Humanity , to dissect humane Bodies alive , as did Herophilus and Erasistratus , who ( as I finde in some of the Ancients ) obtain'd of Kings the Bodies of Malefactors for that purpose , and scrupled not to destroy Man to know him ; And since , nevertheless divers things in Anatomy , as particularly the motion of the Blood and Chyle cannot be discover'd in a dead dissected Body ( where the cold has shut up and obliterated many Passages ) that may be seen in one open'd alive ; it must be very advantagious to a Physitians Anatomical knowledge , to see the Dissections of Dogs , Swine , and other live Creatures , made by an inquisitive Naturalist : Consonantly whereunto we may remember , that the discoveries of the milky Vessels in the Mesentery by Asellius , of those in the Thorax by Pecquet , and of the Vasa Limphatica by Bartholinus , were first made in Brute Bodies , though afterwards found to hold in humane ones . Nor is it a small convenience to the Anatomist , that he may in the Bodies of Bruits make divers instructive Experiments , that he dares not venture on in those of Men ; as for instance , that late noble , and by many not yet credited Experiment of taking out the Spleen of a Dog without killing him : For that this Experiment may be very useful , we may elsewhere have occasion to shew . And that it is possible to be safely made ( though many , I confess , have but unprosperously attempted it , and it hath been lately pronounced impossible in Print ) our selves can witness . And because I have not yet met with any Author that professes himself not to relate this Experiment ( of the exemption of a Dogs Spleen ) upon the credit of others , but as an eye-witness ; I am content to assure you , That that dextrous Dissector , Dr Jolive ( of whom we formerly made mention ) did the last Year , at my request , take out the Spleen of a yong Setting-dog I brought him : And that it might not be pretended , the Experiment was unfaithfully or favorably made , I did part of it my self , and held the Spleen ( which was the largest in proportion to his Body that ever I saw ) in my Hand , whil'st he cut assunder the Vessels , reaching to i● , that I might be sure there was not the least part of the Spleen left unextirpated , and yet this Puppy , in less then a Fortnight , grew not onely well , but as sportive and as wanton as before : which I need not take pains to make you believe , since you often saw him at your Mothers House , whence at length he was stol'n . And though I remember the famous Emperick Fiorouanti , in one of his Italian Books , mentions his having been prevail'd with by the importunity of a Lady ( whom he calls Marulla Greca ) much afflicted with Splenetick distempers , to rid her of her Spleen ; and addes , That she out-liv'd the loss of it divers Years . Yet he that considers the situation of that part , and the considerableness of the Vessels belonging to it in humane Bodies , will probably be apt to think , that though his relation may be credited , his venturousness ought not to be imitated . The Experiment also of detaining Frogs under Water for very many hours ( sometimes amounting to some days ) without suffocation , may , to him that knows that Frogs have Lungs and Breath as well as other Terrestrial Animals , appear a considerable discovery , in order to the determining the Nature of Respiration . Besides , the scrupulousness of the Parents or Friends of the deceased Persons , deprives us oftentimes of the Opportunities of Anatomizing the Bodies of Men , and much more those of Women , whereas those of Beasts are almost always and every where to be met with . And 't was , perhaps , upon some such account , that Aristotle said that the external parts of the Body were best known in Men , the internal in Beasts , Sun● enim ( says he , speaking of the inward parts ) hominum imprimis incertae atque incognitae : quamobrem ad caeterorum animalium partes quarum similes sunt humanae referentes eas contemplari debemus . And questionless in many of them , the frame of the parts is so like , that of those answerable in Men , that he that is but moderately skill'd in Andratomy ( as some of the Moderns call the Dissection of Mans Body , to distinguish it from Zootomy , as they name the Dissections of the Bodies of other Animals ) may , with due diligence and industry , not despicably , improve his Anatomical knowledge . In confirmation of which truth , give me leave to observe to you , That though Galen hath left to us so many , and by Physitians so much magnified Anatomical Treatises , yet not onely divers of those Modern Physitians , that would eclipse his Glory , deny him to have learn'd the skill he pretends to , out of the inspection of the Dissected Bodies of Men or Women , or so much as to ever have seen a humane Anatomy . But I finde even among his Admirers , Physitians that acknowledge that his Knives were much more conversant with the Bodies of Apes , and other Bruits , then with those of Men , which in his time those Authors say 't was thought little less then Irreligious , if not Barbarous , to mangle ; which is the less to be wondred at , because even in this our Age , that great People of the Muscovites , though a Christian and European Nation , hath deny'd Physitians the use of Anatomy and Skeletons ; the former , as an inhumane thing ; the latter , as fit for little but Witchcraft , as we are inform'd by the applauded Writer Olearius , Secretary to the Embassy lately send by that Learned Prince , the present Duke of Holsteine , into Moscovia and Persia. And of this , the same Author gives us the instance of one Quirin , an excellent German Chyrurgion , who , for having been found with a Skeleton , had much adoe to scape with his Life , and was commanded to go out of the Kingdom , leaving behinde him his Skeleton , which was also dragg'd about , and afterwards burnt . To these things we may adde , Pyrophilus , that the diligence of Zootomists may much contribute to illustrate the Doctrine of Andratomy , and both inform Physitians of the true use of the parts of a humane Body , and help to decide divers Anatomical Controversies . For as in general 't is scarce possible to learn the true Nature of any Creature , from the consideration of the single Creature it self : so particularly of divers parts of humane Body 't is very difficult to learn the true use , without consulting the Bodies of other Animals , wherein the part inquired after is by Nature either wholly left out as needless , or wherein its differing bigness , or situation , or figure , or connection with , and relation to other parts , may render its use more conspicuous , or at least more discernable . Th●s Truth may be somewhat illustrated by the following Observations , which at present offer themselves to my thoughts upon this occasion . The Lungs of Vipers , and other Creatures ( whole Hearts and whose Blood , even whil'st it circulates , we have always found , as to sense , actually cold ) may give us just occasion to inquire a little more warily whether the great use of Respiration be to cool the Heart . The suddain falling and continuing together , which we may observe in that part at least of a Dogs Lungs , that is on the same side with the Wound , upon making a large Wound in his Chest , though the Lungs remain untouched , is a considerable Experiment , in order to the discovery of the principal Organ of Respiration . If you dexterously take out the Hearts of Vipers , and of some smaller Fishes , whose coldness makes them beat much more unfrequently and leisurely , then those of warm Animals , the contraction and relaxation of the Fibres of the Heart may be distinctly observed , in order to the deciding or reconciling the Controversie about the cause and manner of the Hearts motion , betwixt those Learned modern Anatomists , that contend , some of them , for Dr. Harvey's Opinion ; and others , for that of the Cartesians . Towards satisfying my self in which difficulty , I remember , I have sometimes taken the Heart of a Flownder , and having cut it transversly into two parts , and press'd out , and with a Linnen cloth wip'd off the Blood contain'd in each of them , I observ'd , that for a considerable space of time , the sever'd and bloodless parts held on their former contraction and relaxation . And once I remember that I observed , not without Wonder , That the sever'd portions of a Flownders Heart , did not onely , after their Blood was drain'd , move as before , but the whole Heart , observ'd for a pretty while , such a succession of motion in its divided and exsanguious pieces , as I had taken notice of in them whil'st they were coherent , and as you may with pleasure both see and feel in the intire Heart of the same Fish. Some of the other Controversies agitated among Anatomists and Philosophers , concerning the use of the Heart , and concerning the principal seat of Life and Sense , may also receive light from some such Experiments , that we made in the Bodies of Bruits , as we could not of Men. And the first of these that we shall mention , shall be an Experiment that we remember our selves formerly to have made upon Frogs : For having open'd one of them alive , and carefully cut out his Heart , without closing up the Orifice of the Wound ( which we had made wider then was necessary ) the Frog notwithstanding leaped up and down the Room as before , dragging his Entrals ( that hung out ) after him ; and when he rested , would upon a puncture leap again , and being put into the Water , would swim , whil'st I felt his Heart beating betwixt my Fingers . The Hearts of others of them were taken out at an Incision , no greater then was requisite for that purpose ; when we had stitched or pin'd up the Wound , we observ'd them to leap more frequently and vigorously then the former : They would , as before they were hurt , close and open their Eye lids upon occasion : Being put into a Vessel not full of Water , they would as orderly display their fore and hinder Legs in the manner requisite to swimming , as if they wanted none of their parts , especially not their Hearts ; they would rest themselves sometimes upon the surface of the Water , sometimes at the bottom of it , and sometimes also they would nimbly leap , first out of the Vessel , and then about the Room , surviving the exsection of their Hearts ; some about an hour , and some longer . And that which was further remarkable in this Expe●iment , was , that we could , by gently pressing their Brest and Belly with our Fingers , make them almost at pleasure make such a noise , as to the By-standers made them seem to croak ; but how this Experiment will be reconcil'd to the Doctrine ascrib'd to Mr. Hobs , or to to that of the Aristotelians , who tell us , That their Master taught , the Heart to be the seat of Sense ( whence also though erroneously , he made it the original of the Nerves ) let those that are pleas'd to concern themselves to maintain all his Opinions , consider . And whereas Frogs , though they can move thus long without the Heart , yet they cannot at all bear the exemption or spoiling of the Brain ; we will adde what we have observ'd , even in hot Animals , whose Life is conceived to be much more suddenly dissipable , and the motion of each part much more dependent upon the influence of the Brain : We open'd then an Egge , wherein the Chick was not onely perfectly formed , but well furnished with Feathers , and having taken him out of the Membrane that involved him , and the Liquors he swam in , and laid him on his Back on a flat piece of Glass , we clip'd away , with a pair of Sciffers , the Head and the Brest-bone ; whereby the Heart became exposed to view , but remain'd fastned to the Headless Trunk : and the Chick lying in this posture , the Heart continued to beat above a full hour , and the Ears seem'd to retain their motion a pretty while after the Heart it self had lost his ; the motion of none of the other Parts appearing many moments to survive the loss of the Head : and which is most considerable , the seemingly dead Heart was divers times excited to new , though quickly ceasing motion , upon the puncture of a Pin , or the point of a Pen-knife . And to evince that this was no casual thing , the next Day we dealt with the Chick of another Egge , taken from the same Hen , after the above recited manner ; and when the motion of the Heart and Ears began to cease , we excited it again , by placing the Glass over the warm steam of a Vessel full of hot Water , bringing still new Water from off the Fire to continue the heat , when we perceiv'd the former Water to begin to cool ; and by this means we kept the Heart beating for an hour and an half by measure . And at another time , for further satisfaction , we did , by these and some other little industries , keep the Heart of a somewhat elder Chick , though exposed to the open Air , in motion , after we had carefully clipt off the Head and Neck , for the space of ( if our memory do not much mis inform us ) two hours an● an half by measure . Upon what conjectures we expected so lasting a motion in the Heart of a Chick , after it had lost the Head , and consequently the Brain , would be more tedious and less fit to be mention'd in this place , then the strange vivacity we have sometimes , not without wonder , observed in Vipers : Since not onely their Hearts clearly sever'd from their Bodies may be observ'd to beat for some hours ( for that is common with them to divers other cold Animals ) but the Body it self may be sometimes two or three days after the Skin , Heart , Head , and all the Entrals are separated from it , seen to move in a twining or wrigling manner : Nay ( what is much more ) may appear to be manifestly sensible of punctures , being put into a fresh and vivid motion , when it lay still before , upon the being pricked , especially on the Spine or Marrow with a Pin or Needle . And though Tortoises be in the Indies many of them very large Animals , yet that great Traveller , Vincent le Blanc , in his French Voyages , giving a very particular account of those Tortoyses , which the East Indian King of Peg● ( who was much delighted with them ) did , with great curiosity , cherish in his Ponds , adds this memorable Passage as an Eye-witness of what he relates : When the King hath a minde to eat of them , they cut off their heads , and five days after they are prepar'd ; and yet after those five days they are alive , as we have often experienc'd . Now although I will not say , that these Experiments prove , that either 't is in the Membranes that sensation resides ( though I have sometimes doubted whether the Nerves themselves be not so sensible , chiefly as they are invested with Membranes ) or that the Brain may not be confined to the Head , but may reach into the rest of the Body , after another manner then is wont to be taught : Yet it may be safely affirm'd , that such Experiments as these may be of great concernment , in reference to the common Doctrine of the necessity of unceasing influence from the Brain , being so requisite to Sense and Motion , especially if to the lately mention'd Particulars we adde on this occasion what we have observ'd of the Butter-flies , into which Silk-worms have been Metamorphosed ; namely , That they may not onely , like common Flys , and divers other winged Insects , survive a pretty while the loss of their Heads , but may sometimes be capable of Procreation after having lost them : as I not long since tryed ( though not perhaps without such a Reluctancy as Aristotle would have blam'd in a Naturalist ) by cutting off the Heads of such Butter-flies of either Sex. Quamvis enim Mas cui prius amputatum est caput nequaquam adduci posset ( quaecunque Insecti illius est salacitas ) ut Faeminam comprimeret : Decollata tamen Faemina marem alacriter admisit . Et licet post horas aliquot coitu insumptas it a requierit immota ut mortuam per multas horas cogitarem ; non solum quia omnem penitus motum perdiderat , & in Thorace satis magnum apparebat foramen , quod à parte aliqua Corporis simul cum capite à trunco disruptâ factum videbatur ; verum etiam quoniam eodem permansit statu idque per plures horas , ultra tempus quo , post coitionem cum Mare hujus generis Animalcula solent ordiri prolificationem . Tandem vero postquam jam diu de Vita ejus desperatum esset , Ova faetare tam confertim coepit ut vel exiguo temporis intervallo eorum plura in manu mea deponeret . An vero Prolifica sint futura nondum comperi . Their Opinion that ascribe the redness of the Blood to the colour of the Liver , through which it passes , is not discountenanced by the Livers of Men : But in Hen-eggs , about the third or fourth day after incubation ( for we have found the circumstances of time much to vary ) you may observe the Punctum saliens , or Heart , to be ever and anon full of conspicuously red Blood , before the naked Eyes can so much as discern a Liver , at least before they can discover in it any redness ; a yellowness being all I could observe in the Parenchyma of the Livers of divers Chickens perfectly form'd , and furnish●d with Feathers , though not great enough to make their way out of the Shell . And in divers great Fishes I have found the Vessels of the Liver full of very red Blood , though the Parenchyma or substance of it were white , or at least did not at all participate much less impart a sanguine colour . The Doctrine so unanimously delivered by Physitians and Chirurgions , concerning the irreparable loss of the Limb of an Animal , once violently severed from the Body , will appear unfit to be admitted , without some restriction by what may be experienc'd in Lizards , in Lobsters and Craw-fishes , and perhaps in some other living Creatures . For of Lizards it hath been often observ'd in hot Countreys , and even in France , that their Tails being struck off will grow again . And the like hath been of old observ'd by Pliny , and the experienc'd Bontius delivers it upon his own knowledge in these words : Hoc in domesticis meis non semel animadverti dum filioli mei lusitabundi bacillo caudas iis decutiebant , quas tamen post diem unum aut alterum ad solitum pabulum revertentes vidi , caudasque iis paulatim reaccrescere . That the Claws likewise of Lobsters being torn off , another will sometimes grow in the room of it , is not onely said by Fisher-men , but hath been affirmed to me by very credible persons , one of which assured me , that he himself had observed it very often . And I am the more apt to believe it , because the like is to be met with among Craw-fishes , which are so like Lobsters , that by many they are taken ( though not considerately enough ) to be but a smaller kinde of them . For I remember , that going to look upon a Repository where a multitude of them was kept , and causing divers of the fairest to be drawn up , that I might take the stony concretions , commonly called Oculi Cancrorum , out of their Heads I observ'd one large Fish that had one of his Claws proportionable to the bulk of his Body , but the other so short and little , that the greater seem'd to be four or five times as big as it ; whereupon its good shape and fresh colour , seeming to argue it to be but yong and growing , invited me to ask one of them that had the oversight of the Fish , whether he had formerly seen any Claws torn off to grow again ; he affirmed to me , That in that sort of Fish it was very usual . I could also tell you how fruitlesly I have indeavored to discover that stomachical Acidity , to which many of our Modern Physitians are pleas'd to ascribe the first digestion of the Nutriment of Animals , in the purposely dissected Stomachs of ravenous Sea-fishes , in whose Stomachs , though our taste could not perceive any sensible acidity , yet we found in one of them a couple of Fishes , each of them about a Foot long , whereof the one , which seem'd to have been but newly devoured , hath suffered little or no alteration in the great Fishes Stomach ; but the other had all its outside , save the Head , uniformly wasted to a pretty depth , beneath the former surface of the Body , and look'd as if it had been not boil'd , or wrought upon by any considerable heat , but uniformly corroded , like a piece of Silver Coyn kept a while in Aqua-fortis , according to the criminal tricks of Adulterators of Money . Yet I am loth , till I have perfected what I design in order to that enquiry , either to imbrace or reject the Opinion I finde so general among the Moderns , concerning the Solution of Meat in the Stomach by something of Acid. And I remember , that when I was considering what might be alleadg'd for , as well as against that Opinion , I devis'd this Experiment , among others , in favor of it : I provided a Liquor , with which I drench'd a piece of the Wing of a rosted Pullet , hav●ng first well crushed it between my Fingers , to make some amends for the omission of chewing it ; and having a little incorporated the Liquor and the musculous Flesh , they immediately chang'd colour , and in about an hour , grew to be a kinde of Gelly , in colour and consistence not unlike Quince Marmalade : This mixture , by the next Morn●ng , did , as I expected , turn to a deep Blood red , or sometimes rather a lovely purple Liquor , though all this while there had been no external heat imployed to promote the action of the Menstruum . And the like Experiment I tryed also with a piece of Mutton , with Bread , and a piece of Veal , and other edible things , which at that time occur'd to me , and found the operation of the Liquor almost uniform , though it seem'd to act most effectually upon Flesh. And to gratifie in some measure your curiosity , Pyrophilus , I am content to tell you , that the Menstruum was drawn from Vitriol , and that with the bare Oyl of it I have ( though I could not with Aqua fortis ) perform'd no less then what I have yet mention'd ; but least this should be thought a digression , let it suffice to have , on this occasion , mention'd thus much upon the by . To what we lately took notice of concerning the Heart , may be added , That on the Sea-coast of Ireland , I observ'd a sort of Fishes , about the bigness of Mackrels , whose Hearts were of an inverted Figure , compar'd to those of other Animals , the basis or broad end of the Heart being nearest the Tail , and the accuminated part or apex being coherent to the great Artery , and respecting the Head. To all these trifling Observations , divers more considerable ones might be added , but they may be more seasonably insisted on elsewhere ; and those already mention'd , may suffice to let you see , That the Naturalist by his Zootomy , may be very serviceable to the Physitian in his Anatomical Inquiries . Nor is it onely by the dissection of various Animals , that the Naturalist may promote the Anatomists knowledge , but perhaps also he may do it by devising ways to make the dead Bodies of Men , and other Animals , keep longer then naturally they would do : For since experience teaches us , That Men finde it very easie to forget the originations , windings , branchings , insertions , and other circumstances of particular Vessels , and other parts of the Body , as well as those that study Botanicks , are wont to complain of their easie forgetting , the shapes , differences , and alterations of smaller Plants , it cannot but be a great help to the Student of An●tomy , to be able to preserve the parts of humane Bodies , and those of other Animals , especially such Monsters as are of a very singular or instructive Fabrick , so long that he may have recourse to them at pleasure , and contemplate each of them so often and so considerately , till he have taken sufficient notice of the shape , situation , connection , &c. of the Vessel , Bone , or other part , and firmly impress'd an Idea of it upon his memory , We finde our selves much help'd to retain in our memory , the figures and differences of Vegetables , by those Books which some curious Botanists make , wherein the Plants themselves , artificially dry'd , are display'd upon , and fastned to Leaves of white Paper ; if it were not for one of those Books , wherein I have in one vast Volumn almost all the Plants of one of the chief Physick-gardens in Europe , I should every Year forget , by the end of Winter , to know again most of the smaller Plants I had learn'd to take notice of in the Spring . And by the way 't is observable , how long Plants , by being carefully indeed , but barely dryed in the shade betwixt Sheets of Paper , which help to soak up the superfluous moisture , may be preserv'd . For I have divers Years had an Herbal , wherein several of the Flowers , and other Plants , retain their native yellow and blue , &c. ( but somewhat faint ) though by the date it appear'd to be 22 or 23 Years old . And I am apt to think , that it would be very possible for Anatomists also to preserve the Bodies they contemplate for a considerable time : For experience hath inform'd us in good number of such Animals , that Butter-flies , and divers other flying Insects , may have their shape and colours preserv'd , I know not how long , by running them through in some convenient part with Pins , and therewith sticking them to the inside of large Boxes . And on this occasion , I remember , that having sometimes reflected upon the Lasting of Spiders , Flys , and other small living Creatures , that having been casually enclos'd in Amber whil'st it was soft , are ever preserv'd entire and uncorrupted , I thought it not amiss to try whether some Substance , like Amber ( at least as to the newly mention'd use of it ) might not easily be prepar'd by Art : And hereupon I quickly found , that by taking good clear Venice Turpentine , and gently evaporating away about a third part of it ( sometimes more , sometimes less , according to the exigency of my particular purpose ) I could make a reddish Gum , diaphanous and without Bubbles , which would melt with a very gentle heat , and easily ( being suffer'd to cool ) become again so hard as to be brittle . This resinous Substance should be melted with as little heat as is possible ( and therefore should be first pouder'd ) that the texture of the Vegetable or Animal Bodies to be cased over with it , might receive the less alteration : And when it is brought to the requisite degree of fluidity , then the Body to be preserv'd ( being , if that be needful , stuck through with a Pin ) must be gently plung'd into it , and presently taken out and suffer'd leisurely to cool , being turn'd , from time to time , this way or that way , if there be occasion , that the investing Matter may be every where of an equal thickness upon it . And if at the first time the Case be not thick enough , it may again , when it is cold , be immers'd into the liquid Matter ( as Chandlers are wont to thicken their Candles , by dipping them frequently into melted Tallow ) of which some will every way adhere to it . And though these Cases be inferior to Amber , in regard of their being more apt to be sulli'd by dust , or otherwise ; yet that inconvenience may be easily remedy'd , by keeping them shut up in Glasses or Boxes , at those times when one hath not occasion to consider them : And their clearness ( especially if they be thin ) and their smooth surfaces , together with their exactly keeping out the Air from the Body they enclose , may , perhaps , make so cheap and easie an Experiment a not unwelcome trifle , especially considering how easily 't is capable of Improvement . But to return to the Preservation of more bulky Bodies , 't is a known thing , to the Collectors of Rarities , that the external Idea of F●shes , Crocodiles , Birds , and even Horses , may be preserv'd for many Years , by taking out the more corruptible parts , and stuffing their prepar'd Skins with any convenient Matter . And that the internal membranous parts of Bodies may be long and easily kept from putref●ction , is not unknown to many Anatomists . And not to mention what we have try'd of this sort , we have seen the Veins , Arteries , and Nerves of a humane Body , laid out in their natural situation upon three Boards , by the pains and skill of an accurate Anatomist of Padua . And elsewhere , Uterum vidimus atque omnia mulieris genitalia , together with the Bladder , all displaid upon a Board , preserv'd for many Years so entire , and in a situation so near the Natural , that this Scheme was far more instructive , then the most accurate Printed one could possibly be . We have likewise known the flesh of Vipers , kept not onely sweet , but efficacious , for divers Years , by the smoak of a peculiar Powder , chiefly consisting of Aromatick Ingredients , and of which , you , Pyrophilus , may command the Composition . We have also seen the Skeleton of a Monky , made , by an excellent French Chyrurgion of our acquaintance , whereon the Tendons and Fibres of the Muscles were so preserv'd , that it was look'd upon as a rarity , very useful to shew their Originations and Insertions , and to explain the motions of the Limbs : And perhaps there may be some way to keep the Arteries & the Veins too , when they are empty'd of Blood , plump , and unapt to shrink over-much , by filling them betimes with some such substance , as , though fluid enough when it is injected to run into the Branches of the Vessels , will afterwards quickly grow hard . Such may be the liquid Plaister of burnt Alabaster , formerly mention'd , or Ising-glass steeped two days in Water , and then boild up , till a drop of it in the cold will readily turn into a still Gelly . Or else Saccarum Saturni , which , if it be dissolv'd often enough in Spirit of Vinager , and the Liquor be each time drawn off again , we have observ'd to be apt to melt with the least heat , and afterwards to grow quickly into a somewhat brittle consistence again . But I must not insist on these Fancies , but rather adde , That I have known an Embrio , wherein the parts have been very perfectly delineated and distinguishable , preserv'd unputrifi'd for several Years ; and I think it still continues so , by being seasonably and artificially embalm'd with Oyl ( if I much mis-remember not ) of Spikes . And I have elsewhere seen a large Embrio , which after having been preserv'd many Years , by means of another Liquor ( whose composition I do as yet but guess at ) did , when I saw it , appear with such an admirable Entireness , Plumpness , and Freshness , as if it were but newly dead : And that which concurs to make me hope that some nobler w●y may be yet found out , for , the preservation of dead Bodies , is , that I am not convinc'd that nothing can powerfully resist Putrefaction in such Bodies , but things that are either saline and corrosive , or else hot ; nor that the Embalming Substances cannot be effectually apply'd , without ripping open the Body to be preserv'd by them . For Josephus Acosta , a sober Writer , relates , That in certain American Mountains , Men , and the Beasts they ride on , sometimes are kill'd with the Winds , which yet preserve them from putrefaction , without any other help . So insensible a quantity of Matter , such as it may be , may , without Incision made into the Body , both pervade it , and as it were Embalm it . I know also a very experienc'd and sober Gentleman , who is much talk'd off for curing of Cancers in Womens Breasts , by the outward Application of an Indolent Powder ; some of which he also gave me , but I have not yet had the opportunity to make tryal of it : And I shall anon tell you , that I have seen a Liquor , which without being at all either acid or caustick , is in some Bodies far mo●e effectual against Putrefaction , then any of the corrosive Spirits of Nitre , Vitriol , Salt , &c. and then any of the other saline Liquors that are yet in use . We have also try'd a way of preserving Flesh with Musk , whose effects seem'd not despicable to us , but must not here be insisted on . Nor were it amiss that diligent Tryal were made what use might be made of Spirit of Wine , for the Preservation of a humane Body : For this Liquor being very limpid , and not greasy , leaves a clear prospect of the Bodies immers'd in it ; and though it do not fret them , as Brine , and other sharp things commonly employ'd to preserve Flesh are wont to do , yet it hath a notable Balsamick Faculty , and powerfully resists Putrefaction , not onely in living Bodies ( in which , though but outwardly apply'd , it hath been found of late one of the potentest Remedies against Gangrens ) but also in dead ones . And I remember that I have sometimes preserv'd in it some very soft parts of a Body for many Moneths ( and perhaps I might had done it for divers Years , had I had opportunity ) without finding that the consistence or shape was lost , much less , that they were either putrifi'd or dry'd up : We have also , by mixing with it Spirit of Wine , very long preserv'd a good quantity of Blood , so sweet and fluid , that 't was wondered at by those that saw the Experiment . Nay , we have for curiosity sake , with this Spirit , preserv'd from further stinking , a portion of Fish , so stale , that it shin'd very vividly in the dark ; in which Experiment , we also aim'd at discovering whether this resplendent quality of the decaying Fish would be either cherish'd , or impair'd by the Spirit of Wine ( whose operations in this tryal we elsewhere inform you of ) and it would be no very difficult matter for us to improve , by some easie way , this Balsamical Virtue of Spirit of Wine , in case you sh●ll think it worth while : But not to anticipate what I may more properly mention to you elsewhere , I shall at present say no more touching the Conservation of Bodies , since probably by all these , and some other Particulars , we may be induc'd to hope so well of humane Industry , as not to dispair , that in time some such way of preserving the Bodies of Men , and other Animals , will be found out , as may very much Facilitate , and Advance too , Anatomicall Knowledg . Neither is it only by advancing This , that the Naturalist may promote the Physiologicall Part of Physick : for since the Body consists not only of firme and consistent Parts , as the Bones , Muscles , Heart , Liver , &c. but of fluid ones , as the Blood , Serum , Gall , and other Juices . And since consequently to the compleat Knowledge of the use of all the Parts we should investigate , not only the Structure of the Solid ones , but the Nature of the Fluid ones , the Naturalist may do much more then hath yet been done , towards the perfecting of this Kowledge , not only by better explicating what it is in generall makes Bodies either Consistent or Fluid , but by examining particularly , and especially in a Pyrotechnicall way , the Nature of the severall Juices of the Body , and by illustrating the Alterations that those Juices , and the Aliments they are made of , receive in the Stomach , Heart , Liver , Kidneys , and other Viscera . For although a humane Body being the most admirable Corporeall Piece of Wo●kmanship of the Omniscient Architect , it is scarce to be hop'd , but that even among the things that happen ordinarily and regularly in it , there will be many which we shall scarce be able to reach with our Understanding , much lesse to imitate with our Hands . Yet paradventure , if Chymicall Experiments , and Mechanicall Contrivances , were industriously , and judiciously , associated by a Naturalist profoundly skill'd in both , and who would make it his Businesse to explain the Phaenomena of a Humane Body , not only many more of them then at first one would think , might be made more intelligible then as yet they have been ; but diverse of them ( especially those relating to the motions of the Limbs and Blood ) might be by artificiall Engines ( consisting as the Patterne not only of Solid but Liquid and Spirituous Parts ) not ill represented to our very Senses : since a humane Body it selfe seems to be but an Engine , wherein almost , if not more then almost , all the Actions common to Men , with other Animals , are perform'd Mechanically . But of the difference of these living Engines from others , I may elsewhere have a fitter opportunity to discourse to You. For at present , Pyro : I have employ'd so much of the little time my Occasions will allow me to spend upon the Treatise I am now writing , in making out to you the Usefulnesse of Naturall Philosophy , to the Physiologicall Part of Physick , that I must not only not prosecute this Subject , but must both hasten to mention , and to mention the more cursorily its serviceablenesse to the four remaining Parts of the Physitians Art. ESSAY II. Offering some Particulars relating to the Pathologicall Part of Physick . AND to say something in the next place of Pathology , that the Naturalists knowledge may assist the Physitian to discover the nature and causes of severall Diseases , may appear by the light of this Consideration , that , though divers Paracelsians ( taught , as they tell us , by their Master ) do but erroniously suppose , that Man is so properly a Microcosme , that of all the sorts of Creatures whereof the Macrocosme or Universe is made up , he really consists ; yet certaine it is that there are many Productions , Operations , and Changes of things , which being as well to be met with in the great , as in the little world , and diverse of them disclosing their natures more discernably in the former , then in the latter ; the knowledge of the nature of those things as they are discoverable out of mans body , may well be suppos'd capable of illustrating many things in man's body , which receiving some Modifications there from the nature of the Subject they belong to , passe under the notion of the Causes or Symptomes of Diseases . If I were now , Pyrophilus , to discourse to you at large of this Subject , I think I could convince you of the truth of what I have proposed . And certainly , unlesse a Physitian be , ( which yet I fear every one is not ) so much a Naturalist , as to know how Heat , and Cold , and Fluidity , and Compactnesse , and Fermentation , and Putrefaction , and Viscosity , and Coagulation , and Dissolution , and such like Qualities , are generated and destroyed in the generality of Bodies , he will be often very much to seek , when he is to investigate the causes of preternaturall Accidents in men's bodies , whereof a great many depend upon the Presence , or Change , or Vanishing of some or other of the enumerated Qualities , in some of the Fluid or Solid Substances that constitute the body . And that the Explications of a skilfull Naturalist may adde much to what has hitherto commonly been taught concerning the Nature and Origine of those Qualities , in Phisitians Schools , a little comparing of the vulgar Doctrine , with those various Phaenomena , to be met with among Naturall things , that ought to be , and yet seem not to be , explicable by it , will easily manifest to you . And questionlesse 't is a great advantage to have been taught by variety of Experiments in other bodies , the Differing waies whereby Nature sometimes produces the same effects . For since we know very little à priori , the observation of many such effects , manifesting , that nature doth actually produce them so and so , suggests to us severall wayes of explicating the same Phaenomenon , some of which we should perhaps never else have dream'd of . Which ought to be esteem'd no small Advantage to the Physitian ; since he that knows but one or few of Natures wayes of working , and consequently , is likely to ignore divers of those whereby the propos'd Disease ( or Symptome of it ) may be produc'd , must sometimes conclude , that precisely such or such a thing is the determinate Cause of it , and apply his Method of relieving his Patient accordingly ; which often proves very prejudiciall to the poor Patient , who dearly paies for his Physitians not knowing , That the Quality that occasions the Distemper , may be as probably , if not more rationally , deduc'd from an other Origine , then from that which is presum'd . This will scarce be doubted by him that knowes how much more likely Explications then those applauded some ages since , of divers things that happen as well within as without the body , have been given by later Naturalists , both Philosophers and Physitians : and how much the Theory of the Stone , and many other diseases , that has been given us by those many Physitians , that would needs deduce all the Phaenomena of diseases from Heat , Cold , and other Elementary Qualities , is Inferiour to the Account given us of them by those ingenious Moderns , that have apply'd to the advancement of Pathologie , that Circulation of the Blood , the Motion of the Chile by the Milky vessels to the Heart , the consideration of the effects deducible from the Pores of greater bodies , and the motion and figuration of their minute parts , together with some of the more known Chymicall Experiments : though both of those , and of the other helps mention'd just before them , I fear men have hitherto been far enough from making the best use , which I hope it will dayly more and more appear they are capable of being put to . He that has not had the curiosity to enquire out and consider the severall waies , whereby Stones may be generated out of the body , not only must be unable satisfactorily to explicate how they come to be produc'd in the Kidnies and in the Bladder , but will , perhaps , scarce keep himselfe from imbracing such errors , because authoriz'd by the suffrage of eminent Physitians , as the knowledge I am recommending would easily protect them from . For we find diverse famous , and , otherwise , learned Doctors , who ( probably because they had not taken notice of any other way of hardning a matter once soft into a stonelike consistence ) have believ'd and taught that the Stone of the Kidneyes is produc'd there by slime baked by the heat and drinesse of the Part ; as a portion of soft Clay may , by externall heat , be turn'd into a Brick or Tile . And accordingly they have for cure , thought it sufficient to make use of store of Remedies to moisten and cool the Kidneys ; which , though in some bodies this be very convenient , are yet far inferiour in efficacy to those Nobler medicines , that by specifick qualities and properties are averse to such coagulations as produce the Stone . But ( not to mention what a Physitian skill'd in Anatomy would object against this Theory from the nature of the part affected ) 't is not unlike , the imbraces of this Hypothesis would not have acquiesc'd in it , if they had seen those putrefactions out of the bodies of men , which we elsewhere mention'd . For these would have inform'd them , that a Liquor abounding with petrescent parts , may not only turn Wood ( as I have observ'd in a petrifying Spring ) into a kind of Stone , and may give to Cheese and Mosse without spoiling their pristine appearance a strong hardnesse and weight ; but may also produce large and finely shap'd Christalline bodies ( though those I try'd were much lesse hard then Chrystall ) in the bosome of the cold water , which brings into my mind , that I have diverse times produc'd a body of an almost stony hardnesse in lesse then halfe an hour , even in the midst of the water , by tying up in a rag , about the quantity of a nutmeg , of well and recently calcin'd Alabastre , which being thus ty'd up and thrown into the botome of a bason full of water , did there speedily harden into a Lapideous Concretion . And that even in the bodies of Animals themselves such concretions may be generated much otherwise then the Hypothesis we have been speaking of supposes , may appear by what happens to Craw-fishes , which though cold animals , and living in the waters , have generated at certain seasons in their heads Concretions , which for their hard and pulverizable consistence , divers Authors call lapides Cancrorum , though in the Shops they are often but abusively styled Oculi cancrorum . And such strong concretions are affirm'd to be generated in these Fishes every Year , which I the less scrupled at , because I have not found them at all times in the Head of the Fish. And besides , these and many more Concretions , that had they been observ'd by the Physitians we have been speaking of , might easily have kept them from acquiescing in , and maintaining their improbable explication of the manner of the Stones nativity : There is yet another kind of Coagulation , which may both be added to the former , and perhaps also serve to recommend the use of Chymical Experiments , in investigating the Causes of Diseases : This is made by the mixture of exquisitely dephlegm'd Spirit of fermented humane Urine , with as exactly rect●fied Spirit of Wine ; for upon the confusion of those two volatile Liquors in a just proportion , they will both of them , as after Lullius Experience hath inform'd us , suddenly coagulate into a white Mass , which Helmont calls Offa alba , and by which , he endeavors to declare the procreation of the Duelech : for supposing himself to have found in humane Urine a potential Aqua vitae , or Vinous Spirit , capable of being excited by a putrid Ferment , and coagulable by the volatile Salt of the same Urine , if there were any volatil Earth lurking in the Liquors , That being apprehended by the uniting Spirits , and coagulated with them both ; he supposeth there may emerge from the union of those three Bodies such an anomalous Concretion , as he , after Paracelsus , calls Duelech . And th●t a subtile Terrestrious Substance may lurk undiscerned , even in limpid Liquors , may appear , not onely in Wine , which rejects and fastens to the sides of the conteining Vessel , a Tartar , abounding in Terrestrious Feculency ; and in common Urine of healthy Men , which , though clear at its first emission into the Urinal , does , after a little rest there , let fall an Hypostasis , or Sediment , which , if distill'd before fermentation , leaves in the bottom of the Cucurbite an Earthy Substance , and commonly some Gravel : but even in rectified Spirit of Urine it self , I have had opportunity to observe , That after very long keeping , there hath spontaneously precipitated a Feculency , copious enough in proportion to the Liquor that afforded it . Nay , in an other parcel of Spirit of Urine , that hath been kept much longer then that already mention'd , we observ'd the other day , that not onely there was a Terrestrial residence fallen to the bottom of the Glass , but to the sides of it as far as the Liquor reach'd , there adhered a great multitude of small Concretions ; which , as far as appeared by looking on them through the Crystal Viol , to whose insides they were fastened , were no other then little grains of Gravel , such as are often found sticking to the sides of Urinals , employed by calculous persons . To which we might adde an Experiment of ours , whereby we are wont almost in a moment , by barely mixing together a couple of Liquors , both of them distill'd and transparent , and yet not both of them salin'd to thick them very notably and permanently , insomuch that they seem not to precipitate each other ; yet having once , for curiosity sake , distill'd them with a prety strong Fire , I obtain'd a great quantity ( as I remember , a fourth of the whole mixture ) of a blackish Mass , that was not onely coagulated and dry , but even brittle : But of the coagulation of distill'd Liquors , such as even Chymists themselves are not wont to look upon as at all dispos'd to coagulation , I may elsewhere have a better opportunity to entertain you , and therefore I shall forbear to do it now . And by this way , Pyrophilus , doth Helmont , if I understand him aright , attempt to make out the generation of the Stone in humane Bodys : In which Theory , though some difficulties do yet keep me from acquiescing , yet , besides that perhaps what you will meet with by and by ( about the distillation of the Duelech ) may make you the less wonder at this explication . Besides this , I say , granting that none of the enumerated ways of Petrescency ( if I may so speak ) deserves to be look'd upon as satisfactory ; yet to give so much as an account , not very absurd , of a Disease so anomalous and abstruse , and hitherto so unluckily explicated by Physitians , is perhaps more difficult , then it were to give ( at least ) a plausible account of divers other Distempers . And possibly it may be safely enough affirmed , That not onely Physiology , in its full extent , but that Hand-maid to it , which is call'd Chymistry , may not a little contribute to clear up the nature of both of the digestions , and of those deficiencies or aberrations in them , which produce a great part of Diseases ; especially if we allow what , as well Physitians , as Spagyrists agree in ( whether warily enough or not , I shall not now dispute ) viz. That whatever is separable from Bodies by the Fire , was , as a Constituent Element ( or Principle ) pre-existent in them . Perhaps I need not minde you , Pyrophilus , that 't is usual with the meerly Galenical Doctors themselves , to explicate the nature of Catarrhs , by comparing the Stomach to a seething Pot , and the Head to an Alembick , where the ascending Vapors , being , by the coldness of the Brain , condens'd into a Liquor , sometimes distil upon the Lungs , and sometimes fall upon other weakned parts ; in which explication , though for divers reasons I cannot acquiesce , yet it may suffice to shew you how little scruple many Learned Men , not like to be partial in the Case , would make of employing Chymical Operations to illustrate the Doctrine of Diseases . And indeed , since the Liquors contain'd in the Body abound , divers of them , with saline or sulphureous parts , he that hath been by Chymistry taught the nature of the several sorts of Salts and Sulphurs , and both beheld and considered their various actions one upon another , and upon other Bodies , seems to have a considerable help to discourse groundedly of the Changes and Operations of the humors , and other Juices contein'd in the Body , which he hath not that hath never had Vulcan for his Instructer . He that findes that there may be acid Juices in the Stomach , and elsewhere ( as is frequently evident in the sharp Liquors which many Stomachs cast up ) and that there are also Sulphureous Salts in the Body ( as is apparent in Blood and Urine , which abound with such . ) He that knows that the Serum that swims upon the Blood out of the Body , is by a gentle heat immediatly coagulable into a thick whitish Substance , not unlike a Custard ; and that Chymically analiz'd Blood yields store of volatile and sulphureous , but ( as far as our tryals have hitherto inform'd us ) no acid saltness . He that knows that these animal Salts and Spirits may be so powerful , that we have been able with Spirit of Urine , or of Harts-horn , to make a red Solution of Flowers of Sulphur , and that with Spirit of Urine ( though drawn without violence of Fire ) we have ( as we elsewhere more particularly declare ) dissolved both in a very gentle heat , and in a very short time , the un-open'd Body of crude Copper , so as to make thereof a Solution of a rich , deep , and ev'n opacous Blew : And that we have done almost the like with unrectified Spirit of Mans Blood. He that hath , as we have done , examin'd by Fire ( especially produc'd by the help of a Burning-glass ) that limpid Liquor that is to be found in the Limphatick Vessels , and hath taken notice of that odde consistence , smell , crackling , and other qualities discernable in it by heat . He that observes how acid Liquors loose their acidity , by working upon some Bodies ; as when Spirit of Viniger grows almost insipid upon the coral it hath corroded , and how those saline Liquors , by working upon certain Bodies , degenerate into Salts of another nature , as we have sometimes observ'd in Oyl of Vitriol , working upon the fourth part of its weight of Quick-silver , and how the contrariety of acid and sulphureous Salts makes them sometimes disarm , sometimes , after some ebullition , precipitate each other ; and sometimes unite into a third substance , of a differing nature from either of those from whose coalition it results , as we see in Tartarū Vitriolatū ; and , as I have observ'd , in a Salt , I sometimes make to emerge from a due proportion of Oyl of Vitriol and Spirit of Urine , freed , after conjunction , from their aqueous moisture : And He , in a word , that hath carefully analiz'd and made tryals on many parts , both of the Macrocosm and Microcosm , and heedfully applyed his Experiments made on the former , to the illustration of the changes observable in the latter , shall be likely to explicate divers particulars in Pathology , more intelligibly then he that is a stranger to Chymistry . And though I am very unwilling to meddle with Medical Controversies , and am apt to think , that Chymists are wont to speak somewhat too slightingly of the humors of the humane Body , and allow them too little a share in the production of Diseases ; yet ( to skip other reasons ) the strange stories related by Skenkius , and other eminent Physitians , of the corrosiveness of some Juices , which , rejected by Urine or Vomits , have been able to boyl on Brass , fret Linnen , and stain Silver ; together with some odde Observations of this nature , our selves have had opportunity to make , do very much incline us to believe , That the generality of former Physitians have ascrib'd too much to the Humors , under the notion of their being hot and dry , cold and moist , or endowed with such other Elementary Qualities , and have taken a great deal too little notice of the saline ( if I may so speak ) and Sulphureous Properties of things . And in this Opinion I am not a little confirmed by the authority of Hippocrates himself , both in other passages , and especially where he says , Non calidum , frigidum , humidum , aut siccum , esse quod magnam agendi , vim habet , verum amarum & salsum & dulce & acidum & insipidum & acerbum , &c. are the things which , though inoffensive to the ▪ Body , whilst they duly allay each other , prove hurtful to it , and distemper it , when any of them comes to sever it self from the rest , and grow predominant . And indeed , if the Juices of the Body were more Chymically examin'd , especially by a Naturalist that knows the ways of making fix'd Bodies volatile , and volatile fix'd , and knows the power of the open Air in promoting the former of those Operations ; it is not improbable , that both many things relating to the nature of the Humors , and to the ways of sweetning , acuating , and otherwise altering them may be detected , and the importance of such Discoveries may be discern'd . And perhaps it would adde to the usefulnesse of such an examination , if it were extended to the noxious Juices in distemper'd bodies : such as the rotten Phlegme spit up by those , whose Lungs are disaffected ; the slimy excretions voided in the Lyantery , and the liquor that distends the abdomen in the Dropsy and Ascites : concerning which ( to tell you that upon the by ) I found that it was of a differing nature from either Water or Urine . For a paracentecis being made in the abdomen of one dangerously sick of this sort of Dropsie , I found that the Liquor would keep a pretty while without putrefaction , ( nor did the Patient's body , when I afterwards saw it open'd , smell almost at all , though the inside of the abdomen lookt well neer as black , as if it had been sphacelated : ) and having steam'd away some of it , whilst it was pretty fresh , over a somewhat slow fire ; it first coagulated into a substance like Whites of Eggs , and , by a little farther evaporation , turn'd to such a glutinous substance , as tradesmen are wont to call Size ; and being kept longer on the fire grew to be hard like fish glew , but more brittle , and transparent enough , but with a little tincture of a greenish yellow ; and some of the forementioned liquor being distill'd in a Retort , did towards the end of the operation so darken the vessell with a thick blackish oyle , as hindred me from discerning what else perhaps I might have seen . And I suppose it may prove a usefull instance to the former purpose , if I somewhat circumstantially annex here what occurr'd to me , when I was accidentally considering of the Calculus humanus . Having therefore obtein'd of a skilfull Lithotomist of my acquaintance divers Stones , which he had cut out of mens bladders , I chose a couple of them ( which were whitish almost , of equall bignesse , and figure , which was neer ovall , and which together weighed about two ounces and an halfe , these with the help of a strong knife I carefully open'd , to find whether or no either of them consisted of an entire and uniforme matter , ( as most other stones , and even some calculi humani do ) and I found that each of them was made up of severall shells , as it were , successively involving one another , like the rinds of an Onion , and such shels , but more soft , and more of a colour ; we likewise observed in a great stone taken a while since out of an Oxe's Gall , and sent us for a present ; and though all of these were of an almost stony hardnesse , yet that hardnesse was not equall in them all ; and in one of the stones we observed one of the rinds ( to make use of that expression ) to be of a differing colour both frm that which immediatly imbraced it , and from that which it immediately imbrac'd : some of these rinds equalled in thicknesse the length of a barley corne , and others were somewhat thinner . Though they did closely imbrace one another , yet they were actually separable , as well as visibly distinguishable . And proceeding very warily in the breaking one of these stones , we found that in the center of it , there lay a small and soft ovall stone , as it were the kernell of those conglomerated shells ; and this kernell lay so loose , that with a little industry and patience we picked it out of the shell , and kept it by us as a rarity . This done , being desirous to know whither Chymicall tortures would force these Concreats to a further confession of their nature , we caused them to be finely powdred , and put into a small but strongly coated glasse Retort , whereunto luting a much larger Retort for a Receiver ; we found that these two ounces and halfe of powder , being distilled for some hours in a naked fire , afforded us great store of volatile Salt ( partly grey and partly white ) which almost coverd the inside of the Receiver , and a pretty quantity of reddish spirit , which in the Receiver it selfe soon coagulated into Salt , and having severed our vessels , we found in the neck of the Receiver a very little darkish oyle , but in the neck of the Retort a greater quantity of the same adust Oyl , incorporated with a pretty quantity of volatile Salt , whose smell did readily recall to my minde that peculiar kinde of stink which I had sometimes taken notice of in the volatile Salt of unfermented Urine ; nor were the taste of these two Salts unlike . The caput mortuum consisted of a fine , light , cole-black Powder , not unlike the finest sort of Soot ; and by weighing but of six Drachmes , it inform'd us , that above two thirds of the distill'd calculi humani had been , as being volatile , forced from the Terrestrial Parts , even in a close Vessel , wherein the caput mortuum , though it were left insipid enough , yet retained stink enough to make us think , it still conteined pretty store of heavy Oyl : as indeed , having put it into a Crucible , and kept it a competent while in a stronger fire , we found it reduced to about two Drachmes of a br●ttle Mass of insipid white Calx , which did not slack , or fall asunder like Lime when it is cast into Water . To this Example of the usefulnesse of Chymistry , to discover the unobserv'd , and otherwise scarce discoverable difference of the calculus humanus from other stones ; we may venture to adde , That though some Paracelsians do take too much liberty , when they crudely tell us , that there are arsenicall , vitriolate , aluminous , and other minerall substances , generated in humane bodies , yet if they had more warily propos'd their Doctrine , it would not perhaps appear so absurd , as they are wont to think it , who considering only the nature of the Aliments men usually feed upon , cannot conceive that such being but either Animals or Vegetables , can by so gentle a heat as that of man's body , ( by which they suppose all the changes of the Aliments must be effected , ) be Exalted to an energie like that of such bodies as are compos'd of active Minerall substances , and have some of them perchance acquir'd a violence of operation from the fire . But we see that Concretions , so like Stones , ( which belong to the Minerall Kingdome , ) as to passe generally for such , may be produc'd in the bodies not only of men but of sucking children , whose Aliment is fluid Milk : and it seems a mistake to imagine ( how many soever do so ) that Heat must needs be the Efficient of all the changes the matter of our Aliments may happen to undergoe in a humane body : where there are Streiners , and Solvents , and new Mixtions , and perhaps Ferments , and diverse other powerfull Agents , which by successively working upon the assum'd matter , may so fashion and qualifie it , as , in some cases , to bring the more dispos'd part of it to be not unlike even fossile Salts , or other minerall substances . A very eminent person was lately complaining to me , that in the fits of a distemper , which almost as much puzzls her Physitians as her selfe , she sometimes vomits up something so sharp and fretting , that , after it hath burnt her throat in its passage , almost like scalding water , it doth not only Staine the Silver vessels that receiv'd it , but also work upon them , as if it were a Corrosive Menstruum . And there dyed a while since a very intelligent person , much imploy'd in publick affaires , who complain'd to me , that in the fits of the strange distemper he labor'd under , he divers times observ'd , that , that part of his pillow which his breath passed along , would by the strange fuliginous Steams , which that carried off with it , be blackt over , as if it had been held in some sooty smoak or other . We may also consider , that the Rain-water , which in its passage through a Vine , or an Apricok-tree , or the like plants , is turn'd into a sweet fruit ; in its passage through those plants that bear Lemmons and Barberries , is transmuted into a liquor sharp enough to corrode , not only Pearles but Corall , lapides cancrorum , and other hard Concrets , as spirit of Vitrioll would do . And writers of unsuspected credit , affirme , that an Indian fruit , ( whose name I cannnot readily call to mind ) will speedily corrode and wast the very steel knives 't is cut with , if its Juice be left long upon them : and we see that some sorts even of our Apples and Peares , will quickly black the blades of Knives on which the Juice is suffer'd to continue . And least what I freshly mention'd about Limmon trees , should be question'd , I will here adde , that I remember also that I have made not only some other hot and strongly tasted Herbs , but even a Ranunculus it selfe , to grow and inc●ease notably in weight as well as bulk , though I fed it but with fair water : and allowd it nothing else to shoot its roots into . Wherefore since this plant is reckon'd amongst those , that either are poisonous , or want but little of being so ; and since its operation is so violent , that this sort of Vegetables , is taken notice of from the experience of Country people , to be able by outward application to draw blisters , and since neverthelesse that which this plant , without any heat discernable by the touch , transmutes into so virulent a substance , is but so unactive a body as water ; why may not such aliments , as may have in them divers parts of a far more operative nature , be in a humane body , by an unusuall concourse of Causes and Circumstances , so alter'd and exalted , as to approach in operations ( especially upon the more tender parts ) to those of fossile Salts or other Minerals ? So that a Chymist might upon such an account , without any great absurdity , teach some parcels of morbifick matter to be of an Arsenicall , or a Vitriolate , or an Antimoniall nature , especially since we see that sometimes Cancers , Ulcers , and sharp Juices generated in the body , doe by their vitiating and wasting the invaded parts , but too much emulate the pernitious operations of Arsnick , and of fretting Salts : and the infusion of Antimonie doth scarce more stimulate nature to disburthen her selfe both upwards and downwards , then doth sometimes an humor , such as that which causes the Cholera morbus , and perhaps more violent diseases . And that such degenerations of Innocent aliments should sometimes happen in discompos'd bodies , you will perhaps think the lesse strange , if you duly perpend what I lately mention'd , of the transmutation of Water into hot and vesicatory substances ; and if thereto I annex , that from a single pound of so common and temperate an Aliment as Bread , I can by an easie way , ( and that without addition , ) obteine many ounces of a menstruum , which ( as tryall has inform'd ) will worke more powerfully upon bodies , more compact then some hard mineralls , or perhaps Glasse it selfe : then a wary Chymist would expect to see Aqua fortis doe . These things I have mention'd , Pyrophilus , to intimate some of the Reasons , why I think Chymicall Experiments may be usefully apply'd , to illustrate some things in Pathologie , either by imitating out of the body , the production of some sorts of morbifick matter , or by such resolutions of that which is generated in the body , as may conduce to the discovery of its nature . And not that I think , as Spagyrists do , the experiments or notions of vulgar Chymists sufficient to explicate the whole doctrine either of Digestion or of Diseases : for it would be very difficult for them to make out the manner of Nutrition , or so much as how they that feed only on Vegetables , should ( to propose the difficulty in their own Terms ) have their Blood and Urine copiously enrich'd with a volatile sulphureous Salt , of which sort , plants are not wont to yeild any in distillation . And much more difficult would it be for them by principles peculiar to Chymists to make out the propagation of Hereditary diseases : or how madnesse , & some other distempers , that do not visibly vitiate the organes of those functions that they pervert , should not only prove hereditary , but lurk very many yeares in the inheriting person's body , before they begin to disclose themselves : and sometimes too , be transmitted from the Grandfather to the Grand-child , and skip immediately the intervening Son. And therefore I say again , that I pretend not that Vulgar Chymistry will enable a Physitian to explicate all or most of the Pathologicall Phaenomena ; but that True Chymistry may assist him to explicate diverse of them , which can scarce be solidly explicated without it . And let me adde , that he that throughly understands the nature of Ferments and Fermentations , shall probably be much better able then he that ignores them , to give a fair account of divers phaenomena of severall diseases ( as well Feavers as others ) which will perhaps be never throughly understood , without an insight into the doctrine of Fermentation , in order to which , for that and other reasons , I design'd my Historicall notes touching that subject . Yet I am not sure , but there may be effervescences , ( and perhaps periodicall ones ) in the Blood and other Juices of the body without Fermentation properly so call'd . For there may be divers other waies of begetting a praeternaturall heat in the Blood. We often see that in Coughs , when the flegme is rottten ( as they speak ) that is , when its former viscous texture is alter'd , it does no longer stick fast to the vessels of the Lungs , to which it obstinately adher'd before . And so at certain times other humors in the body , either by growing more fluid themselves , or by some change in the Blood , whereby it becomes fitter to dissolve such humors , may swimme in , and be circulated with , the masse of blood , and thereby occasion praeternaturall heats : either by their indisposition to be well , and incorporated therewith : or by altering its texture : or disturbing the wonted motion of its minute parts : or by opposing its due Rarefaction as it passeth through the Heart : or by obstructing the more slender Vessels , and so hindering the free Circulation of the Blood through them ; perhaps also causing some Extravasation , as we see that wounds & bru●ses are attended with some inflammation , more or lesse , of the part affected ; ) or by some other of the waies not now to be declared . And tryall hath taught me , that there are Liquors , in which the bare admixture of Milk , Oyle , or other Liquors , nay or of cold water , will presently occasion a notable heat : and I sometimes imploy a menstruum , in which nothing but a little flesh being put , though no visible Ebullition ensue , there will in a few minuts , be excited a Heat , intense enough to be troublesome to him that holds the Glasse . And yet it seems not necessary that this should be ascrib'd to a true fermentation , which may rather proceed from the perturb'd motion of the Corpuscles of the menstruum , which being by the adventitious liquor or other body put out of their wonted motion , and into an inordinate one , there is produc'd in the menstruum a brisk confus'd Agitation of 〈◊〉 small parts that compose it ; and in such an agitation , ( from what cause soever it proceeds , ) the nature of Heat seems mainly to consist . But to dispatch , I scarce doubt , but that if in the history of diseases , there were better notice taken of those Phaenomena , that agree not with the opinions already in request , as well as of those that are thought consonant to them ; and if also Chymicall tryals were skilfully varied and judiciously applyed to the illustrating of Pathologicall Phaenomena , the former might be made conducing to the better explication of the latter : especially if the businesse were mannag'd by a Naturalist well vers'd both in Chymicall Experiments , and in Anatomy , and the history of Diseases , without being too much addicted either to the Chymist's notions , or the receiv'd opinions of Physitians . And as the Naturalist may thus illustrate Pathologie as a Chymist , so may he do the like as a Zoologer ; for either the true knowledge of Anatomy must be much lesse usefull to Physitians then they have hitherto beleived , or else the discoveries made by recent Anatomists of the Asellian , Pecquetian , and Bartholinian vessels , by either overthrowing the receiv'd doctrine of Digestions , ( from whose aberrations many diseases spring ) or at least by making diverse discoveries in relation to the aeconomy of Digestions unknown to the Ancients , most probably contribute much to the clearing up of diverse Pathologicall difficulties in the explication of some diseases ; besides , that the very liberty of making those Experiments in live Beasts , which are not to be made but in living creatures , nor are allowable to be made in living men , may enable a Zoologist , by giving us a clearer account of divers parts of the body , to determine divers Pathologicall difficulties springing from either our ignorance or mistakes of the use of those parts , as by the formerly mention'd Experiment of the exsection of a live dogge's Spleen , and a watchfull observation of all the diseases upon that Account , befalli●●●im and other Dogs so serv'd ; much light perhaps may be given to the doct●in of the use of the Spleen , together with the diseases supposed to depend on that part , which I fear is hitherto ( to the no small prejudice of the Sick ) by few Physitians throughly understood , and by many unhappily enough mistaken . And here we may represent unto you , Pyr : that not only the dissections of sound Beasts may assist the Physitian to discover the like parts of a humane body , but the dissections of morbid beasts may sometimes illustrate the doctrine of the causes and seats of diseases . For that this part of Pathology has been very much improved by the diligence of modern Physitians , by dissecting the bodies of men kill'd by Diseases , we might be justly accused of want of curiosity , or gratitude , if we did not thankfully acknowledge ; For indeed much of that improvement of Physick , ( for which the Ancients , if they were now alive , might envy our new Physitians ) may , in my poor opinion , be ascribed to their industrious scrutiny of the Seat and Effects of the peccant matter of Diseases in the bodies of those that have been destroyed by them . And that the instructions deducible from such observations may be either increased or illustrated by the like observations made in the bodies of Beasts , we have been inclin'd to think , partly by the having Chymically analyz'd ( as they phrase it ) the blood of divers Bruits , as Sheep , Deer , &c. and found its Phlegme , Spirit , Salt , and Oyle , very like that of humane bloud ; and partly by our having observ'd in the bodies of severall Bruits , ( not excepting Fishes ) Wormes , Imposthumes , and the like , some of which seem'd manifestly to spring from such causes , as are wont to produce resembling distempers in men : and if the acute Helmont had been a more diligent dissector of Beasts , he would perchance have escaped the Error he after others run into ( and into which his Authority hath tempted others to run ) when he affirm'd , that the Stone was a disease peculiar to men , for , that in the bodies of Beasts , especially very Old ones , Stones are sometimes to be found , not only severall Butchers have assur'd me , but you may gather partly from that taken out of an Oxe's Gall , which I have formerly mention'd , which was about the bignesse of a Wallnut ) but principally from what I elsewhere deliver'd on purpose to disprove that fond assertion : and greater leasure may , upon another occasion , invite us to mention some pathologicall Observations made in diseased Beasts , by which , ( were we not willing to hasten , ) we might now perhaps much confirme what we have propos'd touching the possibility of illustrating , by such Observations , the nature of some of the Diseases inciden● to humane bodies . And here we may also consider that there are diverse Explications of particular Diseases , or troublesome Accidents propos'd by Physitians , especially since the Disco●ery of the Bloods Circulation , wherein the Compression , Obstruction , or Irritation of some Nerve , or the Distension of some Veine by too much Bloud , or some Hinderance of the free Passage of the Bloud through this or that particular Vessell , is assign'd for the cause of this or that Disease or Symptome . Now in diverse of these cases the Liberty lately mention'd , that a skilfull Dissector may take in Beasts , to open the Body or Limbs , to make Ligatures strong or weak on the vessells , or other inward parts , as occasion shall require , to leave them there as long as he pleaseth , to prick , or apply sharp liquors to any nervous or membranous part , and whenever he thinkes convenient , to dissect the Animall again , to observe what change his Experiment hath produc'd there : such a Liberty , I say , which is not to be taken in humane bodies , may in some cases either confirme or confute the Theories proposd , and so put an end to dive●se Pathologicall Controversies , and perhaps too occasion the Discovery of the true and genuine causes of the Phaenomena disputed of , or of others really as abstruse . To this let me adde , that there is a whole classis of diseases to be met with in Physitians Books , which proceed not originally from any internal distemper of the Patient , but are produced by some exterior Poyson , and are therefore wont to be call'd by Doctors , Morbi à veneno orti , to the more acurate knowledge of divers of which Diseases , Experiments made on Bruits may not a little conduce : For though I deny not that some things may be Poysons to Man , th●t are not so to some Beasts ; and on the contrary ( as we have more then once given to a Dog , without much harming him , such a quantity of Opium , as would probably have suffic'd to have kill'd several Men ) yet the greater number of Poysons being such both to Man and Bruits , the liberty of exhibiting them , when , and in what manner we please , to these ( which we dare not do to him ) allows us great opportunities of observing their manner of operation and investigating their Nature , as our selves have tryed , and that sometimes with unexpected events ( as when lately a Cat ran mad , so that her Keeper was fain to kill her ) upon a large dose of Opium which we caus'd to be given her . And on this occasion I shall not scruple to transcribe an Observation out of a Discourse , I some years since writ to a Friend , about the tu●ning Poysons into Medicines , because that Treatise , I am like , for certain reasons , to suppress : The words , as I there finde them , are these , Before I take leave of Vipers ( or Adders , as some will have , those that here in England commonly pass for Vipers ) it will not be impertinent to tell you , That it may be justly doubted , whether they be to be reckon'd amongst poysonous Creatures , in such a sense as those other venomous Creatures , who have in them a constant , and , if I may so speak , gross and tangible Poyson ; for it may be suppos'd , that the venom of Vipers consists chiefly in the rage and fury wherewith they bite , and not in any part of the Body , which hath at all times a mortal property : Thus the madness of a Dog makes his teeth Poysonous , which before were not so : And Authors of good repute supply us with instances of hurts in themselves , free from danger , that have been made fatal by a Venom created by the fierceness of the inraged ( though not otherwise poysonous ) Creatures that inflicted them . And Baccius , if I mistake not , in his Treatise De Venenis , tells us a memorable Story ( whereof he affirms himself to have been an eye-witness ) of a Man who was kill'd within three days , by a slight hurt received in his left hand , from an inraged Dung-hill Cock : And that no parts of the Viper have any constant inherent Poyson in them , I have been induced to suspect upon this Experiment ; That dissecting some live Vipers , there came in accidentally a strange Dog , to whom I gave the Head , Tail , and Gall ( which are the parts supposed to contain the Poyson ) of one of them , and the Head and Gall of another , wrapt up in meat ; after which , I locked the little Dog up in my own Chamber , and watched him , but foūd not that he was sick , or offered to vomit at all , but onely lap'd up gre●dily some drink which he espyd in the Room ; nor was he alone very jocund , for divers hours that I kept him in , but liked his entertainment so well , that he would afterwards , when he met me in the Street , leave those that kept him to fawn on and follow me . And having since related this Experiment to an inquisitive Friend of mine , he assured me , That to satisfie himself further in this particular , he gave to a Dog a dozen Heads and Galls of Vipers , without finding them to produce in him any mischievous symptome : To which I shall adde , That the old Man , you know , that makes Viper Wine , does it ( as himself tells me ) by leaving the whole Vipers , if they be not very great , perhaps for some moneths , without taking out the Galls , or separating any other part from them in the Wine , till it hath dissolved as much of them as it can . And though it may seem somewhat improper , whil'st we are discoursing of Poysons , to insist on a remedy against them ; yet the mention of Vipers recalling into my minde a memorable Experiment which I tryed against the biting of Vipers , I shall choose rather to decline the dictates of Method , then those of Charity , which forbids me to suppress a remedy that may possibly rescue from sudden death , a Person or other fit to live , or unprepar'd to dye , because it does not strictly belong to the Theme whereto it is referred . The remedy then is this , That as soon as ever a Man is b●iten ( for if the Poyson have had time enough to diffuse it self , and gain the Mass of Blood , I doubt the Experiment will scarce succced ) a hot Iron be held as near the place as the Patient can possibly indure , till it have , as they speak , drawn out all the Venom : which Eye-witnesses assure me ( for I have not yet seen that my se●f ) will sometimes adhere like a yellowish spot to the surface of the Iron . But being upon competent grounds satisfied of the Experiment , to convin●e a Physitian that mistrusted it , I last Summer hired a Man ( who doubted it as little as I ) to suffer himself to be bitten by a Viper ; and having in the Physitians house and presence , pick●d out of a good number of them one of the blackest I could finde ( those of that colour being supposed the most mischi●vous ) and commanded the fellow to provoke and anger it ( which to my wonder he did , a pretty while before the Beast would fasten on him ) At length , being by his very rude handling thorowly exasperated , it bit him with great fury , as it seem'd , for immediately his hand began to swell , and the injured part was grown tumid before we could take from the Fire , which was hard by , a knife that lay heating there ; and having apply'd it as near as he could suffer it , for about ten or twelve minutes , we found that the swelling , though it decreased not , did not spread ; and the Man glad of his money , without further Ceremony , went about his affairs , and told me since , That though the tumor continued a while , he had no other inconvenience attending it , and hath divers times got money by repeating the Experiment ; though otherwise , by the casual bitings of Vipers , he hath been much distrest , and his Wife almost kill●d . But , Pyrophilus , to return to the Experiments of Poysons made on Beasts , we could wish Physitians were more diligent to make tryals of them , not onely by giving Beasts poysons at the mouth , but also by making external applications of them , especially in those parts where the Vessels that convey Blood more approach the surface of the Body , and also by dexterously wounding determinate Veins with Instruments dipt in Poysons ( especially moist or liquid ones ) that being carried by the circulated Blood to the Heart and Head , it may be found whether their strength be that way more uninfringed , and their operation more speedy ( or otherwise differing ) then if they were taken in at the mouth . For I remember sober Travellers have shew'd me some Indian Poysons , whose noxious efficacy they affirm'd to be by great intervals of time , differingly mortal , according as the slight hurt made by the points of Arrows , infected with them , did open a capillary , or larger Vein , and were inflicted on a part more or less distant from the Heart ; but having not yet made any tryal of this my self , I dare not build upon it . Yet I finde that the formerly commended Olearius , in his Travels into Muscovie and Persia , takes notice of a venomous Insect in Persia , which the Natives call Encureck , and which he ( how justly I know not ) makes to be a kinde of Tarantula , because it is , as that Creature , in shape almost like a Spider , and speckled , though of twice the bigness of a Thumb : This Insect ( says he ) instead of stinging or biting , lets his Venom fall in form of a drop of Water , which immediately produces insufferable pains in the part to which it fastens , and suddenly penetrating , as far as to the Stomach , sends up vapors to the Head , which sends again ( to use his expression ) so profound a sleep to all the Patients limbs , that it is impossible to awaken him , but by one onely Remedy , which is to crush one of these Creatures upon the hurt , whence he abstracts all the Poison . Some horrid and unusual symptomes of this Venom , which yet agree not so well with those that are wont to be produc'd in persons bitten by Tarantula's , our Author proceeds to mention ; and furnishes us with a proof of what we were lately saying , when we told you that some things were poysonous to Men , which were not to some Beasts : by adding , as an admirable singularity , that the Sheep of those parts do not onely eat these fatal Insects , but seek for them . I know also , by sad experience in my self , what an outward application even of Cantharides can do ; for having occasion to have a large blister drawn on my Neck , the Chirurgion I employed , unknown to me , made use of Cantharides , among other Ingredients of his vesicating Plaister , which a few hours after I had taken it , waken'd me with excessive torment , to which it put me about the neck of my Bladder , so that I apprehended it might proceed from some Stone unable to get out ; of which sudden and sensible pain , after I had a while in vain conjectur'd what might be the cause , I at length suspected that which was indeed the true one ; and having sent for the Chirurgion , he confess'd to me , upon my demand , that he had put some Cantharides in his Plaister , not thinking it would have had such an operation : whereupon I soon reliev'd my self , by drinking new Milk very well sweetned with Suger candy . Postscript . TO enable you , Pyrophilus , to gratifie those inquisitive Persons that have heard some , and yet but an imperfect Report , of a much nois'd Experiment , that was some Years agoe devis'd at Oxford , and since try'd in other places before very Illustrious Spectators ; I am content to take the occasion afforded me , by what was in the foregoing Essay lately mention'd concerning the Application of Poysons , to inform you , That a pretty while after the writing of that Essay , I happen'd to have some Discourse about matters of the like Nature , with those excellent Mathematicians , Dr. I. Wilkins , and Mr. Christopher Wren ; at which the latter of those Virtuosi told us , That he thought he could easily contrive a way to convey any liquid Poison immediately into the Mass of Blood. Whereupon , our knowledge of his extraordinary Sagacity , making us very desirous to try what he propos'd , I provided a large Dog , on which he made his Experiment in the presence , and with the assistance of some eminent Physitians , and other learned Men : His way ( which is much better le●rn'd by sight , then relation ) was briefly this : First , to make a small and opportune Incision over that part of the hind-leg , where the larger Vessels that carry the Blood , are most easie to be taken hold of : Then to make a Ligature upon those Vessels , and to apply a certain small Plate of Brass ( of above half an Inch long , and about a quarter of an Inch broad , whose sides were bending inward● ) almost of the shape and bigness of the Nail of a Mans Thumb , but somewhat longer . This Plate had four little holes in the sides , near the corners , that by threads pass'd thorow them , it might be well fasten'd to the Vessel : And in the same little Plate there was also left an Aperture , or somewhat large Slit , parallel to the sides of it , and almost as long as the Plate , that the Vein might be there expos'd to the Lancet , and kept from starting aside . This Plate being well fasten'd on , he made a Slit along the Vein , from the Ligature towards the Heart , great enough to put in at it the slender Pipe of a Syringe : By which I had propos'd to have injected a warm solution of Opium in Sack , that the effect of our Experiment might be the more quick and manifest . And accordingly our dexterous Experimenter having surmounted the difficulties which the tortur'd Dogs violent struglings interpos'd , convey'd a small Dose of the Solution or Tincture into the open'd Vessel , whereby , getting into the mass of Blood ( some quantity of which , 't is hard to avoid shedding in the operation ) it was quickly , by the circular motion of That , carry'd to the Brain , and other pa●ts of the Body . So that we had scarce unty'd the Dog ( whose four feet it had been requisite to fasten very strongly to the four Co●ners of the Table ) before the Opium began to disclose its Narcotick Quality , and almost assoon as he was upon his feet , he began to nod with his head , and faulter and reel in his pace , and presently after appear'd so stupifi'd , that there were Wagers offer'd his Life could not be sav'd . But I , that was willing to reserve him for further observation , caus'd him to be whipp'd up and down the Neighboring Garden , whereby being kept awake , and in motion , after some time he began to come to himself again ; and being led home , and carefully tended , he not onely recove●'d , but began to grow fat so manifestly that 't was admir'd : But I could not long observe how it far'd with him . For this Experiment , and some other tryals I made upon him , having made him famous , he was soon after stoln away from me . Succeeding attempts inform'd us , that the Plate was not necessary , if the Finger were skilfully employ'd to support the Vessel to be opened ; and that a slender Quill , fasten'd to a Bladder , containing the matter to be injected , was somewhat more convenient then a Syringe ; as also that this notwithstanding , unless the Dog were pretty big , and lean , that the Vessels might be large enough and easily accessible , the Experiment would not well succeed : The Inventor of it afterwards practic'd it in the presence of that most Learned Noble-man , the Marquess of Dorchester , and found that a moderate Dose of the infusion of Crocus Metallorum did not much move the Dog , to whom it was given : but once that he injected a large Dose ( about two Ounces or more ) it wrought so soon , and so violently upon a fresh one , that within a few hours after he vomited up Life and all , upon the Straw whereon they had laid him . I afterwards wish'd , that not onely some vehemently working Drugs , but their appropriated Antidotes ( or else powerful liquid Cordials ) and also some altering Medicines , might be in a plentiful Dose injected . And in Diureticks , a very ingenious Anatomist and Physitian told me , he try'd it with very good success . I likewise propos'd , That if it could be done , without either too much danger or cruelty , tryal might be made upon some humane Bodies , especially those of Malefactors . And some Moneths after a foreign Ambassador , a curious Person , at that time residing in London , did me the Honor to visit me , and inform'd me , That he had caus'd tryal to be made , with infusion of Crocus Metallorum , upon an inferior Domestick of his that deserv'd to have been hangd ; but that the fellow , as soon as ever the Injection began to be made , did ( either really or craftily ) fall into a Swoon ; whereby , being unwilling to prosecute so hazardous an Experiment , they desisted , without seeing any other Effect of it , save that it was told the Ambassador , that it wrought once downward with him , which yet might , perhaps , be occasion'd for fear or anguish : But the tryals of a very dexterous Physitian of my acquaintance in humane Bodies , will , perhaps , when I shall have received a more circumstantial account of them , be not unwelcome to you . And in Dogs , you may possibly from our own Observations , receive a further Account of an Experiment , of which , I now chiefly design'd but to relate to you the Rise and first Attempts . ESSAY III. Containing some Particulars relating to the Semiotical Part of Physick . THe Semiotical part of the Physitians Art , seems capable of the least improvement by Natural Philosophy . In which yet , first the Naturalist may , by illustrating the Anatomical and Pathological parts , assist the Physitian to make more certain conjectures from the signs he discovers of the constitution and distempers of his Patient . For you will easily believe that caeteris paribus , he that better knows the nature of the parts and juices of the Body , will be better able to conjecture at the events of Diseases , then he that is less skill'd in them . And secondly , The Naturalist by improving the Therapeutical , may , at least , much change and alter the Prognosticks of the duration , ferocity and event of Diseases . For , Pyrophilus , it would be considered , that the Predictions hitherto current in Authors , and commonly made by Physitians , suppose the use of the received Remedies , and the dogmatical method of Physick ; but if there were discovered such generous and commanding Medicines , as , by powerfully assisting Nature , or nimbly proscribing the Morbifick Matter that doth either produce or ( though produc'd by them ) cherish Sicknesses , might enable Nature to hinder the Disease from continuing its course , and acting almost all the Scenes of its Tragedy in the Body ; Physitians need not , in acute Diseases , wait so often for a crisis to instruct their Prognosticks , and the threatning Symptomes of Chronical Distempers would often prove false Prophets . To illustrate this but with a not ignoble instance , give me leave to tell you , That when that Peruvian Bark , that now begins to be somewhat taken notice of , under the name of The Jesuits Powder , had scarce been so much as heard of in this part of Europe , I went to visit a Virtuoso , who had been for some Moneths afflicted with a Quartan Ague , so violent and stubborn , that it had frustrated the skill , and almost tyred the indeavors of the most eminent Doctors of this Nation ; of one of which , who was then accidentally with his Learned Patient , I enquired how my Friend did , and was answered , That he hoped he would recover when the Season would give him leave ; but in the Winter he knew no Quartanes cured . Yet the Gentleman acquainting me with his having procured some of the American Bark against Agues , which we mentioned in a former Essay , and I ( after having tasted and considered it ) having incouraged him , as I have others , to make Tryal of it ; as the strange Effects I have observ'd of it , hath divers times invited me to do : The candid and learned Doctor , not onely oppos'd not my Perswasions , but added his own to them . And my Friend taking two Doses of this Powder'd Bark , though it were at the unhopefullest Season of the Year ( the Winter Solstice ) and though he scarce found any sensible operation ( unless a little by sweat ) of the Peruvian Medicine , had by the first Dose his Fit very much lessen'd , and by the second quite remov'd . And though through some irregularities of Dyet ( to which that keen Appetite , like that of recovering Persons , which I have observ'd this Powder to be wont to produce , tempted him ) he did , as I then foretold him he would , after missing eight or ten Fits , relapse , yet by the repeated use of the same Remedy , he again recover'd , and hath continu'd so ever since . Having also lately perswaded the use of the same Medicine , in the same Disease , to one of the greatest Ladies in this Nation , she told me the other day , That it immediately , and in unlikely weather , freed her from those Fits , from whence she despair'd to be deliver'd till the Spring . Having likewise sent some of it to a couple of Gentlemen , sick of the like Malady , I had word brought me ; That the one had miss'd his Fits for a Moneth , though in the midst of Winter ; and the other was by the first Dose cur'd , and continues so . And divers eminent Physitians , to whom I have commended this Specifick , have us'd it with such success , that one of the severest of them , though he had formerly despis'd it , confess'd to me , that in a short time he try'd it upon eight or nine several Persons , without finding it to fail in any , though one of them especially , were , before he was call'd , judg'd irrecoverable ; the obstinate Quartan being complicated with other almost as dangerous Distempers . And I confess , I somewhat wonder that Men have not the Curiosity to try the efficacy of this powerful Bark , in other Diseases then Agues : It being highly probable , That a Medicine , capable to prevail so strongly against so obstinate a Disease , as a Quartan ( wherein most commonly divers of the considerabler parts of the Body are much affected ) cannot be useless to several other Distempers . I deny not that those that have taken this Powder , have divers of them , after having miss'd six or seven Fits , relapsed into them ( as it likewise happen'd to one of the Gentlemen I sent it to ) yet ( as I have elsewhere told you ) it is much , and more then any common Remedy does to stop the Fits so long . Nor is it a small matter to be able to give the Patient so much breathing time , and allow the Physitian the opportunity of imploying other Remedies . And the Relapses we speak of are commonly cur'd by the same Powder : And we have known them prevented , when the Medicine hath been administred , not by unskilful Persons , but by a prudent Physitian who knows how to assist it , by opening and gently purging Physick . Wherefore that which I should the most gladly be satisfied of , about this Remedy , is , whether or no it do indeed either proscribe the Morbifick Matter , or so alter its Texture as to make it harmless ; or else , whether it doth secretly leave such noxious Impressions upon the Spleen , Guts , or some other important Part , as may shorten Life , by producing in process of time , either the Scurvy , or the Dropsie , or some other formidable Disease . But because the Resolution of this Doubt must be a work of time , we must at present refer it to future Observations , And therefore shall now subjoyn , that if the famous Riverius have not , in his learned Observations , flatter'd his own Febrifugum , whatever be resolv'd touching this Indian Bark , there will not want a safe Remedy which may allow Physitians to make more cheerful Predictions about the lastingness and event of Quartains , then have hitherto been usual . How painful and stubborn a Disease , the Kings Evil is wont to prove , is scarce more known , then that 't is seldom cur'd without a tedious course of Physick : And yet , by the Herb mention'd in one of the former Essays , the yong Gentleman there spoken of , was cur'd in a short time , and with little or no pain or trouble . And that these are not the onely Diseases in which Observations , tending to our present purpose , may be made , the following part of this Treatise will afford you opportunity to observe . I might adde , Pyrophilus , that I was lately visited by an ancient Chymist , ennobled by divers eminent cures , who promises to me an Experiment of making very unusual , and yet rational Predictions in some abstruse Diseases , by a peculiar way of examining the Patients Urine . But because some Chymists have written extravagantly enough upon a like subject ; and because I have not yet made or seen the Experiment of it my self , I dare not yet give this new method of foretelling , for an instance of the Usefulness of Natural Philosophy to the Semiotical part of Physick . Though I dare not deny but by precipitations , and some other ways not yet vulgarly practiced of examining the Urine , made by the same Patient at several times , before , in , and after some notable alteration in his Body , divers things ( especially in Feavors , and other acute Diseases ) relating to the state of it , may be discover'd , especially if thereto be added a skilful and seasonable Chymical Examen of the other Excrements , and vitiated Substances of the Patients Body . You will perchance expect , Pyrophilus , that on this occasion I should handle that controversie which is so hotly agitated , betwixt the Paracelsians and their Adversaries , concerning the curableness of all Diseases : But , for ought I can perceive , the difference betwixt the more sober Men of both parties , is more about Words then Things , and might be reduced to a much less distance , if Men could but calmly consider , That 't is one thing to dispute , Whether all Diseases by curable ; and another , Whether all Persons be recoverable : For a Disease may be call'd incurable , either in its own Nature , or by accident ; that is , either because such a Disease is not to be cur'd in any Patient , or that it is so circumstantiated in this or that Patient , as not to be naturally curable in him . Now this distinction , duly consider'd , may conduce much to reconcile the two Opinions , if not the Parties that maintain them : For neither would a sober Paracelsian affirm ( though Paracelsus himself doth somewhere seem to do so ) . That every Disease is curable in every Patient ; there being some Palsies , Gouts , or Blindnesses , or the like , so obstinate , that ( especi●lly if they are born with a Man , or inherited from his Parents ) the tone of some necessary or considerable part of the Body , being thereby rather abolished , then barely vitiated , it were a folly to promise recovery to such a Patient . And on the other side , a moderate Galenist , that is not unacquainted with the Discoveries which these latter Ages have made , of the power of Nature and Art , will not be forward to pronounce ( as others do , and as the Paracelsians tax the Galenists too indiscriminately for doing ) That the Gout ( for instance ) the Dropsie , the dead Palsie , the Stone , are Diseases universally incurable : Since , in the Writings of Erastus , and in the Observations of Schenkius , and others , there are Instances recorded of some Cures performed of the Dropsie , and one or two more of those stubborn Diseases , even by Galenical Remedies . But , Pyrophilus , though we cannot but disapprove the vain-glorious Boasts of Paracelsus himself , and some of his Followers , who , for-all-that , lived no longer then other Men ; Yet I think Man-kinde owes something to the Chymists , for having put some Men in hope of doing greater Cures , then have been formerly aspir'd to , or even thought possible , and thereby ingage them to make Tryals and Attempts in order thereunto . For not onely before Men were awaken'd and excited by the many Promises , and some great Cures of Arnoldus de villa nova , Paracelsus , Rulandus , Severinus and Helmont , Many Physitians were wont to be too forward , to pronounce Men , troubled with such and such Diseases , incurable , and rather detract from Nature and Art , then confess that those two could do what ordinary Physick could not . But even now , I fear there are but too many , who though they will not openly affirm , that such and such Diseases are absolutely incurable ; yet if a particular Patient , troubled with any of them , be presented , they will be very apt to undervalue ( at least , if not ) deride those that shall attempt and hope to Cure him . And I am apt to think , that many a Patient hath been suffered to die , whose Life might have been saved , if Physitians would have but thought it possible to save it . And therefore I think it were no ill piece of service to Mankinde , if a severe Collection were made of the Cures of such Persons as have recovered after having been judg'd irrecoverable by the Doctors : That Men might no longer excuse their own Ignorance by the impotency of Nature , and bear the World in hand , as if the Art of Physick , and their skill , were of the same extent . And the Cures that seem performed by Nature herself , need not be left out of such a Collection : For still they shew what is possible to be done by Natural means , to evacuate the Morbifick matter , or alter its Nature ( how dangerous soever it is grown ) Or how far the tone of a part or strength of the Body may be vitiated or impaired , and yet be capable of some restitution . And such an observation I receiv'd from our most experienced Harvy , when , having consulted him about my weak Eyes , he told me , among other things ( as a very remarkable one ) that he had once a Patient ( whose Name and Profession he told me , but I remember not ) that had a confirm'd Cataract in his Eye , and yet upon the use of Physick , to which he could not ascribe so wonderful an effect , that Cataract was perfectly dissipated , and the Eye restored to its wonted Function . Which brings into my minde another Observation , imparted to me , a while since , by that excellent and experienc'd Lithotomist , Mr. Hollyer . who told me , that among the many Patients sent to be cured in a great Hospital ( of which he is one of the Chirurgions ) there was a Maid of about eighteen Years of age , who , without the loss of motion , had so lost the sense of feeling in the external parts of her Body , that when he had , for tryal sake , pinn'd her Handkerchief to her bare Neck , she went up and down with it so pinn'd , without having any sense of what he had done to her . He added , That this Maid having remained a great while in the Hospital without being cured , Dr. Harvey , out of Curiosity , visited her sometimes ; and suspecting her strange Distemper to be chiefly Uterine , and curable onely by Hymeneal Exercises , he advised her Parents ( who sent her not thither out of poverty ) to take her home , and provide her a Husband , by whom , in effect , she was according to his Prognostick , and to many Mens wonder , cur'd of that strange Disease . That in acute Sicknesses , Persons given over by the Physitians , may recover , the more judicious , even of those Galenists , that are of a dispondent temper , will not deny . For not onely Celsus gives us this sober admonition , Neque ignorare aportet in acutis morbis fallaces magis notas esse & s●lutis & mortis ; But even Hypocrates himself , who was so skilful in Prognosticks , confesses , that Morborum acutorum non in totum certae sunt praenunciationes neque salutis neque mortis : Whence the French have a Proverbial saying , that Il vaut mieux estre condamné par les Medecins , que par le Prevost des Mareschaux , as if in English we should say , It is better to be condemn'd to die by the Doctor , then by the Judge . And even in Chronical Diseases , where Events are wont much better to answer Physitians Predictions , there are sometimes such Cures performed , as may encourage humane Industry , and keep a sick Mans friends from forsaking the Cure of him , till Life it self have unquestionably forsaken him . For not onely it hath been not unfrequently seen , that divers Persons , who have been given over by some Physitians , have been cur'd by others , perchance rather more lucky then more skilful : But those that have been given over , and that too ( sometimes rather upon the believ'd incurableness of the Disease , then the personal Condition of the Patient ) even by judicious and experienced Physitians , if such as are acquainted but with the ordinary Remedies , have been recover'd by the use of extraordinarily powerful , and especially , Chymical Physick . Of such Cures I have sometimes met with a few , which , because I may elsewhere relate , I shall now onely mention , on this occasion , what I have heard concerning the cures of Cancers , performed by Dr. Haberfeld , one of the principal Physitians of Bohemia . And among other relations , of this kinde , made me by credible Persons . I cannot omit one , that was , Of a certain English Woman , of sixty and odde Years of age , who had long lain in an Hospital in Zeeland , sick of a Cancer in the Brest , and by this Doctor was , with one single inward Remedy , perfectly cured in the space of three Weeks . For this relation was made me by persons of very strict veracity ; the one a Doctor of Physick , who was an Eye-witness of the Cure ; the other a Childe of Drebell's , who not onely saw the Cure , but knew the Woman before , and out of Charity brought her to him that heal'd her . The same Persons likewise inform'd me , That the Chymical Liquor the Doctor constantly made use of , does , in the Dose , of about a spoonful or two , work suddenly and nimbly enough by Vomit , but hath very quickly ended its operation , so that within an hour , or less , after the Patient hath taken it , he is commonly well again , and very hungry . And they having presented me some spoonfuls of this Liquor , I finde the taste to be offensive enough , and not unlike that of Vitriol , which , by the taste and emetick operation , I guess to be , at least , its principal Ingredient , however it be prepared . The same Persons assured me , that having obtain'd of Dr. Haberfeld a good quantity of his Specifick , they had been ( in England , as well as elsewhere ) partly Eye-witnesses , and partly Performers of wonderful Cures by the help of it alone , under God , in the Kings Evil. Insomuch that an eminent Gentleman of this Nation , now alive and healthy , hath been cured by it , when the Kings Evil had brought his Arm to that pass , that the Chirurgions had appointed a time to cut it off . And with the same Liquor , onely taken inwardly , they profess themselves to have seen and done divers Cures of inveterate external Ulcers , whose proud Flesh , upon the taking of it , is wont to fall off , and then the Ulcer begins to heal at the bottom ; but of the recent effects of this Liquor , we may elsewhere , perhaps , further entertain you . That Suffusions or Cataracts , may , by a manual operation , be cured even in a Patient that was born with them , I formerly told you , when I related the Cure done by my Ingenious Acquaintance , Mr. Stepkins , on a Gentlewoman of about eighteen Years of age , that brought a couple of Cataracts with her into the World. And I remember I was somewhile since in the company of another Woman , who told me , She was brought to Bed of five Children ( if I much mistake not the number ) successively ; of which , she saw not any in a long while after , by reason of a couple of Suffusions , that had many Years blinded her ; and yet now , by the help of a Dutch Oculist of my Acquaintance , she sees , and reads well , and hath freely enjoyed the restored use of her Eyes for some Years already . But these are rather Chirurgical , then Medicinal Cures , and therefore we shall subjoyn the Mention of a very memorable Observation of the Learned Petronius , which being collated with that a little above recited , from Dr. Harvey , they may serve to keep each other from passing for incredible : Quidam ( says our Author ) qui antequam Morbo Gallico afficeretur , altero oculo caecus erat , suffusione densissimâ ( vulgus Cataractam vocat ) oculum occupante , Hydrargyri inunctione à Morb● Gallico , & à suffusione , quod maximè mirum est , evasit . Neque à ratione alienum est inunctione illa Cataractas posse dissolvi , cum frequens Experientia doceat praeduros tumores ex pituita crassa & concreta , genitos , illitu Hydrargyri potenter dissolvi . I need not tell you what sad Prognosticks Physitians are wont to make of Dropsies , especially of that sort which they call Ascites : And indeed the Event does but too frequently justifie their Predictions , when none but ordinary Remedies are employ'd . But I remember , that being acquainted with an Ingenious Person that was very happily cured of a Dropsie , and inquiring who it was that had perform'd the Cure ; I was inform'd , that that , and a multitude of the like had been wrought by a Germane Physitian , of whom , and of his Remedy , I had heard much Commendation in Holland , where he liv'd : And though on divers occasions I found him a modest Man ; and accordingly , when I ask'd him concerning his Cures of the Dropsie , he answered me , That he neither did , nor would undertake to cure so formidable a Disease ; yet he scrupled not to tell me , That as far as he had hitherto try'd , he had one Remedy which had not fail'd him , though he had try'd it upon persons of differing Ages , Sexes , and Complections . But of this Specifick more hereafter . For , at present , I must proceed to take notice , that as incurable a Disease as the radicated Gout is thought to be ( especially in Patients not very temperate ) and as tedious a course of Physick as one would expect to be requisite to the Cure of it , in case it can be cur'd ; Yet I have been several times visited by an honest Merchant of Amsterdam , who was there noted for his Wealth , and his skill in Arte tinctoriâ : This Man , ten or twelve Years ago , had been for a long time so tormented with the Gout , both in Hands and Feet , that his Fits would sometimes vex and confine him for a great part of the Year , and not leave him without hard Knots , as unwelcome Pledges of their Return : But once , that he was tortur'd to a degree that made h●m much pity'd , one came and inform'd him of an Emperick , who had receiv'd from a great Chymist who had lodg'd in his House , a Secret , with which he had already throughly cur'd many , in a short time : Whereupon sending for this Person , and offering him any thing for some relief ; the other refus'd to take above ten Crowns , which , as it seems , was the usual rate for the Cure ; and would not receive that neither , till the reality of it had been evinc'd by the Patients continuing above six Moneths well : And accordingly , with a very few Doses of a certain Powder and Tincture , the Merchant was quickly free'd , not onely from his Pains , but from his Gouty Tophy : And though he indulge himself the drinking of Rhenish Wine very freely , yet he never had a Fit since , as himself assur'd me one Morning , wherein , for Exercise sake , he walk'd five or six Miles to give me a Visit ; adding , That the Man that cur'd him , dying suddenly , never could discover what the Secret was , wherewith so many had been freed from a Disease that does so often mock the skill of the greatest Doctors . I might , perhaps , if I had leisure , relate to you some other strange Stories , which may invite you to think , That as the Naturalists skill in Chymistry , and other Arts retaining to Physiology , may much assist him to discover more generous Remedies then are yet usual ; so the Knowledge of such Remedies , may , in divers cases , make a happy Change in the Rules of Prognosticating what will prove the Course and Event of a Sickness . But I shall not , at present , particularly consider any more then one Disease , namely , The Stone in the Bladder . For whereas it is by most , even of the judicious Physitians , unanimously pronounc'd incurable by Physick , in what Person soever , if it deserve the name of a Stone , and be too big to be voided whole , the Remedilesness of this Disease may be justly question'd . I remember the famous Monardes , treating of the Seed of a Peruvian Plant , which they call Chalchoos , tells us , That it is highly esteemed by the Inhabitants of the Country it grows in , and affirmed not onely to be diuretick , and to bring away Gravel , but to break the Stone in the Bladder it self , if it be not too much hardned : Ejusque rei ( adds he ) tam multa proferunt exempla ut admirationem mihi pariat : He tells us indeed , that he is of opinion that nothing but Section can cure the Stone of the Bladder . Aiunt tamen ( saith he ) illius semen ( of the Calchoos ) tritum , ex aquâ aliquâ ad eam rem idoneâ sumptum , calculum in lutum dissolvere , quod excretum denuo concressit & in lapideam duritiem convertitur . Adolescentem vidi cui hoc obtigisse scio , is cum vesicae calculo torqueretur , idque à Lithotomis qui calculum deprehenderant intellexissem , & ex Symptomatis quae patiebatur agnoscerem ; hominem , veris initio , ad fontem , qui à Petro nomen habet , ablegavi , ubi cum duos menses haesisset à calculo liberatus redit & lutum omne quod paulatim ejecerat denuo in lapidum fragmenta concretum in charta secum retulit . Which passage I wonder such a Writer should immediately annex , to the Declaration of an Opinion that must appear confuted by it , to a Reader that considers not so much what is thought , as what is proved . The very learned and experienced Dr. Gerard Boot , of whose skill , you , Pyrophilus , have found very good effects in your Self , and who was one of the two Professors that writ the Philosophia naturalis reformata , had a very famous Remedy ( which ( now he is dead ) I intend , God willing , to communicate ) against the Stone ; and with it he told me that he had very often cured that Disease in the Kidneys : but for the Stone in the Bladder , he thought it impossible to be dissolved , which circumstances I recite , that you may the more readily believe what he told me a little before his death , namely , That he had cured lately one Mr. Moulin of a real Stone in the Bladder ; adding , That he could not brag of being the Inventor of that Remedy he had imployed , having but lately learned it of a Country Gentleman , whom going to visit last Summer , he saw a Load of Persicaria , or Arsmart , brought to him by some of the Country People ; and desiring to know what he intended to do with so vast a quantity of it , the Gentleman replyed , That he yearly used as much , having by the Water of it , made by bare distillation in a common Rose-water Still , cured so many of the Stone , even in the Bladder , that he was usually sollicited by Patients , numerous enough , to exhaust all the Liquor which he yearly prepared . What we , Pyrophilus , have observed concerning this excellent Liquor , of which we use to prescribe a draught every morning for some Moneths together , we may elsewhere have occasion to relate . But now we shall go on to tell you , that being some Years since in Ireland , I met with an ancient Emperick , who was very famous in those parts , for cutting of the Stone of the Bladder , and for curing sore Eyes : This Man having given ( in the Parts where I then was , and whilest I was there ) some good proof of his skill , I sent for him to me , upon the account of a suspition I long had of the Stone in the Bladder , which , upon search , he assured me I was free from , and so ( God be praised ) I have afterwards found it . He was more a Traveller then a Scholar , and yet finding him , to my wonder , very modest and sober , I inquired of him , Whether he had never any where met with a Remedy that could dissolve the Stone in the Bladder , offering him much more for a Cure of that kinde , then he would require as a Lithotomist : He answered me , That he could cure no Man of a confirmed Stone , but by the help of his Knife ; but if the Stone confisted of a lump of Gravel not very firmly cemented together , he had , by a certain inward Remedy he used , and a dexterous way of crushing the Stone from without with his Fingers , so broaken the Stone , partly by crumbling it , and partly by dissolving the Cement , as to make it voidable by Urine . And he added , That he had formerly cured a Citizen of Cork , of a good large Stone of the Bladder ( for where I then was , he gave proof of his skill , in telling before-hand those he was to cut , the bigness and shape of the Stones that troubled them . ) Passing afterwards by Cork , I sent an intelligent Servant to inquire after this Citizen , but he being casually absent , his Wife sent me , by my Man , a Relation very agreeable to that which he had made me : The Receipt I purchased of him , and , though it seem not very artificial , yet I suppose you will not quarrel with me for annexing so experienc'd a one , to the end of this Essay . But because this Remedy needed the assistance of a manual operation , We shall further proceed to tell you , That Cardan , as he is quoted by Helmont ( for I have not now his Works by me ) relates , That in his time there rambled a Man over Lombardy , who did commonly , and in a few days , by a certain Liquor which he administred to his Patients , safely , speedily , and certainly , cure those that were troubled with the Stone in the Bladder : Adding ( saith Helmont ) his Judgement , That he doubted not of this Mans being in Hell , for having , when he dyed , envyed Mortals so excellent an Art. I insist not on the Testimony that the same Helmont gives to Paracelsus of his curing the Stone , though he often handle him very severely in other places of his Writings , because that the Epitaph of Paracelsus ( out of which he labors to prove his having cured the Stone ) makes no express mention of it . Nor shall I enumerate those Passages from whence the same Helmont's Followers collect , That he himself was able to cure that Disease , by the resolution of Paracelsus his Ludus ; but this experience hath evinc'd to me , that a much slighter preparation of that Stone , then was mention'd by Paracelsus and Helmont , hath been able to do more in that Disease then a wary Man would readily believe . But to detain you no longer on this subject , I shall onely adde , That Wilhelmus Laurembergius , a learned Physitian , and Professor at Rostoch , hath told the World how he cured himself of a confirm'd Stone of the Bladder , by the use of prepared Millepedes ( by some in English call'd Woodlice ) and other Remedies , which he hath particularly recorded in the History which he hath publish'd , and I have seen of this admirable Cure : which having been epitomized by Sennertus , and other eminent Physitians , I shall not need to insist on it . And the Arguments alledged ( even by the most Judicious ) against the curableness of the Stone , though very plausible , seem not to me unanswerable ; for whereas first , they appeal to the innumerable fruitless attempts that have been made to cure great Princes , and rich Men , without cutting , that Argument drawn from experience , may , by the former Experiments , be answered ; especially since Horatius Augenius ( upon whose account Laurembergius tryed Millepedes ) tells us , not onely that he cured a young Man at Rome , that was going to be cut for the Stone , but that the Jesuite that chanced to confess this Youth , and perswaded him to the use of Millepedes , had experimented their efficacy both upon himself and others : And indeed , we our selves have found them to be highly Diuretick and Aperitive . And whereas it is next objected , That Medicines must necessarily loose their efficacy before they can reach the Bladder , I confess , that for the most part , it is very true : But yet that it is possible for some Medicines to retain their Nature , after many alterations and digestions we have elsewhere declared . And in our present Case , we not onely finde that Turpentine and Asparagus , do manifestly affect the Urine ( as I have often observed in my own , and almost any Man may observe it in his ) But that which is most to our purpose , Rubarb tinges the Urine of those that have taken any quantity of it . And lastly , whereas it may be yet further alledged , That not only there hath not been yet a Liquor found capable of dissolving so solid a Body as a Stone ; but if there were , it must necessarily be so corrosive as to destroy the Patient , by fretting his Stomach , or Guts , or Bladder , which are parts so much more tender . To the first part of this plausible Objection it may be replyed , That even good Viniger will dissolve , not onely those stony Concretions , call'd Lapides Cancrorum , which , like the Calculi we treat of , are formed in the Bodies of Animals ; but even the more hard and solid Body of Coral , which will loose but little of its weight , in a Fire that would waste a great part of the Duelech : And that the bare Juices of Vegetables ( such as Lemmons and Barberies ) will readily dissolve both Pearl and Coral , is known even to the Apothecaries Boys . Indeed what Paracelsus and Helmont relate of their Alkahest , with which they prepare their Specifick against the Stone , and with which the later of them , if not both , pretend to be able to reduce , not onely the Stone they call Ludus , but all other Stones , Vegetables , Minerals , Animals , &c. into insipid Water , is so strange ( not to say incredible ) that their Followers must pardon me , if I be not forward to believe such unlikely things , till sufficient experience hath convinced me of their truth . But yet I must not conceal from you , That a Chymist , whom you have often seen , advised with me several times about the way of preparing this immortal Liquor ( as Helmont calls it ) and that , when we had agreed that such a way was the most promising , he prosecuted it so long , and so industriously , that at length he obtain'd , and shew'd me a Liquor , which ( though it seemed to me far short of the Alkahest ) I confess I admired ; and not I alone , but our Ingenious Friend Dr. C. ( who had been imployed into several parts of Europe , by a rich and curious Prince , to purchase Rarities ) agreed with this Chymist , to give Two hundred Crowns for a Pint of this Menstruum ; and confessed to me withal , That he saw him , with this Liquor , not onely dissolve common Sulphur , and bring it over the Helm , but reduce Antimony into sweet Chrystals ; with a few of which it was , that he ( I mean Dr. C. ) to the wonder of many , did , without Purge or Vomit , cure our good Friend Sir C. C. of a very radicated and desperate Disease , as the restored Patient soon after told me . And to the second part of this Objection it may be answered , That if we knew and considered well , how many of the operations of Natural Bodies depend upon the suitableness and difference of the Figures of their Parts , and the Pores intercepted between them , the number of impossibilities would not , perhaps , be thought so great , as by many Learned Men it is . That it is very possible for a Body to have an effect upon another determinate Body , without being able to operate , in like manner , upon a multitude of other Bodies , which may seem more easie to be wrought on by it ; may appear by the Load-stone , which will draw and work onely upon Iron , and ( which is but refined Iron ) Steel , but not upon wood or straws , or any of those innumerable Concrets that are lighter , and of a more open texture then the heavy and solid Body which it attracts . And to give you an instance that comes nearer to our case , Quick-silver , that will not corrode our skin , nor so much as taste sharp upon our tongue , will yet readily dissolve that most compact Body of Gold , which even Aqua fortis , that can insinuate it self into all other Mettals , and corrode them , will not meddle with ; though the same Quick-silver will not dissolve Iron , which yet Aqua fortis will very nimbly fret asunder . So that although I dare not confidently believe all that I have found averr'd even by eminent and learned Chymists , of their having made or seen Liquors , which , without appearing any way sharp to the Tongue , would dissolve Gold and Silver , and other hard compact Bodies ; because I have not yet , my self , seen any severe and satisfactory tryal made to evince the efficacy of insipid Dissolvents : yet , by reason of divers things I have read and heard , and of some things too I have seen , I dare not peremptorily deny the possibility of such Menstruums . And who knows , but that in Nature there may be found , or by Art there may be prepared , some Liquor , whose parts may have such a sutableness to the Pores of a humane Calculus , as those of Quick-silver have to the Pores of Gold , and yet may as little work upon the rest of the Body , as we have observed the same Quick-silver to do upon Iron ( which yet is a much more porous and open Metal ) even when it hath been distill'd in Iron Vessels ? And as to that part of the Objection wherein the strength of it chiefly lies , let me tell you , Pyrophilus , that I have sometimes , for curiosity sake , taken an Egge , and steep'd it in strong Vineger for some days , and by taking it out , and shewing that the shell was so eaten away , that the Egge could be squeez'd into unusual Forms , but the thin skin that involves the white continu'd altogether unfretted , I convinc'd an Ingenious Man , that the operations of Dissolvents are so determin'd by the various textures of the Bodies on which they are imploy'd , that a Liquor , which is capable to corrode a more hard and solid Body , may be unable to fret in the least , an other more soft and thin , if of a texture indispos'd to admit the small parts of the Menstruum . And I must confess to you , Pyrophilus , That one thing , among others , which hath made me backward to affirm with many Learned Men , that there can be no potent Dissolvent that is not corrosive enough to fret in pieces the parts of a humane Body , hath been a Story , which I divers years since chanch'd to meet with in the Learned Sennertus's Paralipomena , where , though he relates it to another purpose , yet it is so pertinent to our present design , and in it self so singular , not to say matchless , that I cannot forbear to mention it here on this occasion . He tells us then , That in the end of the Year , 1632. Johannes Nesterus , an eminent Physitian , and his great Friend , inform'd him , That there liv'd at that time in the Neighborhood , and belonging to a Noble Man of those Parts , a certain Lorainer , whom he also call'd Claudius , somewhat low and slender , and about 58 Years of age : Hic ( saith he ) nihil foetidum , nihil injucundum abhorret ; Vitra ; Lapides , Ligna , Carbones , Ossa , Leporinos , & aliorum animalium pedes cum pilis , lineos , laneosque pannos , viva animalia & pisces adhuc salientes , imò etiam Metalla , patinas & orbes stanneos dentibus confringere & vorare saepissime visus est ; Vorat praeterea lutum sevum & candelas sebaceas , integras testas cochlearum , animalium stercora , cum primis bubulum calidum adhuc , prout è matrè venit : potat aliorum Urinas cum Vino & cerevisia mixtas , Vorat foenum , stramen , stipulas & nuper duos mures viventes adhuc deglutivit , qui ipsius ventriculum ad semihoram usque creberrimis morsibus lancinarunt , & ut brevibus complectar , quicquid illi à Nobilibus devorandum offertur , vilissimâ mercede propositâ , dictum ac factum , ingurgitat , ita ut intra paucos dies integrum vitulum crudum & incoctum cum corio , & pilis se estaturum promiserit . Testis inter alios quamplurimos ipse ego sum , quippe qui , &c. To this , and the following part of the Letter , Sennertus addes , That not having , during some Years , heard any thing concerning this Claudius , he sent about four Years after to the same Physitian , Dr. Nesterus , to enquire what was become of him ; and that the Doctor sent him back a Letter of the Minister of the Church of that place , by way of confi●mation of all the formerly mention'd particulars , and answered himself , That the Lorainer whom he had long hop'd to dissect , was yet alive , and did yet devour all the things mention'd in his former Letter ; but not so frequently as before , his Teeth being grown somewhat blunter by age , that he was no longer able to break Bones and Mettals . Some other examples of this nature , though none so strange , we have also met with in Writers of good credit , and especially that of the Glass-eater , recorded by Columbus in his excellent Anatomical Observations ; of which also Sennertus makes mention , as we shall see by and by , and with which we may elsewhere entertain you to another purpose . And not long agoe there was here in England a private Souldier ( who , for ought I know , is yet alive ) very famous for digesting of Stones : And a very inquisitive Man , that gave me the accuratest account I have met with concerning him , assures me , That he knew him familiarly , and had the curiosity to keep in his company for 24 hours together to watch him , and not onely observ'd that he eat nothing in that time , save Stones ( or Fragments of them ) of a pretty bigness , but that his grosser Excrement consisted chiefly of a sandy Substance , as if the devour'd Stones had been in his Body dissolved and crumbled into Sand. But let us not omit , that to the second Epistle above-mention'd , Sennertus addes this Reflection , not impertinent to our purpose : Causam ( says he ) hujus voracitatis , etiam in cadavere , invenire proculdubio erit difficillimum . Posset quidem ad illud , quod in cadavere Lazari Vitrivoracis observavit Columbus , quidam confugere ; & statuere quartam illam nervorum conjugationem , quae gustus gratia in hominibus à natura producta est , neque ad Palatum , neque ad Linguam pertendere . Verum hoc modo saltem gustûs aboliti causa redderetur , nondum vero causae daretur , cur res tam miras assumere sine ventriculi laefione , imo coneoquere potuerit . Quae proculdubi● in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & peculiari constitutione ventriculi & intestinorum quaerenda esset : quae tamen oculis investigari non potest sed saltem ex effectu patet . And indeed this memorable Story seems to argue , not onely what we have already alledg'd it to prove , but also that a Menstruum , not so corrosive as to fret the Body , may dissolve Stones , Metals , and other compact Substances . And since one Liquor , prepar'd by Nature onely , could in this Mans Stomack dissolve that great variety of Bodies above enumerated , why should it be thought that the Alkahest , or some other Menstruum wherein Nature is skilfully assisted , and to the utmost highten'd by Art , should not be able to dissolve Concretes of very differing Textures . For though Chymists must acknowledge that such common Menstruums as will dissolve one Body , will not oftentimes meddle with another ; as Aqua fortis will dissolve Silver , and not Gold , and if by Salarmoniack you turn it into Aqua Regis , it will indeed dissolve Gold , but then it will not Silver : Yet since that may be suppos'd to proceed rather from our want of skill to prepare the most potent Menstruum , then from the impossibility of one Menstruums dissolving great variety of Bodies ; Why may not Nature and Art afford a Menstruum , whose variety of Parts , and Figures , and ( perhaps also ) Motion , may give it ingress into Bodies of very differing Textures ? as in our former Instance , though Aqua Regalis will dissolve Gold , not Silver ; and Aqua fortis Silver , but not Gold ; yet Quick-silver will dissolve both , and Copper , Tin , and Lead to boot . If I were not at present under some restraint , I might tell you , some things , that you would , perhaps , think no weak Confirmations of the past Discourse : And however , since I have observ'd it to be the main thing , that keeps judicious Men from seeking , or so much as hoping for nobler Dissolvents , that they are scarce to be perswaded there can be considerably piercing Menstruums , that are not proportionably corrosive : I will here acquaint you with a Liquor , that may , I presume , assist you to undeceive some of them . We take then ordinary houshold brown Bread ( I like that of Rye , but I have divers times us'd that of Wheat ) and when it is cut into slices , and somewhat dry'd , we almost fill a glass Retort with it , and placing that in a sand Furnace , by degrees of Fire , we draw off what will be made to come over , without much difficulty : The Oyl , as useless to our purpose , being by a Tunnel , or a Filter , sever'd from the rest of the Liquor , we also , by a gentle heat , free the Spirit from some of its Phlegm , which yet sometimes we finde no great necessity to do . And yet this Spirit , which you will easily believe is no such Corrosive as Aqua fortis , or other distill'd Liquors of Mineral Salts , will work upon the hardest sorts of Bodies , and perform things that Chymists counted of the judiciousest , would not have us expect from the most sharp and corrosive Menstruums now in use . For with this we have , in a short time , and that in the cold , drawn Tinctures ( which is done by the solution of the finer parts of the Concrete ) not only from crude Corals , and some of the more open Minerals , but likewise from very hard Stones , such as Blood stone , and Granates ( even unpowder'd ) Nay , and though Ruby's seem to be the hardest Bodies yet known , save Diamonds ( for I have learned from those that cut precious Stones , that they can grinde other Gems with the Powder of Rubies , but not these with any Powder , save their own , and that of Diamonds ) yet have , even these , afforded me in the cold , a not ignoble Tincture . And not to anticipate what I may elsewhere have occasion to tell you concerning the efficacy of this Menstruum , which is the same that I have intimated , without naming it , in the last , and another of the former Essays . I shall now onely adde , That an expert Chymist assures me , he hath , but tells me not how , done greater matters with it , or the like ; and that to satisfie my self that these high Tinctures , proceeded not from the standing or digestion of the Menstruum ( as we elsewhere observe concerning some other Liquors ) I not onely tryed , that from some Minerals it will draw a much higher Tincture then from others , and from some scarce any at all , but that it would , if kept by it self , for many Moneths continue clear and limpid . What further use I have made , or think others may make of this odde Menstruum , I must not , as I said at present , express ; but returning to what I was discoursing concerning the cure of the Stone , annex , That besides what hath been objected against the possibility of making a Liquor , which , without being highly corrosive , can be able to work upon Stone ; It may indeed be also alledg'd against the hopes we seem to countenance , that what hath cured the Stone in one Mans Bladder , may be unable to do the like in anothers : But first , the truth of that hath not been proved ; and next , we highly value those Specificks that can remove Agues , Fluxes , and the like Diseases , though scarce any of them do alike succeed in all Patients , especially so as to secure them , during their whole lives , from ever relapsing into the like Disease ; and besides all this , it will be no small matter to finde that the Disease , in its own nature , is not incurable ; and it would recompence Mens Industry to be able to free , even a few Patients , from so painful and stubborn a Disease . Which I have rather then any other , chosen to insist upon , because it is so generally believed not to be curable by inward Remedies in any Person whatever . But I have entertained you so long on this subject , that I must reserve , for some other opportunity , what I have to say to you concerning the Dropsie , and some other Diseases , commonly put into the Catalogue of the incurable ones , and therefore shall now onely tell you in general , That as on the one side I think the Arguments which Helmont and others draw from the Providence of God , for the curableness of all Diseases are not very cogent , and somewhat irreverent ( For God being not oblig'd any more to continue Life or Health to sinful Man then to Beasts that never offended Him , we ought humbly to thank Him , if He hath , among His Creatures , dispers'd Remedies for every Disease , but hath no right to accuse Him if He have not ) so on the other side , I am not much convinc'd by the grand Argument alleadg'd against Paracelsus , and the Chymists , that hold all Diseases to be in their own Nature curable ; namely , That they themselves , many of them ( no nor even their very Master ) lived not to the Age attain'd by many Strangers to Chymistry . For this , That many of them ( not destroy'd by War , or outward accidents ) died young enough , and consequently by Sickness ; and that Paracelsus himself out-liv'd not the 47th Year of his age , is a much stronger Objection against the Men , then against their Opinion ; for it infers indeed plausibly , that they had not such Remedies as they boasted of ( since probably , had they had any such , they would have cured themselves with them ) but concludes not that no such Remedies can be prepar'd by any other . And this you will be the less apt to think irrational , if you consider , how much more learned , sober and experienc'd , it is possible for many a Man to be , then Paracelsus appears to have been : For he seems not by his Writings to have been any great Logician or Reasoner ; he manifestly despis'd many parts of Learning , useful to a Physitian ; he lived not many Years , and spent divers of those few which he lived , in an unsetled and disadvantagious course of life ; and yet this Paracelsus attain'd to some such Remedies , as both in his own , and after times , have made him a very considerable Person , in spight of all his indiscretions and deficiencies . And among his other Remedies , his famous Laudanum did such wonders , that Oporinus himself , in that short account , which seems to be rather a Satyr then a Narrative of his Life , hath this Passage of it : De Laudano ( saith he ) suo ( ita vocabat pilulas instar murium stercoris , quas impari semper numero , in extrema tantum morborum difficultate , tanquam sacram medicinam exhibebat ) ita gloriebatur , ut non dubitarit affirmare ejus solius usu se è mortuis vivos reddere posse ; idque aliquoties dum apud ipsum fui , re ipsa declaravit . So signal a Testimony coming from one whom the Paracelsians call his fugitive Servant , hired by his Enemies to slander him , under pretence of writing his Life , deserves not to be slighted : and though it manifestly contains an Hyperbole , yet I do the less wonder at the Hyperbole , by reason of those strange things which your Mother , and divers other of your Friends , can tell you , they have seen performed in England by Helmont's Laudanum opiatum ( though much inferior to that of Paracelsus . ) And I remember , that a Friend of yours and mine , that is a great enemy to all kindes of Chymical Remedies , and was before also to Chymistry , having begg'd of me a little Bottle of it , which I had obtain'd from a Friend of the younger Helmont's , to whom he communicated the Preparation , gave me awhile after , an account of such Cures that had been perform'd , with that small quantity , upon almost dying Persons , as I think it not discreet for me , that was not an Eye-witness of them , to relate . And I remember too , that the same Friend of young Helmont's , being , at the perswasion of one Woman whom he had cured of a dangerous Consumption , call'd to another that was thought to be dying of an Asthma , came to advise with me whither he should meddle with so desperate a Patient ; telling me , That she had been many Years sick of that stubborn Disease , which , in process of time , passing into an Orthopnea , had at last put her , by want of sleep ( from which the violence of her sickness had very long kept her ) into a Feaver , and so desperate a condition , that it was scarce expected she should live till the next morning . But I , representing to him that her condition being avowedly desperate , he might exercise his Charity without danger to his Reputation ; and perswading him to try Helmont's Laudanum , together with the Spirit of Man's Blood ( which we elsewhere teach you to prepare ) he gave her that Night a Dose of those Remedies , which made her both sleep and breath pretty freely ; and a Week after , he coming to visit me , told me , he had casually met his Patient well and abroad in the Streets . But these are trifles to the Cures which Helmont relates to have been performed by our Irish Butler , for he tells us , That this Man , by slightly plunging a little Stone , he had , into Almond Milk or Oyl , imbued those Liquors with such a sanative efficacy , that a Spoon-full of the former cured ( and that without acquainting him with what was given him ) a Franciscan Frier ( a very famous Preacher ) of a very dangerous Erysipelas in the Arm , in one hour ; and one drop of the latter , being apply'd in his presence , to the Head of an old Laundress , that had been sixteen Years troubled with an intolerable Hemicrania , the Woman was presently cured , and remained so , to his knowledge , for divers Years . He adds almost as strange a Cure done in one Night , upon a Maid of his Wife 's , by anointing the part affected with four drops of that Oyl : He further tells us , That the Master of the Glass-house at Antwerp , being troubled and made unweildy with too much fat , begg'd some relief of Butler ; who , having given him a little fragment of his little Stone , with order to lick it nimbly with the tip of his Tongue once every Morning , I saw ( saith Helmont ) within 3 weeeks , the compass of his waste lestned by a span , without any prejudice to his health . And to these , Pyr : he adds some other Narratives , which , though I confess I know not well how to believe , yet there are Circumstances which keep me from daring to reject them : For first , as he well observes , that which was most stupendous in this Remedy , was but the smalness of the quantity . Next , a Gentleman in France , being not long since reported to have a fragment of this Stone , and to have cured several Persons ( and especially one very dignified ) of inveterate Diseases , by leting them lick it ; my Noble Friend Sir Kenelm Digby , then in France , was solemnly requested from hence to inquire into the truth of that Report , and answered , That he could not , upon examination , finde it other then true . Besides , Helmont not onely relates these Cures as an Eye-witness of them , but tells us , how upon an occasion that he mentions , he once suspected the efficacy of the Oyl , and that , without expecting that it should do any thing , he anointed it on the right arm and the ancles of his own Wife , who had for some Moneths been tormented with great pains in the former , and very great tumors in the latter of those parts ; and that almost in a trice , motion was restored to her arm , and all the oedema of her legs and feet vanished ; adding , That at the time of his writing she liv'd healthfully , and had done so since that recovery , during nineteen Years : And this Story , she , long after her Husband● death , confirm'd to our ingenious Friend Dr. C. who is acquainted with her , and much extolls her : These Circumstances , may be assisted by two more very considerable ones ; the one is , That Helmont is the more to be credited in these Relations , because mentioning Cures not perform'd by himself , but by another , and that by Remedies unknown to him , he seems by these Narrations , out of loyalty to truth , to eclipse his own Reputation : And the other is , that in a memorable Story which we may elsewhere relate to you ( it being not here proper to insert so long a one ) you 'l finde an eminent and strange testimony given to Butler's Secrets , by our famous Country man , Dr. Higgins , whose confession you will not doubt , if you consider how rare a Physitian and Chymist he was , how familiarly he lived in the same House with Butler ; and how studiously , at last , they endeavored to take away each others Life . But whatever be to be thought , Pyr : of Helmont's Relation , we may well enough make this reflection on the other things that have been delivered concerning formidable Diseases , that since the power of Nature and Skill may reach much farther then many distrustful ( not to say lazy ) men have imagin'd , it will not be charitable to rely too much upon the Prognosticks , even of famous Writers , when they tell us , That such and such Diseases , or Patients in such and such conditions cannot possibly be cured . But rather to follow the sober councel of Celsus : Oportet ( saith he ) ubi aliquid non respondet , non tanti putare Authorem quanti aegrum , & experiri aliud atque aliud . And this great Physitians authority I therefore make the most use of in the ensuing Essays , because he is accounted very judicious by the Lord Verulam , and other Writers that are unquestionably so themselves . ESSAY IV. Presenting some things relating to the Hygieinal Part of Physick . THat the Dietetical part of Physick , Pyrophilus , may , as well as the others , be improved by Natural Philosophy , were not uneasy to manifest , if my haste would permit it : For 't is known , that Drinks make a very considerable part ( sometimes , perchance , amounting almost to the one half of our Aliments ) and most Drinks , as Wine , Beer , Ale , Mead , &c. consist of fermented Liquors : Now as on the one side the ignorance of the Doctrine of Fermentation , and of the wholesome way of both preserving Liquors and making them pleasant , doth questionless occasion more then a few Diseases , which in divers places may be observed evidently to proceed from the unwholsome quality of either ill made , or sophisticated Drinks ; so on the other side , the distinct knowledge of the true nature and particular Phaenomena of Fermentation , would enable Men to prepare a great variety of Drinks , not onely as harmless , but as beneficial , as pleasant . How much preparation may do to correct and meliorate both hard and liquid Aliments , is notably instanced by the account that we receive from both the French and English that inhabit the Barbados , St. Christophers , and other Caraibes Islands , who solemnly inform us ( what is attested also by Piso , and other Learned Travellers that write of it ) that the Plant Mandioca ( whose prepar'd Root makes Cassavy , and which we have also seen flourishing here in Europe ) to which the Indians are so much beholden , is a rank Poyson . And though I shall not too resolutely affirm it , to be a Poyson properly so called ; yet in confirmation of its being very noxious , I shall tell you , That having purposely enquired of a very intelligent Gentleman , who commanded an Army of Europeans in America , what experience he had seen of the qualities of this Plant , he told me , That between thirty and forty of his Soldiers , having on a time ( whil'st they were unacquainted with the Countrey ) either through ignorance or curiosity , eaten of it unprepared , it cost most of them their Lives . And yet this pernicious Root , which some Herbarists call Yucca , by the rude Indians ordering , comes to afford them both almost all their Bread , and no small part of their Drink : For this Root being grated , and carefully freed from its moisture , by being included in Bags , and very strongly pressed till all the Juice be squeezed out ; it is afterwards dryed in the Sun , and so made into the Meal of which they make their Bread : And this very Root , though ( as we said ) it be poisonous , they cause their old , and almost toothless Women , for the better breaking and macerating it , to chew and spit out into Water . This Juice will , in a few hours , work and purge it self of the poysonous quality , affording them a Drink which they esteem very wholsome , and at the Barbado's call Perino , and account it to be the likest in taste to our English Beer , of any of those many Drinks that are used in that Island . This nasty way of preparing Drink , Pyrophilus , may seem strange to you , as it did to me when I first heard of it ; but besides the consenting relations both of French and English concerning it , it may be confirmed by the strange assertion of Gulielmus Piso , in his new and curious Medicina Brasiliensis , where , having spoken of several of the Brasilian Wines , he tells us , That they make Liquors of several Plants , besides the Root of Mandioca , after the same nasty manner . Idem fit ( saith he ) ex Mandioca , Patata , Milio , Turcico , Oryza & aliis , quae à vetulis masticantur , masticataque multa cum salira exspuuntur , hic liquor mox vasis reconditur donec ferveat , faecesque ejiciat . In Muscovia it self , notwithstanding the unskilfulness of that rude People , Olearius informs us , That the Embassadors , to whom he was Secretary , we●e presented at one time with two and twenty several sorts of Drink . And at a Country House here in England ( where I was , by a very Ingenious Gentleman that is Master of it , presented with divers rare Drinks of his own making ) I was assur'd that he had lately , at one time in his House , at least the former mentioned number of various Drinks , and might easily have had a greater , if he had pleased . And on this occasion , I am not willing to pretermit what is practised in some of our American Plantations , as I am informed by the Practisers themselves , where , finding it very difficult to make good Mault of Maiz , or Indian Corn ( by reason of hinderances not to be discoursed of in few words ) they brew very good Drink of it , by fi●st bringing the Grain to Bread ; in which operation , the Grain being both reduced into small parts , and already somewhat fermented , is disposed to communicate easily its dissoluble and Spirituous parts to the Water it is boyled in : To which I shall adde , That I have to think , that the Art of Malting may be much improved by new & skilfully contriv'd Furnaces , and a rational man●gement of the Grain . Nor are we alone defective in the knowledge of fermenting Drinks , but even in that of the Materials of which Drinks may be prepar'd . In that vast Region of China , which is inriched with so fertil a Soil , and comprizeth such variety of Geographical parallels , they make not ( as Semedo informs us ) their Wine of Grapes , but of Barley ; and in the Northern parts , of Rice , where they make it also of Apples ; but in the Southern parts , of Rice onely : yet not of ordinary Rice , but of a certain kinde peculiar to them , which serves onely to make this Liquor , being used in divers manners . And of the Wine there drank , even by the vulgar , our Author gives us this character : The Wine used by the common People , although it will make them drunk , is not very strong or lasting ; 't is made at all times of the Year , but the best onely in the Winter : It hath a colour very pleasing to the sight , nor is the smell less pleasing to the sent , or the savor thereof to the taste ; take altogether , it is a vehement occasion that there never wants Drunkards , &c. And of the Inhabitants of the Kingdom of Japan , I remember also , Pyrophilus , that Linschoten , in his description of those Islands , tells us , That they drink Wine of Rice , wherewith they drink themselves drunk . We have here in England , at the House of our experienced Mint-master , Dr Gordon , tasted a Wine , which he made of that sort of Cherrys which are commonly call'd Morellos , that was , when we drank of it , about a Year and a half old , but it was somewhat sower , and needed Suger ; And therefore I shall rather take notice to you of my having since drunk Wine made of the Juice of good , but not of extraordinary Kentish Cherrys , which , with the help of a Tantillum of Suger added in the Fermentation , kept so well ; that though it were above a Year old when I tasted it , I found it a strong and pleasant Wine , not inferior to many Wines that are brought us from foreign parts . But this is nothing to what is averr'd upon his own experience , by a Learned Divine ( to whom you , Pyrophilus , and I , am related ) who affirms himself to have made out of some sort of wilde Apples and Pears , by bare Fermentation , such Liquors , as though at first somewhat harsh , will not onely keep divers years ; but at the end of two or three , attain such strength , and so pleasingly pungent a taste , that they may compare even with choice out-landish Wines , and excel those that are not of the very best sorts of them . But till we have in another Essay an opportunity of presenting you something out of the Observations of Olearius , the newly mention'd Divine , and our own , concerning Fermented Liquors , we shall content our selves to manifest our want of curiosity about the materials of which Drinks may be prepar'd , by this , That the Drinks of one whole Country , are oftentimes unknown to the Inhabitants of another : That the Wine made of Rice , which we lately mention'd to be of frequent use in the Kingdoms of China and Japan , is of little or none in Europe , I need not prove to you . I have been in divers places where Beer and Ale , which are here the common Drinks , a●e greater rarities , then the medicated Liquors sold onely in Apothecaries Shops . In divers parts of Muscovie , and some other Northern Regions , the common Drink is Hydromel , made of Water fermented with Honey : And indeed , if a due proportion betwixt those two be observed , and the Fermentation be skilfully ordered , there may be that way , as experience hath assur'd us , prepar'd such a Liquor , both for clearness , strength , and wholsomeness , as few that have not tasted such a one , would readily believe . The French and English Inhabitants of the Canibal Islands , make , by Fermentation , a Wine of the dregs collected in the boiling of Suger . A like to which Piso tells us , That they make in Brasil , and commonly call Garapa , which , though made by the mixture of Water , the Inhabitants are very greedy of ; and when it is old , finde it strong enough to make them drunk . And how also in these colder Countrys , a good Wine may be made of onely Suger and Water , we may elsewhere have occasion to teach you . And in Brasil they likewise , as the same Author informs us , make a Wine ( unknown to most other Regions of the World ) of the Fruit of Acaju , which yet , upon his experience , he much commends ; telling us , That it is strong enough to inebriate , and may , he doubts not , be kept good many Years ; and that though it be astringent , yet both in himself and others he found it diuretical . In the Barbada's they have many Drinks unknown to us ; such as are Perino , the Plantane-drink , Grippo , Punch , and the rare Wine of Pines , by some commended more then the Poets do their Nectar ; some of which we therefore make not , because the Vegetables whereof they are produc'd , grow not in these colder Climats : But others also they have , which we have not , though they are made of Plants to be met with in our Soil ; as for instance , the drink they call Mobbie , made of Potato's fermented with Water , which , being fit to drink in a very few days , and easie to make as strong almost as the maker pleaseth , would be of excellent use , if it were but as wholsome as it is accounted pleasant . In the Turkish Dominions , where Wine , properly so call'd , is forbidden by Mahomet's Law , the Jews and Christians keep , in their Taverns , a Vinous Liquor made of fermented Raisons , after a manner , which ( when we shall elsewhere acquaint you with it ) you will easily discern to be capable of much improvement from the knowledge of Fermentation . And indeed , by the bare fermenting of Raisons and Water in a due proportion , without the help of Barm , Leaven , Tartar , or other additament to set them a working , we have divers times , in a few days , prepar'd a good Vinous Liquor , which having for tryals sake distilled , it afforded us greater store , then we expected , of inflammable Spirit , like that of other Wine . But I have sometimes wondered , that Men had no more curiosity to try what Drinks may be made of the Juices obtainable , by wounding or cutting off the parts of several Trees , and some other Vegetables : For that in the East Indies , their Sura is made of the Liquor dropping from their wounded Coco Trees , we have not long since out of Linscoten informed you . And sober Eye-witnesses have assured us , That in those Countrys they have but too often seen the Seamen drunk , by the use or Liquors weeping out of the Incisions of wounded Vegetables , and afterwards fermented . And that even in Europe , the Alimental Liquor , drawn by Trees from the Earth , may receive great alterations from them before it be quite assimulated by them , may be gathered from the practice of the Calabrians and Apulians ; who , betwixt March and November , do by Incisions obtain from the common Ash Tree , and the Ornus ( which many Botanists would have to be but a wilde Ash ) a sweet Juice , so like to the Manna , adhearing in that Season to the Leaves of those kinde of Trees , that the Natives call it in their Language , Manna del corpo , or Trunk-manna ; and least we should think they draw all this sweetness from the Soil of that particular part of Italy where they grow , you may be satisfied by the Learned Chrysostomus Magnenus , in his Treatise De Manna , that it is to be met with in several other places . And he adds , That in the Dukedom of Milane , where he professeth Physick , there is no other Manna used then that which is ( as he speaks ) Vel è trunco expressum ( which he somewhere calls Manna Truncinum ) aut in ramis stiriatim concretum ; and that yet it is safely and prosperously used . I had communicated to me , as a rarity , a secret of the King of Polands , which is said to do wonders in many Diseases , and consists onely in the use of the Liquor which drops about the beginning of the Spring , from the bar'd and wounded Roots of the Walnut-tree : but because I have not yet made tryal of it my self , I shall pass on to observe to you , that in some Northern Countries , and even in some parts of England , bordering upon Scotland , the almost insipid Liquor that weeps in March , or the beginning of April , out of the transversly wounded Branches ( not Trunks ) of the Birch-tree , is wont to be used by Persons of Quality as a preservative from the Stone ; against which cruel Disease , Helmont highly extols a Drink made of this Liquor and semen dauci , and Beccabunga , and I think not without cause . For not to mention all the commendations that have been given me of it by some that use it , I have seen such strange relief , frequently given among others , to a Kins-man of mine , to whom hardly any other Remedy ( though he tryed a scarce imaginable variety ) was able to give ease ( and in whose dissected Bladder , after another Disease had kill'd him , a Stone of many Ounces was found ) that I usually every Spring take care to provide a quantity of this Water , with which alone , without the other Ingredients mentioned by Helmont , my Kins-man used to be relieved as long as he could keep it , which you may do the longer , by pouring upon the top of it a quantity of Sallet Oyl , to defend it from the Air ; and perhaps also by Distillation : By which ( last named ) way , I know an Ingenious Man that is wont to preserve it for his own use , and says , he findes it not thereby impair'd in virtue . But the most effectual way that ever I yet practiced , Pyrophilus , to preserve both this and other Liquors and Juices , is dexterously and sufficiently to impregnate them with Fume of Sulphur , which must be at divers , and often times as it were , incorporated with the Liquor by due agitation ; the manual Operation belonging to this Experiment , I may hereafter have occasion to describe more fully , together with the particular Effects of it in several Bodies . And therefore it may here suffice to tell you , that if you practice it carefully , you will , perhaps , think your self oblig'd to thank me for the discovery of it , though a heedful Reader may finde it , not obscurely , hinted in Helmont's Writings . I might here annex the great commendation which I have found given to this Birch-water , by eminent Writers , against the hot d●stempe●s of the Liver , and divers other affections ; and especially how Freitagius commends it very much to dilute Wine with : and adds , Haec est dulcacida & grati saporis , sitim sedat viscerum & sanguinis fervorem temperat , obstructiones reserat , calculum pellit . But I suppose you will think it high time for me to proceed to another subject ; and indeed I should not have spent so much time in discoursing of Drinks , but that I am apt to think , that if there were greater variety of them made , and if they were more skilfully ordered , they might , by refreshing the Spirits , and insensibly altering the mass of Blood , prevent and cure ( without weakning or much troubling the Patient ) almost as many Diseases as the use of our common , unwholesome , and sophisticated Wines is wont to produce . For in Fermentation , the Sulphurous ( as Chymists call them ) the Active , and the Spirituous parts of Vegetables , are much better loosened , and more intirely separated from the grosser and clogging parts , in most Mixts , then they are by the vulgar ways of Distillation , wherein the Concrete is not open'd by previous Fermentation . And these nobler parts being incorporated with our Aliments , are with them received freely , and without resistance carryed into the mass of the Blood , and therewith , by circulation , conveyed to the whole Body where their Operation is requisite . And I remember , that discoursing one day with an eminently learned and experienced Physitian , of the Antinephritical virtue of our common wilde Carret-seed , fermented in small Ale ; he smilingly told me , that he found its efficacy but too great : For having prescrib'd it to some of his rich Patients , who were wont frequently to have recourse to him in their Nephritical distempers , after the use of this drink for a pretty while , he seldom heard of them any more . And for your encouragement , Pyrophilus , to make tryals of this nature , we will adde , That though the Seed it self be not over-well tasted , yet being fermented in a due proportion with the Liquor ( we used an Ounce and half of the Seed , to a Gallon of the Ale ) the Drink compos'd of both tasted pleasantly , almost like Lemmon beer . And that you may the less wonder at the efficacy of fermented Liquors , it is worth considering , what virtue is ascribed to the bare decoction of that Herb , which the French and we call Thé , or Té , which is much magnified here ; and as far as my little experience in my self , and others ( of which more hereafter ) reaches , not altogether without cause : But among the Chineses and the Japonians , it is the common Drink of Persons of Quality , by whom it is so highly prais'd , that the experienced Tulpius , in the new Edition of his Observations , tells us , That one pound of the Japonical T'chia ( as the Natives call it ) is not unfrequently sold for one hundred pounds of Silver ; which is not to be wondred at , if they justly ascribe to it , that in those Countrys Men are not subject to the Stone , or the Gout , and if but one half of the Virtues he there attributes to it , be for the most part to be found in it . I might , when I told you of the variety of Materials not used among us , have added one strange Drink , which a Chyrurgion , that a while since lived at in the East Indies , told me , he saw much used thereabouts : They make it of the raw Flesh of Goats , Capons , and the like , which , together with Rice and Molossos ( or black course Suger ) they put into a quantity of Water , and distil it in an Alimbick till the Liquor be stronger then Brandy ( as they call common weak Spirit of Wine or of Lees of Vinous Liquors ) And this Rack ( as the extravagant Liquor is call'd ) is often drunk in hot weather , and found very comfortable : those that use it , prizing it much , as supposing it draws a nutritive and cherishing virtue from the Flesh ; as indeed , if any quantity of the nobler parts of that , do concur to the constituting of the Liquor , it may probably be , at least to divers Bodies , very wholsome in that Country , where they finde strong Drinks necessary to recruit their Spirits , exhausted by the excessive heat of the Climate . As I remember , the experienced Bontius , in his Medicina Indorum , tells us , That the Merchants travelling through the scorching Deserts of Arabia , Persia , or Turkey , finde it best to quench their thirst by a draught of the Spirit of Wine , or else of the strongest Persian or Spanish Wine . And of the great use , if not necessity of either Brandy , or such other strong and Spirituous Drinks in the hot Climats of the Indies , divers intelligent Persons of our own Country , have , upon their own experience , sufficiently satisfied us . Nor , Pyrophilus , is Natural Philosophy able onely to improve our Drinks , but the rest of our Aliments also : For not to mention , that Experience hath assur'd us , that by skilfully contriv'd Ovens ( wherein the heat plays every way about the Bread , without yet suffering any of the smoke or steams of the Fire to come at it , and wherein what degree of heat you please may be continu'd from first to last ) better Bread may be bak'd , then in our common Ovens , where the Bread rests upon the Harth , and the heat is continually decaying . Not to mention this , I say , Physiologie can inable us to confer a very grateful taste on very many of the things we eat , barely by a skilful and moderate untying and exciting the formerly clogg'd Spirits , and other sapid parts contain'd in them . It can teach us to make better Bread then is commonly eaten : And by discovering to us a better Art of Cookry , then Apitius and his Successors have left us , and by substituting innocently sapid things , instead of those unwholsome ones , their deliciousness endears to Men ; It can teach us to gratifie Mens Palates , without offending their healths : & in preserving of fresh Meats , Fruits , &c. beyond their wonted seasons of duration , the Naturalists skill may perform much more then you will readily believe . And yet to incline you not to be too diffident in this particular , let me inform you , That much hath been already perform'd , as to the preservation of Aliments , even by those that have not troubled themselves to make Philosophical enquiries after the Causes and Remedies of Putrefaction in Bodies , but onely have been taught by obvious and daily Observations , that the Air doth much contribute to the corruption of some Bodies , and the exclusion of Air to the hindring it . I remember , the inquisitive and learned Mr. Borreel , assur'd me some while since , That he had in his Country , Holland , eaten Bisket that was yet good , after it had been carryed from Amsterdam to the East Indies , and brought back thence again ( in which Voyage , between two and three Years are wont to be spent ) And to confirm my conjecture of the way of preserving this Bread so long : He told me , that the curious Merchant whose it was , used no other Art , then the stowing his Bisket , well baked , in Casks exactly calk'd ; and besides , carefully lin'd with Tin , for the more perfect exclusion of the Air. Adding , That to the same end the Biskets were so placed , as to leave as little room as possibly might be in the Cask , which also was not opened , but in case of absolute necessity , and then presently and carefully closed again . I may elsewhere tell you of an eminent Naturalist , a Friend of yours and mine , that hath a strange way of preserving Fruits , whereby even Goof-berries have been kept for many Moneths , without the addition of Sugar , Salt , or other tangible Bodies ; but all that I dare yet tell you , is , That he assures me his Secret consists in a new and artificial way of keeping them from the Air. But it seems more difficult , as well as more useful , to be able to preserve Meat long without Salt ; for 't is sufficiently known to Navigators , how frequently , in long Voyages , the Scurvy , and other Diseases , are contracted by the want of fresh Meat , and the necessity of feeding constantly upon none but strongly poudred Flesh , or salted Fish ; and therefore , he is much to be commended that hath first devised the way to keep Flesh sweet , without the help of those freeting Salts Men are wont to use to make it keep . This way is not unknown known to some ingenious Persons in London : One of the most noted of whom , upon my conjecturing how it may be perform'd , confess'd to me , that I had hit upon the way in general : But the most satisfactory account I could get of it , was from an English Man , that lately practised Physick in the East Indies , who , finding I was no stranger to what I asked him about , told me freely , that he had seen both Goats-flesh , and Hens , so well preserved by this way , that though it were put up in the East Indies awhile before he came thence , yet he eat of it , and found it good and wholsome , between the Islands of Cape Verd ( as the Sea-men call them ) and England ; so that this Meat-continued sweet above six Moneths , notwithstanding the heat and closeness of the Ship , the excessive heat they met with in their Passage under the Line , and consequently through the Torrid Zone : and that the way was onely this , That the Meat being well roasted , and cut in pieces , was carefully and conveniently ranged in a very close Cask , into which , afterwards , there was poured as much Butter melted , skimmed , and decanted from the grosser and ranker Parts , as would fill up all the intervals left between the several pieces of Flesh , and swim about them all , and thereby keep out the Air from approaching them ; and then the Cask , being exactly closed , was stow'd up in a convenient place in the Ship , and kept unopen'd till the Meat was to be eaten . And it must not be omitted , that the Relator , and others that had the care of making Provision for the Voyage , were fain , instead of Butter made of Cows Milk ( which could not be had where they took in their Lading ) to make use of that made of Goats , or Ews Milk , which is not ( as the Indians make it ) so good , and to whose rankness he ascribed that which he had observed in some of the Meat buried in it , which he thought might have been preserved longer , and better tasted ( for wholsome and incorrupt he said it was ) in our European Butter , whose power to preserve Meat bury'd in it , after due Coction , hath been confirmed to me upon their own observation , by an experienc'd Officer of the English Fleet , that had the over-sight of the Provisions , and by others that had opportunity to observe it . But how much the Naturalists skill may advance the Dietetical part of Physick , by enabling Men to make Aliments much lastinger then naturally they are , I must not here labor to convince you by other instances , that I may not anticipate what we have elsewhere to acquaint you with , from other Mens Experiments , and our own , about the conservation of Bodies . Onely I shall at present tell you in general , That I hope there will be ways found out to preserve even raw Flesh it self ( for of the keeping of roasted , we have just now given you an instance ) with things that do not so much fret it , nor give it so corrosive a quality , when eaten , as our common Salt doth . For not to mention what several curious Persons have practised , of salting Neats Tongues with Salt-peter , which though done onely to make them look red , shews that a Body , not corrosive like common Salt , may preserve Flesh : I have , for tryal sake , kept an entire Puppy of pretty bigness , untainted for many Weeks ( and that in the midst of Summer ) and that without slaying , drying ( by Fire or otherwise ) or so much as exenterating him , or cleansing him , or doing any thing towards the preserving of him , save the keeping him immersed in a well stopt Vessel , under Spirit of Wine ( from whose taste , I presume , Meat may be easily freed by Water ) and there seemed small cause to doubt , that the onely thing that hindred me from keeping him much longer , was the want of time to pursue the Experiment , and take notice of its success : For I remember , I have the same way kept a soft Substance , taken raw from an Ox or Cow , for many Moneths ( if I mistake not , eighteen or twenty ) and found no putrefaction or ill sent in the immersed substance , which , for ought I know , might have been preserved divers Years together the same way , or at least , by an easie improvement of this method , of which , as I lately intimated , I intend you hereafter an account . And I shall further adde on this occasion , That if we reflect upon Suger , which is ( at least in these Western Regions ) but an almost recent discovery , and consider how many Bodies are with it , by Confectioners and others , not onely preserv'd , but rendred exceeding grateful to the taste ; that single instance may suffice to make us think it probable , that expedients yet unthought of , may , by an insight into Nature , be found out , for the preservation of Bodies ; especially , if our ingenious Friend , Mr. W. would shew us , how out of divers other Concreats , besides the Suger Cane , a Substance not unlike Suger ( though of different taste , according to the nature of the Vegetable that affords it ) may , by a peculiar industry , be prepar'd : which , that you may not think unfeazable , let me mention to you ( for perhaps he hath not yet taken notice of it ) what even Indians have done of this nature . And first , let me inform you of what we are told by Linschoten * concerning that Drink , which in the East Indies they call Sura , and made of the Liquor dropping from the Blossoms , that they cut away from the Indian Palm Tree which bears the Coco Nut. For of this Sura , he tells us , That amongst other things , they make Suger ( which is called Jagra ) which is made by boiling that Liquor , and setting it in the Sun , where it congeals to Suger . And though I must not conceal from you , that our Author adds , that it is not much esteemed by reason of its brown colour , and for that ( to use his words ) they have so great quantity and abundance of white Suger th●●ughout all India , yet the latter reason , of the cheapness of Jagra , seems to be the principal . For probably , if other Suger were scarce , the melioration of this would be attempted ; and 't is very likely , That if a skilful Naturalist had the ordering of that sweet Juice , of which the Indians make their Jagra , he might very well make of it a Suger of no small use ; and such a Suger would be very convenient in many cases , and to many Persons , for its being different from the common Suger , though it should not be better . Garcillassus also ( a much applauded Writer concerning the West Indies ) treating of the Fruits of a Peruvian Tree , call'd by some Molle , and by others Mull● conficiunt ( saith he ) ex eo potum confricando blande inter manu● in aquâ calidâ donec dulcor omnis defricetur : Percolam hanc aquam seruantque dies tres quatuorve donec subsideat . potus est limpidissimus , &c. Aqua eadem cocta convertitur in optimum mel : And of the same Plant , Petrus de Cieca hath this confirming Passage , Ex hujus fructu cum aquâ decocto , pr●coctura modo , fit aut vinum sive potio admodum bona aut acetum aut mel . And that there is a great affinity betwixt such Vegetable Hony's and Suger , especially if the Juices be ordered with a design of turning them rather into Suger then Honey , you may easily gather from the next and more memorable instance which we are to mention , and which is afforded us by the diligent Describer of the Brasilian Plants , who treating of the Caraguata , or Erva Babosa ( or as some would have it , Herba innominata caule portulaca ) hath these words to our present purpose : Porro ( saith he ) radendo novacula petrosa stolones , emanat ex concavitate liquor quidam tantâ copiâ ut ex unâ solummodo plantâ ( Mirabile dictu ) interdum 50. aut plures arobae effluant è quo liquore fit vinum , acetum , mel & saccharum : liquor quippe per se dulcis coquendo redditur multo su●●●ior & spissior , ita ut tandem in saccharum congelascat . Since the writing of these last Lines , being visited by an ancient Virtuoso , Governor to a considerable Colony in the Northern America , and inquiring of him , among other particularities touching his Country , something in relation to the thoughts I had about the making of several kindes of Suger , he assur'd me , upon his own experience , that there is in some parts of New England , a kinde of Tree , so like our Wallnut-trees , that it is there so called , whose Juice that weeps out of its Incisions , &c. if it be permitted slowly to exhale away the superfluous moisture , doth congeal into a sweet and saccharine substance ; and the like was confirmed to me , upon his own knowledge , by the Agent of the great and populous Colony of the Masathusets . And very lately demanding of a very eminent and skilful Planter , why , living in a part of America , too cold to bare Sugar-Canes , he did not try to make Sugar of that very sweet Liquor , which the Stalks of Maiz , by many called Indian Wheat , affords , when their Juice is expressed ; he promised me he would make tryal of it : Adding , That he should do it very hopefully , because that though he had never been solicitous to bring this Juice into a saccharine form , yet having several times , for tryal sake , boild it up to Syrup , and employed it to sweeten Tarts , and other things , the Guests could not perceive that they were otherwise sweetned then with Sugar . And he farther added , That both he and others , had , in New England , made such a Syrrup with the Juice of Water Melons . Nor , Pyrophilus , is it onely by teaching Men to improve the wholesomness and tasts of the Aliments , or to keep them long uncorrupted , that the Naturalist may contribute to the preservation of Man's health : For from the ingenious attempts of Sanctorius , in his Medicina Statica , we may be invited to hope , that there may be ways , as yet unthought of , to investigate the wholesomness or insalubrity of Aliments ; as he , by the weight of Bodies , after having fed on such and such Meats , findes that Swines Flesh , Melons , and some other things that he names ( in the third Section ) do much hinder insensible Perspiration , and consequently are unwholsome ; though , as I take it , it were not amiss , that before such Observations be fram'd into general and establish'd Aphorisms , they were carefully made in Bodies of differing Ages , Sexes and Complexions , and with variety of Circumstances : But then again , presuming these Maximes to be judiciously fram'd , the same Statica Medicina makes it hopeful , that there may be unthought-of Methods found , whereby , by ways different from those formerly used by Physitians , a Man may be much assisted in the whole manner of ordering himself , so as to preserve health , and to foresee and prevent the approach of many Distempers . And perhaps by such unthought-of ways , divers Paradoxes of concernment to Mans health may be made out , as the diligent Sanctorius to that Observation proposed in these words Semel aut bis in mense facto excessu in cibo & potu , die sequenti , licet sensibiliter non evacuet , minus solito perpendit annexus ( in the following Aphorism ) addeth this important Corollary : Victus uniformis caret beneficio illorum qui semel vel bis in mense excedunt : expultrix enim à copia irritata excitat tantum perspiratus , quantum sine statica nemo crederet . And indeed , experience hath informed us , that the promoting or suppressing of insensible transpiration , by which , in a day , the Body may discharge it self of four or five pound of excrementitious Matter , hath a much greater power to advantage or prejudice health , then is wont to be taken notice of ; so that we see that the Staticks , which , though long known , were thought useless to Physick , may afford several important directions in reference to the preservation of Mans health ; to which there are likewise other ways whereby the Naturalist may contribute . For he may also devise means , whereby to judge of the qualities of Aliments , especially Drinks in their respective kindes ; and likewise of the temperature of the Air in this or that place assign'd , we shall , in one of the following Essays , describe to you a small slight Instrument , by the help of which , one that is acquainted with this or that particular sort of Wine , may give a near guess whether it be embased with Water or not . And whereas in most hot Countrys , where Water being the common Drink , 't is of great concernments to Mans health to be able to make a good estimate of the salubrity of it ; And whereas Physitians are wont to think Water caeteris paribus , the better and purer the lighter it is , this Instrument presently manifests , without any trouble of weighing in Scales , what among any Waters propos'd is the heaviest , and which the lightest , and what difference there is of gravity betwixt them : And this disparity may sometimes be so great , that I remember some of our English Navigators tell us , That upon bringing home a so●t of Water out of Africa into England , they found , by the common way of ponderation , the African Water in the same bulk , to be about four Ounces in the pound lighter then the English. And as the thickness or lightness of Waters may be thus presently discerned by this Hydrostatical way , so 't is possible , by some Chymical Experiments , easily enough to discover some other qualities , wherein Waters , that are thought to be of the same nature , differ from each other ; as we finde that very many Pump-waters will not bear Soap , as Rain-waters , and the generality of Spring-waters will do : some Water will not well dye Scarlet , or some other particular colour , because they are secretly imbued with some kinde of saline Substance , that hath an operation it should not have upon the Ingredients imployed by the Dyer . And I have sometimes discovered a latent Sea-salt in Water , where others suspected no such matter , by pouring into it a solution of good Silver , made in Aqua fortis : For as common Salt , as well as the Spirit of it , will precipitate the Metal out of such a solution , in the form of a white Calx ; so it seem'd rational to conceive , that in case the Water I suspected had been imbued in its passage through the Earth with a saline quality , though not conspicuous enough to be taken notice of by the taste ; these saline Corpuscles diffused through the Water , would , though faintly , act their parts upon the dissolved Silver , and accordingly I found , that upon the mixtures of such Waters , and the Metalline solution , there would immediately be produced a kinde of whiteness ( from some parts of the Metal precipitated by the Salt : ) to avoid which , I have often been fain to use , in places where I met with such Waters , either Rain-water , or that which is freed from its common Salt , by a slow Distillation . And as for the temperature of the Air , which is acknowledged to be of exceeding great consequence , both as to health , and as to the prolongation of life ; and which is possibly yet of greater moment to both then most Men imagine , the skilful Naturalists sagacity , if it were employed to that purpose , might probably finde divers ways of discovering the qualities , and consequently the salubrity and unhealthfulness of the Air in particular places . For the diligent Sanctorius ( in the second Section of his Medicina Statica ) teacheth us how to estimate the healthfulness and insalubrity of the Air , by the weight of those Mens Bodies that live in it . And besides this ( nice ) way , we see , that by the late Invention of Weather-Glasses , 't is easie to discern which of two Neighboring Houses , and which of two rooms in the same House is the colder . And I remember , I have sometimes bethought my self of a slight way ( to be mention'd in one of the following Essays ) by the help of which , it is not hard to determine in which of two places proposed , the Air is caeteris paribus , the dryer or the moister ; And to give also some guess , both how much at the same time the Air of one place exceeds that of the other , and how the temperature of the Air changeth in the same place at several times , either of those qualities . And that the differing operations of several Airs , upon certain sorts of Flesh hung in them , upon some fading colours , upon Bodies subject to gather rust , or to be tarnish'd ; and in a word , upon divers other subjects , may be more considerable then Men seem yet to have taken notice of , I shall think it sufficient to have intimated in this place , being desirous to hasten to the following Essay ( wherewith I am to conclude , what I have to offer to you concerning Physick ) that I may have the more time to employ on it . ESSAY V. Proposing some Particulars wherein Natutural Philosophy may be useful to the Therapeutical part of Physick . ANd now , Pyrophilus , the method that we formerly prescrib'd to our selves ( a little after the beginning of the first Essay ) requires , that we consider awhile the Therapeutical part of Physick , which is indeed that , whose improvement would be the most beneficial to Mankinde ; and therefore I cannot here forbear to wish , That divers Learned Physitians were more concern'd , then they seem to be , to advance the Curative part of their Profession ; without which , three at least of the four others may prove indeed delightful and beneficial to the Physitian , but will be of very little use to the Patient , whose relief is yet the principal end of Physick : whereunto the Physiological , Pathological , and Semiotical parts of that Art ought to be referred . There was , awhile since , a witty Doctor , who being asked by an Acquaintance of mine ( himself an eminent Physitian , and who related this unto me ) why he would not give such a Patient more Generous Remedies , seeing he grew so much worse under the use of those common Languid ones , to which he had been confin'd , that he could not at the last but dye with them in his Mouth ? briskly answered , Let him die if he will , so he die secundum artem . I hope there are very few of this Man's temper , but it were to be wished , that there were fewer Learned Men that think a Physitian hath done enough , when he hath learnedly discoursed of the seat and nature of the Disease , foretold the event of it , and methodically imployed a company of safe , but languid Remedies , which he had often before found almost as unable to cure the Patient , as unlikely to kill him . For by such an unprofitable way of proceeding , to which some lazy or opinionated Practizers of Physick ( I say some , for I mean not all ) have , under pretence of its being safe , confined themselves ; they have rendred their whole Profession too obnoxious to the Cavils of such Empericks , as he that ( as the Lord Verulam reports ) was wont to say , Your European Physitians are indeed Learned Men , but they know not the particular Cures of Diseases ; and ( unreverendly enough ) to compare our Physitians to Bishops , who had the Keys of binding and loosing , and nothing else : Which brings into my minde , what Monsieur De Balsac relates ( in his witty French Discourse of the Court ) of a Physitian of Millain , that he knew at Padua , who being content with a Possession of his Science , and ( as he said ) The enjoyment of the Truth , did not onely not particularly enquire into the Cure of Diseases , but boasted , That he had kill'd a Man with the fairest Method in the World : E mort● ( said he ) canonicamente , è con tutti gli ordini . And such Scoffs and Stories are readily enough entertain'd by the major part of Men , who send for Physitians , not so much to know what ails them , as to be eas'd of it ; and had not rather been methodically kill'd , then Empirically cured . And it doth indeed a little lessen even my esteem of the great Hippocrates's skill , to finde mentioned in his Writings so many of his Patients , of whom he concludes , that they dyed : And I had much rather , that the Physitian of any Friend of mine , should keep his Patient by powerful Medicines from dying , then tell me punctually when he shall die , or shew me in the opened Carcase why it may be supposed he lived no longer . But , Pyrophilus , my concern for Mankinde , and for the reputation of many excellent Physitians , whose Profession suffers much by the want of either Industry or Charity , in such as we have been speaking of , hath diverted me longer then I thought , from telling you , That I suppose it will not be very difficult to perswade you , that this so useful Therapeutical part of Physick is also capable of being much improved by a knowing Naturalist , especially if he be an intelligent and expert Chymist , as in this Essay we will suppose him . CHAP. I. SOme Paracelsian would , perhaps , set forth , how much more easie to be taken Chymically prepared Medicines are wont to be , then those loathsome and clogging Galenical Potions Bolus's , &c. which are not onely odious to the Takers , but ( which is much worse ) are to many so offensive , that either the Patients cannot get them down , or the incensed Stomack returns them , by Vomit , before they have stayed long enough in the Body to do any more then distemper it . But I shall not much insist on this , because I think wholesomness to be much more considerable in a Remedy then pleasantness : though , I confess , I could wish that Physitians were more careful to keep Patients from being almost as much troubled by Physick , as by the Disease , and to cure according to the old Prescription , not onely citò and tutò , but jucundè too : Especially considering that , as we were saying , the loathsomness of some Medicines maketh the Stomack reject them , before they can have performed their Operations . And it is , I presume , on this account as much as on any other , that at Oxford Learned & Practical Physitians , of your Acquaintance , make very frequent use ( on Patients not Feverish ) of the resin of Jalap , barely drawn with Spirit of Wine ; since as we have tryed six , eight or ten , or more Grains , of this almost insipid Resin , being cleanly prepared , according to Art , and with a little Gum-tragacanth , and half its weight of powdred Cinamon , or some such thing , made up , may be taken in the Morning , in form of Pills , instead of a Potion ; and is wont to evacuate plentifully enough , and yet gripe the Patient much less then common Purges . But , as I said , I shall not insist on this . I might better commend the usefulness of Chymistry to the Therapeutical part of Physick , from hence , That it is probable , that even emptying Medicines may , by the Spagyrists Art , be so prepared , as not onely to be less offensive then common Purges or Vomits in the taking , but to be less painful in the working : As I have often observed , both in my self and others , that upon the taking of the clear , and not loathsome Mineral Waters of Barnet , though the Medicine wrought with me ten or twelve times in a Morning , yet it did not either pain me , or make me sick , or disorder me for the remaining part of the day , any thing near so much as a common Pill or Potion that had wrought but once or twice would have done . And I shall elsewhere ( God permitting ) teach you a preparation of Silver , whereof about three or four Grains being made up ( with any proper Conserve ) into a little Pill , is wont to make a copious evacuation of Serum especially ( in Bodies that abound with it ) without making the Patient almost at all sick , or griping him : Insomuch that I know some Persons , both Physitians and others , with whom though this Medicine work frequently in a day , and though ( which is stranger ) once taking of it will with some Persons work so for two or three , or more days successively , yet they scruple not to go abroad and follow their business ; and some that take it , tell me , That when it works not with them ( as for the most part , when it hath freed the Body from superfluous Serum , it will cease , and in some Bodies will scarce purge at all , it neither puts them to pain , nor makes them sick . ) And now I am speaking of the painless ways of relieving the sick , I shall adde , That there is another way , whereby 't is to be hop'd , many Patients may be rescued from a great deal of pain , and that is by finding out Medicaments , that may in several Distempers , that are thought to belong peculiarly to the Chirurgions hand , excuse the need of Burning , Cutting , Trepaning , and other as well painful as terrible manual Operations of Chirurgery . Helmont tells us , That he knew a Country Fellow , who cur'd all fresh Wounds by a Drink made ( as I remember ) of burnt Tilia . I have inform'd you in another Essay , of the Cure I observed to be made of the exulcerated Tumors of one sick of the Kings Evil , by the use of Beer , altered by a little Plant , that did not at all disturb the Taker . If we may believe , Helmont's and Paracelsus's Praecipitatus Diaphoreticus , taken at the Mouth , doth cure , to use his own Words , Carcinoma , Lupum & quodlibet Aesthiomenum cacoethes ulcus , sive externum sive internum . And if there be any truth in what hath been affirm'd to me by several Eye-witnesses , as well Physitians as others , concerning the Weapon Salve , and Powder of Sympathy , we may well conclude , That Nature may perform divers Cures , for which the help of Chirurgery is wont to be implor'd , with much less pain to the Patient , then the Chirurgion is wont to put him to . I know a very ingenious Man , that is Famous as well for his Writings as for a Remedy , wherewith he undertaketh to cure constantly the exulcerated Cancers of Womens Breasts , without any considerable pain : But having not yet had opportunity to make tryal of that which I have lying by me , I shall onely tell you , he assures me , That his Medicine is indolent , and mortifies the ulcerous parts as far as they are corrupted , without disordering the Party troubled with them ; which I the less doubt , because , that ( to adde thus much on this occasion ) partly by the colour , &c. of his Powder , and partly by his own confession to me , it seems to be a dulcification of Arsenick , first fixt with Nitre , and then carefully freed from its corrosiveness , by very frequent Distillations of fresh Spirit of Wine . I shall ere long have occasion to teach you a Drink , whereby exulcerated ( but not Cancerous ) Breasts have been very happily cured . The learned Bartholinus , in his late Observations ) mentions the cure of some hurts in the Head , done without Trepaning , in cases where that formidable and tedious Operation is wont to be thought necessary . As for the terrible way of stopping the violent Bleeding in great Wounds , by seering the Orifices of the Vessels with hot Irons , it would be little needed , if we knew such Remedies as that which the Inquisitive Petrus de Osma , in his curious Letter to Monardes from Peru , mentions in this Passage , which I finde among his other Observations : Anno ( saith he ) 1558. in urbe D. Jacobi quae est in Provincia Chyle , quidam Indi captivi sur as sibi amputarunt , & eas assas prae faeme ederunt & ( quod mirabile dictu ) cujusdam Plantae folia vulneribus imponentes , ilicò sanguinem sistebant . I knew a rich Man , extreamly corpulent , who having long had a strange kinde of Fistula in his Breast , and having travelled from one Country to another , to consult with the ablest Chirurgions , was at length brought to that pass , that at a Consult they resolved , by opening his Breast , to try if they could track the winding Fistula , and save his Life : And as the Instruments , for this sad operation , lay upon the Table , another famous Chirurgion casually coming into the House , told the Patient that he had an art of curing Fistula's without cutting them open , and without any considerable pain or trouble : Whereupon the rich Man offering him what he pleased for the Cure , the Chirurgion quickly perform'd his Promise , as the Patient himself , who shew'd me his Breast , confess'd to me , and that by the use of an almost indolent Remedy , which he purchas'd of the Chirurgion , and which by his favor came to my hands : And that even very ill-condition'd Fistula's may be cured without Chirurgical Operations , by Medicines taken at the Mouth , I shall ere long have occasion to shew you by a notable Example . In the mean time I shall adde , That a Man , whom I suppose you have often seen , having a while since received such a kick of a Horse , as made the Doctor and Chirurgion that tended him , to conclude the part gangrenated , and the Patients condition , by the accession of a violent Feaver , so desperate , that they desired to meddle with him no longer ; a large Dosis of Sir Rawleigh's Cordial , sent him by an excellent Lady you are nearly related to , not onely freed him from his Feaver , and the Delirium that attended it , but , to the wonder of all that observed it , restored the Limb that was concluded gangrenated to its former soundness . And to bring credit to all these Relations , I shall crown them with that memorable Passage of Gulielmus Piso , of as great things that he saw done by the illiterate Indians themselves : Memini ( saith he ) in castris membra militum globulis sclopetorum icta , & jamjam ab Europae is Chirurgis , tam Lusitanis quam Batavis , amputanda , barbaros recentibus gummi succis & balsamis à ferro & igne liberasse & feliciter restituisse . Oculatus it idem testis sum in Nosocomiis relicta ulcera & gangrenas ab illis vel solo succo Tabaci curata . But , Pyrophilus , That the making of divers Helps to Recovery less distateful , or less painful to the Patients , is not the onely , nor perhaps the greatest service that Chymistry may do him that attempts the Cure of Diseases , I shall now indeavor to manifest in some Particulars . CHAP. II. ANd first , The skilful Naturalist , especially if a good Chymist , may much assist the Physitian to discover the Qualities of Medicines , whether simple or compound ; That the Experiments of the Spagyrists may much contribute to the examining those many things themselves prepare , you will , I presume , easily grant : That also divers Mineral Waters are of the nobler sort of Medicines , is sufficiently confessed on all hands ; and 't is known too , that the Industry of Chymists hath produced some good directions towards the discovery of the Minerals predominant in divers Medicinal Springs : But I am much mistaken , if they have not left much for others to do , which may be easily done . And I scarce doubt , but that by the various ways that might be propos'd , of trying what such Waters hold , and what saline or other Qualities are predominant in them , not onely the nature of those Medicinal Waters that are already used , might be more throughly understood ; but undetected Properties , might in many others that are now not taken notice of , be discovered ; of some of which ways of examining Mineral Waters , I may elsewhere give you an intimation . And I have made several tryals that have , I confess , much inclin'd me to think , that the fault is rather in us , then either in Nature or Chymistry , that Men do not , by the help of Chymical Experiments , discover more of the nature of divers Medicaments , then hitherto they seem to have so much as aim'd at : For though the abstruse Endowments of Specificks will not , I fear , be learn'd in haste , otherwise then by particular Tryals and Observations ; yet many Simples have other Qualities , which seem chiefly to reside , though not in an Elementary Salt or Sulphur , yet in a part of the Matter that seems of kin to a Salt or Sulphur : such as sowerness , saltness , a caustick or a healing faculty , abstersiveness , and the like , upon whose account such Remedies seem chiefly to work in a multitude of cases . And towards the Investigation of such Qualities , a Chymist may oftentimes do much , without making all his Tryals in humane Bodies . But though , to illustrate this matter , I have sometimes made several Experiments , yet not having now my Notes and Observations at hand , I shall onely mention a few things as they offer themselves to my memory , reserving the more distinct handling of this subject to another opportunity : And the rather , because that till such Phaenomena have been more diligently observ'd , and reduc'd to their distinct sorts , I would have them look'd upon but as hints to further Enquiries , not as sufficient Authority to ground general Rules on . There are some Plants , whose Juices , especially when the superfluous moisture is exhal'd or abstracted , will , some by the assistance of a gentle Heat and Filtration , and some , even of themselves , in time ( which I remember hath in some succulent Plants amounted but to a very few hours ) coagulate in part into a kinde of Salt , which , if you please , you may call Essential : And by this Nitro-Tartareous Salt ( as it seems to be ) those Vegetables , whose Juice affords it ( such as are , if I mistake not their names , Parietaria , Borrage , Bugloss , &c. ) may be discriminated from those many others , from whence it is not ( at least by the same way ) to be obtain'd . And possibly also these Salts may , to a heedful Surveyor of them , appear to differ enough from each other in shape , taste , or other obvious Qualities , to deserve to be sorted into differing kinds . If likewise we compare the Essential Salts and Spirits of these Plants , with those of Scurvy-grass , Brook-lime , and other Vegetables that are counted Antiscorbutical , and abound in Volatile and Saline parts : And if we also examine other Plants , by divers Chymical Operations , and observe not onely their disposedness or indisposition to yield Spirits or Oyls by Fermentation , or without it ; but those other Particulars wherein they will appear to agree with , or differ from each other : there is little doubt but such Tryals will make them discover , to a considering Naturalist , much of their Nature and Properties , and especially of such as depend chiefly upon the plenty or paucity of the saline , unctuous , sowre , spirituous , lazy , tenacious or volatile Parts . It may be also observ'd , that the Infusion or Decoction of some Plants , as of Brazil , Senna , &c. will be heighten'd into a redish colour , by putting Alkalizate Salts , as of Tartar , or of Pot-ashes , in the Water that extracts their Tinctures : Whereas acid Spirits , at least some of them , will much impair , if not destroy their colour ; as a little Aqua fortis will immediately tu●n a red Tincture of Brazil , made in fair Water , into a pale yellow : Whereas on the other side , I have observ'd , that a small quantity of a strong Solution of Pot-ashes , drop'd into an Infusion of red Rose-leaves , hath presently turn'd it into a muddy colour , that seem'd to partake of green and blew , but was dark and dirty ; whereas a little Aqua fortis , or good Spirit of Salt pour'd into the same simple Solution , did immediately turn it into a fine red , and so it would do to the muddy Mixture lately mention'd , if it were put to it in a far greater quantity . I observ'd also , that with a very strong ( though clear and well filtrated ) Lixivium of Pot-ashes , I could precipitate some pa●ts of the Infusion or Decoction of red Roses , which grosser parts , when the Mixture was filtrated through Cap-paper , remain'd like a dirty colour'd ( though somewhat greenish ) Mud in the Filtre ; the fluid and finer part of the Mixture passing through , in the form of a Liquor high coloured , almost like Muscadine . And on this occasion , I remember , that as Galls , a very stiptick Vegetable excrescence , will yield a Decoction , with which , and Copper is , the common Ink is made ; so divers other Plants , of notably astringent parts , may be employed to the like use : For , by casting Vitriol into a Decoction either of Oaken Bark , or red Roses , or even a bare Infusion of either Log-wood , or Sumach , to name now no other Plants of the like nature , I have presently made a Mixture that might make a shift to serve for Writing Ink ; but whether all stiptick Plants , or they onely , will with Vitriol make an Ink , I refer to further Enquiry : And as a Solution of Vitriol , and the Decoction of the above-mention'd Plants , do precipitate each other to make Ink ; so I remember I have try'd , that by dissolving the Crystals of pure Silver ( made the common way with Aqua fortis , or Spirit of Nitre ) in a good quantity of fair Water , that the Liquor having no colour of its own , the colours it produceth in other Bodies may be the better observ'd , I found that I could with this Liquor precipitate out of the Infusions alone of several Vegetables , Substances differingly colour'd , according to their respective dispositions : And so I have found , with less cost , that Saccharum Saturni , which seems to be a kinde of Vitriol of Lead , whilst it lyes dissolved in the same Spirit of Vinager which extracted it from the Metal , being put to the bare Infusion of Log-wood , Lignum Nephriticum , red Roses ( to name those I now remembe● I made tryal of ) they will precipitate each other . I might farther adde , That I have try'd that sulphureous Salts , such as Oyl of Tartar , made per Deliquium , being drop'd into the expressed Juices of divers Vegetables , will , in a moment , turn them into a lovely Green , though the Vegetables were of colours differing from that , and from one another ( as I remember one of those Vegetables , in which I expected , and found that change , was of a fine Carnation ) And I could tell you , that though it be disputed whether Quick-lime have any Salt dissoluble in Water , and of what sort it is , the Examen of that Question may be much furthered , by trying , as I have done , that the Water of Quick-Lime , well made , will precipitate a Solution of sublimate made in fair Water , and will presently turn Syrup of Violets ( which is Blew ) if well mix'd with it , into a fair Green. Experiments I say of this nature I might easily annex , but having already set down divers of them in what I have written concerning colours , I shall refer you thither : And now onely adde this Observation , that the Investigation of divers Medical Qualities , even of Animal Substances , may be much assisted by the Naturalist , especially a Chymist ; as we elsewhere have by the Distillation of the Calculus humanus shewn , how much it differs from the Stones that are found in the Earth . And if you take those hard Concretions , found at certain times in the Heads of Craw-Fishes , that are wont to be call'd Lapides Cancrorum , and commit some of them to Distillation , and infuse some in Vinager , and others in old Rhenish-Wine , or strong White-Wine , you will probably discover some thing of peculiar in the nature of this Concrete , of which I may possibly elsewhere make further mention to you : And not onely so , but in some Animal Substances , you may , by fit Experiments , discover notable Changes to be made , and their Qualities to be much heighten'd , when the Eye scarce perceiveth any Change at all , as I have purposely observ'd , in keeping Urine in close Glasses ▪ and a moderate heat for many Weeks : For at the end of that time , the Virtues that depend upon its volatile Salt will be so heighten'd , that whereas upon putting Spirit of Salt to fresh Urine , the two Liquors readily and quietly mix'd , droping the same Spirit upon digested Urine , there would presently ensue a Hissing and Ebullition , and the volatile and acid Salts would , after a while , concoagulate into a third Substance , somewhat of the nature of Sal Armoniack . And whereas the Syrup of Violets , formerly mention'd , being dissolv'd in a little fresh Urine , seem'd to be but diluted thereby ; a few drops of the fermented Urine , temper'd with it , did presently turn it into a deep Green : And the same digested Urine being drop'd upon a Solution of Sublimate made in fair Water , presently turn'd it white , by precipitating the dissolved Mercury . With what ( various ) success we have likewise made upon some other parts of a humane Body , as well consistent as fluid , some Tryals , analogous to what we have recited of Urine , I may elsewhere perchance take notice to you : But of such kinde of Observations I must give you but this Hint at present . CHAP. III. SEcondly : By these and other ways of investigating the Medicinal Qualities of Bodies , the Naturalist may be enabled to adde much to the Materia Medica : And that two several ways . For , he may by his several ways of tryal , and by his Chymical preparations discover , that divers Bodies , especially of a Mineral nature , that are as yet not at all employed by Physitians , at least internally , may be brought into use by them ; and that others that are naturally so dangerous , as to be us'd but in very few , and for the most part extream cases , may with safety be more freely employ'd . Some Modern Chymists ( as particularly Glauberus ) have of late p●epar'd Remedies not unuseful out of Zinck or Spelter . And I have already mention'd unto you an excellent Medical use of Silver , of which , prepared ( as is there intimated ) I have now this to adde , That since I began to write of it to you , I met with a considerable Person , who assures me , That she her self was by the use of it , in a short time , cured of the Dropsie , though , by reason of her having a Body very corpulent , and full of humors , she have been thought more then ordinarily in danger of that stubborn Disease . I have sometimes wondered , that there hath been so little care taken by Physitians , and even by Chymists , to investigate the Qualities of Mineral Earths , and those other resembling Bodies , that are , or may be , plentifully enough digg'd up in most Countries , though not the self-same in all ; for however Men are pleas'd to pass them slightly over , as if they were but Elementary Earth , a little stain'd , or otherwise lightly altered : I have seen great variety of them , that have been digg'd sometimes within the compass of a little spot of Ground : and the differences of divers of them , both as to colour , taste , consistence , and other Qualities , have been too great , not to make me suspect they were of very differing natures . And the true Bolus Armenus , and the Terra Lemnia , which is now brought us from the Island that gives it that name ( mark'd with a Seal , which makes many call it Terra sigillata , though that name be for the same reason apply'd to the Terra Silesiaca , and other Medical Earths ) have been so esteemed , both by Ancient and Modern Physitians , as well against Malignant Diseases , and the Plague it self , as against divers other Distempers ; that 't is the more strange , that ( since the greatest part of those two Earths , that are now brought into our Countrys , have not , as the more skilful complain , the true marks of the genuine Earths , whose names they bear ) Physitians have not been more careful to try whether their own Countrys could not furnish them with the like , or as good , especially in regard some of the few attempts of that nature , that have of late times been made , may give them much incouragement . For , not to believe the boasts of the Silesian Johannes Montanus ( who passeth for the Inventor of the Terra Sigillata Silesiaca Strigoniensis ) in the Writing he published of the vertues of it , That 't is Gold prepared and transmuted , by provident Nature , into an admirable Medicine ; I finde that Learned Physitians prefer it before the Lemnian Earth , that is now brought from Turky : And the experienced Sennertus gives it this commendation , Experimentis ( saith he ) multis jam probatum est , ejus infignes ●sse vires contra pestem , febres malignas , venenatorum animalium morsus , diarrhocan , dysenteriam : What he adds , that the Chymists name it Axungia solis , brings into my minde ( what I shall hereafter have occasion to mention more particularly to you ) that I had once brought me a certain Earth , by a Gentleman that digg'd it up in this , or some neighboring Country , which , though it seem'd but a Mineral Earth , did really afford , to a very expert tryer of Metals of my acquaintance , a not despicable proportion of Gold. They have also found in Hungary , an Earth , which they call Bolus Tockaviensis , which is affirmed by Crato ( in Sennertus ) to melt in the Mouth like Butter , and to have all the other proofs of the true Bolus Armenus , and therefore is , by that Judicious Physitian , preferred before the Modern Bolearmony , even that which was brought out of Turky to the Emperor himself ; and he relates , not onely its having succeeded very well against Catarrhs , but his having experimentally found it of great efficacy in the Plague , that reign'd in his time at Vienna . To which I shall adde , That a very Learned and Successful English Doctor , now dead , did , some Years since during a great Plague that then rag'd in the City where he liv'd , finde a vein of red Earth , not very far from that Town , and prescrib'd it with very good success in Pestilential Feavers , as I was inform'd by an Ingenious Friend of his , that us'd to administ●r it , and shew'd me the place where he digg'd it . I remember also , the experienc'd Chymist Johannes Agricola , in his Notes upon what Poppius delivers of Terra Sigillata , after having much commended the Terra Silesiaca in divers Diseases , and equall'd it to the best of Turky , where he had travelled , relates one strange thing of it , with many Circumstances , and in a way as if he spoke upon his own tryal , namely , That the Spirit of Terra Sigillata , by which I think he means the Strigoniensis , doth , though slowly , dissolve Gold as well as an Aq. Regis , and that into a red Solution ; whence in two or three days , the Gold will fall of it self into a very fine and subtil Powder . And the same Author tells us , That he hath seen another Earth digg'd at the Rheinstran , not far from Westerwaldt , which was more inclinable to white then to yellow , which is preferable to the Silesian , and gives more Salt then it , and dissolves Silver better then other Menstruums ; since , as he saith , the Silver may thereby be easily made potable , and be prepar'd into a very useful Medicine for the Diseases of the Head. And for my part , I do not much wonder at the efficacy of these Earths , when I consider , that divers of them are probably imbu'd , as well as dy'd , with Mineral Fumes ; or tincted with Mineral Juices , wherein Metals or Minerals may lie , as the Chymists speak , in solutis principiis ; in which form , having never endured the Fire , many of their usefullest parts are more loose and volatile , and divers of their Vertues less lock'd up , and more dispos'd to be communicative of themselves , then they are wont to be , in a more fixed or coagulated state , or when they have lost many of their finer parts by the violence of the Fire . Besides , there are several Mineral Bodies , which though perhaps they may not be of themselves fit for the Physitians use , may , by addition of some other convenient Body , or by sequestration of the more noxious parts , or by some such other Chymical Preparation , as may alter the Texture of such Minerals , be rendred fit to encrease the Materia Medica . As I have known , that by a preparation of Arsenick , with Salt Peter , whereby some of the more volatile and noxious parts are driven away , and the remaining Body somewhat fixed and corrected by the Alcali of the Nitre it hath , by a farther dulcification with Spirit of Wine , or Vinegar , been prepared into a kinde of Balsamum fuliginis , which wonderfully cured a Physitian of my acquaintance , as he himself confess'd to me , of dangerous Venereal Ulcers ( divers of which penetrated even to the Meatus Urinarius ) which had reduc'd him to great extremity . And though Bismutum have not , that I know , till very lately been used , unless outwardly , and especially for a Cosmetick ( hereafter to be taught you ) yet the Industrious Chymist , Samuel Closseus , by calcination and addition of Spir●t of Vinegar , and Cremor Tartari , makes two Medicines of it , which he highly extols in the Dropsie ; and ( to reserve for another place , what I have tryed upon Tin-glass ) a very expert Chymist of my acquaintance , doth , by preparing it with common Sublimate ( carry'd up , by which I remember it hath afforded a very prettily figur'd Body ) make it into a white Powder ( like Mercurius vitae ) which he assures me he findes , in the Dose of a few Grains , to purge very gently , without being at all ( as Mercurius vitae is wont to prove , violently enough ) emetick . 2. But the Naturalist may adde to the Materia Medica , not onely by investigating the Qualities of unheeded Bodies , but also by gaining admittance for divers , that , though well enough known , are foreborn to be us'd upon the account of their being of a Poisonous nature ; for by digestion with powerful Menstruums , and some other skilful ways of Preparation , the Philosophical Spagyrist may so correct divers noxious , nay poisonous Concrets , unfit in their crude simplicity for the Physitians use , at least in any considerable quantity , as to make them useful and effectual Remedies . Helmont , who though frequently extravagant in his Theory of Physick , doth often make no bad estimate of the power of Remedies , after having told us , That he ador'd and admir'd the Clemency and Wisdom of God , for creating Poysons , gives this account of his so doing : Nam venena ( saith he ) noluit nobis esse venena aut nocua . Nec enim mortem fecit , nec Medicamentum exterminii in terra : sed potius ut parvo nostri studio , mutarentur in grandia amoris sui pignora , in usuram mortalium , contra futurorum morborum saevitiem . In illis nempe latitat subsidium , quod benigniora & familiaria simplicia recusant alias . Ad majores & heroicos medentum usus venena tam horrida servantur . And though I would not forbid you , Pyrophilus , to think there is some Hyperbole in the Encomiums he here and elsewhere gives Poysonous Simples ; yet when I consider , what great things are oftentimes performed by Antimony , Mercury and Opium , even in those not over-skilful ways of preparing them , that are divers of them vulgarly us'd by Chymists , especially when the preparations are ( which doth seldom happen ) rightly and faithfully made : I can scarce think it very unlikely , that those active Simples may , by a more skilful way of ordering and correcting them , be brought to afford us very noble Remedies , And the same Examples may in part prevent the main Objection that I can foresee in this case , which is , That whatever corrects Poysons , must , with their virulency , destroy their activity ; for the above-named Simples , though so prepared as to be Medicines safe enough , have yet activity enough left them to let them be very operative , their energy being , by preparation , not onely in part moderated , but in part so over ruled , as to work after a more innocent manner ; as in Bezoardicum Minerale , skilfully prepared ( for it very seldom is so ) the laxative and emetick virulency of the Antimony , is changed into a diaphoretick , resolving and deoppilative power ; which probably made the experienced Riverius ( though counted a Galenist ) so particularly recommend this Medicine to Physitians , which , if I be not mistaken , may well be prais'd without being flattered : And Helmont supplies me with an easie Experiment to our present purpose , by telling us , That Asarum , which when crude , doth , as is well known , provoke Vomits , by a slight preparation ( presently to be mention'd ) is so altered , that its virulency is changed , to use his expression , in deoppilans , diureticum tardarum febrium remedium ; which I the rather take notice of , because I finde , upon enquiry purposely made of some Ingenious Physitians of my acquaintance , that upon tryal , they commend this preparation of Helmont's , and confess , that by it the Asarum looseth its emetick , and acquires a diuretical Quality . Now that all other Animal and Vegetable Poysons may be corrected , without loosing their force with their virulency , is the affirmation of Helmont concerning Paracelsus's and his Sal circulatum ( majus . ) And as for Vegetables , he elsewhere tells us , That the Lapis Cancrorum resolv'd in formam , as he speaks , Pristinae lactis , habet remedium contra inclementias multorum vegetabilium vi laxante infamium . And I remember that I knew two Physitians , the one of which affirmed to me , his having seen tryal made ( by the help of a noble Menstruum ) of what Helmont here teacheth , and found it true ; the other a person severe , and apt enough to dissent from Helmont , assur'd me , That with the volatile Salt of Tartar , he had seen Vegetable Poysons , and particularly Napellus , so corrected by a light digestion with it , that it lost all its Poysonous Qualities ; for proof of which , he freely offered me , to take himself as much of that fatal Herb as would kill three or four Men ( but at that time , and in that place , I could not get any of the Plant to make the Experiment with . ) And though I shall say nothing now concerning Helmont's Sal Circulatum , yet as to the volatilization of the Salt of Tartar , what I have seen , scarce permits me to doubt that it is possible . And if I could now clearly acquaint you with my ●easons , you would , perchance , not wonder to finde me inclinable to think , that some such Methods ( perhaps a Menstruum ) may be found to correct poisonous Simples , without rendring them ineffectual : And though it must be some very powerful corrective , whether Salt or Liquor , that shall be able to correct any store of differing Poysons ; yet 't is not irrational to think , that divers particular Concretes may be prepar'd without any such abstruse or general corrective , some by one way of handling it , and some by another : And in such cases , skill , in the natures of particular Bodies to be mannag'd , or lucky hits , may supply the place of a meliorating Dissolvent , of which Helmont affords me a considerable instance , where he teacheth ( in the place lately quoted ) That the emetick property of Asarum may be taken away , and the Plant turn'd into a noble diuretick , onely by boiling it awhile in common Water . And whereas a wary Man would be apt to suspect , that this change is made but by the avolation of some subtile parts , driven away by the heat of the boiling Water , I finde that our Author affirms , that though it be boil'd with the like degree of Fire in Wine , instead of Water , it will not so loose its violence . I have known white Hellebor , Opium , and some other noxious Bodies , so prepared , as to be given not onely harmlesly , but successfully in such quantities , as were they not skilfully corrected , would make them pernicious . We daily see , th●t the violent emetick and cathartick properties of Antimony , may singly , by calcination with Salt-peter , be destroyed . And ( which is though a known , yet a notable Experiment among Chym●sts ) Mercury sublimate may be deprived of its deadly corrosiveness , and prepar'd into a Medicine inoffensive even to Children , by bare resublimat●ons with fresh Mercury . And to give you one instance more of what the knowledge of the effects of Chymical Operations , and of the disposition of a particular Body , may enable a Man to do , in changing the pernicious nature of it ; I shall adde , that the violently vomitive Flowers of Antimony , which our wonted , though sumptuous and specious Cordials are so unable to tame , I can shew you ( which perhaps you will think strange ) so corrected , without the addition of any thing besides heat and skill , that in a treble Dose , to that wherein they are wont to be furiously emetick , we have not found them to work otherwise then gently by sweat : But some more Particulars applicable to our present pupose , you will meet with by and by . CHAP. IV. THirdly , And now , Pyrophilus , that I am speaking of the service that the Naturalist may do Physick , I must not pretermit that he may assist the Physitian to make his Cures less chargeable : For though to cure cheaply , be not properly , and in strictness , any part of the end of the Art of Physick , which considers Mens Health , and not their Purse ; yet it ought in Charity , if not also in Equity , to be the endeavor of the Physitian , especially when he dealeth with Patients that are not rich . For not now to say any thing of the Fees of Physitians , which in some places are not very moderate , 't is certain that the Bills of Apothecaries , especially in Chronical Diseases , do often prove so chargeable , that even when the Remedies succeed , by that time a poor Patient is recovered , he is undone , and pays for the prolongation of his Life , that which should have been his lively-hood : Whence it comes to pass , that the more necessitous sort of People are either fain to languish unrelieved , for want of being able to purchase health at the Apothecary's rates ; or are deterred from applying themselves to the Physitian , till their Diseases have taken too deep ●oot to be easily , if at all , eradicated : And this oftentimes , not more through the fault of the Apothecary , then of the Doctor , who in his Presciptions might , for the most part , easily direct things that would be much more cheap , without being much less efficacious . Now there are several Particulars , wherein it may be hop'd , that the Naturalist may assist the charitable Physitian to lessen the charge of his Patients . And first , He may perswade the Physitian to decline that more frequent , then commendable custom , of stuffing each Recipe with a multitude of Ingredients : 'T is not that I approve the practice of some Chymists , who too freely censure the compounding of Simples ; for I know , at some times , a complicated Distemper requires in its Remedy more Qualities , then are , perhaps , to be met with in any of the known Simples that the Physitian hath at command ( though one and the same Simples may sometimes answer divers Indications ; as a Plant that is hot and dry , may serve for a Distemper that is cold and moist : ) And I know too , that in some cases to that Ingredient , that is as it were the Basis of the Medicine , other things must be added either to correct its noxious Qualities , or to allay its vehemence , or to serve for a Vehicle to convey it to the Part affected , or to make it easier to be taken by the Patient , or to preserve it from corruption , or for some such like reason . But yet I think Physitians may well be more sparing , as to the number of the things prescribed , then most of them use to be , both to save charges to their Patients ( upon which account it is that I here mention it ) and for other considerations . For the addition of needless Ingredients adding to the bulk of the Medicine , makes it but the more troublesom to be taken , and the more apt to clog the Stomack : And oftentimes the Efficacy of the more useful Ingredients , as well as their Quantity in each Dose , is much abated , by their being yok'd with those that are less appropriated , or less operative . Besides , it seems a great impediment to the further discovery of the Vertues of Simples , to confound so many of them in Compositions : For , in a mixture of a great number of Ingredients , 't is so hard to know what is the operation of each , or any of them , that I fear there will scarce in a long time be any great progress made in the discovery of the vertues of simple Drugs , till they either be oftner imployed singly , or be but few of them employed in one Remedy . And besides all this , whereas when one of these Mixtures is administred , the Physitian expects but such operations as are suitable to the Quality which he conceives will be predominant in the whole Compound ; several of the Ingredients may have particular Qualities that he dreams not of , which working upon a Body , that the Physitian considers as subject onely to the Sickness he endeavors to cure , may therein excite divers latent Seeds of other Distempers , and make new and unexpected commotions in the Body . On which occasion I remember , that whereas Parsley is a very usual Ingredient of aperitive and diuretick Decoctions and Apozems , a famous and learned Oculist tells me , he hath very often observ'd , That when he hath unawares , or for tryal-sake employ'd Parsley , either inwardly , or even outwardly to those that were troubled with great Distempers in their Eyes , he found the Medicines wherein that Herb was but one Ingredient among many , to cause either great pain or inflammation in the Eyes . In confirmation of which , I shall adde , that awhile after having a slight Distemper in my Eyes , I one day found it upon a suddain strangely encreased , without being able to imagine whence these new Symptoms proceeded ; till at length , recalling to minde all I had done that day , I remembred , that at Dinner I had eaten Sawce wherein there was a pretty deal of Parsley , mixt with other things . And whereas in divers of these Compositions some noxious Ingredients are allow'd , upon a supposition that their ill Qualities will be lost , by their being , as it were , tempered with the rest ; though this may sometimes happen , yet it would be considered , that in Treacle ( especially at one age of it ) the Opium doth not , considering the small proportion of it to the rest of the Ingredients , loose much , if any of its power , by being mingled with sixty odde other Drugs , which Composition possibly ow's much of its vertue to that little Opium . And perhaps one reason why those that accustom themselves to be ever and anon taking Physick , though they often escape dangerous Diseases ( by preventing the accumulation of humors , and taking their Sicknesses at the beginning ) are yet almost ever troubled with one Distemper or other , may be , That by the multiplicity of Medicines they take into their Bodies , divers things are excited to disorder them , which otherwise would have lain quiet . I am not ignorant that it may be alledg'd , That in compounded Medicines , as Treacle & Mithridate , how many soever the Ingredients be , they do so clog & temper one anothers activity in the composition , that there results from them all , one or more Qualities fit for the Physitians turn , and which is the thing he considers and makes use of . And I confess , that in some cases this Allegation doth not want its weight : For I consider , that a decoction of Galls , and a solution of Copperas , though neither of them apart be blackish , will , upon their mixture , turn to Ink : And that when Brimstone , Salt-Peter , and Coals are well mingled together in a due proportion , they make Gun-Powder , a mixture , that hath Qualities much more active then any of the sever'd Ingredients . But I fear , that when a multitude of Simples are heap'd together into one compound Medicine , though there may result a new crasis , yet 't is very hard for the Physitians to know before-hand what that will be ; and it may sometimes prove rather hurtful then good , or at least by the coalition the vertues of the chief Ingredients , may be rather impaired then improved : As we see that crude Mercury , crude Nitre , and crude Salt , may be either of them safely enough taken into the Body in a good quantity ; whereas of sublimate , consisting of those three Ingredients , a few Grains may be rank Poyson . As for those fam'd Compositions of Mithridate , Treacle , and the like , though I cannot well , for the mention'd Reasons , commend the skill of those that first devised them , and though I think that when one or two Simples may answer the same Indications , they may for the same Reasons be more safely employed ; Yet I would by no means discommend the use of those Mixtures , because long experience hath manifested them to be good Medicines in several cases . But 't is one thing to employ one of these Compositions , when tryal hath evinced it to be a lucky one , and another thing to think it fit to rely on a huddle of Ingredients , before any tryal hath manifested what kinde of Compound they will constitute . And , in a word , though I had not the respect I have for Matthiolus , and other famous Doctors that devised the Compositions , whereinto Ingredients are thrown by scores , if not by hundreds , yet however I should not reject an effectual Remedy , because I thought that it proved so rather by chance , then any skill in the Contriver : And I think a wise Man may use a Remedy , that scarce any but a Fool would have devis'd . Another thing , upon whose account the Naturalist ( whom we here suppose an expert Chymist ) may assist a Physitian to lessen the expensiveness of his Prescriptions , is by shewing , That in very many Compositions , several of the Ingredients , and oftentimes the most chargeable , whether they be proper or no fo● the Disease , are unfit for the way of management prescrib'd , and consequently ought to be left out . I need not tell you , that since Chymistry began to flourish amongst us , very many of the Medicines prepared in Apothecaries Shops , and commonly the most chargeable , are distill'd Waters , Spirits , and other Liquors : And he that shall survey the Books and Bills of Physitians , shall finde , that ( very few perhaps excepted ) the most usual Prescription is to take such and such Ingredients ( for the most part numerous enough ) and pouring on them either Water or Wine , if any Liquor at all , to distil them in Balneo , rarely in Ashes or Sand. But I confess I have not without wonder , and something of indignation , seen in the Prescriptions of Physitians , otherwise eminently Learned Men , and even in the publick Dispensatories , I know not how many things ordered to be distill'd , with others , in Balneo , which in that degree of heat will yield either nothing at all , as the fragments of Precious Stones , Leaves of Gold , prepar'd Pearl , &c. Or if they do yield any thing ( for that hath not been yet , that I know of , evinced ) do probably yield but a little nauseous Phlegm , or at least some few loose parts , far less efficacious then those that require a stronger heat to drive them up : such are Sugar , Raysins , and other sweet Fruit , Bread , Harts-horn , Flesh prepar'd by Coction , &c. which though wont to be thrown away with the Caput Mortuum , oftentimes there retain their pristine Texture a●d Nature , or at least are almost as much more considerable , then that which they yielded in Distillation : as a boyl'd Capon is , then the Liquor that sticks to the Cover of the Pot. And though as to some of these Ingredients it may be thought that they may yield even in Balneo some of their useful parts , yet this can , with any probability , be suppos'd but of some of such Ingredients : And even as to them it is but suppos'd that they may yield Something in so milde a heat , and how that Something will be qualified , is but presum'd : at least , by the Analogy of the Experiments vulgarly made , there seems so small cause to exspect , that these more fix'd Ingredients will adde half so much to the vertue of the Medicines , as they will to the cost ; especially since though it could be prov'd , or were probable , that fix'd Substances may communicate their vertues to Wine or Water , yet it would not follow that those impregnated Liquors , distilled in Balneo , will carry those vertues with them over the Helm . All which I have more largely prov'd in another Discourse , where I shew both that the nobler parts of many Ingredients wont to be distill'd in Balneo , do commonly remain in the Caput Mortuum , and that 't is very unsafe to conclude always the Vertues of distill'd Liquors from those of the Concrets that afforded them . But there is another way of putting unfit Ingredients into Medicines , by confounding those in one Composition , which , though perhaps they might apart be properly enough employed , do , when mixed , destroy or lock up the Vertues of one another ; and of this fault , even famous Chymists themselves are but too often guilty . I know not how many Processes I have met with , wherein saline Substances , of contrary natures , are prescrib'd to be mingled , as if because they were all of them saline , they must be fit to be associated ; whereas 't is evident to any Man , ●hat considers as well as employs the Operations of Chymistry , that there are scarce any Bodies in the World betwixt which there is a greater contrariety , then betwixt acid Salts : and as well those that the Chymists call volatile , as the Spirits and Salts of Harts-horn , Blood , Flesh and the like , as those others which are made of Incineration , as Salt of Tartar , and of all burnt Vegetables . So that oftentimes it happens , that by an unskilful Mixture , two good Ingredients are spoil'd ; as when Vinegar , Juice of Lemmons , Juice of Barberies , and the like , are prescrib'd to be distill'd with other Ingredients , whereof the Salt of Wormwood or some other Plant makes one , for then the acid and alcalizate Salts , working upon one another , grow more fix'd , and yield in Balneo but a Flegm : and so Spirit or Urine , which is highly volatile , and Spirit of Salt , which is also a distill'd Liquor , being mingled together , will , by their mutual Operation , constitute a new thing , which in such a heat as that of a Bath , will yield a Flegm , leaving behinde the nobler and active Parts concoagulated into a far more fix'd Substance , much of the nature of Sal Armoniack . And indeed where Salts , especially active ones , are made Ingredients of Mixtures , unless they be skilfully and judiciously compounded , it often happens that they spoil one another , and degenerate into a new thing , if they do not also spoil the whole Composition , and of divers useful Ingredients compose one bad Medicine . CHAP. V. ANother way by which the Naturalist ( skill'd in Chymistry ) may help to lessen the chargeableness of Cures , is by shewing , that as to divers costly Ingredients , wont to be employ'd in Physick , there hath not yet been sufficient proof given of their having any Medical Vertues at all , or that at least as they are wont to be exhibited , either crude , or but slightly prepared in Juleps , Electuaries , &c. there is not any sufficient evidence to perswade us , that their efficacy is as much greater , then that of many cheap Ingredients , as their price is . I am not altogether of their minde , that absolutely reject the internal use of Leaf-Gold , Rubies , Sapphyrs , Emerauds , and other Gems , as things that are unconquerable by the heat of the Stomack : For as there are rich Patients that may , without much inconvenience , go to the price of the dearest Medicines ; so I think the Stomack acts not on Medicines barely upon the account of its heat , but is endow'd with a subtle dissolvent ( whence so ever it hath it ) by which it may perform divers things not to be done by so languid a heat . And I have , with Liquors of differing sorts , easily drawn from Vegetable Substances , and perhaps unrectified , sometimes dissolv'd , and sometimes drawn Tinctures from , Gems , and that in the cold . But though for these and other Considerations , I do not yet acquiess in their Reasons , that laugh at the administration of crude Gems , &c. as ridiculous ; yet neither am I altogether of their Adversary's minde . For though I deny not that the Glass of Antimony , which looketh like a kinde of Gem or Ruby , will easily enough impart to Liquors an emetick Quality ; yet I know too , there is great odds betwixt Ruby's and other Gems ( which will endure violent Fires , and remain undissolved in divers strongly corrosive Liquors ) and the Glass of Antimony , which is a Body so far less compact and fix'd , that Spirit of Vinegar it self will work upon it , and a strong Fire will , in no long time , dissipate it into smoke . But that which I chiefly consider on this occasion , is , That 't is one thing to make it probable , that 't is possible Gold , Ruby's , Sapphyrs , &c. may be wrought upon by a humane Stomack ; and another thing , to shew both that they are wont to be so , and that they are actually endow'd with those particular and specifick Vertues that are ascrib'd to them : Nay , and ( over and above ) that these Vertues are such , and so eminent , that they considerably surpass those of cheaper Simples . And I think , that in Prescriptions made for the poorer sort of Patients , a Physitian may well substitue cheaper Ingredients in the place of these precious ones , whose Vertues are not half so unquestionable as their Dearness . What strange Excellency there may be in the Aurum Potabile , made by a true Adeptus , or by a Possessor of the Liquor Alcahest , I shall not now dispute , not knowing what powerful and radical Dissolvents the profound skill of such Men ( if any such there be ) may furnish them with , to open the Body of Gold. But as for the attempts and practices of the generality of Chymical Physitians to make Gold potable , besides that , their attempts to make their Solutions volatile , succeed so seldom , that even Learned Physitians , and Chymists , have pronounced the thing it self unfeasible ; I confess , I should much doubt whether such a potable Gold would have the prodigious Vertues its Encomiasts ascribe to it , and expect from it : For I finde not that those I have yet met with , deliver these strange things upon particular Experiments duly made , but partly upon the Authority of Chymical Books , many of which were never written by those whose Names they bear . And others , I fear , commend Aurum Potabile , prepared after another-guess manner then that we are now speaking of , partly upon a presumption that if it be made volatile , it must be strangely unlock'd , and exalted to a meer Spiritual Nature ; and partly upon rational Conjectures ( as they think them ) drawn from the nobleness and preciousness of Gold. But for my part , though I have long since bethought my self of a way , whereby I can , in a short time , and a moderate Fire , make my Menstruum bring over cru●e Gold , in quantity sufficient to make the Liquor look at the first or second Distillation , of a high golden colour ; yet finding that I could , by an easie Art , quickly recover out of this volatile Liquor , a corporal and malleable Gold , I dare not brag that my Tincture ( as an Alchymist would call it ) must needs do strange feats , because there is so noble a Mettal brought over in it . And if this or other preparations of Aurum Potabile prove good Medicines , it would be further enquired , whether the Vertues may not in great part be rather attributed to the Menstruum , then the Gold ( that requiring a very subtile Liquor to volatilize it ) or to the association of the Corpuscles of the Gold , with the saline Particles of the Menstruum , into a new Concrete , differing enough from Gold , though never so well open'd . And as for the nobleness and pretiousness of this Metal , That depends upon the Estimation of Men , whence in America the Indians that abounded with it , had not such a great value for it ; And in divers Countries , at this day , it is postponed to Iron or to Copper , and hath rather a Political ( if I may so speak ) then a Natural Vertue . Nor will it follow , that because it is the fixedst and pretiousest of Metals , that therefore it must be an admirable Medicine : For we see that Diamonds , though they be the hardest of Bodies , and very fix'd ones , and in much greater esteem , caeteris paribus , then Gold , are yet so far from being accounted highly Medicinal , that they are commonly ( though , perhaps , not so deservedly ) reckon'd among Poysons . But I see I have digress'd , That which I chiefly aim'd at , being to inculcate , that whether Gold and Gems , and the like pretious Ingredients , may be good Medicines or no , 't were a good work to substitute cheap ones for the poorer sort of Patients ; and that Physitians are much to blame , who prize Simples , as Drugsters do , according as they are brought from remote Countries , and are hard to be come by , and cannot imagine that what doth not cost much Money in the Shops , can do much good in the Body ; as if God had made Provision onely for the Rich , or those People that have Commerce with China or the India's : whereas indeed it may oftentimes happen , that what the Chymists call their Caput Mortuum , and perhaps throw away as an useless Terra Damnata , may have as great Vertues as those nobler Parts , as they call them , which they have extracted from it ; and a desp●sed Simple , nay , even an Excrement or an Infect , may in some cases prove nobler Remedies , then those that Men call and think very noble Bodies , not to say then , I know not how many Extracts and Quintescences . I shall not trouble you with many Instances to prove this Doctrine , having more fully discoursed of it in one part of another * Treatise : But yet some Instances I suppose you will here expect , and therefore I shall present you with a few of those that at present come into my minde . When the Distillation of Aqua fortis is finished , the Caput Mortuum , as deserving that name , is wont , by common Distillers , to be thrown away ; and I have seen whole heaps of it thrown by , as useless , by those that make Aqua fortis in quantity to sell it : And yet this despised Substance doth , in common Water it self , yield a Salt , which being onely depurated by frequent Solutions and Filtrations , is that famous Panacca Duplicata , or Arcanum Duplicatum , which that great Virtuoso and knowing Chymist , The Duke of Holstein , whose name it also beareth , thought worth purchasing at the rate of Five hundred Dollars ; and of which the Princes experienced Physitian thus writes to the Industrious Schroder , Mille experimentis salis hujus Efficaciam Aula nostra comprobavit in melancholicis affectibus , febribus quibuscunque continuis & intermittentibus , calculo , scorbut● , &c. Quin & somnū conciliasse praesertim in Melancholicis non semel notavimus . Dosis à scrup : 1. ad scrup : 2. Libras aliquod quotannis absumimus . And another very skilful Physitian that frequented that Excellent Princes Court , confirm'd to me the same Medicin's diuretick and deoppilative Vertues : ( But upon my own Experience I can say little of it , having casually lost a great quantity I caus'd to be prepar'd to make tryal with , before I had opportunity to employ it . ) But whereas in the Caput Mortuum of Aqua fortis there remains pretty store of easily soluble Salt ; In the Caput Mortuum of Vitriol , when not onely all the Oyl is forc'd away by the Fire , but all the fix'd Salt is exactly separated by Water , There seems to remain nothing but a worthless Terra Damnata : And yet 't is of this , th●t , as I shall teach you ere long , I make those Colcotharine Flowers , which are possibly a nobler Medicine then either the Oyl , the Spirit , or the Salt of Vitriol . As for the Bezoar-stone , which is so often prescrib'd by Physitians , and so dearly paid for by Patients , the experienc'd Bontius , a very competent Witness in this case ( and whose account of the manner of its generation , agrees the best of any I have seen with that I receiv'd from an Intelligent Person , that was employ'd into Persia by the late King ) hath in one place a Passage concerning it ; and elsewhere writes such things of the Stone cut out of a Mans Bladder ( though that , whil'st crude , be despis●d as a thing vile and useless in Physick ) as may be justly applicable to our present purpose : Caeterum ( saith he , speaking of the Bezoar-stone ) quantum ad hyperbolicas hujus lapidis virtutes & facultates portentosas non tantos in eo mille experientiis edoctus inveni : And elsewhere speaking of those contemptible and excrementitious Stones that are found in humane Bladders : Nil pooro ( saith he ) de his lapidibus addo ne videar eos elevare & lithotomos monere ut vel cum periculo plures mortales secent : Hoc certe compertum habeo lapidem in vesica hominis repertum urinam & sudores probe ciere quod tempore ingentis illius pestis quae Anno 1624 & 1625 Leydam patriam meam & reliquas Hollandiae Civitates miserandum in modum vastabat , in penuri● lapidis Besoartici nos exhibuisse memini & sudorificum ( ausi●● dicere ) melius & excellentius invenisse , &c. Soot is generally look'd upon as so vile a thing , that we are fain to hire Men to carry it away ; and yet , as I elsewhere shew that 't is a Body of no ignoble Nature , so I must here tell you , that 't is no unuseful one in Physick . And not to mention that Riverius commends it crude , to the quantity of a Drachme , in Plurisies : I have try'd , with the Spirit of it well drawn , some things , that make me look upon it as a considerable Liquor . And I know by their own confessions , that some Medicines , even of eminent Physitians , that pass under other Names , have the Spirit of Soot for their principal Ingredient . I knew , a not unlearned Emperick , who was exceedingly cry'd up for the Cures he did , especially in difficult Distempers of the Brain , by a certain Remedy , which he call'd sometimes his Aurum Potabile , and sometimes his Panacaea ; and having obtain'd from this Man , in exchange of a Chymical Secret of mine he was greedy of , the way of making this so celebrated Medicine , I found that the main thing in it was the Spirit of Soot , drawn after a somewhat unusual , but not excellent manner ; in which Spirit , Flowers of Sulphur were , by a certain way , brought to be dissolv'd , and swim in little drops that look'd of a golden colour . You will easily grant , Pyrophilus , that there are not any Medicines to be taken into the Body , more cheap and contemptible then the Excrements of Men and Horses , and then Insects : And yet that even these want not considerable Medical Vertues , we elsewhere shew . And ( not to meddle with such nasty things as the grosser sort of humane Excrements , though they outwardly apply'd , either in Powder or otherwise , do sometimes perform strange things ) the Juice of Horse-dung , especially of Stone-horses , being strongly express'd ( after the Dung hath been awhile steeped in Ale , or some other convenient Liquor , to facilitate the obtaining the Juice and to afford it a Vehicle ) doth oftentimes so powerfully relieve those that are troubled with the stoppage of Urine , with Winde , Stitches , and even with Obstructions of the Spleen and Liver , that You , Pyrophilus , and I , know a great Lady , who though very neat , and very curious of her Health , and wont to have the attendance of the skilfullest Physitians , scruples not , upon occasion , to use as I have known her do , in Silver Vessels , this homely Remedy , and prefer it to divers rich Cordials , and even to what some Chymists are pleas'd to call Essences or Elixirs : And with the same Remedy very many poor People were cur'd of the Plague it self , when it lately swept away so many thousands in Ireland ( and the Doctors with the Patients ) as I was assur'd by a Person who cur'd so many , as to invite men to secure themselves that assistance , by refusing the Party the liberty to leave the Town . But ( to adde that upon the by ) this Person , in exchange of a Secret of mine , confess'd to me , That the Arcanum , which had cur'd such numbers , and to which the Juice of Horse-dung was a Succedaneum , was onely a good Dose of the Powder of fully ripe Ivy-berries , which did usually , as also the Horse-dung , work plentifully by Sweat , and which I presently remembred to be one of those few things that Helmont commends against the Plague . The Medical Vertues of Man's Urine , both inwardly given , and outwardly apply'd , would require rather a whole Book , then a part of an Essay to enumerate and insist on : But referring you to what an industrious Chymist hath already collected touching that subject , I shall now onely adde , That I knew ancient Gentlewoman , who being almost hopeless to recover of divers Chronical Distempers ( and some too of these abstruse enough ) was at length advised , instead of more costly Physick , to make her Morning-draughts of her own Water ; by the use of which she strangely recovered , and is , for ought I know , still well . And the same Remedy is not disdain'd by a Person of great Quality and Beauty , that You know ; and that too , after she hath travelled as far as the Spaw for Her healths sake . And I remember on this occasion , that passing once through one of the remoter Parts of England , I was visited by an Emperick , a well-wisher to Chymistry , but a Novice in it , who pressing me , to communicate to him some easie and cheap Preparation , that he might make use of among the C●untrey People ; I directed him to Dist●l , with a gentle heat , a Spirit out of Urine , putrified for six or seven Weeks on a Dung-hill , or some analogous heat , but in well clos'd Glasses , or other glaz'd Vessels ; and having rectified this Spirit once or twice , that it might be rich in volatile Salt , to give ten , twenty , or thirty drops of it in any convenient Liquor for the Plurisie , for most kinde of Coughs , and divers other Distempers , as a Succedaneum to the Essence of Harts horn : And awhile after this Emperick return'd me great thanks for what I had taught him ; and I found by him and others , that he had cured so many with it , especially of Plurisies ( a Disease frequent and dangerous enough in that Country ) that this slight and seemingly despicable Remedy had already made him be cry'd up for a Doctor , and was like to help him to a comfortable Subsistence . Great store of healthy Mens Blood is wont to be thrown away , as altogether useless , by Chirurgions and Barbers , that let Men Blood ( as is usual in the Spring and Fall ) for prevention of Diseases ; and yet from a Man's Blood skilfully prepared , though without addition of any thing , save Spirit of Wine to keep it at first from putrifying , may be easily obtain'd a Spirit , and volatile Salt , that have much the same Vertues , with those of the newly mention'd Spirit of Urine , but more noble ( as far as I can guess ) then either that , or even Spirit of Harts horn , as having perform'd in Consumptions , Asthma's , and other obstinate cases , such things as I , as well as others , could not but admire . But in this place , mentioning humane Blood onely in transi●u , I shall pretermit what I have observed about the preparation of it ; yet leaving you a liberty to call for my Observations upon a Medicine , which is perhaps nobler , then the most costly and elaborate Chymical Remedies that are wont to be sold in Shops , and which hath been almost alone excepted out of the Censure made by a Learned Modern Writer , of the Medicines found out by Chymistry . I shall adde but one Instance more , of the efficacy that may be found in the most obvious and abject Creatures ; and this Instance is afforded me , by those vile Insects commonly called in English , Wood-lice , or Sows , and in Latine Millepedes , which I have often both recommended to others , and taken my self : What their Vertue is against the Stone , the World hath been informed by Laurembergius , who hath published a Narrative , how by the use of them he was cured , even of the Stone in the Bladder ; and he was invited to use them by credible information , that others had been cured of that Disease , by the same Remedy . And of late Years , in England , an Emperick being much resorted to , for the relief he gave in that tormenting Sickness , a Physitian , famous for his Learned Writings , wondering at what was done , was very curious ( as himself afterwards told me ) to finde out the Emperick's secret , and at length was so industrious as to discover , That 't was a slight preparation of Millepedes . But my having found them in my self very diuretical and apertive , is not that which chiefly recommends them to me ; For I knew , and liv'd in the same House with a pious Gentlewoman , much better skill'd in Physick , then her Sex promised , who having lost the use of one Eye by a Cataract , and being threatned by the Oculists with the speedy loss of the other , especially in regard of her being very aged and corpulent , she nevertheless did , for some Years , to my wonder , employ her Eye to read and work with , without finding , as she told me , any decay in it , or any encreasing danger of a suffusion : And she assured me , that her Medicine was to bruise first five Millepedes , then ten , then fifteen , then twenty , &c. ( daily encreasing the number by five , till it had reach'd , if I mistake not , fifty or sixty ) in White-wine ( or Small-ale ) and to drink upon an empty Stomack , the strongly express'd Liquor ; And when I desired to know how she came by this Specifick , she answered me , That having made enquiries among all those , both Oculists and others , that she thought might assist her against so sad a Distemper , she was advised to the use of Millepedes , by a Woman , that not onely much magnified their vertue in such cases as hers , but assured her ( if I much mis-remember not ) that she her self had been cured by them , of no less then an incipient suffusion in one or both of her Eyes . [ Since the writing of the former part of this Page , relating what I newly told you to a very Ingenious Physitian , he assures me , Th●t being some Yea●s since in Holland , he there met with a Woman who was cured , as her self confessed to him , of a real Cataract , by the juice of Millepedes , beginning with that of three at a time , and so encreasing to nine at once , and then gradually lessening the Dose by one Insect each day , t●ll she were come back to three at a time ; after which , she gradually increas'd the Dose as before : And he adds , That this Woman w●s advised to this Medicine by an Emperick , that was said to have performed divers Cures with the same Medicine . ] [ What strange things these same Millepedes have done in the sore , and even exulcerated Breasts of Women ( provided they be not cancrous ) though they be given without preparation onely , to the number of three first , and so on to nine at once ( which number may perhaps be usefully encreased ) stamp'd with a little White-wine or Beer , that the Liquor strain'd out may be drunk in a draught of Beer , Morning and Evening ; during which time , Linnen clothes dipp'd in White wine , and apply'd warm , are to be kept upon the Breast , I may elsewhere have a fitter opportunity to relate . I shall now onely subjoyn , as a further proof of the great Vertue that may be even in vile and costless Insects , and that without any elaborate or Chymical Preparation , this memorable Story ; That after all the tryals I had made about these Millepedes , I met with a yong Lady , who by divers strangely winding and obstinate Fistula's , that had made themselves Orifices in many places of her Body , was not onely lam'd , but so consum'd and weakned , that she was scarce able to turn her self in her bed ; and this , notwithstanding the utmost endeavors of the eminentest Chirurgions , both English and Foreigners , that could be procur'd : But when both the hopes of her Friends , and those that endeavored to cure her , were lost , she was in a short time not alone freed from her Fistula's , but recovered to a thriving condition of Body , by the frequent use of an internal Medicine , which , as both her Parents and the Person that taught in them informed me , was onely a Drink ( to be taken twice or thrice a day ) made of a small proportion of a couple of Herbs ( very common , and not much more likely to do Wonders in this case , then Worm-wood and Mint ) and of Three hundred of these Millepedes well beaten ( when their Heads are pull'd of ) in a Mortar , and tunn'd up with the Herbs , and suspended in four Gallons of small Ale , during its fermentation . The wonderful efficacy of this Medicine in this and many other cases , which by occasion of this Cure were related to me , being almost wholly ascrib'd to the Millepedes , by the Illustrious Imparter of it , whose leave I have not yet , by naming him , to disclose , that this is the Secret He makes use of . ] CHAP. VI. ANother way there is whereby the Naturalist may assist the Physitian to make the Therapeutical part of Physick less chargeable , and that is , by shewing those that are wont to employ most Chymical Remedies , that much of the cost and labor in many cases might be spared . I am not altogether of their minde , that indiscriminatly cry down Chymical Preparations as excessively dear : For of many of those that seem very dear , when bought by the Pound or the Ounce , a Dose may be cheap enough ; as if for instance , an Ounce of precipitate of Gold and Mercury cost ten times its weight of Silver , under which rate I have bought it of honest Men , that make it themselves , yet that Ounce containing 480 Grains , ( of which three or four may be a Dose ) a taking of this dear Powder , may cost far less then a Dose of many Galenical Medicines , where the quantity that is taken at once , makes up what is wanting in the costliness of the Ingredients . But though this be the case of some Chymical Remedies , yet we must not deny , that many others are chargeable , and though perhaps not more so then many Galenical ones employ'd for the same purposes : Yet if those be dearer then they need be , that grievance ought to be redress'd in Chymical Medicines , how justly soever the same thing may be imputed to Galenical ones . Now there are two Particulars , wherein the Chymists , and those Physitians that imitate them , are wont to be blameable in reference to this matter ; The one , their employing Chymical Preparations on all occasions , even where Simples or slight Compositions might serve the turn : and the other is , Their making many of their P●eparations more laborious , and consequently more chargeable then needs . As for the first of these : 'T is known there are divers Chymists , and others that practise Physick , who so dote upon the Productions of their Furnaces , that they will scarce go about to cure a cut Finger , with less then some Spagyrical Oyl or Balsam : And in slight Distempers have recourse to Chymical , and perhaps to Mineral Remedies , which being , for the most part , such as vehemently alter the Body , especially by heating and drying it , they do often more harm then good , when employed in cases that need not such active Medicines . And methinks those that practise , as if Nature presented us nothing worth the accepting , unless it be cook'd and perfected by Vulcan , might consider , That Paracelsus himself oftentimes employeth Simples for the cure even of formidable Diseases . And though for particular Reasons I be incl●nable enough to think , that such searching and commanding Remedies , as may be so much of kin to the Universal Medicine , as to cure great numbers of differing Diseases , will be hardly obtain'd without the help of Chymical Preparations , and those perhaps of Minerals : Yet as to most particular Diseases , especially when not yet atriv'd to a deplorable height , I am apt to think , that either Simples , or cheap , or unelaborate Galenical Mixtures , may furnish us with Specificks , that may perform much more then Chymists are wont to think , and possibly be preferable to many of their costly Magisteries , Quint-essences and Elixirs . Helmont himself , a Person more knowing and experienced in his Art , then almost any of the Chymists , scruples not to make this ingenious Confession : Credo ( saith he ) simplicia in sua simplicitate esse sufficientia , pro sanatione omnium morborum : And elsewhere he truly affirms , That there may be sometimes greater Vertue in a Simple , such as Nature affords it us , then in any thing that the Fire can separate from it . And certainly the specifick Properties of divers , if not most Simples , are confounded and lost by those Preparations , wherein that Texture , which is the foundation of those Properties , is either destroyed by the Fire , or chang'd by the taking away of some of the Parts ; or the adding of some other Substance to it , with which compounded , it may constitute a new thing . The more Judicious of the Chymists themselves do several of them now acknowledge , that the bare reducing of Pearls to fine Powder , affords a Medicine much richer in the Vertues of the Pearls , then the Magistery , prepar'd by dissolving them in acid Spirits , and precipitating them with Oyl of Tartar , and afterwards scrupulously edulcorating them . And one may easily observe , that by making the Magistery of Harts-horn the same way , the Vertues seem to be more lock'd up then they were in the crude Horn , which may easily enough impart its Vertue in the Body , since fair Water will reduce a good part of it into a Jelly ; whereas the Magistery remains a fix'd Powder , not easily dissoluble , even in acid Menstruums ; and , which thrown upon hot Iron , will scarce send forth that stinking Smoak , which argues the avolation of the saline and sulphureous Parts . I never knew any of the vulgar Chymists Essences or Elixirs half so powerful a Remedy to stanch Blood , as a slight Mixture of two Drachmes of Hyosciamum , or Henbane-seed , and the like weight of white Poppey-seeds , beaten up with an Ounce of Conserve of red Roses , into a stiff Electuary ; with which , given in the quantity of a Nutmeg , or Wall-nut , I have snatch'd some , as it were , out of the Jaws of Death ; and with which an eminent Physiti●n , now dead , affirm'd , That he , and the Inventor of the Remedy , had very frequently cured profuse bleedings at the Nose , and in Women , at other Parts besides . Nor did I ever see , to give an instance in a resembling Disease , such wonderful Effects against spitting and vomiting of Blood , of the most elaborate Chymical Preparations , as I have of a slight Syrrup , made onely of a convenient quantity of fine Sugar , and the strongly express'd Juice of twelve handfulls of Plantain-leaves , and six Ounces of fresh Cumfrey-roots , well beaten together ; with which Syrrup , besides what I have try'd my self , two eminent Physitians perform'd in that Disease unusual Cures , though ( for reasons elsewhere mentioned ) I forbear to name them , otherwise then by telling you , That one of them is that Ingenious and Friendly Dr T.C. to whose skill both You and I owe so much . But I consider further , that as oftentimes those I am reasoning with make use of Chymical Remedies , when much more easily parable ones may suffice ; so in divers cases , where Spagyrical Medicines are proper enough , their Preparations of them are more tedious and expensive then is necessary . There are more then a few who seldom prescribe , and seldomer esteem a Chymical Process , that is to be perfected in less then many Weeks ; as if a Chymical Medicine , like an Embryo , must needs be an Abortive , if it be produc'd in less then so many Moneths . And as if in Preparations , the Vertue depended less on the skilfulness , then the elaboratness , they seem to estimate the efficacy of Remedies by the time and pains requisite to prepare them , and dare not think , that a Medicine can quickly cure , that was not long a making ; as indeed their 's ( especially those where Cohobations and Digestions , till they have such and such effects upon the Matter to be wrought on by them , are prescrib'd ) are many of them far more toilsom and tedious , then those that have but read such Processes , without working them , are apt to suspect . And this is the humor of divers , not onely as to those stable Medicines , that ought always to be found ready in Apothecary's Shops , but even as to those that are design'd for particular cases , and perhaps acute Diseases ; in which Emergencies , if a Physitian had no other Remedies then those he must make according to such Processes , it would , ● fear , too often happen , that before the Medicine could be ready , the Patient would either be past the need of it , or past the help of it . And that which oftentimes encreaseth the tediousness of Chymical Processes , is the unskilful Prescriptions of those that devise them . 'T is not unusual in Chymists Writings to meet with Processes , wherein the Matter to be prepar'd , is expos'd to I know not how many several successive Operations : But if you should ask why such a thing should be , for instance , rather precipitated , then exhal'd ad siccitatem , or why such and such an Operation is to be us'd after such another , rather then before it ; nay , perhaps , if one should demand why some of those Operations should be used at all , the Devisers of those unskilful Processes would possibly assoon be able to finish their Operations , as to give a satisfactory answer . Nay , sometimes they lengthen their Processes by Operations , so injudiciously prescrib'd , that they cross one another ; And the Chymist vexeth himself , and the Matter he works upon , to leave it at last no better , if not a worse , Medicine then he found it ; of this we have already given an instance in the common Magisteries . But I lately met with another Example of it , in the Writings of a Famous , Modern Chymist , where to purifie the fix'd Salts of Vegetables , to the height , after I know not how many Solutions , Filtrations and Coagulations ( which alone would abundantly serve the turn ) he prescribes the dissolving them in Aqua fortis ; after which , he saith , they will become very pure and chrystalline , and not so easily resoluble in the Air : Of which I make no doubt , for divers Years before I met with this Process , I have , with the fix'd Salts of more then one kinde of Vegetable , by joyning them with Aqua fortis , and after awhile exhaling the superfluous moisture , made good inflammable Salt peter ; by which you may easily guess , how judiciously the solution in Aqua fortis is prescrib'd onely as a further depuration , and how fit such Authors are to be credited , when they ascribe to these Chrystalline Salts the several Vertues , ( & those improved too ) of the respective Vegetables , from which the Alcalies were obtain'd . And indeed , as to those exact Depurations , which some Chymists so strictly require in all their Preparations , though their Processes be oftentimes hereby made incredibly tedious , I will willingly allow , nay I assert , that in some cases , and especially in the making of powerful Menstruums , which by their activeness and penetrancy , are to unlock other Bodies , Chymists do rather erre in making their Depurations less exquisite then they should , then on the other hand : Yet in many other cases , such exact refining and subtiliation of a Remedy , is not so necessary as they imagine ; and sometimes too , may do more harm then good , by sequestring those parts of a Simple , as faeces , which concurr'd with the finer parts to that determinate Texture , whereon the specifick Vertues of it did principally depend ; but of this more elsewhere . And therefore I shall here present you with two or there Instances , to shew you , That Remedies , at least as noble as such vulgar Chymical ones as are more tedious and costly , may be prepar'd in a shorter time , and cheap enough to be fit for the use of the Poor . And to comply , Pyrophilus , with your curiosity , to know the Preparations of those Chymical Medicines , that I do the most familiarly employ , the three following Instances shall be of such , namely , The Flores Colchotaris , The Balsamum sulphur is crassum , and , The Essentia Cornu cervini , that you may see what slight and easie Preparations afford the Remedies , whose Effects you have so often heard of , if not also seen . The first of these , is the same Powder , which passeth under the name of Ens Veneris , which appellation we gave it not out of a belief , that it equals the Vertues ascrib'd by Helmont , to what he calls the true Ignis Veneris , but partly to disguise it a little , and partly upon the account of the occasion whereon it was first found out , which was , That an Industrious Chymist ( whom you know ) and I , chancing to look together upon that Tract of Helmont's , which he calls Butler , and to compare it somewhat attentively with other Passages of the same Author , we both resolv'd to try , whether a Medicine , somewhat approaching to that he made in imitation of Butlers Stone , might not be easily made out of calcin'd Vitriol ; And , though upon tryals we found this Medicine far short of what Helmont ascribes to his , yet finding it no ordinary one , we did , for the Minerals sake 't is made of , call it Ens primum Veneris . The Preparation , in short , is this : Take good Dantzick Vitriol ( if you cannot get Hungarian or Goslarian ) and calcine it till the calx have attain'd a dark red , or purplish colour , then , by the frequent affusion of boyling , or at least warm Water , dulcifie it exactly ; and having freed it as well as you can from the saline parts , dry it throughly , and after mix it exquisitly , by grinding , or otherwise , with an equal weight of pure Sal Armoniack , very finely powdered . Put this Mixture into a glass Retort , that may be but a third part fill'd with it , and subliming it in a sand Furnace , by degrees of Fire , for ten or twelve hours , towards the latter end encreasing the Fire , till the bottom of the Retort ( if you can ) be brought to be red hot : That which is sublim'd must be taken out , and if it be not of a good yellow , but pale ( which usually happens for want of an exact commistion of the Ingredients ) it may be return'd to the residue , mingled better with it again , and subli●'d once more : The yellow , or reddish Sublimate may be sublim'd a second time , not from the Caput Mortuum , but by it self ; but if you re-sublime it oftner , you may , though you will think that strange , impair the Colour and the Sublimate , instead of improving them . The Dose is from two or three Grains , to ten or twelve ( in some Bodies it may be encreas'd to twenty or thirty , without danger ) in distill'd Water , or small Beer , or other convenient Vehicles : It may be given at any time upon an empty Stomack , but I most commonly give it at Bed-time . It works , when it works sensibly , by Sweat , and somewhat by Urine . That it is a potent Specifick for the Rickets , I think I scarce need tell ●ou , Pyroph : whose excellent Mother and Aunt , together with some Physitians , to whom I also gave it ready prepar'd , have cur'd perhaps a hundred , or more Children , of that Disease , divers of whom were look'd upon as in a desperate condition . I give it also in Feavors , and other Distempers , to procure sleep , which it usually doth where 't is wanting : In the Head ache likewise , in which , if the Disease be inveterate , the Remedy must be long continued ; with the like admonition it hath done Wonders , in suppressione Mensium obstinata : In the Worms it hath sometimes done strange things ; and for provoking of Appetite , I remember not that I have either taken or given it without success : And though I seldom take ( for I often give more ) above two or three Grains of it at a time , yet in that small Dose it usually proves Diaphoretical to me the next Morning . But the Experiments we have had of the several Vertues and Efficacy of this Medicine , would be here too tedious to recite ; and therefore I shall now pass them by , though , if you require it , I shall not be backward to set you down , by way of observations , most of the cases wherein I or my Friends have given it , and of the principal Cures that have been performed by it : In the mean time , because this exalted Colcothar , being given in so small a Dose , may prove , if it be rightly and dexterously prepar'd , what Helmont saith of his imitation of Butlers Drif , A Medicine for the Poor , and yet requires more care , not to say skill , to Prepare it well , then upon the bare reading of the Process you will imagin , I shall to gratify your Charity annex to the end of this Essay , ( for to insert them here would make too prolix a Digression ) as many of the Particulars relating to the Preparation of it as I can readily meet with among my loose Notes , And least you should think me a Mountebanck for want of knowing in what sense it is , that I commend this and the other particular Medicins , I shall likewise to those Observations subjoyn a Declaration of my meaning in such particulars , and of the sense , wherein I desire you should understand what you meet with in the Praise of Remedies either in this Essay or any other of my Writings , which I hope it will be sufficient to give you this Advertisment of once for all . The next Medicine I am to mention to you is the Balsamum Sulphuris which being made but with gross Oyls drawn by Expression may be called Crassum to distinguish it from the common and thinner Balsom of Sulphur , that is made with the Distil'd Oyl or Spirit of Turpentine . This Balsom is made in an Houre or less , without a Furnace , onely by taking to one part of good Flower of Brimstone , foure or five times as much ( in weight ) of good expressed Oyl , either of Olives or Nuts , or Poppey-seeds , and boyling the former in the latter in a Pipkin half fill'd with both , till it be perfectly Dissolv'd into a Blood-red Balsom . But as easy as this Preparation seems ( and indeed is ) to them that have often made it , it will not at first be so easie to make it right ; For the Fire which ought to be of well kindled Coals , must be kept pretty quick , and yet not over-quick , least the Oyl boyle over , or doe not well Dissolve the Flowers of Sulphur , but turn them with its self into a Clotted and almost Liver-colour'd Masse : And to avoid these Inconveniencies , and the adustion of the Matter , speciall care must be had to keep it constantly stirring , not only whil'st the Pot is over the Fire , but after it is taken off , till it be quite Cold. You may if you think fit Dissolve this simple Balsom in Chymicall Oyl of Anny-seeds , or any other Essential Oyl like to advance its Efficacy in this or that particular Distemper : But those Oyls being generally very hot , I most commonly Prescribe the Balsom without those Additions , especially if long Digestion have somwhat lessened the Offensiveness of the smell , which though no peculiar fault of this Preparation being common to Sulphureous Medicins is yet the chief Inconvenience of it . I will not too resolutly affirme that this is the very Balsamum Sulphuris Rulandi of which that Author relates such wonderful things in his Centuries ; but if it be not the same , t is so like it , and so good , that I doubt not but by perusing those Centuries , you may find divers uses of it , that I have not made tryall off : And in Coughs , old Strains , Bruises , Aches , ( and sometimes the Incipcent fits of the Gout it self ) and especially Tumors , some of your friends can inform you , that it doth much greater things then most Men would expect from so slight and easy a Preparation ; And indeed greater then I have seen done by very costly and commended Balsoms and Oyntments , sold in Apothecaries Shops : And in those Observations , I lately told you you might command , you will find that this Balsom outwardly applyed , hath cured such obstinate Tumours , as Men either knew not what to make off , or what to doe with them , of which skilful Physitians , to whom I gave it to make tryal off in difficult cases , can bear me witness ; Though it ought sufficiently to endear this Balsam to us both , that it was the Meanes of rescuing your Fair and Vertuous Sister E : from a dangerous Consumption . In outward Applications it is to be well warm'd , and to be chaf●'d into the part affected , which should be afterwards kept very warme , or else Lint dipped in it may be kept upon the place . Inwardly some drops of it may be given at any time , when the Stomach is not full ; either rol'd up with Sugar , or mingl'd with any convenient Vehicle . But as for the Particulars that concern the Preparation of this Balsam , you will find , those I can readily meet with among my loose Papers , annex'd with the Notes concerning Ens Veneris to the end of this Essay . And therefore I shall now proceed to mention the third Medicine , which you have often heard off , under the name of Essence of Harts-horn ; but which is indeed onely the Simple , but well Purify'd and Dephlegm'd Spirit of it . And though Men are pleased to imagin by the Effects this Remedy often produces that I have some Mysterious or elaborate way of Preparing it , yet to deal ingenuously with you , the chief thing I have done to bring it into credit , is the teaching some Physicians and Apothecaries a safe and easy way of making it : For whereas before those that went about to Distil it , commonly used , as the Apothecaries are wont to doe in what they make of the same Matter , Shavings or Raspings of Harts-horn , and Distil'd it with a strong and naked Fire , the fugitive and subtle Spirits were wont to come over in that plenty , and with th●t impetuosity , as to break the Glasses to pieces , whereby Apothecaries and even Chymists were discouraged from drawing the Spirit , and they not having it in their Shops , its Vertues remained unknown : Whereupon considering that if it were onely broken on an Anvil into pieces of about the bigness of ones litle finger , besides that this way of comminution would be far less chargeable then Rasping , the fumes would not be driven out so fast , and considering too , that a violent Fire was requisite , not to Distil the subtle Spirit , but to drive over the Grosse and heavy Oyl ; I thought it was needless to take paines to force that over , which not being ( that I observ'd ) used in Physick , would but cost me further pains to seperate it again : And therefore , trying to Distil Harts-horn , in naked Retorts , placed but in Sand , I found I could Distil two or three pound at a time , and obtain from each of them , almost , if not quite , all the Spirits and Volatile Salt , which I afterwards separated from the redish and lighter Oyl , and freed them from Phlegm and Feculencies by a couple of Rectifications , made in tall Glasses , and with very gentle heats : ( commonly of a Lamp Furnace ) The Dose may be from eight , or ten Drops of the Spirit , or Graines of the Salt , to six times the quant●ty of either , in warm Beer , or any Vehicle that is not acid , except Milk. Finding it to be a Medicine of an attenuating , resolving , and Diaphoretical Nature , and one that much resists Malignity , Putrefaction , and acid Humours ( whence being mingl'd with Spirit of Vinager , and the like soure Juyces , it destroyes their acidity . ) I direct it ( Praemissis Universalibus ) in Feavers , Coughs , Pleurisies , Obstructions of the Spleen , Liver , or Womb , and principally in Affections of the Brain , as Stoppages of the Head , Feaverish Deliriums , and even in Phrenitide . And since I wrote a good part of this Essay , I had an Experiment of it in a Child , who being , by many violent Convulsion fits , reduc'd to a desperate condition , was recovered by one Dose of five or six Drops of th●s Spirit , that I sent it . 'T is true that I have another Medicine , that is more elaborate and costly , and more properly bears the name of Essentia Cornu Cervi , which I more value then this ; But I cannot communicate that , without prejudicing a third Person , and an excellent Chymist who makes a great advantage of it . But this I can tell you , that most of the Cures , for which my Preparation of Harts-horn hath had the good fortune to be esteem'd , have been performed with the above describ'd Simple Spirit and Salt , with which some skilful Physitians , and other Ingenious Persons , who had it from me , have within these few Years sav'd so many Lives , that I am enclined to think , I have done no useless piece of Service , in bringing so happy a Medicine into Request , especially with those that have skill and opportunity to make better use of it then I. But , Pyrophilus , I find I have detained you so long with so prolix a Mention , of the three above describ'd Remedies , that I should think it requisite , to make you a solemn Apologie ; but that I hope your Charity will as well invite you to Pardon the fault , as mine induc'd me to commit it . CHAP. VII . A Fourth way of lessening the Charges of Cures , may be this ; That whereas the dearness of very many Medicins proceeds from the Chargeableness of those Chymical Operations , whereby they are wont to be Prepar'd , 't is to be hoped that a greater measure of skill in Physiology , and other Experimental Learning , will suggest cheaper and better ways of doing many things in Chymistry , then are , as yet , usually practis'd . And those thrifty Expedients , I conceive , may be of several kinds , of which I shall at present mention , and that but transiently , three or four . And first , I doubt not but Chymists may be taught to make better Furnaces , for several purposes , then those that have been hitherto most us'd among them : For profess'd Chymists , having been for the most part unacquainted enough with many other parts of Learning , and particularly with the Mechanicks , their contrivances of Furnaces and Vessels have been far enough from being as good as knowledge in Mechanicks and dexterity in contrivances might , and , I doubt not , hereafter will , supply them with ; whether as to the saving of Fuel , or to the making the utmost use of the Heat afforded by the Fuel they do employ , or as to the intending heat to the height , or as to the regulating of heat at pleasure . 'T is somewhat wonderful , as well as pleasant , to see how many Vessels may be duely heated by one Fire ( perhaps no greater then common distillers employ to heat one Vessel ) if the Furnace be so contriv'd , as that the Flame may be forc'd to pass in very crooked and winding Channels , towards the Vent or Vents , and the heat may be skilfully conveyed to the several parts of the Furnace , according to the Exigency of the work it is to do : And as for the intention of heat , I remember I have had odde effects of it , by the contrivance of a certain Furnace , that held but very few Coles , and to which I us'd no Bellows . But though by this way I could vitrifie sometimes the very Crucibles , and though possibly I could , with a slight alteration , melt down the sides of the Furnace themselves ; yet a Disciple of Cornelius Drebell , and a very credible Person , assur'd me , That he knew a way of Furnaces that was yet fitter to bring heat to the superlative Degree : and that he himself , the Relator , could , by the meer force of Fire in his Furnace , bring Venetian Talk to flow ; which is more , I confess , then ever I have been able to do either in mine , or those of the Glass-house . But Experience hath assured me , 't is easie to make a Furnace give that heat as expeditiously enough , and in other respects very conveniently to Cupel both Gold and Silver , without the least help of Bellows : That also Furnaces may be so ordered , as that the heat may be better regulated , then That in our ordinary ones , I may elswhere shew you cause to believe : And in the meane time I sh●ll only tell you , that I look upon the skill of intending and remitting heat at pleasure , and especially the being able to keep a gentle heat long and equal as a thing of much greater moment , both as to Physick and Philosophy , then Chymists are wont to think ( the powerful effects of constant and temporate heats , being as yet known to few save those that have made tryal of them ) And with Lamp Furnaces , well ordered , divers things may be done in imitation of nature ; some friends of mine having , as several of them assure me , in such Furnaces , brought Hens egges to manifest Animation . That also Furnaces may be so built , as to save much of the Laborants wonted attendance on them , may appeare by the obvious invention of Athanors or Furnaces with Towers , wherein the Fire is for many Hours , ( perhaps for twenty-foure or forty-eight ) supply'd with a competent proportion of Coales , without being able to burne much faster then it should : And that in many cases the labour of Blowing may be well spar'd , and the annoyance of Mineral fumes in great p●rt avoyded , by an easie contrivance , is evident by those Furnaces which are blown by the help of a Pipe , drawing the Air , as they commonly speak , either at the top , as in Glaubers fourth Furnace , or at the bottom , as for want of room upwards , I have sometimes tryed : To which may be added , that the casting of the Matters ●o be prepar'd upon quick Coals , as Glauber prescribes in that which he calls his first Furnace , is in some cases a cheap and expeditious way of preparing some Minerals , though his method of making Spirit of Salt in that Furnace would not succeed , according to his promise with me , and some of my acquaintance . And there are other more commodious Contrivances , by casting some things upon the naked Fire , which invites me to expect , That there will be several good Expedients of employing the Fire to Chymical operations , that are not yet made use of , nor , perhaps , so much as dream'd of . And as Furnaces , so the Vessels that more immed●ately contain the Thing to be prepar'd , are questionless capable of being made more durable , and of being better contriv'd , then commonly they are . Good use may be made of those Earthen Reto●ts , that are commonly call'd Glauber's second Furnaces , in case they be made of Earth that will well endure strong Fires ; and in case there be a better way to keep in the Fumes , then that he proposes of melted Lead , which I h●ve therefore often declin'd for another , as having found it lyable to such inconveniences as I elsewhere declare . But for Materials that are cheap , and to be distill'd in quantity , as Woods , Harts-horn , &c. the way is not to be despis'd , and is , as we may elsewhere have occasion to shew , capable of improvement ; though in many cases this kinde of Vessel is inferior to those tubulated Retorts , that were of old in use , and mentioned by Basilius Valentinus , and from which Glauber probably desum'd that which we have been speaking of . The utility of the way of sealing Glasses hermetically , and of the Invention that now begins to be in request of stopping the Bottles , that contain corrosive and subtle Liquors with Glass-stopples , ground fit to their Necks , instead of Corks , together with some other things , not now to be mention'd , keep me that I scarce doubt but that if we could prevail with the Glass-men and the Potters , to make Vessels of Glass and Earth exactly , according to directions , many things in Chymistry might be done better and cheaper then they now are ; and some things might be then done , that with the forms of Vessels now in use cannot be done at all . And if that be true which we finde related in Pliny , and with some other Circumstances in Dion Cassius , of a more ingenious then fortunate Man , who , about his time , was put to death for having made malleable Glass , as the truth of that Story , if granted , would shew the retriving that Invention , a thing not to be despair'd of : So he that could , now Chymistry is so cultivated , finde again the way of making Glass malleable , would be , in my Opinion , a very great Benefactor to Man-kinde , and would enable the Virtuosi , as well as the Chymists , to make several Experiments , which at present are scarce practicable ; And some Chymists would perhaps think this attempt more hopeful , if I tell them first , that I remember Raymund Lully expresly reckons it among three or four of the principal Vertues he ascribes to the Philosophers Stone , that it makes Glass malleable ; and then , that an expert Chymist seriously affirm'd to me , that he met with an Adeptus , who , among other strange things , shew'd him a piece of Glass , which the Relator found , would endure and yield to the Hammer : But what my own Opinion is concerning this matter , and what are the ( uncommon ) Inducements I have to be of it , I must not here declare . And on this occasion , I remember I have seen an Instrument of Tin , or Pewter , for the drawing of Spirit of Wine ( which you know is one of the chargeablest things that belong to Chymistry ) so contriv'd , that whereas in the ordinary way much time , and many rectifications , are requisite to dephlegm Spirit of Wine ; one distillation in this Vessel will bring it over from Wine it self , so pure and flegmless , as to burn all away . And I remember , that the ancient French Chymist , in whose Laboratory I first saw one of these Instruments , told me , That 't was invented , not by any great Alchymist or Mathematician , but by a needy Parisian Chyrurgion . And now I speak of Spirit of Wine , I shall adde , That as the charges of Chymistry would be very much lessned , if such ardent Spirits could be had in plenty , and cheap ; so I think it not improbable , that in divers places there may be found , by Persons well skil'd in the Nature of Fermentation , other Vegetable Substances far cheaper then Wine , from which an inflammable , and saline Sulphureous Spirit , of the like vertue for dissolving resinous Bodies , drawing Tinctures , &c. may be copiously obtain'd : For not only , 't is known , that Sydar , Perry , and other Juyces of Fruits will afford such a Spirit ; and that most Graine● , not very unctuous , as Barley , Wheat , &c. will do the like ; but other Berries that grow wild , as those of Elder , will yield a Vinous Liquor . And in the Barbada's they make a kind of Wine , even of Roots , ( I mean their Mobby , which they make of Potatos ; as I have also , for curiosity sake , made Bread of the same Roots ) nay , even from some sorts of Leaves , such a Liquor may be obtain'd : For I have observed Roses well fermented , to yield a good Spirit very strongly tasted , as well as inflammable . And as to the Preparing of pure Spirit of Wine it self , I know wayes ( and one of them cheap ) that may exceedingly shorten the time , and pains of dephlegming it ; but that being to be done otherwise , then by any peculiar contrivance of Furnaces or Glasses , I reserve it for a fitter place , in one of the following Essays . And as more expedient and thrifty wayes , then the vulgar ones , of making Chymicall Furnaces and Vessels , may be devis'd ; so 't is to be hoped that a skilful Naturalist may find cheaper waies of heating the Chymists Furnaces , or Distilling in his Vessels ( either by finding combustible Materials , not formerly in use in the places where we work , or by making those already imployed fitter for use ) by bringing them , by some cheap alterations , either to give a greater , or a more durable heat , or to be less offensive by their smoak or smells ; or else by discovering some cheap way of doing , in some cases , without Fire , what was wont to be done by it . We see that in some places , especially here in England , where Char-coale was only burnt in Furnaces , Pit coale is substituted in its room ; and at this Day there are several of those that make Aqua-Fortis , in great quantities , that Distil it with such Coales , which cost nothing neer so much as those made of Wood. And experience hath inform'd me , that even in other sorts of Furnaces , the same Fuel may be imploy'd , provided the Barres of the Grates be set wider asunder , and a little Char-coale be mingled with it for the better kindling ; and since of late Years Pit coale have been found in several places among us , where they were not formerly known to be , it seems not improbable , that many other Countries may afford Chymists , and the rest of their Inhabitants the like advantage , if search were duely made , by boring of the ground , by the observations of the Waters , and the Steames of places suspected , and by other waies of inquiry that a skilful man might direct ; But because the abundant Smoak of Pit-coale , uses to be very offensive , and the smaller Coales easily run through the Grates , and because of other inconveniences , there hath been a way found out of charring these Coales , and thereby reducing them into coherent Masses , of a convenient bigness and shape , and more dry and apt to kindle ; and these though , quantity for quantity , their price be little inferiour to that of Char-coale . Yet those that consume great proportions of Coales , tell me they finde them almost as cheap again , in regard they will not only last much longer , but give ( especially near at hand ) a far more intense heat : And therefore it must be a very useful thing to Chymists , to shew a way of charring Sea-coales , without the help of those Pots , which make them of the price they now beare . And that it is not only possible , but very easy , I could quickly shew you , if it would not prejudice an industrious Laborant , whose profession being to make Chymicall Medicines in quantity , obliges him to keep great and constant Fires , and did put him upon finding a way of charring Sea-coale , wherein it is in about three houres or less , without Pots or Vessels , brought to Char-coale ; of which having , for curiosity sake , made him take out some pieces , and coole them in my presence , I found them upon breaking to appeare well charr'd , and much thereof in shew not unlike a Marchasite . And that which was very convenient in this Contrivance was , that whil'st the Pit coale was charring , it afforded him a very intense heat to melt or calcine the Minerals , he had occasion to expose to it : And he confest to me , that by this Method , he saved three parts in foure of the Charges the keeping such great and constant Fires , with common Char-coale , would cost him . In Holland , likewise , they have a way of charring Peat , ( which is a combustible Turfe , that they dig under Ground ) and a skilful Distiller , that much employ'd it , commends it to me , as a very good Fuel , even for Chymical Fires ; which I therefore mention , because the way of charring Peat , is not yet brought into several Countries , where Peat is dig'd up : And probably , it would be found in divers Regions , where 't is yet unknown , if due search were made for it . To which I may adde , that 't is not unlike , that some Countries may afford such combustible Materials , fit for Chymical Furnaces , as have not , as yet , been so much as nam'd by Mineralist's ; as I remember I have seen , and had , a sort of Coales , some of which look'd like Marchasites , that burn'd clear with a good Flame , and had this convenient quality , for the Chymist's use , that they were not apt , like the common Pit-coales , to stop the Grates with their Sinders , but burnt to whitish Ashes almost like Char-coale made of Wood ; and yet gave so great a heat , that an Industrious Chymist of my acquaintance , who kept many things constantly at work , found it worth while to have them brought him , above a daies journey , on Horses backs . But 't is not impossible , that when Men grow better Naturalist's , they may find waies , of exciting heat , enough for many Chymicall operations , without the help of Fire ; and consequently , without the consumption of Fuel . We find that by the attrition of hard Bodies , considerable degrees of heat may be produc'd , not only , in combustible Materials , as Wood , and the like , ( which would therefore be improper , to be here insisted on ) But in others also , and particularly in Iron and Steel , one may by attrition soon produce a smart heat , as you may quickly try , by nimbly Filing a piece of Iron , with a rough File ; or swiftly rubbing , though but for a few minutes , a thin piece of Steel against a Board . And whether some contrivance may not be found , by the help of cheap Engines mov'd by Water , or otherwise , to produce a durable heat in Iron Vessels , fit to digest in , we may elsewhere have further occasion to consider ; But this is known , that from some succulent Plants , a Liquor may be drawn , only by exposing them in Glasses , purposely contrived to the Beames of the Sun. And there is nothing more common , then for Chymists to make their Digestions by the warmth of Hors-dung , whereby they might also ( as some Analogous tryals incline me to think ) conveniently enough , Distil some fermented Liquors ; especially , if the way were improv'd by the skilful addition of Quick-lime , and seasonable aspersions of Water . And I doubt not but many cheap Materials might , by a few tryals , be found , whereby portable digesting Furnaces , without Fire , ( if I may so call them ) might be made , without the ill smell and nastiness , which discommends the use of Hors-dung . For not only we see , by what happens in the Spontaneous heating of Malt , and some other familiar substances , that probably most sort of Graines , and Berries , fit for Fermentation may be brought to yeeld , for a good while , a heat great enough to putrifie , or digest with : But I have , several Years agoe , by many trials found ; that I could , by invironing Glasses with refuse Hay well press'd down and equally wetted throughout , produce for divers daies such a heate , as made me decline the employing of Hors-dung ; and yet ( which is the chiefe thing for which I mention this ) the quantity of Hay was so small , that in all my trials I found not , that the Hay did of it self , though kept close enough , take Fire ; as else is usuall in Ricks of Hay not sufficiently dried , where the quantity , and consequently the weight , that presses the lowermost parts close together , is considerable . But further , in divers operations , where an actual Fire is requisite , it may be hop'd that Knowing Men , may discover waies of saving much of the Fire , and making Skill perform a great part of the wonted office of heat . To obtain the Spirit of fresh Urine , you must Distil away near nine parts of ten , which will be but Flegm , before the Spirit or Volatile Salt will ( and that scarce , without a pretty strong heat ) regularly rise . And there are several Chymist's that , to this day , make use of no better way of Distiling Urine ; But he that knows , how Putrefaction opens many Bodies , may easily save himself the expence of so much Fire : For if you let Urine stand well stop'd , for eight or ten Weeks , the Saline and Spirituous parts will so extricate themselves , that the Spirits that before staied behind the Flegm , will now , even with the gentlest heat , rise up first , and leave the Flegm behind . And on this occasion I shall teach you , what I do not know to have been mention'd by any Writer ; namely , That even of fresh Urine , without Digestion or Putrefaction , I can , by a very cheap and easie way , make a subtle and penetrant Spirit , ascend , first , even in a gentle heat ; And I am wont to do it only by pouring Urine , how fresh soever , upon Quick-lime , till it swim some Fingers breadth above it , and then distilling it assoon as I please . But I did not find , upon many trials , that this Spirit , though even without Rectification very strong and subtle , would Coagulate Spirit of Wine , like that of putrified and fermented Urine ; though , perhaps , for divers other purposes it may be more powerful . And here I shall advertise You , that whereas I just now took notice , that there was a pretty strong Fire requisite to force up the Salt of unfermented Urine , out of that part , which after the abstraction of the Phlegm , remains of the consistance of Honey ; trial hath inform'd me , That the volatile Salt may out of the thick Liquor be obtain'd , better and more pure , with ease , and with a , scarce credibly , smal heat ; barely , by tempering the Urinous extract with a convenient quantity of good Wood Ashes , whereby ( for a reason elswhere to be consider'd ) the volatile part , of the Salt of Urine , is so free'd from the grosser Substance , that with strange facility it will ascend , fine and white , to the top of very tall Glasses . But of the differing Preparation of Urine , more perhaps elswhere . I now proceed to tell you , that I think it not unlikely , that even Bodies , which are more gross and sluggish , may by the affusion of such Menstruums , as humane Industrie may find out , be far more easily , either , volatiliz'd or unlockt , then common Chymists are wont to think . For I know a Liquor , not very rare among Chymist's , by whose help I have , often enough , distill'd Spirit of Nitre , ( whose distillation requires much about the same violence of Fire , with that of Aqua-Fortis ) even in a moderate he●t of Sand , and without a naked Fire . This Spirit may easily enough be brought over , even in a Head and Body ; and , for a Wager , I could obtain a little of it without any Fire or outward heat at all . And I remember , also , That having once digested a certain Menstruum , for a very short time , upon crude Antimony , and abstracted it , in a very gentle heat , of Sand ; the Liquor , not only , brought over some of the Antimony in the form of red Flowers , swiming in it , and united other parts of the Mineral , with it self , in the transparent Liquor , but the gentle heat raised to the top of the Retort , divers little Masses of a substance , that were very transparent , like Amber , which were inflammable , and smelt , and burnt blew , just like common Sulphur ; And yet the Menstruum , which was easily again recoverable from the Antimony , was no strong Corrosive , tasting , before it was pour'd on , not much unlike good Vinager . But besides all the wayes , above mentioned , of saving the Chymist , either , Time , or Fire , or Labour ; I dispair no● that divers others , yet unthought on , will be in time found out by the Industry of skilful Men , taking notice of the nature of things , and applying them to Chymical uses ; as we see , that by Amalgamations with Mercury , the calcination of Gold , and Silver , may be much easyer perform'd , then by a long violence of Fire . And , ( if it be true , what Helmont , and Paracelsus , tell us of their immortal Liquor Alkahest ) Medicines far nobler , and otherwise more difficult to make , then those hitherto in use among the Chymist's , may be Prepar'd with greater ease , and expedition , and with far less expense of Fire , then the nature of the Mettals , and other Concretes , to be open'd by it , would let a vulgar Chymist suspect . However , I see no great cause to doubt that there may be Menstruum's found that will much facilitate difficult Operations , since not to mention again the Liquor , I lately told you , would work such a change on Nitre ( and , I might have added , on some other compact Bodies ) 't is very like , there may be Menstruum's found , that will not be so spoyl'd by a single Operation , made with them , as our vulgar saline Spirits are wont to be . For I have try'd that a Menstruum , made by the bare distillation of good Verdigrease , will not only draw , as I have formerly told you , a Tincture of Glass of Antimony , or perform some other like Operation for once , but being drawn off from the dissolved body , or the extraction , will again serve , more then once , for the like Operation upon fresh Materials . The fifth , and last way , Pyrophilus , that I intend to mention , of lessening Chymical expenses ; is , That the Naturalists may probably find out wayes of preserving some Chymical Medicins , either longer or better , then those wayes that are usual . But of this preservation of Bodies , being like , as I formerly intimated , to have elsewhere further occasion to Treat ; I shall now only say , That the purified Juyces , liquid Extracts , Robs , and other soft Medicaments , made of Plants , may be Conserv'd far cheaper , aswel as better , then with Sugar ( which clogs most Mens Stomacks , and otherwise disagrees with many Constitutions ) in case Helmont say true , where he tells us , That for a small piece of Money , he can , for I know not how long , preserve whole Barrels of Liquor . And a way he intimates , of fuming liquors with Sulphur , I have allready told you , is a very good way of keeping them uncorrupted ; provided , that ( though he prescribes it not ) they be six or seven several times ( seldomer or oftner , according to the quantity or nature of the Liquor ) well impregnated with that embalming Smoak ; to which purpose it is convenient to have two Vessels , to poure from one to the other , that whil'st the Liquor is shaking in the one , the other may be well fill'd with Smoak ; whereto I shall only subjoyn this secret , which a friend of mine , practises in preserving the fumigated Juyces of Herbs ( as , I elswhere inform you , I do to preserve other things ) with ● success that I have somewhat wondred at ; which consist's , in adding to the thick Liquor , to be preserved , a due , but small , proportion of the white Coagulum , ( which I often elswhere mention ) made of the pure Spirits of Wine and Urine . But I have made this excursion too prolix , and therefore I shall only adde as a general admonition , that we are not , by the common practice of Vulgar Chymist's , to estimate what Knowing Naturalist's , skill'd in Mechanical contrivances , may be able in time to do , towards the making of Chymical Remedies , as well more cheap as more effectual ; and , indeed , to make them more effectual , is the best way to make them more cheap . For , Pyrophilus , after all the wayes , that I have mention'd , whereby the charges , of the Therapeutical part of Physick , may be lessned ; I must advertise you , both , That I make no doubt but there may be divers others found , which either through want of skill or leasure I have pretermitted , and that I have not yet named the principal of all ; which is , That the deep insight into Natural Philosophy may qualifie him that hath it by several wayes , and especially by discovering the true Causes and Seats of Diseases , to find out such generous and effectual Remedies , ( whether Specificks , or more Unive●sal Arcana ) as by quickly freeing the Patient from his Disease , may exempt him from needing , either , much Physick from the Apothecary , or many chargeable visites from the Doctor of Chirurgeon . Thus the rich Merchant I mention'd in one of the former Essayes to have been freed , by a Specifick , from the Gout ; and the young Lady , cur'd of her Fistulas , by the infusion of Millepedes ; might well , in the ordinary way , have spent , even supposing them thrifty , a hundred times more , upon Physitians and Physick , then the potent and nimble Rem●dies , whereby they were so happily recovered , cost them . [ To which I shall adde , by way of Confirmation , both of this and of what I lately told you ; concerning the Efficacy that may be , even , in slightly Prepared Simples ; what I came to learn , since the writing of the former part of this Essay , namely , that a young Lady , who ( though of great Birth , is yet of far greater Beauty and vertue , whom I presume I need not name to you ) having been long troubled with an almost hereditary Epileptical Distemper , and after having been wearied by courses of Physick prescrib'd her , by the famousest Doctors that could be procur'd , without at all mending , but rather growing worse , so that sometimes She would have , in one day , eight or ten of such dismal Fits , as You and I have seen her in ; was cur'd onely by the Powder of true Misseltoe of the Oake ; given as much as would lie upon a Sixpence , early in the morning , in black Cherry Water , or even in Beere , for some days near the full Moon . And I am assur'd , partly , by the Patient her self , and , partly , by those that gave her the Medicine , That though it had scarce any other sensible Operation upon her , and did not make her sickish , especially , when she slept upon it ; Yet , after the first day she took it , she never had but one Fit. And this Remedy , an ancient Gentleman , who , being casually present when she suddenly fell down as dead , gave it her , profess'd himself to have constantly cur'd that Disease with it , when he could procure the right Simple , which is here exceeding scarce . And what further Experiment some Friends of Yours have succesfully made , of its Vertue , I may elswhere have occasion to relate . ] To which I shall only adde , That one of the Skilfullest Methodist's I ever knew , having had much adoe to preserve a young Cousin of Yours from a very dangerous Cough , by a long course of Physick ; the party , at the beginning of the next Winter , falling into a Relapse more threatning then the first Disease , was rescued from it in two or three days , by not many more takings of a Specifick sent her , made of nothing else but Harts-horn prepar'd as I lately taught You. And if such slight Medicines , consisting , each of them , but of a single Simple , not elaborately prepar'd , may sometimes ( for I say not alwaies ) perform such speedy cures even in Chronical Di●tempers , what may not be hoped from the Arcana m●jora ( such as Paracelss's Laudanum , so praised by Operinus himself ; and Butlers Driff , so extold by Helmont ) when the skilfullest Preparations , of the noblest Simples , shall come to be known by Learned and Judicious Men , intelligent in the Theory of Physick , and especially vers'd in the History of Diseases ? And though Riverius were none of the greatest Naturalists , or , at least , Chymists , Yet if in his Observation , and elswhere , he flatter not his own Febrifugum ; how many Patients did that one Specifick , rescue from Quartanes , that would else probably have prov'd as Chargeable as Tedious ? But , Pyrophilus , having sayed so much , that I fear you have thought it tedions , to shew that a Naturalist , skill'd in Chymistry and the Mechanicks , may assist the Physitian to make his cures less Chargeable ; 't is high time , that after so long an excursion , I proceed to consider in what other particulars he may be a benefactor to the Physitians Art. CHAP. VIII . FIftly , then , that the Naturalists skill may improve the Pharmaceutical Preparations of Simples , by several wayes partly touch'd already , and partly to be , either , added or further treated of ; the great variety of new Remedies , wherewith the Laboratories of Chymists have furnished the shops of Apothecaries , may convinceingly inform you . To which I must take the liberty to adde ( and that upon serious Consideration ) That the Chymical Preparations , hitherto common in Dispensatories , are , as to the Generali●y of them , far enough from being the most Dextrous , or Noble , that can be devis'd : For our Vulgar Chymistry ( to which our Shops owe their venal Spagyrical Remedies ) is as yet very incompleat , affording us rather a Collection , of loose and scatter'd ( and many of them but casual ) Experiments , then an Art duely superstructed upon Principles and Notions , emergent from severe and competent Inductions , as we have elswhere endeavoured , more particularly , to manifest . And therefore till the Principles of Chymistry be better known , and more solidly establish'd , we must expect no other , then that very few vulgar Chymical Remedies should be of the Noblest sort ; and that in the Preparation of many others , considerable errours should be wont to pass unheeded ; and faults , gross enough , be apt to be mistakenly committed . But , of this Subject , we may elswhere have divers occasions to entertaine You ; and our single Essay , of the ●●●mical Distinctions of Salts , will perhaps discover to You no small mistakes , in the Preparation of divers applauded Vulgar Medicines . For it is not the Elaborateness , but the Skilfulness of Preparations , that produceth the Noble Remedies , and a few Teeming Principles well known and apply'd , will enable a man with ease to make better Remedies , then a great many Furnaces and Glasses , though never so well contriv'd , and though very useful in their kind . To make out this in some measure , I shall name some such Instances , as may withall confirm what I formerly deliver'd in this Essay , touching the possibility and usefulness of Correcting either poisonous , or otherwise very noxious Simples . I never knew Opium so much Corrected by Saffron , Cinnamom , and other Aromatical and Cordial Drugs ( wherewith 't is wont to be made up into Laudanum ) nor by the most tedious tortures of Vulcan , as I have known it by being a while Digested in Wine , impregnated with nothing but the weight of the Opium of pure Salt of Tartar ; as we elswhere more fully de●lare . ( a much nobler Laudanum may be made by adding to the Opium , insteed of the Salt , two or three appropriated Simples , and by due Fermentations and Digestions of them with it ) And for that violent Vomiting Medicine , by Chymists flatteringly enough , call'd Mercurius Vitae ; a whole Pound of Cordial Con●erves , or Liquors , will not so well moderate its evacuating force , as the keeping it continually stirring in a fl●ttish and well glaz'd earthen Vessel , placed over a Ch●fingdish of Coales till it emit no more fumes , but grow of a grayish Colour : which I am very credibly informed to be the Preparation of Merc-Vitae purgans , often mention'd and commended by the famous Practitioner Riverius , in his Observations . A not unlike , but far more sudden , Correction of tha●●●tive Powder , I elswhere teach . And as for those Operative Minerals , Quicksilver and Antimony , though long Experience of their churlish and untractable N●ture have made many , of the waryer Physitians and Chymists shy to meddle with either of them single : Yet these Concretes , which seem so Incorrigible , may , by being barely ( in the gradual Distillation , of Butter of Antimony ) sublim'd up together into a Cinnaber , and then that Cinnaber six or seven times resublim'd per se , be united into a Medicine , that not only is not wont to work , either upwards or downwards , but of which I have known safely taken , even in substance , to the Dose of many Grains ; and a few Drachmes , of which , infus'd in a Pound or two of Wine , hath made it of that inoffensive Efficacy ( taken , in the quantity of a Spoonful or two , daily upon an empty stomach ) That , if it still succeed aswell as we have observ'd it two or three times to do , we may think that our having thus acquainted You with the Vertue of this one unlikely Remedie , ( though we have also met with it , even , in P●inted Books ) may make you amends for all the rest of this ted●ous Discourse . I once knew a slight ( but altogether new and tedious , aswell as Philosophical ) Preparation , of Salt of Tartar Correct and Tame such Poisons , as ten times the quantity of the highest Vulgar Antidotes , or Cordials , would ( I was confident ) scarce have so much as weakned : And I have known by the same Prepar'd Salt , dextrously Specificated by Simples , the Vertues of some Vegetables so exalted , That , without any Cathartique or Emetique Operation , they have ( if many Patients , of whom I had casual opportunities to enquire of the Effects of those Remedies upon them , do not mis-inform me ) prov'd more effectual in Tameing divers stubborn Diseases , then Crocus Metallorū , Mercurius Vitae , ( as 't is abusively call'd ) and those other dangerous Remedies ; which make the Vulgar wont to say of Chymists , that they quickly either cure their Patients or kill them . And to let You see , Pyrophilus , by one plain , and yet noble , instance ; That the knowledge of the Specifick Qualities of Things , skilfully applied to Preparations , may perform , with ease , what neither costly Materials , nor elaborate Processes are able to effect ; Give me leave to inform You ; That , whereas , Chymists and Physitians have not been able by infusing the true Glass of Antimony ( made per se ) in Spirit of Wine , or the richest Cordial Liquo●s ; nor yet by torturing it after several tedious and artificial manners , to deprive it of its Emetique quality , That Vomitive faculty , of Antimonial Glass , may be Corrected by so slight a way , as that of Digesting it with pure Spirit of Vinegar , till the Menstruum be highly ting'd . For if you gently abstract all the Liquor , and on the remaining yellow or red Powder , you Digest well dephlegmated Spirit of Wine ; You may after a while obtain a Noble and not Emetique Tincture : Of which though Basilius Valentinus prescribes but five or six Drops for a Dose , yet a Domestick of mine having , out of curiosity , taken to the quantity of thirty Drops at a Time , he found it not at all Vomitive . And this Tincture we the rather mention , Because , not only , Basilius Valentinus , but other skilful Persons , highly extol it for several Diseases . And let me adde , Pyrophilus , ( and be pleas'd to mark well what I tell you ) That by bare reiterated Digestions , and Fermentations , there may be Prepar'd , out of many Vegetables , Saline and Sulphureous Essences ( whose Bulk is exceeding small , in proportion to the Concrets whence they are Extracted ) which will keep many Years , as I can shew you some above three Years old , and contain more of the Crasis ( if I may so call it ) of the Simple , then the vulgar Vegetable Waters , Spirits , Extracts or Salts , hitherto extant in Laboratories and Shops . But there is so great a length of Time required , to the Prepar●tion of these Efficacious Juyces , That my ambulatory condition of Life , hath not allowed me to furnish my self with many of them . And , Pyrophilus , if You will not dis-believe a Person for whom You have so just an esteem , as You have for that Ingenious , and Experienc'd , Monsieur L. F. who was the French Kings Chymist , when You knew him at Paris ; I can , present You with a yet Nobler instance , to perswade You ; That , if skill be not wanting , a single Herb , without any violence of Fire , may , by other wayes then are in use among Chymists , be easily enough brought to afford Medicines , endow'd with some Nobler Vertues , then any of the most compounded , costly , and elaborate Medicines , whether Minerals or others , that are to be met with among Vulgar Chymists . This Efficacious part of the Plant , whence 't is obtain'd , Paracelsus call's the Primum Ens of the Plant that yeilds it ; But though , indeed , I have found the way of Preparing it much plainer , and better deliver'd , then is usual in his Writings , at the end of his Book De Renovatione & Restauratione ; Yet I freely acknowledge , That , I should scarce have thought it worth the Trial , if it had not been for what the Experienc'd Chymist , above mention'd , affirmed to me , upon his own Observations , concerning it , partly , because I am not wont to be forward so much as to try long Processes upon Paracelsus's credit , and partly , because what he call's Sal Solutum seem'd to me somewhat ambiguous ; since , in the same Page teaching to draw the Ens Primum of Gold and Antimony , he makes not use of Sea-salt , but of ( a Salt of an incomparably higher Nature ) his Sal Circulatum ; and in the Processe immediatly preceeding ours , to make the Ens Primum of Emeralds , he Prescribes the Calcining them in Sale Soluto , which agrees far better with his Sal Circulatum then with any Solution of Sea salt , which seems very unlikely to be able to Calcine and , as he sayes it must , dissolve Emeralds . But the way , that our French Chymist told me he us'd , was in substance this : Gather , in a convenient season and time of Day , Baulm for instance , or some other fit Herb , ( for experience hath taught , both him and me , that all Herbs are not fit , by this way , to be reduc'd into Liquors ) and having beaten it well , in a marble Morter , to a soft mash , plac'd in a Bolt-head hermetically seal'd , to Digest forty dayes in a Dunghill or some analogous heat ; then , opening the Vessel , take out the Matter , which will be far more Liquid then before , from which , having separated the grosser parts , You must Digest it in a gentle Bath , that the yet remaining grosser parts may subside ; to which , being filtrated . You must , according to him , ( for I find not that Paracelsus requires it ) joyn the fixed Salt , of the grosser parts above mention'd , dry'd and calcin'd . To this , Prepar'd Liquor , You must adde equal parts of the Liquor of good Sea-salt well purifi'd , and then melted , and suffered to run Per Deliquium : This Liquor , being also seal'd up in a convenient Glass , must be expos'd to the Sun for about six Weeks ; at the end of which time there will swim at the top of it , the Primum Ens of the Plant in a Liquid form , transparent , and either green or red , or , perhaps , of some other Colour according to the Nature of the Plant. And though Paracelsus prescribes but Celandine , and Baulm , to be us'd , Yet having enqu●r'd of our Chymist , he told me , he had made such Prima Entia of Scrophularia , and , as I remember , of one or two other Herbs . But that which makes me thus , particularly , take notice of these kind of Medicines , is , That not only Paracelsus ascribes to the Primum Ens of Baulm , ( or Celandine ) the power of renovating them that use so much of it in good Wine as will give it a Tincture , early every Morning ; till , first of all , the Nailes of their Fingers , then those of their Toes , afterwards their Hair , and Teeth , fall off , and , lastly , the Skin be dri'd and exchang'd for a new one : But Your ingenious acquaintance assured me several times , and once , in the presence of a famous Physitian , and another Virtuoso , to whom he appeal'd , as knowing the truth of what he sayed ; That an intimate Friend of his , whom he n●med to me , having , after the above mentioned manner , Prepared the Primum Ens of Baulm , to satisfie himself the better of its effects , made the Trial upon himself , and took of it , according to the Prescription , for about a Fortnight ; Long before which his Nailes , both of Hands and Feet , began to loosen themselves from the Skin , ( but without any pain ) which at length falling off , of their own accord , this Gentleman keeps yet by him in a Box for a rarity , but would not pursue the Trial any further , being satisfied with what he had found , and being in no need of such Physick ; But having given of the same Medicated Wine , for ten or twelve Dayes , to a Woman that serv'd in his house , and was neer seventy years of Age , without letting her know , what he expected it should do , Her Purgationes Menstruae came upon her again in a sufficiently great quantity , to fright her so much , that he durst prosecute the Experiment no further . And when I ask'd , why he made no triall upon Beasts ? It was answer'd , that though he had but little of the Medicine , yet he put apart an old Hen , and moistning her food with some drops of it for a Week , about the sixth day she began to moult her Feathers by degrees , till she became stark naked ; but before a fortnight was past , she began to regain others , which when they were come to their full growth , appear'd fairer , and better colour'd then the first ; And he added , That besides that , her crest was rais'd , she also laid more Egges , then she was wont . And as to the Primum Ens of the greater Scrophularia , by the relater himself , though he ascrib'd not to it any renovating power , as to that of Balm or Celandine , yet he assured me , he had found it enobled , by other great and extraordinary Vertues . But of this kind of Preparation , I might ere now , possibly , have been able to give You a better account , if in my trials about them , I had not met with some unhappy accidents , which I hope my next attempts will escape : which if they do , I may possibly , with an account of them , send You one of some attempts to prepare the like Medicines another and shorter way , together with a consideration , whether Paracelsus and others deservedly call such accidents as the abovemention'd change of Nailes Hair , and even of Teeth a reall renovation or rejuvenessence . ] 'T is likewise a way of preparation , differing enough from those that are common among Chymists , which Helmont ( as he saies out of commiseration to the sick ) delivers , where he teaches that which he calls the Via Media of making the Elixir Proprietatis , of which he gives us this commendation : Hoc medicamine tam Quartanam , quam continuam statim absolvi . Adeò ut qui noctu susceperat sacresanctum viaticum , & olei extremam unctionem , me in prandio convivam circa lectum habuerit . And though many think , that he has rather fraudulently , then rightly set the process down ; yet experience has invited me to absolve him in this particular . ( Though I must tell You , that because a Languid heat is not sufficient to make a Spirituous liquor ascend and circulate as he requires ; 't is not every Chymist , that will , especially in his first trials , avoid the breaking of the Glasses , or at least the burning of the materialls , to which accidents this preparation is very obnoxious , if it be not as well watchfully as skilfully made . ) And though for my part , I have scarce us'd this Elixer but as a Cordial ; yet I know some very expert Physitians , that have given it with great successe in divers difficult cases , and particularly a Friend of the younger Helmonts gives it so succesfully , that partly his Patients , and partly others that have try'd it , have sometimes taken of him , at a great rate , whole Pounds in a Year or too ; and yet I know by his own confession , that , besides the skill he emploies in making it dexterously , he adds nothing but one Ingredient , to which I confess , I am not apt to ascribe any considerable part of the efficacy of the Medicin● ; which , when made , he sometimes perfumes by cohobations with Musk , and Amber . And Pyrophilus , that you may not wonder , that I , who think much of Helmonts Theory scarce intelligible , and take great exceptions at many things in his writings , should yet now and then commend Medicines upon his Authority , I must here confesse to you once for all , that ( alwaies excepting his extravagant piece , De magnetica vulnerum curatione , ) I have not seen cause to disregard many things he delivers , as matters of fact , provided they be rightly understood ; having not found him forward to praise Remedies without cause , though he seem to do it sometimes without measure , and having more then once , either known , or even had , considerable effects of Medicines he commends , which one of the happiest Practitioners I have met with , and one not lavish in extolling Chymicall Remedies has solemly assur'd me , he has generally , though not alwaies , found more then ordinarily effectual . And upon occasion of this odde preparation of the Elixir Proprietatis , I shall adde that , Since Experience shewes us , by what is daily done in Chymicall Laboratories , that upon the operation of the fire upon several Concretes , substances of Nature oftentimes very differing both from the body that afforded them , and from one another , may be obtain'd ; as the Oyles , and fixt Salts , even of cold Plants or Hot : Since also , by the mixture of active Bodies new Concretes , endow'd with new qualities , may be produced ; as we see that Saccharum Saturni emergeth from the conjunction of Lead , with the Acid Salt , distill'd Vinegar ; and Since too the same Concrete , according to the differing manners , after which 't is handled , may acquire differing Qualities , as is clear in the various Medicines , afforded us by Quicksilver , and by Antimony , according as each of them is order'd ; I cannot but think , that if Chymistry did no more then assist us , by the resolution of bodies , to extricate their more active parts , and , partly by such resolutions , and partly by associating bodies together , to alter the former texture of Natures Productions , or present us with new Concretes of new Textures ; by this very means , if men want not Curiosity , and Industry to vary and prosecute experiments , there must necessarily arise such a store of new and active Medicines , that in all probability , many of them will be found endow'd with such Vertues , as have not been , at least in that degree , met with in the usuall Medicines , whether simple or compound , to be bought in Apothecary shops ; and consequently , even without any notable discovery , or improvement of Principles , Chymists , ( even as matters now stand with them ) may considerably adde to the Pharmaceutical part of Physick . But if the Operations of Chymistry were seriously enquir'd into , and throughly understood , I make little doubt , but by a skilfull application of them , and especially by a series of them , in a rationall and orderly way , succeeding one another , there may be found out a great many preparations of Remedies , both very differing from the common ones , and far more noble then they . And to make this seem probable , I need but repeat some of the examples formerly mention'd ; To which I shall adde now , that Experience has inform'd me there is a way , whereby firmer consistent substances , belonging to the bodies of Animals , may without the addition of any extraneous matter , and without any violence of heat , be reduced almost totally into Liquor , and if I much misremember not , these Liquors without any violence of heat , afford their Spirituous and Saline parts , in a very gentle heat , and that before their Flegme . And I must peculiarly inculcate this , That if we had but a few potent Menstruums , to dissolve and unlock bodies with , I scarce know what might not be done in Chymistry . But when I speak of noble Menstruums , I mean not such as work like the generality of Corrosives , and the like Acid or Saline Liquors , which work but upon few kinds of bodies , and soon coagulate , or exantlate themselves by working , and thereby become unfit for future operations ; but I mean such as either are separable with all their efficacy from the dissolv'd Body ; as is said of the Alkahest , or such Saline or other piercing Liquors , as not being precisely either Acid , Urinous , or Alcalizate can resolve a great variety of Concretes , without haveing their Vertue , I say not impair'd , but destroy'd thereby ; and unlock Minerall bodies , far more then vulgar Menstruums , ( as for instance by volatilizing them , or else making them irreducible , or working the like grand changes in them : ) and if it be not quite separated from the dissolved Body , is yet so friendly to Humane Nature , as to be free from either fretting , or other such dangerous and offensive Qualities , and rather to be of it self a powerfull Medicine . I should therefore exhort both You , and such other ingenious persons , as wish the advancement of Chymistry , and Physick , ( I might possibly adde Natural Philosophy too ) to apply their Chymical attempts , chiefly to the finding out of Noble Menstruums , for by being possessor but of one of these , a Man may be able to doe a great number of things , that otherwise are not to be performed ; As one of our ordinary Goldsmiths , by the bare knowledg he hath of Aqua-fortis , can make many useful Experiments , about Silver , and Gold , that before that Menstruum was found out , all the Men of his profession in the World , were never able in many ages to compass . Nor do I much wonder at that advise , which Helmont gives those that aime at the improvement of Physick , in these Words : Quod si ad istud ignis arcanum non pertingatis ( he was speaking of a prodigious , not to say incredible Liquor ) discite saltem , salem Tartari reddere volatilem , ut hujus medio vestras solutiones perficiatis . Qui etsi sua soluta , anaticè homogenea deserat , digestus in nobis : illorum tamen aliquot vires mutuatus est , quos intra defert , plurimorum morborum do●itrices . For concerning this Salt , he not only elsewhere saies : Dicam saltem pro ingenuis , quod Spiritus Salis Tartari , si unicornu , argentum , hydrargyrum , lapides cancrorum , vel aliquod è simplicibus dissolverit , nedum febrim , sed & plures affatim morbos sanet , &c. But in another place he gives us , together with some account of its way of working , this great and comprehensive commendation of it . Mirum sanè , saies he , quantum sal Tartari , vel unicum , volatile factum , non praestiterit : Nam omnem è venis amurcam detergit & obstruentium contumaciam , dispergitque apostematum suscepta conciliabula . De hoc salis ( & non olei ) spiritu , verum est illud Paracelsi , quod quocunque non attigerit vixalius potentior perveniet . These passages I should not think worth transcribing and laying together , but that I find that besides the concurrent Testimonies of Helmont , Paracelsus , and Basilius in prase of this Salt , the generality of the more inquisitive Chymists , without excepting the more sober and judicious , do , by the various and painfull , though fruitlesse , attempts they have made to Volatilize Salt of Tartar , conspire in acknowledging it a thing highly worth labouring for ; nor do I for my part see ( whatever some say to the contrary , and however I have indeed found it more difficult , then perhaps a Novice in Chymistry would think ) it should be impossible , for I have more then once with ease enough , made Gold it self volatile , though it be confessed to be the fixest body in the World , and consequently more fixt then Salt of Tartar , which in an open Vessel , may be in time made to flie away by a vehement fire ; And I have likewise by an unusual Method , that I have elswhere deliver'd , more then once obtain'd from a mixture of crude Tartar , and two or three Mineral bodies good store of true Volatile Salt , which I could see no just cause not to think afforded by the Tartar. But I consesse this may be rather a volatile Salt of Tartar , then Salt ( that is Alcali ) of Tartar made volatile , and therefore the principal thing I mention it for , is to shew you , that Tartar it self , by an unusual way of management , may be b●ought to afford an unusuall kind of Salt. But this I can tell You , that an ingenious acquaintance of mine , whom notwithstanding my wonted distrusts of Chymists , I durst credit , affirm'd to me , that he had himself seen a true and real Sal Tartari volatile made of Alcali of Tartar , and had seen strange things done with it , insomuch that he believ'd most of the things , that Helmont delivers of it . For my part I am inclin'd to think , that Salt of Tartar may be made volatile , ( whether in the form of a Sublimate or a Liquor ) by more wayes then one , though not all of them neer equally good : and whereas one of the best ( if not the very best ) of the wayes of volatilizing it , seems to do it principally with Spirit of Wine , and the great difficulty of that way consists in bringing this Spirit to associate with the salt : I have seen Salt of Tartar of my own , brought to that passe , which great Virtousi have long in vain attempted to bring it unto , namely , to flow readily upon a red hot Iron , and also to take fire , and burn with a conspicuous flame , besides that when it had been dry'd by a smart fire to drive away any parts that did not firmly adhere to it , it would yet readily dissolve in high rectify'd Spirit of Wine , which you know Salt of Tartar will not otherwise do ; not to mention the change of its Alcalizate taste , and other lesser alterations ; but what I can further say of this matter , I must not declare in this place . And Pyro . That You may not be as many other Virtousi , discourag'd from labouring for noble Menstruums , by the confident perswasion of many , who believe Angelus Sala & Guntherus Billychius ( whom I deny not to have been Learned Men , but do not take to have been great M●sters of Chymicall Arcana ) fit to determine with Autho●ity , what can , and what cannot be done by Chymistry , least I say You should be , by such mens inconsiderate severitie , brought to despair of ever seeing any noble Menstruum , that is not sharpe to the taste , nor of any of the three peculiar kinds of Saline Liquor . ( Acid as Aquafortis Urinous , as the Spirits of Blood , Urine , and other Animal substances , nor Alcalizate , as Oyle of Tartar Per deliquium ) I shall assure you , that to my own knowledg there is in the World a kind of Menstruum , that consists of a pure Chryst●lline substance , that is made by the fire , and as truely Saline as Salt of Tartar it self , which strange Salt , though well purified , and readily dissoluble , as well in dephlegmed Spirit of Wine , as common Water , and though it be totably volatile ( whence you may guesse of how Saline a nature it is ) and also be either way reducible to a noble Menstruum , does really tast sweet ; I mean not in the Chymical sense , by want of sowerness ( as when they say that the Calces of corroded and precipitated things are dulcify'd by frequent ablutions ) but by a positive sweetnesse . And whereas the vulgar Saline Menstruums , ( which alone seem to have been known to Sala and Billychius ) are so specificated , if I may so express it , that what an Acid Menstruum dissolves , an Alcalizate , or an Urinous will precipitate , & è converso ; And whichsoever you choose of these three sorts of Menstruums , one of the other two will disarm , and destroy it . I found by tr●al , not only that a Red Tincture of Glass of Antimony , being drawn with a Menstruum that was but a degree to this Liquor , I could not precipitate it like our common Tinctures , either with Spirit of Urine , or an Alcalizate Solution . But that ( which is for more considerable ) though it would readily mix with Acid Spirits , as Oyle of Vitriol , with Volatile and Urinous Spirits , as Spirits of Urine it self , and with Alkalizate Solutions ; yet would neither of these three make any Ebullition at all with it , or seem to work at all upon it . But of such Matters no more at present . ] CHAP. IX . YOu will perhaps expect , Pyrophilus , that , Treating of the advantages that may accrew to the Therapeutical part of Physick , from a more accurate knowledg of Natural Philosophy ; I should tell you with the Chymists , that Chymistry it self , and much more Physiology in its full extent , is not only capable of improving the Pharmaceutical part or Preparation of Remedies ; ( for , that we have confessed already ) but also of affording us a new and much better Methodus medendi , or skill of using the Helps , that Nature or Art hath provided against Diseases . And indeed the Physitians Art is so difficult , and a man must know so many things to be , though not tolerably , yet perfectly skilld in it , that it may without disparagement to Physitians , be thought yet capable of being improved , if not of being reformed . Hippocrates begins his Aphorismes with a complaint , that Life is short , but the Art long . And Paracelsus himself , though he say after his boasting manner , Ars est longa , vita brevis , ubi autem donum finis ( as he speaks ) est , ibi ars est brevis , vita verum longa si arti conferatur : Yet expounding the same words a little above , he saith , Itaque Hippocrates meritò de eo conqueritur : nam & asseclis ipsius idem accidit : Ars medica consistit in Philosophia , Astronomia , Alchymia & Physica , meritò igitur dici potest Artem esse longam . Multum enim requiritur temporis , ad quatuor has Columnas Medicinae disscendas & perscrutandas . Celsus , who hath been stiled Hippocrates Latinorum doth more then once call Physick a Conjectural Art , as particularly in that place where he saith , Est enim haec ars conjecturalis , neque respondet ei plerumque non solum conjectura sed etiam Experientia . And well might these great men acknowledg their Art to be difficult , since the two Instruments ( as Galen calls them ) of finding Arts , being Judgment and Experience , Hippocrates gives this Character of them ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And that Experience may be uncertaine without the Theory of Physick , he that so much builds upon Experiments , Paracelsus himself seems to confess where expounding those words of Hippocrates , he saith , Hoc modo se habuit : Medicina in Principio , ut nullam Theoriam habuerit , sed solum Experientiam hoc laxare , hoc constipare , quomodo autem & cur , id ignoratum fuit : ideo unus salvatus est , alter perditus , nunc autem , &c. And concerning the Critical part of Physick ( to allude to Hippocrates his expression ) Galen who exercised his reason so much about it tells us , that Per rationem judicium haud quaquam facile existit , sed , si quid aliud , maximam habet difficultatem . And to confirm the difficulty of finding the best way of employing reason to the cure of Diseases , not only by the Authority of Galen , but his Arguments ; Let me inform you , that after having told us how difficult a thing , and how rarely to be found is that reason , which considers , and determines what on every occasion is to be done , Neque enim ( addes he ) si veritas esset inventu facilis , tot ac tanti viri in ea quaerenda occupati , in tam contrarias sectas fuissent unquam dispertiti . And Paracelsus , whatever he often elsewhere boastingly affirmeth of himself , yet handsomely enough both expresseth and confesseth the difficulty of being a good Physician , in one of his Prefaces to the Students of Physick , where he saies , Non Titulus , non Eloquentia , non Linguarum peritia , nec multorum Librorum lectio ( & si hac non parum exornant ) in Medico consideranda , sed summa rerum ac Mysteriorum cognitio , quae una facile aliorum omnium vices agit . Rhetoris quidem est diserte posse loqui ac persuadere atque judicem in suam sententiam trahere . Medici autem affectuum genera , causas ac 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 novisse , & iis insuper sagacitate ac industriâ Pharmaca applicare , atque pro cujuslibet ingenio ac ratione vel cunctis mederi : But though , Pyrophilus , after the acknowledgments made by such great men of the almost insuperable difficulty of their Art , you would perhaps think it no great presumption , if a man should attempt to innovate in any part of it , and consequently even in the Methodus medendi : Yet Pyrophilus , I am much too young , too unlearned , and to unexperienced , to dare to be dogmaticall in a matter of so great moment . And the Physitians are a sort of men , to whose Learned Writings on almost all subjects , the Commonwealth of Learning is so much beholden , that I would not willingly dissent from them , about those notions in their own profession , wherein they seem generally to agree ; And do very much disapprove the indiscreet practise of our common Chymists and Helmontians , that bitterly and indiscriminately raile at the Methodists instead of candidly acquiescing in those manifest Truths , their Observations have enricht us with , and civilly , and modestly shewing them their Errors where they have been mistaken . And yet , Pyrophilus , Since divers of the eminentest Methodists themselves have more then once ingeniously acknowledged to me , and seriously deplored with me , the incompleatnesse of their Art , ( which perhaps made ( that Learned Prince ) the Late King tell them , that they were at best but good guessers ) and since about divers particular dise●s●● we have observed , the Method of some of the most reputed Doctors in England ( which yet , I think , is at this day as well stored with Learned Men of that profession , as any part of Europe ) not only very differing , but repugnant to each other ; I suppose we may without disrespect to their profession , dissent from the most of them about those cases , about which they are reduced to disagree so much among themselves . And it would be worth an impartial disquisition , whether , since the Methodus medendi ought to be grounded on and accommodated to the Doctrine of Diseases , the new Anatomical discoveries formerly mention'd , and others not yet publish'd do not by innovating divers things in Pathology , require some alterations & amendments in the Methodus Medendi ? But in this particular , I dare yet affirme nothing , and therefore shall proceed to observe to you , that the unusual efficacies of new remedies , may probably make the Method of curing more compendious , because ( as I lately also intimated ) one Medicine may be so richly Qualified , as to answer several intentions , which in the common way , require diversity of Helps and Remedies . Thus , for instance in the Cure of the Kings-Evil , by the received Method , the Physitian must propose to himself several scopes ( suited to several indications ) and prosecute them successively with distinct and appropriated Remedies . But I have ( as I formerly also told you to another purpose ) known a single Specifique Simple , given only in small Beer , in not very many daies , without any sensible Evacuation , wast the peccant humor , appease the pains ( which before were very great ) and discusse the unbroken Tumours , and heal the broken ones . Thus , according to the known Method , the great Remedy in Plurisies is copious Blood-letting , which is strictly prescribed even to Aged persons and teeming Women , by the famousest of our Practitioners , and , I confess , not irrationally , where the Physician is furnisht but with vulgar Remedies : and yet by some Helmontian Medicines , we have known Plurisies cured even in young men , without Phlebotomy , and our selves some while since made a succesful trial of that Nature in a young Gentleman not unknown to you , which I mention not , with Helmont , to reject or so much as to disparage Phlebotomy in this disease ( for so it be moderate and seasonable Experience shewes it frequently proves useful ) nor as if we had observed all Helmonts boasted Remedies ( though for the most part good ones ) to be constantly succesful ; but to give you an instance of the truth , of what I was saying before , That new and more generous Remedies may so far alter the received Methodus Medendi , as to make divers of its prescriptions unnecessary . Of this truth , Pyrophilus , another instance might be afforded us by the Rickets , a new and abstruse Disease , at least as is supposed , and sometimes so stubborn , that one of the famousest Physicians in Europe , ( whom I think I need not name ) hath not been able of late to cure it in several of his own Children . And yet I suppose you may have heard that Excellent Person your Mother , several times mention her having performed divers cures ( some of them improbable enough ) of this Disease , barely by that slight preparation of Colcothar , lately taught you , and presented Her by us ; And by which ( we having made and distributed , at Her desire , a considerable quantity of it ) several other Persons have freed Children from that disfiguring Sickness : Of which , but few Moneths since , your little Cousin D. being sick almost past hope , vvas a while since brought out of danger , by Gods blessing upon some of the same Remedy , wherewith we presented her Mother , together with our perswasions to try it on her own Child , as she had successfully done on the Children of divers others . And yet this Remedie ( to adde that upon the By , in favour of something to be said anon ) works almost insensibly , save that in many bodies it is , especially at first , diaphoretique . And this property of ●●at Remedie minds me to adde , that it would not be amiss for Physitians , to consider whether or no ( However , Bleeding , Purging , Vomiting , Issues , Glisters , Scarifications , and those other painful wayes of Evacuation be not ( however Chymists are too bitterly and unreservedly wont to reject them ) to be altogether condemned and laid aside , yet ) there may not in some particular diseases and bodies be found more gentle , and yet effectual waies of discharging Nature of that which offends her , then those painful and debilitating ones , which we have mentioned ( without the use of one of the chief of which namely Phlebotomy we see that almost all kind of Diseases are cured in Children . ) The contributing to render the waies of Cure less painful and weakning , would gratifie so great a part of those who may need Physick , th●t I hope you will easily pardon my spending some Pages to that purpose . I consider then , that oftentimes the peccant matter , though very offensive by its qualities , is much lesser then is supposed , in quantity , and might , if we were but Masters of Specifique Remedies , either be breathed out by insensible transpiration , or carried off by Sweat or Urine , without tormenting , or weakning the Patient , by those other copious Evacuations of grosser Matter , which are alwaies troublesome and painful enough , though not alwaies effectual : Nay that even in Chirurgery it self , if those that practise it were as knowing as Nature has been bountifull , there would not be so often a necessity as 't is commonly supposed there is of mutilating or tormenting the Patient to recover him . You cannot doubt , unless You will denie what Gulielmus Piso affirmes , upon his own Observation , of the Cures done by the illiterate Indian Empericks . The passage You have seen already ; But to it he adds so notable and ingenious an acknowledgment , that I cannot but honour him for it , and be willing to make way for the Credibility of a good part of what we are hereafter to deliver , in this discourse , by premising it . Immo ( continues he ) ex venenatorum fungorum aliorumque toxicorum esu , solo potu infusi recentis radicis Jaborandi in instanti à letho vindicatos , me aliisque Galeni Nepotibus haud parum pudore suffusis , post tot alexipharmacorum & theriacalium Antidotalium irritos conatus . Ita ut postea ejusmodi collegas barbaros subinde mihi adjungi passus sim , non adeo quidem nostratium valetudinem ad tactum arteriarum moderari quam dictis modis consilii copiam praebere solitos . Thus farre he : Which premis'd , let us proceed to consider , more particularly , some of the less painful wayes of freeing men from Diseases . CHAP. X. THat great Cures may be done by bare outward Applications , You will scarce deny , if you dis-believe not the Relations which are made us , by Learned Men , concerning the Efficacy of the Lapis Nephriticus , only , bound upon the Pulses of the Wrist's ( chiefly that of the left Hand ) against that stuborn and anomulous Disease the Stone : And that which gives the more credit to these Relations is , That not only the Judicious (a) Anselmus Boetius de Boot seems to prize it , but the Famous Monardes professeth Himself not to write by Hear-say , of the great Vertues of this Indian Stone , but to have made tryal of it Himself upon persons of very high Quality : And that which is related by (b) Monardes is much less strange , then those almost incredible things which are with many ci●cumstances delivered of that Stone , by the Learned Chymist (c) Untzerus . And although it must be acknowledged , That some Stones , that go under that name , have been ineffectually applied in Nephritick Distempers , Yet the accurate Johannes de Laet Himself , furnisheth us with an Answer to that Objection , informing us that many of those Nephritick Stones ( which differ much in Colour , though the best are wont to be greenish ) although not at all Counterfeited , or Sophisticated , are of little or no Vertue . But that yet there are some others of them which can scarce be d●stinguished from the former , but by tryal upon Nephritick persons , which are of wonderful Efficacy , as he Himself hath more then once tryed in his own Wife . Garcias ab Orta ( lib : 1. cap : 53. ) mentions a Stone , found in Balagat , call'd Alaqueca ; of which he tells us , That though it be cheap , Hujus tamen virtus ( to use his own words ) reliquarum Gemmarum facultates exuperat , quippe qui sanguinem undiquaque fluentem illico sistat . Monardes ( cap : 35. ) relates the great Vertues of a Stone against Hystericall Suffocations , and concludes , Cum uteri Suffocationem imminentem praesentiunt , adhibito lapide subito levantur , & si eum perpetuo gestant ( Hysterici ) nunquam simili morbo corripiuntur , exempla hujusmodi faciunt ut his rebus fidem adhibeam . The same Author in the next Chapter , treating of the Lapis Sanguinaris , or Blood Stone , found in new Spain , ( having told us , that the Indians do most confidently believe , that if the Flesh of any Bleeding part be touched with this Stone , the Bleeding will thereby be stanched ) adds this memorable Observation of his own , Vidimus nonnullos haemorrhoidum fluxu afflictos remedium sensisse , annulos ex hoc lapide confectos in digito continue gestando ; nec non & Menstruum fluxum sisti . And of the formerly mentioned Lapis Porcinus , the Experienced Bontius ( having mentioned how the Indians give the Wine wherein it hath been steeped , against the Disease called Cholera ; which is as much and as justly feared , by the Islanders of Java , as the Plague is in Holland ) adds this memorable passage , Pragnantibus tamen hic lapis non bene datur ; nam abortum provocare adeo certum est , ut foeminae Malaicae mihi retulerint ut si quando Menstrua eorum purgatio non bene procedat , si saltem hunc lapidem manu gestent juvamentum se inde sentire . And the relations , Pyrophilus , that I may in another place present You with , concerning the wonderful Stone , formerly mentioned , with which your Grandfather performed such eminent Cures , ( particularly of the Stone in the Lord of Falkland , then Deputy of Ireland , and others , to whose Backs it was applyed ) will , I suppose , make You the more readily give credit to the Relations of the Authors we have newly mention'd . What Monardes mentions of the Vertue of the Lapis Sanguinaris , to Cure Haemorrhoidal Fluxes , puts me in mind of a yet much stranger thing , which Helmont affirmes , namely , That he could make a Mettal , of which , if a Ring were worn , the pain of the Haemorrhoids would be taken away , in the little time requisite to recite the Lords prayer ; and within twenty four Hours the Haemorrhoids themselves , as well internal as external , how protuberant so ever , would vanish , and the restagnant Blood would ( as he speaks ) be received again into favour , and be restored to a good condition . The same Ring he also commends in the suffocation and irregular motion of the Womb , and divers other Diseases : But if Paracelsus be in any case to be credited in an unlikely matter , We may think , by his very solemn Protestations , that he speaks upon his own experience ; That he had a Ring made of a Metalline substance , by him called Electrum , ( which , by his description , seems to be a mixture of all the Mettals joyn'd together under certain Constellations ) which was of far greater Vertue then this of Helmont ; For , hoc loco ( sayes he ) non possum non indicare admirandas quasdam vires virtutesque electri nostri , quas fieri his nostris oculis vidimus , adeoque cum bona veritatis conscientia proferre attestarique possumus . Vidimus enim hujus generis annulos , quos qui induit , hunc nec spasmus convulsit , nec Paralysis corripuit , nec dolor ullus torsit , similiter nec apoplexia , nec epilepsia invasit . Et si annulus hujusmodi Epileptici digito annulari , etiam in paroxysmo saevissimo , insertus fuit , remittente ilico paeroxismo , aeger à lapsu ilico resurrexit . &c. But to take notice of some other outward Remedies . To our present Theme belongs that noble Cure , performed by the Famous and experienced Fabritius ab Aquape●dente ; who tells us , That he Cured a man of a Scirrhus Lienis , and a Dropsy , by the long use of Sponges , moistned with strong common Lime Water , and then expressed and worne upon the Spleen ; notwithstanding the Muscles of the Abdomen , and all the other parts that ly betwixt the applyed Spong and the part affected . And to this we may adde , the strange Cures mention'd by Kircherus ; and confirmed to me , by a Learned Eye witness , to be frequently performed of very dangerous Diseases , in that Cave , neer Rome , where the Patients being exposed stark naked , and tyed Hand and Foot , upon Beds of Straw ; and being by the Sulphureous vapour of the place and sometimes their own fear , cast into a sweat , are lick'd well by a great number of peculiar kind of Serpents that inhabit that Grotta . Moreover , We oftentimes see Agues Cured by Amulets and Applications to the Wrists . And I my self was , about two Years since , strangely Cured of a violent Quotidian , which all the wonted Method of Physick had not so much as abated , by applying to my Wrists a mixture of two handfuls of Bay-Salt , two handfuls of the freshest English Hops , and a quarter of a Pound of blew Currants very diligently beaten into a brittle Mass , without the addition of any thing moist , and so spread upon Linen Cloth and tyed about the Wrists . And with the same Remedies ( which yet we have observed sometimes to fail ) have divers others been cured , both of Quotidian and Tertian Agues : Nay an Eminent Physitian gave me , lately , thanks for the great Effects he had found of it , even in continual Feavers . And here , Pyrophilus , I shall not scruple to acquaint You , with my having sometimes wished , That Physitians had been a little mo●e curious to make Observations and Tryals of the distinct Operations of various Bodies outwardly applyed . For I consider that , in some of them , the subtle Corpuscles , ( which seem to insinuate themselves into the Pores of the Body , and into the Mass of Blood , with little or no alteration ) have much the like Operations with the Body whence they exhale , taken in at the Mouth . As we see in some Preparations of Sulphur , which have like Vertues , inwardly given and outwardly applyed ; and more manifestly in Cantharides , which I have found , by external application , to work strangly upon the Bladder , as that they excoriated it when taken into the Body ; & yet more manifestly in Quick-silver , which by inunction may be made as well to Salivate , as if it were swallow'd down . And an eminent Physitian lately complain'd to me , That washing a Childs scabby Head with a Decoction of Tobacco , to kill and dry up the Scabs , the Boy was made thereby both sick and drunk : And Learned Men assure us , That , by some Catharticks outwardly applyed , those may be purg'd that will not swallow Physick . But other Medicines there are , which , before they get into the Mass of Blood , are much alter'd ; either in straining through the Flesh and Membranes of the Body , or in the Digestions they pass through in the Stomack , and elsewhere : And these may have very differing Effects , inwardly given and outwardly applyed ; as , in the formerly mention'd instance of Hops , Currans and Salt , neither any of the Ingredients inwardly given , nor the mixture hath been ( that I know of ) noted for any Febrifugal Vertues . So likewise Turpentine and Soot that inwardly taken are good for quite other Diseases , ( as Plurisies , and Obstructions of the Kidneys ) outwardly applyed are the main Ingredients of Pericarpiums , extoll'd against Agues . And Mille-folium or Yarrow , besides the Vertues it hath inwardly against Diseases of quite other Natures , being worn in a little Bag upon the tip of the Stomack , was ( as Himself confess'd to me ) the Secret , against Agues , of a great Lord , who was very curious of Receipts and would sometimes purchase them at very great Rates ; And a very famous Physitian , of my acquaintance , did since inform me , That he had used it with strange success . I know also a very happy Physitian , who assures me , That he hath very often cured , both in himself and others , the Chilblains when they come to be broken , by barely strowing on the sore parts the fine powder of Quinces thinly slic'd and dryed . And who knows what unexpected Operations divers other Bodies may have , when outwardly applyed , if various Trials of that Nature were skilfully made ; especially , since we see that ( for reasons elsewhere to be considered ) some Bodies seem to have quite contrary Operations , when outwardly applyed and inwardly taken . For we see that Spirit of Wine does , in several cases , allay the inflammation of the external parts , which given inwardly , would quickly inflame the body . And our often commended Piso , speaking of a choise Remedy for those Distempers of the Eyes , that used to trouble Men in Brasil , addes , Idem quoque praestat manipahera , ex radice Mandihoca , quae licet pota venenosa habeatur ( as we formerly noted out of his and other Testimonies ) oculis tamen prodest , visumque emendat . And if the Simples , to be outwardly applied , be skilfully prepar'd , That may much vary and improve their operations . As we see that Vitriol , which is made of Copper , or Iron corroded by , and Coagulated with Acid Salts , hath outwardly divers Vertues which crude Copper has not , either outwardly or inwardly . And Gold D●ssolved in Aqua R●gis , and precipitated vvith Oyle of Tartar , is invvardly , as far as I can discover , gently Purgative ; yet the same Aurum fulminans being calcin'd vvith tvvice or thrice it 's weight of Flovvers of Brimstone , till the Flores be burnt away , is known to be much commended by Chymists , and others , for a Diaphoretick . But though , as to any outward Vertues of the same Powder , Physitians and Chymists are wont to be silent , yet probably it may have very great ones , as well as quite differing from those it has , being taken at the Mouth . For I know a Person , that being grievously tormented with exulcerated Haemorrhoides , a very expert Chymist of my acquaintance , not knowing what else to do , applied to the part affected , an Oyntment consisting onely of Aurum fulminans prepared and fixed by a slight and familiar way ( which you may command ) and made up with a little Oyle of sweet Almonds , into a requisite consistence ; and though presently upon the application of the Remedy , the pain for a quarter of an Houre hugely increased , yet soon after it abated , and the Hemorrhoids the next day were closed , and the day after went away ; Nor has the Patient ever since ( that is , for some Years ) been troubled with any thing of Relapse . And the same Physician assures me , that with the like Remedy he has found a strange effect in Venereal Ulcers . And perhaps to this may be referred what has been found by some friends of mine , that Phlegm of Vitriol , and Saccharum Saturni , which not only inwardly given are said much to cool the Blood , but outwardly applied are good for Burns and hot Humours , do yet potently discusse cold Tumours . But least you should say , that this diversity may proceed ( at least in part ) from the Corpuscles of differing Natures , that may be imagined in the forementioned Medicines ; I shall return to what I was discoursing of before , and take notice of the Efficacy of some other external Remedies . [ Since the beginning of this ESSAY , I saw a lusty and very sprightful Boy , Child to a Famous Chymical Writer , who , as his Father assu●'d me and others , being by some Enemies of this Physitians , when he was yet an Infant , so bewitcht that he constantly lay in miserable torment , and still refusing the Breast , was reduc'd by pain and want of food to a desperate condition , the experienc'd Relater of the Story , remembring that Helmont attributes to the Electum Minerale immaturum Paracelsi the Vertue of relieving those whose distempers come from Witchcraft , did according to Helmonts prescription hang a piece of this Noble Mineral about the Infants Neck , so that it might touch the Pit of the Stomack , whereupon presently the Child , that could not rest in I know not how many Daies and Nights before , fell for a while a sleep , and waking well , cry'd for the Teat , which he greedily suck'd , from thenceforth hastily recovering , to the great wonder , both of his Parents , and several others that were astonish'd at so great and quick a change . And though I am not forward to impute all those Diseases to Witchcraft , which even Learned Men Father upon it ; yet it s considerable in our present case , that whatsoever were the cause of the Disease , the Distemper was very great and almost hopeless , and the cure suddenly perform'd by an outward application , and that of a Mineral ; in which compacted sort of Bodies , the finer parts are thought to be more lock'd up . ] Among the proofs of the efficacy of appended Remedies , we must not pretermit the memorable Examples , that are deliver'd by the Judicious Boëtius de Boot , concerning the Vertues of that sort of Jasper , which is blood red throughout the whole Body of the Stone , not being mingled with any Colour : Testari possum ( saies he ) me , qui alias lapidibus & geminis tantas vires , quantas vulgus solet , non tribuo , credibile vix , de Jaspidis viribus , observasse . Nam cum ancilla fluxu menstruorum ita laborasset per aliquot dies , ut nullo modo sisti posset , Jaspidem rubram impolitam & rudem femori alligari jussi . Alius ( in eadem Domo ) cum in pede vulneratus esset , nec sanguinis fluxus cohiberi posset , admoto lapide , extemplo impeditus fuit , licet vulnus non tegeretur . To these he adjoynes a much more memorable Example , of a Maid he cur'd at Prague , who had been for six Years sick of an Hemorrhagy so vehement , that there scarce ever pass'd a Week , in which she did not several times Bleed , neither could she be reliev'd by any Remedies , though she had long us'd them , till she was quite tired with them ; wherefore our Author setting them all aside , lent her a Jasper , of whose Vertues in such cases he had made good trial , to hang about her Neck , which when she did , the flux of Blood presently ceas'd , and she afterwards for curiosity sake , oftentimes laying aside the Stone , and as often as she needed it , applying it again , observ'd , That whereas the flux of Blood did not presently return upon the absence of the Jasper , but after divers Weeks , yet upon the hanging it on again it would presently be stopt , so that she could not ascribe the relief to any thing but the Stone , by which our Author tells us , that at length she was quite cur'd : And speaking of the praises given by others to Green Iasper speckled with Red , he concludes , Sed ego , quod multoties expertus sum , refero . But amongst the Operations of outwardly appended Medicines , I have scarce met with a stranger then that which the Experienc'd Henricus ab Heer , mentions in the fourteenth of those Observations which he truely stiles Rare , namely , That a Woman , who had by an unskilful Mid-wife the Bladder Lacerated , and thereby been subject to a perpetual Incontinentia Vrinae , and had been reduc'd constantly to wear a Silver Pipe , was perfectly help'd , by wearing , as a Gypsie had taught her , a little Bag hung about her Neck , containing the Powder made of a live Toad , burnt in a New Pot : Which relation I the rather mention , not only because the Author having try'd the Remedy upon a Merchant , to whom an unskilful Lythotomist had left the like Disease , found it presently to succeed ; But because having been very desirous to have further trial made of so odd a Remedy , by a curious Physitian , he lately gave me this Account of it , that though in one or two it had fail'd , yet having given some of the powder to an inquisitive Person , known to us both , he assur'd him it had succeeded in two or three . ( and the Disease is too unfrequent , to give occasion to have the Remedy often tried ) And the Physitian adds , that one of those Patiens tels him , ( the Physitian ) That though her infirmity were occasion'd by a Laceratio Vesicae , yet the yet the Remedy helps her as long as she wears it about her , in case she renew the Powder , when the Vertue of it begins to decay : but that ( which is remarkable to our present purpose ) if she leaves it off awhile , she findes the Disease return . The same Henricus ab Heer , among his freshly commended Observations , hath another of a little Lady , whom he concludes to have been cast into the strange and terrible D●stemper , which he there p●rticularly Records , by Witchcraft . Upon so severe an examination of the Symptoms made by himself , in his own House , that if , notwithstanding his solemn Professions of veracity , he mis-relate them not , I cannot wonder he should confidently impute so prodigious a Disease to some supernatural cause . But though the Observation , with its various Circumstances , be very well worth your perusing ; yet that , for which I here take notice of it , is , what he adds about the end of it , concerning his having cured her , after he had in despair of her Recovery sent her back to her Parents , by an outward Medicine , namely , an Ointment which he found extoll'd against Pains produc'd by Witchcraft , in a Dutch Book of Carrichter's : ( where also I remember I met with it set down a little differently from what he delivers ) Of which wonderful Ointment , the Ingredient that he found so extreamly difficult to procure , namely , The Misseltoe of Hazel , being in England not so rare , but that I have more then once got it , and found it , as he intimates , very green , and ( what he mentions not ) extreamly bitter , I could wish that those that have the opportunity would make tryal . For besides what Carrichter deliv●rs , and our Author relates of it , a Learned Physitian did highly commend it to the Judicious Gregorius Horsius . And though , if we allow it to cure bewitch'd Patients , the vertue that may be in external Remedies , will be made so much the more conspicuous ; yet supposing the Diseases to be , though strange , yet but natural , we cannot but allow that there may be a wonderful efficacy in an outward Remedy , since it was able , onely by anointing the Joints , and those pained parts with it , to cure a radicated Disease , attended with such wonderful and horrid Symptoms . And after this it may seem but little , what else would appear a strange thing , which Helmont affirms of a Plaister he had , wherewith he tells us , That he safely cur'd hundreds of Quartans , even Autumnal , without relapse : elsewhere he saith , That he made this Plaister , for by the Circumstances I presume he means no other , of a few resolving and abstersive things ; and adds , That it never fail'd him , but onely that in fat Persons it succeeded more slowly . And yet in these , and the like ways of curing Diseases , though approv'd , if not also commended , by eminent Physitians both Ancient and Modern , there is no sensible evacuation made of peccant Humors , which perhaps materially remain in the Body , and may , by the Effluvia of these Remedies , be deprived of their former Qualities , and made so far obsequious to nature , that she is able , if need be , to ease her self of them by Sweat , Urine , or undiscerned transpiration . And that the peccant Humors remaining for awhile materially in the Body , the Disease may sometimes be removed , may appear by the Cures which we see now and then performed of Agues by suddain frights ; by which no discernable evacuation is made of Humors , though probably some considerable change be thereby produced in the temper of the mass of Blood , or in the Texture of the Morbifick Matter : ( as Physitians call it ) As seems probable both from divers other things mention'd here and there in this Essay , and particularly from the lately recited Passage of Helmont , where he takes notice of the rectifying of the peccant , and , by Nature , rejected Blood , without any sensible evacuation upon the wearing of His Ring . I knew a Gentleman , a strong and a resolute Man , who had been long a Souldier , and attained the highest sort of Military Employments ; notwithstanding which , he was strangely fearful of Rats , and could not endure the sight of them : This Gentleman , having been long troubled with an obstinate Quartan , and travelled with it into several Countries , without being able to finde any Cure for it , coming at length accidentally and suddenly into a place where a great Rat was in a corner , whence he could not flie from the Gentleman , he furiously leap'd upon him ( yet without biting him ) and thereby put him into a fright , which freed him from the Ague that had so long importuned him . And the experienced Salmuth tells us a pleasant Observation , of one who was cured even of the Gout by a fright . For this Man having his Feet and Hands covered with a Poultis , made of Turneps , Flower and Milk , and being left in his Chair in a low Room , was , whil'st his Servants were all gone into the Garden , assaulted by a Sow , who finding the Door open , and invited by the smell of the Cataplasm , came to devour it ; and striving to do so , flung the sick Man and the Chair to the Ground , and put him into such a fright , that our Author tells us , That that very Day his Pains decreased , and continued lessening by degrees , till at length they wholly left him , without ever returning to trouble him again . There are divers Instances that discover what great changes may be produced in the Body , without taking in any thing visibly at the Mouth . And on the other side a good Air alone doth often , in Consumptions and other Diseases , perform what hath in vain been expected from the use of emptying Physick . It were to be wished that we had , among our European Physitians , the Physick Books of those of China ; For though our Doctors are much more Learned Men then theirs , yet probably their Writings and their Practise may teach us something that is new , and something making for our present purpose . For the famous Jesuite Semedo informs us , That the Books of our Physitians having not yet been brought to China , they are instructed in their Art by abundance of their own Writers ; and that though in their practise they do not let Blood ( as th● Learned Varenius tells us , That neither do the Japonian Doctors ) or set Cupping-glasses , though they use no Syrrups , nor Potions , nor any Issues , but are onely Herbarists , using nothing but Herbs , Roots , Fruits , Seeds , &c. yet Physick ( to use our Authors Words ) is in a very good condition in China . ( as Almeida also tells us , That the Physitians are much esteemed in Japan ) And of the skill of some of the Chineses in that Art , he gives us in the same Chapter some considerable Instances . And though , as we said it is very likely that their Doctors are much inferior , in point of Le●rning to ours , yet it is considerable , that in so vast , so civiliz'd , and so poulous a Countrey , Physick can be practised with reputation , without the use of those Evacuations which are here so frequently made by Phlebotomy , Potions and Issues . Nor should we onely expect some improvement to the Therapeutical part of Physick , from the Writings of s● ingenious People as the Chineses ; but probably the knowledge of Physitians might be not inconsiderably increased , if Men were a little more curious to take notice of the Observations and Experiments , suggested partly by the practise of Midwives , Barbers , old Women , Empericks , and the rest of that illiterate crue , that presume to meddle with Physick among our selves ; and partly by the Indians and other barbarous Nations , without excepting the People of such part of Europe it self , where the generality of Men is so illiterate and poor , as to live without Physitians . For where Physick is practised by Persons that never studyed the Art of it in Schools or Books , many things are wont to be rashly done , which though perhaps prejudicial , or even fatal to those on whom they were tryed , may afford very good Hints to a Learned and Judicious Observer : Besides , where the Practitioners of Physick are altogether illite●ate , there oftentimes Specificks ; may be best met with . For such Persons , being wont , for want of skill in Physick , and part●cularly the Art of m●xing Simples , and in that of varying their Remedies according to Circumstances , do almost wholly rely upon Specificks ; whose Ve●tues , from their practise , may be sometimes better gathered , then from that of skilful Physitians , in regard that those Empericks ( besides , that they assist not with any skill in the Methodus medendi the vertues of their Remedies ) are wont , for the Reasons newly mention'd , to try obstinately , and to the uttermost , the eff●cts of their few specificks . And the nature o● their Medicines may be the better known , in regard they are not wont to blend them , as Learned Men but too often do , with many other Ingredients , whose Mixture , as we formerly noted , either alters their nature , or makes it difficult to determine ( as Galen himself in a like case confesseth , Nam ut verum fateamur haec difficilis quoque res est & rara inventu cùm post multa remedia adhibita agrotanti quod ex iis in causa fuisse dicitur ut melius pejusve habeat ) whether the effect be to be ascribed to what is given for the specifick , or to some other of the Ingredients , or to the whole Compound as such . The experienced Bontius , in his excellent little Tract De Medicina Indorum , doth more then once confess , That it is very undeservedly that the Europeans look upon the East Indians as Barbarians . And even of those among them , that are ignorant of other things , he hath this Passage , Hinc etiam fit quod homines caeteris rebu● idiotae tam exactam herbarum & stirpium nanciscantur scientiam ut si vel Doctissimus Pawius , nostri avi Botanicorum princeps è mortuis resurgens huc veniret , miraretur se ab hisce hominibus barbaris doceri posse . And Linschoten in his Voyages , speaking of th●t F●mous Mart of the East Indies , the City of Goa , where the Viceroy and the Arch-Bishop resided , and he himself lived : These Heathenish Physitians ( saith he , mentioning those of Goa ) do not onely cu●e their own Nation and Country-men , but even the Portugals also ; for even the Viceroy himself , the A●ch-Bishop , and all the Monks and Fryers , do put more trust in them then in their own Country-men , whereby they get great store of Money , and are much honored and esteemed . I have not now the leisure to acquaint you with what I might alledge , to confirm this truth out of the practises of the illiterate Natives of some not yet sufficiently civiliz'd parts of Ireland , and the Inhabitants of some other places where Physitians have not yet setled : But I shall minde you of the Confession of Celsus , where speaking of Physick , Haec nunquam ( saith he ) non est : siquidem etiam imperitissimae gentes herbas aliaque prompta in auxilium vulnerum morborumque noverunt . And I wish that other Learned Men would imitate the commendable example not onely of Prosper Alpinus , who Writ a Treatise De Medicinâ Aegyptiorum ; and of Jacobus Bontius , in his Medicina Indorum , but of Gulielmus Piso , who hath lately presented the World with the rude ways of curing , used by the Brasilians themselves , in his new and curious Books De Medicina Brasiliensi , in the beginning of the second of which , he much confirms what we have been delivering , in the ensuing Passage : Quemadmodum multa in tam crassa Barbarie cruda vel corrupta arteque Hippocraticâ indigna reperiuntur ; sic etia● non pauca utilissima antiquitatem redolentia : quae vel eruditissimos medicos ad urnas medicinae subjiciunt , observanda occurunt . Quippe cum multarum Artium rudimenta vel ab ipsis Animantibus brutis ( quibus benigna mater Natura arte insita imprimis curandis morbis destitui noluit ) ad nos redundare fatendum sit ; Quis dubitet ab his mortalibus , licet remotissimis à dogmaticâ & rationali medendi arte , non plurima nobilissima at secreta remedia atque antidota , medendi morbos veteribus incognitos quotidiè ad posteros derivari ? quibus paulatim ad manum traditis & tandem quasi in succum & sanguinem à rationalibus conversis doctorum scholae & libri superbiunt ? And to this agrees very well that grave saying of our experienc'd Harvey , to the very Learned Doctor Ent : Nulla gens tam Barbara est quae non aut fortuitò , aut inevitabili quadam necessitate coacta , aliquid in usum communem adinvenerit quod Nationes alias humaniores latuit . Nor should we disdain the Remedies of such illiterate People , onely because of their being unacquainted with our Theory of Physick . For though I will not say , as the old Empericks wittily enough did in that Passage of Celsus , Requirere etiam , ratio idem doceat quod experientia , an aliud ? Si idem supervacuum esse , si aliud etiam contrarium . But lest we should , by too great reliance on the Galenical , or other ancient Opinions , neglect useful Remedies , because presented by Persons that ignore them , and perhaps too , hold Opinions contrary to them , I shall leave you to consider what is in the Person of the same Emperical Sect , represented by Celsus , where having spoken of the darkness of the causes of Things , and the uncertainty of the Theorems of Physick : Ac nihil istas cogitationes ( saith he ) ad Medicinam pertinere , eo quoque disci , quod qui diversa de his senserint ad eandem tamen sanitatem homines perduxerint . Id enim fecisse , quia non ab obscuris causis neque à naturalibus actionibus , quae apud eos diversae erant : sed ab Experimentis , prout cuique respondeant , medendi vias traxerint , ne inter initia quidem ab istis quaestionibus deductam esse medicinam sed ab Experimentis , &c. For though this Sentence ascribes too little to reason , yet there is something in it that deserves to be considered : Especially since we observe not that the late Anatomical Discoveries of the motion of the Chyle and Limphatick Liquor , by formerly unknown ways , in newly detected Vessels , hath yet made Men cure Diseases much better then before . Not that I think that Anatomical and Pathological Discoveries will not , in process of time ( when the Historia facti shall be fully and indisputably made out , and the Theories thereby suggested , clearly establish'd ) highly conduce to the improvement of the Therapeutical part of Physick ; but yet this Observation may make it the more reasonable to beware of relying so much upon the yet disputable Opinions of Physitians , as to despise all Practises , though usually successful , th●t agree not with them : For of such our Author speaks well , In omnibus ejusmodi cogitationibus in utramque partem disseri posse , itaque ingenium & facundiam vincere : morbos autem non eloquentiâ sed remediis curari ; quae si quis elinguis usu discreta benè nôrit , hunc aliquanto majorem medicum futurum quam si , sine usu , linguam suam excoluerit . And Paracelsus spoke well too , if he spoke truly , when in one of his Prefaces , speaking to those whom he invited to hear him expound his Books of Phyfick and Chyrurgery at Basil , Illos tamen ( saith he of the formerly mentioned Books ) non aliorum mo●e ex Hippocrate aut Galeno , aut quibuslibet emendicatus , sed quos summa rerum doctrina , experientia atque labore assequut us sum , proinde si quid probaturus experimenta , ac ratio , auctorum loco , mihi suffragantur . It would , Pyrophilus , I fear , be tedious to trouble you here with all that I have met with in good Authors applicable to my present subject , and the Design I have been prosecuting in favor of external Remedies : But yet one Passage there is , which doth so notably confirm what we have deliver'd , as well touching the Efficacy of simple Medicines , as the great cures that may , in divers cases , be perform'd by outward Applications , that I must not here omit the mentioning of it , as I find it in the Epistle Written out of Peru to the inquisitive Monardes , in these words : In urbe Posto , ubi aliquot annis vixi , omnis generis morbos Indus quidam curabat solo cujusdam Plantae succo artubus & parti affectae illito . Aegros deinde stragulis egregiè tegebat ad sudorem provocandum : Sudor è partibus illitis emanans , merus sanguis erat , quem lineis pannis abstergebat , atque ita in curatione pergebat , donec satis sudasse putaret , optimis interea cibis eos alens . Eo Remedio multi morbi deplorati curabantur , imò agri juniores & robustiores ab ejus usu fieri videbantur ; sed neque pretio , neque precibus , neque minis unquam ●fficere potuimus , ut eam plantam nobis demonstraret . CHAP. XI . BUt , Pyrophilus , besides such external Medicines as work after the manner of those I have heretofore mention'd , we may possibly without absurdity , provided we do it without cre●ulity , enquire , Whether there may not be a sort of others that operate , in a more wonderful and extraordinary way ? And it would not perhaps be altogether unworthy the Experiment , to try whether or no , there may not sometimes be performed , such cures as are wont to pass , either for Fabulous or Magical ; some of them being to be done without exhibiting , or applying any thing immediatly to the Patient , and others by some such unknown wayes as those which Chymists call , either Magnetism , or Transplantation : such as are the cures reported to be perform'd by the Weapon-salve , and Sympathetick Powder , and such as is that cure of the Yellow Jaundice ( mention'd with some variation by Paracelsus ) wh●rein seven or nine cakes ( for it must , forsooth , be an odde number ) are made up with the newly emitted and warm Urine of the Patient , and the Ashes of Ashwood , and buried for some daies in a Dunghil . For it is not only by the easie and superstitious vulgar , that the possibility of performing such cures , by transplantation , or some other Magnetical way ( as they are pleas'd to call it ) hath been believed ; For within the compasse of my own slender reading , I find that divers Eminent Physicians , have both made use of , and commended Magnetical Remedies . What is to be thought of the Sympathetick Powder ; I confesse I am as yet in doubt , but however I shall take this occasion to inform you , That a very honest Gentleman , whom his Pen has made known to a great part of the Learned Men , and Virtuosi in Europe , complaining often to me , that though he were much troubled with , that sad disease , the Stone in the Bladder , yet he was more incessantly tormented with an Ulcer he had in the same part ( all the searching Medicines that he took to dissolve , as he hop'd , the Stone , exasperating the Ulcer : ) I one day advis'd him to make trial of the Powder of Sympathy , upon some of the Ulcerous Matter he voided with his Urine ; the Remedy being such , as if it had a Magnetick Virtue , might do him good , and if it had none , could not prejudice him ; a while after , I receiv'd both from him in a Letter , and from his Physician very great thanks for the advice ; the Patient having since the use of the Powder , been eas'd of the distinct pain he was put to by the Ulcer , and this relief lasted , if I misremember not , above a Year , and how much longer I know not . But I shall not insist either upon this , or upon the Testimonies and Relations of Paracelsus , Helmont , Goclenius , Burgravius , nor even the modern Roman Doctor Servius , nor any of the other Authors that do professedly take upon them the defence of the Weapon-Salve , by reason of what we have elsewhere to Write to you , by way of Examination of that Salve , and the Sympathetick Powder , though I deny not in some Trials , I have found them unavailable ; Yet besides what I have newly related , I have seen sometimes something follow upon the use of the Symathetick Powder , that did incline me to think , that sometimes it might work Cures . But I shall alleadg something of more unsuspected credit , and first Dominicus Panarola now Professor of Physick at Rome in his newly divulged Fasciculus Arcanorum presents us two instances to our present purpose , in these wor●s . Mira ( say's he ) quotidie reperiuntur in Medicina ad confirmationem operis quod Doctissimus Physicus , Petrus Servius ( the same we lat●ly mentioned ) complevit de unguento armario , sciendum ●st , quòd petia sanguine imbuta sub cineribus calidis posita menses sistit experimento pluries comprobata : quin etiam Magister meus Petrus Castellus whose name his late Anatomy of the Civet Cat , and other Writings have made Famous ) ajebat se expertum fuisse Hemorrihoides , si tangantur tuberosa radice Chondrilla , siccari , si Chondrilla siccetur ; corrumpi vero si corrumpatur : quapropter sub Camino exsiccanda ponitur , post hujusmodi tactum Chondrilla tuberosa . The Learned Salmuth in his Observations furnishes us with an Example of a most violent pain of the Arme , removed by Transplantation : They did beat up Red Corals with Oaken leaves , and having kept them on the part affected , till suppuration ; they did in the Morning put this mixture into an Hole bored with an Auger in the Root of an Oak , respecting the East , and stopt up this Hole with a Peg , made of the same Tree , from thenceforth the pain did altogether cease , and when they took out the Amulet , immediately the torments returned sharper then before . A great and excellent Lady ( a near Kinsvvoman , Pyrophilus , of yours and mine ) and very far from credulous , confess'd to me , as did her servants also , that with the above mentioned Remedie of Ashes and Urine , she was not only once cured of the Yellow Jaundice , by a Friend of hers that had observed , that she had been fruitlesly vexed by a Tedious course of Physick , prescribed by the famousest Doctor then in England ; but that afterwards relapsing into that same Disease she had cured her self by the same Remedy . I remember , that being some years since brought almost to the brink of the Grave by a suddain effusion of Blood within my Body , from which without a signal mercy of God , I should not have recovered , among other men skilled in Physick that came to assist me , in that danger , I was visited by a Galenist of much repute , whose pale looks inviting me to enquire what it was that ailed him , he answered me , That he had not long before been desperately sick of an obstinate Marasmus , which notwithstanding all the Remedies he could use , did daily so consume him , that he appeared but a Skeleton , whereupon having found the uneffectualness of ordinary Remedies , and being hopeless of being relieved by them , he resolved to try a Sympathetick Medicine , which I remember my self to have met with in Hartman . He took then an Egge , and having boiled it hard in his own warme Urine , he with a Bodkin perforated the shell in many places , and then buried it in an Anthil , where it was left to be devour'd by the Emmets , and as they wasted the Egge , he found his distemper to lessen , and his strength to encrease , insomuch that he now conceived his Disease to have quite left him . The Experienc'd Riverius in his last Observations ( newly publish'd since his Death ) has two notable Examples to our present purpose . For (a) first , he tells us , that the eldest Daughter of a great Officer in France , was so tormented with a Paronychia for four daies together , that the pain made her passe the night sleepless ; whereupon having by Riverius his order , put her Finger into a Cats Eare , within two houres she was deliver'd from her Pain , and her whole hand , which before was Tumid , unswell'd again ; except the Finger , which it self was out of Pain . (b) The other case was of a Counsellors Wife , who by the same Remedy was cured of a Panaritium ( which had for four daies vex'd her ) in a much shorter time then the other , namely within a quarter of an Houre . But that which chiefly makes these stories pertinent to our present occasion , is this notable Circumstance , that in both these cases , the Cat was so manifestly put to pain , that Riverius thought it had attracted to it selfe the morbifick matter from which it freed the Patient ; For in the former of these two cases , the Cat loudly complain'd of the pain he felt , and in the other , was , in that short time the cure was in performing , put to so much pain in his Eare , that two men were hardly able to hold him fast , he struggl'd so forcibly . And these two relati●ns of Riverius , may , though there be some disparity in the cases , give some countenance to what might otherwise be distrusted in the Observations of the Industrious (c) Petrus Borellus , where he saies , Podagra mirè levatur , si catelli cumpodagrico recumbant , morbum enim contrahunt adeo ut vix incedere queant ; Aeger verò levamen suscipit . Which perhaps he may have been induced to write by the story that goes of , that odde Chymist , Robert Fludd's having transplanted the Gout of one of his Patients , by making him often sleep , with a Dog that was fond of him , who thereby became afterwards subject to such periodical fits of the Gout , as the Master had been troubled with . [ And since I begun this Chapter , and met with these Observations , discoursing of this matter with a judicious person , well skill'd in Physick , and whom his learned Writings have made Eminent , He told me , that he had not very many Months since , seen a Cure by Transplantation , perform'd on the Son of one that was wont to make Chymical Vessels for me : and because the Observation is considerable , that there might be no mistake in it , he was pleas'd to set it me down in writing ( attested with his annexed name ) which enables me to present it you in his own words , namely : N. N. of N. Potter , had a Sonne , who was long sick of the Kings Evil , which swell'd much , and broek into sores at last , which he could by no ordinary means heale . The old Man had then a Dog , which took an use of licking the soares , which the Dog continued so long , till he w●sted the ve●y kernels of the Ulcers th●t were knit in with the Veins , and perfectly cur'd the sore , but had the swelling transplanted to himself , so that he had hereupon a great swelling , that a●ose and continued on his Throat . The Lad was hereby freed , and so continu'd to be till 1660 , and for ought I know , is so this day . This I saw being there at that time to view the Clayes , and bespeak Retorts of the old man. * ] And to confirm the credibility , as well as increase the number of our magnetical waies of cure ; I shall adde , That St Francis Bacon himself Records , with great solemnity , his own having been freed , not only from very many new warts , but from one almost as old as he , by a piece of Lard , vvith the skin on it , which after having rub'd upon them , was exposed out of a Southern Window to putrifie . And therefore , though the vanity and superstition of most of the Authors that speak of Magnetick Remedies , and the impertinent circumstances , that are usually prescribed , as necessary to their effectualness , do generally , and justly enough , make sober men despise , or at least suspect such unlikely waies of cure ; yet in consideration of the instances lately produced ( to which we may perhaps elsewhere adde some others ) and because divers men , as well Physitians as others , have seriously assured me of their having been some of them eye-witnesses , and others p●rformers of such cures ; I am apt to think it fit , that , a severe indeed , but yet further trial be made of Physical Experiments of this kind . And I cannot but commend the curiosity of Dr Harvey , who , as rigid a Naturalist as he is , scrupled not often to try the Experiment mentioned by H●lmont , of curing some Tumors or Excrescencies , by holding on them for a pretty while ( that the cold may throughly penetrate ) the Hand of a man dead of a lingring disease ; which Experiment , the Doctor was not long since , pleased to tell me , he had sometimes try'd fruitlesly , but often with good successe . N●r doth the grand Objection against such Experiments , namely , that such or such a person , having once made trial of them , found them not succeed , seem at all to me , alone , of weight enough to make such Experiments , or those other improbable ones formerly mentioned , totally rejected : Because , that if they really do sometimes succeed , though sometimes they chance to fail , yet that possibility of their succeeding may sufficiently evince , that there are really in Nature Medicines that worke after that extraordinary manner . And I see no reason , why it should be more required of those Medicines , that work at a distance from the Patient ( or at least are not t●ken at the Mouth , or injected otherwhere ) only by subtle Effluvia , that they should alwaies cure , then it is exacted of vulgar Remedies , from which we might reasonably expect more const●nt effects , because of their being either inwardly given , or more immediately or at least more durably applied to the Patient . And if Rubarb be , justly affirmed to be an excellent medicine in Loosenesses , though we daily in Ireland see many swept away those diseases , in spight of the use of Rubarb and Mirabolans , with other ast●ingent Remedies to boot : And if quiksilver be , not un●easonably , by most of our Physitians esteemed , and employed as an effectual Remedy against Venereal Diseases , because it sometimes removes them ; though Fernelius , Montanus , and many other Learned Authors tell us , as they say upon their own experience , that ( though it often palliate those distempers ) it very sesdome cures them . Nay , and if Diaphoreticks are still esteemed such by the generality of Physitians , though few Sudor●ficks will cause sweat in all bodie , and scarce any in some bodies , I see not , why these Remedies , that wo●k , as it were , by Emanation , may not deserve the name of Medicines , if they sometimes unquestionably succeed , though they should not alwaies prove successful ones ; Nor why they should , notwithstanding their sometimes not succeeding be laid asi●e , especially since these sympathetical wayes of cure are most of them so safe and innocent , that , though , if they be real , they may do much good , if they prove fictions they can do no harme , ( unlesse by accident , as in case the Patient should so singly rely on them , as to neglect ( which he need not ) all other helps to recover . ) CHAP. XII . BUt you will now perhaps demand , Pyrophilus , how the Naturalist , as such , can contribute to the Credit or Advancement of the mentioned ways of curing Diseases , without the wonted weakning and painful Evacuations ? In answer to this Question , I must put you in minde , That it would be no new thing for Naturalists , not professedly Physitians , to treat of this subject ; and that the Naturalist may afford good Hints to the Practitioner of Physick , both upon divers other accounts already touch'd upon , and by trying on Bruits variety of hitherto untryed Medicaments or Remedies , and by suggesting to him both the Events of such Tryals , and also what hath been already observed about the cures of the Diseases incident to Beasts . For though ( as we formerly told you ) there are some things that are not equally Poysonous , as others not equally Safe , to Man and to some Bruits ; yet there are other Beasts , especially Dogs and Monkeys , whose Bodies are , by many Poysons , affected almost like those of Men : And since according to the old Rule , Periculum faciendum est in vili animâ , many things may be very well tryed on such Creatures , that we dare not at first venture to try on Men. We may give Dogs Poysons , onely to try the Vertue of our Antidotes ; and we may give them Wounds , to make tryal of the efficacy of the Weapon-salve and Sympathetick Pow●er : Since divers of my Friends ( as I have intimated above ) assure me , That they have some of them seen , and others performed cures of Horses , lam'd by pricking , by sticking the Nails that hurt them into the Weapon-salve ; which for that very use , among others , some of them are wont to carry about them in Silver Boxes . When Oxen , and such-like Cattle , are troubled with that Disease which makes them continually turn about in one place ( and is therefore called The turning Evil , or Sturdy ) a common Remedy here in England , ●s Grasiers that make use of it inform me , is to cast down and tye fast the sick Beast , and then to open his Skull a good way ( or , if need be , take off a round piece of it over the place supposed to be affected ) and at the open place to take out a little Bag or Bladder , which is usually found to lye near the Membranes of the Brain , and to be full of Water and Blood , and then leisurely to heal up the hurt : And this cure is much commended , as both common and easie , by our experienced Markham . In Goates likewise , that are much subject to the Dropsie , the Husband-man ventures to slit , and let out the Water under the Shoulder . And divers hazardous Operations in Chirurgery , such as are Arteriotomy , the Exsection of the Spleen and other parts , were , or should have been first attempted upon Bruits , and then practised on humane Bodies . And in imitation of these , 't is likely that divers other Experiments , of good use in Chirurgery , may be discovered for the relief of Man , without Endangering him in prosecuting such Discoveries . And to say nothing of the known practice of splaying Swine and Bitches ; In the Neighborhood of a Country House of mine , in the West of England , and probably in divers other parts , some experienc'd Shepheards have an odde way of castrating male Sheep , especially Lambs , when they are grown so old that 't is thought dangerous to geld them the common way . A Servant of mine that deals much in Cattle , and had lately divers Sheep swigg'd ( as they call it ) after this manner , tells me that is thus done : The Beast , on whom the Operation is to be performed , being held by a strong Man with his Belly upwards , another strong Man draws a string , as firmly as he can ( tying it with a knot or two , to prevent its yielding or slipping off ) about the Testicles , as if he meant by drawing that string , to cut them off ; and then anointing the part with a little fresh Butter , or some such like thing , he lets the Ram goe to feed ; which for the most part ( notwithstanding the anguish of this Ligature ) he will begin to do in a short time : And within two or three days , the Testicles being , by the strict Ligature , denyed the Nutriment and Spirits that were wont to be conveyed to them will grow so rotten as either , together with the string , to fall off , or be very easily pull'd off , sometime stinking very rankly like Carrion . And even among those things that are already practised by Farriers , Shepherds and Graziers there are many such things as we have newly mentioned , which may serve either to enrich or illustrate the way of curing humane Bodies : Their ignorance and credulousness , together with the liberty and meaness of those Creatures they physick , gives them leave to venture on any thing , having made them try upon Horses and Cattle , many such things as Physitians dare not try upon Men and Women . And among those many extravagant things , some , as it oftens happens , have succeeded so prosperously , as to deserve to be considered by the skilfullest Physitians ; Some of whom might , without disparagement to their Profession , do it an useful piece of service , if they would be pleased to collect and digest all the approved Experiments and Practices of the Farriers , Graziers , Butchers , and the like , which the Ancients did not despise , but honored with the Titles of Hippiatrica and Veterinaria : And among which , if I had leisure , divers things may be taken notice of , which might serve to illustrate the Methodus medendi . As to give you but one Instance which lately occurred to me , The Usefulness of letting Blood in some cases , Which is so severely condemned by many Chymists , and the efficacy of a small , if seasonable , Evacuation , which can scarce be conceiv'd to do more then alter the course of the Blood , may be illustrated by the Staggers in Horses , and the Cure of it . For I have seen a Coach-horse , ready to drop down dead of his Disease upon the High-way , by having his Gums rubb'd with the Coach-whip till the Blood appear'd , relieved almost in a moment so much , that though he were not well able to stand before , yet he was immediatly able to go on , and draw the Coach with his fellows . CHAP. XIII . THe next thing we are to observe to you , Pyrophilus ; and on which its nature and importance will engage us somewhat long to insist , is this , That the Handling of Physical matters was Antiently thought to belong to the Naturalist ; as we are clearly informed by the judicious Celsus , in that memorable Passage , where speaking of the Origin of Physick , Primo ( saies he ) medendi scientia Sapientiae pars habebatur ; ut & morborum curatio & rerum naturae contemplatio sub iisdem Authoribus nata sit : Scilicet his hanc maxime requirentibus , qui corporum suorum robora , inquieta cogitatione nocturnaque vigiliâ , minuerant . He adds , that many of the Professors of Philosophy were skilful in Physick , especially Pythagoras , Empedocles , and Democritus , and that Hippocrates ( whom some think to be the disciple of this last nam'd ) was the first who severd Physick from Philosophy , and made it a distinct Discipline , And this Apologie for the ensuing discourse being thus premised to it , I shall further Answer , that I should perhaps be obliged to exceed the limits of an ESSAY , if I should in this Discourse insist on every thing , upon whose account the Naturalist may assist the Physitian , if he be barely a Medicus to cure Diseases , which that you may the more readily believe , I shall Select and prosecute some of these things in the remaining part of this ESSAY . And first I shall represent to you on this subject , That the account upon which Physitians are wont to reject , if not , deride the use of such Specificks , as seem to work after a secret and unknown manner , and not by visibly Evacuating peccant humours ( or by other supposedly manifest qualities ) being generally this , That they see not how the promis'd Effects can well be produced by Bodies , that must work after so peculiar and undiscerned a manner ; This being , I say , the great thing that hinders Physitians from endeavouring to find , or , so much as , being willing to make use of Remedies of this sort , the Naturalists may do much towards the removal of this Impediment , by shewing out of such things as may be met with or performed within the Macrocosme , That such , or at least as strange operations as are ascrib'd to these Specificks , are not without Example in Nature ; and consequently ought not to be rejected , barely as being impossible . And indeed the Physiologie , wherewith Physitians as well as others are wont to be imbu'd in the Schools , has done many of them no small Disservice by , accustoming them to grosse apprenhensions of Natures wayes of working . Whence it comes to passe , that not a few ev'n Learned Doctors will never expect , that any great matter should be performed in Diseases , by such Remedies as are neither obvious to the sence , nor Evacuate any grosse , or at least sensible matter . Whereas , very great alterations may be wrought in a Body , especially if Liquid , as is the Blood and peccant Humour , without the Ingresse or Egresse of any visible matter , by the intestine commotion of the parts of the same body acting upon one another , and thereby acquiring a differing Motion , Location ( if I may so speak ) or Figure , which , with the other Qualities and Effects resulting thence , may alter the motion and Texture of the Liquor , and thereby produce great changes in the Body that Harbours it . How much an unperceiv'd recesse of a few subtile Parts of a Liquor may alter the Nature of it , may be guess'd at , by the obvious change of Wine into Vineger ; wherein upon the Avolation ( or perhaps but the misplacing ) of so little of the Spirituous and Sulphureous part , that it's Presence , Absence , or new Combination with the other Parts is not discernable to the Eye , the scarce decreased Liquor , becomes of a quite differing Nature from what it was . And though in England this Degeneration be not wont to be so suddenly perform'd by reason of the coldness of the Climate , yet in hotter Count●ies the change is much more speedily made . As in Brasil , the above mentioned Piso informes us , that the expressed Juice of the Suger Canes , which by Coction , ●nd farther ordering , would be certainly brought to Suger , will of it self keep sweet but about four and twenty Houres , and then begin to sowre , and be altogether unfit to make Suger of , though very fit to turne into good Vinegar . And this I find confirm'd by a Modern and applauded French Writer in his Description , of some parts of the West Indies , inhabited by his Nation : And relations of the same sort , concerning the hasty sowring of some other Liquors in America I have had from our English Travellers and Planters . And in the East - Indies , Linschoten tells us of a change much more suddain : For speaking of the formerly mention'd Sura or Liquor , afforded by the wounded Coc●-tree . The same Water ( sayes he ) standing but one Houre in the Sunne is very good Vineger , and in India they have none other . And that even very hurtful Liquors ( and why not then some peccant matter in the body ? ) may after the like manner change their Nature may appear by what we have formerly mentioned , and is unanimously affirm'd by credible Writers of several Nations , concerning the juice of Mandioca , which being Poyson , when it is first express'd do's in a few houres by Fermentation , purge its selfe and loose its pernicious Nature . That also by the bare Ingresse of some Subtile and not visible Matter , such intestine Commotions may be excited in Liquors , may appear by the sowring which has been often observed upon great Thunders to happen , not onely to wines , but to other Vinous Liquors also , as I lately received from a great Master of variety of Liquors , a complaint that by some Thunder , which happen'd here a few weeks since , almost all the Beer and Ale in the neighbourhood was spoil'd . And I remember , that when I return'd out of Italy thorow Geneva , there happen'd in that place an Earthquake , upon which , the Citizens complaind , that much of their wine was sowr'd , though I that lodg'd in the highest part of the Town , saw nothing to make me believe , that the bare Succussion of the Earth was capable to produce so great and suddain an alteration in the Wine . That such invisible Corpuscles may passe from Amulets , or other external Remedies into the Blood and Humours , and there produce great changes , will scarce seem improbable to him that considers how perspirable according to Hippocrates a living body is , and that Vegetable and Animal Body's , whose Texture is more loose and open , may well be supposed to send forth Expirations , since even divers Minerals are found to do the like ; as may appear by the odorable steames of rub'd Brimstone , and Amber , by the Corpuscles , which performe the Magnetick Operations , by the Emetick Quality imparted to Liquors by the Glasse of Antimony , and by Crocus Metallorum barely infus'd in them , without sensibly loosing any thing , either of their bulk or weight ; and by the vertue of killing Wormes , wherewith Wine , and even Water has been , not only by Helmont , but by divers other Physitians observed to be enrich'd , after a Quantity of Quicksilver has been for some Houres sh●ken in it , though without any sensible deperdition of the substance of the Mercury . And indeed I have somewhat wondred that many Learned moderne Physitians , either out of an affected Severity , or perhaps Animosity against Chymists , ov●rlook or even deride all operations of this Nature ; Since I remember Galen himself , not only confirmes the like Doctrine , by his Reasons and Authority , but delivers a very strang Example of it ; for , under the Title of Glychysida , Treating of Peony , He thus Discourses , Est praeterea omnino resiccatoria : Ea propter haud desperaverim eam ex collo pueris suspensam merito Comitialem morbum sanare . Equidem vidi puellum quandoque octo totis mensibus morbo Comitiali liberum , ac postea fortuna cum quod à collo suspensum erat decidisset , protinus denuo convulsione correptum ; rursusque suspenso in locum illius alio , inculpate postea egisse , Porro visum est mihi satius esse rursum id collo detrahere , certioris experientiae gratia : id cum fecissem , ac puer iterum esset convulsus , magnam recentis radicis partem ex collo ejus suspendimus , ac deinceps prorsum sanus effectus est puer , nec postea convulsus est . Rationabile itaque erat , aut partes quaspiam à radice d●fluentes , ac deinde per inspirationem attractas , affectos ita locos curare , aut Aerem à radice assidue mutari & alterari . Nam hoc pacto Succus Cyrenaicus collumellam plegmone affectam juvat & Melanthion frictum palam Catarrhos & Coryzas desiccat , Si quis id in calidum linteum , rarum , liget assidueque calorem ex eo per inspirationem in nares attrahat . Quin etiam si pluribus linis , & maximè marinae purpurae , collo viperae injectis , illis viperam praefoces , eaque postea cujuspiam collo obvincias , mirifice profueris tum Paristhmiis tum omnibus iis quae in collo expullulant . Nay , that such invisible Bodies , by passing thorough grosser ones , and thereby changing the Motion and nexus or Juncture of their parts , may produce lasting alterations in their Textures ( though it be a Paradox ) seems not to me at all impossible . For we find the most fluid Body of Quicksilver has been sometimes , ( I say sometimes ) and therefore may , without sensible increase of Bulke , be coagulated by a Metalline Exhalation so , as to be cut like Lead , and to retain that solidity , 'till by some Art or other it be reduc'd to its pristine Fluidnesse . You may be inclin'd to think , that the hard and solid Body of Iron has a permanent alteration made in it's Texture , if you hold a Needle during a competent time neer the Pole of a Vigorous Loadstone without touching it . For the Magnetical Effluvia ( as may very probably be conceiv'd ) will so dispose the parts of the nearest extream of the Needle , as that they shall admit the steames that come from one of the Poles of the Load-stone , and not those that come from the other : whereas by skilfully holding it to the contrary Pole of the same Stone , the internal Pores , and consequently the Texture of the Needle , will presently be quite otherwise disposed in reference to the Magnetical Effluvia ; as we more fully declare in another ESSAY , where we shall , I suppose , also perswade you , that the Effects of the Load-stone are performed by subtil Bodies issuing from , or passing through it . What we have in a former discourse told you concerning our having at pleasure changed the Poles of a Load-stone , by help of the Magnetica Effluvia of the Earth , may let you see that in Stones , also such alterations are possible to be made . And in the next ESSAY save one , we shall give you another Instance , pertinent to our present purpose . For if you heat a slender piece of Steel ( as a graver , or the like ) red hot , and suffer it to cool leisurely in the Air , it will continue flexible enough , and of so soft a Texture , that you may easily make impressions on it , with any hardned Steel : But if , instead of cooling it thus slowly , you knock it into such a dry Body , as we shall there name to you , it will immediately grow so hard , as to be brittle . Which alteration , whether it be resolved to proceed from the particular Effluvia of the Body , into which it is knocked , or barely from the ingresse of the Corpuscles of Cold ; ( if any such there be ) it will be however an Instance not unfit for our purpose . And those Pyrophilus , that are conversant in Glass houses , may easily observe , that Glass acquires a more or lesse brittle Texture , according as ( to speak in the Glass-mens language ) it is baked . For if after Glasses are blown , they be quickly carried into the open Air , they are wont to be much more subject to break , then those , that after they are fashioned are placed in a kind of very long Oven ( which is wont to be built over ●he Furnace , wherein the materials , whereof the Glass is made are kept in Fusion ) and are by slow degrees refrigerated , and not 'till after some houres exposed to the open Air : For whether this difference of Brittleness , and consequently of Texture , be ascribed to the interrupted Transcursion of some Etherial matter , through the Pores of the Glasse , or to the insinuations of the Atoms of the Cold , or to this , that the Particles of the Glasse agitated by the heat , were surpriz'd by the Cold , before they could make an end of those Motions which were requisite to their disposing themselves into the most durable Texture ; it is evident enough , that 't is by no gross or visible Body , that this permanent difference of Texture is produced . Of the like to which we may elsewhere give you Examples , in some other Concretes . That also in an human Body , great alterations may be made by very subtil Effluvia , appeares evidently , not only by the instances we have formerly given of the efficacy of some outwardly applied Remedies , but by divers other things , as that many are purged by the bare Odor of Potions , of which I have been assured upon his own Observation by the experienced Town Physician of Plimmouth Dr D. And of which Salmuth in his Observations , gives us an instance in a young Gentlewoman , whom he saw more happily purged , by the Odor of a Potion , drunk by her Sister , then she was that took the Medicine . And the same Author tells us , of one Dr Pfeil an eminent Physitian , who was wont , when he had a mind to be Purged , to goe into some Apothecaries shop , where Electuaries electively purging were preparing , to which having a while smelt , they would by their Odour , after his return home , work with him six or seven times , as if he had swallowed the Medicine it self . And Henricus ab Heer , in the twenty ninth of his formly commended Observations , tells us , Of a Woman that not only was wont to be copiously purg'd by drinking Bief-broth , but having by a fall broken her Leg , us'd no other Cathartick , then the bare Odor of that sort of Broth. And very Observable to our purpose , is the operation of the Air , all along the ridg of the high mountaine in Peru , called Pariacaca , of which the Learned Jesuite Joseph Acosta relates , That though he went as well prepared as he could , to withstand the Operations usually produc'd in Travails , by that piercing Air , yet when he approached to the top of the Mountain , he was ( notwithstanding all his Provision ) surpriz'd with such fits , and pangs , of striving and casting , as he thought he should cast up his Heart too ; having after meat , Phlegme , and Choler , both yellow and green , in the end with over striving cast up Blood ; and continued thus sick for three or four houres , 'till he had passed into a more temperate Air then that of the top of the Mountain ; which runn's about 500 Leagues , and has every where , though not equ●lly this discomposing property , having operated upon some of his companions , as well downwards as upwards . A greater proof of the power of Steams upon the Body may be taken from the propagation of Infectious Diseases , which being conveyed by insensible Effluvia , from a sick into a healthy Body , are able to disorder the whole Oeconomy of it , and act those sad Tragedies , which Physitians do so often unsuccesfully indeavour to hinder . But you will cease to doubt , that Corpuscles , though so small as to be below the sense , should be able to performe great matters upon humane Bodies ; if you consider what alterations may be therein produced by the bare actions of the parts upon one another . This may appear by the effects of several Passions of the mind , which are often excited by the bare , if attentive , thoughts of absent things . In obstinate grief and Melancholy , there is that alteration made in the disposition of the Heart , and perhaps some other parts by wh●ch the Blood is to Circulate , that the lively motion of that liquor is thereby disturbed , and obstructions and other not easily remov'd distempers are occasion'd . The bare remembrance of a loathsome Potion , does oftentimes produce in me ( and I doubt not , but the like thought may have the like Operation in many others ) a Horror , attended with a very sensible Commotion of divers parts of my Body , especially with a kind of convulsive motion , in or about the Stomack . And what power the Passions have to alter and determine the course of the Blood , may appear yet more manifestly in modest and bashful persons , especially Women , when meerly upon the remembrance or thought of an unchast , or undecent thing , mentioned before them , the motion of the Blood will be so determin'd , as to passe suddenly and plentifully enough into the Cheeks ( and sometimes other parts ) to make them immediatly wear that livery of Vertue ( as an Old Philosopher styl'd it ) which we call a Blush . And even by joy , if great and sudden , I not long since saw in persons of both Sexes , not only the Cheeks and Forehead , but it left ( as to the Lady ) even the Neck and Shoulders Died of that Colour . And that Passions , may not only alter the Motion of the Juyces of the Body , but likewise make some separation and evacuation of them , may appear in grief , which is wont especially in Women to make all the Commotions requisite to weeping : whereby oftentimes a considerable quantity of Briny Liquor , is excluded at the Eyes , under the forme of Tears , by which divers ( especially Hysterical ) Persons are wont to find themselves much refreshed , though with some it fares otherwise in teeming Women . Also that vehement desire we call Longing , may well be supposed to produce great alterations in the Body of the Mother , which leaves such strange and lasting impressions upon that of the Infant ; since 't is the Mother only , and not at all the Infant that conceives those importunate desires . CHAP. XIV . THere are many Instances to be met with in Physitians Books , to shew that Imagination is able so to alter the Imagining person's Body , as to work such a disposition in the Spirits , Blood and Humors of it , as to produce the determinate Disease that is excessively feared . And I remember , that soon after the last Fair Lady R. Died of the Small Pox , I chanced to meet one of her Sisters with her Mask on amongst some other Persons of High Quality , and wondring to see her sit Maskt in such Company , her Husband ( who was present ) told me , That his Wife having been happily brought to Bed some while before her Sister fell sick ; he had carefully kept the knowledg of her sicknesse from his Wife ; least the kindnesse that was betwixt them two might prejudice her in the condition she was in , but that after , a while a Lady unawares making mention in her hearing of her Sisters sickness , she immediatly fancied , That she should have it too , and accordingly fell sick of that disfiguring Disease , whose Marks obliged her for a while to weare a Mask . Nor is it in Women only , but even in Men , that conceit may produce such real and lasting effects . For many authentick Histories record examples of those in whom excessive Grief or Fear has made such a change in the Colour of their Hair in a Night , as Nature would otherwise have scarce made in divers Years . And I remember , that being about four or six Years since , in the County of Cork , there was an Irish Captain a man of middle Age and Stature , who coming with some of his followers to render himself to your Uncle Broghill , who then commanded the English Forces in those parts upon a publick profer of pardon to the Irish that would then lay down Arms , he was casually in a suspicious Place , met with by a party of the English and intercepted . And my Brother being then absent , upon a designe , he was so apprehensive of being put to Death , by the inferiour officers , before your Uncles returne , that that Anxiety of mind quickly changed the Colour of his Hair after a peculiar manner : of which I being then at that Castle of your Unkles whereunto he was brought ) had quickly notice given me , and had the Curiosity to examine this Captain , and found that the Hair of his H●ad , had not ( as in the instances I had met with in Histories ) uniformely changed its Colour , but that here and there certain peculiar Tufts and locks of it , whose Bases might be about an inch in Diameter were thus suddenly turned White all over : the rest of his Hair ( of which you know the Irish use to weare good store ) retaining it's former Reddish Colour . [ You will mistake my design Pyrophilus , if you conclude from what I have said , concerning the Power of Effluvia , to work upon the Body that I am either so much an Helmontian as to condemne the Use of all those Remedies that make such more grosse Evacuations ( if I may so call them ) as are made by Vomit , Seige , and the like ; or that I would have you , or am my self so credulous , as to believe all the Vertues that are , ev'n by Eminent Writers ascribed to the Remedies called Specificks : For ( to mention here but this ) we have observed , that the hopes built upon ev'n excellent Specificks , unlesse they be of such a resolving and abstersive Nature , as to be able to make way for themselves into the Recesses of the Body are oftentimes disappointed , where some Emetick or Cathartick Remedy has not been first us'd to free the Stomack and Guts from those viscous Humours , which obstructing the first passages much enervate the Vertue of the Remedy , if they do not altogether deny it accesse to the innermost parts of the Body . That then which I aim at , is first to keep you from being prejudiced by the Confidence of some Learned Doctors , who laugh at the very name of Specificks , and will not allow any Disease to be curable , but by visible Evacuations of store of what they call peccant Matter ; And next to give you cause to think that such Specificks , as men of judgment and credit do recommend upon their own Experience ought not to be rejected without Trial , upon the bare account of their not being either Laxative or Vomitive , Sudorifick , or Diuretical ; Nay , nor so much as for this , that they are not endow'd with any Eminent Degree of any manifest Quality , such as Heat , Cold , Drinesse , Odor , Tast , Astriction and the like ; nor able perchance to work any considerable alteration in a healthy Human Body . For I consider the Body of a living man , not as a rude heap of Limbs and Liquors , but as an Engine consisting of several parts so set together , that there is a strange and conspiring communication betwixt them , by vertue whereof , a very weak and inconsiderable Impression of adventitious matter upon some one part may be able to work on some other distant part , or perhaps on the whole Engine , a change far exceeding what the same adventitious Body could do upon a Body not so contriv'd . The faint motion of a mans little Finger upon a small piece of Iron that were no part of a Engine , would produce no considerable Effect ; but when a Musket is ready to be Shot off , then such a Motion being applied to the Trigger by vertue of the cont●ivance of the Engine , the Spring is immediatly let loose the Cock falls down , and knocks the flint against the Steel , opens the Pan , strikes Fire upon the Powder in it , which by the Touch-hole Fires the Powder in the Barrel and that with great noise throw's out the ponderous Leaden Bullet with violence enough to kill a Man at Seven or Eight hundred Foot distance . And that also the Engine of a Humane Body is so fram'd , as to be capable of receiving great alterations from seemingly slight Impressions of outward Objects , upon the bare account of its particular contrivance , may appear by several instances beside those which may belong to this Argument in the foregoing part of this ESSAY . When a man goes suddenly out into the Sun , it often happens , that those beames which light upon his Head , and would not in so short a time have any discernable effect on the least Hair of it , do allmost in a moment produce that strange and violent motion in the head and almost all the Body , which we call Sneezing . Men that from the top of some Pinacle or other high and steep place do look down to the bottome of it are at first very apt by the bare prospect , ( which yet convey's nothing into the Body but those images , if yet there intervene corporeal ones in sensation of visible Objects that enter at the Eye ) to become so giddy , that they are reduced to turne away their Eyes from the Praecipice for fear of not being able to stand upon their Leggs . And many that look'd fixedly upon a Whirle poole , or upon a very swift stream have had such a Vertiginous Motion thereby impressed on their Spirits , that they have been unable to keep their Bodies upright , but have fallen into the Water they gazed on . And it is no lesse rem●rkable , that when a man is somewhat discompos'd at Sea , and yet not enough to Vomit freely ; the Seamen are wont to advise him to look from the si●e of the Ship upon the Water , which seeming swiftly to passe by the Vessel , has upon the gazer the operation of a rapid stream , and by making him giddy hastens and facilitates his Vomiting , as I h●ve somet●m●s t●ied upon my self when I had a mind for healths sake to be put into a fit of Sea sicknesse . If a person be very Ticklish and you but gently stroke the Sole of his Foot with the top of a Feather , that languid Impression on the bottome of the foot shall , whether he will or no , put all those Muscles and other parts into motion , which are requisite to make that noise , and to exhibite that shape of the Face ( so farre distant from the feet ) which we call Laughing ; and so the gentle Motion of a straw tickling the Nostrils is able to excite Sneezing . Most men may observe in themselves , that there are some such noises as those ma●e by the grating of an ungreas'd Cart-wheele upon the Axle tree , or the tearing of course Paper which are capable of ●etting the Teeth on edge , which yet cannot be done without exciting a peculiar Motion in several parts of the Head. I had a servant , who sometimes complained to me of a much more rem●●kable and unfrequent disorder , namely , that when he was put to whet a Knife , that stridulous Motion of the Air was wont to make his Gummes bleed . Henricus ab Heer ( in his Twenty n●nth Observation ) Records a Story of a Lady , to whom he was sent for , who upon the hearing of the sound of a B●ll , or any loud noise , though Singing , would fall into fits of Soun●ing , which was scarce distinguish●ble from Death ; an● we may confirm that this disposition depended upon the Texture of her Body in r●ference to M●terial sounds by wh●t he subjoyns , that having well purg'd her , and given her for two Months the Spaa-waters , and other app●op●iate Remedies he throughly cur'd her . And it often enough happens , that when a Woman is in a Fit of the Mother , another H●sterical person standing by , is by reason of a peculiar Disposition of her Body , soon infected with the like strange discomposure . And to shew you , that a distemper'd Body is both an Engine , and also an Engine disposed to receive alterations from such Impressions as will make none on a sound body , let me put you in mind that those subtile Ste●mes that wander through the Air before considerable changes of Weather disclose themselves , are wont to be painfully felt by many sickly Persons and more constantly by men that have had great Bruises or Wounds in the parts that have been so hurt ; though neither are healthy men at all incommodated thereby , nor do those themselves that have been hurt , feel any thing in those sound parts , whose Tone or Texture has not been alter'd or enfeebl'd by outward violence . I have known several also ( and the thing is obvious ) whose body's and Humours are so fram'd and constituted , that if ( as men commonly speak ) they ride backward in a Coach , that Motion will m●ke them giddy , and force them to Vomit . And it is very ordinary for Hysterical Women to fall into such Fits as counterfeit Epilepsies , Convulsions , and I know not what violent distempers by the bare smell of Musk and Amber , and other strong perfumes , whose steames are yet so farre from having great , much lesse such Effects in other Humane body's , that almost all men , and the generality ev'n of healthy Women are not affected by them , unless with some innocent delight . And that even on men Odours ( how minute and invisible bodies soever ) may sometimes have very great power , may be gathered from the story told us by Zacutus Lucitanus , of a Fisherman , who having spent all his life at Sea , and being grown Old there , and coming to gaze upon a solemne reception , made in a Maritine Town , to Sebastian King of Portugal , was by the perfumes plentifully Burnt , to welcome the King immediatly cast upon the ground thereby into a F●t which two Physicians judg'd Apoplectical , and Physi●k'd him accordingly 'till three daies after the Kings chiefe Physician Thomas à Vega guessing at the cause of his disease commanded him to be remov'd to the Sea side and cover'd with Sea Weeds , where within four Houres the Maritime Air and steames began to open his Eyes , and made him know those that were about him , and within not many Dayes restor'd him to health . We may also conjecture how much the alteration produced in the Body by sickness m●y dispose it to receive strong Impressions from things that would not otherwise much affect it , by this , That even a man in perfect health , and who is wont to Drink cold without the least harme , may , when he has much heated himself by exercise be cast by a draught of cold Drink into such sudden , formidable , and dangerous di●tempers as , did not daily Experience convince us , we should scarce think possible to be produc'd in a Body , free from Morbid Humours by so familiar a thing as a cup of small bear or water ; insomuch th●t Benivenius relates a Story of one , who after too vehement exercise Drinking a Glasse of very cold Water fell into a swoun , that was quickly succeeded by Death . And yet , to adde that on this occasion , in Bodies otherwise dispos'd a large draught of cold Water , Drunk even without thirst , may v●ry much relieve the D●incker , and prevent great Fit● of the Mother , and partly of the Spleen , especially upon sudd●in f●ights , to which purposes I know some Hyste●ical Ladies that find in this Remedy , as themselves assure me more advantage then one wo●ld easily imagine . And ( further ) to shew you that the Engine we are speaking of is alt●rable , as well for the better as for the worse , by such Motions of outward Bodies as in themselves consider'd , are languid , or at least may seem despicable in reference to sickness or recovery ; Let me call upon you to consider a few , not unobvious things , which may also serve to confirme some part of what has hitherto been deliver'd . [ The true Mosse growing upon a Humane Skull , though I do not find Experience warrant all the strange things some Chymical Writers attribute to it for the stanching of Blood , yet I deny not , but in some Bodies it does it wonderfull enough . And I very well know an Eminent Virtuoso who has assur'd me , as his Physitian likewise has done , that he finds the Effects of this Moss so considerable upon himself , that after having been let Blood , his Arm falling to Bleed again , and he apprehending the consequences of it , his Physitian , who chanc'd to be present , put a little of the abovemention'd Mosse into his hand , which barely held there , did , to the Patients wonder , stanch his Blood , and gave him the cu●iosity to lay it out of his hand , to try whether that Mosse were the cause of the Bloods so oddly stopping its course , whereupon his Arm after a little while , beginning to Bleed afresh , he took the Mosse again into his hand , and thereby presently stanch'd his Bleeding the second time : and if I misremember not , he added , that he repeated the Experiment once more with the like successe . The smoak of burnt feathers , or Tobacco blown upon the face of an Hysterical Woman , does oftentimes almost as suddenly recover them out of Fits of the Mother , as the odour of per●umes did cast them thereinto . ] And now I speak of Cu●es performable by fumes , it brings into my mind , that a friend of yours and mine , and a Person of great Veracity professes to have strangly cur'd Dysenteries by a way unusual enough , which is to make the Patient sit over a Chair or Stool close on the sides , and perforated below , so that the Anus and the neighbouring parts may be expos'd to the fumes of Ginger , which must be thrown upon a Pan of Embers , plac'd just under the Patient , who is to continue in that posture , and to receive the Fume as long as he can endure it without too much fainting . And when I mention'd one of the Cures that was thus perform'd , to one that is look'd upon as a Master of Chymical Arcana against Diseases ; he preferr'd before it ( as he saies upon experience ) the shavings of Harts-horn us'd after the same manner , and the Remedy seems not irrational . But if in this distemper , the Actual heat applied to the abovemention'd parts of the Body concurre not to the Effect , we may too , warrantably enough , adde that Cures may be perform'd by far more minute corpuscles then those of smoke , insinuating themselves from without into the Body . For I know a very dextrous Goldsmith , who , when he over heats himself , as he often unawares does at hammering of Plate , is subject to fall into Gripings of the Belly , which lead to Fluxes ; but his usual and ready Cure is , assoon as conveniently he can , to heat his Anvil , and sit upon it for a great while together , heating it hot again if there be need . But to return to our Medicinal Smoaks , 't is known that some find more good against the Fits of the Colick , by Glysters of the Smoak of Tobacco , then by any other Physick they take ; so that I know wealthy persons , that relying upon the benefit they find by this Remedy , have left off sending for their Physitians to ease them of the Colick . And indeed , when I consider what an odde Concrete , even common Soot is , and that many Concretes by being resolv'd into Smoak , may be e●ther more or otherwise unlock'd , then they would be by the Stomack of a Man ( so th●t I may elsewhere entertain you of the great heightning of some Emetick and Cathartick Simples in their operation , by their being reduc'd into Smoak , ) and that also probably the Operation of some Fumes and Odours may be much chang'd and improv'd by their not getting into the Body by the Mouth , but other parts ; I am inclinable to think that there might be made further use of them , if Physi●ians pleas'd , then hitherto has been . For I have made such trial of the Vertue of Sulphureous Smoak , to preserve some Liquors , as I was much pleas'd with . And not only Paracelsus , but Helmont highly extol , as a grand Specifick in fits of the Mother , the Smoak of the Warts that grow upon the Legs of Horses , conveigh'd to the parts suppos'd to be primarily affected . And I remember , that lately I met with a Gentleman curious and intelligent , who , as himself assur'd me , was by the Scurvy and ill condition'd Ulcers , and other obstinate distempers brought so low , that he was scarce able to turn himself freely in his Bed , and thereupon resolv'd against taking any more Physick , partly out of despair of recovery , and partly out of wearinesse of the tedious courses of Physick the Doctors had in vain made him passe thorow : But that some o● his Friends b●inging him a certain Surgeon , whom they affirm'd to have strangly cur'd many desperate dist●mpers , by wa●es very unusu●l and not troublesome to the Patient , this Gentleman was content to put himself into his Hands , the Surgeon promising that he would not give him any other Physick , but now and then a Cup of Sack by way of Cord●al ; his way of Cure being to fumigate the Patient very well ●very Morning with a certain Smoak , which th●t Gentleman th●nks , by what he took n●tice of , in the Pow●er that yeel●●d it , to have been some Vegetable substance . And with this Remedy in a short time he grew perfectly well , and came home a while since in very good health from a Voyage , which the confusions of his own Country invited him to make as far as the East-Indies . This Surgeon , whose name I cannot hit upon , dying suddenly , his secret ( which was try'd upon divers others besides this Gentleman ) is for ought we yet know , dead with him . [ But as for the efficacy that may be found in appropriated Fumes and Steams . We have more then once by barely unstopping and holding under her Nose a smal Phial of highly rectified Spirit of Sal Armoniack , or even of Hartshorn almost presently recover'd a Young Beauty I need not name to You ; out of strange Fits that were wont to take her more suddenly then those of the Falling Sicknesse , and were look'd upon as Epileptical , though perchance they were not meerly so . To which I shall adde , that a Lady that both You Pyrophilus and I know and love very well , though she have been long subject to violent and tedious Fits of the Head-ach , and though that distemper have since been much increas'd by a great concussion of her Head , occasion'd by the overturning of a Coach , yet she is wont presently to be relieved , barely by holding her Head a pretty while over a strong decoction of Thee , and breathing in the Steams of it . ] And now I am discoursing of Cures made by Steams , or other seemingly slight means , I must not pretermit a thing so remarkable , that if it were more generally known in Europe , I should think it somewh●t strange to find it so little reflected on by Physitians ; and that is the constant and almost suddain ceasing of the Plague , how raging soever , in the almost incredibly populous City of Grand Cayro in Aegypt towards the latter end of June , about which time in most Countries in our Hemisphere it is wont to spread fastest and be most rife . The t●uth of this is attested by so many Travellers of several Nations , that 't were injurious to doubt of it , and not only the Dexterous Mr R. whom y●u well know , and who lived at Cayro has confir'md to me the truth of it . But the Learned Prosper Alpinus , who both was an excellent Physitian , and spent many Years in Aegypt , gives us this particular account of it , Pestis Cayri atque in omnibus locis Aegypti invadere eos populos solet ineunte Sept●mbri mense , usque ad Junium : his enim omnibus mensibus , à S●ptembri ad Junium usque , Pestis aliunde per contagium illuc asportata eam gentem invadere solet : And after a few Lines , Junio vero mense , qualiscunque & quantacunque sit ibi Pestilentia , Sole primam Caneri partem ingrediente omnino tollitur , quod multis plane divinum esse non immerito videtur : Sed quod etiam valde mirabile creditur , omnia suppellectilia , Pestifero contagio infecta , tunc nullum Contagii effectum in eam gentem edunt ; ita ut tunc ea vobis in tutissimo & tranquillissimo statu reducatur , ex summe morboso : atque morbi particulares , sporadici , à Graecis vovati tunc apparere incipiunt , qui nusquam gentium tempore Pestis apparcbant . And in the next Chapter , inquiring at large into the causes of this Wonder , he denys it to proceed from the increase of the Nile , which happens to be coincident in point of time with the extinction of the Plague , because that the Infection ceaseth before the swelling of the River is considerable ; and ascribeth it rather to the alteration of the Air , produc'd by the Northernly Winds which then begin to blow , and some other Circumstances : speaking of which , Haec ( saith he ) per id temporis incipiunt observari à quibus fortasse non immerito causam extinctionis Pestis morbosique in salubrem statum mutationis pendere arbitror : quando nulla alia ex conservatricibus causis , quas vulgus medicorum res non naturales appellat , aëre excepto , ibi eo tempore appareat , in quam morbosi status in salubrem mutationem referre possumus : ideo necessartum erit hujusce mutationis causam Aëris mutationi acceptam referre , &c. Upon this Instance , Pyrophilus , I h●ve presum'd the longer to insist , because ( if you duly reflect on it ) you will , I suppose , discern , that it much credits and elucidates a great part of what hath been delivered in divers of the foregoing Leaves , concerning the possibility of Natures doing great matters against Diseases , without the help of gross and sensible Evacuations . CHAP. XV. ANd since we have represented a humane Body as an Engine , we shall adde , That it may be altered both for the better and for the worse , by such bare motions or impulses of external Bodies , as act but in a gross and confessedly Mechanical manner : For 't is known , that out of such speedily killing , unless seasonably remedy'd Distempers , as Fits of Swounding , Patients of either Sex are often recovered without any inward Medicine , by being barely pinch'd in several places . I , that have endured great and dangerous Sicknesses , have scarce ever found any so violent for the time , as that which the bare motion and smell of a Ship and Sea Air hath put me into , especially in rough weather , till I was somewhat accustomed to Navigation ; and yet this violent and weakning Sickness , as it was not produced by any peccant Humor in the Body , so it was quickly removed by the Air , and Quiet of the Shore , without the help of Physick . And the like may be observed more suddenly in the newly mentioned Instances of those in whom , as the bare agitation of a Coach will produce such violent Fits of Vomiting and such Faintness , that I have known some of them apprehend they should presently die ; so the bare cessation of that discomposing motion soon relieved them . We see in our Stables , what operation , the currying of them carefully , hath upon our Horses . And Helmont somewhere tells us , That himself , as I remember , could by the Milk of an Ass , tell whether she had been that day diligently curryed or no ; and so considerable an alteration in Milk should , me thinks , strongly argue , that a great one in the Blood or other Juice , of which the Blood is elaborated , and consequently in divers of the principal parts of the Body must have preceded it . But to prefer our consideration from the Bodies of Beasts to those of Men , 't is remarkable what Piso confesseth , the illiterate Brasilian Empericks are able to perform with Frictions , even as unskilfully as they order them : Mira equidem , saith he , tum tuendae sanitatis ergo , cum in plerisque morbis sanandis , f●ictione & unctione frequenti incolae praestant , illam in frigidioribus , & chronicis , hanc in acutioribus adhibentes . Quae remedia lubenter advenae imitantur , & ut par est , ex legibus artis haec & plura medendi Empiricorum genera moderantur . And as Galen himself highly extols a skilful Application of Cupping-glasses in the Colick ; so in Brasil they finde that the like Remedy is strangely successful : For Cholera sicca , saith our candid Piso in another place , eisdem fere Remediis ( of which he had been speaking ) curatur , maxime si regioni hepatis corneae cucurbitulae applicentur . De quibus merito hoc testor , quod Galenus de suis cucurbitulis , quas in Colico affectu incantamenti instar operari tradidit . We shall adde , for further confirmation , that notwithstanding all the horrid Symptomes that are wont to ensue upon the biting of that Poysonous Spider , the Tarantula , that lasting and formidable Disease , which often mocks all other Remedies , is by nothing so successfully oppos'd , as by Musick . Some determinate tune or other which proves suitable to the particular Nature of the Patients Body , or that of the Poyson producing there such a motion , or determination of some former motion of the Spirits , or the Humors , or both ; as by conducting the Spirits into the Ne●ves and Muscles inservient to the motion of the Limbs , doth make the Patient leap and dance till he have put himself into a Sweat , that breaths out much of the virulent Matter which hath been probably fitted for expulsion , by some change wrought in its Texture or Motion , or those of the Blood , by the Musick . For if Sweat and Exercise , as such , were all that relieved him , why might not Sudorificks , or le●ping without Musick , excuse the Need of Fidlers ? which yet is so great , that Kircher informs us , That the Apulian Magistrates are wont to give Stipends , at the publick charge , to such to relieve the Poor by their playing . And not onely He hath a memorable Story of Robertus Pantarus , a Tarantine Nobleman , whose Disease being not known to proceed from the biting of a Spider , could by no Remedies be cured ; he was at length , even upon the point of death , suddenly rel●ev'd , and by degrees restored to perfect health by the use of Musick : But Epiphanius Ferdinandus , in h●s accurate Observations concerning those bitten with the Tarantula , together with Mathiolus , and other Authors be●r witness thereunto , by resembling Narratives . Now that a Sound ( not barely as a sound , but as so modified ) may powerfully operate upon the Blood and Spirits , I , who am very Musically given , have divers times observ'd in my self , upon the hea●ing of certain Notes . And it might be made probable , both by that which we have formerly said of the effect of skreaking upon the Teeth and Gums , and by the Dancing Fit , into which not every Musical Sound , though never so loud , but some determinate Tune is wont to put the bitten Patien● . But it m●y be more manifestly prov'd , by the following testimony of our inquisitive Jesuite , wherein he affirms , That the Spiders themselves may , as well as those they have bitten , be made to Dance by Tunes , suited to their peculiar Constitutions . † And this I the less wonder at , because Epiphanius Ferdinandus himself , not onely tells us of a Man of 94 Years of age , and so weak that he could not go , unless supported by his Staff , who did , upon the hearing of Musick after he was bitten , immediately tall a dancing and capering like a Kid ; and affirms , That the Tarantula's themselves may be brought to leap and dance at the sound of Lutes , small Drums , Bagpipes , Fiddles , &c. but challenges those that believe him not to come and try , promising them an Ocular Conviction : and adds what is very memorable and pleasant , That not onely Men , in whom much may be ascribed to fancy , but other Animals being bitten may likewise , by Musick , be reduc'd to leap or dance : for he saith , He saw a Wasp , which being bitten by a Tarantula whil'st a Lutanist chanc'd to be by ; the Musician playing on his Instrument , gave them the sport of seeing both the Wasp and Spider begin to dance : annexing , That a bitten Cock did do the like . CHAP. XVI . I Might also , Pyrophilus , confirm what I told you , when I said , That Sickness may produce such an alteration in the Fabrick of the Body , as to make it capable to be very much affected , as well for the better as for the worse , by such things that would not scarce at all affect it if it were sound , from the consideration of those many and strange 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or Peculiarities , to be met with in some Persons in Sickness and in Health . For though many of these differences between healthy Men , are not likely to be greater then may be observ'd between the same Man when well , and himself as the Oeconomy of his Body may be dis-compos'd by some Distemper ; yet we often see , that some Persons have the Engine of their Body so fram'd , that it is wonderfully disordered by such things as either work not at all on others , or work otherwise on them : as it is common enough for Men to be hugely disturb'd , and some of them to fall into Fits of trembling or swooning , upon the sight or hearing of a Cat. And to such an affection I know a very eminent Commander obnoxious , Your late Unkle , the last Earl of Barrymore , a very gallant Noble Man , and who did his Country great Service in the Irish Wars , had the like apprehension for Tansey . I cannot see a Spider near me , without feeling a notable commotion in my Blood , though I never received harm from that sort of Creature , and have no such abhorring against Vipers , Toads , or other venomous Animals . You know an excellent Lady ( marryed to a Great Person that hath more then once govern'd Ireland ) whose Antipathy to Hony , which is much talked of in that Country , hath display'd it self upon several occasions : notwithstanding which , her experienc'd Physitian imagining that there might be something of conceipt in her Aversion , took an opportunity to satisfie himself , by mixing a little Hony , with other Ingredients , of a Remedy which he applyed to a very slight and inconsiderable cut or scratch , which she chanced to get on h●r Foot ; but he soon repented of his Curiosity , upon the strange and unexpected disorder which his ( in other cases innocent ) Medicine produc'd , and which ceasing upon the removal of that , and application of other ordinary Remedies , satisfied him , That those Symptomes were to be imputed to the Hony , and not the bare hurt . The same excellent Lady , I remember , complained to me , That when she was troubled with Coughs , all the Vulgar , Pectoral and Pulmoniack Remedies did her no good , so that she could find relief in nothing but either the Fume of powdred Amber , taken with convenient Hearbs in a Pipe , or that Balsamum Sulphuris which we have already taught you in this Essay . [ I know a Person of Quality , tall and strongly made , who lately asked my Opinion , Whether , when he had need of Vomit , he should continue to make use of Cauphy , in regard it wrought so violently with him : This gave me the occasion , as well as curiosity , of enquiring particularly both of Himself and his Lady , concerning this odde Operation of Cauphy upon him ; and I was told , That an ordinary Wine-glass full of the usual warm decoction of Cauphy , boyl'd in common Water , was wont , within about two hours , to prove emetick with him , and before Noon did give him eight , ten , or sometimes twelve Vomits , with so much violence , that he was less affected by the infusion of Crocus metallorum , or other usual emeticks , and therefore was deliberating whether he should not change Cauphy for some of them , though finding its Operation very certain , he had for some Years accustomed himself to take that Vomit : And that which is also remarkable in this m●tter , is , that he tells me , That scarce any Vomit is more troublesome to him to take , then that above-mentioned ●s grown of late , so that even the odour of Cauphy , as he passeth by Cauphy-houses in the Street , doth make him sick ; and yet that Simple is to most Men so far from being Vomitive , that it is by eminent Physiti●ns , and in some cases not without cause , much extoll'd as a strengthner of the Stomack . And this very Gentleman , himself , used it a pretty while against the Fumes that offended his Head , without finding any Vomitive Quality at all in it . ] The Books of sober and learned Physitians , afford us Examples of divers such , and of much more strange Peculiarities , and likewise of such Persons who having desires of certain things very extravagant , and even absur'd ( ordinarily not onely improper , but hurtful to their Distempe●s ) have been cured by the use of them , of very dangerous and sometimes hopeless Diseases : Of which kinde of Cures I may also elsewhere tell you what I have observed , and some credit may be brought to such Relations , by what we ordinarily see more greedily devoured ( without much harm ) by longing Women , and Maids troubled with the Green-sickness . But now , Pyrophilus , since the Engine of an humane Body thus appears to be so fram'd , th●t it is capable of receiving great alterations from such unlikely things as those we have been mentioning , Why should we h●stily conclude against the efficacy of Specificks , taken into the Body , upon the bare account of their not operating by any obvious quality , if they be recommended unto u● , upon th●ir own experience by s●ber and faithful Persons ? And that scarce sensible quantities of M●tter , having once obtained access to the mas● of Blood ( which is very easily d●ne by the Circulation ) may , by the contrary and swift motion , and by the Figure of the Corpusc●es it consists of , give such a new and unnatural impe●iment or determination to the motion of the Blood , or so dis-compose either its Texture , or that of the Heart , Brain , Liver , Spleen , or some such principal part of the Body ( as a spark of Fire reduceth a whole Barrel of Gun-powder , to obey the Laws of its motion , and become Fire too ; or as a little Leaven is able , by degrees , to turn the greatest lump of Dow into Leaven ) need be manifested by nothing , but the Operations of such Poysons as work not by any of those ( which Physitians are pleased to call ) Manifest Qualities . For though I much fear , that most of those th●t have written concerning Poysons , supposing that M●n would rather believe then try what they relate , have allowed themselv●s to deliver many things more strange then true ; yet the known effects of a very small quantity of Opium , or of Arsenick , of the scarce discernable hurt made by ● Vipers Tooth , and especially of the biting of a mad Dog ( which sometimes , by less of his Spittle then would weigh half a Grain , subdues a whole great Ox into the like m●dness , and produceth truly-wonderful Symptomes both in Mens Bodies and Beasts ) are sufficient to evince what we p●oposed . And that Man's Body may be as well sometimes cured , as we see it too often discompos'd , by such little proportions of M●tt●r , m●y ( not now to mention the questionable Vertu●s ●scrib'd to many Antidotes ) be gathered from that Expe●iment , so common in Italy and elsewhere , of curing the invenom'd biting of Scorpions , by anointing the bitten and tumid place with common Oyl , wherein store of Scorpions have been drown'd and steep'd . And a resembling Example of the Antidotal Vertue , wherewith Nature hath enrich'd some Bodies , is given us by the above-commended Piso , in his Medicina Brasiliensis , where ( treating of the Antidotal Efficacy of the famous Brasilian Herb Nhanby , eaten upon an empty Stomack ) he adds this memorable Story ; That he himself saw a Brasilian , who having caught an over-grown Toad , and swell'd with Poyson ( such a one as Brasilians call Cururu ) which useth to be as big again as the European Toad , and desperately venomous ( which perhaps our Toads are not ) he presently killed him , by dropping on his back the Juice of the Flowers and Leaves of that admirable Plant. And you may remember , that the same Author formerly told us , in effect , that as great and salutary changes may be produced even in humane Bodies , where he relates , That he had known those that had eaten several sorts of Poyson , Snatch'd , in a trice , from imminent death , by onely drinking some of the Infusion of the Root he calls Jaborandi ; and this , after I know not how many Alexipharmaca and Theriacal Antidotes had been fruitlesly administred . You will perchance tell me , Pyrophilus , that these three or four last Instances are of Poysonous Distempers and their Antidotes ; not of ordinary Diseases , and their Specifick Remedies . But to th●s I have a double Answer : and First , Many of those Distempers that proceed from Poyson , are really Diseases , and both call'd by that Name , and treated of , as such , by Physitians . And indeed they may well look upon them but as Diseases , exasperated by a virulent Malignity , which yet appears to be not always easily distinguishable from that of Diseases that proceed not from Poyson , by this , That otherwise the Physitians of Princes and great Men , if after having considered all the inward Parts of their dis-bowell'd Patients , could not so often doubt and dispute , as they do , whether or no Poyson were accessary to their death . And Piso ( who learn'd divers of their detestable Secrets from the Brasilians ) relates , That some of them are so skilful in the cursed Art of tempering and allaying their Poysons , that they will often hinder them from disclosing their deleterial Nature for so long a time , that the subtle Murtherers do as unsuspectedly as fatally , execute their Malice or Revenge . These Diseases indeed are wont to differ in this from Surfeits , and other resembling ordinary Diseases ; that in the one , the venomous matter that produceth the Disease , is at first much more small , then in the other the morbifick Matter is wont to be . But the activity of this little quantity of hostile Matter doth make it so pernicious , that the Disorders it produceth in the Body , being much greater then that of ordinary Sicknesses is ; the cure of such Distempers is the fitter to manifest how powerfully Nature may be succour'd , by Remedies that work not by first or second Qualities , since such are able to deliver Her from Diseases heightned by a peculiar and venomous malignity . To this first I shall subjoyn my next , which is , That divers Passages of the former Discourse ( especially what we have related concerning the cure of Agues , of the Rickets , and of the Kings-Evil ) may satisfie you , That even of ordinary Diseases ( some at least ) may be as well cured by Specificks , as those produced by Poyson are by Antidotes . You may also say , Pyrophilus , But what if a recommended Sp●cifick do not onely seem unable to produce the promised Eff●ct , but have Qualities , which according to our Notions of the nature of the Disease , seem likely to conspire with it and increase it ? I Answer , First , That though it is better for a Patient to be cured by a rashly an● unskilfully given Medicine , then to die under the use of the most skilfully administred Physick ; yet that the Physitian who looseth h●s Patient , a●ter having done all that his Art prescribed to save him , deserves more commendation then he th●t luckily ch●nceth to cure his Patient by an irrational course . And therefore in such a case as you put , Pyrophilus , I think the Physitian ought to be very well satisfied of the matter of Fact , before he venture to try such a Remedy , especially if more ordinary and unsuspected means have not been imploye● and found ineffectual ; for it is not one lucky Cure that ought to recommend to a wary Physitian the use of a Remedy , whose dangerous Qual●ty seems obvious , whereas its vertue must be credited upon Report . But then secon●ly , If the Physiti●n be duly s●tisfied of the efficacy of the Remedy , upon a co●petent number and variety of Patients , I suppose he m●y , without ●ashness , make use of such Remedies at least , where ordinary Medicines have been already fruitlesly try'd . CHAP. XVIII . THat you may cease to wonder at my daring to say this , Pyrophilus , I must offer to you three or four Particulars . And first , it is manifest to those that are inqu●sitive , Th●t the true Nature an● Causes of several Dise●ses , are much less certain , and much more disputed of among the Doctors themselves , then those that are not inquisitive imagine : Nor is the method of curing divers particular Diseases more setled & agreed on , that depending chiefly upon the knowledg of those C●uses , which as I was saying , are controverted . 'T is not that I am either an Enemy to Method in Physick , or an Undervaluer of it ; but I fear the generality of Physiti●ns for I intend not , nor need not all along this Essay speak of them all have as yet but an imperfect Method , and have , by the narrow P●inciples they were taught in the Schools , been perswaded to frame their Method rather to the barren Principles of the Pe●ipatetick School , then to the full amplitude of Nature . Nor do I finde that Physitians have yet done so fit a thing , as seriously ( and with the attention which the impo●tance of the thing deserves ) on the one side , to enumerate and distinguish the several Causes , that may any whit probably be assign'd , how the Phaenomena of that disordered state of the humane Body , which we call a Disease , or its Symptomes , may be produced . And on the other side , by how many and how differing ways the Phaenomena may be removed , or the D●seases they belong to destroy'd : And if this were analytically and carefully done , I little doubt but that Mens knowledge of the Nature and Causes of Diseases , and the ways of curing them , would be less circumscrib'd and more ●ff●ctu●l then now it is wont to be . And I am apt to think , that even Methodists would then finde that there divers probable , if not promising Methods ( proper to divers ca●es ) whi●h Ways they yet over-look : And though in a right sense it be true , that the Physitian is but Natures Minister , and is to comply with Her , who aims always at the best ; yet if we take them in the sense those Expressions are vulgarly used in , I may elsewhere acquaint You with my Exceptions at them , and in the mean time confess to you , That I know not whether they have not done harm , and hindred the advancement of Physick , fascinating the mindes of Men , and keeping them from those effectual Courses , whereby they may potently alter the Engine of the Body ; and by rectifying the Motion and Texture of its Parts , both consistent and fluid , may bring Nature to their bent , and accustom Her to such convenient Courses of the Blood and other Juices , and such fit times and ways of evacuating ( what is noxious or superfluous &c. ) as may prevent or cure divers stubborn Diseases , more happily then the vulgar Methodists are wont to do . And indeed , it is scarce to be expected , that till men have a better Knowledg of the Principles of Natural Philosophy , without which 't is hard to arrive at a more comprehensive Theory of the various possible causes of Diseases , and of the contrivance and uses of the parts of the Body , the Method which supposes this Knowledg should be other then in many things defective , and in some erroneous , as I am apt to think , the vulgar Method may be shewn to be as to some particular Diseases . Of this I may perhaps elsewhere acquaint you more particularly with my suspicions , and therefore I shall now only mention the last Observation of this kind I met with , which was in a Gentleman , You and I very well know , who being for some Months much troubled with a difficulty of breathing , and having been unsuccesfully treated for it by very Eminent Physitians , we at last suspected , that 't was not the Lungs , but the Nerves that serv'd to move the Diaphragme and other Organs of respiration , upon whose distemper this suppos'd Asthma depended , and accordingly by a taking or two of a Volatile Salt of ours , which is very friendly to the genus Nervosum , he vvas quickly freed from his trouble some distemper , which afterwards he was fully perswaded did not proceed from any stuffing up of the Lungs . To be short , how much esteem soever we have for Method , yet since that it self and the Theories whereon men ground it , are , as to divers particular Diseases , so hotly disputed of ; even among Eminent Physitians , that in many cases a man may discerne more probability of the successe of the Remedy , then of the truth of the received Notion of the Disease ; In such abstruse cases me-thinks it were not amiss to reflect upon that reasoning of the auncient Empericks ( though on a somewhat differing occasion ) which is thus somewhere express'd by Celsus : Neque se dicere consilio medicum non egere , & irrationabile Animal hanc artem posse praestare , sed has latentium rerum conjecturas ad rem non pert nere ; Quia non intersit , quid morbum faciat , sed quid tollat . And as the controverted Method in the abovemention'd Diseases is not yet establish'd or agreed on in the Schools themselves , so divers of those that are wholly strangers to those Schools , do yet by the help of Experience and good Specificks , and the Method their Mother-wit does , according to emergencies , prompt them to take , perform such considerable cures , that Piso sticks not to give this Testimony to the utterly Unlearned Brasilian Empericks . Interim , saies he , seniores & exercitatiores eximii sunt Botanici , facilique negotio omnis generis medicamina ex undiquaque in sylvis conquisitis conficiunt . Quae tanta sagacitate internè & externè illos adhibere videas , praecipuè in morbis à veneno natis , ut quis illorum manibus tutius & securius se tradat , quam medicastris nostris sciolis , qui secreta quaedam in umbra nata atque educata crepant perpetuo , & ob has Rationales dici volunt . Secondly , There are divers Medicines , which though they want not some one quality or other proper to encrease the Disease against which they are administr'd , are yet confidently us'd by the most judicious Doctors , because that they are also inrich'd with other qualities , whereby they may do much more good then their noxious quality can do harm ; as in a Malignant Fe●ver , t●ough the distemper be Hot , and though Treacle an● s●●e other Antidotal Su●or ficks be hot also , y●t they are usefu●●y admin●stred in such Dise●s●s , because the reliefe they bring th● p●tient by oppugning the Malignity of the pecc●nt matter , an● perhaps by easing him of some of it by sweat , is more consi●erable then the h●rm they can do him , by encreasing for a while his He●t . The very experienced Bontius , Chief Physiti●n to the Dutch Plantation in the East - Indies ; in his Methodus medendi Indica , Treating of the Spasmus , which ( though here unfrequent ) he reckons among the Endemial Diseases of the Indies , commends the Use of Quercetanus's Laudanum , of Philonium , and principally of an Extract of Opium●nd ●nd Safron , which he describes and much Extols ; and le●st h●s Readers should scruple at so strange a prescription , he a●●s this memorable passage to our present pu●pose . Fortaf●●s ( sues he ) Sciolus quispiam negabit his remediis , propter vim stupefactivam ac narcoticum nervisque inimicam , esse utendum . Speciosa quidem haec prima fronte videntur sed tamen vana s●nt . Nam praeterquam quod calidissima hujus Climatis t●mp●r●es non requirat , certissimum est in tali necessitate : sine his aeg●um evadere non posse . Adde quod nos tam rite Opium hic praeparamus ut vel infanti innoxie detur : & sane ut verbo ab●●lvam● si Opiata hic nobis de●ssent in morbis calidis hic grass●ntibus frustra remedia adhiberemus quod etsi imperitis durum , ex progr●ssu tamen me nihil tem●re dix●sse pat●bit . The drincking freely , especially if the Dr●nk be cold Water , is usually ( and in most c●ses , nor w●thout much reason : ) strictly forbidden , as very hurtful for the Dropsie , and yet those that frequent the Spaa , tell us of great cures perform'd by pouring in plenty of Waters ●nto the Patients already distended Belly ; and I know a Person of great Quality , and Vertue , who being by an obstinate Dropsy , besides a complic●tion of other formidable diseases , brought to a desperate condition , was advis'd to Drink Tunbridg Waters , when I happn'd to be there , by her very skilful Physitian : Who told me , that the Doctors having done all their Art could direct them unto in vain , she would be cur'd by Death , if she were not by these Waters ; from whence ( the weather proving very seasonable for that sort of Physick ) she return'd in so prosperous a condition of recovery , as exacted both his and my wonder . That the Decoction of so heating a Simple as Guajacum ; would be lookt upon by the generality of Physitians , both Galenists and Chymists , as a dangerous Medicine in P●hisical and other consumptions , you will easily grant : and yet some eminent Physitians , and ( particularly Spaniards ) tell us of wonderful cures they have perform'd in desperate Ulcers of the Lungs by the long use of this Decoction , notwithstanding it s manifestly and troublesomely heating Quality . And I know a Physitian eminently learn'd , and much more a Methodist , then a Chymist , who assures me , that he has made trial of this unlikely way of curing Consumptions with a successe that has much recommended these Paradoxical Spaniards to him . 'T is also believ'd , and not without cause , by Physitians , that Mercury is wont to prove a great enemy to the Genus nervosum , and often produces Palseys , and other distempers of the Brain and Nerves : and yet one of the exactest and happiest Methodists I know , has confess'd to me , that Mercurial preparations are those which he uses the most succesfully in Paralytical and the like distempers of what Physitians call the Genus nervosum . And on this occasion , I remember , that a Gentlewoman being confin'd to her Bed by a Dead Palsey , that had seis'd on on● side of her Body , a Physitian eminent for his Books and Cures , giving her a dose of a certain Preparation of Mercury , corrected with a little Gold , which I put into his hands for that purpose , was pleas'd to bring me word , that by the first taking of the Powder , which wrought but gently by Siege , without either Vomits or Salivation , she was enabled the same or the next day to quit her Bed , and walk about the Room . Thirdly there are many things which seem to be against reason whilst they are barely propos'd and not prov'd for which we afterwards discerne very good reason : when experience , having satisfied us they are really true , has both invited us , and assisted us to enquire into their causes . Of this we have elsewhere given divers not Medical Instances in our ESSAY Concerning improbable Truths : And I coul● easily enough , if I du●st be tedious , give you some Medical Illustrations of the s●me truth . But I dare now only invite you to consider th●s one thing , which may be of g●eat use to explicate many others , both in Natural Philosophy , and in Physick too , which is , Th●t ●here are divers Concretes , some of them as to Sense , Similar , or Homogeneous , whose differing parts are endow'd with very differing and sometimes contrary Qualities . And this not only appeares in the Chymical Analysis of Bodies made by the fi●e , where the difference of what Chym●sts call the separate● Principles of Concretes is often ve●y manifest and g●eat , but ev'n in divers Bodies that h●ve not been resolv'd by the violence of the Fire ; as is evident in Rhubarb taken in substance , whose subtiler parts are purging , and its terrestrial astringent : Nay , if those parts which do in much the lesse quantity concurre to the constitution of the concrete do but meet with a Body dispos'd to receive their Impressions , it is very possible , that they may work more powerfully on it then the other Parts of the same Concrete , of which the Eye judgeth it altogether to consist . This I have made out to some ingenious Men , by shewing , that though Sallet Oyl be generally reputed to consist of Fat and Unctuous Particles , and therefore to be a great resister of Corrosion ; yet it containes in it sharp and piercing parts , which meeting with a disposed subject , do more powerfully operate then the more purely Oleaginous ones . As we endeavoured to evince by keeping for a short while in a gentle warmth , some pure Oyl-Olive , upon a quantity of Filings of ev'n crude Copper : For from them the Liquor extracted an high Tincture betwixt Green and Blew , like that which such Filings would have given to Distill'd Vineger , which according to Chymists Notions obtains that Colour , by making with its Acid and Corrosive Salt a real solution of some part of the Copper , as may appear by the recoverablenesse of the metal out of it . Another proof or two of the Acrimony of some of the parts of Oyl we may elswhere give you . But now we shall rather confirme our Answer to your Question , by two or three Examples of Cures perform'd by unlikely Remedies . I went once to visit an Ingenious Helmontian , whom I found Sick on his Bed , and having by the Symptomes of his Disease , discern'd it to be a Pleurisy , I talk'd with him of seasonably opening a Veine , but he was resolv'd against it , and told me he would cure himself by a remedy , which at first seems as likely to encrease such a disease as Phlebotomy is to cure it , namely by the use of Helmonts Laudanum Opiatum which in effect did in three or four daies cure him , and since he without Blood letting cur'd some others with it ; which I the lesse wonder at , because of my having observ'd that Opium ( with which unskilful men seldome tamper without danger ) if duely corrected and prepared proves sometimes a great resolver , and commonly a great Sudorifick insomuch , that I have known it make a person copiously sweat , who often complain'd to me , that other Diaphoreticks had no such operation on him . I have oftentimes seen Coughs strangly abated by the use of a Remedy , which I have not long since told you , how I prepare : and with which ( I remember ) in a pretty Child you ( Pyrophilus ) know , and who is now very well , I was so happy as to represse in a few Houres a violent Cough , that threatned her with Speedy Death , and yet this Medicine has so eminent a saltnesse , that the Tongue can scarce suffer it ; and how much the use of Salt things is by many Physitians condem'd in Coughs ( and indeed in many cases not without Reason ) I need not tell You. And with exceedingly piercing Essence or Spirit of Mans Blood , I have known , notwithstanding its being very Saline , and it s manifestly heating the Patient , especially for the first Four or Five daies , strange things perform'd even in a deplorable and hereditary Consumption . This Pyrophilus brings into my mind , something , that , it may be , you will think odde , which is , that hav●ng had occasion to advise for a person of high quality , with a very ancient Galenist , that in his own Country was look'd upon as almost an Oracle , and particularly in reference to Phthisical Consumptions , which was there a vulgar Disease , He confessed to me , that though his having fallen into it himself , made him very solicitous to find a cure for it ; and though he had in his long and various practise , made trial of great variety of Methods and Remedies for the cure of that Disease , yet that with which he cur'd himself , and afterwards the generality of his chief Patiens was principally Sulphur melted , and mingled , in a certain proportion to make it fit to be taken , in a Pipe , with beaten Amber or a Cephalick Herb. The particular circumstances of his Method , I cannot now set you down , not having by me the Paper wherein they were Noted , but if I mistake not the Herb , with which he mingl'd the Brimstone or Flower of Sulphur was Coltsfoot or Betony ; and I well remember , that what he look'd upon as the chief and specifick Remedy in his way of curing , was the smoak of the Sulphur ; the other ingredients being added , not so much for their being proper enough for the Disease , as their helping to fill the Pipe , and thereby to allay the pungency , wherewith the Smoak , if afforded by a Pipe fill'd with Brimstone alone , would be qualify'd . But yet this Sulphureous Smoak is so predominant in the Remedy , that he us'd to have a Syrrup in readiness to ●elieve those , whom the Acrimony of the Fumes should make very sore , and perhaps blister on the one side of their Mouthes , or Throats , which accident he provided for , by that cooling and healing Syrrup , without being thereby discourag'd from prosecuting the cure with the same Remedy ; wherewith a person very Curious and Rich , has solemnly assur'd me , that himself has cur'd divers Consumptions , and particularly in a Lady , even in health very Lean , that he nam'd to me , as being one I then knew . Now we know that Physitians generally , and in most cases justly , forbid Acid things to those that have exulcerated or tender Lungs , and how highly Acid and piercing the Smoak of Sulphur is , the Chymists can best tell you , who by catching it and condensing it in Glasses shap'd almost like Bells obtain from it that very corrosive Liquor , which readily dissolves Iron , being the very same that is commonly call'd Oleum Sulphuris per campanam , and yet it seems that either the Theory of Consumptions is misunderstood , or that the drying quality of the Sulphureous steam , and its great power to resist putrefaction , and as it were embalm the Lungs and season the Blood are considerable enough to account for the Harm which its Acidity may do . Eeles are so commonly eaten by Persons of both Sexes without being taken notice of for any Quality , except their Crudity , that one would scarce believe such a stinking and odious Medicine as that of their Livers and Galls dried slowly in an Oven should be more proper for any thing , then to make the taker Vomit ; and yet Helmont in divers places speaks of this Medicine as if it had ke●t multitudes of Women from dying of hard Labour . And since him , Panarola in his New Observations highly extols it . And I knew a very famous Emperick , who had very few other Secrets , and scarce any one so great to get Reputation and Mony by . And I remember also , That some years since I had occasion to give it to the Wife of a very ingenious Physitian , of whom the Midwives and her Husband almost despair'd , and ( as she afterwards told me her self ) each Dose made her throwes ( which before had left her ) returne , and at length she was safely delivered she scarce knew how . But I found double the Dose prescrib'd by Helmont , requisite to be used at last ; and that the quantity of a Walnut of the Powder of these Livers given in Rhenish or White-wine , and when the Stomack was most empty , was no more then such a case required . Scorpions being Venomous Creatures , to suffocate and infuse them in Oyl might seem the way to make it Poysonous , if experience did not assure us , that th●s Oyl is so far from being such , that it Cures the invenom'd bitings of Scorpions , which effect now that Physitians find it upon trial to be true , they confesse to be rational , and ascribe it , how justly I now examine not to the attraction of the Poyson received into the Body , by that which is outwardly applied to the hurt . And Piso informes us that amongst the Brasilians , whose country is so much infested with Venomous Creatures 't is the most general Cure to draw out the Poyson by applying to the hurt the beaten Body of the Beast that gave it . As likewise in Italy , they account the crushing of the very Scorpion that has bit a Man upon the bitten place for a most speedy and effectual Remedy . And I remember that here in England the Old man , whom you have seen going about with Vipers , Toads , &c. to sell , tol'd me that when he was dangerously bitten by a Viper and all swel'd by the Poyson of it a g●eat part of his cure was the outward application of Venomous Creatures stamp'd 'till they were brought to a Consistence fit for that purpose . That Fluxes are the general and Endemical Diseases in Ireland , I need not tell you ; and yet I remember , that having occasion to consult the ancientest and most experienc'd Physitian of that Nation Dr F. about the cure of it , he assur'd me , that though during his very long Practice he had found divers Remedies very prosperous , some on one sort of Patients , and some on another ; yet the Medicine he most relied on , was this . To take unsalted Butter , and boil it gently 'till a pretty part were consum'd , Skimming it diligently from time to time , whil'st it stands over the fire , and of this Butter melted , to give now and then a considerable quantity , according as the Patient is able to bare it . A Remedy which at the first proposal may seem more likely to put a man into a Flux then to cure him of one . And yet the same Remedy which he suppos'd to benefit by mitigating the sharp humours and preserving the Entrals from their Corrosion was afterwards much commended to me by another antient Irish Physitian , who was esteemed among the Doctors the next in Eminency to him that I have named . CAP. XIX . I Should not here , Pyrophilus , adde any thing to what I have allready said above in favour of the use of even odde Specificks , but that finding at every turn , that the main thing , which does ( really or in pretence ) prevail with many Learned Physitians ( especially in a famous University You have visited abroad ) to reject Specificks , is , That they cannot clearly conceive the distinct manner of the Specificks working , and think it utterly improbable , that such a Medicine which must passe through Digestions in the Body , and be whirl'd about with the Mass of Blood to all the parts , should , neglecting the rest , shew it self Friendly to the Brain , for instance , or the Kidnies , and fall upon this or that Juyce or Humor , rather then any other . But to this Objection which I have propos'd as plausible as I can readily make it , I shall at present but briefly offer , according to what has been hitherto discours'd , these two things . And First , I would demand of these Objectors a clear and satisfactory , or at least an intelligible explication of the manner of working of divers other Medicaments that do not passe for Specificks , as how Rhubarb Purges Choler , and Hellebor Melancholly rather then other Humou●s , how some Medicines that have endur'd a strong fire , as Antimonium Diaphoreticum , and Bezoardicum minerale well made , are yet oftentimes strongly Sudoririck ; why the infusion of Crocus Metallorum or of Glasse of Antimony , though it acquire no pungent , or so much as manifest t●st , whereby to velicate the Palat or the Tongue , are yet violently both Vomitive and Cath●rtick ; And how Mercury , which is innoxiously given in many cases Crude to Women in labour and others , does e●sily acquire , besides many other more abstruse Medicinal Qualities , not only an Emetick and Purgative , but a Salivating faculty . For I confesse , that to me , even many of the vulgar Operations of common Drugs seem not to have been h●therto intelligibly explain'd by Physitians , who are yet , for ought I have observ'd , to seek for an account of the manner , how Diureticks , how Sudorificks , how Sarcoticks , and how many other familiar sorts of Medicines , which those that consider them but slightly are wont to think they understand throughly , perform their operations . Nay , I much question , whether the generality of Physitians can yet give us a satisfactory account , why any sort of Medicine purges in general : And he that in particular will shew me , where either the Peripatetick or Galenical Schools , have intelligibly made out , why Rhubarb does particularly purge Choler , and Senna more peculiarly Phlegm , Erit mihi magnus Apollo . For I see not how from those narrow and barren Principles of the four Elements , the four Humours , the four first Qualities ( and the like ; ) Effects , far lesse abstruse then the Operations of Purging Medicines , can satisfactorily be deduc'd . Nor can I find , that any thing makes those Physitians , that are unacquainted with the Philosophy that explains things by the Motions , Siz●s , and Figures of little Bodies , imagine they understand the account upon which some Medicines are Purgative , others Emetick , &c. And some Purgative in some Bodies , Vomitive in other , and both Purgative and Vomitive in most ; but because they never attentively enquire into it . But ( which is the next thing I have to represent ) if we duely make use of those fertile and comprehensive Principles of Philosophy , the Motions , Shapes , Magnitudes and Textures of the Minute parts of Matter , it will not perhaps be more difficult to shew , at least in general , that Specificks may have such Operations , as are by the judicious and experienc'd ascrib'd to them , then it will be for those that acquiesce in the vulgar Principles of Philosophy and Physick , to render the true Reasons of the most obvious and familiar operations of Medicines . And though the same Objection that is urg'd to prove , That a Specifick cannot befriend the Kidnies , for Example , or the Throat , rather then any other parts of the Body , lies against the noxiousness of Poysons to this or that determinate part ; Yet experience manifests that some Poysons do respect some particular part of the Body , without equally ( if at all sensibly ) offending the rest : as we see that Cantharides in a certain Dose are noxious to the Kidnies and Bladder , Quicksilver to the Throat , and the glanduls thereabouts , Strammoneum , to the Brain , and Opium to the Animal Spirits and Genus Nervosum . And if You call to mind , what we have formerly deduc'd to make it out , That a Humane Body is an Engine , and that Medicines operate in it as finding it so ; we need not think it so strange , that there being many Strainers , if I may so call them , of differing Textures , such as the Liver , Spleen , and Kidnies , and perhaps divers local Ferments residing in particular parts , and a Mass of Blood continually streaming through all the parts of the Body , a Medicine may be quickly by the Blood carried from any one part to any other , and the Blood , or any Humour mingl'd with it , may be as easily carried to the Medicine , in what parts soever it be , and the Remedy thus admitted into the Masse of Blood , may in its passage through the Strainers , be so alter'd , either by leaving some of its parts there , or by having them alter'd by the abovemention'd Ferments , or by being associated with some other Corpuscles , it may meet within its passage ; whereby the Size , or Figure , or Motion of its small parts may be chang'd , or in a word it may by some of those many other waies , which might , if this ESSAY were not too Prolix already , be propos'd , and deduc'd , receive so great an Alteration , in reference either to some or other of the Strainers , or other firmer parts of the Body , or to the distemper'd Blood , or some other fluid and peccant matter , that it needs not seem impossible , That by that time the Medicine ( crumbl'd as it were into Minute Corpuscles ) arrives at the part or humour to be wrought upon , it may have a notable Operation there . I mean Part as well as Humour , because the Motion , Size , or Shape of the Medicinal Corpuscles in the Blood , though not by sense distinguishable from the rest of the Liquor they help to compose , may be so conveniently qualify'd as to shape , bulk , and motion , as to restore the Strainers to their right Tone or Texture , as well as the Blood to its free and Natural course , by resolving and carrying away with them such tenacious matter , as stuff'd , or choak'd up the slender passages of the Strainer , or at least Straitned its pores , or vitiated their Figure ; And the same Sanative Corpuscles may perchance be also fitted to stick to , and thereby to strengthen such Fibres of the Strainers , or such other firmer parts of the Body , as may need congruous Corpuscles to fill up their little unsupply'd C●vities . Meats that are Salt , and Ta●tareous , whilst they are whirled about in the Mass of Blood , may by the other part of th●t Vital Liquor be so diluted and kept asunder so , as no● to be offensive to any part : When they come to be separated by the Parenchyma of the Kidnies , from the sweet●r parts of the Blood , that did before temper and allay them , they easily , by their Saline pungency , offend the tender Ureters and Membranous Bladders of those that are troubl'd with the Stone or Strangurie . And perchance 't is upon some such account , that Cantharides are more noxious to the Bladder then to other parts of the Body . And as S●lt meat thus growes peculiarly offensive to the Reins and Bladder ; so a Specifick , dispos'd to be dissolv'd , after a peculiar manner , may , in the Body , either preserve or acquire , as to its Minute parts , a friendly congruity to the Pores of the Kidnies , Liver , or other Strainers equally , when distemper'd ; as I formerly observ'd to You , that New-milk sweetned with Sugar-candy , though it be not wont sensibly to affect ●ny other p●rt of the Body ; nor would have sensibly affected the Kidnies themselve● , had they not been d●sorder'd , yet after the t●oublesome operation of Cantharides , it ha● a very friendly effect upon the distemper'd Parts ; Thus a Specifick , for one Disease , may be resolved in the Body into Minute particles of ●uch Figure and Motion , that being fit to stick to other Corpuscles of peccant matter , which , by their vehement agitation , or other offensive qualities di●compose the Body and make it Feavouri●h , may allay their vehement Motion , and by altering them , as to bigness and shape , give them new and innocent qualities , instead of those noxious ones they had before . Another Specifick may dissolve the Gross and Slimy Humours that obstruct the narrow passages of the Veins ; as I have observ'd that Spirit of Harts-horn , wh●ch powerfully opens other obstructions , and resolves stuffing Phlegm in the Lungs , will also , though more slowly , resolve prepar'd Flowers of Sulphur , crude Copper , and divers other Bodies ; and also it may , by mortifying the Acid Spirit that oftentimes causes coagulations in the Blood , restore that Vital Liquor to its Fluidity and free Circulation , and thereby remove divers formidable Diseases , which seem to proceed from the Coagulation , or Ropinesse of the Blood ; and on the other side , the Minute parts of some Specificks , against a contrary Disease , may somewhat thicken and fix the two thin and agitated parts of the Blood , or of some peccant matter in it , by associating themselves therewith : as the nimble parts of pu●e Spirits of Wine , and those of high rectify'd Spirit of Urine , will concoagulate into Corpuscles , bigger and far less Agile . And the same Spirit of Wine it self , with another Liquor I make , will presently concoagulate into a kind of soft , but not fluid Substance . Nor is it so hard to conce●ve , that a Specifick may work upon a determinate Part or Humour , and let the others alone : as if you put , for instance , an Egge into strong Vinegar , the Liquor will operate upon and dissolve all the hard shell , and yet leave the tender skin untouch'd ; And if you cast Coral into the common rectify'd Spirit of Tartar , the far greater part of the Liquor , though strong and spirituous , will remain unalter'd thereby , and may be , integris viribus , abstracted from it ; but the Coral will presently find out , or rather be found out by Acid or Acetuous Particles , and by incorporating it self with them , take aw●y their sharpness : as in some cases Coral has been observ'd to do to Sower Humours abounding in Humane Bo●ies , those Humours being easily , by the Circulating Blood , brought ( in their passage ) to the Coral , whilst it perhaps remains in the Stomack or Guts . And though the Circulation of the Blood be sufficient to bring , little by little , the Acid Particles of that Liquor in its passage through the Vessels to work upon Coral ; yet in other Medicines the Operation may be more nimble : The Remedy quickly diffusing it self through the Mass of Blood , to seek , as it were , and destroy the Acid parts , which it meets with blended with the rest of the Liquor ; as Spirit of Urine being instead of Coral put into the above mention'd Spirit of Tartar will not ( that I have observ'd ) fasten it self to the Spirituous nor the Phlegmatick parts of the Liquor , but only to the Acid ones , which it will Mortifie or deprive of their Sowerness by concoagulating with them . And I see not why it should be more inconceivable that a Specifick should have a peculiar Vertue to free the Body from this or that peccant Humour , and a benign congruity to the distemper'd Spleen or Liver , then that some Cathartick should purge Electively , and some Antidotes have peculiar Vertues against such Poysons , whose Malignity particularly invades the Brain or Kidnies , or some other determinate part : the former of which the Physitians , we reason with , scruple not to teach ; and the latter of which is taught us not by them only , but by Experience too . [ Of the credibility of Specificks , and of the Efficacy even of some unlikely ones , we might easily enough present You with more Proofs and Examples : But these may possibly be sufficient for our present purpose ; especially if you duely consider , that as Pysick has ow'd its beginning to Experience , so those that practise it must enlarge and rectifie their Principles , according to the new discoveries , which are made from time to time of the Operations and Power of the productions , whether of Nature or of Art. This consideration I thought to insist upon in my own Expressions ; but finding lately the same Notion which I had , to have been long since that of the ancient Empericks , I will summe up what I meant to say in their words , as I find them wittily deliver'd by Celsus , in that excellent Preface , where having spoken in their Sense of the Origin of Physick , He continues Sic Medicinam ortam , subinde aliorum salute aliorum interitu perniciosa discernentem a salutaribus : Repertis deinde Medicinae remediis , hom●nes de rationibus eorum disserere caepisse ; nec post Rationem , Medicinam esse inventam , sed post inventam Medicinam , Rationem esse quaesitam . And least the mistaken name of Emperick should make you undervalue so useful a Consideration , which not the nature of their Sect , but that of the thing , suggested to them ; I shall adde in favour of what we have deliver'd concerning experienced , though otherwise unlikely Remedies , that 't is a sentence ascrib'd to Aristotle ( and in my opinion , one of the best that is ascrib'd to him , ) libires constat , si opinio adversetur rei , quaerendam rationem non rem ignorandam . ] And certainly Pyrophilus , though there be scarce any sort of men , whose credulity may do the World more mischief then that of Physitians ; yet perhaps , neither nature nor mankind is much beholden to those , that too rigidly , or narrowly , circumscribe , or confine th● operations of Nature , and will not so much as allow themselves or others to try whether it be possible for Nature excited and manag'd by Art to performe divers things which they never yet saw done , or work by divers waies , differing from any , which by the common Principles that are yet taught in the Schools , they are able to give a satisfactory account of . To the many things which you may be pleased to apply to this purpose , out of the precedent Discourse , divers others may be added , if without tiring you , they may be now insisted on . It would scarce have been believed some ages since , by those that knew no other then Vegetable Purges and and Vomits , that a Cup made of a Concret , insu●erable by the Heat of Humane Stom●cks should , by having for a while , Wine or any such other Liquor , b●rely powr'd on it to make an infusion , without any sensible diminution of its own bulk or weight , and without any sensible alteration made in the Colour , Tast , or Smell of the Wine , communicate to it a strongly Emetick and Cathartick Ve●tue , and prov● oftentimes Vomitive , ev'n when put up in Clysters ; and yet that this is performable by Antimony , slightly prepared with Salt-peter , or without addition , melted into a Transparent Glasse , is commonly known to those that are not Strangers to the Operations of the Antimonial Cup , and of the Glass made of the same Mineral . And much more strange is that which is affirmed by inquisitive Physitians upon their own Trial of the common Crocus Metallorum , or somewhat corrected Antimony wont to be sold in Shops , namely , That a few Drachmes of it , infus'd into some ounces of Wine , will make the Liquor work so strongly , as if six or eight times the quantity had been steep'd in it . Those that believe that all Diaphoreticks must consist of subtle , sapid and fugitive part●● as if only such were easily separated form each other , and agitated by the gentle heat of a Humane body , will scarce expect that any body could , in a moderate Dose , be a good Sudorifick , that is so fixt as to be able to persist divers hours in a good Fire . And yet that Antimoniu● Diaphoreticum is such a Concrete , is now very well known to many besides Chymists . That a Stone , and a Stone too so fixed , that it will sustaine the violence of reverberated Fire , and is consequently very unlike to be much wrought upon , or digested by the heat of Humane Stomach , should be capable of agglutinating together the parts of broken bones , would seem impossible to many , but 't is very well known to those that have made tryal of the efficacy of the Lapis Ossifragus : for though I have sometimes wondred at the Fixtness of this Stone , above others , in the Fire , yet being for some days successively drunk in Wine , or Aqua Symphyti , to the quantity of about half a Drachme , or more , it doth so wonderfully cement together the parts of broke and well-set Bones , that it deserves the name it commonly hath in the Shops of Osteocollae , and hath wonders related of it by several eminent , not onely Chymical , but Galenical Writers . 'T is almost incredible what Quercetane relates of what himself saw done with it as to the cure of broken Bones , without much pain or any of the usual grievous Symptoms , within four or five days ; so that to the stupendous Vertue he ascribes to this Stone , both inwardly given and outwardly applyed , in the form of a Poultis , with onely beaten Geranium and Oyl of Roses or Olives , he thinks fit to annex these words : Quod incredibile videri posset , nisi praeter me innumerabiles alii oculati & idonei testes extarent . And indeed these need good proof to make a wary Man believe so strange a thing , since Chirurgions observe , That Nature is wont to be forty days in producing a Callus to fasten together the pieces of a broken Bone. But to make this the more credible by the testimony of Authors more Galenically inclin'd , Matthiolus relates , That in many the Bones having been very well set ( Which Circumstance he requires as necessary ) have had their broken Parts conglutinated within three or four days : And not only that most experienced Chirurgion Fabricius Hildanus us'd it much in Fractures , with onely a little Cinnamon and Suger to make it pleasant ; but the Learned Sennertus , who somewhere calls its Vertue admirable , thinks it requisite , in his Chirurgery , to give us this caution of it : Verum in juvenibus & iis qui boni sunt habitus callum nimis auget : Quapropter caute & non nisi in adultioribus exhibendus : The warrantableness of which caution , and consequently the strange efficacy of Osteocolla , was , I remember , confi●m'd to me not long since by a skilful Physitian who hath particularly studyed its nature ; and related to me , That some Years since his Mother , having by a fall broken her Leg near the Knee , had too suddenly , by the over-much use of this Stone , a Callus produced in the part much bigger then he expected or desired . He that , before the salivating Property of Mercury was discovered , should have told Physitians of the ●espondent temper of these , we are now discoursing with , that besides the known ways of disburthening Nature ( namely by Vomit , Siege , Urine , Sweat , and insensible Transpiration ) there were a sort of Remedies , that would make very large Evacuations by Spittle , and thereby cure divers stubborn Diseases that had been found refractory to all ordinary Remedies , would certainly have been more likely to be derided , then believe by them ; since no known Remedy , besides , Mercury , hath been , that I remember , observed to work regularly by Salivation : ( for though Ceruss of Antimony have been observed to make Men , of some Constitutions , apt to spit much , yet it works that way too languidly , to deserve the name of a Salivating Remedy ; and probably oweth the quality it hath of enclining to spit , to the Mercurial part of the Antimony , wherewith the Regulus it is made of abounds ) and therefore the greater their experience of the Effects of Medicinal Operations should be supposed to be , the greater indisposition it would give them to credit so unallyed a Truth . And yet the reality of this Fluxing Property of Quick-silver is long since grown past question , and hath been found so useful in the cure of the most radicated and obst●●●te Venereal Distempers , that I somewhat wonder those Physitians , that scruple not to employ as boisterous ways of Cure , have not yet applyed it to the extirpation of some other Diseases ; as Ulcers of the Kidnies , Consumptions , and even Palsies , &c. wherein I am apt to think , it may be as effectual as in those produced by Lust , and much more effectual then vulgar Remedies , provided that the exceeding troublesome way of working of salivating Medicines be better corrected then it is wont to be , in the ordinary Medicines employed to produce Salivation , which they do with such tormenting Symptomes , that they are scarcely supportable . But if purified Quick-silver be dexterously precipitated by a long and competent digestion , with a due proportion of refined Gold , Experience hath informed us , that the salivating Operation of it may be performed with much less uneasiness to the Patient . And that such Mercurial Medicines , wherein the Quick-silver is well corrected by Gold , may produce more then ordinary effects , we have been enclined to believe , by the tryals which we procured by Learned Physitians to be made in other then Venereal Diseases , of a gently working precipitate of Gold and Mercury , of which we may elsewhere set you down the Process . [ And now I am upon the Discourse of the peculiar Operations of Mercury , and of unusual ways of Evacuation , I am tempted to subjoyn an odde Story , which may afford notable h●nts to a speculative Man , as it was related to me both in private , and before Illustrious Witnesses , by the formerly commended Chymist of the French King : He told me then awhile since , that there is yet living a Person of Quality , by name Monsieur de Vatteville , well known by the Command he hath or had of Regiment of Swissers in France , who , many Years ago following the Wars in the Low Countries , fell into a violent Distemper of his Eyes , which , in spight of what Physitians and Chirurgions could do , did in a few Moneths so increase , that he lost the use of both his Eyes , and languish'd long in a confirm'd Blindness ; which continued till he heard of a certain Emperick at Amsterdam , commonly known by the name of Adrian Glasmaker ( for indeed he was a Glasier ) who being cry'd up for prodigious Cures he had done with a certain Powder , this Colonel resorted to him , and the Emperick having discours'd with him , undertook his Recovery , if he would undergo the torment of the Cure ; which the Colonel having undertaken to do , the Chirurgion made him snuff up into each Nostril , about a Grain of a certain Mercurial Powder , which , in a strangely violent manner , quickly wrought with him almost all imaginable ways , as by Vomit , Siege , Sweat , Urine , Spitting and Tears , within ten or twelve hours that this Operation lasted , making his Head also to swell very much : But within three or four days after this single taking of the Drastick Medicine had done working , he began to recover some degree of Sight , and within a Fortnight attained to such a one , that himself assur'd the Relater , He never was so Sharp-sighted before his Blindness . And the Relater assured me , that he had taken pleasure to observe , That this Gentleman , who is his familiar Acquaintance , would discern Objects farther and clearer then most other Men. He added , That Monsieur de Vatteville told the Relater , he had purchas'd the way of making this Powder of the Emperick , and had given it to an eminent Chirurgion , one Benoest ( an Acquaintance of the Relaters ) by whom he had been cured of a Musket-shot that had broken his Thigh-bone , when the other Chirurgions would have proceeded to amputation ; and that this Benoest had with this Powder , administred as before is related , cur'd a Gentlewoman of a Cancer in the Breast . All which , and more , was confirm'd to the Relater by the Chirurgion himself . But in what other stubborn and deplorable Cases they use this Powder , I do not particularly remember . The Preparation of it , which a Chymist did me the favor to tell me by word of mouth , as a thing himself had also made , was in short this : That the Remedy was made by precipitating Quick-silver , with good Oyl of Vitriol , and so making a Turbith , which is afterwards to be dulcified by abstracting twenty , or twenty five , times from it pure Spirit of Wine , of which fresh must be taken at every abstraction . But I would not advise you to recommend so furious a Powder to any , that is not a very skilful Chymist and Physitian too , till you know the exact Preparation , and particular uses of it ; the reason of my mentioning it here , being but that which I expressed at the entrance upon this Narrative . ] CHAP. XX. YOu will perchance wonder , Pyrophilus , that having had so fair an opportunity as the subject of this Essay afforded me , of discoursing to you about the Universal Medicine , which many Paracelsians , Helmontians , and other Chymists talk of so confidently : I have said nothing concerning the existence , or so much as the possibility of it . But till I be better satisfied about those Particulars then yet I have been , I am unwilling either to seem to believe what I am not yet convinced of , or to assert any thing , that may tend to discourage Humane Industry ; and therefore I shall onely venture to adde on this occasion , That I fear we do somewhat too much confine our hopes , when we think , that one generous Remedy can scarce be effectual in several Diseases , if their causes be supposed to be a little differing . For , the Theory of Diseases is not , I fear , so accurate and certain as to make it fit for us to neglect the manifest or hopeful Vertues of noble Remedies , where ever we cannot reconcile them to that Theory . He that considers what not unfrequently happens in distempered Bodies by the Metastasis of the Morbifique matter ( as for instance , how that which in the Lungs caused a violent cough removed up to the head may produce ( as we have observed ) a quick decay of Memory and Ratiocination , and a Palsie in the Hands and other Limbs ) may enough discerne that Diseases that appear very differing , may easily be produced by a peccant matter of the same nature only variously determined in its operations by the constitution of the parts of the body where it setleth : and consequently it may seem probable to him , that the same searching Medicine being endowed with qualities destructive to the texture of that Morbifique matter , where ever it finds it , may be able to cure either all , or the greatest part , of the Diseases which the various translation of such a Matter ha●h been observed to beget . Moreover , it oftentimes happens that Diseases , that seem of a contrary nature , may proceed from the same cause variously circumstantiated ; or ( if you please ) that of divers Diseases , that may both seem primary , the one is but Symptomatical or at most Secundary in relation to the other ; as a Dropsy and a slow Feaver may , to unskilfull men , seem Diseases of a quite contrary nature , ( the one being reputed a hot and dry , the other a cold and moist Distemper ) though expert Physitians know they may both proceed from the same Cause , and be cured by the same Remedy : And in women experience manifests , that a great variety of differing Distempers , which by unskilful Physitians have been adjudged distinct and primary Diseases , and have been , as such , unsuccessfully dealt with by them , may really be but disguised Symptomes of the distempers of the Mother or Genus Nervosum ; and may , by Remedies reputed Antihysterical , be happily removed . To which purpose I might tell you , Pyro . That I , not long since , knew a Practitioner , that with great success used the same Remedies ( which were chiefly Volatile and Resolving Salts ) in Dropsies , and in ( not , Symptomatical , but ) Essential Feavers . And our selves have lately made some Experiments of not much unlike nature , with a preparation of Harts-horn , of equal use in Feavers and Coughs , both of them primary . I might on this occasion recur to divers of the Remedies formerly mentioned in several places of this Essay ; since divers of them have been found effectual against Diseases , which , according to our common Theory , seem to be little of kin one to another : And by telling you what I have observed concerning the various operations of Helmont's Laudanum , of our Ens Veneris , and even of a Medicine devised by a Woman , the Lady Kents Powder , I might illustrate what I have lately delivered : But it is high time for me to pass on to another Subject ; and therefore I shall rather desire you , in general , to consider , whether or no several Differing Diseases , and ev'n some commonly supposed to be of contrary natures , be not yearly cured by the Spaa waters in Germany . And to assist you in this Enquiry , I shall address you to the rare Observations of the famous and experienc'd Henricus ab Heer , and to his Spadacrene ; in the 8 ●h Chapter of which he reckons among the Diseases which those Waters cure , Catarrhs , and the Distempers , which ( according to him ) spring from thence ; as the Palsie , Trembling of the Joints , and other Diseases of kin to these , Convulsions , Cephalalgiae , ( I name them in the order , wherein I finde them set down ) Hemicraniae , Vertigo , Redness of the Eyes , of the Face , the Erysipelata , Ructus continui , Vomitus , Singultus , Obstructions , and even Scyrhus's , if not inveterate , of the Liver and Spleen , and the Diseases springing thence ; the Yellow Jaundise , Melancholia flatulenta seu Hypochondriaca , Dropsies , Gravel , Ulcers of the Kidnies , and Carunculae in meatu urinario , Gonorrhoeas , and resembling affections , Elephantiasis or the Leprosie , fluor albus mulierum , Cancers and Scyrrhus's of the Womb , Fluxes and even Dysenteries , the Worms ( though very obstinate , and sometimes so copious as to be voided in his presence , even with the Urine ) Sterility , and not onely the Scabies in the Body and Neck of the Bladder , and clammy pituitous Matter collected therein , besides Ulcers in the Sphyncter of it : but he relates , upon the repeated Testimony of an eminent Person that he names , and one whom he stiles Vir omni fide dignissimus , That this Party being troubled with a very great Stone in his Bladder , and having had it search'd by divers Lythotomists , before he came to the Spaa , did , by very copiously drinking these Waters , finde , by a second search made by those Artists , that his Stone was much dimin●shed the first Year , and ( by the same way of tryal ) that it was so the second Year . And of the Cures of these Diseases , the Physitian mentions in the same Chapter , as to many of them , particular and remarkable Instances ; and in the beginning of the next Chapter , having told his Readers that he expects they should scarce believe these Waters can have such variety of Vertues , Caeterum , saith he , si in Spaa maturè & constantibus naturalibus , vitalibusque facultatibus venerint ; aquasque quo dicemus modo biberint , indubiè quae dixi , vera esse fatebuntur : And though we be not bound to believe ( nor doth he ●ffirm it ) that the Spaa-waters do universally cure all the afore-mention'd Distempers ; y●t it is very much , and makes much for our present purp●se , that they should in so many Patients cure most of these Distempers , and lessen , if not cure , the rest . And we may somewhat the better credit him , because even where he reckons up the Vertues of the Spaa , he denys it some , which other Physitians ascribe to it . And it is very considerable , what he subjoyns in these words : Paucissimos enim vel nullos Spadae Incolas Capitis doloribus , Cardialgiâ , Cal●ulo , Obstructionibus renum , Hepatis , Lienis , Mesaraicarum , laborantes invenies , Ictericos , Hydropicos , Podagricos , Scabiosos , Epilepticos , quod sciam , nullos . But that which I most desire you to take notice of , is , That besides all the above-mention'd Diseases , I finde that he ascribes to these Waters the Vertues of curing such as are counted of a contrary nature , and are thought to require contrary Remedies : For besides that , he expresly affirms , in the beginning of the eighth Chapter , That these Waters being endow'd with the Ve●tues both of hot and cold Minerals , they cure both hot and cold affections , in the same Patients , and in d●ffering Bodies , and that contrary Effects are performed by them : He hath , after some Pages , this passage , which may go for an Illustrious Proof of what he had asserted : Inter caetera ( saith he , speaking of the Spaa-Waters ) Mensibus movendis imprimis idonea , quod millies experientia comprobavit . Et tamen nimium eorum fluxum quovis alio medicamento felicius sistit . These Testimonies , Pyrophilus , of our experienc'd Author , would perhaps obtain the more credit with You , if You had seen what I la●ely had the opportunity to observe in a hot and dry Season , at ou● own Tunbridge-Waters in Kent , when I was there to drink them . And therefore I shall again invite You not onely to consider , Whether one potent Remedy , such as it may be , may not be able to cure variety of Diseases , and some suppos'd to be of contrary natures ? But whether or no divers Persons , on whom the received Methodus medendi hath been long and fruitlesly employ'd , be not by their tyred and despondent Physitians themselves sent thither , and there cur'd of their abstruse and obstinate Diseases , by Remedies prepar'd by Nature without the assistance of Art ? For if you duly reflect on this conspicuous Observation , and consider how much it is possible for Art to meliorate and improve most ( especially Mineral ) Remedies , afforded us by Nature , you would probably dare to hope , That Medicines might be prepared of greater Efficacy , and applicable to more Diseases , then they who think the more received Theory of Diseases ( from which yet very eminent Physitians , in divers Particulars , scruple not to recede ) incapable of being rectified ; and that judge of all Remedies by them , that are publickly Venal in Apothecaries Shops , will allow thems●lves so much as to hope . If now You demand , Pyrophilus , if I think that every Particular which hath contributed to swell this Discourse into a bulk so disproportionate to that which the Title of an Essay promised , do directly belong to the Art of Physick ? I shall leave it to the Judicious Celsus ( whom Le●rned Men have stiled The Roman Hippocrates ) to answer for me , and he will tell you , That Quanquam multa sint ad ipsas artes non pertinentia , tamen eas adjuvant excitando artificis ingenium . I suppose I need not remind You , Pyrophilus , that it was not my design , in what h●th been represented , to subvert those Principles of the Methodus medendi , from which no sober Physitians themselves recede , and in which they unanimously acquiess : And that I much less intend to countenance those venturous Empericks , who , without any competent knowledge of Anatomy , Botanicks , and the History of Diseases , think Receipts or Processes alone can enable them to cure the Sicknesses they know not , and who would perswade Men to lay by , as needless , a Profession , of whose Usefulness to Mankinde we may elsewhere have occasion to discourse . No , Pyrophilus , without peremptorily asserting any thing , I have but barely represented the Notions I have mention'd concerning the Methodus medendi , as things probable enough to deserve to be impartially considered ; That in ●ase they prove fit to be declin'd , they may appear to have been rejected not by our superciliousness or laziness , but ( after a fair tryal ) by our experience : And in case they seem fit to be approved , they may prove additional Instances of the Usefulness of Natural Philosophy to Physick . Which Usefulness , Pyrophilus , if I have in any considerable measure been so happy as to make out , I shall not think the time ( and much less the pains ) I have bestow'd upon that Theme , mis-spent . For , I must confess to you , Pyrophilus , that to me it seems , that few things ought more to endear to us the Study of Natural Philosophy , then that ( according to the Judicious Sentence of our Celsus , Rerum Naturae contemplatio , saith he , quam vis non faciat Medicum , aptiorem tamen Medicinae reddit ) a deeper insight into Nature may enable Men to apply the Physiological Discoveries made by it ( though some more immediately , and some less directly ) to the Advancement and Improvement of Physick . And I well enough know , Pyrophilus , that if instead of Writing this Essay to such an one as You , I should Write it to the more critical and severer sort of Readers , they would be apt to think both that it is impertinent for me , who do not profess to be a Physitian , to treat prolixly of Matters Medicinal ; and that it may appear somewhat below me , in a Book , whose Title seems to promise you Philosophical Matters , to insert I know not how many Receipts : But I shall not scruple to tell such a Person as Pyrophilus , That since my Method requir'd that I should say something to you of the Therapeutical part of Physi●k , I thought that Christianity and Humanity it self , oblig'd me not to conceal those things , which how despicable soever they may seem to aspeculative Philosopher , are yet such , as , besides that some of them may perhaps afford improveable Hints touching the Nature of Remedies , if not also of Diseases , Experience hath encouraged me to hope , that others may prove useful to the sick . And as for the inserting of Receipts , even in Books of Philosophical Subjects , I have not done it altogether without example . For not onely Pliny , a Person of great Dignity as well as Parts , and Friend to one of the greatest Roman Emperors , hath left us in a Book , where he handles many Philosophical Matters , store of particular Receipts ; but our great Chancellor , The Lord Verulam , hath not disdain'd to Record some . And as for that Industrious Benefactor to Experimental Knowledge , the Learned and Pious Mersennus , his Charity made him much more fearful to neglect the doing what good he could to others , then to venture to lessen his Reputation by an Indecorum , that in a Mathematical Book , and in a Chapter of Arithmetical Combinations , he brings in not onely a Remedy against the Erysipelas , but even a Medicine for Corns , where he tells us , That they may be taken away , by applying and daily renewing for ten days , or a fortnight , the middle Stalk that grows between the Blade and the Root ( for that I suppose he means by the unusual Word Thallum ) of Garlick , bruis'd . Nor is it without Examples , though somewhat contrary to my Custom in my other Writings , that in this , and the four precedent Essays , I have frequently enough alledged the Testimonies of others , and divers times set down Processes or Receipts , not of my own devising . For even among professed and learned Physitians , scarce any thing is more common , then on Subjects far less of kin to Paradoxes , then most of those I have been discoursing of , to make use of the Testimonies and Observations of other approved Writers , to confirm what they teach . And not now to mention the voluminous Books of Schenkius and Scolzius , that famous and experienc'd Practitioner Riverius himself , hath not been ashamed to publish together a good number of Receipts , given him by others , under the very Title of Observationes communicatae : And Henricus ab Heer , hath , among his Observationes oppido rarae , divers Receipts that came from Mountebancks , and even Gypsies . And therefore I hope that you , who know that it is not after every Body that I would so much as relate an Observation , or mention a Medicine , as thinking them probable , will easily excuse one that hath much fewer Opportunities then a profess'd Physitian to try Remedies himself ; if treating of Subjects not so familiar , I choose to countenance what I deliver by the Testimonies of skilful Men , and if I scruple not to preserve in these Papers some not despicable Remedies , as well of abler Men as of my own , that otherwise would probably be lost . But of this Practise I may elsewhere have occasion to give you a more full Apology , by shewing how much it may conduce to the enriching and advancement of Physick ; an Art , with whose praises I could long entertain You , if I were at leisure ( and durst allow my self ) to exhaust common places . And yet give me leave to tell you , That Man is so noble a Creature , and his Health to requisite to his being able to relish other goods ; and oftentimes also to the comfortable performance of what his Conscience , his Country , his Family , his Necessities , and perhaps his allowable Curiosi●● challenge from him , that I wonder not so much at those Antient Heathens , that being Polytheists and Idolaters , thought themselves oblig'd , either to refer so useful an Art as that of Physick , to the Gods or God-like Persons ; or to adde those , that excell'd in so noble a Faculty , to the number of those they worshipp'd . For my part , Pyrophilus , a very tender and sickly Constitution of my own , much ( impair'd by such unhappy Accidents as Falls , Bruises , &c. ) hath , besides ( as I hope ) better motives of Compassion , given me so great a sense of the uneasinesses that are wont to attend Sickness , that I confess , if I study Chymistry , 't is very much out of hope , that it may be usefully imploy'd against stubborn Diseases , and relieve some languishing Patients with less pain and trouble , then otherwise they are like to undergoe for Recovery . And really , Pyrophilus , unless we will too grosly flatter our selves , we can scarce avoid both discerning and deploring the ineffectualness of our vulgar Medicines , not onely Galenical , but Chymical ; ( for an active Body may yet be but a languid Remedy . ) For besides that many that recover upon the use of them , endure more for Health , then many that are justly reckon'd among Martyrs , did for Religion ; Besides this , I say , we daily meet with but too many in the case of that bleeding Woman , mention'd in the Gospel , of whom 't is said , That she had suffer'd many things of many Physitians , and had spent all that she had , and was nothing better'd , but rather grew worse . And therefore I reckon the investigation and divulging of useful Truths in Physick , and the discovering and recommending of good Remedies among the greatest and most extensive Acts of Charity , and such , as by which a Man may really more oblige Man-kinde , and relieve more distressed Persons , then if he built an Hospital . Which perhaps you will not think rashly said , if you please but to consider , how many the knowledge of the Salivating , and other active Properties of Mercury , and of its enmity to putrefaction and Distempers springing thence , have cur'd of several Diseases , and consequently how many more Patients , then have recover'd in the greatest Hospital in the world , are oblig'd to Carpus and those others , who ever they were , that were the first discoverers of the medical efficacy of Quick-silver . And for my own particular , Pyroph . though my Youth and Condition forbid me the practice of Physick , and though my unhappy Constitution of Body , kept divers Remedies from doing me the same good they are wont to do others ; yet having more then once , prepar'd , and sometimes occasionally had opportunity to administer , Medicines , which God hath been so far pleas'd to bless on others , as to make them Relieve several Patients , and seem ( at least ) to have snatch'd some of them almost out of the jaws of death ; I esteem my self by those successes alone sufficiently recompenc'd for any toil and charge my Enquiries into Nature may have cost me . And though I ignore not , that 't is a much more fashionable and celebrated Practice in young Gentlemen , to kill men , then to cure them ; And that , mistaken Mortal● think it the noblest Exercise of vertue to destroy the noblest Workmanship of Nature , ( and indeed in some few cases the requisiteness and danger of ●estructive valour may make its Actions become a vertuous Patriot ) yet when I consider the Character , given of our great Master and Exemplar , in that Scripture , which says , That he went about doing good , and Healing all manner ●f Sickness ; and all maner of Disease among the people , I cannot but think such an Imployment worthy of the very nobl●st of his Disciples . And I confess , that , if it w●re allow'd me to envy creatures so much above us , as are the Celestial Spirits , I should much more envy that welcome Angels Charitable imployment , who at set times diffus'd a healing vertue through the troubled waters of Bet esda , then that dreadful Angels fatal imployment , who in one night destroy'd above a hundred and fourscore thousand fighting men . But , of the Desireableness of the skill and willingness to cure the sick , and relieve not only those that languish in Hospitals , but those that are rich enough to build them , having elsewhere purposely discoursed , I must now trouble you no longer on this Theme , but Implore Your much needed pardon for my having been ( beyond my fi●st intentions ) so troublesome to You already . AN APPENDIX TO THE FIRST SECTION OF THE Second Part. Advertisements touching the following APPENDIX . I Scarce doubt , but it will be exspected that I should annex to the foregoing Treatise , those Receipts and Processes , which seem to be here and there promis'd in it ; But I desire it may be considered , that some Passages , which an unattentive Reader may have mistaken for absolute Promises , are indeed but Profers conditionally made to a particular Person , and so not engaging me , till the condition ( which was his desiring the things mention'd to him ) be on his part perform'd . And as for the other things , which every Reader may suppose to be promis'd Him , I have at hand this general excuse , that at least I promis'd nothing to the Publick ; whatever promises I may have made in the foregoing ESSAYES , having together with them been address'd to a private Friend . And I have two or three special Reasons to insist on this Excuse , for divers of my choicer Books and Papers , having not long since unhappily miscarried through the negligence of some Men , or the Fraud of others , it is not now possible for me to retrieve some of the things I was Master of , when I promis'd them . And then to revise carefully all the Papers that remain in my hands of Affinity with the past Treatises , would take up more time then is allow'd me by other Studies and Employments , which I think of greater moment , or at least wherein I am much more concern'd , then to give this Book at present a full or accurate APPENDIX . But though I might upon these and other Reasons wholy excuse my self from the trouble of adding any Appendix ; yet because the communicating of good Medicines , is a work of Charity , and those unpolish'd and immethodical Notes that may perchance disparage an Author , may yet relieve many a Patient , I am willing to do what my occasions will permit , and finding among my Papers many loose Sheets , concerning Spirit of Harts-horn , Blood , &c. written divers years since to a Friend , I choose rather to publish them just as I find them with Pyrophilus's name , employ'd in convenient places , and to adde some unpromis'd Receipts , instead of those that are lost , then be altogether wanting , to what may be expected from me . I know that what I deliver concerning some of the following Preparations may by severer Criticks be thought somewhat unaccurate , and I confess I am of that mind my self . But meeting with these Collections in loose Sheets among my old Papers , I must either publish them as I find them , or take the pains to Polish and Contract them , which would require more time , then I can at present afford them . And much less can I stay to subjoyn the Histories of the particular cures perform'd by the Medicines , whose preparations I set down , though divers of them would not perhaps appear inconsiderable . But if I find by the entertainment of these Papers , that it will be worth while to revise or enlarge them , I may , God permitting , be invited to do it , and either supply the things , that are here deficient out of After-observations ) or Papers now out of the way , or make amends for their omission in substituting better things . It will not at all surprize me if some Readers think me too prolix in delivering the preparations of Harts-horn , Ens Veneris &c. with such particular and circumstantial Observations . But my design being to gratifie and assist those that would make and use the Remedies I recommend : The Experience I have had , of the difficulties most men find in the preparing things by the Direction of Chymical Processes not very expresly set down , makes me apt to hope , that ( I say not the great Physitians or Chymists , who may if they please , leave them unperus'd ; but ) those for whom I principally intend my Directions will think my having made them so particular a very excusable fault . And I make the lesse difficulty to suffer such things as perhaps I judg to be in comparison of others , but trifles to passe abroad , because finding of late Years , that many Persons of Quality of either Sex , who scarce read any other then English Books , have ( as I hope ) out of Charity or Curiosity or both , begun to addict themselves to Chymistry , and venture to be tampering with Spagirical Remedies , it may not be unseasonable to supply them with some Preparations , that may both save them time and charges , and put them upon the use of Remedies , which without being languid , are , if any thing discreetly given , safe and innocent , and wherein a little Error , either in the making or the administring will be far lesse prejudicial to the sick , then if it were committed in the more vulgar ( oftentimes , either falsly or obscurely prescrib'd ) preparations they 〈◊〉 wont to make of Acid Salts , Mercury , Antimony , and other Minerals , whose Activity for the most part makes them need to be skilfully prepar'd , and judiciously g●ven . To the Eightieth Page . The Irish Lithotomists Receipt , for the Stone in the Bladder . REc. Aquar . Melon . Citrullar , Filipendulae , Petroselin , syr . è 5 radicibus , syr . de Bïsantiis , ana , unc . ij Oxymelit comp . unc . j. misce , quartam mixti partem sumas manè jejunus , & postea per octo horas à cibo & potu abstineas , aliam sumas partem eodem die post coenam cum lectum intrare volueris ; denique sequenti die reliquae sumantur partes ut primae ; terti● verò die . Rec. Elect. lenit . dragm . iii. syr . Rosat . solut . dragm . ij . pulp . Tamarind . dragm . j. misceantur ac in sevi lactis unc . iij. dissolvantur : totum bibas mane quatuor horis ante jus , quarto die suma● mane sequentis pulv . dragm . j. mixti in sequentis Apozematis unc . iiij . & olei Amygd dulc . unc . sem . Rec. Cinerum vitri * , & Scorpionum pulveris , Lapià . Spongiae , & lap . Judaici , Acori , sem Altheae , Millii solis , Saxifrag●i ●na dragm . i. sem lactucae , 4 sem . frigid majorum ana dragm . sem . Trokiscor . Alkekengi , rad . pimpinellae ana dragm . ii , fiat pulvi● subtilis . Apozema . Rec. Parietariae , rad Alth. ana Mj sem petrofelini , Glychyrrhizae ana unc sem . halicacabi , unc . j. Coqu in aq . pluviae , sext . 2. & vini albissimi sext . i. ad medietatis consumptionem , & colatura melle hybernico dulcoretur . Tum quarto illo die passerculum Trogloditem sale antea conditum edas una cum caena , Et post coenam lumbi , pubes , & tota renum regio oleis è granis Citri & scorpion . liniantur , etsi possibile esset praedicta olea per meatum urinar . in vesicam injiciantur , sicque deinde pulvere , Apozemate , Troglodite & oleis omni die utere , donec arenula aut lap . fragmentae ana cum expulsis apparuerint . Loco cinerum vitri sumi possunt cineres Camini & vires cinerum scorpionum supplere potest pulvis lumbricor . terrestr . probè in vino lotorum & postea exsiccatorum . * NB. [ As far as I could conjecture by the Discourse I had with the owner of the Receipt , by Ashes of Glass he meanes the superfluous Saline substance , which the Glassemen are wont to call Sandiver ; but because he did not explain himself so clearly , and we know not yet a way of Burning Glass to Ashes , I think it will be most advisable to substitute the Wood Ashes , which in the Receipt it self towards the close of it are appointed for a Succedaneum . To the One Hundred and Twentieth Page ; [ Where the Vertues of the Pilulae Lunares are toucht at . ] THe great benefit that has redounded to many patients , from the use of the Silver Pils , here briefly mention'd , and commended , invites me to communicate as a considerable thing , the preparation of them , of which I do not pretend to be the Inventer ; having divers years since , learnt it by discoursing with a very Ancient and experienc'd Chymist , whose name that I do not mention , will perhaps seem somewhat strange to those Readers that have observ'd me not to be backward in acknowledging my Benefactors in point of Experiments , and therefore I hold it not amiss to take this opportunity of declaring once for all , that t were oftentimes more prejudicial then grateful to one that makes an advantage by the Practise of Physick , to annex in his life time his name to some of his Receipts or Processes ; because that when a Man has once got a repute , for having a Specifick in any particular Disease or Case , his Patients , and their Friends will hardly forbear to apply themselves to him for that Medicine , though the same Medicine , but not known to be the same , should be made use of by a stranger , or divulged in a Printed Book . Most Patients being not apt to rely upon Medicines , that come onely that way recommended ; whereas if it were known that the Printed Receipt is the self same , which the Physitian employs , not only other Physitians would quickly make as much advantage of it as he , but many Patients would think themselves by that discovery dispens'd with , in point of good husbandry , from going to any Physitian at all , as knowing before hand the best prescription they are like to receive from him . The Process of the Pilulae Lunares is this ; Take of the best refined Silver as much as You please , dissolve it in a sufficient quantity of cleans'd spirit of Nitre or Aquafortis , then evaporating away the superfluous moysture , let the rest shoot into thin Chrystals ; these you may in some open mouth'd Glass place in sand , and keep in such a degree of Heat , that by the help of very frequently stirring them , the greatest part of the more loose and stinking Spirits of the Menstruum may be driven away , and yet the remaining Chrystals not be brought to Flow : These Chrystals of Silver you must counterpoise with an equal weight of Chrystals of Nitre ; and first dissolving each of them apart in distill'd Rain-water , You must afterwards mingle the Solutions , and abstract or steam away the superfluous moysture , till the remaining Mass be dry , which you must keep in an open Glass , expos'd to such a temperate heat of Sand , that the Matter may not melt ( which you must be very careful of ) and that yet the adhering corrosive Spirits of the Menstruum might be driven away . And to both these ends You must from time to time stir the Mass , that new parts of it may be expos'd to the Heat , and new ones to the Air , till you cannot descry in the remaining white Powder any offensive scent of the Spirit of Nitre , or of the Aqua-Fortis . And lastly You must take the Crum of good White-bread , made with a little moysture into a stiff Past , and exactly mingle with the newly mention'd Magistery or Powder as much of this Past , as is necessary to give it the consistence of a Mass of Pills , which you may thence form at pleasure , and preserve in a well stopp'd Glass for use . NB. First the Silver employ'd in this Operation , ought to be very pure and more exquisitely refin'd , then much of that is wont to be , which here in England is bought for fine Silver ; for if the Copper wherewith Silver-Coyns are wont to be alloy'd , be not carefully separated upon the Cupel , it may , being turn'd by the Acid Menstruum into a kind of Vitriol , when it is taken into the Body , either provoke Vomits , or otherwise discompose it . 2ly , The Spirit of Nitre , or ( which in our case comes almost to one ) the Aqua-fortis that is us'd about this Medicine , ought to be clear'd , as our Refiners phrase it , before the Silver be put in , for ( as I elsewhere Note ) in Salt Peter , there is oftentimes an undiscerned Mixture of Sea-salt , whose Spirit coming over in Distillation with that of the Nitre , is apt to precipitate the Silver , which the Spirit of Nitre has dissolv'd . This I take to be the Reason of that practise of the best Refiners to purifie their Aqua-fortis , by casting in some small piece of Silver , that they may afterwards securely put into it greater Quantities of the same Mettal to be dissolv'd . For the Saline Spirits fall to the bottome , together with the corroded Silver , which they precipitate as long as there is any of these Saline Spirits left in the Menstruum , which after this may be decanted clear ; and though you had put a little more Silver then needed to it , it neither does harm , nor is lost , the Aqua fortis preserving none unprecipitated , but what there were no more S●line Spirits to work upon , so that the superfluous Silver put in is already dissolv'd to Your hand . 3dly , The dry Mixture obtain'd from the Solutions of Chrystals of Nitre and Chrystals of Silver , must be often stirr'd , and kept longer in the Sand , before all the offensive Spirits will be driven away , then till Experience had inform'd me , I did imagine . Fourthly , If the Chrystals of Silver be considerably Blew or Green , 't is a sign the Silver was not sufficiently purg'd from Copper , else the Mixture we have been speaking of , will look of a White , good enough . And possibly 't was by reason of the not being careful to take sufficiently Refin'd Silver , and of the not knowing how to improve the Chrystals of Silver , by the addition of those of Nitre , and especially how to free them from the stinking and Corrosive Spirits of Aqua-fortis , that it is come to pass , that though there be in some Chymical Writers , Processes not very unlike this , yet the Chrystals of Silver have been censur'd and laid aside as not alwaies safe even by those , who otherwise much magnifie the Efficacy of those they us'd . Fifthly , When You are about to make up this Mixture with the Crum of Bread into a Mass , and so into Pills , 't will not be amiss to dispatch that work at once , for usually it leaves an ugly Blackness on the Fingers , that cannot under divers daies be gotten off . Sixthly , In taking of the Pills care must be had , that they be sufficiently lapp'd up either in a Wafer wetted with Milk , or the Pulp of a Roasted Apple , or some such thing , that they may not touch the Palat , or the Throat , because of the extreme and disgusting bitterness , which is to be met with in the Chrystals of Silver , and which is not the least thing , that with nicer Persons does Blemish these Pills . Seventhly , The Dose is somewhat uncertain ; because they work much according to the Constitution of the Body , and especially according as it abounds with Serous Humours ; Wherefore 't is adviseable to make the Pills of the size of very small Pease , of which one given at Bedtime , is a sufficient Dose for some Bodies , others will require two ; and in some we must ascend to three ; and if the Patient be Hydropical , o● be otherwise much molested with serous Humours , it is observable that sometimes one Dose will work two Daies , or four Daies , ( may be five or six ) successively , but yet moderately and usually , without weakening the Patient , in proportion to such copious Evacuations . Eighthly , Besides the Dropsie , wherein we have mention'd this Remedy as a Specifick , it often proves very available in other Cases , wherein Men are troubled with Serous Humours . But the first distempers , which I heard it Magnified for , were those of the Head , and Genus Nervosum ; and a great Virtuoso of my acquaintance that inherits a Disposition to the Palsie , has several times told me , that if when he begins to find himself disordered , he take a Dose of these Pills , he is thereby constantly reliev'd . But of the particular Cases , wherein we have had opportunity to take notice of their Effects , we have not now , but may perchance another time have leisure to entertain You. Lastly , That skilful and succesful Chymist Dr N. N. who doth much both use and esteem this Remedy , being desir'd by me to let me know , if he had any Objections against it , informes me , that when he hath given these Pills oftentimes , and without intervalls , though they did not either Salivate or Vomit , or much weaken the Patient , yet they would at last be attended with a kind of Incipient Leucophlegmatia , which he easily prevents by intermitting for a while the use of the Pills , after every second or third time that he administers them , and giving , when he exspects it to be requisite , some Crocus Martis , Extract of Juniper , or other Astringent or Hepatick Medicines to corroborate the Viscera and preserve their Tone . To the One Hundred Twenty third Page . ( Where mention is made of the Cure of one concluded to have a Gangrene , by an inward Medicine . ) THe Cure mention'd in this place , having been perform'd by that Medicine , which from the Name of that Great Commander , as well as Virtuoso , who was the Author of it , passes under the Name of Sr Walter Rawleighs Cordial , and this being but one of many remarkable ( and some of ●hem stupendous ) Cures which have been wrought by it from time to time , especially of late that it hath been more us'd , I am induc'd to annex here the yet unpublish'd Receipt , partly , because there are divers Receipts that are each pretended to be the true , magnify'd by their several Possessors ; And I had the liberty of looking it out in a Receipt Book , preserved by the Authors Son ; and partly because , though I will not affirm , that a skilfuller or more promising Composition of the same Ingredients could not have been devised ; Yet the following Receipt has been abundantly recommended by Experience . And I remember , that but a while since , a Person of Note having sent to me , to desire a taking of this Cordial for a certain Knight , who after all that Skilful Physitians could do , had long lain a dying ; I the other day chanc'd to meet this Knight at White-hall , well , lively , and with a Face whose Ruddiness argued a perfect Recovery , and yet he is not very farre from seventy Years of Age , and had before he grew so ill , long conflicted with a tedious Ague , and feaver , which had reduc'd him to that Extremity , when the Cordial was brought , that , as himself told me , he neither was sensible when they gave it him , nor had known what he did , or what was done unto him , during the space of several dayes before . Sr Walter Rawleighs Cordial , after Sr R. K. his way : ( set down Verbatim as I received it . ) TAke Burrage-Flowers , Rosemary-Flowers , Marigold-Flowers , Red July-Flowers , Rosa-Solis , Elder-flowers of each , one Pottle after they are dried in the Shade . Take also of Scordium , Carduus , Angelica , Baulm , Mint , Marjoram , Setwall , Betony ana four handfulls , after they are dry'd in the Shade . Take also of the Rinds of Sassafras of Virginia , Lignum Aloës , ana , four ounces beaten to Powder , of Kermes , Cubebs , Cardamoms , Zedoary , ana , one ounce , of Saffron half an ounce-Juniper Berries , Tormentil Roots , Round Birthwort Roots , of each one ounce , of Gentian Roots half an ounce . Draw the Tincture or Extract of these with Spirit of Wine in Balneo , and save all the Ingredients after you have t●ken out the Tinctures , and Burn them and put their Salt into their Tinctures . Take six ounces of the Extracts of a●l these with their S●lt , and put thereto of the Tincture of Coral three ounces , Terra Sigillata four ounces , Pearl prepar'd two ounces , Bezar-stone three dragmes , H●rts-horn calcin'd four ounces . Amber-greese four dragmes , Musk gr . xxx , Sugarcandy one pound and an half-ground very fine , and searsed through a fine Searse . Then the Musk and Amber must be ground , and by little and little mingl'd with it , the more you grind the Amber , the better . Then put to the Sugarcandy all the dry Materials before directed , and make all as small as possibly You can . Then upon a great hallow grinding Stone mingle the Tinctures , and dry things together : ( which must be done by a strong man used to that work : ) and whil'st 't is in grinding ▪ put of Syrrup of Limmons , & Syrrup of Red Roses equal parts into it , else it will be so dry , that t will neither grind nor mingle . How to make the Tincture of Coral for this Cordial . Let it boyl without intermission twenty four Houres , by which time the Vinegar will become red ; so , when 't is cold , pour off the Vinegar into a Glass-Bason , or a Bell-Glass , and vapor away all the Vinegar in Balneo , and gather the Coral , being perfectly dry , for your Use. You may strike down Your Pearl with Oyl of Vitriol , and Oyl of Sulphur requal parts , which is accounted the best way to prepare the Pearl . But Sr R. K. did use to prepare his Pearl by juyce of Limmons . [ The Dosis for a Man is about the bignesse of a small Hasil-nut , but where prevention onely is aim'd at , or some such use as the dissipating the Fumes of the Spleen , as they call it , the bigness of an ordinary Pease , may suffice ; so in urgent Cases the Dose may be increas'd to the quantity of a Nutmeg . It is usually given by it self upon an empty Stomack ( the Patient being kept Warm after it to promote Sweat ) in Feavers , Want of Spirits , violent Fluxes , and several other distempers , where Diaphoreticks and Antidotes are proper , and ( especially ) where potent Cordials are requir'd . ] [ To the One Hundred Twenty third Page ; Where a Receipt that cur'd Fistula's is mention'd . ] A Water for a Fistula , and all manner of VVounds , and swellings , or old Ulcers , Cankers , Tetters , Boils , or Scabbs in any place , or Green VVounds . TAke of Bole-Armoniack four ounces , of Camphire one ounce , of White Vitriol four ounces ; Boyl the Camphire and the Vitriol together in a little Black Earthen Pot till they become thin , stirring them together till they become hard in setling ; then Bruise them in a Mortar to Powder , and Beat the Bole-Armoniack it self to Powder , and then mingle them together , and keep the Powder in a Bladder , till such time You use it ; then take a pottle of Running Water , and set it on the Fire till it begin to Seeth , then take it from the Fire , and put in three good Spoonfuls of the Powder into that Water whilst it is hot , and after put the Water and Powder into a Glasse , and shake it twice a day to make the Water strong : But before You use it , let it be well setled and very Clear , and apply it as hot as the Patient can well suffer it ; and lay a clean Linnen Cloath , four double , to the Sore , it being wet in that Water , and bind it fast with a Rowler to keep it warm , do it Morning and Evening till it be whole . This Water must be put into an Oyster-shel , not in a Sawcer when you dress the Sore , for the Pewter will suck it up . Remember You put three as good Spoonfuls of the Powder as you can presse into the Spoon . Take heed no one Drink of this Water , for it is Poyson . To make it stronger , beat an ounce of Alom to Powder , and mingle it with the other Powders . Take of Bole-armoniack half an ounce , White Vitriol one ounce , of Camphire 2 ounces , make them all into Powder ; then take a Pottle of Smiths-water , and as much Spring-water , and mingling them , set thew upon the Fire assoon as it begins to Seeth , put in the Powder very softly , stirring it all the while , assoon as the Powder is in , take it off the Fire , and dresse the wound with it twice a day , laying a Cloath folded four times and wetted in the Water , it being very Hot , and so apply'd to the Wound . N B. [ This is the Receipt Verbatim as I find it among my old Papers , but I am not sure that among those I cannot now come by , there may not be something concerning a way of making a small pliable Tent that may accommodate it self to the crooked Figure of the Cavity of many Fistula's . For methinks I remember , that the Chirurgion prescrib'd the conveying his Medicine by the means of such a flexible tent a great way into the cavity , if not to the bottom of the Fistula , which was thereby to be cleansed . ] To the One Hundred fifty first Page . VVhere Soot is mentioned . SOot , Pyrophilus , is a Production of the Fire , whose Nature is almost as Singular , as is the manner of its being produc'd , for it is ( if I may so call it ) a kind of volatile Extract of the Wood it proceeds from , made instead of a Menstruum by the Fire , which hastily dissipating the parts of the Body it acts on , hath time enough to sever it into smaller Particles , but not leisure and aptitude to reduce it into such differing subst●nces as pass for Chymical or Peripatetick Elements , but hastily carries up the more volatile p●rts , which being not yet sufficiently free'd from the more fixt ones , take them up along with them in their sudden flight , and so the Aqueous , Spirituous , Saline , Oleaginous and Terrestrial parts ascending confusedly together , do fasten themselves to the sides of the Chimney in that loose and irregular Form of Concretion , which we call Soo● : An enquiry into whose Nature , as it may be consider'd in the Survey of the distinctions of Salts , must be elsewhere look'd for ; Our mentioning it at present , being only to take occasion to tell You , that as ill scented and despis'd a Body as it is , Hartman , ( one of the most experienc'd and h●ppy of Chymical Writers ) scruples not to reckon the Spirit and Oyle of it among the Noblest Confortantia , such as prepar'd Pearl , Coral , Ambergreese , and other eminent Cherishers of Nature , His preparation is for substance this ; Take of the best Soot ( such as adheres to the lower part of the Chimney , and shines almost like Jet ) what quantity you please , and with it fill up to the Neck a very well coated Glass Retort , or an Earthen one , and luting on a capacious Receiver distil the matter in an open fire intended by degrees , whereby you will drive over the Phlegm , the whitish Spirits , and the Oyl first of a Yellow Colour , and then of a Red , separate the Phlegme , and for a while digest the Spirit and Oyle together , on which afterwards put half the quantity of Spirit of Wine , and Distil them several times , whereby you will obtain together with the Spirit of Wine , the Spirit of Soot , and also a very depurated Oyl , smelling like Camphire . Out of the Calcin'd Caput mortuum after the common way extract a Salt , which Hartman commends as a most excellent curer of exulcerated Cancers ; This Salt , saith He , is drawn with Vinegar , in which Liquor in a Cold moist place , it is again Dissolv'd , and therewith the Cancerous Ulcers being once or twice anointed , the venenosity will be visibly drawn out like a Vapour , and then the foremention'd Oyl being lightly sprinkl'd upon the place will breed on it a kind of Crust like a skin , which Spontaneously coming off in five or six Days , will by its falling off , argue the Consolidation of the Ulcer . What this so extoll'd Remedy will perform I know not , having never made trial of it , nor thinking it very likely , that a bare Alcalizate Salt should have such Specifick Vertues , nor is it requisite I should insist on it , being here to discourse to You of the distill'd Liquors of Soot , in prosecution of which design , let me tell You , that Hartman prescribes the administring of the Spirit from six to ten Grains , of the Oyl from two to three drops in Wine , or any other convenient Vehicle , and concerning the Oyl he adds , That if three Drops of it be given in Vinegar to an almost gasping Man , he will be thereby wonderfully refesh'd , and as it were reviv'd , to which he annexeth this Prognostick , that if the Remedy produceth Copious Sweats , it will recover the Taker ; but if not , he will Die. That this spirit of Soot describ'd by Hartman may be a very good Medicine I am very apt to think ; but because 't is not a meer spirit of Soot , but a mixt one of Spirit of Wine , and spirit of Soot , we have rather chosen to proceed with the Soot ( of Wood ) without addition , both as to the distillation of it , and the ordering of the Distill'd Liquors , after the manners to be mention'd ere long , when we shall acquaint You with our preparations of Blood and Harts-horn , which if You please to apply to Soot , You may save Your self , and me , the labour of Repetitions . Yet it may be not amiss to advertise You here of two things : the one , that if You employ very good and fat Soot , and fill up the Retort with it to the Neck ; You must be very careful to encrease the Fire orderly , and but by moderate Degrees , or else you may chance to make the matter Boil over out of the Retort into the Receiver , as it lately happen'd to us , when having warily order'd the Fire for several Houres we thought our selves past any such danger ; And the other , that as to the Medicinal Vertues of the spirit , and salt of Soot , I shall not now particularize them , partly that I may save time , and partly because they may be well enough gather'd from their affinity to the Volatile salts and spirits of animal substances hereafter to be treat'd of , and from what I shall have occasion to say , of the perfuming of the salt of Soot towards the close of this APPENDIX . To the One Hundred Fifty third Page . VRIN is a Body , which , as homely and despis'd as 't is wont to be , may by skilful wayes of ordering it , be made either alone , or in Conjunction with other Ingredients , to afford such a variety of useful Substances , that I find Reusnerus publish'd an Entire Treatise , which yet I never could get sight of , under the Title of Synopsis Remediorum ex Urina praeparatorum , besides what other Chymists have since divulg'd on the same Subject , which I forbear to mention ; because several of them I have not try'd , and many others I think scarce worth trying . But because even all our own Observations concerning the Preparations and uses of things afforded by Urine , would take up more time and Room , then I can now allow them , I shall here only take this occasion to intimate thus much in general , that the Sp●rit and Salt of Urin may be made far greater use of , then Men yet are prone to think not onely in Physick , but in Chymistry , and perhaps I durst add in Natural Philosophy too . And though Helmont be not wont to lavish his praises upon worthless Remedies , yet he calls it Nobile ad Icterum , aliosque morbos , Remedium . And in another place , speaking of the Saline Christals of Urine , he hath this Expression : Quae quanquam ad Veteres Excrementerum Oppilationes conferunt , nihil tamen adversus Lithiasin , which seems , by denying to the Salt of Urine some Vertues ascrib'd to it by many other Chymists , to bring some credit to his praises of it ( And indeed a friend of mine , that has try'd it in the Jaundise , affirms it to deserve the Commendation he gives it in that Disease . ) And though I fear our Author Hyperbolizeth , where He ( elsewhere ) thus writes : Spernit eos sapientia ( he means sure , that which is proper to the Spagyrists ) qui Materiam ex qua dispositiones , Contenta , Proprietates , Progressum & significationes Lotii addiscere recusarunt per ignem ; Yet perh●ps the Hyperbole is not altogether so extravagant as most Readers will think it . And I remember , that a while ago , conferring with the Publick Minister of a Foreign Prince , who is a very inquisitive and experienc'd Person , He f●eely told me , that though he had Travelled very much , and divers times not in a private Capacity , yet the greatest Chymist that ever he could make acquaintance with , us'd to tell him , th●t Salt of Urine was so precious a thing , that 't was pitty it should be us'd in ordinary Diseases ; But what his Reasons were for valuing it so much , he would not declare , and therefore I shall lay no great weight upon his Testimony . And yet I must not at this time particularly declare , upon what account it is that I so value the volatile Salt of Urine , of whose Vertues ( whilst 't is single ) I shall onely in a word observe to you now ( what is pertinent to the occasion of my mentioning it at present , ) namely , that when 't is well prepar'd [ according to the w●y plainly enough , though but very briefly couch'd already * ] it differs so little in smell , tast , volatility , penetrancy and some other manifest Qualities , from the Salt of Harts-horn , and that of Mans Blood ; that such effects , though perhaps somewhat less powerful may be not improbably exspected from it as are produc'd by the other . To the One Hundred Fifty fourth Page . Though I have not in this place made any absolute Promise , of annexing any thing , more particular touching the Spirit of Blood , and though I cannot now find , and I fear may have lost those of my Papers concerning that subject , which were the least unaccurate ; Yet , setting aside former tryals , a recent Account brought me by a Physician , whom I had entrusted with some of it , represents it as so very good a Medicine , that I am content to subjoyn , what particulars I have lately found among my loose Papers concerning it , as I many years agoe sent them to a friend , and this I the rather do , because there being annexed to the Process divers Observations of general Import to such kind of Preparations , they will be better understood with it , then without it , and I have not now the leisure to new mould them . Thus then ; — TAke of the Blood of an healthy Young man as much as you please , and whilst it is yet warm , adde to it * twice its weight of good Spirit of Wine , and incorporating them well together , shut them carefully up in a convenient Glass Vessel , wherein the matter must be set to digest in Balneo , or Horse-dung , for six weeks , or more ; then in a Glass head and body , placed in Ashes or Sand , draw off with a gentle Heat as much Liquor as will come over without necessitating you to impress any Empyreuma upon it , the remaining matter must be taken out and put into a strong and capacious Retort , which being placed in Sand , and accommodated with a large Receiver carefully luted to it , the matter therein lodged must be gradually pressed with a vehement Fire , which must at length be encreased till it be strong enough to give the bottom of the Retort a red heat . There will first come over ( after perhaps a little Phlegm ) Spirit , either accompanied or closely followed by a copious volatile Salt , fastning it selfe to the sides and top of the Receiver ; and much about the same time there will also come over an Oyl , or two , or more ( for I have not observed the oleaginous part to come constantly and regularly after the same manner ) the Receiver being taken off , all that it contains may be poured together into a convenient Vial , to be therein digested for a Moneth , if you please : or otherwise without that previous digestion , you may wash down the volatile Salt , adhering to the sides of the Receiver , with the Spirit and Oyl well shaken about it , and pour altogether into a large Glass Funnel well lined with Cap-paper , first moistned with the Spirit or fair Water , through which the Spirit and as much of the volatile Salt , as it and the Phlegm can dissolve , will pass first , leaving the Oyl behind them in the Paper , which must be seasonably set aside , or else the Oyl also , though more slowly , will pass through the Filtre : The Phlegm , Salt and Spirit , must be rectified with a very gentle heat , so often , till the Phlegm be perfectly separated , and they leave no faces : The Oyl also may be rectified two or three times from its own Caput Mortuum calcin'd , or else from Salt of Tartar to deprive it of its muddiness . The Distempers wherein this Arcanum or Spirit of Man's blood is proper , are divers , but chiefely Astmah's , Epilepsies , acute Feavers , Plurisies and Consumptions . But to comply with my present haste , I shall advertise You in the general , as to the use of this and the other Remedies to be s●bsequently mention'd , that for Them I must refer you to the particular Narratives , which I shall scarce , if You seasonably desire them , refuse You : And in the mean time , because these volatile Remedies are near enough of kin to each other , I shall adde to this first Process ( which is at least one of the noblest of them ) some Observations of a more general nature , that they being applicable to divers other Preparations , we may both of us avoid the trouble of needless Repetitions . Observations . 1. I ignore not that there are extant in Burgravius , Beguinus , and divers other Chymical Authors , very pompous and promising Processes of the Essence of M●ns Blood , to which they ascribe such stupendous Faculties as I should not onely wonder to finde true , but admire that they can hope the Reader should believe them so . But of these Preparations , some being , as that of Burgravius in his Biolychnium , very mystical and unlikely ; and others , like Beguinus his Q. E. Sanguinis humani , exceedingly laborious and not so clear , I have never put my self to the trouble of making them , but shall be very forward to acknowledge their excellency , if any Man shall vouchsafe me an Experimental Conviction of it . For though I think the present Preparation of Blood no bad one , yet I am far from daring to affirm there cannot be a better . 2. He that intends to have any considerable quantity of this Spirit and Salt , must provide himself of a large proportion of Blood , or else he is like to fall far short of his expectation ; because as full of Spirits as Blood is supposed to be , it yields commonly ( at least the best I have hitherto met with ) no less then two thirds , or more , of Ph●egm , b●si●es a not despicable quantity of terrestrial and unservicea●le Matt●r . 3. It is requisite , both that the Retort wherein the dryed Blood is distilled be pretty large and strong , and that the Fi●e be very carefully and gradually administred , least either the copious Fumes break the too narrow Vessels , or the Matter too hastily urged boil over into the neck of the Retort or the Receiver ; both which dangers this Advertisement may help you to avoid at a cheaper rate , then I , who h●ve not been forewarn'd of them but by unwelcome Experience . 4. There is a Friend of mine , an excellent Chymist , whose rare Cures first gave me a value for Remedies made of Blood , who us●th ( as himself assureth me ) to mingle with the Spirit that other Liquor , drawn over at first in a Head and Bo●y , and twice or thrice rectified by it self . But that Liquor consisting almost totally of the Spirit of Wine , and the not over-grateful Phlegm of the Blood , though there may pe●haps be passed into it some of the more fugitive Particles of the volatile Salt : Yet they being so few as are scarce discernable , this Liquor seems fitter to be made a Vehicle , then an associate of our Spirit , and perhaps too is not in all cases the most proper Vehicle in which it may be administred : ( though if it were not for the Spirit of Wine , I should somewhat suspect that the Phlegm , though so destitute of the more active Ingredients , as to be fit to be kept separated f●om them , m●y not it self be quite devoid of specifick Vertues . ) But my esteem of the Artist I have mentioned , doth make me think it fit to acquaint You with his Practise , notwithstanding that hitherto his authority be the chief thing that recommends it to me . 5. Divers ways may be propos'd of purifying this Spi●it and Salt we are discoursing of , but having try'd several , th●t which I now use is this that follows : I put the Salt , Phlegm , and Spirit together , in one of the highest and slenderest Bodies I can get , that the Phlegm might not be able to ascend easily into the Head , and that the volatile Salt may be the better separated : Then in a very gentle heat ( I most use that of a Lamp Furnace ) there will ascend a pure white and volatile Salt , adhering to the cheeks and nose of the Glass-head , which if I desire by it self , I sweep it away before the Spirit begins to rise ; but most commonly I suffer the Distillation to proceed , and the ascending Spirit to carry down part of the volatile Salt into the Receiver , and so I continue the same degree of heat , till there arise so weak a Spirit that it plainly begins to dissolve the volatile Salt : Then shifting the Receiver , I reserve the strong Spirit and volatile Salt by themselves , and take the succeeding weaker spirit by it self also ; to which , if I please to fortifie it , I adde as much of the volatile salt , formerly reserved , as it is able to dissolve . In the bottom of the Cucurbit or Vial , there will remain a phlegmatick kinde of Liquor , which usually contains some of the salt or spirit , and sometimes too ( which is somewhat odde ) some of the oleaginous part of the Blood , which did not before appear to have been associated with the spirit , and to have passed through the Filtre with it . This nauseous Liquor may be kept by it self till you have a sufficient quantity of it , to be worth the trouble of severing from it the nobler parts : The spirit and salt above-mentioned may be again rectifyed , per se , with the like gentle heat as before , so often , till they leave behinde them no faeces nor Phlegm at all . But this is requisite to be done onely when to master some stubborn Disease , the Medicine is to be exalted either to its supreme , or at least to some approaching degree of Purity and Efficacy , for otherwise so exquisite a Depuration is not always necessary . 6. As for the Oleaginous part which the Fire forceth out of Blood , my Observations of it hitherto have so little agreed , that , I dare as yet speak but haesitantly concerning it . For sometimes but one Oyl hath been drawn over , sometimes two : And I remember , last Year , a parcel of Blood , that was kept in a Dung-hill for many Moneths , yielded us a blackish and muddy Oyl , a purely red one , and another of pale Amber colour , which would not mingle with the darker ; of each of which sorts I yet reserve some by me . This difference may possibly proceed partly from the previous preparation , or unpreparedness of the Blood , and partly from the various administration of the Fire employed to distil it . But for the most part we find these Animal Substances ( if the degrees of Fire be orderly administred , and the heat sufficiently intended towards the close of the Distillation ) to yield a double Oyl : the one more light and pure , which swims upon the Spirit ; the other more muddy , adust and ponderous , which sinks to the bottom of it . The use of these Oyls hath , by reason of their Fetidness , been by most Authors absolutely rejected ; and even those few that do not altogether reject them , forbid their inward use , and allow them to be but externally employed : But considering , Pyrophilus , how much of the efficacy both of Plants and Animals is observed to reside in their oleaginous part , it seem'd not improbable to me , that these Oyls might deserve a better usage , then either to be wholly thrown away , or confin'd to outward services ; and therefore having not long since given a Friend of mine some pure yellow Oyl of Man's Blood , dissolved in Spirit of Wine , to try upon a Patient of his , sick of a Hectick Feaver ( in which Disease I had seen the Spirit of Blood very successful ) within a few days he brought me wo●d of the unexpected recovery of his Patient , to whom he administred our Medicine ( that I may not conceal from you that Circumstance ) in Balsamus Samech , made with spirit of Vinegar instead of spirit of Wine ; the remaining part of this yellow mingled Oyl I keep yet by me , to make further tryals with it . And that such Oyls may not be lost , I have been attempting ( for I am yet upon my tryals ) several ways to make them serviceable . Some of them that are of a more pure and defecated nature , I have ( which is not unworthy your noting ) found capable of readily uniting with Spirit of Wine , with which they may be allayed at pleasure : In others I have separated the finer and more volatile part , by drawing them over with a very gentle heat in a Retort half full of Water , which will carry over the lighter part of the Oyl with it into the Receiver , wherein the Oyl will swim upon it , and may be afterwards sever'd from it by a Separating Glass , or any other convenient way ( but I fear that this method , though it finely clarifie Oyls , may rob them of the best part of the Efficacy they may perchance derive from the latent admixtion of somewhat of the volatile Salt : ) at the bottom of the Retort there will remain a dark and thick substance , whose nature I have not yet had opportunity to enquire into . Out of some Oyls ( drawn from unprepared Materials ) which would not dissolve in spirit of Wine , I have , by digestion with spirit of Wine , drawn much of the scent and taste ; the spirit probably imbibing some of the finer parts of the Oyl , or else associating to it self some volatile salt that yet lay lurking in it : For sometimes I have observed Oyls , after long keeping , to let fall a volatile salt undiscerned in them before . Having also sometimes mingled the heavier and lighter Oyls of the same Body with dephlegmated spirit of Wine , and in a low Retort drawn over what will rise in a very gentle heat ( inferiour to that of a Balneum ) I have found the Spirit of Wine to carry over with it so many of the more subtle and active parts of the Oyl , that it was more richly impregnated therewith , then you will be apt to expect . But of what use this oleaginous Spirit may be in Physick , I have not yet had time to consult Experience , which I hope will , ere long , teach me better ways of improving the rejected Oyls we have been speaking of , then are those almost obvious ones hitherto mentioned , wherein I am very far from acquiescing ; especially , since I cannot but suspect that such active Parts of such Concretes , would be found very capable of a great Improvement , if we were as skilful to give it them . 7. The Terrestrial Substance that remains after the Liquors are drawn of , if the Blood have been duely prepared , affords but so inconsiderable a quantity of fix'd Salt , that unless the Caput mortuum be exceeding copious , the Alkali will hardly be worth extracting : Besides that , if it could be obtain'd in a not despicable quantity , I should , what ever is pretended , very much doubt whether it would be endowed with very extraordinary Vertues , the violence of the Fire usually depriving fix'd Salts of the specifick Qualities of their Concretes : and even in the first Salt of Serpents themselves , I have not discerned other , Then the wonted Properties of Alkalizate Salts . 8. Because you may sometimes not have the leisure to wait six Weeks for the Preparation of Blood ; and because oftentimes the occasion of using the Medicines we have been describing , may be so hasty and urgent , that unless some speedy course to relieve them be taken before the Physick can be prepared , the Patients will be dead . I think it not amiss , Pyrophilus , to advertise You , That though without any previous Preparation of Blood you should immediately distil it , provided an orderly gradation of heat be carefully observed , it will yield you a reddish Spirit , and ( besides an Oyl or two ) a volatile Salt ; which being rectified , are so little inferiour , in any Properties discernable by the smell or taste , to the Salt and Spirit of predigested Blood , that 't is very probable their Efficacy will emulate , though not altogether equal that of the more laboriously prepared . 9. And because it is difficult to get the Blood of healthy Men , and perhaps not so safe to use that of unsound Persons ; and because many have a strong Aversion , and some an Insuperable , though groundless abhorrency , from Medicines made of Mans Blood , I have thought it not amiss to try whether that of some other Animals prepared the same way , might not afford us as hopeful Medicines : And because the Blood of Deer is chiefly ( and perhaps not causlely ) commended by Authors , we have handled it according to the foregoing Process , and thereby obtained of it a Spirit , and Salt , and Oyl , whose penetrancy , and other resemblances , makes us hope that they may prove good Succedanea , in the defect of those Analogous Remedies ( drawn from humane Materials ) which we have been treating of . And to this let me , Pyrophilus , on this occasion , annex this Advertisement , That though in these Papers , and what I have further written of Preparations of this nature ; I name not any great number of Concretes , as having drawn their volatile Salts and Spirits , yet I have endeavored in these Discourses to give You in the Instances I insist on , so much variety of Examples , that either by the Processes therein set down , or by Analogy to them , You may , I suppose , be directed with the help of a few tryals , to obtain the volatile Salts and Spirits of most Concretes that belong to the Animal Kingdom , and that are capable of affording any . For by the method we prescribe , a little vary according to the exigencies of particular Bodies to be distill'd , we have drawn the Spirits , Salts and Oyls of Sheeps-blood , Eels , Vipers , &c. the latter of which yield a Salt and Liquor , which in Italy , by divers Learned Men , is superlatively extoll'd against Obstructions , foulness of the Blood , and I know not how many Diseases proceeding from these two general Causes . And though I dare not deny that divers of those Praises may be well enough deserv'd , by the Remedies to which they are ascribed , yet I am not apt to think them much superior to the generality of volatile Salts : And even the Spirit and Salt of Sheeps-blood it self , did , by their penetrancy of taste and fugitiveness in gentle heats , promise little else Efficacy then those others so much celebrated Medicines . 10. Nor is it onely by being administred it self , that one of this sulphureous and subtle kinde of Spirits may become a good Remedy , but also by its being made a Menstruum to prepare other Bodies : For it will extract Tinctures out of several sulphureous and resinous Concretes , whose finer parts , by being associated with so piercing a Vehicle , may probably gain a more intimate admission into the Body , and have their Vertues conveyed further then otherwise they would reach . And a Learned Doctor , to whom I recommended such kinde of Remedies , confessed to me , That by the bare extractions of appropriated Vegetables themselves , with Spirit of Urine , he perform'd no small matter . But one difficulty You may meet with in drawing the Tincture of Minerals , and other very compact Bodies , even with good Spirit of Urine . ( for that I account to be the cheapest of these volatile Menstruum , and the most easie to be obtain'd in good quantities ) For we have found , but with a little heat , the more fugitive Particles to ascend to the upper parts of the Glass , and there fasten themselves in the form of a Salt ; by whose recess , the debilitated Liquor was disabled from drawing the Tincture so powerfully as was expected , wherefore we were reduc'd to make our Extractions in short neck'd Glass-Eggs or Vials exquisitely stop'd ( which may also be plac'd stooping in the Sand ) and when we perceiv'd much to be lodg'd in the necks of the Vessels , by barely inverting them , the hot Liquor soon reimbib'd the Salt , and was fit to be plac'd again in Sand ; so that notwithstanding this difficulty , we were able by this means , in no long time , to impregnate the Spirit of Urine , or of Ha●ts horn ( for I do not perfectly remember which it was ) with the Tincture of Flowers of Sulphur , which may probably prove a noble Med●cine in divers affections of the Lungs , since in them these volatile Liquors alone have been found very effectual . And I remember , I have sometimes made a much shorter and more odde Preparation ( which at any time You may command ) of Crude Sulphur , whereby in not many hours I have , by the means of Salts , brought over such a sulphureous Liquor or Tincture , as even in the Receiver was of a red Colour , as well as of a strongly sulphureous Scent . [ To the Page 164 , 165 , &c. where Ens Veneris is treated of . ] BUt before I enter upon Particulars , I think it will not be amiss to tell You how this Preparation first occur'd to Us , because by that Information , Your happyer Genius may peradventure hereafter be prompted to improve this Remedy , or to devise one more approaching to the Nature and Excellency of that which we endeavor'd , but with very imperfect success to light on , or equal , by our Ens Veneris . I must then tell You , that an Industrious Chymist ( of our Acquaintance ) and I , chancing to Read one day together that odde Treatise of Helmont , which he calls Butler , when we had attentively perus'd what he delivers of the Nature as well as scarce credible Vertues of the Lapis Butleri he there mentions , we fell into very serious Thoughts , what might be the matter of so admirable a Medicine , and the hopefullest manner of preparing that matter . And having freely propos'd to one another our Conjectures , and examin'd them by what is deliver'd by Helmont , concerning the Preparation of Butlers Stone , or some emulous Remedy we at length concurr'd in concluding that either the Lapis Butleri ( as our Author calls it ) or at least some Medicine of an approaching Efficacy might , ( if Helmont did not mis-inform us ) be prepar'd by destroying ( as far as we could by calcination ) the body of Copper , and then subliming it with Sal Armoniack . And because the Body of Venus seems lesse lock'd up in good Vitriol , then in its metalline form , we concluded that it was best to calcine rather the Vitriol , then the Copper it self , and , having freed the Colcothar from its separable Salts , so to force it up with Sal Armoniack . But the Person I discours'd with , seeming somewhat diffident of this Process by his unwillingness to attempt it , I desir'd and easily perswaded him at least to put himself to the trouble of trying it with the requisites to the work which I undertook to provide , being at that time unable to prosecute it my self for want of a fit furnace in the Place where I then chanc'd to lodge . And though at first we did not hit upon the best and most compendious way , yet during the Sublimation , he being suddenly surpris'd , as both himself and his Domesticks two daies after told me , with a fit of sickness , attended with very horrid and seemingly Pestilential Symptomes , was reduc'd to take some of this Medicine out of the Vessels before the due time , and upon the use of it found as he told me an almost immediate Cessation of those dreadfull symptoms , b●t not of the Palenesse they had produc'd . This first prosperous Experiment , emboldned us to give our Remedy the Title of Primum ens Veneris , which , for brevities sake , is wont to be call'd Ens Veneris , though I am far from thinking , that it is the admirable Medicine to which Helmont gives that name , at least if his Ens Veneris did really deserve half the praises by him ascrib'd to it . But such as Ours is , I shall now ( as time and my yet incompleat Trials will permit ) acquaint you with that Process of it , which ( among some others ) we are most wont to employ , as the most easie , simple , and genuine . Take then of the best Hungarian , or if you cannot procure that of the best Dantzick , or other good Venereal Vitriol , what quantity you please , Calcine it in a strong fire , till it be of a dark Red , Dulcifie it by such frequent affusions of hot Water , that at length the Water that hath pass'd through it , appear full as tastless , as when it was pour'd on it . Let this thus exquisitely dulcified Colcothar , when it is thorowly dry , be very diligently ground with about an equal weight of good Sal Armoniack , and let this mixture be put into a Glass Retort , and either in as strong a heat as can conveniently be given in Sand , or els in a naked fire , force up as much of it as you can to the Top or Neck of the Retort , and this Sublimation being ended , out of the broken Retort ( laying the Caput Mortuum aside ) take all the Sublimate , and grind it well again , that if in any part the Sal Armoniack appear sublim'd by it self , it may be reincorporated with the Colcothar , Resublime this Mixture per se in a Glass Retort as before , and if you please you may once more elevate this second Sublimate , but we have not found That allwayes needful . And for the better understanding of this Process , be pleas'd to take notice of the following Particulars . First , We have alwaies preferr'd such Vitriol as abounds with Copper , before our common English Vitriol , about the making of which , those that keep the Copper as work at Detford are wont , as themselves have upon the place inform'd me , to use good store of Iron to increase the quantity of their Vitriol . Secondly , If You be unwilling to loose the Phlegm , Spirit and Oyl of that Vitriol with which You design to make Ens Veneris , You may distill them away in an earthen Retort , or one of Glass well coated . But though it be well known that the distillation of Oyl of Vitriol requires a very intense and lasting Fire ( so that unlesse you have need of the Liquors , the best way will be without any Ceremony to calcine the Vitriol in a naked Fire and open ; yet afterwards it will be for the most part requisite further to calcine the Caput Mortuum in an open Vessel . For you must take notice , that unless the Vitriol be very throughly calcin'd , it will be very troublesome for you to dulcifie it , and sometimes we have observ'd that the Caput Mortuum which look'd Red , and seem'd indifferently well calcin'd , hath been , almost like Crude Vitriol dissolv'd in the fair Water which was pour'd on it to dulcifie it . The weight of the Calx in reference to the Vitriol , of which it was made , we cannot easily determine , but we have sometimes found it necessary to reduce the Vitriol to lesse , perhaps much lesse then half its weight to make it fit for Dulcification . Thirdly , The Water that hath been pour'd on the first and second time to edulcorate , the calcin'd Vitriol , may be filtrated and steamed away , till it come almost to the consistence of a Syrrup or Honey , and then may be put into a cold place to shoot ; for after this manner we have sometimes had many very regularly figur'd Chrystals or Graines of Salt , I say sometimes , because sometimes also you may find it necessary to abstract all the Water , to obtain the Whitish Salt of Vitriol , which we have known us'd as a good Vomit , and which Angelus Sala none of the least sober of the Chymical Writers doth highly extoll as an excellent Emetick in his Ternary of Vomitive Remedies , where he discourseth at large of the Vertues of it , and the way of administring it . And of this Salt , as Chymists are pleas'd to call it , we have had out of calcin'd Copper as a very great quantity , and have sometimes observ'd it to have been almost as deeply colour'd as the Vitriol it self was before Calcination . Fourthly , We several times tryed to sublime dulcified Colcothar with Sal Armoniack , in Retorts and Urinals plac'd in Sand , but whether by reason of the fixedness of the Colcothar , or because the Furnace we were fain to use , though no very bad one , was none of the best , we never could that way obtain any considerable Quantity of the desir'd Sublimate , and that which did ascend was but of a faint colour : wherefore , unlesse you have an extraordinary good Sand Furnace , if you will make use of Glasse Vessels , which is the cleanliest way , You will find it expedient to sublime Your Colcothar in coated Retorts with an open Fire , except you have the Dexteritie to sublime in a naked Fire with Glass , Retorts uncoated , which we have divers times seen perform'd by heating the bottome of the Retort by degrees , and then placing it upon Embers , with Coales round about it , but to be kindled at a distance from it ; for if this course be watchfully follow'd , the Retort will be so well neal'd , before it be reduc'd to endure any intense degree of heat , that after a while You may safely lay thorowly kindled Coales , not onely round about it , but upon the top of it , ( which needs not to be done , till towards the end of the Operation ) and thereby drive most of the Sublimate into one lump , and into the Neck of the Retort . And by this way you may sublime without any Furnace upon a bare Hearth , but if you desire to give a more intense heat , you may lay first some warm ashes in an ordinary Iron pot , and having with them , and a few small Coals well kindl'd , neal'd your Retort , you may afterwards prosecute the Sublimation in the same Pot , which being once throughly heated it self by the Fire , will afterwards considerably increase the heat of it . Fifthly , Though it be most commonly requisite to resublime the Sublimate , that comes the first time up , that the Salt and Colcothar may be more exquisitly mix'd , yet as far as we can guesse by some trials , it will not be expedient to resublime it above once ( or at most ) twice . For in those Trials we have found the Ens Veneris oftener resublim'd of a paler colour , then that which was resublimed but once . And ( N B. ) perhaps , by further sublimations , the Salt instead of being more intimately united with the Colcothar , may be almost totally sever'd from it , according to what we elswhere in other cases declare . Sixthly , Of these Sublimates , that which hath the highest Colour , seems to be the best , as being most enrich'd with the Colcothar , from whence the rednesse proceeds . But at the first Sublimation I have often observ'd a pretty part of the Sal Armoniack to come up first white by it self , especially if it had not been very diligently mix'd with the Colcothar . But at the second sublimation the Ingredients ( which we have sometimes almost totally forc'd up without leaving a Caput Mortuum in the bottom of the Retort ) will be more accuratly mix'd , and the Sublimate will appear Yellow , and perhaps Reddish , of which sort we have sometimes had , when the Operation hath been very carefully manag'd . Seventhly , How great a proportion of the Ingredients committed to Sublimation , will arise in the form of Ens Veneris , we dare not precisely define , but a Sublimate amounting to the fourth part of the whole Mixture , you will scarce , if you work skilfully , faile off . Eighthly , We sometimes made a Sublimate of equal parts of pure Sal Armoniack and Salt of Tartar , both of them very throughly dry'd ( for else they will be apt to yeeld rather a Spirit then a Sublimate , ) well ground together , and so sublim'd ; And with this Sublimate instead of Simple Sal Armoniak we intended to make Ens Veneris , but by some intervening Accidents and Avocations we were not able to perfect the Experiment , of which we nevertheless think it fit to give You this hint , because of the great Efficacy , which an excellent Physitian of my acquaintance , to whom I gave some of it , assures me he has found in it against Obstructions and some Distempers that are wont to spring from them . Ninthly , When you are about to make Your first Sublimate , You may if You please , lute to the Retort , whereinto You put the Ingredients , a small Receiver to catch the Liquor that oftentimes comes over . For that Liquor , though you will very seldome get much of it , yet may be worth your preserving , by reason of the Volatile and Urinous Salt wherewith it will sometimes so abound , that it may passe for a weak Spirit of Sal Armoniack . Tenthly , The Caput Mortuum that remains after the first Sublimation , may be put into a clean Glass , and set in a Cellar , where it will run Per deliquium , into a thick and high colour'd Liquor , very richly impregnated ( as we elsewhere manifest on another Occasion ) with the somewhat opened body of Copper , from whence if half those praises be true , which even the best Chymists are pleas'd to give to Copper , it may be very well concluded to have deriv'd no small Vertues against Ulcers , and divers other Affections , which we are not here to insist on . Eleventhly , We have sometimes doubted whether or no our Ens Veneris did really contain any thing of Cypreous or Colcotharine in it , partly , because of the fixedness or sluggishnesse of Colcothar , and of the Copper therein contain'd ; and partly because , that if Sal Armoniack be two or three times sublim'd by its self , its Flowers frequently enough will ascend Yellow , like the paler sort of Ens Veneris . But first , that Sal Armoniack is capable of carrying up even fix'd and sluggish Bodies seem'd probable to us , partly upon our incorporating and subliming it with finely powder'd Coralls ( from which , though but very little of it ascended , yet some of that little was no lesse red , then the Coralls themselves before their being beaten ) and partly upon our subliming it from Copper , both Crude and Calcin'd , since of either of those Bodies it carry'd up a little with it , as appear'd by the Blew Colour of some parts of the Sublimates . And secondly , that the reddishnesse of our Ens Veneris proceeded partly , if not altogether from the Colcothar , seem'd probable to us , not onely by the tast , and some other Properties of it , but also by this , that having knowingly committed the first sublimate to a Fire too weak to resublime it ; and having after some Hours , taken the Vessel out of the Sand , we found that the Fire , which we suppos'd was not strong enough to carry up the whole Matter , had rais'd the Sal Armoniack to the upper part of the Urinal in Flowers , that were either White , or but of a pale Yellow ; whereas the remaining part of the Mixture , that lay in good quantity in the bottome of the Vessel , was of a deep Red , and a fragment of it of about the bigness of a large Pease , being cast upon glowing Coales , and nimbly blown with a pair of Bellowes , colour'd the Flame with a somewhat greenish blew like that , but more faint , which we elswhere have observ'd to proceed from the well opened body of Copper . But those Trials I confess would rather increase my Doubts then lessen them , because in our Ens Veneris the Colour is not Blew , but Reddish , if I did not consider , that Colcothar is a body that consists of some other matter besides common Copper ( as it is also far more difficult to reduce , though but in part , into a mettal then is vulgar calcin'd Copper ) and consequently when Corpuscles of differing Natures are by the Sal Armoniack elevated together , that which is not Metalline , may with the assistance of the Fires Operation alter the Nature of what is , and thereby produce a Colour differing from Blew . But to dispatch what ever further Trials shall inform us , touching this Question , whether or no any true and reducible Copper do make an Ingredient in our Ens Veneris , yet there being in Colcothar other parts as well as those , that by Fusion you may reduce into a pure Mettal , and our Remedy seeming by its Somniferous property to partake of them , it will not be necessary to the giving our Medicine a Right to the Appellation I commonly choose of Flores Colcotharis , that in it there is something of the Colcothar carry'd up , though possibly the quantity be but small , and not all reducible into a Metalline form , but perhaps the Question is not worth a longer Debate , it being sufficient to excuse the name , and recommend the thing to such a Person as You , that C●lcothar is employ'd in the making of it , and that the thing prepar'd is a noble Medicine , and hath some of the great Vertues ascrib'd to Vitriol ; whether that Mineral be an ingredient of it or no. The Dosis of Ens Veneris may be very much vary'd ; To little Children , we give sometimes one , sometimes two , and sometimes three Grains for many nights together , as we find them able , without inconvenience , to bear the Operation . To persons of ripe Years we commonly administer four , five , or six Grains at a time . But one , to whom we have given quantities of it to ly by him , tells us , That he hath taken to above thirty Grains at once without any inconvenience . We are wont to give it in two or three Spoonfuls of Sack , or other Wine , if the Constitution of the Patient , or the Nature of the Disease do not forbid it , and in such cases we give it in any Cordial Liquor , that is temperate , or any other convenient Vehicle . To Children it may be given in Beer , or Ale , or clear Posset-drink , but not in Milk. If the Patient hath supp'd at a seasonable Hour , we commonly administer it , when he is going to sleep . It works for the most part by sweat and a little by Urine , but more by sweat at the beginning , then after the body is us'd to it , yet to some bodies it proves so Sudorifick , that two Grains or lesse of it , have often made me sweat . That it hath once prov'd Emetick I have heard , but never observ'd it my self to provoke Vomits . As for the Medicall use of Ens Veneris , divers great Physitians will perhaps think it were not despicable , though it were no other then oftentimes to prove a safe and moderatly somniferous Medicine in Feavers , without having any thing in it of Opium , whose Narcotick power they find as difficult to correct , as it oftentimes proves dangerous , when being not well corrected , it is administred without very great Circumspection . But - ************** To the 166 h , 167th , 168 ●h , 169th , and 170th Page . [ Finding among my loose Notes , together with those that doe immediatly concerne the Preparations of Sulphur and Harts-horn ( deliver'd in these Pages ) some other Particulars that may also serve , either to afford some light to Readers lesse skill'd in Chymistry , or contribute somewhat or other towards the relief of some Patients , I am content to let those Papers goe together , as I long since address'd them to a Friend . ] HArts-horn , Pyrophilus , is a Heteroclite Body in Nature , which hath but few resemblers in the universe , for it grow's to a considerable bulk like a Vegetable , and is ( unlike most other Hornes of Animals ) at certain set Periods of time , deciduous , and though it be of a Bony substance , yet that middle part of it which differs from the rest in Colour , does ( at least in grown Hornes ) much more resemble the pith of some Plants then the Marrow of Bones : and yet this Plant-Animal ( if I may so call it ) does , when skilfully expos'd to the Fire , afford the same differing substances , with the Blood , Flesh , and other parts of Animals . 'T is no wonder therefore , if Physitians and Chymists have hoped to find extraordinary Vertues in so extraordinary a Subject , of which we shall passe by the Usual Preparations as not so pertinent to our present design , insinuating only in the generall , That though even the more Vulgar Preparations , as well as that which Physitians have been pleased to call Philosophical , afford us Medcines not despicable ; yet these are much inferiour to those Remedies wherewith dexterous Distillations are capable of presenting us ; and certainly if we allow of the Chymical Theory , ( whose Truth in these Papers I question not ) Harts-horn being generally acknowledged to be endued with properties very friendly to our Nature , and even those wayes of preparing it wherein the nobler and more active parts are not truly freed from those cumbersome ones that fetter them , and hinder them to display their powerful energies , proving yet oftentimes not unavailable ; The Spirit and Salt of Harts-horn would be in more request , were not Men deterred from making tryals of it , partly by the over-apprehended unpleasantness of the smell , and partly by the difficulties commonly met with in its distillation ; the latter of which Deterrements hath so frighted even Chymists from distilling this Cordial Substance , that we have very rarely seen any , either Spirit or Salt of Harts-horn , save what our selves have been reduced to prepare . There are three ways proposed by the Authors I have met with , to distil Harts-horn : The one in coated Glass Retorts ; the other in Earthen ones ; and the third in Glaubers second Philosophical Furnace . In the first of these ways , some very skilful Distillers that have often practised it , have so complained of their frequent breaking their Vessels by the copiousness and impetuosity of of the Fumes that rush out of the Matter , when it once begins to be prest with a considerable heat , that I confess to You ingeniously , Pyrophilus , they have hitherto frighted me from making tryal of that way , though I see no very great reason why , by a slow and regular gradation of the Fire , the mischances incident to this way of distillation may not ( at least most commonly ) be avoided . To distil the Matter we discourse of in Earthen Retorts , is a 〈◊〉 way then the former , if the Earth be close and good , and have been sufficiently bak'd ; as we finde in the right Hassian Retorts , wherein we have known the Operation proceed very prosperously , though a considerable quantity of the Matter hath been distill'd at once ; but the Retorts made of Earth that is spongy or any other ways unfit , or in whose baking Fuel hath been spared , are commonly ( as Experience hath informed us ) improper for this service , wherein they are easily broken : Besides that , it is much to be feared that all Retorts made of Earth , except it be extraordinarily compact and baked , are apt to imbibe the more subtle and more penetrant parts of Harts-horn , and other volatile Substances distill'd in them ; which we have observed in some , wherein the Matter hath transudated quite through the substance of the Retort , and been manifestly discernable on the out-side of it . The third way of distilling Harts-horn , is performed by the Instrument described by Glauber , in his second Philosophical Furnace : But neither is this way without its Inconveniencies ; for besides that , if the Earth whereof the Vessel to be employed is made , be not of very good and well baked Earth , it will be apt to crack , in so violent a Fire as is requisite in this way of Distillation , or else it will imbibe part of the finest Spirit it should transmit into the Receiver : And besides that , it is difficult to work long this way , without letting some of the active part of the Spirit escape between the wide Orifice of the Retort and the Cover : Besides these Inconveniencies , I say , it is to be feared that the Matter being to be cast immediately into the Vessel , made red hot before-hand , it will receive a stronger Empyreuma or Impression of the Fire , then it would do in the ordinary way of Distillation , wherein the Fire being orderly and successively increas'd , much of the Spirit and Salt comes over into the Receiver , before that last degree of Fire is administred ; which is requisite chiefly to force over the more fluggish and heavy Oyl , which therefore ( to speak congruously to the most receiv'd Theory of Distillation ) savors much more of the Fire , and is grown almost infamous for its adustion . But notwithstanding these Inconveniencies , Pyrophilus , we have found these Retorts of Glauber's not unserviceable , when we have had occasion to Distil considerable Quantities of such Materials , as were not so pretious , as to make the loss of a part of what they were to afford us considerable . And this Advertisement may take place , especially if you take along with you , what we have declar'd , touching the Ways we substitute to avoid as much as may be , the newly objected Inconveniencies . But having in other Papers taken notice particularly enough of the Ways we mean , I shall forbear to mention them in this place , though one of them may easily be made applicable , as Experience hath assur'd us , even to ordinary Retorts ; for 't is not difficult to apply to These , the perforated Receivers , which being almost of the shape of Pears , open at both ends , by holes of about two or three Inches Diameter ( according to the capacity of the Vessel ) may be with greater facility taken asunder and made clean ; and may , by the convenient Insertion of their Extremities into one another , be easily luted together ( in a level ) two , three , or as many of them , as necessity shall require ; and then provided there be applyed to the remoter extremity of the last of them , some convenient Vessel open but at one end , the Receivers will very seldom break : The Fumes that come over too copiously to be contain'd in one of them , passing freely thence into the second or the third ( for we very rarely exceed three in all ) which will be manifestly cool , and so , speedily turn into Liquor , the Fumes it receives , whil'st the first Recipient is perhaps hotter then the Hand can endure : But of these Mechanical Contrivances , elsewhere . Now whereas Glauber prescribes to mingle with the Distill'd Liquors of Harts horn rectified Spirit of Wine , to wash out the volatile Salt , and directs the Distilling again of both those Spirits ( of Wine and Harts-horn ) together ; his method of proceeding may be justly question'd : For first , dephlegm'd Spirit of Wine will not so readily , in the way he supposeth , dissolve the volatile Salt of Harts-horn ; And next , the Spirit this way drawn is not a simple Spirit of Harts-horn , but a compounded Liquor of the Spirit of Harts-horn , and that of Wine ; the latter of which may possibly , in divers cases , rather impair then improve the vertue of the former . For Spirit of Harts-horn , by reason of its opening and resolving , as well as Cordial Vertues , is safely and successfully given in Feavers , wherein it is not observed to inflame the Blood , whereas Spirit of Wine in such cases is counted dangerous . And this brings into my thoughts a very questionable Preparation of the Experienc'd and Ingenious Hartman , who much extolls , for the Worms in the Stomach , Spirit of Harts-horn in general , but especially that which he is pleased to call Essensificated ( that is , as himself expounds it ) with which its own fix'd Salt , extracted with some convenient Water , and its volatile duely depurated , have been dissolved and united . For first , The fix'd Salt of Harts-horn hath been perhaps never yet prepared by any Man ; and if Harts-horn doth yield a fix'd Salt ( as I dare not absolutely deny , but that out of many Pounds a few Grains may be extracted ) it may well be doubted whether that Salt be endowed with specifical Vertues : And next , The Spirit of Harts-horn , if it be well dephlegm'd , will not ( for ought I could ever finde ) dissolve its own Salt , unless assisted by the External warmth of the Ambient Air ; Insomuch that I usually keep the Spirit and Salt in the same Vial , where they remain unmix'd ; and the Spirit that will dissolve any of its owne Salt I account not sufficiently dephlegm'd , but to have yet an Aqueous alloy whereby the Salt is imbibed . And I remember that having once exquisitely rectified some Spirit of Harts-horne , and closed it up in a Viall , after divers months it let fall a considerable quantity of Volatile Salt , so far was it from being able , without the help of some peculiar way , to have dissolved more , had I cast more into it . I deny not that the Spirit of Harts-horn may , by the mediation of heat , be brought to take in some of the Salt of the same Body , but of what use this violent Impregnation of the liquor can be , unlesse it be quickly administred , I do not yet understand , having often seen the Spirit let fall againe in the cold , the volatile Salt it had dissolved by the assistance of heat . And having thus , Pyrophilus , laid before you the difficulties we have met with in the above-mentioned waies of making of Spirit of Harts-horne proposed by Authors ( neither of which we would yet have you altogether reject ) I must acquaint you with our having attempted a fourth way , which when the matter to be distilled is not very much , I choose rather to practise then any of the other , as hitherto seeming more safe and free from inconveniences . Take then ( for Instance ) two pounds of Harts horne broken on an Anvill into pieces , each of about the bignesse of ones finger ( for if it be rasped there is danger that it should emit its fumes too plentifully at once ) and put it into a strong glasse Retort uncoated , big enough to containe at least twice as much matter ; Set this in Sand , and fit to it a pretty large and strong ( either single or double ) Receiver ; then give a slow fire for three , foure , or six houres , to send away first the Phlegme , and more fugitive parts of the Spirit ; then encreasing the fire , but warily , and gradually for divers houres , drive over the Spirit ( which is wont to drop downe somewhat tincted ) and the more volatile parts of the Salt ; and at length intend your fire till the bottom of the Retort be glowing hot , and heap also at last quick coals upon the sand round about the Retort to give , as it were , a fire of Suppression , and so force over the more sluggish remaining parts of the Salt , and with it the Oyl : all which are to be afterwards proceeded with , according to the Directions given concerning the Spirit , Salt , and Oyl of Mans Blood : which having bin sufficiently insisted on before , will not ( I suppose ) need to be repeated now . Only it may not be impertinent to advertise you . 1. That we have more then once had the bottom of the Retort melted , yet not broken , the melted glasse being supported by the substrated sand . 2. That sometimes in Filtration , some of the thinner parts of the Oyl have unperceivedly passed through the paper with the Spirit , and Salt , and have not been discovered , but by Rectification , wherein I have almost admired to see the Oyl with a gentle heat of a Lamp ascend to the top of a very tall head and body ; touching which circumstance it may yet be further enquired , whether it proceed barely from the volatilnesse of the Oyl it selfe , or also from its being carryed up by the Salt and Spirit wherewith it was associated . 3. That by this way of distillation we usually have out of a pound of Harts-horne between foure and five ounces , ( seldome or never so little as foure , and often nearer five ) of volatile Salt , Spirit● , Oyl , and Flegme ; ( of the last of which , if the Harts-horne be not recent , there will be no great quantity ) and when we distill'd two pound of the matter at a time , we found the operation to succeed altogether as well , and to yeeld us a fully proportionable quantity of Liquor . The vertues of the Spirit and Salt of Harts-horne , which differ not much in Dose , or Efficacie , are probably very great in divers distempers , wherein we have yet made no tryall of them . For they are considerable in resisting Putrefaction , comforting nature , opening Obstructions , mortifying the the Acidities it meets with in the blood , and , by rendring that volatile , promoting its Circulation , we have knowne considerable effects of it in Feavers , Plurisies , Obstructions of the Mesentery , and Spleen ; and chiefly ( which perhaps you will think strange ) in Coughs and Distempers of the braine , and nervous parts ; in so much that I have by Gods blessing sometimes stopt very violent ( but not inveterate Coughs ) with this medicine in a few houres . And prescribing it to one who was almost daily assaulted with Epilepticall fits , a few Doses of it did in a pretty while at first make his fits come but seldome , and after not at all : But whether he be perfectly cured not having heard of him of late , nor having had oportunity to make further tryall of the medicine in that disease , I am not certain . Wee prescribed it likewise , not long since , to a Person who had long lain both distracted , and almost bed-rid , and was in a short time strangely reliev'd by the use of it , though not perfectly cur'd ( perhaps because the Patient tooke but little of the medicine , we being then not well stored with it ; ) and on some that have been by Feavers rendred stupid , it hath had very eminent Operations : but for a further account of its vertues , I must referre you to the particular Narratives , I may when wee meet , give you , by word of mouth : and till then it may suffice to tell you that it workes chiefly by Sweat ( and somewhat by Urine ) without being observed to leave behind it such heat as divers Sudorificks are wont to do : only there must be care not to administer it when the Primae viae , and passages are too much stuff'd and choaked up by grosse Humours , lest by agitating the blood , and putting it into a nimble Motion , it occasion greater Obstructions . The Dose is from five drops , or graines to a drachme ( ten or fifteene drops are wont to make mee sweat ) in Wine , Carduus Benedictus water , or any vehicle appropriated to the disease ; onely taking care that nothing acid be administred with it , because Acid and Sulphureous Salts mortifie , and disarme one another . Hartman commends it against the wormes of the stomacke , against which it may very probably be available , by reason of its penetrant , and saline nature , and its emnity to Putrefaction : Glauber writes that the Oyl rectified from Salt of Tartar , cares Quartanes , and inward wounds , and cures the paines produced by Falls , Contusions , &c. being administred from six to twenty drops to a patient placed in his bed to sweat after it : but of this my Experience will not enable mee to say any thing . And I feare Pyrophilus , that I have already too long entertained you about Harts-Horne : and yet I feare too , that you expect that before I forsake this Subject I should say something to you concerning a much controverted particular relating thereunto . The Inquiry is , Whether or no , when it is distill'd , the Salt dispose it selfe in the Receiver into the figures of Harts-horne , the Affirmative is maintained by many Chymists , and a friend of mine who is very severe , and not at all credulous , having assured mee that he himselfe had observed the inside of his Receiver over-laid with such figures or hornes , I dare not deny , but that accidentally the particles of the volatile Salt may sometimes represent as well the shape of Harts-hornes , as of divers other things . But for our parts having severall wayes , and not unfrequently distilled that matter , we could never see the pretended Saline Harts-hornes so clearely as we thought wee saw cause to esteeme that those who affirm'd they constantly saw them so distinctly lookt through the spectacles of prepossest Imagination : not to mention that it is the usuall method of nature in Salts to make the bigger Concretions of the same figures with the smaller graines , as we observe in Nitre , Rock-allum , &c. And the graines of the Salt of Harts-horne , though I have attentively enough consider'd their shapes , I remember not ever to have observed of a figure like that of the hornes they came from : but it is the nature of volatile Salts to fasten themselves to the Receiver in various figures , according as the degree of fire that urges them up , and other concurrent circumstances do chance to exact ; and consonantly hereunto we have often observed the volatile Salt of the same Harts-horne to be very variously figured in the same Receiver : and I remember that not long since subliming some volatile Salt of Urine , it adher'd to the upper part of the vessell in figures , much liker Harts-hornes , then ever I had seene their volatile Salt make up ; so that unlesse wee will merrily say , that the man whose urine was distill'd , had hornes given him by his wife , wee must acknowledge that nature seemes to give her selfe liberty to play in the Configuration of volatile Salts , and that casualities have no unusuall influence on them ; or to speake more properly , that the various degree of Fire , the differing copiousness of the Fumes , and many other intervening accidents do keep those Configurations from being constantly regular ; and I remember that a while since filtring through Cap-paper a Tincture of glasse of Antimony , made with Spirit of Vinegar and Spirit of Wine , almost according to Basilius ; the matter which remained in the paper ( which was placed in a glasse funnell , and was of the same shape ) did of it selfe , when it began to grow dry , cleave into the figures of trees , whose trunkes , greater boughs , and smaller branches , were both for their shape , and proportion , as lively represented as if they had been drawne by the curious pensill of some skilfull Painter ; which paper I shewed to some persons that beheld it not without wonder , and for ought I know I am yet able to shew it you ; nor is this the only instance I could give you if need were , if I had not trifled too long allready to manifest at present , that , now and then , Chance may make Nature seem to emulate Art. But as long as I have dwelt , Pyrophilus , on this Subject before I passe to another ; I must not forget to advertise you , that in case Stags Horns cannot be procured for the preparation of the above mention'd Remedies , you may without much disadvantage substitute Bucks-horns in their stead ; for almost all the trialls we have had opportunity to make of the Medicines we have been lately discoursing of , have been made with Remedies whereto Buck-hornes afforded Materialls . I had almost forgot , Pyrophilus , to tell you , That to keep the rectify'd Spirit of Harts-horn , Blood , or the like , is more uneasie , then any thing but trial would make one think ; and yet to keep the Volatile Salt is more difficult , then to preserve the Spirit ; for more then once , when I have kept these fugitive animal Salts by themselves , they have penetrated the Corks , and scarce left me in the well stopp'd Glasses any footsteps of their having been there , and therefore those Chymists that are not strangers to these Salts , have taken much pains to no great purpose to keep them from Avolation , some of the recentest and ingeniousest are wont , that they may moderate their uncurb'd wildness , to pour on them as much of some such Acid Spirit , as that of Salt of Vitriol &c. as will produce any manifest conflict with the Volatile Salt , never considering , that as this course doth indeed devest them of their fugacity , so it doth in effect devest them of a great part of their Nature , and consequently of their peculiar Vertues . For I have elswhere shewn , that the Saline Corpuscles , obteinable by the Fire from Urine , being united with a sufficient proportion of Spirit of Salt , will cease to be what they were , and with the Saline parts of the Acid Liquor , will make up a kind of Sal-Armoniack . But 't is easier for me in this our case to shew that another mans Expedient is not good , then to substitute a good one , especially in this place , where for some Reasons I must not set down , the way that I the best approve of , onely I shall tell You , that my way long was , nor do I yet despise it , to preserve volatile Salts in their own rectify'd Spirit , which swimming over them , kept them from the immediate contact of the Air , and preserv'd them so well , that by this means I have secur'd even small parcels of the fugitive Salt of humane Blood for many Years . [ But since the Spirit and Salt even of this sort of Horns , will not , I fear , ●e found so easie for every Man , especially , if he be a Novice in Chymistry to procure in any considerable Quantity ; and since the declared intent of my c●mmunicating to the Reader my Observations about these Spirits of Harts-horn , Blood , &c. was to furnish him with such Chymical Remedies , that men may by their easiness and cheapness be invited to provide them for the use of the Poor ; I presume it will not be improper to present him with a succedaneum or two , that may be easily enough obtain'd from Sal-Armoniack , though these Preparations have such Conn●xion with divers other Passages , wherewith they were VVritten to the Person , I here call Pyrophilus , that to avoid the too much d●smembring those Papers , and to make these Processes the better understood , I must content my self to leave out those Particulars that can best be spar'd , hoping that the rest will be easily excus'd , at least by those who know how much some Chymists themselves have been deluded in their Trials of the divulg'd Processes , divers of which are either false or very uncertain , and others , though they should succeed , would give but a sophisticall spirit , much of the obtained Liquor comming from the Distillable Concretes that must according to such Processes be mingl●d with the Sal-Armoniack , of which I could easily give instances , ev'n out of modern and applauded VVriters . ] The Spirit of Salt-Armoniack , Pyrophilus , hath such wonders ascribed to it by Chymists , that , if I should conclude these Papers touching Spirits of an Urinous nature , without saying something to you of that , you might think I had left the considerablest of them unmentioned ; but as I the rather acquaint you with the little I know of it , because , though I have met with divers Authors that extoll it , I have scarce met with any that teaches intelligibly , and candidly how to prepare it , which perhaps most of them did not know themselves , so I hope you will exact an accurate account of it the lesse rigidly , because I can present to you but little on that Subject , besides the few Observations wherewith my own Curiosity has supplyed me ; having scarce ever ( to my knowledge ) seen any Spirit of Sal-Armoniack save what my own Furnaces have afforded me , and therefore without presuming to set down solemne processes about a subject , wherein I have found a small variation of Circumstances hinder the operations made on it from producing uniform effects , I shall content my self to give you as true an information as my memory will afford me of a few of my proceedings with this nice Salt , and the successes of them : only premising in a Word , that by Sal Armoniack I here mean the Factitious and Venal , consisting of Urine , Soot , and Sea-salt . And first , according to the way proposed by Glauber ( in the second part of his Philosophicall Furnaces ) we distilled it out of an open retort ( with a Cover to c●ap on and take off as occasion requires ) with a mixture of Lapis Calaminaris , and once we , that way , obtained a quantity of Liquor , which seem'd exceeding strong , but before we could make any trials with it , the Viall that contained it having bin accidentally broken , we lost the opportunity of satisfying our selves of the efficacy of it : and having not long since attempted to make such a Spirit the same way , there came over indeed a Liquor which seem'd to be the Spirit of Sal-Armoniack , but when we came to Rectify it in a gentle heat , the greater part of it to our wonder , coagulated in the Retort , whereinto it was put to be distill'd , into a perfect Sal-Armoniack , ( a pretty quantity of which I yet keep by me ) and thereby betray'd the above mentioned Liquor to have been little else then the Sal-Armoniack it self , forced over by the violence of the Fire , without having suffer'd any separation of its Ingredients . Nor is it by us alone , that the Process set down by Glauber , hath been unprosperously attempted , and yet perhaps it might have constantly enough succeeded with him , and the difference of the Lapis Calaminaris ( in which we have observ'd much disparity according to the places it comes from ) may have produced the complained of variety of Successes . We also attempted to distill a Spirit from Sal-Armoniack ( to pretermit divers other trials ) by mixing it with equall parts of Salt of Tartar , but in this experiment we met with variety of success , for having exquisitely incorporated the two Salts by the help of a little fair Water , we have divers times had the upper part of the receiver ( carefully luted on to a somewhat large retort ) all candy'd over on the inside ; with Volatile Salts of severall shapes , and the Liquor afterwards forc'd over hath sometimes remained long enough in the forme of a very subtle and penetrant spirit , and sometimes again , it hath in the very receiver almost totally coagulated it self into a lump of Chrystalline Salt ; and when we had mixt the Salt of Tartar , and Sal-Armoniack , without any Water or other moisture at all , our successes have been very like those above mentioned . Upon this occasion I dare not omit acquainting you with an Experiment , which yet I learn't not upon this occasion , Take of pure Salt of Tartar and of good Sal-Armoniack equal parts ( let them be both very dry , or else you may loose your labour ) and grind them very accurately together , though you be deterred from continuing that toyl , by a very subtle and fetid Urinous steam , wont to exhale from the mixture ; these Salts being thus exquisitely incorporated , you must put them into a large Glass Retort , to which you may fit a Receiver to catch a fetid Liquor that sometimes we have observed to come over ; then administring by degrees a very strong Fire , the top and Neck of the Retort , will be lined with a pure white Sublimate , which seems to partake as well ( though nothing neer so much ) of the Salt of Tartar as of the Sal-Armoniack and of it's Qualities , and yet to differ from either ; and though this Sublimate be far enough from being the true Volatile Salt of Tartar so highly extolled by Paracelsus and Helmont , yet it is no ignoble Medicine in obstructions , and some other distempers : And I remember one of the most expert Chymists I know , having made trial of some I presented him , told me he found such effects of it , as made him divers times very pressing and sollicitous for more . The Fetid Liquor that will come over we have found sometimes to be very little , and at other times much more copious , without being able to discern clearly whence the disparity proceeded ; and the Caput Mortuum remaining in the Retort , by Solution , Filtration , and Coagulation , affords a pure Salt of greater Diureticall efficacy , then almost any I have hitherto met withall : Another way by which we attempted to obtain a Spirit of Sal-Armoniack , was by accurately mixing two parts of it , with three or foure of Quick-lime , whose vertue had not bin impair'd by being exposed to the Air , this mixture being distilled in a Retort , placed in sand , with a strong fire afforded us ( together with some dry Sublimate in the neck of the Retort , and as I remember a little volatile Salt in the Receiver ) a very strong and yellowish Spirit , so exceedingly penetrant , and stinking , that 't was not easie to hold ones nose to the open mouth of the Vial wherin 't was kept , without danger of being struck downe , or for a while disabled to take breath , by the plenty and violence of the exhaling Spirits : But the Liquor forced over by this method , though exceeding vigorous as to its Qualities , was inconsiderable , as to its Quantity ; and therefore wee now chuse to vary a little this way of proceeding , and and let the Quick-lime ly abroad in the open Air ; ( but protected from all other moisture , except that of the Aire ) for divers dayes , in which time the imbib'd humidity of the ambient Air would in some degrees slake it , and make it somewhat brittler then it was before , and the Lime thus prepared , being mingled with Salt-Armoniack , and distilled in all circumstances after the former manner , afforded us a Liquor so copious , and yet so strong , that we hitherto acquiesce in this way of distilling this wild Salt , as the best we have yet met with . But note , that , we used towards the latter end to encrease the fire to that degree , by heaping up Coales on the upper part of the Retort , that , the mixture in the Retort hath been brought to flow . Note also , that though even the Spirit thus drawne persevered long in the forme of a Liquor , yet yesterday coming to looke upon a Viall of it , which we reserved , to try what effect time would have on it , we found that about a fourth or fifth part of it had spontaneously coagulated it selfe into exactly figured graines of a Chrystalline Salt , the Liquor swimming above it , retaining , neverthelesse , a very strange subtlety : Which Observation concording with divers others makes mee apt to doubt , whether or no this so celebrated Spirit of Salt-Armoniack be really much , if at all , other then the resolved Salt of Urine , and S●ot , of which that body consists , of somewhat subtiliated by the fire , and freed from the clogging Society of the Sea-salt , to which they were formerly associated and united ; though I confesse it seemeth not improbable , by the great Energy which may be observed in this Spirit , when it is dextrously drawne , that the entire Concrete , and the Quick-lime , may afford it something that it could not receive from either of the Ingredients , whence the Mixture did result , as we see in Aqua Regi● , which dissolves crude gold , though neither the Salt-Armoniack , nor the Peter , nor the Vitrioll alone affords , by the usuall wayes , Spirit capable of producing that effect . The great vertues , and uses of Salt-Armoniack , especially in Physick , I cannot now stay to treat of , but you will find them largely enough set downe by Glauber ; whose Encomiums neverthelesse , must not be all adopted by mee , who in this place mention the Spirit of Sal-Armoniack , but as a Medicine that is neer of kin , and may serve for a Succedaneum to the Spirits of Harts-horne , Urine , Blood , &c. But although the last mentioned way , Pyrophilus , be the least imperfect one we have hitherto met with , of distilling Salt-Armoniack , yet because you may sometimes need a Spirituous liquor impregnated with the activest parts of that noble concrete when you want either Retorts to distill in , or Furnaces capable of giving strong fires , I dare not omit to inform you , that , we have sometimes drawne over such a liquor of Salt-Armoniack after the following manner . Dissolve pure Salt-Armoniack in a small quantity of faire water , then in a Cucurbit put such a quantity of strong Quick-lime powder'd , as may fill up a fifth or sixth part of the vessell , and water it very well by degrees with the former Solution of the Salt-Armoniack , and immediately clap an Alembick on the Cucurbit , and fasten a Receiver to the Alembick , closing the joynts very acurately , and from this mixture , by the gentle heat of a Bath or a Lamp , you may obtaine a Liquor that smels much like Spirit of Urine , and seemes to be much of the same nature ; and this volatile liquor being once or twice rectified per se , with a very mild heat , growes exceeding fugitive and penetrant , and workes by Sweat , and a little , perhaps , by Urine ; and I remember that when I first made it , having been induced by some Analogicall Experiments , I had formerly made , to give it to one that had a patient troubled with an extreamly violent Cough , I had an account quickly brought me , that he not slowly , but wonderfully mended upon the very first or second Dose ; and indeed the tryalls that have hitherto been made of it , make mee hope that it will prove little inferiour in efficacy to the other above mentioned more costly Spirits , scarce any of which being preparable by so safe , and compendious a way , if this Medicine emulate them in vertue , the Easinesse of the preparation ( wherein little time needs be spent , and lesse danger of breaking vessels incurr'd ) will much endear it to me . But , Pyrophilus , because I would assist You to make variety of Experiments about Volatile Salts , and because diverse tryals may be more conveniently made , when the Saline Corpuscles are in a dry form , then when they are in that of a Liquor ; I will take this occasion to mention to You a way by whose Intervention a change on the fixt body employ'd about the newly mentioned Experiment , hath sometimes afforded mee store of volatile Salt. This way was only to mingle exquisitly a quantity of Sal-Armoniack , with about thrice its weight of strong Wood-ashes . For the Spirit that we this way drave out of a Retort plac'd in Sand , did quickly in the Receiver Coagulate into a Salt ; and this Method was again experimented with like successe . And the Salt thus made we found so extreamly subtile and volatile , that it seem'd to be much of the same Nature with that of Urine , and if it be indeed , ( as probably 't is ) onely the Volatile Salts of the Urine , and perhaps also of the Soot , whereof the Sal-Armoniack consists , this may passe for a more compendious way of obtaining such Salts , then others that are hitherto wont to be practis'd amongst Chymists . But I will not undertake that this way of obtaining rather Salt then Spirit shall constantly succeed , Yet if you find it do not , I shall not perchance refuse You a better way . But if you could devise a Method ( which possibly is not unattainable ) of bringing over into a Spirit , not the bare Urinous and fuliginous Ingredients of Sal-Armoniack but the whole Body , it may be , you would have a Menstruum that would make good , if not surpass even Renanus's , and Glaubers Elogies of the Spirit of Sal-Armoniack . The affinity betwixt Volatile Salts and Sulphurs , doth , Pyrophilus , as well as your Curiosity invite me to acquaint you , with some of the Trials we have made about the Preparations of Sulphureous Fetid Liquors , which I am the more inclined to do , because , though I find mention made of some of them in Chymical Books , yet they are there delivered with so little Incouragement , amongst many other processes of which it appears not that the prescribers made trial , that when I had distilled some of those Sulphurs , divers expert Chymists were very desirous to have a sight of them to satisfy themselves that such Liquors could be so prepared . The way of making the common Balsam , or Ruby of Sulphur , is too well known to need to be long insisted on . Onely , because there is some little variety used by several in the preparation , it will not perhaps be amiss to inform you that we are wont to make it by mixing about three parts of Oyl of Turpentine , with two of good Flower of Brimstone , and setting them in a strong Urinal slightly stopt in an heat of Sand , only great enough to make the Liquor with a little crackling noise ( whencesoever that proceeds ) work upon the Sulphur , till it be all perfectly resolved into a Bloud-red Balsam which will be performed in six , eight , or ten Hou●es , according to the quantity of the Ingredients to be unite 〈◊〉 this Balsam which is indeed in some cases no despicable Remedie , is by vulgar Chymists , according to their custome very highly extolled , and sometimes employed in Distempers and Constitutions , wherein instead of performing the wonders by them expected , its Heat doth more harm , then its drying and Balsamick properties do good : but yet apparent it will be , by what we shall say anon , that by this preparation , the Body of the Sulphur is somewhat opened , and therefore ( as we said ) in some cases the Ruby of Sulphur may prove no ineffectual Remedie , which may probably be improved if it be prepared by bare Digestion in a very gentle heat , by which course we have prosperously prepar'd it , though not in so short a time , when we made it not in order to some other Medicine . To Volatilize the Sulphur thus Resolved we took the Balsam made the former way in a few Houres , and putting it in a Retort , either with , or without fair Water , which is supposed to help to carry up the superfluous Oyl , we placed the Vessel in a Sand Furnace , and with a gentle heat drawing off as much of the Oyl of Turpentine as would in that heat come over , we shifted the Receiver , and carefully luted on the new one ; and lastly , giving Fire by degrees , we forced over a Liquor of a deep and darkish Red , extreamly penetrant , but of a smell so sulphureous and diffusive of it self , that it was scarce to be restrained by Corks , and was by great odds stronger then that of the Rubie before distillation . The like Experiment we tryed in a Glasse head and body placed in Sand , and through that way , likewise we obtained a Volatile Balsam of Sulphur , yet we found it too inconvenient to be equallable w●th the former ; what long Digestions of this Liquor will do to take away , or lessen its Empyreumatical and o●●ensive Odour , we have not yet been by experience satisfie● no more then of its medical Vertues , though probably the ●reat penetrancy of the Liquor considered , they will not be languid . Authors also prescribe the making a volatile Balsam of Sulphur , by driving over , after the above mentioned manner , a Solution of Flower of Brimstone in Linseed Oyl , and this Remedy they highly extoll ; but though it may probably prove a good Medicine , yet since they commend it but by conjecture , and not upon Experience , I see no great reason why it should be preferable to the other ; for we find that express'd Oyles are much more apt to receive an offensive Empyreuma then Oyl of Turpentine , which being much more volatile then they , requires nothing neer so violent a heat to make it ascend ; and unless it be found , that the Sulphureous particles are able to mitigate the corrosive ones , the distilled Liquor of an express'd Oyl may prove noxious in the Body ▪ For by purposely ( for trials sake ) distilling Oyl Olive , by it self , though not in a naked Fire , we obtained a Liq●or of that exceeding sharpness , that it would ( takes inwardly ▪ probably corrode , or fret either the Stomach or some other of the internal Parts . There is another way of preparing a Sulphureous Balsam , to which Penotus no ignoble Chymist , ascribes such stupendous Vertues , that though I have not yet made trial of it in Diseases , yet I dare not leave it altogether unmentioned ; the process being briefly but this . Take good Balsam of Sulphur made with Spirit or Oyl of Turpentine , and having freed it from its superfluous Oyliness pour on it well deplegm'd Spirit of Wine , and therewith draw by affusion of new Spirit as often as need requires a sufficient quantity of a Red Tincture , which by filtration and abstraction in Balneo must be reduced to a Balsamick consistence ; this Liquor you may if you please by degrees of Fire drive through a Retort placed in Sand , and thereby obtain a volatile Balsam of very great penetrancy , and probably of no small efficacy ; but the Trial I have made of this process , gives me occasion to advertise You ; 1. That unlesse your Balsam be reduced to a stiffe thicknese , and almost to drinesse it self , the Operation will hardly succeed , we having fruitlesly digested for some months Spirit of Wine upon Balsam , whose consistence was somewhat too Liquid . 2. That as soon as the Spirit of Wine is sufficiently Tincted , it ought to be Decanted , and succeeded by new , left by too long digestion , instead of heightning its Tincture , it let fall that which it hath already acquired . 3. That upon a very slow abstraction of most of the Tincted Spirit in a digesting furnace , we once found the remaining Liquor not to be in the forme of a Balsam , but to consist partly of Spirit of Wine ; and partly of a seeming distinct Oyl , whereinto the Sulphureous Tincture was reduced . The Balsam of Sulphur thus made without Distillation seems likely to be an innocenter and nobler Medicine then the common Ruby of Sulphur , made with a hot and ill scented Oyl of Turpentine : and by this preparation may also appeare the truth of what we formerly said , when we told you , that the body of the Sulphur was opened by Solution in Oleaginous Liquors , for out of the common thickned Balsam , as you may be informed by this processe , well Rectified Spirit of Wine will , in a short time , extract a blood red Tincture , whereas by long digestion of Spirit of Wine alone upon pure , but undissolved , flowres of Brimstone , we could not discerne any change of colour in the Menstruum ; though I dare not deny the possibility of what some Authors affirme , who write , that Spirit of Wine very excellently Dephlegm'd , will in time , of it selfe draw a Tincture from flowers of Sulphur , which Tincture they yet pretend not to make of a higher then a Lemmon colour . And by the way let mee tell you , that our red tincture formerly mentioned is ( if it be well made ) so strong of the Sulphur , that probably it would make a very penetrant , and effectuall outward remedy in Aches , and divers other cold distempers of the nervous parts ; for it hath been already found , that good Spirit of Wine alone is one of the powerfullest Fomentations in divers cases of that nature ; ( insomuch that it hath been sometimes found to arrest the spreading Mortification of Gangrenes ; ) and therefore being so richly impregnated with Sulphur : which is even without the assistance of so subtle a vehicle very available in many dissaffections of the Genus Nervosum ; 't is probable that the skilfull association of two such active remedies may produce considerable Effects . Take of pure flowers of Sulphur one part , of the best Oyl-Olive foure or five parts , mixe them well together in a strong earthen pot , able to contain a much greater quantity of the ingredients then is to be put in it : set this vessel over a moderate fire of Charcoales , throughly kindled , till the Oyl though slowly , have perfectly dissolved all the Flowers of Sulphur , which will ( if you worke it well ) be perform'd in about halfe an houre , or an houre , ( according to the quantity of your Materials ; ) But you must have a great care , during the whole Operation , first , that the Oyl catch not fire , whereby it would not only be lost it selfe , but perhaps endanger the firing of the house ; and next that the Mixture be kept nimbly , and constantly stirring from the first beginning of the Oyl 's action on the Sulphur , till the Solution be fully made ; and the Pot ( having been taken off the fire ) be grown cold again . The chiefe Signes whereby you may perceive , that , you have not erred in the Operations are , First , if the Sulphur be perfectly dissolved in the Oyl , which you must often try before you take it from the fire , by taking up with the tip of a stick a drop or two of the Liquor yet in Preparation , and letting it coole on white paper , or on your naile , whereby you may discerne , when the Solution is perfectly made by the deep Redness , and Transparency of the Liquor , and by its containing no more in it any undissolved Fowers of the Brimstone ; Next by the Consistency of the Balsam which ought to be neither too Liquid ( as you will find it if it hath not staid its due time on the fire ) nor too thick ( as it is apt to become if you remove it not seasonably from the fire ; ) but of the consistence of somewhat thin Hony ; and lastly , by the smell which ought to be strong of the Sulphur , but not of the fire ; for though the Sulphureous Stink is , in this Remedy , to be expected , that Empyreumaticall one , which proceeds from burning ( and by skilfull nostrils may be easily discerned , ) is very possible to be avoided . The Dosis of this Balsam , when it is to be inwardly used , may be from two to fifteen , or twenty drops , according as the greatnesse of the distemper , and chiefly the strength , and Constitution of the Patient shall require and bear . It may be given upon a fasting Stomack , either alone , or brought to the Consistence of Pills , or of a Bolus with powdered Sugar , Liquorice , &c. or else dissolved in any convenient Vehicle , wherewith its Oleaginous nature will permit it to mingle . Outwardly it may be administred either by bare Inunction of the part affected , or else by incorporating it with any other convenient Oyntment , or Playster : after which we are wont to prescribe to have an application made to the part of two or three little Bags fill'd with Sand , as warme as the Patient can easily endure it , and shifted as soon as either of them begins to cool , that by this meanes , the Pores being open'd , the Vertue of the Balsam , by being made more penetrant , may reach the farther . I have been thus particular , Pyrophilus , in the mention of this Remedy , because though it seem but a slight and triviall Preparation , yet Experience hath given us better opinion of it , then I feare the slightnesse of the Preparation will as yet allow You. And indeed its Vertues , I am apt to thinke more then I have yet had occasion to observe , and therefore must referre you to Rulandus his Centuries , where they are often mentioned : but outwardly in Straines , old Aches , Bruises , and the like , it is wont to be very effectuall ; in the beginning of F●ts of the Gout it hath severall times ( though not constantly ) been prosperously applyed both to Mr B. B : and divers other persons , and sometimes it hath been found not ineffectuall even in the Sciatica it selfe . And as for Paralyticall distempers , I have had by a skilfull Physitian an account sent me of scarce credible things which it hath therein performed : to which I shall onely adde , that a while since I had great thankes returned mee on the behalfe of a faire young Lady , to whom I prosperously prescribed it against a great Tumor in her neck , which was supposed to be the beginning of the Kings-evill ; But this Tumor was recent enough , which circumstance I thinke fit to specifie , because I feare that if the Scrophulous Tumor had been inveterate , the successe would not have been so good . Inwardly the chiefe Use we made of it hath been in Coughs and Distempers allyed thereunto ; but its Balsamicall nature , making it both healing , and resistive ( if I may so speake ) of Putrefaction , makes it probable that its Vertues may be more extensive ; to which purpose I remember that a while since a friend of mine tryed it with wonderfull success in mictu sanguinis ferè deplorato , having first by a gentle heat reduced it to such a Consistence , as allow'd him to make it up into Pills . But of the particular Cases , wherein our Remedy hath been succesfull , no more at present ; We shall rather subjoyn , That though this have been the way which we have the oftenest employ'd in the making of the Balsam , yet we must not conceal from You , that we have divers times met with Accidents , which frustrated our endeavours and expectations . For if the fire administred be too languid , the Solution of the Sulphur by the Oyl proceeds not well , and on the otherside have found , that not only a strong heat is apt to burne the matter , or to make the Oyl boyl over , and perhaps take fire , but even that upon a very little excesse in the degree of heat , the Oyl and Sulphur would , before it could be expected , degenerate together into a heavy and viscous Lump ( almost of the colour of the liver of an Animall ) which coagulated Matter prov'd afterwards exceeding difficult to be by the affusion of fresh Oyl dissolved and reduced to a due consistence . Wherefore we tryed to prepare this Balsam by putting the proportion of Ingredients formerly mention'd into a strong Urinall , which we placed in Sand , and making under it no more fire then was sufficient to make it slowly worke upon the Flowers , ( which did often during their Solution make a crackling noise , ) we continued the Operation for divers ( perhaps many ) houres , at the end of which we found the Sulphur dissolv'd , and the mixture reduced to a Balsamick colour and consistence . So that if you distrust your dexterity to prepare this Balsam by the former way with a naked fire , we must advise You to make use of this latter way , as that which is the safer , though it be the longer way of proceeding . Nay when we had leisure enough , we did for tryalls sake , prosperously attempt the Solution of Flow●es of Brimstone , with common Oyl by the far gentler heat of bare Digestion , and by that meanes obtained a Balsam perfectly free from adustion , but of somewhat too liquid a consistence , which may be easily remedied by the mixture of powder'd Liquorice , Sugar , or any other such convenient Concrete . We must also advertise you that this Balsam may also be prepared with Oyl of Nuts , of Poppy seeds , of Hypericon , instead of Oyl-olive , or any other exprest Oyl , appropriated to the particular distemper against which the Physitian intends to employ the remedy , only care must be had , that the Specifick qualities of the Oyl be not so fugitive , as to be destroyed by the Ebullition requisite to the making of the Balsam , which if it be to be enrich'd with specifick vertues in relation to any particular disease , may perhaps be best prepared by the last mentioned way ( of digestion ) wherein the subtle Spirits that impregnate the Oyl are not in such danger to be dissipated by the fire . The knowingest Chymists themselves ( Pyrophilus ) are wont so much ( and perhaps not altogether undeservedly ) to to extoll the efficacy of Antimony , that we were thereby invited , besides divers Preparations of it for internall use , to attempt the making of some remedies of it , that might also be externally applicable ; and in prosecution of this designe , we found that by boyling foure or five fingers height of good Oyl of Turpentine upon very finely powdered Antimony , put with the Liquor into a strong Glasse Urinall , placed in Sand , the Oyl after some houres would grow exceeding high Tincted ; and being gently in in great part abstracted , would leave behind it a body of a Balsamick consistence , and a deep rednesse ; which may , I presume , be applyed to resolve , and discusse hard Tumours , and remedy divers other outward Evils , with more effect then the simple Balsam of common Sulphur formerly described . And from this Antimoniall Balsam abstracted to a st●ffer consistence , we found that Spirit of Wine would draw a Tincture , which I likewise suppose might prove a very powerfull Fomentation ; though the Spirit we used ( perhaps because it was not sufficiently Dephlegmated ) did not in a few dayes attaine to more then a very pale rednesse : ) but this Tincture being slowly freed from the most part of the Spirit of Wine , became of the consistence of somewhat liquid Hony , and of a deeper colour , thereby affording us a purer Balsam ; which we have not yet , ( being hindred by some accidents ) attempted to bring over the Helm● . Nor did we here desist , but by divers tryals found that the Antimoniall Balsam , above mentioned , being put into a Retort , placed in Sand , and pressed by degrees of fire , would at length emitt Steams , which would condense in the neck of the Retort , and fall thence into the Receiver in sanguine drops : this volatile red Balsam ( especially if by this volatilization the Antimony have lost its Emetick property ) we cannot but think endowed with more then ordinary Vertues , outward and perhaps inward too ; considering the great penetrancy of the Liquor , and the Energy of the Minerall , with whose subtle parts it is richly impregnated , if it consist not mainly of them . But we are yet in prosecution of this Preparation , and therefore till we have seen how far we are like to improve this Remedy , We shall forbear any further mention of it especially since we have already in this very Paper , given you as we suppose , sufficient proofe , that We are more sollicitous for your Satisfaction and proficiency , then for our owne Reputation , ( of being a severe Critick in estimating of Medicines ) For otherwise we should not have been so indiscreet , as to acquaint you with any Preparation , of whose medicall Vertues we have not yet made much tryall , whilst we are not destitute of other remedies , whose efficacy hath been manifested to us by Experience . But we have often observed , that divers usefull Chymicall Preparations are mentioned so obscurely , and unintelligibly by the Authors that write of them , or else are without any particular , or encouraging note of Distinction mentioned amongst a crowd of other Processes , some of which have perhaps already been found to be false , or triviall , and others of which may be rationally enough distrusted ; that most Physitians , and Chymists themselves , are deterred from attempting to prepare those remedies , not so much because they seem unlikely to prove confiderable , as because they are afraid that the Processes are false , or fraudulently set downe , and consequently , that concretes of such a Consistence , Colour , Scent , and other obvious qualities , as are ascrib'd to the Remedies proposed , are not preparable by the publish't Directions . And that you might see , Pyrophilus , what discouragements I have met with even from Artists themselves to keep mee from trusting to Printed Chymicall proeesses , I thinke it not amisse to mention here a memorable passage of the famous , and experienced Alexander Van Suchten , who is reported to to have gotten more by the practice of Chymicall Physick then any of the Contemporary professours of it ; for he towards the end of his Booke of the secrets of Antimony ( of which he clearly discloseth not any in that Treatise , ) gives this account of his Crypticall way of writing ; Quod in hoc Tractatu nullum Recipe proposuerim ob id factum est , quod vos seducere nolo , Recipe enim illa seducunt juniores Medicos : sed neque à Theophrasto ullum Recipe Scriptum est , quod ad Medicinam , quin occultum seusum habeat , & in quo nihil vel deerit , vel abundet ; & hoc non fit sine magnis causis . Wherefore make account , that besides that such changes of the qualities , of Bodies , may afford much light to Naturalists , he doth Chymists no useless piece of service , that acquaints them with the success of the nobler sort of processes mentioned in Authors , though he should give them little or no account of the Vertues of the Remedies prepared by those Processes ; but this I hope is not altogether our case , for besides that our Observations are likely to save You much trouble , and perhaps some mistakes , and mis-adventures , besides that ( I say ) we have had oportunity to observe such eminent effects of severall of the volatile Liquors described in these Papers , as may justly give us promising ! Expectations of the Properties of the rest , which are in their obvious qualities so neer of kin to them . And this sort of Medicines having been found sometimes to do wonders , and generally to be safe ( which of a few of the known operative , and not Specifick Medicines can be truly affirmed ) I not apt to thinke , that he that shall bring these Remedies in spight of their ill Scent , into the good opinion of Physitians , may make no inconsiderable number of Patients beholden to him . I should not , Pyrophilus , proceed to make You repent Your Curiosity to know my thoughts of the Urinous , and Sulphureous Remedies it hath hitherto made me treat of , were it not , that there yet remaines something to be said , without which , all that hath been said , will scarce signify very much towards the effectuall recommending of those medicines to Your esteem and practise . For I do not ignore , Pyrophilus , that not only the Generality of the Galenicall Physitians , but divers of the more eminent , and judicious of the Chymists themselves , have been pleas'd to condemne the internall use of Liquors driven through a Retort , by the violence of fire , upon the scores of their being offensively Empyreumaticall , and Stinking ; among which sort of Liquors I cannot expect , that our Spirits of Blood , Harts-horne , &c. will escape the being reckon'd . But forasmuch as the prosperous Effects I have had oportunity to see , of divers Remedies of that Nature , have given mee for them rather an esteem , then either a detestation or contempt ; I suppose it may prove no unseasonable piece of Justice to the Spirit of Blood , and the other Noble , though fetid Remedies I have been setting you down ; nor no unserviceable piece of Charity to Men , if in this place , and once for all , I spend some lines in endeavouring to rescue these criminated Medicines from the great Prejudice they suffer under , and from a reputation , which whilst it renders them more odious then even their smell can do , is likely to make men deny themselves the benefit of them . I might here on this Occasion call in Question , whether not only Galenists , but even many Chymists themselves , be not somewhat more afraid , then they need be , of what they call Empyreuma . But I will suspend a while that Question , and at present confess to You , that I have sometimes doubted whether or no that stink which is generally call'd by the newly mention'd name , do alwayes , and necessarily proceed from the Impressions of a violent fire . For to make a pure Spirit , and Salt of Urine , there needs nothing , but to let it in a well stopt vessel putrifie for a competent time ( as we elsewhere teach ) in a Dunghill , or any resembling warmth , ( and that it selfe , perhaps , is not necessary to its Putrefaction ; ) and then to draw off an eight or tenth part of the Liquor that first ascends by the gentle heat of a Bath . By which , or by the yet milder warmth of a Lamp-furnace , it may be sufficiently rectified , and brought to yield , besides the Spirit , good store of Salt. And since the Spirit thus made differs so little in Smell or Tast from those of Blood and Harts-horne , that most mens Noses are not criticall enough to distinguish them , ( and We have sometimes taken pleasure to make Chymists themselves to mistake the one of those Liquors for the other . ) It seems worth considering , whether or no the fetid and urinous Tast and Smell , which in these Spirits is said to be Empyreumaticall , and to proceed from the Adustion of the fire , be not the Genuine Tast and Odour of the Spirituous and Saline particles of the mixed Bodies themselves , which they would manifest if they were copiously extricated , ( to speakin the Kings language ) separated from the other Principles or Ingredients & associated into one Body , though without the violence of the Fire . For to distill the Spirit of putrified Urine , wherein the like Smell and Tast are eminent , there needs ( as we said ) no greater heat , then that of a Lamp-furnace , or of Hors-dung , ( since in the latter of these only , Urine too long kept , and but negligently stopt , hath been observ'd to have lost its volatile Salt and Spirit , before it was taken out of the Hors-dung . And such a H●at seems not great enough to impress an Empyrema upon such a Liquor . For we see th●t most things dist●ll'd in the g●eater heat of a Bath , are commended by Physitians and Chymists , for their beeing free from Empyreume . And what Activity may be acquired by the subtle parts of a mixed Body , by the convening ( if I may so speak ) of such Spirituous Particles disengag'd from those other parts which clogg'd or imprison'd them , without any Empyreumaticall Impression , from any violent externall Heat , may appear by the Chymicall Oyles of Spices . For though though they be usually drawn by Chymists and Apothecaries , by the help of Water in Limbecks ; and though they have by us been drawn after another manner ( which we may elswhere teach You ) with a much gentler heat ( sometimes not not exceeding that of an ordinary Balneum ) yet these well Dephlegm'd Liquors retaining so well the Genuine Taste and Smell of the Concretes they were drawn from , that they pass unaccus'd of Empyreume , are some of them much stronger and hotter then the Spirit or Salt of Mans Blood , or of Harts-horn : As may appear especially by the Oyl of Cinnamon , which if pure , is more penetrant and fretting , then any thing but tryall could easily have perswaded mee . And lest you should object , that the Fire doth considerably contribute to the strength of these Liquors , otherwise then by disengaging the Particles they consist of from the unactive parts of the Concrete , and assembling them together , I must advertise You , that I have observ'd little less Heat & Penetrancy then in diverse of these , in some Liquors separated without the assistance of Distillation : As for Instance , in the purer sort of the true Peruvian Balsam , and in another kind of natural Balsam , almost of an Amber colour , which belonged to an Eastern Prince ) who carried it up and down with him as a Jewel ) whose Domesticks at his death sold it , whereby I came to procure some of it , and found cause to wonder at its strength both upon the tongue , and in its Operation . But granting , Pyrophilus , that the Volatile Remedies treated of in these Papers , may have their offensive Smell and Taste imputed to the Fire , yet perhaps Physitians would more slowly , and more tenderly censure the Rememedies in question for their Empyreumaticall stink , if they did but consider , that they themselves scruple not to use ( to name those among many others ) Senna and Scammony , though the former be wont to gripe the Guts , and the latter have an Acrimony , Heat , and Mordacity so unkind to to the Bowels , that a few grains exceeded in the Dose turnes it into poyson ; because the ill Qualities of these Medicines , may by proper Correctives be somewhat mitigated , and the Good they doe , doth more then countervaile the Inconveniencies that attend the use of them . For the very same Considerations , Pyrophilus , will be applicable to the excuse of those fetid Medicines , for which we Apologize : For though the Empyreuma or Impression of the fire , for which they are rejected , be the Quality , whose absence from them were very desirable , yet may that Empyreuma by dextrous Preparations be in some measure corrected ( insomuch that I have known highly rectified Spirits of Urine , by being digested for divers months in an exquisitely stopt Glasse , brought to be of a Scent , which to mee seem'd scarce at all stinking , and to others even pleasant ) and the prejudice that may be justly fear'd from what remains , is advantageously recompenc'd by the benefits accruing from the efficacy of their more friendly Endowments . And in effect we find , that the Dogmatists themselves are grown not to scruple the administring the Spirit of Salt , though extorted ( if it be of the best ) by a much greater stress of Fire , then is requisite to the Distillation of any of the Medicines we defend . And not only the famous Riverius ( as we have elswhere noted ) extolls the Spirit of Tartar , and Soot , which are yet sufficiently fetid and Empyreumaticall , but severall other ( and among those some of our eminent English ) Physitians frequently use , and commend the Oyl of Guajacum forced through a Retort . And no less do divers learned Doctors esteem , and employ the Empyreumaticall Oyl of Amber : Though ( to note so much by the way ) That be in divers cases far inferiour to the Volatile Salt , which ( if the fire be skilfully administred ) may at the same time , and by the same Operation be obtained . This Salt , besides the Efficacy ascribed to it in the Convulsions of Children , having been lately found by Experience to be an excellent Medicine against the Epilepsies , even of well grown Persons , being administred in the Dose of not above a Scruple , or halfe a Drachm , in a due Quantity of Peiony water , or some other proper Vehicle . And on this occasion You may also be pleased to take notice , that foliated Gold , is ordinarily and without Scruple employed by Physitians , not only to cover Pils , but as a main Ingredient ( though how properly I define not ) of severall of their richest Cordiall Compositions extant in Dispensatories ; and yet to how great a fire Gold is wont to be exposed before it be melted out of the Oare ( wherein 't is usually ( at least as far as we have observ'd ) blended with other Metals , and Minerals ) and to Purifie it upon the Cupell either with Lead or Antimony : he that is unacquainted with the Operations of Mineralists , and the Art of Refiners , will not easily imagine . And , Pyrophilus , to satisfie You yet farther , that the strong Impression of Fire in the Medicines , doth not alwaies make them so noxious as they are commonly reputed ; let mee desire you to take notice , that there is scarce any Medicament more generally given , and applauded , even by Methodicall Physitians then Steel , which is often administred in Substance , made up with other Ingredients , into the Form , either of Pills , or Electuaries . And yet we have wondred to see what great Fires , and violent Blasts of huge Bellows moved by Water-engines , are used to melt Iron first out of the Stone ; and if it be to be farther refined into Steel ( much of that us'd in Physick being factitious ) a new violence of the Fire is requisite : And though after all this to make astringent Crocus Martis per se ( which is accounted one of the best preparations of it ) they are wont to keep Mars ( as the Chymists speak ) amidst reverberated flames , or in some glassmans Furnace for many houres , yea sometimes for divers dayes ; Yet this Medicine is with more successe then Scruple daily administred by learned Physitians , in Dysenteries , Fluxes , and other distempers where astriction is required . And 't is somewhat Strange to mee , that the having been expos'd to no greater a Fire then is requisite to distill Spirit of Blood , or of Harts-ho●n , should be much urg'd against those Medicines , by those that scruple not to commend , and do almost daily and oftentimes succesfully , prescribe the lixiviat Salts of Plants , and particularly of Wormwood , though these are not rightly made , but by the exposing the Concretes even to the violence of an incinerating fire . And as for the unpleasantness of the Smells of our Spirits of Blood , Harts-horn , &c : besides that , to very many Persons there is no Odour so loathsome , as that of a Potion . We find that the Galenists themselves scruple not in the Fits of the Mother ( which y●t very rarely prove mortall ) to repress ( as Men are wont to suppose ) the unruly Fumes by the Smell of Castoreum , Assa foetida , and even the Empyreumaticall Odour of the burnt feathers of Partriges : nor do they decline to use these homely , and ungratefull Remedies to Patients of tenderest Sex , and highest Quality . and indeed in dangerous cases I have known fair Ladies content to th●nke it fitter to take down an ill Scented Medicine , then venture the having their own bodies in few daies reduc'd to worse Perfumes . And certainly we may justly say of Health , as no less then an Emperour said of the gain brought him in by Urin , That it Smells well from what thing soever it comes . But , Pyrophilus , if Your Nostrils were so nice , that they must needs be comply'd with , though with the hazzard of impairing the Vertues of the Salts they are offended with , I Could propose an Effectuall Expedient to gratifie them ; and being now invited by so pressing an Occasion , I shall not scruple to annex something of it , and tell You , that if we may judge of the Vertues of the Spirit and Salt of Soot ( which I am wont to make without addition ) by their sensible Qualities : they must be much of kin to those of the Spirit of Harts-horn , and of Urine ; ( though these be animall Substances . ) And therefore having elswhere more particularly , and by divers Experiments declared the affinity between these Salts in divers regards ; it will not , I presume , be look'd upon as an unusefull or unseasonable Hint , if I give You a summary , though but imperfect , Account of what I remember my selfe to have done , in order to the freeing of the Volatile Salt of Soot , from that very offensive Smell , which may possibly make many , even of those that need them , abominate those Medicines , how Piercing and Noble soever , which it Blemisheth . The Process is as followeth . Take a Quantity of well Deflegm'd Spirit of Wine proportionate to the Quantity of Salt , whose Odour You desire to correct ; into this Spirit drop as much Oyl of Rhodium , or of any other Odoriferous Chymicall Oyl , as will suffice to make the Liquor as strongly Scented as You desire it : shake the Oyl , and Spirit well together , and if they were both well made , the latter will imbibe the former , and sometimes be thereby turn'd into a whitish Substance ; with which if it smell not strong enough of the Oyl , You may by Agitation incorporate more Oyl , and if You judge the mixture too strong already , You may dilute it at pleasure , by the affusion of more Spirit of Wine . This done put the Salt of Soot into a Bolthead , or Glass Egge ( according to the Quantity that You intend to sublime , ) furnish'd with somewhat a long Neck or Stem , and afterwards powring on leisurely Your Odoriferous Liquor , You may with it wash down the Salt that is wont to stick in the Neck of the Glass . After this you must very carefully stop the Vessell with a Cork , and store of hard-wax , if you cannot conveniently , make use of an exacter way of closing it . This Glass You must place in a Lamp furnace , or some other , wherein You may give a very moderate heat , for that will suffice to elevate to the neck and upper part of the Vessell the pure white Salt of Soot , imbued ( at the second time , if not at the first ) with the Scent of the Odoriferous Oyl , which You imploy'd about the Preparation . This Experiment , Pyrophilus , may prove of that Use in Physick , that it may deserve as well for its Nobleness , as the watchfulnesse , which is requisite in him that makes it , to be illustrated by the ensuing Observations . 1. Then it is requisite that the Spirit of Wine be very good , For that which is not sufficiently Dephlegm'd , will not ●eadily and perfectly receive into it self the odoriferous Oyl , wherewith it is to be perfum'd . Nor would every Chymical Oyl , although it were well scented , be fit for this Preparation for divers of them as Oyl of Turpentine , and Oyl of Amber will not sufficiently mingle with Spirit of Wine , unlesse they be previously subtiliz'd after a peculiar manner . 2. The Proportion betwixt the Spirit of Wine , and the Oyl that it is to be dissolv'd in , 't is not easie to determine ; for a lesser Quantity will suffice of some Oyl 's , then of other . And the Proportion of them must be vary'd , according as You would have the sublim'd Salt to participate more or lesse of their Odour , and other Qualities . 3. Great diligence must be us'd in closing the top of the Glass , because of the great fugacity , and subtilty of the Salt , whose Avolation is to be prevented : But then much greater care is to be had , that the Heat be not too stoong , but as equal as may be , and much inferiour to the Moderate heat of an ordinary Chymicall Balneum . For 't is scarce Credible how easily this unruly Salt will be excited either to make an escape at the mouth of the Glass , or to break it in pieces . And I remember among such other Accidents which have befallen us in the Preparation of this Odoriferous Salt , that having once set some of it to sublime from a perfum'd Chymicall Oyl , though though we administred so gentle a heat , that we thought the Vessel out of all danger of being broken , or found open : Yet in a short time the fugitive Salt did with a great noise blow out the Cork that was waxed to the top of the Vessel , leaving in the bottom not a limpid Oyl , but a Liquor of a red colour , and a Balsamick Consistence . But if the Glass be wide enough to allow these fumes competent Roome , and if the heat be warily administred , the Sublimation may be well enough perform'd . Of the Medicinall Qualitiy of this Aromaticall Salt , Pyrophilus , we have not yet had opportunity to make tryall , but some esteem may be made of them by calling to mind the Vertues of the simple Salt of Soot , and considering the Nature of the Liquors , from which in this Our Preparation it hath been Sublim'd . The Principall , if not the only thing , that seems to be fear'd , is , that the Salt of Soot being it selfe hot , and Chymicall Oyles being for the most part eminently so too , our Salt may prove unfit for Men of Hot and Cholerick Complexions , and in such distempers , as proceed from Excesse of Heat . But then it may be considered in the first place , that the Salt of Soot , being of an extreamly apertive , resolving , and Volatile Nature , and carrying up with it in Sublimation only the more fugitive parts of the Liquor from which it is sublim'd ; It is very likely that the heat produc'd by a Medicine , which by reason of its fugacity would stay but a very short time in the Body , will not be so lasting as that of ordinary Sudorificks , which are neverthelesse often administred with good Success , even in hot Diseases . Secondly , That there are divers Bodies and Distempers , wherein Remedies may be the more proper , for their being somewhat hot , and Experience shewes , that in Dropsies ( to mention now no other Diseases ) these Volatile Saline Remedies , that set the Blood a whirling and powerfully promote its Circulation , may prove very availeable . Thirdly , The Heat that may be fear'd upon the use of our Salt , may be either prevented , or at least moderated by the seasonable use of such cooling Remedies , as may be no Enemies to the Operation of this Salt , and yet no friends to the Distemper , against which it is administred ; And Lastly , Supposing that the inconveniencies proceeding from this Heat were not to be altogether avoided , yet the advantageous efficacy of so powerful and searching a Remedy , may very much outweigh that Inconvenience ; And ther●fore Riverius , as we formerly told You , commends the Spirit of Soot ( though that seem at least as hot as the Salt ) in Pleurisies ; and in the same hot sicknesse , we have , as we elswhere relate , successfully administred the Spirit of Harts-horn , whose Qualities are very near of kin to those of Salt of Soot . Other instances of this Nature You may meet w●th dispers'd in other passages of my Chymical Papers , to which I must adde , that upon the Consideration above mention'd , the Methodists themselves make no d●fficulty , in Pills and other Medicines , to use the Chymical Oyl , either of Cloves , or of Nutmegs , or even of Cinnamon . And some of our eminentest English Doctors , as I lately noted , have not scrupled of late Years , to use the strong and fetid Chymical Oyles of Amber and of Guajacum ( and the latter of these in large Doses ) whereas in our Preparation , onely the finest and most Aromatick parts of the Oyls , seem to be associated with the fuliginous Salt , since the Oyl remaining after the Sublimation , has been observ'd to be thick and ropy almost like a Syrrup . But whether or no this Aromatick Salt be a safe Medicine in all Hot Bodies and Diseases , it seems very probable , that it will prove a very powerful Remedy in those Distempers for which it it proper . For first , whereas Spagyrists have with much study , but without much success , endeavour'd to emak Oyls capable of being mixt with other Liquors , by depriving them of their oleaginous form , in which Helmont himself complains that they are offensive ; we have by our Preparation their finest parts associated with the penetrant and volatile Salt : by whose assistance they are not only fit to communicate their Vertues to Liquors , but assisted to penetrate exceedingly ; and perchance also , thereby to obtain such an accesse to the innermost parts of the Body , as is seldome allow'd to Vegetable Medicines . Secondly , We may have by this Preparation one of the most noble and volatile Salts of the World , not onely free'd from its stink , but imbu'd with the Odour , and perhaps divers of the Vertues of what Chymical Oyls we please . And since these Chymical Oyls are by Chymists and Naturalists thought to contain the most noble and active parts of the Vegetables whence they have been destill'd ; And since also the Salt of Soot sublim'd from them , carries up with it the finest parts of these Oyls , why may it not be hop'd , that no small number of distinct Remedies may be afforded us by this single Experiment ? These Remedies too may be the more acceptable both to Physitians and Patients , because they have not in them any thing that is Mineral , and notwithstanding their great Penetrancy and Efficacy have in them nothing of Corrosive , as many of the Saline Remedies prescrib'd by Physitians in their Dispensatories . And thirdly , That the Salt of Soot thus sublim'd may be also enrich'd with the Sulphur or Balsamick part of the Spirit of Wine , which was employ'd about its Preparation , may appear probable enough to him , that shall examine , by his tast and otherwise , such rectify'd Spirit of Wine as has had a sufficient quantity of Volatile Salts sublim'd from it . And how Balsamical a substance is diffus'd through pure Spirit of Wine , may be guess'd at by the great change which is made in the Caustick Salt of Tartar , when it is so dulcify'd as to make that Excellent Medicine , which Helmont extolls against inward Ulcers , and calls Balsamus Samech ; which if one had the abstruse Art of so preparing the Salt and Liquor , as to fit them for Conjunction , might be made onely by destilling very frequently pure Spirit of Wine from very fine Salt of Tartar. For by this means the fix'd Salt , retaining the Sulphureous Salt or Balsamick parts of the Spirit of Wine , ( as may appear by the Aquosity of the Liquor that comes over the Helm in this Preparation ) is thereby so depriv'd of its caustick tast , that when it will rob no more Spirit of Wine , but suffer it to be drawn off a strong as it was pour'd on , it will easily in a moist place run per deliquium , into a liquor not of a Caustick , but Balsamick ( and as it seem'd to us a pleasant ) Tast. And whereas , Pyrophilus , we have complain'd of the Difficulty we have met with , to mannage the unruly Salt of Soot , and keep it from breaking Prison , we must , to make this Experiment be more practicable and useful , advertise You , that You may , if You please , instead of Salt of Soot Aromatize that of Harts-horn , or mans Blood. And I might adde , that a very ingenious Friend of Ours Dr N. N. has lately Practis'd yet a more easie and preferable way of preparing Medicines of this Nature : But though I have partly try'd his Method , and found it to succeed well enough ; yet since I had it but by communication from him , and that he makes a considerable Advantage of it , I must forbear imparting it to You , 'till I shall have obtain'd his Consent to disclose it . I know not , Pyrophilus , whether I shall need to adde , That of these fetid Remedies , which are Volatile , and somewhat Sulphureous , as I chose to mention to You but a few , to comply with my present hast , which would not allow me to insist on many ; so in what I have deliver'd concerning these few , I have set down Particulars the more fully and explicitly , because I find the Doctrine of Volatile Salts ( though in my poor judgment worthy of a serious Enquiry ) perfunctorily , and indistinctly enough handled by the Chymical Writers I have yet met with , which made me the willinger to contribute the few Observations I could readily find of those I have had opportunity to make about them , towards the Illustration of so important a Subject , of which having elsewhere spoken in relation to Physiologie ( as these fugitive Bodies belong to the Commonwealth of Salts ) I thought it might not be unacceptable to You , if I also consider'd them a while in relation to Physick , and presented You with some hints concerning their Medical Uses . [ To the 166 th Page , where the Author promises a Declaration , how he would have his Praises of Medicines understood . ] ANd now , Pyrophilus , having finished what I thought fit to adde ( at present ) in the past APPENDIX ; I should likewise put at end to the present Exercise of your Patience , but that this being my first Treatise written to You concerning Medical Matters , and not being likely to be the last which you will meet with among the Papers design'd You , I think it requisite , and not unseasonable to declare to you here once for all , with what Eyes I desire you should look upon what I have written , and shall write to you concerning matters of that Nature : And first , I must advertise You that I am not so much a Mounteback as to recommend to you the Remedies I mention as certain Cures in the Cases wherein they are proper . For he must have been extraordinarily happy , or very m●ch unacquainted with the Practise of Physick , that has not found , that even those Medicines which are most celebrated by the best Authors , both Galenical and Chymical , do sometimes prove ineffectual as well as often prosperous , and the Remedy prescribed by the same Physitian to twenty Patients sick of the same Disease , has more then once been Observed , though it have succeeded in nineteen , to fail in the twentieth . And indeed the Causes of Diseases , the Constitution of Patients , and the Complications of Distempers are so very various , intricate , and obscure , that it is extreamly difficult even for the most knowing and experienc'd Physitian to make an accurate , and constant Experiment in the Therapeutical part of Physick ; and consequently such Experiments are much lesse to be expected from Me , whose Condition as well Disabilities forbid me to make the Practise of Physick my businesse , and allow me onely to administer it occasionally , either to my own particular Acquaintance , or to such poor people as are not able to gratify Physitians , or such as I meet with where there are not any : And thereby I am reduced to learn the Vertues of divers of the Remedies I have prepared by very few or none of my own immediate Trials , but the Relation of Physitians , who do me the Favour to administer them for me . And therefore , though I ende●vour to put them into the hands of faithfull , as well as ingenious men . Yet not being allowed to be my self a constant eye-witnesse of the Effects they produce , I must here for all these reasons solemnly professe to you , that as I do not set down Medicinal Experiments , with the same positivenesse that I do Physiological ones , so I do not intend to venture the repute of being a faithful Relator of Experiments , upon the successe of any Medicinal Receipt or Processe . Yet in the next place I must tell You , that You would perhaps do Me but right , to think not only that the Chymical preparations of Remedies are , if you understand them aright , candidly set down , though the Vertues ascribed to them do not constantly upon all Trials display themselves ; but that I have not rashly and inconsiderately , or upon uncertain Rumors recorded the vertues of particular Remedies , which may be good , though they be not infallible . It being sufficient to make a Medicine deserve the Title of Good , that it be often ( in some degree at least ) succesful , though now and then it prove not availeable , especially if it be otherwaies so safe and innocent , that even when it proves not prosperous , it weakens not nature , nor is otherwise noxious ; And we must nor , Pyrophilus be so timid as to suffer our seves to be perswaded , that if a patient miscarry after the use of the Remedies , the fault must necessarily belong to the exhibited Medicine . For oftentimes Nature will in spight of Remedies make a Metastasis of the peccant matter , and so empair the Condition of the patient ; and much oftner before death , the Conflict of struggling Nature , and the conquering Disease doth manifest it self in horrid and dreadful Symptomes , which some envious or ignorant Doctors ( for the more learned are wont to be more equitable , and lesse partial ) injuriously impute to the Chymical Remedy , given before the appearing of those Symptomes , never considering that the like Accidents are wont to attend dangerous Diseases , and dying persons , where Galenicals Remedies onely , and no Chymical ones at all have been administred . And that divers of the most eminent , and M●thodical of our Modern Physitians scruple not to use frequently both Crocus Metallorum , Merc. Dulcis , and some other Chymical Remedies , and to impute the miscarriages of the Patients that use them to their Diseases , though not many years , since all the frightful Symptomes accompanying the dying persons to whom they had been exhibited , were confidently imputed to those Medicines . To which let me adde , Pyrophilus , that oftentimes it may be very just to prize an Empirical Remedy more then a Galenical , though the Methodist and the Empirick have each of them by his respective Remedies , performed cures of divers patients in the same Disease ; partly because Empirical Chymists are seldome resorted to but in desperate cases , or till Nature be almost spent , either by the violence of the Disease , or the unprosperous operation of the Medicines employed to remove it ; and partly , because the Methodist helps his Remedies by premising the wonted Evacuations ( by Vomit , Seige , or by Phlebotomy ) by varying them according to Emergent Circumstances , by skilfully and seasonably administring them , and by strict rules of Diet ; whereas the Empirick oftentimes useth but a single Remedy , and usually without premising general Evacuations , exhibits it not to the greatest Advantage in relation to time , and other circumstances , and is much more indulgent to his patient in point of Diet : So that when an Empirick , and a rational Physitian do both in several patients Cure for instance the same Plurisie , the Disease may be very often judged to have been removed in one of the Patients chiefly by the Physitian , and in the other by the Remedy . In the third place , Pyrophilus , I must advertise You , that though I mention more Chymical remedies then Galenical , yet it is not out of any partial fondnesse of the former , and much lesse from any undervaluation of the latter , but partly , because Chymical processes being wont to be more unfaithfully , or obscurely set down by Authors then Galenical Receipts , I thought it might save You some labour to receive from me a frequenter account of those , then these ; and partly , because in many Chymical preparations , divers considerable Changes being to be wrought upon the Concretes to be prepared by them , there is oftentime so much of Philosophy to be learn'd by such Processes , that the successe of them may prove instructive to you , though it should acquaint you with their Truth only , as they are Chymical preparations , and not as they are Medicinal Receipts . But otherwise I love to look upon both Chymical and Galenical Remedies , with an impartial eye , and think that neither the former ought to be despised for the latter , nor the latter for the former ; for as Chymical Remedies have commonly the advantages of being more durable , lesse clogging by their quantity , and lesse nauseated by Patients ; so Galenical Remedies have when they are of equal Efficacy , the Advantages of being more cheap , ( at least quantity for quantity ) more procurable , and sooner prepared . And such is the variety of Cases arising from the variety of Constitutions and Distempers , that in some of them the former sort of Remedies may be more proper ; and in others , the latter may seem requisite ; and in some also both sorts may alternately be so useful , that neither of them can well be spared . In the fourth place , Pyrophilus , let me advertise You , that divers Chymical Remedies , and some Specificks also which are not Chymical , have seem'd upon triall lesse effectual then indeed they are , because they have been tryed by such Physitians as weaken their Efficacy by not administring them as they should . For some Physitians will never exhibite a Chymical Remedie , till the Patients strength hath been almost tired , if not quite spent with the unprosperous use of divers other clogging and debilitating Medicines . Others are so diffident of Chymical Remedies that they never dare to exhibite them in a full Dose , nor by themselves , but will blend a small quantity of a Chymical Medicine or a Specifick with other Ingredients , which either constitute with it a Medicine of new qualities resulting from that mixture , or at least much clog or enervate the activity and vertue of the Chymical or Specifick Ingredients : by which , even in so inconsiderable a Dose , these distrustful Doctors d●re yet require that great matters should be performed . Of which injurious way of administring the Remedies I recommend to you Pyrophilus , I do not causelesly desire you to beware ; as I may hereafter have occasion to shew you by particular instances of the Reasonablenesse as well of this Advertisement as of the others which I either have given You , or shall give you in this and other Papers . And another sort of Physitians there is who are of so despondent and rather partial an Humour , that if a Chymical Remedie or a Specifick do not presently perform the hop'd-for Cure , though they find that even upon their disadvantageous manner of administring it , it doth good ; yet they will quickly desist from the Use of it : And because it doth not do Wonders , they will not scruple to affirm that they have tried it and found it do nothing ; whereas they are wont to continue their own Courses of Physick without discouragement , though it be usually some weeks before the Patient find any good by them , and oftentimes ( as numbers of the printed Observations of Physitians as well as daily Experience testify ) the patient is by the tedious Course of Physick he has gone through very little better'd , if not much impair'd . Which I speak , Pyrophilus , not with an Intention to disparage Physitians in general , the most learned and ingenious of them being free enough from the Partiality I here take notice of , but to keep good Remedies from being disparaged by the envious or unskilful trials of bad Administers : And though indeed some Chymists are so vain-glorious or unwary , as to promise that the Operation of their Remedies should be as well suddain , as effectual ; yet if the Medicines themselves be found availeable , although not swiftly so , that flownesse ought to make us but condemne the Boastings of the man , not reject the use of the Remedies . And in the last place , Pyrophilus , I must Advertise you , not to expect that every one of the Remedies I commend should be Physick and Physitian too ; I mean , that it should of it self suffice to performe the Cures of those Diseases against which it is commended . For Medicines are but Instruments in the hand of the Physitian , and though they be never so well edg'd and temper'd require a skilful hand to mannage them ; and therefore I cannot but admire and disapprove their boldnesse that venture upon the Practise of Physick , wherein it is so dangerous to commit Errours , barely upon the confidence of having good Receipts . For though by Conversation with eminent Physitians I have found the learnedest of them to disagree so much about the Nature and causes of Diseases , that I dare not deny but that he may prosperously practise Physick that either ignores or dissents from the received Doctrines of the Schooles concerning the causes of Diseases , and some other Pathological particulars ; yet I cannot but dislike their boldnesse who venture to give active Physick , either in intricate or acute Diseases without at least a Mediocrity of knowledg in Anatomy , and so much knowledg of the History of Diseases , as may suffice to inform them in a competent measure what are the usual Symptomes of such a Disease , what course nature is wont to take in dealing with the peccant matter , and what discernable alterations in the Patients Body do commonly forerun , and thereby foretel , a Crisis , or otherwise the good or bad event of the Disease . To all which is to be added some tolerable measure of Knowledg , not only of the Materia Medica , and the chief waies of compounding several ingredients into Medicines of several Formes and Consistencies , as circumstances may require ; but also of the orderly and seasonable administration of the helps affordable by them . These particulars , Pyrophilus , might easily be enlarged on , but having neither the leisure nor designe to handle them commonplace-like , I shall only give you this account of my requiring in the Profess'd Practiser of Physick some knowledg both of the Materia medica and the Method of compounding and administring Remedies , that ( excepting perhaps the Arcana majora as Chymists call them ) even the best Medicines by being unseasonably or preposterously administred , especially in acute Diseases where Nature's motions are to be diligently watcht , and seconded , may do a patient as much harm as the orderly and skilful administration of them can do him good . And that he that has nothing but one good receipt for a Distemper , and knowes not how to vary it by adding , omitting , or substituting other parts of the Materia Medica , as urgent occasion shall require , may oftentimes find himself reduced either to suffer his Patient to languish helpless , or to venture by curing him of one Disease to cast him into another . For sometimes the Patients constitution makes the Medicine prescribed by the Receipt unfit to be administred ; and sometimes too , the Disease for which the Receipt is proper , is in the Patient complicated with some other Distemper which may be as much encreased by the Specifick , as the other Disease may be lessned . I know for instance some eminent men that are wont to Cure very stubborn Venereal distempers , by a Chymical preparation ( which some of themselves have been pleased to disclose to me ) of the Indian Plants , Sarsaparilla , Guaiacum , &c. But if these men met with Patients , such as those which Eustachius Rudius mentions himself to have often met with , who upon the use of the least quantity of Guaiacum , though corrected with cold ingredients , were wont to be presently affected with such sharpnesse of Urine , and Inflammation of the parts , to which Urine ●elates , as hazarded their lives ; they would be reduced , as well as our Author confesseth himself to have been , to have recourse to Mercurial or other Remedies . To which we may adde , that the use of Sarsaparilla , and Guajacum is generally forbidden by the warier sort of Physitians , in those Patients , whose Venerial Distempers are complicated with heat or Inflammation of the Kidnies or Livers . And sometimes also it happens , that the very outward forme of the Medicine prescribed by the Receipt is not fit , or perhaps possible to be administred . For not to mention that divers Patients can retain no purgative Physick exhibited in the form of a Potion ; and some others are as apt to Vomit up whatever is given them in the form of Pills , not to insist on this I say , I shall content my self to relate to You a memorable Case that hapned a while since to a Physitian of my acquaintance . He was called to a lusty young Woman , who upon an accidental but violent Cold was suddenly taken with such a Constriction of the Parts inservient to Speech and Deglutition , as made her altogether unable either to speak or swallow any thing at all ; and having thus continued some daies in spight of Glysters or other Remedies prescribed by a very Learned Physitian , and in spight of Endeavours to excite Vomiting , by making Her hold emetick things in her Mouth ; the poor Woman was in great danger ( when my acquaintance came to her ) of perishing for hunger : what in this case could be expected from the best Remedies that must necessarily be taken in at the Mouth ? Wherefore the Physitian finding her yet strong enough , and without Feaver , and yet her case almost desperate , did as judiciously as luckily prescribe a Glyster , wherein to ordinary Ingredients were added ( as himself a very few daies after told me ) about four ounces of the Infusion of Crocus Metallorum , with an advise that it should be kept in as long as possibly She could , and by this Medicine . Nature being sufficiently irritated , there quickly followed upon it some violent Vomitings , and upon them a liberty both of Swallowing and Speaking . [ And since this a young Gentleman and Fellow-traveller of mine , had the Organs of deglutition so strangely weakned without any manifest cause , that though he were able to make me a Visit , and acquaint me with his Case , yet he was very apprehensive , he should in a very few Dayes be starv'd , and being unable to swallow Remedies , had quickly perish'd in despight of the Arcana Majora themselves , had he been master but of such of them as ( like those wont to be magnify'd by Chymists ) must be taken into the Body ; if a very happy Physitian to whom I directed him , had not by a very Efficacious and Specifick Medicine externally to be apply'd , seasonably rescued him from so unusual and desperate a Case . ] But , Pyrophilus , as I would not upon the score of good Receipts have the Physitians skill despis'd , or thought uselesse ; so I wish that the Physitians skill may not make him despise good Receipts ; For we have often seen ( especially in outward affections ) not onely Empericks and Chirurgeons , but even Ladies and old Wives , with a lucky composition prescribed by a Receipt , performe more constant and easie Cures of the particular Distemper , for which that Receipt is proper , then even Learned Physitians by their extemporary , though pompous and Artificial Prescriptions . And the illustrious Lord Verulam ( one of the most judicious Naturalists that our Age can boast , ) thinks fit to take notice of it as a Deficiency that Receipts by long Experience approved , are not more closely , and as he speaks religiously adher'd to , but alter'd upon every light occasion ; And in the same Chapter to answer the Principal , as well as the most obvious Objection in this Matter , That , sayes He , any man induc'd by some Specious Reason should be of opinion , that it is the part of a Learned Physitian ( respecting the Complexions of Patients , their Age , the season of the Year , Custome , and the like ) rather to accommodate his Medicines as Occasions suggests , then to insist upon some certain Prescripts is a deceivable Assertion , & which attributes too little to Experience , too much to Judgment . And a little above He goes much farther then we pretend to do , for speaking of the Neglect of the use of particular Receipts , which , as He speaks , by a kind of propriety , respect the Cure of particular Diseases , He addes , ( severely enough , ) That the Physit●ans have frustrated and taken away the fruit of Traditions , and approved Experience by their Magistralities , in adding and taking out , and changing Ingredients of Receipts at their pleasure , and almost after the manner of Apothecaries , putting in Quid pro quo , commanding so presumptuously over the Medicine , as the Medicine can no longer command the Disease . Thus farre our Judicious Author : But I will rather choose to expresse to You my sense on This whole Subject of Receipts , in the Words of that Experienc'd Physitian to three Emperors , Johannes Crato : De morbi Natura ( sayes He ) causa , locóque affecto Medicus diligenter cogitet , atque in eo plus quam in certis medicamentorum mirificis formis situm putet : Medicinam tamen expertam cum ratione adhibitam plus valere quam ea quae interdum subitò à Doctissimo etiam Medico magnâ ratione exhibita excogitatur , non dubito : Atque hac in parte Rationales etiam Medicos Empeiricis cedere debere de sententia Hippocratis statuo . Onely I must adde by way of Explanation , That this Sentence is to be understood to expresse my sense , when the Medicines used are not very extraordinary , but such as Crato employ'd , and has left us in his Writings : for there may possibly be such effectual Specificks , and such powerful and commanding Remedies , that the Efficacy of the Medicine may ( at least in some particular Diseases ) excuse and repair much want of skill in the Prescriber . If the Testimony of Helmont concerning the Arcana of Paracelsus be considerable , even in a Tract ( where either out of Emulation or Judgment , he endeavours somewhat do depreciate both them and their Author ) much greater things might be boldly affirmed of some Arcana ; for Fateor Lubens , ( saies he , speaking of Paracelsus ) Me ex ejus scriptis profecisse multum , illúmque potuisse , per Remedia ad unitatis Symbolum adsendentia , sanare Lepram , Asthma , Tabem , Paralysin , Epilepsiam , Calculum , Hydropem , Podagram , Cancrum , atque ejusmodi vulgo incurabiles morbos : attamen Paracelsum fuisse ignarum radicis vitae longae , tam ex ejus scriptis & medicaminibus quam ex Obitu collegi , &c. And in the same Tract just before He comes to enumerate Paracelsus's Arcana , Concedo , saith he , Universales aliquot Medicinas , quae sub unisono Naturae longe gratissimo , insensibiliter post se vinctum educunt hostem , cum egregia Organorum depuratione , Concedo pariter appropriatas aliquot quo universalis amplitudinem in specificis morborum directionibus amulantur . And among those Arcana themselves that is ranck'd but in the second place , of which he gives this Characters : Sequitur dein Mercurius Vitae , Stibii proles integri , quae omnem morbi nervum penitus absorbet . And because another Arcanum does not so powerfully renovate , as that last mention'd , and two more ; He allowes to those three others the precedencies of that whereof He yet saith : Quarto loco est Mercurius Diaphoreticus , melle dulcior & ad ignem fixus , solis Horizontis omnes proprietates habet : perficit enim quicquid Medicus & Chirurgus possint optare sanendo . But because , that any Medicines should be qualify'd to deserve such superlative Encomiums , may seem a thing fitter to be wish'd then credited , I would not disswade You till the Chymists Cures have made good their Masters brags , to be altogether of our Authors Mind , who somewhere professes : Se morbum non dinguere , si Remediis ( sure he speaks of such Remedies as he thought he had ) sit summa bonitas . But yet you may perchance ascribe much more even to Remedies far inferiour to the Arcana Majora , in the cases wherein they are most proper , then many are willing to believe . Insomuch that I have sometimes observ'd with wonder , that an Excellent Person ( whom I need not name to You ) cures the Rickets generally in Children of several Ages and Complexions without having hitherto fail'd ( as she professes ) in any one , by prescribing no other Remedy then the single use of the above describ'd Colcotharine Flowres , which I presented Her ; and which a couple of Physitians also , to whom I recommended them , tell Me , They have try'd in the same Disease with the like success , as this Lady hath hitherto met with . And I remember that eminently Learned and experienc'd Physitian Dr G. Boat , ( of whose skill both your Excellent Mother and You have had good Proof ) solemnly assur'd me , as I elswhere also note , That he knew a Physitian who constantly cur'd within two or three Fits all Agues , whether recent or radicated , in Persons of all Ages , Sexes , and Complexions , indiscriminately with one single outward Application to the Patients Wrists ; but that this Envious Doctor would never part with it to our Friend , or any else , no not upon his Death-bed : onely Dr Boat discovered , That Spiders or something comming from them were main Ingredients of his Pericarpia . And indeed there are certain Preparations and Compositions of Remedies so lucky , and whose Successe doth so much exceed Expectation , and the Efficacy of common Compositions ; that the same Physitian , whose they are , may upon several Occasions prescribe an Hundred others , each of which he may think as rational as any of those , which nevertheless shall be all of them much inferiour thereunto . And therefore I wonder not that the most Learned of the Methodists themselves have much valued and celebrated some peculiar Processes and Receipts , as here amongst us ( to mention no others ) the Famous Sr Theodore Mayerne , was wont almost in all Obstructions , Cachexies , and Hydropicall Distempers to magnifie and use that peculiar Salt of Steel of his , which he was pleas'd to call Anima hepatis . And to these Domestick Instances ( which I might easily accumulate ) of the esteem eminent Physitians have made of Receipts , I might adde very many Forreign ones . Nay Galen himself , who has so copiously treated of the Materia medica , and the Composition of Medicaments , though he were sufficiently expert at drawing up Receipts , doth yet in his Book De Compositione Medicamentorum , and elsewhere transcribe , and sometimes commend ( and mention his having us'd ) divers of the Compositions of Auncienter Physitians , and especially magnifies Andromachus His Treacle . I might , Pyroph : here mind You , That we see that Chymistry , as Incompleat as it yet is , has been able so much to improve the preparations of Remedies , as to afford us some , which are so Innocent as well as Efficacious , that in the Diseases they principally respect , they require not , as of Necessity , neer so much of Theorical skill , as others do in the Administer ; I might likewise take notice , That Experience also teacheth , especially by what we see perform'd by the Spaa , and some other Mineral Waters , that one Medicine may be so richly endow'd , as to be more Effectual against several differing Diseases , then even the better sort of oth●r Remedies against any one particular Disease . I might further represent as some thing that makes yet more to my present purpose , that though every Body can advise his sick Friends to an Air that is famously healthful , if there be any within a convenient Distance from them ; Yet there are some Aires so eminently good , and that not upon the Account of any one Predominant Quality that makes them opposite to a Disease springing from its contrary , but f●om a hidden Temperature , or certain friendly Effluvia , that they alone often cure Variety of Diseases in Persons of differing Ages and Complexions : as Navigators observe in the Isle of St Helen where the Spaniards and some other Europaeans in their passage to the Indies , often leave without Physitians great numbers of Sick , whom they find for the most part recover'd at their return . And that sometimes ev'n the acutest Diseases may by the Sanative Steams that inrich the Air be cur'd almost in a trice is assur'd by those that have liv'd in grand Cairo , who have affirm'd to me , what the Learned Prosper Alpinus , who so long practis'd Physick there , assures Us , That upon Nilus's beginning to over flow , though in the Heat of Summer , there ensueth a suddain Recovery of those multitudes of Persons of differing Ages , Temperatures , Sexes , &c. which there happen at that time to ly Sick of the Plague . These things I say , Pyrophilus , and more I might adde , to what You may find dispers'd here and there in the ESSAYES which this Paper accompanies towards the inferring that we should not hastily conclude it Impossible that there May be found such Medicines as may be more then particular and Specifick Remedies without requiring the Giver be a great physitian . But to draw at length to a Conclusion , I shall rather Summe up my present thoughts of this Matter Thus. Ordinary Receipts without an Ordinary Measure of skill in Physick are not rashly to be rely'd on , especially in Acute Diseases ; where by giving Medicines otherwise innocent enough , to loose the opportunities of administring proper ones may be v●ry prejudicial , and where sometimes the several seasons of the Disease do require such differing Remedies if they be but Ordinary ones , that a Medicine proper enough for the Disease at one season of it may do Mischief at another : But if indeed there be Noble and Extraordinary Arcana , that work rather by strengthning and restoring Nature , and Resolving , or otherwise destroying the peccant Matter they find any where in the Body , then by irritating and weakening Nature or putting Her as it were to a troublesome Plunge ; the use of such Remedies may deserve to be a little otherwise consider'd , as that which may not Ordinarily ( for I say not Ever ) require more Instruction then may be afforded to Persons not Indiscreet by such Directions and Cautions as may be Divulg'd , or otherwise Communicated , together with the Remedies themselves : As we sometimes see that by the help of such Instructions unlearned Persons and ev'n old Wives do with some one Soveraign Plaister , Balsam , or other outward Remedy , Cure many and various Tumors , Ulcers , and other Sores in Persons of differing Sexes , Ages , and Complexions . And because You will easily grant that this Example does farre lesse accomodate our present purpose then does the Case it self , as I just now put it , I hope You will allow me to represent further , That at least it seems not so Rational to judge of all the Remedies that Art improving Nature can afford us by those that are hitherto in Use either among Methodists or Vulgar Chymists , but rather to think that the Nobleness of Remedies will be advanc'd according as the Art of preparing them shall be promoted ; and that it t is not so safe and easy , positively to determine the Efficacy of the former , otherwise then in Proportion to the Discoveries we have attain'd to in the Latter . The End of the APPENDIX . The CITATIONS English't . AD Pag. 6. In Corpore &c. But I dare not try those things upon Humane Body , which have not been before try'd upon former Experiences , For the End of such rash Experiments may be the ruin of all Lives . Ad Pag. 9. Naturalium &c. This is the Course of Naturalists and Physitians who prosecute their Art Philosophically , The Naturalist ends where Medicine begins , and Medicine begins where the Naturalist endeth . Ad Pag. 11. Sunt enim &c. The parts of Humane Body are unknown , and therefore we ought to consider them by the parts of other Animals to which they are like . Ad pag. 19. Hoc in &c. This I have more then once Observ'd in Lizards which I kept in my own House . For my Children being at play , when with a Rod they had strook off the Lizards Tails I saw them within a day or two come out to Feed , and their Tayles then by little and little still encreasing and growing bigger . Ad pag. 73. Neque &c. Nor may we be ignorant that in acute Diseases the Notes of Life or Death are more fallacious . Ad pag. 75. Quidam &c. One who before he fell into the French Pox was blind of a Cataract in one of his Eyes , by being anointed with Quicksilver , was recover'd , not only from the cheif Disease , but ( which was most strange ) from his Cataract . Nor is it irrational that Cataracts should be dissolv'd such anointing ; when Experience teacheth , That hard Tumors clogg'd together of pituitous Matter are powerfully dissolved by Mercurial Inunctions . Ad pag. 78. Ejusque &c. And they urge many Instances of it even to my admiration . Ibid. Ajunt &c. Yet they say that the Seed of the Calchoos , ground and taken in any proper Water doth dissolve the stone into a very Durt , which being voided doth harden again into a stony substance . I saw a Young Man to whom ( upon my knowledg ) this accident befell . When he was tormented with the Stone in the Bladder , which I understood both by the Lithotomist who felt it , and by the Symptomes which he suffered . I sent him to a Fountain , which takes its name from St Peter when he had staid there two Moneths he return'd Free from the Stone , and brought home with him all the Durt which he had voided by degrees , in a Paper , coagulated as it were into fragments of Stone . Ad pag. 85. Hic &c. He loaths nothing that stinks , or is otherwise unpleasant , He hath been often seen to chew and swallow Glasse , Stones , Wood , Bones , the Feet of Hares , and other Animals , together with the Hair , Linnen and Woollen cloath , Fishes and other Animals alive , Nay , even Mettals , and Dishes , and Globes of Tin. Besides , which he devours Sewet , and Tallow Candels , the Shels of Cockles , and the Dungs of Animals , especially of Oxen , even Hot , assoon as it is voided . He drinks the Urin of others mixt with wine or Beer : He eats Hay , Straw , Stubble , and lately he swallow'd down two living Mice , which for half an Hour continued biteing at the bottome of his Stomack ; and to be short , Whatsoever is offer'd him by any Noble Persons , it goes down with him without more adoe upon the smallest reward , insomuch that within a few Daies he hath promised to eat a whole Calfe Raw , together with the Skin and Hair ; Among divers others I my self am a Witnesse of the Truth of these &c. Ad pag. 86. Causam &c. To find in the Carcas the cause of this Vocacity will be questionlesse very difficult : Some one perchance would referre it to that which Columbus observ'd in the Carkasse of Lazarus the Glasse-eater , and resolve that the fourth conjugation of Nerves which nature ordain'd for tasting , come neither to the Palate nor the Tongue : But so there would onely be rendred the cause of his want of Tast , and not why he should be able to take such uncouth things without offence to his Stomach and digest them , which without doubt ought to be the particular and singular constitution of his Stomach and Guts , which yet may not appear to the Eye by the Effects . Ad pag. 91. De Laudano &c. Of his Laudanum ( that Name he gave to little Pills , which in the extremity of Diseases he administred as a most Divine Medicine allwaies giving them in an odde Number ) he scrupled not to affirm that by that Medicine he could put life into those who were as good as Dead ; and that while I was with him he made good in some Experiments . Ad pag. 94. Oportet ubi &c. Where a Medicine answers not we ought not so much to esteem the Author as the Patient , and to try somewhat farther and farther . Ad Pag. 97. Idem fit &c. The same is made of Mandioca , Potato's , Turkish Mullet , Rice , and other things which being chew'd by old Women , and Spit together with much Spittle , This Liquor is strait put up into Vessels , and there kept until it ferments and cast down a Sediment . Ad pag. 103. Hoc est &c. This Birchwater hath a sweet Sharpnesse and very pleasant Tast , it allaies Thirst , and the drinesse of the Entrails ; It tempers the Heat of the Blood ; It opens Obstructions and drives out the Stone . Ad pag. 111. Conficiunt &c. They make Drink of that Mulli rubbing it gently in their hands in Hot-Water , until they have rubb'd out all the Sweetnesse ; they strain that Water , and keep it three or four Daies , until it settle , and then it becomes a very clear Drink : The same Water boil'd turns into good Hony. — Of this Fruit boil'd with Water according to different Manners is made Wine , or good Drink , or Vinegar , or Hony. Ad pag. 112. Porro . Then by cutting the Shoot with a Razorblade made of a Flint , there runs out of the Cut a certain Liquor in such a quantity that ( which is wonderful ) out of one single Plant , sometimes Fiftie or more Arobae run out : From which Liquor there is made Wine , Vineger , Hony , and Sugar . For the Liquor Sweet of it self , is by being boil'd made much sweeter and thicker , so that it is at length kernes into Hony. Ad 113. Semel &c. If once in a Moneth one eat or Drink to excesse , the Day following , if he be weigh'd ( though he hath suffred no sensible Evacuation ) Yet then he will weigh lighter then is Usual . A constant Diet wants the help of those that once or twice in a Moneth do exceed : For the Expulsive Faculty being oppress'd by too great Repletion stirr's up so much of perspiration , as vvithout the Staticks no one would believe . Ad pag. 123. In urbe &c. In the City St James's that is in the Province of Chyle , certain Captive Indians cut off the Calves of their Legs , and for hunger eat them , ●nd ( which is strange ) applying the leaves of a certain Plant to their Wounds immediatly they stanch the Blood. Adde pag. 124. Memini &c. I remember that the Limbs of Souldiers wounded with G●nshot , to have been cut off by the advice of our European Surgeons , both Dutch and Portugall ; those Barbarous people by recent juices Gums and Balsams to have freed them from Knife and Cauteryes and happily cured them . I also am an Eye witnesse , that which the juyce of Tobacco alone they have cured Wounds given over by our Surgeons . Adde pag. 131. Experimentis &c. It is approv'd by many Experiments , that its Vertues are excellent against the Plague , Malignant Feavers , the bitings of Venemous Creatures , the Diarrhaea and other Fluxes . Adde pag. 135. Nam Venena noluit &c. He made not Venome to be our Poison , for neither made he Death nor any Deletery Medicament upon the Earth , but so , that by a slight industry and endeavour of our own they might be turn'd into great pledges of his love , for the Use of Men against the cruelty of Diseases which were in processe of time to arise . For in those Vemomes is the help that more benigne and familiar simples cannot yield , and those most frightful Poisons are yet preserv'd in Nature for the more great and Heroick uses of Physitians . Adde pag. 136 : That the Lapis Cancrorum resolv'd into the forme of its first Milk affords an Antidote against the violence of many Vegetables that are infamous for their being over laxative . Adde pag. 150. Mille &c. Our Court hath try'd the Efficacy of this Salt in a thousand Experiments in the Diseases of Melancholly , in all Feavers , continuous and intermittent , in the Stone , Scurvy &c. Nay more we have observ'd more then once that it hath procured sleep , especially in persons Melancholly , The Dose is from one , to two Scruples , we use divers pounds of it in a Year . Adde pag. 150 , 151. Caeterum quantum &c. But for the exceeding and portentous Vertues of the Bezar-stone , I have found by a thousand trials that they are not so very great . Ib. Nil porro &c. I speak no more of these Stones , least I should seem by my Commendation of their Vertues to provoke Lithotomists to make dissections at any rate . This I have most certainly Experienc'd , That the Stone found in Mans bladder doth well provoke Urine and Sweat. And particularly in the time of that Plague , which in the Years 1624 and 1625 miserably vexed Ours , and all other the Cities of Holland , for want of the Bezar-stone , I remember , I prescribed this and found it , ( let me tell You ) a more great and excellent Sudorifick . Adde pag. 159. Credo &c. I believe Simples in their own simplicity are sufficient for the Curing of all Diseases . Adde pag. 19. Quod &c. But if You come not to that Arcanum of Pyrotechny , learn at least to make the Salt of Tartar Volatile , that by means of it You may perfect Your Solutions . Which though it leave those things which it dissolveth equally Homogeneous , being digested in Us ; Yet it borroweth some of their Vertues which it carrieth along with it self to overcome Diseases . Adde pag. 199. Dicam &c. I will speak it for their sakes , who are ingenious that the Spirit of Salt of Tartar , if it dissolveth Unicorns Horn , Silver , Quicksilver , Crabbes Eyes , or other like Simples , it will Cure not onely Feavers but other Diseases in great abundance . Ib. Mirum &c. It is a wonder what the very Salt of Tartar alone being made Volatile will performe , for it cleanses the Veins of all the feculencies and the causers of Contumacious Obstructions , and doth disperse the congregated Matter of Apostems . Of this Spirit of the Salt ( and not of the Oyl ) is that saying of Paracelsus true . That whether this Medicine cannot reach , there is scarce any other more powerful that shall reach it . Ad pag. 201. Ars &c. Art is Long , Life is short . But where the End is by gift , there Art is short , and Mans Life long , if it be compared to Art. Therefore Hippocrates had reason to make the complaint , for it even happen'd to his followers according to his Words . The Art of Medicine consists in Philosophy , Astronomy , Chymistry , and Physicks , and therefore it may truely be said that the Art is long . For there is much time required , throughly to learn and search these fower Pillars of Medicine . Ad pag. 202. Est enim &c. For this Art is conjectural , and not onely Conjecture , but Experience it self doth not allwaies answer . Ib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 &c. Experience is Uncertain , and Fallacious Judgment is difficult to be made . Ib. Hoc modo &c. And this was the fashion of Medicine in the beginning , that it had no Theory , onely Experience , that such a thing was Laxative , such a thing Astringent : But how , or why they were so that was not found out , and therefore one was heal'd another perish't : but now &c. Ib. Per rationem &c. By Reason it is not easy in a Disease to give Judgment , but is as difficult as any thing imaginable . Ib. Neque , &c. For if the truth were easie to be found , so many and so excellent men as have made it their business to find it , had never been divided into so many Sects and Opinions . Ad pag 203. Non titulus &c. It is not a Title , nor Eloquence Nor Skill in the tongues , nor the Reading of many books ( though these are Ornaments ) which are to be considered in a Physitian , but a prime knowledg of Matters and Mysteryes which alone may stand in the steed of all the rest ; It is the part of a Rhetorician to speak eloquently , to be able to perswade and to draw the Judg to his own party . It is the part of a Physitian to know the several sorts of Diseases , their Causes and Symptomes , and then which skill and industry to apply Medicines and to make Cures of them all , according to their several Natures and Fashions . Adde pag. 207. Imo &c. Nay , I saw divers , as it was in an instant , redeem'd from death who had been poison'd by the eating of Venomous Mushrooms and other unwholsome things , onely by drinking a Recent Infusion of the Root Jaborand , whilest my self and other of Galens Disciples blush't to see the ineffectual endeavours of all our Alexipharmaca , Treacles and other Antidotes : So that afterwards I suffred my self to be joyn'd in Consultation with those barbarous Collegues , not so much to be arbiters of the condition of our men by their Pulse , as to give their assistance and Councel in the foremention'd way ( viz. ) the prescribing of proper Medicines . Ad pag. 208. Hujus &c. The Vertue of this Stone is much above that of any other gems , for it stops the Flux of Blood in any part . — When the Women perceive a fit of the Mother coming upon them , by applying this Stone they are immediately eased , and if they allwaies weare it , they are never troubled with those Fits more . Of this they make faith , by many Instances . Ib. Vidimus &c. We have seen some that were troubled with the Flux of the Haemorrhoides who found Remedy by wearing Rings made of that Stone continually on their Fingers , and the Monthly Flux is stai'd by the same way . Ad pag. 209. Praegnantibus &c. This Stone is not proper for those who are with Child , for it is so sure to cause Abortion that the Women of Malaica told me , that if at any time their Monethly Evacuations were obstructed , that if they only carried this Stone in their hands they found Remedy thereby . Ad pag. 210. Hoc loco &c. In this place I cannot but relate the admirable Vertues of our Electrum which I have observ'd with my own Eyes , and therefore can attest with a good conscience . For we saw Rings of it which he that wore neither felt Cramp , no Palsy , nor other pain . He was subject to no Fits of Apoplexy , nor Epilepsy , insomuch that if one of these Rings were put upon the Ring Finger of a person actually in any vehement Fit of the Falling sickness , the Fit would immediately assuage , and the person as soon come to himself . Ad 225. In the Citty Posto where I liv'd certain Years , a certain Indian cured all sorts of Diseases by the juice of one Plant alone , wherewith he anointed the Limbs and any other part particularly affected , and then covering them warm with Blankets provoked Sweat. The Sweat that came from the parts so dawbed was meer Blood which he wiped off with Linnen Clothes , and so he proceeded until he thought they had Sweat enough . In the mean time he gave them Diet that was most Nourishing . With this Remedy many desperate Diseases were cured , and the sick person upon the Use of this Physick improv'd , so as to appear younger and lustier after it . But we could never prevail , neither by Mony , nor intreaty , nor foul means upon him to shew us the Plant. Ad pag 227. Mira &c. Wonderful things are daily found out in Physick to the Confirmation of the Operation of the Learned Naturalist Servius's Weapon-Salve . For the assured us that a piece of Cloth dipt in the Blood , and put under hot Ashes stops the Monthly Flux , the Experiment having been often prov'd . And my Master Petrus Castellus affirmes that He found by Experience , that the Haemorrhoids if they were touch'd with the tuberous Root of Chondrilla , did dry away if the Chondrilla dry'd , and did Run to Corruption if the Chondrilla was corrupted . And therefore after such , touching of the Hemorrhoids the Chondrilla was usually put to dry in the Chymny . Ad pag. 229. Podagra &c. The Gout is strangly eas'd if Puppies lie with the Person that hath the Gout , for they contract the Disease so as not to be able to go , but the Patient thereby finds Ease . Ad pag. 236. Primo , &c. At the first , Physick was accounted part of Philosophy , so that the Cure of Diseases , and the Contemplation of Nature , did both arise under the same Authors . Those being most set upon Medical Enquiries , which had made their Bodies infirm by disquieting thoughtfulness and nocturnal Watchings . Ad pag. 204. Est , &c. Besides it is altogether drying , and therefore I should not despair that it , being hung about Childrens Necks , might cure the Falling-sickness in them . I truly saw a Lad , that sometimes would be eight whole Moneths free from the Falling-sickness , and then , when by chance this fell from off his Neck , he became immediately surprized with a Fit ; and again , hanging another Root in its place , he would continue well : Therefore , for Experiment sake , I thought good to take it again from his Neck , which when I had done , and found that the Lad fell into his former Convulsions , we took a great piece of a green Root , and hung it about his Neck , and from that time He continued well and felt no more Convulsions . It was therefore most probable , either that certain parts did exhale from the Root , and were drawn into the Body by Inspiration , which did so work upon the affected parts ; or that the ambient Air was continually changed and altered by the Root : For after this manner the Succus Cyrenaicus cures the Phlegmone upon the Uvula ; so Catarrhs and other Rheums are dry'd up by Melanthium , if it be tyed up warm in fine Linnen , and the hot fume of it be drawn up into the Nostrils by Inspiration . Nay , if you strangle a Viper with divers sorts of Threeds , and especially with the Sea Purple , and then you tye those Threeds about the Neck of your Patient , you shall cure the swelling of the Almonds of the Ears , and all other swellings in the Neck . Ad pag. 257. Pestis Cayri , &c. The Plague at Grand Cair , and in all parts of Aegypt , is wont to invade the Inhabitants from the beginning of the Moneth September until June : For in all these Moneths , from September unto June , the Plague from other Nations is brought thither , and is wont to infect that Nation : But in the Moneth of June , of what nature and how great soever the Pestilence be , when the Sun first enters Cancer , it is immediately removed ; which thing many ( and that not without reason ) take to be a particular Mercy of God. But ( what is more admirable ) all Houshold-stuff , however infected with the Contagion of the Disease , at that time shews no effect of any Contagion , so that then the whole Nation passes into a most secure & healthy condition , from amorbid and dangerous : And then those Diseases , which are called by the Greeks Sporadici , begin to appear , which in no part of the World are seen to be rise together with the Plague . Ibid. Hac , &c. These things are first observed about that time . From which , I think , and perchance not without reason , the cause of the extinction of the Plague , and the change of the state from Morbid to Wholesome doth depend ; For no other of the conservative Causes , which are wont to be called by Physitians , Res non Naturales , appeareth then , besides the Air ; to which we may refer this change from Disease to Healthiness , and therefore we must refer this change to the change of the Air. Ad pag. 259. The Inhabitants do strange things , both in preserving Health and curing Diseases , by Friction and Unction , using the first in cold and Chronical , the latter in acute Diseases . And Strangers who arrive there , are , as they ought , willing to imitate their ways of Physick , and by Rules of Art to preside and moderate these ways of Empirical Healing . Ib. Cholera Sicca is Cured by the same Remedies , especially if their Horny Cupping-glasse be apply'd to the Region of the Liver , of which I must attest the same thing that Galen doth of Cupping-glasses ; which he affirm'd to Work as Miraculously as if their Operation had depended on Enchantment . Ad pag. 271. Neque &c. Nor doth he say that a Physitian needs nothing of Counsel or Deliberation , or that an irrationall Man may professe this Art. But that those Conjectures of hidden things are nothing to the purpose . Bec●use it matters not what causeth the Disease but what removes it . Ib. Interim &c. In the mean time the Brasilian Botanists make all sorts of Medicines of Simples they find every where in the Woods : which they make with so great Sagacity , and apply them both internally , and externally , especially to Diseases that Spring from Venome that a man may more securely give himself over to their hands then to our unskilful Physitians , who brag much of Secrets they have learn't in private , and for the knowledg of these will be called Rationals in Physick . Ad pag. 272. Fortassis , &c. Perchance some Sciolist in Physick may affirm that these things may not be used by reason of the Narcotick and Stupefactive property . But these pretenses are as vain in effect as specious at first sight : for besides that the hot temper of this Country requires it ; It is sure , that without these Remedies there can be no Cure. Adde that here we prepare Opium so well that you may give it to an Infant . And truly , if in Hot Diseases we had no Opiats we should in effect find that the use of all other Medicaments would prove altogether vain and fruitlesse . Ad pag. 287. Si. medicinam &c. Such was the Origin of Physick , by the Recovery of some and the Death of others it first made distinction between things Soverain to heal , and things which were Improper , and Deadly . And thus the Remedies being found out , Men began to dispute of the Reasons of them . Nor was the Art of Medicine found out by the light of Reason , but Medicines being found , the Reason began to be enquired into . Ib. Ubi res &c. Where the Matter is certain , if it be against the common Opinion , the Reason must be sought , and not the Matter of fact scrupled . Ad pag. 297. Paucissimos &c. You will find very few of those who dwell at the Spaa who are troubled with the Head-ach , Stone , Obstructions of the Kidnies , Liver , Spleen , or Mesariaick Veines , none at all who were troubled with the Jaundice , Dropsie , Gout , Itch , or Falling sicknesse . Ib. Inter caetera &c. Among other Qualities it moveth the Monethly Evacuation as hath been prov'd by a thousand trials . And yet it stops the immoderate Flux of them more happily then any other Medicine . Ad pag. 299 , Rerum &c. The Contemplation of Nature , though it maketh not a ●hysitian , yet it fits him to learn Physick . FINIS . The INDEX to the Second Part. The Second Part Of the Usefulness of Natural Philosophy . SECT . I. Of its Usefulness to PHYSICK . ESSAY I. Containing some Particulars tending to shew the Usefulness of Natural Philosophy to the Physiological part of Physick . The advantage of the Knowledg of Nature towards the increasing the Power of Man , and its Use as to Health of the Body and Goods of Fortune . pag. 3 That in Man's Knowledg of the Nature of Creatures consists his Empire over them . 4 That the Discovery of America is owed to the Knowledg of the Lo●d stones Polarity . 5 That the Martial affairs all over the World were altered by the Knowledg of the Nature of Brimstone and Saltpeter . ib How prejudicial the mistake of that Aphorism ( that if teeming Women be let bloud they will miscarry ) hath been to Femal Patients . 6 The interest of this Knowledg to the Happiness and Life ●f Man. 7 The enumeration of those Arts to which this Knowledg is profitable . ib. The Method or way intended for the ensuing Discourse . 8 The Division of Physick into five parts . 9 How the Physiological part of Physick is advantaged by the Knowledg of Natural Philosophy . ib. That the Anatomical Doctrine of Man's body rec●ives light from Experiments made on other Creatures . ib. Proved by divers Instances , as of the finding the L●cteals and Lymphae-ducts first in Bruit Bodies . 10 The Experiment of taking out the Spleen in Dogs . ib. The same thing done by Fioravanti in a Woman . 11 The Respiration of Frogs divers Hours , sometimes Daies , under water , without suffocation . ib. What use Aristotle and Galen made of the Dissections of Bruits . 11 , 12 The Anatomy of Man counted now in Muscovy for inhumane , and the use of Skeletons for Witchcraft . 12 The Use of the comparison of the parts of Humane Body with those of Beasts . ib. Illustrated by divers particular Observations . 13 Divers Motions and Actions of Frogs after their Hearts were cut out . 14 Observations of the motion of a Chicken 's Heart after the Head and other parts were cut off . 14 Of the Vivacity of dissected Vipers , 16. and Tortoises . 17 Whether there be a necessity of the unceasing influence of the Brain to Sense and Motion . 17 That the Silkworm-butterfly is capable of Procreation after the loss of its Head. 17 That the Redness of the Bloud is not to be ascribed to the Liver proved by the inspection of the Liver of Chickens unhatcht . 18 That the loss of a Limb in all Animals is not irreparable . ib. That notwithstanding the great Solution and Digestion of Meat in the Stomachs of Fishes no sensible Acidity is found there . 19 Experiments concerning the Solution of Meats , and their change of Colours by acid Menstruums . 20 VVaies of Artificial Drying and preservation of Plants , and Insects , 22. and more bulky Bodies . 23 Particularly the Schemes of divers parts of Humane Body . 24 Of the preservation of an Embryo divers Years by Embalming it with Oyl of Spike . 25 Instances of men in the American Mountains kill'd , and afterwards preserv'd from putrefaction only by the VVind . ib. Of the use of Spirit of VVine for the preservation of Bodies from putrefaction . 26 That the Examination of the Juices of Humane Bodies by the Art of Chymistry may illustrate their Use and Nature . 27 That the Actions which are common to Men with other Animals being perform'd Mechanically , the Skill of Mechanicks must be of Use to Physiology· 28 ESSAY II. Offering some Particulars relating to the Pathological Part of Physick . That the Naturalists Knowledg may assist the Physitian to discover the Nature and Causes of Diseases . 29. Prov'd by generall Reason . 30 By particular Instance of the Cause of the Stone in the Kidnies . 31 The cause of that Disease illustrated by the Petrifaction of VVood , Cheese , Moss , VVater , &c. 32 The Origin of Helmont's Offa alba , and Paracelsus his Duelech by the mixture of Spirit of VVine , and Spirit of Urine , and example of the Generation of the Stone . 33 That a terrestrious Substance may lurk undiscern'd in limpid Liquors . 34 The Vse of Chymistry in explaining the Nature of , and aberrations in , our Digestions . 35 prov'd by a Catalogue of considerable Observations . 36 The Salt and Sulphur have more influence in the causation of Diseases then the first Qualities of Heat , Cold , &c. 37 Observations mad upon the Liquor that distends the Abdomen in the Dropsy . 38 Observations on the Calculus Humanus . 39 Of the changes that may reasonably be thought to happen to our aliments within the Body . 43. Illustrated by the Example of Juices out of the Body . 42 , 43 Difference between vulgar and true Chymistry . 44 The Use of the Knowledg of Fermentation . 44 Of Periodical Effervences in the Blood without Fermentation . 44 , 45 Of the use of Zoology to the Knowledg of Diseases . 46 Helmont's Error refuted , that the Stone is a Disease peculiar to Man. 47 That the Venom of Vipers or Adders consists chiefly in the Rage and Fury wherewith they bite , and not in any part of the Body that hath at all times a mortal property . 57 A certain Cure for the Biting of Vipers . 59 Of external Application of Poisons and letting them into the Veins of Beasts . 60 , 61 Postcript . Experiments of conveying Liquid Poisons immediately into the Mass of Blood. 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 ESSAY III. Containing some Particulars relating to the Semiotical Part of Physick . That the Improvement of the Therapeutical would alter the Prognosticks in the Semeiotical part of Physick . 66. An Instance to that purpose in the Peruvian Bark . 67 , 68 and in Riverius's Febrisugum , and a New Cure of the Kings Evill . 69 That though no Disease should be incurable , yet every Disease is not curable in every Patient . 70 That the Hope of doing greater Cures then ordinary , hath engaged Artists to make profitable Trials . 71 Examples of some unexpected and strange Cures . 72 , 73 Examples of the Cures of Cancers . 74 An Example of a Cure of one that was born with a Cataract in the Eye . 75. and other Examples of Cataracts strangely cured . ib. Examples of the Cure of the Dropsie and Gout . 76 , 77 Examples of the Cure of the Stone . 78. The use of Persicaria for that Cure. 79. Instances in other Medicines for the same Disease . 80. The Use and Success of Millepedes . 81. The Argument concerning the Incurableness of ●he Stone answered . 82. That there may be a Liquor able to dissolve the Stone that may not be corrosive to any other part . 83 , 84 Examples of those who could digest Metals and Glass . 85 , 86 , 87 The Descriptions of a Menstruum prepar'd from common Bread , able to draw Tinctures from pretious Stones , Minerals , &c. 88 Helmont's Arguments from the Providence of God censured . 90 The Argument that Paracelsus outliv'd not the 47th . Year of his Age answered . 90 The efficacy of Paracelsus his Laudanum . 91 Butler's great Remedies . 92 , 93 , 94 ESSAY IV. Presenting some things relating to the Hygieinal Part of Physick . That the Knowledg of Fermentation is useful to make our Drincks wholesome for Aliment . 95 How much Simples may be alter'd by Preparation , exemplified by the Indians , making Cassavy out of the poisonous Plant Mandioca . 96. Odd unhandsome wayes of their making Drinck from the same Root . ib. Of making Drink from sorts of course Bread. 97 The Drinks in use in China . 98 Of Cherry-wine . ib. Of Excellent Ciders . 99 Of Hydromel . ib. Of Sugar Wines . 100 Of other Brafilian and Barbada VVines . 100 The way to make VVine of Raisons . 101 Of Wines from the dropping or Weeping of wounded Vegetables . ib. Of the Tears of the Walnut-tree . 102 The Vse of the Teares of Birch , ( with some other Ingredients ) for the Stone . 102 The wayes to preserve these Liquors . 103 The use of the Teares of Birch in hot distempers of the Liver , and hot Catarrhs . 103 The use of Daucus Ale , and proportion of the Seed to the Liquor . 104 Of The or Te. ib. Of Animal Drinks . 105 The use of Brandy-Wine in hot Climates . 105 The use of Natural Philosophy to meliorate Meats . 106 Of preserving Bisket from putrefaction . 107 Of preserving Fruits . ib. Of preserving Meats roasted for long Voyages . 108 Of preserving Raw meats . 109 Of salting Neats tongues with Salt-peter . ib. Of preserving Flesh in spirit of Wine . ib. Of conserving by Sugar , and making Sugar of other Concretes besides the Cane . 110 , 111 , 112 That the Naturalist may find out new wayes to investigate the wholsomness or insalubrity of Aliments , proved by Instances out of Sanctorius his Medicina Statica . 113 The difference in transpiration betwixt the times after ordinary Diet , and after Excess , tryed by the weighing of Man's body . 114 Difference in the weight of Waters . ib. That Chymical Experiments may discover other qualities in Waters . 115 That the Naturalist may discover the qualities of particular Airs . 116 ESSAY V. Proposing some Particulars , wherein Natural Philosophy may be useful to the Therapeutical part of Physick . The Introduction . 117 , 118 That the Naturalist may invent Medicines Chymically prepared more pleasant then the ordinary Galenical Ones . 119 An Instance in Resin of Jalap , Mineral waters , and the Author's Pil : Lunares . 120 That the Naturalist may find out inward Medicines able to do Chirurgical Cures , proved by divers Instances . 121 , 122 Sr. Rawleigh's Cordial . 123 What great use the Indians make of the Juice of Tobacco . 124 Chap. II. That the Search of Nature by Chymistry in particular discovers the Qualities of Medicines . 124 , &c. Of the Nitro-tartareous Salt in some Vegetables . 126 Difference in Operation between Acid and Alcalizate Salts . ib. Of Ink made by the Decoction of divers astringent Plants with a little Vitrol . 127 Of some Metalline Precipitations . ib. That Sulphureous Salts turn the expressed Juices of Vegetables into a Green colour . 1●8 Of the Destillation of the Calculus H●manus and of the Concretions that are called Lapides Cancrorum . 128 The changes in Animal Substances made by Fermentation only in Vrine . 129 Of the mixture of Sp. of Salt with digested Urine . 129 Chap. III. That this search of Nature adds much to the Materia Medica . 130. by employing Bodies hitherto not employed . ib. Of Remedies newly prepar'd out of Zinck . ib. The Cure of the Dropsy by the Pil : Lunares . ib. Of the use of divers Medical Earths . 131. Instances of Gold , and divers Menstruums drawn out of them . 132 Of Medicines out of Arsenick . 133. and out of Bismutum . 134 Of the correction of Poisonous Medicines . 134 , 135 The Preparation of Asarum turns it from being Emetick to be notably Diureticall . 136 Instances in some of the secret Menstruums . ib. That the Preparation of Asarum is only the Boyling it in common water . 137. That the boyling it in Wine alters not its violence . ib. That the Emetick and Cathartick properties of Antimony are destroy'd by Calcination with Salt-Peter , and Mercury sublimate may be depriv'd of its Corrosivenesse by bare resublimations with fresh Mercury . 137 Chap. IV. A strang correction of the Flowers of Antimony . 138 That the Naturalist may assist the Physitian to make his Cures lesse chargeable . ib. Inconveniencies of stuffing Receipts with a multitude of Ingredients . 139 , 140 , 141 , 142 , 143 , 144. That Acid , and Alcalizate Salts being mixed grow thereby more fixed , and yield in Balneo but but a Phlegme . ●45 . The same is observ'd of the Mixture of Spirit Urin ( by it self highly Volatile ) and Spirit of Salt. ib. Chap. V. That the Naturalist discovers the Mis-application and Use of Gems , and divers other costly Ingredients . 145 , 146. A difference between the fixednesse of a Gem , and of Glass of Antimony . ib. Concerning Autum Potabile 147 , 148. Examples of great Medicines drawn from unpromising Bodies . 149 The D. of Holstein's Panacea duplicata is made of the vulgarly despised Caput Mortuum of Aqua-fortis . ib. Flores Colcotharini are made of the Caput Mortuum of Vitriol . 150 A Comparison between the Bezar's Stone and the Stone cut out of Mans Bladder . ib. Medicines out of Soot . 151 The use of Horse dung . 152 An Arcanum of Ivy Berries . ib. Medicines out of Mans Vrin. 153 Medicines out of Blood. 154 The great Effects of Millepedes in the Stone . ib. In Suffusions of the Eyes . 155. And real Cataracts . 156. In sore Breasts and Fistulas ib. Chap. VI. That the Naturalist discovers how much of the cost and labour in making many Chymical Remedies may be spared . 157 A Comparison of Chymical Remedies with Galenical ones in point of Cheapnesse . 158 Of the use and commendation of Simples even by the most able Chymists . ib. Powder of Pearlmore Operative then Magistery . 159. So crude Harts-horn then Magistery . 160 An excellent Simple Medicine to stanch Blood. ib. Another like Medicine for spitting and vomiting of Blood. 161 That many times Chymists by their tedious and injudicious preparations alter the Medicine and make it worse . 162 So the dissolving the Salts of Vegetables in Aqua-fortis to make them pure and Chrystalline alters their vertues , and makes them inflammable as Salt-Peter . 162 , 163 The Preparation and vertues of Ens Veneris . 164 , 165 The Preparation and vertues of the Balsamum Sulphuris Crassum . 166 , 167 The Preparation and vertues of Essence of Harts-horn . 168 , 169 Chap. VII . That Mechanicks and other Experimental Learning may teach how to lessen the charge of Cures by making more convenient furnaces demonstrated in divers particulars . 170 , 171 , 172 , 173 , 174 Glasse-stopples fittest for corrosive Liquors . 173 , 174 That inflammable saline Sulphureous spirits may be drawn from other substances cheaper then Wine . 175 Instances in divers particulars how the Naturalist may find cheaper wayes of Heating the Chymists Furnaces . 176 Of charring Coles , so that while it charres it gives an intense heat fit to melt or calcine Minerals . 177 Of Charring Peat . ib. Of Digestion and Distillations without Fire . 178 , 179 Wayes of Distilling spirit of Urine . 180. Of Distilling it with Lime without Fermentation . ib That so distill'd it doth not coagulate spirit of Wine as in the Usual Distillation . ib. Of the power of good Menstruums in facilitating Distillation . 181 That the calcination of Gold is facilitated by Amalgamation with Mercury . 182 The power of Verdigreas distilled in drawing Tinctures of Glass of Antimony &c. ib. That the Naturalist may find out wayes to preserve Medicines longer , and better then is usual . 183 Of fuming Liquors with Sulphur : ib. And adding a little of the white Coagulum made of the pure spirits of Wine and Urin. ib. That the most principal way of lessening the charge of Cures would be the finding out New and more effectual Remedies . 184 An History of a radicated Epilepsie that was cured by the Powder of Misselto of the Oak . 185 Chap. VIII . Other proofs that the Naturalists skill may improve the Pharmaceutical preparation of simples . 186 Of the best waies to correct Opium . 187 Of the best way of correcting Mercurius vitae . 188 An Excellent Medicine made of those churlish Minerals Quicksilver and Antimony . ib. Waies to take away the Vomitive faculty of Antimonial Glass . 189 , 190 A New and excellent way to get the Primum Ens , or Essence of some Vegetables . 191 The influence of these Prima Entia to cause renovation or rejuvenescence . 192 , 193 Of Helmonts Via Media of Elixir Prop●ietatis . ●94 . And the perfuming it by cohobations with Musk and Amber . ib. A Commendation of Helmont's Medicines . 195 Of the power of Chymistry . 196 Of the power of Noble Menstruums particularly . 196 , ●97 The power of Sal-Taltari Volatized . 198 Of the possibility of Volatizing it 199 That there may be other Menstruums besides such as are Acid , Urinous , or Alcalizate . 200 How these severally disarm and destroy one another , and that what an Acid Menstruum dissolves an Vrinous or Alcalizate doth precipitate . ib. Of a Menstruum unlike to all these . ib. Chap. IX . That Chymistry it self ( much more Physiology ) is capable of affording a New and better Methodus Medendi . 201 , 202 , 203 Instances , to prove that the unusual efficacies of New Remedies may alter and make the method of Curing more compendious . 204. In the Kings-Evil . ib. In Plurisies . 205. In the Rickets . ib. Chap. X. That great Cures may be done by outward Applications . 207 Of the efficacy of Lapis Nephriticus and divers other Appensa . 208 , 209 The Cures of the Dropsy and Schyrrhus Lienis by the external application of Spunges dipt in Lime water . 210 Of strange Cures perform'd neer Rome in the Serpentine Grotta . ib. Of the Operations of Suphur Cantharides and Quicksilver , and Tobacco externally applied . 211 Instances in divers Medicines which have differing effects inwardly given , and outwardly applied . 212 , 213 That preparation may much improve Simples which are outwardly applied . ib. Instances in divers preparations of Gold. ib. An Oyntment made of Aurum fulminans for the Haemorrhoides and Veneral Ulcers . ib. The Cure of a Person esteem'd bewitcht by an appended Mineral . 214 Of the power of Jasper to stanch Blood. 215 The Incontinentia Urinae Cured by the powder of a Toad burnt alive and hung about the neck . 216 Effects ascribed to Witchcraft cured Per appensa . 217 Paracelsus cured Quartan's by a Plaister . 218 Diseases Cured by Frights . 219 Physick now in China in a good condition , without Phlebotomy , Potions , or Issues . 2●0 Where practitioners of Physick are illiterate , there Specificks may be best met with . 221 The usefulnesse of the knowledg of the Medicines of Barbarous Nations . 221 , 222 , 223 A Comparison of this Empirick part of Physick with the Rational . 224 Chap. XI . Of other Extraordinary Medicines which work by Magnetisme , Transplantation &c. 225 The Cure of an Vlcer in the Bladder by the Sympathetick Powder . 226 The effects of the Weapon-salve and other Magnetical Remedies . 227 228 Observations of the Transplantation of Diseases . 229 , 230 , 231 The sometimes not succeeding of Magnetical Medicines no sufficient cause to abandon their Vse . 232 Chap. XII . Instances of divers Cures upon Bruits , and how these are appliable to men . 233 , 234 , 235 Chap. XIII . That the handling of Physical Matters was anciently thought to belong to the Naturalist . 236 That the rejecting Specificks , because they make no visible Evacuation is irrational . 237 That great changes may be made only by displacing without any Evacuation of the parts . 238 The making of Vinegers is an Instance of this truth , especially in the Indies . ib. Instances in Sura and the Iuice of Mandioca . 239 In the Effects of Thunder and Earthquakes . ib. Divers Instances to prove that invisible Corpuscles may passe from Amulets , and cause great alterations in the Iuices of a Mans Body . 240 Galens Example of Peiony-Root &c. 240 , 241 , 242 Of Purging by the Odor of Potions . 243 Of the Purging and Vomiting Quality of the Air of the Mountain Pariacaca . 243.244 The power of Steams seen in the Infectious Effluvia . 244 Of alterations made by the Passions of the mind . 245 Chap. XIV . Divers Instances of the power of Imagination . 246 An Instance of the Hair of the Head chang'd in Colour upon a sudden Fear . 247 How the Authors discourse concerning the power of Effluvia ought to be understood . 248 That the particular State of disposition of the Engine of humane Body is considerable as to the effects of these Impressions . 249 , 250 , 251 , 252 The effects of the Moss growing on Humane skill in stanching Blood 253 Burnt Feathers , or the Smoak of Tobacco remove , Hysterical fits . ib. Cures of Dysenteries by Fumesi 254. And by sitting on a hot Anvil . ib. Cures of the Colick by Clysters of the Smoke of Tobacco . ib. Of other Cures done by Smoak . 255 Of the sudden ceasing of the Plague at Grand Cayro in June . 256 , 257 Chap. XV. That Humane Body may be alter'd by such Motions as Act in a Grosse , and meerly Mechanical manner prov'd by divers Instances . 258 259 The Instance of the Cure of the biting of the Tarantula by Musick particularly modified . 260 , 261 Chap. XVI . Divers instances of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or Peculiar aversion of particular persons from particular things , and of the commotions made in the Body thereby . 262 , 263 That since the Body receives such alterations from such unlikely things there is no just arguing against Specificks , because they operate not by any Obvious Quality . 264 Of the Operations of Poysons , and Antidotes . 265 , 266 , 267 What is to be done when the Specifick seems likely to increase the Disease . 268 Chap. XVIII . A Disquisition concerning the Ordinary Method of Physick . 268 , 269 , 270 , 271 Instances of some Medicines condemn'd for Noxious which yet have prov'd Useful . 272 Of the Use of Guajacum for Consumptions and Mercury for Palsies . 273 That there are divers Concretes as to sense similar , whose different parts have contrary Qualities , as Rhubarb , and Oyl Olive . 274 Of improbable Cures , viz. of a Plurisy by a Laudanum Opiatum . 275 Of curing Coughs and Consumptions by Saline Medicines . 276 Of the Curing Phtisical Consumptions by the Acid Smoak of Sulphur : 277 The Use of the Livers and Galls of Eeles in expediting the hard labour of Women . 278 The unlikely Cure of Venome by Oyl of Scorpions . ib. And of Fluxes by fresh butter melted . 279 Chap. XIX . That it is very hard to give an intelligible Explication of the Operation of Elective and other common Medicaments which are not Specifick . 280 , 281 That Poysons do respect particular parts , and therefore Medicines may do it . 282 General Explications of the manmer , how these Operations of Specificks may proceed . ●83 , 284 That Vinegar will Operate on the shell and not upon the other parts of the Egge with like instances of specifick operations . 285 That Physick as it began by Experience so it must be enlarg'd and rectify'd by the new discoveries of Experience . 286 , 287 That the Operations of the Antimonial Cup , Glass of Antimony and Crocus Metallorum would not have been credited in Ancient times . 288 Divers other instances alike incredible . 289 , 290 , 291 A strange Cure of blindnesse by a Mercurial powder . 292 Chap. XX. Of Universal Medicines . 293 That the same matter may cause diverse Diseases . 294 And the same Medicine cure them 295 An Instance in the Waters of the Spaa . 296 , 297 Of the reason and designe of the Authors discourse concerning the Methodus medendi , and his descending to other particulars which may be thought improper for Him. 298 , 299 , 300 , 301 , 302 That this Employment is better then the more fashionable of destructive valour . 303 That the Angels charitable employment at Bethesda is more desireable then his who destroy'd in one night 18000 fighting - men . 304 An APPENDIX to the First Section of the Second Part. Advertisements touching the following Appendix . 307 , 308 , 309 To the 80 Page . The Irish Lithotomists Receipt , for the Stone in the Bladder . 310 To the 120 Page . [ Where the Vertues of the Pilulae Lunares are toucht at . ] 311 The Preparation of the Pilulae Lunares . 312 , 313 , 314 The Dose and use of these Pills 315 To the 123 Page . ( Where mention is made of the Cure of one concluded to have a Gangrene , by an inward Medicine . ) 316 Sr Walter Rawleighs Cordial , after Sr R. K. his way : ( set dowm Verbatim as the Author received it . ) 317 How to make the Tincture of Coral for this Cordial . 318 [ To the 123 Page ; Where a Receipt that cur'd Fistula's is mention'd . ] A Water for a Fistula , and all manner of VVounds , and swellings , or old Ulcers , Cankers , Tetters , Boils , or Scabbs in any place , or Green Wounds . 319 , 320 To the 158 Page . Where Soot is mentioned . 321 Hartmans preparation of Spirit and Oyl of Soot . 322 The Author Directions concerning preparations from Soot . 323 To the 153 Page . Of the use of the Preparations of Vrine . 324 , 325 To the 154 Page . Of the Preparations of Mans Blood. 326 , 327 Obstrvations touching the manner of drawing the Volatile Salts and Spirits of Blood and other substances belonging to the Animal Kingdome . 328 , 329 , 330 , 331 , 332 , 333 , 334 How to draw Tinctures , as of Sulphur &c. with the Saline Spirits . 335 [ To the 164 , 165 , &c. where Ens Veneris is treated of . ] 336. How the Author first happened upon the Preparation of Ens Veneris . 337 The Process used by the Author for the making Ens Veneris . 338 Divers Particular Animadversions concerning these Preparations . 339 , 340 , 341 , 342 , 343 , 344 The Dose and use of Ens Veneris . 345 [ To the 166 , 167 , 168 , 169 , and 170 Page . 346 Of Harts-horn . ib. Three waies of distilling Harts-horn . 347 , 348 , 349 Animadversions on some preparations of Harts-horn of Glauber and Hartman . 350 A fourth way of preparation of Harts-horn used by the Author . 351 , 352 Of the Vse and effects of Spirit and Salt of Harts-horn and the Dose of it . 353 Q Whether in the Distillation of Harts-horn the Salt dispose it selfe into the Figure of the Horn. 354 , 355 That Bucks-horns may be substituted for Stags-horns . 356 How to keep the Spirit and Salt of Harts-horn . ib. 357 Of the Spirit of Sal-Armoniack and divers attempts and waies of preparing it . 358 , 359 , 360 , 361 , 362 , 363 Of Preparations of Saline and Sulphureous Fetid Liquors . 364 The way of making the common Balsam or Ruby of Sulphur . 365 To Volatize the Balsam of Sulphur . ib. 366 Penotus his preparation of a Sulphureous Balsam with the Authors Advertisements upon it . 367 Of an Excellent Balsam of Sulphur made onely with Oyl-Olive . 368 The common way of preparing it . 369 , 370 Other waies of preparing this Balsam . 371 , 372 A Balsam of Antimony . 373 Of the obscure and Cryptical way of Writing of Chymists . 374 , 375 Concerning the Empyreuma of Chymical Extracts and their offensiveness compared with the Galenical and those which are commonly ●sed by Methodists . 377 , 378 , 379 , 380 , 381 , &c. And whether the offensiveness of divers Chymical Medicines proceed from the violence of the Fire , or the Nature of the Matter ? ib. A Way of taking off the Fetidnesse from Spirit of Vrine , Harts-horn , &c. 382 Observations concerning this Method of taking off the Empyrema . 383 Of the Medicinal Quality of these aromatized Salts . 384 , 385 , 386 , 387 , 388 [ To the 166 , page , VVhere the Author promises a Declaration , how he would have his Praises of Medicines understood . ] 389 , 390 Divers Disadvantages of Chymical and Empirical Physick in the way of usuall Ministration . 391 That Chymical processes stand more in need of clear Relations then Galenical . 392 Errors in the Time and Dose of Chymical Remedies . 393 , 394 That a competent Measure of Knowledg is absolutely necessary to a Practizer of Physick . 395 , 396 , 397 The L. Verulams Judgment , That approv'd Receipts ought not to be alter'd but religiously adher'd to . 39● Crato's judgment herein , and how the Author concurreth with that Eminent Physitian . 399 Of the greater Arcana and more Vniversal Medicines , the Efficacy of which may compensate the want of skill in the Prescriber . ib. The Summe and Conclusion of the point in controversy . 400 FINIS . ERRATA Of the Second Part. Pag. 4. lin . 28. Read hath hitherto . p. 7. l. 19. God-li●e . p. 27. l. 23. peradventure . p. 31. l. 11. Chyle . p. 32. l. 8. Embracers . p. 34. l. 18. Saline . p. 35. l. 2. deserve . p. 36. l. 11. analysed . l. 30. Vineger . p. 38. l. 20. Lientery . l. 23. paracentesis p. 39. l. 20. Onion . And l. 26. from that . p. 40. l. 5. Concretes . p. 43. l. 26. self , then p. 45. l. 10. well incorporated . p. 46. l. 19. Ancients must . p. 7● . l. 1● . oporte● . l. 17. Hippocrates . p 97. l. 9. cum saliva . p. 150. l. 5. aliquot . p. 151. l. 1. tantas l. 7. ciere . Quod. p. 153. l. 9. an antient . p. 172. l. 12. temperate . p. 194. l. 17. Elixi● . p. 200. l. penult is farre . p. 202. l. 13 h●buit Medicina . p. 206. l. ult . him , You. p. 207. l. 25. anoma●ous . p. 214. l. 24. electrum . p. 216. l. penult . Patients . p. 227. l. 24. comprobato . p. 269. l. 23. there are divers . p. 270. l. antep . troublesome . p. 272. l. 21. dele non . p. 386. l. 17. make . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A29031-e800 A●ist : de Part : Aa●m : l●b . 1. c. 5. Seneca in P●aes . lib. I. Nat : Quaest. Sen : de Otio Sa● . c. 32. De Part. Anim. lib. 4. c. 1● . Isaiah 41. ● . Iames 11.23 . a Pli● . lib. 25 ▪ cap. 8. b Id. lib. 18. cap. 26. c Id : lib. 25. cap. 7. Notes for div A29031-e2880 Job 8.9 . Prov. 16.4 . Rom. 11.36 . Psal. 19.1 . Job 3● . 5 , 7. Sen. de Otio Sap. Cap. 32. Gen. 1 . 2● , 29. Gen. 1.14 , 1● , 16. Is. 45 . 2● . Psa● . 5. ● , 6. G●n . 2.28 , 26 , 29. Ps●● 8 7. Heb 2 7. Iob 5 3. Ho. 2.28 , 21 , 22. Rom. 8 28. 2 Cor 3.22 . 2 Tim. 4 3. 2 King , 6.5 , 6. 2 Pet. 3.3 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 10. Lev. 13.54 , 55. I● P●obl . de Creat . Prov. 10.25 . Gen. 6.9 . 2 P●t . 2.15 . Gen. 8.21 , 22. 2 do De Ira cap. 27. De Ira Dei cap. 13. De B●n●s . cap. 23. 2 do De Nat. Deo● . Gassend . Inst. Astr. lib. 2. c. 13. Gass●●d . lib. 3. ca● . 11. Psal. 104.24 . Prov. 13.19 , ●0 Isa. 40.28 . Eph. 3.10 . Jer. 10.16 . Gassend ▪ in Vit. Pe●resk● , lib. 4. Jo : Fabe● Lynceu● in hi● Exposit●on of some Passages of p. 568. Psal. ●6 . ● . N●hem . 9.6 . Gen. 8.1 . Psal. 19.1 . Acts 2.11 . D. Aug. Hom. 3. 1 Cor. 15.36 , 37. Psal. 8.3 , 4. Notes for div A29031-e5920 Habb . 2.2 . Merc. Trism . lib. 1. Englished by Dr. Everard . Sen. li. 7. cap. ● . Philo Jud. de Monarchia . Heb. ● . 2 , 5. Heb. 9.24 . Prov. 3● . ●3 . Ps. 103 : Rev. 4.11 . Lib. 7. cap. 24. See of the Abyssine or Aethiopian Christians ; and likewise of the Maron●tes in the East , in reference to their Celebration of the Saturday , Alex : Rasse in his view of all Religions , and the Authors by him ci●ed . Rom. 1.20 . Job 12.7 , 8 , 9. Notes for div A29031-e7250 Physiologo qui veritatem contemplatur ultimarum causarum cognitio non finis est , sed initiū ad primas supremasque causas proficiscendi . Pluta●ch : lib. de primo Frigido . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Aristot . Ethic. Nicom . lib. 3. cap. 8. Acts 15.18 . Aristot : Metaphys : lib. 12. cap. 6. De Nat : Deorum , lib. 10. Idem ibidem . Simpl : in India nascenti . lib. 1. cap. 47. * Tanta ergo qui videat , & talia potest existimare nullo aff●cta esse consilio , nulla p●ov●●●nt●a , nulla rat●one divinâ , s●d 〈◊〉 subtil●bus ex 〈…〉 ●ss● tanta m●racula ▪ Nonne p●od●g●o simile est , aut natum esse hom●nem qui haec d●ceret , ut Lucippum , aut ext●t●●s● qui creder●t , ut Democ●itum , qui aud●tor ejus fu●t , vel Ep●cu●●m in quem v●nita● omni●●e Lucippi fonte profluxit . lib. 2. cap. 11 Notes for div A29031-e9230 Arist : de Mundo , Cap. 6 : Ibidem . Eodem Cap. Eodem Cap. Galenus , lib. 30. De usu Partium . Psal. 139 v. 14 , 15 , 16. Galen de plac : Hip : & Plat : Libr : 7. Lib. 3. De usu Part. Libro de Mundo , Cap. 6. Alibi eodem Cap. Psalm C. 3. Judg. V. 20. Cap. 6. Parac●l : de Mineral ; Tract . 1. Sir Francis Bacon Advan : of Learning , Lib. 1. Gen. 28. Jam. 11.19 . Eccles. 1.13 . Eccles. 1.18 . 2 Kings cap. 2. Seneca Nat : Quaest : lib. 2. cap. 59. Jam. 1.17 . Isa. 28.25 , 26. Gen. 31. Psal. 47.7 . Psa. 150.2 . Rom. 12.1 . Tim. 1.1 . Tit. 2.10 . 1 Pet. 4.19 . Hermes Tresmeg . In Asclep . cap. 15. Hebr. 13.15 . Rom. 11.36 . Notes for div A29031-e15880 * Hippo. Apho 31. lib. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Commen● : in Aph : 1. lib. 1. Arist. lib. de sensu & sensili , cap. 1. Arist. Hist. Ani. l●b . 1. cap. 16. Voyage de Muscovie & de Perse , pag. 128 Notes for div A29031-e17230 Helmont de Lith : cap. 3. & 4. Voyage de Moscovie & de Perse , pag. 334 Notes for div A29031-e18570 Riverius in Observat : Al●xand : Trajan Pet●onius . l●b . 5. De M●r : Gall●co , c. 1. apud Ske kium in Observ : lib. 1. De Li●h : c. 7. num : 14. Medicus Rochlizensis . Helmont in the Treat●se which he entitles Butler . De Medicina , lib. 3. cap. 10. Notes for div A29031-e21020 History of the Barbado's , pag. 29 , 30 , 31 , 32. Voyage de Muscovie & de Perse , p. m. 23. History of China , par . 1. cap. 1. Linschoten's Voyages , Book 1. Chap 26 Lib. 4. Cap. 1. Lib. 4. Cap. 6. De Manna cap. 18. In consilio Medicinali in catarrh● calido pro Principi quodam . Obs : Lib. 4. Cap. ultimo . Dialogo 3. * Linscotens Voyages , chap. 56. — When they desire to have no Cocus , or Fruit thereof ( namely of the Palm-trees ) they cut the Blossoms of the Cocus away , and binde a round Pot , with a narrow mouth ( by them called Calao ) fast to the Tree , and then stop the same close , round about with Pot-ea●th , so that neither Wind nor Air can enter in , or come forth ; and in that sort , the Pot , in short space , is full of Water , which they call Sura ; and is very pleasant D●ink , like sweet Whay , and somewhat better . Apud Joh : de Lact. descrip . Indiae , l. 10. c. 3. Apud cu●dem ●odem loco . Sect. 3. Aphorism 96. Notes for div A29031-e23620 Helmont , De Febribus , c. 14. See also the same Author in Tractat : quem vocat Arcana . Paracels : & Lib. de Febr. Cap. 14. Apud Mo●ard : de simplic : Medic. pag. 84. Epitome scientia naturalis . lib. 2. c. 1. Apud Sh●od●rum in Pharmacop : lib. 3. cap. 18. Dr. J. C. Helmont in Pharmac : & dispens : Modern . numero 46. H●●mont Tractat : su●ra al●egato . Numero 46.47 . H●lmont pag. 466. Helmont de Lithiasi . lib. 7. cap. 32. Helmont i● Pharmacop . & dispens . Modern . N. 46 , 47. * Of the efficacy of unpromising Medicines . Schroder Pharnacop . lib. 3. c. 23. Bo●tius in cap. 45. Garcia ab Orta . Idem cap. 46. Gartia ab Orta . Helmont , Pharma : & Dispensat : Nov. p. 458 See his Currus Triumphalis Antimonii . In tractatulo cui titul . sequuntur ●uaedam Imperf●ctio●a . Helm . de febr . cap. 5. num . 26. Helm . de feb● . ca● . 17. vers . f●acm . Helm . de scholar . Humo●ista . pass , decept . cap. 2. numero 89. Lib. 2. c. 6. In Praefa●●● , Lib. 1. In Commentar . Apho●is . 2. Pa●acelsus in his P●eface to his Be●theona , or Chirurgia Mi●o● . Franciscus Bernius , Donzellinus , Ernestus Burgravius , who commend it upon their own experience , besides very many that commend in general termes . (a) De Lapid : & Gemm : lib : 2. cap : 11. (b) Nicolaus Monardes de simpli : Ind : Histor : Cap : seu Tit : 20. (c) De Nephrit : lib : 1. cap. 24. where he hath nine or ten Observations which he calls Observationes rarae & inauditae de Lap : Nephritico . De Gem : & Lapidibus lib. 1. cap. 23. Helm . de Febr. cap. 2. Paracels . in Archidox Magic . lib. 5. De Operat . Chirurg p. 1. cap. 51. De Lapid . & Gem. l. 2. cap. 102. In observa . Medic. oppido raris . pag. 194. Helmont , de febr . cap. 14. vers . finem . Cap. 17. in sine . Observ : Cent. 1 , Observ ; 4● . H●story of China , part . 1. chap. 12. [ N B ] Medicinae faciendae mediocr●m habent peritiam . — Aegris salsa , acria , & plura propo●unt , dicente Ma●f●o , pisces & coachylia Pha●maca suavia & odorata . [ NB ] Sanguinem nunquam eliciunt , Magnam Medicorum dignitatem vide●e est ex Epistola Almeidae ubi narrat , &c. Bern : Varenius , in Descript : Regn : Japon . Cap. 25. Gal : in Aphor : Hipp. Comment . 1. Lib. 2. Dialog : 7. Voyages chap. ●4 . Preface , Lib. 1. Piso de Medic ; Br●si : Lib : 2. Cap : 1. Georg : Ent in Epistol : praefix : Exercit Harvei de Gen : Animal . Celsi p●●es●tione ad Lib. 1. P●trus de Osma in E●ist . ad Monard . quae erstat . in libello de simplicibus medicamentis ex Occidentali India delatis . Panarola Fase : Arcan . 1. Centur. 3. Observat . 34. (a) River . C●nt . 4. O●ser . 63 (b) River . Cent. 4. Observ. 19. (c) In Historiar . & Observ. 3. Medico-●hysicar . Cent. 3. Observ. 28. * Some yea●s si●●e the pres●nt ESSAY was written , I light●d on the 66th O●se●vation of the industrious Bartholinus 3 Century , and the 53 Obs●rvation of his 6 Century , in both which places giving instances of the Transplantation of Diseases he mentions , b●sides some of those Examples deliver'd by us , divers o●hers ; for which I am willing to refer you to the alledged places , only in the last of those Observations deliver●ng some●hing as upon his own knowledg ( which he does not in th● r●st of the instances . ) th●t much confirm●s wh●t we have mention'd concerning Fludd . We shall annex it in his own words , In Catello Milesio Avi nostri materni , quem jam alit in aedibus suis Av●n●ulus meu● suspiciendus M. J●c●lus F●●ckius Phys P.P. & Academi●e nostrae senior , evidentius haec pat●it trah●ndi facultas . Co●ico dolore to●q ●ebatur Avunculus , Canis ventri impositus quum incalui●let , u●gebat ex●tum , vomuit veheme●ter et To●mina colica Avunc●li re●●serunt . Ancilla ejusdem in dolore dentium ●un●●m canem g●n●s apposuit , sens●tque levamen , sed canis do●orum impat●entia h●nc inde curs●ta●e et lat●a●e . Idem ex●ertus est scriba in Colli Tumore . Centur. X. Exp. 997. Way to get Wea●th . Book . 1. Celsus in Praefatione Lib. 1. Lib. 4. Cap. 10. Chap. 56. See Piso lib. 1. De simp. Medi. facultatibus . Libro . 6. Cent. 3. Obs●r . 4. Cent. 3. Obser. 8. Lib. 3 cap. ● . In P● . 〈◊〉 . a●m . lib. 3. Ob. O●se●●at . 99. De Medicina ●●gyptio●um , l●b . 1. cap. 17. Ibidem , cap. 18. Histor. Nae . Med. lib. 2. cap. 5. pag. 33. Idem cap. 11. M●surg . lib. 9. cap. 4. † Vbi sonatores q●i Musicá suā hoc ma●ū etiam publicis magistratus stipendiis ad pauperum reme●ium solati●●●●ue co●●●cti cu●a●e con●ueveru●t , ad curas patientium certius faciliúsque accelera●das , pri●o ●x in●●ctis quaerer● so●●●t ub● , quo loco , aut c●m●o , aut cujus coloris Ta●an●ula era● , à q●o morsus 〈…〉 . Quo f●cto indica●●m lo●um 〈◊〉 , ubi f●equentes numero a●q●e omnis g●neris Ta●antulae 〈◊〉 te●endorum la●or●bus incumbu●t , acced●re sol●nt Medici Citharaedi , va● aque tentare h●rmonia●um 〈◊〉 : ad quae mi●um dictu , n●nc h●s ●unc ill●s salta●e non secus ac duorum polychordo●um aequaliter 〈…〉 , p●rso●atione ill● chor●ae , quae simil●s si●i fu●rint to●o , & aequalit●r tensae mo●●ntu● , reliquis 〈◊〉 , ita ut p●o simil●tu●ine & co●●itione Taran●ular●m nunc ●as nunc illas sal●are compe●iunt . Cum 〈◊〉 co●o●is Tar●●●ul●m quae à 〈◊〉 indicata f●●rat in saltum prorumpere viderint , pro certissimo 〈◊〉 h●ben● , mo●u●um se h●b●re ●erum & certum humori v●ne●ioso 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proportionatum , & ad 〈…〉 aptissim● , quo si uta●tu● in●allib●l●m 〈◊〉 effectū se co●sequi asseveruunt . ] Kircher : Musurg : lib. 9 pa●t . 2. cap. 4. Histor : 81. Vide Senner●i Practic . lib. 1. p. 2. cap. 16. Lib. 4. Cap. 48. See the same Author , Lib. 3. under the Title Cur●ru . Hist. Nat. & Med. Lib. 2. pag. 23. Cap. 2. Fab. Cent. 3. obser . 90. Lib. 5. Part. 5. Cap. 1. Mark 5.26 . Acts 10.38 . Mat. 4.24 ▪ John 5.14 . 2 Kings 19.35 . Notes for div A29031-e39800 Hartm . prax . Chym. p. 12. De Lit●iasi . c. 3. n. 3. * p. 153. * This , if I misremember not , was the Propo●tion I employ'd in the exactest of my Experiments of this kind , but it seems to be Essential to the goodnesse of the Remedy : the Spirit of Wine serving chiefly but to keep the Blood from corrupting . Pract. Chym. p. 190. De Augment . Scient . Lib. 4. cap. 2. Consil. 322. Helmont . in . Arcan . Paracels . pag. 787. Helmont . in Arcan . Paracels . pag. in 790.